Another Chance Ranch

Random Question

What is your ringtone?

Do  you have several ringtones for different people?  I do.

McD - song from Lonesome Dove soundtrack

Mom - Rockford Files

Dad - The Tonight Show (Johnny Carson's) or Top Gun Anthem

Grandad - Theme from Bonanza

Sister - Fat Bottom Girls

My Default is the music from the BEEF commercials, or sometimes it is the Star Wars theme.

So, tell me, what are your ringtones.  I am wanting to add a few to my list, but am drawing a blank.  I am thinking of adding the Looney Tunes theme song for my friend Vicki. 

Abby Update - Ears

Oh my!  This little lady has stolen many hearts.  She is such a character.  Let me share some of our most recent happenings with ya.

First of all, you are all aware that we had her ears cropped.  Surgery went well, and she did great.  She never acted as though her ears hurt her at all.  She was still her ornery little self.  I say little but she is well over fifty pounds now, and is taller than Mia.

As you can see, her ears are not quite standing up yet.  When we had her stitches removed the doctor told us to give them a week to see if they stood up on their own.  They are trying, but most of the time they look like this.  Or one ear is up and the other is down.  Sometimes she resembles the Flying Nun.  I will be calling the doctor today to see when we can get them taped.  We gotta train those babies to stand up.  She certainly looks like a completely different dog with her ears cropped.  Don't ya think?

When we got her ears cropped she started terrorizing the cat, Mordecai.  She played with him before, but now that she has this crazy thing going on with her ears Mordecai is scared half to death.  His tail gets real fluffy, his back is arched, ears laid back, and his pupils are huge!  Then he starts making these strange noises that I've never heard him make before. 

I have been having a lot of fun sneaking up on Abby when she is outside, or when she is walking down the dark hall at night coming to bed.  When she isn't sure who is there she lowers her head, one ear goes up, and sometimes she growls.  Sometimes she tries to be stealth-like.  When she gets close, I make a lunge toward her and she jumps for me.  Her little nub of a tail wagging the whole time.  Then she goes crazy, running in circles, all wound up and ready to play.

She still talks to me when I don't pay attention to her.  Yesterday I was leaving for the grocery store and I said, "See ya later Abs."  She stopped, turned, and barked once.  I took that as, "Later."  Wouldn't you?

One last story.  Last night Abby was messing around outside.  When I went out to check on her she had drug up a bunch of stuff.   Some of the stuff is from a pile of lumber that will be burnt this fall, there is a couple of rugs, and more lumber.  Her favorite thing to do is chew on wood.  Check out them ears! 

I gotta call the doctor today.  We have to get those ears taped!

The Highly Anticipated Post

Godly Friends & Family

A while back I decided to start reading the New Testament again.  I have found that when I re-read the Bible I get something new out of it every time.  Preachers and teachers have always said that we could read the Bible over and over, and learn something new each time.  The reason that is possible, they would say, is because our lives are constantly changing.  Or, "things" in our lives are constantly changing.

A few weeks ago the following scriptures jumped off the page at me, not literally of course, but they certainly caught my attention. 

"Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.'"  ~ Matthew 15:17-18

It really made me think, and the first thing that came to my mind was something a good friend of mine said to me.  As soon as the comment came from their mouth I think I realized it had come from the heart.  I was hurt.

More recently a situation arose with the same friend.  At first I was just irritated, kind of put out, and not really sure if we are as good of friends as what we claim to be.  All of this made me curious as to what the Bible says about friends/friendship.  I mean, let's face it, the Bible is THE rule book of life.  When we play a new board game and we are confused, or don't know what we are doing we read the rules.  So, I went to THE rules.

I found tons of scriptures regarding friends and friendships.  Here are a few of them.  Please keep in mind that I was studying out of two different Bibles during this time, so some of these are NKJV* and some are NIV**.

Proverbs 12:26 (NKJV)

    The righteous should choose his friends carefully, for the way of the wicked leads them astray.

  Basically, those who walk in opposition to God's word can cause you to go astray. (I read this somewhere a long time ago and honestly can't remember who said it.)

1 Corinthians 15:33 (NIV)

    Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character."

Isn't it funny how our parents would say that you are known by the company that you keep.  "People will think you are just like them."  I heard that from my parents and my grandparents.  Hmmm, maybe they were onto something. :)

Proverbs 13:20 (NKJV)

    He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed.

This one certainly made me think about the different relationships I have with my family and friends.  I include my family here because I am friends with most of my family members.  Aren't most of us?  Friends with our family, I mean. 

As I sat there holding my Bible I made a mental list of my "Godly Friends" and my "Not-So Godly Friends."  I thought about each person and their good traits, and not-so good traits.  The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. 

Then something hit me, and hit me HARD.   

We are supposed to apply the Bible to our own lives, not others.

There I was sitting there practically judging them, putting them into categories.  Not good. 

As a friend, I am supposed to be encouraging.  It says so in the Bible.

Ephesians 4:29

    A godly friend is one that encourages others.

It is much easier to criticize people than to encourage them.  Have you noticed that?  I mean, seriously, how hard is it to find something nice to say, and to encourage. 

I've gone back through my recent readings and applied them to myself instead of envisioning my friend.  I know that I need to work on being a better godly friend myself, an encourager if you will.  Not only do I need to be an encourager, I need to encourage them to be godly friends too.  (This is my first step.)  Hopefully, I can save this friendship, because I don't want to be a companion of fools.

Let's all try to build people up rather than knock them down. 

_______________________________________________________________________

NKJV - New King James Version

NIV - New International Version

I'm Working

I'm working on a really heartfelt blog post.  It is about friends, family, and stuff.   But I am going to head to lunch, do some shopping, and then get ready for the big rodeo tonight!  Woohoo!

Be back later!

(in)Courage

This is the reason I haven't blogged today. :) 

I have been here reading, and reading, and reading, and reading.

They have giveaways going on too.

Check them out.

I will be back tomorrow with a real post, but for now I am headed back to (in)Courage.

Join me!

I love

Carol Burnett.

She is my absolute favorite female comedian. 

Did you see her on Bonnie Hunt today?

Love her!

That is all.

Beauty Secrets

The other day I was shopping with a friend, and needed to pick up some concealer. My friend needed bronzer. She wears Bobbi Brown makeup and I wear Bare Minerals.

The girls at each of those makeup counters were great! I learned a couple of things from them that day.

First, you should apply your eye shadow before applying your eye liner. I didn't know that. She said that the oils in your skin will cause the eyeliner to smear.

Second thing is about your lipstick. They said that you are supposed to get the shade that is closest to your own lip color. Didn't know that either.

I ended up buying new lipstick/gloss and she was right, it looks better than any other shade I've ever worn.

Do you have any beauty secrets you can share with us?

Looking Back - Babe in the Mud

Four years, 1 month, and 1 day ago this was our story.  Yesterday I was playing around with my Flickr account and found these old photos.  It reminded me of this post, and I know a lot of you are newer readers and haven't read this one. So I am re-posting it just for you.

This is what I found the morning after our return from Colorado.  While McD was working out 3 of the horses came up, we have 4.  Ruby was whinnying for Babe and looking up at the hill.  So McD headed that way looking for her.  He came into the house and told me what was going on (6:45 am).  He had to get ready for work.  I got around, headed out the door got on the 4-wheeler and started the search. 

At around 8:30 I found her.  Our lovely Percheron (draft horse) Babe had to have been trying to eat some grass growing around the dry pond.  That would have been fine but the top is the only thing dry.  The silt underneath is still not.  We don't know exactly when she got stuck.  By the trail she left behind and the shape she was in, we figured she probably got  stuck sometime the night before.  Thank goodness it wasn't the day before.  The temps had been in the hundreds and she would have died.  We are very fortunate.

Poor Babe was having a hard time breathing so here you can see where McD had been digging the mud out away from her sides.  That helped quite a bit.  Most of the time I was stationed up by her head trying to calm her down.  She had thrown her head around while trying to move and had scraped it up a bit.  She would rest her head (which weighs a ton) on my foot.  But when McD got down there I just had to get the camera out.  Now would you have believed this story without photos?

Here is the trail she left behind.  She only had 18 feet left to go and she would have made it to the bank.

McD and Slick are using a piece of bent rebar that one of our neighbors fixed up for us.  He welded a loop at one end so we could tie a tow rope to it.  Then they threaded the ropes up and under Babe.  Then the ropes were connected to the chains.  The chains were hooked onto the tractor.  (Reminds me of that song - the ankle bone's connected to the knee bone, and so on.) 

We have some really good friends and neighbors.  We don't have a big tractor but our neighbor does.  We had chain, but not enough.  They went and got more of theirs.  Slick works with McD.  They were in a staff meeting when I called and said, "You have to get out here now."  (I think that is what I said.  That part is all a blur now.)  McD said that Slick heard him telling me to stay with her and try to keep her calm.  As he was walking out telling them all that he had to leave, Slick was already up and headed out with him.  Offered to take his pick-up and get the heck out of dodge.  It felt like it took forever for them to get there.  But I know they were flying.  (Driving like Pioneer Woman's family.)  I was on the phone with my Mom because I had to have some moral support.

You can see how the ropes are around her.  Chuck was driving the tractor.  Slick's wife took this photo.  I was running to get something, who knows what at this point.  Kim was trying to keep me calm I think.  That is Slick there in the white t-shirt.  He was a life saver that day, literally!

Here is Babe.  She is out of the pond/mud/silt.  She laid there for about 15 minutes.  She tried to get up but she was too weak.  I ran and got the halter from the barn.  McD got it on her and the next time she tried to get up, she did it.  She was kind of wobbly.  But she was up and probably in shock. 

She walked up the bank, slowly but surely.  Kim took her some more water.  And then Babe started eating grass.  This horse lives to eat.  McD walked her to the barn where she got in the shade and got a shower (one of many). 

Babe is doing great!!!  We still have her up at the barn and will let her out to roam the pastures again probably tomorrow.  Ruby is up here with her.  We are fortunate that she didn't get colic.  That she didn't break a leg.  And that we didn't snap her two left legs when we pulled her out.  She is onery as ever.  Splashing around in the water tank.  Even nipping (or lipping) you when you aren't showing her enough attention. 

I think Slick's son who is 4 said it best.  She was saved by all of our prayers.  We certainly couldn't have gone through the day without a little help from above.

My Boots!

Okay, so this is a really random post I know.  But I am trying to find a dress/skirt to go with my boots for an event next week.  Jenni has been kind enough to help me browse the web, and I wanted her to see my boots so she would know what to look for. :)

If you have any ideas please let me know. Right now we are just browsing, but I have to buy something soon. Tell me where you think I should shop, or send me a link to something you find on the web.

Thanks!

Congratulations Vera!!!

Congrats Vera!!

You are the winner of the $50 gift certificate from CSNStores!  I will be emailing you shortly to give you all the details. 

I can't wait to hear what you choose from one of CSNStores 200+ websites. 

You lucky lady!

Thanks to everyone for playing along.  Maybe I will have another one of these soon!