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Today has been long. We are at Eureka Springs now, in a CABIN. Too Cool. Tim and I never had a honey moon. We are kind of getting that tonight....the sign said Jacuzzi rooms...the jacuzzi is huge....there's a fire place, sadly its 100 and we can't use it, but its there! This is just too cool. I'm off to the pool after looking for 30 minutes for my swim suit...

Enjoy the pictures
Mary Margaret free falling.


The World's Largest Wind Chime

Go Carts and Wine

Taylor is the serious "go-carter"

Mary Margaret just joy rides

Tim and Kaye visit the Stonehill Winery....the people next to us were enjoying their wine WAY TOO MUCH...I'll write later about the ones we liked.

The girls get grape juice.

Butler Vacation 2008

Vacation started out with a bang! Mrs. Butler gave everyone a scare. She was admitted to St. Bernard's Hospital on Monday after we left. She had low blood pressure and was dehydrated. Jason and Dianne both say that she is out of the woods, so we did not head home.

We stopped at a grape vineyard that operated on the "honor system". The girls had a great time picking grapes and we all had a great time eating the grapes. They were huge concord grapes in Ash Flat, Arkansas.Mary Margaret and her grapes that she picked
Taylor and her grapes
The honor systems. We...oops, they picked $7 worth, at $1 per pound.

I Fought the Phone and I Won!

Today has been stressful for NO gosh darn reason. I admit, I did not want to work on Saturday, but I must. Because I had this attitude of not wanting to be at work, everything went wrong. The biggest problem that I had was with the STUPID STUPID PHONE! (I think it knows that I'm talking about it. I can feel it sneering at me right now)

You should all call the information number for the funeral home and tell me if I sound aggravated. 870-238-3111

This stupid phone (because we all know that the problem could not be the human punching the buttons) would not record the funeral message. 7 times I still heard Sandy's voice from the previous recording. I shut all the doors to the office (surely it was the noise causing all the problems). 4 more times this STUPID phone did not record, then it had the nerve to tell me 3 more times that "That is not a valid selection" and "You have entered an invalid password" Oh, no, I didn't.

Well, maybe I did.

I gritted my teeth and threatened the phone several times and tried one more time and finally it worked. I called the number and listened and I sound awful...but I REFUSE to try again.

I WON THE BATTLE!

Commercials...love em' or hate em'

I love the Car Max Commercial...

Hey Man, why do you have the baby seat on the roof of the car?

I bought this car the other day because it was a good deal, but there just ain't no room for my dang baby, and she ain't no bigger than a can of ham.

Well at Car Max, blah blah blah...I stop listening at this point because I'm laughing to hard at the "dang baby" phrase!

Everyone, be brave, admit it, you too wanted to strap them kiddos to the roof...I know I'm not alone.

I Love the My Fave 5, T-Mobil Commercial

...Family sitting around the dinner table....
Mom to daugther...who did you pick for your 5?
Daughter...Tiffany, Sarah, Maggie, Beth, Sandy...(I'm sure those are not the right names, humor me.)
Brother...Thats funny, I picked the same ones
Daugther: Mom make him change them
Brother: They're Hot!
Daughter: Uh...Dad!!!! He can't pick my friends...
Dad: Im sorry, you should have uglier friends. (he says it so matter factly it cracks me up!)

I grew up with two brothers, one of them had a crush on my friend Margaret...I know where she's coming from!

I HATE THE COREY B. TROTZ COMMERCIAL...but I can sing the jingle and know the number by heart! My girls even sing with the stupid commercial. For those of you who do not know who Corey B. Trotz...he is a personal injury lawyer. Corey B. Trotz is the way to go...call 8767000....Don't you hate it when, you know it's stupid and you can't get it out of your head?

I DISLIKE (much more softer word than hate, don't you think?) THE COCHRAN FIRM COMMERCIAL...We are the hand picked team of the Cochran Firm. Hand picked to serve you by Johnny Cochran....(he defended OJ Simpson and is from Memphis just 45 miles from where I live, for you out of state readers). May I point out that Johnny Cochran has passed away and that this "hand picked team" has had some new members added recently? How can they be hand picked by Johnny Cochran? This bugs me.

Tim and my sister-in-law Dianne hate this commercial...
Mentos Gum
Guy sits down water cooler and pops a mentos gum.
Sexy woman walks up, pushes the man's nose up, kisses him, taking his gum and pushes his nose back down. I just saw this commercial 2 seconds ago and I agree...its stupid and gross!

Public Relations

Jessica works in the drive thru window where over 1 billion people have been served. I ordered a #6 Value Meal last Friday at McDonald's. I did not have much money, because I had not been to the bank yet. My total came to $4.20. I counted out $4.20 in quarters and dimes.

Jessica opens the window, no greeting, just a sour face. I handed her the money and politely asked her to recount the money to make sure that I did not short her. "I can't count this!" she said in her most menacing voice ever. "Why not?" I say sweetly to her. "If its not enough, I'll just have to pay for this out of my pocket!" Jessica said while throwing the money in the drawer and slamming the window shut.

I'm stunned.

Today....almost one week later...

I order a #4 value meal (I know, I don't usually eat McDonald's, but everything else is all the way across town and I've been trying to work through lunch, although I did not go back to the office today...)

I pull up in line and can see Jessica working the cashier window. Oh, my. At least I have a $10. I pull up, and I swear, she looked at me and remembered. I handed her the money and she slammed my change back in my hand and said...you have a good one! (which was just as nice as last Friday). I asked the lady at the second window who she was, Jessica, she said.

Jessica would make a great public relations person.

Welcome Home Spc. John Bratton

This weekend was so busy for us. We had two parties to prepare for. My nephew John Bratton is home from Iraq for 10 days, so we threw him a welcome home party. I had told him that we could have it at my house or his grandmothers house and he response was...I've been checking out your blog and your pool looks like fun. I want to have it at your house.

They were the last ones to leave Saturday night around 10 PM. John said that we were having the ultimate RedNeck party, because...wait for it.....wait for it....we sat around the BUG ZAPPER and watched the bugs make smoke, oh, we also had the boy on the dirt bike. I did not include that picture, I thought that Josh would be mad at me. We had fireworks for him, my pictures of the fireworks did not show up very well.

Sunday my niece, Alyssa had her birthday party at my house, she turns 5 on Thursday.

John and his girlfriend Katherine were the last ones to leave Sunday too. I enjoyed our "alone time" visit with John and Katherine. He told me that the exchange rate for money was 1.67 of American for 1.00 of Euros. I asked if he had been in combat yet and he said that he has been "out" a couple of times and nothing happened.

He said that the city looks just like the city in the Disney Movie Aladdin, with little peddler shops in the streets. The reference to the Disney Movie was all John. The second he said this...all I could see sitting in front of me was the little boy with the shaved head, sitting in front of my TV, Indian style, calling out, "hey, Kaye Kaye, come look at this..." (We had probably had seen this movie 100 times) This child could only be torn away from the TV to hunt frogs, snakes and turtles. Otherwise he was glued to the TV watching...Aladdin, 101 Dalmations, The Little Mermaid, etc. All of these movies were released when John was probably in the 1st grade.

I blink, and realize, this is no child...he has become a man. A man that anyone would be proud of. My heart breaks for John having to go back to that place and my heart breaks for his parents who have to live those sleepless nights....waiting for that one phone call, hoping its John on the other end and not the worst.

The Kids are Watching

Everyone has to watch their P's and Q's at one point in their lives. I'll have to start watching mine because...THE KIDS ARE WATCHING....actually, they are reading my blog...

At first I was worried, then I remembered that I lead a G to PG rated life anyway. I've added a blog written by an almost 13 year old, Julia, who is my YARM13YOL's best friend. Want to get into the minds of preteens? Check out Julia's blog and Mary Margaret's blog.

I bet you all thought I was going to blog about grown up stuff. GOTCHA!

Daily Call

12:00 PM Sharp!
ME: Hello Taylor
T: Kaye Kaye
ME: What
T: Can we have those Alfredo chips?
Me: What? I've never heard of those, I know I didn't buy some.
T: It says right here....F-R-I-T-O-S, Alfredo, can we have them.
ME: That says Fritos not Alfredo
T: Oh, I just want to know CAN WE HAVE THEM?
Me: No, because I'm using them in Frito Pies tonight
T: Ok
(The next bit was overheard as she was hanging up the phone, she was hollering)
T: SHE SAID NO! SHE SAID DON'T TOUCH THEM CHIPS! THEY BELONG TO HER!

I really don't remember saying all that. I believe I need to have a chat with sweet, innocent little T-Bug.

How Rich Are We?

I guess really that "we" aren't rich, just Tim. He's so wealthy, he can afford to throw Twenty dollar bills on the ground and mow them over.

Mary Margaret found parts of the $20 yesterday afternoon while she was shutting the gate at the bottom of the drive. The bank gave me a new one because we were able to find both halves with the serial numbers on it.

11 Days Until Vacation

I wanted to mow my yard Monday. The day was cooler than usual and no rain, the girls can swim, I enjoy watching them swim . I jump into it. I've got new music on the girls IPODS, the exercise is going to feel great, and jumping in the pool after I'm finished is going to feel even better. I think I must have been dreaming because reality slapped me in the face.


This is reality:

I'm driving home Pat Benatar blasting in the van (my new mixed cd I made), windows rolled down, can't wait to get home and get some good old yard work done. I whip in the drive way, loving my pretty red gate, then I remember, my gate openers are in the house, not in the van to open it for me, dang it. I talk with Kailey, (babysitter) and get to work getting ready to mow. I'm looking for my worn out Nike that I mow in, can't find them. They should be in the laundry room, they are not. Child #2, Taylor, comes in from outside with them behind her back. SHE, child with 30,000 pairs of shoes, wore MY shoes to go under the deck where, yes, it is MUDDY and WET from the rain the other night. So, I'm going to give mowing with flip flops a try. Probably not a good idea since I live on Crowley's Ridge and half of my yard is down hill.


I have to push mow. Why? Because Me, Myself and I broke the riding mower, last time. I prime the mower, tug on the cord, prime, tug, finally it starts and runs for one short lap. Ugh! (I say this loudly) The same thing happens again. URRRGGGGHHH! I hear the echo this time. (My nephew/neighbor could hear me and thought that the girls were getting into trouble).

This goes on for 30 min until I finally give up and decide to weed eat.


I have a gas weed eater...heaviest thing ever to use. I see that Tim has gotten himself a new "feather lite" weed eater that claims to start easily after 6 pulls of the cord. LIAR.
Drake (lovable wonder dog) breaks out of his pen several times. This irritates me just a teeny tiny bit.


I'm hot and aggravated so I'm going swimming. I tell the girls to get out and shower, I'm swimming alone...not totally alone, with the mosquito's, which means that Tim needs to spray again. I swam for maybe 10 minutes.

On a brighter note, the girls made dinner. Mary Margaret made ham salad and Taylor made chicken salad. I'll tell M&M to write a post and let you all know how the recipes turned out.

Slump equals I'M READY FOR VACATION

I feel like I'm in a slump. I really do not have the drive to do anything. I don't want to clean (but I do it grumpily), I don't want to cook (which leads to cleaning), I don't want to be at .... Shhhhhh ....work..... I'M READY FOR VACATION.

I visited with Dianna yesterday (Sunday), we had a good time, I gave her a hair cut. And no, I didn't mess it up, maybe not. She didn't answer the phone at lunch, maybe she found that big patch that I accidentally whacked off. The girls and Philip went to a swim party with McElroy Methodist (MM's friend Julia attends that church). Tim and I went to Champions Grill, a restaurant here in town that was holding a benefit dinner for the family of the two boys killed last week. Otherwise, that's all I did. Oops, I did turn on the dryer to fluff up the towels and did not fold them, just left them there, wasted all that elctricity.

12 days until vacation.

35 days until school starts and I'll have two Jr. High Kids. No more rushing to the two different schools. No more school parties or trips. No more babies.

Two Teenagers.

I'm having the local mental hospital hold a bed for me, just in case.

Yesterday

Mary Margaret has written a post check her out. Just click on her picture to the left.

Things I loved yesterday....

- I had to work yesterday and the girls had to go with me. I loved that they were good. They are really growing up. I loved that they worked hard and did a really good job for Billy. They put the funeral home labels on the water bottles that we take out to the graveside.

- Taylor pulled out her wad of money that she's been saving...she had a post it note wrapped around it, with a running total of where the money came from and how much she had. We get to the van and she subtracts what she spent.

- Finally getting off work for the weekend.

- Watching movies with my girls.

- Watching the reaction my girls had during the sad moments of Ultimate Gift.

- Tim comes home, the girls jump, happy to see him. Taylor runs to her bedroom and comes out with a Gatorade and beef jerky for Tim. He said, TBug, why did you spend your money on me? She says, because you work so hard all day long for me.

- Taylor cooked dinner. Burnt frozen pizzas. We ate them.

Wordless Wednesday - NOT

Many of you participate in a little "Blog Click" called Wordless Wednesday. I can not participate in this group. Why? My Wednesdays are never wordless they are Topsy-Turvi Wednesday's.

I will start with Tuesday night. I did not wash my dinner dishes. I thought, I'll do that Wednesday morning early. Bad choice. I did get up Wednesday and wash the dishes, I also had to fold 3 loads of clothes, wash two loads, and realized I still did not wash the right clothes, because Tim's shirts were still in their neat little sorted out pile, empty all the trash cans, vacuum and sweep and then get ready for work. I did all this. I was tired by the time 8:30 AM, sitting in my van wishing I did not have to walk into the funeral home. I did go to work.

Wednesday night dinner.

Chicken Enchilada Casserole

1 pound chicken cubed up

1 19oz can mild enchilada sauce

1/2 cup thick and chunky salsa

1 teaspoon sugar

1 pkg shredded cheese (whatever kind you want)

1 cup crushed tortilla chips

1 can drained corn

Mix the chicken (browned) with enchilada sauce, salsa, sugar, 1/2 pkg of cheese, and corn. (I like to mix in extra crushed chips). Place the cup of crushed chips in an ungreased baking dish (glass). Pour mixture into pan and spread remaining cheese on top of casserole. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes.

I called home at lunch to remind Taylor that I needed to get her to set out the hamburger meat for dinner so that it would have to to defrost. She did. It was defrosted. I hurry home ready to try my new recipe out. Excited I tell you. I could taste the chicken. I bought the Pancho's Green Dressing. I can not eat mexican at home without that dressing.

I whip open my cookbook. Start getting the ingredients out to mix together. Yup, you know what's coming. Betty Crocker called home and told her child to lay the HAMBURGER NOT CHICKEN. So, I substituted. It was great.


Notice that the package says 1.00....The grocery store here has them 2 for 1.00. They are thin and salty. I LIKE THEM.
10:15 pm I get a prank call on my cell phone. Not many people have my number. I've narrowed it down to who I think it is. I was called some pretty bad names. I heard some thumping noises outside, Tim was not home yet because of a bad wreck he worked. So I called him. He came right home. Found the problem. An opossum. I'm sure the opossum did not make the prank call. I went to bed.

Work

We are unbelievably busy at the funeral home. I feel like a I'm getting nowhere fast!

Um...I looked at Pioneer Woman 4th of July post. Her fireworks...way better than mine. But, she had more to clean up than we did, so there!

Things I Loved Yesterday

- The girls spent the afternoon at Dianna's house and they behaved!!

- Visiting with my friend

- DIANNE'S NEW BLOG - Dianne had mentioned a couple of times that she might start a blog and she did! The first post is great, check it out! (My sister-in-law/Tuesday babysitter!)

- I love the fact that Dianne has the chickens and not me.

- Dinner - Dinner was good last night, meatloaf, fresh corn from Mr. Denton's garden, green beans and sweet tea.

- The endless chatter from Mary Margaret and Taylor about their afternoon at Dianna's. Usually this chatter would drive me crazy...not yesterday.

- Mary Margaret decided she wants to cook dinner one night, she will be making ham salad...her own choice. Of course, Taylor joined in and wants to make chicken salad that same night, whichever night I decide.

What I hated/loved about yesterday...

- I loved that Taylor Witcher (Dianna's oldest daughter) looks like she had grown a foot since last Thursday. I hate that she's growing up and love that she looks like a young lady. And Shelby, her youngest is growing up too fast too. Did I ever mention that her name should have been Kaye,Jr.? For some reason Dianna would not name her that. Darn it. Come to think of it, no one will name their child Kaye, Jr. Whats up with that?

- I loved that the girls had a good time yesterday, I hate that I had to work and missed it.

- I loved my dinner, hated cleaning it up. I need a maid.

Happy Independence Day

Food, Family, Fireworks and a 3 day weekend! How much fun can that be? Tons of Fun!

ButlerFamilyDiaries celebrated the 4th of July at my house. We had boston butts, smoked sausages, all the trimmin's and of course desserts. Nicole(SISNLAW/Jason's EX) came down to stay with me for the weekend. We listened to her Patriotic CD while we chowed down. My 4th decorations consisted of 1 yard ornament that my stepmother Charlene made me and two table cloths. Decoration is not neccesary when you have good company. There was a lot of swimming going on and horsing around. No one got their feelings hurt, which means we all had a good time.

The fireworks were pretty, Jason organized them, there was one teeny tiny explosion just as Jason moved out of the way. We all joked about me being the mayor of the community of Whittsburg and hosting the fireworks every year (there are 3 families of Butlers, 4 if you count Jason as his own family...in Whittsburg, which does not have a population). I really don't want to be mayor...or just maybe I do, what could I outlaw?....

We closed the festivities with the Swatting of the Arkansas Mosquitoes, causing everyone to head home around 10-10:30PM. Thank you to everyone who came out, everyone who helped, we had a great time and can't wait for the next 4th.

There were only two people missing, John and Amanda. John called Sunday, he will be home for 10 days around July 15, we will be having another cook out at my house while he is home.

Alaskan Mosquitos...And Corrections!

This post comes from my youngest brother, Scott "the one-legged lineman". He is in Alaska working right now. Odis Scott Brawner, Jr. The correction is at the bottom of this post. 4th of July pictures are comming soon.

Sis,
Next time I here anyone down there complain about mosquitoes, I'm gonna send ya these pics. The pics really don't do our skeeter population justice. We are the minority, I have been wearing 20 pound weights on my ankles just to be sure I don't get carried away by them. I have been thinking I might need to tether my self to the truck some how with a leash, so if the do get a hold of me they cant fly away with me.

Bet ya never seen that many in one spot. So this is just quick shots of the truck and the wall outside my room, not very good, but it shows how bad they are. Believe, it's worse than it looks. but surprisingly, they don't really bother you that much if your working and moving around. It's when you stop in a area where the wind is broken (i.e. the truck is blocked on 3 sides here by walls, no wind) that's when they hammer ya. but normally there is a breeze everywhere out and about, so during the day they don't bug ya much.
The skeeters are a secondary concern, considering, someone shot a very large Grizzly in the 2nd floor hallway of the most popular man camp (hotel) recently in the middle of the night. He was on the 1st floor when a women walked out of her room headed to the cafeteria for a late night snack, she screamed and he headed up the stairs and was mose'ing around when the local security guy grabed his large bear rifle and shot him dead in the hall way. Thats in the Prudhoe Bay "HOTEL" so the skeeters arent that scary :-)

I'll try to pull up some photos of this today and send out of him laying in the hall dead.
Scottie

These mosquitoes when you enlarge the picture look like the size of lightening bugs.

The story behind the "one-legged lineman" is this...He rides a motorcycle. I think it's been 5 or 6 years now, he was riding crotch rocket. My step-mother, Charlene, Andy, his wife, my sister Delani, and Andy's kids, Blake and Alisa were following behind in Charlene's van. Scott decided to do a wheelie. When he put the back wheel on the ground he lost control, I believe that there was a semi-truck or some type of vehicle in the on coming lane so Scott tried to maneuver the bike to the ditch, which didn't quite work. He slammed through a barbwire fence which cut off his leg and he did some major damage to his arm. Remember, the van was following him. Charlene stops, Andy jumps out rushes over to Scott and whips off his belt and wraps it around his leg to stop the bleeding. Someone stays in the Van to keep the kids from seeing what was going on. A nurse on her way home from work stops and called for emergency help. Scott was airlifted to the hospital in Springfield, Missouri (they live about 30 minutes from Branson, Missouri and this all happened just a few miles from my dad and Charlenes house.) I can not imagine what it was like for Charlene and my brother Andy to watch all this happen. My dad was in Alaska at the time working for the phone company, it was so hard on him being stuck in the middle of nowhere, not being able to lay his eyes on Scott. Charlene was the ROCK for everyone. She amazes me. Andy amazes me when I think of how much courage it took to jump inot action. It still unnerves me to even try to imagine what they saw. It was touch and go for awhile. They were not sure that he would make it through the surgery. When Scott woke up he wanted to know if the doctors had put his leg back, and they couldn't. The leg had too much nerve damage and the barbwire was embedded to deep. Scott wanted to get his leg, go to another hospital and get someone to put it back. He had a hard time for the first couple of days but finally came around. He made an amazing recovery and went back to work for the phone company teaching ......"SAFETY". Kind of ironic.

I hope that Scott does not mind me putting his story on here and if I've made any mistakes let me know and I just realized that I think that I've posted this before, I've already spent all this time typing, so read it anyway and be happy.

Reply from Scottie...

Sis, You really got fix the back stoppie thing. It was a wheelie at around 100 to 120 Mph. When I set the front wheel down it was not properly aligned and caused a massive head shake (high speed wobble) which caused a loss of control and then I couldn't dodge the truck, so that's when I went off the road. If we're bragging lets get it right. Tore off the left leg, broke the right arm in 3 places, broke the right scapula, the right collar bone, and badly lacerated my right leg, and had a slight concussion. The rest was perty good. But come on if your gonna post my stuff at-least fix the spelling issues, gosh, your making me look like a redneck or sumtin.

The grizzly bear laying in the hall way is really cool but I gotta get a digital pic of it, the pics are on the wall as a reminder that there can be a grizz anywhere at any time, but I haven't found any digital's yet.

You were close enough, but there aint no back stoppie :-) a stoppie is when you bring it p on the front wheel under heavy breaking from 50 MPH or so. I know you needed that info for reference :-)

Too Much Work Equals No Play for Kaye

I'm way to busy right now at the funeral home to blog. I know you all need tissues because of the uncontrolable grieving you all are going through, because you live for my words of wisdom and funny stories of my exciting life. Hopefully Thursday will bring a wonderful story or wise words. This is my WORDLESS WEDNESDAY.