The Thomas Family

It's me again

2011-06-02T05:27:00.001-07:00

Wow, has it been that long? Seems with my facebook account that my blog has slipped through the cracks this past year. This is partly because of our internet issues, but for the most part it is probably laziness. I don't want to take the time to download pictures let alone write about them. My focus for the summer is to get pictures printed and in albums, and to catch up on life. It seems to have run away from me this past year. SO, my commitment at this point is to blog at least once a week, and to like it darn it! Here is a picture of my big boy. We brought him over from my mom's house to eat down all the grass. Since we don't have the cows anymore, it was getting a bit out of control. Wow! I'm just realizing how much has gone on since I posted last year. LOTS to catch up on!

Found it!

2010-09-17T06:51:00.000-07:00

Lookie what I found? Actually, I made Chris look for it since he was the one that downloaded the pictures to the wrong folder. My question was, "Why do we have 3 different folders to download pictures to anyway?

Here are my kiddos on the first day of school this year. It is a tradition to take the picture next to my truck. It helps me to put into perspective how much they've grown. Not to mention the fact that my 10 year old is wearing bras now. Freaking out about how much she's changed. Sheesh! Lots of girl changes going on around here. Mood swings, crying, having fits that we don't normally have...draining!!! I've been quiet here in blogland as of late. I think I'm trying to get into the swing of things with our schedule, and with myself. It's the quiet times in the morning when no one else is awake that I tend to recharge for my day. I sit and watch the chickens chase away the birds out of their yard, listen to the quiet breeze in the trees that bring down the changing leaves, and wait to hear the bedroom doors open. Speaking of doors opening, I just heard one. Ready, set go! Have a wonderful weekend!

It's that time!

2010-09-07T18:53:00.000-07:00

Is it that time already? Back to school? Soccer? Homework? Work? Evan's birthday? Time flys even when you do nothing all summer! The good thing about staying around the house for summer vacation is the kids are really excited to go back to school. Evan was excited to start his second year of soccer and turned nine. He was excited to start 4th grade, and even more excited to have the same teacher that Amanda did last year. She goes light on the homework. Yay! Sadly, the computer ate the picture I took of them on the first day of school. Yet another thing to hate the computer for. Probably my husband messing with settings yet again. I can't find anything on here and he doesn't get why I get mad! Sheesh! Hopefully I'll find it. It seems a lot of the pictures I took in August have vanished, just like my patience! I'm looking forward to Fall, cooler weather, and getting into a groove with life. It helps me quiet my mind and soul, which I need to do a lot of lately. For right now, I'm tired of looking through files on the computer, and there is a nice breeze outside. I think I'll go open windows and take a deep breath. Have a nice evening!

Summer projects

2010-08-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

I've been doing some little sewing projects this summer. Some were to use up fabric scraps and some were to practice for bigger projects I've got in mind.

These are coffee bands. I still need to sew the buttons on, but otherwise they are ready for a trip to Starbucks. I like to keep these on hand to give away as little gifties, but I also LOVE them. They are fun and cute to take to get a coffee. Um, no thank you. I don't need a paper band!

Here is my project that helped me with getting more precise with piecing squares. I have a larger quilt in mind that I already have the fabric for but wanted to wet my feet with something smaller. I'm a sucker for cherry fabric and needed placemats anyway. I liked how they turned out, but decided I hate stitch in the ditch. It is impossible to make it go in the ditch the entire time!!! I've found a different way to follow the squares that I'll do next time that won't be so aggrevating.

This isn't sewing, but a project I've been trying to perfect over the summer. I made my own sourdough starter that I've been turning into bread. Unfortunately, I can't seem to get the right consistency in the bread and I've been eating WAY too much of the attempts. The flavor is great, it is just so heavy. I even added more yeast to the dough. Needless to say I'm moving on from sourdough starter and bread.

I've got more to finish and I hope to be done with all of my half started projects by the end of the year. It feels good to get some of my shelves cleaned out!

moments in life

2010-07-30T08:38:00.000-07:00

My daughter is a special kid. I know every parent says that, but with all of the corrections and parenting I do during the day sometimes I'm in awe of being able to sit back and watch her learn and grow. With this whole horse deal we were presented with, I gave Amanda some major decisions to make. When this started I told her that we had an opportunity to go look at an older mare that needed to retire from being a lesson horse. "With older horses you can't just decide to not do it in a couple of years and sell them. With this decision comes the knowlege that this horse will be our responsibility until she dies. She will need special care when she is no longer rideable, and probably special food. There is extra care in the winter to help them maintain their weight, and this will all be your responsibility. That means you get up early before school to go care for her, blanket her, check her feet, and pay attention to her even when life gets busy. You will be out there when it's pouring rain, if you are sick, and when it's dark. You will be mucking through the mud, and wearing slickers while you curse at the wind and wet. They need your care no matter what. If you are still interested, let me know and we can go look at her." She thought about it a good long time and said she wasn't sure if she was ready for this responsibility yet, but she'd wanted to take a look at her. She said this with tears in her eyes. When I asked her why she was crying she said she didn't know, but that she knew this was a big deal and she didn't want to make a mistake. I told her if she wanted to see her, she could and to let her heart and her mind decide. The fact that she just didn't jump at the idea cinched the deal for me. That was what I was looking for. I didn't want a quick decision, but a thought out one. She took this very seriously. I was so proud of her. I also knew that when she saw her she'd fall in love. Chic is such a ham, very expressive, and perfect for Amanda. She's got some swaying in her back, and has seen a lot of life and experiences, but I couldn't ask for a better girl to show my girl how to take care of a horse-rain or shine-good or bad-you do it because you LOVE it. They become part of who you are.

For now she is over at grandma's house. We have some work to do on a gate to allow better entrance to the pasture so I can separate her from the cows. We are also taking advantage of Amanda being able to walk her down the hill to take her lessons from her old owner. That has been such a blessing.

Being a mom can sometimes be such a thankless job. There are so many moments where I feel like I'm just making sure they don't kill themselves and yelling for them to pick up their junk. But when there is a big decision or opportunity for your children and you see them take the right steps to make a good decision, it makes all the bickering and frustration seem worth it. I'm so proud of my girl, and when I see her from a distance, whispering to her girl, hugging her, feeding her, just being with her, it makes all of the expense worth it. Chic will become her best friend, her companion, the one she goes to when she's angry or sad, and wants a friend. Chic nickers when she sees Amanda, and that makes my little girl's heart sing. What more could I ask for?

Summer fun

2010-07-30T08:16:00.000-07:00

We started out the summer with our little vacation and not much else planned until the end of this month. We'd wanted to take a little weekend trip to the bay area, but then Chris's car died, and we have 3 large bills due, and then we decided it was better to be responsible and stay home. Blah. On a more exciting note, we had a great old mare dropped in our laps at the perfect time for Amanda to love on and learn from. The lady that gave her to us said she wanted to find a little girl to love on her and after meeting Amanda, it was a perfect match. Emerald Chickadee is her name. Amanda is taking lessons from this lady on Chic and spends countless hours loving on her, brushing her, and drawing pictures of her. It brings back memories of my first horse and how proud I was to have her.

I've been doing some sewing this summer, and of course had to make Amanda a top with horses on it to wear. I am enjoying the fact that she'll still wear things I make for her. She also picked out 4 or 5 different fabrics to make shorts. I know those days aren't going to last much longer. She's growing up right before our eyes at an alarming rate.

Here are the kids with their redneck hot tubs. A boring, hot summer day forced them to get creative. The funniest part was they spent about 2 hours out there in those tubs. That made for a nice quiet afternoon inside the house! I won't post the pictures of them watching tv or playing video games, of which they've done too much of this summer. I'd rather act like I have them outside running and playing, never fighting, and using their imaginations. Sounds good to me!

School starts soon and then we'll be back to our routines, but for a couple more weeks we can sit around in the mornings, soaking in the cool air and figuring out what each day will bring us.

Good bye San Diego

2010-07-13T08:16:00.000-07:00

My husband works very hard at his job. I think one of the most enjoyable things was to see him let go after a couple of days and really enjoy himself. Evan asked him if he'd bury him in the sand. Then the digging began!

Here he was, up to his neck...makes me all itchy and scratchy just thinking about it!

Amanda wanted no part of the burying and chose to build a sand castle instead.

This is the end of the vacation pictures I'm going to post. Don't get me wrong, there are LOTS more, but there are lots of things going on and it's time to move into summer pictures here at home!

whiner

2010-07-08T16:01:00.000-07:00

I think summer has finally gotten to me. More importantly, I'm completely frustrated with my kids(horse included)! The problem is if I were to get a break I am constantly thinking about the things I need to do at home! Add to that Amanda's softball tournament coming up in Concord and it makes for a whining sesson from me. Today has pretty much been a waste of time. Actually, it could be completely be erased and there would be no impact on my life whatsoever. I have gone from limiting the kid's television watching to ignoring what they are doing and letting them be complete couch potatoes. I'm doing nothing stimulating or enriching with them because at some point they will start bickering, yelling, hitting, tattling, _____fill in the blanks! I'm guessing I need a major attitude adjustment. Some fun money and chocolate might be nice too...well OK, skip the chocolate. I'm way too sore to jeopardize my workout with chocolate! Do you ever feel like you have a rope tied to your back and as soon as you start moving forward with something you get yanked right back? Among the worry of making a decision to get a hysterectomy for my fibroid issue, the horse I purchased in February is at the trainer's house getting a tune-up so I can learn how to ride her better. She is dealing with some nervous issues and once the trainer has her ready, I'll be the one with the nervous issue! That lady is intimidating! One step forward, two MAJOR steps back. The trainer seems to feel that someone in her past was pretty heavy handed with her, which makes her jumpy and quick to respond. That is what I need to learn how to ride out of her. The scary part is I don't know how long it's going to take me to do that. We thought we did an adequate job of doing our homework with Cat. We took her to the trainer to ride, had her checked out by the vet, and spent a lot of time talking to her old owner about her habits and such before I decided to purchase her. It doesn't matter how much you do it is still a gamble I guess. After getting dumped on the ground a couple of times I guess it's better to learn in a sandy arena over the trail and pavement that met my body at an alarming rate of speed! I keep telling myself I don't need the stress and to just quit. But where is the fun and scary excitement in that? I'll just go over there with a knot in my stomach and a little throw up in my mouth and get on. Right? Sounds easy! That's what happens when you learn to ride old school as a kid and now the trend is to have them finely tuned to respond to every body movement. I guess this old dog has some major learning to do. And that scares the shit out of me!

I Wanna Go Back

2010-06-29T08:21:00.000-07:00

There is an Eddie Money song lyric going through my head this morning. You know the one, "I wanna go back and do it all over, but I can't go back, I know." This is my mantra today. I really do want to go back to Pacific Beach! How can you not want to go back to this?

-or the smiles and giggles from my children as the waves crash around them

Oh yeah,

-or naps in that Lazyboy next to the sliding glass door each day while the ocean treated you to it's cool breezes and sounds? Then you wake up to watch the surfers catch a wave and the dolphins go by each afternoon.

-or the cool sand in your toes, shoes, underware, pockets, you get the idea...

-or watching your slightly workaholic husband let go and enjoy himself with his children instead of being frustrated with them

I bet it's going to be beautiful today in San Diego. It's supposed to be 100 degrees here today and the motor on our ONE YEAR OLD evaporative cooler broke this morning when I went to turn it on to bring in the cool morning air. That means we'll be cranking the AC, which we don't use due to the costs to run it. Ugh! Hopefully the company will get back to me soon! In the meantime, I wanna go back!

San Diego Zoo

2010-06-26T21:49:00.000-07:00

Here we are at the zoo. I've never been a big fan of zoos. I have a hard time with them caging up lions, elephants, and such up for us to see up close. Then I saw this!!! It was at this time I decided I just don't like zoos that suck. This one ROCKS!!! The animals have nice enclosures and these elephants get pedicures all the time!!! They scrub their feet every day! Then the other zoo worker put on an extra LOONNNGG glove. Uh-oh, I know what that means! Poor girl!

Hello! Chris always takes pictures of me when I'm doing some weird face. Gimme the camera! We're taking a tour of the zoo, not taking pictures of me! The kids loved riding around the zoo on the double decker bus. We had great views of the enclosures and it gave us a great layout of the park.

The koala enclosure has about 15 or so koalas in it, but I'll spare you all of the pictures I took. Awww, isn't it cute? I think he has a great idea. I'm going to bed! Good night!

Take me out to the ball game!

2010-06-25T21:40:00.000-07:00

Day one of our vacation was in Downtown San Diego. We stayed at a hotel that gave us the ability to walk to our first event. The kids loved staying on the 25th floor and that it had a pool as well. There were many fights over who got to push the elevator buttons and slide the room key. I really thought we were beyond that point, but there is something appealing with calling the elevator by pushing that little button and then guessing which elevator would come first. We did lots of walking, whining, and watching. Watching the birds, the docks, the bums, you know...all that the city has to offer! We headed out Sunday morning ready to take in a Padres game. Chris got us great seats on the 3rd base line and the weather was PERFECT!!!

The kids couldn't wait to buy some gear to wear. I talked them into a $7 hat I found, which if you've been to sporting events most are in the $30 range. Score!

The kids were so excited once we saw the field. There were concessions set up around the ballpark where you could get breakfast, lunch, season tickets, play on mini fields set up for the kids, and take in the excitement of the upcoming game. I had ONE thing I wanted to get before we sat down.

Yup, freshly roasted peanuts and a diet coke. Food was outrageous, but part of the day. Hot dogs, pizza, cotton candy, sugar, you know---the basics!

We had fantastic seats. You could see their faces! We had 2 balls hit right around us, and if Chris hadn't been holding the camcorder he might have gotten one that went into the empty seats in front of us. I kept yelling, "HONEY! It's coming right at us!" Very exciting!

The kids enjoyed watching a real game, and we enjoyed spending a day at a great American pastime. What a way to kick off our vacation! Thanks for planning this Daddy!

Ahhh, vacation

2010-06-21T05:04:00.000-07:00

Tap-tap-tap-Um...is this thing on? Hello...how do I do this "back to reality" thing?

Here is a picture of some Meercats(Is that how you spell it? That doesn't look correct) at the San Diego Zoo. Evan had them mesmerized with his yo-yo going up and down. It was hysterical. Up, down, up, down. What strange little creatures!

We're back from our week long vacation in San Diego. We did a lot of fun things, and took a lot of pictures. I've decided there are good and bad things associated with digital cameras. You can take as many pictures as you want and not have to worry about developing bad pictures. But you can also take as many pictures as you want...we took 620. Ugh. That's a lot of pictures to go through! I'm trying to go through the best of them, but we did LOTS of stuff! Now that the kids are out of school, that means serious use of our 3G Internet, which means I won't be able to post as often as I'd like, but I'll try to put in a couple of pictures every day.

I'll give an overview of our trip on this one. First, let me say, my husband rocks at planning vacations. He's been holding out on me all these years! We started with our 91/2 hour drive on Saturday morning all the way into the city of San Diego. We stayed on the 25th floor of the Sheraton. We did a lot of walking, went to a Padre's game, went to the zoo, and went through an earthquake. I went through a pretty bad earthquake years back at my grandparent's house when we were visiting them in Los Angeles, but never have I been in one where I was 25 stories off the ground. Can I just say HOLY CRAP!!! The building swayed past the point where the earthquake ended. We were all sound asleep when it hit. Once it was over Chris decided he needed to pack up his things. He just kept saying, "Where is my stuff?" I think he was still slightly asleep. It REALLY freaked him out. It took about 30 minutes to calm the kids down and go back to sleep. NOT fun! After 3 days there we headed north towards Pacific Beach, which is just above Mission Beach. We did an unplanned trip to Sea World and got lucky with a 2 bedroom condo that was equipped with beach toys, chairs, and a boogie board. The rest of the trip we were beach bums, and decided the city life wasn't for us. That was easy to decide since the condo was right on the beach and had sliding glass doors in every direction opening to the ocean. Can you say free upgrade? We really lucked out! I think we'll be going back there next year. Seriously. It was that enjoyable and relaxing. Not a computer, cell phone, or Starbucks in sight. Well, I found the Starbucks next to the grocery store when we were stocking up but it was out of sight for the most part! Now I'm having a hard time coming back to reality and having my husband not be around all the time again. After 10 days of him being here I don't want him to go back to work! We did come back to mild weather, still, and LOTS of weeds so I guess I know what I'm going to be doing this week!

Funny story before the field trip post

2010-06-09T06:47:00.001-07:00

I thought I got us lost on the way to the field trip. Not a great moment when you're 1 1/2 hours in the hills. I went a short cut through the back roads. How bad can the roads be? Um, they got really narrow, washboard dirt roads for about 15 or 20 miles, and I had 3 little girls in the back seat squealing, "YOU GOT US LOST!" I just kept going, hoping we'd get there sooner or later. I almost cried when we got to a sign that said only 5 more miles. Then we got there 20 minutes earlier than the people that went the paved way. Sissies...Just kidding! My Prius was COVERED in dust and probably needs an alignment, but what an adventure! We even went across a small wooden bridge over the Yuba River. Very cool! I think I'm going that way next year with Evan and his group. I might pretend I'm lost again. Just adds a little excitement to the mix. It also made the girls thankful when we got there. Hey, I wanted them to feel what it was like back in the old days with a wooden wagon and a hand drawn map, hoping you make it someday! Looking back it was funny. During the time, I was scared I got 3 kids lost on a small rural road that is prone to wash outs and didn't have a good spot to turn around! I think next year I'm taking the truck! On with the field trip posting!

End of the year fun

2010-06-09T06:22:00.000-07:00

Well, the end of the school year is tomorrow. One more field trip is scheduled for Amanda to the ice skating rink and she's not that happy about it. She's nervous about ice skating in front of her friends. Last week I went with the 4th graders to Malikoff Diggins to learn about the town of Humbug and the mining that went on there. I was in charge of the candle dipping. There was a certain technique involved. Don't dip it too long or the wax will remelt off the wick, walk around the tree for the wax to set before your next dip, and try not to get smoked out by the fire! We had 45 kids go through in different groups and they all got some great candles! I think this will be a project for summer. It was pretty fun! I was also in charge of the Drug Store tour. What a cool place! They had all original bottles of old remedies, scales, living quarters, pill rollers, and household items. No wonder the life expectancy wasn't that great back then. "Oh here. Take this bottle of Creosote to help with your ailment." The comment on paper I was to read was that they either found out that the drugs didn't do anything, worked too well, were toxic, or are now illegal. Ahh, the good old days!

Here is my pretty girl, begrudgingly dressed up in the period dress I made her. She loved it last year at the Bernhardt museum in 3rd grade. What happened when she went to 4th grade? All of a sudden she's opinionated, is embarrassed by her mother, and rolls her eyes and has fits when she is upset about something. Sigh...She wanted to wear jeans and I told her over my dead body. I made that dress for her to wear and by George she was going to wear it. I'm sure you can hear the words coming out of my mouth, "Do you know how lucky you are that you have a Mom that can sew you a costume? I worked very hard on that dress and made one for me too so we would be authentic. You are WEARING THE DRESS!" Then all day I reminded her that she was one of maybe 3 girls that were actually dressed period correct while the other 75 kids were NOT and didn't make the effort. She'd just roll her eyes.

I know someday I won't be able to push her to do what I want her to do. That day is coming faster than I know, and I miss my little sweet girl. I do, however, enjoy watching my girl grow up into a beautiful, long blond hair, smart, sassy(I don't know where she gets that from), bashful girl that I hope someday will sew costumes for her little girl and smile, remembering back to 4th grade when she didn't want to wear her costume.

Spring goodness

2010-06-01T07:11:00.000-07:00

We've been dabbling outside with some planting in between storms this Spring. The weather has moved from not quite as wet to overcast. The sun peaks through on occasion. Can't say I mind the mild weather but the garden doesn't care for it much. It's rather puny!

We made up a couple of little cactus gardens. I'm a nut for cactus but don't want them anywhere that I can't contain them. I just like the mini sized gardens! I remember as a kid rubbing my hands up and down the "smooth" cactus at my grandparent's house when I was a kid. Ugh! I was miserable for a couple of days. I'd lay there and scrub my hands on the carpet to try and get the microscopic pokies out. NEVER did that again!
Here is the beginnings of my new rose garden...in the middle of a weed patch. I had to give up my last rose garden at our old house when we moved so now I'm starting over. These two I got for Mother's Day. I hope to have it grow in size as needed. It's a lot of work to start a fresh patch! I tried to play pathetic so Chris would help but he wasn't buying it.

We've had so much going on these past couple of months and although I want to share it here, our 3G internet doesn't allow for a lot of picture downloads in a month before it goes over the usage limit. With the kids on the computer more it's amazing how fast those megabites disappear. We're going on vacation in a week so I'll sneak some in before we go since we'll not be using the computer while we're gone. The kids are out of school next Thursday so summer is quickly approaching!

A day in the life of Evan

2010-05-14T07:09:00.000-07:00

Evan is my kid that really likes everyone to entertain him. This job usually falls on his sister who, as she gets older, is finding this less enjoyable. On occasion he finds something that really strikes his interest. Just look what we walked out to one morning. Green slime was slowly making it's way down to the floor. The neighbors made goo out of white glue and borax. Evan found out if he put it up to his face and blew into it he made big bubbles. He also found out that borax is irritating to your face after prolonged contact.

Meet another being in our house that is entertaining to Evan. I do post lots of stuff about our pets, but I don't know if anyone realizes how special our cat Molly is. She is one of the only cats I've ever been around that tolerates being trapped under the laundry basket and poked at by all the neighbor kids until I find them and yell at them. Then when they let her out she doesn't run away. It's like she knows they won't hurt her and has a job to do to be Evan's companion. Really. She is smart, a good hunter, and loves her little boy. She loves him enough to let him tuck her in to said laundry basket and give her rides around the house for a good 30 minutes while the dog follows them waiting to chase her when she jumps out.

I'm serious folks! Thirty minutes went by. He just pulled her around and around the house while she acted like she was on the People Mover ride at Disneyland.

The dog was waiting patiently...

We'll be out in the garden this weekend, which means Molly will be gardening too. She likes to keep a check on the gophers around the edge and rolls in the dirt. If you sit down to rest she'll most likely jump in your lap and purr while she soaks up the sun, and deposits dust on your lap. Sometimes there are animals that really become part of your existence. That sure makes it harder when they leave us, but boy it sure makes while they are here special. She makes one little boy happy. I'm just glad she is so tolerant and patient. She was custom made for him. Thanks God. Sometimes angels really do have fur.

2010-05-13T20:04:00.000-07:00

I hope you all had a nice weekend and made some Mother in your life feel special. I had a nice Sunday brunch out with my kiddos and husband. Then we went to one of my favorite places. Eisley's nursery is a local nursery that has wonderful plants and fun garden embelishments. They took me to pick out a rose bush. I like flowers with roots attached to them and before we moved they would buy me a new rose for my garden every Mother's Day. When we moved I couldn't take them with me as it was stinking hot in August and we hadn't found a house yet. I have a place that I'm going to convert into my new rose garden. We worked a little on the garden and should have most of it in by this weekend. The kids are busy with end of the year projects. Amanda just finished one on raising butterflies that is to be turned in next week for the open house. ONE more week until I no longer have bugs on my counter. The dumb ants have grow quite accustomed to coming in my kitchen at night to eat the sugar water we leave out for the butterflies to eat. It was actually a fun project! We watched the little tiny catepillars grow and pupate. Then on Mother's Day they started hatching. The kids were so excited! So I guess I got Painted Lady Butterflies for Mother's Day too!

nutso

2010-05-07T14:14:00.000-07:00

I hope my husband doesn't wait until the last minute to do mother's day shopping. I'm way to emotional and stressed to deal with that!

Here's something I realized...When deaf people stand behind you chomping gum all the while you're trying to listen to a presentation, they don't know it's annoying because they can't HEAR the gum smacking. They are busy watching the sign language interpreter translating the message. Hummm...just the kind of stuff I think about.

I just realized I don't have the picture I was going to post downloaded. Guess I'll have to do it later.

How was that for a Friday post? I think I'm going nutty!

Evan's field trip

2010-05-06T14:04:00.000-07:00

Evan had a field trip to a local museum that requires period costumes. They take the kids back in time and show them how the people of that era would spend their days. I was in charge of laundry. I went on this field trip last year with Amanda in a rented costume that I didn't like. This year I decided to make my own. I have 2 more field trips I will use it on so I knew it was worth the effort. It didn't save me money, but I get to keep the dress and I know it fits properly. The irony of it is I never am able to make clothes that fit me well. This fits like a glove and I can't wear it beyond field trips! I guess my body shape belongs in 1895. Birthing hips(that's what my ob said when I was having my kids) and sturdy frame, yup, that's me! Evan had a great time! They learned how to make toys from that time, grind wheat berries for biscuits, do laundry with a washboard and tubs, woodworking, leather, and hand plowing. They also got to tour the house. Us parents were completely POOPED by the end of the day! Whew! I don't think living back then consisted of keeping 48 kids split up into 6 groups in line. Good thing it only lasted 1 day!

you know you're gettin' old when...

2010-05-01T07:47:00.000-07:00

This week has been a productive one! I finished my costume for Evan's field trip (no thanks to the cat)on Monday. More pictures to follow!

I hope your Saturday is starting off well. I have watching a softball game ahead of me followed by whatever I can manage to do. Apparently, I've messed up my lower back/hips. I have NO idea how I did this, but for the past week I've been in a pretty good amount of pain. Sometimes it's pain to make me take deep breaths, and sometimes it's enough to make me stop moving. That is short lived, however, since as a momma, opportunities to stop don't come often. Chris is working a lot of overtime as of late which leaves me to do most everything else so I haven't been able to do much beyond go to the chiropractor. Unfortunately, since it didn't help(usually I have instant relief from an adjustment), I'm pursuing this further with my doctor. I fear it might be related to another health concern I've had as of late and think it's more nerve related over muscle. Sigh!!! NOW you know why I titled this post "you know you're getting old when...". I hope to have this behind me in a couple of weeks, but for now I have too much to do to worry about it! We have gardens that need planting, weeds that need to be mowed, a house to tend to, and a family that is in high gear! Advil is my friend and my ultrasound won't come soon enough! I hope it gives some insight or at least a direction to go with to figure out what is wrong. I won't say I'm not somewhat fearful of what's going on. To tell the truth it weighs on my mind quite heavily. Nothing like a bunch of hurry up and wait to make one nervous! Anyhoo, love the one you're with, hug your kiddos, and have a nice, relaxing weekend! The weather is perfect!

2010-04-26T18:28:00.000-07:00

Good grief! Has it really been 2 weeks since I posted something? Well, in a nutshell it's been nuts! Two kids playing ball, school projects, rain, rain, and more rain, more chick babies, playdates, broken cars, playing with my horse, Evan getting in trouble at school, skipping church the last couple of weekends(baaddd), trying to keep ahead of the weeds before they die and turn into tinder, and holdin' down the fort! Whacha been up to in your neck of the woods? I hope to get some pictures in here somewhere! Something to work on tomorrow. It's supposed to rain again. We are getting rain a couple of days every week as of late. Hope all is well with you!

Hey batta batta!

2010-04-12T09:18:00.000-07:00

It's time for baseball. Last year Evan didn't want to play until after he watched his sister play softball and was too late to sign up. This year he was very excited to get going. Well, he wasn't that excited at first because I put him on the Nuggets league, which is mostly 6 and 7 year olds, but it does go up to age 8 and since it was his first year I didn't want him in the majors yet. He's not a big guy and frankly, I thought it was more important for him to learn the fundamentals first. Some of these kids have been playing for years already! After he got over being mad at me for putting him with the little kids, we went to his first practice and he saw that most of the kids go to his school and eat at the same lunch time as him. Whew! Dodged that one! Saturday they finally got to play their first game. The others have been rained out so far. Looks like this week will be more rain. Frustrating since us parents invest so much in the gear and time just sitting at the fields so they can play.

Evan wanted to play catcher this time. At this age there are lots of Dads around helping. The catchers just sat there waiting for the dads to get the ball and throw it back. Lazy kids! They look like turtles in their get up. Too cute!

He has a little work to do on his batting, but since they only had about 3 practices and then 2 weeks before they finally had a game they all are a little rusty. All in all he had a great time and that's the important part. He doesn't seem really concerned with the score or getting outs at this point. He seems to just want to learn how to play the game, hang out with his friends and have fun playing ball. That's the most important part!

Sorry, more chick pictures!

2010-04-06T10:43:00.000-07:00

Easter break-could the timing be any better for baby chicks?

Out of 12 eggs 4 hatched

One proud momma!

I apologize for the endless amounts of chicken pictures. I just can't get enough of these little babies! You don't realize how small they are when they are born until you see them right out of the shell. They are TINY! This is one proud momma. She makes sure I know when they need food, and she's showing them around the back yard. One got stuck in the fence and one fell in a hole so I'm constantly checking on them. Chickens just keep moving if one falls behind. She has to watch out for the other 3. Sometimes she will come back, bringing the rest with her, but I guess the babies have to learn to get a long on their own, just like our kids do I guess. The cutest thing is to watch them all squish under her to get warm, and then one by one pop out to run around. Then she takes them for a stroll in the tall grass. One by one they follow her, running to keep up. Sometimes I feel like that. Life runs on ahead of us, and we chase after it one by one, trying to keep up. I'm just trying to remember to have God leading me. I just wish he wouldn't let me fall into so many holes or get stuck in so many fences...I guess my job is to survive!

Deep breaths

2010-04-01T11:08:00.000-07:00

So, my little girl got her heart broken this morning. Mind you she is only 10 years old. There is a boy at school that is head over heals for her. He follows her, writes her notes, chats on facebook, and gave her a ring to turn her skin gree...I mean wear. Chris and I weren't thrilled with this as he seems to need her attention and wants her to tell him she likes him, loves him, or that he's her boyfriend. We've had little talks with her about it needing to be just a friendship and that they are too young to be talking like that. Well, what can you do when he is just worshipping the ground she walks on? Since I work at school at lunchtime I've noticed she is hanging out with him instead of her best friend. I told her that although she probably likes the attention he gives her, she should never lose her girlfriend. Her friend will probably find someone else to play with if she ignores her too much longer. Well, this morning she figured out that he was on facebook chatting with her best friend asking if she, Amanda's friend, liked him. Did she like him even a little bit. Amanda read the entire thing on her friend's chat box. I was so proud of her friend for sticking up for Amanda and their friendship by saying "no way" to his flirting. Amanda, however, was crushed. Although I did a little happy dance and was glad he was on her bad list, I felt so bad that she'd had her first crush break her heart. She cried, I hugged her, then I told her it was time to be pissed off. He didn't define who she was and he made a bad choice. Then I told her guys are dumb and need attention from girls so they get stupid. Then she called him a butthead and deleted him as a friend on Facebook. Then we sat and I told her that was why I didn't want her on Facebook. Kids get into these little gossip rings, get depressed, commit suicide, all over dumb stuff that doesn't define who they are and how important they are to their family and friends. If it was like it was in my time, this never would have happened because he wouldn't have had the guts to call her and ask those things, but Facebook/texting, whatever, gives them a certain level of protection from that uncomfortable confrontation. (It's too easy for them. We had to write "notes", and frankly, most guys didn't write notes therefor ending the problem.) Next thing you know you feel like everyone is chatting about you on facebook and you feel like crap. She finally understands what I was talking about all this time, and I'm proud of the way she picked herself up and thanked her friend for being a TRUE friend to her. She also said BOYS ARE DUMB and it's nice to not have a boy bugging me all the time. Once again, I am doing a little happy dance! Sheesh! This is only going to get worse!!! Lord help us!

Here bunny bunny!

2010-03-30T10:35:00.000-07:00

The kids already colored their eggs. Once again, I grumbled (for a second) about having to go buy white eggs at the store to color. Then I remember trying to dye brown eggs as a kid. It doesn't really work. Since we don't eat the hard boiled store eggs, I leave them sitting out as decorations all week. Then Evan plans to take them outside to shoot with his bb gun. Boys.

Doi, I'm an egg, duhh, me too, durrr, who are you? Gotta love dumb face stickers.

We got a little creative with some scotch tape and multiple dippings this year. That was fun. This is about the only time of year I can find something to do with my Great Aunt's glass bowl. I love this bowl because I remember it as a kid, but I just can't seem to make it fit in with my house. So, I use it as an Easter egg bowl.

Happy hunting! If it's not raining we're planning on a 3 acre hunt! Ha, ha. Chris and I should be able to sit and drink coffee for a good couple of hours! Maps and proper egg count will be needed.

This bathroom stinks!

2010-03-28T20:44:00.000-07:00

Reapplying a couple of loose tile turned into replacing rotten sub floor, cracked shower pan and failing tile, and rotted drywall. Ohh funnn!!! That means new flooring as well. It went from a weekend fix to over a month of using the front bathroom with the kids. I want my bathroom back! Poor Chris tries to use spare time in the evenings and on weekends. Unfortunately, it's Spring time here and that means outside stuff is starting to pile up. We'll get it done eventually.

Ack! My vanity is completely covered!!! It has made me more prepared though. It never fails, every time you get naked in the front bathroom, DOWN THE HALL FROM YOUR BEDROOM/BATHROOM, you forget underwear, the new razor blade, face stuff, and I'll be darned but my tweezers have vanished in the kid bathroom. Ahhh! It also means you have to strategically plan showers. I never lock the bathroom door anymore because as soon as I get in someone has to go poop, thereby locking you in with the smell once they are done. My kids have seen me naked more than I care to think about this past month. At least it's through the distorted glass. The other day I went to the bathroom in the front bathroom with the door wide open. Amanda asked why I was going with the door open. I blankly stared at her and said, "Um, I don't know." It's driving me nuts! Since we use the front bathtub stall for the cat box that "bathroom" is now out on the floor in the front bathroom as well. So, now all SIX of us use that one.

Chris is leaving the drywall texturing to me. I told him I used the spray can knockdown texture for a 1x1 space on Evan's wall where the window leaked down the wall in our old house. This is a bit more surface than I've done. I also get to match the old paint and reapply the moulding around the bottom of the wall once the floor is done. Of course it's almost gone twice over what we thought it was going to cost. Needless to say we'll be living with a shower rod/curtain for a while until we can afford the door we want. Hopefully that's it for house repairs this year!

I did talk Chris into doing the molded stall walls instead of re-doing the tile. After 2 houses with tile in the bathrooms, I didn't want to deal with it anymore. I dislike scrubbing grout. Yes, tile looks pretty, but I prefer smooth surfaces now. It feels cleaner to me. Now to just get rid of the nasty tile in my kitchen...shhh. Don't tell Chris!

Achoo!

2010-03-28T20:25:00.000-07:00

The pollen is all around us right now with lots of trees blooming. Just looking at these pictures makes my head hurt! The apples are spectacular!

The bees are busy pollenating.

These pink blooms don't even look real. I have no idea what this tree is. It was chopped back completely when we moved here. The stump started sprouting so we let it.

This crab apple is loaded as well. That just means a mess. They fall all over the cars and make the driveway slimey. I'd like to get rid of it but Chris loves it. I prefer fruit you can eat!

Have a wonderful Easter Week!

Sing to the Lord, for he has done glorious things.

Let this be known throughout the earth. Isaiah 12:5

Nature walk

2010-03-28T19:52:00.000-07:00

I took a little walk around the property today to check out what's growing and snap some pictures. Whenever I take little walks I am always joined by some critters. Molly is always wanting to go for a walk. We thought we lost her Friday night. She didn't come home and we still hadn't seen her Saturday. I went to the Animal Shelter Saturday afternoon and when we got home I told the kids to ride their bikes around the neighborhood and ask if they can check their sheds and such. The kids came running in the house saying she was at the neighbor's house all night. Then I got the whole story. They put her in a crate and kept her in the garage Friday night. They had heard coyotes in the distance and was afraid she'd get eaten. Then they never bothered to call us and their dog chased her into the bushes Saturday morning when they let her out and sat there all day. Their kids told them she was our cat but they still didn't let us know. We were outside calling her and searched the entire property. Um, the reason why she didn't come home was because they locked her up. She was waiting to come home until the coyotes had passed. AND, if you're going to lock up my cat and know it's mine, CALL!!! She's a pretty smart cat and has avoided the coyotes for 2 years now. Let her make her own way home! The cat was so tired and stressed out she slept most of the day. Poor thing! Country cat and city folk don't mix well.

Sophie's always up for a nice walk when they weather is cool and sunny. Everything is so green!

Guess what else just showed up today??? Aphids and whiteflys!!! LOTS OF THEM!!! Time to use the systemic fertilizer. Gross!

Um, look who's been hiding on a dozen eggs? She's been there for 2 weeks that we know of.

Here's the other momma hen. We saw a baby peak it's head out so I went and got a waterer and started throwing out food for them as well. Sure enough, there were 4 babies running around with her this evening. There isn't much cuter than a momma hen showing her babies how to survive while they all scurry around her scratching and playing. It is the classic momma story. I guess I'll let her keep them in the back yard for a couple more days under there. Then they need to go into the coop so the cats won't get them.

All in all it's been a good weekend--Baseball, ongoing bathroom project that is about 70% complete, BBQ, animals, weeds, sun. The kids are on Easter break this week so hopefully we'll get some bike rides and crafts in. As for me, I'm joining a gym again bright and early tomorrow morning. I tried to work out at home for 6 months to save money. I've not been successful and can't fit into my clothes so it's back to the grind. I did pretty good for 8 years going so it's the only way that works for me. Wish me luck! I'm going to try a new place that's closer to me! SCARY!!! I went to the same place for all 8 years. Out of my comfort zone.

Play Ball!

2010-03-28T19:44:00.000-07:00

Spring means playing ball around here. Evan is on the Rockhounds this year. We spent all Saturday doing opening day parades, ceremonies, bbq, and pictures. Whew! I was pooped! From 8:45-4:30...enough already!

Amanda is Blue Ice this year. She enjoyed seeing all of the girls that she played with last year on "Hot Stuff". We, of course, had to go get a Slurpee and some sunflower seeds too.

So, for the next 2 1/2 months I have NO life beyond practice and games. I will say I am proud of myself for NOT getting sucked into being team mom this time. Twice was enough!

Spring

2010-03-28T19:32:00.000-07:00

Well, Spring is springing up all over around here. Sometimes it doesn't feel very Spring when it's still frosty in the morning. Chris took some cool pictures of his car all iced up the other morning. It was pretty cool.

We tried to install a new weather vane the other morning as well, but he didn't like his accomodations and left in a huff.

These little girls get to stay here though. Awww. After we got 8 babies at the feed store, we found 2 of my chickens that are able to fly over the fence sitting on about 20 eggs in the bushes along the side of the house. Probably 1/3 of them will hatch, but needless to say I didn't need to go buy chicks. Now I'm going to have too many!

Many other things going on at the moment. Just starting to download the pics from my new camera. Will try to get caught up this week! Happy Spring!

update

2010-03-06T07:47:00.000-08:00

I hope to have more pictures to post soon. We finally got a new camera that actually does what we want it to. I require a faster shutter speed and a lense that will allow me to get pictures of the kids playing sports. Chris wanted all of this other cra---stuff to play with. Needless to say he talked me into more money than I needed to spend. He always does that with electronics! Not much new to post. The cows ate my daffodils, I'm putting up electric fence this weekend, the shower still isn't done in our bathroom, the kids are getting geared up for ball this spring, and everything is starting to bloom! Now to just get some sunshine!!! After I learn how to use said camera I'll do some better updating! I think I'll go buy some new chicks this weekend. That's when it really feels like Spring to me. Happy weekend!

Happy Hearts Day!

2010-02-14T16:32:00.001-08:00

Here is my surprise! Her name is Cat. She's an 8 year old Quarter Horse with a sweet personality. We're going to send her to school with my trainer in a couple of months. She needs a bit of a tune up as she's not been out much the last few months. The lady that had her babied her quite a bit.

Chris let me use some of our tax return on her and I got her Valentine's Day weekend so I'm calling her my Valentine's Day gift. I'd take her over jewelry or flowers any day.

Aww, she's nuzzling Amanda. I think I'm in love. Pretty girls! My heart is overflowing!

little hello

2010-02-10T17:17:00.000-08:00

Quick little hello. Lots going on and little time to blog about it. The kids are off next week for the district furlough to save the district money. We had bad news with our shower walls, taxes are done, solar still ISN'T done, and I have a surprise coming Sat that I'll definitely have more pictures of. Changes, movement, growing, aging, it's all just moving along! Happy Wednesday!

Garden Gate flannel quilt

2010-02-03T09:03:00.000-08:00

A new record! I finished this in less than 2 weeks! It was an easy quilt to do and feels great to cuddle up with. I'm not done with a label yet, but I'm calling this one Garden Gate. I've mostly done frayed edge quilts, so this one is a traditional quilt. I did a machine quilt along the sashing. I'm in no way patient enough for hand quilting right now. I'm into quick and easy at this point in my life. The most important thing is IT'S DONE.

The back is done with a flannel that I've had for a while. It's kind of a southwestern/pottery/kitchen/floral window looking fabric. Luckily I had JUST enough to cover the back but had to add a border to it to make it fit. I learned some stuff along the way as well so it was a win win. Now to finish my other projects...there's always some sitting around.

Happy Birthday!

2010-01-26T16:24:00.000-08:00

My hubby turned 41 last week. He prefers a quiet day without any celebration. He's been struggling with getting more "mature". It brings back memories from the movie City Slickers where Billy Crystal's character talking about aging and how each stage has it's own milestones. I think Chris is up to the "minor procedure" stage. Shh! Don't tell him that! The funny thing is I still think of him as being 30. I did buy him an electric blanket for his birthday! Ha, ha, ha. Are we old or what? It's because I'm an energy miser and turn the heat down to 61 at night and he doesn't like it cold and tosses all night. Yeah, that's it...

It's hard to believe we've celebrated 18 birthdays together! Wait a minute! That means I'm getting older too! Aw, man! Glad I can go through it with you!

Happy Birthday honey!

Hello, sunshine!

2010-01-26T15:50:00.000-08:00

So, we're on day 10 of rain. Being a native Cali girl I've struggled with not having at least a couple of days of sun in between storms. Last night I caved and started microwaving smores and drinking Diet Coke, sulking about feeling like I was coming down with something. Today, however, I started out on the treadmill with some Daughtry and a better outlook. Mood is all about choice, and I'm not getting sick I tell ya! I'm choosing to treat my children like they are an important part of the house and will try my best to not raise my voice at them. I'm choosing to make dinner every night this week, instead of getting bored or frustrated with the complaining about why can't we have pizza or hamburgers instead. I'm remembering to pay attention to the little things around me(including the laundry pile that I'm ignoring cause "I don't wanna") I'm also choosing to distract myself from the sunless environment by starting some new projects. Heck! I can always use a few more projects in my stack!

Meet my new quilt project. I decided I wanted another flannel quilt for the couch. We fight over the other one so I'm making more! Here are my colors. The large salmon color is the sashing and border strips in between the bricks. We'll see how it goes!

Here is my other project that isn't quite as fun. I'm ripping off the wook paneling in the dining room. I'd rather have glued up, primed, textured walls over the wood paneling! I can't take the darkness! Who knows how long it will take me to get it finished, but I've got a lot of work to do to retexture where the glue is and get it painted. I've only got the one wall ripped down and 3 more to go. Chris gave me a look that told me I was on my own, as he was completely happy ignoring the wood paneling for a few years. I better start screwing something up so he'll come rescue me! Ha, ha.

get off!

2010-01-21T17:19:00.000-08:00

You know how you can hear the bickering escalating from the other room? The voices start getting louder, there is a squeal as one hits the other, then the GET OFF yell is screamed from Amanda. Just about the time I start to decide that I'm going to set a rule that they can't be on the same couch together(Mostly because Evan can't leave his big sister alone...ever)I walk around the corner and see them all cuddled up and giggling while watching tv. Naw, I guess I'll let them bicker a little longer.

pumpkin pancakes

2010-01-19T06:57:00.000-08:00

Good morning! It's a BLUSTERY Tuesday morning here. I'm shocked we haven't lost power. The wind is blowing so hard it's a bit unnerving! It's been raining for a couple of days now and we have a small river in our back yard. This weekend I made my favorite pumpkin pancakes. My dog is on a pumpkin diet, so I always have a can of pumpkin in the fridge. This comes in handy when I want to make muffins and such. MY pumpkin diet isn't as healthy as hers! I finally found a pumpkin pancake recipe that was worth writing down, so here it is!

Well, after I show you a picture of my new orchid. We'll see how long it takes for me to kill this one!
And here is a picture of Chris and Amanda eating said pancakes. This is our 1970's dining den. More about the wood paneling later. These are the only pancakes Chris has made positive comments on. He's not a pancake fan.

And of course not just regular maple syrup on these babies, although it still tastes great if that's what you use. Today I had some cream cheese frosting that I spread on while they were still warm so it melted all over them. Yummmmm...nausea.....worth ittttt....Do you like my new Fiesta Ware plates??? In tangerine! I'm going to get more colors as I go. I've wanted Fiesta Ware for YEARS!!! There was a buy one get one sale at Macy's after Christmas so I retired my wedding gift every day dishes and took the plunge. I'm addicted! I love all the colors!

Here it goes:

2 cups flour 1/2 tsp salt

4 tbsp brown sugar 1 1/2 cups milk

2 tbsp baking powder 1 cup pumpkin puree

1 tsp baking soda 2 eggs

1 tsp ground allspice 2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp ground cinnamon 2 tbsp vinegar

2 tsp ginger

In a separate bowl, mix together milk, pumpkin, egg, oil, and vinegar. Combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, allspice, cinnamon, ginger, and salt. Stir into the pumpkin mixture just enough to combine.

Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium heat. Pour or scoop batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown both sides and serve. Duhhh, doesn't everyone know how to cook pancakes? This last paragraph is pretty obvious. Enjoy!

They would be really good with whipped cream or an orange ginger glaze or ??? Let me know if you come up with anything else!

playing catch up

2010-01-16T05:51:00.000-08:00

I'm doing a bit of catch up as of late. I had good intentions of working towards some Christmas crafts to have, and to give as gifts. I'm thinking I'll be ahead of the game for next year.

Here is my first 9 patch pillow. It's my first 9 patch of anything, really. Makes me want to make a blanket and do the little ties to quilt it together. Hummm. Maybe once I get my other projects finished. No more fabrics in my stacks!
Here is a countdown calendar Karen (MIL) gave me a while ago from her stash. It turned out pretty cute! I think I'm going to re-do the binding though. I used some bias to do it to make it faster and I dislike how it turned out. In the back of my head I knew that would happen, but I was being impatient.

This weekend I'm going to work on a food project. I want to make Empanadas. I'd like something that I can make up from leftover meats and veggies that can be thrown in the freezer for later consumption. If they turn out I'll be posting a picture! If you never hear of them again then don't ask! Have a good weekend!

Christmas morning 2009

2010-01-15T17:10:00.000-08:00

Christmas morning had a different feel this year. It's the first year without a Santa. Although Sophie still thinks Santa is a cool guy. I have to put her stocking up Christmas Eve otherwise she sticks her nose in her stocking and pulls out all of the toys containing squeakies.

Amanda got her first taste of long nails. She loved the press on nails she got in the stocking. She didn't, however, realize how annoying long nails are when you aren't used to them. That was a quick $5 down the drain. She did last one day though. When we went over to Grandma Dolley's house late in the day Aunt Lorna thought they were her real nails, which Amanda thought was funny.

Here is the big gift for the kids. They've wanted Guitar Hero since they got the XBox last year. I, however, don't see the fasination in it. I'd much rather play Super Mario Brothers or Lego Indiana Jones. Evan busily put together his new Lego sets that day as well. He has a surprising level of focus when he has to put them together. Uncle Jimmy was over around lunchtime Christmas day and helped Evan put the Crystal Sweeper together. It has around 40 pages of directions to it. Evan knows Uncle Jimmy is the Lego Master. He even told his friend about Uncle Jimmy being the Lego Master.

True to form. I forgot to take my camera to the rest of the festivities at my mom's house so this is the end. Last year I didn't take it to Chris's parent's house. I need to velcro it to my arm! We had a busy year and I'm kind of glad it's over. I have high expectations for 2010! Happy New Year!

Christmas 2009

2010-01-14T14:07:00.000-08:00

Here are a few Christmas photos. We went to Chris's parent's house for Christmas Eve this year. Amanda always loves to play Snorta when we go over. It's a fun game that gets you making all sorts of strange farm noises.

I've not heard Amanda laugh as much as she does when Snorta is being played. She thinks it's so funny! She likes to play Grandma Thomas because she always wins. It's a bit of a tongue twister for your brain.
Here are the men doing men stuff.
We usually decorate cookies for Santa every Christmas Eve so we took them over to do with Grandma. Karen said she wasn't doing well with hers and upon closer inspection I realized instead of decorating gel I had purchased gel food coloring. Oops! They were sitting right next to each other on the shelf at the store! Good thing we had frosting and sprinkles to use as well.

This was the first year that the kids knew Santa didn't exist. That was sad, but kind of a relief for me. It does take some of the magic out of Christmas. It does however, ensure mom and dad get more sleep Christmas Eve and mom doesn't have to remember where she hid everything. Heck! I had everything wrapped and under the tree days before! THAT was awesome. I think I'd give it all up though to keep them young and believing in the big guy. Just one of many changes they are going through as they grow up. Now if I can just keep up!

Dreary day, dreary me.

2010-01-12T10:13:00.000-08:00

I think I'm suffering from lack of sunshine. We've had some foggy days as of late. Foggy enough to keep me inside pouting. The area of town I live in seems to have a pocket where the fog settles. I drive to town and the sun might be peaking through. When I get home it's foggy again. At least today there is rain. After about a week of it I think we're all getting a little tired of the gloom. I'm still not able to download pictures to the computer, so this will be a ramble with no photos. I guess that's ok since I'm thinking a lot about me, my life, my faith, my responsibilities, and the stressers these things bring into my life.

Do you ever feel like you're on the outside looking in? Sometimes I feel like I'm looking down on my life and how I handle things. Sometimes I wonder if I was being graded, what grade I would get? Scary thing, really. I guess my only saving grace is people don't know what is in my head and how I feel, so I'm sure much of my anxiety is my own, and goes unnoticed.

I know I should be able to lean on my faith during these times, but since this area is a struggle for me, I tend to rely on myself instead of him. I try to remind myself to focus on him and lift more up to him, but I feel like I'm on my own with this since I fight a losing battle in my house. Chris doesn't believe, and since there is no "I" in "team", I attempt to bring a team together with no team in place. Make sense? I see others who build their families and have the excitement and fulfillment of a Christian home, but I don't have that. I pretty much have to force the kids to go to church, as they'd rather stay home with Dad. Let your kids know that they need to pick a partner with the same faith. At 21 years old, I thought him being on the fence wasn't a big deal. It turned out to be a big deal. That old hindsight thing...

Don't get me wrong. I love my husband and respect his decisions, as he does mine. I think the major difference is, I let things go to Him, (after mulling it over and figuring out I can't do anything about it), and Chris tends to lift his stresses to me. What? Yup, I realized that when someone doesn't have a savior to lift things up to the stress tends to break them down over time. It's sad, really. I always thought I was put in Chris's life to help him find Christ. There is a story behind this, but not something I want to get into right now. What I can't figure out is how to balance life with Christ, and a life with Chris and my family. It would be easier to just forget the whole thing, but I try to remember that my walk is my own. The difficulty is knowing that I need to show my kids how to "walk" as well. Whew! Enough about that.

Let's see. What else is bugging me? My body image. Hey, it's the beginning of the year. You had to expect this one. I've decided the 30's are a time to come to terms with things and recognize that genetics are in play. I have crows feet coming on no matter how much crap I put on my skin. It's what my skin is. My best friend Marcy and I always joke that if we combine the two of us we'd have a pretty good woman. My legs, her flat stomach, my arms, her hair, and now I'm adding her skin. She's got no wrinkles under her eyes. We're still looking for boobs though, so if someone is interested in jumping in, let us know! I am coming to terms with the fact that I will never be slim. That's a tough one for me as I was slim for about 2 years. I killed myself working out 2 1/2 hours a day, but I found I wasn't there for my kids, and didn't put a lot of things in the correct priority. Now I'm NOT thin, and although things are in better order, I feel like I look flabby and gross. I'm also seeing that life throws a lot of double-edged swords. Balance is a hard thing! I am the type that healthy bits exercise don't do crap for me. Yes, I am healthier, but smaller? No. My body is a due or die type. SO, I have come to terms with genetics, and age, and am not just trying to be happy with what I've been given while getting in exercise when I can, even though I feel like I'd rather be selfish with my time. The older I get, the more I realize that I take too much time worrying about keeping my anxiety at bay. I get nervous about everything! Driving to the mall--where am I going to park? Towing my 5th wheel---will I be able to get into the gas station with it? How come I can't be more patient with my kids? I'm teaching them how to treat their kids! Why can't I just sit and play with them more? Am I doing the right things? Feeding them the right foods? Giving them enough love? I'm not a huggy, positive, lovy person. I tend to be sarcastic, impatient, and quick to react. Now you see why I wonder about what grade I'd be given! Maybe that's why I like animals so much. I don't worry about what grade they give me. I think I always feel this way after the holidays. The whole visit with family thing stresses me out. I enjoy seeing everyone. I like visiting. I think the problem is after I tend to look at my life more and pick myself apart.

One other thing that is bothering me is thinking about losing people that are so important in my life. My best friend's sister was just diagnosed with breast cancer. This scared the crap out of me since their mom also had breast cancer. It made me realize how much I rely on her friendship and how lost I'd be if she wasn't in my life. I don't really have that many friends. I have acquaintances, co-workers, family, but I'm kind of a loner. Always have been. I guess it made me realize how many areas of our lives we put in one basket. Being married to one person, trying to put everything I am into my kids, having one good friend, kind of makes me feel vulnerable if something was to happen to any of them. At the same time that is what makes me feel safe. I'm not a social butterfly. I'd like to be and to have lots of friends that I get together with, go out to dinner with, do parties with, but I've figured out it just isn't me. I've given up on that even though I envy those that do those things. I think my personality is such that I spend all my time worrying about what they think about me, and not about the fact that they might just enjoy ME. Sad, right? Silly. Okay, enough rainy attitude.

Did I ever mention I love driving in the rain? I love the swish of the windshield wipers, pushing the rain off the glass and the tires splashing through the puddles...feels like a little world of my own. I also love waking up to the smell of coffee. I LOVE-LOVE-LOVE orchids, but the orchids don't care for my treatment of them. I can keep Africa Violets with no problem. If I had my way I'd live in a house with an atrium you had to walk through to get to the front door. It would be filled with plants. I could spend hours in the greenhouse at Eisley's. I've always wanted to have a coffee shop-bookstore-nursery that people could hang out in. Wouldn't that be cool?

What the...

2010-01-12T09:49:00.000-08:00

I'm gathering pictures and organizing them so I can be better about blogging. What do I find when I downloaded images from my camera last week? These. And I'm not talking one or two, I'm talking 12 or 13, and at the very end are my two little images. WHY do we need so many of these? Will my husband ever use these images? He probably already forgot he took them. I think I need a separate folder for his pictures...

These are from the inside of our 1978 wall radio, which is complete with it's gold scroll and Hi-fi speakers. The funny thing is I love this radio. All the speakers in the bedrooms still work. Unfortunately, the power switch went out on it over the holidays, so I couldn't rock out the house while I was cleaning. Thankfully, Chris went and bought a button that he attached to the front. It is bright red, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer red. It fits right in with the tackiness of the stereo. I'm not sure how long this baby is going to last, but I bet it will be going longer than anything new we have. I'd post a picture of it with it's new shiny button, but the computer won't allow me to download any pictures at the moment. Apparently, the parental control that Chris put on the computer thinks I'm 10. Hello! Can you make my account not be like the kid's accounts? Yesterday I couldn't even look at my fellow blogger's pages. I could, however, get on Facebook. Oh yeah, that's much safer for the kids to access...what?

Oh! Here it is. I made this bag for Amanda's piano teacher. Even though Amanda stopped lessons in October after 3 1/2 years, I already had all the stuff picked out so we still wanted to give it to her. I miss Mrs. Preston. She is one neat lady. I plan to make another bag for me with some horse fabric I found. For not I'm trying to get some Christmas sewing done. I keep reminding myself that I'm just going to be ahead of the game for next year, and not just WAY behind from last year.

Chocolate houses

2010-01-12T09:31:00.000-08:00

I saw an idea for a new take on the gingerbread houses during the holidays and decided to give it a try. It was a YUMMY success! We used the large chocolate bars and cut them with a serrated knife. It must be serrated and you must saw it, or they break. We melted the scraps and put the melted chocolate into sandwich bags to pipe the edges together. We used drinking glasses to hold the sides together while the chocolate set up. It was easy enough that we plan to do it again next year!

Wal Mart had a little section in the candy area where they had little tubs of candy pieces to use for decorating houses.

Surprisingly, Evan really took to this idea. In the past his patience wasn't really there for decorating houses. This time he got into the design, placement, and finishing touches better than his sister. Maybe we'll have to do Easter houses with white chocolate! Oohhh! That would be fun!

Amanda is my little chocolate freak. I think she ate more than she placed. The fun next year will be to find more unique things to decorate our houses with. Maybe we'll make a little village of chocolate!

Snow day!

2009-12-22T05:17:00.000-08:00

We had a MAJOR snow day a couple of weeks ago. The kids were out of school for 2 days and we had snow hang around for 5 days in our yard. That's pretty major here, as usually the snow melts the same day it falls. There were lots of trees breaking and it was beautiful all around us!

The cows were a little freaked out by the white ground. They did come for hay though. I had to chip thick ice off of their water for 3 days! That was getting old.

The kids had a great time playing in the snow. The best part was that they could come inside and dry off unlike when we go to the snow. Once you're wet and tired we go home! The dryer got a work out until Daddy lit the fire. Then I cooked the clothes until they were dry.

I love how the snow accumulates on the fences and tree branches. It's amazing how it builds up on the smallest surfaces.

Here is my German Shepard. Look at how DEEP it was!!! Ha, ha. Just kidding. She's a Corgi and only has 4 inch legs. I think we ended up with about 8-10 inches. Sophie LOVES the snow and jumps around making little paths with her belly. She's a cold weather doggie.

Here's my car. It had a snow "blanket" for 2 days. Then it finally melted enough and slid off in the parking lot when we went driving into town on day 2 of the kids being home from school. Um, 2 snow days can be a little hard when the had just come off of a weekend. Snow days should happen on Thursdays and Fridays, not Mondays and Tuesdays!

Ok, that was enough snow for a while. We aren't used to snow that much so after a couple of days we're tired of it. I couldn't live with it for months at a time. No way!

Egg anyone?

2009-12-22T05:09:00.000-08:00

Can you guess what this is?

Here's another hint...

You won't believe this!

Look at the worlds smallest chicken egg! I almost stepped on it one morning when I was going out to let the chickens out of the coop. One of my new babies is learning! Too bad humans don't start small and work up to the LARGE eggs...

Being thankful

2009-12-21T07:51:00.000-08:00

Lots to be thankful for this year. The older the kids get the more they are thankful for traditions. Hay rides, desserts, taking a walk after dinner to pick out ornaments at Nicholson's Blown Glass down the road, all things they look forward to every Thanksgiving. They have it easy though. We used to get towed around in a rickety trailer with tractor exhaust burning out our sinuses. Pansies.

This is a tradition that's been carried on in many families, but I still like to think we're the only ones that do this. My Aunt Cathy used to always make sure we dawned our olive fingers every Thanksgiving. Of course I taught my kids to do the same.

Another tradition, my mom always in the kitchen whipping up great food. We are always thankful for her skill and hard work.

Hummm. Somehow this one is out of order and I don't feel like fixing it! Olive fingers never get old. I must admit I even had my olive fingers on at one point as I stood quietly in the corner. Don't tell anyone though!

We hope your holiday was filled with tradition and family!

A couple of holiday crafties

2009-12-16T17:14:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas! I'm a sucker for crocheted Christmas stuff. I think it reminds me of my Grammie Crabtree sending out little tree ornaments every year along with various other homemade items. She made snowmen, wreaths, trees, etc. all out of yarn. I still have a couple of her ornaments hanging on the tree. (That's one of the fun parts about decorating the tree. I love to pull out an ornament and remember what the story is behind it.) My sister in-law Jessica(Chris's sister) asked what kinds of things to make for Christmas for her craft website where she makes handmade items to sell. I asked about a snowman. Then she sent me a pic of the man with an orange scarf. Then I asked about a snow lady. The red hat wearin' snow lady was born. Well, you can't have a snow couple without a couple of snow kids to go along with them! Now they are sitting on my counter!

I also made my first "real" quilt this past fall, which means it wasn't frayed edge. I did quilt as you go on this one. It is a bread warmer that I made for my mom out of Christmas fabrics. I have lots more crafties to finish before Christmas. School teacher gifts, piano teacher gift, birthday gift, Christmas pillows that I've been wanting to make, aah, I'm not sure I'm going to get it all done. Oh well. There's always next year for my pillows. The other stuff can't wait!!! Better get busy! Hope you're all enjoying your holiday preparations!

2009-12-11T08:06:00.000-08:00

Yeahhhhh! Heeeyyy thereeeee! Been a while. Lots of things going on and not much in the way of picture taking and blogging. Not been inspired as of late.

Of course I always have animal pictures. Molly thought she had an edge on the fish finally when I was changing rock a couple of weeks ago. I thought she was going to jump right in!

My dog can be a bit of a pest in the kitchen...as you can see. Hello mommie! Whatcha doing up there???

Umm, I think I can taste test it for you...

See? I told you I've not been inspired! I'll try to get some snow pictures up. Yep! We had a bunch of snow this month! Quite festive for the holiday season! Hope you're all toasty warm! Peace out!

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-06T04:19:00.000-08:00

We went to my bf's house to trick or treat this Halloween. Her sister helped decorate the house and make a haunted house in the garage. The dads were in charge of scare while us moms took the kids around the neighborhood to trick or treat. The funny part is we made it to about 10 houses and the kids wanted to go hang out and scare kids too. That meant about a sandwich bag of candy that was gone the next day! SCORE!!! Us adults dresses up this year, which is a first for me. I'm missing some pics that I'll have to get from Marcy but here are a few to start.

Amber LOVED trick or treating! She would head right up to the door and work her way inbetween the kids. Then she'd say, "Get more candy!" and head to the next house. She walked the ENTIRE way around the block. Not bad for a two year old! She was a bugga for Halloween. She was not a bugga, however, that was interested in wearing her wings. She only wanted to be a bugga without wings.

Here is Evan fighting with his mask. Why do they always want the masks? They end up hating them about half way through and taking them off anyway.

Here is Amanda as a vampire. Yes, I broke down and let her start reading Twilight. Heck, after having to have the sex talk with her what's the big deal about a little teen vampire romance?

Here is Mama, I mean Marcy. Sadly, there are no pictures on my camera of my costume...sigh. Marcy said I looked like Flo from the show Alice. The best part about our old lady costumes is we could pad ourselves up and let our guts hang out! Much better than all of those trashy devil and hooker costumes you see for women in the stores. We only needed about 12 pairs of socks to fill out our Dollar Store double d's!

I'll try to get more pictures. It was pretty funny. They had the squeemish kids screaming and running away and the daring kids saying it was cool. Amber didn't think it was scary since she knew that Dracula was her Papa and Daddy was the "pink nightmare" bunny from A Christmas story, and Chris was the scary skull masked Jester at the door. Don't try to put bugga wings on her though. Thems fightin' words right there.

Animals we can eat...

2009-11-06T03:44:00.000-08:00

Well, we finally were able to start on our venture to raise beef on our own property. After much fence fixing we're hoping they will decide to stay and be babied for a year or so. We knew a guy that knew a guy that sold cattle and went over to pick some out. "Go ahead and pick one you like." Uh, the brown one? The cute one? The one that doesn't look sick? I went for one that looked healthy and was Hereford. That was my criteria. Then he did the 20 question cowboy that is selling to city slickers routine that pissed me right off. I just stood there taking the brunt of his attitude. I just wanted to kick him and tell him I'm not a city girl and grew up raising beef with my dad. Instead I just played along. I didn't get REALLY irritated until he said, "Why do you want a smaller cow? I sell beef to people like you all day long that come over and want a cow. You're better off buying it bigger, even up to 1000 pounds. You won't have to put as much feed into it." I wanted to tell him that what's the point in having him feed it God knows what and giving him $700 to $800 more money, knowing I won't have that much more in hay in the smaller cow by the time I do it in next summer and I also just put one in the freezer from my parent's house and I want my kids to experience raising their own food anyway. A city slicker would just prefer to buy the big cow giving you more profit right away and do it in right away for immediate cow in the freezer, wouldn't they??? We like to take our time and do it the right way, thank you. He also kept telling me to call him if I had any problems and was concerned I wasn't going to know if they looked sick or something annoying like that. ANYhoo, we're going to the auction next time. We want drop calves so the kids can bottle feed them. THAT'S fun!
Here is Bubba. This is my best friend's cow that is keeping ours company. He is Hereford and Brama cross and quite shy. Although I'm finding out he's the curious one. He's almost opened the gate twice in the last week. I always catch him playing with the chain. He's also the only one I ever hear Moo.

This is our Gus Gus. He's the protector and can be a bit pushy at food time. I have to separate the alfalfa a little or he hogs a bit. He also attempted to challenge me to a stand off when I was chasing them out of the fruit tree enclosure that they busted in to. They mostly run away when I try to pet them but they have also discovered that not only do I provide them hay and water, but I also have a YUMMY grain treat that is sweet and only given in small amounts so they are slowly wearing down.

Come Boss! They pay attention to the back door and come running when it's time to eat. They also don't understand the time change and think 4pm this week is just as good as 5pm was last week.

Now Chris can say I got an animal that we can eat. That is his rule. No more animals unless we can eat them! Now to convince him that some countries eat horse meat...

Winner, winner no fish dinner!

2009-10-27T04:08:00.000-07:00

Look who won the fishing derby this time up at Nana's house! I'm glad too because otherwise my life would have been miserable! You see, Amanda won last time and Evan was bent. This time Evan won and Amanda was bent. Can't you just be happy for each other? It's Labor Day Weekend and lots of kids would just be happy to BE here!!!

By the time they were judged those poor fish were kind of dried out and gross. That's fine by me cause I'm not cooking fish in the 5th wheel. Plus it's lake fish so there is a bit of nasty that you can't get rid of. I'm a firm whitefish from the ocean kind of girl. Even then I prefer it battered and smothered in vinegar and tartar sauce...

Let's Go Dragons!

2009-10-21T05:35:00.000-07:00

Evan started playing soccer this year. Thankfully, he loves it! He ended up staying on the under 8 league since his 8th birthday was just after the cutoff. We decided that was ok since he'd never played before outside of with Dad in the front yard. Better to be the older kid than the youngest kid on your first year! Most of his teammates are in first grade and are first year players. You can't really tell by their heights. Evan is a shortie and blends right in! Skill level is a different story though. It makes me realize how much he's matured in the last couple of years
The soccerama day turned out to be HOT. Poor kids were melting at their scrimmage game. Where's Fall when you need it?

We found some shade while waiting for the parade to start. Ugh! This little guy next to me is on Evan's team. Tears started after his mom left so I felt bad and sat with him.

This, though, is my favorite picture of the day. Can you say 9 year old drama? Heaven forbid if she does something for her brother...even after he sat through practices and games for her softball career last Spring. Actually, she's getting off light since his practices are twice a week for an hour and hers were 3 times a week for 1 1/2 hours. His games are also only 40 minutes long. She better stop complaining! Wait, I'm not sure that's possible. What is it with 9 year olds anyway?

Poor thing! She's being tortured!

Evan's new bike

2009-10-21T05:22:00.000-07:00

Here is Evan's birthday present. He was finally ready for a bigger bike...barely. The seat's in the loooowwwest position. He thinks he's big stuff now since he has gears and hand brakes.

How come they need a new bike every couple of years? Evan looked like a giant on his old bike. Chris, being a bit of a bike snob, requires their bikes to come from the bike shop. He detests heavy, cheap bikes and spent so much time fixing their first bikes from a mega chain store that we aren't allowed to go there again.

Happy Birthday!

Happy 8th Birthday!

2009-10-15T08:21:00.000-07:00

Evan turned 8 this August. Although we'd transitioned into kid parties over the last couple of years, this year I did a family party for Evan as well. Last year we were living at my parent's house after we'd sold our house and hadn't found property to buy yet. He kind of missed out on the birthday thing. He'd say to me, "Remember when I didn't have a birthday last year?" Ugh, take the knife out of my heart! The weather was perfect that day, thankfully since I'm known for having BBQ's when it's 104.

There was lots of scooter/bike fun on the driveway---

Kid food on the grill---

Tree climbing, of course---

Sorenson cousins brought a stomp rocket/bubble blower---lots of fun---

Played games like egg passing, water bombs, and penny toss/candy games. It was pretty intense! The cutest was watching Luke, my brother's youngest, walk so carefully with his egg.

I also, drumroll please, FINALLY finished Evan's frayed edge quilt! It only took me 3 years to finally focus on finishing it!

The back side

And the front.

It fits his twin bed and is nice and big for couch snuggling.

Then it was time for banana splits and snickerdoodles as per Evan's request. How easy can it get? Whew! Hopefully this will make up for Birthday 2008, or lack of. Happy Birthday E!!

Hellooo!

2009-10-14T06:56:00.000-07:00

Helloooo! (Imagine Mrs. Doubtfire here) I know, I know. I've been away for a long time. My life is busy, as is everyone elses, and I chose to focus on trying to keep the house under control so I'd also stay under control. The end of the summer brought on the last of our crops. Can you imagine the haul of tomatoes on thirty some odd plants? Even with this being such a bad year for tomatoes and some of the plants not producing we still had a ton. We made sauce, stewed, and salsa'd til I couldn't take it anymore. STOP PICKING!!!! I grew tired of my counters being covered and my table having a beach towel full of tomatoes on it.

Guess what?!? I already miss fresh tomatoes. Is that sick or what?

I promise to be a better blog buddy and will catch up on the past couple of months the rest of this week. We had fishing derbies, birthdays, soccer, sewing, and of course, more animal pictures. Hope you are all doing well! Love you!

Busy!

2009-08-28T09:28:00.000-07:00

School's back in session, and I'm busy. I've been so tired lately and realized yesterday that it must be because I now do all of the house stuff plus work and after school activities. Evan started soccer practices and his first scrimmage is tomorrow. I've got pictures of what's been going on but not had time to blog about them. I have no idea how long it will be before I get to it so I'll leave you with this question...How many bb's does it take to kill a skunk in my hen yard at 4:30 in the morning? Chris knows. And he's probably getting a 22 for Christmas. Poor guy! AND my house reeks like skunk. Too bad I was so tired and didn't get up to help or I might have had a more descriptive account of the situation.

Have a great weekend!

More fruits, and veggies of our labor...food and otherwise.

2009-08-18T08:18:00.000-07:00

Um, I'm now sick of squash, for this year anyway. The chickens are excited about this fact. They've been getting zucchini and cucumbers thrown in to them daily. The tomatoes, bell peppers and jalapenos are now ready...finally. Salsa anyone???

Here is a sneak peak at Evan's quilt that I've had in the works for 2 years. Now to just wash it and act like it's a surprise on his birthday since he's seen it. I gave up staying up late to work on it when he wasn't looking. The best part is IT'S DONE!!! Now we have a fun trip going to the laundrymat to use their oversized machines. I just love experiencing the laundrymat culture.

Here is Amanda's book bag for school. I just barely finished this one by the hair on my chinny chin chin. School starts tomorrow. I need to lengthen the strap a little, but other than that she loves it. It's stuffed with school supplies that we got yesterday. She is so excited to be in 4th grade!

We got a little crazy on the front with the embroidery settings on my machine(Maybelle).

This bag was a bit of an experiment since I worked from a pattern and picture we found on the internet and just changed the size up a little. One thing I've noticed on the free patterns you find on the internet is the directions are usually lacking. If I hadn't just made up 11 grocery bags made with similar lining concepts I'd have not been able to complete it properly. These people need to edit their directions better. They forget key parts that make a huge difference, like don't sew the handle all the way to the top since you have to tuck it down inside when you are sewing the lining to the outside. That way when you turn it the right side out the handle is on the OUTSIDE instead of the INSIDE. I think I'll write them a note. They forgot that whole step. Anyway, bookbags are packed and awaiting a lunchbag and school starts tomorrow. I see some closet organizing going on today in preparation for tomorrow. Fall is near, and I'm ready!

Tacoma

2009-08-18T07:59:00.000-07:00

Well, here is the little poop. Actually, we think he's a bit taller than the lady said he was, but are we surprized about that? No. We went and pertied him up last night, just to play with him.

Imagine a dumb look on my face now...I love him. Ok. I'm done. I really do enjoy him. His personality is great. Time will tell if he'll calm down with us, but he really likes being around the kids and let them brush and love on him while he ate dinner. That's good. He also worked out in the round pen with my mom a little, which is a great sign as that means he's done that before. Cool.

He's got the LONG tail and full billowing mane. I call him Taco when he's being a poop, like when he flipped around and I thought he was going to kick at me, but he just wanted me to scratch his butt. Um, ok. Now if I can just get him to do what I say...

Expectations

2009-08-12T06:49:00.000-07:00

Lately I've tried to take on a new mantra. I go through life trying to not set myself up with too many expectations. It's kind of like when you go to a movie, expecting it to be great, and it really wasn't, and you spend all evening being disappointed? Well, I used to do that to lots of things in my life, which lead to disappointment...holidays, birthday parties that I'd kill myself planning and baking for, date nights with my hubby where we'd just sit and eat and have nothing to talk about, looking for that perfect house that we could afford and not finding what we thought we wanted, baking with the kids in the kitchen, going to the gym and doing South Beach and still not losing that much weight(this one is the hardest)...I try to not expect too much of the vacations that we take the kids on as well. I used to set myself up to thing that it was going to be the best vacation ever, not thinking about the extra packing, bickering, whining, and parenting I was going to have to do. Now I try to just enjoy each moment and don't sweat the small stuff. This gets easier as my kids get older as well and we as parents gain back some of that freedom we lost from having young children. I'm not sure where exactly I'm going with this, but I guess I'm at a point where I'm happier just letting things happen all the while doing my best to plan for life events so as to just be able to be ENOUGH. I mean enough in the sense that my kids have snacks, we're safe, there aren't too many surprises, and we'll make the best with the outcome. Enough. I was recently taught quite a bit of patience along with my expectations last weekend. My mom and I have been on the lookout for a horse that we could ride but also that the kids could ride. We found him in Corning, which is about 2 1/2 hours away. Off we went with her horse trailer on it's maiden voyage with Grandpa and Amanda. He is an Arabian/Quarter horse cross named Tacoma. We were somewhat leery since we prefer the more grounded mind and stocky build of the Quarter horse and don't care for the flighty thin Arab frame and attitude. The seller assured us that although he was more Arab in build he acts like a Quarter horse. When we showed up our first thought was that he was kind of skinny, but boy was he pretty. He was also very calm. He was actually yawning when they were riding him around and Amanda led him down the driveway towards the trailer. These were all GREAT signs. The lady said he was slow and you had to really get on him to get him to go but that he had been used to work their horse ranch up north and camped up there during the summer. We brought him home and my mom started working on his nutrition to get his hair and feet in order. Since my mom's main horse, Tater was home from the trainer we decided to go for a short ride last weekend...no expectations since she is still young and needs more time to get used to the trails. Well, let me say I at least expected Tacoma to be slower and calm. He wasn't. On the way out he pretty much trotted down the steep dirt hills and was so excited to be out on the trails I had to constantly stop him to wait for Tater to catch up. He was the most sure footed trail horse I've ever been on. Then all hell broke loose when a deer came out from behind a tree. He freaked out and lunged sideways with 2 big jumps and I couldn't recover. Off I came into the star thistle and he trotted off under a tree while I tried to catch my breath and stand up straight. Then he spooked at EVERYTHING he had already walked past on the way home. OK, can I at least say my expectations were to have a calm horse and one that was levelheaded enough to follow my commands. Let's just say my confidence is a little shot, my arm is huge and purple, along with my butt, and my expectations weren't met. That's the first time I've come off of a horse like that. Damn it hurts and I'm lucky there weren't any rocks where I landed. I guess I've got a little more learning to do about expectations...and he's got some work to do with me in the arena before I take him out again or let the kids ride him. Life threw me a curve ball and now I have to deal with the outcome. Now I have to decide what commitment level I'm willing to have and how much work I'm going to need to do to learn how to work with Tacoma. That means trailering him to the trainer's house and consistently working to learn about him, and to learn a lot myself. I guess expectations will have to be set based on the unknown and I'll just have to go with my gut. I do think he's worth it. He is one sweet boy and quite a looker. I'd show you but I can't exactly remember where I put my camera after I came off of him. I EXPECT to find it though...but for today, I'm off to enjoy a day and evening without kids, which is an uncommon event here and I EXPECT to take advantage of it. Rambling done, lucky stars thanked, and a shower calling my name. Peace out!

Summer memories

2009-08-07T07:34:00.000-07:00

I'm playing a bit of catch up on my pictures this week. Lately, every time I try to post pictures it fails on me. Today it worked! As I looked through my pictures, I'm always reminded of my childhood and what summer was to us. We spent most of our time outside getting dirty!

We spend 4th of July each year at Marcy and Sean's house doing fireworks and drinking beer(the guys anyway). The kids LOVE the fireworks and since we can't do them in the county we live in we are fortunate to have this tradition.

Boy, the sparklers really suck now. When we were kids we had the grey ones with metal handles that really sparked. I think I even have a picture of when we'd "write" names with them in the air. Then someone complained or sued since they got to something like 800 degrees on the tip and kids were burning themselves...us kids didn't...maybe we knew not to touch the glowing end...dummies...what's next? Make flaming marshmallows illegal?

Here is Amber enjoying the 4th as well. Nothing like bellying up to a bag of BBQ chips. I'd have done it too but someone needed to take the picture...

They enjoyed some water fun while waiting for it to get dark. Remember asking when you could start? It seemed like the longest day ever!!! I remember when we got some illegal fireworks in Wyoming on a road trip we took with our parents as kids. Who said bottle rockets were unsafe? Um, they are kinda scary. I think we waited until New Year's to light them off. They were cool! Did I mention my brother was somewhat of a pyro as a kid? Must be a boy thing. Evan's eyes were glazed over the entire evening and was running around with a lighter lighting anything that had a fuse on it. It was too funny!

Another part of my childhood was having purple hands for a couple of months. Every time we'd walk past the blackberry bushes we'd stop and pick. Nature's candy! Yum! Never mind the road grime and spider webs. We'd eat it anyway. My parent's road used to be dirt so you can imagine the added "flavor" they had. The kids and I went with grandma this week to do some picking. Of course the first thing we made with them was blackberry pancakes. My fav! Now, you can't get me to use maple syrup on said pancakes. Talk about wrong. We made blackberry syrup to go with them.

If there is one thing I learned from Grammie Crabtree, there isn't anything better to cook your pancakes in than a biggo dollop of butter. I, of course, usually spray a light coating of Pam on my griddle. With berry pancakes, all healthy thoughts go out the window. The only thing that keeps these babies from sticking is butter, and lots of it!!!! Talk about golden brown and flavorful! YUM!

Guess what the best part of the homemade syrup is? Wait for it, wait for it...today I smashed the rest of the berries up and mixed them in the syrup. Now we're off to the store to get the fixins for some homemade blackberry ice cream. I'm using my Daddy's recipe and there's none better. So many memories. It really takes me back to standing in the kitchen after listening to the ice cream maker turn and turn on the back deck, waiting for the paddle to come out of the can so we could lick it off, dripping all over the place. I have a feeling I'll be mopping later today. But first...showering! Have a great weekend everyone!

Oh, a few more thing. Sheesh I downloaded a lot of pictures today.

Here, in the garage, we have a fridge that is waiting for a new electrical outlet so it can be plugged in. I guess Chris is going to have to hurry and get this done on his vacation next week.

And you say, "Why is this so important?"

This is why. About 4am I heard a major bang out in the kitchen. Here is soda can #2, blown up in my fridge on Tuesday morning. He tried to get huffy at me and say that he set the oven timer so when it went off I could remind him to take it out. Hello! I was with the kids over at grandma's house swimming Monday evening so I never HEARD it go off!!!! Here's a thought...put soda in the fridge when you take the last one out and you won't have a problem!!! He is now banished to the garage fridge. Annoyingly, it is Friday and I still have stalactites and stalagmites in my freezer. Hello, we have a deep freeze that he could transfer the stuff to so he could clean it. He is obviously waiting to see if I'll clean it. I'm slowing wearing down. He has more patience with filth than I. Hey, it does get annoying when I take things out of the freezer and frozen bits of soda fall on the floor and melt into little sticky droplets. Since I'm grocery shopping today I guess I'm going to have to bite the bullet. And he's going to have to climb in the attic. I clean, he wires.

What's this? The kids got my camera. Yet another Webkinz to add to their collections. This is the Grey Arabian they bought with their own money. Actually, Amanda bought Evan's for him with her money. She said it was his birthday present. Does that mean I don't have to buy him one?

Since Amanda is obsessed with horses she's hired the cat to practice on. Are they bored or what? Talk about memories...Marcy and I used to catch my cat and stick her in the oven I had and sit out in front of the door singing, "For he's a jolly good fellow" over and over again. Then she'd shoot out and we'd do it again. Poor cat! I can't remember what cartoon we got it from, but I remember a group of men catching a tiger or something and carrying it on a pole hanging upside down, all the while singing that song on their way back to camp. It seemed like a fun idea at the time...

Here is Molly, all saddled up and looking like she's ready to buck.

She didn't really get too annoyed until Amanda tried to put the bridle on her. That was more committment then she was ready for. Goofy cat.

Ok, now I'm done. Caught up for the most part. Have a great weekend!!!

Get me outta here!

2009-08-03T08:38:00.000-07:00

We're on the final approach to another school year's beginning. Can't say I'm sad, but I'm not entirely happy about it either. I do, however, long for the mornings when I can drop my little angels off at school and come home to clean a house that will stay tidy until about 3:30pm. Oh, and yes, I've given up on housework. This is kind of a warning to those of you that might randomly stop by. Please feel free, but don't be shocked by the shoes all over, the kitchen messy, strange pickling smells coming from somewhere, clothes thrown around, and a floor that needs to be vaccumed. Yes, they won. I'd rather do something else than constantly follow around the mess. It's a 24/7 job that I've grown tired of. I'd rather water the garden, picking something that has been lovingly grown from seed in the happy summer sunshine. Or maybe it will be a trip to the library, where my kids are now old enough to leave to their section of books so I can sneak across to the grown up section, all the while waiting to hear a loud yell, telling me my kids are once again too close to each other...not realizing that even though they are inseparable, they still each need their space as well. Oh, maybe it will be another trip to the lake, or to riding lessons, or music lessons, or swimming at Grandma's house, or baking, or or or or or . See? I need a mommy pedicure day. Summers are all about keeping them entertained, avoiding the heat, and not blowing my stack. I guess I'm ready for them to head back to our routine. I will miss the opportunity to sit around in jammies way to long, or thinking that showering is optional, or not having to stop what I'm doing to go to work at school. I do enjoy being able to just do our own thing. I don't, however, enjoy their boredom and bickering. Yeah, I think I'm ready for summer to wind down. One more camping trip, a couple of birthday parties, and the opportunity to watch my daughter fall in love with Tacoma. Yeah, she's got her momma in her. More on that soon!!!

Are you feelin' hot, hot, hot?

2009-07-20T10:04:00.000-07:00

It's hot! I mean hot! Add in a bit of humidity yesterday mixed in with 100 degree heat and we were all a bit sweaty. It's so hot that:

--Someone grew impatient waiting for the soda to cool in the fridge, so they put it in the freezer and promptly forgot about it since they decided to drink MY Diet Coke that I had JUST opened. Guess who gets to clean the freezer today? Not me!!!

-- having fur becomes a bit uncomfortable and kittys must expose themselves on my cool sheets in cute ways to keep me from making my bed. Aww...

Another fur issue...Spohie playing dead...tongue out and all! What is it with my animals playing dead?

IT'S HOT!!!

more randomness

2009-07-17T12:48:00.000-07:00

I love my doggie. She is a big poo poo head and can be quite a crank sometimes, but she loves people and doesn't mind little kids. She loves to go out with me early in the morning to work on the sprinklers and check on the garden. I love this picture of her enjoying the morning sun. It looks like her idea of a perfect dog moment.

So, I have another chicken issue. This is momma #1. She has decided to roll the eggs out of the boxes and sit on them. Every day for about a week I was crawling in their little house to collect all of the eggs she'd roll out of the boxes. She'd get so mad and peck at me something terrible. I finally got tired of that and hoped that if I put all of her eggs in a box she'd stop stealing the eggs and would be happy with her 4 or 5 eggs I gave her.

Oops! Picture out of order. What do you do when your cat catches a baby mouse? You put it in a jar of course! Yuck! It was squeeking and climbing the jar. Chris finally got tired of it and made them put it down. We went over why they couldn't bring a wild mouse into the house and put it in a cage. We aren't going to think about what the cat did with it after they let it go.

Back to the chickens. The stealing didn't stop. Now she has an accomplice and they weren't happy until they had about 10 eggs under them. We had to mark them so we'd know which ones were the sitting eggs and which ones they were laying. It's a bit of a trick getting them out from under the testy birds. Lots of pecking, lots of puffing up. They looked at the eggs a bit strangely when we put the blue stripe around them but finally gave in and are happily sitting on their clutch of eggs. Unfortunately they have slowed down production from the other birds a little as well. Where I was getting 9-10 eggs a day now I'm only getting 6. The good news is a couple of my newest babies are now laying peewees so they'll help pick up the slack. Hopefully the kids will have new babies in 2 or 3 more weeks to take care of. Summer makes for easier hatching since I don't have to keep them warm. Then it will be time to do in a few of the flock. We've not done any culling yet since we're only approaching year one with our birds. Egg production is influenced by the age of the bird so I'm putting Chris in charge of doing some of the oldest birds in this Fall. That's the theory anyway. I'm not sure I can go through with it. I've grown quite attached to them. Little buggers.

Fruits of our labor

2009-07-12T09:19:00.000-07:00

Here's what we've been working towards with our garden. We've been busily storing up for winter. The first picking of green beans yielded 16 quarts and we're in the midst of doing pickles in 3 or 4 flavors. So far we have dill relish, dill pickles, golden glows, and zucchini relish. The next batches will be bread and butter and more dills, but more of a kosher kind. I'm learning a lot about estimating amounts needed and methods used...ice bath, lime bath, pickling salts, soaking, rinsing, flavoring, the possibilities are endless! What kind of recipes does your family pass down? What little tricks do they use to make their veggies shine? We want to know!

We're really trying to get done with this stuff to make room for when our tomatoes really come on. They've been slow to ripen due to the mild weather we've been having. When they do come on we'll be in trouble!!!

Here is my little helper. He made sure I did dill pickles, since those are his favorite. His other favorite that I showed him this year is to take cucumber, slice in spears(which he can now do by himself) and sprinkle with salt and pepper. He probably eats a couple of large cukes a day!!!

Thebest thing about all of these veggies? I don't have to buy them to use on my South Beach diet I'm doing! In phase one you can have lean meats, veggies(non-starchy), eggs, and low fat dairy. That means I'm eating a lot of veggies!!! I am getting a little tired of zucchini and bell peppers though! The great part is I've lost 10 pounds and get to start phase 2 which means I can have fruit again! Have a great week! We're headed out of town on a camping trip.

major project

2009-07-10T09:14:00.000-07:00

Here is what's been taking up a lot of our time in the evenings this past month. Veggies galore!!!

Our garden has really taken off! The kids love going out in the evenings to pick what's ripe.

We have watermelons, cantalope, crookneck, zucchini, butternut, corn, tomatoes, green beans, basil, green onions, peas, peppers, cucumbers, and dill. Here is a collage Chris made of some photos he took. It's a busy place out back!

I've been canning this week. Wow! I'm tired! Picking, washing, processing, needing a latte and a pedicure...

More randomness

2009-07-10T08:47:00.000-07:00

Summer food...steak and roasted veggies. Yum

Outdoor discoveries. Wooly bear catepillars.

Summer projects. Amanda's doll with her clothes almost done. It looks like she's wearing a kimono. I tried to talk her into thinking this looked cute, but she didn't buy it. I guess I have to hem them soon.

Here she is in her underclothes. We'll get her eyes on sooner or later so it doesn't look like she's sleeping all the time.

Camp Beckwourth

2009-07-10T08:23:00.000-07:00

We spent a week in the middle of June driving to Nevada City every day to go to a boyscout camp. Siblings were allowed at camp so Amanda got to go too. She was one of about 5 girls there. They got to do all sorts of fun stuff. I was at the flowerbox station. We made about 220 wooden flowerboxes. I can still hear the nailing. One thing I learned is little kids tap each nail about 35 times, times 12 nails per box...you do the math. Needless to say I needed quiet time by the end of the day.

At the end of camp they do a big water war. Amanda sat this one out, but the boys all went nuts! I'm not sure who were the bigger kids, the Dads or their sons. It was a free for all!

One of my kid's favorites activities was archery. They both were bubbling with excitement explaining it to me.

By the end of the week I had two exhausted kids. It was a good tired though and they are looking forward to it next year.

Lobstah pahty

2009-07-10T07:46:00.000-07:00

Uh oh. Men standing around steaming pots of boiled alive crustaceans can only mean one thing. Yup, it's time for another Maine Lobstah Pahty. My Dad turned 75 this June and that kind of thing warrants getting his favorite food.

I'm not a lobster fan. Maybe it shoving them in when they're still alive, or the fact that it's eyes are still looking at you when you're eating it, the tenacles touching your neighbor's plate, or the sucking of the legs, or the stomach gunk that people gave a charming name to so it wouldn't be offensive to eat(tamale, which I always thought was funny since they really don't know good Mexican food up there)...In any event, it looks like great fun, but not my thing. The kids all tried it. Evan and Grace had Aunt Lorna and Marjorie help them get theirs ready, took one bite, and passed it off to the next bidder...I was proud of them. Amanda, however, wanted no part of it. I wasn't surprised since she doesn't even like chunks in her yogurt.

These two were more on my wave length. I'd just as soon skip to the cake and ice cream! Raspberry!!! Yum! Since I made the cake I decided to let them clean the frosting off of the bottom edge. We always tell them they are told not to touch it, but I thought just this once wouldn't hurt. Right? Hey! I'm just the Aunt! Let their parents retrain them, right? :)

Summer finally has hit and lots of various activities as well. I'm going to try to catch up today so be ready for randomness...

Critters

2009-06-26T06:51:00.000-07:00

Well, the critters are out! Not only have I woken up to the INTENSE smell of skunk multiple times in the last couple of weeks, we've also had deer hanging around. One in particular has been hanging around our side fence in the trees napping and such for a couple of days. Most of the time Sophie doesn't notice it but on occasion she does. Then her hair stands up and off she goes. Such was the case this morning. We had two in the back yard just looking at the sliding glass door. She launched herself down her ramp and tore into the back yard. I almost wet myself laughing. Her little legs were FLYING!!! Darned tickballs...that's what I call the deer. Now if I can just find where the skunk is hanging out...yesterday it got REALLY smelly at 10am. Yes, 10am...aren't they nocturnal? And why was it out during the day??? I got nervous that I was going to have another encounter like I did at our last house when the neighbor started up his lawnmower in his shed and disrupted the skunk living underneath the floor. Out it shot towards our front yard and my gardening session. It is possible for a human to levitate multiple feet through the air away from danger, just in case you were wondering...I think I need a gun, and not my son's BB gun, which is what my husband grabbed last time(along with his headlamp) the skunk was in my hen house. Yet another pant-wetting episode. Ahh, country life! Happy Friday! It's going to be a hot one this weekend!!!

Play day

2009-06-22T18:17:00.000-07:00

We had a visit from Amanda and Evan's 3 cousins a few days ago. We hung out with them at our house while their Mom and Dad went on an exciting errand. We played, ate lunch, and then went to Grandma's house to wait for Mom and Dad to get home. They had a hard time being patient since they were hopeful that a tent trailer would be following their car when they showed up. Waiting, waiting, waiting...

Lots of yelling and running went on. It started raining and that didn't slow them down at all.

They thought it was so fun to YELL ALL THE WAY TO GRANDMA'S HOUSE WITH THE WINDOWS DOWN IN THE TRUCK!!! We even got some people looking at us wondering what that wailing noise was that was going down the road. The girls sat up front and were not happy about the noise. I told them it was a good thing Grandma was only about 3 miles from us. Yikes!

The girls spent a lot of time hot gluing fabric to a cracker box and turning it into a Webkinz bed. Sophie, the dog, decided she wanted to hang out with the youngest cousin, Luke, since he seemed to like sharing food and loved petting her with his feet when she was under the table.

They all had a great time. It was fun to see them hanging out when it wasn't at a family event. It allowed them to just be kids...kids who thought it was funny to shoot Aunt Patty in the Bootie with a Nerf gun over, and over, and over again. What they didn't realize was Aunt Patty grew up with a certain older brother (AKA their dad) and was prepared with a squirt bottle. They didn't think that was funny. I did. Oh well. They are still in training...

We have a Smalley

2009-06-18T08:05:00.000-07:00

Ok, only one more chicken post for the week. I promise. When I got 5 new chicks in March they were all the same size and color. They were all healthy and grew quickly...well, all except one. Meet Smalley. We named her after reading a post by a fellow blogger who has a chicken that is smaller than the others but seems to have overcome her issues named Smalley. I soon realized we have a Smalley too! My husband said she'sstunted and will probably never lay eggs. Oh yeah, like he's the chicken expert??? Paaleeezeee. He's just picking on her. See what she deals with? Even with her smaller than the others size she is doing quite well. She is the first one to the gate when we come out and allows us to catch her after not that much chasing, which considering the others run for their lives (even after feeding and handling them since birth--out of the goodness of my heart--off they go with the other older birds, influencing them to turn their backs on me...) is pretty remarkable. She's our girl. On to the rest of the chicken story...

My dog Sophie is a bit of a snob, but incredibly sweet and loves people. She doesn't think she's a dog most of the time. I let her come into the coop with me. She doesn't chase them and really just likes to sniff around and "do" other dog things. I think she feels she's part of the clean up crew, for lack of a better description. Gross. I, of course, know if I wasn't there she'd surely make a game of chasing them while barking. Well, here comes Smalley. The other chickens kind of stick to the edges of the cage or kind of follow her when she is in there. Smalley

kind of pecked her butt a while ago but it seemed more out of curiosity. This time it was obvious that Smalley had a plan. She lowered her head, slowly stalked up to Sophie face to face, and nailed her right in the face! Sophie was so surprised that she just kind of jumped and ran to the gate. Smalley was making sure that dog was not going to interfer with her chicken yard. You go Smalley! I wish I had my camera!

Outside

2009-06-16T08:43:00.000-07:00

Keeping it real here. This is what our back patio looks like most of the time lately. It's that time of year...fertilizing, weeding, BBQing, mess making. I find myself saying, who wants to clean it up when we're just going to use it next weekend? Same reason why I'm not one to make my bed every morning. That's one of my goals this summer. Put stuff away and make it look nice so it feels nice! I went on a bit of a cleaning frenzy outside. We can actually eat on the picnic table instead of using it as a tool box. My husband was not happy. He's a bit of a messy guy, well, a lot messy and usually gets irritated with me when I make piles of his tools and such(like empty beer bottles) to put away. I wonder if it was because I piled it on the lawn, knowing it needed to be put away before the sprinklers came on that evening...horns anyone??? Hey, it worked... Another project we've been working on is getting the swing set back in action. It needs to be sanded and restained this summer. The best part of our backyard is the HUGE trees that shade it all day. The swing set is in shade at all times. LOVE IT! Chris wants to built a treehouse to connect to the set at some point. That should be interesting.

I'd also like you to meet our new addition. I've already posted pictures of the babies we hatched in January, but one came out of the chicken closet. Can you pick HIM out? He's the big pretty one along the fence. Rodney is NOT happy about sharing his girls and is constantly chasing around this HUGE rooster with his scrawny, fluffy, pathetic winged body. It's hilarious!

It took weeks for his crow to not sound like he had a hairball in his throat. Good thing he's so passive because Rodney is our favorite and we won't tolerate poor treatment of him. Chris is waiting to do the new guy in at the first sign of fighting. You know Chris and knives...any excuse.

I think he needs a name. I was considering Reggie, but he needs something more colorful since he spends all of his time doing sneak "dates" with the girls and is always chased off by Rodney. Maybe Joey...any suggestions? He's awful perty, don't you think?

New love

2009-06-11T08:44:00.000-07:00

The garden is coming along nicely. Lots of weeding has been done. The watering has been easy with our mild weather the past 2 weeks. Sophie is on patrol, walking up and down the isles. Chris gets a little irritated with her since she isn't always careful around the tomatoes. Gee, I think we could stand to lose a few without much issue. Thirty some odd plants is enough!!!

The garden has also brought on a realization...my husband has found a new love. This love doesn't talk back, is rich, and provides for others. Any evening you can find him lovingly turning, watering, and sifting. Meet the mulch piles. This is two and three.

This is number one. Notice all of the green plants and snarled roots in this initial pile. That was my doing. While he is working on the mulch piles and wandering through the garden I've been working on some planter boxes that have been overgrown for a long time.

This one was full of Agapanthas that had 15 inch thick tuber/rootballs and another 10 to 12 inches of spidery roots going everywhere. It was like a huge carpet! They must have been there for YEARS. I had to HACK them out section by section. Pretty much the entire planter was full of them. Chris had to rototill the dirt and now we are sifting it. What a mess!

Wow! No more jungle of green! I'm not sure I even know what I want in here so it might be dirt for a while.

And yet another messy planter now cleaned out. I just threw some wildflower seeds in here. We'll see if they grow.

Feels good to get them cleaned out! One more patch of agapantha to go in the front yard. That might wait until Fall.

Ahh, summer vacation!

2009-06-09T08:38:00.000-07:00

It was the first Monday of summer vacation...I got back from the gym(I'm trying to get that going again, trying to re-focus.) The kids were still asleep. I made coffee and went for a little walk outside. Molly was quietly awaiting the kiss of the morning sun on her chair. The chickens were busily starting their day of eating, scratching, and crowing. The garden was adorned with sparkling diamonds as the sun hit the dew still clinging to their leaves. It was peaceful, cool, quiet, and exactly how I would like to start each day of summer vacation. I was fully in the moment. Then I went back inside...

This was my reality check!

Nice.

Lord, help me.

I need more coffee! Did I tell you I'm caffeinated again? I stopped for a MONTH. Then the last day of school hit. Help me! Please! If you don't hear from me for a week call the authorities! I think the kids are plotting with the animals to arrange a takeover!

Lickety Split!

2009-06-02T19:20:00.000-07:00

Know how to get your "refuses to let you cut his hair" son to cut his hair?

BEFORE

AFTER

Culprit??? A tick on the back of his neck in all of his messy hair. Luckily it wasn't even there long enough to make a mark. EEEWWWW!!! Our cat has been exploring in the grass looking for lizards and has brought in 2 of them on her hair. My skin is crawling!!! I told him he won't be at as much risk if he keeps his hair nice a short. They won't have a place to hide. I also said unless he keeps his room clean I can't vacuum and make sure the cats aren't dropping any on his carpet when they go in there to sleep. Ha, ha...how's that for quick thinking? Horns are up and in full working order...

light at the end of the tunnel

2009-05-26T14:24:00.000-07:00

It's pretty bad when I have to look at my own blog to remember when the last time was I posted anything. I must say that I'm extremely happy that this month will end in just a couple more days. We went camping this weekend and hit the ground running today. One more week of softball, one more week of Girlscouts and Boyscouts, and only 7 more days of school! I can't tell you how tired and glad I am to have all of these things coming to an end. Pictures to come. For now I've got post-camping laundry to do and lists to make for the rest of my week.

Thirteen years...

2009-05-18T09:37:00.000-07:00

Today is my 13th anniversary. We didn't do much to celebrate it. Chris picked me some flowers from our pasture and we spent some time together while the kids were in school last Friday. Our lives have taken a different turn this past year. Whereas in past years we would just do whatever we wanted and not think about the money, where we are at right now, and for the years to come we are more satisfied to just be still. Still in the sense of being in the moment, being happy with what we have, and feeling like we've gotten to a place in our lives where just knowing that we are still building a life together is enough.

When I think back on what we've done in 13 years it seems like so much. At the same time, it seems like a drop in the bucket on what we have left to do. I guess for now I'll just live in the moment. The rest seems to overwhelming! I think I'm feeling intimidated with life. Good thing I have someone to go through it with. Happy Anniversary Honey! I love you.

Major ramble day

2009-05-14T10:10:00.000-07:00

I'm framing the calendar for the month of May...not because there were lots of great things happening, but more for the fact that I made it through!!! There is more ink than paper on that thing. As I was feeling overwhelmed this week I was reminded to slow down and focus on the importance of being a mom and LISTENING to what is needed at home. I've had a couple of instances during bedtime where I kind of snapped and then realized instead of getting upset that they were stalling, I need to forget how knock down drag out tired I am and go listen to their complaints and get that drink of water, put that ointment on that scratch, and just be their mom. Yesterday I was pulling the garage door down manually before I got in my car to go to work. The motor took a dump and we haven't replaced it. I pulled and let go, watching it come down. I heard a terrible scream and saw our cat Molly HANGING from the top of the frame of the door caught inbetween the garage door and the header on the top of the frame by her head. I screamed and wedged my fingers under the door to lift it up and she fell to the ground. Then, as cats do, she took off. I caught up with her and didn't see any visible signs of injury. She was one hurt kitty though so I made her a little bed and drove to work, crying about how I could have just killed my son's cat. She is no ordinary cat. This cat, and I've been around quite a few in my lifetime, is ONE COOL CAT. She is so mellow and follows us around outside like a dog. If you're outside, she's right there with you. I watch my 2 kids get pretty upset when I had to tell them why we needed to be very gentle with her for a couple of days. We did get her to eat some wet food this morning and she wanted to go outside in the sun to sleep. Whew! Unless something swells up I'm thinking I just used up about 5 of her lives. I bet she won't sleep on top of the garage door when it's open anymore. Then I had to take my daughter to the Dr this morning. We've been treating her foot for ring worm for a few months and her Dr finally referred us to a Dermatologist to diagnose what she really has. We found out it's an auto immune response and can take up to 3 or 4 years to go away. Here's the kicker. SOMETIMES it can mean they are predisposed to diabetes and thyroid problems. Damn. "Does your family have a history of either of those things?" "Uh, yeah, both things on either sides, I believe." I knew what the next step was...BLOOD WORK. I start to sweat. Amanda is clueless, as she's never had bloodwork done before. We went straight over to the lab and she started to panic as I was telling her what they were going to do. Long story short, she did a great job. She didn't melt down until I got her back to school. Then she just wanted to go home. Once again, even with all of the stress of the month, I've learned to just focus on the moment with my family and give them what they need from me. Then I melted after she stopped crying when I got home. Time for caffeine. I still have a boy scout troop to prepare for and softball practice to get to. Good thing their music teacher understood why we just wanted to stay home after school yesterday to pet our hurt kitty. Sometimes things just have to give a little and time at home always gets me back on track. Now to prepare for the girlscouts spending the night here on Saturday night...I need meds...

busy weekend

2009-05-11T08:08:00.000-07:00

The weekend proved to completely wear me out. I spent Saturday, ALL DAY, at a CPR first aid class. I came home to a cooked meal, a miniature rose plant on the table, and cards from the kiddos. They also got me the next book in the Twilight series that I'm almost ready to start. Yeah! It was a wonderful thing to come home to. I got a glimpse of what Chris feels when he comes home and I have dinner on the table waiting for him. He'd be satisfied with a beer in place of the rose plant though. Sunday I woke early and made breakfast. Then it was time to head outside to start the garden planting. I'm a bit of a bull in a china closet when I get started on a project. I do it until it's done. Chris kept trying to get me to sit down and have some sangria with him but I really just wanted to take the time I'd set aside and get all of my seed starts and seeds in the ground. He doesn't know what's on my calendar for the next couple of weeks, but I do and yesterday was the day to get the garden done. Are you ready??? I planted, butternut, zuchinni, crookneck, cucumber, watermelon, cantalope, 2 different types of onions, peas, corn, bell peppers, jalapenos, 38 tomato plants in 3 different varieties, herbs, and green beans. Whew! I get tired just thinking about it, which is why there aren't any pictures. My arms were too tired to lift up my camera!!! Today I'm clearing out a planter box before work and planting 2 hydrangeas Richard gave me. I need to get them in before it gets too hot!!!

Maybe when more of the little green shoots are showing I'll take some pictures. If everything goes well we'll probably be having picking parties too!

Local living history field trip

2009-05-04T14:51:00.000-07:00

Amanda had a field trip planned where they had to dress like early settlers in our area. We set out to get a pattern and fabric for her costume. They had to bring their lunches in baskets or pails and were asked to not bring plastic anything. We had lemonade in canning jars and everything wrapped in waxed paper. She even made me unwrap my string cheese and re wrap it in waxed paper. I pointed out that there were lots of kids with bags of chips and containers of yogurt that weren't following instructions. She just gave me the "look" as if I'd gotten the memo and was required to comply.

I was in charge of helping the kids (40 of them) make leaving dolls and button spinners. Next time I'm doing the baking or laundry! I kept trying to tell the rowdy boys that they weren't following the guidelines for how they were to act as if in 1859. Yes maam, no maam, ladies first??? Hello???

We conned grandma into helping in the baking section since her teacher didn't get enough volunteers.

Amanda said she wished it was still like it used to be in the 1800's. I said yeah, except for the whole hygiene thing. Well, maybe the long sleeve and full skirt rule too. I can already feel that I'd have been the rebel not riding side saddle and maybe rolling up my sleeves when it was 100 degrees and I had to go churn butter or water the crops or chop off a chicken head...

Garden preparation

2009-05-01T16:36:00.000-07:00

We are working (royal we) on getting the garden ready to plant this Spring. The chickens REALLY enjoy all of the fresh dirt. They follow Chris around as he's rototilling and raking. Sophie follows the chickens around...but she's not eating dirt...

We (royal again) put up a nice big fence around the chicken yard and garden that will eventually be split down the middle, giving the girls and guys a bigger henyard. Next year will be a new coop!

Now to just find time to plant...

Ready, set, no go.

2009-05-01T16:26:00.000-07:00

We made goodies for Easter and Grandma's house. I made the kids "sushi" Aunt Patty style. It's the only sushi I'd eat large quantities of. They even had rice in them!

Here are my seaweed wraps and wiggly centers. We also made homemade oreo cookies.

We worked hard on our Easter eggs. It was really difficult going any buying store bought eggs since I have LOTS of eggs already, but brown eggs don't really color well.

Then, no more pictures of Easter. It went downhill the next day and I pouted on the couch with a sick kid the rest of the weekend!!!!!

Hola!

2009-05-01T15:48:00.000-07:00

Has it really been since Easter since I posted any pictures? Wow! Softball practice and games, field trips, Dr and Orthodontist appointments and work on the property has completely consumed my days! Amanda was sick over Easter weekend so we had a quiet Easter at home. Here are some pictures of Evan pre and post haircut. He decided he'd let Marcy cut his hair. He was afraid I'd get the clippers out! He fell asleep on the way home and Amanda couldn't stop laughing. He was all twisted up. Ugh. Look at the hair down around his ears! Thank goodness he gave in!!!

We actually went down to Marcy's house to make chocolate dipped peanut butter eggs before Easter. Amber REALLY likes chocolate! Gee, I wonder where she gets that from???

Hello!

2009-04-20T11:04:00.000-07:00

I'll be trying to get caught up a little here this week. I've been stuck in a hurricane of events as of late and am barely keeping afloat. We're trying to stay on top of the growing weeds and plants. Gardens will be in soon and sprinklers will be going. It's been warm! Supposed to be 90 degrees again today! That's hot for April. Hope all is going well with you!

Death Match 2009 aftermath

2009-04-10T07:43:00.000-07:00

So, Evan and I have been having a little disagreement about his hairstyle as of late. This picture shows why. It is frequently ALL OVER THE PLACE. Mommy let the kids stay up until 9:45 last night playing Plastic Egg Death Match and consequently, the morning brought on major bed head. I think I'm going to let him go about his day looking like this. The problem with this plan is he doesn't care! And yes, he is eating a cookie at 6:45 in the morning. Shame, Shame.

Oh, look. Daddy brought him back a concert t-shirt last year that I decided was a jammie shirt; not to be worn to school. Gee, I don't know why. And guess how much said KID shirt cost? Yup, $28. I told him from now on, (Which is only about once every 2 or so years when he and his buddy decide to go out) he is to make all spontaneous purchases BEFORE consuming alcohol.

Anyway, back to the hair. He walks around with bed head all the time and it hangs down around his ears. Lately I've been trying to ignore it, since he wants it like his friend at school. He did say he'd let me trim it around his ears but I have to keep the top long. He knows I'm one step away from buzzing it so he doesn't trust me. He did agree to let Marcy TRIM it so we're on our way down to her house today! Well, actually we're going down to make peanut butter chocolate eggs like we used to when we were kids at her mom's house. I'm throwing in the hair thing since he agreed to it! Sheesh! I just figured walking around with your hair all over the place would be embarrassing. He could care less. He has always been the one to call my bluff. "Go ahead and throw all of my toys away mommy. I don't really need any of them anyway." Grrrrr. Throw a little gel in it and I could be looking at my kid in about 10 years...concert shirt, dazed sleepy look about him, and messy hair. Anxiety!!!

Death Match 09 and the scam

2009-04-09T07:22:00.001-07:00

Plastic Egg Death Match 2009. Easter Break has rendered me usless as a parent by 8pm at night. Then the Death Match begins. Even Sophie was taking cover. I knew I'd gone mad since the only thing I could think to say was, "You better not hit me!" Another was, "Don't come crying to me when you get hit in the face!"

Well, we're well on our way to the whole gig being exposed. We've gone from the Easter Bunny not being legit to the Shamrock/Leprechaun concept going up in smoke. Funny how the Tooth Fairy and Santa are still holding on. I could still hear my Mom's words echo in my head as I spoke the same words to my children. "Part of the responsibility of knowing these things aren't real is to make sure you keep playing along for those that still do believe." I had this good, sweet, parenting moment where I was able to lovingly relate my wishes to them...

Then the real conversation hit. I caught them almost blowing it with the neighbor kid and had to elevate my thoughts to a threat. "You guys still want Easter Baskets and the whole egg thing, right? If you ruin it for some other kid the Easter Bunny(pointing to myself) isn't going to play along and you'll get jack squat!" And then I stormed away. Since then we've had conversations like, "Mom? Is the Easter Bunny still going to hide eggs outside?" "Is the Easter Bunny still going to hide our baskets?" "I hope the Easter Bunny still gives us candy." Just smile and wave boys, smile and wave. Am I strange for enjoying the power I've been given as a Mom? Maybe a little sick, yes...I think my horns are showing.

Done!

2009-04-07T07:11:00.000-07:00

Here it is folks! A sewing project that I purchased fabric for, made up a pattern for, and finished all in the same weekend!!! Look at my new babies! Hoaky, yes, kind of old fashioned, yes. Finished?? YES!

I made them double-sided so they wouldn't just be for Easter time. The other side will last through spring. I'm sure Chris loves how girly they make the table look. Whatever. I never found the bbq sauce/beer stained fabric at Jo Anns so he'll have to deal.

Here's to a finished project! Even I'll drink to that! Now to get Amanda's costume done for her field trip...I stopped at the sleeves. I'm tired of gathering. I still have to make the pinafore and the bonnet! The pressure is on!

Hot Stuff!!!

2009-04-06T07:10:00.001-07:00

Hello buddy. Let me stick my finger in your eye...Buddy has settled in nicely and doesn't freak out when we take him out anymore. Speaking of animals...I covered for a lady in the office for a couple of days while she was on vacation and guess what? I got to hold a baby Wallaby! It was so cute and held on like a little baby! Did you know that you can raise them like pets here in the United States? This lady is local and raises them because she loves them and actually has quite a few. We were all in shock! I was in love, but Chris said no right away. Sheesh! I didn't say I wanted one or anything...

Amanda started softball last month. She didn't get on a team with anyone she knows, which wasn't our doing. It had to do with the Little League losing a bunch of applications and once they found them they had to make up another team with the leftovers. I've been quite proud of her for just getting in there and making the best of it. She has great coaches and has been learning a lot!

They are called "Hot Stuff". This was of course NOT Amanda's choice since she doesn't like to draw attention to herself. She said it sounded kind of weird. It's actually kind of grown on us though and now she thinks it's cute. The coach had visors made up with the name before he knew the league was going to provide them this year so now us moms have a team visor to wear at the games. I have to remember it says Hot Stuff on it when I run to the store or 7-11 on game day. I get some strange looks or smiles and then remember I have a red visor on with HOT STUFF written across the top. What we do for our kids...

The funniest part about the Hot Stuff thing was when the coach yelled out where the strike zone was while one of the girls was up to bat. His reminder to her was the laugh for the few parents with their minds in the gutter. He said, "Remember! The strike zone is from your knees to Hot Stuff!" (which is written across the chest--he even used a hand gesture across his chest.) I kept quiet but one of the Dads thought that was hysterical. Nice.

Anyhoo, more to come...lots of random thoughts and hopefully more pictures now that I have a new little camera. Our old one is slowly dying and no longer reliable.

random updates

2009-04-05T08:35:00.000-07:00

Spring has really sprung around here including the crazy schedules that go with it. I'll have more updates to come this week and a few pictures too. I'll get to that when I have more time. For now I'm posting my hamburger and hot dog buns that I made. I was quite proud of them for my first attempt. They had good texture and held up to the vaious condiments quite well.

Can you guess what this is? It has forced us to not cut down this dead birch tree in our back yard.

More updates to come this week. Life has just been too full to do blogging lately. I hope all is going well with you!

Flight of the Bumble Bee

2009-03-20T08:29:00.000-07:00

Ok, get the music in your head before I start...

No pictures, just chaos...wait, since I dislike not posting a picture and I've not been posting much, here is one of my dog, caught in the act, eating an entire box of Lemonade Girl Scout cookies that she found in amongst a case of other cookies. I might have posted this picture before but it cracks me up so here it is again!

SPRING IS HERE!!!

That brings lots of activity. this week started on the heels of my Women's Retreat for W.I.S.E. It was a wonderful weekend even though my air mattress died and I got 1 hour of sleep the first night. It was a nice break with lots of inspiration. I came home to fed, relatively clean kids and a house that didn't look like a tornado hit it. Good. This was probably easier accomplished by the fact that they ate most meals out, completely removing the need to use the kitchen. Ahem...I didn't budget in their meals to the weekend.

We hit the ground running Monday with music lessons for both of the kids.

Wednesday afternoon my Dad helped me take the 5th wheel down to have the refrigerator recall mess fixed so it wouldn't blow up when we use it. That's nice and much appreciated since I can't get the 5th wheel plate in the back of my truck by myself and Chris was at work. I didn't know they could get us in so quickly! Yeah! That night was my bible study. That night after my bible study my crown got loose while flossing.

Thursday started out with me trying to find a sub to cover me at work so I could go to the dentist to get my crown cemented back on. THANK THE LORD my tooth was fine and wasn't crumbling under there. It's about 11 years old so I was nervous about that. It was only $97 instead of $400. Then Thursday night was a divide and conquer maneuver with Chris heading off to Cub Scouts while I took Amanda to softball practice. Ok, here's the kicker to the whole week, which is still not over. While we're sitting there, the coach (who is great) asked if anyone wanted to be team mom. Of course this is being said to the 3 people that actually stayed whereas about 10 parents just dropped them off...whatever. No one budged. So, here I go again. I can't just sit there and not support him while he's teaching our kids how to play. I blurt out, "If you tell me what to do I'll do it." I felt immediate flushing of my face. I of course just added yet another thing to my plate. I have a problem...I need overvolunteer'ers anonymous or something!

I better go. I've got a field trip to get to and work calling me after that. Then it's get the kids early for a Dr appointment. I'm sleeping in tomorrow!

Life is good! Busy, but good!

Hello sunshine. Hello Claritan...

Wrap up

2009-03-13T08:21:00.000-07:00

Wrapping up the week...the kids both did excellent on their report cards. I'm very proud of them. Amanda started softball practice on Thursday night. I'm heading off to my W.I.S.E women's retreat tonight for 2 days. Chris is sick. I hope I don't get sick. Today will be a busy one packing and getting the house in order for the weekend. I'm fully ready to walk in on a disaster when I get home. I've not been away for 2 days leaving Chris and the kids here in...I don't remember how long. Maybe never! I busted my tail working out this week and gave up my latte today. No latte Friday this week! I was told this is a major food fest so be prepared! That means I'll be taking some fruit and healthy bran muffins along with some bottled water. I'm not going to have my sore muscles be for nothing! Step aerobics kicked my butt! It's new for me. I'm not the most coordinated person, which is why the only class I take is spinning. I can do that one. I don't even like to dance so organized steps and jumping around is rather foreign to me. Not to mention all of the ladies at the 5:30am class have been taking this class for YEARS with Sylvia and know what she means just by the way she points. I'm providing comic relief for them right now. Well, I'm off to go get my chores done so I can go play! Have a fabulous weekend in the wonderful weather that is in the forecast!!!! I hope to come back rested and ready to start my week!!! Hugs!

Fessing up

2009-03-10T10:15:00.000-07:00

Ok, so now I'm confessing the other stuff I got to put on my list of projects. I've been wanting to learn how to knit socks for a long time. I've also been eyeing this sock yarn for a while. I think a more appropriate name will be Soles and Moles, which not only rhymes, it also describes what my socks will look like, mole holes and all. Keeping fingers crossed!

I found these easy patterns on sale at Walmart when I was getting bandanas. Amanda and I will be making these this summer! Oh fun! I think I'll get some oilcloth so we can go to town with our canning and just wipe it clean.

And finally, once again, while at Walmart, they had a big pile of sale fabrics including this upholstry fabric. My chairs are in serious need of recovering now that the kids don't use the chair cushions as their personal napkins. Now our guests won't feel like they are going to leave with a stain on their backsides!

Spring projects

2009-03-10T09:54:00.000-07:00

I've been busily preparing to, at some point, after a little procrastination, to start yet another series of projects! Some I have to do. Some I've been wanting to do. Here is one that needs to be done this month.

Amanda is doing a living history field trip to a museum here in town. They are supposed to dress in period clothing. I'll be making her dress and apron. I LOVE this chicken fabric. Here is the fabric for my costume. I signed up to do the craft part as a docent. Originally I wasn't going to make my own skirt, but I'm hoping I'll have time. I have a back up phone number just in case of a lady that does costume rentals. Secretly I hoped that Amanda wouldn't want the chicken fabric. Shoot! I'm fully preparing myself to look like a lampshade with all of the gathering in my skirt. I dislike pleats...

Here are the plans for another project I've been wanting to do for a year now. This pattern is for summer shorts that you make out of bandanas. I found this idea on another blogger's site. They go up quickly and are inexpensive to make. It takes 2 bandanas, which I found out come in a 2 pack at Walmart.

Chris found Evan a skull bandana which he was excited about. I'm not sure if they'll wear them...they thought the material was thin. I don't care if they only wear them at night. I just think they are cute! Maybe I'll finish them by October!

All tuckered out

2009-03-09T14:47:00.000-07:00

Chris was so tired after busting his hiney this weekend he didn't even notice that the cats were using him as a bed on Sunday night. I probably could have turned out the lights and left him there. Poor guy!

Weekend work

2009-03-09T14:23:00.000-07:00

It was a busy weekend at the Thomas house. It was the first nice sunny weekend in a while and we had it all planned out to get some things done around the house.

Even the chickens were excited about the nice weather. They happened to find the only dry dirt on the property right up against the house and promptly dug up my bush so they could dust. Poor things have been wet and muddy for days!!! Chris planted 7 cherry trees and 3 citrus trees. He also dug out a little trench to allow water to drain in the back of the house. We built a bon fire to burn off some old wood that was left out back. I mowed down all of the weeds too. We visited our brand new Home Depot to purchase the fencing we'll need to enclose the garden and re-fence the chicken coop. On Sunday we were feeling rather tired by the end of the day. We BBQ'ed a turkey and made fixings to go with it. It just sounded good. These types of weekends remind me of being a kid. We'd be outside all day with my dad while he worked on the property. We'd come inside and my Mom would have cooked a pot roast or baked beans for dinner. Then my dad would come in, shower, and we'd eat all the while completely tired from playing outside for 2 days. I would always sleep so soundly after weekends like that. The only thing making this not the greatest night's sleep was the alarm clock going off this morning, with it's new Daylight Savings time. That hour of lost sleep was tough to take!!! I'm sure we'll all be in bed early tonight. I hope you all had a great weekend enjoying the beautiful weather! I'll try to be better about posting the rest of the month. I've been rather distant from the computer. Call it Spring fever!

Hairy Chapstick

2009-02-25T14:03:00.001-08:00

Leave it to 5th graders to relieve a parenting issue I came across. You know that song, sung by a girl, that says, "I kissed a girl and I liked it; the taste of her cherry chapstick..." Well, my kids heard that in the car and before I could switch the station, of course, zeroed in on many questions about what it meant. Then, the next time it came on I switched it again. That wasn't before Evan said, "I think that means they are gay." I almost hit a tree! Ok, who the heck has he been talking to??? In comes the 5th grader part. One of the kids came up to me on the playground and asked if I'd heard that song, "I kissed a girl..." you know. I hesitantly said, "Ahhhh, yeah." Then he went on to tell me the new version. It goes something like this...I kissed a squirrel and I liked it; the taste of her hairy chapstick. NOW I know how I should be singing it! Then I had a flashback of riding in the front of my Grandparent's truck and camper. (Sorry Elisa, I'm throwin ya under the bus here) Picture my little cousin sitting next to me with her headphones on and a tape going. Grandma is sitting next to her peacefully riding home. Then Elisa starts singing a particular Madonna song, out loud. It goes something like this, "Like a version, touched for the very first time." Wait a minute...It was at this point Grandma stiffened, and looked my direction over Elisa's head to see if I knew about her "interpretation" of a particular word...Yeah, I did. Still makes me chuckle. I guess each generation has their "Madonna" song to deal with.

Top of the morning to you!

2009-02-25T08:32:00.000-08:00

Evan lost his top tooth! Finally! It was hanging on for quite a while. I got home about 9:30 last Wendesday night and Chris told me the tooth fairy was going to need to stop by that evening. Shoot. Can the tooth fairy find gold dollar coins at 9:30 at night? I think the tooth fairy will now be keeping a stash of them for events like this. Evan lost his 2 bottom teeth while camping last summer. Safeway came through in both instances...even at 9:30 at night! He has always been my challenging kid...sigh. On another "top" note, the top of our house was honking the other morning. We have quite a few Canadian Geese that have taken up residence in the pastures surrounding us when it rains. They love all of the new grass coming up in the puddles of water. This particular goose was calling all of his friends for quite a while. They finally showed up and away he flew. You could hear him running back and forth on the roof.

Valentine's Wrap Up

2009-02-18T10:35:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day came and went in a relaxed pace this year. I made it pretty easy on Chris. Instead of going out I told him I wanted a Beach Hut Deli sandwich. They rock. I highly recommend the "Shark Bite." Chris's parents invited us out to breakfast Saturday morning. The kids made lots of Valentine's for us and Evan couldn't wait to give me a present he made me at school. It's a clay heart magnet. I LOVE it. He was so proud of it. On Sunday we had our friends up for dinner/dessert/brithday wishes for Sean. Marcy and I disappeared for a couple of hours to get a pedicure. THAT was Marcy's idea and really let the guys off the hook for what to get us this year. We told them they didn't have to do anything but watch the kids while we go. What a great Valentine's Day gift! Good idea Marcy! She also made a killer cheesecake that I'm still recovering from. All I can say is Brownie crust and caramel swirled through cream cheese and chopped up snickers bars. YUMMY!!! I realized my short hair cut does something else for me. You see, I have to get it cut more often when it's this short or it doesn't work. That means Marcy and I will have to hang out at least every 4 or 5 weeks. I think we'll have to have a standing latte/haircut day every few weeks. It was so nice to have girl time without interrupted conversations and bickering! I hope you had a great Valentine's Day with the ones you love!

Free to a good home.

2009-02-16T15:18:00.000-08:00

What do you do when your friend at work says they are moving and needs to get rid of her daughter's Chinchilla? And then she tells you she is going to take it to the SPCA or some other shelter that will take him, and then that little voice inside your head tells you that you've always wanted a chinchilla but your kids have guinea pigs so you really shouldn't, but you love chinchillas...Meet Buddy. He is one year old, crazy, and very nocturnal. He doesn't like mornings, loves to dust himself, and loves his new cage. What did you say??? You thought I mentioned he was free??? The cage they had him in was NO where near big enough for him. Chinchillas love to climb and need levels to their cage. I remember my parents getting a free boat once...I also remember my mom saying something about it being the most expensive free boat on the lake too. I guess I'm just a sucker for animals. Please don't tell me if you're getting rid of any animals! I can't take it!!! I'm a big sucker.