Monday, May 31, 2010

Here is one I grew up with and heard on radio on this weekend a lot.... Danny Williams used to play it on Memorial Day... those of you of my time know of this man... and how he could touch you on special occasions...






Deck of Cards



A young soldier was in his bunkhouse all alone one Sunday morning over in Afghanistan. It was quiet that day, the guns and the mortars, and land mines for some reason hadn't made a noise. The young soldier knew it was Sunday, the holiest day of the week. As he was sitting there, he got out an old deck of cards and laid them out across his bunk.



Just then an army sergeant came in and said, "Why aren't you with the rest of the platoon?"



The soldier replied, "I thought I would stay behind and spend some time with the Lord."



The sergeant said, "Looks like you're going to play cards."



The soldier said, "No sir, you see, since we are not allowed to have Bibles or other spiritual books in this country, I've decided to talk to the Lord by studying this deck of cards."



The sergeant asked in disbelief, "How will you do that?"



"You see the Ace, Sergeant, it reminds that there is only one God.

The Two represents the two parts of the Bible, Old and New Testaments.

The Three represents the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

The Four stands for the Four Apostles: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

The Five is for the five virgins that were ten but only five of them were glorified.

The Six is for the six days it took God to create the Heavens and Earth.

The Seven is for the day God rested after working the six days.

The Eight is for the family of Noah and his wife, their three sons and their wives, in which God saved the eight people from the flood that destroyed the earth for the first time.

The Nine is for the lepers that Jesus cleansed of leprosy. He cleansed ten but nine never thanked Him.

The Ten represents the Ten Commandments that God handed down to Moses on tablets made of stone.

The Jack is a reminder of Satan. One of God's first angels, but he got kicked out of heaven for his sly and wicked ways and is now the joker of eternal hell.

The Queen stands for the Virgin Mary.

The King stands for Jesus, for he is the King of all kings.



When I count the dots on all the cards, I come up with 365 total, one for every day of the year. There are a total of 52 cards in a deck, each is a week, 52 weeks in a year.



The four suits represents the four seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. Each suit has thirteen cards, there are exactly thirteen weeks in a quarter.



So when I want to talk to God and thank Him, I just pull out this old deck of cards and they remind me of all that I have to be thankful for."



The sergeant just stood there and after a minute, with tears in his eyes and pain in his heart, he said, "Soldier, can I borrow that deck of cards?"
"Friends, I know this story is true, because I knew that soldier"

popped out yesterday.... won't last long...

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Sunday, May 30, 2010

'nough said.


Thank you for your service....   

Steve Wynn - Wynn Resorts - says NO leadership coming from Washington... haha.. da! ya think! Takes on Washington, Vegas & EBITDA - CNBC

Steve Wynn Takes on Washington, Vegas & EBITDA - CNBC
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it's that time of the year....

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Cushing OK was a ranch.. in it's beginning....


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I never knew of this... was not in my history books in High School... only with kids in school.. .especially Jake, did I learn of this bad past in our history...


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from COV... Cushing, OK... history.. Phillip works there ....


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Pistol Pete... a Perkins, OK man of great stature... and legend...


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For Phillip, Tammy, Austyn and Jake... they stopped by here on their way home Wed...


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Friday, May 28, 2010

Additions to our family... to show you all it's never to late to set the record straight!!

 From Connie LaGrow....   Thanks much Connie... it's greatly appreciated!

To our family are the twin sons of Jeffery LaGrow, Born Jan. 20, 1993 In Edmond, Oklahoma. Collin Steven and Austin Layne.  They will be seniors next year at Memorial High school in Edmond.  They are both on the Supt. honor roll, National Honor Society, and top 10% of their Math classes.


Ed's note... photos are welcome too... we love to have pics to put with names...  

From Connie Shaklee LaGrow - update for family books

I was reading the genealogy of the Peter Shaklee Family and it showed that Grandpa Fred Shaklee was married twice which is correct but his first wife died in child birth and their baby is buried in her arms in the Enid Cemetery on Willow.  Daddy had one time shown me the grave and a few years ago I sought it out again.  When I said I had heard that the baby was buried in her arms they knew immediately where the grave was located and knew the story.   The tombstone was hard to find as the name is on top of the stone of instead of on the front or back.
I have had several stories published in an OHCE Life Story book that I have written about the loss of my first tooth, my first date with Jerry, our wedding day, my most embarrassing moment, a telephone party line.  I have tried to write a new one every year to pass on down to my grandsons.  The one I wrote this year was entitled Soapy Chicken Salad Sandwiches.  They are all true and happened to me and my family.  
Was so good to see all of you but sorry that it was such circumstances.
Jerry is hurriedly trying to get ready for harvest before it gets here.  Some day I will get all of you web site viewed.

------Connie, would love to have copies of all your writings...  to include in our history. PLEASE???

Ever wonder what it feels like to drown in a 'sea of debt'?

Well..... you are now experiencing it! And you are not spending it. The nuts in Washington are.  No one will lead. No one will say NO.  No one can be found!  No one takes responsibility.  No one cares.  No one shares.  

Damn that NO ONE!

Stop it, before we all lose what little we have left after taxes....  and have spent our lives accumulating!

A favorite saying of a neighbor of mine growing up was (when he messed up something)... this is what happens when you send a boy to do a man's job! How true its been with this past election. You can throw politics out the window on this deal. This is just bad or non existent leadership!

spend and tax...  and inflation will follow... just give it enough time.

When my youngest started in the oil patch as an independent welder welding 'over the hole' keeping rigs 'turning to the right', he made an ungodly amount of money... and spent even more.

In Oklahoma, for every dollar earned.... all taxes, federal, state, etc... all hands on the dollar... I told him he would lose 58 cents on the dollar. that left 42 cents for him to pay expenses... and if you have ever been in a small business you are well aware that about 2/3 plus goes to expenses... so he was behind as an small business... but oh no, dad didn't know ... haha.. well that proved to be true.  he could have kept working for someone else and get 10 an hour and made twice the money!!!

And now... after the big O has been in for a year and half, we are spending more and more... I wonder if folks with their hands out ever wonder where the money comes from?
The one thing I do know... there will be nothing left for our grandchildren at the rate we are spending...

This country needs a leader. Someone who can say NO and mean it and not give out behind his back.. or her! Someone who's character from years of being in leadership position can lead us out of this mess. Someone who has a strong back and wide shoulders. Someone who says what they mean and means what they say. Someone who knows the helping hand we need is at the end of our own elbow! Not from foreign identities. And someone who is not a cheat, tax or otherwise...
Can you imagine ... or did you ever think there would be in a time in our country when...  The Secretary of the Treasure and head of the IRS... would be an admitted tax cheat? Or the head of our Ways and Means Committee who is responsible for writing the IRS tax code would be a tax cheat (couldn't remember which account had 500,000 in it, or if he paid taxes on rent income from his rentals...sigh) or the number two man on that committee would also be accused of the same problems...  or a Secretary who is a communist, admitted, or another who can't put sentences together, or another we'd have a one who is Secretary of Health who was head of her states Trial lawyers association... no wonder tort reform is not part of the new obamhealth care bill that will kill us all....  and on and on...

lots of problems...   what we need is a leader.  If you know of such, please share this information, so we can save this boat from sinking...

All we need is a man like some of the ones I have known in my life time... the Shaklee brothers, my father, my neighbor Mannford Cook, and you each know someone like this.  What we need is someone like those men, who will say yes to serving.. and clean up this mess!

sorry... i just needed to vent!!  thanks for allowing me to.

But Peggy, if you had asked most of middle America, they could have shared with you what inexperience creates... he was NEVER in charge solely of any one thing or business or ....


I don't see how the president's position and popularity can survive the oil spill. This is his third political disaster in his first 18 months in office. And they were all, as they say, unforced errors, meaning they were shaped by the president's political judgment and instincts.
There was the tearing and unnecessary war over his health-care proposal and its cost. There was his day-to-day indifference to the views and hopes of the majority of voters regarding illegal immigration. And now the past almost 40 days of dodging and dithering in the face of an environmental calamity. I don't see how you politically survive this.
The president, in my view, continues to govern in a way that suggests he is chronically detached from the central and immediate concerns of his countrymen. This is a terrible thing to see in a political figure, and a startling thing in one who won so handily and shrewdly in 2008. But he has not, almost from the day he was inaugurated, been in sync with the center. The heart of the country is thinking each day about A, B and C, and he is thinking about X, Y and Z. They're in one reality, he's in another.
The American people have spent at least two years worrying that high government spending would, in the end, undo the republic. They saw the dollars gushing night and day, and worried that while everything looked the same on the surface, our position was eroding. They have worried about a border that is in some places functionally and of course illegally open, that it too is gushing night and day with problems that states, cities and towns there cannot solve.
And now we have a videotape metaphor for all the public's fears: that clip we see every day, on every news show, of the well gushing black oil into the Gulf of Mexico and toward our shore. You actually don't get deadlier as a metaphor for the moment than that, the monster that lives deep beneath the sea.
In his news conference Thursday, President Obama made his position no better. He attempted to act out passionate engagement through the use of heightened language—"catastrophe," etc.—but repeatedly took refuge in factual minutiae. His staff probably thought this demonstrated his command of even the most obscure facts. Instead it made him seem like someone who won't see the big picture. The unspoken mantra in his head must have been, "I will not be defensive, I will not give them a resentful soundbite." But his strategic problem was that he'd already lost the battle. If the well was plugged tomorrow, the damage will already have been done.
The original sin in my view is that as soon as the oil rig accident happened the president tried to maintain distance between the gusher and his presidency. He wanted people to associate the disaster with BP and not him. When your most creative thoughts in the middle of a disaster revolve around protecting your position, you are summoning trouble. When you try to dodge ownership of a problem, when you try to hide from responsibility, life will give you ownership and responsibility the hard way. In any case, the strategy was always a little mad. Americans would never think an international petroleum company based in London would worry as much about American shores and wildlife as, say, Americans would. They were never going to blame only BP, or trust it.
I wonder if the president knows what a disaster this is not only for him but for his political assumptions. His philosophy is that it is appropriate for the federal government to occupy a more burly, significant and powerful place in America—confronting its problems of need, injustice, inequality. But in a way, and inevitably, this is always boiled down to a promise: "Trust us here in Washington, we will prove worthy of your trust." Then the oil spill came and government could not do the job, could not meet need, in fact seemed faraway and incapable: "We pay so much for the government and it can't cap an undersea oil well!"
This is what happened with Katrina, and Katrina did at least two big things politically. The first was draw together everything people didn't like about the Bush administration, everything it didn't like about two wars and high spending and illegal immigration, and brought those strands into a heavy knot that just sat there, soggily, and came to symbolize Bushism. The second was illustrate that even though the federal government in our time has continually taken on new missions and responsibilities, the more it took on, the less it seemed capable of performing even its most essential jobs. Conservatives got this point—they know it without being told—but liberals and progressives did not. They thought Katrina was the result only of George W. Bush's incompetence and conservatives' failure to "believe in government." But Mr. Obama was supposed to be competent.
Remarkable too is the way both BP and the government, 40 days in, continue to act shocked, shocked that an accident like this could have happened. If you're drilling for oil in the deep sea, of course something terrible can happen, so you have a plan on what to do when it does.
How could there not have been a plan? How could it all be so ad hoc, so inadequate, so embarrassing? We're plugging it now with tires, mud and golf balls?
What continues to fascinate me is Mr. Obama's standing with Democrats. They don't love him. Half the party voted for Hillary Clinton, and her people have never fully reconciled themselves to him. But he is what they have. They are invested in him. In time—after the 2010 elections go badly—they are going to start to peel off. The political operative James Carville, the most vocal and influential of the president's Gulf critics, signaled to Democrats this week that they can start to peel off. He did it through the passion of his denunciations.
The disaster in the Gulf may well spell the political end of the president and his administration, and that is no cause for joy. It's not good to have a president in this position—weakened, polarizing and lacking broad public support—less than halfway through his term. That it is his fault is no comfort. It is not good for the stability of the world, or its safety, that the leader of "the indispensble nation" be so weakened. I never until the past 10 years understood the almost moral imperative that an American president maintain a high standing in the eyes of his countrymen.
Mr. Obama himself, when running for president, made much of Bush administration distraction and detachment during Katrina. Now the Republican Party will, understandably, go to town on Mr. Obama's having gone only once to the gulf, and the fund-raiser in San Francisco that seemed to take precedence, and the EPA chief who went to a New York fund-raiser in the middle of the disaster.
But Republicans should beware, and even mute their mischief. We're in the middle of an actual disaster. When they win back the presidency, they'll probably get the big California earthquake. And they'll probably blow it. Because, ironically enough, of a hard core of truth within their own philosophy: when you ask a government far away in Washington to handle everything, it will handle nothing well.

BAT WATCH 2010!

Just a friendly reminder that the registration form for the 2010 Selman Bat Watch will be available Tuesday, June 1st, 2010 at 8 am.

NEW REGISTRATION PROCESS FOR THE 2010 BAT WATCH!

NEW this year, bat watch registration will be a lottery-style process from mailed in registration forms. 

Step 1.  Print off registration form available for the first time on Tuesday, June 1st at 8 am from website: Selman Bat Watch - See millions of Mexican Free-tailed bats in Oklahoma

Step 2. Fill out registration form.  PLEASE select as many dates as you can and rank dates in order of preference starting with first choice (#1).

Step 3.  READ the rules for the evening event and SIGN the form indicating that you have read the rules.

Step 4.  Make checks or money orders payable to Wildlife Diversity Program.  Credit cards are not accepted.

Step 5.  Mail completed registration form and check to:  Bat Watch Program, P O Box 53465, OKC, OK 73152. 
*ONLY MAILED IN REGISTRATION FORMS WILL BE ACCEPTED.

REGISTRATION FORMS MUST BE POSTMARKED NO LATER THAN JUNE 7TH.

haven't been go now and see them stop the leak in action... awesome just remember its 1 mile below surface...

http://tinyurl.com/368ll3a

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Today, family and friends gathered to celebrate the short life of Jade Glen Shaklee, as we laid him to rest.



















On a quite hilltop in of Alfalfa County Oklahoma, in the Timberlake Cemetery, today, May 26th, 2009, we gathered, family and friends, to celebrate the life of Jade Glen Shaklee, Nephew to Ann and Stan Moffat.
Jade died from brain cancer, and I agree with one and all, cancer sucks!
It was as uplifting as it was sorrowful. Many shared their love of and memories of Jade and as the services concluded, the morning doves began to sing, as if someone there cued them to start. The wind laid, it clouded over as if Jade was watching over us and making sure we were all comfortable...
At the young age of 33, he had become an awesome man, full of many accomplishments, achieved heights many of us only dream of, and he will be deeply missed by one and all. The huge crowd on hand was testimony to his touching many lives. He was laid to rest beside his brother Gray, and his grandparents, Harold and Mary Cathrene Shaklee.
Our hearts and prayers are with his parents, David and Terry, and his sister, Ky, and especially his wife, Julia.
We love you. We extend our deepest sympathy to you all.
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Shaklee to enter officials’ hall of fame


Shaklee to enter officials’ hall of fame

By Bruce Campbell, Staff Writer
Enid News and Eagle
ENID — Rick Shaklee calls his future induction into the Oklahoma Officials Association Hall of Fame “quite an honor.’’

Shaklee, 62, recently was announced as one of the four inductees. Enshrinement will be July 31 at Southmoore High School.

Shaklee was chosen in his first year of eligibility. Officials must be at least 62 years old.

“They told me it was the first time the board was unanimous,’’ said Shaklee. “It surprised me. All the officials that helped me were the ones that put me there.’’

Shaklee officiated for 34 years before hanging it up six years ago because of knee problems. He has evaluated officials since then.

“I enjoy it and it keeps me in the game,’’ Shaklee said. “My wife is tougher on them than I am. I just try to explain to them what they need to do.’’

Shaklee officiated with some of the area’s best — Dave Diesselhorst, his partner his last nine years, Harold Whipkey, Wes Hurlbutt, Ray Garrett, Steve Barnes, Terry Ingmire and Terry Porter, to name a few.

“I was very honored to call with them,’’ said Shaklee, who called 14 state tournaments.

Shaklee called some grade school and junior high games while going to Jet High School but it was Whipkey who got him into officiating on a big-time basis.

“He came into the office one day and said he needed a partner,’’ Shaklee said. “I told him you got to be kidding.’’

But Shaklee took the officiating test and was officiating with Whipkey the next season. He got a district tournament his third season and a regional his fourth.

“It just went on from there,’’ Shaklee said.

Shaklee said he officiated “for the kids.’’

People still shout, “hey, ref,’’ when they see him.

“I think I was a good official because I was honest,’’ Shaklee said. “If I felt good coming off the court, I felt I did a good job. I just did the best I could.’’

Whipkey schooled him on the fundamentals in the early days.

“Everything had to be speed,’’ Shaklee said. “You had to be 100 percent about a call. You don’t second-guess yourself. If you don’t feel right about it, don’t call it.’’

Shaklee remembers being booed five times in his career.

“I deserved all of it,’’ Shaklee said. “I told a superintendent one night that they didn’t have to pay us that night.’’

Officials, Shaklee said, could have bad days just like players and coaches.

“Once I had someone ask me, ‘Rick, how can you call such a terrible girls game and a great boys game?’ We had been calling for six straight nights. We were tired. It took us awhile to get going.’’

Shaklee did all of the tournaments in northwest Oklahoma, often doing one tournament in the afternoon and another at night.

“That’s for a young man now,’’ Shaklee said. “I tell older officials ‘don’t do that. You’re cutting your own throats. Your legs are going to go underneath you.’’’

Shaklee remembers his knees locking up during a state championship game between Frontier and Stringtown in his next-to-last year of officiating.

Shaklee said Frontier coach Bob Weckstein told him, “Rick, stand where you’re at, I’ll take care of it.’’

The Mustangs stalled the last 3:20, Shaklee said.

“I gave him more teasing than anybody, but he was a super individual,’’ Shaklee said. “When the game was over, it was over and we were the best of friends.’’

His career officially ended when he was knocked down by a player at the area finals, shattering his elbow.

“My doctor bills were outweighing the money I was making officiating,’’ said Shaklee with a laugh.

The Wheat Capital Tournament was his favorite in-season venue. The state tournament, of course, was his goal every year.

“That’s every official’s goal,’’ he said. “When I missed it, I wished I was there.’’

He once had to officiate his oldest daughter Misti’s game at Aline-Cleo. He called All-Star games of his youngest daughter, Kodee. He was thankful he didn’t have to call any of his middle daughter Amber’s games.

“I probably would have fouled her out in the first quarter because she was pretty rough,’’ Shaklee said.

He joked his sister wouldn’t talk to him for two weeks after he called one of her games.

Shaklee was an all-district basketball player at Jet High School, where he graduated in 1966. He played baseball and football.

Shaklee played two years of baseball in Kansas and attended Northwestern Oklahoma State University for a year.

He married and settled on a ranch near Cleo Springs, which allowed him to keep his official’s schedule.

He might still be calling if not for a knee problem.

How much separation of church and state does one need... ???

In 1800, when Washington, D.C., became the national capital and the President moved into the White House and Congress into the Capitol, Congress approved the use of the Capitol building as a church building for Christian worship services. 


It was here that President Jefferson attended church each Sunday. 

- The Image and the Reality: Thomas Jefferson and the First Amendment by
David Barton

Monday, May 24, 2010

Amazing Grace - 7yr old Rhema Marvanne Latest Version

Check out this video on YouTube:
Watch video.

Posted by Tammy

Just heard from Austyn....

Austyn reported he played today for the biggest crowd of his musical career today! Over 600 folks in auditorium... and he rocked the house. Congrats to you Austyn. Way to go!!
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Grandma's plantings are doing great this year... like always..

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Now our yard is full of this.. hahaha

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the man at work!

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now back to stumps... here is what Jimmy sees... from tractor....

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J and T must live here, huh?

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The last trailer from the Feed Barn is now gone from Jake and Trish's yard! Thank you Jim Morris!!!

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then our neighbor Jim Morris showed up to remove some tree stumps around our yard... but first he....

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Isabella Ann all dressed up in her Sunday Go Meetin' clothes

This one photo is a miracle of it's own. She did not want her photo taken, if you get my drift... haha...
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Thursday, May 20, 2010

Trisha's room

Greyson Chance Signs With Interscope Records

Greyson Chance
Last week, Greyson Chance, a 12-year-old from Edmond, turned a YouTube video into an appearance on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson”.
This week, he’s turned that exposure into a record deal with Interscope Records, according to Crazed Hits. Chance’s sister and father confirmed to The New York Post that a deal had been made, but declined to discuss details.
The Post also reports that Chance is being managed by Guy Oseary, Madonna’s manager. Meanwhile, the Toronto Sun claims that Lady Gaga had a hand in getting Chance signed to Interscope.
On April 28, Chance posted a video performing Lady Gaga’s song “Paparazzi” on the piano at Cheyenne Middle School’s “Chorus Performance Night” in Edmond. To date, the video has received more than 18 million views.

same shot as below but flash went off, I just thought it was interesting difference... but the one below is kind of sureal...

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