The Burrs In Our Saddles

A couple Saturdays ago, I found Meriden had had an accident while we were outside. She took off her pants because really, who wants to be in pee saturated denim shorts? I wouldn't. But instead of going inside to get new unders and pants, this is what she did. Sorry about the wrong dates on the photos; I had to put new batteries in my camera and didn't want to miss the photo op. And it's either that or this:

With school after Memorial Day, we had a lot going on. I was at the school for PTO way too much. On Tuesday, we had an Accelerated Reading party for all the kids in the school who achieved their AR goal all 4 quarters of school. Both the M's got to go. I didn't get a chance to take any photos because I was busy making snow cones, but there was live entertainment and everything. Wednesday night I was at the school until 3 am getting the sweatshirts and yearbooks ready for Thursday. (All the students that get 200 or more AR points get a sweatshirt. So we were getting sizes divvied out and ready to give to the kids at the Awards Assembly on Thursday.) Of the 545 kids in our school, 75 of them got at least 200 AR points. Not bad. Of course, the M's were 2 of them.) They both also got awards for attendance. Madison had perfect attendance, and Mackenzie had faithful attendance (she was tardy a few times ;-)). They are such good kids most of the time that I can't ...

For Memorial Day weekend this year we went up to the ranch. I know, it's a shock, but we did it. Broke away from the mold. But really this time we did. JB bought cattle and over the weekend we got to work them. We got to ear tag, vaccinate, brand and turn out 239 head of cattle. The girls were really good. Madison helped put the ear tags on the tagger so Austin, the hired hand, could pierce the cow's ears. Mackenzie and Meriden did a great job holding up the haystack. There were a couple times when we turned around and there was Meriden, holding down the haystack with no pnts or underwear on. Nice. The first time she had to go potty, she and I drove to the house and ran out of gas in the Rhino on the way back. Maybe she didn't want us to run out of gas again. Who knows. We had 2 'sets' of cows we needed to tag. 4Creeks and Diamond J. I'm not entirely sure which cows belong to whom (though they are all in the family) but my father-in-law got to ...

So what school doesn't send at least a class or 2 to the Zoo? This year, Meriden and I went to the Zoo with Mackenzie and all the 1st graders. It was a bunch of fun. We got to watch them feed the penguins, feed a baby camel, play at the playground, and see a whole lot of animals. Including 2 Red Pandas. Flamingos, Emus, Kangaroos with joeys, Lions, a Tiger, Camels, Dingoes, Monkeys, an Alligator, and of course there was a petting zoo that no one in my group got to go into. ;-) After we got done in the zoo, we went across the street to have lunch at the park. We ate sack lunches (always a treat) and played on the playground equipment. At one point I couldn't find Mackenzie on any of the equipment and started to get a little bit worried. Then I found her helping put together a 3-D alligator puzzle. Nerd. But I love her. After the zoo, Kenzie and the rest of the 1st grade got to go to the sand dunes and play. Meriden and I went to the doctor where she weighed in at (...

On May 13, Colby had a birthday. I'm not going to write anything gushy to him because a) he doesn't read this blog, b) he doesn't like cards that are long winded. Get to the point, people! c) I don't know what c) would be except why have a list with a's, b's, and c's if you only have 2 things to name. Needless to say, he's great. He pretends he doesn't care about things even though he does. You can tell when 'it' doesn't go the way 'it' should and he gets frustrated and obviously annoyed. That won't make any sense unless you've seen 'it' in action. ;-) He is a great dad; the girls love to wrastle and play with him. He encourages them to be their best. He's a super provider for our family and I love him. Do you like the detail on Dad's cake compared to the details on Meriden's cake? ;-)

We had a really big weekend on Feb 8-10. Meriden had her first Gymnastics "Meet" aka show off day. She did a great job, though I didn't really like the setup. They did fine when the kids did their individual skills, but the last part was chaos. "Follow your toddler through the circuit of tricks!" So everyone was right in front of you, blocking your photo ops of your own kid. Annoying. Maybe I'll give them a few pointers for next time. Usually this is what Meriden looks like when we go to Gymnastics. She comes out of her room (after getting herself ready since she is so excited to go to gym) and says, "I feddy, Mom!" I love it. Especially her pink cowgirl boots that Dad bought 2 sizes-too-big-since-that's-what-they-had without socks. Awesome. Oh, and the unders hanging out the sides. So we went to her "meet" which Grandma, Grammy, and Granddad all came to. Thank you for coming all this way to support your grandkids! An ass...

So it has taken me 4 weeks to finish the Easter post. Ridiculous. And there aren't even pictures of us dying eggs, Meriden's found-the-eggs dance, or their dresses. Maybe I can do that. On to more events. I think so much has gone on that I won't be able to remember! The weekend before Easter I ran my first half marathon. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I had never run more than 9 miles straight and I did it and I ran the whole way. At about mile .5 I met the girl I ran with the whole way. She was really nice and we chatted (you know that you're supposed to be able to talk if you are running the right pace). She made it more enjoyable than it would've been otherwise. Then when I finished, I think I almost passed out. We were in the line to get our gear bags and I started getting nauseous and I had to put my head below the level of everyone's armpits. It was nasty to say the least ;-). I love that photos make it look like you'...

Meriden turned 3 today. She is crazy. She's full of energy, hates naps, loves to be the center of attention (I have no idea where she gets it) and loves being a Big Girl. She's usually changing clothes or getting things out and forgetting to put them away. She's like a tornado and nothing is left unchanged when she's around it. She's my climber and gets into everything. Including trying to climb up the front of the refrigerator to get to her Easter Basket. She climbs the shelves in the pantry and she climbs chairs onto everything. She's a daredevil even though she doesn't know it. She's a maniac in the gym and loves to play on the bars. She's a piece of work that I'd (usually) never give up!