Black Friday

I am morally and ethically against Black Friday.  Any day that would prompt crazy women at Walmart to pepper spray people in line so she could advance herself...  I am against.  Unless I can get a great deal at Bomgaar's...  count me out of the shopping insanity.  So instead of going and fighting insanity, the girls decided they wanted to go to the gym.  Kasey is still working on rehab-ing her hip from cross country so the girls mostly lifted weights while I did some cardio.  It was fun.... and necessary to burn off some of those cheesy potatoes.  :-)
We have somewhat of a tradition.  Every year the girls help put up the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving..  So Mike brought the tree in and we proceeded to get it put up.

We used to have real Christmas trees but struggled with our tradition.  We would get a real tree every year so the girls could decorate it but by the time Christmas got here, our tree was a serious fire hazard and the carpet had more needles on it than the tree did.  So about 3 years ago, we succumbed and purchased an artificial tree.  I have to admit, it is much easier but it doesn't smell near as good.  :-)
So after the tree was up, Karley crashed.  I think she needs to catch up on sleep she doesn't get during her normal life.  With so many activities...  I know she doesn't operate on much rest so Karl crashed on the floor for a couple hours.

Kasey, the hard worker that she is jumped right back into the homework like normal.  She did have a couple of helpers..  :-)

It's been a nice visit with the girls.  Tonight Kelsey and Brent will stop by to pick up the girls on their way to their Dad's Thanksgiving.  It's always wonderful to have them here...  Dora and Apple adore the girls as much as I do and we are always sad to see them leave.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!  I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving day!  I was so fortunate to have Karley and Kasey home for a couple of days.  They got in about 2:30 a.m. on Thanksgiving day.  Mom and Dad also decided to join us for lunch so it was shaping up to be a fun time.
Before Mom and Dad got there, we entertained ourselves by watching the Macy's day parade and then the National Dog Show out of Philadelphia.  It was a great dog show!  So fun to watch.

Look!  Snoopy on T.V.!

Mom and Dad got there...  Late as usual!  But better late then never.  :-)

Kasey, Gpa Jack, and Karley

I know what you are thinking..  You are thinking how could Jeri possibly cook a Thanksgiving dinner considering the lack of cooking skill and all.  We decided to divide and conquer!  We each had our responsibilities so at least I couldn't burn everything!  :-) 

The next Rachel Ray

Kasey wanted to cook mashed sweet potatoes.  So I said go for it!!  They turned out fantastic.

Karley of course didn't cook anything.  She just spends her time avoiding responsibility and messing around.  That's the baby for you.  :-)  Love you Karl!

Gma Helen!  How did you get so short??

My responsibility was the cheesy potatoes.  And I'm happy to say, yes, I am the next America's top chef!  They turned out perfectly!  Okay maybe they were a little crunchy around the edges but the middle was really good!  I swear!

mmm....  cheesy!!  :-)  Maybe just a little crunchy around the edges..

Mike cooked the turkey breast on the grill.  It turned out good as well.  So the meal was a success!  There is always a way around my cooking handicap.  :-)

gobble gobble!

Apple and Dora would have liked a bit of turkey too but we made them wait.  :-)  Poor abused things...

Drop something....  drop something...

So many people to beg from!

After lunch it was nap time!  zzzzzzz......

And time for some homework!

I decided I wanted to see exactly what Karley was studying...  Or was she just reviewing phone numbers of her boy friends....

I guess she actually was doing homework...  I tried to explain to Karley the difference between diffusion and osmosis but she didn't think she needed my help...  Good thing she wasn't studying chemistry.  I could have really helped her fail with that assignment.

It was a great Thanksgiving.  I hope yours was just as good if not better.  I'm so thankful for so many things...  Hope you are as well. 

Bye Bye Rosie!

Mike abruptly decided that the longhorns had to go.  I'm guessing it was the price of hay.  :-) (just a guess) He likes his Thor so much he decided he was going to downsize the longhorns and get a Watussi heifer.  I was kind of sad to see Rosie go...  Thor still won't take any treats from me...  So I'll miss Rosie slobbering on me.  But oh well, that's Mike's thing.

Bye Bye Rosie.  Sniff!  :'(  I'll miss you!

So Rosie, Jimmy, and Pork Chop hit the road.  I was sad...  They got into the trailer fairly easily. That was pretty shocking.  Jimmy probably was the most exciting.  Rosie and Pork Chop walked right in.  Jimmy messed around and it took about 4 tries..  But that still was better than I thought it would be.  I was the gate person.  :-)  It's good to have a job away from the trample zone.  :-)  ha ha.
On a different note, I get a lot of questions on how do you give Oscar a bath when it's cold out...  Here's your answer!  Ha ha..

  I

Where's the water Mom?

What Saturday means to Oscar

It's starting to look chilly and icy out there!

 Now everyone knows the world revolves around Oscar...  Including Oscar.  During the week, he's shuffled back and forth between the house and the barn but on Saturday, Oscar is the King!  Today was our first kind of wintery day of the season.  Since it was a damp icy Saturday and chilly outside...brrrr....  Oscar enjoyed a majority of his day inside.  It was so icy I  hated to even let Oscar outside.  The first time I let him out this morning, he promptly wiped out giving me a heart attack but thank goodness he was okay. 

Where's my breakfast??

Saturday for Oscar usually starts with Oscar impatiently waiting for his scrambled eggs...  Eventually I give in and get the scrambled eggs going for him...  Usually I'm still in my pj's but Oscar comes first!

After a delicious breakfast of eggs and dog food,  I decided I wanted to run Oscar to the vet and weigh him.  So I quickly get dressed and we jump in the car.  That back seat is getting pretty small for Oscar but he squeezed in.  When Oscar jumped on the scale, he weighed in at a whopping 160 lbs at 10 1/2 months old.  Having accomplished that, we head back home.  By that time, Oscar decides it's time to go out and burn some energy. The ice was covering everything so he did wipe out royally on the concrete.  But not phased at all he tore outside and ran around for awhile. 

After a good while of exercise, I call Oscar...  Time to come in.  Oscar listens well especially if I tell him, it's time for a treat!  Then he comes a haulin...  This time, he had a treasure he had found that he wanted to bring in the house with him.  Mom was the fun killer and said no...  leave the toy outside...

Mom!  Can I keep it??  Huh?  Can I keep it?

So after all that fantastic fresh air, Oscar came in to get his treat...

Then, Oscar feels like it's time to do a little chewing..  So he will usually whine and bark at me until I pick up his bone and hand it to him.  Time for a little chew!

Finally it was too much for Oscar...  Time for a nap. 

After a restful afternoon nap, for Oscar, mother the slave driver decides it's time to practice.  Even though we are done showing for the year, we gotta keep up the practicing.  Don't want Oscar to lose touch of his feet!  :-)  (That's dog show talk)..

When we are done practicing...  Mother and Oscar mess around in the living room for a bit before he heads back to the kitchen.

And Oscar pretty much hangs in the kitchen for the rest of his Saturday.  And that in a nutshell is pretty much what Oscar does about every Saturday now.  :-)  It's a rough rough life but hey, someone has to do it!  Ha Ha.  I can hear Oscar snoring in the kitchen as I sit and type this!  It's hard to be the king.  See ya next weekend!

Are we at the circus??

I now understand that I've been missing out on a little of the wild side of life.  Today we went to Kasey's cross country regional match in Waverly Iowa...  let's just say I spent most of it walking around in amazement with my mouth hanging open.  It was pretty wild...  Not what I had expected.  I was starting to think I was in Sturgis for the motorcycle rally!

It was so odd!  There was this huge sound system blaring really loud music...  People running around everywhere.  Not even the people running in the race but everyone (except for me of course)!  And 1/2 of these strange individuals running everywhere were so scantily clad I was blushing!  Maybe that wouldn't be so shocking in the middle of summer but the temperature was around 50 degrees so all those young men and women running around in their skivvies...  All I can say is it struck me as a little odd.  Kasey said her own coach would tell them to get their clothes on..  That's a relief..  whew..  Kasey's too conservative to do something like that anyway..  Thank you god!

 Here's Kasey before her race with her team.  Note..  clothes are on!  :-)

So here they are all lined up ready to go.  The gals in black make up the Concordia team.

The gun goes off and it's like a stampede!  There are so many running you can feel the ground moving a little.  It's kind of cool.  Ever see the buffalo stampede in Custer??  I'm just saying....  If you got in the way...  it would hurt....

Kasey ran pretty well but unfortunately she's been suffering from a hip injury.  It's nothing serious but she just needs some time off to rest a bit and let her body heal.  She did have quite a bit of pain through the race and after the race the coach told me what a gutsy kid Kasey is.  She did a great job.  She ended up third on her team.  She didn't have her best race ever but she made it to Regionals in her first year out...  That's quite an accomplishment and I'm super proud of her.

After the race, Kasey had a hug for her old mom...  That was nice.  I haven't seen her for a few weeks so a hug was great.

Then Kasey got all iced up trying to get the hip to relax a bit.  After the race we walked back to their camp site.  Kasey showed me her new t-shirt she was quite proud of.

Kasey!  What a ham!  :-)

Kasey had her lucky talisman along with her.  Kasey's kind of like her mom...  a little different.  Since she was a baby she's been into Dinosaurs...  Here's her lucky charm for the day.  :-)  Kasey you goof ball!

Dinosaur!!

It was fun to catch Kasey on her last race of the year.  Kasey is up for a little time off and then will start her off season training already...  She's a die hard!  :-)

Something is missing???

Hmmm...   Something seems different.  Not sure what.....  Wait, I know!  The horse trailer isn't sitting out in front of the house anymore!  Whoop!  (Now it's going to be hard to find the house.  :-)

Mike sold the horse trailer to a gentleman in St. Louis so he took off bright and early Saturday and headed south with the trailer.  It's nice to get it sold before the snow flies..  Now we don't have to worry about storing it for the winter.  Sorry Karley...  I know you didn't want us to sell the trailer but we just didn't use it enough.  Maybe I need to invest in a dog hauler!  :-)  Mike ended up getting back at midnight Saturday night.
On Sunday, the travelers breezed in round 1:00 in the afternoon.  Mom and Dad have been gone for quite awhile so it was nice to see them.  They swung into the ranch on their way to Rochester, Mn. 

Hey!  Why are you taking my picture?

Note Mom's pleasant look on her face...  :-)  Nice one mom!  Someone should have warned you if you stop by, you might end up on the blog.  ha ha.  Dad and Mike watched a little bit of football.  Mike hasn't seen much football lately.  Pretty sure it's been my fault with the 31 days of Halloween and all...  But a girl has to have priorities you know!  :-)  But now it's November and the football is on.  That's not so bad.  It's relaxing to watch some football on a Sunday afternoon.

I didn't get a whole lot of sleep on Saturday night so I opted for a nap in the sun..  Yes, I pushed Apple out of her favorite spot.  Tough luck Apple.  :-)  It was enjoyable.  I'm only good for about a 15 minute nap but it was nice...

Again Mom!!  What's with the face and the finger.  Geez, now I know who I get my attitude from.

Is this going on the blog??

And Mom got to finish eating her lunch with her biggest fans...  (Actually they are pizza fans but don't tell Gma Helen that!  :-)

mmmm....  pizza....  with extra cheese.....

And that's about it for this weekend.  Got to relax and enjoy a weekend at home.  Had some fun visitors...  Nice for a change!  Next weekend to Waverly to watch Kasey run in the Regional Cross Country Match.  Good Luck Kasey!  I'll be wearing my Concordia Sweatshirt!  Whoop!