Summertime fun

 Alexis, Ashley and Madison manning their selling station. They did really well. Forty bucks in one day! We had a swimming party to celebrate!

What a Week!

 My dryer died. That's right, it gave up the ghost. I dried one load and when I went to dry the second load it refused to start. What do you do when you have seven people and no clean clothes? Use the clothes line in the back yard of course! I found it somewhat therapeutic to hang laundry. No child wanted to come near me while I was doing it because they would be put to work. I got a few hours of quiet time because of it and I wasn't complaining - about that part anyway. I don't like the smell of the outdoors on people when they come in. Guess what ALL of our laundry smelled like? I was nauseated for a good week. 

 Our neighbors went on vacation and asked us to feed and water their pets. One horse, a baby cow, two dogs and a whole host of chickens. Yes, we live in the country. It wasn't that big of a deal. There wasn't that much to do. The dogs had an automatic feeder so they just needed their water dish filled. The horse had an entire field to eat so he only needed water too. The cow had to have a milk mixture made and given to him twice a day, so he was the hardest to take care of. The chickens didn't need anything but my kids love getting eggs so we stole their eggs!

The first day went beautifully. I made John go with us because I didn't know how it was going to go. He ended up standing there looking at us like we were wasting his time. The second day I figured we could do it without John. We got there and the kids started yelling that the cow was out. Apparently little cows can slip through small holes. He ate most of the corn that they'd planted! Oops. I called the neighbor to come help me because I didn't know how to get a cow to go back. This cow was great though, by the time she got there the cow had followed me right in without a problem. She tied the gate shut extra tight and we left. The second feeding was much less problematic. The third day we took the cow his food and he was so excited he literally lifted the gate off it's hinges! When the horse saw this he wanted out too! So I called the neighbor again! She came and fixed the gate so he couldn't lift it off again and she got the horse to stay in too. She then noticed that the dogs had dirty water so she opened their cage to grab the water and the dogs bolted! After she cleaned the water bucket we wrangled the dogs back into their pen. I was so glad the neighbor was their to help because I don't know what I would've done without her! On the fourth day the kids went by themselves and they came running back to let me know that they had locked the key inside the house on accident! Why were in they in the house to begin with was my question. Apparently they needed to pee and they couldn't get the key out so they shut the door. Luckily our neighbor had their phone on during vacation so I could get their garage code so I could get into their house to fix the mess we'd made. And yes, they did call us again to feed the animals, but they took the cow to their farm first!

 So we may have a little redneck in us!

Jordan likes to hide his sippy cups, in the weirdest places. It can take a few hours to a few weeks to find them. One night he'd hid them so well that I couldn't find any - he has four! So I grabbed the condiment squirter, washed it out and filled it with milk! It worked great - as long as he didn't hold it upside down and squeeze!

Jordan's new found interest - climbing up the back of the chair. Dangerous? Yes. Does he care? Nope.