Weekend of Wheat

It was a busy weekend around here. Remember this?

Well now it looks like this.

And this.

A lot goes into harvesting wheat.

You need to clean out the grain truck.

Fire up the combine.

After doing that for awhile, you'll need one of these.

And these.

For this.

Please keep in mind that while I sound rather involved, running the occasional farmer here and there on the Gator is pretty much the extent of my responsibilities. Well, that and making this.

And at the end of a long day, you might just get one of these.


And that makes for a pretty wonderful weekend.

Honeymoon Winners!

Ya'll are good! And your guesses really made me want to go to somewhere tropical again!

We spent our honeymoon on a beautiful island 17 miles off the coast of Argentina. It is a Dutch island and therefore embraced the whole European beach way of thinking.

Meaning I may or may not have gone topless on the beach.

But just once.

That's right...we went to Aruba! We stayed here. It was gorgeous and wonderful and amazing. We snorkled, got too much sun, had a sunset dinner on the beach, went shopping, had plenty of fruity drinks, got in trouble at a casino for taking a picture, and saw loads of lizards.

The first person to correctly guess our honeymoon destination was Bren from Life in Maggie's World. Congrats! Let me know which sign you want and give me your address ASAP!

And now for the random comment winnner...

Random Number Generator picked 23! Congrats to Jen of Blessed Mom to 7. Let me know which sign you would like as well.

Thanks for playing ladies! That was fun. It was for me anyway.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful start to the weekend. Look for an amazing Learning Curve/John Deere giveaway with products not yet available in stores. Who loves ya, baby?!

9 Years and Counting

9 years ago today, I was busy doing this.

It was a long Catholic ceremony that flew by too quickly. The priest called me Amy a few times. (Yeah, my name's not Amy.)
I tripped over my train a few times. My new husband had to lift the train out of my way a few times.

But then we were married.

And then we partied late into the night.
There was way too much alcohol consumed.
And there may have been way too much inappropriate behavior in the limo on the way to the hotel.

*ahem*

But then we flew off to our honeymoon in paradise.

(Some people are confused. This is an actual picture taken from my actual honeymoon.)

And lived happily ever after.

But where was this paradise you ask?

How about you tell me?!

The first person to correctly guess where my sweet, sweet hubby and I went on our honeymoon will get their choice of these 2 signs.

My personal favorite:

or this cute one.

Don't worry if you're not the first person to guess correctly!
I will also choose one random comment (right or wrong answer) to win a sign as well. (And I have 2 of each so you both get to take your pick!)

Think long and hard...then guess!

*No comments accepted after 9:00 p.m. EDT on Friday, June 26, 2009.
*One comment per person.
*Real life people? No guessing!
*Imaginary people in my computer? Start guessing!

SAHM

Once upon a time there was a working mom.

Her busy days were full of committees, meetings, teaching, making lesson plans, grading papers, running errands, all with her daily planner within arm's reach.


She counted down the days until summer vacation.


And then summer came and she became a temporary stay-at-home-mom.


And quickly realized why she works.



Now her days are full of laundry, cooking, cleaning, whining, yelling, settling arguments, and running errands much more slowly with the added help of 2 kids.

She loves her children very much.



But she also loves working very much.



She is torn between wanting summers off with her children and longing for the busy days of feeling accomplished and successful.

For now, she will settle into the SAHM role and will get the hang of it.

Right around the time school starts up again.

Thursday Thirteen-Country Life

Thirteen things I love about living in the country:

1. No neighbors.

2. Wide open space for playing and exploring.

3. No noise other than the occasional moo.

4. Cows. (Except for that certain smell right before the barn is cleaned out.)

5. Watching my guys work.

6. Watching crops grow.

7. The smells-fresh grass, rain, that sweet smell of corn pollinating, the musty barn smell.

8. Gator rides.

9. Being able to tell the kids to play outside without worry.

10. Never knowing what kind of critter you might run into.

11. Planting season.

12. Harvest season.

13. The big, blue sky.

To join in on the thirteen fun, click here.

Of Babies and Big Kids

When your babies are babies, there are milestones nearly every other week. Something new and exciting is happening all the time.



But once those babies aren't quite babies anymore, the milestones become less frequent. Recently though, we've experienced a few of those rare milestones.

Cole graduated preschool and is now registered for kindergarten in two short months.


Cole took soccer lessons (his first real lessons) and did great!


The kids started swimming lessons on Saturday. I was amazed at their willingness to trust this new person in their lives. They took to the water like frogs and loved every minute of it.


And last night? Another milestone.

I will admit, up until yesterday, Little Miss had slept in a crib.

Yes, she is 3 1/2. Yes, she will be 4 in September. Yes, she is ginormous.

I did the same thing with Cole. I just didn't see the need to fight them to stay in bed and for some wonderful reason, neither one of my children ever thought to climb out of bed.

But last night that all changed. I decided it was finally time. The kids and I spent the day rearranging her bedroom, dismantling the crib, and setting up her big girl bed. I was a little nervous about it. When I tucked her in and read her stories, she got a little whiny, asking for her crib. I kissed her and told her I would check on her. Five minutes later she was sound asleep. She slept all night in her big girl bed.


I blinked and *poof* my babies were big kids.


But I'm not complaining.

As much as I loved my baby babies, I wouldn't go back. We are (knock on wood) done having babies. Very done. I understand how some mommies keep wanting more and more kids for that baby time.

But not me.

I have loved each stage my kids have gone through, but am happy with where we are now. We don't have naps to mess up the middle of our days. We don't have pacis to remember to bring. We don't have to worry about diapers or bottles. No more colic. No more rocking kids to bed, wondering if they will ever fall asleep.

Now we can go out to eat without incident. The kids are independent and can entertain themselves. They can play with each other. (We'll talk about the fighting in another post. I am trying to keep this one nice.) They can get their own drinks and snacks. They can work the computer without help. They can play on the patio while I watch from the kitchen. They can soothe themselves to sleep.

And best of all?





Manual labor.

Parenthood is awesome.