Daylight Savings Time

Ok, so I had a little scare that we had to set the clocks back today. But apparently, according to Sarah who surfed the web to find out last night, it's next weekend. But Bill's fancy-dancy super-duper clock (that has 2 settings, 1) really bright and 2) "The Martians are landing, run for your LIVES!" bright) that is connected to a satellite so you never have to set it, changed back in the midst of the night. Like I got up to pee at 3 am and went back to bed at 215! Anyway, unless someone can show me a reliable source to prove IT right, I'm going with next week.

YAY! One more week of sunshine!

The Steers are Sold

Bill asked if I had blogged about the steers' departure, and I had to admit I had not!! Of ciourse, I have the excuse of the many things I have been doing, which are referenced in the previous post. Anyway, on Wednesday night, we accepted an offer made last Saturday, and Thursday evening Darrell Robinson and his family came to get them. We see Darrell and his family at several of the fairs, and so I'm sure we will see them again. Darrell's girls, ages 5 and 2, love them to pieces, they will be WELL appreciated!

And before anyone asks, no Dustin is not upset. He has just the temperment to be an actual farmer if he needed to, enough emotion that he wants them well cared for, but not so much that he hates to see them go. I wondered a bit, because they didn't drag him as often as last year's steers had. But Thursday morning his words were, "Yes, that's the last time I'll have to do chores!!" We quickly added until next spring. But he's happy with the break.

And this Sunday is the 4-H meeting, where he and Brian will both be signing up for the new 4-H year. Wish me luck!!!

Oops.

Three whole days, really? Sorry, I apparently haven't been posting. Hm, wonder what I've been doing? OHHHH, Right, sleeping and eating and wiping tears, and reprimanding poor choices, and laundry laundry laundry, and dishes, and cleaned the bathroom (YAYYYY!!! First time I was ever excited that I got that done), and cooking, ok, watching Bill cook, and driving driving driving, and wiping noses, and administering medicine, and helping with homework, and emailing school teachers, and cleaning up spills, and reading stories, and scheduling events, and attending some of those events, oh never mind, I give up.

So, friends, I have not had a lot of time to myself that I do not devote to sleep. But, I sent an email to some, and just am so warmed by this thing, that I want to share it here too (mostly so I will see it next time the blog pops up!!

Thank you, Holly Duguay, that was adorable!! There are occasional days (certainly not today) that I think gee, too many forwards, not enough time to read them all, but this one struck a chord. Just too cute. Hope it helped you smile, too.

Oh, Savannah is still in the hospital. We don't know the cause of her fever, they may find out today. It has been dangerously high, 105.7, but hovers around 102, 103 most of the time. I wish I had more cheerful thoughts, but I think I'll take a nap.

My Weekend

So, I started the weekend late, but on Friday, after two hours of this:

I arrived here:

And spent the next several days doing this:

And a total of 30 minutes doing this:

Which was not nearly enough.

And I will share with you, dear friends and family, a marvelous lesson that I learned. Prayer works. When we have a righteous desire, such as to be able to share a weekend with good friends doing good things and helping each other relax and feel like people again, Heavenly Father does his best to answer such a prayer. Savannah's body was unable to resist viruses and bacteria, and yet still she did not get a fever or begin to feel poorly until her mother came home Sunday morning. The Lord answers our prayers.

Quick Post While I Wait for Bill to be Ready for Bed

1. Got my new camera yesterday, FINALLY. A word to the wise,
don't order from the digitalnerds.com website. They were unreliable. Good 'ol Walmart.com, and my AWESOME UPS guy got it here a day ahead of schedule!! I took these pics sitting on the bench on our walkway to the house, and one he was over by the pine trees lining the road. LOVE my zoom!!! This is Savannah's three year old brother, he was my first subject because when it arrived Zachary was taking a nap!!


2. The Hurleys are all home. They were home over night Sunday, back to Portland for a fever Monday morning, but released again Tuesday afternoon. Savannah looks FANTASTIC, see for yourself:

We met Melissa and the kids at Cushing school and played on the playground while the girls took turns at piano lessons. I still had their piano books, so I needed to bring them up, and after a day of no school the boys were ready to enjoy the sunshine!


Don't you LOVE the pink hair? Her favorite color is pink, so they let her dye it when they know it will fall out.


3. And we went to the Fire Station Open House last night. They had an amazing turn out, tons of kids came!! I'll try to post some of the pics (from my NEW CAMERA!!!) in the morning!

Ricker Hill Orchard

So, on the advice of my wonderful cousin, Lexie, Nicki decided she wanted to take the kids to Ricker Hill Apple Orchard in Turner. Michael actually went there on a field trip with his school this fall, they study apples and Johnny Appleseed in first grade. He really enjoyed it, and it sounded like fun to me, so we looked for a good day. Well, Fryeburg happened, and took a lot of time, then of course there is soccer (some of which we missed for Fryeburg), and soccer doesn't end for us until 1 PM most times. So we decided we could make sandwiches during soccer, and head down from there. Nicki met us after the games, and discovered that I didn't want to be trying to feed out sandwiched DURING the games, so I was still making them. And then I had to stop for cash, 'cuz I just NEVER carry cash (don't try to mug me, I got nuthin). FYI, they take credit/debit cards for everything but the PYO. Then we left Bill's work truck at the Turner shop so we could actually be TOGETHER (he's on call this week). And EVENTUALLY we got there. Bill wasn't enormously into the whole thing, he made the mistake of rolling down a hill during the soccer game while he was entertaining Zachary, and learned that yes, even he is OLD. His tummy didn't handle it well. But in church yesterday, when they were talking about the importance of spending time together with our families he mentioned it and what a good time he had. Good to know.

Anyway, time for pics:

I helped show Emily how to play mini-golf. Well, maybe we should use those terms loosely here.

Conveniently located near the mini golf were a couple of well-mired tractors to climb on.

Mini golf is not Z's thing. Tractors are.

They have ALOT of tractors.

AND they have a bounce house big enough for 6 kids, 2 adults, and 1 adult-sized kid!!!

They have more, and so do I, but I need to get a "Drink Kool-Aid". There will be time later.

My Camera Woes

So, as I blogged earlier, my camera died. I immediately began perusing the web for my new one. The camera of my dreams at the moment is a Canon 6 MP PowerShot S3 IS with 12x Optical Zoom and Image Stabilization. Now for a translation. 6MP = the camera will remember a ton more detail so I can zoom in on a part of my picture and make IT a 4x6, or blow up my picture to 8x10 or 10x13 without it looking funny. PowerShot= the style. S3 = the model, and it means it's better than the S1 but not as new and fancy as the brand-new S5 (but not as expensive either). IS = Image Stabilization, which is a fancy way to say the camera doesn't wiggle around as much when you are trying to zoom in on something far away. And my FAVORITE part, is the 12x Optical Zoom. DO NOT BE FOOLED BY DIGITAL ZOOM. D zoom just means it will look like you are closer on the camera, you are not actually getting a different picture. Optical zoom means your picture will look like you were standing closer when you took it. My DiMage had a 10x Zoom. Very cool. And currently very broken.

I should have had my new camera for yesterday's soccer game. But I ordered it from some obscure website in an attempt to save $. Two days after I hoped it would be here (but forgot to watch for it in the chaos that is my life) I got an email saying because the camera was back ordered for 6 - 8 weeks they cancelled it. They would email me when they got some in to allow me to reorder.

Now, keep in mind folks, this camera is the out-going model. The new model has 8MP, so I could blow up my pics to like a 20"x30", which I don't need, for an extra hundred $ or more. I'm not thinking they will get "new" ones in, Canon won't make them forever.

So, I ordered it from Walmart.com. It will be at my house by Wednesday, and I paid a bit more, but still not as much as at the store in Farmington, where they do not yet want to admit it is an old model.

And I took these at soccer:

I think my kids are in there. Somewhere.

Information

I changed a setting on the blog. It now lets me moderate comments, which means they are emailed to me, and after I read them I get to click whether or not I want them to show. It just means I don't have to look back and see if someone commented on an old post, but your comments won't show right away. It's great to know who's reading though, I have a counter but haven't looked to see if I can tell WHO has peeked. Anyway, a little blog info for you all.

Thank Goodness It's Friday...

Wow. I mean really... wow. It's been an emotional and high stress week here in our tiny little house. Donovan and Kiara are just about angels, but Zachary is bound and determined to pick a fight or twenty. He's not used to a kid arguing back, when he wants to argue with his brothers over who likes apples, his brothers all roll their eyes and say whatever.

Christine Harrington was my lifesaver yesterday. She teaches Kiara's kindergarten class at Cishing school in Wilton. I was pretty upset first thing in the morning, there was a complication with Savannah at the hospital in the night, and I hadn't heard the result. I about convinced myself she was gone I was so upset, but Christine calmed me down. Donovan had been missing Kiara the day before when she was at school, so we decided to spend some time in the classroom. I got to be useful, though, because a student shoved a bead into his nose, and rather than ask for help he started to sniffle. Well by the time Miss Harrington knew it wasn't a runny nose, that bead required the assistance of a doctor. So I read the class a story about pumpkins, while she took him to the office.It was cool, I love reading stories, and have often thought I want to volunteer at the school to do so when Zachary attends all day.

Zachary and Donovan both enjoyed the glimpse into Kindergarten THOROUGHLY, they even painted paper pumpkins orange!! We left before the field trip to the fire station, though. I'm sure they would have liked it, but it was more than I wanted to do. Of course, the best part of seeing Christine was that she HAD talked to Melissa later in the night, after the complication had been resolved, and knew that things were ok. But she humored me, and we also called from the school so I could hear for myself (I'd left my cell phone at home).

Today went better. Well, the morning was still challenging, I should have prepared better. I was told we were out of

Now, MOST of my children prefer this flavor. It's a stretch for me to think of it as appropriate for a daily breakfast, but the price is right, they don't go bad, and they can serve themselves. The only flaw are the crumbs in the living room, but if I were more diligent they wouldn't eat in the living room.

That said, we do still have an abundance of these:

We have these because Brian, my fussy eater who when he was five would only ever eat the other, now wants these. Unfortunately most of the other children under my roof right now don't like them. Well, they don't like them to eat, they are great for taking a bite out of, and then leaving on the floor so I can step on them barefoot and have strawberry goo on my foot. It was a joyous morning. We went here:

and then we took them to Nicki's house. And THEN I brough the boys to school (Christine came to pick up Kiara earlier), went home to swap laundry and bring some to Nicki's, took a shower, drank the perfect temperature cocoa I had bought, went back to Nicki's where no one was arguing, and felt like I might be able to relax.

And I did. Janice Bachelder came over for awhile, and Nicki's mom, Sheila Hamlin came for awhile. And things were all good. Of course, then I made a trip to here...

I can now explain the delay for posting this. It's not Friday anymore, but I spent so much time looking for a picture of Walmart to post, I didn't have time to finish. But we went to Walmart, and picked up a senior picture Melissa needed brought to Mt. Blue for a yearbook photo. Then we brought it to Mt. Blue. Then I went home, and collapsed, until it was time to attend a meeting at church. And that I will post about another time.

Life Comes at You Fast

Yesterday I was posting about kids. Today I have seven, still counting Bill. We have company, Donovan and Kiara, and while it takes some effort all getting along, who can resist this?

Or this? They are truly adorable. And very sweetly tempered. Unless you try to claim Dora as your own, in which case Donovan tends to get downright unruly. Which is rarely a problem, because the only other person I have ever known to attempt to lay claim to Dora, aside from whoever her true creator is, is my son Zachary. Unfortunately, Zachary is bound and determined that Dora is his own personal property. It's an ongoing drama, and much like the Civil War, no one will truly win.

They should be with our family until sometime on Sunday, though with cancer, there is never a real timetable, it's a minute by minute lifestyle. But we will enjoy them for as long as they are here, and I will drink extensive amounts of fountain soda Diet Pepsi from Cumberland Farms, because I have convinced myself that as long as I have a fountain soda DP, all is right in the world ;-).

How Many Children Do I Have?

It's quite the challenge to answer that question some days. I wanted to post a picture from the Jay Fire Department's family barbecue. I didn't get to go to the whole thing, my church calling got in the way, but I did catch a volleyball game

Then, as things seemed to be slowing down, Brian decided to chill out in the overgrown black pipe that sits at the ballfield. So Bill, aka the 5th child in our home, thought this would be fun

For those who wouldn't recognize him, that's Tim up there helping. They're rocking it back and forth. Which looked like a lot of fun, if you like being nauseous.

Apparently the kids liked being nauseous. They would take turns sitting in the pipe, and rocking it until it rolled a couple of feet. Zachary supervised, though I think he did take a ride or two. Problem is, we have soccer practice there now, so guess what my boys want to do... yeah, that's it.

At the JFD, Zachary is often referred to as "Little Bill". Partly because he's Bill's littlest, but also cuz we went and named him Zack, when there was already a Zak hanging around the firehouse, Zakary Toothaker. The other boys are still named regularly by the color shirt they are wearing that day. Blue Jones, Gray Jones, you get the idea. Of course, those darn Shinks are no picnic to keep track of either, so I don't mind a bit!! Whatever works!

Oops!

Those of you who have peeked in, may have wanted to see what blogs I like. With the handy dandy link, it's easy to do that. But, if you did it yesterday, you may be wondering why I would spend exorbitant amounts of time on a website with clothes for business women. Well, I don't. But I DO spend WAY too much time that I should spend cleaning a bit of time on the website thepioneerwoman.com. Yeah, I forgot the the. But it's fixed now, and the woman takes some gorgeous photos. Check it out, now that you actually can!

THE DEMISE OF THE DiMAGE

YAY!!! I have fantastic news! My camera BROKE!

I mean, er, *sigh*, my poor, sweet camera has seen better days.

A couple of weeks ago, I discovered that when I would zoom in on a picture, I had to turn my camera completely off in order for it to zoom back out. Very annoying while trying to take soccer pictures, (especially when one child is on offense, the other defense) but still dealable.

This weekend, it will no longer zoom in... and that's BAD!!

That means that shots like this from the fair will need to be cropped.

Quite frankly, my 3.2 MPs don't provide a good enough amount of information to crop the picture adequately.

However, the whopping 6 MP of the little gem I've taken a shine to, namely the Canon PowerShot S3 IS, would allow that just fine. Not that I'll need to for a few years, because it happens to have a 12x optical zoom as well, that should be in full working condition for at least a year, right? By the way, this particular pic of Dustin in Fryeburg is him waiting to receive the first place ribbon for the drag class. Yes, that's right, First place. It went a long way toward earning him this:

That would be the trophy, yes ladies and gentlemen, the TROPHY, he brought home, for third place overall in the Juniors class. Ah, it was a proud momma moment.

Anyway, unfortunately, for those who may be wondering, the darn animals did come home. But we have an interested party from CT, a 12 yo 4Her admired them something awful, and we are awaiting the phone call. Cross your fingers!