Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

See ya next year! (unless something really interesting happens and I really feel like trying to post using our dial up connection... hmmm probably not!)

Murphy's Law

If ever John has had a case of the 'Mondays' it was yesterday. It's quite comical after the fact, but I'm sure he was cursing a lot as it was occurring. Hopefully I can remember all of the details....

First of all, let me point out that the yellow ranch truck has been out of commission since last week when it died on the way back from Mason one day and it hasn't gotten fixed yet. He usually would use this truck, which has four-wheel drive, but has been forced to use his white truck, which doesn't.

The afternoon started out with John going up to Linda's ranch to check on her cows. She has a high fenced area that is supposed to keep deer out, but some have gotten in and she asked John to get rid of them. So, when John saw a couple of them and they both just stood there, he decided they would make for some good sausage meat and shot them. He backed his truck up to them to load them up and managed to get it stuck in the grass/mud (it hasn't rained much for awhile so I'm sure that he wasn't expecting the ground to be THAT wet). Try as he might, he wasn't able to get it unstuck. He ended up having to walk the couple of miles back to the house to get the jeep. He wasn't able to pull it out with the jeep either and broke his come-along in the process. He drove back home and got the tractor, which of course, died in the middle of Salt Branch Loop and refused to even start up enough again to move it off the road. So he walked back to the house again. Fortunately it was close to the time that the bus comes and our neighbor comes to get Jayde off the bus at our house. He was able to help John get both vehicles back to the house. Unfortunately, by this time, both deer had been laying out in the sun too long, and are pretty useless now. Talk about an unproductive afternoon!!! Hopefully things go better for the rest of week.

Band Concert

Ashlyn was really nervous about playing in the holiday band concert this past Sunday. She was sure they'd sound awful and I bet it didn't help that we agreed, but jokingly! Anyway, for a band that has only been learning for 18 weeks, I think they sounded pretty good. They played three songs and they were all recognizable. Here is a video of them playing Jingle Bells. Ashlyn's in the middle with the Santa hat on. We were all very proud of her!

Pet Cemetery

We've lost yet another cat to the evil FM 783. That brings our total domesticated animal loss since moving to the ranch 2 1/2 years ago (that I can remember anyway) to:

Cats: 8 (given, some of them just disappeared, but they could've been run over)
Dogs: 1
Cows: 1
Calves: 3

Fortunately, our neighbor called us to let us know of a possible run over kitty near the spot where the kids get on the bus before they went to catch the bus. Thankfully, they didn't have to see it.

So, if anyone needs to get rid of some cats, just bring them to our house. We've never needed to get them fixed, they never live long enough to multiply.

Latest Happenings

The kids had a fun time this past weekend with lots of friends (not so fun for me, though!). Friday night, Ashlyn had a friend spend the night and then Saturday, we decided to invite one of Colten's friends over for the day as well. His friend and his older brother and sister are Ashlyn's friend's cousins, so I thought, what the heck? They might as well all come over. Having six kids in the house wasn't half bad, however. The boys mostly played Star Wars on the computer and occasionally bothered the girls. The girls are who I had the most trouble with. Ashlyn's friend kept getting bored, so after they would set up an elaborate game to play, they would abandon it for something "not as booooring". After a couple of times of this occurring and a fight or two that I had to settle between Ashlyn & her friend, I decided we should all take a walk through the dry creek in the pasture after they cleaned up all of their messes. That went pretty well except for all the stickers in the tall grass. At least it kept them occupied and not bored or making more messes! After we got back, they all went home and I got a break for awhile... only 2 kids, yay! I've decided that it's a major accomplishment that the majority of tween girls make it to adulthood without an abundance of emotional scarring. Some of them (including a few of Ashlyn's friends) completely abuse the use of the "I'm not [talking to you|your friend|happy with you|listening to you|letting you hang with us]" phrase causing others (Ashlyn) emotional trauma when they don't understand why. I wish I understood why, so I could explain it to Ashlyn. It's still a mystery to me. Actually, I do understand some of it (She hasn't matured as fast as some of her classmates and is mostly interested in playing Littlest Pet Shop which is completely fine with me), but I don't know what to do about it. Anyway, hopefully she can make it through all this craziness unscathed! But I digress. All in all, I think they still had a lot of fun even with the occasional issues. That evening, the kids had another treat and got to hang out at Jayde's house while John & I went out to eat to celebrate his birthday. Talk about a fun day for them!

Other news:
- Ashlyn had two teeth pulled last week which required the eating of lots of Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream by everyone.
- Both kids were on the A honor roll last six weeks. I'm very proud of them!
- Ashlyn has a band concert this weekend. Should be interesting :)
- Colten is reading like a maniac lately and was even trying to read the missalette during church this past Sunday.
- John has the wall under the barn porch up and painted (with the help of two little painters) and is working on the doors.
- I am excited that we finally have had some fall colors around here. Took long enough!

Big Step for the Barn

As you can see from the photo, the barn now has a roof and a partial side (which was supposed to be red and will be yet). The rest is up to John to finish and he has been working feverishly in any spare moment between going to Christmas parties, dealing with broken down trucks and another calf hit on the road, and getting kids to appointments, among other things, to get things moving along.

Not too much else has been going on besides being busy getting ready for Christmas. We finally got our Christmas Tree up, now if I can only convince John to stop working on the barn long enough to help put lights up outside. Guess we'll see!

Food Show Frazzle

Unfortunately for Ashlyn, things didn't start out well for her at the food show Saturday. When we got there, a man in the kitchen was kicking all of the parents out saying that the kids had to assemble their dishes alone. This was a shock to us parents who were able to help them get it all together last year. None of us were prepared for that. So, I quickly gave her all the items she needed and brief instructions on heating up and assembling her dish and worriedly waited outside the kitchen. All of a sudden, there was a commotion in the kitchen and yes, it was Ashlyn. She had put one of the containers of food in the microwave, grabbed it out too quickly while it was still really hot and dropped it on the floor. I ran in and helped her clean up (I really didn't care that I wasn't supposed to be in there at that point) and we were able to save two of the bundles to still display (putting them in spots where we would know not to eat them) and I told her to put the other container in the microwave for not as long. Needless to say, we were both pretty frazzled from this incident and I was even more worried for her. She managed to get out of the kitchen with a nice display of food despite this and then I waited for her to get judged with the other moms. When she came out, she didn't look too happy and said she thought she didn't do too well. I tried to encourage her, but when she was the only one of the group from Mason who didn't make 2nd or 3rd place, she was pretty upset. I reminded her that she had gotten 2nd last year and promised that next year we'll be more prepared. That didn't help too much, but I think she got her mind off of it when we went to the Abilene Zoo as a reward for their hard work.
Here are some pics of the highlights of the zoo... the bridge to feed the giraffes from and the humongous zoo sign at the entrance (note the six small bodies inside the letters).

Quick Update

Not too much has been happening, but I thought I'd post something so you didn't think I've forgotten about my blog:)

The barn hasn't changed much. We're still waiting for the tin for the roof. Once that's here and installed, more progress will be made.

We will be heading to Abilene on Saturday for the District 4-H Food Show. I'll let you know how that goes. We'll be cooking for that Friday night and leaving fairly early in the morning.

This past weekend we went to our first Mason Puncher football game. They lost to Blanco, unfortunately, but we were mostly there to work at the concession stand anyway so we didn't really see much of the game. Parents of kids in band get the privilege of working at least once at the concession stand since the money from it goes to the Band Boosters. I was in charge of Nachos (pretty sure I'll never eat those again), John made popcorn and the kids passed out sodas.... well most of the time anyway, they did manage to sneak out and hang out with their friends a few times.

Saturday we made a lot of work for ourselves and took on the task of cleaning, organizing and rearranging Ashlyn's room. It was draining, but we were all happy with the nice clean room we ended up with. Hopefully it stays that way for awhile (yeah right!). Now we need to do Colten's room again!

The kids get to have off from school all next week since they've been doing good in their classes. I guess some kids still have to go Mon-Wed if they didn't pass all their TAKS test the first time or didn't do well on benchmarking or had unfinished work to do. They're really looking forward to it!

It's Going Up!

The barn is moving along a lot faster than I thought it would. John found somebody willing to do it that just so happened to have some time to start working on it before they got busy again and so it is going up! Here is the frame that went up in about 3 days. They had made some bad measurements and didn't get much done the first day, but they really got their act together after that. Now they're just waiting for the tin they ordered to finish the roof, the porch and part of the wall. John will be doing the wall under the porch himself since he doesn't want that part to be metal and he wants to make some old timey looking doors for it. Anyway, here it is so far:

Halloween

Last night, we did end up getting the kids dressed up again and planned to go to a festival that a church in Mason was having and maybe a few houses for treak-or-treating as well as a quick stop at Hilda Happy Hour to see the neighbors. This was even though Ashlyn had spelling, vocabulary, and band tests the next day and the spelling words were the hardest for her so far this year (words ending in -er, -ar, -or, -ior, or -iar - very frustrating!). I think we (hopefully) got enough studying in on the way in to town and after we got home, though.
The festival was more fun than we had thought it would be, so we ended up just doing that and not trick-or-treating. They had a live band and hot dogs and tons of games where you got candy whether you won or lost. Colten spent most of the time wrestling with his friends in a blow-up jumpy thing and going down the slide and shooting balls off of soda bottles with a water gun. He also made a few rounds at the cake walk, fishing, balloon popping and who knows where else. Ashlyn I think did everything there, but the most fun to watch was the donut-on-a-string eating contest and the eat-the-m&m's-out-of-the-whipped-cream blind-folded contest. The kids had a blast and were especially excited that they could pick the candy they wanted from the games instead of getting whatever and trading later. They are definitely ready to go again next year!

4-H Food Show

Sunday after church, we rushed home so the kids (actually all of us) could cook their dishes for the Mason County 4-H Food Show. Ashlyn did it last year and really enjoyed it, so Colten decided he wanted to try it out, too (I think he just thought it was cool to get a prize). Anyway, they both did very well. They surprised me with how relaxed and confident they were compared to the other kids. Everyone else had the jitters and my kids were just playing around not worried one bit. If you aren't familiar with how food shows work, the kids get to pick a dish to make that is nutritious and fits into one of the predefined categories. They have to know what nutrients are in their dish and what ingredients they come from and what they do for your health. They also need to be familiar with the food pyramid and with food safety. The county show is a little different since the judges actually taste the food, but at district, they are basically judged on the recipe, how the food is presented and how well they answer the questions (no tasting). Colten is just a beginner so he won't get to go to district, but he still had fun and I think he did pretty good answering the questions. He made BBQ Beef filled Biscuits and was happy that everyone liked them. Ashlyn is an intermediate this year (last year she was a junior), so she will again get to compete at the district show in Abilene. She made Beef Bundles this year which are a small piece of steak wrapped around a spinach-cheese mixture and rolled in whole wheat Ritz cracker crumbs. After we changed the recipe a bit, they were pretty tasty and even Ashlyn liked them! They also had a beef competition (with a cash prize) at this contest so that is why they both used it as an ingredient. Unfortunately, they didn't win that, but oh well. Colten got first in his category (beginner main dish) (out of 1) and got some measuring cups and spoons as a prize and Ashlyn got first in intermediate main dish (out of 2) and got a measuring cup and wooden spoon as prize.

This is a picture of all of the kids that competed at this show along with their food... not too many, but district will be another story!

Pre-Halloween Fun

This year for Halloween, Colten wanted to be something scary, so I found him this "Dark Skull Warrior" costume which he thought was awesome and couldn't stop thanking me for (I think he mostly liked the staff). Ashlyn originally wanted to be a cat, but there weren't any costumes realistic enough for her so she decided to be a devil. They got to dress up in their new costumes twice this weekend. Once for the Reingold 42 Club Halloween Party and then for a trick-or-treat hayride that some people in Mason organized and our neighbor invited us to. I thought that would be a good alternative if we didn't get to go out Halloween night (Ashlyn always has a ton of homework and Colten has been coughing... so who knows?). They look WAY to serious in this picture, but I think that's what they were going for.

For the hayride, we were supposed to bring "monster goodies" to share at the park after we were done. So, Saturday afternoon, the kids and I made Ritz cracker spiders and Nutter-Butter ghosts. They were very proud of their creations, so I thought I'd add a picture of them.


Here is a pic of the kids at the hayride with Jayde. She was a "Cat-up-a-tree" which we all thought was very clever. She dressed like a tree and attached a stuffed kitty to her shoulder.

Dying Elephants

I know dead elephants are an Aggie senior-year thing, but I swear we have a dying elephant in the house on occasion. Or maybe it's just Ashlyn practicing playing the trumpet. Either way it gives me a headache :)
All kidding aside, it's neat to see her practicing (even though hearing it isn't all that fun, yet). She chose to be in band this year since the only other option for her was a health class and she heard that it was "soooooo hard!". We convinced her that she wanted to play the trumpet since Omie B. still had John's trumpet that he had played in school. It's still in good shape if you ignore the lady-in-a-swimsuit sticker on the side of it that we couldn't get off (her friends all giggled about that). Plus, John can help her practice since he still mostly remembers how to play it. It also didn't hurt that one of her good friends also plays the trumpet. I'm glad she's learning to play an instrument, though. I'll let you know when she can actually play a recognizable song. Who knows... she may surprise us and get really good at it! Until then, I'll have to listen to the squeaks and squawks and the "Stop that Ashlyn! I can't hear the TV!" complaints.

Pumpkin Carving

This weekend we decided to carve the pumpkins that we had bought the other weekend. The kids had gotten to pick out the pumpkins they wanted and were very excited to get to carve this weekend. They enjoyed being silly with the guts. We even saved back some of the seeds and I attempted to roast them. They tasted OK (I guess you can make anything taste good by adding butter, salt, and garlic!), but they had a strange texture. Maybe I didn't roast them right... I'd never done that before. Our dog, Cleo, really liked them and kept begging for crumbs. Must not have been too bad! Anyway, here's some pictures of the kids being silly and with the finished products.







In other news, the kids are now proud owners of one cow each. The ranch bought some replacement heifers for the herd from my parents and we decided to buy two of them so the kids can have the money from the calves for their college fund. Ashlyn picked number 3 and Colten number 7. They were trying to come up with names for them, but I don't remember exactly what they decided. I think Colten choose Pepper for his, but Ashlyn was still undecided as far as I know.

Colten's OK

John took Colten to a pediatric neurologist today to make sure that the headache/nausea/nap episodes he has occasionally aren't seizures, and from what they can tell, they're not! Yay! Of course, this means he is more than likely having migraines based on family history, so we'll have to watch that. Thankfully, though, it's nothing worse.

CSI: Hilda

John has been determined to get an apology (and insurance money) from the person who ran over the calves the other day. He mostly just wanted them to admit to it, take responsibility. So, we've been on the lookout for a truck with a smashed front end, missing several pieces, that was probably a Dodge based on what was left at the crash site. He went by the body shops in Mason, and low-and-behold, one of them said a man had just come in to get his truck fixed. He had hit a cow and wanted to pay cash. Hmmmm.... coincidence, I think not! Now armed with the name of the probable suspect, John filed a police report. They were able to coerce a confession out of him... alright he just admitted it, and he called to apologize and give his insurance information. He apparently thought he'd only hit one and thought he saw it run off into the bushes. Somehow he missed the one laying in the road, but it was dark, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. He had several other excuses, but at least he fessed up and John can relax and quit his temporary job of crime scene investigator. :)

Bad Week for Cows

This morning I decided it has been a bad week for the cows on the ranch. First, the cow that had been stuck in the mud is still limping and John had decided to call the vet to come out and look at it. She's still in luck as they decided that since her leg isn't swelling as much that it might get better and they might as well just let it be for now instead of putting her down. She can get around on her own, but her leg looks really funny.
Next, one cow has been prolapsing. It had gone back to normal on it's own at first, but then it happened again and of course didn't fix itself the second time. John managed to pen the cow, who was very angry and upset about her issue. I don't blame her. She was looking like she wanted to charge us. Good thing she was in a pen! He took her to the vet yesterday to get fixed up and now she has to wait for 30 days to heal and then gets a nice ride to the auction.
Lastly, but certainly not least, two calves got hit on the road this morning. John was fuming that the people drove off and left them there without telling anyone. One of them was still alive, but had a badly broken leg and John had to put it down. Unfortunately, there's nothing that can be done about it, but we've been trying to think of ways to alert people that the cows could be on the road. Apparently the "Loose Livestock" signs don't help. The problem has gotten worse as traffic has been increasing on the highway the last few years and most people are going 70+mph through there. The best solution would be to fence off the pasture, but that isn't simple since there isn't water easily available. Hopefully we'll figure something out. I drove by where they got hit this morning and it broke my heart to see the momma cows standing vigil over their babies, wondering why they're not getting up.

Something Old is Useful Again

John has been spending a lot of time lately getting an old livestock scale on the ranch back in working order. He doesn't remember it ever being used, and so he wasn't sure if even worked anymore. After tinkering with it for awhile to see if it would still weigh accurately, he decided to rebuild it. I decided to post a picture since this is a bit of history being rebuilt. I should have taken a picture before he worked on it, but it was basically just a cement frame in the ground grown over with weeds as far as I can remember. Now it weighs people accurately to within 1 or 2 pounds. Once the gates are installed, he'll be able to use it again for it's intended purpose, instead of it just sitting around rusting.

Lange Reunion & Oktoberfest

This weekend we attended the Lange Reunion in Harper which was a lot of fun for the kids. This year they had a bouncy castle and bubbles and games for the kids to play. I guess since the reunion was at a different place this year that didn't have a play ground, they had to make up for it. Of course the kids didn't mind! Even with all the activities, Ashlyn still preferred finding friends to play with her "Littlest Pet Shop" toys with her. I'm amazed that she's been interested in playing with them this much for this long. I wonder how much longer it will last.
After the reunion, we went home to feed all the animals and rest up a bit and then braved the crowds at the Oktoberfest. The amount of people there was insane, but we still had a lot of fun. They had a kiddie play area and the kids got to go down the big slide. Ashlyn spent one of her tickets on Jacob's Ladder and she actually made it to the top. Of course, the highlight for the kids was getting to play on the playground that they can play on any time for free when there's way less people. We didn't mind too much, though, since there was a pavilion right next to the playground where we could dance and still keep an eye on them. John ran into one of his old co-workers from Georgetown who also plays in a German Oompa band, so that was a nice surprise. John got to hear the latest gossip about his old bosses and we got to see his co-worker play his guitar and sing in Lederhosen... good times!

No More Braces!

Ashlyn got her braces off yesterday. It's only temporary until the rest of her permanent teeth come in, but it's still a nice break for her. She has a permanent retainer now (you can see the line across her teeth). Yesterday was also picture day at school and she it made back from the orthodontist just in time!
We had another busy weekend. Friday evening we went to a memorial and reception for one of our neighbors, which was sad, but nice. The kids had a good time playing with their friends at the reception. Saturday evening, John & I went to a birthday party and saw a lot of people we hadn't seen since high school. Time sure does fly! Sunday was mostly gone by the time we got home after church and grocery shopping and working on getting Roseline's new computer online (I thought I had it working, but I still haven't gotten an email from her... computers can be so frustrating!!!). That evening, John grilled shrimp for my birthday. YUMMY!

Fun & Games

We had a jam-packed weekend starting Friday evening. Colten had a friend over to play for awhile (he couldn't stay for a sleep over, though) and we had Hilda Community Club where it was joke night and I was impressed that Ashlyn wanted to go up and tell a joke in front of everyone. I didn't even want to do that. Way to go Ashlyn! Her friend Jayde came home with us after club and spent the night (not sure if they slept or not... I'm pretty sure I heard giggles and whispers all night). Saturday morning the kids played and I cleaned (yay!). They had some intricate games of Littlest Pet Shop going on. This pic is from when they had them all in a conga line or something. It amazes me the games they come up with! Saturday afternoon I convinced my parents to wait for us so we could go take a boat ride with them at Sunrise Beach while John was gone to Cabela's with Noel. The kids really enjoyed getting wet! It was a nice day to be on the water. On the way back, we just managed to catch the bats leaving a cave that's near a dirt road somewhere between the lake and my parents house (can't remember the name offhand). That was definitely a treat!

Sunday, John cooked lots of yummy BBQ to celebrate my birthday a little early. Of course, we all ate too much and Sunday night my stomach complained a lot!!! It was hard to get up for the drive to Austin Monday morning, but I managed. Thought I'd post a pic of the sunset I caught on the way home. The one good thing about the drive to Austin is getting to watch the sun rise and set over the hills and the lake and the river. This is from the slab over the Llano River in Castell.

The Barn Has a Slab!

We now have a slab for the barn, the first step to getting it rebuilt. Of course now, John can't wait to start the next steps, but that will be awhile yet. For now, though, it's kinda neat to have it done. John will already have a better place to work on the vehicles instead of crawling around in the dirt. Plus the kids have a new place to play....they were playing tennis on it this morning!


So, I'm about pear-ed out. We cut up and dried 6 trays of pears in the dehydrator Thursday, and with the left over pears, I made a pear pie and two batches of pear cake split into four half-cakes to put in the freezer. Guess what I'll be bringing to holiday functions this year!

Tidbits

Stuck Cow
So far, the cow that was stuck has managed to make it. John gave it some shots to relax it's muscles and has been taking it water and feed. It has moved some on it's own and even made it to the shade, but yesterday he couldn't find it. Hopefully it found a good spot to rest. Still not sure what will become of it.

Pear Bombs
This weekend we took a bedsheet and the kids and I held it under the pear tree while John knocked pears out of the tree. The kids thought it was pretty cool to see pears flying out of the tree and rolling around in the sheet or falling on the ground (splat!). I thought it was pretty gross when a rotten one would fall into the sheet and get splattered by the others. Rotten pear juice, yum! We took some of the pears to my parents and my dad is going to attempt to make wine out of them. Hope it turns out! Also, we borrowed a dehydrator from our neighbors and are going to try dehydrating some of them since I read pears don't freeze well. Guess we'll eat the rest of them. They turned out really big and juicy this year due to the rainy weather. There weren't quite as many as last year since a lot of them got knocked off during one of our crazy weather events. It's amazing we had this many considering the 4 inch hail and ~70mph wind. We found that the dogs actually helped us to keep the pears that made it this far... we discovered a dead raccoon in the yard the other morning. We couldn't believe it... usually they just bark all night at stray cats. Guess they really had something this time!

Parent Homework
I went to a meeting for the parents of first grade students last night and decided first grade was too much work for me! Really, though, we will be having to read every night and practice spelling words and spelling sentences and make sure they can pass their reading tests and know what to do to help them when they're struggling with words while reading and write down the books they read and help them practice writing and, well, I'm sure I'm forgetting something. Between that and helping Ashlyn with her homework, it'll feel like being back in school again! It is exciting, though, to see Colten reading. I know he'll enjoy it considering how much he loves being read to (especially Captain Underpants!!!). Wish us luck in getting to 60 words per minute by the end of the year! (That sounds like a lot, doesn't it?)

Blimps
Seriously, how often do you see blimps these days? John called this afternoon and said there was a plain white blimp flying over the ranch. Strange!

Frustrations with Animals

We love having animals around, but sometimes they're frustrating... here are a few examples from this week:

Monday, our neighbor gave us one of their cats and said they'd bring another that usually hangs out with it later when they could catch it. The first cat has been fine. It hasn't left the upstairs porch since that's the only place in the yard that the dogs can't get to. The only problem we've had with it is that it likes to meow in the middle of the night right outside our bedroom window. I think I'm getting used to it, though. Yesterday, they brought the other cat and put it upstairs with it's friend. As soon as it was let go, it proceeded to high tail it off the side of the porch and land with a thud on the ground, one story below. We assume it didn't break anything since it was able to run and hide in a wood pile. John was able to catch it and we put it in a cage with some food. I think it'll be awhile before we let it go again! Of all the dogs/cats we've had in the yard, this was the first to actually jump off the upstairs porch. We kept thinking one would fall of one of these days since they like to slink around through the railings, but never thought one would fly off!

Next is the pigs. John set up a new pen for them further away from the house than last year. There's an A-frame shed with hay that's set up on a cement slab. The other part of the slab is where we put the water for them so they don't make a huge mud hole. The rest of the pen is grass/dirt and has shady parts. When John got home yesterday afternoon, he went to check on them, and they were both laying on the slab in the sun, panting and sun burnt. Of all the places they could be, they were in the hottest part of the pen... makes sense to me. John had to put a tarp over the slab temporarily until he can add something more sturdy, so if they decide they like to lay there, at least they won't burn. Otherwise, we might have some cooked Pork Chop and Ham for everyone!

Lastly, John had his work cut out for him this morning when he noticed that one of the cows was stuck in a mud hole in the pasture. This a part of the pasture that is usually dry, but after all the rain we've been having, it's now a swampy area. He noticed the cow there yesterday and thought it was just laying down, but it was in the exact same spot this morning. Fortunately, he was able to pull it out with the jeep, but it wasn't able to get up. He thinks it's legs are worn out from trying to escape. He'll be watching it today to see if it recovers. I'm not sure what we'll do with it if it doesn't get up soon. Hopefully, it's just really tired.

Piggies

Tonight, we picked up the pigs that the kids will be showing in the stock show this year. We should have gotten them earlier this week, but it's been too rainy (we had 3.2 inches in the gauge this morning). Colten claimed the black and white one and named it Pork Chop and Ashlyn's is Ham. Not sure if those are official names yet or not, but they definitely follow the theme from last year. Ashlyn still has fond memories of Bacon. She must have forgotten all the poop she had to scoop!

Rena's In Galveston

We got Rena moved in, but of course, things didn't go quite as planned. Rena wasn't able to get the water turned on at her new apartment until next Tuesday. We thought we'd just get a motel room in Galveston to stay in after we got her moved in, however, every place I looked at online was charging around $180 for Saturday night or was full... oh yea it's Labor Day weekend! So instead of trying to squeeze in some fun stuff, we left the kids at Omie B's and planned on heading back home after moving her in. It was a long couple of days of driving, but we hardly got rained on at all Saturday (Friday night, however, we got poured on in San Antonio and off and on after that) and everything went pretty smoothly. And now, John has more time to get stuff done this weekend after his crazy day Friday. By the way, he managed to get most everything done and we were on the road by 5:30.

Here's a picture of Rena on the porch of her new place:

Poor John

We're packed and mostly ready to go to Port Aransas this evening to help Rena with her big move to Galveston. We're sad to miss the Doss Fish Fry Saturday, but I guess you can't make it to everything. The kids are excited about going to Rena's house, but I'm not sure how much fun stuff we'll be able to do. Hopefully she'll be mostly packed and ready to go and we can head out tomorrow morning before it starts to rain too much. Maybe once we get to Galveston, we can relax, because, as the title states, John is kinda stressed out today. He's been waiting for a concrete guy to pour a slab for the barn for weeks and, of course, he shows up yesterday and today and John wants to help him out. He also has to get our pig pen ready because the kids' pigs for the stockshow are getting picked up this weekend and we need a place to put them. And, the hunters are coming today and he needs to talk to them at some point. And to top it all off, the cows at Linda Finch's ranch (a neighbor's ranch that he takes care of) are out and he has to get them back in before we leave. This is all supposed to happen while he's getting everything ready for us to leave for the weekend and pack the truck up... yikes!!! Hope it all works out!!!!

On a lighter note, school has been going well so far and without too many complaints. Ashlyn started tennis lessons again on Thursday. Colten says he's ready for a sleepover after only two weeks of sleeping in his bed. I'm not quite sure about that, but by the time we have a chance to have a sleepover, maybe I'll change my mind. At least he's got incentive to stay in his bed, though!

I'll try to post on the status of the move at some point this weekend if I get a chance. Have a good long Labor Day Weekend!

First Day of School

Yesterday was Ashlyn's first day in 6th grade and Colten's first day in 1st grade. They are both still excited about school, so I'm taking that as a good sign. Ashlyn was happy that her classmates noticed she had contacts and was excited about her locker shelf (she has vowed to be more organized this year - we'll see!). Colten just thought school was going to be lots of fun this year and was happy to see his old buddies. We'll see how long this excitement lasts. I'm guessing until the first night we're up late doing homework!

Fair Weekend

The kids had an exciting weekend which started out with going to the fair parade with Omie B. on Friday morning. They usually don't get to go to the parade since before this year, school had already started and unlike schools in Fbg, Mason doesn't get Fair Parade day off. Friday evening, we took them to the Carnival and let them ride their little hearts out. Ashlyn actually tried some of the scarier rides this year, but Colten still opted for the less thrilling ones. I'm sure that will change soon!

Saturday, the kids stayed at Omie & Opie A's house so John & I could go to the fair and dance and not have to go to the carnival. Rena was there, too, and they tie-dyed T-shirts, so I think that made up for not going to the carnival.

Sunday was the last day before school started, so we met the Witt's at the Beaver Creek and let the kids swim and play for a couple of hours. Then we had to go home and get everything ready for the next day.

Rena got a job!!!!

Rena just called and said she got a job with NOAA and she starts right after we move her to Galveston (Labor Day weekend). Woooohoooo Rena! I don't know all of the details, but the job involves going to oil rigs and checking the sea life around them. She'll have to elaborate. She'll be taking helicopter training the Wed after Labor Day. I'm so happy for her. Things are falling into place. Can't wait to give her a hug... we'll have lots to celebrate tonight at the fair!

School & Cats

Saturday we spent the day (and a lot of money) getting ready for school. The kids got haircuts (see pic - also note Ashlyn has her contacts in and Colten's two front teeth are finally coming in) and we bought all of their school supplies and some new clothes. The crowd actually wasn't too bad in Kerrville considering it was tax-free weekend. School starts on the 27th, almost two weeks later than last year. I guess that's fine since it seemed school was starting earlier and earlier every year, but now they have less days off during the year and a much shorter Christmas break. I don't know which would be better.

Sunday afternoon we labeled everything and stuffed their new backpacks full of supplies. Ashlyn's didn't all fit, but John will probably take them to school the first day so he can help her lug it all in. They're both really excited about school starting and seeing all of their friends again. The summer seemed to fly by and we didn't get a chance to get them together with friends much.

In other news, we lost a cat this morning. Our neighbor found Stripes in the road. We have the worst luck with pets. This is the fifth tame cat that we've lost. Most of the time they just disappear and we give up on them after a couple of weeks. With the road and the coyotes, I guess we just have to get used to this. Our neighbor has lots of extra kittens this year, so I'm sure they'll be happy to unload a few on us. We just won't be getting too attached to our cats anymore!

Cricket Invasion

John and I are about to go crazy. Every morning for the past couple of weeks, there have been at least 20 dead crickets in the kitchen. That's just the kitchen. They're dying all over the house. Fortunately, not too many of them make it upstairs. We try to get rid of them all, but it's a losing battle. I guess it's been a good year for crickets and the house must be the perfect spot for them to chirp their last note. And lose their legs (anyone know why cricket's legs fall off when they die?). Of course they're not all dead. We hear them chirping all the time, but they have good hiding spots behind appliances. Even Colten is getting tired of all the crickets and he used to love catching them. I guess the thrill of the hunt is gone. I think we'll all be glad when the invasion is over!

TS Erin

Crazy weather! Our rain gauge was full this morning, so we had at least 5 inches of rain since yesterday. Roseline's was full, too. Dr. Walton (the Dr. my mom works for) got washed of a bridge last night and had to be rescued. My dad couldn't make it past the banana bridge in Stonewall to get to work. Rena says that was the lamest tropical storm ever, but I guess it was only lame at the coast! I added some pictures of the water this morning. The first is the usually dry creek between the house and 87. The second is the Beaver Creek at the 87 bridge. You can usually see lots of grass and bushes and only a little water there. I suspect there will be lots of ranchers fixing water gaps today, if the rain stops long enough to let the water go down!!

On a side note, Ashlyn said she had a dream that she could talk to our dog, Cleo and that Cleo was in a rocking chair and Ashlyn was a giraffe. That puts a funny picture in my head. I guess she inherited getting strange dreams from me!

The Creek

This past weekend we did a sort-of makeshift creek weekend. We couldn't all be there the whole weekend, so some of us were there part of Saturday and all of us were there Sunday. It was nice to see everyone again and the water was wonderful (but a little too warm in the late afternoon). I added pictures of the calm water Sunday morning, our little fish (Colten) swimming under water, and Ashlyn with the raft we all fought over most of the time. Ashlyn kept herself occupied by pestering Randy and Rena mostly. She loved getting thrown in the air by Randy. Colten caught lots of minnows. They were both a big help in finding good skipping rocks and other interesting things under the water. I took some pictures with a water camera, but I have to get them developed (who knows when that'll happen!!).

Latest News

Yesterday, John had a busy day taking the kids to doctor appointments. Ashlyn got her eyes checked and was very excited to get to try out contacts for the first time. She has to go back next week to make sure she's comfortable with them, but I think it won't be a problem. I'm just glad she has a Daddy that wears contacts and can show her what to do with them since I have issues sticking things in my eyes. Colten went to see the pediatrician about these headache episodes he's been having. We think it might be childhood migraines. They usually happen after he's been playing a video game on the computer. He'll come tell us he has a headache and lay down for awhile. Then he usually throws up and then sleeps for a couple of hours. After that, he's perfectly fine. This has only happened a few times and just started this past spring. The doctor wants him to go to a neurologist and get a cat scan to make sure the headaches aren't related to seizures. I guess it's better to be safe than sorry, but I really think it's migraines based on family history and the symptoms and causes I've read about. I guess we'll see. I hope we can find a way to prevent them.

Lately we've been really working at getting Colten to stay in his bed all night. So far, we've done pretty good, but last night we had a major breakthrough. At 3am I heard someone going to the bathroom and assumed it was Colten. I completely expected him to crawl in bed with us when he was done and was surprised when we didn't have a visitor. This morning he was still in his bed and I knew it was Colten that had gone to the bathroom since the lid was up and he didn't flush (telltale signs). I was very impressed. All hope is not lost!

Tonight we're going to the annual 4-H swim party where Ashlyn will get awards for the projects she participated in during the past year: swine, food & nutrition, livestock judging, and vet tech. I think she'll be excited and Colten will be jealous and determined to participate in more stuff next year (I hope, anyway!).

Washington Trip

First Post

I'm not much of a writer, but if my mom can keep a blog, than I figured I could too.