What a life

I sure have to admit that I have an easy life. I go to bed latter than the rest of the gang because it's the only time the house is quiet. I'm not kiddin! LOL It seems like my kids just never shut up be quiet. I sleep late everyday.
You would think that living on a little teeny tiny farm that I would have to get up early and milk the cows and feed the chickens and on and on. To start with, we don't have a cow or any chickens. We do have 3 horses, 3 cats and 2 dogs. Of course the cats will scratch your eyes out if you don't feed them at the right time. And the dogs will bark until you can't hear yourself think if you don't turn them out of their kennels that they sleep in every night. Not to mention the damage that 3 huge horses can do in just a few minutes if they don't have their hay at the crack of dawn. Ok - I'm joking about the critters!

I really do sleep late every day. My boys are woke up by Superman. Once Superman wakes them up, he heads off to work. The boys do their chores and eat breakfast and then they sneak in and wake me up. Since the boys missed so many things that we all take for granted, I will let them crawl in bed with me in the mornings. After about 15 minutes of the covers being pulled this way and that way I have to say enough and run them out of the room. Now I take about 10 minutes to brush my teeth, make my bed and get dressed. I walk into the "classroom" and our day begins.

There are days when I just have to reward the boys with being done with school at lunch time. Summer is here now and I intend to keep their feet wrinkled from swimming. Yes we are still doing school but we are swimming too. We spend a few hours at the springs and then we head home to get dinner ready for Superman (and us).

I intend to take more pictures of the springs and our activities. I have lots to share now, I just gotta get em here.

What a life!

Should I Quit

All of you know that I haven't been posting here like I should. I am just doing other things and don't want to spend so much time talking about what I want to do or what I've been doing or even what I'm gonna do...
I just want to go and do it. That's what has me thinking that maybe I should just quit. I mean quit blogging. No - not forever - just for a little while. Haha...that's pretty much what I've done. Well to some extent anyway.

Here lately I've been...
outside more
enjoying home school
raising a baby squirrel
doing more with freecycle
planning and planting a winter garden
enjoying our 3 boys

Deer Dear

It seems that some days my boys walk around with their heads in the clouds. I keep thinking that one day they will finally pay attention. But as my dear loving husband keeps telling me "They are kids and kids will be kids." I guess that one day I will realize what he is telling me.

Tonight we are all sitting at the supper table, talking about our day and just being silly (as usual). I sit in a place where I can look out at the horses. Tonight I see CoCo just perk his head up and blow all up like the herd leader - he sure is beautiful when he does that. I mention to everyone that CoCo sure is interested in something. They all look out the window at him. By this time Shadow and Redman have spotted whatever CoCo sees. I am curious myself so I step out the back door.

I'm amazed! Not 1, not 2 - but 3 deer. Years back when I first moved to this area, I would see deer signs. More people moved in and the wildlife moved out. It was such a pretty sight to see the deer just easing along and grazing. I am so glad that they could possibly be coming back into the area.

We all ended up outside to watch the deer and the horses. The boys ask a few questions about the deer and why the horses were acting so silly. I just love answering those types of questions.

I Lost Count

I lost count of the days now. Not just the days, but the days! The days that I have been nicotine free.

Let me think out loud just a minute and then I'll let you know. Ok - my last one was on the - hmm...let me get to the calendar...April 4th was 7 days...so...March something...got it...March 27th was the last time that I smoked. So my first day of no nicotine was March 28th, 2008.

I tell ya, it has been a struggle. I have avoided all the things that I used to do. Sit at the computer - light one up. After every meal - light one up. I had more reasons to light one up than stars in the sky. PIT i FULL

Today has been kinda rough but I've made it this far.

We have a few things going on that is taking up lots of our thoughts.

1. We have got to buy another vehicle. This is pretty funny because we are vehicle poor. I mean it. If we put all of our vehicles in our yard, it would look like a used car lot. Gotta think again, so that I can tell you exactly how many we have. Our green hunting truck, there's the Dodge, then there's the truck that my mom has at her house (it was my dad's), then there is our SUV that is falling apart little by little. Ok, there's only 4 of them but isn't that enough. LOL Oh yeah, there is also the patrol car when Superman isn't working. Yep - like I said, a used car lot.

2. A graduation is in the very near future. My sister's baby is graduating from high school. We want to go to the graduation and spend a little bit of time with my sister and then we want to use the rest of the week as our vacation. So we have to plan for someone to feed the horses while we are gone, someone to feed the cats and clean the litter boxes. We have to board the dogs. Oh yeah, and now that we have a special needs cat, we have to find someone that can give Dusty his insulin shots twice a day.

3. I have a huge list of things that need to be caught up on. I think it may be easier to just throw the list away and start over.

I think that's all for now. I am gradually getting back to the computer so please be patient with me. Thank you very much for your support!

Here Lately

Here lately I've been busy. I know - Imagine that! I've been trying to figure out what has me so busy.
Could it be that I homeschool 3 boys or maybe we have 3 horses, 4 cats, 2 dogs? Maybe it's the bike riding we've been doing lately or the window cleaning that I started a couple of days ago. Maybe it's our Boy Scout Troop or running errands here and there. Maybe it's all the time spent in the kitchen. Oh who knows. LOL It's ok though, it's just that time of year.

I do know that my laundry is not even close to what it used to be. I discovered GoodNites. Yes, we have a bed wetter and it's not the end of the world. I sure thought it was the end of the world when I was washing his sheets and blankets every day of the week. Since we have discovered GoodNites all of that has stopped. Now our youngest child has his special pajamas and he is so proud. You can find out more by going to the GoodNites website.

Five to seven million kids in the United States wet the bed.
20% of 4- to 12-year-olds wet the bed.
Bedwetting is more common among boys than girls–about 2/3 of kids who wet the bed are boys. 72% of kids who wet the bed will outgrow it by the time they're 11–99% by age 15.

Helping the Wildlife

Have you ever helped the wildlife? We do. We go about out daily chores and we think of the effect we have on wildlife. Today is a good example...

I brought out my bike today. Yeah - you should have seen the boys. They stood in amazement as my bike rolled down the back steps. It was funny to hear their aws and see their faces. Ok - back to what I was saying. On the way home, I spotted a huge green worm. I felt like the boys when they saw my bike rolling down the steps. I was amazed at how large he was and how beautiful green he was. Nope - no pictures, I didn't take the camera with us. I like to travel light.
We watched the worm for about 5 minutes and then we let him continue to his destination. We left him alone to do his thing. That's what wildlife does.

I have a few tips that you may or may not have thought about, that you can do for wildlife.

1. You can sting popcorn, cranberries, grapes, crackers and other things that you can think of on cotton thread. Hang it outside for the critters to enjoy. Make sure your thread is 100% cotton and the popcorn is 100% natural with no salt or butter.

2. Fill net material with any kind of bird seed, tie a ribbon around the top and hang it for the birds to enjoy. You can add crushed egg shells, orange slices, orange peels, crackers and other things that you think of.

3. String raw peanuts on 100% cotton thread and hang them for the critters to enjoy.

4. A pine cone can be a wonderful treat. Mix peanut butter and oatmeal for a think paste, coat the pine cone with the mixture (make sure to get it in the pine cone), roll it in bird seed, hang it and the birds will flock to it.

5. Suet. Melt beef fat or bacon grease and let it cool. Add bird seed, peanut butter, fruit or granola. Hang it in a net bag and the birds will love it.

6. Don't throw away your table scraps, put them in a net bag and hang outside.

Onion mesh bags are great to use for the netting material in most of the ideas.
I'm sure you can come up with a few other ideas too.
Hang some of these on your Christmas tree inside. When the time comes to take down the tree, just remove your ornaments and leave the natural ones on the tree. Set your tree outside and let the critters enjoy all the treats.

Don't just throw your Christmas tree out for the trash collector to take it to the land fill. Let the critters use your tree to protect them, they make great places for bunnies and other critters to hide in.

Cats and Trees

I thought by now that I would have some really funny things to tell you about our cats and our Christmas tree. Unfortunately, I don't have anything about our cats and our tree. I just knew that I would wake up Sunday morning with our tree laid over on it's side. I went to bed all prepared for the catastrophe. We had all talked about the possibility of finding Tigger at the top of the tree or even getting to the top and knocking the Angel off and somehow wearing the Angel. I suppose Tigger and the other cats have decided to leave the tree alone for now. I wonder if any of them will find themselves in the tree before Christmas is over?

Tigger's Journal

This may be too graphic for anyone with a weak stomach. Please read with caution.

I have held off on reporting too much about Tigger because of his condition. He has been a very sick little kitty. My last report was that the vet showed me how to give fluids to him with an injection. It has been a long 2 weeks for us with Tigger. Of course it has been more difficult for Tigger than for me and I have to admit it certainly hasn't been easy for me.

Wednesday, October 3rd - 3 of the cats went to the vet to be fixed and declawed.

Thursday, October 4th - 3 of the cats came home and everything was fine.

Friday, October 5th - Tigger very sick. Tigger had to go back to the vet. He had to get fluids via an injection.

Saturday, October 6th - Tigger even sicker. He had to go back to the vet and stay over the whole weekend.

Monday, October 8th - Tigger came home and I had all kinds of instructions on giving him fluids. He just laid around as if he had no will to live. He would not eat or drink anything and he was throwing up (a lot). By process of elimination that Tigger may have eaten some of, one of our house plants - we believe it may have been our Peace Lily. Needless to say that the Peace Lily now lives out side. I am still considering getting rid of the plant completely.

Tuesday, October 9th - Tigger getting worse. The vet ask me to come in and he would show me how to give the fluids via an injection. I got sick in the vets office and thought that I was going to pass out. This has happened to me before at the vets office (LOL). It's only me feeling sorry for the animals that I was with at the time, including Tigger. I started giving him fluids via the injection this evening.

Wednesday, October 10th thru Friday, October 12th - Still giving him fluids via the injection twice a day. He is still throwing up. He is still not eating or drinking anything at all.

Saturday, October 13th - Tigger walks to the water dish and takes 2 laps. He will not drink milk or anything else. He will not eat canned cat food, tuna or anything else. All this time he had been sleeping in the shower in my bathroom. He didn't want to be away from us today, he wanted to lay in the hallway near the den. So we let him stay out all day and be near us.

Sunday, October 14th - No more throwing up. During the night he learned how to open the shower door, somehow get under the bathroom door and under my bedroom door. Today he ate about 5 little niblets of dry cat food. He also went to the litter box by himself. He drank a few more laps of water. He meowed and showed some response when I put my finger gently in his ear.

Monday, October 15th - A few more niblets of dry cat food. A few more laps of water. He drank a little bit of milk tonight. Used the litter box by himself again. He meows a little more now. He is walking kinda funny...Putting his head down and swinging it back and forth as he walks. It looks like he is drunk. I am still giving him fluids via injection. He purred a little bit.

Tuesday, October 16th - His appetite is really starting to pick up. More trips to the food bowl and to the litter box. His litter box trips are clearing up. There was blackish blood and then red blood, now they look more like wet cat food. Today he fought the injection and I made a call to the vet. Per the vet...as long as he is not dehydrated, I can hold off on the injections. Tonight I managed to get him to drink some milk and some chicken broth. I also got him to eat a little bit of canned cat food.
Now he walks very weird. His back legs don't want to work. It's almost as if they were asleep. I kinda feel sorry for him but I have to give him credit because he certainly is trying.
I tote him to the food dish and take food and liquids to him. I take him to the litter box and generally he uses it. The reason I am carrying him is because of how he is walking.
Tonight he is starting to perk up his ears and eyes when he hears certain sounds. He still wants to be close to us and we are still letting him be close to us.

Wednesday, October 17th - The girls get their stitches out and Tigger is getting a check up. I will update more when I get back from the vets office.
Update - The girls did get their stitches out. The vet and his assistant was pretty impressed with Tigger. The vet said that the way Tigger is walking is a sign of diabetes. However, he doesn't believe that it is diabetes because Tigger's walk has improved since yesterday. Not much but there is an improvement. To give you an example of how he is walking - it's kind of like one of the raptors on Jurassic Park.
I am trying to let him walk more on his own now. I do help him to the litter box because I want him to be able to make it on time. He is drinking more chicken broth and milk. He is eating more dry cat food and canned cat food. Tonight he showed an interest in 2 very important things. Those things are his play cubicle and a piece of yarn. He really perked up with the piece of yarn and batted at it. The vet has him on medication now, which I am sure will only help.
Just to let everyone know, the vet said that there is still a chance that he may not make it. Also, the vet wants to see him again in about 2 weeks to monitor the improvements.
Oh yeah - lots of purring now too and he is bathing himself.

Thursday, October 18th - I am amazed at the progress that Tigger makes overnight. He is sitting at the shower door this morning, asking to be let out. When I let him out, I immediately notice that he is walking a little better. I follow behind him to make sure that he wants his breakfast. I give him milk that he smells of and is done with it. He don't even want his chicken broth. I kinda get concerned about it. He heads off in the direction of the dry cat food. That's what he wanted. He starts eating and I begin to wonder if he is going to get full. I offer him a little canned cat food and he wants only a tiny bit of it. He hurries off to the litter box, does his business and off he goes again. He gets to his cubicle and there he lays for a couple of hours. Later on he lays by the window and soaks up some warm sunshine. He chased his ball for about 2 feet today. Tigger was laying on the floor today and did a long cat stretch. Throughout the whole day you could see his walking improve. Now he walks with his legs straighter and more like a slinky type of cat walk, his tail up in the air. Purrs and purrs. He ate more canned cat food this afternoon. More long cat stretches and even one where he rolled over onto his back wanting a belly rub.

Friday, October 19th - We can see his improvement from hour to hour today. His walking has improved so much. It's almost as if there has never been a walking issue. I called the vet to get a refill on the meds that he was just started on. The meds are to help his liver heal. The liver damage is caused from the plant he ate. When I called the vet, I had to tell them all about how much he has improved and still improving. They were all so extremely happy. No more fluids through the I.V. Tigger is now eating like a horse and begging for more. He actually chased one of his little bell balls today for about 5 feet. Once he got to it, he had no interest in playing with it.

Saturday, October 20th - Now that Tigger is so close to being well, I just may stop updating daily on him. I will let you all know what the vet says when I take him back in a little less than 2 weeks. Today Tigger is back. Walking normal and in to everything. He hides under the bed and waits until someone walks by and then he pounces on them. He played with his bell balls today for a long time. He also played with one of our other cats (Biscuit). Long, long cat stretches and so much more cat personality.

Hang in for the vet report in a few days.

Staying In Touch

I know! I haven't been here much. But I've been busy. Remember me saying that I have a very full calendar. And since Granny Karen is in the hospital, we have been running to the hospital to visit with her. We are also taking care of her animals while she isn't home.

There is still a lot going on around here and there will be all month long. Hopefully, this week the boys and I will be able to skip school and go to the library book sale. I look forward to that sale twice a year. I haven't been to it in about 2 years now, but I still mark it on the calendar just in case I find myself in the area of the sale. I will make it a point this week to be in the area. I'll have to tell you all about it too. I know the boys will enjoy it. I just know it!

I have a little journal about Tigger that I will be sharing later in the week. He is still hanging in there and what a little trooper he is.

Tigger Still Not Well

After a long weekend for us, I called the vet this morning to see how Tigger was feeling. Tigger is on a long road to recovery, if he actually recovers. The facts are hard and I am crying as I tell you this. Tigger did make it through the weekend. Tigger could go any time now. We all pray that he get better and stays with us for many more years.

Our vet has tried and tried to figure out what went wrong. In all reality, we really don't know.

On Wednesday we took him, Biscuit and Captain in to be fixed and declawed. Surgery went well with all of them. We brought all of them home on Thursday and they all just laid around sleeping and resting. Friday morning I noticed that Tigger was very lethargic and dehydrated. There was also some greenish liquid throw up on one of the carpet runners. I immediately called the vet and he suggested that we bring Tigger in for some fluids. Tigger stay all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We brought Tigger home today with all kinds of instructions and what to look out for.

The vet started asking me questions about house plants. I told him about a few that I have and he believes that Tigger may have eaten some of my Peace Lily. This may be what is causing his problem.
Possible liver damage.
We are just not sure. We know that he is still lethargic and dehydrated. Tigger is home with us now and I am giving him fluids all the time. He shows no interest in food or water. I am giving him Gatorade with a syringe.

Please keep Tigger in your thoughts and prayers.

Tigger Not Feeling Well

And back to the vet we go. Tigger hasn't been feeling well since we brought him home from the vets office. Last night he would drink a little water and then throw up a lot of fluid. Poor little guy just laid around and was very lethargic. He was extremely dehydrated. After a call to the vets office today, they suggested that we bring him in to get some fluids in him. I had a doctors appointment in town, so we just dropped Tigger off and then went to my appointment. We went back by the vets office to see if Tigger could go home but they suggested that he stay over night so they could watch him and get more fluids in him.

We are all worried about little Tigger.

And They Sleep

We all know that cats sleep. A Lot! We picked all 3 of the cats up from the Vets office this morning. I was concerned about the ride home and how the boys and the cats would handle each other. Well, I was concerned for no reason at all. Ok - call me a worry wart!

Everyone did well from their surgery and were ready to go home. When I first saw them all in their kennels at the Vets office, I wanted to run and grab them all and just love on them.
I think I have become a softie after all these years. Really! To the point that yesterday after we dropped the cats off at the Vets office that I was going to cry. We managed to get about 10 minutes down the road and I started to really thinking about them. Thinking about the surgery and if something happened and should I just go and get them or call the Vets office and cancel everything. I had to talk myself out of doing that.

The ride home was not bad at all. Now getting them out of the car was a different story all together. Captain had somehow wedged herself under the front passenger seat. Tiggie, oh he was easy because he had laid down in the back floorboard and went to sleep. Biscuit hid in the very back, in the cargo area. JD and MJ climbed in the cargo area and locked the door. I guess they thought that Biscuit might attack them and open the door and escape. Locking the door sure did prevent that from happening.

Everyone is home at last. Last night it was very quiet here at home. I think the cats must run around the house and make all the noise. Yeah - right! Once we brought all the cats inside, I put them all in my bedroom where it's nice and dark, cold and quiet. Biscuit finally came out about 2 hours later and decided the best place for her was in my lap. Tiggie has just laid around anywhere. It's like he walks 10 feet and then just falls over for a nap. Captain has hid in my bedroom all day. She always has liked it calm and quiet. Finally tonight around 10pm, she came slipping into the den. She paid me a quick visit and was off to grab a few little nibbles of food.

My arms were loaded with medicine for all the cats. I was almost overwhelmed with all the vials and syringes and this and that. At first I thought I was going to pass out. I really was overwhelmed. I started taking notes about the times and such of the meds. Why? Because I didn't want to forget. I was blinded by all the darn things. All the instructions that I needed to know where written on each package.

Instead of all the cats running around and chasing poor Mindy (our Schnauzer), they are all hiding somewhere where they cannot be bothered. I am guessing that Sunday or Monday the normal activity of cats running between our feet while we try to walk will resume. At least now when they grab our feet it won't be with claws.

And The Total Is...

Hopefully you all remember our cats. Just in case you don't - There is Captain Hooks, we call her Captain. She is named that because she is a Hemingway cat, she has 6 toes. There is Biscuit. Now how she came about that name is a long story. Biscuit is the litter mate to Captain. Then along comes Tigger. He got his name because he is stripped like a Tiger but acts like Tigger from Winnie The Pooh. We call him Tiggie. And last but not least come Dusty. He is our big fat yellow tabby cat. He was named Dusty because he always looks smutty.

It was either Friday or Saturday that we noticed that Captain and Tiggie were getting a little too darn friendly. Oh they were just all smoochy, smoochy. Ok - no more cats. Not gonna have it, no way, no how. Since then we have been putting Captain in our bedroom and letting Tiggie have run of the house. Then we would put Tiggie in one of the boys bedrooms and let Captain have run of the house. Every now and then someone would leave a door open and we would all run into each other trying to grab cats. Kinda like a cat scramble. It was a sight for sore eyes.

Saturday I called the vet, made the appointment that was long over due. Yep! The one to get Captain, Biscuit and Tiggie fixed (Dusty was done several years ago). Not only are we getting them all fixed, but we are having their front paws de-clawed. I know the de-clawing is a touchy issue for some and I understand. But think of it this way.
Our cats never, ever go outside. And when they all get to running and playing, you can sometimes find them about 4 foot up the wall. No joke! They will jump up and grab on to the wall. They just kinda hang there like a squirrel and look around as if to say "can you see me now?". The walls were not made for cat claws.

The vet gave me a total on the phone when I made the appointment. To get the 3 cats done, the total was $550. I thought, shoot, that's not bad. This afternoon I called to check on them and they were all doing just fine. I'm sure they are all really mad at me right now but they are well and that's what counts most.
Oh yeah - And The Total Is...$689.00
Biscuit had an infection in her uterus. Why or how - we don't know. She will be on antibiotics for a few days. I really am looking forward (NOT) to giving a cat (especially Biscuit) a darn pill every day. That's where a sling shot comes in handy. LOL Get your husband to sit in his very favorite recliner, put the cat in his lap and ask him in your most sweetest voice - "Darling, will you pleeaaassssseeee hold Biscuits mouth open", then you load the pill into the sling shot and take your very best aim. Now - fire away!

Ok, so we know that's not gonna happen. Just suck it up and give the darn cat the pill. Yep, that's what I gotta do.

Living in the Real World

We all know that once the weekend is gone that Monday comes along. It's a fact. Not one that much of us like but it happens. And once again I find myself asking - where did the weekend go? I wonder where the weekends go because we stay busy. We always seem to run from here to there and back again. I'm not so much the runner in the family, it's more Superman than me. The boys are all fine with staying home or being on the go. I really think they prefer to stay home than running from here to there. However, there are times when they will ask if we are going anywhere. I try to post our schedule (appointments) on the calendar and I do a pretty good job of it. I just don't post things like buying groceries or horse feed or things like that.

Yes, it's Monday. I used to really dread Mondays. That's when I worked in the real world. Now that I am a SAHM (stay at home mom) and a WAHM (work at home mom), I don't dread Mondays anymore. Funny how I said the real world. What exactly is the real world?
For me the real world consist of rolling out of bed at a decent hour, doing the brush teeth and make bed thing. Next I'm trying to get things a little organized for our daily school lessons, while I am waking the boys up and reminding them to get their chores completed. They're pretty good with their chores, so that's the easy part. Doing this and that for all the critters, such as feeding, cleaning the litter boxes, opening gates for horses and so on... Next, I'm giving a bottle to our baby squirrel while making sure that the boys clean the table and do their dishes after they eat breakfast. Then we're off to school where we talk about Columbus sailing the ocean blue, counting from 1 to 200 and figuring out what number comes before and after. We work on growing plants, examining plant cells, work on cursive writing, figure out the plot, setting and characters of a story. We work on spelling words and telling time. We do addition, subtraction and we multiply and we divide. We do fractions and we count beans. We draw and we color. I think it would have been easier to just say there isn't anything that we don't work on.
Some days we all walk to the mailbox together. Some days we run errands and read road signs. Everyday we laugh! No matter how bad the day is - we still find something to laugh at.
We eat lunch and we clean up our mess. We add some more and count some more beans. We count coins and we try to talk in Spanish. We run, we jump and we sword fight. Some days I'm toting a cat like a baby trying to get them out of the bathroom while answering 900 questions. Some days I'm feeding the baby squirrel while trying to wash my hands. One just never knows around here. LOL

Schools out and we all run our separate ways. Me to the barn and then to the kitchen. The boys? Oh they scatter in all different directions.
We all sit down to supper and we laugh and giggle and we talk about our day. We all do the cleaning up from supper and then we all scatter again. The boys scatter off to get their showers and do any homework that they have. Then they find us and hopefully we all can sit down to a movie or to another family conversation or even for some quiet time to read a book.

Bedtime. For everyone except me. Of course I am the one that has the most problem going to sleep. I take the time that everyone is asleep as my quiet time, my time to relax and finally read my emails, clean off my desk, do a little dusting, maybe even some laundry. Now I'm thinking, just how many hours are in the day anyway. LOL

In the morning we start all over again. That brings me to another question. Isn't it time for me to get some sleep? Yeah - I think so!
Goodnight all!

Field Trip

Everyone loaded in the car and away we go, one little squirrel in tow. After JD's doctor appointment on Friday, we all headed to my mom's where she jumped in the car with us and we were off for a 1 hour drive. Have you every heard this "Are we there yet"? Of course you have, especially if you have kids. They are so funny.

Ok so back to the field trip. Yes, we took our baby squirrel with us. Why? Because no one was going to be home to feed him. It was pretty cool though. MJ has a neat little bag that Granny Karen gave him. I think it's some type of camera bag. I was able to put a towel in it and then put in the squirrel and carry a baby bottle.
I toted the bag with the squirrel all cuddled up inside all day long. I had to stop from time to time and feed the little guy, but that wasn't difficult at all. I just unzipped the bag and stuck the bottle in and he nursed until he was full. Once his little tummy was full, he snuggled up in the towel and was fast asleep. There was one time when I was feeding him that a group of kids saw what I had. About 10 kids wanted to see the little guy, so I did a short show and tell. It was pretty darn neat.

Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park. It has been many years since my first visit to this park. During the summer the boys went with their 4H day camp. JD didn't want to go again, and his reasoning was that there were too many kids and they were rude. I explained that it was just us going this time. I mean there would be other people there, just not in our group. He thought about it and decided that it just may be fun. And it was!
We took a boat ride. We even rode a tram. We walked and walked and walked some more. My poor mom, at times I kinda felt sorry for her. She was a trooper though. And a very good one too!
At Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park, there is a Hippo, bunches of Alligators, Birds all all sorts, Manatees, Squirrels, White Tail Deer, Key Deer, Florida Black Bear, Bobcat and so much more. There is something they call the fish bowl. You go underwater in a building and you can see the fish swimming all around. We saw Sheepshead, Red fish, Snook and more. The boys were all excited! They actually said that it was much more fun with me than with their 4H group. Awwwww!

I know - Pictures! You will all be please to know that the love of my life bought me a new Cannon camera today. It's fancy and I have no idea how to use it. LOL I am off to bed for now but there will be lots more pictures in the days to come.

Meetings and Fieldtrips

I am really loving going to out homeschool group meetings now. I don't know why but I am. Maybe it's the I don't have to if I don't want to thing. Today was a good day for all the boys, which makes it a good day for me.

There wasn't anything planned today for our weekly outing, we just played it by ear. And believe it or not, things worked out well by doing it that way.
There were several people at the springs that was fishing. One gentleman caught a very small bream and gave it to WW and everyone looked at the little bream and then WW was able to release the little guy. When you release a fish, you can't just throw him in the water and expect him to swim off. WW held him in his hand and supported him upright until the gills went to working and then the fins started working and then he slowly started to swim and then he swam off in a hurry. What a cool thing for kids to do.

One of the kids caught a very small Snapping Turtle. It wasn't much bigger than your thumbnail. I didn't know they were orange on their underside - but I know now. Snail eggs - not just any snail eggs, but Apple Snail eggs. The snail eggs had not been laid very long, they were still shinny and slimmy looking. Pretty darn neat if you ask me. Oh there were other little critters to explore and enjoy too. We look and we leave. Look at the critters, enjoy what you see and then leave them alone. The kids really like to pull the Water Lettuce out of the water. It is such an invasive plant that we try to pull some everytime we go. Another invasive plant is the Water Hyacinth. And yes we pull these too. They really do have some awesome flowers but they are killing our water resourses.

For some time now, I have been interested in learning Spanish and French. I just didn't have anyone else that was interested in learning it with me, so I just put it off. Ah Ha - the boys are interested in learning with me. Finally, someone that is interested. Tonight me and all 3 of the boys sat down and started on our Spanish. We started with Rosetta Stone. I don't know how we are going to do, but at least we are willing to try. WW seems the most interested in learning, well besides me. MJ sits with us and he tries so hard, I think that he may just get the hang of it. JD shows a little bit of interest, but who knows, maybe he'll come around. And maybe Spanish just isn't his thing. Maybe he will be more interested in French.

Tomorrow we are off on a field trip. Wow this has really been the week for trips, two days in a row. Actually, kinda neat. Our field trip tomorrow will find us at Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park. My mom is going with us and we are all excited about getting out of the classroom again.

I know you all want pictures, but please bear with me on this. I really hate my digital camera because it is so picky and is very old. Hopefully within a couple of weeks I will be able to buy another one. We are looking at a Canon and a Sony. So be patient and bear with me please.

Signing a Petition

Have you ever signed a petition? Have you ever spoke up for something that you believe in? Have you ever wanted to speak up for something that you believe in and never did? Make a difference now and sign a petition.

You can help Stop Dog Fighting. You can tell your friends and family about this petition and ask them to send a message to their representatives in support of the Federal Dog Protection Act?

Stop Dog Fighting

Thank you!

Sleeping In

Finally Saturday! I had some really awesome plans of sleeping in. Notice I said "I had"? There really is no telling around here what time one will get woke up or even how one will get woke up. It could be calm and gentle or it could be wild and wicked. Usually if you have plans on sleeping in, then you can pretty much plan on getting woke up by wild and wicked. Either one is ok in all reality, just as long as you are woke up. Because you sure don't want to miss the action.

Speaking of action.
Superman was going to get up early (not as early as usual for him) and he was going to take the boys and do a little welding. WW and MJ were the only ones allowed to go because JD just couldn't behave in class during the week. And you know my plans - yeah - sleeping in. So I'm laying in bed in my own little special dream land and in my sleep I hear "MOM!". I open my eyes and I see 3 boys standing beside my bed and JD is holding something. I hear "MOM, LOOK WHAT MJ FOUND"! Oh yes, they are all excited, I mean to the point that they might as well have just caught a leprechaun, except for the fact that it wasn't St. Patricks Day. Now I'm kinda squinting my eyes to get them to focus from being jolted awake. I see what's in JD's hands. It's a baby squirrel. No joke! I wouldn't have been anymore shocked if had been a leprechaun. The squirrel started hollering at that point. JD handed me the squirrel and I laid him by my neck, he crawled closer to me and just snuggled up to me and there he went to sleep. I talked to the boys about the squirrel and where MJ found him.
I laid there for about 15 more minutes and I just couldn't stand it any longer. I had to wake up Superman. I called his name once and he woke right up and I told him to look at my neck. My gosh - did he see a leprechaun too? Me - now I've raised a baby squirrel before and of course I was excited but not even close to the excitement that Superman and the 3 boys were feeling. I think I was more into the save it's life mode. Keep it warm and get it fed.

After Superman and I (with the baby squirrel) managed to crawl out of bed, we all went about our daily routine of brushing teeth and getting our other little chores done. Me with a squirrel in the pocket of my t-shirt. Superman, WW and MJ went off to weld and JD and I went off to PetSmart.

Fall in the Air

For the last couple of weeks we have been able to really feel fall in the air. It has been cool in the morning, then warming during midday and then a cooler in the evening. Well I have felt it anyway. Superman says it just started like on Sunday. Yesterday and today there was no mistake that you can really feel Fall in the air. It even has a distinct aroma. I love this time of year. Usually it's hot this time of year but not right now. The weather people say there is some type of front that could or will cause some type of El Nino that will dump lots of water on us this Winter. Even enough to end our drought conditions. Well it better be a lot of water if it's gonna bring our water table back up to the normal range.

On top of our water table being really low, I read in our local paper yesterday that some important people or company wants to create a huge pipe line that will send our water down to South Florida. Hmmm...Now exactly what are we going to drink when this happens? I guess they aren't thinking about that. Shoot, most of the swimming holes and fishing holes that were full when I was a kid are all pretty much dried up now. Will Florida become the next dessert? It kinda looks like it.

Today we have had a light drizzle of rain. The horses were running around all frisky and playful. They are so beautiful to watch. The weather means the boys have to play inside a little more, but that's ok too. They still get to play outside but not when it's cool and raining.

I'm off to do a little surfing and a little reading. I have more news to post, so don't run off.

No Place Like Home

There's no place like home. No matter how near or how far, there's no place like home.
Once again we take things for granted and just don't realize that our boys haven't experienced some of the most common things in life. Security is one of them. Having a place to call home and being able to actually go home. Missing someone or something and then finally seeing and being with them again.

All the way from the airport the boys kept saying they couldn't wait to get home and they were glad to be back in Florida. When we pulled up to our gate the boys jumped out of the car and were just full of excitement. We all grabbed bags from the car so that we could get it unpacked and get inside. MJ and JD kept asking if they could go over and get Mindy, Molly and Rocko. Once inside we sent them on their way to Granny Karen's to get Mindy, Molly and Rocko. Later, Granny Karen called me and told me all about the hugs that the boys gave the dogs. They missed the dogs and were really glad to see them. Our boys have never had a home to come home to or pets who missed them or anyone to miss them. Oh the love that they are feeling now.
MJ and JD ran into the house with Mindy and Molly in tow. It was loud and the boys and the dogs were jumping everywhere. So silly! Then they were all off to fine all the cats. Once everyone was found and hugs were given out things began to settle down.

WW, JD and MJ walked around the house checking things out. Maybe to see if everything was just like we left it. They were really worried about all the animals on Thursday when we were getting ready to leave. They were worried that the horses would starve to death and no one would pet the cats and on and on...When we got back home they saw that everything was just fine and they were ok after that.

I am glad that we have these boys and I am glad that we are able to show them love and give them security. We are not rich in monetary value, however, we are extremely rich in love and value. Families need that more than money!