Why Amy is absent....

Well, my poor blog is really being neglected!!  I have so many pictures to share.. stories to tell.... and I don't want to let too much time lapse, but we do have busy happenings going on over here!

The first one is that we are buying a house!  After four years of renting here in San Antonio (we just got too comfortable staying in the same home, and after moving TWICE in ONE year, moving isn't really our favorite thing to do ...  we even tried to buy the house we are living in, but the owner wants too much money for it...), we are MOVING again!  We kind of had major stipulations when we started looking (which the decision to buy a house and find a house all happened in 4 days, literally).  We had to stay in our church ward (we're near the dividing lines), we had to stay in the school district (again, we're on the dividing lines there too).... so we found a house in our neighborhood, which we love anyways.  The area that we live in is a really super nice part of San Antonio, and we have mega million dollar homes surrounding us all over, so our property is a little high.  We could go to other parts of SA and get a much bigger home for the same amount of money, but we love this area & we promised the girls we wouldn't take them out of their comfort zone ... this is THEIR time.  SO....we sign on our house this week, and demolition begins!

I say demolition b/c it is very outdated... and since Mike is a pretty handy guy, we will have hardwood floors in some rooms, an updated kitchen, new toilets... etc etc etc.  The girls have already picked out their colors for their rooms, (Katie pale light blue/teal and Maddie hot pink -- yikes!), and I'm looking forward to my walk in closet!

Funny enough, we're only moving two blocks away.  So, the girls and I will be moving every night == load up my SUV, take it to the new house, and unpack. Repeat. 

We're so excited to see my dad come into town to help Mike out for the week after we close!  He offered to come down to help Mike, and we are so grateful for the extra help.  There is only so much I can do ..... (can't you tell I'm no help when it comes to the cabin?)!  I am a superb "bring the man his water or lemonade" girl!  The girls are super excited Papa Rod will be here as well! 

Another big news in our life is that I got a job!  Wahoo!  So far I'm enjoying it, and I love the people I work with.  I kind of wished it didn't start until the girls started school, but oh well.. we had a fantastic summer!

School starts tomorrow ... Maddie has her teacher that she wanted.  She was in the deaf/hard of hearing class last year (her elementary school is the one that all the deaf kids in the district attend so all the kids are in one school).  She absolutely LOVED being in this class last year, and has learned sign language.  She wanted to continue in fifth grade, and I requested that she get in this class again, and she got it!  Probably doesn't hurt that one of her BFF's is also in this class too!  This is her final year in elementary school, and I'm wondering if I should shed tears that this is her final year?  Nah... I will probably shed tears on her last day of elementary school! 

Katie starts high school tomorrrow.  Maybe I should be shedding tears then?  I tell you.... they're not kidding when they say "don't blink b/c your babies will grow up so fast before your eyes!"  It's TOTALLY TRUE!!  But, she is nervous & excited at the same time.  She has all the classes she wanted, and a great lunch period (not at the end of the day or at the beginning of the day!).  She has all the colors of the rainbow pants (I'm serious... cobalt blue, nectarine, mint green, sea green/blue, white ... and I'm sure I'm missing some colors), so she's dying to get this party started! 

Katie has decided she wants to become a nurse after high school, which I totally am for.  I wanted to be a nurse, but didn't.  I love that the school here offers classes that she can take that will help go towards her nursing degree and give her a head start, and her first class that she is able to take she got!  If she chooses, when she is either a Junior or a Senior, she can take classes to become a licensed pharmacy technician.. and they get paid good!  Good side job money for a teenager/college kid! 

Anyways, life is busy over here... but I'll keep taking my pictures and eventually one day my blog will be up to date!

Smile! You're on camera!

I found these pictures on our Game Cam SD card from the property .... so here is an idea of some of the animals we see when we go to the property!

We have our raccoons.....

and our sleeping hogs ....

and either a mountain lion or a wild dog... (Mike has spotted a mountain lion on our property before!)

a human..... 

another big hog ...

Bambi ...

a huge litter of pigs!

and this one literally freaks me out ... a razorback?  YIKES!  I've never seen a hog so big, so not sure if it's a razorback or if it's just a big .. pig!

A very late 4th of July post....

Fourth of July was so much fun this year!!  Katie was away at Girls Camp, so we were without Katie this year for the 4th.  Mike had just had his kidney blasted for the second time for stones, so he was a bit out of it .....

Our church ward had a breakfast early that morning.  So Maddie and I loaded up (after I woke up literally 5 minutes before I was supposed to be there to set up!) the SUV and headed to the place.  Since I am in the Primary Presidency, we were putting on games for the kids to play.  Here are some pictures of Maddie in the games.

We had a pinata...

and bobbed for apples!

had face painting as well...

and a children's parade was done to show off all the kids on their decorated bikes, wagons & anything else.... Maddie decorated herself... she made the tie dye shirt the week before.

Later that afternoon we went to our dear friends Sarah & Justin's house for a BBQ and fireworks.  Cale is four years old and we absolutely LOVE Cale!  He was so used to Katie and Maddie being there, he was calling Maddie "Hey Katie-N-Maddie!"  His mom and I thought it was hilarious.  She is always telling him "Katie 'n Maddie will be here soon!"

He is really into superheroes lately... and Maddie played along with him.
It was pretty windy out that afternoon, and we couldn't keep the sticks burning very well, so Sarah brought out this burner to light the fireworks... and boom!  It works!

We had a great evening watching fireworks happening all around it.  The wind picked up that night, and it was such a perfect night!

Random thoughts from Amy ....

Boy ... ever since we got home life has been BUSY!  The day after we got home, a few unfortunate news hit us... and Mike decided it was time to buy a house!  So we did!  We were extremely limited in our choices though (we have to stay in our neighborhood or the neighborhood next to us b/c of schools) b/c we live in a very prime area in San Antonio, so choices are sort of slim picking ... and expensive!  But, we found one that will work for us!

Then, I found out that I'm 99% sure I'm going back to work.  Gah!  I'm so nervous!  and excited!  I'm so excited that it is still doing data entry work which I absolutely LOVE doing ... no phone work!!  Whew!

Smokey the hamster ate off part of my shopping bag that is lining my little wastebasket on the dryer.  Ever since, he has slept with that piece of bag like a blanket.  I tried to pull it out one day and boy did he move fast to grab it back with his teeth!  So, the bag stays....

When we came home from our trip to the cabin, we see this larger than normal sized lizard on the side of our porch.  Normally they don't stay in one place, and scramble away after we see it.  This one just stayed and stayed ... I placed the cooler w/ the pig next to it, and it didn't move.  I came out an hour later to take a picture of it after the girls looked at it.  Still didn't move.  Finally I grabbed a stick and tried to see if it would run off.  It's dead.

I had two photo shoots last Saturday.  One in the morning at San Jose Mission ... I love that mission!  So beautiful!  I had another shoot that night at my usual park I go to.  I wore flip flops.  I got bit by a flea.  A FLEA!!  Let me say.. those suckers have fangs!  They HURT!  He bit me TWICE!  In the SAME spot!  The next day my foot is swollen, and it itches like crazy.  I read up on it after church when someone told me that it was a flea that bit me.  Turns out, that you have to be really careful when you scratch it (well, it's best not to scratch really) because fleas desecrate when they bite.  So, they poop when they bite people/animals?!  Oh great!  Oh, and some people are hypersensitive to the flea's saliva!  Guess what?!  That was ME!  My foot swelled up for three days.  I couldn't even get my flip flops on!  It hurt, and ached, and it was swollen.  Gah.  Thankfully, the swelling has gone done now.

I have a favorite dinner that my mother in law makes... it's called Big Daddy.  You basically fry a piece of flour tortilla, and layer things on it like you would a tostada.  Refried beans, hamburger, lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, sour cream, salsa, and pickles. (yes, pickles!).  When we went to a neighboring town next to where Mike grew up, I saw on the menu a Big Daddy.  YAY!  I ordered that sucker, and it came out the size of a medium sized PIZZA!!  I think I ate a quarter of it...

However, there's a tiny little problem when it comes to big daddies.... I can't fry.  I butcher everything that I fry.  It's either too hot, or not hot enough.  I can't fry.  But man alive I was hungry for these big daddies!  So I fried... and I botched it.  AGAIN. 

I get a text from a certain someone when he got home that may or may not have said basically to stick to what I know... and frying ain't what I know!  I agree .... but man do I love those big daddies!  Too bad I could only find them on a menu in Arizona.  All these Mexican restaurants should have them on their menu! 

Thankfully last night I made chimichangas and no one passed out when they saw the chimi's, so we're good....  that might be the ONLY thing I can fry.  Course, a little "someone" had to use a knife to cut through her chimi....

Getting back into the groove of exercising after vacation has been hard.  But, I went back!!  I love where I go to the gym ... it's personal training in a group and I've been doing it since January.  The second day back was "full body" day, meaning we work on everything on the body and no concentrate on certain muscles like other days.  Well, my trainer wanted me to jump up on two boxes and jump back down.  Two boxes meaning those step boxes.  I did a few ... then tried another and my foot caught the back end of the top box, and man alive did I take a fall!  Fell flat on my knee and skinned my knee in the process.  My trainer came over, pulled me up and said "just do the jumping jacks and hop ... stay off the box."  I couldn't even WALK!  He wants me to do a jumping jack and hop and repeat?!"  I was sore for a few days... and my bruise is going finally almost going away.  But yesterday at my class I found out I still couldn't put a lot of pressure on my knee while on my knees.

I just now realized that I've posted about two dead animals complete with pictures... in a row.  Sorry about that. I promise my next post will not be about dead animals complete with pictures!

Black Widows + a hog + 100 degree weather .....

warning:  pictures of a dead pig that is being skinned ... is being shown on this blog.  :)  Yes, a pig was killed in the production of this trip.  No harm done to anyone else.  There are literally tons of hogs running wild and people need to get the numbers down as these hogs ruin the land & procreate like crazy.  Proceed with caution... :)

To finish off our summer vacation to Kansas City .. my parents drove the girls & I down to our property in Mineola.  It was an 8 1/2 hour drive. 

When we got to the cabin, we left to grab some lunch at East Texas Burger (best hamburgers! and peanut butter pie!) and Walmart to get some groceries.  When we got back, Mike, my dad & the girls left to head to the hunting stand to get situated early for hog hunting!  There is really only room for 3 people on the stand, so Mike got them all situated, drove them down in the four wheeler and left.  The feeder has a timer to set off at 6 p.m.

When Mike came back from dropping them off, he said "I have a few black widow spiders I need to kill!"  WHAT?!!  Black widow spider??  SPIDERS?  I freaked out a little.. my grandma was bit by a member of the black widow spider family years ago in Thailand.  She was sick for a very long time.  He showed me where they were (under the roof and by the area in which I can never remember what the name is ... starts with an S?).  He grabbed a broom and swept it down.  It had an EGG nest.  AUGH!  Mike smooshed it lightly so I could grab a picture ... but it came alive again.  This time it was road kill... er... foot kill?  There were two more on the other side of the cabin. Double freak out on my part.  He also mentioned when he went to turn the water on there was a black widow in that box as well.  ::thud::  So, I dreamed spiders all night long for a few nights.  Mike did spray around the cabin, in the cabin for bugs -- but it still didn't ease my fears that there were black widows in the cabin (which we didn't find any), and that the girls were going to get bit in the middle of the night.

After this so called black widow massacre, he set to work on building a pulley system on the tree.  I laughed and said "you're really that sure they're going to get a pig?"  My man of few words said "yep."  By then it was 6:00 ... time for the feeder to distribute the apple scented corn that drives the hogs crazy.  I went back in the cabin to seek refuge from the hot, humid weather.  At 6:15 Mike pokes his head in the door "the gun went off!"  A few minutes later Katie texts Mike and said "Grandpa got a small one!"  So, Mike took off with the little pull behind that we use when we have to carry anything heavy with the four wheeler. 

By the time they all came back, Katie had a story "Grandpa said he would count to three... he didn't count to three!  He counted to one and then shot!"  and my dad said "I counted!!  She didn't shoot!"  There were two pigs, one for Katie to shoot and one for my dad.  The other pig got away b/c Katie was waiting for the #3in the count to indicate it was time to shoot!

The pig is about a 100 pounder .... not too big, and not too small!

The place where the bullet entered...

Maddie went to work washing down the pig.  I was a little worried how she would do when it came time to butcher and skin the pig.  The last time she saw an animal get gutted was when Mike got a deer, and it was past sundown. She was probably 5 years old, and she was instructed to hold the flashlight so Mike could see.  Within seconds of Mike gutting the deer, we hear the noises of a little girl puking. Lovely.  However, this time she did remarkably well!


Our only problem this night was the bees.  There were bees galore everywhere.  Mike had used three cans of bee/wasp killer already that day and I had one final can left to use (oddly enough.. Walmart was out of all the cans for days!).  So, we had the job of keeping the bees off of the body of the pig AND off of Mike.  ::shudder::  Thankfully he's not allergic to bee stings, and also thankfully, he did not get stung by any bees!

My dad with his win ...

Maddie wants a picture too!

Mike finds the bullet and shows my dad ...

Look at that lovely bokeh around the pig!  A photographer's dream!

::snort::  

The following night Mike takes the girls.  Along with the two rifles, they take a Vera Bradley bag full of things such as sunflower seeds, water bottles, beef jerky, headphones (to emphasize the noises... or something like that), and anything else they need.  They take two pillows and a blanket to cushion their butts on the hard chairs.  Note to self:  leave a different backpack up at the cabin...

However, this night, they stayed 3 hours, and didn't see anything.  :(

I went on the final night with Mike & Katie, and we did see five pigs!   I was in the middle of the three, and Katie said "did you see that?" and so I looked... the next thing we saw was movement and out came pigs!  However, none of them came near the feeder.  Mike had a great view to shoot, but Katie didn't.  He wanted Katie to have the practice, so he didn't take the shot.

It was so hot out.  It was the sort of hot that you have sweat dripping down your face, your neck, down your shirt .... the "ugh, I can't stand it out here any longer" type of heat.  Maddie went swimming at the lake beach with my mom!

Before we left, Mike finished a few things at the cabin.  I forgot to show off our floor in the bathroom!  Mike officially has everything pretty much done in the bathroom now!

He also put up some lights that match the rest of the bathroom fixtures.

Since we have grapevines growing around all the trees on our property and everyone else's property .. these are the grapes that are showing up.  I really dislike those grapevines.  They're a nuisance!

Mike also managed to put up the insulation up on the loft -- so it will be much cooler (and warmer in the winter)!

The girls were passing time and looking through all my pictures on the laptop.

And since it would be quite normal for me to report.. I have no clue what Mike is doing here.   Installing ... something.  To do with ... something.

and here is another look at our small but amazing cabin!  I love coming here!

Recreating old photos ....

While I am here in Kansas City, the family got together and had a big brunch.  Most of the cousins were in town ... and someone (no, not me!)... had the brilliant idea of recreating a photo that was taken probably 24 years ago!!

So, my brother & I, and our cousins Kasey & Zach set out to recreate our "photo."  Which, was a disaster.  One was almost crying .... one was standing way off from the center -- away from me .....  ahh.. it was a disaster in the making.

So we decided to recreate it.  This was the result!

Excuse me while I laugh my butt off some more.... HILARIOUS!!! 

We only had to take this shot maybe 75 times b/c we couldn't stop laughing!!

So, at your next family gathering.... get some old picture and recreate it!!!

A trip to the ER .... while on vacation!

Well ... after being in pain for 3 days, it was time to take Katie to the ER.  My in laws took Katie to the ER and my mom met them there (she works at the hospital).  I had a photo shoot of my friend Kizzie and her family ... and I knew they had already left their home and traveled from far away for this shoot, so I stayed behind to do their shoot and then would meet up at the hospital.  I was thinking they would be sitting for hours in the waiting room....

By the time the shoot was over (it was a pretty fast shoot, but we had great light, very cooperative kids, and it was so easy to do!) I was driving down to the hospital.  When I had gotten there, Katie was about ready to go to the ultrasound.  They were emptying a bag of liquids in her so her belly would get nice and full (her bladder really) so they could see if there was a cyst in her... or if it was appendix.

She has my phone here .... we discovered we had a signal in the ultrasound room, but not in the ER room... so she was texting her friends. 

Turns out it was a bleeding cyst (called a hemorrhaging cyst) which was causing her a lot of pain.  No white blood cells in her blood, and her appendix looked fine.  They released us to go home with a prescription for pain, but not before giving her a nice drug that within seconds of getting it, she fell asleep.

This is the picture my dad took of Kizzie and I.  We are at the Independence Square in Missouri.

Oh wait .. this is much better!  However, I think I like the picture of myself better in the fuzzy unfocused picture!  :)