The Great White Hunter

On the last day of deer season, on his 39th birthday, in 70 degree weather, Bruce shot a spike buck at the farm. This is the best picture I got of him and the deer as he was alone in the woods. He had some pretty good self portraits. (yeah, right) This deer had been field dressed so I wasn't getting in the back of the truck to take the picture! The deer has been hanging in a friends cooler and will be processed Saturday. We don't really like the roasts and hams. We do like the tenderloin fried and then grind the rest for ground venison. Which we use pretty much like ground beef in all sorts of recipes. Don't worry...if I make a meal for you I don't use the venison. Not that you could tell. Bruce is really good at cutting it up correctly so you don't get that gamey taste. There is an antlerless season for a couple weeks in December that Bruce could hunt but I think one deer will be plenty. Now we go back to cutting firewood and clearing the lane. My little lumberjacks always have a good time doing that! 

Maybe you just don't need that job...

Today it is cold, wet and icy in the Ozarks! I just read a news report that said schools and businesses were closing early if they opened at all. Here in Willard, Murfins, Casey's and Sonic are closed. I didn't hear if the schools closed or if they are having early dismissal because we had no electric!

This is what I found most interesting in reading this article..."Individual office holders and department heads will determine which of their staff members are nonessential..." Nonessential?? If you are told to go home because you are nonessential can you just decide not to show up any day of the week? I mean why wait for a snow day to not work? Don't feel bad, you really aren't that essential to this job!

Believe me, if I was still in the work force right now, I would want to be the nonessential employee! I loved snow days when I was a kid! Except my parents would never believe me that I heard on the radio that school was cancelled. We still had to get dressed and drag ourselves to the bus stop and after the bus was 15 minutes late we could go home and prove that school really was called off! Poor Jake, here he sits at the dining room table doing his school work! Don't feel too sorry for him though. When we were having 70 degree weather the week before Thanksgiving we took a snow day then! :)

Yaba Dabba Doo!

This weekend there was a marathon of the Flintstones cartoons. My kids had never seen the Flintstones before. It was quite fun watching with them for the very first time and the things they got...like the newspaper made out of rock. I forgot about all the appliances Wilma had that were run by pre-historic animals! Pretty funny stuff!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend at Pappy and Grandma's house. We didn't get there until Friday afternoon though because Marissa was sick with bronchitis. She's on a nubbulizer now and is doing much better.

Kohl's was the place to shop for me this year! Boy...I got some great sale items! I think everything I bought was at least 60% off. Cool bean dip!

I got my painting project done but we are still moving in our new rooms. I didn't gain as much room as I had hoped but it's much better for the kids now. You can actually walk all around the beds to make them! Bruce says we need to think about moving in 2 years. Ugh! I hate the thought of moving!!

YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!

I can't resist it! Every time it's on I have to watch it. I don't know if it's the all star cast or just Tom Cruise himself but when flipping channels and "A Few Good Men" is on I have to stop there! Last night after coming home from AWANA it was on the ABCFamily channel. It was right at the scene where Tom is questioning Jack Nicholson. My kids were getting ready for bed in the family room. Seeing that it's on the Family Channel, I'm sure they are going to cut out or change all the bad words. Not so. Apparently, SOB is not bleep worthy. Of course, I saw eyes go big on Ikey so there we are at 10:00 at night having a discussion about self control. For some reason, the look on Ike's face, I'm not sure we are done with this conversation!

Marissa's 9 month check up

Monday Marissa saw the developmental specialist and we found out she is a little delayed. This actually, did not surprise me because I felt like she wasn't doing nearly the things she was doing 3 months ago. After some investigation we figured out she is being held too much!! Between me, my mom and Molly, when the kid's awake she's being held by one of us! So after that discussion we put her on the floor that afternoon and she started rolling over and holding her toys. We are going to give her a month on the floor then she sees the specialist again to be revaluated. She was testing about 6 weeks behind her adjusted age, which is testing at a 20 week old baby. Not a big delay that we can't catch up on. If having more floor time at home doesn't make the difference then we'll start physical therapy.

Thursday she saw Dr. G. and weighed in at 14 pounds 4 ounces and 25 1/4 inches. Dr. G. was happy with the gain (didn't seem like much to us) but said that her growth in inches was most impressive because we can always fatten a baby up but we can't make them anymore tall. She is fine in everything else. He said if she was interested she could eat some Thanksgiving dinner!

Oh...on the developmental testing...she passed all her social skills right on age. She laughs and giggles and babbles and makes eye contact etc. all like she should! That why it's kinda tricky to see the physical delay because she's just so darn pleasant...she distracts ya!

Bruce has finally let Marissa go to nursery at church...right at RSV season! She seems to like going just fine. No tears. Of course, none of our kids cried about nursery. They were like "bye! see ya later!"

I'll update again in a month with her progress. Thanks for your care, concern and prayers for her!!

Well, at least it's over...

Things did not turn out as well as I would have liked, but at least it's over. Maybe now we can watch TV again without having to mute over every commerical. I gotta figure out who to write to about the obscence amount of voice mail phone calls we got this year! As far as I'm concerned it was a referendum on those phone calls as much as President Bush or scandals!

I'm glad I don't hold my hope in the government but rather on the one Who holds tomorrow!

Iron Maiden

I like to iron. I can't believe it because I have always been proud of the fact that I never iron. This summer Bruce wanted a light weight dress shirt that goes with a tie. Those babies need ironed! You can get away with not ironing the heavy Oxfords if you take them right out of the dryer and put clothes pins on the collar to keep it straight, but not these guaze type shirts. After ironing that shirt from the dryer I had such a feeling of satisfaction and pride! It was like a high. Seeing the waded, wrinkle shirt turn into this crisp, straight, attractive shirt that could come right off the run way. Now I am kind of addicted to that feeling and looking for more ironing! And Bruce is always so thankful, shocked and impressed that I ironed! Yes, I have decided I like ironing. Next time your depressed, look for something in your closet to iron. It's really quite rewarding! 

Boo!

Would you give these guys candy??