Memorial Day Weekend

How is every one's Memorial Day weekend? Did anyone do anything fun? I find it interesting that the blogs i read in South Africa would call this a 'holiday weekend'. Of course this is a holiday but I often refer to it as Memorial Day weekend, or 4th of July weekend, etc. Take for instance all the ads in the paper advertising 'Memorial Day Savings' in SA would the ads say 'Holiday Savings'? They would say 'we have a 3 day holiday', or we're going on a trip for the holiday. I'm not sure if their holidays have names!? Mel can you tell us more??

Yesterday DH and I had a divine day! My husbands cousins DAUGHTER (catch that all) is home on break b/w college classes. I called her up and asked if she'd come babysit! (i will just refer to her as my niece Em, b/c she refers to me as her Aunt) She had left me a message Friday night that she was home till the first of June. She is going to Wisconsin for 6 weeks to take college classes and THEN she's on her way to Budapest! She needs to buy her airline tickets so i traded computer time for babysitting! It worked out perfect.

We went to the city and did all sorts of errands. That included looking at new vans. We need to do something b/c our van needs new tires and it's just getting old. I REALLY want dual sliding doors. Our van has the two doors just that only one is automatic. We really like the Toyota Sienna and the Honda Odyssey but they cost so much, even used. I do NOT want to buy brand new b/c they loose so much value the minute you drive them off the lot. I think that is one of the biggest mistakes people make is buying new. Note I said i do not WANT to buy new. I started typing 'I will NEVER' but thought just about that time i type that I'll do a post saying we got a new van. LOL!! At any rate I'm strongly against it and hoping we can find a good used van.

After church today, which by the way went VERY well C'man sat with papa and we had Miss A, we brought in one of the kittens, the orange one. Well that didn't fly with Miss A so i had to go get another one. Look what these kittens put up with! Look how Mr C'man is shoving that kitten in his play microwave, or them loading it up in the Gator to take for a ride!! Cracks me up b/c the kittens just take it. The little shits have sharp claws tho and got miss A a couple of times. She'd say 'owieeeeee'

This evening and friends are coming over and will grill out. We wanted to go to a park but it is so humid out it would just be miserable. I'm wondering what kind of storms will get tonight. It feels like tornado weather!

Enjoy the rest of your Memorial Day weekend, the kick off to SUMMER!! YEAH!!

Pay to Blog?

I'm really having a hard time figuring out this pay to blog stuff. But i did come across this opportunity to see if i can figure this out. From time to time I will have posts on here that are a form of advertising from a variety of 'sponsors'. I thought if I could make some money blogging it would be worth a try. I enjoy blogging and as you can already tell, have projects that i do, items i use, etc that i figured hmm I wonder if I could get paid to try things and then blog about them!?
So i started with this blog network and see what happens. I would love to use the money I earn to help pay of debt and if nothing else, since I'm not sure how much I'll make, to buy some 'me things' like a pedicure/massage and maybe even a babysitter for a night so DH and I can go out. Who wouldn't want that??

I visit a number of blogs, some listed under my blog roll that already do this and I've found some really neat items and ideas. If you come across my blog and find something I blog about of interest to you let me know!
Let me know as we go along what you think of this Do you have a blog? do you have advertising on yours? Or do you know anyone who does this?Can you have them contact me! I'm confused with all the html codes i need to put in.

Thanks everyone!

Misc Things

Seems I'm never at a loss of what to blog about and often times i skip over ideas, to share what's happening right now or front and center in my mind. Therefore, I'm going to share a variety of little things that have been going on b/c I'm not sure I'll ever get back to dedicating an entire blog. Here it goes:

First the calf story. Ends up it WASN'T our calf! I KNEW it!! it was the neighbors and they called last night wondering if we'd seen it. Sure did! I said they can't get it back till I tell them what i went thru with that thing. No wonder it licked my leg and had no idea where the gate was for him to go in.

I got another project done about a week ago. I took chalkboard paint and painted my door. Boy it didn't go well at all!! It was like painting with pudding. Here is a picture before:

and after just one coat and actually it looked the same after 5 coats (DH said what have you done to the door?? I said oh don't worry it'll turn out):

and completed. I'm not even sure how many coats it took to get this, at least 10. I should have primed the door first. Oh well I'll know better for next time b/c I'm doing this more. I'll buy old wood or something that can be hung, when doing it again.

It no longer says this, instead it is our 'to do' list. Like for DH i have written: Chain saw, weed killer and i can't remember the last thing. For me I have church prayer chain!! Goll darn i NEED to get that done too!!

Then on the farming side. DH will be getting to his post about corn for ethanol vs the food prices as soon as planting is over. Which should be any day however it has decided to rain for the next FOUR days. I'm sure this last 40 acres or less, will take forever to get done. But none the less here's some pictures of him/us planting. This was right outside our house so the 4 of us all road a couple rounds. I had to eventually get out b/c my arse was killing me!
Took this from upstairs the bathroom window. DH and C'man both out there putting corn in the planter.
DH putting corn in. See the black clouds??
These bags of corn are $110/bag. I had no idea. I started picking up all the pieces of corn that had fallen. DH was like don't do that!
C'man got a hold of the camera here!! Note dark clouds!
C'man and DH coming to pick A and I up for a ride!

More shots from the eyes of a 3 1/2 yr old:

Those clouds i told you to note?? Well this is what came of that.

The wind picked up and it got down right nasty out. They say it typically hails before a tornado and i would have been worried about that accept the weather people said little to no threat of tornado's. Well i turn on the news that night to find out those ominous clouds where were watching and you can see above?? they had produced a funnel cloud!

These really are not that good of a picture b/c the deck was covered but i couldn't open the door or want to stay close to windows any longer.

DH decided to use my van as the seed hauler and had left it out in the hail too!! Here it is tho with the $120 bags of corn. I have no idea how much one bag plants but i know there are TONS of bags blowing around here!

Then the kids. Thanks for the emails and comments from Miss A. I have an appt Wednesday with Dr Miller. I'm fairly sure it's her teeth plus a cold. I have a cold now and Tuesday (what day is today anyway??) I felt just miserable. throat and ears hurt so if she had what i did that would explain why she's been so cross. Wednesday can not get here soon enough!

We have a pet frog this year. Actually it's a tree frog and it's been living on our deck for about a week?? I heard this weird noise when I'd sit out there and finally found the source of it. Here he is:
I'm quite freaked out by it, not like i am about snakes, but I want c'man to touch it and he wants me to touch it. HECK NO!! I used a stick yesterday and the thing jumped and clung to the siding of the house. I screamed!! no wonder he won't touch it. He's been trying to convince Miss A to touch it LOL!! We had a couple of these late last summer and my dad was so fascinated with it. They change colors according to there surroundings and they can cling to about anything. Still ewwy for me!!

I got stung last night by something. Probably a wasp b/c they are everywhere. A blanket had fallen off the deck and C'man handed it to me. I scrunched it up in my arms and dam it got stung. It hurt really bad and not knowing if you could have a reaction I was a little freakish. I'm here, obviously i didn't have a reaction. My arm swelled and still is tender to touch.

We are enjoying our deck this Spring when it's not so freakin windy out. We like to eat lunch/supper out there. Here we are!!

oh the kittens!! Still here. Only 3 now. One is gone, no idea where it is but I'm sure it starved to death somewhere. Poor baby. Momma moves them after we've been messing with them, especially if c'man is. The other day he had rocks in the barrel she had them in!! They are gone again and I'm actually going out to the barn to see if i can find them. That's the best place for them but then they'll be wild out there if we keep them there.

Politics: i tried to call people that said they'd have signs in there yard. That was a bust!! People were rude, mean, etc saying I'm not sure why my wife said you could b/c i don't allow signs in my yard!! Or I don't know who your boss is but they are not informing you of how I feel. I fired myself after a couple calls like that. I have them all over our road out here and someone came and picked the rest up to try himself. I felt horrible that i couldn't be of more help but with the kids and DH busy it didn't leave me much time. Not to mention not having the best week myself, defeated is becoming a common feeling to me here lately.

This past weekend we went to my parents. Here is my dad and the kids walking to church:

I spent one AM organizing. I love to organize. But my attempts failed when i walked in to the toy room to this:

OK i think I've covered everything but the CCC drama that unfolded the other day. But I'm not ready to discuss that again b/c it'll just get me all worked up and I've all but moved on.

This picture below my readers, is how i feel most of the days!! Seriously tho i do smile. I am here b/c C'man had taken my camera to take a pic of the frog and fell. I couldn't get the camera to work. DH came home did something and it worked. He took this picture of me:)

And last but not least, I just downloaded pictures and apparently some little people had my camera b/c i found about a doz pictures of this:

This post took me forever!! Flatter me by leaving some comments!! My numbers are going up for number of hits so i know you're out there reading:) Humor me!! I need it remember:

.

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Doubles of most colors too!

Happy shopping!

Only me...

It hasn't been one of the best days for me today, well even week for that matter. I actually cried today. Something i haven't done in a long time. But will get to that another time. I have to just tell this story and hoping i can tell it in a way that doesn't make me look like a fool or live like a.... I don't even know!!

OK so this afternoon I was talking to FF-L when this car pulls up. I tell her I'd better go b/c some man was here. She instantly is like 'do you know him? are you scared? are you by yourself?'. (thanks for being concerned!!) I had a pretty good idea i knew who it was and I was correct. No, no Jehovah witness or broom sales person. It was a nice gentleman from NFIB which stands for National Federation for Independent Businesses. He came wanting to sell me a membership which i did get for $100 and you'll find out why shortly.

But really it's a national organization representing small businesses in the US. They represent us in DC on issues such as health care, SILO tax, etc. to senators and congress. Basically a lobbyist group.

But that's not where I'm going with this....so he pulls up and immediately is introduced to C'man who is in the back of DH's yucky ol' pickup. I come out of the house talking on my blue tooth to La and dressed to kill. Hardly, i had on gauchos and frumpy ol' shirt, no make up and i didn't do my hair today. But whatever, the last person he visited that i knew, she was still in her jammies, no bra and pink fufu slippers! So i wasn't to worried. I did suggest he start a lobby group for SAHM's LOL!!

I tell him i really can't go in the house b/c i know C'man won't come in. He says that's fine. I offer him my grill to use as a table!! Oh the fun is just beginning. While we're talking c'man has pulled out boards and a chain out of the pickup and now is building. I look at C'man by DH's pickup and i see this black blob on the road. I was like hmmm...is that the dog? no way to big. The light comes on it's a fricken calf. I immediately say 'oh my...we have a calf out and if it's out I'm thinking the rest of the cows may be too'. I call DH and he can't get over quick enough to do anything and by now the calf is on the bridge. The nice man offers to go get it in. Knowing he has no experience what so ever I'm like ahhh no that's OK. Excuse me for a minute tho. I load C'man up in the van and off we go.

I get to the calf and the darn thing will NOT move. Rather then run the other way he's busy looking at the guy standing 900 ft away. So i move closer and still he doesn't move. Lovely!! I end up being able to pet this thing!! It just stands there while i call DH saying what am i to do. I tried pushing the thing, clapping my hands to no avail he wouldn't move. The 'visitor' then comes to help. I'm REALLY embarrassed now.

Here he is in dress pants, white shirt, tie and nice shoes and he's pushing a calf!! Did i mention the calf is covered in crap on his rear! Also not sure he will kick us either! WE both pushed a couple times. Eventually he gets moving but of course the calf has no idea where to go. I open the gate and the visitor is running down the road after this calf!! I just kept saying 'oh my gosh, this can not be happening to me, what a sight we are!!!'

A pickup comes over the hill and sees our tired less attempts at working with this dang calf. He asks if we have it under control...ahhh does it look like it?? Eventually we get this calf in the pasture but not before Mr Visitor is in the ditch. I told him oh dear me, i can do this you have such nice clothes on you'll get covered in ticks and i'm worried he'll fall. I had to give him a ride back to his car which is still parked 1/2 on the road 1/2 on the shoulder and then we could continue back to where we left.

I guess i couldn't say i was really embarrassed b/c I'm at the point in my life where it is what it is. It's HILARIOUS!! He came to my house therefore he'll have to bear with me as i continue my job (mother, cattle Herder, business owner, etc) I'm sure he goes to many businesses where business must carry on, especially if you don't have an appointment. I told him 'really this is a typical day in my life. Stuff like this happens more often then i care to admit. But I've learned that if i don't laugh I'll cry and it's not worth crying b/c it's funny!'

Now do you see why i paid him the $100 i felt that's the least i could do for his assistance with a stinky, tick covered, shit covered, calf!

Wits End

I'm having a heck of a day, even a couple weeks, with Miss A. I'm really getting to the point where i can't stand her. I feel horrible for saying that but I'm truly at my wits end with her. She has such a temper and now she's back to spitting. I'm hoping the parenting police don't flame me. She spit awhile back and then it stopped. Now it's started up again. I resorted to putting soap in her mouth. That lasted till today which i now have decided to just ignore it.

This weekend i went to my parents after the HUGE indoor garage sale I went to. That was CRAZY!! Another post another day. My parents got to see first hand how she acts. When she spit and i went to put soap in her mouth my mom ran out the room. I can't stand to watch it. Knowing that it was necessary she just was being a g'ma hating to see her g'children disciplined. Even my dad tried to help by raising his voice.(i don't mean like screaming just enough to catch her attention and allow me or him to talk some reasoning with her) I think he did it b/c he felt bad for me. He could see i was trying to get things under control and struggling. It did make her stop screaming but then that made mom mad b/c she didn't think Dad should do anything. But like i said, he was just trying to help me out. I really didn't mind.

Yesterday Miss A was outside walking to the play ground. Mom went and got her and she threw a fit. Mom could barely carry her back. She stiffens her back, kicks, screams and hits! Then the spitting starts. Mom truly felt my pain in that moment.

If things don't go her way it's fit time. Mr C tries so hard to play with her and all she does is scream at him. He hangs his head and walks away, sometimes. Today my FF-S and her kids and us went for a walk on the trail.

We walk to the park, play, eat and then head back. Miss A was very snotty to her daughter. Pushing her away, hitting her, screaming, you get the idea. I wasn't very happy with her. FF-S says 'well Cassie could leave her alone, it's good for her to get whomped on'. Bless her soul but i said it doesn't make it right. She doesn't know any better but Miss A does know better then to hit.

Then tonight at supper she wouldn't eat anything. I told DH NO dessert. It's time for her to learn that. What a fit she thru. I let DH deal with her. Eventually tho, she did eat a couple bites and was able to get her ice cream. She didn't hit, etc but she did her spitting thing. I told DH just ignore it. It's my new way of dealing with it. When i say spit it's more like bubbles.

OK so here's where you come in. Please offer me some suggestions, advice, comfort, WHATEVER I'm pulling my hair out over our constant power struggle. Mom says she doesn't think she's strong willed necessarily but just doesn't mind if she gets negative enforcement. It's like she thinks if i get disciplined I got mommy's attention. If i ignore it well then things could really get out of hand. I'm really thinking a/b taking her to the voodoo doc again.

Did i also mention that sleeping at night has been horrible. Especially at my parents good gosh we both slept horrible. Also her teeth are coming in so this could all be related to the eye teeth coming in. My mom said my sister and brother were just rotten when there eye teeth were coming in. FF-S said Cassie was too ( i happen to remember that with her).

Also do you think she could have an ear infection? She doesn't pull on her ears or anything but definitely could be something like that. FF-S thought she looked pale today. Miss A is eating and drinking, etc

OK that's enough rambling. Please if you lurk, this is one post i need you to reply too:)

PS horrible pic of me, wind blown hair, no makeup, etc but who cares right??

Video Montage

I found this great video montage I can do online! Take a look. It's of the kids:)
http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=5d381da970da0bf3ec268a&skin_id=601&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url

Sights and Sounds

It's a beautiful day in Iowa. The sun is out and everything is so green. The trees are in full bloom, farmers are busy in the field and yesterday while sitting outside in a park I smelled the faint smell of lilacs!! B/c it's been such a cold and damp spring the lilacs are just now starting to bloom.

The night and day didn't start off so beautiful for miss A and I think that 'A' is going to start standing for Attitude!! Gosh darn!! Upon turning in for the night at 915 PM, yes i know very early but DH was out planting and I thought why stay up, i noticed my camera was upstairs. I thought i'd take some pics of Miss A sleeping. BAD BAD BAD idea. Bad mommy....you know the 'never wake a sleeping baby' well the same goes for a toddler. She woke up while i clicked away and would NOT go back to sleep. She screamed, cried, I screamed and wanted to cry. I was so annoyed with her and her little antics she pulls. Eventually I threatened she'd have to sleep in the garage to which she said no. She knows what I'm saying to her. I don't know what time she fell asleep. I tried taking her in to bed with me @11 and she just wanted to touch my face. So back to bed. She WHALED!! DH was home by then and tried to comfort her. I was hoping he'd break out his 'THIS IS ENOUGH LAY DOWN GO TO SLEEP' voice that I'm not sure I've ever heard him use but wish he would. He's not very authoritative.

It was close to 1130 before i she fell asleep and she was up by 615! Today was our last MOPS (mothers of preschoolers) and i got to display/sell my purses b/c it was a pamper and shop day. (10 min massages, facials, pedicures) We had to be in the road by 815 and i was by 805! On the way up there i just sat and listened to my kids. Miss A didn't have a lot to say, to tired I'd guess, but C'man was adorable.

I listened to him sing 'Onward Christian Soldiers' with emphasis on the 'YES SIR', and pretended to talk on his phone to which he'd hand over to Miss A and we stopped to talk to a farmer. We pulled away from a stop sign and there was 2 men and a lady but the tractor he was using was an open tractor, no cab just wide open to the elements of mother nature. I thought you don't see that this day and age. So i stopped to tell them that. I pulled up and said 'i wish i had my camera b/c you all are just priceless' to which the older man (70's or so) said 'what her doing all the work and us two men standing here??' I chuckled b/c he was right the wife was loading the corn up while dad and son were talking!! I did tell him 'yeah that too but just your open tractor' he agreed saying 'yeah you should have been out here yesterday it was FREEZING!!' I told him my FIL doesn't plow/plant/harvest etc either anymore b/c things are so different.

We drove away and C'man asked 'where was the door??' Ahhh yes he will not know open tractors like his daddy did. He just knows the nice air condition, computer systems, radio, comfy seat, and 10 years from now there will probably be TV's in there. (probably is in some)

It's so fun listening to him talk. He got his curls cut last night and now is sporting a summer buzz. He keeps saying 'oh no what happen to my hair???' I didn't even recognize him today with the moppet workers brought him to me. He came and gave me a hug and said 'i miss you mommy'.

Sweet child but i think it's time to take Miss A back to the voodoo doc for an attitude adjustment b/c i may need more then a mental adjustment if this behavior continues.

Project Time

I've been real busy here of lately. The weather is finally nice enough that i can stain the windows upstairs. I went to a local paint store in the nearby city to get our trim color matched. I'd heard a radio commercial they they could now do that. Finally i had a moment to do that. Last Monday I had taken Miss A with me and that's just one of the many stops we made. Of course while in there I got inspired to start another project. I've always wanted a metal back splash in our kitchen and i found just what i needed to make it happen.



I stained the windows in our bedroom and the bathroom upstairs and then started this project. B/c it's been raining AGAIN I had to do something different. On Saturday I started this when the kids went down for naps. Well C'man decided he didn't want to nap so now i was doing this with his help. I tried endlessly to get him to watch a DVD but had no luck. So here are the pics and I'll describe after the pics:







This is what i did. I bought paintable wall paper. Here I am laying it out.









This is one of those lovely hold the camera yourself and take a pic. I'm trying to stretch my long ol' arms out to keep the paper from rolling up AND take a pic.







More of laying out of the paper








After 90 min i got the first strip up. Yeah that little piece under the window and then got the next piece ready under the first cabinet. I had to cut the stupid light switch out of the wall paper and it just took me forever. DH says 'measure twice cut once'. I said measure TWICE?? I measured at least 10 times!







I got creative with C'mans help by giving him a pizza dough roller. What a helper










Another 90 min later I was ready to start the next section. At this point i skipped over to this little piece next to the fridge (sorry no pic) thinking I'd better wait for DH to get home to hang the one from the window to the range. I was getting a little short b/c I couldn't get the pattern to line up.



Poor C'man. Mommy snapped at him and he pouted.


Finally DH came home from work and i put him right to work. I was getting PO'd. This is the way it should be!! He's SO much better at this. I'm like you cut it, I'll hang it and paint it, etc. Just PLEASE don't make me cut it. I had this piece up that he's working on in this picture but it wasn't perfect so I took it down. Take 2 was DH doing the cutting.










I guess I don't have any pictures of it hung waiting to be painted. I must have been to annoyed. Well actually we finished hanging it yesterday and i don't think i could find my camera yesterday. So it got hung yesterday and today i painted it. B/c i was painting it such a bright color I had had some left over paint from my dining room that is a bright red. I put a little white in to the red and put that on first.


Here is the bright color. C's reaction was OH MY GOSH WHAT IS IT!! and Miss A said 'woooowwww' needless to say C'man wasn't loving the color. DH came home for lunch and was a little speechless when he first saw this color.

Let me just say it's great fun trying to paint with two little ones. Gosh darn what a project looking after them and painting. I'll spare you the details.
Drum roll please.......................
Before:



AFTER:
hmmm it's not showing really well is it. I may have to try and get another picture.

There you have it. We still have two other areas we need to do. But it looks great!! Totally gives this area a new look!!

Project DYI by Rachel is completed. Now it's to bed and tomorrow it's time to get back to staining windows. Oh the kitchen window you see, it will get trimmed out one of these days!

Oh in addition to in b/w the painting i managed to scrub some walls and clean the doors. I'm going CRAZY cleaning things.