May the best man win....

I'm so glad that some people still believe in taking a stand for what is right!




On quite a different, more humorous note, this was shared by a friend the other day and I thought it was kind of fun. Can you find the baby in this picture?

It took me a while to see it!

Andrew had quite good success with the car he's been working on for a customer and also on the light blue car he's fixing up (possibly to sell to Mom?). My dad hauled our neighbors' wheat to Harvey, then came back and loaded up another load of hay to sell down South. Hay sales have been such a blessing to our family this year! We are indeed sad for the people down in the southern states who've been suffering such a terrible drought, but we are glad that God sent the moisture here so we can help fulfill a need to those who are hurting.

We serve a wonderful Lord!

A few things to brighten your day~

Maybe you need some help?



Here are the kinds of things that make me smile: ENJOY and *SMILE*~

*SMILE*

"Ever notice how people who tell you to calm down are the ones who got you mad in the fist place?"Good times are had in many barns....

*SMILE*

Good pals can make people smile....

...Remember to sing in the rain!

Awwww..... I thought piggies like the mud?

I don't know if this picture is real or not? I'm guessing there were some people NOT smiling about it if it is indeed real! Just think, if you haven't done this to your vehicle, how wonderful that fact is----and *smile*!

"Love wholeheartedly, be surprised, give thanks and praise----then you will discover the fullness of your life."

*Smile*

You don't want to look like these 2 sour-faces!

Yep, you look better when you *SMILE*!

Even birds can smile, in a way....

So can eggs!

So can you, and....

"Oh be careful little eyes what you see...." *Smile*

People say they need motivation to exercise. Well, this might work? "Exercise with T-Rex..."

Babies are just so adorable!

Older children can be pretty cute too!

*Smile!*

Is that a, um, fish?

*Smile*

I might even have room in my very full room for this kind of cat! I wonder how you feed it?

Hmmm, yeah, my fish probably wouldn't be too thrilled with this kind of cat either...!

Realizing God's amazing care and protection of us can make us *SMILE*!

I'm sure this didn't R-E-A-L-L-Y happen, but it made me smile.... :)

Sometimes, your boots just don't keep up with the kind of week you've had!!!

That's all for now. I hope at least a few of these made you, yes, *SMILE*!!!!!~

Quick frog!

If you know me well, you'll know that I really like frogs! (My grandma obviously knows me quite well, as one of my Christmas presents this year was an adorable, bright green tree frog figurine.) :)

Well, when I saw this video yesterday, I loved it and wanted to share it with anyone who reads my blog who might like a laugh too....


This was a pleasant, usual sort of day. Mother had 5 clients here throughout the day; the guys worked outside/in the shop; and I went to work at the nursing home. I'm pretty tired tonight, so will say good night now. "Good night!"~

Quietest day I've had in a while...

I worked at Helens' daycare from 10:00AM to 5:15PM today. As there were only 6 little children there, it was the quietest day I've had there in a long time! :)

I came across a bit of trivial trivia the other day and thought I'd share it here, just to make sure all my fellow ND citizens are aware of the laws of this land!!!


Did you know that, according to North Dakota state law:

It is illegal to lie down and fall asleep with your shoes on?

....and also:

It is legal to shoot an Indian on horseback, provided you are in a covered wagon.

Not that it's comfortable sleeping with shoes on and I certainly don't believe we should shoot Indians!, but I just thought you should know. ;)

Another full day away...

I got up early this morning and headed for Helen's Daycare to watch the children so she could go with her husband to Bismarck for appointments. Another lady came and took over at 1:40 so that I could quickly change and drive into town (Helens' house is a few miles out of Napoleon) and be in time to work my PM shift at the nursing home. I'm pretty tired tonight and am glad I can sleep in a little bit in the morning! :)

The others worked out in the shop again today. They said that if they have one more good day, they should be done with the sheeting and then can take back the scissor-lift. Then they will put in a small door on the front side of the shop; insulate the large shop door; paint all the sheeting white; move their bench back in place............ There still is lots to do, but we are grateful for the progress that's been made---safely!

I will leave you now with the "Good Clean Funnies" joke of the day.

It's called: Live and Learn

Psychiatry students were in their Emotional Extremes class.
"Let's set some parameters," the professor said. "What's the
opposite of joy?" he asked one student.

"Sadness," he replied.

"The opposite of depression?" he asked another student.

"Elation," he replied.

"The opposite of woe?" the prof asked a young woman from
Texas.

The Texan replied, "Sir, I believe that would be giddyup."

Little people say the sweetest things, sometimes!

A man, in a hurry taking his eight-year-old son to school,
made a turn at a red light where it was prohibited.

"Uh-oh, I just made an illegal turn!" the man said.

"Aw, Dad, it's okay," the son said. "The police car right
behind us did the same thing."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Little Johnny's mother was having difficulty gulping down
the birthday cake he had made for her as a surprise. When
she was finished, Little Johnny happily exclaimed,

"I'm so glad you like it, Mommy. There should have been 32
candles on the cake, but they were all gone when I took it
out of the oven."

A blog post for brother Jacob...

An airline pilot was scheduled to take a flight from New
York to Los Angeles. The weather was too bad in New York to
allow his usual on-time departure. The weather in New York
finally cleared, and the pilot asked for his departure
clearance. He was very dismayed to hear that he had another
delay due to the increased traffic now leaving New York.

Sometime later he finally received his clearance and decided
he would try to make up the time lost by asking for a direct
route to Los Angeles. Halfway across the country, he was
told to turn due south. Knowing that this turn would throw
him further behind schedule, with some agitation he inquired
to the controller about the reason for the turn off course.
The controller replied that the turn was for noise
abatement.

The pilot was infuriated and said to the controller, "Look,
buddy, I am already way behind schedule with all the delays
you guys have given me today. I really don't see how I could
be causing a noise problem for pedestrians when I am over
six miles above the earth!"

The controller answered in a calm voice, "Apparently,
Captain, you have never heard two 747s collide!"


It was a quite morning around here. Dad and Andrew are still gone most of the time, helping that farmer with his harvest. I worked in town again this afternoon/evening and all went smoothly there. I just got home a little bit ago, got cleaned up and ate a delicious Organic orange from Azure. :)

I'm guessing tomorrow will be a lot like today.

It is really cooling off here in the Northern part of the country. The air was very crisp tonight when I stepped out of the nursing home and then again on my short journey from my van to the house door!

Happy Autumn everyone and God bless!

Something to bring a smile to your face (hopefully):

"Suppose," says the old salt of a sea captain, testing his
new recruit, "that a sudden storm springs up on your
starboard side. What would you do?"

"Throw out an anchor, sir," says the new sailor.

"And what would you do if another storm sprang up aft?"

"Throw out another anchor, sir," the raw recruit replies.

"Now," says the captain, "a storm springs up forward of the
ship. What would you do this time?"

"Throw out another anchor, Captain."

"Hold on, hold on. Where are you getting all these anchors
from?"

"From the same place you're getting your storms, sir,"
replied the new recruit.

He got to keep his job. :)


I have good news! Mother is back home, safe and sound, tired, but happy. She got back just in time, as now I'll be leaving in the morning for 3 days to help our friends, the K. family pack up their belongings in preparation for their move to SC, and SOMEBODY has to take care of our menfolk. :)

More good news: Dad sold 10 more loads of hay today to the guy in Texas who bought the first load a while back. We've also gotten paid for some hay that another guy is buying, but haven't heard from the trucker lately about when he's coming to pick up the bales?

Some not so good news: Andrew had trouble with the tractor while driving it home, as it "Died" 8 times in the 20+ miles from the field to home. The guys think they know what the problem is though, and hopefully it won't cost too much to repair!

Also, while I was driving Andrew's little car today, a light came on and it later made a funny noise, so he might have transmission problems there after all? I was praising the Lord that I made it to work and back though. :)

Well, dear readers, I shall bid thee good night and farewell for a time, as I will not be posting while at our friends' house. May the Lord bless you all.~

Praise the Lord!

It froze a bit last night, but not hard enough to kill plants, just to shrivel up the tips of the outer leaves of things. I'm praying for no frost tonight, as the next few days are supposed to be in the 70s. Indian Summer perhaps is right around the corner?

I just got home from work in town a little while ago. Mother was in Bismarck all day too, so our kitchen will need a major cleaning job in the morning! The guys were once again busy in the fields... There is always so much to do on a farm, at this time of the year especially.

Before I go, I thought I'd share a bit of humor (from the G.C.F.L.), especially dedicated to my brother Jacob, who loves anything that has to do with flying! Enjoy~


One night at McChord Air Force Base, I was dispatched to
check out the security fence where an alarm had gone off.
The fence was at the end of the base runway. When I got to
the scene, I found a raccoon was the culprit, so I ran
around and flapped my arms to scare the animal away.

Suddenly an air-traffic controller came over the
public-address system and announced loudly, "Attention to
the airman at the end of the runway. You are cleared for
takeoff."

It was a peanut butter cookie day!

I baked a double batch of Peanut Blossoms this morning so as to have something sweet to put in lunchboxes...

Later, when I got to work in town, I realized it was "Cookie Day" there too--and guess what kind of cookies it happened to be this time? Yep. Peanut butter cookies. :)


I'm pretty tired tonight and can't even remember what we all did this morning. I know I burned the squash I was frying on the stove. ;( I know the guys were busy with grain cleaning and combining some more, and I think Jacob worked on hay too. It's supposed to get pretty cold tomorrow and we're praying it does not freeze!!!

Have a good night everyone.~

The beam in our own eye....

A young couple moved into a new neighborhood. The next
morning while they were eating breakfast, the young woman
saw her neighbor hanging the wash outside.

"That laundry is not very clean," she said. "She doesn't
know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better laundry
soap."

Her husband looked on, but remained silent.

Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, the
young woman would make the same comments.

About one month later, the woman was surprised to see nice
clean wash on the line and said to her husband, "Look, she
has learned how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught her
this?"

The husband said, "I got up early this morning and cleaned
our windows."

Misc...

We had a very much needed delightful and restful day today.

Outside of playing the game I'd bought a couple days ago, and watching a movie we got at the thrift store a couple weeks back, we also read from the story of John Birches' life; sang hymns in the living room; I worked on my dress for a while (it's still not finished, but I'll get it done in time!); we dressed up our puppets for some Bible scenes they'll be reenacting at Prairie Days; I talked to Mrs. Dagley and Hannah D. about P.D. plans and updated the website--probably the last time before the actual event; Andrew and I dug out some of our unusual instruments to take along and enter in the "Instrument Petting Zoo"; Mom found one of my dresses that she likes and will wear to Prairie Days; and now I just uploaded the pictures that were on my camera from this week and thought I'd post them here tonight.

This is from a few days back, when the guys helped me with the big black plastic project...
Done! Now to just get it all planted.... It's been so wet lately, which we're really not complaining about, as the crops need the moisture. I'm just so thankful that we have a greenhouse so I/we don't feel so terribly behind. Did I mention that we've had a lettuce salad already and that the peas are blooming?

Here is proof that you just never know what you'll see when you look out your front window:

This next picture is pretty dark, but if you look closely, you'll be able to see what our Friday, "Clean-up the living room" task would entail...

Our dear former neighbor and friend, Gladys was back "Home" a couple days ago with her daughters to start on the long task of cleaning out her house. Her husband passed away last year, shortly after she'd had a fall, at which time they needed to move closer to family in Fargo. Now she's going to sell her place, so was going through things and gave us a bunch of her (and her husbands') clothing to go through.

While digging through the bags, we discovered this cute porcelain prairie doll! We're contemplating taking it to Prairie Days to decorate a table with or something, but as she is delicate, she may be staying home....

Our jolly good fellows had fun going through the box FULL of hats! Andrew tried on a few for size, or was it for laughs?

I did not post last night (did anyone notice? :) ) as my computer was still hooked up to the projector and everything after we watched an old-time movie, and by the time I discovered it was so, I was already ready for bed and quite tired, so I just hopped in. It was amazing how refreshed I felt at 7:00 this morning! I think I'll get right to bed now, even though it's too late to be early.

I wanted to thank you all for your thoughtful comments on my last post. I'll be going to work in town again tomorrow and will find out then if that resident has passed away yet or not. I'm not really looking forward to going... This is the 11th resident death that's happened in the 1+ year that I've worked there. So far, the Lord has been merciful and I have not had to actually see someone pass away, for which I am very grateful..... I imagine it will happen one day though, if God still has work for me to do there.

So as not to leave you on a sad note though, I'll share the link to the Prairie Days website once more: (again, for the last time before the event ;) )

www.wix.com/prairiedays/2011

...and will also share a fun song:

~Enjoy it in this, nearly, good old Summer time!

I splurged!

I worked at the nursing home this afternoon/evening and, during my supper break, I had time to look through the books and things that the "Books Are Fun" company has left in the staff lounge to sell to any of us workers who wish to buy from them.... I've never bought anything there before, but tonight I splurged and bought 1 book (about riddles, puzzles, plays on words, etc...) and 1 game! The game is called "You've Been Sentenced" and it is described as follows:

This sentence-building game uses unique five-sided cards with multiple conjugations of a base word. With a hand of 10 cards, players try to score the most points per round by constructing the longest, grammatically correct, and sensible sentence. Any player can object to another players sentence, on either grammatical grounds, or the fact that the sentence just doesn't make sense. The defending player and the objecting player get to argue their points to the rest of the players, who form a jury. Half the fun is trying to defend, explain, and justify a completely ridiculous sentence to the other players. First player to reach 200 points wins. With the deck of 540 pentago-shaped cards with over 2500 words (plus Wild Cards) there are billions of possible combinations. You will probably never see the same sentence twice in a lifetime. English can be a very Funny language.

When I drove in the yard tonight, I noticed the Pacifica (the vehicle Mom usually drives) was missing and then it was that I remembered that my parents had their "Date" tonight. :) They went to the FCS annual supper and meeting in Mandan. I was a little sad then, as Dad and Mom's 1-time-a-year (practically)-date-night has always been my brothers' and my special night to play games or stay up late and watch a long movie or something (except for the one night when there was a bad storm and a cow was out and we were chasing her all over the place and then the electricity went out and the wind came up and we all headed for the basement and read books with a flashlight until our parents returned), but I had to work this time. I was so happy when I got in the house and found my brothers still awake and dressed and ready to play a couple rounds of the game I'd bought! :) It really is quite fun and we've already come up with some pretty funny-sounding sentences.... Has anyone else played this game before? What are some of your favorite family games?

Not a whole lot else happened here today. We weren't able to plant in the garden because it was still too wet from yesterdays' rain. I did sew a bit on my dress again and it's really starting to look like a dress instead of a tent!

I'd best get some sleep. Tomorrow morning's going to come quickly.... I'll leave you with something to put a smile on your face, hopefully. :)



Cletus goes to work and sees that one of his co-workers has
a thermos.

He asks him what it does, and the co-worker responds, "It
keeps hot things hot and cold things cold."

Cletus is amazed, and when he gets home, he immediately goes
out and buys one. The next day he goes to work and is proud
that he has this wonderful object.

The same co-worker realizes he has a thermos and says, "What
do you have in it?"

He says, "Soup and ice cream!"

Yummy! ;)

Have YOU ever had a shoe full of flax?

This has been a very busy day on the farm, one that, at the end of the day, it seems like yesterday when the happenings of the morning transpired! I thought at least 5 times over the course of the day that I'd like to have a picture of this or that, but the day went on and, alas, I only got pictures of the fun Jacob and I had this evening, so that will have to do I guess. :)



Here's a quick overview of our day:

• Did morning chores (milking, taking care of baby goats and bottle calves, feeding hay, water and grain)



• Dad fixed the hitch on the big seed-drill



• Jacob worked on working up the South field with the big white tractor, pulling the vibra-shank



• Mom and I went to town and picked up our beef from the 2 steers we had butchered



• Dad helped us get the freezers filled up (I'm so glad I got the big freezer cleaned out yesterday so it was ready to go this morning when the meat locker lady called...!)



• Opened the greenhouse (it was 90 degrees inside before noon)



• Made beef stew with dumplings



• I headed out to the field on the 4-wheeler to pick up Jacob for lunch but ran out of gas half-ways there and walked the rest of the way. When my brother and I walked to the 4-wheeler again, Jacob showed me that the ATV has a reservoir tank, "For such a time as that", so we rode home the rest of the way and then filled the tank with gas!



• After lunch and dishes, Mom went out to finish the field.



• Dad and Jacob finished welding the hitch and getting things ready to go again



• I made a batch of bread and a pizza crust



• Mom came in the yard for fuel, then headed West to "Fern's up North" (about 10 miles away) to began working up that ground so Dad can seed there tomorrow



• I dug some dirt from the garden and filled up our many flower pots, then planted the Petunias and Pansies Mother had purchased while in Bismarck...



• I also raked up the pine-cones that were under the pine trees, and raked off some of the excess goose-droppings across the road on our playground lawn



• Dad and Jacob headed out with the tractor/drill and the truck with seed on it and asked me to bring the 4-wheeler down too



• We filled the huge drill using buckets, Jacob and I being in the truck, up to our knees in flax, filling the pails for Dad who then took them from us and dumped them in the drill (thus the shoes FULL of flax--a very funny feeling!)



• Dad planted the whole field



• Jacob and I ate a quick supper; worked on getting Jacob's outfit ready for a play he and Andrew are possibly going to do at Prairie Days; and then worked on chores



• Dad came in the yard with the tractor and drill once he was done and said Jacob should go get Mom as she was done with that field and it was getting close to dark



• Dad held the goat I needed held while I helped get the kids in the right place to nurse (while we were doing this, we noticed Jacob's goat, Jane was in labor and she later had one huge buckling)



• While Dad fed the cows some hay, I started working on emptying the drill (yes, again with buckets for the most part, except then Dad got out the handy vacuum "Thing" that sucks the grain out and spits it into the truck)



• Dad came and helped when he was through with feeding and we were almost done by the time Mom and Jacob returned home



• Jacob helped Dad then, fueling up the tractor and getting things ready to go in the morning



• Closed up the greenhouse



• Mom and I made hamburgers with our meat--hooray for "Real" meat!



• Listened to Andrew's message on the phone, saying he may be home tomorrow night, especially if it rains



• While Dad and Mom ate, Jacob tried on the outfit we'd put together earlier

Do you have any guesses of who he's acting like??? :)

I praise the Lord for the safety He granted for us all this day and for the many, many seeds that went in the ground! If you would, please join us in praying for the rain to stay away for a few more days so all the farmers can get the crops in. It is getting late already and is high time to get the seeds in the soil.... Jacob told me yesterday of something he read about some farmers paying to have their crops planted by helicopter as the ground is just too wet to drive on with equipment! How does that old saying go?: "When there's a will, there's a way"....

Do you cut your roast before putting it in the pan???

One day a little girl was watching her mom make a roast
beef. She cut off the ends, wrapped it in string, seasoned
it, and set it in the roasting pan.

The little girl asked her mom why she cut off the ends of
the roast. Mom replied, after some thought, that it was the
way that her mother had done it.

That night Grandma came to dinner and the little girl and
her mom went to her and asked why she had cut the end off of
the roast before cooking. After some thought, Grandma
replied that it was the way her mother had done it.

Now the great-grandmother was quite old and in a nursing
home. But the little girl went with her mom and grandma to
see her and again asked the question.

Great-Grandma looked at them a bit annoyed and said, "So it
would fit in the pan, of course."

This is why we do things naturally as much as possible!

(Actually, there are more reasons than the one below, that actually being one of the smaller ones!) Don't get me wrong, I do believe there is a time and a place for Doctors' interventions, (if you cut off your finger, it's awfully nice to have someone who knows how to do some fancy sewing to put it back on!) but I believe that the runs to the Dr.'s office are far less needed than most people believe! But anyway, here's the tidbit that got me to talking on this subject: Suffering from a bad case of the flu, a man phoned his doctor for to get an appointment. When he was told the scheduled date of the appointment, he became outraged and bellowed, "Three weeks? The doctor can't see me for three weeks? I could well be dead by then!" Calmly, the receptionist replied, "If so, would you have your wife call to cancel the appointment?"

(from the Good Clean Funnies List)

On another subject completely, calving is getting going in full swing now. Yesterday, Dad tagged 9 calves, and this morning there were for sure 2 new ones before I left... We're praising God for warmer weather!

NO PARKING!

Before I tell you what the "No parking" is about, I'll just give you a brief family update:

Robert: Is learning a lot at the farming class
Dawn: Also learning a lot
Jacob: Learnign a lot also :)
Andrew: Kept the farm running smoothly all day, and made some progress on the very challenging puzzle he and I are working on in our spare time...
Cora (me): Spent the whole day in town, attending 3 1/2 hours of meeting, then writing to a friend and reading in my book in my van until it was time to go back inside and work another 8 1/2 hours.
Millie & Lady: Enjoyed the lovliness of the day by romping around the farm, waggin' their tales

And now onto the "No parking" part of my post:

~A minister parked his car in a no-parking zone in a large
city because he was short of time and couldn't find a space
with a meter. Then he put a note under the windshield wiper
that read:

"I have circled the block 10 times. If I don't
park here, I'll miss my appointment. Forgive us our
trespasses."

When he returned, he found a citation from a police officer
along with this note:

"I've circled this block for 10 years.
If I don't give you a ticket, I'll lose my job. 'Lead us not
into temptation.'"

(Also from the Good Clean Funnies list)


:) Have a good night~

Can you look at these and not smile? :)

Some good advice that arrived in my in-box today.....

~SMILE AT LEAST ONCE A DAY~

~BE SURE TO GET YOUR REST~

~AT THE END OF THE DAY, PRAY~

~HOLD ON TO GOOD FRIENDS. THEY ARE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN~

~SEIZE THE MOMENT~

~EXERCISE TO KEEP FIT~

~WATCH YOUR STEP~

~SHARE WITH FRIENDS~

~SHOW SOMEONE YOU LOVE THEM TODAY~

~ALWAYS BE READY FOR SURPRISES~

~BE CONSCIOUS OF YOUR APPEARANCE~

~EXPRESS YOURSELF CREATIVELY~

~TAKE AN OCCASIONAL RISK~

~RELAX~

~DON'T WASTE FOOD~

~LOVE YOUR FRIENDS, NO MATTER WHO THEY ARE~

~GET TO BED ON TIME~

~MEET NEW PEOPLE, EVEN IF THEY LOOK DIFFERENT TO YOU~

~REMAIN CALM, EVEN WHEN IT SEEMS HOPELESS~

~DON'T BE OVERLY CONCERNED ABOUT YOUR WEIGHT.

AFTER ALL, IT'S JUST A NUMBER~

AND FINALLY:

~SHARE A GOOD JOKE WITH FRIENDS!~

DID YOU MAKE IT TO THE END WITHOUT SMILING?

"NO?"

GOOD!

I DIDN'T REALLY WANT YOU TO. :)