My First Rodeo: How Three Daughters, One Wife, and a Herd of Others Are Making Me a Better Dad
Written and Narrated By: Stoney Stamper
Length: 5 hrs and 14 mins
The Down and oh so Dirty of a clueless man raising… GIRLS!!!
Whadda ya get when you cross a cowboy with a passel o’ girls?
Controlled, or not-so-controlled, Chaos.
Stoney Stamper is a god-fearing man, very much at home on a horse, working a ranch, running with dogs who just haaaaaappens to fall in love with a beautiful woman who happens to come with two daughters. They get married. They have another child. They have a girl.
Stoney’s clueless. My First Rodeo is a truly sweet book about a man trying to survive by blogging his way through this brave new world of his. He’s used to neat; he’s used to organized. And now Life is full of hair bows, Build A Bears, dirty diapers, and yes, with trips to that most confusing of places: The Mall! Oh my!
The book is sooooo refreshing in that Stoney is TOTALLY dedicated to his new life and new family. He’s the Boss at work, but at home? Well, he’s learned to surrender it all if it comes with a hug and the fluttering of eyelashes.
There are driving lessons, shopping for Mother’s Day, the bathing of infants who poop in the comfort of a nice and warm bath (And here is where I HAVE to add: I’ve worked with little boys, and they poop in warm water just as much as little girls do, so there you go!). There’s chaos and destruction, and there aren’t as many fiery crashes as Stoney would expect. There are softball lessons where Stoney has to gather up as much as his sportsman’s wisdom as he can; there are bigger lessons on how to be an honest and worthwhile person.
And all of it is pretty chucklesome indeed as it’s all narrated by Stoney Stamper himself, in his earnest and oh so confused manner. He’s a very honest person, and he’s a very loving person. Even tho’ he finds himself confused and dismayed and at-a-loss, he never makes fun of his girls and he never bemoans his fate as a father of a rambunctious and loud group of ladies (Contrast this to Buzz Bissinger’s Father’s Day where Buzz’s life is OBVIOUSLY THE WORST LIFE IN THE WORLD!!!! Stamper comes off as the most patient and loving man imaginable!).
My First Rodeo is barely over 5 hours of well-intentioned sweetness (listen especially to trying to save a HAWK with a fitted sheet… and it turns out the Bird of Prey is a tiny and willful sparrow).
Even when Life throws tragedy in, Stamper and his family meet it all with Church, with God, with Love of Family. What could be better than that?!?
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