Well, it's our 4th week of school and I already had to bring someone (won't mention HER name, but it starts with a "B" and she recently got braces...) home this afternoon. This certain someone had to go to the orthodontist yesterday to get her wires changed, spring traded out for a brace, and her braces tightened. Thanks to Grandma Wanda, she got to and from her appointment in Rock Island. While I on the other hand.... well I had to get the gray taken out of my hair and a haircut. Please remember I am 95% gray as my stylist calls to my attention frequently. Plus, Blake had flag football practice until 5:00 and we had Open House at school last night from 6:30-8:00. Anyway, back to the topic at hand, her mouth hurts. It hurts really bad. She won't even say much, other than "but Mom it really hurts and I can't even eat or talk". That's a true indicator of how bad they hurt. So we got home about 1:00, with a weiner dog that was so excited because she just loves when we come home earlier than expected, and I fixed her some tomato soup, gave her an adult tylenol (she was on the max dose of children's and it doesn't cut it anymore), and put her in bed. She's watching tv, I'm hoping she will fall asleep.
But.... what did I have to do anyway? Well, I was really wanting to vaccuum, clean up the back porch (looked like white trash lived here), pick up the kitchen, and catch up on some laundry. So at least maybe I can get caught up on those things before the 3 hours of 4th grade homework we will have! Blake is going to the After School Program so he won't want to come home until 4:30 or so anyway. I should get lots done!
Speaking of that young man... Blake.... if you know him, you know that he likes to tell stories. He once told his kindergarten teacher at milk break that him and his dad get drunk while they work on snowmobiles in the garage, also told the librarian that his dad can't read, and that his Mom drinks a bottle of wine every night. Yeah, most of that isn't true. So far he's only stretched the truth a couple times in 2nd grade. He did tell his student teacher that he is going to be a Nascar driver and when he wins, his Pit Crew is going to come out onto the track and spray beer and wine all over him. He did tell her that he would do that when he was "legally able". Pretty sure those were his exact words! Also told Mrs. Boone, his reading teacher, that his Dad could shoot a bear with his elephant gun " 'cuz if it'll kill a elephant, it'll surely kill a bear"! Maybe I should go look in the gun cabinet .... last I knew we didn't have an elephant gun !!! For Pete's Sake! I'm sure there will be more Blake stories to come.
One more thing, I am totally a "Blog Stalker" of this awesome mom, scrapbooker, and photographer. She lives in Oregon and my dream would be to one day meet her, along with her awesome husband Josh (who is too cute), their handsome young son Ross, son Coley, and daughter "Yannie". Ok, her name is Annie, but they call her Yannie and so do I! You HAVE TO CHECK HER OUT! Her name is Karen Russell and she is way cool. The thing is, I think she is probably younger than me! Why can't I be cool????
A Relaxing Afternoon?
on Wednesday, September 17, 2008Annabelle
on Sunday, September 14, 2008I came upon this blog a couple months ago while I was reading Keely's blog. I've been reading it daily since. It's about a little girl named Annabelle that was diagnosed with severe Spina Bifida while she was in utero. She wasn't expected to live more than a couple hours and now she is thriving with the help of many doctors and prayers. She is a couple months old. Her story is so inspiring. Her dad is great at posting updates and keeping everyone informed of her progress. Please keep little Annabelle and her family in your prayers.
During the past couple weeks, we've learned a lot. Here are a few of the things that have enlightened us!
1. Rain is never-ending. We cannot believe that it is STILL raining here. So far we have over 6 1/2 inches of rain. There is water everywhere. Our rural gravel roads are covered with water in some spots. The creeks are out of their banks. And .... I don't like having to take the dog out while carrying an umbrella1
2. It really does hurt when you fall on the gym floor mouth first. Just ask Blake! He has a swollen upper lip and it's scabbed over in the middle. (He wouldn't let me take a picture). He fell in PE and landed on his mouth on the gym floor. Yep, that really hurts.
3. When your 10 year old daughter wants to go shopping and says she wants to go to Hollister and Abercrombie, say no. That's not what I did. We headed to the Cities last night and got some new clothes for Brooke. She had birthday money so she did help pay for them. When we got home, the majority of our things were for her. She is so like her Mother!
4. After you've been out in the pouring rain, your shoes are wet and when you come in the house and step on linoleum, it's slick. Ask Brooke about that one. She has fallen right on her butt about 3 times on the back porch!
5. It feels really good to have all of the clean clothes put away and clean sheets on the beds. Ask me! That's what I did Friday night and yesterday. Our bedroom is clean, there is nothing on the floor and it feels great! (Cathi, you will know how this feels as soon as you get your front closet cleaned and put back together!)
6. When it rains 6 1/2 inches, you are bound to have water in your basement. But check that out before the Dish Network guy comes to your house to upgrade your equipment. I was so embarrassed that he had to walk through 4" of water in the back room of our basement.
7. Blake loves flag football. Just started practicing last week. His first game was rained out yesterday. Can't they play with floaties on?
8. You know it's rained a lot when the inflatable rings blow out of your pool and are really "floating" in your yard!!! And don't send your kids out to get the rings. They got caught in a downpour and were absolutely, positively soaked to the bone!!!
If there is anything else we've learned, I'll keep you up to date.
Ok, so I'm about 3 1/2 weeks late, but here is a picture of the kids on the first day of school. Brooke is now in 4th grade and Blake is in 2nd. They are still loving school. 4th grade homework is about to kill me though!!!
Brooke and Blake had to stand by their pen of 4 steers and answer questions from the judge. Of course we had them all prepped with what they should say- what we feed them, how much, how often, which one is best, worst, etc. What did the judge ask? "Do you have a name for any of these steers?" Ugghh! Anyway, they looked good standing there! By far the cutest showmen!!
Brooke taking Stewart into the showring. He had sprained his leg the day before so he wasn't walking too well for her. That really bothered her. She was afraid, too, that he was hurting and she was making it worse. He hadn't eaten all morning so we knew he didn't feel too well. Then once he got into the showring, he was reaching over the gates to the hay feeder in the pen next to the ring! She did a fine job of showing him though.
Blake just received Reserve Grand Champion. Boy was he excited! The judge talked about all of the steers and then told us that he was going to go out and pick the Grand Champion and Reserve. He walked up to Andrew Raes' steer and slapped him on the butt and shook Andrew's hand. Then he walked over to Blake (I was about to wet my pants at this point), slapped Bullet on the butt and shook Blake's hand. Oh boy! The crowd went wild! Blake had his own cheering section of about 15 people!!!
That day was so exciting and so hard at the same time. I was so happy but my range of emotions went from smiling to crying to smiling to crying. I was so looking forward to the kids showing at the Festival. Most people work for the State Fair, but we worked for this. I wanted Dad to be there, and I wanted him to be proud of the kids and of me. He thought we were crazy in the beginning for getting into this but once we started working with them more, he got more excited, too. He was looking forward to watching them show. He didn't ever get to see that. He passed away 2 weeks before our first show in North Henderson in June. I know he was there in my heart and in spirit, but I kept wanting to look in the stands to see him sitting there. Brooke asked me what was wrong and I told her that I wanted Papa to see them show. Oh...... and poor Brooke..... while all of us were wrapped up in the excitement of Blake winning, I forgot to think of her. Then I thought to myself "Where is Brooke?". Here she came with our friend Jackie, just crying and crying. Her feelings were hurt because Blake was getting all of the attention. She was a little jealous, too, which we told her was a good thing. We also told her that one of the big reasons Blake did so well was because she had worked with Bullet and showed him all summer long. She did finally rally around and was fine within an hour or so.
Friday night we had to take Blake's steer over to the fairgrounds so he could be on display with the other winners. After we got back to the barn and got into the car, I could hear sniffles from the back seat. Blake burst into tears! He said "We worked hard all year for THIS. Now I have to do something that really hurts my feelings!" We talked for a while (and I cried too) about how they were going to be fine, that they were headed to Texas to a big feedlot for awhile. That is what we've told both the kids, and I've tried convince myself of that, too!
After the Auction on Saturday, which went really well, we headed back to the stalls. I broke down finally. I had wanted to all morning, but I did hold off until after the auction. It was hard not to when I looked over and saw Blake laying on top of Bullet. I told the kids to say goodbye (I wasn't going to though). Blake went up and hugged them. Brooke patted thier butts and said "Bye". I cried a little more and we headed to the car. I wasn't going to make them stay there and I knew I couldn't stay there any longer. Of course I still cry when people talk about it. I cry when I think of them. I will cry now if I don't stop this post.
WE DID IT!!!!
on Thursday, September 4, 2008What an exciting day!!! Just a brief note to recap today's Prime Beef Festival Steer Show Results... you remember, the show we've been working for since January!!! Anyway.... I am the proud mother of 2 awesome little showmen! Brooke got 3rd in her class (showing her steer who hurt his leg and wasn't able to walk very well!) and Blake got 1st in his class which also led to him winning...
Week #1 Down! 35 More to Go!
on Friday, August 29, 2008Ok, we did it. What an accomplishment. We survived our very first week of school! Here are a few highlights of our week and our weekend to come!
1. Blake really likes 2nd grade. His teachers are enjoying him, too! My friend Carrie is one of the 2nd grade teachers, and she is not his teacher because we are friends mainly. She does have him for reading though, and she told me it's a good thing she's not his teacher because she just has a hard time telling him to stop talking! She said his stories are so funny and he gets so excited when he's telling one! (tell me something I don't know - blake talks? what?) He really likes his teacher Miss Howard and student teacher Miss Sauer. (note - student teacher has 5' long legs, is skinny and blond - what's not to like there? Jeff is sure he won't learn a thing in 2nd grade after he saw her this summer!)
2. Brooke is enjoying 4th grade, too! It's so weird to see her carrying her books down the hall to switch classes though! She goes to different teachers for social studies and science. She likes all of her teachers, too! She is so grown up. Next year will be her last year at the grade school and then it's off to junior high! Yikes! Of course her teachers enjoy her, too - what's not to like about her? She's well-behaved and gets her work done! We did have about 2 hours worth of homework on Wednesday night, not so much a highlight of our week.
3. My high school biology teacher and student council leader remembers my birthday? Yes, I got a card in the mail today from "Mr. U". How can he remember MY birthday, let alone know that I will be 35 .... on Monday, by the way.
4. On that note, I don't need a birthday anymore. Last year was hard enough when Mom wasn't here to call me, but at least Dad called to pick up the slack. Now he's not here this year. That really sucks. Mom would have called me 7 or 8 times and not remembered that she had called the previous 6 or 7 times! And everytime she would tell me to come down and get some money and ask me, "Now how old are you this year?" Those simple things that I miss so much! Let's change the subject.....
5. Tonight is our high school's first football game. Nephew Erik is a junior and will be on the starting lineup. He is #66 so I got Blake a United Football tshirt with #66on the back. How cute is that? He loves Erik so he will wear it proudly.
6. Speaking of Erik, he was miserably disappointed last Wednesday when I walked into his 6th hour study hall at the high school. I guess he didn't know that I was coming to the high school everyday for 7th and 8th hour study halls. You should have seen his face when I walked into his English 11 class? I just acted like I didn't know him. I know he was praying to himself that I would disappear. It's gotten better though, today he came in between 7th and 8th hours and told me that he needs some money. I offered him the only $1 that I had, but that wasn't quite enough I don't think. He said he'd have to get his "blue book" from his Mom (that's his savings account book). He needed to fill up his rig with gas.... which by the way, is parked in the back row of the high school parking lot.... backed in to position... with the whip antennas flying in the wind... big, red 98 Dodge Ram! So him!
7. Brooke and Rachel are having their birthday party tomorrow with their girl friends. It's at the YMCA and they are going to swim for a couple hours. They will have lots of fun, and the best part is that I don't have to swim with them! We will have snacks, too. They are excited about it. And I think there are a lot of girls coming.... yikes!
8. Next week is going to be so crazy. It's the Prime Beef Festival and is the kids' last Steer Show. We are "ditching" school, as Blake calls it, on Thursday for the show. We will have to be in there by 6:30 a.m. so it will be a long day. But this is the day we have worked for since the beginning of last January. Then on Saturday is the Auction, the dreaded Auction, the Auction that will make me cry and cry when we have to say goodbye to these damn steers. The kids will cry. I will cry. Jeff will probably just sit in the truck so he doesn't cry. It's going to be bad, I'm just warning you. I have said all along that my goal is for the kids to enjoy this and to not get hurt. Well my goal has unfortunately changed. Yes, I want them to enjoy this and not get hurt, but I want to win! I want my 2 young kids to go in there and place in the top of their classes! Is that too much to ask? Why is it? I have worked my ass off with these animals and I want it to pay off! By the way, Jeff would absolutely KILL me for saying this, but I need to tell someone! Brooke and Blake will be the youngest exhibitors there. There will be one more 4th grader and the rest will be high schoolers. I need to get off of the idea of winning, but I can't help it. I have become competitive. I'll admit it. And the other thing is that I want all 6 steers (2 singles and pen of 4) to sell good. I hope they earn enough money to pay us back for the calves and then have enough left over to buy new ones. Is that asking too much? So.... if you are not busy and you are meat eaters, could you please come to the auction next Saturday, the 6th, at 9 am? If you buy a steer and plan to butcher it, just don't tell me or invite me over for hamburgers, roast, or ribeyes? Deal?
9. I just got a text from our friends Joel and Jenn offering to bring over lasagna and wine tonight for an early birthday celebration (I don't need a birthday, remember). That was so nice of them. I wonder if they could bring it on Sunday? That's the only night we don't have anything to do! We just won't say it's a "birthday" celebration!
10. The Prime Beef Festival Parade is Wednesday. Brooke is riding in the back of the Ethanol truck with some other friends. Blake is riding with Joel in a John Deere tractor for Kleine Equipment. That will be the first time in 10 years that I will watch the parade by myself. But... this will be my 35th year at the fair. My first outing at 5 days old was to the tractor pull at the festival. No wonder there's so much wrong with me. Thanks, Mom and Dad!
Well those are just a few highlights. Everyone have a great holiday weekend!
