Summer Time at the Ranch

Summer time has arrived at the ranch, the temperatures are in the 80's with a slight southern breeze and we are all spending time outside.

Jessie & Izzy cruising in the golf cart


Caitlin, Izzy & Jessie

Jessie's friends Beyla and Kyla were out for a sleep over and they decided to play in the sprinkler








Anyone for a mud bath?


You never know what kind of fun you can have here at the ranch!

Academic Awards

Thursday night May 15th we attended the Allen Middle School and High School Academic Awards Ceremony. Jessie is on the Principles Honor Roll (one B and the rest A's). Caitlin is on the Superintendents Honor Roll ( all A's), was inducted into the Oklahoma Honor Society and received certificates for the Scholastic Meets she participated in. She placed 4th in Spelling at ECU and 5th in Agriculture Business at Murray State. We are very proud of the girls!!



Jessie & Principal Mary Pat Sappenfield



Caitlin & Superintendent David Lassiter



Caitlin reciving the Oklahoma Honor Society Certificate

Frog Girl?

Jessie ready to go snorkeling!

The Nifty Fifties

The auditorium at Allen Middle School rocked with the sounds of the "fifties" Thursday night as the students presented the two-act musical "The Nifity Fifties".


Jessie singing her solo!

The short version is: Gracie aka Jessie is in charge of the school hippity hop and the gym is being remodeled so she comes up with the idea to have the dance at Louis' diner. Muffin the school snob and her 2 friends, Jane & Ann think it is a dumb idea and tell everyone no one will come. Gracie tells everyone it will be a success because her "distant" cousin "teen idol" Ziggy will be there. Of course she has not asked him and she has to get back stage past his manager and security at one of his concerts. When Gracie explains to Ziggy how they are distant cousins and that she has told everyone he will be at the dance Ziggy agrees to come. The day before the dance Ziggy's manager calls and tells Gracie that Ziggy is ill and will not be there. To save face Gracie convinces Donald "the soda jerk" to pretend he is Ziggy. They will turn out the lights and pretend it is a power failure so no one will see it is not Ziggy. Someone turns on the lights and everyone sees Donald not Ziggy. As Gracie tries to explain what was going on Ziggy appears starts signing and everyone is happy! The singing, acting and dancing was great!


Gracie shares her plans for the "hippty hop" with her best
friends Evelyn & Rose Marie


Gracie explains to teen idol Ziggy how they are related.


Gracie convincing Donald to pretend to be Ziggy.


The Hippty Hop



Ziggy & Gracie at the Hippty Hop

Caitlin Goes to State

On Friday April 25th Caitlin went to OSU to participate in the State Career Development Events. She competed in the Landscape and Nursery division. In a competition the students either participate individually or on a team. Allen competed as a team. When competing on a team you are also judged individually. There are 95 plant specimens, 10 diseases, 13 insects and related pests, 7 physiological problems, 15 weeds, and 102 equipment and supplies that they have to memorize. At state they only ask about 50 of those combined but at the other competitions they were asked from 50 to 100. After the named above are IDed they are given a test with 50 questions to answer. The questions range from a wide variety of questions concerning horticulture. The next part of the competition is a practicum. At the regular competitions the only practicum they have is judging which is when there are 4 plants of the same kind and they have to be placed in order of quality. But at state each participant on a team had a different practicum. Caitlin's was a written practicum. She was given a letter from a "customer" who needed help in deciding which kind of tree to plant at his home given his specific desires. She had to look through a book of plants to find the ones she thought would be best. Then she had to write back in business letter form answering the questions and also explaining the care and keeping of the trees. They were given 30 minutes. Caitlin said it wasn't very hard but she didn't have time to finish. Overall, the team placed 3rd and Caitlin received 4th place and a $1,000 scholarship.

Memorial Marathon

On Sunday April 26th Jessie and I were up at 4:30 am and headed for downtown Oklahoma City, 6th and Robinson to be exact, for the 8th Annual Memorial Marathon, to honor those who lost their lives in Murrah Building Bombing. A misty rain was falling as we parked and walked to the starting line and it was cold. A little over 16,000 people had signed up to either run the marathon, half marathon, relay, 5 k run and the kids marathon. It was an awesome sight to see the "sea" of people and it was very emotional to see them all stand quietly as 168 seconds of silence was observed. The marathon, half marathon and relay runners were off and then the 5k was ready to start. Jessie ran the 5K along with several other students from Allen Middle School. I was at the finish line to cheer them on. We warmed up as we enjoyed pancakes at the First Christian Church then headed home. Boy, we were tired, but glad we participated.


Jessie & Beyla with their medals.

Oh What A Night!

I'm not talking about the old 60s song. I'm talking about what a night we had here on the ranch last night. TV and radio stations had been forecasting possible thunder storms and the temperatures had dropped into the 50s and the clouds started rolling in. The 6:00 o'clock weather showed thunder storm warnings for most of the state. Being good Oklahomans we started watching the clouds and listening to the weather updates. About 7:30 we got a call from Nana saying the sirens were going off in Allen and they were in a safe place and almost at the same moment the NOAA radio sounded and we were in a tornado warning. As we prepared to go to our safe place we heard the warning say that a thunderstorm with a rotation was 5 miles south of Allen moving northeast. It was headed right at us. It started raining so hard we lost our satellite feed so we lost our TV. Suddenly lightning started flashing and we saw it hit the ground south of the house and we could see the the circulation in the clouds and suddenly there was a loud crash and the lights flashed and popped! Scared us all! Thank the Lord none of us were hurt. Lightning struck the transformer by the house and the meter coming into the house. We were without lights until this morning when the electric company came out and replaced the transformer and meter. After assessing the damage we have lost 2 TVs a VCR and a bunch of light bulbs and we are going to have to have a few wall sockets replaced. It could have been worse, but the Lords was watching over us.

Today the sun is shinning and it is in the 70s. That is Oklahoma weather for you!