Part 1 is done

Colton got Graduated last night!

It was a wonderful!

He had not put on his nice shirt yet when we took pictures.

Some of the pictures were a bit blurry.

Walking out.



We got the best seats - right behind Colton!


Afterwards with the coveted diploma.

Me and my baby.

And I only cried a little, really.

Now we're getting ready for the party and it's not raining - yet.

More pictures to follow!

Today is the day!

Graduation Day is here!

It is a beautiful sunshiny day - so far, as you can see from the pictures I took this morning after I fed the animals and accidentally fell out of the barn with a load of hay. My knees are going to look just lovely all black and blue with my nice blue dress. I may have to wear some hose to camouflage them.

And where is the Graduate this morning? I have no idea. Last night was the senior banquet at the school and he went to two different parties afterwards. I assume he spent the night at a friends house, but I don't know who or where. nice. He needs get home and finish mowing the yard.

Sour Cherry tree in bloom.

The white you see is wild plum trees and grape vines blooming.

Two of the apple trees are about to bloom as well, they are going to smell so good!

Chyann's doctor appointment went pretty good.

They are going to give her another month to get more range of motion before they do arthroscopic surgery to remove the scar tissue and lengthen her muscles.

She was disappointed they didn't want to take her in right then to do it!

Unfortunately my Mother is not coming to the graduation and the freaking weather!

On Monday it looked like we would have wonderful weather for the party on Saturday. Every day the chances of that have deteriorated.

Today the forecast is to have thunder storms starting about noon for the WHOLE day! Damn..

Hopefully I don't bawl the whole time tonight. Wish me luck :)

Strange Dreams, Sweetness and doctors

For the last month or so I've been having this crazy reoccurring dream.

It takes place in AK at my old job with a commuter airline when we were located on Lake Hood.

I apparently had closed the night before and had come in to work the early shift. I walk into the office and find that somehow I had forgotten to make the schedule for that day!

The phones are ringing with pilots wanting to know their schedule, the mechanics are trying to find out which planes to launch first, the rampers need to know which plane is going where so they can get the mail! And I can't find the schedule that the chief pilot hangs on the board!

It is complete chaos! All through the dream I am completely panicked!

Obviously the dream stems from my anxiety over Colton graduating and the party on Saturday.

Usually I really like to dream about my old job. It's like having a visit with old friends that I miss and love dearly, but this crazy one over and over? I'm done with it (please)! I don't want to wake up again with knots in my tummy and sweaty pits. Good thing this will all be over with soon.

All I've got left to do in the house is wiping down kitchen chairs and cabinets. Course I'll have to do all the floors again on Friday, but I'm not counting that. Oh, I also have one more flower bed to tidy up, but that's pretty much it. Except for ironing and maybe a load or two of laundry. And a last run to the grocery store.

Chyann let Casper out in the backyard on Sunday and they were taking a little siesta before I came and disturbed them. I could hear her softly talking to him. I imagine you can tell your favorite horse just about anything.

Goofy Shasta and Casey have to to be anywhere Chyann is.

Today I'm taking Chyann to the cities for a check up.

In the last month she has progressed from 31* to 50* range of motion in her right knee. Not exactly the 90* the doctor was wanting.

The physical therapist said her doctors may decide to put her under anesthesia and bend it for her or if the muscles start to tear while they are manually bending it, go in and cut the muscles to lengthen them.

Shit-O-dear. Not fun.

Chyann is actually all for doing this. She told me the other day that she could not even remember what it is like to walk right and just wants to get back to normal. I sure can't blame her. Guess we shall see what the doc's say.

And hopefully my Mother will be arriving tomorrow.

Happy Hump Day!

Green, green as far as I can see

Now that the leaves are finally coming out, when I drive down the road I get a good "green" feeling.

I absolutely love the green haze the trees have and the varying shades of green the fields are, from that deep green to the lightest. Makes me feel good.

Look at those lovely red maple leaves!

I think I'll be making fresh rhubarb pie for the party on Saturday.

The apple blossoms may just wait for the graduation as well!

Since the weather has been so cool, we haven't decided if we are going to take the cover off the pool or not. It will look nice if we do, but then the up keep starts.

Chyann got outrageously dirty from riding the go cart the other day and tore up the field doing donuts.

I think we are almost ready for the GRADUATION.

I'm working tomorrow, then taking the rest of the week off to finish up and take Chyann to the cities for a check up - hopefully picking up my Mother that day too -

Garage sale good deal of the day was two practically brand new full sized futons, the ones that fold out into a bed or couch and 1 chair futon thing, all for $6! I figure Colton can take them to college in August.

I've also been working on picture boards to hang up and it sure has been fun going through the old pictures - like this one. What a sweetie and I'll say again -- where have these last 20 or so years gone?

Blogger must be having a hicup today, as I cannot get rid of all those extra spaces!

Mother's Day weekend

Happy Mother's Day!

I had the BEST Mother's day weekend.

Chyann, Caden and I rode horses.

Chyann didn't ride for long because her legs got so shaky, but she was up and riding again! A wonderful sight!

I think it did her spirits a world of good, not to mention gave her muscles a good work out.

Four out of our five horses got ridden. Gypsy missed out, but did get a good brushing.

Chyann with Jenny.

Chyann giving Caden some pointers on riding both Casper and Cowboy.

Caden fell off Casper twice, but got back up and rode again both times. Casper is pretty smart and knows Caden is not an aggressive rider so he takes advantage of that by trying to eat, trot - basically do what he wants while Caden is riding him and since Caden doesn't have good balance yet he ends up on the ground. Good thing he bounces well.

Caden riding Cowboy with Shasta following along. Chyann with Casper looking on.

Since the weather was so nice we got the yards all tidied up.

Who knew having a big party was going to entail so much work.

The carpets upstairs even got shampooed - vehicle carpets too, flowers in the flower boxes, a mountain of laundry, yard raked, poop scooped, a bit of mowing, weed pulling and window washing.

And there is still a lot of inside stuff yet to do. I'd make a list, but somehow can't get past the washing of buggers off the walls part - who does that! No one will confess to being the culprit (caden?), but they are all going to get cleaning on that task!

and last, but not least

Happy Birthday to my fantastic Mother! xoxo

Spring concerts and other news

Spring may finally be springing around here as evidenced by the maple and willow trees. The birds were just singing and tweeting this morning. Last night I even heard some crickets chirping!

The rhubarb is really growing. I got a few plants for the garden yesterday too. The guys are busy preparing the soil with compost and working it in. It'll be interesting to see how much time I have for the garden this summer, as this will be the first summer that I've worked full time in a while.

Mr Blue Tooth! His lips were about as blue as his eyes.



Chyann and Colton had their spring concerts at school on Tuesday. I love watching them play.


When Colton came out with the Choir my first thought was jeez, could you have combed your hair or worn some nicer clothes.

Apparently combing your hair straight forward is the style, but it doesn't work for him because his hair is so curly.

He's got the best hair in the house and it needs to be combed straight back or just shook out. Can't tell him that though.



Anyhow if the spring concert and the awards ceremony afterwards for the seniors is any indication of how hard/terrible the GRADUATION is going to be, I'm in soo much trouble!!

I bawled and bawled through most of the songs Colton sang with the choir and played with the band. Caden kept asking what was wrong and banging into my knees while I was taping, sweet kid, but quit asking because it's making me cry more!



On that note it looks like my Dad is not coming because his wife is having health problems and my Mother may not be coming because my step-sister has mersa and is in FL while my Mother is taking care of her FOUR kids in OK. I'm feeling some stress here folks.




I leave you with a short video of Colton and the choir singing Dancing Queen by Abba.

May day and Prom

Aah, it's May Day.

No bonfires were lit to mark the coming summer because it's so damn windy here today!

The apple blossom picture below was taken April 27th of last year. The apple trees were in full bloom for Mothers day. This year the apple trees barely have buds on them so maybe they will be blooming by the Graduation.

Yesterday was Prom.

Colton and his girlie friend went.

I didn't realize that my camera lens has a dried water spot on it until I downloaded the pictures I took of them. How tacky, a nice water spot right on Colton's chest. It had been raining all day long, but it quit and the sun came out just in time for pictures.

The school district supports an after prom all night party lock in.

Every year it's some place new. This year it was at Action City in Eau Claire.

They have laser tag, bumper cars, rock walls to climb, video games, etc.. and all you can eat free pizza and soda. Not to mention lots of prizes to win.

When Colton came at 7am this morning he said they'd had a great time! He even won some good stuff. I didn't have time to hear what he'd won as the dogs were barking like maniacs in the backyard!

It was Cowboy, who has somehow managed to get out of the back pasture for the second day in a row!

He must be laying down and rolling under the fence, because it is not down or stretched anywhere. I'm knocking on wood that none of the other horses decide the grass is greener in the backyard or the neighbors land to the East and make their way out as well. Especially on a day when no one is home.

Anyway, by the time I got back into the house Colton was already in bed.

Chyann has started swimming on Friday's as part of her physical therapy regime and she enjoyed it, but it took so much out of her she was literally wiped out that night and all of yesterday.

I am amazed at how long it is taking her to get her strength back. The range of motion in her knee is coming slow as well, but she is gaining there - thankfully.