Spring break

The kiddos are back at school this week!!!! We really had a good time over spring break, but it's really nice to be able to get back to my "normal" routine. We also got alot of things accomplished that we've been wanting to work on. We got some of the garden planted. We're even trying blueberries this year (in containers). Hopefully they will grow because the kids will be SO disappointed if they don't. We also went to Six Flags for the day and spent the night in the "big city". They had a ball, but it was SO crowded. :( We were there for 10+ hours and we rode 5 rides. Our longest wait in line was 2 hours :( and that was for.......LUNCH!!!!! I couldn't believe that it was that busy! But, I guess we learned some valuable lessons for next time (if there ever IS a next time).

I've started walking/running every day now. I'm also trying to eat better. I really don't need to lose any weight, I just need to get in shape. I just put on my Sirius hand-held radio, grab my gun and walk for 30+ minutes every morning. This morning I was even lucky enough to get in a walk/hog hunt. As Rio and I came over the hill going to the Canyon Lake pasture, there was a black wild hog rooting up around one of our ponds. I put several in him before he disappeared into the woods. Hopefully he was torn up bad enough that he'll die.*

*I'm not doing this for sport, or for the heck of it, wild hogs are a serious problem around here. They can ruin a pasture in a heartbeat.

So happy :)

Katie tried out for Jr. High cheerleader today....and MADE the squad! I am so proud of her!!!! She's been working so hard. It's really a joy to see her enjoying something so much. I cheered for 6 years, and I had always hoped that she would show an interest in it. BUT....for the longest (until this summer), she showed absolutely NO interest in it. She was in LOVE with softball. Cheering was for girls, and she proudly considered herself a tomboy. :) This summer her BFF, Bailey, talked her into going to a mini-cheer camp at the high school. She came back from the first day smiling from ear to ear and I knew that she had been sucked in. ;) They tried out this afternoon, and this evening we found out that she made it. I'm really proud of her because 2/3 of the score is by visiting judges, and 1/3 of the score is teacher evaluations. They really stress that the girls should be "leaders" in the classroom and on the field. So it truly is a V-I-C-T-O-R-Y all the way around! :)

Love you, baby girl!!!!!

How sweet!

These aren't the best pics in the world, but Rio had her puppies on Sunday so I had to show them off. She ended up having 8, 4 leopard and 4 mostly black.

The kids are SO excited....and I am too, honestly! I can't wait to play with them!!!

We've been really busy around here for the past couple of weeks. I'm trying to get a garden started here by the house, and we've been working on getting the soil ready for sprigging our hay field. It's been so windy, and we've been REALLY needing some rain.....but thank goodness it's raining as I type this. I'm SO glad to hear rain hitting the house. It could rain all day and I wouldn't complain a bit.

A rancher's Valentine :)

I've tried for nearly a week now to upload pics of my Valentine's day present with NO luck. Most people think Valentine's day is all about chocolate, flowers, really mushy cards professing your undying love for one another.....Well, my present was SO much more than that! :) My sweet husband and I bought each other a pasture renovator! I wanted to include pics because you really just can't quite grasp the whole romantic feel without seeing it being pulled behind our tractor.....burying all 8 shanks in the ground.....ripping slits through our pasture......and the thought of how it's going to improve our pastures.....whew! It's enough to make a girl light-headed! ;) I'll get pics on here as soon as I can figure out what the deal is......

We're going to be pretty busy from now until.....next winter. Now that the weather is getting better, I'm going to be outside pretty much 24/7. Right now we're in the middle of plowing up the hay field behind our house. We're going to be sprigging Tifton 85 shortly, and we have to get it ready. So, if you need me, I'll be on the tractor all day. :)

I did it!!!!

I still can't believe that I did this....I've always wanted to donate to Locks of Love, and Tuesday I went and got all of my hair cut off!!!! I've been growing it out for a while, but I was starting to get daily headaches...not to mention the fact that I've had my ponytail hung in a barb wire fence, I roll it up in my seatbelt every time that I forget to put it over my right shoulder, I shut it in the top of my truck door every time that it's windy outside....I could go on and on. My husband was the one that wanted me to grow it long (and everyone knows that I would do ANYTHING for him!) but once he saw that it was actually getting "dangerous", he thought that the following haircut would be cute on me.........SO..............Here is my experience. (Pics courtesy of my sweet, loving, awesome husband.)

Signing in....Nervously :)

A little freaked out, honestly.....

The side view.....I can't BELIEVE how much lighter it feels!!!!

The front view with my "donation"

My adoring public :)

Well, I'm alive...so far. We've survived the stomach virus and the flu in the past couple of weeks....It's SO good to feel good again!!!! Yesterday morning started off pretty cool, but it ended up being a gorgeous afternoon. We got a half inch of rain Sunday night, but we still need more. The grass situation is pretty much non-existent. We've been feeding hay & cubes, alternating daily between the two.

I went to get a ton of cubes yesterday, and this is what I came home to.....It's so nice to be wanted! :)

Everyone was SO happy to see me! ;)

This was my workout for the day! :) I miss my husband SO much on these days! When he's here, I throw bags down from the truck and he stacks. He stacks perfectly in the barn....It always looks so nice.

This is my stacking job.....not NEARLY as good as his, but I got it done! :)

Seriously?!?!

Katie came home with the stomach virus Friday morning around 9:00. I took care of her and kept her quarantined all weekend. I thought that things were pretty safe Sunday evening, so she ate her first "regular" meal.....and it came up around 10:00 pm. :( Also, to make things even more interesting around here, my 8 year old flooded the bathroom and part of the hallway while he was "cleaning" the bathtub to help me out.....Gee, thanks, sweetheart!!! :) Terry started coming down with the flu last night, and this morning around 10:00, Kyle called from school and said that he had an upset stomach and couldn't stay out of the bathroom for longer than 15 minutes at a time.......This was right after I had just screwed up both hydraulic cylinders on the tractor while hurrying to unroll a bale of hay this morning......So now I have a sick husband, 2 sick kiddos, a broken tractor AND I'm still trying to get the carpet dry in the hallway. If anyone needs me, I'll be hunting for a bottle of Crown (and I don't even DRINK.....Normally!). :)