Cleaning Day

Hello everyone! I am having one of my sleepless nights tonight...

I was just about asleep when I realized that I didn't put supper up yet. Got up, put it away, and then I realized Jordan was still up. He couldn't go to sleep because hhis nose was stopped up. Have him some Benadryl and put some Vicks under his nose. He should sleep well tonight!

Went to go back to bed and I am just not sleepy anymore!

I have been looking for a large plastic shopping bag that contains two more brand new dress shirts and two new ties that I bought for Nathan's birthday. We didn't open them right away since we didn't know if he'd like how they fit, so I left them in the bag. He likes the one set we opened, but now I can't find the other two. So, Dad, when you read this, start praying! For those of you who don't know, I misplace things all the time. If my head wasn't attached to my shoulders, I'd probably lose it! Whenever I lose something, I call my Dad, tell him what I'm looking for and ask him to pray that I find whatever it is that I'm looking for. I usually find it the same day!

So, I cleaned up my bedroom. I folded all the clean clothes that I hadn't put away yet and also organized my cluttered closet while I was in the cleaning mode. Still, no shirts and ties.

I know where I last saw it, but it's not there. I honestly have no idea where to look now.

I totally picked up all over the house. Tomorrow, I hope to do sweeping, mopping, vacuuming and dusting. I'll need to clean both bathrooms, then my house will be clean again. I'm finally recovering from having company over Thanksgiving! I know it's sad, but it takes me a long time to get things done around here!

Nothing new to report today. Nathan has a couple of projects lined up for us tomorrow, so that's what I'll write about in my blog. Sleep tight. Until tomorrow...may God watch over you and bless you!

We Have A Pond!

Good evening all! How are you? I am doing very well.

Well, let me just jump right in with me story for today. Nathan bought a fish pond with a filter. Now before you think he went off the deep end (literally), let me explain what we plan on using it for.

As I explained in a previous blog, we were trying to grow our fodder with a hydroponics system. We have decided to switch to an aquaponics system. To do that, we plan on fertilizing it with excrements from the fish. Nathan has been doing some research and has decided to set up a pond system in our garage to raise tilapia. Yes, Mom, some of them will be for eating!!!

So anyways, we drove to town the other night and a guy had his fish pond system for sale. We bought it and Nathan and the boys loaded on top of my Honda Pilot and bungeed it down!

I'm not sure when we will have it up and running, but I will definitely keep everyone informed.

One of the reasons I am in such a great mood tonight is that we had our dojo party today. Our Sensei threw all of his students a pizza party today and it was also potluck style. First, we award everyone who tested with their certificate and their new belt. Then afterwards, we stay and eat and visit. We had such a great time today. I have officially passed to 1st kyu. Technically, I was graded a 1B. This means that I will need to test again in February to get rid of the B. I will then have to wait one calendar year to test for my black belt. I am so happy doing karate. I have accomplished so much and still have much more to do! I am grateful for my Sensei and how supportive he is. I am truly blessed to have a wonderful hubby who supports me in this. It is a big commitment and takes so much time. I am so very thankful he understands. I love you honey! Thanks for believing in me, especially when I begin to doubt myself.

Well, good night and sleep well. God bless.

Can I Walk?

Good evening everyone! I decided to get an early start on writing my blog tonight.

I managed to wake up, milk the cow and the goat, came back inside, and poured up the milk before any one of my guys woke up!

I was stinking cold from being outside, I crawled back under the covers in bed to warm up my toes. I also grabbed a cup of hot coffee with peppermint mocha creamer for myself and a black cup of coffee for Nathan. I sipped on that while curled up under the blankets. I stayed there for almost an hour and my toes STILL were like ice cubes!

I got up and built myself a fire. I sat literally eight inches away from it for about half an hour before I started to thaw out! I then made myself a big bowl of honey nut Cheerios with sliced bananas and fresh plump blackberries!

I worked on my current crochet project sitting by the fire for about 30 minutes. Then I went into the piano room and practiced for about 2 hours. I am still trying to find out what songs I'll be playing at my students' recital next month.

I was the only one going to karate today. Nathan was going to go, but he decided not to at the last minute. So, I left. I was going to attend all three classes, back to back. The first class is a beginner class and is geared more for the young kids. Usually, it is a fairly easy class...just NOT today! The second class is a beginner and intermediate mixed class and is more challenging. The last class is very difficult and is the advanced class for the upper belts. We did so many leg exercises in the first class, I was sure my legs were just going to buckle out from under me without warning! They felt like rubber and any time I really used the muscles for stances, they would shake uncontrollably. Sensei has never worked that first class that hard ever since I started taking karate. After the first class, I asked him if he was trying to kill us! My legs are so sore and weak right now, when I go to sit in a chair, I have to look first, aim, and then fall! I hope I can walk tomorrow. We did leap frogs 2 1/2 times across the gym, full extension squats so our knees touched the floor each time, and continuous front snap kicks twice across the gym. I was majorly sucking air by the time we were done!

I do feel invigorated now that one home. I'm trying to stay warm. I don't want to get chilled and stiff. I may need to soak in the tub again!

Well, my family is waiting for me. Until tomorrow my friends. God bless you all!

Deadly Chickens And Turkeys

Good evening to all my friends and family! I had a somewhat normal day.

Today, I got up and made my own pot of coffee for the first time in almost two weeks! My brother-in-law, Gabe, always made us coffee each morning. I kind of miss that! I did set my coffee pot to brew at 7:00. That'll be nice to wake up to that aroma wafting through the house!

I spent today trying to pick up from all our company. Just about got that done. Tomorrow, I hope to get to organizing my bedroom and master closet. I also need to harvest my pumpkins and store them in my root cellar. If I am able to wake up before everyone else, I might just go and milk the animals! We'll see though...

Back when we started up our farm, we only had chickens. I thought they were pretty cute. I had never raised chickens before. They were tiny little balls of fluff. Then they started growing...

I did not grow up around chickens at all. Before I moved out of my parents house and got married, my parents owned several chickens. They would send me to go gather the eggs. They had a few mean hens. They would chase me! They would peck me! They'd see me coming and they'd ruffle their feathers at me! I think this was where I learned that I DO NOT LIKE CHICKENS! They are mean AND they are fast!

So we ordered a bunch of day-old chicks. They were cute when we got them, but as soon as they started feathering out, they started chasing me. I don't know what it is about me they don't like or what, but I was not happy about it.

Then, my ever thoughtful hubby, wanted to try his hand at raising our own turkeys for meat. Who was i to say no? i had never been around a turkey. We got the day-old turkeys in. I thought they were absolutely adorable! When they started feathering out, guess what? I wasn't afraid of them! I learned to make the sounds of their calls. I would call to them and they would answer back to me! I thought that was pretty cool! They would follow me around as I did chores. I would call and they would all line up in a single file and follow me like the pied-piper.

One day, we came home from going to town and all 16 turkeys were missing. I was frantic. We looked all over the property. I told the boys to hop on the two quads and start looking for signs of a mass massacre...feathers, blood, anything that would show us what happened. I thought maybe a dog had gotten a hold of them all. I was on the cell phone with my parents asking for them to pray that I would find our turkeys. The wind was blowing a bit, but I thought I heard a faint turkey call. I listened, but I didn't hear anything but the wind. I called the turkeys and waited. I heard several faint answers. I called again and strained to hear the direction from which the sounds were coming. I kept calling and they were getting louder. Finally, I found all sixteen of them huddled together in a ditch in the front yard. I guess they either went into it to get out of the wind, or one fell in and the others followed. No one was hurt and everyone was found safe and sound.

The older the turkeys got, the meaner and more mischievous they became. In the summer, I usually run around the farm in flip-flops. This particular summer, I was into wearing toe rings. One day while I was out doing chores, I guess one of the turkeys discovered I was wearing a shiny silver toe ring. The silly thing scared me half to death by pecking my toe. The dumb bird missed the ring and got my toe. I completely came UNGLUED!!! I started running away and it decided to chase me. Then when the rest of the turkeys saw the one turkey running, they decided to follow the turkey and they were all chasing after me. I was scared out of my mind. I knew they thought they were still my "babies", but NO WAY! We actually had quite a few toms, but the main one was totally mean and nasty to me. Any time I went outside to do chores and feed the animals, if he saw me, he would turn his ugly old head and cock one beady little eye at me and hop towards me as if he were challenging me. The times he managed to get close enough, he would try and spur me. I don't understand! What did I ever do to him???

Well, back to chickens. I just don't like them because they are way to fast. If they decide to run in your direction, I just can't run fast enough in the opposite direction!

We now have seven ducks and nine Guinea hens (in addition to our ten laying hens and 160 pullets). The guinea hens free range all over the property. My adorable youngest son Jordan (loves to pull pranks on anyone as long as he can get away with it) and my ever considerate hubby, have this thing about teasing me about my fear of birds. When Nathan and I are walking outside, he'll grasp my hand and lead me purposefully towards the guineas. As soon as we get close enough for them to see me and I finally notice what Nathan is up to, they sound their alarm! It freaks me out! Nathan always tells me that they are just wanting to say hi to me. I just tell him they can just get lost!!! Jordan thinks its hilarious! Just this morning, the guineas were standing on the back porch and Jordan opened the back door and started calling guineas to come into the house to chase me! When he said, "Here guineas, guineas, guineas...", they sounded their alarm!!! I told Jordan it wasn't that funny, but I don't think he heard me between him laughing so hard and Nathan chuckling behind me.

Oh well...maybe I'll dream about putting a thousand pound bull in his place tonight...sounds like a sweet dream to me!

Well, hope you got a laugh at my expense! Sleep well. God bless!

Getting Back To Normal

Good night to everyone out there? How are you? I am pretty much tired and worn out! We had quite the busy week.

I got this morning and I made Apple Fritter Muffins, turkey bacon, hash browns and fried duck eggs for breakfast. Nathan just brought home seven ducks about a week ago from some friends of ours. We are getting about two eggs a day right now. They are just getting to be mature enough to start laying eggs. Boy, are they big! The yolks are twice as big as our chicken eggs and were thicker. They were harder to crack open because the membrane is tougher than a chicken's egg. Anyways, we had a nice breakfast.

We went to church and Audie Click from Farmington spoke for us. That was probably the best lesson I've heard him give. Afterwards, Duane, Anita, Nanny, all of Nathan's siblings and families, Darin and his family and Audie and his family all went out to eat at Dion's Pizza.

We went home this afternoon. I was looking forward to soaking in the bathtub tonight since my lower back has been hurting a little the last couple of days. Nathan's sister Natalie had to come over and pick up her diaper changing mat before they left to go back to Texas. I waited all afternoon for her to show up. I didn't want to get in the tub and then have Natalie show up so I'd have to get out! Finally, Natalie called around 4:30 and said she was on her way, so I started drawing my hot bath water. I wanted it to be ready so as soon as she left, I could just hop in and soak for a couple of hours if I wanted to! Just before I went to get in, Nathan said he was getting ready to drive to our local Tractor Supply store in Edgewood. He asked me to come along. I told him I already had my bath water ready and waiting for me. He told me not to worry and that we could easily just heat it back up. So, I decided to go with him. While we were on our way to the store, I got a call from my sister-in-law Tonya. She asked if we could all just get together and hang out at our house tonight. I told her that was fine by me. I appreciated having all the help eating all the left-overs!

After supper, we decided to play two rounds of a card game called Hand And Foot. We hope to finish the game tomorrow.

Gabe leaves tomorrow, but went and spent the night at Chad's since he has to leave really early in the morning. Duane, Anita and Nanny spent the night at Chad and Tonya's and plan on flying out Tuesday. So, all in all, we are done with company for a while! We made it! We sure enjoyed spending time with all our family here.

I hope to sleep well tonight. Please ask questions or suggest topics you would like me to write about. I appreciate any feedback. Good night and God bless.

Do I Remember???

Good evening to all my friends and family. How is everyone? We are still trying to recuperate from Thanksgiving dinner and Black Friday to boot!

I kind of slept in this morning. I got up by 7:30. Nathan and Jordan left to go pick up Duane so they could drive Grandmother and Kathy to the airport. They left at 7:45. Jordan almost didn't go because someone needed to milk the cow and the goat. I offered to do it for him and he said he didn't want me to do it. I think he wasn't sure if I remembered how to do it!!!!

I went out to the milking parlor and prepped the room for milking our goat, Lucy. She freshened for the first time this past spring and so my older son Aaron had to break her and train her to be hand-milked. She kind of kicky. She will do her best to "wipe" you off or put her foot in the milk pail. She's much better now than what she used to be. I don't know if we'll ever fully break her. Just to be absolutely clear...I totally hand-milked her completely by hand! Jordan was shocked when he heard I actually milked by hand and not with the machine! I guess I still have it! I managed to not get wiped and no feet in the bucket, so I will count that a success!

I let the goat out and went around the back and let the cow, Ebony, into the parlor. I was surprised how easily it came back to me. The first thing I definitely remembered to do was to hang up the poop bucket to catch any accidents. Fortunately for me, we didn't need that little commodity! I milked her also without any incidents. She produced about 13 pounds of milk this morning. She was down about 3 pounds from yesterday. We've weighed the milk and there's about 8 pounds per gallon. As soon as I finished milking, Aaron showed up to feed and helped me carry the milk up to house so I could process it and pour it up. It all came back to me as if had been milking every morning of my life! You know what the funny thing is? My Mom thought that my husband "brain-washed" me since I done seem to mind this lifestyle and that she KNEW that I was NOT raised that way! She wondered how on Earth I could actually enjoy this way of life! I was pretty proud of myself for getting the job done and poured up in about 35 minutes. We pour the fresh raw milk into clean, sterilized half-gallon milk jars. We then put the jars into the refrigerator to cool them down as quickly as possible.

I spent my afternoon picking up the house. I made 9 miniature old fashioned fried peach pies and 9 miniature old fashioned fried blueberry pies! I've never had a fresh fried pie, it was pretty impressive if I do say so myself! My brother-in-law, Gabe, had never had some of my Agave Kettle Corn that I make with cinnamon, so I made a double batch!

Natalie and Ben cooked dinner for everyone tonight. She made Mexican Stackers. It's kind of like taco salad. It was very delicious. She also made a fabulous chocolate sheet cake.

My other brother-in-law, Chad, is getting into roasting his own raw coffee beans. We had FRESH home roasted coffee tonight...what a treat! Thanks for spoiling me Chad...I think you've created a monster!

Well, Nathan is ready to go home, so until tomorrow...God bless!

Thanksgiving Dinner!

Hello to everyone out there! How are you this evening? We are having a very blessed and happy Thanksgiving Day!

We had breakfast with Darin, Leslie, their three kids and Gabe. Anita made a cranberry braid bread and fried some sausage patties and scrambled eggs.

Aaron got up early and did some school. Then all the guys went off our back porch and shot some shot guns. One guy would throw some clay pigeons and we would have a primary shooter and a couple of back-up shooters. They had a blast...literally!

Nathan did get up at 1:30 A.M. to put the turkey in the smoker. He was up again I think around 6:00 to check on it. His turkey turned out to be the absolute, hands-down BEST turkey I have EVER had!!! I had officially turned over the cooking of the turkey to him! So proud of you honey! You did a fantastic job!

Anita worked so hard to arrange all this and she did a lot of cooking. I cooked a lot of side dishes. I think we were about 1 1/2 hours past our designated eating time before we actually were ready to eat.

We had smoked turkey, smoked pheasant, honey-glazed ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potato casserole, steamed green beans, home cooked cream-style corn, grapefruit avocado honey-poppyseed vinegarette dressing salad, regular salad, rolls, and stuffing. Then there was dessert...pumpkin pies, pecan pies, Dutch apple pies, strawberry cheesecakes, fruitcake, and chocolate cream pie. Whew! We were stuffed!

We cleaned up and then we sat around and sang some church hymns. The kids played some cards. I was bummed we didn't get to play Hand And Foot. For those who may not know about this game, I hear it is very similar to Kanasta. Well, maybe tomorrow...

I am completely exhausted. I am going straight to bed. I hope to sleep well tonight. God bless you all!

Getting Ready...

Hello everyone! I am doing well tonight. We had plenty of things to do today.

Got up and Tonya volunteered to bring breakfast this morning. I helped Anita bake this morning, well, Anita did most of the baking! I spent my morning making a miniature turkey dinner for an elderly couple I know.

I taught a piano and several voice lessons for 2 1/2 hours. Then, I made lunch for everyone. Ben and Natalie (Nathan's sister and brother-in-law) and their baby daughter Aleah came in just in time for lunch.

After we got cleaned up from eating lunch, I packed the food and pies on the car and took Aaron to Albuquerque to his chiropractic appointment. Apparently, he threw his back out a couple of days ago and was still in some pain.

I took Aaron to Starbucks so he could do some school work. Then we met Nathan, Ben and Jordan for dinner. We ate at a Vietnamese restaurant called Huang Tao. Excellent food!

We had church tonight and we did a lot of singing. We had a bunch of great singers there tonight!

Nathan's cousin Darin and his wife Leslie drove in from Farmington, New Mexico this afternoon. They are staying with us for a couple of days. After church let out, Leslie and I went to my Sensei's house to drop off a couple of fresh pumpkin pies.

Busy, huh??? Well, I am attaching a picture of all the pie shells that Anita made this morning! We made five pumpkin pies, two Dutch apple pies and two pecan pies...can't wait to eat them tomorrow!

God bless and sleep tight!

Surprise, My Friend!

Good evening all! How are you all doing? I am busier than a one-armed paper hanger (as the saying goes).

I got up this morning and made breakfast for our family, Gabe, Duane, Anita, Lucille and Kathy. We got cleaned up from breakfast and we took breakfast over to Lucille and Kathy at their hotel.

Anita helped Kathy move them to a larger suite while I helped grandmother get her breakfast heated up. Anita took Grandmother and Aaron and ran quite a few errands in town today.

I had a wonderful surprise for my friend Kathy...

I "kidnapped" her and I took her to see my friend Priscilla. Priscilla is a professional hairstylist. Unbeknownst to Kathy, I arranged for Priscilla to color her hair, wash, cut, blow dry and style her hair as well! What a dramatic change! I am so happy for Kathy! She was so excited. She was like a kid in a candy shop! I got to sit and visit with her the whole time and had a total blast!

Nathan and I went to karate class tonight. Sensei really worked on sparring with us. We ended on a good note tonight. I am thankful for that.

After class, we came home and we had invited Chad, Tonya and kids for dinner with the rest of us, Grandmother and Kathy included! Overall, had a super duper day!

Here's a picture of my friend Kathy. Much love to you all. God bless!

Thanksgiving Preparation

Hello everyone! How are you? I was wondering what to write about tonight.

My sweet, wonderful hubby decided to smoke our turkey for thanksgiving this year. He researched how to do it and found a brine recipe.

He did this all by himself...I didn't even ask him to do this! What a sweet guy!

Duane and Anita (my in-laws) and Lucille (Nathan's grandmother) and my friend Kathy (Lucille's caregiver) got in tonight. I look forward to spending time with them all!

Will post tomorrow! God bless!

Whew! It's Over!

Well, another busy day gone by. I was so tired last night, I just rolled into bed, I even forgot to plug in my iPad!

We had Nathan's distant cousin and her family spend Friday night with us. They live in Farmington, New Mexico. They came in just in time for the boys drama production. They said they enjoyed every minute of it. They laughed really hard! They were really impressed with the quality of our cast. They said it was much better than their drama organization back in Farmington!

After the play let out, we enjoyed a cookie reception and went home. Nathan's cousin Heather had never seen any of us do karate, so at 10:15, Aaron and I got our GI's on and performed our katas. We also did 1 step sparring and semi-free sparring. They thoroughly enjoyed it!

We woke up yesterday morning and I made scrambled eggs, turkey bacon and toasted almond coconut muffins. We also had some fresh frozen apple cider we pressed this summer. Yummy!

Nathan, the boys and I all worked together after Heather and her family left and we moved a bunch of food to our new root cellar. As we were finishing up, Ken (from Road's End Farm in Edgewood, New Mexico) came over. He owns a nursery where we have bought the majority of all our trees and shrubs from. He came to pick up a truck load of alpaca manure and composted cow manure. I also made some mizithra cheese from some of our goat milk. He was anxious to try some.

While we were finishing up loading him up, another couple pulling a truck and trailer pulled up. They were coming to look at buying the last three alpacas I have for sale. They decided to buy them, so by the time we got the three alpacas loaded, it was already after 12:00. We needed to get ready to leave pretty quick.

Our sister-in-law (Tonya), had a death in her family. Her grandpa, Don Kirby, passed away suddenly this past week and Nathan and I were asked to sing at the funeral. It was a simple, but beautiful funeral. The family invited everyone to El Pinto for lunch afterwards. The funeral was somewhat delayed since there was an accident on the interstate and some of the family was stuck in traffic so we just kept singing till they got there.

As soon as we ate, we had to rush the boys home. We left El Pinto at 5:45. We were originally supposed to have the boys at drama at 6:00 and run home to get their costumes. We didn't expect to stay in town all afternoon. Nathan decided that it would be quicker if we just went home, let the boys change, then take them to their play. It was 6:51 when we arrived at drama! The play started at 7:00. I was sure I was going to have an ulcer by the time we got there! Everything turned out just fine.

The play was wonderful! The audience was great! We had a wonderful evening.

Today is church. We will probably grab lunch in town afterwards. Then Aaron and I have choir rehearsal for Handel's Messiah this afternoon. Busy, busy, busy...what else is new right???

Well, I wanted to touch base before my feet hit the floor running this morning. God bless you!

Drama Production

Good morning all! I was so exhausted last night that I didn't even have any energy to post my blog.

Today will be extremely busy as well, so I thought I'd post now before things get too hectic.

Gabe flew in yesterday (my brother-in-law). He spent the night at Chad and Tonya's (Nathan's other brother) and will plan on coming on over some time today.

Aaron and Jordan have their drama production tonight and tomorrow night. It's called...The Last One Seen At The Scene of The Crime! It's a pretty funny melodrama. We have some friends from Farmington coming to spent tonight with us as well and they hope to get to watch the play tonight.

All the moms from the drama group put together all the cookies for the reception. Each family is to bring eight dozen cookies for the reception tonight. So guess what I'll be doing today? I also need to make a gift basket for the Mrs. Heckendorn (the director).

I still need to get my house clean before my company comes today! So, I guess I'll keep this entry short since I have a billion things to do and not enough time to do it! Take care and God bless!

I PASSED!!!!

Good evening to everyone! I am so excited! I am still doing karate. My boys and I have been studying Shotokan style karate for a little over two years now. I tested this past Saturday...all by myself! Aaron and I always seem to be ready to test at the same time. They only offer testing once every three months.

When testing came up this time, Aaron was ready to test, but he's still trying to get caught up in school. He decided to pull himself out of karate until January. So, my Sensei said I HAD to test this time, without Aaron. He said it was something I needed to do on my own, without having Aaron by my side.

After testing is completed, they usually don't tell us for two weeks if we passed or not. I went to class on Tuesday. Sensei went ahead and moved me forward in line at class. That means I passed! I am now first kyu. In other words, I am now a third degree brown belt. I will now have to wait and train hard for one year before I can test for black belt. I will actually have to wait for a year and three months since they only test black belts in August and February.

I was really not sure how I was going to do on my own, but I practiced hard and Sensei worked diligently with me on my kata. After testing, Sensei came up to me and told me that he was very proud of me and that I did VERY well on my kata. He said I did all my stances correctly and that I did all the major things they were looking for.

I wasn't sure if I was going to pass though. I did make a couple of minor mistakes. Sensei Nagatomo called on me to spar with a purple belt. He told me to kick side of thrust and I spaced out and I did a round house. I tagged the other lady on her shoulder...oops. Mistake number one. Mistake number two was during my testing. He called on another brown belt lady to spar with me. She had already tested for her black belt, but failed and is planning on testing again in February. She was told to do a round house. When I go to block, I slide out of the way, then follow through with an arm block if necessary. Unfortunately, I didn't slide far enough out of the way and she tagged me in the gut! What a surprise! She was worried she hurt me. It surprised me, but I was ready to dish it back! I recovered quite well and counter punched her like I was supposed to. I guess it turned out as good as it could have.

I was really excited that Sensei Caesar was so proud of me. He told me he would have been proud of me even if I failed. He said it didn't matter if I pass or fail, because I am a very good lady and that I tried my best and had fun.

I can't believe it...I PASSED!!!

Well until tomorrow...God be praised and may He bless you and keep you safe!

Why Music?

Hello to all my dear friends and family! I am doing great. I am recovering from testing finally. Was pretty sore and a little bruised, but much better now! How are you all doing?

Well, on last night's blog, I asked people to post comments, ask questions, or request me to talk about certain topics that piqué your interest. Here goes...

My dear friend Alicia has asked how did I become interested in music. She also wanted to know how I was so talented in so many things. Wow! What a topic!

I started off taking piano lessons when I was six years old. I don't remember a whole lot about my first teacher except that she was a chain smoker and that she never sat next to me while I was learning. She always sat across the room on her couch, smoking her cigarettes, and she would yell at me across the room whenever I would make a mistake (which was quite often)! I did NOT like taking piano lessons. This was not a positive experience for me. I wanted to quit, but my parents wouldn't let me.

Let me tell you about my mom. She is a wonderful musician. She is where I got my love of music. My mom is an amazing guitarist (which is where I believe Aaron got his love for the guitar)! My mom loves to sing as well. Mom had been the church's choir director for as long as I could remember. She would "drag" me along to all the choir rehearsals. Mom always did the "contemporary" guitar services as opposed to the traditional organ services. I sang with my little squeaky voice as soon as I learned to talk. Every Friday night was choir practice at our house. We lived in Radcliff, Kentucky. For those of you who are not aware, my dad used to be in the military and then worked civil service at Fort Knox, Kentucky. So practice would be at our house from 7:00-9:00 P.M. We would invite the choir members and any soldiers who wanted to sing and just fellowship with us. Mom (and Dad) would always serve dinner to anyone who wanted to join us at 6:00 prior to practice starting. When practice was out sometime between 9:00-9:30, we'd just hang out and visit until 10:00 or until people just got tired! It was in these early years of my life that I learned how to be hospitable. The door to our house was open to anyone. There was no such thing as a stranger!

We attended the church that we belonged to on Saturday nights. That's when they would have the guitar services. No matter how little I was, I was always at my mom's side singing. My sweet dad said he was never blessed with a singer's voice, so he was always so sweet to carry mom's guitar wherever we went. On Sundays, we would drive up on post at Fort Knox and we would do a 7:45 service, hurry and pack up, run to a different chapel, do a 9:00 service, pack up then do an 11:00 service! Boy, were we tired come Sunday afternoon, but my mom would always invite soldiers from each service to come share a meal with us after the final service. It was a real ministry my parents did for these lonely soldiers. Some of these guys were so homesick and they hadn't had a home cooked meal in forever!

I remember my next piano teacher, Mrs. Jane Carey. She was a great teacher! I learned so much from her. I continued taking lessons until eighth grade. By the time seventh grade rolled around, I was hired as Assistant Choir Director by our "home" church and also by all the post chapels that we played at at Fort Knox. I never held a traditional job like most of my friends during high school. I never went out and "partied" like most kids my age. I was too busy playing music and loving every minute of it! I never thought of it as work. Oh, I almost forgot, I had also taken to playing the flute. Mom paid for me to take flute lessons.

I never had any formal training in voice until I sang in high school. Again, mom paid for private lessons from the high school choir director, Mr. Oliver. What a great man! I sang in the Concert choir, Honors Choir and Show Choir. Concert Choir was for anyone who wanted to sing. Honors Choir you had to audition for and was for the more serious singers. Show Choir was the elite group of singers that performed a show that was choreographed by a dance instructor, Mrs. Sherry. I auditioned for All-District Choir my freshman year and I got first chair! To audition for All-State you had to use the same audition piece used for All-District auditions. Rarely do freshmen make All-State. I remember Mr. Oliver pulling me aside after auditions were over at All-District. He said that I placed first in the district and that the rules for All-State said that whoever places first, automatically goes to State! I couldn't believe I made it! That was an amazing experience.

I was also in Concert Band and Marching Band. I played oboe during concert season my freshman year. I was too advanced on flute for the freshman class, so Mr. Cornish made me pick a totally different instrument! I played in the pit (percussion instruments) my first year. Then I played flute from my sophomore year on. We had a phenomenal band. We won State every year and we seemed to win National Champions every other year. Band was even bigger than football back east!

I always competed at solo and ensemble for choir and band. I always succeeded and did very well. Both my parents encouraged me especially when it came to music. Do you realize how many nights my parents sat on the cold bleachers watching as I marched across the field? How many football games did they endure to watch us perform at half time? It was pretty cool, my brother was a senior my freshman year. He played trombone while I played flute and pit instruments. I even became Drum Major my senior year in high school.

So to sum it all up, music was a HUGE part of my life. Thanks Mom and Dad for making it possible and believing in me. Thanks for driving me to and from all my rehearsals and performances.

As for being talented in the other areas of my life, I attribute it all to Jesus Christ who is my Lord and Savior. Without Him, I could do nothing. Everything I do, I do as unto The Lord. I look at it this way...if I'm going to do something, why not do it the very best that I can? I can't stand failure. Don't get me wrong, I fail at many things, but it's what I learn from these failures that pushes me to be better. I also could not be where I am today without the love and support of my sweet husband, our kids, and his family. They introduced me to a personal relationship with Christ. I am eternally grateful!

Now that I've rambled on, I must get going to help the boys at school today. Thanks for reading. If there are more questions or comments, please, please, please do not hesitate to ask!

God bless!

4-H Picture

Good evening! How are you my friends? I would like to start off by asking people who are reading this blog to leave comments, ask questions they may have, or even request me to talk about certain aspects of farm life or daily life, etc. I don't want to sound boring, since I NEVER have a dull moment around here!

Today was kind of crazy. I was busy all day, but I feel like I hardly accomplished anything! I was trying to do about seven things at once, so I finally decided to just pick one until I finished it, then move on to the next thing. I think I actually see some results tonight!

I am trying to get my house picked up and cleaned up since we are expecting company for Thanksgiving. We have family starting to arrive a week from today. Of course, my house is in usual disarray...but then again, what farm house isn't (except for Mrs. Schwebach's)? I just don't know how she does it, running a farm, homeschooling three of her four kids, running kids to music lessons and keeping an IMMACULATE house!

I did dishes, sorted laundry, did some more laundry, ran an errand in Edgewood, worked on making a Christmas present for my mother-in-law. My husband's family is all coming for Thanksgiving, so we are planning on giving each other Christmas gifts then since we won't all be together at Christmas. My sweet mother-in-law is probably reading this, so I won't tell you all what I'm making for her...you'll just have to wait and be surprised like her!

I then realized that I needed to turn in the boys' 4-H paperwork by tonight for them to receive credit for being members last year. We had to document everything. Aaron did his on bee keeping. Jordan did his on Alpacas. I am attaching a picture of Jordan with my Alpaca, Francis. Francis is our friendliest alpaca. He loves to come up to us when we call him. He is the tamest of them all. He has the most beautiful eyes! You can't see it in this picture because his top knot has grown too long! Jordan got him haltered all by himself and Nathan took this gorgeous picture. I just love it! They really are beautiful creatures!

I worked on music with Aaron tonight. I am trying to put a Christmas recital together for all my voice and piano students. This is way too much fun!

I am going to go to bed. Nathan is already there waiting...what else is new?!! Maybe I'll crawl in bed before he falls asleep tonight.

By the way, I asked for prayers for Nathan's cousin's husband a couple of days ago. His name is Lance. He was going to have an MRI of his brain done. Well, they had it done. They suspect that he has MS (multiple sclerosis ). They won't have a definite diagnosis until they see the neurologist. They are devastated right now. Please continue to keep the entire family in your prayers. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Oh, as for an update on my little nephew Haven (who cut off the tips of two of his fingers), he is pretty much all healed up. He's as busy as ever doing what little boys do best...playing, and playing hard!! He wanted me to tell everyone thanks for praying for him. He said his scabs are falling off and it doesn't hurt anymore!

Good night, sleep tight and God bless!

Voice or No Voice?

Good night all! Did you have a great day? I sure did!

I woke up to my honey building me a nice roaring fire! We got our first snow of the year! We got a half inch of snow on the ground during the night. When Nathan got up to do chores this morning, he checked the thermometer and it said 24 degrees! If it makes you feel any better, it registered 6 degrees with the wind chill factored in...brrrr!

I made Mixed Berry Scones, fried turkey bacon and oatmeal with our "homegrown" honey.

We went to church and had a great time in fellowship with our brothers and sisters in church today.

Nathan took us out to lunch at Macaroni Grill. It was the first time we ate there. We started off with an appetizer with crispy fried potatoes and sautéed bell peppers and Italian sausages. Nathan and Aaron split Mama's Trio with Lasagna, Chicken Parmesan and Chicken Mushroom Stuffed Cannoli. Jordan and I split Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo (surprise, surprise)! It was pretty cold, so I ordered a cup of hot coffee to go with dessert. We ordered one Tiramisu dessert to share amongst the four of us. Tiramisu is one of our favorite desserts. Nathan and I ate it for the first time the night we got married. We ate it at a little restaurant in Bisbee, Arizona called the Cafe Roka. Best stuff ever!

Aaron and I drove separately, so we left to go to a choir rehearsal. Aaron and I both sing in the East Mountain Community Choir. Every year at Christmas time, the choir gets together and we perform Handel's Messiah. It's really fun. We missed the last two rehearsals, so tonight was our first practice. I technically sing alto, but they needed a strong soprano, so I sing soprano. I learned the soprano years ago when my voice was much higher, so it's just easier to sing what I've learned already. For those who don't know me very well, I teach music from my home. I teach piano, voice and flute. I am quite proud of two of my students. They both auditioned and got solos this year in Handel's Messiah! Yea for Sarah and Aaron! I also was able to get a couple of solos as well. I am not used to singing up in the "stratosphere" anymore as the altos call it, so about half way through the rehearsal, I am guzzling water and sucking on cough drops to sooth my now irritated throat! After our 3 hour rehearsal let out, it sounded as if I was coming down with laryngitis! I'll recover by morning, Lord willing! I love music. It's great!

I need to get some sleep so hopefully I will be in full voice when I wake up in the morning! God's sweet peace be with you all!

TESTING!!!!

Hello all my dear friends and loved ones! I pray everyone is in good health.

Well, today was the day. Testing is finally here! I woke Aaron up just before 6:00 this morning. Aaron did his chores. We both got ready to leave. Wouldn't luck have it? I went outside, keys in hand, just to realize my vehicle was still hooked up to a trailer. I came back in to get Nathan's keys to drive his car instead. We have only 1 set of keys for his car. We could not find his keys, so after searching for his keys unsuccessfully, I came back in, got the keys to my vehicle while Aaron went and unhooked the trailer for me. What a sweet, sweet son!

I was worried since we were trying to leave by 6:30, it was 6:47. It takes a full hour to drive to the main dojo in Albuquerque. I was pleasantly surprised at what good time we made. We arrived at 7:25! We were supposed to be there around 7:45. And no...I was not speeding!

We were the first ones there (except for Sensei Nagatomo). We said good morning to him and he asked if all three of us were testing. I told him I was and that Aaron decided not to test today. He asked where Jordan was. I told him that Jordan and Nathan went to a 4-H Pheasant shoot.

Aaron and I walked upstairs and put our bags away in the dressing rooms. The brown belts had a brown belt training until 9:00. We focused on sparring. Everyone else who came for clinic, worked out until 10:45. Then we had a 15 minute break.

Testing started at 11:00. We had quite a few of our white belts who tested today. We had several yellow belts who tested, a green belt, a purple belt and a brown belt (me)!!! We all did very well. You can definitely tell a big difference who is from our dojo! We also had quite a few brown belts and a purple belt from our dojo come just to support those of us who were testing! What a testament of the character of the people at our dojo!

I stood up when Sensei Nagatomo called my name. I lined up on the first line. I wasn't sure if I was going to have to perform my last kata since I got a "B" on my last testing, but I didn't. So I got up and performed Bassai Dai. I did pretty well and didn't make any big mistakes or anything. I felt really good about it! Then we had to perform all the basic movements. I only missed one movement, but immediately corrected it. Then we did sparring. Sensei Nagatomo paired me up with a third degree brown who has already tested for a black belt. I did very well, but I did miss one of my blocks and she kicked me in the stomach. I was shocked. I thought I had moved enough out of the way, but apparently, not enough! I know that will hurt tomorrow! I enjoyed the experience of someone pushing me to my full potential!

After testing let out, the black belts met in Sensei Nagatomo's office to discuss testing results. They don't let anyone know the results for a couple of weeks. Senpai Susan (Mrs. Nagatomo) asked us to stay so we could show Sensei Aaron's whip that he made himself. They got out of their black belt meeting at 2:00. Aaron showed Sensei his whip and he loved it! They were both cracking whips. It was like watching two little boys in a candy shop! They got done playing with whips around 3:00 and something unexpected and exciting happened.

Sensei Nagatomo actually asked Aaron and I to go to lunch with him and his family! From what we have been told, Sensei NEVER combines his personal life with his karate life. I was totally shocked that they invited us. They even treated us to lunch. He is a very generous man. We had a blast visiting with him, his wife and two daughters. We were honored to be able to spend some time with them. We finally left to go home around 4:15.

I am tired, cold, sore and bruised...what an awesome day! I know I'm weird! Well, as I'm sitting here typing this, I am icing my shoulder, sitting next to a roaring fire Nathan just built. It doesn't get much better than this!

God speed my friends!

Preparation

Good evening friends! How are you all tonight? I am trying to unwind and mentally prepare myself for tomorrow.

I have karate testing tomorrow. It is a HUGE day for me. This will be the first time for me to test on my own. Every time I have tested, Aaron has tested. My Sensei told me that I need to do this for myself. I have been practicing my kata today and I practiced sparring with Aaron tonight. I feel totally ready...a bit nervous, but ready!

I need to go to bed and try and get some rest before waking up pretty early to get chores done before Aaron and I leave at 6:30. At first, it was only going to be me going to clinic and testing tomorrow, but Aaron has decided tonight that he wants to go in support of me. What a sweet boy I have!!!

Sleep well my friends and God bless!

Tricked You!

Good evening everyone. Sorry I didn't write yesterday. I was just exhausted.

We've been working on building our root cellar. I went and picked out all our spoiled apples, well most of them. I still have about four boxes to go through tomorrow morning. After I separated some of the bad apples, Nathan and I hand fed some of them to our cows and bulls. It was absolutely hilarious! Nathan fed some to our cow Peanut and she inhaled his entire hand to get the apple! The first time I hand fed Peanut, she inhaled my hand and I completely freaked out!!!

I went to karate by myself today. I think the boys are taking a break for a while. I was getting ready for testing this Saturday. Unfortunately, my first rib (right under my left clavicle) is out of place. I have some limited range of motion and it is excruciatingly painful when I pull my shoulder back. I didn't want to let my Sensei know so I went to class and pretended nothing was wrong. After class was over, Sensei worked with me on my kata. He fixed a LOT of things, lol! When we finished and got ready to leave, I asked Sensei if I seemed a little unbalanced on my left. Now let me tell you a little bit about Sensei. Sensei sees EVERYTHING. He notices the slightest difference in a person. He sees if something is wrong. He sees if someone is limping or favoring a wrist or a side. Any abnormalities, he sees it. There is no hiding things from him. Even when I put on my best face, he always knows when something is up with me. So I asked him if he thought I was unbalanced on my left and he said, "No...should I?" I told him I had a rib out and he couldn't believe I went the entire three classes without letting on! I was surprised that I had tricked him. I didn't want to be treated any differently and I needed to perform as if I was testing. He said I am totally ready!

Don't worry, I do have a chiropractic appointment set up for tomorrow afternoon. I'm also going to ask him to use special athletic tape to tape my shoulder for extra support until testing is over.

We had a wonderful dinner with Duane and Anita (my in-laws) tonight at our house. I put a roast in the crockpot earlier today. Anita added potatoes and carrots. She also made steamed asparagus with hollandaise sauce. We also had salad. Then Anita made coffee and banana pudding for dessert. What a wonderful way to end a great day!

Until tomorrow...God bless.

Election Day and Urgent Prayer Request

Hello everyone! I decided to do an early post today because the more who see this and are able to respond to this posting, the better.

I have tried not to do any political bashing and I don't intend to start now. We are told that we are to pray for our leaders in authority over us. The Bible doesn't say, "Pray for your leaders only if you like them or approve of what they are doing."

Today is a very important day in our nation's history. Today is the day we vote for a new president. I have quite a few people reading my blogs who are not from the United States. We, the American people are able to vote for a new president every four years. People who serve as president serve a term of four years, but may run again at the end of their first term. Presidents are not allowed to serve more than two consecutive terms.

I would like to take this time to honor our men and women of our armed forces who fought and some gave their lives to protect our freedom so that we may exercise our right to vote. May God bless their families who have endured many sacrifices so that they may serve our country faithfully! I pray for the wives (husbands) who sacrifice their time with their husbands (wives) so they can protect what our founding forefathers fought so hard to put in place. I pray for the young children who do not know their daddies (mommies) because they are off fighting for our freedoms. I mean, do you really stop and truly appreciate the total sacrifices they make each and every day? People who are not directly related to the armed forces, do you honor and respect the lives lost so that you may enjoy yours? I encourage each of us to go out of our way to honor our men and women who are serving this country. Most service men and women if you ask them, would not hesitate to serve our country again. Thank you for your unselfish actions. May God bless you with peace and safety as you protect and guard us. I pray that God would watch over our nation and that we may once again be "one nation, under GOD, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all..."

As for my urgent prayer request, Nathan's cousin Serena posted on Facebook that her husband is having some really serious health issues. They took him for an MRI scan of the left side of his brain. The doctor knows something is going on, but doesn't know what yet. Please pray for Lance. He and Serena have four children. May God guide the doctors and let them find out what is going on and that Lance would be healed. Thank you everyone for prayers on his behalf. I will keep you posted as I hear more. May god bless you and our nation!

Best Coffee House Ever!

Good evening friends and loved ones! I had a "normal" day at school with the boys. Bless Aaron's heart. He's still trying to get caught up from starting late in school this year. He works so hard, I wish he could just wake up and be there!

We left at 4:30 to take Aaron to his guitar lesson. I have a weekly ritual. Every Monday during his guitar lesson, I walk across the parking lot to the best little coffee house I've ever been to. It's called Beyond Grounds. They were previously called Fat Boys Cafe, but they were under construction. After they remodeled, they came up with this new name. It has a really cozy atmosphere. They have small tables set up like most places and they also have four leather overstuffed chairs around a glass table. There are books to read there or you can trade your books for others they have on their shelves. They also have free wifi.

The coffee and teas are fabulous, but the pastries are to die for. They make most of the pastries from scratch right there at the shop. I consider myself a somewhat accomplished baker. I can pretty much bake anything and sometimes I tweak recipes to make them my "own". I do have to admit though, almost every single "from scratch" pastry I've tried, I probably couldn't make it any better myself. It's a little pricey, but well worth every bite in my opinion! Hot drinks are $3-4 and pastries range in price from $1-4. Most of their baked goods are $3.50-$4. Today they had a sale on their Coconut Macaroons dipped in dark chocolate for $1 each. Each macaroon was about 1/2 cup of coconut mixture...it was huge! Jordan ordered their cinnamon roll. It was probably between 5-6 inches in diameter! They even heat it up for you! Oh, such ooey, gooey goodness! Then my favorite tonight...a Peanut Butter Chocolate Bomb! It was a sugar cookie about the size of my palm. It had 3 1/2 inches of peanut butter mousse mounded on top and the whole thing was dipped in chocolate. I think I tasted a little bit of heaven tonight! I don't worry about getting fat eating this stuff...I took one bite of Nathan's macaroon and about three small bites of the Peanut Butter Chocolate Bomb. I asked Jordan to save some of the cinnamon roll for his brother (he told me he would). The next time I looked over at Jordan's plate, there was only a strip of the very center piece left of the cinnamon roll! For those who may not know, Jordan and I are absolute freaks about eating the center of the cinnamon roll!!! I confiscated the center piece to save for Aaron (yes...I actually confiscated it)! He tried fighting me with his fork, but I finally had to pull out the "Mother Look" to get him to leave it alone! He still insisted on being able to eat his favorite part of the cinnamon roll!!!! He should have eaten the center towards the outside and let Aaron have the outer part, but Jordan was just too busy enjoying himself! So when Aaron got done with his lesson, he had one bite of the macaroon, two small bites of the cinnamon roll and about 2/3 of the Peanut Butter Bomb. All I like to do is taste their baked goods! I don't actually have to eat an entire item, I just take a couple of bites and let the boys polish it off! Nathan and I also split a Chai Latte tonight. What's really cool is that you can special order your drinks and they will make it to your taste! The staff is so friendly. I was a bit surprised when I walked in there tonight. The same lady works every Monday night. I don't know her name yet and she doesn't know mine, but she said the second she saw me, "There you are! I missed you all last week. I told myself as I was closing last week, 'Where is my Monday night family?'" I didn't know she came to recognize us! She always gives me tips as to what's really good to try. They also serve all kinds of from scratch cookies. They also serve homemade ice cream. Oh, I almost forgot, they serve bagels, sandwiches, burritos and I think soup as well. I haven't tried any of their breakfast, lunch or dinner items since we go directly home to have supper!

I thought I'd let you all know if you live in the East Mountain area, please go check this place out! It's up off North 14 just past the Cedar Crest Post Office.

Please keep me in your prayers, I am pretty sore. I think it's from diving yesterday at Jasmine's pool party. My neck and shoulders are stiff. I wish I could just get them to loosen up!

Good night my friends. May God's peace surround you as you sleep tonight!

Wonderful Day!

Good evening everyone! I had a wonderful day. We went to church this morning and we were very blessed to have the Radigan's join us again to worship together. Their kids are truly wonderful kids!

After church let out, we had a potluck at Nature point in Tijeras. We enjoyed plenty of yummy food! I made a huge pot of chicken vegetable soup and a pan of buttery corn bread. Afterwards, we played games and finished the afternoon by playing quite a few rounds of Round Robin. I even actually won one time!

We had to leave a few minutes early since our Sensei's daughter Jasmine had a pool party to celebrate her 11th birthday. She is a very special young lady. I consider myself truly blessed to have her in my life. She has enriched my life more than she will ever know!!! I spent a good portion of the time trying to learn how to consistently dive off the low dive. I started off really well, kept going well for a while and then...I started doing belly flop after belly flop! I think I actually bruised my forehead! Everyone got a good laugh at my expense! We really enjoyed spending time with Caesar and his family tonight! We just adore his entire family!

Well, I am going to turn in. Until tomorrow night...God bless!

Happy Birthday!

Yesterday was my sweet hubby's birthday! We got up and around and had a wonderful breakfast.

As soon as breakfast was over, I went out on Anita's back porch and cut Nathan's hair. I got cleaned up. My dear friend Kathy came over while I was finishing up Nathan's haircut. Anita, Kathy, and I got ready to leave for Tucson.

We drove up there and Anita dropped us off at the mall while she went to her orthodontic appointment. I was busy shopping for Nathan's birthday present. I knew exactly what he needed, so I was on a mission to find him some work shirts and ties.

I looked at the mall map to try and find a JC Penny's, but that mall didn't have one. Kathy and I shopped in two different stores with no luck. We met up with Anita. We left the mall and went to the Olive Garden for lunch. After lunch, we stopped at Casual Male...no luck. We walked a 1/2 a block over to Men's Wearhouse...no luck there either. Well, that's not totally true. They did have the exact size I was looking for, but I was NOT going to spend $100 per shirt! So we ended up back at the mall to look at the other major department store that we had not been to yet. Surprise, surprise, no luck again...I was really frustrated at this point. We finally gave up and decided to get something all together different.

Anita had one last stop to make at Costco. I found shirts there almost the size we were looking for!

Nathan, Duane (my father-in-law), both boys, and my parents drove up separately. We met them at a Mexican restaurant called El Sur. The food was really good, the service was superb, and the prices were cheap! Nathan used Yelp to find them. He would much rather enjoy a simple dinner than go to some fancy restaurant any old day. After we ate, we were told we could bring in a birthday cake. Aaron went out to our car and brought in the carrot cake with cream cheese icing that I made early that morning. Aaron started to walk over to our table with it, but our waitress confiscated it! She took the cake out of the traveling case, put some candles on it, lit it, and had the other waiters/waitresses come and sing Happy Birthday while they put a HUGE red sombrero on Nathan and handed him a cardboard guitar!!! It was great!!! Nathan absolutely loves embarrassing me with stuff like that, but he despises if anyone does anything like that to him! I had nothing to do with it! I had no idea what they were doing until they did it! Well, at least he was a good sport about it!

After dinner, the guys headed next door to shop at Harbor Freight. The rest of us loaded up and drove over to the Gas Light Theater. In case you don't know, the Gas Light Theater always performs melodramas. Their play was The Phantom of the Opera...ooooohh.
Sorry, you had to be there to understand the sound effects written in here! Both of my parents have lived near the Tucson area going on 22 years and they had never been to the Gas Light Theater. I looked over during the show and caught my Dad laughing his head off...as for my Mom, I think she layed an egg! My mom was laughing so hard, she had tears running down her cheeks! It was so good to see everyone have a great time. Kathy thoroughly enjoyed herself. She had never been to anything like this and she had a BLAST!

That pretty much sums up Nathan's birthday. After we got home, he told me that that was one of the best birthdays he's ever had! Yaaaay!

Sleep well my friends! God bless! Yes, we are now back home, so my blogs should be more regular now. Until next time...

Case of the Missing Keys

Hello my friends and family! How are you tonight? I am doing great! I am surrounded by family and loved ones and it doesn't get much better than this!

I woke up too early (earlier than my eyelids wanted to open), so my sweet hubby told me to go back to sleep as he quietly exited our bedroom. He doesn't think that was a big deal at all, but to me that was great to just be able to roll over and go right back to sleep without feeling the least bit guilty about it! I slept for another 1 1/2 hours (oops)! Anita got up, got showered and started on breakfast. I showered, then hurried out to lend a hand. I fried up a 1/2 lb. of bacon, and half a package of sausage patties. Anita made an amazing egg casserole with green chilies in it...did I ever mention how much I love green chili??? Then Anita put together a fruit salad with plain yogurt and coconut shavings mixed in...yummola! Then to top things off, Anita whipped up a batch of blueberry lemon muffins. Talk about a feast fit for a king! We even enjoyed this feast sitting on Duane and Anita's back porch enjoying the view of the mountains. What a mighty and awesome God I serve! He created things so beautiful, from the tiniest of butterflies to the vast mountain ranges set before us!

I got the boys to do a little school, then we ran some errands in town. Against my better judgement, I allowed Anita to drive us (Anita, Aaron, Jordan and myself) back over to Trapper Jon's Knife Shop. It was as if my boys hadn't even been there the day before. We were on a mission. Jordan knew exactly what we were going in to get...ONE item and ONE item only. It was supposed to be a quick in-n-out. I was hoping it would only take 5 minutes tops since I had a bunch of errand I needed to do myself. Forty-five minutes later...and several knives later...

We left there and stopped by Anita's bank. While Anita was inside making a withdrawal, the boys were sitting in the back seat having contests who, at the count of three, could whip out their blade the fastest. I could see disaster written on the wall, so after a few minutes, I forbid anymore contests...I know, what a mean mother I am!!!

We ran a couple of errands for my dad. Let me back up my story a little bit. This morning before we left to run our errands, my mom had called Anita's cell phone looking for me. She couldn't reach me on my cell (still plugged in by my bed) or at Anita's home phone (since we were enjoying a leisurely breakfast on the back patio). We only heard Anita's cell phone ring as we were carrying breakfast back into the house. Mom was kind of frantic wondering if I had my dad's truck keys by accident. She asked me to go dump my purse out and look for his keys. I told her I had only driven his truck twice while we were staying with them. For those of you who don't know, my dad just bought a brand new Ford Ranger truck recently, still has a new car smell! It's kind of his "baby". Whoever drives must be very careful. I told mom where I hung the keys up after I used them last. I hung them on the key post in their house. She said it wasn't there and my dad was in a panic to find his keys. I called my dad and told him where I left the keys. The keys I used were on a purple lanyard and also had keys to my mom's car on it. Dad explained that those were her keys with her copy of his keys on it. Unfortunately, Mom was at work (she's a substitute teacher in her retirement) with her keys in her possession. I had no idea what my dad's keys even looked like. I don't think I've ever seen his key ring. I told my dad I was sorry he couldn't find them and that I would keep my eyes open for them. Five minutes later, Jordan walked in the room with a sheepish grin on his face. He walked in the room dangling my dad's keys in front of him. What a goober!!! I didn't even know he even used my dad's keys. He said he had found them in the pocket of one of his pants after he heard Grandpa couldn't find the keys to his truck...whoops!

So after we ran a couple of errands for my dad, we stopped by his house and dropped of some lumpia wrappers, a couple of photos and of coarse...his missing keys!

From there, we went shopping at a couple of stores for my Sensei's daughter. Her birthday is this Sunday, so for the first time ever, I went shopping for girls' clothes...I had way too much fun! However, what you need to know about me is that I shop like a man...a man on a mission. I do not like to take time and browse around. I have a mission to look for something specific. If I do not see it immediately, I leave and move on to the next store. It usually doesn't take me long to go shopping if I know exactly what I'm after! My boys don't mind shopping with me!

We came back home after I found 3 purchases. We grabbed some Subway sandwiches on the way. After we ate, about 2:15, I made Apple Dumplings for the first time ever! Boy! What have I been missing all my life??? Anita made Chicken Parmesan and French Bread. I cut up some mushrooms, onions, broccoli, green bell pepper, red chili pepper, asparagus and yellow crooked neck squash. I drizzled it all with balsamic vinegar and coconut oil. I seasoned it with salt, pepper and Italian seasoning. We baked it and it was yummy! I also made butternut squash French fries. I peeled the squash, cut it into fries, placed them on a greased cookie sheet, drizzled them with coconut oil, salt and a little thyme. Then I baked them until they were crispy. They did not go begging! Anita made a salad. We were stuffed. Jordan's favorite was the chicken! I think he went back for thirds! I made the apple dumplings by making pie crust. I peeled and cored 7 apples, stuffed them with butter and brown sugar. Then I sprinkled the apples with cinnamon and nutmeg. Then a pulled up the corners of the pie crust to make little pockets to hold the apples. Anita placed the apple dumplings in a greased dish and she also made some sort of cinnamon sauce and pour in the pan around the dumplings. She baked them till the apples were tense rand the syrup thickened. It was divine!

Well, now that I'm stuffed, I'm having a hard time getting to sleep! I have to go to bed though. Tomorrow is my sweetie's birthday and I have a lot planned! Until then...God bless!

My Other Home Away From Home

Good evening all. Sorry I am posting this so late.

I got up today. My feet were absolutely freezing! The rest of me was ok, but my feet were like ice cubes. After I got up, I enjoyed a nice thick slice of my Daddy's yummy banana bread. Then I got up from the table and went back to bed (just because I could)!!! I slept for another hour! Ssshhhh...don't tell anyone, I don't want to get in trouble!

I got up, helped the boys on school for a bit. Then mom made some more really yummy soup for later in the day. Mom and I got dressed in our swim suits and we hopped in her hot tub for a while. As we were enjoying ourselves, the two boys and their friend Carter were playing in the pool.

After we ate lunch, Mom took us to an awesome knife shop called Trapper Jon's. the boys have told me about it before, but I have never been there before today. Mom and I just parked ourselves in a couple of chairs at the front of the shop while the three boys shopped. Aaron bought a really nice knife...I am not going to say what kind so Avram can keep guessing till we get home! Aaron also bought a sling. Can't wait to see him try it in the morning! My mom bought a custom made machete that is really cool actually and very functional. Then Jordan bought a professional throwing tomahawk!! Watch out world! Here he comes! Don't say I didn't warn you!!!

Then we drove to Salvation Army to look for some clothes and costumes for both my boys. They belong to a homeschooling drama group back home and I hadn't finished getting all of their costumes put together, so I finished that today! While there, the boys made impromptu costumes so they could go trick-or-treating tonight. They were gone about 40 minutes and they each came back with approximately 10 pieces of candy each!

After they got home, we hopped in my vehicle and went to church tonight. After church let out, we went back to my mom's house and got all our stuff packed and loaded in the car. We met Nathan and his parents in town tonight. They just drove in from Phoenix. They attended a 2 day investment training seminar and got in late tonight. We just unloaded everything and got settled in. It feels so good to be here!

Well, it's really late and I'm exhausted. Good night and God bless!