Busy

Softball season is officially over.  Kylah's team got 2nd place in their tournament.  Kait's team didn't play in their tournament because they only had six players.  Sure hope more girls from our town play next year or we won't have a team. 

Now our hectic month is about  to get here.  July is full of happenings in our family.   We of course have the 4th of July to celebrate.  My dad turns 70 on July 6th.  Then Fur Trade Days will be here.  We are having a surprise 70th party for my dad that weekend with our immediate family.  July 11th is Carter's 6th birthday.  My birthday is the 16th, Josh's the 20th and my nephew Phil's on the 30th.  Throw in combining season throughout those dates and our month will fly by.  (Even though I don't want it to.)  Then all the work, fun, and play in between those dates.  July is my favorite month of the year because we get to see family a lot more.

We are heading to Gillette tomorrow to meet our newest family member- Baby Thatcher.  He is one month old so we are hoping to love up on him and his siblings for a little bit on Saturday in between their busy day of rodeos, etc.  It will be nice to visit Zeb's family as well and get to see Alayna and Jack, our niece and nephew.  Every day I call Alayna to tell her it will be one less day for her cousins to see her.  :)

I better head out to get some more watering done on this yard before our 95 degree weather shows up.  Hope you are all having a great week!

Two Wins!

Kylah's softball pixie team went to Rushville tonight for the first two games of their tournament.  They played Gordon first and then Rushville.  They WON BOTH GAMES!!!  The girls had a lot of great plays and some excellent hitting.  It was fun to watch even though we were lightly rained on and it was chilly.  All of us fans were under blankets. 

Now we go back over tomorrow night for the rest of the tournament.  Then their season will be over.  It's been a lot of fun to see the girls improve and we have excellent coaches!  Oh ya, Kylah hit two home runs!   Part of it is because when she takes off for first she keeps on running, sometimes when she shouldn't and she doesn't stop.  :)

Hoping the weather is warmer tomorrow.

June....

Wow, I woke up today and decided to look on my blog from when I last posted something.  I still had a St. Patty's Day background and had not posted anything since the beginning of March.  Time flies!!

We are rounding up our softball season.  Kait has a game here Thursday against Chadron.  Kylah's tournament is in Rushville tomorrow evening, however the weather isn't supposed to be great so we will see if it is post-poned.  Kait's tournament is this Saturday, although I don't know the location.

Josh and I just celebrated our 10 year anniversary on June 16th.  A decade of marriage...wow.  So much has gone on these past few years.  It's funny how nothing ever seems to change but when you look back, EVERYTHING has.  Our goal was to make it to Cancun for our 10 year but that didn't happen.  That's okay.  Life keeps us busy and we don't always have the time like we think we will.

We had a baby nephew born at the end of May.  Josh's brother Chris and his wife had a baby boy named Thatcher.  He is quite the cutie!  I made him a Dr. Seuss quilt to go with his bedroom.  It was a lot of fun to make.  We are hoping to get up  to visit them soon.

Wheat harvest is just around the corner so Josh and Carter will be busy with that when the time comes.  Carter loves being out in the fields with his dad and gramps.  :)

I have a busy schedule with daycare for the summer.  Keeps me going.  It is fun to have my school kids back and see how much they have changed during the school year.

What else??  Hmmm.... oh ya, we got a new kitten a couple weeks ago.  Josh absolutely refused at first.  She wandered in under our porch and so I put adds out to see if she was lost.  Nobody claimed her.  So three days later Josh said yes and we took her to the vet.  Doc thought she was 6-7 weeks old.  She got her first set of shots and worming medicine and we came home.  She is a funny little thing that has nearly doubled in size in the short time we have had her.  BTW- her name is Kaci.  She is an orange/yellow kitten with some white on her. 

Off to get my day started.  I hope all is well with everyone and your summer is going great too!

Sickness....

Josh and I both ended up sick.  He started having fevers Thursday night at work and my fevers started Saturday evening.  I don't think we have been this ill for years.  Monday morning we went to the doctor and they treated us for bronchitis and said there is so many types of sickness out there that it's hard to say for sure what is wrong. 

Josh started feeling better yesterday morning.  I still felt horrible today so our doctor called in a prescription for me to try a different antibiotic.  I was on meds for a root canal I was supposed to have yesterday (of course I had to reschedule) so now maybe this medicine will kick in.  I feel like an infant.  My nights and days are mixed up.  LOL!  (Not really funny.  I always seem to be dragging my feet when the kids need to be out the door for school.)

Carter has taken care of himself this week and I feel lousy for it.  I don't think he cares.  He is a pro at working the microwave and has control of the tv channels.  He seems to be getting bored though.  The hard part is we have tried to stay away from the kids as much as possible in hopes they stay healthy.  Today was nice outside so he went and played for awhile.  I don't think he knows what to do without his sisters being home (they're at school) and the daycare kids not being here too. 

My goal is to feel better and get this house sanitized this weekend.  Every day I wake up I hope to feel better and I don't.  Now that I am on a Z-pack maybe that will change.  It's amazing how hard it is to get any energy back from laying in bed so many hours in a day.  

I will quit complaining now.  Off to try and get some rest.  I took three naps today so my schedule is all messed up... =)

Back Trip

Josh and I went to Rapid City yesterday for my appointment with the spine doctor.  He wants to hold off on surgery as long as possible.  He said I would have multiple surgeries and a very long recovery for the many little problems I have. 

Then I went to the imaging center and had an epidural put in.  It should last a few weeks to a full 4-6 months depending on how my body handles it. 

So, we are trying a few options to put off the surgeries for awhile.  The longer I wait, the better chance of being less limited on movements.

Before the doctor visit we went to Menards and got a new light fixture and new flooring for our office!  I can't wait.  The girls tore out the carpet last weekend and we got the walls painted a sage green.  This weekend we plan on getting the floating floor in and the light put up.  (Depends on how Josh is feeling.  He is not feeling too great today.)

Tomorrow is Carter's first wrestling tournament in Chadron.  That ought to be a chaotic ordeal from what I have heard.  LOL!

Tuesday

Got a lot done this morning...

1.  Went to Chadron and filed our taxes.

2.  Got an estimate and appointment set up for Josh's car to get fixed.  (Durango will go for estimate on Thursday.)

3.  Lunch is done and over with.

4.  Cleaned and threw away some stuff.  Have a lot left.  How do we ever accumulate so much??

Nothing much going on.  Enjoying the "spring" weather and getting spring fever.  I can't wait to get out and get some yard stuff cleaned up!

I have an appointment tomorrow to see a spine specialist for my back.  Am anxious to see what he says about it.

Weekend Happenings

Tonight Kaitlin went to the movies with friends.  Kylah and Carter went to Gnomeo and Juliet with their Gramps and Grandma Mary.  They said it was a great movie.  I ran to walmart to pick up some odds and ends for our second home.  Josh and I got an apartment in Alliance.  It's a two bedroom and newly redone.  We decided that with the bad roads occasionally, his midnight shift, and wanting overtime that it would be better if he had a place to stay for extra sleep and less miles on the car.  This is our first week of this and so far it's went well.  I am sure he is very tired though.  He has worked two double shifts which is 330pm-730am. 

Tomorrow my mom, my kids, and I are going to Alliance to watch my niece Maddi play basketball.  Then we are heading to Hemingford to visit Pat's Creative (a wonderful quilt store) to find Kaitlin and Kylah backing for their quilts they have worked so hard on.  Then we are heading home in time for me to have a nap.  I have needed one all week!  Maybe if I went to bed earlier at night it would help. (DUH!!)

The weather is supposed to be in the 50s so that will be nice.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

Another Two Done

I just finished two more quilts.  They are for our nephew Jack and niece Alayna.  Jack turns one this month so I am giving it to him for his birthday and giving Alayna's hers so she will also have a gift to open at her brother's party.  (Plus I couldn't wait a few more months to give Alayna her quilt!)
                                                                                               JACK'S QUILT

                                                                                            ALAYNA'S QUILT

I had a lot of fun completing these and have another quilt in the works at this moment.  I never knew I would love quilting so much!

Wrestling

Carter started wrestling practice this week.  He jumped right in and seems to like it.  Josh is taking him to practices on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.  One of his coaches told me that Carter is catching on really fast and listens well and stays focused easily.  That was nice to hear.

Wrestling last for 8 weeks and there will be 3 or 4 tournaments.  The first one is in Chadron in February.  It should be fun!

Back News...

I haven't blogged the past week due to my back going out once again.  It had been okay for the past fourteen months with minor tweaks and pains here and there but nothing unmanageable.  Then I did the dumbest thing ever and decided to shovel snow last Wednesday.  Josh was still on his way home from work and Kaitlin and Kylah were at school.  There was only a couple of inches of snow but it got the best of me.  I have been lectured repeatedly from people  to never shovel again....(AND I WON'T!)

I went to my chiropractor in Chadron twice last week.  On Friday he told me he was going to look over my previous x-rays over the weekend and wanted me to really think about getting an MRI done.  I suffered through the weekend with a few car rides to help ease some pain.  The lumbar seats help a lot.  Then on Sunday evening I started to slowly feel my back shifting and the leg and knee pain was subsiding. 

I woke up this morning feeling a lot better.  I could actually get out of bed on the second try instead of the tenth or millionth time.  :)  Then Josh took me to the chiropractor.  I got adjusted and have felt a lot better since then.  We got an MRI scheduled for Monday morning in Rapid City.

Hoping to find some results and go from there...

Vet Trip

Tomorrow morning I am taking our ferret Goofy to the vet in Gering.  She has been losing her hair and is skinnier than she used to be.  I don't know of a vet around here that takes rodents so we are making a road trip.  I am sure many people wouldn't even consider doing this but I am just too big of an animal lover to not find out her problem.  Who knows, it could be a simple solution.  If not, at least I will know if she is suffering and what to do if she is.   :(

On a better note, I got our niece Alayna's quilt nearly finished tonight.  I have one more border to put on before it goes to the quilter.  I am saving it for her birthday in a few months.  Just hope I can hold out that long to give it to her.  It is very bright and colorful, just like she is.  When I asked her what kind of quilt she wanted she said, (in her little 3 year-old voice) "STARS! STARS! STARS!  That would be the best!  Oh, and pink and purple too!"  So that is what she is getting.  =)

Hope you all have a great Monday!

***UPDATE***

Took Goofy to the vet and she is going to be fine.  She got her rabies shot while she was there and is good to go.  There was a huge black and white long-haired cat there with big paws I really wanted to bring home but knew better.  :(  It's a good thing Josh is around or I would have a lot of animals and probably be known as the Cat Lady of Crawford...

Little Fockers

Tonight I am taking my mom to see the movie Little Fockers.  It will be her third movie to see in a theatre since the 1970's.  The only other two she has been to are Barnyard and Ratatouille with Kaitlin a couple years ago. 

Josh, Kaitlin, one of her friends, my mom, myself and maybe my sister-in-law will be going.  It will be nice to get out and about since I haven't done that in awhile.  Of course we will get to eat supper beforehand.  I want Chinese but that isn't one of Josh's favorites so............ we thought we would try the New York Pizza Place.  We have never been there before.

I  cannot wait for our huge bag of popcorn smothered in butter, a very FAVORITE of mine! 

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYONE!

Carter's Favorite Thing

Carter loves, loves, LOVES playing the Playstation 3 (PS3) online with his two uncles.  It's probably not the best thing for a five-year old to do but he understands it all and talks about his improvements all the time.  The nice thing is they can all talk on the headsets.  Well, it's nice for Carter but sometimes I feel sorry for his uncles because Carter commentates the whole game and never quits talking.  Sometimes Josh will sneak and shut his microphone off just to give everyone online who can hear him a break.  :)

Don't worry, he is only allowed to play so long before he has to shut it off.  Otherwise, I think he would eat, sleep, and breathe PS3.  I am Carter's "favorite mom in the whole world" when he gets to play and the "not-as-much-fun mom" when I inform him his time is up.

Not so much going on here.  I am enjoying our warm 30 degree weather.  Feels like a heat wave! 

♥ QUILTING ♥

I found a new passion in September.  I was introduced to the world of quilting and I absolutely love it!  It is such a relaxing hobby with endless options.  I have a wonderful teacher, Judy Wright, who has taught me so much.  Even the girls are quilting and it's been just as enjoyable for them.  Kaitlin and Kylah are currently finishing up quilts for their bedrooms.  I will post pictures as they get completed.

The very first quilt I made was a queen size scrap quilt that I made for my mom for Christmas.  Then I made a baby quilt for a dear friend of mine for her baby shower for her little boy.  Then I made Josh, and my two nieces each one for Christmas.  I currently have a little boy's quilt at the quilter's for our nephew Jack and my newest project is a quilt for our niece Alayna.

I spend a lot of evenings and some Saturdays quilting and am always looking for a new project to begin.  :)

I AM BACK TO THE BLOGGING WORLD....it's been awhile...

I have been terrible at keeping up with our family blog.  Now that the holiday season is over, I hope to be a little better at posting how life is going for us.  We have had a great new year, well until Sunday night.  Unfortunately, a driver came down our hill and when he hit the brakes he managed to hit ALL of our vehicles and more.  Yep, he crashed into the Durango, Josh's little Focus he drives to work daily, then the mailbox, next was our boat, and finally stopped after crashing into Josh's other car, a Buick Riveria.  Josh heard the crash from inside the house.  The driver was already walking up to our front door to speak with us.   My main concern was that nobody was hurt.  That's the joy of snowy, icy roads.

Today we had two adjusters come take estimates and now we are waiting to see what the insurance company has to say, and we will go from there.  Josh and I joke about how 'lucky' can someone be to have three cars, a boat, and a mailbox all hit in the same crash.  (Most of you know I use a lot of sarcasm throughout life to get through my days. ha ha)

So in the next few days we will find out the damage amount and see what options we have to mend our vehicles.  I knew when I put up our mailbox this fall after seven years of it barely hanging onto the post that something would probably happen to it.  It's kind of like a mopped floor....  Jody mops and milk is usually spilled within hours or sometimes even minutes to get rid of the clear shine.  ;) 

On another note, I guess I will list a couple quick happenings in our daily lives.

JOSH
--- Working the night shift since September.  It's a job, we can't complain...... too much.
--- Took Carter on his first ice fishing trip today.

JODY
---Have taken up the new hobby of quilting.  I LOVE IT!!!
---Read my Kindle daily.  It is like a fourth child to me. 

KAITLIN
---Played volleyball and basketball.  Now waiting for track season to begin.
---Has been having some stomach issues so we are trying to figure those out.  (no fun for her, poor girl!)

KYLAH
--- Asks to go to Watiki on a daily basis.
---Has been reading a lot for the wall chart at school.  Nearly 1,000 pages so far.

CARTER
--- Is addicted to the PS3 and doesn't like that he has a limit of time we let him play on it.
---Wants to go live with his cousin Jack in Wyoming. 

That's pretty much the basics as of right now.  I will upload some pictures soon.  Hope you are all doing great and staying warm in this frigid, crisp weather!

Volleyball Season

Once again I have failed to update our blog on a timely basis....

Volleyball season has started here and Kaitlin is enjoying it. (She begged to go out for football but her dad and I wouldn't let her.) Kait's team beat Chadron last week and then got beat tonight by Hay Springs. I guess they will have their good days and their bad as well. Kaitlin does have good ball control on her passing and it will be fun to watch her team improve through the season.

There isn't too much to post right now. We are all doing great and breaking in the new school year full force. Kaitlin is in 7th and Kylah is in 3rd. Carter is waiting a year for kindergarten so he has been home with me and farming every chance he gets with his dad and gramps. :)

Wheat Harvest Is Here!

Josh got his combine all ready to go last week and got to put it to use yesterday. Carter and him moved the combine to Whitney and helped Josh's dad get some wheat cut. Carter had an amazing time, and came home completely covered in filth and dirt. It made me smile. I want him to have great memories of farming with his dad and gramps when he is an adult.

It has been kind of 'iffy' for Josh to get to combine. We weren't too sure how it would work with him working the afternoon shift at the railroad. He wanted a night job so he could put his combine to full use but it didn't happen that way. So.... we are doing the best we can with the little time he does have.

Obviously we have been busy since I haven't blogged since May. Softball and t-ball season was a hit and we enjoyed the games. One night Kaitlin and Kylah were in two different towns playing ball and I got a phone call saying Kylah had hit a home run. Shortly after, Kaitlin hit a home run in Rushville. I was a 'proud mama' that night. :) Carter loved his t-ball and wants to play baseball next year.

Wow,..............

Wow...............

I have to be the WORST BLOGGER EVER! I can't believe a month has gone by since I was last on here.

Well, a big change happened in our lives. Josh's time with the State Dept. of Roads was up April 30th. Two weeks before that he got his "letter" in the mail from the railroad for his callback. THANK GOD!!!!!!! It's scary when you have a family of five and nothing out there after April 30th and then get that miracle letter....just in time! So now Josh is back to driving to Alliance daily and works the afternoon shift and every weekend, but hey, it's a job, and a good one at that!

We had to buy him a new car. We spent quite a little for his Buick to get fixed and $480 later and nothing fixed, we decided the route to go was to purchase something with less than 150,000 miles. (His car needed a new transmission and we hated to spend that kind of money on a car with such high mileage.) We ended up with a red 2006 Ford Focus with 65,000 and got a heck of a deal on it! It isn't our first choice of car but it's a nice little car for him to travel with and hopefully will be dependable for a long time.....like long enough that it will be Kaitlin's FIRST CAR! She was absolutely thrilled when we told her it would be hers someday if we bought it. She even said she can't wait to learn to drive a stick shift since it's a five speed. :-) That can be her dad's job. lol

School is about to end here. Next year Kaitlin will be in 7th grade, Kylah will be spending her 3rd grade year at Whitney, and we decided to not send Carter to school until next August since he turns 5 in July. Josh and I feel it's the best choice for him. This means I will have no children in the elementary school next year and it will be so strange. (Not entirely true...I will have many preschoolers and daycare kids there.) :-)

We are planning on getting our garden put in soon. Hopefully next weekend is the plan. We have had so many windy days this past week and it's starting to get on every one's nerves. So we pray, NO WIND TOMORROW PLEASE!

Hope you all had a great weekend. Have a great work week and I hope to blog again soon...................

Easter Weekend at Our House

Carter with his cousin Joe. He LOVES Joe!!!

Josh and our nephew Jayce.

My mom and dad with all their grandchildren.

Carol, Mom, Dad, Me, Jim, Chuck, Craig

We had a very nice Easter with our family. Everyone was able to make it except for Chuck's wife Rachel, who is a pharmacist and has a very busy work life. We missed having her here! We had a great weekend and enjoyed Prime Rib and all the fixings that go with it for Easter dinner. Glad we were able to all be together!

Catching Up....

Wow, I have taken a huge break from the blogging world lately. We have been at Kait's basketball tournaments the past three weekends and I can finally take some time to wind down and get back to everyday things. We did enjoy her games immensely and met a lot of great people! The last tournament was in Chadron this weekend and the girls played awesome! Since Kaitlin and another girl from Crawford were asked to play on Chadron's travel league, they also met some great girls who are wonderful! Chadron ended up taking second in the tournament which was excellent!

This weekend we are having Easter at my house. We were going to go to Gillette to see Josh's brother and his family but they had something come up and were going to be gone so we changed Easter dinner to be at our house. All five of us siblings will be together and our children. :)

Since we weren't going to Gillette, I was really bummed that we wouldn't get to meet our newest nephew Jack who was born in February. Tonight I looked out my front door and saw a little girl on my porch staring through the screen door and it was our niece Alayna! I was beyond surprised and very excited! She came inside and shared hugs before introducing us to her baby brother Jack. What a doll! I was so happy to meet him and got to have a good chat with Rachael (the mom) for awhile before they had to leave. It made my whole day!!!

Well, I am off to get a few things done before I call it a night. I don't know if any of you watch DWTS but I do and I need to catch the beginning on my dvr that I missed earlier tonight. Enjoy the warm weather tomorrow!