Here is Blake laying on the lake... looks like he's really into watching the races, huh? He actually was. This was just one of the times he was being weird. Imagine that!
Miss Rachel watching.
Brooke watching.
This morning was the Prairie Drifters Radar Run at Lake Storey. Jeff and the guys always go (including Blake) , so I thought that Brooke and I would go this year and watch. There were lots of snowmobilers who think they are the best racers on the lake - sadly, that includes our guys! Chase, Jeff, and Joel are very competitive. But I don't get why Jeff gets mad at me about being competitive at showing cattle when you should see him getting mad because "the radar gun HAS to be wrong" or "that gun needs to be **&#ed!". He leads by example I guess!!! The idea of course is to be the fastest on the 1000' run of ice. They split them up into classes according to CC's and horsepower (or maybe they're one in the same - I don't really know or care). Some of the classes are "stock" and then there are the "modified" classes, which means they've been tweaked with probably several hundreds (or thousands) of $$$! The guys have sleds (that's snowmobile talk for snowmobiles) that fit into each class practically. It was fun watching them. I was really thinking that I would run in the powder puff class, like Jeff had originally told me, but he changed his mind, telling me that the sleds are way too fast for me. Darn it.
Here is Joel. Even if wouldn't have won his class, at least he looked the part in his matching coat/snowmobile. You know, that is important too! Jeff and Chase didn't get the memo about wearing their gear. It was back at the shop, packed up in the other trailer. They were leaving for Togwotee, Wyoming right after the radar runs. They will be there all week, snowmobiling in the mountains! Yes, that means it's just me and the kids for a week. Kind of a mini-vacation for us, too!
And here is Chase. I think they clocked him at 106 mph on his 3rd run. I think by this point, the gun was warming up and was pretty accurate. This snowmobile is "stock". So even though I didn't get to make a run, I sure sound like I know what I'm talking about, don't I???
We had company Saturday afternoon. Cody, his girlfriend Lisa, and her little girl Kamden came over to visit for a while. Kamden is almost 18 months old and is soooo cute. She was shy at first, but quickly warmed up to us, especially to Brooke and Blake. She played with lots of toys, but I think the Dora tent was her favorite. Blake was outside riding the snowmobile so we held her up to the window so she could watch him. She watched and watched! If he went around to the other side of the house, she would look at us with her hands up like "where is he?" and she would say "Bay (Blake), Peez (Please)!" She wanted him to keep riding by! It was so cute! Cody held her on his knee for quite a while, then she just wanted to stand on the windowsill with someone holding onto her of course! I am sure that the kids and I will have the chance to babysit Kamden - like maybe next weekend! She sure is a lot of fun, but I've forgotten how busy an 18 month old is! I was exhausted after only 2 hours!!!
Snow Day #3 for us! No school due to 5" of snow, high winds, and dropping temperatures. It's so cold out and it's going to be colder tomorrow and Friday than it's been in 12 years, according to the weather guys! Uggghhh! So if it's that cold out, how can the kids be out in it? And why do they want to be? Brooke finally broke down about 10 minutes ago and went outside with Blake. He's been in and out all afternoon. I know, I know, he shouldn't be. We were home Monday because they were both not feeling well, but I tell ya, they are just about stir crazy! A little bit of cold might kill some of those darn germs! You can't tell by looking, the but the drift they are laying in is about 3' deep and it's the drift that poor little, 11 lb. Sophie got stuck in this morning. Literally - stuck. She was whining and just about frozen in the 3 seconds it took for me to get to her. Now she won't go out at all. Even Pepper wants to be inside, at least until now. Now she's outside chasing the kids in the snow.
Snow + wind = Jeff goes snowmobiling. All of the guys are going riding tonight so it's just me and the kids. I have a yummy pork roast in the oven, too, but I guess I will eat his portion! He is leaving on Sunday for Wyoming and will return the following Saturday. The guys look forward to this trip every year and will start planning next year's trip on the way home this year!! So it's just me and the kids next week. Don't tell, but it's kind of like a vacation for us! Hopefully the weather will be much better than this week! I'll be in charge of chores and I am kind of a fair weather farm girl when it comes to choring!!
I brought some school work home with me yesterday, and I'm glad I did since I'll have a little extra time to work on it. A lot of the schools up north have already cancelled classes for tomorrow. I'm hoping that if we decide to cancel, we'll decide tonight so we don't have to get that 6 a.m. phone call tomorrow morning!
at home! Blake started not feeling good tonight. I was wondering if he wasn't coming down with something when he said that he did not want to go out to eat. He just wanted Jeff to go get pizza so we could stay home. He laid by me on the couch (yes, I was sitting on the couch watching The Bucket List) for about an hour and then started complaining of feeling sick. He is currently running a fever of 100. Not too high, but I'm guessing it will get higher if he doesn't take this Tylenol. Ugh. I just hate it when they are sick. When my kids get the flu, they seem to get it sooo bad. I usually have to end up using a suppository to get them to stop vomiting. Boy I hope Blake doesn't get that bad. We had about 30 kids gone today from school. He said that 3 were gone out of his class so I'm sure it's our turn to have it. I'm praying that we all don't get it, especially Brooke. I can't say that I feel all that good, but I'm thinking positive thoughts. Please do the same..... for us!
Well, we're back at school. We are all tired tonight from trying to get back into the swing of things! And I had 3 of my 5 students at the elementary gone today. What am I going to do tomorrow when they are all back? I will be exhausted then! I had myself prepared for the homework to start up again..... and it did... in full swing! Brooke is really good about getting her homework done. When I tell her to sit down to do it, she does. Not too often does she argue about it. Tonight was a light night for her, only a science worksheet and studying for a spelling pretest. Not even any other tests this week - that's a change! There are some weeks that she has 3 tests at a time.
Then there's Blake......... homework + Blake = TRAIN WRECK !!!!! He absolutely, positively HATES homework! He thinks of every excuse to get out of it - he doesn't feel good, his back hurts, his arm hurts, his hand is tired, he's hungry, he's thirsty, he wants to finish watching a show, he's gotta pee, he's gotta poop, he's not feeling good..... you name it, he's come up with it as an excuse. He has homework every night (except Friday), plus he has a book to read. Did I mention that reading + Blake = TRAIN WRECK #2! Well it does for sure. He hates to read almost as he hates to write his spelling words 4 times each. I dread homework time. It's a constant fight with him.
I often think that he will learn from Brooke's good example. What am I thinking? That is just so not how it is happening! Brooke picks up her toys when she's done playing. He doesn't. Brooke puts her wet washrag in the hamper after her shower. He doesn't, he'd let them pile up until he couldn't get in the shower anymore. Brooke eats whatever I fix. Blake doesn't - sometimes I think he's going to turn blue, you know the color of the Kid Cuisine boxes! Brooke gets up in the morning on her own. He doesn't, I have to almost pull him out of bed by his feet. Brooke doesn't argue with me. He does. Brooke does her homework without much fight. Not Blake. Brooke helps with chores. Blake does if he can ride his four wheeler to the barn. Brooke takes a shower every night. Blake has to be hog-tied to even get into the vacinity of the bathroom to take a shower.
Ugghhhh! Why can't they act the same? And act like Brooke preferably....... For example, we've been sitting here in the kitchen for 25 minutes and he only has 4 of his spelling words written four times each. Damn, we might be here all night! And I'm ready to go to bed!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We brought in the New Year in our own typical way.... through the back of our eyelids! We had a night at home, and Joel & Jenn and Chase came out for a full array of appetizers - ranging from fruit and dip to stuffed mushrooms to shrimp to hot wings to DQ cake. Waaayyyy too much food! The kids ate mini-cheeseburgers for 3 days afterwards! It was pretty quiet.... well except when the guys were playing Wii. They were really getting into it. They played tennis & boxing the most. I think it would be a good idea if they played more often. Between you and me, I think they are all kind of out of shape. Chase called on New Year's Day and said that his back and right arm were sore from boxing. Well if he wouldn't have acted like he was Muhammad Ali, it probably wouldn't have hurt so bad. But you can't tell them anything! When they play, they play hard.
Our new calves are here! We got Brooke's show steer on December 8th and just got Blake's on December 30th. Brooke named hers "Coal" and Blake's is named "JT". They are still pretty jumpy! We are going to start tying them up today and getting them broke. We have to have them pretty well broke by February 1st when we have Mercer County Weigh-in. We've got our work cut out for us! The kids have already helped out more this year than last year. Blake helped quite a bit getting things set up in the barn. We've got everything ready.
Feeding time! They were all ready to eat by the time we got home. Our pen is really tame, much better than the single show steers. They're just little fellas, but that's good since we'll beef them up! They'll just be judged on rate-of-gain. I can put weight on anything - just look at me!!!
This is JT - Blake's steer. He's cute!
This is "Coal" - Brooke' steer. Not a very good picture I know. I know you're thinking "What the heck? He looks just like the other one" You're right, he does, just 150 pounds bigger!
I'm sure excited to have them here. I've been waiting.... since September 6th to be exact! We are in the process of looking at a couple of heifers, too. We can keep them .... forever.... never send them to market. They can give us lots of babies...
We had Christmas with the Ryners on Christmas Day. We all got very nice gifts, had a great prime rib dinner, and the kids had lots of fun playing together!
Blake is getting ready to open his GI-NORMOUS Nerf Vulcan Dart Gun!! Thanks, Aunt Sara. You don't know how many darts I've been hit with. It's an automatic gun and it shoots about 50 mph!! Grandma and Grandpa gave him remote control dueling helicopters! They sure were a hit!
Brooke got some American Girl accessories. She also got an American Girl horse named Penny - she's the size of our Blue Heeler dog. Really. Not joking.
Max got a new Incredible Hulk mask. Jeff thought it was really cool. I think it's kind of scary myself! Jeff will be so thrilled that I put his portrait on here!
Just thought I'd share some Christmas photos!
Brooke and Blake enjoying all of their goodies in their stockings!
Opening up the Wii! They've sure had fun with it!
Brooke with her Webkinz that looks just like Sophie!
Blake finally got new cowboy boots from Santa! Thank goodness - he had worn the heels off of his other ones and was in desperate need for a new pair. He wears them all the time. He can be such a "farm kid"!
Jeff and Blake playing Wii. Blake was really getting into it so he decided to go "skinz". I think they are boxing in this picture. They really get into that!!! I've actually thought that our house was going to fall down at times!
