Graduation.. Children and Grandchildren

Had a great time at Jodi's graduation..not...I have been through way too many graduations. They all are like setting in a room while someone continually draws names for prizes and you have to wait until they eventually draw your name...but you have to sit there until they draw everyone Else's name. This one wasn't too bad because Jack and Molly were almost perfect..except for when Jack said, "We going die here" and Molly giving me sad looks so she could get more happy pills that were really M&Ms.

I have been through 6 graduations of my own, gazillions of graduations (High schools, junior highs, middle schools and kindergartens) when I was a superintendent and several for Jodi and Cody. Please do not assume that I am not proud of both of our wonderful children. I know several parents who have been through some very difficult times with their children and I can only say, "Except for the grace of God, there go I". I have to admit that Jodi and Cody really didn't give us any problems. They were excellent kids and I am extremely proud of all that they have done. They have married some outstanding spouses and have had wonderful children. Jack, Molly, Max and baby fetus have already given Debbie and me nothing but pleasure.

So, Congrats go our to Master Jodi and Master Cody. I love you both with a love that you can only experience when you have your own children. I couldn't be prouder of you but my greatest pleasure has to be that you both are Christians. The longer I live the more I realize nothing can give lasting pleasure except through Christ and Christ alone. God has blessed me with a great wife, mother/Nana. God has blessed me with 4 outstanding kids. Debbie and I truly love you all.

Just remember kids, until you receive your doctorate, you have to listen to my advice. You know that you should always take the doctors advice! If you don't take my advice, you must admit that I am smarter..... by one degree! And one degree is as good as a thousand when you are counting degrees. Much like Molly when she counted each an every M&M (happy pill) until they were all eaten.

Chicken dressed as a dog

Everyone knows that Mira, our cocker, is a beautiful dog. Jodi originally bought her to keep Matty company. Yeah, like Matty needs company. Matty was able to make life miserable for Mira, so Jodi asked us to take her. Since we have owned her for past 7-8, I can assure you that she is really a chicken in a dog's clothing. I remember when we took Matty and Mira to Pecos, New Mexico several years ago. Mira was barking at a couple of Dobermans. Of course Matty (half of Mira's size) sprinted out of our camper and ran full speed at the dobermans. When they turned toward Matty, Mira bolted toward the camper leaving Matty all alone. Matty didn't back off and was trying to fight both dogs. Mira, on the other hand, was shaking while safe inside our camper. Since that day, we have known that Mira is nothing short of being a chicken. When Mira sees a squirrel in our back yard, she barks softly and kind of bounces toward them. Matty literally goes bonkers and chases them up trees. She growls threats toward them as they cling to tree limb. I have no doubt that Matty is actually cursing the squirrels saying, "You sons of bitch are afraid to come down and do battle with me" while she barks and curses them.

I have actually seen Mira pee on the ground when a cat confronts her. Maybe she is, in fact, liquidating all of her ass sets (not assets). Debbie and I have determined that she is a worthless dog. It embarrasses us when Mira sees strangers. She runs to them and yelps and whines like she has been beaten.

At least with chickens, you get some eggs. Chickens also eat a lot of insects and you can eat chickens when you get hungry. I looked in the dictionary to find the word, "Worthless". Sure enough there was a picture of Mira. We had dog named Maggie and she died too soon. Mira will probably live forever but I am convinced that she dies each and every time she is confronted by another animal. The legendary John Wayne said a brave man only dies once, but a coward dies a million deaths. Hang in there Matty, keep up the profanity and threatening squirrels. We love you. Mira, I wonder if you taste like chicken. I really believe that Mira was sired by a rooster!

Butt Dragging

Yeah you read it right, my butt is dragging. We had just finished laying 450 tile on the back patio. I had to clean each and everyone. I was so happy that we had finished when the last tile was laid. Unfortunately, the project queen told me she wanted to pour a ledge to hold the pot belly stove and the log holder. Seems that she wants to be able to look at the fire in the stove. Everyone, except for Debbie, can easily see the fire in the stove when they walk out of the house. Long story short...we mixed 16 bags of cement to make a ledge for the pot belly stove and the log holder. Then, I had to paint grout sealer on each and every one of the grout lines. Oh! did I mention that the project queen just had to go in the house and lay down while I cleaned and sealed the grout!! Surprise, Surprise.

I then came in to see her laying on the sofa while she played games on her own laptop. Did she say thanks or good job? Nope, she said that she was hungry and was too tired to cook. I had to wait inside the pickup so that my butt could catch up to me. When it did, I drove down and picked up some Mexican Food. When I walked into the house, she said, "Can you bring me the food, I am too tired to get up".

I get a reprieve Wednesday through Friday because we are going to Keller and then on to Dallas to see those great grand kids. The bad news is that Debbie left her new book at Cody's. Guess what the title is........"Play houses and other projects for your grand kids." We probably will need to buy some more land, because it is quite obvious that our back yard is full.

Sometimes Projects are Good!

Debbie looked for a long time to find another project (actually no time at all). We are in the process of tiling the back patio that has been expanded 2 times. We had to seal the crack between each of the expansions were poured before we laid the tile. Anyway we were working on it yesterday (Friday) when Chuck drove into the backyard in his 2006 Mazda Miata Convertible. Chuck is 72 and looks 82. I usually like to go to Walmart and Home Depot with him because they ask him if I am his son. Burns Chuck's butt when they ask. I had to drive him to Mesquite to buy the Miata on Monday. Took about 4 hours at the dealership and he was about to climb up the wall because he is more impatient that me. When we went down town Granbury with the top down, people were smiling and pointing at us. I thought it was neat until Chuck said that we looked like a couple "old gay farts"!

Looks like I won't be riding in his Miata (with the top down) in the near future. I will use the excuse that I am too busy laying tile on back patio....Thanks Deb.

Retired Tired

My lovely wife, Deb, has been badgering me for the past year to write my own blog... Ok Deb, the blog begins in 2003 when she wanted me me to retire and move closer to the grand kids. Because of her pleading, I retire and we move to Granbury, Texas. Since I retired, I have been anything but retired. We have taken on many projects. I'll give you one guess as to who wanted all of these projects. Just a few of the projects are: Extending the back patio from a 6 X 8 to a 17 X 27, 12 foot gazebo, 8x10 storage building, Grand kids Play Center, with a stage for Jack and Molly to have plays for us grown ups, Double carport for our newly acquired travel trailer, riding mower and golf cart, Pirate ship, landscape timber fence, sprinkler system, painting interior of our house, extending our fence by about 100', just to mention a few. I get tired just thinking about them. What is really sad is that Deb has a list of many many more projects that she hasn't shared with me. There's a message in Proverbs about nothing worse than living in a house with a unhappy woman. King Solomon, David's son, wrote it. He had the right to write it because he had many wives and a lot of complaining. Fortunate for him, he was a king and his people had to do all of the things that his wives wanted. I am fairly certain that he didn't build a Pirate ship out of landscape timbers or extended his patio. He could just ring a bell and his servants had to "snap to it". Why wasn't I born a king?



Please see my slide show of Pecos New Mexico. We pulled our camper to Pecos in late July of this past year. It is approximately an 11 hour drive. We absolutely love it there. I fly fish and relax in knowing that we can't work on any projects. Of course, we had to take Mira (our dog). She is a worthless dog...can't do much but beg to get inside the house and howl miserably when she doesn't get her way. While in Pecos, Deb and I went to Santa Fe to shop. We had to leave Mira in the camper at the campsite since she couldn't pass as a seeing eye dog in the restaurant. When we returned, each and everyone of the people who were at the campsite came to our camper to inform us that Mira howled the entire time we were gone. So, on the next trip to Santa Fe, we left her out hoping someone would adopt her. When we returned, one of the elderly ladies that camped near us, brought Mira back and looked "down her nose" at us because we left our poor dog outside. Deb and I are certain that the lady was probably kin to one of Solomon's wives.



Deb and I are very involved in our church. We just finished teaching the Sunday School 4th grade class. I will be teaching our adult class for a few Sundays this quarter. We love it here because of our anonymity. Deb hated being introduced as the superintendent's wife.



If you are bored with this posting and you want to stop reading...you have an excellent opportunity because I want to write a few things about our grand kids. Don't you just hate it when people pull out pictures and start talking about grand kids? ME TOO.



Jack, our oldest at age 5, appears to have the talent to be a hard hitting linebacker as well as becoming an outstanding actor. Molly, our next oldest at 3, will probably become a great veterinarian (specializing in felines) and a stunt car driver. Max, our youngest at 18 months, will probably become an opthamologist known for his continual pointing at the letters on a eye chart and a stand up comedian/ventriloquist specializing in animal sounds (with the Billy Goat being his best).



Well, I just hope that Deb is happy now!