A Fresh Start

Ok, it's been about 2 1/2 months since I've posted last. Believe it or not, I have attempted to write an entry about 7 times, but have gotten interrupted in doing so. Rather than spending time catching up on all of the things we've done in the past couple months, I've decided to start fresh. I need to write about now, not delve into all of the past activities - baseball, softball, showing cattle, swimming (or lack thereof), the state fair, doing well at the Mercer County Fair, getting Reserve Champion at the Prime Beef Festival again, watching the kids grow up (literally) way too fast. It's time to write about what's going on right now.

As I speak, Brooke just returned from spending the night at Rachel's house - still a very common event around here. I had promised the kids that they could have someone over this weekend, and that kind of fell through. Brooke had Rachel over, and Blake had Jonah. It was all great until about 7:00p.m. when Blake came into the kitchen crying over a small altercation with a Matchbox car. He doesn't cry too often in front of his friends and when I looked at the "glaze" in his eyes, I immediately knew that he was running a fever. I checked and he sure was. It was 101. I continued to let him play for a while, hoping that maybe it was a false reading. At 9:00 it was 100 so I explained to him that we'd have to take Jonah home. Brooke and Rachel decided that they better not be around him so off to meet Cathi I went. Blake has laid around most of the day. I did take him to ride with Jeff in the combine for a couple rounds when his fever broke, but he was ready to come home. When we got home, his fever was 102.4. He is still asleep and when he wakes up, I hope his fever has gone down from the 103 it was when I last took it. So Wanda went down and picked up Brooke who, for some reason, wanted to come home. She's kind of like me - she likes to sleep in her own bed.

Brooke is really enjoying 5th grade. She's recently started playing the trumpet and has to remind herself to practice everyday! Blake is really liking 3rd grade as well, and is currently playing Flag Football on weekends at the YMCA.

We have 2 new heifer calves - Sunny and Peanut. They are getting used to us as we are to them. We (by "we", I mean the kids and me) are walking them into their stalls almost every day and tying them up for a while. We've already started the process of washing and blowing and combing and repeating that process until I can do it in my sleep! Our 1st show was supposed to be next weekend but we don't feel we are quite ready yet, so we are holding off to show until the 1st weekend in December in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Jeff is trying to get into the field. The corn and beans are very wet, and the rainy cold weather is sure not cooperating. The yields have been good so we are very thankful for that. He put up a new grain bin this year and is putting it to good use drying down this 30% moisture corn. He assures me it will pay for itself in a few years, and as skeptical as I was, I'm not now.

I am still adjusting to teaching at the junior high. Some days are great, and others are not. Some days I love it, and some days I hate it. Everyday I can't believe that Brooke will be there next year. I wonder to myself if she will be like these 6th grade girls that wear the football boys' jerseys on game days. Scary.

Other than that, things are pretty much the same around here. I will try to get some pictures posted of our summer for the 3 or 4 blog readers that I have!