Psalm 27:4 The Happy Palace Homestead

Cute Children and pets pictures

My Mom sends me some cute e-mails.  I love these one and had to share with you all.

Who is walking who?

I look like you or is it you look like me?

Ah, can I keep him?  (the dog is asking):

Um mom, why am I wearing clothes and his is not??

Look Mom at what I learned :

Just one little bite that's all:

Are you sure they taste like chicken??

Are you sure they are in here???

That's all for now, Blessings,Mj

7-2-09 Up-date

Kristi was board earlier today and decided to play wii.  She played monopoly with Hope!  Hope is our soon to be 10 year old golden medical alert service dog.  We train the dog to all kinds of stuff some funny and silly but this is too much!

Titus is doing great in his service dog training.  We took him out for the first time to go shopping and he was wonderful.  If we stopped and looked or spoke to someone he would lay down with out being told to.  I thought it was odd, so I kept testing him.  I would walk and stop not look at him he would just lay down .  That is amazing for a six month old puppy to do on his first outing in stores.  I wonder if Kristi is going to teach Titus to play monopoly??

We start training them as soon as they are born.  Also having good parents helps too.  It took me two years to find his parents, to find the lines I was looking for.  Now we need one more female golden.  We might get one from Alex's breeder.

Blessings, Mj

Kristi and Mya's new adventure in pictures

Okay, Janet is in trouble she let Kristi and Mya run free on the mountain.  Worse yet with a camera .  Here are some pictures of the adventure.

1. Is Kristi finding out there are more than one of her:

2. Mya discover pine cones, do pine nuts come from pine cones??:

3. Is Kristi playing cars (she is the car)

4. Maybe I will be a better car sitting down??

5. Better yet I will play speed bump!! Did I send Kristi with her insuance card???

6. Mya discovers a cow and gives it a kiss !!

7. Milk comes from here ???? I know the poor thing , will she ever get over the shock???

8. Then they made friends with the locals:

JANET!!!!, we do not let the girls play speed bump in the middle of the Road!!! /.    We need to let the girls out of the house once in a while.  Poor Mya was so lost as to where milk comes from!! And did not know what a pine cone was!!!   Poor Kristi she thought there was more than one of her!!  Look at the locals nails on that local, see how long they are?? They could hurt the girls!!

Sorry but I had to write and show the pictures , they are so cute.  I will show more latter.

Blessings Mj

Oh My Goodness

My boys invited a friend here for a sleepover last night. 

Shoot me now.

Honestly, why don't parents teach their kids manners?!?!?!!?

I won't get rid of the little darling until dinner time.

YESH.

Us old ???

Janet and Mya went home today, .  But while Janet was here we had some fun shopping.   We went bra shopping and clothes shopping. The best part was no kids!!!  Just us two.  It was so fun and nice. 

We had one lady laughing so hard she had tears running down her face.  It was because Janet was telling her how much we have in common.  We are born 6 weeks apart, Janet is the older one.  Our atm pin numbers are the same( we did not set it up that way). Janet broke her leg 12-27-93, I broke my leg 12-27-07, the same leg, the same way(slipped walking), same surgery , but my leg has more hardware. There are so many other things that are the same too.

So anyway, we are out shopping Janet is looking at some shirts and I said no those look like something grandmas would wear.  Janet says you are a grandma!!!! Thanks Jan, I did not feel like one until she said that!!!!  It was then out shopping we both saw that we are getting older and saw our age.  We are going to be 40 years old this fall.   Where did the time go??  The past 25 years just flew by and we got older.

Then Janet made a few good points. 1. is we survived with out cell phones, the kids just don't believe that.   2. is we lived with out texting!! , if we had it back then we would have to learn how to spell better.  3. is that we lived with out computers to help us with our school work, there was no spell check , there was the "look it up in the dictionary", if we knew how to spell it we would not need to look up.

Blessings Mj

Nice Weekend

Saturday was a nice day, nothing special going on, just getting things done.  Kids skimmed & cleaned their swimming pool which was looking a bit murky.  They worked hard & got it back to sparkly, clear water.....then jumped in to swim. 

Hubby worked in the garden for a bit.  He picked two cups of ripe blackberries, enough for an apple blackberry cobbler.   Lauren made that for our dinner desert after she got out of the pool.  Our squash is starting to produce.  For dinner, we had fried potatoes with squash mixed in, spicy green beans, pork chops and homemade yeast rolls to go with our cobbler. 

While everyone was busy outside, I took advantage of the empty house and did some straightening.  I tackled under the sink clean up in our---the ladies of the house---bathroom.  The clutter wasn't  as much as I anticipated.  I did find several expired items and discovered lots of outdated meds in our First Aid kit.  A few half used bottles of this n that but thankfully, not much waste.  My sister in law passes beauty products she buys & doesn't like on to my girls....that was most of the half used, forgotten items I found.

Saturday night after showers & dinner, we watched an "Alias" from Netflix.  This was the final disc from Season 4....the one that ends with Sydney & Vaughn in a car crash.  Now we'll be on the last season.   We also watched "Pink Panther 2".  Kids liked this movie, they laughed a lot.....I thought it was a weak sequel.

Sunday morning, Lauren took her new camera to church and took pictures of her Sunday school class. 

Sunday night, we had a really, really good service.  The Spirit of the Lord really moved, haven't felt anything like that in church for a long time.  It seemed to "settle" my own spirit, gave me a peace about our future with the Lord.  I know He has everything under control.

I hope God is present in everything you do & say today. 

This n That

Hot, hot, hot here.  Watered my garden early this morning to get some moisture in the ground before the sun came up.  Will probably have to water again this afternoon.

Hubby took Lauren & me to dinner at Chili's last night.  We had a nice time & enjoyed the great food....which we didn't have to cook ourselves!  Then we went shopping for Lauren's b-day, turns 13 on July 5th.  She wanted a digital camera......we found one she liked and bought it a little early.  She's spending today reading the instruction manual and taking practice pics, happy as can be.

My other three kids will be home this evening from church camp.  They'll have dirty clothes to wash and tales of fun & adventure to chatter about all night.  Can't wait to see them.  We've enjoyed our quiet house but missed the kids & their excitement.

Hubby's working summer hours and will be home at noon each Friday until teachers return to work in August.  I like the shorter work week, will be nice having him home early on Friday.

Hope you have a nice weekend on your homestead wherever you may be.

Old stories # 2

My mom has been so full of neat stories lately that I decided to share them.  I will post them in numeral order as she tells me, unless they have to do with what is going on in life like this one. 

As you all know my best friend Janet was coming out and is out. I have had her daughter Mya (niece/daughter too) for almost a month.  Well, when Janet arrived here she brought Molly their little Yorkie who is 1 year old.   Janet took Kristi and Mya to Big Bear for a few days so we are Molly sitting (help us).   Shayna and I went out to lunch today.  Before we left we put Molly in her cloth kennel that Janet keeps her in at times.  When we got home from our nice mom and daughter lunch "The  dear sweet little Molly" was running around. She chewed her way out of her kennel!!  Best of all she was kind enough to leave us a  gift !!   Mom called just then and asked why I was laughing and yelling at the dog???  So I tell her, she laughs, thanks again mom. Don't you just love mom's at times.  I have one free to good home at times,   So mom tells me a story about their Yorkie when she was a teenager.................................

My mom was 16 or 17 years old and my grandma and Bubba (grandpa, her parents) send her to pick up their Yorkie from the groomer.  The dog was about 3 years old.   My mom said this dog was stuck on hyper mode!   So she get there and picks up the dog it is breathing funny when she puts it in the car.  As she walks to the other side to get in the car the dog just drops dead!!!   Mom is like okay what do I do?? She calls her dad my Bubba at  the friends house. The woman  who answered says your mom is right here, Mom goes NO my dad PLEASE!   So Bubba get on the line and asks what is wrong??  Dads they just know don't they.   So she tells him , he says call uncle Ted to go with her to the pound.  Mom call's uncle ted and he does not want to see or touch the dead dog (What a Manly Man).   He tells mom to put into a box and cover it up so he wont see it.  She gets ready to take the dead dog to the pound and Bubba calls back and says grandma she wants the collar.  

My threat to Janet was easier.  Molly keeps rolling her DANG red ball under the sofa and barks until you get it out.  I told Janet I am going to put Molly under the sofa with her DANG red ball!!!   .  Molly has red ball problems, she needs help.

Ready to hang the DANG red ball from the ceiling fan, Mj

YAAWWNNNNNN

I'm up but not really on fire with enthusiasism yet.  Maybe caffeine will help.

Vernon returned from his business trip on Thursday night, Lauren returned from church camp on Friday night.  I did lots & lots of laundry.  They both had a nice week.   Vernon picked up some really cool freebies at the conference AND he won a laser printer.  Really nice door prize.  He was happy;  he'd never won a prize at this conference before.

Laruen is still chattering about her week.  She loved the church services, enjoyed spending time with her friends, and was surprised how easy it was to make new friends.  Seeing her so bubbly, so re-newed about Spiritual things.....it's worth every dime I spent.....you can't put a price on that.

My three younger ones are at church camp this week.  They called to let me know they were settled in their dorms & going to orientation.  They have a good sponsor with them, they should have a good week.  Hannah isn't saved, hoping she prays this week.

The house is quiet with kids gone, Vernon at work, just Lauren & me here.  We went to the Library yesterday and came home to spend a nice afternoon reading.  We both fell asleep in the silence of the cool house.  It was a nice treat.

We had pork chops for dinner last night with homemade bread, sweet peas, and Mexican rice w/sour cream.  Tonight we will have ham with scalloped potatoes and broccolli & cheese soup----using broccolli from my garden. 

Have a great day on your homestead wherever you may be.

Turtle Springs Confessions

1.  I use my clothes dryer more than I hang clothes outside.....we don't like the rough feel of our bath towels after they've been on the line.

2.  I'd rather buy store bought---GASP---cake icing than make my own.  Store bought tastes better & spreads better so my cakes look better.

3.  I could live on Doritos.

4.  My kids could live on Ramen noodles.....some days I let them.

5.   I have no problem buying store brand ((Greater Value, Best Choice, Aldi)) products.....except for Mountain Dew....which I drink one can of every day.  It's my morning coffee.

6.  We have kittens instead of cows.

7.  Our goose faithfully sat on her eggs for the required time but something got into her nest before the babes could hatch.  She was distraught.....until she found a fishing bobber and put it in her nest......it made her happy.....I let her set on it.

8.  We stay up late.  We sleep in.  And we work hard in between.

9.  My kids swim in a pool instead of the pond.

10. We have a creek running thru the back of our property.  It has a natural spring bubbling out the side wall which keeps the creek from running dry in the summer.  There's lots of turtles in our creek.....and our pond....and our pasture......we like turtles.  Hence, the name of our property.....and the name of my blog.