Savers

Last weekend, when we were in Wichita with Colin, Mallory traveled to Manhattan and took some sample photos of Cameron and Lauren.  She is wanting to start a side photography thing.  I loved these 2, so I stole them, and am saving them here!  They turned out pretty cute!  

Cameron also drew up a bill and presented it to the KSU senate.  Last night, that bill passed.  The bill was to retire the jersey of Jim's favorite player, Ed Nealy.  He was pretty excited that it passed.  I am not sure when the retirement ceremony will happen, but we will definitely have to go to watch that!  

Quincy (above) and Preston (below) both attended regional FBLA contest this week.  I am proud of them for being active in this organization.  If it does nothing else for them, at least they are thinking about how things work, how to make a presentation, and figuring out what kind of energy goes into being successful with ideas and goals.  

And of course, there is always basketball.  Multiple games in multiple locations.  Mike took some pretty good pictures, and I just wanted to save them.  Saving photos is my favorite thing.  

Busy days. Busy nights

Basketball season means we literally spend all of our free time watching someone play basketball.  This week, Saige has 2 games, and Preston has 3 games.  It is a really good thing we like basketball!   Preston played last night at Silver Lake.  He seemed off to me, and when he got home, he told Jim he wasn't feeling the best.  He seemed fine today, so I think maybe he was just tired.  I enjoyed watching this game because they literally came back from being down by a lot, to win!  It was fun!

Preston is #10 in blue.

Besides basketball, Preston and Quincy had their district contest for FBLA today.  This was the day I have been dreading.  The one where Preston needed to drive, but the road conditions were not good, and I had to let him go anyway.  I think it is important to get experience with driving in snow, but I don't like the idea of practicing in the dark, on 56 highway!  He had to be at the school early, and with me driving the bus, and Jim having the other kids to get ready, the choices were extremely limited.  Preston made it, and I am thankful for that!  Quincy's jr high group wasn't leaving until later, so at least she could go on the bus as usual!  She and Landrie had matching hair, and they looked so nice that I forced them to stop so I could take a picture.  They don't enjoy cleaning up!  I am also thankful for Mallory, who loaned Quincy an outfit to wear.  Quincy isn't known for her dress up wardrobe!  :)  I hope they have a good day, compete well, and enjoy themselves!

Lauren sent me the above photo.  It cracked me up.  Cameron is one of those people who thinks he should be instantly good at something, even though he has never done it before.  If he isn't good at it, he then declares his hatred for the activity!  Lauren said he was mad because little kids were skating circles around him!  I am glad she understands his personality!  :)  I like the picture!

Cameron also sent me this picture of his first day of the second semester!   I never don't want photos!  He understands this!  He also texted me late last week to say "3rd day and I already hate calculus!"  Son, I understand completely.  As a matter of fact, if I was giving advice, I would just say change majors!   (kidding.....sort of).  

Visitors

We rescheduled our trip, and after Saige’s game, we jumped on the Turnpike and went to spend the rest of our weekend with Colin.  The kids were super excited.  Colin told them about these awesome electric scooters you can rent and drive all around the riverfront and down town.  We managed to get them rented just in time for them to turn off.   Apparently they’re only useable during the day.  They shut off half an hour before sundown.  That was apparently 5:22.   We had a good laugh about the oddity of the time.   I guess it changes every day based on the actual time of the sunset.  Who knew.  (Stanley——our Godson knew!).  

We had dinner with Colin at Norton’s brewery downtown and the kids thought that a place that serves s’mores for dessert is a definite place for their top 10 list.  

After dinner, we delivered a terrible looking birthday cake to Grace.  Pretty food just isn’t my forte.  Grace said the cake tasted fine.  I enjoyed seeing Grace and her boys for a while.  The kids were excited to see Triton, the puppy!   Always fun to see how they have grown!   The kids were a little antsy while we were there, since Colin had promised they could sit in his hot tub.  

Today, the  kids wanted to ride the scooters some more, so we attended mass at the downtown church, St. Anthony’s.   I really enjoy going to mass at old, beautiful churches.  I even snapped a few pictures.  The painting, stain glass windows, and alter are absolutely breath taking. The kids enjoyed seeing it too!   After mass, the kids all rode scooters around the riverfront.   We had lunch at Braum’s, which the kids proclaimed was almost as good as their current favorite (Dairy Queen).  We headed back home this afternoon.  We all had a great time with Colin!  I enjoyed getting to see where he works, and hearing about how he is adjusting to big city life.   I am so proud of him!   Thanks for hosting us Colin!   

Saige’s first game

Saige (#5 in white) had her first game Saturday.  It wasn’t supposed to be her first game, but 2 weeks ago was snowed out, and last week she had the stomach flu.   We were really happy she finally got to play!  She is playing in a fundamental teaching league.  They aren’t allowed to press, they don’t shoot foul shots, and they wear colored bands to help them identify the person they are supposed to guard.   Saige had a little confusion over the colored bands, saying her “partner” wasn’t very nice.  We explained that they weren’t partners, maybe next week her expectations will be more realistic!   She did enjoy herself.  That’s the main thing!  

Kidding....and more kidding

The kidding season is in full swing.  We have 5 does bred.  All of them have kidded before, so my hope was that it would be an easy go.   Of course, if you follow this blog at all, you will know that things here are never easy.  Ever.  

Our old reliable doe Glow went first.  On Monday.  It was cold on Monday.  Very cold.  We thought they were at least another week out, and we had failed to prepare.  Luckily, Glow is an excellent doe. She not only kidded on her own with no need of help, but she also dried her kids and had them up and moving before we even did chores Monday morning.  Quincy got heat lights working and the twins are doing great.  

Monday afternoon, Buttee had a set of twins.  They were under lamps, up on their feet and mostly dry.  They seemed good.  One died.  The other one was great.  Until I did the noon check yesterday.  He somehow went down fast.  He was cold and crying.  I got him in the house and in front of the heater.  We made an emergency trip for nutri-drench.  The girls rubbed and stimulated.  They worked so hard.   Unfortunately he didn’t make it.  You can do all the right things, and sometimes it just doesn’t work out.   It is always hard to lose them.  It’s a hard lesson in life.  I wish I could have changed the outcome, but I was pretty proud of the kids.  They stayed with him, doing all of the things that we know to do.  Googling more things that we might try.  They even took a few minutes to pray.  

Today, Totes had a set of twins.  In true Totes fashion, she took one.  The other was left out to die.  Luckily, they were born right before Quincy got home off the bus.  She is so good at watching, knowing when to intervene.  This little girl’s life was saved because Quincy is good at this stuff.  So now we have a goat named Waffle in the house.  We had the supplies we needed in the house, and I am hoping and praying that the outcome is different this time around.  

Oooh that smell

Today is a holiday.  Maybe not one that everyone celebrates, but a holiday nonetheless. Jim, Madison and the kids all had the day off.  Andrew and I had to work. You know, because we are manly and stuff.   Anytime there is no school, I am happy because I can sleep until 7 rather than getting up at 5.  Which is why, when I was awakened at 5:30 by a terrible smell, I was not happy.  At first, I blamed Ollie, but upon getting my brain back into functioning gear, I realized it was actually the smell of melting plastic.  Insert panic mode.  When I opened the bedroom door, the smell was even stronger.  Almost overwhelming.  Even so, I couldn’t tell where it was coming from.  Let me backtrack a little.  Last week, I talked my husband into a new vehicle.  I assured him we could afford it, and I assured him it was absolutely necessary.  We spent a chunk of money.  Upon our arrival home from purchasing said vehicle, I started to take a shower only to discover our water heater was out.  We ended up purchasing a new water heater, after the parts did not work to keep the old one going.  So 2 major purchases in 24 hours might be a little bit anxiety inducing.  Back to this morning.  I worried that the new water heater was burning up.  It wasn’t.   I finally decided waking Jim up on his day off was necessary.  More searching. More panic.  After a while, Andrew also joined in the search, and then we figured out it was coming from the refrigerator.  

Jim was kind to me today.  He went to Nebraska furniture mart and picked up a new refrigerator.  I love my Jim, but sometimes he has the worst luck!  He headed out, got on the turnpike, and when he exited the Turnpike, realized that he forgot his wallet.  He managed to find enough seat dimes to pay his toll.  We made a plan that he would shop, and then call me and I would purchase the refrigerator over the phone.  Which was a good plan, except for debit card daily limits and a holiday that closes the bank.   We ended up pulling enough strings to get the darn thing purchased.   Jim then headed home, but didn’t have much gas, so I had to go rescue him with a debit card at the gas station.   

Jim did good.  And more importantly, the burning refrigerator is no more.  We have been using a refrigerator a long time and I have never seen anything like this.   I am thankful that it didn’t do any real damage, just scared us a lot.  I sincerely appreciate Jim taking his holiday to take care of our family.   I am sure refrigerator shopping is not what he planned to do today.  I don’t even want to go into the fact that the extended warranty we purchased ended last month.  I don’t want to point out that we have had a run of stuff breaking and I am weary of all appliance purchase.  At least our cheese and Dr Pepper are safe.  All’s well that ends well I guess.