Fun with Frogs

Jenae & Aubree playing with their frog Dorothy.

The count down!

We are down to being able to count down the hours until Kyle comes home. He has not been home since we left for Pocatello on April 5th. The girls have really been missing him and are so excited about the thought of him coming home.

We have had a good week at home. Tuesday Hope brought the girls up to O'Neill for haircuts. It is hard for me to get them up to O'Neill so it was very nice of her to help me out. I think the haircuts turned out cute. They thought it was fun to have Auntie Hope take them for the haircuts.

Wednesday I finally got my lawn mowed and did house things in the morning. Jenae had a dentist appointment in the afternoon. That evening she had her AWANA awards program. She always looks forward to that. Chip, Marilyn, Hope, Ben & Trey all came to watch. It was very nice of them to all come. Kyle is always gone for the program and she gets to feeling bad that her Daddy is not there. Having everyone else there really meant a lot to her.

Last night Jenae caught a frog. I enjoy my girls so much. They can go from girly girls wearing dresses and fancy shoes with their nails painted to ranch girls in an instant. Jenae has had a lot of fun digging for earth worms this spring and now the frog. She is sure the frog is a girl and named her Dorothy. She put her in a jar and took her to school today. I told her she has to let Dorothy go when she gets home tonight because a frog is not meant to be kept in a jar. We will see how that goes!!

We are looking forward to a nice weekend with Kyle at home. I think the weather is supposed to be nice. We are branding on Wednesday so I have a lot to do to get ready for that. It is a day that we always look forward to.

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Weekend

We had a really nice weekend at my parents house. Besides Christmas it had been July since I had been back for a weekend. I used to try to go back one weekend a month but with all the craziness life brings it just has not happened that way. I am going to make it a bigger priority to try to make it back more often. I know that I am spoiled because I do get to see my family a lot more than a lot of people do. Even thought I get to see my family a lot there is something so relaxing about spending the weekend at my parents house. I have always had a really close relationship with my family. I think it is partially because my siblings and I are all fairly close in age and we did a lot together when we were growing up. Since we all live within a 100 mile radius it makes it easy for us to stay connected and get together often. I am very thankful for that!

I had a chance to visit all my Grandparents when I was back. It was really nice to see them. None of them are in great health and do not get out really at all. Whenever we see my Grandpa and we go to leave he always thanks us for coming and tells us how we made his day. It is such a good feeling. My Grandpa has really declined it is hard to see him that way.

Jacque and Lacey picked us up Friday evening. We had to take Kyle's calf roping horse, Comet, to my Brother so he can take him to Kyle in Guymond, OK. Kyle has been in California for the past couple of weeks and he was only steer wrestling there. Jacque and Lacey were headed to my parents as well so they came and got Comet, the girls and I. It was very nice of them to help us out in getting Comet to Dusty.

Saturday Jacque, Lacey and my Dad went out to Pitzer's horse sale. Mom and I were in charge of Riley for the day. We had Brooke and Allyx at the house for a bit while Erin got ready for Brooke's birthday party. The kids had a lot of fun playing together. That night Erin took Jenae and Aubree home with her and the girls got to have a slumber party with Brooke. I think Erin is pretty brave. I knew Jenae would be fine, but I was worried if Aubree would go to sleep for her. It sounds like they did good. The just went in and fell asleep when Erin told them it was bed time.

Sunday Erin had us all to her house for Brooke's birthday party. It was a nice time. Brooke is such a character. When she went to open her presents she started to sing "happy birthday to me, happy birthday to Brooke...."

Kyle wanted me to ride Comet before I came home. Lacey rode her new horse and I took Comet for a ride. When we were done riding we packed up and headed home.

I have 2 very tired girls after our weekend. Hopefully I can get them to bed early tonight!

I can't believe how fast the time goes...

It scares me how fast time flies by! I look back on our week and I can't believe it is Friday already. It seems like last Friday was yesterday not a week ago. Don't get me wrong, I am glad it is Friday.

Our big milestone of the week is that Jenae has 2 loose bottom teeth. She is 1 of 2 kids in her class that has not lost any teeth yet. A little girl in her class lost a tooth in school the other day.

Jenae said to me

" After Faith lost a tooth I thought to myself I wonder if I have any loose teeth and I was really surprised when I found that I had 2 of them. I was so excited
about it that during dodge ball in PE I just stood still thinking about my loose teeth."

I am guessing the dodge ball did not go good if she stood still :-). We were sitting out on the front step in front of our house that day and

she said

"I am guess I am just growing up. I am turning into a big girl now that I have loose teeth."

She is already making plans for the Tooth Fairy to come. I have not even said anything about the Tooth Fairy. I am guessing that the Tooth Fairy gets talked about a lot in the kindergarten class :-) Does anyone know what the Tooth Fairy pays these days?

Kyle went to visit a cousin of his that lives out in California this week. He really enjoyed getting to see the Kracht Family. He had a rodeo in Lakeside California on Thursday. He was 4.9 and won 2nd in the round.

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Weekend

The girls and I had a fairly uneventful weekend. After last weekend in Pocatello a quiet weekend is just what I needed. I feel like I got my house in order, which is a good feeling. Aubree has a head cold it was nice to be able to keep her indoors for the weekend.

Sunday we went with Ben and Hope to church for Trey's Baptism. It was a really nice service.
The rest of the weekend we were pretty much home bound.

Kyle spent the weekend in Red Bluff California. He placed 3rd on his first steer and was 6th in the average. Earlier in the week his had a bearing and breaks burn up on our trailer. The parts were under warranty, but not the labor. They charged $120/hr for labor! Between our pickup repairs in Pocatello and now the trailer repairs it is a good thing he did good in Red Bluff!

7 lessons I learned this week

1.)As little as 3 inches of snow in Wyoming is enough to shut the interstate down with the way the wind blows there.

2.) Always pack food/drinks when taking a road trip.

3.) There are really nice people in the world who are willing to help you out even when they do not know you.

4.) I love Nebraska! Mountains are pretty but I have no desire to live near them. I will take the flat lands of Nebraska any day.

5.) My girls did just fine with out me. I was so worried about not taking the girls with me that I had a hard time leaving. If I had known how little they were going to miss me it would have been a lot easier to leave.

6.) Quality time with my husband is very important. I think I am going to make a priority to take at least one weekend a year and go with Kyle with out the girls. It was nice to travel and not have the added stress of traveling with kids.

7.) The biggest lesson I learned on my trip is that above all God is in control of our lives. We have choices to make along the way, but ultimately what happens in our lives is in God's hands. I said so many prayers that night we were stranded at the interstate. I was making myself sick thinking of our situation and I finally had to put all my worries to rest when I told God I was going to hand my problems off to him. I trusted that he would take care of us and when it was his will the we would get to where we were going.

The Rodeo

Kyle was up Saturday at noon for his 2nd steer. He was 6.0 on his first steer and he knew all he had to do was make a nice catch and he would make the semi-finals on Saturday night. He came out and was 5.0 and ended up 6th in the round and 6th in the average.

For the semi -finals he drew the one steer that he did not want. It was a much stronger steer than the other ones in the pen and he knew it. He was 6.1 which was 6th in the round. They only took the top 4 back for the finals.

That night we headed out for Logandale. We drove all night and got there about 7 in the morning. To top off our fun trip I ended up with either food poisoning or a stomach bug. Which ever it was made for a long couple of days. I started feeling sick on Friday morning and did not get any better until last night.

Yesterday Kyle took me to the airport in Vegas to fly home. He has a few more stops on the Rodeo trail before he gets to come home. I was so ready to get home and see my girls. My flight was not out until 4:55. Of course there was plane troubles and my flight was an hour late taking off. I got into Grand Island around 8:00. My parents met me with Aubree on my way home. I picked Jenae up from Chip and I took the girls home!!! It felt so good to be home!

From the sounds of it the girls had an awesome time with their grandparents! I thought it would be really hard on Aubree to be away from me for that long. (Monday-Sunday) She did not seem to miss me much at all! I asked her if she was happy to be going home to sleep in her own bed or if she wanted to go back to Grandma's house. She said she wanted to go back to Grandma's house. My sister Danielle had Aubree for a couple of days and my sister-in-law, Erin kept her for a day as well. She got a lot of cousin time in.

It sounds like Jenae had lots of fun too. She got to do a lot of riding. Hope worked with her on the barrels with Speedster and she got to help Chip with some ranch work. She spent some time at school with Marilyn. The Juniors were decorating for prom and Jenae was fascinated with all the decorations. Saturday night she spent the night at Ben and Hope's house and stayed there most of the day yesterday.


Both girls came home with a bag for of clean clothes. It was really nice of my Mother-in-Law and Mom to wash the girls clothes. It makes coming home not seem so overwhelming.

I was so happy to be home with my girls!! My trip really made me appreciate my home life! It was nice to have some time with Kyle. Even with all our little mishaps on our trip we still enjoyed being together.

Pick Up Troubles

Dodge is a major sponsor of Professional Rodeo. They have representative at a lot of the big rodeos. Kyle called on of the Dodge reps to find out where the nearest dealership would be. He gave us the address and then called us back to let us know he had already called the dealership and they were expecting us. They looked at the pick-up and said a couple of oil seals had went out. They said they could not get the parts in until sometime on Friday afternoon so it would be Monday until they could get it fixed. Kyle was entered in a rodeo in Logandale, NV on Sunday to that really was not going to work for us. The Dodge rep said that he could get the parts over night and would be there first thing Friday morning. They took the pickup from us Thursday afternoon and we did not get it back until Friday afternoon. In a way we were stranded again! We had to catch rides where we wanted to go. We met some nice people that we would not have had a chance to meet had we had our pickup that day! It was nice once we finally got it back!

The next morning

The next morning Kyle and I woke up to the interstate still closed down. The rest area was had drifted really bad and we knew that even when the interstate was opened we would not be able to get out of the rest area without a tow truck pulling us out of the rest area. The rest area we were at had no water for us to be able to water the horses. Kyle used the water we filled up for showers to water them, but we had limited supply of that. Kyle thought it would be best if I called the towing company to seem like a damsel in distress. I called and explained our situation of our horses being on the trailer with no water at the rest area to water them. Marty was the tow guy they put me in touch with. He seemed to really want to help us out. He said it would be an hour before he could get there. An hour came and went and finally a call from Marty to tell me they were not going to let him on the interstate since it was still closed down. At this time we were 35 miles from Rock Springs, WY and we knew from calling the road report that the interstate was open west of Rock Springs. Marty said he would make some more calls and be in touch with us. He called a while later saying they cleared in to come out and tow us up to the the interstate but that we were not to get on until the roads opened, even thought there was traffic going both ways on the interstate. He came out and got us out of the snow drift. We explained that we need to get to Pocatello that night and if we did not leave then that we would not make it. He said "well you go to go for it then, but I am not responsible for you" He towed us up to the interstate and he said he would follow us for the next couple of miles. The really slick part of the stretch. It was pretty scary, but Kyle did good and drove slow and easy and a few miles down the road the ice was starting to break apart. Marty zoomed by us once he knew we were going to be ok. A couple of miles down the road Marty was pulled over and out of his vehicle like he wanted us to stop. He said he had gotten a call that the trailer that he had towed out was on the interstate and if we did not get off they were going to ticket us. He said he would take us the back way into Rock Spings. He was a super nice guy and did above and beyond what he had to do. Had he not got us out I really do not think we would have made it in time for the rodeo. We already missed mandatory noon meeting that Kyle will get fined for not attending, but if we would have missed the rodeo they would have fined him an additional $250 and not let him run his 2nd steer which he had on Saturday. We were very thankful that Marty took my call and was so helpful. It ended up being 24 hours that we were stranded in the rest stop. The roads cleared up once we got 15 miles from where we were snowed in. Once we hit good roads we just kept trucking on another 350 to Pocatello. We did stop and get a bite to eat. Our last meal had been Monday night and this was Wednesday afternoon. It was the best hamburger I had ever had!!!
We got to Pocatello and Kyle made a nice run on his steer. When we went to leave the rodeo Wednesday night our pickup had no oil pressure!

Stranded at a rest stop in Wyoming

I had mentioned in a previous post that Kyle and I had a trip planned. It was not an uneventful trip. We had decided to leave the girls at home. Jenae stayed with Kyle's parents and Aubree stayed at my parents house. It was really hard on me to leave them home, but the way the week worked out I am so thankful they were not with us.

Kyle and I left home Monday evening around 5:00 it is about 15 or 16 hours to Pocatello. If all had went according to plan we would have been to Pocatello Tuesday morning. Kyle did not have to be there until Wednesday night but we went a day early so he could help throw the steers that they would be using in rodeo. All was going well until we hit a Spring blizzard near Rowlin's WY. We were driving along in rain. When I saw a snow plow on the road I knew it was not good. We drove about a mile from where we saw the snow plow and hit a white out. Kyle probably had to drive 15 miles until we made it to an exit. It was about 4 in the morning at this time and decided to wait until daylight to head out again. We took off Tuesday morning and the interstate was a solid sheet of ice and we have a 2 wheel drive dully pickup. It is absolutely worthless on snow and ice. We were only going between 30-45 miles per hour but kept plugging away at our trip. There were so many vehicles in the ditch and wrecks I was getting pretty nervous. There was a wreck up ahead of us so traffic was stop and go. We were headed up a huge hill loaded down with horses. We had to come to a stop and when we went to take off again we just started spinning. There was no going forward we were stuck!!!! We were right next to a rest area and I am not sure how it happened but Kyle managed to get it pulled into the rest area. I am sure it was with some help from above. The rest area was full of trucks that had pulled off the interstate. When Kyle was pulling in he dropped the outside wheel of the pickup off the pavement and then we were really really stuck! It was 20 degrees with 30-45 mph wind and the windchill was zero! We unloaded the horses and we had 4 really nice truckers come over and push the pick up out. It took about 20-30 minutes. I had not packed gloves or a winter coat and just had on a pair of black knit pants, after all it is April and it was very nice outside when we left home. I had never been so cold in all my life. My joints were aching. I think I finally have an understanding for what chilled to the bone means. Shortly after we pulled into the rest area they shut down the interstate. We were going nowhere!!! Usually I am the queen of packing snacks and drinks for road trips, but since the girls were not with us I tried to simplify my packing and figured we would get our snacks and drinks along the way when we would stop to fill up. Little did I know we would get stranded in a rest area with no vending or pop machines. I had thrown in some microwave popcorn and Kyle had 3 cereal bars, and a couple packages of little crackers. We had 2 bottles of water, 2 cans of pop and 1 bottle of Gatorade. We had not stopped for breakfast before we got stopped. The wind blew all night. There was no good place to for the horses and they were so cold when we would unload them that we ended up leaving them on the trailer all night. They would kick and stomp after standing in there awhile then we would unload them and walk them around for a while. They were always ready to jump back on the trailer. They would stand quiet for awhile then start kicking and stomping. I could not blame them it was a miserable situation. I was really worried one of them would colic and we would be stranded with a colicing horse in the middle of nowhere. Luckily we did not have to deal with that. I am not someone who has panic attracts but it was really getting to me. It was such a helpless feeling to know we were stuck there with nothing we could do about it. We did our best to try to sleep and prayed that daylight would bring clear weather. I have to stop writing for now. I will post more about our trip at a later time.

Happy Easter!!!!

We have had a good week. It has been busy. I am in no way complaining about the beautiful weather we have been having, but I am having a hard time getting caught up on my house work. Yesterday I was able to come home from work early and was thinking maybe that would be my chance to play catch up around the house. However it was so nice out side and the girls were wanting to ride their ponies so instead of our housework we played outside until 7 or so. My house is still a disaster hopefully this weekend I can get caught up.

Yesterday was Aubree's last day at the daycare I have been taking my kids to for the last 5 years. It sad to drive away. Jean has taken such good care of my girls it is hard to make the change. A gal in Chambers is going to start watching Aubree now. It is going to be nice to not have to have Aubree make the 30 minute commute to O'Neill especially when the roads are bad. I was a long winter and I was never comfortable having her in the car with me in bad weather.

I actually get to go with Kyle to one of his upcoming rodeos. We are not taking the girls and have very mixed feelings. It is going be nice to have some time with Kyle but I know I am going to miss the girls something terrible. I do not think I have spent more than 1 night at time away from Aubree since she was born and I can probably count on one hand how many times that has been. Kyle and I have not taken a trip by ourselves since November of 2006. I guess we are due for a little get away!

The girls are looking forward to Easter and all the fun things that go along with it. I hope you all have a great holiday weekend! I am sure I will be posting Easter pictures on Monday :-)