Snow Pictures

We woke to SNOW!!! this morning. It is still snowing and we have some drifts that are 3+ foot deep. It is about 5 or 6 inches else where.
Merry Chirstmas and Happy New Year everybody.

Bloggy blog blog blog...

Here is what has been going on...

We put together some snowman ornaments. This craft has been around here for several years and we decided it was time to put them together. I just relized I didn't get a "finished" picture.

This is what I saw when my sister came for a visit and brought her kidos. Little feet. He is 5 months in this picture.

We worked on putting window trim up. Little by little this house will get built.

I found a good deal at a yard sale. This yogurt maker cost me $5, nope I forgot, I got it half price for $2.50. It was still new in the box. One of the lids is cracked from age but it will still work. This is the second one I got. The first one did cost $5.00 several years ago and it wasn't new. Most of the lids are cracked on it.

This is our new dog, Strike. He is half Corgi and half Jack Russell.

A little playing in the leaves.

Just for fun.

A puzzle to try.

Never ending battle

I have been fighting an unending battle today. Everytime I turn around there are flies.

I killed hundres of them this morning but they keep showing up!!! I'm keeping the doors shut.

AAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!

Life as it happens

This picture isn't very clear but I thought I would share it anyway. It is lots of butterflies on a tree. The Monarch Butterfly was migrating and stopped here for a rest. (Well, a few blocks away at my friends house.)



Lickin' the "spoons."

My dad and me on our birthday.

Jonathan learned to ride his bike without training wheels. If you notice in the picture, they are still on the bike but bent up.

Now Daddy is taking them off.

Jonathan got to help a little. Then Daddy took over again.

Way to go!!!

B-day time...

Well, the day is almost here. I have one year and one day to be in my 30's. Wow!! 39....

My dad and I share our birthdays. I think is is really special. I wouldn't want it any other way.

We are going to have a birthday party here at my house. We are going to have Breakfast for Dinner. Yum!!

Pancakes
Bisquits
Gravy
Scrambled Eggs
Sausage
Bacon
and maybe some hashbrown.

I expect to have at least 18 people, more or less.

My dad will be 64 this year.

So...Happy Birthday to us. LOL.

A kid funny.

We were sitting at the table after lunch. We had been playing "I spy" by spelling words and then Jonathan figuring out what we spelled and spied. Well, it was his turn to spell something and he spelled "bible" because he seen it on a book on the shelf behind Daddy. Then he spelled "landscaping".. Daddy said the word and then asked Jonathan if he knew what it meant.

Jonathan said "yes, it means scaping from the land of America" I laughed do hard. I thought I would roll on the floor.

Happy Birthday!!

We celebrated Jonathan's 6th birthday Tuesday, the 18th. WOW!

He is such a blessing to us!

Below are some of our guests. Don't get scared. LOL.

Here are Daddy and Son playing with Transformers. I think he had a wonderful Birthday

Flylady update

Howdy.

Thought I would post an update since I finished my baby steps on FlyLady.

I am doing pretty good. I still shine my sink, I still swish and swipe the bathroom. I have done some decluttering but I am having a hard time doing it everyday like I should. I have so much that needs doing. I tried to clean out a room the other day, I was just going to work on it 30 minutes...I couldn't do it. I got too frustrated. I don't know what to do with that stuff. grr...

I will try again some day.

I finally got half of the porch cleaned off. I still need to do the other half. Just more stuff to find a place for..

I have been keeping my side of the bedroom pretty clean. I work on hot spots a few times a day.

There are a few of the steps that I still need to make a habit. Making time for myself, decluttering, etc. I have been keeping up with the wash better this month. It is a good feeling to always have clean socks.

Flylady Days 30 and 31

Day 30: Check calender for next months events.

Good idea. I missed my scheduled nursery day this month. I didn't put it on my calender. It was pinned to my fridge but I just missed it anyway. I need to stay ahead.

We don't have any birthdays next month so the only thing right now I can see to keep in mind is my time in the nursery at church.

I looked at day 31 today and there isn't anything to do. FlyLady is proud of me. :)

I have started adding some of the Zone cleaning and am working on adding some weekly habits.

I will not give up!! I will fly someday, I will soar. Yee haw.

Flylady - Day 29

Ok. Time for my FlyLady post.

Day 29: Set time to enjoy the Weekly Pamper Mission. These are listed on the FlyLady web site. I am going to check them out. I have some ideas myself. I just need to figure out when would be a good time to do it.

Here are a few things I will do:
-Milk bath. If you have never done this before, you should try it. Really. Of course I have fresh goat milk to use and I come out of the bath feeling soft and silky.

-Do my nails.

_This I got off Flylady...Soak feet in warm water with some oil and marbles. The marbles help massage the feet. This I can't wait to try.

Flylady - Day 28 and counting

Today, Day 28. Eat good foods, drink water and get your rest. I have put this in my control journal to remind me.

I started a page in my CT that is for this purpose. I have decided to cut back on the amount of sugar I am taking in. I found a work sheet online that I want to do with my son. We list common foods that we eat and how much sugar is in each. Then we work on lowering the sugar we consume. I have the worksheet printed but haven't looked over it with Jonathan.

It mentions that according to the US Department of Agriculture, people consuming 2,000 calories a day should eat no more than about 10 teaspoons of refined sugar per day. That is 40 grams or 1 can of soda. WOW.

I have been doing pretty good on this. There are days we go to DQ and get a Blizzard. At our DQ, the Blizzards, coke floats and drinks are only .99 cents from 3-5pm on week days. That is hard to stay away from. LOL. Anywho, if I have a blizzard one day, I will cut down even more the next day. A Banana Split Blizzard has 58 grams of sugar, that is 14 1/2 teaspoons of sugar. eeekk.

I am going in baby steps to a healthier life. Right now, Cut Down on Sugar. When I get that down pretty good, I will add another step. Not sure what it will be though.

Ok, now I am thirsty. I need water!!
See ya!

Flylady Day 27

Today is Thursday, and it has been 27 days since I started following the baby steps at FlyLady. I am excited that I have stuck to it this long. I have enjoyed putting together my Control Journal. I do hope that once the baby steps are done I don't give up and quit. I really like going and seeing what my new habit is going to be. I do believe I will always keep my sink shiny. I really like that enough to not let it go.

The swish and swipe in the bathroom...I don't like doing it but I do like the clean bathroom every day. I was doing it right when I got up but I think I am going to change that and do it when I get back from the goats. That way I am not waking up cleaning the bathroom. ugg..

Since I started doing Kelly's mission's, it gives me something specific to work on, like this week we are cleaning in the kitchen. I cleaned out my pantry today and there is lots more room in there now. :)

Today's baby step is "What's For Dinner?" I need to think about what is for dinner before 6 pm that day. This will be helpful. LOL. There have been so many day that I am like, "what am I going to fix for dinner?" and it is time to be eating. Tonight we are having shake and baked chicken tacos.

I need to get my control journal out and add this habit to it. I would like to know that morning what I am having for dinner so I will put it in my morning routine.

Day 25 on FlyLady.net says to read how the routines got started. That was interesting. She says your house didn't get dirty over night so don't expect it to get cleaned in a day.

Anywho, on to today, Day 26... I was to read the last sentence in any FlyLady email. I did it and am not going to tell what it is. nany, nany, boo boo. :)

Yesterday, I did my mission for the day. I cleaned out from under my kitchen sink. I didn't throw EVERYthing away but I did move some stuff out and toss some. I am working on making room for my dish drainer so I can start storing it there instead of on the counter top. It seems there are always dishes in it... This is something that will take some time to work on, washing the dishes and putting them up right away.

I took some time to organize some of my drawers in my dresser. Much nicer to look at.

I also took some stuff that was outside to the storage. It is amazing what a little rain will make a person do. I didn't want it getting wet so what other choice did I have? hehe. I also loaded the car with stuff to take to Goodwill as I go by there tomorrow.

Today, the mission is to declutter the plastic wares. Get rid of extra lids and old melted bowls etc. I hardly have any of this stuff. We don't have a microwave so our stuff has to be warmed either on the stove or in the toaster oven. Plastic don't work too well there. LOL. So, instead of doing this, I cleaned around my washer and dryer which is close to the kitchen. There was some old stuff that needed throwing away and I washed off the bleach bottles and soap bottles. It is looking much better over there. I still have a little more to do.

Have a good day.

Catching up and Flying

Now, on to my Flying...

I have been trucking right along, just not having time to write about it.

I am having a hard time remembering where I left off, what day I last posted about.

Over the weekend, I started working on getting my Control Journal organized and filled out. I had forgotten there were baby steps to getting this done until I came to day 22 and it said, " Do you know where your Control Journal is?"

I did know where it was and am using it a lot but I went to a link and seen the baby steps to filling out and organizing the CT. So I have been working on that some.

Yesterday was Day 23 and I have set my afternoon routines. This was actually part of the Control Journal baby steps so I was a little ahead.

Today, Day 24 said to add Swish and Swipe to my morning routine. Ha, done that. Ye haw.

One of the baby steps for the CT was to make a page for Weekly plans. It mentioned doing Kelly's Missions which are posted each day. On Sunday, an email comes with the missions for the whole week so I printed them off.

This week we are working in the kitchen. I cleaned my counter tops today. I moved all the stuff around and got all the hidden dust bunnies and bread crumbs.

Monday are also the Weekly Home Blessing Hour which you can read about here.


Ok, I need to get ready for bed. This computer should have been off 45 minutes ago...oops. :)

The latest phone calls

Ok, the phone rings....I answer...."Hello?"
On the other end I hear, "Please hold for the next available operator."

Hahaha this is so funny. Do they really expect me to hold when they are the ones doing the calling. hahaha....

Ok, had to get that out of my system.

My FlyLady update and Day 20.

I wanted to update my FlyLady experience.


So far my control Journal says:


Morning Routine:


-Get Dressed to shoes....
I have been doing this pretty good. It really isn't a hard struggle for me. I guess it was already a habit. Now, I do take my shoes off sometimes during the day but can't go too long without them.


-Swish & Swipe the bathroom....
I have been doing this pretty good lately. I felt like I was using too many paper towels. The other day we went shopping and I was going to get some cheap paper towels to use but I found some reusable wipes. Hummm. I thought. These would probably work pretty good. I bought two packages, one for the bathroom and one for the kitchen. So far I am pleased with them.

-Recognize negative voices and change them...
Been dong pretty good on this. It takes lots of work.





-Read reminders. Emails from Flylady.
I do this and it is encouraging.



_Hot Spots...
I have one Hot Spot that I have been keeping cleaned. I am so proud...:) It has always been a problem and it always made me feel yucky when I seen it. Now I smile! when I look there. I put out this spot in the mornings. My other big hot spot is in my room and I don't do as good on it. I tend to leave a pile of books I am reading/looking at by my bed.


-Declutter 15 minutes....
I have been decluttering but I don't set the timer. I really should so I can make sure I do go at least 15 minutes.



-5 minute room rescue...
Haven't been doing this the way I would like too.



-15 minutes of inspiration....
This could use some work. I have added a few things to my control journal that inspire me. Some are scriptures, so are just emails or blogs that I printed out.



-Look at calender....
I printed a couple of calender pages for this month. One for my control journal and one for the rest of the family to see.



-Make bed....
My husband usually does this. I was going to get Little Man to start making his every morning but I haven't done too good on that. Something to work on.



-Read 11 Commandments...
These are interesting and do inspire me or cause me to want to do them.


Now today is the 20th day in my FlyLady adventure. It says to add laundry to my daily routine. Ok. This months habit to get into is laundry so I have started doing 1 -2 loads a day. Right now I am washing load number 3. These are some smaller clothes that my son had outgrown a long time ago and they were sitting by the washer since the yard sale. Well, I am getting them cleaned and they will go to Goodwill along with a lot of the other leftover yard sale stuff.

I like hanging the clothes out on the line. Well, I don't just like the process but it saves money on electricity and I get to get outside and get some vitamin D (sun shine). Clothes dry pretty quick on these HOT days. These clothes were washed and hung out this morning and they are already put up. I have started trying something new...I take my hangers outside with me and hang the clothes as I take them down. The ones that fold, I fold them before I put them in the basket. I just started this yesterday and I like it so far. It saves a few minutes in the whole process.

Now, the Night Routine:

-Put out Hot Spots...

This is the one by the bed right now...

-Set out clothes...

I don't do this every night but most.

-Shine Sink....

I have only missed one night since I started. That was accident.

-Go to bed at a decent hour and stick to it.

This one is hard to get in the habit of. I have been gone late a couple times this week but I think I still got to bed by 10. Maybe 10:30 one night.

I feel I am doing good. I still feel better about my house and myself so I think it is worth the effort.

Flylady Day 19

I missed a few days of flying since I worked and was worn out when I got home. I am doing day 19 on FlyLady.

I am to read a testimonial.......

.....Done that.

Now I need to get busy working and cleaning if I can stay awake. I want a nap...

I have some decluttering to do since the yard sale. Everything is still a mess since I haven't been home and/or in the mood to clean. Also, when it is so hot, I don't want to do much.

Here is what I need to get done. I will work a little at a time and eventually it will be gone.

Flylady Days 17 and 18

Yesterday we had our yard sale. We did pretty good. Better than the last yard sale we had.

It was later in the day when I checked what I was to do on Day 17 on Flylady.net.
It was to set a specific bed time and stick to it. I have wanted to do this for a long time but it has been hard getting baths and all done and still get in bed at a decent time. I have to figure out when to actually start getting ready for bed. One thing that bogs me down is this computer. I think it needs to be turned off early so I can focus on bed time routines. Here is what I am planning:

-Computer off by 7:30 pm
-Baths for 3 people done by 8:30
-In bed by 9 for the little man and
-hopefully for husband and myself, 9:30

This way I can get up early and enjoy the morning sipping coffee in the porch swing before I go milk and feed the goats.

I will let you know later how it is going.

Now for today, Day 18:

I am to read FlyLady's 11 commandments. Oh boy.. Hang on, I am going to read it now....

...Ok, I read them. I think I will print them and put them in my control journal so I can look at them often. Number 4 is the one to work on...

Don't allow yourself to be sidetracked by the computer.

See, told you it was what was messing me up. LOL.

So far I have been doing good on shining my sink and swishing and swiping the bathroom. I need to work more on decluttering. I kind of let it go since I was getting ready for the yard sale. Now my house it really a mess with all the stuff that didn't sell. I am thinking Good Will now. I just don't want to see it anymore!!

I have printed out a calender with some of our events/appointments on it. The main one that my son won't let me forget is his birthday this month. He is turning 6. Can't believe it has been that long since he came into our life. I am truly blessed by his presents.

I have been setting my clothes out most of the time. I did forget last night but all I wanted to do was go to bed!! I was working on getting there at a decent time like I am suppose to. LOL.

This months habit to get into is Laundry. FlyLady says one load a day keeps chaos away.
I will read about this and then start practicing it this month. I will report on this habit later.

Ok, now I am off to check my control journal and print those commandments for reviewing later.
Bye

Flylady, Day 16

Ok, yesterday I said I had been doing the Flylady routines for 3 weeks. Hahaha, I was wrong, it has only been TWO weeks. I am STARTING the 3rd week.

I am currently on Day 16. I am to read a FlyLady email. That wasn't hard, I read about 3 of them. Some are testimonies from other Flyladies about how the system or a tool is working for them. Some are interesting, some I could do without.

I asked my husband last night if I seemed different. He said yes. He asked if it was because of the FlyLady site and what I was doing with the house. I said I think it is. He asked if I felt different, I said yes. It is working for me. YES!!

Flylady, Day 15

I have been using FlyLady for 3 weeks now and I can feel a difference. I feel better about myself and my house.

Today was Day 15. Make your bed.

Since this already gets done anyway, I will be working on my son's bed. Getting him to make his each morning. He was doing pretty good a few weeks ago but got out of the habit. Time to start again.

A made bed is always much nicer to look at and it keeps you from crawling back in later in the day. (I just lay on top of mine) LOL.

BTW, my husband is the one that usually makes the bed since he is usually the last one out.

Flylady, Day 14

I think I must have skipped my baby step on FlyLady yesterday. So, I am on Day 14 today.

Go read one of Kelley's essays. It is a guide on how to use a calender. Ok, this should be interesting.

I have been faithful in keeping my sink shiny.

Yesterday I declutter a LOT in the master bedroom. We are getting ready for that yard sale. I have more to go through today. I want it to be a BIG yard sale!! I want people to want to stop.

I got my vanity area cleaned up. It don't look this good now though. LOL. I had to clean off the bed before we could go to sleep.

Ok, I am off to read that essay and declutter some more. See ya tomorrow.

Flylady Day 13

I got slightly off track this last weekend. I went to sell soap at Trade Days.

I kept my sink shining and kept swishing and swiping in the bathroom so that was a good feeling. There were night I didn't want to shine that sink but I did it anyway. I was always glad I did in the morning.

I started day 13 today. I was to select one of Kelly's missions and do it. I choose to take care of something in the bedroom. I had a pile of fabric that I had washed that I kept moving from basket to bed and then back to the basket. I put it in a box so I can use it later for a sewing project I plan to do.

I continued to work on my morning routines today. One thing I did that I am sooo glad to do is take the computer desk out of our room. I was able to clean where it was and then I moved my dressing vanity there so my husband would have more room on his side. I still have a lot of cleaning to do in there but it is nice to have accomplished this.

We have a bathroom that isn't a bathroom yet in our room and it is full of stuff. I did my 5 minutes room rescue there. We put the filling cabinets in there and I had to move stuff around to get it in there. Now I have to work on this room more later on also.

Cool wedding video on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0



I wanted to share this video. I was going to embed it but I can't get the code to copy and paste. It is the first time to try and I don't know what I am doing wrong.



This is a video of a wedding intrance. I watched it 4 times. It is so cool. Enjoy.

Yesterday was Day 10 in the baby steps at Flylady.net.

It said: You can do anything for 15 minutes. I did a lot of that yesterday. I sat most of the day and sewed on my quilt.

I had planned to declutter the closet but my back was bothering me so I gave that up. I might have even worked on it 5 minutes before I quit?? Hum. didn't think about that. We did declutter on Little Man's room. I am going to continue that each day for 5 minutes. I think that will not be so overwhelming for me or him.

Ok, so today is day 11:
Ok, that is easy....We are going to add an inspirational page to our Control Journal. I am to write down inspirational phrases for 15 minutes. I may spread this through out the day and not just 15 minutes straight.

This morning I got up a little earlier. I wanted to enjoy the nice cool weather before it got too hot. Now I see it is only going to be in the 80's today. LOVE IT!!

Now I am sitting here blogging instead of being outside. I do have the front door open and I can hear the drip drop of rain. It isn't raining hard but thank the Lord for it anyway. We can use all we get.

I have been practicing Swish and Swipe in the bathroom. I do it right after my morning trip to there, before I even leave the room I swish the toilet, and then grab a paper towel and swipe the mirror, sink and then the outside of the toilet and floor around it. It is so much nicer to go in there all day and have a clean toilet.

All this cleaning is getting noticed by my DH. In the past I would clean hoping he would notice but this time, it is for ME. I am going to FLY. (Finally Love Myself!)

God Bless and Good Day!

What am I up to now?

Ha, post number 50, right here. And what is it about???

My new project. I am making a quilt

This is the drawing of what I want it to look like.

Here are the fabrics minus the cream colored ones. I just got them cut today.

As you can see on the drawing, the colors are every other block and the creams are in between. On each cream colored square will be an embroidered, appliqued butterfly or flower. In the middle where the X is will be a butterfly and flower scene. I hope to start sewing this today. I will sew all the pieces together and then to the embroidering.

I made one similar a few years ago and gave it to a lady I worked for. Hers was lap sized which is all I have ever made. This time this one will be a full size. EEkk. I am excited though.

When I made the first one, I embroidered the cream squares first and them put them all together. I am sure that making the top and then embroidering will be much easier.

Ok, I am off to sew.

Are you working on any fun projects?

Decluttering on day 9 ...Flylady style

I got my binder put together. I pulled out the binder yesterday, well, late last night and washed the dust off and then this morning put my paper in. I wrote my agenda for the day...

Morning Routine

-Get dressed to shoes, hair etc. (Done)

-Write positive things (done)

-Read reminders 2 minutes (done)

-Hot Spots---2 minutes (done but will do more)

Later:

-Make Bread

-Wash whites (done)

-sweep hall

-Set out clothes for Wednesday

That is all I put in it today.

Oh, I can't forget.....

Shine sink!! I do this right before bed.

It really makes a difference.

Today is Day 9:

Declutter a few minutes at a time. Add a 5 minute room rescue to Morning Routine.

I guess I did that this morning while I thought I was working on a hot spot. I guess the hot spot needed decluttering. hahaha. I still have a ways to go with it.

Ok Beth, here is my "in between" picture. I have been working on this for a few days. I really am ready for this to be out of my room so I will stop piling stuff on it.

Since starting the baby steps at FlyLady I have started feeling better about myself and my house. I realize I have a long way to go and I might even stop for a bit but I know I can jump right back in when and if I do.

So far these are the things I do each day.

Morning Routine
- Get up and get dressed to lace up shoes; fixing your hair and face
- Looking at your posted reminders in the kitchen and bathroom
- Reading 2 minutes of reminders
- Recognizing the negative voices and changing them; YOU ARE FLYing NOW!
- Put out your Hot Spots for 2 minutes

Before Bed Routine
- Keep your sink shining
-Lay out your clothes for tomorrow
- Put out your Hot Spot

Now I started Day 8:
-I am to get a three ring binder and put paper in it.
I think I know where this is leading. It will soon be a Control Journal. I will have to read more about that later. I don't want to get too far ahead or I will get discouraged. Now, I am off to find that binder and paper. I know there is some around here somewhere, probably in a hot spot. :)

Cleaning the FlyLady way

As stated yesterday I am flying with Flylady and following her baby steps to a new me and new home. I am learning to love myself.

I started day 7 today and here is how it goes:

Day 7: Pick out your clothes.

I am suppose to pick out my clothes for the next day. I knew this was coming and so I practices it last night. Getting ready for church was a breeze. My skirt was out and even ironed. I had my shirt picked out and hanging ready to grab. Now this will be a good habit to be in.

Now, here it is almost 9 pm and I am just reading my to do for the day and almost forgot...I need to pick out some clothes for tomorrow. I don't think it will be too hard since it is Monday and I don't have anywhere to go. It will be hot so it will be shorts for sure.

I also need to write down some stuff I want to get done. I am going to work a few minutes each day on Hot Spots and getting ready for a garage sale.

Flylady.net

I have decided to fly with Flylady.net. It is a "getting organized" site and it is absolutely free.

I will be posting for the next 31 day or so as I take baby steps to get the CHAOS out of my life.

CHAOS= Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome

It may take me more than 31 days. I don't want to rush so there may be days that I focus on perfecting a baby step and stay on that one for a few days.

Right now I am on day 6 but first I will recap the first 5 days.

Day one: I learned to shine my sink and keep it shiny.

This may sound simple but it makes such a difference when I can get up in the morning and see a clean shiny sink. Even if there are dishes piled on the side, a clean sink is a good start to my day.

Day two: Get Dressed to lace up shoes.

I usually do this anyway but now I even get my hair combed. :)

Day three: Keep doing what I have already been doing.

I think this helps us get in a habit of doing these things.

Day four: Write these things down.

I posted one above my kitchen sink so I can remember what to do.

Day five: This said to write down what we hear.

When we hear negative/nagging voices, we are to write them down and then turn it around and say something positive. I didn't write down the negative things. I don't want to see them. When I had a negative thought, I wrote down positive thoughts that overturned the negative.

Day six: Hot Spots

I am just learning what hot spots are today. I have yet to do this step. I keep putting it off. :) What is a hot spot? In short, it is a place, that if left unattended, will gradually take over. Ha! I have lots of them. The main one is in my bedroom. A computer desk that was suppose to be sold and then we decided to keep it. We were going to put it in my sons room and put his school and art stuff on it. We decided to paint his room first but haven't done it yet so the desk still sits in our room.

Now, I am suppose to look around for hot spots in the house and then spend 2 minutes cleaning one up. That is my baby step for today.

Hot Spots I can think of off the top of my head:

• Desk
• Extra room in back
• Unfinished bathroom
• Pass through window in kitchen/dinning room
• Area by back door. Everything gets piled here when we come in.
• Computer area

Goodness, I could go on and on. I think my whole house is a Hot Spot. hahaha

Ok, that is it for now. I am off to clean for 2 minutes and then finish dishes so I can shine my sink. hehe

Our trip to Sea World/17th Anniversary

Our trip to Sea World was fun. It was nice to get away for a bit.

We left on Friday after the milking was done and stopped in Breckenridge to eat Breakfast. Where did we eat? McDonald's of course. Hahaha.

Later we stopped in Fredricksberg for a leg stretcher. We walked through a few stores. They have some interesting stuff there. One store had "old" toys. It sure can take you back. Of course it went a little further back than my childhood but was still interesting.

Back on the road we headed for San Antonio. We got to our hotel at 3:00 and checked in and went and seen our room. NICE!! I think it was the nicest I have ever stayed in. Now, we headed for Sea World. We got on the wrong road...It took a little longer than it should have. I think we got there around 5 or so. We went in and found the water. And later seen the night show of Shamu. That was fun. We sat in the splash zone and we sure got splashed. Especially at the end of the show. And I never thought about it but the water was salty. Go figure. Hahaha.

Later at the Hotel, we got our stuff in there and then went and found a Whataburger and had a midnight snack. For real. Our son went to sleep there in the booth.

The bed back at the hotel was soooo comfortable. I wanted to sneak it out and put it in our truck. LOL.

Saturday, back at Sea World, we seen several of the shows, played in the water and rode a few rides. Little man had a good time. After the rides, he would say, "lets do it again". Of course the waiting in line was not so fun so we opted not to.

The trip home was LOOOONG. I thought we would never get home. We stopped again in Fredricksburg for supper. We went to a Mexican restaurant and it was yummy. I slept on and off on the way home. My husband is such a good driver. We were about 20 minutes from home and we came up on an accident that was being cleared. We had to wait a few minutes for them to get the crashed car off the road. Hope everyone was OK.

We finally got home at 1:30pm. Whew.

Sunday we didn't do much. This was our 17th wedding anniversary and we just spent the day resting up after church.

Now, I can't wait to do it again.

Vacation!! YEA!!!

We are going to Sea World. Yea!!

I went yesterday to Seaworld.com and was able to set up a vacation for our family. We are getting 3 Annual Passes, and a stay in a nice hotel. Our son is getting to go for free which is an $80.00 savings on the Annual Pass. This will be his first time to go to Sea World. It will be our 2nd time to go. Or it may be the 3rd, I can't remember. LOL.

Now that we have Annual Passes, we will probably go two times this weekend and then again for a day later in the year. It is about a 4 1/2 hour drive there.

It has been a LONG time since we have really been on vacation. We did go 2 hours away to a hotel 3 years ago for my husbands birthday. This will be our 17th Anniversary vacation which is on Sunday the 12th. I am looking forward to it.

Baaa

Since we lost our milking goats to mastitis, I figured it was time to get another goat so we could have milk. I love the benifits and the taste of raw goat milk.

This is Marina. She is part Alpine and part Nubian. She is registered also.

When I bought her, she had twins on her that were ready to be weaned. She isn't giving a whole lot of milk right now but I hope that she will come up in the future.

Below is an Alpine that my goat partener (Deb) got. She is only 8 weeks old. She will make a good milker someday.

Martha Austin

http://www.reporternews.com/news/2009/jun/03/martha-austin/

This is the obiturary for my friend that passed away. I will miss her so much. It was a sudden thing. Totally unexpected. She and her husband had gone to Austin to a doctor and she had a stroke while in the Dr.'s office. She passed away a few days later.

I started cleaning for Martha about two years ago when she broke her foot. I told her husband that I would help them out until she got better. Well, Martha wouldn't let me quite. :) I am so glad because I got to know her. We would have coffee breaks while I worked and we would visit and talk about all kinds of stuff.

They have 3 Wheaton Terriors that just adored her and she loved them too. They filled her time and she wouldn't have had it any other way. I am sure Murphy, Maddy and Tucker miss her a lot.

So I will say goodbye to Martha. Thanks for being such a good friend!! You will be missed!!

Loosing friends

What a week. Actually the last few weeks have been so emotional.

We lost one of our registered nubian milk goats about a month ago. She had gotten mastitis and just went down hill in 3 days till she died.

Two weeks later, we found two other goats with mastitis so we started doctoring them. The next day one more had it. One of the first two was another registered nubian and she died within 3 days. The other one didn't get down like those two did. The last one went down hill fast and we were sure she would be dead the next day. She was my first milk goat and it was really hard for me. We found some old medicine in the cabinet that we had used last year for a different kind of illness and we said, "what have we got to loose?" so we gave her a really strong dose. By that evening she was sitting with her head up and then the next day she was up and munching grass. I was so excited. She is fine now except she will loose half of her udder.

In the meantime, I got a call that a really good friend of mine had a stroke. It didn't look good. She was in the Austin hospital since that is where she was at the time. She ended up dieing a few days later on Monday. So this was a greater lose than those two goats. It is still hard to believe.

The next day after my friend passed away, we decided to take the two remaining goats to the vet to have them put down because we had read some stuff about mastitis that they would pass this on to their kids. The vet talked us out of it and told us to dry them up and doctor them some more. We brought them home. I am so glad we did.

So here I want to say good bye to two great milk goats Foxy and Mammy.

I don't have a picture of Mammy but here is Foxy. Mammy was her mother.

I want to also say goodbye to Martha but I want to put that in another post.

To paper towel or not to paper towel, that is a good question.

I ran out of paper towels the other day and I wondered, "How long can I go without them?"

I know there are people who don't use paper towels.

I did pretty good for a few days and then the dog peed on the floor. Well, I used an old wash cloth.

Then I wanted to wash the tray that goes in the toaster oven and it had grease in it from warming fried chicken. I did not know what to do. I didn't want grease on a cloth. I ended up going for toilet tissue. :)

I really hate buying paper towels. You can get the double rolls but the towels are thin. You can get regular sized rolles and they are thicker and the same price as the thin double rolls. It is really hard to find the best deal for the money. How much is it per sheet? ha. One cent? It takes too long to figure it all out. Then you have store brands that MIGHT be cheaper and I don't always buy them at the same place. It is probably the most frustrating thing for me to have to buy.

I ended up getting a really small roll of Viva Paper Towels. The are the most absorbant that I have found and I guess if I only need a small piece, I can tear it in half since it isn't the select-a-size which I really like. I had put an 8 pack in the buggy but ended up going for the Viva.

What kind of Paper Towels do you use if you even do. If you don't, tips would be greatly appreciated.

Got my apron.

I received my apron today from Chrissy at Meaningful Days. I won it when I participated in her Spring Cleaning Challenge. Thanks to my 5 years old son for taking my picture. LOL. We finally got a good one after about 20 takes. He kept cutting my head off. haha..

Thank you again Chrissy. I am sure I will enjoy this.