Thumper AKA fuzzy butt!

[whitelop]

It sounds like a good time!

I wonder why they would replace apple bobbing with doughnut eating? That seems pretty unhealthy! And sticky! I also hate being sticky. Its gross feeling.

Your hub sounds really great! Making coffee for you! Thats so nice, thats like pulling at the heartstrings! LOL It does suck that you guys didn't get to spend the day together. But I find that when my hub is home when he's not supposed to be, it really puts a damper on what I'm supposed to be doing!

I miss book fairs. I can't wait for AJ to go to school and I can volunteer at the book fairs!

 

[Chrisdoc]

I agree with Morgan, donut bobbing does not sound very healthy and extremely messy. I hate getting sticky hands as well.

Seems you had a great day though. It´s year since I´ve heard anyone talk about the Harvest Festival, we used to have one at school every year when they sold home made stuff, everyone baked and it was a great event, you´ve brought back memories.

I love book fairs although I hardly ever buy any now but love browsing. We still have quite a few during the year.

 

[PaGal]

Morgan and Chris... well I guess donuts aren't as healthy as an apple and it was a sticky mess. They did have wipes for the kids to clean their faces afterwards and of course the school has restrooms as well. I never thought about it until hubby made a comment but I guess they've figured bobbing for apples isn't too hygienic due to people possibly biting more than one apple plus some possibly slobbering into the water.

Sometimes hubby being home does get in the way or slows my progress down but I do like having him home and usually he's in the garage so he's only in the way so much but I can go out and yack with him when the mood strikes.

Other than not getting to eat or have my coffee I love volunteering at the book fair. I like hearing what the kids have to say and even carrying on conversations with them.

 

[PaGal]

Let's see if I can remember what's happened this week...

I now have two dig boxes in the girls side of the room for when they are out and knock on wood my carpet hasn't been chewed since. Also, neither has used them as a potty which is great. Laverne especially likes the dig boxes and will happily spend her time out buried up to her chin in paper.

Of course, a lot of it winds up on the floor so every night I have a mess to deal with but it's worth it to save the carpet I hate and to keep the buns from possibly ingesting any.

I may be becoming allergic to hay. Seems that my nose acts up and my hands and arms get itchy after filling up the hay racks. Oh well.

So Thumper doesn't play chase as much any more but he is becoming a real sweetheart. When I go in to clean his cage he will run after me and right before I get to his cage he then zooms in front of me and will lay down expecting lovings. Which I of course, oblige. He typically now lays his head on my leg while I rub his face. He loves it when you rub from his nose to forehead with your thumb while at the same time stroking his cheek with your fingers and begins tooth purring.

The other night I sat there for a while before deciding it was time to get the work done. Thumper didn't seem ready to move and I didn't want to risk bonking him with my knee or something standing up so I placed a hand on each side of his chest which usually causes him to move away but he didn't. In fact he let me lift the whole front of him off the ground and was just completely relaxed and limp like a rag doll. It is a bit of a breakthrough as I feel I could have picked him up but the angle I was at prevented that.

He has also learned a new trick and now does it almost nightly. Apparently my shirt hanging down while I am on hands and knees cleaning his cage makes a good tunnel because he keeps climbing into it. Silly rabbit!

I have a few pics but figure I will wait to post since I'll be taking pics of the girls in their costumes tomorrow.

 

[whitelop]

I can't wait to see the girls costumes!

Thumper sounds like a real sweetheart! And the Lavern and Shirley sound really funny, in their dig boxes. Girls just love to dig!
Yes, better to save the carpet than have them destroy it.

 

[PaGal]

I do hate the carpet and we plan to replace it. But I still would rather not have holes throughout the carpet until we can replace it.

One of the girls teachers actually gave them homework yesterday. Grrr! Any other time when something special is going on like the Harvest Festival the teachers will not give homework. We made plans to go trick-or-treating with one of the girls friends. Hubby is friends with her father through work and now they race four wheelers as well.

We had to put a few quick last minute touches on one costume and what with homework and dinner we left a little late and then hubby's gps on his phone had an issue but we made it. Our friends live in a nice neighborhood and there were a lot of kids with their parents out. One house even set up their whole house as a haunted house. It was so cool and fun. The girls were scared and we had to pull them through or push them through. Their friend went through with her eyes closed but they really enjoyed it.

It took us longer than it should have to trick-or-treat because everyone kept talking to the girls about their costumes. One lady that had the inside of her house done up all spooky even asked to take their picture. We left later than we planned.

On the way home the neighbors called asking us to bring the girls over to get some candy. So we stopped there on our way home. Now earlier in the day hubby had gone over to ask the boy to come over. I had one of those platstic pumpkins for him that I filled with candy, fruit snacks, cookies and different potato chips. When hubby was over the neighbor told him something had killed 13 of his chickens. He said he hasn't heard the chickens making a fuss during the night.

The girls didn't have their costumes on as they couldn't sit down with them on but they did show them to the neighbors. The neighbor gave me a sweet potato pie she made from the sweet potatoes we grew and gave to them. While this was going on (I didn't notice hubby walk away) hubby heard the chickens going crazy. He found that there was a raccoon in the neighbors pen. It was dragging off another chicken.

The neighbor shot the raccoon. He then brought the dead chicken to his mother and said he was going to skin the raccoon...it ate his chickens so he was going to eat it. Hubby kept apologizing to me as he knows I don't like to see animals killed. The neighbor now has no laying hens as they have all been killed and only have five chickens left. I feel for them because I know they need the chickens. They are not a hobby for them or just because they like fresh eggs.

We finally got the kids home, showered and in bed. I'll post pics later.

 

[whitelop]

I can't believe that they got homework! Most of the time teachers don't do that because they know it probably won't be done. So its like setting some of the kids up to fail, how mean. Maybe its not like that, but not all kids have parents home when they get home. Ya know? When I was like 10 I stayed home alone after school.

Anyway, it sounds like the girls had AWESOME costumes and I can not wait to see them!

Sorry for the raccoon. But raccoon are disgusting horrible creatures. I've had my run ins with them and they're horrible. It only takes like an 1.5 inch gap for the coon to squeeze through and get a chicken. I've heard many a tale of the raccoons going in and totally massacring flocks. They probably didn't hear much because it was probably later at night and the chickens were pretty quiet and subdued because it was dark. Then they get so scared they don't make much noise, especially if it was just a bunch of girls with no roo to protect them.
As much as I dislike Big Boy sometimes, he really took a hit for the big hen when he got attacked by the raccoon. I think its because he was white, she was black, so Big was visible in the night time when the coon came around. The hen probably wouldn't have made it then, because she was much smaller.
At least they can eat the raccoon, so it didn't die in vain and it probably won't go to waste. Just don't eat anything they give you for a while.

Can't wait to see the girls costumes! Sorry your night ended with such a sad bang!

 

[PaGal]

Ha! Nope no meat eating any time soon for me. Well not if it comes from them anyway.

I admire how smart and crafty raccoons are but I wasn't upset over it because I know they need their chickens for the eggs and the meat. I'm also pretty sure the raccoon isn't eating a whole chicken every day. The girls actually wanted to go see the raccoon after. They may be girly girls in some ways but never seem to upset over something like that. They have seen hubby prepare fish we have caught to eat and are just interested in the process.

It was sad though hearing the chicken it was trying to drag off. At least the raccoon went quickly.

It does surprise me but at the same time I'm sure that it would really upset them to see a pet or animal not needed for food hurt or killed.

I forgot about your roo being attacked because I was wondering if bigger chickens would be better for them at least if they continue to have issues.

 

[Chrisdoc]

My goodness, how awful for your neighbour, I suppose that´s nature for you.

Can't wait to see the girls´ photos, seems like their costumes were a big hit.

That´s a bit off giving them homework, a bit of a jobsworth but you always get one.

 

[PaGal]

Chris...luckily we always have the girls do their homework as soon as they get home so they were right on it because that is what they are used to and at least their other teacher didn't give them any.

 

[PaGal]

Here they are. Keep in mind they look better in person...I so need a different camera.

 

[whitelop]

Those costumes are amazing! Who came up with the idea of them?
You guys did such a great job making them!
And lovely girls if I may add!

I think the trash can is my favorite, because it makes me think of Oscar the Grouch. But they're all so good and so creative!

 

[PaGal]

The girls came up with the ideas. I'll admit it left me stumped as to how the heck we would do it. I did most of the work as we felt the girls are too young yet to weild a box cutter. Ha! We all had a turn at spray painting and I did have the girls help as much as possible.

The garbage can in person really looks like one. In fact we had the costumes in the garage so I didn't have to worry about paint fumes in the house till they dried well or getting hot glue everywhere and while it was out there and mostly done we both kept almost throwing things away in it and hubby went to empty it on trash day.

I can't believe how much time they took but it was worth it as the girls were really happy especially with all of the compliments from parents, children and even teens.

Gonna pop over and see if you posted AJ yet. If not tell hubby to get a move on it as we are anxiously waiting. Ha!

 

[Chrisdoc]

fab costumes, how do they come up with these ideas, so original and so well made. I bet everyone was amazed at them...cute girls too. I haven´t done fancy costumes for years. I must find a photo of me years ago with a costume my mom made, it was really good and I won a prize as well. Congrats to you all :biggrin:

 

[kmaben]

They look great Denise! You're so crafty! I'm moving in! I'm a great weed puller and rabbit cleaner.

 

[PaGal]

Chris...thank you! I have no idea why they chose the costumes that they did but they are original. I have tried to raise them that costumes are better when made by you and different than everyone else is the best. I will admit that when they first told me what they wanted to go as that I was completely stumped as to how to make them. I would love to see your photo so please do find it and share.

Kaley...Thank you! I think we would have to buy a bigger place what with all the additional fur babies you'd bring along.

 

[PaGal]

I typed up our weekend yesterday but when I was almost done it disappeared on me and I was too tired to do it all over again.

We went to the two day race event on Sat/Sun. It was scheduled for last month but it rained for four days straight so they had to cancel it. Going by the schedule that was online that was put up for last month we had plenty of time to get there Saturday so we didn't have to get up early or rush which was nice.

After we got there we found out that the schedule had changed although no one changed it online and they had already raced the kids. They did let them race the bracket race along with the adults on Sunday because of it so they did get to race after all. No wins. The girls were not very consistent for some reason and you have to be to win the bracket races.

Since hubby was racing as well I had to get the girls lined up and make sure we had the starter for the one girls bike with us the whole time. I spent the day running back and forth, up and down the hill and carrying the not so light starter with me. I am still sore all over. I'm sure half of it was because it was so cold and that is harder on your muscles. Hubby did win a race on Saturday and his buddy came in second on Sunday. The competition was very good this weekend.

 

[PaGal]

We took both of our trailers. We have on open one and a closed one. We can't fit all of the four wheelers in our closed trailer so we usually use the open one but we wanted the closed one to sleep in. We figured it would be warmer than a tent plus we took our generator so we could have light plus plug in a heater.

Hubby and I had an air mattress, flannel sheets and two sleeping bags. The girls had a feather mattress flannel sheets and three comforters. We had the heater on when we went to bed. After some time hubby decided to shut down the generator because it was so loud in the cool air. Before too long though it got very cold. The cold was also coming up from the floor and through the air mattress. It was so cold it had our joints aching. We tried putting one sleeping bag under us and one on us but we were still freezing.

Hubby and I did not sleep all night as we spent the whole time too cold to sleep and trying to fix things so we would be warm. We did start up the generator again. The girls were nice and toasty. The cold did not travel up though the feather mattress plus it holds good heat. Oh, we also took the dog with us. He slept in the back of our explorer and kept moving around during the night which made the trailer rock around. Usually once he's in the truck and we go to bed he goes to sleep. That's one thing he knows...his bedtime.

We both said never again. From now on we will stay in a nice, warm, quiet hotel if it is cold out. So I spent all of Saturday very cold and Sunday. I was still cold when we went to bed on Sunday. I just could not get warm again.

 

[PaGal]

When we got home Sunday I was rushing around like crazy and had the girls rushing to get ready for bed. When we got home it was 8:15 and the girls bed time is 8:30 and so we were trying to get them to bed as soon as possible so they weren't up too late.

At 8:45 I realized our mistake. We never changed the time on our clock in the truck last year. Since last winter we have just been mentally adding an hour to the time. Now that the clocks have gone back the time is again right in the truck and so it was actually 7:15 when we got home.

I woke up yesterday feeling horrible. I was afraid I might be getting sick but I guess it was just still being so tired and my body hurting and all. I got to sleep a little later today since we will be going to vote and so there is no school today. I could have slept later but silly man forgot something when he was getting ready to leave for work. He locked the door as he left and instead of getting his keys back out of his van he rang the doorbell hoping the kids would get it but it woke me up since I'm a light sleeper and I let him in. It was definitely better than my normal 5:30am wake up.

If you are reading this Morgan...DON'T do it!!!! Do not camp out. Get a hotel room. Ha!

The buns are fine although when we got home they had no hay and their water was low. The water they had would not have lasted through the night. They had been fed their pellets while we were gone. I didn't expect them to be let out or for litter pans to be changed but how hard is it to give pellets, stuff hay racks and fill water bowls? I cut back a little on pellets yesterday and I have really been stuffing their hay racks and they have been eating it. They are back to eating their normal amount of hay and pellets now.

 

[whitelop]

You're scaring me Denise! With the camping! I know its going to be cold, but we have a feather bed cover to go on the air mattress, we're putting a blanket under the air mattress and then we have these really soft blankets that hold the heat in, on top of several sleeping bags. So hopefully we'll be okay. Probably not, but oh well. My hub is dead set on camping, but if we're too cold Friday night we'll get a hotel for Saturday night. Thanks for the warning though! Its getting colder and colder here.

Thats funny about the clocks! Its amazing how your mind plays tricks on you and then you're rushing around going crazy and you realize its okay and the calm that washes over you! I've done it before. LOL

Glad the buns were alright!