Life out on the Farm

The Princess and Alex - Oh the things they say!

2007-02-28T08:47:00.000-06:00

Can you believe it? The weather people are prediciting another storm coming with rain/ice. We finally got power back yesterday (Mon) after being without it since Sat...I hate this. We have lots of small and some big tree branches down over the entire yard. It is a mess.

The princess was a riot - she was furious on Sunday and said - why give that Groundhog a day - if he is going to mess things up??We all laughed so hard...
Alex told Kay that he had to go potty bad last night on their way to pick up their van from the shop. So she is ready to pull into a convenience store to run him in, when he says - I don't have to go anymore Mom. She said - why don't you have to go (thinking he wet his pants)? and he offered that he burped and was fine now! Then he and Grampy were going to go run some errands before going back to my parents house - Grampy told him they were going "tom-catting". Alex was so excited, when his brothers asked what he & Grampy were going to do - he said they were giong to look for wampus cats! Then he asked Grampy what a wampus cat was??? Dad told him to ask Uncle Pat - he knew more about them!

I am tired of being cold. I don't feel good today and just want to be warm.

Dear Santa...

2006-12-28T22:55:00.000-06:00

Well...needless to say, the princess has been bouncing around with excitement the past 2 weeks, waiting for Santa! We went to Grandpa's for Christmas Eve and the "real" Santa (according to her highness) stopped in to sing carols and chat with the kids and hand out some small packages.
She LOVED it! She has totally thrown herself into the holiday, she hung the majority of the ornaments on our big tree and helped wrap a big share of our gifts. Pat promoted her to management in the holiday family program, she is VP of Gift Giving and Director of Wrapping!
My sister offered to give her a better promotion if she came to her house and help - to President of Cleaning! (The princess got the giggles about her options!)

The "Prince" is really growing up. He has a car now...I am not ready for this one! It's older, but not bad for a first car! A little rust here and there...a few paint chips, but better than walking in the cold weather!

So far, our holiday gatherings have been fun, however a few family members had been bit by an intestinal flu bug and then poor Grandma got sick after Christmas day...hopefully no one else gets the flu bug!

We are looking forward to the bowl games and cheering on our favorite team!
Happy New Year everyone!

Fall in the countryside

2006-10-10T21:16:00.000-05:00

What a gorgeous weekend, the temperatures were perfect, the leaves are changing colors and starting to fall to the ground. The princess and I had a fun girls night out on Friday while Pat and the prince went to the high school football game. "We" won. Saturday the prince and I went to see our college football team play, it was Homecoming. It was a great game, "we" won! Pat volunteers on the sidelines, it is his 6th year. He loves the sport and being a part of the whole group.
Sunday afternoon the princess played soccer and then in the evening we went to my aunt and uncle's house for a bonfire-weiner roast and hayrack ride. It was such a nice night for it. The kids all wanted to tell & hear scary stories, so I helped out! The bonfire felt nice and smelled so good. Larry drove the tractor pulling their new - freshly painted - hayrack. The clouds covered over the moon some, made it perfect for the stories.
The combines are rolling - lots of soybeans are already picked, corn is just around the corner.
The box elder bugs and asian beetles (look like orange ladybugs) are trying to get inside as it gets colder out. I hate the bugs.
Pat & B have been working on his room faithfully. It is shaping up and starting to look so nice. He painted the walls a color like dark tan-khaki. He has sanded the hard wood floors and is testing stain to decide which one he wants. I am hoping it is ready for him to move back into by Halloween.
It is supposed to have a light snow Wed night here, then warming back up.
Have a good night. Nice to read you again Jill!

Family Golf Outing

2006-09-24T23:05:00.000-05:00

What a weekend. We had family in town for our annual family golf outing on Saturday. The weather wasn't too bad. A little rain, but otherwise decent temperatures. Everyone had a good time and Debbie did an awesome job setting it all up. Normally it is just the siblings and cousins that play, no kids, however this year they were short a foursome/1 tee time. So the prince and his cousin got to play (next generation) along with a friend. They played well and were very good at following the course rules, so they may get to play next year too - which he is excited about.

The Princess had her 1st soccer game of the fall season today, gorgeous weather.
Kay came to watch it with me, we had a fun time. The twins gave her some "helpful hints" from the sidelines - it was a riot! (acutally it was good advice- just funny how they phrased it!)

Shawn took the nephews - all 3 older boys (except Alex) to play 9 holes of golf today. The twins really loved it, since they were too young and didn't get to play yesterday. Good time for them. When they got back we went out to supper (I know "dinner"...but this is the midwest!).
Great food, was fun spending time chatting with him.

Shawn lost his job a few weeks ago. He has been with the company since college graduation. They were changing directions, downsizing, etc. The good part was he has a good severence package. Now he just has to decide what he wants to do for the next part of his life! So he is doing some soul searching and deep thinking about what he wants to do next. The "good" part of it all - is that we get to see him more often now!

Pat's dad had the rest of his teeth pulled Friday and was not feeling too good later that day still. Personally I think he should switch dentists - he was bruised on his chin and his jaw felt misaligned from pounding on it. But - it is over now and they are all out. He said the dentist held a chisel while he had the hygentist use a hammer to hit it - to break the tooth up!? Sounds barbaric to me! Plus he said he told the dentist his left arm was numb to his fingers and his thumb felt like an ear of corn. He was in the chair for over 2 hours. Oh well...over and done.
Stories like this are why I have such problems going to the dentist!

Have a good night.

Ms Fabulous

2006-08-24T23:30:00.000-05:00

Well - the princess came home after her first day this year and when we asked how her day was, how her teacher was - she replied: "She was FABULOUS! Her dress was so cool - it had rubies and other sparkling things on it!" I sent the teacher the reflection of the first day, thinking she would get a smile out of it, which she did. She thinks it was a little overstated though! I assured her it was sincere and this little one truly believed her teacher was awesome and how happy we were - to have her enjoy her teacher this much. On another note, my friend Jaquel had a baby girl last week. Named her Avalahna. I can't wait to see pictures of her.

School is here

2006-08-21T21:47:00.000-05:00

Took B. to get his haircut tonight. High school starts in 2 days. I am feeling so very old! Took him to the outlet mall on Sunday to get some new shoes. Found 2 pairs of his size 15s on sale! Happy about that. Got some shorts for him also at Old Navy and some shirts at Reebok & Nike stores. I took the princess shopping a couple of weeks ago for some school clothes. She is growing by leaps and bounds also. She got to go to her classroom tonight and put away her supplies and see her teacher. She loved that. She got to keep the same teacher she had last year - the teacher moved up a grade, as she learned sign language for a child in their room last year. They moved the princess and 3 other girls up with the one child, as they liked playing together and had learned/retained a lot of signs. This is great - the princess will stay learning sign language, which will be great.
B decided to skip football this fall, after the arm break a year ago, he doesn't feel the need to do that again! Plus he loves basketball too much to risk missing a season due to an injury.
Tonya had an ultrasound Friday. The baby is waving it's hand beside the head! We don't know the sex of it yet - so we all get to be surprised in December!
Grandma wasn't sleeping well this week, according to my mom. But I believe it got better over the wknd.
Crops look good around here. We have had some nice rains, compared to some areas.
We took a short vacation with Kay & family, went to the zoo, was a good time. Our hotel was very nice, we both had suites with a living room/kitchen area off of the bedrooms. Kay & I enjoyed it - when the kids and husbands went to sleep, we both had a place to relax and read in peace! We stayed 2 nights there, then went to the Wasserbahn. The kids all enjoyed that. Kay & I even did a water slide...I did the fast one and she did the gentle one - but it was fun. The princess giggled so hard - she ran to get all of the boys - to tell them what we were doing! (Thank Goodness there are no photos of that!) Alex would jump in to the pool - in my arms yelling Cowbunga, Missybunga, Mommybunga or Alexbunga! He made us laugh. Pat would swing him out by his arms and drop him into to me. He'd just laugh...
Have a good night.

What a week...the fair is done for another year

2006-07-29T23:41:00.000-05:00

Well, it has been a LONG week and yet short.
It started last Friday. Shawn & girls and Debbie, Neil, Colin all came home for the parade, then we (Pat & I) got their kids from Sunday through Tues! The prince got his projects judged before the parade (good parade by the way!). He made a wooden cupboard for above the toilet (got red - needed 3rd coat of varnish), he had 6 photos - got 4 blues and 2 reds. The reds were due to the film developement, but still counted against him. They were pictures from July 4th, Brianna with sparklers. We thought the lines on the house siding was probably a reflection from all of the kdis and they had several kinds of sparklers going that were green smoke, etc. Oh well.
On Monday afternoon, we took the kids to the fair. I made a scavenger hunt for them and we divided them into 2 teams, Shawn took T, M, C and I took N, B and A. They had to find someone with a cowboy hat, farmer hat with seed corn patch on it, bib overalls, 2-3 breeds of every animal at fair (had to change this to colors - smaller kids couldn't read!), a sewing project, a photo of a dog, a photo of a pig or cow, the prince's items, a 4H member that could recite the pledge to them (we found someone we knew/no stranger danger stuff!), a booth giving out ruler, pencil, bag, a brand of tractor for sale, etc. It kept them busy and we got to see all of the fair! Eventually we met up with Pat & Grampy. We watched the fair queen contest next. The youngest kids fell asleep at that point! We dropped Colin off to Sherry's on Tuesday afternoon, for her turn. We hosted in M. Hall on Wed evening. Then Thurs evening we watched fireworks and got rained on while chatting with Larry and Cheryl - near - guess - the rabbit barn! Hardly any rabbits this year. Several rows empty.
The princess wants to join Clover Kids next year - has projects all planned out in her mind! It has been horribly hot here all week. Today was heat index of 110. Pat & Prince worked on his bedroom, got it ready to start re-construction! I talked with Gary at the fair. We discussing the price of gas/oil/diesel going up and relating it to how much he has to pay for farming, drying and hauling his grain. He also had to pay someone else to have his crop planted & sprayed this year due to his health this spring. He was pretty distressed about it obviously. We have cut out unnecessary trips since the price of gas has gone up. In fact, we skipped our usual big summer vacation and just went to Chicago.
On a lighter note, the prince is taking drivers ed and is almost done - doing great! He drove home last night from Quad Cities and did great. It really is making me feel old though! Oh well... Plus it was interesting watching teenage girls at the fair watch him and try to get his attention!
Kay agreed to take the puppy! They are coming tomorrow to get her.
The kids need a dog and to learn responsibility.
Good night!
PS- anyone heard from Jill lately?

County 4H Fair is coming soon...

2006-07-17T22:54:00.000-05:00

It's truly summer. The 4H fair is literally right around the corner. The prince is finishing a cupboard (stain/varnish) that goes above the toilet in the guest bath near the entryway. I am not sure if he will get his photos mounted yet in time too!

Pat, Grampy and the Prince all have been working hard on the Prince's bedroom. Got the plaster down and the new windows & insulation ordered. He decided to refinish the hardwood floors, rather than carpet them. Punky Sue actually was a big help.

We went Sat nite to Theresa & Rick's for Xander's birthday. Was fun evening,good conversation and good food. Xander loved his presents. Friday & Sunday nights we took Pat's dad out for dinner. We don't always get time to stop to see him, so this helps us to keep in touch.

The prince has been taking drivers ed this summer. Hard to believe we are at that point in our life! I am feeling so old all of a sudden!

We have 1 puppy left. We had 2, but one died the other night, sad to say. I am hoping Kay & the boys will take this one home to love. T & N need a puppy!

My uncle Gary was in the ETC, heat exhaustion yesterday. It has been awful lately. Tonight we had a lot of wind and some rain, the best part was a cool breeze.
Have a good night!

July 4th, painting & house ideas

2006-07-07T21:55:00.000-05:00

The princess and I were in a parade on the holiday, in conjunction with my work - we had an entry. Actually I walked with my co-workers, while she rode in the horse drawn wagon! It was a long, hot walk.

Afterwards we joined the rest of the family at Rick & Theresa's house. It was a fun afternoon/evening. Lots of good conversation and food and even fire works at the end.

The kids (my nephews helped too) helped Grampy paint primer on the new drywall in the entryway yesterday. They had a pretty good time and did a decent job. I had to scrub paint out of Punky Sue's hair though!

Pat is helping Grampy put siding on the new entryway this morning (Sat). The prince is cleaning his "old" room - getting ready for Pat & Grampy to start work in there (windows/floors).

I am thinking about how I want the kitchen (dining & living rooms also) to be (layout, style, colors, etc) so when I get to have it redone (how many years down the road...?) - I will have a solid plan. I have seen some kitchens plans that I like some pieces of, but still thinking about how it would work best. Any ideas? You know the landing at the bottom of the steps? We have thrown around the idea of opening that piece into the kitchen with a step down there... There was a doorway there once (before we redid the stairs) - that made a circle kind of - which the grandkids all used to love when visiting... I want to put a pocket door between the family room and the living room (to block/separate the noise of competing TVs/conversations!), put a bay or bow window in the living room. We want to open the wall more between the dining & living room. It is load bearing, so we will have to have a beam or something to carry the weight across the opening. The from the kitchen into the dining room - do the same type of thing - open the wall - but have a beam carry the load again. We thought about putting a small mudroom/place for our coats & shoes, between the garage & the kitchen (take a few feet off of the back of the kitchen), but I am kind of rethinking that one some. I am thinking about putting the washer and dryer behind doors in the kitchen and taking the room they are in as a pantry/ big closet with shelves floor to ceiling and with a place for vacuum, broom, etc also. I want to put a big continuous window on the outside wall- where the refrigerator is currently. Only have lower cupboads there on that wall. Maybe the sink under the center of the window, or where the kitchen & dining room meet - thought about lower cupboards (peninsula like) dividing the rooms - with the sink/ dishwsher there? The kitchen will be a big rectangle - not skinny like it is currently (old entry will be knocked out and middle wall there behind stove gone). Thought about moving stove to where sink is currently...oh well...any ideas or plans for me? The best part will be getting rid of the old kitchen walls and dropped ceiling!!
It's fun to dream a little...

Stinky Hotel Room

2006-06-25T23:27:00.000-05:00

We had a mini vacation for 3 days as Pat had a work meeting to go to and the kids & I rode along to relax, swim & spend time with another family that was going also. Unfortunately, our hotel room was a smoking room - the only ones available by the time his group booked their rooms. I tried air fresheners, room deodorizers, etc - nothing worked. It stunk. I ended up with a sore throat and I am not sure if it was from the smoke smell or the fresheners! Either way - it was because of the smoke. When we opened the door to the room - it hit you in the face. I hate it. I wanted to leave and wondered why I had agreed to this...I won't again. The kids and I will stay home. Other than the room, it was OK. Nothing great to see though, was a smaller town, I tried exploring, however the prince in his teen style - wanted nothing to do with that. Maybe I will leave him home with Grampy & Grammy next time...
We had a thunderstorm this afternoon. Quite a bit of rain.
Today I just did laundry and was lazy. I lost my voice. The kids like it - except when they yell to ask a question from another room and can't hear the answer!
Work will be busy this week, have to do the year ending inventory counts, etc. Plus playing catch up for being gone 2 days.
The prince is starting on his woodworking project for the fair. I can't wait to see it finished. Should be great.

Happy Birthday!

2006-06-16T22:10:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is my sister and one nephew's birthday and another nephew turned 3 on Wed of this week. Both nephews are having b-day parties this weekend.
I hope they all enjoy their day and have fun!

Ding Dong "Doo"? (Scooby Doo)

2006-06-12T20:43:00.000-05:00

Well, we just got home from spending a few days with family in the Chicago area. The kids all had fun and we adults had a good time too. The prince faired well, got a "new to him" set of golf clubs, got to play golf with his dad and uncles (Shawn & Neil), Shawn gave him his "old" digital camera and a lot of Clive Cussler books to read! It was amazing to see him standing with the men and being as tall or taller than all but his dad... The girls (the princess & her cousins) all had so much fun playing and doing their "girls club things" (crafts & games). Everyone swam a lot at the hotel pool. We got Kay's boys on Sunday afternoon, so they stayed with us. We went on a bed time snack run for ice cream, which the kids all enjoyed! (esp Pat!) I took all of the girls shopping, was a fun time. Then I got to go to Ikea, had a great time looking at the room setups, trying to decide what would work for the prince's room as we re-do it. Got some neat ideas that should work well. It will be one of our nephews birthday this coming week, so while we were out & about on Sat, Shawn & I found a LARGE Scooby Doo stuffed dog. (over 4 ft tall?) Our nephew loves Scooby, so we bought him and hid him. (like that was easy!?) Just before our nephew was to be in bed Sunday night, the other cousins ran up the street - with our son holding Scooby over his shoulder. They put him on the porch - in front of the door and ran the door bell and RAN to hide! Neil answered the door and just stood there looking at Scooby and Deb yells - "Who is it Neil?" - he answers - "Scooby Doo"...we all had to keep from busting out laughing. Our nephew stood there in awe saying "It's Scooby Doo!". What a riot! It was great!!! None of us (or our nephew) will forget that one for years! The best part is: how are they going to keep him from begging to sleep with that stuffed toy! (we told him this Scooby was a watch dog and should stay by the window or door to guard) It was a great week, we saw a lot and had fun together with family, which was the best part.
Gotta go for a Scooby Snack...talk to you later!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

2006-05-23T19:34:00.000-05:00

The "prince" is teaching a lesson in his geometry class tomorrow. The teacher has been having each of them take what they have learned and use it in a career-related form, so he is using engineering feats & defeats related to bridges. Has been working diligently on it, has a short movie, a "lecture", a group activity and candy! His teacher is wonderful, I told him how lucky he is to have had her for 3 years - algebra and geometry, she is amazing. She comes in early/stays late and they know her door is open whenever they have questions.

His class has some amazing athletes too. They won their conference track meet 2 weeks ago and B has really enjoyed it this year. Basketball is still his favorite, but he had a good time running with his friends, esp as they won all but 1 meet this season!

Punky Sue/Princess has started tee ball. She loves it. Wants to play sports all of the time! She wants to take gymnastics, so I am going to look into it, to see class times & costs. Might as well learn how to do the flips and things the proper way! She was doing cartwheels in the outfield the other night, causing lots of grins on parents...

My grandma celebrated her 89th birthday last week. Impressive, she is in great health, still drives, cleans & cooks/bakes like a dream! I hope I take after her - health-wise at the least!
She can sew & is amazing in the kitchen, some of the granddaughters luckily have inherited parts of this! It was so much fun going to their (our grandparents) house as a child each summer and spending several days - a week there. We got to help in the huge garden, visit family and at night she & Grandpa would watch Johnny Carson (unless it was the night where there was all-star wrestling on tv!) and we would all get to eat popcorn and us kids got to stay up a little later than our usual bedtime. We looked forward to it so much. Then we would take turns staying at different aunts houses for a day or two. It was so great, since we grew up a couple of hours away, we didn't get to spend a lot of time otherwise together. I try to do the same thing with our nieces and nephews, to give them these same fun memories.

Jenni had a great graduation party and loved her scrapbook, it turned out so neat. She had taken dance classes for many years, so they decorated the walls with her costumes, was cute to see them!

Our road has been even more busy than usual, with large trucks and semis on it. Last week a semi came flying very fast around the curve just before our house - the gravel dust flying. I thought he was going to lose it as he seemed to be sliding (we have new, loose gravel now) so we stopped and pulled off to the very edge of the road when we saw him and just hoped he stayed over...we were a pretty nervous family for a couple of moments! This road used to be blacktopped when my husband was small & growing up out here, then the county went to chip-coat and then to gravel about 15 years ago. I wish they would go back to chip-coat at least on it.
They have been doing a traffic count off and on, I hope they are noting how many are big vehicles especially.

Oh joys of motherhood...

2006-05-22T22:34:00.000-05:00

The princess just threw up...in bed. Changed sheets, cleaned her up...I feel so bad for her, it is no fun to feel icky, but I really hate cleaning up things like this!
No fever.

A fun night ahead of us.

They are done!

2006-05-17T23:45:00.000-05:00

I finished my scrapbook pages tonight!! YIPPEE! Graduation isn't even until Sunday! (haha)
What a relief to have them done.

The "prince" went on a field trip today for school, career related. He was mad because he got put in a group to go to a large grocery chain, when some of his friends got to go to other corporate locations that sounded more interesting. However after they all arrived back at school and compared notes, he enjoyed his day more, esp when you think of what a teenage boy holds dear (food!)! They got to eat during their day and sampled cheese, sampled bakery and ate at the deli, after learning about them all!

My dad and uncle came and loaded the sheep and took them back to my aunt & uncle's place this evening. We had 17 ewes and 25 lambs, they ate everything down very nicely!

The princess is playing softball and loves it. They are so funy at this age.
Jill - I will remind my brother about the statue! They will get a laugh out of it.

Good night.

Oh Baby!

2006-05-14T22:52:00.000-05:00

My family took me out for brunch, along with my parents. It was nice to get together and the food was good. Not long after arriving home I received a phone call from my youngest brother. He called with the news that he & his wife are having a baby, due on or about Dec 22. YIPPEE!! My sister and I are so excited. Another baby to cuddle and love! The due date is my twin nephews birthday, so that is kind of neat too. So, my sister and I have shopping to do...to be good aunties! So any prayers for them and the safe arrival of their baby are welcome!
The princess is excited also.

I worked hard and got 3 pages of my "assigned" scrapbook pages done. Travel/vacation one ("Head Out on the Highway"), Zzzzz (sleeping girl pics) & the Giggly Girls. I have the Traditions, Friends and Birthdays left to do. Katrina - I used your suggestions, some for the Friend page and a couple for the Giggly Girls one, THANKS! If you have any more for the Traditions one - send them on! There are some 4th of July pics (family picnics), some Grandpa/Grandma pics. Just can't quite pull that one together. Need a title and some quotes/poems to get it together. It has to be a "T" (we do the alphabet, so I can change the word from Traditions, if there is a better one, just needs to be a "T" word). I feel the Friends one is good, have the quotes & idea of layout. Birthday - still a little squishy too! Not in stone yet! So... Any more advice?

My sisters-in-law took the weekend off to do a cancer walk in Chicago this weekend. The weather was no where near as bad as we had it this wknd. Cool, but no downpours, which today happened again here. It could stop for a little while, maybe a week or so! The rivers are getting pretty full and the lakes too.

Friends are a Joy

2006-05-14T00:22:00.000-05:00

This afternoon the princess and I helped my aunts host a baby shower for my cousin. It was a fun afternoon, spent with my family. The princess was on her best behavior and looked adorable, even more so when she smiled that toothless grin! It was fun listening to her pronounce a few things, a baby thermometer sounded like "Fur-mom-et-or". She got asked to say that one again!

This evening we went out for dinner with my husband's dad, was a nice time. After dinner we stopped over at our good friends, Brad & Regina's. It was so nice to see them and spend time talking together. We need to find more time to get together. I had it on my list for New Years Resolutions, but got sidetracked by life. We have to make a point to do this. Time goes by way too quickly.

I haven't planned anything yet for my mom for Mother's Day yet. I better talk to my siblings and see when we are getting together and if anyone has an idea for a gift!

I have a couple of good ideas for my scrapbook pages for Jenni's album, but need some tweaking. For Giggling Girls - I am stuck , For Friends Page (has boy & girl friends on it) I thought about "Friends are the Flowers in the Garden of Life",
For traditions - I am stuck .
Traditions has some grandparents pics with traditions in each family, all I can think about is the Fiddler on the Roof song- Traditions, but not sure if it would come across to people if they did not see that musical... The Giggling Girls page is photos of Jen with friends doing zany things and laughing. Any advice?? I figured out which photos and placement, just need the titles!

Happy Mother's Day.

Cold Track Meet and Congratulations Erin!

2006-05-12T22:47:00.000-05:00

Well, we spent from 5pm tonight through 9pm at a track meet, cheering on our son and teamates in the cold and rain. It was miserable. 40 degrees, rain, windy, absolutely ugly weather. They won the meet, so the kids were happy, but pretty wet! I just hope they don't get sick from being cold, wet and then getting warm while running, to have chills start when they stopped running. My back, legs and shoulders ached from shivering, just standing there watching them. It felt so good to get in our vehicle and turn on the heater! This is such odd weather for May. It is usually in the 60-70s this time of year.

Grammy & Grampy(my parents) picked up the princess after school and took her home with them, which was a huge help. She gets bored at the meets, plus we didn't want her to have to sit through this bad weather. Actually Grampy came to watch the meet, so the princess got Grammy to herself. She had big plans, read a couple of books to Grammy, play with Grammy's hair and work on the computer programs Grammy bought her.

It is graduation time. We have 6 high school graduations in our family and friends, plus my good friend Erin graduates from college tomorrow. I am so very happy for her. Things are so good in her world, she has a job she is great at, a new house and graduating. 2006 has been good for her. She is the type of friend that is more family than "just friend".

I better get moving. I hope you all have a good weekend.

Mothers Job

2006-05-11T22:25:00.000-05:00

I got to thinking tonight about how many occupations I could list on a resume, if you include everything a mother does (outside of my "M-F/8-5 job"). I can consider myself a taxi driver, housekeeper, chef, zoo keeper, librarian/media specialist, toy store proprietor (purchasing dept & reshelver), nurse, receptionist ("No, the prince is no longer taking calls this evening" or "let me check her schedule"), travel agent, diplomat, judge & sheriff, banker, teacher, and the list could go on and on! Was fun to think about though.

I hear thunder again...last night during the night, we lost power for approximately 2 hours. Luckily my husband noticed when it came back on and was able to reset his alarm so we were up on time. One of the frustrations about living in a rural area, it seems like at a minimum of once per week we lose power, sometimes for just a moment (long enough to cause everything to flash and need to have the clocks reset), somtimes about 10 minutes. I am not sure if it is the wind with the power lines, or if they are switching the power from one source location to another and it happens then. It just makes me so frustrated sometimes.

School is almost out for the year, the kids have the days counted, probably the teachers do too! My sister teaches 1st grade, she has the patience of a saint. Truly. Although part of the kids have crushes on her and the other part thinks she is a princess or some royalty!! This week is Teacher Appreciation Week. We are doing a breakfast tomorrow for the elementary teachers. I am taking a fruit tray to the school, on my way to work.

Thinking about royalty reminded me of the kids (prince & princess). Our son's teacher told them the first day of her class, this classroom is not a democracy and I am the Queen in here. I liked her philosphy! Actually, our son lists her as one of his top 2 teachers (tied!). She is good with the kids, teaching them responsibility and yet leading them up the right path to find the answers and learn how to figure problems out.

The princess snuck Rascal, her cat, in today, she claimed the wind blew him in, but...the 2 of them are pretty good at sneaking in. He is pretty sweet though and well mannered. He hid by me, after the princess must have bothered him enough, then when she took a nap he snuck in tight against her side - cuddling! Made us laugh.

It's gotten very windy, right now, time to log off and check the weather reports.

Princess and her "night/knight"

2006-05-10T21:52:00.001-05:00

Tonight we watched my son's concert. They did a nice job and had fun. Jill - they did an African song, thought of you during the concert! The last song was "I'm a Believer", they had one of his classmates playing bass guitar, one playing the piano and another doing a vocal solo part, I was impressed - it sounded great. My daughter directed them from our seats in the audience...luckily her brother never noticed due to the darkness in the crowd! (He would have been furious & embarrassed) She thought she did a wonderful job though and it did keep her out of trouble! She told her brother how handsome he looked as we left the house, which set his smile wide.

I hope this Thursday and Friday are more sedate than last week! Last Thursday evening the princess climbed into the haymow to play with her cats...(not allowed to do this, but snuck up there!). Our son was shooting hoops and I was giving the dogs some attention, when I called for her to go inside, no answer. My son thought she was in the bunny barn, so when I went to check there, she comes limping out. I asked what happened to her leg and she said "I don't know, I bent over to pick up Rascal and it just started hurting for no reason". I, of course, believed that so much and said try again! She finally fessed up that she had been up in the haymow and fell coming down the ladder steps. I was so mad thinking that she might have hurt herself terribly, yet was so happy that she was OK! She spent some time in a time out mode for that adventure.
(FYI-her leg is OK)

Friday night we went to our niece Sarah's (30th) birthday party. It was a fun evening. The princess danced with a little neighbor boy, they twirled around all evening! When we went to leave, he pulled the princess into a corner to "talk" and hugged & kissed her...I pulled her out of that corner in a hurry! My sisters-in-law all laughed and said - "Oh it's another generation of girls in our family chasing the Z. boys!" Of course they can all laugh, as their kids are all grown. I think I will be bald by the time the princess is 16!

Nephew Luke (& Michelle & Theresa) bought the princess a shirt last week, says "Kiss my Tiara". Somehow slightly fitting...she is a good girl, just full of life ( & a little mischief)! Even though she is younger by quite a bit, she tries to tell her brother what to do, how to do it & even what to wear. Of course this causes a fight usually, however he does admit that she does have a good eye for outfits already!

The princess starts tee ball in a week approx. She is so excited. We've been playing catch, getting ready for it. Our son has a couple of track meets left, most parents seem to hate the meets, but for the most part, I don't really mind them. It is nice to get outside and not feel guilty for not doing housework or yardwork! Plus it's a social time, plenty of time to chat with other parents between events.

I better get some clothes folded and off to bed. Morning comes early!

Hello World!

2006-05-09T22:34:00.000-05:00

Well, I finally did it and decided to blog. I may yet regret it, or yet find I don't have the time to keep it up, but at least I finally decided to give it a try.

We had some very heavy rain today. We (well mostly my husband, our son & my dad) have been in the process of remodeling the farm house and found a new place that needs work, as we had 2 areas dripping slightly this morning. What a pain. It's always something. On another note, our daughter who has just lost both of her top front teeth, it was so cute to see her toothless grin as she came to tell me about the leak, giggling. Even though I was not happy to hear the message! Seeing her smile made me grin.

We have 17 ewes and 25 lambs here, my uncle ran out of pasture and we had some empty, so we loaned him the space for the sheep. They are so cute and do a wonderful job of eating the weeds with the grass. We also have 3 dogs, many cats (mainly in the barn, although Rascal has made his way into the house) and my son has rabbits for 4H. He has raised 2 bottle calves, which was a fun experience. I hope our daughter wants to do them too! I am hoping to find a gentle well-broke pony for her and a smaller 14.5-15 hand horse well broke for myself. I grew up with ponies and horses and miss it. My parents still have them, plus they have mules and donkeys. So at least we can go there to enjoy time with the horses (besides spending time with Grammy & Grampy!).

Our son is in 4H and is trying to decide on his woodworking project. Last year he made his little sister a dollhouse bookcase, which turned out so cute. She uses it for her Barbie dolls now. He is thinking about a bookcase or shelving system for his bedroom.

Graduation is approaching. My sisters-in-law and I always make a scrapbook for the nieces and nephews as they graduate, lately we have been using the alphabet and finding words that describe or relate to each particular senior's activities. This year for Jen, I have Birthdays, Friends, Giggling Girls, Traditions, Zzzz (sleeping photos over the years!). I have to get working on it, if I am going to make the deadline!

Well, time to quit for now.