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.