Here we have our six year old with cowgirl boots and a fashionable dress. Her hair was braided by daddy!!! My hair skills are improving, but when mommy isn’t home!! Daddy has to do something!!!
Monthly Archives: July 2014
Small Town Life – A Four Year Old Pedicure
You may see my husbands photos of the four year old’s fashion choices sometimes pop up.
(Today she is wearing white capri leggings, pink patent leather dress shoes and a tie dye t-shirt. If I wore that I’d be featured on the next “People of Walmart” video but somehow, she looks CUTE!) The other day she wanted to give me a pedicure. She pulled out all the colors and proceeded to do a bang up job of making my toes look like Revlon threw up all over them. She changed her mind about the color several times and never bothered to take off the previous choice before applying the new polish. Therefore, it was not only amazingly multicolored (not in a nice way), but also quite uneven and thick. It should also be mentioned that I wear flip flops all summer… even to work.
So I didn’t “fix” her pedicure.
She also mopped the kitchen floor the other day and I didn’t “fix” that either.
What I’m saying is, my child is good enough. I might suggest things to her like, “Maybe it would be a little easier if you held the paint brush like this,” or, “We need to mop here also because it is sticky from your juice.” But if it’s not perfect, I’m going to let that go and I’m not going to go behind her and fix it because then she will know that she wasn’t good enough. Mommy will always be better at it than her and she will always be in competition with me.
I don’t want to compete with my daughter for anything. I want her to rise above me and go beyond me and be better than me and be more than me. I want to lift her up and have her be comfortable in my presence and know that I am comfortable in hers. I want her to trust me and know that I trust her.
Therefore, my toes will stay crazy pink and weird green and everything mixed together.
Holy Cow, we are moving to….Germany!!!
Small Town Life – Airport Diva
What with the whole 4 funerals and a baby thing we’ve been dealing with this summer, I have spent alot of time in airports.. with my newborn… trying to be discrete about diaper changes and breastfeeding.
At one of my many layovers, I was sitting next to a lovely teen. When I say lovely, I mean, this girl was fashionable, naturally pretty, and had a very bubbly personality. She had never flown before and started to freak out when she couldn’t find her boarding pass. After assuring her she could simply walk up to the counter, show her ID and get a new pass, I gave her a few other bits of advice and then moved a few seats down when she got a phone call.
It was a small airport and no matter how much I tried to give her privacy to have her conversation, I couldn’t help but overhear her talking to her friend.
“Well, he didn’t ask me to come. I TOLD him I was coming. I know! If he wants to be like that I’m just going to have to tell him what I think! He’s my boyfriend and she’s not even there! I don’t know. My dad paid for the ticket but I mean, I’m going out there and I’m GOING to be there for 10 days so it BETTER go good.”
Hmmm…. I wanted to grab her and say, “I have a great show called ‘How to Lose a Guy in 1 Easy Step.’ Wanna star on the first episode?”
NO! DON’T GO! The relationship isn’t worth the cost of this plane ticket.
But I didn’t.
I don’t have advice that would be listened to and I don’t understand so I stayed out of it but… It was hard. I wanted to say to her, “You are worth so much more than that! Don’t be that girl. Dump him and move on to someone who will want you where ever they are! That’s a real relationship.”
But… she was a teenager.
Oh, the drama….
C.S. Lewis | Amen | Pinterest
Ship Rock, NM
I spent yesterday in Farmington, NM. I was down there attending a class for my job. I had never been to Farmington before, and I looked in a visitors guide to see what I could do. It recommended Ship Rock for some photo opportunities. I decided to check it out. 
Small Town Life – Death of a Saleswoman
When I was single and working a limited amount of time and living in a place I knew very few people, I signed up under someone to be a part of a “relational marketing” group that sold product. I got the kit and promptly put it under my bed and never took it out to “market” to anyone. The main reason was that I never wanted to approach people about my product. How could I possibly know if that person had any interest in what I was selling if I was just sitting there with them at coffee and suddenly brought up my product and mentioned that I was also a salesperson for that product?
I also tried door to door sales for a year in high school and that was a bust.
I’ve never been good at that kind of marketing and I’ve never taken to kindly to being marketed to that way.
When someone calls me up and says, “Hey, I just wanted to talk.” I’m like, “Awesome! I missed you.”
Then they are like, “So I started this business and I want to tell you about it…”
And that’s when my heart sinks. Did this person really want to talk to me EVER? All future calls from them are under scrutiny. Are they trying to sell me something or get me to sign up?
The thing is, I understand the appeal of being a home based business because I’ve been a stay at home mom and I’ve needed income and not been able to find a job and I’ve just been there.
I’m not dogging the product or really the sales people. I think there is a way to approach this whole home based business thing that won’t alienate people. I also love Mary Kay (I already have a MK lady and we have a nice arrangement) and Pampered Chef products. (Don’t call me. I’ll call you.)
However, I have a store and people come to me when I have something they want because I’m in the Yellow Pages or on my website or whatever so I can sell like nobodies business because I know that people have come to me for the express reason of being sold to.
When I answer my phone seeing that it’s one of my friends, I’m answering the phone for the express reason of talking to my friend, not being sold something.
There has to be a way to put it out there that you are a home based business and then allowing people to come to you! I’m not sure what that is but you would think that with social media being what it is, we could accomplish that better.
How about you? Do you “do” the pyramid scheme? Do you “get” the home based business? Is there such a thing as “relational marketing?”
Fun With Sparklers…
For our Saturday night fun I had the girls play with some Sparklers, which were leftover from the 4th. I was able to take some Long Exposure shots of them spinning and twirling around. I even jumped in on the fun. We had such a great time!!! Hope you enjoy!!!
I like the ghostly effect of the girls in some of the pictures.
God is Special!!!
Our 6 year old wanted to let everyone know that God is special and you are to.
Small Town Life – Independence Day
If you live in a small town, it may be hard to find out what the schedule of events it for special days like the 4th of July.
When we first moved to Small Town my parents and siblings and I drove around that year in search of fireworks hoping we would just see some and drive in that direction. It was rough. There were a few here and a few there but it was disappointing to say the least.
Over the years we have figured out the Small Town 4th of July drill. Parade down main in the morning. Snack at a local cafe. Hotdogs and other BBQ on the back porch. Fireworks on our block for the kiddos including at least one person being burned by a sparkler. Then off to the fair grounds for the big fireworks.
When we were teenagers, and mom and dad got the hankerin’, we would skip the whole Small Town thing and go up to Itty Bitty Tourist Town. It was a mining town and now just a little tourist trap. There is a street fair complete with turkey legs and a fireworks show that you can basically just stop where ever you are in the town and watch as the fire department lights it all off from a cliff overhanging the town. Itty Bitty is little ways away though so it’s a drive.
Now that I have kids, I’m realizing what poor timing all this celebrating is. The parade is in the morning so we have to get up and get ready. I like to paint the kids faces because I’m “that” mom. Then we eat all day and then wait and wait for the sun to go down for the fireworks and toddlers are basically a mess by the time the good fireworks show is going.
I seem to remember a time when seat belts weren’t such a crime to forgo and my dad put a mattress in the back of the pickup and we all watched the fireworks in our PJs and sleeping bags and he just drove back home with us all asleep back there and left us in there all night. We loved it. Now, you would think we were abusing our kids if we did that but… that’s how I grew up and in Small Town, it was GREAT!
Life and Photos by Andy 