Reconnecting (cont.)

Okay, you go ahead and take some pictures and I'll just relax up against this rock...don't mind me.

Yeah, this rock right here...I could just fall asleep...you go ahead and shoot away. I'll be right here when you get back.

Oh Honey Bunny, you've got to see these California Poppies!

And these...uh, these...what are these?

Oh and this gorgeous yellow daisy...just beautiful...it has a cool little black moth drinking it's nectar!

Wow, and look at that twisted oak that is just now leafing out...

That Fiddleneck is absolutely amazing with Lake McClure in the background. Honey?

Oh, my goodness!!! Look at that...wild turkey! Honey? Honey Bunny? Oh well, it's amazing how God orchestrates our day for us?

Reconnecting

Well, it had been another week of hard work and other things filling our lives...kind of like when passing your spouse you ask, "who are you, anyway?" Cliff and I needed some reconnecting and so we went for a short drive to McSwain Lake...what a treat! This time of year the grass is still green and the wildflowers plenty.

The purple lupin looked so lovely with what looked like white fiddleneck (usually yellow in color). It was beautiful.

Honey, please kneel down on this rock so I can take a picture of you...This rock? There might be rattle snakes!!!

Yes, this rock and quit being a whiny baby!!! Oh, are those snake holes???

Never mind the snake holes, just do it...for me...please??? I promise I will make you look like a painting (even if you left the house with holes in your jeans and whiskers on your face)!

How many more are you going to take? I thought you were a pro at this? May I get up now? Ugh!!!

Very Me-friendly

If I’m going to be addressed as “Ma’am” these days (what am I, a fossilized woman?), I have a right to settle into comfort. It happened overnight, when I lost my waist altogether (darn menopause), and forfeited the hour glass sassy pants and exchanged them for granny gauchos! They are my friend, especially transitioning from winter to spring (by the end of summer I might be able to fashion myself a classy zip up pair…with lots of prayer). I will not be shamed by “What Not to Wear” or the hoity, toities out there! I earned the elastic waist after baring 3 children, 50 something years of delectable desserts and boycotting health clubs. Elastic waist? Very me-friendly!!! If my children are reading this, please be happy I haven’t graduated into knee-high nylons! Now those are a sight to see with knee length dresses or shorts! If that happens, please, oh please it’s time for an intervention!

Yokley/Rios Easter Celebration

Hmmmmmmmmm, now where is that egg???

The 10 second rule doesn't count on snail crossings

Get out of my way. I'm doing some serious business here!

Rios family portrait...

Yeah, I guess it will be pretty cool having a baby sister!

If I had a day to give you...I'd give you one just like today!

Spending the day with our grandson...there is just something about bubbles that keeps a kid busy. You know what I mean?! Like, they love the blowing, and the chasing, and the blowing again...and the technique...down to a science on the blowing part!

Taking a short break from the bubbles, we ventured inside for a short video and right there on the coffee table is one of our coasters...not just any ordinary coaster, mind you...

What do I mean? Well, it was just like magic, I tell ya!!! The revealing...yes, the confession of a 5 year old happened right before my eyes...he looks at me and gives me one of those, "I love you Nana...you are the best Nana in the whole world" looks! And then...he slowly turns the thing over...

Why here it is. A masterpiece!!! One that had been hidden for quite sometime...but not forgotten by it's creator! The only thing missing? His signature!

Healthy snacks, I always say, and apples are his favorite. This actually was his second one!

Enough with the apples already!!! Time for some real activity! "Lets go to the park, Nana!" On your mark...

Get set...

Roll!!! Yes, he rolled clear across the bridge. That's the action hero way!

Back to the ranch...okay, so it's not a ranch, but we'd love to live on a ranch with a huge pond, but this little trendy one will have to do. As little as it is, it takes great care and maintenance to keep it clean and in working order. It's our pet fish' home, after all! Speaking of pet fish, the large one that Cliff is placing in the bucket has been officially named the Master fish. He is 12 inches long (pretty good size for a goldfish!).

This next photo nearly makes me cry...not sure why, I just like the fact that a grandfather's hand is reaching out to his grandson's...well reaching out to hand him a fish. "You think you are going to come over, use our electricity, eat our food and take up our time without some kind of compensation???" I wouldn't call this work to a 5 year old boy!

"Now get yourself inside, get all that fish slime off your hands, and let's go on a real adventure! A bug hunt!"

Our adventure kind of got a rocky start...sadly we didn't find many bugs our first block of trekking the concrete, but as our grandson so pleasantly describes, "We are finding lots of chicken fried worms, though!" Please, the faint at heart, skip this next photo!

Success! "If I had a day to give you, I'd give you one just like today!"

Skill...Strength

It does take great skill and strength to rope and brand calves and in it's own way, very poetic. The gentle breeze...miles of open range...roundin up those little dogies! For this is my country...God Bless America...my home sweet home! Okay, a little too much? Perhaps...If you did not know or noticed, I always wanted to be a cowboy...well, cowgirl (check the photo of me as a child to the right of this entry)! On a serious note, though, most all of these cowboys are friends of the rancher (doing this for pure pleasure and friendship) and have other careers, but they are true cowboys (and cowgirls) in every sense...with true skill and strength...true comradery!

Well Orchestrated!

Calf branding takes great skill and strength to get the calf down, but as you can see, the other work is well orchestrated! From left to right: tagging the ear, inoculating, branding and the guy down on his knee...yep, castrating (I held off on the more graphic shots)! I truly have a whole new admiration for cowboying (okay, so I made that word up, cowboying...I know some of you were reaching for that dictionary!).

Mm! Mm! Good!

I wish I could claim this idea for my own, but I borrowed it from another blogger, “Confessions of a Pioneer Woman.” I’m going to have a little fun at these cowboy's expense…could these slogans be used for a jeans commercial?

"Can you hear me now?"

(Verizon)

"It's a Miracle!"
(Xerox)

"Ladies, please don't squeeze the Charmin!"

(Charmin)

"Snap! Crackle! Pop!"

(Rice Krispies)

"Gather Round the Good Stuff"

(Pizza Hut)

And ladies, "Today is the first day of the rest of our life!"

(Total Cereal)

Rollin, Rollin, Rollin...

The morning was chilly, but gorgeous with puffy white clouds in a blue sky, and my partner in crime, Cherie, and I, had just shot a calf branding. Cherie always offers to stop if I see something I want to photograph, to and from the shoots. After the branding, we were on our way home...not more than a mile or two from the ranch, I asked her to stop so I could take a photo of this lone barn. It was perfect for a landscape photo. Here’s what happened…I was going to just take the shot from the pick-up because there was no place to pull over. Cherie encouraged me to go ahead and get out because no one was coming (remember we were way out in the country and the only traffic…cowboys we’d left behind). So, I gladly hopped out (I’m always giddy inside when I think I’m going to get a good photo), and began to step up to the field level (it was about 3 feet up from the road itself). As I secured my left foot in place and began to launch my body upward, I realized on my way up, in that nanosecond, that I had no place to grab with my right hand. The post was too far for me and my mind wouldn’t work fast enough to grab the wire in between the barbs, so I didn’t grab anything at all and had no choice but to hope I’d make it! I didn’t. Instead, I fell backward, on my butt…it doesn’t stop there…I fell backward on my butt that fell onto a large raised round bump of dry mud that swung me backwards into a roll until I was on my back basically in a ball! I think it probably looked pretty graceful (and I might add, it was a heroic save for my camera on the way down, as it was unmarked). I wasn’t hurt, laughing, not concerned at all that there could be vehicles coming (that thought didn’t even occur until later). There really was no traffic…remember we were wayyyyyyyyyyy out in the country! Here’s the deal. When I fell, Cherie saw me in action, but couldn’t see me from the cab of the pick-up truck once I was down. I hear “Gayle, are you okay?” Laughing, I confirmed I was fine, got myself up off the ground, and walked about 10 feet to a gate that was level to the road (laughing all the way). I was going to get that shot, by golly, though my first attempt was a failure! Without climbing a berm, I took the photo and hopped back in the truck. Of course we both laughed till we nearly cried, while on our way again. Cherie later suggested I use the title for this entry “Rollin, Rollin, Rollin…” VERY appropriate and hilarious! Oh yes, and by the way, I was very pleased with the photo!

Cliff's Trailer

Well as you can see, it looks much the same in the Spring as it did last Fall! However, Cliff has been working, and there is some progress that you can not see from this photo. He has manufactured a new window frame for the bathroom (The little tiny hole near the front of the trailer) that will actually be bigger than the hole showing. He has also scraped all the old putty off the window frames and vents (it was like cement...remember this trailer was made in 1972). Cliff is very hopeful in getting it refurbished sometime this year.

Happy!

What does Starbucks have to do with happiness? Nothing, I just liked the photo, and I wasn't going to put my mug up here! But, some could argue that Starbucks makes them happy...or the wine on the counter in the background could make them happy...or the food in the refrigerator could make a person happy...here is what I think!

“Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” I love this quote by Abraham Lincoln! Is happiness something you choose or is it environmental? I’ll let you figure that one out! But for the most part, I think I choose it! Yeah sure, I sometimes let my circumstances turn my emotions elsewhere (I’m human!)…that would just be down right creepy if I wore a plastic smile every turn of life. However, I like to think that I have made up my mind to choose happiness on a daily basis. It’s becoming effortless!

I have had a few confirmations on my happiness…” Mom, why are you so happy today?” My reply, “I guess Jesus gave me an extra dose of joy.” Her response with a nodding head, raised eyebrows and a grin “I guess He did!” Another time, “Mom, you are Disneyland, that’s what you are!” Now I’ve been called the happiest place on earth. What a compliment! And, I heard this many times from my kids that didn’t even grow up in this era, “Here comes June Cleaver!” After all, I do work on having a positive outlook. Gee whiz! I’m just happy to be happy! So...happiness…why not give it a try!

“Happiness lies in your own back yard, but it’s probably well hidden by crabgrass.” (Anonymous)

Blessings!

Blessings

Blessings come in many shapes,

In sizes large and small,

But a brand new little baby

is the sweetest of them all.

Newborns...New Adventure

Don't you love babies? Well, maybe you don't, but I do, and this little baby girl was a perfect princess until the very end of the shoot, and well, I rather like the cry baby! I have a confession to make though...I love babies, but I'm not sure I love shooting them! It requires inside photography (natural light, no flash), and I have pretty much been an outdoor gal. It wasn't what I expected...I was expecting it to be hard, but it was down right difficult to get a decent shot. So, a part of me wants to give up, and never do a baby shoot again (Cherie tells me she will talk me back into it). The other part doesn't want to be a quitter (honestly, though, the giving up part is a much stronger feeling currently). I guess time will tell...after all I have a granddaughter to be born in June...who am I kidding, anyway? That poor baby's first words will be "RUN, paparazzi!"

Things That Make Me Laugh

First of all…I have realized that God has certainly created a strange duck when he created me. I find myself way too often laughing at things that others don’t see funny or perhaps really bad timing on my part. Oh boy! Those are awkward moments! But, I am who I am and I do love me! Not to be confused with conceit, I’m just at a place where I accept who I am. And, I love to laugh!

Things that have made me laugh in the last 7 days…

I was sitting at 5 corners (an intersection in Atwater where 5 roads come together) waiting for the light to turn green when a man…a very large man, with his large head stuffed into a tiny little helmet, and his large body placed on top a tiny little motor scooter…began to cross the intersection before his light turned red. You could tell he was trying to make his scooter go faster by placing his body forward as if it helped to accelerate it… you know, the aerodynamics of his contorted body would surely make a difference by a nanosecond. He zoomed through with a large smile on his face and a loud gratifying “HeeHa!” as he squeaked through before the light changed on him. That, my friends, made me laugh!

I was at work and had gotten a call from a gal named Christy and she needed to talk to my boss (whom is also the pastor of our church). He wasn’t there and I left a note for him on a piece of paper. When he arrived, and checked into his office and found the note, he then walked back into mine with a smile and said, “So, Christ will call me back after the morning meetings, huh?" I had forgotten the "y" at the end of the name...That truly made me laugh!

When doing a roping photo shoot at a foothills ranch with my friend, Cherie, I discovered that she only liked the bay and chestnut horses (brown and red). She said that she was prejudiced against pintos, paints, appaloosas, buck skins, palominos (which made me laugh)… I responded, “well I don’t think I can hang with you anymore!” That made me laugh…I even laugh at my own jokes!

10 second kisses (check blog below and please don't send me any 10 second kisses hate mail)! That made me laugh!

Life is certainly too short…learn to laugh (and even if it’s at yourself)!

Roping Clinic

I haven't seen anything rodeo (up front and personal) for over 20 years and was asked to join a friend to practice our photography skills at a roping clinic today. What memories it brought back...dating and finally marrying a rodeo cowboy 32 years ago (although he quit the habit when Corry was born). The whinny of horses, the clinging of spurs and the aroma of fresh road apples (that is what Cliff calls it)...all was very familiar to me and very reminiscant. As the clinic began at 9 a.m., the men (and a few women) gathered in the arena for sound teaching from a champion roper.
While the teaching and learning was going on, the horses looked on and waited...and waited...and waited (most tied to their horse trailers) until about 2:00 p.m. when the real fun began!

Here is the champion himself and had I listened more closely, I could tell you his name (It wouldn't matter anyway, as the memory is pretty much gone). I have a great deal of respect for cowboys (and cowgirls) for their strength, their skill and the timing it takes to perfect "roping." It was truly a fabulous experience to watch and participate as a photographer. I'm hoping I get another opportunity!

(If I haven't yet sent you an invite to my on line album, for more "roping" photos, please send me an e-mail and I will make sure you get one)