It's Harvest Time!

June brings no school, warm weather, pool time and wheat harvest. For quite a few years, I have driven the straight truck full of wheat from the field to town. Oh what a lovely machine she is! No power steering, 2-55 AC (2 windows down and drive 55 mph), no radio, a cracked windshield (courtesy of Derek rolling her one year), and depending on the day--questionable brakes. Of course, it was usually 100*+ outside, and long lines when you got to the co-op to weigh and dump your haul.

As much as I can complain about it, I honestly really don't mind harvest at all. The song, "International Harvester" makes me crack up whenever I hear it. Oh so true! There is also something about being a part of a tradition and it being a family affair. Plus, there isn't anything like the good harvest meals that we get to eat. My Mom always makes up some great meals and brings them out to the field for us to eat before getting right back to work. There is just something about being out in the field that makes it all taste even better!

Well, a new ride has taken my place:
My Dad has gone to strictly using the semi to haul the wheat to town, so I am officially in retirement (aren't I a little young to have been retired??). In all fairness, the semi is a much more economical option. It hauls way more wheat for the trip, and it has all the modern amenities--namely AC! However, I do not have a CDL, so no driving for me!

Makes me a little sad....but then when it gets to be 100 out, and I am sitting in my cool house, I get over it rather quickly! :-) However, to keep with the harvest tradition, we went out to the field to visit and take in the sights and take some pictures.

My Dad's combine working away in the field:



The kids all lined up watching Grandpa cut wheat in his combine. They love to go for rides with him! I will admit, I like going along for a ride too! It is a cool viewpoint from in there.



After the bin on the combine gets full, they dump the wheat into the grain cart. The tractor then brings the grain cart up to the road to dump into the semi, and the combines keep cutting wheat. You always want to make sure your windows are rolled up for this! Otherwise, you get an awful lot of wheat dust (called chaff) in your seat. Not so much fun when you are hot and sweaty!!
Before leaving, we decided to get a family shot. Since everyone was busy working, I didn't have anyone to shoot a picture. So, we figured out how to use the self-timer on my camera. Works pretty good after getting all the settings the way I wanted them!

Harvest 2009 has officially come to a close. Maybe I can make a reprise next year, and drive the tractor instead! :-)

She May Be Little, She May Be Small.....

But she can really whack that ball!

That is the chant that Makenna's teammates yell out when she goes up to bat. I chuckle every time I hear it. Although she doesn't really "whack" the ball all that far, she did have a few pretty good hits this weekend.

We started off the weekend on Saturday in Salina. The forecast was for rain all day long, but the girls didn't seem to mind playing in the rain. They just kept on going like usual. If you look closely in this picture, you can see the rain drops falling. We ended up getting two games in before the tournament was postponed. The rest of the games were to resume on Sunday, but we were already scheduled to play that day, so we didn't get to finish off the tournament.

The Regional 8U Softball Tournament was held in Clay Center on Sunday. After all of the rain the day before, the weather was hot and humid!! The girls had to play back to back games, and won both to land themselves in the Championship.

I like this next picture--Makenna and the girl from the other team are both in action, with both of their feet off the ground. Kind of a fun shot!

The girls all lined up for the coin toss.

Concentrating on the pitch coming in.

The girls ended up winning and are the Region 3 8U Softball Champs! Here they are posing for their team shot with their medals.

Their medals were pretty neat looking. They were even engraved on the back. Pretty cool!
They now have officially qualified for the State Tournament in Wichita on July 17-19. I had previously thought they were qualified, but was incorrect, so now we are official! :-) Should be an exciting, fun time!

It's Pool Time!

Our town built a new swimming pool over the winter. It is awesome! I can probably count on one hand the number of times we went to the pool over the past couple of years, and we have already exceeded that number and then some this year! The kids are loving every minute of it, and since we have such a LONG walk (haha!--we live a block away), we are there almost daily.

I spend most of my time in the zero entry area, where Mylee and Jentree love to play in the water jets and mushrooms. I can sit in the water and stay cool, and they get to have a bit of freedom as well--a win, win situation.
The older kiddos like to roam around, and go down the slide. They are loving every minute of it! They come up and play with the little ones for a bit, then off they go.


Jentree LOVES the mushrooms, but Mylee isn't totally convinced they are all great quite yet!

At the end of the day, a girl gets tired from all that swimming! She is posing in her "big girl laying out," pose with Tanner. :-)

Makenna and Calder never came back to the shallow end while the camera was out, so I don't have photos of them. That is pretty normal--we arrive, and they scatter. :-) Can't wait for tomorrow--we will be back!

Anyone know Tim The Toolman?

Summertime......the time for relaxation, lounging by the pool, going to ballgames, and home improvement projects. So, last weekend I decided that I was going to tackle refinishing some of our hardwood floors. Off we went to the rental place, and after much deliberation we came home on with a floor sander. After conferring with YouTube (you never knew that it was the mecca for DIY how to instructions!!), we began in the back hallway. We decided that was a good spot to start because if we screwed it up too badly, it wouldn't be seen as much!!

I am edging the back hallway with a hand sander after sanding with the big floor sander. That darn curved is neat to look at, but it is a pain to go around!!

We decided that the back hallway wasn't all that bad to do, so we went to the dining room. The dining room proved to be a bit more difficult however (of course!). The previous owner had tried sanding the room by hand, and then stained. It had lap marks and wasn't ever sealed, so it was scratched and blotchy looking. It took quite a while to get it all off. There are still some areas we won't be able to get all the way fixed, but I think it will at least look better than it was.

Other than being rather loud, the floor sander wasn't too bad to run. It wasn't even terribly dusty as it has a vacuum bag attached. There is still dust that it doesn't get, but overall it does a pretty good job of keeping it contained.
This is how it looks right now:

I have to edge the dining room and then a staining we will go. After that, polyurethane x3, and hopefully it will be sparkling! If not, well then......I guess I just won't look down! :-) Maybe I need to quit watching HGTV!!!

Weekend Winners!

We had a weekend of softball in Clay Center. The Angels played both Saturday and Sunday in an 8 and under tournament. Makenna is improving each game, and learns more every time. I must say that I get nervous each time she is up to bat. I find myself holding my breath, and then when she hits it, I find myself running in my chair "helping" her along. I don't think it helps her one bit, but it gives me something to do!!


The girls did well, and made it to the championship game. It came down to the wire--tied at the top of the 5th inning (they only play 5), and they held the other team. Makenna was pretty excited that she helped get a girl out. :-) We ended up getting the winning run, and you can see the excitement in the dugout!
After the games were over, we celebrated like any winning ball team does--we went to the Clay Center zoo! Who knew that there was a zoo in Clay Center?? I had heard about it, but had never been. We did a quick tour of the small walk-through zoo, and saw some of the animals on display. It was quite the day! Makenna is still talking about it, and is pretty excited that their team has qualified to go to the state tournament. Way to go Angels!

Window Peeking

It is hard to be little. Mylee likes to look out the window and watch all the big kids of the neighborhood, and the cars going by. She will holler out when the screen is open and the kids all like to play along and call back to her. She thinks that is the best!
Of course, she also has the family genetics for height, so she is creative in how she can get herself high enough to look out!

Engagement Pictures!!!

No---not mine! My brother and his fiance' asked me if I would take their engagement pictures for them. Wow! I was surprised and honored that they would ask me--I like taking pictures, and really am trying to learn how to take better pictures, but I have never done anything like that before. The good thing was---if I totally messed it all up, we could always go back and do it over again!!! :-)

I had such a fun time doing the photo shoot!! We went all over town, and got some really awesome shots (if I do say so myself!! hahaha). I was very pleased with how they turned out. I think there are a few "keepers" in the batch, and hopefully they will have a few options to choose from.

I am picking some of my favorites from the 200+ pics we took!!! It is hard to choose. I think I may have carpal tunnel in my shutter finger!!! hahaha!