Give Me A Rose ATC Swap for ATC Lovers

I have just finished these ATC cards for a swap with a group called "ATC Lovers". The theme of this swap was "Give Me A Rose" and a very sweet woman named Emma Hicks is hosting the swap. I decided upon the yellow rose since it signifies friendship.

The card is a thin cardboard in the middle with light blue card stock on each side. The title, date, swap name and my name are on the back along with 1 of 20, 2 of 20, etc. The rose and leaves were cut out on my Cricut out of card stock. The "Friendship" is printed out of Word onto white card stock with yellow ink and backed with thin cardboard. The corners of the word are punched out with Stampin' Up! ticket corner punch. I inked around everything and elevated the yellow rose off of the leaves with foam circles. The holder is an old floral frog.

I hope to get back the swapped ATCs around July 4th - FUN! I love to get good mail!

The banana bread

Wow...did I ever make banana bread. I got everything ready to go with just enough time to bake 9 loaves before we needed to be at Keith & Jenny's house for dinner. I go to get the eggs out of the refrigerator and I only have 4 - I need 18! Keep in mind that we have chickens and 7 of them should be laying darn near daily. Grrr! That reminds me that I have been meaning to make chicken soup!

So, Hunter and I pack ourselves into the Jeep and head down Davis Loop to F&F Grocery. I decide to clock it and I find that it is 3.5 miles from our house. Obviously this is much closer than going 10 miles to Ray's even though it is extremely curvy. We get there and a dozen eggs (white eggs) is only $1.99...interesting. I picked up 2 dozen and proceeded to check them and the owner tells me to go ahead and check but she checks every dozen when they are delivered. Wow! She checks every egg and still only charges $1.99?

Any who...we got back to the house and completed 6 loaves and went to dinner. Warren finished cooking the last three the next morning for me while I was being tired & lazy from going to our friends house the night before. What a nice husband! I'm lucky that way...

Here are the pictures to show you before and after so you know I didn't buy that bread at the store :-) We work hard to ripen our bananas through watching them sit on the counter everyday just so I can make bread and pass it along to our friends and family. We hope that you enjoy!

Mealtime...

I have a recipe that I just got on one of my message boards from a wonderful lady named Deb (Thanks Deb!)and it reminded me of a dinner we just had...

Hunter was all worried the other night because we told him that I was making redneck seafood for dinner. He didn't have a clue what it was and he was telling Grandma & Grandpa about it on the phone like he was scared of it. The picture here is what it looks like if you've never seen it.

The recipe I just got and I have to try is as follows...it is another redneck type recipe which are the only one's I can manage without burning!

Tater Tot Casserole
1) Cook 1 1/2 pounds of hamburger.
...Drain and put in a Casserole dish.
2) Line the entire top with tator tots. (Make it nice and line them up!) LOL
3) Take a can of cream of mushroom OR chicken soup and add milk like it says on can.
...Stir it up in a bowl and pour it on top of all the tator tots.
4) Bake at 450 for 20 minutes. Take out of oven.
5) Add grated cheese to the top (I like Chederella) and let it set for a few minutes or put back in the oven to melt.
6) Make a veggie and enjoy.

Will it work?

There is an area deep within all of the blog technical stuff where I can notify folks when I update with a new post. I know that is kind of a let down to open the blog and not find anything new there. So, now some of you can open your e-mail and know if I have made a post or not.

The problem is that I can only enter 10 e-mail addresses. I never dreamed I would be notifying anyone besides my mom, my husband and my sister but I have filled all 10 and I wish I could enter more.

I added addresses right before this post. I hope that this works! If any of you are getting the e-mail and don't want it please let me know. No problem what-so-ever because I can fill the spot with someone else who would like their name on the list.

Well, time to get back to work and check on all the grazers.

Flora's cast

Here is poor little flora all laid out on the operating table (aka: the hot tub) where my dear sweet husband fashioned a cast for her. Hunter and I held her down while the cast was applied. She is surprisingly strong for how little she is.

Here she is sporting her new cast.

In 4-6 weeks she should be as good as new but we will probably have to recast her in a few weeks as the swelling goes down.

All is well in the barn

Poor little Flora is still in bad shape but Shaggy is looking good. Shaggy's face is half the size it was last night so she should be back to normal by tomorrow.

I went out to let the goats graze on our lovely selection of weeds and ended up out there for a half hour trying to get them out of the pasture. I opened the gate and most of them followed me....except the ones that were not paying attention! You would think that they would want to go out and eat on the other side of the gate but no....

I turned around to shut the gate to keep the majority of them outside and they all followed me and went right back into the dirt pasture!!! I had to go get grain and when I poured it on the ground by the front of the house they all came running. Well, except those that were not paying attention! Carmel, Pinky and Maggie were daydreaming but they finally came out to the gate and came outside.

Then, I went into the barn to check on my sick girls and there is Goose down on her knees reaching through the panel to get their hay. Talk about not paying attention...I scared the crap right out of her when I grabbed her! Too funny!

Crook County Little League 2009 Season

Baseball season has already come and gone. My how time passes quickly when you look back!

Hunter played on the Brewers team which just happened to be coached by none other than Mr. Matt Smith. Matt is just a great guy and we are glad to call him and his family our friends.

Hunter wanted to be a pitcher and Matt let him have some turns at it along with a few other aspiring pitchers. It turns out that Hunter has a pretty good arm to go along with a good eye for hitting his mark.

Here is a picture of him winding up ready to let that baseball go right down the center of that plate.

With some more practice I think he will be putting them right down the middle with more consistency. I think all kids want to be the "pitcher" but doing it and being good at it is a hard combination to get.

I'm very happy to see that Hunter really just gets some pure joy out of it. It's all about finding out what you are good at and this is just one of the many things I'm sure he will find.

The third bad thing...?

I think it happened...the third bad thing. Warren was leaving for work and came in to tell me that the extra refrigerator had been left open. I am guessing that it was open since 7:30 yesterday morning when we got OJ for breakfast. Grrrrrr!

Craigslist call

Whew hew! I just got a call on the saddle I re-listed on craigslist.org today!!! Here is the funny thing...we got a doghouse for the goats from these very same folks about 8 months ago. What a small world! Maybe the saddle will sell tomorrow...

Warren has to go in super early again tomorrow so I cannot tell him the good news. I think I will text him and tell him to read the blog...pretty cool huh? Until tomorrow when I will post baseball pics from the season ending game.

Banana Bread?

The bananas on the counter keep looking at me and they are getting more brown as each day passes. One day very soon I will have to make about 6 loaves of banana bread...maybe more. It is kind of funny but I never can seem to bake small. When I bake it's like 6 dozen gigantic cookies of 3 different flavors (yes...18 dozen or about 220 cookies) or 12 loaves of banana bread.

I hope that "they" will wait until Saturday so I can bake early in the morning and have fresh banana bread for everyone on Father's Day weekend. I can make some deliveries when we go to town in the evening and then slip some in Dad's Father's Day goodies.

Sometimes things don't look so good...

Sometimes things start to turn kind of rotten and I am starting to think that I am about to hit a curve.

I let all the goats out to graze on our overgrown grass & weeds this morning. In all the stomping around Flora got hurt. Flora is one of the baby La Maunchas that we bottle fed. She came up to me holding her left front leg up just a bawlin'. I grabbed her up and took her into one of the holding areas. I don't handle animals in pain very well (no wonder I decided that becoming a vet just was not going to happen for me when I was just a tween) so I locked her up after seeing that the bottom part of her leg was hurt. She started crying even more but it was because she was lonely. I grabbed her sister Terra and put her in the pin with her and fed them both. The crying stopped because the food was filling their little mouths...thank goodness! Now, I had to wait for Warren to get home...

I kept checking on them and the leg swelled but she was not crying anymore. She wasn't bearing weight but she wasn't crying. There was a lot of swelling going on but it was not all in Flora's leg. Apparently Shaggy got herself into something or got stung because her face is swollen and is getting worse each time I go out. Shaggy is one of the large mature does...the shaggy one :-) One more thing for my poor husband to come home to...

When Warren got home he looked a Shaggy and we decided to pin her up but that she would probably be fine because her tongue isn't swelling and she is grazing like normal. Then he goes in to see poor little Flora and confirms that her little leg is broken. She is not bearing weight on it so we will have to go get casting supplies and cast her little leg. I was so relieved to find an article on casting after I thought about the alternative to animals with broken legs!

Hopefully this is 2 bad things out of the way and there is only one more to come. I do believe that bad things come in threes and I hope number three is not a doozy!

It's all about the goats...

Over the weekend we helped Dad get Mom when she was released from the hospital on Saturday. Dad stopped at a few yard sales on the way home and I got some material for my rag rugs. Yes - he stopped at yard sales with Mom in the vehicle!

On Sunday we worked on picking some things up and installing a new fence out back where we have a second goat pasture. Warren & Hunter built the rock jacks Saturday and we filled them and stretched fence on Sunday. Hunter picked up all of the wood and with the new fence and fancy looking rock jacks the back pasture is looking really good!

This last week was pretty busy. We started the week off with a bang when my mom went in for her 2nd back surgery on June 2nd. Hunter stayed at Grandma & Grandpa's house to help out and spend some much needed time with Grandpa. Hunter is in charge of driving Grandpa's wheelchair to and from when they go to the hospital since Dad cannot breathe well. Hunter does a great job and is more help than he realizes during times like these.

Our second big happening during the week was Hunter's annual wellness exam with Dr. Holly Jo Ledgerwood Hodges. Holly delivered Hunter and has been our doctor since I first discovered I was pregnant with Hunter. This is the last time we will be seeing her since she and her family are moving to Eugene.

We will miss you Holly Jo!

Warren on the Trail Course with Frosty

We went over to the trail corse at Bent Wire Ranch on Saturday, May 30th. This is the first time we have ever gone to one of these so Hunter and I acted as observers. Warren took Frosty with all of her nice purple tack.

She took some coaxing from a nice big quarterhorse to get her to go in the pond...

Here they are standing in the pond on the course.

This is a picture of them coming off of an elevated area that is filled with sand and bunked with railroad ties.

This has to be my favorite picture. It is a beautiful day, Frosty is clean and my man is looking good with the Three Sister's in the backdrop.

Gotta love a day like this!