We're go'n crazy, wanna come?

Well, the latest adventure of our family is just about to begin. May 31st is our last day here on Emma Creek, our time here is up. We have been staying in a temporary rent house the last couple months provided by Cargill while searching the surrounding area high and low for a home to call our own. But, alas, it wasn't to be found. At least not yet! The Lord knows right where it is, and we are trusting that in His time He will let us know the when and where of things. So, pray for us, you know how crazy one can get when they are "waiting".

So, while we are waiting we have decided to jump off the deep end! Right into the lake. We have been able to purchase an older 5th wheel camping trailer and an enclosed trailer and we are packing up and heading to the lake! The kids are so excited they can hardly sleep, and would go to bed wearing their swim clothes and floaties if I would let them! I'm on a roller coaster of excitement one minute and down the next. There is just something about being homeless that leaves funny feeling in your stomach! LOL! Michael keeps trying to cheer me up during those down times by saying "We COULD go find a rent house in town, but then we would have to get rid of the horses, Rowdy and probably a few kids to fit!, at least this way, we may spend the same amount of money but the trailers are ours to keep in the end!" :-) Ok, I'll buy that, but something still sounds fishy!! LOL! I can just see the comic strip now...

9ndhouse!! Momma is running around bare foot and burnt to a crisp, trying to catch Baby J before he falls in the lake, smear lotion on the girls, wave the boys back to shore, grill dinner, keep Rowdy from chasing the Ranger, answer Wild Man's 100 questions, remind Miss Priss AGAIN to get her thumb out of her mouth all while tripping over the giant blowup whale to get Michael a glass of tea!

What do you think? Can you picture it? Well, it may not be like that exactly but at LEAST, I won't be pregnant!! LOL! Actually things look like they are going to work out great. The new horse camp ground near the trails has horse pens at the sites and an arena to ride in. The highway is nearby and will get Michael straight to work in about the same time, and the best part! We will be only 10 min. from church instead of 45 min!! Yea!!

So, the main part of this post, was to say that in a couple days once again, I will be without Internet for awhile. Hopefully, I won't be gone for long, can't stand to not be blogging! We hope to find a wireless service that won't cost us an arm each month, but we'll see how it goes!! :-D

Well, I better get back to packing. I'm having a little trouble with the labeling of the boxes this time. Half our stuff is back in a semi trailer in Mo, marked "long term". The boxes we had here at the rent house were marked "short term" and are now being boxed back up and put into another storage trailer. What should I mark them now, "Need it, don't have room, Long term-Short term"? :-)

She's growing older, I'm growing OUT!

I love to go to garage sales! I have passed this love down to my kids too! Sometimes though we scare the daylights out of people when they see me and 7 kids climb out of a van and begin to roam through their yard! :-) Of course they are much relieved to see them behave themselves while they "shop", most of the time heading back to the van before I do. They are getting to that point where they don't want to spend their money too fast because something really neat could be waiting for them at the next stop!

A couple weeks ago, we were back at the Missouri farm and a friend asked me to go with her to a city-wide garage sale since we were in town. I was excited to get a chance to go, thinking I had missed all the city-wide sales and made plans with Michael to leave him with the kiddos while I ran off! My friend has a daughter a few years older than Sis who is almost 11, and I thought maybe Sis would like to come along and shop with the big girls! We had a great time and I was rather shocked to realize that...Sis didn't need my help! She had somehow grown up enough to do her own shopping and buying with out me! She bought some books, a few clothes and some trinkets for the little kids. Somewhere along the way she had bought a wallet and an adorable teenager-ish purse with the cutest puppy and kitten on it. I mean, one minute my friend and I are looking through some clothes and the next, we look up to see our girls, our young ladies actually, walking over to the next yard sale swinging their purses and laughing at something spoken between them. She's growing up! She's a big girl!

We had a blast that day and came home with lots of new treasures. It really opened my eyes to how much Sis has grown in the last several months. She is my little helper, a little mother and housekeeper. Today, I find her putting a stop to the fusses of the little kids, reminding someone to pick up their mess, start the day's laundry and planning the lunch. And now that I'm watching I realize that Kat who is 8 has picked out a bright flashy outfit (that reminds me of myself way back when!), cleaned up the kitchen and has the dishwasher running. Of course she was in a hurry to get out the door and have few minutes with the horses before Math consumes all her time! Naenae, just turned 7 not long ago and she too has ran out the door, but not before she changed Baby J and swept the floor!

Sis and I had our first real shopping trip last week! We were getting ready for another trip to Missouri. This time for their piano recital. Sis and I had gone through her clothes and just couldn't find anything that seemed right for the recital. We came across a skirt that brought to my mind a blouse I had seen in the girl's clearance section of Cato a couple day's before. In a sudden mad dash, her and I were out the door and headed to the store a few minutes away. The blouse was still there and she too thought it would look great with her skirt. While there of course, we had to go over the rest of the clearance rack and came up with another summer skirt and top that was adorable. As we left the store, the Dollar Tree next door caught my eye and I remembered seeing the cutest head bands there. We had to go see of course and we found a pretty green one that matched her skirt. We picked out some lip gloss too, since we were there! :-) I began thinking and asked Sis about her shoes, with the move and all the trips lately I really hadn't a chance to check to see if the girls had summer shoes that still fit. With this in mind and Wal-Mart next door, off we went on a shoe hunt. I could tell that Sis was hoping to find an older style than the normal little girl shoes. After finding a pair of white flats in within my now exploded budget, we rounded a corner and....Sis's face lit up at the sight of a whole rack of ladies dress shoes. Plain shoes with just a slight heel...a pump really. Sis knows a bargain when she sees one and any pair of shoes for $2.50! was a good deal! She got lucky and found one pair small enough for her foot. A dark dusty navy color that would go great with her new blouse and grey skirt. :-) Then, as we were leaving her new "big girl" shoes made her think of panty hose and so she asked for some. Panty hose!! Was she old enough for that too! I couldn't even think how old I was before I wore my first pair of real hose! She pointed at all the marks and scrapes on her legs from tree climbing and horse riding as reason for needing them. I knew deep down that most ladies don't wear hose because they climbed too many trees but somehow this just didn't matter. :-) It must have been her lucky day, right on the end of a sock isle was a section of clearance foot wear, and near the top, just waiting for Sis, was a pink box holding four pairs of nude hose, size A!

SO, finally after shoes, hose AND a few hair clips later! we made it through the check out and were on our way. I smiled on the way home and told her how much fun I had on our first shopping trip. Next time though, we would have to plan ahead since I was still wondering how I was going to explain this one to Dad! LOL!

The kiddos all did a wonderful job at the piano recital, all dressed up in their nice clothes. Hair all in place and faces clean! It was great. Sis had picked some wild daisies and wanted her hair put up with them. I couldn't believe my eyes at how much older and pretty she looked! Won't be long before Michael will be bringing his shot gun everywhere we go! Sis also was awarded student of the year! I'm looking forward to future shopping trips with the girls as they grow up into lovely ladies. For now though, I better get up off my duff, 'cause while they are all growing up , I can feel my backside growing too! So, we are off to mow the yard! :-)

Skunk gunk!!! and ROWDY!!!!

Have you ever plopped down exhuasted after a hectic morning and thought "That did NOT just happen to me!!!"? Well, let me tell you about what "did not" happen to us! :-)

One morning this week I got up at 4 am to sit with my husband at the table and "talk" before he went to work. WHO gets up that early anyway!!! It was still DARK outside!! LOL!

As he was leaving and I was thinking of my bed, he noticed that the horses were not in their pen. The pen that should have ALL the gates shut tight so as to NOT lose any horses in the middle of nowhere Kansas! So I caught a quick nap while waiting for the sun to rise and then woke up the two oldest kiddos and out we went into the....FOG!!!! Let me tell you it isn't any easier to find a black horse in the fog than it is in the dark! Well, we got busy and gathered up some ropes and a feed bucket and started out into the back field hoping that the strange moving thing on the hill behind the wheat field was a miniature horse. At least the kids did anyway, I was sitting on the front porch cheering them on with my head back against the door and my eyes closed! I'm so lazy! :-P I didn't get the chance to sit there long though, for in just a few minutes I was overwhelmed with the nastiest smell on earth and it was getting closer and closer by the second. Next thing I knew, from around the corner of the house came the craziest!, sneezing, snorting sounds and out of the fog came.....ROWDY!!!! UUHHGGGGG!!!! He had been... you guessed it!! Playing with a not so friendly skunk!! He was dripping wet, from skunk spray or dew off the wheat, I didn't know but somehow he thought my lap was the place to go! I jumped up and ran down the side walk while yelling all sorts of commands; "SIT!", "GO LAY DOWN!" "STAY!" !! He figured out that I didn't want him and he sat down looking at me through squinted eyes with the silliest smile on his face. I think he thought it was funny!! Even the kids who were well on the other side of the field had heard me and I could tell even from that distance they had stopped to watch me dance across the yard. Thankfully, they had found two of the three missing horses and it didn't take them long to get back to the yard to find out what all the excitement was about. Of course they didn't really have to ask since they could smell the dog from a mile away!

I sent the kids in a different direction to look for the still missing stallion while I ran to the computer and Googled some skunk gunk removal ideas. After a quick crash course in de-skunking I realized a trip to town was necessary, I don't keep a couple quarts of peroxide handy around the house normally but it just might be a new "norm". I couldn't just use tomatoes and vinegar! Ooh no! The know it all vet online said "You must change the molecules to deodorize the skunk oil!" Of course! What was I thinking! Thankfully, a chemist had a simple recipe for a concoction of some sort that would do such a thing but it came with a nice warning. Two, actually. One warning was that if I didn't wash the dog as soon as possible the likely hood grew that he would smell that way the rest of his life!! The other was, that the potion had once turned a black lab into a yellow one! As Rowdy gazed at me through the window of the closed door, his p'arfume seeping in through the cracks I decided I'd better hurry! I could live with a blond Rottweiler! but, NOT with that smell!

I began thinking about where that horse could be, the kids had come back empty handed. I remembered the neighbor's dog down the road had been barking this morning and since they had horses too, I made a quick decision to see if my roaming stallion had decided to pay the neighbors a visit. We jumped in the van with our horse catching paraphernalia and ran down the road while leaving Rowdy to roll in the wet grass. Sure enough, there was our Tonka Toy!, getting his rear bit by the full size neighbor stallion who did NOT want to share his girl friend. Not that it was likely anyway, since the two horses were several feet taller than my 3' black stud muffin! :-) We finally convinced him that he was not wanted there, which wasn't easy!, he's soo hard headed! Finally the horses were back where they belonged and we were on our way to town to get the ingredients for our science experiment to de-skunk the dog. Once back home our chemistry class began... mixing peroxide, baking soda and liquid degreaser we came up with a foaming wonder to torture the dog with. It was quite a sight too! Me and the kids standing in the back yard pouring foaming goo on a stinky dog sitting in an old claw footed tub. AND!, it was starting to sprinkle!! As in like, the sky got dark and the thunder clouds were rolling in! We finally declared him clean enough and ran in the house to fight over the shower.

By noon, I finally sat down with a glass of tea and watched the rain come down in bucketfuls, having washed the dog, burnt our clothes, taken 3 showers and fed the kids the last of the groceries.....Oh!...groceries!.... I needed to to the grocery store!!!!!

Well, By the time we went to town the rain had slowed to a light drizzle and as we went through town we saw a big sign..."Salvation Army- everything!- 25%-50% Off!" So, we stopped and had some fun! :-) The kids had some money they had earned so not only did they have science/chemistry class, they got math in too. Each kid figuring half of half off the prices of the great bargains they were finding and trying to decide which to spend their hard earned money on! We took our treasures, groceries and bought a "Hot-N-Ready" pizza for the ride home. It turned out to be a great day all in all.

BTW, in case your wondering the goo actually worked and all but the faintest hint of skunk was removed, a second washing later that evening took care of that. He smelled good enough I allowed him back in the house agian. AND.... he is still black and tan, just as a Rowdy dog should be! LOL!

So, that's the story that "did not" happen to us.... but it did! :-)

Photos: Kiddos with Jetterbug, one of our mini-horses. Rowdy, smiling for the camera! and Wild Man and Rowdy laying in Mema and Papa's yard last Christmas.

Listen up please!! Ya hear me!!??

I love my husband more than I can type! I really do!!! .....Can you hear the "but..." coming?

But!...I wish he would listen to me when I say something!!!! AND, quit telling me how whatever I said isn't really the way I want it or whatever!!! Anyone with me on this!!

Since we have been making so many trips back and forth from the farm to Kansas we have had lots of interesting conversations. Many of them have been about our new life here in tornado town. I'll talk about the house we might build one day and how I would like the roof to go this way or that way and come down into a cute little porch, only to get a 15 minute detailed explanation how I wouldn't want the porch that way because of the....I can't remember why...I tuned that part out, sorry. Now, many of you know my WONDERFUL husband, and how many of you can remember a DETAILED anything from him!! LOL!! Truth is he doesn't say a whole lot, not that he is shy or anything. Just figures people will figure things out on their own and if they want his opinion they'll ask. Well, I didn't ask him about the cute porch, pout, I was just dreaming of a real home all of our own again.

Ever had that " I never get what I want" moment? Mine usually comes at the WRONG time, Like after he stopped at a garage sale (after pulling the trailer all the way around the block so he could park!) and then getting me a soda on the way home! So REALLY I have NOTHING to complain about. :-) He really is wonderful!

I guess the real kicker is what happened the other day. While on the way to town, I was doing my usual dreaming about this and that and he was doing his usual correcting. We decided to grab a quick breakfast at a local cafe and as we pulled into the parking lot and walked to the door I very sweetly told him he didn't have to correct EVERYTHING I said! He smiled that cute slow smile, kissed me on the forehead and said "Yeah, I do." !!! AND!, would you believe just a few minutes later.... after glancing at the menu, I told the waitress I wanted the Mexican omelet, all the ingredients except with green peppers instead of hot peppers. She then... tossed Michael a "let me help her" look... squatted down so as to be on "my" level...and said with a sloow so you can understand me voice, "Weell, Huneee, we'll just get you the garden omelet then! Since it has the same ingredients and green peppers instead!" :-) SIGH! I looked into her very close, blue eyes and said......." Soooooo, ham is the same as sausage then? 'Cause I chose the mexican for the sausage and vegetables over the garden with ham and vegetables." ( I WAS nice!!!) She quickly stood up, wrote down the order and tossed a "Got it!" over her shoulder as she disappeared through swinging doors!

I looked at Michael and said, "SEE! I never get what I want without someone trying to tell me I want something else!!" LOL!!

The omelet was delicious by the way! and now that I have that "funny probably only to me" story off my chest I'm headed to bed!! Someone is going to want HIS omelet early!!! :-D