Weekend Warriors

We had a busy weekend. We had been talking for months about taking the boys to Chuck E. Cheese. The closest one is in Sioux Falls. So Friday night we headed out, stayed in a hotel and spent Saturday shopping. We don't really need to do an overnight to Sioux Falls, but it's a nice way to get away. Saturday morning we got up. My husband, who apparently was on a strict time schedule, decided we needed breakfast by 7:30. Luckily that's what time the hotel's breakfast opened. My plan was to plug the kids in to some cartoons and sleep in. I figured we'd swim and hang out and check out around 11. Then head to Chuck E. Cheese for an early lunch and do our shopping. That way we could still hang around and have supper at some place decent before heading home. Apparently, Pat was not thinking so leisurely. We did do some swimming and hang out, but I think we were out of the hotel by 9ish.

Our first stop was Target, where we bought $100 worth of stuff that fit into one bag. Talk about depressing. After that, the hunt for clothing was on. Tate has outgrown nearly everything in his drawers and since he and Cole are the exact opposite body type, a lot of Cole's hand me downs don't fit. He also outgrew his shoes, again. Cole was a little upset that he didn't get new shoes, but he survived.

My big search was for a baby book. I got both boys's books from Walmart, but can't find them anymore. I checked everywhere, nothing. We stopped at Hallmark but I wasn't about to pay $50 for something that wasn't exactly what I wanted. Finally at the second Hallmark, I found this...

It's a little more boyish than Pat would like (he's threatening divorce if it's another boy. He's kidding of course, I hope:). I think it's cute. It was a little more expensive than I would have liked, but it's basically the same as the boys's baby books, just a different style. This one is an actual Carter's brand, where the boys's are the Walmart Carter's.

Anywhoodle, that was our shopping excursion. We did look at new computers, and DIDN'T buy one! That's a miracle in itself.

So on to Chuck E. Cheese. The boys were super excited. I think they watch a bit much PBS, but I suppose there are worse things in the world. We ordered our pizza, got our tokens, found one of a handful of tables not reserved for birthday parties (I think there were 6 or 7 that day), and headed off to play some games. Cole wanted to try a game where you pop balls into a red bulldogs mouth. Tate wanted nothing to do with it, so he tried something else. As we were sitting, attempting to eat the most disgusting pizza and breadsticks ever, Tate was freaking out over something. We thought it was the robotic Chuck E. or the noise. Finally we got out of him that it was the red dog. He was absolutely terrified of the game that Cole had played.

It looked something like this, only red and with it's mouth open, but it was terrifying to my 3 year old. We finished up our tokens on games far away from the red dog and left. On the plus side, Tate keeps reminding me that we don't need to go to Chuck E. Cheese.

We managed to kill enough time shopping that we headed for an early supper at Red Lobster. I don't like fish that much, or even shrimp, but I love crab legs and I've been craving them since I saw a commercial for Red Lobster this summer. It was delicious!

Bear with me, one last story. While we were at the mall, we stopped to let the kids play. A woman came up to me and goes "you were in the NICU." I remembered her instantly. She had twin boys about a month after Cole was born. It was kind of neat. Pat didn't really get it, but there were a group of us that were there for about a solid week together, right before Cole was discharged. I spent a week with these women who were going through the exact same thing I was. We all had babies at different stages, but we shared our stories and understood what it was like. I often wonder how their stories turned out and it was really neat to see a couple of the other 5 year olds who were a part of that journey.

Fridays on the Farm

I realize my posts have been very few and far between. I am determined to do better (at least for today:). In an effort to keep my blog slightly more organized, I am going to try a feature I call:

Wait for it...

Fridays on the Farm.

Bet you didn't guess that!

So every Friday (or at least every Friday that I get to it) I will post a bit of an update on our farm or tackle some agricultural issue that puts me on my soap box. Aren't you excited? Are there any of you left anyway?

For today, I'll give you an update of what we've been doing the last month around the farm. August and September are always busy months for us. August brings the 4th and final crop of hay for the year. We do 2 things with our hay. We chop it and bag it to make haylage. Haylage is fermented alfalfa. Due to the cows multiple stomachs and complicated digestive system, they like fermented food. That's keeping it overly simple. We bag as much of the first and second crops of hay that we can. We use the third crop of hay to fill our quota for the year and usually bale dry hay from the 4th crop and whatever doesn't fill a bag from the previous 3. The hay is sealed in the bags and needs at least 6 weeks to ferment before we can use it.

These are bags of silage (haylage bags are the same).

We chopped our silage a little over a week ago. Silage is chopped corn, stalk, husk, cob, and all. Silage time is much busier than hay. We get 4 crops of hay to make enough feed for our cows for a year, but silage is done in one shot. It took us about 3-4 12 hour days to get the silage put up for the year. (When I say us, what I mean is 6 guys chopping, hauling, and bagging, and my MIL and me making dinner).

Now that all the hay and silage is put up for the year, the wagons are cleaned, greased, and put away, it's time to focus on corn and soybeans. Pat has been busy working on his new grain storage bin.

A crew of guys came and put it up in about a day and a half. Pat has been busy working on the augers to put the corn in and to take it out. The corn stored in the bin will be used throughout the year for feeding. They will auger it out, run it through a roller mill to break up the corn, and use it for feed along with ground corn, dry hay, haylage, and silage. The goal is to harvest the corn for the bin, starting Sunday.

After that we may get a bit of a break while the soybeans die off and dry down. Of course, that break will be used to haul manure and catch up on maintenance of everything else that's been neglected for the last month.

In the meantime, the 4 1/3 of us will be heading out tonight for a much needed trip out of town. The boys and I are in desperate need of some better fitting clothes. I'm already wearing my one pair of "fat" pants and I think I only have 2 pairs of maternity jeans. Well, I'm off to pack!

A Little Bit of Big News

I've been exhausted lately, and feeling poopy, but I've got a good reason.

Yep, Baby 3! I'm officially due April 8, so we are expecting the little one sometime in March.

Cole is super excited. I had an appointment yesterday, along with ultrasound, so Pat brought the boys to the ultrasound. Cole was so excited we thought he was going to cry. The tech printed pictures for each of the boys to have. Cole wanted to take his in to Pizza Hut so he could tell the lady at Pizza Hut. He tells just about everyone he sees. He's so funny! Tate is excited, but mostly because Cole is excited. I think it will be a rude awakening for him, but he'll survive. He's definitely got the middle child gene.

We are going to do things a little differently this time. Hopefully the end result will be a full term baby. My next appointment is with a high risk Dr. More than likely that consultation will result with me being put on progesterone shots starting as early as 17 weeks. I'm not excited about that, but I would love a full term baby. (I may regret that when it comes time to deliver a 9 lb baby). I'm not really excited about the high risk Dr. I've met her before, post partum with Cole, and she's very matter of fact. My regular doc is very easy to talk to and to ask questions, and this one is very my way or the high way, this is the way it is, type. Not my favorite.

As for the inevitable question? Yes, we are going to find out the sex this time. We didn't with either of the boys because I didn't want to know. Pat has always wanted to know and he's always wanted a girl. I figure this time he can get his way (finding out, I can't make it a girl :). We are obviously ok with a healthy baby of either sex, but a girl would be nice. A boy would be easier, but a girl would be a nice change! Don't worry, we won't keep it a secret. If Cole found out the secret is blown anyway! As for the name, that we may keep quiet. We've got a girl name picked out, which is odd because we could never agree on a girl's name for either of the boys. We had a boy's name set, but never a girl's. Maybe that's a good sign?

Would You Do It?

Before I started cloth diapering Tate, I bought my diapers online. I got large quantities and I didn't have to go to the store to get them. It was great. Now I'm just plain lazy and wait until the last minute hoping I won't really need to buy more diapers, but alas the second child is very stubborn.

Anyway, that's not what this post is about. So I "liked" my online supplier (diapers.com) on Facebook. They post a question of the day. About a week ago, the question was "when did you tell everyone you were expecting?" What cracked me up were the posts of "I'm so many weeks but we haven't told anyone yet." Um, you just announced it on facebook, idiot.

That isn't what this post is about either. Yesterday, the question was "If you could buy your child anything, what would it be?" I was surprised that the top answers were a big swing set/playhouse, a house remodel so the kids could have their own rooms, and a college education. Now, I'm not opposed to any of those things, completely, just partially.

The swing set/playhouse I have no issues with. Who wouldn't love a playground conveniently located in their back yard?

My boys share a room. They probably will for the rest of their lives in this house. Our house is set up so that even if they had separate rooms, one of them is far from private. I'm ok with that. My sisters and I shared (rotated every year, so one year alone, 2 years sharing), but only until I was 7. I think there are many benefits to sharing rooms, especially when the kids are young. Privacy is important, but sometimes so is the invasion of it.

Next, a college education. We fully intend to help our kids pay for college. The key word is help. I don't want college to put my kids into eternal debt, but I don't want to give them a free ride either. I know many kids who were given a free ride by their parents and wasted it because they didn't have to pay for it. I hope my kids have a better work ethic than that.

One commenter even remarked that they give their kids everything and how very blessed they must be. *gag* Sometimes denying your kids is the best thing you can give them. Don't get me wrong, my kids have plenty of stuff, way more than they need. The things I want for my kids, money can't buy: a strong faith, a good work ethic, respect, education, etc. That's what I want for my kids. Everything else is just "stuff."

All In A Days Work

Today we:

• went to swimming lessons
• picked up vet supplies
• watched them start our new grain storage bin
• helped bale our 4th crop hay (more Cole, not so much me)
• started chopping corn silage (again, less me, more everyone else)
• were followed for the feature A Day in the Life for the Dairy Star

What can I say, life is never dull around here!