The Turtle (Terrapin) Race

One of the highlights of the Walnut Festival is the Turtle Race (probably really a Terrapin race, since they are the land living kind and not the water variety - but whatever). It's kind of funny really - you go out and find a turtle, you keep him for a day or two, trying to convince him that the apples or grapes or whatever you put in there for him to eat are actually tasty and then you try even harder to keep him in that box. The last two years we've actually had escapees and they would have probably won the whole race because once they made it out of the box - we couldn't find them, anywhere. Then, to the Festival you go. It's probably the highlight of the turtle's year, where else does he get to see that many distant cousins?

So they stick a number on his back, then you have to wait your turn and they put him under a big bucket with lots of other friends and a heat lamp. And when they open it up - wow do those guys get moving........ok most of them get moving, some never even poke their little heads out.

Our little guy had a hole in his shell (you can see it in the pic below) - it looked like he make have been shot by a bb gun but that didn't slow him down. He was set to finish second in his heat and go to the finals, but decided to walk along the line instead of crossing it so he wasn't a winner - but at least he did have lots of people cheering for him and he was able to attend his family reunion.

Riley got two ride tickets and an hour or so playing with cousins (like sweet Hope below) while we were waiting for the race to start. It was fun, can't wait until next year when all the excitement starts again.

Do you guys have local festivals with fun (maybe odd to others) traditions?

FFF - Silly Smiles & Faces

When we went to Walla Walla, Washington, a few months ago Riley decided to practice her faces so I took about a bazillion pics like a good mom so she could see them all. She cracks me up with all her silly stuff, man she keeps me entertained!! Check out more Favorite Foto Friday posts over at Sarah's blog!

Surprised
Ornery

Scared

Sad

Goofy (with the "cheese" smile)

Fuzzy - but EXCITED!

My sweetie!

Wordless Wednesday - the Walnut Festival starts today, guess who's excited?

This girl has been waiting not-so-patiently for a week for it to arrive - it starts today and she just couldn't contain her excitement anymore........welcome Walnut Festival.........we're glad you are here!

Check out more Wordless Wednesday posts here or here.

Thank you tire-fix-it-man!

We've had a slow leak in a tire for about a month - so slow that it takes like a week and a half before I need to air it up, which is still annoying but not too serious. I had myself convinced that they wouldn't be able to find a leak that slow - duh that's there job, of course they could find it, but that's beside the point!

Riley and I finally took it in last week - sure enough not even 15 minutes later they had us all fixed up, and Riley was totally in awe of the whole process! Somehow we had a piece of wire stuck in that tire - glad that's all taken care of!!PS - Don't mind my reflection in the first two pictures - I just told Riley she couldn't go out and watch so I figured I should probably obey my own rules and try and snap a pic thru the window. Man am I glad they didn't see me, I bet they would have thought I was a nutcase!

We did it again

My hubby has this addiction - he likes to trade cars, a lot. I think since he started driving he's had 10 cars and 6 o fthose were before he was 22 - seriously. This time it was actually my idea though (he nearly fell over when I suggested it). Our Equinox was a good car, we liked the room and ride and well everything but the gas mileage - it was terrible. We know other people that had Chevy Equinox's - they got much better than we did and it was simply time to find something more economical........because gas is $3.xx a gallon, because Joey drives a lot for work..........guess how much, I'll let you know at the end of the post.

So we said good-bye to this car on Thursday..........Joey happily bagged up all his stuff (including our dear friend Emily's birthday present from last year - we really need to get that to her!)
This is the happy Joey - happy to have a new ride - one that has comfy cushy seats that leaves his tushy wide awake instead of painfully crabby at the end of the day. (Your welcome for mentioning your tushy honey - I'm feeling kinda onery today)
Hello Buick LaCrosse - please be nice to us where gas mileage is concerned. Thank you for having comfy seats and room for 6 should we ever need it. Thank you for having a huge trunk that could haul nearly anything we might ask of you. I was quite surprised by Joey's choice of vehicle.........dare I say it looks like a grandma car? I really tried to talk him out of it because I was afraid he wouldn't like it in a week......but he says he loves it - and I'll have to trust him on it.

He's looking at me grumpy in the last picture because I'm standing in the road........he thinks I'm going to get run over.........but because it was blog-worthy, I took the chance and survived. Too bad the picture didn't turn out better since I, you know, nearly died and all (j/k).

And what's your guess on the mileage? If you count the in-town driving to the schools, etc, he drives around 600 miles per week for work - yep, fuel economy is near and dear to our hearts!

Thanks Daddy!

We had a little weed problem - it was bad, I'm sure the neighbors LOVED us, but every time we were home, it seemed like it was raining so this happened. We didn't mean for it to, really we didn't.
This nice guy took care of it for us this weekend though - thanks daddy!

FFF- Hope

The theme that Sarah picked this week for FFF was Hope.................this was a theme that I had a hard time nailing down, I looked thru pictures, I pondered, I looked some more just trying to come up with a good picture of Hope and what it meant to me. My pictures don't go together at all this week - but I'm a pretty random person by nature so I guess that suits me just fine really :)

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This is my friend Gina's little boy. He went in the hospital May 1st of this year for "pneumonia" and they found a 5cm tumor in his chest. It was cancer. It was wrapped around his aorta. They did surgery and it was scary. He was 11 months old.This is Carter a month later at his very first birthday party - and he's cancer free. God is GOOD!*************************************************
This is my grandpa. He passed away the day after Thanksgiving 2006. I miss him. He was one of the best men I've ever known - he was truly a good person, always helping others and doing the right thing, even when it wasn't the easiest. He wasn't a Christian. He found Jesus, in a real way just days before he went to meet Him. Riley loves her Papa Gene and even though I know she can't remember him well (she was 1) she knows that he is in heaven! God is GOOD!
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This little boy is Granton Bayless - he was very sick (and still isn't out of the woods quite yet). They weren't sure he was going to make it, he has/had a rare disease called severe combined immunodeficiency. He's had many ups and downs along the way, but God is good, God is faithful and God loves His kiddos. He's out of the hospital after a 5 1/2 month stay and able to be with his mom in the Ronald McDonald house. Not only did God spare his precious life, but the bone marrow drives held to originally find him a donor have already helped at least 2 other individuals. God is good in all situations.

I'm also thanksful for the HOPE I have in Jesus Christ. I don't know how people go thru life without Him - I know I couldn't handle it on my own!

An Update On Me

Hello everyone - just an update on my dr's appointment yesterday. They did do some more allergy testing, but I didn't react to anything. Joey had a good laugh at the numbers written all over my back and arms though - thankfully they used washable marker (and purple, one of my favorites)!

The only other option they had for me didn't seem that great. They said sometimes people like me (not sure if that was supposed to be encouraging or not - but at least there might be other people like me I guess - ha) are aspirin sensitive. To check this they put you in the hospital and give you a bunch of aspirin and see if you have a reaction (yikes) if you don't, then you aren't aspirin sensitive and you go home. If you are, they start you on very small doses of aspirin and work up to two full strength aspirin a day and sometimes that help fix you (no more polyps, no more asthma-like symptoms) and you can go off of your medicine. But - the aspirin might rot a hole in your stomach, it might mess up your digestive track, it might hurt your liver/kidneys and if you ever need surgery, etc you'll have to go off of this and then start all over again. Oh yes and did I mention all this takes place in the hospital and they've never done any around here so it would have to be like 4 hrs away.

Not much of a decision there - I think I'll stay with my meds (as much as I hate them) and call it good. I like my stomach in one piece and my liver and kidneys to function well..........

This guy looks innocent doesn't he

Meet our kitty, Neo, he really does have 9 lives and he's kind of a giant in the kitty world. I wish I had a pic of him compared to another kitty so you could see, but I don't.

He was stuck in the top of the garage door a few years ago - they had to do surgery and remove the ball out of one of his hip joints and now he doesn't even limp (see pic below). He was run over in our very own driveway (I won't tell you who did that, but they feel very guilty and her name starts with the letter R) and he is fine. Sometimes he's a little fiesty, but he's a good cat - and if I had been thru everything he had, I might be a little fiesty too.

Riley and Neo get along pretty good most of the time. She likes to pet him, she likes to give him kisses and doesn't even mind if he lays on her bed.......as long as she's not in it. Sometimes they have a little tiff though and it usually involves Neo playing with some of her toys and Riley not appreciating it.

Yep - this is my sleepy head who just woke up one morning this week - totally not appreciating that the kitty had found a letter, one of her letters and was having a grand time.

Doesn't he look innocent? She quickly realized she had way more letters than he did though and so the world was again happy - no more stern looks for the kitty.

Wish me luck

Today is the day I go for allergy testing - wish me luck, maybe Dr. Lewis will be able to figure me out (don't laugh honey, it could be possible, really it could be). Hopefully I can post an update this afternoon with some answers..........

Wordless Wednesday - Riley loves the camera!

Check out more Wordless Wednesday posts here or here.

PS - Her booboo is much better this week, these were from last week

I hate needles!

You know, I've really been a pretty healthy person most of my life - I had ear infections when I was little, but tubes in my ears took care of that in 2nd grade. I got strep throat about once a year in Junior High and High School, but I really never was a sickly person. I didn't have allergies, I didn't take any prescriptions medicine and rarely even took over the counter stuff.....................I was healthy.

Until September-ish 2006.

I had more sinus infections than I knew one person could get.......I actually had to have surgery (twice in 10 1/2 months) because I'm blessed with sinus polyps which are kind of like a mystery illness because they have no idea what causes them or how to get rid of them really.......then it got to where I really struggled to breathe and they said I might have asthma (did you know this is kind of a mystery too no idea where it comes from really or how to fix it - yeah I get weirdo illnesses - and I had the lungs of a 71 year old at my worst point so not cool with that). They said all of these are probably combined, but no idea which one caused the other and that I MIGHT grow out of this (really, I didn't get it until I was 26, so I guess there's a possibility, just seems odd).

So they tried to figure me out - I did the allergy testing thing - you know where you feel like a porcupine because they stick 40 toothpicks in your back trying to figure it out.......nothing.......then they tried 8 shots in my arm to see if maybe that would work.......nothing.......no itchy, no reaction, no allergies. Then they tried the blood test kind.......nothing........no allergies. Now I'll admit, I don't have itchy eyes, runny nose, etc, but in my vast (ha) internet knowledge I've learned that sinus infections, polyps and asthma are all usually related to allergies. I always start showing symptoms in September so it makes sense that there must be something out there, right?

I made a decision, one that might surprise you if you know me well (or if you read the title of this post) I actually asked to go get stuck some more, really, please stick me again and figure out what makes all this happen.................please.

God was listening - there was a cancellation at 9am this Thursday. Please pray for me and for the dr to have wisdom to figure me out!! I know they've already tested for many things, but there has to be something out there that my body just doesn't like and I'd really like to figure it out!! I also know I'm going thru this for a reason, and I'm ok with that, if I can help someone else at some point, thank you God for this experience. I'm a planner though and this whole unknown thing is really hard for me. I'm hoping and praying for answers!

FFF - Birthday's

FFF didn't have a theme this week - it was our assignment to pick one of our own......which I thought would be a breeze, but I'm just not sure what to go with - so I'm thinking that Birthday's seems like a good theme to me. All this reminising these last few weeks really has me amazed at how much my girl has changed in these few short years (still in denial she'll be 3 in November). To check out more FFF posts go to Sarah's blog, Kiss the Frog 4 Me - they're always great!

Riley's original BIRTH-day, welcome to the world sweetie
And sorry you scratched yourself, I would have cut your
fingernails, but you see....I was too chicken,
I've learned since then though I'm no longer afraid :)

I can't believe my baby ONE was......
I know that's what I was thinking that day!!!
If only I knew how much faster time would fly in the days to come.
She's excited about the cake to come
(OK not really, because she didn't really eat it,
but I can pretend right, because it looks like
what she could have been thinking)
Riding on her 4-wheeler from Papa Dub

And now my baby is TWO - no terribles two's please

I can't believe that in only two-months she'll be THREE, yikes where does the time go?