Happy 6th Birthday Rosty

Happy Birthday Rosty!

You've come a long way in 6 years!

Mommy & daddy love you bunches!!

"Making the decision to have a child is momentous.

It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body."

-Elizabeth Stone

Our Morphed Pictures

Our morphed pictures form the Christmas Carol train tour.

Domisty
Rosty
Charlie

Joke of the Day!

THE MAMA TEST

I was out walking with my 4-year-old daughter. She picked up something off of the ground and started to put it in her mouth. I took the item away from her and I asked her not to do that.

'Why?' my daughter asked.

'Because it's been on the ground; you don't know where it's been, it's dirty, And probably has germs,' I replied.

At this point, my daughter looked at me with total admiration and asked, 'Mama, how do you know all this stuff ? You are so smart.'

I was thinking quickly and replied, 'All moms know this stuff.... It's on the Mama Test. You have to know it, or they don't let you be a Mama.'

We walked along in silence for 2 or 3 minutes, but she was evidently pondering this new information.

'Oh.....I get it!' she beamed, 'So if you don't pass the test you have to be the dad..

''Exactly,' I replied with a big smile on my face.

A Whole Lotta Happy....at the 2009 NC State Fair

It's that time of year again....... The NC State Fair.

Me & Lee were talking about our college days and how much time was spent at the fair with the Animal Science Club activities and all the years that I helped with the Jr. Dairy Show. We joke that we never left the barn and that we did not know there were rides and food outside the Jim Graham Building!

This year we were all set for both of the boys to show turkeys. Early on there was a problem statewide with a high mortality rate with the baby turkeys so they re-issued turkeys. We got our new turkeys and were really looking forward to the boys both showing this year. As the week approached we tried to find transportation for our turkeys. The turkey show was on Friday but the turkeys must be checked in by 6 o'clock the Wednesday before. A friend was going to take them but he would not be there by the cut-off time. So we did not get to show our turkeys this year.

There were 194 participants in the the turkey show. We may be glad that we did not have to sit through that many turkeys...........

We did have a lot of fun at the fair though. I bought tickets on-line prior to going to the fair (much cheaper that way). The boys had a blast riding rides. They loved the kiddie roller coaster. I rode with Rosty & Lee rode with Charlie. I really needed to take a picture of Lee folding himself into the car with Charlie. LOL!!

Last year Charlie was still young and did not really understand what was going on but this year he had a blast. He would just take off running and we would have to chase after him. I put our business card in both of their pockets in case we got separated from them.

One of the things I saw a lot of this year were wheels that you spin and then you get that prize. This really encourages interaction instead of just handing out a pen, pad of paper, etc. We went to the Air Force tent and Rosty spun the wheel. It was a challenge to do 25 push-ups or pull-ups. The young guy asked Rosty if he knew how to do push-ups and he said "No." So they went off to the side and he showed him how to do them and then they did 10 push-ups together. Rosty won a t-shirt for doing the sit-ups.

I have always enjoyed looking at the 4H exhibits & the best of exhibits. There are a lot of talented people out there. A lot of talented children and teenagers too. Rosty enjoyed seeing the Lego entries. I keep saying that I am going to enter something that I have canned into the Fair one year.....maybe one day.

Rosty also enjoyed going to the exhibits in the Kerr Scott Building. He had a bag for him and one for Charlie. then we would go around and get coloring/activity books, stickers, NCSU tattoos, pencils, rulers & notepads. The first 45 minutes of the trip home they spent going through their bags- Charlie colored with a pink hi-lighter that he got & Rosty did all the mazes and activities in the books. Then they both fell asleep.

Me & Lee got to enjoy some peace & quiet on the way home- the first we had all day...trust me! We also found a Starbucks and used a gift card that I had...yummy pumpkin spice latte.

I almost forgot the weather was perfect fair weather. Not too hot and not too cold. We all had jackets or sweaters but it was great.

I took a few pictures that I'll post tomorrow.

Caramel Apples

Me & Rosty made caramel apples last night.

It was his reward for getting no X's at school.

We unwrapped all the caramels (of course Rosty had to eat one), then I started warming the caramels on the stove while Rosty placed the wooden sticks in the apples.

The apples came from a vendor at the Davidson Market who has lots of apple trees in her yard & the best part is that she does not spray her apples. So we have "organic" caramel apples.

I let Rosty try his hand at dipping the apples in caramel but he wanted to decorate them instead. So we have caramel apples with chocolate sprinkles & MM's on them.

Yummy!

I took a picture of them but I figured everyone has seen caramel apples before so I won't post the picture........

Fun week-end!

I know my kids have lots of experiences that other kids do not get to have because they are farm kids but sometimes they miss out on a lot of things because we are so busy at the farm.

So on Friday night I took them to the NC Transportation Museum to see the Disney Christmas Carol Train Tour. There is a new 3-D movie coming out in November and the train is going around to promote the movie. They had some of the costumes on display, they also had TV screens with clips of how they animate the movie. At the end you could have your picture taken and have your face morphed into one of the characters. Me and the boys did this and they are suppose to send a copy to my email. If they do I will post it on here so you can see our pictures. They also showed about a 10-minute trailer of the movie (we had 3D glasses to wear). I thought Charlie would be scared but he said he wasn't although he did take the glasses off halfway through the viewing.

http://www.salisburypost.com/Area/101009-Christmas-Carol-train-spencer-shops

The night ended with a trip to Chick-Fil-A.

The boys enjoyed playing on the indoor playground.

Of course, this meant I was up to about 11 o'clock getting ready for the Farmer's Market but I'm glad they got to be kids for one night!

Saturday at the Salisbury Farmer's Market Charlie got to see his first parade. It was a small parade but there was 2 bands and several floats. They also had some dancers and a jump rope demonstration. It was a homecoming parade for Livingston College.

Baking Day

I want to have a baking day!

In one of the blogs I like to read (Money Saving Mom) she had a baking day. She made homemade waffles, muffins, lasagna, ziti, ground meat, etc. Then she is able to put all of these in the freezer and use when needed. Now she has all of these delicious, homemade meals already prepared and she only has to defrost.

My main problem with a baking day is I need a free day to do all of t his baking! My goal is going to have Baking Day on November 11th (I have this day off work).

I had a pseudo baking day last night.

I made a loaf of banana bread (to be eaten now) & banana bread muffins (to be frozen). I also made a spinach quiche but we are going to go ahead and eat that this week-end.

This year I am really going to try a lot harder to feed my family better. I think I have done good this year. We eat only our meats (of course). I use vegetables from our garden or from local farmers at the Farmer's Market but I do buy a lot from the grocery store too. I am very fortunate that we have friends who give us vegetables from their farm. I have put corn in the freezer, canned green beans & black-eyed peas.

I got a deal on bananas at the grocery store.

The store I shop at has an area where they have reduced fruit for sale. On Wednesday I got 2 avocados for 99 cents. So last night for supper we had tacos and homemade guacamole.

I also bought a bag of 9 bananas for $1.17 & there was only 1 that was bruised badly and this is what I used for my banana bread & muffins.

I also have recipes for

pumpkin chocolate chip muffins

(which I will use the pumpkin that I canned last year),

Southwest roll-ups

(I will use Wild Turkey Farms pasture-raised chicken that I have in the freezer along with homemade salsa),

and

homemade breakfast pockets

( I will use Wild Turkey Farms sausage & eggs).

I have not tried these recipes yet but I will post them if anyone is interested or you can go here:

http://www.moneysavingmom.com/money_saving_mom/2009/10/baking-day-southwest-rollups-and-pumpkin-chocolate-chip-muffins.html

So does anyone have any recipes they can share for meals that can be prepared ahead of time & frozen? I want a good meatball recipe if anyone has one of those, please!

The Adventures of BrownBear

Rosty had a neat homework assignment over the week-end. His kindergarten class has a bear named Brown Bear & every week-end he goes come with a different student. The student and their parents write in a journal what Brown Bear did over the week-end.

Brown Bear's adventure with the Menius Family was not a lot of fun.

Let's back up to Sunday. Rosty started running a fever and by Monday morning it was 103.1 F. Of course I called the doctor's office and they said to bring him in since his temperature was so high but to go ahead and give him Motrin and a cool bath. When we got to the appointment his temperature was only 101.2 F. They did do the rapid test and said he did not have the flu. The story does not end though.....his temperature reached over 104 F and I borrowed thermometers from my mother-in-law and neighbor so I could make sure mine was somewhat accurate.

His fever FINALLY broke early Tuesday morning. It was so heartbreaking to see him just laying on the bed, not moving, not talking just laying there. If you know Rosty you know it is very unusual for him not to be talking (he gets this from his daddy)! He still was not 100% and had a hacking cough so he got to stay home from school on Tuesday.

But back to Brown Bear.

Even though Rosty was back at school he just wasn't his usual self and on Friday he fell asleep on the way home from school. So Brown Bear hung out with me on Friday night. Folding clothes, getting ready for the Farmer's Market, fun stuff like that!

On Saturday Rosty spent the morning at the farm while I was at the Market. So him and Brown Bear hung out at his Grandma's house and watched TV. On Saturday night Rosty fell asleep at 6 o'clock. I let Brown Bear go to sleep then too.

But on Sunday Brown Bear learned about life at Wild Turkey Farms. Not only did he get to ride on the Gator & help feed but he got to help chase pigs. About 20 of our baby pigs were out and about in the woods. Rosty & Lee were in the woods looking for the pigs while me, Charlie & Brown Bear stayed close by where they were suppose to be in case they came home. We did get all of them but 4 and we refer to them as the 4 rouge pigs. They are on the farm just not with their brothers and sisters.

Brown Bear also got to go to some friends farm in Lawndale to see molasses being made. They had already done a lot of the work we got there when they were cooking the cane down to molasses.

So all in all I think Brown Bear had a good time with us. We hope he gets to come back to our house again and I'm sure we'll have another adventure waiting on him.