I Got It!

I found the Wii, with no time to spare. Amazon.com had a Customer Vote section, and I was chosen to get a Wii at the last minute. It came today, and is already wrapped and under the tree. I was almost afraid to post this, but Alex never reads my blog. Just in case, I didn't take a picture of the wrapped box.
I wrapped what seemed like a thousand gifts, and have about ten more to go..I just couldn't bear to do one more.
Later. Peace

Live at the Improv!

Starring Andy Hawk on lead guitar! Truly, I am surprised that he let me record him at all..he usually stops playing.
We (me, Andy, Alex & mom) went Christmas shopping today, and Lori and Katie met us for lunch at Red Lobster. Overall, it was a good day. I bought Randy Alcorn's book "Heaven" today as a "to me, from me" gift. I can't wait to start reading it, but I have four Spanish lessons to do by Thursday, and I work Tuesday and Wednesday. Oh well, maybe I can read a book while they have a week off for Christmas break.

Morning Update

I thought I would quickly check in before leaving for work this morning. What a difference in weather! Last week it was 65 and sunny, now it is 18 degrees outside! I'm getting ready to go and start the truck to let it warm up....the poor truck is not getting any younger, you know.
Yesterday was so much colder, that the ground did its freezing-in-peaks thing. It makes it so hard for the horses to walk through certain areas, especially Sonny who has feet problems in front. It was so bad that he lost his balance and fell into the stock tank. He was so wet and cold that Alex and I brought the four horses who do not have babies into the barn(the three broodmares and their babies get the 3-stall run-in).
I also have to say "Happy Birthday" to Grandma Freda, who is 91 years young today!

**Update: I just got a call from work that I can stay home on-call...WooHoo! Now I can go wrap the water hydrant in the barn with the new heat tape, get the new stock tank heater into said stock tank, and get the heat lamps up in the garage for our house pipes.

A Work in Progress

Getting ready for Christmas...no easy job! I almost have the tree up (still need the topper and some bows), and I also have a few decorations up. I'm only going to decorate simply...no clutter!
Anyway, here's the picture



Peace

Alex and Buzzer

Thanksgiving

Wow! It sure has been a while. Not much real news from our front though. I worked 12 hour shift both Thanksgiving Day as well as the day after. Obvioulsy, no shopping for me...although...if anyone out there can find me a Nintendo Wii, I sure would appreciate it. The bad part is that no one took any pictures on Thanksgiving. If I am not there, there are simply no pictures in our family.
K.C. was home for the Thanksgiving holiday, and brought a friend with him. It seems as if this will be K.C.'s last time home before shipping out the Afghanistan in January. I will try to post some pictures.

Well, that's all for now. I still have lots of homework to do.
Peace.

Here's Another

Checking New Feature?

Katie Rides Again

Today we went to see Katie in the final day of her rodeo championships. She had finished a respectable 4th overall coming into today's run, but as usual...we jinxed her! She and Jake had a good run today, and she looked really good out there (may I also say that she is by far the prettiest out there?), but it was not enough to win. Did I also mention that she was the prettiest one out there?
Jake and Katie..you did great! Now if you will just send me a link to one of your videos, it just might find its way to my MySpace site.
Isn't that a hoot..an old lady with a MySpace site? I really like learning the HTML that goes along with MySpace, but have no real desire to communicate this way. I just love developing the page. I now have pictures, videos, and music. Of you are interested in checking out my work-in-progress at MySpace, go to: http://www.myspace.com/mrhawk922
More later. Peace.

Farewell to Ted

It turns out that Ted did not have a large abcess from a bite on his face...he had a large growing tumor. I took him this morning to the vet up in Harrisburg (who is a really nice man..and does not charge $200.00 to put an animal to sleep) and had him euthanized. The vet was amazed at the tumor... it turns out he was diagnosed wrong by his original vet. Anyway, he is at peace now. Alex buried him while Andy watched..oh, excuse me...while Andy helped (those who know Andy know how much he participated).
The horses were out again this morning, this time they tore down the vinyl fence. They all have to go. I cannot afford fence.
Peace.

Do you like the new look?

I was having trouble getting the old blog to show up. When I looked at the settings, it seems as if the HTML was all messed up on the old template....so I chose a new one! I'm just glad I didn't lose all of my posts. I am in the process of uploading most of my pictures to Photobucket.com. This site stores your photos in and gives the codes for them in different formats (in case you want to publish them on a website or MySpace). This takes a while though. I had 4 Spanish lessons to do last night when I got home from work, so I couldn't get anything worthwhile published.
Mom and Dad are driving to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania as we speak for Dee's funeral. It is always a treat to get to listen to the conversation when mom is riding with dad.
One does not drive in two lanes at the same time.....

A Night at the Opera

Well... almost! This past Tuesday Andy had his fall band concert. This is Andy as he was getting ready. He didn't have his cumberbund or bow tie at the house, so he still doesn't look as spiffy as he did later that night. Alex was his usual bad-attitude self these days and wouldn't go. David was there, so at least there was someone to talk to. Mostly, I played Bubble Breaker on my cell phone and surfed the net (I have a Motorola Q ). The bands didn't sound too bad. I'll post a picture or two from the jazz band segment, if they aren't all blurry (I used K.C.'s camera, and I guess I didn't have it adjusted very well).

A Stay of Execution

It looks as if Ted got a stay of execution...for the time being. It's not as if he doesn't need euthanized, it's more like I can't afford the current vet's prices (more like he's a butt-head, but that's maybe for another post). Honestly, if he were really so bad that it needed to be done immediately, I would have. The thing is, he eats...and eats well! He can't breathe (if the darn cat would learn to open his mouth and breathe through it, there would be no real breathing problem...the problem is that cats are nose-breathers), pus runs out of his nasal bridge, and he is thin...but he eats! I'll probably end up taking him up to the vet in Harrisburg. But until then, here he is...the picture angle was very kind (the huge draining abcess on his forehead doesn't show).

News Upate

Hello out there in bloggerland! Not much on the wire today. The biggest event of the day...Willie is home (well...his ashes came home today). The box is so small, I would have never imagined. I know that bone will not completely burn, so maybe they left out the parts. Tomorrow we will euthanize Ted, the kitty with the chronic sinusitis. The chronic mucous has eaten throught the bones of his nose. He is a very pitiful kitty...death will be merciful for him.
Alex has another computer game now. He and Andy snuck off to Wal-Mart last night and he bought another game. He stayed in his room all day, just like before with WOW. I guess I have another game to uninstall and installation discs to break. What part of you are not allowed to play computer games does he not understand?
Oh...how could I forget?!! There is nothing quite like a wake up call letting me know that the horses are out...again. Taylor and the baby were out on Rt.62. I was met at the back fence by a deputy leading Taylor. I guess I could look at the bright side and say at least no one got hurt. Something has got to be done about these horses...I am just not into this anymore.
Later...

Family News II

I thought I would lead off with a picture of ....Gator! This is my sweet boy who survived one of the most horrible injuries a foal could have and not be put down. If you want to see a small glimpse of what this wound looked like, go to
http://www.equaide.com/Wounds_Alagaator.htm.
Here you will see a couple of pictures. Maybe someday I will post the really graphic pictures of the wound right after it happened. Anyway, I thought Iwould let Gator open up today's post.
Mom, dad, Alex, Katie, and I went to the 2006 All AmericanQuarter Horse Congress. It is a 3 week long convention dedicated entirely (and only to) to quarter horses. I absolutely cannot believe the amount of money generated in this industry! All this money on a horse who wins a blue ribbon! Go figure. Give me a racehorse who at least has the chance to pay for himself anyday. We go up there to "shop". Alex got some cowboy boots, and I got some rubber knee-high boots, and we got some new halters for the babies.
After the Congress, we went to Tuttle Mall and got the boys some clothes. Alex needs new jeans, as he is growing so tall. Andy got some new sweatshirts, of which he promptly took one and ran when we got home (he had to leave for marching band...game night tonight).
Well, I have to get..more homework to do.

Help! I'm drowning in homewowrk...and I'm not even in school!

What to do about two teenagers who think that I must still sit with them to do their homework. One would think having online lessons would make this a more independent task...nope! Not my children. Today each boy has a Spanish lesson due. Are they started? I think not! Actually, I will have to do Andy's for him. He is sooo lazy, but he needs two foreign language credits in order for him not to have to take it in college. I am not going to make that mistake with Alex...he will at least try to learn and do his own Spanish. Last night we did Algebra II homework, fortunately they are still at the part where they are doing familiar topics so it wasn't too bad.
Well, I'm off to start my Spanish II homework.
Later!

Mom's Birthday

For all of my loyal followers out there (are bloggers really expecting an audience?), today was Mom's birthday (67 if you are wondering). I didn't really take any pictures, but I did record a video form the camera. I don't think it is possible to upload a video to this particular blog site.
It has been a busy day. I started the day by getting Andy up at 7:00am, and as you may well know, this is no easy task. After he left, I fed the cats, and cleaned up the kitchen.
I am amazed at the small everyday things that make me think of Willie. Surprisingly, I am not as sad as I thought I would be. It is the little things, like turning to look to see if he is coming when you get the mail, or the need to guard your food.
I did do 45 minutes on the treadmill this morning before leaving to go shopping with mom & dad. Mom, dad, Alex and I all went to Mongolian Bar-B-Q for lunch...always love this place.
Andy joined us back at mom & dad's house, and we went to see Grandma Freda at the nursing home. The boys didn't last very long before heading back to the car to listen to music. After our visit, it was back to mom's house for cake and ice cream.
I hope to be able to post at least one picture, but I think the only stills are of her orange cat. Go figure!
Till next time!

In Memory

Jake's Wee Willie
6/10/1996 - 10/13/2006

Family News

In family news, K.C. was home last weekend, and stayed the weekend with the boys while I worked. The boys love having him here, and they really miss him now that he is stationed at Fort Bragg. In the picture above the boys were posing with Grandma.

Here is K.C. relaxing and playing his guitar...actually it was a posed picture so that he could get a new one for his MySpace site.

Alex sure loved having K.C. home. Surprisingly, Andy didn't spend too much at home this weekend. He had band contest on Saturday, and went to Easton with his friends on Sunday...then it was back to school on Monday.

Enough pictures for now.

The Big Decision

The time is ticking, and I must make a decision. Willie is in such failing health that I must decide today what to do with him. He falls everytime he gets up...and that is with 3 weeks of monster-size steroid injections. If this were all that was wrong, there would be no problem. However, he has developed a large, draining pressure-sore to go along with his existing osteosarcoma and other health problems. The pressure sore is huge and draining all over the house. The bad part is that it will never heal because of his limited mobility and reliance on the steroids (the inhibit healing).
I emailed the vet that I want it to be today.

So sad...

Starting Over....Again!

Here we go again! In an attempt to find the perfect blog site, I find myself creating a third blog. The bad part is that I don't know how to import my entries from the other sites. I suppose I will have to copy and paste the last few entries from Bloglines, and the add a link so anyone who is interested can read past posts. I have to admit that I am not the most consistent blogger out there, although I am going to start trying harder.
Well...what to say.... for starters we are a family of three humans; that being me (Missy). Andy (16), and Alex (14). To your left is Gracie, our spoiled pygmy goat. She will be your best friend if you happen to have any chips, pretzels, chee-toes, or any other salty carb you can think of. She is also ruler of all things "barn"...that being the horses, barn kitties, and probably any other critter that dares to venture into her territory. The only thing she fears is the...DOG!
More later....when I get my real computer back with all of my photos.