A Mother's Heart

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

Family, Friends and Food for the Fourth (nd an update too)

Well I just got notification that my side of the family is having a big BBQ at my brother's house on the evening of the Fourth.  I am thrilled since hubby's family is all busy and doing their own thing.  His mother and father will be at their church's 3 day meeting, his oldest sister is in Washington and unable to come home but will be home in a few weeks for Grandma's 90th bday, and his youngest sister and her hubby and daughter are in California at Disney!

Of course I asked what I could bring and my SIL told me maybe a salad or a dessert.  So I plan on taking both. LOL  Not sure what kind of salad to take, and I have a simple dessert recipe I will make (it is red white and blue).  Hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill sound so good right now.  And I know several of the other dishes will be potato salad and baked beans, etc.  One gal there doesn't cook, so she usually brings the pop, or ice and sometimes a large tub of icecream depending on what we are all having. 

We aren't shooting off any fireworks there though.  One of the twins is scared of fireworks, 2 of the other kids are with their dad for the weekend and won't be there either.  So it is the one if the twin who likes fireworks, and Noah, who is only 3 but loved them last year, so I unless he decides to change his mind, LOL, I think he will be ok with them again this year.  After the BBQ, several of us will drive back to town and watch the citywide fireworks display at the lake.  We won't buy much this year....maybe some snappers, some smoke bombs, and some other smaller items for Noah.   I just can't see spending alot of money on big bangs this year when we have so many things we could spend the money instead.

Matthew got called today for a small electrical job.  The guy wants an electrical hookup for a camper put in behid his barn by this weekend.  So Matthew is running a little late tonight getting that done.  He was hoping it was a 10 minute job, but knows things happen and it might take longer.  Oh well, we need the money to take care of part 2 of fixing my car's air conditioning.  (Part one was putting in a new fan, which he did last night.  Part 2 is???  LOL  I have no idea.  I know the fan works now but no cold air.  Maybe it needs freon?? Who knows.  That is hubby's job)

I have discussed having a yard/garage sale and then canceled it thinking I would just have an auction (a HS friend has an auction business and is going to hold a consignment auction), but now I am thinking I should just open up a Ebay shop, and possibly put some stuff on Etsy as well.I think in the long run I will end up getting more money for the items.  I will just advertise that I go to the post office once or twice a week, etc. so I don't have to go every single day.  That would be crazy. On days I have many packages, I will ask a girlfriend to watch Noah, or drop him off for an hour at grandma's shop.

Speaking of grandma's shop.....she has offered me one of her large display windows to put items in if wanted.  I told her I would speak to Matthew, pray about it and get back to her.  I know I won't make alot of money from it, because her shop is kind of out of the way, and not many people walk around there either.  However, the customers that come into her shop for Speech (She is a Speech Pathologist) might see something and buy it, or order one in a different color, tell their friends, etc.  I was thinking of putting some vintage items in the window, and making up some aprons and shaggy blankets to display and sell there.  I am getting excited about the opportunity to make some money to help with household items and Christmas, etc.  When I get the shops up and running, I will post the addresses here for all of you!!!

Matthew (who is the king of putting things off, starting projects and then not finishing them, etc.) has turned a new leaf.  I am not sure what happened, but I am not about to ask and screw this up.  LOL  Projects like Noah's bedroom upstairs that have sat for over 3 years without being finished are now being worked on!  He comes home from work and instead of colasping in his chair with the laptop, he asks if there is anything I need him to do!  Mostly it is small stuff like, take out the trash, take this box upstairs, etc.  But recently he has fixed part of the air conditioning on the car, fixed the leaky roof, replaces a filter on the furnace/air conditioner, and my favorite, bought and hung a ceiling fan in Noah's new bedroom!!!  The later was all his idea and he was so pleased to be able to buy the fan with his extra money coming in from electrical jobs.  :)  Makes me smile to see this part of Matthew blossoming. 

Noah has been talking up a storm!!!  I can't believe in the last couple of months since his birthday screening in April, how much he has developed.  He is definately not the same little boy.  He is doing better every day.  Last night I told Matthew that he had been talking up a storm all day long and learning new words every day.  Later on Matthew said, how do you turn HIM off??  LOL  We both had a great laugh over that one.  The little boy that wouldn't talk earlier except for mom, dad, cookie, candy, etc. little words, is now talking 4 word sentences, answering questions with words instead of sign language, and asking for items instead of pointing and grunting.  God is so good to us.  I love this little guy.  And yes, there are times you want to turn him off still.  LOL  But most of the time, I love hearing him talk (now not only in English but a little Spanish and Chinese due to a few tv shows he watches)

Well, that's all for now.  I should go. 

Happy Summer!

I've been so busy this summer with visiting family and friends, that I've completely neglected my little old blog.

Hopefully things will settle down soon and I can get back to more regular blogging . . . Until then, I'd like to wish everyone here at Homestead Blogger a very happy 4th of July and a very happy summer!

(The photo above is a pot of Nemesia and Cosmos on my porch decorated for the upcoming holiday - I love the cheerful colors of summer!)

Are we closer to a farm?

I think so. LOL But we are still living in the basement. It's been over a month since we sold our house, and what a tangled path God has led us safely through!

The first house we thought we were going to buy was a house and 35 acres. We dreamed about 80 acres, but agreed on a price we thought was "too high", so we went back to 35 acres. We then found out they were negotating a contract on a lot more land than we had considered - and the house!

Looking back,  I'm glad we lost that one, as one upstairs bedroom Jonathan couldn't even stand up in, and the cellar had foundation issues going on. But at the time we loved it and were very excited.

We looked at several other houses. Then we found a house and five acres, with the offer of more. We decided on 20 acres, and started negotations. This house was at the top of our budget - but about 3,000 square feet! When the sellers didn't budge the last little bit on closing costs, we walked away. The worst thing about this house was that it didn't have a full stove, just a wall oven and an electric range top, and IT WAS GOING TO NECESSITATE A 90-DAY CLOSING. That last  part scared me the most.

The last house was 16 acres. I did like this house! It was small, but do-able for another 3-5 years, which is why we would have bought it. We had agreed on a price and put down our earnest money, and my dad found a lot of recent water damage. The house sort of sat down in a hollow and all the water drained toward it. You couldn't even see foundation - the ground was flush with the house. Not a great idea. This one was well within our budget ... so it was hard to let go ...

So here we are. Three potentail homes later. Still praying, still searching.

~Ashley~

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

Summer Giveaway

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