Merry Christmas-the Day After!

Hope your Christmas was a wonderful one-ours sure was! We had 17 here-so it was a houseful. And I did get my new camera! It will take me some training-it has lots of new features that the old ones don't! I did finally get some pictures of Coccoa-isn't she the sweetest calf ever? I just want to pick her up and hug her-and of course, she won't let me anywhere close to her!

I have taken down all the decorations here in the house-I love having them up-but I'm always ready to get them packed back up when the 25th is over. We still have to take down the outside lights-but the weather is just so cold, damp and nasty-I don't like being out in it for too long! And as usual-I'm sick for the holidays. I woke up Friday morning with a sore throat-then Saturday fever-just felt bad yesterday-today just yuck. Jeff & I both have Doc appts on Wednesday for other things-so we'll see how I feel by then!

Everyone says you always complain about the weather you don't have-well we've had about 8 inches or so of rain this last week alone-Praise God! But I am SO ready for the sun to shine again! Everything is so damp and it's cold out. I go out for a little while-but then have to come back inside and warm up. It's that damp cold that just goes all the way to your bones! And it's really affecting Jeff's back. He's really stiff and in pain. Going through lots of firewood, too!

We don't have any plans for the next 2 weeks while I'm off. Jeff wants to get some more hunting done before the season ends this weekend-but he's seen no new tracks in way over a week up there at Mom's. We thought about going down to the beach for a few days-but not if the weather doesn't change! The time just goes by so fast!

Christmas Eve-Eve!

Maybe not the best title-but I guess it fits well!! We've been busy-but not too much-and not nearly as much as usual for the season! I believe we are finished with all parties and such-and only have Christmas Eve and Sunday's worship service left. Wednesday we had the kids hayride then the youth group's Christmas party-it went very well! The cookie above was from their party.

No more office for me til next year-yeah! We go back to work on the 9th of Jan-kids go back the next day-so I am looking forward to a nice long break! I'm up at Mom's right now-Jeff's out hunting again-we'll go home in a bit-I have to start getting some cooking done-you know the no bake fruit cake and the no-bake cookies from every year!! Honestly-I do want to get some of the actual baking done-cause with Christmas being on Sunday this year-it will make things a little different-but what a wonderful day to celebrate our Savior's birth!

Well-it seems we ended up with not 1-but 2 new roosters. Both are young-one is trying to crow-that awful-yet wonderful noise!-and 4 new hens. Jeff's mom decided she just didn't want to fool with them anymore-so we inherited them. But I do so miss the beautiful one I had! We had 1 litter of rabbits-going to have to breed back the other 2 does that didn't kindle. The calves are doing great-I still need to get a pic of Coccoa-she is so tiny and cute! Jeff took the small turkey and put it in with the bigger ones yesterday-but the hen kept beating her up-but the tom was trying to protect her. He went ahead and turned her out into the yard-he'd let the other chickens out for the first time since the rooster disapeared. It was so funny-that turkey follows him all over the yard! We went into the garden to check on things in there-I put 3 quarts of broccoli in the freezer!-and she stood at the gate waiting on him to come back out. When he fed her-he poured her feed back in the cage she's been in-she came up to it-stuck her neck in and Jeff just picked her up and put her back in! The hogs are growing as well-one's daysare becoming numbered-she'll be sausage before too long! Oh-and we got right at 4 inches of rain Wednesday night-the pond is full again! Praise God-now if we can just find hay at a price that is not so jacked up in price-it has just really gotten out of hand this year! We need to put Deisel in the barn and start feeding him out so he can go to the locker plant. He'll still be small-but the Dexter's don't get big.

We also had a wonderful surprise visit on Tuesday from one of Jeff's family friends. Regina ( I wouldn't do that to you with the nickname!) and her son, Ben, droppped by-we haven't seen her in years and had a great visit. She's living in Katy with her family and her brother, David, is in San Antonio. Jeff got to talk to him and we hope to stay in touch!

We are supposed to have some sunshine today-so I'll try to get out and take some pics of how things are going.

Kylee Meets Rascal !!

Kylee has really been interested in Rascal lately-and they actually met face to face today! Kylee's starting to scoot and roll around a little bit-so crawling is not too far off.
Well-the last few days have been good and bad! When we got home on Friday afternoon-Glory had had her calf-a beautiful tiny heifer! She is a wonderful color and Jordan has named her Cocoa. She was out of the pasture when Mady and I found her-so we moved the cows back into the pasture behind the house because it is fenced with net wire instead of just barb wire. I took some pictures of them yesterday-but with our cloudy weather-they just came out too dark-I'll have to wait til a brighter day. Then yesterday-my big beautiful rooster went missing. We had heard him crowing in the morning-but by mid morning-we found feathers in the front pasture and no crowing this morning. We don't know if it was a dog or a chicken hawk-Jeff saw a hawk one day last week-so the chickens stayed penned up today.
Our calendar is really staring to fill up quickly-this next month is always so busy for us. Next Saturday is Coldspring's annual Christmas on the Square event. Hailey and the drill team are set for a few performances and then the nighttime parade will be after dark. Children's Church Christmas program is next Sunday night-so we've been having practices for it as well! Busy, busy-but we'd have it no other way!

Happy Thanksgiving-A few Days Late!

I sure hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and was able to spend it with family and friends! We spent my week off mostly at Mom & Shorty's with Jeff hunting. We went home Wednesday evening-came back on Thursday evening-back home Friday evening-then back up here tonight after a call from my brother that he had finally gotten a deer-so Jeff's helping him with it and I'll go back to work from here in the morning.

A few of our monkeys-with Randy being the biggest one of all!!

These pictures are of one of the big oak trees that stood in our back yard. It was one of at least 2 that we've lost so far this year to the drought. I was holding out that maybe it would come back in the Spring-but when we got home on Friday-a pretty good size limb was laying in the driveway. So I sucked it up and said Ok-I knew it had to come down. We left for a little while on Saturday morning to run some errands-in the rain!!!!-We got nearly 2 inches-praise God!Anyway-Jeff and I both noticed that with all the wind we were having, that the tree was beginning to lean-so it HAD to go and quickly. Jeff cut it down after Church-it had so many limbs and depending on which way it started to fall-it was just too close to the house for comfort. This one fell right where he wanted it as well-He is so talented!!

We are still waiting on Glory to have her calf-I really thought it would be sometime this last week-but she's still holding on. We've almost run out of meat in the freezer from the last calf butchered-so Diesel's days are really becoming numbered. None of the rabbits kindled-so I rebred them-should be due in another 2 weeks. Our friends picked up the 2 pigs we've been holding for them-boy is it much quieter-those 2 were very noisy! The garden is looking better than any I can remember in years past-too bad that the cold weather is going to put an end to some of it!! We are picking small red tomatoes almost everyday and they are still blooming. We had to cover lots of it before we left tonight cause the temps could go below freezing in the morning. We have tiny heads of cabbage and little heads of brocolli coming on. The snow peas have grown taller than their fence-but haven't started blooming yet and the peppers are still going strong-I put up 2 and a half more pints of them this week as well. These I put through my little chopper with a little onion instead of just slicing them.

I really didn't do any of the Black Friday shopping this year. I did go to Baskin's around 9:30, and there were no more people shopping than normal-so I tried my luck at the Outlet Mall in Livingston and treated myself to a new purse and wallet-just to get back to the camper and have the strap on the old one break-guess it was time for a new one anyway!

We put up the tree on Thursday as well-but I didn't put the ornaments on it until today. We haven't put any lights up outside yet either-but we'll get to it sometime. We also got the flour sifter in that I won off of eBay to go in our Hoosier cabinet. It was the correct measurements-but after a little research, we've found that it has to be taken apart to install it. So now Jeff will have to undo all he did a few weeks ago on it to see if he can figure out how this thing goes in and works. The bin itself will hold nearly 50 lbs of flour! It'll be so cool when we get it into working condition! I just love this piece-we bought it 10 years ago in Montgomery and have always planned to restore it to its' original glory. Jeff did repair the roll tops on it and did a great job-now I'll be looking for the sugar sifter, the recipe book holder a few other gadgets that were kinda standard on these cabinets.

Our high school football team is still going strong and is one game away from playing for the State Championship-same as last year! We are really thinking on making the trip to Dallas this year if they make it that far! We'll take Jordan with us if we go-he is really looking forward to it.

I have 3 weeks and 3 and a half days till my Christmas break. I'm looking forward to it-we won't go back to work for awhile-might even make it to the beach for a few days! The next few weeks are always so busy with Church activities and other things going on-it's easy to lose track of what Christmas is all about. I've really tried to make an effort this year to slow down and not let myself or family get too caught up in everything that's going on. I guess that is why I always enjoy the Christmas Eve Candlelight service. It is a time of worship and fellowship that allows me to slow down and honor Christ first and foremost! May your next few weeks be filled with His love and Spirit!! Have a great week!

Happy Halloween-2011!!

Our yearly scary (?) family picture! The first one for Kylee-and there is another extra-the little boy on the left is a friend of the kids that went Trick-or-treating along with them! They made the trip around the neighborhood-family only-then Alana took her crew over to the Fire Station for fun! They enjoyed themselves!

Garden Pics & Happy Cows!

Sugar & Oreo enjoying the grass I pulled from the garden this afternoon. They're eating out of one of the troughs Jeff made from the hollow tree he cut down. He's made 2 planters from pieces as well.

Here's a picture of the baby turkey we hatched in the incubator-SHE'S getting so big!

Broccoli plants growing!

Cabbage plants growing!

The carrots are in the lower right side bed-The squash-Jordan & Suzanne planted the seeds-are in the upper left-and the snow peas are growing up the fence at the top!

Well-no baby rabbits, yet. I forgot to add the extra days-I only added 28 days. One has pulled fur-so hopefully tomorrow.

We had Homecoming at Church today-we had well over 100 people-had to pull out a few folding chairs to seat folks! It's always great to see some of the older people-but sad to think of the ones we've lost this year. We had one couple come "home" from Missouri-it was great to see Danny & Linda! And of course-LOTS of good home cookin'!

We are planning to take the Youth Group to see the movie "Courageous" on Tuesday night. Minnie & family tried to go see it tonight-the Texan Theatre is showing it for free-but they couldn't get in. We had plans for Wednesday-the last night-but decided we might better try for Tuesday instead. It'll be hard for me to get from work-and picking up Hailey from Drill team practice-on time to leave. Gonna try not to worry about it!

Have a great week!

Wow! Time is flying by-Again!

We got to work again on the greenhouse today-yeah! Jeff got it framed in and Curtis, Jr came by before dark and they got the glass put in! It's looking good. We've got to go get the plastic for the roof now and decide what we will put at the bottom below the glass pieces.

I spent part of Tuesday afternoon trying to get this tomato plant up and back into the cage-it is loaded with tomatoes and blooms! It-and a few others-survived our HOT summer and are now blooming and making tomatoes like crazy! We have 2 other ones that look very much like this-one I've been able to work a little on-the other I haven't gotten close to as of yet. This one will be inside the greenhouse-so hopefully it will keep producing through the winter.
The rest of the garden is doing wonderful-I need to take some pictures of it as well-but my camera isn't taking very good pictures these days. I've asked Santa for a new one already! ;) All the pics I take with it are just fuzzy and it has a very low zoom on it-I can't get close ups like I want too. Anyway-the broccoli has finally taken off-along with the cabbage. The brussel sprouts are still a little slow-the carrots are doing well and the jalapeno peppers just won't stop-they are still blooming as well. The beets never did come up and the lettuce is a little spotty-but they were all old seed-so anything from them was good. We've gotten a little rain almost once a week this last month and you can really begin to see the difference in things. Our first cold front hit Thursday-if you want to call it that-and we lit the first fire in the wood heater last night. I love to watch it burning!

The cows are doing well-I just wish we had more grass for them! We keep rotating pastures and give them a roll of hay every now and then-but it just isn't enough somedays. They love to see me working in the garden-cause they know I'm gonna throw the grass over the fence to them and will stand there and hollar at me to give them more-they are SO spoiled. Glory is due to have her calf around Thanksgiving-I need to check for a more precise date. Oreo is growing like a weed and I can't wait for her to have a buddy to run and play with-they can be SO cute! The 2 rabbits are bred-and have been busy building their nests-they are due to kindle in the next day or 2. This will be the first litters since summer began because of the heat. The pair of turkeys are growing nicely and the kids just love to hear the tom gobble. The one we hatched in the incubator is growing very fast as well-we moved her (hopefully!) into a cage next to the older ones so they can start becoming aquainted and won't fight when we add her to the flock! We did finally get 3 more Aracauna hens 4 weeks ago-but no eggs yet. Actually, we haven't really been getting any to speak of-be glad when they start laying again. It's almost time to start all that holiday baking!

The youth group at church is going well. We had our first big outing and they all had a ball. One of our parents took a bad fall from a horse today and had to be Life Flighted into Herman in Houston-but she's gonna be OK-has 5 broken ribs. Please keep Paige in your prayers-Korey told me tonight that her Mom might get to come home tomorrow.

Jeff is hoping to get the hayfield cut this next week-it has gotten enough rain over the last few weeks to really make it come on and grow!! Hopefully it'll make more than the 11 1/2 rolls that it did earlier in the Spring. I think we only have 1 more roll from our half of the cutting. Shorty still has several-but since he sold all his cows-I don't know why he is holding on to it. Guess he's waiting to buy more cows. We still would like to get the milk cow-but until it rains a little more-and I guess we get rid of a cow-we really don't have the pasture for one. Diesel will be going to the locker plant after the first of the year-but we'll have 2 more calves with the one due in a few weeks. I don't know-we'll just see what happens!