Monday, December 22, 2008

Pictures again

As you can see in one of the pictures I cut my bangs today on the spur of the moment. I called my husband to see if it was okay with him. He asked if I would rather wait and have someone cut them for me, to ensure that they looked good. I told him that if it was all the same to him I would just as soon try it myself. I have cut my own bangs on two other occasions in my life. Once it looked good, once not as good. He said that was okay with him, he doesn't mind bangs as long as the rest of my hair stays long. So I snipped snipped them off. Tyrel was watching and slowly backed away from me as if he didn't recognise me. It may not have been a good idea to let him see me cut my own hair, as it may let him think such things are okay for HIM to do.
Anyways, after I trimmed them I called my husband back in mock despair asking him to please not be mad...My hand just sort of....slipped. He was busy talking to someone so didn't even notice what I said really, so it wasn't very funny. When he asked what I said I just told him I was trying to tease him and that my bangs turned out fine.
I really like this first picture of Tyrel. Waaaay too cute. Also I thought it was funny last night (in the bottom pictures) when he climbed into T's lap to share her tea with her.

24 before 25

Well now that I have turned 23 and am that much closer to being 25 I reckon I ought to update my 25 before 25 list. I now have 24 things on my list instead of just 23. Just need to think of one more thing I would really like to learn before I turn 25.
1) Learn to quilt
2) Be a good housekeeper Doing much better at this actually
3) Learn to play the guitar (one of many instruments I want to learn) Now that I have a tuner I hope to really take off on this. I have been practicing every day.
4) Grow my own garden Hopefully this spring
5) Can things from my garden
6) Learn to "tan hides" (no not spank Ty..."I'll tan yer hide boy!") see yesterday's post
7) Get good at sewing I am working on a new jumper
8) Get my CHL Taken the class, but still need to send all the stuff off.
9) Quit being lazy doing fairly well most days
10) If I can't say something nice....don't say it. I do believe I am doing much better at this as well.
11) Get Trevor his antlers Hopefully before the season is over
12) Learn to bow hunt
13) Run a trap line all winter Will be starting soon
14) Learn to cook healthy and GOOD food (like Julie) Doing better at this as well...no complaints from husband or brother anyway.
15) Go fly fishing in the mountains (learn to fly fish also. haha)
16) Learn decent photography I work on this one all the time. I have been reading up on it and found out all kinds of new tricks
17) Send the book I wrote in 6th grade to a publisher
18) Learn carpentry (and make Stephen and I a bedframe) We are working on making one for Tyrel right now.
19) Learn to do a backbend/walkover
20) Learn to crochet or knit, maybe both does the Knifty Knitter count?
21) Finish the crosstitch thing I started almost 3 years ago
22) Go to Alaska again...with Stephen and Ty (and other chillin's we may have by then)
23) Move into a "real" house with our own property. (I am very thankful for what we have now, but hopefully by the time I am 25, we won't be here anymore)
24) Learn to clog...a kind of dance I will be going to watch a class on January 5th, and hopefully can join a class soon. Yay!

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Skinning 'coons

Stephen and Tommy went varmint hunting last night. They brought home 4 raccoons, so today I got to try my hand at skinning. Now that it has finally got cold here we are hoping to run a trap line. By the end of winter I hope to be quite good at this. We are going to get the stuff we need in town tomorrow, and hopefully get the tanning process started this week. One more thing I'm working on from my 25 before 25 list. Which reminds me, I need to do an update on all the things I am learning.
The pictures are all taken by my sister in law "S".
Starting the cutting
Looking a little grossed out (It smelled terrible)
Peelinggetting used to it

all done!


Fat, naked raccoon

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Just Some Pictures

Here are some cute pictures from the past few days.
Tyrel showing off his new blanket Granola made.
Snuggles with GraNola
Kisses for S
Cheesy
Kisses for GraNola
Not cooperating with showing off his blanket
.

Friday, December 19, 2008

How is this Tic? My mom always seems to have trouble reading things when they look fine on my computer. I think ours must show the colors lighter than on other computers.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Tyrel's Birth Story.

Countryside magazine is wanting home birth stories so I finally wrote out Tyrel's. This is it after I sent it to my editor (aka Mom) to fix it up a little.
Now to get it in the mail to Countryside.

Full Circle
I was born at home, my Mom's first homebirth of four, after two hospital births. Her home births included breech twins. I have heard how much more relaxed and easy her home births were in comparison to the hospital births. I have never been a big fan of doctors myself. I know they have their place, but it seems to me that many doctors just want to prescribe a drug for a quick fix rather than actually finding out what is causing the patients problems. If there is one thing I learned from my Mom's home births, it is that a normal pregnancy is not an illness nor a medical crisis.When I became pregnant with my first, and so far only, child, I knew I did not want to go to the hospital. I never really even considered the hospital as an option for childbirth. Thankfully, my husband was 100% supportive of my desire to have our baby at home. A friend recommended a midwife to us, Carol, who fortunately didn't mind that we lived way out "in the boonies". Our house is on my husband's parents property, 40 miles from the nearest hospital. It is more than 3 miles from the nearest paved road, through two gates, and could be difficult to find in the middle of the night. We are at the end of the power lines, more than two miles, as the crow flies, from our nearest neighbor- with the exception of my husbands parents, who live next door.The midwife and her assistant Kelly, a nurse-midwife in training, made several visits to our isolated ranch, assuring they would be able to find it if I did happen to go into labor in the middle of the night.I tend to be a person who worries- a lot!- when I don't know what is going on with my body. I called the midwife on many occasions just to be sure all the changes my body was going through were normal. I called my Mom at times, so that I wouldn't bother the midwife too much. All in all, I had a wonderful pregnancy. I had no morning sickness to speak of, and no swollen feet or ankles.It was so neat to watch the midwife feel around on my belly, and be able to tell me what position the baby was in, and all of the parts she could identify by feel. The midwife made sure my husband and I knew what to expect during labor and the birthing process. She made sure I was eating properly and getting enough vitamins and protein. I was told to call her once I my labor had progressed to the point I could not talk through a contraction.I had false labor about a week and a half before the real thing started. The midwife and her assistant came out and were as convinced as I was that this was really labor. We called my parents in Arkansas... and they started out on the 10 hour drive to west Texas almost immediately. Just before they arrived, my contractions stopped. The midwives went home. My Dad had to go back to work in Arkansas after a few days, disappointed. Mom stayed with us and made sure I was exercising. She had me walking around the property twice a day, and marched me up at down the stairs at my In Laws house next door.Finally, on the 24th of July, my labor really started. My husband, a short-haul truck driver, had been called out on a load that afternoon. When he left, I seemed to be no closer to being in labor than I had been all week. I wanted to be really sure I was in labor this time, before calling the midwife out. I didn't want her making the hour and a half drive for nothing. She had said, call her when I could no longer talk through the contractions... and I was still talking just fine. Thankfully, Mom didn't think we should wait quite that long... and called the midwife about midnight. My husband arrived home shortly after the midwives did. By then, I COULD still talk through the contractions, I just didn't much feel like it. Not long after that, we moved to the bedroom where I wanted to have the baby. My mom, husband, mother in law, and the midwives took turns holding warm wash cloths on my lower back because that seemed to help ease the pain somewhat.
Sometime during the night...well early morning, everyone went to take a nap as I didn't seem to be progressing very fast, and I went to soak in the tub for a while. My sweet husband sat beside the tub and napped there. After I don't know how long, I got out and wandered back into the bedroom. The student midwife, Kelly, was in the bedroom. She helped me back into my shirt.
I told her that I felt like if I could go to the bathroom I would feel better. She told me to go ahead and try. So I headed to the potty and she scurried off to get Carol, my midwife. Carol came and checked me, said I was fully dilated and pushing. She asked if I wanted to have the baby right there on the bathroom floor or could I move to the bedroom.
I wanted to move to the bedroom, so I did. At the foot of the bed, I squatted over some towels and absorbent pads while holding on to my husband. The rest seemed to go by pretty fast. A few weeks before, Carol had told me that the baby had his hand up by his head, and she hoped he would move it ...but he didn't. My son was born head and arm first at 9:45 AM on July 25th...my grandpa's birthday.
Carol was a little worried about my bleeding and gave me a herbal remedy to help with that. My husband cut the cord and I moved to the bed. I nursed my sweet little guy, and took a long nap with my husband and new son. My mom fed people a snack while my mother in law went to town to get lunch and pick up her younger children from friends.
It was very stress free and we are planning on having home births with all of our children.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Like Father, Like Son

I guess Tyrel loves his daddy so much he wants to be like him in EVERY way. Including a dog bit face.
Thankfully Tyrel's is not as bad as his daddy's was. His daddy had to have stitches from a dog bite on his face as a young teenager. Well Ty is a long ways from being a teenager, but thank the Lord, he is also a long ways from needing stitches as well. Stephen's hunting dog took a nip at Ty in the livingroom earlier. He has a little cut on the inside corner of one eye...not ON the eye, but real close, and on the outside of the other by the temple. I don't think she was trying to hurt him, just nipped at him because he was wallowing on her. Either way, she won't be coming in the house anymore.
Here is a post bite picture.
And some cute ones from the other day. Cousin Raylee and Tyrel.
and Tyrel with a sticker on his nose.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

23...On My Birthday

Well, today I am 23. On my birthday.
Wow, time sure does go by fast. On my birthday.
I got a sewing maching from my parents on my birthday...well I got it a few weeks ago on my birthday. No my birthday wasn't a few weeks ago on my birthday. It is today on my birthday. On my 16th or so birthday I started an annoying habit of saying on my birthday after every sentence on my birthday.
I sure don't want any of ya'll to miss out on the fun of that on my birthday.
I got a flashdrive from my in laws on my birthday, so I can put all my pictures on it on my birthday in case something happens to the computer on my birthday. I got a card from my Grandma Arlene on my birthday. Well yesterday on my birthday. I also got a card from my husband's aunt and uncle (Thanks Tic and Dusty! on my birthday)
I got a new guitar string and a tuner from my husband on my birthday...now maybe I'll actually learn to play it on my birthday.
I also got a funny game from my brother Tommy on my birthday. It is called "Would you rather...?"..on my birthday. We haven't got to play it yet but I will post some of the funny questions on my birthday.
Would you rather.....
"As a man, have your grandmother's first name...or her haircut?"
"Eat a small can of catfood....or eat 7 whole lemons (seeds pulp, juice and rind)?"
"Have to give up any chance to ever earn more than $4 per hour, in exchange for a 50/50 chance on winning $100 million tomorrow...or pass on the gamble and continue with your 9 to 5 job?"
"Always have to wear wet socks....or wet underwear?"
On my birthday.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Tommy's First Deer.

Well I gave him time to post about it and he didn't yet. So I will.
Saturday Tommy got his first deer. A 4 point buck. 3 on one side and a spike on the other. Tommy and I had gone out early that morning and set up on a fence line between two fields that we can hunt in. I was on one side and he was on the other. We sat there in silence...more or less...waiting for legal shooting light. The wind was blowing so hard out of the south I think we could have been screaming to each other and the deer wouldn't have heard us, and of course they couldn't smell us as we were to the north of where we hoped they would come from. After a while Tommy moved from the brush to lay at the edge of the field. About a minute or less later he shot. The little buck had been walking towards him, and if he waited much longer it would have walked right over him. I was MAYBE 30 yards away when he shot. He dropped it with one shot through the neck with his 243. Praise the Lord. We had prayed before we headed out that if we got anything it would be a quick clean kill and it was.
Way to go Tommy. You beat me to it. Maybe I'll get one soon though. Between Tommy and Stephen that is 6 deer for us so far this season.
And just because, some pictures of Tyrel.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

16 and a half months

Helping with dishes at Granola's
I know, I never posted about Ty turning 16 months. I don't even know what all has changed in the last month and a half.


He has become very daring for one thing. He climbs anything and like to jump from things onto others. Like from the coffee table to the couch, or my hope chest to the bed. He tries to climb fences and bookshelves, and can climb up the side of this high chair to get in it for meals. It sits at the table without a tray like a regular chair.

Checking stock in the trailer

He likes to prop his feet up on the table if nobody is looking. It greatly amuses me, but I try not to let him see that as I tell him to get his feet down. He likes to give us "kissadillas". One day at lunch I asked him if he wanted a quesadilla, and he leaned over and gave me a kiss as if I had asked for one, and so now we call kisses kissadillas...for you yankees, that is pronounced "kiss uh dee uh". Helping Mama soak her feet after she stepped on a nail the other day

Yesterday while out playing with Daddy and Mama he grabbed a cactus. His poor little hand was covered in cactus needles. We had to hold him down and hold his hand open under a bright light to get all of them out. He was a trooper. such a tough hombre...granted he did cry plenty, but you would have too. eating an apple on the way to town

He also loves to dance. Any time I turn on music he starts dancing. Little steps in one place, or big steps across the room count as dancing. So does shaking his head or leaning back and forth or side to side really fast. I wish I looked that good dancing so bad. lol.

The other day while I was babysitting, the little girl I watch was taking her food off her plate and setting it on the table. We don't let Ty do that so I told her to put it on her plate. She just looked at me because she didn't understand what I wanted her to do, so Tyrel leaned over and picked it up and put it on her plate for her, it was WAY too cute. Then she blew him a kiss and he returned it. Goofy kiddos.

eating pizza in town