Carmel Farm

Update on what happened with the kids this weekend....

I am going to keep this short sweet and simple. I went to get my hair cut and eye brows waxed and when we got back to town I met ex dh and his wife (whom I could tell was not in a good mood).. I tell ex dh there better not be any trouble this weekend.. And off I went.. I went to a town about 30 minutes away to eat with some friends and get a call from my mother who says " you better scurrie your little self back to my house. We need to talk and I have your kids.." So after several phone calls and a trip back to my car I get to moms house to find out what happened..

They stopped at my moms to drop off something and my mom went out to talk to ex and tell him she was sorry bout his brother and etc. She says his wife was hateful and witchy to her and saying things about the kids.. They left and got maybe 2 miles down the road and all heck broke loose.. Ex took kids back to my mom and took his wife home... Needless to say it was not a good weekend..

My kids do not like their stepmom and told their dad they do not want to be around her as she is calling them names and being mean to them. My ex did the right thing he took the kids back to my mom..

Anyway the stepmom got it to where they did not have the kids..

Please pray for her. She is having some problems and my kids are catching the blunt of it... I will not let them go be around her anymore.. My kids do not deserve that..

God Bless,

Mars

Not much

How many men dies it take to hang a picture?

I had my daughter Kristi take this picture when we were at my sisters Tracy's house for a BBQ.   She and her hubby Andy just bought their 1 st home a few weeks ago.  She needed this picture hung.  Tracy, mom and I laughed so hard while the men were hanging the picture.  We kept saying how it would have been done faster if we girls did it.  And the boys / men kept making jokes about the "stud finder" find them!   Oh'boy men.  It took them over 15 minutes to hand the picture with ONE nail.  We love you boys, but we girls could have had it done in 3-5 minutes!

Here are the boy / men:

From left to right is my hubby Shannon, our dad and last is Tracy's husband Andy.

God Bless, mj

12 Miles Round Trip

We are all a little sore from our hike in the mountains. Steve has big sores from the backpack rubbing  his sweaty T-shirt. But we all had a great time. It's physically exerting, but restful to our hearts and minds. We had another family join us for the hike. Their kids did well, especially considering the little girl had flip-flops on. She's a good hiker at 6 yrs old.
The creek follows the trail all the way. I love the sound of flowing water.
The weather was perfect. Not hot, not cold, just right.
Our destination was Lake Stuart.
Just taking a rest.The views were gorgeous.
Here's a good hiker. She is changing her socks to prevent blisters before the return trip.

Dinner at my sisters

This afternoon we went to my sister Tracy's house to see it and have dinner.  Tracy and her husband Andy bought this house a coupleweeks ago, but have just finished painting and fixing it up.   The house is cute and big, I love it.  I love the color she painted it.  This is her 1st time owning a house.  There was only one problem . "How many men does it take to hang one picture"?

We girls were laughing so hard. We kept telling each other if we did it we would be done by now   !!

From left to right is my husband Shannon, my dad Mike, my b-i-l Andy.  Shhh, it took them about 15 + minutes !

Dinner was great.  It was Tracy and Andy , our parents, our aunt and 2 cousins and Michelle, Gill and the babies and of course us 4.   We thought that the babies would come with us because when they see us they always want to come back "home".   The grand-babies cam home with us .

We had a blast and can't wait to go again.

God Bless all, mj

Baby burp pad?

Was wondering if anybody has a pattern for a baby burp pad that goes over the shoulder? When my children were small I used to use a diaper but I see the younger folks use a burp pad. I would like to make some for the craft fair.. If someone could share a pattern or a link I would be grateful.. Thanks..

Brenda

A Reply to An Anonymous Commenter:

I recently posted a blog about how I went to Wal-Mart with the family last Sunday and came across person after person who gave me nasty rude looks, people who were "staking their territory" on the aisle, and just being sour pusses. Please read one reply (and feel free to look back into my archives if you wish and read all the post, including the comments on  "No Manners, No Eye Contact, and A Persimmon Face".):

Posted by Anonymous (71.102.17.207)

Just some food for thought: Perhaps you might consider giving some of those people with such "sour" expressions on their faces some thoughtful consideration. Perhaps---unknown to you---there is a valid reason for their offensive expression. I, for one, have a type of Muscular Dystrophy which makes it near impossible to smile due to the lack of facial muscles that work properly. Should you pass me in the store, I'm quite certain (from your post) that you would find my expression unpleasant. I would be heartily smiling on the inside---unfortunately all YOU would see is a frown. And for those you pass who don't have a medical reason for their physical expressions, you might want to say a quick prayer for them. Perhaps their life is in turmoil and your prayer---and smile---could brighten their day.

I would like to say is I am so sorry about your Muscular Dystrophy.  I have a friend who has this as well.  So I do understand a litlte about your disability.  I in no way meant to offend or upset you or anyone else with this blog.  I wasn't directing my words towards anyone with a disability.  If you had been there, at Wal-Mart with me, you would see that NONE of the people I encountered had a disability.  Most were people I know from around town in fact, and they are just sour puss people.  LOL

I also understand there are problems in which a person may not "feel like" smiling.  Laura (gokings) also brought this to my attention that perhaps someone was having a bad day that particular day, or had lost a loved one, etc.   I do understand there is sadness everywhere, and many are feeling it.  I do pray for those people I encounter also.  I have had bad days when I certainly didn't want to say, "hey how ya doin'?" to anyone let alone start up a conversation with someone I don't know. 

In my blog, I was referring to people, who turn around with a blank, although partially pleasant  face to see who is walking behind them, and then give you a nasty rude look for walking up their aisle and taking their space.  Or someone who barrels up the aisle with a nasty look on because they think they OWN the aisle.  Or the people who CUT YOU OFF and then dont say "Excuse me, I am so sorry."  No, I am not perfect.  I have been known to accidentially cut someone off (I really think they should have stop lights at the end of some stores aisles. LOL), but I have turned around and apologized immediately and made sure no one was hurt. 

I also mentioned children in my blog.  I don't know your age, or if you have ever experienced this, but it just unnerves me to have children running crazily up and down the aisles, with or without a cart, with no respec for anyone else in the store.  And the parents??  Where are there in all of this??? Ride behind the children, watching and laughing at them instead of disciplining them.  I on the other hand am forced to drive offensively with my 2 year old in the front, because these kids come out of no where, ram into the side of your cart, and then run off laughing!!!!  And the parents, again, are right there.....giggling with them.  (I did however catch one kid one time and told him if he ran into my cart, I would call the police on him.  He quietly walked with cart back to his mother, and I didn't hear another thing of him. LOL)

As you might have also seen, I wrote a small plea at the bottom of the blog.  A plea for others to be aware of your attitude, to smile and be merry if possible when out in public.  Maybe these other sour puss faced people had NO IDEA they looked as rude as they did.  Perhaps they did have a bad day.  Maybe this also had a disability of some sort.  Or maybe, they were JUST BEING RUDE!!!  LOL  I don't know.  I did pray for each and every one of them.  Much like I pray for am ambulance or life flight when they pass by, I say a quick prayer saying, Lord, I have no idea what might be going on in their life right now, but please be with them, love them, and guide and protect them.  Amen.

With all of that being said,  Mr or Ms. Anonymous, I would like to think that most of my blogs are self explanitory.  They are my words, my rants, raves, opinions, maybe a praise report or two, a prayer request, or just some ramblings of a SAHM mom, trying to take care of her family.  I don't intentionally mean to offend or hurt anyone, and if I have, I do apologize.  This wasn't directed towards you Anonymous.

The Start

My name is mj and I am Shannon's help meet.  Shannon is a Mr. Command Man, as described in Debi Pearl's book.   Some times it is hard to be a wife of a Command Man, if you are a strong dominant woman.   I am just about as hard headed as Shannon.  It took me years to give him the head of the household role and I do mean YEARS!   But it was all worth it!   To have him in charge of it all is such a weight off me. 

But some times there are problems.  An example is with our older daughter Shayna.  Shayna is a very good girl, but boy is she strong willed, I have no clue where she got that from .   The problem was Shayna spoke to me rude and then to her dad.  He and I talked to her about it but stopped when it was dinner time.  Shannon said he would talk to her again after dinner but did not.   That was hard for me because it was not resolved.  I wanted it done and over with.

It was hard for me to not say something about his not talking to her more.  He knew I wanted to say it, but did not.

This blog is a part of my journey of working everyday on being the help meet Shannon needs and God wants me to be.

God Bless, mj

Pictures

Here is a picture of my husband and  one of his fish he caught on one of his trips to Mexico, my hubby is the one in the red tank top:

Here is one from 2 weeks ago:

Have you ever seen a horse drink from a park fountain:

That is Kristi and Cody. It was taken last fall.

This next one is my father on his bike with his little dog George.  They ride around Vegas like this.  Aren't they cute!

Moose for sale.  As Shayna was listing some books for sale on E-bay her cat Moose was helping out.  Yup he wore some stickers that said 50% off and 75% off.  I think he thought he was worth more as you can tell he was not happy about his price .

God Bless, mj

Mom ,what one do you like ?

Kristi is a bad girl .  While we were out shopping she picked up on 3 guys, three!!!

Here is boy friend number 1, he's cute but kinda stiff:

Next we have boy friend number 2, but he is kind of two faced:

And last we have boy friend number 3, my favorite, he cost $74.36 just for 1 date, so he must be worth it :

Who says shopping at Sam's with a cell phone is not fun .  Kristi and I had a blast .  But really Kristi you need to stop picking up new boy friends when we shop.  LOL

Teenagers what can I do?!?!?!

God Bless, mj