Found it!

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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...

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!

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!

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!

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

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!

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!

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!