Life in the Country

Taking one day at a time with kids, cattle, and farming!



Mud anyone?

on Sunday, April 26, 2009




Today turned out to a beautiful day. It was sunny, warm, and breezy. Just perfect. Brooke went to the YMCA to Open Swim with Rachel and even got a yummy DQ treat afterwards. Luke came up and took Blake four wheeling. Yes, Blake has a cast and went riding, but he didn't drive, just rode with Luke. Kaitlyn even came out and went for a while. They were so muddy when they got home! Jeff mowed the yard and I'm enjoying the smell of fresh cut grass! A great way to end the weekend. Now back to school tomorrow!

Bad Blogger

I am a bad blogger. Sometimes I wonder why I started this blog since I am not very good at updating. It's been pretty quiet around here actually. Blake is doing really well with his cast. Tomorrow marks 2 weeks so we are halfway through. He has it signed by all of his friends and family. It sure doesn't slow him down. The only thing he hasn't done with it on is ride the 4 wheeler. In fact he hasn't even asked to ride it. Thank goodness. He does everything else though, even straps his ball glove around it and plays all-time catcher in baseball practice. He gets the cast off on May 11 which is the week of the first baseball game. Blake is still doing really well in 2nd grade. It's hard to believe that we winding down and next year he will be in 3rd grade. I also think he has grown about 2" recently. The top of his head hits the bottom of my chin so when he stands close he's a pretty good headrest.

Speaking of tall, Brooke is 3" shorter than me, wears the same size of shoes than me, and I just bought her 2 tshirts at American Eagle yesterday. She'll be wearing the same things as high school girls, but that is what fits! She is growing so fast. I know that she'll be having another growth spurt soon and will be the same height as me in no time! She is also still doing well in 4th grade. She has a big week ahead of her with 5 tests, a spring music concert, a young author's celebration, and I'm sure something else will come up! She hasn't started softball practice yet, but I'm sure within a week or 2, she will be practicing, too! Between Brooke and Blake we will probably have a game about every night of the week. I hope there aren't too many nights on which they both have games.

Jeff is waiting to get planting. We went through the same thing last year - too much rain. He did get about 100 acres of corn planted last Thursday before the rain started. It's been raining and raining and it's supposed to keep raining. That makes for a pretty crabby farmer. He farms about 2100 acres so it takes a while to get them all planted and after May 10, it starts affecting yields.

So we are heading into a busy week. With all of Brooke's tests, the Spring music concert which is Monday night, the Young Author's Celebration which is Thursday night (both Brooke and Blake are getting awards for that), I don't know when I'm going to find time to keep reading my Twilight series. I might just have to stay on the couch all day and finish the 2nd book. I didn't know I was such a fast reader! I got through Twilight (1st book) in about 3 nights and now I'm halfway through New Moon (2nd book). They aren't even my type of storyline so I can't believe I'm so into reading them! All the teachers at school were talking about them so I figured I better read them so I can be in on the discussions! Heaven forbid I'm left out! I've even got Cathi into reading them. I've gotta finish New Moon so I can hand it over to her. She's about done with the first book. Speaking of that, I better get breakfast cleaned up so I can go read!

The 1st of ..... I hope not many!

on Monday, April 13, 2009





We had a little mishap this weekend. After 5 years of riding 4 wheelers and many flips and tumbles, Blake hurt himself. The kids were riding last Thursday afternoon when Blake made a turn and lost control of his 4 wheeler. Some how he hit the side of Jeff's machine shed. Not sure how, but he did, and it threw him off - right over the handlebars onto the driveway. Brooke brought him in and he was crying, holding his wrist. His hand and knuckles were scraped up pretty good and already starting to bruise. He had a scrape on his right cheek and said that he hit it on the tire (yes, he had a helmet on). Not sure how he managed that. He cried and cried and we iced and iced the bad spots. He actually cried himself to sleep. When he woke up later he said that he felt better. So off to El Rancherito we went. Priorities, right???? The next morning he came downstairs at 6:30 and showed Jeff who said "It's just a bruise, don't go rushing him to the er". So .... I didn't. We wrapped it in an ace bandage but he still favored it all day. He favored it on Saturday, too, and after he fell asleep on the way home from town, I proceeded to pull him up by his left hand. Big mistake. He started crying and said that it hurt really bad. We headed back to town to Prompt Care for xrays. Yep, a green stick fracture across his left radius. Boy I felt like a jerk. I should have taken him Thursday! So they splinted it and we went to the orthopedic dr. this morning. They put a cast on it, and Blake was excited to pick "red" as his color of his cast. He will have it on for 4 weeks. Then once it's removed, he'll spend a week doing exercises to regain strength and his range of motion. He's certainly NOT upset about having his cast! He keeps a Sharpie marker in his pocket at all times! He's so anxious to go back to school tomorrow to have his friends sign it. He had to go the ENT doctor today, too, to see about having his adnoids/tonsils out because he is a "snorer". He thought for sure that doctor would want to sign it. I talked him out of that! He does not have to get anything taken out of his body and I am so thankful for that. We will keep an eye on how many more times he gets strep throat and we might have to revisit this again in a year or so. Hope not! So here are a few pics of the casting process. Guess what? Baseball practice starts Wednesday!