An Evening with Maya Angelou

UPDATE: Go to my friend Christy's blog to see her thoughts on the event.
Last night I had the privilege of enjoying a lecture given by Maya Angelou. Her message was inspiring and her stories, songs and poems were entertaining. What made the evening even better was attending it with my good friend and some of her students.

Angelou challenged the audience to "be a rainbow in someone's clouds" and to remember and appreciate those that have been rainbows in our clouds. I'm thankful for the opportunity to have attended what I would call a great cultural event. And, I only had to travel 15 minutes to the campus of West Texas A&M University in Canyon to do it. The Panhandle offers numerous cultural opportunities if we'd just take the time to seek them out. (I'm attending CATS on Sunday--yay!)

Texas Bluebonnets

These were taken over spring break in the Brenham/Washington on the Brazos Area.

Reminds me of Hobart and Anna Mae--their front yard used to be full of bluebonnets each spring. They'd invite all of the elementary kids over for a treat and a lesson in pioneer games. Remember walking on stilts made of cans and string and blowing bubbles through wooden thread spools? I think we even rolled a hoop using a stick a time or two also.

I need to check into planting some.

Pictures I Didn't Capture

At the stock show I didn't always have my camera handy. I've learned that when the perfect moment comes, it is often ruined by digging out the camera. I missed a few pictures just because my zoom isn't strong enough. So, here are the "ones that got away", but will be etched in my mind for some time.

• Wednesday morning about 7:00am--Sadie all dressed up to show almost asleep in a chair holding Leonard's halter; he stood patiently beside her with his head in her lap and fell asleep.
• Sadie's face as she turned around to catch Robby's and Craig's eye when her lamb was being weighed.
• Robby's and Craig's faces when the judge pulled Sadie and she made it through the weigh back. (Some have said it is more fun to watch Robby and his reactions when Sadie is showing.)

Bunco

I'm in a Bunco group. A group of 12 ladies get together once a month, eat supper and play Bunco. Bunco is a very simple game played with 3 dice. Every woman/mother needs one thing that is hers. One thing that she can go and do by herself or, even better, with a group of her peers. Bunco is a time for us to come together, share stories, lift one another up and essentially just remind each other that we're all in this together. (how cheesy sounding)

Anyway, this article was in the paper today. It is a story about a group of ladies who have been getting together to play Bunco since the Depression. They decided to call it quits after years of gathering once a month. It made me think of my group. I hope we can keep rolling as long as they did.

It's Friday...

It's Friday, so where are my Friday Fill-Ins? Well, I read them and they didn't just jump out at me. My brain is terribly tired today, so I'm skipping them--maybe next week.

We are BUSY with stock shows. We love this time together as a family. It's fun to spend time with the other families in our 4-H club, too. Sadie has worked very hard--you might not could tell it is her first year if you didn't know her. We're looking forward to a fun weekend.

More on the stock shows when we have time to stop and see if we are coming or going....

What You have Learned

After an overwhelming (thanks you two) response to this blog post I've finally compiled a list of the top 8 things you guys have learned so far in your life. Here they are in no particular order.

1. Nothing is too big for God.
2. You never know where life is going to take you and what you are going to find once you are there.
3. Life is never how you pictured it.
4. It's a small world.
5. Life is too short to try to please everyone.
6. Sometimes you get what you need, not what you want.
7. It's easy to hold a grudge, and a lot harder to find a way to forgive and move forward.
8. There's no place like home and no one like family.

I'm working on the list of things I've learned so far. Feel free to comment and let me know what you have learned. I hope we are all learning something every day and that we can learn from each other.

Blessings

We were fortunate to get to spend time together as a family working and playing at the fair this weekend. Sadie did a fantastic job at her very first lamb show. Robby's BBQ bus is finally done and looks amazing. He had lots of support from the community--even a group came up on Saturday for the results. His kids worked well together and were willing to help with the animals even though they were only there for Ag. mechanics. It was a great weekend--it was fun to see Robby working with his students. It was neat to watch Sadie hanging out with the "big kids." T.S. had a ball roaming from the chickens to the bus and then to the lamb pen. We were glad GeGe could come watch Sadie show. Between her, Jay and CW and the Brockmans, Sadie had quite a following.

When I spoke with my sister in Magnolia (close to Houston) I was reminded how blessed we are. While we were enjoying rides at the fair, they were preparing for Hurricane Ike to blow through. They were without electricity until sometime Sunday. Thankfully it didn't take the full two weeks they were saying it would to get it back on and thankfully the Spiveys came through with no major damage. Tonight there are still millions of people without electricity and water. The damage is incredible in some areas. I am so grateful my family is okay and I'm blessed to have had a fun weekend with Robby and the kids. (you can see some of Jennifer's hurricane pics on their blog--the Spivey Story)

The Rules

We had the wonderful opportunity to travel to the lake with our church this summer. We were blessed to share a camping area with our friends the McBrooms who were also gracious enough to share their boat and jet ski as well. The first day in the boat, April sat the kids down and said she needed to go over the rules. I was all set to hear about water safety and the rules for the boat. In addition to what I expected, April shared the three rules that our friend Ronay had once jokingly come up with. They are:

1. Smile
2. Act like you want to be here
3. Speak when spoken to

To my surprise, the kids took them very seriously and when they were referred to throughout the weekend, attitudes seemed to change. That Sunday we mused that Ronay had a definite beginning for a book and we'd have to travel around "testing" the rules. We all offered to be collaborators on the project.

I've thought about them a lot.I even enacted them on some junior high girls at the Happy Days dance. (they at least started smiling) They've even come in handy a time or two with the family. If everyone would make an attempt to follow "the rules" life would be much more pleasant.

Just a thought.