A Royal pain in the.......

I've spoken before about my goats. If you missed my post on how much of a pain they can be, you can click HERE to catch up.
Last night I went down to the barn to feed the beasts goats. Our barn doesn't have electricity to it, just a solar light that isn't much help on dark winter days. So I try to feed them before it gets dark. It isn't easy scooping grain and holding a flashlight. Last night I didn't make it in time so I was having to feel my way around in the dark. There is always a mad dash from the five of them trying to get to the feeders. I successfully put the grain in both feeders and was in the process of putting hay in the upper part of the feeder when I was gouged in the backside by a horn!
Holy crappola, I was in shock. I flung around to figure out who the culprit was but in the dark and the commotion I couldn't tell so I just started cussing and kicking.
I reached around to feel a hole in the butt of my BEST fitting jeans. Son of a bitch.
I felt inside... no blood or gaping wound. Phew... at least I wasn't skewered like a kabob.
As I cussed and trudged through the mud back to the house I just started sobbing. I don't know what it was. I wasn't fatally wounded, heck I wasn't even bleeding. I just felt defeated... like I can't friggen win.
I went up to the shop were hubby was working on his car. He looked at me and said "What's wrong?"
I just started blubbering. All he could make out was goats and my hurt ass... then something about my favorite jeans.
He closed up shop followed me down to the house to console me.
I went into the bathroom to look at the damage. One inch long hole in the jeans and a six inch long scrape on my left cheek.
So I put two of the goats for sale on Craigslist. I'll be using the proceeds to buy new jeans.
So long suckers.. and so long 2007... this year kicked my hiney.. or horned it.. whatever.
I'm looking forward to a calmer gentler year for 2008.

I've crossed the line

A little conversation from this week...

Bug: "I want a cookie"

Me: " You can't have a cookie, how about an orange."

Bug: " Oh yea an orange sounds good"

As I pick out an orange for each of us, I notice the bottom of one looks kinda funny. Being in a goofy mood, I channel my inner 10 year old.

Me: " Look Bug, it's an Orange Butt."

Bug looks at me with disgust and in all seriousness says " That is NOT necessary."

Oh great, I've actually insulted a five year old boys sensibility. What does that say about me??
Never mind I already know the answer.

I learn something new every day....

I learned today that my camera has more settings than I will ever know. I learned that it has a nice setting that says "shoot with no CF card". Huh... Wonder what that means.
Well I'll tell you what it means.
It means you can shoot a zillion and one totally cool pictures of playing in the snow with your dear child and husband.
You can take some super funny pictures of your friends getting their truck stuck in said snow.
You can take great pictures of hubby and friends getting other friend unstuck from snow.
Then you can get home, turn on the computer and notice your CF card in the card reader of computer. Then lights come on in your tiny little brain as you run to your camera.
Then you look at the camera settings and curse yourself for not reading your manual better.
You then turn the "shoot with no CF card" option to OFF and bitch about it on your blog.
Yep, that's what that setting means.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow

You can find more wordless Wednesday posts HERE.

Happy Birthday Dear Hubby

It is my husbands birthday today. In honor of that I was going to take a day off of the computer, but he decided to spend it working on his race car so.... now he's going to get blogged about. Poor guy, two days before Christmas, so unfair. Since he has always lost out on the whole birthday party thing, last year for his fortieth I threw him a surprise party... in August. He was really really surprised.

So in honor of him, I'll share a few pictures of him and the things he truly loves doing.

He is a car nut, this past year he partnered with a friend, his friend built the car and hubby built the motor. Here he is racing it.

Here he is cleaning some parts in front of our shop.

Here he is teaching Bug how to build a motor...

Here is our show car.. that he is um... racing. You can't slow this guy down...

And last, here he is with Bug at the coast after a day of riding four wheelers.

Happy Birthday dear.... this is what you get for leaving me alone with the computer again.

Photo Hunters ~ Light

I couldn't decide this week. So here is an ornament on my tree, you stick a light through the bottom of it. It has a pretty glow.

This ornament actually has a little strobe light. I couldn't catch it right with the camera. This one can actually be pretty annoying...


Then I just had to put in a picture of the "light" of my life.

Happy Holidays! You can find more photo hunters here.

All I want for Christmas...

Is for my zits to be gone! Seriously, I'm thirty three years old. I shouldn't have to worry about waking up with a whopper zit in between my eyes.
It's a cruel, cruel joke to have wrinkles and pimples at the same time.
I'm sure it will still be hanging around in time for the family Christmas photos.
Damn it! I knew I shouldn't have grown out those bangs.
Please Santa I've been naughty really good this year.... put a little Proactive in my stocking.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Do you know what it is??

The Cards are in the mail

When Bug got home from daycare the day I received the messed up cards, I was complaining about them and showed them to him.

Me: "See, they put this little picture sideways!"

Bug: (while holding the card) "It's ok mom, people can just turn it like this to look at the other picture"

Hahahaha.. you gotta love that kids optimism!

I called the place I ordered from to complain and get a refund. The conversation went like this:

Me: "The cards I received are not what I ordered. One of the pictures is sideways."

Stupid lady: "Well you did check a box that says you have reviewed the card and know what you are ordering."

Me: " Uh.. yea I did, but what I was looking at was not what I received, I didn't ok a sideways picture!"

Long story short.. Stupid lady looked at the preview, it showed both photos upright. I received a full refund and didn't have to deal with shipping back. However that left me without cards. So I mustered as much creative skill as I could and I made my own card and printed them on my new super cool photo printer. They turned out ok, and all pictures are upright. So the cards are in the mail and I can stop stressing over that one.

Good Morning Dear

Hubby didn't sleep well last night. He woke up saying he was dreaming about all of his relationships with people. His birthday is coming up and I think it's affecting him. He said "I can't believe I'm 41. I can't believe I have a fifteen year old son." Then he says.. " I can't believe I've been married for so long!"

Well howdy do and a good morning to you too!

But really, I know what he means. Time flies by, my brain still thinks I'm in my early twenties. Then I look in the mirror and say " What!!?? oh crap I AM 33 not 23!"

It is all relative though... I'm trying a new trick. I'm trying to imagine that I'm seventy... so when I look in the mirror I'm totally surprised by how young my 33 year old self is. I'll let you all know if it works!

Christmas Hoopla

Corey over at Living and loving every minute of it tagged me with this Hoopla. I still have no idea who I will tag back. Oh the stress of it all. So here goes nothing.....
The rules:

1. List 12 random things about yourself that have to do with Christmas

2. Please refer to it as a 'hoopla' and not the dreaded 'm'-word (which, for you bloggy newbies, is meme)

3. You have to specifically tag people when you're done. None of this "if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged" stuff is allowed...then nobody ends up actually doing it. The number of people who you tag is really up to you -- but the more, the merrier to get this 'hoopla' circulating through the blogosphere.

4. Please try and do it as quickly as possible. The Christmas season will be over before we know it and I'd like to get as many people involved as possible.

Ok here we go...

1. As a child my Dad and I went to my Grandma's house every Christmas eve. As an adult I continued this tradition with my family until this year. We will be going to my dads house on Christmas day instead. Maybe it's the beginning of a new tradition.

2. I can't stand fake Christmas trees! We always get a real tree.

3. We only spend $7.00 on a six foot tall Grand Fir. The local church sells them as a fund raiser.

4. One year we cut a tree down off of our property. It was bigger than it looked, we put it on a trailer behind the riding mower. The mower got stuck in the mud on the hill. Hubby hooked up the four wheeler to pull us out. Imagine this... pouring rain, 4 wheeler hooked to lawn mower, trailer behind mower, huge tree on trailer. Hubby takes off.. me on mower, flying up a bumpy dirt road. Mud was flying... tree almost fell off around the corner. It was a site!

5. I make wreaths and center pieces every year. Bug and I go and cut the branches from three or four different kinds of trees. I put a heater in the garage, put on Christmas music and make several in one day. It's fun and tiring at the same time.

6. The whole sit on Santa's lap thing kind of creeps me out. "Here little one, sit on this strange mans lap and tell him what you want. Then he will give you a candy cane" That just doesn't seem right.

7. Despite this, I have taken Bug to see Santa. He sits next to him.

8. I use Santa as a discipline device. Yep, call me bad but it works great. "I'm calling Santa if you don't settle down!" Works perfectly.

9. I have a certain process when I decorate the house and tree. Everything is done in a certain order. If it gets messed up I get all flustered. For instance, the tree is decorated in order.. lights, ornaments and Angel on top LAST. One year hubby tried to put the angel first.. big mistake. Yep I'm weird.

10. After I had Bug, I lost all need or want of presents for myself. I am so much more excited for him and watching what he gets.

11. My favorite Christmas drink is a hot butter rum. My sister in law has a mix that is soooo good. I normally hate rum.

12. I buy my dogs Christmas presents and let them rip them open.

Phew! I made it! The only person I came up with to tag is Zen. So if your reading consider yourself tagged!

Photo Hunters ~ Small

This spider was hanging out in my garden this summer. He looks huge, but he is very small.

Christmas programs

Bug had two Christmas programs this year. Even though he goes to pre-school and daycare in the same building, they have separate programs for each. So last Friday he had his daycare program and last night we went to his pre-school program.
The seating was horrible both nights. I'll start with last Friday, I had to strain to see Bug. I was in charge of the camera and hubby was in charge of the video camera. I could barley get any shots off and was cussing myself for not getting there earlier for a front row seat. I also made the mistake of not bringing a zoom lens. Oh well, hubby had the video and he was doing a good job holding it above heads. Bug did really good, singing some Christmas song about baby Jesus for the first song. The second song was Jingle bells, they put little gloves with bells on the kids for that one. On the way home while jingling his new gloves, Bug said " I can't believe they let me keep these!" Wow, imagine them not wanting to keep twenty pairs of jingle glove at the daycare.... I just can't.
Fast forward to last night. Bug has become very particular about his clothes and hair. He doesn't want that shirt or those pants and MOOOOOOMMMMM please don't comb my hair that way. We finally get there to find out there are twenty times as many people at this program as the last. Great.... no luck with better seats. In fact once we get into the gym there are exactly two chairs left in the back row. Hubby ended up standing in the back to video while I tried ducking in the aisle to get a good picture. I never did get a good one. Bug had about five songs last night and did so good. He loves the stage, he was doing all the moves and singing all the words. I'm so proud.
When we got home Bug wanted to watch the video. I hooked it up and as it was rewinding, hubby says " I think I recorded the ground for a while, I thought it was on standby." HAHAHA so funny! I get it rewound past Friday night's concert and we quickly realize that on Friday hubby recorded the first song, thought he turned it off but didn't, recorded his feet, then turned it off thinking he was turning it on for the second song. Then he turned it back on for the drive home! So there are literally ten minutes of black ( He put the cap on) and sound of us driving home! He is officially fired from video duty!

Wordless Wednesday

'Tis the season for frustration!

Just a little rant here. I ordered photo cards for Christmas last week. I chose a card with two pictures on it. They arrived today and the second picture is SIDEWAYS! ARGH!!! Now I know for a fact I didn't order it that way.. misspelling something, that I could do, but a sideways picture??? No friggen way. So to those of you reading that are waiting for a wonderful card with pictures of Bug.. you may get it after Christmas!

Photo Hunters ~ Long

My dachshund Rocket may not be tall but he is certainly long!

The life of dogs

I love dogs, but why do they have to be so gross sometimes? I have two little dogs. Yesterday I look out my office window to see Angel my mini American Eskimo eating something in the front yard. I tap on the window, she doesn't even look up, she is ripping it apart. Great, just great.

I go outside to inspect it.

Me: "What are you eating baby girl?"

Angel: " GRRRRRR"

Me: " Don't growl at me move aside"

Angel: "GRRRRRR"

She looks up and I see that she is eating a rabbit leg... feet and furl still on it.

Me: " EWWWWWW Gag.. let it go... gag"

Angel: " GRRRRRRR"

Me: " Never mind.. you can have it.. gag..."

You would think looking this pretty that she wouldn't do such icky things.

And so he doesn't feel left out, here is a pic of my mini-dachshund Rocket.

I have no idea where the rest of the rabbit is.. and I don't think I want to know!

Wordless Wednesday

Stranger danger

A little conversation from this morning...

Me: "Bug would you like some oatmeal for breakfast?"

Bug: "Mom, you don't need to call me Bug. There aren't any strangers in our house."

Me: "Oh well.. sorry... I didn't think you cared that I called you Bug"

Bug: " Save it for the computer mom."

And it starts....

The Bird Feeder

Because I used a picture from the bird feeder project for photo hunters, I decided to show the project in is entirety. My aunt Jane sent Bug a build your own bird feeder kit for his birthday. He loves making things and he loves watching birds. Someday I'll tell you all about his obsession with the Audubon society bird book I have, but that will take a while so it will have to be another post. Here is how we started out.

This was mostly a father & son project, with mom as number one spectator and picture taker. Hubby would start the nails, let Bug pound them in and then finish them up to make sure they were tight.

Bug concentrated very hard and didn't hit daddy's finger once with the hammer. Although daddy was a bit nervous that he would loose a couple digits.

They got it all put together. It turned out just like the picture on the box. Good job boys.

Then it was time to paint. Bug picked out which colors would go where. He then meticulously painted the whole house. He let me paint a bit of blue and let daddy help even the paint out a bit now and then.

At one point he said "Mom, I want to be an artist when I grow up!" Last week it was a rock star and the week before it was an animal watcher so I won't get too excited about it yet.

The next day I picked up some bird seed from the store and we filled it up.

Now here is a funny thing, Bug didn't remember, but Aunt Jane bought him a bear backpack for his first birthday. It has been hanging in his closet for a while. Out of the blue he put it on to go outside and fill the bird feeder with. Spooky!

By the way, he filled the back pack with three pairs of shorts and some sandals. Funny boy.

Photo Hunters ~ Red

I didn't have to look far for inspiration. My son was painting the roof of his new bird feeder a nice shade of red last night.

A step in the right direction

I know that being a parent is hard, but I'm positive that being a step-parent is harder. At least that has been the case for me. As Bugs mommy I get hugs and kisses and adoration. Sure being a parent has challenges, but you get rewarded with so much.

As a stepmother, the rewards are fewer and farther between.

Let me tell you a bit about my stepson and our history. I have been in his life since he was three years old, he is now fifteen.

He is so smart this boy. When he was four his dad said to him "Look there's a shooting star" stepson said "Actually dad, a shooting star isn't really a star. It's a meteor and we can see it because it's burning up in the Earths atmosphere" Yes.. at four!

When he was three he used to say to me.. "Odum... I love you" It would melt my heart. When we would ride in the car he always wanted me to lean my seat all the way back. I would flip my hair over the seat and he would run his little hands through it. It helped him feel safe and comfortable, he had terrible anxiety about being away from his mom. The only time he wasn't with her was when he came to visit hubby and I. So it was very difficult for him.

During a visit with us, about a year into my relationship with hubby, stepson said to me out of the blue "My mom thinks your ugly" My heart sank, I said "Well, what do you think?" He thought about it for a second and said "I don't think your ugly" Ever since that time it has been a struggle connecting with him. He has felt torn between having a relationship with me and not wanting to betray his mom. I have tried not to push anything on him, when he felt more comfortable referring to me as his "step-friend" instead of "step-mom" I didn't mind. I told him he could refer to me however he felt comfortable.

I have struggled to keep in mind that he is a child and only says what he learns at home. I have had a hard time relating to him over the years. The life he lives with his mom and grandparents is very different than the one we live.

Until this year he was home schooled. He struggled interacting with other kids. He would try to parent them and correct them. He was overly mature in ways and under mature in other ways.

Two and a half years ago he moved with his mom and grandparents across the country. Since then we have not seen him often. It is up to us to purchase any and all plane tickets in order to see him and we have to rely on his mom to tell us when she will get him to the airport.

So this brings us to this past week, he flew out for Thanksgiving. He is now in High school now and boy what a change. He was so much more laid back. I wasn't walking on eggshells wondering what he would come up with to complain to his mom about. He was so much better with Bug, he didn't get as annoyed with him. Bug adores him, he wants to be in his face every second when he is here.

In fact if Bug was harassing me while I was cooking dinner, his big brother would come in and entertain him so that I could finish what I was doing.

I had good conversations with him, in depth talks about religion, politics, what he believes in. This boy is not the boy I saw 16 months ago. He is so much more mature. So it's a big huge step in the right direction for our relationship. One that has been a very long time coming.

Here are some pics from his visit.