Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Do you see what I see?

Gracie in the tree.


She is quite stealthy.




This is an old artificial tree with those wire branches that have the fake pine needles on the ends.




Yesterday I was upstairs working, when it sounded like all hell was breaking loose down there, so I went down to investigate. All was quiet - with only Shasta wagging her tail and looking up into the tree, which is how I happened to spot Gracie laying on the wire branches looking ever so guilty.




She hasn't knocked it over yet. The star on the top has been found hanging off the side and a few balls have been broken.

A cat continually in the tree shall make for an interesting holiday season.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Wood and NOT a stray cat

We spent most of the day outside yesterday.



With temps in the 40's we got rain instead of snow. Which was ok by me.


This is the load of wood we split and got stacked in the basement. Man am I sore today.




With almost no grass left in the horse pasture - it's been nibbled down to nothing, add in all the rain Friday night and pretty much all day Saturday it is a sea of mud back there that Casper loves to roll in, YUCK!

Came in from doing wood and what do I find with Caden on the couch?
The neighbors cat, which he seems to think is a stray and he will get to keep.
He says "Well Mom, he was just sitting on the porch when I came in and he looked hungry."
Are you kidding?
Do you see how BIG this unneutered male cat is? He has been eating and eating well - at the neighbors house to the West of us (not the dopes to the East that forget to feed their animals).

He is a very affectionate nice cat, that even seemed to like Shasta, but he is not ours and we don't need any more cats.
Poor kid had to go put him outside, I'm such a meanie.
Today he is sitting on the step, waiting to be let in, damn.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Thankful for so many things

Thanksgiving is one of our favorite holidays and not just because we get to feast on the best holiday dishes around.

My list of reasons to be thankful is mighty long.


The snow is gone, although we expect to get a bit tonight. I actually hung sheets out to dry on Thanksgiving day - that's how nice the weather has been here.


The willow in the front yard.

A Thanksgiving toe story


Thanksgiving morning Chyann got a call from the neighbors saying they were in such a hurry to get where they were spending the holiday that they forgot to feed their rabbits and dog - really are you kidding me? How could you forget that? Anyhow she rode Scotch up to take care of their animals (they even forgot to close their garage door). When she got home she was putting Scotch away and he stepped on her right foot. She heard a pop and felt a sharp pain. Being the tough gal that she is she continued on putting him away.


Now let me say that due to nerve damage she has almost no feeling in her right foot, so for her to have actually felt pain it must have hurt like hell!


When she came in we looked at her foot and saw that her pinky toe was swollen to about four times it's normal size and bleeding from under the nail and blackish/blue/purple in color.


Not much you can do with a possibly broken toe on Thanksgiving day, so we took her in to the doc yesterday for xrays. No broken toe thankfully - but still massively swollen and an infection already brewing under the nail. drat. Good thing we took her in and that she was actually wearing heavy boots otherwise she might have really broken some bones.

Sloppy eating horses.


Jennifer is flinging up the hay onto Gypsy to get all the sweet little bits underneath.


The Hubby put a rail around the feeder to keep Lily out of it because she about tipped it over twice trying to get out of it.
She gives us the ol' stink eye now.


I turn around to find sweet Casper eating out of the wheelbarrow.



Hope you are enjoying your Thanksgiving weekend, I know I sure am.


Sunday, November 20, 2011

The first snow and other blither blather

Can you imagine this big ol' cow climbing into the feeder?


I told the Hubby Lily was climbing up there and he couldn't believe it, so I had to take some pictures.


We got our first snow yesterday. Only about 2 inches, but enough to remind us all that it is wintertime.



Grandpa drove up from Oklahoma Friday night and headed back out with a load of hay yesterday. He got caught in a blizzard going through southern Minnesota and it took him six hours to get to the state line, which is when the snow quit, of course..




Our old pool tarp was too worn to put back on this winter. I've ordered a new one and it should be here soon.




Colton is finally feeling better, only took four trips to the doctor and almost two weeks of missed school/work.


Although now there is a new issue to deal with. On one of his first trips into the doc he told them that his right ankle had been bothering him a lot. They did an xray and said they'd let him know what the radiologist said. Two days later we get a call saying he has been referred to a Podiatrist/Orthopedic surgeon. Had that appointment the other morning and it appears that he was incorrectly diagnosed back in 2008 with a sprained ankle - he actually had a fracture. So, what does this mean? Surgery for sure - more on that to come.




Chyann sold her little pink saddle on CraigsList! She was soo thrilled!




The first quarter of school is over and both kids brought home report cards with straight A's! How awesome is that!!






And as requested a picture of me with my goofy ass dark hair.


Currently it is only half as dark as what I started out with and have a very attractive blond streak on the left side of my head - I didn't do the best application of dye apparently.




With me is my very dear friend :) xoxo








Sunday, November 13, 2011

Still here...

but sicker than hell.



Colton has bronchitis, sinus and ear infections that has caused him to miss five days of school and work (so far - maybe more cuz he is still not well). Now Chyann and I have it.

Cairo



Wednesday we dodged the first major storm of the year. Folks just 60 miles to the East of us got up to a foot of snow! While we not nothing! Which was good because Chyann and I took a trip to the cities for some doctor stuff.




She was cranky at having to leave school.




About 20 min into the drive she grumps at me "Did you FART!!!" and rolls the window down about half way. umm.. no, you are smelling the shit the farmers spread on the fields and since the window is now down it really stinks in the van.
She mutters about stinky farmers and tries to roll up the window. Huh, guess what? It wont roll up. Electric windows - great technology if it works, right? I pulled over and tried to get it up to no avail. So off we go - to the cites. It's about 44* and we are going about 70 down the interstate.
It was LOUD and cold in the van even with the heaters on full blast - did I mention it was also windy? Blowing about 30 from the North? Which was right into that open window.




Well let me tell ya it was tremendously loud and quite freezing. Chyann of course is such a cool kid she only wore a sweatshirt jacket up to the bus stop that morning. There are blankets in the back but they "stink".




My lovely daughter had her fingers in her ears just moments before I snuck this picture of her.




After about 30 minutes she was able to go get the window to roll up - and boy were we happy about that! Lots of tapping and smacking on that window button, it must have a short in it or something.


Seahorse at the hospital

Thursday we got the steers, Eight ball and Cinnamon, loaded up on my lunch break and the Hubby took them to the butcher.

I was able to go to the school Friday for the Veterans day program. The school always puts on such a nice program with a guest speaker, singing and patriotic music.

Saturday the Hubby went and picked up Lilly and Marble from the farmer down the road. They are both three months pregnant!

Also
My hair is still a darkish brown.
18 more washes left - supposedly.
Although I do see a slight difference in the color.
I no longer scare myself when I look in the mirror and that is a bonus!








Monday, November 7, 2011

Mr Pool Shark

With the cooler temps and not spending as much time outside - it's pool time again.

Caden is quite the pool shark. He wears his fancy hat, uses his lucky stick and wins more than he loses.


Yes, this is my basement and I need a basement make over!


~


I did it again. I don't know why I do this, but I can't seem to help myself.


I dyed my hair.


uGHGU


Or rather I put a semi perm color on my hair. It's only supposed to last for 28 washes.


The color is light brown - chocolate truffle. The top doesn't look too bad, but starting at about my ears it starts getting REALLY DARK! Like almost a blackish.. shit..


For some reason I see myself as a blond, but I'm not. Maybe a very dirty blond with lighter highlights or something like that. Last time I had my hair done (highlights done by a professional) was for Colton's graduation. I could not stand the grow out any longer and on impulse got a box of dye last time I was a the store and yesterday while watching football decided to give it a whirl.


Oh my. I really hope it washes out soon - only 26 more washes left (hopefully).

Friday, November 4, 2011

Animal Friday!

TGIF!

Silly Gracie camping out on the slouching Chyann.


It was chilly out this AM, even a light skim of ice on the pig water. Going to be a gorgeous fall day with clear blue skies though.


It's been an interesting week.


Chyann has decided that she has grown out of her pink synthetic saddle that she's had since 2008 and now wants a new one that is several hundred bucks.


Now begins the quest to sell her old one.


She posted the ad on Craigslist and someone deleted it. After three attempts to sell it on Craigslist- even going so far as to say DON'T DELETE MY AD THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH IT!! It keeps getting deleted/removed. She decided to move on to Ebay.


We've never sold anything there, but she figured it out and has it for sale there.


No bids yet, but she is hopeful.


For the Physical therapy program Colton is in you have to first become a CNA - certified nursing assistant. He has completed all the class work and last week began working in a nursing home. First day was basically shadowing another CNA to get to know the place, ect. Yesterday he preformed all CNA duties on his own. He said it was the saddest thing he's ever had to do, but made him feel good about helping the people who couldn't help themselves.


The clinical at the nursing home lasts for six more weeks and he will be glad when it's done. Having decided maybe health care is not the field he wants to get into. A transfer to River Falls for the 2012/13 year is in the works.


It's time to load the basement with wood. We'll be busy with that this weekend.


Have a good one!




Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Halloween

Colton turned 19 yesterday!


His girlie friend made him a very cool cake.


Check out Gotham City on the side.



He is so very handsome, I think.

The kids - plus girlie friend all dressed up.



And
It's our 20th Anniversary.

Somehow we went from this:

to this.



20 years is a long time to be married.

We've had many more good times than bad

and definitely some shit times I didn't think we'd make it through.

Here we are though with three great kids that are smart, funny and beautiful.

I will even say - It's a wonderful life :)