YOU'RE INVITED TO THE REHEARSAL DINNER. . .

***Once again I am unable to upload all of the photos that I have taken, cropped and 'fixed' in my software program, uploaded to Flickr for protection, and am ready to post on my blog with, of course, my running (on and on and on...) commentary of the event at hand.
WHY?? Because ever since blogger changed their "it worked perfectly" photo uploader, it turns 'only some of' my photos sideways and causes old people (me) to be reduced to tears simply because I want to share with you something important in my life.
Shame on blogger.***

So, you are cordially invited to share in Craig and Jana's rehearsal dinner (and see how I spent all of those wondrous hours in my studio after so many, many months away) through the photos that you will find in my photostream on Flickr.

And, following the rehearsal dinner, won't you please stay for the wedding and reception?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotbarn/

(remember that you can click on any photo to enlarge it and see the details)

As a side note, I want to tell you that I LOVE my daughter(in law). Yes, she's my DIL, but I like to think of her as my new daughter.
She loves Craig so much, that is very evident.
Craig loves her so much, you can see it in the way he looks at her.
And, after getting to know her I have found myself "in love" with her. I see us having a lot of fun in the years to come!

Please help me welcome Jana into our family by viewing the pictures that I took of the weekend and come back here and leave a comment - I would love for you to welcome her to our family with your comments.

Blessings to you all and I apologize that you have to jump through hoops to see the photos of the weekend.
I will miss telling you about everything, but until blogger fixes what wasn't broken, I have no recourse.
Even T.P.'ing Mr. Blogger's yard has had NO impact on this issue. I don't know what I'll do next - I'm leaning towards dog poop in a bag on the front porch, set on fire, ringing and running.

Have a blessed day,
         Jan

http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotbarn/



POOR BAXTER

I was pulling up this particular post for a friend of mine tonight and before I sent it to her I re-read it for like the hundreth time and found myself still laughing as I finished it.
I've re-posted this once before but it's been a long time ago so, knowing we could all use a laugh right now, I'm re-posting it again.
Enjoy yourself and pee before you start reading...just sayin'.

*disclaimer: this story is a lot like the short stories I used to write in the past......a bit of sick humor........if you have a love of animals that is so strong that it would not allow you to see the humor in a story entitled "Poor Baxter" knowing that Baxter is a family pet, a dog, then don't read this.

If however you can appreciate me laughing until my stomach hurt and I couldn't breathe, read on and enjoy yourself......



*do not look at the pictures yet.....first read this:*

 POOR BAXTER


We own a dog named Baxter. He was found running around the Office Max parking lot in Kerrville in the middle of the summer about three years ago and a friend picked him up because he had no collar, no tags, and it was over 100 degrees. To make a long story short we ended up adopting the little dog.
 This was Frank the Tank's idea, not mine.

Baxter didn't seem quite right and I couldn't get past the fact the he never closed his mouth and his tongue was about 1/2" too long so you could always see it.


Oh, and he had an underbite.


He looked ridiculous.........he had these Fruit Bat-like ears, too, and he walked like an armadillo (really slow and rocking-like) - he was a goober.


I let Frank keep the little mutt but I got to name him. Thus, his name "Baxter" *from Anchorman*.


This afternoon I was working in my studio and a friend stopped by - Amanda Jones. After we finished visiting and she was fixing to walk out the door to the driveway she looked out the window in the door and said to me *as she giggled*,


"Baxter looks dead!"




NOW YOU MAY LOOK AT THE PHOTOS BELOW

I looked out the window and sure enough, Baxter was dead.

You can see by where the truck is parked that Frank evidently hit him when he pulled in to park going his usual 110 miles per hour.

Oh, my gosh, Baxter was dead.

Oh, wait.


No he wasn't.


That's just the way he looks when he sleeps because his mouth never closes, his tongue always sticks out and his underbite shows.


It's quite confusing to visitors, but Baxter was simply napping.

The visual, however, was enough to send Amanda and myself into a fit of giggles.


I couldn't breathe.


And I was using stomach muscles that only get used when I laugh like that - um, at least once a day!


Oh, my gosh. We were dyin' here.
 Why, we must share this reason for laughter; what with Hillary and Obama duking it out for the presidency we are always looking for reasons to laugh.......what could we do?

Oh, I know what we could do.


We could make Frank think he had run over Baxter and killed him.


(Oh, stop it. It was funny.)

The problem was that Amanda wouldn't run into the living room where Frank was, yelling, "Frank, Frank, you ran over Baxter and he's dead!!"


Well, I couldn't do it, I'm married to the man.

What could we do????


Oh, I know.


We could prank the boys!


Craig's home for the weekend and he and Clay were both home.............


I knew I could handle this because I wouldn't have to look in their faces as I pranked them - I could just yell through Clay's bathroom at them.


And that's what I did.


"Craig, Blake, Craig, Clay. HURRY!! Baxter's dead!! He's been run over!!!"


Craig comes running.


Amanda and I have taken up our "backs to the room" pose at the door hoping that he would think our shoulders were shaking because we were sobbing....


Craig is followed by my mother who is followed by Clay who is followed by Frank.


They all realize that it's a joke after Baxter raises his head and looks at all of us crowded around the window.

"BAXTER! PLAY DEAD!!"


We're all laughing.


Oh, okay, my mother wasn't laughing but I know she thought it was funny because she had a wee bitty grin on her face.


We're all looking out the window at Baxter who is sitting there with his mouth open, his underbite glistening in the sun and his tongue showing about 1/2" too much and we're dying.




In the middle of our laughing Frank says, "Let's shoot him. Make sure he's dead."


We were on the floor.




The End - tell me you laughed.

I love you!! Jan

THE RANCH AT SUNSET - HEAVEN

When you haven't posted since August and it's November did you know that some people will email you to see if you're alright? Isn't that the sweetest thing?
And, in answer to that question, am I alright, physically - no, mentally - of course.
I'm working as hard and as much as I can on the rehearsal dinner things for my son's upcoming wedding and a wedding thing for Jana, the bride:). It's a chore since I am not okay physically at the moment but it is bringing me much joy as I am back in my studio and it has lost some of it's crack house aura. I'll post about that later.

Today I was going to quickly throw these photos up of the ranch and get back to work on the wedding, BUT, the new uploader of photos for blogger is stupid and it's turning my pictures sideways. (Anyone out there know Mr. Blogspot and could you call him?)

However, in this instance it's going to save me a lot of time because the pictures are already on flickr COMPLETE WITH descriptions so I'm just going to send you over there.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotbarn/  But, read this next part first for it's important to set the mood...

.............I was driving up the lane about 6:30 p.m. yesterday and I glanced to my left and saw the black cows in the pasture of really green grass with the sun fixin to set. It was so, so pretty.
I sped up to the house, jumped out of my car (okay, I didn't jump), ran (ALRIGHT, I walked) and got my camera, jumped (did I say, "jumped" again??) on the four wheeler and raced (I did "race" - I love driving it fast:) to the front pasture to take pictures. Then I meandered closer to the house to take more pictures and to the barns and down the lane. It was fun.

For protection, the photos are stored in flickr and in this case, you can just hop over there and see them with their descriptions and just pretend that you're still here on my post.
Cool, huh.
Oh, and click on the pictures and they'll get bigger by magic. On some there's explanations and arrows. It's just who I am.

I've missed this.
Blogging.
Hope Mr. Blogspot fixes his uploader soon. It's very frustrating and kinda ticked me off for a minute or ten.

I hope y'all have a delightful evening and.........................
if you're reading this on Tuesday......................................

DON'T FORGET TO VOTE REPUBLICAN! (did I say, "REPUBLICAN"??)

LOVE YOU!! JAN

http://www.flickr.com/photos/polkadotbarn/