Friday Fill-Ins

This week's Friday Fill-Ins (on Friday!) Not too witty I'm afraid. I think the holidays have locked down my brain.

1. I must go to Disney World before I die.
2. You can't stop the beat. Sadie says, "T.S."
3. I wish I never had to buy laundry detergent again.
4. Robby has helped me change my life.
5. I know the song I'm singing by heart.
6. If I weren't so afraid, I would jump out of an airplane.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to El Camino with Nonnie and my family, tomorrow my plans include more Christmas with the fam and Sunday, I want to enjoy the Tirey Christmas.

Snowman Ornaments

These are the snowman ornaments. We tore up Styrofoam and put it in a clear glass ball. Then we painted on the face with dimensional paint (we used fabric paint). Finally, we hot-glued the pipe cleaner and pom poms on to make ear muffs. Sadie and I enjoyed doing it. These made great gifts for our Sunday school teachers. The kids will each take one to the Tirey cousin ornament exchange.

Homemade Gifts

This year I am proud to say that I have been able to make quite a few of our gifts. We've made snowmen ornaments, bottle cap necklaces and wine charms, and homemade marshmallows. I'm very proud of the play mats Robby and I painted, here is a picture:

They are designed so the boys can use their cars, trains and farm equipment to play. They can be rolled up for easy transport, too. If I figure out how to photograph the necklaces and ornaments without a glare, I'll post them as well.

Merry Christmas!

Friday Fill-Ins on Saturday: Holiday Song Edition

Once again, here are my Friday fill-ins on Saturday. Do you see a trend here? I kind of like going against the grain, and I really like that I finished all of my shopping yesterday.
The instructions said to fill in the lyrics either with the correct ones or with something silly.
You can go here to see where I got this. My answers are in green.

1. Said the night wind to the little lamb, "Do you hear what I hear?" (or was it see, or was it why aren't you asleep yet?)
2. The first Noel, the angel did say, was to certain poor shepherds in fields where they lay. (What is a noel? And should the shepherds have been laying--aren't they supposed to be watching? If I were laying I'd be asleep.)
3. Go tell it on the mountain, Over the hills and everywhere.
4. It came upon the midnight clear, la la la la la la. (Do the la las to the melody, please.)
5. Darling, Let your heart be light. (I've never heard this one.)
6. And the thing that will make them ring is the carol that you sing every other spring. (or this one)
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to fish fry at Umbarger, tomorrow my plans include finishing my necklace orders, and Sunday, I want to put up mom's tree.

Tried to be witty, but my brain is finished for the day and I still have some things to do. I realize it is Saturday, but I think it'd be fun if you join in on this one. Let me know if you do. The Friday Fill-Ins page is here.

Side Note

Thanks to everyone who went to the Campbell's page and clicked to help the FFA. I'm taking the link off of the sidebar because the goal of 250,000 clicks has been reached. I think it is interesting to note the promotion was set to run through at least next spring and possibly later--they reached the 250,000 goal in just 3 months. $250,000 went to the National FFA organization. So, Thanks!

Pioneer Woman

We have water today. Robby and mom spent a good part of yesterday thawing the pipe and then replacing the heat tape and insulation around it. We managed fine without water in the house since we were able to drive out to the pig pens and get water from that faucet. It was inconvenient, but really no big deal.

Yesterday I got to wondering if I could have made it as a pioneer woman. I don't know if I can answer the question based on not having water yesterday because I did have electricity and heat all day.

I can't imagine having to take care of a household without running water or electricity. I guess in pioneer times they didn't think twice about it because they didn't know any differently. I'm thankful there were pioneer women who braved the elements, but I'm equally thankful I have all of the modern amenities I do.

Winter in the Country

It is cold here. I am not exaggerating. Right now it is 13 degrees--the high today is supposed to be in the 20s. We've done all of the precautionary things to keep our water from freezing: heater in the well house and heat tape on the pipe from the well to the pressure tank, and guess what??
No water today--hopefully the heat tape was bad and all we have to do is get the pipe thawed out and new heat tape. (I say all we have to do; mom and Robby will probably be the ones out there in the freezing weather doing it)
So, say a prayer for our water...I'll update later.

2:00 update--water is dripping from my faucet!!! We are having a heat wave, it is up to 19 degrees.

Friday Fill-ins (on Saturday)

I seem to be "a day late and a dollar short." It never crossed my mind to do this yesterday, so here are my Friday Fill-Ins on Saturday.

1. Friends make life more fun.
2. Good health; it's healthy. (I know, not so good, but this one threw me a bit)
3. I'm ready for Christmas break.
4. Fresh from the shower smelling like soap is one of my favorite perfumes or aftershaves or smells.
5. The oldest ornament I have is one from Grandma's tree. It is one of those that is a Styrofoam base with beads and sequins pinned on it.
6. Take some boys, dirt and water, mix it all together and you have one fun time.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to Bonza Bottler at the McBroom's, tomorrow my plans include dinner and bowling with adults, and Sunday, I want to watch the kids in the Sunday school Christmas program.

Bell Ringer--Part 2

The other day I mentioned that last year T.S. thought he was paying to ring the bell when we put money in the Salvation Army kettle. This year he thinks we have to put money in to pay to go in the stores. We put some in on the way into WalMart the last few times we have been there. When we arrived at Hobby Lobby he asked if I was giving him more money to get in.
Hopefully if we keep explaining, the reason we put money in the kettle, it will sink in.

Happy Has a Visitor

Friday afternoon Robby called to tell me that a man who was taking his mule and gypsy wagon across the United States was in town. He went by to visit with him and learned lots of interesting things. You can go to Bernie's website to learn more about his expedition. You can see a few pictures of Happy, Palo Duro Canyon and our friend Kyle. Kyle took Bernie up in his plane Saturday.

When we pulled into church today, we saw Bernie getting his mule Polly ready to go. They had spent a few nights under Happy's water tower. On our way to Tulia, we saw them on the service road and as we were leaving Tulia, we saw them coming into town. Can you imagine only traveling around 15 miles per day?

Also--Happy seems to be the place for adventurers. A man flying his airplane (a fairly small, old one) back to Alaska ran out of gas and landed somewhere around Happy. According to those who witnessed it, he walked up to Jackie's (our local fillin' station) and filled a gas can, refueled his plane and took off.

For those of you not from here, Happy is in the Texas Panhandle about 36 miles south of Amarillo and 90 miles north of Lubbock. Come see us anytime, we're always ready for a good adventure.

Sunset

This was the sunset Saturday evening. T.S. and I took this while we were waiting for Sadie to finish showing at Claude.

Conversations at Wal Mart

I have to share this conversation that I overheard at Wal Mart last night. A young man was telling his son/sibling (not sure which) the following as they walked down the aisle I was on.

"They are supposed to ask you what kind when you order Coke. They ask me what I want to drink and I say 'Coke.' They never ask me what kind so I always end up with Coke instead of Dr. Pepper."

I really, really wanted to say, "No way, I can't imagine why they'd give you a Coke instead of a Dr. Pepper." But, I did not.

• Our checker was a lovely young thing--no smile at all. She literally threw our items into the sacks as she was checking us out. Then she told us the total and crossed her arms until I handed her the check. I guess it is hard to keep the holiday spirit when you are a checker and have been listening to Christmas music and seeing decorations for two months. I won't tell you what I wanted to say to her.
• I know all of you are already planning your Valentine's decorations and are worried if you'll be able to find any. Never fear, JoAnn's already has them out--right next to the Christmas items that are already 60% off.
  I just love having to go to stores this time of year.

Winter Thoughts

While watering the animals on this lovely, cold, windy morning I had some thoughts.

• How did I forget how much I love (please note the sarcasm) being a zookeeper in winter? The chicken waterers are thawing in the bathtub as I write this.
• I never really appreciated that my dad would feed and water our pigs in the mornings in the winter. After hauling water to the pigs I see how fortunate I was.
• My "water proof" gloves are not.
• Hopefully my legs and face will thaw out by lunch.

Friday Fill-Ins

Lately I seem to not have a lot to say (shocking, I know). I found this site called Friday Fill-Ins. Each Friday a new list is posted. You can copy and paste it and fill in the blanks. I thought I'd try it out. My answers are in green.

1. Snow is fun but makes life interesting here at the zoo.

2. I'm looking forward to my family being here over the holidays.

3. My kids are the best kids ever!

4. One of my favorite old TV shows is Seinfeld (does it count as old?).

5. I'm done with most of my Christmas shopping.

6. The most enjoyable thing around the holidays is hanging out with the family and playing games.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to grocery shopping (how sad), tomorrow my plans include a lamb jackpot and Sunday, I want to finally get our Christmas tree up!

Feel free to join in, you can copy and paste from here or go to this site and get the list there.

Gift Ideas

So, it is officially December. Now the mad rush begins. Decorate the tree (and now days the whole house--even the bathroom--and yard), buy lots of presents, wrap them all, bake, make candy, run, hurry, see about checking into a home for crazy, frazzled Christmas people....

On this site, Granny Sue's News and Reviews, she offers some very simple, very thoughtful Christmas gift ideas. Check it out.

I was exaggerating (but not much) in the first paragraph. This Christmas, try to go with the flow. Don't stress about the small stuff--you can't even see the floor where our tree is supposed to go. Take time for yourself, take time for your family. Make an attempt to savor the moments and memories. Have fun! And, most of all, don't forget the real reason we have Christmas. Celebrate the birth of Jesus with everyone you come in contact with. Maybe if we all started trying to go back to the basics of the holiday we could start a national trend or something (I can dream, can't I?)