Waiting...

Everyone in my house is waiting for the

Easter Bunny to come.

The Basement...

We bought our house about 18 months ago. We were able to immediately begin some home improvement projects. As you can well imagine, one project became two, two became four and so on...

The Basement Blues continue. It has been about one year since we began the basement. In this process we lost our third bathroom...the playroom...and (hold your breath now...)the laundry room. We have been without a washing machine and dryer for over a year now. The basement blues update:

The UP side of a basement remodel:

INDOOR PICNICS - NO NEED TO WORRY ABOUT SPILLS

Lamb on the lam

I woke up this morning...the bed was warm...the air was cool. The day before spring break. I just knew it was going to be wild and woolly. LITTLE DID I KNOW...

I bundled up...and headed outside.

I take Jake out first thing in the morning. I grab his food and get Max's food ready. I got Jake into his kennel and peeked over at the lamb pen. The EMPTY lamb pen. Panic hit. I scanned the field...I scanned the barn...and I went to notify Marc.

Marc isn't much of an animal guy, yet. He didn't grow up on a ranch like I did...he didn't even have many pets growing up...so animal behavior and unpredictability surprises him more than it does me.

We decided we needed to tell Taryn, but not Grace and Reagan. I was already in a state of panic, we didn't need the entire house to fall apart.

I called in sick. I know this is probably not what sick leave is designed for...but this was a crisis.

We got the kids off to school with a promise to Taryn: "I don't know how...but I will take care of this. Try not to worry." Who was I kidding...I was worried, I had no idea how this was going to turn out.

I drove around to all my neighbors, near and far, to put them on alert for a lost lamb. I called the police...(aka Tony)...I called the vet...I called Annie...(my most likely to be able to find a lost lamb because she raised them neighbor) and I prayed.

At about 8:45 the vet called...they had a sighting of little Max and we were off. It wasn't pretty. It wasn't easy. I didn't whip out my lasso and wrangle him up. Marc didn't show him who was boss. Annie didn't magically 'baa' to him in sheep language and convince him to set on up into the trailer. However, rest assured...we got the job done.

A penny thought: Lambs are social animals. I know this. I had big plans for this afternoon and this evening. They have changed. We will own another lamb by sundown.

A second penny thought: I love to have pictures with my posts...but when a lamb is on the lam...there isn't time to grab your camera.

School Pictures Look Like This!

Piles of rejected outfits!

An iron that usually isn't

used mid week.

Assorted hair care torture tools.

The Silly & the Sassy!

Best of all ... we survived the morning without tears!

Max!

I have been waiting for this day to come for a long time. Most of my summer memories as a kid were wrapped around the first weekend in August.

I grew up in the country. There were no play dates. There were no dance groups. There were no swimming clubs. Swimming lessons took place at 9 am in the morning, in a town 30 miles from my house. The water was usually balmy - I'd guess 60 degrees at best. There weren't even parks with play structures...just treacherous merry-go-rounds, teeter-totters and a swing or two...

But...that first weekend in August meant it was FAIR TIME.

I participated in 4-H for nine years...as did my sister and brother...and my dad and uncle when they were young. I raised 8 market lambs and one market steer. I did cooking, sewing, table setting and the style review.

Fair time for me was a time of independence. Mom and dad would drag us into the fair before the sun was up. We'd be wearing all sorts of layers of clothes. It would be chilly in the morning and 100 degrees in the afternoon. Tucked inside our pockets were a few wrinkled dollars...enough for lunch and a snack or two, but not enough for any of the carnival games.

My friends and I would walk miles around the grounds. We'd pet rabbits, wish we owned horses and wonder why anyone on earth would want to chase around one of those obnoxious pigs.

My favorite treat was a dripping sticky ice cream cone. We could also get Cherry Teem soda. It was pink and bubbly and I loved it.

When I had my girls, I knew I would want them to be able to have the same wonderful experience that I did through 4-H.

Taryn is now old enough to have a market lamb. She will also be doing cooking and sewing. We have hooked up with a wonderful group of 4-H'ers in Athena-Weston. I am re-learning all about lambs, feed, equipment and lamb disease.

The funny thing about 4-H and my memories...I DO NOT remember it being so much work. Probably because it wasn't SO MUCH WORK for me as a kid. My mom and dad were the ones doing all the WORK. Oh well. I loved it none-the-less.

You decide...Does it look like Taryn is at all interested in this 4-H nonsense....

Building Fence in the rain.

She's even wearing work gloves!

Isn't he cute?

Meet Max...or should I say Max Meat!

To be continued...for about the next 13 or so years...

A Penny Thought: "I'm always fascinated by the way memory diffuses fact. "~Diane Sawyer

Thank You Mom & Dad! I continue to discover all the effort it takes to raise these wild & wooley kids. How'd you make it look so easy?

Racin' Jason...hits 35!!!

Today is the day my 'baby' brother was born!

As if being born isn't traumatic enough ... this little bundle was greeted by his two big sisters. Jill and I could come up with a number of ways we enriched his life. I think he would be happy to tell anyone about the numerous ways he has been tortured by us.

35 facts about my brother...

1. He will be the 3rd generation to own and operate the Chapman Ranch in K. Falls.



2. His favorite book as a boy was, "Can I keep him?" by Stephen Kellogg.



3. He rode his bike miles and miles around the ranch.



4. He ALWAYS wore his cowboy boots on the wrong feet.



5. He is a HUGE OSU Beaver fan.



6. He prefers his 4 Wheeler over a horse ANY day.



7. He likes microbrew beer and Pendleton Whiskey.



8. He loves to steel my husband to work cattle, play poker or golf.



9. He DOES NOT like Chicken Divan.



10. He DOES NOT like avocado but loves guacamole.



11. He prefers late nights to early mornings.



12. He has been to Hawaii and I haven't!



13. He has moved me (apartment to apartment) more times than I can count.



14. He recently helped us move the claw foot tub out of the basement for the remodel.



15. He loves to argue/debate and mostly loves to be RIGHT.



16. He won local, state, and national FFA honors.



17. He is VERY private about his private life.



18. He doesn't have much hair under that hat.



19. He has been ran down by random black cows. (More than once!)



20. He DOES NOT like black cows.



21. He likes to own all the newest technology trinkets.



22. He owned a swather and custom cut hay for neighbors as a teenager.



23. He loves chocolate bordeaux's from See's Candy.



24. He affectionately refers to my girls as Satan, Lucifer, & Hades.



25. He is a lousy housekeeper.



26. He has the worst smelling feet I have ever been around.



27. He used to whistle just to bother me.



28. He hated being called Racin' Jason.



29. He is very smart and is full of useless s--- (I mean trivia!)



30. He has terrible handwriting.



31. He lets Grace go feeding with him in the tractor...a favorite activity of hers.



32. He was an Alpha Gamma Rho(ΑΓΡ) at Oregon State.



33. He is a smart gambler. He knows when to hold & fold.



34. He has fought a barbed wire fence and won. He has cool scars to prove it.



35. He is loved by me...even though I don't tell him enough.

Happy Birthday Jason!

Man Sick...The video

I know it seems like I'm obsessing on this...but I couldn't resist this:
go to...

http://glumbert.com/wii/view.php?name=mancold