A Story Without Words

Who is Santa?

So, for the first time in my mommy life, all of my children are aware of who Santa really is. I am feeling a twinge of sadness about that, and I bring up the subject to my children, asking the youngest ones if they are sad to know it is their boring, mean, cheap parents.

I ask this, because, Adam and Katie were very dissapointed when I filled them in on reality. I actually waited a very long time with the youngest three. Lucas, at 12, still kinda believed it was the guy in the big red suit. Isaiah, and Savannah were staunch believers also. Until a very naughty friend of Savannah's, who would get coal in her stocking if only big red Santa were real, informed Savannah of the "truth".

I was asked over and over after that, and just couldn't put off the inevitable any longer.

So, when I am asking my children last night if they are sad about knowing, Isaiah replies, "It's ok, we had to know sometime. Otherwise OUR children wouldn't get any presents!" I laughed my head off. He was as serious as a heart attack when he said it. I guess it is a good thing he knows HE is Santa Claus! I just wish it could be right now- being Santa is a big job. Do you think I can quit now that they know?

Princess K on her wedding day! Really!!

So here is my attempt at catching up on the sharing of photos. It is all random, just enjoy, even if it's a sloppy job of throwing it together.

We found these cool eggs in our birdhouse, and couldn't wait to see baby birds soon, but unfortunately, one of the children (hint: the one in the photo) tried to help things along by placing a cloth and some chick food in the birdhouse. I don't think the mama came back after that, and we ended up with three rotten eggs. So sad...

Check out this lovely snake I found in my flowerbed- I was sure it was poisonous, but after we killed it and checked for fangs, we were surprised to find none!

No luck catching any fish, but had a blast anyway!

Who doesn't love the beach and the big blue ocean? Can't get much funner than that!

This poor guy came home with a bad case of poison ivy after the pioneer trek... He posted this photo online and said he had been in a bad fight- guys just love to act tough, don't they?

The kids had a blast at the Japanese Maple farm where we went on the grand tour and learned all kinds of neat stuff...

Comin' home

I'm heading home (as in the homeplace, where I grew up, got fed, nurtured, and spanked) on Sept. 12 and will stay through the 22. Can't wait to see my people! For those who want to bother my property while I am gone- don't even think about it. Down here in the south, we take tresspassin purty serious.

Be careful what you believe...

Thank you, Thank you, sniff, Thank you. This is the happiest day of my life! I am so proud to represent the people of potato country, the land of my father and my fathers father and my fathers mother and my fathers mothers father and my, well you get the idea...

Yesterday, I recieved the surprising news that I once held the title of Miss Idaho. The nice lady responsible for this lovely rumor has kindly spread the news over a number of years to hundreds of people- enough it sounds like that I may be truly famous one day. To think this could have continued to be my legacy for years to come- had I not been in a conversation with someone else while she was nearby and she overheard me telling them I was from Utah. "Utah?!" she says "how can you be from Utah- I thought you were miss Idaho!" Giddy with delight, I halfheartedly exclaim (as my head begins to grow) "Oh no, not me, I'm from Utah, but my dad's from Idaho. Where did you get the idea I was Miss Idaho? Goodness me (blushing, come on keep those compliments coming), I don't know where you would ever get such an idea!" She replies that she's been telling people that for all these years. (She has known me for 15 or so).
So anyway, I just felt I had an obligation to set the record staight, in case the news has drifted out to any of you (you know, the possibility this has made me famous all this time unbeknownst to me). I choose to live with integrity and do not want the world to think I am something I am not. Potatoes should never be represented by an imposter, so though I love potatoes dearly, I leave them to their true representatives, all the real Miss Idaho's, those past and future, who truly deserve this title. My final note would be to thank any of you who actually believed this or would have believed it had you heard it. Thank you for believing in me. I would feel even better if you would have believed I could have been Miss Texas or Miss California- not that I think Miss Idaho any less of a beauty queen, it's just that, you know, all those ones who became Miss America, well there are lots of Texas's and California's in there, you know...

What would you do if you hadn't eaten for two days?

Remember these adorable little boogers?

Well... they have grown into these kinda cool looking things called chickens.

They are neat, but can be a huge pain, especially since they are free range chickens (so far that is the plan anyway). They have acres and acres of woods filled with the most luscious of bugs and plants and everything a bird could want to feast on. But no, the greedy little things- they come right to my flower beds looking for who knows what and tear up all my hard work. They poop on my porches, and generally are just enjoyed more by me when they stay in their assigned territory. Which is never...

So anywhoo, to get to the point of my story- these little rascals won't leave the dog food alone either. When we feed the dogs, the chickens scurry over, fighting for every last morsel they can get those little peckers on. This would be a good time to explain that my dumb dogs just are no help at all in scaring these critters away- they just lazily watch the carnage without batting an eye. So we have decided that the dogs get fed in the evenings after the chickens go home to roost. Well, learning new habits sometimes takes time, and sad to say, the poor dogs have been forgotten a few times.

Yesterday, Joe asked Isaiah if the dogs had been fed, and it seems the dogs had gone without food for two days. So the lecture begins and goes something like this, Dad: "Isaiah, that's terrible. We can't forget these poor dogs. I can't do all the thinking for you. Now what would you do if you went without food for two days?" Isaiah: (matter of factly) "If I were them, I would just eat the chickens!"

Me: (silently in my own head of course) "Good answer! I could only hope the dogs would come to that conclusion someday- preferrably when the chickens are hard at work in the vegetable garden eating away at the tomatoes, or when they are in the flower bed digging up my newly planted flowers. 15 chickens should last about two weeks if the dogs shared one a day...

A win- win situation

Add about 2-3 inches to Andrew hair, and that would be your before photo. Wish I had something more current. This is just a quick add-to on my post- makes no sense putting it here at the last minute- but I am still no good at fitting a photo into the spot I want it after the post is already done- like I thought it was till I found this pic..

So on with Pt. 1 of story-







Saturday was a great day- Andrew came home with a haircut, thanks to his buddies, and I can actually see his face now. I had told him that I wanted him to come home that evening, and I was going to trim it- it was so long, past the point of acceptable. So any way he comes home looking like this- much better than the "trim" he would have let me get away with! Wish I had some before photos for you- maybe Katie has some I can post sometime...



Adam's best buddy Matt, crazy guy- awesome person.



This guy was actually one of Adam's best buddies- used to have dreadlocks, is leaving for his mission in July. Andrew practically lives with him now...

I actually think they are quite proud of the hairdo they did- hope they will do it again before another year of hair growth on my boys head.


Win- Win!!! (pt 1)














(pt 2)





So we had this grand idea that we were going to grow and sell flowers from our new greenhouse. Well, we grew them, along with 1500 watermelon, cantaloupe, cucumber, and tomato plants. Now marketing and selling it all has been another issue. So we have planted approximately 1200 plants in the biggest three gardens I have ever even thought about planting, hoeing, fertilizing (with goat and horse shookey), and watering. Wish us luck on actually harvesting any of it, as we are now dealing with bugs and wilt diseases in the tomatoes. Anyway next year we are going to try our luck at the farmers market once or twice a week- but until then, I guess I will just have to keep all the flowers at my house...darn...







WIN-WIN!!!!!!!!!!