It's Just The Beginning...

Last Friday we squared up the area where my parents are going to be building their new barn. They are also going to build a milking parlor and they'll be getting Jersey cows. On Saturday my brother dug the holes and put in the poles to get the building started.

It's pretty exciting to get to see this happening for them. They've been talking about it for years so now it's their dream coming true. I'll post some pictures when I am able to get back up there.

The wedding's over! All the planning and issues they had with vendors came together in the end and everyone had a great time. It was a hot day, the church was stuffy and the barn was too but it cooled off some so there was dancing by all. I've only got a few pictures to share but will hopefully have more when they get their professional ones back.



The Rehearsal

The Waiting

The Reception

The Gift of Goats

It's almost over!

We're getting to the end, about one week until the big day! I can't wait for the party...lol

Weather

I'm really hoping that the weather we've been having this spring isn't an indication of what's to come for the summer! Last week it was in the 80's and humid, not our typical spring weather here in Michigan. The beginning of this week it's been cooler but I just saw that Thursday it's supposed to be 90 and for the week after that it showed temps in the 80's everyday. That's just nuts!

My bosses picked up two kittens to keep their dog company. Anyone that knows me knows I'm not a big animal person but kittens aren't too bad...we'll see how I feel when they're all grown up. I don't know what it is with me not really liking animals, I guess I just don't like things climbing all over me and licking me-especially when I know it just came out of the litter box, not very appealing to me. No biggie though...

I'm off from work tonight for two weeks, I love my job! We've got the bachelorette/shower mayhem this weekend and that should be all sorts of fun. Saturday we're supposed to go to line dancing lessons and then out to lunch (part of the bachelorette party), that evening we've got an open house for a family friend's "make your own wine" shop, and then gathering at Will's house for food and games and then to the bar for the rest of the bachelorette party. When we get up north on Friday I've got to plant the flowers for the table decorations and finish the aprons because the sewing machine here seems to not want to work. We've also got to pick up a few more things for the shower, cut up watermelon and some veggies, make tea and punch and decorate the church hall for the event. Should be a crazy busy weekend...good times!

Winding up...

Will's wedding date is fast approching and it seems tha things are getting busier and busier! Renee's bachelorette party and wedding shower are this weekend...it must be said that we had the shower planned before the bachelorette party so it's not our fault if many of the girls show up hung-over...lol We've got a few more things to get ready for the shower-planting the flowers for the table decorations, putting together the prizes for the games, I've got to finish sewing aprons for one of the games and for the prizes, and the list goes on and on...good times!

I've gotten to be a bit crafty lately with scrapbooking and sewing. I put together a dress that I thought I was going to wear to the wedding but it turns out it didn't work so well on my body shape so I think my sister is going to wear it now. Thankfully I found another one I really liked and ordered it quick, it came in this past weekend and it will work perfectly! I had most of last week off from work so I was able to do a bit of scrapbooking and that was fun. I finished up what I could for the book I'm making for Will and Renee and did some on the family scrapbook. I wouldn't say I'm the most creative scrapbooker but I really have a good time putting pages together and remembering all the good times from the pictures.

Today is a rainy day, perfect for sewing which is good because I've got two days to finish three aprons for the shower, shouldn't be that hard because they're fairly easy to do and once they're finished I love looking at them because it's a very neat pattern. Hopefully I'll remember to take pictures to post when I get them finished.

Things have been going quite well all around right now. I've been working fairly regular, well regular for my job, and it's not been too bad. My family are all doing good-everyone is working to get ready for the wedding and it's been interesting to see how much time it consumes. My parents have been working hard at the farm with the change over to new ownership. They're working longer days and more days in a row which I know is hard on them but hopefully it's paying off in other ways. They got corn planted at their own farm and they've gotten some information about where they may be able to purchase some calves for the start of their dairy. Busy times but it seems that everyone is happy and that's a good thing!

Wine Charms

I made these wine charms for my brother's wedding, they'll be gifts to the bridesmaids from the bride. I got the heart charms from a great lady at http://www.bunnysdesigns.etsy.com/ They turned out great!

Here's my Etsy!

I've got my Etsy shop open but with only one item so far...even still I'm so excited!

Here's what I've got so far...

Be sure to check out my shop! www.leezard.etsy.com

And we have snow...and ice

What's snow?! After so many months without any it seems very strange. The ice came first and coated all of the trees with a magical glitter. The sun shines through and it looks like a star filled

sky. Very beautiful! Just a lite dusting of snow the next day, hardly enough to make it worth it. Gotta love all the strange weather.

I don't really care for awards shows but the Golden Globes were on the other night and I couldn't find anything else I was interested in watching so I watched most of the show. I was quite happily surprised that Ugly Betty won for best show in its category and the star of the show won best actress for her category. Now I think that they are very worthy of those awards but it's interesting to see Hollywood acknowledge them because of the content of the show. If you haven't seen the show I'd recomend checking it out, it's got a great message and is very fun to watch.

Christmas Crafts

These are some Christmas gifts I made for this past holiday...



These stockings were gifts for my brother and future sister in law, hopefully for them to use in their home next Christmas.





I made two each of these aprons for my sister, she gave them to her friends.

Manure

That smell that fills the air from May to November, no matter how weak the scent it is still there. When you come to the farm from the suburbs it's something you can't miss. It hits you when you open the car door or drifts in your window as you come closer to your destination almost as if warning you to go no further upon penalty of leaving smelling like you'd just dropped from a cow's hind end.

I didn't grow up on a farm but I lived on my parent's newly bought farm for about 4 years just after I graduated high school. Not my choice place to be but at that time I felt it was my only choice because I wasn't ready for college. I worked a few different jobs-retail, babysitting and even one job on a large dairy farm just down the road from the farm I lived on. I fed the calves.

Mixing the milk in 5-gallon buckets and lifting them into the back of a truck, filling a few bottles and then driving out to the area of the farm where the calves were housed at. In the winter it was the worst! The drive was all rutted from the ground thawing and freezing, it was hard to wear gloves because they'd just get wet and freeze to your hands and the less layers you wore the better because it made hauling the buckets around easier but you'd end up with a chill all the way to your bones that felt like it would never leave. Who would want that life?!

I don't remember how long I lasted at that job, a year maybe, before I moved on. One thing I knew after living and working on a farm was that I never wanted that to be my life. I didn't want the midnight calls my father would get from being the manager at the large dairy when something would break or the cows got out. I didn't want to have to spend hours in the cold walking or driving over rutted driveways to work with the cows that would probably end up peeing, pooping or slobbering on you. And most of all, I didn't want to come home every night smelling like a cow, having that manure stench radiating from my skin and clothes...yeah, a shower helps but you just know it's going to be the same the next day...manure happens.

So life finds me today, 5 years later, living in suburbia-where I'm told people go to die. Working as a nanny for an amazing family, great hours, great perks, things changing all the time and opportunity to work part time at other jobs or go to school. I'd love to say I've taken advantage of those two opportunities as much as possible over the past 5 years but that'd be a lie, instead I'm not much further along in anything then when I started. I guess I can't say that nothing has changed...I have grown as a person, I have learned new things about myself and some of my ideals have changed.

I still believe in God and feel that I have a personal relationship with Him but I don't hold to all of the ideas many Christians hold. I believe that people should love who they'd like to, that it is not my place to tell someone that they aren't living as they should because I am not God. A few people have questioned me on this and in the end, for me, I don't feel I'll have a problem standing in front of God and answering for my beliefs. I think that in this life we've become so dependent on what other people think of us-how we're living, what we look like, etc.-that we don't look into ourselves to know how we should be living our own lives. I also have a desire for a more simple life, for growing things in the dirt, producing my own food, to feel like I have something to show for my efforts and to have something physically to give to others.

This brings me to where I stand today...can you guess?...hoping to move back to the farm, not living in my parent's home but living somewhere near by. I can't say what I want exactly I'd like to do on there, all I know is there is this strong desire in me to be there and to have access to the ground and more physical labor. To be closer to friends and in a smaller community where people have concern for each other and offer a helping hand without being asked. Of course there are draw backs and things I'll miss about the suburbs but to me the positives outweigh the negatives. So, someday, God willing, I will be back there, plunging my hands into the dark soil, planting seeds, waiting for them to grow and harvesting the fruits of my labor all the while savoring the lingering scent of manure.