NO..NO...NO..

Children ..Yup I have a few and what can you do with them hey? I cant seem to get it right, Im either to strict or not strict enough. You'd think by the time they are out of high school they'd be ok and know right from wrong, well I guess we never learn. The 2 oldest are still working on getting it right and my youngest at 16 is telling me her world is OK but at the same time in subtle ways letting me know she is very mixed up . I worry about her so much, there are so many pitfalls, drinking, drugs, sex, all things I can only tell her about what NOT to do and then I come across as an asshole parent who knows nothing about life nowadays. !
Yeah well kids put us through the wringer there is no doubt about that is there.
So I wonder how she'd feel if I put my foot down and said ...
NO to parties,
No to staying over at friends
No to drinking
NO to all the stuff she tells me her friends have permission to do.
Its the drinking and parties that are getting to me. I was being "cool" parent and letting her go thinking that she was having a wine cooler or two, but now I find that she has been drinking 26ers as she calls it.
Its like Ive said OK you can do anything you want this summer!! How am I going to take that back and stop her from drinking? I think Ive created a monster of a problem..if I continue to let it happen I'm no damn good as a parent, when I stop her, I'll be a bitch , and a rotten parent..I know I know you cant be friends with your kids until they are out of there teen years..I honestly thought a few drinks would teach her how to handle herself for when she goes to college and is out on her own, a year from now. Parents were supposed to be there at these parties, now I am beginning to think they weren't, well at least at the last few. I've let her run free the past 3 or 4 months and am so worried I have done wrong. I wonder if all these other parents know the kids are drinking so heavily?
..Lord if she reads this she would probably yell at me.
I didn't let my eldest daughter go to parties, so she would stay at friends and sneak out. I found that out later. My youngest , well, I was trying to hit a middle ground. Something I now think is impossible.
Anyway however you look at it , at 16-( almost 17 she tells me) years old, a half a 26 of Malibu ( whatever that is) that she drank at the party on Friday night ...its too much!

wedding photos

above photo: Angel and Owen
above photo: Angel and Samantha
above photo:Owen,
Above photo: Angel the Flower Girl
Above photo: still cooking and moments to go
Above photo: first dance to Randy Travis 's Forever and ever Amen
Above photo: On the way to be married
Above photo: Sarah the Cheeky Bride!

On Dusty Days and Weddings

Yup its that time again. Hay season and my eyes are watering and my nose is stuffy. Ha ha its a good thing I don't have to go out there to work this year. We have extra help !! Yahoo! One field is done and Steve is picking up the large round bales and putting them into the stack yard. Don my hubby spent all morning going over the round baler and square balers to make sure all was in working order while Billy swathed ( cut down) the triangle field. The pivot field was cut down 2 days ago and, is now ( 12:30) on its way to being raked and bailed. There is lots and lots of hay this cut, and it looks like it will be a long hot dusty summer .I am so glad this ranch is in the mountains, its so much cooler up here. That's the one thing I miss about the coast, the ocean and its constant cooling breezes.
Well its hard to believe that the wedding was a week ago! The weather was wonderful (and after all that worrying to ha ha ha.) We had a lot of people who couldn't make it, but also being the friendly neighborhood that we live in, we had a lot of last minute guests we invited, so all in all we had about 65 to 70 guests including children. The Children had a blast, they were allowed to run free all over the yard ( as long as they stayed out of the bull pen ha ha) and Don loaded up the wagon and gave them all a ride to see the cows and Duncan our pet highland steer. (above photos)
The adults had fun too, they must have with the amount of bottles we took to the bottle depot today. ha ha ha

I am going to post a few photos of the wedding, I haven't developed a lot but I do have a few from the digital camera that I can post.

All that worrying about the wedding, and I forgot to put out the ham I had baked and sliced , most of the goodies I had baked and some how most of the cheese ( I have 3 blocks of marble cheese sitting in my fridge eeek!!) Why we missed the marble cheese I don't know . All in all it went well food and roast beef and salmon was plentiful. Rose , the grooms mother is an excellent cook and took over the kitchen and got everything to the tables on time. People enjoyed the relaxed BBQ atmosphere. In fact, a couple of people told me they wished they had done this with there wedding. The old folk spent the evening indoors watching the hokey game on TV while the younger partied outside..In the evening we lit the fire and at midnight the snacks came out again, beef in a bun and salads. Even after all that eating we still had loads left over.I sent Sarah and Darin home with what they could take and ended throwing out any thing that had Mayo. in it. Otherwise food lasted all week ha ha ha, now its back to cooking.( although I do have a fridge full of cheese and a freezer full of sliced ham and goodies)

Talking about Ham, I made the mistake for making Don and the workers Ham sandwiches for their lunch, I guess it was a little salty hee hee as they died of thirst and I had to take out extra water and juice. Won't do that again, to day it is egg sandwiches, ( I still have 5 dozen eggs in my fridge to!!)

well I'll post photo's now in another post

later

~Wanda

Garden wedding and the weather looks bad all week!!

OHHH help the weather is calling for rain and clouds all week until Friday!! The wedding is on Sat!! the ground will be wet and damp unless Sat is a heat wave!! I wonder if I shoud plan to have as much inside as I can???.. I will just have to wait and see what they call for on Sat. I guess.
I wonder why I never posted this, I guess I just never got back to it with all the stuff I had to do. Anyway it warmed up and the weather for the wedding was perfect!! and the ground was dry to ha ha ha.

Thunder, lighting & wind and the baby laughed

The Thunder roared and lightning flashed and the rain came down in buckets..The wind picked up and soon small things were flying through the air and worried about my hanging baskets I went out onto the deck. I hate thunder storms usually , but baby Sammi followed me outside and was so enthused by it all I actually enjoyed it . Especially when she put out her arms like she was going to fly away in the wind ha ha ha. Hair blowing all around her and arms out streached she ran around the porch in the wind and rain barefooted ..Squealing in delight, how could you not have fun yourself!! Both of us were totally soaked and cold when we came back inside, hot chocolate to warm us and we cuddled on the couch to watch the rest of the storm go by.

Today I took off, as you can tell, no wedding planning or cooking or cleaning or anything else. Both Don and I sat around and enjoyed the day, and the baby. Life is good ! And I should take peoples advice more often and relax, things will happen as they will , and in the long run, however it goes they will get married on Sat the 17th of June,2006.
((We did however ,thinking back, order the buns from the bakery and also order them pre-sliced, that will save me a little time. We were in town and luckily remembered, I have been trying to order them for a while now but keep forgetting))

Our guest list is now at around 75 give or take a few..Almost doubled from where we started at around 40 guests hee hee hee, and I have to admit its not all Sarah and Darin mostly its been thinking of the neighbors and inviting them , and a few friends of Sams etc.

Sarah is getting her hair cut tomorrow morning so wont be here until the afternoon or later. We will both sit down on Tuesday and plan out our week.. And how we will put the decorations into the yard. Darin is going hunting ha ha ha, we will see, I have so many plans, & things for a young strong man to do, and Don is getting tired of me asking him to do things, he will so enjoy Darin being here all week. ha ha ha
bye for now, more later

Its a good thing I wasn't wearing eye makeup

Yeah, I was crying, things are catching up to me, and for once I couldn't find anything to laugh about. My house is untidy and has cobwebs and fingerprints all over., It seems like everything has to wait until the last min. To cook or make, and almost everyone who said they were coming early have found something other to do leaving me alone with a 2 year old. WAAAAAA..WAAAA
And then how much of everything do I need, like if I am making potato salad, for 80 to 90 guests how many potatoes how many eggs???? I finally stopped panicking and got on the internet and typed in quantity cooking...Oh wonderful, wonderful site! It even has a recipe converter to convert my reg. Recipe's to amounts needed YES!! Smiling today!! Oh yes I am. And wonders of wonders Sarah and Darin have both been able to get away early and are coming Monday night..More smiles from me...Rose will come on Wednesday and that will be enough help in my small kitchen anyway.
I must take photos lol, before and after...Just so you can see how gray haired I have become. I have always laughed easy and cried easy, but not the type to totally panic like that..You'd think I have to make dinner for the Queen or something ha ha ha..
Well time to go , no time to sit ...I'll rest later when its all over. One week and counting..
talk to you all then.
PS I am not writing any emails lately , I just don't have time, I hope you all think to check my blogg now and again, if not , well we will catch up later I guess
bye Wa.

Unless they cook themselves there will be no Cookies today!

AAAAkkk..What a day! I was supposed to bake cookies for Hubby but got side tracked by many many things lol. Mostly the phone call from Wal Mart for my younger daughter saying her interview was today at 3pm. She doesn't get out of school until 3:10 so I tried to change it to 3:30, the best I could do was as close to 3pm as she could make it.. And of course she went to school today in flip flops and shorts!! Now I have to make a trip down the stairs to her basement room!! Its another country down there let me tell you, her amazing carpet of many colors, and lumps and bumps ( her clothes closet sits empty!!) make it hard to navigate let alone open the door. Next to find something clean, that fits , and is work worthy, and wont need to much of a hot iron. Yeah well it took me a while and of course the pants I chose were a little to tight she made do though. While I was down there I did some laundry just incase I couldn't find anything clean ha ha ha. all through this trip to the "other world" the phone was ringing will calls from Capital one master card insisting I sign up, & great telephone deals for long distance , the library saying my books were there for pick-up and my daughter saying she had a ride home so I didn't have to bring her clothes to her just have them ready to put on. Right!! its already noon and I haven't done anything but sweep the floor. So I get out the pans and measuring cups, hubby comes home for lunch "I'm just starting the cookies" sez I. I stopped and made his lunch, chatted with him and got him back to work lol . Now I don't know if I have mentioned this or not but I am looking after my 2 years old granddaughter for a month...she has had an upset tummy for a little while now, change of water and environment I guess, maybe teething also, ANYWAY! She filled her diaper, also getting her jeans, and my floor!! What is it about this ranch and poop!! ha ha ha
Bath time again..Still no cookies , now its going on 2:30 and I still haven't had word from my oldes daughter who supposedly left Vernon for Merritt at 11am..she should be here by now, at 3 she phones, they went fishing, ( while I imagined car accidents etc.) still no cookies, The baby wont go for a nap to I take her outside to play hoping to tire her out ..Right! Its now time for Sam to get home and panic and go to her appointment..Everything calms down hubby appears for snack of cookies...NO COOKIES... And now its 4:17 pm and I am typing not baking!!
so no blogging today..Well only this ..Which I guess is a blogg of sorts ha!
I am off to make cookies and Then supper. (I hope! eeek)
bye