When I Was A Kid

I Should Have Listened!

I was sitting here working on some things with the computer and got to thinking about a question that was asked of me. How many times have you broken your arm? I have been know to be a little accident prone as a kid. It is really amazing I grew up....that I lived through my childhood. I love telling stories to my niece and nephew about things I did to their dad, or things that we did as kids ourselves. They take it all in. That is one of the nice things about them being so young, 6 and 10, they still like hanging out with me!

But I was sitting here thinking about my broken arm story and felt the need to publish it. I was a very good child, but I hated doing any kind of chores that involved being in the house. I was a Tom-boy deluxe, and wanted to be outside all....ALL the time. We had just gotten home from the grocery store and my dad told me to help my mom bring the groceries into the house. He had also told me at least once (ok, maybe 100 times) to not be riding the horses without a saddle and bridle. I would have been about 7 years old maybe ! and I was a pretty smart kid too. Help bring groceries in ? I grabbed the sack of bread, ran into the house through the front door, and right out the backdoor empty handed! I headed straight for the pasture of our little acreage. We had this Welsh pony named Blue. He was a blue roan, little guy and I LOVED riding horses. I went down to catch him and my sidekick came too....General. The most wonderful German Shepherd in the world. He was the general in the Calvary and my brother and I were just the men in the troops. I was Bob and he was Bill. And we played Calvary all the time. Since I was such a good Calvary solider I just jumped right up on ole Blue and tried to ride him around in the pasture with no bridle. Things were going pretty well till General starting barking orders to Blue, and Blue was not impressed with rank and he started chasing General. Right for the house we went. I can ride really good, so that was not a problem. The problem came when General jumped the gate to get away from Blue chasing him and Blue had to make that sharp right turn to avoid hitting the gate and me??? Well I forgot to fasten the seat belt and took a flying spill. I crashed landed and it knocked the wind right out of me. Now my brother Bill, I mean Mike was across the gate/fence building a fort for us to blow up at the 4th of July party we always had. We loved digging in the dirt, building forts then blowing them up later. Such fun. As I laid on the ground a wounded soldier, my comrade hollers for me and ask if I am ok. I can't answer. I tried, I wanted to yell NO, but nothing would come out of my mouth. I could not speak at all. I saw Mike come across the gate and he comes over to me laying on the ground, looks down at me and ask again, "Are you OK?". All I could do is shake my head no. Little by little I got my breath back and tell him to go get dad. I just laid there. My dad had been in the kitchen putting groceries away and must have been doing dishes. For he came outside to get me and had a tea towel over his shoulder. He comes to me and I start crying and tell him my arm hurts. He takes the towel and makes a sling like contraption and helps me to walk back to the house. I remember him muttering under his breath, "I told you not to be riding that horse without a bridle and saddle." I kept thinking, yeah, and I wish I would have listened to you.

My parents did not know my arm was broken and thought I would start feeling better soon. I remember I could not use it. do you know how hard it is to just go to the bathroom when your arm is broke? Even if it is your left arm? Oh how it hurt. Finally after a week of me not getting better, Mom had my cousin take me to the doctor and get an X-ray, sure enough, it was broke. But by this time it had started mending and there was not anything they could do. Except send me to a bone doctor and have another X-ray taken! They put me in a sling and I healed just fine.

I got older and listened to my dad making sure I had AT LEAST a bridle on the horses from then on when I rode. By now we had acquired a new horse that I loved even more. Bell Star. What a beauty of a horse. But she was bigger and Mike rode her mostly. But I did not think that was fair. You want to race I asked Mike ? He said sure. I want to ride Bell, you ride Blue, I don't like him any more. He hurt me you know. Mike was the easy going brother and said sure, he would trade. So I was riding Bell and we started in the south pasture and the race was to the north pasture past the barn. We took off like a shot and both were running like the wind. We rounded the corner and was headed for home (headed for the barn really) when Blue started kicking (he was feeling really good) and as he kicked he struck Bell. He kicked three times and the last time, he got me. Right on the foot, left foot. Left BARE foot. Dad had said don't be riding those horses without your shoes on, there are too many sand burrs out there. But what does my dad know? I pulled my horse up and so did Mike, and jumped off Bell, looked down and my foot was bleeding a lot. Dag gum it, he got me good. Mike said, here let me help you get on Blue and lets go back to the house. No, I am not getting on THAT horse again. So we took the bridles off and shooed the horses away and Mike gave me a piggy back ride to the house. I never went to the doctor for that. Should have had stitches, and probably broke my foot, but we will never know now.

About a year later Mike and I decided we wanted to play Tarzan. I loved Tarzan and watch him every Saturday if his movie was on. Oh how I loved the animals and Tarzan swinging in the trees so fast. This was great. We have trees. We found an old conveyor belt, got a knife and cut it into strips, tied the strips into the trees and that was going to be our vines. Good plan. Now Tarzan had some momentum going and we needed it too. So we pulled the picnic table over close to the trees. I said I would try it out, I would go first, and Mike said....Ok. I got to the far end of the table, gave it a good little short run, grabbed the vine and was FLYING. It was awesome....till the vine broke. I fell flat on my back. Mike ran over to me, looked down and said, "are you ok?" No Mike, I did it again. He said, "did you brake it?" Yep, I broke it again. He just shook his head. He helped me up and I grabbed my shirt with my hand and made him swear to not tell mom and dad. I walked into the house, walked right past mom and dad, went straight to bed. And went to sleep. Dad came in later, it was dark in my room, the light was on in the hall and he gently came to me and said, "Lisa, do you have something you need to tell me?" I looked up at my loving dad, my protector, the man that has given me life and I loved him more than anything in the whole world. I looked up at him and said "NO DAD, NOT A THING.!" It seems my dad gave out a little chuckle but I think my brother snitched me out. You see, I was only in the third grade so that would have made me 8, 8 1/2. I went to the hospital the next day and you guessed it, it was broke again. But it was in the same spot as the last one and they put me back in a sling and told me to be careful. If I was to break it again I would have to have surgery and have a couple screws put in. Looking at the X-rays and her (dr) messing with my arm, my dad got sick. He was about to pass out when they made me get up off the table and made my dad lay down. I still think that is funny. The patient has to get up!!!! My poor dad, he was white as a sheet, sick to his stomach, he was such a trooper.

Oh I had a couple other mishaps in the years to come but the last one that is pretty good happened when I was in the 7th grade. We got to school early and needed to finish my homework so I was trying to. In the classroom the boys were goofing around and they kept pushing Dean into my desk. It made me mad. Stop it I yelled. I am trying to get my work done. Now mind you school had not started, we had just gotten there early off the bus and was just waiting for the teacher. Well they thought it was funny, Lisa was getting mad and they kept it up. I told Dean if he did it again I was going to.........I was going to kiss him. Yeah! Well that wasn't very smart, for all the boys then pushed Dean into my desk, knocking my books off and every thing, I jumped up, grabbed him and kissed him a big one on the ole cheek. He was a small boy, sat down, pulled his cowboy boot off and chucked it right at my head. He got me. Left eye. Four stitches later I had the best black eye I have ever had in my entire life and I was proud of it. Dad on the other hand was not to happy that he had to come get me, take me to the hospital......AGAIN, because I kissed a boy. He muttered something about I told you to not be kissing the boys. When will I ever learn to listen to my dad? Some kids just never learn.

Good News

Good News Day

Good news to report. It seems all the prayers have been answered as selfishly as we wanted. He has asked if he can come home and they work on issues. It has been a blessed day, not trying to make light of it, for there will be some hard work ahead. But that is a lesson for all of us to learn....don't take things for granted. Good people make bad decisions. I sure have. There are many things I wish I could have do-overs. I would encourage anyone that I talk to do not get married young. It is sooooo very hard. But does it mean that you will not be successful if you marry young? No, not at all. It just seems the statistics are not in our favor. Why? I don't know, but I have my thoughts and opinions on the subject. Like we have not grown up and matured yet. Life is so hard at times and adding marriage, children, debt, career, all those things are hard on a person. And I also think there are so many of us that are not as faithful in church as we should be. Me included. I was one of those that was there every time the doors were open. Then something happened, and I am not there. Lots of excuses, shift work, then just didn't like it, then going through bad marriage and just wanted to get into "a" church. Didn't happen. Separated, divorced, got back into church. That's good. Then new youth pastor comes to town and created great bond with my kids. He and his wife have a baby, baby dies a very suspicious death at a year old, I am now told it might be better if I don't come back to church. See as a police officer I knew what the reports said and what the detective said. I didn't talk about it, didn't want to and that is violation of department policies. Plus I did NOT run and read reports about it. I really wanted to stay neutral. But I also knew good people make bad decision and bad things can happen to good people. I just don't like it when people close their eyes because they think "that person just couldn't do that!" You don't know what people are cable of, you don't know what they are truly thinking, feeling or wanting. People are weird...all of us. We are human. So I quit going to that church. That hurt, the youth minister left with his wife and other child and I didn't go back. It was hard to go back where people don't want to see the truth or even look at the evidence and allow really bad things to happen with no consequences. But life is unfair sometimes. What's even more sad is they hired a really good attorney(Stephen Jones, sound familiar? defended Timothy McVeigh...OKC bomber) and the D.A. who was his understudy "declined" to file charges (lots, lots more to this story, please trust me on that!). Ok, that is the system. Innocent till proven guilty, I agree, I understand, and I believe that. But that sure wasn't the case for me. Told it would be best to not come back? Ok, I guess I killed who??? Oh, I didn't. that's right. I was told I was a spy sent to church by the police department. I had been going to church there for five years....good grief. Oh well. I need to find a church here now that I have moved away.

Man, all of that to say that I believe people need to be more involved in church!!! ha ha ha, I sure take the long way round don't I? Think there might have been some bent up emotions there? hummmm???

Life is funny. We are sure to have ups and downs, in marriage, and in life in general. I can guarantee you that it will not all be easy and none of us will get out of this alive. That I can promise. So I am hoping that my cousin and her husband can have some couple time, have some good communication time, and come out of this ordeal stronger, and better. It won't be easy, the trust, the desire, the heart, they are all going to be damaged and need to heal. But I think they will make it. They have beat the odds so far. And I still admire, love, and respect them. I think I have learned a valuable lesson myself. Be kinder, be softer, and be forgiving. I love you two!

Don't Worry, Be Happy!?

In The Month of May

It seems when it rains it pours, literally and figuratively speaking. Yesterday we got three inches of rain in one day, it sure gave our new drainage system a good test. For the most part it passed, the bad thing is we found we need to do more work on the other side of the yard. Good grief. But then I did find a place I want to put a fish pond in and decorate, I think we can do it fairly easily, but that is my attitude about most projects. Oh that will be easy because my husband can do ANYTHING....if he will just listen to me on how it needs to be done. So the water system will have to be improved upon. Plus the four or five tons of gravel that my husband put in the "little creek" has washed a lot down stream. Now I think it looks pretty cool, I don't think he feels the same. It means he needs to bring in several more tons and spread it out. Good grief. His back hurts already.

But the "when it rains it pours" figuratively part....This week has been stressful dealing with the choices of other people as I posted a couple days ago. Emotionally it has been very draining, my heart is just so heavy and sad. My cousin is doing well, but I should expect that for she is one strong woman. She has overcome SO MANY things in her life and I have ALWAYS admired her (I don't think she knows that) but she will continue on with her life no matter what he decides. She has two boys to take care of so she has to. Of course she will have her moments, she will be sad, then mad, then fine, then.....you know, the range of emotions that swing this way and that. I told her it is fine. Those emotions are fine and even the bad thoughts are fine (long as she doesn't act on them!) it is all part of the healing process. And we have no right to tell her she can't or shouldn't feel that way. The feelings are hers.

Now I have a ton of stuff to get done. I have to find a home for my three horses. I can not afford to feed them since I have retired. I love my horses, I had such dreams for my retired life, I wanted to ride all the time, but we did not buy land and now I can not afford to keep feeding them hay and grain. Life sucks sometimes. I have a soccer game to go to, I have a little friend from Enid coming to the Tulsa area so I am going to spend some time with her. She is a former DARE student and we really bonded so since she is going to be in the area I told her I would like to see her. Her mom was ok with that and we got the details all worked out. Yea!!! Then Saturday we are going to a Country Gospel concert with my parents, Sunday is mothers day, and I would like to go eat with my cousin and her boys just to help make the day ok. Then Monday we are going to eat with my nephew and all of our family for he is leaving to go BACK to Iraq to finish his tour. Tuesday he leaves, my sister n law will be a basket case and is having a female procedure done that will leave her drained for a day or two. I might substitute teach in her class if she needs me to. I have done that a few times this year. The kids are great, 2nd graders and they are so sweet. But by the end of the day I am drained! Wednesday I have a hair cut and color appointment and that is something I so have to keep, then this weekend have the grand kids again. Come Tuesday it is my BIRTHDAY (no big deal really, not like I haven't had one or two before!) and then the next weekend my son and daughter in law are coming to visit!!YEA !!!!!! I can't wait to see them again. I have not seen them since mid December. I have a graduation I need to go to but don't see how I can, and the list goes on. I think you get the picture. And I am sure that I have left out a couple of events just because I don't have my calendar in here with me. This is such a busy month. When it rains it pours, do you think June might slow down a little? Good grief!

When Pigs Fly

Pigs can fly!

I didn't think it could ever happen, in fact I would have sworn it was not possible. But I was wrong.....dead wrong. I can't believe it, but I recieved some of the most disturbing news and it has turned my world up side down. Have you ever gotten a phone call and you could not tell if someone was teasing you or not? Have you ever had that sick feeling and there was just nothing you could do? It happened to me yesterday. I had been gone off and on all day, had soccer games to attend and re-take pictures for team and individuals. It was a busy day. I had gotten back home and was talking on the phone when I got that familiar beep, someone trying to get through. I had not talked to the person I was on the phone with for quite some time so I ignored the other call. A few minutes later another call came again from the same person, but I figured I would just call her back when I got off the phone. She won't mind, she will understand, we have both been in that situation before. Then my house phone rings, (I was on my cell phone). We were outside so we were not able to get to the phone and again I just figured I would get back with her in just a few minutes. Then my husbands' phone rang. Ok, this is not normal and something is up. I feel it now. So I tell my friend with whom I am talking with on my cell phone that I better go. Two calls on the cell, one on the house and then a call to my husband, something is up. She said she understood and we would talk again later.

I call her and ask is something wrong? And her reply....yes. Do you need me? Do I need to come over and she says no. What's wrong? He is leaving me. WHAT? Are you kidding me? This is not funny, hey, I'm serious this is not funny. I'm not kidding you, he told me he has found someone else and he is leaving.

What do you say? What do you do? This is after ....25 years......!!! Can you believe that? How does that happen? How do you tell the kids. There are still two kids at home, and two other kids grown with babies of their own. How do you go on? How do you continue to have your faith in God (both are strong Christians!) How do you get out of bed and go on day after day? Your world is now upside down. Your head is just spinning. This is the couple that beat all odds, got married in high school, had four children, struggled with teenage issues, had good job, lost it. Had a nice house, ruined by a flood. Had a heart attack and survived never to be the same again. How do you keep going? I know, I know, you are going to say....keep your faith, it will get better. Just pray to God for peace, find strength. Yes, I told her those too. But it is hard, so very hard to accept those words of wisdom when you are going through it. Blindsided. Never saw it coming, still don't want to see it. I keep thinking he will come to his senses and come back saying I'm so sorry I hurt you. She wants him back in her life, in her arms, in her bed at night. There to help with the kids and the house. There to laugh at the grandkids and watch them grow together. That is the key word...TOGETHER. How does this happen? How do you celebrate 25 years together on a cruise, how do you help your church with the family life conference? How do you do this? I don't know. I just know that today, pigs fly.

The Disobedient Student

Sometime Things Just Happen!

Ok, this story does not start out with "one night while I was on patrol". This story actually takes place in the middle of the day in the middle of a junior high school. As you may or may not know about me I taught the DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program in our town for many years. I love teaching and have found I really like the older kids. High school was one of my favorite places to teach, but we did away with that program (which was stupid if you ask me, that is where kids need the most influence, reinforcement, help, continuing education, etc!) But thankfully we were still teaching in the Jr. high as continuing education. One day it was during lunch time and the principal hollered at me to come help. I think the ladies in the office got me over the intercom in the teachers lunch room where I would eat lunch once in a while with them instead of the students. I am told the principal needed help out in the hall by the front doors. So I jump and go quickly, never want to keep a principal waiting, plus he never called for me to come and HELP without good cause. So I pick up the pace a bit and see him talking to some female near the front door. He tells me he asked her to leave and she would not. Now I do not know who this girl/lady is but if she is asked to leave by the principal, she needs to go. Move on down the road, go away, do what the man says. But she has a different idea. She says she is not leaving. Now you see, this is where I have issues. You are being told to leave a building where you are not wanted and don't belong. I don't know what is going on, but I do know the principal has the right to ask you to leave and I will back him up on that. He said to leave, so go. And if you don't want to go then your next choice will be HOW do you want to leave the building? On you own accord, or in handcuffs, or with an ambulance, or what. Life is ALL about choices. I can't tell how old this girl is. I am thinking she is in her 20's but I just don't know, can't tell. I have never seen anyone so determined to STAY at school, usually people can't wait to get out of that place. But it seems she has decided she doesn't want to go so go she won't do. Hummm???!!!! Ok. Let's go to the office. The bell is getting ready to ring, she has had plenty of time to leave, we have had this discussion long enough and I STILL can't figure out why she won't leave. What is up with this? So I tell her we are going to the office and I am going to figure out what is going on here and she will probably be arrested for trespassing. The bell does ring for the older students outside to start coming back in to class. We need to get up to the office on the second floor to get out of the way. NOW she decided she is going to leave. Oh no, you already had that option, that option is no longer available and you are going to the office. No she says, she is going outside. I grab for her arm to "escort" her to the office when she pulls her arm away from me and makes a fist. I don't know if she is going to hit me or if she is just pulling away, it happened all too fast. But as I reach for her arm she makes the fist and I FEEL she is going to try and hit me (something I am not too crazy about) so I reach up and grab her arm and the next thing I know she is on the ground with me on top of her. I put her hands behind her back, grab my handcuffs out and cuff her. It wasn't much of a scuffle, but it caused some commotion and a little noise and when I finished handcuffing her I looked down the hall. Only to see all the lunch room kids, and the kids starting to come in from first lunch all looking at me. I had engaged the person, put her on the ground to avoid being hit and handcuffed her in a location where I was observed by many. The kids were all watching with their mouths wide opened. I heard the kids were the best behaved the rest the day than they had been in ages. I was even told the story hit the other junior highs by the next day and those kids were behaving pretty good as well. Teachers all asked me if I could teach them that move. Funny thing, I don't even remember how it all happened. You know, that self defense mechanism kicks in pretty quickly when you fear you are about to be hit. Oh well the kids were watching, maybe we should have someone come in and refuse to leave more often, great for behavior modification in students.

Call to the Post

*** Update**** Very bad news, what doesn't happen often happened again today. The filly Eight Belles ran a great race, came in second and after the race while being pulled up by the jockey broke BOTH front ankles. She was put to sleep immediately. It was not shown on tv during the race, but it might be on later so you may not watch to watch reviews of the race. I am still in shock, these things just do not happen often and now here it happened this race. It was two years ago when Barbaro broke his leg as the world watched and he nearly recovered from the injury. And now this poor girl. Fillies normally do not run in the Derby, they have their own derby in fact, but this girl was really good, was 17 hands tall (that's pretty tall) and looked like she could hold her own with the boys. So who knows why this happened. My heart is broken and just aches for all of those who have been in her life. Very sad day, very sad.




Well today I am heading off to my nephews soccer game. I am the unofficial photographer and we are doing team and individual pictures this date. Then their last game is tomorrow at 3:00 so I am going to try and have the season pictures all burned to disks for each boy to have. I just do this for fun for the kids.

I hope you have your speakers on and listen to this whole song. I remember when it came out and have ALWAYS loved it. I still sing it (turn the speakers up loud and then can't hear my own awful voice, but only the dogs are listening anyways.

Then today is the Kentucky Derby day. It is always the first Saturday in May. I have heard there is an Oklahoma horse in it but I can not confirm this information at this time.I have even been to the actual racetrack, not during race season though. It was so weird seeing it. It is old and not very big, not like it looks like on TV. But it is awesome. That is where the mint juleps and big hats became famous. It is where the "run for the roses" has been going on for over a hundred years. Do you know how often they have a triple crown winner? Not hardly ever. W ill this year be the year? I doubt it, but of course I always hope for it. Can you name the three races in the triple crown? Do you know how long each race is? Which one is the longest? Shortest? How old are these colts? Can a filly(girl) run in the race? Can horses from other countries run in this race? Who is the leading trainer, jockey? How much weight do the horses carry? There is so much to this than just a little guy getting on a big horse and running around a track. I have not even had a chance to see who is running in it or who the favorite is. Normally the favorite does not win. I have the paper clippings from when Secretariat won back in the 70's. I remember when Ruffian, the little filly ran the match race against ?? just went blank and broke her leg in the race. I cried and cried and cried. Tragedies like that do not happen that often, but I love horse racing. Those magnificent animals, such athletes. I rode race horses when I was "little" back in high school. I admire their abilities so much. Horses and jockeys alike. Remember Willie Shoemaker? My mom used to say he could ride a donkey in the Derby and come in the top 3. He was awesome. Do you know what took him out??? Drunk driving. Had a wreck in his truck, paralyzed him and a few years later died. Lesson learned in that one. Wish more people would learn it from others instead of from their own experiences. I LOVE horse racing. So if you are watching the derby today, think of me. I will be right there on the sofa cheering on my horses. I will pick one after I see the pre-derby news. Happy horse racing, have a great day/weekend.

New System

I am not a big fan of the iris flower but I have found that they are planted EVERYWHERE around where we live. And I have found the reason is due to the water runoff and they are used to help control that. This is a picture of the land right behind our house.Here is the elevation of the back of our yard to show how much water runs down.

So because our backyard seems to always have water, a lot of just seepage we decided to make a ditch and put in like french drains. We (we being Scott doing the work and me being the supervisor!) planned to make an area in the back where we can put bricks and make a pretty terrace and reroute the water flow. I can not tell you how lucky I am to have a husband that will do any and everything. He is the most talented man I have ever met. Even though he makes me madder than a wet hen at times, and his talking can drive me crazy (do I hear an Amen from someone?) he is the best man to help everyone. so we are making the backyard more enjoyable and usable for family outings.

Here is another shot of the iris' that just grow everywhere.

And a yellow batch of them as well.

Of course you need heavy duty equipment to do all your hard labor. He has unloaded about 2 tons of gravel by hand using this lawn tractor and loading the rocks in the trashcans so he can direct where they go much easier. Pretty smart, so you don't have to shovel it more than once, or twice or so.He buried several feet of this black flexible tubing with slits in it so the water will seep out into the ditch that has gravel all in it, plus flow on out to our drainage ditches.
So he dug the ditch by hand, and unloaded the gravel by hand and then buried it all.....by hand.
This drainage ditch he filled in with gravel about two feet deep. We were losing soil like crazy. But remember we also got six inches of rain in two days, three days apart. So the erosion was horrible. We are hoping the river rock will fix the run off problem and look more natural.
Here is the drainage ditch in the front yard that I use as my little "creek" when we have rain. The plan is to make it a constant flowing creek by making a fish pond and using a pump system to run the water back up stream etc. I will let you now when we start that project and how it turns out. With his brains, and his brawn's, and my eye for detail, plus my creativeness we make a really good team. (well at least I think so.)
Scott tilled the dirt to lay back over the piping. Problem is we are getting ready for a huge storm and if it rains hard, we will lose a lot of this dirt. We need to get grass growing over it soon as possible, but I can't do that over night, I am not THAT GOOD.
Here is the ditch with the gravel over the pipe waiting to be buried with dirt. He banked the dirt to reroute the water flow and I am hoping tonight we will give it a test run. I will let you know how it does, if it works or not. We just have to pray it is not a gully washer that comes through. Plus there are tons of tornadoes right now. People from all over the country (and world) come here to chase them. They pay good money to come see them. Good grief! Watch out Arkansas and Missouri, you're next!