Ten reasons why I hate March

Just to make the record clear. I have hated March a lot longer than any of you because I have hated it since you were all little. I guess I have just rubbed off on the rest of you. So here goes, 10 reasons why I hate March.

1. It is so muddy that I want to scream because lots of mud gets tracked in the house from doing the chores.
2. It goes by so slow because there is nothing going on in March to look forward to.
3. You can never depend on the weather. It could be freezing one minute and warm the next.
4. I am ready for spring and it just isn't happening.
5. It never stays true to the saying and about if it comes in like a lion it will go out like a lamb.
6. It has already been winter for 5 months and needs to stop!!!!
7. I am in the mood to garden and it is still too early. By the time it is warm enough my mood has gone.
8. The lawn and trees are ugly and non-inspiring.
9. I am tired of being cooped up in the house all day long and so are the kids. If they go out when it is still cold they end up getting sick.
10. There are too many days in March. We need to vote and only have 20 days in March so we can get rid of this pathetic substitute for a month as soon as possible and move on to impish April.

We are all going down to Ray and Linsey's this weekend to celebrate Meggie's birthday. I can't believe she is going to be 1 year old. She is such a petite little thing. She came to vist a few weeks ago and you see how absolutely cute she is. Whenever anyone sees her the first thing they want to do is kiss her (especially me). The other kids are crazy for her. In fact, as you can see below, we had to put her in "jail" so the kids would quit bothering her and making her cry. She doesn't complain though because she is so good natured.

Meggie is my love name for Megan. She will always be Meggie to me. I am so blessed to have 11 great, wonderful, beautiful, smart, adorable, smart, active, funny, did I say smart, best grandchildren in the world.

Happy Birthday Meggie and know that we all love you very much.

Okay, here goes. This is a thought without any pictures. Most of the time I don't blog because I don't have any pictures but this will have to do.

I am most happy right now today, than I've been in awhile. Why?? I'll tell you. Because my sweetheart is as happy as I've seen him in a long time. He is almost giddy with anticipation. The new cows have made his life less tenuous and now we can really get on with building our ranch out to the meadow. It makes me so happy to see him happy. It is true what they say about happiness. If you want to be happy just make someone else happy and you will be too. If you are only thinking of yourself and your own happiness it never comes. I seem to forget that from time to time but I am back on track and looking forward to a bright new future on the ranch. We have turned a corner and we are on the upward trend. No more doom and gloom for me. So if you really want to be happy, see what you can do for your sweety pie and see how it makes you feel.

I have such pretty outside decorations this year I wanted to get a picture of them. They are a little fuzzy but they are still pretty. Each of my son-in-laws took a tree and put lights in them. You can see how nice they look. The closer one shows you the snowman blow up, the lighted deer, tree and santa train. If you look real close on the porch, you can see my Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus statue. Then the real close one gives a good picture of the house lights and the a tree that is actually in the living room this year. We did the lights in November when the weather was still mild. It was great. I love lights at Christmas. They make me feel happy.

It's Time...The Race is on.

 

Most of you know who much Lynn loves popcorn.  He has eaten so much he could pop himself but he has reached new heights.

At first I was buying ordinary bags of popcorn but they were gone way too fast and I don't like to go to the grocery store so that much so when Abby and I found this

I thought we had struck gold.  It was big enough to last for a long time, 12.5 pounds.  

Not!!!! 

  

 

 

So when Abby and I saw this sack at Sam's Club we jumped right on the bandwagon and said this is what he needs.   It is 50 pounds. I can't even carry it it is so heavy.  Now that better last more than a month. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the culprit popcorn popper.  The race is on.  We are betting how long it will take Lynn to eat 50 pounds of popcorn.  He opened it Saturday night and has started.  Now we all must decide what our time will be and let me know.  I say it will take him 2-1/2 months.  So let's see what the rest of you think.  The only good thing about popcorn is that it is not fattening, so at least he won't turn into a popcorn ball!!!

All is well with the world.

Have you ever had an experience where you just feel that all is right with the world and you feel content with your life???   Well I had one of those days on Sunday.  I had every one of my family home with me and we took this wonderful family picture.  Twenty of us now and 1 on the way.  How cool is that.

The day started out as we all went to church together which is about the most wonderful thing in the world except if we were in the temple.  It was great. 

The we got a great barbecue ready of turkey and funeral potatoes and yummy salads.  Lynn had to go to some meetings and then the fun began of trying to take family pictures.   

  Louis and Sheridy were first.  You can see how much fun they had. Stephen is never without his cowboy hat because he eats, drinks, sleeps, dreams cowboy.  He is always asking if what he is eating will make him a strong cowboy.  (Which of course we say yes).  McKenzie cooperates the best of anybody and is always happy to have her picture taken and Allie was just not interested. 

Then next was Linsey and Ray.  Kyle is our little "Pablo" and everything he does is just plain

cute (even if he is eating a bugger at the moment).  Rachel and Megan of course are just our little princesses.

Jenny and Justin have quite a challenge on their hands as the kids were just not in the mood.  I did get Zoey to stick her tongue out and Tyler is ready to cry, but we love them anyway. 

Lastly is Abby and Matt when everyone is hot and tired and ready to quit.  Abby even had to bribe Jeremy with $1 if he would be good and cooperate for a little while longer. Which he did to a degree.   Bailee was just happy to be wearing her new school clothes.

I was just happy to have some great pictures of my family.  The best is yet to come though.  The coup de grâce for a grandmother.  Just grandma and grandpa with the most wonderful grandkids in the world.  They they cutest you have ever seen?  Of course.  Now you know why all was well in my world on Sunday. (Especially since this is the last time we will all be together for who knows how long!)   

  

 

      

 

 

Hazards of Summer

All of us anxiously await summer with bursting anticipation of all that summer means. I love to look outside and see a beautifully manicured lawn that is green and lush and inviting you to sit on it and enjoy the sweet smells of summer. This was the case this summer until the yard gnome (you know from Harry Potter) decided to play fun tricks on me. Remember yard gnomes are in muggles' yards as well. I never could find them to throw them over the fence so I have been contending with them for weeks now.





Green lawns are not accomplished without sprinkler systems. It's just not possible. So the yard gnome made my sprinkler electrical box stop working. Lynn looked at it decided it was a fuse and it was fixed (we thought). But no, when it got to the last setting something else went wrong and there was a message of no power to the box. Nothing Lynn did could get that message to go away. This is now 4 days with no water on my lawn in 100 degree heat. We got desperate and Lynn went to King's Nursery for help. Oh, yes, I can get that box...... in a week. No we can't wait that long, our lawn is dying. Well maybe by Saturday. This is when my lovely lawn went to pieces. It was dry everywhere and I started trying to save it piece by piece with 1 sprinkler to my name and only 2 lengths of hose. Needless to say the lawn really got brown and ugly as you can see from the picture below. Not a pretty sight.

Finally the box came, the worker came to put it in and he spent approximately 1 hour putting it in. He programmed it and all was ready. Yeah, my lawn might be saved yet. I immediately turned on the sprinklers (yes, it was past 6 o'clock curfew time for water) and was a happy camper again. Except I forgot about the yard gnomes. They are persistent little pests. I got up at 2:30 a.m. the next morning to go to work thinking my how nice it was to have my sprinklers again. Happy as a lark.....until it got light enough to see and low and behold my sprinklers were not on, never had been on since hitting the fateful #6 setting the day before. I wish I could have found that yard gnome. I would have wrung his neck. So call the yard man again to come see what is wrong now. Five hours later he shows up and finds the cellunoid in the electrical box is bad. Do you have one? Nope, got to order it (of course). This took 4 more days before it would come. Meanwhile still trying to water with my little sprinkler. The guy came and it took him exactly 5 minutes to replace. Happy day, maybe.....I still have to see if it goes clear the cycle this time but low and behold, the water is turned off for some reason and there is no water now. Just my luck. Waited until night to see if there was water and there was so started my sprinkler. Too late to see if it goes through all the cycles, will see in the morning.

In the morning what to my wondering eyes did appear but....................

A sight for sore eyes. Yes, glorious sprinklers every where doing their thing. Never thought one could be so happy for sprinklers that work. Moral of the story: Lawn today, gone tomorrow.

By the way, I also almost got a watering ticket for watering past the curfew time. (I'm not used to having to turn the blasted things off and so was happily going about my business until a knock came at the door. Yup, busted for one lousy time, but he was nice and just warned me.)