Chancee's Chatterings

I was Kneeling by the wood stove this morning stoking the fire when Chance appeared.

"Mom, I LOVE you!"

"You do?" Says I

"I really, REALLY do", He replies

"Cross my heart"

"Oh" I sweetly say, as I reach up and cross my heart.

In exasperation Chance looks at me and with a bit of disgust shakes his head at me and almost shouts

"NO!! Not your heart, MINE"

"OOps," I grimmace as I reach over and cross his heart.

"Thanks" He says as he bounces off.

(Do you like my staged pictures. I love digital cameras.)

Contemplating a January Blah"g"

January is NOT an easy month for me. It's to far away from spring and to close to Dec. 25th sigh... I know it's not a great month for a lot of people out there. I do try to be positive but sometimes that just doesn't seem possible.

What you see here is a small portion of the mess I had as I was trying to change the ink cartridge in my printer. GRRRRRRRR

Both hands had ink all over them. The computer desk was covered in black ink, the computer itself was covered. As I stood there holding my spewing ink cartridge I hollered at Chance to run get me a towel. he headed to the kitchen to grab a paper towel. "NO" I hollered at him. "Run to the bathroom and get a towel."

"But, Mom, what's all over your face?"

"Just get me a towel, FAST" Says I, as ink continues to dribble out of the cartridge and down my hands on to the desk. He runs into the bathroom and comes back with about 3 squares of T.P.

"NO! I need a real towel. One that you use after you bathe" I say with controlled anxiety.

Again he heads into the bathroom.

Wait........wait.......wait.....

he returns this time with a dripping washcloth.

"CHANCE, listen to me!! I need a big bath towel that is hanging up on the towel rack.

ahhh this time he comes back with a brand new towel. I can't get upset. He's finally got the right thing but still I send him back to get the oldest towel he can find.

one old towel, two washrags and a bunch of Clorox clean-up later I have the mess cleaned up off of the desk, computer,and printer. I headed in to the bathroom to try to scrub my hands and face. Luckily, my face came clean, my hands did not!

Try to be positive, try to be positive........I think all that got on my carpet was one tiny minuscule drop that blends right in.

(just blogging about it makes it seem not so bad. Thank heavens for blogging in January.)

Checking Cows

Friday I ran to Bicknell to pick up Braden and Caib. They'd been at a friends house in Teasdale On our way home. We got a call from Roger. His first question was, "Where are You?"

"We're just passing the airport road on our way home from Bicknell" Says I
"Would you mind stopping by the field on your way home and having Braden and Caib Check the cows?"

"Sure" I reply. We stopped at the corral and the boy's hopped out. Luckily Caib happened to have his chore boots with him.

They saunter in to the corral and start checking out those cows.

Getting a little closer trying not to cause a commotion

Braden does some serious checking.

They make their way through the rest of the cows checking everyone of 'em

Well, with that done they decide they'll walk down the road to the stop sign to clean off their boots a little

and wait for Me to pick them up.

Alright, alright. No, checking cows isn't something that has to be done everyday of the year
If you looked at the pictures closely enough you might have guessed that the cows have started calving and they've been dropping calves right and left. The cows have to be watched closely in case of any problems. I love the light in these pictures. I love the responsibility my boys are learning. I love watching them grow and learn.

Potential

"Mom?" Says Chance, "Can I take a picture of you?"
"Sigh, Oh, I guess" Says I
As I reluctantly hand him the camera, knowing full well that I have neglected to exercise, shower and dress yet because I've been, What? Blogging.






He snapped a nice little picture and then proceeded to tell me to wait a minute while he took another.


And another









and another as I say "Chance, GIVE ME THAT CAMERA"

So, thinking about potential lately, and about how important it is to see potential in everybody and everything. I looked at these pictures Chance took. Despite the fact that I'm in a sweatshirt, jeans, no makeup, my hair not done I can still see that I could potentially be a model, I mean, look at those poses. Oh sure, they may be standard poses but I can still see potential. Just a little? Well, O.K. then look at the potential of the 4 year old photographer. He's just shooting pictures left and right and he's actually capturing the poses. Even the last one as I reach for the camera. I mean that's potential, right? O.K. O.K. Look at the couch I can see potential written all over that red floral pattern. At least it gives the walls some potential. color wise anyway. Or, I could potentially, get new couches. Right? Alright............so

What's the potential Here?



You know, I feel really bad for people that don't have the ability, desire, understanding or love of the whole concept of potential. This entire world(existence) was created on that very principle. That's why we're here, to potentially return to the presence of a loving Father, with the potential to become as He is. This year I am going to start looking for potential. Not just in people but in everything. I believe that, potentially, It could lead to a more positive me. ;)

Fun to See!

I love this home. It is, to me, My dream home. I love the huge trees surrounding the home, I love the gravel driveway that circles the house. I love the size of the home but, most of all I love the sweet little lady that lives here. To Me, this is what America is. Nothing big and fancy, just sensible and cozy. and see those black dots in the trees behind the house. No they aren't specks on your monitor so quit trying to brush them off ;)

Usually there's about 8 of these guys sitting in the trees each morning. And they ARE fun to see!

Ringing of the Bell

We are extremely Lucky here in this little town. My most favorite thing about it is that the first thing you see when you finally catch a glimpse of town, as you come over the mountain, is the Churches steeple and then the church it self. I love that the biggest building in town is the church. In that beloved building right up in the top of the steeple is a beautiful, old bell.

Today was a neat day for me...

Church begins at 10:00 AM It was 9:25 AM When I stepped out on my front porch and snapped this picture of my three boy's. They are on their way over to the Church. We live a block away from the church. Caib is 11 years old and will turn 12 in just a few months. In our ward the next boy to turn 12 gets the assignment to ring the bell each Sunday Morning at 9:30. Since Caib is the next boy to turn 12 It has now become his assignment. This was his first Sunday. Braden has already had his turn so he was asked to take Caib over to the church and show Caib what to do. Chance, being Chance and Caib Being Caib is the reason Chance got to go along and help ring the bell.

So I again stepped out on the front porch as soon as the bell began to ring. and filmed um... well.... nothing really except my view from my front porch just so you could hear the bell ring.

But, The neat thing, that made the bell ringing so special, was this: Aubree will be getting baptized this year so She and I went over to the church tonight, met Roger and went to the Baptismal preview, where all the 7 year olds learn about baptism and what it is like. The councilor in the stake presidency finished the preview and told the children that because this year was so special for them he wanted them to do something special to remember this year. With that he took all 20-25 kids up to the steeple and let them each have a turn ringing the bell.

I'm not sure if you can tell from the little movie how neat it is to hear a bell that big but it really is something neat. So...If you happen to be in our little town on a peaceful Sunday morning, don't forget to step outside and listen for the crystal clear and crisp sound of our beautiful bell.

Dreams

Before
After
To bad I can't afford the new brick as siding I'll probably just go with stucco. I really liked the stamped cement though, that's what I'm really looking at here. (I'm looking at front walk ideas. As most of you know we had water problems and I had to tear up half of my front walk to fix it. So now I get to replace my front walk)

But, How about a new kitchen while I'm at it.(grin)

Before

After
or here's another

Before

After


Sigh...... admittedly these are just dreams and my kitchen won't look exactly like either of these when I finally get it redone But.... I do enjoy dreaming.

I heard a quote this week, that I really like I'm not sure of the exact wording but it went something like this....

"Don't go and build your dream house. You'll have nothing left to dream."

But back to dreaming. I can't decide on my floors. I keep bouncing back and forth between wood and tile. I love the warmth of wood, But I also love the look of tile. It won't be lite colored though. It'll have a lot of red in it. I lean towards warm.

What a Christmas Vacation.

Christmas Eve. After an evening of food fun and excitement at Grandma Brians house
Rudolph shows up outside. The kids bounce off the walls as they look outside and see Rudolphs glowing nose and antlers looking in the window. He comes every Christmas eve to see if the kids are being good and are getting ready for bed.We then head home where the kids all open their Christmas eve presents
and pose for our annual Christmas eve picture in the new P.J.'s
Christmas morning comes bright and early. I'd say about 6:00 AM and the bright is the dang flash as Mom once again takes an annual Christmas picture.
This year Caib has been extra concerned about how we are all going to fit into Mom and Dad's bed in a few years.


Christmas Morning Chaos!!

Braden with his new 30-30 and Caib eagerly looking over his new Chaps etc.

Aubree admiring her new stuff

Chance(as usual) can't seem to sit still enough for a picture when he's too excited

Oaklee playing with her new toys

and, moi with my new gift's

After Christmas There's a lot of duck hunting etc. Caib with his first Duck

New Years eve. We traditionally have steak and Shrimp, we added home made fries this year. (Big Hit)

New years Sledding on Chancee's new sled

Down the hill

up the hill

down the hill

up the hill

Braden generously lent his gloves to his little sister. Oaklee refused to let any one out sled her. Anytime anyone else got on the sled she'd start in with

"I wanna do, I wanna do"

We finally got her into the pick up to help pull the others.

But that didn't stop her from taking her turn being pulled around the pasture behind the pick up.

Rudolphs visit