Busyness

Well, we've been keeping busy around here! Hope had her 5th birthday. She told Ginger that she was 15, and on our way to church she informed us that she doesn't do bad things like interrupt conversations anymore. I have no more babies in the house! :( If I had kept on at the rate I was going at in this past decade I should have had three more babies by now. I miss them a lot, but I am starting to enjoy my big kids more. I also like having a little more freedom to be able to sew, which is a good thing since I forgot to get Hope a birthday present. When we got home from church I raided my pink fabric stash and busted out a sparkly dress in record time. She loved it! Thank goodness little girls are so easy to please.

Sorry it's fuzzy, she couldn't stand still!

Let's see... oh yes, last week Faith and I had an opportunity to volunteer to help train Chico and Sacramento police horses not to freak out when confronted with a noisy crowd. It was a lot of standing around but was also pretty fun. The riot police even trained with us. Faith was so ecstatic!

Earlier that same day Abi and Lily got a chance to attend a free cooking class for kids put on my the Galley, a local kitchen supply store. The instructor had the genius idea of giving the kids plastic lettuce knives to cut the soft veggies with. They're sharp enough to cut soft things with, but not sharp enough to cut little fingers. He gave us one ;) They loved it so much they want to sign up for the next class.

Last but not least, Violet finally birthed her babies! Sadly though I'm pretty sure they're both boys. We'll have to sell them. Violet and Daisy are different as night and day. Daisy is a loud, pushy pig who will eat herself sick; and Violet is a timid, gentle sweetheart who will scrounge for Daisy's leftovers. Daisy moaned and yelled LOUDLY all night during the birth of her babies; Violet was so quiet we didn't know she had her babies till the next morning. I had to separate Daisy into a different pen because she was jealous of all the attention Violet was getting and kept on ramming her and trampling her babies. The good news about daisy is that her milk isn't sour anymore and we can drink it now without getting sick. I think she just ate something that disagreed with her last time we let her out to graze in the yard.

Well, I guess that's all I'll post for now. Things are happening all the time around here so that I can hardly keep up! Now this is what home schooling is all about! I love it!

Poor Lily

Well, today we learned that a big rock (yes, the one on the left) dropped on a little foot doesn't feel so good. This is the same child who I had to take to the hospital when she was 3 because she had stuck a blueberry up her nose. (Seriously, it was in so deep that they had to sedate her.) I'm thinking she might need to learn how to make wise decisions ;)

None of my kids have had a broken bone (yet, though I'm an expert on scratched corneas) so I wasn't exactly sure what to look for. I pretty much made the decision to go to the hospital based on the fact she was screaming bloody murder. When she was going through triage the nurse tried to put a thermometer in her mouth. You can tell that my kids don't get sick very often by the fact that my 8 year old didn't know what a thermometer was and wouldn't let the nurse use it till I reassured her that it wouldn't hurt. By now she was much better, especially after the male nurse (she was shocked that a man would be a nurse) pampered her with an ice pack, warm blanket, and stickers. Can you tell she's suffering?

After waiting for a couple hours in the hallway reading Little Pilgrim's Progress (a wonderful book! every parent must read this to their children),

the lady doctor (which really confused Lily, a male nurse and a female doctor? The world is full of wonders!) finally came to see us and pronounced Lily's toe perfectly fine without even having to take an X-ray! There was no swelling or pain anymore. I still can't figure it out. Did you see the size of that rock?! Maybe she was just more scared than hurt. I don't know. The only thing that Lily cared about was that I'd take her out to ice cream afterward, which of course, I was more than happy to do.

The End.

We're Home!

We went on trip last week to visit Patrick's parents down in Southern California. We had a blast! Patrick was unable to go since he had to work, so I just took the three older girls while my mom helped watch the younger two when Patrick was at work. It was so bizarre to have only three kids! And now that they're 13, 11, and 9 they are able to take care of themselves, well, with a little reminding that is!

We helped Grammie with some projects, visited a yummy bakery which has a show on TLC called The Bakery Bunch, went to a thrift store and bought some dresses, went to see the new movie Sorcerers Apprentice, spent an afternoon at the beach, and visited Patrick's grandmother Mammy. Of course we also sat around watching a lot of T.V. and eating way too much junk food! On the whole we had a wonderful time!

There was a sad, sad, tragedy here at home while we were gone though. One day when Patrick went to work one of the baby goats, Flora, got out and the dogs got to her. They must have played with her to death because there was no open wounds or blood. They probably shook her like they do when they catch a chicken. I don't blame the dogs, they were following their instincts, unfortunately.

That said, here are some pics of our trip:

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Laundry Room Renovation, pt. 1

Here are 8 things I've learned during the past couple of days as I've been renovating my laundry room:

1. Old duct tape on a scary looking outlet is there for a reason. Leave well enough alone or you will be shocked. Really.

2. Rats can chew through thick stucco. Apparently they love to line their holes with old dishcloths as well, (mystery solved.)

3. Sometimes it's better to leave rotting drywall alone as well. Otherwise you will keep making the hole bigger in an attempt to patch it.

4. Spackle covers a multitude of sins. It's pretty much my best friend.

5. Measure 2-3 times, cut 5-6 times. (See #4)

6. New paint makes a HUGE difference.

7. Unattended orphans gravitate towards water, especially the muddy kind underneath the trampoline.

8. I didn't need that pig off of Freecycle after all.

8th Grade Graduation

Yep, my baby is now in High School. I'm not sure that it's sunk in yet. Yes I feel older, but somehow disconnected from it at the same time. Sometime in the next couple of weeks we need to sit down and chart out what classes she wants to take over the next four years to make sure she gets all her credits done, then order the curriculum. I'm not too worried about it, the teaching and all. She is very independent that way and can pretty much teach herself without me hanging over her shoulder the whole time. What a blessing to have an oldest child like this! If she needed a lot of hand-holding I don't know what I'd do, I'm just not that kind of mom (sorry girls! ;) After she graduates she wants to go to culinary school which suits me just fine! She can live at home for as long as she likes!
I love my daughter, she is so extremely helpful around the house and with her sisters. It's like having a live-in cook and nanny, for free! (Well, as long as I throw some book money her way now and then ;) Congratulations Moriah, you're one special girl!

Lookie What I Found!

Now this is a sweet vintag-ey ride! We were driving home the other day and saw this baby sitting on the corner of the road with a "For Sale" sign on it. I am SO not above getting free stuff off the street, but to pay for it? It had to be a good price for me to even consider it.

Well, the sign said $50. Gulp... maybe I didn't need it after all. But then a wonderful thing happened. A scroungy looking college kid walked out of the nearest house. Yes! I knew I would probably be able to talk him down. I asked him if he was willing to go any lower, he said that was fine.

Now if he had been a real adult I probably would have asked if he would go for $40, but he looked in desperate need of some beer money, so I offered $30. His face lit up with approval. The bike was mine! 

Well, actually I got it for Moriah, seein' as how I love her and all!
(And now she can ride to the grocery store for me!)

For My Little Filly

Here ya go Faith!

In the Middle

My sweet middle daughter Abigail now has her very own blog. She's been watching her big sisters have so much fun with theirs that she wanted in on the action too! Check it out! http://abi-in-the-middle.blogspot.com/

The Fair is NOT Cheap!

I'm a little late with this post, as with everything! But I had to share some of these cute pics of my kids at the fair. First though, let me elaborate on the title if you please. I was going to make a list of all the things that we put money out for, but that is a little too tedious for lazy ol' me. Let's just say that for 3 adults and 5 kids, admission, food and rides (a couple dollars per ride per kid!), it was easily a couple hundred dollars. Again, NOT cheap! We haven't gone to the fair for a couple years, but my dad loves to take the kids and he loves to spoil them, rotten. He can't say no. But if it floats his boat I'm willing to let him. The only bad part of the day was that I didn't get a pic of Grandpa with the kids. Bummer.
Oh! Our friends Chuck and Elizabeth with their 3 cuties stayed the weekend with us and went to the fair with us too, fun!

I'm An Auntie!!!

Isn't she beautiful!?!? Ava Marie Lord, daughter of Christina (my little sis) and Aaron. I've never been an Auntie before but I couldn't have picked a sweeter niece if I had tried!