Worst Mom in the WORLD. EVER. Again.

Cute isn't she? More then once that has been best thing going for her. This morning was no exception as once again, I have been crowned "the WORST mom is the world." The WHOLE WIDE WORLD.

How exciting.....My reign is expanding!

What could I have possibly done to make this adorable, pixie faced child so mad? Well I will tell you....I booted her little booty outside to help Shawn feed and tag this morning.

Tragic, I know. She is actually going to miss that rerun of Wizards of Waverly Place that she has already seen at least 6 times (because I have seen it 6 times).

We have a beautiful day in the Sandhills, except for the crazy wind blowing 30mph. Without the wind, she would be on horseback by now helping pair out the mommas and babies. That would be fine because involves riding her horse. However with the wind, she (and my cowboy) are grounded which means that they do what they can with the truck. She throughly enjoys "helping" tag and feed so the fit she throws everytime we have to make her go is really getting old. As soon as she is outside in the fresh air and sees the calves, she is back to her normal self.

Makes my husband crazy!!!

I will continue to hold my title of "worst mom in the world" and boot her outside. There is nothing wrong with being outside. Its good for her. The bonus that she comes back a much nicer person then when she left which is good for the rest of us.

Adventures in Breaking Colts: Lesson #1 Halters

We have 2 beautiful little filly colts who are just about a year old. We got them a few months ago. Actually, we were basically given them because for some reason people dont like to ride mares. I love mares, and my husband doesnt have a problem with them either so we gladly added them to our herd.

Socks is the bay and Coco is the black.

Before I start with the fun of halter breaking them, let me first say that this part is typically already done. When they are much younger. And much smaller. However that is not the case with these 2 as the previous owners didnt get them started and we got them in the middle of winter when the ground is hard and it hurts them alot more when the hit it (which they do...apparently often). So now we have two 500 lbs 9 month old fillys who have never been touched by a human, no idea what a halter is or why the scary human thinks he needs to put that thing on their heads.

Yep...what would possibly go wrong.

Well thankfully, not much. At first.

Socks was lucky volunteer #1 (because she thought she found and escape route...not so much), into the make shift ally hubby set up. She shook like a leaf, tried to dig out, climb out, back out (she was blocked from that happening) eventually, after talking to her and touching her, she stood there and relaxed. I took a little more time for him to slide the halter over her head, but he did it and she was fine. Well, maybe not fine in her book, but she was quiet and relaxed and not showing signs me being to traumatized. 40 minutes! A very good girl!

Then came the other one. Coco is a little bit bigger, faster and apparently has more "spirit".



In horse language that translates into "fear of dying at the hands of the mean guy in the hat".



When I left to go get the girl child from school, he had both of them in the alley and it looked like it was going to go the same way that it did with Socks. Slow but steady.

Umm, not so much. As I found out when I got back an 2 hours later and hubby was now in a larger pen, with a rope around the neck of a very sweaty, party bloody and extermely panicked filly.

Hubby was pretty sweaty and tired looking also.





"uhhhh...what happened?"





"This one has a little more fire then the other one" was his winded response.





All he was trying to do now was get her to trust him enough to look at him....which is what needed to happen to get the rope off.

Here is the trick with horses...they cant win. Ever. If they win once, they will try again and again. You have to get back on when you fall off. You have to go back through the gate when they wanted to jump it. You have to tied them up again when they break loose to go eat grain with they buddies. This is a safety issue by means of respect for the rider, as well as a manners issue. At least in our barn thats how it goes.

So he couldnt stop until he would be ending on a good note, which at that point was simply getting her to make eye contact with him so he could get the rope off her.

The blood came into play when she flipped out (literally) and landed on her back, smacking her face into a fence. Just a little blood from a couple of scrapes, nothing to worry about.

Here is part I love the most is watching hubby. Here we have a cowboy. All cowboys are tough...well, they all appear to be tough but I suspect that below the dirt, grease, cow crap and anything else they happen to be covered in, they are big teddy bears, but still....they are tough. Watching him stand there with the patience of a saint, talking quietly and petting her gently to help soothe the terrified filly was almost as sweet as watching him hold his son for the first time.



I wonder where those patience are with our two-legged filly at times????



Anyhoo...1 down, 1 to go....stayed tuned because tomorrow. Hubby has all night to rest and get ready for round #2. I have a feeling Coco is doing the same thing.

Comfy

This is what you get when the 4.5 month old starts learning how to scoot and roll over all at the same time. He stayed this way for about 10 minutes....silly boy!

Heaven on Earth

As far as I am concerned, I live in Heaven on Earth. From the first time I wandered here via North Platte Airport I was in love. There is something very special about the Sandhills. Shawn warned me from the very beginning that once you are here, the sand gets into your blood and you will never want to leave.



Its not just the sand that gets into your blood, its the quirky nature of Small Town U.S.A.



Its the traffic jam on my way to church this morning.

Its the town dog that sits on the bench outside of the bar, welcoming all patrons. She was wearing bouncy shamrock headband on St. Patty's Day.

Its the other town dog, the one who sleeps in the middle of the road and people drive around. Or his buddy who can often be found sleeping in the chair in the bank. (I may or may not be related to the owners of those 2 town puppies.)

Its the neighors and friends who live miles away from me, who knitted beautiful blankets when Sage was born.

Its letting the elementary school students out of school early the days of the high school football games, so that everyone can go cheer on the team. It only makes the kiddos want to play that much more when they are older!

Its having to hold a memorial service at the County Fairgrounds, because it was the only place that could hold the entire county coming to say goodbye to the young mother who lost her battle with cancer.

Its dinner Friday night with family and friends at the bar.

Its having a picture emailed to me from friend of her son riding a llama in a bar.

Its the another friend getting a llama as a wedding present!

As in any town, any place, people do leave, but they always seem to find a way back. The sand truely does get into your blood.

Irish Twins

Apparently there is an actual term to describe my current family plan. Irish twins are siblings who are born within 12 months of each other. Sage was born on November 3, 2009 and his little partner in crime is due to make his/her appearance October 1, 2010.

Irish Twins.

I first heard this at my doc appt last week and its the term he used. So I thought, why not look it up...see if its a real thing.

Please keep in mind I am slightly obsessed with Ireland and the Irish culture. My great-grandmother came over from Ireland when she was young, I have traveled there, my name is about as Irish as they get and I was even the St. Patrick's Day Queen for our towns Irish celebration. I have celtic crosses in my house, a 4 leaf clover tattoo on my foot and a horse with an Irish name. Yep....slightly obsessed.

So to me, the term "Irish Twins" was fitting and fun! You can imagine my suprise when I found out that its considered a derogatory term. An insult as the expense of the Irish catholic who did not practice contracpetion so they had lots of babies close together.

OK...let me say this now...I do believe in birth control and I am not the most active Catholic on the planet.

Anyway....lets check out a couple definations of Irish Twins:

From wisegeek.com
Firstly, the term pokes fun at the stereotypical fertility of Irish Catholic families, which traditionally do not use birth control. In addition, it implies that the Irish lack the ability to plan ahead or control themselves, having children in quick succession rather than responsibly spacing them.

From Worldwidewords.org
What it means is easy enough to explain. It refers to siblings born in the same calendar year, or otherwise less than twelve months apart. It’s clearly a deeply derogatory comment about the stereotypical fecundity (and lack of contraception) of Irish Catholic families.

From about.com
The term is used to describe two children born to the same mother in the same calendar year or within twelve months of each other. The phrase originated as a derogatory term associated with Irish immigration to the United States and England in the 1800's. The implication was that large groups of close-in-age siblings were the result of uneducated, poor Irish Catholic families' lack of birth control as well as self-control.

Hmmm....ok, so from this I can concur that I am a uneducated, lazy, with an uncontroable sexual appetite however very dedicated to the catholic church. All because I am having 2 kids within 12 months. Well, 11 months.

Hmmm......

Why does it have to be about lack of birth control? Why is it such a shock and do people look at me like I am insane because I am having 2 kids so close together? Oh wait....because it is.

It was a shock to us also but that doesnt make it a bad thing. Not planned (Im not insane yet) however I have heard so many people saying "good lord, you just had one!". Yep...I know...I was there and I have to go change his diaper now. But hey....what can I do now....Irish Twin #2 is growing and doing great while Irish Twin #1 is also thriving, rolling over, laughing, pulling his sisters hair, and doing all the fantastic things that moms and dads wait so long to witness.

Just because my babies will be 11 months apart doesnt mean anything except I will probably never have the time to wear make up again.

Baby #3 update

I really wish I had kept writing during my pregnancy for Sage. Especially when this got crazy at the end. There is so much that I wish I rememebered. Not necessarily good stuff, but still, it was a major moment in my life and I wish I had a better memory of what went on.

Thanks to that, I am determined to keep up this time around. Hopefully that means it will be a boring and uneventful pregnancy.

So far, 11 weeks 6 days (on march 17) and doing great. If I hadnt seen the ultrasound last week I wouldnt even think I was pregnant!

Had my doc appt yesterday and he said that even if things are perfect throughout the entire pregnancy, he wont let me go past 39 weeks. Whoohoo.....knocking the time off left and right!!!

I am back on my happy pills though. With the depression I had with both Sage and Piper, I made the decision that I wasnt going to pretend that I wasnt prone to PPD. Why mess around with it? Do I wear it as a badge of honor.....no. But I am not going to hide behind some stigma that post partum depression makes me a bad mom. It doesnt. Its makes me overwhelmed. It makes me cranky and teary. It makes me want to do everything for everyone and be super mom when I cant. Thinking that I can make it through this without help for PPD....i feel that would make me a bad mom.

My doc also said that pre-eclampsia in a second pregnancy is very rare. That being said its also rare for someone to become severe pre-eclamptic as quickly as I did so he "isnt placing any bets against" me. Thats comforting.

So far, blood pressure is great (108/72), weight is fine (well, at least that what they tell me...I beg to differ), and all looks good.

Here to the second trimester going as quickly as the first one did. :-)

Midland Mess

WOW....this town is crazy!! As Shawn said in response to my text "that isnt new?"

Let me please explain.

Example #1 - It is possible to make a full length silver fox coat look cheap and nasty.

WOW...she had to be a stripper, thats all I can say about her. Well, not really, I can say more....like head to toe WHITE...including hair, to tight pants and shoes. Smoking her cigarette and walking, literally, with her nose in the air...slowly. A sashay if you will. Topped off with what would have been a beautiful full length silver fox coat. To much white, to much attitude and not nearly enough class.

Maybe she was 18. You can strip at 18 right?

Example #2 - Old women in Cadillac Escalades can, will and do flip you off for crossing in the cross walk.

Seriously....right in front of the pedestrians have the right way sign....but apparently she cant read. My mistake.

Example #3 - Amigos can outrun Cadillac Escalades

Among numerous other vehicles as he zipped and zoomed in and out of traffic. He raced the Escalade, cut off mom, drove the wrong way down a lane and inbetween cars. He needed to have a super-charger on that thing cause WOW...he was fast. Frighteningly fast.

Example #4 - Old men in Cadillac's will park in the middle of the lane and text.

Cant leave out old men, and apparently this guy needed to text so badly he just threw it into park in the middle of the lane and texted. I wonder if he is married to the crazy woman in the Escalade. Both caddies and both white...hmmmm.

All in all...its official....Midland is a mess. I didnt enjoy the mall before and now I am flat out scared to go. Some poeple shouldnt be let out in public but when the majority of the public is a rude, inconsiderate, walking disaster I believe it is safer for me to just stay at home!!