Girl power while the boys were gone

While John and Owen were in Pennsylvania, we had a girl party at our house. Caitlin said, "This is what it would be like if our boys hunted." We've missed that. No offense, but we had lots of fun while the boys were up north. We watched movies and built fires and did anything we wanted. Not that we can't when they are here, but it was different with an all girls' clubhouse. So we made hay while the sun shined. Now, I will say boys are good for heavy lifting, because I'd rather get someone to get heavy firewood for me rather than go out into the cold and get it myself. I guess some things have to be a trade off.

On one of those boy free days it was discovered one of Emma's car headlights was burned out, so she and Olivia decided to try to change it. After reading some questionable instructions from the car book, it was decided to look up a "how to" video on youtube. Of course there was one....very informative and helpful....so they set to the task. I was there for moral support and picture taking.     

Addy looked super stressed about the headlight and the boy free zone. 

I didn't get the pics of the taking apart of the light holder. 

Emma the mechanic.

You have to take this whole big thing out to get to the small, tiny light bulb. Ridiculous. 

Two girls kicking butt and taking names. 

That day it was a bitter winter. 

Almost finished putting it all back together. 

Now that John knows they can change a car lightbulb, he might just say do it yourself. But surely he knows better than that after 30 years of being married and living with four women! At least I hope so. 

And while we were doing man's work, 

The boys were seeing the U S of A.

Owen sent me a picture of a beautiful Kentucky sunset.

And a pretty Kentucky morning. This makes me want to sing, Oh beautiful for spacious skies....

Speaks for itself. 

This too.

Almost into Pittsburgh.

And there it is. 

Pirates home.

Primanti brothers. 

That's part one of the trip to Pennsylvania, but I just discovered that while I do have Owen's pictures, I don't have John's. And since John's at work and doesn't know how to photostream, I'll have to wait. 

Now onto this...I started this next story on Saturday and never got back to finish it so I'm doing an add on to this....

From Saturday: People in town are sick and other people are cleaning their rooms. Those people would be John and Owen. They are so much alike that when each separately began the cleaning, and then I went in the rooms (only to be summarily dismissed by both) they had each gone and gotten the small bathroom trash can to put their trash in. They had so much more trash than that! 

Update on the cleaning: 

After approximately one hour of Owen working in his room, he walked through the den with an overflowing laundry basket of dirty clothes. It took him thirty minutes to go through them because each and every article of clothing had to pass the "smell test" before he could decide if it was clean or dirty. His definition of cleanliness needs some work. 

Back to present day:
After only two days, Owen's room has already begun to fall into dissary again. He just doesn't care. 

Also, I'll be leaving town Thursday evening so don't be expecting any new posts over the weekend. May not be back til Tuesday. 

Winter breaks are fabulous things. Because I DO need a Winter break....and a Spring break and a Summer break and an it's Monday break and....

Now I've got to go to work for 2 1/2 hours. 

Feel sorry for me.

New post coming soon

But it's 2:15 and I just can't finish it tonight.

Caitlin's Christmas "miracle"

In my last post I referenced a story about the "miracle" Caitlin "made happen" or something else not like that at all. This post is the story about what happened that fateful day at the farm. What would have happened if we hadn't shown up? Read first, then I'll tell you. 

This is the entry in our Corsicana journal begun by Olivia and finished by Caitlin.  

December 22, 2014
Written by Olivia

Lisa, Caitlin, Emma and Olivia stopped by on their way home from Dallas. It's very sunny and windy and the sky is very blue with some wispy clouds. The grass is quite green and the pond is empty. We're going to sit for a bit and enjoy the weather and then go run some errands and be on our way. None of us think we've ever been here so close to Christmas before. Wal Mart was crazy but it was so much better than the Monroe Wal Mart. Lisa swears she'd come over here once a month to shop for groceries.  

Written by Caitlin
It's Caitlin taking over now. Today I made a Christmas miracle happen by liberating a cardinal from the chicken coup. The poor dear was trapped in there and begging us to free her. My cold, heartless family were just going to leave her, but I went to the red barn and got some pliers, then pulled the metal back just a little to make a hole for her. When Liv and I went back to check on her hours later, she flew out of the hole I made for her and tweeted, "Thank you Caitlin! You made my dreams come true!"

Call her dream catcher. She will answer. 

Orrrrr the bird would have flown out of the coup the same way she got in....orrrr she would have flown out the door when the chicken owner came to let them out and feed them.

Miracle maker? 

Or exaggerated  story teller. 

I know which one I'm going with....

Here's a new post

As you can tell, I've not been in the blogging mood for a while. Even with no shortage of things to blog about, its just not been a thing I wanted to do. There was Christmas and New Year's and John and Owen went to Pennsylvania and Emma almost moved to New York City. And I've just been blah. Blah blah blah. I get so tired of reading what I have to say.

But here goes again.... 

There was a pre-Christmas trip to Dallas by me and my girls, 

Christmas Dallas style.

Found another great book about me.

Found this ridiculous picture in the Sur La Table restroom. 

This is Becky's car. I'm not saying what I'm thinking. 

Restoration Hardware...

Had multi...

Multi use....

Glasses and Olivia tried them all on.

After Dallas we made a quick day trip to Corsicana where we found a Christmas tree in the street downtown.

And an inviting porch to sit on. 

We went with the intent of looking for some farm stuff for Christmas. We found nothing. 

But we did find a beautiful day with a big sky with wispy clouds. 

It was a perfect.

We rode around and saw Christmas Corsicana style. 

Then it seemed as quickly as we arrived...

It was time to leave.

But before we left, Caitlin had to take the time to write about her "miracle."

And I discovered something....

I love pictures of written words. Love.

As we were leaving town I saw these super cute toy soldiers beside the welcome sign and I had to whip around and take a pic. 

That's the closest to Christmas I remember being in Corsicana since I was a kid. And I don't remember any of those. It was a good decision to go. We arrived home on December 22nd. And that's the closest to Christmas I've ever been gone from home...since ever. 

Then Christmas was good and school came back around and other stuff happened I don't remember and I forgot some other stuff and....

Now to present day, or pretty close to it. 

These are the few things I remember that have happened lately. Every morning John gets his vitamins out and when he does he gets out a fish oil pill for me, and he sets it on the table by my seat in the den. Well, for about 5 days now my pill hasn't been there. I've forgotten until last night to ask him about it. So I said, "Hey, why haven't you been getting my fish pill out?" And he said, "I have." Well....seems that as John was leaving for work, he saw Addy with her nose in the air sniffing away. And then after he left, we believe she had herself a little snack, five times. Mystery solved. She had a good run though. 

The fish pill eater. 

Just a few more things...

The other night as Olivia and I were leaving Melanie's at 2:00 a.m., Olivia was driving and she was tired and then she or I said something about the next morning and then I burst into song, "Good morning, good morning!" (That's from Singing in the Rain.) And she immediately put her finger to her lips and said, "Shhhhhh." It was offensive. 

The other morning when I went to brush my teeth, I closed the door behind me, and as I was brushing I heard something in the bathtub and was all like, "whaaa?" So I hit the closed shower curtain and as I did I saw Milo the cat leap into the air about three feet. He had stealthily followed me into the bathroom to pee IN THE BATHTUB, and I'd never seen him come in. Because I was so annoyed, I thoroughly enjoyed his response. But lets be honest, I'd have enjoyed his response whether I was mad at him or not. True words. 

We went to a Super Bowl party at Jared and Colby's house the other night and had lots of fun in spite of the two teams playing no one liked. But, if a Manning boy ain't playing, I ain't caring.  

While there, James rode Texas 

And ate beads.

William reflected on his life thus far.

And rooted for football.

Don't know who he wanted to win.

And there it is, my first post in almost one month. 

Maybe this is a restart, but don't get your hopes up cause we shall see.

It's 2:05 in the morning and my pillow and I haven't seen each other in so long.

I'm out.