non-stop excitement!

It's been an exciting week around here... relatively speaking... keeping in mind that big excitement around here can be as simple as the UPS guy driving down the driveway!


M played in his last basketball tournament for the year. His team didn't win, but he didn't care... he just loves playing.





R is working on a new tune for her ukulele lesson, "Music of the Night" Yes, it's from Phantom of the Opera... her uke teacher actually took the time to pick it out for her because the Phantom has some of her most favorite music ever.



I farm-sat for my neighbor's alpacas for a few days.... I've been her farm sitter for years, but each year she has more alpacas than the year before, and this year there were LOTS of alpacas...



They were everywhere...



They have no respect for personal space.

I got spit on twice.



I paid myself with alpaca poo (so good for my gardens).



The kids and I sang the "Beverly Hillbillies" theme song as we drove our tractor (oops, tractor wouldn't start, had to take K's car...) up the road, filled the muck bucket and little trailer with alpaca poo, then drove back down the road and hauled it around to the pumpkin patch to dump.





It just doesn't get much more exciting than driving down a washboard road, singing old TV theme songs, watching a stinky trailer bouncing around behind the car in the rearview mirror (while silently praying no one you know will drive by).

(Sorry K, I really will sell your car... or buy it myself... soon... I promise.)



There's just never a dull moment around here!

I just couldn't resist...

... a whole post of pictures of the new baby.

(With an update edit below)

E (dd#1) and the kids, including the new baby, came by this morning. E looks amazing, you would never have thought she'd just had a baby. And the baby is so sweet... I had so much fun just holding her and watching her funny newborn faces.

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I love this one of her looking up at her mom...

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No more time to play with photos... I need to get busy cooking before the kids mutiny!

edited to add: Just last night they made the official announcement, the baby's name is Emily Jo (so thankfully, Granny, she won't have to go by the name "Blank"!), and she looks very much like her big sister did as a newborn.

Finally reading the manual (part 1)

I have a confession to make...

I'm not good about reading instruction manuals... especially for electronic things... like cameras. I figure you just put batteries in (or charge it up) turn it on, point it at what you want a picture of and push the button. I can do that without reading a manual..

I've had a lovely little new Canon camera since January and am finally getting around to reading the manual. I read a little, take a few pictures, read a little more, take a few more pictures... I've been having a lot of fun with it.

I learned that my camera has a "kids and pets" setting, and since R is hiding out in her room and M is tired of being used as my model, I played around with this setting taking pictures of the dogs.

I am loving these pictures!

Here's Emma...our " old girl"... she's full of thoughtful old dog wisdom.

She's looking pretty good for 12 years old, isn't she? She still goes out to the barn with me each morning, chases rabbits when the opportunity presents itself, and even plays with the other dogs once in a while.  I think this clean country living is keeping her young! :)

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Quin... our 6 year old sheltie, he only weighs 20 lbs and his hips and back legs are malformed, but he still sees himself as "king" of the dogs and works very hard to make sure everyone knows he's the boss and "follows the rules".

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I like the soft look of this picture...

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And Cody, our 2 year old bishon mix (officially a "zu-shon")...  He doesn't care about being the boss, and he doesn't have time to think deep thoughts... he's too busy looking for mischief to get into and having fun.

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mystery revealed

Liese and Renee... good guesses but you weren't even close. ;)

Jackie... you were closer... but not quite there.

Steve nailed it... it's a "bird print", left over from a bird that had managed to slip down my chimney, ended up in the fireplace (getting covered with ashes of course) then flew out of the fireplace and aimed for the first "outside" he could see... Which unfortunately is on the other side of the living room window.

Despite having chimney caps, birds frequently find their way down my chimney and end up trapped behind the glass fireplace doors.  As soon as I open the doors to free to bird, they (almost always) immediately fly into a window... leaving a lovely ash bird print... and I grab whatever towel is handy to toss over the bird so I can scoop him up and take him back outside.  If he hits the window hard enough to knock himself silly, R takes over and nurses him until he recovers enough to have a fighting chance out outside...  (She's pretty good at it, she hasn't lost one yet!)

We don't get birds down the chimney all the time, but it happens often enough during warm weather that my windows often have bird prints on them.

Here's an old picture (a year or two ago) of one of the birds that we've had to catch and toss back outside.

Good job Steve.... I wonder if it was easier for your artist's eye to see the image of the bird in the ashes on my window (or maybe you just have birds flying into your windows and leaving prints too!)

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I'll close with a few pictures I took today...

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Deer crowded around the back fence, eagerly eating last fall's dry cottonwood leaves (the bench was knocked over by the wind today... it was fierce and blew just about all day!).

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Sunset colored clouds through the trees...

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a mystery picture

I frequently have these marks on the inside of my windows...

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I get them so often I tend to not even notice they are there. (Which is why this one is still "decorating" my living room window a week after it was created).

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Do you know what it is?

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In case you're wondering, yes I know how this mark got there... I was there when it happened.

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Can you tell what it is?

I took pictures yesterday for our Christmas cards (yes, I'm seriously behind!) and I think they turned out great. The backyard was still snowy and pretty, but it wasn't as bitter cold as it had been on Saturday, so I set up my "tripod" (a six foot step ladder) and went to work... 

 I decided to take pictures of Rhianna and Grant first, because Grant is sometimes afraid of the camera... It's good to start with the hard ones first. I turned the flash and red eye reduction off, so he wouldn't spook (lights coming out of a box on my face scare him... a lot!), and I think we got some pretty good pictures. 

 Grant was a little ornery at first.... trying to walk away and trying to nibble R's gloves. (for some reason Grant thinks rawhide gloves are tasty!)

But then he settled down, although he was still keeping very close track of the camera with his good eye. 

Check out his ears... one turned towards me, and one towards R... trying to figure out what he's supposed to do. Talk about multi-tasking!

Ok... everybody is feeling more comfortable now.

My favorite... this one will be framed and go into R's room. Again, check out the ears... 

Grant's so embarrassed...

Once we were done with the horse pics, we took some pictures of the kids and I (since dh was still in town)...

....and then some family pics. This will be our Christmas card picture:

picture post

This has been a wild week... M has gotten more unstable again, which makes everything more difficult, and for some reason R has had insomnia the past few nights and been up to (and AT) all hours! 

Last night I just crashed... R was still awake (but quietly staying in her room) and I fell into bed and didn't wake up until 6:00 this morning. Eight hours sleep in a row.... I can't remember the last time I got that much sleep! 

It feels very good to feel rested... 

 Anyway, I think it's time for a picture post. We worked at the library yesterday and after our shift I checked out the sale room and found a bunch of American Girl books. I was so excited, and had to buy them all! R is loving having so many new books to read, and I keep finding her curled up here or there, totally immersed in Addy or Felicity's life. 

 I've loved raising daughters.... I hope R doesn't grow up too fast. (I'm not ready to be done yet!)

 

 This picture was taken at Girl Scout camp last summer, and I love it. R, still smiling, after spending an entire day, in the heat, dust and bugs of camp! (During GS camp week it was in the 90's every day but one!)

 

 M got a digital camera for his birthday and has been taking LOTS of pictures... Many of them are very cool, in a weird sort of way. (The date on his pictures is wrong.... I need to reset that for him!)

 

 He also takes some nice, "regular" photos too. I really like this one he took of me after my surprise birthday dinner. I'm wearing the scarf my sister made for me on her loom... Isn't it amazing? I can't wait for the weather to get cold enough to wear it! I'm also wearing (if you look closely!) the St Brigid's cross my brother sent me from Ireland. It is absolutely beautiful, and I haven't taken it off since it got here...

 

 (For anyone with eagle eyes. No I don't usually keep a trash can in my living room, LOL... That evening was so cool we started a fire and that black trash can is full of kindling) 

Here are some pictures I took... 

I took this one a couple of weeks ago (sorry it's a little blurry, I had to zoom in from far away). The deer are grooming each other. We haven't seen this very often, so I thought it was cool and had to try and get a picture of them... 

 (You can also see the neighbor's horse, Chance, in the background. He'd gotten himself stuck in the fence, trying to sneak into my pasture...)

 

 Remember when I talked (here) about the deer starting to get their winter coats? Here is a doe wearing half her summer (brown) coat and half her winter (gray) coat. 

 

 Oops... she caught me!

 

 Well my playtime is over... the sun is up, the animals are yelling for food, and I'd better run....

Picture post...

Since nothing very exciting is going on here (although that alone is pretty exciting to me!) I decided to do a picture post of our day...

The day started with a beautiful sunrise, one I just had to take a picture of, and one thing led to another and pretty soon I was taking pictures of everything... (I need to get S back, I obviously have waaaay too much time on my hands!)

Here's how the day started... 5:30 a.m. and a breathtaking sunrise. (It made me think of the song "Morning Has Broken", which I've been humming ever since this morning.)



  Then out to do the outside chores before M wakes up. The garden was watered...



  ...the animals were fed.....



  ...and their pen cleaned.



  Then we were back inside for the inside chores. (Which aren't nearly as much fun!)



  (much better... don't you think?)



  R and I spent some time this morning playing with a June bug we found. She was afraid to let it touch her at first, but when she saw me touch it she decided maybe it wasn't too scary. We learned that June bugs are a kind of scarab beetle (Who knew? I love the internet!) and decided we might just have to do a quick insect unit study! :)





I had to hurry to get M's blood drawn before the courier came to take it to the hospital. M is so used to finger pokes that he makes it easy, and we even got done with a few minutes to spare!





  After lunch and "quiet time" we worked outside for a bit, got a little school done...



  .... then hit McD's for dinner before heading out to softball practice. (M and R really are in this picture, they are both wearing white shirts.)



After softball it was home and into bed. 

This is where I should put a nice picture of tonight's sunset... Unfortunately, I was busy feeding the animals and putting the kids to bed and totally missed the sunset. 

I'm sure it was beautiful... but since I didn't get a picture of it, I'm going to cheat. This is a sunset picture I took last month. (and I'm sure this evening's sunset was almost the same! LOL)