Happy 10th Birthday, Ch'ree!!

At 3:34am on Wednesday, June 23rd, 1999, Ch'ree Elizabeth Kate was FINALLY born. Only 9 days overdue. I had been doing everything I could think of short of bungee jumping to get that child out (and believe me, I even thought of doing that!). We bounced around choppy waters on the lake for Memorial day, I mowed, I gardened, walked all day at an air show and still nothing. Finally it was helping Jeff haul hay that got her going. I was driving the pickup around the field while Jeff loaded the bales. By that evening, we sent Shelby home with Jeff's father and we went on to the hospital.

Getting admitted was an ordeal itself. Apparently the maternity wing didn't WANT anyone else back there and threw out every excuse NOT to let me back there. While the woman at the admissions desk gave every reason TO let me back there. And even as we got back to the maternity ward, they still didn't believe I was in labor. And as a result I didn't get the epidural I so badly wanted.

I'll save you from the rest of the gorey details. Let's just say that Ch'ree arrived almost before the doctor did. All 8lb, 4oz of her. We had a great first day of getting to know her, but then developed a problem spitting up blood. On Thursday morning, she was airlifted to University Medical Center in Lubbock and admitted to the NICU. We called her a little unicorn with the IV tube in the middle of her head.

That was probably the most worried I have ever been. Having a child in the hospital and not knowing what was wrong was horrible. At first they were tossing around surgery. But eventually they discovered it was acid reflux and she was treated with meds. On Sunday we finally got to bring our baby girl home.

And now she is 10. And going into middle school (5th grade here). She's such a beautiful girl, and we are so lucky to have her in our family!!

Vacation 2009, Mesa Verde CO

Last week we took a family vacation to Mesa Verde, CO. And saw some other points in between.

We took a tram ride down to one of the indian ruins called Long House. Which Drew loved, he thought it was like a train and called "All Aboard!" when it started to leave.

We still had to hike a bit to get to the ruins, and some ladder climbing to sit in the ruins.

Shelby was picked to help the park ranger out. She learned alot about the culture of these Indians, such as that she was near marrying age in their civilization, and that her mother and father were about to the end of their life expectancy.

Not sure who the man is, but this gives an idea of the vastness of this canyon and the ruins.

Alot of what we saw had been destroyed by fire. The rangers said it will take 100-150 years for the forest to recover. As you can see, grasslands seem to have taken over, and there were little to no tree seedlings.

A different view of Long House

Down in one of the canyons. The kids were real troopers for all the hiking we had to do.

The scenery was breathtaking. All the mountains and mesas and canyons was really neat. This was Shiprock.

No idea if these had any names, but were pretty just the same.


We went to Four Corners as well. Pretty cool for all of us to be in different states at the same time.

Drive By post with pictures for May 2009

Alot has been going on this month. The kids are all out of school for the summer. This fall I will have one in Jr. High, one in middle school, one in elementary, and one in preschool. Wow! What will I do with myself?! Don't worry, I have that taken care of. I have lots of plans for next year and they don't include soap operas or bonbons. LOL!


So, what did we do this past month? I've already shared Shelby's 12th birthday. She loves her cell phone. And it really came in handy today at the grocery store when I sent her to pick up an item I forgot and she had to verify what flavor.

I went with Ch'ree's 4th grade class on their field trip to Santa Fe/Albuquerque. We left Floyd at 6:30 am and went to Santa Fe first, where we had a tour of the Roundhouse (capitol building). Was very cool. I have lived in New Mexico for 18 years and had never seen anything of Santa Fe except a Blake's Lottaburger. Hope to go back soon and do some more sightseeing, but there was no time for that this trip.



From Santa Fe we went south to Albuquerque and went to the rattlesnake museum in Old Town. I lived in Albuquerque for 2 years and never once went to Old Town. Sometime I would like to go back and see some of the shops.

We finished up the Albuquerque leg of the trip by going to the Zoo. It's really a nice zoo, but we didn't have enough time to see everything. Of what we did see, I think the polar bear exhibit was the best.

The girls that were in my group. There are 8 girls in Ch'ree's class and they are all very close. I love each one of them, they all call me mommy!



I took several pictures of animals at the zoo, but this peacock seemed to just sit at this one spot and pose for anyone who walked by. He'd stand there, then turn around and shake his tailfeathers, then turn back around. Almost like it was an act for him.

Though I didn't get any pictures, Shelby received some awards at the middle school/high school academic awards assembly. She got A/B Honor roll, as well as the Creative Writing award and a certificate and t-shirt for participating in an archery tournament.

Chance graduated from Kindergarten. There were 12 kids in our Kindergarten class this year, only 2 are girls (and one of those are leaving). They are a pretty good bunch of kids, too.

Instead of caps and gowns, the kids wore a special t-shirt and a baseball cap that had a tassel on it.

Ch'ree received 8 awards at the elementary awards assembly on the last day of school. She did really well this year, making A and A/B Honor roll throughout the year, awards for math, reading, and 3 for good citizenship.

Ch'ree with her teacher, Mrs. Mendoza.

Jeff spent all last week in Soccorro, New Mexico at the fire academy. He passed all his skills tests and the written exams and now has his FireFighter I and II!

Finally, Jeff taught me how to drive the swather the other day. With him at the fire department, he may need me to cut some hay if needed. It was a bit intimidating operating an $80,000 piece of machinery and remembering what all the controls do. For one, there are no pedals! Your accelerator and brake are just a joystick, and their are three different buttons/switches on it operate the header. It's like running a video game! LOL! I did finally get the hang of it, though.

It's a horrible picture of me, but there I am running the swather.

That's all going on here this month. It will be a busy summer, even though we don't have any plans for a vacation. Between the kids 4-H projects, swim lessons, VBS, the garden, the farming, Jeff working at the fire station, and possibly a day/overnight trip to the lake or the mountains, we should be pretty busy.

Happy 12th Birthday, Shelby!

Shelby turned 12 on Sunday. We had a small gathering of family and friends come over for the dinner that Shelby requested: Jumbo Shells with Meat and cheese filling and a strawberry cheesecake. Also had homemade ice cream, since one person (Jeff) didn't care for cheesecake). Our friends the Deens brought some delicious olive dip.

Twilight fans that we are, Shelby loved the Team Edward shirt she got from her Grammie! She wore it to school today.But I think her favorite present was her very first cell phone. Since she will be starting junior high sports in the fall, and recently tried out for and is now on the junior high cheer squad, we decided it was time for her to have a cell phone. There may be times when I'm not always there, like afterschool practices and away games. This way we can be in touch when I'm not there.
She had a blast the rest of the day texting everyone that was in the room and aquiring cool ringtones.


Jeff's mom Linda, our friend Karen, and Jeff's sister Amanda all enjoying a margarita (nephew Brantley behind Linda)

Mmmmmm, this cheesecake is gooood!

Gracie and Drew having fun using Lindsey as a jungle gym!

rappelling

Jeff has spent the last 6 weeks going thru fightfighter academy. It's just half done now, he will be done just as the kids get out for the summer.

He's been learning alot. All this week was ropes, knots, and rappelling.
His instructors let me come down one day and take pictures of all the guys scaling the 5 story training tower that's recently been built. It's set up for several different scenerios that they may face.

Jeff, how does it feel to take the difficult way down a perfectly good building?

It's Spiderman! Drew came with me (of course) and he thought all the guys were Spiderman!
Look Ma, no hands!!! This was part of what they had to do. Tie a knot then hang upside down. This was later used in another scenario to rescue someone out of a window.

I'm sure nothing compared to having both feet on the ground!!

Drive By Post 3/27/2009

It's been busy around here. Seems like never enough time to post something. Or if there is some time, nothing really noteworthy to say. So I just have to save it all up for one post.

• We are nearly done with basketball. We finished up city league stuff a couple weeks ago. The girls ended 6-1, Chance's team 5-2. Last week we had a Little Dribbler tourney in Dora, both teams lost 2, won one. This weekend is a tourney in Elida. Girls lost last night, boys will play today, girls and boy again tomorrow. Then basketball season will officially be OVER!
• We are officially on Spring Break. Someone needs to tell Mother Nature. After weeks of 60's and 70's, we are now in a winter storm. It's been snowing all night, the temp is 24 (wind chill of 3), and wind is gusting to 50mph. Unfortunately, the tourney we have today was NOT cancelled, so we must head out in this. It's supposed to be back into the 70's by Sunday, though.
• Our plans for spring break consist mostly of relaxing after our busy basketball season and planning our 4-H projects. There is a garden project to think about doing, plus various sewing/baking projects.
• Jeff has been busy with school of his own. Three weeks ago he started his firefighter rookie school. He and 9 others from the Portales and Clovis fire departments are going through a 12 week school on firefighting and earning their firefighter I and II certifications. School is M-F from 7-4. Plus he still has to work his normal shift days. He's been logging in alot of overtime and is pretty wiped out when he is home. Another reason to be glad basketball season is over, no more practices 3 days a week! He can actually see the kids! They will all be done with school about the same time (end of May).
• The 59th Annual Floyd Lion's Club Country Jamboree began last night. If you don't know, this is a big country music show the Lion's put on to raise money that they give back to the community in the form of eye glasses, scholarships, sponsoring sports teams, and helping families in their times of need. They also give away three musical instruments, one for each night of the jamboree. Students must submit an application and an essay of why they deserve the instrument, and a winner is chosen from three age groups. Ch'ree won for the elementary group. I knew about it, but it was kept a secret from everyone else til the big moment. Dave Nash (the MC) announced her last night at the Jamboree that she was the winner of a guitar and 2 lessons, plus an opportunity to play next year in the jamboree and show off what she has learned! She's so pleased with herself! We are proud of her, too!

• Due to cutbacks at the town's newspaper, I'm no longer writing the Floyd news for them. I'm saddened by this, but in a way a little glad. No more worrying about getting that in on a deadline, no more worrying about my facts being correct (or about the paper themselves messing it all up. Something that has happened more than it should have). The village clerk and I had the foresight to start something else non-newspaper related last year. She and I put out a monthly news letter for the village, as well as making a blog for the village. This works out very well: it's not hard to do and we can say whatever we want without pesky editors cutting what they wanted to out.
• New little baby calf, in case we were wondering if it was spring or not. LOL!

My mother, stepfather and grandmother came out for a visit in February. We stayed busy with basketball games to play and cheer at. As usual, the visit was too short. Somehow my efforts to get them to just pack up and move out here aren't working.

Shelby showing off that she is taller than Gram

Drew, Wayne, Shelby, Ch'ree, Judy and Chance. Any more kids and I'll have to get a bigger sofa!

Chance and his Grandapa

Ch'ree, Grandama, and Shelby

Chance and Wayne riding 4-wheelers
Grandama and Drew. I had to do a doubletake at this picture. Drew looked so big I thought it was Chance for a minute!