Meredith, Harrison and Millie came to spend the night the other day. We put them to work putting out hay, bright and early the next morning. I think they had fun with Uncle Jerry in the tractor.

The Gillig's

The Gilligs are faithful readers of my boring blog and my blog wouldn't be complete without "blogging" about their visit. The whole family came out to our place for dinner and ended up spending half the time messing with the horses and watching us ride. This was the first time we got to meet Kinsley. She is already 14 months old and what a delightful baby! Dakota is growing fast and looks as though he has left toddlerhood behind him. Gone are the baby fat cheeks and a young boy is emerging quickly. Mollie and Dakota played well together and he seemed to put up with her bossing (I like to call it assertiveness) and even suffered through a "My Little Pony" movie, during which Mollie handed him a pink pony to hold while watching the show. I don't think I've ever met a finer family. These people's willingness to help and giving spirit both amaze and humble me. Dana suffers though countless phone calls throughout the year, usually by a blubbering me, asking for help with the latest animal catastrophe. Ron and Jean are always helping us with our cows and taking their precious time. Jarrod and Jami, who we almost never see, willingly take their family time while visiting to help us with horses. You all are an inspiration and a lesson in giving. We Love You!

Prince and the Pauper

Meet Prince. He is a HUGE Tennesse Walker. He arrived via the Gillig's Monday night. This will be Jerry's horse. He surprised me by saying he thought I was going to surprise him with Prince Christmas morning. What was he thinking!? I don't make a practice of bringing home huge animals (only small ones!) without running it by him first. Prince makes horse no. 4 (if you count Mollie's gelding (formerly stallion, he got the ax yesterday!)). Before, we were donkey poor, now we are officially horse paupers! We are insane for taking on 4 (no, actually 3 1/2) horses in December. However, we love them already, and my motto always is, "Hey, what's one more mouth to feed!" (or 4, 3 of which weigh a lot!) Jerry, who hasn't been on a horse for over 20 years, fearlessly (I'm jealous of that) jumped on Prince and rode him all around. Jarrod helped me saddle Missy and the two horses got aquainted while Jerry and I rode down the farm road. This was the first time I had rode Missy not in a round pen. I was very proud of myself. I think we are hooked, poor but hooked. If STG, the local feed store liked us before, they are going to love us now! (the only problem is what "cowboy" rides his horse with tennis shoes on?)

Christmas Highlights

Hope your Christmas was as lovely as ours. This was the first year Mollie was really excited about Christmas. We had friends over Christmas Eve after church and Mollie didn't get to bed until 11:00. Jerry and I went to bed at 1:00 (what were we thinking?) and I was awake at 6:00. I had my camera ready to capture Mollie's excitement coming down the stairs, however, when she woke at 7:30, she ran down the steps so fast she is a blur on one side of the picture. She was very excited to see that Santa only left crumbs from the cookies we set out and drank all his milk. We had a nice time opening gifts and I was so pleased with my daughter that posed nicely for tons of pictures before opening each gift.

The animals got treated for Christmas with extra grain and hay or treats. Luckily when I fed I noticed our electric fence was down or we would have had 21 donkeys running around the yard while we were gone. Later I asked Jerry to load the gifts in the car, which I guess to a man means load the car and start it. Shortly thereafter he came in and said the car was running. I had rollers in my hair and hadn't made up a goodie tray yet. I obviously (or at least to me it was) wasn't ready to walk out the door. In the rush to get out the door, I forgot the mashed potatoes and "green stuff", which I realized 25 miles away. Oh well, in spite of no potatoes for dinner we had a great day.

We hope you had Merry Christmas and have a healthy, happy New Year, Love, Jerry, Stephanie, Mollie, Tinkerbell, Bug, Yellow Dog, Mittens, Jr. Kitty, the donkeys, the horses, the ducks, the chickens, the one and only guinea, and the fish.

I Found The Card Reader!

I found the card reader. Mollie was playing "Santa", which means putting stuff in the stockings and telling me it's Christmas and to get the things out. While getting the things out, the card reader fell out! It's been missing for days thanks to the 4 year old Santa! Anyway, here are a few pics taken in the last few days.

My wonderful husband surprised me Saturday with an early Christmas present. Meet my horse, Missy. I had been visiting and riding her for the last 6 weeks waiting for an answer if I could get her not, apparently he told the lady weeks ago that he wanted to get her for me but to wait until Christmas. He had Sat. picked up a pony in a weird deal, supposedly to be companion to Mollie's "Stallion". He got home with that pony and a few hours later said he had to go to a friend's house and didn't feel like unhooking the trailer. I didn't think anything of it until a little while later I saw the trailer backing up to the back door and could see something in the back but couldn't make out what it was. The kids yelled, "it's a horse!". It was then that I knew who it had to be. I ran out and Jerry unloaded her. I was surprised. She and the pony, "Jessie" are getting along like best friends and even share their feed in the same feed pan.

This is Missy and Jessie:





Here are some pics of the kids during our MANY hours of baking, baking and more baking!

Merry Christmas!

Well I haven't posted for a few days. We've had a crazy week, the kids came Friday night and are going home tomorrow. We've had a whirlwind few days of baking, cooking and hosting Christmas this past weekend. I think I've spent more time in the kitchen in the past week than in the past 6 months! We have, however had a great time with the kids. I would post pictures of the last few days, except in all the confusion, I've misplaced my card reader. Hopefully I can find it soon so I can load my pictures! In the meantime, I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and blessed New Year.

When It Rains (or breaks) It Pours!

Ah, where do I begin...I think today would have gone better if I had never gotten out of bed. To start off I was 30 minutes late getting Mollie to school. I'm not late, I hate to be late. It took me an hour to get the critters fed and watered this morning. The hoses were all froze up and I ended up having to haul bucket after bucket to fill the stock tanks. Then it took me forever to load all the teacher gifts, ect. in the truck for Mollie's Christmas party. We finally made it there and the kids had a nice little program for the parents and a party. I had planned on going to the city afterwards to get the Christmas shopping done before the weather got nasty tomorrow, luckily I had to stop back by the house on my way out of town. I ran in the office and checked Jerry's fax and there was one from the water company to call asap. I dreaded calling, it had to be something wrong...boy was I right. She told me that they read our meter Monday and we were at 65,000 gallons. I said that sounded like a lot but I didn't know what our normal usage was but did know our water bill was around $50.00 or below so what was this bill. She blew me out of the water (no pun intended) when she said $734.00!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(yes I had to put a lot of exclamation marks there to emphasise how awful this was). To make a very long and boring story shorter I checked all the hydrants for leaks or soggy ground and found nothing. A friend sent a friend over to help me shut off the main and when the water man came out he check all the hydrants and found nothing. However, he had noticed an icy spot in the driveway which was odd, being that we have 3-4 inches of snow. He probed it and said to get a backhoe out and tell them to start digging there. Needless to say, I topped all the stock tanks, filled the bathtub and a couple of buckets before shutting the main off again. We have no water and hopefully tomorrow the guy Jerry hired to come with a backhoe shows up and finds the break without having to dig up our entire yard. I'm sure the lady at the water co. thought I was a real weirdo when I couldn't hardly talk on the phone because I was too busy crying. It was so overwhelming having no water, a huge bill, Christmas, the kids coming Friday and Jerry's family Christmas here on Sunday. I'm praying it gets fixed fast! A $734.00 water bill and a backhoe bill......Merry Christmas Jerry and Stephanie!

(Oh, by the way, it's just not our week, Mollie's cat died and we lost a baby donkey but like a friend of mine always says, "better in the barn (and the yard!)than in the house")

Ice Cream in December?!!

From this:
To this:
No childhood is complete without at least one batch of snow ice cream. Mother nature provided us with that opportunity today. Mollie waited (not so patiently) until after lunch to make our special treat. However, her mother (who is never prepared) found no evaporated milk in the pantry. Me, being the substitute princess (my mom is the queen), improvised and used 1 cup of vanilla creamer instead. I have to admit, mighty tasty and Mollie thought so too!

Here is the recipe if anyone wants it (sorry for those of you living in that horrible state with 80 degree weather in December! I'm sure you would rather be here with all this snow and 15 degrees on the thermometer at 1:00 in the afternoon!)

Snow Ice Cream

1 Gallon Fresh Clean Snow (I would highly recommend the white kind, the yellow kind makes for an inferior product!)

1 Egg, beaten

3/4 C. Sugar

2 Tsp. Vanilla

1 C. Evaporated Milk

Combine egg and sugar, stir well with wire whisk. Add milk and vanilla. Place snow in a large bowl. Gradually add mixture to snow, gently stirring with wooden spoon until blended.


Stephanie's Snow Ice Cream In A Pinch

1 Gallon, Fresh, Clean Snow

1 C. French Vanilla liquid creamer

1 Egg, beaten

Stir egg and creamer together, place snow in a large bowl. Gradually add mixture to snow, gently stirring with wooden spoon until blended.

Enjoy!

Look Daddy, He's My Size!!

O.k., so yesterday we embarked on a 2 hour trip to go look at some ponies that my farrier has for sale. Mollie was pretty excited. When we pulled in the driveway, we could see 3 ponies saddled and tied to the hitching post. That's when Mollie yelled out "look Daddy, that one is my size!". I was laughing because I don't think I've ever seen a smaller horse in my life. This was not exactly what I had had in mind. Of the three, it was the one Mollie kept wanting to ride, which she did several times. She also rode the 2 other ponies which were much bigger but she liked the little guy. For 2 hours we stood there, while I kept trying to steer her toward the bigger horses to no avail. When asked which was her favorite everytime she responded the same. I told Jerry this horse will probably last her maybe 4 years at the very, very most and he said that's the one she wants and it's her size. When the time comes she can move up to a bigger one. So here is Mollie's new stallion soon to be gelding. He's getting cut soon and then coming home. Mollie has appropriately named him Butterschotch (formerly Buck). We had a talk with her and she understands that this horse (he's a mini horse not a pony) is her responsibility so she's going to have to don the Carhartt's everyday and feed him and take care of him, not me. On the way home, Daddy asked her what she would do with a horse. My 4 year old responded..."feed him, water him, ride him and love him" That about sums it up! Look out responsibility, here she comes.

I'm On A Roll!

I couldn't help but post another picture of Mollie, again done by Third Floor Studio. We took Mollie to see Santa the other night and the Winter Wonderland put on by Parent's As Teachers. It was a monumental moment...it was the first time she would sit on Santa's lap. Last year she was content to stand next to him, the year before that we didn't bother because the year before that (she was 13 months) she screamed bloody murder with little arms outstretched for her Daddy. Yes, the last time we got a good shot of her on his lap she was 2 months old. It's funny that she has had to take so long to warm up to him. My kid doesn't know a stranger and will talk to anyone that will even halfway listen. However, she's always had an issue with anyone in costume. Chuck E. Cheese, the animals freak her out (but now that I think about it they do me too!), when they walk in the room she always says, "I don't want to talk to them". So, Mollie, you've come a long way baby, far enough to even ask Santa for the "skating horse", a $300.00 (of course!) stuffed horse that rolls, or bounces or something (not nearly enough in my opinion for the steep price tag, for that kind of money you can get a real one and "hay" (no pun intended) what's one more mouth to feed plus it comes the responsibility of shoveling manure, now you can't get that from a "skating horse"!). Santa and I had a long talk and I think he's decided to bring one of the other items on her list, you know one more in his budget, like animal crackers (yes, that was actually on her list, a least she had items priced from one extreme to the other), yes, I'm sure he'll bring animal crackers, what every 4 year old wants for Christmas!

Now I AM Just Bragging

It has been said that a blog is just a place to brag about yourself. I haven't felt that way about my blog....until now! Here is Mollie's Christmas picture and I think she looks ADORABLE and yes, I'm bragging. This cute, smart, energetic kid is all mine and she thinks I'm the greatest thing since sliced bread....no, candy, she likes candy more than bread. My photographer, Leah Martin of Third Floor Studio, takes the best pictures and this one is no exception. Thank you Leah for all your hard work, this is yet another one of your shots that I'll treasure forever. Hopefully no one is offended by my "bragging", I can't help it, I'm just a proud mom.

Girls (and boys) Gone Wild!!!!

This is the scene out my front window at any given time of day. All but the jacks are wintering in the single strand hotwire field and as you can see, when the babies get bored, they duck under the wire and wander around the yard. The babies are little enough that they just walk under it and even though it rubs their back as they pass through they have so much fuzzy hair that they never feel the shock. When the babies get out of sight, their mothers (they respect the hotwire) holler out for them and they all go back in...for a while, until they get bored again! They are so cute to watch, Bentley, a sold, un-weaned boy, was caught chasing a chicken across the yard, head tucked, full speed ahead He may be a guard donkey in the making! They are always doing something funny, even, at times, standing on the back patio. We must sound like the Bevery Hillbillies!

Baby It's Cold INside!

This morning I took a picture of one of our many thermometers, it read 46 degrees. NO, that was not the temperature outside, it was the temperature of my bedroom! Since we heat our house with corn and use our furnace as a backup, until it gets super cold outside, enough to kick the furnace on, this is how cold our house is at the furthest point from the stove. Now, mind you, I'm keeping stats and the coldest I've seen our room get is 41 degrees (last week). Now you all know why, whenever you see me, I look like the Michelin Man. I have to bundle up to stay warm not to mention make sure I eat as many peanut M&M's as possible! I have to make sure I have enough insulation! (and that's my story and I'm sticking to it!)

Friday Flashback 2 Days Late!

Hey! I've been busy, just now getting around to digging out a few picks for a good laugh! Let's see...there's Jerry and I at Tammy's wedding, Jerry having to wear a tux that practically went around him twice at the waist just so it would fit in the shoulders, we had to tuck it around him for the pictures.

Then there's our graduation, AAAAAWWWWWWWW aren't we a cute couple!?

Let's see, how about Anissa and I in our camel costumes our parents so lovingly made for the 6th grade Christmas Program.

Band trip to Springfield, 1988, I can't believe it's been 20 years!

Enjoy!