Kansas Morning

These pictures are for Frank. Rest of you are chopped liver... JK. They were not really great, but am trying to learn shooting in manual and I am not good at it yet. Give me time! I recieved adobe photoshop for christmas from my mama and Frank bought an adobe photoshop study on disc so I can learn how to use it effectively. Now I need to get better at shooting in manual, because only then will I feel like a photographer. This is not to say that my photos are perfect in auto... I can mess up auto.

Just blogging

I have not had much time for blogging... and my poor husband misses us! I am proud that he reads my blog, so probably I should find time to update. We have been running ragged lately getting things done, we have had some nice weather and some rather cold days and have tried to take advantage of the nice weather. This picture of me is a little tired looking but it was late, Tad took this one.


This, is Miss Nathalie's pond. It actually held water, I am pretty sure it froze. We didnt get a picture of that. Tad took this one also while I was out working. Nathalie built a mini farm in the yard, using animals and dollhouse people. Yesterday, she chopped wood with (get ready) a garden tool, wearing no safety glasses. Now, we may not be super strict about our own safety but we require safety glasses when chopping wood. She got a small something in her eye, I flushed it and it seemed okay but she continued to cry from pain, so last night (1.5 hrs after incident) we headed to ER per mamas wish, as her cornea may be scratched. Good call Dr Mama. It was scratched at "9 O'Clock on the cornea." She got drops and follow up and thankfully we found a homeopathic that stopped her pain shortly after arriving home. It was a little unmanageable once bedtime came and she gets punk so fast when she doesnt feel well. Ibuprofen and herbal remedies were not touching the pain but belladonna wiped it out! Follow up appt this am said she will be fine and eyes heal very fast.


Here is her little farm operation. It was quite a warm day, this was around christmas. I cant remember which day it was but it was a beautiful day.


Same day, Tad used a piece of Pex I believe, and made a bow and arrow. The string is the long string you pull from a feedbag to open it up. Look at the sad state of his pants. Sadder part? I am sending them to my best friend for her boy child this week as Tad says they are getting a little snuggish.


The arrows didnt go very straight, or as aimed at all but he had fun with his warm day project. We are busy keeping things going in the barnyard, clean up is always something that seems to fall behind. The barn stays mucked, but somehow the baling wire, empty feed sacks, empty bowls and buckets, broken things, just litter up the barns! I go about picking things up so the yard area stays safe, but the barn is a sad mess at this point. The house... well lets dont go there! Children doing well in school, having fun with music lessons and new friends at 4h. They miss their daddy, and sometimes I believe that Nathalie (might) in little girl ways that are not evil (not totally...), scheme for ways to have daddy home. She did ask if blindness in one eye would cause him to come home and was disappointed that I said no! She wondered this all last deployment too, even down to asking does someone have to be DEAD??? Yes, baby, yes I think so... She doesnt seem to remember that this deployment and has regular questions as to will this or that bring him home.

I mean... Really?

I cant believe this was a good idea, I mean it wasnt a bad one, it was a funny one! This is Tad's new hat from Uncle John and you can see Nona clearly had a cold head. She never minds wearing hats, we have several good pictures of Nona in a hat.

Christmas

Yes, I am a little late posting. We had Frank on Skype Saturday morning so I didn't pay as much attention to photo taking as I should have. I was busy looking at him! The kids are opening their big presents here, they get 1 big thing each from us and then 2 things to share. This is a big barn (Nathalie) and a snap circuit kit (Tad).


Nathalie is sporting some new jewelry, she got some necklaces from cousins Briley and Brooke and also my brother. My brother sent the little panda and lady bug that she has in her hands, each one opens and had a necklace inside.

Tad is sporting new blue jeans and jacket from mom, and hand knit warm knee socks from mama Nikki.

Frank is looking confused here, I dont remember what gift he was looking at, but it was sideways or odd. Dont know, but thats the look he is giving.

This one makes me feel a little sad... I so wish he was here with us.

This one also, now I am crying again... Oh dear. We had a wonderful Christmas, we really did. And we were grateful that Skype worked as its titchy, sometimes it doesnt. We had prayed that Skype would work long enough to open gifts and it worked exactly that long and then cut out.

A shared gift from us to them, they have wanted this lego set for 3 years now but there was always something else they wanted more. We also bought a wheel set, just a box full of different sized lego wheels and axels as there is never enough of either. Especially when we get friends over!

Tad is showing Frank a knife, he got this from Uncle Jacob along with several other survival things. He got a compass, some dehydrated food, this knife, shovel and new flint and steal. He has started several fires... not all in a fireplace! From Uncle John he got a new trapping book which he has thoroughly enjoyed so far. He will be trapping and gutting rabbits any day now!

Nathalie showing daddy her new necklaces/cases. And she is sporting a new scarf that her best friend Faith knitted for her, Faith is 10!

My dad sent lego bins to both of them, I think it must be obvious that we like legos! The kids get some each time they have a birthday or Christmas, any event basically.

So thats it for now, a few of our Christmas pictures. We had a great day, but will be glad when Frank is home for the next one...

A Diaper

Just a pretty diaper, this was a custom order and I loved this fabric for a little girl baby. I need to get some things made for my store, I want to make pull ups out of this fabric.

Reminiscing

I was looking for some good pictures I took of the truck a few months ago, we are listing it for sale for a variety of reasons, and I came across these. I miss our old cat! He was a sweet kitty and we loved him, he was killed by something on our property and we were quite sad. He was Frank's kitty, he loved Frank from the moment he met him at my moms, she found him under a bush as a baby. Frank enjoyed him too, Half-Cat liked to wrestle but didn't put his claws out, he was just a fun kitty. His favorite perch was on Frank's chest at night.


Frank is looking at him sideways, its such a cute picture. Half-Cat was sleepy a lot of the time, and when he was awake his eyes were often halfway asleep anyways. I miss Frank too. I miss him a lot around the holidays, though we have had a very good holiday. We had him on Skype yesterday morning for gift opening, which is what the children and I had prayed for so we thanked God yesterday for such a blessing.



Then I found this picture, wow my son had a real haircut! The punk on his lap is a friend's baby, one of those whose face we don't blog but he enjoys Tad. Tad enjoys him as well, they were playing on the computer. This picture is nearly 1 yr old, how fast time goes! Tad is 10 now and this baby talks, big sentences and words. He still says Tad a lot, and he has done that for a long time. I love that my baby is growing up so big and strong, but I love that I have the memories and pictures to look back on.

I will post our present opening later, the camera is being used by my children right now so I don't have the card. It was a wonderful, relaxed Christmas with great presents, a fun morning using them and an afternoon spent with some local friends for dinner. All in all, a good Christmas. Having Skype is nice, deployments are easier with ways to contact.

Just Throwin that out there...

So you know what this is like, right, because I dont want to be all alone here.
You know how, when you make a new shirt and its soft and wonderful and you love
it and then you set it down and turn off the machine, and then want to put on
the new shirt and its gone? I mean.. everybody experiences that SOMETIME
right???


Now just in case you havent, I will tell you what to do in the event that ever
happens. Go ahead and cut out 3 more assuming the fabric can support that number
because you loved the first one so much, how the sleeves were too long in such a
perfect way and the sides were tight enough and the neckline was perfect.. then
use the scraps to cut out some much needed unmentionables...


Then just as you have given up all hope on the aforementioned finished shirt,
you go ahead and make a 2nd one as the top of you is slightly chilled. Then you
find it (the shirt), finished, neatly folded (you know you didnt do that
right?) on the sewing table and you think, did I really put that there, I mean
REALLY??? And missed it? Well... maybe you needed some extra shirts anyways. And
plus, dont feel too bad, there were 9 yards of cream and/or white fabric ON the
table... somehow it got sconched up under that. It isnt your fault at all. You
are not losing your marbles, you are losing your shirts!


I am just throwin that out there...

--me