Be Careful What You Say

When I was a kid my dad always at us about wasting food.

If we went out to eat pizza he would give us a bad time about leaving the crusts. His favorite saying was you know son there is a little kid in Vietnam that would give his eye teeth for that piece of crust. So we would go ahead and eat it to shut him up.

One time we had went out to a Chinese restaurant and there was a older Chinese couple there eating and when they got up to leave dad made sure to point out that their plates were cleaned up.

So to keep this story short one time I took my parents out to dinner for pizza and I had noticed that my dad was not eating his crusts. I still to this day eat my crusts because of him and the way he raised me. So it became time to leave and I told them that there was one thing that had to be taken care of first.

I looked my dad square in the eye and told him that there was little kids in (insert country here) that would give their eye teeth for his crusts right now. And I kept a straight face the whole time. He promptly started eating away at his crusts and that was when I lost it and started laughing.

I believe my mother enjoyed it more than I did.

It is what it is

Rod

State Champs

My niece plays basketball in high school and her team won the 5A state championship last night.


This is her in action with the ball.

In 4 years of playing high school ball her team has made it to the state play offs all 4 years and won it twice. But this year was the best as they went undefeated 29-0. Their overall record for 4 years was 95-14 with 6 of those loses her first year.

So congratulations to them

It is what it is

Rod

Things

Sorry about not posting but a little under the weather and dealing with the state has kept me very busy lately.

A little update on the happenings around here.

First about me, I have migraine headaches and they come in cycles and it seems to be that time they tend to be worse some days than others but it does make it hard to concentrate.

Second, Dealing with government agencies is driving me crazy...go here try this and then if that don't work come back and see us and we will then try this..send in this paper work and then wait 5 days and give them a call just to find out that they have not got to your paper work and you need to call back in another 5 days.

Been doing a little research on what we will do if we lose the house. Have found some real interesting options and we are considering them.

Well that will be it for today will see where my mind wanders today and might have a little story for you tomorrow.

It is what it is

Rod

Busy Day

Sorry to disappoint you but I have a very busy day to day so no post.

Get to go play with the state some more and then get to practice my mechanics skills on my sons truck!

It is what it is

Rod

Family

Today I'm going to share with you a couple of pictures that have a lot of meaning and bring back a lot of memories.

One thing you don't see in today's world is families being close together. For some people to do this, if they even had the chance, would take a lot of travel to get them all together.

So lets start

This is 5 generations of my family













Now lets start with the oldest and work our way down.
You have my Great grandma Bootsie and then her son my Grandfather Jack then my mother Linda, myself and my oldest son Nels.

Don't ask me for ages all I can remember is that Nels was about 10 months old then.
Now that is some thing you don't see much today but there is more.

Here is another 5 generations taken on the same day.













Once again we will start from oldest to youngest.
We start with my great grandmother Fay, and then my grandmother Vera, my mother, myself, and Nels.

Now about ages on this one I do know that my great grandmother in this photo is 100 years old when this was taken. Unfortunately we never did this with my youngest son as we could have.

Now back to the start of this. Everyone in these photos lived in the same town. In fact Nels and I were the only ones that had to travel as all the rest lived on the same small farm together.
This was how I was raised, with my family all living together, and helping each other out. We had a big garden that all of us helped take care of. Basically anything that came up we all pitched in one way or the other to get it fixed and or taken care of.

I plan on telling you stories in the future about these two grand ladies and about how they grew up compared with the modern day world we now live in.

It is what it is

Rod

P.S. I forgot to thank Serenity for also giving me the Triple award yesterday. I'm sorry for that because I do appreciate any and all recognition I get from my daily dribbles.

I'm Honored

Look at the surprise Hermit Jim gave me.
















What a honor for someone to think enough of my dribble to give me this!

Ok there are some rules involved so here they are.
1. Put the logo on your blog or post.
2. Nominate 10 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude.(If you don't have 10, its ok.)3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
4. Let them know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.

Ok now most of the blogs I follow already have been nominated but there is a few that have not so they will be the lucky recipients of this great award.

1 Blondie's Online Info Guide to Riches
3 Obscure Labyrinth

Now these are listed in no order of importance I enjoy and read each one.
Once again I would like to thank Jim for this. It means allot to me to have been selected by him for this award

It is what it is

Rod

The County Fair

Boy do I remember when I was a kid and how exciting it was to go to the fair. The animals, the rodeo, the carnival, great fun.

But now it has been at least 3 years since I have went and in the last 10 years have probably only went 3 times. Why you might ask? Well then I will let you know why.

For 14 years my wife was a 4H leader and we had a rabbit club for the kids that were too young to have big animals. It was fun and there are a lot of kids that went through our club that still consider us part of their extended family. We also had some interesting things happen during years as leaders.

The one that sticks out in my mind the most is when we got a call from a hysterical mother wondering what we were doing teaching her daughter that.

Ok what is that..Well part of 4H is teaching how to tell the difference between males and females and animal husbandry. Guess what the subject was that day. So after a very long conversation with one very upset mother my wife finally got her to understand that it was part of 4H.

Now back to the fair...Everyone has been to a county fair but did you ever think about what it took to get it together and keep it running and then take it back down? Ok probably not, but after 13 years of putting it together, and then being stuck there for 16+ hours everyday and then taking it all back down when someone says fair to me all I can think of is work.

Ok not all of my memories are bad so I will share some of the funnier ones with you.

My oldest son was showing his rabbit, and his mother had drilled into him how he had to watch the judge, don't take your eyes off the judge. So there were 4 other kids with him and they all set their rabbits down on the table, and the judge walked up and started to look at the rabbits slowly walking down the table. My son was doing exactly as he was told and did not take his eyes off the judge..even though his rabbit was tired of sitting there and had went over to the rabbit next to him and was trying his best to molest it. I don't know what was funnier watching his rabbit or watching my wife..she was in a state of shock. But hey my son was doing exactly what he was told to do.

After the rabbits, my boys grew up and went to having sheep. My oldest son loved it, and worked with his lamb every day. Now my youngest was not even close to caring, and spent as little time as he could with his. Well at the sale that year he I took his sheep to the sale ring and sent him in with it. It was not too pretty but he did get it around the ring once and it sold, so it was time for them to leave but his lamb decided that it had gone far enough! Well the crowd was getting a good chuckle out of it and I was amused by it myself but the sale had to go on.

I went into the show ring and grabbed the sheep under the jaw like you are supposed to and it followed me right out. But while this is all going on the auctioneer is giving a running commentary and it finished with; Oh Oh here comes Daddy.

So after 13 years of doing this, some of the kids we had started with were now in their early twenties and it was last year that we were 4H leaders and the boys were showing sheep again. One of the boys we had in our original group showed up and was looking at the sheep. Now we had known this kid for 13 years and he was in fact working under me at the mill at that time. He was a handful when he was young but had grow up into a real good young man.

Well my wife spotted him across the sheep pens and yelled out at him..and I quote. "Hey Shelton, what are you up to, looking for a new girl friend". Well I will close with that...

It is what it is

Rod