Happy Turkey Day!

We are still at my parents house, so I don't have any pics for Flashback Friday. It will have to wait and be "Sentimental Sunday" I guess. We have had a nice break this week and are enjoying being with our family. Finley went and fed the goats with my dad this morning and Kyle and Slade are gone to check the traps as we speak. On a good day, there might be a bobcat in the trap!! When I come back to the ranch, it's easy to go right back to my roots - raccoon hunting, horse feeding, arrowhead hunting, barbwire fence climbing, etc. Ok, so not a ton of "coon" hunting for me, but I do enjoy being out in the middle of nowhere. My mom would never go to town if she didn't have to work. She could have been perfectly happy living in the wagon days, minus the smallpox and other diseases that had no cure then! My parents live on our ranch about two hours south of Midland. Live Oak Creek Ranch. The closest towns are Ozona, Iraan, and Sheffield. Probably you've never heard of any of those except in my posts. If you trace our land way far back, it was given as a Spanish land grant to Mexican war widows whose husbands helped the Texans during the Texas Revolution, back in Sam Houston days. We still have original land deeds in the bank vault in Ozona. My great, great, great grandparents came here by wagon. They lived here a whole year without seeing another woman, only Indian women. As my favorite saying goes, it ain't for sissys! My great-great grandmother Wilse brought her china in the wagon packed in saw dust barrels. My mom has that china sitting in her cabinet and I love it. The wedding china I picked reminded me of this old heirloom china, which is why I chose it. The house my parents live in is the oldest in Crockett County. And yes, Crockett County was named after Davey Crockett. Pretty neat, huh! Lot's of history here. I could go on and on. I'll take some pics of the place and post them.

Highlights of the week are as follows:
1. The nature walk with Cita, Slade, Finley, and myself. We walked through the pecan trees down to the stock ponds on Wednesday. We gathered lots of treasures including a tiny cactus for Nana(she loves cactus), two horseshoes, an old rusted trap chain, two old bullets, and a shell. Finley fell in the lake as she was throwing rocks and screamed bloody murder. It was so funny-it scared her to death. I've never heard her scream like that. I still can't get all the mud out of that shirt.
2. I organized all my photos for all three photo albums-in order. All I have to do now is to open the album up and scrap the page. Awesome.
3. Kyle got my Nana's Christmas lights up with the help of two of his guys. Major undertaking. Let's just say Nana wins the lighting award each year in town. She lives on a corner lot and it is all decorated!
4. Slade found a new love for pumpkin bread.
5. I got to sleep late most days and it was wonderful!
6. I wrapped 57 presents yesterday all by myself for Nana and mom. My arms are even sore to prove it.
7. I got to visit with an old friend from high school and her new 9mo. old baby girl. I haven't seen her in years.
8. My kiddos had quality time with their grandparents. Sweet!

A Finley Funny. Last night she was in the computer room playing with a little plastic cup that rolled under one of my mom's cabinets. Without asking anyone, she goes into my mom's bathroom and gets a hairbrush out of the drawer. She comes back into the computer room, lays down on the floor and uses the brush to fish out the little cup that was beyond her reach. She gets the cup and says, "I got it!" Pretty resourceful for a two year old, don't you think?!!?