Saturday, January 29, 2011

Casey's close call

Not quite sure how the blog got published before I was ready.
I uploaded some pictures, cooked breakfast, came back and wallah published.
So, anyhow.


We keep the dogs in the entry way when we are at work/school.

Which is also where we hang coats, winter wear and all that stuff.

Yesterday the Hubby came home to Casey being strangled!

Somehow she got her head through the loop on the bottom of my old snow pants.

Yes, that is them hanging over the dog bed

and had twisted herself around and around until she was literally

gasping for breath by the time he walked in the door.

He said he could not even get his finger between the elastic

and her neck. It was that tight. After he got her unwound from the

elastic she just collapsed and lay there sucking in air.

Poor old pup.

Needless to say my old snow pants are now hanging downstairs. I can't believe how much that elastic is stretched out compared to the other side. Casey must have been so scared!


Here is a video I took this morning when I fed the animals.





I never would have guessed she'd be up and moving around like this

seven months ago when she hurt her back.

In fact, Chyann reminds me every once in a while that I said

she'd probably never walk again

.

She sure surprised us all

with her amazing recovery!

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Breeze update and then some

The very sweet Shasta Breeze, aka Breezie baby, loves to lay in the sun.


Shasta is a very sweet natured pup and today is the first day since we've had her that she's chewed up an item rather than her bone or toy that she wasn't supposed to.

Chyann has taught her to sit and is working on lay. Pretty smart already.
The potty training is also going well. With some days no accidents at all.

Got a picture of Jenny eating a bit of snow.
Why she would do this is beyond me.
We have tank heaters in the tanks and they always have fresh water in them.




Our cold snap appears to be over thankfully.

I was definitely tired of the cold temps! Planning on doing a little horse riding this weekend with Chyann if the temps stay up.

AND

How about those Packers?!?!

Really looking forward to the Super Bowl this year!!

Can't believe the Seahwaks didn't do better though

or even Kansas City! What in the world happened with those teams?




Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Random picture and Thanks

Really looking forward to that first tomato this summer!

Thank you to everyone who left some very nice comments about my
1 year anniversary for not smoking!

I can't tell you how proud I am to be a non-smoker!

I am probably going to turn into one of those ass-hole former smokers,
(sorry)
that preach about not smoking.

But really I can't tell you how much better I feel!

AND
I don't stink!!

So, thank you all for the support it was very appreciated :)

In other news.....

Chyann is on the honor roll AGAIN!
Listed first this time and we received a letter of congrats from the school.
Colton's lowest grade is a C in physics.
Pretty good considering I've not seen him crack a book in, I don't know how long.
Caden is also an O for outstanding student.
He has been competing with another student in his class to see who can get the most AR (accelerated reader) points and that equals him reading a LOT of books! Go Caden go!

We are all looking forward to seeing my Mother soon.
More on that later.

When I go to work in the morning it is not pitch black anymore.
Love gaining daylight, even if it is just a few min every day
because I am so tired of going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark.
Course I am also hoping to stop the 10 hour days soon as well.

Looks like Colton's band has three more "gigs" in the next month too.
Very cool.
The biggest is still the one in Milwaukee on the 19th of Feb.
It's been very hard to push the whole college route when their band has been doing so well.

All else is well here. Hope the same is for you.
Happy Hump day!

Monday, January 17, 2011

Congratulations to .....

ME!

It has been exactly 365 days since I've quit smoking!

Most people don't even know that I was a smoker.

That is because I was a closet smoker

.

So much of a closet smoker that I never even mentioned here on the blog

that I had quit, but I am so damn proud of

MYSELF that I had to write about it!!

I always quit smoking when I was pregnant with the kids and usually started again when they were a few months old.

I will say that I NEVER smoked in the house, even in winter you'd find me out on the porch freezing my buns off smoking.

My Dad quit about 20 years ago and my Mother quit six years ago.

My husband never smoked, but he does chew - although he is trying to quit :)

Smoking use to be cool, now we know it's not and will kill you.

It has been hard this last year. Sometimes more than others, but I did it!

And will continue to do so.

I have worried about gaining weight since the average person gains 9 pounds in the first year after quitting. I've gained 8 and that is enough.

I think I did OK maintaining my weight until I started the new job in Aug, but since then with the rotten hours right in the middle of the day and sitting for literally HOURS at a time, the pounds have found me. Not to mention I seem to like to drink more calories than ever before.

So, on this 1 year anniversary of my quitting smoking I'm going to get back on the treadmill and work to regain some of the lung function and muscle tone I had lost due to years of smoking and the inactivity that has plagued me recently.

I figure if I can quit smoking surely I can get on that damned treadmill and loose a few pounds!

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Lucky 13 or The Golden Birthday

Chyann had her 13th Birthday on the 13th!

Her Golden birthday!
Hard to believe 13 years have gone by so fast.
I was 26 when I had her and in another 13 years I'll be 52?!?
(that's a scary thought)

Anyhow we had a nice quiet family gathering for her on the big day.
I dutifully went to the store and got her a cake.
Hey, I had to work that day and didn't have time to make one.
I thought it was really nice, very 70's tie-dyed looking.

She blew out all those candles with one big breath!


So, then she had a few friends spend the night on Friday.

Colton's girlfriend said she'd bring a cake.

I'm thinking a basic cake in your handy 13x9 with frosting from Pillsbury.
Nope, that kid sure surprised the hell out of me with the cake SHE made!

Can you believe that?!
How awesome!
A horseshoe with a horse head on it.
Who would have thought!
I had a hard time cutting into it, but I did and let me tell you
it was the best cake I've ever had!! Light and fluffy cake with
butter cream frosting!

Another big breath and all those candles were out.
We had planned on going roller skating that night, but the roads were pretty slick and visibility was low due to snow so we'll try to do that another time.
The kids did get out to ride the snowmachine and I took them into town the next afternoon to ice skate. Which was fun, but VERY cold!
(that is the girlfriend lighting the candles)



I found some horse shrinky dinks for Chyann too.
Remember those? I loved them when I was a kid and recently she heard of them from one of our friend's daughter and loved them too. Imagine my surprise when I found them with a horse theme for her.


I did almost nothing yesterday house wise. Didn't even cook dinner - the kids did that.
Watched some great football games and had a beer or two.

And I have tomorrow off from work!

A three day weekend! Love it!!

Had to include this picture of Colton. What a handsome guy - even if he does need a hair cut :)

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Weekend in review

Another busy weekend is over with.
Went shopping yesterday with Chyann for most of the day.
Groceries, trading in some ice skates for Chyann and
I got the cutest pair of boots, but forgot to take a picture of them.

Caden went to a sledding party
while The Hubby and Colton loaded wood into the truck to be
put into the basement tomorrow.


It was -15 this morning, but warmed up pretty good - about 20ish.

Stayed in most of today and tried to get a few things done, but don't think I got too far.
There were two good football games on ya know.
Those damn Christmas cards are just not getting done by themselves!
Maybe next weekend I'll get them sent.
And you are probably thinking why bother now?
Well, I don't know, but I'm sending them and SOON!


About dusk the kids and I headed outside for some fresh air and caught a nice spot of sun in the sky.

The farmer next door has finally decided to harvest the corn. He only got about a third of the field done before dark on Saturday. Hopefully he'll be back to take the rest down soon.

Chyan did some riding with Casper around it earlier today and she said the snow was all soft and churned up.

Found himself some ice. yuck.

Chyann took Jenny for a spin. She is doing that as often as she can now days regardless if it is cold out or not.



We rode the snowmachine for a while before dark, lots of laughs as we bumped over the snow

.

Glad you are back Krissy!

Have a good week :)

Thursday, January 6, 2011

That smell!

I can just SMELL those sheets!
Can't wait to put them on my bed.
The crisp, clean feel of them.
The whirl of the fan.

The blue of the pool!
The water just warm enough.
The floaty has a beer holder.

The bar-b-q on the porch.
The steaks a cooking.
The puff potato's.
The corn on the cob.


Perfect summer afternoon into evening.

My kind of fun.

I probably should take down the old baby swing, but can't quite do it yet.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Cold Ride

I went out to brush Gypsy's burrs out yesterday afternoon and found Chyann horsin' around with Jenny.

Scotch is like better her than me, hehe!

I can't believe she can thrust herself that high up and that Jenny will just stand there.


Casper is like hey what's going on here?


No helmet or face mask. I asked why no snow pants and she says I have obviously not tried to ride bareback with snow pants before or I would not even need to ask that.
Apparently they are WAY too slick, hence the ugly sweat pants with long johns under them.





Pretty but dirty, no baths for Jenny for a while I'm afraid.



Gypsy also glad Chyann is not mounting up on her. I did manage to get all the burrs combed out of her main. I have no idea where she picked those up at.



You can't see Casper in this pic, but he was harassing Jenny the whole time Chyann was riding her.


She is finally going to chase Casper off in this picture.
Kids are back to school.
I am mandatory 10 hrs OT this week.
Hubby is sick.
Colton busy with his band getting ready for the big gig in Feb.
I will not get sick.
Got 2 books at the library last week and haven't had time to crack either open yet.
Wishing summer would hurry up, but then not because that will mean Colton is graduated.
ug.
Sure am tired of winter though.
Too bad we can't just rewind to say last June.
Yes, that would be nice.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

A brilliant cold start and strange findings

Went to bed early last night and watched a movie in bed.
Was nice to close the door and watch an adult movie and by adult I mean a good shoot em up bang bang show without
10,000 (ok, maybe not that many) interruptions.

This morning is was so bright and sunny!
Cold too.
I think it was about -5, but no wind so it didn't feel too terrible.
The lovely Casper is so sweet.

Been so long since I've been able to get the camera out and take some pictures of my favorite animals.

We are feeding them on the ground due their feeder is lost in a drift till spring or the next big thaw - whichever comes first.

Jennifer thinks I've got a treat for her. I don't, that is Chyann, so go back to eating.
You can't really see it well, but Gypsy has gotten into some burrs. I'll be coming back out later to get those brushed out.



I am amazed at how fuzzy the boys are. I love to put my cold fingers in their fuzzy fur.



Course there is also the cows.
Lily and Molly have nice thick coats too.



I came in the house freezing cold from staying out too long goofing with the horses. I had big plans to jump in the shower to warm up, then drink my coffee, but look what I found in the shower instead? Looks like someone has been de-haired!




Apparently after the Hubby and I went up to watch our movie Chyann decided to give every animal a bath. Oh, I've just been informed, all that hair is just from Casey!
Holy cow!
Talk about nasty!

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Happy New Year!

2011!

Another year has just flown by!

We didn't do much for New Years eve. Watched the Jaws marathon on cable, rolled out some crust and made pizza.

Freezing rain had a the interstate closed and a lot of advisories for staying off the roads. I heard on the 10p news that there were 23 accidents between 6p and 9p. Scary.

And we usually do fireworks at Midnight, but the weather was so cold/windy that we skipped it this year.

Kids are back to school come Monday. I think they had a good vacation. Wish I could have spent more time with them doing stuff, but that didn't quite work out.

I am looking for a piano for the kids. A used upright would be perfect. Colton and Chyann are both learning to play on an old keyboard we have and a few keys don't work.

The puppy has been named.
Introducing Shasta Breeze!

She is very hard to get a picture of, as she is continually in motion.

The other dogs tolerate her well, especially Beegee who wrestles with her all the time.

I made cinnamon rolls for breakfast today then whipped up a batch of zucchini bread w/craisins instead of raisins. Very good. Even if the loafs did stick on the bottom of the pan.

After that I had to get in some couch time.

I had big plans to clean out/rearrange the extra room - it is the upstairs dumping ground for any unused or unwanted items for the kids, but I didn't even make it back upstairs.

Maybe tomorrow.