Animal Selection Day

Good Morning!  I had a fabulous post all ready to put up last night - full of photos and fun things...then it got "et" by the mean, ugly cyberspace fairy and now I gotta start all over!

Yesterday was Animal Selection Day for Katy ISD.  This is the day of the year that all the FFA kids raising pigs, goats or lambs come to a central place to select their critters.  They are also allowed to raise chickens, bunnies and cattle - but those animals are not part of Animal Selection Day.  They have another day for that.  We have not raised any of the other options so I have no idea when or how that takes place.

I discovered last year that it is totally possible to raise an animal for meat and (mostly) enjoy the process!  I'm not sure if I could say that about bunnies...oh, don't get me wrong, here!  I love rabbit meat.  I just don't wanna think about where it came from!

So here we are at the barn.  Preston was watching something else, but Liam and Andrew were happy to cheese it up for the camera.  Pig selection was first and there were nearly 200 kids their to get their pigs.  Sheep and goat selection will take place after all the pigs are selected.

The kids all select a token with a number on it out of a bucket.  They line up in order of their grade:  seniors go first, then juniors, then sophomores...and that's all we cared about because our people were sophomores!  The announced starts with number one and as your number is called, you are allowed to go into the "ring" and select your animal.  Last year when the boys were freshmen, they both selected very low numbers (I think Andrew got 14 or 15) but this year they didn't do as well.  Andrew got number 96!  We all groaned and crossed our fingers that there would be at least one good pig left by the time he got to get into the ring!

They allowed 10 kids at a time in the ring.  Each kid had one minute to pick a pig. But they had had 9 minutes before to shop while the kids before them were choosing.  And they had several hours to wander around the pens looking at the critters.  Each pig has an ear tag with a number so they could make a list of their first, second and third choices.  If someone with a lower number chose the number one pig on your list, you moved down to your second choice.  If you chose the number 96, you can pretty much count on getting your 32nd choice!

Preston got a number much lower than Andrew (like 24, maybe?) He got his first choice!  After you make your selection, you carefully open the pen with your chosen piggy and snatch her (or him) up!  This is where the fun starts!  Those pigs can squeal louder than you thought any organic being could make noise!  I'm talkin' a deafening squall here, folks!  Occasionally you would see a kid scoop up a piggy and the pig would make little or no noise, but most of the time, it was certainly clear when someone had made their choice!  The other little caveat here is that they...well...squirm!  They can twist and buck like nobody's business!  Keeping "a holt" of them is a challenge.

Andrew finally got to get into the ring.  His first choice of pig was still lurking in her pen with a few other piggy friends.  I think perhaps God hid her from the other kids.  We thought at first that maybe she and Preston's pig were litter-mates because they were housed in the same pen.  Randy and Andrew checked that out (something about the notches in their ears) and said they were from the same breeder but not the same litter.  Andrew went over and got his Ag teacher and asked what he thought.  Mr. T. took him to the other side of the ring and showed him a little darlin' over there.  Their conversation went something like this:

"She looks a little small, Mr. T."

"What do you expect, Andrew?  You pulled number 96!"

"Can you come look at this one over here?"

"Oh, well...she does look good!  Yeah, get her..."

So he went creeping into the pen...

And grabbed her!  This was his humber one pig the entire day!  Not number 32, like I thought he would end up with...

See that look on his face?  That is the same one I wear when I tell one of my kids "You can be stubborn if you like, but your Mamma invented stubborn and I promise you, I will outlast you!"  Yep!  I am so proud!...Not!  At least most of the time.  His stubborn and hard-headed moods make me crazy most of the time, but just this once, it did stand him in good stead.  He managed to wrestle that 40 lb pig up...

Out of the barn...

And into the trailer.  Preston followed close by just in case he needed to call for back-up.  I was using Alicia's (Preston's mom) camera to video while Roger (Preston's dad) took the still shots on my camera. 

By the way:  I know red-headed people don't look their best in hot pink....I just want it to be known that I was wearing that color because we were selling those shirts at this event and Alicia and I wore ours so folks could see them.  Really.  It's now the only thing in my closet that color.  Kinda looks lonely actually...

So the piggy got into the trailer with all the other pigs from all the other Taylor High School kids and when the last one was selected... oh...wait a minute!  First you gotta see this:

That's Miss Molly - her dad is on the Booster Club board with me...I just loved the look on that piggy face in this picture!  This guy worked in the ring and did the snatch-and-grab-and-haul-to-the-trailer maneuver for many of the girls (and some of the guys)...he had big muscles!  I think this pig's name should be Piggy Sue...just looks like a good name for this li'l gal!  Isn't' she adorable??

Okay, now back to our regularly scheduled blog. So the piggy got into the trailer with all the other pigs from all the other Taylor High School kids and when the last one was selected, Mr. T. jumped in and drove furiously out to the barns.  He drove furiously because he had to get all those pigs unloaded and get back to the selection barns in time for the first Taylor goat to be loaded in.

We all hopped into our various vehicles and headed out to the barns too.  The barns are 12.5 miles from our house.  We drive out there twice a day.  Do the math.  That is 50 miles per day!  Fortunately on school days the kids can get on the bus at 5:55 that will take them out to the barns to feed and water their critter in time to get back to school for the first bell.  The rest of the time we schlepp out to the barn twice a day.  But the experience is worth it.  Most days.  5:45 came really early this morning though!

So this is Harley.  Andrew named her Harley because he said he could buy a Harley with the money it costs to raise her!  She is a pretty little Hampshire pig with one white (they call it white - it looks pink to me, but what do I know?) let and a stripe that goes up and over one shoulder...

...and it almost meets the other white leg...but not quite!  The bowling ball was a gift from a dear friend last year and she already was playing with it. Pigs like pushing balls around with their snouts. Thanks, Lewis!

So Animal Selection Day is over for another year.  Life will be a bit crazy now leading up to the Livestock Show and Rodeo in February.  But we are having fun.  Really.  This is fun....no, I mean it.  It is so much fun to watch your kid learn responsibility and...and ...well, responsibility is a good start!

Randy says many of his life-skills were learned in FFA.  How to manage a bank account, how to speak publicly, responsibility and many other things as well.  If this program can help to make my boys into half the man their father is, sign 'em up!

  

And I still promise to write about the mannequin soon... (that is the one that got swallowed into cyberspace last night!)

It has been so very long since I have posted to my blog but I have decided to "get back into the swing" and start doing it again.  Why?
1.  I have enjoyed looking back on what was going on years ago - it's nice having a record, ya' know?
2.  I have interesting stuff going on in my life right now.
3.  I am so fed up with Facebook, I can't even begin to tell you!  As a preacher's kid, I think I do quite well with change, thank you very much, but come on people - it's getting flat-out ridiculous!
4.  Sometimes a girl's just gotta vent!

So...let's start with my day today.  I wear several hats in the circus we call life right now.
1.  I wear a wife hat (think Lucille Ball with a dishtowel tied around her head - except not as organized)
2.  I wear a mom hat (not sure what this one looks like!)
3.  I wear the hat of a 1st Lt in the Civil Air Patrol.  No really.  See?

Okay, maybe not such a great example! (But I qualified as a pro-marksman with the NRA that day!  Hey, what's a bored medic to do on a live rifle range - you would have tried it too!)  How's this?

That's Andrew with me.  We were doing pass in review at Summer Encampment here. The CAP is the auxiliary of the US Air Force.  We do several things including training and search and rescue.  I am the medical officer for the Texas Wing and I attend several things throughout the year with one of these hats on to train, teach and advise.  Mostly I love it.  That day I was hot.  I think the coolest day we had this summer was still in the triple digits!  If you could have seen me from the back, you might have seen a sweat drop dripping down my back!  Ick...I despise being hot enough to sweat...but I digress.

4.  I am the volunteer coordinator for the Theatre Arts department at the junior high that is currently attended by our 13-year-old.  We still have two more kids to hit that school so I stay plugged in there in the department where I am most comfortable - drama!

5.  I am the secretary of the Taylor Hight School FFA Booster Club...

And I'm sure I might wear a few other hats once in a while but for now I'm gotta pause at the FFA thing because that is where this morning found us...at the district agriculture barn (from now on known as the "ag barn", 'k?) cleaning out the barn and getting set up for the student's  "projects" to arrive on Monday.  Andrew's "project" will be a pig again this year.

Last year he raised a pig with the apropos name of "Supper", from a piglet of 40 lbs to a 285 lb hog.  Supper made fifth place in the district when we took her to show in February.  Now, that might not seem like a big deal to some folks but 'round these here parts, we take our FFA showin' seriously!  There were a well over a hundred hogs in that show and for Andrew to place fifth, well let me tell ya' - we were some kind of happy!  Supper sold in the auction to a kind gentleman in Cypress and I would like to tell you that I was happy to see her go...the truth is I cried!  I was very against the whole "raising the pig" thing but she definitely grew on me!

So we got the barn cleaned out.  Then we had Ag-Olympics in which all the FFA kids from all the high schools in our district (seven schools) compete in things like tug-o-war and other made up games.  They were fun to watch.  This is a pic of the one Randy presided over...

Four kids laid (lay?  My father-in-law always corrects me on this and I can't ever remember which is correct!) on their backs with their feet in the air. A bucket full of water is balanced on their upraised feet and they all are challenged to remove their shoes without dumping the bucket.  Some teams did fantastic (the record was 14 seconds!)...

...and some teams were great fodder for a wandering photographer!  That water was COLD!

Okay...I guess you have enough to chew on for tonight.  I'll add more soon!  No, really!  I promise!  I had the most fun in the second half of the day when I made a life-size mannequin out of duct tape...story soon!

Extreme Makeover - Hays Home Edition

Finally some progress on our house! I am so excited to have most of the work done and be able to start putting things back together!
Formal dining room. For some reason I couldn't get the camera to shoot a clear shot of this room - maybe lighting? Anyway, it is a warm chocolate color with red accents.

The art niche as you walk past the staircase into the living room.

I have an antique sewing machine behind the sofa. Sofa is at a diagonal in front of the grandfather clock.

More Uppercase Living on the wall. The photos in the montage are from a trip to Galveston two years ago. The words say "Loved you yesterday, Love you still, Always have, always will."

The fireplace. I have a black wrought iron cross hanging by a black velvet ribbon over a mirror. I have the window treatments down and new ones in the works - I will post more photos as I get them taken. Next up: the kitchen!!

Our princess in Swan Lake

Melissa danced today in Swan Lake. She did a beautiful job and we were SO proud of her! These are pictures of her in her costume - she was a basket bearer in the royal court!

Another long pause between postings - seems I am good at those! Our house has been in a total uproar for the last 6 weeks. We are frantically trying to finish all the repairs from our hurricaine visitor. I am going to post a few pics from what we have gotten done. This is the breakfast area at the end of our kitchen before:




And this is after. For some reason I am all into the warm colors! Most of my life I have always loved the cooler colors: blues and greens, but for some reason I am drawn to the warms now. I have taught myself to change the light fixtures out - we are getting rid of the old 80's lookin' stuff and after a friend and her husband came to help with this one over the table, I decided I could do it myself! I have changed the one over the sink (the lil' button glass globe is gone and a pendant to match this one over the table is gracing that spot now) and the one in the formal dining room - see pic below.

This is what the second floor game room looks like now . All the furniture from two bedrooms and the dining room are stuffed into the living room, game room and two other bedrooms. This leaves us with the kitchen and the master bedroom that are semi-normal - and our lives are decidedly NOT - normal, that is! I am frankly going NUTS with all this stuff to climb over, around, and through!

You can see here the new chandieler for the entryway sitting on the living room floor. Please notice my Edwardian wardrobe from England is stuffed in FRONT of the door leading to the garage! Also notice the piles of furniture piled in that room! My friend, Alane, came over the other day and with great determination and the assistance of some mountain climbing gear (not really - though she was wishing for it!) she climbed over the mountain to the piano to share her latest awesome song! Trust me when I say it was worth it to me - but I doubt it was to her! This house is truly a mess and I am SOOOOO ready for it to be back in place.
This is the formal dining room now. The flooring is not down yet - we are waiting on the insurance company to some some inspector things and send the money - but the walls, ceilings and new light fixtures are all done! I still need to paint the living room once the furniture is out. Also need another coat of paint in Melissa's room, need to paint Brendan's room and the master bath as well as the halls downstairs. We hope to have the new flooring done in the next few weeks - hardwoods downstairs and carpet upstairs. Ya'll wanna come help move furniture?

New Business...

Live is stumping along -chaos is NORMAL for us these days! Still nothing concrete from the mortgage company that might get the walls and ceilings repaired. We are hoping to have our home ready to sell by April 1st. We aren't moving far (just a few miles) but need to get to a place where we are zoned to a better high school before Andrew starts in another year! You can help us pray that that will go well...

Like I needed something ELSE to occupy my time, I have signed up as a consultant for a company called "Uppercase Living"! They have fabulous expressions for wall decor and I am really excited - mainly about decorating my home! You can check out my new business website at http://naomi.uppercaseliving.net/ - then be sure to come back here and let me know what you think! For now, I will post a picture or two:

January

I know, I know... it's been forever since I posted! It seems like the holidays just swooshed upon us with a huge blast and I have landed on the other side with a big ole "thud"! Mom and Dad came from Arkansas for Christmas and truthfully, if it hadn't been for their arrival I am not sure how I would have made it through the Christmas season! Mom dug out a Christmas tree the day before Christmas and got the kids to help her decorate it. I know, I am a terrible mother to not get a Christmas tree up until December 24th - but it's still up! Does that count for something? No, I didn't think so - unfortunately it is just a sign of the chaos my life has become!

Due largely to our stinkin' (and that is a NICE word for them) insurance company, we STILL are living in only about half of our house - it has come to the point where it is making me absolutely NUTS! I am ready to hang sheetrock myself - if we could just get the funds released to do that! First they sent a check to us for a part of the repairs (only part, mind you...) but put the mortgage company on it too. But that mortgage company was paid off over six years ago - we no longer have an account with them! I won't go into all the grim details, but I am just right disgusted with the whole deal! Anyone want a damaged house for real cheap?

Work is keeping me hopping. We typically like to have a doctor in the room when a baby is born, but sometimes that doesn't happen. When a baby is born without a doctor's hands on it, it is referred to as a precipitous delivery - I got my first one on New Year's Day and it was the first baby born in Katy! It was truly a rush and everything went well (to my great relief). I am happy to report Mom and Baby are both doing well!

Melissa is now enrolled in ballet and will be dancing in Swan Lake in March and a recital in May. She is so excited! She still remembers a lot of what she learned last year when she took two semesters from Dance Fun. This is a much more structured school and I am hoping for a more "classical" training style for her. She is so young, but just loves it and really wants to do it. I guess we will keep it up as long as she likes it - and when she doesn't like it anymore, we will look for alternatives.

I have been sewing some on my days off since Mom was here for Christmas. I don't know what it is about being around her that puts me in the mood to sew, but I have made two jumpers and a pants/top outfit for Melissa. I found a great website with good children's patterns from Europe and that makes me happy... I have found the mainstream pattern companies are largely disappointing these days in the children's clothing department. When I was young we sewed because it was cheaper - that is no longer true! I sew because I enjoy it and because I prefer the unique over the common. As soon as I can get my laptop to cooperate with me, I will post pictures of Missa's new wardrobe.

I have been writing this between checking on a very sick patient so I need to go check on her again. What are ya'll up to these days?