Views of my Son's Races

This is why Mom doesn't go to the races!

French Fry Cutter Love

Since I've been cooking from scratch, I've had lots of success's and lots of failures. I still haven't found a homemade bread recipe that will tantalize my Hubby and Son's Wonder Bread taste buds. Needless to say I haven't been baking much bread because I was getting very fat since I was the only one eating whole loafs of bread by myself. They're not big fans of my switching their margarine to real butter either, but I'm sticking to my guns on that one.
Home made french fries are a big hit with them. Ironically my cooking status went up a lot of notches when my daughter brought me home this french fry cutter from a Thrift Store. My home-fries all of a sudden got a lot of Wow Honey/Mom these fries are delicious. Who knew that this simple, easy french fry cutter could make them taste so much better then just using a knife to cut a potato into french fries. I think it's because they now look more like the frozen store bought kind, but hey I'm not complaining. This cutter is so simple to use, and quick to. And maybe when the wire slices thru the potato it add some extra flavoring to the french fries. Who knows? I do know that if my house ever catches fire everything can burn but I'm grabbing the French Fry Cutter as I run out the door ☻

The Girls First Night Out

Today was very tiring  and productive. My son and I spent the afternoon getting the Girls Coop habitable. So tonight they are all tucked in with the heat lamp keeping them all warm and cozy.

#### Happens

It's just us, these things usually happen, to us me. We had our 1st meal of the year with an item from the garden, asparagus. Only a few spears but enough for my hubby and me to have for dinner. Boy did they taste good to. Sure wet my appetite for eating every spear that comes from that little endangered spot in the garden. I didn't pick the area very well for the asparagus in the garden when I planted the bed last year. It was the bottom left hand corner of the garden last year, but this year with the garden size increased it is not closer to the middle. When DS disked the garden a few weeks ago, I had to practically stand in the middle of the asparagus bed so he didn't disk it to. He had a lot of mumbling and muttering at me as he maneuvered that big tractor and disk around me and the asparagus. I even remember apologizing to him for it's placement. He then replied "It's fine Mom, I can get around it, your just going to listen to a lot of complaining while I do it." Today before the birthday dinner he borrowed a tiller and tilled the garden. As I walked out to check on the progress I was just in time to stop his second pass with the tiller, Yep You Guessed It, thru the middle of my asparagus bed. And they tasted so good this year to :(

Ice Skating, anyone? I've got a rink for you...

It's in my basement (Note to self, never, ever, ever leave the barn hose attached to the outside spigot unless you want to freeze the pipe in the basement, resulting in the new ice rink in the basement.) There goes about 500 gallons of water on next months water bill.

Oh well, at least we finely got the heater going for the girls (the Lamas) water. Did you ever watch Mr. Blandings builds his dream house? If you did you'll remember the part where Mrs. Blandings is justifying a large expense from building their house. She starts by saying "All's I asked was for them to take 4 unused flagstones...." Well, I've been dragging buckets of warm water down to the girls, saying, "All's I asked was to borrow one little extension cord, just long enough to go to the barn to plug in the $80.00 submergible stock tank de-icer that I bought at the farm store." Well you know men, next thing I know my father and husband are off to Home Depot buying PVC pipe and electric parts to run electric to the barn. Then it got colder, and New Years Eve came and my dad had to do this and that, well all the women know how this was ending up. I had a frozen stock tank that I could no longer chip a hole thru the ice for the girls, I'm lugging buckets of water down to the barn, past all the supplies for the non-existent electric to the barn. Oh yeah, I can't forget the happy ending to my story, as I'm getting ready to tote a bucket down to the barn my son pulls up, I ask him to do it for me, he's flabbergasted that I want him to tote water, Quick like a bunny he's driving to Grandpa's and wam bam I've got 2 heavy-duty extension cords going to the de-iced stock tank, with promises that I’ll have electric down to the barn by spring. I even have the added promise that I will also have an extra electric receptacle by my garden to plug in all those electrical gardening attachments that I don't own. Men, sometimes I wonder?

Crocheted Sneaker Slippers - A Must For All The Guys On Your Christmas List

This post comes with a Warning - If you crochet these and gift them for a present, be forewarned they will then expect them every year.

The first year my husband and I were married I found a pattern in a crochet magazine for crocheted high top sneaker slippers. Being 9 months pregnant and as big as a house I passed the time crocheting them for his Christmas present. Little did I know I would be crocheting them every year for the rest of my life. Nor did I know the gifting would expand to all the men in my family and their friends. HEHEHE, at least I like to crochet.

But if you dare to commit yourself to crocheting this gift here's some free patterns for them in all sizes.

Sue's CrochetandKnitting.com has an adult size pattern here, http://www.crochetandknitting.com/sneakers.htm

She also has a children's sized pattern here, http://www.crochetandknitting.com/chsnkrs.htm

There is a baby sized Crochet Jogging Sneaker pattern listed here. http://web.archive.org/web/20040707084002/http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/6910/sneaker.htm

P.S. Please excuse my picture of my husbands slipper. He was sleeping so I had to swaddle my leg so you all couldn't see my hairy leg ☻

How was your Labor Day?

Saturday - DS won 3rd place in the In the C Class at the OXC Ozarks Cross Country ATV Championship. That's him on the left, I wish he would keep those wheels on the ground.

Sunday - I sewed 4 Jumpers for my DGD. And finished sewing 7 cloth shopping bags that my mom ordered from me to give away as presents.

Monday - my DS and I spent the day fencing in a bigger pasture area for the girls, aka the Llamas. I hurt everywhere, even my toenails hurt. But boy were there 2 happy Llama's running around when we let them out into the bigger pasture. Chili was running around kicking up her back heels in the air and both of them were observed rolling around in the grass a couple of times☻ Right now I'm reducing 30 lbs of tomatoes into Spaghetti Sauce so I can get them processed into jars and I still need to bake a cake for DGS's 1st Birthday tomorrow.

I Can't Wait for Tomorrow

The reason, late tomorrow afternoon Sassy and Chili, two adolescent Llamas come to live with us. I've wanted to raise llamas ever since I was in Bolivia with the Army, but my husband has been very anti llama. I tried all my ♀feminine reasoning with ♂him, and still no go. Then I wake up this morning and my son tells me that a friend of his is giving us two of his llamas if we want them. I say heck yea, but dad said no lamas, to which son replies dad said he doesn't care just don't expect him to tote them water. DS spent all day putting up fenceing in the back field for them. Tomarrow i'll have to help him finish it up and buy some feed, then he will pick them up in the late afternoon.
I haven't even met them yet and i'm already in ♥

☻PS, I see chickens in the spring ☻

Race Day

Sunday Marks an Eleventh Anniversary, That I Hoped to Never Think About Again.

Eleven years ago, my husband and I were trying to weed eat about 2 acres of overgrown lawn. We didn’t have much money then, so a riding lawnmower was not an option. With the push mower down it was pretty hard work. Our 16 year old daughter was off swimming with friends, and our 12 year old son, with his friends, were climbing the walls.

My son always wore his bike helmet, at least I always told him to, then watched him put it on. I guess I never realized he didn’t, if I didn’t nag. DS and his friends just wanted to help us, I just wanted to get finished and in a hot shower, I finally told them to go ride their bikes and let us work. After we finished I was in the shower when my husband began screaming to get out our DS was hit by a car. I still remember getting dressed, dripping wet as I was running to our car.

Snippets of a nightmare. My son with blood dripping out of his ears and nose, my husband screaming at the police demanding to know if that was the ###### who hit him, the scared teenager in the police car, then my husband making an about face as soon as our son called daddy. Did you ever chase a helicopter some 60 miles to a children’s hospital? Finding out he was in a coma when we arrived. As a nurse I was my own worst enemy, I knew all the worst case scenarios.

He came out of the coma, trying to climb out of bed, stating he had to take a shower. The relief when he was laying in his ICU bed 15 minutes later playing a video game. Traumatic Brain Injury, both ear drums imploded, Cerebral fluid leaking from his ears, and his hysterical insistence that he take a shower every 15 minutes. The ENT Dr. telling us he was almost deaf in both ears, The Neuro Psych Dr. telling us will probably have a very clean kid, water was his coping mechanism.

Short wiring in his brain. His brain no longer told him when he was thirsty. I could give him a plate in the kitchen and tell him to take it out to his father at the BBQ, and he would make it half way there before he would return asking what he was supposed to do with the plate?

Things got better over the years. The Dr. sliced an ear almost totally off, and he had 60% more hearing in one ear when the surgery was done and the ear sewed back on. The short term memory loss improved. Showers are now for getting clean, stress relief and when he’s sick, he will still empty out our hot water tank and I have to lay down the law if it’s a bad day with more than 3 showers. Still has a lot of migraines, missed a lot of school from them and we had wondered how he would ever work, when he would average 4 migraines a week, But over the years they have decreased and he’s learned how to work thru the remainder.Ds is now 23 years old, He has a great job the Department of Transportation, Got his license to drive 18wheelers when he was 18yo, so young most jobs couldn’t hire him because their insurance wouldn’t cover a driver that young. He can do anything he wants to.