TGIF!!!!

That's about how I feel today. Most of the time Friday is like any other day of the week but for some reason this week has been extra taxing on my nerves...maybe it's that monthly thing, who knows?

The kids have been having problems with math this week...don't ask me why it's been mostly review, they can do it it's just that they hate math and hate sitting to do it. I will admit that 4 pages of about 25 problems each can get tedious...maybe next week we will see how they do by only doing odds or evens like I used to do in school.

And laundry? Who doesn't have a washer and dryer of their own? I do! BUT they are in my brother-in-laws garage, NOT in my apartment where they belong! And it costs at least $20 a week to do laundry! At LEAST! I NEVER used that much worth of electricity and water per week when I did laundry with my own washer and dryer! It's absolutely absurd! I thought we were living in these apartments because they are cheap and we are supposed to live cheaper...not so! It cost $1.75 per load to wash and dry which may be cheap by laundry mat standards but the load size is about half of my washer that's in a garage! And you find out the hard way if you overload the washer because when it's time to dry - they come out damp and you have to re-dry them for another $0.75!

So, you can probably sympathize with me and my laundry woes...anyone with more than 2 children can REALLY understand because I'm sure you have even more laundry than me to do!

Hmmm...

This really makes me wonder if what these people are pedaling is for real...I just found some random pictures of people and put them in the meter and this is what I got...




I also did it with my kids...it was really kinda fun.

The fake one was funnier though!

Things Luke Says to Get Out of School Work:

Luke: Mom, are these all right? (showing me his math workbook)
Mom: (after checking them over) Yep, looks good!
Luke: Good, they were a bit of a challenge for me because my eyes are bothering me today! - Which translates: Good thing I don't have to do any over again because my eyes hurt from the crying fit I just had because I didn't want to do my math today to begin with!

Yep, It's Another PhotoShow!

And it's a long one! Enjoy!

Excellent Oppertunity

Hey! I just wanted to make a plug for the book club that I am in. It's pretty fun and it's all done online. I don't think I've mentioned it before but there is a banner on my sidebar for it. The reason for telling you about it now is that they are changing their start up policy is changing soon! They are currently giving everyone who signs up 3 free credits when you post your first 9 books, that's pretty good, it means you get 3 books free! But they are changing it to 2 free credits when you post your first 10 books. So if you have been thinking of joining no better time than now.

Since I joined I have gotten 11 books and I have one on it's way. I have 15 books. They only cost about $2 each to sent so you only pay that much for each book you get (you get one credit for every book you send). They have books for kids and adults and there is also a rather large selection of home school books.

So, here's their form letter they have for me to email out but I thought it would be easier to just post it here and let you decide. Remember! If you are going to join use my email address as your referral because I get a free credit for every referral I give.

Do you have any used paperback books lying around? I did, and I finally found a great way to share them with other people.

It seems that a few guys were sitting around one night talking about all the paperback books that they purchased over the years when they traveled on business. Each of them had a stack of books that they had read. So they decided to set up a web site http://www.PaperBackSwap.com/ that allows all of us to swap paperback books with each other. Now it's grown to include ALL books--hardcovers and audio too!

Let me tell you how it works because it is so easy. I listed a bunch of books on the site (you have to list at least 9 books to get in the club) and I got 3 free book credits to get me started. So you can order 3 books right away - free of charge and have them mailed directly to you. No strings attached. No gimmicks. No spam mail. Nothing! You just have to love reading.

Then when another member selects one of my books that I have listed, I mail it to them. Yes, I pay for the postage. But then I get a book credit and I can select a book that I want. So another Club Member returns the favor and mails me one of their books free of charge. For every book I mail out, I get another book in return - a true shared system!

And when someone requests one of your books, all you have to do is print a two page document on regular paper from your printer, and use them to wrap the book. The wrapper includes the mailing address and the amount of postage. Then drop the package in the outbound mail. Hey, most of the time you don't even need to go to the post office!

Right now the annual club membership is FREE! Eventually the founders will ask everyone to help contribute to pay for the upkeep of the web site, but for now the annual club membership is free. The annual dues will probably be between $10 and $20 based on the number of people in the club. But again, right now you don't even have to pay any dues for one year if you become a Charter Member.

You really need to check this out! And if you do sign up, please list my email in the referral section because then I get another free book. This is a great club! http://www.PaperBackSwap.com/

I have A New Friend...

Check my sidebar.... :)

First Day of School

Well, we had a belated first day of school. With all the packing and unpacking and visiting and visits from relitives I barely have had the time to order curriculum - let alone get anything started! The majority of my time online since we got online again has been searching for and ordering what we are going to use this year. Here's what we are doing:

• Math - ACE - the same thing we used last year. The kids aren't fond of it at all but I was afraid to deviate from what we've used because I'm not sure of the level of their math skills from ACE and I didn't want to order something different and end up with learning gaps.
• Spelling - A Reason for Spelling
• Handwriting - A Reason For Handwriting

These are the three that we have and are working on right now. Next week we will be starting:

• Science - Real Science 4 Kids Chemistry Pre-Level 1
• Reading/History/Social Studies/Art/etc. - Prairie Primer with the Little House on the Prairie Series. This is an excellent unit study that we will also intagrate SD history into and visit the Laur*a Inga*lls Wil*der Homestead and Prairie Vill*age here in SD in the spring. They are both pretty close so we are really looking forward to it.

I haven't picked out English yet because I'm not sure if or how it's involved in the Prairie Primer so after we get that I will make my decision about where to go from there.

New Places, New Home, New Name!

I decided to go with a new name and a new look to go with our new home. Especially because I was tired of my not-so-original out-of-the-blue original name. I plan on trying to put in a picture of a SD sunset soon but for now my colors are as close to sunset colors as I could get them.

Somebody told me it was hard to see with all that black and bright colored font so hopefully this will be better for you...but the next time it bothers your eyes you are going to have to leave me a comment! :) LOL

Moo Part 2

Ok, ok, I know it's been way past the 10th so you all are probably thinking, "It's about darn time she gets up her new post!"

Before I forget again, the Moo a noise I hear around here freequently. Usually at night when I am puting the kids to bed we can her the cows (and occationally smell them:P) from the 2 stock yards near us - one is a block away in one direction and the other is about a mile away in the other direction. So either way the wind blows we can smell them. It's actully not so bad that you can't handle it, just a little whif to remind us that we aren't in Chicago anymore! :) Yeah!

So the big move went well. It was very draining for me, both physically and emotionally. Who would have ever thought we had so much stuff! I didn't think it was all going to fit, and we had the biggest truck from Penske! I came to the realization that my kids are no longer babies. They worked HARD! I honestly don't know what I would have done without them. They brought as many boxes each up the stairs and out to the truck as I did easily. I am so proud of them and at the same time it makes me wish for their younger years, they seem to be growing up too fast! Maybe in a couple of years we could think about another one....yeah, right!

The first night we had the truck we packed until around 8 or so. My mom had taken the kids to church to say goodbye to their friends on their last Wednesday night service so Bob and I were there alone. We had just picked everything up and closed the back of the truck when we decided to run to the gas station to get a soda. We had hurried to get everything done because the sky was looking menacing and we didn't want to get wet. The gas station isn't far, maybe a mile but by the time we were half way there we encountered rain, hail, and wind that was unbelievable! A tree fell on the other side of the street as we were driving by and when we got to the gas station we were soaked to the skin from the 10 feet between the car and the building. We had just gotten to the cases where the soda is and the electricity went out! So there we stood in the gas station freezing and wet in the dark wondering what to do. The girl at the check out said she couldn't sell anything because the register wouldn't even open for the lack of electricity so we decided to just go home and drink what was there...tap water. :P Things got even crazier as we were on our way home so I called my mom and told her to keep my kids in the church where it was safe until we could find a way home and let her know the situation. It took us almost an hour to get home because every road we turned into had trees down across them. We went by bent and twisted sign posts and puddles that were more the size of small ponds - one of which we stalled the car right in the middle of! Luckily we got it started again and finally found a street that was clear literally to the driveway. A tree from across the street had a huge branch down in the driveway so we had to drive across part of the lawn to get into the yard. Bob and I worked together to move the big branch in the driveway and soon had everyone in the neighborhood coming down the street as it was the only way in and out. The storm calmed somewhat after that and my mom brought the kids home - they were pretty excited about such a big storm and thought it was pretty cool but neither one of them were willing to sleep in the dark basement! So they ended up on the floor and the couch in the living room that night. After the storm calmed down there was still a lot of rain so Bob and John went and borrowed the generator from the church to hook up to the sump pump in the basement. It was a good thing we had it! They were out of electricity for 3 days there and the pump ran literally every minute for the first day or so! We called Penske and they graciously gave us 3 extra days on the truck because the next day we couldn't even get the thing out of the yard because of all the downed trees. They were using a snow plow to push the trees off the roads until they could get to chopping them up and hauling them away.

After all that we were a day late getting out of there but once we got on the road things went smoothly. My mom and John came along to help us unpack because we didn't have anyone here that we knew to help out. It was really nice to have them here those first couple of days. They helped out a lot!

We got here on a Saturday morning after spending the night with Bob's brother and unpacked the truck for the rest of the day. Sunday my mom and I unpacked my kitchen (I still haven't found my salt and pepper shakers and sugar bowl that match my set, grrr...) and Bob and John took the truck back. Monday my mom and John left to go home and Bob, the kids and I went to new student orientation at school. The kids were exhausted and were amazingly pretty good - I think they were more like zombies than kids that day! They both fell asleep in the desks while Bob's instructor was telling us about the school and classes and such. It was quite funny! The other guys in the class couldn't get over how funny it was and how much they wanted to do the same thing! LOL

Tuesday morning Bob started his classes and that's pretty much where we are at.

We don't have any living room furniture because we sold it all when we moved from Michigan but we don't really have room for it yet anyway. Our living/dining room is really rather small and once we got the table and chairs, bakers rack/microwave table, china cabinet, computer desk and TV in here we don't have much for anything else. MAYBE a small couch or love seat would fit but we would have to get rid of a few boxes and rearrange some stuff a little.

We had to get rid of a lot of stuff! Bob took 2 car loads to the Sal*vation Ar*my and 1 load of books, CD's, DVD's and VHS movies to the library. And we STILL have to get rid of more stuff. There just isn't room for it! This is the smallest place we have ever lived and we've always had a garage before for storage. It's not such a bad thing because it forces us to reevaluate what we have and what we really need but it's been difficult deciding what to keep and what to get rid of - more for Bob than for me though! The way I have been looking at is that I haven't used most of it in 2 years, why do I need to keep it? Most of it is replaceable so if we need it again in the future we can get a new one. Hopefully we won't need to move so much junk when we move again!

So that's it for our moving adventure. I will post more later on what we have been up to since then.

Moo

That is the first sound that struck me our first night in our new home! More on that later...

We are getting settled slowly (Jamie! Where are you with your quick unpacking skills when I need you!:). This place is a lot smaller than we anticipated - our apartment that is - and we have had to get rid of a lot of stuff. We are still sifting through boxes of kids toys and parental junk that we constantly ask, "Do we really need that?" or "Have they outgrown this yet?" I have a huge load of stuff for good will but haven't gotten a chance to get it there because we only have one car!

Bob is enjoying his new "career" as a full time student with 20 credits! His books alone cost $500 and his tools will more than triple that for this semester. With more to come next semester! Fortunately next year will be much less because most of the books he had to get this year - only like $200 next year and tools will be covered because he won't need anymore new ones next year. Who ever knew that being an airplane mechanic was so expensive!

So, I am at the library and should go find my kids. We won't have internet until the 10th so I will give you the whole scoop then - complete with pictures!

And We're Off!

Well, the computer is being packed today and I'm not sure when I will be back online. We will be in our new house on Friday but I'm not sure when we will have internet access again...who knows how long it will take to get it there in the middle of nowhere!

Until then, happy blogging my sweet blogging friends! :)

Journey to a Cake

Our busy weekend is finally over and I am pooped! I'm ready for bed but before I go I wanted to tell about this wonderful dairy-free cake I made over the weekend. It took me 2 days to do - one to bake and one to put it together and decorate. (I also baked 2 batches of brownies from a box and a different chocolate layer cake from scratch for a cake walk at church on the same day I baked Luke's cake. Can you call me crazy please? I know I was feeling that way on Friday when I did it!) Sami even said that it didn't taste like it was dairy-free! Yes! This is the cake I have been looking for all these years! I got this awesome book for the library that I'm going to have to get from ebay called Amazing Dairy-Free Desserts by Penny Wantuck Eisenberg. Thank you Penny! I love this book and can't wait to try out the ice cream - it's one of the things that Luke has really missed since being on his dairy-free diet. There is even some great info at the beginning of the book about dairy-free products and where to find them. The "Chocolate Marshmallow Layer Cake" - I'm not sure if I can post the actual recipe because it is published so I won't - has tofu sour cream in it. It's the "secret ingredient" so to speak. Luke loved it - even better because he's the one it was for!

Amie, you have to find this book. Sammy would love you for it - not that he doesn't love you already! But you can score some pretty big cool mom points when you make him those chocolate chip cookies! Which are also great, by the way. There are some eggs in it but I'm sure you have found some pretty good egg substitutes that would work just fine!

So, without further ado, here is the birth of my pirate cake. Since I did it last minute I did have to improvise on a few things - like the drinking straw gun walls! - but I think it turned out pretty good in the end and one little - ahem, I mean big - boy thought so too, which is really all that mattered! :)

"Ahobe Der Me Pardies!"

Today Luke is 7!

Happy birthday to my strong willed child! There isn't a day that goes by that I'm not glad that he is ours! Though he's not a cuddly boy, that just makes the hugs and kisses that he does give (or take willingly!) all the more sweet. He is all boy, that's for sure. He loves dirt and bugs and tormenting his sister and not listening to his mother! Though I believe he is the reason for those 3 gray hairs I have, at least there aren't 7 - one for each of his years! His strong will will take him far in his life IF he learns to tame it and control it. He is a determined child and when he's not being cranky, he is a complete joy to be around. He's a big help and will do anything - when HE wants to! :) He thinks he's the strongest boy in the world because he can lift a mic stand and loves to quote Garfield, "It's 100% fat!" when refering to his rib cage and oh so flat belly! LOL

His favorite quote from Garfield is, "Love me, feed me, never leave me!" That, my dear son, I will pledge to you forever.

This title quote, along with the visit to the Wiggles World last week, inspired me to try this pirate ship cake for Luke's birthday today. The quote, "Ahobe der me pardies!" is Luke's 3 year old version of Captain Feather Sward's fameous quote, "Ahoy there me hardies!" He still likes pirates but he has graduated to "Pirates of the Carribean" lately and loves to tell me about "Davy Jones"!

Inch by Inch

We are STILL waiting for news for our apartment! I called yesterday to see if it was ready to move in and she wasn't sure. The office is across the state so she couldn't just go over and check but the lady who is the caretaker of the complex that we will be at was out of town until Friday. She said she was trying to get a hold of a different guy who may have a key to get in and check but apparently she didn't talk to him or he didn't have a key because she never called me back yesterday. All we are waiting for is the date we can move in so that we can get a truck and go!

Bob is pretty excited to get accepted to school! He was afraid he was going to have to take placement exams because it's been so long since he graduated from high school but they accepted his AS*VAB scores from when he went into the Air Force almost as many years ago! Now we are waiting for financial aid. I did his FA*FSA as soon as our taxes were finished last spring but now we find out that he was randomly selected by the US Office of Education for verification. So we have to fill out the verification form and send in a copy of our 2006 taxes. If there are any differences between that and his FA*FSA than things will be adjusted accordingly. I know they aren't any different because I used our 2006 taxes to fill out the application! Oh, well, just one more hoop to jump through.

Bob starts school on the 20th.

Oh, and we had a GREAT time at Gre*at America over the weekend. Luke thought it was a pretty awesome birthday present and was elated that his friends from church were there too. He wanted to go on every roller coaster there but unfortunately Mom didn't want to ride all of them so he was grounded - except for the Wh*izzer which I don't even think I had to go on with him! Jozie didn't like the roller coaster too much (she cried all the way through!) but they had a wonderful time at Hu*rricane Har*bor, the water park. It was sprinkling while we were there but that didn't stop us! We went down the lazy river and they played around Skull Island for quite some time. We didn't get to go on as many rides as we wanted to and actually didn't get through the whole park because we did a lot of waiting. We were there with a group of 12 people and wasted a lot of time trying to decide what to do. That part was a little frustrating but the kids had fun and I don't think they really realized what they missed. I went for them and as long as they had fun that's all that mattered!

The day was pleasntly not sunny and hot (we didn't get sunburned!) but it was hot and cloudy and we ended up leaving early (about 8:30) because of rain. I think the most stressful time of the whole day was getting out of the parking lot! Everyone else had the same idea as we did at the same time and we ended up in a huge traffic jam.

The kids were asleep before we pulled over for gas and food on the way home so we just went through the drive-thru and were home by about 11pm. I'm glad we didn't stay until 10 because we would have been even more exhausted than we were by the time we got home!

Yes, Jamie, I do remember going "back in the day"! What great times! I didn't get the Ameri*can Eag*le this time though! I wanted to but nobody else would go on it with me and I didn't want to go alone. :(

I didn't get many pictures because I didn't want to carry my camera after Lunch. Luke also has this obsession about ruining every picture I take of him by running or turning away so there aren't many nice ones of him! Of course Jozie is just the opposite, I can't even get a candid shot of her, she sees the camera and she HAS to pose! Go figure! Oh, and Marcus, the boy in the picture with Jozie, is only a year older than her! I think she kinda likes him! LOL :)

This is Not Very Surprising...

But a fun little quiz to take! Now it's your turn! Let me see if YOU are addicted to blogging! :)

64%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Pittsburgh Singles from Mingle²

My Temporary New Look

I was just playing around with the different colors and such and found this sort of appealing. I really wanted the background to be the same color as the banner but for some reason that wasn't one of the options. I may play around with it some more later but for now it's basic black. Hope it isn't too hard on anyones eyes! I kinda like it better than all white. It cuts down on my eye strain! :)

Sunshine, Swimming, and Surprises!

We have been busy doing a whole lot of nothing new around here and a couple of something news over the last couple of weeks so lets sum this up:

• Jozie got her glasses. I was pretty excited about it but because I was hoping it would help with her reading. She only has to wear them for reading and other close up things like her knitting or coloring or that kind of thing. We haven't tried them for reading yet because it seems like we are constantly going lately and we just don't have time to sit down and read. She looks great in them. I don't have a picture to post yet but will post when I take one!
  
• Jozie got her ears pierced. She was funny. Scared to death of the pain and we told her it was just like a little pinch. The lady was just marking where she was going to put them and you could just see the fear in her face. She didn't much like the first one and cried but she knew she had to follow through with the second one. I had to hold her on my lap but she got through. She was VERY brave. They look cute and I'm glad she got it done. My mom did it for her as her birthday present - a LATE birthday present! :) She already has this little pair of heart earrings that she picked out with my mom and she just can't wait to wear them. :) She is such a girly girl!
• I've been knitting quite a bit more (thus my lack of posts...I just can't seem to keep up with more than one hobby at a time!). I've done quite a few dishcloths since my last post. This one was pretty easy but this one (you may have to scroll down a bit to see it, it's in pink and a variegated orange called the Nine Patch Dishcloth) I've had a harder time with. I got blocks 1 to 5 just fine but got stuck at the corners. Jaclyn is on vacation so I haven't called her yet to ask for help. I just put in a place holder and went on to do a second one of the first one I mentioned. Jozie has been knitting a scarf for her brother for his birthday but she has a hard time remembering to take the stitch off the end of the needle so she just keeps on adding stitches until she does remember enough times to get to the end of the row. Her's is just a basic 9 stitch row but once I asked her now many she had and she counted and said 19! I had a hard time not laughing! LOL I had to pull out a bunch of rows to fix it. She wasn't happy but if I had just decreased to fix it it would have been skinny at the end with a big fat lump in the middle then skinny again. Hopefully she will learn from her mistakes! LOL I want to try this out because I don't have any special napkins or placemats but it may get boring after a while and I'm afraid I won't finish enough to make a whole tableful of place settings! LOL
  
• Today we spent some time with our home school friends at the pool. The kids had a blast swimming with all the other kids and it was great to be able to catch up with Jen and Janice. I wish it could have been longer but those times do have to end eventually.
• So, last and most exciting - WE GOT OUR NEW HOME! It's three bedrooms with a bath and a half and we are currently waiting for it to get new carpet and vinyl flooring. The lady wasn't sure when that was going to be finished when she called me last week so I'm calling her tomorrow or Friday to see if she has a more firm date. Bob starts school on Aug. 22 I think so we are getting down to the wire. We're very excited and packing like crazy. We are going through some of our old boxes (stuff that never got unpacked from the last time we moved) and getting rid of stuff. It's amazing what you find yourself getting rid of that you didn't really even need but thought you couldn't live without 2 and a half years ago! :)
• Oh, and the kids and I are taking a trip to Gurn*ee, IL on Sat. to go to Gre*at America. I haven't told them yet and don't plan on it until we get there. The Children's pastor at our church got tickets through his work for $26 each so hopefully it will be well worth the trip. Otherwise it would have been $55 each. Bob has to work so he's not coming. Kristin is coming with us and we are also going with the Children's pastor and his family plus my mom and John are bringing Sami home from the summer at her moms and we are meeting them there. At the moment it's a good thing that tickets are already paid for because Luke is lying on the floor throwing a fit and I really don't want to take him anywhere! (He's mad because I told him to shut his video game off for throwing a fit and banging the thing on the concrete floor!) So this is going to be part of Luke's birthday present. The children's pastor's son is bringing a friend with him and they are both pretty good friends with Luke so he will be excited. I just hope there will be plenty of rides that they can go on because they are still pretty short. I think I'm going to measure them and see what they can and can't go on so I will know when we get there and I can direct them around the ones that are too big for them.
• And since I have been so busy with my knitting and packing I haven't had much time to take pictures or work on a new photo show....We'll see if I can get at least one for my next post! :)
  

Something New and Exciting!

There's something pretty cool going on over at Rocks in my Dryer. Check it out and have fun! I'm not sure if I will be giving something away but I linked it on my sidebar and we will see if I can come up with anything!

Have fun!

Where Did This Week Go?

We haven't done anything super exciting. Same old, same old - cleaning, laundry, playing with the kids, knitting, etc.

Jozie had an eye exam on Tuesday because she's been struggling to read and things don't seem to get any better no matter how much we practice. It's been mega frustrating for both of us. Her favorite thing to say is that things are getting foggy. So we took her in and ended up having to get her eyes dilated so the dr. could get the exact prescription. We haven't gotten to getting her glasses yet because Bob's been working a ton of hours this week and I don't have a car to go look. She is only going to have to wear them for reading and he said that her eyes still have a chance for improvement because she's still young and growing. So, hopefully this will help our reading situation. If it doesn't we will have to look into more drastic measures like therapy or something.

Bob has been trying to work as many hours as possible so we can put some money away in savings for our big move. I think he's only had like 1 or 2 days off in the last week. He leaves early in the morning and doesn't usually get home until late at night or early in the morning only to get up and do it all over again with only a couple of hours of sleep. Thankfully he doesn't do long stretches of driving. He generally keeps to the Chicago area. He quit his job at the academy a couple of weeks ago because it was getting way too stressful for all of us. You know it's gotta be bad at work when it overflows when he gets home and is nothing but crabby with everyone. When he said he was thinking about quitting he didn't have to ask me twice! So now he works full time driving bus and is a much better person to be around - despite the long hours!

We are still waiting for all of the paperwork to go through for our apartment in SD. I call a couple of times a week only to find out that almost every time I call they need more paperwork. It's almost like they are trying to draw this thing out for some reason. I'm starting to get angry! Can't these people see that I just want a place to live?!!?

My Honey bought me Ph0t0 Sh0w for a belated M0ther's Day gift. I am enjoying it almost as much as if not more than scrapbooking. There is not taping cutting involved plus I can add my own music. So get used to seeing my pictures in Photo Show format! There will be plenty more to come! :)

And, last but definitely not least, I have been honing my knitting skills lately on a new dishcloth! I found the pattern online and it's very easy, I'm just not very knitting savvy yet. I had to look up all the abbreviations on this wonderful site that Jaclyn gave to me and it took a couple of tries but here's a picture of the fruits of my labor! It started out a little on the loose side thus the fatter end but I figured things out within the first couple of rows and it came out pretty cute. I won't show a picture of the finished product because I kinda got excited and ended it a little soon. It's rectanglish and I should have made it longer. I didn't get much farther before I bound off and realized I should have measured it first. Oh well. It doesn't look too bad and it's plenty big for the kids to use when they start doing the dishes in our new home - we won't have an automatic dishwasher!

Jamie - I didn't realize I made my title so close to yours...oops...the power of suggestion! LOL

Here's some pictures of our impromptu trip to Chalberg Farm. We ended up getting there just in time to feed the animals with Farmer Jack. The lamb in the pictures was bottle fed from birth so it was sort of a pet. One of the other ladies there asked what her name was and the farmer said, "She doesn't have a name, I don't name things I'm going to eat!" I thought it was funny because that's what my dad would say!

A different lady there had a 2 yr. old baby who was petting the lamb. The lady said to the little girl, "Pet the baby goat, Honey! They cut the hair off them to make cotton clothes out of it!" I almost said, "Oh, so what's the stuff they pick out of the fields down south?" John said I should have asked her if wool came from the woolly mammoth? LOL

We took the trail through the woods to the Bailey Family Cemetery and it was well worth it. Very beautiful! It was a long walk though with the kids - almost a mile and a half!