Imagine that!

Check out what the Hubby got going for Chyann and Casey.

Casey can cruise all over in this little wheelchair.

Her tail wags soo fast!

Doesn't she look happy.

Pretty Cool.

And anywhere she can't maneuver through, Chyann will carry her.

Even works good in the house.

The band

Was incredibly LOUD!

There were probably 100 kids there.

The bonfire was huge!

The music was soo loud!

I tried to record some of it on the sd card, but didn't get much. Had to post it anyway to see if I could, having never done it before.

I did get a whole 20 min on the video camera before the battery died.

Colton and his buddies had the video camera before the show to try and make a video and forgot to recharge it.

They had a great time and it was good experience for them.

I'll be looking forward to the next show.

Water is (occasionally) the enemy

I hadn't realized how much rain we had gotten last week

until Saturday afternoon when I stepped off the back porch and

saw my flowers.

Then took a glance up to the rain gauge. Almost 5" of rain from Wednesday to Thursday afternoon.

The fire pit is full of water that isn't draining.

Don't know what Caden is looking so sour about.


The back pasture area is really going to require some dirt work
before winter.



Good thing the Hubby has a little bob-cat thing.
Otherwise moving all the dirt that is needed would take forever.



Caden sneaking up the hill to check on the turkey that has a nest in the tall grass on the other side of the fence. She has about 14 eggs at last count.

He got a surprise though and the turkey was dead.
The Hubby said something had gotten hold of it and killed it.

I don't think it was our dogs because they have never bothered any fowl that we've had.
Now the neighbors to the East of us have a dog that killed one of our cats last year and the other neighbors to the South East of us have a lab that will come over when she is in heat and pester our dogs. Could have been coyotes though. They've been pretty active in our area recently.



Chyann and I did some horse riding, but not much.
The ground is so soggy it's like walking on a sponge.
I've also had a head cold and haven't felt like getting jostled around.

Colton's band has their first show tonight. They are playing for a neighboring towns homecoming bonfire. We are going to go and video tape it for them. He's pretty nervous. Lets hope shakes that off and does well.

Caden's football team won their game on Saturday.
He even got another touchdown!

Yesterday was FANTASTIC!

Yesterday was Colton's senior pictures and we just had the

BEST time!

Why? I don't know. It just was.

The weather was pretty crappy and I was sure we'd not

be doing any outside pictures, but he guy has a relatively sheltered

backyard with about six different "sets" already up so

we did get a bunch done out there.

A little more than a 100 pictures were taken and I can

tell you about 98% of them are magazine worthy.

I'm not just saying this because he is my son.

The kid is so photogenic it's not even funny.

He looks like a Calvin Kline model.

The photographer even said dozens of times that he'd never

had a local kid photograph so well and he'd say

photographs don't lie.

How we will ever pick which photos we want is beyond me

because they are all just that wonderful.

I can't wait to show them off :)

Today Caden has another football game.

Hope the field isn't too soggy after all the rain we've gotten

this last week.

Chyann and I are planning more horse riding.

Another sign of fall to me is depicted in the following

pictures of Bugsy.

The mice want to come in. Glad we've got some good mousers to keep them out. Bugsy ate that one so fast!

My baby and his pup. Too bad they don't stay this sweet and innocent.

Fowl note and fun

Side note about the fowl.

They are still fowl, but

haven't ventured to my porch to crap again.

That box the UPS guy was to deliver?

Delivered onto the porch with all the crap.

Nice guy he is.

You'd think he could have left it next to the garage

or somewhere else not covered in crap.

Tomorrow we are getting Colton's senior pictures taken.

Thought we had till December 1st to get his picture for the year book turned in, but the date was changed to October 1st. The original plan was for a friend of mine to take his picture since she has a talent for picture taking, but summer got busy and we didn't get it done.

When I found out after school started that I only had 3 weeks to get them turned in I got Colton an appointment with a local photographer. Had to pay a deposit on the pictures then, but no sitting fee, to hold the spot because there were tons of kids that hadn't gotten their pictures done yet either and appointments with the photographer were scarce.

Anyhow, I'm excited about the pictures tomorrow. We are taking Colton's dog Lucky for some pictures and of course his guitar. Hope the weather is half way decent so half the shots can be done outside.

Should be fun.

Autumn changes and Hopeful signs

A Look south west from the back pasture.

The sumac seems like the first to start it's color change.

A few trees here and there have spots of red.

The evenings are chilly and dark is coming earlier.

The mornings are wet with dew that will be freezing soon.

Autumn is change.

I haven't mentioned Casey lately.

When my Dad was here, she would drag her hind-end

around so she could go where she wanted on her own.

Seeing her like that made my Dad cringe and softly say maybe

she should be put down because it was hard to watch and

she must be miserable.

And believe me there have been times these last four months

when I've thought the same.

Chyann has always said give her time, she'll get better.

For her sake I've really hoped she would recover,

but haven't really given Casey good odds.

All of the sudden Casey can get her legs under her body and

attempt to walk/shuffle. Most of the time her toes are

folded back, but when she does get her paws flat on the floor

she can swing them to do a wobbly step or two!

She mostly puts on these displays of wonder in the morning and are hard to catch on camera because they happen so fast.

I'd say she is definately showing signs of imporvement.
Wouldn't you?

Football, thrift sales and other fun

As usual the weekend flew by with no computer time.

Caden had his first football game on Saturday morning.

It was soo cold out.

Even with two blankets and coats we all froze up in the stands.

Was worth it to see Caden make his first touchdown of the season!

He was so proud of himself.

After the game we headded to town for the weekly shopping. On a whim we stopped at a thrift sale and my, oh my did we hit the MOTHER LOAD!

Lots of cute clothes for Chyann (a few for me even) and Caden got some goodies also. Right down the road was another sign so we stopped there too. ANOTHER fantastic stop. The gal was packing items up in her truck to take to goodwill and told Chyann she could HAVE any clothes she liked! Holy cow was that girl in hog heaven! I got a very nice picture for a buck and this lovely little bowl. Not to mention a horse shower curtain still in it's original packaging and a rug to match both for a buck!

Then on the next thrift sale they were selling big boxes of Lego's for 10 bucks a box. The Hubby made a deal to get one for eight bucks. The lady wouldn't make a deal for all three that they had, so we only got one, but anyone who has ever purchased Lego's knows what a smoking deal this was! Caden was soo thrilled.

What a day! I love those good thrift sales! Guess that's because I'm so cheap!

Kris came over Saturday evening and we had a nice dinner and visit.

Sunday Chyan and I rode horses for hours. No kidding.

I rode Jenny, Gypsy and Scotch. She rode Casper, Cowboy, Gypsy and Jenny.

Every horse got saddle time and every horse did great.

I could barely walk last night I was soo stiff and sore.

That's the bad part of my new job. You sit on your arse all day and come the weekend I'm so much more active it about kills me. I suppose I should do some kind of exercise during the week so I don't suffer as much on the weekends, but when is the problem. Going to have to fit it in somewhere otherwise I'm in for some real trouble down the road.

The apples are ready and they are delicious.

I've really got to do something with them.

The turkey is sitting on a huge clutch of eggs. Guess we'll see if any hatch.

Happy Monday.

Let's hope this week flys by as fast as the weekend did.

Scary stuff

When I went out to start the car for work today the porch was full of geese, ducks, chickens and 1 turkey!

Scared the Hell out of me!

As I stepped out onto the porch they started flapping and squawking! Trying to fly into the air!

I froze for a moment then started swinging my arms to bust through the pack of feathers!

As my heart slowed and the birds made their way off the porch I saw an amazing amount of bird crap on the porch!

We are having a box delivered UPS today. Wonder what the driver is going to think about that mess? Because I'm not cleaning it up. Sounds like a job for my lovely children.

Snakes, Parades and my Dad oh YEAH!

Very buys weekend with my Dad here.

Caden found a dead snake in the driveway.

It's small and dead, both good things.

We went to the Fireman's Parade in town Saturday.

That sure was a lot of fun.

Only draw back were these folks that came and stood right in front of our chairs! This is what I was able to see and I'm sure the guy farted! About killed us!

Pissed my Hubby off so much that he took his chair and moved it right in front of them! I was dying of embarrassment! My Dad, he thought this was hilarious!

Colton in his last Fireman's parade.

Chyann in her first Fireman's' parade.

After the parade we went to the fair grounds for Caden to do the penny hunt. He found about a buck in change. Then it was time for the pedal tractor pull. Caden was sure he would win the trophy. Unfortunately he didn't, but handled the loss well.

He came in fifth out of eight boys.

We didn't get home till late and stayed up visiting even later.

Next day we hung around the house.

The kids all showed off their skills to Grandpa.

Shooting, football, horse riding, music, ect..

And we let the new fowl out.

Those geese are pretty scary. Flapping and squawking at me.

So far they've caused no problems. If they do I know a gal

at work who's folks will buy them to eat.

The kids and Grandpa yesterday morning before school.

We goofed around taking pictures and they missed the bus.
Grandpa ended up giving them a ride to school.

It was a nice, but way too short of a visit.

My Dad didn't realize it been so long since he'd been here.

I reminded him of EXACTLY when the last time we'd seen him

had been and he couldn't believe it. Wanted to know why

I let him get away with not visiting more. What can I say to that?

He said he was busy.. Anyhow he says he'll be coming in May

for Colton's graduation. We'll be looking forward to that.

More fowl and a bonus

Last night when I got home everyone was supposed to be ready to hop into the van so we could head over to Krissy's for dinner and for the boys to do some stuff at her house.

Do you think they were? No.

All the kids were still excited about what their Daddy had brought home.

I was quite surprised to see more fowl - five more domestic geese.

Now a total of 8 geese, 2 ducks and 3 chickens.

There is 1 male goose, 2 mature females and 5 young hatching's.

With a few more geese to be picked up today.

What in the world are we going to do with all these geese? Not to mention the ducks.
Hello -- we have a pool! Don't you think they are all going to be trying to hang out in it?

Guess we'll see what happens....

As for dinner at Krissy's, we had gringa enchiladas and they were fantastic! Going to get that recipe for sure.. And we had some of her wonderful pear cider that she got on a recent road trip.

Fun evening, wish it wasn't a school night so we could have stayed longer.

Bonus of the whole day was Caden puking in the van on the way home....

What was up with that!?!? Don't know.. He was fine when we got home and was fine today.
Must have been a little motion sickness, which I thought he grew out of about four years ago. Last time Caden was car sick my Dad was here and we drove to Rochester with Caden puking the whole way there and back! Fun day that was.

Anywho.. Lunch break is over. It's almost Friday - is my house clean? Mostly. Is the laundry done mostly.. Gonna be a long night.

New Additions

Came home from work last night to two excited kids.

They could not wait to show me what their Daddy had brought

home from work.

Had to do the eyes closed, get dragged to the barn thing

where I stepped in a pile of turkey crap in my work shoes!

To see that the Hubby had brought home 2 ducks,

1 goose and 3 chickens.

They are separated from our chickens and turkey for

the time being.

The Hubby has a friend that had all these feathered fowl

and his wife got tired of them crapping on her porch so

he gave them to us.

Lucky me.

No pictures yet.

Soon, though.

It's hump day and I got confirmation that my Daddy is

really coming on Friday. Gonna be busy until then.

Deep breath...

I don't wanna go....

After a busy, fun weekend I don't wanna go

back to work!

It's drizzly, cool and windy here and I could really go for

just watching Netflix and napping all day.

Saturday afternoon some friends come over and while the

guys messed with cars we rode a little horse. Was fun.

Made some tentative plans to do it again in about two weeks.

Yesterday we got up early and got our cows all loaded up and

hauled over to our friends place to be hang with the bull again.

The afternoon was cleaning and more cleaning.

Even got three big boxes of stuff sorted to go to the local

goodwill store.

Had some more rain last night too.

Heard on the news that a house in our county was struck

by lightning and caught fire. Scary..

Random horse picture.

I managed to figure out how to load Cd's on the computer and put the music on my new phone. Heard some music I hadn't thought about in a long time. Like:

Bad, bad Leroy Brown, baddest man in the whole damn town.. who sings that?

Whoooh, listen to the music all the time..

The sailor said Brandy what a fine girl you are, but my life and my love is the sea.

We never even said a word, just walked out and got on that bike and we rolled, we rolled clean out of sight.

You should have been gold knowing how you made me feel.

I put about 200 songs on the phone and still have tons of room on it!

Don't know about you, but music sure makes me feel good.

I'm looking forward to listening to it at work,

hopefully it'll make the day just fly by,

especially since I just wanna stay home today.

Happy Tuesday:)

Saturday fun

Aaah, it's a looong weekend!

How nice to have three whole days off.

Yesterday was laundry and floor day.

Gotta get the heavy stuff done this weekend since my Dad

is coming on Friday.

Sure wish we had a new couch.

Ours is just disgusting!

We've had it for over eight years,

add three kids and three indoor dogs - plus a cat or two

and you can imagine how it looks.

Think I'll be putting quilts over it in hopes that they

will pass for couch covers..

What the hell, right?

Big bonus with my Dad coming next weekend is

our town is having it's annual Fireman's Parade and

both Colton and Chyann will be marching in it!

(Caden will be gathering candy)

Having lived away from my Dad for so long he has only

once managed to make it to one of my kids' school

functions. So, this is a big deal for me, having him to see

the kids march with their bands in the parade.

After the parade at the fair grounds will be a penny hunt

and small pedal tractor pull.

Caden is very excited!

Got myself a new phone yesterday too.

Same number, but I've lost all my contacts.

If I had your number please email it to me

because it is irretrievable from my old phone.

New phone has a mp3 player so I can listen

to music at work. Now if I can figure out how it put

the music on the phone I'll be good to go.

Was hoping to make more salsa this weekend, but my

tomato's are done. Bummer. I'll have to buy them if I

want to make more I guess.

Got lots of apples though.

Chyann showing the most perfect apple she's ever seen

from our trees.

Chyann ran in the house yesterday saying she and Caden were going to go riding. I think that's great they are playing together and enjoying the horses, so I said have fun. Didn't realize they were riding double on Cowboy till I looked out the window.

I think both of them together are too heavy for Cowboy so I told them to quit and ride a bigger horse double.

But they rode off , up and around the yard once more. Cowboy did just fine and can probably do it with no problems, but why take the chance when they can ride Scotch.


Found a stick bug on the van the other day.


The black walnut tree is putting out nuts for the first time in seven years.


With the horses out mowing there is a lot of crap to clean up and that is Cadens job. We've sure got a good compost pile going this year.

Rode horses with Chyann last evening. We had a great time, until the sun began to set and the skeeters came out to eat us alive! They were horrible. We couldn't get home fast enough!

Note to self: Lots of bug spray when we ride today.

Also our weather has turned cool. I'm closing the windows and have an extra blanket on the bed at night. I'm glad this cool weather is only going to last for a few more days - I love the heat!

The week updates...

It's been a busy week.

With school having started on Wednesday and

all the kids getting back into the grind of

homework and going to bed early it seems

like as soon as I walk in the door at 625p I've

got to throw dinner on the table, check homework,

maybe throw a load of clothes in to wash, delegate

kitchen chores, sweep & mop, read bedtime book to

Caden - then listen to him read a book and it's bed time.

It's non-stop just like that.

Add to the mix every Thursday is football practice for Caden too.

My big news for the week is that I found out this morning

that my Dad is coming to visit next Friday!!!

Whoooohhhooo!!

I'm so excited!!

We have not seen him in a few years and I just can't wait!!

He is only staying the weekend so it will be a fast visit.

Can't wait to tell the kids when they get home from school!

A few weeks ago the TV repair folks came and took the

Hubby's TV away to fix it.

They had to order new parts - of course the first parts

were the wrong parts, so hopefully the Hubby will get his

beloved TV back for the start of football season.

My cell phone broke..

We are out of contract so I can get a new one if

we resign up for 2 years.

I've been looking online and there are so many choices

that I don't know what to get.

I do know that I don't need the flip screen to type

(think I've mentioned that I don't text much),

I've heard that the touch screens are a pain, but

they look cool. I'd like to get one with mp3 capabilities

since I don't have an ipod or mp3 player.

Decisions, decisions.

I gave everyone (except Colton) hair cuts this last week.

Chyann was debating having me cut her bangs.

I trimmed her ends and she decided no, not right now on the bangs.

I clean up the bathroom and five minutes later she

comes out with a hank of hair in her hand and a big smile

on her face! She cut her own bangs and was very proud of herself.

I did a little shaping on them and she now has long bangs -

about down to her nose. Why she wanted this I'll never know

because she now just pulls them to the side with a barrette?

What was the point of that?

Ok, my lunch break is about over so I gotta run..

BTW - work is going good, might get some OT tomorrow.

Have a good weekend :)