Christmas Cards

This is my dad and his lovely wife Cindy

I love pictures.  I love getting pictures.  I have stacks of them here and stacks of them there.  It is getting out of hand.  This year more than any other year I received a lot of picture Christmas cards.  I did something tricky in a spur of the moment, "what the heck am I going to do with all these pictures cause I can NOT just throw them away?" sort of fit.

I scanned all my Christmas cards into my computer and filed them in my December folder for 2011.  I just found them again while I was looking for a picture to post.  It was so much fun.  I love it!!!  Best of all, I didn't create ANOTHER pile or add to my current 4 foot pile :)

Thanks for the cards everybody!!!

Soap

I've been wanting to sell more of my soap. Selling my soap allows me the opportunity to make more soap :) Anyway, last Monday 11/30/09, I sold my soap at a local Curves. They were doing a toy drive and she invited some local people to display and sell their items. The only fee, donate a toy. I didn't make much but I was glad for the opportunity to finally display my soaps.

Does God Exist?

Gas

This is what the pumps looked like yesterday. Unfortunate for me is that I too was completely out of gas. I've been borrowing my sister-in-laws truck as our car has perished and we are trying to bide our time until John leaves for Iraq. I had filled up my gas tank completely Thursday evening before the hurricane had actually hit. Yesterday, I went to College Station. I knew that I would need gas before coming home and thought that I would get gas there. While I was in College Station I realized that the usual places I get gas did not carry diesel. I had one more stop to make in Milano and knew that there was a gas station there that would carry diesel and I THOUGHT that it would be less busy. Not to mention the fact that I had passed vehicle after vehicle after vehicle carrying 5 gallon gas tanks.

The gas meter was registering just before empty when I turned into the feed store and it started chugging a little bit. Uh-oh. But it started right up and carried me the two blocks to get to the gas station. As I pulled in, it started chugging again. Phwew, at least I'm in the parking lot. There was someone on both sides of the tank and I picked the one that looked like the best option. I turned off the truck while waiting. It barely lurched into place as I pulled up. As I'm getting out of the truck a lady came around the corner with those nifty yellow bags. "We are all out of diesel."

"Are you kidding, so am I." I called dad to rescue me (they had just filled the tractor with diesel and had to go fill up the tank again (hopefully in Cameron, but possibly in Rockdale?)) About 40 minutes later, another lady came out to remove the nifty bag off of the diesel. Yippee!!!! Better yet - Dad hadn't even left Cameron!!!!!

"I knew if I waited long enough someone would deliver some diesel."

Luckily it was a nice day to wait : )

Ike

I wanted to thank everyone who called concerning our safety as Ike was heading our way. Luckily we are far enough away that things would not be as severe as they were in Houston. Since we were on the outer edge, by the time it took the turn east (thanks to the cold front) that we got the perfect amount of rain and the wind was not terrible either. A few gusts that had us raising our eyebrows, but considering we live in a single wide tin hut, those eyebrows get raised more in a passing thunderstorm.

Congratulations Max, Stephanie and Noah

Max (John's brother) and Stephanie were married Friday afternoon. Max has known Stephanie for a long time, but they started dating about 2 years ago. So it feels like Stephanie and Noah have been with the family for a long time. But now it is official. Welcome to the family!!!!!!

GROSS

I feel kinda bad that I have been so slow in posting. We have had a bunch of things going on the last few weeks. Broken grey line, broken water pipe, broken (never be repaired again) car, broken internet (lightning strike-feel blessed actually that it wasn't worse), broken water heater, etc.

We have had some good things too. Like Alex becoming a Teacher in the Aaronic Priesthood and Justin signed up for his first two college classes, he starts Wednesday the 27th. We went to the beach (Port Aransas) last Monday.

Some sad things. A good family friend from my childhood passed away last week. Not sure if I should mention how, but it was unexpected and unbelievable.

Today Alex started high school, Mark started middle school, Rebekah started 3rd grade and like I said Justin will start college on Wednesday. We started seminary this morning with 8 students (6 in my living room, and 2 on webcam).

But, I finally came to the computer because of something gross. I figured, I don't need pictures for this (double gross), I can just post. Earl, our buckling, peed on me this morning. Luckily he is a buckling or he would be taller. Bucks are gross anyway, when they come into rut (breeding season) they pee on themselves to make them smell nice and sweet for the girls. I was kneeling down to give him some fresh water when I felt something warm on my arm and then leg. Like I said, it was a good thing he wasn't taller or it would have been my face and shoulder.

Blessings come in small packages sometimes.
Have a great day, week, month etc.

Internet - less AGAIN

I'm sorry to report that we have no internet, again. We signed up with Hughesnet and they were ok, but we were having some pretty serious problems with it. We finally found out that they have such a thing as a FAP - free access policy. Which means we can only download 200 meg per 24 hour period then they slow you down to dial-up. Well this is fine for most folks but most folks don't have Alex and John living under their roof.

So we decided to go with t-lab, aka farm-to-market, because they have no FAP, but after they set up a date to install they called and had to cancel because they have no more room on that tower. They said it would be at least a month.

We took a family vote, because Hughesnet does have an upgrade of sorts, and everyone decided to wait for farm-to-market.

So once again, my posts will be few and far between. Sorry ya'll.

Until next time : )

FINALLY!

I actually sat down yesterday afternoon to try and post something. Then I got a phone call and one of our cows was in the middle of labor down in the Easter Egg field (thus named for the enormous amount of eggs we hide there every year). So off I went. When we got there my SIL had deduced that she needed help, when I looked I couldn't dispute the fact. So the chase was on. I had no idea how fast a cow could run with a baby hanging out of her privates. AND that she could jump a fence as well. We did this for about a half hour and then let her rest to see if she made any progress on her own. No luck. The teenagers finally devised a plan and we finally got her. Tammy and I pulled with all our might during the contractions while Dad worked on getting the head out. We got him about half way and then decided Steve needed to take over. That was one exhausted calf and cow.

Today they are doing fine except for a slight limp on the babies back leg. He is huge!!! And she was a first time mother.

Anyway, that is how it is around here. Always something going on. Always!!! I like it but you forget how busy you can stay. Since we have been back we have had an Easter Egg hunt, Easter, been boating/water skiing, gotten 20 chickens, 10 turkeys, 4 geese, and 2 ducks. We have lost 1 (lousy) chicken, 5 turkeys (being the most expensive) and a goose. Justin has hatched 11 more chickens. My sister-in-law has had a baby (she is soooo cute), I have helped with her home (this is child #7) and her kids. We had a baby shower. We have gone camping and John was promoted to First Sergeant. John was off for the first 3 weeks of being home and he helped put skirting up, made stairs, put up a shed, planted an enormous about of fruit trees and worked around the farm among other many miscellaneous tasks to numerous to mention. Sam (BIL) killed a coyote in his front yard (next door to us) and has it now on display for all the other coyotes as a warning (I haven't actually seen the display, but he did bring it over to show us : )

Justin turned 16, Jordan (niece) turned 13 and Vickie (niece) turned 20. On our own acre we have killed 2 copperheads and 1 rat snake (actually I think they turned this one loose, but I can't get anybody to actually confess to this or not).

We have only had internet for a week and I've been trying to figure out how to get all of this down. I'm tired just thinking about it. So this will have to do.

Hopefully I will be able to blog more often. At some point I did put pictures in the family file of our boating/water skiing trip. So be sure to check it out.

There is no place like home!

The week has arrived. We are moving back to Texas this next week. We have barely been able to keep Mark and Rebekah off the ceiling since we found out in December, they are so excited. Justin and Alex have had mixed emotions. They love their family and friends in Texas, but they have met some awesome people (girls) here in Arizona. Sometime in mid-February Justin said that he had crossed over to the dark side - meaning he was excited about moving back, but he felt a little guilty.

John is thrilled to be getting out of here - which I have mixed emotions about. Ft. Huachuca has afforded us a lot of time together as a family. Ft. Hood means we may get to see him on the weekends.

As for me, it is a lot of work to move, let alone move twice in less than a year. I am going to miss the double-wide we have been living in. We have tried to sell/give away a lot of stuff just so that we can fit back into our single-wide. BUT our single-wide is paid for so now we can save some money to finally build!!! And I have also met some awesome people here.

I just can't believe it is happening this week : )

Meet Emelia

This is Emelia, AKA Pookey (poopy & pukey), Stinker and Squeeker (when she learned to scream). I have been babysitting her since she was 2 weeks old. Full-time since she was 6 weeks old. I actually picked this picture for Grandma Ferguson. Good thing about Grandma is that she knows now to ask the kids, "what did your mother say?"


Alex has deep meaningful conversations with Emelia, like how to program computers and how to do Algebra I. It took Alex a little while to warm up to a baby (he doesn't do babies much), but he really likes Emelia now. She likes to play with his face.


Rebekah likes to read and sing to Emelia. This is a common sight at our house, especially in the mornings when I am trying to take a shower. Rebekah takes care of her so Justin, Emelia and I can get out of the house for Seminary.


Justin teaches Emelia how to play the piano. I can't say he loves it because she likes to slump over and try to reach the keys and when he has to reach the outside keys she tries to do a face plant. If I am desperate though, he will help me.

Notice how Justin's fingers are peeking out from under his blankie? It was a cold morning and all the kids were complaining.


Mark makes Emelia smile. All he has to do is show up and she has a major grin for him. She smiles at EVERYBODY but sometimes we have to work at it. He doesn't ever seem to have to.

Emelia has been a huge part of our family for the past 4 months. We will miss her when we move. She and her Mom are moving to San Antonio around the same time we are heading for Ft. Hood, so I am sure we will see her some.

Self -control vs. Self-esteem

Primarily I started this blog to share pictures and the goings on of our family, but this caught my eye and I wanted to share. I'd love to hear what you have to say on the matter.

In the March 2007 Better Homes and Gardens I bought for .10 at the Library, there is a small article entitled, "Making Good Adults". Basically it talks about the self-esteem movement of raising children and how it doesn't work.

"So if self-esteem isn't the answer, what is? "My advice would be to forget about self-esteem and concentrate on self-control," Baumeister says. He defines self-control as "being able to resist temptation, control your impulses, focus your thoughts, and perform up to your capacity."

This caught my attention, I think, because I believe that this is what the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches us.

Resisting temptation: word of wisdom, chastity, morally clean
Controlling your impulses: same as above, fasting
Focusing your thoughts: keeping them clean, "I am a child of God"
Performing up to your capacity: service, magnifying your callings, better wives, mothers, husbands, fathers, children, etc.

I'm sure you could come up with more correlations.

Why Blog?

I have had so much fun reading my nieces and nephews blogs!

I hope to use this blog to keep in touch with my friends and family, just a little better than I have.