Summary of Summer

I am not exactly sure where I need to start. I am so far behind with my post that I have a million stories to tell and little time to write. As most of you know, I am never on time, but recently I have been convicted about my lack of time consciousness. With that being said, I am going to do picture post to tell about my fast and furious end of school and wild summer. I debated on whether or not to publicize my crazy side, but most of you have seen crazier. I ask, that no one make comments recollecting those times. Here’s a quickly from May to Mid July minus 2 or 3 really good stories that I will give special attention later. It seems that every second of our summer vacation has had some sort of adventure. I hope you enjoy the summary of my summer….

Katie will soon inherit my car. She complains often; excuse me…. she complains daily about the car. She wants a truck. I have tried to explain that not many seniors can drive a car such as ours that not only hits 80 in seconds but also rips the hide off un-expecting rattle snakes.

Unfortunately, much of our late spring and summer has involved slaying snakes. This particular snake lost his life on the side of the highway due to the inability to get off the road fast enough. The first victim of the year was at Ashley’s during a girl’s night out, I noticed the pregnant momma kitty throwing something in the air and then flinging it. I, being too curious for my own good, went outside to see what she was doing. Our youth minster wife, who has a doctorate degree in wildlife, varied that it was a corral snake after reviewing a book on native snakes. We had trouble reciting the cute little snake rhyme “red on yellow kill a fellow, red on black friend of Jack”. Ashley being brave and noble beheaded the snake with a small…very small machete. Beside the rattle snake and corral snake, the other night on the way to church, I slammed on breaks, throw the car in reverse then frankly jammed in the car back in drive and continued with such spastic moves until a poor little corn snake lay dead on the nature trial that leads to my house. Katie’s lifetime friend Danyal, thought I had lost my mind as she was thrown about in the backseat until she saw the evidence of my madness—a dead 12 inch snake. Have I mentioned I HATE snakes?

Towards the end of the school year, my dear friend and librarian Marsha hosted a book fair. The not so intelligent me, thought it would be cute to dress up as Clifford to encourage students to visit the book fair on Family night. Remember if you will, our springs are unbearable hot, but even more so inside a BIG RED DOG costume. I commented that if I should ever, feel the desire to dress up again …I was wearing my bathing suit underneath it. That was until I thought about all the cootie that resides inside….yew yuck. One little boy told his mother that he knew that was a man in the Clifford costume because he had hairy arms. If you haven’t seen arms, let me elaborate…. I barely have peach fuzz on my arms. In the past, I have been known to ride a midsize child’s bike into 40 classrooms hooping and hollering to encourage our kids to attend an event at school. Other than the severe soreness in my legs for days, the bike ride was the easiest and least exhausting. Can you believe that some people had the nerve to ask me if, in near 90 degree temperatures if I would stand in the drop off area and wave to the families. I think, I send this individual a Christmas Card. I’m making a note to cross them off the list.

We’ve celebrated Mother’s Day with muffins for moms. Then our family had a late lunch at our favorite buffet restaurant. The big adventure of the day was driving by the river to see how high it had risen. It was just another day in paradise. lol

Our youth host a spaghetti supper and Mount Pleasant Idol to raise money for youth camp. Steven was asked to serve as Randy. I personally think he is more like Simon.

We had all sorts of talent--- pig calling, cat imitations, and lots singing. The church had the great opportunity to hear my nephew Quin and Maddielyn sing a duet. After the performance, Jamie, the youth minister and MC for the night asked Quin who was his favorite singer and song. With out hesitation he said “Toby Keith, Beer for My Horses and Whiskey for My Men”. The crowd went wild. Did I tell y’all I ate Toby Keith restaurant in Oklahoma City, excellent place to eat and even awesomer atmosphere. I had lamb fries. They weren’t bad.

Katie had cheerleading try outs. At the time, she thought this was great…now …. not so much. Their coach was a college cheerleader and performed competitive so needless to say they train like “athletes”. No comment at this time----

The FFA won the Plates for Plates contest. The club sold the most FFA license plates. This entitled the club to have Commissioner of Agriculture Charles Bronson teach Ag for a day.

At lunch, his personal chef cooked a meal for the members. The food was incredibly different from anything most of our rural rooted kids have ever seen, much less tasted.

I personally along with my table mate Carrie thought it was excitingly different. The chef has a blog, but I have not been successful in finding the site.


We attended the Ranch Rodeo in which my crazy brother-in-law served as the entertainment for the evening as the Rodeo Clown. Although the weather was awful, we had a great time. If you have not attended the event in the past, I encourage you to go this year. It is always held Memorial Day weekend at the Horsemen’s’ Arena in Williston . It is unlike any thing you have ever seen. The best part to me is the buddy pick up. Nah, my favorite is the wild cow milking. Um I changed my mind it is the wild bronco saddling. Okay, I really think my favorite is the event in which they unlaod the horse then quickly saddle him, race to the other end, come back unsaddle the horse and load him on the trailer again. Yeah that's my favorite.





We ended school with a BIG bang and celebration. The kids enjoyed every minute of the day not to mention Charlee crashed the party.
I wonder where the summer went. It seems like just yesterday, that we bid farewell to the students and celebrated the last day of school. A tradition at our school, the teachers create a line and sing……Nah Nah, Nah Hey, hey good bye. Embarrassingly enough, I was get choked up and can’t sing. I usually blame the tears on the sun or allergies.

After 3 years at Kid’s World, we closed that special chapter in Charlee’s life. They have tenderly cared for and loved my baby as their own.

Summer started off with a bang, the first week out Katie headed to the FFA convention in which she won the Beef Proficiency. We recently found out that she did not place nationally but received a Silver medal honor …I thought we entered a FFA contest not an Olympic. My lovely husband went with mom and me to the convention even though he complained about my driving he didn’t show his butt……

Well maybe he did a little. We had trouble with the seats in mom’s vehicle. I think before it was over, we all had to ask for forgiveness for using language only sailors use.

As I had mentioned in an earlier post, for the first time in years, and I do mean years, I attended youth camp. I had a blast. However next year, I want to chaperone the boys. Every night they stayed in our room and entertained us. Ashley served as head “cook” and I assisted and cooked breakfast. We meet the group Unhindered.

They were precious. I invited them back to eat with our youth group, but they had previous an engagement (yeah right). I had a personally hair dress and enjoyed shopping with the girls and Tyler.

Every chance I got, I spent some time at mom and dad’s. It is undoubtedly my most favorite place on earth. I also had the opportunity to cream field corn and sweet corn.

Maybe soon I’ll update the recipe blog and include some of my summer recipes as well as my recipe for canning the most scrumptious corn. We had tons juicy watermelons, yummy eggplants, lots of pots of peas and loads of pods of okra. I love summer vegetables.

Most the summer, I spent as much time as possible soaking up the sun. On this trip to the pool, the Johnsons did some “deep pool dove” to harvest water logged earth worms.

They were more excited about their finds than swimming. We enjoy our pool (and porch), it serves as a wonderful mission field for us to minister to some kids in our youth group and neighborhood. My question to you is ----What do you have that could be used as a vehicle to help others come to know Christ or build a strong relationship with Him?

This has been the most memorable spring and summer that I have had in a long time. It is obvious that I have been busy and have traveled all about because my house is a disaster zone and looks as though we have been robbed. Maybe since school has started back, I will develop a routine that allows for organization and outrageous adventures as we embark on Katie’s senior year and Charlee’s kindergarten year.