How can I go on vacation?

Mickey.......makes himself at home!

Mickey teasing the 'cat' dog "Skittles". He hates cats, thank goodness the door is between them or ELSE....

I have 3 horses, plus 3 dogs and one cat, how can I go on vacation and leave them behind? Who is going to take care of them? How can I miss my barrel races? OMGosh, then BB has Basketball camp in July! OMGosh, I am feeling squeezed!

Building a Hearth

Moving furniture and Painting has been my spring break job!

This wall seems to be the best for our rock (?) hearth and wood burning stove!

Still trying to move and adjust furniture! I am not in a hurry to get the wall built. I am looking at 'man made' rock for my hearth. I first thought I would like a brick hearth, but people who know me, know that I do not get in a hurry, I have to analyze and study different options. Studying the man made rock is something I am definitely interested in. It is much lighter than real rock and right now it seems to be budget friendly! We will soon find out! I did lose a wall and have less furniture in the living room! BB reminds me that she will be gone in a year and less furniture will be OK! LOL we will C! She is not gone long before she returns home and misses my cooking, cleaning and home atmosphere!

We are trying to get as much self-sufficient as possible. We have two gardens, chickens (23 to be exact and 1 rooster), 2 deep freezers and going to be purchasing another one for our beef we will be butchering. One freezer has garden veggies, the other one is our 2 hogs we butchered recently and then the beef is coming in May! We feel that the only time we will need our electric is during the summer! I have to have cool air! LOL Especially after riding my horses in the morning and coming in from a 'hot' summers day!

Off to the Vet....

It is time to take my girls for their yearly shots! Thank goodness it is not raining! Hauling my girls, loading and unloading them by myself, on top of rain.....uhrrrrrr! So yes, I am glad it is not raining!

This is what I have been doing all morning......

Painting the extra room!
It looks pink but it is taupe~

This room has needed a 'fresh' coat of paint for some time now. I have ignored it, because it is an extra room. We are putting our wood stove back in our home for next winter. After being without electricity and heat over the winter snow/ice storm, we have decided that it was a necessity. John is coming out to drop an outside line out of our meter box so we can hook our generator up to the house (for outages only). Then we are having a rock hearth installed in our living room for our wood burning stove. I guess we are going back some years, because my grandmother had an ol' wall heater that stayed on very low setting and she heated her home with the fireplace and her gas stove when cooking. In the long run, it will save us money in the winter, cause that wood heater will run you out of the house when it is going! The front room at this time, is being turned into a sitting room. We have to move a couple of chairs in the front room so that we can make room for our stove!!

Twilight FAN

http://twilightguide.com/tg/twilight-graphics/movie-photos/?page=1

......This fantasy/dream of a movie is unbelievable for ones who love to watch adventurous, thrilling and love story movies! I have to say I am somewhat envious that author Stephanie Meyers of the Twilight series can fantasize and write such a wonderful love story! I had to purchase the movie (yes, I am one of the 3 million who purchased one the first day of release) for my collection. I hear the second one "New Moon" will be out in November!

My overload is now catching up with me!

As most of you know, I helped Coach Ramsey during the season this year. The coaching duties were split, placing the once assistant coaches to the head coaches over the jr. high players and the sr. high coaches without their assistant. The managers were short and with all this, I volunteered my services, so I did just about anything that the girls needed. A shoulder to cry on, water, med's, tape, pre-wrap, and kept the books on top of the other duties. I think on my contract is states, "all other duties assigned!" Besides my full time teaching job during the day at school, I am attending college for my Masters in Counseling! This WAS my weekly schedule: Monday night (off); Tuesday and Friday BBall games; Wednesday night and Saturday (9-3 p.m.) class at Tech; Sunday-Church; Thursday - helped out at home game, or make up games with Sr. high girls and sometimes off that night~ and somewhere in between had to get my homework, research papers and artifacts for my classes. No wonder I look exhausted, LOL. The pictures below were a payback from K.Ramsey who took some pictures for me during the games. I once took a picture of him and placed it on the server at school! LOL He said, "I am only returning the picture!"..... BUT the main topic...."I have returned to normal"

I am starting to show my exhaustion~ toward end of season~
Keaton got the worst side of me! Could have waited for a better shot~

Snow in March

My trees look like it is snowing in March! They are beautiful! I love Bradford Pear trees, the beauty in the spring is impeccable!

I have 3 trees and they are all blooming at different stages! Continued beauty!

These close pictures show the purple in the middle that articulates the beauty of each flower!
Every flower is different, no one flower is the exact as the other!
So many flowers on one small branch!

Never really noticing the little details until now, facinates me! Getting close to take the pictures, I realized that God made each one of these seeds that grow into a tree, that blooms into the imaculate rave of beauty, lives so short before the leaves comes out to make my green leaved shade tree! Doesn't seem possible that these flowers will soon be gone!

Snowing in March!

Cutting Trees for Another Garden........

Cutting a couple of trees for our new garden (2)

Here is our other garden! We will plant Tomatoes, okra and maybe some squash in this garden. My favorite is fresh tomato juice.......this winter when I was sick, I opened a jar of tomato juice and it was YUMMMMEEEE for my TUMMMEEEEEE

Here is the garden we have used for years, we have radishes, lettuce and onions coming up in this garden.

Buddies now!

Mickey and Cowboy

Once were acquaintances, now they are buds! They keep each other company during the day. They almost look guilty! :)

"All-Distirct"....we can announce it now!

BB #34

BB - #34 trying to block a shot

B received All-District honors this year in the 2008-09 basketball season! Even after tearing her ACL, she has a great comeback when she hits her 3 pts shots with 70% and scoring an average of 17 pts a game and average of 8 rebounds, 3 steals and 5 assist, and her free throw percentage is at 75%. Once she was used to her brace she was the ol' BB back in full force! We knew she had received these honors a couple of weeks ago, but we were not able to release the information until after State finals! CONGRATULATIONS BB.........GREAT JOB! We are proud of you and luv you!

Mr. & Mrs. Jeff Clark

Congratulations....my children! Their wedding, February 28, 2009 at 2:00 p.m. are now a couple and Sterling is part of our family! At 2:30 p.m. I sent them a text message congratulating them! I am so happy for Jeff, I know he will make Sterling a wonderful husband! A firefighter!

IF you have NOT seen the movie "Fireproof" you need to see it soon! I cried like a baby! It was personal since Jeff is a firefighter...so I see what he can go through in a day, plus after visiting his fire station, it was so meaningful how these guys really risk their lives!

Mickey, making himself right at home!

I do not know how well you can see this picture (taken and sent through my IPhone), I was working on a paper and powerpoint that is due next Saturday in one of my classes, when I looked over on the couch and saw my cat, Mickey, laying upside down with all four legs spread and his head hidden. His tail was swinging back and forth (?) dreaming? It was so funny!

Super Bowl Night

I forgot that I took this picture on my IPhone, when I noticed it going through my album. We spent the evening at a friends house watching the super bowl and 'eating'.....lots of friends, fun and laughter. During the super bowl, some of the commercials were 3D, so I had to take a picture, they were glued to the T.V.