A Wonderful Weekend

Is it me, or does the weekend just seem to go by too fast? I'm a firm believer in the phrase, "Time flies when you're having fun," because we had a blast this weekend and the time just flew by!

The McMillans came in Friday afternoon and stayed the weekend. Damon and I built a fire in the fire pit, and the adults just spent time relaxing, talking and laughing around the fire. We roasted hot dogs, made gumbo, and just enjoyed taking it easy! Of course, the kids were ready for the "war" and their planning paid off. The girls had made belt pouches and insignia, they had all prepared their "uniforms" and the homemade rifles capped it all off. It's nice to be able to escape the hustle and bustle of life and just enjoy some R&R with friends. Since it was kind of a lazy weekend, I'll keep the words to a minimum and share a few pictures of the kids in their uniforms.

A Texas Thanksgiving

Today has been a very good Thanksgiving for us. I'll admit that there was a little too much eating, but it was seriously just a little too much. Compared to what was available and what could have been eaten, it was only a little.

Jaden and I also spent time finishing the rifles. The McMillans will be here tomorrow, so everything had to be finished today. Jaden has been a huge help with sanding, painting, gluing, and just about anything else that needed to be done. He is so eager to help and he learns quickly. He's also very appreciative and supportive. When I started doing this project, I had some trouble getting the blank cut out and was not really pleased with how it looked. I knew I could fix the boo-boos in the finishing process but it would mean extra work. (It turned out that I had made a basic mistake and had forgotten to change the saw blade to the correct one for the thicker wood. Once I did that, the rest came out fine.) Jaden took one look at it and said, "I'll take that one!" Later, when we were sitting around talking about the rifles, Jaden said, "I like the first one you did. I always like to have the first of whatever you make." That one is now his, and is the bigger rifle in this picture. The smaller one is for Owen, the McMillan's 4 year-old.

I'll try to get some pictures of the kids playing "Army," but I can't promise because when we get together with Damon and Maggie, we lose track of time.

I hope you have had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and remember that Thanksgiving isn't just a day...it's a lifestyle. Psalm 106:1..."Praise the LORD! Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!"

Thanksgiving Giblets

As we get ready for Thanksgiving, I can't help but realize just how many reasons I have to be thankful. Don't worry...I'm not going to list them all here! I do want to take a second to remind you (and myself) that every day should be Thanksgiving. God deserves our thanks and praise every minute of every day! Even that wouldn't be enough to honor Him in the fullness that He truly deserves!

I've been working on the rifles for the kids, and I'm thankful that I am able to do something that I really enjoy for our friends! I'm also thankful for true friends like the McMillans, Devin Patrick, the Chamblees, the Roberts, and many others! The fact that we have one true friend is something to be thankful for, but to have more than that is beyond awesome!

Yes, the rifles are coming along and should be finished tomorrow. I'm going to keep this short today and leave you with some pictures of the rifle project. I'll update again tomorrow. 'Til then, have a very BLESSED Thanksgiving!

He's Crafty?

Well, after a great weekend that included a family Thanksgiving get-together complete with plenty of fun and laughter, and way too much food, today marked the beginning of a new project.

Our friends, the McMillans, are coming for a Thanksgiving pow-wow this weekend. (Really, they are more like family because our bond is just too strong to classify them as just friends.) They have 5 kids and one on the way, and when Jaden and the kids get together, the sky's the limit on what their imaginations will dream up. They have been planning this whole W.W.I/W.W.II soldier thing and have really been burning up the phone lines trying to coordinate everything. PTL for unlimited long-distance!

One day last week, Jaden got off the phone and announced that he was in charge of coming up with the "weapons" for everyone to use. He was going to try to whittle and carve the "rifles" out of tree branches. Quite an undertaking for one person of any age, so I told him I would love to build some toy rifles for everyone. Hey, any excuse to pull out the power tools works for me! I got him to tell me what they wanted the guns to look like and did my best to draw something on poster board that would resemble a military rifle.

This afternoon, I traced the design on the lumber, pulled out the scroll saw, and started trying to follow the line. After a little bit of effort (and changing to the right kind of blade) I was able to get 2 of the "guns" roughed out before dark. Only 4 more to go! I'm having a blast doing this and I can't wait to see their faces when they get their surprises. Yes, Jaden is the only one who knows...they still think he's whittling and carving branches! I love it! Here's a picture of the rough work.


I'll keep them coming as everything progresses. In the meantime, I want to challenge you to find something you can do for someone and surprise them. They'll enjoy it and you will too.

How Welding Can Cause Horrible Dog Breath

Yesterday, I was talking to a friend of mine when, out of the blue, I got in trouble. I'm not even sure how it came about because it happened suddenly. Now, I'm not going to try to remember the conversation word-for-word, but the gist of it was something like, "You said on your blog that you were back. I've been checking for new posts...WHERE ARE YOU?" The truth of the matter is, I'm here but I've just been lazy when it comes to posting. How is that for honesty?

I can't say that I have a boring life. Actually, it's quite the opposite. Living on almost 150 acres means that something is pretty much always going on. For instance, I just finished building an awning for my parents. Not having welded for almost 20 years, I was a little nervous about tackling something like that. The last time I welded, I used a traditional stick welder. Those are the ones that use welding rods in order to create the weld. This time, I had a new wire welder that uses a roll of thin wire that is fed through the handle and eliminates the need for rods. I've never used one before and I hoped against hope that I would be able to catch on quickly so I could do a job that would look good and hold together. Not only was this going on their house, I also knew my Dad was going to have to climb on top of it in order to put the roof on it. I had made gates for our cattle lot in the past, and they had held up to some pretty severe torture. One time, a bull decided he didn't want to stay penned and chose to go up and over one of my gates. The metal bent, but the welds held firm. Of course, the consequences of a bull breaking a gate is not the same as your own Dad falling 8 feet. How awful it would be if he got up there and the welds weren't right! Thankfully, I was able to pick it back up quickly, the welds held firm, and my parents now have an awning over their back door. So, where does the horrible dog breath fit into all of this?

Well, we were finished with the frame of the awning and we decided we needed to get it up before it rained, so we hooked up the flood lights and kept working after dark. My parents have a huge boxer named "Big Mack" and he was really enjoying the fact that he had company. He was running all around us, stopping occasionally to have his head scratched.


My Dad had to go find a tool, so we stopped to take a break. I sat down and rubbed Big Mack's enormous melon head for a couple of minutes, then he got up and took off to the darker part of the yard. I was talking to my Mom when Big Mack came trotting back up. I noticed he was wheezing terribly and he was drooling like someone had filled his jowls with whipped cream. Then, he started shaking his head and acting weird and I got really concerned. I was reaching out to try to calm him down, but just before I touched him...it hit me. It wasn't a revelation or a sudden flash of inspiration. It was a FUNK! Skunk funk!

I pushed him away before he could contaminate me. It's funny how fast our feelings of sympathy can turn to feelings of self-preservation, but I've never experienced that kind of stink before. Mind you, I smell skunks all the time because we live out in the country and they are everywhere. I've even killed them before and have had to carry them away, but I have never smelled their "perfume" as strong as I did on Big Mack. It burned my nose and throat! I couldn't even imagine what Mack was going through, but I knew I didn't want that nasty smell on me! I grabbed a light and the shotgun and caught up with my Dad who was already looking for the skunk. He saw it but it ran off before I could get there with the gun. Dad managed to get it the next night, and it was huge! Poor Mack! Our thinking was that Mack went to bite the skunk and took a shot of musk right in the mouth, because that was the only part of him that stunk.

That's how welding and really bad dog breath fit together. The awning is still standing and so is Big Mack. The skunk is gone and the bad breath has too. All-in-all, life is good and I'm looking forward to my next welding project, but if we work at night, Big Mack is going inside!