Getting back to life

I really don't know where to start.  A lot has happened over the last few months.  And I feel a need to come back to this space.  I miss the people, miss the documentation of what is going on in my life with my family.

My family of 4 is now a family of 3.  And I am happy with my life, finally.  After years of walking on eggshells, wondering if I had done everything correctly, I no longer have to worry.  No longer have to be afraid of what I do or don't do, say or don't say, where I go, who I run into, who I talk to.

After lots of shuffling around the last couple months, Tyler and I have landed somewhere.  It is still only temporary (hoping to find a rental with a little bit more room and a barn for his 4-H animals), but we can stretch out and breathe.  Jessie is living with her dad.  But I see her a lot and talk to her every day.

Moving 3 times in 6 months sucks.  The first one I knew about, the second one I had no clue, and this one?  This was our choice and we choose to be here.  The summer was good.  We stayed with my parents for a few months to get our bearings, heal emotionally and mentally and so Tyler wasn't alone while I was working.

Now, we have our own space, we can relax, I don't have to worry about him while I am working, we have friends close by if we need help, and I am seeing the smile return to his face.  That alone is worth everything we have been through over the last 5 years.

I thought this May he would never play football again, never play basketball.  But he decided last minute to play football.  He is starting varsity for offense and defense as a sophomore.  Last year he started on defense as a freshman.

I love going to games on Friday nights.  Watching these boys who are more like brothers do their jobs.  Have a good time.  Play hard.




A couple weeks ago he decided to go out for basketball again.  This thrills me to no end.  Because he has enjoyed basketball for so long I hate to see him give it up.  And I know he is now happy and thriving.

And while I'm in a job I absolutely hate, I'm thankful for the income so I can support my kids and myself on my own with no help whatsoever from their father.




I've had some pretty serious health diagnosis come up over the last few years, and am going to start tackling them and getting them under control.

So follow along on our journey to heal and put our lives back together.  We only get one life and I am determined to live this life on my terms and to the best of my ability.

Happy Halloween!!!

Every year I keep expecting Jessie to say she is too old for trick or treat.  And every year I am pleasantly surprised when she wants to dress up and hike through our little town collecting candy.

 

This year her and her bestie wanted to be a box of nerds.  Of course, they mention this the weekend before Halloween.  Kelseigh's mom was stumped, but we quickly came up with this:

 

 

2 cardboard boxes, spray painted for the base coat, and then the girls drew and painted the rest of it.  I brought some webbing (like what you would put on a tote bag) at JoAnn's and cut holes in the boxes and safety pinned it all together.

I had the brilliant idea to buy white tights and use RIT dye to get them the right colors, but actually, sweat pants and sweat shirts from Aeropostale worked just fine!

We ended up with 3 adults and 6 kids walking around.  It would have been 4 adults but our trick or treating was postponed from Wednesday to Sunday evening due to Hurricane Sandy and all the rain we had Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  And Todd left on a hunting trip on Saturday so he lucked out.

We did decide the nerds costume was pretty fitting for Jessie and Kelseigh.

I think herding cats would have been easier than keeping track of these kids!

Tyler wanted to be Michael Myers.  So a pair of blue dickie work pants and a blue work shirt were sewn together and we painted his face white and put the blood on it.   This picture was a couple weeks ago for his Boy Scouts Halloween Party - which I did not put as much "blood" on him.

This was last night during trick or treating - much better!

I've been busy painting and cleaning - I'll be back later with any luck to show my finished sewing room!

Time flies......

How did we get to this point?


Tuesday was the first day of school. I was so not ready for this day!


Jessie is a 6th grader now.....and with that switch to middle school comes the bus pick-up time of 6:50 a.m. This will take some getting used to!





And Tyler is in 2nd grade this year....with a closer to normal pick up time of 8:25.



So far, the school year has started off very well.....I really hope it continues!








Although I do miss having them at home all day every day....there's lots of cleaning and feeding of animals that they were doing for me.......

It's over

...and I am SO GLAD!!!



State Fair is a fun time, but also incredibly hectic. Add to the mix, we had sold a steer calf to a girl in Medina County, and their steer show was Wednesday night.



So Todd loaded up the pig Tuesday night, got home about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, and I headed out with the kids and an incredibly packed full Durango to meet the camper rental dude by 8:15 a.m.



And then I had to feed said pig several times on Wednesday, and deal with weighing him in at the fair late Wednesday afternoon.



Todd did come down to the State Fair early Thursday a.m. where I was very happy to let him take over the feeding of "Tyler Jr." can you tell which kid named the pig??? Lol....

We started off showing Showmanship on Friday:

the "bling bling girls". What you don't see in this picture is their bling belts, which did sparkle quite a bit in the ring!

Waiting in the holding pen to enter the ring for showmanship. Not sure where she gets the intensity from...

Total seriousness....

Staring the judge down....the idea in showmanship is to keep your eye on the judge or on your pig...she has mastered that part very well.

Not sure where the chewing on her toungue came from....must be all the concentration!

She ended up 5th out of 23 kids in the 11 year old class. Which she was THRILLED with.

Then she had to show market on saturday where she didn't do so hot - 12th place. But....she had fun and enjoyed herself.

On Sunday was the Open Barrow Show. And we let Tyler show "Tyler Jr." in that class. He is going to be quite the showman I think when he is actually old enough to be in 4-h and have market animal projects.

He had fun...didn't place (they only place the top 5 in the Open class and there were 16 pigs in his class)....but he enjoyed it.

And Tyler Jr. was getting tired after 3 days of showing....so he wanted to get the heck out of that ring!

The market pigs are all terminal, so Tyler and Jessie had to say goodbye to him on Sunday afternoon. It was not easy for them but....as they both said, they have other animals at home that now they can devote their time to working with them!

And we get a break next year from showing at the State Fair!!!! It's an expensive week (when you include the cost of the pig and feeding said pig, plus your entry fees, camper rental, parking fees and gate entry fees not to mention your food and drinks), and Jessie and Tyler both said they would rather go to the Medina County Fair and show their heifers and steers in the Open Show.....so I think we are going to do that next year instead of the State Fair.

I'm sure we will go back to showing at the State Fair, but both of the kids want to wait until Tyler is actually in 4-H, and then take either their steers or their feeder calves to the State Fair. Which is a major bummer only from the standpoint that everything you haul down there (including the animals) you have to haul home at the end of the week. We shall see....

All in all? The trip was a success and we got home Sunday night in time to wash and dry her steer, wean all 7 calves, and the kids are busy halter breaking them - which they are doing a fantastic job with so far!

4-H still projects

Jessie got a little over ambitious this year with her still projects for 4-H. She knew she wanted to take a sewing project and the scrapbooking project, but she also wanted to do the photography level 1 project. She must be a little OCD like her mother (ahem....).


Todd's and my ONLY requirement was....all these projects had to be done before she left for 4-h camp on July 2nd. She got home on the 6th and judging was on the 12th. She didn't quite meet that deadline, but 3 hours of work last Sunday and she was done.


The actual judging was Tuesday night....


Loungewear - the fleece robe was what was judged. She got an "Excellent."


Scrapbooking - another "Excellent"



Photography Level 1 - she got an "Outstanding". The judge was a photographer for one of our local papers, and she came out of the judging with Jessie and said to me..... "your daughter took some amazing photographs. I really hope you consider letting her put them in the Open Youth Photography division at the County Fair."



Needless to say, she was on cloud 9 the rest of the evening. When we got home, she picked out 4 pictures that she wants to exhibit at the county fair this year:




Tonight, they had a "Style Review Show" where she gets to model her robe and her scrapbook and find out if she received an Outstanding with either her robe or her scrapbook, and see if she made it to State Fair with any of her projects. I knew she would really love to go to State Fair, but I will dread it 100%.

We just got home - and she got an "Outstanding" with her scrapbooking and qualified for State Fair in both Photography and Scrapbooking. Wow. So we will be down in Columbus a lot. She will go down on the 28th for scrapbooking, the 30th for photography (which is also the day I have to work at our big conference - so Todd just may have to take her down there) and then the 3rd through the 7th (or is it the 8th - Sunday?) with her pig.

She is definitely on cloud 9 - although in true OCD form, she wants me to find out if she can edit either of her projects - she has thought of ways to make them "better."

Here we go.......

Summer......

It's been a busy summer here so far this year.....I don't see it changing, and I think I've finally got my rhythm and I'm cool with how hectic it seems at times:)








Tyler marched in the Memorial Day parade with his boy scout troop:








Jessie has spent countless hours bonding and working with Tank:

I'm not sure how she will deal with selling him in September, but....we'll cross that bridge in September I guess....

And she spends almost every evening walking her State Fair pigs.

This one ("Chasin") will more than likely not make it to State Fair....he is a little large right now....but he will taste good in our freezer!

And if your pig won't walk at first.....you simply get behind him and PUSH!

The first night was rather interesting, but "Tyler Jr." is learning the ropes and starting to walk pretty well for the kids.

We've since graduated to both kids out in the yard with both pigs. I haven't had a chance to take a picture of both of them out there together, but hopefully one of these nights. It's pretty comical, which is keeping things light around here.....

I do have some knitting and quilting projects finished up - hopefully I'll be back in a couple of days with some photos (if I can convince my photographer to take some decent shots!)

Have a good one!
Kris

5th grade graduation

The kids' last day of school was last Friday. And it was a very busy 2 days.

The 5th graders put on a talent show last Thursday. Can I just say how much I love this group of girls? 5 of them were on the basketball team together, and all 6 of them are just all around good girls who are good friends.

Then on Friday, they had the 5th grade graduation ceremony. Times have really changed since I went from elementary school to middle school. Back then it was a here-you-go-see-you-later. Now? It's all about the ceremony and awards.


They do make the 5th graders dress up - dresses for girls and khaki's/dress pants with button down or collared shirts for boys. Jessie finally picked this dress pattern, after 3 unsuccessful shopping trips:



We found the batik fabric at JoAnn's, and with a 40% off coupon, I think I ended up paying $6 or $7 for the dress. We won't mention that I procrastinated on doing the hem until Thursday night when we got home from Tyler's boy scout awards ceremony at 10:30.....nope, not I:)


All in all, both kids have had great years at our elementary school, and I'm sad to see her move on to the middle schoool. But - she has a great class of kids so I know all will be good next year:)

Now if I could just figure out where the years have gone that she is 11 already and headed off to middle school....I would be all set!

Ashtabula County Classic

We got up Saturday morning at the unheard of hour of 5:30 a.m. so Jason and I could take Jessie, Tyler and 3 calves to a show in Ashtabula, OH. Todd couldn't get out of work (spring busy season) or he would have been getting up with us before the crack of dawn as well...

But....it was well worth it!

Jessie showed Fancy first, and won her class.

Then Tyler showed Fabulous and got 2nd in his class.

Both kids had to go back into the ring for Grand and Reserve Champion heifer overall. And Jessie ended up Reserve Champion, while the calf that won Tyler's class ended up Grand Champion.

Then Jessie took Tank into his steer class and got 3rd place. This steer is a riot. Most steers and heifers will quit eating while they are at shows....not this guy! Jessie and Tank are starting to work together really, really well. And he has enough personality to make this fun. So our plan to work some of the weight off of him by showing him is backfiring - in a major way. But we are going to plan b this week - he is getting turned out to pasture for a month to just be a calf. He will loose all the hair that we've worked so hard to grow all winter long, but......he just weighs entirely too much. And this picture? I saw a father with this jacket on, and am thinking Todd needs it for Christmas next year.....

We rolled into home about 6:00 Saturday and crashed about 8:30. There are 2 more shows we can go to, but we are on the fence about them.......although we will have to make up our minds shortly who is going to go.

Spring Spectacular Steer Show

Last weekend we went to a steer show. It was in Wooster, which is about 20 min. away, which might explain why we went a little nuts and took 4 calves of ours, and dragged along 3 other kids with 4 calves between the 3 of them. It's also a sentimental show for us - this is the first steer show that Jessie ever showed in, 2 years ago.

We started off showing with Tyler and Fabulous. Tyler got 2nd in his heifer class!

Then Jessie showed Fancy. And won her heifer class.

Both kids had to go back in for the heifer championship drive, where Jessie and Fancy got Reserve Champion Heifer (talk about knocking me over with a feather).

Then our friends' daughter, V, took Huey in to a steer class. Where she got 4th. Oringially Tyler was going to show Huey, but our friends had a mishap on the way into the fairgrounds and V ended up with no calf to show.

Then Jessie took Tank into the open show and got 1st place:

Jessie had to go back in for the Steer Championship Drive, where she didn't place. And then all the Wayne County steers turned around and went back in for the Wayne County Steer class, and Jessie got 2nd in the Wayne County class.

It was a crazy day, but a lot of fun.

It is so nice to see to Jessie and Tyler grow and improve every time they show. This past weekend we went to Ashtabula, OH for a show. The kids are enjoying this and both keep saying they want to go again (and again, and again). Me? I'm looking for a little time off now......I have flowerbeds and a garden calling my name!