Snow, Snow and more Snow!

We got our first "big" snow of the year last night (or early this morning)- not sure exactly when it all fell. If only it had been a few degrees warmer outside, we could have gone out for recess and made a big snowman. We were stuck inside once again today, but hopefully we'll get to go out for just a few minutes tomorrow... unless we would be blessed with a snow day. (hey, I can dream, right?)

Our house is still slightly warmer than the outdoor temps, but only slightly. Shaun is trying his best to keep my fingers off of the thermostat! I have my tricks though... I sure do seem to bake a lot more in the oven when it's cold. I think our new windows are helping, but it's hard to tell since we only have the 2nd floor wrapped and no actual siding! We keep the bedrooms up there closed off to keep the heat downstairs.

Today I realized how lucky I am to have a small class! I had both first grade classes in my room today and while they were VERY good, it's hard to think about those teachers who have 25 kids in a class. I would definitely have to give up some of my centers in the room.

Have a great week!

Christmas is peeking around the corner!

So I came to the realization yesterday that Christmas is right around the corner- scary! I love the holiday season, but I am usually too busy to enjoy it and realize that it's over when I do start to enjoy it. I'm going to make it a point this year to enjoy the season. I definitely need to start my Christmas shopping!

I hope that you too will enjoy the holiday season!
(I'll try to have some more exciting news to write about next time I post.)

Gotta love the long weekend!

We (I) have definitely enjoyed the long weekend. I don't know if you can technically say that Shaun has had the last 5 days off or not... he pretty much works when he wants to. I told myself that I would go into school on Wednesday morning to get the work that needed to be done out of the way before the holiday. Well, my procrastinating side told me to put it off. So I finally went in for a couple of hours this afternoon and got caught up on several things.

We had a great time with family on Thursday. We went to Shaun's grandma's for lunch and then headed to Topeka for dinner. I was so stuffed! We got up early on Friday to take advantage of the Walmart specials. We got everything (and some) that we had gone in for. It's amazing how many people you see that you know out at 4 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving! After finishing up at Walmart, we headed back to my parents' house. We dropped Shaun off and my mom, grandma, sister and I headed back out. We definitely gave the Topeka economy a boost. But we did get some Christmas shopping done!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This week has so many blessings... first of all a time to remember all the things we are thankful for. God has given us so much, that we shouldn't just thank him once a year, but we should be thankful throughout the year. Another blessing... spending time with those you love. Whether you are traveling this weekend or spending time with your immediate family, enjoy your time. And one more thing to be thankful for.... a two day week at school! (not to mention the 5 day weekend and the anticipated shopping on the infamous "Black Friday!")

Have a great Thanksgiving! Enjoy all the delicious food :)

In Loving Memory of Grandpa Bert

Even when you know something is coming, it is still hard to handle when it does. This past Saturday, Shaun's Grandpa Bert passed away and went home to be with the Lord. He lived a good, long life and touched so many people along the way. He has taught us so many lessons that will stay with us for as long as we live. Now I know I've only known him for about 3 years, but I still had a close relationship with him. Our family will miss him tons, but we know he is no longer suffering.

All 11 cousins together... hasn't happened in a long time!

Clint, John, Tina, Deana, Kreg, Jim, Shaun, Kyle, Sara, Abby, Paul

And I don't even like sports!

So, for the girl that doesn't like sports, I had an interesting weekend. I went to the Moundridge football game on Thursday night, went to Hays on Friday to Day 1 of State Volleyball, and then headed to Wamego today to watch my cousin run in the State Cross-Country. I enjoyed seeing my family today. So even though we couldn't go on our annual Cassville jeeping trip, I was able to see some of my family. Shaun and Dale are continuing to cut milo and soybeans... and I think they can see the light at the end of the tunnel. So many crops to cut! It has been absolutely beautiful the last couple of days, not something you can usually say on the 1st of November.

Here's a couple of pics of my cousin running (he's the one in the purple Bearcats jersey).

Tagged again and again!

Okay, so I have officially been tagged three times... thanks Becky, Kristen and DeAnn. So I'm breaking down and finally doing this. I'm supposed to tell you six things about myself that you may or may not know. So here it goes...

1. I enjoy scrapbooking, fourwheeling, sewing, most kinds of crafts, and the Biggest Loser.

2. I do not like mice and my house seems to attract them... why???? I am thinking that our house is actually colder than outside, so maybe the mice will run away from our house to find a warmer place!

3. One of my pet peeves is eating with your mouth open, making a smacking sound.

4. I worked at a daycare for 5 years and I really miss the toddlers!

5. My favorite doll when I was a kid was my Cabbage Patch named Greta Olive.

6. My favorite tv shows are the Biggest Loser, John & Kate Plus 8, Extreme Home Makeover and the Office. I also love Lifetime and Hallmark movies!


Now I get to tag someone... I tag Molly, Amanda, and Lynda.

Fun Times

So, we had a great weekend with Sara & Jason. They drove to KS Thursday after work and got here early Friday morning. Janet & I both took off work on Friday to have a Girls' Day, shopping in Wichita. I debated and debated about taking off and knew that if I didn't I'd be really disappointed while they were shopping on Friday. Afterall, it is one of my favorite hobbies! I really didn't buy much on Friday, but it was good to get out and have a good time with my S-I-L, M-I-L, and G-I-L (sister, mother, and grandma in-laws). Friday night, we were over at Dale & Janet's with some family friends and had a good time chatting and playing the Wii. Saturday we went four-wheeling out at Alice's and the dogs ran for the full 8 miles. We had dinner over at Grandma Ortman's with some of the family. Sara and Jason left early this morning and we headed off to church. I enjoyed cuddling with baby Grant and listening to Andrew make tractor noises during church :).

Other things that have been going on...

• Shaun bought a new-used diesel truck last week
• I survived my first parent-teacher conferences and get the pleasure of doing them again on Monday
• I'm really enjoying our Ladies' Bible Study on Sunday afternoons on the book of Daniel (if you haven't participated in any of Beth Moore's bible studies, I highly encourage you to)
• I'm hoping that it stays dry this week and the guys can get in the fields, so we can go to jeeping in Cassville at the end of the week. Rain, Rain, STAY AWAY!!!!

Hope you all have a GREAT week!

Why we live at Lowe's...

Well, we don't actually live at Lowe's, it just seems like it. With their name plastered all over the second story of our house, what do you expect? As mentioned in my previous post, we got new windows last weekend. My dad came down and helped Shaun put in 6 new windows and we still have one left. We had 10 windows in the upstairs, and Shaun decided to block off one in each room. So we made a deal, if I lost windows, I was getting sheetrock in ALL of the bedrooms! Each room has paneling and I seriously dislike the whole paneling era! Shaun's idea is to just buy a big piece of artwork at a garage sale and cover the old hole... I think not. We also blew in some more insulation into the walls and wrapped the house (hince living in Lowe's), so we are hoping that this will help warm the house up this winter. We are putting new siding on the second story and are planning on re-shingling the roof next month. Hopefully it will all get done.

Picture of our house, minus the old siding
Out come the windows and wasp nests!

I'll post more pictures once the windows are finished and I have my sheetrock :). What else is new? Shaun and Dale are still working in the fields, sowing wheat and getting ready to cut some more fall crops. It's been raining for the last two days and is still raining, so the fields will have to dry out before they can get back out there. I'm working on grade cards and assessing my students this week, as it is the end of the first 9 weeks.

Well that's enough rambling, so hope you have a great week!

Same Old Stuff

Well, there's not really anything "note-worthy" that has happened in the last week. Shaun has been so busy in the fields and fixing his farm-jeep that he hasn't been getting home until 10 p.m. And I go to work, come home, sleep... go to work, come home, sleep... go to work, come home, sleep, etc. I did however finally start scrapbooking my Colorado pictures last week and have it just about finished. Friday night, Janet and I went to Moundridge's Homecoming (which I have to say was the second football game I've ever been to- can you tell it's not my favorite sport?). On Saturday, Janet and I went to DeAnn's intro into the Bethel Sports Hall of Fame. Congratulations, DeAnn! And on Sunday, we went to church, ate at D'Angelo's, went to Lowes and Target in Hutch, and came home to do a little work around the farm. So there's our boring recap of the weekend... hopefully I'll have something better to write about next time (like new windows in the upstairs bedrooms!!!).

Ups and DOWNS of harvesting...

Oh, the ups and downs of harvest. And in this post, I'm talking more about the downs... read on. Today while Dale and Shaun were cutting soybeans near Buhler they accidentally took down a power line... oops! Here's the short story... Dale was unloading beans into the cart and when he was putting the auger out/down (not sure which one), it got caught in the power lines and it pulled the lines down, snapping the power pole. Thank goodness no one got hurt! God's protection amazes us. Dale calmly got out of the combine, hoping that he would not get electricuted. It left black marks on the auger and bent the auger up, taking one combine out of action for the day. See below. By this evening, they had gotten a new auger, but it was too short, so it wasn't much help. So much for finishing that field today. At least they can fix these things on their own and not have to take the combine to a shop to be fixed.

Shaun cutting beans

The black marks from the electricity

The downed power line/pole
Shaun, Dale & Dorel putting in the new auger



The bent auger, oops!

On another note, I started working on a class blog today. We are supposed to develop a class web page by January and I found the school website way too complicated. So I decided to go for the blog instead. We'll see if I can keep up with 2 blogs! Come check it out... http://mrsortmans1stgradeblog.blogspot.com/. The only thing I'm not happy with is the limitations on font. Anyone have any suggestions to get cute fonts? Can you mess with the HTML? You'll notice I did figure out the slideshow. Maybe I'll put one on here sometime.

FALL is here!

Fall is here and we are finding ourselves busier than we have been the last couple of weeks. Shaun and Dale started harvesting milo last week and are continuing this week. They are anticipating cutting some soybeans later in the week and are trying to put anhydrase (sp?) on the wheat ground as well. Shaun thought they might start planting wheat next week, so hopefully they can get the fall crops that are ready cut before then.

This last weekend we went to Topeka, to celebrate Shaun & Alan's birthdays with my family. My family tries to get together for everyone's birthdays, so it was good to see everyone. Kristen had everyone over, and I don't know if you could have fit another person in there. While I missed the Hillsboro Arts & Crafts fair once again this year, I was able to go to Cider Days in Topeka, which is also a craft show. There were some really neat decorations there this year. I also went to the Topeka Library Book Sale, which is a fundraiser for the library. I came home with a cart full of books. You can't beat hard-back books for 50 cents a piece. My students enjoyed looking through all of the new books today.

School is going well and we are looking forward to our first field trip on Wednesday. We are going to the FFA Day on the Farm at the highschool. I spent awhile this evening at school trying to get organized for the week. I usually try to go in on the weekends a little, but since we were in Topeka, I was not able to do so.

I hope you all have a great week!

Happy Birthday, Bert & Shaun!

Tonight we celebrated Grandpa Bert & Shaun's birthdays at our house. We had most of the Ortman family here, and it was really good to see everybody. It was also good to see Bert doing so well. Bert was 86 today and Shaun was 31. I've been trying to upload a video of us singing to Bert, but it won't work... so maybe I'll try another day. If you have facebook, you can see it on there. Here are a couple of pictures from the evening...

Bert getting some help blowing out the candles from the great-great-granddaughter and great-grandson
Our living room was converted into a dining hall... we had 23 people squeezed around this table. Yikes!

We had a great time tonight!

Shadow Box

Last weekend, when we were up visiting Grandpa Bert at Memorial Home, we (Janet & I) decided that Bert needed a Shadow Box outside his room. We have seen Keith Koller's shadow box outside of his room and thought it was such a great idea. Well, Bert's 86th birthday is this weekend, so it was the perfect time to get this completed. We suggested to Shaun that he should make a shadow box from old barn wood instead of us driving to Hobby Lobby in Hutchinson or Wichita (in the long run, it would save him money, if you know what I mean). So I was very surprised when I came home Monday and Shaun had this made (especially since I only had to ask him one time!) So tonight, I went over to Janet's to put this thing together. We searched through the old photos she had and through all the farm toys to find just the right stuff. We included the animals they use to have on the farm... cows, pigs, chickens, sheep, and geese/ducks. The M&M tractor came from Bert (Shaun had found it when cleaning out their garage) and the windmill was one I had in our basement for decoration. Of course, we had to include Bert & Clara-look-alike figurines. All in all, I'm very happy with the shadow box. Now what should I do with mine?????

Autumn is almost here...

We've been enjoying the cool fall weather we've been having lately, but wonder if it is going to be a long winter and we'll be wishing for some of that warm Kansas summer weather. The last two days we have received rain, rain and more rain. It rained off and on on Friday (enough to cause us to have indoor recess) and all day on Saturday. My parents and grandparents came down on Friday night to go to the State Fair on Saturday. My mom and grandma had decided not to go and with the rain, I ended up deciding to go shopping with them instead of spending my day outside in the rain. I think the guys had more fun without us anyway!

While my dad was down, he and Shaun measured for windows (upstairs), metal roofing and siding for the house. We have been wanting to finish off the windows in the house, and make the house more energy-efficient. Shaun is also wanting to close off some of the windows, so that means we have to replace the siding. We have been needing a new roof, so why not do it all at the same time. Not sure when we (or Shaun) are going to find time to do all of this with fall harvest right around the corner.

As if we aren't planning on spending enough money on these updates, we discovered last Friday that we have termites in the basement!!! I have been questioning this for about 2 years now- but what do I know, I'm only a girl. Shaun has not bothered to check it out until I said what are these white bugs crawling in the crack and my dad and grandpa said they think they are termites. So Shaun has to make a call to some exterminators this week and get this taken care of. Maybe they can take care of our mice problem while they are here, or at least tell us where they are coming in at. Maybe we are looking at building a new house sooner rather than later!!!!

I hope this week doesn't give us as many surprises as last week...

Just Hangin' Out

This Labor Day weekend, we didn't go anywhere special, but it has been so relaxing getting some of the things done that I had been putting off since school started. Shaun and Dale were cutting corn all day Friday and Saturday, so I was able to start cleaning the house on Saturday without any interruptions. I got a good chunk accomplished and then decided I needed a change in activity. So I decided to start scrapbooking our Colorado vacation this summer. Now my "once-clean" living room has turned into scrapbook central. Oh well, I'll get it picked up sooner or later. I just can't stand being up in my craft room when it is so hot outside (my craft room does not have any airconditioning flowing into it).

We had a good time hanging out with friends last night.... and had lots of delicious food! Although it seems like whenever we all get together, we always eat way too much!

Today I'm still working on my scrapbooking, but decided to finally figure out the three column blog and I saw that Becky had changed her background and thought it was absolutely adorable. I knew my blog needed a "makeover." I really should go to school and work on this week's lesson plans, so maybe this afternoon I'll be ambitious enough to do that. We'll see....

Have a great week!

Update

This update will be short and sweet... nothing much going on with the Ortmans. I am spending most of the hours in my days at school, often not getting out of there until after 5:30. I made myself leave today by 4:45. Last night we had Open House, so it was a late night. I'm loving teaching and enjoy spending time with the kids. We have a blast and I usually come home with my jaw hurting from smiling so much. Anyways, it's school, school, and more school.

As for Shaun, he's been working on the grain trucks (converting one to propane), taking care of weeds in fields, and going to auto auctions. I'm not sure if he is used to the fact that he doesn't get to see me as much as he did this summer.

Hopefully I'll have something more eventful to post next time.

I SURVIVED!!!

Well, I survived my first day! It was really a fun day. I have a great group of kids and they are really excited to be 1st graders! It's definitely been a busy week trying to prepare for today. My carpet and room were just finished on Monday. So I was able to get in there Monday night and a few hours after inservice on Tuesday. Yesterday I was at school from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., with a short Walmart break in the afternoon. I was sooooo exhausted! Shaun volunteered to come in and help me cut, copy and do other odd jobs I had for him. He was very helpful! Little does he know that I will again "rope" him into a lot more school work!

I was very shocked to receive to flower deliveries today, the one on the left from my in-laws and the one on the right from the Huxman boys. Thank you sooooo much!

My "meet Mrs. Ortman bulletin board...
A view from inside the door... I love how it looks with 12 desks!

My circle time/reading area and word wall... we spent a lot of time on this carpet today.

Well, I'm glad my "FIRST" day is over and I think I will be a little less nervous from now on. If only the kids would be this good everyday... hey, I can dream if I want.

A Fun Weekend

Last Wednesday, we headed to Shipshewana, IN, to visit Shaun's sister and brother-in-law. We caught a ride up there with my parents, as they were going to an Aladdin Lamp Convention in Indianapolis. They came to Shipshe with us on Wednesday night. We were able to show them around town and we even went on an Amish buggy ride. They left Thursday afternoon and headed to Indy. We were able to spend some time with Sara & Jason. They even got us to go on a bike ride all the way into town. Friday evening, Jason flew us to Holland, Michigan for dinner. The flight out was a little rough, but the flight home was much better. It was neat to see the area from above, especially Lake Michigan. Here are a few pictures from the flight.

Lake Michigan in the background

Shaun flying the plane!!! Watch out!My fantastic sister-in-law and I
Me, Shaun, Sara & Jason in Holland, Michigan

Saturday, Sara & Jason took us to Indianapolis and we went to the Indiana State Fair. It was pretty good, but I think the Kansas State Fair has more to offer. We stayed the night in the hotel my parents were staying at and we left at 5 a.m. (central) time this morning. We made great time and were in Topeka by 3 p.m. Then of course, we had another 2 1/2 hour drive home.

It's back to school for me tomorrow! Hopefully, I can get something accomplished in my room!

The Countdown is ON!

Well, the countdown to the start of school is at 13 days and I still do not have carpet in my room. I'm trying to look on the bright side and enjoy my last few days of summer. They started laying the carpet in the office this afternoon and I'm not sure which of the four rooms they will begin on next. I could hope that they will work all weekend long and when I come in on Monday I would have new carpet! I've been in the classroom quite a bit this week, getting the things done that I can actually do, like bulletin boards, looking through materials and copying things. The delay on the laying of the carpet wouldn't be such a bad thing, except that I'm going to be gone half of next week and have to "officially" be back to school on Monday, August 11, for inservices and district meetings. Here are a few pics of my carpetless classroom...

The view from the door

A temporary bulletin board, which I think will become my Student of the Week board
I spent all afternoon getting this number line up, trying to make sure that it doesn't fall down within the first couple of days/weeks

My messy couinter with baskets/bins left by the previous teacher- could come in handy once I start organizing the room

My word wall, calendar and teeth for keeping track of lost teeth

My classroom jobs and the tile floor with everything on it (don't look too close, it's kinda a BIG mess!)

I am looking forward to the start of school, now all I need to do is set up the classroom, arrange the furniture, get the supplies ready, figure out lesson plans, and the list goes on.....

Tag- You're It!

Well, since Becky tagged me, I guess give this a try...

20 years ago..... I was 2 1/2 years old and I have no idea what I was up to. I'm sure I, along with my twin sister, was driving our parents and older brother nuts! I was probably still bald and using a pacifier, as I can tell from pictures. (I definitely think they should have taken that "stinky binky" away from me before then, but I can't go back and change history. They probably gave it to me to make me be quiet.) We would have just gotten back from our trip to Colorado. That's all I can tell you.

10 years ago... I was 12 1/2 years old and not looking forward to middle school! I was going into the 7th grade (and now I think about the fact that Shaun graduated from highschool 2 years prior to this year- YIKES!!!) I was spending my summer swimming and playing with my border collie, Oreo. We would have just gotten back from Colorado (it's an every other year thing). I loved helping with the babies and toddlers at church.

5 years ago... I was 17 1/2 and getting geared up for my senior year of highschool. I was working as an assistant in the toddler-one room at HOL and loved it. I was definitely spoiling those kids rotten and having fun with them (like playing in mud, going on field trips, etc.) I was very active in the H2O youth group and loved hanging out with all of my friends. It was definitely a fun time!

3 years ago... I had just completed my freshman year of college and NOT looking forward to 3 more years! It did get better I have to admit. I was still working at HOL and participating in H2O activities. It would be later this year that I would start dating Shaun after our annual jeeping trip to Cassville, MO.

1 year ago... I just got back from our honeymoon and had been married 2 1/2 weeks and had semi-moved to Moundridge. I had another semester of classes in Topeka and ended up staying in Topeka during the week and driving back to Moundridge on the weekends. I was so tired of living out of a suitcase at this point. I was hoping and praying that I would get my student teaching assignment at Hesston, which thankfully happened. I was loving married life, but knew reality of school and work would soon set in...

So far this year... I completed my student teaching experience, graduated from college, was hired as the new 1st grade teacher at Moundridge, began cleaning out my classroom, spent two weeks in Colorado, and lots more! Oh, and Shaun and I just celebrated our 1st anniversary. It's been a busy year!!!

Yesterday... I spent my day cleaning the house (trying to catch up from being gone for 2 weeks), doing dishes (lots and LOTS of them), and went to McPherson with my hubby and in-laws. I gave Wal-mart some more money (which I absolutely HATE, but they have such good sales on school stuff) and ate at Pizza Hut.

Tomorrow... I will go back to school and work on some more bulletin boards and go through some more things. I will wish my carpet was in my room so I could start arranging and putting it back together. I will try not to think about this carpet issue, and enjoy my last few unstressful days, before having to frantically pull together a classroom from chaos! I will go with Shaun to his grandma's and who knows what else!

Next year... I will be preparing for my second year of teaching and enjoying my summer. I can't really say what else the future brings....?

I tag... Molly, DeAnn and Lynda (or if the guys would like to, go ahead).

Fun times in Colorado

Shaun and I got back last night from our 2 week Colorado vacation. The first week we spent with his parents, sister & brother-in-law, and friends from church. We stayed near Durango a couple of nights and rode the Narrow Gauge Durango-Silverton train. We went fourwheeling one day around our campsite and then decided to pack up and move to Lake City. We were able to drive our fourwheelers right out of the campsite, instead of trailoring them to the trails. We even did an overnight fourwheeling trip and stayed in Eureka, outside of Silverton. We got rained and hailed on a couple of the afternoons and it was pretty miserable at times. The rest of the group left early Friday morning and Shaun and I piddled around waiting for my family to get to Taylor Resevoir on Saturday afternoon.

We stayed in Gunnison overnight and then headed for Taylor Resevoir on Saturday. We spent the next week with my family and numerous family friends. I think there was a total of 36 people, including 12 kiddos, for most of the week. We had 16 vehicles, including 9 MI51 (military jeeps), 3 fourwheelers, 1 Gator-like vehicle, 1 jeep Cherokee, 1 Wrangler, and a TomCar (an Israeli vehicle). We were quite the parade at times. A couple of highlights from this week were our rafting experience, running into our neighbors, Don & Bonnie Kaufman, on top of a mountain, and helping 2 women from Wichita down the mountain after one of their ATV's went down the mountain.

Some of the trails/passes we went on the last 2 weeks were: Cinammon Pass, Alpine Loop, Cross Mountain, Slaughter House Gulch, Tincup Pass, Taylor Pass, Hancock, Napolean, St. Elmo, Italian Creek, Spring Creek, Lottis Creek, Tellurium Creek, and Lily Pond.

Shaun and I also celebrated our 1st anniversary in Colorado! We figured at least every 2 years we'll get to take a trip for our anniversary- how exciting!

Cats, Cats and MORE Cats!!!!

So it seems like the more time I spend in the barn, the more cats I see. We now officially have 10 cats living in the barn full-time (I think) and one cat who comes and goes as he pleases, or when he cannot find anything better to eat and has to resort to Cat Chow. We have found our cat food bill has been increasing since these little kittens have began eating dry food. One of our gray and white kittens, Cookie, died early this week. Rest of these kittens are so active! They run to me when I call them and chase and pounce on each other. The other kittens who are a couple of weeks older than these, are even becoming braver and creep past me to get to the food bowl. I have been able to pet one of these, Spot. As I think about the number of cats we now have, I have to think back to when my friend Julie had around 20 cats at one time and I wondered how she could have so many cats. Now I know! They multiply just like mice. Hopefully, they will keep our mice population in check this winter! I also have to wonder if my recent increase in allergy symptoms is a result of spending more time with these little critters???? How can I have so much to say about cats when I really don't like them that much?!?

Patches and three of her kittens

Spot

Taffy

Smokey

Patches and Skunky
(I don't know how much longer Skunky will live, he doesn't eat dry food yet and is getting awfully skinny :( )


Shaun wonders where I come up with these names!

An Update from the Ortman's

We went to Topeka this weekend to celebrate the 4th and spend time with family before going on vacation at the end of this week. We went to some friends' house on Friday for our annual family/friend party. We had a good time with everyone and enjoyed watching the firework show my dad's boss, Adam, put on. The fireworks were beautiful and this video does not even do them justice. We also had an AWESOME smoked pig to eat... YUM!!!! We got the menu for our jeeping trip to Colorado planned, which is always a bonus.

We were able to go to church at TBC this morning, and enjoyed getting to see everyone. I miss you LOTS!!! Instead of staying and driving back after church tonight, we went ahead and came home so Shaun could get started on "revamping" our trailor so it can haul our jeep and two fourwheelers. He has a busy week ahead of him, trying to get planting and spraying done so we can go to Colorado. Where's the "easy button" Walgreens is always talking about???

I came home and decided to clean out the cats' barn. The kittens all have gunky eyes and I'm hoping this will help a little. I've been trying to clean out their eyes with a rag and have been putting eye drops in their eyes from the last round of sickness among the cats. Probably shouldn't be giving them to that young of kittens, but it's better than Shaun's idea of doctoring... One of our kittens, Cookie, is not doing so well and I don't think he'll make it. The two gray cats are the runts and they just look so unhealthy. As I was cleaning out the old straw in the barn, the other 4 kittens were very nosey and curious. I came to the realization last week that we went from 4 cats to 12 cats in a matter of a couple weeks. Yikes!

The End of Harvest

The last truck load of grain will be leaving our house shortly and we can then say that harvest is "officially" over! A little over a week of cutting and I think we're all glad we made it through without any major problems. I have enjoyed my first full harvest this year; I was only around for a day or two last summer due to my summer class. They did end up getting me to drive a tractor across the field yesterday and I drove the jeep home tonight. Now if they can only get the fall crops planted before we go on vacation!!!

Another highlight of my day is that my classroom is getting new carpet! I am very excited, especially since the old carpet is extremely faded and has little waves in it. So I'm hoping they get it replaced this week so I can actually spend some time in there. I still have some more sorting and organizing to do and then I can get down to the fun part, setting up my classroom.

Kristen made me aware that "normal people," or those without blogs, couldn't post comments on our blog, so I got that figured out and now you can leave your comments.

Kittens!

Saddie giving me a smile

Princess checking things out

Skunky and Grandma Callie having a face off
It was difficult to try to keep 5 active kittens in one place for a picture

(Clockwise from top: Saddie (butterscotch & white), Cookie (gray & white), Butterscotch #2, Skunky (gray in back), and Princess (white)
Momma Patches and her 5 young'ns

Our latest batch of kittens are a couple of weeks old already and they are just now starting to really move around and play. At first I thought they were the ugliest litter I had ever saw, but now their personalities are beginning to show through and I think they are getting cuter. This is the batch from our 9 month old cat, Patches. There are a total of five and Momma Patches is a great mother!

OOPS!!!!

Well, we had another interesting "adventure" tonight, as the header fell off of the trailer as we were pulling it out of the field. Nothing like blocking traffic in both directions on Halstead Road! I'm just glad I wasn't driving :). Luckily, we had awesome neighbors who allowed us to borrow their loader and assistance. They at least got the header in a position where they could get it on the combine and back into the field. And with an approaching storm, the guys are still out trying to get the wheat loaded on the semi and undercover. Rain, Rain, Go Away!!!!

A Good Day to Harvest...

Bert & Clara watching the guys work

And off they go!

Today was the first "full" day of harvesting. The guys got started shortly before 11:00 this morning and are just now returning home at 11:00 tonight. It has been a long day, but I'm thankful that they were able to get 3 fields cutoff today. Shaun, Dorel & David worked out at the Buhler field most of the day and were able to come to the field northwest of our house for supper and rest of the evening. Dale & Jesse kept the combines running throughout the day.

We have had several visitors in the fields the last couple of days. My grandma & grandpa Carlson came down yesterday morning and stayed until supper was over. They really didn't get to see the "full blown" harvesting, due to rain throughout the morning. At least they were able to eat at their favorite restaurant, Aggies in Hesston, due to the rain. Shaun's aunt and uncle brought his grandparents out to the field last night. I'm sure they miss all of the action after years of harvesting. Shaun's grandma came out for lunch today and my dad and grandparents Sims came down tonight and are staying until Saturday.
I finally got a picture of all three combines running at the same time. It was quite the chore, since they were usually at different places or unloading at different times.