Easter 2013

We had a fun Easter Weekend even though we were in Woodward with no family.  Saturday Woodward had several Easter egg hunt extravaganza's and we ventured out to the big one.  Jones was scared of the bunny, scared of the petting zoo, scared of the jump house, scared, scared, scared...............

So we came back home.  I agreed to participate in a trap shoot with a few of my girlfriends.  It's a fundraiser for Cystic fibrosis and for a great cause.  So Cody wanted to take me to go "practice!"  Cody loaded up his guns and his new glock he wanted me to learn to shoot and we ventured over to the lodge to target practice.

My computer is being very retarded and won't download pictures for me......GRRRRRRR!

I shot a 20 gauge 3 times and almost had an anxiety attack.  I have shot only 1 other time in my life.  I was done.......Cody then showed me how his glock works and that I needed to learn how to use it in case of an intruder.....I shot it 3 times and I was done.....I'm pretty sure I don't need a gun in case of an intruder.  My adrenaline will be monstrous and I would be able to just attack him:)  No gun for me!

Not sure what I'm going to do come May....maybe have Cody shoot with a bunch of girls:)

Sunday we went to church and came home to a feast.  Cody grilled bacon wrapped elk and it was Oh so good!  I made an apple pie and we had another egg hunt for Jones.  I filled all the eggs with money since he had an overload of Candy from the day before and all the candy of the Grands that was sent in the mail:)

He was so excited about the money.  He has a "money bear" in his room and he loves stashing away the cash!

 

Jones must have really listened in Sunday School.  That night when we were saying our prayer's I asked him if Easter was about candy and eggs and he said, "ehh abou Jesus, silly momma!"  Love this little boy so much!

Happy Birfday, DaddyOh!

Every year I go to great lengths to get Cody a really beautiful gourmet cake made and designed especially for him.  2 years ago he informs me he doesn't care much for cake....um...ok?  It took you 8 years to tell me this? Ha!  So last year was the first year of the brownie, cream cheese, strawberry concoction from Campbell's Kitchen!  He loved it!  Well he said he did, it could be 8 more years till he admits he doesn't...hmm!  So it was on the menu again this year.

Cody had to work deer all day so that gave me and Jones plenty of time to whip it up.  We ran to town for lunch and picked up some authentic mexican food for all the boys who were helping Cody.  Came home and feasted.  It was good!

Since it was a special day I let Jones nap in our bed.  I'm pretty sure he thought it was his birthday anyways!

Happy 31st to our Loverley!

Cody's birthday falls on the first day of spring.  Every year we are here it has either been snowing or icy.  This year it was nice.  The snow and ice came a few days later this year.

We have been getting some nice weather in between bipolar temps.  Cody had to run to town one day for errands and we tagged along.  We had him drop us off at the park to go on an adventure.  We have some pretty neat parks in this town!

 



Oklahoma Sky

How long has it taken me to find you?

Five hundred years, five hundred thousand miles.

It don't matter now.

Love's always on time.

Meet me underneath the Oklahoma Sky.

Lightning flashed, everything went silent.

A feather could of knocked me to the floor.

Missing piece was found.

I was finally alive.

Meet me underneath the Oklahoma Sky.

With the speed of sound.

I am homeward bound.

All our sorrows swept away forever.

Each and every tear washed out to sea.

There ain't no goodbyes,

With your hand in mine.

Meet me underneath the Oklahoma sky

Oklahoma Sky........

3.13.03

Our Austin trip every year is very special to us.  It usually falls on or around the day we met.  In 2003 Cody ran into one of my very good guy friends that year in Austin.  They had known each other for awhile and had played basketball together in high school.  For some reason my friend told Cody he should come to Tyler the next week and meet me because he thought we would hit it off.  And he did!

My friend didn't tell me about Cody till the night before we were to go out.  I just knew my friend had some friends coming in and were were all going to go dancing on a Thursday.  The night before we were to go out I had made the comment I was going to pick up a shift at work and just work and not go out.  He then tells me about Cody.  At first I was like, "why didn't you tell me this SUNDAY when you came home?"  He said it wasn't a biggy.  Well being a girl I had a million questions, being a guy, he was annoyed, ha!  He did answer a few questions, he even dialed his number and let me listen to his voice on voicemail, ha!

I was never the one to randomly date.  I never dated just to have a date.  If I dated you I saw potential.  I had just got out of a short lived relationship and really wasn't ready for another one.  But I definitely knew what I wanted this time.  I had 3 specific qualities I wanted and I was not budging this time and not settling. I don't care to share those 3 qualities here:) 

The next night came and I wasn't nervous at all.  I figured if it was supposed to be it would work out.  I invited a few of my girlfriends for back up and we all met at my friends house.  When Cody and his friends showed up I couldn't figure out which one was the one I was suppose to meet, ha.  We left and went dancing in separate cars.  On the way there I was told which one he was.  I was happy!

He said maybe 2 words to me the whole night.  I could tell he was nervous and very shy.  We would all be on the dance floor dancing and a slow song would come on.  He would just stand there and just smile at me.  I wasn't going to come to him and walked off the floor.  As I was walking off the floor he grabbed my hand and brought me back to the dance floor. I was happy!  We didn't say one word the whole song.  We just smiled at each other, awkward, I know!  That shyness game went on all night. At the end of the night we said bye, nice to meet ya, and went our separate ways.  I had a blast that night, I remember.  I also remember he had 2 of my specific qualities and the 3rd would have to wait.

When I woke the next day, he didn't even cross my mind.  I went about my day like normal.  I had work, then a few classes then friend time! That night a few friends were over and we were bored.  Bored friends can lead to disaster and I don't like to think about what could have been if we did what we had decided to do.  We were out the door and I was locking up when I heard my house phone ring.  It never rings and I don't know what possessed me to go back in and pick up. So glad I did.  It was Cody.  I was happy! While I was talking, my friends trek back in and stare at me while I am giddy on the phone.  I think I was so giddy because I had fun the night before, he hadn't even crossed my mind all day, and now he was calling me.  I was wondering how he got my number because he sure didn't get it from me.  He was still in town and was at a friends house and he invited us over.  We headed his way and on the way we were all relieved we didn't go to the place we had originally set off for.  God, you are good, all the time!

When we finally get there, there is a ton of people there and he never left my side.  We had a good little conversation, laughed about the night before when we didn't say 2 words to each other and had a great night. His college roommate at the time was from Tyler and he was in town too.  We made plans to go to his roommates family's house and they were going to cook me and my roommate dinner and watch a movie.

We meet at blockbuster and we pick out a movie and follow them to the house.  They had made deer spaghetti.  It was good.  We watched the movie then played dominoes.  I think Cody fell in love with my mad domino skills:)  Cody took me home that night.  Walked me to my door and said good night.  The song Gloriana sings called (Kissed You) Good Night sums up this night.  "I dropped you off, just a little after  midnight, sat in my car, till you turned off your porch light, I should have kissed you, Just like I wasn't scared at all. I turned off the car, ran through the yard, back to your front door, before I could knock, you turned the lock, and met me on the front porch, and I kissed you good night, and now that I've kissed you, its a good night."

After that night I knew there was something special about this guy.  He went back to Nacagdoches the next day and stopped by to see me for a few minutes.  I still had my guard up.  I figured he would go back to Nac and act like any other 21 year old college kid and so I did my own thing in Tyler, thought about him a lot, and built up my guard even more.  That night he called me.  The next night he called me, and then the next.  He would call me just to let me know what he was doing and that he was thinking about me.  A few weeks later I learned he had my 3rd quality I wanted and I knew he was a keeper.  We did the long distance thing for 2 years.  It was hard but so worth the fight.

We had our first big make it or break it fight 8 months in.  I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life this boy and it would have been a lot easier to go our separate ways but so glad we fought for what we wanted.

10 years later we are still fighting for us and it is a oh' so good fight!

State Basketball 2013

Every year Cody's family, the whole family, goes to Austin for the Boys State Basketball Championships.  The boys sit through 18ish games in 3 days and the girls go shopping, shopping and shopping.  On the way down to Austin we stopped at the outlets in Round Rock and there was a train you could ride.  Jones loved it!  We rode it first, then decided to go find him some basketball shoes.  It was about 4 and Jones had not napped at all that day driving.  We go into the shoe store and Jones has a breakdown right there over the train...........we left.....without shoes..........and wide eyed about Jones' first full-on-throw-yourself-on-the-floor-tantrum. 

We tried out a lot of the Austin food trucks and non disappointed!

We sat through one game with daddy and he did great!

My mom took us out for Cody's birthday and he downed 8 pounds of crawfish......

Every time we go to Texas we always come home sick.  Jones usually gets allergies really really bad that then turn into an upper respiratory infection and I got a stomach bug.....yuck.  On our way home Jones was exhausted.  We were all exhausted.  A week and a half of traveling, 4 days hotel living and driving all over Texas will drain ya!  I'm looking forward to a vacation on our vacation.  An actual vacation, something fun, something relaxing.......the beach might be calling our name this summer!

Cabin Fever and Mud

My boys took me out Friday night.  We were all getting cabin fever and needed OUT of the house.  We tried out a new restaurant in town that was.....not so great.  After dinner we didn't want to go home.  We talked about trying out a movie with Jones but didn't want to spend 20 dollars and only sit through 10 minutes of it.  We will try out a movie with J during the day when it's cheaper, ha!  We talked about going bowling.......the park(it was freezing) but decided to go to Atwoods so Cody could show me a gun safe he wanted.  It turned out to be a fun time:)  We saw TRACTORS!  Kid tractors!  Ridable tractors!  Jones was in love!  He rode on this tractor for about 20 minutes.  We even got him off without a meltdown!

Then we went to walmart and Jones played with some more toys.  Even left without a meltdown and no new toys! SCORE!   Since Jones a little doll we went to Dairy Queen and got sugared up before bed:)

On Saturday Sunday Cody had a lot of things he needed to get done.  We haven't been able to get out on the ranch much because of all the mud.  Cody had to take the tractor out to even feed last week.  We were supposed to head to Texas Sunday but couldn't get away without getting so much stuff done.  Sunday while I was working the church nursery Cody decided to take his truck out to finish feeding.  Now that this day is over I can ask, "What on earth were you thinking!"

Since I was in town he had to walk 2 miles back to the house, in the dark, in the snow, in the freezing temps.  Fun stuff!

The next day Jones had a play date with some of his friends and Cody was able to get back on the tractor and do the things he needed to do while we went to town to play!  When we got back to the ranch we took my hummer as far as we could and then hopped in the tractor with Cody to unleash his truck;)

It was so muddy.  Seriously, what on earth were you thinking, Cody?

It took us 2 hours to get him unstuck.  It was a huge mess and a huge process.  I don't feel comfortable driving a tractor and I don't feel comfortable driving the doge, it's a standard.  But I suck it up and drive it when I need to around the ranch.  You throw mud, snow and Jones in the mix and I really don't feel comfortable driving the dodge!

When we got to the truck I strapped Jones in his car seat and Cody chained us to the tractor.  It was not budging.  There was just too much mud.  We tried that for about an hour and then decided to just back it up down the hill and go out the other way....it worked!  Finally!  Then I had to drive the dodge all the way back to the barn...not fun.  But Jones loved the tractor ride!

We are hoping to head out late tonight or in the morning for glorious ole' Texas! 

Snowmagedon 2013

We had 2 pretty days between snow storms.  On Saturday Cody took Jones to town with him to get feed while I stayed home to clean.  Our house was one big pile of muddy mess after the first snow storm.  It took me 2 hours to get this house spotless without a 2 year year old.  It usually takes me ALL week to do what I did in those 2 hours with Jones by my side:)

Jones' favorite treat is a chocolate milk from Sonic!  Cody drove thru and picked one up for him!  He was a happy lil' dude.

When they got home we got ready for round 2 with the snow.  We had heard that we would see up to 2 ft of snow.......most news outlets denied, denied, denied.  We follow 2 random NW OK guys that give us, straight up, the details of weather.  They are usually right so we prepared for the worst.  We put out tons of feed for the animals just in case we were snowed in and couldn't get to them.  I had to work the church nursery Sunday night and when I left Cody was chopping down trees for fire wood.  I figured our 24 pack of fire starters was sufficient enough but boy was I wrong!

When I got home from church our laundry room was stacked with lots and lots of wood and everything was ready to go.  Cody even brought the generator over and lots of extension cords and my mom had made it in just in time for a blizzard!

We went to bed and woke up to this.  Complete white-out conditions.  We still had electricity though! Whoop!

I ran out to feed the dogs and there was a 4 ft snow drift in the middle of their pen:(  Snow had blown in their shelter and I tried to get it out as much as I could.  We have brought them in before during frigid temps but they hate being inside and usually only last 30 minutes or so in the house!

When I got back in from feeding the pups, our electricity went out.  I called it in because we are the only ones that live out here, in the middle of nowhere, and I knew no one else would have.  We were without electricity for 27 yours.  We really thought it would have been longer and oh so happy it wasn't.  Cody started up the generator and plugged up our deep freezer and our fridge and started a fire!  We made sandwiches for lunch and we made homemade pizza's for dinner on the stove top.  They were so good!  We got lucky our stove was gas!

The weather outside was crazy.  The wind was blowing about 40 mph all day and you couldn't see more than 5 ft in front of you.  It snowed, snowed and snowed some more!

It was so nice without electricity!  We had our first fire in the fireplace going!  The house stayed warm and it was nice snuggled up to  my boys all day.  Mom went to bed about 7:00 that night and we just laid by the fire watching Mickey Mouse with Jones. That night Jones slept in our bed with me so I could make sure he was covered up all night and Cody slept in the living room to man the fire. When we woke up it was freezing and miserable.  I drug our huge feather comforter in the living room and laid under it all morning.  Electricity finally came on around 12! 

The next day outside the sun was out and we had 2 ft of snow with 4-8 ft snow drifts in places.  Cody walked 1/2 mile to the barn to get the tractor to see if he could clear off the roads and clear off our driveway.  He made it and it took him forever to make it back to our house.  There was a 5-6 ft snow drift all over the road he had to plow thru!

We had a 3 ft drift in front of our house.

Jones worked on his cars all day while Cody dug us out of the snow!

This was the huge drift on the road after Cody cleared a path for us to drive down.  Jones and I tagged along on the second trip down the road to clear!

After Cody cleared a way with the tractor he tried to get the dodge out and see if it would make it down the road.  He got out of our driveway and got stuck.......

Later that afternoon we walked to the deer pens to check on them.  Cody had on his waders and had no problem.  I had on my water boots and couldn't make it.  It was soo deep!

The next day mom was getting cabin fever and we followed her to the main road to make sure she didn't get stuck.  It was SOOOO bright.

It took 7 days for the city to come out and clear off our road.  We still have huge piles of snow in places and water everywhere!  The roads are all mud now and it makes it hard to get around. Cody still hasn't been able to get the truck on the ranch.  We went out yesterday and filled a 1 ton feeder by hand because we couldn't get the huge feed trailer out in this mud. 

Snow is all fun and games until it starts to melt.  Now we are left with a huge muddy mess.  But we sure needed this moisture!!!!

We had a pretty successful first blizzard!