Chin Chillin'

One thing that our chinchilla's love is to run around free. In our Texas home we have room to let them, so every once in a while we block off the hall. After fifteen minutes of chinchilla chaos, they usually settle down and sleep next to my husband. 

Top left is Quinn, is a standard grey and can sell for around $70. He was our first chinchilla.

Bottom right is our first female, Sugar. She is a beige and can sell for $125. My husband liked the idea of breeding so we purchased a second female. White chinchillas can sell for $160. Can you guess the name? (Lucy picked it out when she was twelve.) If you guessed Snowball, you're psychic. Last we have Stormageddon--Stormy for short. He was born Feb 11, 2014. His mom is Sugar and we kept him to bread with Snowball. He loves to bathe.This morning, I forgot to pull out his bath and he fell asleep. When I tried to remove the bath he bit me... the litter smucker.

 

Chinchilla's take a dust/ash bath because the dust gets in their fine fur and absorbs both oil and dirt.

Our first breeding experience. Rocket and Sweet Pee.

Since that time Sugar has birthed four babies. The double chins (pun intended) and two other boys.

Snowball produced a mosaic, white with grey spots, which we named Patches. Mosaic chinchillas can sell for $225

Chinchilla babies are born with open eyes and all their fur. Within an hour or so after birth they can hop around the cage. Should any parent be interested in these lovely, sweet, and soft boogers heed my warning... chinchillas can live up to twenty years.

Fort Worth Cattle Drive at the Stock Yards

In December, we brought our son to see the World Famous Fort Worth Stock Yard Cattle Drive and there were only six or seven steers that marched past us. Yesterday, our 4th of July visit was much more exciting... we watched the cowboys parade about thirty steers down the two block march. The longhorns make their trek at 11 am and 4 pm daily. What I love most is the reaction reaction from the crowd: Is that it?

All kidding aside. A trip to the Stock Yard is a fun way to spend the day. The shops are blast, street performers entertain the crowds, and the restaurants are fabulously fun. It's a great experience. 

A Text Conversation with My Daughter...

June 27, 2014 11:12 am

     Lucy:  Dezzy peed and sh*t in my room. [Dezzy is our nine year old boxer]

     Me:  Pick up the sh**.  I will scrub and sanitize your carpet when I get home.

     Me again:  Do you think it was last night when she was locked in your room? Or after you went back to bed this morning? How do you know it was her? [We have two other possible canine suspects.]

     Lucy:  It was her. 

     Lucy again: It was on one of my good bras.

The Bionic Man of Texas... Stephen F. Austin

Well, maybe not the Million Dollar Man, but to Texas he is the Founder of the Lone Star State.

A Jingle Bells Parody...

Visiting all the graves, on a somewhat cloudy day.

  Over the grass we go,taking photos all the way.

Author of the beloved children's book Old Yeller

Flowers loved ones bring, to graves all shapes and size.

Baseball player and manager in the Negro League.

Oh, there's lots of things to see at the Texas State Cemetery.

All jingles aside, spending a few hours at the State Cemetery made a lovely afternoon for my both Lucy and me. The grounds are beautiful and the atmosphere peaceful. It is a humbling experience. Many Confederate soldiers rest here along with other war memorials dedicated to those who died for our country.

                          

Albert Sidney Johnston Memorial Tomb

In the background is Confederate Field

Poppies... Poppies. Poppies Will Put Them to Sleep.

One of the most beautiful sights in California is seeing the state flower lining the hills along Interstate Fifteen. I love California's wild poppies and I was soooo happy to see that the seeds from my California past can grow here in my Texas future.

Oh My God...

When I was growing up, I attended a church whose number one message I interpreted was: You must act and do things that would earn God’s love. I had a belief that God would love and bless me only if I kept his commandments.

Somehow, I came to believe that God holds grudges and keeps score of what he will do for me against what I’ve done for him. I believed I didn’t deserve to ask him for anything because I wasn’t keeping up with my end of all the chores listed in the bible. I did not see him as the loving and forgiving being like his Son, Jesus Christ.

However, I've come to believe that my perceptions of God were wrong. I was unable to understand or believe Christ when he tried to explain that He, himself, was like God: “…Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing in himself, but what he seething the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.” (John 5: 19 KJV) This concept is restated to the apostle Thomas, also known as doubting Thomas, in John 14: 8-10.

I also felt this way about my earthy (biological) father. I love him and I know he loves me. But somewhere deep in my heart, I feel he would love me more or be proud of me more if I would only be an active member and raise my children in the religion in which I was raised. How sad and guilty I feel knowing I will never live up to his expectation.

How often is it said that children copy the behavior of their parents? When children become adults, they often pass patterns of discipline, love, and acceptance from how they were treated as children onto their kids. 

Do I want to be the kind of parent who makes my children feel like I don’t love them because they are not doing what I expect? If I behave in such a way, am I not taking away their freewill? I’m I limiting the kind of person that they were destined to be in order to fit my mold? 

If Jesus copies the behaviors of the Father, would not GOD be as loving and forgiving as his Son?

And what about my relationship with other people? And their flaws or beliefs? Jesus hung out with, loved, and accepted sinners. Therefore, God does also.

Who then am I to emulate?