Christmas

Yes, I've decided to post once again. I have to rely on my limited social interactions for blogposts, so they are few and far between, just like my social encounters. Christmas was very nice this year. Coo, Yoocoo, and their little ones came to visit, which makes Christmas much more exciting than just boring adults. NooCoo loves all thing princess and J-bud was happy with all things that moved--cars, tractors, trucks, trains, and planes. FarmerBoy and Coo helped the kids go sledding, and they got to sit and "drive" a tractor. Gran helped with crafts and Uncle S.Q. had Noocoo stumped with his magic. Everyone helped make a snowman, and we "girls" all slept in the same room with wall-to-wall beds. We all had lots of fun while they were here. I told Da that I'd post a few pictures for her enjoyment. Thanks to Coo for some of the photos.


Noocoo and her MegaMe, Roo
J-Bud and Gramps reading a story.
Give me a S-U-P-E-R-G-I-R-L, P-R-I-N-C-E-S-S
Opening Christmas crackers
Such a good tractor driver
"Vroom...Vroom.........
"Wheeeeeeeeeeeee"
I'm not so sure about this.
One cute family

Rain & Craftiness.

Well, I've decided to post once again. I like to wait long enough that you're not expecting me to ever post again! Life has continued on at the same humdrum pace as always. I get up, go to work, come home, go to bed, and repeat. We've had some very nice storms here this week, which created the Greathouse Lakes in our driveway, though they've disappeared now. I'll post a picture, anyway.


Hey, I live in a desert. That's as close to a lake as we get. We also moved cattle yesterday. Things went pretty smoothly. Only one cow and her calf didn't know where to go. I've been continuing on with my crafty streak, as has Roo. Mine is mostly quilts, though I did learn how to sew receiving blankets this last week and I have a special project for S.Q. planned. Yes, you should be worried. On the boring side, below are pics of my latest quilt blocks for sewing buddy, Lauren to see. I also found pictures of a quilt I finished last year. I'm including it as well, since this is as close to a journal as I get. One of these years I'll have to print out all of my posts and put them in a safe place never to be found again. Here comes on the quilting stuff. Please don't look too closely. Perfectionism is not a trait that I suffer from.

In other excitement, we had a ward activity on Wednesday on Emergency Preparedness. I was in charge of the kids activities. First, the firemen taught them about fire safety, showed them the truck and gave them hats. Then, with Roo's forced help, we talked about games you can play in an emergency and learned how to rip snowflakes out of paper. (One of FarmerBoy's church activities). (Roo pointed out that anything you can play in church, you can play in an emergency). Then we put together 72-minute kits. (Roo pointed out 72-minutes is about the length of Sacrament meeting). Either she thinks sacrament meeting is an emergency, or she likes to corrupt kids or both. We then played "Statue" in the dark with the glow bracelets. I was pretty pleased with the activity. No one seemed too bored and were excited for their "Free" stuff!

BTW, here is the quilt I finished last year:


Not the best photo, but you get the idea.

Ma is back in NC helping with the Velociraptor, since Loo had a bit of surgery and wasn't supposed to hold him. Not that she ever updates her blog or even puts up pictures. I would think having a baby would warrant a new blog post, hint, hint. Not that he's "new" anymore. Roo leaves for Portland tomorrow, where she picks up Coo's car and drives to Idaho. Ma gets back late Tuesday night. a drives out with Eliza B., leaving this Friday, stopping at Loo's on the way and getting in a whole bunch of states I don't have. Rude! Then S.Q. leaves before Memorial Day for his internship with the Evil Empire in Seattle. Everyone is on the move. O.k. not me, but much of the rest of the family.

Well, there's what's happening back at the ranch. Hope everything is going well for all of you. Sionara!

Moving, Moving, Moving

I've changed my blog background, and I realize that the font is a little hard to read, but you'll just have to deal with it, so there.

We moved cattle today and it went very smoothly--only one cow jumped a fence. That is pretty darn good. We move them 1-2 miles and my job is to stop traffic at the south end, where the cows turn. I had 12 vehicles stopped on the highway on my end and Ma had seven or eight. "A" came down to help with the fun and learned how to wave her arms to scare cows. You may visit here blog here for more details and photos. You may also visit Ma's blog for a more detailed account.

Not too much has been going on in my life recently. A mouse had the nerve to get in my car and die. This is my second car, and a mouse has died in each one. I'd appreciate it if they would choose someone else's car to die in. However, the smell has finally dissipated, thank goodness. Dead mice are a hazard of living on a farm. Live ones, too, but I don't want to say that. Work continues onward and has been a bit busy for the last couple of days, but I've still had plenty of time to stay up on my T.V. shows via the Internet.

I'm excited for "So You Think You Can Dance" to start this next week. It is much better than American Idol, though I wonder what MBC will do when she is in Europe for the summer. Guess she'll just have to watch them on YouTube.

Well, that's all the fun for today. I hope all you family members participated in our 1K walk today, so that you earned your participation prizes.

A Special Saturday Before Easter Post

I have changed my blog background special for you. The pink is a close-up of actual cotton candy bought in Delta for 25 cents. The "Jelly Beans" are actually Spring M&Ms that I photographed. Included below are pictures to help you feel like you were here!

The New United States

I haven't blogged in quite awhile as work has been overbusy, and thus, I have not been very creative. Anyway, I was sitting around with the family tonight looking at a United States Map. We were marking the states that we had been to. Then we listed the countries that we had been to. Of course we also spent time planning trips wherein we could add more states to our list in one fell swoop. After awhile Uncle Isatalo and Pa decided that perhaps we could combine some of the northeastern states into one state. Then the group decided that perhaps they should even up all of the states based on land area. This would mean that Alaska would have 8 new states (or 12 people per Alaskan state). Texas would have four states, all retaining the name Texas in their name (East Texas, West Texas, Liberal Texas, etc.) as they would have a Civil War over who got to keep the name Texas. I also decided that we should square up all of the states in typical Monk fashion. If you did not live in a square, then you would be required to move.

And then it hit me--how many other families sit around redividing the United States, probably very few. I guess we're just unique.

What are all of your thoughts on this matter?

If I can say hippopotamus

So this weekend, we have had many visitors, though none of them were hippopotamuses. The honored guests were MBC & ARK. They came down special to help put up corn. They also came down a several weeks ago for the opening ceremonies party, that I hold every time there are Olympics. You may read about the party on their blogs, available in the list to the left, as they update theirs more regularly than I do. (Summary--there was food from many nations, and not all chocolate is created equal). It is so nice for the MBC and the ARK to visit me out here in the boonies. Moving on, we picked, shucked, blanched, cut, and bagged a total of 900 ears, and came out with around 200 two cup bags of corn, post-cob. The boys usually do the picking and the shucking. MBC was nice enough to help with the picking this go round. Then we women folk finished the rest of the tasks. Needless to say, it was tiring and also a lot of fun because you get to sit around and talk with everyone.

Other special guests included Uncle Isotalo and Auntie CG, who are becoming cruise aficionados. Loo, hubby, and son also came, and of course everyone helped with the corn process. It is always nice to have visitors.

Today, I substituted in the nursery and learned that if I can say hippopotamus, then I can say, I'm sorry. It actually wasn't too bad. I am not a person that is known for my love of little children. I deal better with older kids. There were three kids and two leaders, I got to sit most of the time, I got a treat, and all of the kids were potty trained. If we would have naptime, it would have been even better.

Tomorrow, S.Q. leaves to go back to the Zoo. He will be missed for many reasons besides that he fixes all of our technology problems and helps with any work we ask him to. Have a fabulous holiday weekend and remember:
"If you can say hippopotamus, you can say I'm sorry."

Bad Omens in my life

As today is Friday the 13th, I followed some links to read about superstitions. In my family, we find Friday the 13th good luck as it is the day my Dad was born. Also Farmer boy was born on the 13th as was Uncle Isatalo. (though not on Fridays, however their birthdays fall on Friday the 13th sometimes--shocking, I know.) I'm not a very superstitious person, but I decided I'd share some reasons why I'm destined to have bad luck for the rest of my life (other than not passing on gazillions of e-mails that I've gotten).

Bad luck for:
1. Sitting on a table without one foot touching the ground
2. Passing someone on a staircase
3. Fastening a button in the wrong buttonhole (lots of bad luck for me on this one.)
4. Walking under a ladder
5. Mending a garment while I'm wearing it (I've found the bad luck here is that you poke yourself with the needle.
6. Opening an umbrella in the house
7. Singing before breakfast
8. A bat flying into the house (family, take note of this one. I'm not sure what the luck is for shooting the bat in the house with a BB gun.
9. Hearing a rooster crow at night (or anytime you are sleeping. It wakes you up--duh!)
10. Cutting my nails on a Friday

There you have it--all of the reasons that I'm doomed to have bad luck for the rest of my life. You should take a look at this website.

I found it all very amusing. And no wonder I'm not married, I read all of the wedding traditions as well. I don't think I could handle doing everything correctly on my wedding day--I'd just be doomed to an unhappy marriage.

Easter Fun or not

Easter is one of the most tradition-filled holidays at my house. Every year the local grocery store has their anniversary celebration, which includes 10 cent hot dogs, as well as cotton candy and ice cream cones for 25 cents (originally they were 10 cents, but inflation hit last year). Another fun thing is the fact that the grocery store tapes papers with numbers on the floor of the store and intermittently calls numbers. If you are on the number, you win a bag of groceries, which includes potato chips and bacon, among other things.

This year was a bit different. Mom was out of town and the cousins, aunt and uncle weren't down. Also, Loo, et al. didn't get here until 5 p.m. on Saturday. Also, the rest of the family is sick with colds and are trying to limit their public exposure. As such, I was the one left with the tasks of getting the cotton candy and hot dogs, as well as the groceries needed to eat unhealthy all weekend. The cotton candy line was non-existent, so I got my 10 sticks (what is the correct term for a thing of cotton candy?) for FarmerBoy to consume almost entirely himself. I then went to do the grocery shopping and they did not call any numbers while I was in the store. I tried to dawdle and everything, but still no number calling. Finally, I went to get the hot dogs, which had a 45 minute line. I would have just gone back in the store to buy the stuff for hot dogs, but was told there were no hot dog buns in the store. Sheesh! Anyway, I finally got my hot dogs (limit 20 per person), only to remember I needed chicken for Saturday's dinner. I returned to the store for chicken and food coloring and continued home. I would like to say that this tradition is much more enjoyable with other people to stand in line with.

Saturday went fine and dandy. I boiled 4 dozen eggs, and made 17 cups of egg dye, properly labeled, so that I would know what I was getting. I also made a "Special Mystery" color which involved putting a random number of drops of all the food colors. I then set the colors out in the color of the rainbow to easily find the colors I needed. Also important--2 dozen eggs were brown ones from the chickens, and 2 dozen were white for more variety (yes, I do realize that I have OCD tendencies, but doesn't everyone?). Several of us died eggs, and pictures are posted above of the egg dyeing experience. Anyway, the coloring went well and I got supper made and potato challenge and the tradition is done for a year, and next year people better show up in time to help me stand in line for hot dogs!

Thanksgiving Fun

Well, I've been a slacker on my blog lately. I have intentions of posting and then I don't. So last week I had a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. Then, I went up to my sister's house to stay over in preparation for Black Friday shopping. I used to be one of those people who swore that there was no way that I would go shopping the day after Thanksgiving, and then there was a really good deal on something I wanted. I don't even remember what it was. I found it slightly exciting the first year and then it got to be more and more fun. Something important to note--I go to office and computer stores, not clothes and toy stores. Last year, I bought a thermos, so that we could take hot chocolate with us.

So Thursday evening, CompUSA opened at 9:00 p.m. (I would like to note that I am morally opposed to them opening on Thanksgiving Day, as I don't think anyone should work on Thanksgiving that doesn't have to. I do not consider sales a mandatory working situation; however, if they are open, I will go there.) My Pop wanted a 24 inch monitor, so we got in line about 8:15. By the time we got in the store, the 24 inch monitor was gone; however, savvy shopper that I am, I thought that this might be the case, so I'd previously asked him if he'd take a 22 inch monitor if the 24 was gone, and he said that he would, so we picked up the monitor, along with some power strips, cans of air and other sundry items. We, meaning my brother S.Q. and I. We had left my sister Loo and her husband to go do some secretive Christmas shopping for their son. Loo's hubby was feeling pretty good about the time it took to get the stuff and then he realized how long the line to pay was. Apparently, paying takes longer than picking up the loot. He is new to Black Friday shoppig. As we went along, we started games on all of the computers, so that those behind us could continue playing the games to entertain themselves. We were in the car ready to go home at 11:21. Loo won the guessing contest of when we would finish.

Done with our shopping? No. It wasn't even Black Friday yet. S.Q. and I scoured the ads and tried to determine where to go. We couldn't decide, there was nowhere with anything we really wanted. (Loo and hubby decided to skip out on the morning run). We'd already determined that we wouldn't get up for the 5 a.m. store openings. 6 was the earliest we were willing to go. We woke up about 5:30 or so and headed out the door. We just slept in our clothes to save time. We decided to go to Staples first and arrived there at about 6:02 a.m. No line out the door because they were already open. We went and got what we came for and were out pretty quickly. Next I went to JCPenney to pick up some stuff for Mom, while S.Q. looked for a WII, so that he could resale it on E-bay. No luck for him. Next stop: Sam's for free breakfast. It was very good, but we knew we'd need food for later. On to Shopko for a glider for me and a bunch of baby clothes for all of the new babies in the home ward. I also picked up a few movies and a CD. Next, we went to McDonald's to finish our breakfast and mailed a package at UPS. So, here is the list of most of the stuff I/my family got, just in case you wondered:
A 24 inch monitor
Computer Memory
Surge Protectors
Cans of Air
Printer network thing
Other network thing (S.Q. will have to clarify)
DVD burner
Labeler (I didn't need one, but S.Q. and I thought it would be fun to play with)
Secret items at JCPenney
Battery Recharger
Glider w/ottoman
The Holiday
How to Marry a Millionaire
A U-2 cd
Baby clothes
Other stuff I forgot.

Now, I just need to submit all of the rebates, a very important part of Black Friday shopping.

On Saturday, I went with my Mum, Loo & L.H. (Loo's Hubby) to the light parade in Delta. It was very long, about 15 entries. We watched it at one end of town and then went to the grocery store for food, and it was just starting down there, but we didn't need to see it again, so we did our shopping and came out just as it was finishing up. The first year of the light parade, it was tractors and semi-trucks with lights on them. I was a bit disappointed this year, as there were actually decorated floats.

Well, now that I've bored you all, have a great day!

Halloween Rundown

We had a new record number of trick-or-treaters at the house this year, at least I think we did. That's right--17! I took my candy to Mum's, so the ghosts and goblins wouldn't hurt themselves on the way to my house (the light is motion-sensitive, so they would have had to walk most of the way in the dark.

As I child, I dressed up as many normal things--a witch, an alien, a punk-rocker, a baseball player with a black eye and a few not-so-normal things--Pippi longstocking (with a coat hanger threaded through my braids to make them stand up), a hunchbacked old man and random other things. We always had a Halloween party in the next town over a few days before Halloween and then on Halloween we'd go trick-or treating in my own town. It was very important that you went to every house in town, so that you wouldn't hurt somebody's feelings. I always hated the bit 'o honeys. I think my favorite were Almond Joys. One of the great things about having a large family is you can always trade candy with a sibling if you don't like certain kinds.

True fact: On vacation, I specifically bought candy with peanut butter because I knew some of my siblings didn't like it and they wouldn't ask me to share with them, thus leaving me more!

Top ten reasons to love Halloween in a small town.

1. You get lots of candy in few stops.
2. You know everyone in town, so there is no "scary" candy to eat.
3. People never run out of candy.
4. My mom gives out toys like play dough (I am playing with mine right now.)
5. You know everyone that comes trick-or-treating, if you can tell who they are.

This year I didn't dress up for Halloween, guess I'm just turning into a fuddy-duddy.

In other news, FarmerBoy and I are cancelling our South Asia cruise and may go to Rome instead. Who knows? I'm open to anything, as long as we know before we leave the driveway. Also, new to grandma's (my) house, is a programmable thermostat, smoke detectors, and a carbon monoxide detectors, so hopefully now I'll be a little bit safer in the house.