Nothing to Say

I feel like writing a blog post today.  Trouble is, I have no idea what to write about.  Lets see... well the weather sucks.  No, I take that back.  It rained all weekend, and to a farmer, that rain is  better than gold.  Even the snow we got in February was a blessing.  But did you know it takes 12 inches of snow to equal 1 inch of rain?**  That doesn't seem fair!  Wonder if it's partly because some of it evaporates before it can soak into the ground?  Who knows.  I do know it felt much heavier than 1 inch of rain when we shoveled mom's driveway.  Cue whining about my shoulder, and inturn Greg yelling about my whining. 

Everyone's been sick.  Right around the end of January we all got the flu.  I even missed 4 days of work because of it.  I never do that, so you know it was bad.  Greg caught it, but somehow he managed to get over it quickly, even while ignoring my advice to take it easy and rest.  Now, Erin and family have a new virus and are all home sick today.  Ugh.  Will the germs ever go away???

We got meat!  We took two steers to the locker plant last month, and picked up the meat last Wednesday.  Sure is nice to have a freezer full of fresh meat.  It seems like after a year or so, the meat starts tasting old.  Greg doesn't notice it as soon as I do, and Erin notices it before either of us.  Once I notice it, I'm done.  We're planning to butcher a few pigs next month, and we're going to be doing it ourselves in the shop.  There's several of us buying pigs at the same time, so we'll all spend one long day working on it.  That's usually a fun day.  "The women" do the wrapping and labeling, and that's fine by me.  Doesn't matter how much wine I drink that way. (although the more wine we drink the more creative the labeling is, heh heh)   Wine and knives, on the other hand, not such a good idea.  Well neither is  beer and knives for that matter, but that doesn't stop the guys.  Haven't lost any fingers yet... 

Did someone say they wanted to hear a Carter story?  Last week he went to the Caterpillar Dealer in Topeka with Papa.  Greg was busy ordering parts, so he pretty much let Carter have the run of the place.  Well, Carter found someone that knew him.  (One of Brent's best friends' dad works there)  He hung out in Gordon's office playing with toys for a while, and spotted a brand new remote control dump truck in an unopened box.  Of course he wanted to play with it, but since it was new, the easiest thing for Gordon to tell him was that the batteries were dead.  He accepted that and kept playing, BUT, when it was time to leave, Carter told Gordon "next time I come here, I'm gonna want to play with that, so make sure you get new batteries for it".  Sometimes I think he's too smart for his own good.  When Erin took him to the well child screening for preschool, everyone thought he was getting ready to go into Kindergarten.  (And believe me, that's not because of his size)

And because I believe in equality, let's catch up on Miss Chloe!  I had the pleasure of spending most of the weekend with my sweet baby girl.  She's such a loving and happy girl, but she does not like strangers.  Any by strangers I mean anyone who isn't Mommy, Daddy, Meema, Papa or Grandma.  I guess it's not that she doesn't like them, but she won't let anyone else hold her.  Once she warms up a little, she'll smile or laugh at them, but that's about it.  I had to laugh the other day when I took her into the Coop office to see all of my former (notice, I didn't say OLD, ladies!) co-workers and they all came rushing up to see her.  Of course they all wanted to hold her, but I had to tell them that wasn't going to happen.  She did finally let me put her down and she walked around a bit.  It was just killing them (I'm looking at YOU, Laura!!!) not to hold her.  Whenever I took Carter in at that age, he went to everybody.  It's so funny, we could tell almost immediately after she was born that she wasn't going to be as outgoing as Carter, and so far, that's still true.  I think Erin is grateful for that, since she worries so much about Carter being over friendly with strangers.  Chloe has  been walking since January, she'll eat anything you put in front of her, she has 6 teeth I think, with more trying to come in.  She says mama, dada, ma (for Maggie) and tries to say bubba. Oh, and UH OH!   She just started waving bye, and Brent has her giving high fives!  She also loves her blankie, just like her momma.  One improvement over Erin's attachment is Chloe will take any of her blankets, not just one special one.  That means no trips back to Walmart to retreive a lost blanket, which we may have done once or twice!  Like her brother, she loves animals, especially  Maggie of course.  And she wants nothing more than to pet Hoss and Harry, but we all know that will never happen! 

Last, but certainly not least, our family suffered a terrible loss in January.  Brent's dad, Richard passed away after fighting lung cancer since August.  Brent and his family have the same tight bond as our family does, so this has been very difficult.  We worried so about how Carter would handle it, but after his momma so carefully and lovingly explained to him what happened, he seemed to understand better than anyone expected.  Other than not wanting to go in to the funeral home (after the first visitation) he did great.  He still talks about Grandpa Gibby, and he gets that he's gone forever, but it's only been a little over a month, so we'll have to see how things go. I know he misses him terribly.  He's spent the last few Saturday nights with Grandma Gibby, which I know gives Mildred great comfort.  Please keep Brent and his family in your prayers as they adjust to life without such an important person in their family.

Sharing a few pictures too :)

The Birthday Boy on his new bike



Just bein' goofy :)

doesn't every 4 year old watch TV like this?

He was SUPPOSED to be helping us shovel snow...

If you love Forest Gump as much as we do, this should require no explanation!

Ready for Cake!!!

Hamming it up, just like big brother

Happy First Birthday Chloe Janette!

He loves carrying her around -- wonder how much longer he'll be able to!

They love playing together :)

big  brother sharing his ice cream cone!

they even hunt together! (shhh- don't tell Chloe that's not a gun)

Huh!  Guess I had more to say that I thought!  Doubt that really surprises anyone :)

**source:  the hubby, so take it for what it's worth

Mothers Day

I love my Mom.  Well really, who doesn't love their Mom?  And for that matter, who doesn't love MY Mom?  She's such a character.  While both of my parents had a wicked sense of humor, I think my own brand of humor is more like my Moms.  Particularly our tendency towards self-deprecating jokes.  And she's just as quick witted at 88 as she ever was.  When I look in the mirror, I don't see much of her, but when I look inside myself, she's right there.  We've all uttered those famous words "oh my God, I sound just like my mother", but in my case, it's happening more and more with each passing day.  I know my Mom wasn't a saint (she reminds me all the time), but I choose to remember all the good and put anything unpleasant in the distant past.  Growing up the baby in the family, I was the lucky one.  I had my mom all to myself for almost 10 years, so I think we share a tighter bond than she does with my brother or sister.  I know that was not a conscious choice on any one's part, but simply the way our lives played out.

As one would expect, now that she's almost 89 years old, her health has deteriorated.  But, how many 88 year olds do you know who still live in their own home, drive their own car, and cook their own meals?  Did I mention how stubborn she is?  She did finally agree not to drive outside of Burlingame, but I think that had more to do with the reliability of her car than anything.  

Anyone that knows my mom very well knows one thing.  She has an aversion to staying on her feet.  I can't count the number of times she's fallen.  Shoot, even when she was younger she broke her foot a number of times.  She likes to say she's a klutz.  I would never say that.  I might say she's gravity challenged.  If you were at Erin's wedding, you might have seen this first hand.  

The day before yesterday, I got a phone call from Mom's cleaning lady, Pam,  telling me she had fallen at the Senior Center.  The wonderful Burlingame Rescue Squad checked her out, and suggested she go to the emergency room.  Remember that stubborn streak?  She had Pam take her home.  Another friend joined them and helped get her situated at home until I could get there.  When I arrived, I could see a few bruises and some cuts on her face.  It seems she tripped over a brick on the edge of the sidewalk and landed face first.  Within an hour or two, the bruising and swelling had worsened, and she was starting to look like she'd lost a fight with Muhammad Ali.  The fall broke her glasses, and judging by the cement skid marks on the lens, it's a good thing she was wearing them.   After experiencing several dizzy spells, she finally conceded to going to see her Dr. the next day.  Not surprisingly, the Dr. said they were the result of a concussion.  I also took her to her Eye Dr. and got new glasses ordered.  By the time we got all our running around done, she was exhausted.  This morning she reported to me that she slept well last night (no doubt helped out by the pain meds the Dr. prescribed) and was feeling much better.  Maybe, just maybe now, she'll start using that cane we bought a couple of years ago.  Oh who am I kidding?  I know she's going to recover just fine from this little mishap, but when I let myself think about how differently things could have turned out, it scares me to death.  I've only had my momma for 53 years, and I'm not done with her yet! 

at Erin's Bridal Shower 2005

Same Song, 1,586th Verse....

I got a wild hair when I woke up this morning and thought "maybe I'll try to exercise today".  Sooo, I went to the basement to get clean clothes, but first I did a load of laundry and dug through several baskets of clothes to find something comfy to workout in.  Then I took one basket full of clothes upstairs, and proceeded to fold and put away those clothes.  By the time I was dressed and ready to exercise, I felt like I'd already put in a 30 minute workout.  Such is the life of this overweight blogger.  

On the advice of my diabetes center nurse, I purchased a Leslie Sansone walking DVD about a year and a half ago.  I've probably played it 3 or 4 times (including today) and actually walked to it a couple of time.  I've found the problem with these types of walking programs is they assume you are in reasonably good shape when you start.  The "beginner" program on this particular DVD is a brisk one mile walk.  Well they may not call it brisk, but I sure do.  Even I know it's not a good idea to go from barely walking around your house and office to walking a mile at one time.  I couldn't even make it through the dang warm up people!  So while Leslie and her followers enjoyed their lovely little one mile jaunt, I sat down and googled "beginning exercise programs for the morbidly obese".  Once I sifted through all the ads for exercise equipment I can't afford and won't use I actually found something useful.  A suggestion to start out walking 10 minutes at a time, 3 times a week.  After 2 weeks, increase the walking time by 10% each week until I'm walking 30 minutes at a time.  By my calculations, that will have me walking for 30 minutes by early April.  That seems awfully gradual to me, but maybe doing it this way will prevent injuries, burnout, and all the other things that seem to get in my way.  And, if I choose (no pressure here) to improve my eating habits along the way, even better. 

AND, just because this comes at the beginning of the year, do not assume this is a resolution.  New Year's Resolutions are made to be broken.  At least in my world they are. 

Ok Barb, no more procrastinating.  Time to hit the living room for 10 minutes of agony.  Just as soon as I make a play list....

Wish me luck!!

Getting Off On The Right Foot

Happy New Year! I just love New Years Day, after all, it offers so much hope! It can be a new beginning for anyone who feels the need for one. AND, it's the one day of the year that I can honestly say I've blogged everyday this year!

Last night (ok early this morning) when Greg woke from his "nap" (normally from 8:00 or 9:00 pm to 2:00 or 3:00 am) I was still awake. What? It was New Year's Eve -- I couldn't go to bed early, now could I? So back to the story, Greg asked me if I was going to go with him to feed cattle this morning. Now this does not happen very often. Had he said something like "you're going to go with me to feed cattle in the morning" I probably would have raised my stubborn head and refused. But since he asked, nicely I might add, I thought why not? Well aside from the fact that it meant I only got 3 1/2 hours of sleep, why not? So about the time he headed outside to do whatever it is he does before he starts feeding (start the truck, start a fire in the shop, feed the animals? I'm just guessing here) I got up and threw on far too many clothes for a menopausal woman to be wearing inside a wood heated home and gleefully ran out into the snow to cool off. And guess what? It was BEAUTIFUL outside! Really, is there anything more serene than fresh snow? I immediately knew this little field trip was going to be camera worthy.

My first challenge was getting a self portrait of myself to post on facebook as a teaser for this post. I see adorable self portraits on fb all the time -- cute young girls posting cute pictures left and right. Not this girl! I'm sure my phone didn't help matters -- you can't see what you're doing with the camera pointed at yourself, so there were numerous failures before I finally gave up and said screw it.

We fed the calves at home first, and then Greg chopped ice in what little water is left in our frozen pond.

waiting patiently

you've heard of coming from the other side of the tracks.... well we've got the bad boys from the other side of the fence!

gotta get the snow out first

Lucy doesn't let her daddy get out of her sight!

corn -- it's what's for breakfast!

gotta make sure they can get to the water

 

 

 

 

Next up, cows and calves, part 1. Truly, there is something so special about driving through the timber after a snowfall. It takes my breath away.

so peaceful

 

 New Year's Babies!!!

 



 chopping more ice



he doesn't go anywhere without that ax!

 

Then across the road to the other bunch of cows and calves. And look what we found -- a brand new baby. I got a chance to see Greg's tender side, if you will, as he made sure this new baby who was born in a snow drift had fresh hay to lay in. Just wish I a picture of him picking that sweet baby up and laying him in the hay.

gotta look closely to see the baby 

needed some bedding

 

 Here ya go little guy

 

 looks good to Greg

 

 looks good to Mom

 

 aaaaand not so fast...maybe I don't wanna lay down!

 

an hour old and already has a mind of it's own!

 

 

Break time -- while getting another bale of hay, neighbors Phil and Mike happened by and stopped to visit. No pics of the bull shit session necessary.

Next thing I know, Greg says to me " you ready to load some wood?" Excuse me? I didn't sign up for physical labor this morning -- I thought this was a guided tour of our winter wonderland! How could I forget he stops and saws a load of wood every morning while he's out feeding? Sneaky, that husband of mine is. Turns out he only sawed a little bit -- enough to keep the shop warm all day he says. And a little exercise never hurt anyone. In fact, I can now check off that resolution to exercise more this year.  Fine, that wasn't a resolution, but it sounded good.

Lucy lives for this stuff!  She's such a good girl

 

check out that action shot!

 

Not bad for about 15 minutes work

 

 

Once we had this wood loaded, we headed home. While dressed so warmly, I considered staying outside and enjoying the fresh air for a bit longer. But then the urge to pee hit, and with that many clothes on, I had no choice but to start stripping as quickly as possible. Another unfortunate side effect of menopause I guess. Of course once the layers of clothes were gone, the moment was gone as well. Oh well, I needed to get these pictures downloaded and this post written anyway. Guess I'll just open the blinds and enjoy to snow from afar once again.

 

Loaded Question in 5..4..3..2..1

So……. I have a question. I really hope you don’t find it too personal to answer. Maybe I shouldn’t even ask. No, I can’t help myself. I’m dying to know….


How do you eat your SKITTLES?

Come on now – you know what I mean. I mean, there are so many ways to do it! Do you sort them by color first? And do you eat your favorite flavor first or save it till last? Or *gasp* do you just eat them as they come out of the package? Please don’t tell me you eat them by the handful regardless of flavor mixture! Oh the humanity!

Since I’m asking you to divulge such personal information, let me be the first to share my own method of consuming the goodness that is skittles original bite size candies. When eating a small bag, I immediately dump the entire contents of the bag out, and sort them by color. Then I proceed to eat them in order of least to most favorite. My order of preference is:

Green
Yellow
Purple
Red
Orange

My theory here is that I like to save the best for last. I suppose someday I could die in the middle of the bag and leave my favorites behind, thereby depriving myself of leaving this world with my favorite food in my mouth (who doesn’t dream of this?) However, I’m willing to take my chances. Oddly enough, if I purchase a large bag and only eat a few at a time, I tend to dig my favorite flavors out first. Maybe it’s because I’m afraid someone else will get to the bag and eat the orange and red ones first and I’ll be stuck with the dreaded green and yellow ones? Left purple out, didn’t I. Well that’s because purple sort of fall into a category of their own. Loved? Eh… but definitely liked. Well that cleared things up. Oh, and did I mention I only eat ONE at a time? Make them last as long as possible, I say. Sadly, I cannot do that with chocolate. But that’s a whole nother post for a different day.

Touchdown Kansas City!!!!

I just finished watching my favorite football movie of all time, Rudy.  It got me thinking about my love for football.  My earliest memories of watching football were as a child.  I watched the Dallas Cowboys with my my cousin Frances' husband Al.  Frances and Al were more like an aunt and uncle to me.  She was actually my mom's cousin, and she married a Texas rancher.  He loved watching his Cowboys, and I loved watching with him.  I also started watching the Chiefs at a very young age with my Uncle Herb.  He lived near Kansas City and got the games on television before we were able to on the Topeka stations, so when we went to his house on Sundays, we always watched together.  Once I was in Jr. High, football was a really big deal in Burlingame.  Both years I was in Jr. High our High School Team went to the state playoffs, and my 8th grade year, we won state.  Then in High School, I was a Twirler and in the Marching Band, so of course I went to all of the games.  I don't remember specifically learning the rules, guess I just picked them up as I went along.  In High School, we did play Powder Puff Football a couple of years, so I'm sure I learned some then.  When I was seriously considering going to college, I wanted to be a sportswriter.  I was even the Sports Editor for our high school newspaper!  And now I really hope none of you have any old copies of that paper laying around to go read my stories.  At the time I thought I was hot stuff, but now, eh.  Those old stories are pretty lame!   After high school I dated a football coach for a while, so naturally the games were a big part of my life.  For some reason, I was never a big Chiefs fan growing up.  My favorite team for years was the Washington Redskins.  I'm sure having Kansas John Riggins play for them didn't hurt, not to mention they were always in the Playoffs, and won a couple of Super Bowls.  It's always much easier to root for a winning team, as we all know.  Hmm, that brings me to the last few seasons as a Chiefs fan.  It's not easy people.  I'm sure many of you are Chiefs fans too and know just what I'm talking about.  As hard as it is to watch them play these days, I'll never forsake my team.  There's nothing worse than a fair weather fan.  If you can't support your team when they're down, you don't deserve to be there when they're winning.  Those guys need their fans more than ever these days.  One of the best things I did was pass my love for football on to my daughter.  I love watching games with her, and am so proud that she understands the game and has the same passion for it as I do.  Too bad her dad doesn't share our love for football.  Greg of course is not a sports fan in way, shape or form.  But he hates football more than anything.  I can't help but think it's partly because we love it so much.  If he has to, he'll sit and watch basketball or baseball on television.  In fact, at one time he was actually a fan of the Royals, and went to a few games with me.  But if there's football on TV, he leaves the house.  Poor guy just doesn't know what he's missing!  At this point in the season, about the only thing I'm looking forward to is getting a first round draft pick and signing an awesome quarterback.  If the Chiefs screw that up by winning a few games. oh well!  I'll just have to enjoy watching them win!  Oh who am I kidding?  LOVE YOU CHIEFS!!!!!

Time Marches On

yeah yeah yeah, I know. it's been a while.  moving on.....

It is November 1, which I suppose means the Holiday Season has officially begun.  What that means for me, first and foremost, is it's time for my annual house cleaning to begin.  Yep, time to dust, vacuum and mop.  Oh, and wash curtains and rugs.  And make my bed. And if you think I'm kidding, well you don't know me very well.  I'm hosting the Granger/Crook Thanksgiving Dinner on the Sunday before Thanksgiving.  Nothing like getting it out of the way!  Wait, that sounds like I'm not looking forward to it, and that couldn't be further from the truth.  I love having everyone over for the day.  I don't even mind cooking.  Now if I could just hire someone to come in and get my house ready for it, life would be perfect!  These get-togethers remind me of my childhood.  We always spent Thanksgiving and Christmas with my mom's brother Herb and  his family.  All these years later, it's not quite the same with Uncle Herbie and my Dad both gone, but spending the day with my favorite cousins is something I never get tired of!  

Plans for the Bryson Thanksgiving are still up in the air.  This will be our 3rd Thanksgiving without Janette, and I'm afraid they will never be the same.  She loved having her family over for big holiday dinners.  She cooked for days in advance, always had her house decorated for the occasion, and dressed for the holiday! Family dinners at her house were the one constant in our lives.  We always knew what to expect and she never disappointed us.  A big turkey, ham too, mashed AND scalloped potatoes, a hot vegetable, plus green bean casserole, because she knew I didn't like very many vegetables, but I'd eat that one!  She always made this salad with lemon jello and cottage cheese.  I think it had green peppers and pimento in it.  It was a strange little dish I'd never heard of before, but it was yummy!  And then there were the pies.  and cakes.  and all the other desserts.  Then we'd spend the afternoon sitting around the table talking, having more dessert and coffee, until it was about 4:30 and it was time to start getting supper on the table.  No one was leaving her house without eating supper, no matter how full you were!  We'd have sandwiches with the left over meat, potato salad, coleslaw, green salad, and always always always cheese and crackers.  You were lucky if you did have to roll away from her table!  

I miss her most in the fall.  We always spent more time together during harvest, sitting around waiting for the guys to need us.  And I'm sure with November 7 looming in the near future, she's on my mind even more.  I look at Chloe and I'm just so sad that they never knew each other.  Carter brought so much joy to her life, and Chloe would have doubled that joy.  Especially last night.  She would have laughed at Carter in his cowboy getup, and oohed and awed over Chloe's butterfly costume.  I'm almost as sad for what she's missing as I am for those of us who loved her and miss her every day.