Experience ...

First a picture from the SandyHills of West Texas ... a beautiful sunrise ... I love this time of morning ... I hear the animals rustling around in their hay ... baby goats bleating for their momma, Bubba mooo-in' to his friends down the road, Harley talking to me about what went on during the night,the girls barking to Harley, the chickens clucking, the roosters from all over the countryside crowing, and the silence ... the blessed silence - no vehicles running, no sounds from the highway, or the oilfield for that matter ... just the sounds of the country. That is one of the main reasons I have ALWAYS wanted to live in the country ... the silence so that I could hear God speak ...

Okay, first let me preface the next section of this post with ... "I usually keep my political opinions to myself." But, this ... this NONSENSE with Hillary Clinton has got me going this evening. I keep reading posts about how she is the "experienced" candidate. Experienced at what???? Being the first lady? Okay, I'll give her that one ... I'm experienced at being my husband's wife, chief bottle washer, cook, partner in life, business partner, etc. but does that mean I am going to go to his office and fill in for him??? I think not ... that would be like the joke I read yesterday ....

In a news conference Deanna Favre announced she will be the starting QB for the Packers this coming Sunday. Deanna asserts that she is qualified to be starting QB because she has spent the past 16 years married to Brett while he played QB for the Packers. During this period of time she became familiar with the definition of a corner blitz, and is now completely comfortable with other terminology of the Packers offense. A survey of Packers fans shows that 50% of those polled supported the move.
Does this sounds idiotic and unbelievable to you? Well, Hillary Clinton makes the same claims as to why she is qualified to be President and 50% of democrats polled agreed. She has never run a City, County, or State.
When told Hillary Clinton has experience because she has 8 years in the White House, Dick Morris stated "so has the pastry chef".

If it comes down to voting into office someone with her "experience", I think I would take my chances with the pastry chef!! I think that has to be the most absurd leap I have heard a politician take in a long time ... and this from the woman that believes politicians about 5% of the time. Sorry, but I take my politicians with a grain of salt. I do not believe that most of this countries leaders are what I instruct my children in as honesty. I listen to what the candidates say, and then I read ... read ... read ... and read some more. I don't believe you can take them at their word, and I surely don't believe you can take them at their "emotion". Excuse me but isn't that the oldest ploy in the book ... Talk about pulling the wool over your eyes ... what IDIOT would believe that nonsense ...whoots, sorry, I shouldn't have called anyone an "idiot", but really you have to wonder at the "intellectual" thought behind that move. PEOPLE she teared up over a question about her hair?!?!?!?!

People ask me frequently how I do it ... I go to school, I take care of my husband while he works 70+ hours a week and goes to school, I take care of our five children, I homeschool all five of our children, and we are active in the things that interest us ... but it doesn't bring a tear to my eye. When someone asks me "how I do it", I look them straight in the eye and tell them, "with a lot of prayer". That is how you do it ... no matter what you are doing. I just find this nonsense utterly ridiculous ...

Oh, yeah ... I've seen Hillary's village and I don't want her helping raise my children in any form or fashion ... no way ... no how ...

UPDATED Picture ... ah, see it pays to have talented friends in the blogosphere ... Big White Hat cleaned up my sunrise and made it look like what I experienced!!

The Key to my Heart ...

For some odd reason ... I love sepia pictures of my children.

Aunt Cookie's Birthday

Today is Sister Sue's birthday ... she is my dear Rooster's sister. I personally believe she is possibly really close to being able to walk on water ... but that is just my humble opinion. She is purely the definition of the Titus 2 woman, she has guided me several times when I felt that I was lost or straying from where I needed to be. She ALWAYS has time to chat - may be for just a second, but ALWAYS takes time to find out how her nieces and nephews are ... and her dear brother. Of course my husband's opinion of her is even higher than mine, but there again he is biased!! Ha Ha!!

So, here is a wish for our dear sweet Sister Sue to have one of the BESTEST Birthdays ever!! And hope that she knows how much we all love her, and that our prayers are for her to have MANY MANY MANY more bestest birthdays!!

Places to Visit …

Hehehe, see my little tractor ... that's what I have to work with out here in all these mesquite bushes, sage bushes, cactus, tumble weeds, rocks, dirt, sand ....

This morning's cuppa liquid hug sure felt good, I left the heater down low last night … it was a balmy 80 degrees here under the mesquites. I had ruggle-rats running to and fro in SHORTS no less!! Asking frequently if it was SPRING … yes, here it is JANUARY the 8^th!! And they are asking if it is spring, but then again as we drove through downtown Odessa yesterday on the way to drop off the precious Rooster's Wranglers for their walk on their own starch job, we noticed that the trees had buds, and some were opening!! Not a good sign … the mesquites are smart enough to keep their buds closed and hidden – the omnipotent mesquite knows it isn't sunshine time just yet …

As I sat here enjoying my daily indulgence of coffee, hazelnut creamer, and hot chocolate … yummers, I started reading through the various blogs that I so enjoy reading. As I started catching up on a few back posts to my very dear traveling friends posts at Gone Walkabout this fabulous thought was inspired by her post on where she had actually gone walkabout. So, I started thinking … and from a previous conversation the precious Rooster and I had, I started compiling a list of places we want to go "walkabout".

First on the list is Germany – we want to visit all of the castles and areas that Rooster so vividly remembers from being stationed there … and I want to enjoy the country that my German teacher, Herr Gitchell, made me fall in love with so many years ago!

Then, I started thinking about all of the National Historic sites that there are to visit here … my boys would love a trip to Hawaii to Pearl Harbor … but then, I realized that here I am, a VERY proud Texan, and I have NEVER taken my children to the Alamo! I am so ashamed of myself!! So, here is just the Texas list of places we need to take our children to see …

The Alamo, The Spanish Governor's Palace - San Antonio, Texas

The State Capital, The Governor's Mansion – Austin, Texas

South Padre Island, Port Isabel Lighthouse – Port Isabel, Texas

Caprock Canyons to see the Official Texas Bison Herd!, Palo Duro Canyon, TEXAS! The Musical – Canyon, Texas/Quitaque, Texas (((OOOOH, WEEEEE – there is a LOT to do on that trip!!!)))

Colorado Bend SP, Gorman Falls, Caves, River trip through Canyons – Bend, Texas

Fort Davis – Fort Davis, Texas

Apollo Mission Control – Houston, Texas

Big Bend National Park – Big Bend, Texas

Okay, I need to consider this … and start planning my family some trips. I have to plan these trips quietly, or otherwise SOMETHING will come up where we can't go. Rooster always tells me that quiet spontaneous trips – spontaneous for him, quietly planned by me – are the best trips!

The best family is the one you pick ...

Ha! Teri, I know, I know ... 3 days later!!

Me and the VISTA beast had to fight and argue a wee bit more, but I finally got all my software re-loaded. ROFL ... THEN, I had to figure out where everything was again ... I know whine whine whine ... sigh!!

This is a picture of G. Wolfie with our neighbor Mr. Joe. Joe has a granddaughter about the same age as G. Wolfie, and they hang out together. They are definitely best buddies! So, Mr. Joe takes the kids down to play with his goats, calves, and to buy cokes and candy!! Hehehe ... I decided I needed to document some of the time they spend together. These are the moments that G. Wolfie will always remember.

Stay tuned for more ... I had to get into the mood to scrap ... hehehehe ...

Crosswalk.com | Spring Cleaning Hearts At Home

I thought you might enjoy this page I found at Crosswalk.com. Check it out:

http://www.crosswalk.com/homeschool/11537361/

Vista is a BEAST

Have I ever explained just exactly how much I LOVE VISTA the crashing beast!! I was tooling right along ... bloggin', scrappin', and doing MY thing, minding MY business and THEN this beast named VISTA crashed my laptop AGAIN!! I had to do a complete system restore ... thankfully I have Gateway Backup otherwise NOT being a wise person this last month, I had NOTHING backed up to the external ... well, we are back up and in business, I have a new external drive, and I save NOTHING to the hard drive on the computer.

GRRR ... what a deal ... gee, I didn't even remember how long it had been ... December 23rd. That just drives me nuts ... I lost a lot of time!! Plus Christmas being in there ...

Oh oh oh ... my precious Roo bought me a digital camera for Christmas ... a Kodak Z712 IS. IT IS SO COOL. So, yes, I have been snapping pictures again. Today, I started working on a series that I want put together of my children for Christmas presents next year for our family. Photobucket has the best deal on QOOP goodies, they have either soft bound or hard bound books of pictures, and I can load them up for pretty reasonable prices. I'm thinking of doing a year or two at a time - just depends on the number of pictures I snap. The books are 8.5 x 10 I know my grandparents would LOVE to have something like that and Grand-Charlie has missed out on so much of the kids lives that I thought this would be a really cool way for him to be able to see them and what they do.

That is a really sad part of my life ... I have a grandfather, a dad, three brothers and countless aunts, uncles, and cousins that I, my husband, and my children never get to visit with because of one crossed wire with my step-mother. I have a very dear friend that says family is a four letter word. I tend to agree.

Ah, well .. we will be back on track tomorrow. I am going to scrap a bit tonight and then off to beddie bye!

Rooster love has two nights left and well, can we all say YEAH!!

His mid-winter semester class is a booger bear ... he took Macro Economics ... 15 chapters in 15 days ... he has finished nine of them ... bless his heart ... he has four exams to take and he will be DONE with that class. He is constantly amazed at how quickly school is flying by ... the Associates is completed, now we are on to complete the Bachelor's. Rooster loves being an Aggie; he is absolutely hilarious about his Aggie's!! Never in all my life thought he would go for being an Aggie considering the fact that he is a died in the wool Red Raider.

Well, it is time for me to sign off ... look for new scrap pages tomorrow ... until then ... have a wonderful evening ...