Kids say the darndest things

Chance and Jeff were raking hay in the tractor the other day. Jeff said they were just silently moving along and he looked at Chance, and Chance looked at him. And what did my 5 year old do? He got a big old grin and sang:
"I got a Golden Ticket!"
Yes, he's been watching the old Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

After a day or two, Jeff was flipping thru the channels, looking for something decent to watch. Well, what he found wasn't too decent. Roadhouse 2 (they actually made another one, who'd a thunk it). Well, Chance saw enough to say, "Hey Dad, that's a HOT CHICK!!". Which he now says repeatedly.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Not one to toot my own horn, but, it is my birthday today. Of course, I'm 29 (for the 4th year), thanks for asking. LOL!

The reason I'm even mentioning that it is my birthday is because I had to brag about the gift my husband got me. He's so funny, he HATES keeping things a secret! He doesn't do his birthday or Christmas shopping at the last minute, it's usually a few days to a week or more ahead of time. Then he wants you to open it RIGHT NOW! Well, I love the secret and surprise of it all. He begged all week to let me have my gift now, and I said no and teased him endlessly about it.

This morning he couldn't even wait for everyone to wake up. He doesn't wrap anything, the Walmart bag is enough for him. So, I get this bag with a little box and he says, I know I don't give you enough jewelry. (Truth be known, I really would rather not have jewelry, and the last piece he got me was my wedding ring 13 years ago. I just have other things I would rather have that are more useful. I mean, what does jewelry do? You wear it, that's it. Same with flowers. They are already dead, but they do look pretty for a little while. Still, I'd rather have a plant, so I can eventually kill the thing myself). So, I reach in the bag, pull out the box and get:

Very cool! An iPod Nano! It's 8GB, which will be enough room for my favorite music and a few pictures I may want to carry around, and podcasts, too. I'm working on downloading iTunes now for it.

I got a package from my aunt a few days ago, and I waited til this morning to open it, too. And I got this:

I love Paula Deen! So does my waistline. LOL! This is a weekly/monthly calendar, and has lots of recipies in it. She has also included a few important dates, like Elvis' birthday, her anniversary, etc. Thanks Aunt Jan!

I've also received assorted cards and money from family (Thanks Daddy and Pat, Aunt Sue, Aunt Judy). Tonight we will go to Jeff's parent's house for dinner. Linda always makes each of her kids whatever they want, and everyone has a favorite dessert. Mine is her Strawberry Cheesecake. I left dinner up to her, just as long as it includes her homemade wheat rolls. I'm not too picky.

The past few days have been pretty busy. Yesterday I worked at the school doing a bake sale for Ch'ree's class. We made $379, which will be used for field trip expenses later in the year. A great thing about having such a small school: Money made by the class will stay with the class. Since we only have one class per grade, about 15-20 students, most the same students are there year after year. Whatever doesn't get spent goes on to 4th grade, then 5th. Eventually, this is the money they will use for their Senior trip.

Bake sales are wonderful. The biggest seller is homemade burritos. The teachers and high schoolers all sneak down to the hall by the cafeteria where we are set up to buy burritos before the sale ever starts, because they sell out FAST. Some people bring store bought goods, like snack bags of chips and cookies, grab bags of candy, pickles. Coke Floats (or rootbeer, or Dr. Pepper) are a big seller, too. My contribution was 4 loaves of banana bread and 2 pans of brownies this time. We sold out of everything but a few apples. I would call the sale a success. This one was for 3rd grade. I'll have another in 3 weeks for Shelby's 5th grade, and somehow I signed up to plan one for Chance's preschool class, too.

Well, happy birthday to me. I'll be back tomorrow with a picture of the delicious cheesecake I'll be eating tonight!

Pictures, 10/14/2007

It's a beautiful fall day out today. Temps are in the 70's. I took advantage and did some mowing with Drew in my lap. While mowing I found 2 rather large snake skins by a pile of tin. I decided not to get off the mower to investigate any closer.

There isn't much else to say, just a typical day: Shelby is mad at Chance for some unknown reason (except the fact that he is her little brother and is annoying). Chance wants to play with the girls with promises that he won't bother them, but they won't let him. The girls are playing quietly and nicely for the moment, but of course that is subject to change at the drop of a hat.

And so I'll leave you with some pictures:

Found this guy crawling up the house the other day. The dog, Tex, didn't know what to think of him. He doesn't bark at all when people come by, but goes ballistic over a little ol' spider. I guess he isn't that little. It's the time of year for these boogers to migrate, we find them everywhere.

Our latest project has been to turn the small one car garage into living space. This has been something we have wanted to do for some time, but never got around to doing. That is, until this summer when I found rattlesnakes living in here! After shooting one, I put in a call to a contractor and set the wheels into motion to remove the garage door and replace it with these doors. We have also had an electrician in to put in more outlets and more lighting. Next step will be to fix and paint all the walls, then we will do the floor. And Jeff will finally have his own space. This room will be his office and a music room for all the guitars and amps we have collected, and will still house the freezers full of beef and pork.

View of the doors from the outside.

Back in August, the local Air Force Base had a furniture auction. I had in mind to find a TV armoir for the bedroom anyway (as the pink chest of drawers were falling apart, and the 13 year old Alco-special entertainment center that was in there had seen many better days), so we went to see what we could find. And here it is. It's a Thomasville. Had a couple of minor scratches and the back part needed to be nailed back on. But for $135, it wasn't too bad a deal. They had 4 others like it, and also 5 nightstands that matched, but they went for more than what I wanted to pay. Actually, there were several good pieces of furniture, much of it looked like stuff that came out of a hotel, many dressers, mirrors, large pictures, headboards, and simple desks, many chairs, few sofas and such.

Same piece, but with doors closed.

Ok, I think I have something to learn on positioning the pictures, but I finally got them to upload. So you will have to tolerate it for now.

Whacking of the pinata that wouldn't die


Chance working on whacking the Power Ranger pinata. The darn thing had no hole in which to fill it up with candy. So, we got to cutting into him and discovered he had no cavity in which to put the candy! We improvised by cutting his back open, taking out the newspapers he was completely filled solid with, and taped him back up full of candy. Still, it took many whacks to get him open. Twelve kids, ages 1-10, hitting him with a metal bat. Each kid got about 4 or 5 turns.

Chance and the cake

Here he is blowing out the 5 candles on his Lightning McQueen cake, which itself was a hard thing to find. Only bakery in town didn't have any kits left to make it. So, I went to Walmart in Clovis. They could make the cake, but didn't have the toys to put on top. She gave me a discount on the cake, I found toys in the toy dept. All was well. Of course, we had to buy two cakes, because it was not only Chance's birthday party, but his cousin Brantley's as well.

Drew and the new kitty

Ah, here is little Drew with the newest member of our family (who is currently sitting on my lap. She is very interesting in my fingers typing). Squeakers is her name. Drew loves her. She isn't quite sure what to think of humans, but tolerates us. She housetrained quickly, and loves to sleep on Chance's bed. So far Jeff is getting along with her well. She hasn't pissed him off yet. LOL!

Well, I'm trying to upload some pictures. But keep getting an error message. I'm either doing something wrong, or Blogger is having a problem. If anyone else is having problems with it, let me know so I won't think it's just me.

First Post

Welcome to our family blog!

The purpose of this blog is to be a supplement to our family website (which gets updated about every other month or so). Hopefully I can get this updated a bit more frequently and easily, therefore keeping YOU up to date on our little family, complete with pictures and other news.

However, it's just a boring day here today, so thus far, this is all I got. But welcome, just the same.