New friend

Here is a picture of little K holding...

...and carrying around his new friend.

In case you can't see his new little friend, it is a black beetle that unfortunately for the bug, fell into Kash's bowl and is now the delightful play-toy of our 18 month old!

Chattanooga-Aquarium

My friend Stephanie and I had been trying to get to Chattanooga to take our boys to the TN Aquarium for a while now. We finally got the opportunity to go. We stayed overnight with Ryan and Alice. They have a really nice house with a great view of a lake and nearby dam. Stephanie's little boy is 2, mine are 3 and 1. They played so well together. They wrestled ALL NIGHT long! All three of them, it was really cute and fun to watch. We were so glad they played so well together. They were all on neutral territory, I think that helped.

The Aquarium was great. We had a really nice time. It was a beautiful day, also good for driving, the boys had good behavior and we saw lots of aquatic life. We'll have to do it again soon.

Wrestling

...and more wrestling

Ryan, Alice, me and boys

Boys packed up in their car seats, heading to the aquarium

The boys really liked the big saltwater tank. Here they are closely watching two sharks swim by.

Here we are inside a shark cage.

Outside the penguin exhibit

Fencework and Goat fights

We have been busy adding fence, fence posts and gates to the ranch. We just completed a third, goat-secure pasture. Our friendly goat, April escaped within 4 hours. We think she jumped over the fence from a high spot inside the pasture. This new pasture is full of heavy brush. We took some BEFORE pictures and are looking forward to see how quickly they clear it out.

Our bully, Samantha, is not being nice to April. She just butts her for no reason, just because she is in the same vicinity. I feel bad for her. I'm considering getting rid of Samantha. I would really like to have really docile herd. The bad thing is that she is probably our best looking nanny. So it may be April that goes, if anyone. We'll see. Konrad thinks we should just keep them both. I just want them to be one big happy family. Why can't we all just get along?

Fencing Crew

The new corner! all three posts are new.

The gate is up, the job is complete!

CORN!

Well, I think I let the corn go to long on the stalk, about half of it was dry and shrively. Many ears had bugs in them also. Anyway, we'll do better next year. So I picked the corn Thursday adn then yesterday I picked more okra and another red pepper. So for dinner tonight we are having smothered okra and corn on the cob. Well gotta get to church, more later...

Monday's Harvest

As you can see my garden is doing well. I am so excited that we actually have food to eat from the garden. I found a great recipe for Smothered Okra. What's better is that I can use tomatoes and peppers from my garden in the dish as well. You can see an ear of corn in there, not sure it was totally ripe, but I will be picking them soon. Happy Harvesting to You!

Grand Opening

Well, today was the day, the grand opening of the new Chili's restaurant. I attended the momentous occasion with my friend, Amy, her two boys (ages 3 & 1) and my two boys (ages 3 & 1). It was an adventure but fun was had by all. It was just our luck that a couple of fireman were also taking the grand opening so there was a shiny fire truck in the parking lot that the boys just loved. I wish you could have there Teeny, but know that you were thought of and talked about. I miss our weekly lunches, and the waiter knowing my order without having to say a word. Ah, the good old days.

LAWN CARE ASSISTANT NEEDED

REQUIREMENTS: MUST STAY AWAKE ON THE JOB
This is what usually happens when Gordon rides with Daddy on the lawn mower...notice he is still wearing his ear protection.

What a Weekend...

I spent 50 hours away from all responsibilities this past weekend. I don't feel stressed out all the time, but I guess I didn't realize how much stress I had been living with until I was away from it. I spent the weekend at a bed and breakfast with some girlfriends. Most of them were scrapbookers and it was called a scrapbooking weekend, but I'm not a scrapbooker. I did take all of my pictures, baby books, phota albums, a pile of unread magazines and other projects that I didn't get to.
I almost had to carpool because about a mile from home my gas pedal got stuck and I couldn't stop my car. I tried prying it up with my foot but that didn't work. I tried tapping the gas pedal, hoping maybe it would free itself, that just made it go faster. I was mashing the brake all the way to floor, I was standing on it and it was almost stopped so I threw the car in park. I called my husband for advice and found out I should have just put in neutral, but there were no fluids on the ground under the car so I pressed on. I realized it kept sticking as I drove along the interstate but I just stayed far away from the cars in front of me, it only gets stuck for a second or 2 or 3, but eventually it unsticks itself. I was NOT going to miss my weekend!
I arrived there Friday and had just enough time to unload my car before the lunch bell rang. That's right, a lovely bell that the hostess rang when a meal was ready. Did I have to shop for it? Did I have to fix it? Did I have to clean up after it? No, no and no. It was lovely. That was honestly the best part of the trip, having meals prepared for me, and all I have to do is sit down and eat them. The 2nd best part of the trip was having a whole table to spread all my stuff out and no one colored on it, ate it, threw it on the floor or wadded it up. Everything stayed right I wanted it all day long. I worked for hours on the baby books. I got them all caught up by midnight Friday. Saturday I spent the day chronologically organizing photographs and putting them into albums. I finished that project Saturday evening and started going through magazines and cutting out projects to do with the kids. I didn't get very far with that project, but I decided to call it quits at 3am Sunday morning, after all, the breakfast bell would be ringing at 8am and I didn't want to sleep through it. I really only knew 1 of the 8 girls there. I had met a couple others a time or two before, but we all had a good time. Everyone just kind of worked on their own stuff and we talked and listened to cds all day.
So we are planning another trip after the first of the year. I am already excited. I didn't take my camera so I don't have any pictures of the group, but I am trying to get one so hopefully I'll have one to post soon. There really wasn't much to see, just me in my chair for hours on end. It was awesome!

A new treat for Diesel

This is Diesel and Mommy enjoying Diesel's first homemade rice crispie treat. Together we managed to finish a 9x13 pan in 2 days. I must confess it was mostly me :(