First Egg..finally!

Finally, we got an egg from the black copper marans!  They are nearly 11 months old.  I'm not sure what has kept them from laying, but I hope they continue.

Praying for Zack

After driving three hours to get here, Zack and I have been sitting here at Linn State outside of the CAT instructor offices for about 20 minutes waiting on him to be called in to test.  Just two minutes ago the instructor came to get him.  I know we've come to a time when my oldest is moving on into adulthood, but it isn't going to be an easy trip for me.  I pray now that he does his best and the true extent of his intelligence becomes visible to the instructor.  I pray that if this is Gods will, that Zack will pull through with flying colors.  I'm sick to my stomach thinking that in a few short months he will head to college.  I'm proud of the man that he has becoming and excited to see where he will go, but I'm still his momma and its pretty hard to hold back these tears as I sit here alone just waiting....

Running out of time!

Here we are, 5 days until Christmas and I have pretty much nothing bought!  It's gonna be a long week.  Troy's payday isn't until Thursday and mine is on Friday...then basically one day or so to finish shopping...fun fun!  The sad thing is that I haven't a clue what to buy.  I'm torn between a couple of bigger "things" or several small "things" for each kid.  Their lists have changed in the past couple of years.  It used to be easy, now, it's nearly impossible.  I'm somewhere between frustration, depression and desperation.  Things usually fall into place by the time Christmas morning is here, so worrying is really useless.

Tonight, I'll be working on finishing ornaments for mom and Cameron.  At the rate I'm going, they may not be done until this year's trees are put away.  I should have had them done months ago.

Woo Hoo...truck #2 is on the road!

Yesterday, while Caitlyn was working, dad and Zack drove to pick up a 1989 Chevy S10 truck for her.  Zack drove it home last night.  It's gonna need a lot of cleaning, but it will definitely serve the purpose.  It relieved some running today thank goodness.  I still had to take Troy to work at 5am, but Caitlyn was able to drop me off at work and drive herself to her job.  She'll pick Troy up when she gets off and when I get off work, Zack will take me home.  We'll all meet up at home to go to Kyle's basketball game at 8pm.  It's pretty sad that the kids are the only ones with running trucks!  I've threatened to buy me a horse. I'm pretty sure it would work.  Ride 7 miles to work, put the horse out in the pasture with the cows during the day and when I get home, put it in the back yard.  I just don't see a problem with it...  I'm not sure, however, how the bank would react on Fridays when I tried to ride through the drive to deposit my check, or if there is a place at Walmart to tie one up.  I know that we need to come up with at least one more running vehicle fairly quickly.  Keeping Troy's early morning schedule and my late night schedule makes for miserable workdays.  I can hardly keep my eyes open.

Happy Birthday Caitlyn!

Yesterday was Caitlyn's 17th birthday.  Apparently it isn't acceptable for your mom to post an extremely cute picture from your childhood on Facebook wishing you a happy birthday...and then tag you.  It seems to cause quite an uproar and ultimately results in your teenage daughter deleting her Facebook account.  I was informed that she doesn't like being tagged and she screamed until I deleted my post.  I told her that I should be able to brag a bit about my kids...she told me that Facebook isn't real life.  Duh!  So, the extremely cute picture of her and her brother is getting posted here... I'm not sure if blogger is considered real life or not, I'll have to ask my daughter!

You have got to be kidding me!

Life just seems to get more and more difficult.  I'm not sure what lesson we are being taught, but I'm not sure how much more I can take.  I'm wondering if its a lesson on making due with less and being OK with it.  Last week Caitlyn wrecked her truck, yesterday my truck decided to blow a head gasket..at least that's what we think anyway.  So, now, we are relying on Zack to get himself to and from school...and...the other 4 of us to and from work and activities...fun...fun. 

And the schedule changes..again!

If there's one thing I just can't get used to it's Troy's schedule switching back to days.  After so many years of him working nights, even after nearly 8 months of his new job, I still can't get the hang of him leaving so early in the morning.  The dogs woke us up well before his alarm went off...at 3:30am.  I'm not really sure what had them all wound up, but they weren't giving up until someone let them out.  Temperatures are in the mid 20's and it's spitting a bit of snow.  Sammie and Lucy jumped the fence again and disappeared into the dark...so frustrating.  Troy went ahead and stayed up to get ready for work.  Thank goodness, before he left, the two escapees returned.  Mack and Baxter curled up with me.  Everybody finally settled down and Troy left for work somewhere around 4:30am.   Being short of vehicles just makes the situation worse.  Trying to stretch one truck over 4 people on completely different schedules is driving me crazy.  Today, Caitlyn is off so that eliminates one issue.  Troy went ahead and took the truck, so we were left waiting on Zack to finish with school to get a ride to work.  The last few days have been a never ending search for a truck to replace Caitlyn's or to find one that could be used to repair hers.  It turns out that there are just way too many options available and none of them within a close vicinity to us.  Unfortunately, we've missed out on a couple of good deals because we just can't fit in a 2 hour drive to go look.  I know having patience and knowing that other deals will come along should ease my mind, but it doesn't.