Happy New Year! 2014!!

Posted on January 1, 2014 by farm2011

I think these past couple of weeks finally caught up to our family. We slept until 9:30 in the morning. I can’t even remember the last time that I came anything close to sleeping that late. And you know what? It felt great! We found out that Mom was moved out of ICU early and is in her ‘regular’ room now. Which is fantastic news. Hopefully every day she’ll get stronger and closer to coming home.

As for us today? Well I had a turkey that was thawed in the fridge that I was going to make for dinner. But our dinner today wasn’t going to be at noon. I mean, we ate breakfast around 10, so that pushed dinner back to after 1:00. But with the turkey in the oven and hash browns on a flat griddle, corn warmed up, and pork and beans on the stove we were all ready to eat. And since the oven was on, I thought that I might as well make some blueberry muffins that I had in the cupboard. They were some premix thing that I had and it sure made the house smell good. And when they were done? They tasted pretty good too. DSC_0006And then since the oven was on and everything,  Kyle has been talking about making pies. Now my pie making is bad. No … really bad. The one and only time I made a homemade pie, I threw the pie out to the dogs because no one ate it in our family and the dogs didn’t even want to eat it. So we cheated a little bit today. We used a pie crust that I had in the fridge. Then Kyle made the rest of it. I gathered the ingredients up and he whipped up the pie. Now our house smells even better!

Getting everything organized for Kyle

Getting everything organized for Kyle

Kyle's Pecan Pie that he made today

Kyle’s Pecan Pie that he made today

We’re still getting snow here today and with some reluctance the Oliver started in the cold and Daryl spent some time scraping yard up. We’re supposed to get a couple of more inches of snow tonight, but if it doesn’t blow around I think we should be alright. With tomorrow a work day, I worry about the weather more than I should I think. DSC_0004

I’m also planning on taking the Christmas tree down inside our house tonight. I’ll leave our outside lights up just in case we decide to have Mom’s Christmas at our farm. But with a busy next couple of days and weekend coming up for us, I think taking the tree down tonight is a good idea.

 

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New Years Eve – Mom’s surgery

Posted on December 31, 2013 by farm2011

Well today is the day that Mom has her surgery. She’s been in the hospital for about 3 weeks and even though we’re anxious for her to have her surgery, we’re also nervous about it. She’s has had some good days during these 3 weeks, but she’s also has had some bad days and that’s why we’re just a little anxious about this whole thing. A couple of us were able to be at the hospital before she went into surgery and within a couple of hours, we had almost the whole crew there. And then all we had to do was to wait. And wait. It’s so crazy, but that waiting makes you so tired doesn’t it? I don’t know about everyone else, but when I’m waiting for any news and you see a Dr or Nurse tell some other family updates, you sure hope that they’ll head over to your area the next time. But we found out when they started surgery and then over 4 hours later we got the good news. Everything went well. And to be honest, everything went better than what we had ever hoped for. We found out that they didn’t have to put her on any machines and stop her heart which was fantastic. And then we found out that they could go through one of her arteries to replace the valve, which is just truly amazing that they can do this. When we left last night, she was actually sitting up in her chair in ICU and eating. When Daryl and I walked up to her room and saw her,  we just couldn’t believe it. Her nurse told us that her progress was unheard of . Go Mom! But as we were leaving the hospital and thinking about these past two months, some people would say good riddance to 2013 and welcome 2014.  But I’m grateful for these past two months of 2013. I mean, if Daryl’s heart surgery didn’t go as well as it did, he would have had to have more extensive surgery and that’s not good for anyone. He’s back and work, and even though his shoulder and chest still hurts from his type of surgery, he’s doing so much better and is now getting ready for vacation. As for my Mom? Well, what would have happened if she didn’t have this episode and didn’t know that she had to have her heart fixed? She’s in her 80’s and had gotten out of her heart surgery in the afternoon, and a couple of hours later is sitting in a chair and eating. And even though now when I’m texting on my phone and when I type in ‘I’ the first thing that comes up now is ‘ICU’ because I’ve used it so often, I’m so glad that the only issue that we’re having tonight is trying to come up with a day to have Ma’s Christmas.

Since Mom was doing so good, no one stayed the night with her. She was ready for a good night’s sleep.  And while Daryl and I were driving home tonight from the hospital, we were trying to find someplace other than a gas station to eat supper. Even though we both were starving, I just didn’t think a gas station for New Years Eve was something that I wanted to do. But after we were having trouble finding anything – even a gas station didn’t sound too bad. We finally found a Culvers that was open and in we went. I was so hungry for ice cream tonight, so I had cheese curds and a blizzard ice cream  for supper. I mean it’s New Years Eve and all!

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What was lost is now found

Posted on December 29, 2013 by farm2011

I’ll be the first one to say that both our dog and cat need some new friends to hang out with.  With our male dog gone, our female dog Reno hangs out with Little Kitty. Now normally this isn’t such a big deal. I mean, who really cares right? As long as no one picks on the other one so bad that they end up fighting, life is pretty good for both of them.

But lately I think Little Kitty has been acting more and more like a dog. When we drive into our yard, he will come running at the car and follows the car into the garage along with Reno. OK, still not the end of the world.. but a little strange.

So now Little Kitty has a new dog trick he’s been doing. He has two toy balls that he likes to play with in the house and his favorite is the hard foam ball. DSC_0435But the bell ball is OK in a pinch. He takes the balls and chases them around the house and then when he sees that he’s too far away from the kitchen he carries them back… in his mouth…like a dog. At first he would just do this with the hard ball, but when that one got lost he started to do this with the bell ball. It looks pretty crazy if you ask me. Tonight he found his favorite toy ball and when he came walking across the kitchen with it I swear he had the most stupid look on his face and seemed pretty proud he found the favorite one again.DSC_0428The ball was a little ‘furry’ so it must have been tucked away in some lost corner of the house or something. But he didn’t mind and played with it a long time tonight. DSC_0437

As for everyone else on this cold day? Well Reno was in the house most of the day. She just lays so nice and quite on the blanket you don’t even know that she’s there most of the time. I’m thinking that this is her plan to stay under the radar.

But the cow water tank is another story. You have to watch it every day to make sure that it doesn’t freeze over. There are even extra heaters under the tank to keep it warm on days like today. But we had such a windy day today that I don’t know if it’s overflowing tonight or if the wind is just blowing the top of the water and it’s freezing on the sides. The good thing is that it’s not froze. The bad thing is that Daryl will have to check it to make sure that it’s not overflowing. DSC_0423

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Fiddler on the Roof Musical

Posted on December 28, 2013 by farm2011

For the past couple of Christmas’s, we’ve tried to make it up to the cities to see a musical. And we were lucky enough to get tickets to see one again this year.DSCN7694

You always have to be worried about the weather when you plan adventures in the winter, but the sun was shining and with no snow in the forecast off we went. We had tickets for the afternoon show of Fiddler on the Roof, which meant that they start seating people at 11:00 for the dinner. So that meant for us to leave our house around 8:00 in the morning.

IMG_0889But around 11:30 we found ourselves at the theater and headed inside to find our seats. I bought the tickets some time ago, and they were pretty limited at the time. We ended up sitting close to the front stage and I was a little worried that we were too close. But seeing how packed the theater was, I guess we should just be glad that we got seats. Once the show started we found out that the seats were just perfect. My worries that we were sitting too far to the front was just that Worries. I was more excited about this musical than others that we’ve seen in the past. The reason is because when Daryl was in high school he had the lead role for this show and it was also his favorite musical that he was in. So I’m guessing he was also anxious for it to start. Once it did, we had a blast. I got just as much of a kick out of watching Daryl enjoying the musical as the musical itself. And for the boys? Well, hearing them laugh and talk about the show later I know that they also had a good time. I tried to find some pictures of when Daryl was in the high school musical but couldn’t seem to find any. I know that things have changed since we’ve been in school, but when the boys were in musicals I literally took hundreds of pictures for the cast. That’s why I love the change when we went to digital cameras. You can always delete the bad ones and make tons of copies of the good ones. But that’s how it is now and not back when you had roll film, so I guess I’ll have to keep looking for his papers. And do you think I can find his year book for a picture? It’s not with the other yearbooks, so that wasn’t going to happen either. IMG_0892

On the way home from Minneapolis we drive by Rochester and what a great chance to stop in to say hi to Mom. We wanted to bring her a little Christmas tree earlier this week, but with being in ICU there are no live plants allowed. So now that she’s in a different room, we brought the tree with us. At first it was a Christmas tree, but we decided that it’ll be her New Years tree instead. She’s doing much better and is hoping to have her surgery next week.IMG_0894

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December 26th

Posted on December 26, 2013 by farm2011

It’s the day after Christmas and back to work we go. Well, it’s just me this morning. Daryl took the day off and the boys? Well, they are more nocturnal than anything else. They stay up late and get up even later. But I don’t care. I say if you can get away with it, go for it!

At work today it never fails. I don’t know about you, but if seems if there’s some type of Holiday and you eat – I am absolutely starving the next day. Today even some mint cookies that a supplier sent tasted good. And I really don’t even like mint! Then we started to talk about butter. And the recipes that you can make with butter. Now it might not sound like we got much work done, be we really did. The one butter recipe that was shared was this one: soften two sticks of butter, add around 1/3 a can of sweetened condensed milk (I guessed on this and just poured some on the butter) and a tsp of cinnamon. If you’re reading this you just might think it’s just flavored cinnamon. And you are right, but it’s awesome!  We had potato soup and fresh buns from the oven for supper tonight and then I put some of this butter on the buns and to be honest I think I had more butter than bread. The girl who gave me the recipe said it tastes more like a cinnamon roll and she was right. But now I have this bowl of butter in our refrigerator and I’ll have to find other things to put it on. I don’t think it’s such a great idea just to scoop it out and eat it plain. Well at least not for the upcoming swim suit season 🙂

Not the best picture of the flavored butter - but it's good

Not the best picture of the flavored butter – but it’s good

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Christmas 2013

Posted on December 25, 2013 by farm2011

Christmas 2013. It’s hard to believe isn’t it. As you probably know by now our family has a lot of traditions that we follow. Some are legitimate and some are just kind of made up. One of the traditions that we do in our family is to play a game of euchre with the boys on Christmas Eve and the first one who has 15 points wins.

Let the games begin!

Let the games begin!

With a lot of talk going on at the table and even some nervousness when it gets close to the end of the game, I hate to say it but the boys won. Now to Daryl’s and my defense, the score was 15 to 14 so it’s not like they won by a lot or anything. But I’m thinking that they are gloating, what do you think?

OK, ok, they won.

OK, ok, they won.

Then off to exchange gifts within our family. This tradition started a long time ago when Kyle was little. He was so excited for Christmas and presents, that we decided to exchange names and gifts the night before. That way he could open one present up before he went to bed. We were really excited when William came along and joined the exchange. Otherwise three people drawing names.. well let’s just say it wasn’t a big secret. Then watching some TV and off to bed we went. Now one tradition that we didn’t do this year was to stay up and call my brother at midnight. It started out many years ago as a phone call that turned into pranking each other at midnight.For some reason this year I didn’t call him. He called me, so he’s thinking that he won. See the whole trick is to have the closest to midnight on their phone. Sometimes some of the other family’s play along too.  Oh well, there’s always next year, so be ready!! The best prank was when some of my family was in our barn at midnight and then left the farm throwing fire crackers in the yard to wake us up.  And to beat it all, my MOM was with them. Hum… I’m not sure who’s idea it was, but there sure was a lot of laughing about this night the next couple of days!

Finally it’s Christmas morning and of course Kyle is the first one out of bed and checking out to see if and what gifts are under the tree. In our family, the gifts of Christmas are not seen until the morning. The boys take turns opening their gifts and we really had fun. DSCN7675aI know that I’ve said this before, but we are so lucky to have both boys home again for Christmas. I’m sure that someday that might not always be the case and I try not to think about that so much and only enjoy the moment. I think what I like the most about it is the noise that the kids bring. It kind of makes your house alive or something.

I always make the kids stand in front of the tree for a picture on Christmas

I always make the kids stand in front of the tree for a picture on Christmas

After gifts were opened we had breakfast of an egg bake and then the boys put together an air hockey table that was a family gift. I laughed when William said that he wasn’t sure when the idea turned to have the kids put together the Christmas stuff. But you know what? It was a really good idea.

Putting together the air hockey table

Putting together the air hockey table

It didn't take long and they were playing

It didn’t take long and they were playing

While they did that, I put a ham in the oven and some potatoes in the crock pot for dinner. Now I don’t usually make a ham very often so I’m not sure if that’s why it smells so darn good or what. But we couldn’t wait until it was done and we were sitting on the table to eat. After our bellies were full, we cleaned the table off quick and headed to the hospital so see Mom. I can’t lie, it was kind of  weird to think about Mom in the hospital at Christmas. She looks forward to Christmas all year and also shops for it all year. But it’s the best place for her right now and once she’s feeling better we’ll have Christmas at her house. She lives in a small town, so I’m sure the neighbors won’t think much of it when we turn her Christmas lights on, no matter when we do it.  We’re hoping that she gets out of the Intensive Care tomorrow and will have surgery next week.

On the way home I was thinking about the day and even though there were parts of it so nontraditional, it was still a really very nice Christmas. I know that some people say that once December 25th is over that Christmas is over, and I’m sure that I’ve even said that in the past too. But after this year I think I’m going to change my mind. I don’t think Christmas is over on December 25th anymore. I think Christmas is over when you want it to be over. And for me? I’m going to try to keep it going for as long as I can.

So with my new Christmas jammies on and the TV going in the living room, along a laptop on upstairs, and I can hear the Nintendo noises from the back room – I just smile to myself and think that all is good and head to bed. Merry Christmas!

Every year I get new Christmas pajamas

Every year I get new Christmas pajamas

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

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‘When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter…’

Posted on December 24, 2013 by farm2011

With it being Christmas Eve there’s always stuff to do. And most of my stuff involves being upstairs putting away clothes, wrapping gifts,… just stuff.

So this morning when I could hear a brrrummmm in the yard I figured that it was just the boys coming home from town and tearing around in the yard. So I didn’t think much of it. Then the door bell rang and I thought what in the world? I thought to myself that this better be good if I’m stopping what I’m doing and having to answer the door! I started to beat it down the steps when I heard something hit the floor in the kitchen and before I got to the bottom of the steps, the front door shut hard. And just as I came into the kitchen I could see out of the corner of my eye  who was driving away. It was .. the UPS guy! I swear he had to run to and from his truck just to get in and out of our house that fast!!

He was delivering a package that I ordered. I ordered 2 things from Amazon last Thursday, December 19th late at night and it said that it would be in before Christmas. The first thing was something for myself and it was going to be delivered on Dec 23. The second thing was a gift and that said that it would be delivered on Dec 24th. Not that I’m a skeptic, but I wasn’t sure that this would happen at all and to be honest it was more of an experiment than anything else. I mean, I can hardly get groceries in the store these days without just a million people around.  How can they get these two packages pulled from their stock, packaged up, mailed, and delivered from Thursday around 11:00 pm to our door on Monday & Tuesday.  Guess what? They were able to do it. In the mail yesterday was the first package that I ordered.  But could they get both of them on time? The second one was supposed to be here on Tuesday, Dec 24th. Well, since the UPS driver was here and gone before noon today I guess the answer was yes. That’s just simply amazing.

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Everyone’s a comedian

Posted on December 23, 2013 by farm2011

With Daryl’s surgery a month ago and now with Mom in the hospital, we never got around to getting the Christmas tree decorated. So on Monday night the boys set out to do exactly that. The ornaments have been by the tree just waiting for the right moment and tonight was the night. As the Christmas music was blasting in the living room along with the TV going with a football game on, they started to put the ornaments on the tree. I smiled to myself because I could hear them talk about each ornament as they were hanging them. It reminded me of a cartoon that was in last weeks Sunday paper. The cartoon was about hanging ornaments and it goes something like this: The joy of Christmas is remembering the joys of Christmas past. Kinda cool.

But for these two hoodlums they thought they were pretty funny when they saw that I got out the camera and they started to pose.DSCN7649 DSCN7650But little did they know that I also have my camcorder and all three cameras juiced up and ready to go for the next couple of weeks. Even Daryl was getting into the act.

With Daryl putting our angel on top of the tree, it's official.

With Daryl putting our angel on top of the tree, it’s official.

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Ma’s tests

Posted on December 23, 2013 by farm2011

Today was the last day of work before Christmas and it was going to work out that the boys could run to town with me to get them some Christmas clothes. After work, I beat it home and Kyle and I waited for William to show up. He was out and about with some friends and it didn’t take long before he pulled into the driveway. We were off. With Christmas songs on the radio and fun conversations in the car we were having a good time. But then the phone rang and everything changed. Mom was having tests done today and my brother, sister-in-law, sister, and niece were all at the hospital to spend time with Mom. The tests were somewhat routine, but they ended up anything but routine. The phone call was to say that Mom wasn’t doing well and at one point that there was 8 people in her room and one of them was a priest. What? I swear that you worry about your kids all the time and then there’s a point when you worry just as much (or possibly more?) about your parents. We didn’t know if we all needed to be there, and we waited for his updates. Finally after a couple of hours she had gotten better and it was decided that we’d wait and see what Tuesday brings. As the night went on, Mom said that she was doing much better. I think she could have turned either way and thank goodness it was for  the better. So with some of my family staying again tonight, we’ll have to see what tomorrow brings.

 

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The Sunday before Christmas

Posted on December 22, 2013 by farm2011

It is the Sunday before Christmas and I wanted to take the boys shopping for some clothes that they needed. It was part of their Christmas gifts and it was really something that I couldn’t do without them. William needed some pants and shirts and Kyle needed some more running shoes. He’s been running between 5 to 10 miles a day and he literally ran holes in the bottom of his shoes that he got last year. But the weather got a little ugly during the night and we postponed the trip.  That was OK anyway because William had other plans for the afternoon. Mom was doing good and since there were other’s going up to visit her today, I decided to continue on my candy quest. Now normally I don’t make any candy until the day before I’m going to give it to someone, but you know what? I tasted some candy that I had in the fridge from a couple of days ago and it was fine. I really have to remember that for next year!

My brother and sister-in-law stopped in before they headed to see Mom just as I was hanging some laundry on the line. He gave me tons of grief (probably like everyone else’s brothers) and was wondering what in the world I was doing? Now there are two reasons that I was hanging laundry on the line. The first one? Well I like to. This should be the end of the discussion but there is also a second reason and that is that both boys are home and everything that they brought with them needs to be washed. So that’s why I was hanging stuff on the line today. But there was a time when I was snapping the clothes line to get the ice off that I decided that maybe this isn’t the brightest idea. It was so cold out that the clothes literally were steaming when I was trying to hang them up. And some of the top clothes in the pile froze stiff before they got hung. But the real kicker was when my fingers warmed the ice on the clothes pins and then when everything got cold – yup you guessed it. My fingers were freezing to the clothes pins. But with about 5 loads of laundry that needed to be dried, outside it went.

The clothes are frozen solid. Literally!

The clothes are frozen solid. Literally!

This afternoon Daryl and I decided to go on a date. And it was even a Sunday! Whoo hoo! Before we left, I quick made a couple batches of caramel turtles and put them in the fridge to cool and then got dressed. We ended up going to the movie matinee and did some shopping. After grabbing a bite to eat we were home around 8 pm. Not bad and since it wasn’t too late, I took the candy that was chilling and decided to coat them in chocolate. Now this is where I should have evaluated my time better. I finally finished up in the early morning hours. My back was killing me so after a hot bath, off to bed I went.  It seemed like I just got into a deep sleep when the alarm went off for work on Monday. This was Daryl’s first day back to work after his surgery and I sure didn’t want to be the one who hit snooze.

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