Melting

Heart melting conversation of the week:

Anna and I were talking about getting excited for preschool, and here's what she said:
When I go to preschool with the kids, are you going to come with me?
Me: No, sweety, preschool is just for kids like you.
Anna: But how are you going to leave me at preschool all by myself?
Me: Well, I'm too big to go to preschool. I'll drop you off, but you have to go play with the other kids.
Anna: But I need a Mommy there to take care of me.

They'll let me go to preschool, right? Someone has to take care of my baby!

My parents came to visit, and we took a trip to a "nearby" zoo. It was really fun, and I'll post more pics one day when I find the time to edit them. Here's my favorite one so far.

Have a great day, all!

Harvest

Yep. Harvest. Wheat harvest, to be exact. It's about the busiest time of year around here. Men everywhere work literally from sun-up to sun-down. Women scurry around the kitchen and then put their hair in bandannas to go meet their men out in the fields with a refueling meal. (Ok. I didn't actually wear a bandanna, but I think I might next year.) Some families take whole meals out. I'm talking casseroles, sides, bread, and even pies! They stop right there in the field and eat at a pull out table or just leaning on the side of a tractor. Lucky for me, my guys prefer a light sandwich and an apple so they can get back to work as quickly as possible. If you've ever wondered what happens during harvest, here's a quick run down:
Farmer A (assuming your lucky enough to have at least 2 workers in the operation) drives this large thing called a combine in circles around the field. It cuts off/scoops up all the grain from the wheat that's been growing in said field. Once it's bin is full. Farmer A stops to dump the grains in to the back of a grain truck or trailer where Farmer B (or the unlucky wife of Farmer A who doesn't have anyone else to drive the truck) is waiting.

Once the truck is full, Farmer B drives the grain to town to the elevators to have it weighed, tested, and stored until it's time to be sold.

This happens over and over and over until it's too dark to see or you run out of field. Exciting huh?

Look at this old house that's on one of the places we were cutting.

It's so creepy and interesting to me to try and picture what the house would have looked like freshly built by some pioneer and what the lives of the people living there would have been like. One of the neat things about living out here is that there is such a connection to the past. Even with all the changes our world has seen in recent history, we're really not that far away from the pioneer days when everything was new and wild. Do I sound like a PBS special?

Anyway, that's pretty much harvest. Kinda glad it's over so I can have my husband back. Of course, he's not taking a break. No. There's always some kind of work to do...

...farmers.

Independance Day

Well, if you know me, you know I love holidays. Any holiday basically turns me into a 5 year old, and the 4th of July is no different. I love red, white and blue decorations. I love grilling burgers (ok making Ty grill burgers). I LOVE fireworks. Unfortunately, it was pretty rainy the morning of the 4th this year, so the show we'd planned to go see was canceled. So, we went home after church and had our own celebration. You can shoot your own fireworks in Sylvan (which is completely new to me) so I got a few kiddie ones from the local stand, and we had some fun. We had these snake things... and Snap 'n Pops. Anna couldn't throw them hard enough, so she stomped them.

We also had some smoke bombs that were a pretty big hit.

Anna got to "help" light them. Then she'd run away, sometimes missing most of the action. Then she'd turn around and run back through the smoke.

Abby had fun too. She spent alot of time "writing" on the patio with the sidewalk chalk. Funny how loud noises still bother Anna, but don't phase Abby in the slightest.

We did have a few cool ones with sparks and stuff, but the big show came that night when neighbors on both sides of us put on their own little shows. Both of them had to have had hundreds of dollars in fireworks, and they pretty much offset them so one was firing while the other was setting up. Ty and I took our lawn chairs out into the street between the two and enjoyed the show. Not a bad way to spend a holiday.

Of course, the reason we have something to celebrate is because of God's gift of America and it's dream. Here's a quote from George Washington to his army. I think it may be just as relevant today as it was then: "The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their houses and farms are to be pillaged and destroyed, and themselves consigned to a state of wretchedness from which no human efforts will deliver them. The fate of unborn millions will now depend on God, on the courage and conduct of this army. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of brave resistance, or the most abject submission. We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die."

God bless America!

Inter-mezzo

I interrupt our pictorial recap to bring you this... A few weeks ago, I noticed this nest. Ok. Actually I didn't notice it. Stacey did, and I was amazed that I'd never seen it before since it's right on the back corner of our house in plain sight. Anyway, I've been watching it now, and the other day, I caught Mommy bird sitting still as a stone on her precious nest. Then today, I saw this...

Baby birds! Anna and I watched the little guys bob their heads around for quite a while. Anna was especially excited when she yelled, "Hi, baby birds!" and one of them stuck it's head up and moved it's mouth like it was talking back. How fun to see life and nature occurring right around you!

Ty's response to the news: "Great. As soon as they're outa there, that nest is history."

Where's the love?

Go Sluggers!

Well, Anna had her last tball game of her 1st season on the Sylvan Sluggers. She absolutely loved it, and I don't think she's realized that there aren't going to be anymore games. Here she is with her friend (and future classmate) Tyra before the last game.She actually got to field a ball for the first time at this game! She's tried at other games but the bigger kids would always beat her to the ball. This time the coach made sure the big kids knew it was Anna's turn, and she ran right up on the ball and threw it over to 1st. It's insane how proud I felt at that moment. It was great to see her little face light up as she realized she'd done it, and I love that she turned to wave at us when she heard us cheering.
After the game, in true kiddie sport fashion, everyone got medals. So glad she got a chance to play, and that she loved it so much.

Still catching up

Well, I've got some catching up to do. So much has happened in the last week or two that I haven't had time to record it all for you. Our friends came to visit from Texas. We had fun pretending to drive a tractor.

Playing in the pool

And just playing

Four kids and 3 adults in our little house was pretty cramped, but we never got tired of each other.

I love friends like that!

Next up tball and 4th of July pics...