Whisked Away!

One of the things I gave Cowboy for our anniversary was a new whisk. I know this may sound weird, but everytime he's gone to make pancakes lately I have heard, "We used to have a wire whisk. Too bad we don't anymore." He knows full well what happened to our whisk, he just loves bugging me. We both love attempting to get under each others' skin. He's much more successful than me. Nothing ruffles that guy's feathers! I, on the other hand, get my feathers ruffled WAY too easily.

OK, to the missing whisk. On September 1 I had the privilege of hanging out with my dad in his barn while Miss B's pig, Pearl, had babies. We had to be there because Pearl turned into a witch (my dad's word for her for the day) when she had her babies. She killed the first one before he could get to the farm that day. She would have killed all the others if we had not been vigilent about protecting their little lives that day.

My dad grew up on a farm, but I did not. He didn't purchase his first piece of land until about the same time as I married Cowboy. Cattle are his true passion, but he bought a couple of pigs last year for the grandkids to show. Little did he know when he bought those pigs just how much work they were going to be!

Back to baby pig delivery day. C-Man stayed with my dad for a few hours that day. They needed more supplies (food, drinks, and a wire whisk to mix some man-made colostrum) so we headed out there in the afternoon. It was also Opening Day of Dove Season (capitalized because it is a holiday), which meant Cowboy and some of his comrades would be heading to the farm anyway to shoot some birds. So, as a family, the rest of us gathered supplies and hunting gear for the afternoon/evening.

By the time we got there my dad was exhausted and C-Man was ready to leave his post as the labor and delivery nurse. I took over C-Man's job so that he could run off and "hunt" with his dad and Grandad. Miss B & Cowboy also went hunting. Dad, the lead obstetrician, and I stayed in the barn. I don't recall how many alive babies there were at the time, maybe 4. I was exhilerated! What fun! I got to help with newborns. Who doesn't love a newborn? OK, I know the newborns were only pigs, but they were SO cute!

I quickly learned my high-pressure job. There were huge stakes involved--little lives. My job was to help my dad grab the babies once they were born, wipe them down, cut their umbilical cords, dip them in iodine, and tie them off. The scariest job came next. The babies were placed with their mama to nurse. However, Pearl's main goal in life was to kill her babies once they were born. One of us had to constantly stand by her head with a long stick thing (my farm implements' vocabulary is miniscule) and fling the babies away from her head's reach. At first I was afraid I would hurt these precious newborns. Then I witnessed Pearl being the witch that she was named that day! YIKES--that woman had some serious hormonal issues going on during delivery. If the babies got close she would make a horrible sound that even the dove hunters could hear. She would try to slash them with her teeth, like she did the first one. At one point she stood up and then waited until one of the babies got under her to try to nurse and she laid back down on top of it. It's not easy getting a laboring several hundred pound hog off a little newborn!

We finally gave up on allowing her babies the chance to nurse on their mama. Our goal became keeping them warm. We sent my brother-in-law and sister to look for colostrum (man-made) at a fairly local farm store. We mixed colostrum and attempted to bottle feed those sweet newborns. At the end of the long day we placed her six living newborns with Tink, the other mama, who did her best to care for these newborns alongside her 2-week olds. Unfortunately, only 1 of Pearl's baby survived. :(

Needless to say, we never regained posseession of the wire whisk. Our old whisk was placed on a much more major mission than pancake-making. It was on a life-saving mission. And as for Cowboy? Pancake-making has not been the same since the loss of his wire whisk. In a few minutes Cowboy will wake up and happily make a batch of pancakes with his new wire whisk. We also might even have a side of bacon or sausage with our pancakes. Nothing's better than farm-fresh pork for breakfast. (Thanks, Pearl, for tasting so yummy!)

Sweet 16

Today Cowboy & I are celebrating our Sweet 16! Oh, and the years have been sweet!

Because Cowboy always likes to talk in terms of dates and what happened on them, I did my best to recap only the big events from each year of our married lives.

Don't feel obligated to read...this is truly part of my gift to him.

Year 1--On Spring Break we took our Honeymoon to Colorado--both of us being too young to be the driver of our rental car. I had to read that stupid book, Anpao, for Dr. McKinley's Children's Literature class. (Dr. McKinley was such a godly man and it broke my heart 2 years after I graduated from OSU to learn that he and one of his daughters died in a horrible car wreck).

Year 2--We both graduated from OSU together.

Year 3--We got our first dog together, Bogey. Little did we know that she was going to exceed the pet weight limit at our apartment very quickly!!! We saved for our first house and on August 17th we moved into our 1st home at 1733 Ridgeway Dr.

Year 4--We took a road trip to Tennessee. We enjoyed our time planning a vacation just for us. Also, after 13 long months of trying to have a baby, I was expecting our first child.

Year 5--Miss B was born! Quickly we learned what financial sacrifices we were willing to make so that I could stay home. I quit my teaching job and began my job as Mommy. We kept up with our regular activities with a very easy baby in tow.

Year 6--Cowboy lost his job. Although we were scared out of our minds, God showed us His providence. We survived it and God showed us he had a better plan. I began teaching for PET, later to become Excel.

Year 7--We went to Disney World for the first time. We tried to have a second child and cut our time in half! WOO HOO! It only took 6 months to conceive this time.

Year 8--C-Man was born and we learned what it was like to have a "difficult" baby. He was born via an emergency c-section and immediately afterward I knew I wasn't finished having kids. Besides his c-section birth, he wouldn't take a bottle or pacifier, was colicky, had a sever allergic reaction to an antibiotic, ...

Year 9--We began to seriously consider moving to a bigger house.

Year 10--We moved to Surrey, where both of our parents live, after living with Cowboy's parents for a few months. (They were very sweet to let us invade their home for so long). We officially began our homeschool journey with Miss b being in Kindergarten.

Year 11--Our family became involved with a sweet little homeschool co-op. We had no idea when we began this that it would later become what it is today. (www.keystonecooperative.com)


Year 12--I finally convinced Cowboy we needed a third child. Even though my womb had known this for a while, he was finally on board with this plan. We took the kiddos on a vacation that didn't involve our family. We had a great time in Colorado Springs with them.

Year 13--By this time we desperately wanted another child. We had done the initial fertility tests again (like we did before our first child) and things looked rather bleak for us. So...I made an appointment with a fertility specialist. The night before the appointment, Cowboy gave me the heart-to-heart about how ridiculous this was that we had 2 healthy kids and were potentially looking at fertility treatments. We cancelled the appointment and soon-after began paperwork to become foster/adoptive parents.

Year 14--Little I came home. He was almost 10 months old and weighed 13 pounds. It took little time for us to fall in love with him.

Year 15--We took the 2 big kids on a fabulous 8-night trip to Disney World. We left Little I with Aunt Melody so we could have an overload of big kid fun!!! Little Bit was born and came from the hospital straight to our home.

Year 16--My parents took me and Cowboy and both of my sisters and their husbands on a trip to Puerto Vallarta to celebrate their 40th anniversary. We had the most amazing time!!!

16 Years Ago

Sixteen years ago tonight I said goodnight to Cowboy and parted ways with him before bedtime for the last time. I went to my parents' house and stayed up late talking to my childhood friend who came to town to help me with the Big Day. We giggled just as we had as children. We talked about how crazy it was that I was actually getting married the next day.

Now when I look back on it I realize it must have seemed crazy to many people. We were young. I was 20 and he was 21. We were still in college. The odds were against us. I'm sure our parents caught flack from people who like to stick their noses where they don't belong.

Looking back, though, there's nothing I would change!

I LOVE that we got married young. I LOVE that we didn't have any money. I LOVE that we were madly in love with each other. (& we still are!) I LOVE that we survived finals together as a married couple. I LOVE that Cowboy took pictures of me in our bed with notes I was studying propped up in front of me while I was fast asleep. (Some things never change). I LOVE that the weekend we got married we moved him into my apartment and the old lady downstairs instantly hated him (he walked too loudly)! I LOVE that we went to Lambda Chi parties as a married couple. I LOVE that we got to babysit once a week together for two very precious little girls while we were still in college. I LOVE that we don't remember much of life without the other. I LOVE that when we went on our honeymoon I wasn't even old enough to play those silly slot machines at Cripple Creek. I LOVE that neither of us were old enough to drive the rental car on our honeymoon.

I LOVE COWBOY!!!

What do you call a female elephant?

A mom came to me at the end of our homeschool co-op day today and said, "Hey! I've got to tell you what C-Man said today." I stopped dead in my tracks with my short little procession of preschoolers looking for their moms to hear what she had to say. During their Land Animals (Apologia Zoology 3) class the teacher asked if anyone knew what the name of a female elephant was. My son raised his hand instantly and told her it was Cinderelephant!

I think I tried to fake a shocked face, but I'm not a good actor. Nothing that kid says could really shock me. He did recently put on his blog that Uranus has a black hole called the chocolate chunker. (A mom couldn't be prouder).

The Judge who oversaw Little I's case and finalized his adoption for us does a great job of involving the whole family in the finalization. He not only swore in me and Cowboy, but also Miss B. Anyway, he spoke to C-Man about the fact that people would question whether or not he and Little I were actually brothers. He told C-Man he needed to think of crazy stories to tell people when they questioned the 2 of them. He also said that C-Man should treat Little I like any other siblings, atomic wedgies and all. If the Judge only knew who he was dealing with! This kid NEVER needs to be asked to come up with a funny story about anything. However, since he was given this order from a Judge, he obeyed.

The stories he's come up with have to do with chocolate dipping machines, time variations in a tanning bed, twins separated at birth, etc.

Not Me! Monday

OK, here we are at another Not Me! Monday. You seriously need to check out MckMama's blog at www.mycharmingkids.net.



So I went out with Cowboy the other night and did NOT overeat at Olive Garden and I totally DID NOT ignore their little low-fat olive branch symbol on their no-taste menu items. Not me!

Then I did not suggest that we go out for cupcakes and hot cocoa. Furthermore, I would never get the largest size hot cocoa and also ask for whipped cream.

I did not fall asleep on the couch last night while "grading" papers. That would never happen to someone as alert and studious as me!

While caravaning with 2 church vans to and from Colorado last week, my old bladder was never the reason for more frequent stops. I did not force the driver to pull over for a bathroom break, even though the other van was in the lead, causing a delay for the whole group. I am too considerate of others to do something like that.

Saturday morning I did not thoroughly enjoy adult conversation after a meeting while my sweet Cowboy was at home with 2 boys taking down all the Christmas decorations. What kind of a wife do you think I am? I'm appalled to think you'd believe I would knowingly leave him at home doing that gloriously fun work.

Home Alone

Last night we left the munchkins home alone for the first time. OK, they weren't completely alone. Cowboy & I went out on a double date with another couple, so their kids were also at our house. Just so you know, we have left our 3 munchkins home alone during the day before, but never after dark.

We left them with plenty of food for dinner and snacks, 4 Wii remotes, and each other. The alarm was to be set as soon as we left the house. We were feeling pretty good about it all.

We ate dinner, then headed to Cuppies & Joe , a new place we had just learned about this week. We found a parking place and made our way into the old, quaint house that is home to this yummy spot. Once we got inside we began feeling a bit like the house we were in, OLD! There were several college-age-looking kids there hanging out. We ordered our cupcakes and drinks, then found a table and a game to play. We sat around eating and playing Sequence for quite a while before we got the call. The kids wanted to know if we were going to a movie. We told them no, we were having coffee, cocoa, and dessert. They told us to call before we headed home. We assumed they needed all the time they could get to put things back in order.

A little before 10 we got another call saying one of our children got scared of some noises and they called my parents, who live directly across the street. My dad walked over and got the child and took the child to their house to be loved on for a while.

We arrived back home close to 11 to a white-covered sweetgum tree in our front yard. No, we didn't get snow. We got toilet-papered! Apparently those middle school boys who did the t.p.-ing had made the noise that scared one of our children. The inside of the house was fairly clean and everyone survived it!

Cowboy & I did far-better than survive it, though! We're ready for more date nights!!!

Needing a Little Recharge

So here's a look at what our house was like on Christmas evening. Everything takes batteries! It's all I can do to keep the uncharged swapped out for the charged. OK. Let's be honest. It's all Cowboy can do to keep the Wii remotes, Guitar Praise guitar, C-Man's new spy vehicle, Miss B's camera, Little I's V-Smile handheld game (basically a DS for preschoolers), and our camera equipped with fully charged batteries. This list doesn't even include the items around the house that must be plugged in to be recharged (I-pods, cell phones, DS, Gameboys, video camera).
As I read historical fiction books to my kids we discuss how we love living today with so many modern conveniences, although I can't help but have a slight yearning for a more simple time.