Sunday Games

 We had a thunderstorm during the night. It was wet and foggy. I drove the car over to mom's around 8:45 am to brush her hair. She tried to do it herself yesterday but her shoulder still isn't co-operating and Diane ended up redoing it for her. We picked up Mark and headed to church.  Gregg Rumbold had the service on Balack and Balaam and do we compromise in the little things. After the service came the fellowship time, it seemed no one wanted to leave we were all so busy visiting. It was announced we will start 2 services next Sunday with a snack inbetween. After church everyone came early and the kids had such a good time playing outside. They even got to ride horses as Karin was here working with horses and let them all ride. No pictures as I was cooking inside.  Braelyn came inside to help. She cut the eggs, removed the yolks, mixed the yolks with mustard, mayonnaise and a little salt then piped that into the whites.

Jace always falls asleep on the drive over to our house and below he had just come in from the car to join his parents and siblings.

Abe found the blocks and built a very impressive tower.

It was taller than him when he let go and was standing on it's own for a few seconds.

Then came crashing down.

Abe thought it was pretty funny.

Braelyn was petting Emma when Rhoda noticed that Emma looked bloated.

She had Anna pick up some medicine to get rid of the gas. Below she has just given it to Emma.

After supper the guys left for volley ball and the kids all took the lanterns out to play in the dark. Rhoda, Anna and Taunya were visiting when I walked in and saw all of their noses covered. The medicine Rhoda gave Emma was working. She was SO stinky, Rhoda thought Emma must have found something dead to eat.

The kids came in and Rhoda organized games.

They all had a good time and sad when it was time to leave. Emma's stomach has been gurgling and she is definitely getting rid of gas so hopefully all will be well with her. She is not at all distressed, seems comfortable, and wants to eat anything offered. 

Super Fun Saturday

 Jack, Jace and Abe were picked up at the shop at 7:30 am and we went straight to Casey's to pick out donuts. Jack wanted a chocolate long john, Jace wanted a sprinkle donut and Abe just wanted something with chocolate icing. Well that first Caseys didn't have any long johns OR any donuts with sprinkles so we left that one and drove to the one in Hanna City and hit the jackpot or so it seemed. There was only 1 chocolate long john and 1 vanilla so both of those were purchased along with 2 donuts with sprinkles, one chocolate and one vanilla and Abe Judah got his iced chocolate. The boys had to wait the 4 miles home to before biting into them.

It didn't quite turn out as expected. Jack bit into his and there was pudding in the middle. He thought it looked like pus and couldn't eat it. The white one also had pudding in. We tried to just take the pudding out but the thought of that pudding dripping down just took his appetite away. Abe only likes licking the chocolate icing off his donut

but Jace ate both of his. Poor Jack. I was laughing so hard at his reaction and kept telling them all pudding really does taste good. They finished up with a big cup of milk.

From there we went out to the barn. Mike was there putting a new hinge on the barn gate. The boys played on the hay while the gate was hung.

Karin, Isaiah, Magda and Kayla arrived to take Irish and Ripper out to Middle Grove and bring back the 3 walkers.  Abe decided to climb into the skid steer so Jack and Jace climbed on too.

Below they are pretending Abe is driving too fast.

I needed to move in some round bales so the boys were told to jump on the tramp to stay out of the way while the first one was brought out.

The weanlings were going to be moved into the short shelter so the boys were taken down to the house and told to hold the door shut so when the horses were moved if they got loose they wouldn't be able to get inside. (I needed to keep them safe from getting stepped on.) Sarah arrived with Zion and Eden so took the boys on a golf cart ride while the other two bales were moved. When they came back from the ride Mika was brought inside so Zion and Abe could help with the grooming. 

Sarah Reinhard arrived to start tacking up. Below she is grooming Oksana.

Meanwhile the kids had gone behind the barn and found ice to lick.

Karin arrived with the horses from Middle Grove.

They got them all tacked up and headed out to the trails.

Anna arrived with her girls and Berlica came over with them.

Mark and Mackenson spent the morning removing the fencing from the gate down to the corner. We are doing that as the barn is going in this field and some of the bigger trees will need to come down. Mark doesn't want any big limbs falling on the new barn. 

After the barn is built we will need to put up a different fence line so the stallions will still have a pasture. Sarah took all the kids to the playground wile I finished moving bales. Mom came out to join us in the sunshine. The kids played in the playground, collected cattails from the lake for the fluff, climbing trees and had just having a lot of fun playing together. It was such a beautiful sunny warm day for Feb 27th. 

Below Sarah is giving golf cart rides.

Below Faith is showing grandma her book for Co-op. 

Sarah took Ben and Taunya's boys home so mom, Anna, Diane and I went out on mom's balcony to enjoy the sunshine. Mom even made her lunch and brought that out on her special tray.

Dan and Abram arrived to work on mom's solar system.

While we were sitting on the balcony I got an inquiry for the apartment for tonight. These people wanted late check out. It is much easier to answer them on the computer so Anna and I took the golf cart home. I answered them yes they could have late check out and immediately the apartment booked. Anna had it all set up for the big group coming in that needed the pacNplay and when I looked at who booked it mentioned they had 2 children plus and infant. I sent a message to them asking if we should leave the pacNplay set up and the answer came that they don't have an infant. Turned out there were two different people both for tonight. Kyle wanted late check out while James had actually booked the apartment. We made taco salad for lunch. After lunch Anna went back up to the apartment to put in the cookies and remove the pacNplay. This afternoon the hamburger was browned for tomorrow's meal which is going to be crock pot lasagna. For supper tonight I made chicken stir fry. This evening apple crumb cake and brownies were made for dessert tomorrow but of course we had to make sure it was edible and each had a small slice of the crumb cake. It was a very productive fun Saturday. IF you would like to see the rest of today's pictures click HERE.  Stephanie sent the picture below:

She wrote:  We are on our way to Zapata Texas. David couldn't fold his suit and put it in carry on so he is just wearing it. It made me think of what your mom said about how your dad used to travel... when he flew on planes, he always wore a suit;).

 

Stuck in the Mud

 I got stuck in the mud and my heart went with a thud when I thought that all my worries were behind  trouble got on the trail spent the next 3 hours in jail I should have read that detour sign.   That is a song dad would sing on all of our vacations each time we had take a detour. Today I really did get stuck in the mud. More about that later. On our walk this morning we stopped at Joan's to check out her new bedroom set then each of us got a loaf of friendship bread special baked by Berlica. Below we are leaving Joan's house with our treasure. Joan couldn't walk because of Faith's co-op.

After the walk I downloaded and uploaded another of David's messages, another one from June 2018.

I listened to it while making the video. From there I drove to Diane's office to drop off a couple checks then to the money center to deposit a couple checks. The money center wouldn't take my checks and after trying two times I just gave up and decided to drive to CEFCU to deposit them. The drive through was pretty busy but I only had 1 car in front of me on my lane. It still took quite a while. When it was finally my turn, the drawer opened, the checks were put in and before the drawer closed the wind grabbed a check and started hurling it into the parking lot. Of course that meant a chase but the check was grabbed and I got back in line only the time spent chasing the check gave about 6 or 7 cars to get in line before me. That took an extra 20 minutes. Kroger was the next stop. That was going to be the only grocery stop today but checking prices I just couldn't do it, bought a few things then drove to Aldi in Pekin. $99.00 was spent at Aldi but even there I made a mistake. I got in line with only 1 cart ahead of me, realized I had forgotten the sugar pea pods went back to get them and all of a sudden there were 7 carts in from of mine and still only 1 line open. I didn't get home until after 2:00 pm, got the groceries put away, took the golf cart up to the barn, plugged the trailer into the truck and took off for Middle Grove. When I arrived at Middle Grove I got out of the truck, opened the gate then walked in to make sure the ground was firm enough to drive on. That was another big mistake, it was firm enough on top but I realized very quickly when driving into the field this wasn't a good idea and decided to drive right back out to the road. I almost made it out. The truck got stuck at the gate and started sliding backwards with the trailer starting to jackknife. Backing the truck was worse it started sliding sideways down the slope. I was stuck in the mud. I called my brother John and asked him first if he was in Farmington or Missouri and when the answer came back Farmington told him I was stuck in the mud. He sent two of his sons, Tom and Tim to help. 

They tried first with their 4 wheel truck but that didn't work the ground was just too soft on top then frozen underneath . They then drove to the next gate where Mike has the tractor,

brought that back, hooked up and pulled everything backward.

Once it was back far enough the chain was unhooked and the tractor taken to the front of the truck.

The tractor easily pulled the truck and trailer out to the road.

What would we do without family? I was so thankful they lived close and were willing to come. By this time it was getting late. The truck and trailer were left parked on the side of the road before hiking up to find the horses.  Sally was the first horse that came up.

Below Sheena is left and Rosaleigh is grazing on the right.

Big Rosalie and Indy were eating at the hay bale.

Big Rosalie was haltered, that is Indy next to her. I originally planned on bringing Rosalie and Galena home. 

There were more horses over by the round pen. That is Lily on the other side and Lola to the right. 

Galena saw me and came waddling up. She is just huge but her udder is still flat. She is due in a month.

Below is Soul.

Hadassah is below.

Rosaleigh came walking over for attention. She is due July 4th. That is Jewel behind her and the black in the corner is Tatiana.

The rest of them were scattered and I didn't want to take any extra time to get close-up pictures. Galena was haltered and brought over to Rosalie but they did not want to walk together. Galena was sure that Rosalie was going to bite or kick her. It just wasn't going to work, the halter was removed from Rosalie. She doesn't need to come in so soon anyway. Galena was taken to the trailer, loaded, the gates were shut and by that time it was almost 5:00 pm. At least I made it home before dark. Isaiah was here and helped with putting Galena in a paddock. Tomorrow Karin is taking Ripper and Irish out to Middle Grove and bringing in the 3 walkers so the trailer was just left in the drive. Supper was late tonight, I'm muddy, tired and cold so will draw a hot bath then hit the bed early.