Paityn and Tony (the horse) meet again

and the hope of getting a horse of her own only grows stronger

She already has the name picked out.

It would be SO much more fun...if only the weather would cooperate!

It's better than CHICKENS!!!

You may remember last spring when Paityn visited a farm with a friend. She came home and put 2 goose eggs and 6 chicken eggs in the fridge. What we DIDN'T know was that the other half of the dozen was in her room...wrapped in blankets...on the baseboard heater..."hatching". Of course when we realized she'd turned her room into an incubator, we explained that we couldn't burn the house down, and that THAT kind of heat would cook the eggs anyway, etc., etc., etc.

So then she was devastated. She'd "killed" the chickens. She was SO sad, and there were lots of tears. Now...I need to add here...we normally just let the tears flow. I mean...tears don't usually work around here. There are two female children in the house (one being a teenager), so we've seen lots of 'em, and we're pretty much immune. But this was serious heartbreak. So we went online and ordered an incubator. I doubted that the eggs had even been fertilized, and even if they had, surely she'd cooked them on that heater. Besides...even if they were fertile, and even if they weren't cooked, chicken eggs are only viable for about 2 weeks, and that's how long it took to get the incubator.

This kid researched all there was to know about raising chickens. She was a walking encyclopedia of chicken facts and coop building. And would you believe...one little chick did develop. When it was time to hatch, we had to leave town. She held that incubator, plugged in, the entire 8 hour trip there and the 8 hour trip back. But the poor thing never hatched. :( So then we ordered fertilized eggs. Unfortunately, the post office scrambled them. Kudos to the seller...the eggs never broke, even though the box was destroyed and had to be replaced en route. But, nonetheless, they didn't develop into baby chicks.

Somewhere in the midst of all the heartbreak, apparently we promised that THIS spring we'd get live chicks. I use the word "we" rather loosely...I really don't recall there being any "we" to it. Regardless..."we" were playing the odds...the odds that by this spring, she wouldn't give a flip about chickens. WRONG! We've been able to put her off so far, due to the weather.

A few weeks ago, she asked for a bird. She's had one on her Christmas list for several years. So I offered her a deal. She could get a bird INSTEAD of chickens. (There's no chance of ME trudging through 2 feet of snow at 20 below to feed a parakeet) She declined. It had to be chicks. Until Saturday, when there was a change of heart. We were taking the dog to be groomed, and there were BIRDS. I'm sure she was starting to think it was never going to stop snowing and she would NEVER get her chicks. The birds were within reach. So she gave a little speech about how she'd realized what a huge responsibility it would be to raise chickens, and how it would be a big job with the bad weather, yada, yada, yada. She could have saved the sales pitch...I was SOLD! I'll take a parakeet over chickens any day!

So now she has a parakeet named "Sky".



I can't believe how quickly they've bonded.



The two have spent HOURS together.



I think it's love. :)

Do your kids ever want your attention, and, at the moment, you're just a little "too busy". You put them on hold rather than stop what you're doing. Then later, you realize that what you were doing wasn't THAT important, and you really weren't SO busy that you couldn't put it aside for a moment.

Paityn loves to sew. She has her own machine in her room. Her "designs" may not be quite ready for eBay or Etsy, but I like that she figures things out on her own. She doesn't use a pattern. Isn't that sort of like "playing by ear" or something?? I like to think so. Granted, she has a slit in the fabric rather than an official buttonhole, and maybe there are a few puckers, but for 10, I think she does pretty good.

So she sewed up a tote the other day. I don't know how she figures out how big and what shape to make each piece, but she does. She was SO proud of this tote. Of course I praised her...ranted and raved about what a great job she did. But when she wanted to send a picture to "MeMe", I didn't have "time" at the moment to stop what I was doing and mess around with the camera, computer, etc. Besides, "MeMe" is away from home and doesn't have computer access at the moment, so, in my logical adult mind, it really didn't matter anyway.

This was what I found on my camera the next morning when she was away at school:


Do you think she's been watching me a little? Notice the set up for the picture? It seems a little boutiquish to me. Yeah...I think she's been paying attention. Maybe I need to pay a little more attention to her.

The end of a season

This weekend marked the end of the season for my girls' traveling basketball teams. It was sad to see it end, yet it will be nice to have our weekends back. These girls practiced 3-4 nights a week, so we'll be adjusting back to a slower routine in the evenings, which will also be kind of nice.

I do love to see my #12 and #2 play ball though!!! I have two girls with a LOT of intensity.

This was the last year for Cassidy to play on this team, as she'll technically be in high school next year (sniff sniff), although the 9th graders are still in the jr. high building. For Paityn, it's only the beginning. In fact, technically, she wasn't old enough for the team, but she and another 4th grader played, and thank goodness they did. They needed players, and, especially for 4th graders, they added a LOT to the team. They didn't win a lot of games, but it was a great learning experience for them. They were often playing against girls older and much bigger than them, so they did good.

So for now, it's over, but we'll be back again next year for those weekend road trips!! :)

Missing my girl

It's been a quiet week around our house. We haven't heard Paityn's voice since Monday morning about 7:45 a.m. when we left her on the bus in the school parking lot, headed for an amazing experience. Her 4th grade class, along with the other 4th grade class from her school (about 40 10-yr-olds), along with a handful of teachers, headed for Jackson, Wyoming for 4 nights and 3 days at the Teton Science School, where they would snow shoe and cross-country ski with real scientists to do fieldwork and observe wildlife like nowhere else in the world.

The roads were closed on Sunday, so we really had our doubts that they'd actually get to leave. But...the roads opened up, and the trip was on. Monday was a difficult day. There's the distance thing...the weather thing...the road thing...the "she's only 10" thing. But there was also the "once in a lifetime opportunity" thing. And I couldn't take that away from her. We finally go the call in the late afternoon that they'd arrived, safe and sound, and I started to breath again.

To put things in perspective, the dog refused to even go outside to potty for the first 24 hours. (what a bladder this guy has!!) I guess he was waiting for her to come home.

I miss my silly, sweet, quirky kid. I miss her bringing her box of conversation starters to the dinner table. I miss waking her up in the morning and putting her to bed at night. And I can't WAIT to hear the tales she has to tell about this incredible trip she just experienced.

She's on her way home...I'm counting the hours. Only about 4 1/2 hours before they arrive. Then I'll breath again...again.

Meet my nieces

I've been thinking about them a lot lately, after spending so much time with them at Christmas.

This is Carley.

Carley is 5-years-old and goes to kindergarten. She's a great reader, and SO very smart!! Carley is a quiet observer. She could teach most of us adults a thing or two about watching and listening. Often times, she seems beyond her years, but once in awhile, the silliness of a 5-year-old comes out. She's good at the things she does because she pays attention. She REALLY pays attention.

This is Kadyn.

Kadyn will turn 4-years-old in March. However, she's "TIRED" of being "this many" (three fingers), so she has declared that she's "THIS MANY" (four fingers). Kadyn is a FIREBALL, which delights me to no end. When my girls were younger and going through the "terrible two's", "terrible three's", "terrible four's", etc., etc., etc., my brother was a very WISE young college kid. He had an endless supply of wisdom for me...things he would and would not allow, etc. Kadyn...well...she's taught him a thing or two about parenting!!! lol You know...the things like "some have a mind of their own, no matter what you do"...stuff like that. And, by the way, Mom, Dad, Nathan....you can all stop blaming that stubborn streak on ME!!!! I have NO idea WHERE she gets that!!!

Kadyn is just a little bit of a thing. She's the kind of kid who leaves you no choice but to fall in love with her. She's all of 22 lbs., and proud of it. In fact, when I picked her up to hug her recently, I teasingly told her she had no bottom. Boy, did she straighten me out about that!! Yes she DOES have a bottom, because "ALL KIDS HAVE BOTTOMS!!!!!" I stand corrected!!!

There's definitely something special about nieces. Despite the miles between us, and the difference in ages between them and my girls, they are all still very close. We truly enjoy the time we get to spend with them.

Is this odd?

This morning's discovery has prompted me to add a new song to my playlist. If it weren't for kids, there wouldn't be marshmallows in my egg box. There are many things that wouldn't happen...many experiences we would never have...if it weren't for kids. Some of those things are very perplexing. I have wracked my brain, and I can come up with no reason why someone would put marshmallows in the egg box in the fridge. But hey...I'm sure there's a logical explanation. Chris and I pondered this early this morning. Possibly someone wanted hard marshmallows??? I noticed the other day, that someone had left the twisty off of the marshmallow bag, so it's possible someone thought the marshmallows would become edible again if put in with the eggs????? I'm sure I can never imagine the logic behind this. And this, by the way, does not even come close to topping the list of strange mysteries that occur in our house. It only makes the "Top Strange Things At 6:00 This Morning" list. As I said to Chris this morning, just think what we'd be missing....if it weren't for kids.