Wednesday, September 01, 2010

He Said, She Said....

A blog I'm fond of reading nearly every day, often has posts titled "He Said, She Said" with super cute/hilarious things her kids have said. Here's my take on it (I want to write these down, so I don't forget them! I *should* scrapbook them, and maybe one day I will-but right now finding the time to blog is about all I have!!)

-As I was sitting in the ER waiting room about a month ago with a broken nose (b/c of a crash collision between my nose and a goat's hard head, AS she was jumping up on the milk stand, uninvited!) sweet Tabitha turns and looks at me, deep concern in her big brown eyes, and says "Mama, what are they going to DO to your nose?" I replied "I don't know Sweetie". Wyatt pipes up, with all the enthusiasm of a 3 year old "I know, I know! They're gonna CUT IT OFF!!"

-Sitting at supper one night, while everyone was pouring Ranch dressing on their mashed potatoes (a habit Leroy told me was really weird, until he tried it-now the whole family passes the Ranch dressing for their potatoes, except when I've made gravy...) Five year old Tabitha, in a blond moment, asks "what kind of Ranch Dressing is this, Mommy?" Three year old Wyatt, in a matter of fact tone says "Ranch!!" Tabitha "oh, yeah...."

-At the church, waiting for Great Grandma and Grandpa Ulmer to get their photos done, (while Jesse introduced the guinea pig he'd brought along to everyone!!) Tabitha admired a lady's shoes. (5 year old Tabitha thinks anything with even a slight heel classifies as "high heels" and she is *very* impressed by high heels!) So Tabitha says to the lady "I like your high heeled shoes!!" The lady replies "why thank you! But they're not really that high." Jesse jumps in "that's ok, neither is Tabitha!"

-Our pastor just came back from a summer long trip to Germany. Normally clean shaven, it looked like he was beginning to grow a mustache and beard. At the children's talk, given near the very start of the service, after the Pastor had greeted the children, Jesse asked him (very loudly, of course!) "What is that (gesturing in a circle) around your mouth?" This childish candor (luckily!) dissolved the whole congregation into laughter, and Pastor graciously explained that it was a "souvenir" from his trip!

-When the veterinarian specializing in horse dentistry came to work on our horses' teeth recently, the kids had lots of questions for him. One of them was "why do you need warm water in your buckets? Why not cold water?" He patiently explained that he used the water to rinse out the horses' mouths, kind of like when they go to the dentist and are given a cup of water to rinse out their own mouths. He went on to explain that if he used cold water, the shock of it hitting their mouth would wake them up, despite the sedative needles he'd given them. The kids took all this in. And then, after he was done working on Faith, Tabitha's sweet little pony, we left her stand in the stocks a bit, to wake up from the drugs. Tabitha impatiently asked why we weren't letting Faith out. We explained that she was still really sleepy from the drugs and needed time to wake up. "Well, WHY don't you just squirt cold water in her mouth then?" she wanted to know!!

-one of Early bird Jacob's favourite words is "up, up, UP" as he enthusiastically smacks you in the head in the morning.

-A more recent word, (and this is too sweet) is "Hi!" said with extreme enthusiasm. This was even sweeter when Leroy came home after a day shift last week, and Jacob scampered right over to Daddy, repeating "Hi, Hi, HI!!" in an absolute frenzy of excitement, arms up, wanting to be hoisted to Daddy's big arms and great height!!

These are what made me smile in the past month!

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Capital Ex!

The kids and I went to the Capital Ex fair on Monday. (Yes, just me and 4 kids 7 yrs and younger!!) We did the same thing last year, and had SO-MUCH-FUN!! They were incredibly well behaved (I told them that if they weren't that we would leave immediately and never come back-that there were people out there who may try to take them and that they shouldn't be running around and acting up.) They did great, helping each other, and not whining when I said no to some things. I had budgeted $200.00 for us to spend.
My friend Becky generously lent me her chariot stroller this year, so I didn't come home with an incredibly painful shoulder like last year, from packing around all our stuff (diaper bag with spare clothes, water bottles, snacks, snacks, snacks-my defense against all the expensive food at the fair, and also against having cranky kids!). When we got there, I made sure to slap a "Safe Parent House" sticker with my cell phone number on the backs of all the kids (even remembered to write down my cell number before we left-not phoning myself too often, I never remember what it is!)
Jesse took Tabitha on the bumper cars first-they had a blast!! Wyatt was still too short for it, but he happily hung out with me, snacking. Then all 3 of the older kids went on the hampton motorbikes ride-all 3 loved it! Next was a racecar thing that went in a circle, and zipped especially fast around the corners. Jesse and Tabitha took Wyatt on that one-it was so much fun to see my kids all going together on the rides!! Ditto about the caterpillar roller coaster-I wasn't going to let Wyatt go on that one (heck-I didn't want to go on that one!) but he was ok in height for it, and sat happily sandwiched between his older brother and sister and was happy and excited when he got off-so my apprehension was for nothing! :) I visited with a grandma while the kids were on some of the rides. She had brought her 3 yr old grandson. They were wrapping up a 10 day stretch of fun, visiting Drumheller and other places, while his mom recovered at home from a c-section with his new baby sister. The grandma told me she wasn't looking forward to having to take him home and go back to work. I thought it was pretty sweet. Later, she came and found us, and handed us the remainder of their tickets, as they were going home (the grandson looked pretty tired out!). Just something I found really nice.

We just had to visit the interactive farm thing, which my kids LOVE to visit every year, even though they get to milk real goats/cows and pick real eggs at home. It's a fun little trip through anyways. I was sad to hear the man say that it should probably be Jesse and Tabitha's last year to go on the mini tractors, 'cause they love them so much.
And then on to the real pony ride. I felt kind of dumb paying for them to sit on ponies at a fair when they can ride real horses at home whenever they want for free! But it was fun to pet the cute horses-Jesse rode Scout, Tabitha rode Tinkerbell, and Wyatt got Skittles.
Then to get more tickets. We kind of ran into a snag there, b/c Jesse was apparently licking out a cheese n crackers container as we were walking there, and got separated. It is an awful feeling to look up and not see one of your children anywhere, in just the blink of an eye. I tried to keep calm, and Tabitha and I looked around. Finally, we spotted a gentleman in a lineup close by, with his cell phone out, and Jesse's back to him, showing him the "safe house sticker" on his back. For some reason, I hadn't heard my cell phone ring (maybe it was the blood rushing in my ears!), but I raced over to collect him, and thanked the people for phoning. Jesse turned to me and said "Mommy-I know exactly why we get those stickers on our back now!!"
Then off for more rides!! We went on the carousel for the second time. I stand by Wyatt when he is on the horses, and there was an empty one beside us. Jacob was practically climbing out of my ergo to get on the one next to us! So I pulled him out and sat him on-his smile was a mile wide!!
Then we went on the flying bees. Wyatt was just going to go on with Jesse and Tabitha, but the operator said he was too small. So I asked if I could take baby Jacob on, so I could go on with Wyatt. The guy said "yes", so on we went. Now, I don't like heights that much, especially not on a ride zipping around at a good clip in a circle. But the things we'll do for our kids! The ride started, and I grabbed (what I thought was a clutch bar) and held tight, pushing it forward as I did so, trying to keep from freaking out and scaring my kids. Higher and higher we rose in the air. I wondered why our bee was deciding to stay so high in the air. The others were going up and down, and one even stayed down. Well, I managed to survive (the kiddy ride), and get off, when my oldest son informs me that the bar was to make the bees go up and down. Ugh!! What a forehead smacking moment!! :) Jesse tried to win a motorbike at one of those ball gun booths. I didn't want to let him do it, but he was SO SURE he could do it, and he had his heart set on on of those things. He did manage to knock a couple balls over, but not all. And I couldn't afford for him to keep trying. I felt so bad for him, but even then, he accepted it and didn't whine. Then onto another trip round the carousel so I could watch Jacob light up again!!
Then over to a food booth so we could buy a ginormous bag of cotton candy, as we always do. And then inside for a bathroom break (you know, with all the money Northlands spent on that new addition to the building, they could have added more bathrooms! Oy!). Then a trip round inside. The kids had a blast at the butterfly exhibit-Tabitha had sticky hands from eating cotton candy, and so the butterflies were intent on licking her!! Bless her, she thought this was cool!! We bought a container of caterpillars, so we could watch them turn into painted lady butterflies. Jesse was especially enthused about that! Then a stop at Toddler town square-Jacob LOVED all the little tikes slides and the little rockers, and the crayons.... next, we toured around more-bought a cute book about what looks like a black lab titled "Piddle Diddle, Stuck in the Middle". We also got free yogurt, and free juice boxes-that was pretty cool.
The kids wanted to do some of the paid rides inside, like the go carts. I wasn't sure if Wyatt was old enough, but they said so long as he could operate the hand pedals, which I knew he could.... Well he got in there, and he was doing great, just zipping around, even faster than Jesse, for the longest time. Then, he kinda lost control, running into a lineup of parked go carts, which had the domino effect of hitting an operator and knocking him down! I saw this all as in slow motion, but couldn't say anything fast enough to stop it!! The other ride operator took Wyatt out of the cart and brought him to me saying "I think he kind of scared himself". I thought to myself "nope, I think he kind of scared you!"
Then to Candy Mountain. I wished we had more money to spend there, but as it was the kids each were fairly satisfied with a "unicorn horn" sucker. Except I forgot to buy one for Jacob, who crawled out of the stroller and helped himself to a sucker at a lolly tree, as if to make his point that I'd forgotten him!! So I paid for that too, and then it was finally time to call it a day. We'd stayed much longer than last year, probably b/c I wasn't so tired and sore from packing everything along. It was a fairly quiet ride home, and we didn't get home 'til well after 10:00 pm. I liked how they put the kiddie rides right in front of the expo center this year, and how they had toddler square inside, where it was cool. I think next year we'll buy the ride passes for the older two, (possibly for Wyatt too, we'll see how tall he is then.).
All in all, it was a really, really worthwhile trip!! Lots of fun memories!

Monday, July 05, 2010

Stuck situation....

I have a keyhole milking stand, designed by my husband, so that I could milk both the hornless goats I have, and, especially, the horned goats that I seem to keep adopting. (Depending on the design, large horns can be a problem with some milk stands. But not my top loading one, with the sliding dowel fastener at the top). It works wonderfully with my dairy does' graceful, slender necks. In addition to using it for milking, I use it for other situations where I need to restrain the goats, such as trimming their hooves. It's great, because it has a box upfront for feed, so that helps to distract them. Today, I put my big buck, Nick up there. I don't usually keep bucks back, but Nick is an exceptionally nice guy, and very handsome. He's been up there many times before, without incident. But, he's getting older, and his neck has thickened some. So-he puts his head wayy down in the keyhole to try and get the very last licks of his grain as I am trimming his hooves for him. As I finish up trimming his hooves, Wyatt comes into the barn and sidles over to watch. I slide the dowel aside so Nick can lift his head-but he doesn't. I then realize-he can't!! I'm lifting and pulling and he's stuck!! I send Jesse on the run for a hammer, (intending to take the stand apart, if I had to!) and continue to try to figure out what I'm going to do with this stuck goat!! Finally-and before Jesse got back with the hammer-Nick and I worked together and managed to get him out of his jam. As the goat jumped down from the stand, seeming to be none the worse for wear, and my heart rate began to slow, Wyatt looked up at me and said "Mommy-you better not milk dat goat again!" Good advice, buddy! I'll have to keep that in mind!!

Saturday, July 03, 2010

Candy-lions, Ram-Dodges and Jakey....

My kids have some interesting terms for things. They do know the real terms, but like to add their own flair. Kids after my own heart!! Some of Miss Tabitha's are: Flushies (Slushies)-she knows they're slushies, but seems to think Flushie fits it better-gives me the giggles everytime she mentions it!! She also tells people that we have a "slappy" fence. In case you were wondering, she is actually referring to our electric fence, the shocks from which I have often referred as "zaps". Our neighbors have a dog named "Ronan". Tabitha refers to her as "Rodent". And just yesterday, she came in with a new one-she brought me a dandelion, and said "here's a Candy-lion, just for you, Mom!!"

Jesse calls Dodges with the Ram symbol on them "Ram Dodges". And he is still a fervent Ford-Man!! In the parking lot at Superstore yesterday, the butcher was leaving work, and we happened to be parked next to his minivan. A conversation was struck up, and it quickly turned to vehicles. Jesse told the guy that we had a Ford minivan and he had a "Ram-Dodge". The guy said, "yeah, but they're pretty much the same thing, right?" Jesse quickly put him straight, stating "no, Ford is better. But I still like your Ram Dodge sticker. It's nice". The (bemused, I'm sure!!) butcher then left.

Tonight, after dinner, Leroy took Jacob for a bit. Wyatt has newly christened Jacob with his own nickname (to Jesse, Tabitha was Tab-Tab, and we call Wyatt little Wy-Wy). Anyways, Wyatt asks me from the table, in his (super husky, sweet little 3 year olds voice)-"where's Daddy taking Jakey?" Totally melted me....

I need to print this off, so I remember these things... Would love to scrapbook them!!!

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

A Year!

From this:
To This:


in one year!! Totally unbelievable!! (there's a story about that wagon, btw-we were at a wonderful church bbq, and one of the ladies brought her kids over in the wagon. Jacob fell in love with it, and would crawl in and make noises til someone would pull him in it, at which time he would bask in the enjoyment of it all. He fought valiantly not to fall asleep, just so he could keep getting rides!! Oh-and the goat in the foreground-yeah, that's one of ours-we brought some of the entertainment! :) The hosts also had little baby chicks and a neighbors donkey to round out the petting zoo! :) )
Happy first birthday, dear baby Jacob!

Monday, March 22, 2010

Ford Man!

The other day, Jesse brought me a collection of toy trucks. He said "we sure have a lot of Fords, Mom!" (Daddy is a Ford man, and all our vehicles are Ford made, and even the tractor is a New Holland, which is affiliated with Ford, and the engine in the bale wagon is from a Ford-you get the idea!)
Anyways-sure enough-the vehicles he'd brought to me all had that characteristic little blue circle with "Ford" written in the middle. I agreed with him "you sure do have a lot of Fords!" He extolled the virtues of his little vehicles, then went quiet for a moment, fiddling with the toys. Then he looked up at me and said "so why do they make Dodges?"

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Parcel forwarding!

I have discovered an awesome service!! It is called Peacock's Parcels They're a mail combining/forwarding service located in California. You have your US purchases sent to them, and, for a very small fee, they combine it all in one package (they will also hold til you request shipping) and send it to you, allowing you to save postage, as well as buy from people who otherwise wouldn't ship to Canada. This is especially great for books, as you can often get free shipping on them to anywhere in the States, but shipping can be-well, SCARY to Canada!
They are a terrific company, I've used their services for a few months now, and I really enjoy working with them-they are funny, VERY service oriented, and very fast, and super reasonable too!! I'm not getting any kickbacks for posting this :) I just really want to share, in case it helps someone else-and because this company deserves any great exposure available!! :) So if you like to buy on Abebooks, or Amazon, or Ebay, or Hyenacart, or whatever-check them out! :)

Friday, March 12, 2010

What not to do...

Warning-possibility of TMI (too much info) in this post
It is a really, really bad idea when you have a bad case of mastitis, to just pop a couple of advil and continue on your mad dash of a day, instead of going to bed to rest and nurse baby and heal. You may have limited success, like hitting the feed store to get much needed feed for the critters, and delivering some nice fresh farm eggs to your Grandma, but it will get you in the end-like when your son's fiddle instructor sits down to work with him, after having spent some time tuning his little fiddle, and you suddenly get a feeling like you are about to crash, and then have to interrupt the teacher, who, seeing your sheet white face, and,thinking quick, grabs the baby from you and helps you to the bathroom, where you feel too weak to even throw up, and nearly black out, while she dials your husband to come get you. You do eventually throw up, and then lay shaking on the couch in the waiting room for your husband to drive you home while the other student's mother, who is pregnant, holds your baby for you. The short 20 minute ride home will feel like the longest in your life, as you alternate feeling too hot and freezing cold and hurting and aching all over like crazy.
I am much better now though, thank you, and Leroy did do an awesome job tending the kids, critters, and house while I lay in bed. Sorry to have given everyone a scare though!!

Monday, March 01, 2010

Babies....


Pictured here:
Tinkerbelle (the little goat), Snowy (white lamb), Starlight (black headed lamb).

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Birthday continues....

Tonite we had supper at my brothers. My sister in law cooked one of my favouritest meals-Teriyaki Chicken Toss, from Sandi Richard's "Life's on Fire: Cooking for the Rushed" (though she didn't know I adored the recipe at the time! :) ) She also made me the coolest, cutest sewing machine cake!! THEN-they unveiled the big surprise-my brother, who is as sweet and thoughtful as he is clever, had conspired with the rest of my family (Mom, Dad, and Sister) to come up with most of the money needed so he could build me a (much needed!!) new computer, after my old one had finally pretty much given in!!
I'm feeling even more loved than ever-THANK YOU EVERYONE!! :)

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Happy Birthday...To me!!

Today kicks off my last year in my 20's!! Everyone seemed to have plans for me this year!
I went to Grandma Bailey's for tea and cake with my "Auntie-who-shares-my-birthday" (Auntie Mary Lee! :) ) They both spoiled me rotten! :)
Then-some good friends had asked the previous week if they could come visit on Wednesday. Forgetting it was my birthday, I said sure. Then, regrettably, I had to phone and cancel, because Mom was planning to watch (ALL) the kids for me so I could have the day to myself. I said "I'm sorry-I forgot it was my birthday!" She (you know who you are!) said "We didn't-we were going to surprise you with a cake!" Oh! So, in stumbling around I'd messed up their surprise! It still made me feel soo good though-what awesome friends to even think like that!! :)
Then my sister in law phoned to invite me for supper-but Leroy was already planning on taking me out for dinner on my birthday-so she agreed to have us over the next nite!
Then Leroy decided to surprise me and take the day off to spend with me. The night before he'd already surprised me with a blizzard cake from Dairy Queen (which I'd been jonesing for!! :) ) Good thing he'd done it the nite before-or I'd have baked my own cake! LOL!!
He took me out to Original Joe's pub for dinner-I'd never been, b/c no kids are allowed-and how often am I ever anywhere without my kids? LOL! Dinner was awesome!! We both had burgers, and I got the dill dip for my fries-yummy!! Mom kept all the kids except Jacob overnite-we stopped and picked him up!!
All in all, it was a terrific birthday-I got spoiled rotten! :)

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Woman on the edge...

is what you get when, against repeated requests to leave things in the box "'til we're ready to set them up", your oldest son dumps a box of Lego Farm, lego combine, lego tractor, and Knex tractor/harrows, with a dash of Playmobil for good measure-ALL TOGETHER!! (Please ignore the fact that this woman was probably more than a few sandwiches short of a picnic to begin with, seeing as she was the numb nut who was responsible for the kid having all that stuff to mix together!! Oiy!!)


After having my mini breakdown, I decided that today for school we will be working on sorting skills.....


Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Guinea Piglets!!

Ok-technically "pups", but I think guineapiglets sounds cuter! LOL! Are these not some of the sweetest lil things you've ever seen? How old do ya think they are? A week? Two or three maybe? Nope!! These are just hours old!! Yep! Baby guinea pigs are born fully furred, eyes open, running around! They were just born this morning!! (I've been worse than the kids, running to check mama piggie every morning! :) )Still-it was such a surprise to carefully lift her hidey place and have an explosion of piglets go everywhere!!





Here's a pic of their mama, a day before she had them: (if it felt like a long wait to us, I bet it felt even longer to her!!)

Jesse loves his guinea piggies! :)

Monday, January 04, 2010

Another reason to love Playmobil....

Take one creative, excited little birthday girl, one frazzled, completely behind mama, a chocolate cake (thankfully baked the night before!), some frosting, and a bunch of horse-y themed Playmobil, and you get.....






Good job, Tabby!! Happy 5th birthday!!

Friday, January 01, 2010

Happy New Year!

We had a good one-even though we were all in bed before midnight! LOL!
Although it was such a freezing cold night, we took the kids to the early fireworks in Stony Plain. The only warm place there was in the bathrooms!! Luckily for Jacob, he was snug as a bug in my Amautik! Lots of good things to eat there-hotdogs, hot chocolate, popcorn and mini doughnuts! Us mom's were like baby birds, popping pieces of food into the kids mouths, so they didn't have to take off their mitts to eat!! One of Tabitha's friends from ballet class was there, so it was fun for her, and me too (the friend's mom is a really nice lady!) The fireworks didn't last long, but all the kids (even Jacob!) were enthralled! Then we dashed to the van, turning the heat up as high as it would go!! At home, the kids enjoyed a nice warm bath, and then crashed! Mommy and Daddy soon followed suit!!