Trying to be healthy...

Growing up, we had cattle.  I don't remember much about it other than they were in OK, the bull was named Horny (because he had horns), and there was another one named Boomerang ( I vaguely remember he ran away and always came back?).  We had returned from Australia, and my sister named them.

I do have fond memories of the ranch and visiting my grandparents.  One time we went fishing in a pond there, someone caught a fish, and I was having a meltdown (I was little), and the fish jumped back in the pond.  My grandfather said it was because of me.  Oh well.  I remember drinking goat milk, feeding chickens, collecting eggs (my grandmother would tell me I wasn't fast enough, and to quit being scared and grab those eggs!), and a visit to their auction barn (where I once made a fake leather wallet from some kit my mom gave me, and my grandfather taught me how to count money quickly while he was counting money in the snack bar they ran too).  I had an interesting childhood.

Anyway, we used to have tons of beef, wrapped in white paper, and stored in our garage freezer.  Fast forward, and I have been trying to go with organic and grass-fed beef, in order to keep the kids happy, and healthy.  We bought 1/4 of a cow, and our freezer is full of amazing meat, which is tasty.  My out-laws keep us supplied with duck eggs and chicken eggs from their brood.

During this time:

1.  Em decided she was going to be a vegetarian.
2.  Abs declared she only likes ground beef and ribs.
3.  Andrew NEVER eats meat.
4.  Gunner has decided that since we are eating healthier, it is beef that causes him to feel gross.

This leaves me.  I'm eating steaks, fajitas, and more steaks.

These children (and Gunner) are going to be the death of me!

Have we lost our minds???

We were planning to take the kids to Europe this summer.  I will be over there anyway, and so will Emily, so we figured it would be a great family trip.

Then my sister mentioned the road trip that she took last summer with her boys, and Gunner was on a mission.  Junior and Abs were on board, and apparently we are now taking a road trip......

Gunner wants to eat a lobster in Maine.

Abs wants to go to the most Eastern part of the US and see the sun rise.

Junior wants to go to NYC.

Em wants to stick with Europe, but agreed that she wants to visit all the ghost towns, etc.

I want to go to Salem, MA.

We found the website  Roadside America that will let us find all the oddities along the way.  Way back when, we visited Foamhenge.  Did you know there are over 50 different "henges" to see?  I think we need to see a few along the way, or eventually all 50.

To make this trip sound even more asinine amazing, Gunner decided we should CAMP the entire way.  So, we are going to travel halfway across the country, in the car, with three kiddos, while touring the US, and we will be camping.

This trip was made for blogging.  I'm excited, in a worried way.  Either we will make some amazing memories, or we will all hate each other at the end of this.

Em will be leaving for college the summer of 2016.  That's just around the corner.  God help me!  Maybe I will take thousands of pictures and put together four albums, so we can have one and each child.  You know, to remind us of the craziness that I am sure will occur.

We are already planning for this crazy BIG event.  Start praying for us now!

Already Thursday?

I remember when it used to take forever for Christmas to come each year and when summer vacation would last forever. Now I turn around and another week has passed and then a year. I'm getting old. What's worse is it means that the girls and Junior are growing up way too fast!

I took Abs to the doctor yesterday and she is going to have to have her tonsils out. They are enlarged and there are some other problems so hopefully their removal and the adenoids removal will clear them up. She is excited about it and looking forward to having ice cream. I'm not going to have it done until right before Thanksgiving though so she won't have to miss as much school.

Em's new furniture arrives next Tuesday and I haven't finished switching out rooms. I thought I could do that this week....I better hurry.

Junior is getting funnier every day. Never a dull moment. He's still asleep this morning, so I think I can actually say he slept through the night again? I guess he didn't know that he was supposed to do this regularly by 15 months, not let this be his 3rd or 4th time.

Gunnery is coming up. Hopefully Chris will get some great pics while he is out there. He is slowly getting better about having someone take pictures of him while he is gone. Reminds me of when the guys went to Iraq the first time and a friend of mine got a roll of film from her husband. We raced over to Walmart to the one hour photo, dropped it off, and waited patiently with all the kids while they were developed. The hour finally ticks by, we pick up the pictures and she is so excited about seeing him (This was in the first 6 months of OIF I when we had no contact but a 10 minute call every few weeks). We searched through all the pictures in order to find her husband and it wasn't hard at all to not spot him since every picture was of the desert! The guy hadn't managed to take one picture of himself! Chris says it is because they don't want to ask. I told him to suck it up, I need pictures. How else will I be able to use all this scrapbooking stuff I keep buying?

The girls start soccer practice tonight. They are excited and I am hoping it means they will go to bed and not talk for an hour. They used to play some game that they made up which was a combination of Deal or No deal and American Idol. Had to put an end to it because every time Abs sang Em would tell her no deal. Poor little kiddo would then cry. Ah sisters, you have to love them!