Yo Shorty, It's Your Birthday!

Today, the 22nd day of April, is our birthday-Joshua and I share the same special day exactly five years apart. It has always been more of a holiday around our house, so we both took a few days off for a long weekend to spend together around the Farm. This weekend, we decided that we needed to get a landscaping rock for our flowerbed. Joshua spied the perfect moss-covered rock just off the highway about half a mile from our house. We loaded Joshua’s green pick-up truck with the “giant nail” (a/k/a spud bar) and wheel barrow and set out for our perfect rock located on our property and visible from the highway. A few minutes later, we sat on the side of Highway 48, eye-balling our rock…so close yet so far away. Joshua decided he would drive up another half mile and drive back down the fence line to the rock so he could load the rock directly into the truck without having to push it in the wheel barrow very far. Let me preface: I was opposed to this idea from the beginning. Yet, my husband proceeded to drive our pick-up in spite of said opposition down the fence line and directly into a mud puddle. By the time we put it in drive and then quickly in reverse about a hundred times, we were royally buried nearly to the axle almost a mile from our house. Confrontation ensued, and a few minutes later, I was stomping up the side of Highway 48, weeding through high grass and garbage including beer cans, pill bottles, and yes, discarded underwear, towards our house with my sheepish husband following about thirty paces behind. He insisted that we would look back on this situation and laugh. I look forward to that.

I decided to call our Bristow savior, Marylane, to help us find a way out of this conundrum. For those of you who know our beloved ML, she is a savvy lady, a master problem solver who would either help us or know somebody who could. Within ten minutes of my call, Marylane arrived with another friend, Mike, in tow. Marylane and Mike happened to know one of our neighbors, a former classmate of Marylane, who drove his tractor down to our pick-up and drug us right out of the mud pit. We are so grateful for our precious Marylane….and for our neighbor, Herschel, and his giant green tractor!

As soon as the rescue party cleared out, I looked at Joshua, and we both knew immediately that we were thinking the very same thing: We were going back for that rock if it was the last thing we did. We drove up the highway and used the wheel barrow to retrieve our landscaping rock. We placed in front of our front porch near our new Japanese Maple tree and headed directly for the carwash. The rock looks fairly good in our flowerbed now, but I am fairly confident that every time I look at it, I am going to think that it was not nearly worth all the trouble.

On Sunday, we finished out the flower beds, adding flowers and mulch. Mom and Dad came over with a birthday cake, and Joshua smoked a mean ham. The boys finished planting some seeds in our garden, and the girls did a little antiquing and bought some flowers to put in pretty pots Mom brought for our birthday. Mom also bought a beautiful fleur-di-lis clock for our patio! I am doing my best to litter our farm house with our trademark Kappa symbol!

On Monday, Joshua selected his birthday present: A Marlin 30-30 Lever Action Rifle. Throughout our entire married life, Joshua and I have hardly ever been able to wait until our actual birth date to exchange gifts. When we have something good, we simply get too excited. Joshua alleges that I peak at gifts and thus, he is better able to surprise me if he gives early when I do not expect it. Also, it spares him having to hide the gift. Although I wholeheartedly dispute this account, I am willing to acquiesce to accepting gifts early. Joshua bought me a beautiful Coach purse (Major Brownie Points)…and then I purchased my own nerd gift: All nine seasons of the X-Files including the movie in the Collector’s Edition Set of my very favorite television show of all time! We hope to make it though the entire series in time for the new movie this summer! I will keep you posted on our progress….

Today, we enjoyed an adventure at the Tulsa Zoo. I think that I can safely say that we were the oldest individuals in the entire park that had yet to reproduce. The place was literally swarming with school children with sack lunches. We had a blast seeing all the animals, including children, feeding the birds at Feather Fest, and sending the pictures to Joshua’s sister, Hannah, who absolutely abhors birds. After our wildlife safari, we went to Sapulpa on a tractor hunt, trying to find something to begin our farm adventure. We found several great options, and I have added the links to some of the brands we like on this website under the Country Living 101 section.

When we pulled in the driveway, Joshua decided it was time to shoot his birthday present, you know, instill a healthy fear in our neighbors. He walked out the pasture, looking for a safe place to shoot, and spotted a “giant” snake. I was standing in the front yard when I saw him running towards the house from the pasture. He rushed in the house and came charging back out, shotgun in tow. Thinking he might be overreacting, I followed him out the pasture, and I saw what looked like a giant black rat snake. It was about four feet long and about as thick around as a can of Red Bull. Joshua exterminated the threat with four rounds of bird shot. A tad excessive? Probably. I contemplated posting the pictures of the victim on this website, but frankly, it just seemed too graphic. Instead, enjoy some birthday weekend pictures, including a few pictures of the Snake Sniper with his birthday present!

I love that smile...Imagining Hannah screaming in the bird sanctuary

King of the Jungle...looking quite bored

Hannah Allison, is that a bird? A nasty, vile bird?!?

Another bird for Hannah!

Seeing how close I can get the bird to my face so as to royally gross Hannah out with the picture!

Is this what it means to "get a little mud on the tires?"

Working at the car wash! Car Wash, Yeah!

Happy Birthday, Joshua....We noticed after the fact that he has on his Darth Vader "Revenge" T-Shirt and his camo shorts...holding a lever action rifle. I promise, we're not crazy.

Given his crazy outfit, he decided to channel Lee Harvey Oswald

Dad having a staring contest with Job...right before Job lunged towards him and tried to lick him on the mouth.

Just like farmers...outstanding in their field!

Finished-out flowerbed...Notice the infamous landscaping rock.

Added a few juniper trees....

The Rock

Saturday is Farm Day!

Mom and Dad came over today to enjoy another Saturday at the Farm. Today’s mission involved tacking our front flowerbeds as the recent rains (and hail) have rendered the garden too muddy for planting. We started the day at the Coachlight Restaurant for a wonderful breakfast with our friends, Marylane, Judge Joe Sam Vassar and his lovely wife, Marsha. From there, we went to look at some used tractors since our Farm becomes Green Acres after only a few days in the Bristow sun. We spotted a few possibilities, but the salesman was a bit evasive this afternoon (i.e. not answering his mobile telephone).

Unable to find the salesmen, we went on the Wal-Mart to select our plants. For the side bed beneath the kitchen window, we selected salmon-colored azaleas, a dwarf burning bush, and several hostas. In the flower bed directly in front of the porch, we intend to plant our Japanese Maple Tree alongside some large landscaping rock(s) with various hostas and nadinas. Beneath our bedroom window, we planted some beautiful hydrangeas as well as another burning bush directly next to the window. We also trimmed up an existing crepe myrtle nearby that bed. Hopefully, these plants will fare better than our initial garden planting. As we began planting the large bed beneath the kitchen window, we discovered perhaps why Grandad never developed that flower bed: It is approximately four inches of rich soil sitting nicely atop a huge collection of giant sandstone. We literally hammered holes through it with the spud bar, a tool Mom affectionately called “The Giant Nail.” After hammering our holes, Dad’s solution was to pack the hole with peat moss, my solution, to very liberally apply Osmocote. Clearly, we did both. Apparently, we finished our planting just in time for a forecasted freeze tonight. Keep your fingers crossed!

In addition to these beautiful plants, Mom and Dad bought Joshua and me a new garage door opener for our birthday. We had a garage door opener in place at the time of the purchase, but the seller’s shady son, in his campaign to pillage the Farm house, managed only to maim, not remove altogether, the existing garage door opener. Thus, his fine handiwork left it inoperable. Since we moved in, we have intended to replace it, but instead, we have manually opened the door each day, a very tedious task when you are doing it in high heels in the rain. Dad and Joshua removed the inoperable opener, pondered what it would cost to Fed-Ex this item to its would-be thief, and installed our fancy, and very quiet, new machine.

We finished a quiet evening at the Farm house with family dinner, cooking pork tenderloin and enjoying some fresh strawberries. Mom and Dad headed back to Broken Arrow a few minutes ago, and the clouds outside have lifted, leaving the night still and cold, the kind of dark you only experience when you are far enough away not to see the distant glow of the city. The memories we have and will share at the Farm truly remain as precious as the beauty of His creation in our flowers, our night, and even the wild weather With more Farm days ahead, summer will surely be here soon!

Plowing up the big flower bed...

Joshua removes some roots from the large flowerbed

Unloaded plants ready for planting!

After tilling, Mom removes grass and roots from the flowerbed while the boys just watch her and I take pictures....

Swinging that fertilizer bag!

Look at these precious guys showing off the birthday present!

Mom removing a giant root...so very satisfying!

Look at that fertile Farm soil!

Literally ramming the rocks to get our plants in the ground...Notice "The Giant Nail" A/K/A the spud bar.

All planted and ready for mulch...It already looks better!

Mom found our slingshot in the garage and used it to shoot paintballs at a tree! She's very intense....and maybe just a little bit scary.

Action shot!

Mulching!

More Mulching!

All mulched...how does that wiener dog manage to get in every picture?!?

Nadinas-Joshua said they looked diseased. We are fairly certain they are supposed to look that way.

Joshua insisted that we have hydrangeas like the ones at our old house...

Our day ended with a beautiful rainbow....

What the Hail!?!

Last weekend, we planted a garden with several of the baby seedlings I so delicately raised in my make-shift greenhouse. Last week, we had record hail at the Farm, and sadly, we suffered some significant casualties. What is really disgusting about this whole Farm tragedy is that while my seedlings that I nurtured and loved for weeks are destroyed, Dad’s dollar tomato plants from Wal-Mart lived to see another day. Now, Joshua doesn’t seem too surprised. I think the exact quote was, “Did you expect them to be tough? You sing to them!” Here is the death toll:

Death by Pummeling: Peppers, Squash, Zucchini, and Garden Beans

Severely Maimed: Corn

Survived the Stoning: Dad’s mutant Wal-Mart tomatoes, Onions

Hard Work, Heavy Hearts

This past Saturday, my family, including Emily's sweetheart, Dustin Curzon, gathered together for some healthy distraction at the Farm. We just spent some time being silly together. For those of you following our story, this past week has been an emotional struggle as we learned of Jordan's diagnosis. We celebrated Dad's birthday by tilling our garden with Dad's brand new rototiller and planting some seeds in our garden. Despite our heavy hearts, we certainly enjoyed some Farm Fellowship, Agri-Therapy, if you will....

Mom...in a hat. I have rarely seen this in my life, and I felt we should preserve it for posterity.

Dad's birthday present...Notice Dad is wearing an OU visor, a TU sweatshirt, and underneath that, he has on a KU T-Shirt. I guess he wanted to make certain that he didn't offend any party present.

Dustin tilling the garden. Dad also had him help shovel manure. What a way to spend your weekend home from college! He was such a good sport!

Emily earning her keep

Mom channeling her inner Farm girl

Emily climbing a tree. Don't pretend like I didn't have to hoist her up there just for this picture.

Joshua mowing between the fruit trees in his cowboy hat....

Emily cruising the Farm on the lawn mower....

Call to Prayer

On Tuesday, April 1, 2008, my cousin, Jordan Kent Reynolds, was diagnosed with multiple brain tumors. After visits with an oncologist and neurosurgeon, he is slated for a biopsy on Thursday, April 10, 2008. My cousin, “Jordy”, is a witty 19 year-old, a constant joy and comedian in our family, a believer in Christ. If you are reading this, please pray for healing for our Jordan and for our family as we begin this journey together.

I am posting some Easter pictures of the people I love. We are so blessed to have each other.

The Lester Family (sans Joshua who had to take the picture) including Gus the Dachshund...

The Allisons...We look like we are up to something.

Sisters!

Mom & Dad

Emily is trying to show us on to poise on the red carpet....sufficiently awkward.

Having fun on Easter....

Two of my very favorite guys, looking very laid back.....I love this picture!

My cousin, Morganne, my sister, Emily, and our Meme...Notice Emily's awkward hand placement.

My cousin, Jordan, and my uncle, Preston

Emily and our Papa!

Emily and Morganne, sans braces, showing off their pearly whites!

Preston, Meme, Jordan's sweetheart, Nikki, and Jordan....It's IBC root beer...seriously.

This is my favorite Easter picture! Mom and my aunt, Sissy....You'd never know they're related, huh?

My cousins-Morganne and Jordan Reynolds! Morganne changed out of her Easter outfit before picture time!

Pensive, mysterious, yet so undeniably attractive.....Jordan and Emily channeling Calvin Klein.

This is another Easter favorite of mine.....Look at those noses! You'd never know they're related, right?

The Kent Cousins-Emily, Morganne, Jordan, and Lauren