I'm a lone, lonely loner.

We quote Sid the Sloth a lot at our house. The kids and I went to see this movie on Friday. They love Ice Age 1 and 2, and even though we rarely go to the theater, we had to see what those crazy pre-historic mammals were up to. It was pretty funny, but the best character was crazy Buck. He cracked me up. Maybe it was his underbite.

Anyway, Sid was feeling bad because Diego wanted to move on and Ellie and Manny are expecting a mini-mammoth, so Sid says, "I'm a lone, lonely loner." That's my new Sid line.

We miss you! Happy Anniversary.

Grandpa is a cowboy. Grandma is a teacher. They met 58 years ago on the fourth of July, and went on their first date the next night. The problem was, they were paired up with other people.
Grandpa was working on a ranch near the badlands in South Dakota, and the ranch owner also owned a restaurant. He told some of his cowboys that he had three new girls coming in to waitress there on their break from college, and he would make sure that these cowboys got the first dates with his new waitresses.

So, Grandpa and Swede, who was an older (thirties) ranch owner, took a couple of girls out in Swede’s old Ford. Grandpa was driving, and he came up to a river, and Swede told him to go right through it. Grandpa gunned it, and promptly got the car stuck in quicksand. They all got out, and Grandpa said to Grandma, "Come on, let’s go to the next ranch to borrow a jeep to pull the car out!" (Actually, when Grandpa told the story he said, "I said, ‘Rose Ann, let’s go—'" and Grandma interrupted him with "Oh, no, you said to me,‘Come on!’ because you didn’t even know my name!")

The rest is history. Guess Grandpa knew a good thing when he saw it. And Grandpa eventually remembered Grandma’s name.

Clean is a dirty word

When the chickens are shipped to be turned into the chicken nuggets that you may have just ordered at your local Mickey-D's, it's time for clean-up at the farm.

Adam has spent the last couple of days power washing the fans, etc., in the barns. But in order to do that, he gets covered in water and dirty feathers. So, the fans might sparkle, but the washer looks and smells like a wet chicken.

And apparently I've gotten a little bit of a reputation around the farm. I was looking for the thing-y (that's a technical term, you know) to put on the drill to raise and lower the brooders, and Adam asked if I knew how to use the drill to wind up the winch automatically. He said, "You have to be careful, though." Then he looked at me and just put that drill bit away. Hmm.

I did a little bit of mowing yesterday. Andy's been working long hours, and now that Brian is big and old, he's working on another farm full-time this summer. That means, with Grandpa gone, the mowing is falling behind. I like to mow, and I would help Andy with it sometimes, but Grandpa is definitely the resident mower. I miss looking up or out the window to see him bouncing around on the mower and then I would sometimes send the kids out with a tall glass of kool-aid, since he doesn't drink water straight, you know.

Storms

It's really been storming this spring. We've had a couple of them go through in this last week or so, but just with a few limbs and branches down. The town of Norborne, MO, was hit harder during the last storm, and a group from our church went to help clean up. My dad and brother included. If you watch this video, Dad is in the burgandy T-shirt with the chainsaw, and Ben in the orange T with cut off sleeves and a chainsaw.

Un-venting.

1. Grandma is still sick, but Andy and I are not.
2. Aren't these tool boxes just adorable? I think they're going to be my next project.
3. Summer school started and all of the kids are going.
4. Getting ready for a garage sale takes a bit of time.
5. I'm hosting my book club for June and this is the book we're reading.
6. Brian has a baseball game tonight, and I'm ready to scrub the mud off his pants, cuz it's been raining ALL week!

VENTING...Warning. Reading the following post may be hazardous to your health.

My grandma is sick, and there is nothing I can do about it but pray.

I'm sick.

Andy's sick.

Bad weather.

Kids with attitude.

Out of control.

AHHHH!

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It's right here. If you love books, or know someone who does, this is a fun way to keep track of all of your favorites, and all of those books you loan out and hope you'll see again.

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It's madness, I tell you...

My kids are funny. I know every mom thinks that, but really, mine are funny. And a little irreverent. I don't know where they get that from, though.

Monkey always has something funny to say. Last night it was just him and I, and we were watching a little TV. The show was very appropriate until the actor said, "Damn, she's good". Which, of course, Monkey repeated. As I opened my mouth to tell him that it wasn't a nice word, etc., etc., he said, "Damn, I farted." How could I not laugh? I know, I should have used it as a teaching moment, but he caught me off guard!

One Sunday, Emily waved me over her in Primary and said, "Monkey has three Books of Mormon that he checked out of the Library. I just wanted you to know so you make sure he gets them all back there."

I sat down next to Monkey and asked him if he checked the extras out for his friends in class. He said, "No, I wanted three so I could have a triple!"

Joe has turned into a real food expert. We were at a potluck dinner at the preschool, and Joe cut a bite from a meatball, then chewed it up, tilted his head and pointed his fork at me and declared, "Homemade!"

Another day, he was helping me make pasta for dinner. We cooked and drained the pasta, then he added the pesto and tossed it around. He then informed me, "Mom, I need to taste the pasta, cuz that's what all of the professional cookers do!"

Watch out for this crazed bunny

Oh, I guess she might be OK.

Looks like trouble just hatched.

She even likes a Monkey.


Got Eggs?

Nauvoo Women's Retreat

This past weekend my mom treated Emily and I to the Nauvoo Women's Retreat. It was really wonderful and uplifting. We did not sign up for the first day's sessions since we travelled in that morning, hitting a couple of thrift stores on different towns on the way up. When we finally arrived, we met up with my sister Monie and my aunt Ramona. They were both involved in the Re-enactment of the first meeting of the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo. I took the pictures she put on her blog post, so I'll steal them and add them here with a little more information.


This first picture is of Monie and the actors who portrayed Joseph and Emma Smith. They are married in real life, and were very nice. His name is Stewart Peterson. Does he look at all familiar? He didn't to me, either. But I have see him in movies before and didn't realize it. He was in Where the Red Fern Grows and Seven Alone , along with some others films, when he was young.

This is upstairs in the Red Brick Store, where the original meeting was held 167 years ago. Monie portrayed one of our ancestors, Nancy Naomi Alexander Tracy, and had a small speaking part. They all look funny because they were in the middle of singing a song! Monie is in the middle, and Ramona is on the far right without the bonnet. She took hers off to give to a baby behind her to play with.

I'm going to have to blog about the retreat with several posts, since the presenters were so amazing! For a tiny little conference (about 150 women were there) I was so amazed at the wonderful speakers and talent who participated.

Go visit some others at Talk About Tuesday!