Outdoor Track

When we bought the 30acres at the bottom of the hill. The first thing we did was take out the fence row and make a track around it. My husband took the disk around and around to smooth it down. I followed him picking up rocks. Then the grass grew. Then the girls tied on their shoes and away they went. The track is exactly a mile. They run around and around and we are happy as we always worried when they ran on the road that someone would take them. I have walked many miles around that track. In the winter we cross country ski around it. My husband sits by the door honking the horn on the four-wheeler. That is my signal that its time for a date ride. Each night he picks me up for a ride around the field and we discuss our day. Now that spring is here I look forward to those times around the field. Every time we go around the track Brownie and Chippy are right there. Ride, Walk or Run. We sure have enjoyed our outdoor track, its given us exercise and time to know each other.

Chippy- the Wonder Dog

Well Chippy Houdini is at it again. We go to work each day and when we come home our dog Chippy is out of her pen. We thought she was digging under, so we put boards and blocks and logs all around the bottom of the pen. The next day when we drove up the driveway there was Chippy wagging her tail end at us. Next we thought she was squeezing between the gate and the barn. So we put a bigger chain around the door. The next day Chippy was out running around with Brownie, our older dog. Then we thought she was jumping on top of the dog house and over the fence. Out again. We then put up some big poles and moved the doghouse. Its beginning to look like a junk yard around Chippy's pen now.Everyday we come home and everyday Chippy is out of her pen. Next we put a lead rope from the pen to the dog house. That worked but she can't go all over in the pen. So we tried again without the rope. My husband thinks she is climbing over the fence. What dog does that! She is very smart. By now my husband is super mad at the dog and would put up a video camera if he could. Instead we drove to Rural King and bought an electric fence. He strung a wire on the top and a wire down low and put Chippy in. Within minutes we heard yelping.She had been zapped and was in the doghouse.When we got home today Chippy was still in her doghouse (probably all day) and now we LET her out and she can run around with Brownie. **Case solved the dog is not getting out anymore!

Easy

This Slice of Life thing is fun and easy. I find it easy to come up with typing material each day, in fact I always have a few ideas and I have to choose,that is never a problem. For me the hard part is picking only one thing to write about. My girls say everyday , "Are you writing about me today?" "Pick me! Pick Me!"(RM-now I know what you mean about that when you said it last year about your kids.)I think it is fun to read my post out loud to my family and others. I think they are looking forward to it each day. I say,"You have got to hear this one!" (RA-Know I know how your find it fun to read all the posts and comment on them to encourage people) I have found there are so many people out there that have the same connections as I do. (MH-I have had to use a notebook to write down where I have been some days as I can't remember who I have commented on the day before.) The hard part for me is remembering to fit it in before midnight each day. I have went to bed twice and had to get back up in a hurry. (TH-I think of you being retired and yet you are more organized with your day than I am...I need to get a routine going for this SOL.)Just wanted you all to know I am really enjoying this, and YES it is fitting into my life...its fun and easy! Slice On!!

They're Back

Tonight I was out stacking wood when I heard them. I stopped in my tracks, listened intently, then smiled. I look forward to the frogs singing every spring. It is music to my ears. My girls all notice them too. Maybe since they were born I stop the car if no one is behind me then roll down all the windows and say..."Girls listen, the frogs are making music for just us." If a car is behind me I still roll down the windows and say as we are passing the swamp, "Did you hear that?" Now for the next few weeks I will hear the sounds of the swamp as I drive down the road. Sometimes they are so loud I think they have speakers in the swamp. Those frogs sure know how to throw a party! I imagine them all dancing around and having a chior of froggy's celebrating the glorious day they have had. (I only hear them in the evening)I hope you all can take a drive in the country and find a low spot (swampy) towards evening and enjoy the concert. I know I will be.

Homes

The last two months our oldest daughter and her husband have been looking at houses. My husband has rode along to everyone to give his opinion. I wait until they want to see it again then I go. To me each one is fine and I could move in. My husband says I would be happy in a tent. The truth is I would be happy anywhere he is. Today we went to a, for sale by owner, actually we have been to a few like that. You can tell the pride they have in the place, that they have been kind to it and it has served them well. Today I even felt like they didn't really want to sell but because of whatever reason they were going to. I can't imagine selling my home. I love it here! Its right for me. Sure I wish a window was here or the bathroom was bigger. But you are never done with a house, it keeps giving you hopes and dreams. Each year you want to remodel, get a new roof, paint some part, add something. Plus each year outside you feel like maybe I should have another flower bed or add red raspberry bushes since your daughter eats so many! I'm already thinking of what spring might spur in us to do around here. A house is something you just keep working on. Anyway...I hope my daughter finds the right house, the one she sees as, just right. One that when she leaves she says that is the one. Until then I will ride along and look at houses. I'll say, "Oh this one is nice!" Then my husband will give his opinion about the furnace or the buildings or the roof or the basement. Good thing he is going along! Hopefully in this buyers market the perfect house can be found.

Parent Contact

This years class is not a funny bunch. They are loud but yet they listen and do well on testing. For that I am grateful more than you know. Well for years I would tell the class I was not going to have a system to keep track of their behavior, they should just know how to behave. For all those years it worked...except this one. Out of 20 children 6 have been diagnosed with ADD. That's a lot in one room. Well they are all over the place. They never walk they prance, skip, run and twirl down the hallway and in the room. So, I have a clothes pin clip system that has 3 tries to move up(at the top you get 2 stickers and a fruit snack) or 3 tries to move down to the dreaded Parent Contact. Where I call the parent and I talk and they talk telling them what they did wrong, plus a note to be signed. Today a little girl first was sitting on her exercise ball(which is her chair-we have 8in our room) I looked over and there she was rolling on her stomach going back and forth like an airplane. Then she sat up and was bouncing like Tigger as high as she could. Down the clip went. During recess she was talking in line and had to stand by the fence with the other offenders. Down went the clip. At reading time she was 5minutes late getting there because she wouldn't stop digging in her pencil box (for I have no idea what?) Plus she was making bird noises. They were really quite good ones. There went the clip. When asked why she was acting this way. she replied,"I just really don't know why but I started this morning and I tried to be good but its one of those days. It just happens to me all the time." I looked at her and smiled then giggled and said Please try harder to behave, I sure love you but I will have to call your mom. She smiled back at me not saying a word. Her mother was mad at her but I said she made me laugh and she was good the rest of the day. I told the mom tomorrow is a new day and I hope it is better. *Its been a rough week with this bunch but today they made me laugh...next week will be better!

Glass Rock

When I was a little girl I remember going to grandpa and grandmas farm house. There, going into the parlor holding the door open was the prettiest rock I had ever seen. It was a blueish green big chunk of glass. To me it was huge and heavy and smooth. I always touched it each time I went to visit. I would hold it on my lap and make wishes. When my grandparents moved to the lake, the glass rock held the door open going into the hallway that lead to a bedroom and the bathroom. The rock always caught my eye when I went through that doorway. It still seemed large to me. I would always think, that sure is a beautiful glass rock. When my grandparents died and I went to the auction, there was the rock on the table with other treasures. The auctioneer lumped a bunch of stuff together and the bidding started. I kept bidding and bidding and won. He said, "What do you choose?" I took the Glass Rock. He said out loud, "That's what you want?" "Yep!" He didn't know that I would have kept bidding as high as I needed because I was going to have it. Now the rock has a new home. Mine. Its in my bedroom holding the bathroom door open. I see it everyday. When our cottage is done it is going to move there, as now it will follow me wherever I go. I know its just a chunk of glass, but to me it is so much more as it holds memories of my relatives.