Reserve Champion Poland China

Matthew was very pleased to win Reserve Champion Poland China this afternoon. I was happy for him as well. He worked pretty hard this summer taking care of all the animals while his family flitted here and there and everywhere. The last two weeks he has done quite a bit in the line of chores. He said he would do the project again as it is pretty easy overall.


The boys turkeys won blue ribbons so that was better than last year. THe judge was pretty tough in poultry so they should be pleased. We know what we did wrong with the broilers this year so if they want to do better next year (yes, I think they will do it all again) then they know what they need to do to get back where they were last year. I am sure with Stefan being older that the project will be better as the naggin mom can at least have a little more time to access how things are going.

Anna and Micheala hung out together. She and Micheala were 'friends' as little people or rather her mom and I were until her mom moved. (We're still friends, we just don't get to spend time together) THey get together every summer and boy did they have fun this year. Micheala is a very nice young lady and I was pleased to spend time with her. The time was too short really and she goes back to South Carolina tomorrow. Bummer.

I still have HT posts to do so perhaps later I will get to that.

4H fair 2007

So far so good. We are cheerfully, casually surviving. I thought I better post something about the fair to keep the relations on top of things.

Anna:

Honor group sewing (grand champion in her parents eyes)
Reserve Champion fine arts in her division
Reserve Champion misc. crafts her division

Erik:
Reserve Grand Champion beekeeping
Red ribbon entomology (that is third place)

Matthew
blue ribbon beekeeping

Martin
Champion fine arts in his divion (so proud and pleased he is)

Cecilia and Benjamin are too young and their mom forgot to get their mini 4H stuff done or turned in - oops.

High School Chums

I had a great visit with my high school friend Jeanie last week on the way to and from Higher Things. Jeanie was one of my bridesmaids and she always wanted to marry someone like Charley. Well......she did. Alex is a hoot. Both have a love for the outdoors, dinking around with their projects and......both families can feel at ease with each other and the lack of trim and strange piles of stuff here and there in the yard. I am certain they both would have been placed on Ritalin if they had been born 20 years later. Both cute husbands laugh at the oddities of their property and their nervously giggling wives. Alex collects outboard motors and his friends cast off chain saws. He has more chain saws then my husband (don't get jealous Charley). Alex and Charley MUST get together to pool their ideas too. They met once at our 20th HS reunion and talked the whole time. If only Chicago weren't in between us I am sure there would be more road trips. Their property is fantastic! They are in the middle of no where, with roads that are well built, a town nearby that brews beer and wine, beautiful country side and neighbors who are far, far away from them. Neighbors are nice but so is space.

THeir kids were great too. David is 9 and couldn't remember Stefan was a boy most of the time but that is ok. He had fun holding her.....uh....him. Their Matthew turned 4 while we were there. He was so much like Benjamin it made me wonder if we really are unique or are all four year old boys pretty much the same. Anna and I sort of stared at him and kept muttering "it's Benjamin.....he's here"

Alex gave Erik his old Cabella's catalogue and Erik has placed his first order. It would be great to send Charley and Alex on a real adventure with the older boys and get their money's worth out of all their cute outdoor equipment. Jeanie and Alex are headed for the Boundary Waters this coming weekend. They stay in the same area for two weeks I think and go fishing etc in the area. That sounds like fun too.

Till next time.......

Back again

The kids and I had a fun trip to Higher Things. I didn't get a chance to fill out my evaluation form but will try to email my thoughts to the powers that be later. Despite a few behavior issues from a few attendees I do think all went well. I was itching to play in the brass choir but that would have been sort of tricky with Stefanopolis. Plus I realized while listening to them warm up that my horn mouth piece was in the purse that was stolen earlier this summer. Rats!!!!!! Off to the Woodwind and the Brasswind with my horn to buy a new one. I think I need to and want to practice regularly and be able to play on the drop of a hat if my phone rang and was asked. I miss my horn.

I will tell about the details of the conference soon. Today we took the chickens and turkeys to the fair. Tonight we will go see how the fair projects did. We are SOOOO not worried about anything this year. There has been too much going on in the line of stress and travel to really care about how things go and.....and.....if we do well. The kids seem to just be going through the motions and waiting for time in between to do things like read Harry Potter, sew, and goof off with their friends. Charley is pleased with how things are going so that is good too.

Maybe I will go and take a nap.......

Taking off for awhile

We leave this afternoon for Higher THings. For Stefan's sake and really mine, we are going sort of slowly. Tonight we will be near Madison at a friend from High School, Jeannie Elkins. We may be tempted to stay up all night giggling so hopefully we catch some sleep sometime this week......

Charley and the rest of the kids will be here. THere are several people 'helping' him survive. Pray for them.......

See you next week!

Got it

Dogs are good for some things. Chip finished off the ground hog......now the boys get to do another boy thing which is bury it. I don't know if there is a ground hog cemetary established here but I guess we could start one now. Maybe I will get cucumbers now.

Ground Hogs day

Yesterday was full of anticipating rain which we finally did get a pretty good amount. We went to the pool beforehand but had the hardest time getting going. My cucumber plants have been serving as a salad bar to the ground hog family under Charley's wood pile. The boys set some traps for them and.......don't read this if you are eating......found one snapped with a foot in it. YUKKKKK!!!!! Then.....they found the pest dead with........two feet still in tact. Isn't that pleasant? I think the dog finished that one off. He does it for sport and not for dinner.

So......the mama or papa ground hog was still hanging around and they set traps again and snap, they got it. It is HUGE and still under the wood pile. Matthew tried to pull it out from under and had a hold of the chain. This thing is strong. We were supposed to be meeting the Hubbards at the pool so I could tag team with her to watch both sets of kids for a longer time so I told Matthew to nail the peg back in the ground and his dad could take care of it later. Matthew was extremely frustrated that he could not pull that thing out. SO.....Charley tried after work and HE couldn't pull it out. THey caught sight of it still attached to the chain and it is the mother of ground hogs. Charley said it was no wonder Matthew couldn't pull it out seeing as he couldn't either and at the sight of it.

At the moment it is still under the wood pile. Yuk and double yuk. I have no clue what they are going to do with it but it is the source of much boy talk.

It's the little things....

that make me nuts. Big things like purses being stolen or expensive things getting broken or animals kicking the bucket generally don't make me nuts. No, those other things have not happened recently. It is the little things that make me nutso. My dear neighbors had a party and kindly gave us their left over soda. THe kids enjoyed some yesterday and did remember to ask before they indulged. THis morning I went to the check on Stefan who crawled into the kitchen and discovered that the kids had left the soda on the floor and did not screw the caps on. Well.....Stefan was having a great time in there. After he was bathed and the floor was washed (good news right?) the rest of the kiddos came down from their nests. Nothing awful happened but taking care of these little things for some reason makes me on edge and when little Stefan decides to have an itching festival it is hard for my nerves to watch and smile at these antics.

A friend and I were chuckling at how some of these details just escape people. The one detail we were laughing at was the ability to see a pattern in life such as eating at a regular hour. Is it a surprise that we eat between six and seven or do we keep fiddling with things until it dawns on us that our crazy wives are looking a little exasperated. How do the wives just smile, chuckle and overlook? Should knowing when dinner is be important? It is sort of comical in that it really isn't surprising but to have cute husbands bumping through life without realizing that it is more convenient for the dinner cooker to come when expected can sometimes raise my eyebrows. THese same cute husbands can do the most amazing things.

Last night my cute husband risked heat and itchiness to crawl in the attic and replace the attic fan. What a pain. It is done though and I am glad he can do such great things. The kids will sweat less at night and the airconditioning will not run as much. Cooler sleeping kids makes for less whining as well. Did he eat with us? No, but that is ok right?

I was also thinking about how some people eat in the twinkling of an eye, like my eldest daughter. We can have dinner on the table and our seats will barely be warm and she is done. Then there are other cute kids who eat their breakfast like there is all the time in the day and nothing at all facing them in the line of responsibility. THat is the way they eat. They have two grandpas who eat the same way and make their dear wives crazy. How can eating take so long?????? The kid I have in mind is not necessarily reading anything either. The one grandpa is. It is their personality and I guess the good part is that they will probably never be fat as taking longer to eat makes digestion go more smoothly - har, har. Now that is a deep thought!

The baby is miraculously sleeping so I better go clean the bathroom or something. The kids are outside washing pigs.......

Deep thoughts....hmmmm

Here are the deep thoughts of the day. If you call a utility company to get help because your purse was stolen and you closed your checking account to protect yourself from theft.....and.....you get ahold of someone who treats you like a crook (sp?) then hang up and try again until you get ahold of someone who knows what they are talking about and gives you a satisfactory answer. The trick is to remember to hang up and not to argue with the poorly trained employee. If the employee actually laughs with you at your stress they will probably be easier to deal with.

Second deep thought. It might be good to keep money in the mattress in case you yourself cannot get money easily. Teach critical thinking to your kids so they can figure out what the latest and greatest glitch is and then......do remember to do just one of these annoying things per day instead of thinking you can accomplish them all in one day. It is far less stressful to just deal with one headache per day then to give yourself a migraine wanting to get rid of all stressers.

Be sure you kiss your kiddos and then of course the spouse. Party hard with your family doing things like swimming, camp fires, taking your kids with you to the store and bank so you can keep your humor and.......don't forget to just try one thing at a time. THank the Lord that there are some civil human beings who understand that there are SOME honest people left in the world who are trying to get their finances in order responsibly.

How was that for deep??????

Older kids away

Anna, Erik, and their buddies Nat and Maggie are off helping at a camp for the handicapped or at least developmentally handicapped. I am not sure of the extent of their disabilities but Sandy took them there this afternoon. She said they were each paired with a camper to help through the week. I am sure this will be an experience unlike any other experience they have had. They weren't sure what to expect and I know I will be very curious to hear about it when they return.

It will be odd without the older two here. I will be spending the next week when they return with my older two and Maggie at Higher Things so I am sure I will hear all about it on the way to Minneapolis.

We spent the evening out by the campfire. Martin and Matthew roasted marshmallows and Matthew did his best to keep reading Harry Potter book five until the fire got too low to read it. I shared with Charley that Matthew's reading appetite paled in comparison to the reading nut I was as a kid. He wanted to know when I found time but quickly observed I did not have chores of the animal variety and lived in town with both parents working. When did I read????? Every chance I got. So......I sort of sympathize with Matthew's reading appetite. Oh, Charley asked what I do with my vast knowledge and I told him I use it torture him.....heh, heh, heh.....

We will try not to have too much fun while the older ones are away......

Cecilia spreading the gospel

Cecilia has been very enthusiastic about learning the catechism since she can now read it on her own. Pastor asked Erik to help her with it while she was gone. Well......she studies it on her own all the time. This morning she asked me when Pastor was going to be getting home and I gave her the news that it was still over a week away. Why I asked? She cutely and sincerely explained that she wanted to tell him what she knew about the catechism. Aaawww..... I did mention that we had two pastors so she could talk to our other pastor. SHe seemed pacified.

Last night we had a couple over who help the boys with their pig project and Cecilia brought her catechism down, plunked herself in a chair and proceeded to tell our guest everything she had been learning and was especially excited to share what she had memorized about the Sacrament of the Altar. The lady took a lot of interest and asked to see her book. She talked with Cecilia some about how all we had to do was to step outside the door and even look at a weed to see that God was the Creator of this world. So the two of them had a great talk. It was humbling to watch and listen to this six year old tell a stranger everything she knew about Jesus. How sweet is that? The lady told Cecilia that her book was a wonderful book and that everyone should read it.

I SOOO love the simplicity of little children. They say it like it is in plain language and we complicated adults stand humbled. She is looking forward to Pastor's return.......

What's wrong with my apprearance?

I have been restraining myself from posting about this but.....last night's 4-H meeting 'forces' me to chat about the issue of appearance. Anna and I went to Micheal's to get her painting framed for the fair. So......we get back to the counter and waited for someone to help us and who should appear but a tatto laden, ratty t-shirt, ear rings everywhere young man. He also had a nice sun burn with a line from where his ball cap was on his head. Ok....that was not so shocking but it did sort of add to his 'look'. Well.....being the naughty, intolerant woman that I am I started to sort of giggle nervously. I asked him something like 'are you able to help us?'. 'Uhhh....why?' says the professionally clad young man (not). 'Well" says the mom, 'you see, it is your appearance' "Uhh....what's wrong with my appearance?". says the young man in a powerful way as if to say to me that I should not have a problem with his personal expression.

So....I briefly explained with my best Cindy B. smile, that his lack of professional appearance did not lead me to believe that I could trust him with my daughter's painting. I did not give him time to respond and went on a manager hunt.

My point? Why in the world would this young man assume that he should be treated as if there was a brain upstairs? Appearance in my book speaks miles towards one's attitude toward their job. What does this have to do with 4-H? I opened my BIG mouth last night at a poultry meeting, to address (pun intended) the recent ignoring of proper attire in the animal barns - wet t-shirt, fraternizing etc. If you are representing someplace then you should dress and act accordingly. My dear friend Cindy asked what my problem was with tattoos as her dh has one. Well....I have no problem with tattoos, it is fine to have one but to dress properly for the occasion, which her husband is one of the best dressed men I know! Then she got it.

Oh.....just for giggles. We were discussing the Deaconess 'uniform' with Sandy and there was the idea of a jumper from Polly. There was also the idea of keeping the emblem on the shoulder. Sandy asked what they could do if they wanted to go sleeveless? I suggested they get a tattoo on their shoulder and that would solve the problem. So......some people should just have tattoos but they just need to be the right ones!

Cutting teeth

Stefan is definately cutting his upper teeth. Wow, yuk, and poor thing. I don't think I have ever paid attention to this in my other kids as it didn't seem to affect them. Stefan lets us know frequently when his teeth are bothering him. He is hungry and then he stops eating.....he is hungry and then he stops eating. There is a lot of crying in between.

His other new talents (?) are banging on the floor, squeeling loudly, and giving high fives. He has a particular grunt when he is excited about his oatmeal cooking which is definately different then his other noises. He sort of waves bye bye too - cute.

He is back to sleeping through the night and actually drank some rice milk from a bottle at our lovely beach escapade. Hopefully he is so easily charmed by Anna, Erik, or Maggie in the back seat of our car on the way to and from HT. Someone lost the top to our one and only bottle he likes though. Walmart, Target etc. love us.

Time to go barbaque the chicken (I can't spell anymore so I think I am going to stop apologizing for it - my brain is lost somewhere).

My Great Aunt Marion

My Aunt Marion is going to be 97, Lord willing, two days after I see her on the evening of the 23rd. I finally got ahold of my cousin and we have made arrangements to meet at Marion's the evening before the Higher Things conference. I was afraid this wasn't going to work out and I would miss the chance of seeing her but....yippee! It is working.

I have always had a fond place in my heart for Marion. She is my grandmother's sister. My favorite memories are going to her farm and visiting. Her home to me was my image of the perfect family home, atmosphere and everything. She had five kids, was as faithful a church attender as I've ever met and her kids seemed close and still do. Perhaps I was more inclined to a larger family thanks to her and her husband Leanard. Leanard died two years ago now. I loved him too. They sent the best letters to me through the years. I remember the last time I saw him, he talked a blue streak and was amazed that we had canned 200 quarts of green beans that summer. Every time I open a jar of green beans, I think of Leanard. Charley always enjoyed talking with him as well.

I remember going to my grandmother's funeral with Marion and boy could she get around. She was eighty years old that year and we drove in an older vehicle with the flip down front seat to get into the back seat. She climbed in like a teen-ager. We talked about how the liturgy was being tossed aside and how it grieved her and her husband. She was missing it at their church. I am not sure if they stayed at that church or not. I suppose I could ask her daughter. It was that conversation which stuck with me as well and I have no doubt influenced my love for the liturgy. We all pray we won't be eighty and have no liturgy to go to. Yikes.

So......I may get to see her again. She looks so much like my grandmother. It will be bittersweet to see her. Jean says she still gets around but it is exhausting and I know she wants to be with her husband. I am her sister's only granddaughter so I do suppose that means something to her. I also hold dear memories of her other sisters, Hazel and Vera. I don't remember much about Vera as she was sort of sickly but Hazel was warm and wonderful. She wrote to me faithfully. It is the end of an era.

If time allows I would not mind getting directions to my grandma's burial site. Dad's dad and sister are there as well. I have not been there ever as she died in the winter....in Minnesota. We didn't make it to the actual burial. I guess that will mean getting more directions but since we are up that way it would be worth the effort.

So.....we shall see if I see her.

Credit cards/fraud protection

I personally feel it is the credit card industry which has caused this whole identity theft problem. I remember my parents had one credit card when we were kids - I think it was a Master Card and I am not sure when they even got it but I am pretty sure there was not much use if any of such a thing. Today everyone has lots of cards or at least it seems that way. We used to get applications all the time in the mail. It seems they will give anyone a card. SO.....if they have your personal information they can try to get a card. That stinks. As I said to Nat in the comment section a person used to have to work through their personal bank before they were ever given a card and they were also expected to pay it off. Even the Horner folk at one time in married land did not pay off their card every month. Fortunately that isn't true anymore but this idea of carte blanche was created by these companies. (Yes, I am venting). Then......it is our problem to protect ourselves from someone stealing our identity. It is also our problem (which I know is obvious) to discipline ourselves to not fall into debt traps. Sigh.

Why can't they have pin numbers for every transaction. The merchant is supposed to check the signiture of every purchase. I was sort of happy when you could pay at the pump since I had small children but I would bet our parents figured out how to pay for gas inside. I started paying at the pump because of all the scary stories of your children being stolen if you left them in the car and also that you would be accused of child abuse to boot. I guess I would send my dh to get gas for the car to avoid having the kids with me. But......you don't need a pin number to use a credit card or debit card at the pump.

So the credit industry does not hold you responsible for fraudulant use. That's nice (very) but.....if they just required a pin number then this money would not be stolen from the merchants or the credit companies. Why is this so duh to me????

So there you go.....the Karin credit rant.

husband's wallets

Hey guys and gals. Since I am the paranoid type I decided to look through my dear husband's wallet last night to see if he carried his Soc. No. in there. (He was watching Macgyver) and......his cute little wallet had his SS card with my number neatly identified on the back, his blood donation card from when he lived in PA with his SS number on it, old insurance cards which also had SS numbers on them. Ahem.....cute that he still doesn't have much in it but.....it is time to clean the wallet!

I had recently switched purses so much of my 'old' stuff was out of there. I am not positive now that his SS number wasn't on one of those health cards so am now going to go through the 'protect yourself from identity theft' dance this morning. I made several of those calls last night at 11:00.

Moral of the story, clean house and carry very little identifying anything with you.

Robbed - oh bother...

Yep, you read correctly. The kids and I went to the beach today. It is our favorite beach because it is not heavily populated. Well......there is a down side to that. It is not heavily populated so robbers know they can get away with getting into people's vehicles and robbing them. I have mentioned to several people lately that the seemingly bigger things in life don't bother me and that it is the little things like whining kids that do. Ok, Stefan's episode was not little and it did bother me but that was a life or death thing. I saw the broken window and just went about the business of reporting what happened. We have already called the Visa and Discover people and my bank and fortunately there is nothing on the cards that we will be held responsible for. THe bank was fine. What puzzles me is that once they try to use it and it comes up as stolen, wouldn't they get arrested? I know where they used it and there are also supposed servelience cameras. Do I call the company? I probably will at least make an effort tomorrow.

In the funnies on Sunday there was a comment by one of the characters that real life criminals are idiots and not at all like the movies. This seems sort of idiotic to me and perhaps they will never catch the people. I did not have my Soc. number in there or anyone else's so that is a good thing.

The window on the van is being fixed tomorrow. Our friends the Hubbards were with us so they took the little kids home so they weren't blown away by the open window and they wouldn't have to deal with the glass. That was a good thing. Stephen helped me look up phone numbers on the way home to call and cancel things like my library card. I have to call them back tomorrow as we got disconnected.

So that was the adventure of the day. See how worked up I am? It is a nusiance. I also think our poor Asst. Pastor has been worried enough with worrying about the Horner's. I am sure he can handle it though. He seems rough and tough to me.

I need to find a more populated beach........

Oh....here's some things I learned. Take just your liscense to the beach and enough cash to get by. Don't leave your cell phone in the car (I didn't but I guess they do weird things with them). Also you should never carry your Soc. Number, ever. Make sure it is not on any documents that you carry. I fortunately did not have that with me either but I sure can see how that can be a big problem called identity theft.

The picture is of the Beach Tree in our yard. It is cheerfully getting a drink tonight.

Leeks and butterflies

Despite the heat and no rain I took a photo trip around the yard looking for cheerful things. I have never seen a leek bloom and thought this was pretty cool. The honey bees love it so does that mean all of our honey will taste like oniions? Actually I think it is going to taste like mint again. A chocolate company grows mint north of here and the bees head that direction. Most of them anyway.

I thought this butterfly picture came out well too. We love butterflies even though some budding entomologists collect some of them. So.....we murder butterflies. Shocking. It is raining a few little drops of rain right now. We were hoping for more. Tomorrow we are supposed to go to the beach. We shall see.......

Warped sense of humor

Sorry if the book discussion was offensive to anyone......I have a warped sense of humor. I was just visualizing clean house challenged me vs. the pristine housekeeper type knocking heads and I thought it was sort of.....giggle.....funny. Murder of course isn't funny. Don't forget to smile all you shocked people.

Beans

My goal of getting a lot of beans grown successfully has been reached.....now we have to do something with them. I have three kids out picking and I think we will get a lot of tv watched this afternoon while snapping them. I suppose if I were a romantic I would have them sit out on the lawn and snap them but frankly it is hot and snapping beans and watching tv is more fun for them. They pick them cheerfully because they know they will get to watch tv. How is that for motivation?

Cindy and I walked this morning and talked about a book she is reading (I have to get the title - I forgot) about these women in a neighborhood who live the 'perfect' life and their vans are clean, their homes are clean, they cook perfect meals and their two children are pristeenly (spelling?) dressed. Well.......one of them gets murdered. So Cindy in Cindy style thinks this is hilarious as it seems no surprise that someone might want to murder a woman who behaves this way. It is sort of a spoof on the 'perfect' American suburban life. I will let you know the title when I ask. Oh......(take no offense mom) instead of suburban 'Robots' the women are called 'Tal-bots'. (My mom is not the 'typical' Talbots shopper - she is the go in for the hunt and get a clearance bargain and she exercises proper restraint). Anyway I have never thought of 'Tal-bots' before and found that VERY amusing. I went with my mom for the 'hunt' on her birthday and I do remember wondering about these perfectly dressed women and what their life must be like.

Time to snap the beans......