Not New Years Eve New Years Eve Party

The boys are having a couple of friends over tonight for an all nighter Not New Years Eve Celebration of New Years Eve. Why would they be doing it tonight, you ask?
They know they have to get up Sunday morning for church. Plus, Mom and Dad are real good about poking fingers into ribs if eyes start to close in church, or don't open soon enough after prayers. I thought it was a good idea for them to party tonight. Let's just hope I can say that in the morning.

Life lessons are hard

T12 had a hard day which kind of spilled over.  He went camping with the Boy Scout crew last night. It started raining and rained all night and most of today. Commander had to pick him up in time for a soccer game at 6:00 tonight. He had left all his soccer gear in the van Thursday night, thinking this was a good idea. Wrong. This is not where his gear is supposed to be kept. He hurried into the house grabbed his shirt and shorts and ran to the van thinking he was doing good. Four miles down the road we pulled over to search the van for a missing soccer sock. To end the turmoil of the moment, we decided to stop at W**mart and buy him a pair of socks - which he needs anyway. This was almost a mistake. There were three lanes open at each end of the store and 4 to 5 people in each line. I think the maniac look in my eyes as I stared at the closed express lanes informed the woman in front of me that I really needed to cut in line. She was a real sweetie, and understood when I explained that we were trying to get to the game with this detour. Ugh.
At the fieldhouse, we end up waiting (thank goodness) because games are running late. T12 joins his team before the game and takes off his sweats. That's when we realize he is wearing his white shirt and one white sock. His full soccer team is green and white, but when they split the team for Futsal, his team is considered the white team, but they are suppose to carry both shirts with them to all games. T12 didn't have his green top with him since he changed so fast at home and didn't bring his soccer bag. So, of course with the way things were going today, he would need his green shirt. The coach found a LARGE shirt for him to wear. Now, this worked out okay because the coach decided to put T12 into goalie and the other goalie needed a green jersey to play on the field. Are you getting all this?
We survived the game. 14-0 loss. It was pathetic.  T12 joined us in the snack area to leave, he was carrying a green sock. The coach had found it at practice. The missing sock from the van.
Let's pray for him tomorrow. He has to help the Boy Scouts unpack at the church and then go to another game with Commander. If he forgets anything - he might be walking home.

one chest hair

Okay, I'm not sure I'm ready for too many years of teenagers. Tonight one of the boys wanted to show me that he had one chest hair. Then he asked if I wanted to feel his "army-pit" (it's been called that since toddlerhood) to prove he has arm pit hair. Lord, help us through these teenage years.

T12 in a police car?

He, actually, was on the right side of the law, thank goodness.
Commander was taking T12 to Cam's house to play this afternoon. When they turned the corner in the expensive neighborhood, there was smoke rolling out of the gulley. Commander and T12 stopped  to investigate. After intering the gulley T12 could see two boys building a fire. The boys took off when they saw T12. Commander drove to Cam's house and called for the police, and a fire truck (small one) came out, too, when he returned with T12 and Cam to the gulley. The owner of the property also showed up about that time to find out where the smoke was coming from.
T12 and Cam were able to ride with the police officer and show him which neighborhood the boys ran. Unfortunately, they didn't find the boys. Commander said they had a fire going in a culvert and were trying to ignite a large log. The police and the owner were really glad that T12 and Commander called.

T12 said the police ride was really cool.

OU beat K-State  59-17. YES. Maybe that will teach that boy (Hawk) to not like purple cats. AAAAGHGH!

Archery League, underwear, and when I'm old and can't remember anything

I love this sport. Archery. It can make me feel so good. Then with the very next shot it can humble me down to my knees.
450 league started tonight. Herogian and I were competing against each other for a candy bar. My two practice rounds were promising, my sights were lined up, I was ready to take him on. 

First round, I shot three arrows at three targets on the page. I didn't want to look at the results until I had put the bow away. Herogian was standing there with his binoculars.
 "How did I do?"
"Well, the first and the third shots are tens, but where is your second shot?"
"What?"
"Oh, there it is? Nice one, Mom. You shot Dennis's target and hit a ten. But, you know, that's a zero for the score card."
Then we heard Dennis exclaim about his target. "Why are there two arrows on my number 2 target?"
This was going to be an exciting evening.
Herogian 375, Mom 386.  Dennis 403, and Dave 424. That was our score card.

T12-Northly Davis is pestering me while I blog. He wants me to smell his underwear that he found left in a string backpack in the back of his friend's dad's truck. That is such a boy thing! Really, he wants me to smell his underwear because "he says it smells like a "Minty Hotel Room". YUK!
He has been shoving it in my nose, not realizing I'm so plugged up there is no way I 'll ever smell it. I'll die first or snaught on his underwear.

"Okay Mom, I'll do it if you do it."
""NO. The last time I ever did anything when someone said,"I'll do it after you." I ended up going off a retaining wall on a bike with no brakes, hippy bar on back and wide handle bars that spun around and knocked my jaw out of line after the hippybar hit me in the back of the head. The neighborhood kids had to pull me out of the chainlink fence and rosebushes. The teenager who loaned me the bike, popped my jaw from the other side to get it back in place. The gang all ran off laughing at me, while the teenager told me not to cry or my mom would ban them from jumping their bikes off  the retaining wall in our backyard. SO.... NO I won't do it before you!"
THat is such a boy thing. Groce.
"Okay Mom, we are not in Back to the Future! We are not in your childhood. You don't have a bike! The retaining wall is gone, conquer your fears," he whispers in my ear while trying to shove the AWSOME UNDERWEAR (his doing) in my face. Guess I'll just blow my nose on it and send him to bed with it. WHat a hoot that child is. Favorit underwear. Never heard of that catagorie for boys.

Coming home from Archery, Herogian was talking about his future as a vet, then when he retires he wants to live in a small community close to Cabela's so he can work there. I told him that when he retired from being a vet - especially if he is one for the Armed Services, that he won't want to go from a high end paying job to a minimal paying job.
"Yes, I will when I'm so old that I can't remember what I'm doing.

I started laughing, "The store won't want you when you can't remember what you are doing."
"Oh I could work in the fly fishing department and make flies."
"Yeah, I could see you checking someone out. "How much change do I need to give you? One hundred. Didn't you pay with a credit card." Hand to ear. "What's that you say? Two hundred. Okay."
Good thing it is the weekend. I don't think I could do a day of schooling with these two boys this wound up with the giggles.

Herogian had a chance at a deer the other night and might get another chance next Tuesday. Pray for the hunter's safety,please.

Have a great one.

Happy Independence Day

I have to laugh at the list of things I wanted to get done today with Commander off from work. We did get some of it done, it's just that somehow he was able to throw this large project right into the middle of it. The side gate under the tree needs a better pathway then just gravel. Commander decided it needed some landscaping timbers, gravel and stepping stones. Sounds great, except for the fact that it's clay earth with lots of gravel rock already in the area. No Fear, the Commander is here. He took the rototiller to it. Did a great job of loosing up the rocks so I could haul wheelbarrows of it to the chicken yard, back fence , garden, and anywhere else we could come of with a spot. We did keep three 35 gallon tubs of dirt near the job site for back fill.
The other awesome part that happened with this job - a friend bought a house for her rental company and wants to remove 40 paving stones from the property. We move them and they are free. I like that word - FREE. Well, they won't be free after I pay the boys to dig them out with me, but worth it.

Okay, the family was sitting at the table the other night after T12 made it home from camp. The talk ended up around the subject that I could still swat the boys beeehind if they really needed it. T12 asked why I didn't swat Commander's back side when he called T12 a "Dickiebird". I said I wasn't his mother, therefore I didn't have the authority, too. Commander popped in with "And Mema's arm isn't long enough to swat him from where she lives in Pennsylvania." To that T12 replied, "But her check book can reach that far." He was ready to call Mema and tattletale on the Commander.

Boys.

Have a great week. Thanks for stopping by.

Panda Bear and VBS

Panda Bear Banty 2007-2011.

We tried to keep him safe. He was determined to leave the safety of the berry garden to fight for his position as dominant rooster with three others. When he couldn't maintain the fight, he somehow left the chicken yard to take on the two dogs. How often do we try to protect our kids, but they keep wanting back into the world to do it on their own. Sometimes the odds against them are overwhelming and they don't figure that out until it is too late. Then they try to escape to only find themselves with a bigger problem.

As you know, I've hunted turkey, butchered chickens and ducks, but having to put Panda Bear down was the saddest one of them all. I miss this fiesty guy already. Two of the banty females miss him, too. They hide out in the coop all day long now to stay away from October. (see second picture for October).

On a better note. Waddles has started laying eggs again. I love duck eggs for cooking our gluten free breads and cakes.

So the changes occur in the barnyard and we keep on quacking.

VBS is in a month. I have offered to take on a new position - crafts. After brainstorming a bit, hitting the craft sites on the internet, I came up with a few ideas that we can do for all the kids. The most intense activity will be two different windchimes. They are both kits, just more work of putting it together for the older kids. I'm hoping to get some old flatware for the kids to hang below the tubes to make theirs more unique. The younger kids will have the kit from Oriental Trading. The other projects include a slap bracelet/ or faith bracelet, foam visor, and puzzle game. (I'm fogetting something). We also have picture frames if something else is needed to keep the kids busy along with pictures to color when they are done.

This will be a fun challenge to do the crafts. I'm hoping some of the ladies with experience at this area will assist me. Hint, Hint.

The boys and I had a busy week. We moved 2 truck loads of mulch - shovel load in to the truck and shovel load out of the truck. I was definitely sore the following day, along with developing a cold.  That evening after the issue with Panda - I continued to work moving bucket loads of Kansas River rock from the driveway pile to the flower garden. I'm still not done there - no energy left to do it. The boys, however, demolished the second pile of driveway gravel for me, by spreading most of it out on the driveway. That was cool to come home from work and find that job done.

T12 made it home from Boy Scout Camp. He loved it. Except for the part where we had to tell him to stop selling his Gluten Free food to the other boys. He was selling expensive stuff for a dollar, but what was worse was the fact that he was selling it and not sharing it. He found a drink at the cantene that he liked - ArizonaTea Mucho Mango. There's no telling how many of those he had to drink.
 I don't know how many merit badges he finished this week, but it was a good start to his B.S. career.

He was also accepted onto the Leavenworth United Soccer U-13 team. It will be interesting to see what this does to our schedule. He is suppose to practice two nights a week then play games and tournaments on the weekends down south of K.C.  Along with this schedule will be Hawk's schedule (he didn't want to play league ball, just rec) and Herogian's schedule of skeet, hunting, and archery starting again. Oh yeah, school will be in there somewhere. Can't forget that, now can we? I'd also like to attend Bible study on Wednesday nights, but will have to see where these other things take us... and writing the book and a vbs program.... life goes on.

Boys and birds

The color in our backyard comes from the birds. I thought I'd introduce you to some of them.

This is October. He is a male Banty Rooster with lineage from Buff the Mini Fluer and R-Fal a black Japanese Banty.

Herogian wants to show this one at the fair.

 This is Tiny Might. The runt that we helped out of its shell this sping. Another Banty crossmix.

 This in Panda Bear our first Japanese banty. The one who has protected our birds for the last 3-4 years. Well, his time is up, the other roosters are out to get him. He and R-Fal and Quailee have to be put in the berry garden every morning to protect them from the other roosters. They are out to kill him for his position as leader is over. I'm the sucker that goes out every morning and catches him and the other two before they get attacked off the roost and transport them across the yard, feeds and waters them, and puts them back in the coop after all the others have settled. I know, real sucker here. He's done such a good job for us, I just can't see letting the others beat the tar out of him, or , he flies over the fence and Penny and Casey try to corner him. We will see how this all goes, berry picking will be in full swing by the weekend. He attacks us too many times, raising my bristles and he might become teriyaki chicken. Wouldn't that be fitting?

 Here is Waddles and his dame Quackers. She is not laying anymore eggs for me. Poo. I really enjoyed them. They might end up as dinner - freeloaders. But they are sooo cute.

 This is Hawk. A seabrite banty. The miracle about this bird is that T13(Hawk) named it and it hasn't died. The poor kid has had every bird or hamster of his naming kill-over or be killed.

Here is Buff at the rock. He is a Mini Fleur and the father of October. Herogian would like to show him at the County Fair, too. Beside him is "Lucky" the only Pekin duck to be with us now. I'm hoping she starts to lay eggs soon. In the foreground is PeeWee. PeeWee is totally stuck on himself as king of the coop. "NUT-JOB" as Herogian has named him. With him is Comet. one of the chickens now laying for us. She has a twin somewhere in the yard. Have you noticed how many of these birds are roosters?

These are the ladies that have about two more months before they start laying eggs. Six total that I'm waiting on. There is also another new rooster - the white one. A Buff cross with Comet. We thought it was female for some time, she/he looked pretty with the white feathers growing on the legs. The cackeling try at crowing occurred yesterday.

THis is what we have enjoyed over the last two weeks. The third duck was for Father's Day.

The boys have deemed summer to be sleep in time. You can see that Casey has other thoughts about that.

Casey has turned out to be a great alarm clock.

Yes, there is a boy under there, somewhere.

Have a great day.

What a day

The last 24 hours have been up and down. Literally. The boys and Commander spent about 8 hours at Worlds of Fun riding roller coasters. They arrived home after midnight. The boys were wound up. Four boys (Cam was staying the night) were telling me about their night all at once.  The excitement in their voices, faces, was refreshing. They headed off to bed with their heads still spending. Literally. (twice) T12 shows up in the bedroom at 3:30 am. 'Mom, my head won't get off the roller coaster, I can't sleep. Can I try sleeping here. He wanted to sleep in our bed. For a moment or two I think I let him. Sleep haze was heavy around us. THen I reaized there was no way I would get any sleep if he stayed where he lay. I sent him to his own bed instead of where they were camping out in the game room. He had forgot he had his own bed to sleep in.
The next morning I got up to take care of the animals and then get ready for church. I planned to leave all the men in the house sleeping. They needed it before they leave for camp. The dogs followed me out the check on the birds. Izzy is really interested with the chickens. She must have jumped against the fence and nocked the hook off, for the gate leaned enough for her to squeeze through (she's so thin - Just ribbing Alyssa) As I lean over to collect eggs, I hear a scream behind me and enough to know that something isn't right in the coop. I turn around to find Izzy has pinned Panda Bear - the mean ole rooster to the floor. I had to twist Izzy's collar enough to get her to let go. I didn't want to grab her mouth. That's words from experience.She let go and Panda went out the door. I got her out of the run. That was enough trouble with the gate. I bought a metal gate this afternoon and installed it. It looks a lot better, locks better, too.
Heck, if we are going to change the gate then we should change the fence, right? Well we decided the birds had too much of the back yard. We moved the fence from west to east at one corner and turned it north to the back fence. They now have the east half of the back yard, THe archery range is in the middle and the garden is still on the west side.  The boys were happy. They have been shooting bb's, airsoft, throwing knife practice and sling shot practice in the back. Now they have more space.
We dropped Cam and t12 off at camp. All the way up there and back I worked on writing another VBS program.  It was such a fast trip, since I was searching HIS word for the right stories. It will be fun to lay out another program.
This one is called A.S.A.P (2).    I'll tell you more later.

Have a great week.

Pictures of stuff

Here is Izzy and Casey. They are finally getting along. Ony took about 32 hours. Young Family  I'm going to fatten up your dog. She is way toooooooo skinny. Just thought I'd let you know. I'm not giving her the raw hides either, they cause urine infections around this house, so we won't take the chance. She is doing great. She sits and stares at the birds (chickens and ducks) until it is too hot to be out side in a fur coat. Then she and Penny go after the lightening bugs after dark. Hilarious.

 T12 is taking after his MUM. How Awesome? Killed the snake and chopped its head off, then sliced it open to check out the organs and what it ate for its last meal. Too bad I was at work for this one.  That's the snake head in his right hand.

 T12 again, this time in Casey's kennel. This is one of the smaller pet taxi's for small dogs and cats. Houdini. Thought about leaving him in there. That way he'd at least stay out of trouble for the day.  Twelve year olds are worse than 2 year olds - they know better.

Commander and the boys plus 2 friends are off for  World's of Fun this afternoon. With their Homeschool I.D. School Cards we made a few months ago, they should be allowed in at a cheaper price tonight. We will see. This is the first night that W.of.F. is open until Midnight. You know how long the boys want to be there - midnight.
Tomorrow after church we will be taking two of these boys to Mission Lake Church Camp for a week. They are going to start the week off tired. Thank goodness Chris.C.  gets to put up with them.

the height issue

T13 - Hawk - from now on - he names everything new HAWK ..... anyway, he told Commander yesterday," you're only taller than Mom when you wear combat boots and Mom is barefoot .... standing in a ditch."  

How well do you think that went over? Hawk had to run for his life, Commander was after his ribs for that one.

Then comes today. T11 and his buddy Cam are having a sleepover/sleepin all morning, in the game room. The room has no windows so it is dark in there. Commander steps into the room to go to the pantry and flips on the lights. He put away some groceries then stepped back out, stepped back in, flipped the light on again to see if either of the boys would wake. They didn't.

At noon when they were having breakfast, Cam asked, "who came into the room at 7:00 and turned the light on?" Commander laughed and let him know that it was 9:00 when he came into the room.
 "So who came in at 7:00 and went into your pantry?"
"That was me at 9:00."
"That was you? You really look a lot taller when I'm sleeping on the floor. I thought it was Mrs. Jane."

How well do you think that went over?
Commander told the three boys at the table that they would all marry women taller than them. I'm not sure if it was meant as a curse, or a blessing. I'll take it to mean a blessing. He has me, doesn't he?
This afternoon I was leaving to pick up Herogian at the Dog Hunting Trials on post (in the blowing snow) when I asked Commander to give me a kiss goodbye. He came to the door, stepped up onto the entry step and told me to stand in the ditch.

Safety alert dog

Two post before this one tells you about T11 getting busted for playing his IPOD way past bedtime. You might want to read the story real quick just to know the background.

Today, we ended up on the internet looking at pictures of puppies - miniature schnauzer puppies to be exact. T11 really wants to have another one in the house. He wants it to be his. Don't blame him, I'd like to have one too, but this will be his lesson to learn in life.
Commander told him to make a Pro and Con list of having a dog. I tried to help him be realistic. Cute and snuggly really don't strengthen the PRO list. T11 was trying to get across that barking would be a good thing. I agreed that it would be good to have a dog downstairs with him, since he is the only one that sleeps in the lower room. I said we could put it down as a safety alert to warn him of danger.
T11 agreed - "Yeah, that would work, the dog could say,' Mom's hiding in the closet, turn off your IPOD'." He and I started laughing. Brothers were looking at us like we are nuts, so we had to explain the story to them. Then we were all rolling, and had to call Commander to get him in on the joke.

We wouldn't  have so much fun together in the middle of the day if they weren't homeschooled. Laughter is good medicine for schoolwork.
If you have any odds and end jobs T11 can do to make a little money, he'd like to do it. He pointed out that it would take him over 70 weeks to save enough money from his job chart. I didn't want to burst his bubble and remind him that there are only 52 weeks in a year.  I was pleased that he figured up how many weeks it would take him to save. At first he had Herogian and T13 offering to split the cost. I think he is on his own now.

Yellow and Brown streaks

Driving past Stubby park brought about this conversation between Commander and the boys:

"Hey boys, do you know what caused the yellow and brown streaks on the sledding hill?" asked the Commander.

"No," replied T11, from the back seat.

"Tell 'em, T13."

"The brown streaks are from the kids who got so scared they pooed their pants on the way down the hill, and the yellow one is from those that peed." T13 chuckled at his cleverness.

"Oh, I would be on the yellow streak, then," said T11.

'The urine on the ice freezes and makes it slicker and you go faster."  The Commander is trying to get a rise out of the boys.
"Remember not to put your hands down."

"EWWWW!" they all exclaimed.

"When it sprays up in your face, don't lick your lips!" chimed the Commander.

"Oops!" said T11 from the back seat. "I'll have to remember that next time."

Conversations between men and boys -  they can get so gross.

Mosquito Ham

T11 wanted Commander to buy some more mosquito ham for his sandwiches. That's going to make one mighty small sandwich.