Poppy

Per my mother's request I decided that I wanted to blog about our dog Poppy that pasted away 2 weekends ago when I was in Bakersfield visiting. Let me start by saying this dog was given to us by the Robinson family (Stevi and Dani) probably about 11 years ago. They told us she needed a big back yard to roam around in and our Cox farm is always an "open yard" when it comes to dogs. We have never bought a dog ever! They have always either just came up to our yard or been given to us. I guess that goes for the saying "you don't choose the dog, the dog chooses you". Anyways, the Robinsons are big baseball fans so they had named her Dodger, but for some reason when we brought that city dog out to the farm, that name just didn't seem to fit her (or it could have been the fact that my parents are not huge sports fans). Either way we decided we couldn't call her by that. So for the longest time we just called her "puppy dog". Well, knowing the Cox family, we of course have to give every person and animal about fifty nicknames, but for some reason "Poppy" seemed to stick. Now if you have ever seen Poppy you would immedietly notice that she is a little on the "scary side". She sort of looks like a black wolf, just not as big. She had these glowing yellow eyes and a full coat of long black hair. My parents always considered her as a sort of guard dog because most people that came out to the house for the first time, were a little hesitant about getting out of there car. I think the Cooligan guy always made sure to bring treats, just in case. Poppy came at a time when most of us kids were older. I was in junior high and my sisters in high school. Im sure we didnt appreciate her as much as we should have because we were busy trying to be teens. However, for my parents she was a special dog, a guardian, a friend.

Most people know that the dogs out at the farm are given no special treatment besides a few leftovers every now and again. They roam around like free dogs catching rabbits, gophers, mice and squirrels. They have to defend themselves from coyotes or any other preditors. Im sure its the closest thing to heaven for a dog. They arent cooped up in a yard and have an endless supply of dog food that they can munch on at there leisure through out the day. Now when it came to Poppy she was just a quiet dog. I honestly dont remember her ever barking at all (that would be Scooter that did all the barking). She was always rubbing on peoples legs to be petted. We always use to tell her to go away, because she would shed her long black hair all over you. Needless to say she was a good dog, who loved her owners. Now Im sure this isnt really anything of a special sort of dog story. Im pretty sure she never saved someone from drowning or getting attacked by some ferocious animal, but she was indeed special. Especially to my parents.

Well when I was in town for the family reunion two weekends ago we had been noticing that she had been breathing very heavy, but it didnt seem to out of the norm because she had been doing that for a the past few months, but on Sunday morning we knew that she was different. She just couldnt seem to catch her breath. We all knew that it was her time to go, yet we were so thankful that God let it be on a day we would always remember. The day of our family reunion. We watched her curl up in her favorite spot on the back porch. We knew we had to leave and by the time we came back she would have passed. My parents Im sure said there good bye in their own quite way. I didnt realize how sad her death would be until I saw the tears in both my parents eyes. They loved her, she was their dog, their protector for the past 11 years. We came back that afternoon from our reunion. My dad and Adam buried her at the back of the property. We all unexpectedly cried. Floods of emotion came to all of us as we all looked back at the length of time she had been at our home. She was a good dog, a loyal dog. Anyways, not to make this into a sob story, but I think I realized how much dogs really mean so much to their owners and how they truly become part of your family. So here is a little memorial for our Poppy dog that we had for 11 years.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention. Typical of my mother, she made my dad say a little prayer that they would get a new dog. And wouldnt you know but a few days later. Look what showed up in the yard!

Weekend with Lexican...and muffin Bread?

This past weekend one of my best friends Miss Lexi Watson aka. Lexican came to visit me in good ole Campbell. This is another example of a friend that I totally do not deserve but I'm not going to complain. She is seriously AMAZING!!! You can always count on Lexi making you laugh, putting a smile on your face and always being 100% herself! She is definitly one of the realist people I know (if that makes sense). Probably the last time I was any good at volleyball was probably when I played with her. She is the sweetest girl you will ever meet off the court, but this girl is an animal on the court. No lie! I couldn't tell you how many noses she has broke or girls she has hit in the face. Im pretty sure my dad still owes her about 20 Big Macs. Now if you don't know Lexi, She is about six feet tall and has an arm of an NFL quarterback. Man can she kill it. I use to pick fights with girls across the net from me and then turn and look at Lexi and say "Lex hit her in the face". I know, I know I was still a mean kid even in high school. Lexi never let me down. She always had my back. We use to make promises to each other that we would try to make each other look good so that the scouts would be impressed and we would get scholarships. Now that I think of it. Lexi never let anyone down. She was by far one of the best teammates I have ever had, if not the very best. She was never discouraged and she never gave up. I could always count on her to make a play. She was a fighter and man when she played she had fire in her eyes. Ok so now that I have totally relived my glory days of high school volleyball let me just make a point. I LOVE Lexi. Something about having a chemistry and bond on the court progressed into a friendship that has no limits and has stood the test of time.

So now that you all know how much I really love Lexi, you can understand that we had a complete blast this weekend laughing and reminiscing on old times. We hung out with little Bubba, went shopping, went to the beach, cooked dinner and made bread...Well we kind of made bread. Lexi tried some of my home made bread and decided she wanted to learn. So we started baking and for some reason just about everything went wrong. Lets just say.. when we ate the final product it was more like the texture of a muffin but in the shape of bread. So Lexi named it "muffin bread". I promised her I would reconstruct the recipe so that she could make it at home. So I will include at the bottom of this post the "Not so Muffin Bread" recipe.

Last but definitely no least, I am so excited to congratulate Lexi and Clay on their engagement. I am so happy for them both and wish them a lifetime of happiness. ps.. CLAY- your fiance is one heck of a catch and Bad A**!! Love you both!

(Not muffin Bread)
Whole Wheat Bread

place in a measuring cup:
1/4 cup of Warm water (105-115 degrees)
1 Tablespoon of Yeast (or 1 package)
1 Tablespoon of sugar

Let foam for about 5 minutes

mix in a large bowl:
2 1/2 Cups of Warm tap water
41/2 Cups Wheat flower
1/2 Cup oats
1/2 Cup flax seed
1/2 Cup Sesame seeds
1/4 Cup vital wheat gluten
1 Tablespoon of Salt

Add Yeast mixture to dry ingredients in large bowl, than add:
1/3 Cup oil
1/3 Cup honey

Mix till all of flour is moist, then sprinkle flour on a flat surface and knead for 7-10 minutes adding flour as needed so that it wont stick (usually about 1/2 a Cup is added). Spray two loaf pans or one large loaf pan generously with cooking spray. Divide the bread dough in half and then place in loaf pans. Cover and let rise in a warm place (80 degrees) for one hour. Cook at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Bread should be hollow sounding when tapped on top.

Cox Family Chaos...

Why is it that when the Cox family gets together you can always expect hormonal rants, anger management therapy (from who else but Mama Gene aka my mom), uncontrollable laughs and after stressful preparation, a wonderful meal. Seriously though, any of you who have ever been over to my parents home during a family gathering know exactly what Im talking about. You've got my mom always trying to psycho analyze everyones every move. There is always a "root" to everything. I have to admit though, most of the time she's usually right on the money, but still, really mom? This trip I learned where the generational anger that my son and I have comes from, "your dad". My dad antagonizes my mother all day long with his repetitive remarks. For example, My dad tried this new recipe of deviled eggs last week. Everyone loved them so he decided he wanted to make them for our Cox family reunion on Sunday. My mother of course, being a little OCD, explains to him that "deviled eggs don't travel well." All she could think about was how those eggs would topple over during the drive and be one big mess. She felt bad for crushing my dads moment so she finally told him that he could make the eggs. So all day on friday and saturday my dad probably mentions the fact that the "eggs don't travel well" more than 20 times, especially when everyone kept complimenting him on how great they were. Completely antagonizing my mom to no end. Honestly, she never gets the fact that if she probably ignored him he would probably leave her alone. But no, she lets him under her skin again and again. I will complete this story in just a few moments, but for the meantime I will continue on explaining the outrageousness of the rest of the Cox family.

Between Jessica,Bonnie, and I there is nothing but obnoxious noises and voices, while always poking fun at one another and everyone else in our family. My abs are always sore when I leave home from all the laughing. Jessica is little miss sassy and oh man she is one feisty girl and you don't want to be in her line of fire. You wouldn't believe such a sweet girl could have such an aggressive side. Actually, I think all of us girls have some major sass. Expect for me, you can minus the sweet side. We all have something we are usually bitching about. Bonnie usually is trying to control poor little bubba from throwing rocks in the pool or keeping him clean. Actually she's usually trying to control just about everything (my mom included, both a little OCD). But thank goodness for her because at least something is always getting done.

Bryan of course is our equal medium of the group. He is so calm and collective. Never says anything dumb (like the rest of us). Of course, he got the smart genes in the family. Drama? what drama? This guy has no drama in his life. Us girls have enough drama to last us a couple life times. I asked my brother this weekend if he was dating anyone. My dad immediately comments "why do you ask him things like that, thats exactly why he never wants to come around you girls. You girls are always prying in his business." To my surprise he actually answered by saying that he wasn't dating anyone really and that he was kind of just taking a break. Of course I continued my interrogation by asking him why. I love this part, he says, "all they want is my money and I am sick of all these girls not having a job. Any girl I date is going to have to have a job." So girls if you want to date my brother, then you better start applying.

Then there is me, I love everyone, but I hit my limit and when all of our family anxiety gets a little to much for me, I explode on whomever is right next to me. Which unfortunately, always seems to be my poor mom or husband. I usually let my child do whatever he wants when he's at my parents hoping that someone else will discipline him so I don't have to. At least thats what they think I do. OK, so I said all that to say, that all of that chaos is truly embellished with nonstop laughter. I mean seriously I never laugh harder or make weird voices or noises or freak out as much as I do then when I am at home. I know that no matter what, I have my family and they are always there for me and no one has my back like my family does. We have gone through our family struggles but we are so much closer and stronger through each bump in the road. I love my family and feel blessed everyday to have them in my life. I love how we each have our little quirks and we can always make fun of each other and laugh about it. So in leu of our Cox family reunion this past weekend. There you go!

Alright people, so to finish the egg story. My dad made the eggs, and wouldn't you know that by the time we got to the reunion those eggs were so mangled and gross looking. My dad calls me over and says secretly before my mom sees them, "Rach... my eggs didn't travel so well." I laughed so hard and of course my mom finds out and is holding her head up high like she had just one a battle. Well you know what? Every single one of those gross looking eggs were eaten. That made my dad so proud. So in the end I guess you could say they both won! But once again another example of the fun and chaotic moments in the Cox household!

Also during the family reunion my grandma gave me my childhood baby doll to me after she had sewn her back together. Its been 11 years or so since I've seen this baby doll. I had asked my grandma if she could fix her for me before they moved to Arkansas. She found her recently and fixed her right up. It was a super cute moment to share with my grandma!

another photo from the reunion. I guess you could call them kissing cousins haha

my bff...

So I have to do a little shout out to my best friend Mrs. Ashley Oscars, because today is her birthday! I seriously don't know how this girl has put up with me for so long. I mean honestly, I don't deserve her as a best friend, but man am I sure thankful I've got her.

When I met Ashley in the 5th grade I had just moved to a new school and basically hated everything and everyone. All I did was play tetherball at recess because I was the "tether ball queen", Ashley, being a girl of competitive nature would always come wait in line to play me. She was probably the only person that ever beat me once or twice. I knew I liked her because everyday we would play tetherball together and she would always put up a good fight. Of course, me being the psycho and mean person that I am, I told Ashley she had to be initiated before she could officially become my best friend (I know, I'm crazy). I invited her out to the farm where I proceeded to make her eat things that were probably highly unsanitary, jump in to scum ponds that were filled with who knows what and torture little animals (this was her soft spot) until I thought she was officially ready to be called my bff. Now I understand that I was a really mean natured kid, but Ashley put up with it the whole time. We became the best of friends from that day forward. I knew that this girl was one tough cookie and must have really loved me if she would put up with all the crap I put her through. Lets just say... things have never changed. She has always been by my side and I know no matter what she will always be there for me. We have gone months without talking because of our busy/demanding lives. But the minute we see each other its like a we never missed a beat. We played volleyball together, we rode quads together, we caught frogs and hunted for birds nests (we were so weird). We grew up and chased boys together. We shared tears and laughs together. She truly is the epitome of what a best friend is and should be. We have spent many nights on the phone listening to each other cry about some hard time we were going through or some boy that broke our hearts. Im not really sure what I would do with out her. My sisters tell me all the time..."your friends will go to the end of the earth for you" Im not really sure why I got so lucky to have such a wonderful and beautiful best friend (maybe it was the initiation). But I thank God for her everyday! I love you Ashley! I hope you have the best birthday a girl could ask for, because you deserve it!!!