TUFF

Awwwwww, this is the way I like to sleep.

Turn the tv down...I getting ready for a little nap.

FIRST DAY TO WEAR SCRUBS...BIG DEAL!!

This was the first day that Sheyanne got to wear her scrubs to class. She was so excited about that.

MORE ON FLOODING AT ALBERT PIKE

Saturday found approximately 200 searchers combing the 20 miles of wilderness.
The search is expected to take several weeks. Several from Dierks were among those searching.

Teams scouring miles of river and rugged wilderness found two more bodies Saturday. This brings the death toll to 18 from the flash flood that swept through Camp Albert Pike. Many are still unaccounted for.

A pre-dawn wall of water surprised sleeping campers, leaving them frantically trying to get to safety.

Six of the 18 people killed were young children. 15 were identified from the list of 18. Those identified were from Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas.

DISASTER AT FAVORITE CAMPING AREA

The Caddo River going into Glenwood

Albert Pike flood

More devastation at Albert Pike

One of the cabins destroyed

Sign to Bard Springs and Shady Lake

Albert Pine before the flood.

Flash flooding in the Albert Pike area left campers stranded and search and rescue teams from surrounding counties are working the area. At this time they have rescued approximately 30 people.

Arkansas State Police reported 16 fatalities by early afternoon.

Arkansas Department of Emergency Management has set up a call center. People can call 888-683-2336 for information on missing people. The call center will be open until 10 p.m. tonight and Saturday and Sunday 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

2010 Luau Bunko

42 attended Julia's Bunco Luau

Julia, the hostess with the mostess...

Enjoying the pool and a little chat.

#1 GRANDDAUGHTER STARTS UAMS NURSING PROGRAM

Sheyanne started the BSN program with UAMS at Hope on May 26. She has been so excited about getting the first two years over so she could get going with her nursing degree. I hope she likes this as much as she thinks she will.

She really has to study to make her grades. Things don’t come easy for her but she has good study habits and can do it if she sets her mind to it.

She has always been a great little athlete but now that that is past she is taking up barrel racing. She seems to be taking to that quite well. Now with two running barrels I guess I will be attending more rodeos.

She is spending the night in Hope tonight and studying for her first BIG test. Several friends are joining her and hope to do well tomorrow.

This picture is the new love of her life, Pistol. He is enjoying the good life since she adopted him. He sleeps with her and is being spoiled royally.

WHAT HAS BEEN GOING ON IN MY LIFE...

My life has its exciting moments and then many drab moments. Occasionally things liven up but my days are filled with reading, watching my favorite shows, searching the web, blogging, and maybe once a week I go shopping.

Recently some friends and I had a night out on the town.

We went to Texarkana and had supper at Applebee's. As we entered the building we were hugging the two new ones that joined us and ended up with everyone hugging and making a BIG spectacle of ourselves. One nice guy with a dark tan even got into the hugging. (Maxine didn't participate in this hugging game.)

While there my friend, Iris, brought out her bottle of cough syrup and politely asked the waitress if she could have a spoon so she could take it. As you can see from the photo it was a humongous bottle she had tucked away in her bag.This livened the bunch up and a few times I was afraid we would be asked to get quiet.

We enjoyed a great meal and headed out to the movies. We saw Jalo's new movie, The Back-Up Plan. We all liked the movie.

I failed to get a group picture. I took these pictures with my phone. These gals were seated across the table from me.

On Friday I joined my girls and attended a Barrel Racing

Clinic in Texarkana. It was a three day event but I managed to only go Friday and Sunday afternoon. It was pretty exciting. There was nineteen participants.

Sheyanne won in her division and Madasan would have been second but she knocked over a barrel. They were pretty satisfied with what they learned at the clinic. They love the Reinharts and want to go to their next clinic. ( Can you believe it...I didn't get any pictures of this adventure.)

On Monday Mary, Suzanne and I had doctor's appointments in Texarkana. That was super fun but we did have a great lunch out before appointment.

Today was my daughter's birthday. She is now a big 41 years old. She was pretty excited because my nephew and his wife had their baby today.

Last but not least is the adventures my dog, Tuff, has been on this week. I worry all of the time because he must be on a chain because he wanders off and pesters the neighbors. Well he broke his chain and I just let him stay out. The first day he was gone all day and came home so dirty and smelly late that night. The next day he stayed home all day and night. Next day he left but returned pretty quick. When I left for Texarkana he wanted to go but I told him to stay home and he did. When I returned he was here. He may get into trouble but at least he is happier and so am I.

My next adventure, to look forward to, is the big Bunko Luau at Julia's in June. While waiting I guess I need to finish that Nora Robert's book...

STORMY NIGHT

An apparent tornado plowed through Dierks, AR Friday evening. This picture was captured and submitted by Ramona Hill. The storm left behind widespread damaged to the area with damage to a several homes, a laundry mat, and several chicken houses. Fortunately, there were no reports of injuries. (Thanks, Mary)

Jerry's storage buildings*

The Laundry Mat *

The girls keeping busy while in the storm shelter.

Nights can be pretty tough down in our part of the country. Last night we had severe weather in our little town. My daughter is so afraid of storms so she keeps a close watch on what is going on. The minute a WARNING is given she is at my house ready to get into the storm shelter.

We entered the shelter the first time around 9:30 p.m. and while we were enjoying our close quarters the girls were communicating with everyone in the country about what was going on in surrounding communities. “Take cover, it is headed your way!” was a common text that they received. (What did we ever do without a cell phone???)

When we came out the first time one of Madasan’s friends called and wanted to come to our house. She was scared because the storm had done quite a bit of damage in town and she was wanting out.

We had other visitors to our storm shelter when we returned for the next round of storms. You can see from the picture that the girls were keeping busy with their cells while in the cozy shelter. Our dogs joined us and were so nice while all of the excitement was going on.

Finally, the storm was over and we continued to hang around waiting for the next round. Brett and a friend remained outside while we were inside. Suddenly we heard a huge bang on the door; Brett had hit the door trying to scare us. The girls nearly had a heart attack. You know it DID NOT scare me at all…

*pictures taken by Cindy and taken from F.B.

WHAT'S NEW WITH SHEY

Smiling pretty

New dog

New horse

Sheyanne is just about finished with her Associate Degree and will enter the BSN Program with UAMS in May. She is all excited about getting into nursing school. I just hope she loves it as much as she thinks she will.

During her spare time she is learning to ride. I think with little sister keeping so busy with her horses she got the fever.

MADASAN'S NEW PASSION

Madasan has been practicing her goat tying. In this picture she is exhausted and so is the poor goat.

This is at the show in Hope. Her time is getting better since she is taking lessons from a girl in Brokenbow. Practice, practice...

This is another thing she enjoys so much. She runs the barrels and poles and is getting more confidence each show. This is her horse Scarlett.

MORE SNOW IN APRIL

As you can see we woke up Sunday morning to a light dusting of snow. It came during the night and was gone by noon. The weather man promised that it was coming but no one believed him. This was one time he was right. Beautiful while it lasted...

PRAYING FOR JEDIDIAH

This is Jedidiah, the son of Lori and Josh. Jedidiah has a malignant tumor, rhabdomeyosarcoma, a rare and aggressive cancer. Please pray for him as he starts chemo following surgery. To read more about his condition click on his picture and it will take you to his mom's blog.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MEEEEE!!!

I had a great birthday celebration with my girls. Suzanne cooked me a delicious meal with red velvet cake and my gift was so beautiful. What would I do without my girls??

EXCITING DAY FOR SHEYANNE

Saturday March 6. was a big day for Sheyanne. She received her letter of acceptance to nursing school. She will start the BSN program with UMAS at Hope on May 26. With this news she was completely beside herself.

On top of that great news she and some friends, who were also going into the nursing program, took off to Little Rock for the Lee Ann, Reba and George Show. They had supper at the Roadhouse and got over to Alltel Arena early. They were first in line to see George.

What a night! She didn't get home until after 3:00 a.m. but felt that it was so worth the trip. Oh to be young again!!!

MADASAN'S JR. TEAM WON RUNNER UP IN DISTRICT

Friends

The Jr. Lady Outlaws had a great season this year. They won some runner-up trophies but were not able to win the top award. They went to District and had to play Spring Hill. Spring Hill had beaten them earlier but in District the Jr. Lady Outlaws gave them a run for their money. Really there for a few minutes I thought for sure they had the game in the bag but a few mistakes and a FEW bad calls gave the Spring Hill team the win.

Madasan took a charge at the end of the first quarter and it pretty much ‘rang her bell’. After a brief rest, Coach Owens asked her if she felt like going back in and she did. She played the remainder of the game. During the first quarter of the Jr. Boy’s game she started feeling sick at her stomach. Shortly after that she started throwing up.

Sheyanne got a nurse to check her out and it was determined that she needed to go to the emergency room to check for a concussion. We took her to Nashville and she was able to see Dr. Ashbrook. He determined that she had a pretty bad concussion and should take it easy for a week. A CT scan determined that things were ok but had probably been shaken around because she continued to play in the game. After about four hours we departed the hospital and brought her home.

Since school was dismissed for winter break the next week she got plenty of time to recuperate. She took advantage of the doctor’s orders to take it easy. She didn’t leave the couch for a week. Poor Baby!

SNOW IN FEBRUARY

I'm a little late getting a picture of the snow on my blog. We had two little snows and everything was so beautiful for a few minutes. This picture looks like a black and white but isn't. This is in front of my house.

REMEMBERING MA

All of you know that I wouldn’t have a blog if it wasn’t for these two beautiful granddaughters. Instead of carrying around a purse full of pictures I just post them on my blog for everyone to see.

When I was working in high school as the counselor I had a wonderful friend that was famous for always having pictures of her grandchildren. She never missed an opportunity to show them off.

I loved this lady. She was such a character. I am responsible for giving her the name of Ma. She always signed all of her notes with a MA, which was her first and last name. Well finally I started calling her Ma. The name caught on and everyone in school started calling her Ma.

The reason I mention this friend is because recently I accused another of my friends of being like MA and always showing off pictures of her great-granddaughter on her phone. She scolded me with the comment that I didn’t show mine off on the phone but had them splashed all over the internet on my blog. So true!

I really think blogging is so much fun. I just regret not doing it when my daughter was small and the granddaughters were babies. Several of my former students have blogs and it is so enjoyable to check in on their lives and see their beautiful families. Without Facebook, My Space and Blogging all of these people would be lost to me. Thank God for technology! It keeps me connected to the world.

So if you get tired of seeing my granddaughters, my animal stories and an occasional outing then look over at my Blog Log and visit some of the other blogs I follow. I just regret that I haven’t found many others that are out there.

TUFF'S EXCITING LIFE

I have a very talented dog. Tuff is one strange dog. He is such a roamer that he has to be on a chain most of his day. He loves to go down to the chicken house and get into stuff. The people that help with the egg house get very excited when he comes for a visit. Especially since their fluffy little Sasha came up with four little ones.

I have another problem with Tuff. He loves to take his bedding out of his house. Since his house has a wooden floor I nail the bedding down so he can’t do this. I do have a pillow that I put on top so he will have a fluffy bed to do his relaxing and he insists on taking it out. As you can see from the pictures he loves his pillow and will play with it, never tearing out the stuffing, and does all of his major naps on the pillow.

JR. LADY OUTLAWS COME IN SECOND IN LOCKESBURG TOURNEY

Madasan's team came in second in the Lockesburg tournament last Saturday night. They have had a great season but failed to play well in the final game of the tournament. Kirby beat them quite soundly. You can tell by the expressions on their faces just how excited they were over their loss.

GIRL'S NIGHT OUT IN NEW YEAR

All Smiles...

We had our first Girl’s Night Out for the new year. (I don’t know how much longer we are going to be able to call it Girl’s Night Out with this old broad along. It has been a few since I was classified as a girl…oh well!) Anyway, we did have a ball.

We left the elementary parking lot around 4:45, arrived at the Texas Roadhouse at 6:00 and enjoyed a great meal. Finally we left for the movie. We went to see It’s Complicated. Funny!

A CONTRIBUTION FROM A SMART LADY

Maya Angelou said this:

'I've learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.'

'I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.'

'I've learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you'll miss them when they're gone from your life.'

'I've learned that making a 'living' is not the same thing as 'making a life.'

'I've learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance.'

'I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw some things back....'


'I've learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.'


'I've learned that even when I have pains, I don't have to be one..'

'I've learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back.'

'I've learned that I still have a lot to learn..'


'I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.'

(I have read these many times and find them so full of wisdom that I thought I needed to add them to my blog. I am not one filled with such beautiful words but have always appreciated those that were.)