Potty Training Update!!

Yay!! She pooped in the potty!! Just had to share. She had to call everyone I would let her at 9:00 at night and let them know that she "made it brown." I'm pretty excited, too, so I probably let stay up later than she should have calling people.

Vent about banks

I just need to vent about our bank. Actually it's about all banks. I actually really like our bank. It's a small town bank and everyone knows everyone there. But yesterday I got very frustrated with them. We have our car loan through them and we've decided to make some extra payments. I put Nathan in charge of it and he said he could do it online. I told him to make sure it went to principle because when I worked at a different bank, if someone didn't come in and specifically tell us to put it towards principle, it automatically went towards interest. (I thought it was a stupid thing for a bank to do, so I would always put extra payments towards principle. I can say that and they can't do anything because I don't work there anymore.) He made the payment and later that day I went in to look at our balances at the bank. THE PAYMENT HAD GONE TOWARDS INTEREST!!! I called Nathan, but he was on top of it. He had gone directly to the bank the second he made the payment and had seen where it went. Here's my vent. Who in their right mind would make an extra INTEREST payment?!?!?!? Why would a bank even set it up that way? Okay, I know WHY a bank would set it up that way, but it's completely dishonest and crooked. Like someone is going to come in and say, "Here, I've decided that I'm not paying enough interest on this loan. Can I take this $100 and just put it towards the interest." Anyway, that's my vent for today. If you ever make an extra payment on a loan, MAKE SURE IT GOES TO THE RIGHT PLACE!! Thanks for reading.

Potty Training Update

Just thought I'd give a little update on Zoey and ask for some help. She is doing great on peeing in the potty, but she has a hard time pooping (I know I totally sound like a mom of three kids. Sometimes I wonder if I actually did ever go to college and if I know any words bigger than two syllables). She will stay dry all day and gets very upset when she does have an accident. She is proud of being a big girl. I'm proud of her, too. She's really taken to this potty training thing. She even does well when being babysat. She did go poop one time and was so proud of herself. I thought we'd kicked it, but she still won't go. She'll keep going in the bathroom and sitting on the toilet, but won't poop. I can tell that she's frustrated, too. If anyone has any suggestions, that would be GREAT!!

Nathan's life

Last year, while tilling some ground for the city, Nathan's Iseki tractor died and he tried fixing it, tried taking it to the dealer to fix, and even had others look at it that thought they might be able to figure it out. We finally had to give up and admit that it might be time for a new tractor. Our life and work in the yard has been so much easier since getting our tractor, so we decided it was worth it to get another one. In March, Nathan and I took a trip to Sun Valley and stopped to look at a new tractor in Twin Falls. It was quite a bit cheaper than the book value on it because it had been a rental tractor and some, um, person had broken the PTO shaft. They were going to sell the new shaft with the tractor, but just didn't want to put the time and effort into fixing it. Nathan decided that the tractor could be useful as is and then he could spend the time and fix the PTO shaft and be able to use his implements for his other tractor with it. This last week, he finally had the time to start on his project. He's realized there are some other problems that need fixing as well and he's planning on fixing it all while he has the tractor apart. Here are some pictures of Nathan working on the tractor after the first time he broke it apart.
I jokingly call our garage his "two-bay-door shop" because I don't think we've ever parked a car in it. It has all of his tools in it and one bay is always taken up by a project, a vehicle that needs to be worked on (usually a tractor, lawn mower, or trailer, not a car or truck), or the aftermath of a project. But I appreciate that he is willing and able to fix our things and to build things that we need. I think it's also his sanctuary when he needs to de-stress. Or maybe a better way to put it would be to exchange stresses. Good luck on the tractor Nathan.

My big girls

Zoey keeps telling me that now I have TWO big girls (now that she's learning to go potty) and she wanted me to take pictures of my two big girls, so here they are.

Zoey has become a different kid in the last two weeks. She's still fun as ever, but it's almost as if being potty trained has given her license to try lots of new "big girl" things. She's climbing all over everything, she talks like crazy, and loves doing everything that her older brother and sister do. She also doesn't whine nearly as much. Nathan and I were commenting the other day about how she can fall and whack her head against the wall and just stand up and say, "Owww!" all silly-like and go on with her day. It's pretty funny. She really is a big girl. This morning, I asked her if she was a baby and she said, "No, Jose, I a big girl!"

Tea Party

For Jo's birthday, she got a new tea set. That was the one thing that she said she really wanted. She had received a really nice porclain tea set a little while ago and had taken very good care of it, but Zoey got a hold of it and broke almost everything. I looked all over and finally decided to get her one for now that Owen and Zoey could play with with her. We got her a fun plastic one that came with a ton of peices. On Labor Day, she finally got to use it. We made white chocolate tea (vanilla hot chocolate) and put milk in the creamer and tiny mini marshmallows in the sugar bowl. They also had goldfish for a snack. Zoey was asleep, but Jo and Owen had a ball. Here are some pictures from the party. Jo being the perfect hostess and serving her guest first. She actually did a great job of not spilling anything.

Perfect tea requires stirring.

Here's Owen drinking his tea. I missed the one of him with his pinkie sticking up. It was classic. Thanks also to Yani for the perfect tea party table and chairs. They get used ALL the time. They are also the perfect coloring, doing homework, and eating popcorn while watching a movie table and chairs.

Labor Day Weekend

So, we didn't go on any fun vacations or anything over Labor Day weekend. Instead, we got to process our Cornish Cross meat chickens. It actually needed to be done a few weeks before that, but we've just been so busy. They were the fast growing chickens and were supposed to be processed at about 8 or 9 weeks. When we finally got around to it, they were 12 and a half weeks. Nathan turned them from birds into chicken resembling something on a supermarket shelf (an interesting process) and we both worked to pressure can them. Nathan weighed them as he processed them and the rooster weighed in at 9 lbs. before all the de-boning, skinning, etc. and the two hens weighed in at 8 lbs. We ended up getting 13 pint jars out of the three chickens. I'm excited to have chicken on my shelf that doesn't have to be cooked ahead of time and doesn't take up freezer space and will still be good if the power goes out for an extended period of time. I was nervous to do it (I hadn't canned anything with a pressure canner since helping my mom with beans when I was little), but now I feel more comfortable and I'm excited to can more chicken later. It was easy!! Here are some pictures. Don't worry, we kept out the inbetween ones.

Here's the before picture. The white chickens are the Cornish Crosses. They are SO much bigger than the Easter Egger also in the picture. We were afraid that the one on the far left wasn't going to make it to processing day. Cornish Crosses are known for getting so big that they have hip problems and can have a heart attack. She was extremely sluggish at the end, but made it!

Here's the after picture. 13 pints of chicken. YUM!!