Thursday, April 30, 2009

EIGHT

JANE tagged me for this little exercise. :)

Here's how 8 THINGS works:
- Mention the person that tagged you.
- Complete the lists of 8's.
- Tag 8 of your wonderful bloggy friends.
- Go tell them you tagged them!

8 Things I am looking forward to:
1. Summer
2. Singing at church on May 17th
3. Stone Mountain for Thomas' birthday in May
4. More time with friends
5. Shooting my new gun
6. Losing weight
7. Leaves on the trees
8. Making alpaca garments

8 Things I did yesterday:
1. Exercised
2. Ate
3. Feed animals
4. Cleaned up animal poop
5. Did the monthly shopping
6. Helped at my boys' Awana hike.
7. Sang
8. Played my guitar


8 Things I wish I could do:

1. Ride horses (I'm very allergic)
2. Sleeeeep Innnnnnn
3. Stop talking so much
4. play the flute
5. Leave the mess in the kitchen
6. Have more patience
7. Eat whatever I want to with no consequences
8. Sleep through the night


8 Shows I watch:

1. The Biggest Loser
2. DWTS

I tag whomever wants to be tagged. :)

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

DATE NIGHTS

Every once in a while I like to take all the boys out separately. Judah goes with me, then Thomas, and then Gideon. This is especially helpful when we are having lots of discipline issues. :) It's a chance to reconnect and tie some heart strings. The older boys LOVE to go to the local coffee shop. They call it "the pretzel place". It's really named the Perk Up. They call it the pretzel place because this shop has the best soft pretzels in town and sometimes, on special occasions, I take them there and get them each one, or one to split. The other draw for them is that there are board games you can play. The boys love this. Those pretzel shop owners sure are smart. ;)

Here's how the date nights came about this time...
We (Judah and I) were having a terrible time on Tuesday. His behavior was horrid. My attitude was horrid. It was not good. So, I decided that we needed a date. We ate together at Quincy's and then went to the Perk Up to play games. That's when he fell in love with Monopoly. We had a great time. Our relationship needed it. :) He had just finished his second grade math book that day and I said it was a celebration!! We went by Walmart on the way home (of course) to pick up a few things and he bought Monopoly with some of his birthday money he had saved. (I can't even save money for 2months!!! He's an awesome kid!)

So, Thomas was REALLY wanting to go on a date to "The Pretzel Place". However, he still had 24 pages left to do in his Math book. Wouldn't you know that the child sat down and did them ALL in one day on Friday!! He was SO DETERMINED!!! It was impressive. Normally he is DONE after 2 pages. For real. His eyes start glazing over, etc. hehe TWENTY FOUR PAGES!!!!! So, we went out to celebrate together. Here are pictures from the date.

YEAH! It's my turn now!! We're playing Candyland while we wait for our food. :)


Special hot chocolate!


My attention span is much shorter than Judah's. Let's play a different game!


Chutes and Ladders will be a good choice I think.


We ate sandwiches and drank our drinks. We also shared a soft pretzel- of course. :)


I think this was our fourth game after Candyland, Chutes and Ladders, and a very brief partial game of Monopoly. Connect Four!


The boy actually beat me twice!!! I was so ashamed!! I was also proud of him. :)

We had so much fun!! So did Judah and I. Gideon is counting down the days till he can go with me. I think we will skip the coffee house though. We'll do something like the park for our date night. :)

Blessings everyone!-
Angela :)

Monday, April 20, 2009

Outside Fun!

When you have 3 boys close in age...socialization is not really an issue. There is always someone to play with. :) They have been enjoying their swing set more this year than the last 2 years. They have a "fort" on top. They have lined it with hay. :) They are unconventional children and like to stand on the slide. I don't mind. As long as we don't have to go to the ER it's perfectly fine with me. :)





Gideon still prefers to sit. Thankfully. :)



Judah loves to have his picture taken. He's such a handsome big guy!

I love big dogs!


They are fun to watch when they shake.

They are always together. They are good buddies!


They are fun to take pictures of with the kids.


There is just something so cute and funny about watching 100+ pounds puppies wrestle together. :D


See what I mean? :)

Blessings!-
Angela :)

FLEECE!

Bags of fleece are beautiful things! I'm just imagining the possibilities!! :)
I also like running my hands over the fleece. Especially Delight's because she will not let people touch her normally. heehee


The bag on the left is Destiny's fleece. Delight's first cut is in the middle and second cut is on the right. The first cut is the "show blanket" and the second cut is the neck and leg fiber. All of the blanket can be used at the mill. Some of the 2nd cut can go. I will have to wade through it. :)


Destiny's fiber is a pretty color.


She also has a nice crimp structure to her fleece. Crimp= more value. We like crimp.


Look at all that fluffy goodness! She is a beige girl. The reddish color is GA clay.


Have I mentioned that I like to touch it?!

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Shearing Day!

Though it went pretty well, both the humans and the alpacas in this family are GLAD that it's over!! :)

We loaded up the girls around 12:30pm. Yes we took them in the van. They did NOT like the trip. Delight was totally stressed as was Destiny.

You can see the looks of slight horror on their sweet faces.

When we arrived at the farm they were SO glad to be let out. They practically ran over the three boy alpacas who were all waiting in line to be sheared.

When the shearers were getting their equipment ready and started the electric shears up (they sounded like a buzz saw) I thought that our girls were going to just skip the shearing and JUMP out of their fleeces. Poor things. Shearing day really is the most stressful day for an alpaca.

They are SO little and skinny under all that fleece. Well, most of them are. Delight is large for an alpaca and Destiny is a little porky too. But that's beside the point...

So, the shearers started in on the first alpaca. Hampton screeched the whole time. You can imagine what this did for the morale of the ones who were waiting in line. :grin: Jaxson was much calmer. Dante spit and drooled spit pretty much the whole time. It was not a pretty sight. Funny, but not pretty. Heehee

Delight went next. She actually did great! She is 5 years old though so she's seen this whole thing a few times now. It has to be scary to them. Here is a link with pics and it shows the process. This is not our shearing day but it's basically the same process... Under the picture on the left, click on the "click for more" and you will get access to all their photos.
http://hamptonroads.com/2009/04/photos-shear-madness-nc-alpacas-are-fleeced
Interesting eh? :)

While they were down we vaccinated them also. MUCH easier to do while they are tied. Destiny was let up early and that was a little tough. She's a little spitfire and it took three of us to give her the shot. That's my girl!

Speaking of Destiny she didn't squeal while she was being sheared but she did buck and kick while they were tying her legs. Poor baby. I wanted to watch but Delight was so perturbed that they were messing with her baby that she kept spraying spit into the air so I took her for a walk. The group was grateful. :)

After the trauma, we loaded our girls and the bags of fiber into the van. I cannot wait to get this fiber to the mill and then make it into super soft hats, etc. :)

Here are a few before and after photos.


Taken on March 10th.


Taken on March 13th.


Taken on March 27th.

These next two were taken today after we got home from shearing.


Delight


Destiny

Different eh? :)

Saturday, April 11, 2009

We're Still Here!

Life has just gotten so busy since the addition of the animals. of course they were added to: homeschooling, Michael training a new driver, and my newest endeavor. What's that? Well I'm glad you asked. ;)

Weight Loss.

Before the addition of my third child 3 years ago, I ALWAYS exercised and mostly ate very well. Then came Gideon and something happened. heehee

I had gotten down to a great weight last year but then I got pneumonia. Dum, Du-Dum Dum. I had to eat every few hrs (for a MONTH) to keep down the meds. Then, I decided I like that. It all went downhill from there. Since I couldn't exercise I couldn't burn it off.
Well, now I AM burning it off but it's taking almost all of the "spare" time I have. I'm determined though! I just passed the halfway point!! YEAH!!

So that's about all that's new. How boring. Hopefully I didn't just scare off the last few readers.

Other than that, we are looking ahead to a busy summer. Hopefully we can get the boys into swim lessons again. My MIL is coming to visit at the end of May. Michael and I will celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary on June 12th. My parents are possibly coming at the end of June. We pick up Cocoa Powder in late July. Whew!
We will be officially finished with school for the year just in time for all the craziness. :) School continues to go pretty well. We are ready for a break though.

Judah had a birthday in February and turned SEVEN! I was traumatized. :) I do have pics of that and I PROMISE to post them sometime in the near future.

Michael turned 43 last week. His birthday was a quiet, relaxing family evening. He enjoyed it. He didn't want too big of a deal made because he has been working 7 days a week for awhile. He just didn't have the time for a trip or anything like that. So, he requested a special meal. A very thick (1 1/2 inch) Ribeye grilled Pittsburgh style, topped with Blue Cheese Butter (homemade and it's a GREAT recipe), Texas Garlic Toast, and grilled zucchini and squash. The meal ended with a homemade coconut cream pie. That's Michael's favorite and I haven't made one for quite some time. He was very pleased. All the men really enjoyed the feast.

Then he opened presents the boys picked out. heehee

Thomas got him a new tool belt, Judah got "him" a hot wheels track, and Gid gave him 5 hot wheels cars. I gave him a new spatula for the range. Our other metal one he always used went missing. I like the plastic ones. :)

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Resurrection Day tomorrow!!!
I won't take so long to post next time.


Blessings!-Angela :)