Well here is a little preview of the wonderful weekend we had this past weekend. My parents only live about 15 minutes from me, but it was so nice to pack up for a weekend and take the kids to spend the night there.

Saturday we got to ride the horses and have fun, and celebrate the 10 year olds birthday. Then Sunday we were up and off to Greenbluff for the Cherry festival. We only visited a couple farms, but we had a lot of fun. I really love the pictures of the kids riding the ponies. I just hope some day we can get our middle boy over the fear of riding horses.

He came off of a horse that spooked with him last summer and since then he is so afraid to ride them. To say the least grandma and grandpa got rid of that horse and now they have another one. Cooper is a great horse. Our middle boy did finally agree to ride him. So we put a bareback pad on him and Grandpa started walking the horse. Well our boy began to slide down because the bareback pad wasn't tight enough. Cooper just stopped and looked back at him like "what on earth you doing down there?" Our poor boy was just holding on and not letting go, but that horse never flinched.

I'll have to go do that again soon. It's fun to get up early in the morning and go horse back riding with the kids. At least my oldest and my daughter love to ride the horses with a passion. Our daughter is always pointing at them say, "wanna ry, wanna ry" She's just so cute about it.

A Young Cowboy's Birthday

Well I'm really starting to feel old. As of tomorrow my son will be 10 years old. It's hard to believe that he is ten. It seems like just yesterday he was learning to talk and of course hasn't stopped since, lol.

I've been very busy working on some genealogy for a family for their family reunion. So I called up my mom earlier in the week and told her that by this weekend I would be so ready to get out of the house and do something and since my son's birthday was that Monday, why not we come over, spend the weekend with them, ride the horses and see what else we do.

So we showed up her Saturday morning. We all then went out to Rathdrum Days. It's a small little town and a small little celebration, but it was nice to get out of the house and go shop Crafter's booths at the local high school and park.

Saturday afternoon we came back and watched a movie while we waited for it to cool down. Then Mom and I decided to take the boys to the ranching store so I could get the 10 year old a pair of boots for his birthday. The prices of the boots weren't as bad as I expected so I also had room in the budget for a belt too. But of course the middle boy saw his older brother getting boots and he just had to have some. If Grandma hadn't been there he wouldn't have gotten any. He would have just had to wait to get any. But Grandma's always have a soft spot and she couldn't stand it. She bought him a pair of boots too, and told him the were an early birthday gift ( his birthday isn't until December), we'll see if that lasts.

Earlier that day the 10 year old also got an Aussie Cowboy hat from Grandma and Grandpa for his birthday. Now he was all set. Our Cowboy. I told my mom that I am glad that he chose to be a cowboy because he sure wouldn't like me too much if he decided on a Gothic , gangster, or any of those other looks that I don't approve of. I'm just not one of those parents that believe in letting their kids make all the choices. I am the parent and I will be the parent. I'm not their friend. But I am happy that we agree on the path he has chosen.

Later when it finally cooled off we did get out there and saddle of the horses. We all got to do a little riding. I'm so proud of my oldest. He is learning to take care of the horses and rides so well. I think I am going to look into a 4H horse riding group for him. I know he will love it.

Then today we all got up and went to Greenbluff in Washington for the Cherry Festival. It was nice to browse around the gift shops, but I didn't buy anything. When you live on a very limited budget, little shops like that are just so expensive for their crafts and food items. I know then can and prepare food products on a small scale, so the manufacturing cost for them are probably much higher than what it is for a big company like Kraft, Smuckers, and other big name brands. But gee $13 for a pound of coffee beans or $5 for a small little bag of pasta.

On the other hand it was fun and a great buy to pick our own Cherries. We went out on this big wagon pulled by this ancient tractor. We spent a good while picking cherries. When we were done we had twelve pounds of cherries.

Boy did that bring back old memories. Growing up in California my parents had a huge lot that had many fruit trees and farm animals like goats, chicken, rabbits, geese and my FFA lamb for the fair. One of the trees we had that I think all of us loved the most was a cherry tree. God I remember eating so man cherries that the next day I'd spent more time in the bathroom then I would back out in the cherry tree. Of course Mom would warn us that we were going to give ourselves a tummy ache. But do you think we listened, or course not. My brother and I had to have at least one tummy ache from the cherries every year to refresh our memory and remember that Mom did indeed know what she was talking about. I'll never forget that cherry tree as long as I live. It had so many great memories.

Well the 10 year old is one happy boy. The only thing that could have made his birthday better, is to have his dad home for it. But hopefully he'll be home in a few days.

What Are Men Good For?

Where I live, unfortunately, we have one open lot that they never built a home on to the back south side of us, then to the back east side of us are some storage units. My house sits and a strangle angle with five sides to the lot. If you have ever lived near either one you know what little pesky vermin can come out of them. That's right mice! Well for the most part I never had trouble with them in my home. But my neighbor did. That was until they tore down the old green house at the back half of the lot and started working on my yard. Now I have the little buggers visiting me in my home.

So I went and bought the good old fashion traps. Put cheese, bread, peanut butter or even a piece of a doggy biscuits (they ate up most of the small bag I had, so I knew they liked them). I'll be darned if the darn things didn't clean me off every stinkin' time and leave my traps empty. Well forget that. These guys are too smart, or I'm too stupid to get these traps to work.

So on one of my hubby's trips home he went to the store since he wanted some hearty meals while he was home to satisfy his craving for real home cooking. While he was there he picked up some of those trays with the real sticky stuff on them. I'll be darned if I didn't catch one the first night, then one the next and then ANOTHER a few nights later! No wonder they were driving me crazy. I thought I only had one of two in here.

At this point I know I have at least one more. I've seen it once and certainly heard it. Well this night I sure as heck heard it. I had reset the trap to be between the refrigerator and the cabinet, where I had caught two of the others.

I'm sitting down here talking to my friends and all the sudden i heard this loud, eerie screech and scratching. I thought maybe some wild cat (since we have some of those who use to like the greenhouse too) was being eaten by a coyote at my sliding glass door. At least that's what it sounded like. I had no clue!

I carefully crept up stairs to see what the commotion is all about. As I come up the stairs, turn the corner and turn on the kitchen light I heard it again and looked ahead and saw it. Oh my God the mouse had three of it's four feet caught, but he was still very much alive. He was using the free leg to brace on the floor and pull the other three legs. I didn't want to touch it since he was standing up and alive.

This was the moment that I wondered "Why the heck couldn't James be home tonight" He had taken a live one out for me when he was home. So I left it. What else was I going to do? I sure wasn't going to reach my hand between the cabinet and risk being bitten by a mouse!

I get up the next morning and that darn thing had freed himself and was gone. Now I'm probably going to have to buy a different kind of trap because I doubt he will fall for that one again.

With James gone I have been capable of doing a lot of things on my own. I've dealt with my own plugged up over flowing toilet that one of the kids blessed me with, I've done more little remodel projects around the house, selling the car by myself, take out my own trash and so many other things that are easy to leave up to the man to do. But that was one thing I was not going to do. I'll catch the little bugger later, but I was not going to retrieve that trap with a live mouse on it. Give me another toilet to plunge before I do that.