To Infinity and Beyond!

Yes, this is another post about Buzz Lightyear...
(and as I wrote this, it became about something more... so keep reading if you will...)
But this is pretty cool - did yall know that Buzz went up in space with the Shuttle on Saturday?!
You can check out his progress here at www.nasa.gov

My kids are thrilled... they saw the Shuttle go up last summer from Cocoa Beach with my parents, and are so excited to know that Buzz went with them this time. Cub especially - he has a ton of questions, and I think Disney and NASA are pretty smart to do this.

Okay, I know... usually rocket scientists are pretty smart, and those Disney folks are no dummies either, so this is another brilliant idea from some very smart people.

Maybe the kids will be intrigued enough to want to become astronauts like their Papa Jerry, Geoff's father. He learned how to fly airplanes from a family friend when he was young. This man, Edgar, was a crop duster in our area, and later became his brother -in- law.

Mr. Jerry then flew in Vietnam with the Navy, and went on to be a Delta Air Lines pilot. In the 80's NASA opened up a program for civilian pilots with military experience to possibly become astronauts. Geoff's Daddy was high up on that list when the Challenger exploded in 1986, with a civilian on board, and then NASA discontinued the program.

Unfortunately, just a year later in September, Mr. Jerry was practicing an aerobatic move in a plane over a town near here and crashed. He passed away immediately when he hit the ground. I always knew if Geoff and I got married in the future, and had a son, he would have Mr. Jerry's name... and so he does.

I am not sure how my simple post about Buzz Lightyear ended up with me telling about this very special person, and the tragedy of how he died, but I am going to keep it just so. I think Mr. Jerry might like being in the same post about his namesake's childhood hero, as he orbits the earth in a space shuttle.

And All the Men Begin to Gather...

This may not look like much to most... but it is the beginning of a major event in this small town. Here we are looking through some of the corn and sunflower fields...


My husband left this morning on our lawn mower, headed up the field to meet my Daddy. My brother drove by shortly on one of his tractors, going in the same direction. I was standing on our front porch to take this fascinating shot of all the men gathering at the tractor pull site.

Yes, I said tractor pull. It is held in August, right here in the old pea patch.

I do not kid you in the least!

It may sound a bit hokey the way I spun it above (sorry Daddy, I couldn't resist a little fun) , but the tractor pull is actually a very big event for this town, and we look forward to it every year. This will be the 14th annual Antique Tractor Parade, Show and Tractor Pull. My family, as well as many others in our community, work very hard to make it an enjoyable family event for everyone. In the past, our town has grown by thousands on that day!

And on this day, they begin the preparations.

There will be a parade of tractors to start off the day (much more on this later), and then the children have a chance to race peddle tractors on the pull sight. During all the actual tractor pulls (by weight), there is a Powder Puff race for the ladies, a slow race and more. My Uncle Milton puts on a show with his dancing Bob Cat routine (a must see, honestly) and there is plenty of good food. The T-shirt has become a popular item to have over the years, and so much more fun I just can't write it all down.

I'll be sure to keep you up on the latest, as it gets closer we women become more involved in these preparations as well. I'll be taking pictures to show along the way too...

And though I do jest sometimes, it really is a fun day, and the kids absolutely love everything about it. So do the adults, or it would have gone by the wayside years ago.

Oh yes, one more thing... just for the record, though we may have a Farmall or two in our barn, John Deere is king of this hill!

They Moved the Island?!

I watched 3 hours of my most favorite show last night... LOST!

The first hour I saw two weeks ago, but it was the night before we left to go to the beach, and I have been sunburned since then. It was the season finale, and I was on the edge of my seat the whole night...

If you don't watch LOST this will all sound crazy... but what an awesome crazy! If you haven't seen it yet, don't read any further - my rambling will probably not make any sense, but I don't want to spoil the show for anyone!

I am wondering if Charlotte is Annie, Ben's friend from childhood? And, as my husband will tell you, I was in near tears when Penny and Desmond were finally reunited on her boat (!) - I have watched that scene two or three times now... Sawyer jumping from the helicopter and swimming up on the beach to find Juliette drunk on Dharma liquor, and the freighter gone up in smoke was awesome/somehow so sad (that is why I love this show - it's all so unexpected!), and I could go on and on and on... the "frozen donkey wheel" Ben had to turn to move the island in any other show would have totally lost me, but in this case I believed it all. Yep - love the show... hook, line and sinker.

And, I used to think it was Michael in that coffin, but knowing it is Locke (Jeremy Bentham?) throws more kinks in the mix. Not that I ever knew what it would mean if it had been Michael... Jin dying so dramatically was horrible, and I really felt for Sun. I love Jack, but I think she is now gonna blame him for that somehow. He even said something to that effect in the end conversation with good 'ol Ben.

I will now be waiting a very long while for LOST to return (next winter!)... yall should all get Seasons 1-4 and catch up if you don't watch... see the crazy your missing?!

Where Dreams Come True...

While at the beach we took a day trip over to Disney World's Magic Kingdom. This is the third year in a row we have entered this particular kingdom of Disney, and though the adults are all interested in some of the other parks, we are thrilled to see the looks of excitement and joy on EJ and Cub's face as we arrive at this fairy tale land.

We usually take the ferry boat over to the park from where you buy the tickets... here are the kids with Momma and Diddy, Aunt Runelle and Uncle Gene. Geoff is standing behind them with the stroller...

Elizabeth was once again star struck when we entered the room with the Princesses... Sleeping Beauty was so kind and took a lot of time with EJ. She said EJ looked like she could be her sister, and now EJ tells everyone that Princess Aurora said this!

Cinderella has always been EJ's favorite, though I must say Ariel and Sleeping Beauty are a close second. Here is EJ with her treasured Princess... she barely took a breath while talking with her she was so excited!
Cub was thrilled to see his idol, Buzz Lightyear!!! He too was all star struck and wide-eyed at being so close to him in real life - he gave Buzz many "high-fives", and was squeezing me so hard I thought I might not be able to breathe...
(I love my son so I show yall this picture - I look a sight, but again... I love my son, so I show it anyhow! It was mighty hot, and it had been a long day at this point!)

We caught the end of one of the afternoon performances as we left Tomorrow Land... this is also the spot we came back to when we watched the Electric Light Parade that night...

After the performance, we took the kids back to the Peter Pan ride. It was there that we were stopped by Katie, who picked us for a few of the Magical Moments they randomly do at Disney! Quickly, we were leaving the ride and someone called my son's name - then this girl also called my daughter's name! I looked twice and saw Katie, a friend of mine from the ranch I used to work at in Colorado... she was a little girl then, but has now grown up and works at Disney. I haven't seen her since 1995, but we keep up in email, and she gets the pictures I send of the kids. She didn't know we were at the park, and was just standing there looking for a family to pick, so it was by God's hand we ran into her... for me the magical moment was seeing her, but it was also a nice treat for the kids.

EJ and Cub were given magical coins to toss into Cinderella's Wishing Well, and as you can see Cub wanted to jump in it too! Katie also showed them a magical chest... they looked into a keyhole and saw Tinkerbell flying around inside! Cub was made an honorary Lost Boy, complete with certificate, as well as Prince for the day. EJ was made Princess for the day, and Pooh Bear's special guest at his part of the park. She got a certificate signed by all the characters, and the rest of us were made Honorary Citizens of Disney.

This is Katie with EJ... I can't believe little Katie is all grown up! I can't believe it was so random that we ran into her either, and after only seeing my children in pictures through email she recognized them.

Best part of our Magical Moments came at the end of the evening...

After the Electric Light Parade was over we were to go meet some very nice Disney folks back in Tomorrow Land, at the Astro Orbiter. We had places of honor on top of that ride to watch the fireworks display from the best seats in the place. It was truly a magical day with some extra special treats - one we will never forget! (Thanks Katie!)

One down for the night - one to go... and it wasn't too long after this picture he was out too!

Another Cocoa Moment

The Sand Castle

Geoff is a great sport... he admittedly would rather vacation in the mountains than at the beach, but has found many reasons to love Cocoa Beach and look forward to our annual vacation every year.

The kids joy at being there is one, of course. The close proximity to NASA is a biggie too, and last year we went to Titusville for awesome seats to watch a space shuttle blast off into outer space... even for a non space fanatic like me it was very, very cool!

There are more , but another that comes to mind involves a "real" shovel and lots of sand... he has turned his "boredom" of being on the beach into fun...

Here is where we staked our tent for the week... you can see Geoff just beginning to dig the hole for a mound of sand to work with.



The pic above is where he left it for the day... he had made it look more like a sand castle earlier, but Cub had a lot of fun tearing it down (!), so this was the beginning for the next day... I had to get my two cents in with the Cocoa Beach shout out.

A few days have gone by this next picture, and my brother BB is now on the beach with us, ready to help build a sand castle. During the week we had lots of family with us, and on Wednesday BB, Reynie and her parents came down. My parents were with us the whole time, and my Aunt and Uncle came the first part of the week. Momma and Diddy have two condos that we stay in, and it is like home we have been for so many years now.


BB and Geoff have been like brothers for a very long time now... they have many adventures under their belt, and I used to kid Geoff in high school of dating me to spend time with my brother. Even when we broke up during all those crazy years, Geoff and Billy were best friends, and my parents second son.

This was gonna be fun to watch....


The rest of us layed out in the sun, read magazines, played in the water with the kids, went for walks on the beach and looked for sea shells... during it all the kids went in for short naps and played at the pool too.


Many folks came by while they were building this, and many came by after as well... it was a great way to meet people... They did a great job, had lots of fun, and drank lots of beer (!). Okay, and water... Another great day on the beach!

EJ and Cub / Cocoa '08

I have tons of pictures to share... this is just one of many!