Well I ammmmmmm Back!!!!

I have been wanting to write to everyone and I am getting a lot of emails wagging their fingers at me due to the fact I am not taking time to update my blog.

Wow, all I can say, WOW!!!!

What the heck!!!!

OK OK OK let's start for where I left off, Bertha (the tree) is DOWN!!!!! I knew Andy would not let it alone. Called a friend of his and asked "Whanna go cut down a tree?" "Wow!" Sam said when he saw it, "let's do it!" I had to be there to watch this show. Well as you can see the pictures, no harm was done to humans, trucks or to the forest. The crack as it was coming down was incredible!!! Five and a half cords of wood that puppy gave us (not including five cords that was Sam's) Over 10 1/2 cords Bertha had! Can you believe it! So, that has occupied ALL of our time for the past week and a half, cutting up the tree, splitting and stacking the wood, FINALLY OVER! Good news, I didn't even break a nail! So, here are some pics of the HUGE undertaking, this is just one story of MANY I have but one post at a time!!!

Does this tree look big?

My husband....well all I have to say is "Nothing will never be too big or too tall or too dangerous for him to take on"......except for this one......

He came in last Saturday with eye WIDE open and asks me "wanna do something with me"? Uh oh, what now? He said there was this tree he wanted to cut down and the owners of the property gave him permission and he was going to do it NOW!!! Surely there is about 3 cords of wood in that bad boy!

Well, this I have to see, I tell myself, away we went, I swallowed my tongue when I saw this MONSTER! He said "nice and easy and this tree will come down", (I don't think so!) so with his chain saw in hand and another one in the truck for standby, he has me park my truck on one side of the road and his on the other, to make sure no one drove in that area, out comes my camera, you know I have to have pics of this stunt!

Away he goes! Well after about 10 minutes of sawing, he realizes that our chain saw, good as it is, is not long enough and he stops, I couldn't even find where he was sawing it at. Good enough, he walked away from it for now! Whew!!!! This will be for another time! Let me know what you think of this puppy, BTW, it is over 125 feet high!




Look real hard and you can see him aside the tree! Barely!

More eggs!

Wow is this a great picture? I was playing around on my computer wanting to add different things to "spice" my blog up a bit.

No I didn't create this masterpiece, it was in a bunch of pictures someone sent over to me a while ago. I love this and will post more of these little wonders in the future!

Well, my girls are laying between 5 to 7 a day! It is so very Eggciting!

I have seen blogs slow down considerably during this summer, I think everyone is having a great time and keeping busy! Us, we are way too busy! Maybe I should rename my blog to "We are WAY too busy"!

Never underestimate the power of a camera

Today I went to a memorial for a friend, well not a well known friend, more of someone who did a lot of work on my house, spending time with him and Steve (I have put Steve on my post before) I was able to get to know this unique kind of soul. Unique is a really good title for him. Didn't have a lot to say, unless something needed to be said, a fabulous carpenter, did an incredible job on my keystone blocks outside of my house and that was A LOT of work 26 pounds per block and they laid about 350 and 400 of them!

Rode his bike everywhere even in the winters here. Well, that is how he passed away, riding his bike hit some rocks and flew over the handle bars.

Today's memorial was a B's BBQ and wow did he have a lot of friends show up. We went to say our condolences and mainly to see Steve, knowing it was his best friend.

I remembered last night that I had taken some pictures of both of them in front of the chicken coop, (they both built it) when it was finished back in April.

Didn't think anything more of it until last night. I got up first thing this morning, pulled up the four pictures, cropped them and went on to CVS's website (I normally send my pics to Walgreens too) and had them printed. I try to keep a few picture frames on hand just for spur of the moment just like this.

See, Ree Drummond from the Pioneer Woman taught me that, just take pictures of anything and anyone, put it into a frame and give it as a gift to someone for a "just because", you will be amazed how people are so surprised and in awe that you thought enough to do something so personal. I've even had people cry.

After church, we went to CVS, got the pictures, I put one in a frame and the others in the gift bag and away we went to the memorial.

We had got there and waited for Steve to show up, he did not too long after and I handed him the gift bag. He just stood there, not really even knowing what to do, I told him to open it and it was just for him. He opened the little gift bag and just kept starring at it. Then he hugged me for the longest time. He said he didn't have any pictures of him, (guys don't think of taking or keeping photos) and the one he did have got destroyed when he went looking for it.

He thanked me and thanked me for it. I can't tell you how good that felt just to do something so simple for someone I know was hurting.

I got a phone call a couple of hours later from Steve again thanking me for the picture and the thought it took.

I am chocking up in writing this post, but I wanted to tell you, when people are grumping about your camera in their face, remember, you are taking that moment in time and holding on to it, you will never know how important it will be to someone someday.


Cas as you can guess is on the right next to the window

Cute Childrens christian stories

I thought I would post these cute little stories, I was searching for a cute story to tell at my Women's Connection Luncheon on the 22nd, before I say prayer for the lunch. Now that is a WHOLE 'nother story!

These will make you giggle....

3-year-old Reese:
"Our Father, Who does art in heaven,
Harold is His name.
Amen."


A little boy was overheard praying:
"Lord, if you can't make me a better boy, don't worry about it.
I'm having a real good time like I am."


After the christening of his baby brother in church,
Jason sobbed all the way home in the back seat of the car.
His father asked him three times what was wrong.
Finally, the boy replied,
"That preacher said he wanted us brought up in a Christian home,
and I wanted to stay with you guys."




I had been teaching my three-year old daughter, Caitlin,
the Lord's Prayer for several evenings at bedtime.
She would repeat after me the lines from the prayer.
Finally, she decided to go solo.
I listened with pride as she carefully enunciated each word,
right up to the end of the prayer:
"Lead us not into temptation," she prayed,
"but deliver us from E-mail.


One particular four-year-old prayed,
"And forgive us our trash baskets
as we forgive those who put trash in our baskets."


A Sunday school teacher asked her children as they
were on the way to church service,
"And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?"
One bright little girl replied,
"Because people are sleeping."



Six-year-old Angie and her four-year-old
brother, Joel, were sitting together in church.
Joel giggled, sang, and talked out loud.
Finally, his big sister had had enough.
"You're not supposed to talk out loud in church."
"Why? Who's going to stop me?" Joel asked.
Angie pointed to the back of the church and said,
"See those two men standing by the door?
They're hushers."



A mother was preparing pancakes for her son s, Kevin 5, and Ryan 3.
The boys began to argue over who would get the first pancake.
Their mother saw the opportunity for a moral lesson.
"If Jesus were sitting here, He would say,
'Let my brother have the first pancake, I can wait.'
Kevin turned to his younger brother and said,
"Ryan, you be Jesus!"


A father was at the beach with his children
when the four-year-old son ran up to him,
grabbed his hand, and led him to the shore
where a seagull lay dead in the sand.
"Daddy, what happened to him?" the son asked.
"He died and went to Heaven," the Dad replied.
The boy thought a moment and then said,
"Did God throw him back down?"



A wife invited some people to dinner.
At the table, she turned to their six-year-old daughter and said,
"Would you like to say the blessing?"
"I wouldn't know what to say," the girl replied.
"Just say what you hear Mommy say," the wife answered.
The daughter bowed her head and said,
"Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people to dinner?"
(This is the one I have decided to share before my prayer)

Eggcelent! Eggstraordinary! Eggstreme!

What???? You ask, well I am so very proud to announce WE HAVE OUR FIRST EGGS!

Every single day for the past couple of week,s Andy has made it a special trip to head out to the coup to check for eggs.

I was working in the kitchen getting ready for dinner and Andy walks in and says, "I don't want Tri-tip for dinner, I want something with eggs". I turned around and looked at him like he had lost his mind, until he showed me two beautiful little eggs! One was brown and the other was green. WE HAVE EGGS! They are tiny little eggs, as you can see in the pictures, we put a white one from the store next to it so you can see the difference and in the egg carton itself.

I am so proud of my girls, even though we bought 17, Ian was taken off by a coyote (it taught him not to squeeze out of the coup, he was a really little chicken) and we did end up with EIGHT roosters! I was told that we had a 50/50 chance of having roosters of course, but to have EIGHT! WOW! They are now gone and it will be interesting to see how many eggs we start getting on a daily basis. Yesterday we got one. Speed up the production ladies!

Well I am off to get ready for the fourth of July party, meaning I am cooking and planning! Hope your day is eggcelent!

Graduation Vortex is over!

I have been trying to write since the 7th, really shocked that it took me so long to write. It's summer time and as with me and everyone else, I've been busier than an one arm paper hanger with an itch!

Graduation went off perfectly, both sons graduated! Hurray! We went to table top Japanese cooking, which was a lot of fun! Below you will see the boys with Andy and I and the following picture is their "other mom" with their sister Analise.





When it was said and done, they left for Vegas for the week, and Andy and I took off for the Mission Inn as part of "our" graduation present to ourselves which just happened to be Father's Day. It was incredible as usual, had an incredible time, had a tour of their catacombs, now I don't even have words for that experience, took the historic tour of the hotel the next day, WOW! What an experience! I am truly in love with this hotel and can't wait until we are there for our Christmas Party.

Hope you enjoy these pictures, they were a blast to take!



Our favorite bartender!

Artwork in the catacombs


I have soooo many other pictures, that I want to share, so, today I am going to put them on my Picassa in a format so you can see more!

My heart hurts!

 Graduation caps...

Well, I tried to get these to the graduation for the kids, that will teach me to put them in the back seat of the truck and drive through dirt roads, what a mess! I couldn't give them to the kids, when I parked and opened the back door, the sight took my breath away.

Then the tears hit, disaster! Well as my sister says "No good deed goes unpunished!

Well I saved some to give to my sons tomorrow, but the rest, total loss!

Well today is the day!

This is the last day of High School for my twins! What a wild ride, have been battling depression and manic behavior, very strange if I say so myself.

I have been getting ready for tomorrow "graduation day". With Andy's ex-wife coming in, boys not wanting a graduation party, to that I ask "Isn't everything worth a party, especially a graduation!" Well, I picked myself up and said "Well we will just go out to dinner and call it a night. Now I feel as though I have way too much time on my hands, rather strange feeling.

However, I did make it a goal for myself for the kindergarten class I have been TAing in. I made the graduation caps for these great little kids and am heading over there this morning to see these cuties!

The caps were extremely easy to make, considering anything with chocolate scares to me work with, so this was a huge leap for me. I just kept laughing when I was making them. Andy loved them and they are absolutely precious!




I loved putting these together and can't wait to give them to these kids.

Have a great day and now I promise not to wait too long before I post again, can't believe it had been two weeks!