Stratoshphere

The Stratosphere was one of the first places that we went when we arrived in Vegas. It was so gorgeous way up there. I was not brave enough to do any of the rides but Laurie and her daughter Crystal and son-in-law Jim went on one....one word for them-CRAZY! Crystal and Jim live in Arizona and they drove the several hours and joined us on vacation. They were lots of fun, I am so glad they were able to come. Wayne, Laurie, Me and Chad on top of the Stratosphere.
Chad and Me
The view from the Stratosphere at sunset.

I'm Back

I'm back from vacation and one tired person!!!!! I did nap some today and am feeling much better. Haven't had time to download any pictures yet but I will post some soon. We had a GREAT time. I would go back to Vegas in a heartbeat! It was a wonderful town to vacation in.

The plane ride and how I did on it........................I handled it GREAT! I was a little nervous at first, thought I would feel really trapped and claustrophobic but it was not near as bad as I thought. I would fly again in a heartbeat too!

More on the trip to come later........................

ALLELUIA!

JESUS CHRIST IS RISEN TODAY.....ALLELUIA!

I hope you all have a Wonderful Easter!

More Snow

We got more snow last night but it could have been WAY worse.....we just got a dusting but not too far north of us they ended up with 12 inches of snow......YIKES!

We are getting things caught up around here (as much as possible....I don't think we are EVER totally caught up). We head out to Vegas on Sunday.

The flooding is still going on south of us so we are not getting the last of our pigs until next Wednesday evening. I really feel bad for those people down there with all the water and flooding! We fly back in on Wednesday afternoon so it will be a rush job and crunch time once again as soon as we step foot back in SD.

We are trying to get the inside of the barn ready for calves in case the kids have trouble while we are gone....remember this summer we tore off the south side of the barn and replaced it.....the inside is still not totally finished. We are not supposed to start calving for a few weeks but eveyone's cows around here have been starting 1-2 weeks early. I am hoping ours decide to wait until we get back to start calving.

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter.....pray for me, I will be heading to Sin City on Easter Sunday!

UPDATE: We had one calf born already this morning.....could be an interesting few days for the kids while we are gone!

Fun with Pigs

Loading pigs with Frank and Laurie at Laurie's site was actually alot of fun. It makes the time go by more quickly when having fun while doing the work! We laughed at each other alot.....and had a blast. Frank got taken out by a pig and landed on the um...."messy" floor and we got a really good laugh out of that one. He is new to the pig loading and everyone ends up on the floor sooner or later....his just happened to be sooner than later. Wayne (Laurie's husband) was at a meeting and did show up to help us load the last load and a half. We just "rocked" yesterday, even tho we had to put up with one very crabby truck driver.....at least the other 4 were very good.

All the snow we had yesterday is already melted.....YEAH! We were supposed to get our last 1000 pigs in today but has been postponed because they are coming out of Iowa and they are flooding down there...the trucks couldn't even get through to get to the pigs.

Grrrrrr!

Yes, we did get the snow but not as much as we could have, only about 3 inches here. It is still snowing but I am hoping it doesn't amount to much and that it quits pretty soon. The lovely weather man says we have another chance for some more snow on Thursday too...grrrrrrrr! One good thing about this snow is that there is a lot of moisture in it....something we really need for this upcoming growing season (but I would prefer rain).



I am heading off this morning to load pigs at Wayne and Laurie's hog site. It should be really interesting, it is just Laurie and me and our friend Frank who has only loaded hogs a few times. Oh well, Laurie and I always seem to have fun no matter what we are doing so it should be a real um......experience!!

Storm

A winter storm is heading this way and we could get anywhere from 2-8 inches of snow. I am hoping that we are either on the very edge of it or the weatherman is totally wrong!

Almost Ready for Prom

Holy Smokes, girls are WAY different than boys when it comes to prom! Jeremy ordered his tux last week and I am supposed to order the flowers for his date (he is not a flower guy).....done deal.

Now, Courtney and prom are a TOTALLY different story. I bought her a dress a few weeks ago. Since then, she has had to make a nail appointment (hello, we never cared about our finger nails in high school), and has made a hair appointment (we never did this either but ok, I can see the point on this one). Yesterday I took her to town to finish up buying things. She needed a garter (I don't remember doing this either), jewelry (this one I actually did for prom), ordered shoes (I just wore some heels that I already had), hair jewelry (I never would have spent money on this in HS) and make-up just for the day (what's wrong with the make-up she wears every day?).

The difference between Courtney and me.....she is high maintenance.....I am very low to no maintenance! Ok, you are all thinking, she is a young hip teenager and I am an old un-hip mom.....you are right!

My experience.....boys are way easier and CHEAPER when it comes to prom.

Fessing Up!

Ok, I have to fess up....I did not get around to making an awesome supper like I had planned. It was just Courtney and I home, Jeremy had play practice and Chad was at a Township Board Meeting so I made absolutely nothing....leftovers it was! Courtney and I went to town to tan and work out and ran into my friend Laurie and also my nephew, 2 awesome nieces and very cool sister-in-law.....so I ended up chatting a bit longer than I should have and served leftover spaghetti to Jeremy and Courtney and I ate an apple. My intentions were to grill steaks......maybe today, although it is raining out now and I hate to grill in the rain.

Lazy Day!

Today I didn't do much of anything and am feeling pretty guilty about it. I slept in (and only awoke because someone was at my door), did a little laundry, a few dishes, took some phone messages for Chad, had a visit from my helper friend Frank and his 2 semi-grandchildren, got a phone call from Michelle at Our Fairy Tale Life (which was an awesome surprise) and FINALLY got caught up on reading some blogs. Oh, and I took a NAP!

I am planning on cooking an awesome supper for the kids tonight, getting a little more laundry done and really should go work out.

Crazy Busy!

Last week was crazy for us. I didn't get around to visiting your blogs as much as I would have liked to but hope to find a little time this week to do so. I miss keeping up with what is going on with all of you when I have a crazy busy week like last week.

Our pig barns have been empty for several weeks now so we have been doing some maintenance and repairs while we have had the "down time". A good friend of ours....Frank....has been working with us and has been a huge, huge help to us!

We got 2000 little feeder pigs in last Thursday. We got them all "checked in" on Friday and vaccinated yesterday (thanks to the kids and a few of their friends). Now we have a little bit of work to do to get the last barn ready to receive pigs next week.

We got quite a few loads of corn hauled last week too....nothing like multi-tasking around here!!

To top things off, my brother and his girlfriend came and spent a few days with us. They are probably regretting the timing of the visit because I did put them to work too (nothing like scaring you all off from ever visiting us). She is a huge animal lover and had a fun time helping us with the pigs.

Hopefully I can find some time to catch up with all of you this week.... if not, I am thinking about all of you!

Going to Vegas

Awhile back I posted my "bucket list", things I would like to do in my lifetime. One of the things on my list was to visit Las Vegas. Well, guess what people.....I am going to Vegas!!!!! Chad and I , along with our friends Wayne and Laurie are flying out in a few weeks to see the sites of Vegas.

Since we got married 20 years ago, Chad and I have only been out of the state of SD a few times and that was to visit my sister when she lived in MN. The extent of our vacations has been to travel to the other side of the state to visit my mom. This is our first vacation alone, without kids!!! I love my kids dearly but am so excited about being able to take an adult vacation.

I am extremely claustrophobic so the plane ride is going to be really interesting. I saw my doctor and got a prescription just in case I freak out and need to take something. I am hoping I can handle it without taking anything so I can enjoy every minute of this trip.

So.....any suggestions on what to see or do while we are there?

Prom Dress Shopping

Courtney got asked to prom by Manny, the foreign exchange student from Germany (who is a sweetheart) so......Courtney needed to find a prom dress. We decided to make a day of it so I spent all day Saturday shopping with her for a prom dress. Thank God I brought along some help.....my friend Laurie and her daughter Kasey (who is like a sister to Courtney) came along on the journey...and wow, it was a JOURNEY. I am not a shopper and my closet is filled with jeans and sweatshirts so I needed to bring in the reinforcements.

We drove 1.5 hours to the "big city" (it's not that big but the biggest that we have around here). Courtney tried on a million dresses (ok Laurie, it wasn't a million but it sure seemed like it). Anybody that knows me at all knows that I am not a very patient person so sitting there while someone spends forever in a dressing room is way out of my comfort zone. Anyway, she tried on and tried on and tried on dresses and we went from store to store to store. We were in the last store and she was trying a dress on, I decided to go check things out and walked into the dressing room with Kasey and Courtney and the look on Courtney's face told me all I needed to know.....she had found it....THE PERFECT DRESS. She looked absolutely gorgeous in it and the smile on her face really added to it. Stay tuned to my blog to see pictures of it at prom (April 4).

Thanks Laurie and Kasey for all the help (and fun) and for making it a day that Courtney and I will remember forever. What a wonderful JOURNEY.