not ready yet....

I am pretty anxious when it comes to harvesting things in my garden.. I just want everything to be ready.. NOW!!! But, of course, that isn't how things work. So, we harvested a watermelon to early, it wasn't ready yet, but Case still wanted more!

Grampa, we love you and are praying for you!

Case loves to help his Grampa Byrd. Case follows him everywhere when we are at their house. So Grampa Byrd, we are praying that your shoulder surgeon says that you don't have to have surgery!

cousins

Case and Ila have such fun times together.. except when Ila thinks Case is going to "get her" as she says. They remind me of Eric and Tiffany when they were young. I hope these two grow up to have such a close relationship as they get older!

thank goodness for husbands and hoes.

I've always been pretty lax about Case being in the garden with me. Now, that has all changed. Tonight while he was playing with the okra, I was over by the tomatoes and squash and all of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, I see a little diamond back rattler curled up under a squash plant.

I yelled for Eric, grabbed Case and Eric ended the snakes life via a hoe.

Thank goodness for husbands and hoes.

no melted ice cream

So I have to share a funny story. Yesterday, this story wasn't so funny. Anyhow, Eric and I went to Safford to get conduit, pick up his dry cleaning and go grocery shopping. everything was going fine and dandy, Case was having fun, we got the conduit, dropped off the dry cleaning and even went to Wal-Mart for groceries in a pretty short amount of time. We bought some ice cream, and living so far from town always bring an ice chest and stock it with ice so nothing melts on the way home. Of course I tell Denise, the check-out lady of the day that we need some ice. Conversation below:

D: Do you need anything else today? stamps? money order?

Me: Actually, I need some ice. One bag please.

D: I was just told we are out of ice.

Me: You're out of ice?

D: yea, we are out of ice, completely sold out. sorry.

Me: oh, wow, I didn't know wal-mart ran out of ice! Ok.

end of story. kind of.

so, we left wal-mart, frantic to find some ice soon so our ice cream didn't melt! We went by wlagreens, no ice. it was like everyone in Safford was out of ice. So we ran over to Safeway, my grocery store of choice, (when things are on sale) and when I got out of the truck, Eric started to drive away before the door was shut and I was going to walk in front of the truck to get the ice, but instead was forced to walk behind.... I of course was in such a hurry that I forgot about the 10 foot piece of conduit in the back of my truck.. WHAMMM!!! Thats right you guessed it. Snmacked me right across the face. My upper left lip, cheek and eye got whacked pretty hard. It felt like someone hit me in the face with a brick. Eric didn't even stop. ouch. But, I was not about to cry, of course I had to be strong in the Safeway parking lot! So, I went in, got the ice and the day was saved!

no melted ice cream, but my face sure hurts!

AATA Conference

my flower arrangements I made at my floriculture workshop. first two ever!

some close ups. You know you want me to make your next floral arrangements!

modeling my corsage.. it was the first thing I made

close up of the corsage

So I just returned home from the annual Arizona Agricultural Teachers Asssociation conference and I have learned so much! new teaching strategies, new friends, new lesson plans and new skills!

I also learned that I am the 2009 WINNER OF A NATIONAL TEACHER AWARD!!!! WooHoo!!!

go to this website to learn more

http://www.naae.org

click on awards and then click on teacher turn the key

yaya for me! I get to go to Nashville in November from the 17 -21 and do cool stuff!

memories from the past

I was going through some old thumb drives, and on one I happened upon some old pictures. When I was in high school I used to like to do some trick roping, not much and I was never really very good at it, but it was fun and my dad took a picture of me learning to do it.

I have always loved to ride, I learned how at a very young age, and some of my fondest memories are riding on the ranch with my grampa and my dad.

what little boys do

drinkin out of a sprinkler

play with the water hose and their daddies

drink out of the water hose

spray water into the dog house

when temps reach over 100 degrees, this is what little boys do

why everyone should live in Duncan, AZ

I love this picture! the colors compliment each other so well!

Our field and Cases' cows

Case loves walking out into the pasture and checking on his cows. He is quite independant.

The "golf course"

Eric wanted me to take some pictures of his field and show you all how beautiful it is.

Don't you agree? isn't it beautiful?

chasing dogs

what Case does on looong car rides

trip to colorado

playing in Estes Park, Colorado

3 generations

meeting Grampa Bill for the first time! instant friends!

3 generations

drinking from a straw successfully for the first time

more stuff for the silent auction!!

Thank you goes to Grampa Udon and McSpadden Ford for donating over 1,000.00 dollars of goods to the silent auction! He donated mud guards, running boards, step sides, seat covers and lots more! even some bug shields and a bumper! very cool!

Thannks Grampa Udon!

and the winner is....

Nana Pam (Eric's mom) is the first to donate to the silent auction!

If you are going to be interested in bidding on her items they are:

a Pasta Dinner for 2 basket - everything you need for a pasta dinner for teo, including sparkling grape juice, goblets, bowels, pasta sauce and a box of pasta

scrapbooking basket - a creative memories basket of items including a small scrapbook and kit which includes the paper, stickers, pens and tips to make a cute and creative scrapbook

sooo.... whose next? remember, anything is able to be donated and I will even write your bids in!

new things for us!

Well we are having a good time here in Colorado! Today we started with an eventful morning, there was a pretty serious and loud storm that came through last night, scaring the horses. Rosie, a yearling foal spooked herself and sliced up her back left leg pretty good right on the inside of the hock - this scared Ron because she is a racehorse prospect. So, Ron, Eric and myself took off to the vet where Shawn Basinger is a vet and the vet who worked on Rosie his name is Shawn Bought and he is a pretty nice guy. He did a good job sewing up Rosie today.

After we finished hauling Rosie into the vet we came back to Nana and Papa Ron's house and hung out here. Oh, and Nana babysat Case while we were gone to the vet. We visited the chickens, the horses - Case got to sit up on Snipper (the horse I one day hope to own for Case) and he petted Sis and Ace. we also visited the sheep and the dogs too.

This afternoon we went into the Greeley Stampede and went to the "Worlds Largest 4th of July Rodeo" - to be honest, I wasn't impressed. I have been to alot of rodeos, both as a competitor and as a spectator... Eric has never rodeoed and he even said that he would have entered if he knew the competition was going to be so lack. But, overall it was a goodtime. We ended the night with a funnel cake, which I have never eaten before. Quite yummy, but not a snack to eat all the time!

Case has experienced many new things this week so far:

- traveled 14 hours (and did pretty good too!)
- been to New Mexico, Colorado
- tried a bite of funnel cake
- been to the Greeley Stampede (he has been to a few rodeos before)