Sportin' Some New Bling

It has been a great week on The Prairie (even though it feels like October with cold weather). The Prairie Kid has been getting to go to VBS at the local church in the mornings. He has had fun and seems to be at an age where he can go along in the institutionalized fashion that we hope our preschoolers can manage. We will go to the VBS at our church next week so he'll get plenty of VBS before summer is over!

On Wednesday night we had a family dinner at Mom and Dad's place to wish a nephew a great journey to Japan. He graduated from college this Spring and has accepted a job teaching English in Japan. Grandpa got out some special presents he's been collecting over the years for each of his 15 grand kids (and I told him that we'd try to produce some more to keep him collecting!)

The Prairie Kid was thrilled with the special present...here he is showing it off

Here is the special present...

And he just recently inherited the sweatshirt (which is from Grandpa's ranch) from a cousin

Check out the attitude!

Two weeks ago I was mourning the loss of nap time. All of a sudden The Prairie Kid was no longer napping. I have decided that it is healthy for everyone (okay, for me) that he have some "room time" when he used to nap so that I can be a sane mom. So, yesterday he played toys in his room and 45 minutes later I slowly opened the door to the room, which had silence on the other side, and found this...

I like VBS...it wears out my kid!

The Universe Declares Your Majesty

Here, hit play if you'd like before you read on...

God Of Wonders - Third Day

The sky did something strange the other night. I love how God arranged the atmosphere, jet streams, clouds and light to show His power and creativity. He is a God of order yet loves to surprise His children.

This was a picture taken straight off the back deck

And I literally turned my body 45 degrees to the north and this was the next frame...
Amazing.

Thank You Lord for showing Your majesty through Your creation. What a treat.

Prairie Vet Clinic

We didn't want to open for business today but we had no choice. Okay, we had a choice, we could have taken the business to town but we saved $200 to do almost exactly what they would have. I am not stomached for this though.
So, I am blissfully making Eggs Florentine for lunch when The Prairie Daddy came home. "How long has Jack been untied?" "All morning. He came and went and brought in a dead prairie dog earlier." "He's all cut up." "WHAT?"

I went out with The Prairie Daddy and saw the injury. Yikes! I mentioned the vet first and then we decided we could doctor him on our own. It is handy to have a barn with animal medical supplies. The Prairie Daddy called the vet and went over with him what to do. After lunch we all headed to the barn.

WARNING: The following pictures are graphic!

This is what Jack looked like before:

You cannot really tell but at the bottom there was a lot of loose skin and it was a huge flap.

We figure he was running (maybe chasing a rabbit) and caught something like barbed wire or a nail when going through a fence. It caught at the top left of the wound and just ripped a huge chunk of hide, obviously. Thankfully there wasn't any damage to the muscle or even the membrane over the muscle...except hoards of grass seeds that had to be plucked out.

I started to get light headed and a bit upset when he was really fighting the work being done. Thankfully The Prairie Daddy had lidocaine and was able to numb the whole area to get everything cleaned up.

We had to cut the flap of skin off, so the wound looks bigger but will heal up now without major scarring. That's why they wouldn't have left the skin or stitched.

There is some spray that makes an artificial scab and will help the healing process. It won't matter if he licks it either. We gave him some baby aspirin and he's happy that we're done messing with him.

It's raining like crazy outside this afternoon so Jack's happy to be curled up on his pad taking a nap. I think he'll have to be inside or tied up for awhile now. I sure hope this will slow him down a bit.

Waited All Year

It is one of my favorite days of the year. I love this day. It has become as traditional as a holiday for us. It is Our Day at the county fair. I say "Our Day" because we always go on the Saturday of fair week. We start out at the Buyer's Lunch for the FFA/4-H Livestock Sale. It is a great lunch put on by the kids and they are wonderful servers. I don't know how many times we were asked if we needed another drink! Here is The Prairie Kid enjoying the chocolate ice cream...

Then we peruse the sale catalogue and see at what point in the next 3 1/2 hours we need to be in the sale barn. Meanwhile, we glance through the exhibit halls and finally give in to taking The Prairie Kid to the rides. Here is a picture of the Open Class for Cake Decorating. Open Class means anyone...so adults can enter this since the 4-H class is just for the kids. I was sad because my friend's daughter and I didn't know about the sign up process and missed out this year. The deadline was while their family was in Montana and we had no clue that we missed it. They've had a terribly busy summer and I don't know that we would have had the time that she needed. Next year...

Here is The Prairie Daddy checking out the hay that was entered (aren't you surprised that I look at cakes and he looks at hay?)

On the way to the rides we stopped off at this air toy for The Prairie Kid

The Prairie Kid was really brave, excited and independent about the rides this year. And he scored big time! We only bought him 10 tickets but a guy handed The Prairie Daddy another set because he was leaving. So The Prairie Kid got his fill of rides. He wanted to start out on the motorcycles, which were last year's fave.

I love this picture!

And he went through this "ride" on his own...I have no idea what was inside...

And he was chased by girls!

And of course he chose the pink car on this ride...his favorite color!

That horse doesn't look very kid friendly!

And he LOVED this...and was Mr. Brave...it was high up in the air and he just conquered it like a true soldier...3 times!

Here he found a group of boys to go on this ride with because

he sure didn't want Mom and Dad to go on any rides with him!

And then...we ate, and ate and ate our favorite "fair foods"...pizza, tacos, homemade soda, nachos, bbq pork, funnel cake, sno-cones, and cotton candy.

AND THEN....

It was DERBY TIME!!! YAY!!! This is my self-proclaimed "Redneck Day" of the year. I LOVE THE DEMOLITION DERBY! I am like a kid at Christmas...revved up, rubbing my hands together, anticipating the madness...

And this was the BEST derby we've yet to see. The drivers were awesome! The cars were durable! The rounds were long! The excitement never ended!

Do you get a sad/funny feeling at the end of the day on your birthday? The one that says "man, I have to wait a whole year for this again"? Well, that is the feeling I have at the end of Our Day at the fair. I suppose it wouldn't be near as exciting if we did it more often (although I seriously think I could eat a few more funnel cakes and watch more derbies!)

I did have "fair hangover" yesterday and it hurt! Tired, bloated, and a nice headache. But it was worth it!

Mommy Denial

We went to the birthday party for The Prairie Kid's "first friend" last night. I can't believe (and definitely don't want to accept) that our boys are turning 4 this summer. These friends of ours lived locally until Dec 07 and then moved to California for over a year. Now they are back in the area but live about an hour away. It was nice to get to leave the ranch early and relax at the birthday party. I ate way too much and enjoyed every bit of it.

Here is a little reminiscing about their friendship...

Our first visitors at the house just hours after coming home from the hospital...The Prairie Kid is one day old and William is on month...

Here they are playing with another friend at small group...The Prairie Kid is 7 months old here And right around 1 year...

So, last night we celebrated William's 4th birthday. Sigh. Here is the group of cuties that played and played and played. They're just waiting to take turns to try to decimate the pinata.

Here is The Prairie Kid's turn...

Swing, Batter-Batter, Swing

But no one could break it so they resorted to pulling the strings and releasing the "trap door"

And the race is on!

Refilling The Tank

Whew! First cutting (for the most part) is OVER! Hallelujah! This Prairie Mama needs her husband! Call me crazy, but up to 16 hour days, day after day after day just isn't my cup of tea! I kept myself busy and tried my best to rely on my Father to pull me through but those last few days were a struggle! My tank was empty.

And now it is time to refill. Woo-Hoo!

I did grab some pics from the backyard of The Prairie Daddy baling hay. We've had some beautiful evenings around here lately.

More Estrogen Please

Last night was Girl's Night Out. I have been so testosterone surrounded at home (even the dog is a boy!) and lonely with the hay season keeping The Prairie Daddy out so much that this was good medicine for my soul. We hired babysitters and left our kiddos and menfolk and here we are all happy to be soon getting in our cars and heading off into the wild blue yonder...or driving to town.

Two of the crew weren't in this first pic but met up with us later.

We went out for dinner and had a great time talking like only a group of adult-starved moms know how to do. And then it was time to head to Rockstar Cowgirl.

Now you need to imagine 8 women walking into a bead shop to make jewelry...it was like kids in a candy store. "Ooooh, ahhhh, I like this. I want that. Don't tell my husband." It was bliss.

We "saddled up" our bar stools and went to town. Actually, I should say they went to town...I was the simple, plain jane of the bunch by far! You'll have to wait until the end to see my creation.

It takes awhile to decide on a color scheme, beads, etc. There was lots of meandering around staring at walls...bead covered walls.

And then it was off to work...

Okay, I need to you take a deep breath...brace yourself on something so that my wild colors and bold design don't knock you over...
Yep, white. I chose white. And the black beads on my board are not for the creation I made, they are the bracelet I was already wearing that night. Oh, and I didn't even make a necklace...I just made a bracelet and two pair of earrings...all in white. I know, I know, I am so exciting!

What was really exciting was when one of my friends accidentally spilled her gorgeous creation off two strands of necklace wire and the beads danced furiously across the floor...and then many rushed to help rescue the scattered art...

...and then she had to start all over. : (

But we did get a picture in all of our new creations that were covered with estrogen and love.

Here are my final creations...

It was a great night and such a break from a preschool-filled (and now sometimes high school-filled) testerone dominant, Prairie Daddy-deprived home. I am so blessed by my boys but girls, when can we do it again?