Buckaroo even attempted a few tricks. 
The following conversation is true in it's entirety, unfortunately.
Punky Girl is getting ready for school one morning and as usual there is something bothering her--socks, underwear, pants, shoes, too tight a shirt on her "guns"--the list goes on. As she is fighting with her sock (I think that was it) she says to me, "I don't want to be a mom when I grow up."
me: "Why not?"
Punky: "Because I am already tired of school and I don't want to have to go to mom school."
me: "Mom what??"
Punky: "You know, mom school, where you went to learn how to be a mom."
me: "There is no mom school, dear."
Punky:"What??"
me: "I had to learn how to be a mom from practicing, talking to other moms, reading books and just figuring it out on my own."
Punky: " Oh, well then you DEFINITELY need to go to mom school."
me: "HUUUH...well I guess I will have to work on that." (sarcastically said)
I go into the kitchen and repeat the conversation, in a not so nice voice, to Nimrod. I told him that HE could go in there and help her with her socks since I didn't apparently learn the right way at mom school. So he goes in and tells Punky that I was going to mom school. She got a a little excited and said, "Really?" and he replied, "Yes, to be a teacher there because she is so good at being a mom." Punky rolled her eyes and said, "I don't think that is going to work out."
After I got over my little fit, I decided to work it to my advantage. Now, when I do something "wrong" I just blame it on mom school. This is working out just fine for me. For any other mom school flunkies out there, I hope you too can torment you children a little longer with your lack of parenting knowledge and skills. I intend to make the most of it!
When Nimrod was getting ready for his big hunt, he asked if we had a coffee pot. (He doesn't drink coffee but his dad wanted it for the hunt).I don't use our little coffee pot on a regular basis so I had to dig through the cupboards. Guess what I found? A roasting oven. I didn't even know I had one. It was brand new. I think Nimrod's grandma gave it to us when we got married 13 years ago. So, since I had so much luck with the toaster oven (LOL) I thought I should try using it.
We love 7 bone roast and don't really enjoy having the oven on for 3-4 hours so this was going to be my perfect solution. I put the roast in and 10 hours, yes 10, later and the roast was done. I would like to say that the roaster oven was defective because it had never been used but that would be a lie. As with the toaster oven, I learned something. It helps if you put the oven on the correct temperature. Cooking at 225 degrees takes twice as long as cooking at 325 degrees.
We had cereal that night for dinner.
A few weeks ago in Punky's Sunday School class they discussed praying. The kids learned they can talk to God about ANYTHING and pray when they are sad, happy, scared, frustrated, and just about any other emotion.
Later that night when it was time to get ready for bed, she did NOT want to take a shower. This surprised me because she usually loves taking showers. She gets in there and "teaches" and plays. I mean she has a running dialogue that could last hours if I would let her stay in there. Anyway, I finally get her in there with tears and screaming. She starts talking to her students and crying about not wanting to be there. FYI-this was day 7 of Nimrod being gone and I had little patience. So I leave her in there to go get Buckaroo started with his shower. I come back and she has stopped crying. She is still going on and on in her monologue. I figured she was whining to her "students" about how mean her mom is. I flippantly say as I walk in, "Are you still whining?" She immediately stops talking-"NO! I am not whining." I let it go and have her finish the shower.
A little while later Punky Girl comes into the kitchen and in her little girl voice says to me, "Mommy, you hurt my feelings when you came in and asking me if I was still whining. I wasn't whining." I kindof rolled my eyes and half-heartily apologized for her hurting her feelings and then quickly followed up with, "It sure sounded like you were whining. If you weren't, then what were you doing?" "I was praying to God and YOU said in Sunday school we could talk to go about ANYTHING so I was telling him how mad I was at you 'cuz you frustrated me when you made me take a shower and I didn't want to."
Oh...maybe I should rethink my lessons so they don't come back to bite me.
For Fall Break, my friend, her girl Pickles, the kids and I decided to take a road trip to Colorado. Why? To see the leaves of course. The kids have seen the leaves change color one other time in their little lives, so I thought they needed to experience again and there is no better place than Colorado. We did a little touristing-I know, not a real word, but mostly played, played and played! Our big surprise was the snow fall that arrived the night before we got there. We went to the mountains and the kids got to play in the snow, yippee! I would post pictures of that but I took the pictures in RAW and I am still learning (I use that term VERY loosely) how the process works and cannot convert the RAW pictures into jpeg to post. So that will be another blog. But these few give you an idea of what fun it was.
Pickle, Buckaroo, and Punky Girl having their first leaf fight!By nature, I am NOT a creative person. My mother is a creative guru in her own right with an amazing artistic ability. My dad can build anything out of wood, dirt, rocks, you name it-he can do it. Somehow these genetics skipped me. But, I have managed to cope by being a copycat. I oooooohh and aaaaaaahh over all of my friends' fabulous creations for their kids and their homes. Then, I try my own version of what they have created. Most of the time it is a less flattering version of what the original looked like. However, I can live with it and luckily my family doesn't know what the wonderful original looked like. For example, these shirts. My friend Lees made these ADORABLE shirts for her twins 2nd birthday. I fell in love with them and wanted to make some for Punky Girl and my new great-niece. (Yes, I said great-If we were in the South I would be a Grand Tante'-cool, huh?) Anyway, I made these shirts and impressed myself with how they came out. Punky Girl got two, one for random wear and one for football games. It is hard to tell on the C shirt but those are doggie paw prints.
Another project was this blanket. Punky Girl got a sewing machine for her birthday and she REALLY wanted to make a blanket. We went through my scraps leftover from previous rag-tie blankets and found some patterns that fit her perfectly. There was leftover firemen print from her apron my aunt's friend made her. A sports print from some blankets I made my great-nephews. A puppy dog print from my nephew's blanket. Lastly, some blues from who-knows-where. We laid it out together and she loved it. I think it is rather, ummm, "colorful"--moving on...Punky did the straight sewing on all the pieces. I am so proud of her. She put for her best effort on her first sewing project. We also got to spend quality time together making it which is the best part about this project. Maybe she will be the ONE that will end up with the creative gene.
A few years ago I was at my friend's house and she was using her toaster oven. I said, "Oh, I have one of those, but I don't know how to use it. It just sits there and collects dust." She almost FREAKED out. She told me she used it for EVERYTHING. I had no idea all the things you could cook in a toaster oven. So, a few days later I decided to use my own and see what wonderful things I could cook in my toaster oven. I was talking on the phone to my friend Ber while my food was cooking and I was bragging on how I was using my spiffy toaster oven instead of the big oven. Suddenly there were flames coming out of the toaster oven. I yelled, "I gotta go, my toaster oven has flames coming out of it!!" I slammed the phone down and grabbed a towel to beat down the flames. I then unplugged it and checked out the damage. Yep, the food was burnt. But there was no damage to the toaster oven or the cabinets next to it. Apparently I should have cleaned out the dust before I started cooking in it. Who knew? After all this commotion, I turned around and there was Buckaroo. He had watched the whole entire fiasco. Hmm, what do I say to a five year old at this point? I opted for nothing and hoped he didn't ask any questions about why it was on fire. He didn't. When we sat down for dinner that night (a new, non-burnt dinner) Buckaroo bowed his head and prayed in his little boy voice, "Dear Jesus and God, thank for not letting my mommy burn down the house today. Thank you for this food, amen." As soon as I looked up, Nimrod was looking at me with huge eyes. I guess I forgot to mention to him what happened earlier. I tried to explain but couldn't through the laughter over Buckaroo's prayer. Eventually I told the story and all was well. However, for the next few days Buckaroo was cautious when entering the kitchen and prayed this same prayer for awhile. I think I may have traumatized him a little. When it was all said and done, we got a great laugh out of it.
So, the other day Nimrod and I were in the kitchen talking while I was making dinner and he says, "Dear Jesus and God." My head whips around to the toaster oven and there is smoke coming out of it! While he is laughing, I am fighting the toaster oven, again! Luckily, no flames this time. Apparently, you need to clean the toaster oven out occasionally. It has only been three years of me using it without this happening. How come there are no rules written down about how to use the toaster oven? Everyone says it is the easiest appliance to use but I have experienced otherwise. "Dear Jesus and God, give me the wisdom to use a toaster oven."
I think this quote comes from Abraham Lincoln, a man who lived through some of the darkest days our country has experienced. For my generation, September 11, 2001 is our equivalent to the tragedy of the Civil War. Today, as I dropped the kids off to school I noticed all the flags our town has put up in remembrance of that day. The radio station I listened to played clips of the news reports and statements made by government officials on that day. I started having flashbacks to the emotions from that time. I remember sitting in shock in my classroom trying to sift through what I saw on the news two minutes before I walked out the door. I kept thinking it was a movie stunt and COULD NOT be real. I was instructed by my superintendent to keep the school day as normal as possible and provide a calm atmosphere for the kids. While I faked my way through the day, all I really wanted to do was grab my son and husband and curl up in my bed and never let them go. My reaction was not abnormal, as most of us wanted our loved ones near us. We as a nation were in shock for days, weeks, months. We could not wrap our mind around what had happened. One of my strongest memories is that the skies were deadly quite as all aircraft was grounded for days. It was almost eerie that there were no planes flying in our blue sky. I remember being in a fog and not really believing that something like that could happen. But it did. Then, we a nation cleared the fog from our head, pulled up our boot straps and came together. It has been written that the terrorist attacks were a wake-up call for America. We as nation were shaken out of our complacency and became united in our patriotism, our love of our country and our willingness to stand up to those who wanted to disrespect our country.
But where are we now? Eight years later and I am not sure that the patriotism is still there. The flags are being waved, the photo/video montages are being shown. We still honor the firemen, policemen and good citizens that risked their lives to help others during the attacks. In fact, at school yesterday, my kids wrote letters to policemen and firemen in our community to thank them for the help they give and pay tribute to those that helped with the events around the attacks. My daughter wasn't even alive then, but that day still affects her life, our lives, our country.
Or Does It?
With the recent presidential election our country has changed. We have turned on one another. Americans have become piranhas and are eating each other alive. Politically speaking, lines in the sand have been drawn and no one is crossing them. I have been trying to read different websites to understand what is going on with the politics our country because it is important to me and the future of my family to know how my country is being changed. There has been more name-calling and slandering against our own citizens than I can ever remember. If you are for President Obama and his policies you are considered a liberal-socialist. If you are against him you are called a conservative-racist. I am a believer in standing up for what you believe in, but does that mean you attack those who disagree with you? We as nation are NOT united. We no longer know what it means to be Americans as a whole. A house divided cannot stand and neither can a nation divided. As evidenced in the Civil War, nobody wins, especially not our country when we as a nation are divided. It grieve my heart that we have lost the feeling of patriotism and what that truly means. The patriotism that replaced our complacency has now been replaced with hostility. Will it ever return?
Today I am saddened for the families personally touched by the terrorist attacks. My hope is that those lives lost will AGAIN be a reminder of an America that is UNITED and we will not continue to be a nation divided.
Meet Sally. One day Punky Girl had to take Sally to the dr. because Sally wasn't feeling well. Sally came back looking like this. After picking out a few books, Sally and her mom sat down and did some reading together. 
The dr. told her mom that she needed glasses, that is why she wasn't feeling well. Being the great mom that Punky Girl is, she went right out and got Sally some glasses. Now Sally feels better. So much better that her mom took her to the library to check out some books (now that she can see them).
The End
Some of you remember my elk hunt from last year and what an experience that was. Well, our family is experiencing something ever bigger than that. Nimrod drew a strip tag--no, it has NOTHING to do with Vegas. The strip is a hunting area that is the most sought after mule deer hunting area in the United States because of the record book deer that come out of it-no exaggeration. He hasn't been drawn for mule deer in 12 years because he has been putting in for this highly sought after tag. So, here we are 12 years later. I am so excited for him to be able to experience this.
Nimrod was in shock the first few days and now he wants the whole world to know he gets to go hunting on the strip. He said to me the other day, "If I am distracted, forget things you tell me or seem out of it for the next 3 months, I apologize now." I just looked at him with a confused look, wondering where the conversation was going. Then he smiles and says, "I got a strip tag. I can't think straight!" I smiled and told him that as long as he didn't neglect me or the kids I could live with him for the next few months being distracted. But, you know what? He wasn't kidding. He has been forgetting lots of things which means he really isn't listening to me that well. What can I do? He has a strip tag!
The only down side is that he will be gone most of November. The kids and I will survive but it will be a challenge. Nimrod is already freaking out about being gone from us that long. Hopefully he will kill the record book deer on the first day and it will cut the hunt short by two weeks. If you feel like praying for that, I am good with it :).
I will post some pics once the big one is killed in a few months.
My baby Punky Girl started kindergarten this week. I always thought I would be okay with it because she has always been independent and into doing her own thing. However, over the last 6 months she and I have grown much closer and she has been the sweetest little girl in the whole wide world. Each day as school grew closer my heart has breaking little by little as I knew I was going to have to part with her and miss out having her around with me all the time. I tried to talk her out of going, but as I said she is a little independent, so she wasn't going to have any of that conversation.
Buckaroo told me all summer that he didn't want to go back to school this year. This from the kid who LOVES school. I guess we made summer too much fun for him and school held no appeal. I will have to change that next summer! Anyway, come the first day of school he was ready 25 minutes before we had to leave. He admitted he was excited to go to school. Whew! I feel better.
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