More animals on the ranch...

This is a picture of our summer residents - The Swallow Family. They rent the little bungalow with the garden view and they pay their "rent" by eating all the nasty flying bugs around here.

They started their nest after the house was completed and we were here about 1-1/2 months - early summer of 2005. We had to knock the nest down the summer of 2007 when we repainted the house but they had been gone for a month or so already. They came back last summer and built a new nest and then this summer they doubled the size of their home. I'm guessing they made it bigger because they had a fourth child this year and they have only had three in the past.

I really enjoy watching them raise their babies every year. I really hate all the poop they make and drop all over the patio but it is only temporary. I wanted to post this picture since it is one of my favs and I am thrilled that I got one of the parents feeding the babies.

Dryer gone bad...

I have this habit of doing laundry constantly and daily. I will go through a room and grab all the dirty clothes up and run a load. My husband always teases me that he cannot lay down a pair of jeans at the end of the bed to wear later because I grab it up and throw it in the washer.

Well, we have a Whirlpool Duet set and I love them dearly but the dryer just hasn't been doing it's job over the last year. It has been telling me the clothes are dry and they are actually damp so I have to run it on a manual drying session to complete the drying. Of course this uses extra electricity and I constantly had loads washed and piling up because everything was out of sync. We had the service tech come out over 8 months ago and he said that it was the sensor and we should keep it cleaned off.

So, cleaning the sensor seemed to help but did not "fix" the problem. So, I am working on laundry and all the sudden one day a couple weeks ago the load is WET when the sensor tells me that it is dry - the clothes are not even warm! Grrrr!

I go online and look through people's blogs and I found a really good one that tells us what to check and the possibilities. This guy had pictures and step by step info for fixing the dryer; he even had the listing of where we could buy the parts because he had already done the homework when his dryer failed.

After Warren laid on the floor and tore the dryer apart we finally found this pictured part was bad...the heating element. The bottom of the dryer was FULL of lint and it looked like the lint had sat on this part and finally caused it to overheat. You would think the service tech would have actually inspected this part of the dryer when he was here!!!?

I ordered the part and we cleaned all the lint out from inside the dryer frame. We also plugged some of the holes where we felt the lint was coming in around the lint catcher.

The part came out of CA and it was delivered within 2 days. Warren slipped the part in, hooked everything up and away we went. The dryer works like it did when it was brand new :-) I had to catch up on twice the laundry but we saved some serious cash by doing our own repair. We figured it would have cost $300-350 total for a repairman to make two trips; one to figure out what was wrong and one to install a new part and the cost of the part. We paid $68 for the part and shipping!

Of course I still grab his clothes of the end of the bed and wash them every chance I get...you would think he would be used to it after about 15 years of being abused by me.

Aiden's Birthday Party

Along with the 4th of July we celebrated Aiden's birthday. My niece and Aiden's mother, Jenn, made this fabulous cake. The cake is awesome and so is the kid! Hope your birthday was super little dude!

July 2nd - Payton Gail Wilson-Hooks is born

We have a new little one in the family and her name is Payton Gail Hooks. She is the daughter of my nephew Christopher and his girlfriend Ashley. Payton is my great niece and the first girl born to the family since Christopher's older sister Megan in 1987.

I have 5 great nephews on my side of the family from Christopher's older sisters. Jennifer has two cute little guys and Michele has three. All of the boys are a joy and I am sure this little one will be a lot of fun also.

An Eon since I posted last...

Time flies so fast! I think I have finally hit the age where I understand why may father always told me to stop wishing my life away. I would always say something like, "I can't wait until Friday." He would then tell me to stop wishing my life away...

These days I don't even seem to know what day of the week it is and Friday is here way before I am ready for it. Why does time pass so slowly when we are young and so fast as we get older? Probably for the same reason that other people's children appear to have grown like "little weeds" since the last time we saw them.

Yard Sale Finds on 7/3

A holiday weekend is usually not great for yard sales but I went anyway. There was a whole whopping 4 sales but I figured Mom could make it without getting too tired (she had major back surgery on 6/2 and is still using a walker...mostly for safety). I have been cutting back on yard sales but Warren encouraged me to go as he pointed out that one of the sales had women's clothing and that is really why I went.

That is the first sale we hit and I did really well. I bought 3 dresses, 14 blouses, 2 pants and 1 top of Disney's Tinkerbell jammies, a pair of shooting glasses, a basket and a scrabble game (for my crafts). The brand names on the clothing were Cabin Creek, Bobbie Brooks, Eyeshadow, Dressbarn and Quizz New York Woman. I got all of this for $35!!!!! To top it off - I LOVE the clothing and it all looks like new!

At another yard sale I bought 8 like new books (mostly Dean Koontz), a huge basket with a handle (that I can use for delivering bake goods), an umbrella that clamps onto my lawn chair, a drill bit that is a paint mixer, a linen table cloth, a linen table runner and a set of sheets. All of this cost $6.50

I didn't buy anything at the 3rd sale but I found a brand new lantern hanger (NIB) for a whole $2. Not a bad day!

Stampin' Up! Class by Jan Farring

Jan Farring hosted a card class last night and I took my mom, Mary Jo, to the class. We made 4 cards each and a nifty little card keeper. Jan ran a drawing and I won a pack of beautiful paper while Mom won a different nice pack of paper and a set of stamps. I am loving Stampin' Up! products more and more each time I use them because it is quality stuff! Thanks for doing the class Jan!

Rat Hunting

Here are some pictures of the "guys" out rat hunting...

We went out to scout some areas with Keith and we are seeing a lot of sage rats scurrying around. Finally they stop and start shooting at all these rats and here they are going out to check out the damage.

Rodeo Parade

The Crooked River Round-Up came and went last weekend and around here you have to have a rodeo parade as part of the action. The Crook County Fire & Rescue Department has always been a part of this parade and this year was no different. Warren is on the fire department as a firefighter and an EMT (isn't he handsome!) so we decided to take one of the beautiful shiny firetrucks in the parade. The picture of Warren and Hunter is at the back of the engine in front of us while we are waiting for the parade to start; Warren is explaining the "Fill the Boot" campaign to Hunter.

If you want to see everyone in Prineville this is the ticket because folks line the street for a few miles. We saw the Headley Crew (Jenny, Baily and Miss Debbie), the Warren Clan (Jenn, Lonnie, Bill and Mandy......was Jethro there?) and the Smith 6 (Matt, Heidi, Justin, Caleb, Ben and Seth) just to name a few. I hope I spelled everyone's name right :-)

More ATCs

I was really busy for a short period on ATCs and I have the rest of the pictures to post. I think I will be taking a break for awhile unless I see something I just have to do because I love it so.

All 3 of these ATC cards were submitted for ATC swaps on the

AllMomentsRemembered.com and they were all sent to hosts in Beaverton, Oregon. The Flower with the Butterfly is my favorite of all time and it is for a "Butterfly" swap, the obsessive purple is for a "Favorite Color" swap and the questionable cupcake is for a "Cupcake" swap. I should get all of the swapped cards back the first part of August and I am really looking forward to it!