Severe Cankle Case

Saturday morning, being the *ahem*ahem* marvelous daughter I am, I got up at 5:30 a.m. cooked a quick breakfast of eggs Benedict, and Belgian waffles, and then went to work with my Dad.

Ok so the whole eggs Benedict thing isn't true...they were just scrambled eggs.

Ok so I didn't cook breakfast at all, I just grabbed a Nutri-Grain Bar.

Anyways, (now that we've established I have an "overactive imagination") once me and my Dad arrived at the feed yard we fell into the normal routine:

1. Open Gates
2. Start Feed Trucks
3. Read Bunks
4. Daddy starts feeding
5. I feed horses...sometimes.
6. I get on Feed Tractor with Daddy to open Gates.

And it was after #6 that my morning order got terribly disrupted.

You see, usually I jump down from the tractor as graceful as a ballerina...there goes that overactive imagination again...and glide to the gate and thrust it open in order for Daddy to drive the Tractor through it.

Well this particular morning, every ounce of grace, and coordination I ever had, in my entire life left me...

When I jumped down from the tractor, I landed on un-even ground, twisted my weak ankles, and hit my knees....

I then proceeded to crawl around, crying like a baby, trying not to gag and/or faint.

My right ankle is now three times the size of my other one (severe cankle case) and is purple/blue, and tends to wiggle when I walk...which is quite often.

Now, if you have the strong urge to laugh, throw up, or never read my blog again, I'll completely understand.

I'm going to go soak my ankle in Epsom Salts now.


Peace, Love, & I am now anti-John Deere.

Sweet T

When....

When deer antlers appear....

When feather ornaments are hung...

When bows are all placed...

When netted ribbon is in abundance...

When Christmas berries are...everywhere...

When Red-Nosed Reindeer's pop out from trees...

And When Christmas Trees light up your heart...

You know Christmas is near!


Peace, Love, & Let the Holidays Begin!

Sweet T

Pie Throwdown

Contestant #1. 
Autumn Townsend. 
Age - 14 (going on 15). 
Favorite Food - Italian.
Hero - (To)Mater or John Wayne.
Take on the Holidays - The best way to spread Christmas Cheer is singing loud for all to hear. -Elf
Pie Cooked - Lemon Meringue.

Contestant #2.
Sweet T
Age - 17(Going on middle aged)
Favorite Food - Meatloaf
Hero - Truvy Jones, or Cindy Lou Hoo.
Take on the Holidays - "Oh the humanity!" - The Grinch
Pie Cooked - Buttermilk

Judge #1.
Tripp Townsend
Age - 40
Favorite Food - Beef Tips & Rice.
Hero - My Dad.
Take on the Holidays - "I like the Holidays, because you can stay in the house with family."

Judge #2.
Hope Townsend
Age - 38
Favorite Food - Dr. Pepper...and Mexican.
Hero - Too many to mention
Take on the Holidays - "Love 'em. For three reasons: cooking, shopping, and family."

Judge #3.
Trail Townsend
Age - 8
Favorite Food - Bean Burritos
Hero - Bryce Chapman
Take on the Holidays - "I like to stay with my family, watch movies, and eat."


Who will win the Pie Throwdown?!?!

After much deliberation.....

The judges decided.....IT'S A TIE!!!!

And then I declared myself the winner, and Autumn pied me.

Just kidding, that didn't happen...but we did both make WONDERFUL pies.  Especially Autumn, her lemon meringue made me cry it was such a delicacy.  Kudos Autumn.


Peace, Love, & I want a Lemon Tree.

Sweet T

A Young Truvy

Could I pass as young Truvy Jones? (AKA: Dolly Parton.)

Come on look at the similarities....

1)Beautiful golden locks, carefully ratted.

2)Lovely, fair, blemish free skin.

3)Straight Pearly Whites framed by fire engine red lips.

4)...............................?

Ok so I have none of the qualities listed above, but hey a girl can hope.

I'm not giving up yet!

I can still talk like her!

I'm still a Steel Magnolia!

I am still going to paint my door red and change my name to Elizabeth Taylor!

I still would rather step on my lips than talk about anybody!

And I'm obviously too twisted for color TV....I think I going to go lie down now.

Peace, Love, & Truvy lives!

Sweet T

Our Bountiful Table

Tonight me and my family had a feast like no other feast ever had before.

(I've been talking about food alot lately....does that mean I have an addiction?
Hold that thought...the oven is going off.)

Instead of having our family Thanksgiving yesterday like all the other normal families, we decided to have ours today...because we are cool like that...Or weird?

Anyways...Behold our bountiful table!

Beautiful isn't it?
I get tears just looking at it.

There was one downside though, and that was that we had HAM with cranberry sauce, instead of TURKEY with cranberry sauce. Who does this "Ham" think it is?
It thinks it can just replace Turkey. Just like that!
Well not if I have anything to say about it!
BRING IT ON HAM!

I have issues.

We had so many side dishes I didn't know what to do with myself....

So I just started eating in order to think it over...

We also had Welch's Sparkling Grape Juice!

So if I'm slurrrrrinnng m-m-m-yyy wwww-ooo-rrdss thatssss w-w-w-hhhy.

I have issues.

And for dessert?!?!
Pie!

Me and Autumn had a pie making contest that I'll have to tell you about later; results are still pending.


As you can see this day was not waisted.

We had so much food, I cried.
On top of that, we had so much family time, I cried.
Just kidding...kinda.
No really, just kidding...I think.

What are we talking about again?

Hey, don't ask me, your the one reading this blog....weirdo.

Have you been drinking some Welch's Sparkling Grape Juice too?


Peace, Love, & I have issues

Sweet T

Just A bunch Of Dorks

My Mom.

My Dad.

My Dorks.

My Dorks, that give each other Christmas gifts on Thanksgiving...



My Dorks that raised Dorks....

What can I say?

We are just a bunch of dorks.

Peace, Love, & Let me hear ya yell if you are a dork!

Sweet T

Ode to A BitterSweet Holiday

Oh Thanksgiving, Why must you taunt me so?
You advertise Happiness and Content. But you keep secret all your Woe.

And your Woe is this: You make me so full I must cry...
...You make me so full I cannot even sigh.

But I love you so much! This is the conflict I have raging within...
Your table is so bountiful I don't even know where to begin!

Right when I feel all is well, Right when I'm surrounded by family that is to my fancy,
You bring out your deathly weapon: Your table with Turkey and Dressing.


Peace, Love, & Turkey makes me Delusional

Sweet T


P.S. This post is dedicated to an Aunt who's name I must not mention (*ahem* Erica), because she feels that I did not do her, or pink, justice in my earlier "Thankful" blog post.

Now, I can't promise you that I'm going to dedicate a blog post to pink...but I will dedicate this one to you because I consider you a bit more special than pink...a bit. He He

Here you go Erica...You are lucky I find your so son so adorable.
And...I guess...I consider you and Matt adorable too.

P.S.S. I'm sorry I'm weird.

I am Thankful...

for My Family.

For every single one of them, no matter how weird they are.

And yes the are SUPER weird.  If you ever question why I am so weird, just look at them and it will explain everything.

(Example A.)

For America.

If I wasn't born in America, where would I be?....Probably Canada. (There is nothing wrong with Canada, but if you think I'm weird now imagine me as a Canadian.)  (Example B.)

For My Dog Max.

Max brings joy...not just for my family, but for all who encounter him.  Just look at that face...how can you resist him?

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

It comes only once a year.  And every year I cry with joy, and/or fear when I see the Ronald McDonald balloon...(Example C.)

My Friends.

Memories with these girls...none can compare!  I love them despite the fact they are major dorks...that is except for me, I'm the only *ahem* normal one.

And the list could go on and on, but I must stop now because there is cooking to be done!

Well for my Mother that is, I'll be occupying my time with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Hope you all have a Happy/Jolly/Fun/Entertaining Thanksgiving!


Peace, Love, & No I'm not lazy...My Mother just doesn't allow me in the Kitchen anymore....

Sweet T

Lets Give Thanks...for Thanksgiving

Because it is near and dear to my heart, and stomach.

Not to mention it's a time of peace and prosperity for all who encounter the abundance of flavor that are in the traditional meals.

Thanksgiving season makes me jolly...

For the obvious reasons:

• No school
• family
• and pumpkin pie

And for the not so obvious reasons:

• Sweet Potatoes
• various cranberry sauces
• and Dressing

You'll notice that a number of my reasons are food. (is that a form of gluttony?)
Now I want you to be sure and know that I AM THANKFUL FOR MY FAMILY...I'm just also very thankful they can make delicious food.

Like....

 Pie

And Veggies...

Yes, I do like veggies...I know, that's probably not normal for a teenage girl.

And Thanksgiving does happen to be one of my ALL TIME favorite meals...ever.
Did I mention I love it.
And that it's my favorite?
Well, it is.

I love everything about it.

And now if you'll excuse me I am going to go con my Mother into making "Thanksgiving" right now.

And if she doesn't, I'm coming to your house.

Will you make me Thanksgiving?

Peace, Love, & Turkeys make the World go round...

Sweet T

Grand Entries Gone Very Wrong

So yesterday I mentioned the fact that last weekend I almost broke my leg horseback.

Now keep in mind that this statement might be a bit of an overstatement, but nevertheless I experienced severe pain, and embarrassment.

So here it goes....

It started Saturday night at about 6:45 p.m.

We were at the Finals Ranch Rodeo in Amarillo Texas, where as some of you may know, there is a "Grand Entry" every night.

Now I imagine that they include the word "Grand" in this title because the entry is supposed to be just that: Grand, interesting, entertaining, void of all clumsiness...things such as these.  Well when you insert a certain cowgirl named "Summer" in the "Grand Entry" the entry becomes everything it is not supposed to be...i.e. Chaotic, scary, life threatening, etc...

Every night they allow one person from your team to carry a state flag, and this just happened to be my lucky night (and everyone Else's unlucky night.)

So when you carry the flag you are supposed to blast out into the arena, at full speed, carrying your flag high and proud.

So I did just that.

I blasted out of that tunnel on my com padre, Pink Panther, at full speed.

Carrying the flag high, and holding on to it tight because if I dropped it I would be subjected to embarrassment for the rest of my life, and possibly be shunned by everyone in the world.

As I rounded the first corner, I was feeling good, jolly even, because I had had no mess-ups up to this point.

And then we came to the second corner.....

As I approached the second corner, I began to get an uneasy feeling.  For a minute I thought it was just butterfly's, or stage fright or something, but then I realized it was my brain yelling at me to not cut the corner to sharp!

Well I didn't listen to my brain, and did just that....I cut the corner much to sharply.

This resulted in me colliding with the unfortunate horse and rider at that particular corner.
In fact, the collision was so severe, I would actually call it more of a...I don't know...crash at tornadic wind speeds?

Not only did I feel searing pain in my now numb leg, but I nearly knocked the unfortunate rider off his unfortunate horse.

But he didn't fall off...Instead he now has a bad case of whip flash.

And so does the rider in front of him, because once I hit him, he hit the rider in front of him, and so on and so forth.

Well I hope you get the picture of the disaster that I, along with the other injured riders, experienced at the Finals Ranch Rodeo, because I can not talk about it no more from this day forth.  You might also like to know that my complexion is permanently red from the embarrassment I still experience daily.

These are the last words I have to say on the matter: 
"Dear Injured rider(s) and Horse(s)...FORGIVE ME!...I am cursed with the "Klutz for life" syndrome, and you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, I apologize...send me your doctors bill.


Peace, Love & If you need me I'll be in my room applying cover up to my flushed face.

Sweet T

P.S.

Combine these two pictures and you'll understand what I looked like at the time of the unfortunate accident.

Oh My!

Dear Friends,

It has been over almost two weeks since the last time we talked, and every single day (NOT A JOKE) I would go to bed thinking, "Oh My!"
Simply because I had not written!

Were you as dismayed as I was?
Is "Oh My!" something my Mother would say?
Am I turning into my Mother?
Are you turning into your Mother?
Do you call your Mother, "Mother?"

Sorry....I forget that I'm a dork sometimes....

Anyways since we last talked my life has been nothing short of eventful...

I Have...
1)Been to basketball practice.

Every day for at least two hours, and BELIEVE ME it has paid off!
I can now dribble with both my right, AND left hands, but not at the same time, I think that would be called a foul or something.

Don't hate me.

2)Been to Farm Skills Practice.

For those of you who don't savvy Farm Skills it is an FFA event where myself, and two other lovely ladies named Justin, and Colton build an electric fence, and present it to a panel of judges...with our voices.
Interesting? You ask....

Oh yes, it very well is....We'll be at the Grand Ole Opry in exactly two weeks.

Just kidding...

But it is very fun (for us) and we take pride in our fence....We also respect it, because if you don't it will shock you, and make you lose all composure and run away crying for you Mom.

3) Attempted Actual College Classes & Applied for Actual College Scholarships

Now I'm not going to talk about this for very long because every time I do I get a searing pain in my neck...(ahem, pain in my neck???....Don't hate me.)

Anyways, It stressful.
Complicated.
And not fun.

And now if you'll exscuse me, I'm going to go stick my head in the freezer for a minute.
Please don't report me.

4) Been to the Ranch Rodeo Finals.

This has been the highlight of my last two & a half weeks...despite almost breaking my leg..(I'll explain later, because when I talk about it, I am still overcome with nauseating waves of embarrassment that make me sick to my stomach) because it was full of

• fun
• cows of various sizes,
• horses of various sizes, colors, and talents,  
• cowboys of various sizes, and various talents.

Now two of those cowboys just happened to win "Top Horse" and "Top Hand"...I won't mention names because I don't want their heads to outgrow their cowboy hats, BUT....one of them I happen to call "Father."
And the other one I just call "Moron."....or "Uncle."
But mostly "Moron."

And also a cowgirl I call "P-Brain" or "Sister."
But mostly "P-Brain."
Just happened to win the Sr. Youth Ranch Horse Competition.

Like I said though, I won't mention names.....

Well...

That about sums up my last two and a half weeks.

I know it wasn't interesting.
But that's not a normal week for me.
Usually I take a few fast trips to Rome to sample different types of olives, or fly to Canada to feed the geese, but this week I decided to take it easy.



Peace, Love, & Canadian Geese aren't  as friendly as they seem.

Sweet T

Augustus

I have a pig.

And no his name is not Trail.

His name is Augustus, after my favorite movie cowboy, Augustus McCrae.

My pig's mustache isn't quite to Mr. McCrae's standards yet though....but we're working on it.

In fact Augustus the pig doesn't even really resemble Augustus the cowboy....

Augustus the pig looks somewhat like this....

Except he doesn't get to frolic in a field of flowers that often.

Just when he's being a good boy.

Ok, I lied...he never gets to frolic in a field of flowers.  But occasionally he does get to frolic in sand and mud.

Don't cry for Augustus, he loves his owner.

Autumn has a pig too....

He doesn't has a name yet, but I feel we should name him "Autumn" simply because he resembles his owner.

See for yourself...

Peace, Love, & I'm not a bad Person, just slightly bored.

Sweet T

The Life of a Bovine

The life of a Bovine (better known around here as the "cow" or "steak") must be a pleasant one.

Their days consist of eating....

eating....again...

And occasionally getting some much needed exercise after eating so much.

Don't we all wish we could live the leisurely life of a bovine?


Peace, Love, & You can't have "Peace" or "Love" without a steak
Sweet T