Friday Farm Scenes

And when I say "Farm Scenes" I of course mean, "pictures I took nowhere near the pasture where actual farm type things would be." I've cleaned enough cow pies off dogs and children that I like to stay near the house...where it's safe.

Okay, so I do have a story about this little rocking chair. The chair is about 80-years old. The German Jew Presbyterian side of the family used to let Gypsies camp on their land as they (The Gypsies) were passing through San Augustine, Texas. This chair is one of the things they made as "rent" for camping on the land. And yes, I said, Gypsies. You know I couldn't make this stuff up!

Not So Dorky, But Pretty Embarrassing

So I was at The Children's Place with JR trying to do some school shopping. I promised him we could have all his shopping done in 10 minutes. But of course JR was trailing behind me saying, "It's past 10 minutes. It's been like 100 minutes. I think it's been like a million minutes, so we are done!"
I was showing him shirts which he would either ignore (I take that as a 'yes') or tell me were "hideous". I was throwing the 'yes' shirts over my arms or shoulders and trying to get out of there as fast as possible (for both of us). After we checked out we headed down the big, fancy- shmancy mall (Oh how I love going to a real mall. Have I mentioned in the last 5 minutes that the closest real mall to Durango is 4 hours away?) and headed into a few more stores. We covered quite a distance and even had to use the escalator. As we were walking back to the playground to meet up with the rest of the family, I looked down and noticed that I still had a Children's Place shirt draped over my shoulder. I stoped and said, "Oh no! JR, look! I've been walking around with this shirt over my shoulder! I walked out of the store with it."
JR: Oh no! You stole it! The police are going to arrest you!
Sadly, I wasn't as concerned about my new life of crime as I was embarrassed that I'd been walking around the mall with a T-shirt slung over my shoulder.
I went back to The Children's Place and announced "I'm here to pay for the T-shirt I stole from you." The girl behind the counter laughed and told me it happens all the time. Although it's usually because moms hang clothes from their strollers and then forget about them!

Wow, This is Dorky

Before I start I just want everybody to know that, yes, I'm very aware of the nerdyness of this post.
My obsession all started because JR really loves puzzles. He's good at them, but it's hard to find ones that are challenging enough without being crazy hard. I bought him a 750 piece puzzle for his birthday thinking it might fit the bill. He had fun working on it, but there was no way he was going to finish it anytime in the next 5 years. So while JR was visiting the other grandparents in Houston, I decided that I'd do most of the puzzle for him, then he could just swoop in and finish it up.
Yeah, um, I got a little too into this puzzle.
I literally had dreams about it. The night my mom and I finished it not only were we crawling around on our hands and knees looking for missing pieces, but I had her lift the dinning room table up so I could look under the base. (She's surprisingly strong for a woman her age. Which since I was 25 this year, makes her 40. Sorry, Mom, if I made you too old.) Oh, and did I mention that we were doing all this at 1:30 in the morning. Yeah, I'm admitting the craziness. Obviously there was no JR swooping in at the end, cause I was finishing this baby. We never found 7 of the pieces (not that I was counting or anything) but with two little ones that also love to "help", I think we did pretty good!

So it is with my greatest pleasure I present to you: One Hundred Dogs and a Cat

Thanks for looking cause if I hadn't posted this, I might have had to glue it together and hang it on my wall.

More Fun with Freddie

Freddie is now officially JR's favorite person in the world. Freddie might give Kyle and Reed 4-wheeler rides, but he's the rider when it comes to JR. (Thank goodness for Freddie cause I don't know anybody in the family brave enough to ride with JR as the driver!)

Pat Green!

Let me start by saying if you don't know who Pat Green is, then you don't live in Texas. (For the last 2 years there's been a Pat Green song played on the radio in Texas every 7 minutes. Seriously.) So I was in disbelief when I saw Pat was coming to Crockett. Now for those of you non-Texans let me put this in perspective. The last time I saw Pat Green was at the Houston Rodeo in Reliant Stadium (where the Houston Texans play) which holds 71,500. (Of course it wasn't sold out.) Now I'm not sure how many people the Crockett Civic Center holds, but the last time I was there was when I went to see my opera singer friend, JD, singing in the Crockett First Baptist Church Christmas play when he was in high school. And if you're still thinking Crockett is a thriving Texas metropolis, it's a 2 stoplight town, and has a population around 65,000 less than Reliant Stadium holds.

Jason, also in shock that Pat Green would come to Crockett, was slightly jealous I was getting to go. I told him I had thought about that, but had decided he would have gone without me if the situation had been reversed! So with Jason's mom, Sherry, as my date we headed out to Crockett for a big night out on the town. (Cause as small as Crockett is, my parents' house is still a 30 minute drive away.)

As usual, Pat put on a great show. But the coolest thing was actually getting to see him. He pretty much just looks like a speck at the Reliant Center, but at the Crockett Civic Center he looks like this.

Aren't Cousins Fun?

I got to have lunch with some of mine the other day. Woohoo for 4 of us having June birthdays so we had an excuse to celebrate!

Some Whopper Tales

As you well know, I'm not really interested in anything considered outdoorsy. But Jason says these fish that JR caught are good ones, so for those of you who like the hunty/fishy thing, here ya go. (And although JR might go fishing, he is so me. Notice how he's not actually touching any of the fish in the pictures!)

This is my dad's farm hand, Freddie. When you work for my dad, "farm hand" job requirements include: accompanying us on our Bell Bell Factory tour, giving Kyle and Reed tractor rides, taking JR fishing, and as seen here...touching the fish JR catches. Needless to say, Freddie is a big hit around here.

Kyle and Reed were super excited to "pet" the fish.

Really Toothless Tuesday

There was wailing and gnashing of (missing) teeth the other night when JR lost yet another tooth. Why the dramatics for a seemingly happy occasion? Well, according to JR, he swallowed it. My mom claimed it shot out of his mouth. Either way, we never found the tooth. I did, however, find JR face down on the couch in full shoulder jerking sobs. He was crying that one time Harry had told him he swallowed a tooth and The Tooth Fairy didn't come. (JR completely missed that those were two different stories. The Tooth Fairy never came to see Harry, and on a side note, one time he swallowed one of his loose teeth.) We tried everything to cheer him up. Here were some of our comments:

My mom: We'll write her a note. It's fine. We'll write her a note.
Me: JR, It's okay. Don't worry about what Harry told you. She never came to see him. The Tooth Fairy is an American. She only takes teeth from American kids. How could she work in China too? She'd never get to sleep!
*JR continues his hysterics*
My dad: The Tooth Fairy is just like Jesus. She knows everything!
My mom (busy writing and cutting out): Here take this*. Put this under your pillow.

*And here is a picture of 'this'. (Picture taken the next day, hence the lack of tears.)

And being that The Tooth Fairy is an American-who-only-works-in-America-and-knows-everything-just-like-Jesus, she did come. Only too bad for her since JR stuck his tooth under his pillow where she couldn't actually find it. Needless to say, The Tooth Fairy only picks up real teeth...but isn't that nice of her to still dole out cash for fake ones!

Another Apology

I have a little apology to make.

Living below sea level most of my life, I had "altitude running" built up as the end-all-be-all of athleticism. So when I went out for my first run in Texas I was fully expecting to glide around with the ease of an Olympic marathoner. I took a bottle of water with me...just in case.
*Wink*Wink* (Cause, come on, I had been running in the Rocky Mountains. I was an athletic specimen to be beheld.)

My water ran out at mile 3 and I puffed back home with my tail between my legs.

So to you, Heat, and especially you, Humidity, I'm sorry. I salute you.

With my CamelBak full of water, I set out to run the "Too Hot to Handle" with my sorority sisters, Kelly and Marcia. We love a good costume, but even we knew the need to be practical in this kind of situation. Luckily our matching, "Yep, I'm hot!" tanks got lots of giggles.


What you might not believe is that we weren't the only crazies that showed up to run. They capped the race at 3,000 people! Here are our fancy shoe tags to record our times since it takes awhile to even get to the starting line with that many people.


And although it was hot, we had so much fun. We ran together, finished together, and of course...sweated together!

This is What You Look Like

After a 15K race in 98 degrees!

Yep, We're Hot!

Kelly, Marcia, and I will be lining up soon to run the Dallas 'Too Hot to Handle' 15K. I'm not worried about the distance, but this current Coloradan is petrified of having a heat stroke!

Time and Temperature

Dallas, Texas 5:30 PM.

What in the World are The Ingys Doing? #3

We brought the kids to ride 'The Little Engine That Could'. Mine are enjoying the after-train bouncy-castle-slide waaay more than the train.

My Own Dr. Seuss Character

Seriously, Send the Carrier Pigeon

Well, it's another "I don't really feel like working too hard" night for the dial-up Internet, so since I can't post any pictures, I thought I'd give you a little Jan technology update. My phone has now decided to quit ringing. I didn't realize how useful a ringing phone was, but then that didn't seem to matter so much anymore when I discovered the other teeny-tiny, small problem...the speaker phone went out. (As you might recall I have only been able to talk on speakerphone the last month or so.) It still texts, emails, updates my blog, and does minimal web surfing, but I can't actually talk on it.
So to recap: I can basically use my phone for everything but a phone.

Kickin' It Front Porch Style

Is there anything more relaxing than sitting on the front porch swing?

Apparently, there is.

And if you get tired of the front porch, there's always the barn porch.

Hunter has a Poo-Poo Face

As the mom of 3 boys I really do try to keep the "bathroom humor" to a minimum. And when I say 'minimum' I of course mean somebody is making some sort of inappropriate noise or comment in every sentence. But when Reed told me, "Hunter has a poo-poo face." I had to admit, he was right.

As you can see, Bichons and cow pies shouldn't mix.

We Eat All We Can and We Sell the Rest

There are certain things almost every Texan believes, like anything below 50 degrees is cold. But there's one thing every Texan agrees on: Blue Bell Ice Cream.
It's positively the best ice cream in the world.
Period.
Finished.
The End.
Nobody here even argues that fact, it's just, well...a fact.
(Durangoans, you can get Blue Bell at Serious Texas BBQ.)

I hate to admit that I had never actually been on the Blue Bell factory tour in Brenham. But that all changed today. The tour is really cute and fun, but you aren't allowed to take pictures (or even have your cell phone on) so here's what I have to work with.

Waiting for our tour to start. So glad to see most of my children enjoy a good head accessory.


Hanging out with the Blue Bell logo statue. And yes, the boys tried to milk the cow.


Now pretend there's lots of fun tour pictures.
And we're smiling.
And we're laughing.
And we're oohing and ahhing over ice cream.

The tour ends with everybody getting ice cream! You can pick from about 30 flavors. JR chose chocolate chip cookie dough.

Yum!

Where in the World are The Ingys? #8

We're taking THE tour.

I'm Too Sexy For This Blog

Now that I'm in my 20's *cough, cough* I've found I need to do a little 'maintenance' every now again. So when I was in Houston I stopped by my old nail shop to get my eyebrows waxed. I admit I was a little nervous when the oldest lady working jumped up to help me. Living in Asia taught me quite a few lessons, one being: The older ladies are good at taking money and yelling at the younger girls, not so good at administering actual beauty treatments.
Against my better judgment I went ahead and let her do it. I relaxed when she didn't hurt me, and thought I was in the clear. As the waxing ended I thought, 'Oh, she DID know what she was doing. Whew.'
And then she swiped the 'after-wax refreshing lotion' across my lids.
*Dramatic pause*
I literally jumped off the table since I was quite certain I was, in fact, on fire!
I'm pretty sure I didn't have any brows in the middle of my eyelids (and if I did, that's something you, as friends, should have told me) but now I have no skin there either! Huge red scabs (where my skin once was) are now front and center above my eyeballs for everyone to see.
Needless to say, I look awe-some.

Our Floats were Fantastic!

Our 4th of July (that was really on the 3rd) parade "floats" might not have won a ribbon, but I think Jason and I did some fabulous decorating. And yes, you read that right: Jason. fabulous. decorating.

Being that we have children who don't do well waiting with riding toys, and I have a mom who doesn't like to get her hair wet (and we thought it was going to rain at any second), we showed up to the parade about 10 minutes before it started. I was so busy decorating Kyle's tractor and JR's bike that I completely missed Jason decorating Reed's BigWheel...cause if I'd have seen that you better believe there would be pictures!

Wave your glitter flag and show us your jazz hands for Jason on this one!

Kyle was a seriously busy guy. Poor thing was trying to wave, drive his tractor, and check out the firetruck behind him.

Even though JR told me "I wish I had my uniform" when he saw the Boy Scouts, he still had a blast riding his new bike.

Happy Birthday USA!

Where in the World are The Ingys? #7

Wearing my new cute shoes I bought today! I met Jason downtown (Houston) and we had dinner at Damian's. Now I'm certainly not saying The Mob is in Houston, but I did keep looking for Tony and Meadow to walk through the door. Needless to say, it was some good Italian food!

Fire Butt Chickens

I finally got a picture to upload and what did I choose?
My precious children in the 4th of July parade?
The really big bass JR caught?
Puh-leaze...I've got priorities, People!
My main concern since JR's Firework Extravaganza has been Fire Butt Chickens.

As Jason was buying the goods for JR's show he asked if there was anything I wanted. Immediately I hollered out, "Ohhh! Get some of the Fire Butt Chickens!" Jason had never heard of (or seen) The Chickens and I quickly told him how great they were.
"Oh! They're awesome! My daddy used to buy them for me every year. They're chickens and they lay fire eggs! Eggs of fire shoot from their butts!"
And being that I said the words "butt" and "fire" in one sentence, JR was immediately sold on how amazingly awesome Fire Butt Chickens were going to be.

Needless to say, The Chickens were not what I remembered.

Of course, no eggs of fire appeared. Nonetheless, JR was still thrilled when fire did somewhat burn from their backsides. But for me, half expecting them to walk around and drop colored fire balls like Easter eggs, it was quite a let down. They spark, and then give off a really loud screechy-firecrackery-squeal that I guess could be perceived as what a chicken with a firecracker butt might sound like.

Oh well, I guess next year we'll stick with the Roman candles.

Will The Real Pioneer Woman Please Stand Up?

I'm here!
It's me.
Woo-hoo, over here!

Oh yes, I, am the real pioneer woman.

Y'all aren't going to believe the hardships I'm enduring:
First, my parents have dial-up Internet. I know. I might as well be watching Friends and preparing my Y2K survival kit.
Dial -up itself isn't that bad, but it's not letting me upload pictures to my blog (or email them since it won't let me attach a picture). And if I can't blog with pictures, well, you might as well tell me I'm not allowed to watch Dancing With the Stars.

I also, may or may not, (depending on how the computer is feeling) be able to comment on other blogs. So if you're a blogger and you haven't heard from me lately, I'm readin' ya, lovin' ya, thinkin' your kids are cute, and thrilled about your European escapades...but probably not able to tell you.

I also made a (very poor) last minute decision to leave my laptop at home, so even if I was to stumble upon some WiFi, I can't do anything with it. Torrrr-ture.

But the hardships continue:
My phone has been on the brink for a few weeks now. For about a month I've only been able to talk on speaker phone. And as of tonight, it won't let me dial my voice mail OR tell me who called. It tells me I have a "missed call", but then I get to guess who might have called me.
The little voice mail icon is blinking at me, letting me know people are leaving me messages, but I have no idea what those messages might be.

Yep, I'm roughing it. But don't worry, I'm tough. I will endure.

But seriously, if you need to get a hold of me, you might want to try the Pony Express.
Or smoke signals.
I think carrier pigeons work well out here too.

And 4th Activities End With...

The annual JR Fireworks Show. This year he was joined by two 'helpful' assistants (not pictured).

Typical 4th Activities Continue

Relaxing at the pool.

What in the World are The Ingys Eating #2?

Fourth of July hamburgers! With the parade yesterday, it feels like we've been celebrating for two days. I've got some great pictures to share, but for now it's 'blog by phone' since my parents' dial up Internet seems to be taking the holiday weekend too.

Where in the World are The Ingys? July Edition

Lining up for the Crockett, TX 4th of July parade.

My View from the Porch

Rocking chairs, a kid, and a dog. If I could convince one of the roosters to wander by we'd have ourselves the cover of Southern Living.

A New Old Sayin'

We're used to staying inside during the Texas summers because it's too hot to go outside, but what we're not used to is staying inside because it's raining. Here's Reed on the front porch watching it rain. And although this last round of rain is due to the hurricane that just hit Mexico, East Texas has had a really wet summer. (I don't think it's even hit 100 yet!) Usually summer at my parents' house is consumed with talking about how dry it is. Although any form of rain talk is acceptable, the highlights are usually: the last time it rained, when it might rain again, and my personal favorite, how big a rain the town down the road got while my parents 'didn't get a drop'. So I can honestly say the conversation Jason and I had last night was a first:

Jason: So what are your parents doing?

Me: Not a lot. You wouldn't believe how green it is up here. (As apposed to my parents usual description of their land as 'totally burned up'.)

Jason: So what are they talking about?

Me: (Giggling) Nothing! It's so quiet. They don't have anything to talk about!

Which got me thinking about all Mama and Daddy's "Old Sayin's". Being good East Texans they've got one for everything, but seems Old Sayin's don't actually exist when you've gotten enough rain. So I came up with one of my own. Feel free to work it into your next conversation, I need to get it into heavy rotation if it's ever going to reach Old Sayin' status.

"A wet summer brings dry conversation."