Rainbow Butterfly

My toes are cold

hmp. I'm not to good at keeping this blog up am I now? I think winter time I'm better cause I'm stuck in the house all day long. haha Not to much longer and it'll be winter agian.  =(  ---I don't like the winter... too cold--- ok so what's gone on in the past week....

Sept 1st- was my 18th birthday. We barbqued in the park with my grandparent, uncle, and gramma.

Me and my Mom

Me, Dad, and  Chelsea

My Uncle Lee and I

Gramma and I

Chels and I

Me,  Chelsea, Paige, and Megan

That Night I went bowling with some friends. The place was nearly empty the whole night so it was really nice. Afterwards we had a slumber party at my grammas.*thanks gramma!*

Us girls at the bowling alley, minus chelseas head. oops. lol

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September 2nd- Didn't do anything extrodinary. Stayed at grammas till 3ish went home and peeled  a busel of apples. =p I nicked my finger twice and caught 2 of my nails with the peeler.

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Septermer 3rd- Didn't do much of anything. Just random stuff around the house....

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September 4th- Was farmers Market. Afterwards my sisters and I walked down to Goodwill and I found the cutest skirt. It's just knee lenght and it's really flowy( ?is that a word?lol) Light blue with orange and red flowers on it. Cute cute. I found a orange tee at target that matches, it was on clerence. Nifty!! I got the whole thing for under $10! We just won't tell anyone that. ;-D

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September 5th- We went up to our neighbors and brought home our little ram from up there, he's aboout 4 months now. We stuck him in the trailer and caught a few of our ewe lambs and stuck them in with him. Dad had the vet out to get health papers on them. He sold a 2 of them and he's taking a few to N.Dakota for some sheep sale so he needed them. I've been working hard at keeping in shape. I lost 10 pounds while I was down in Eucador and I lost 10 pounds before I went from excersicing. *yay!!*I was walking about 4 miles every other day or so. It took me about an hour-hour and 15 minutes when I started. Now I make the whole thing in 40 minutes. I jog about a mile of it now. I want to get to where I can jog the whole distance.

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September 6th- We picked over 200 pounds of apples. =O Yep we did. I picked up gramma to help us peel some. We watched Peter Pan while we peeled. haha "I do believe in faries I do I do!!" I peeled 50 apples. My fingers were all pruney looking.

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September 7th-  Dad went to the vet to pick up the health papers before he left he asked me for my cell. He said he'd was going to go in and see if company could "look" at it cause the buttons had been being dumb and not working right. And we didn't get new phones till March of next year.  Dad came home with his smirk that he gets when he has something good. lol He handed me a pair of ear buds. Failing to hide the glee in his eyes. And says "they said these are the best out there". A smile was trying so hard to excape his face but he fought to keep it hidden. I was like ok... thanks... And then he pulled out a Samsung Hue!!!!!!!!        

Ahh!! I love it. It has a 512mb mp3, 1.3mp camera, blue tooth(I don't know what it is but it has it! lol) I gasped and started laughing, he was grinning ear to ear. lol Aww I love my daddy.  This by the way was my b-day present from him.

We found out we are finally getting a new pastor. Our last pastor left in June and we havn't had one all summer. Our new one is coming end of October. He has a 17yo son and all the girls are freaking out. haha. We don't have any boys in our church over the age of 11. And there's 5 of us girls over 15.  yeah...

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September 8th- Went to church... Afterwards we went to the Nature Center and walked around there for a few hours.  We stopped at the Station and saw dad. He's been working so much latly. poor guy.  Paige was thrilled to go see dad at work. We let her out of the car and she ran up to dad and gave him a hug "daddy working!!"

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September 9th- One of my friends called and asked if I wanted to go to the park and try to take some senior shots.... Didn't work out very well. It got to windy. And there was this weird guy that kept following us arond the park. :-S We went to the mall afterwards bought some pretzels, pizza, cheesebread, cookies, slushies, smoothies. hehehe We are junk food junkies!

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September 10th- Dad brought home the two breeding rams we will be using. I was out helping him get all our ewes home from the neighbors then sorted them into two groups. One for the brown ram and one for Shrek, the white ram. Chels called him Shrek cause he's got such an ugly head he looks like an oger. lol.

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Septmeber 11th- 6 years ago I was sitting in the living room watching buildings burn. I didn't really understand why my mom was crying or why all the tv channels had the same program running. But I knew something was wrong. Why would someone want to fly planes full of people into buildings? I didn't get it then. I thank God for his protection over my family now that I am old enough to understand what happend that day. God Bless our fallen brothers and sisters.....

Mom and I went to market today. It was so windy and chilly! I was fine in the house with my tank top and zip up sweatshirt but out side in the wind and cold. brrrrr. I was cold the whole time, except when I went into Kmart to walk arond for a while. hehe Mom and my sister had to cover the tomato plants cause it's suppose to frost tonight. =p 

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September 12th- Hey that's today! - Our ferrier came out this morning to trim our horses hoofs. Tonno was good as usal. My sweet Rubie. haha Thats another story. She was good on 3 of her hoofs but she got impaticent on the 4th. She started rearing and pulling. The ferrier had to get out a chain to put over her nose so she would listen. She was a naughty naughty girl. Not much else for today so far. We're going on a church campout friday-sunday. So excided. I get to see my friends that went off to school!!! yay!!!   I'm getting hungry. I think mom said today was subs for lunch. I think I'll go make me one. =D

Enjoy your day!

Kate

The BEE ‘Buzz’ or ‘Where are my Clippers’

     This past Sunday, Mr. Green Bee insisted that the 'OX was in the Mire' (it had been at least 8 weeks) and needed to have a haircut (I do the haircutting around here and I DO NOT cut hair on the Sabbath unless it is a 'true' emergency. And yes I did cut his hair). And Why May you ask? Because Sunday Afternoon He was going to ask a certain young lady's Father for her hand in marriage!!!  I guess they both went together to talk to her folks and they said "It was up to her" so I guess he did the only thing he could (so he says) and got down on one knee and 'officially' proposed, right then and there in front of her parents. What did she say (after recovering from the shock..lol)?

                                  YES!

I'll be getting a new daughter in law! So although we thought it would be a November wedding, it didn't work with his fiancee's family's schedule. So it now appears the official date will be December 29th in the Temple. Now for all the 'practical' needs of planning a wedding. Getting Together with the other set of parents. Deciding who pays for what. Oh me oh my why did I decide to cut that Bee's Hair....lol

Buzzzzzzing Off (He does look much better now).................

Sincerely, Mistress Bee

Viewing Our Beehive Blog Problems

I've noticed that when I go to 'preview' or 'read after posting' that some of my posts appear to be missing or incomplete. I can read it all if I hightlight first, but I don't have any problems reading anyone else's posts only mine. Is anyone else having problems with reading this blog or is it all in my head (or my computer...lol). Thanks for responding.

Buzzing Off................Sincerely, Mistress Bee

Could This BEE Love?

Romance seems to be buzzing around in this beehive very strongly. I mean the sounds of sweet honey are blowing in the breeze. Of  course this is only the BEEginning. Our former Missionary Bee (Who shall hereby be called Mr. Green Bee) had a Female ‘Friend’ who wrote to him for the 2 yrs he was away serving the Lord and although their were a few ‘bumps’ upon his return, they are now ‘Boyfriend and Girlfriend’.  They both appear to have clear heads in the matter. Now we shall see what the future holds for them.

 But Wait…There’s More (Is this starting to sound like an infomercial…lol)

 My Sweet Princess Bee was at the Dance a couple of weeks ago at the Religion Institute and a Young Man asked her to dance (He’s a friend from her and Mr. Green Bee’s childhood with whom they grew up and attended church together). Well the dance led to a date, which led to time spent with our family and an attitude of  “I think I just might want to be more than a friend” and then Last Night (While Mistress Bee waits up as usual for their return) gets a text message, “Mom, I’ve got a boyfriend” (complete with picture of two hands being clasped).  I do Have Complete Trust in This Young Man so once again only time will tell. But she is beaming and He’s not looking to shabby either.

 Since All of These Children Have Been Raised with High Moral Standards which we hope will keep them on the straight and narrow. And they all know we will remind them often of their goals to remain virtuous. Now Master Drone is leaving all the staying up  and prayers to this Mistress (He says I will worry enough for the both of us and at least one of should get some sleep in the evenings…Thank You Very Much…lol). 

 So if some of my future post seems to be a bit bedraggled and sound tired I apologize as life is going to be very active in this hive for awhile. Maybe I better start worrying about the 3 little bees still left here at home and start locking the beehive sooner. Ahh, the changes that come much too soon, when they’re growing up, in the life of Bees.

Buzzing Off (With Romance floating in the Air and Knots in my Stomach)………..

 Sincerely, Mistress Bee

Pizza Day and The BEEs

  I promised my Bees that I would ‘Tell the World’ about one of our Family Traditions.About 10 years ago (maybe longer) we had a family discussion about creating ‘family traditions’ and asked our young bees for some ideas. Well a couple of the bees (now grown) decided that it would be nice to have a day devoted to ‘Pizza’. They asked ‘could we.  have pizza for breakfast, pizza for lunch, pizza for dinner and of course pizza for dessert’.

 Well we decided we would ‘try it’ for a day. Labor Day was coming up in a few weeks (I needed some time to get it all figured out as well as purchase the supplies) and it was a holiday that everyone (including Dad) would have off.

 I decided to make a ‘biscuit pizza’ for breakfast complete with biscuit crust, scrambled eggs, onions, peppers, sausage, and plenty of cheese. (Last year I also made an extra side ‘sweet dough’ pizza with a honey butter drizzled topping which was good).

 I think that first year we had something like pizza hot pockets for lunch, I don’t remember for certain. Maybe it was those little pizza roll things that look like egg rolls. I usually keep some of those on hand that day in case someone gets hungry before dinner time…lol.

 For Dinner we have traditional pizza with all of the ‘traditional’ toppings. We must always include one that has ham and pineapple (not sure how traditional but I know some people like it).  And this year we will add another with chicken, spinach (mushroom soup is used as the sauce)

 For Dessert we make a cookie pizza or brownie pizza on a pizza pan with candy toppings and drizzled frosting as the cheese.

 Now as it has turned out we have celebrated it every year since and it is looked forward to by all. We never know how many will be here as some years the kids have asked to invite friends (last year we had 13). So in honor of Labor Day they definitely put this Mother Bee to Work in the Kitchen making pizzas all day long it seems like. But now we usually end up with just 2 meals that day as by the time I finish the breakfast pizzas it is more of a brunch. And I have learned that the more ‘chopping’ and ‘pre-prep’ I can do ahead of time really makes things go a little smoother on that day.

 As for the future, we will continue the tradition (we can’t stop now, we’re on a roll…or should I say ‘pizza crust’), but they have been forwarned that as they marry and multiply, I will expect each family to pitch in and bring a pizza or two to save me some of the responsibility.

  Disclaimer: Do NOT allow anyone in your family to read this that are ‘true pizza lovers’ or you may end up starting your own ‘Pizza Day’ Tradition….say “Cheese”….LOL.

 Buzzing Off (stretching the dough behind me*smile*)…..Sincerely, Mistress Bee

BEEginning Anew

   Change can BE a good thing. I think. Especially if we are trying to change for the better. It can be refreshing when we accomplish a task, rearrange a room, hang a new picture, paint a wall. It can give us a new lease on life, renewed energy, a desire to do better. I feel this way about my blog look. One of my goals in starting a blog was to learn the computer skills needed to download/upload graphics, backgrounds, cute stuff. But I have to accept that some of those other things just can’t happen right now. Mostly because I have to use hubby’s work laptop to type, check email and pay bills, and just can’t save things onto it that would allow me to have all the ‘cutesy’ things I want to have. For whatever reason he chooses not to ‘fix’ the family computer so it is mostly just good for the educational games that the children play.

  The same with my homestead (if I dare call it a homestead), I feel like I’m living in a storage unit right now (a very large storage unit *lol* and have been for the past three years). There are boxes and shelves and stuff around all over. It is not a pretty or peaceful sight. But it is not all junk. It just sits waiting to find its place once the remodeling is done. We are finally getting a step or two closer and do I dare hope that it might be done by this years birthday – probably not, but maybe by Christmas *wishfully praying*

  The patio has been a big issue but we appear to finally be over that hurdle. So with the framer for the patio cover called and then one more inspection, putting on the roof and finishing the interior of the new (our) bedroom. Things in my mind will start falling (rather start being shifted into place) and we can function in an environment that will bring us more peace…at least that’s my goal/dream/desire.

  And since I want that ‘peace’ or ‘renewed’ feeling in my blog, I have decided to tweak what I can, hoping it will revitalize me, and give me a desire to move forward. Okay perhaps this isn’t as much of a ‘homestead’ blog, but more of a life journal. With all of it’s crazy up’s and down’s with a ‘mentally neurotic and paranoid’ Bee buzzing about all over (and usually accomplishing very little I feel).

  But today I start anew, perhaps a new name more befitting our family. A new template? Autumn is my most favorite time of year with all the changing colors of the maple trees and great oaks (but only in my childhood memories), around here the cactus don’t bother to do anything spectacular like change colors or drop their foliage (trust me those spiney needles can hurt, ouch!).

  I too though must change with the seasons of life. And accept and grow with the challenges of growing older and hopefully wiser. My heart is much more at peace today than yesterday. The children are starting to arise and morning kisses and hugs are being sent my way. So off to start with prayer and do things (okay chores) that can often be pushed aside and now can wait no longer. The older ones must get soon leave for their college classes. So into a new dawn and a new day, full of hope, desires for changes for good, and knowing (and praying) that the Lord will be with me every step of the way.

 It Will Be A Good Day for this BEE Family

 Buzzing Off……………………..Sincerely, Mistress Bee

friday... the day before I turn 18...

It's crazy to think 24 hours from now I will be 18 years old. An "adult" to the world. Weird. hahaha But I am oh so looking forward to be able to say I'm 18. haha I'm going out with some friends bowling tomorrow night to celebrate. =D Afterwards we are going over to my granmas place to watch movies and sleep over. She's also making jello cake and getting icecream for us. *yay granma!!*

Today I got to sleepin till 9am. =D But that was because poor daddy is down with the flu. He's usally the one that gets the rest of the house up... not intentionaly it's just we'll hear dad making noise down stairs and we get up from that. Beings he was sick he slept in and so did we. hehehe

Mom and 2 of my sisters went to market today. We made alot of stuff cause there's usally more bussiness on the holiday weekends.  I made 10 loaves of lemon poppyseed bread and a pan of ricecrispy bars. Chels made orange zucchini bread and banana bread and Meg made pumpkin bread and sugar cookies. Mom had all her jellys, eggs, granola, and veggies. I stayed home and baby sat the youngest of my sisters so dad wouldn't have to keep after her. We went to the library for an hour then we came home and she watched a little bear tape. I was hoping she would have gone down for her nap watching that. Not so much luck. I took her up to my room, beings dad was in the living room watching tv, and read her a book, Happy birthday moon. She still wouldn't go down. arg! She kept jumping off my bed and messing around. I told her to take her nap and she laid down on my bed and cried for about 15 minutes and finally fell asleep. She slept for about an hour and 45 minutes. I watched a movie while she was down, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. I got it while we were at the library.

Pagie is fussing for something to eat so I'm off for now. Have a great weekend!!

Kate

it's about me!

Well, I havn't really been writting much about my life now since I've gotten back from Ecuador now have I? Sorry about that. I've been slow getting back into the crazy thing we call life here in the states. haha So here we go....

School. I am nearly done! I have about a week of Spanish left and I'm a little over 1/2 way through my Grammer.  I'm taking my ACT's on October 4th and if I do really really well I'm good, but if I could do better I'm taking them agian in December. eekkk. Kinda nervous. Mom's going to get me the study book...*hint hint mom!*... . haha she's been busy lately.

Farmers Market. Will be done the end of October. I'm telling you it can't come soon enough. *sigh* I am so tired of baking. I have 10 loaves of lemon poppyseed bread in the oven right now. It's just so tiring to have to bake twice a week and sit in the hot sun for nearly 4 hours 2 days a week.

Around the farm. We are about ready to put the rams in with the ewes. We were actually going to do that today but dad came down with the flu. So we'll have to wait till next week to get the all sorted out and put together. We should be getting lambs begining of Feburary.  I havn't been on Rue all summer. ugg. I'm so bad!! First I was was gone half the summer and now it's way to hot to ride. I'm sure she'll be fighting real hard we I try to get back up on her.

Job?? Yeah I'm really thinking of getting a job after I finish up my school. Pretty boring around the house with my sisters busy with school and all my friends are of to college or live hours away. *sniffsniff* I miss you guys!

Arg... I was writting so much some of my bread burned. akkk!!  My fault I know.

I'm off for now.

Kate

Ecuador day 6

I woke up at 4:30 as usual. The kitchen staff always wake me up. Our tent is right outside the kitchen, arg! We were at the job site at 7am. I grouted a lot. Cut wire and bent it for tying the rebars. I don’t really remember anything else. It’s Tuesday night and I’m writing this. I have no free time! Every morning we are up at 6am for breakfast then cleanup and worship. We are at the work site by 7am. Noon is lunch and we are back to the site at 1pm. We finish working at 3-3:30 and clean up the worksite, put away all the tools and scaffolding. Then we shower, talk or play soccer with the locals. Supper is at 6pm. Worship is at 7pm and bed is at 9. No time! But it’s so awesome to always be doing stuff. I don’t really mind being busy all the time

Ecuador day 5

Church was held in Babahoyo. There were 6 or 7 different churches there. The individual churches had been doing church where the children were involved the past few weeks and this week the children did the whole church service. So the kids were very involved. It was really long, but that was because every church had a special music or skit. A 13 year old boy had the sermon. He has been preaching since he was 5! He was real good. He Talked about having cataracts in our spiritual life. After the sermon the kid had an alter call. 8 kids came up. They were all young, 6-8yo. We thought it looked like they were being pushed by their parents to go up. That didn’t sit to well with some of us.  But we later found out that they had been doing bible studies for 3 months and were just nervous about going up in front of all the people. =)

2 of our staff singing special music at church. Cristy-anne sang in english and Gabe sang in Spanish. Vlad was holding the mic. haha

After the service we went to a church that had a baptismal tank, but some one forgot to fill it, opps haha, so we went down to the river for the baptisms. The kids would run in get dunked and run out. They were afraid of getting leaches and  it was also really scurvy looking. It was kinda funny. 

Lunch was right after, haystacks. I was like yay! I love haystacks. But no, it was all salad stuff with Doritos, yeah. No offence to you green lovers, but eww.

We went down to a river afterwards. Steve didn’t tell us we would be hiking a mile through Ecuadorian forsest to get there. Most of us girls were wearing flip flops. Two of us our flip flops broke from getting stuck in the mud. Akk! I don’t think I would have wanted to be wearing my tennis shoes either. Some places there was mud ankle deep we were walking through. When we got down to the river, not the same one as before this one was much cleaner you could see right to the bottom, it was obvious it was worth the hike. =D It was so pretty! Every one was being careful not to fall in. haha right. There was a couple of us trying to find a place to walk across the river that was not too deep. I found a spot that went just above my knees and walked across. I got a few splashes on my shorts nothing that wouldn’t dry in a few minutes. There were a few others that didn’t think that they could make it across so I walked back. Just as I was getting back I stepped on a big flat rock that was just under the surface. And there went my dry shorts. I slipped on that rock and landed on my bottom, belly button deep in river water. Everyone was laughing. =p  We went farther down stream and found sorta a rock dam. It was a bunch of wabblely rocks stacked up less the a foot wide spanning the 20 foot river. It was waist deep on one side and jagged rocks on the other. Much safer. Um hm. So they thought. There was 4 of us crossing. 2 went across and made it fine. I headed across and made it loosing my footing only once, but it was only knee deep where I slipped. The last guy headed across when he got about half way across he tossed me his camera and shoes. He didn’t make it across dry. Haha Good thing I had his stuff.

 A picture of the river.

When we left some local people gave us some sugar cane and tangerines. The sugar cane was so good! Something different down there, you know how when we get oranges or tangerines they are nice and orange in color? Down there they are all green, but they are as ripe as can be…. Just something I noticed.

After the sun went down,6:30ish, Julio took us to the area hang out. It was like 15 minutes by bus, which was what we took. It was interesting. They cram as many people on the bus as they can. Just when your thinking not possibly one more person could fit they would pick up 10 more. Then some cross dressers got on the bus and were flirting with some of our guys. Haha They about died.

When we got to the place, a basket ball court and a basketball court turned into a soccer field, about 5 of us girls wanted to play soccer. The local guys said we’d get hurt and wouldn’t play. A few of the shorter locals played with us and every time one of us girls would get the ball the locals watching would all OooOOoo and laugh at the guys. One time I stopped the ball but it popped off my shoe and hit one of the local guys in the face. It didn’t hurt him, but man, the rest of the night the locals were all banging on him on how a girl got him. Hahaha After the game I walked over to the basketball court to watch them play. (when we’d play, soccer and basketball, we’d have a team of our people and a team of locals.) All the local girls were over on that side watching because some of our guys took off their shirts when they were playing. *rolls eyes* Some local girls came up to me and told me I was so tall! hahaha I'm only 5'7 but compaired to them I was a good 5 inches taller. It wasn't all that great watching the basketball so I went back over to the soccer field and sat with a group of our people. Around 9:30 a van came and picked up a group of us. I was in the first load. Our driver didn’t speak English, we were trying to tell him to change the radio station. We had 2 teens that could translate but they were being doofy and pertending they couldn’t speak Spanish. Lol  When he figured out what we were saying he started changing the channels. He would change to all the really really slow music and pertend he liked it then change it for to a station with a good beat for like half the song then change it back to the slow station. Hahaha It was so funny. Every one in the van was yelling at him and he was yelling back and we were laughing so hard cause no one knew what the other was saying. Ah good times.

When we got back we stayed up talking till the other group got back then Steve sent us off to bed.