Family Fun Continues

Saturday morning, Ben had a soccer game, so we all met at the field.

Joanie multi-tasked by watching Ben and Cora.

Brett helped the coach by instructing the defense. You can see it was an intensive assignment.

As you may have noticed from earlier photographs, Lucy enjoyed being with her "Poppy." 

Scarlett and Ava tried to avoid the paparazzi. 

All the while, Ben was busy playing his game.

It was a fun weekend full of family. 

It had been three months since we were together. Of course, we missed Shannon & Jacob-who were out of town, but we made sure their respective children had fun.   

The End

Our State Fair is a Great State Fair

Jacob had plans this past weekend, so Joanie and the girls decided to come to our house. Joanie wanted to take them to the Texas State Fair. This was always an annual outing for us and our kids.

So, Friday morning, we followed the OU and Texas buses into the Cotton Bowl. Actually, we had to stop in the parking lot.

Our first stop was the Gone to the Dogs Show. After all these years, you would think that the producers of that show would know that we cannot understand a word the guy is saying about the dogs. Let's do something about that sound system Fair officials!

"HuH?

Next the girls needed to tend to the farm chores.

There was milking to be done.

Planting...

 Harvesting...

and taking the crops to market.

As a reward for their hard work, we let them go to the Petting Zoo.

Nothing says cute little animals to pet like a buffalo, right Ava?

Lucy had no problem feeding her cow.

Bye, little goat. We're off to the rides.

First Jumping Jumbo- not to be confused with Dumbo or the jumping dogs. 

Next the motorcycles. Ava's smile tells me this was more fun than Jumping Jumbo.

 Look at this smile! And he didn't even get to ride the motorcycles.

Our visit would not be complete without visiting the World of Birds Show.

Fishing Eagle

 Ava found this young man, but she just knew something was wrong with that shirt he was wearing.

"Shouldn't those horns be upside down?"

Then it was off to the Auto Show. Sitting in the cars was the most fun at all. 

Well, gymnastics with mom was pretty fun too.

The day with a four year old and a twenty month old went by very fast, and it was all about them. So on the way back to the car there was just enough time for a ride on the Texas Star.

Then a little nap on the way to the car. 

And guess who came by for a visit after we got home?

This is a grand kid picture overload, I know. There may be a few more in the next day or so. Family get-togethers call for a lot of photos. 

There May Be a Photo Overload Around the Corner

All the grandkids will be here this weekend, so I am warning you that next week may be full of photographs of really cute kids.

That is if they will be still for a couple of seconds.

I will probably have to bribe them.

That is what I had to do with these two this week.

This one, I just strapped into a stroller. 

I hope Ben and Scarlett don't let Cora in on the bribery.

She's Sad

"What do you mean the Rangers aren't playing tonight?"

October- Smacks of Old Fart Returns!

I got this story from a good friend of mine who lives in St. Louis, and who is also an avid SOOF reader.  Though the names have been changed to protect the identity of this particular "Old Fart" my friend swears this is a true story.  And, if that's the case, I'm sure you'll agree that this guy should be anointed "Old Fart of the Year."

Here's how the story goes:

A guy named Ted was asked by his wife to clean out the family room fireplace.  They had enjoyed a fire in that room the night before, and Ted's wife thought the remaining ashes "smelled up" the rest of the house.

Ted immediately retrieved a plastic bucket from the garage to hold the ashes.  He then dutifully began scooping ashes into the bucket without noticing that some of the ashes were actually smoldering embers from the previous evening's fire.  When the bucket was full, he picked it up by its handle, carried it across the family room, out the back door, across the backyard to a hedge row where there was a pile of recently raked leaves, and that's where he dumped the bucket's contents.

After returning the bucket to the garage, Ted went back to the family room.  There he was greeted by the smell of burning carpet.  Embers had melted a hole in the bottom of the bucket and were unknowingly trailed across the floor as Ted was hauling the bucket out back.  Not being the quick thinker he was during his younger years, Ted ran to the closet, got the vacuum cleaner and started to suck up the ashes he had trailed across the floor.  However, before he could finish, Ted's wife yelled from upstairs, "Ted, the hedge is on fire!"  

Ted dropped the vacuum, ran outside, got the garden hose, drug it to the hedge and doused the slow burning fire.  Then, as if a light bulb had been turned on in his head, Ted dropped the hose, and ran back into the house.  Sure enough, there was the dust bag on the vacuum cleaner also on fire.  He picked up the vacuum, carried it outside, threw it on  the ground and hosed it down like a fireman fighting a three alarm house fire.

The good news in this story is that Ted's wife got new carpet for the family room and a brand new Oreck XL21 to keep it clean.  The bad news is that Ted had some unplanned gardening work to do in the spring, and was required by his wife to increase his daily dosage of gingko baloba.    

You just can't make this stuff up!  And, it definitely  "Smacks of Old Fart."  

-Pat

       

     

  

With the sell of the Cozy Cottage, the search began for the next camper. Barry and I had decided that we just wanted to go with a travel trailer right now. We feel it fits our needs better at the moment than a Class A RV. 

We have been thinking about what we wanted and what was important to us. So, the search began. We went to the RV show in Dallas. Then, we went to no less than four RV dealerships in the area. First, we noticed that the dealers have a lot of large trailers and some tiny trailers. Even though we made it clear what size we were looking for and what features, salespeople just acted like they couldn’t help us if it wasn’t sitting right there on the lot. They must have truly believed we wouldn’t be able to find what we were looking for, because not one salesperson took our name and phone number. 

After our last look-see at a dealership, we actually were thinking we might wait and not get anything for awhile.  Barry called Jerry and they spent an evening on the phone discussing the trailers and our problem.

A few days later, I received a text from Jerry that said, “I have found you a trailer. When you are near your computer call me.”

Silly Jerry. I am never far from my computer. I called Jerry and he had found a trailer that was the size we wanted, the floor plan we wanted, and the storage we wanted.  I googled where this trailer was sold. There was a dealership in Michigan and a dealership in Mesquite that carried it. 

The next day Barry called the Mesquite dealership. They did not have one in stock and (again without asking our name or number) just said they didn’t have that one and had no idea when they would get that model. Wouldn’t you think a dealer might contact the manufacturer and ask if they could get that model? 

So, we called the Michigan dealership and they had the model, quoted us a great price including delivery, and the deal was done. The trailer will be shipped in a few days. 

It couldn’t have been easier- once we called them. 

I don’t want to hear any crying from sales people in the Metroplex. Make an effort if you want to make a sale. 

amazon.com

You don’t have to be pushy, but you can be helpful. 

We’ll be on the road again soon. More Travels with Barry to come!

  

Two Weeks

That is how long I was down and out with bronchitis. This is not an official SOOF blog, but I am thinking that the ability not to bounce back from an illness quickly does Smack of Old Fart. Other members of the family have been a little down and out also.

First, Bingo was under the weather.

 His illness kind of SOOF, because he is getting older. He just wasn’t himself. But, he is under Barry’s care, so I know he will be fine.

Magic was doing fine.

 He was being himself and that is what got him into trouble. He thinks all people and dogs love him. Well, there was a German Shepard that did not love him. Magic and his owners were totally to blame for this skirmish. Honestly, I should just say Magic’s owners were responsible, because, after all, Magic is a dog. We would like to think he has listened to us and learned from us, but again, he is a dog. Luckily, he did scurry away and only had a wound near his eye. 

Yesterday, they both seemed to be content just keeping each other company and taking it easy. 

It is nice to have someone to cuddle with when you are having a bad day, isn’t it?

Next Week, Pat is back with a Smacks of Old Fart. That always makes ones day better, doesn’t it?