True Love

For over 3 years, I have been searching for "that perfect horse" that I can trust with my most precious cargo, Brody. The search has finally come to an end. We have found him. Last spring, my dear friend, Christy, loaned us her horse, Hoss Moe. At the end of the summer, I still hadn't found a suitable mount, so Christy "leased" Hoss to us for $0.50. Yes. We had an official agreement for the 2nd year. I had to feed him through the winter if I wanted to use him again this year.

The search has continued through the fall and winter. I've been to look at a few possibilities, I've made several calls and sent tons of emails. I've watched Craigslist like a hawk and tried to get the word out to anyone I knew in the horse industry. I had even approached Christy a couple times about buying Hoss, but she wasn't ready to sell him yet. I thought I had found the perfect horse in Ft. Scott, KS. This horse was one that I had fell in love with 12+ years ago and had never forgot. He had come up for sale again, however, I was having a hard time getting phone calls returned or pictures of the horse. My heart was starting to sink on the possibility of owning Jr, the horse from Kansas.

Yesterday, I received a text from Christy telling me Happy Valentine's Day. She also included "FYI Hoss is for sale." I couldn't get the words typed fast enough, "How much?" When she text me back the price, I didn't hesitate. "Done deal." Christy gave Brody and I the best Valentine's Day gift we could ever receive. Hoss is a very trustworthy horse for Brody to continue to learn to ride. He is the same horse no matter what the circumstances. We are happy to welcome Hoss Moe officially into our family and can't wait to make many more memories with such a great horse we now know as "ours."

Time for Another Update!

I'm becoming pretty sporadic about making updates as Brody gets older and we get busier with things. It should be just opposite, since I should have WAY more to write about!

Cody wanted to take all 3 kids fishing one day. Hank went along, too. My patience level and Hank's constant need to chase anything that you "throw" got the best of me. I'm not a big fisher, anyhow. Thank goodness Cody has the patience of Job!

Brody's 3rd birthday party. He is flanked by 2 of his Great-Grandmas: Grandma Bourgeois on the left and Grandma Krueger on the right.

Brody's new sidewalk chalk was great fun for Grandma and Grandpa! Brody wasn't so sure about this ordeal......

Cody and I took all three kids to Kathy's Pumpkin Patch and went through the corn maze at night. What were we thinking? 3 kids who hadn't had naps and pushing their bedtime wasn't an easy task. After packing the 2 boys and trying to read a map with a flashlight, we finally got to the edge and jumped to the outside. Justin was out as soon as we started the truck and Brody wasn't far behind.

Mom and Dad's Longhorn steer, Gomez.

Buzz Lightyear at Grandma's house.

A baby shower for one of my oldest friends, Elana.

Brody and Santa at our church. Brody had a special visit on Christmas morning from Santa, also. Of course, Mom and Aunt Ashton had to have our picture taken, too!

One of my favorite pictures ever. Brody and Hoss having a talk.

Cody laying tin on the roof of my new lean-to we built this fall. Thank goodness for a handy boyfriend!

Summer Is Still Here!

Summer has been busy around here. This coming weekend is the first time all summer we have had a "free" weekend, yet we still have 2 weddings, a hog roast, a trail ride, and a few other odds and ends that we have been invited to. Who knows what, if anything, we will do. I am definitely ready for the slow down that fall brings. In no particular order are a few pictures from this summer.

Cody and Mom working on her truck installing a new exhaust.

Brody riding his horse, Hoss Moe.

Brody at the Clark County Fair. He even made the front page of the local paper!

Early summer meal outside. This was shortly before he gave our dog the first bite of his supper. Directly off his fork. He then proceeded to take the next bite himself before I could respond!

Happy Mother's Day, Grandma Great!

June 2011 Flooding - there "should" be beans there.....

My dear friend, Kim, treated Brody to ice cream.

Cody wanted to take the kids fishing. What an experience!

This is how you sleep in the summer before your mom turns the air on in your house!

Relaxing in the porch swing at my folks.

God Made a Farmer

Our local state senator, Brian Munzlinger, shared this today. I thought it was an awesome tribute to farmers. Please take a couple minutes to watch it and share.

God Made a Farmer

Horses, Hams, and Hot Days

We have been pretty busy around Poverty Knob building fence, cleaning closets, hamming it up for the camera, and playing outside. Here's a few pictures from the last month or so.

AFTER Sunrise Easter Services at Church. We were both being silly!

Mother's Day was spent riding mules with my mama. Brody and his little mule, Maybe.

Rear view - Finally got fence put up and horses turned out. Love this view anytime!

We went camping Memorial Day weekend at Athen's State Park. Brody and I took a walk and found LOTS of snails. Note: He got excited about the picture and isn't exactly pointing at the snail. It's to the right of his finger.

Brody riding his horse, Hoss Moe! Thanks, Christy, for loaning us a horse while we are on the search for one!

This is what naptime looks like when your mama hasn't turned the air on and you've been playing hard all day!

Cowboys, Wallpaper, and Spiced Plum

I've been wanting to do some painting in the new house since I bought the place, but didn't want to take the time before I actually moved in. Over the last 3-4 months, I have been picking up paint colors from home improvement stores, looking online, and trying any other avenue I can to figure out what I want to do. However, I have been stuck on the idea of having one orange-ish accent wall in my living room after seeing some pictures of an old college friend's home. Last week, I finally took my favorite of the color schemes to the local hardware store to see what I could come up with. I ended up walking out with a gallon of "spiced plum." Mind you, it is NOT what it sounds like.

Before we could start painting the living room and kitchen (all one big open room, basically), we had to remove some wallpaper border. This wasn't a HUGE ordeal, but the entertainment center is incredibly heavy. Cody and I couldn't get it moved at all, so we just made do with what we had. It was used alot over the weekend as a seat or ladder. It is also currently hiding my sandals that fell off my feet as I was touching up the corner.

Here is my "spiced plum" wall. I LOVE it! The rest of the living room and kitchen will be a tan color called "coastal sand." I like it so much, I am thinking about painting something else in the house the same color, but I'm not sure what.......
My favorite cowboy was quite the helper over the weekend. Grandma came over Saturday to help paint, but mostly to entertain Brody. I caught him watching Food Network on Sunday after church. I love the hands in the pockets and the cowboy boot slippers he is wearing.

Shingles!

And not the kind that go on your house! Brody was sick all weekend, however, I never thought much of it since some bug has been going around again. I had also noticed on Friday night that he had a little scab-looking spot on his upper arm. I figured someone at daycare scratched him but kids play and he's bound to come home with a bump or scrape, so once again, I wasn't worried about it. Today, Dusty brought him to my office and showed me his arm. What I thought looked like dry skin on Monday night now looked like more of a rash working from his shoulder towards his elbow. Dusty took him to the nurse practitioner at the hospital and they suggested he go see the dermatologist. After multiple calls back and forth to me at work, the health department, and each other, the dermatologist determined that he probably has shingles or a cold sore of the skin. However, you treat both the same. What turned into a trip for a rash of some sort, has turned out to be quite an adventure for Dusty, Brody, and myself today! The doctor said start using the medicine immediately and keep him away from babies and pregnant women for 48 hours, soooo....looks like Brody can go back to the babysitter on Monday!

Why I love Fort Madison Community Hospital: Dusty left my office at 1:30 and by 3:30 had driven 45 minutes to Ft. Madison; seen the nurse practitioner; seen a dermatologist; and was headed to the pharmacy with a prescription. That's pretty darn good for 2 hours worth of time! If we would have gone to the local doctor, he would have probably still been in the doctor's office and been referred to a dermatologist to see sometime next week. This just reaffirms my decision to not use our local doctors anymore. Traveling to Ft. Madison means it is a little more expensive with gas and the doctor is usually a little higher priced, BUT it means that we are out less time of sitting and waiting which is worth a LOT with a 2 year old! Oh yeah. The hospital system has an efficient billing system that doesn't charge you late fees before they have even submitted the bill to your insurance company. That means less hassle and lower blood pressure on my part because I don't have to haggle and argue with the doctor's office. It's a win-win situation as far as I am concerned!