Girls' Day

Good evening my friends! Sorry I missed posting my blog last night. I happened to have girls' night at my friend Kathy's house.

I went to Kathy's house and her daughter cooked an amazing supper. She made baked chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, and steamed spinach. Absolutely yummy!!!

Then we stayed up late chatting, eating chips and queso, drinking coffee, and eating a surprise chocolate birthday cake I made for Kathy. Her birthday falls on this coming Sunday. I sure was glad I got to celebrate it with her.

We kind of lazed around this morning. Enjoyed several cups of coffee and ate a couple pieces of chocolate cake with whipped chocolate icing. Nothing like cake for breakfast huh?

Then we ate lunch out at the Olive Garden. I thoroughly enjoyed my all-you-can-eat soup and salad. I was so full, you could have rolled me out to my car. I am definitely going to have to work out more in the next couple of days!

We then went to Kathy's grandson Taylor's basketball game. It was pretty funny. We were sitting there watching the game and I looked to my left and there was a guy sitting a few bleacher seats away from me. I recognized a teacher from Buena high School where I went to high school. His name is Haakim Monseur. He taught English with my mom when she taught at the high school. His son was on Taylor's basketball team!

After the games were over, I came back to my parents' home. My boys were pretty sweet! They built a bonfire in my mom's fire pit out back, roasted some hotdogs for everyone, then made s'mores for dessert. My sweet boys offered to make supper and dessert for everyone tonight!

Jordan and I are watching the movie Lord of the Rings. Mom just had her surround sound hooked up tonight and the sound is pretty impressive. Aaron and mom are both sitting in the dining room playing their guitars.

I am feeling pretty tired. I will turn in for the night. I hope to do some more fun stuff tomorrow! Rest well and God's peace be with you all!

Wonderful Surprise!

Hello everyone! I started out the day like usual. I got up. I decided to make breakfast for my parents this morning. I made fruity baked oatmeal, fruit smoothies, and fried eggs.

We went to church this morning with the Sierra Vista congregation. What an awesome service! I didn't realize we had 5-6 families converging on Sierra Vista! We had Audie and Heather Click and their family, Jimmy and Daniela Raney and their family, Zachary and Carmen Huff, and Monica and Brad Hazelton and their family, plus the normal congregation! I got to see my really good friend Kathy Anderson. What a time we had!

After church let out, we were all just hanging around visiting when I heard someone say, "We'll, there's Joe." I didn't think too much of it, then I heard, "No, that's Joe Casey!" Joe has been one of Nathan's best friends since sixth grade. We haven't seen him in about six years. We had absolutely NO idea he was going to be there! Joe doesn't go to church with us. He happened to read on Facebook that we were in Arizona, and he knew we would be at church, so he parked his car and waited outside for our service to end. It was such a blessing to see him and Nathan get to see each other again and get caught up.

I guess the Filipino culture is very different from the American culture. When a Filipino invites someone for lunch, it is socially acceptable for that person to invite someone else and just show up with whoever happens to hear the invitation! In the Filipino culture, this is totally cool. Well, Nathan (my extremely "American" hubby), finally pulled a "Filipino" on my mom and invited Joe and his two kids over for lunch! I think being around us for almost twenty years is finally rubbing off on him, lol! Nathan has never, I truly mean never, has understood the Filipino custom. My boys then invited their friend Carter for lunch as well. My sweet mom was gracious and hospitable as ever! She had no idea four extra people were coming for lunch, but she was the perfect hostess and welcomed everyone with open arms. I'm truly grateful to have learned that from her!

My mom made an amazing soup for lunch. After lunch was over, the people from church called in impromptu singing at one of the church member's house. We went and sang for a couple of hours. We could've stayed longer, but we had to get home and cook supper for my dad. We had plenty of left-overs, but my dad cannot eat anything with salt and he didn't have any food for him prepared. Mom and I stopped at the grocery store on the way home and fixed African Chicken (one of my day's favorite dishes)!

After supper, mom went for a swim with my boys. Then they soaked in her new hot tub that Nathan set up for her yesterday. Nathan and I got in our swim suits and joined them in the hot tub. What a wonderful way to end such a beautiful and perfect day.

God's peace be with you all!

The Bull Busted Out

Good evening everyone. I am happy to be here visiting with my parents in Arizona. I look forward to meeting with the brothers and sisters at the church here in the morning. We haven't been here in almost 10 months!

Had a leisurely day today. Been kind of recovering from lack of sleep yesterday!

Well, I promised you all a funny story for several days now, so here goes...

About two or three months ago, Aaron was at work over at the Schwebach's Farm. Nathan was at work. Jordan and I were the only ones home (go figure). I got up and around and happened to look out our back window. I saw out of the corner of my eye our main milk cow Ebony grazing in our back yard. I hollered to Jordan, "Get up NOW! We have loose cows!!!" This is never a good situation because they always manage to destroy our fruit trees located just outside the pens. We will never have fruit on our trees since they always manage to get out once my trees start looking good!

I was still in my pajamas when this started. By the way, I threw my back out the day prior to all this. I slipped on the first pair of shoes that I could find (which just happened to be flip-flops) I ran out the back door and tried herding her back towards the pens. As I look over, sure enough, the gate is standing wide open. Now mind you, at this time, we had two large milk cows, a heifer, two steers, one extremely LARGE bull, a huge billy goat, two milk goats, three baby goat girls and one baby buck all running amuck in our yard. About this time, Jordan stumbles out of the house and is trying to help me round the animals up. It's about this time that I realize this was the morning I had to take our cow in to the vets office at 8:30. So for all intents and purposes, we should have gotten up, milked everyone, fed and watered everyone, hooked up the trailer, loaded the cow up and be ready to leave by 8:00. It is now 6:45. It took Jordan and I till 7:30 to round everyone up (except the bull). Remember I told you I was wearing flip-flops? As I'm trying to drag the cows back to the pens, they are half bucking wrenching my hand trying to get away while dragging my feet through every single thorn bush in the state of New Mexico! my back was getting jostled with every lurch from the animals. We still hadn't milked or anything yet.

The bull was a different matter all together. He is not a "tame" bull and he did NOT want to go back in the pen. Every time we tried to get him by the gate, Jordan would open it up and the cows would push their way out. They would go running away from us. We ended up with one large cow and the heifer standing in the chicken coop just hanging out. The goats would slip out every chance they got. I finally got really sick and tired of this bull not going in. I got so mad at him, I actually dared him to come after me! When this all started, I was kind of scared of him. But the longer he took to get back in the pen, the madder I got. I finally lost all my nervousness (or my marbles according to Jordan) and I just picked up a shovel and invited him to come after me. He was pawing the ground and shaking his head trying to show me he was the boss, but he definitely had another thing coming! I took the shovel in my hand and when he started tossing his head around challenging me, I let him have it! I whacked him right between the eyes with the shovel and he kind of shook his head in a daze. If he could've talked he probably was thinking...I can't believe she just did that! Jordan was really worried for my safety, but to be honest, he should have been worried about the bull's safety! I was pretty ticked off by this time.

I called the vet and let them know we had a bull on the loose and that I couldn't bring the cow in yet. They rescheduled me for 10:30. It was a good thing they did because I don't think anyone would've wanted to mess with me that morning.

The bull finally walked over to an empty feeder and stuck his head in. Jordan waited till he walked completely in the feeder and he slammed the front of the feeder closed. I was terrified at this point because we still had to latch the gate closed on it and if he decided to go bezerk, I was afraid he might come crashing through and plow right over Jordan. Jordan was quick as lightning and he latched it shut. The bull didn't do a thing. He was busy munching on some loose alfalfa on the ground inside the feeder. At this point, we went and got some chains. We attached them around the frame of the feeder and hooked it to our tractor. I slowly hauled the feeder (bull and all) all the way into the pens. The bull wasn't sure what was going on, but thankfully he didn't decide to explode! After I pulled the feeder inside the field, Jordan let me drive the tractor out and shut the gate. We walked back into the pen (shovel still in hand) and we opened the gate to let him out. The silly thing just STOOD there! He finally came out of the feeder five minutes later. What a fiasco!

I was so proud of my Jordan for thinking on his feet! At first, he panicked saying, "Call the Schwebachs, call the Heckendorns! Call them all and get them over here to help us!" I told him to calm down and that we couldn't call any of them since they had farms of their own and they were in the middle of their morning chores as well! He settled down and came up with the solution himself. He became the man of the farm that day!

By the way, we did make it to the vet's by 10:28!

That's enough of my wacky stories for tonight! I pray for all my friends and loved one tonight. God bless and sleep well!

Home Again!

Good morning! We made it to Sierra Vista, Arizona late last night. We ended up leaving Albuquerque three hours later than we wanted. We left NM at 4:00 and got on last night about 12:00 (NM time). It took us a little longer on the road. One of us had a little bit of health problems on the road. We ate at one of our favorite restaurants in Hatch, NM. It's called Sparky's and they serve the world's best green chili cheeseburgers...BAR NONE!!!!! We tried a chili mango shake made with a chili powder seasoning, pretty potent. I didn't care for the taste. However, I used to rate restaurants by the quality and freshness of their French fries. After eating at Sparky's last night, I now rate restaurants by their green chili cheeseburgers and seasoned fries. It was beyond excellent. I thought I was in heaven! I used to never eat anything spicy at all. Now I am addicted to green chili! Nathan and Aaron always have really enjoyed very spicy foods. I would always have them taste-test something first and tell me if it would be too spicy for me. When they brought our burgers out last night, I dove right in and boy, was it spicy! Nathan didn't finish all of his portion and Aaron gave me the last of his burger because it was too spicy for them. Mine was really spicy! Nathan was totally surprised that I was still eating mine. I told him mine was too hot, but it tasted so good, I didn't want to stop! Nathan just shook his head and laughed at me. NM has finally corrupted me...they've created a monster!!!

Just had breakfast with my parents. We are getting ready to hop in my parent's pool.

I tried contacting the JKA of Southern Arizona to see if we can do a couple of classes in Tucson while we are here visiting this week. I left a message. I hope I get a call back soon!

Well, I will write another post tonight. I'll tell about the bull getting loose...

God bless and thank you for your prayers for our safe travels!

Getting Ready...

Good evening everyone! We are having a blast here, Nathan's brother Gabe is visiting with us! He flew in late last night.

I actually fixed breakfast BEFORE they went out to do morning chores! I realized that I needed to run to the grocery store to pick up some ingredients to cook a couple of meals for some dear friends of ours. Please keep them in your prayers as well, they have two family members in the hospital right now.

I taught voice lessons for 1 1/2 hours this afternoon. Headed to Tijeras for 3 hours of karate. We had a very challenging class today. We are getting ready for testing on Nov. 10. We are studying Shotokan Karate. They only offer testing once every three months, so it's a pretty big deal to be ready for it. My 14 year old son Aaron and I are (Lord willing) planning on testing for our 3rd degree brown belt. Once we achieve that, he and I will have to wait one year before we are eligible to test for our 1st degree black belt! Jordan, my 12 year old, decided not to test this time. He is a 1st degree brown belt. We have all been studying for two years now. My husband, Nathan, has only recently joined in the fun and is hoping to test for his yellow belt...go Nathan!!! Today at class, we counted our katas out loud in Japanese, played dodge ball with the younger kids, practiced our more advanced katas, and trained in sparring. In sparring, we do 5 step sparring, 1 step sparring, semi-free sparring and free sparring. We don't usually practice free sparring since that can tend to be a little dangerous! But, today we did! I actually did really well.

Well, after I rushed home, we had invited Nathan's other brother Chad and his family over for dinner since Gabe was visiting with us. I had some homemade tamales that I made with chipotle shredded chicken. Tonya made some wonderful spicy shredded chicken soft tacos. What a wonderful night of food and fellowship!

Now, for tomorrow...we are headed for the great state of Arizona to visit my parents and Nathan's parents. Fortunately for us, they both live in the same town. We hope to be there for a week while Chad and Tonya have graciously agreed to come farm sit for us till we get back. I sure hope and pray all the animals behave themselves while we are gone. I've been trying to get things set aside so I won't forget anything, but knowing me, I will probably forget a bunch of stuff I'm supposed to bring!

I had better turn in so I will be up early getting the boys on school, getting everyone's bags packed, loading the car and making sure everything is in order. Goodnight all! Much love and God's peace be with you all!

Haven's Better!

Good evening friends and loved ones! Had a busy day today. Made breakfast. Then helped Nathan put a couple of pieces of sheet metal on the shop.

Nathan picked up the metal culverts that we are planning on using to build our root cellar. I got to drive the tractor around and help Nathan unload them off the trailer. I absolutely LOVE driving the tractor!

The boys had their orthodontic appointments today. Then we ran errands for two solid hours. Then we headed to Dion's Pizza for supper. We scarfed down supper, then left to meet Nathan at church. The boys were on to speak tonight and they presented Psalms 107-122. I was so proud of them. They did very well.

Aaron and I had to leave the second church let out. Aaron had to go for a second audition for the Handel's Messiah. He did very well, again, I am so proud of him. Way to go, son!

I have an update on my sweet nephew Haven. The hand specialist decided that there was nothing that needed to be done at this time. I am so happy for him!

Well, until tomorrow...God bless!

Fodder Take Two

Good day! How is everyone? I thought I would take some pictures of how our fodder is progressing. The top two left trays were the first trays we put together. The top far right tray and the second row first three trays were the second batch. The second row last tray on the right and the third row first three trays were the third batch. The last four trays I just put up today. It's amazing how God created seeds to grow and to be actually able to see it happen day by day. To make it even more amazing, to see it grow without any soil!

I received news today about sweet little Haven. He was able to get in to see the hand specialist today. They found out that they will not have to do any surgery to his hand at this time. They are supposed to return next week for a check up. Tonya is supposed to change his bandages everyday. Praise the Lord!

Yesterday, we all worked on the barn, adding more insulation and putting the sheet metal on the roof. Aaron was able to take a picture of me. I am standing on top of two 700-800 lb. bales of hay. As you can see, I was perched on top of the hale bales while I was hanging on to the insulation. The wind would pick up and the insulation would act like a huge kite and catch the wind. I had to hold it in place until Nathan would slide a piece of sheet metal on top of the insulation. Then Jordan or Aaron would screw the roof metal in place at the peak of the roof. While I was hanging on for dear life, Faith (Aaron's dog) jumped up on top of the bales and joined me up there for a while. She enjoyed being up there!

We went to karate which lasted for three hours today. I am completely drained of energy. I think I'm going to go to bed now. Sleep well. God bless you all!

Alive and Well!

Good evening all my friends and loved ones! I had an interesting day. I started off the day like I always do. Then I found out that our friend Paige wanted to meet up with us in town.

I made an appointment with my chiropractor and made arrangements to pick Paige up first. I found a neat little coffee shop around the corner from my chiropractor's office. I ordered drinks for the kids and let them visit. We had a great time.

Oh, about "Alive and Well..." Ebony looks like she made a full recovery today! Yippee!!!! She looks normal, smells normal, tests normal and even acts normal. Praise God for answering our prayers! We are waiting for some lab results on her that we anticipate receiving tomorrow afternoon. We drew a blood test and shipped it to a lab to test and see if she is pregnant. I sure hope she is bred so we can send Coco (the bull) home!

I am completely wiped out. I am run down with seasonal allergies right now. Not sure what it is in the air, but it's killing me!

Good night. Sleep well. God bless!

Grateful and Sad...

Thanks to everyone for your prayers on my nephew Haven's behalf. He was better today, bless his little heart!

He was seen last night in the emergency room. They were unable to reattach his two finger tips. They cleaned it and bandaged it all up. Chad and Tonya are supposed to call tomorrow to get an appointment with a hand surgeon to see if there will need to be some reconstructive surgery. They might have to shorten the bone so it will heal right, but don't know for sure until they see the specialist. Haven came to church all bandaged up, but in good spirits. I was so proud of him! What a trooper!

Another urgent request for prayer has come up. Aaron and I went to a choir audition this afternoon. After the auditions were over, someone said there had been a horrible car accident last night. They said an 81 year old lady was thought to have had a heart attack, slumped over the wheel, crossed the line and slammed into a suburban carrying eight passengers. The people telling us about this knew two of the eight people in the suburban. All eight were pretty seriously injured and taken to the hospital. One had a skull fracture, another had multiple fractures, etc. The elderly lady driving the other vehicle died instantly. No one knew anything about her. When I got home from the auditions this evening, I got a call from my Sensei's wife and we got to talking about unrelated things. I asked her to pray for Haven and she asked me if I heard about Sam. Sam takes karate with us. We found out it was Sam's grandmother who had the heart attack and died. Please pray for the Hoffman family as they are grieving at this time. Thanks again for praying. It is heavy on my heart to pray for all families involved. May God comfort and give peace to everyone who's been touched by this tragic accident.

I will keep people posted how things turn out. Thanks and may God keep you all safe. God bless.

Precious Prayers...

I am asking all my friends who are following my blogs to pray for my nephew Haven. He was playing by his dad's inversion table and managed to get his fingers caught in the contraption. It ended up chopping off the tips of two of his fingers. Chad is on his way with Haven to the Kaseman Emergency Room right now as I write this. His mom, Tonya, has asked everyone on Facebook for prayers on little Haven's behalf. Haven is only six years old and is pretty freaked out, especially when he looks down and sees his fingertips missing. Poor Tonya wishes she could trade places with him since Haven is hurting so. Tonya is actually at home with Haven's twin brother and older sister. I pray that Haven's pain would be minimal.

I thank each of you for remembering Haven tonight and praying for his road to recovery. It really makes me stop and think of my kids. I am appreciative of their good health and that they are safe in their beds tonight. I thank God for the precious blessings that they are to me.

Nathan and I had a great day today. We all did our morning chores. Ebony is still not doing well. Her girth was bigger around today than yesterday, we think. We are praying for her recovery as well.

The four of us worked on putting some more sheet metal on the shop. Then we drove the boys to Tijeras to the Tractor Supply Company for their drama group. They were doing a fund raiser to help fund their next production to be held Nov. 16-17 @ 7 PM @ Covenant of Grace Church in Edgewood. The boys stayed until 2 trying to sell Entertainment Books. Nathan and I came home and put another piece of siding on the shop.

We then left for Albuquerque. Nathan and I signed up to attend the Intentional Life Seminar by Randy Carlson, founder of Family Life Radio. We attended that and got some useful information from that. I have decided to be more intentional about reading my Bible and prayer time.

After the seminar let out, we went out for dinner and sat around just talking about things in general. Lastly, we went to a violin recital tonight. It was directed by my friend Lydia. Lydia was one of my former piano students who now plays wonderfully on the piano, but is also an accomplished violinist as well! She has put together a violin quartet called ... Hymns for Him. Lydia played with them on her violin when she wasn't accompanying them on the piano. Her older sister Alicia was the other accompanist on the piano. I taught both Lydia and Alicia how to play piano. It was quite an emotional evening for me. To see my former students now teaching students of their own and to see them glorifying God with their lives and with their music was unbelievably touching. Words could not express the emotions that went through me as I listened to the concert. Wow! What a night!

Well, Nathan is turning out the lights, so I suppose I should sign off for tonight. Until next time...may God grant you peace tonight!

She's Alive!

Well good evening everyone! We had a good day today. Ebony, our cow, made it through the night. Nathan took her to the vet this morning. The vet thinks that Ebony's rumen (stomach) isn't working due to all the grain she ate when she got loose the other night and got into the chicken feed. She does have mastitis, but it was much better today! She is getting pain meds to control her discomfort with her rumen. She seems to be doing much better. Hopefully in a couple of days, she'll be back to normal, the meds will be out of her system, and we'll be able to drink her milk again!

Well, on to "She's Alive!" We got up this morning and the first thing I did was to go out to the garage to see if our half-drowned chicken made it through the night. To our pleasant surprise, she was up and running all around with all the little baby chicks. You should have seen her strutting around like one proud momma of 172 chicks! The chicks were loving having her around. It was really cute! The chicks would crowd around her and one would hop up onto her back. She didn't mind at all and would start walking around with them riding on her back!

Did chores and ran some errands with Nathan today. I also taught a voice lesson while we were out running errands!! Came home and Nathan and I filled out our absentee voting ballots since we won't be able to vote on Election Day this year. Nathan worked on getting some more metal up on the shop. We did evening chores early today and got ready to go to town.

Aaron and Jordan's friend Luke had a young men's get-together at his house tonight. The guys brought a Bible verse that they had been studying to share with everyone and then played games till 10:00. While the guys were doing what guys do, Nathan and I went on a date! I took him out to eat at the Samurai Grill. We had a great time. After dinner, we stopped at Marshall's to shop for some new work shirts for Nathan. Last, we went to Baskin Robbins for a scoop of ice cream. Then we picked the boys up. What a fun evening!

Nathan has been trying to help Luke set up a saltwater tank. We brought over some mushrooms and a rock with some xenias attached. We hope this works out well for Luke!

Thanks Jeanne for hosting a wonderful party for the guys!

Need to get some sleep. Have to get up extra early tomorrow morning. We have a ton of things to do tomorrow. Sleep tight! God bless!

Paige Is Here!

Hello my friends. How are you tonight? We woke up this morning to find Ebony, our milk cow, grazing in our backyard. Aaron and Jordan worked together to get her back in the pens. Thankfully, the main gate was standing wide open, but the bull decided to stay put! Ebony got into the chicken food. Her stomach looked full and hard. We don't think it's bloat. Two of her quarters had mastitis. We took care of her and we have an appointment with the vet in the morning.

Aaron and I plan on (Lord willing) singing in the East Mountain Community Choir which performs Handel's Messiah each Christmas season. We had an appointment with the director to have him listen to Aaron and give him pointers. They are holding solo auditions this Sunday and Aaron was hoping to audition.

We left straight from there to take Jordan to his violin lesson and also for me to teach a voice lesson.

We met Nathan at Smith's so we could ride together to karate. When we arrived there for the first class, guess who was there??? PAIGE!!!! We were so excited to see her! Paige was in karate before we were. Her family homeschools and decided to take a sabbatical, hop in a travel trailer, homeschool, and tour the United States for a year. Paige and her sister flew in yesterday and Paige was able to come to class. She is such a sweet and special young lady. I just love her to pieces! She holds a special place in my heart! It was so wonderful to see her again, even if it was only for an hour! We miss her so much!

We came home and the boys went out and fed and watered all the animals. When they went to shut off the water, they noticed a chicken floating in the water. The boys brought her in the house, wrapped her in a towel, and got out my handy-dandy blow dryer! Note to self and anyone else reading...if you have animals on a farm, you MUST have a good blow dryer! Aaron has been gently warming her up and drying her off. She twitches twice, then breathes once. She's still breathing on her own. We are holding out hope that she will pull through. We will keep you posted how things turn out. By the way, Aaron just informed me that he can now be added to the ranks of mouth-to-beak resuscitation! YUCK!!!

I'm tired. I'm headed to bed. Love to all and God bless!

Post Office Suspicion

Good evening all! We got up this morning. The boys did chores. Nathan did his online computer classes. I cooked breakfast.

As soon as breakfast was done, we had an appointment at the Moriarty Post Office to apply for the boys' passports. I had gathered all the documents we were told we needed. Each boys had their own state issued picture I.D., their birth certificates, their old expired passports, their new passport photos and their newly issued replacement social security cards. I had already filled out the applications prior to our appointment.

We showed up on time. The lady came to the counter to help us. Nathan and I both had to be present for us to apply for our boys' passports since they are still minors. I guess it's to protect the kids from one parent possibly getting a passport without the other parent's consent and lead to possible kidnappings. I get it. So we both show up with both kids, documents in hand. The lady asked for Jordan's paperwork. I handed her the application, birth certificate and photo. She didn't ask for any other documentation we were told to bring. The same thing happened with Aaron's paperwork. She then turned and ask Nathan and I for our driver's licenses. We handed them to her. She looked at them, turned around and walked off. I thought nothing of it. Next thing I know, she brings her boss to the window and while her boss is standing there, the lady holds up Nathan's license and is scrutinizing him through squinted eyelids asking her boss if she really thinks Nathan is actually really Nathan! Nathan has lost over 110 pounds. I have been encouraging him to get a new license since he lost all his weight. This was the first time his picture was in question! She still stood there for a minute or two trying to see if that was really him in the picture. Her boss said it was, so she decided to let us go ahead and complete the application process!!! We finished it all and got things all filed and sent off. Hopefully, the boys should have their new passports within 4-6 weeks!

The boys came home and got on school. I taught some piano and voice lessons this afternoon. Read a book for a little while. Cooked supper tonight. We watched Hawaii 5 - O. Then we had a really good Bible study with the boys.

Oh, I almost forgot, Nathan and I finished cleaning out all the extra fodder trays today. Got enough berries soaking for another four trays tomorrow. Can't wait till I start seeing green!

Until tomorrow night... Sweet dreams! God bless!

Making Fodder

Hello! How are you all doing? Tuesdays are always crazy for me. Got the boys up and around doing chores this morning. Got them going on school. Before I knew it, Aaron said, "Mom, we need to get ready to leave in a half hour." I couldn't believe it was already 12:00!

Got the boys to get all their "stuff" ready so we could leave for the day. We left at 12:45 to get to drama rehearsal for the boys from 1:00-3:30. Met up with Nathan in the Walmart parking lot in Edgewood so we could ride in to karate class in Tijeras together from 4:00-6:00. Had a great class, but then again, we always have a great class!

Left straight from karate to drive to the west side of Albuquerque to Aulvie and Paula's house for the youth Bible study tonight. We just got home a little bit ago and the boys just got in from doing evening feeding chores.

Nathan and I are starting up our fodder system. I told you I would explain fodder to you all, so here goes. Fodder is where you take grains such as wheat berries, soak them in water overnight to start the process of sprouting. The next morning, we drain off the water, then spread the wheat berries in a single layer on a metal tray. We have a watering system on a timer that automatically drips water intermittently throughout the day. The trays are on a wooden platform that keep them slightly tilted down at one end. This allows the water to moisten the berries and drain at the end of the tray and drip down into a reservoir that recycles the water. The berries then sprout and grow a "carpet" of wheat grass that we feed to our livestock. The amazing thing is that we grow the fodder without any soil! This is called hydroponics. This is our homeschooling vocabulary word for the day...lol! So Nathan and I just spread out our first two trays tonight. We plan on (Lord willing) to spread out four trays tomorrow. It takes about seven days for a tray to be ready for harvesting. I will take pictures as this progresses along.

I am completely exhausted, so I am going to turn in for the night. Until tomorrow...

God bless!

A Day of Pampering

Hello! I woke up this morning to my cell phone ringing at 7:30. I wasn't awake yet...I couldn't sleep the night before, so I was sleeping in. A lady on the other end called me by name and kept talking, it was several minutes into the conversation until she mentioned the words "9:00" and I finally realized it was Bea, my hair dresser. I was supposed to have an appointment at 9:00, but the power in Edgewood went out and there was no power at the salon. She told me that she would call me when the power came back on. We ended up meeting at 10:30.

I got my hair highlighted, low lighted, layered, shampooed and styled! Boy, I felt like a million dollars by the time Bea was done with me!

After I got home, we made sandwiches for lunch. We all hopped in the car and drove to Moriarty Post Office to apply for the boys' passports, but the lady who accepts applications left early today, so we set up an appointment with her Wednesday morning to get that done.

Later, I took Aaron to his guitar lesson. I am so very proud of him. He is so good on the guitar and his technique is amazing. He is naturally gifted. God has truly blessed him!

Came home tonight and thought of my Grandma. I had made a crockpot of Shredded Beef Vegetable Soup. My Grandma makes the best Beef Vegetable Soup! I so thought of her while I was enjoying my bowl of soup and crackers!

I helped Aaron with his music tonight. Enjoyed playing on my piano tonight.

I am getting ready for bed. Will post more tomorrow. Night, night! God bless!

International Balloon Fiesta

Good evening! I had such a exciting and fun-filled day.

Nathan got us all up at 5:00 A.M. Yes, even got Jordan up too! Left the house by 5:30. We caught the park-and-ride bus at the Coronado Mall. We got onto the launching field by around 7:00.

We saw the hot air balloons being inflated by a fan. After they get pretty much inflated on their side, they turn on the gas burners to fill the balloon with hot air and the balloon then stands upright. The balloon chase crew holds the balloon with ropes until the referees come by and give the ok to launch the balloons. All the bystanders can walk right up to the balloons. It's really amazing to see all the beautiful balloons light up and lift off. They say this is the most photographed event in the world. They also say that during the two week event, there are at least 100,000 people in attendance!

We took several pictures and I will try and post them. Hope you enjoy them! If you ever get the chance to come see them in person, you should!

We left the field at 8:30, and stopped by Twisters for a cup of coffee. Went to church where we met up with the Raddigans. It was so good to see them again!

Went out to lunch with Chad, Tonya and Savanah at Sadie's. After lunch, we ran errands all afternoon and didn't get home until 7:30 tonight.

We are pretty wiped out, so I'm going to turn in! Take care and God bless you all!

None Of Your Bee's Wax!

Good evening everyone! I was planning on going to the International Balloon Fiesta this evening and posting pictures, but as it turned out, we ended up not going tonight. We plan on going in the morning, so I hope to post pictures on tomorrow's blog.

Today was somewhat busy. I canned nine quarts of Apple Cinnamon Syrup. It is pretty tasty if I do say so myself!

Nathan and his brother Chad worked out in our garage all day. They rebuilt our fodder system. I will explain that another day. Aaron was extremely busy at school today still trying to catch up. I am so proud of how hard and diligently he worked today! Jordan tried to keep our twin nephews and niece occupied today! Way to go Jordan! He had fun playing with his cousins.

Then this evening, Nathan and I decided to try our hand at candle making. We prepared our candle molds by spraying the rubber molds with Pam. Then we got a large needle with a huge eye and threaded the wick through the mold itself and held it in place with a bobby pin stabilizing the wick. We then broke off a big piece of our bee's wax and melted it in a pot over boiling water. When it was completely melted, I gently poured the melted wax into the molds and let the candles cool down. After they cooled down, Nathan pried the sides apart on the molds while I pulled the candle out and bingo, bango, you've got a candle! I have to stop and tell you that our candles are not anything like the store bought candles. As the wax was melting, it still smelled like honey. So now our candles smell exactly like the honey we harvested this year! It smells so good, it almost makes me want to take a bite right out of the candle! Jordan is so excited and can't wait to burn our first candle. So far, we've only made 4 - 2" candles. One looks like a bee hive with a bee on the side. The other one (which is my favorite) is a bee hive with a bear clinging to the side with a couple of bees on it! I hope you enjoy the picture of me with my first candles. I am just WAY too excited! Thank you for your help sweetie!

Well, I am heading straight to bed. We have to get up at 4:45 to catch a ride to the Ballon Fiesta. Sleep well my friends. God bless!

Visiting Day

Hello all! It's me again! Had another busy, crazy day...but then again...when is it ever NOT busy or crazy???

Woke up this morning and had to drive into Albuquerque. I am in the process of applying for life insurance for myself and they scheduled me for blood work etc. after I got done there, Jordan and I went out for breakfast at Carl's Chili Hills.

We went home and got ready to leave for the Brainerd's home. They invited us over for lunch. We had never been to their house before. We enjoyed a wonderful lunch and an afternoon of games. We spent time getting to know them a little better and really had fun!

We had to leave a little early and run back home. I prepared some steamed broccoli to take over to the Raddigan's home. They had invited us over this evening for dinner! We had never been to their house before either. I finally got to where I remembered all the kids' names...which is a huge accomplishment for me! I really have a hard time remembering things! We are so blessed to have met this family. What sweet children! We look forward to continuing getting to know this sweet family as well.

Over all, it was very much go, go, go all day, but God put these people in our lives. It was interesting how the Raddigan's decided they wanted to get to know us. They had met our two boys at the Schwebach's where the boys have worked the last couple of months. I am only telling you all this because it was only by God's grace this all came about. They kind of got to know our boys and said, "Wow! These are really good kids. I think we would like to get to know their parents." I don't say this to brag on Nathan or myself in any way. Nathan and I have and are still raising our boys to be Godly young gentlemen and our prayer is that they would learn to love and serve God with all their heart. Sometimes we fall short. Sometimes we wonder if they are going to turn out alright and it's only by the grace of God they've turned out as well as they have! It was an answer to Nathan's and my prayers that the boys would show God's love and let His light shine to other people. God is so good!

Got home kind of late tonight, but definitely worth every minute!

Well, I need to turn in and get some sleep. I plan on posting some cool pics on tomorrow's posting. I plan on writing about something here locally that is known world-wide! For those of you who are not local, I hope you are intrigued and check out tomorrow night's blog!

My Job As Gopher...

Good evening everyone! I have great news! Today was my first day without having to take any ibuprofen at all! YIPPEEE!!!

Today was kind of interesting. Nathan wanted to get started hanging the sheet metal and insulation on the shop. The boys were still doing school, so guess what? I became Nathan's Little Helper today!

First, we rounded up the tools he needed. Then we measured all the sheet metal for the back side of the shop and organized them according to size. Next, Nathan measured the insulation and cut it to size. I drove the tractor and used the bucket to lift Nathan up so he could hold the insulation in place while we handed him a piece of sheet metal. He then screwed the sheet metal in place while insulating it at the same time.

I had two voice students scheduled for this afternoon, so I pulled Jordan off school early and had him help Nathan. Jordan and Nathan were able to get two sheets totally up before we had to leave for karate.

We went to karate class and had a ball! I really appreciate our Sensei. He really makes the classes fun and interesting. He works us very hard and he encourages us to be more than we think we can be. We are blessed to have him as a teacher!

Stopped by the grocery store on the way home. Fixed chicken cordon bleu seasoned potatoes and salad for supper. Got supper cleaned up and had our Bible study. Now we're sitting down to watch NCIS Los Angeles while eating a bowl of pistachio almond ice cream! What a way to end the day!

That's all to report for now...until tomorrow. Rest well and God bless!

Great Pyrenees

Our youngest son Jordan had been wanting a puppy of his own for the longest time. We had done quite a bit of research and decided to look for a Great Pyrenees.

Jordan and Aaron took a trip to Durango with Nathan's parents to go and visit Nathan's grandmother. Nathan and I had several days by ourselves to look for Great Pyrenees puppies. We found a lady in northern New Mexico who had some puppies for sale. Jordan was wanting a male. We drove to northern NM and went to see what puppies she had left. She had 3 males and 2 females. We fell in love with one of the girls. We decided to get the girl we fell in love with in case Jordan ever decided he wanted to breed her for one of her puppies. We bought her as a surprise.

We took her home and loved on her for two days until we were scheduled to meet up with our boys in Colorado. It's about a 4 hour trip to Durango and the fluffy puppy just snuggled me and fell asleep on my feet the whole way.

When we pulled up to Nanny's house, the boys came out to greet us. Jordan had NO idea what we were up to! I asked Jordan to come and help me unload some "stuff" at my feet.

You should have seen the look on his face! He was in a state of shock! He could not believe his parents were cool enough to surprise him with a puppy!

He took that puppy with him wherever he went. Jordan had had her for less than 24 hours and something really cool happened. Great Pyrenees are known for their protectiveness. Jordan had named her "Sage." We were over at Nathan's cousin Darin's house. Our two boys were outside playing with their three boys and Sage was out there with them too. Nathan went outside to the car to get our luggage. None of the kids had noticed him. Nathan had to walk towards the kids to get to the front door. Sage didn't know who this big stranger was coming towards the kids because she didn't notice him come outside. She only saw a big guy walking towards the kids. She started growling and her hair stood on end! She was so cute! She was backing up as she was growling...she was scared, but she was going to alert everyone there was a stranger approaching! As soon as Nathan got close enough to her and she recognized it was him, she just sat down and wagged her tail...what a cutie!

She has been a great dog and yes, she is a working dog on our ranch. She lives out in the pasture with all our livestock. She is a very dedicated guardian to all our animals!

Well, good night everyone. God bless!

Working Out Back

Hello friends! I am just sitting down, rocking in my rocking chair after a long day.

Got up this morning, fixed breakfast, proofread Nathan's resume, played some piano, enjoyed a cup of hot coffee, did another load of dishes, all before 10:00!

Got the boys going on school. Am still trying to get Aaron caught up on school. Fixed some lunch for the guys. Ran to the post office and library.

As soon as I got home from the library, I immediately changed into my GI and the boys and I headed off to karate class. My back is doing much better as far as range of motion, but am still in quite a bit of pain. I am still having to take ibuprofen pretty much around the clock. I didn't sleep well at all last night. It hasn't been keeping me up before, I just hope tonight is better! I already soaked in a nice hot bath and I've been icing it for the last 45 minutes.

Well, on to my story. Nathan and I have been trying to get our landscaping done in the back yard this week. We won't be able to get it 100% done until this spring when I finish planting my ground covers, flowers and rose garden, but we hope to get everything else done.

We planted more butterfly bushes and lilac bushes to outline the basic shape of our yard. Won't be able to plant the grass until this spring. Nathan and the boys built a really neat looking fire pit yesterday and they also laid down some weed fabric and covered it with crusher fines. It looks really nice. I hope to take some pictures tomorrow during the day. Nathan is still working on the flagstone patio. He was able to put more edging down so I can outline the boys where to put the different shape flagstones like puzzle pieces. Nathan says that I'm pretty good at that. I don't know if I quite believe him! I was never too good at puzzles! The back yard is really starting to shape up. We have all worked hard (especially Nathan) and it's wonderful to see the fruits of our labors. I am grateful for a wonderful husband and father who provides for us and shows us what a Christian life should be like. Thank you honey!

God bless you all!

Stampede!!!

Well, good evening everyone. I thought I would write a story about our cows and give you a break from our chickens!

We do a rescue cow business. We adopt cows from a local dairy that have either fallen or have been injured at the dairy and the employees don't have time to retrain the cows to go back into the milking parlor. These poor cows are either adopted out by us or the end up getting sold at the auction. We try and rescue as many as we can. We retrain them to be hand milked and machine milked and get them used to be handled by humans. They are somewhat "wild" when we get them...just ask Avram (our dear friend who cow sits for us from time to time)!

We had just rescued this one cow Ebony, she is our main milk cow right now. Her nickname that the guys at the dairy called her was "Baca Loco" and she earned every bit of that title! She was a two year old who had just calved there at the dairy. She had slipped going into the milk parlor at the dairy and she was limping from the fall. They could not get her to go back in to be milked and they didn't have the time to mess with her, so we went and picked her up. She was probably one of the most stubborn cows we had ever taken in. I was convinced that she absolutely hated me! She seemed to do better with Nathan or the boys, but would rather not be anywhere near me.

At the time, we had a bull on the premises. Btw, bulls and I go round and round. They think they want to be the boss of me and will try and show dominance and aggressiveness towards me. I won't tolerate that one little bit. Once they think they have the upper hand, you're in for a lot of trouble, so I learned early on not to take any guff from them at all and to nip things in the bud before things get way out of hand. I learned that a baseball bat placed strategically between the eyes sounds exactly like a baseball being hit out of the park! You may wonder why I am telling you all this...this info will come in handy later on in the story.

Well, we brought Ebony home and put her in the pen with the other cows and the bull we had on loan. The bull thought he would go and check her out. She completely freaked out and ran through the fence to the other side. We have 4 foot field fencing with a double strand of barb wire at 5 foot off the ground. She ran through all that to get away from the bull and mangled the inside of her thigh, not to mention, she was still limping from her fall at the dairy. We had to call the vet out because we couldn't even get her up to walk and her leg and thigh were so swollen. We found out that she didn't break anything, but we had to give her injections twice a day for about 2-3 weeks. Before this incident, she would limp-run away from us whenever we got anywhere close to her. After the injury of going through the fence, the poor thing just lay there. She hated the shots, who could blame her? Eventually she associated painful shots to humans whenever someone got close to her. So after she all healed up, she would run away at the sight of us. We went to go get her for milking and the bull was trying to check her out again. She wasn't too happy and we wanted to move her away so she wouldn't re-injure herself again. As we were going to get her, the bull followed. She was walking right alongside some fencing panels we had up and it was about a 4 foot path between the panels on both sides. Ebony and the bull went through the narrow path. I went after her to get the bull away from her and Aaron and Jordan were following behind me. All of a sudden, the cow and bull turned so they were facing my direction. In slow motion, I could tell what was going to happen. I saw the bull sniffing her and I knew he was going to try and mount her and she wasn't going to have any part of that. I immediately turned around and shoved the boys away and shouted "RUN!!!" as the bull and cow started stampeding towards us all. Aaron was the first on away, Jordan was next as I shoved him ahead of me. The cow was running behind me and the bull was running behind her. The cow's nose nudged my back as I'm running for my life. The nudge was enough to knock me down. I instantly curled into a fetal position and I remembered praying, "God, help me!!!" When I opened my eyes, Faith, (Aaron's dog) was barking in my ear as the cow stopped on a dime standing right above me. She had come to my rescue while Aaron ran for the bat to chase the bull away! He arrived the same time Faith jumped in to save me. I had landed on my "bad" wrist that I had had surgery on and couldn't get up after I had fallen. I was lying there helpless on the ground as my son and his dog protected me. Jordan was so angry he chased that bull around with a bat for days. That bull knew what was coming and ran away! After I was able to get up and around, I did manage to have a one-on-one session with the bull. I don't think that bull stood a chance! He never once chased me again! Every time I went in the pen, he would cautiously run away!!

I thank the good Lord for his protection that day! I believe my sons and the dog were angels sent from heaven that day! I believe God heard my desperate plea and seemed to answer it before the words were uttered from my lips! What an awesome God I serve!

Well, how am I supposed to go to sleep now??? Just recounting that story got my adrenaline going as if it just happened! Oh we'll...just another day on the farm!

Blessings to you all!

Mouth To Beak Resuscitation

Good evening all! I've got another chicken story for you all. We had ordered the 125 broilers and egg laying chicks. We had them in their chicken coop we built out beside the front of our house.

It was a rainy evening and we had just recently moved them outdoors. The rain turned into a downpour. We went out frequently to check on the chicks and make sure they were all ok. We were all watching a family movie, but would send one of the boys every 20-30 minutes to check on them. We sent Nathan and our youngest son Jordan to check on them and when they didn't return after a few minutes, I sent Aaron to go see what was taking them so long. When Aaron didn't return, I got up to go see what was going on. Little did I know what was in store!

Let me take this time to inform those of you who don't know us, that my husband Nathan, is a nurse. He ran emergency rooms for 15+ years.

As I walked out the front door, I see the three guys have set up a "triage" station on our front porch. It had rained so much, the chicks didn't know to get out of the rain and the rain was pooling on one side of their enclosure. When Nathan went outside, he saw several pairs of legs sticking up out of the puddle of standing water! Not a good sign...

Nathan had a pile of birds that had gone on to meet their Maker. He had Aaron rubbing some birds with a shirt to dry them off and start chest compressions to get them breathing again. He sent Jordan inside to get more towels. Then I heard "...whew...whew...whew...PUHHH!!!"
I heard this several times before I knew what it was. Nathan was off to the side of the porch and he was giving mouth to beak resuscitation! YUCK!!!!!! Talk about dedication! Next thing I know, he had Jordan shuttling the semi dead chicks in to our laundry room to me.I had lined my laundry room sink with several towels. We placed all the chicks in the sink and I used my handy-dandy blow drier and warmed them up for about 30 minutes and we saved every single one of them!

I was totally grossed out by the thought of Nathan performing mouth- to-beak, and he would tease me by puckering up and pretending to kiss me while I ran in the opposite direction!!!

Hope you got another laugh out of this!
Until next time...

Blessings!

Windy Disaster

Hello all! I had another "relaxing" day today. I'm still having back pain and am only able to stand for about 30 minutes at a time before I have to go lie back down in bed. Good news, I'm still in quite a bit of pain, but I have better range of motion today! Yippee!

Tonight I'm going to tell a story about one insane day shortly after we moved into our house here on the farm. This happened about 2 years ago.

My husband and I wanted to raise our kids in the country. We wanted to get back to the basics of life. We wanted to teach our kids responsibility and good work ethics, so we built our little farm. We had a milk cow, some milk goats and a couple of dogs. We decided to try our hand at raising some chickens and turkeys. Now I want to take this time to remind everyone that I was never raised on a farm, nor did we have animals. Nathan wanted to raise some broiler hens for meat, several different types of egg laying hens and some turkeys for meat. Now one thing you need to know about us Cogburns...we never do anything just part-way...we jump in feet first! Nathan ordered 25 egg layers, 100 broilers and 20 turkeys. That's a LOT of birds!

Well, we raised them and they feathered out nicely and we moved them outdoors into their own respective coops that we built. On one particular day, we were out doing chores and the wind started picking up. Where we live, there are no trees, bushes or anything...it's just flat and a lot of times windy. Then we started getting some really hard gusts of wind. The gusts then turned into a constant blast of wind. I remember that we have a neighbor who had a field of dirt just upwind of us and it was blowing dirt everywhere. We were out by the gates to the animals pens. Just to the right of where the permanent animal pens were, we had a temporary goat pen set up since we were borrowing a billy goat to breed our girls. We were trying to feed and water everyone and check and make sure everything was hatched down so things wouldn't blow away. Nathan was at work. I was homeschooling the boys then, so it was the three of us working together. Aaron was 12 and Jordan was 10 at the time. All of a sudden, the wind started getting harder and the dirt was like sand, blasting our faces, getting in our eyes, ears, teeth and anywhere that was exposed. The wind got to blowing so hard, I was leaning into the wind to try and get back to the house. I could hardly take a step forward. I grabbed both boys' hands and we would stand still holding to one another and when the wind would let up a fraction, we would inch our way back towards the house. The dirt was so thick in the air, we couldn't even see the house from our animal pens.

We finally made it back to the house. I checked the wind gauge Nathan had set up and we were having 70 mph winds. We heard a racket outside and when we opened the front door, we saw that the broilers' coop blew over and was destroyed. We had 125 chickens running loose! We had a separate pen for the turkeys, so I yelled at the boys to help catch all the chickens and throw them all in with the turkeys. Need I remind everyone how much I despise chickens??? I am terrified of the silly things!!! While we were still rounding up all the chickens in 70 mph winds, I notice movement out of the corner of my eye. You won't believe what happened. The wind blew over the temporary goat pen we had set up and the goats were all running amuck and two were wedged in, stuck in the trash can where we store the chicken food. The others were just running everywhere. Talk about total mayhem!!!

We threw all the goats in with the cows and dogs and prayed that nothing would happen to the fencing holding everyone in. We had all the birds together and we were definitely praying that nothing would happen to that last coop because we had no where else to shelter the birds out of the winds. After we got all the escapees all relocated, we held hands and worked our way back to the house. I immediately called Nathan at work. I told him that I expected a tornado to touch down in our back yard any second. It wouldn't have surprised me one little bit. He asked if he should come home and I told him not to unless something else blew away or the fencing gave way. An hour later, the winds died away without a trace. When we went outside to assess the damage that had been done, it did look like a tornado ripped through our farm. The goat pen was torn up. The chicken coop was demolished. Thankfully, I think we only lost a couple of chickens that got caught under the coop when it collapsed. The kids and I survived another day!

I was scared witless since we had only recently moved out here. I didn't know what to do, but it all worked out. Thanks to my two young men. We would have lost all the chickens because there was NO way on Earth I would have tried catching chickens! I probably would have sat down and just started crying, but my level headed boys kept me in check!

P.S.- we were picking grit out of our teeth and ears for about three days after!!!

Enough rambling from me...until tomorrow. Blessings!

The Cow Did WHAT???

Hello again! There's nothing new to report on the farm so far today. So on days like today, I will try reminiscing and share a funny story from our lives here on the farm.

I was out working in the garden with my gloves on about two months ago. One of the boys, I think it was Jordan, called to me from the pasture where we keep all the milk animals. He was wanting to show me something, so I stopped what I was doing and walked over to the gate that led to the pasture. I was leaning on the gate with my arms resting on the top rail of the gate. My hands were just hanging over inside the gate. All of our animals are curious animals, alpacas, goats and yes, cows. Our main milk cow Ebony came over and was checking out my gloves. She has seen me wear them before. The texture of them intrigues her. The last time she checked my gloves out, she about wore a hole in them by licking them with her rough tongue. If you've never been licked by a cow before, they make a cat's tongue feel like silk! It feels like someone is rubbing your hand repeatedly with sand paper in the exact same spot over and over and over again.

Well, Ebony came over and started licking my gloves again. I wasn't paying her too much attention...I think that was my mistake! I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my left hand, my little pinky finger to be exact. I quickly looked back at Ebony and saw that she was biting down on the tip of my glove and managed to catch my pinky in her bite! As if that wasn't painful enough, guess what she did??? She continued clamping her mouth shut (my finger definitely starting to REALLY hurt by now) and then she started backing away and walking off with my finger still firmly attached to her teeth! I kept pulling, hoping she would let go,but she wouldn't. It was at this moment that I realized she is still on the OTHER side of the gate walking away with my pinky! In a frantic attempt to save my pinky, I took my right gloved hand and thumped her on the nose. She promptly let go.

When I looked at my pinky nail, it was whitened where she had clamped down on it. By the time I went to karate class that afternoon, half of the nail was purple! I told my Sensei I would make the best fist I could, but if it didn't look right, it was because of my pinky. Then the moment I dreaded all day came to be...he asked, "What happened, my Michelle?" I had to fess up, but I didn't want to actually have to say it. I told him, " You're not going to believe this, but my cow, well, ummm, she bit me!" You should've seen the look on my Sensei's face. I thought he was going to die laughing as hard as he did. He wasn't sure if I was telling him the truth or not. When he saw that I wasn't laughing as much as he was, he quickly realized I wasn't pulling his leg. I am always having something around here happen to me, so he never knows what's going to happen to me next. I don't think he doubts me any more when I tell him some really crazy stories either!

Well, I will tell another story tomorrow if nothing goofy happens today.

God bless!

Goofy Day...

Hello. Thanks for your prayers for my quick recovery. I am feeling much better today. Other than my nose, I feel pretty good. Well, kind of...

I woke up this morning with my back feeling kind of lousy. It was still bothering me from my "pit fall." At about 9:45 this morning I called my chiropractor and he got me in at 10:45. I took Jordan with me and after my appointment, I drove him over to the social security administration building to apply for his replacement card. We walked out 15 minutes later! Both times I've been there, I was out in 10-15 minutes tops, pretty remarkable for being a government agency!

About this time, my back was killing me and was stiffening up. I had to pull over and stop at a local grocery store to buy some pain killers. I was almost in tears. My youngest son (12 years old) was trying his best to help me in and out of the car. I was walking like "Grandma Moses," but I kept moving. Half way to the door to go in the grocery store, I was in so much pain, I almost turned around and just went back to the car. Jordan didn't know what kind of medicine I wanted or I might have just sent him in to get it for me. Trudged my way through the store and 2 of the store clerks (guys who were restocking up front) looked over and asked if I was ok. My first thought was..."Do I LOOK ok???" I tried to politely smile and thanked them for asking. They were really sweet.

Got in the car, took three pills, and drove Jordan to Sonic for lunch. Got lunch to go since I only had 15 minutes to get him to his violin lesson and for me to teach a voice lesson. For those of you who don't know me, I teach piano, flute and voice lessons.

After music lessons, we all went to karate class. I wasn't sure if I was going to even participate, but my Sensei asked me to go ahead and dress out. He told me not to kick today and that I could help him with the younger kids. I did ok for the first two classes. I decided to sit out the advanced class today. My back was really starting to hurt again. I sat down for the first half of the class and when I tried to stand up, I could hardly move! The rest of the class began working on all the different katas. I raised my hand and asked Sensei if I could just "walk" through the motions of the katas. I actually felt better just keeping moving instead of just sitting there!

I am so proud of Nathan. He just started up in karate about 3 weeks ago and he is doing GREAT! I'm not sure that he believes me, but Sensei and I keep telling him that he's improved a LOT! Keep it up honey! Karate is going great for my boys as well. I am also so very proud of both my boys. They try so hard and they show great character while they work hard at making themselves better. I am one proud mama!!!

Well, I already got home, soaked in a hot tub and am sitting on ice right now. Am feeling pretty good at the moment. I sure hope this inflammation goes down tonight! Maybe God IS telling me to slow down! Hmmm?

Much love to all. God's peace be with you tonight!

Freezing Cream Style Corn

Woke up this morning feeling a little like death warmed over. My darling hubby brought me a cup of hot tea with some of our honey, a banana and some fruity baked oatmeal! I ate breakfast in bed. What a sweet and considerate husband I have!

After breakfast, I got up and shucked three dozen ears of the Schwebach's sweet corn. Felt exhausted, so I went back to bed at 10:30. I planned on getting up at 11:30 to make lunch for the guys. I woke up at 1:00...oops!

Got up, made Nathan and Aaron some chicken salad sandwiches. This batch, i put in shredded chicken, miracle whip,mustard, relish, a chopped apple, 2 stalks celery, 2 hard boiled eggs, craisins, chopped walnuts, salt and pepper. Jordan and I cleaned up some left overs. Nathan was busy working on the shop all day. He also was busy ordering sheet metal for the building. He would come in periodically to see if I needed anything. The boys were busy at school all day.

After lunch, I cut all the corn off the cobs and scraped all the milk off the cobs. I added 1 quart fresh cream, 1 stick of butter and a little more than 1/2 cup of sugar. I stirred over medium heat. I thickened it with a little corn starch. Plan to bag it and freeze it in ziplock bags. According to Aaron...it's the best cream corn in the world!

I made some more Peanut Butter Bars with Dark Chocolate Chunks. Had a serious craving for something peanut butter and chocolate. Didn't over bake it this time. So tasty!!

Am relaxing in my recliner right now, curled up in my red fleece blanket and a hot cup of homemade cocoa, writing my blog. I hope I feel better tomorrow. Been really thankful Aaron is no longer working off of the farm. It's been really nice to have him home helping out more, especially since I've been under the weather.

Until tomorrow...blessings to you all!

Sick And Tired

Hello again. I'm so sorry I missed my blog yesterday. I had a total blast!

I woke up. Cooked breakfast for Nathan and the boys. Left late to go pick up my mother-in-law (Anita) from the airport. Drove to our friend's hotel and picked Twyla up. Twyla was such a sweetheart and she treated Anita and I to breakfast at Mimi's. Mimi's is all three of our's favorite breakfast place.

Then we ran some errands and went shopping at Kohl's. I found some really cute black shoes. In case you don't really know me...I go shopping maybe 2 times a year to look for something specifically for me. I never grew up doing "girly" things like shopping or going to the mall. It's very foreign to me. Maybe that's why all my guys don't mind shopping with me. I shop like a guy...I have a mission and if I don't see it right away, I move on to the next store. I don't browse for 1 - 1 1/2 hours and have nothing to show for it!

Then we had a great Bible study with Duane and Anita. I turned in to bed late, so I didn't enter my blog.

Woke up this morning with a sore throat and a stopped up nose. Took my vitamins and enjoyed a nice hot cup of tea with some of our own honey. That was the best.

I called my dear friend Kathy from Arizona. It broke my heart to find out her daddy passed away during the night. She is mourning for him and I would love it if you would pray for her. She is very hurt and discouraged right now. Thanks.

Went about my day trying to get caught up on dishes, laundry and general pick up around the house. Felt kind of lousy, but decided to go to karate today. Even though I didn't feel good, I usually feel better after I work out, so I went. My nose quit running during class, but 10 minutes after we got home, it was worse than this morning.

God bless my mother-in-law. I just love her to pieces! She cooked the most wonderful beef stew and homemade sourdough whole wheat bread with some of my homemade butter and our honey. I was in heaven!!! She was such a doll to offer to cook for us since I wasn't feeling well. She's always so sweet to do things like that. I truly feel she is an angel in disguise!

So supper is cleaned up. I'm ready for bed. I took all my vitamins and medicine. I've got the Vick's under my nose (something I learned from my Grandma West when I was little). I've got the humidifier going right next to me. After I say my night prayers, I hope to fall asleep and not wake up for many, many hours! Hope I feel better tomorrow...

May God watch over you all!