Young Wisdom

I read a blog post today.  Written by a young lady, whose family is known to me.

Her mom and dad are friends of mine.  

I thought I’d share.

So, if you have a second, go read Madison Cary’s post here.



Then, as Madison says, go love on somebody.

Happy Birthday, Jennifer and Madison.

If You So Decide To Accept This Mission...

My schedule is doing its usual fall blowup.

In three hours?  I leave for Houston.  I come home?  Late tonight.  At least I’m going with a friend, and hopefully, we can burn a couple of hours shopping...because the selection is so much better in Houston than in Midland!

Friday?  I host, with my coworkers, our Customer Appreciation Sporting Clays Shoot.  No...we’re not gonna shoot our customers.  We are going to spoil them, though!

Saturday?  Midland High ROTC Sporting Clays Shoot.  This is the one where I help a customer fundraise for the local ROTC high school club.  Fun stuff and they’re awesome kiddos.

Wednesday?  Work, then take customers to concert.

Thursday? Fly to Boston.  Come back home the following Wednesday.

Just in time to pack, and unpack.  And repack.

And head the next morning to Santa Fe, New Mexico...for the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association meeting.

Where I help put on three consecutive events...in two days.

And then, come home and get everything ready for our Customer Appreciation Oil Show Party.  We sent out 2000 invites last Friday.

I could so double as an event planner.

Of course, if I could sleep, I could, possibly, also double as a rested person.

Tonight I promised my awesome massage therapist that, after October 16, I absolutely positively would not answer my phone Ever Again during my massage.  I thought she was going to jump for joy!

Childhood Memories…Water

Saturday afternoon found my friend Connie and I cruising towards Colorado City, Texas, to take advantage of a shoe sale...hey, stranger things have happened, right?

Two friends, for some 29 years, driving 80 miles east because they heard a sale was going down?

We heard.  We went.  We conquered.

And then?  We drove to Lake Colorado City.  Home to many of my memories.  Going to college, then heading to the lake to catch a couple hours of slick water skiing. 

“It was like glass today...yummy!”  

My brother and I, sun-baked brown as berries, loved that water.  Our dad was a fisherman, but he rarely took us with him.  So, once we could drive, we made our own memories - water skiing.  Camping.  Having tons of fun, with friends.

We water-skiied every day, when we could.  Sometimes, starting in February.  Couldn't wait for the lake to warm.
We were wild and crazy.

At a lake, 40 miles from our home town.  And we loved it.  Nothing brought exhaustion like sun and lake water and skiing, skiing, skiing.

So many awesome memories, smiles, laughter.

We drove to the boat ramp at the lake.  I had heard how much the lake had gone down due to the drought.  I had no clue.  Hearing is one thing.  Seeing with your own eyes?  Another.

Boat Ramp, State Park, Lake Colorado City, Texas

 This breaks my heart.

Brooke and Cash Chronicles, Part 2

So...

Back to the Brooke and Cash Chronicles.  Part 2.

If you need refreshing, go back and read here.

I finished my conference call, and walk out into the living room.  Cash expectantly looks up, with his sweet smile.

Cash:  Are you finished with your call?
Janie:  Yes, sir.  You ready to go?
Cash:  Yes, ma’am!!
Janie:   Okay, then we have to go to school to pick up Brooke, okay?
Cash:   Okay!

And off we truck to ToysRUs.  Meanwhile, ThatManILove has headed back out for the noon feeding of the sheep.

This time, for some reason, driving the Jeep.

And the watchdog neighbor comes tripping up to the barn.  “Who are you, and what are you doing here?” she asks.  And then, she looks.  

“Oh.  It’s you.  I should have known.  You left your truck running.”  And she stalks off.

TMIL just smiles, finishes feeding, heads into the house to change out a load of laundry and see what else he can get done.

Cash and I, meanwhile, are back at ToysRUs.  WHAT was I thinking?  This kid doesn’t even watch TV.  So, he doesn’t have a clue what the latest and greatest is, toy-wise.  And I?  Am clueless.  We start on one aisle, move to another, and another.  Then, back to the first aisle.  We never leave those aisles, until he picks out his Batman toy complete with all sorts of parts and accessories.  It’s as tall as Cash.

We take it home, unpack it, he plays with it for a bit, and we go get Brooke, run to Starbucks, and then back out to their house to get them ready for their 4H awards banquet.  They’ve not seen their mom in a day now, and they’re both ready for some Mommy love.  They are both soooo good.

We come back to our house, get them dressed, Brooke’s hair styled, and we’re off to meet their dad at the Midland County Fair. 

You’ll be glad to know that, yes, ThatManILove turned off his vehicle.

Why is it starting to smell like the sheep pens around my house??  

It's really baaaaaaaad.