My Boys...

My Boys... I love my boys, but I don't love their competitive nature. Always wrestling and arguing, and competing, like here, looking in the mirror... who is taller? "Yes, I am taller than you now Dad!", no your not, yes I am, get over yourself, no your not your standing on your tippy toes, no I'm not, yes you are, I'm taller than you, no your not your still just a twerp, well your.... Uggg!!! Stop it! And no name calling!

I do love them, what is scary is that I don't think they would ever smile if they couldn't do this with each other on a regular basis! Notice I don't get in the mix, little foot towers over me, and if I am really lucky, my "Strong Silent Mysterious Man" won't shrink down to my height in our old age. he he he

I Love My Boys!!!

And then there were ten...

So I was wrong... this is the tenth cow baby at my bff's house. I asked her this morning why they have so many, and as she passed her finger across the entire pasture, she said this is "the college fund". So there you go, she has 8 children and so each of them have a calf to raise and sell, and then that money goes towards their college fund. Neat, but sorry not cool enough for me to get up at 5am and go get hay and stuff in my hair feeding and step in manure and the stress and work and, yeah... I am really happy for my bff, but I will just go visit her baby cows. Don't need any of these creatures of my own.

Here is a blurry version of more of the tribe.

Little blonde, she is one of my favorites.


Really, I wasn't drinking when I took these. It was still a little dark, so I think there wasn't enough light coming in the camera.

I love getting to see the beautiful sunrises this time of the morning.

Finally, we've been waiting all summer...

Finally the birth of their eighth calf or so... my bff (best friend forver... like the cell phone texting commercial... that's a good code name for her huh? then she can keep her secret identity) and I got to witness the birth of a new calf this morning. This cow has been pregnant seems like forever (probably longer for her huh?), and while all her girl cow buddies were birthin' and taking care of their babies, she was still fat and sassy, and no calf.

Now I don't even pretend to know anything about cows, but even I was beginning to think she really wasn't pregnant at all, just fat. But I would never question her "cowboy", I was sure he knew what he was talking about.

Well I cried at the sight, just as we finished our walk I saw her seem a little distressed and laying down, but not calm cool and collected as they usually seem when they lay down. Before my bff could even call her husband on the phone, right before our eyes the little calf appeared.

So my bff has what I call a light bulb moment... I could see something went off in her head and she didn't have time to stand there and explain it all to me... she takes off through the gate and into the field where the little calf lays. I knew I wouldn't be able to offer anykind of help physically, but I would go be there for her emotionally (not much help there either, I was already beginning to cry at the beautiful sight I had just seen, what a miracle), so well I would just be there and try not to pass out if she had to perform any arm up to the elbow slimmy tasks. So I scurry off behind her, slowed way down as I followed through the gate after her ~ who invented that latch, it must have been child proofed or something. Finally, I get it latched (I did at least know better than to leave it open and let out the other cows, A+ for me) without managing to pinch off a finger.

As it turned out, she was going to make sure the mama broke the membrane and cleared out the nostrils of the calf (yukk!...) she was such a good mama she did everything just right, so my bff didn't have to step in and do any of the slimmy work. I can't even imagine having to help with that, I would really have had something to blog about if it hadn't gone just as the Lord had intended. Thank you Lord!!

Mama cow was really eyeballing us in the pasture, so we quickly left her alone with her baby... I have to start taking my camera with me every where I go... this would have been a great time to have it. But if you come back, I will post pictures of the new baby tomorrow!!

I am such a city girl, but I love living here and getting to experience these beautiful things here in Idaho... oh I know there are cows everywhere, and this is not "Only in Idaho", but let me have my glowing proud moment feeling like it only happens to me because I live here and I am special!! And that my "stong, silent, mysterious man" brought me here so I could have all these wonderful experiences, that I wouldn't have if we lived anywhere else, just because he loves me so much, and I'm special!

1st Day of Driving...

1st Day behind the wheel at drivers training for 2J's... he made it home safe and sound. I was trying not to be a worry fretting mother, but I am sorry, it wasn't easy to stay calm cool and collected all day long thinking about my kid behind the wheel of a car with a stranger and other mothers children ~ or better yet, other children behind the wheel with my baby in the backseat. Not many comforting thoughts came to mind.

So as the schedule goes the instructor picks him up after school, they drive until 5pm, and he stays at the church classroom studying for an hour until the class from 6pm-8pm. I give the kid money to go across the street from the church to the mini mart deli and get something to eat inbetween driving and class so he won't be starving at 8:30pm when he will finally get home. I give him very strickt instructions to call me as soon as he can, either after school, or between driving and class to let me know he is ok, and just to check in.

Waiting, waiting, waiting, 5:30pm comes and goes... no phone call. I hesitate to call his phone, because the driving instructor has one strickt rule on cell phones and if they go off during class or driving time, you fail! Pretty big deal, so in case 2J's forgot to turn his phone on silent... I don't want to be ringing him up if they got a late start driving or something.... so I have no other option than to wait for his call.

Pretty soon his Dad's phone rang, this end of the conversation goes like this.... "Hey ~ what'd ya grab to eat? ~ oh yeah ~ 60mph huh! ~ really!! ~ your kidding ~ ok we will see ya after class, bye!!!

I can't believe he called you? Trying to be an understanding Mom, knowing he called Dad because he was with friends and Mom can't make a long story short, and would ask him a million questions!

Still.... it made my lower lip pout!

"So what was 60mph?" Oh they went down the boulevard and when it turned 60mph he made them change lanes, and the other kid driving couldn't keep it in the lane when he turned to look over his shoulder."

"But it was fun, and he didn't get anything lower than a 3 and nobody get's 4's or 5's the first time out (apparently the scale is 1-5, 5 being the best)."

"Whew! So he is ok, didn't crash, didn't get scooped up by a stranger at the mini mart".

Forget that he ate complete junk food for dinner, and will be doing homework into the late hours of the night.

My "little foot" survived the first day of driving... and more importantly, I did too!

Dagg Nabbit...

It might be one of those days to go back to bed and start over again... I am just pulling one stupid mistake after another.

I cracked my favorite pizza stone in half, even more stupid than dropping it, or smashing it in the sink.... I left it sitting on the back burner of the stove and meant to turn on the front burning to cook something but turned on the back burning instead... in no time, "craaaaackkkkk" what an awful sound and a horrible smell as it burnt up on the stove. Did I mention it was my favorite pan, I use it for everything and they seem to take soooo long to get seasoned just right. Uggggg!!

I have been so aware of traffic and using my turn signals and stopping ALL THE WAY at stop signs etc. since 2J's has started drivers training. And I actually made a stupid driving mistake yesterday, changing lanes, I hadn't seen anybody come up beside me and just casually checked my mirror and turned my head as I was getting over and in no time, "hoooooonnnnnnkkkk" goes a big loud horn of the car right next to me. I didn't even see her, and when she drove by I was appologizing only to see her shaking her fists, and swearing at me through the window, with a great amount of intensity!! Geeez, dumb mistake, but we were all ok, and I didn't smash her or even do it on purpose. Ugggggg!!!!

I work at home doing books and event planning and a few other odd jobs for several different companies. I print documents daily, I work really hard at being organized (well at work anyway, can't always vouch for the homefront... too many hands in the pot ya know), but this week I have still been on the catch up phase from the summer, and last minute printing agenda's and financial statements for the big first meeting of the year for one of my organiztions... only to find out I was out of black ink in the printer. I quickly huffed and pulled out the drawer where I keep the black ink... to discover an abudance of color ink, but not one since cartridge of black ink. Could I have actually ordered the wrong thing, or been shipped the wrong product and not realized when it came in, or worse, just ran out without ordering more? What a goof! I was able to get one of everything printed off and make copies off site in time for the meeting, but what a bunch of extra stress a girl doesn't need in her week. Uggggg!!

Last week I dumped a jar of salsa into the browned meat of what was going to be spaghetti sauce, in no time... yep it was pretty much ruined. I tried to make it back into spaghetti sauce, or even some other kind of goulash, but it was awful when I got done trying to fix it. Uggggg!!!!!

So yeah, I pretty much live with the most patient man on the earth. He doesn't ever yell at me or make me feel more stupid when I goof up! I love my strong, silent, mysterious man... and I am so grateful for his patience and love when I am a complete goof!!

ECO Invitations/Cake

All my good intentions to get a bunch of work done today, kind of fell secondary to getting the invitations out for 2J's Eagle Court of Honor. Our committee chair person gave me a book on what to do, and not to do when plannning these... the first of which was to get the invitations out 2 weeks prior. Oh well, at least my family won't think I have hired an Eagle Court Coordinator or anything when they barely get there's barely a week prior... they will know, it was just me doing my best. It was bad enough not to be able to pick a date to have everyone come... but we had to wait for the approval to come back (details, details) and it just didn't make it during the summer like we had hoped.

Then I spent way too long in Costco ordering a cake... chocolate or vanilla, what filling, what kind of icing, then there is the design... you'd think red, white and blue would be pretty simple. But remember I can't make a long story short, so what makes me think I could keep this process quick and simple?

It is coming together, I really hope I can come up with some creative way to put his brag table together. The book had some ideas, but the second most important tip was to make it fit your Eagle Scout, so I don't want to copy someone else's. I now have a table piled high with years of awards, pictures. accomplishments, pinewood derby cars, and cub scout shirt and badges and NO IDEAS!!

I have such a strong testimony of prayer, so I am going to pray for the inspiration to put this together in a way that will please 2J's and show a little glimpse of why we as parents are so very proud of him. I hope it is not one of those prayers that get's answered an hour before the big event! Proud Mom, but feeling very inadequate at the moment.