New Mexico Vacation 2014

Phew! I'm exhausted. We got home Sunday from our 2000+ mile road trip to New Mexico. Sean's folks live there and we haven't visited in nearly four years (we're such bad kids!). So we loaded up the new car with everything but the kitchen sink and off we went. The kids did excellent on the road thanks to the DVD players. I can't imagine the horrors of that long of a trip without them.

It was lovely seeing everyone. It's amazing how much kids grow in four years! My nieces are growing like weeds. It's really crazy. In fact, having all of the kids together was pure craziness. There were times the adults left the house because of the noise level of the kids. They had so much fun together.

Apparently getting kids between the ages of 4-7 to smile for the camera is impossible.

The weather was pretty damp a few of the days but we managed to get out to the lake for an afternoon which was really fun. We had beautiful weather and calm warm water. The kids got to go canoeing for the first time (really the first time in a boat) and they didn't want to get out at the end.

One of the traditions we do every time we get together is have all the grandchildren do painted hand prints on the wall of Granny Randi's studio. We have little tiny hand prints from when they were all out there as babies. It's pretty cute.

One of the highlights of the trip for me was the hummingbirds. We're used to seeing hummingbirds in Colorado when we are on vacation but it's really just one here and there. At my in laws house they have two feeders that they refill a couple of times a day. There were usually 15 birds at one time and who knows how many in the trees around the feeders. It was awesome.

We had a great time and already miss everyone. It was a really nice relaxing vacation. Thank you Randi and Rich for hosting a wonderful family reunion.

Rough Life

I was waiting for the farrier to arrive on Monday and caught the goats taking their afternoon nap with the chickens. It's a rough life.

Happiness is.....

I've been in a great mood lately. It could be the insane amount of sleep I've been getting this summer (I'm just storing it up like a camel because I know school is starting soon and I'll be getting up at 6:30). It could be that my kids are at an age where I don't have to entertain them 24/7.  Could be that I've decided to be a happier person, I kind of think it's a choice. That's just my opinion. Anyhow, I thought I'd share what is making me happy right now in my life.

These two little people make me happy. We've been having fun together this summer. We like to go into town and get ice cream as much as possible. Well, they get ice cream and I get ice tea.

Going for walks down this old country road. I seemed to have buggered up my hip so I've been walking fast instead of running, which is fine with me (and my hip). Usually no cars go by which gives me ample opportunity to talk to the horses and cows that I pass in the fields, without looking like a complete whack job.

This cute guy makes me happy. This week we celebrated our thirteenth wedding anniversary. I'm a lucky gal.

Fresh produce from the garden brings a smile to my face (my cute little garden helpers do too). This might have been the only two squash I harvested before the plants were annihilated, which made them even more tasty I suppose. The cucumbers produced for about two weeks before the bugs took them out.

Happiness is: a brand new pair of running shoes. I might have tried on each and every pair of shoes in that store to finally find these pair.  I haven't replaced my running shoes since before the half marathon two years ago. These feel so much better.

My little weirdos. Seven and four years old, it's a good age. They are friends and play fairly well together (as long as they get enough sleep....all hell breaks loose if they don't). A couple of months ago Greta asked if she could sleep up in Wesley's room and we decided it might be a nice change for them during the summer. So on the weekends we pull out the small mattress that lives under his bed and she goes upstairs to sleep in his room. They play and read books and it's like a small sleepover. I don't know how long it will continue but for now they really look forward to it.

In the back yard

Oh July where you have gone? Crazy to think this month is nearing an end and next month the kids go back to school. July is usually the month where I harvest the most out of the garden. But not this year. I have not been into gardening this year. I planned it out, planted the seeds, mulched the tomato seedlings and that's pretty much it. Everything came up pretty good but the weeds came up too. Oh and the grasshoppers. Well, let's just say they were worse than last year and last year was bad. I had thought the super cold winter we had would have killed off some of the eggs but to no avail. They've stripped every plant in the garden down to just bare stems. Everything but the tomatoes. I've read tomatoes plants are toxic, that might be what's keep the grasshoppers away. The tomatoes are flourishing. I started twenty organic tomatoes from seed and now I can say there are hundreds of tomatoes back there.....mostly cherry tomatoes. One new variety I tried is called Organic Green Zebra and they are really pretty. It's hard to tell when they are ripe though. We'll see how they taste.

Every day I trot back to the garden and pick as many cherry tomatoes that I can fit in my t-shirt. Then I walk up to the goat pen and am treated to this sight.

Goats love tomatoes. GoatMan, there on the right, is nearly blind I think because he just snorts around with this mouth open until you put a tomato in it. Then there's Dym (the black one with her tongue sticking out), she could survive on nothing but tomatoes and would be quite a happy goat. Her offspring are learning to love produce by watching their mom eat it. I'm happy to say Heston survived his blocked urethra problem he had earlier this summer. He's now getting ammonium chloride daily sprinkled on his black oil sunflower seeds to prevent that from happening again. He's one lucky goat.

I then walk over to the tortoise pen and offer each tortoise a cherry tomato. They gobble them down. It's a special treat and one they get rarely since the majority of their diet is grass. The other day I had a melon that was past its prime so I chopped it up and went to see if the tortoises would be interested. Talk about a treat! I had to take it away or they would have eaten the whole thing. Here is Billy Bob, the young sulcata, and Big Guy the 30 year old leopard tortoise.

 About a month and a half ago the kids found a few seed packets that I hadn't planted back in the garden. They really wanted to plant them so we decided to do so in some non traditional places (you know since the garden is a hot bed of insect activity). We planted the giant pumpkin seeds under the swing set. They don't get morning sun so I don't know if they will actually produce anything, but they are flowering right now so we'll see. The kids enjoy watching their progress as do I.

Last night I put on my gardening gloves and proceeded to catch as many grasshoppers as I could. I think I had about 12 in my fist when I finally called it quits. Do you want to know what I did with those grasshoppers? I fed them to these lovely laydies. Call it retribution for eating my garden.

I have six hens and they were looking pretty bad. It's kind of like a molt that would never end. So a few weeks back I decided to stop locking them up in their outdoor enclosure. I thought maybe if they were free ranging they would get the needed nutrients to stop looking like roadkill. Well after a few weeks now I can't say they look any better but they are much happier chickens. They stay in the fenced in goat pen in the walnut grove and lounge under the horse trailer during the heat of the day. There is not a single insect in that entire pen. They put themselves to bed every night in the hen house and I shut their little prop door every night at dusk to protect them from predators. It's a good arrangement for now.

That's about all that's happening in our back yard on this hot summer day.

A Fun Birthday Weekend

What an eventful weekend! Wesley turned seven years old on Saturday. Hard to believe it's been seven years since my oldest child was born. Time flies when you're having fun! We were planning on hanging around and taking them back to the arcade to celebrate his birthday but we ended up in Oklahoma City instead. What were we doing in Oklahoma City you ask? Well it's time to start searching for a replacement for the Volt. It's been fun but I'm itching for a bigger vehicle. We've been looking for a few months now and there wasn't much around locally for a good price. We knew if we wanted a good deal we'd have to travel. That's not a big deal. I found several SUV's locally but by the time I arrived at the dealership they were sold. So we made a list of cars I was interested in and headed to Oklahoma City Friday evening. We promised the birthday boy and fun stay in a hotel with a pool and he jumped on board with the idea.

We got to Oklahoma City and went directly to the dealership to see if the car I was interested in was still there. It was 10:30 at night so I roamed the lot but came up with no car. Of course the Edge was sold between the time I called that afternoon and the time we got there. Ugh. So we went in search of the next vehicle on the list. I was interested in Ford Edge's and BMW X3's (their small SUV). The BMW turned out to be in pretty rough condition.....sunroof broken, air vents hanging out. And the real kicker? I asked where the spare tire was and the salesman informed me that BMW's don't have spare tires. Huh? No spare? We marked off all of the x3's from the list. After the experience with blown tires on the Volt, I was requiring a spare on the next vehicle. Did I mention the Volt blew the last and final tire on Thursday? Yep. All four tires blew before the car even hit 20,000 miles. I swear I'm not a crazy driver. I'm pretty tame, almost grandma like in my driving. Frustrating to say the least.

We made it home Saturday evening and celebrated Wesley's birthday with a grocery store cake (I had no time to bake a cake, poor kid. But the store bought cake was really good, so it's ok). I was worried he would feel like he was gypped for his birthday but he informed us later that night that it was his "best birthday ever!". Happy birthday Wesley!

Did we find a car in Oklahoma City?  We did! I am now the proud owner of a metallic brown Ford Edge. I love those cars. Apparently most women do. I did a little research before we left town and Ford has sold over 400,000 Edge's and 80% of them are owned by women. They are a true chick car. I love it. It's pretty fancy with some nice gadgets. The MyFord touch is not as refined as the Volt's touch screen but it's no slacker. It's sure nice to be sitting up high again too. And I have room to haul anything and everything I want.

4th of July Weekend

It's strange to be home for the 4th of July. For the past two years we've been in Colorado but after last years "unfortunate event" we decided to stick around home. On a side note I'm happy to report Wesley's had no other seizures, which is great. This year we decided to see what my home town had to offer in the way of fireworks. They did not disappoint! It was really well done. Living out in the country like we do, I don't realize how many fireworks are set off by individuals in town. It was nearly as much fun to watch the firework displays coming out of each driveway as it was to watch the show the city put on. The kids loved it too.

Sean has been home all week on vacation. I say "vacation" lightly because he's been working on the cars all week. It seems nearly all the vehicles have decided to have some sort of issue that makes them undrivable. The major project is the Dodge Van. It has been making a "clunk" when you turn the steering wheel so Sean has been replacing the front suspension. It's been a bigger project than I think he thought it would be but he's making his way through it. It's too big to fit in the shop so it's getting done on the driveway. Lucky for him it's been beautiful weather (not your typical early July weather).

He's been out there making his own tools on the lathe which is pretty cool. He needed a tool that would fit on his press to push the ball joints out so he made this out of a block of aluminum and steel. He's a pretty talented guy.

The kids have found a new hobby. Fishing creatures out of the koi pond. This year there is a bumper crop of tadpoles in there. I'm talking hundreds if not thousands of them. They line the bottom of the pond like a black dotted layer. We released goldfish earlier this year but even they can't make a dent in the tadpole population. Which is fine, I love frogs around here.....they keep the bugs down. The kids use the old pool skimmer to scoop stuff out of the pond and then they were dumping it in a bucket of water. They brought the bucket  over to show me and amongst the tadpoles were baby goldfish. They caught them and didn't even realize it. The pond will be full of big fish in no time.

Her new room

About once a decade I feel creative enough to haul out the power tools and make something. I was sitting in Greta's room and felt bad because I'd always planned to create a cute little girl room for her. But, as it often does, life got in the way. Last week, amongst swimming lessons, I decided it was time for her room to get a make-over. I wanted to buy a headboard but didn't want to shell out the $300 it would take to get the one I wanted so I decided to make it. I hauled the kids to Lowes and planned out the headboard in the wood isle while the children ran circles around me. It wasn't easy but I left the store with a pile of pine planks, some short wood screws and a plan.

I got everything screwed together and made a template for the design. I did that by measuring half of it, and taping together paper until I had the right size. Then out came the circle cake pans. I used those to create the "flowing" shape. I cut the shape out of the paper and then traced it on to the wood. I used the jigsaw I bought back in college to get as far as the above picture before it died. RIP little jigsaw, you had a good run. Thankfully my friend let me borrow her jigsaw to finish up the project.

I painted it and the little side table a moss green that matched Greta's new bedspread. I think it turned out cute and it cost me a whole $15 worth of wood. We picked out "Resort Peach" for her walls (which turned into "Resort Pink" after it was applied to her yellow walls). I found some sticky butterfly decals that glow in the dark and applied them above her bed. She loves her new room and says it looks like a "hotel room!" I think that's a glowing review from a 4 year old.

Bumper Boats

What's better than bumper cars? Yep, bumper boats. The kids thought they were epic.

What's Happening

So last week and this week we've been busy with swimming lessons. This will be Wesley's third class and Greta's first. The first two lessons were at the YMCA. I think they do a decent job but it's pretty expensive and a 25 minute drive. This year we tried the city pool. It's 6 minutes away and only $30 for 2 weeks. It hasn't "clicked" with Wesley up until this class. He is doing great and going under the water now. He wouldn't stick his head in the water for love or money but he decided this year he was doing it. Now he's always under the water. I'm really proud of him. So he's ready for the next level which I might enroll him in next month, we'll see. Greta on the other hand was eager for swimming lessons until they asked her to try a back float (with a life guard helping of course). She shut down, ran to me crying. That's pretty much been our experience since day 2. I tried getting in the pool with her, didn't work. So now I sit on the stairs of the pool with her and she does the things she feels comfortable doing (pretty much anything except floating or dunking). We'll try her again in level 1 next year.

 We've been pretty busy this summer which has been nice. Wesley is having fun with baseball. He has games every Saturday in June and it's nice seeing the community come out to support their youngsters. Greta tells me how she wants a pink glove when it's her turn to play in a few years.

I got a call this morning from Sean, he broke down on the way to work. He said it's the first time he's been stranded since college. The corvette blew a radiator hose and it was leaking fluid on the engine causing it to smoke. I loaded the kids up and we went to rescue him, picking him up and taking him to the parts store for a new hose. He fixed it and was on his way to work in no time.

One of my kids favorite things to do is pick cherries (or peaches or apples) off of their grandparents fruit trees. This year the sour cherries were in full swing last week so we went to help Noni pick them. The poor little tree isn't very old yet it had more cherries than leaves on it. There is some great pollination going on over there (on our trees....not so much!). So they filled up a bowl full and I made a cherry cobbler with it. I probably should have taken a picture of the resulting cobbler but it was inhaled before I even remembered. Fresh cherry cobbler is the best! Thanks for sharing your fruit Mom and Dad!

Life with a 4 and 6 year old

Staying home with kids is not for the faint of heart. This summer has already had its ups and downs and they've only been out of school for a month. This morning was just the cherry on an all round rough week. I was in the kitchen and I noticed both kids were in the bathroom with the door shut. Never a good sign. I yelled out "Hey what's going on in there?" to which I got the reply "Nothing!"  Again, never a good sign. Just about the time I got over there they were exiting the bathroom. I look in there and see that the edge of the floor is wet and the carpet by the door is wet. They both had little innocent looks on their faces. 

Me: "What happened in here?!"

Greta: "Ummm, I unrolled a lot of toilet paper and tried flushing it down the toilet and then it overflowed everywhere."

Me: "Why did you do that?!"

Greta: "I wanted to see what would happen."

Needless to say I was a bit mad. She got a half an hour time out in her room and a stern talking to. She's four and sometimes I forget that. She's a tall four year old but she's still four. I, of course, went into the bathroom and tried flushing the toilet (stupid me) and it once again flooded the ground. I used all the bath towels hanging up and cleaned up the water.

I then taped the toilet shut so that Sean can somehow unplug it. I don't unplug toilets, I've tried and I'm no good at it. That's one of those things that I married a man for.

So fast forward to this evening. We went to the pool this afternoon to just play, no swim lessons. Had a fine time. Came home, Greta jumped in the shower to wash off all the chlorine. Since I had used all the towels hanging up I reached under the sink to get a new one. What I found under the sink was two soaking wet towels. I take them out, unable to process why there would be two wet towels where I keep my clean towels. Then it hit me....those kids were in there this morning cleaning up a flooded bathroom......with clean towels to which they threw back under the counter to hide the evidence. The wet towels, naturally, soaked into all the other clean and folded towels.

Now I'm washing load after load of towels. Grrr. They better not mess with Mommy tonight. When does school start back up?

Father's Day Weekend

We had a very nice Father's Day weekend. We met up with my parents at the local amusement park and spent the evening riding nearly all the rides. The kids are officially big enough for several of the adult rides which was entertaining as well. Greta was very uneasy about any of the rides but we slowly chipped away at her until she was screaming with joy on the tilt-a-world. That one definitely needs a warm up period. It was great fun.

Growing Sweet Potaotes

I bought an organic sweet potato to enjoy for lunch and then forgot to eat it. It sat in our fruit bowl for a few weeks before I noticed all the little green sprouts. I hacked it in half and suspended it over a glass of water with tooth picks with just a little bit of the potato in the water. After a week it looked like this:

After the shoots got to be about 8-10 inches tall I gently pulled them off of the potato and put them into a jar of water where they quickly grew roots.

After two more weeks the roots had filled up the glass jar. I filled up a pot with potting mix and plopped them in there. Now I have a big beautiful pot of sweet potato vines growing on the deck. Give them a big enough pot (or plant them directly into the garden) and you'll have sweet potatoes by fall. Great thing about all this? That one sweet potato keeps on producing sprouts endlessly. I could fill the deck with greenery very inexpensively.  Just make sure you start with an organic sweet potato, the traditionally grow ones are sprayed to prevent sprouting. Happy gardening!