Blog Challenge

Each week Stacy over at Scrapshare posts a weekly, voluntary blog challenge. This week's challenge is regarding the current time change situation we experienced on Sunday.

Stacy wrote:
We had an "extra hour" of daylight today. How'd you spend it? Any regrets? If so, describe how you'd spend it differently, given the chance.

My question is where was this alledged "extra" hour? I certainly never found it. I got up on Sunday morning having forgotten about the darn clock changes and went about getting going. DD#1 had a 4-H related event planned for noon and here it was only 9:30 so we had plenty of time right? So we went about getting goats fed, rabbits fed and watered and started on pick up/clean up chores. At some point, I decided to go check the ingredients for a recipe I was considering trying that was stored on my laptop. So I went and flipped on the computer only to find that it was not 10:55 as I had thought but actually 11:55 Luckily, the 4-H event was at a friend's house only 10 minutes away but we still had to get ready and out the door! So the reality is, where is that extra hour? I don't know because I never saw it. In actuality I lost an hour. Where did it go?

Oh yeah and what about those children I speak of so often? The ones who are complete night owls resistant to going to bed on a good night when it is dark outside at 6. How the heck am I supposed to impose an 8 o'clock bedtime when it is still light outside until all hours of the evening? These kids of mine want to play outside, particularly on these spectacularly beautiful sunny days without a cloud in sight, which is a rarity in March in Oregon. This time change has completely disrupted my routines and those of my children. Pick a time and stay there. Please Oregon join the other two sane states and let's quit messing with the clocks. The sun knows what it is doing!

Over and out for now.

Home visits

Okay so I had a stressful afternoon today but it turned out my worry was for nothing.

DD#1 (10) is in 4-H here in Oregon. Several of her clubmates are getting foreign exchange students through an exchange program set up through 4-H. We had decided to participate ourselves and I filled out all the paperwork, etc. However DD has not lived up to her end of a bargain we struck regarding this. One of the conditions was to get her room clean. She has not done it so I withdrew our name for consideration. However, the coordinator of the program for our county asked me to go ahead and finish the last step in case she gets her act together soon and we change our minds. The final step was the home visit. Now I am the world's worst housekeeper who is trying to reform my ways. So having someone visit, even when I know they are coming and can prepare, freaks me out. My kitchen floor is nasty and needs a mopping badly but that, of all the home care chores, usually falls under the perview of DH. Today found me running around making sure the house was presentable. Truthfully it really was not that bad but I felt better weeping and picking up and organizing. Turns out I needn't have worried. While they did come in, they did not venture beyond the main part of the house, so my DD's messy room was inconsequential for now and all they did was ask a few questions, chat a bit and head out to visit another family. Woohoo.

A nice side benefit is that there is a lot less for me to take care of tomorrow and Friday as I have a Pampered Chef party scheduled here on Saturday evening. Of course the only people who have said they are coming are my inlaws and the friend from whose show I originally booked. I have had a couple of people say they are going to put in orders even though they can't be here but I have yet to see any order forms.

Tomorrow I am going to try and power layout enough pages to keep me busy for a few hours at a crop on Saturday morning. It should be fun. I am looking forward to it even though I have to leave the crop early to attend a 4-H planning meeting and then run home to host my party. Hmmm, a very busy day is planned. Guess I better get to bed early so I am well rested and it will carry over to the weekend.

Over and out for now.

What was I thinking?

Let me preface this with saying that yes I encourage my kids to get involved in lots of different activities. Most of those activities are within the 4-H program. Jessie has projects in Food and Nutrition, Food preservation, Horticulture, Scrapbooking, Rabbits, Photography, and Goats. It is the goat part that is giving me headaches today.

You see, she had a couple of cute little pygmy goats which on their own are not much work beyond the usual animal maintenance. However, she wants to add a project area to her goat project. She wants to raise a market goat for the 4-H youth auction at fair. Fine, great. She brought this up after last year's auction and I thought it would be no big deal. Boy was I in for an education. I thought you just find a breeder and go pick out the goats you want. Little did I know that it was going to be this difficult. I have a fellow 4-H leader (yes I am a leader of the group) whose son has raised market goats. She assured me that her friend would have boar goats ready at the right time for us to get one or two. However, her friend purchased a new farm right before the new year. Great for them, not so great for us, because the farm is in Deer Park Washington which is several hundred miles from our home. So all this leads us to yesterday. The day I completely lost my mind! I agreed to purchase for Jessie two baby goats that need to be bottle fed!!! Okay in and of itself but these guys do not know how to eat from a bottle having never had to do it before. You see we took them right from their mom and put them in my van to bring them home. Teaching animals to take a bottle after they have been with their moms is hard and usually an exercise in frustration. That is what I have been dealing with all day. They do not like the bottles, they do not want to eat from the bottles and I am going nuts! What was I thinking? Why did I possibly think this was going to be a good idea? I could have had her wait another couple months and have nice, weaned goats. Granted they would have been more expensive but really the milk replacer was not that cheap either. All in all, I am seriously regreting this particular decision!

Creative Countdown

This week's blog challenge is pretty easy. I think I can even handle it after the week we have had. Nothing bad really, just busy, busy, busy. So here we go:

10 Favorites
Color: Spring green
Food: Pizza
Month: April
Song: Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue by Toby Keith
Movie: Dirty Dancing
Sport: Basketball
Season: Spring
Day of the Week: Saturday
Ice Cream Flavor: World Class Chocolate from Baskin Robbins
Time of Day: Nap time

9 Currents
Mood: Somber
Clothes: Sweats and a T-shirt
Taste: Not sure
Desktop: Yellow tulips
Toenail Color: Natural
Time: 11:15 p.m.
Surroundings: My living room
Thoughts: Surprise over a news article
Wonderings: Why people live in tornado country and why there seems to be more and more deadly storms recently.

8 Firsts
Best Friend: Stephanie Blackwell
Kiss: Donny something or other -- real memorable, huh?
Screen Name: Jessmom
Pet: Kitty Kat
Piercing: ears
Crush: Skip Marler
Computer: Atari
Home Location: Brownsville, Oregon

7 Lasts
Cigarette: Never
Drink: Blue Hawaiian last Friday at a work gathering
Kiss: goodnight kiss from my little boy
Movie seen at the theater: Over The Hedge (sneak peak for HP workers that did some work for the movie)
Phone Call: Fellow 4-H leader asking for a phone number of a mutual friend.
CD played: Daryl Worley
Gift received: My laptop for christmas

6 Have You Evers
Dated One Of Your Best Friends: No
Broken the Law: No
Been Arrested: No
Skinny Dipped: yes once
Been on TV: yes in an interview for the news
Kissed Someone You Didn't Know: no

5 Things
You've Eaten Today: chicken and rice, beef roast, baked potato, brocolli and cauliflower
You've Done Today: Surfed the net, played with my son, drove my daughter to a farm to pick up a couple new goat kids
You Can Hear Right Now: The TV news, DH eating potato chips
You Can't Live Without: My family, my computer, my camera
You Do When You're Bored: Play on the computer, knit, read

4 places you've been today
DD's school
Wilsonville to get goats
Newburg to the farm store
Home in my glider chair with my laptop

3 people you can tell anything to

Pam R.
Debbie M.
Matt B.

2 Choices
1. Black or White: Black
2. Hot or Cold: Hot

1 thing you wanna do before you die: See my babies grown, married and happy