What a Wonderful Weekend

(Sorry, it has taken so long to post this. It was taking aeons to load from my lap top. So it was a matter of logging on the other computer and just getting it done. This weekend was sort of a downer for everyone, especially James. So please be patient. I will get back to posting more regularly soon.)

Well this Memorial Day weekend, James and I accomplished something in the garage that we had been meaning to get done for some time. We re-arrange some things and dumped a lot of crap that we didn't need anymore. As I mentioned in a previous post, I had to clean up a lot of crafting stuff in this one corner of the garage in order to make room for a safe. The idea was to create James own work space on one whole wall in the garage. My corner o' crap was in the way. Well we managed to get the safe moved and James has set up his work bench and tools to create his man cave.

Now, on the opposite wall are the guinea pigs and the rabbit. This has definitely made it easier for Justina to take care of her animals. Eventually, we would like to move down in size on the rabbit hutch and put the guinea pigs on a smaller table, one that isn't so long. This would create more room for a utility sink on that wall.

One the third wall is the deep freezer. We will hang some single track shelving up above the freezer on that wall to hold canning supplies and some appliances that make it out on a few occassions, like my Nesco roaster. But in the meantime, the center of the garage is still a mountain of boxes that needs to be purged.

One other item I managed to get accomplished this weekend is the start of our garden. I would like to make a raised bed garden in this one spot in the yard. But it is uneven and slopes significantly enough that any watering would just run off and onto the concrete. I had to dig around and find where all the buried skeletons were in that area. We have sprinkler lines, old and new, and some conduit running underneath. So I had to know where all that was and also figure out the height on the garden. I managed to level off the highest side of the area and now I just need to gradually work away on this. I'll post more about this later.

Another exciting thing is that I started my compost heap. I used a few old pallets and zip-tied them together. I cut one pallet in half with a saw and put it in the front. I have all the material for compost - shavings, rabbit and guinea pig poop, leaves, kitchen scraps, etc. So yes, I am excited about this. I'll post more about this too at a later date.

Well that is it really. I know for some it may not be exciting but for my husband and I to have a whole weekend (a three-day one at that) to accomplish things around the house, and to do it together to boot, is a real treat.

Until the next time, take care and God bless. :)

Charlie the Unicorn

Alyssa and Amanda turned me on to this. It is absolutely absurd and hilarious.

Enjoy!

Well It's Not Exactly Obama Versus Hillary But . . .

Tonight was the last official 4-H meeting of the year. And we had our officer elections. Alyssa ran for Attendance Secretary which basically entails calling role at the beginning of the meeting and at the end, for any late comers. Apparently, this is the prized officer position as it always has a lot of people running. The other hotly contested race was for Correspondence Secretary. (Okay, maybe hotly contested is not the proper verbage. Perhaps, tepidly contested works better.) The other positions ran unopposed. The winners will be announced at the Year-End Awards Party in June.

The Sheep Project read their report and Amanda was among them. She got to tell everyone about her showmanship win at Exhibit Day. Justina was a busy little bee at the meeting. She read a project report for her Table Setting Project and displayed it at the meeting. She also read the Canned Food Drive Committee Report from last month's meeting. And she was on the Ice Cream Social Committee for this month. The Ice Cream Social was held after the meeting was adjourned. The club provided the ice cream and paper goods. The members contributed fruit toppings, sauces, sprinkles, and nuts.

In Other News . . .

I am deeply ashamed for spacing the mention of my big brother Chris' birthday which was yesterday. (Okay, ashamed may not the right word. Let's go with sorry.) Sorry for not getting that out there on time Chris. Happy birthday Peacework!

James donated a couple pints of red blood cells today. So he is pretty wiped out. Oh, and as of this afternoon, we now know that at least one of the turkeys is definitely a tom! Other than that, there is not much else to report. It is late. And I am tired. So it is time for all little girls named Cathleen to go ni-ni. Until the next time, take care and God bless. :)

God Bless You Mrs. Coffelt

On Friday, May 9th, Renie Lois Coffelt lost her three year battle with cancer. Mrs. Coffelt was Amanda's and Alyssa's kindergarten teacher at Los Padres Elementary School on Vandenberg Air Force Base. James attended her memorial service last week in Lompoc.

Mrs. Coffelt was a dear, sweet woman who devoted her life to her teaching career and especially to the young pupils in her charge. There are not many teachers who can say that they devoted their entire 41-year career to teaching solely kindergarten, all at the same school. She wore many hats as well, including assistant principal and teacher of student teachers at Chapman University.

James said that one of the eulogies recounted how the security police on base was very famliar with Mrs. Coffelt as they would often check to make sure she was allright as she burned the midnight oil - literally. It was more common to see her light blue Toyota Celica parked in front of the school than it was not to see it there.

When Amanda and Alyssa were in kindergarten, I had the pleasure of volunteering in her class. I would only be in there for an hour or a little more so. And I honestly didn't know how she did it for four hours, every day, for forty-one years. She had the patience of a saint!

As a new parent to young children she provided me with great incite into a child's mind and into their way of thinking. She would have this meeting with her kindergarten parents after the first couple weeks of school. (And I remember this as plain as day.) "Do not ask your child what they did in school today! They will answer, 'We played,' and you will get mad because they only seem interested in playing and not doing their school work. They cut, paste, color, paint. That's playing and that's how they learn. Instead ask them what they cut, colored, and painted today in school." She also had a lot to say about "new" methods for teaching reading. She knew what worked and she said that she wasn't going to re-invent the wheel.

When I was pregnant with Justina during the last couple months of Alyssa's kindergarten year, and I was experiencing some problems that required complete bedrest. Mrs. Coffelt kept Alyssa afterschool until James got off work to pick them up. As she put it, she was going to be there anyway. I can still hear her Wisconsin accent!

Amanda said that it was hard to remember a lot from kindergarten. But she remebered storytime the most and how Mrs. Coffelt sat in her rocking chair and all the children sat on square pillows that she had made. She especially remembered that Mrs. Coffelt was the nicest and sweetest kindergarten teacher of all the three kindergarten classes.

When I asked her if she had any favorite Mrs. Coffelt memories to share, Alyssa rattled off several. She recalled making her little reading books and mouthing the words when the class read. She said that Mrs. Coffelt would always see right through it. She also recalled doing the Hokey Pokey at the end of every day and ad libbing parts to to it, making cheese, show and tell, the play kitchen, and most of all, her sweet and patient nature.She was a wonderful, dedicated teacher.

Because she taught on a military base, many of her students probably no longer live in the area. Many of them probably do not know of her last few years or about how her beloved Los Padres Elementary will be closed forever after this school year. But I am sure that they think of her with great fondness from time to time. As for our family, she will be greatly missed. God bless you Mrs. Coffelt.

Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord. And let perpetual light shine upon her. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Oh, For the Love of Fava

This morning, I rode up to Arroyo Grande with one of the mothers from our Sheep Project to pick up lamb feed. The father of the person who co-leads the group with me, Frank, lives there. And the feed is inside his father's garage. From the garage you can look out onto his garden. Every now and then, he is outside working ont he garden, and this morning he was planting corn.

I enjoy talking to Frank's dad. He is a Portuguese man in his mid to late eighties. And there is this old country presence that takes me back to childhood - my grandfather, relatives, old family friends, and the like. His English is not that good but after all those years in Spanish class, I understand Spanish way better than I can ever speak it. And since the two languages are very similar, I can understand a lot of his Portuguese.

Well, he led us around the animals in the back. As we passed through the back side of the garden, he reached over to some bean plants growing along the fence and grabbed a large pod. I asked him if those were fava beans and he said yes. He told us to wait there and then returned with a plastic shopping bag. He handed the bag to Abby and picked these beauties and put them inside. It was really a generous gesture.

Abby had such a blast out there. Frank's dad showed her all the plants and told her the names. He even picked an orange for her which she ate later this afternoon. Most of all, she really loved the dirt! I think she will grow up to be a master gardener herself some day.

So now I have these fava bean pods and I will venture out to prepare them. Stay tune for the results.

In Other News . . .

It was a very warm day here, about 80 degrees. So I put the fan on the rabbit and spritzed down the lamb pen to keep the dust down. I even went down to the turkeys to top off their water container. It is suppose to get warmer again tomorrow.

This evening, I swept off the back patio which is something I have procrastinated doing for a long time. I swept old shavings, hay, leaves, and dirt from under Biscuit's hutch. We even cleaned out some more of the shed and swept it clean form all the loose hay that had fallen down to the floor. Everything got swept out to the future home of our garden. Slowly but surely it will be worked until it is levelled off. At this rate, I won't get anything planted until next year.

Until the next time, take care and God bless. :)

Tent Tuesday

Sometimes it's just a tent kind of a day

I forget how many years ago that I bought this pop-up cabana at Linen 'N Things but it has gotten a lot of use. Justina loves it for starters. She has used it at soccer games and tournements. And the other afternoon, she and a friend set it up on the front lawn and played inside it. Today, I set it up for Abby to play in while I was cleaning some of the dreaded corner in the garage. Well this afternoon, Justina wanted to sit out there and do her homework. It was an absolutely beautiful day to hang out in her tent.

Justina hung out in her tent . . .

And Abby hung out in hers.

A couple years ago, I got this little pop-up tent online for Abby to play in at soccer games and tournaments. The idea was to have a "contained" place for her but back then she would have nothing to do with it. So I put it away for later. Well I found it while cleaning out the garage. So we set it up in the family room. There were songs to sing, dances to dance, and imaginary conversations to have for quite some time. She even used some diaper wipes to clean inside. You just got to love childhood!

Abby pops her head out long enough to say hi

Happy Happy Double Double Day Day

Every so often, Justina's birthday falls on the same day as Mothers Day. Yesterday was Mothers Day, and yesterday, Justina turned 9. The last time this happened was on her fourth birthday in 2003. And the next time it will happen is on her fifteenth birthday in 2014. Now for me, Mothers Day has become an unceremonious event quite frankly. But for Justina, having her birthday on the same day was a big deal. She felt that by the two of us sharing the holidays, it was even more special. So we came up with a little name for it - Double Day. I'm wondering if I could sell the idea to Hallmark?

For Mothers Day, we had had brunch at Los Olivos Grocery Store in Los Olivos. You are probably thinking, "Wow, her man went all out and took her to a supermarket?" No, no, no. It is a little gourmet grocery store that serves breakfast, lunch, and dinnerin a section outside the front of the store. Los Olivos is a little town nestled in the Santa Ynez Valley, which is beautiful. It was quiet and actually very relaxing, especially considering that I was wiped out from the day before.

Our food was very delicious. I had Hazelnut Pancakes with a Chocolate Sauce. I am not a huge chocoholic and mybe would have preferred warmed maple syrup. But the sauce was not overpowering and it had hazelnuts (yum). Amanda had Apple-Raspberry pancakes that were supper fluffy, and Abby had Blueberry Pancakes. We didn't hear any complaints from her but only this gobbling sound. Justina had french toast made from brioche. It was served with four thick slices with powdered sugar (always a plus for a 9 year old). She ate three of the four and declared herself stuffed. James and Alyssa had an Italian Breakfast Sandwich, made with a fried egg, arugula, pan-fried salami, and prosciutto on a beautiful crusty baguette. James sat across from me and I was kicking myself a little bit with each bite he took for not ordering that. I mean my pancakes were good, but they had prosciutto . . . it really looked good! And we managed to serve Justina with a choclate cupcake and sing Happy Birthday to her.

Afterwards, we drove around for a bit. It had been a long time since we had been in that area. Of course, Abby wasn't holding out for much longer and eventually it was time to go home for her nappy nap. I managed to clean out some of my crap in the corner of the garage. We have been wanting to rearrange the garage for some time. My corner is holding it up. I sort and clean like gang busters for a bit and then life happens and the rest of it has to wait a bit longer. But I managed to put another good dent in it yesterday. So that's good.

The downside of Justina having her birthday this time of the year is that there is so much going on - Mothers Day, Memorial Day, open house, softball and baseball games and tournaments, first communions, confirmations, graduations, year-end this and that, and so on. If you have a party, hardly anyone comes. So on the weekend of May 30th, the Santa Maria Elks will host their annual rodeo, which is a huge event here in our area. She wants to go out to dinner with some of her friends and then go to the rodeo. Amanda likes to go every year and surprisingly, I have never been in the fourteen yeas that I have lived in this area. So I think it will be fun.

Justina had a four-day weekend. So last night, she camped out in the family room and stayed up late. But the day didn't end for her without the ceremonial ambush of birthday spankings. Which begs the question, what sick and twisted time in the history of man was this tradition born? I mean, seriously, spanking someone on their birthday and then adding a pinch to grow an inch. Who the hell came up with this and then took it a step further by propagating it?

Well I decided to google it, and as you might expect, I got the gamut of hits from people who "enjoy" such a thing to people who thought it was barbaric and abusive. Very little of them seemed to have a simple explanation of where the tradition came from. And I was very wary to open most of these as some of these required that I be 18 and provide a credit card. Anyway, I found a Yahoo Q&A link that gave the best possible explanation.

Apparently, it is a continuation of the slapping on the bottom by the doctor who delivered you (which I don't know that they do that anymore or at least, I don't remember it happening when Justina and Abby were born). Now, there's a lot of things that go on in the delivery room when a baby is born. So if I had to pick one thing that happened on that particular day to carry on from year to year, then I guess I too would pick the spanking over all the other stuff.

So Justina got her birthday spankings and her pinch to grow and inch by her family. And just knowing that her family cared enough about her to do that is like icing on the cake.

Amanda's Big Win

Every year, our county 4-H council hosts an Exhibit Day at Nojoqui Falls Park in Solvang. A section of the park is transformed into a miniature county fair with pens with sheep, goats, cattle, pigs, poultry, rabbits, cavies, and there are even some still exhibits. It's an opportunity for 4-H members to come and practice showing their animals before our county fair in July. So yesterday, Amanda took her lambs and Justina took her rabbit and two of her cavies.

The sheep show started off with the breeding class where Amanda got third place. The individual breeding classes were combined because there were not enough entries in each. There were two yearling ewes, two ewe lambs, and two Dorper lambs. Dorpers are a breed of hair sheep, which is exactly as the name impies - sheep that grow hair instead of wool. They tend to have more meat cutability than their woolen counterparts. The judge liked the yearlings over the lambs, followed by the lambs over the Dorpers.

After the breeding class was the market classes. There were two classes, 70 to 98 pounds and 99 pounds and over. Unfortunately, attendance was down this year and they combined all the lambs into two weight categories. So some lambs showed against larger lambs. But Amanda's lamb, which was 89 pounds, took fourth. So that was good.

The next class members from our 4-H club participated in was the Pen of Five. In this class, your club picks out its top five lambs and you line them up side by side and the judge picks out the best group of lambs. Our club only had four market lambs and another club only had two. They made an allowance for our two clubs to form a pen. Amanda was the heeler. She sets up the hind legs on the lambs so that they look presentable. The other five members hold and brace the lambs. And they took first!

But the biggest moment came when it was time for Amanda's intermediate showmanship class. Sheep showmanship can be an endurance contest, both physically and mentally. As a showman, you need to aware of where the judge is and try to keep eye contact as much as possible. You also need to be aware of the sheep around you and mind your space. The judge may ask questions about basic sheep knowledge. And there is a lot of bracing involved, where you set your lamb up so they will push forwad into you, making their muscles tight.

The intermediate class was split into two groups. The judge picked the top five from each group and then those two groups of five showed against each other. The winner of the class was picked from this final group. Amanda made the first cut of her group. The weather was warm and the ring was dusty. Her lamb was hot, thirsty, and was coughing. But she kept her cool. The judge threw every test possible at the kids and asked them two to three questions each. She had been in there over a half an hour and was sweaty and hot herself. But she stay focused and ended up winning the entire class!

The first and second place winners of the intermediate class go on to show in the advanced showmanship class. But her lamb was pretty tired and thirsty. So we snuck out of the ring and up to the pen for a drink - for the lamb and for her. Then she went back in the ring for the advanced showmanship class. The judge had her placed in the top two but then her lamb was pretty much done by that point. So she got bumped down to third. But what a showing! We were so proud of her!

Justina did showmanship with her rabbit and guinea pigs. Since she is a primary member, she is not allowed to place and she receives participation awards. I was able to watch her rabbit showmanship and she did a very good job. Unfortunately, I missed her showmanship with guinea pig because I was busy with the sheep. James said that she insisted on using Bill even though she had been practicing with Nico. Well Bill was uncooperative. He hadn't been flipped over for showmanship like Nico had. But she learned a good lesson from the experience.

Will Someone Please Set the Table

I had mentioned in an earlier post about Justina's 4-H Table Setting Project. Well she has shown her table setting at the Santa Barbara Fair & Expo and she got second place!

Justina's First Aid theme table setting as shown at the Santa Barbara Fair & Expo

Her theme was First Aid. She had a table cloth that was a powdery light blue like some surgical scrubs. She made a placemat out of tongue depressors. She wrapped the outside of a drinking glass with first aid tape. And her silverware was wrapped in gauze pads with a bandage to fasten it. She had painted a Red Cross on an ordinar dinner plate. Her menu looked like a prescription from the doctor and on it was Peanut Butter Jelly Sandwich, Salad with Ranch Dressing, and Fruit. She bandaged up a teddy bear and placed the menu on its lap.

When we arrived at the Earl Warren Showgrounds, she had to set the table setting up on her own. Mom had to stay away, which was fine because mom was busy running after a two-year-old and reventing her from destroying the other exhibits that had arrived earlier that morning. They gave her a display table and set it inside a display "room". These little rooms were set up along the wall so that they could display many small items. The way they maximized the use of the wall space in the Exhibit Hall allowed them to display many more items than what our local fair does. Anyway, after she set it up, the lady who was checking her in asked her f she was finished. She said yes and then the lady placed the judging card by her display.

Exhibits were displayed in these little rooms along the wall or the Exhibit Hall. Visitors could walk through and look inside through the windows or Dutch door. It was a great way to maximize display space!

The comments on the card included "cute theme" and "nice detail with placemat." But the last comment revealed the flaw in the design: Paint on plate not edible. Well, that is most likely my fault. The paint that was used on the plate was suppose to be baked on in the oven, and it just never did get done. We never thought it would be a big deal, but I guess not. We learned something and had fun working on it. That was the point.

Justina is happy with her ribbon

In Other News . . .

Okay, Justina has hogged the bloglight long eough. It's time to move on to another kid and let her shine!

This year the Santa Barbara County Fair has implemented DNA Fingerprinting of all market sheep, goats, beef, swine, and replacement heifers. In the past, we would have to load up these animals and drive them to the Fairgrounds on a specific date and wait hours in line to have our animals tattooed and tagged. Only tagged animals could show in the Fair. But this year, our Fair went the route of the California State Fair and required the DNA hair samples and that we tag the animals ourselves. This is to prevent a few rotten apples in the barrel from switching animals.

We had to pick up kits at the Entry Office adn have them turned in by Friday, May 9th at 5:00 p.m. So I scheduled all the sheep members to come by our house this past Sunday. Sheep's wool does not contain any DNA - that's deoxyribonucleaic acid. (Did I just impress you? Okay, I impressed myself because I remembered that.) So the hair sample needed to be plucked from legs using needlenose pliars. There were two envelopes supplied in the kit, and each had to have a sample. The envelopes were then sealed and the tag number was written on the outside and signed by the child and the parent or project leader.

Enter the tagging gun. I have never tagged an animal before. And neither had Amanda. The person who co-leads the project with me is a sheep breeder. So obviously, he knew how to do this. He tagged the first four lambs and then he had to leave for another appointment. So who is going to tag the remaining five lambs? Well, Amanda, of course! Seriously though, she did a very good job. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of her doing that because I was holding them while she was doing it. I was very proud of her. And I think she was proud of herself.

Until the next time, take care and God bless. :)

Ah, the Miracle of Life

Last Thursday morning, around 6:30 a.m., I was lying in bed. Justina came running up from the garage and up the stairs, excited about something. Amanda was in the bathroom just outside my bedroom door, getting ready for school, when Justina squealed to her, "Katie and Roxy had babies and one of them is dead!" I laid there in bed, groaning, as this news definitely interfered with my ability to sleep in a little bit. So I got up and walked outside my bedroom door to see what the fuss was about. By the time I opened my bedroom door, I was then greeted by a wide-eyed Amanda, "One of the guinea pigs had babies!"

Imagine waking up to this sight!

Well if you rewind to my post on January 27, 2008 - Bill (Dec. 3, 2007 - Jan. 27, 2008), I recounted how Katie's first litter consisted of two babies, one a boar and the other a sow, and the boar died. Well, it was the sow that died. I had left what I thought was a sow in the cage with its mother. Surprise! She had two babies again, except one did not make it. I haven't sexed it yet. Black guinea pig babies are difficult to sex for an amateur like myself. I am going to use a lifeline and call a friend on this one Regis.

Here is momma as her little one is checking ou the cage

And that may not be all. You see we had what we thought were three sows. So when the weather was good enough, we turned them out onto the grass in an exercise pen. Well now Dotty, the Teddy sow, is showing all the signs of possible being with cavy child. Her hair on her back is balding and she is getting a little more hippy than she normally is. If indeed she is pregnant, then it will be interesting to see what the babies look like being that these two are different breeds. So we are saying tuned for that.

Is Dotty next?!!!

Until the next time, take care and God bless. :)

Justina's First Holy Communion

Justina on the day of her First Holy Communion

On Saturday, April 26th, our little Jussie donned her beautiful white dress and veil and went to Saint Louis de Montfort Church to make her First Holy Communion. My mother (Nonie as she is known to the kids) was among the family and friends who came to watch this tremendous milestone in the lives of these young Catholics. As it would turn out, another group of children made their First Communion the next weekend. Just imagine that. There were so many first communicants in the parish that there had to be two weekends set aside for them. Amazing!

Earlier that morning as I was fixing Justina's hair, she complained that she was hungry and forgot to eat breakfast. I told her that I could run down and fix some toast. But she stopped me and said that she couldn't eat anything because she had to "leave enough room for Jesus". I have to say that my reaction was shock because at the beginning of the year, I had doubts as to how much of the education leading up to this event would prepare her.

Here is Justina entering the church during the processional

Looking back on my own First Communion, I have to be honest and say I don't remember much at all. Granted, I am 38 years old and that would've been about 30 years ago back in the hip 'n happenin' 70's. But even in my junior high school years, I couldn't remember any of it - not the dress, not where we went to eat afterward to celebrate, nothing. I was so detached from the experience. In fact, it wasn't until my middle to late twenties that I even began to realize what a profound Sacrament the Eucharist is. It is the heart that beats and pumps blood within the Body of Christ. How could that have had no relevance to me!

So fast forward to 2007, I went in to talk to the teacher who was to help prepare Justina for her first confession and communion. The rumor mill had nothing but positive things to say about Mrs. Fuller's ability to prepare the kids. But I still was apprehensive - not of the teacher - but rather the circumstances. Afterall, would Justina be able to follow along and grasp such a deep topic? There was the hearing loss and then there was the fact that she was only 8 years old. My husband once came across a saying and kept it on the refrigerator for a number of year: Worry is a misuse of the imagination. And yes, he kept that up there all that because of me.

Not appreciating the Sacrament of the Eucharist all those years is a huge regret of mine. And it probably always will be. And I am even ashamed to admit that our family has not gotten to Mass every Sunday and Holy Day, sometimes not even for a month. But now when Justina asks me when are we going to Mass to receive communion, it really gives me a steadfast perspective. Mrs. Fuller did a fabulous job preparing the children. My worry about Justina understanding it all at the age of 8 was foolish. Seriously, saints have reflected upon the Body and Blood of Christ for thousands of years and never fully understood it. No, my worry was rooted in my own regrets.

Justina and a couple other first communicants prepare to take the gifts to the alter

In Other News . . .

I had mentioned a couple weeks ago that I took Alyssa into the emergency room for lower back and hip pain after a track meet. Well the pain continued and we went to her pediatrician who wrote a referral for physical therapy. After the first couple visits she felt so much better. In fact, she was cleared to play in a soccer tournament this past weekend. Well, she woke up Saturday morning and it was sore. By the end of the tournament she was done. Alyssa doesn't know when to say "uncle". And she pushes herself without saying much until she hits a concrete wall. So she is out of soccer for two weeks and continuing to go to physical therapy. Stay tuned for more on that.

Until the next time, take care and God bless. :)

The Reality Is That I've Been Lazy

There I said it! I freely admit it. I have not updated the blog in some time. And to be honest, I had no idea that anyone else besides my husband or my mother read it until I didn't post for two weeks and I caught H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks for not doing so.

Believe me, it's not that stuff hasn't been happening here. Justina made her First HolyCommunion, Alyssa has been experiencing some serious back pain, the turkeys have moved to their new Taj Maturkey coop and are looking pretty "tasty", Amanda tagged lambs for the first time ever, Abby got into my purse and ingested aspirin, Justina's cavy sow had babies (no we didn't know she was pregnant), and the Reality T.V. Poll closed a week ago. And that, my friends, are just a few of the highlights.

Now, On to the Polls . . .

The poll question for the second half of April was: What reality TV show would you want to appear in the most? I have to say, I was disappointed with the showing. My guess is that people were too engrossed in the Presidential Race to care. But for the eight of you kind souls who voted, the winner, with 37%, was The Biggest Loser, followed by America's Next Top Model and The Apprentice, each with 25%. Trailing was the lone vote for Other by my "Big Brother" Chris who said that I should have had a None category. (Big Brother! Darnit, I can't believe I missed that one. That was one of my faves!)

My next poll is about a topic that is near and dear to my heart (and to my siblings as well.) Fasten your seatbelts and hang onto the seats of your hybrid. The new poll will be a two-for-one special - Two Polls for One Month! You heard me right friends. That's two polls for one whole month. The two questions: 1) What is your most favorite condiment?, and 2) What is your least favorite condiment? So tell a friend a vote today!

In Other News . . .

Today, was pretty low key. I made some of my famous Red Lentil Soup for lunch. (It's Justina and Alyssa's favorite.) Alyssa's best friend, Patricia came home with her after school. Justina has a field trip to a farm tomorrow, but I can't go because I can't get a sitter for Abby. The weather was wonderful - warm and a light breeze. So after he got home from work, James capitalized on the weather by going on a bike ride.

A special shout out to my sissy Joan and her precious pooch, Penny, for sticking a pin in Le Frappr Map. (Psst . . . where's Penny's daddy in the picture?)

Until the next time, take care and God bless. :)