dont tell her...

Conversation from the back seat:

Yordi: How old is mom?
Molly: She is ** but don't tell her because that is really really old and she will feel bad if she finds out.

great. apparantly I am old.  

Why girls make terrible farmers...

I grew up on a farm. I live in town right now, but I am a country girl. Addie has inherited this gene. She is very much a country girl. My best friend is a serious country girl (picture her, Addie and I loading up 6 300 lb pigs by ourselves into a trailer to take to fair)... She raises pigs... We have spent much time in the barn when the sows are delivering...

Two weeks ago I get a text message at 10 pm... "sneak out and meet me in the barn"... so I did (don't worry- Noah was here with the sleeping littles). What we found were 15 newborn piglets. The average was about 3-4 lbs. The runt... 8 oz. She had to keep him in a container in order to not be smashed by the others... Kerri stayed up with him all night in the barn... holding him up to the mommy to nurse until 3 am when he was just too weak. She took him to the house and began syringe feeding him every 30 min through the night and into the next day. Then we took over...

He stayed by the fire... Addie fed him religiously but you could tell he was going downhill fast. We knew he was dying... even told the littles that he was dying... but we couldn't let him die in the cold barn. He died cuddled up to Addie.

This is why girls make terrible farmers... we farm with our hearts. A man would have wacked it on the head when it was born and slept through the night and not syringe fed a dying piglet every 30 min for 42 hours... Girls make terrible farmers... His name was "Nugget".

crossing our fingers

So Noah has been invited to apply to a Science camp this summer. It is the coolest thing. Mobil/EXXON is sponsoring this 2 week long camp at the OSU campus (the ONLY college Noah would ever think of attending... they are BLACK and ORANGE you know). It is a fully funded camp... 2 weeks, all meals, lodging, transportation, field trips... totally educational... Noah's idea of fun! They are only taking 52 kids from the entire state... It is intended to target kids from more rural areas who wouldn't normally have access to this sort of thing. He is SUPER excited... he has worked really hard to get his math and science grades up (even aced his math test today). He has filled out the application and gotten his teachers to write him letters of recommendations... So we will wait and see...

He is also going to his first "slumber party" this weekend. He has never stayed with anyone but Grammy and Aunt Lynde. He has tried, and tried and tried... and God love his best friend and his parents who continue to invite him and then meet me late at night, but even if he doesn't stay the night... HE WAS INVITED!!!! TO A BIRTHDAY PARTY!!! He doesn't get many invitations... He was so happy today... "mom I had such a good day. It was a happy day". I want to track down this kid and give him huge hugs. People take this stuff for granted... Do you think they even know??????

Not sure how I feel

it has been one of those days... one of those days you think... Really???? Really???? Another stupid thing happens and it stops bothering you because it is just one more crappy thing in a whole line of crappy things....

And then I overhear this... and as a strict mom, a concerned mom I should be "concerned" right? But I am not. Tonight it is just terribly funny and I am laughing. And I keep laughing...

Conversation #1 between my 2 oldest, the 2 more responsible children I have...

Addie: uhhh did I tell you i got refocused today (refocus= time out at school to rethink what you are doing and to give you an opportunity to get it in gear) (*i have to point out here that Addie has NEVER in the history of 9 years been in ANY trouble at school)

Noah: YOU??? Nice work. What did you do?

Addie: I laughed after we were told no more laughing by anyone for the entire class... Went into Mr *** class and nearly made everyone choke that I was being refocused. B (a boy that is ALWAYS in trouble but super nice to Addie) said "what is this world coming to if even Addie is being refocused"?

Noah: that is just awesome.

Addie: yeah, just wanted the experience. Never done anything like that before. Might not ever get the opportunity to get refocused for something like laughing.

Noah: yeah I got sent to the principals office today for having a "dumb report and dumb notes".

Perfect...


Conversation #2

Addie: I am nervous about competing for the creed tomorrow (big FFA competition). i hope I do bad cause it will make mr A really mad.

The other boy competing with her: darn I did good today. If we do good tomorrow then we have to keep on competing... we gotta try harder to do bad.

Really, they are good kids. I don't think i should worry to much. i don't think they have crossed to the dark side. I am fairly confident they are not turning into the school trouble makers...I think we all have just had a bit too much and have snappedin much better moods... tomorrow (or maybe the next day) I will be back to normal... for tonight I am still chuckling.

Big Week

I think we have a big week coming up.. I am gearing up... Addie has a FFA creed competition Wed. She hates this. She has to stand and recite the Creed while having stage presence and confidence. She HATES to be in the public light. She hates public speaking. She had planned to not win the first round and not have to progress on. Her evil plan backfired and she ended up placing along with 1 other boy, and now having to compete at sectionals. She then leaves on Thurs for a student leadership bus tour/community service trip. They are headed down to San Franscisco... stopping all along the way to work and volunteer and then spending evenings doing team building and leadership exercises. So proud of her for going... only 70 kids in the state of Oregon. I have the distinct feeling that this will be the first of MANY times we will say goodbye to Addie. She has travel, adventure, and missions in her blood... It doesn't suprise me anymore. I think I have accepted it.

Noah is gearing up for track. He plans to run long distance this year.

And... Dont tell the littles but I am signing them up for indoor soccer. My international triplets will make up 1/3 of the team... I am afraid the team wont know what hit them. I cant wait to watch... as much fun as they are individually they are hysterical to watch all together. Those 3 are tight. And trouble...

going private

ok I know I have been a very bad blogger... NO UPDATES. .. so sorry. Due to some privacy issues my blog will be going private for a time beginning next week. Please leave me a comment if you would like to receive an invitation to continue to view it.

Life is busy around here... football, volleyball, 5 kids, 4 schools, 1 mom. Not a whole lot of bonbon eating time around here. Life is good . We continue to count our blessings.

now it is not broken.

I am late in posting this, but we heard last week that indeed molly's foot is not broken. The radiologists that read the xrays are out of state (the wonders of computers). They did not have the info that Molly has "foot issues". So the bone in question is not broken- just doesn't look like a typical bone of a normal foot. (I could have told them that!) Molly has been released from her kneepad transportation and we are all much happier to not have to carry her around. Although at chore time she usually develops a sudden pain...

Indoor soccer

I now know why I had the good common sense to OUTLAW playing ball in the house. While tending to an issue that had to be dealt with I asked Noah to "entertain the littles upstairs- play a game maybe". I forgot for a brief moment that a "game" to Noah would mean a soccer game... without shoes... in the hallway upstairs... they had a great time. Until Molly missed the ball and landed her toes directly into the wall. 2 hours in the urgent care later and sure enough she has broken "big foot". We always worry about her "little foot". I never thought about how she would be impacted if something happened to "big foot". The doctors are puzzled as to what to do... normally where she broke it they dont cast. Unfortunately, because of the foot issues Molly Shen has, her big foot takes all of her weight and balance. They kind of scratched their heads and sent us home to keep her down until Monday... right. How do you keep down a strung out monkey????? Today she has taken her big sisters kneepads and pulls herself across the wood floors and has been caught going up and down the stairs on her knees... or lays on the couch barking out orders... this will soooo not be good for her bossy personality.

we are back...

We are home. What a great week at fair. We got all 5 pigs - excuse me- 4 pigs, Buzz, and Fairy Princess (the duck) loaded and taken into fair. Thank you Kerri... Addie and I couldnt have done it without you. I drove with Buzz in my trailer and prayed the whole way that I would get him there safely. He is Addie's baby after all. We got to the scales and realized that Buzz had layed on the duck cage during the trip which had pinned the duck to the floor of the cage. Close call!! 2 pigs made weight- so both kids had a market hog to sell!!!

Tuesday 12:00, we are checked into fair and the work begins. By the end of the day Addie and her friend Jesse had washed 7 pigs and body shaved 5. Noah began Wednsday off by winning GRAND CHAMPION duck (there was only 1) and then taking Grand Champion overall waterfowl. Molly was pretty proud that her duck already had 3 large purple ribbons and 1 trophy!!! By the end of fair the duck had 3 trophies and 7 ribbons. There will be no living with him in the barn now! When it came time for Molly to show her duck on Saturday, the judge couldn't get anywhere near her. Everytime he leaned in to talk to Molly, Fairy Princess would hiss and try to attack the judge. As long as he kept his distance from Molly everything was fine. Noah won Grand Champion showman and was able to participate in the small animal round robin tournament.

The kids did good. We didn't place so high with pigs this year, but learned alot... this new judge likes something completely different than the last judge... and luckily next year we will have another new one... so who knows. The kids had so much fun hanging out with their friends. The pig kids did a great job working together.

Addie ended up fairly sick... By day 2 we realized that she wasn't just working too hard in the heat and she wasn't just overly stressed. I checked her temp and found that she was running a temp of 102.5. There was no getting her out of the barn, although we did make her come back to the trailer for a little bit and her wonderful friends snuck back to the barn and snuck her pigs out for a bath. Even one of the boys who is too young to have a pig came up to me to tell me to not wake Addie in the morning for early morning chores. He said he would muck out her pig pens for her. How sweet is that? She stayed sick all week, but didn't stop. We went to the dr the day after fair and she had lost 5 lbs and they were threatening to put her in the hospital on IV fluids... some nasty virus (we jokingly said we thought she had the swine flu- sick joke I know). She seems to be over the hump now.

County Fair 2009 is over and we have to consider it a sucess. We came home with 2 pigs fewer than we went with and the same number of children...

And so we are off...

Where has this summer gone? I have hardly even posted... I do need to catch up, and plan to. There are so many great pictures of fun times this summer- company from out of state (including ours 10 kids/4 adults), Yordi's birthday, Addie's graduation, pool fun... but that will have to wait. We are outta here- off to county fair tomorrow am. Here are the stats:

me
5 kids (gaining an extra or 2 once there)
4 market hogs (please God let them be 230 lbs or more)
1 stubborn Buzz
1 duck
100 lbs of feed
groceries to feed all of us for 1 week
36 pairs of shorts
36 tshirts
42 pairs of undies
6 pairs of barn boots
6 pairs of show boots
7 show outfits
1 set FFA OD
2 sets complete animals records
2 show sticks
3 sets of completed Daily feed records (with all feed fed in 60 days documented- as well as rate of gain and cost per pound per animal)
tent trailer
5 pair clippers
5 bottles of shampoo/liquid bluing
6 feed pans
2 waterers
6 stall card signs


and whatever else we might possibly need...

Here is a glimpse of how it looks:
Day 1: notice the barns DO smell
Day 2: notice the barns don't smell as bad as previously thought
Day 3: notice the trailer smells like the barn
Day 4: notice that WE smell as bad as the barn
Day 5: settle for sorta clean clothes, debate if showers really are necessary, and then decided that it really doesn't matter
Day 6: shower? no. Clean clothes? forget it. WHEN DO WE GET TO LEAVE?????

Really, it is a highlight of the year. Today the kids are excited... they work so hard. They will be in the barns every morning at 6:30 am, work all day, show all evening, hang out until curfew with friends in the barns, bed by midnight and start all over the next day.
So, my next post will be once we are home... and have found our way to the showers and over the heaping piles of laundry. But there will be pictures...

lamb fair

Every year we have our annual "Lamb Fair". The town literally shuts down. The kids cant concentrate for a week because the carnival pulls in and sets up in the school parking lot. On Friday there is the street dance- they used to shut down the street and literally dance in the street, but now it has moved to the fairgrounds and stage... the kids get to hang out with all of their friends while the parents visit with people they never get to see... There are food booths, activities, the parade, forestry competitions, bake shows and sales, quilt and flower show... basically an entire weekend to spend visiting and having fun... I remember being a kid and looking forward to the lamb fair, just like my kids do now... of course doing it in 80* weather instead of the pouring rain is always a treat and much more enjoyable!! Small town America at its finest!
Goofing around at the street dance with good friends.
Addie, Abby, and Tony all set for the parade
Molly all ready to ride on the 4H float for the first time.

Noah and his buddies on the 4Hfloat
Tank and Mackenzie all dressed up for the parade..

The grand champion float- the high school forestry dept. It even had water cannons!
The boys scoring candy while Addie walks (in high heels, panty hose and a thick jacket) a very large and hot Tony down the parade route.

Molly and buddy Carter at the carnival
Bis on his first fair ride

Molly used her left over money to buy cotton candy (the deal was they could spend it however they wanted- usually she doesn't eat any sugar). She was determined to eat her entire bag.
She only made it part way before she got a massive headache and crashed!!! She says she is NEVER going to eat that stuff again!!! EVER!!!
Noah getting ready to perform with his singing group.
Just before going on stage
Yordi getting ready to watch Noah sing.