We are back and pooped-out y'all

After a day or two of Catch Up, my first post should be "What I learned driving for 24 hours across 6 states with two Crumbs age 8 "and 3 quarters" & 10..."
In the mean time I figured I'd leave you with a few of my very first posts. (I find it hard to believe I started this most wonderful adventure called Laying Out Your Dirty Underwear For Everyone to See over a year ago!!)
Although, I will voice these few warnings (read excuses) before you click:

1. I was a new, fledgling blogger.
2. I hadn't found my voice yet.
3. I hadn't had my hand slapped in the bloggy etiquette department yet.

Olliver ~ Our Brain Dead Pug (There really isn't much else to add to that title.)

Home + School = Homeschool? (This is the one published in Blog Nosh. My Canadian bloggy friend Tracy is an editor. I have no idea how she found it...or why she picked it. But, I was thuh-rilled none the less! Thank you Tracy!!)

Big Shooter isn't half the man he used to be... (Oh My Word! I guess this is the upside of a diseased gallbladder, kidney cancer, gastroparisis,... And this isn't even a recent picture of him...look in my side bar for that Hunk-O-Munk!)

"Give me baaaack my puke...!!!" (Yeah, it was a proud moment when I pushed the Publish button for that one.)

I missed you all VERY much! It is just plain weird and VERY cool how friendships are built in cyberspace. I thought of you all the time. In fact, my little bloggy book is full of post ideas and facts I want to share with you all. But, for now I need a few days for laundry, unpacking, grocery shopping, homeschool planning, mail sorting, bill paying, toilet cleaning, and smooching with Big Shooter.

Oh, and an Amish dinner in Chouteau, OK (quite a little drive away) I planned for our homeschool group a month ago...

• for tonight.
• the day after I finished driving 17oo miles.
• in crappy, sleety, drizzily, 30 degree weather.
• we need to leave in a little bit...I'm still in my pjs
• What the &*$# was I thinkin'?

Along with my Mother of the Year award I feel I also deserve the Planner of the Year award, don'tcha think?

Love Note to my Big Shooter: When this evening has finally come to a close, I will say The Saying...but, only if you've read this post and know I just said that. Heh.

Love Note to Y'all: Reminder if your fam is taking part in The Bundle of Thanks project: They need to be sent by this Sunday if you want them to reach your servicemen by Christmas. I am anxious to hear your fave parts of your family's letters!

Party is Over!!

Straight shooter and the Crumb Snatchers are on their across Colorado and Kansas. Crumbs keep getting the truckers to honk. My personal opinion is that horns are for emergency purposes only, so don't get me started.

So to all the blogging minions out in blog land, SS will be back online soon, and my days of freedom and nakedness are at a sad end. Let us observe a moment of silence at the passing.

How to alienate your hometown

Straight Shooter is stuck in Idaho so I am forced to be a guest blogger. Yes fans it is I, big shooter. In order to maintain peace in the household and to not have to shell out my life savings in alimony, I am communicating with y'all.

I have been ordered to be funny and pithy, but that is not going to happen. So I will do as I am told and post exactly what I was told to.


When you visit Idaho and are a sick and twisted individual, you look for something to irritate as many people in your home town as possible. So to that effect you come up with the perfect plan for world domination, and while you are waiting to take over everything that humans hold dear, you focus on how to destroy the hopes and dreams of every Idahoan, which is actually only a very few people in the scheme of worldwide population. And you involve the innocent offspring!

It is our God given right to make sure that they have income potential when they are older. And I feel that a tell all book exposing their parents as evil, maniacal lunatics is our best bet at helping them pay for our nursing home. I hope they don't stick us in a total hole.

2 years ago the University of Oklahoma (football powerhouse) played Boise State (total underdog) for the national championship. If you remember BSU won in the most exciting Bowl game ever in the history of mankind. OK maybe that was a stretch. But is was a great game.

Seeing as Straight Shooter and I are from Idaho and the crumb snatchers are born and conceived in Oklahoma, which as a side note I do not remember, we thought what better way to teach our children respect and moral values than to make sure they were never welcomed back to our childhood haven.

There is a big rock in front of our hometown high school. It is a tradition to paint that rock for special school events and other bizarre stuff. Idahoans really have no life, so we do stupid stuff for entertainment. Well the wife and kids thought up a diabolical plan to paint the rock -Oklahoma style. And "Boomer Sooners" was the way to go baby. Look at the pics and ooooh and awe. Leave lots of comments telling Straight Shooter that I am the best guest blogger ever.

Please just step away from the computer. Blogging is the devil. At least in my humble opinion.

Love note to Straight Shooter: Without you and the crumb snatcher here I am wasting away, but I am enjoying wondering the house in the buff. I am living FREE baby. LOVING IT!!!!!!

Great, I think we rubbed off...

When asked what they'd like to do today after Girly Time (manicures with Grammie) and more lessons taught by the Great Grannies, the Crumbs answered with a resounding "Walk the canyon edge to see where Evel Kneivel died!!".

Okie Dokie.

One humongo dirt ramp coming up...minus a dead guy. (He didn't die on his attempt to jump the canyon.)

This was the best picture I could manage at this time of day for your viewing pleasure.

Mr. Kneivil's ramp is the light brown hump on the canyon rim in the center of the picture. The teeny weeny white speck in front of it is a HUGE house.

I don't think as a child (or teenager) growing up here, I ever fully realized how big that pile of dirt really was.

This is a picture of the viewing platform that sticks out over the rim.

It is really just posted here to irritate the Crumbs.

If they have heard, "Grampa Lyle (FIL) built that," one time, then they've heard it a 100.

He is a well known and extremely talented metal fabricator here in the Magic Valley.

And we have enjoyed pointing out his handiwork again and again.

This is the view off the platform.

This is the Crumbs getting too close to the rim before I pointed out the platform.

Obviously I wasn't scared enough to put the camera down first.

I'm an awesome mother. (cough)

Here's the proof I deserve the Mother of the Year award.

Boy Child has heard us discuss the fact people are no longer allowed to carry off the lava rocks that are abundant here in the Magic Valley without penalty...

apparently, since his parents involved him in the windmill experience, we taught him some bad habits.

That is him being sneaky and covert with a large piece of illegal lava.

The end of a long day.

Just a gratuitous picture b/c being here makes me miss Big Shooter and my dating years. Have I ever told you our first date was skiing? On this mountain no less. Sigh.

Love Note to my Big Shooter: Oh the memories! Every where I look I think of you. Some make me smile. Some make me giggle. Some bring tears. Some make me blush. Miss you.

Felonist or Teacher?

Weather in Idaho is much like it is in Oklahoma - Fickle.
When it comes to plans, here's another word you'd better be familiar with - Flexible.
It was cold, windy, and not fish hatchery/fossil bed field trip conducive yesterday.
So we were flexible.
It was not difficult.
Because that just meant more time granted to us to with the Great Grannies.
One just needed some much needed lovin' on. And the other gave Girl Child an in depth sewing lesson. Move over Martha, I think there may be a new girl comin' to town.
We moved yesterday's plans to Thursday. In the meantime, I thought we'd share our spontaneous learning experience (unplanned homeschool activity a.k.a. trespassing violation that got counted as a school field trip) on our way across Wyoming last week.

We loved spotting these on the horizon. In state after state.

They were mesmerizing. Beautiful.

And GI-NOR-MOUS.

But, we were never close enough for good pix.

Until Evanston, Wyoming...

What do you do when you find an unmanned road leading right up to the base of these babies?

Why you take the time to park in just the right angle and place your most precious cargo on TOP of the truck...

so they can enjoy the experience too.

Then you sneak as close as you dare to the base so you can get an up close shot of the door. (It's barely visible on the right side.)

Then you run back to the truck. Proceed down the highway. All the while pretending you really didn't see the white warning sign on the fence...

Love Note to my Big Shooter: Since you've returned to Plainsville and left me and Crumbs to our own devises, I haven't had even one teensy weensy little thought or idea of criminal activity...I miss you.

Found it!

This is one time I love having to say The Saying. You remember the one when one of us is correct and the other is...less correct? "I was wrong. You were right. You are the Queen...or King." (Of course the Queen version is heard most often.)
Any way! I did NOT believe Big Shooter even a teeny weeny inkling when he kept telling me we'd find his ring. Now it's back on my finger and I gladly shouted The Saying!
Here's what I've been pondering though.

• I know I had it on when we left the house in the morning b/c I remember getting lotion all over it while we were driving to Big Shooter's Dad's house.


• It was not on my finger approx. 4 hours later when we were leaving his Dad's house.


• A relative I have not seen in years said she saw it on my finger during lunch and described it to a tee. (at the time it made me feel slightly better that at least we knew where I'd lost it)


• Yet, I found it in the pocket of a pair of pants I hadn't worn since before I'd lost it.


• And further, even if I had worn those pants, it didn't just fall off my finger when I reached in my pocketb/c I wear it on my right hand. It was found deep in the left pocket.

Some would call it a coincidence. Some a miracle. Some would just say it was a weird happening. I, personally, think it was divine intervention. Plain and simple.

"Thank you Lord. I am humbled You would help me when You have so many, many real pressing issues to be occupied with."

Thank you to all who sent up a prayer for me and this special hunk of gold. I cannot quit smiling. I learned lots (and LOTS) of lessons in this short amount of time. I can't say I am glad I lost it so I'd learn them. But, I am extremely grateful for the new knowledge!

I hope you all have a fabulous Tuesday. We're going to a fish hatchery and fossil bed. Should be a great homeschool field trip day in Idaho. Speaking of which, look where our field trip was yesterday. Oh My Word. It was without a doubt one of the most incredible experiences I've ever had. The Crumbs were mesmerized for 3 1/2 hours solid and you all know that is a tall order for a almost 9 and 10 year old. If you are near a city with this exhibit (right now that would be Salt Lake City & Houston), I have 4 words for you: Do NOT miss it.

Love Note to my Big Shooter: Sorry I cried so much when we found it. I couldn't help it. I am a big baby that way, ya know. I will try very hard to get the mascara stain out of your new shirt. At least you have tons of ammunition now for when I say I don't like all that gag-a-rama lovey-dovey stuff...cause obviously I am a little more than a tad emotional than I care to admit...

A Bundle of Thanks: Come tell us about your family's experience writing the letters to our bravest in 13 days!

Dearest Protector of my family and freedom,

I am writing to you with a heart full of gratitude and admiration for the job you do each and every day. I appreciate the sacrifice you endure in order to provide my family freedom and security. Because of what you do, because of what you risk, I and my children are able to enjoy freedoms only dreamed of by citizens of other countries.
As you go about your day please know you are not forgotten in a strange and foreign land, many think of you, many pray for you. I picture you in my mind preparing yourself for each new day’s duty: strapping on extra pounds of gear, wondering about your assignment, hoping you’ll be safe. Please know this is the prayer I pray each night with my young children over you and your brave brothers and sisters.

“Loving and caring Father, We know you are All Mighty, All Powerful. You have the ability to command the wind, the seas and the mood of nations – yet You so often show Your love for the most simple things, the individual, small cares of your faithful servants. We ask of that today. We humbly ask any prayer whispered by our heroes be answered in the blink of an eye. Please send Your most fierce angels to surround them with their wings, spread as if they were impenetrable shields. Please send your Holy Spirit to them before they ask Lord. Let them feel the love You have for them not only in their times of need, but in their every waking hour. Watch over them and guide them in their every step Lord. Fill their hearts and minds with a peace that surpasses all understanding.
We pray these things in Your precious Son’s name, Amen.”

Thank you does not seem sufficient, but it is all we can offer. Please know it is offered with a grateful heart. "Thank you for your service. Thank you for representing our country. You make us proud."

May God watch over you,

Straight Shooter

Does anyone else feel this way?

If so, I have a most heartfelt request.

You see my heart has been heavy with gratitude and swollen with admiration for these brave souls for months now. Almost to the point of tears every time I think of them.

I did a little research (Read: called our niece who has served two tours in Iraq and several friends whose children or grandkids have served in Iraq and/or overseas also) to find out what they need from us the most. (by us I mean the American people)

What could we possibly provide for them to cling to when the loneliness comes creeping in? What would buoy their spirits when the demons of war come near?

The answer was the same with each one.

They loved "gettin' stuff from home", but letters, hand written letters, now those took the top prize every time.

They treasure each one. They keep them close to their hearts. Literally. They take them out and read them again and again. They are the one thing they make sure they have in their gear when they pack to come home.

In searching for a way to find addresses and names, I found this website.

It provides addresses to a "contact soldier" who will in turn hand over your letters/packages to soldiers who are not receiving regular mail from the States come Mail Call time. My heart broke at the thought of some of our Bravest not receiving any correspondence, any thanks, any love from home. So our family, each member, has written a heartfelt letter to an unnamed serviceman.

If you choose to do this little project, here's how easy it is:

1. Click here to visit anysoldier.com


2. Browse their site to familiarize yourself a tad. (be sure to read these 4 areas ~ history, how to send, where to send, and what to send)
   
3. Pick your contact soldier/group.


4. Sit down as a family and pour out your thanks in writing.


5. Cry when you read what your family members reveal about themselves in their letters.


6. Tie them with ribbon and put them in an envelope.


7. Slap a stamp or two on it. (You will only be paying for postage to either San Fransisco or New York.)


8. Visit the P.O. (If you choose to add a few little extras you can always use the $11 Flat Rate Priority Mail envelope.)


9. Give it a quick kiss and send it on it's way.


10. Go home and pray two things ~ For the servicemen you chose & that you don't become too addicted to anysoldier.com.

It says the mail usually reaches them within 10 -14 days. I am going to set December 14th as the day you can all come back and share your letter writing experience with the Shooter family.

I so hope you all consider joining us in this simple, sincere, and straightforward way to show the protectors and providers of our freedom your gratitude.

If you do, I had this little button made so you could proudly display it on your own blogs to spread the word. (Until I can get my sweet designer friend Shauna to help me put the code on my sidebar, please link it back to this post, instead of my home page. Thanks y'all.)

Love Note to my Big Shooter: You were right. I was wrong. You're the King.