June, July, and August

I've decided that I should have named the kids' 3 calves June, July, and August since they are what I mainly do during those 3 months!!! We've started our daily routine again this summer. Jeff does chores and ties up the 3 calves about 6:30 in the morning. Then I go out about 9:30 and wash/rinse all three of them, tying them back up under the fans. You can see in the pictures that they really do have a pretty good life in the summer. They are tied up in the barn where it's nice and cool and are under huge black "turbo" fans that move a lot of air! They stay nice and cool and have water/feed in front of them all day long. Our first show is 2 weeks from Saturday and we have lots to do to get ready. In fact, Tank (Brooke's steer) is going to have a date with Dorothy the Donkey this weekend. We will tie him to her for a day and hopefully he will learn very quickly that he only moves when she moves. In return, he will move when Brooke wants him to in the show ring. Jewels, the heifer, might become friends with Dorothy, too. By the way, we are pretty sure that Jewels is "expecting" - we will preg check her in about a week and know if she is carrying another little critter for us!

A Taste of Summer

Well, we are ending our first "official" week of summer vacation. What a week we've had! Full of softball and baseball games, working with calves, having friends over, volleyball camp, and being on the run. This is just the beginning of what we have in store for us for the next 2 1/2 months!!! Just thought I'd share some of my favorite things about summer.

1. I love to walk up to the back of the house and see the pretty flowers. My lilies are blooming right now and my pots of flowers actually still look pretty good. It helps when I can rely on the rain and not have to water them. They usually don't look so good at the first of July when it's so hot that I don't want to get out there and water them!


2. This is my favorite little yard ornament. It was given to me by all of my teacher friends in memory of Dad. It's perfect for him - a boy on a tractor with his dog.


3. Another thing that I love to see in the summer is beach towels hanging on the deck! It's kind of a weird thing to actually "want" extra things on the deck, but I do! It's just a sign that it's officially summer, the pool is open, and the kids are swimming!

Brooke at 10 1/2 Years Old

I've really noticed a difference in Brooke in the last couple months. She is changing all the time and turning into quite the little lady.

*She loves 4th grade. She doesn't want to miss school and really enjoys her teachers. She has quite the group of girl friends and is very social.

*She is exactly 3 inches shorter than me.

*She is starting to really like to read. It seems that her nose is always in a book. This is great because she hasn't always liked to read. Right now, she's into the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books.

*She still loves to play Barbies. And house. And with her American Girl dolls. And school. She has a very creative imagination. I am forever asking her who she is talking to me and she looks at me and rolls her eyes.

*She will be starting softball practice soon. She seems to like most sports. She played basketball this winter and has intentions of playing sports in school, just as soon as she's old enough.

*She is my "right hand". She is good to help me with whatever I ask of her. And if I'm having a bad day, she seems to kick it in gear and do more around here to make it easier for me.

*She is very thoughtful.

*She is not fond of storms. She wakes up at the first clap of thunder and wants me to tuck her back in. She turns up her CD player to try to drown out the sounds.

*She loves her calves and talks to them like they are her babies.

*She is a lot like her Dad. She picks up after herself and gets mad when Blake doesn't do the same. She likes her things "just so". And there's nothing she likes more than a good supper. She gets that from her Mom and Dad.

*Did I mention that she is only 3 inches taller than me????? And wears a size 8 1/2 shoe in women's. Yep. For sure.

*She is starting to "bake" by herself. A couple weekends ago, she made me stay outside while she made a cake by herself. And it was yummy, too. So add pumpkin pie and cake to her list.

She's a great little gal and I'm sure glad she's ours!

Can I Just Tell You.....

what a week we have had around here! Geesh, I am so glad that it's Friday, and I'm only hoping for a quiet, not-much-to-do weekend. We only have 2 1/2 weeks of school left, which right now might as well be eternity. I'd say that I'm ready more than the kids are. Brooke really is "in" to school right now, she has really come to love school and just hates to miss. Blake will tell you that he "hates" school but that couldn't be farther from the truth. Although this week he hasn't been there much! Here's just a brief recap of what has gone on-

last Wednesday(May 6th)- Brooke's teacher called me at the high school about 2:30 in the afternoon to tell me that Brooke had a terrible rash on her arms. It was really, really red and itchy and her teacher never calls me at the high school so I figured it must be bad. I was on my way to the vet in Roseville after school (to get a "cedar" for our heifer to bring her into heat- I'm learning a lot about this AI stuff) so I called Wanda. She got Brooke and headed to the Alexis Clinic where I met them. The doctor there said it was a reaction to the sun, plus she said she needed to have the wax flushed out of Brooke's left year. After 6 syringes of warm water flushed down her ear, we left!

Monday (this week) - I took the afternoon off to take Blake to get his cast off. The fracture had healed nicely and he was released back to normal activity - which was good since he hadn't really stopped normal activity! So we picked up Brooke and headed home. Jeff called at 7:10 and said that we needed to move trucks around from field to field. That lasted until 8:35 p.m. That's way late for us to start homework and showers so we started our week off with the kids getting to bed at 9:30. If you know me, I am very anal about getting the kids to bed on time on weeknights. Needless to say, not the way I wanted to start my week. While we were moving around trucks, Brooke was complaining about her arms really bothering her and the rash looked just horrible so Wanda (who was helping move from field to field) said she would take the day off to take Brooke to the doctor since I had meetings at school all week.

Tuesday - Brooke went to the doctor and he said that her rash was Fifths Disease. However, once it reaches the "rash stage" it's not contagious anymore. He said that she was fine to return to school which she did. We just have to let the virus run its course. Also, he looked at her ear and said it was just fine. Of course - she had just had 6 syringes of water pumped into it!! Duh. Blake had his first baseball game that night. They lost 13-20 but that was actually pretty good since it was 3-20 in the start of the 5th inning.

Wednesday - Blake had to be at the oral surgeon at 8:00 a.m. to have a baby molar taken out. We found out a couple weeks ago that it was infected and since we know from previous experiences that novacaine doesn't work on infected teeth, I opted to have the oral surgeon put him to sleep so he wouldn't know a thing! He did pretty well. Didn't freak out too much when they told him they would put him to sleep, but he was very nervous. As was his mother.... he came out of the anesthesia pretty goofy, but at least he made it! There was a lot of infection so they put him on Amoxicillin (which the dentist didn't - kinda makes me mad) three times a day. He didn't feel good at all so I stayed home with him all day. When he was "under" he became pretty aggressive and fought the doctor so the nurse said that alone would wear him out. He rested most of the day and about 3:00 pm got his energy back!

Thursday - When I went to wake Blake up to get ready for school, he said to me "I must be really tired cuz this one eye doesn't want to open" and when he rolled over to me, there it was.... a giant, red, swollen right eye! I didn't know at that point if it was the infection from the tooth that moved to his eye or if it was pink eye. So off to call Nanny Cathi (Aunt Cathi) to see if he could go with her for the day so he could go to the doctor. She was nice enough to meet me with him and off they went to the doctor.... yep, Pinkeye. He got $65 drops and they started to work right away. So another day at home for Blake.

Friday - TODAY!! YEAH! Everyone made it through the day with no problems. Other than the fact that it rained all night and all day and we have like huge ponds of water in our yard, it was a pretty normal day. Blake had his field trip to the Geology Museum and Blackhawk State Park and then off to Happy Joe's to make pizzas for their lunch. He had a really good time. We have so much rain, it's sad. The fields and creeks are absolutely flooded. Some of the roads even have water over them. What does that mean for this farmwife? It means a suicidal farmer of a husband who I think I will try to avoid this weekend.

So after 4 trips to some kind of doctor, 2 prescriptions, 4 diagnoses, and about $500, the week is over...finally.

Now it's time to move our attention to our heifer. I never imagined that I would be studying a cow to see if she's in heat... and that doesn't mean looking her "good" end if you know what I mean.... but I am. I am out checking her "other end" to see if she's ready to be bred. That should start tomorrow. I'm sure you probably won't want to read a post about bovine artificial insemination, but guess what? ----------------You probably will!!!

Mud anyone?

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!

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!