Time gets away from me all the time. Usually when life happens in unexpected ways. February has been that way.
We had an excellent visit with my brother and his wife, and their two youngest boys. Only get to see them once or twice a year, sometimes not even that. Military....that explains it.
Love visiting with them. Wish they lived near, not in another country. Oh well.
We had a great time watching the superbowl together, at my other brothers house. Good time, great rivalry within the family, making it that much more fun watching the game. However the after party was the pits, it was spent at the emergency room with my parents, after they got in a car crash. My Mom got the worst of it. A couple broken ribs, couple cracked ones, lacerated liver, and whiplash. She stayed in the hospital for a few days. Dad got to go home that night (actually it was early morning). Chris and I stayed until they got her into her room, 3ish or something. So difficult when your parents age, mine are in their seventies. It's tough when somewhere along the line the child becomes the parent to their own parents. Dad is doing okay. Mom is having a harder time, taking longer to heal, tries to do to much and then add another day of just resting.
That would be enough to make February yuck. However, not this time, Chris gets blood work back that needs further investigation. So he had a liver biopsy, the good news is that he has fatty liver, which considering the other alternatives, is a good thing. Some diet changes and possibly medicine will hopefully resolve this. He also is having some kidney issues, which we are waiting on what that is. Should have the results shortly. Hope for the best, but deal with the rest. Now I have a cold. Its just never ending. Waiting for a new month. March will be better.
Cait has a science project this Friday, (3rd grade-not to scientific) however its not working like it says. Simple project, large container, put in one cup water mixed with two drops red food coloring. Then add eight more cups of water until clear (this is what the instructions say) well it will not be clear, just slightly pink. So we have to work with the results given.
Terrible when 3rd grade kicks your butt.
Fun stuff.
Cait gets her head gear next week, she has an underbite. Today we go in and get the metal spacers on her teeth, then they take the measurements and send them off to have the gear made. Then in about 3 months she will get braces on her top four teeth. She will have the headgear for about 9 months. Then when she is a teenager she will have full on braces.
Ka-ching!!!!! Couple grand just for the headgear. More fun stuff. More life happenings!
Been working on getting the taxes done. I realize I have a brother who is an excellent CPA and is more than willing to do the taxes, yet for some reason I feel I must do them myself, me and TurboTax that is. I really like TurboTax. Getting a refund, so thats good. We have had a couple of years of paying and that is so not my kind of thing. We made adjustments and for the last 5 years have not had to pay. Need to try and finish those tonight after piano lessons.
Finished the Elementary PTO newsletter and sent that off to the printer. One more thing to check off.
We should start calving in the next few weeks. We have 9 cows, Cait has one cow. Always enjoy the calving. Not the stress, but the newborn calves are so cool. It really is amazing to see one being born. Hopefully we don't have any losses. I'll post pictures after they are cleaned up!
Well thats enough of the life and times!!!!!
Come on March!

Halfway thru January

Okay, Christmas is over and pretty much packed up. One lone tote, for the last things you find, that you have been looking at for weeks, not recognize as Christmas. You know how that goes, you look up one day and go, wait thats Christmas stuff, shouldn't that be put away. Oh well, happens every year. So I guess it could be called tradition. Besides at this time of year, I've been shopping the clearance sales, so things have to be put away for Christmas. I have the neighbors gifts, co-workers gifts, etc. already. That is a great feeling. I can pick up something really fun and CHEAP, but no one realizes how little money I spent. I like a bargain!!! I am done with that also. Now its just packing up and putting away, and then adding the new things for the house that we got for Christmas or on clearance after. FUN. I enjoy that.
We still need to finish our kitchen remodel. All the difficult stuff is done, now its the detail stuff. Why that is taking so long I really don't know. I want it done, but the backsplash, and the final touchup painting. So strange that it is not getting done, it annoys me, but still does not motivate me. Maybe now that the Holiday are over, I'll focus again.
The New Year also brings out the notion of all the stuff I want to accomplish this year. Too many projects that did not get done last year already start the list. Maybe the list needs to be banned, and just accomplish what comes up. That might be a better approach.
Then add to that, Cait's grades are bad. 3rd grade shouldn't have bad grades. 3rd grade should still be A's. We have a chatter, socialite, flitterbug. So now she has to buckle down and get serious and her social activities have to be curtailed. 3rd grade should not be this way. It's not like she cannot do the work, she just wont focus and do it right away, then she has to rush to finish and doesn't even read the directions! So frustrating to get her to understand that homework alone will not do it. Then she argues that she knows what the Teacher wants. Too much of my personality coming thru. SCARY. Trying to figure out the best way to move forward.
Love my life. Never the norm of what I think will happen.
I do love my life. Love it. My husband is awesome, and works so hard for us. He is struggling with some health issues and really hates making changes. I agree I have a problem with that also. We both need to work on changes, eating and exercising. Don't we all. My daughter is a blessing like you would not believe. She is so amazing and so strong willed that it scares the daylights out of me. We live in a beautiful area, little house on 2 tiny acres. It's tiny acreage cuz there are 10 cows, 4 horses, 1 burro, 3 dogs and 2 cats sharing the place.
Anyway life is good. Frustrating, trying, but so good. Just trying to enjoy.

Countdown to shopping

In less than 48hours I will be laughing my head off with my friends. That's is what happens when we get together, we enjoy eachothers company. Its not even the shopping, although we do well with that, its about spending time and gabbing. We talk and talk. We go to our favorite places, see what is new, look at what we wish we could buy, or would like to if we had the space.
Mostly we buy Christmas decor stuff, ornaments that kind of stuff. Rarely do we buy clothing. In the words of my husband, its STUFF. Stuff we cannot live without or do not want to live with out. Things we enjoy. Each item that I have bought I can recall what we where talking about when we found this or that. MEMORIES!!!
I love this weekend, it is so great. So good for the SOUL.

Every November for quite a few years a couple girlfriens and I get together for a girls weekend. We shop! Not much clothes shopping, mostly home decor, Christmas decor stuff. Originally we always shopped in Idaho, the Bonneville Craft Fair, started it all. Now we rotate homes every year. This year we are back to my place in Idaho and Bonneville. First we are shopping in Jackson on Friday. That begins the fun.
We are different in so many ways, but so similar in what counts. The weekend is one of the best parts of the year. Its a weekend to rejuvinate as a Mom, Wife etc. We have so much fun. Taunting eachother into buying what we think we cannot live without. We eat fabulous food and laugh till we cry or pee our pants.
Girls weekends are a must. We are thinking about making it twice a year. Some of the thoughts are that one of the years we take a trip.
I so look forward to the weekend, this year we have a few new stores to check out in Idaho Falls, so that adds to the fun. Also, its been a couple years since we shopped here. That alone makes it fun!!!
I cannot wait for next weekend.
So get together with your gal pals and enjoy the friendships.

Wednesdays

So glad its Wednesday. Why, Mondays are just crap, plain and simple, no need to pretty it up. Tuesdays, you just try and clean up from Monday, so by Wednesday you start to feel like you are starting to gain some control....I said some, not all, I'm not into make believe, at least not too much.
Then there are the weeks that everyday seems like crap. Those seem to be much more frequent of late. Work sometimes seem to take over all aspects, and its hard to seperate work from the rest of your life. Somedays is so frustrating that it moves me to tears. I'm a shrew some days, most it seems. Having a hard time finding the balance that I usually have. At least a 40/60 split. Its more 25/75. I want to run away, but to where, and from what. I want to run home, and then the house closes in. Too many projects that are not getting done and who knows when I will get them done. Last night was one of them, when everything seemed to much, fix dinner, not hungry for any of it. Throw a load of laundry in, never get ahead of that. Feels like the commercial with the big ball of laundry coming at the family, except in my case it doesn't stop, just piles on top! Yep thats my life right now. So how to find the balance?
It needs to start at home. Leave work at work. That is hard. The frustration stays with me. Need to leave it also.
Then find peace at home again.
Get the house in order.
Start throwing things away, get rid of stuff.
So tonight I will spend 1 hour on that.

Another newsletter, cattle roundup, life

This PTO newsletter thing at first thought seemed to be not a huge project every month. I now know better, but oh well, live and learn. Not that I would stop, but I'm learning that things need to happen in a process and on a time frame. Not to mention DEADLINES need to be met. Which means I need to enforce them, but how. How to enforce getting the content from the school when that is the main content. The newspaper that has donated the printing and paper has their own deadlines also. So I'm trying to meet all, while "bugging" everyone to meet my deadlines. What fun. I enjoy putting the newsletter together, its getting it to me that frustrates me. This newsletter for the first time has ads, which ads another dimension. Its good for the PTO because it makes the newsletter a money maker instead of a cost, which is what you want in the PTO. So getting all the ads in and making room is another aspect. We also add the school lunch menu to the newsletter because not everyone has access to the internet to access the school web page. Hard to imagine not having the internet. When did that happen? You know the frustration when your provider has trouble and you don't have access. Scary isn't it. I send the file to the newspaper/printing place that prints it for us for free, but its not a priority for them, so if there are any problems, its a couple of days before they get back to me. Such frustration.

Then adding to that its the first of October which means it is time for the roundup. Yes a roundup. My husbands family has range rights on the National Forest to range their cattle. Which means the first of October they need to come off. Its fun in its own way, looking for 160 cows on about 80,000 acres of forest, not the fun part, but the ride thru beautiful country. We also have a great lunch and a fun visit with family, and friends who come to help. It takes up a weekend but does not end there. The next weekends are also taken up to find the stragglers, and there are always stragglers, and they tend to be our few cows. We only have ten and are still missing 7, not great odds. We will go up again this weekend in hopes of finding them. It is very enjoyable to spend the weekend, staying in the travel trailer, enjoying nature, looking for the critters. Even if it rains and we only go out a couple of times, its so relaxing, we watch series on dvd, like Monk and Psych. Make chocolate chip cookies, eat so good. Cait goes and plays with the neighbors of the "camp site-where we park the trailers for the season" their girls are her age, they ride horses, 4-wheelers, play house. Then she rides with us too.
Then we come home and go back to work. Yuck.
Life goes on, its what we do and how we do it that matters.
I think the scooter is going to get parked for the winter, its so cold in the morning. Can't handle the cold that way. Takes me hours at work to warm up and a cup of hot cocoa.
Fall has arrived. I love the colors, the cooler temps, sweaters and jackets, especially suede jackets!! Took some awesome pictures this weekend of the colors, even with the rain and the mist.
Trying to accomplish it all.
Later

School, shopping and newsletters.

Okay so school is full at it. Homework and all. Not too much homework, yet. The usual math, and reading with some spelling words to work on. I honestly do not know how parents with more than one child in school do it. On most things I do not know how parents with more than one child accomplish anything. We both work, so when we get home its homework, dinner, an activity like a bike or scooter ride. Nothing big, no time. Bed time 7:30pm. I know a little early, but where she no longer naps, she gets too tired still. Anyway, not much time in the evenings for much of anything but the basics.
We watch Jon & Kate Plus 8 and I do not know how on this earth they accomplish what they do. I am so amazed. I love that show!!!
I guess you adjust to the number of kids you have.
We did some school has already started school shopping, and some Christmas shopping at Park City and the outlets there. Alot of fun, a really great weekend. I shopped most of the time, Chris and Cait swam in the pool. Shopped a little, but swam alot. My niece and her husband (college students) came up had lunch with us, did a little shopping. Always fun to see them. My best buddy came shopping to. Carrie is so much fun, much more fun to shop with than my husband! Always fun to spend time with her!!
The next day we hit IKEA, LOVE IKEA. So much fun, that is one of the few places my husband enjoys shopping at. Cait loves the kids area to play for an hour. By then we are usually thru shopping and its time to pick up the big stuff. Can't seem to get out of IKEA without some bigstuff! So much fun.
We stayed an extra day to see my nephew when he flew in from Germany before he goes on his mission.
Great weekend, expensive weekend, but so great!
The next weekend we went to a working horse show (ranch horse show) in Preston Idaho. Very interesting. Another fun weekend, not nearly as expensive. Thank heavens, just a trip to the cheese factory, and the kitchen store.
Looking forward to a weekend at home. Lots of projects at home to finish.
Also need to get working on the PTO newsletter. That takes up some time. I'm enjoying it, despite the frustration, but I enjoy being creative. This year the newsletter will include advertising from local businesses, its been very successful, but getting everything to fit is a struggle. This way the newsletter will be a money maker for the PTO instead of a cost. That as Martha says is a very good thing!
Fall is in the air, crisp mornings and warm afternoons. The leaves are changing, I love the colors of fall. Ready for pumpkins and all.