Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Poo Poo Face

Oh what a way to be woken up!! I had just put Big Cowpoke on the bus and came inside to find Little cowpoke awake. So, I changed his diaper and got him a sippy cup and put on some cartoons so I could get some more zzz's. It didn't take long before I was hit in the head with a canister of wipes. This still didn't move me to roll over and see what was going on. Not much longer I was woken up by the sounds of Little Cowpoke grunting while trying to climb on the cedar chest onto my bed. Still I did not open my eyes. I should have known better but I just thought maybe he wanted to lay down with me and rest too? Don't two year olds do that sometimes? Maybe? No, instead I was rudely awakened by the smell of, you guessed it, poo poo. Little cowpoke was standing right over me with his pants around his ankles and his diaper half off around his knees with a fresh clean diaper in his hands saying, "I pooped, new diape". I have never jumped out of bed so fast before in my life. Wow, it got me up quickly. I think they should make alarms that have little kids saying that. Another good one is the sound of a child throwing up. That one will make anyone jump like crazy out of bed. I know it works for me. My husband......does any alarm work for him? Well anyway, back to my wonderful morning.

So, after this I decided that I was not going to get anymore sleep. Little Cowpoke and I ventured into the kitchen. I was eating breakfast while I hear the bad sound of water hitting tile and coming fast. The first thing I said was, "Stop that, right now. Turn it off." But the water kept coming, and fast!! While still saying, "Stop it, Stop it!!" and running, I found a sippy cup wedged up in the water thingy on the fridge door. Sorry I can't remember what that thing is called to save my life, it's late. But who knew a sippy cup could get stuck like that and all that water could come out of their so fast? I got the cup unwedged (is that a word?) from the door, and Little Cowpoke just laughed and got me some towels. We cleaned up the water and then decided that since those towels were all wet that we could spot clean the wood floors. So resourceful. But that was it for today. The rest of the day went pretty smooth. Thank goodness. But until next time may you all have sweet dreams and y'all come back now ya hear!

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Killed Dead

I heard this the other day and have been laughing since!! I thought that once something was killed that is it. They are dead!! But killed dead must be worse than just being killed!! Hee hee. I heard someone say that on the radio. I think it is funny. Here is Little Cowpoke playing "killed dead". It looks like he might have gotten hit by a bus. Nope he seems to be alright. He was just laying there so still.
"Cheeeeese!" Such a tuff cookie. Now this next one is defiantly killed dead. Bear, the lab, got run over by the couch. He is defiantly killed dead. This is what happens when you are in the living room and the couch just runs you over. You have to watch out for those couches. They are wanted in six different states and they don't show mercy to anyone. Poor Bear. We loved him so. Well, next time you go hunting make sure you get that dear, killed dead. Until next time, y'all come back now ya hear!

Friday, November 23, 2007

A Thanksgiving Novel

What would a trip to visit me be with out going to the alligator park? I love this park. There is a big pond that you can walk around for some exercise, baby alligators you can hold, and lots of play stuff to play on! This is a sign that is hanging in the alligator house.
Then we all walked over to the playground. It looks like I have a lot of kids!! I wish I could have four. While walking we encountered this..........
Those are fire ants. This is a small ant mound. If you look closely you can see them all running around. This pile is small. There are some that are about 12 inches tall. Then we finally made it over to the playground. I just love this playground. I love playgrounds. I could stay there all day long. But we weren't there long when this happened................Poor kido fell in a mud puddle under a swing. He was so upset. I said, "Quick take his picture." He first walked into the puddle then tried to get on the swing and noticed his feet were wet then he tried to turn around and he fell. Good thing is was like 85 degrees outside. Then Little Cowpoke and I went for a swing. Actually I stole his swing and tried to get him to come on it with me but he didn't want to. So, I picked him up and we went all crazy!! I just love to swing. It is so much fun. I haven't done it in a long time. It brings back some great childhood memories. While growing up we would swing really high and then jump off the swing and see who could jump the farthest. 1.....2.....3............I still don't jump very far. But it is so much fun. You all should try it sometime. There is this bumble bee at the park that is way fun!! I love it and wish I actually fit in it. The front of the bee is so much more fun than the back. I got my sister to climb on too!!! Little Cowpoke didn't want to share the bumble bee. Two year olds are so stingy sometimes. I love this picture. Poor baby fell down and got hurt and a little hug from mommy made it all better. What is it about mommies that make things all better? Then after getting completely dirty and sweaty at the park the kids all got cleaned up in the big bath tub. Mr. Cowboy tried turning on the jets and they flung water all love the place. I guess we didn't have the water level high enough. The kids all screamed!! But to keep the fun rolling and this post a novel I will include Thanksgiving too. Remember those leaves that I watched my sister make? Well here is what she did with them.

Oh such sweetness!! These are so very yummy. This cake was really yummy. Lydia sat next to us and I think she got a bit bored with all the cooking. "I think that leaf should go a little to the left....."Here is the finished White Almond cake with Raspberry filling. My sister let me be the first one to cut into the cake!! Let me tell you this was sooooooo goooood!! I ate a huge piece. It was very moist and sweet. But enough about cake, let me tell you about our Thanksgiving meal, if I haven't lost you all yet. This is our meal. I made the mashed potatoes. That is what I did. Now my sister made everything else. She is a good cook. I love food!! Here we all are sitting at the table ready to eat. Mr. Cowboy doesn't look to happy. Now for Thanksgiving number two. We ate at the in-laws house. They had two turkeys, one oven cooked and one fried, and a ham. Then she cooked three different types of sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, cornbread dressing, green bean casserole, rolls, and cranberry sauce. I am sure there was more and I am just forgetting it. Here is the ham. I guess we can all learn from this photo. Never use colored toothpicks because the coloring will bleed into the pineapples. I don't really ever eat pork or ham or anything that comes off of a pig, but oh my goodness, this was the bestest most moistest ham ever. If those are even words?? So good. I can't believe we let these two in the kitchen. This is Paw Paw and Mr. Cowboy. They fried the turkey. They both have crazy hair and even crazier personalities. I was so patient waiting for the food to be done. I didn't sneak any turkey I promise!! Oh Mr. Cowboy you soo need a hair cut. I refuse to cut it, I am so bad at cutting hair. Come on look at mine and I get it professionally done. Then what else do you do after a big Thanksgiving meal, but to go bowling!!!Wow look at those skills!! Mr. Cowboy is a really good bowler. And yes, we did have bumpers. Can he do it, can he get a spare? He did. Mr. Cowboy came in second. What better way to end the day than dancing in the dark in the kitchen. I just love Thanksgiving. I am so glad to have had family in town to visit. I am so grateful for family.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Frozen Turkey Bowling

Talk about some real Thanksgiving fun!! This was our second year doing our frozen turkey bowling!! We get a frozen turkey and wrap it in industrial cling wrap and then lay down a blue tarp, and some two liter bottles and there you have it, Frozen Turkey Bowing.


Here I am the score keeper. It's hard to keep score in bowling. These days all the bowling alleys all have computer score keepers. All I have to say is, "Move over Vanna here I come."

Here is Mr.Cowboy and Little Cowpoke helping with the pins. That one was a strike!!

The smaller kidos got to bowl with a frozen chicken. Here Little Cowpoke is getting some help from his cousin. Here is my sister. She is a fantastic frozen turkey bowler. See that turkey fly!!!!

Here I am laughing hysterically at my sister. Oh she had taken a horrible picture of me where things didn't look so hot. Then she tried to take another and oh, it turned out the same way, so here is one of those photos but I cropped out the really bad parts!! We have too much fun when we are together. I had a few turns too! It is really a lot of fun. Here is Cowpokette. She stayed in her car seat the entire time and dozed in and out. She is still a little too young to bowl. One last photo. Here is Little Cowpoke's little cousin being, "Destructo Boy!" Say it with your best super hero voice. I just love boys. They are so much fun. Now I know I promised photos of our dinner but those will have to wait until nest time, so until then y'all come back now ya here.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Let the Baking Begin and Money!!

My sister and her family have come to my house for the Thanksgiving holiday. I am so very excited to gave a good old Yankee thanksgiving. We are cooking today. We have been invited to my MIL's Thanksgiving at her house on Thursday, but we wanted to cook a Thanksgiving dinner with just us, just like the good old days, minus four other siblings and our mom and dad. But it still will be good. And after today's festivities we will have a bread on Wednesday to recover before we will stuff ourselves again on Thursday. I have to admit that I did not do any of the baking yesterday. My sister was and is the cook. I stood there going, "Okay, uhm......yeah.....that looks right.....smells yummy." This morning she has already put the sweet potato's in the oven. I have this convection oven that I have no idea how to use. It has five different buttons on the oven that give you different ways to cook. One is convection bake (this one I use all the time), bake, broil, convection roast, convection convert (I have never pushed this). I really do not know how to use any of them. I am happy if the food in there is done by the time the timer goes off. I will have to get out the manual out for the baking fest today. Oh and I was lazy with my photos today so don't mind them being kinda dark and dull. I will do better next time I promise!!

We started out the morning with these. Well, she started out with these, again I just stood there going, "Wow, that is cool!" These are leaves made out of fondant for a cake that she is making for our Thursday Thanksgiving. Then my dearest sister made this filling for the cake. This is where I was saying, "Yummy!" This is a raspberry filling that she is going to be putting in her four layer almond cream cake. Move over pies, here comes a thanksgiving cake!!!!We won't totally forget about the pies. I sliced some of those apples. I tried using one of those apple slicers from pampered chief and I about cut off my finger after doing three apples so I turned the knife over to my sister. Oh the buttery goodness!! I just love apple pie. My mom makes the best apple pie. My sister made a dutch apple pie. Then there is pumpkin pie. Which may not taste very good. She accidentally put a whole can of condensed milk and she didn't notice until she had started to mix it. So we decided to dump some of it out and said, "That should be good enough." I am not a fan of pumpkin pie so this small folly doesn't really bother me. It looks like it turned out alright. My sister baked all day yesterday. Then after dinner she made the cake for Thursday.

Mr. Cowboy just called me and told me that he won 500 dollars off the radio. How awesome is that. We never win anything, let a lone $500!!! What a great time to win too with Christmas right around the corner!! He called me all excited!! He is just too cute.

Today my sister and I are going to be cooking and exercising. We are trying to work out so we don't gain any weight this holiday season. We are going to go on a diet together. We weigh the same and have the same bad eating habits, so we will do it together. How come it's so easy to gain weight and so hard to loose it? I guess having two Thanksgiving dinners probably doesn't help us in our weight loss does it? But I will have more yummy food pictures tonight. It will be a good preview for your Thursday meal!! I am so glad my sister came to visit! I will post more food pictures tonight, until then, y'all come back now ya hear!!

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Studly Studs

Mr. Cowboy and Paw Paw have had two studs for about 10 years now. They are good boys. They are easy keepers. Which means it doesn't take a whole lot of care to keep them up. They are fun to ride too. If you are a good rider. I have ridden them both. They defiantly kept me on my toes!! They also both have a way with the ladies.
This is Ima Delux Red Robin, aka Red. He is a good boy. He is bred to be a working cow horse. I being the "cowgirl" decided that he would be a good jumper. Wow that boy is powerful. He is a strong horse and keeps his riders on their toes. He also has a way with the ladies!! He was stalled in our barn one night and busted out of his stall door. Then he ran down the isle way of our barn and jumped a 4 foot fence to be with the ladies. He bred three mares that night. One paint mare, one two year old paint filly, and my thoroughbred mare.
This is a product of that night out with the ladies. My Thoroughbred Mare had this strapping young man. This is Emerald City, aka Ozzie. What a sweet boy. He is so laid back anyone can do anything with him. He is tall for two. He is about 15.3 hands. A very good boy. I am excited to be breaking him out. He is going to be my western pleasure prospect. He doesn't have any paint spots on him, so he is registered as a breeding stock paint. But I still love him. This is Red's show off page!! I made an ad. After 10 years of having these studs, they have never been advertised. I wanted to help them earn their keep and get more time with the ladies!! I was so excited making these ads. I can't wait to put them out and see if we can't get some breedings booked for next year. This is Richmond Peppy Star, aka Richie. He is an Quarter Horse Stallion. He has a famous grandfather, Peppy San Badger. He is mellow and laid back and you would never know he was a stud, except that he is in a pasture all by himself. He is sweet. Loves treats from the Cowpokes and he loves a good ride. He used to be ridden to work cows. Now he just stands in his pasture admiring the ladies. Here is his ad:This one was fun. I got to use an extracted photo. Tricky. I had to cut out the pool in the background!! I had fun making these ads. Now this next boy is out of our big Quarter Horse mare. She is a good 16 hands tall and about 1200 lbs. She is a barrel horse. Mr. Cowboy has been riding her in a little rodeo we have here. But here is her baby.

I am not sure what his full registered name is but we call him Dancer. He is about 5 months old here. He is fine looking boy. He is so gentle too. He loves you to scratch him on the top of his tail. He will be a fun one to play with too!! Those are just some of the 18 horses we have here in our backyard. These are some of the boys. They keep us busy. So, if you have a lady that you think would like one of our Men, let me know!! They would love to meet some new ladies!! But that's all for now, y'all come back now ya here!!

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Staples, Fire Ants, and Rocks

Gee, I never thought I would have to do what I did today. I mean Big Cowpoke is blond but come on, I am too and these things never happened to me. I received a phone call from school. It was about time for school to be out so I didn't think he could get into any trouble with only 5 minutes left in the day. It was his teacher. She explained to me that while at recess he was playing and another boy pushed him down and he fell head first into an ant pile. Now ants down here in the south are not like normal ants. They are fire ants. And that is a nice name for them. They are mean suckers. They attack and bite you until you scream, and then they still bite you some more. Big Cowpoke said he shook his head and went running to his teacher. She helped get them off of his head. They even checked his shirt to make sure none got down there and sure enough there were some biting his back. Those suckers are mean. Then when he got home, not like he had a bad enough afternoon. He was looking for a pencil sharpener and low and behold he found this:

This is a very small stapler. It is no larger than and inch and a half long. I know it's a bad picture, but I am having serious camera issues. (*hint hint* Mr. Cowboy) I think I need a new bigger nicer one!! Back to the stapler. So, Big Cowpoke grabbed it and started playing with it. I was cooking dinner thinking he was sharpening his pencil, until I heard, "AHHHHHHHH!!!!!" Along with a blood curling scream with tears. I ran over to him to fin a staple in the tip of his thumb. Good thing the staples were small. I took out the staple and ran and got a band aid. What a miracle those band aids are. You put them on a cut and the tears stop. Amazing. What a bad day!! Now on a happier note, our road now has some rock and tar on it. I thought it was getting paved but no. They are just putting multiple layers of tar and rocks on the road.


When Little Cowpoke heard trucks coming we had to go out and see. He ran to Paw Paw's house and knocked on the door and told him, "Come see, big trucks, come see, me now". Little Cowpoke loves big trucks.
Such excitement for our small town life. We are a small town we only have a flashing light and a gas station. Big city liven!!! Well, now on with the trucks. There were a series of them. And wow, how amazing how well they worked together. Great team work. First there was this truck. It's the tar truck. It's job is to leave hot steamy tar on the road.
It was hot and steamy alright. It looks so shinny and Little Cowpoke wanted to go play in it. He even tried to go and touch it. We yelled, "stop", and wow he listened. "BIG WRUCK!!!"Then came this duo. It is a dump truck and the truck layer thingy. It evenly dropped the rocks onto the hot sticky tar. Fascinating I know!!It was so neat how it just laid the rocks so nicely on the hot tar. Pretty cool Huh?Red came from the back pasture to see what was going on. I think he was hoping for a treat. Then these heavy rollers rolled over it to make it flat. There was this guy. I really have no idea what his job was. He just drove really fast up and down the road. I never saw it do anything but go really fast. Hmmmm........I don't know. And this is it. The finished product. They are going to come back two more times with some smaller rocks. And then our road won't be a dirt road any more it will be a tar and rock road. I am not sure which one I like better. I have already washed tar out of the Cowpokes' hair and off their skin. I can't get it out from under their nails. Yuck. Little Cowpoke enjoyed playing on Paw Paw's shovel. Who needs a jungle gym when you can play on a shovel?? It was such a nice day today and a great day to watch the road crew. Poor Big Cowpoke. I hope he has a better day tomorrow. But until then, y'all come back now ya hear.