Everything I Know I Learned in Kindergarten

A lot has happened since our last post. You'd think so since it was July 16 when the last post was made! I guess our lives are just plain boring compared to some people. But the start of the new school year marked another milestone for us--our first grandchild started kindergarten. It's been a mixture of excitement, apprehension, pride, sadness, but mainly just a reminder that life goes on and everyday brings about changes that make you realize how much you should enjoy today.



Taylor has been in school for three weeks and seems to be enjoying the experience. His favorite times are lunch and recess! Imagine that! It's been a big switch for him getting to go to school with his mother each day. His dad teaches, too, so it's not like he hasn't been around the campus already. But, he is always happy to come home after school to pick up Presley and see his PawPaw and BeBe.

Today was Grandparents Day at school. Taylor has been looking forward to us coming and eating lunch with him. We had told him we would bring him a special lunch so he requested a ham and cheese sandwich (on wheat) from the Hidden Valley store, plain chips and an Orange Crush. So, today lunch was a little different, but he loved it!



Presley has been staying with us during school, although we have other people lined up to keep her while we are gone and for later when the pecan harvest begins and we both need to be working in the orchard. She is changing so much, learning to say a lot of words and likes to feed the cats first thing in the morning! She has also learned to pooch her lip out and frown when things don't go her way. But, she has been so easy to keep, especially with two naps a day. She is just plain sweet and precious and really reminds us of Jennifer when she was this age.

Here are a few pictures from the past few weeks.

Birthday Wishes to the Mrs.

My beautiful wife had a birthday last week, on July 11 to be exact. She turned...., well, lets just say that she turned another day older!! But, to me, she's not getting older, only better! Beverly is an amazing person, wife, mother, grandmother and friend. She continues to put others before herself. I hope that I learn to appreciate that trait more fully and I suspect that others see it in her life as well.

For her birthday, she chose not some big birthday get away, but to have her aging parents down for the day as well as our daughter and our grand children. It was a full day filled with visiting and eating. Eating calls for cooking, so a lot of her birthday was spent preparing meals. Not too exciting, but it was good to have as many here as possible. The boys were out of pocket, but they called her and wished her their best!

Here are 5 things I like about Beverly (it's hard to come up with your Top 5 things because there so many!):

1. She is a Godly woman that wants and tries to put God first in her life.

2. Beverly is a beauty, inside and out. She likes to see the good in people.

3. She loves to go 4-wheeling in the Jeep especially in Colorado
over some pretty wild places. She has a great sense of adventure.

4. She is a great mother and grand mother. She is a hard worker, too!

5. Beverly continues to love me even when I don't deserve it.

Happy Birthday to my best friend! I love you. Here are a few pictures that I like of her (some you may have seen before, but I like them). I know she won't like any of them, but, hey, I'm the one doing the post! I couldn't find the song "You're My Best Friend" by Don Williams so "Till the rivers Run Dry" will have to do.

The Sad, Sorrowful Saga of Sweetie Pie

As you may know, we had a cat show up at the house several months ago and, well, you know, she had a sweet personality and everything and well, you know, she got to hanging around and, well, she finally just stayed and we got to really love her. Well, as nature will have it with stray female cats, she was or became pregnant during her visit here and had 4 kittens about the first of April. She was a good mama and was doing a good job raising them, until one morning she didn't come up to eat. Sad story, but the following day we found her down in the park behind us. She had had a run in with something, probably a car.

Well, the kittens were 5 weeks old and were learning to eat on their own, so thanks to some mothering from Beverly, they made it. One looked pretty much like a Siamese, one was a grey Tabby and the other two looked like twins with white faces and tan, Siamese looking hair. Taylor named the smallest one Sweetie Pie and that was his favorite and he named the other twin Fluffy. Simon and Tiger rounded out the name giving of the two boy kittens.

Well, kittens are OK, but 4 rapidly growing kittens soon become cats. We thought we had all of them placed but at the last minute we found a new home for the twin girls, Fluffy and Sweetie Pie. Taylor was, lets just say disappointed, that they were not going to grow old here in the Phillips household. We told his mother that if she thought it was OK, she might bring Taylor by and let him tell Sweetie Pie goodbye. One afternoon, Beverly was working around the house when she heard this awful wailing and crying out in the yard. Upon investigation, she discovered Taylor and his beloved Sweetie Pie saying their goodbyes. It was painful for a few days, but we are happy to report that both boy and cats have made the transition and are doing well.

Just don't mention the name Sweetie Pie around here!

Happy Birthday To Jordan Tyler

Twenty four years ago today at 2:01 p.m. our Jordan Tyler was born. There have been times since when we've both looked at each other and marveled at God's sense of humor! God gave us you last because if you had been first, you probably would have been the last! Just a little humor, Jordan. You were a fun one to raise, active, always on the go, a blond, curly headed whirlwind of energy.

Now, 24 years later, you are all grown up and still a bundle of energy. You have given us a lot of good memories; football (remember the Dublin game?), stock shows (that second place at San Antonio, so close to the first you wanted),hunting and fishing (your first buck with Toby and Paul), wilderness trek (a 14,000 foot Rocky Mountain high adventure) and so many more. Now, you are making memories of your own; work (getting your irrigation and pesticide licenses), your first home (putting in your irrigation system, patio and landscape), Big Brothers (helping your "little" make his own memories) and looking forward to children of your own.

Happy Birthday! Hope your day is memorable.

We love you,
Mom and Dad

Farmer Dan and His Hired Help

Last Friday I helped my orchard neighbor do some plowing. He farms a lot of sorghum silage around the perimeter of the pecans in addition to working for a large dairy. He was way behind on his own farming so I agreed to help him get caught up. After an early morning flat on one of the big tractor duals I got started running a field cultivator over the fields that he wanted to plant this week.

Beverly, Taylor and Presley brought me lunch and that gave Taylor an opportunity to ride in the tractor with me which is one of his favorite things to do. Taylor is much more savvy about tractors (especially John Deere} than most 5 year old children. He can tell you the model numbers, whether it is a 4 wheel drive or if it is articulated. You can ask him what that means! Presley and Beverly even climbed in the cab for a few rounds and Presley seemed to enjoy it as much as Taylor.

Plowing always brings back a lot of memories from my growing up days on the farm where we learned to drive tractors pretty early in life. There is something about plowing that is soothing and relaxing to me, especially if you don't have to think too much about what you are doing! We got a good rain this week so the planting will have to wait but nobody is complaining.

Kitty Litter Or What The Easter Bunny Brought Us

The only really good cats we've had since we've been married have been those that just walked into our lives off of the street. Oh, we got one from the Waco animal shelter that we named Shadow, but he didn't come with a personality. His stay in the shelter must have caused him a deep seated psychological disorder or it might have been because we had him neutered, but we had him the longest of any cat, about 7 years!

Beverly is really the cat lover in the family but these first two cats were such good cats that even I took a liking to them. Unfortunately, one of them died of feline leukemia and the other was hit by a car. One day about six months ago a cat appeared on the front porch one night that looked remarkably similar to the two that we had earlier. With a personality deluxe, she won a place around the Phillips household with no problem! She seemed to adopt the entire neighborhood, going from house to house for a free lunch, but always coming back to us for her home base.

Well, as cats will do, she started looking a little pregnant and then a lot pregnant. She delivered four kittens 3 weeks ago tonight. From the looks of things, their Daddy must have been a Siamese because 3 of them have that look and blue eyes. The other one, a male, looks like Mama. So, in about 3 more weeks, they will be ready for adoption. If you are looking for a kitten, we'll be looking for a home for them. Send us your adoption information and we'll review it before making a decision!!

Remembering Oklahoma City

Today marks the 14th anniversary of the bombing in Oklahoma City of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. It commemorates one of the saddest days in American history when domestic terrorists took the lives of 168 innocent American citizens, many of them children in a day care center.

A beautiful memorial, which was dedicated on April 19, 2000, now occupies the space where the building once stood. We visited the site in 2005. To say that it made an impression on us would be an understatement. It is something that you have to experience in person to appreciate fully. If you ever get to OKC, go by and see it. You will not be disappointed.

This entrance plaque helps to explain the contents of the memorial.


Looking across the reflection pool at the nine rows of chairs representing the nine floors of the building and those killed on each floor.


Looking at the reflection pool.


This statue entitled "And Jesus Wept" is outside of the memorial on a nearby street.


Danny, Dorothy and John after breakfast at the Cracker Barrel. We were in Oklahoma City for John's World War II Navy reunion.