Birthdays, Bunnies, Blizzards and Boots

(okay, so the blizzard part was stretching it a bit... )


Well, I'd like to say that this last month has been uneventful, but it wasnt. Bow turned 2. My baby is 2. I cant belive it. he still doesnt talk much- But he is very able to communicate his needs, wants and expectations.

As you know I was unable to come up with a cake for him. I decided on a farm cake. Little horses, a barn, cows, goats. The whole 9 yards. So my dad and I went to to town to grab up a bag of those 1.99 for 25 playsets. My town, with a walmart, 3 dollar stores, a tractor supply and various other shops didnt have one. PERIOD.

I couldnt belive it. So I had to scrap that idea, and the day before I decided on a construction cake. Cause honestly, thats something he loves to play with. He takes his construction toys to church and plays in the dirt quietly the whole time.

I was actually very proud of how it came out.

















The only thing not edible are the stakes holding up the sign (made of gumpaste) and the actual construction equiptment. the rest is cake, graham crackers and oreos.


can you belive how big he is? its just amazing.






and being the boy he is, everything becomes a gun.



I also had another cake due ( I got paid to make a cake!! :) ) the day of Bows party, here I am working on it.







while my dad was here he made the observation "I fiqured out why Bow doesnt talk"
"really? why?" I asked
now, you have to understand, My dad had been up about an hour, adn Rayley had been sitting beside him on the couch this entire time.
"He's too polite to interupt Rayley"

This girl is the master of inane jabber. I mean to the point of just making noises or singing parts of a song when words fail her. She can NOT shut up. There is nothing that will make her be quiet.

Speaking of her ..... eccentricities.... She has been on a roll with her clothing lately.








Of course, Pictures with Santa were a HUGE deal.





Thats a bow in her hair of the netting of her skirt.



Yes, she wore the rubber boots and overalls to school.
One of those boots was left at her grandmothers; and when she picked out her outfit the night before, she said "well, I reckon I cant wear what I was gonna, I aint got my boots"
I pointed out that her boots BETTER be in her closet
"not my fat babies you silly woman- my rubber boots"
"rayley, you aint gonna wear your rubber boots to school are you?"
"well yeah- why wouldnt I? Plus, if I'm dressed for mud, they MIGHT just let me go outside and play"
It HAS been a might muddy around here lately.

We have also been building up our rabbit harem, and building on their hutch every week. We spent about a month with 4 walls and a roof, but no doors. thats okay, they are fed and watered from the outside, but anytime I needed in I had to unscrew the tin and take it off. Not fun. But we finally got the lids made with doors. Its not done by any stretch of the imagination, but its useable. BR usually only takes a day off each week, its Sunday, which means our day starts at noon, We all get up and get dressed and feed everything on our normal schedule, but dont start anything because of church. And since its football season, alot of my Sundays are cut up with that. I aint missin the 'boys.


These are a few of our bunnies.



And BR and I deciding what to do about 'little missy' our meat hog... She prefers to run loose as to being in a pen.



One Sunday we spent butchering my cousins roosters, well, the kids and BR spent it doing it. Right about the time it came to start the killings I started feeling pretty bad. I had felt under the weather all day, but knew I needed to help. Come to find out, I was sicker than I thought. when I started getting dizzy, and couldnt control my shaking I decided I better drive the 1/8th of a mile home. I left his house with the shakes, I was so cold my teeth were chattering. I got home, leaving all the kids with BR, and took my temp. 103.6. and climbing- I swear I wanted to die. I do remember once waking up when they all came home. Putting a bag at my feet.

As they started trooping in from feeding, and Matt came in to get the hog scraps, BR told him "be quiet, your mom is sick"
"OH NO! But I'm hungry.. now what are we gonna do?"
"I think I can handle supper Matt- go feed the hogs"

oh well, at least I know I'm needed....

I spent the next few days hurting, with a major fever and puking my toes up. I did go to the Dr and got a script. I had a bladder infection. well since I'm alergic to pennicilian, I wasnt given that. But come to find out, I'm alergic to the meds he did give me. Finally by the end of the week I got one that worked, even though once I started feeling better, I was still wore out, and HURT. my whole body was in massive pain. I had dreams, in my highly fevered state that I was on one of those midevil torture things that pulls your arms and legs in differnt directions. VERY vivid dreams. Of course, I contribute this to letting the kids watch a documentery on torture devices the week before.

But it did throw me for a loop.

On the second day I found out what was in the bag. Feathers. The kids had saved them for a friend of mine thats a taxidermist. Why they put them at my feet I dont know. But it wasnt fun to step on that bag- one of the times where I was woken up with the instant urge to throw up things I had apparently put on my stomache 2 weeks before, (I know it had to be what I had eaten back then, cause I had puked up everything from the week before), anyway, here I am, trying to make it to the bathroom, and I step on a walmart sack that mushes, and reach down, still with a VERY high temp, possibly even delirous, to look in it. I saw a feather. then ALOT of feathers. I closed it and decided to revisit it later, when the kids got home.

come to find out, it was nothing but feathers. Thank GOD.

I wasnt that lucky the next week. I had asked the kids to gather up all their jeans and laundry. They went to school, and I went to washing. I was gonna get my house clean- it had been a week. and looked like it had been a MONTH. But I was bound and determined to get something done. so, I put in some jeans. I put them in the dryer as soon as they stoped, I was proud of me for this, usually I forget the load in the washer if the dryer doesnt buzz and remind me- but it was empty- so no buzz, I was busy cleaning the bathroom, and they got dry. I opened it up, going to get them out and start my 3rd load of the day before 8am. Yeah ME!!

And there, right in the opening- was the ugliest thing I have ever found in my dryer. and one of the ugliest things I have ever had the misforture to see.
period.
leaned up against the side, kinda ontop of the lint trap was a BLACK severed chicken foot. I couldnt fathom why. And, it agervated the crap out of me. I mean I am no stranger to expired creatures in my dryer, tubs, washers, in closets, in drawers, in jackets, in my truck. With my kids I find them everywhere.

frogs and lizards, junebugs, beetles, salamanders, worms, - you name it, I've found it. But this one just pushed my buttons. so I waited for them to get home and told them to go and get some laundry done. starting with the load in the dryer..

Of course, they tried to sneak it out the door, like THEY were the ones to find it.. I swear, I dont know what the point was. you DO keep turkey feet, the beards, fan etc. and this one did have an impressive set of spurs, so, it was like a trophy- everyone has a 12 point on the wall, why not a chicken foot with a huge spur (which is the 'trophy on birds') on your dresser? And had I KNOWN, it would have been differnt. But this was my first day back among the living, I was already smarting from ALL the cleaning, and it just was too much. I didnt make a big deal of it. But they did have to do the next 12 loads of laundry. Honestly, they had killed the rooster, and if they kill a buck they keep the horns.. So maybe it shouldnt have irked me as badly, but in my dryer?? seriously?? AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGG

We had bunnie babies last week. of course they came during the coldest snap this year. Right after our 'snow storm'. It actually snowed here. It didnt stick, but the kids LOVED playing it in anyway.
We had bred two does, but only one took. This month we breed for the April Show, so this set of bunnies is my 'trial and error' set. The one who took had 7. They are pretty ugly little creatures when they are first born. Once they are up and around I will get some pictures.

Of course the snow happend the day we took pictures with Santa at Rayleys school Which made for an interesting day.



Luckily we were done by oneish and I could gather what I needed and head home. I opted to get the kids from school early, because in their infinate wisdom (note the sarcasm) our school decided NOT to shut down. Granted, we didnt get much snow, but it was calling for a few inches in the area, PLUS, it was already COLD, and gonna be in the 20's by dark. My kids get home around dark off the bus. AND these kids ALL knew that morning we were supposed to get snow. Do you SERIOUSLY think they learned a single thing? honestly? All they were worried about was the snow and playing in it. Plus it was a Friday, people were ALL over, and it was close to the first of the month. Town was a MAD house. and since we have had the huricannes the last few years folks start to run to the store when they find out we are in for bad weather. Noone wants to get caught in a blizzard, or warzone like after a huricanne with out basic provisions like bread and water. And we have had ice so bad that folks couldnt leave home before.



These are pictures of Bow - the snow was coming down REALLY hard at this point, and he was catching it and eating it.









This month we also ordered the kids broilers. each boy had to order 25 birds, just to take 3 to show. So I have to build a pen for 50 birds in addition to the chickens I already have. Luckily this is a short term project, basicly they are 2 1/2 to 3 months from hatch to table. And we will have quite a few chickens for the freezer if they all live. These dont usually live longer than a few months, they are a cross breed simply hatched for the dinner table.


I have been real proud of the kids lately. They have really stepped up to their responsibilties. A friend brought her horses over here to pasture them, and of course we still have the hogs, the chickens, the rabbits and the dogs. Every morning I wake the kids up and they get ready for school, then they traipse down to the barn, feed everything, water everything, and catch the bus around 6:15. Even Little Miss Drama does her part, she is the 'rabbit feeder'. And on the weekends they wake up pretty early, (before 7) and go feed and water before they even ask for their breakfasts. Sometimes they slip, they are NOT perfect by any means, but they are working harder, and I dont think I can express to them what that means to me. I am VERY proud of them for it.

They are also stepping up in their grades, I promised Hoover if he gets all 100's on a report card I'd give him 100.00. Since he has never gotten the 20.00 for all A's I'm not scared- but in his defense, almost all year for at least 3 years he has gotten all A's. except in handwriting. One year he got all A's all year, except handwriting, other times its been a B in conduct that kept him down.

Brett has 8 classes and is not doing as well with keeping up. He can do the work, I just dont know why he wont. I dont know if he is bored, or thinks he has the system fiqured out or what. He has been told by some idiot that he can 'bring all those up with a good showing at the end' and pass the semesters. NOT what you tell a kid that loves to procrastinate...

there are a thousand little things the kids have done that I have said "I have GOT to blog about that" but of course, I couldnt find the time. I really didnt have the time today. Matter of fact, my cousin in law is due here any minute to cut the kids hair, and I havent got things picked up, but I took the time, sadly, I have missed a bunch of fun and funny things that I wanted to write. Maybe in my search for being a new and better person I can also ask God to show me how to manage my time a little better.

Next week will be pretty busy though, its the last week of school before Christmas Break, and the annual school store is going on. At both Matt and Rayley's schools. I love these stores, unfortunatly, this year I will only be able to work one day. Plus, its Bretts birthday, and my dad will be in. And we need to get the tree up. Which I looked for for hours the other day. couldnt find it and gave up. Then a few days ago my mother in law called and asked me "when are you gonna come and get your tree?" I forgot, I'd stored it over there. I swear, I need a secretary...


I had about 15 minutes left to edit this and fix the pictures- before the kids got home, and Bow woke up. I made him some hot chocolate and tried to finish.

The kids came in, they all kissed me hello, Rayley threw a FIT because she ended up wearing a size 12 boot and a size 1 boot- This was SOOOO not my fault. But honestly, I dont have a clue where the match for either one is. the 12s are too little for her though, so that would be the one we find the mate for. These were hand me downs from the boys, They could be anywhere....



anyway, Brett went to get him something to drink before heading out to feed and asked me why Bow was 'plantin taters in the kitchen'

"Huh?"

yep, Brett explained that Bow had gotten in the potting soil that was in the
utility room and dumped it partially into a box in the kitchen and was sticking taters and everything else he could find in there.

so now, I have to go and clean up THAT mess, I still have 5 or 6 pones of cornbread to cook for the High School Rodeo our church is hosting tomorrow, and feed all these kids who act like they havent ate in a month, and Pat should be here any second to cut their hair!