Frightening Morning

Have you ever had the stuffing scared out of you the moment you open your eyes after a peaceful slumber?  I got the fright of my life this morning, and it wasn't funny.  Last night my husband had to irrigate at 11pm, and being the good wife that I am, I waited up for him until midnight when he walked in the door.  After I knew he was safe at home, I immediately drifted off to sleep while he jumped into the shower and got ready for bed.

Fast forward 7 hours.  My husband woke me up, I stretched, rubbed the sleep from my eyes and rolled over to kiss my husband and jumped back 4 feet!  I thought another man was lying next to me!  I rubbed my eyes again and did a double take. I didn't recognize my husband.

Sometime between 12:00am and 12:15am my husband decided to shave off his mustache and not tell anybody about it.  Is that legal?

I was psychologically, emotionally, physically and mentally unprepared for a change of this nature.  I needed a little bit of warning before he did something so drastic. I can't stop staring at his upper lip.  He's had the mustache for so long now that I forgot what he looks like without it.

I don't handle change very well.  I still remember vividly the time my Dad did this very same thing.  I was very young, he left to go out of town with the mustache, and came back without it.  I didn't know who he was and I wouldn't go near him. I was convinced that someone took my dad away and brought home a stranger in his place.

I've compiled these pictures for your complex analysis of the facial hair in question.

Two Days Ago



Today











Our kids were momentarily freaked out when they ran in to say good morning.  For the record, they unanimously feel that Dad should start growing his mustache back immediately!

What do you think?

Are you a Button Pusher?

While we were driving in the big city of Los Angeles, I made the weirdest observation.  Now I must pose the question to you, my faithful readers:

Why is it that when pedestrians are at an intersection, they feel the need to push the street crossing button multiple times?????

Once I pointed this out to my husband, we couldn't help but watch people at every street corner....and near Disneyland there are a LOT of pedestrians on the sidewalks to watch.  Virtually every one of them pushed the crossing button more than once.  It's ridiculously funny to watch! We must ask ourselves the following questions:

 "Will the light turn faster if I keep pushing the button?" 

"Will one button push be enough?"

I've categorized button pushers into a few different groups.

A. People who are in a massive hurry and push the button with lightening speed, just like the pig on "Toy Story" pushes the remote control.

B. People who push the button 3 to 5 times "just in case it makes a difference."

C. People who give one long push to be sure that the signal went through.

D. People who give only one quick push because they really don't care.  OK...who am I kidding...these people don't exist.

Most kids are in the "lightening speed" category.  I, myself, used to be in the 3 to 5 push range, but after seeing how ridiculous this looks, I have changed my ways.  I'm now a " one long push" pedestrian.  Old habits die hard though, and sometimes I had the insatiable urge to push the button again. But I resisted temptation. It may be a while before I'm walking in a city again, but I'm making a mental note so I can save myself the embarrassment.  I just hope I don't forget.

What kind of button pusher are you?

A Trip to the Sale Barn

Today we made the hour long trip to the sale barn in hopes of buying a pen of steers to feed out for beef.  We came home empty handed because:
A. We're picky
We don't like rangy looking cattle. Nothing but the fancy stuff will do.

B. Nothing met my standards
As a former Livestock Judge in college, I see cattle differently than the average buyer.  I've got a trained eye for quality. ;)

C.  There wasn't much of selection today.

The good news is that there will be a stocker/ replacement heifer sale in a few weeks.  WOOHOO!

Regardless of what we buy or sell, the sale barn is a great place to spend a Wednesday afternoon with the family. 

A kid can get a real education at the auction.  My boy is looking things over in the pens....scoping out the prospective steers.

He wouldn't be caught dead without his pocket knife. (His little Wrangler butt is just like his dad's.)  He could spend the whole day sittin' on  the fence watching the livestock.) 

My girls loved watching the sheep today.  FYI....before I was married, I had a whole bunch of awesome sheep.  Along with my cattle and my dog, they were part of the dowry I brought into the marriage. But the first thing my husband did after the nuptials is sell every single one of them for a hefty profit.  He looked me in the eye and informed me that he didn't want to be in the sheep business.

Looking at this picture makes me miss my gals.  They were so cute!

Can't you just smell the leather on these saddles?

Future Buyers looking intently at  the cattle in the sale ring.

A self portrait of mother and daughter.

The sale barn is one of my favorite places to visit.  The smell of the livestock and manure, the line of trucks waiting to unload their cattle, the dogs wandering around the trailers, the chant of the auctioneer, and the room full of cattlemen carefully eyeing each and every animal, ready to bid with the nod of the head or the raising of the finger....it awakens the senses.  

The livestock inspector is busy checking brands, the vet is preg-checking cattle with a gloved arm covered in manure, the riders are sorting pens and gluing stickers on the sides of every animal, and things can get a little entertaining when the occasional bull gets hooky with the men in the ring.  It all makes for an adventurous and entertaining afternoon.

The House of Mouse

After our day at the beach, we took the kids to the happiest place on earth for two days of wild rides, and overpriced food. It was AWESOME! We rode one of my favorite rides, Pirates of the Caribbean, four times, and now I can’t stop singing, “Yo Ho, Yo Ho, a pirate’s life for me.”

My youngest girl LOVED “It’s a small world”, and because it was a blazing 2000 degrees outside, and only 65 degrees in the ride, I didn’t mind it either.

I felt slightly guilty for talking our two oldest kids into riding the new “California Screamin’ “ coaster at California Adventure because it was like looking fear and death in the eye and living to tell about it, but I don’t think it did any long term damage to them. It’s nothing that a few years of intensive counseling won’t cure. In fact, they actually said that they loved it……but didn’t want to ride it again.

We attempted to ride the Matterhorn 3 times, and each time we got near the front of the ride, an alarm sounded and it had to be shut down. Perhaps that would be a sign for most people that maybe they weren’t meant to ride it, but not us! We were successful on our fourth attempt, and got to visit the abominable snow monster before Christmas this year.

As fate would have it, we decided to duck through the side of the castle instead of going over the draw bridge, and we ran smack dab into Snow White, and Cinderella. That made the girls’ whole day!

Here our littlest is taking Daddy for a ride on the bumper cars. Only 11 more years until she'll be on the road.

One of the reasons I love Disneyland is the smell of the park. The whole place smells like churros. I really, really love churros. A LOT. If Gold Canyon Candle Company came out with a churro smelling candle, I’d buy it and burn it every day. But they don’t. What I did not love is the price. $3.50 for a stick of dough with cinnamon sugar on it is highway robbery. It’s criminal. It’s $17.50 to buy one for the whole family, and I couldn’t bring myself to do it. If you buy one, you have to buy 5 so world war III doesn’t erupt. I’m already regretting that I didn’t buy one, and we just got home. I may have to wait years before I get another opportunity to eat one….unless I visit the county fair. I guess there is hope!

We were so blessed on this vacation! The Lord provided so many wonderful opportunities for us that we wouldn't normally have. Our visit to the House of Mouse was definitely a memorable vacation!

Yep, that's right! We've been spending some time soaking up sunshine, and having a ball on vacation.  Our first stop was the beach.  The afternoon was perfect for a visit to the sea, and our mountain kids were in awe of the "hugeness" of the water. 

Once they figured out how to jump in the waves, we couldn't drag them out.  They loved it!  There's nothing like the salty breeze coming off of the water, and the feel of wet sand between your toes.  It's really therapeutic.

After we were thoroughly covered in sand and salty water, and had collected every pretty seashell and rock, we decided to cruise down the road for a bite to eat.  Swimming and sunshine made us ravenous, so we stopped to have some mahi-mahi tacos and fish burritos.  YUM! There's nothing like a delicious fish taco with a little bit of lime squeezed on it.

We had such a relaxing afternoon on the water! It was a great start to an amazing vacation.

Ramblings of a Busy Week

Last week flew by in a flash.  It was overflowing with activity and craziness.  For five days, my husband was elk hunting with my dad, and so I was holding down the fort while the menfolk were gone.

Here's a picture of him up in the tree stand.  Doesn't he look like a bird sitting on a nest?

Meanwhile, back at home I was schooling the children, cleaning the house, shuttling from football, ballet, and church, and teaching my co-op class about medieval knights.  It was crazy.

The next day my parents, and my brother and his wife came up for a weekend visit.  They brought up our new appliances, and helped install them. 

 We also had my baby girl's little birthday celebration.  We bought her two balloons that day, and I'm pretty sure that if she wouldn't have received any other gifts, she wouldn't have even cared.  She took a nap with the balloons in a death grip.  If I wanted to take them, I would have had to pry them from her fingers.

That evening she got her first pair of roller skates, and her very first guitar.

(She's currently horrible at both playing the guitar, and rollerskating!)

I'm pretty sure I need to put about 15 rolls of Charmin toilet paper in her pants before I let her attempt to roller skate outside!

On Saturday, my mom and my new sis-n-law helped me to set up my table for the banquet, and then all of us girls joined all of the men on the other side of the mountain for our son's football game. Both sides of our family met for lunch at our favorite fine eating establishment, Booga Red's. Then I took them to my favorite store, Western Drug, so they could experience small town shopping at it's finest.  Here's what my brother and his wife found.

Isn't that cute? They found matching fur caps. (My sis-n-law is a real trooper.  She's not afraid to take fashion risks with her new husband.)

This cap matches my brother's facial hair, and every time I see this picture, I can't stop laughing.

My brother came running up to me in the store with this green hat on and I tried to pretend that I didn't know him.  He's trying to ruin my image. 

In addition to all of our Western Drug purchases, I bought a sack of roasted green chilies from Hatch, New Mexico.  After we got home from the banquet at 9:30 that night, we processed and froze 20# of them. It took us until almost midnight to peel them, but it was worth it.  Fresh roasted green chilies smell AMAZING!!!!  Now I'm stocked up for half of the year.

I don't think we could have crammed one more thing into our schedule if we had tried.  Birthdays, banquets, family gatherings, football, and new appliances made for one VERY exciting week!

An Appliance Fairytale

"Rejoice with those who rejoice...." Romans 12:15

(This post is about a WONDERFUL and unexpected blessing my family received, and I'm sharing it, not to boast, but instead so that you can rejoice with me!)

Once upon a time, there was a mother who loved to cook.  She lived in a little old house with her husband and family, and room by room, piece by piece, they have been fixing up their home with love.  The mother loved to wake up each and every day and make her family delicious meals to eat because she shows people that she loves them by making food for them.  (It's her love language!) She had a very old stove that came original with the old house.  She has used that stove and oven at least three times a day for many years, and although it was not pretty to look at, she felt blessed that it still worked after all those years.

One day, she got an unexpected call on the telephone.  Her wonderful Uncle and his new bride were going to be remodeling their home, and they wanted to know if we would like to have their "old" appliances.  Of course she jumped at the opportunity to have a new stove, but that's not all there is to the story.

This mother has also been using the microwave her sweet husband had in college 12 years ago. After only three minutes of cooking, it overheats and has to cool down for 15 minutes before it can be used again. She has endured this for many years, and only used her microwave to reheat leftovers.  Guess what?  Her Uncle also offered to give her a microwave!

It gets even better.  This mother who loves to cook....HATES to do dishes.  So she uses her old dishwasher every single day, but lately it wasn't getting things very clean.  Her husband took the whole thing apart for a good cleaning, and things were improving....but her dishes just didn't sparkle the way they used to.  Her Uncle also offered to give her a matching dishwasher too!

The mother felt like she won the lottery....like she won the Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes...like she was on The Price Is Right and got a hole in one, or picked the prize behind door # 3.  She was so excited she could hardly wait for her dad to deliver the appliances to her.

Then the "Big Day" came and it took the men several hours to install her new stainless steel beauties.  She could hardly believe her eyes.  It looked like she had a brand new kitchen.  The appliances were so shiny and beautiful that she couldn't believe they had ever been used before.

Here's a picture of them!

Aren't they gorgeous???!!!

Within ten minutes of installation, the mother began to use them.  She immediately baked a pan of lasagna, and a homemade pizza with garden fresh produce.  They both turned out perfect! She giggled as the new oven told her the exact time...to the second....that the oven would be fully pre-heated.  She had never seen such a cool function on an oven before! She still walks out into her kitchen each morning with a big grin, and she has to pinch herself to know that she's not dreaming, she really has new appliances!

Her old appliances are now retired, and waiting to be hauled off to greener pastures.

And the Mother cooked happily ever after.

The End.

Thank you so much Uncle T! You're the best!