Post Holiday Rush

The last of my Christmas company left this morning. I love having company but it's always nice to get life back to normal.

We finished up with all of our Christmas celebrations on Wednesday evening. Five in all including opening gifts with our kids.

We are off to another basketball game again today...the third day in a row. Jeremy played on Thursday, Courtney on Friday and Jeremy again today. So far they have been winning! The girls' record is 5-1 and the boys are 4-1. Jeremy was throwing up last night but felt ok today so it will be interesting to see how he does and feels while playing.

Ahhhhh!

All of our Christmas company has made it back safely and will be here for the next several days.

Got my baking finished up on Friday....the last Christmas "to do" to cross off the list!

Now just to enjoy the season with friends and family and to celebrate the birth of Jesus!

Life is Good!

Merry Christmas to All of You!

This and That

The blood drive went well. Chad gave for the first time and did great (thank God....I wouldn't want to be the one to catch him if he passed out afterwards)! I think the NHS met their goal of donors so it was a good day!

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I got my xmas dinner grocery shopping done yesterday. That sure is a load off my mind! The meal is planned and everything is bought and ready to be cooked.

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Chad bought 14 more cows this week (actually Jeremy bought 7, Courtney bought 5 and the other 2 we bought) so we had to tag them today....it's a good thing both kids' grades are good enough, neither one of them had to take finals so they were both home today to help!!

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My brother and his girlfriend are coming in tomorrow (5.5 hour drive)....just in time to jump in the vehicle again and head to basketball games in Groton (1.5 hours). It's a double header tomorrrow so both kids play.

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My nephew got out of the hospital and is doing good....thanks for all the well wishes and prayers.

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Heading to my niece Kennedy's basketball game tonight. She is in 5th grade and a blast to watch...she's one aggressive little girl!

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Still hoping to get some baking done...maybe tomorrow or Saturday. I didn't get a chance to check out everyone's blogs today but am hoping to make the rounds tomorrow.

Blood Drive

Jeremy is a National Honor Society member at school and they are sponsoring a Blood Drive today. The Blood Drive is one of Jeremy's favorite volunteer activities! He will be helping out with it today and hubby and I will be going to give blood!

The Countdown Begins

Is anybody else counting down days to Christmas??

I know it's supposed to be a "kid" thing to count down days but every year I find myself doing it! I love giving people gifts....love getting together with family and most of all I love celebrating Jesus' birth! What a gift he was and still is to us!!!!!

Ok...to be totally honest, some of the reason for the countdown is to make sure I am getting everything done and in order for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I had trouble sleeping last night, going through all the things in my head that still need to be done. I don't have that many days left and still have lots to do...a little wrapping...a little baking...xmas dinner meal planning and grocery shopping....rooms to get ready for overnight guests. I don't know why I am worrying...it all seems to get done in time every year but hey, that's me....a worry freak!

Nephew Update

My nephew Nolan (the one I picked up at school on Thursday because he was sick), was admitted to the hospital on Saturday. He is still there today and may get home tomorrow. He ended up having pneumonia....was dehydrated, white blood count high, very high fever. He has always vomited with a high fever so not sure if he was vomiting from the fever or he had stomach flu too. He is looking better but still has some recovering to do!

Aunt Duty

Today I was on "Aunt Duty"!

I got a call from my sister (Cheryl) that my nephew (Nolan) was at school and not feeling well, so I went and picked him up and brought him home with me....the poor thing vomited all day. Her job requires her to travel around the state and she was several hours away this morning when she got the call. He is old enough (13) to be home by himself so I asked him if he wanted to go home or come to my place...bless his heart, he chose to come "hang" out with me. This nasty stomach flu has been going around the school for awhile...so far neither one of my kids have caught it......but now I just might!

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Our boys basketball team played tonight...they didn't play their best but still came away with a WIN.....Go Team! The girls play again tomorrow night, their record is 2-1 so far.

High School Christmas Concert

Both my kids are in Band and Choir so we got to go listen to them at the Christmas concert last night. They both really enjoy music and I am so glad that they have remained interested and continue to be part of the music program at school. It's tough to fit it into your schedule so hats off to all of the kids that sacrifice to participate! A little blurry but here is Courtney blaring away on her trumpet....she absolutely loves playing her trumpet!
Jeremy on his trombone....he even had a solo in one of the songs last night.
They were both standing close to one another in the choir which made it easy to to capture some good photos.

Home Photos

A few of you asked for pictures of the house we built 3 years ago. Here are a few that we took the fall it was built. It's nothing fancy but it has more room and way more storage which is what we were mainly trying to achieve and it has an attached garage which I didn't have before and I absolutely love! It is also way more heat efficient. We put geo-thermal heating and cooling in.
Here is a picture of both houses.

The deck that we put on the front of it this summer.

Another view of the deck, complete with the dog where she usually hangs out.

Bloggin' Buddies!

Friday night Amy and I had the honor of meeting two bloggin' buddies.... Kerrie and Tracy! It was nice to get to meet them in person and have a "live" conversation! Thanks Kerrie and Tracy for the awesome experience!

House moving!

Our old house is jacked up and on wheels ready to be moved....YEAH!We built a new house 3 years ago and just got all the stuff out of the old house this summer and FINALLY called the fire department to come burn if for us. One of the guys on the fire department asked if we were interested in selling it and wanted to come look at it. He and his wife came and looked at it and fell in love with it (even tho we had pulled all the cupboards out and took some walls down etc.). We told them they could have the house....for free. They were excited and I was too....we bought the house from my husband's grandparents who we loved dearly and are both deceased now. The idea of burning it down was really bothering me so this way, everybody wins!

Winter Trials

Winter has barely begun and we have already had to pull Courtney out of the ditch! This was the first time she has gone in the ditch in the winter (did it once in the summer right after she started driving). It scared her pretty good so hopefully she is a little more cautious now!!! She also learned to start wearing winter "apparel"!

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The girls ended up with a victory last night. It was Courtney's first Varsity game that she got to start and she was really nervous! We have a very young team this year...we start 1 senior and 4 sophomores. The team looked very good and they all played GREAT!

Basketball!

Tonight is the first basketball game of the season! I am soooo ready for basketball to start....it is one of my favorite sports to watch.....and my daughter and son both play!

We are starting this week out with a bang! The boys had their "Meet the Team" scrimmage last night....Courtney plays tonight, Thursday and Saturday...and the boys have their first game on Friday. We will be seeing lots of basketball in the next few months especially since both kids play. YEAH!

I also have 4 nieces and a nephew that are playing now too....Kassidy is on the 8th grade team and the JV team, Nolan is on the 8th grade team, Kennedy is on the 5th grade team and Nikki is on the 4th grade team (at another school). I love to watch them play too and try to get to as many of their games as I can.

Go Team!

New additions to our "family"!

Thought I would share a few pictures of the cows we bought on Friday.....Courtney helping her dad do chores on Saturday....isn't she fashionable in her bright red insulated coveralls and coat??!!
Closing the gate.

You can tell she is cold...we had been out for hours at this point and it was snowing pretty good.

I tried to get a good shot of them all on Sunday before we tagged them but it was too hard to get them all in one place....this was the best I could do.




We had to move the cows we already had back home on Saturday from a field about a mile away. We had them out there to clean up a corn field we harvested......it had snowed too much for them to find any more feed out there so we moved them back home and will start feeding them here at home. Courtney and I drove the 4-wheelers to move them back home and it was absolutely miserable when we were heading east....the snow/sleet was piercing our eyes and face. I did have the camera along but did not get any pictures. We also had to get some waterers thawed out on Saturday morning so all the livestock could drink. When everyone was back home we had to feed all the livestock and bed them all down. Tell me again why we do this for a living??!!

Successful Shopping

We are the proud owners of 50 more cows.

We bought 50 Angus cows at the sale yesterday. They are all pregnant with their second calf and will calve in April. They come from a very reputable ranch here in SD.... they sold all their commercial stock and are now getting into registered cattle. They sold over 800 head yesterday.....I sure wish I could have had that check!!!!

Now we need to run them all through the head gate and ear tag them all....I think the plan is to do that tomorrow! I know...it's supposed to be a day of rest but here on the farm we don't always get a day of rest.