Random Thoughts

Seems I have so much I could blog about but don't feel like typing and typing. So here's the ideas I'm thinking about with a brief how I feel:)
-Special election in MA for Ted Kennedy's senate seat. I wish for just this one day I was a Massachusetts resident. This has been a Democrat state since 1977 I believe i heard on the news. Republicans have a chance, a good one even, at finally turning that state around. This is a closely followed election on all the news channels. And my friends I met at FL I hope you voted:)
-The Haiti earth quake. We were so out of connection when this all happened with us being in FL. I would give my right arm to adopt one of the orphans. It is weighing so heavy on my heart. Is it on yours? I'm curious is this is a normal feeling amongst us or if b/c of our adoption experience it tugs at my heart more. (there is no wrong answer) Its so sad to see to see all the devestation that an earth quake can do. They are talking 100's of thousands dead. Thats worse then what any terrorist attack. Unbelievable. Have any of my readers been to Haiti? Anyone with any experience from adopting from Haiti? How do you know which organzations are good to donate money too. I've heard to so many things saying that so often the money doesn't even get there!?
-Weather-looks like we're going to get an ice storm! Oh yeah. NOT. We came home to maybe 11 inches of snow. That means that 10+ inches melted. We've been having dense fog for quite awhile. The trees are so pretty but you know when we have fog like this in the winter a good storm is brewing.
-Caucuses are THIS SATURDAY for Iowa residents. My IA readers, go here to find your polling location. We here in my county, have our central committee meeting tonight. If you need more details I will be able to provide it after tonight. Looking forward to our meeting tonight and being way more involved with the process then I was able to two years ago.
-Kids-they are doing well. They are so happy to be home and play with their toys. That means they do not want to leave the house. Miss A says 'i want to play with my toys'. C'man had a hard time wanting to go to school He didn't like his jeans. I'm quite certain it's b/c he can't get them unbuttoned to go potty. Since he waits till the last possible minute, it's a mad rush to get it done. Then he can't get them buttoned again. Poor kid. But what do you do. He can't always wear sweats. (I can, but not him) He continues to love the Shamu (daddy and baby) and his Dolphin (mommy and baby) that he got @ Sea World. He loves them so much.
-Livestock or I guess the chickens. They are doing great! I cleaned out the house Sunday b/c it was so nice out. I swear it was warmer here Sunday then it was the Saturday before in Orlando. I moved the nest and found lots of eggs. Was like an Easter egg hunt LOL. I got 12 eggs that day. They must have missed me LOL. Altho one flew the coupe and hung out in a tree all day Sunday. Then on Monday when I went to get him out I fell thru a snowbank. i had no gloves and had snow up to my knees. I screamed, the chicken flew away. I think he's back with the others. Stupid white chicken.

Alright for not having much to say I guess i did:) What's new by you all??

Red Neck Fun

Grab a milk jug or in our case, OJ since we drink raw milk:) out of recycling. Needless to say recycling bins are FULL b/c garbage man could not make it into our driveway. Grrrrr....We won't visit that subject anymore, right DH???

Get it AWAY from dog!!! (NOT an easy task)

Bury it deep into the snow. Probably some 12 inches:)

Get the heck out of there but since the snow is up to your knees getting out before the dog buries you in know is quite a task.

Dog retrieves jug and now will NOT give it back to you. (barely see it but jug is in b/w his paws and he's watching C'man approach him)

Child and mother get frustrated with dog not wanting to cooperate. Therefore you move on to sledding down a hill. Dog not happy.

Dog grabs shovel now and is coming after you or anything in it's path. True story, this dog will flatten you on your back before you even see it coming. Ask DH about that. One minute he was standing and not even a second later he was flat on this back.

I'm thinking you need to be put to work dog!! Grab shovel by crawling on ground so as to not get clocked in the head.

DEFEATED!!

Now I'm thinking about spreading food, fat/grease, whatever all over the deck and seeing if he can get the snow off the decks.

It's a Balloon Ol' Time

***************sorry for the absence. All is find ACCEPT that we have almost reached our maximum 'space' for our month. We only get so much and we're inching closer and closer. Therefore that means limited blogging. But here's a post I had written earlier.*******************

Remember the Barnstorming For Governor event we held?  The decorating was fabulous. There was hay bales of which boards were put on for people to sit on. The candidates 'stage' was a hay rack and there were balloons everywhere. We had them on the floor, bad idea they kept popping and I HATE popping balloons. I about wet myself every time one popped and while setting up Sunday there was lots of popping. At any rate, there was many helium balloons tied together to make like a column. Very neat!
So when operation clean up went in to effect after the event, i said I'd take home the balloons for my kids rather then popping them all. Another lady that i'm on our committee with, her husband was thrilled to get those balloons in to my van. When I re-thought my idea, i realized he might be easier to pop them. Not Virgil. He was going to get 'er done. I was just about rolling on the floor during the entire process.

Then we got them in my van. Shots of that:

Yes the bad part is they are hilium so they float to the top and the kids can't reach them. Needless to say I have balloons in EVERY ROOM OF MY HOUSE!! That's 6 rooms and not including the bathroom and laundry room which i'm sure there may be some in there by now. As I type this in the piano/computer room there are 10 floating on the ceiling and 5 tied to Miss A's stroller. The ceiling in my kitchen:

This is most of them together. They now are floating EVERYWHERE. BUT we are having fun. If I could figure out the video downloading I'd post a video of last night in which the kids would run around the island chasing one another. All you could see was the trail of balloons floating above them as they ran. Then they'd freak out when they ran in to one another. DH and I would then start batting at the balloons like cats batting a toy. OH MY GOSH speaking of 'batting' remember my post about the chickens?? One of them had a dead bat in there beak!!! They wouldn't let it go. It was running around with it in it's mouth with me chasing it as DH said they couldn't eat that! That was one of those moments I commented outloud to him, seriously...look at us. We're chasing a chicken with a BAT in it's mouth around the yard. How can you NOT laugh at this!.

OK back to my story. The balloons. We are having great fun with them:)

I've Fallen and Can't Get Up

Just another post about how life for us is never lacking excitement, i mean entertainment. We, (more at my pushing then DH's) decided to move the chicken house to the south side of the barn. Easier access in winter to water, heat for the water dish, and sheltered more from the north and east winds. Today was the day for that. In order to move it DH had to get the bucket off the tractor and put the forks?? on it, the look something like this.

Picture chickens running loose, 18 of them, a dog that is obsessed with them, and then us or rather ME helping. It had to be quite a sight to see. Hauling this dog fence across the yard that was taller then me and possibly heavier and then DH pushing it WAY to fast thru a pile of weeds. I had to chuckle b/c i was certain this was hilrious for those up above watching us.
Got the fence up and the house set and now it was time to get the chickens.(DH still needs to cut a door for them to go in and out from) I knew it was going to be quite a task. That is was. DH is trying to help and I have my bucket of mash trying to lure them to the house with it. DH decides to help to which he thinks he has them  coming and starts yelling 'go go GO' !!!  I GO GO GO all right, right in to the bucket! That's right i fell right over backwards in to it. Total slow motion. I was like don't hit my head, what's going to happen to my back and please don't let those chickens attack me, and my gosh don't spill the MASH!!
It felt like i laid there forever. You know when you fall so hard you could puke? that was me not to mention my arm! My arm was hurting. I heard DH say 'oh NO!' and he was standing there looking at me. Not sure what was all going to hurt, but at the moment  I needed to just take a breath of air. He thought he'd just lift me up. Couldn't do that cause my arm hurt. At which point we're trying to figure how i can get up, mind you my feet are still up in the air on the bucket. He comes over to help and the next thing i know there are chickens getting ready to peck at my crotch b/c i spilled all the mash. They are standing on my legs and my worse fear of being pecked to death could quite possibly become  a reality. OK not literally, but none the less. I wanted out. DH got me picked up and here I sit to tell the story. Not sure how my arm is going to look in the hours and days to come, but it hurts.
At last another story for the blog:) And here are pictures of course!!
The bucket I fell in to:

I went in the house, frustrated as all heck. DH I think knew better then to follow me in:) Here he is trying to round up chickens:

While I was finishing up this post DH started up the combine and chickens went everywhere. I went out and helped round them up. Here is some videos:) Please pardon our messy barn/outside. As soon as we have some $$ we will tin the barn and make it look 100 times better.

Oh lovely now I see I can't upload videos. I'll have to work on that.

May I Gloat?

I just have to say what a successful day I had! DH had to carry mail today so that meant NO TV. Things seem to go better when he isn't here (sorry but it's true) and I think it's b/c there is no tv on and they/kids have to play. C'man jumped right off his chair after breakfast and started playing. I knew then it was going to be a good day. By 730AM both kids were playing and I thought Hmmm maybe i'll paint Miss A's room today. And paint is what I did. It looks oh a little.........pink. Like a pepto bismal bottle spilled. I got 2 coats put on all 3 walls and one wall i have just one more coat left. I'm quite impressed I got it all done. 1/2 before nap time and 1/2 after. Now I didn't just paint non stop. There were the interruptions of the garbage/recycling truck, chicken chores, couple loads of laundry and I don't even know HOW many trips up and down the stairs. I swear I'd get upstairs and would need something which was usually downstairs in the laundry room (opposite floor and side of the house) If it wasn't trying to find my brush, it was the laundry.
Amazingly the kids were so good. BUT they are always exactly where I am. That meant that in Miss A's already small room, they HAD to be in there with me. Oh and how could i forget the 2 cats that thought they had to come in the house and then the kids haul them upstairs. It was interesting painting but it went good. i didn't loose my cool and no pink paint got on anyone other then me!
While Miss A napped C'man helped me get supper ready and then what was supposed to be an easy job of cleaning out a gutter turned in to me going upstairs, squeezing thru a window that was smaller then my hips, i climbed up on the roof and cleaned the rest of them out. Rather scary but I didn't try to imagine what I would look like if I fell from way of there, or worse yet, how I'd get C'man to call for help. I'm typing this, so all turned out ok!!
OH and how could I forget those dang little beetle bugs that were ALL over the garage. I shop vac'd them up too!! (yesterday I cleaned the garage). So yeah I'm feeling pretty good about all that i accomplished.
I even manage to get a 55 min workout with my ladies i work out with. However, i have eaten more Snickers then things I accomplished today. DON'T go back and count b/c i can tell you I bet I ate 7 or 9 of those dang things.
Tomorrow night is our big Political Event where people can meet the Govenor Candidates. I'm printing out our 'unofficial' Straw Poll as I type this! Woohoo there is one more thing accomplished. I'm looking forward to the evening and hope it's a HUGE success!!
Well, are you exhausted by this post?? It's such a great feeling to accomplish things isn't it?? Big or small, it feels good. Tomorrow I HAVE to finish painting the hallway. That is taking forever.
BTW can someone tell me where my spell check went??

Canning

Phew....we've been busy over here at our farm house. Besides the constant drama/issues with FIL I've been working on canning and freezing. Here are pics:

BTW as I sit here typing, YES in THE AM!! the kids are playing so nicely beside me. Some of what I'm hearing:

C'man asking Miss A if she's going to play at school with him

C'man telling Miss A 'sorry I just can't play with you right now' (ouch! That must come from hearing me??)

C'man is working on building a test track. That is a result of our trip to DSW. He/WE LOVED that ride.
Miss A must have drawn a picture and she's telling C'man: this is my brother, my daddy, my mommy, etc but now Mr C'man is saying no THIS is Daddy. (I'll have to see this picture)

Miss A is signing: This is my commandment that you love one another.....

C'man just yelled: The bus is here!! (he must be getting excited for school, but he's going to be disappointed b/c he's not old enough to ride the bus)

Obviously C'man is doing all the talking around here, unless Miss A disagrees then she loudly speaks up.

OK they are on to the kitchen now doing god knows what. Back to my original post:

Already to be blanched.










Was able to get 2 pots going. Goes much faster but only if you're doing this with two people.












Soaking in cold water. Next step is cutting if off. I'll have to post pictures of that after my session today:)

End result was 88 ears got me 20 bags. Needless to say, that's NOT enough to get us thru the winter. There is probably over 100 ears sitting outside right now. Will get better pictures today.

I guess I don't have any pictures of the next stages of the process of freezing corn.

Kids This Will Be Our Next Trip

When we went to MNPLS a couple weekends ago we came across a tractor ride. Remember the one I told you that went by our house? Well here was another one. ACCEPT this one wasn't so 'cool' b/c we were stuck in the middle of it. There had to been over 300 tractors. We were in the middle of it all. I was rather irritated b/c after all we had places to get too. But I saw a blog opportunity and mine as well laugh about it. Not that the kids understood but I said this is what we're going to start doing:

Hard to see but it's a tractor pulling this wagon of people I can see the sign already: 'RedNeck Transportation'

I kid you not there was a sign on there that said:

1/2 way $1

All the way $3

Now I don't know where they were going but I honestly can't think of a worse way to get there. It was like the entire family woke up and said lets take a tractor ride!? OK yes it was an organized tractor ride, but none the less....

Then there's this picture. Can you see DH and I doing this some day?? I hope the make a big enough seat for my ars. It could get mighty uncomfortable.

It Is A New Day

Here I sit when I should be cleaning my house. My cousin from Arizona and his wife are coming to visit. They are visiting my G'parents so they are coming too. I'm looking forward to it and hoping they can see past our messy, uncompleted house.
Miss A is napping. She also was asleep by 7PM last night. During supper she did not want to eat TWO green beans. Just two people. She wouldn't do it. She ran upstairs and a couple minutes later I followed. I put her in her jammies, she tried to tell me she was ready to eat, and I said good night. She actually fell right to sleep. Now this AM she wanted more M&M's (organic ones...didn't know there were such a thing, BTW they are yucky) I told her no and she went upstairs. I found her asleep in bed. SOOO I'm thinking the child is exhausted and I dare bet to say a little constipated. I gave her prune juice a couple days ago, nothing! Anyone else have any other ideas? Apple Juice maybe?? A chiropractor adjustment?

In other news, you should have seen C'man and I trying to round up the chickens last night. Oh wait, here's where they live now: ok guess I don't have them downloaded yet. At any rate, there is this dirt pile covered in weeds. Yeah nothing new for us to have weeds. The chickens like it up in there. There we were trying to chase them out. C'man would climb up in those weeds and I'd sit watch at the bottom with a broom. Dang thing (only one) would run the opposite direction of my broom. EVENTUALLY and that was a long eventually we got him in. Oh yeah, I sent C'man to get Boji to help round it up. Boji didn't exactly know what he was doing, but he did get him out. Now I need to train the kittens to do it too.

This was after we walked thru the bean field trying to find Ethel's kittens. Yeah she hid them on us. You would think we could find them now that they are old enough to meow when called. But Ethel leads us the opposite direction I swear. You can follow her and watch her and you turn your back and poof she's gone. It's like how the heck does she manage to just disappear in all this open space without one of us seeing her.

She did leave one kitten behind and that one is now bunking with the new kittens. Going to be a regular cat farm around here.

Better get going now. What's new and exciting in your lives???

Random Updates

Totally random post but this is about all I have time for.
-Made it back from MNPLS early Monday evening. While at the Mall Of America we splurged and got Miss A an American Doll 'Bitty Baby'. I LOVE it as much as she does. They have an entire store there in fact even a beauty salon. That's right, you could bring your doll and get her hair done. Even a little salon chair for her to sit on!! Oh dear me!! Anyone else have girls that have, or have had, an American Girl doll?? Accessories are EXPENSIVE!! I'm hoping to keep my eyes out on ebay and craigslist.
-My niece is visiting. We took her home with us. I'm not sure she's have the 'best' time but it's hard to do much when you have 2 small children that need naps b/c they are horribly crabby from all the weekend fun.
-I now know why we FLY everywhere. DH and I do NOT do well in the car. He goes to slow, hates traffic. I am constantly asking 'what exit?' or 'what's our hotel number?' and the dang TomTom. While that is my friend, it certainly isn't DH's. While trying to find our hotel we pulled over in a city park to get the lap top fired up. A cop stopped too to see if we needed help:) What a disaster it was finding our hotel.
-I hit my head on a water slide that i was supposed to stay lying down on. We, C'man and I, were going to fast so i tried to sit up hoping we'd slow down. Man hitting your head at 30+mph in WATER, is not something i ever care to do again. Then poor C'man hit his head too. It was a mess. Needless to say C'man opted to going down with JoJo and I opted out of those slides completely.

-CHICKENS!! Chicken drama resumes. WE moved them to there house last night only to have 2 chickens escape thru a hole and the dog got them. Goll darn it!!! so now we're down to 11!! We still need to do some work in there but at least they are out of my garage!

-Family-well my FIL continues to not get any better?? If that's the right word. They up'd his lithium but like everything i suppose it might take awhile to take effect. My MIL's SISTER was here from Washington state and she left Sunday!! She was supposed to be here THREE weeks!! It was just to much i guess. This all is so frustrating. I'll just leave it at that.

-Met my nieces BF last week. She's a recent grad of Iowa State and is looking for a job. Anyone?? Community and City Planning, or something like that!? At any rate she moved back home. Her BF came to visit her so they came over for supper. Was a lot of fun ACCEPT we watched at least one hour of the B-ball drafts?? I was like you've got to be kidding me?? Of course this is all said in humor b/c i teased about what fun this was...joke joke. DH and I did get a kick out of the two of them. Oh what young love. We laughed at the stories of choosing b-ball tournaments over spending 4 days with your GF, the little jives they took at one another, etc. C'man loved them both and we hope to see them again sometime soon.

-Remember back when i wrote about my FIL and put a note about hoping Megs wouldn't read about it for the first time on my blog, just to let you know she knew what was going on. She sent me a nice email and said that she knew what was going on. Just so any readers don't think how nice it was of me to tell her via my blog!

Sorry for this being so random but that's my life:)

As If.....

I need anymore going on in my life! Anyone that has read this blog for any length of time (like 2 posts) is probably shaking there head wondering what's next.

First off, my FIL. As I type this they are @ court finding out if he can be released. I'm praying NO WAY! He's still not the least bit 'stable'. Altho a cat scan has shown possibly the beginning stages of dementia. I'm still sticking with my original thought that that's what he has. Bi-Polar just doesn't appear out of the blue does it? That being said, there are far more 'issues' and it would appear the tendency ans issues, have been there for years and years. My husband and his family had to have been living in utter denial that the things/warnings that have been there for years that things 'weren't right'.

OK back to the point. So we have this cat 'Tinkerbell' that has kittens. Found them last night in our garage with no mamma in sight. You guessed it!! We are now taking care of 3 itty, bitty kittens. I dreamt some of the weirdest dreams last night that dealt with these little kittens and me taking care for them. I called our local vet at 755AM and by 815 we were in the van going to town to get a bottle, milk re placer and a syringe. Oh and we took one of the worse off kittens with us. I was hoping they could show us how to feed them, but the vet was in surgery so we finally left.

It gets better....I'm out in the blessedly HOT/STICKY weather (oh but we are loving it!!) trying to get these kittens to drink/suck whatever just get something in them. 2 of them will NOT stop meowing. Remember when the chicks were quacking non stop? Well the kittens meowing/screeching is just about as bad! So then guess who shows up? the mother cat!! I was so happy to see her and immediately try putting the kittens on her. Her nipples are like nothing! And THEN the worst discovery of all....MAGGOTS everywhere!!!!!!!!!! i about threw up! I ended up giving her a bath by spraying her with a hose, dowsing her with peroxide and then putting her in a kennel and bringing that in to our house. Its obvious she has no milk nor really wants those kittens.

I have back up tho in helping. It's called K-Dee, our dog:) Watching her very carefully, she thinks they are puppies, she will give them a bath! Beautiful. If only i could get her to produce milk! Momma kitty is still hanging on in the kennel and seems to be coming around. Not sure how long she'll make it to be honest. I'm giving her antibiotics but not wanting to drop $100 + in to her I'm hoping it'll work. (she's just a farm cat that someone dropped off at another farm)

Kittens are sleeping outside in a safe place. We have another cat, Tinkerbell's sister, that is due for kittens too any day. I'm so hoping she'll have them SOON and we can put these 3 on her.

There you have it!! As if I need ONE MORE FREAKIN THING TO DO!!!!!!!!! My mom nicely said that God has away of putting things in our lives when we may need it to distract us. I think there is some truth to that and that's what these kittens are going to be. Once they figure out this bottle thing, or I do, it will be much better. Can you believe I almost typed FUN!

Off to the pool we are going.

And Then There Were Three

Really?? Can this really be my life? You all seeing how freakin crazy my life is? Well it just got crazier.
This afternoon I was staining windows in C'mans room. Something I have put off for oh....6 months?? I HATE it. But anyway, I'm finishing up and in drives my BIL with ducks in the back of his truck. I couldn't get my staining gloves of fast enough, wondering what the hell he was doing. (sorry but that was exactly what I was thinking)
If Miss A hadn't been napping AND i wasn't upstairs, I'd yelled and jumped out the window. I rushed downstairs, thru the house, muttering 'oh NO you don't' or 'what the hell' I get out there to see him walking with THREE DUCKS and ONE BLACK CHICKEN.
Being held by there feet he says: 'This is ALL I HAVE LEFT'.

'Excuse me?? Pardon me but what are you doing with them HERE?? I HATE ducks. I even want to hate these chicks.'

My 14 yr old niece was with him or I'm most certain I would have been freaking out more. THEN my brain kicks in and I have a suggestion.
I tell him 'I have a deal. You can keep them here IF you go get that building I'm going to make in to a chicken house down at the neighbors'

He grunts, groans, mutters something and I say 'seriously they are not ALL going to stay in my garage. I'm not cleaning up after 3 ducks on top of my already messy chickens'.

He tells me DH can go get the building. I reply ahhhh Haaa that's the problem. He won't/can't/to busy/ and I want it NOW:)

He leaves and if I had a stick I'd been shaking in the air as he left. THREE stinken ducks quacking and it's driving me fricken nuts.

Oh wait, there's more. I get this idea to list them on this free recycle website as well as on facebook. Well guess what, I have a taker. My lovely Jen. I tell BIL of my new founded home for them and he replies: 'I don't think so, I'm taking them back as soon as I figure out what's killing them'

DRATS!!!!!!!!!

Not sure how many days that means but 5 hours later and I'm still going crazy listening to those things quack. Did I mention yet how annoying they are??

Well now they are in there own cage. Remember how chickens will peck to death an animal that is wounded, well that's what they are doing to the one duck. Oh and another duck had it's eyes poked out by this varmet! I'm told that the scene in the chicken house was awful. Whatever animal is doing this has NO mercy. They found chicken pieces up in a tree, above the garage, and who knows where else. What amazes me is know one heard this!? When DH and I lived over there we heard right away if something was in the chicken house.

They are kind of thinking it's a Wiesel?? I have no idea what that is but it sounds awful b/c they are known to bite the head off AND suck the blood out. How awful is that!!!!

That's my story for today. I tell ya, if I had the time, I could blog a story about every day. Inevitably there is always something. I'm heading off to bed. I have to go laugh myself to sleep b/c I still can't believe this is my life!

Tomorrow is C'mans Bible School program. I can't wait:)

Good Night Moon

We, DH was able to go too, started our reading program Tuesday night. To be honest, it was rather dry and boring. I remember back in the day when I took a babysitting class as well as in school, being taught how to read a book with expression. The lady talked to us about that, how to have your children snuggle with you when we read books increases there chances of staying put and allowing them to choose the book. All of this was already going on in our house. With the acception of DH reading with no expression and very loud (LOL).

That being said, we did get lots of freebies. Everyone walked away with a door prize, we got a great supper and the kids had fun. Well Miss A didn't want to leave DH's side but C'man will have a blast when he gets to go. There are over 9 boys and Miss A is the only girl! The boys are all real close to C'mans age. We, or rather I, will continue to go back. Needless to say I'm fairly sure DH won't be returning. It's something fun, and different, for us to do not to mention that it's one less night I have to cook supper.

The give away book this time was Good Night Moon. How many of you have heard it? Read it? HAVE it?? If there is someone who does NOT have this book, let me know and I will mail you the copy I got. We have 2 copies already and C'man LOVED the book. Miss A thinks it's ok but would much rather read Fancy Nancy.

Leave a comment and I'll get in touch with you.

C'man is at Bible School up in my hometown. It's just Miss A and I. Tuesday night we have this Storyteller Program. Not sure what it'll be about but it includes supper AND childcare. It's a 5 week session and it's provided thru a grant our County got. I'll have to report how it is at a later date.



Here's some pictures tho of the last couple weeks:


These are from Memorial Day weekend when we went to the Lakes and when to Arnolds Park. We got season passes this year. I'm sure there will be many more pictures of times spent at this great park!

Gonig Batty

After my last ranting post, I am feeling better:)

Now on with life. As you can probably tell from reading my blog, there is NEVER a dull moment around here. That proved true once again on Monday. Early Monday AM I woke up to DH standing beside my side of the bed with a tennis racket in his hand. He woke me up out of the most beautiful sleep to tell me there was a bat in the house!

About one hour later the bat was lost. Our day began as usual with breakfast, blah blah. ACCEPT that today we had to be on the road by 730AM to get C'man to Bible School at my parents town. We were running pretty close to schedule TILL....the bat came back. It chose to reappear while DH was buckling up the kids. I was standing at the kitchen table doing a last look to make sure i got everything when out of the corner of my eye I saw the bat trying to dive bomb me. I flew under the kitchen table so fast that I gave myself a floor burn. In the preceding minutes I screamed and screamed, and well you get the idea. Needless to say the more I screamed the more the bat flipped out. DH never came to my rescue till i finally made a run for the garage. I told him 'bat, the bat back' i was so out of breath. He never heard me scream but the dog did and she was flippin out b/c she KNEW the bat was back.

I sent DH up to get diapers and i made my way out to the van. But not before venturing in to get my coffee of which DH kept making me think the bat was back. I was so freakin hot i could have taken a cold shower. I HATE/DESPISE bats. A couple hours later DH reported he had got the bat. It was hiding on top of our cupboards and was peaking over the edge at DH.

DH laughed so hard at me, but that's OK b/c i have never laughed so hard as when he is trying to swat a bat. It can be 2AM (like it always seems to be when they come out) and I can laugh so hard that i darn near pee my pants. It's something I should catch on video but never will b/c I know I'd get whacked with the tennis racket if the thing came near me.

We don't get them very often, like maybe once/year if that. But what a horrible experience when we do. I will NOT let him sleep upstairs. He must stay on bat patrol for a couple nights. Of course DH prefers the couch over the bed any ol' day so he's not out to much.

Do you all get bats? Any stories??

Losses of a Pet

It is with much sadness that I post tonight that our Chocolate Lab, Mocha, died this AM. A week ago tomorrow (Friday) she had surgery to remove a tumor. She was just never the same. I couldn't find her this AM and eventually she must have mustered up enough strength to drag herself closer to the driveway. My FIL came over and helped me load her in the van to rush her to the vet. We both knew she probably wasn't going to make it. I stopped @ my niece's work to pick her up and by the time I checked on her she had died. There I stood sobbing in the parking lot.

Mocha we were a great dog. You really were. I never feared strangers hurting us b/c she was vicious. She didn't like stray cats either. She was a good momma to 2 liters of pups and a very faithful companion to my husband. She LOVED to run on the gravel road. Man could she run. She helped faithfully when we moved cows. She was a very sensitive dog. I feel bad b/c i was not always very patient with her. I would get cross so often trying to manage 3 dogs and 2 kids.

Will miss ya girl!!! Maxine will be in heaven waiting for you. I loved ya!!!

Baby Boji totally knows her momma is gone. Such sadness for him too!!

At It Again

Oh these chickens. Remind me of these days when next year I want to get more. I have to make sure i NEVER forget these moments with them and I think my last moment is me putting A&D Diaper cream on there BUTTS!! Yes folks you heard it right. Now let me back track.

Last night I went out to make sure they had water and food and discovered one of the chicks bleeding from its back end. It was DISGUSTING. I came in and said to DH 'the chicks are to little to be laying eggs right?' (go ahead and laugh) He said yeah and I told him what I saw. He did NOTHING! He said after the B-ball game. I'm like HECK NO there is something wrong.

He went out and said it was probably to far gone but I proceeded to put it in an old fish aquarium in hopes of possibly saving him.

This AM I went outside and sure enough, dang thing was dead. I dump it out in the garbage (oh yeah, DH is gone by now so once again I'm left to do the dirty work). I start feeding the remaining ones and oh my gosh there is another dead one!! No lie it looked JUST like this!!

So I get the dust pan thing, scoop it up and back to the dumpster. REALLY is this happening!!! Call DH and he says to call the feed store and find out whats going on. They tell me it could be the following:

1. Environment (dirty, to many, etc) I know it's none of these b/c i clean that thing every other day

2. Food-they are eating starter food yet so it's not that

3. and guess what, I can't remember the 3rd

But it ended up they are picking on one another. Those stinken black chicks are evil. But where she lost me was when she told me to put Vics Vapor Rub on the bloody spot to prevent further pecking.

Excuse me? You want me to rub what, where???

I investigated more and saw that more were bloody. I thought fine I'll fix you all. Of course, I couldn't find the Vics so I used, yes, A&D. I thought I'd put it on all of them. Easier said then done. I couldn't remember who had it, they were flapping everywhere and i was getting madder and madder.

Call DH and tell him that's IT the black chicks are evicted as of 10:05 AM TODAY! Go pick him up, (he's planting) bring cages over, load em up, bring them to the farm and they are now in there new home at my BIL's. I forgot to mention what a site I must had been catching them dang things. DH commented that he thought he'd NEVER EVER NO NEVER see the day I, his wife, would be catching chickens. And let me tell you the language out of my mouth wasn't awful, but not anything i'd want C'man repeating.

The other ones?? well needless to say i have the hurt ones separated and will see what happens. I thought that maybe just putting the A&D on there wings would be enough, but it's not. ONE has it on the bloody back end and I gagged, winced, and just about puked doing it. Really this is ME doing this? I have LOST IT!!

And there claws/feet?? Those things are ugly. Seriously they are starting to freak me out. Ewww

Tulip Festival

I'm from a very Dutch community. So Dutch that in our area we have a Tulip Festival. I was home these past couple of days and my mom and I took the kids to it. The first time I've been there in TEN years!! (guess what, not much has changed either).

While in High School our band marched in wooden shoes!! In fact when I was a Junior we marched in the Tournament of Roses Parade!! SIX long miles in those dang wooden shoes. I still have the soars on the bottom of my feet to prove it.

Last night was fun b/c I got to see the band march. As much as I despise those dang wooden shoes they do make the most amazing noise shuffling down the street in them playing Championship. Also I must add that band doesn't sound near as good as in my years and the years to follow. Seriously. I think they said there was 140 members and back in 'my day' we had 210 i want to say.

Here is a video of them:

The parade was LONG, as always, and fairly boring. But Miss A just loved waving to the people/kids on the float. After the parade it was downhill. Needless to say, we never made it to the rides. I went to get some Dutch goodies and Miss A presumed to scream uncontrollably. Mr C'man was in a world of his own just wondering around. I was constantly saying 'come here' 'no' 'where you going' blah blah. We came home exhausted and defeated.
BTW the looks my mom was getting while Miss A screamed were something else she said LOL!! You would think these Dutch people would understand her temper being that I think it's all Dutch!!

Here's some more pics of the evening:

Middle school band sounded better then some of the other bands. They train them young to be marching in High School.

Dutch Dancing prior to the parade

Catching Up

Sorry about not posting something sooner. Of course it's not b/c I'm at a lack of what to blog about but more just not having the time. I spoke today to a ladies circle group at church. I spoke just about adoption. It was good. I cried this time, and I think they all did too. They were so sweet tho. They enjoyed greatly what I had to say and were so kind. Once home the lady, who happens to be my neighbor, stopped by with a floral arrangement. They were wondering what they could do for me and thought that would be a nice thing. I LOVE it!! It smells so wonderful in our kitchen. I'm thinking about taking them to my bedroom so I can wake up to them.

I really really want to get out more and speak to people/groups/individuals about either or both, adoption and infertility. I'm becoming more comfortable with it and really feel it's my calling. I don't mind public speaking one bit and I have story to tell, boy do I ever:)

Of course I do manage to put a humorous spin to it. Can be crying one minute and the next we're laughing. Today was real casual. Like when I spoke to the High School girls, I just sat down and presented that way. Either way is just fine.

Tonight was Mom's Night Out. I had a grand time. We got pretty silly. I came prepared this time with questions such as: What's been your greatest accomplishment to date? Who do you talk to on a regular basis (besides kids and husband) and one that got us really going, tell us something that would surprise us?? OR have you ever skinny dipped??

It was fun. I'm trying to calm down. All that laughing just really got me hyped up!

Went to the chiro yesterday, finally. We went ahead and had a X-ray of my lower back. It's been bothering me since my miscarriage in December. It's very abnormal for me to have lower back pain. It's mainly at night, not horrible, but consistent. Been kind of bothering my mind, wondering what's going on. I didn't hear back from him today, don't know if that's good or bad. I also got a message from my doc's office that the auto immune testing would run @ $1000. YIKES!! I need to probably just go and see an OB at my OB clinic that saw me for Miss A's pregnancy and delivery as well as my first miscarriage. Thinking it could be cheaper there. I also am waiting to hear from my Reproductive Endocrinologists office. They sent off for my records.

Lots on my mind:) This weekend is our St Patricks Day Dinner and Dance for our community center. I also need to get a grant written by the end of the month. Applying for a $10,000 grant to be used for our Community Center. Any of my readers have experience in writing grants? I have NEVER written one and would appreciate any help you could offer.

So yeah, the kids?? They are doing well. It's been just beautiful here. 73 on Monday! We are spending lots of time outside. I hauled most of the toys from the barn, to the garage. DH lost his parking space in the garage:) I do continue to paint the garage. It is officially all primed and I really only have 2 walls to paint. I should be able to do that tomorrow. Feels like it's drug out but we didn't want to heat the garage knowing it was going to be getting nice soon.

My dryer is broke. Think it's the heating element. The repair man came by tonight while DH was putting the kids to bed. He had forgotten. He's coming back tomorrow. I hope he can fix it then. I'm going to be getting behind.

Well I'd better get going. DH is here telling me it's time to get to bed:) I have this thing about being first in bed!!

How about some pics from Disney World!??

I LOVE this picture of her. She is SO happy.

50's Prime Time Restaurant. We all were VERY tired and this place was not the place to eat after a day @ the park.

It's A Small World

I love this pic:) Me on the phone with a great background

There limo's for the trip!

The first real ride C'man rode. Star Wars. He wasn't to sure about it.
Miss A HATED the characters. She's like NOOOO

On the Tea Cups which Miss A calls the coffee cups

I'm on this somewhere. It's the Everest roller coaster @ Animal Kingdom. i really was not to sure I wanted to go on it. But it was GREAT!!

Riding the train around Magic Kingdom