EIGHTEEN MONTHS IS A WHOLE NEW BALLGAME

Has anyone seen this precious baby?



Or this sweet little angel?


Because someone has kidnapped her.....


And replaced her with.....

KADER BOLY

This morning The Calverts woke up to a man from Burkina Faso, South Africa drinking coffee out of a beer mug. And he is not just any man. He's a man that has shown his artwork all over the world. From Tuscon to New York to Paris with a little bit of Dumas and Spearman inbetween, Kader Boly has certainly made his rounds. How did he end up at 1308 Melinda Drive on a Tuesday night? Well, it's a long story but mostly it's because of a wonderful lady I know....my mom. I am so very blessed to have even an inkling of her creativity and talent. She has taught me to have the mindset of "Well why wouldn't Kader Boly want to come to Dumas for an artshow?". Dream and dream big and make it happen. MAKE IT HAPPEN BECAUSE YOU CAN! Do you want to write a book and publish it when you're nine? GO FOR IT! Do you want to ride an ostrich? GO FOR IT! Do you want to travel all over the US when you're 20? GO FOR IT! I look back on all of the crazy things I've experienced and know that I have learned to march to my own beat from a very special drummer.

REPUNZEL

This picture was taken a mere two years ago. DANG! That's some fast growing hair. If anyone has seen me in the past several months, they know that I am sportin' the long do these days. I have been for quite some time. DANG! That's some fast growing hair. The average person grows a maximum of six inches per year which makes me a....freak. I am almost positive my hair grows AT LEAST an inch each month. My sister and I have both chopped our hair and donated our ponytails to Locks of Love which is a really fantastic organization. Mattie called this weekend and said she had made the switch to short and cut off 10 inches. I am tempted after seeing this pic to do the same. Stay tuned....

LUCK

On Sunday The Calverts had a nice little Amarillo outing. We went to the Discovery Center, fed the ducks and then had dinner out which we rarely do these days. I would love to say the following incident was because of exhaustion or starvation but things like this happen to me quite frequently. A little past the river (Canadian) I felt as if something was wrong. I didn't say anything until a few miles later. Actually, I didn't have to say anything. Justin said it for me, "You left your wallet on top of the car. Didn't you?" Panic sets in. "No. No. I didn't. It's in the back on the other side of BB's car seat." I begin to (out of the corner of one eye) look around for my big orange wallet. "You left it up there didn't you?" I begin to think of all the things strung out on Highway 287. My driver's license, our insurance cards, all of our credit cards, a certified copy of BB's birth certificate, a $25 Target gift card all lying in the ditch somewhere. Mother of Pearl! What the hell is wrong with me? Shock sets in. As we pull into Dumas, Justin makes a bee line for the first place we can pull over. He gets out, looks on top of the car and cracks a smile. My wallet had not budged. Forty six miles at 70 miles per hour and my wallet had not budged. Now that's what I call luck.

LIFE IS GOOD

IF I WERE A DUCK

SMOKIN' THE Wii PIPE

We are not big video game players at Casa de Calvert. The last Nintendo game I remember playing was Super Mario Brothers and Tetris. Needless to say, we don't own a Nintendo or XBox or whatever the hell is cool right now. HOWEVER, we were introduced to Wii bowling this weekend. We bowled until the Wii hours of the night on Friday. Justin stayed up even later, as he could not be defeated in a very tight tennis match. As we all crept out of bed Saturday morning, it was as if a very strong force brought us all to the living room. Coffee in hand, it was time to bowl. And again, it all began. At one point, I looked over at the clock and realized it was waaay past noon. There were four grown ass adults still in their jammies addicted to a machine and one little girl who must have thought we'd lost our dang minds. I must say she loved watching us though. She even played along with the tv remote. We did not quit bowling until after dinner that night and even suckered some friends to come join the tournament. I have been told of this crazy phenomenon over and over. I totally underestimated its strength. This game is so real it makes you feel strange not wearing old dirty bowling shoes. We changed up our form, we waved at our "fans", we bet shots of pickle juice and who would fold the laundry. As Justin and I discussed our sore shoulders and biceps the next day, we both looked at one another and said, "Wanna bowl?"