It is that time of year again.

Time for the fair! It seems that our summer revolves around the fair. Normally Morgan takes a few goats to show. This year we did not get any goats because we never knew if we would get an offer on the house and still be here. She is still in goat club though and did her project book. She will also be able to help others show their goats so she is looking forward to that. I am too. There is no pressure this year...trying to get the goat ready, finding buyers for the auction, coming in twice a day to feed and water goats and clean out the pens. BUT we aren't done with showing yet.....she also joined dog club so she will be showing Annie. She has been working on getting her trained for the last 6 months.

We have been actively involved in 4-H for years. I was in 4-H for 8 years showing sheep and working on local projects like foods, sewing and child development. Mike took pigs and his horse to the fair. Mike and I met 24 years ago at the fair so it has special meaning to me. Evan and Katie were very active in 4-H. They both showed sheep and Evan also showed dairy feeder calves. Katie was also in Rabbit Club. Morgan has been our goat girl because once we moved off the farm we didn't have room for sheep.

I will be doing lots of volunteer work all week. Working in booths and checking in goats etc. Yesterday I spent 8 hours helping to check in 4-H projects and they want me to come back a couple more days this week for judging. Morgan helped me for a while yesterday and she kept asking why we were doing it. I told her it is called "volunteering" and you do it to be helpful and not expect anything in return. She wasn't sold on it and only lasted 3 hours before she called Katie to come and get her. :)

Summer Flies

I couldn't believe it when I saw it has been almost a month since I posted last.

So far I am totally enjoying just sleeping in every morning. It has been pure heaven. No 6 AM alarm clock just relaxing and snoozing. Which of course means I can stay up until midnight watching The Tonight Show if I want too.

On the house front the people who had an offer on our home pulled out of the first right. I think they are still trying to sell their house, but they want more bargaining power. They had a house inspection done on our house. They want us to put in a new furnace because they think ours is too small. We have lived here for 6 years and have never had any problem with the furnace. We said we would have it inspected, but to replace it I think would be stupid. They also want to trade us lawn mowers and we said no until we know what we are going to be able to buy. We have done several other things the inspection suggested (new water heater, gutters on the garage, new electrical breakers etc.). No showings though for this month. Things are just so slow.

One good thing is that Mike is working only an hour from home so for the next three weeks he gets to come home every night. It has been really nice having him home this week. Even though it is just to shower, eat and spend an hour with us before he goes to bed it is still nice.

We have the pool open and it is now warm enough to swim in. We have had some pretty cool evenings this month so it took longer to get the pool up to decent temps.

Yesterday our little Annie got spayed. Yep, no more puppies from our little girl. She is a little ouchy today but doing quite well. Better than I would be doing. :)

Adam, our youth pastor and "adopted son" got married last week so I am less one kid in my house. He has moved out to live with his lovely wife and they are honeymooning in Tahiti. Ah, the life!

II will try to do better on updates. Later!

Update

Wow! I can't believe it is June already. Only two days of school left. YEAH!

Well, we are now under contract on our house. The buyers will have their home listed today....so now I not only get to pray that my house will sell, I get to pray that the people who want to buy our house can get theirs sold quickly so everything can get moving.

The home we want over in Lowell though disappeard off of the MLS today. I don't know if it sold, expired or they just pulled it off the market. Our Realtor is going to try to find out for us today. That would be a real bummer if it was no longer available.

*Update to the update....the home in Lowell is still available. It had expired but was put right back on. The buyers for our house still do not have theirs listed. It may be the end of the week. I am frustrated.

Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Day and beginning of summer to all (except my buddy in Austrailia-LOL!)

It has been a fairly eventful weekend here. First of all, Mike got a three day weekend as opposed to his normal one day weekend. It has been really nice spending the extra time with him.

Second of all we sold our camper. Yeah! I listed it on Craigslist about 2 1/2 weeks ago and a family from Ohio came and got it on Saturday. Mike was shocked. He kept telling me that we weren't going to be able to sell it. To many available and with the high gas prices no one would be buying them. Well, we did and got what we wanted for it too!

Third, my dad has announced his engagement. This was a shocker. He and my mom have been divorced for about 13 years now. He has dated a few women in the last ten years or so, but was in no hurry to settle down. Well, his current girlfriend has been his girlfriend for about THREE months. My kids and husband got to meet her for the first time today and I just met her a week ago! They are planning a fall wedding. It is all very sweet....including Susie.

Fourth, we got an offer on our house. I did not list this one first because it is not a great offer. They low balled us and asked for a bunch of stuff including my living room couch. PLUS they have to sell their house first. Mike wanted to just throw the offer in the trash, but we did counter it today. I am not expecting too much to come of it because we are so far apart and there is no way we would come anywhere close to where they started.

Fifth, I bought a new vehicle. Out with the 2000 Montana mini-van and in with the 2008 Hyundai Santa Fe. This is one sweet drive. I was planning on getting an SE which is the middle of the road with a third row seat and a DVD player. They instead offered me a demo which was the Limited with all the bells and whistles....heated leather seats, powered moon roof, GPS, XM radio, 6 CD player, DVD player, heated mirrors, dual climate control temps, hyperlink mirror and towing package. OMG the list goes on and on. I would never have bought one with all this stuff, but they offered it to me at about $2,000 more than the SE I wanted. Mine is in slate blue with a gray interior. I have not owned a new vehicle since 1988 and that was a little Ford Escort hatchback.

Sad, Sad news for the adoption and Christian communities

Last night Steven Curtis Chapman and his family lost the youngest child in their family. Little Maria Sue, age 5 and adopted from China, was accidentally run over by her older brother in their driveway. I cannot even imagine what this poor family is going through. What her brother is going through. It is just incomprehensible.

Thankfully God is in control!!!! Maria is now in his loving arms. Stay strong Chapman family. God is with you and he will persevere.

http://

She is 4 now

Today is Olivia's 4th birthday!!! Thank goodness! For the last two months that is all we have heard about. In fact she has talked sooo much about turning 4 that she now thinks she is 5. We celebrated on Sunday and she told me that evening, "Mom this was the best birthday I ever had."
You will notice in her pictures her latest haircut. This is the "fixed" version of her own handy work. Yep, she cut her own hair again. We got pretty much everything fixed except for the bangs. They are still a little sparse looking.

A friend of ours made her cake for her for FREE! It was the best tasting cake. Chris rocks!

School Program Drama

Last week Olivia had her first school program. The pics are a little blurry because my camera sucks when I use the telephoto. She lasted for about 3 songs and then the boy next to her (he is somewhat autistic and VERY enthusiastic) bumped into her while doing his version of a hoedown clap. Well that was it, she was done. Off the stage she came and she spent the rest of the program scowling at the boy and avoiding looking at me because she knew I was giving her the evil eye myself. Once the program was over she was ready to GO HOME. No cookies, no stopping in the classroom, just home.

Ahhhh.... the joys of an over emotional 4 year old!

The House is filling up....

Katie is home from college for the summer. This also means that Sunny (her BF) will spend almost every waking minute here when he is not at work. Adam, our youth pastor is still living here (I think it is 49 days until his wedding) which means his fiance' is here alot too. That is 7 of us hanging around and Mike isn't even here! Geesh!

Not much new on the house selling. We lowered the price by a big chunk this week. We are still having about a showing a week. No takers yet.

Mike is doing great at his job. He really likes the people and seems to be thriving. It is pretty stressful, but he seems so much happier than his old job. He did get "unintentional" revenge on his old bosses though. One of his good friends that still worked for the "other" company just gave his two weeks notice and will be joining Mike at Dyer. Yippee! Mike is really excited for him and is looking forward to showing him the ropes.

Only 21 days of school left. Yeah! I am ready to sleep in. :)

Silly Girl

Spring Break

Nothing new on the house front, except my attitude. I am trying to be more laid back about the whole thing. Everytime I find myself getting wound up I just tell myself to cut it out, nothing really matters. (All I need is a rubber band around my wrist to snap at the appropriate times!)

This week is our Spring Break. We have decided to go camping.....sort of. We are taking the camper over to the area where Mike is working and we are going to live for a week out of the camper as a family. Mike going to work during the day and the girls and I just hanging out. It was a good way to get me away from the house and the whole selling thing. Adam, our church's youth pastor, who has been living with us since the beginning of the year, will keep an eye on things here at home. Hopefully he will keep it clean too in case we get some showings. LOL!

The temps are suppose to be nice this week but they are calling for a chance of rain everyday. That should make for some fun camping. The girls and I may spend more time at the mall than in the camper. :)

Talk to ya all in a week.

Prayers for another

I have been following a blog http://cfhusband.blogspot.com/ for the last month or so. It is a husband, Nate, that is married to Tricia. She has cystic Fibrosis. In January she gave birth (very prematurely) to Gwyneth Rose. They have both been in the hospital ever since. Just last night Tricia was given a new pair of lungs. PRAISE THE LORD! Hers were in very bad condition. Nate is a riot and does a wonderful job of blogging about their situation. It is very easy to get caught up in what this family is going through. They both have very strong faith and it is amazing how positive they are with all they are going through. Please pray for them as I am sure the next few weeks will be tough for Tricia but also very exciting and pain free with her new disease free lungs!

I am still here

I have been having a rough few weeks. I keep meaning to post but my heart is just not in it. I am really going through a depression. It all revolves around our house being for sale.

We have been having about one showing a week. We had one yesterday and it was looking I thought fairly good-but alas they have decided against it. One showing the people love the property but the house is not fancy enough for them and the next they like the house but the property isn't what they are looking for.

I have had a pretty rough day today. Ever since I got the email that they have ruled our home out (yesterday's showing) I have been sitting and crying. I am really mad at myself for being so emotional over all of this, but darn it- for 7 stinking months I have been on a stupid roller coaster. This whole moving thing has consumed my whole life and I am so sick of being depressed. You'd think I had been diagnosed with a disease for as messed up as I have become. I am even losing faith in God because I feel like he is not answering my prayers. I know this is all ridiculous, but I can't figure out how to shake it. Showings are the only thing keeping me going, but after each one I just crash down again. I am also stressed knowing that in two weeks our contract expires on the home we want to buy. I have been watching other listings and Mike has been driving by a bunch of them, but we don't like any others. I keep trying to be logical about it all and tell myself "all in God's timing" but my heart just isn't buying it. I am normally such an up and positive person, that this depression has really wore me down.

In the last couple of weeks we have celebrated our two year anniversary of our "gotcha day". We all went out for Chinese to celebrate. Katie turned 20 last week. So, for about 6 months I have no teenagers in the house. Mike is back to work after having about a month off. He is in charge of rebuilding a new road through a town. It sounds like this particular project will last all year.

Well, that about wraps up my update. I will try to be more positive next time. :)

Human Sandwich

Reading Time

No Jenny Craig needed....

Okay, okay but I can't make her gain weight or grow a butt!

Happy 22nd to my baby boy!

Workin' and Workin'

Well, this week Mike got laid off. This is not a bad thing. They just ran out of equipment to work on in the shop so they said take some time off. He came home Tuesday night and by Wednesday morning I had given him the dreaded "honey-do" list. He was less than thrilled, but he knew it was coming.

I have added two more rooms on the list that need to be painted. Morgan's room is a custom painted room. When she got her new bedspread last year we had paint matched to the vibrant pink. It is pretty wild, unfortunately it is not a great color when you are trying to sell. So, I told her we were going to paint at least three of the walls a neutral color and keep the pink for an accent wall. Our dining room really needs some updated fresh paint to it. The problem is we had some cracking in the ceiling corners. That was Mike's first project. The has removed all the old drywall tape and is in the process of re-taping. Our biggest problem will now be trying to match the texture on the ceiling and walls.

I have also been watching lots of designing shows and shows on selling your house, so I am going through and re staging and cleaning out more of our stuff.

The good thing is that Olivia is gone for at least four days down to see her sister in Bloomington. I will actually get to sleep in tomorrow morning and won't wake up to a pair of eyes staring at me at my bedside at 7:00 AM. :)

Happy Valentines Day

to all my faithful readers!

YIPPPEEE!

Katie made it on the Dean's List at IU!! Here is part of the email she received....

Congratulations! Because of your outstanding academic performance, you have been placed on the School of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation Dean's List for the Fall Semester 2007. Eligibility for the Dean's List is reserved for those students who complete at least 12 graded credit hours in a single semester, earning at least a 3.50 GPA. You can be proud of this honor.

Students often include information about their Dean's List semesters on their resumes. If you wish to have this achievement published in your local newspaper, you can print this message and send it to the editor of your local newspaper. We cannot provide individual information to hometown newspapers, so we encourage you to make available to them as much information about yourself and your studies as possible.

I am one proud mama!

Chinese New Year

Today is the first day of the Chinese New Year. This year is the year of the Rat! The actual years go from about the end of January or first of February to the end of the following year. With that in mind I am the year of the Sheep instead of the Monkey (January 7, 1968).
Mike is a Horse
Evan is a Tiger
Katie is a Dragon
Morgan is a Pig
Olivia is a Monkey



The Year of the Rat 1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008
A person born in the Year of the Rat is said to be clever and intelligent. They are self-confident and have an optimistic outlook on life. They work hard to reach their goals and are considered perfectionists. When it comes to money matters they are rather careful even stingy and usually don't lend money.
Ambitious
Sincere
You can be generous with your financial resources
You are compatible with the Monkey, Ox and Dragon
You are not compatible with the Horse


The Year of the Ox 1913, 1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, 2009
The Year of the Ox Persons born in the Year of the Ox are diligent, patient and rather remain silent. They are consequent and reliable as friends. But they are easy to irritate and tend to be stubborn and obstinate.
A leader
Bright
Cheerful
You are compatible with the Snake , Rat and Rooster
You are not compatible with the Sheep


Year of the Tiger 1914, 1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, 2010
Tigers are sensitive, emotional and thoughtful persons. But they also tend to be impatient. Others pay them respect but they sometimes get into conflicts of authority with elder people. They sometimes delay important decisions which leads to the result that they often have to decide in a rash and hasty way.
But they also have the guts take risks and are very success- oriented. Tigers are distrustful but also stand for courage and fortitude. They are born leaders.
Forthright
Sensitive
Posess great courage
You are compatible with the Horse, Dragon and Dog
You are not compatible with the Monkey


Year of the Hare 1915, 1927, 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011
Persons born in the Year of the Hare are talented and ambitious. They are popular with anybody and good entertainers which often makes them the centre of attention. Even though they are liked they are rather pessimistic, insecure and are afraid of changes. They almost never lose their temper and are very good-natured. In the business world however they are smart and make the right decisions according to instinct. Nevertheless they are no gamblers. Hares are known for their sense of art and for that reason often have beautiful homes.
Talented
Affectionate
You are a seeker of tranquility
You are compatible with the Sheep, Dog and Boar
You are not compatible with the Monkey


Year of the Dragon 1916, 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000, 2012
The dragon used to be the symbol of the Chinese emperor. The emperors throne was called the "Dragon throne" and according to the Confucian ideal the whole earth should be influenced in a positive way by the shining example of the emperors life. People born in the Year of the Dragon are in good health, bursting with energy, long-living, easy to irritate, impatient and obstinate.
On the other hand they are dependable, honest, brave and beam with self- confidence. They are perfectionist and demand the same from others. They always make an effort to let their positive features show through but sometimes overdo their role as the shining examples. In life Dragons are strong- minded and successful whatever they do. Among the twelve signs of the zodiac they are considered the most eccentric personages.
Robust
Passionate
Your life is filled with complexity
You are compatible with the Monkey, Rat, Cock (Rooster) and Snake
You are not compatible with the Dog


Year of the Snake 1917, 1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013
People born in the Year of the Snake are considered profound and wise. Problems are solved by means of brain and logic instead of deciding according to one's instinct. They are fortunate in money matters but are also penurious and don't lend money.
They tend to be egoistic while feeling sympathy for others and helping the less fortunate. They don't have much confidence in others and take matters into their own hands anticipating that they will be solved.
Strong willed
Intense
Displays great wisdom
You are compatible with the Rooster, Hare and Ox
You are not compatible with the Boar


Year of the Horse 1918, 1930, 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990, 2002, 2014
Persons born in the Year of the Horse are liked in general. They are always good-humoured, handle money well and make long term plans for their lives.
They are wise an have an artistic disposition. Even though they have an enormous sex appeal they' re weak when it comes to dealing with the other sex. They tend to be impatient and passionate when it comes to things disturbing their daily routine.
Physically attractive
Popular
You like the company of others
You are compatible with the Tiger, Dog and Sheep
You are not compatible with the Rat

Year of the Sheep ( goat, ram) 1919, 1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003, 2015
People born in the Year of the Sheep are characterized by their kindness and good nature. They have talents in the field of art and are elegant. They are thoughtful, shy and pessimistic.
Even though they are not eloquent they get behind their position with emphasis and passion.
Aesthetic
Stylish
You enjoy being a private person
You are compatible with the Boar, Hare or the Horse
You are not compatible with the Ox


Year of the Monkey 1920, 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004, 2016
Persons born in the Year of the Monkey are said to be intelligent, clever and flexible. They're very inventive and therefore solve problems easily. Monkeys have sanity and reason and are eager for knowledge.
They don't put tasks into cold storage but tackle a problem right away which makes them successful. That also leads to them looking down on others and makes them tend to be overweening.
Persuasive
Intelligent
Strives to excel
You are compatible with the Dragon, Monkey and Rat
You are not compatible with the Tiger


Year of the Rooster 1921, 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017
Those born in the Year of the Cock are thoughtful and very able people. They tend to take too many tasks at once and therefore are often stressed and disappointed when they fail a task.
Most of the times they are eccentric and have problems to get along with others because they are too aggressive. Very often they are mavericks and though they are said to be adventurous they are rather fearful.
Seeking wisdom
Seeking truth
You have a pioneering spirit
You are compatible with the Snake, Dragon and Ox
You are not compatible with the Rabbit

Year of the Dog 1922, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006, 2018
Persons born in the Year of the Dog have a lot of characteristics considered positive in China e.g. loyalty, honesty, friendliness, reliability and discretion. They're not into experimenting and are rather conservative. On the other hand they are eccentric, headstrong and even egoistic.
They don't care about wealth and money but are always generous. They have high moral demands and often criticise others for their mistakes.
Generous
Loyal
You have the ability to work well with others
You are compatible with the Horse, Hare and Tiger
You are not compatible with the Dragon


Year of the Pig 1923, 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007, 2019
Persons born in the Year of the Pig are chivalrous and born sqiures. They put their whole energy in everything they do. They pursue their goals without wasting a thought of giving up. They often are fortunate in their ventures and reach their goals. When it comes to friendship they are quite choosy but once they made friends the friendship is everlasting and they are loyal friends.
They are eager for knowledge and usually well informed. They are not very talkative though and avoid discussions and arguments.
Gallant
Noble
Your friends will remain at your side
You are compatible with the Rabbit, Rat and Sheep
You are not compatible with the Snake