Love challenge

Hi all,
I am challenging all of you to make a list. This list should consist of things you love about your significant other. If you have been married for 10 years, list 10 things. One for each year. If 5 years, 5 things, and so on and so on. DON'T type this list out. Print it on a nice sheet of paper and give it to your special someone. It adds a personal touch to hand write it. If you are not married, pick someone very special in your life and list one thing for every year you have known them.
Gordon and I have been married almost 18 years, but I have known him for 27 (yep, 27). Valentine's Day isn't really all that special to us. We started dating February 16, 1982, so that is the special day we celebrate. I will be using that number (27) to make my list.
Just remember, right now times are tough and things are just too expensive. A gift from your heart doesn't cost a dime, but means millions to the person you share it with.
I don't want you to post your lists. They are between the two of you. Have fun, enjoy and Happy Love Day to all.

I am working again...sort of

So, I decided that while I am studying to become a Medical Transcriptionist, I could still do something to help out our family income. I really don't want to be away from the kids or events that they have at school, and I don't want something to interupt Gordon's work schedule. I finally decided that there really wasn't anything out there so I should just plug along at the studying and get done with that so I can start working from home. Still my plan, but a great opportunity presented itself to me.
My friend Toni has a little girl in Sierra's preschool class. One day the preschool made lunch for the moms so Toni and I sat together and started talking. She and her husband own and operate a janitorial service and they work every night of the week, plus he has a full-time job during the day and she cares for all of her kids and her grandmother. They decided it was time to get someone to help them out a couple of nights a week. As I was talking to her, I realized that this could be a great thing for me. Their biggest client is a vet clinic right up the road from me. So, now I work two nights a week for them. I can go in to clean at 6pm when the office closes or I can wait until my kids are sleeping and go in later. I just have to get it done before the next morning. Last night was my first solo night. HOLY COW!!! It was a lot of work!!
I start out by taking out all the recycle. Then I go around and collect garbage from the 50 or so garbage cans. This takes about an hour! Dusting and cleaning the bathrooms comes next. Then I have to vacuum the whole building. Last night this took me about an hour. My back and arms were killing me! And to my horror I realized that I still had to mop the whole place. Yikes!
Needless to say, I finished all of my work in 3.5 hours. I came home around 11pm and fell (literally) into bed. Gordon had the loving sense to let me sleep in this morning, so he got Evan ready for school and on the bus and set Sierra up with some cartoons for the morning. I slept until 10am!!! Yes-what a wonderful feeling. Then I put my feet on the floor. Oh crap, I can barely move! I hurt all over.
Well, one thing is for sure. I will work on some muscle and maybe lose a few pounds in the process. It is a great workout! Anytime you want to sweat a little, call me up and come work with me! It's a killer!!!!

The woes of a sick boy...

Evan has been home sick for the last two days. He has a terrible cough and a yucky nose. Every time he coughs, his throat hurts.
I guess guys start out young. It is a known fact that when a guy gets sick, they turn into babies. They can't do anything, they don't have energy, they want to just sit and veg or sleep. When a woman gets sick, she is expected to still take care of the house, the kids, the dogs, the farm animals, all the running around, making dinner, etc. You get the drift, right?
Well, Evan is like that too. I really thought I could train him to be a little different, but he is whiny and grouchy. The one thing I will say about him is that after two days, he has finally gotten bored with just watching cartoons. He wants to play and run around, but I say no. If you are sick, you need to chill out, right?
It is tough being the mom. I am no fun and don't let him do anything! Sound familiar to any of you?
Enjoy your day!! Just think; you could have a grouchy guy at home like me!!!

My kids are awesome!!!

Let's face it. Every once in a while, your kids do something that just makes you proud and you need to brag a little bit about them. So bare with me while I take a minute to put my kids on a pedestal!

Today was Evan's last day of basketball. He decided this year that he would like to give it a try. He really likes to shoot hoops in our barn, so he thought it would be fun to actually play on a team. At first, he was a little confused as to what to do, and all of the different moves and rules. But as the season wore on, he actually started to enjoy it while learning the basics. During the season, the director put on a hoop shoot contest. He had every one of the boys start out, and dwindled down to the top four. Now, just to let you know, there were five teams of boys with about 8-10 per team. Lo and behold, we got a call on Wednesday last week to tell us that Evan made the finals! We were really happy, but very shocked. I mean, he is playing with kids that are a couple of years older than him and have been playing for a couple of seasons. It was pretty amazing. We were told that no matter what, he would get a trophy for making it to the finals, but today's shoot-out would determine whether he got 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th. We were very happy to find out that he did a great job today and ended up with a 2nd place trophy out of all of those boys. Way to go Evan!!! You are a natural sportsman!!

Then, we move on to Sierra. One thing that has always amazed me is Sierra's ability to entertain herself. I am always calling out to her to find out where she is or what she is doing because she can find things to do on her own. And amazingly, she rarely is doing anything that she might get in trouble for. Today, for example, she decided to have a picnic tea party with her friends. She called me into the room after about an hour and this is what I found. She was very proud of herself and having a very good visit with her friends.

After she was done with her tea party, she decided to build a fort in her room so she could sleep in the fort tonight. She spent a lot of time on this and called me up to see her work after about two hours. I can't believe her focus! She did a great job on her fort and I told her I needed a picture of it because I don't think I could ever build anything as good. She told me she was very proud of herself and can't wait to sleep there tonight.

My kids are awesome!!! I am just sharing the love!

I apologize

I made a mistake. I wrote that Tiffani tagged me in a blog. She did not! What she did was honor me with an award. I would like to apologize to Tiffani for not recognizing it as what it should be, and to properly display my award.

Thanks, Tiff, for thinking of me and honoring me with the lemonade award. Love you!

Tagged again

My wonderful friend, Tiff, tagged me in her blog. I would love to pass on the love, but between her and Holly, they have tagged everyone I know to tag already. So, instead I will post this award and graciously say "Thank you" to Tiffani. Love ya, sweets!!!https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv5mxAKtlll8TmP4_jeg1HbAB4YoPfnWgd2UiIxyDvYmdyGqWDa3NCfGZuYJj2OapDDqQ33Mc-Sr9xHoiH26XJ69syASfhml1em1WsZOFFYuIxGpub-ENuzh5-lsH0hWiHWzs57tKsBUc/s1600-h/LemonadeAward.jpg

Game night

Since Grammy and Papa have come up here, we tend to get dinner done faster, homework, baths, animal feedings and all the other stuff that we need to get done in an evening. That has freed up our evenings for game nights. We have been playing a lot of games in the last two weeks. After we are done with everything in the evening, we will sit down and play a couple of games. These pictures show us playing Yahtzee!! Other games we have played a lot this week are Aggrevation, Princess Slipper, Battleship, and Air Hockey. The kids got a new game for Christmas called Snorta. We are going to play that in the next night or so before Grammy and Papa go home. We really enjoy taking the time to play games with the kids. We always have a really good time!