I'm a (great) aunt - again!

Ok - so I love, love, love being an aunt. I love my niece & nephews to pieces. But what I really like is that when THEY have kids - it makes me a GREAT aunt. And the title says it all. I'm Great - and I'm an aunt.

So we all know Miss Madelyn was my first great niece. Erin had another baby Saturday, Payton Avery. She weighed in at a whopping 9 lbs 15 oz. Yes, ladies - you read that correctly. She was 22" long. She was so big that Erin had to have surgery to "repair" some things. I will pause so you can cringe & cross your legs together real tight..........

We all know I have no shame. And while that's ok for me & MY personality - I COMPLETELY respect the fact that not everyone is like me & wants to have all their biz-nuss out there for the world to know. That being said - I will just say that there were some complications during delivery & Payton had to be sent over to Kosair's. She's being taken care of by a team of doctors & nurses there. But any prayers you could send up to the Big Man would be greatly appreciated!

Ok-so Erin had her "procedure" & the rest of the fam wanted to go to Kosair's to see Payton. Erin didn't want to be by herself (understandably), so being the "great" aunt that I am - I told her I would stay with her. But she wasn't very good company, because she slept almost the whole time. And the poor thing wasn't awake when they needed her meal requests. The joke was on her 'cuz me & the dietician lady sat down & figured out what she'd be eating! And I love Erin 'cuz she'd TOTALLY tell me if I did bad - and apparently - I did do bad Sunday for lunch... Oopsie...

Madelyn got to come into the hospital later Saturday evening to visit with her mommy.
And this is where the story gets REAL funny. Since Eric, Erin & Lora had been up since Friday morning (Erin went to the hospital Friday night around 7pm & Payton was born Saturday morning around 8:15am), they were all completely exhausted so I offered to babysit Miss Madelyn. Well, her Uncle Cole couldn't have her get one up on him, so he stayed the night too!

We had a gourmet meal of chicken tenders & french fries. (What have I told you about my cooking skillz?) Here's a funny one for ya - they told me if I gave her juice to water it down because if she drank too much of it - it would bother her little bottom. I told them, "Don't worry about that - I don't have juice!"

When I tried to get her to go to sleep she cried & cried (they told me she would do that. Her daddy said I would have to hold her down... uh - I couldn't do that...'cuz I was afraid she'd get too upset & stop breathing! -she did that once a while back & I was fuh-reaked out that she would do it on my watch!) She did anything she could to keep herself awake. She tried to pull her hair, she would pat her hand against her mouth to make noises. But what Miss Madelyn didn't realize was that Great Auntie Jaime is just as stubborn as she is! So I rocked her & rocked her. For 1/2 hour we rocked. So then I decided to sing to her. And whaddya know? She fell asleep. Now - this could be for either 2 reasons. #1-my singing was so soothing that it put that sweet little baby to sleep. Or #2-my singing was so offensive to her ears she thought to herself, "I gotta go to sleep so this horrid noise will stop!"

I left her on the bed for a little while so she'd get good & asleep. Then I moved her to a blanket I had on the floor next to the bed.

And of course, this little guy couldn't be left out - so he slept in our room too!

New Moon! Whoooo Hooooo!

Saturday morning I went to see the movie "New Moon!" For those of you who have been living in a cave for the last few weeks, it's the 2nd movie for the 2nd book in the "Twilight" series. Now, I have not been a Twilight fan from day one. I read it this spring to see what all the fuss was about. I even blogged about it... THAT'S how good it is! http://thefarmingmcafees.blogspot.com/2009/03/i-am-such-dork.html

So the movie came out at midnight Friday morning, but I'm not that crazy. And I wasn't gonna be crazy enough to see it Friday night. So I waited until Saturday morning when I thought that perhaps there wouldn't be as many people to see it. PLUS, I'm cheap & I wanted to see a matinee. The movie started at 11:00am. I was meeting a girl I went to school with to see it & she said be there at 9:45. OK-no problem, I like to be early. When I got to the theatre - there were hardly any cars in the parking lot. And I started to doubt myself. Like that I got a little too worried about not being able to see it...

The doors weren't even open yet. And there were a couple of other people waiting when we got there. And then a line started to form. And it was neat because we all were talking about the books & if we were team Edward or team Jacob & we were joking & talking. It was kinda fun! Yea - dorky, but fun! And then the line got longer.But lucky for me, I was like the 2nd gal to get tickets for the 11:00 show. And I had done my research - it was showing on 4 screens in 20 minute intervals. So if I hadn't been able to get 11:00 tickets - surely I could've gotten them for 11:20? 11:40? 12:00? So insert a 2 hr 10 min movie here. And it.was.wonderful! Obviously you need to read the book first for it to make more sense! And I don't care if I ruin anything for you, but Edward leaves Bella in the 2nd book. (It happens on like page 50 - chill out!) And I'm a total Edward girl (he's the vampire people!) And during the movie - I found myself SO sad when Edward told Bella he was leaving - and I leaned over to the girl sitting next to me & said, "I don't know why I'm getting so upset - I KNOW how it's gonna end!" (By the way - when I came out to the lobby - there was a line from the entrance to the theatres all the way to the front doors of people waiting to see the next movie...)

Then I went to K-Mart afterwards to buy a new Christmas tree (I got one on sale for $20!) and I also had to shop for a Salvation Army Angel. (My brother says he doesn't want gifts this year - he just wanted us to get an Angel to buy gifts for... Ahh, isn't that nice?! But I told him, "OK- that's fine if that's what you want - but I still want gifts." Please don't judge me - I love getting presents. But I also GAVE this year - I even bought more for the angel than I was supposed to...) So I was walking around the toy aisles trying to channel my inner 11 year old girl (that was SUCH a long time ago for me - I don't know what 11 year olds like), when I saw these dolls! Twilight dolls! Edward & Bella! No, I didn't buy them, I just thought they'd go along nicely in this post.

Then I got a phone call that Matt & his son were coming to hunt & Carrie wanted to know if she could hang out while they hunted. Uh - of course... I don't think she'd mind me telling you - her ex is one of those guys who doesn't pay his child support. And he's behind. WAY behind. And they go to court all the time. They put him in jail to either serve 90 days or pay his back child support to be bailed out. He always serves his 90 days & she gets nothin'. So she has a new attorney & they have another court date coming up, so she asked for my help sorting through all her papers.

And it was fun - for like an hour - reading all the papers & seeing the warrants issued for arrest & dissolution of marriage papers & fun stuff like that. Then, it got real old, real quick...

Helloooo Santa

Friday night Matt & Carrie asked us to go out to eat. But Brad was busy doing that pesky farming thang so he couldn't go. And I had no plans but catching up on my dvr, so I said "sure, I'll go...". After we ate, we stopped by JC Penney's to look for Carrie's mom a Christmas present. And Matt is such a good sport. He was walking through the aisle's helping us look for a purse. Then when he caught me taking pics of him, he did this...

And I must've insulted his manhood with the whole purse thing, because then we wandered over to the lingerie department. And he found something that he like a whole lot more than purses. (now the name of the title should make sense?!)

This proves I can do anything - sorta

Most of you may not know that I hate to cook. It's not that I CAN'T cook, I just don't like to. That's why the "Just call me Julia Child" post was my little brand of sarcasm. 'Cuz I'm the complete opposite of Julia Child.

There are like 4 girls that I work with & we always celebrate birthdays. We take turns making each other some sort of dessert. And it's a BIG joke at work about my (lack of) cooking ability. But that's ok - it's the truth - I can deal with that.

My turn has come around & I decided to really go all out. The girl whose birthday it is is a really good cook. She's creative & likes doing it. So I felt kinda lame just making her brownies or something ya know? So she had this book of decorating cupcakes. I'm talking Turkey cupcakes, spaghetti & meatball cupcakes, animal cupcakes, spiders & spider web cupcakes. Yea - hard stuff. So I stole, er I mean, borrowed her cupcake book & looked through it for something I thought she'd appreciate. After searching the book, I decided on sunflowers because: #1 - they seemed the easiest out of everything in the book & #2 - I like sunflowers. (Ya'll know I'm selfish...)

So I bought all the ingredients & borrowed food coloring from another girl at work & I was ready to go. I started by "practicing" the petals for the flowers. Yeah, um - not too good... Then I had to color the icing green & put it on the cupcakes. I started with 24 cupcakes to decorate. That's quite a tall order...

Then I had to add oreos for the center of the flower. And Brad laughed at me when I asked him, "Do you think I can do this?!" He answered, "uh...no...you're not patient enough!" Amen, B-rad, Amen...

There were regular sized oreos & mini-oreos. After I put leaves on the regular oreos, I didn't have enough room to navigate the leaves onto the mini-oreos.

So I decided to compromise from the instructions & just go with a regular sized oreo.

And after I did like 12 of them, I started to get the hang of it.

Remember how I told you I started with 24?! Well, I had to do an old-school, playground pick of the best looking, most presentable sunflower cupcakes.

The little red m&m's are supposed to be lady bugs. Cute huh?! But after all the work & food coloring stained hands, I didn't have the energy OR patience to mix black frosting & put little dots & lines on them. They're just plain red m&m's sitting on a cupcake. Use your imagination, would ya?!

And ya'll know I can't lie to you... so I must admit that I did make another dessert to take with me in case the sunflowers were a bust. They're peanut butter bars. And they.are.delicious. And they are a tad more difficult than throwing eggs & water & oil into brownie mix - so that makes me feel a little better about kinda going to some trouble to make her dessert.

Cook? No. Pastry chef? Nu uh. Master griller? Nope. Ability to weave an otherwise dull story about cupcakes into something amusing?! I hope so!

Just call me Julia Child

I took the troops lunch yesterday. There were 4 of them working & it was SUCH a nice day - I decided to grill burgers for them. I had 8, count 'em, 8 buns & all the fixins laid out on the counter & stove. I was gonna drive Brad's new pick up truck out to the field since: #1-I never get to drive it. #2-to give my Explorer a break. #3-It's a farm truck & I was going to a farm. Well - the joke was on me 'cuz Brad texted me & said, "Eric drove my truck out to the field." (Eric is one of our helper troops) I was like WHAAAAAA?! Dang it! How convenient that I never get to drive it & they tell Eric "Just bring Brad or Brian's truck either one..." And he picks Brad?! Does anyone smell a conspiracy theory?!
The troops were running the grain cart when I got there & Brad was on the other side of the creek running corn. I even thought for a milli-second about driving his truck over the creek ('cuz one time we were there in MY Explorer & Brad wanted me to drive it acrosss the creek. Hmph!). But Eric told me I better not. Conspiracy - I.am.telling.you....

So I didn't even get to see Brad when I dropped off lunch. But I guess my previous post guilted him into taking pics of all the dried mud in the corn. The pics are compelling & they speak for themselves - but ya'll know that's not gonna happen. That's just how I roll.

See how you can barely see the corn through the dust flying?!

If you look closesly at the bottom of the pic, you can see the noses on the head. They are red & stick out like sore thumbs-normally. The combine also has lights all over it shining down on them & the corn so you can run after dark. Notice how you can barely see them?!

Kinda freaky seeing all the dust lingering in the valley.

Nothing exciting - at all...

So once again, we've had a non-action, nothing to blog about week. Brad's been busy doing his farming thang. I had a jewelry show Tuesday, but my shows for last night & today got cancelled. I was getting quite discouraged. But - these things happen. Both ladies have said they wanna reschedule... so we'll see.

Brad's been combining corn in one of the fields that got flooded from all the rain. The corn was completely under water in places & when he combined it - he said it was nothing.but.dust. I asked him to take pics so I could blog about it - he didn't - so you'll just have to use your imagination. I'll do my best to use descriptive words to allow you to feel like you were right in the action.

The dust/dried mud from the rain was so bad that he couldn't see beyond the combine head. He could only run 2.5 miles an hour. If you've ever been behind a piece of farm equipment on the road - they only are able to go about 5-10 miles an hour & that seems mind-numbingly slow. He also had to clean filters for the cab on the outside of the machine because they were so clogged with dust - the heat/air conditioning wasn't working too well. The windshield around the cab also had to be cleaned often so he could see out of it. He said he could hit the windshield on the inside & the dust would fall off on the outside.

I've also started Christmas shopping. I love Christmas - but I hate it. I have to choose gifts for everyone. My family AND Brad's. It's stressful trying to think of things everyone will like. I worry so much about it because I want everyone to like their gift. This year - instead of getting an actual toy or whatever for the kids - I've decided that Brad & I will take them to see the Harlem Globetrotters. Shhhh - don't tell them - they obviously don't know yet. Derik is 17, Brady is 13 so they are getting harder to buy for now. So I saw a commercial that the Harlem Globetrotters were coming in January & I thought maybe the kids would like to see them. Heck - I would like to see them! So I asked other people's opinions & the consensus was it was a good idea. I'm a little worried about not having an actual gift for them at Christmas - but they get so much other stuff maybe they won't be too concerned?! Don't worry - I have a plan. I'm gonna print a copy of the seating chart for Freedom Hall & mark where we're gonna be sitting. I'm also gonna try to find something off the Globetrotter's website to print. I'll wrap it all up so at least they'll have something to "un-wrap". (And, no, this does not apply to Erin - I've told her to get me a list of stuff she needs/wants for Christmas. I don't think she'd care about Globetrotters.)

Maybe the most exciting news from this week is that little Cole had to get glasses! And he is too cute in them! They checked his eyes at school & told Lora she probably needed to take him to the eye doctor. So at my show Tues. night I got a text from Brad that said "guess who is excited 'cuz he looks like me now?!" & had a picture of Cole with his glasses! He told Brad, "I just love my new glasses!" Ahhhhh....

Friday night I had to run something over to Lora so I made Cole come up & show me his new glasses. He said "Take my picture!" Ok-don't have to tell me twice! I just love that cheesy grin!

Combining soybeans

I took Brad lunch yesterday while he was running beans. I stayed for a little bit & rode around with him. Then I realized I've never shared pics of beans. Ya'll have seen plenty pics of corn - now it's time for a new lesson - soybeans 101. The combine itself is the same, but the thing on the front is just different. It's called a bean head. They can vary in length, but ours is 25'. Yeah - it's massive.
The reel constantly turns & feeds the beans into the machine where they are devoured. There are hundreds of little plastic "teeth" on the reel that help grab the beans & feed them in.
Now you may be asking yourself - "Uh, you said beans - what the heck is corn doing there too? Is it a corn field or a bean field?" Well - I'm glad you asked! Remember the wind storm last September? It knocked down practically ALL the corn in EVERY field. When the cornstalks fell, that meant the ears that were full of corn were on the ground too. Obviously it was very difficult for the boys to combine last year. And of course, they weren't able to get EVERY ear off the ground. So it laid there. And was rained on. And it sprouted. And a corn stalk grew. And voila!- you have corn stalks in a bean field. Kinda freaky huh?!

The other thing that really sucks about beans is how dusty they are. And it's not like regular dust. It's furry. Don't ask me how - it just is.

When I pulled into the field - Brad was in the back. It was SUCH a pretty day I had the moonroof open in my awesome Explorer. As soon as I pulled into the field - not even near the combine - I had hairy dust floating into my car. That does NOT make me happy.

I rode around long enough for Brad to finish the field. Brian was there to help him unload the head to move to another field. When we went to unload - we found this little guy playing in the beans in the trailer.

And this little guy? Ok-he's not so little, but Brady's been helping the boys out on the farm. And even though he's 13 - it was still SO weird for me to see him driving that big ole tractor with the grain cart. I remember when he was born! Guess that means I'm getting old?!

In case you were wondering - YES we believe in child labor on the farm. I mean-do they expect a free ride? C'mon - kids are expensive! And since Brad & I don't have any children to exploit - Brian & Lora's kids have to pick up the slack. Sucks to be them!

Even though the combine takes up the whole.entire.road when they move - moving with the heads on is NOT an option. So they unload the head onto that little trailer & Brian drove it to the next field. Then they re-attach it.

Tell me THAT wouldn't scare the hell outta ya if it was coming straight towards you in a vehicle?

More child labor in action.

B-rad is such a good sport! I hold up the camera & smile & he knows that's his cue to smile back!

Heading out of the field. Brian's in front with the head (you can't see him) 'cuz Brad's next in the combine, then Brady's bringin' up the rear with the tractor & grain cart. (Yes he drives it on the road. It scares me too, but Brad & Brian used to do this when they were WAY younger than 13 - he's gotta learn sometime!)

And like usual - there are drivers stuck behind them. Sorry 'bout their luck...