Meet “RAIDER”

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The REAL Pluto Dance

I could never get this to upload previously!

Dancing With Pluto

Biggest Loser

Tonight a new season of Biggest Loser is starting. DH cannot understand why in the world I would want to watch people lose weight but I love this show! It's because I can relate to so many emotions these people express and how hard it is to fight, control and conquor weight issues living in the food obsessed society. It is so motivating in so many ways. And it's real life.

So in honor of the season premier, here is a diet to get started with. It's the Stress Diet and I "borrowed it" from another great blog!

Breakfast
1 grapefruit
1 slice of whole wheat toast
1 cup of skim milk
Lunch
1 small portion of lean, steamed chicken
1 cup of spinach
1 cup of herbal tea
1 Hershey's Kiss
Afternoon Tea
The rest of the Hershey's Kisses in the bag
1 tub of Haggen-Daaz ice cream topped with chocolate chips and rainbow sprinkles
Dinner
4 glasses of wine (red or white)
2 loaves of garlic bread
1 family size supreme pizza
3 Snickers Bars
Late Night Snack
1 whole Sara Lee cheesecake (eaten directly from the freezer)
REMEMBER: Stressed spelled backwards is desserts

My own weight managment tips are:

Don't wear loose and forgiving clothes such as elastic waistbands.

Avoid white bread. A good snack is whole wheat bread dipped in olive oil

Drink milk (I don't do enough of that)

Don't keep junk food available I can't eat what is not there

Pay attention and be aware of what I eat and how many outragous calories are in stuff

If I must eat some ice cream (which I don't keep around much) , eat it our of a very small bowl or 1/2 c. measuring cup and baby soon.

Things I need to eat less of: margarine, caffine (Yes, Josh!), chips and fried foods

Oh, and I'm also great at binging and just losing it, yo yo, yo yo, but I never give up! I'D LOVE TO SHARE ANYONE ELSE'S IDEAS ON THIS.

A Little Garage Sale Miracle!

Friday night my man asked me if I wanted to go garage saling with him Saturday morning. He knew of a man who was selling "thirty years of tools" and he wanted to
check them out. I hadn't been going to garage sales for years until a friend asked me to go this past summer and I had lots of fun and found some "treasures". So I was pretty enthusiastic about it. Besides, it's fun to do with him. We have several things we are scouting for for our home and fifth wheel, one being a food processor. I used to have one but it moved to Kansas to make babyfood. Evidently, more babies are expected since it hasn't moved back. We needed one for pico de gallo!

We found out right off the bat the man with the tools wasn't very serious about making sales so we continued on to a few more locations. The next place was a second day sale but we found some "cool" stuff including pitcher just the right color and size for my frig and kitchen (.25),percolator - we use them a lot around the campground and they wear out (.25). This one took a little elbow grease to look like it does here. Two Starbucks mugs - just like two mom's has I have admired (.10 ea)

Phil did even better. The lady had a old tool box with a generous assortment wrenches, cutters, pliars and what not. She took $10.00 for the box and all. Then he spotted a basket of odds and ends obvously collected in a garage. There was an unopenend box of .22 shells, more sockets and other tools. He didn't take time to look it all over but the lady was more than happy to take $5.00. I wonder if her husband knew!

The next place was a chance "drive by" that happened to be an estate sale. "Grandma" died and kids and grandkids were selling her stuff. Grandma was quite a gaget collector! And she liked good gagets. We found a high quality food processor (Moulinex La Machine) It's better if it's French you know. It's a dandy! ($5.00) And she had a higher quality hand mixer with retractable cord and assorted speciality beaters ($3.00) Add to that a like new bath mat just the right color for the fiver ($1.00) ! I was pretty pleased.

We came home and while I fixed brunch (fried trout from Colorado and eggs and toast), Phil sorted through the basket of stuff he'd purchased. There were quite a few tools and stuff. But down in the bottom was quite a find! It's about the size of a frizbee. "Are you kidding me? Could it possiby be the right one? It sure looks like it." Mom's car broke down last month and the timing belt had to be replaced. The cover to the timing belt was missing and they were going to have try and find one to order over the internet. So far, none had been located. The car is 15 years old so it was anticipated the silly part would probably cost between $35. and 75.00...just guessin' I'm sure. Mom had been praying it wouldn't be too much since her repair was the equivilent to a house payment! Would you know, it was exactly the right part! I think I'm goingto get a bumper sticker "This Car stops at garage sales".

"One Thing For Sure, I Got The High Note!"

Here I am again lovin' on my granddaughters. Jana, Kaylee and I attended church this morning while Josh stayed with Makenna. As we drove out of the garage Kaylee said, "Good bye, Daddy! Have a good time! Good bye, Makenna." So cute! The service was amazing. The guy who led worship was a British guy who was once in Paul McCartney's band. I could help but thinking about the transformation in is life. He was a great guitarist, also. The guest preacher was not only inspirational but HILARIOUS! Marilyn Hickey will be the visiting preacher next week. That is so cool! Can't wait to hear her in person. The Fourth was definitely not a typical one but restful. Jana and I treated outselves to mani/pedi. In the late afternoon I picked blueberries off Jana's blueberry bush and plums off of one of her plum trees. She also has a peach tree with lovely peaches and a couple actively producing lemon trees! Oh, how wonderful!

Welcoming Baby Makenna

Here I am in California, welcoming my new granddaughter, Makenna Joy Best! I'm enjoying my time with Kaylee too! I brought her a "My Little Pony" sleeping bag with built in blow up mattress. It was a big hit! She gets in it, shuts her eyes and pretends she is asleep momentarily. Then she opens them up and says, "Wait a minute! I get up in the morning!" She jumps up and runs over to Josh and in the sweetest little voice she says, "Good morning, Daddy!" as she kisses him on the cheek. Then she repeats the proceedure over and over. She is enthralled with Mary Poppins and loves to sing "Superkalifragilisticespialidocious!" It's her favorite part of the whole movie. Today is Phil's and my thirty-eighth anniversary and I believe the first we have been apart. We will have to celebrate double when he gets here next week! Love you, Babe!! We took our second walk to the park today with her Mommy, Daddy and Baby Makenna.

Hudson, A Man of Few But Decisive Words!

Phil recently related this little exchange that took place when our grandkids were here a couple weeks ago: He showed Hudson how to crank down the leveling jacks on the fifth wheel while he was setting it up. He always looks for ways for Hudson to help out and have a part in the "guy stuff". Hudson was vigorously cranking down one of the jacks and Phil came around to observe. "You really look like you know what you're doing." he told him. Huddy, finishing the job, stood up and slapped his hands together like you would when finishing a job and replied, very matter-of-factly, "I DO know what I'm doing!" Later that evening he snuggled up next to his iGrandpa and said, "Grandpa, I'm really getting bigger, aren't I" "Yes, you sure are, Hudson." Hudson, once again matter-of-factly, "I KNEW I would!"

Aunt Mary at 93

We took Aunt Mary on her annual trip to El Porvenir. She loves the mountains and what an amazing lady she is! She never ceases to amaze us! She didn't hesitate when we said she WAS going on a ride on the 4-wheeler. She seemed to really enjoy it even though we discovered Phil had his big ole boots on top of her feet the whole time!

We also took are "guests" up to Johnson Mesa. This is seven miles above our campsite and an amazing view.

"Well I'll tell you one thing....."

That was one of Hannah's expressions while she was here.
Like "Well, I'll tell you one thing, Grandpa's T.V. watchin' kept me awake last night!"

We visited our friends, Hope and John Finney on their farm on the Pecos River in Fort Sumner. We rode took their 4 wheeler and ours and went down between the irrigated fields, across irrigation ditches and to a wonderful beach on the river. The river was perfect for kids to play in. It was only about a foot deep all the way across and moved very slowly. The kids had a great time. Josh kept busy collecting sea shells and dunking the top of his head in the water. We feasted on a nutricious meal of barbequed hotdogs and chips for supper.


We parked our fifth wheel next to the Finney's new house and in the morning went for a ride on the four wheelers.

Well, I'll tell you one thing....it was really fun!

Meanwhile, back at the farm....

Mr. Pearce's farm included a mare named "Hannah" with a beautiful little colt. I think this was a highlight on their visit.

"Matter of Fact, this IS my first rodeo!"

I had the delight of taking three of my little cowpokes to their FIRST rodeo AND Tombstone race! My Hannah NEVER ceases to amaze me. I've never seen a child with such a willingness to try just anything. She ran in the tombstone race which in the child's division was the same as adults except she had to hurdle over bales of hay while carrying a pretty heavy "tombstone". Even though Hannah came in last in her heat (Hey, the other kids had experience and tennis shoes and Hannah was wearing her cowboy boots.) She wanted to know where her award was! Then at the rodeo they told any kids under ten who wanted to participate to come down in the arena to be in a calf scramble. She didn't even ask what a "calf scramble" was. She jumped to her feet and asked if she could go down. Mind you, she had been watching bronc and bareback riding and all kinds of wild stuff. No matter, she wanted to be a part of it. For you city slickers, the calf scramble is where they let five calves loose in the arena with ribbons tied to their tails. Pull a ribbon off a calf and you win $10.00. Bless her heart, her hat wanted to fall off as she ran so she just ran around chasing the calves as best she could while hanging on to her hat. You know a rodeo arena is just loose dirt so you gotta know it was exhausting. She ran and ran and when she came back, she seems pretty satisfied she got to be in the rodeo!! What a trooper!! Hudson, on the other hand, is like his grandpa! He's not going to do anything before making sure he can win!



I entered Joshua in the 2-3 yr old stick horse race. Unfortunately, his "heat" was the very first one. He pretty much had no idea what to do. I wished he could have watched it for awhile first. He probably would have spurred that horse to a win!
He really enjoyed watching the rodeo. He sat on my lap for two and a half hours and took it all in.

Old Cow poke and little pony!

A visit to Grandpa and Grandma's

We have three of our four precious grand babies here for several days. They are with their Papa and Grandma Doris today, however. We picked them up in Elk City at noon yesterday. They have been just perfect. By the time we got them to Clovis however, Hannah asked, "Are we taking the long cut?" Bless their hearts, they went back to Amarillo today and will be back tonight! This is the first time Joshua has been away from his Mama and Daddy overnight and he hasn't skipped a beat. Last night we introduced them to Grandpa and Grandma's new toy. They were so excited. Phil said he didn't think he had ever seen Huddy as ecstatic about anything! What fun we are anticipating having with them on it.

This morning, before they left, the HAD to help Grandpa feed the chickens and collect the eggs. We have a new batch of baby chicks, too. Joshua loves the big dogs and is understandably leery of the chickens. One of the first things he did was figure out how to make the clothes line braces into a jungle gym! Silly monkey!