Enjoying the weather!

Everyone is taking advantage of the warm spring weather.  BJ spent time working with the horses, Sam and Alex played outside until dark every night this weekend and Clara studies outside.  Now I can't wait for the leaves to bloom on the trees so I can take some beautiful spring pictures!

Saturday events

We had a fun-filled Saturday, unfortunately, I was really bad and forgot my camera everywhere that I went!  Saturday morning Clara had a track meet in Hannibal at 8 am.  She did really well in the 4x4, which is her favorite event!  She got a score of 1 minute and thirteen seconds.  That is 4 seconds faster than her last score.  Sam, Alex, and I attended our annual March for Meals fundraiser.  Everyone meets for a 2 mile walk with a Bar-B-Que that follows and many prizes are given away.  The fundraiser benefits our Nutrition Center that provides in home meals for the elderly.  We all had a nice time and won some nice prizes.  Saturday evening we headed to Hannibal to, Wal-Mart of course, to buy a new router for my computer and enjoyed a nice dinner at a local Italian eatery.  Wal-Mart is the biggest retail store in the U.S. They have absolutely everything there!  You can eat in the in-house restaurant, get your pictures taken or get pictures developed  in the professional photo lab, get you eyes checked in the full-service optical lab, fill prescriptions in the Pharmacy, get your hair done in the salon, shop for clothes, groceries, electronics... pretty much ANYTHING, file your taxes and even take care of financial business in the bank inside the store!  I don't see how Germany gets by without them!

Clara's First Track Meet

Clara had her first track meet in Huntsville, Missouri last night.  She came home very excited, and exhausted!  She competed in long jump, high jump, and 4 by 4.  She did very well in 4 by 4.  She has another track meet tomorrow night in Palmyra, Missouri and I plan on going and getting some great pics for the blog!  This picture of Clara's track team was in our local newspaper today.

Tuesday, March 23

Sam has been working very hard on an oral presentation, on Anne Frank, for the REACH Program that she is in for school.  If you would like to watch her presentation go to Sam's page on our website to see what a wonderful job she did!  


Today is Clara's first track meet... GOOD LUCK CLARA!

The first day of spring!

All week... beautiful warm weather...today was the official first day of Spring and it snowed all day!  Friday night, Clara went to a lock-in at the school with her Art Club.  She and her friends stayed up all night.  She got home round 8 a.m. and went to bed at about 10 a.m.  I decided that she wasn't going to be allowed to catch up on her sleep with my two noisy rugrats running around the house.  I called BJ's mom, Kathy, to see what her plans were for the day.  She was going to attempt to hook up her new computer and printer so I graciously volunteered BJ for the task.  We spent the day at her house getting her computer up and running, then she took us out for pizza and ice cream!  We really enjoyed spending the day with her!  The waiter came over to take our order and we ordered 2 PITCHERS of soda.  Alex said, "A picture of soda?"  "That's stupid, I don't want a picture of soda... I want REAL soda!"  Then, while waiting for our food to arrive, BJ, Kathy, and I were having a conversation when all of a sudden Alex bursts out and says, "NOONE TOUCH THE BUMPY STUFF UNDER THE TABLE... IT'S GUM!!!"  There's never a dull moment with her!

A Friday without school...

The kids got out of school today for a staff development day.  Clara headed to Columbia, Missouri this morning to hit the mall with some friends.  Sam had 2 of her friends over and Alex also had a friend over.  I took advantage of the kids being too busy to bother me to study, and I finally completed my entire Real Estate course and took my last final, I got a 98%, I might add!  Now all that is left to do is apply to the state for my license.  This process usually takes 4-6 weeks to complete because the state has to conduct a background check.  I interviewed with Century 21 last week and I am pretty sure that is the company that I am going to go to work for.

Alex and her friend, Lexi passed their time by "worm hunting!"

Sam and her friends, Laura and Emily, spent their time writing and performing songs!

Clara's speach

There was a meeting this evening at the school and Clara was the guest speaker.  She has been working on a powerpoint presentation for the past couple of weeks to present to the guests and we made German bread to share with the guests.  Everyone seemed to enjoy Clara's speech, they had many questions for her and we even gave them a quiz at the end of the presentation! 

Meet Pedro!

Meet the newest resident here at "Half-Ass Ranch."  This is Pedro.  He is a 3 year old Mammoth  Donkey.  BJ decided that he needed a pack to carry his camping supplies into the mountains for his someday dream vacation to Colorado, and Pedro was a package deal.  Basically we bought the pack and got Pedro free.  That's okay, he seems to be very loving and calm and has already been to see the Veterinarian and got a clean bill of health.

He wasn't too sure about getting out of the trailer and joining the other three.

Blaze and Maude both greeted Pedro through the fence but Rosie wants NOTHING to do with him and tried to BITE him through the fence!

The electric fence doesn't seem to be effecting Pedro much... He's leaning right on it!   I hope it contains him!

Maude seemed to be the most interested in him, but curiosity is typical Maude behavior!

Trail Riding

Today BJ, Clara, and Sam took advantage of the warm weather!  They loaded up the horses and headed out to spalding beach for some trail riding.

I think the new truck needs a new horse trailer behind it... I'll have to sell a house so I can buy one!

Poor little Blaze got all sweaty keeping up with the 2 bigger ones on the ride!

I love this picture of Sam and her dad.

My News...

I have been taking real estate classes online.  The only people that knew, besides the people in my household, were my mom and my friend, Cassie.  I didn't want to tell anyone just in case I wasn't able to pass the state test... It was brutal!  I got up at 5 a.m. this morning and drove to Jefferson City in order to be there in time to sit for the morning exam.  Thank you Cassie for the use of the GPS... those things are sweet, I've gotta get one!  Anyway, to my great relief, I passed!  I am just glad it is all over.  I have been studying non-stop for the past 2 weeks and the impending test was totally stressful... I need a cocktail!