Another Year Older

It was my birthday today, again. When will it end?!? I haven't quite grasp hold of the whole "The Thirties are the new Twenties" concept yet. I was not this tired and wrinkly in my twenties. Oh well, until I'm ready to go under the knife I guess I'll deal with it. I had a great birthday. I got to go out to eat for lunch and dinner. Nothing like good greasy food to make you feel better, until you get home that is. If you're ever in town you gotta go by the Broadway Diner and try the Stagecoach Burger. It's your basic large, greasy, bacon cheeseburger but with one extra topping...a fried egg. You read that right, a fried egg. Nothin' Better. After dinner we came home played outside with the neighbors and then had cake. Mmmmmm....cake. Now I may have to be rolled to bed, but it was all worth it. I'll worry about my cholesterol tomorrow.

Where did the camera come from?

Top Ten Ways You Know You're In A Small Town

10: You can't take more than two bites of your lunch at the local sandwich shop without someone
stopping to say hi.

9: You can't complain about a neighbor to a random person without them knowing them
personally (open mouth, insert foot).

8: The crime report each day consists of four people being detained for being under the
influence, one is always from Arkansas.

7: You need a family tree mapped out for the local church.

6: There are only 3 food stands at the county fair, and no fried twinkies.

5: Everyone you see on Monday, wonders why they didn't see you at the Stew Cook-Off on
Saturday.

4: You don't have to worry about traffic on Friday night because everyone, I mean everyone
(including myself) is at the high school football game. (By the way, ESPN covered one of our
games on Sept 11th and I was on TV)

3: The ONLY place in town to buy socks and underwear is Wal-Mart.

2: Every gas station in town is named Joe-Bob's and I actually know Joe Bob, (really I do, he's
super nice).

1: Your son makes the front page of the local newspaper for learning to wash his hands.

Jonathan's class had some high schoolers come in to teach proper hand washing techniques and the paper was there to take pictures. Apparently this was the biggest thing going on that day so it made the front page. That's him in the bottom left corner with the dark shirt. When I picked him up from school and told him there was a picture of him on the front of the newspaper his only response was "AGAIN". We've already been in the paper for Jeff's grand opening and evidently the fame of it all is getting to Jonathan. When will those paps leave him alone.

All kidding aside, we really love it here and encourage all of you to move.

Ah...farm life.

Well, we had our first farm fatality yesterday. Jacob's chicken, Nugget, got sick last week. He kept falling asleep standing up and bobbing his head around. Then he started getting "foamy eyes". Then he started making weird noises in his sleep. So Jeff reads up on chicken illnesses and everything says just kill it. Well, neither Jeff nor I could do it so I head to the local feed store to pick up some OTC general antibiotics. We isolate the bird and give him meds for a few days but it just didn't seem to be working. Yesterday morning, before school, Hannah and Rachel go out to check on the animals and Rachel comes back in yelling "the chick is dead, the chick is dead". Yep, it was. So after I get everyone to school I get a trash bag, scoop up the chicken, put it in the trash (don't worry trash day was today), and I'm done. But wait, I'm not. Jeff calls to say we should probably take a picture of the bird with the date so we can get a replacement. Did I mention I had already thrown it away. You guessed it, I exhumed the body, and boy was it stiff. I started to post the picture but thought it might be too much. Luckily the kids took it well. We told them "that's farm livin".
So.... You were a good bird Nugget, Thanks for the memories.

Lesson Learned

Don't you just hate it when your kids are smarter than you. Well, it happened to me this morning. We've been getting the after effects of the hurricane and therefore alot of rain. Last night Jeff and I had to put tarps over the bunnies and chickens to keep them somewhat dry. This morning Jacob offered to go out before school and check on everything. He comes back in a minute later and says the hurricane opened Sundae's cage and he was gone. I start freaking out and spend the next 10 minutes searching our small backyard to no avail. I come back in and announce that the bunny is gone forever. The kids are sad and asking what to do. I say "nothing he's gone and we're not going to find him". They're still upset so I half-heartedly say "maybe you should all say a prayer to find him". So my four kids gather together in the dining room and Hannah says a prayer on behalf of them all. I, being the terrible mother I am, am trying to finish up packing lunches. After the prayer, everyone gets up to finish getting ready for school. Not 30 seconds later, our neighbor rings the doorbell and says our bunny is out front. I'm lucky my kids have such faith.

It's all about the poop!

TRUE STORY: Two women in the neighborhood are out taking a walk around our block. The first woman turns to the second and says "Have you noticed it smells more like cows around here lately?" The second woman says "Yeah, it's that new family on the block, the Smiths."

Unfortunately she's telling the truth.

We finally got all the beds made and placed in the ground. Now it's time to fill them with dirt, no wait I mean poop, and lots of it. Being that this is one of the dairy capitals of the world there is a surplus of cow waste that you can get pre-mixed with chicken waste and other such fillers. Apparently it makes really good compost and therefore a great garden mix, according to Jeff. So we borrow my dad's truck and I'm off to the land of stink. By this I mean a long tunnel with piles of different kinds of animal waste along each side. The very sweet old farmer says he's got a nice mix for me and we head to a pile in the middle. He gets in is mini bull-dozer thing and gets a big scoop to drop in the bed of my truck. I immediately see all this steam coming from the pile and then the smell hits me. Rachel says "that's some stinky poop mom". So true Rachel, so true. Well we make it home OK bringing with us countless numbers of flies. It just sits in the back till Jeff gets home and then we start a-shoveling. This is sooooo not what I thought it meant to be a doctor's wife. I not really that much of a snob but come on I'm shoveling manure. After we're done we've got three of the six beds filled and I've got to go back. The next day I head back and get another load and bring it home and start filling beds on my own. When Jeff gets home we mix in a few other non-offensive things and we're done. I must admit they look really nice. This really dark dirt in contrast with the new wood and the green grass. Luckily the house next door is empty because our whole back yard smells like a pasture. Oh well, at least I'm done with the poop part.

But wait, my lovely husband has more plans. Who keeps giving him these farm books????

You know what would make great fertilizer for the future garden. Rabbit POOP! You heard me, rabbits. My next task is to go to Canton and get rabbit cages and then go to Tyler to pick up rabbits on Friday. "We'll just rotate their cages around every so often and it'll be great for the garden" he says. OK fine. Friday morning I talk to him before I leave and he slips in "get one cage for the rabbits and one for the chickens". WAIT, WHAT?!? Now we're getting chickens. "That was always the plan" he says. Whatever.




So now we have 2 rabbits, Carmel (all brown) and Sundae (white with brown spots). Get it... Carmel Sundae! And, 4 chickens Leggs (white), Midnight (black), Nuggett and no name (white and black Bramas). If you have any good chicken names floating around I'm open to suggestions.

All the new animals are a big hit. Jake's the bravest, He reaches right in and grabs the chickens and he's the official feeder of all the animals. We did have one close call the first day we had them. We didn't have a very good shade system set up and Jake went out to check on everything and one of the rabbits was drooling and not moving much so we had to bring it in and get it cooled off. Now before you call PETA we fixed the problem and all animals are doing fine. The chickens spend their time pecking in the grass for bugs and the rabbits are getting plenty of treats.

So just in case your keeping track.....
That makes 1 dog, 2 tortoises (coming shortly-our last ones died), 4 snakes, 2 rabbits, 4 chickens, and thousands of flies. We could probably charge admission by now.

We almost made it without any tears...

The first day of school was Monday and the kids were so excited. They had everything picked out and packed the night before. That morning they even all got up the first time I called (not normal) and were ready early. Hannah was starting the 3rd grade and Jacob was starting the 1st. As we walked in they still seemed pretty excited. Hannah only cared about finding her best friend from across the street and I never really was worried about her. Jake's looking good so we head to his class first. He walks right in and straight to his desk still looking calm. Now he would be one I might worry about but he's doing great and I'm impressed with him. Then he hears his teacher telling another student to go put his backpack in his locker and that was all it took for poor Jake to lose it. His eyes well up and he makes a beeline for me. I asked him what was wrong and he tearfully said "I forgot to put my backpack in my locker". I look back now and think there were two reason for this reaction.

1: He'd been trying so hard to be brave it just took one little thing to set him off.

2: At meet the teacher the week before someone had jokingly told him he had the meanest teacher in the whole school. This didn't go over well then and I think he remembered it at that moment.

Well, after some brief reassurance from me and the teacher that everyone was forgetting that he was fine. He went back to his desk and didn't look at me again. I dropped Hannah off (no drama there) and then it was Jonny's turn.

Jonathan is starting Kindergarten and he is at a separate school about 7 minutes away so we pile in the car and head there. He walks in confident, goes straight to his locker (he learned from Jacob's mistake) and then into the classroom. He did act a little shy but no real problems.

Now it's just me and Rachel till it's time to pick everyone up. She was great over the summer playing with her siblings and having fun on her own but it will be interesting to see if she gets clingy again now that they're gone.

At the end of the day everyone said they had a great day and wanted to go back. Let's see how long that lasts.

Oh The Aches and Pains of It All...

Well, this has been a week of manual labor for me, and if you know me at all you know that it's not something I enjoy. It all started Tuesday (it was supposed to start Monday but my procrastination kicked in), with the garage. Now we've been here about two months and I've been ignoring the garage. I would even park the car in the driveway and walk with groceries all the way around to the front door to avoid it. But I couldn't take it any longer, neither could the rest of the family for that matter. Every time the kids wanted a bike or ball, or every time Jeff wanted some tool I would have everybody stand back while I waded through broken down boxes, weight equipment, shower curtain rods with the curtain still attached (don't ask) and who knows what else. I really think the city could have condemned it if they wanted to. So anyway bright and early Tuesday morning, well 9:00 anyway I went at it. Pulled everything out into the driveway, separated it all into piles, and then it started to rain. Have I mentioned I don't like physical work. Now the Gods are against me. So I pulled things back in just far enough to not get wet and went to work. Building shelves, going up and down the attic stairs, and sweeping spiders from everything. About 5:30 I decide I'm done for a while and Jeff comes home. Good Thing---He says it looks alot better, Bad Thing---He tells me I stink. Well of course I stink my body isn't used to this. It's physically rejecting work. Really, it happens. You'd think it would be the end of it but oh no I've got another day and a half to go. But now I'm happy to say we can fit both cars into the garage, which is good because Thursday my car window broke and wouldn't roll up all the way.

So now Friday rolls around. Jeff has decided that he is going to build the garden beds. (I think because the wood was taking up space in my beautiful garage.) I'm thinking great, good for him, he enjoys gardening so. Late Friday afternoon Jeff is off so he gets out his work bench and his wood and his oil and starts treating the wood. I watch from inside the house where I should be. About dusk he comes in (these mosquitoes are killer) and says to me "Would you finish up oiling the boards tomorrow morning so when I get home I can start building?" WHAT...haven't I done my work quota for the year by now. Well being that he's so cute and can reach the really high things, I guess I could help. It's just wiping some oil on a few boards right. So the next morning I'm up bright and early again, (9:00) and I go out to the garage to survey the situation. There are 20 boards left, and these are big boards, and it's AUGUST IN TEXAS! Fine, it will take a couple of hours then I'll be done. I finish about noon. Then HE gets home.

They're all done I say.

Great, will you help me build them I can't do it by myself he says.

What's that part about together forever again......

After a VERY VERY long day, many many bruises, and some choice thoughts I don't care to reveal here, it's all done. Everything's been measured, measured again, cut, screwed, unscrewed, and rescrewed. They actually look pretty nice.


Now we really have six of these and they're each 4 foot by 8 foot. They still need to be flipped over, secured to the ground and filled with dirt, but then we can start planting. And after that it's all easy right? All I know is he better be growing me something chocolate, or at least be bringing it home.

We'll see if I'm any better...

So now everyone I know has these great blogs going and I'm all jealous but Jeff doesn't quite have the time to keep ours up so I'm going to give it a try. Since the last post we've baptized Hannah, watched Jonathan turn five, went to Utah for Christy's wedding, and Oh Yeah, moved to a new city and started a job. (Well, Jeff started a job and I'm an unofficial personal secretary.) We now live in Sulphur Springs, Texas. I know, I know you've never heard of it. Go east from Dallas about 1 hour and you'll find it. Jeff has started a solo practice so the month of July was spent trying to get that up and ready. For me that meant lots of trips to Dallas and Ikea (gotta love that store) for random office supplies. (Maybe I forgot to mention that in this town of ours the only stores are Wal-Mart, Brookshires, and Lowes. At least nothing is too long of a drive away.)

We were able to take a couple of trips this summer. The end of June we traveled to Provo for Jeff's sister's wedding. I actually drove out with the kids and Brad and Karrie and Milo (an adventure too painful to write) and Jeff got to fly out (he said he had to be back to work but I'm pretty sure he could have worked around that if he wanted to). Utah was fun. We partied with the siblings and cousins, mostly playing Rock Band. Turns out Hannah wants to be a pop star when she grows up and Jeff wants to be in the band. Christy's wedding was great. The kids all thought they were so special with their matching outfits. Hannah keeps asking me when she gets to be a flower girl again.

Our second trip was too our favorite vacation spot...Galveston. Now I know you might be thinking--Galveston, really?--but we get to stay with Uncle Brad, Aunt Karrie, and Milo and go the beach. Jeff and I even got to spend the night in Houston for our 9th anniversary by ourselves. THANKS BRAD AND KARRIE!!!!!

Alright, well being that it's taken me about an hour to get this far, we'll see if I make anymore posts. Even if I don't I still love reading yours.

Turning Over the Reigns

Well, if you hadn't figured it out...I, Jeff, had initiated this blog and maintained the few posts that it had... As of tonight, my lovely wife has informed me that we have gotten some complaints on my lack of recent interest in the site (thanks a lot Lorie!). So, the rest of the posts should be up to Kari and all blame for the content (or lack there of) should be directed at her (author's disclaimer)!

Spring has sprung!

I think I'd be better at this whole blog thing if I could figure out the technology-end of it to suit my inherit laziness. Here's the dizzying logic--1)I never feel like posting unless I have pictures to post; 2) I have to load pictures on the home computer; 3) I hate to use the home computer; thus 4) I never post. There's a way to network pictures and all of that, but none of that has panned out as of yet and I am too lazy to pursue it any further. So, the frequency of posts will probably continue to dwindle.

Well, Easter weekend was pretty fun! It was the height of March Madness--always a reason to watch more TV (and continue to contribute to the lack of blogging). Then there was Easter. The pic above shows the kids scrounging up the remaining eggs that were not pilfered by some neighbor's kid at my parents' apartment complex (who steals Easter eggs?). And then there's Uncle Brad who spent the weekend bemoaning his black eye (which he says some horse gave him, though geriatric eye witnesses state it was self-inflicted...that's Brad for ya'. Blaming poor beasts of burden).

Well, we thought we had settled on Sulphur Springs as the future destination. That is if they ever get a finalized draft of the contract to us! Good thing we're pretty laid back--otherwise there'd be another bald Smith to add to the mix.

Well, now that the basketball brackets are a bust, maybe life will get back to normal. Not promising anything, though.

However, I am taking advantage of Photoshop's new foray into the online "photo sharing" world. Check out jeffandkari.photoshop.com for more pics from our latest spring break trip to Dallas!

King of Kong and other musings

Man... didn't realize we didn't get a single post in during the entire month of February! A lot has happened. Not much of it blogworthy but here it is nonetheless...

First of all--must see DVD rental of the year is The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. Even if you have absolutely no interest whatsoever in '80s arcade games, this documentary will suck you in and you'll find yourself rooting for some middle-aged Donkey Kong champion. Trust me on this one, you won't regret seeing it. I only see like 3 movies a year and watched this one twice!

Valentine's was fun this year. Everybody was actually home and available! It's fun to watch the kids make all their valentines. This whole thing with kids not being able to address the specific valentines to other kids is a little over the top. I understand the whole "make everyone feel included", but come on. Everyone knows they try and slip the "flashiest" valentine of the bunch to their little crushes. You can't take that away from kids. If a kid isn't gonna get Valentines, don't you think it would be better to start now and ease them into reality slowly (I'm kidding--I don't really believe that...I'm just saying... hypothetically).

That being said we had the annual China Spring Elementary barn dance. Even as I type this I can imagine all of our non-Texan friends rolling their eyes back in their heads and thinking "let me get this straight--Valentine nazis, and yet the Baptist capital of the world is letting their ankle-biters dosie-doe?!" I know, crazy, huh. It was pretty funny to see the kids get into it. I think little Rachel was doing the chicken dance better than her mom! Jake was already waltzing with his sweetheart down the street. I guess it's like the song--"Momma, don't let your sons grow up and be cowboys"--amen.

Soccer is in full swing. Jake is really getting into the action. Jonathan, on the other hand, was in rare form. He had a melt-down at team pictures. When I tried to make him apologize to his coach after the game, he started crying. Nothing puts two grown adults in an awkward spot faster than dealing with some kid crying for who knows what reason.

Well, pics should follow. Never a dull moment.

Reconnaissance...complete?

Sorry the posts have been few and far between. A lot of it has to do with the fact that for some reason, I feel the need to post a picture every time. So, this post will be sans photo. The last week and a half have been spent driving around Texas again. You would think we'd be used to it by now--we haven't exactly been the most stationary couple over the past 8+ years. At least the kids are older (and easily entertained with new hotel rooms every couple of days and pit stops at Grandpa and Grandmas house). The car DVD player is definitely paying for itself!

So, what's the verdict? Let's just say the older I get, the more indecisive I am. It takes me weeks of internet research to decide which shaving cream to try next--how can I be expected to bear the weight of where our family will spend the next 20+ years living happily (I hope)? Time is against us at this point--we really do need to make a decision within the next couple of weeks.

Who's in the running--initially Athens was the only real option. Port Lavaca was thrown into the mix (mainly 'cuz if we're gonna stay in Texas I wanted to at least consider the coast). Some last minute research from Kari pulled Decatur into the viewing. And after a phone call from a rep has us searching for Mt Pleasant we noticed we had overlooked Sulphur Springs. So, those are probably the Final Four (although the phone still rings frequently with other offers). Now it's just distilling all the myriad of variables to see which town will be the most compatible with our family.

Any suggestions?

1,2...3

Rachel had her big day on Saturday. It only took us 3 days of prepping her (both before and after the actual day) to help her realize that she was "2" and now she's "3". It was nice that her birthday fell on a Saturday. We could do the family thing as well as have a party with her friends all on the same day. Rachel had her friends over in the morning for her "My Littly Pony Party" (not trademarked--please don't sue me Hasbro). It was a nice enough day that the majority of the party was spent just playing with odds and ends (read: junk) in the back yard. The only game played was "Pin the Tail on the Donkey (I mean pony)" and it was a real hit. It looked like some pony came into the house and puked pink everywhere--pink cake, pink lemonade, pink ice cream--Rachel's heaven (and my hell).

The evening was spent rubbing elbows with Waco urbanites at Peter Piper's Pizza. I think the kids are developing a bit of a gambling habit. I had to pull Jacob away from those ticket games like ten times. Remind me not to take the kids to Vegas--I think they'd hawk their dad if it meant sticking a quarter in a machine for a single ticket!

All in all it was a good day. Thanks for the presents and calls. It has been like a big long "Pony Christmas" for Rachel--now, where to put them all!

Christmas Craziness!

Well, the blur that was Christmas has come and gone yet again! Every year the getting and giving of presents gets less exciting for us--but it definitely gets more exciting to watch the kids.

We also enjoy the contact with familiar faces. We got our card off and were glad to hear from so many of our old friends. Where does the time go?

Well, Christmas (in a nutshell) was spent up in Dallas again this year. We split the time with the McClanahans and the Smiths. It was good to see all the siblings (minus Kurt and his family stuck out in Cincinnati). Christy brought the new boyfriend down to meet the family. At first we thought the guy was crazy for dedicating so much of Christmas break to be crammed into a tiny apartment with all of our family. But, he seems like an okay kid--so we didn't hold it against him.

The girls got clothes and dolls. The boys got video games and Red Rider BB guns (and "no", they haven't shot their eyes out yet!).

Here's wishing you all a Happy New Year early! Keep in touch during 2008!

Dancing with the Star!

Hannah made her big dancing debut this week! Kari's dance gene must have double penetrance because goodness knows I have no interest in this sort of thing. Basically it was a weekend workshop and a dress rehearsal followed by 15 minutes of dance spread out over an exhausting hour. Hannah's group danced about 90 seconds of that entire time. Despite the look of terror in our daughter's eyes (and the stuffed chihuahua's for that matter), I think Hannah's stage fright is getting better. Santa made his debut at the end of the performance and Kari got to explain to the other thee kids why Santa only had a candy cane for Hannah's happy feet and nothing for the kids in the audience that had to endure the grueling performance. No permanent harm done--I'm sure it'll make the truth about the faults of Santa easier to swallow down the road.

Christmas...again

Yes, it's that time of year again. The time we spend hours moving junk around the garage only to get more junk out of the attic. Then we haul down boxes upon boxes of decorations. Then there's the time spent setting everything up (only to find the top 1/3 and every other branch along the bottom of your pre-lit Christmas tree won't light anymore). By the time it's all over the only thing I can think about is how much of a pain it will be to shove all that junk (and, of course, the stuff that's accumulated this year) back into their boxes and back into the attic! Don't even get me started on stringing Christmas lights around the roof outside (only to find out there's a short fuse somewhere in the line--twice)!

But, it is fun to see how excited the kids get. In fact, they had the tree decorated in under 5 minutes. Now if I could only teach them to write the yearly Christmas card!

the tooth, and nothing but...

...the tooth. Another typical week at the Smith household. Take a good look and Jonathan tooth #8 (that right upper central incisor). Due to a good game of chase the loose ball at the gym, Jonathan (with some aid from Jacob) ate the hard wood. The wreckage entailed some bleeding and wiggling and--after a trip to the dentist--a death sentence for old #8. So, the less-than white tooth of Johnny's will be headed for greyer waters. Took one last pic for posterity. Luckily, God gave us permanent teeth to follow. However, if Smith genetics prevail, Jonathan will be able to show off "Ol' Grey" for a number of years yet.

Otherwise, not a whole lot else going on. We'll be working on Christmas cards this week. Maybe we will have them out before Christmas this time around!

First Entry

Well, it's official... the Smith Family has entered the 21st century. Dad kinda started the weekly letter thing. I thought this might be a venue for us "Waco Smiths" to do that as well as sharing photos to a broader community. Also, it would let those interested browse when they want to (and in turn ignore when they want to). It just seems like the family is getting more distant and the kids are growing up fast, so this might be a way to keep everyone up to speed. I am not making any promises has to how timely or often this might be updated, but it's a start.

So what's the latest news?... Well, we ventured back to the Dallas area for Thanksgiving. We celebrated Milo's 2nd birthday on Wednesday night (actual birthday was Friday). Got to check out Brad and Kari's new Prius. Like the car... wish we like the color! Thanksgiving wouldn't be Thanksgiving if it wasn't at the Pierings. We did the double dinner, splitting half the time with Mom and Dad and the other half with the McClanahan's (and 20+ guests). It always ends up the same... us in some tryptophan-induced haze that ends with a great deal of sleeping.

I gave myself my early Christmas present--a digital Pentax SLR. It's an attempt to get better pics of the kids. The sad thing is we have taken only about 50+ pics since Rachel was born. Mom is doubtful (so am I for that matter), but we'll give it a shot.

This month, I am back on service (translates into taking call and having 2 weekends off this month). Needless to say, we're looking forward to seeing everyone again at Christmas.

Well, that's enough for a first entry... We'll see what follows...