Back at the ranch...

It's been a while since we've have a John Boy post. Here's what you've missed:

• JB still asks us to four-wheel. Still haven't taken him up on it.
• Usually on Monday nights, there is a knock on the door with our lil farm hand reminding us to take out our garbage, us looking sad, and him dragging our receptacle down to the curb (we have a really long driveway).
• JB recently "stopped by" during a YL girls night at my house. His eyes almost popped out of his head when he saw 15 attractive non FFA girls in the house. We made him leave after 15 minutes. Every few days he asks us to have another girls night.
  
• JB had a great plan to ask a girl to prom. We were trying to make it really impressive like they always did on Laguna Beach but he got scared and just ended up asking her the ol' fashion way. She said yes, we celebrated, he asked where to get a "croquet" and we told him it was a corsage. But about 2 weeks later, the girl changed her mind. Sad day. We were ticked for him. Not enough to go with him, but just enough.
  

Enter scene 2. New John Boy. His name is Jake Man.

We had heard of JM from JB, but never had seen him. Until recently. Here are JM's stats:

• Age: around 5
• Last name? In his words "Jacob". Jake Man Jacob. Nice ring to it.
  
• Hobbies: throwing rocks waaay too close to our cars, leaving wagons in our driveway, playing in the abandoned dog house in our backyard, and knocking on our back door.
• Guardians? Never seen em.
  

He knocked on the backdoor today and he is just tall enough for his head to peak over the glass storm door. I was spotted. I greet him with a smile, notice his neon green bike with a fake speedometer on the handlebars and ask him what's up? He was lonely, his friend went home or something like that. We had a few awkward moments of silence and I talked to him about rollerblades and the sun. I told him to go have fun and see ya later.

3 minutes later, in the middle of my Friends re-run, little knock on the door. I froze, but he already saw me on the couch. Dang it. I thought there might be something wrong, so I got up, opened the door, and he said with a lil scrunched up face:

"The bees are out again."

I couldn't hold it in very long, and just burst out laughing. In his face. He was confused, so I talked to him about bees for a while. I think he was dying to come inside, but I think that's against the law, so I wrapped it up and told him I needed to make dinner. Then shut every door in the house.

He's our little Dennis the Menace. I think everyone has a neighbor like him.

The Stunt Man

So as I promised early in my blog career, I love to steal ideas from other people's blogs that are much more creative than mine.

This was my latest theft, from AshleyAnnPhotography

I knew a little boy that fit that bill as an amateur Stunt Man. He's my friend Amanda's lil dude, who has so much energy, he usually just has to kick the air to get it all out.

I used different colors and the spacing of the letters wasn't perfect, but he didn't seem to care.

Long, live stuntmen! And stealing from other people's good ideas.

Thhhhhh Thursday!

One of my BFFs was just telling me about her new idea for her blog: Sermon Thursday. She said it's in place of Thirsty Thursday.

Now I love Thursdays, always have. I'd even say they are one of my favorite days of the week. I think it goes back to the anticipation as a kid for the weekend (well, let's be honest, that feeling never stops), where you know you won't have homework or spelling tests to worry about. Then in the late 90s, Friends took over your Thursday night (one of my all time favorite shows). In college, it was a big party night, which our friends didn't really engage in, but with Friday classes scant in the journalism department, it was always a fun, late night. In recent years, the Jim and Pam romance got us excited for a "Must See TV" night. These days, there is nothing particularly thrilling about the day, but still love it.

All that to say, here's a sermon I listened to recently, from Andy Stanley (North Point in Atlanta, GA). It's about ungratefulness, something as he says, we rarely recognize in ourselves, but see in others, ALL THE TIME! Interesting stuff.

I Owe Who?

Enjoy. Happy Thursday.