Pumpkin Carving

All the kids had a good time carving pumpkins. Winnie didn't like to touch the inside at first but then she really got into it. OHHH AHHH she was yelling as she pulled out the seeds. There were seeds from one end of the kitchen to the other, a few even found their way into the bedroom. :)

Lexi

We took Lexi to the dentist today. They removed some of her gum tissue from in front and from behind her front two teeth. They had told us today was just a consultation but when we got there the dentist decided to go ahead and do the procedure. Lexi got a little nervous Chandra said but it went well. She does have one stitch in the front incision. She just can't eat anything real hard or crunchy because it will hurt the area they cut out. They said she had so much gum that if they took off the braces the gum tissue would just spread her teeth back out. Now her mouth is hurting a little bit. She decided she couldn't talk a bunch. I was wondering if we could have all the kids done so that there might be a few days of quiet around here. It might just be worth the $500/kid. :)

Surgery

I had my surgery yesterday. I am now officially gall bladder less. It went pretty well we dropped the kids off at school and went to the hospital. The doctor was running about an hour late, which drove me nuts because I am always early for everything. I remember taking about three breaths of what they told me was oxygen and the next thing I knew I was waking up. The nurse was talking to another nurse about her relationship with a guy that wasn't going very well and me being completely out of it I told her it was probably because they were both being buttholes. She promptly told me she did not think that was the case. :) That is the first thing I remember saying, who knows what I said before that. About that time they decided to move me back to the recovery room, I guess they had enough of my insights into their lives. They let me out and it was just in time to pick the kids up from school. I felt sore last night but all in all pretty well. This morning I felt like I could go out and shoe some horses. So after laying around I decided to go with the family to get Lexi's gums looked at by the dentist and go get something to eat. After we ate we decided to go to Menards and look around. We walked around for about an hour and half and I was starting to hurt. When we got to the van I looked at my bandages and one was leaking pretty good. Well we decided to go home and let me take it easy. Now I am hurting a little worse. I think I just over did it a touch. Like it or NOT I am going to have to lay around and take it easy for a little while. I did receive a pair of Grumpy slippers in the mail from the Stacy, Shane, Paige, Chase, Julia and baby Hudson. The Howensteins sent over soup and brownies. Thank both of you very much!!!!

Update

We had the propane people out today and they regooped the joints on all the piping. They said it had looked like the last guy used tub caulk for goop which is not good. Chandra called the Amerigas and they said they would be out tomorrow afternoon to turn back on the propane.

As for me I am felling better. The inflammation has went down.:) It took until about Sunday afternoon before I started to feel better. I have been able to shoe yesterday and today. It is just wearing me out a little more than usual. I was going about crazy just laying around last week. Who knows what I will be like come this weekend. I have had a couple of other horseshoers help me out and are willing to help me out for the next few weeks. I need to get some of the family to start learning how to shoe so that I can have them help me out. My father and father-in-law are both retired you would think one of them would be able to shoe a horse.

Dead Mouse or Propane Leak???

About a week ago we started to smell something out of the ordinary in our house. We decided it was a dead mouse in the duct work. Nothing is better than telling visitors to your house never mind the smell it is just a dead mouse we haven't been able to locate yet. :0 Of course we try to mask the smell with candles or spray but it ends up smelling like a mouse has died in the forest. After tearing apart some of the duct work trying to locate the smell and me and Chandra running around the house with our noses stuck in every crack saying I think it smells worse over here, we decided we were not going to find the cause of the smell. Thursday, after spending the day in the ER on Wednesday, as I was sitting in my chair half loony from the drugs I thought that smells more like propane today. We shut off the gas and called our propane company. They came out and checked and sure enough we have a leak. No we have leaks. The guy who installed the pipe did not use the right dope to seal the threads of the piping and after a few years they all have began to leak. The propane company completely shut off our gas until we have it fixed. Which means no furnace or water heater. With the wood stove we don't use the furnace much anyways so that's no big deal but I like to have hot water. We have a electric hot water heater that runs the mother-in-law suite, so I decided to hook up a hose from the washing machine and run it to the bathroom so we can have hot water to bathe. Nothing says class like a 25 foot garden hose running through your living room and kitchen to the bathroom.

ER

I spent the entire day in the ER. Yesterday I was fine until about 6 p.m. Then all of a sudden my right side started to hurt. Chandra took Lexi to her soccer game and I watched the two little ones. I was in some pain but not too bad. By the time Chandra got home at 9 p.m I was starting to hurt pretty bad. The pain had spread down into my right testicle. I decided not to go spend the night in the ER and see if I could tough it out. Well this morning the pain had went for almost intolerable to excruciating. So after Chandra dropped the kids off at school we went to Grady's ER. I told her on the way I know a few people that work here I really hope I don't see them and have to explain about how my testicle was hurting. Wouldn't you know the very first person that checks me in is one of my customers. :) What brings you in? :0 Then she informs me that another one of my customers is working today. Great!! At this point I am in so much pain I don't really care if I have to strip down in the waiting room and show everybody. After a bunch of test and a few thorough exams, I have Gall Stones. Now the Gall bladder is inflamed and is inflaming my right testicle who really has nothing to do with this expect being amazingly sore. I can't walk, sit or lay down. They gave me some pretty good pain medicine and some antibiotics to bring this inflammation down. Next Thursday they have decided to take out my gall bladder if I can wait that long. Little Winnie sat there all day and did pretty well. Although she did lick everything from one end of the room to the other. We had planned on going to Fort Rapids next Friday and Saturday because the kids have the day off of school well Daddy has ruined that for everyone.

Update

About 12 weeks ago I started trimming this horse. He is a draft horse and probably weighs close to 2100 pounds. :0 I don't usually trim draft horses. This guy is still real nervous and has to be sedated.
I am amazed at how fast his feet have started to look normal. This is a picture of his feet 12 weeks later after being trimmed 3 times. He had been neglected for several years.

Double Chin Reducer

For 3 easy payments of $49.99 you to can rid yourself of your double chins. Just wear this collar made of the very best elephant intestine proven to tighten and firm the chin area every night as you sleep.

Disclaimer: Collar may smell of elephant feces and or flagellation. Collar may cause baldness. Collar may cause a lengthening of the nose. Collar may leave a brown mark around your head.

First Grumpy Hat

It was December 24th and everyone decided it would be fun to go down to the newly built City Center. As we went to leave the car was stuck in the snow. I went to the barn put on my old barn boots and got a shovel to shovel out the car. Everyone else was inside keeping warm. Well I finally got the car out and we all loaded into the station wagon to go to the big city. It wasn't until we were about to park in the City Center's garage that it dawned on me that I was still wearing my barn boots. These boots had been around for a while and had cleaned out a lot of dirty horse stalls, so to say they had a bit of a aroma is an understatement. No big deal I'll just buy me a pair of shoes in one of the stores as soon as we get in there. City Center was brand new and the stores were a little on the pricey side and I am a lot on the cheap side. The first store we looked at the shoes were all around the $200 mark and that wasn't going to happen. By the way these boots were insulated so that as I walked around the mall that was a 100 degrees my own body heat was making the aroma even more pleasant. So after an entire afternoon of me moaning and groaning about my intoxicating smell and why anyone would even want to shop on Christmas Eve, Chandra came out of the Disney Store with my first Grumpy hat which I proudly wore from that day forward.

Riding in the front seat

When me and my sister were kids we used to fight about who got to ride in the front seat of the car. Anytime we went anywhere there was always some fussing that went on about who got the front. Funny thing is neither one of us usually wanted to sit in front on the way home. There was a good reason for this, mainly after a few hours of shopping with us our mother was aggravated at our behavior. On the way home who ever was in the front seat was in the smacking zone.:)

I remember one day going shopping and it started out with us fighting over the front seat. It wasn't too long into the shopping experience that my sister was pressing her luck. Finally our mom got down in my sisters face telling her that if she didn't straighten up we would be going home. Right then my sister decides that she should inform our mom that she had bad breath. She said this loud enough for everyone to hear. That was it we were done shopping and headed back to the car. As we are making a b-line to the car my sister looks at me and says you can sit up front on the way home.

The Poopie List

Ghost Poopie : The kind where you feel the Poopie come out, but there's no poopie in the toilet.

Clean Poopie : The kind where you poopie it out, see it in the toilet, but there is nothing on the toilet paper.

Wet Poopie : The kind where you wipe your butt fifty times and it still feels unwiped, so you have to put some toilet paper between your butt and your underwear so you don't runie them with a stain.

Second Wave Poopie : The kind that happens when you're done poopie-ing and you've pulled your pants up to your knees, and you realize you have to poopie some more.

Turtle Poopie : The kind of poopie that pops out a little and goes back in a few times before it finallly comes out

Pop-a-Vein-in-your-Forehead-Poopie : The kind where you strain so much to get it out, you practically have a stroke.

Lincoln Log Poopie : The kind of Poopie that is so huge you're afraid to flush without first breaking it into little pieces with the plunger.

Gas-sy Poopie : The kind where it's so noisy, everyone within earshot is giggling!

Corn Poopie : (Self explanatory)

Gee-I-Wish-I-Could-Poop Poopie : The kind where you want to Poopie, but all you do is it on the toilet and fart a few times.

Spinal Tap Poopie : That's the kind when it hurts so badly coming out, you swear it was leaving you sideways.

Wet Cheeks Poopie (The Power Dump) : The kind that comes out of your butt so fast, your butt cheeks get spashed with water.

Liquid Poopie : The kind where yellowish-brown liquid shoots you of your butt and spashes all over the toilet bowl.

Mexican Poopie : The kind that smells so bad your nose burns.

Upper Class Poopie : The kind of Poopie that doesn't smell.

The Suprise Poopie : You are not even at the toilet, because you are sure you are about to fart, but, OOPS---a Poopie!

The Dangling Poopie : This Poopie refuses to drop into the toilet even though you know you are done poopie-ing. You just pray that a shake or two will cut it loose.

I got this off of bathroomjokes.com

Shocker Collar

Jag has been staying in the yard a lot better since we installed the invisible fence and placed this shocker collar on him.

Grumpy

Grumpy!!!

Over the years I have started to collect Grumpy hats,t-shirts, and sweat shirts. Some how, about a year ago, I acquired this magnetic Grumpy on my truck. A Grumpy hat many years ago started all of this. Does anyone remember the story behind the first Grumpy hat?

Declaring myself as a Democrat

Any one who knows me knows that I make Rush Limbaugh look like a liberal, and am proud of it. :) I will tell you right now I am not real fond of any of the politicians in office or trying to get there.

The other night I was talking to a wise individual who pointed out that they were considering declaring their self as a Democrat so they could vote in the preliminaries. What a great idea!! I could have a say in the opposing sides nominee. :)

Bovine Lactation Consultant

A few years ago while at Disney during Christmas, we decided to go to a Christmas Dinner. My mom and dad, Chandra and myself attended the dinner. Imagine how thrilled I was to find out we were sitting at tables that sat 10 people. So that meant we had to hold a conversation and be cordial with 6 total strangers, neither of which I am good at doing. We did the polite thing and introduced ourselves, which is where I was hoping it was going to end but like usual someone asked another what they did for a living and now we all had to share. Nobody ever seems to know what a farrier is and if you say horseshoer someone always asks horrified "you shoot horses?" No!! I SHOE horses. For some reason this just drives me nuts anymore. Mainly because I know how the entire conversation is going to go but I can't seem to stop it. After an evening of strangers sharing their complete life story with me and acting like I know their aunt Ruth, who you know has gout real bad, I started thinking of funny occupations I could tell people I did if I was ever in a situation like this again. The one I think I liked best was Bovine Lactation Consultant. This job is about the lactation needs of cows. Proper grip of the utter, proper stroke technique, and basically anything we can do to make the cow happier with it's lactation experience. I know it is odd but it is the only way I can make it through situations like this.

Jag is in Kindergarten

Jaguar started kindergarten this year!! One day not long after the start of school the principal seen Chandra in the hall and informed her that Jag was a lot different than his sister. Chandra's response was we warned you. :) He has been doing really well. He has been in trouble a few times. He has had to stand against the wall during recess for throwing rocks. He has had to run extra laps in gym twice. Once for not being able to hold still and another time because he kept slipping and falling because the gym floor was so slick. The other day he could not quit laughing during nap time and he had to sit at his desk.

Jag has definitely changed my life. If Lexi would have done this a few years ago when she started kindergarten I would have been devastated. I would have thought me and Chandra were the worst parents ever. I would have considered going to counseling or parenting classes. Now it just makes me smile. Jaguar definitely has his own personality but I wouldn't have him any other way.

I wish I had known that side of him

My Uncle Ray passed away last week. I was a little sad to hear from some of the family that attended the funeral that they had seen a different side of Ray through other peoples eyes and they had wished that they had known that side of him. I did not know him at all. I had only seen him 2-3 times in the last 20 years. So I can't really say I knew any side of him. Well that is not entirely true I knew a side of him through my families eyes, which obviously wasn't the entire story of Ray's life.

Does anyone really know the real me? Probably the closest one to get the entire me is Chandra. (Poor Chandra) I do believe to some extent I am different with different people. I am a son, husband , father, brother, uncle, friend, and employee. I realize that I am self-employed but that just means I have hundreds of bosses. I think with each of these titles I bring a little something different to the relationship. I don't even believe that I am the same father to my daughters as I am to my son. I let some of my customers treat me in ways that I wouldn't dare let my family treat me and I treat my family in ways that I wouldn't dare treat a customer like. Now that seems backwards to me. Some people tend to bring the best parts of me out while others tend to bring the worst of me out. I hate the person that I am, with the people that bring out the worst of me and I try to avoid them.

Does my family know who I am now or do they just remember the little boy that wouldn't pick up his coat. :) Does my sister remember the way I was growing up or does she know who I am now? Do earlier memories taint the way you think of a person forever? I don't know that you can ever really get to know the entire person and you have to appreciate the parts they share with you.

So you had better enjoy the side of me that I share with you through this blog. It is as good as it gets.