Living on the Laugh

If you were to ask anyone that knows the group called the "Wranglers," just what brought them together and what keeps them together. The answer you would receive would probably be, "they all have wrangler jeeps".

That is a true statement, however, it is not totally accurate.

We laugh. We wranglers laugh. We snicker, we laugh out loud, we even "belly laugh" at times and when we are through with that, we laugh and laugh and laugh some more.

Remember:

• Ellen's books in San Francisco,


• the peanut shuffle in Red River,


• the bush man in San Francisco,


• the gifts provided to us by Kathi in Red River,


• all of David's monologues(mostly bologna but highly amusing),


• the "Ten Commandments",


• our volleyball team(especially if Mike was on your team!, he thought we should win),


• speaking of Mike, the lotion


• Grubb getting ahead of himself


• Larry eating with those birds! yuk....


• the kayaks
• laughing at ourselves
• "Carmen" and "what's her last name now?" from Red Lobster last week.
• and all the dinner time conversations where we sat and ate and just told stories and laughed

Tonight, Mike and Debbie came through Clovis from Albuquerque and we met at Leal's for dinner, we ate, caught up on our holiday stories and "laughed". What a precious, precious gift we have been given, the gift of friends and laughter.

If you are a wrangler looking at this post and you do not see yourself. Give me time, it is late and I just grabbed a few pictures to bring back the laughs. I will eventually find a picture of you to add to this post.

There She Is....

"Miss Shannon"

or "spicy enchilada" as the wrangler boys call her.... Shannon Hudson Cole, the wrangler "fashion queen". But Shannon hurts.

Tomorrow morning at 8:00 Shannon starts her first round of Chemotherapy. Doesn't make sense does it? Shannon is only 21 and has rheumatoid arthritis, how can this be? We have prayed and prayed for her healing, we have begged and begged God for her healing, we have cried and asked "why" many times. Do we need to pray longer? harder? louder? more often? God, what do we need to do? Fast for a day? a week? a month? 40 days? You are the almighty, the creator of all, Shannon included. We have been told "they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint."

Well, it seems we have waited a long time on the Lord but for you, God, that isn't much time, you are gauging on a scale of "eternity", not 2004-2007. If I had my desire, Shannon would wake up in the morning and you would have put your hand on her and healed her of all this disease. What is your desire? That would really make it easier if we knew where you were headed with this. In all things you desire the glory, the praise and the honor, and you tell us that in your time, things will happen as you designed them to happen.

Tonight I learned that the "el" on the end of Immanuel means God and the first part of the word means "with us". With us God - Immanuel. Tonight, tomorrow and until she is healed, Debbie, David, Shannon, Ronnie, Pat, Pauline, Vickie and family, Alan and family and all her friends need this promise, "With us God", Immanuel because that is all we can hold to, this just doesn't make sense. I heard several years ago "when you can't see his hand, you have to trust his heart". That is so much easier said than done, (if you are looking at me). I do better with the plans laid out in front of me and then I can see how things are to unfold. I guess I will have to "wait upon the Lord" awhile longer.

God, my prayer is while we all wait, please let us focus on you and your hand on her life, your ability to comfort and heal, your love for Shannon and her family, and to never forget that you are her creator, you knew Shannon first. You picked her hair color, her eye color, her shape and her size, her smile and fun personality and her love for life. You gave her to a wonderful mom and dad and then blessed her with a precious husband. She is your child, let us never forget that, you know we are praying on her behalf and you have a plan for her. God, may you be glorified through all of this ordeal. We love you

Sandy

The Kids

We all arrived at Zia Elementary with our camcorders and cameras to film every move they made. It wasn't long until we were in the bleachers screaming as loud as we could to cheer on the Yucca Chaparral's(what IS a Chaparral, it doesn't sound very intimidating). And then on to Clovis High School to watch them perform in whatever their interest drove them to excel in. (yes that is a preposition on the end of my sentence).

All the while wondering "what will they do in life"? "will they be as funny as they are now"?, "will they be as serious as they are now"? "will they remember "us" and Clovis"? "who will they marry"?, "will they marry"? "where will they live"?

And now the kids are in their 20's. Some have graduated from college and are in grad school, some have taken on careers, some are married, some are not, some are about to be, and the rest are still "looking".

But tonight I had the distinct privilege to read Troy Oliver's blog. It made me laugh as Troy always does, it made me reminisce because I watched him all those years with the Clan girls, it made me proud because they have all done so well, it made me sad because one is not with them any longer, and it made me realize, they did grow up, they are now - Adults. From Clan and friends to "adults"; parents, employees, spouses, grad students, ex cons, etc... they are no longer just the "kids".

Well adults, you have made us proud, all of you have done well.

I will always love you guys.

Sandy

PS. you need to make time to read Troy's blog. I have put the link on our blogpage, it is so funny and so "Troy". As Lee K. has always said "Troy is the best public speaker ever". His writing is wonderful also.

(I will eventually scan a few pictures of you and post with this so the rest of the world can see this fine group.)

The Funniest TV Show

I work all day long with people that do not feel well. I am never called to a home of someone who is "doing just fine". Just yesterday we received a call from the husband of one of our patients letting us know that Jan had passed away.

Jan was not very old, Jan just had cancer. We all enjoyed going out to their beautiful secluded ranch miles from Santa Rosa and listening to Jan talk about her horses and her grandchildren. She was fighting so hard to beat this cancer and last time I talked to her on the phone, she was headed to Tulsa, OK to a cancer clinic. We really thought she would beat the cancer.

Just prior to that call, Sandy called to say her husband had passed away also. He was 68, just a brief illness. We had not had this patient very long.

I said all that to say, I have never been a sitcom person. But this year, I have found a sitcom that is absolutely hilarious to me. "Reba". this show makes me laugh and laugh, to the point where I can hardly breath at times. I think the reason that I love this show is because it is a release for me. I can just sit and watch Reba and Barbara Jean and laugh.

If you have never seen the show, maybe you would like it also. Grubb gave me two seasons on DVD, one at Christmas and one on our Anniversary. I love them.

http://www.tv.com/reba/show/1409/summary.html

Our Crew

Here is the picture that we have for a screen saver on our home computer.

What is a Blog???

I have been asked several times today,"what is a blog"? I didn't really know the answer because every blog I read seems to have a different slant. Our blog looks more like a scrapbook page.

I just found the definition and here it is....


What's a blog?
A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world.
Your blog is whatever you want it to be. There are millions of them, in all shapes and sizes, and there are no real rules.
In simple terms, a blog is a web site, where you write stuff on an ongoing basis. New stuff shows up at the top, so your visitors can read what's new. Then they comment on it or link to it or email you. Or not.
Since Blogger was launched in 1999, blogs have reshaped the web, impacted politics, shaken up journalism, and enabled millions of people to have a voice and connect with others.
And we're pretty sure the whole deal is just getting started.

One more picture

Abi made this ornament for Grubb and I this year.

Blogging at 50

Thank you guys for being my guinea pigs tonight as I try my hand at creating a blog. I have heard of this for the past few years but I didn't really know how to do this.

I would love for my different family groups and my friends to share blogs so that I could keep up with you and your families. I am not sure how this can be done but I am sure one of you is savvy enough or has played with blogging enough to teach the rest of us how to do that.

Wouldn't it be great to sign on and see different family photos and tidbits from family members?

I would love that.

I need to get to bed, it is late and I will now lay in bed thinking about this learning experience and things I could do to improve this blog.

Time for another picture, I love pictures! I chose "Mere and her girlfriends" to end this post tonight.

Alright!!!!

I finally figured out how to get something on the left side of the page. For the last hour, everything I do lands on the right side of the page.

Do you want to see another picture? I will find another one to post. Just a minute and I will be back from looking in my picture file.

This is a picture from Heath and Mere's wedding reception. I thought it was pretty. The cakes were beautiful, I will see if it will let me add another picture. Be right back.

An exercise in patience!

Ok, I am trying to figure out why all my picture posts went to the right side of the page and I have this big open space on the left.

Why do I try to do these things alone? Shouldn't I take classes in "new" things?

Now I will try and post a picture to this box to see where it goes on the Blog. What is a Blog anyway? I don't think I like that name for my family stuff; Blog??? Just sounds fat and gooey.

Well, here is our family at Telluride Colorado last July 4th. We don't always dress alike, only on the 4th of July each year.