Gabby Goat

Ashlyn finally got to play with Gabby yesterday! Lily didn't like Gabby so Tony had to build a new pen while Gabby stayed at Nicole's with her goats. Ashlyn has been so sick that she actually forgot she got a goat for her birthday. Tony went and got her yesterday morning and the girls played for half the day with them. Gabby likes to chew on everything so she was always trying to eat Ashlyn's clothes. Brooke is teaching Lily to jump so Ashlyn had Gabby jumping too. After a while Gabby was tired and took Ashlyns chair from her to rest in. They had a good time! When it is time for Gabby to go to her pen she screams her head off so I am hoping that will go away after a while. I hope!

Disney Quest

Yesterday we went to spend the day at Disney Quest! Candy gave us 6 tickets so we took our friends Jen and Ryan and their son Tyler. We all had a blast! It is a 5 story arcade with alot of simulators and interactive games. We had to do the jungle cruise 2 times because that was Ashlyns favorite. You sit in front of a screen in a boat and the boat moves around like you are in the rapids. She liked the water that they spit out on you! Brooke had fun because Tyler is her age and could play the games Ashlyn couldn't. We all played like we were kids again! It was alot of fun.

Afterward we walked around downtown Disney and then went to Golden Corral to eat dinner. It was a nice day out after having to be confined to the house for 2 weeks with Ashlyns sickness!

Ashlyn's Birthday

Well this is Ashlyns big surprise gift. A goat! Her name is Gabby. John, Kim, Nicole and Billy got it for her. Ashlyn loves it and it made my night a nightmare. Lily hates her and decided she didn't want to share her pen with the goat. So the goat spent the night in the chicken pen, screamed all night and kept me up. The next day she went to Nicoles to stay till Tony can build a new pen! All so my children can be happy. So the birthday went good. Ashlyn had Brennon to play with so that made her day.

Ashlyn got a bad cold over the weekend and had to go to urgent care. She was diagnosed with an ear infection. Her fever was at 102 most of the weekend. She still is out of school because of a fever so I hope she gets better soon. Her surgery has been cancelled due to the fact that she is sick and can't be put under that way. It is now scheduled for Jan. 13.

countdown to madness!

We are getting ready for the very busy December. As most of you know Ashlyns birthday is the 25th and it is very difficult but I don't ever let her know that! For the past week I have been going over what Christmas is really about. To her, when she wakes up in the morning on Christmas day she doesn't say "It's Christmas!". She says " It's my birthday!". So it has been very difficult. I tell her we have christmas to celebrate Jesus because it is his birthday and she says "yea and to celebrate my birthday!" I say to her yes your birthday is on christmas but that is not why we celebrate christmas. Poor thing just doesn't understand!

We always try to celebrate her birthday a week early but this year it will have to be even earlier. We are doing it on the 12th because she is scheduled to have surgery on her mouth the 15th. I am not looking forward to it at all! I hope all will be well by christmas day.

Hopefully we will have a nice painfree christmas! This year we are doing things a little different. Since I have enough trouble trying to express the true meaning of christmas we have decided not to do Santa this year. We have not told her there is not a santa but we are not promoting him either! We really haven't talked about santa and she hasn't either. I really don't think it will matter because she is all about her birthday that day. We will see how it goes! Come back next week for the party update! Ashlyn is getting a very special surprise gift that you don't want to miss!

Last Day of Fair

Yesterday was the last day of fair!!!!! It has been a blast but 14 days is really a long time! The girls kicked butt in their chicken fun day. They both took first place in the fashion revue in their age divisions and both got reserve, which is second, in showmanship in their age divisions. They both did great! Brooke is a chef and her chicken is a pot of chicken and dumplings. Ashlyn is a bride and her chicken is the groom. Thanks to my mom because she did the costumes, I am not that handy! The girls ate lots of fair food, rode rides and played games. They even won 2 fish! We had to wait in a really long line to get the chickens checked out last night. Monster fell in love at the fair with the handsome man behind her so she was not real happy to leave but the rest were. I am really glad this only happens once a year because I am really wore out. Brooke wants to do state and central fair but I am not up to that yet! We had a great time and I am very proud of the girls.

Sheep show

We survived our first year at fair showing sheep! Brooke did really well and had a good time. She got 5th place in her class but got a second place ribbon. She has alot to work on but she did very well for what she knew at the moment. The chickens were judged on Thursday. Butterscotch, Ashlyns little chicken got a blue ribbon which is first place and the 3 big chickens got a red ribbon which is second place. I was surprised Ashlyns big chicken placed because her feathers are falling out but she did well. Brooke and Ashlyn put chicken photos in a photo contest and both got first place. Brooke put a poster in the poster contest. It was about egg anatomy and she got a second place on it. They both did an egg decorating contest. Brooke made hers a fish in the ocean and Ashlyn made hers a chicken in the barn yard. Brooke got third place in her division and Ashlyn got second in her division. So far they have done very well at the fair! We have chicken fun day on the 14th so we will have more to come!

Fair is Coming!

We spent Sunday getting the animals ready for fair. It was very much a challenge but we got it done. We had 4 chickens to wash and then had to run out to John and Kim's to wash Lily so we can shave her on Monday. Ashlyn's brown chicken, Hooster B Boch is her name, is losing her feathers so she looks pretty funny. She is in the middle of molting her feathers. She picked a very bad time to do this.By Wednesday she will probably be bald! We will have to decide then if she is going. All the chickens stood great while they got a blow dry, to be honest I think they liked it! Lily was her normal spastic self so no surprise there. The girls did not go trick or treating because we were so busy with the animals but they did decorate their pumpkins that they picked out at the pumkin patch. They turned out really cute. So anyway today is a new adventure with shaving Lily. Nicole is going to help so hopefully it goes smoothly.

Playing Ball

The weather was finally nice on Saturday and the kids asked Tony to play ball with them. I really think it made his day for them to ask him. He had just been complaining about how we don't have a boy because none of us want to watch football with him! They didn't get to play very long because Ashlyn broke every single one of the plastic balls. She is not afraid of that ball and the harder you throw at her the better she is! Tony says she will make it to college playing softball. That sure would be nice!

Ashlyn Shopping

On Saturday me and Nicole took Brooke to watch a sheep show. Not the number 1 thing I wanted to do on a Saturday but for Brooke we did it. We decided to leave Ashlyn home with Tony. Anyone that knows Ashlyn knows that she CAN NOT sit still for 1 second. We knew it would be constant "I"m hungry, I'm thirsty, I'm hot, I have to pee" and so on! So Tony told her he would take her to the store to get something with her money that is left on her gift card. Brooke made fun of her because she had only $3 but later on Brooke wanted what she had got for $3! It was a littlest pet shop. Anyway when we got home Ashlyn ran in the room yelling, " I went to the store and got something and I used my credit card". We were laughing so hard! We tried to tell her it was a gift card but she was having none of that. In her mind it was a credit card and that was that. I love the things that come out of little minds! I wish I could keep her this age forever.

Day at the Dentist

The kids went for their 6 month checkup and cleaning and for once in 5 years neither one had cavities! This is like the best day of my life. My struggles with my kids teeth make me wish i had become a dentist. They were blessed with the worst teeth any child could have! Since brooke was 5 years old we have had to do many xrays, teeth extractions, fillings, pulpotomys, and caps on almost every moler they both have, they were all baby teeth! Ashlyn started having cavities at 3. I have around $6000 wrapped up in dental work alone!The kids at school tell Ashlyn she has nickels on her teeth because they are all silver. Brooke gets braces on after November and Ashlyn has to have surgery the end of December for an extra front tooth that God so lovenly added to her mouth of teeth. The fact that the kids had no cavities gave me another 6 months of sanity. So please nobody ask me WHY we are not having anymore kids, the anwser is because we can't afford their teeth!!!

Lillyanna

To those of you that don't know, this cute little lamb is Lillyanna. John and Kim , Tony's brother and sister in law, bought her for Brooke to show at the fair. I haven't really posted about her yet because really this little lamb scares me more than any animal we own! We got her the first of July and are keeping her at John and kims because they have a sheep barn and we have no more room for any animal. She was not tame or halter broke when we got her so catching her was a challenge. The very first day that I had to catch her she ran at me and flipped me in the air! She was only 4 months old but she was a strong little animal. After that I told Nicole that she would have to catch her because there was no way I was going back in that pen with her. Brooke finally after a month got her to the point she could catch her and put a halter on with out roping her down to get a hold to her. There was no way I was doing it so I made my 10 year old do it! Anyway some days are good and uneventful and some are full of Brooke complaining because Lily is dragging her down or chasing the lamb down because she has escaped from Brookes lead! Just one more thing to keep me CRAZY!!!!! I just try to laugh and enjoy crazy because I am scared that the day my kids leave home and I don't have crazy anymore I am going to miss it and want it back. Monday was the first day that we have shaved Lilly. She has to be shaved for fair so we thought we should start practicing now. Nicole and Brooke did the shaving and I held her from jumping off the stand. It went really well, better than I thought it would. Nobody got hurt so I call that a good day.

Day of Planting

We didn't have much to do on Saturday so we spent the day planting. We went to home depot to get some flowers and came across some fruit trees. Tony wanted to get 1 of every kind but we only had room for 1 so we got a peach tree. We are so excited! We got an orange tree at the beginning of summer but it hasn't grown at all so hopefully this tree will live. We got to use our own organic soil for planting which is very nice. I just discovered that I was making compost at the back of the property and didn't even know it! The horse manure and leaves have been composting in the back and I have the blackest soil ever. The amount of earthworms in every shovel scoop is amazing! (That must be why the chickens fly the fence to go to the back.) Anyway it was a nice uneventful day that we enjoyed and always nice to have when life can be so crazy sometimes.

Bubbles the Fish

At the end of the school year in June Brookes teacher wanted the class fish to go home with one of the kids. The kids have class money that they can use so they had an auction. Well Brooke won Bubbles and brought him home. Last week Brooke came to me and said she thinks Bubbles is dying, so I go into the room and sure enough Bubbles is lying on his side at the top gasping for air. I told her I was sorry and that their was nothing we could do for him. I thought by the end of the day he would be gone but no! This went on for days. I told her to just let daddy put him out of pain but she didn't want that. She was on the phone with my mom and my mom told her we should just pray that he dies soon and he won't be in pain anymore. Well my daughter prays that he will be ok. I was worried because I knew this little fish was a goner. Well the next morning Brooke comes running out and says to me that Bubbles is swimming and just Fine! Sure enough I go in there and Bubbles acts like nothing was ever wrong! He is swimming around and eating just fine.I am glad I didn't flush poor Bubbles like I wanted to do!

No A/C

Do all of you remember what it was like to not have a/c at one point in your life? I really hope you do because until I was 16 years old we never had a/c. I really can't live without it now. If I ever have to cut anything out of my budget, the cable, phone and internet will have to go before the a/c does. Anyway our a/c broke and I don't know how I ever lived without it! We came home about 9 Saturday night and it was 85 degrees in the house. Tony worked for an hour trying to fix but we needed parts so we needed a repair man. We were going to have to wait till Sunday to do that. As a kid I can remember having all our windows open, laying on the bed with nothing but a sheet on it, fan going as fast as it can go, no pajamas and wet towels laying on me to keep cool while I sleep! I was not going to to this Saturday night! As much as I wanted to teach my kids about how lucky they are to have a/c I was not going to even have my windows open. So we did the next best thing, we pulled out the window a/c we have for hurricanes when we loose power! We stuck that baby right in the kitchen window and camped in the living room. It worked ok, it kept it about 80 in there. We could have put it in the bedroom but trying to put 2 kids, 2 dogs, a hamster and a guinea pig in the room would have sent me over the edge! We got it fixed the next day (thanks to John, Billy and Timmy)and we are back to having cold air in the house. So everyone be very thankful for the a/c, especially when you live in Florida!

Meet the Teacher Day!

This week has been terribly crazy! Brooke has had sewing and cooking camp all week. I have to take her to deland in the morning and go back and pick her up in the afternoon. Not only is a it a long drive but the gas in my gas hog truck is getting crazy! She is having a blast so thats all that matters. Anyway today was meet the teacher on top of camp. I was really praying the morning would go smoothly since we really need to be 2 places at once. But SURPRISE, it didn't! Brooke comes screaming out of the bathroom this morning at 7 AM that "Hammy is gone"! Not only is she gone but she thinks she went down the bathroom sink drain. What? I go in there and sure enough that little rodent has pulled the drain stopper out of the sink. I am now shocked because I know that if indeed she is down that drain she cannot turn around to get out! I call Tony to ask him how to start taking the drain apart and he says " I am coming home". He had planned on clocking out to come to meet the teacher but just hadn't planned this part! i happened to look down at the garbage and the bag was pulled down so I asked Brooke if she had done that and she said no, so she pulled the bag up and there was Hammy! I was so happy that I did not have to do construction on the bathroom to find this little rat! I called tony and told him we found her but he said he was coming home anyway. That was the fastest we ever found hammy and didn't need hammy Hunter! Brooke and Ashlyn got to meet there teachers and are really happy. Brooke got safety patrol and is helping a teacher with kindergarten kids so that should keep her busy. I hope tomorrow goes well, we have a 5 hour chicken day for 4-H!

Chicken wash

We started our day out this morning washing chickens! They are all done having lice so I wanted to get them washed and free of any poison. It is very challenging to get 6 chickens washed and blow dried! First we have to wash them with soap in the first bucket and them we have to transfer them to the second bucket that has water and vinegar in it. The vinegar helps to get all the soap off. When we show them we transfer them to a third bucket that has conditioner in it. We then wrap them up in towels for them to dry. We leave our chicken burritos wrapped up while we start blow drying the first one. We then put them in a cage in the sun to dry and they prune their feathers to put them all back into place. This took all morning. We are now soaked with sweat and water from all the wing flapping that went on.Hopefully we will not have to do this again till November for the fair!

The Ladies' New House

We made the lovely ladies a new house. They were very cramped in their old house and were not getting along. They better be happy with this one because it was way too hot to be building chicken coops for sure! We started at 7 in the morning and by noon it was about 106 degrees and was so hot we were all not very nice to each other. I really don't know why the building projects we take on begin in the dead of heat, we always seem to do this! Hopefully they love this house so much that they will start laying again. I hate buy eggs from the store!

Mia Piggy

We are babysitting a guinea pig for a friend for about a month. The kids are thrilled with her and want to add one to our zoo! I don't think that will happen but you never know, the kids can usually talk me into it after a while. Well Brooke left Ashlyn to watch the guinea pig and we all know what happens next. The guinea pig is missing. We started looking for her and it didn't take long before we found her in Ashlyn's room. Thank goodness she is the size of a small cat so she can't hide like Hammy can. So she is found and all is well. Back to my laundry!

Dirty Days of Summer

It is the dirty days of summer for sure around here! My washing machine works from the time I wake up till the time I go to bed most of the week lately because my kids look like this at the end of the day. Sometimes they look like this 2 or 3 times before the day is over. We haven't had rain in a couple of weeks so everything is dry and dusty so just taking care of the animals makes us look like we have been ranching a 100 acre farm all day! I have to say that this time of the year really gets to me but at least it doesn't last long before the good weather starts to come. I am sure the horses and chickens will be happy when that day comes also.

Chickens and Bugs

So everyone sit back and get a laugh out of this one! The kids show the chickens at the fair and we are working with the chickens and Ashlyn because this is her first year showing. Well I was looking closely at one of the chickens thinking they really need a bath. Yes the chickens get a bath! Well I suddenly seen something moving and sure enough it was bugs! So what do I do? i run like a mad woman into the house, jump on the computer to find out what they are and what to do about them. I find out that they are LICE! I quickly found out that they have to be dusted with seven dust and everything must be cleaned and dusted with seven dust. I rushed out the door to get seven dust because I can't sleep at night knowing those nasty things are crawling around out there. I came home and Tony started digging out the coop as I made the assmbly line of chickens on the deck. I was freaked out, the kids were amazed and Tony was probably thinking he should run for his life. We got everyone dusted, pens cleaned, all hay removed, pens dusted and waterers and feeders bleached just as it was getting dark. So now I am just sitting back and dreading Wednesday because I have to do it all over again ever 3 days for 14 days! SO everyone think of me this week because I am on my own because Brooke is off to camp tomorrow till Friday.

Moving up!

This week Ashlyn has started riding on her own. This is such a hugh step in our life. This means that both horses are no longer just useless! They both have a meaning in life and that is to make my kids happy, in turn makes me happy because they just cost so darn much to just sit in the yard and do nothing. Brooke has had to go back to riding Kitty (on the left) because Willow is the babysitter pony for Ashlyn. I don't think Brooke is all that happy with it but she will just have to adjust. Kitty knows that she can just take Brooke for a ride instead of Brooke taking her for a ride! I just told her she will have to learn to get through the ruff spots because this is it on the horse buying!

Ashlyn is having a blast riding on her own but makes me very nervous. She is certainly a dare devil. She is not ready to ride on her own in the open by herself but she is doing very good in the pen.

Ashlyn's story

Today we had to run a few errands such as the feed store, the chiropractor and petsmart. Petsmart is in Daytona and that was our last stop and we headed home. Ashlyn decides she has to pee. I told her "we are on our way home now". She says "but I really have to go". This happens alot and most of the time we are usually out doing horse stuff and she just pees in a stall or in the horse trailer. We sound like true hillbilly's now! Anyway I told her " I can't just pull over and let you pee on the side of I-95"! She says, "but I really have to go". I say " Well Ashlyn your just going to have to hold it or your going to pee in your pants". So what does my darling five year old do? She just pees in her pants! She takes me so literally. She was quiet for a little while and I said "Ashlyn, did you pee your pants?" and she said "well, yes!" She seemed kind of proud of her self to tell you the truth. She showed mommy what happens when you don't pull over and pee!

Hammy Hunter

Well the search was on last night for the escapee Hammy. When the sun went down, the Hammy Hunter put on his head light and went to searching. He found evidence in Ashlyn's closet so he knew he was close. He turned off his light and stood quietly listening for the little rodent. He heard movement, flicked on his light and there she was all the way on the top shelf of the closet!Don't ask how she got there but she was fast moving trying to escape being caught. He captured her and put her in her Hammy palace. I am sure she is planning her next escape as we speak!

The Search

So do you see a problem with this picture of the hamster cage? Well I will tell you, THE HAMSTER IS MISSING! We woke up this more and everything was going as planned until we went in to brush Ashlyn's teeth and noticed that there is no hamster in the hamster cage. She had broke the latch on top and hit the road. The kids were so upset , not that the hamster was gone but that she had chewed up all the silly band bracelets that were on the counter. Hammy had managed to fall into the garbage can, crawl to the top and bail out. She is now loose in the house and nowhere to be found. For those of you who don't know this, this will be Hammy's 4th escape. The first time was tramatic for me. I was so upset that a furry little rodent was loose in my house that I went outside, cried, had a nervous breakdown and told Tony I was going to move out until the hamster was found. I went to a friends house and visited until Tony, the hammy hunter, found hammy and put her back into her cage. I now am used to the little rodent and will just wait till her furry little body runs across the floor tonight to get her. In the mean time we are cleaning the house looking for her. I guess that is the only good thing that has come of this whole thing! I guess the hammy hunter will be called to his job again tonight! Well I hope you enjoyed my first post and for sure there will be more just like this to come. There is never a dull moment in this house.