Three Items

I have a few things to talk about today. First off is I got my hair cut up to my chin--it was past my shoulders. The main reason I opted for a short do is not because of the coming hot weather, but because three weeks agoI had used dry shampoo spray on my hair and then attempted to curl it with a curling iron. The result was burnt hair. . . hair stuck to the curling iron burnt. . .burnt black. I only singed one 1 1/2" section of my hair and not the whole head, but rather than trying to hide it I opted to chop, chop. So word to the wise, DO NOT USE A HEATED APPLIANCE ON YOUR HAIR AFTER USING AEROSOL DRY SHAMPOO! I did email the maker of the dry shampoo and suggested that they put a warning on the can. I have also found out that aerosol dry shampoo is highly flammable. "No kidding." says the girl with half a head of hair. A picture of my new do is forthcoming.

Second item on the blog agenda is that yesterday I attended my last MOPS meeting. Did I cry? Yes, I did but not until Gayla spoke with me. Gayla is one of our mentors and the mentor to whom I have been the closest. I marvel at the person I was and the baby Katie was (she was 13 months) when I walked into my first MOPS meeting. I was still a nervous mother and relatively new to the area. I realize that it is time to move on and that MOPS had a place and a short time in my life, but MOPS was incredibly important to me as it eased my worries about mothering. I still have a brunch to attend next Monday and I know I will struggle to keep it together there.

Third item is about a cow. About last Wednesday I noticed two cows on our neighbor's land. I thought our neighbor had gotten rid of all of his cattle, but assumed he got some more. The cows were laying down. The next day that I drove by the neighbors, the cows were in the same place and laying down. On day four, I drove by and the black cow was dead. I left a message for our neighbor, but I did not hear back from him. Come to find out the cows were not his. They were strays that apparently got hit by a car. Because they were somebody else's cows, nobody would assist them and definitely not put them out of their misery. (You could get into legal trouble for shooting someone's cow even if you were putting it out of their misery.) The fate of the remaining cow was tugging at Rick's heart. He called some friends who have cattle and asked them to bring food to the cow. At first they said yes and then changed their minds because they could not get a hold of our neighbor and "you just don't go on someone else's land without their permission". About then is when I got angry. Yesterday after I picked Katie up from school, Katie and I gathered every large container that we could think of, filled them with water and drove them over to the cow. The cow quickly lapped up those first 5 gallons of water. Katie and came back home and filled up the buckets and headed back down the road. I called our friends, the ones that won't trespass, and asked them what cows eat. I was going to buy food, but they offered to bring the food to the cow because the cow had moved to the fence and you could feed it without going on our neighbor's land. Come to find out, Rick had already told our neighbor that we would be feeding and watering the cow so the whole uproar about trespassing was unnecessary. Our friends dropped some food off with the cow--hay and pellets--and brought the rest here so we can feed the cow. After tae kwon do Katie and I feed and watered the cow and this morning I fed and watered the cow. I am still upset that our neighbor and friends wanted to take was to starve and dehydrate the cow to death. I realize I am not a tough farm girl, but that is inhumane. When Katie asked why we were going on our neighbor's land without his permission I explained we were doing so because watering and feeding the cow and it was the right thing to do. I don't know if the cow's hips are hurt or if she even got hit by a car. I think she doesn't stand because of the deprivation from food and water. I know nothing about cows, but I am learning. For example, I learned I need to wear boots when I go and visit her. Here is my cow tending outfit from this morning.

The reason why I took this picture because it is the first time I have felt like a Texan and because I think it's funny that I am wearing my expensive riding boots to take care of the cow. When I originally purchased the boots I did so to look fashionable. Little did I know I would need them one day to tip-toe through the cow patties.

Here's the cow. I call her Chloe. I am still trying to figure out the tag on her ear. Maybe, just maybe, we can find her rightful owner and he/she is a nice person. However, I have a suspicion that she may have been dropped at our neighbors.

Below is a picture for Rick. It is Katie, or Eagle Eye, shooting her BB gun. I kid you not. That girl is one hell of a shot. 

I'll keep you up to date on the cow and will post a picture of my new do when I am presentable. Ciao.

It's broke and I am broken-hearted

Crazy busy, once again--I imagine you are tired of that excuse--and my in-laws have been visiting us for the last week. As for news. . . .

You know that 60" plasma TV that I got for Valentine's Day? It broke. I believe the board that controls the power supply blew. Also, a small crack showed up on the screen/glass. We can only guess how that happened, but Katie did have a new frisbee. But here is the real kicker, Panasonic no longer makes that screen/glass. Yes, a 3-month old TV and we cannot get replacement parts for it. Rick ended up returning it to Wal-Mart. So I am fancy-TV-less. I miss streaming the free movies from Amazon Prime.

Yesterday Katie got her Taekwondo school pictures taken and we should have them in 6-8 weeks. In the meantime I will share her official kindergarten picture which we received last week.

My First Rattler of the Year

For those observant ones you will note that I have updated the Rattlesnake Count for 2012 on the right rail. This a.m. Katie and I were going up the driveway in the golf cart. Half way up the driveway a snake was stretched across the driveway. Upon closer inspection and with Rick's second opinion, it was not a rattlesnake but a bull/rat/black snake. Late this afternoon Katie and I needed to close the gate. Because of the snake that we ran into earlier, Katie asked me to please take my gun, the.410. I obliged and good thing. Close to the gate an eight button rattlesnake was stretched across the driveway. I loaded my gun, took aim at his head and missed him. I popped the spent shell and reloaded. I decided to aim for his body rather than his small head. BAM! I shot him right in the middle. However, his front half slithered into a cactus. (That was a creepy thing to see.) I popped, reloaded and aimed. BAM! I blew its head off. We closed the gate and on the way back, another snake! But it was a bull snake so I didn't need to pop, reload and aim. We drove down to the Quonset Hut and over to the missile base and did not run into any more slitherers. My work was done.

Mt. Everest

It's 8:30 am and I have had quite a morning already. About a 1/2 hour ago, I went outside to check on Cody and Hobo. While out there I find a hole that the two idiots dug in the front yard . . . again . . . in the same exact spot . . . the same hole, same spot. After filling it, I started hearing sounds like metal scrapping coming from the west, from next door. I go inside to grab the binoculars and head west which also is in the direction of the missile base. I can't see anything through the trees so I decided to the climb the sloped side of the missile base entrance. Armed with my binoculars, I proceed like a spider. However, flip-flops, as I preach to Katie, are not the footwear to wear while climbing the missile base. I get about two steps before my feet start sliding back down and to stop my run, I drop to me knees. Now why did I think dropping to my knees would cause me to stop? Not to be deterred by two skinned knees, I headed back inside for more appropriate footwear. I go back to the missile base entrance and this time I quickly scoot up to the flat roof. So now I am 30' (okay may 20'-30'. I am horrible at guessing heights.) in the air and I see the tops of trees. Apparently all the trees are at  least 40' tall. At this point Cody spies me on top and gets all anxious. "How'd you do that, Brenda? Where are you going? I wanna come too!" (Previous quotation must be read in Scooby Doo voice because if Cody could talk, he'd sound just like Scooby Doo.) It didn't take him long to figure out how to get to me. He starts galloping up the incline. My thoughts were, "Oh hell no. I'll never get him down from here." I commanded Cody to stop, which probably wasn't the most intelligent thing to do because he listened and as soon as he stopped he lost his momentum and started sliding backwards towards the right edge. I get on my butt to slide down to him and--do what? grab him by a leg so he could dangle over the edge? I have no idea. I didn't get that far in my plan before miraculously Cody was able to stop his backward descent, turn around and get to the ground on his four feet as opposed to his head. I continued my journey down to the bottom and Cody is overjoyed to have me within licking distance. You would have thought I was returning from scaling Mt. Everest rather than 30' cement triangle, but you know how dogs are. You take the garbage out and they greet you on your return like you were gone for hours. Anyway, as for the metal scrapping noise. You would think I would learn by now about sound out here. A noise may seem to be next door and it is actually a county away. To top it off, we walked down to the Quonset Hut and the noise was now coming from the south. Regardless, it was not someone stealing our neighbors travel trailer, it was a farmer in his field with some old, creaky equipment. Ciao.

The Progression

Hobo, the dog, has been diligently working on his progression plan. When Hobo first got here, he stayed down at the Quonset Hut and did not come up to the house. Then one morning I saw him on the far edge of the top of the silo lying down. He appeared to be waiting for Cody. He started showing up every morning and was often in his position before Katie and I left the house to catch the school bus. A few days later he waiting on the closer edge of the silo. Another few days past and he was at Katie's swing set and more days passed and he moved to a spot across the driveway where the old missile base security gate used to be. He then progressed to sitting on the far edge of the front yard. Yesterday morning and this morning, Hobo was underneath the trellis at the end of the sidewalk that goes to our front door. He is slowly making his way to the house; however, I have seen him come up to the house when he is playing with Cody and no humans are outside. Also, sometimes at night I can hear him on the sidewalk or south patio.

His favorite spots during the day are underneath the trailer that is in the parking area and right off of the driveway across from our house. Both positions give him a full view of the front door and shade. A strange behavior of Hobo's is that he runs along side the golf cart when we are driving around Corinth West. We could literally reach out and pet him. For whatever reason, he is not afraid of humans if they are in vehicles. I try not to imagine what happened to him to turn him off to humans. We continue to feed and water him, but has given up Milk Bones. Cody and Hobo sure like each other for which I am thankful. Dogs are pack animals and being alone can be stressful on the animal.

Anyway, Hobo is taking baby steps toward becoming part of our family and I have stopped calling him "the stray dog" because he is pretty sure that he lives here and this is his territory. Rick has seen him patrolling his territory which involved Hobo walking around the house in a big circle and looking for danger. Pyrenees are know to be extremely loyal and wonderful watch dogs. We sure need one since Cody is a goober. Caio!

Egg Hunt and The Splash

The kindergarteners at Katie's school did an Easter egg hunt Thursday morning. Each child was asked to bring 24 fillable, plastic eggs and while the kids were in school a bunch of parents, myself included, hid the eggs on the playground. I was relieved to see that there were enough eggs to go around. Some parents just cannot afford the extras that are associated with the school. Katie had never done an Easter egg hunt before. (Bad Momma!) What is interesting is that I didn't do Easter egg hunts when I was a child, so I didn't push for Katie to participate in them. That is how traditions get passed down or avoided. Here they are, the Easter egg hunt pictures.

Waiting for the whistle so they can run like maniacs and collect eggs. 

Action Shot #1

 Action Shot #2

 In honor of the Easter egg hunt, I put Katie's hair in high ponytails so they would look like rabbit ears.

 Did you actually think there would be a roll of pictures of Katie and not one where she is mugging for the camera?

 Katie, Jiselle, Cambry and Baleigh

After the Egg hunt it was time for recess. (Pretty cushy schedule if you ask me.) A lot of the parents stayed to play with their children or to chit-chat. Here is what Katie likes to do on the playground, hang from the bars.

Fancy pose.

Good thing she wasn't yelling for help for I was way too busy with my camera.

Katie and her friend Cody. Cody is such an amiable kid. When I told him I took a picture of Katie and him, he was excited.

We have a program at home that entails Katie getting stickers on a chart if she listens to us, meaning if we don't have to tell her twice to do something. We set goals (prizes) for her to work towards. The first reward was that Rick would get the pool ready for summer.

Floating. The water was only 72 degrees but she insisted on going in the pool. I don't know how she did it. I cannot go into the pool until it is at least 92 degrees.

" I am free!"

Katie has a move where she scallops through the water like a dolphin. She jumps up, arcs into the water and comes back up. Above she is coming back up.

I like the suspended bubbles of water.
 

 Arcing out of the water before the big splash.

Cody, the neutered wonder. Yup, he finally got them cut off. He didn't seem too upset about it. However, Rick was identifying too closely and was more blue than the dog.

We didn't get Katie's pictures taken with the Easter Bunny until the day before Easter. That explains why we did not send out Easter cards. But hang on families, they are coming.

I didn't make Katie's bunny cake until Easter evening. I must say that it is the ugliest bunny cake that I have ever created. Here's a story to go along with the cake. I was waiting for the cakes to cool and had already made the butter cream frosting. I left the beaters attached to the mixer in case I would have to whirl the frosting around a few more times before decorating the cake. I was in the living room and Katie asked if she could lick the beaters. I told her that she had to wait until I was done frosting the cake. I asked her if she hadn't already licked the beaters. "No." Then I asked whether she was sure she didn't lick them because if she stole a lick that meant she was being sneaky and sneaking is lying. "No." At this point I am getting angry because despite the "No's" and shaking of the head, a dollop of white butter cream frosting clung to her nose.  Katie typically doesn't lie but she was punished for her sneakiness.

The Ugly Bunny Cake

For my blogger friends, I am frustrated with blogger. They changed something in their module to upload pictures. I can still upload all of the pictures to blogger in one action; however, I had to upload each picture one at a time to this post. UGH!! Figures it would happen when I had a slew of pictures to post.

Dying Easter Eggs

This past weekend we partook in the tradition of dying Easter eggs. For Katie's first Easter, Katie sat in her swing while Rick and I relived our Easter childhoods. The eggs we made that year are carefully wrapped and treasured. This year, like all previous, we worked with blown eggs. I do not like to dye hard-boiled eggs because then you have to destroy your masterpiece. For two weeks I had been blowing eggs whenever I needed some for cooking or baking and I am happy Easter is now upon us. We ended up with about 14 eggs and below is Katie in egg dying action.

Cups of water, a couple of egg dying kits and we are ready to create.

Dipping and making a mess. Note the brown paper taped to the table. 

Carefully painting an egg.

Ah the beauty of these festively dyed Easter eggs.