Category Archives: Family

Danny’s Artwork

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Danny’s Artwork

My Dad, Danny Ricketts, has a new website that you must see!

Danny’s Artwork currently showcases 186 of his pieces — paintings, drawings, collages and sculptures.

He’s been doing art stuff since he was a kid and even won awards for his paintings in high school.

He did some drawing and diagramming through the years, but he didn’t do much painting until the last year or so when he was recovering from surgery. He said he found some old paints from school and wondered if they were dried out. Well, they weren’t, but he quickly got some new acrylics and has been painting prolifically ever since.

My mom said that he was jonesing to paint while they were on their recent trip to Tulsa. Next time, he needs to take the paints. :)

Here are a few random pieces from the site:

Cityscape

Mountain Valley Autumn

San Angelo Texas Bridge

Feeding Frenzy

Wire Bird

Swirling Colors

Primitive Village in Snow

On a design note, it was a lot of fun working with WPtheming’s Portfolio Press, the WordPress theme I used for the site. The learning curve was pretty short and using the portfolio tags really increases the usability of the site, I think.

What do you think? Any suggestions?

A Double Slice of My Day

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Part 1.

I realized just as Attie and I were leaving for the car to pick up Ryan and bring him back here for an afternoon of Star Wars movies and computer games that I didn’t have my car keys in my purse. Uh-oh!

I had a flash of myself as Kevin and I were sitting in the car outside the motel in Cherokee, where we spent last week. We were going to be doing a lot of walking, and I wouldn’t need my keys. Into the glove compartment they went.

I can even sort of recall Kevin questioning whether that was be a good idea. He was right, as usual. Grrr ;)

Since then, I haven’t had to drive at all because Kevin’s been doing all the driving, both on the trip and since we’ve been back. But Kevin’s working his 12-hour shift today…

So what did I do?

Yeah, I turned to good ol’ Mom and Dad. :P

I got in touch with my mom and she talked to my dad. And my dad came through for us, as he always has for all of my life. :)

He drove over and picked up Ryan and brought him to our house.

And all was well. Atticus picked his chin up off the floor and said he was happy now. Yes!

Part 2.

After Ryan got here (and I knew he hadn’t eaten all day), I started to fix some Hamburger Helper (some kind of cheesy hamburger and pasta) and immediately ran into another roadblock. The recipe called for 1-2/3 cup milk, but we were just about out of milk.

We’re running out of quite a few staples, actually, because we were gone for most of last week and haven’t yet replenished the cupboards.

Sweet, sweet Kevin made a grocery list the other day, and I had planned to go to the store this morning. But then I got caught up in trying to set up my new phone like my old one — a long story and a very long process, indeed! — and decided to go in the morning. (Of course, I would have been stuck with no keys anyway…)

So anyway, while the hamburger was defrosting in the microwave (and since I’m not really a cook, just a pretty good directions-follower), I looked online to see if there were something that I could substitute for milk.

Not really. Milk is a pretty good substitute for a lot of other things, but the only thing (other than other kinds of milk) that can sub for it is water, and I was thinking too much water in the mix would probably not work very well.

After the hamburger was cooked and drained, it was time to put that little bit of milk left in the gallon to the test. I was a bit worried (as much as one can be over Hamburger Helper, I guess.) How much would I have to fudge on to make this recipe work?

Well, it turns out…

…not a bit!

Yep, the milk came to right at 1-2/3 cup. Drained.

I couldn’t believe it. It was like the MIRACLE OF THE MILK or something. And then I felt ridiculous for thinking that. And even right now I’m considering deleting this whole post because I’m making something out of nothing. Am I?

And now

The food was good and filling. The movie got half-watched. Both boys are back at the computer playing some kind of pong-like game. And all I’m hearing are giggles.

Happy 19th Birthday to Ryan!

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Ryan with Kevin in 2006

Nineteen years ago yesterday, I was waiting for the contractions to come.

And come they did, faster and stronger and faster and stronger, until by the end of the day, I was lying in a hospital bed discussing the very large baby inside me who’d somehow turned himself around in the previous day or two.

Yep, you were breech. And you were so very large that Dr. Ellis said he didn’t see any hope in turning you in utero. I’d have to have a C-section, rendering all those Lamaze classes to naught.

We waited until just after midnight to start the surgery, since the doctor hoped that insurance would pay for the extra day that way. He sat with us, talking and laughing (myself included, after the epidural).

And then, at 12:38 AM, you were born — my firstborn, my beautiful Ryan Andrew. <3

Atticus Sings ‘Old Man’

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May 2011: Atticus & his lifelong best friend, Puppy

What a difference a year makes! Especially to a little kid!

Last year in May, Atticus recorded this version of his favorite Neil Young song at the time, “Old Man.”

He was four at the time. His birthday’s in September, and he turned five last year.

Wow! He’s grown up a whole lot since then! Preschool summer camp, kindergarten, YMCA afterschool daycare, Bible class at church… No more staying at the babysitter’s all day. He’s in (the little kid version of) the real world now.

It’s remarkable how much his pronunciation, tone, and delivery have improved. He has a greater maturity and control over himself in so many ways in addition to his voice.

My baby’s not a baby anymore, but he’ll always be my baby to me. :)

A Mother’s Day Prayer

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On the bathroom counter — right where he knew I’d come first thing this morning — Kevin left me a sweet, sweet Mother’s Day card.

It lay atop a photo album open to a picture of me, in a blue hospital gown, holding a swaddled still-newborn Atticus with a little, curly-haired toddler Lucas by my side on the hospital bed.

The card begins, “Today I’m remembering how you looked that very first time you held our newborn child so tenderly in your arms…”

I’m crying because it’s so, so sweet, not just the card but the thought he put into choosing it and placing it.

And I’m crying because I miss him and can’t tell him what I’m typing right now until he returns home from his third day in a row working a more than 12-hour shift in the prison…no matter the holiday…

And I’m crying because he just doesn’t do cards. Usually. What a surprise!!!

And I’m crying because not only will I miss my sweet, considerate husband today, but I will also likely only see a third of my children today.

One is with me always, the way I know God intended from the start. The other two got caught in the fault lines when old relationships quaked. One ended up on the other side of the crevasse; the other still walks the thin limb between from week to week.

And this is not even counting the ones who have gone on before me, leaving me with a signature aching to ever hold them tight.

This morning, I pray for them all.

I offer up my joy and my pain for my children, in varying states of distant, and for my husband, who understands and feels with me all this and much, much more. Mother Mary, keep them safe and help them always to know they are loved.

And I pray for all mothers in varying states of longing for children here and gone — including my own mother, who has seen more than her share of suffering from my own distance and woe. May God bless you all and comfort you.

Lucas’ First Communion

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Last Sunday, May 6, in a special 2 p.m. Mass, Lucas made his First Communion.

He was one of 50-some 7-year-olds all dressed up in suits and ties (or white satin, lace, or taffeta dresses).

It was a beautiful ceremony, and Kevin and I were both in tears before Lucas even made his way up the center aisle with his (and Atticus’) godmother Cindy Jefferson.

You can click on the first picture below to scroll through enlarged versions.

Thanks to the boys’ godfather Charlie Jefferson, the official event photographer, for the pictures in the gallery and allowing us to post them here.

And thanks to Lucas’ Grammy, Carolyn Dalton, for allowing me to use the picture of him at left. :)

And thanks to the dozen or so family members who were there. It meant so much to Lucas and to all of us. :)

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Good Friday Art

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While Kevin played the electric guitar (I mean, Josephine) and he and I sang, the boys and I painted with the acrylics.

Mine isn’t finished, but here are Lucas’ Easter Bunny with an egg (left) and Atticus’ “Mom Is Beautiful.” (I swear nobody gave him a suggestion, much less paid him. :P)

Danny Cockram, Songwriter

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Danny Cockram | Songwriter.

Please check out Kevin’s Uncle Danny’s new website. He’s written some great songs and now he has a place to show them off. :)

Kevin and I recorded his “Back to New Orleans” with him soon after Hurricane Katrina hit.

If you’ve listened to our show in Washington Square Park from 2009, you may remember his name from the credits. We recorded his “Let’s Shoot for the Moon” then.

Soon, I’ll also be adding another of Danny’s songs that Kevin and I recorded with him called “Coffee in the Morning.”