Piddlin' On The Prairie and Mischief From The Maple

Significant Severe Outbreak Possible Monday

2010-05-10T11:07:00.000-05:00

Significant Severe Outbreak Possible Monday

What a year so far!

2010-04-20T07:32:00.008-05:00

It's been quite some time since I've been on here! I'm gonna try to update without too much detail. We'll see how that works!

In January JD fractured his femur. The fracture was cork-screw in fashion so it healed very quickly which was good for mom and dad and JD! He hung out in his stroller all day and every day. If I tried to put him on the couch or propped up pillows under him to play on the floor he cried and cried. Keepin the kid busy at a table we rigged up for him was work! When he was done with one game or toys he would chuck them across the room. By the end of the 4 weeks in the Spica cast he had all but demolished the table we had made for him. I kept screwin the sides back together every day to make it last!

We got to the ER on Sunday evening and his leg wasn't set until Tuesday mornin. They had him on 4 pain meds and he still wasn't comfortable. You could say that Mama wasn't very happy at all. There was a mix-up on what doctor was available due to the reference from our family doc. For 39 hours my child was in severe and continuous pain. If I ever have to go to that hospital again it'll be too soon! Because of his pain, JD didn't want to eat. We finally got him to eat french fries but ONLY when there was ketchup on them! He became addicted to Dr. Pepper since that's the only thing he would drink. We are still attending DPA meetings (Dr. Pepper Addiction). You say you didn't know they existed? Well! They sure do!

He was a very good sport to have dealt with all that pain and hospital surroundings and all! He kept up a pretty good attitude throughout the whole month. He also learned to say 'please' and 'thankyou' very well!!

Shennanigans: Why me, Lord?

2009-12-17T12:26:00.005-06:00

'What have I ever done, to deserve even one' shennanigan these kids pull?

I say this, tongue-in-cheek, because I know, eventually, that what I've experienced in raisin' kids will actually give birth to a new way of rollin' with the punches. With all the little things that have been happening recently I feel like I've been way-layed with the biggest haymaker seen on earth.

There's definitely a sense of humor to be learned with raisin' kids. They think that 34 degress is HOT! They think that playin golf is okay in the house because they aren't 'throwin' anything. They broke the glass on an 11' X 15" picture of a buck. This week there's been dozens of spankin's to our 1 1/2 yr old. He won't stay off the table, or the counter in the bathroom! He opened up a Christmas present this mornin' that was ready to be sent to family out East. You name it, he's done it. Toys in the toilet. Books in the toilet. Books in the bath. He's climbed on the kitchen table more times than I can shake a fist at. Lliterally. I'm tired of turnin around and him gettin scolded and spanked. I'm at the point that I just don't care now. He's a tornado! But he's learned to call me 'mommy'!!!! I love it! His sweet innocent voice so deftly belies all the orneriness this kid has thrown at me!

For some reason, all the kids have felt the necessity to rearrange every-single-blasted cabinet that's within their reach.

There is dog hair in every-single-lovin piece of tupperware and bowl I own at this point! I'm not even gonna attempt to straighten up the goods because, I swear, they're like bloodhounds. If I organize a cabinet, the dry-bar, the closet, the basement, the toy room, the unbelievable amount of hats that look oh-so-good on my man, the picture books, the bookshelf, a drawer of clothes, you've got an ace in the hole bettin they'll be rearrangin' it inside 24 hrs. They sniff that stuff out! They don't even see me sometimes, but they know!

This has been a doozy of a Fall/Winter. Good thing is, the temperature's been above freezing so they've been outside playin out some of the friskiness.

As I'm typin this, runnin up and down the steps, checkin on the kids, I find this:

Peace out! I'm gonna go clean up the kitchen!
P.S. The chairs are in the kitchen 'cuz JD can't slide them to the table and climb up.

A Full Life

2009-10-17T14:11:00.007-05:00

Lordy! It's been a coon's age since I've posted anything! I had to go back and read what I wrote just so I wouldn't backtrack and share the same thing again!

There have been a lot of things goin on around here lately! My cousin had her fifth baby. There was a bit of a scare because my cousin's other children had come down with the H1N1 flu. She was running a high enough fever that at her check-up, the day before her scheduled c-section, she was admitted to the hospital. Medical precautions were such that she was isolated in a compressed room and could have no visitors in her room! Not one of her family members or friends could go to see her. Her husband stayed out at their farm to take care of the older children since he wasn't allowed in the room either. After a shot, an IV, and lots of praying, her contractions stopped over the course of the night. Her fever left and when she had been 24 hrs fever free she was released to go home. Bein' that her delivery had been scheduled via c-section the morning after she was admitted, they re-scheduled the delivery for the next Monday. A healthy 7 lb 15 oz (if my memory serves me right) baby girl named Sage Lillian was born. Her middle name, Lillian, is in honor of the greatest great-grandmother she never will be able to know.

Last week Sunday, I received news that a very dear friend of mine was rushed to the hospital with severe pain in her female organs. After being transferred to an unknown (to me) number of hospitals they found she has cancer. As of yet, I do not know the date of her surgery and the doctor's have no idea as to the extent/growth of the cancer. She had text me last week Monday to let me know, firsthand, what was goin' on. I replied her my sisters were on it and I had known there were complications since the day before. She was flyin' in a good friend from Florida that night, to help her care for all the critters on the farm; a doe with two fawns, a few horses, a herd of dogs, a number of cats, a coop full of chickens and who knows what else she's coaxed in to adopt and care for! She is a very grounded individual with a husband who has made her his life. I have no doubt they are finding strength in each other and very importantly, leaning on God's understanding and peace.

In betwixt these to tidbits of news, my aunt had her 3rd and (and very strongly pray) her final back surgery!! She has been at home for almost two weeks now and has been improving and healing very well! She's been down a long path of back pain and previous surgeries. This third time has been easier than the previous two but in a way, harder emotionally, waiting for the healing to take place and the extensive therapy that will be involved.

Before the cold set in we were havin' beautiful weather! So much so that I opened the windows and we welcomed, much to some of the kids' dislike, a number of outdoor insects! Here is one of our guests which made my nephew yell repeatedly during lunch time, 'Aunt Janae!! Aunt Janae! I don't like spiders!! I want my momma!' And thus began a fit of crying mania.

I trapped the green invader and let him back outside. Bug gone, drama vanished.

Jd has taken to 'sleeping' with Buster.

And then he pesters him while his brother wants to share the pillow with Buster:

Oh, look! There's our toothpaste! That kid has been stealin that tube for over a week now! Never a dull moment!

We've had an owl in our maple during the evening hours, and I caught this avarian species out back just the other day:

Where's Woody? Where's Pecker? Never mind. My version of 'Where's Waldo?' isn't goin' to be a sensational hit among any genre, young or old. Anyway, it's a red-bellied woodpecker. And so far, he's left the siding alone. He's gonna have to find different peckin' ground if he so much as puts one hole in my house!

Talkin about birds. The kids and I made bird feeders from pinecones, peanut butter and seed the other day. Of course, the day I chose to make these just had to be a warm enough day that we couldn't even hang them up! The feeders are in the freezer waitin for the next onslaught of cold days, which will be comin soon. Sooner than I want. Oh, I guess it is mid-October. Blast it!

I'm not sure what's up with the ever-pensive look on my son at this time but it seems he was really chawin' on some thoughts. Maybe he was creating a plan to save the people of our country from impending doom!

Okay, back to the feeders. It's so much more philosophically soothing to think of feeding birds in your backyard.

We've also, this past week, been in a great friend's wedding! We had a weekend full of wedding festivities and a grumpy lil' cowboy who almost ended up in his own Boot Hill!! More on that later!

Have a great weekend, especially now that it's half over!

Goldilocks has hit the dust

2009-09-25T15:18:00.004-05:00

I think Goldilocks has had quite a day. Or maybe quite a life. Poor thing. She's gone now....

I think she couldn't handle the chaos in the house and found the fastest way out. There was an open window. I found her lyin in the mulch beneath it.

This has been kinda a week for me too. I think I'm gettin sick with a sinus infection. I've been real tired, which is not normal. I've been real lackadaisical which is not normal either. The boys' naps have been very weird, as in, they haven't been sleepin or it's takin so long for them to get to sleep that then they go to sleep much later at night. Which I don't necessarily like. There's still much stuff I like to get done after they go to bed. Sometimes it's only a soak in the bath, settin the coffee pot up for the mornin and readin a good book. Other times it's cleanin the kitchen, laundry, folding, puttin away, fillin up the dog's water, sweeping, etc. Actually, I've been real languid on that too. I pretty much just wanna get cleaned up and read a book. I'm rambling aimlessly now, so I think I'll spare whoever actually reads this and put an end to your misery. I'm gonna go watch the thunderstorm roll in. The trees are bending. Leaves are flyin. The thunder has woke up one of the boys.

I'll leave you with this peaceful scene:

I love this kid!!

Fall activities

2009-09-15T09:25:00.005-05:00

Wyatt has been diligently workin on his boarding skills. He puts all of us adults to shame. Well, at least mom, dad and his Uncle Mike. This last weekend, at various times we all had a moment when we thought we were young (and later, yes, dumb). We all tried goin down the ramp. It didn't work for any last one of us. It was arms flailing, legs peddlin in the air, and a relief when we finally landed on the ground, even before we were able to take stock in any injuries that might have happened. In every attempt that was made each of us had spectators that were able to enjoy a good laugh. JD has really picked up his walkin skills. He spends the majority of each mobile moment walkin and not crawlin. He gave himself a carpet burn in the same spot he just healed a couple weeks ago from a sidewalk burn. Nothin stops the kid.

He's still up to his ears in mud.

Wyatt and I made a canning jar habitat for his two snails, one worm and numerous rolly-pollies. I think the jar lasted 2 days, and then it was cracked. He was very proud of it when he had it.

He has made an airplane out of sponge blocks:

We made hummingbird feeders the other day!

This is one of the birds on the old feeder. We've seen them on the new ones, which is a good thing.

We've taken a family picture! Our last one was about 10 months ago and at least JD has changed a lot!

Here's something that happened yesterday...coffee grounds were dug out of the dry box that was packed and closed for camping this weekend. They were dumped all over the inside on all the other items, and, as you can see, on the floor!

On Saturday, the boys and I, er, uh, I mean, me and Wyatt, with destruction/unpacking help from JD, put up all the Fall/Halloween/Thanksgiving decorations. At one point, Wy was so excited to find more pumpkins, he yelled out, as he was diggin them out of the sack, 'Woo-hoo! More punkins!!' Later, as he was lookin around the main floor, he said, 'We've got lots of stuff, huh mama?' Yes, yes we do. Here's just some of our decor:

All of the plastic pumpkins have a fair share of bite marks on them, so we put the suspects behind glass:

Just kiddin, they were there for other reasons last night. The bite marks on the pumpkins are from the year 2007 from Wyatt's second autumn season.

We've also taken down both pools. Today, the boys and I cut down the sunflower heads and de-seeded them. We've got a pan of seeds roastin in the oven right now. The other sunflower head was moldy, so we've hung it up in a basket to see if the birds mind the mold.

I've lived with the four seasons all my life, with the exception of the years 1996-1999, and I still struggle, each Fall, with not accepting that summer is over. I love autumn and the hint of chilly days and nights, soups, warm bread, bundlin up to go outside, holidays and get-togethers and all that stuff, but I adore the spring/summer seasons more. I'm slowly gettin into the Fall thing this year. We are goin campin one last time for the year, this weekend. We've got a new fishin spot to try out which we have a real good feelin about so I hope we can end the year with a long stringer full of fish!

Happy Fall/Autumn to everyone! May you have un-holey blankets, lots of wood in the stack and... be careful carvin pumpkins!

Loose Ends

2009-09-02T10:02:00.003-05:00

I feel disoriented. Discombobulated. Antsy. Is that a word? I felt it yesterday too and it didn't put on its boots and ride outta here. There's a thought that keeps haunting the farthest recesses of my mind. Am I pregnant? It's just a slight disturbance. Not that I wouldn't mind havin another ornery scally-wag around here but I'd like more time to get my mind in it, if it's gonna happen.

Wyatt has really pulled the noose on sanity this week. He has taken to whinin and cryin about piddly little things. He's been tattle-talin a lot too. 'Mama, (my cousin) said, 'Uh-uh' to me.' That's what you're gonna come whine to me about? Funny, cuz just the other day you got in trouble for sayin the same thing to one of your cousins. My, how things are twisted! Jd's been a little on the crusty side too. Not sure if it's some more teeth comin in or that he's a little under the weather. The last 3 or so nights I've felt like we were back in his 3-6 month old stage of absolutely-nothin-and-no-one-but-mama-can-make-me-stop-cryin. Okay, I'll be fair. It was from 2-7 months. No joke. I'm no smilin, either.

I have toilets to clean, clothes to pack, camp supplies to pack, recipes/ingredients to prep and pack. There are chocolate chip cookie bars in the oven! That's good news, huh? I also have cinnamon rolls on the way. They'll be done in about 5 hours if I'm lucky. The pool is half drained too!

I can almost say that I abhor loose ends. Okay, I can say I abhor them. It doesn't make me feel as incompetent as I thought. Or lazy. Or low-life. Anyway, I don't like loose ends. Especially when all the loose ends have to be done by Friday because of our FIRST EVER FAMILY VACATION! We are goin to the Jasper area in Arkansas! Log cabin. Food cooked over fire. Perculated coffee every mornin, sipped from the back deck that overhangs the crick. Family. No cell phones. Bear. Wildlife. Family. (We're goin with my Aunt and Uncle.) I. Can't. Wait.

Well, 6.5 hours later it is, now. I've swathed the backyard (because the grass needed it that bad).

Free to anyone: 10 square bales of rich wet mix (weeds, crab grass, marigolds, buffalo grass, and maybe some bermuda) fertilized by ammonia only (yes, the au natural kind. Pee is as natural as ammonia can get!)

I'm sorry, babe, I did NOT break out the weed-eater. I should have. But I didn't.

And I absolutely refused to even mess with the west side of the yard.

That's alright. We have neighbors that don't seem to care. I think. I hope.

The small pool is drained. I wasn't payin close enough attention and mud bug (a.k.a. JD) crawled in the small pool and was playin in 4" deep water. Great. That was is 3rd set of clothes today. Wyatt decided it looked fun and just sat down in the pool, too. Poor Addyson met the mud in an accidental slip and fall.

The cinnamon rolls are made. Supper's in the crock pot and I'm ready for a cold tall boy. The boys are rompin around somehow while they're supposed to be sleepin. Oh well, at this point whatever works for them, works for me!

Great! My Internet Explorer just shut down every page and said it wasn't workin! Does anyone else use Photobucket and have they wondered if it creates problems like I do?

Okay, this was JD's second set of clothes today.

Yes, they are dark jeans, but make no mistake, they are soaked thru and thru, back to front and front to back!

He also played in the dogs water bucket, of which I had JUST scrubbed and filled up early this mornin. Figures! He added grass and dirt. He has yet to convince the pups that it tastes better like that. They ain't buyin it.

Here's the florette on my hen and chicks:

This is the first time in the years upon years that I've had this kind of plant produce 'flowers', if you will.

The other day, we watched a cicada come out of his old house!

When he saw me takin pictures so close to him he turned around. I'm pretty sure he thought I was the tree. I'm not so sure to take that as a compliment or be disturbed by it. He kept reachin out to grasp the camera.

Hey there, little feller! I ain't yer mama! Sorry!

Poor guy. He was fightin a wind up his back that kept bendin his wet wing.

I grabbed a stick and gave him a lift to a notch in the tree and he took off climbin.

Hope you have a good long life and my dogs don't catch ya and eat ya! Cuz they do that, I'm afraid! Stay away from the lights! They're bad news! And stay away from birds! They'll eat ya too! And remember to change your underwear every day! Drink lots of water! Be seein' ya! Happy trails to you!

Poor Little Baby

2009-09-01T10:58:00.006-05:00

Yesterday, I ran downstairs to switch laundry out. When I came back up I heard this far away pitiful sound. This is what I found. The older kids had shut the sliding glass door when they came in just a minute before JD decided he wanted in. Poor little baby! (I'll admit, I was glad they did shut the door because JD was caked in mud.)

We had an awesome meal last night of bbq'd pork;

Compliments to E and Uncle Mike.

Baked taters topped with sour cream and garden chives;

And all kinds of roasted peppers stuffed with cream cheese and bacon bits.

Talk about gut-wrenchingly good. It was really hard to keep from heapin more on our plates.

Talkin bout gut-wrenchingly good...look at this.

Hmmmmm......Look at that Cross Bones...and y'all thought I was talkin bout the man. Shame on you. For shame, for shame, for shame. Actually, I was talkin bout the man. Not the bike. I know the man was thinkin bout the bike though. Poor little baby! Keep dreamin on that one! Dreams do come true. One day, I'm not opposed to it, one day. Just remember, it's either gonna be a two-seater or a double loan. It's all up to you!

Ha ha bwah ha ha!!

Signin out,
Ornery and In-Deep-Trouble-For-This-One

Mom's Weekend Fishin Trip

2009-08-25T10:35:00.002-05:00

This is LONG overdue but I though I'd share about my weekend of fishin, just me, my aunt and my dog.

We had some good fishin. Each night we fished from 10 p.m.-2:30 a.m. We had a lot of laughs, drank a lot of coffee, and probably made a bunch of people in the area wish we weren't there! We were both sick with allergies/sinus infections so every time we laughed it ended in long loud hacking coughs. There was nothin healthy about it at all!

Prix loves fishin. She'll watch the poles and as soon as they dip, she's up and prancin around, sloshin in the water, followin the line down into the water to catch the fish. I let her have one to eat the second night we were there. Fish bones crunch real easy in a chow's chomp!

My aunt and I got to grill some food that would never have worked had our guys been there with us. We roasted fresh coconut:

And grilled chicken and pineapple chunks on skewers:

Each night we were serenaded by a couple packs of coyotes.

Jd in the bucket

2009-08-25T10:26:00.003-05:00

Jd is the same age as Wyatt was when he got stuck in the stock pot....Remember?

Wyatt was right around 14 1/2-15 months old. Jd is 14 1/2 months.

Weeeellll, looky here!

Same reaction as Wyatt's. He didn't like it!!

God made dirt and dirt don't hurt!

2009-08-21T11:04:00.003-05:00

I'm pretty darned relaxed when it comes to our boys bein outside and gettin dirty. I think it's good for them. Look!

This is a very regular occurence. At least 3 times a week. You think I'm kiddin? I am not. It's good for him. He loves it. We have a hose. There's the dog's water too, to wash off in. It don't hurt a blasted thing!

He has the best complexion!

Silly Kids

2009-08-21T10:45:00.004-05:00

The kids have figured out that crayons melt when left on the deck in the sun:

One day last week, during Easton's nap, we had a storm brewin. There was thunder, and then there was screamin. Since Wyatt wouldn't go down either, we made a lazy afternoon of it. We watched a movie.

We have too many toys. Toys are everywhere! We have them in the toy room downstairs, the living room downstairs, the living room upstairs, and the boys' room. We go to sleep with toys in our bed. Please, don't get me wrong. These toys aren't scattered all over hell's half acre all of the time. Just during the day. The kids pick them up just before lunch and then again before naps. I thought it would be a good idea to keep all the toys on one floor-a central location. The toy room sounded like a great place, right? After all, that's what we use it for and named it for. If the kids bring the toys upstairs or outside, that's fine, but at least it's 15 toys compared to 35. Here's what the upstairs pine cabinet used to look like:

Throughout last week, more and more toys ended up in this cabinet until the kids couldn't get the doors shut. This was a catastrophe. You couldn't walk through the living room, dining room or kitchen without kickin toys outta the way to clear a path.

Somtething needed to be done-fast! We hauled them all downstairs to the toy room and the cabinet now looks like this:

Beautiful-to a mother's eyes. I actually felt a calm soothing feelin float over me as I looked at it for the first time.

Now the toy room looks like this, and it's even organized, belive it or not. Well, it was at the time I shot the picture.

East wall:

South wall:

West wall:

Peace. Serenity. Satisfaction. No falls. No sprained ankles. Nothin muttered violently under my breath. No, I don't do that! Are you kiddin? I'm that 50's mom that wears a floral pleated skirt, button-up shirt and heels all day. I wash the kids off before Daddy comes home and touch up my makeup. Supper is always on the table at 6 p.m. sharp and the kids are always bathed and in bed at 7:30.

Ha ha ha. Okay, I feel better about myself. Kinda. Sorta.

Lake Fun

2009-08-18T10:10:00.003-05:00

We were at the lake again this past weekend. Wyatt got to drive the Ford down to the campin spot. His words to me were, 'Look! I'm a big boy Mommy! I'm drivin the truck!'

I'm not sure why this would suprise anyone but JD found the dirtiest spot on site and headed straight for it. Of course we checked to make sure it was cold. We aren't the world's greatest parents but we're danged sure not the worst!

If we hadn't have needed a fire he would've been just fine playin all weekend right there on top of the rocks of the pit.

Saturday we loaded up the boys and took them up into town for the Old Settler's Day Rodeo. Last year, JD was only 2 months and 5 days old. He slept most the time in the stroller. Not this year! For three hours the boys had their eyes locked on the arena. Wyatt played the shoe scramble for the first time. He was a little taken back by the huge number of kids that played with him. There was at least 120 kids! Every single child that played received a popsicle and a 5 dollar bill, courtesy every year by an anonymous donor. When JD wasn't locked in on the arena and yellin at the cowboys and stock, he was under the bleahcers eatin M&M's that someone had dropped.

The area up around Mulvane and Wichita had severe storms just a couple hours before the rodeo was to start. That part of town had missed the torrents of rain and wind so the arena was dry as a bone. We watched the lightening most of the evening and was sprinkled on just a few times. We fought dirt outta our eyes the entire night.

We left the Saddle Club at 11 p.m. On the way back home, Wyatt told me his favorite part of the rodeo were the horses and bull ridin. No surprise there! JD crashed in the truck within 5 minutes and Wy talked to us the whole ride back 'cept for the last 8 minutes. He had just fallen asleep when we hit the lake. Wouldn't you know it, they were up just before 7 a.m. the next mornin. Momma wasn't very coherant. It took a lot of coffee to get myself awake and functional.

It was definitely worth every minute of fun.

Horsin Around

2009-08-18T09:55:00.003-05:00

While my mom was here we went to one of my friends' place to pet and love on her horses. My mom is an avid horse lover, which is a great understatement. She adores horses. Wyatt was all excited about ridin September and Butterscotch but when we got to the farm and was ready to get him on he chickened out. Big. Oh well, one of these days....

The boys ended up playin in the trough, which to them, is the best jungle gym in the whole world!

Butterscotch attached himself to Jd even after Jd rode him.

Butterscotch is the typical Shetland. Little man syndrome, but the difference in that is, Butterscotch can hold his own to anyone or thing-animal, man, etc. He's old and crotchety to say the least. But so sweet in his own way. You just gotta show him who's boss and then he finally will let you love all over him.

This is September:

My friend bought September which saved the horse's life. September used to be a polo pony. She had a nasty accident that broke her cannon bone. The previous owner was just gonna have her put down, but when my friend found out about that she said she'd take her. The previous owner put September thru the reconstructive surgery and gave her to my friend. She will never be rode by anyone over 90 lbs but she's now livin a life of love and companionship on rich grasses and lots of hay and grain.

She knows she's loved.

Summer Fun

2009-08-06T15:38:00.006-05:00

This summer has gone SO fast. I know, we still have a good 6 weeks of feelin like summer and all its activities, but to me, its basically over because, well, we're not at the beginning. School is startin soon. Rodeos and county fairs are happenin all over. We're tryin to squeeze in the last few times of campin that we can. This weekend is the first free weekend and the last free weekend we will have until mid-October. By then, my fall decor will have been strewn all over the house for at least 3 weeks and it'll be gettin downright chilly in the evenings. We've camped and grilled and swam and attended birthday parties and just been outside so much that I did not care to be in the house whatsoever at all. So, there is my excuse for not bloggin much at all. Okay, not at all, since the beginning of summer.

The boys have been busy playin in the mud:

And just bein plumb crazy:

Yes, that's part of Wy's potty training chair. Sorry, but at least it was clean!

Hoss has been tryin out his new Scott Glen look:

Wyatt's gettin real salty behind the wheel:

My mom just flew out after a week and two day visit with us. By the end of her first day, Wyatt already acted like I was chopped liver. If he even ever-so-slightly, just barely managed to bump his arm or miss his step or lose his balance, he immediately stuck out his lower lip (which has become quite a habit when he thinks he's bein cute)and started callin 'Grandma'...*whine*...'Grandma'...*whine*. Off he would go to tell her all about his near scrape with death. He got so bad that he thought Grandma needed to change his diaper all the time. Mommy all of a sudden wasn't good enough!! Okay, I'll throw my hands up to that one!

I'll be postin more on my mom's visit soon...if I decide to stay up past 9 one of these nights.

Blueberry Jello

2009-07-27T05:21:00.004-05:00

I've been meanin to post recipes before, but I just haven't got around to it, til now. This recipe is a family favorite. The ingredients can be somewhat of a turn-off to many but I'm tellin ya now, it tastes NOTHIN like you'd think it would, so just give it a try!

For starters, you need 2 of the 3 oz boxes of grape jello, 2 Cups of boiling water, 1 can of blueberry pie filling, 1 can of crushed pineapple, 1 9 by 13 inch dish or the equivalent, like 2 pie dishes.

Dissolve jello in 2 cups of boiling water. Add pineapple (in this case I forgot and bought chunked, so I ran it through the mini-food processor) and blueberry pie filling to jello. When I make 2 pans of this, I pour the jello in the pans first, to make sure each pan has even amounts, then I divide the pineapple and blueberry pie filling evenly among each pan also.

Refridgerate until set. Last Saturday, because it was late, I made up the jello base and threw the pans in the fridge overnight to set, then early Sunday morning I made the topping and put them back in the fridge so the topping would have the length of hours needed to set before it would be devoured. (This dish is ALWAYS devoured).

In a saucepan, melt 16 (or in my case, 19) large marshmallows, in 1/4 C milk.

Let cool and add frozen cool whip and one small carton of cottage cheese.

You won't believe it but the cottage cheese really makes this dish. It adds a perfect blandness, if you will, that tones down what would be the too sweet flavors of all the other ingredients.

Then, because you made two pans and only one of them is goin to a party, feel free to eat half the second pan with your eldest son, before lunch time, because you know, this is much better than any protein your son could eat for lunch! And, one more thing, don't feel guilty about it!!

I'll bet this guy doesn't feel guilty about indulging in a little too much bird seed he finds in someone's backyard! Go for it!

A Day At Santa Fe Lake

2009-07-13T12:31:00.003-05:00

Last Saturday a bunch of us went out to Santa Fe for the day.

Uncle Mike, E and the boys:

JD, River (Kendra and Jason's daughter), Wyatt, and mom:

Kendra and her cute baby belly:

Aunt D and her long-time friend, Gina:

JD had his first taste of pickle:

It doesn't look like he liked it but he went in for another bite:

Stubborn?
Nah! I prefer to think of it as 'determined'. God rest my mother's soul.

E, Uncle Mike, Wyatt, Jason, Riverlyn, Kendra, Gina, JD, and Aunt D:

Guess who was in the water all day?

Yup, him! The one that hasn't been in a lake, I think, since he was a kid. I was more than happy to stay longer just because he wasn't drenched in sweat, wearin his usual attire of jeans, sittin on the beach waitin for all of us to get done swimmin.

Politics vs. Patriotism

2009-07-08T11:24:00.004-05:00

I have never posted about politics and this is not a post intended to be political. The main reason is patriotism. Just the word literally gives me goose-bumps. Patriotism runs coarse and thick in my blood. It's a way of life. It's a duty. It's a right. It's a feelin of pride that rivals the likes of no other.

I have a friend who is very knowledgable in many areas. She has posted in her blog on www.jingoist.us about the political issues affecting us now and what will be affecting us.

I watch the news, sometimes, because much of it is so sickening, and I hear what bills are bein passed, I read the Focus On The Family e-mails, have been on the NationalReview, and my thought is....Where in the world is the American Republic? I know there are many that are knowledgeable and many that are exercising their God-given and American freedom of speech, but for the most part I wonder just what the percentage is of those that aren't in the know of what is goin on from day-to-day in the White House, Senate and Congress. I have, in no way, reached the height of knowledge that I would like to be at but I'm workin on it! I don't want to be one of those dumb, numb, jump-on-the-bandwagon citizens that repeat what they've heard but can't engage in a healthy and wise conversation with someone of the opposite view!! I'm not so much into politics, but when it comes to my patriotism and love of my country and what it is grounded upon then I DO want to know politics as it pertains to the things I need to know in order to be an American who is not a by-product of a generation who mindlessly recites versed information about the issues at hand. I want the words that come out of my mouth to be based on truth, conviction and an all-encompassing knowledge.

One day, there will be a call-to-arms for the American Republic. I want to be ready to fight for my country using my inalienable rights to stand for the principles and guidelines that framed our Constitution and made our country the great and blessed one it has been. What I do have is a faith in the American townsmen and women that remember and live out our heritage with the zest and fortitude of that of our Fore Fathers! That is not a fire that will snuffed with a small puff but will be fanned to grow and engulf the wrong! I only pray our nation and the hard and honest citizens will not be detrimentally bruised. God knows the hearts of kings and the maneuvers of every army. Everything is in His control but we cannot forsake the blessings our nation has enjoyed being a nation that fears (i.e. respects) and trusts in Him.

Monday Drag

2009-07-06T11:55:00.004-05:00

I don't know about any of y'all but I'm D-R-A-G-G-I-N this morning. It's 11:55 a.m. I've been up since 5:30 a.m. I've taken the mini-pin to the humane society, and I don't feel like doin a THING! Yesterday we had cool weather and clouds and it made me feel like autumn was here and that was depressing! I'm not ready for fall. I need to camp and fish and swim a whole heckuva lot more before I'm ready for that! So, all this to say, I've loaded my '4th' pictures on the computer but they haven't made it to Photobucket yet. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe not. I don't know. But here's what the boys did in the tub on Friday night.

I lit off a round Friday night. The fuse on these suckers are really short and I've got an issue with bein burned, for some reason.

Buster and a Bottle Rocket Gone Wrong

2009-07-02T22:43:00.008-05:00

Buster is obsessed with firecrackers. No words describe how crazy he gets when firecrackers are bein set off. Have you ever known a lab who doesn't have the most dogged (excuse the pun) concentration? It doesn't matter if a nuclear bomb goes off by the lab. HE. WILL. NOT. MOVE. Ever take one duck huntin? Nothin, and absolutely NOTHIN is gonna take him off that bird! No matter what kind, how loud, how big or small these firecrackers are, he will not let up in his obsession.

Tonight, to get an early start on the holiday, E and Uncle Mike set up the PVC pipe and lit off some bottle rockets. Buster was solid as a stone statue as they got the pipe in the ground and unrolled the rockets. He never moved a muscle until they lit the first fuse. Then he hops all around and dives at the rocket before it takes off.

Here, the pipe has just gone in. The firecrackers aren't even out of the garage yet:

He's just waitin. He knows they're comin.

Ha! There they are! He thought dad was holdin out on him!

Wait! It's not lit yet!

It is now! There it goes...right by his face. We have yet to take him to the emergency vet for eyeballs blown out of his skull.

Ready for another one?

Here goes!

I'm sorry. Once again, there is no light for the video but per the audible exclamations and verbage you can tell that something went wrong. Buster's paw hit the base of the pipe as he was dancin around after it was lit, but before it went off. We didn't have time to correct it but Buster did. With his face. It hit his face, he shook his head to clear it and the bottle rocket landed about 10 feet in front of us, behind Buster and went off.

There was only one more after that and Buster kept starin at the pipe, ears up, tuning everything else out. We took out the pipe and he looked at us like he was sayin, "What? That's all?"

This next shot was taken 45 minutes after the last bottle rocket had been fired off. Buster is not givin up. E and Uncle Mike put the pipe back in the ground and Buster wouldn't take his eyes off of it.

I found this funky lookin bug on our front door.

Never seen one quite like this. I thought it was a june bug but then I saw it had some extra plumage on its antennae.

The clouds early this morning were something to behold. The first two shots I took on my foliage setting. The last two shots were taken with the portrait setting.

Oddly enough, the foliage setting didn't catch the rain drops. The portrait setting shots did, however.

Give me the dirt! And add some spit....

2009-07-02T15:45:00.003-05:00

This is a satellite photo of one of our earth's excavating holes:

Well, not exactly a satellite photo, but I did use my macro lens for the shot. It is excavation at it's finest, but it's not from big equipment the size of apartment buildings. It's from these two yellow jackets.

They were so busy ballin up this dirt to haul off and build their nests.

At first they'd dart around testin the softness of the dirt. Then they'd decide on a good spot and hunker down to start diggin.

As they dug up the dirt they would coat the ball in saliva. You can see the ball start to form.

Now he's added the saliva and it looks all slick and smooth:

When they had enough mud, they would stand on their forelegs with their ass-end in the air, packin the ball of mud tightly, before they lifted of into the air. I didn't get a good picture of that because they were so stinkin fast once they decided they had enough mud.

Not to sound like a nature-environmental-tree-huggin-birkenstock-wearin-don't-believe-in-washing-my-body-type of freak, but it was pretty neat to watch these two. Wherever they took the mud didn't take long because in about 45 seconds, they were back. Come to think of it.....maybe there were a whole bunch of them and I just didn't know. They were all wearin those same yellow jackets with no name tags.

Titty-Tats and Doofballs

2009-06-30T08:49:00.005-05:00

*This was supposed to be posted three days ago but the video wouldn't upload...

The Titty-Tat story and no, it's not what it sounds....

Today we went to the Wal-Marts to get our shoppin done. When we got out of the truck I saw a small black and white kitten come from somewhere and run under a car. We went over there to see if I could get it. Couldn't. So I wrote down the car make and model and tag number and took it to management just in case they would/could do something. I'm sure they didn't. A little over an hour later the boys and I came out with our goods and I decided to look under the car since the car was still there. Sure enough, that kitten was still up in the hoses and axle at the front end of the car. I had already tried before to reach him and couldn't. There was a lady lookin at me, oddly of course, and she came over to see what I was doin. She felt bad for the kitten and tried to help me the best she could. I went back to my truck to get out the leather gloves. That little titty-tat could scratch and spit with the best of 'em. Besides my hair lyin on the hot dirty Wal-Mart parkin lot and my body on the asphalt, half under some random dudes car, the blood wasn't that great either. I finally got him out and from the cart, where our boys were sittin patiently Wyatt yelled, 'Good job mommy!' and then JD clapped. I explained to Wyatt that we were takin the 'titty-tat' to the vets to see if they could find a home for him. He wanted to know why we weren't takin the cat home. He asked if it was because Buster wouldn't like the kitten and I said, 'No, it's because Daddy won't like me if we bring it home', and to that Wy said, 'Oh,dat's not 'dood'.' Ha ha ha!!! No, it wouldn't be good. The only thing I had in the back of the Ford was an 18 pk BudLight cardboard box to contain the wild thing. I stuffed the kitten in there, blocking the end with a huge can of Gatorade powder and blew the a/c on him lightly. He had been pantin bad before we went in to the store to shop. I found a non-rusted Copenhagen lid, wiped it out and gave the kitten water in that and of course he was too scared to drink. When we got to the vet I ran in and asked Brenda if they would take the stray. She looked at him and said she was sure they could find him a home. Wy didn't quite understand Wy the kitten was stayin at the doctor's but he definitely knew I'd get myself in trouble bringin another stray home, and a cat, no less!!

The 'Doofball' Video

At nap time today, I had held JD until he was just about out. That was my mistake. I either need to NOT hold him, or hold him until he goes to sleep. After I laid him in bed he was quiet for a minute and then he popped up and started jabberin and butt-bouncin on the mattress. I only caught a little on the camera but he had been yellin 'yeah! yeah!' after every time he bounced and he must've bounced down on his butt at least a dozen times!

The light isn't good in the room, but if you've ever flooded an area with light while you're tryin to get your punk to do or not do something, it always has an adverse affect. Here's another 'doofball':

Here's his watermelon rinds he apparently thought were as good on the deck as they could be in the trash. I walked out one afternoon and found this:

Deep-Sea Fishin

2009-06-26T06:23:00.004-05:00

While the rest of us were campin at Harvey, E, his dad, and some buds from their company took a trip down to Clute, Tx. to do some deep-sea fishin. They had luck. Lots of luck!! At the end of the day, all cut and cleaned, the meat from their catch totalled 100 lbs!!

Thursday, they met the captain in the mornin, then in the afternoon they hung out on the beach.

Friday they spent the day 40 miles off-shore, in 8-10 swells, on a small (by deep-sea fishin standards)catamaran boat. They caught the limit in red snapper and a few other kinds of fish. They reeled in trigger, mackerel, tuna, king, a black tip shark, and some other kinds that I don't remember.

When they boated up that mornin, the deckhand was helpin to load things up. Jack handed him a bunch of bananas, which help with sea-sickness. The deckhand jumped back and raised him arms sayin that he wasn't gonna touch the bananas and said it was bad luck to bring a banana on board a boat. E took the whole bunch and said, 'Hell no! Get these bananas off the boat! We don't need any bad luck!' He grabbed them and tossed them overboard. They sank to the bottom of the harbor floor where I'm sure they are still. At lunch-time, the captain opened up his box and found his wife had packed him a banana! E said the captain's eyes got big round as dinner plates! The captain grabbed the banana, stripped off the peel and quickly threw it out to sea. He snarfed down the fruit faster than a trigger takin off with 30 ft of line! Needless to say, they didn't have bad luck in the fishin department!

When they boarded the boat and chatted with the captain and his deckhand the captain asked if the guys had set up some wagers for trip. They hadn't but wished they would have after the day was through! E told the captain that before he left he had told Wyatt he would catch him a shark. Never did it cross him mind he would actually get one! Let alone two! One snapped the line right at boatside. The one E landed was a 30 or so pound black tip shark. He said the sucker fought like hell for a long time and when he got it boatside the deckhand had to hit the shark about 8 times in order for the gaff to strike through the shark's hide!

Mmm, mmmmm.....mm. I love to fish. I love a good fight with a fish. But in this case, I love to watch a good fight with a fish if it's my man that's doin the bulgin muscle thing. Excuse me. We'll get back to the whole shark-thing-on-a-line-threatening-to-pull-my-hubby-overboard here in a bit. I need a minute to get a good look-see at the bicep and forearm doin the thing they do best. Which, in turn, makes my heart and stomach do funny little things. Maybe we will have another baby.... Oh, sorry, this is supposed to be kid-friendly posting. I forgot there for a minute when I got a little light-headed.

Okay, back to the action at hand. The deckhand finally gaffed the shark. Darn, my secret show is over.

Saturday the spent on the beach again and grilled some of their fish for supper. Ben, Chris and E tried their hand at surfin and they all did a lot of boogie-boarding.

As you can tell, all in all, the guys had a great weekend! They are plannin their next trip in the fall of next year.

Camping Amidst Storms

2009-06-25T11:14:00.004-05:00

Last weekend we were at Harvey County East Lake campin. Friday afternoon was great! Not cool but not hot. Saturday early a.m., before the 5 hours of rain hit us Aunt D and I fished. When the rain came we went into the camper and fixed a big breakfast.

In order to pass time we loaded up the boys and went over to hang out at Hunter's, the bait/tackle/antique store just up the road.

Saturday afternoon was bright and sunny!

JD was up to his neck in mud! He was in hog heaven!

Until he got hungry...

So Aunt D caught a turtle and we made snapper soup...

It was good...we all liked it!

Saturday night there were storms all around us. We were hit with one heck of a rainstorm. The winds were about 55 mph. All the counties around us were in a tornado watch. The counties directly to the south (Sedgwick) and north (MacPherson) of us had tornadoes. We missed them by 25-30 miles!

Sunday dawned bright and HOT! It is always sunny and hot the day we have to pack up and go home. Never fails!

New Company Reps

2009-06-25T11:08:00.002-05:00

Last night we were sittin under the tree, chattin like usual, after supper. Wyatt disappeared in the garage for a while. When he came out he was wearin one of his favorite hats. It's the hat he makes sure to wear when he's 'fixin' somethin.

Hoss doesn't like to wear hats but I made him wear it for a quick picture anyway. I'm surprised I got a smile out of him.

Okay, it's not really a smile, per say, on all accounts. But he was tolerating it and liked the fact that I was tellin him he was a good boy and kept sayin 'Yay Jarrett!' He was all about that.

More on the SE PA trip

2009-06-22T13:58:00.005-05:00

I'm still alive. I'm still breathin. My fingers can still type. My brain still processes. Well, maybe not on that last one but yes, I am still here. The last two weeks have been busy with settin the pool up, rain, heat, camping, E deep-sea fishin, rain, heat, tornado watches and warnings, etc.

On Monday, on our trip to PA, the boys and I met my sister Brenna and her new baby, over at Tegan, our other sisters' house. I'm sure everyone knows, Teg had her baby just 2 days before we flew in to PA. The girls and I hung out all day and had a great time.

On Tuesday, the boys and I went to my dad's place. We had a picnic in the woods and mercifully, we never got bit by mosquitoes!

It was beautiful in the woods.

Tuesday night, two of my brothers-in-law had a softball game that we went to. Noah and Andrew play on their churches team.

Left to right: Teg, nursing Gracie with Wyatt standing in front of her, Dan, Chels holdin Devon, and Bren holdin JD.

Aunt Teg playin with Wy:

Aunt Chels holdin Devon:

Aunt Bren holdin JD:

Uncle Dan holdin JD with Aunt Teg on the side:

Wednesday the boys and I went shoppin with Brenna down by the Five Corners at Montgomeryville Mall. We picked up stuff for Aunt Teg and Gracie's baby shower and Aunt Brenna and Devon.

We went back to the house for naps then headed to the airport to visit with a long-time friend of mine. Wy got to sit in the plane and pretend he was flyin.

The boss had questions about every knob, dial, and switch on the dash. C. explained to him in the simplest terms possible and Wyatt just smiled and kept sayin 'Oh! Yeah.'

Back at the house that night the boys were Uncle Dan's big helpers:

Thursday we spent the entire day at my mom's place. Wyatt helped her make the pancakes:

We ate pancakes and scrambled eggs washed down with tons of coffee and cold milk.

Aunt Bren capturing JD's orneriness as he crawled over to the peacefully sleepin Devon in her car seat:

Aunt Bren was pretty brave to let that whippersnapper get so close!

Wy played with the cat:

Chelsea took the day off on Friday so all of us girls could get together at Brenna's house on our last day there. We made coffee cake, scrambled eggs and bacon, again, with lots and lots of coffee and laughs. We had a great time bein all together again.

Aunt Chels holdin Devon:

Our last evening there was Friday night. To be continued.....again....

Happy Birthday to JD!!

2009-06-10T15:24:00.009-05:00

June 10, 2009

JD's birthday is today! Of course I can't believe he's one year old already! None of us can!! This picture was when I was 3 months pregnant with our second strapping boy:

It seems like so long ago now that my hands looked like this!

And my feet lookin like this!

That's not even nearly as bad as they were swelled up when I was pregnant with Wy either.

I'm sorry if this makes some of you cringe...it does me too.

JD still has these long legs!

It's amazing how fast they grow in a year!!

This is Wyatt at 20 months holdin JD who's only a couple weeks old:

Jd at 4 1/2 weeks old:

Jd at 2 1/2 months old:

This was taken before the first taste of sweet taters at about 5 1/2 months:

After the sweet taters:

Outside at about 7 1/2 months:

At 8 months:

And now today he's ONE!!

We had good burgers and brats:

Here's the cake which is nothin spectacular. I actually made a boxed cake! That's how lazy I've been since comin back from the trip!

When the theme is farm you have to have a Farmall. Nothin doin. And a Ford. I'm a Ford girl, sorry!

Help yourself there Wyatt! He kept tellin us it was his birthday too. Last night when we put him to bed he thanked us for his birthday party!

This kid has a serious addiction to dirt and anything that pertains to dirt. I CAN NOT keep this kid clean whatsoever at all. But it's okay. I'd much rather have him havin fun in the dirt than not wantin to get down and play and get dirty. I'll take the way he is any 'ole day!

By 8:15 Jd was gettin real tired. He got a wash with the hose first then a spit bath and he was out like a light in no time at all.

Wyatt kept busy by washing his car:

Take Me Home Country Roads...

2009-06-10T08:44:00.004-05:00

Let me just say, first and foremost.... the boys and I had a GREAT time with my sisters, the new babies, and the whole family out there. We spent a lot of time with my sisters which means more than everything to me. Two of my sisters were on maternity leave with these little munchkins:

Baby Devon:

Baby Gracie:

And now let me say this: I. LOVE. MY. HOME. I use the term 'home' as an all-encompassing adjective to describe, well, basically, my whole life.

Home in this context means my husband, washer/dryer, coffee the way I like it, a bathtub as big as a small trough, my truck with big windows and not a 5 speed compact car with a peepin hole for a back window, lakes with hardly any trees, country-actual wide open land for miles and miles, land with no trees and no houses and developments, roads that are straight as an arrow, the speed limit being the maximum speed limit-not slowest speed allowed, a yard that can entertain a multitude of family and friends and dogs, and the pace of life that creates a calm and relaxing environment. The list goes on and on in my head.

Sunday, the first full day of bein back home was a perfect end to our trip to Pa and a perfect beginning of bein back home. We spent the whole day outside with Uncle Mike and Aunt Dee. My cousin Aj and his girlfriend Jordan came over for the afternoon and we played bocci ball. E fired up the smoker and he smoked two racks of ribs that fell off the bone. They were delicious. We had sweet corn on the cob and a whole pan of fried new taters, onions and bacon. It was good to be back home.

The boys were so happy to play in the yard. Wyatt ran races and Jd crawled everywhere.

Then they decided it was hot enough to get in the dog's water.

There really was no point in keepin wet clothes on the boy:

SE PA Trip

2009-06-09T15:55:00.005-05:00

Family is very important to me. My sisters and I, even though separated by 1,000+ miles have very strong and formidable relationships. It was so good to be with them. The boys and I stayed with my sister Chelsea and her husband Dan. Chelsea and I had coffee each mornin on their back porch and we spent time with them in the evenings. During the day, the boys and I packed up and went to either of my other sister's houses to spend time with them. Brenna and I took the kids down to Montgomeryville and shopped for our sister Tegan, who had delivered her baby just two days before the boys and I arrived.

Saturday, the first full day of bein there, we all (cept Teg, Noah, Gracie, and Grandpa) congregated at Chels and Dan's house to chow down on good ole cocoa and biscuits. A family tradition for at least 4 generations. When Brenna walked in the door I almost lost it. I didn't think the emotion would erupt so strong and powerful. It took everything I had not to crumble into a blubbering heap of tears. It was so good to see her, Andrew, and for the first time, baby Devon.

Later that day, we all packed up and met Grandpa over at Tegan and Noah's house for pizza. Tegan's blood pressure was still high so she was instructed to lay low for the first couple of days at home. A home-nurse came in Saturday and Sunday to check on her blood pressure. By Sunday, it was much better, so we all met at the lake, along with our good friends the Weigner's. We kayaked, canoed, fished, and grilled. Mark and Karen have been our 'big brother and big sister' for oh, let's see, at least 15 years. They have 4 beautiful wonderful girls.

I'm just gonna post pictures now, since most are pretty explicable about our first two days.

JD hangin out with Uncle Dan. It was amazing Jd stayed there. Of course I had to stay out of sight and earshot in order for Jd not to fuss. He's got the apron strings tied way to tight!

Grandpa and baby Gracie:

JD knew what to do with extra pizza! Give it to Stella, Aunt Teg's dog!

Lake Nockamixon:

Aunt Chels helpin Wy fish with Uncle Dan supervising:

Wyatt, Narae, and Adah wadin:

Uncle Mark pitchin to Wy and the girls playin field:

Uncle Andrew caught fish everytime Wyatt called him on the cell:

JD inspecting Uncle Andrew's fish:

And yes, he tried to bite the fish.

All of the Uncle's (Andrew, Noah and Dan) and Grandpa fishin:

Frazzled and Brain Dead

2009-05-28T13:05:00.005-05:00

For some mysteriously non-humorous reason my only 3 days of watchin kids this week has been an incredibly over-whelming, patience-rendering and mind-numbing time.

There have been numerous tantrums from an almost 6 month old, fights between the two 2 year olds and the 4 year old, a plethera of injuries (body and soul), a handful of toys broken, and frequent disregard for the guidelines I have set for the kids for various circumstances that would put them in potentially dangerous or at least precarious, situations.

I am, quite literally at this point, not dreading the flights tomorrow. I'm numb. I feel that no matter what happens tomorrow it could not be much worse than 5 kids, 3 days, and back-to-back tantrums, arguments and injuries. Today I decided that I wouldn't even bother to sweep the floor. The amount of grass and dirt on the wood floor right now could fill a small arena. I had to leave a screamin baby, clingy/fussy 1 year old, and an injured 2 yr old twice during lunch prep because with all that was goin on I forgot to grab the bread out of the freezer in the basement, and while I was down there I forgot the cocoa (for chocolate milk).

Even the worst days of watchin kids has not quite paralled the chaos and frustration of the last three days. I put the three older kids down for an early nap so they could spend the rest of the afternoon in the pool while the two babies were takin their naps. None of them napped hardly an hour but at least they were resting. This week has definitely tested my patience and I'm glad I can say that I never lost it. I'm not admittin that I didn't cover my face with my hands and mutter a couple of choice expletives in regard to how I was feelin, but at least I didn't say them audibly and I showed no frustration towards the kids.

Tomorrow mornin I'm prayin that the stress of this week will have been relieved and I can concentrate on gettin me and my boys safely and insanely to PA. All this may seem trivial and even fickle to some of you but I don't have time to go into more details about my day. This was only scratchin the very this surface of what all has gone on. My head is spinnin, my nerves are raw, I'm feelin the need for somethin stronger than a Dr. Pepper, and I need sleep for tomorrow. All I can remember are the ignorant and discourteous stares and expressions I received when Wyatt was so tired on our flights that I could not calm him down when we flew out to PA for my three sister's weddings. It was all I could do not to....well, I did break down and cry.....

I'll be back after June 6th with lots of pictures for you family members and friends!

Peace out,

The Frazzled One

P.S. Even if I did proof-read this I have a feelin that I wouldn't catch any typos because I'm just as frazzled and brain dead now as when I started it a long time ago so just bear with it.

Stork #2 is circling for a landing!

2009-05-26T15:59:00.004-05:00

My sister Teg has been at the hospital for about 3-4 hours now! She had a follow-up check-up on her blood pressure today. And yes, that's exactly how it happened with us when we had Wyatt. Teg's blood pressure still registered high today so the doc decided it was best to send her to the hospital right away and start the induction. I'm prayin for a fast labor period and easy delivery for her. Her back has been in so much pain the past 4 months at least, with carryin baby Gracie.

I won't have any posts from May 29th to June 6th since I've already scheduled a trip out to Pa. to see our new neices and the rest of the family. The boys and I will be leaving at 6 a.m. Friday. Yup, I'm crazy but I'm prayin that I will have strength to survive and stay mentally intact for whatever might happen on the trip there, and the one back.

Here's how much the first cousin has changed since her birth on April 9th.

Wyatt is especially excited to see his new cousins. We've been talkin a lot about it to help prepare him for the trip.

Now that most of my packin is done I'm finally bein able to relax and get excited for it....all but the flights....and bein away from E for 8 1/2 days. I'm not lookin forward to that at all. We've never really been apart for more than 3-4 days AT MOST. It's not that I can't sleep without him by my side or anything co-dependant. We've been married almost 5 years. That 'honey-moon' phase is still with us. We just don't like bein apart. We don't feel whole. End of story.

Over and out for now,

From the excited but apprehensive one

Lake Trip

2009-05-24T22:51:00.002-05:00

After a long 7 days of not seein E for more than an hour or so each night, he and one of our friends finished up a side job last Friday night.

Saturday morning we leisurely packed up to go campin. At noon, as we headed up to Quick Trip for some gas we noticed a weird grindin sound coming from the tires. After gettin gas, and air in the tires since we don't hardly drive the Ford, we headed back to the house to figure out what was wrong with the steering and tires. We checked the power steering fluid-all good. I got in the driver's seat and pulled it in and out of the driveway, makin turns so E could listen and watch the tires better from the outside. By this time, Wy is all-out impatient. He wasn't cranky or upset but he didn't understand why we were back at the house. We were supposed to be goin to the lake? Finally, as I was drivin in and out the thought came to me: Wyatt was playin in the cab while we had been loadin up that mornin! When he plays in the Jeep I always find my knobs and buttons flipped and turned. Hazards are on, brights are on, bass is off, a/c or heater is on, etc. The Ford is 4 wheel drive and that's exactly what the tires sounded like-like the 4 wheels were engaged! I yelled at E to come around and said, 'Look! Wy turned the dial to 4 wheel!' Sure enough, after we put it back in 2 Hi the truck sounded right fine!!

So, off we went!! Finally!!! The spot we found to camp at was perfect! We had shade trees, sun, not too close to any other campsites, and a huge brush pile just a walk away for firewood. We set up the tent just by the water's edge!

After a long week under our belt it felt SO relaxing to be together. No schedules, no housework, no side-jobs. We enjoyed our time immensely!

Wyatt, of course, loved the water. I took him swimmin twice on Saturday, while JD was nappin.

Saturday evening we made s'mores. I had made one in front of Wyatt. He was meticulous about eatin the marshmallow out from between the graham cracker and chocolate. When he was done with that one, he walked over to the cooler and said he was gonna build another one. And build he did! He set it up just like he had seen me!

For only seein a s'more made one time so far this year (I'm sure he doesn't remember from last year) I'd say he did a pretty bang-up job on his first go-round!

Sunday mornin I caught a couple of fish. I had Wy reel in the second one since he was up and out of the tent. He got frustrated as the fish got closer to shore. When the fish was only about 5 feet out in the water Wy kept sayin, 'No fish! Mama! It too hard!! No fish! Help me mama! It too hard!'

I took over and reeled her in:

After that hard work, the trail boss needed a swig of good cold clear water.

I pray everyone of y'all are having a good time with family and friends this Memorial Day Weekend and remember the price that has been paid by our forefather's and our brothers and sisters in the military, fighting for our explicit right's as Americans. I don't feel we have much longer to enjoy our freedoms that have been bought and secured thus far with such high cost.

My prayer is that our nation will not forget the sacrifices that have been made and once again stand up for what our Great Nation has been built upon: Trust and faith in the Sovereign God and His values for our individual lives and for our wonderful country. Don't be afraid to excercise your right to Freedom of Speech and Religion. It's still our right!! The more voices that are in the choir, the better the choir is heard!

Let Freedom Ring!

Scenes from the road....

2009-05-22T05:04:00.003-05:00

We've been pretty busy lately, as you can probably tell, since I haven't posted anything in a while. E has been workin a side job for a week and should hopefully be done tonight. The boys have gone up to 48 hours without seein Daddy. Wyatt has noticed it and when he is hurt our upset at somethin, he's been sayin things like, 'I want my daddy back', and 'I miss my daddy!' We've been gearin up for three different trips, all within a week and a half of each other: one to the western part of the state; one to go camping in the south-central part of the state; and one to go see my two newborn neices in Pennsylvania, along with my sisters and parents.

Tuesday I loaded up the boys and took them to my hometown to see my Grandma. It's been since Thanksgiving that I've gone to see her.

Wyatt kept her busy with all his stories and explanation of each and every picture that she saw on the camera. We also got to see my aunt, my cousin and her husband and their two boys. We had a really good time. The trip, as far as travelling with the boys, didn't turn out as bad as I had feared it could have. Although the boys didn't sleep much at all on the way there or on the way back, we made it with only a few apprehensive moments. One of those moments was after Wy had asked for a kleenex. My thought was, 'Wow! He's askin for a kleenex to clean his nose! What a big boy!' I even said that to him. Sure enough, he had a full nose and wanted that stuff out! Problem was, he used the wrong method for the kind of full nose he had. It wasn't a wet and runny nose but he balled up the end of the kleenex like I do, and twirled it around in his nostril.

With a wet nose, that's all fine and good, and usually works like a charm, but his wasn't wet. The kleenex got stuck. He was so upset about it I couldn't even understand what he was crying about. Oh, was he mad!!

I didn't realize til later, after he said, 'I got it momma! It came out!' that he had balled up kleenex stuck in his nose!! In this picture you can just barely see it.

He worked and worked at gettin it out. He pulled some out before we got home, sneezed and some came out, and later, sittin on daddy's lap after we got home, he sneezed again and MORE came out!!

Last night we watched Uncle Mike and Aunt Rene load up, hook up, and drive away witht their camper. They are headed down to Arkansas for their annual vacation in the beautiful hills along the Buffalo River. Wy kept sayin that he wanted to go campin with them and I had to keep reminding him that we were goin campin with Daddy this weekend and we are gonna have Daddy all to ourselves! That never failed to cheer him up. E and I are very excited about campin since we've hardly seen each other too and it'll be nice to be out fishin and campin and not have schedules. We won't be interupted or called or feel the need to go anywhere. Right there is where we'll want to be!

More scenes from the road:

In this next picture, look at how small the cattle are compared to this energy-producing windmill:

These suckers are HUGE! The cattle are tiny! When we see the propellers bein trucked down the highway they dwarf the truck, the road, and you they are so big!

Grass-I love it!

2009-05-17T07:21:00.003-05:00

I mean the green grass, now. The stuff that grows in your yard and makes up what's known as your lawn! I love it when it's fresh cut and manicured. I love the smell of it and the feelin you get when it's all trimmed up.

We've got an area up front, the buffalo waller, that E has seeded. It's comin along pretty good considering the dogs and foot traffic. Wyatt and I poked a bunch of sticks along the edges of the 'baby grass' (as Wy, the trail boss, likes to call it).

You can see them here, in front of Prix, the ever-watchful, hopeful farm dog. The sticks do a good job of keepin humans off the 'baby grass' but not so much the dogs. We have some areas of 'baby grass' that are small. We haven't put sticks around them. Wy is very mindful of those areas too and always walks around them. He's also very good at reminding people to not walk on the 'baby grass'. I'm tellin ya, the trail boss knows how to boss!

Hugs

2009-05-14T15:20:00.003-05:00

JD knows how to give kisses, and today he gave Wyatt his first hug, on verbal prompt.

Again...

...and again.

It keeps goin...

...and goin....

What are my chances that this devotion and affection is held all through their childhood and adolesence?

I'm probably up against a stacked deck, huh?

Well, I'll enjoy it while it lasts then!

Happy Decorations!

2009-05-13T14:25:00.009-05:00

Didn't you know there was such a thing as that? Happy Decorations? Well, neither did I until I was huggin and kissin Wy last night to put him down to bed. The first thing he said, very matter-of-factly, after he gave me a big smack on the lips was, 'Happy Mother's Day, Mom.' Then he said, 'Happy Decorations too!' Okay, sounds good, so I told him thank you and that I really appreciated it. (He gets on me for not tellin him thank you after he's said how pretty my flowers, plants, weeds, or grass is).

This afternoon, not ten minutes ago after our hugs and kisses, he said to me, 'Happy Birthday, mom. Thank you for my birthday party, mom. And thank you for my birthday cake.' His birthday was 6 1/2 months ago!

Hmmmm...okay, well, you're very welcome, baby! I'm glad you liked it so much that half a year later you remember it! That means dad and mom did pretty good, I'd like to think!

On Mother's Day mornin, E tried to encourage Wyatt to tell me 'Happy Mother's Day'. He never did. All day long, at random times, E would just up and say, 'Happy Mother's Day' to me and coax Wy to say it too. He still never did. Until later that night, as E was holdin him so I could give Wy hugs and kisses, they almost got around the corner and Wy blurted out, 'Wait, Daddy! I wanna tell her!' They came back around the corner and with the cutest, most precious face and big puppy dog eyes, Wy looked at me and said, 'Happy Mother's Day, mom.' Yup, I teared up. It was too special to hear that from our 2 1/2 year old who we weren't sure we could ever stay pregnant with and be able to welcome into our love.

It was too special for words.

My heart felt every last word he said.

I just have to put these pictures on here. I swear he was the chunkiest baby. We couldn't ever find his neck until he turned about one year old.

Mother's Day

2009-05-11T15:02:00.005-05:00

My Mother's Day started out by still being out with my sister-in-law for a mom's night out on Saturday night. I got back home at 2 a.m. and was fed, bathed and in bed by 3. I crashed. It takes me days to recuperate from just a late night at our house, let alone a late night somewhere else! I was dead to the world until JD woke up at about 6:30 a.m. I nursed him and put him back in bed. I knew there was no way I was gonna be able to go back to sleep again so it was me and a cup of joe. I walked across the road and sat and visited with my aunt and uncle until my guys got up. Despite the incredibly small amount of sleep I had, my Mother's Day was a wonderful day. It was very relaxing and carefree. The weather, even though it was mostly overcast and dropped a little rain on us, was beautiful. Not chilly; not hot. After we grilled, with my aunt and uncle, it got downright chilly around 8 p.m.

Here's what the edge of my flower gardens looked like for 7 years, before this Mother's Day:

Now, I'm not ungrateful by any means, that I had barriers around my flower beds to keep the soil in, but I've really really wanted to change out the curb-stone to something that followed the feng shui of the front yard. The curb just didn't fit the style of the rest of the landscaped flower beds. You can see the natural rock up and to the right. It goes on around the beds surrounding the maple tree.

My gift from my guys was a load of cut landscaping rock. This was a great gift! I was really excited about layin it all out and makin it fit to our style. It's the same style of stone we have on the front of our garage and the front of the house. I think the new look ties together the brick, stone and natural rock.

This is the west flower beds, along the fence. There's a lot more shade and general darkness in this area of the yard so I wanted to add all light colored natural stone between the new limestone to add some brightness to the area.

I chose the darker rock in between the limestone for the front of the house to bring out the darker color from the brick.

The east side of the yard, up by the road:

I chose to put all the limestone with the straight edges here because the fence already has an angle to it.

The east side of the garage:

I have morning glories, marigolds, some bulbed plants, black eyed susans and gladiolas in this flower bed.

I couldn't be happier with my Mother's Day, although a little more sleep would've been good, but that's nobody's fault but my own and my sister-in-law and I had a good time.

Thank you, E for makin my day so special. Thank you for makin every day a day I enjoy with you and our boys. No gift can compare to the love and peace I have knowin that you are my husband and we have two wonderful boys in our life.

Biscuits 'N Gravy Gets Me More Love Than You Can Shake a Stick At

2009-05-08T16:42:00.006-05:00

And bacon gets me an extra extra lotta love. It's true-the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. But I ain't talkin bout a man this time. I'm talkin about our first-born son.

I made biscuits and gravy one stormy night this past week. Wy took his first bite and said, 'Mmmmm, thanks mom.' Then, as an afterthought, he added, 'Good cookin, mama.' This 'good cookin' compliment has become as much a part of our meals like bread and butter is to a supper table. E got him started on it months and months ago. Daddy doesn't even get to say it first anymore. Wy almost always beats him to the punch.

Then Wyatt said to me, after chewin thoughtfully on a hunk of Jimmy Dean sausage drowned in gravy, 'Mama, you make me feel happy.'

Blast it! Hold the phones and stop the presses! Here and again, I just wanted to grab him, smother him with kisses and hugs and never let him grow-which would mean no more food, which in turn, would mean no more compliments, the whole of which I could simply not bear! So, I guess I'll feed him and let him grow, and taxi him around to this and that, and go off to college, and move out, and get a....a....what are those things called?....fake smile, high-pitched chatter boxes with makeup plastered on so thick a pitch fork couldn't take it off? Oh, yeah, 'scuse me, a girlfriend. Yeah, I guess that will eventually have to come. But you better believe good 'n well, I'm gonna enjoy ever-single-lovin, tear-inducin, heart-swellin compliment that I ever ever ever get from my men.

And if ever I don't hear that compliment, I just want y'all to know that my body is immediately overcome with anxiety. I hyper-ventilate. My knees start shakin and my heart palpitates. Do they not like this meal? I made it three weeks ago and they chowed down! Is it too salty? Too crusty? Too dry? Too flaky? Too bland? Too spicy?

I'm just kiddin. They'll eat whatever the heck I slap down on a plate! Even if it is day old bread soaked in milk with some beans! They're always grateful! And for that, I'm even more grateful.

Aware Vs. Unaware

2009-05-08T15:40:00.005-05:00

The subject is worms. Jd has not become aware that all creatures are living things and as such, wiggle and squiggle, crawl and slither. He doesn't understand particularly how that relates to him. He sees them just as innaminate toys. His big brother, on the other hand, is very aware that creatures have a life. He's confused by it. He doesn't understand that worms won't bite. He doesn't understand why that turtle climbed up his leg at the river. He has become so aware of creatures and their baffling actions, that, in the case of worms, turtles, snails, toads, lizards and the like, that he wants absolutely no part of them!! Now, he understands that worms go on the hook to his fishin pole, and he can comprehend that. The worms he has a problem with are the ones that end up hitchin a ride on mom's folded up pant leg and ending up in the house. Last Sunday, exactly that, happened:
Wy-'Mom!' (slightly hysterical) 'There's a worm on the floor!'
Mom-'A worm on the floor? No way! Worms live outside silly boy!'
Wy-(skirtin around the entryway and makin a dash to jump on the couch, now in a state of panic)'A worm! A worm!! Get it, mommy!'
Mom-(still sittin on the floor playin with JD, around the corner of the couch)'Is there a worm over there?
Wy-'Get it, mommy! Hurry!'
Sure enough, there was a worm and here's the difference of the Aware vs. Unaware: The other day I took the boys for a walk down to the creek. I grabbed some bread just in case the geese were up closer to the road. And they were. Wyatt was excited. He started chuckin bread at the goose in the neighbors yard. He didn't see the male goose come up the hill and cross the road, but JD did. As soon as JD saw it comin for the wagon he was very aware of it's presence and started screamin-hysterically. Wow! What a flip from the worm episode the day before! Wyatt saw the male goose comin and ran over to JD in the wagon. He put his arm around him and said, 'It's a-right, Jar-rett. It's a geese. I give him bread. Watch! Watch me, Jar-rett.' It didn't help JD at all. He still was cryin and gaspin for air in great sobs. When I knelt down by him, he calmed down. Talk about reversing the roles.

More? Can we have more?

Wy was just as disappointed as the geese when the bread all ran out. We also saw 6 mallards bedded down by the crick. This is 5 of them. The 6th one was standin guard.

Here's the video of the worm episode:

Too Nice

2009-05-07T14:50:00.003-05:00

Okay, I'm sorry but it's too nice outside this afternoon to be inside, sittin in front of a computer. I'm takin my Dr. Pepper and gonna go pick up the shiny sparkly piles (courtesy of our dogs) in the backyard. We've got more rain, more strong to severe storms comin in this afternoon and thru the night. Those land mines out there tend to get a little nasty after Someone dumps buckets of rain on us.

Can you see the blue-green speck on Hoss's lower lip? I'll give ya one guess as to what that is.

Later! I'm gonna go get some sun!

Caught Red-Handed

2009-05-05T12:36:00.004-05:00

This here video is what I've been findin on a regular basis around here during naptime.

Crumb-snatchers-I Love Mine!

2009-05-04T15:43:00.012-05:00

Saturday, at breakfast, Wy pretended he was shootin things and JD got the giggles bad! For anyone who loves to hear a baby giggle, or you just need a giggle yourself, these are our crumb-snatchers sharin that brotherly love: (oh, and by the way, I've just taken Wy out of JD's crib 4 times in 20 minutes! NO! I'm not fibbin, even a little bit! He's doggone adamant about sleepin with his brother)

Later that day, Wyatt came in and handed me a flower.

This is what he said: 'Here mama. I got you a flower. It's my favorite. It from a bush. You like it?'

Like it? How 'bout LOVE it? I'm not a sap, but that will cinch up the heartstrings up faster than you can say hogwoller. I couldn't help but grab him and tell him that I absolutely loved it and loved him and that I'd never let him go to college or get married or even go to Kindergarten! He can't have a first kiss or take any girl to the prom. He can't even have a first date! Now I'm cryin just thinkin of all this. Maybe I am a sap. Damn! I hate when that happens. I know they'll grow up and I know all that other stuff is comin too but I'm not ready for it. So in the morning, I pray the day goes by very slowly so I can enjoy every minute of it with my boys- even if it is haulin the oldest out of little 'brudder's' crib 4 times before they finally go to sleep.

I have a hunch this man was behind the flower thing.

He's good at that.

The Sun Dance Doesn't Work

2009-05-03T06:57:00.008-05:00

Last night we did what all normal people do-'cept those who are a coupla cards short of a full deck: We grilled during impending rainstorms.

My aunt, uncle, cousin AJ, and his girlfriend Jordan were all here. We tried the Sun Dance last night to ward off the rain. It didn't help so much, but at least it was only sprinkles instead of a downpour. I swear there's somethin goin on. Kansas is in some kinda global warming atmospherical phenomenon that keeps dumpin rain in our area. Other places around the world have them and they're called Monsoons, or rainy seasons. I lived in PNG and we had rainy seasons. Never thought I'd see a rainy season in Kansas, of all places.

We had to come up with somethin to save the fire. I had an idea of usin our extra umbrella and the grill-master, for some crazy reason, was complainin because he wouldn't be able to stand under the umbrella. Hey! We don't care if YOU get wet! All we care about is the fire and the chicken you're grillin for us! Now get to work!

Grill he did! That chicken was the best-tastin BBQ'd chicken I know I've ever had! I'm not exaggerating or tryin to make E feel good (although I do like to do that-not exaggerate, but make him feel good). It was GOOD! The chicken had a smoke flavor to it like none other! I guess the rain did us a small favor anyway. We had a good spread of chicken, my roasted/seasoned potatoe cubes and steamed corn. While I was startin the fire, Hoss kept escaping down the driveway. I was out of breath from haulin him back up the drive so many times. We ended up tyin him off to the bumper of the truck so he wouldn't get away. It didn't damper his spirits. He was still just happy to keep tryin.

Saturday Afternoon Nap

2009-05-02T16:35:00.006-05:00

This video is for audio purposes only. I used the baby monitor to listen to what the boys were doin after Wy climbed in the crib for the second time during their 'supposed' nap time. The stow-away's first attempt landed him somewhere on the body of his pleasantly sleeping brother. Of course, he woke with the fear of God registering all over his face and let out a huge scream and then lots of cryin. When I went in to get Wy out of the crib he had his arm around JD and was tellin him, 'it's alright, Jair-rett. Go to sleep.' When Wy looked up at me, he had that pitiful look on his face and he said, 'I wanna sleep wiff my brudder.' My heart melted like butter on a hot biscuit! It was so hard to take him out and explain to him that he was such a good big 'brudder' but that JD was sleepin and he needed to stay out. The visual part of the video is our maple out front where we live our life. Please excuse the static in the monitor and the birds singin. Earlier today the boss told me that the birds were talkin to him and singin to him.

The rain, I have to say, is gettin to be too much. The boys have that stir-crazy, cabin-fever attitude about them. I've taken them out to the garage to play, we've played in the rain a number of times, but there's just somethin about not havin that sun shinin. A good thing about the rain though, is that my flowers are soakin up the water! Everything's so green!

This spider's wort or sleeping flower is just about ready to pop out with blooms:

Here you can see just a hint of the color that's comin:

The sweet william have all bloomed and they look so colorful against the drab old wood fence.

The vinca look bright and cheerful!

My labrador violets will soon be sportin their new look too with delicate purple faces:

Right now they look a little blah though. My flags, or irises, are lookin tall and proud:

Little by little the color is coming!

Somethin' 'Bout a Pickup Man

2009-05-01T13:54:00.005-05:00

Not that I desire our boys to resemble this song, but it was kinda funny it played on the radio right after they got in the truck.

Don't get me wrong here. I've got a 'pick-up' man. I can't imagine him not bein a 'pick-up' man. It's somethin I love about him. Seein him drivin a car would just be weird. I'm a 'pick-up' kinda woman myself and I'm pretty sure our boys will be 'pick-up' men too. That's a good feelin when you see your hubby drive up in his pick-up. Makes the butterflies start doin their flips in my mid-section. And I've a good suspicion he likes seein me drive our pick-up. Oh? What's that you're sayin, Babe? 'Scuse me, HIS pick-up. He likes to gripe about me drivin it and I think that's why he's not bothered to charge the battery for so long now but I know it really doesn't bother him at all. He just likes to act like it does.
I think I may just get out there and charge the battery after all!

Friday Rain Bahs

2009-05-01T10:18:00.008-05:00

Ugh! I'm thankful for the rain but I'm so tired of it! I want the sun to come out! The boys are goin stir crazy not bein able to be outside! Playin in the garage just doesn't hold a candle to bein out-of-doors!

Talkin bout bein outdoors. Tuesday evening and Wednesday evening I got bites on my legs and one on my hand from somethin. Somethin that I can't see and can't feel. The boys and E never got any bites so whatever it is, it seems to have a personal vendetta against me, and only me. Maybe that's because I'm the one that sprays the yard and deck for little organisms that bite, just like them! Last night, E and I had a date night (we can't even remember the last time we had one!) so I wasn't out on the deck to get any more bites. Hopefully all the rain will go away soon because I plan on sprayin the deck off with apple cider vinegar. ACV is a miraculous wonder-all, fix-all ingredient that stays in my pantry in huge volumes. I used it to help dry up the molluscum contagiosum (red bumps that many kids get-a virus that just takes it course and then leaves) that Wy has had for more than a year. It's finally on it's way out! And just in time for summer. I give ACV to the dogs about once a week to ward off fleas and ticks and keep them from gettin bladder infections and/or UTI's. Buster is the one that gets them about every 3 months. Humans can take ACV too for a variety of ailments. I used it to help dry up these mysterious bites. Just like vinegar and peroxide ACV is a must in my house.

Last Saturday I had the awe-inspiring thought to mop the wood floor and tile. I have no idea why because we've had nothin but rain before and since Saturday. With 2 dogs and 2 kids, and a hubby that works construction and me, who can't stay inside for more than 2 hours, it was a futile attempt to clean. Oh well. At least it was clean for 40 minutes!

With this rain I feel the urge to make up some pretzels. I think we might have pancakes for lunch. Yesterday I used 15 lb test line to re-string my wind chimes. I figured, here in Kansas, 15 lb test line should be sufficient to keep the thing together in our wind.

Tonight E has a steak feed to support a local boys baseball team so I'm plannin on takin some time for me tonight after I get the boys fed, bathed and in bed for the night. I'm really lookin forward to it! I had a friend ask if I wanted to do somethin tonight, since her fiance (our very good friend) will be at the steak feed too. I apologized but explained that after I take care of the boys and all that I'm takin time for myself. My! How things change after the babies come! Ha! It wasn't but 3 years ago that I would have had all the girls over or we'd have all gone out and had a drink ourselves without our guys. Most of us are startin a little later than usual with the family thing. It's been nice to have the rest of them catch up to us in the nap/supper/bed schedule routine. Now we schedule all our get-togethers and cookouts and horseshoe parties around our kids' schedules. It's been a fun change for each and every one of us. This summer we'll have even more kids runnin around with all our dogs at the lake!
Where oh where are the warm and sunny days?

I can't wait to go fishin on the river...

...and the lake.

I know it's comin and like I said, I'm thankful for the rain, 'cept that my garden has been drowned and I have carrots poppin up in places that I did NOT plant them in! I have to start a bunch of new flower seeds too because the torrentially strong rain washed out the seeds! I'll be amazed if any of the seeds have took hold. Usually, I have problems with too many plants and not enough space but I have a feelin this year is goin to be different. I also think it's goin to be a really hot summer too, but what do I know? I'm just tryin to keep my seeds in their respective areas and enjoy the beauty of life when and wherever they come up. I'll be happy with whatever! At least if they have been washed away I won't have so much time-consuming watering to do!

Thursday Morning Calm

2009-04-30T15:30:00.003-05:00

This morning I had visitors with my cup of coffee. It was the good kinda visitors bein that early and all in the mornin. I only wish Wy would've woke up early to be out there with us. I know that I've been wantin him to go back to his old schedule of sleepin in but this mornin was different. It was a pair of ducks from down at the creek. They've been nesting in our neighbors yard and I guess they decided they needed an early mornin stroll through everyone else's yards to scroung up some grub.

There they go. Thanks for sharin the mornin with me. It was the calm before the storm for the three of us. Quite literally for them.

Hope your morning chow was as good as my cup of joe!

Trouble in Twos

2009-04-29T16:15:00.010-05:00

Man, this kid...I'm talkin bout the boss kid. He's one of the best things that's ever happened to us, obviously, but blast it! He's so stinkin ornery! Yesterday, when the boys were s'posed to be nappin I heard a bunch of bangin: on the wall, the window, and then on the crib. I waited, and waited, and waited. The bangin on the crib kept comin every couple minutes. I'd hear Hoss laugh and giggle. Finally, it came to me. Wyatt had climbed in the crib. So, I thought, if he got in there, then he can just fall asleep in there. Problem was, they weren't wantin to go to sleep and were pretty fussy. When I didn't go in to get them they started cryin. Loud. Then I heard them both start cryin my name. 'Mama! Mama!' I knew they weren't gonna go down. When I walked in, I also knew to bring my camera and here's what I found:

It's plain to see they were feedin off each other. They've been doin that a lot lately. Like brothers will do. I know more is comin. JD seems to think he can't fall asleep if Wyatt isn't in bed either. It works out alright because Wy never falls asleep for his nap as fast as JD and Wy's been gettin up earlier than usual, unlike JD who's been sleepin in later than usual.
Here's some more orneriness from the boss:

He sure beats all, I tell ya. The imagination this kid has is huge. He loves to play finger puppets while I'm nursin Hoss before their afternoon nap. My mom brought out a set of Goldilocks and the 3 Bears the last time she was here. We always play Dora, Diego and Boots though. At first, he kept wantin to be Dora. I told him he should be Diego because of the gender factor. He didn't so much like that. So, I initiated the game the next time and said, 'Diego! Diego! Where are you? It's me Dora!' Without missin a beat, he sticks up his index finger and says, 'Hi, Dora! It's me! Boots!' I wasn't expectin that at all! He was fast!
Today, as I was nursin JD before nap, Wy asked me if I wanted ice cream. Then cookies. For the cookies, he had to reach up and get them out of the cabinet and he said he couldn't. So I told him (all pretend, mind you) that there was a ladder right beside me and he could set it up and get the cookies. He told me that the ladder was too big. Okay.....come on mom....think! I told him I had put a step stool in the corner and that would work. He told me it wouldn't. Then he got the 'ladder' and said he wanted a BLUE ladder. I don't know where he comes up with these things!
Today, the boys were giggling more than usual and I walked in to find Wyatt in the crib again. When I reached to get him out he just gave me that ornerier than the dickens look with a huge grin that twinkled his eyes like stars.

Severe Sunday Continued and the rain barrel is full

2009-04-27T15:47:00.005-05:00

Okay, it's not actually a rain barrel. It's a muck bucket. It's not used as a muck bucket either but a toy for the boss to play with and in, like this morning, when it looked like this:

He was soaked in 3.948 seconds of walkin out the door. The kid just can't leave water or mud alone. Not only was his arms in this bucket up to his elbows but his pants somehow got wet up to his knees, with no mud on them. He had overturned one of the dogs' big water dishes, actually a rubber tub for grain, and used it to stand on to dip his legs into the water.
After the first round of storms yesterday afternoon the roots from the maple all stood on end:

Then around 6 p.m., after there were two warnings of tornadoes, each within 7 miles from our place, the second storm came rollin in. This time we got to see clouds! And it was beautiful!

And it was dark!

We had high winds but not the straight-line winds that folks close to the storm had.

Our winds blew the rain into the louvers of the vents under the eaves of the house. We had some dripping on the stairs and some pooling up in none other than....a light fixture. Yeah, I went to turn the light on over the sink this mornin and it didn't work. It was dark so I didn't even think to look up. At lunch it was dark in the house because of all the cloud cover and I remembered it didn't work so I looked up and saw this:

Very safe. And since the house has been wired a little differently, we have to shut off all the breakers in order to drain this thing. I'll be honest. I'm a little jumpy.
Signing off and thankful to have a somewhat dry but not burned down house!
P.S. After draining that one, we've since found another light fixture in the same condition. This time just half full of rain water.
P.S.S. This has only happened in one other storm in the 7 1/2 years we've lived here.

Severe Sunday

2009-04-26T14:58:00.017-05:00

The meteorologists have said that today the storms could be the most severe we've seen yet this season.

Ominous, dark, heavy. Severe. Watches. Warnings. Most of that describes Hoss, otherwise known as JD. I wonder if it has anything to do with the weather because that's exactly the adjectives for the weather outside right now. We've had no sun. None. It's been overcast the whole day with no definition to the clouds. We haven't been able to see the storms roll across the prairie like we usually do witht the huge bright thunderheads.

Yesterday there was a line of storms from just west of OKC, up through Wellington and Winfield, on up through Andover, Augusta, El Dorado and on to KC. At the racetrack last night, the Nascar Truck Series was in progress when they had to call a halt to the race and 30 minutes later a tornado was spotted in that area and went by the track.

Today there have been a handful of tornadoes already to the west of us 'round Greensburg and Pratt and farther south in the panhandle of OK. Our whole state is in a tornado watch with some already in the warnings. The cells today are poppin up farther west and south than they did yesterday, which, when you think of polo, 'man-line-ball', you just have to switch it to 'town-line-storm' and that's how it happens out here. Generally speakin, if the storms are headed in a NE direction and Guymon, OK and Anthony and Harper, KS are lined up in there then we're gonna get hit too.

Definitions of the day:

Hail:half dollar sized, golfball sized

Strong/severe winds: as in 70-75 mph, tornadic

Lightning: cloud to ground, like the one that just hit 6 seconds ago. Hello cable! Please stay on!

Heavy rain: as in 'it's rainin like a cow peein' on a flat rock' kinda hard or as in 'rainin buckets' or 'rainin cats and dogs', torrential

Tornadic activity: the 'weather ones' have said that today is a perfect set-up for severe storms and large, violent and long-lived tornadoes.

It ain't a kitten out there tryin to play. It's a big mad polecat stretchin her claws and flexin her muscles. The thunder is comin in loud cracks followed by giant rolls. The raindrops are huge. Okay, now the rain is just plain torrential. I can't see more than 100 yds away. The tv is strugglin to keep cable so I'll probably be shut down here soon from rain or lightning.

The street is flooded slightly:

Our front yard is flooded more than slightly:

Hold on, the sirens are goin off.....okay, the warnings are for 4 miles to our east and on up in a NE direction. No tornado yet, but strong rotation.
Portions of our side yard look like it's in dire straits:

Well, the grass seed in the front yard might be gettin the required 2" today!

Pole Fishin' on the Ninnescah

2009-04-26T06:55:00.014-05:00

Yesterday we went to the Ninnescah (known round these parts as Cougar Country) to fish with the boys. We refrained from tellin Wyatt about the trip until Saturday mornin for fear that he would forego sleepin more than 24 hours in anticipation. Plus, he's only 2 1/2 and doesn't quite grasp the concept of time in minutes, hours, let alone days. When we told him that mornin, he was all about packin the truck.

I'm not sure why he wanted to drag the cooler all the way out to the road but I convinced him it needed to sit by the truck so we could pack ice around the food.

This is the view lookin upriver:

It was a perfect day as far as bein outside. We had cloud cover most the day except for short periods of sun later in the afternoon. Uncle Mike was the reigning king of catches. He caught 4 or 5 fish and one soft shell. Soft shells just look pre-historic. They look like you should be out runnin for your life from dinosaurs and hiding from pterodactyls. Straight outta Jurassic Park is the feelin I get evertime I see one of these. It's hard not to jump when a shadow passes over the ground and throw my arms up to fight off a homosapian-hungry flying dinosaur.

Wyatt was all sorts of excited about the turtle until the thing felt land beneath his feet and tried to bail. He went clawin right in Wy's direction to which Wy replied with a big scream, a scramble to get away and of course, tears. I'm sorry, but yes, I laughed. I also held him when he came runnin over to me but by laughin it got him settled down and pretty soon he was gigglin about the turtle tryin to get away.
Aunt Rene caught a fish and had the boss reel it in.

He was proud as punch!

Here's the boss, checkin on lines and patrollin the bank.

He did really well with the whole 3 foot-drop-off-into-the-river thing. There was just a couple times my mama's heart almost stopped beatin. I wore shorts and a light shirt just in case I'd have to jump in and drag him back to the edge. I didn't want any resistance with swimmin if I had to put my life-saving skills to work.
'Ole Hoss had quite a time.

He was pretty sleepy by the time we got to the river so shortly after we got set up I took him up to the truck, nursed him, and strapped him into his car seat for a little siesta with the music on. After his nap, and some lunch, he was a much happier kid. We tied off his walker to a sapling behind him so he wouldn't try wind-surfing off the bank and into the water.

I swear the kid believes that walker is equipped with floats, all-terrain tires with snow chains, wings and a motor!
We did some scoutin around for more fishin holes. The guys went down river, under the bridge, and caught a few and lost a few. Aunt Rene and I went upriver and found nothin but slick-as-snot muddy banks, spiders, thorn bushes and lots of life. Here are some pictures.

Now for the other part:

My camera kept focusing on the background so the spider is very blurry. I didn't think to put it on manual focus and I couldn't find a leaf big enough to hold behind it to bring the spider into focus.

Cricket frogs-try cathin those suckers on a muddy bank!

Yeah, it didn't work out so well for me.

It was either this fungus growth that stunk like feces or the fact that there was a fox den just beneath all these clumps of black fungus, but I'm tellin ya, it stunk!

The light wasn't the greatest when I took this shot. As I stood and looked up the tree the green foliage was a stark contrast against the dark bark.

Another den, this time from a smaller animal:

Last, but not least, the boss got in one more frightened scream when I tried to put this little guy on his shoulder and take a picture:

He wanted N-O-N-E of it! He was content to watch him in my hands and no closer!

Hoss wanted to grab him right away and without a doubt, put him in his mouth.

That, I didn't let happen, but he did almost eat a worm. Just kiddin. But he would, if we'd a let him!

Yard Work

2009-04-21T15:14:00.021-05:00

This past weekend we spent waitin the storms that were supposed to come. They didn't show up til Saturday night so Saturday we spent the day outside. Kenneth, our good friend, and his son Austin, our god-son, came over. Austin's birthday is comin up and one of the things he wanted was some rails to ride his skateboard on. Eric had some leftover tube steel pipes so he welded them onto pieces of angle iron for a base. They worked on them from noon til about 8 in the evening. E made a double rail and an inclined single rail. After the welding was done, they bondoed the joints, sanded and painted them a sky blue. They look really sharp. Austin was pretty excited about them but didn't realize they were gonna be so slick. He hit the double rail, stayed on for a bit, and because of the downhill speed off the driveway, the board slipped right out from under him and he hit the driveway pretty hard. I'll have some pictures up soon of the rails and hopefully a video of Austin ridin. Austin drove the boys around in their truck and the boys had a great time!

On Sunday, we filled in the buffalo wallow the dogs had made in the front yard with fill dirt and seeded grass. In other areas, like the spot where we've had the fire pit all winter, we turned up, added dirt and overseeded. We also mulched the flower beds and raked up the side yard. This is one of the flower beds with views from either side of it.

I killed the first black widow of the season in the pile of bricks that the kids just happened to not get into these past two weeks. The first thing Wyatt did after he walked out the door was to take a pass thru ever-single-lovin mud puddle he could find! He was soaked from his toes to his knees within 5.294 seconds. His jeans, after we took them off, had slightly dried and could almost stand on their own. Take a look-see:

E sprayed weeds again. They seem to have permanently taken over the back yard. I planted tomatoes, bell peppers, jalepenos, green onions, sweet onions, carrots and zucchini, and lots of different kinds of flowers. Wyatt helped E chop out weeds in the yard.

E cut down to size a small-headed hoe for Wyatt. At one point, E stopped, leaned on his hoe and asked Wyatt, 'Well, what d'ya think?' Wyatt stopped workin, leaned on his hoe (his hand all stretched upright to cup the end of the handle) and said, 'I don't know. What d'you think?' Daddy got Wyatt to hold some worms.

Up til now he's not wanted to touch them no matter how hard we've tried and no matter what we've told him. We've been talkin about fishin a lot and he's been askin to go. We keep tellin him he's got hold the worms so he can put 'em on his hook and catch fish when we go to the lake and river. I think he put two and two together and obviously his love for fishin took precedence over a crawly snake in his hand. He also held a grub worm. Now, I don't touch those unless I'm usin them for bait so I was glad he was holdin that one by himself! Of course, if he'd a asked me to hold it I would've had to because I don't want him seein me not likin it. Wyatt also took a ride on the dolly:

Redneck entertainment, I know, but it was fun and he obviously enjoyed it so we don't care!! This kid don't need expensive toys and movies to keep him occupied! All he has to do is dig in my utensil bucket and drawers and go outside and he's good a quite a spell!

Passel of Kids and a Barrel of Fun

2009-04-17T20:37:00.008-05:00

The past two weeks I've had a small remuda of kids runnin around the house. Besides our friends' 4 month old baby and our two boys, I've been watchin our niece and nephew. Wyatt and Easton are only 3 months apart and Addyson is the oldest, at 4, and has been my little helper. Wyatt loves to help too...don't get me wrong...

...but with his cousin's here he's kinda been busy. Really, they all have been busy. I've just been the referee. We've had issues of 'that's mines!' and 'it's my turn!' and some certain individual words that have popped up more than I'd like to hear, like, 'don't!' and 'stop that!'. For the first week and a half Wyatt was still in his no-sleepin-during-nap-time phase which made the days dark and gruesome (for everyone). His poor cousins got the brunt of his grumpiness and I had to intervene and reap that bushel of dealing with him after consequences had been enforced. In this past week, he's actually slept during nap time and it has made a world of a difference in the evenings and consequently the mornings.
Those kids! They've grown up outside and would rather be there than any other place. Through the cold mornings, rainy days, and hot sun they have spent every spare moment outside. By 9 a.m. each of them have hands caked in dirt and mud, hair speckled with dry grass and peppered with dirt. Their faces are dirt-smudged and their ears are the catch-all for anything airborn. Somewhere, this past week, they found a paintball in the yard from the neighbor kid. Naturally, one of them had to pick it up and squeeze it. Splat! Bright sky blue paint spattered all over Addyson's upper body! There's been fights and arguments and kiss-ups:

Like I said, they've been busy! They've scattered bricks all over the yard, only to turn around, draggin the big red muck bucket to pick up all the bricks. They tell me they were pickin up horse poop.
At one time, they chose a brick, and pretended it was their baby. I found that baby in the swing:

These bricks here in a pile were at one time all dumped in my flower bed.

The poor hosta took a beatin:

I know they'll survive but they look pretty mauled.
The kids tried to handle the wheelbarrow. That didn't work out so easy for them.
In this first picture the rubber tire Addyson is holdin is Buster's chew toy which he never chews on. It became her baby one day. It went with her everywhere!

Most the bricks ended up in the big trash can:

The yard now looks like this:

A messy yard means happy kids:

He is happy, he just had sun in his eyes:

And happy kids mean happy dogs:

The Stork Has Delivered!

2009-04-15T11:25:00.008-05:00

My second-born sister just had her first baby last week Thursday. Her pregnancy followed the same path as mine did, particularly with Wyatt, in that she started showing signs of preeclampsia about 2 months prior to her due date. Her body was so swollen. Her legs looked like tree stumps. Thankfully her nose never got as wide as mine did!!
Since baby Devon Rose has joined this world I've fought the urge to buy a plane ticket and run out there to eastern Pennsylvania. It has been really hard. This is the first of my blood neices/nephews to be born. My parents, 3 other sisters and brothers-in-laws have kept me updated minute by minute, hour by hour with what has been goin on and tons of pictures!
Baby Devon was born via c-section after 9 hours of my sister laboring. At 9 hours in, the doc was concerned about my sister's blood pressure and the baby was showing signs of stress. Devon started movning back up the birth canal. Devon was born at 6:26 p.m. (eastern time) on April 9th, 2009. Daddy was by momma's side the entire time. Initially there were problems with Devon's breathing and temperature but they got that taken care of. My sister is still in the hospital because her blood results showed that her liver was high in enzymes. Her magnesium levels were seriously low. Her blood pressure was still higher than it should be. She has been on bedrest since the birth.
As the oldest sister, my heart is aching to be there with her. I never knew it would be this hard. For the 8 years since I've moved back home to Kansas, my sisters and I have become closer than ever. Despite the 1000+ miles that separate us my relationship with each one is strong. I love my sisters so much. We've had quite a life together growin up. We've experienced so much. In just this past year we have seen our parents marriage end. Our ages are 30,28,26 and 23. This was no shock to us as we have seen it slowly crumble since we were old enough to sense something was not right. Through the breakdown of their marriage, we have spent years living at a Bible college, being pastor's kids, spending 35-45 weekends per year in churches all over the Midwest and East Coast for 6 years, being missionary kids, living in a third world country and the only white kids in an entire province, returning to the US knowing it was because of our parents relationship, moving out of our parents home, college, marriage and now babies. My sisters and I know each other inside and out. We stick together. We've had to. Many times it was just us four girls together, battling emotions, scars, situations, and strife that we could do nothin about 'cept pray. We have prayed a lot together: for our parents, for our lives, and each of our families. Now, as my sister is starting her family, I want so much to share that with her. I want to be up with her for her mid-night nursings. I want to just be with her as she experiences the miraculous inexplainable thing we call motherhood.
*(2hrs after I started typing this)* I just got a call that she should be goin home today!!!
Proud Papa:

Aunt Tegan (who is just weeks away from delivering her first baby) holding baby Devon:

Uncle Dan and Aunt Chels:

There's no place for a baby like a mother's side:

I want to hold her SO bad!
And here she is, 6 days old:

This.Is.Unbearable! I want to go right now!!!

Just Because

2009-04-13T16:17:00.006-05:00

I'm postin these pictures just because I need them. I like seein them. They make me feel better. They are hibiscus blooms from the plant I received at my grandmother's funeral of which I've had for 2 years.

Because seein these made my Monday better.

Easter Fun on Saturday

2009-04-11T14:14:00.010-05:00

Our day dawned gorgeous once again! We are spendin it with Aunt D and Uncle Mike (who live just across the road from us) and my cousin Courtney, her husband Chad and son Carson. We have friends comin over for the afternoon/evening. In the smoker right now are two huge tenderloins, a rack of ribs and bacon wrapped chicken stuffed with cream cheese.

For dessert I have made 3 pans of apple dumplings.

I've also made cinnamon rolls for Easter mornin with family.

The boys drove the truck around for a while this mornin:

Aunt D started gettin out her Easter decorations and Wyatt, not bein one to sit around twiddlin thumbs, joined right in.

JD had to get in the fun too:

Aunt D said the tree needed to be decorated:

Geez! Don't mess with him when he's hangin Easter eggs! He's got it handled!
Cousin Carson made it to town and first things first-a ride in the truck!

Then it was egg-dying time:

Showin Daddy his eggs!

Carson dying his eggs:

Time to pack up and go hunt Easter eggs:

Egg Hunt:
Jd hunted from the truck. It's legal to hunt from a truck in these parts ya know, but only if you're in a battery powered vehicle that goes no more 'n 5 mph and you use no firearms:

In case you're wonderin the orange thing around his neck is his safety goggles. I'm not sure why he wore them but they were on all day long.

The dogs are always around for the action.

Each of the boys got some goodies and toys from Uncle Mike and Aunt Rene:

Jd ate one of his eggs:

After all the grub was devoured we sat round the fire and had a good time late into the night.

Buster and Prix

2009-04-10T10:10:00.025-05:00

Buster and Prix are as much a part of our family as anything else. They had their sibling rivalry when Buster joined us in December 02 as a 5 week old puppy. Briefly, the story goes like this: I was sittin on the floor playin with Buster. Prix walks in, sees me playin with Buster and lights into him. Snarling, gnashing teeth, and devilish growls. With Chows you have to choose your acts of discipline very carefully. They have such an obstinate and stubborn streak that I think they share DNA with donkeys and mules. I never even thought of how I was goin to handle it. I was blazing mad. I grabbed a fistful of hair at the back of her neck and another fistful above her tail and took her to the back door, yelling the whole time. I put her down long enough to pop her on her butt, then picked her up with more fistfuls of hair on either side of her neck and threatened to beat her butt again. Opening the sliding glass door with my elbow, her swingin in the air I very literally tossed her out the door. Did you know that Chows, at least this one and in this case, when flipped ass over tea kettle will land squarely on all four paws? Yup, she did a flip and stuck the landing as well as I've seen any gymnist ever! She wasn't allowed inside the house for the next 3 days. I would take Buster out to her and while playing with him, call her over to us and laugh and play with her too so she would understand that it was a good thing to play with me together and share my attention. We have had absolutely NO problems with her since that little showdown. Since then they are great compadres and cohorts. She is so tolerant of him that if he is pesterin her to romp and play she will get up and play with him. She always starts out kinda stiff and with a look that says, 'I may be playin on the outside but I'm layin down on the inside.' It never takes her but 2 seconds to forget that she didn't want to play in the first place. If she is eatin at the bulk feeder and Buster wants in, all he has to do is yap a coupla times and she moves away to let him eat too. They know what the other is thinkin all the time. They have developed a system together when it comes to protecting their humans. Buster takes the perimeter of the yard or the front door and Prix stays back with the boys. If I'm not in the immediate vicinity of the boys then she paces back and forth from me to them.
Prix was married in to our family when E and I got hitched. I had the opportunity to resuce her from goin to the pound when she was 1 1/2 yrs old. The fact is, she was already supposed to have been dropped off. Her owner had gone on vacation and left her in the backyard. The owner's brother was supposed to have picked Prix up and taken her to the shelter right after the owner left. He did not. Prix was in the backyard without water or food for days. She had already been in numerous fights and had missing molars and other teeth. My aunt found out about this dog and asked my uncle if she could take their Great Dane, Docker, over to see if they would get along. Prix, bein a chow mix, by all means, should have been protective over her yard. On the contrary, she allowed my uncle to climb over the fence and into the yard without movin from her spot. He unlocked the gate and they brought Docker in. There was never aggression shown. Prix just acted as if she did not care at all. There was NO life in her eyes. My aunt couldn't stand to leave her there and so they agreed they would take her home. I happened to be back in Pennsylvania for a sister's graduation at the time. I had been barn manager for Last Chance Ranch Equine Rescue in Quakertown, Pa (www.lastchanceranch.org) for a couple years prior to my move back home to Kansas and I've always had a very big soft spot for animals who have been mistreated and neglected. (So much so that my husband makes me repeat a promise to him every once in a blue moon that I will take in no strays of any kind) Immediately, I said I'd take her. They warned me that she wasn't the prettiest lookin dog and she had a very stand-offish and introverted disposition. She had a look in her eye that was very mistrusting. Her movements were always guarded and stiff. She looked like she could snap and become aggressive at the drop of a hat. My aunt and uncle gave her many baths in the days to follow. They filled up bags upon bags of hair as they brushed and bathed her for the first time in her life. They went through a LOT of Draino unclogging the tub drain. She hardly ever let them pet her. The only places she would stay throughout the day was back in a corner or along the wall where there was no foot traffic. She immediately established herself as top dog in the pecking order with Docker.

I came home about 2 weeks after they had rescued her. When I saw her for the first time my immediate thought was,'She's the ugliest dog I've ever seen. She looks like a starved coyote with mange.' It was hard to picture her lookin like she should've. She was a mere 22 lbs. With her mixed breed she should've been NO less than 30 lbs. In the days that followed she started warmin up to me and within a week she was like a burr on a saddle with me.

It took her about a month recognize that she was safe. She became a very happy dog and you could see the light returning to her eyes.

She went with me everywhere: the store, my work, the lake, etc. She had a nasty habit of bolting out the door when it opened. It took about 3 months to conquer that bolting. She would run and run and run. You could tell she heard every word I screamed down the road at her and the look in her eye was 'you're wastin your time. I ain't stoppin til I'm done so you might as well turn back.' I would follow her in my truck and wait until she wore out enough that she would come to me. Not 3 months after I got her I took her to the lake on an October afternoon. I had brought my college work. She hung around by me on the blanket and swam in the lake while I did my homework. I washed my car at the pump and she was right by my side. After bein there for a while I noticed she kept lookin off down the road and across the cove where we were camped. Every once in a while she'd let off with a low deep growl. I noticed after a while that she was lookin straight at a truck with two men in it. When they got in their truck and started down the road she walked out away from my car by the pump, where I was still washin it, and sat down on the edge of the road. Sure 'nough, that truck took the turn down the road and headed to my car. Prix trotted back to me, circling around me whining, then trotted back out half-way to the road and planted all fours, growlin a low gurgling growl. The truck pulled up about 20 yards from me and the passenger got out on the off side of us. He stood there by the hood and asked me to call off my dog. By this time Prix had been slowly taking steps out to meet him. By this time her lips were in a permanent curl. I tld him, 'nope, I'm not callin my dog off. Obviously she doesn't like y'all so you'd best get back in your truck cuz she doesn't listen to me very well.' He made some excuse about just wantin to visit and I told him I don't visit when my dog doesn't like someone. He got back in the truck and they sat there for a while. Prix was about 15 feet from their truck and had no intention of movin. They finally drove off slowly down the road with Prix doggin their every turn. They got out to the main road and she finally turned around and came back.
Over the past 8 years she has slowly relaxed more and more. It used to be that she wouldn't let anyone pet her and she never stopped growlin at people whether they were in our yard visittin or in our house sittin down. Only in the past coupla years has she decided that sleeping all out on her side in the middle of the hallway at night or the middle of the front room, or even in the middle of the yard is a safe place. If my husband comes home later than usual, or at an odd time, she STILL comes to me and growls. When he is not at the house with me and the boys she never sleeps, never lets her guard down and gives me a warning growl at anything and everything. When E is home she relaxes a lot more.

During the months I was pregnant with our oldest son, and then during my pregnancy with our second son, Prix would nest. She would go into the room we had set up for the arrival of the baby and scratch on the floor. Around and around she'd go. Circling and scratching. She would sleep in the room by herself before the babies came. Before being pregnant she never went into that particular room. After each of the boys came home from the hospital she would lay herself under the crib for a while after we put them down to sleep. For bein a chow she has a tremendous amount of patience with babies-but only up til the time that they crawl. After they start crawlin she makes sure she's out of their way just like she always kept out of my autistic cousins way. From the time that our boys could get a good grip with their hands she has let them pull hair out of her hide by the handful! They grip and rip so hard that she loses her balance.

She just stands there, lickin the skin off their face or givin them a new hair style. One of her favorite things is to find their fingers and toes and mull them around in her mouth, like a catfish does liver, and systematically clean each and every appendage.
Both the dogs are very tolerant of our boys.

Buster has become a great playmate for Wyatt.

Where ever the boys are the dogs have to be there too.

Buster is a typical lab.

'Wait! I'm not done! A little more on this side again!'

He will freeze to death with you outside and he will climb up on the couch with you to watch a movie. He's the best vacuum a mom could have. I NEVER have to charge him up or change his batteries!

When the boys go to bed the dogs take their look-out spot in the hallway between the two bedroom doors. Not that they actually stay awake but they are there as close to their boys as they can be.

Then, as the night goes on, they each take a turn by the front door and then move to the couch. Come mornin, one is usually upstairs by the boys' door and one is on the couch.

Wednesday Evening Fun

2009-04-09T06:30:00.009-05:00

Wednesday dawned a gorgeous day. The kids had a lot of fun outside:

Easton, of course, found a particular hat of Uncle Eric's and didn't want to take it off. I tried to get him to wear another one but he was adamant on this one. Great. What kind of an aunt am I? And I took a picture no less:

Addyson and Easton had a fight on the way home. It went somethin like this:
E: I get to sleep on Uncle Eric's pillow.
A: That's not your Uncle Eric! He's MY Uncle Eric
E: No! He's MY Uncle Eric!
A: Okay, but Aunt Janae is MY Aunt Janae!
E: No! She's MY Aunt Janae!

In the afternoon, E called me and said he thought we should bbq so we got the fire goin.

We made onion burgers and they were delicious!

Wyatt has been in a rare form of somethin between a mad sow grizzly, possessive over his toys and a typical 2 yr old testin mommy's patience. He's just been downright ornery! He's stompin on things, knockin things over just to see them fall, bustin up stinks for the fire like he's the Hulk and soakin his legs in the water bucket after watchin Buster do it because he was hot. He kept kickin the fire poker stick over.

Meanwhile, Jd was content rollin around in the dirt and grass:

We decided to feed the boys early because, once again, they are not sleepin but 20 minutes for their afternoon nap. They love to eat outside and have been since they were newborn babies nursin.

Wyatt happily ate an ice cream sandwich:

But unhappily realized it was gone so fast.
I took a couple shots of some spring growth.
Chives are almost ready to bloom:

The Hen and Chicks are startin to green up:

There was a haze in the sky due to all the range-burning in all the surrounding counties. The sunset was in bright orange and red hues. It was a beautiful end to a busy and prosperous day and an evening outside relaxing.

Pasture Burning Fatality

2009-04-09T06:27:00.008-05:00

As many know, the practice of burning off pasture land keeps certain weeds and shrubs from choking out the nutritive grasses that livestock need to graze on. Burning also promotes healthy growth of the native grasses. Farmers and ranchers burn patures everys spring using water trucks and torches. They burn the edges of the pastures first to create a barrier. Then they move to the center and light fires in rows, starting on one end of a pasture and gradually working backwards. They keep water trucks on both sides of the burning to prevent backfires and dangerous situations. Occasionally, fires can get out of hand. You are required to apply for burning permits. Before the burning starts you have to check to see if there is a red flag warning due to prairie winds and the humidity level of that day. Sadly, yesterday, there were two ranchers south of us about 40 miles, whose fires got out of control. When they realized the fire was out of their control they got in their pickup and tried to get to safety. Their pickup truck got stuck in fencing. Tragically, the fire overran them and engulfed their pickup. One rancher lost his life after bein life-flighted to Wichita's burn unit and the other is in fair condition suffering from severe burns. Here are the details as posted in the news:

Posted on Wed, Apr. 08, 2009 in the Wichita Eagle Newspaper

Two hurt in Cowley County grass fire
Two people were burned -- one critically -- in a grass fire that broke out this afternoon in Cowley County.
The Winfield Fire Department said the fire was reported about 1 p.m. southeast of Winfield after what started as a controlled burn got out of hand.

Firefighters said one person was flown by air ambulance to the burn unit at Via Christi Medical Center-St. Francis Campus. The second victim was taken from the scene by ambulance. Neither victim was a firefighter.

The fire was one of several grass fires reported in south-central Kansas this afternoon, but no other injuries were reported.

Posted on Wed, Apr. 08, 2009

Kan. pasture fire kills rancher
The Associated Press
DEXTER, Kan. - What was supposed to be a controlled burn of pastureland has taken the life of a rancher in south-central Kansas. A second rancher was injured.

Winfield Fire Chief Curtis Wilson said the two men were burning off a field near Dexter on Wednesday when the flames got out of control.

The men drove away, but the fire overtook their pickup truck.

One of the men was trapped in the truck and suffered burns over most of his body. He was flown to a Wichita hospital and died several hours later.

The other man was treated for less severe burns.

Wilson says more than 40 firefighters from Cowley and Sumner counties battled the blaze. It was among several burns that got out of control Wednesday in south-central Kansas.

1 killed as planned burns rage out of control
BY HURST LAVIANA AND BECCY TANNER
The Wichita Eagle

Bicyclists follow the river into downtown Wichita on Wednesday evening as a smoky haze from area grassfires hangs in the air.

What began as an ideal day for controlled burning resulted in several runaway grass fires Wednesday, including one in Cowley County that left one man dead and another seriously burned.

Sedgwick County dispatchers logged 108 burn permits around the county by 7 p.m., and the evening skies in Wichita were hazy as the sun went down.

"There's a lot of acres being burned today," a dispatch supervisor said.

The air quality index for Wichita and most of south-central Kansas late Wednesday was deemed "unhealthy for sensitive group." Children, older adults and people with asthma and other lung diseases were asked to limit prolonged outdoor exertion.

The Winfield Fire Department said the Cowley County fire was reported about 1 p.m. southeast of Winfield after what started as a controlled burn got out of hand.

Firefighters said one man was flown by air ambulance to the burn unit at Via Christi Regional Medical Center-St. Francis Campus, where he later died. The second victim was taken to St. Francis by ambulance with less serious burns.

Firefighters said the men were trying to manage the controlled burn when their pickup was overrun by flames.

The fire was one of several large grass fires reported in south-central Kansas on Wednesday, many of which were thought to have started from controlled burns. None of the other fires resulted in injuries.

Spring is traditionally a time when farmers burn pasture in Kansas, especially in the Flint Hills.

Agriculture experts said over the next few days and weeks, it's estimated that nearly three-quarters of the 4.5 million acres of native tallgrass prairie in the Flint Hills will be set on fire.

"We burn to enhance our beef production, but more importantly to protect the tallgrass prairie ecosystem," said Mike Holder, Chase County extension agent.

The burns, which can light up the night horizon and fill the lowlands with rolling, hazy smoke, have become an iconic symbol that spring at last has arrived in Kansas.

The fires keep the prairies fresh, Holder said, preventing the grasslands from growing over with invading plants. They help rid the prairie of hedge, thorny locust and red cedar.

"Our cattle gain more weight from grazing the burned prairie than that which is unburned," Holder said.

Within a few days to weeks after burning, lush, green grass replaces the dried, brown grass that covered the prairie before the burn.

"When those cows put their head down, they are taking a bite of all new green grass, which is higher nutritional value than a bite of grass that has old dried grass from last year," he said.

Kansans can expect to see burns in these Flint Hills counties: Chase, Lyon, Marion, Morris, Wabaunsee, Geary, Riley, Greenwood, Butler, Elk, Chautauqua and Pottawatomie. They may also see controlled burns in counties bordering those counties.

The annual burns are done in the spring when grasses can quickly regrow.

"There are some years when the conditions aren't good for burning -- like when there has been a drought," Holder said. "But this past year, we had a good growing season. We've got a lot of old, dry grass to burn."

Hen? Meet the Choppin Block

2009-04-08T08:54:00.007-05:00

Ruffled feathers was the theme of yesterday, thanks to our oldest son. I have two extra kids in the house! I am watchin my neice and nephew this week and next and Wyatt has been thrilled to death! It's been a good learning time for him. Currently we're workin on not gettin upset when things don't go his way. I am teachin and repeatedly reminding him that he doesn't have to yell, cry, stomp his feet, or hit an object that's close to him when he's frustrated. I'm tryin to drill into his ever-expanding and maturing brain that when he's upset at something his first reaction needs to be to call for me and ask for help.
Over the past couple days he's had many a meltdown. Yesterday, I believe we went every hour with at least 1-2 tense situations. Everybody went down for naps in shifts, according to their pick up times. Wyatt, during his supposed nap, stacked up all his pillows. I opened the door and he was climbing up the moutain. JD had never fallen asleep and was peekin his head over the bumpers and giggling like crazy at Wyatt. After a firm talk and letting Wyatt know what his consequences would be if he didn't lay down and leave the window and pillows alone and fall asleep he was not happy. He started cryin loudly (read:so loud his voice curdled) and that just fueled JD's fire and he started cryin. They were both in bed for two hours and slept only 20 min. They intermittently played, laughed, fussed, cried and screamed. During this whole time Addyson and I went outside for a little bit, then the baby started cryin, then the boys upped the volume in their protesting of a nap, and then my sis-in-law picked up the cousins. Not long after that my boys finally calmed down and went back to giggling, the baby was picked up, hubby and I went out to the garage to relax and chat and we weren't there 10 min. before the boys started cryin again. Thank God I had a meal in the crock pot cuz we would've starved last night.
Talk about a gammit of emotions bein run yesterday. I felt like I had been hammered with a rubber mallet the whole day! By the end of the day I was spent! Every feather had been ruffled but everything worked out and all in all it wasn't a bad day. I know this learnin time is really good for Wyatt. I'm just not sure how long I can last!
These are the many faces of Jd that mirrored my emotions yesterday:
This was my mornin time with a cup of coffee and the radio:

This was mid-morning when it started to get a little crazy:

Half way thru the day:

This was when I thought my boys were down for a good 2 hour nap:

Realizing that my boys weren't goin down:

Seein my hubby come home:

Spendin time with my hubby:

Hearin the boys wake up after 20 min. max of no cryin, whinin, fussin or screamin:

Headin to bed wonderin how I made it thru the day so well since I felt like a chicken runnin around with my head chopped off:

My Night Out

2009-04-06T16:06:00.007-05:00

Last Friday my aunt took her friend out to supper for her birthday and then they headed to our local bar where they wanted me to join up with them. My aunt and I are rarely up to partyin hard but tonight was the exception. E is very understanding and kept tellin me to go. We had friends come over to hang out and after I got JD down to bed I pulled out. I was told later I peeled the tires goin out the drive but I did not, even though I felt like it. With everything in me I wanted to, but I restrained myself. I got to Mary's at 9 p.m. (my usual bedtime) and decided to see how wound up my aunt and her friend were before I got in the groove. They were wound tighter'n Dicks hatband! Dancin, singin and playin pool. My aunt refused to hear that I didn't want any shots. She bought me two and, not wantin to waste good Tequila Rose, I savored them all the way down. I got into the swing of things-even had enough Bud in me to win a couple games of pool. At midnight we left. My aunt's friend didn't enjoy her ride home as we found out later-all the gory, chunky details. I'll spare you. When my aunt and I got home we still wanted to party and wouldn't you know, we walked into the garage and found our hubbies still hangin out too. They really got a kick outta seein the both of us feelin good. We told them to just be glad we didn't do it very often.

Live to Ride

2009-04-06T14:49:00.007-05:00

A week or so ago our boys recieved their F150 Power Wheels Truck from their grandparents. Grandpa and grandma have given each set of grandkids a battery operated vehicle. Our boys LOVE it! Wyatt is still workin on a steady foot, struggling in part, to the fact that he's only almost 2 1/2 yrs and not quite tall enough, but JD hasn't seemed to mind all the lurchin and urchin. Every once in a while he hangs out the side like he's gettin sick. This worries me a bit, as a mom, because I can't help but think to the future. JD rides shotgun for now. He takes it upon himself to man the radio and does a bangup job of it too.

Lordy, what are we in for? Since we've had it for about a week now Wyatt can drive much smoother now and whenever JD sees it out he yells until we strap him in.

Ice Instead of Blizzard

2009-04-06T10:54:00.003-05:00

Saturday, March 28, 2009

With the rise in temperatures last night at about 10:30 the sleet turned to mostly rain. It rained/sleeted throughout the night then the temp dropped and we woke up to a layer of ice on the north side of everything. We still have yet to get the snow but they say it's still comin.

When Life Gives You Lemons

2009-04-06T10:47:00.003-05:00

Friday, March 27, 2009

Okay, so it's not raining lemons. It's sleet comin down in bucketfuls from the sky! The deck looked like this at 11:20 a.m. today:

In the early to late afternoon the kids made the most of it by doin what? Yeah, they were outside. Wyatt cried and Abigail turned very sneaky when we wanted them to come in each time to warm up.

Abigail had Wyatt's new fishin pole and every time she cast it Wyatt and Buster and occasionally Prix would run to get the fish. There was lots of giggling, slidin, and fallin.

Wyatt nearly had his face scraped off a few times from Buster leaping into the air. *Watch the posted videos to see how I'm a class A redneck mom laughin at my son almost losing his scalp. Sorry, but it was funny! He didn't get hurt so there's nothin wrong with laughin! It makes him tough!

This is what the back deck looked like minutes ago:

With a full belly of vegetable/beef stew this kid was content to roll around in the sawdust and chew on sandpaper while we hung out in the garage with Uncle Mike and Aunt Dee.

This is the front yard:

If I had taken a picture while it was still light out you would see that it looks like it's only sleeted on our yard and the road and driveways. You see, every one else is pretty stingy about people steppin in their grass...but not us! Nope! We've got a charred circle smack in the middle of the yard where the fire pit has been burnin the past couple of months. We've got a low depression up by the door that the dogs continually scratch and open up to lay in when it's hot. We've got roots from the maple that keep bowin up all over. I swear the tree tries to trip you with those roots. It's her way at gettin back after all the late nights.

Not Enough Rain to Settle the Dust

2009-04-05T15:40:00.003-05:00

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

This is what came out of Wyatt's diaper yesterday after I changed him. It's a soft pellet from an air gun courtesy of the neighbor boy. These pellets are all over our front and back yards.

This is how Wyatt amused himself after finding out that it had rained during his nap.

Meanwhile, little bro thought that all the buds that had fallen from the tree in the wind was a great source of fiber.

And here's the step-by-fall-over view of how close (or not so close) our 9 month is comin to crawlin! It does give a mama hope!

My flower opened up more!

Exhilaration and Excretion

2009-04-05T14:03:00.011-05:00

March 27,09
Daddy bought Wyatt his first fishin pole last Saturday because Grandpa Laver wanted to take Wy fishin in the pond behind their house. He's so dadgum excited about it! Sorry for the spray as he sneezes. It happens to the best of us!
On Monday we had tornadoes in the area, and today the Big Winter Storm hit. The cold couldn't stop the cousins from goin out to play. Please don't judge me too harshly when I laugh as our son nearly gets knocked out and barely escapes brain damage from our 75 lb lab. I admit, it doesn't sound nice of me and it may be a flaw but it's funny! Watch his face! I'll go to confession, I promise! And I'm not even Catholic!

Bloody Mary'd Buster

2009-04-05T08:41:00.002-05:00

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Yesterday, as usual, we were outside all day. We had planned to grill ribeyes with my aunt and uncle when they got back from lookin/buyin a new truck up towards Manhattan. My aunt was in rare form and was wanting bloody mary's. She rarely drinks but last night was the exception. So, her and I ran to the store to get the necesary items and mixed up some real nice tasting b.m's. We didn't realize that the mix we bought had enough tabasco already in it before we made them. Her tongue was on fire and my upper lip was an inferno. But dang! It was good! I didn't think it was too hot but I did want a cracker about ten minutes into the drink! JD woke up and when I went to get him Buster and Dixie were running manically around the yard, through the chairs, around the fire pit and knocked over my drink. Buster, being the lush that he is, started lapping it up. When he was done he had mud, grass and drool hanging from his mouth. Here's the picture detail in chronological order:
This is about 5 minutes after he drank the bloody mary. He looks like he's in the stage where he's relaxed and enjoyin life.

Then it looks as if he's gettin a little sleepy and decides to rest his weary head. Or maybe he has the spins.

Personally, I think he had the head spins. He didn't care where he was, he was goin to fall asleep!

He must have felt really tired and uncomfortable because the blanket looked better than the rock felt.

And wouldn't you know! Dixie came over, all giddy and playful.

He couldn't resist her! He got up slowly and boxed her with a right paw then tried to pin her with a left.

'Now that's it! No more! I'm tired!'

Dixie apparently didn't understand.

So he took off after her full bore and the fight was on!

So much for a good Saturday afternoon nap!!

Guns, Doves and Daffodils

2009-04-04T15:27:00.006-05:00

Friday, March 20, 2009

Well, like I've mentioned before, which is pretty darn obvious, we are an outdoors family. Grass, mud, tree buds, sticks-all have made permanent residency in our house. Oh, not that I really really WANT them there but it happens and I'm okay with that. Last week we had a 4 ft long branch on the blanket that covers the piano keys. After a couple days I finally tossed it outside. It made it's way back in within HOURS! I don't really understand. No one played with it the whole time it was on the piano and then, like it has legs of its own, it shows back up in the house almost immediately. And I never know who the culprit is: Buster, our lab, or Wyatt.
Monday was a gorgeous day! I called up my friend who lives about 40 min. out of town and within an hour the boys, rifles, dogs and I were packed up and headed out to Kendra's place (http://kendras-bliss.blogspot.com/). We ate our packed lunch and was outside the entire afternoon. We all got some good sun. We set up cans and bottles on the treeline and spent an hour puttin holes in them with my Ruger bolt action .22 and Wyatt's inheritted Henry lever-action .22.

Kendra taught Riverlyn all about a rifle and how to shoot. Riverlyn did great! She shot the Ruger 3 times. JD was unphased by the shots and Wy, for some reason, didn't like it. I think he's used to the fuse being lit on a firework and giving him the second or two to get ready for the blast. I tried letting him know it was gonna 'boom' just before we shot but that still didn't work.
On Tuesday, at lunch, Wyatt kept sayin he heard an owl. I told him it was a dove. Then he kept sayin, 'see? see? there's the dove mama!" I looked outside and sure enough, there she was. After a minute of callin to her, her mate sailed in and took his rightful place beside. We took a couple pictures and had fun watching them.

We've also been watchin cardinals out front:

And tryin to keep this guy away:

Wyatt's been very busy in the yard doin what 2 yr olds do best: shootin his 'guns' and playin in the dirt.

JD has been very entertained by Wyatt. He's been playin on the blanket and spending time in the jumper and walker when we're outside. We've taken the boys and the dogs on walks down to the creek a lot lately. As soon as JD sees the wagon his legs start kickin and he starts yelling.

My flowers are poppin up all over and I'm really glad because the seeds in my indoor flats are just comin up and it's too risky to plant them outside yet.

Secret To Happy Boys

2009-04-03T16:55:00.009-05:00

Friday, March 06, 2009

Step One: Find dirt

+ Step Two: Eat dirt

=one happy kid!

Another happy kid. I just hope he remembers how happy he is later in his teen years when he doesn't want to clean.

We couldn't ask for better boys. God has blessed us above and beyond our biggest dreams.

Conversations with Wyatt

2009-04-03T16:53:00.003-05:00

Friday, February 27, 2009

The other night I was upstairs puttin JD down for the night and E was gettin Wy ready for a bath. I overheard this conversation between them:
E: Are you my boy?
Wy: No
E:Are you mommy's boy?
Wy: No
E: Are you papa's boy?
Wy: No
E: Are you grannie's boy?
Wy: No
E: Well, who's boy are you?
Wy: (almost condescendingly and incredulous) I a cowboy daddy!

This is a blind conversation I had with him just a couple afternoons ago. JD was playin on the deck and Wy was runnin around outside. I was in the kitchen, fixin lunch, with the sliding door all the way open.
Wy: (muffled) Where I at mommy?
Nae: I don't know! Where are you at Wyatt?
Wy: (still muffled) I under here?
Nae: Under where? (I moved out onto the deck, curious but figured I knew exactly where he was)
Wy: Under here! I'ts my clubhouse!
Nae: Your clubhouse?
Wy: Yeah, I playin in my clubhouse!

My Favorite Smells

2009-04-03T16:52:00.001-05:00

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Hmmmmm....my favorite smells in the world have no ranking order because I love them all the same. Call me crazy and disillusional but if you've never smelled some of these then you don't understand how wonderful they are. In no consequential order they are:

1. hay-sweet luscious hay

2. saw dust-this will one day be incorporated into a cologne I have yet to create. I swear it's an aphrodesiac.

3. manure-yes, I said manure. I'm talkin bout horse and cow manure. That's it. It tends to have a calming affect on those that understand the chemical makeup.

4.fresh cut grass-need I say more? Who doesn't like that smell? You've got to have one hard soul to not like this!

5.spring mud with a warm rain-so earthy and wholesome

6.baby milk breath-No one knows the sweetness of this unless they have a little bundle of life tucked into their arms knowing that their beginning and existence solely depends on something that is unexplainable, unmatched and miraculous

7. babies heads-again no one can fathom the sweetness of a tiny baby's head unless they understand the miraculousness of new life.

8. spouse's natural musk-there is no cologne that even comes close in this rival. There is no rival. No contest. No cigar.

9. exhaust from a blender mixing cookie dough-you can't live life without this one!

10. horse flesh-aaaaahhhhh....if you understand you understand and I'm deeply and regrettably pity those who don't know the smell

11. puppy breath-just like the babies breath

12. leather-and I ain't talkin leather from a $600 coat. That doesn't compete with the true leather. I'm talkin used and bruised leather that you'd find in a tack room or the backseat of a truck.

13. woodsmoke-homey, simple, old-fashioned woodsmoke. Somehow it reminds me that workin hard, lovin and laughin with family and friends and knowin that life has a higher purpose is all you need in this world.

Many of these I grew up with so they bring back a poignant and nostalgic feeling but thankfully they all still play a vital role in my life now. Some of these I didn't learn to love until after the birth of our firstborn son. I realize some people may look at me differently after readin this but hey, it's me and now you know!

Preemie Pyro Phase II

2009-04-03T16:51:00.002-05:00

After loading up the pit with the logs he lifts each one up to blow under it and says, 'I blow! I blow some!' He is strictly referring to starting the fire as he watched Uncle Ben do the night before and Daddy do every weekend for at least a month.

Preemie Pyro Phase I

2009-04-03T16:49:00.002-05:00

I just want to clarify that neither me or Uncle Mike gave him any encouragement in this process whatsoever. He did it all on his own.

One Black Widow Down

2009-04-03T16:47:00.003-05:00

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

I don't know if she's THE one, but she's at least one down. I was going thru the backyard just 15 min. ago and saw the bag to the lawn mower beside the gate. It had a pool of water in it so I decided to flip it over. Uh! I've got the heebie geebies, or the creepy crawlies, or whatever you want to call it now. There she was. Long spindly legs. Shiny black bulging body. Bright red hourglass. AAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! I just had to get that out. Sorry. After I sprayed her I ran in to get a glass jar. And yes, I used a stick to get her into it. But then I had to open the jar to get some good pics otherwise they would be really really blurry thru the glass. Just as I got the last picture she started to get a second wind on her last life and she...she...uhm...started squiggling around. Lucky for me the glass must be hard to climb up because I got the lid .. she got off her back and onto her legs. She's paying for that one! I closed the lid TIGHT!! Just look at her!

She's...she's...uh...anyone else feel like something's crawling on them? I wanted to make sure I got her red hourglass lest anyone think I was lying about what a monumentous and grand day this is.

Dang! It's not real clear. But it's there. And now she's resting, dying a slow, painful, agonizing death in an airtight jar on my kitchen widow, I mean window, sill. I hope she dies a thousand deaths over and has NEVER had babies! I'm declaring war if she has! Good God I hope she hasn't!

One more, just for the heck of it......

Okay, I'm D-O-N-E!!!!

The 'Matoe' Stealer

2009-04-03T16:45:00.001-05:00

He just had to help mommy pick the 'matoes. I couldn't be upset with him. It was too dadgum funny!

The Great Pillow Fight Of 08

2009-04-03T16:36:00.002-05:00

This is Great Grandpa Dietrich and Wyatt. Grandpa spends time with each and every great-grandkid and knows everything about them. Everyone loves Grandpa. He's a wonderful man who has stories that are beyond your wildest imagination. We were very priveleged to have Grandpa Dietrich as my husband's best man in our wedding.

Majic Jumper

2009-04-03T16:24:00.001-05:00

Sep 24, 2008 This contraption has the same effect on number two as it did on number one. Great for muscles, attitude and mommy and daddy alike!!

Annual Seasoning Of The Skillets

2009-04-03T16:19:00.003-05:00

Sep 12, 2008

Last weekend since it was so nice and cool we had a fire going pretty much all day, Saturday and Sunday. We stayed out til 1 a.m. with Uncle Mike and Aunt Dee Saturday. Sunday we grilled supper with them and Matty and Nicole. Grandpa Dietrich gave us a set of old cast iron skillets and a Dutch oven. They were covered in rust. E cleaned them all up and we had them on the fire seasoning them all weekend. Saturday night the little skillet got a bit out of hand. Thankfully the flames weren't seen by the neighbors. At one point they were all of about 3 1/2 feet high.

Nothin' better than a good ol' fashioned seasoned cast iron skillet. Everything tastes better with burned grease in it!

I'm A Bear!

2009-04-03T16:17:00.004-05:00

E started him on this tirade that plays out every night after his bath as he's supposedly winding down for bed. He's usually a bear but sometimes he transforms to a fox (after watching Grizzly Man Diaries....'do you remember me? Huh? Have I messed with Nature? Yeah, you could say that') and every great once in a while he becomes a monkey.

I.H.O.P.S.

2009-04-03T16:14:00.002-05:00

Sep 12, 2008

I've been waiting for this day to come. Wyatt has already got his hands in the peanut butter a couple weeks ago. It's under the counter in the cabinet. Along with the creamer, canned goods, oatmeal, syrup, and shortening. None of these things are small. I buy it all in bulk. E found Wyatt all smeared up with the peanut butter. Hands, face, clothes, nothing was exempt. I thought he'd hit the shampoo and soap bottles first. But I was wrong. Lately, he's taken to emptying out this cabinet and playing with all the goods in the window. He opened up the oatmeal last week on the couch. No, I didn't move any of it out of that cabinet. Which is why today we became the International House of Pancake Syrup!!!!! Thank God for wood floors and a husband who put them in!! He had grabbed the syrup bottle and was playing with it. I, regrettably, didn't think anything of it. I had my hands in flour making tortillas and the skillets cooking them. Pretty soon I heard, 'Mama! Mama! Mom, no!" He came into the kitchen with his hands outstretched and literally dripping with syrup. It was all over his shirt, shorts and feet!! I walked into the living room and between the coffee table and couch is a HUGE pool of almost the entire bottle of syrup on the floor and Buster lapping it up as fast as he could. (I had to peel him off the ceiling later!) The couch did a great job of keeping the syrup from running anywhere else!!

I turned off the fire cooking the tortillas for the second time that day (between the boys you learn that nothing is ever a start-to-finish project with no stopping. Things have to be played with and kids need to eat and that's alright. I haven't burned anything yet and everything has turned out tasting good). I used two old bath towels to clean up along with paper towels, cleaner and a good scrub brush for the bottom of the couch. It actually cleaned up fast. I've since found drips of syrup on the couch, stairs, Labrador rug, pine cabinet, and when I'm outside the flies and one bee won't leave me alone!!!! In Wyatt's defense it really wasn't his fault. He did not open it. The top came unscrewed, which I've noticed they do very easily. But he did pour it all out. I really really really like my wood floors. The couch has been propped up since this unfortunate event in order to dry the base out. All's well now and the house smells great!

Food For Thought

2009-04-03T16:05:00.004-05:00

Sep 8, 2008

Ever wonder how your kids are going to be? I'm not talking personalities here, more like the idiosyncracies they may develop. I know on some things I border on OCD but on other things it just doesn't bother me. I like my kitchen spotless unless I'm in the middle of cooking or baking. The bedrooms, living room and bathrooms could be a mess with things lying out and it doesn't get to me like when my kitchen is full odds and ends. Example:

That's my living room now. There's clothes, cups, a dead flashlight that Wyatt has been using as a pitcher to make us something to drink, a rag that is for the garage, diapers still in their cases that haven't made it upstairs for 3 days, a swing and a jumper. The downstairs living room doesn't look much better either. But it doesn't bother me. I was sitting outside just a bit ago and saw this:

Wyatt's chalk. He lined them up systematically. Now this kinda worries me. But thankfully the rest of the yard looks like this:

He's not full-fledge OCD, that's apparent. I'll have to keep tabs on what else goes on in the next couple years!
Last night we bbq'd and here's what it looked like:

Beef fajitas and andouille sausage.
I made some weird sandwiches the other day just cuz they sounded good.

I diced up onion real fine and mashed it into cream cheese with some herbs that I felt would go good with it. Then sliced garden tomatoes and cucumbers. I piled it all in my homemade pita pockets and it was messy but it was good!

Wyatt is gettin real good at balancing. This is how we made it through the last hour and a half at the zoo last week:

It helps to play horse. Gets his legs in shape. JD's crying so that's all for this random post.