THE best thing EVER!!!! :)

My grandmother's banana pudding....

So good!!!!

My grandmother made the BEST homemade banana pudding EVER!!! When we were kids and we went to their house on Sundays after church, it was everyone's favorite....SO rich!!! My mom wanted to know how she made it, so she asked for the recipe but there was one problem. My grandmother didn't measure anything....It was just a pinch of this and a dab of that....So my mom had to watch her make it and guess on measurements. My grandmother has since passed away, and now I'm "heir" to the banana pudding recipe. It is seriously SO good. I entered it into a contest once and won.....After I got my "prize" and my picture taken, I had a gentleman approach me that had helped judge. He wanted the recipe. I told him that it was a family secret...Sorry.....Then he offered me MONEY!!! (I still turned him down.) I will pass it on to my daughter....It's tradition.

This particular banana pudding above is earmarked for a gentleman that works with my husband. I send them to work with Terry every so often, and I guess it's been a big hit. They are working together this week, and Terry came home two days ago and said, "He'll buy everything you need if you'll just make it for him." I had everything but Nilla wafers, so he contributed those. :) Hope he enjoys it!

This weekend's pics

Kyle and Katie went to a roping school this weekend put on by the church. They had a blast. They learned alot of good tips and listened better to the instructors than they do to me....After all, I'm just "Mom"...what do I know, right?! ;) Everyone seemed to think that the kiddos had been bitten by the "roping bug"....Lord, I hope not!!! That's an expensive hobby! :)

This is Kyle headed down the arena after the calf. I don't have a pic of Katie on horseback....I had to run to the house to starch Terry's clothes and make his breakfast and lunch, and I pulled back in right after she had gotten off her horse :( But one of my buddies got a pic for me, so I'll post it as soon as she sends it.

Kyle doing some ground work....

Katie trying it out....

I love that they learned alot, and I really love that they were around super people while doing it!!!! The people's home and arena that we were at are two of the sweetest, most genuine people that I have ever met. It's nice to find that when you move somewhere.

Roping schools and Craft shows

The kiddos went to a roping school today....Hopefully they listened better there than they do when I'm trying to teach them....Korey couldn't go because he was with his Dad, but Kyle and Katie seemed to enjoy it. They came home completely tuckered out....when you're not used to it, swinging a loop for 4 hours will kick your butt! :) Hopefully they will be able to raise their arm in the morning....They go back tomorrow afternoon after church....I'm going to stay and take pictures tomorrow. I wanted them to get at least one day down without their Mom embarrassing them! ;)

While they were there I went to a craft show looking for ideas for Christmas. I really want to do handmade gifts this year.....partly because of the way that the economy is and partly because I've really been trying to "get back to the basics" here lately, and I would really like to be more self-sufficient in everything. I have the crafty gene....my Mom is amazing with anything that she attempts....hopefully I have a little of the same! ;) We'll see soon. I'll post pics when it gets closer to Christmas of my creations!

I started with good intentions....

Ever have one of those days where you really start out with great intentions, but then they get lost somewhere in the course of the day? Today was one of those days for me....I woke up bright & early (as usual for a Mom of 3, right?), and after I got the kiddos off to school, I went and checked the cows...Everyone was present and accounted for, and no one calved last night. Then I checked the oil, etc. in the tractor, and checked one of the gear boxes on the shredder that is leaking a little bit....Then decided that I'd go get groceries and then start shredding.....THERE was my mistake! I knew better....I drive to the closest Sam's to grocery shop because it's cheaper in bulk. After shopping for groceries, driving home and unloading them, it was noon.....So, I decided that I should go ahead and get my husband's "lunch" started (he's working nights this week), so I put on a pot of chili.....Then I thought about a bread recipe that I've been wanting to make....and some desserts that I wanted to make....So I ended up spending all afternoon in the kitchen either baking or looking up recipes. I was productive because between mixing, etc. I was washing clothes or picking up the house, but it's still not what I wanted to do today, so I'm disappointed. However, since I've gotten the house cleaned up and all of my baking done, tomorrow I can stay on the shredder all day.....I'm definitely looking forward to it.

One man's trash....

is another man's treasure! I've heard that all of my life...

and now we've expierenced it! The Servis Flex 15 below was my

grandfather's. It's been used (but not kept up) by people

in the family since his death. We went and picked

it up yesterday with my Mom's blessing. (Thanks, MOM!!!!)

Yesterday after we brought it home...It was parked in a pasture with weeds all around it...

The deck has rusted through in spots...

Last "before" pic...

Today after spending about $60 bucks and a whole day's worth of labor, my sweetheart of a hubby is SHREDDING with Pop's shredder!!!!

He shredded until nearly dark, and everything's fine!!!! We still have some work to do on it...having a bit of a problem finding parts....but we'll get there!!!! I'm so proud!!!!!

Hopefully I'm a hero.....

Friday night we were all sitting around watching TV, and we had all the windows open because it was such a nice night....All of the sudden, the kids and I started hearing a really high pitched squeal. We couldn't figure out where it was coming from, so we muted the TV, and I asked my husband if he knew what it was....I was not prepared for his answer....He said, "Yeah, that's a rabbit."......And obviously I had a blonde moment because I said, "Why would it be squealing like that?"......To which he replied, "Because it's getting eaten." :O I nearly knocked over all three kiddos while I ran to the back door with my flashlight. I threw on my boots with my pjs (very cute, by the way) and ran outside.....I rounded the corner of the house and thought "Man, it's dark out here...I can't see anything."....Just as that thought ran through my mind, I collided with something and pain started shooting from my knee cap!!! I TOTALLY forgot that I had brought our generator up here for my husband to work on, and when I rounded the corner of the house, I ran straight into then damn thing. Now, thank goodness that it was my so called "good" knee....but still it hurt like hell. Since the adrenaline was still flowing, I side-stepped the generator and continued running to the front yard.....There I found our cat trying to kill a baby rabbit!!!! I ran and scooped the cat up, being careful not to touch the baby rabbit. I put the cat in a chicken coop that we have behind our shop and Terry said that he saw the baby bunny hop back out into the pasture. I sure hope that he made it...He was really young, probably still nursing. Hopefully since he could hop out of the yard, he made it back to his hole and is okay.....However, by then, my knee was KILLING me....That night I couldn't hardly bend my knee and I didn't sleep worth a hoot, but the next morning, it felt 10 times better. Today it's still sore if you touch it, and I have a bruise the size of a baseball on my knee, but other than that, it's fine....Gotta love life in the country! :)

Football

Kyle decided to play football this year....I can't say that I was excited.....like the typical worrying mother, I was a little scared. So far he's really enjoyed it. Thursday night before the game he hurt his hand, so we might be out for the rest of the season....He "accidentally" hit a concrete wall....Quite a lesson in anger management.....I could've killed him. The coaches think it's broken and he's going for x-rays on Tuesday. I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, here's a few pics....

Kyle (#33) and Ryan

Running through the sign

Getting ready....Bless his heart...He knows how horrible my eyesight is....even WITH contacts, so he got the idea to put orange Nike bands under his knees so that I can easily pick him out! :)

I've really enjoyed watching him play...I do still worry, but I think that I'll be alot better about it next year. I've got the whole "spirit" thing down from all my years of cheering ;) It's just the worrying that I have to work on. :)

A few pics...

It was pointed out to me in a comment the other day that I needed pics of the cattle....Here are a few I snapped yesterday morning while checking cows.

This is in Pasture 7. Right now we have our dry cattle in here getting ready for winter.

This is Pasture 7 also, but notice the weeds....It's down in a little draw that was too wet for me to spray when I was spraying for weeds...Amazing the difference spraying makes.

Rio in a shot of sprayed pasture facing the pens.

The bulls in the front pasture before a storm.

Our newest addition....a 1976 John Deere 4430 with a loader. We needed a bigger tractor, but didn't want the expense of a brand new one....This one was an awesome find....not too many hours, everything works (even the AC and heater!!!!!!)...and it's got 125 HP PTO....I'm so excited!!!!!

One of those mornings....

Ever have one of those mornings where everything that you do is completely wrong and utterly stupid to your 13 year old? I am at my wit's end....I'm so torn between wanting to wring his neck and worrying about him that I don't know which way is up anymore....I know that all 13 year olds are hard to live with, and honestly at times he is really trying to improve, etc....but mornings like these have me wanting to run away. :( One minute (according to him), he's getting picked on for being short, getting pushed around, not wanting to go to school....But then, we go to school functions and EVERYONE is speaking to him....I never see kids shy away from him, I never see him not being included, etc. Then the next day (according to him), everything is great...Life couldn't be better. I honestly don't know what to think. We just moved here two years ago, and he is short for his age, but he's a really good looking kid. He's smart, he's playing football, running cross country...He's involved in FFA, etc. I just don't know....when do you step in? Is he really unhappy, or is it just a bad "raging hormone" day? Did he just have a bad morning? I'm sorry for this being a bitching post, but I had to get this out somehow....It's hubby's first day back at work on his 7 on, so I'm here trying to figure this out myself.....I thought that maybe if I got some of this out of my system, maybe the rest of my day wouldn't be as bad as I feel right now....

You can see the lake!!!!!

I have to start by saying that I am SOOOOOO proud of my husband!!!! I am truly the luckiest woman in the world. When my Mom allowed us to move onto this place, it meant the world to me (and still does, Mom)....but honestly, one of the greatest things about it has been to see how much my husband loves this place. For those of you that don't know, he works in the oil industry. So that means 7 on, 7 off and rotating days and nights. After he's worked his 7 on, he spends his 7 off working his butt off on the place....I'm lucky to get him to take an afternoon off here and there....He's just amazing. Anyway, his latest project has been the Canyon Lake pasture. It was a MAJOR project....to start with, you couldn't even get in the gate! There was a tickle-tongue tree grown through the only hanging gate on the place...that just happened to lead in to the Canyon Lake pasture....and we're not talking a little tree here...It was about the size of a softball at the base...It had been there a while. Once he got that cut down, he went inside the pasture....and couldn't find the lake. Seriously, he didn't know which corner of the pasture it was in, and you couldn't see it at all. I think he thought that I had told him the wrong pasture ;) Anyway, he came back up and got the tractor and shredder and started picking spots and clearing them and now..........YOU CAN SEE THE LAKE!!!!!

BEFORE.....we had already shredded some....This is the view from the gate that he cut the tree out of. It's like this throughout the pasture....Completely covered in vines, small trees....and underbrush.....and these pics don't do it justice...It's THICK!!!!

AFTER!!!!! This is nearly the exact spot that I was standing in for the BEFORE pic above.....AMAZING!!!!!

This isn't technically a "before" pic because he had already cleared here, but there's still a few button willows at the edge, etc. that he hadn't gotten yet....

This is NOW!!!!

Terry creating one of the MANY brush piles that we have down there now.....

My mom and step-father are coming out today to eat steaks and get a "tour" of the place......I'm so excited. My mom hasn't really been out in the pastures with us since we moved out here, and I'm hoping that she is just as proud as I am...if not more so. :)