COPD

Everyone has heard of the term COPD before - Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.  I didn't know this, but apparently, Willow has been sneaking behind the barn and smoking cigarettes! 

All joking aside, it is also a common disease in horses and we officially have a horse that was diagnosed with it last week.  She will be on some maintenance anti-inflammatory drugs.  For the short term she is also on some injectable steroids (I have learned how to give a horse a shot now) and some pain medicine.  The trip to the vet was traumatic because she had an accident while the vet was checking her out and cut her leg bad.

So now we are a week from the diagnosis and have all this medicine to get down her throat.  She DOES NOT want to take it.  Do you know how hard it is to give a horse medicine if she doesn't want it... let me just tell you, it is much harder than a child, dog, or cat!  After many failed tries with the medicine, we finally are being successful mixing it with apple sauce and squirting it down her throat.

The cuts that occurred at the vet have now gotten infected and she needs hydro therapy like the baby goat did.  We also need to keep the flies off of her... so you know what that means... moving her into the house.

... gotcha .... we did not move her into the house!  (I bet at least one person that read that believed we would have done that).  But we did have to setup a temporary fence up at the house so it was easy to hose her wound down twice a day doing the therapy. The prognosis is that during the worst months - spring and summer - she will need the maintenance drug.  As long as it is all under control, she is still ridable.

My new view from the deck:

Trampoline Tent

Tina's new favorite thing is to "camp" on the trampoline.  This keeps her off the ground and away from the bugs. 

Last Friday Tina slept in the tent with her friend Haley.  Saturday Tori was going to be gone for the night and Tina was home alone with us.  So the three of us sat down and watched Ghostbusters on Nextflix.  At this point it is 11:00 at night and Tina asks Rod if he will camp with her.  So 10 minutes later, with his pillows in tow, I had the bed to myself and Rod and Tina were camping.  The picture below was taken in the following morning.  I wish I had every memory like this documented for the kids!

(Even though they were on the trampoline... they did still have power (see the orange cord) and an air mattress) :-)

Memorial Day Weekend

This weekend marks the 2 year mark of living in our new house.  Wonder how long I can continue to call it "new"?  Guess I need to drop the "new" when I refer to the house.

The holiday weekend started off on Saturday morning with Rod and Tori going to for a ride to Lovelace Cafe and then continuing down Natchez Trace Parkway.  Rod is still amazed with how well Tori is doing on her motorcycle. 

Granny with her hat

Saturday afternoon was the 86th birthday party for my Granny.  We all made "funny" hats with a theme of 86.  Lots of family showed up and it was a blast. 

Tori, Tina and Rod

The entire hat gang!

Saturday afternoon Tori and Tina headed to Destin, FL with Laine.  

Sunday wasn't too eventful - Rod brewing beer in the morning, and us going to dinner in the evening.


Monday - Granny, Aunt Sandra, Aunt Carol, Uncle John, Mom and Dad all came over to grill out.  Luckily Granny brought her dog, Scooter, to provide entertainment for us.  He is a dachshund and at one point Bear was laying in the kitchen and Scooter came over to sniff his butt.  Then Rod says "look Bear is taller than Scooter laying down with Scooter standing up".  It was a big day for Scooter - meeting chickens, pigs and goats.

Monday evening had Rod working in the "motorcycle repair shop" that is in my rec room!  I did INSIST that he push it outside before he tried to start the triumph.  He was excited that it did turn over and start... but... it is leaking around the head.  So right now he is down there pushing it back inside so that he can work on that.

Four

Four - This is a nice even number.  It is the number of people in my family, the number of dogs that we have, the number of baby goats that we have, the number of tires I have to buy for my suburban.  When I was a kid I thought it cool that 2 + 2 = 4 and then 2 X 2 = 4 also.  (OK, I was a math nerd).  It is the number of letters in both Tori and Tina's names.  It is the number of exterior doors in our house, the number of chairs in at my kitchen table. I could go on and on about the number four.

Now to the reason for this post... it is also the number of MOTORCYCLES that I have in  my rec room right now!  The garage is scheduled to be built at the end of June and to say I am anxious is an understatement.  Rod insists on storing his and Tori's motorcycles in the house until we have a garage and now he is in the process of rebuilding two more motorcycles down there.

And here are the pictures to prove it:

See the mechanical room door is open because that is where his tools are.  Tori's is on the left, Rod's is next, then the old triumph that Dad gave Rod 18 years ago when we got married, and the far right is one that he bought the frame recently.

I guess I should disclose that when we got married... he was rebuilding a Harley in his kitchen... so I guess I should be happy that these are not sitting in my kitchen!

SMS Awards

Awards Day 2012 - has Tina adding to her collection.  Straight A's in all subjects all year had her receiving an academic award.  Then with the highest GPA in Science awarded her the Science award.  She got an additional award for "exceptional workmanship on projects".  Regardless of awards and accolades - I am very proud of Tina!

Mother's Day Tea

Christy, my sister-in-law, decided this year she was going to have something just for Mothers on Mother's Day Weekend.  So on the Saturday before Mother's Day, she had a tea.  Everyone in attendance was a mother.  For me personally, there were 3 generations.  With everyone from my Mom, my mother-in-law, Aunt Sandra, Granny, etc in attendance, it was great!

The entire group:

Coaltrain update

I called Tina this morning and she said "Mom you should be here this week".  I wish I was there to help them, but I am so proud of all they are doing.  This morning Tori and Tina got up at 4:30 in the morning to do hydro therapy on Coaltrain.  After that they had to put his medicine on, let the momma outside for a little bit, bring her back inside (against her will).  Then it was onto the other daily chores: feeding the pigs, 25 baby chicks, 50 adult chicks, 9 other goats, 4 dogs, and 2 horses.  All before school on a day where Tina even has exams.  Wow Rod and I have some amazing kids :-)

Here is a picture from last night of Tori and Tina doing hydro therapy.  This has to happen twice a day.  I am not posting the picture of the wound because it looks REAL bad! 

Always while I am out of town - Coaltrain

I'm out of town for work.  As ALWAYS this means something is going to happen at my house.  I could recount things that have went on through the years, but no sense in rehashing things I have said before :-)

I flew to Orlando last night for work.  First thing this morning is a text from Tori saying "go look at my facebook".  So I go look at her facebook, only to see a picture of Tina holding a baby goat that is bandaged up and Tori's caption that read:

Yep just another morning. I came upstairs and Tina hollers, " Would you put peroxide on this?" I expect to see her with some scratch, but when she turned around, I saw that she had a baby goat with a chunk of skin about the size of a baseball missing. So I did what any teenager would have done. I cleaned, medicated, and bandaged the laceration :)

They are not sure what happened.  Tina went over to feed everyone and found him that way.  I am so proud of my girls for knowing how to keep their cool and take care of what needed to be done! 

4 New Additions (Coaltrain, Mason, Alpha and Omega)

During the tour of homes we met John, another person that has goats.  After some talking, we agreed to let him borrow our "stud" goat, Billy.  We got Billy as a baby and he has lived a great life and has sowed his seed many a time.  On our farm he has fathered: Banelli, Esme, Bonnie, and Lily.  Then for John, he fathered 8 additional goats.  This past February, we decided that we have finally increased our heard to what we wanted and I took care of the problem.  However, before that happened, we had 3 additional pregnant goats.  Marie had a baby about 6 weeks ago named Italy.  Unfortunately,  Italy life was very short and she was killed at only 1 week old.

This left us with only 8 total goats: Billy, Toby, Marie, Banelli, Bonnie, Lily, Maple and Josie (Esme has also lost her life at the hands of a predator).  Then in a matter of 12 hours... we increased our herd by 50% - 4 babies born.  We now have Mason and Coaltrain (twins from Banelli) and Alpha and Omega (twins from Josie).  I missed all them from being born by less than 30 minutes.  I was checking on them, went back to the house for something, came back and they were wet and laying on the ground.

I have to admit that next to human babies, baby goats are probably the second sweetest babies I have ever seen (even better than puppies or kittens)!

Coaltrain playing in the pipe - he is only 2 days old here.

Omega getting some lunch

Alpha

Mason

 

Stone Door

The things we do for love.

I love Rod, I promise I do....

And that is why I agreed to do a huge hike!

The story starts off that he wanted to do a hike to a place called Raven's Point.  I finally agreed that I was willing.  As I started doing a little research, I started to get worried.  There were experienced hikers that were blogging that it was the most challenging hike they had ever done.  Certainly I was getting nervous, but figured I could tough anything out.

Saturday morning finally comes.  Rod, Bear and I pack up.  We had already spent a couple of week looking like fools.  We have been walking our driveway each night.. with our pack on.  I'm sure our neighbors were looking at us like we were crazy hiking done the driveway with backpacks.  Saturday morning the packs weighed approximately 15 pounds for Bear; 25 pounds for me and 35 pounds for Rod.  This included all our water (which Rod and I disagreed over how much to take and I won out and it was a VERY good thing) all our food, tent, blankets, change of clothes, and air mattress (not big ones, more like a kindergarten mat thickness).

We stopped to get one last good meal at IHOP and then headed to Mont Eagle.  When we got to the ranger station to check in for the campsite we were told that Raven Point campsite was already full.  She then proceeded to tell us that 90% of all their rescues were from the bottom of that trail!  Obviously the nervousness that I had was for good reason.  She also told us that just a few week ago they  had to rescue a dog because he hurt his leg on the shifting rocks.  Unfortunately this particular hike was the ONLY one that Rod and I had researched.  We didn't have a backup plan, but the ranger did.  She directed us to another ranger station where we could check in for a different campsite.  When we got to that station we had two options.  One had 3 groups of boy scouts and 15 other campsites all full and the other was only 7 campsites and no groups.  So we chose the other - a place call Saw Mill campsite.  This would be a 5 miles in, and then the same 5 miles back out. 

So one last trip to a restroom with running water and toilets at the ranger station and then we were off.  The first major land mark was a place called Stone Door.  This was only 1 mile into the hike and was an easy flat hike.  We took off the packs and went out to take pictures.  You can see we were not even sweating hardly at this point.

 Bear was not real sure about all these steps down.  About 1/2 way down he decided to stop on a ledge and rest!

This is Rod in the middle - Bear is on the right of him. You can see the picture below where he was standing

Bear on the ledge 1/2 way down the steps at Stone Door

After we left Stone Door and continued down into the gulf, we spent the next mile going down close to 1000 feet.  This is the point that I thought both to myself and I am fairly confident I voiced out loud "tomorrow is going to suck coming back up this when I am tired!".

After the "down the mountain" part, we are about 2 1/2 miles into this hike when we come to a swinging bridge!  We did not know that there were going to be these on the trail and we thought "oh no".  We worried that Bear might decide he doesn't like swinging bridges and refuse to cross.  Nope, not my big boy.  He walked right across like a champ.  We even stopped to take pictures and he was so comfortable that he laid down to wait for us!

We hiked for several hours, taking out time.  Stopping when we felt like it, eating lunch on the trail, taking in the sites.  We didn't see anyone else until just before the campground, it was another couple with their dog Rambo.  (who was a chihuahua of all things).

Once at the campsite we were pleased to see that the sites were large.  We didn't have any chairs or anyplace to sit.  First Rod and Bear walked to the only water source on the entire trail to fill up a couple of the water bottles for Bear.  Bear almost got hurt walking over the rocks.  A rock slid and his foot was hunt and he was crying.  Rod was able to get it unstuck and it seemed to be fine.  We dodged a bullet on that one, because at this point we are 5 miles from the closest road and carrying Bear out would have been almost impossible!

After that we pitched out tent, ate dinner, started a fire (to keep the bugs away) and played some cards.  It was very relaxing.  Since we didn't have chairs and we were tired... it was off to bed when the sun went down.

No camping trip is complete without at least one bathroom story!  This camping trip is no exception.  Bear was made to sleep outside of the tent.  He started whining  in the middle of the night.  I thought it was probably getting close to 4:00 a.m. and I looked for my watch.  I was shocked - it was ONLY midnight.  UGH we still had 5+ hours before daylight.  First Rod went out of the tent and walked Bear.  He marked his 1,000th tree for the day.  More whining.  Then Rod and I talked about if he is scared of the noises and dark (he is an inside baby, remember).  So we finally broke down and brought him into the tent.  30 minutes of him pacing, panting, and whining.  So Rod put him back outside (he was tethered to Rod's pack).  As soon as he put him back outside we hear him dragging the pack into the woods a little way and then a noise that I don't think I could describe right now if I wanted to.  Lets just say.... he had been holding it for a while... apparently Bear does not like to go to the bathroom while on a leash.... 2 minutes later... he was snoring and Rod and I could finally go to sleep!

Day 2:  Morning starts with breakfast.  We had bacon, biscuits, bagels and eggs.  The bacon and biscuits were precooked and we just heated them up.  Rod cooked his eggs on a little stove called a pocket rocket.  It was all good and we were ready to go.  On Saturday we had drank a little over 1/2 our water.  This meant that our packs were lighter by many pounds.  That was a very good thing!  We took back off down the trail.  Just like on Saturday, we didn't rush.  We stopped and rested when we wanted to, ate lunch, and explored. 

The terrain for this hike was certainly different from any that I have been on.  It was not a park setting.  There were boulders we had to cross, ledges on a hillside without any kind of guard rail, and then some easy spots as well.  After about 4 hours we were back at stone door again.

Brandy and Bear at base of Stone Door



Bear at the cool tree photo op!




Rod and Bear - I love this picture



So the trip was 10 miles and as reluctant as I was... in the end... I enjoyed my time alone with my husband - with no phone, no TV, not even a radio.  The only electronic we took was a GPS.  I was tired, had a few aches and pains, but I had a huge feeling of accomplishment at the end.  Without passing anyone on the trail for 9 miles of the 10, we had lots of quiet alone time to talk.  It was certainly a special bonding time!

Jr. Sr. Banquet

Tori goes to a private school that is somewhat narrow in their view of what is acceptable. So that means no dancing and no prom.  They have a banquet that they call Jr./Sr. Banquet.  As a Junior, Tori was able to attend this year.  She went with two friends Paige and Jeffery.  I'm thinking Jeffery was one lucky guy walking in with Tori and Paige on his arm!

The day started with Tori skipping school.  Then Tori, Paige, Michaela, and Rachel went to get their nails done.  Tori had been growing hers out for weeks and they were beautiful.  They looked so good, people thought they were fake.

Next came hair:  Jennifer, Tori's youth pastor, is also a hair dresser.  Tori went to her house and Jennifer made Tori's hair beautiful.  She did a technique that is called threading.  She actually used a needle and thread to "sew" Tori's hair up.  It held amazingly well.

On the way to Jennifer's house, Tori saw a field of flowers.  She decided to pick a bouquet as a "thank you" to Jennifer.  I got over there about 2 hours after Tori did and she asked me to go get her surprise for Jennifer out of the truck.  What Tori didn't realize is that these flowers were not going to make it in the heat in her truck for 15 minutes, much less 2 hours.  But it is always the thought that counts :-)

After nails and hair, it is time for makeup and then pictures.  We headed to Jeffery's house for the pictures.  The setting was great and the girls looked beautiful.  One of my friends said that Tori looked like a Greek goddess in the picture below and I couldn't agree more!

And here is a picture of the luckiest guy of the night with two beautiful young ladies - inside and out!

Their ride:  (since it didn't have A/C... this is why it was a good thing that Jennifer had Tori's hair put up really good)

Tori's new wheels

I guess they do make motorcycles with training wheels... they are just now called spiders or Can-am's.  But Tori was done with training wheels when she was four.  So she only wants two wheels. 

One of her friends was taking a free motorcycle safety course for teens.  Tori asked if she could take it as well.  I might have not thought this whole thing through when I said yes.  I really didn't think she had enough money (or would spend it) to buy a decent bike. 

She came out of the training class graduating 3rd out of 10 in the class.  There were 2 girls and 8 guys so she was pretty pumped on outscoring 6 teenage boys. 

Fast forward a week and one of my co-workers has a motorcycle for sale.  It had a few problems and he sold it to her for below wholesale.  So $1,000 lighter in the pocket, she was 450 pounds heaver in wheels.  She bought a 2003 Honda Shadow.  Obviously there are TONS of rules of when, where, and with who she is allowed to ride with.

MUSH!

The simple way of stating it is - Bear needs a job!  He seems to get bored easily, has a lot of energy, wants to please, and is very strong.  Obviously we have a lot of work around her that can be done.  Sometimes when I am cooking, his job is to catch anything left on the floor. He does that job very good.  Other times after meals when the table needs to be cleaned off - another job he is doing good at!  But all of these are indoor and they are not the masculine jobs that he really needs to do.  So Rod has decided that to earn his keep around here, he is going to learn to help haul wood.

The first step was to buy a quality harness for him.  Rod ordered one off the internet that is working good.  Next he had to build some type of sled. This first version is just a piece of wood with some plastic on the front to help it glide on the ground and some hooks for the rope.

Next, Rod needed to show Bear how it was done. 

And now it is Bear's turn.  He was not real sure about this.  He kept turning around and looking at the sled.  We worked with him for about 10 - 15 minutes and then the next day Rod worked with him with a small load.  Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of him with the wood on there.  By the 2nd day he was pulling it much better. 

Big 40 for Brandy

Lordy, Lordy, I have turned 40.  I know a girl is not supposed to tell her age, but I figured most everyone already knows so it doesn't matter now.

A birthday is just one more day, but there is just something a little different when that new number is equally divisible by 10.  It is a new start of more than just a new year, but a new decade.  Waking up on the morning of my 40th birthday, I lay in bed with Rod and we talked for a few minutes about how fortunate we are.  I am starting off this decade with an wonderful husband who I love and who loves me.  A 17 year old who is one of the most compassionate and caring individuals of anyone that I know.  A 12 year old that is turning into such an amazing young lady.  I am very proud of them both.  Next we live in an great home that I love.  Both Rod and I have great jobs that affords us to not have financial problems.  And I personally enjoy all the animals that share out home with us.

Enough of the sappy stuff here is what the rest of the day  held.  Rod had told me that we were having family over, eating pizza, and then going to a movie.  So most of the morning/early afternoon was spent at the house and then out with Tori.  Tori and I ran several errands (Sweet n Sassy to get something Tori needed, JoAnn's to get something else Tori needed, Scultz Monument company to let my friend Pam get a Bear "fix", Which Wich to eat lunch with Tori and Bear, and PetSmart to show Bear off a little).  After all that running around it was almost time for my family to get here for the pizza.

Tori spent the time waiting on them to complete my birthday cake that she made.  It was a homemade cake with homemade butter cream frosting.  Then she took about 15 - 20 pictures and had them printed on edible sugar paper.  She cut them out and put them on the cake. 

At about 6:00 my family started showing up and then I was surprised to see my friend Pam and her husband, next came Denise, then Joy... Obviously the "movie" was just a way to throw me off and Rod had planned a surprise birthday party!

My family, his family, old friends, and new friends all showed up.  The night was great and we had a good time.  Mom and Christy made me a DVD of pictures of my life.  It was touching and funny and I loved it.  We ate lots of food, had great conversation, and many, many laughs.  Thanks to all my family and friends for helping me to welcome this new decade!

Here are a few pics from the evening:

My favorite pizza - thin crust with green olive.

Lighting 40 candles takes several people

Blowing out 40 candles takes a lot of breath!

Beaver Creek Day 3

Day 3 started with the trek to Beaver Creek.  Again, there were problems getting up there.  The gondola didn't open so we waited at a bus stop.  The first bus to come by was full so we had to wait 30 minutes for the next one.  We finally made it to ski school a little over an hour after we started trying to get there.  It looked much more like a zoo than a school.  After about 40 more minutes both the kids were settled and heading off with their instructors.

Since Tori has the stress fracture in her leg, the doctor told her she could not ski because the boots would hit her right were the fracture was at.  He said that as long as her pain level was low enough she could snow board.  That is why she enrolled in snow boarding school.  She really liked her instructor.  She spent the majority of the day on her bottom in the snow. 

Tina was with a group of kids that had a big range in ages.  She still enjoyed the day and I was even able to watch for her and catch some pictures of her coming down the slopes.

Rod realized that he didn't ski as good as he remembered.  Mark realized that he is aging.  Rick was still as good as he remembered :-)

Beaver Creek Day 2

Day 2 of our vacation had us all up a little early.  There is a time change and many of us are getting older.  The days of sleeping late are over.  So we all got up and headed to breakfast at Bob's Place for breakfast.  Then Rod, Rick, Mark, and Tina went to explore the town while Annette, Tori, and I went to Walmart to grocery shop.  Lots of food later, we all met back up at the hotel.

This day was basically just a "recoup" day and we were lazy in the room.  Tina beat Rod at her new game, Stratego. 

While they were out in the morning, they went up Beaver Creek Village.  Tina was so excited because they were giving away free cookies, had ice sculptures, and she said that night they were going to have FREE ICE SKATING. 

So after dinner ( Spaghetti and salad) we all loaded up and took off to Beaver Creek Village.  It was a challenge getting there because we thought the gondola was running and it was not.  We waited on a bus that didn't come.  Finally we walked a good ways to another bus route and finally made it up there. 

We found the outdoor ice rink and were ready to skate.  I was worried that with it being free it would be packed, but it was not too crowded.  Rod, Rick, Mark, Tori, and Tina were all going to skate.  Annette and I were going to take pictures.  I walked up to Rod after they had their skates and he told me that this "free skating" cost $75!!!!  The skating was free.... but the skate rental was $15 per person plus tax!!!!!!!

They skated for about an hour and had a good time.

The skating gang!

Warming her hands by the fire while on the ice rink :-)

Traveling to Beaver Creek

Christmas breakfast is over and it is time to head to the airport.  Our flight is on Frontier Airlines and is just shy of 3 hours.  This will take us to Denver and from there it is a 2 - 3 hour drive to Beaver Creek.  The flight was basically uneventful.  We all read, slept, or played sudoku.

After we landed, it took us about an hour to get our luggage and rent a car and hit the road.  Now it is getting close to 7 and none of us have eaten since breakfast.  At this point, Christmas morning seemed like it was days ago.  We started looking for places to eat.  Mark says "There is a Chili's sign, would that be OK with everyone".  To which we all replied "Sure".  So we exit the interstate and notice that all the lights are out.  Then it dawns on us that .... it is STILL Christmas!!!  So everything is going to be closed.  We should have eaten at the airport where there were still places open.  So now we are on a hunt to find someplace that is open on Christmas day that is not a rotating hot dog in a gas station.

We thought we were in luck... Denny's across the street... Nope, closed also.  Now Rick and I are both on our phones looking for a Waffle House, Huddle House, etc.  Anything that might be open.  We finally spot a McDonald's and a Carl Jr's.  WooHoo!!  They were both packed.  We settled on the Carl Jr's and were all happy to have Christmas Dinner.  Not exactly what was expected, but grateful none the less.  We certainly had a lot of laughs getting to that point! 

Here is the picture of Christmas Dinner 2011!!! :-)  I think Rod was the hungriest!

The rest of the ride to the hotel was uneventful and we settled in nicely and we all asleep quickly.