Only Ashley

On Saturday Denise nicely offered to come over and weigh our sheep for us. Since the Phillips were here as well working with their sheep we quickly took her up on her offer. When she got here however the scale wasn't working properly and we thought maybe the battery was running low so Ashley quickly offered to run back over to the Maljaars house to grab the cord.  It seemed to take her a very long time to get back! When she finally got back home I noticed when she got out of the truck she had a bit of a funny look on her face. She explained to Denise that when she got to their house she noticed the neighbor man was putting the sheep back into their pasture as they had pushed through the fence into his pasture. She decided she better help him and went into their pasture to take one of the babies out and put him back into the proper pen when the ram decided she had no business being in there and came at her. As she was explaining this she suddenly started crying! Which is very strange for Ashley. And she showed us her injured hand. The ram butted her good in the thigh, and then backed up, lowered his head and started coming at her again. She had the baby lamb in one arm so she put out her hand to try to fend off the ram and of course...now her hand hurt! We didn't think much of it as Ashley tends to get a large variety of injuries on a regular basis:/ Sunday we noticed her palm had a big bruise on it and her hand was definitely swollen. Sunday after we got into the car after church I asked to feel her fingers and noticed that her pinky and ring finger were ice cold while the other fingers were normal. Since there's a brand new urgent care clinic right down the road from the church I figured we should probably stop and have it looked at. When the xray results showed there was a break at the bottom of the pinky we actually both started laughing! You have got to be kidding. For the second time in under a year she had a serious injury thanks to a sheep!! They said it was a very clean straight fracture across the bottom of the pinky. They wrapped her up good in a half cast and instructed us to go see and orthopedist that week.

 

That week we went and saw the orthopedist, he was not quite as optimistic as the urgent care dr and pointed out that what looked like a nice clean flat line break, when viewed from the other side was actually a V shaped break down to the knuckle. He put her in a full hard cast up to her elbow and informed her the cast was to stay there for minimum 4-6 weeks. That means, Toppenish Fair, FFA state, Prom.... Could be a lot worse if you consider how big and powerful a ram is!

High School Track

We've been trying to convince Brandi to sit out a sport season but she's pretty adamant that it's absolutely necessary that she participate in High school track as well. Our theory kind of is as long as the attitude stays in check and the grades stay where they're supposed to be, the extra curricular's can continue. It's going to make for a crazy busy spring though. With all the FFA competitions being in the spring, the sheep to raise for Toppenish fair, spring basketball, and then track on top of it.....ugh. But as long as the knees hold out and the grades stay where they need to be we'll let her try it. Coach 'I' has been excited about Brandi joining the jumping team. He started working with her a little in middle school already when they were at the track at the same time as the high school team. In fact, by the time the season started he had a pair of jumping spikes for her. (Because he knew her mom refused to buy her a pair of $80 shoes just to jump in) She's going to be doing the long jump and the triple jump. Which to me, is one of the strangest events ever invented. Who in the world thought up the triple jump! The good news is its an extremely complicated thing so there are very few contestants:) But the complicated part is just what appealed to Brandi...It's the challenge. The season has just begun and there's only been two preliminary meets where the kids kinda practice and get the hang of what they're doing. Apparently once the season starts she will also be competing in one or two running events. Probably the 4x4. So here's to another adventure!

Volcano mouth...

Tyler Tyler Tyler. The cause of so much joy and yet so many embarrassing moments. Thankfully his teachers have a great sense of humor and keep me updated on many of the things he says. I'm sure there are some things he says that they choose not to share with me for the sake of sparing my pride.

The following are texts that I have received from his teacher.

"Tyler is probably going to come home with a million questions about animals evolving. I told him to talk to you. We were reading a non fiction book about penguins and the author mentioned that penguins lost their ability to fly through evolution. He began rapid firing really great questions but most of them were way over everyone else's head. I kept telling him that the books says "SOME scientists" and that there are certainly scientists who believe that God made penguins exactly how they are today and that evolution doesn't exist. He wasn't satisfied with this answer either. So I told him that he needed to discuss it with you & find out how his family believes. Good luck. He has some great questions!"

This lead to quite the exhausting discussions that night regarding creationism vs evolution. He is not satisfied with the simple answers but really wants to be able to wrap his head around the WHY and HOW COME.

"Oh yeah, he also told a group of us that "my dad would rather run over a cat than own one!"

No, Bob is not a cat murderer who drives around looking for random cats to run over. In fact, he will hit the brakes if a cat is on the road. He is just not a cat lover by any stretch of the imagination!

"He asked me if when a dog eat the sack that's around it's puppies when they're born if it tastes good---how am I supposed to know, I haven't given birth to puppies! lol"

Maybe living on old mcdonalds farm, the child has seen more than he should...I don't know. We call it real life biology lessons!

"I know you will be mortified when you read this but remember, no judgement here! Tyler asked me Dawn & Brandi (in front of the entire class) if we drank fireball. He proceeded to tell us that he has ---a little bit. We thought it was hilarious and very matter of fact. Like we were having a conversation in a bar or something. I told him he needs to practice not sharing so much with his teachers"

Ok. This one requires some serious explanations. Thankfully his teacher knows us well and is aware that we do not actually feed our children alcohol!! Bob had a mixed drink sitting on the counter one night, Tyler went up and took a swig thinking it was pepsi. He proceeded to spit all over the kitchen so there is no way he actually ingested any. And oh....good grief. So thankful he has the teachers he does!

This great story was relayed to me verbally...apparently two of the teachers were talking and one happened to use the phrase, "once in a blue moon" Tyler, overhearing a conversation that was none of his business quickly muttered, "moon?, well obviously you need a smaller butt or bigger pants!"

Tyler has a severe case of plumber butt that we can never quite seem to control. Therefore anytime he hears the word moon he assumes somebody's butt crack is hanging out!

"Luke informed us that Tyler is his best friend so he is going to practice blurting out, sneezing really loudly, and he is going to buy big pants and stop bathing!"

HELP!! This is even how the other students view Tyler? lol!

If I ever win the lottery....his teachers get a nice chunk! Partially to insure their silence and partially our of gratitude for their great attitudes!!

Tyler, you are one in a million and we love you crazy big!

But guess what books I just ordered you? We are going to do some reading over spring break;)

This little piggy...

Ashley spends a lot of time helping her Ag teacher out at her farm. She loves to be in the barn and working with the animals. On this particular night, yet another batch of baby pigs was being born so we stopped by to see. Tyler of course stayed in the car and read a book:/ pigs and his asthma don't get along very well. Kendra was so excited to be able to help deliver a baby pig!

Go COUGS!

Yep, this came in the mail today. Crazy but true. Going to be a wild and crazy couple months trying to get everything to fall into place but Ashley is really determined to go to WSU next fall.
GO COUGS!

FFA success!

As the 2015 FFA season amps up I'm realizing how fun it's going to be to have both Ashley and Brandi competing this year. Well, it'a always fun when you're winning right? District sub finals took place in Richland and Ashley came away with a first place win in prepared public speaking and Brandi took third place in creed so they were pretty excited about that!  A couple of weeks later the district finals took place in Prosser. Another great night for them.

Ashley once again took first in prepared public speaking and Brandi pulled off a first place finish in creed. That means they both get to head to WSU in Pullman in May to compete at the state level! So fun for both of them to be able to go there and compete together. Especially since this is the only year that would even be possible. I hope to be able to head out there for at least one of the days while they are competing at state.

The FFA night was on the same night as Brandi's basketball banquet so we ran from one straight to the other. Here she was being congratulated by her teammate Kendra Merrit.

FFA Happenin's!

FFA season has started again and Ashley is off to a great start!  First she presented a speech at the ag expo to a panel of judges regarding USDA 2015 dietary guidelines and walked away with a $1000 scholarship!

At the Awards dinner getting her scholarship

 

 

Then a few weeks later she competed in a job interview competition and walked away with second place, securing her a spot at the state championship competition in May at WSU.  Been a pretty good start to the FFA year.

Father/Daughter Ball

For the second year in a row Bob and Kendra went to the Father/Daughter ball in tri-cities. Kendra had so much fun last year that she couldn't wait until the next one. When we went shopping for Ashley and Brandi's winter ball dresses we found one for Kenny too. Ashley helped her do her hair and get ready and then it was off to the ball!

Home Reno's

We've been talking about redoing the office for awhile now but we're not exactly the type to get things like that done quickly:) So once again our amazing family stepped in!! John and Audrey decided it would be a fun way to spend a few days so when they came down to visit they ripped into the project with gusto!

Uncle John put them to work taking off handles and hinges:)

Ripping out the china hutches from 1970

Making some time capsules to put into the new wall that Uncle John built

JV Basketball

First year of high school basketball for Brandi! There's been some good games and some not so good games but she's been loving every minute of it. Even practices. Thankfully when John and Audrey came down she brought her camera along and got some good pictures because I can't seem to get any decent pictures inside of a gym.

Winter Ball

Winter Ball was held a little later than normal this year and didn't take place until January 31st.  Two, yes TWO dresses to buy, shoes, flowers, tickets, dinners, UGH! :) Took a full day of shopping to get the job done but the end results were pretty spectacular if I may say so myself. John and Audrey were down that weekend too working on some office renovations. Everyone headed over to the Essary's for pictures and then Audrey and I drove Brandi and Ryan, and Lauryn & Cole to tricities for dinner and then dropped them off at the dance. Ashley went with Colten Alfeteras and they went to Bob's for dinner and then back to the high school Not all dances are good ones but they both said this one was a success. Thank goodness!