Kids and Playdough!

The fun of summer! The giggling of your child as you sit down to make wonderful crafts together!!! Errr what? Crafts? Uh, nooo. Yes, I am not a crafty person. What, you say? But, you make lovely soaps! Yes, but, to me that is fun and exciting and when I think of crafty, I think of rag rolling, and popsicle sticks and yes, making playdough and slime from scratch. That, is not me!! Luckily, I have a daughter who does like making that kind of thing and she reads directions rather well!! Now, her one flaw is that she does not clean up the mess she makes afterwards!

I was on the phone the other day with my sister and she was attempting to make Playdough from scratch using water and flour. When that became too sticky she started adding cornstarch. Rayne overheard our conversation and whipped out her handy dandy craft book and explained that her aunt was doing it all wrong!! Although it was too late to help her aunt, she took it upon herself to make her own playdough! Into the kitchen she went. Bowls clanging, tops popping, spoons clattering and Wallah!! Playdough!! A huge chunk of yellow dough that she could mold and meld as she wished!! This time she said she did clean up, but this entailed pouring water into the bowls she used and tossing them into the sink. At least the counters were clean!! We're making an improvement!

The next morning as I'm going through the house, I walk into my bedroom and notice on my beautiful duvet, the only thing I really like in my room, that there is something gross, runny and yellow on it!!! I call out to Rayne to find the dog that is sick! I get my duvet cleaned up and find more in the kitchen. I can also hear the dog now and it is our small 5lb Chihuahua that is not feeling well. We toss him outside and get everything else cleaned up.

As I'm sitting in the living room, Rayne comes in and says, "I think I know what happened." It seems her playdough is missing! Yes, the yellow playdough she made the day before!! Apparently, the 5lb dog has eaten the flour, salt, yellow dyed concoction and his body is now letting him know that it didn't like the taste of it! So, he's letting Rayne know this by showing her on my duvet, the floor and as we lean back on the couch, we find he has left us this message there too!!

Ahhhhh, the joys of kids, dogs and Playdough!

Let The Good Times Roll

Last Friday as I was scrolling through a mountain of emails, I came across one from a very good friend of mine whom I've known since 2nd grade! In the email she said, Berta is in town, Meesh happens to be in from Boston, we've contacted Glenda who is on her way in and it wouldn't be the same if all of us weren't here. Can you come on in as well? What fun!! I called up my wonderful husband, checked out what his plans entailed for the weekend, which wasn't much. So, I had a babysitter!!

The next day I headed out for Houston and had a mini reunion with friends I've known since high school! Well, with the exception of Rhonda as mentioned above!

We headed down to the Heights and checked out some of their shops in a very unique way and one that most people don't get to experience! Heights shopping by braille! We had intended to go down during the Yale Art show and White Nights, but it was raining so there wasn't any art out, but the shops were open. We ducked into an antique craft mall and were checking out the interesting things inside when the power went out! No problem, that's what cell phones were for, right? We were able to get out of the glass shop safely without knocking any valuables over. After concluding that the ice cream shop was not the best place to go when the power was out, we went to another shop called Retropolis! What a cool place and even cooler when there are no lights!! It's a vintage shop and it was like playing in grandma's attic!! Now, if we could've only found those go go boots!! We were in there for an hour when the power came back on and then it was a whole new experience when we saw what they really had!! MORE COOL STUFF!! After another hour of running around and playing dress up, we headed out to another friend's house for a barbeque.

I did receive a phone call from Rayne saying that she was getting a ton of restricted calls on her dad's cell phone. I told her not to answer them and to give the phone to her dad. Turns out she was at her cousins house. So, I just told her not to answer the phone. Five minutes later, I get a frantic phone call from her saying that fire trucks, police cars and an ambulance looked like they were heading to our house and she can't get her dad on the phone! I call home and get a busy signal. I wait and call home again and my husband calmly answers the phone. I ask him if anything is going on and he says no. I tell him about the phone call I got and he says didn't happen there, but he did tell her to come home. Another five minutes go by and I get another phone call from my daughter crying because she says that dad is grounding her from his cell phone since she let her cousin use the phone to dial numbers and now he thinks that she may have inadvertantly dialed 911, hence the restricted calls coming in and all the fire trucks, police and ambulances going by! Yes, my family cannot run without me!! :)

Jennifer and Sean welcomed us all into their home for great fun and great food and crack dip! Berta even stayed up past 10pm!! Believe it or not!!

Back to RubinSmo manor we went for more fun and games!

The next day we went to see Berta's mom and also got an unexpected visit from Norman! After having a great lunch at Shanghai River with the gang, I headed home. Upon arrival, my house and famiy were intact and they were very glad to see me!

Thank you Rhonda for inviting me. I had a great time and it was a blast seeing everyone again.

Old Yeller

Yes, you know. The movie about a boy and his dog? Well, Rayne decided she wanted to watch that movie this evening before going to bed. As I was trying to catch up on emails from a fantastic weekend of girlfriends (more on that on another post) she walked into my room to let me know the movie had ended. She's standing behind me to tell me the movie is over. I ask her, "Did you cry at the end?" "No" she says. I'm thinking that's a little odd, but okay she might be a little young for the movie and not apt to give in to emotions quite yet. So, I still type away with my back to her and say. "You mean, you didn't even cry when Old Yeller died?" Then I hear with a quivering voice, "No, but it was a good movie". I whip around and she's standing there with tears in her eyes!!! I laughed!! Yes, I know, bad mom!!! But, I said, "You were crying!!!!" Then she starting laughing and crying at the same time!! I told her that everyone cries at Old Yeller. You aren't human if you don't cry!!! So, now she has me crying cause she's crying and we're both laughing our heads off because we are both crying! I give her a big hug and kiss and then she starts singing the end song. Yes, it was pretty funny and cracked me up that she did get so emotional over the movie and that she also knows that it's okay to cry at sad movies!!! She's going to do great at chick flicks!!!

Annie Get Your Gun!

Well, the rat saga continued!! We thought we only had two rats in the barn. I bought some tasty rat baits and the next day they were all gone!! I bought some more and set them out. They were nibbled on as well! The package said that it would take five days for the poison to work. Sure enough five days later Rat #1 lay dead outside the barn. The next day rat #2 was seen slowly walking in a dazed stupor barely breathing. He was put out of its misery. Yeah!!! We thought we had gotten all the rats. The day after that, one of our little chihuahuas came running up to us with a gift in its mouth!! Yes, another rat!!! Whoo hoo!! The thing was near death as well. This went on for a few days of finding dead rats in and around the barn!! The count was now up to 7!! I can't believe we had this many!! A couple of days later another was found dead. EIGHT RATS!!! ARrrgghh!!! A few more days passed and no more dead rats!! The rat baits were untouched. Finally, we had gotten them all!!! I went to go help my kiddo in the barn feed the horses when one of our other dogs started freaking out over some wrapped up fence wire in the barn. I walked over to where she was and saw something furry inside the wire. Dead rat? Sick rat? We poked at it with some bailing wire and that thing jumped sky high!! Neither sick nor dead!!! It was stuck inside the fencing wire and I wasn't going to wait for it to come out. I called Tom on the phone to see if he wanted me to shoot it with the .22? Haven't had much luck with that thing when I was trying to scare dogs. Almost hit a kid on his bike!! Didn't mean to, but was told never to hold the rifle again! :) I figured this would be close range and could put the gun right into the fence wire. We went and grabbed the rifle. Rayne had the phone as Tom listened in on what we were doing. I turned the safety off, aimed the gun right at the rat and pulled the trigger. The rat didn't do anything!! I poked at it with the baling wire and the thing jumped!! How could I miss, the rat was HUGE!!! It looked like a baby possum!!! I shot again and poked at it, still that sucker jumped!!! I tried it again, this time putting the muzzle of the rifle right at what I thought was its head! Pulled the trigger and the thing ran inside the fence!!! IT'S ALIVE!!!!!! I had some kind of freakin' miracle rat!!! Did it have nine lives!!! Did it think it was a cat!!! My husband is telling me I'm missing the stupid thing, but I know I'm not!!! I have the bloody gun on the body of this goofy animal!!!!!! Now, I'm getting mad!!! This sucker is going down!! I am not going to have it in my barn!!!! I put the tip of that gun right against its fur and pulled the trigger again. Rayne and I are looking at each other thinking this is NUTS!!! I have shot this rat FOUR times!! It has to be dead!!! I poke it one more time with the baling wire. Finally, it does not move!!! But, I am not taking the fencing down to see if it is really dead. When Tom came home that night he pulled the fencing off it and even he said, it was a big rat!!! Finally, someone believes me about how big this guy was!!! He picked it up and sure enough it had three holes in it!! But, you know what my wonderful husband says to me? "Four shots at close range and you still miss one!!!" LOL!! But, I did shoot him twice in the stomach and once in the head!! That rat was a fighter, I'll give him that!!

So, now the rats are gone from our barn, and I'm going to the shooting range and taking lessons!

More Farm Life

It's not that I don't mind living out in the middle of nowhere. It's actually quite peaceful. Where else can you go out at night and literally see a million stars? Or, take a blanket and watch meteor showers without have to drive to a dark and deserted place? You're already there! In the mornings when we go out to feed the animals, we're greeted with Elvis' long bleat. Elvis is our gimp sheep. For those of you who have the little toy of "This is what a sheep sounds like, Baaahhh." You've got the wrong toy! Sheep don't sound that way! Then, there's Max, our Nigerian Dwarf goat who thinks he's a dog. He just wants to be pet and watch out if you leave the door open to the house. Max will be up on the couch watching t.v. with the rest of the dogs! The horses will stand impatiently in the barn kicking at the walls waiting for their food. They are always hungry. You open the tack room door and are greeted by not one, but two RATS!!! We still cannot get rid of these things. Tom grabbed his rifle and went to go shoot them, but they scattered. It's always good to have a gun in the country! One ran under the plywood board on the other side of the tack room. He lifted that up and what did he find? A 3 foot snake!! I was hoping that the snake would eat the rat, but no such luck. At least he shot the snake as he wasn't doing any good. You figure if he was that long he had been there for awhile. He wasn't a good rat catcher! Since that episode, we haven't seen the rats and sticky rat traps are next. I know how to shoot the rifle but I don't have very good aim with it. I'll leave that up to Tom! Ahhhhh, just another day out on the farm. At least the radishes and lettuce are growing very well!

Farm Life!

How many flushes does it take to empty the well? One of the many adventures living out in the country is that we don't have city water! That is a good thing in itself. You don't have to worry about all the junk that the city and state had decided is good for you and what you need or don't need to have! I like having well water! It's fresh, clean, tastes good! I decide whether I want to put flouride in my mouth or not. The only time having a well might prove to be a hindrance is in bad weather when the electricity goes out. Then it's always nice to have jugs of water on hand to brush your teeth, wash your face and flush the toilet!

Or, when something happens to the motor of the well! Such is the case that happened a couple of days ago. Sitting in the living room we hear a horrendous noise coming from outside! It's very loud, whiny, horrific. It's the motor for the well. This happened about 5 years ago and we had to replace the motor! I guess they only have a 5 year lifespan? As I walked past the wellshed there was a horrible stench of burning rubber. We figured that whatever was left in the well tank would be all the water we would have for the next day. In the morning Tom check the motor. The good news is that the motor was still running fine! The bad news is that the pulley was lying in pieces on the ground with the belt shredded beside it. Hence the smell!

We had a good homeschooling lesson in conservation that day! Turn off the water when you are brushing your teeth and only to rinse out the toothbrush and your mouth. Wash your hands quickly. Do we really need to wash dishes today? We can wait on that shower too! Tom came home that evening with a new belt and a new pulley. The pulley worked, the belt did not. Another day to conserve water. We ate out that night! Another day to conserve dishes. But a new day a new belt and all is well in our household. We did not run out of water in our welltank. The dishes are done and we all smell good! Oh, and all toilets were flushed as we never had to conserve on that end! All in all, farm life is still good. Now, to take care of those two rats in the barn!!

I always wanted to be in the news!

You know how you always hear about slow downs on the freeway? I never thought I would cause something like that! It's been one of those days! Due to a big gust of wind, I heard those words going through my head! Pick up on aisle 12 as I saw boxes falling off of my truck! Thankfully, no one was hurt, no accidents were caused. But, as I was pulling over to the side of the freeway all I saw was a sea of mitts floating across 5 lanes of traffic!

Well, if people just opened their doors and reached out and grabbed one, they would have gotten a nice treat to take home for their showers!! At least the work guys will have something nice to pamper themselves with tomorrow!