Sunday

Sunday is my fav.  Today, after church, I rallied all the kids and asked them for a couple hours of their time to get the house cleaned up, the shed cleaned up, and get some stuff that was everywhere put away.  They all rose to the occasion, and we accomplished a lot.  Quincy and Saige completely cleaned out the feed shed, and Quincy decided that she would clean out the pen with the pony and donkey.  Somehow during her cleaning, they escaped.  Now, as things go, these animals are new here, are skittish, and honesty, they have not been worked with much I don’t think.  I know enough about horses to know that you cannot drive or chase them, you have to lure them.  Except these two jerks ran to the road, so I did use my car to push them back onto our property.  We then utilized a bucket, which they would follow all the way to the gate, and then turn tail and run.  Ornery jerks!   We finally realized that they are highly excited by some apple alfalfa treats that the previous owners gave us.  Quincy was able to coax them in.  It is funny seeing them run and then stop to roll in the dust despite our best efforts to get them in their pen!   Evie loves Coco, the pony, but Kipper nips and she doesn’t like him at all!   She absolutely loves the goats though!  

This evening Colin was able to join us for Sunday dinner. He is in training this week in Topeka.   I was happy to see him.  Spencer got a new job (in the same company) and starts that tomorrow.  I can’t wait to hear about it.   It was a nice evening with some of the kids.  We even cooked out on the grill.  I sure do hope this warmer weather is here to stay now, I don’t wanna go back to winter!  Cameron was home for about an hour on Friday evening.  It was a good weekend to catch up with our adult kids.   

With the end of winter sports, I think this week should be a bit calmer than what we have seen for a while.  At least that is my hope.   I have a few projects that I want to accomplish, and time is what I need the most!  

Bball finale

Saige played in her season end tournament today.  Unfortunately, they had to play Olpe again.  This team is great.  Saige’s team lost 40-2.  I’m guessing that this Olpe team will go on to win the state tournament one day.  At the level of 3-4 grade they are already extremely talented.  Saige’s team couldn’t hang.  It’s ok though. Saige had a fun season. Her team improved and learned some stuff.   We had fun watching her.  End of winter sports means it’s now spring right?  Bring on warm weather!   

The Overbrook sale barn was having a sheep and goat sale today.  I was planning to stop there after the game and see if I could get my hands on any 4-H project goats for this year.  I completely forgot.  When we got home, I even told Jim I felt like we were forgetting something. Guess I’ll try next time!   

What we didn’t forget?  The Carbondale fire department chili dinner. Mallory and I went over, we didn’t get chili, but we did make a donation for cinnamon rolls!  They were good!  Great job Madison!  

Aaah….Home!

We got up this morning and went back to the girl’s state tournament.  Quincy’s team had a tough day, with 3 of the 4 girls who were left losing out early.   Quincy’s friend did win and ended up taking 4th place.  The first girl’s state medalist from SFT.   It was awesome to see it happen, but the thing I liked more was seeing the team cheering her on.  

I am thankful to GG for entertaining my little work buddy. It would appear that she was still a work buddy, but doing a much different type of work. I’m sure she had fun blow drying baby calves!   I always feel bad for any creature who is born in this type of weather.  

We made it home early this evening.  There was a package waiting for Saige from my cousin Sue.  Several days ago, Saige’s class was assigned states to do a report on.  Saige wanted Wyoming, but didn’t get it.  She was very upset. I told her I had a cousin in Wyoming who she could write a letter to.  Sue not only wrote her back, but she sent her a hat, some photos and some other amazing stuff.  Saige was beyond excited.  She has now decided that the minute she graduates high school, she is moving to Wyoming.  Since I just listened to her complain about the cold when walking to our car after the wrestling tournament, I’m guessing she might move there, but she won’t enjoy their winter time!   

Carlos, Blitz and Ollie were so excited to see us! Preston took good care of all the critters while we were gone, but they missed us!   I had a great time, it was fun to get away, and I really did enjoy watching wrestling.   That being said, I know I am officially old, because I am most excited about sleeping in my own bed tonight.  

Forever proud.

Making state for wrestling is not easy.  Quincy making the cut means she was in the top 16 wrestlers in her weight class in 4-A in the state.  That in and of itself is amazing.  

I hustled us all out the door early this morning.  A feat that was not easy considering every single thing we needed to do before we left was complicated by the frigid weather.  Negative temperatures and windchills meant every single water bucket had to be changed out.  It took forever.   We managed to get done, get out the door only a couple minutes later than we planned, and made it to Salina in time for the opening parade of state qualifiers.   

Quincy wrestled so hard today. I was proud of the effort she put on the mats.  Unfortunately, she lost her 2 matches and is out.   

SFT brought 6 girls down.  Four of them are wrestling tomorrow.   We plan to go for a while tomorrow and cheer on her teammates.   

We all had fun watching today, and we are all proud of our girl!  

We got a kick out of the event center being called the “Tony’s Pizza event center” and they thought the elephant with the satellite dish ears was hilarious.  

We could have gone home, but we made a promise to Saige and Harper that we would stay in a hotel and swim.   We had already rented a room.  Besides that, they endured a long day of wrestling and  of Jim’s singing, and deserved a fun night.  Jim and I already took time off work and we like wrestling so it was an easy choice!   

What else can we do today

Whenever we have a day off from school, I try to schedule appoints and run errands.  Today was no different.  I had to work, and then track down the bus boss. Quincy had practices.  Harper got her bottom braces. We scheduled a pick up from Sam’s club, and Jim had an appointment to sell Quincy’s van   We had to get all of this done and get back in time to attend the band’s parent meeting for the kids who are going to NOLA over spring break, and meet the neighbors who were dropping off some things for me.  I doubted we could get it done, but we did.  I had to call Mallory and beg her to meet the neighbors, but I got back in time to talk to them and thank them for the new additions to our farm.  

The neighbors are moving back to Minnesota.  They had to disassemble their farm, and we were the lucky recipients of a pony, a mini donkey, a doe and her baby boy goat.  

The pony is named Coco.  The donkey is Kipper.   

The momma goat is Rosie, and her baby is Tiny Juan.  We are excited to have these additions.  I remember as a kid, wanting a horse.  My dad had a horse, but he called them hay burners.  Everything on my dad’s farm had a job.  He only needed a horse to run cattle.  He didn’t mind if I rode his horse, but he didn’t need a pleasure horse around.  So I had access to a horse, but she was a working mare, and not a pet.  These are pets.  I am in heaven.  A life long dream fulfilled.  I hope Jim is as excited about it as I am!  

And now that everything is settled in for the night, I am going to bleach Quincy’s hair for state wrestling and drop into bed.   Happy, blessed, errands done, unexpected break over, and dead dog tired.  

Sunday funday

Quincy and Landrie were invited to a birthday party for one of the Los Vaqueros children.  They were excited to go to a fiesta.   I do not know what was going on, but Quincy borrowed a dress from Mallory and had Mal fix her hair.  She looked too pretty not to save the pictures.  

There is sadness in our family, as our neighbors are moving back to Minnesota.  These people are some of the nicest people I’ve ever met.  We became fast friends, and I don’t want them to go!  Quincy has been watching their critters as they take truck loads of stuff to their new place.  They had a goat that we knew was bred, but we were only able to guess a due date. She had one little cute kid this morning.  When I say it is cute, I am not kidding!   Cutest little thing ever!   Quincy said it was hard to walk away, as she wanted to stay and play with it!  Quincy is in luck, the doe and kid are coming to live with us later this week, as they cannot take them.  

Sunday dinner time brought decorating cookies 

And building an indoor snowman, since it was so dang muddy.   

Preston has a bunch of friends over this evening.  It sort of sounds like my house is going to fall in.  The kids and Jim have tomorrow off.  I don’t.  We have a lot planned.  I hope we can pull it all off with little to no problems. It has been a good, although unexpected break, but no matter how long the break is, I always think I need one more day!