Why Pay for Processing?

When you have an almost 7-year-old to do the work for you?

Certified Organic!

Here she is:
Brett took this picture while holding the camera in one hand and leaning in (you know, like the pictures we all have of our best friends in high school where every one looks weird and distorted...oh, is that just me? Lol!)

We're pretty darn proud of our hunter! The meat is almost all packed up (and just looks like meat now, which is good for...ahem...those of us who don't exactly like it looking like an animal). As is tradition we fried up the tenderloin to "snack" on during the butchering process.

Ironically enough the kids wanted to watch a movie with "hunters" in it while they had their picnic lunch in the living room (the table was occupied by meat)...Emma suggested "Bambi"! Oh dear...or is that deer? But I digress...

Congratulations!

Actually, it sounded more like "Cagulations Daddy" and said by the 2 1/2 year old as Brett revealed the deer that was in the back of his truck (for those intereted: it was a 4 year old doe, big bodied, great deer).

He leaves Thursday mornings open for recruiting, and don't ya know it, today is Thursday and is also opening day of the early deer hunting season? :-) Unfortunately he was unable to recruit any one to his program...maybe they were intimidated by the gun!

Prayers for Amy!

I keep in touch with a college friend of mine through her blog. I'm not sure if she reads mine, but I read hers. I just read this morning that her husband passed away while serving in Iraq. He had recently had an emergency appendectomy, and from what Amy said, was give little to no recovery time before he was sent back to work. She and her oldest child, Kelsi (8), were talking to him through an internet phone connection when he collapsed. She knew very little about what happened and then two soldiers came to her door the next morning (Sunday morning) to deliver the horrible news that he had passed away.
Please keep Amy and her children in your prayers. She's my age (as was Geoff) and has four precious children who are going to be missing their daddy more than I could ever imagine.

Baby's First Pictures

I apologize for the annoying pictures. My scanner is being silly and I can't seem to get these images to show up any larger, or where I want them.

On a happier note: We had our ultrasound today! Brett wasn't able to make it, but the kids were all fascinated with the images of their new baby sister!!!! We decided to find out this time. We didn't find out with the two older girls so we thought it would be fun to find out this time around. Brett and I are extremely surprised. We were both sure that this one was a boy! I guess since neither of his siblings have had girls it is up to us to supply the females. :-) We had a couple 4D images done and they are soooo cute. Everything looks good, I think. It's so hard to tell when the technician is poking around trying to get the right shot, and then ya never know if they are disappointed because they never get the right shot, or because they saw something they didn't like. At any rate, I'm pretty sure everything is great with our little girl. Ya'll will have to wait on knowing her name though....*that* we do keep a secret!

Our Lady of the Rosary!

Happy Feast Day!
We made edible Rosaries out of popcorn and M&Ms (for hail Mary's of course).

A Year Ago...

A year ago tomorrow...this happened!
The basement is now very livable, but we are still unable to enjoy the sound of rain.