Literally. Two months ago I went for my weekly lesson and told my instructor that I would be gone for a while and I would contact her when I got back. And so began our amazingly, incredibly busy summer.

We packed the car, and hit the road. The route was easy. From our house go to the highway, take the farm road to the I-10, and don’t get off until you reach California! 

Plans? Heck yeah! We had my daughters wedding, my granddaughters 21st birthday, my great granddaughters 2nd birthday, and the wedding of a close family friend. In all, a five week stay.

The wedding of course, couldn’t have been more perfect. Tracy was a stunningly beautiful bride, we gained a son in law, and months of planning culminated in a beautiful, memorable event. For me, the best part was just seeing the happiness in Tracy’s eyes, hearing it in her voice, and seeing the love between the newly married couple. 

In between all these events I got to spend lots of time with the kids and grandkids. I thought I knew every nursery rhyme there was, but I was wrong! I learned about Mother Goose TV, and Chu Chu TV. (I still sing Johny, Johny in my head…eating sugar? No papa!) I was reminded what life is like living with a toddler, a teen, a young adult, and how much we should cherish each moment with them.

Before I knew it, it was time to come back to Texas. Of course the trip back wasn’t quite as fun as the trip there. The anticipation wasn’t quite the same, and poor Jackdodd had to listen to me sing for 1400 miles – each way! (Just because I can’t sing, doesn’t mean I won’t!). Eventually we made it home. All was well, we did laundry, caught up on mail, etc. and then we were off to the Czech Republic for Jack’s sons wedding. Prague was beautiful and I had a great time sightseeing, taking pictures, and of course – shopping! The wedding was beautiful, with the exception of some Czech traditions, it was much like an American wedding. Once again, it was time to come home, and return to our regular routine, which for me includes my weekly riding lesson with my buddy, “Buddy”. 

I was a bit nervous. Would I remember everything I had learned? How to put the harness on? The saddle? The bridle? Control? Loping? You always hear people say, “it’s like riding a bike – you never forget”. Well you never hear anyone say, “it’s like riding a horse”, so while I was excited to get back to riding, I was also a bit apprehensive. 

Just putting my jeans and boots on made me feel better! I walked out to the pasture and I’m pretty sure Buddy remembered me! I slipped the harness on and guided him up to the stalls. He was so patient with me while I brushed the cobwebs from my brain and saddled him up. Now to see if I’ve still got it.

I stuck my boot in the stirrup and as soon as I pulled myself up, my apprehensions disappeared, almost as if Buddy was telling me it was going to be just fine. We walked a bit, we trotted a bit and after a few minutes both Buddy and we’re ready to pick up some speed. I gave him a little squeeze and off we went. Without skipping a beat we settled into that nice galloping rhythm. It was a great welcome home!

And our busy summer – well it’s not over yet! Family reunion and then back to California to welcome the newest grand baby at the end of the month. After that, two more turn 2 and then another new grand baby. We’ll have just enough time to catch our breath and then the holidays will be here…whew!!!

WARNING: If you read this, you may be grossed out!

“I’ll never drive between California and Texas with a dog again”. Those words came out of my mouth, just about a year ago. And I didn’t. Instead, it was with two dogs! I know, what you’re thinking, and yes, it was crazy!

At the beginning of this year, we took out  calendar and month by month started filling in the blocks with all the upcoming events for the year. “Holy cow, this is going to be one busy year!” And the majority of these events are taking place in California. I think it was sometime around early April when I brought up the subject of driving to JD. Initially, he was kind of cool to the idea. In fact, I don’t think he actually warmed up to the idea until we pulled out of the driveway the day we left!

It made complete sense. This was going to be a five week trip (at least for me). We had weddings, birthdays, work, and I really didn’t want to board the dogs that long. And besides, who doesn’t love a road trip? So we packed up the car with clothes and dogs and we hit the road.

We had decided to make it a two day trip.700 miles each day? Piece of cake! The halfway point is Lordsburg, NM, home of a Hampton Inn (thankfully a pet friendly hotel), McDonalds, a gas station, and not a whole lot more. We checked in, got the dogs settled – sort of. Keep in mind, that at this time Rodeo was not yet housebroken, extremely curious, and at best – difficult to control. There was one teeny, tiny thread on the carpet which she immediately zeroed in on and before we knew it, she pulled a piece of the carpet up. O-M-G! RODEO! We wondered what the cost would be to repair and figured it would appear on our next credit card bill!

We arrived in CA the next evening. We were staying at my son’s house, and since he also has a dog (Cub), we watched while the three of them scoped each other out and figured out what the pecking order was going to be. Since she’s the oldest, and had already put Cub in his place when he was a puppy, Lucy was top dog, then Cub. That left poor Rodeo at the bottom of the totem pole. Rodeo is like the pesky little sister than doesn’t understand why the older kids wouldn’t want to play with her. About an hour into our stay, I had my first “oh my gosh maybe we shouldn’t have brought” them moment. Thankfully, by the second day, they all settled down.

My granddaughters are dog lovers and they couldn’t wait to see the pups. “Can Rodeo come over for a sleepover?”, they asked. Well of course she can, but put everything away because she’s like a baby – everything ends up in her mouth, or at the very least, all chewed up.

What I’m about to tell you is the absolute truth. I got a phone call from my daughter the next day telling me that Rodeo had swallowed a sock. Not eaten a sock, but swallowed it whole. And it wasn’t a cute little baby sock, it was an adult size sock. Yes, a woman’s sock, size 9-11.

“I’m calling the vet and I will be right there to pick her up.” Got to the vet and when he walked in, he says, “oh they told me this was a puppy that had swallowed a sock. I should have known it would be a lab” (I didn’t realize that comedy was part of the curriculum when one goes to school to become a vet). He then praised us for getting her there so quickly and explained that he would give her a shot to make her vomit (I know, gross!) and hopefully that bring it up. I was so nervous, I knew this could be really, really bad and my mind had already gone to worst case scenario. I was mentally preparing myself for the fact that we might be going back to Texas with one dog.

After about 5 minutes, the nurse came out and as if she’s announcing the birth of a baby, she says “we got it, was it black?” “Yes! With orange stripes?” I ask. She confirms that was it and as she walked way she tells us they also found something with a bar code on it! That was one of those “one day this will be funny” moments. We paid our $150.00 bill and off we went.

After this event, we made sure that EVERYONE knows not to leave anything laying around that Rodeo might mistake for food. End of story, right? WRONG!

A few days later, my son gets out some shoes and socks to put on his little girl. I started to worry when he announced that he was missing a sock. Oh no, please not again. This was the day before my daughters wedding and the although we had made arrangements for someone to check on them, the dogs were going to be home alone all day. My worry was unnecessary, she was fine.

Fast forward one week – as in 7 days. Now we are at my daughter’s house and Rodeo is out in the backyard. My granddaughter calls me outside and tells me that Rodeo has just thrown up something that looks like a sock! Oh my gosh – Stella’s sock! I ran out and sure enough, there it is. I ran back in to get something so I could pick it up. By the time I came back out, it was gone. Yep, gone. Gone as in, wow that was good, got anymore of those? Yikes! I cannot believe this! If I take her back to the vet, they’re going to take her away from me! They will call animal control and tell them I’m an unfit mother!

So I did what anyone would do. I Googled, “How to Make a Puppy Vomit”. For those of you that don’t know, hydrogen peroxide is the answer! One teaspoon for every 10 pounds. Fortunately, there was some on hand and in addition to saving another trip to the vet and another $150.00, Rodeo gave up the sock  – AND, an elastic headband. Ugh!

Surely, that’s the end of it. And it seemed to be. We enjoyed the rest of our stay and after five very quick weeks, it was time to drive home. We hit the road and headed back to Lordsburg, NM for the night. Can you believe they put us in the same room? As we checked out, I was really tempted to ask for discount since the carpet in our room had a hole in it!

We arrived home the next evening, and a few days later Rodeo started acting a little strange and making that familiar coughing noise. Oh no. It can’t be. Seriously? Not again! Ugh. RODEO!!! I’ll be so glad when she outgrows this.

Dogs are like kids. You can have one that’s so mellow, and so well behaved – and then the next one comes along and you can take your eye off of her for one second! We now keep the closet door closed, the laundry room door closed, and put up anything that we think would look even the slightest bit appetizing to Rodeo. Then last night, my granddaughter sent me the link to a news clip that showed a vet that had done surgery on a lab (of course!) and he had removed 62 elastic hairbands and 8 pairs of panties from this dog’s stomach! Oh my – she may never outgrow this!

My apologies in advance to my California family and friends, I know you really, really need rain. If I could bottle this stuff and send it your way, I would.

Today started out warm, but cloudy. The weather forecast said there was a possibility of thunderstorms, but one never really knows for sure. The wind was really blowing all morning, and in fact I had left a patio umbrella open and it was now at the bottom of the pool. I was upstairs working and I could hear thunder in the distance. I thought, “uh-oh, better get the Thundershirt on Lucy”. About that time, the thunder got so loud that the house actually shook. I could have used a Thundershirt myself! Then the rain came. Not just a light sprinkle, but heavy rain. It was so heavy, I could not even see out the window.

I did my best to ignore the weather and went about my work. I even heard the FedEx truck pull up and drop a package by the gate and figured Id go out and get it when the rain let up. And then it hit me…”The patio drains!” The last time we had rain this heavy I was home alone while JD was in California and because the drains were covered with leaves and junk, it didn’t take long at all for the water to head toward the house. I ran down the stairs and saw water at the back door and the media room. “JACKDODD!!!! I’ll get the media room, you get the back door.” I was no novice at this. I kicked off my shoes, pulled off my jeans and ran to the garage for the push broom. By the time I got outside, JD had already cleared the drains so I just started pushing the excess water towards the pool. It didn’t take long before we were both soaking wet. Since the patio was now draining properly we figured we might as well get the umbrella out of the pool. I was certain we could get it out without having to get in the water (which is not yet at swimming temperature). Well, the umbrella was open and completely submerged in the water upside down and to make matters worse,the pool sweep was on top of it. Was it heavy? YES! Poor JD got in (fully clothed!) and between the two of us we managed to get it out.

About this time I could hear that familiar sound of the UPS truck pulling up. (yes, UPS drops off at the door, FedEx at the gate). I was torn. Do I stand outside dripping wet and wait till the UPS driver leaves, or do I go in where the UPS driver can clearly see me through the windows by the front door soaking wet in my underwear holding a push broom? At this point, JD says, “I wonder if the UPS driver picked up the FedEx package at the gate.” Uh, I highly doubt it. By now I figured since I was already soaked, I would wrap a towel around me and go get the dumb package myself but JD is such a gentleman, he wouldn’t hear of it!

The whole thing was so comical, I couldn’t help but giggle about it. And the funniest part was that at no point during all this did JD ever say to me, “what are you doing out here in your underwear?”

Eventually, I got dried off and went back upstairs to finish my work day. I no sooner sat down when my phone buzzed. The message…SEVERE WEATHER ALERT! Well, thank goodness for that warning, or we would have never known!!!

After what seemed like a long work day (it was Monday, after all) I headed into town to the nail salon. This is my time to relax. I walked in, picked out my color and sank into one of those amazing, heavenly chairs. Oh, what I wouldn’t do to have one of those chairs at home! Normally I settle in, adjust the heat, adjust the massage setting, set the timer, close my eyes and drift off into that far away place. Today however, was going to be different.

I’m usually able to tune out whatever is going on around me, but not today. You see, not too long after I arrived, two older women came in. They were quite chatty and their talk was non stop. So much for relaxation.

It’s not eavesdropping if the people talking are loud, right? I’m not sure they realized how loud their voices were, but they were loud enough for everyone in the salon to hear them talking. One minute into their conversation, I was hooked. They were both from Boerne, and both had accents. One had a definite “Texas” accent, and the other had a more “Southern” accent – yes, there is a difference! There’s something about women from the south, in addition to their accents, they have funny sayings for everything!

“Southern” woman settles in and the first thing she says (to the technician) is, “Mah brutha was a state senatah, and when he went to China and they fed him something that was still alive. It proceeded to crawl out of the bowl so he just helped it back into the bowl and waited for the next course.” I’m not sure why he was telling the nail technician this story, but I’m pretty sure she thought he was Chinese, and yes I did cringe – just a little.

Then conversation then shifted to some sort of injury she had on her ankle. The technician asked her if she had injured it or if she’ been bitten by something. This is how the conversation went:

Texas accent: “Did you fall? Were you drunk? Does it hurt?”

Southern accent: “No, I didn’t fall. If I’d fallen it would be swollen”

Nail Tech: “Well, look here, it is swollen. Maybe a spider bit you. You should really have a doctor look at this.”
Southern accent: “Well, I have been working in the garden, maybe a spider bit me and well, I just might have been drunk, I was over to John’s house the other night watching the Spurs”

Texas accent: “She was drunk!”

Southern accent: “I was not drunk, it was quaaludes.” (I’m pretty sure she pulled that out of her memory from the 70’s). I could actually hear people giggling in the background because no one has heard that since, well, the 70’s.

The conversation went on for a little while longer and then somehow shifted to the care of her heels which were in what she considered to be immaculate condition due to her Pedi Egg! I wont go into details about her “process”, but her description of her As Seen On TV Pedi Egg was every bit as amusing as the rest of their dialogue.

At this point, my polish was dry enough for me to leave, but you can bet I turned to get a good look at these septuagenarians before I left. I was half tempted to ask when their next gig at this salon would be so I could book a seat in advance!

I have a friend that says you should leave the party while you are still having fun. That may be true, but how do you pinpoint that exact time? For example, when one’s sisters are visiting from out of town is it three days? Four? A week?  I’m not sure, but today after a four day visit I dropped my sisters off at the airport and I couldn’t help but feel that there were still a few more days of fun to be had.

My sisters and I are all six years apart, and like most siblings our personalities are all over the spectrum! Prior to JD and me moving to Texas, my sisters and I saw each other at family functions, the occasional lunch out together, a dinner here and there. With families of our own, jobs, work, and the fact that we all live in different cities, time just goes by and before you know it, months went by with only an occasional phone call or text.

In recent years, our getting together revolved around the care of our mom. Where will she live, who will take care of her. etc. We’d meet over lunch to discuss, but it was not fun. Somehow we managed to get through the process of moving mom, selling her house and getting her settled into new living quarters. Our mom was like most – she wanted her kids to all get along (all the time!), and she worried that after she was gone (which she’s not!), that us girls would not stay close. Our family had always been close and we would get together all the time. Every birthday, every holiday, we celebrated together. But after we lost our dad and mom started to require more care, those family gatherings began to dwindle. We all have our own families and responsibilities, so that’s normal, right?

On one of my recent trips to CA I met my sisters for lunch. I had been thinking it would be fun to have them come and visit us in Texas so I mentioned it to them and they were both all for it! I didn’t want it to be something that we just talked about, so WE DID IT! Airline reservations were made and before I knew it, JD and I were headed to the airport to pick them up.

We spent the first night looking at old pictures, which was a lot of fun! The next days flew by. We wanted to make sure they soaked up as much Texas culture as possible! We laughed, took pictures, told old family stories. I’m still not sure how three people raised under the same roof by the same parents can turn out so different and have different recollections of the same events!

It was truly what one can call “quality” time. Each day was fun but gosh it went by so fast. After all, time flies when you’re having fun, right? The ironic thing is that it took a move to Texas and a distance of 1300+ miles to bring us closer together. Would we have spent four days together if we hadn’t moved? Not likely. We might have talked about it but we wouldn’t have actually done it.

In our case, distance makes our sibling hearts grow fonder and I’m quite sure that would make mom very happy.

Now, go pick up the phone and call your siblings!

It’s been almost two weeks now and I’ve finally reached the point where I can talk about this without crying (a happy cry). It was a typical Thursday afternoon and I came into the house quite pleased with myself because I’d had a really good riding lesson. As I came in the house, I passed the family room and there they were. All of my kids, grand kids, their boyfriends, girlfriends, they were all there. I couldn’t believe my eyes, and I truly thought I must be dreaming (in fact, I even think I said that out loud). I’d fantasized this so many times and here they were right here in my own house – my wildest dream come true!

My mind was racing. As any mother would do, I did a swift assessment and quickly took a mental roll call. “Oh my gosh, you’re all here!” Even the fearful flyer was here! I screamed, I cried, I wanted hugs! I had to ask. “How long can you stay?” They were mine to enjoy for three days. I was in heaven.

Can you imagine seeing this party of 16 traveling together? I can just hear the groans of all the other passengers when they announce that all families and passengers traveling with kids can board first! I would have loved to be there just to say, “Yep, those are all mine!”

In my head I was thinking, I need to get to the grocery store – STAT! I need to prepare beds, These kids have been traveling all day, I know they must be hungry. I don’t know why, but it gives this mom great joy to feed my kiddos. I’ve missed that since moving here. JD is a good eater, he seems to like my cooking and always eats whatever I put in front of him, so I guess it’s okay. But the kids are so appreciative, and it gives me such satisfaction!

Spontaneity and chaos were king! I loved the fact that we made plans on the fly and I loved having stuff everywhere! Toys, clothes, cans, bottles, babies laughing, babies crying I soaked every bit of it in. Horseback riding, skeet shooting, the Alamo, we crammed a whole lot of fun into four days, but as Saturday drew to a close, the sadness that they would be leaving the next day became a reality. I knew they all had their own lives and routines to get back to, but I just wasn’t ready to say goodbye yet. Sunday came and I fought back tears all day. It was so hard to say goodbye, not knowing when the next time they would all be here together would be. And although I had already planned a trip to CA for work and would be seeing them the next day, it wasn’t going to be at my house and it wasn’t going to be quite the same.

After a tearful goodbye, I came back in the house and started putting things away. I wanted to keep the memories fresh in my mind. I think after about 3 hours the tears finally dried up and I went about the house collecting memories. Like the little red cups Ciara played with all weekend. She left one behind and I have it put away so I can take if out every once in a while and remember that special weekend. The fingerprints the babies left on the mirror in the media room. I just cant bring myself to wipe those away. And the last day when we all went down to the river we all piled in and left muddy, dusty prints on the floor of my car. Nope, cant clean or vacuum those either because when I look t them I can see and hear us all there, the kids skipping rocks and climbing trees.

I’ve been surprised in my life. Like, “I’m surprised it’s still snowing back east”, or “Wow, it’s surprising that our new puppy has bitten holes in all my pajama pant legs”. But I’ve never had a surprise party, or anything like that. The fact that they all got together and planned this together, took time off of work and school, that they did this for me… well. it’s almost more than my heart can bear. They have no idea of the gift they have given me – I will remember this and treasure it forever. I love you kids with all my heart. Ugh! I thought I was done with the tears!!!

Another first for me today. My sister in law and her husband were headed to a cattle auction to shop for a bull and they thought we’d like to experience some cattle culture. Were they ever right! 

We got there bright and early to check out all the bulls (these were Black Angus). They were all separated in pens according to age and although they all appeared to look the same, in fact they are not. Being complete novices – and from the suburbs of Southern California, this was completely foreign territory. We were open books with completely blank pages. Sponges ready to absorb, and here’s what we found out:

• Birth Weight – you want the birth weight to be low so as to produce low birth weight calves 
• Low Intramuscular Fat – let’s face it, we all want that, right?
• Ribeye Area – big, duh! And in case you’re wondering how that gets measured, they use ultrasound
• Scrotal Circumference- you think your job sucks? How’d you like to be the guy with the tape measure?!

After checking out all the Bulls, we went and had some lunch at a nearby BBQ place. The irony was not lost on me, but I enjoyed my brisket anyway! 

Back to the auction to find some good seats. Want to be close enough to see, but not so close that you’re in the “splash zone”. As we sat there waiting, I scoured the crowd. Will you look at all these cowboys. Hats, boots, Wrangler jeans, these guys live and breathe this stuff…or do they? I found myself looking around trying to determine who was “legit”. Dirty boots, dirty hat, yep, he’s real. Yep, Yep, yep, all real. And then my eyes landed on the guy wearing the Abercrombie and Fitch vest. Um, no! Even I was more legit than that. At least my vest is from Tractor Supply! He must be a weekend rancher, or maybe he was there for the free breakfast tacos. Or maybe he was a newbie like us!

At last it was time for the auction to start. My exposure to auctions is pretty much limited to what I see on TV (although I did see Dan Dotson from Storage Wats in action once thanks to my buddy Michelle Dotson). There were a couple of guys in the pen – one was responsible for opening and closing the door, and the other was responsible for getting the bulls in and out of the pen. Note: guy number 2 did not seem entirely comfortable trying to get the bulls to move with the 10 foot pole he was using!

I don’t know how an auctioneer learns to talk so fast. Do they practice underwater to see how long they can hold their breath, because they surely don’t breathe while they’re auctioning. The first bull was brought out into the ring. I was just getting settled in, trying to understand what was going on and bing, bang, boom, it was done. Wait, what just happened? Who bid? Who won? I barely understood the auctioneer! Okay next bull. This time I’m understanding what he’s saying. Oh gosh, why is my nose itching? Is it because I know I can’t scratch it? What if I scratch it and we end up with a bull? I was literally sitting on my hands out of fear I would make a wrong move. Oh my gosh, now my phone is ringing. The ringer is off but I can feel it vibrating in my pocket. I very stealthily reached in and turned it off. I couldn’t talk, but I could text!

It was really a fun experience, and surely something I’d never done before. And if you never find yourself questioning the price of beef…don’t! Eat it, enjoy it, and be thankful for cattle ranchers!