I'm Pretty Sure I'm a Redneck

When your family's idea of a Labor Day Get Together is a cookout between two ponds on a strip of land called the "Island," I'm pretty sure you're a redneck.

When you can't remember one family member's real name because everyone has called him "Tuff" since he was born AND Tuff wears something that looks like a mullett (see blue shirt on left), I'm pretty sure you're a redneck.

When the kids have to dig through dozens of cans of beer to get to the water bottles at the bottom of the cooler, I'm pretty sure you're a redneck.

When you choose to play with a stick gun instead of the football, trackball and baseball your momma brought for you, I'm pretty sure you're a redneck.

When coralling the kids together for a family picture and they step in cow patties, I'm pretty sure you're a redneck. When there is a dog named Hank at the family get together and they stick him in the back of an old Chevy truck full of barbed wire to keep him away from the hot dogs, I'm pretty sure you're a redneck.When you're taking a "cousin" picture and one of your cousins thinks it's appropriate to just stoop down in front of everybody else, I'm pretty sure you're a redneck. When your cousin celebrates her 50th birthday in a lawn chair with a big honking chocolate cake, I'm pretty sure you're a redneck.
When your daughter eats the chocolate cake straight from the serving spatula and everyone gets a kick out of it, I'm pretty sure you're a redneck When it's normal for your son to walk around with a weed in his mouth, I'm pretty sure you're a redneck.When you take a picture of your cousins who you only see once a year, and the background for the picture is two old farm trucks, I'm pretty sure you're a redneck.
When the kids go swimming in the mucky ponds for entertainment, I'm pretty sure you're a redneck.

When people don't see birds in the air but "targets" in the air, I'm pretty sure you're a redneck.

Yep, it's official, I'm a bred, born and raised REDNECK!

Perfect Pairings - Psalm 8:9

picture taken 03/19/2010 - the farm Psalm 8: 9 ~ O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
For more perfect pairings, see Baloney.

The Pioneer Woman I am Not

I think The Pioneer Woman is fabulous. Who doesn't? She is beautiful, knows how to manage her house and home, tame her cowboy and pull it all together with finesse on her blog. Even my own mother wants me to be like Ree. (hey, sweetie, now come in here and look at this girl's blog. i absolutely love it and i know you could have a blog like hers!!)

I do love photography and my little "punks" bring the greatest of joys to my life, but I don't have time to blog photoshop tips and I certainly don't possess that down home cooking instinct. Ree is a crack up, but try as I might, my funny gene is dormant. Also, I think people who homeschool are partially insane and you will never find a link for how to build a fence on my blog.

Most notably, Ree is a city girl countrified.

I, however, am a bonified country girl living who just happens to be living in the city.

I am a country girl at heart. Thus, when I go back to the farm I grew up on, it's like walking down a familiar dirt path with smells and scents and images that go down to the deepest part of my being.

I spent such an incredible spring break day yesterday with my kiddos out at Nana and Papas - it reminded me of who I really am, and sorry Ree (though you are amazing), that's not you.

Ellie and Papa on the Farm

Here is a video my dad posted on You Tube some months ago. It has had 8,195 views, Miniscule in terms of You Tube hits. But Huge in terms of how much I Love It.


It is a slice of time that Ellie and Papa spent together out on the farm "checking the whales."

When Ellie was 5, she really thought that Dad had a large farm of blue whales. And that he went out to check on them every morning, feeding them fish and other things. In her little big imagination, she thought that he would pet them and play with them.

So, one day he took her out to check the whales, and she found out that there were really no whales at all, but oil wells, and lots of cows, horses, rabbits, fences, hay, gates and other wonderful sights and smells you could imagine out on the farm.

Checking the wells became a fun thing for Ellie and Papa to do together and this is just a funny moment from one of their trips. (sorry Luke).

For me, it isn't the poopy moment caught on tape, it's the conversation between the two, Ellie's cute little voice, Papa's interest in all that's around them, the beautiful green of the farm where I grew up, and just remembering our girl at an age that has passed us by already.

This is What I See...

....When I look into the wide world around me.

LeTTerS.


That bright blue day out on the farm, Christmas Day, I just started taking pictures of interesting images... it started with Z and then T and then O and then before I knew it, Kami, Ellie, Luke, and I were on an Alphabet scavenger hunt....we had to get creative and help a couple letters come to life, namely the manure pile of a G and we were desperate for the bungi cord and stick of a P, but most of them are au naturale. Sorry, I cannot get J and M to rotate for some reason. My favorites? C, D, O, Y, Z....

call me strange.... all LeTTerS have a special place in my HeaRt.