Rice Family

Our first step towards the 'homestead' lifestyle: CHICKENS.  J and I have been researching, reading books & articles, and saving a TON of info to our Pinterest board.  I know we are in for some surprises and troubles, but we are doing our best to head them off and avoid other peoples mistakes. (J is still trying to convince me that we need to start pigs this year.  I keep reminding him that is one of the PRIMARY mistakes other homesteaders have made: being too eager and getting in too deep, too fast). So, we start our garden and chickens this year - keeping our fingers crossed that we aren't putting them in poor locations.  The chickens are the first thing branching out into our additional 2 acres.  The coop and kennel are going at the outside, back corner of our fenced in yard.  Our coop is valiantly being made from old cabinets we picked up at the local Habitat for Humanity, Re-Store.  We intend to paint, add roof, prop up on legs, and insert s...

J and I purchase our Idaho home Nov. 17 2016, and with help from everyone (Emily, Chris, Justi, and John's friend Joe in Colorado; A BUNCH of J's family in Idaho) we got everything moved in. The house has 4 bed, 3 bath, 3 living-room, plus a couple bonus unfinished rooms. We purchased 2 additional acres, which gives us a total of 3 acres.  We have quite a bit of work to do, as it is an older home and runs purely on electric (so we have no back up in the event of an outage).  Hopefully in the not too distant future we will get to try our hands at some farm animals : chickens, pigs, maybe a cow...a goat?  Who knows. Front View of our home 2 acres behind the house In preparation, we purchased an old Chevy Avalanche, an old red & white 2-horse trailer, and an old John Deer tractor/mower with snow blower attachment!  Budget demands we buy old/used. We are excited to get to know our new neighbors, get settled into our new jobs, and start working on our new...

Life has run us around a bit, and we have enjoyed the journey.  As Facebook rather took over our lives in regards to blogging, I did not maintain my blog.  I find, however, that I enjoy coming back and reading my blog more than I like perusing old facebook posts.  So I begin again with blogging; for myself more than anything. We have managed, since my last post in 2012, to return home to Idaho.   We spent 5 great years in Colorado!  The kids grew up with the neighbors; McKenzie had horse riding lessons from a young lady named Carrie, in Longmont; she started playing flute in 2nd grade, and in 4th she switched to playing trumpet; Ethan started playing soccer, and Minecraft (video gamer in the making).  We got McKenzie a cat named Diamonds. We got a puppy who we named Ryder.  We got new appliances in the kitchen that I love (double oven, fridge with freezer drawer, etc)!  I mention them, because I am sad to have left them in Colorado.  W...

My life has been, well, mildly crazy.  It seems that I have very few hours in the day to accomplish work, family time, cleaning, cooking, prepping for bed, baths, bills...life.  (even if J does more than half of it). We are loving our new home...and I will someday send out new address cards - it will probably be combined with our Christmas card...if I get that out.  We have  great neighborhood full of friendly neighbors and kids for M and E to play with.  I love having MY home to decorate for the Holidays, and a home for inviting friends and family to for said holidays. M and E never stop changing and growing, and I can't get enough of them. (ok, some days, I've totally had enough, but in general...) M is doing so great in First grade; she is a SUPERB reader and truly enjoys learning.  She is still her shy self, but making friends and having fun.  Such attitude is attached to a 6 year old - such a suffering little soul she has!  She is still...

Yesterday, as I was driving home from work, I was pondering breast cancer.  A co-worker of mine was very recently diagnosed, had surgery, and is looking great. Thinking on this I wondered if breast cancer is on the rise, or is it simply more researched, recognized and diagnosed?  I would believe it was probably around in full force before technology made is so identifiable and curable - but that it wasn't so terribly fatal as all  that.  And if that is true, perhaps all the surgery, radiation and chemo aren't entirely necessary. Now  - disclaimer - I know this research saves lives, I know it is beneficial, and to those women who were saved they probably are not concerned with whether or not there is over-diagnosis, because their life (and all survivors) is worth that.  But what percentage would actually have had fatal results if not treated?  How many would have lived a healthy happy life if they never knew about it? Interestingly enough, this a...

Yesterday I went to retrieve my kids from playing in the backyard with the neighbors....When I round the corner I behold my 5 year old daughter with her shorts baring her bottom to the 6 year old neighbor boy. Me:  M!  E!  It is time to go home. now! M:  E did it too! (while sheepishly pulling her shorts back up and E snaps his head around to look at me with big eyes and "O" mouth) WHY?

I am very sad that no one is blogging anymore......

I know its a bit late, but these are pics from J's 27th birthday (it was in august) I am posting these because of Justi's pic and the face J was making in it reminded me of this: Hayppy birthday Babe.

My little E will soon be 3!  I'm having a hard time with this, because I'm pretty sure he was just an eensy little baby a couple days ago.... In the meantime, however, he is growing and getting smarter by the minute.  Lets go through some E-speak: "I don't member" - when asked a question "Mom, you cute." "In the garjub?"  (garbage) "Knock knock, mom"  who's there? "eyeball in the car" .... I know - hilarious. "Knock knock, mom"  who's therr?  "well....don't member." "knock knock, mom"  who's there?....okay I'll spare you. Are you a big boy, E? - "Almost" "I not mister...I E.M.R."   I can't even begin to tell you how great he speaks, the vocabulary he has, nor how capable he is! Some of his greatness:  Officially potty trained (a few months ago to be honest); can count (with fault) to 20 ish; likes to sing Wonderpets theme song (if you do...

Thank you everyone for the wonderful Christmas gifts.  We had a great trip to Idaho to see J's family!  However, we had sick kids all around; M threw-up the day before and the morning of the day we left; my new nephew had a fever and spent a couple days in the hospital Christmas day (he's okay); my other nephew had a cough (ended up being Croupe) and a fever and loads of snot; and just before we came home E started in on diahrea and threw up New Year's morning a few times.  Fortunately J and I are in the clear - so far (keep your fingers crossed).  Good times, good food, great company. Pictures later - gotta get back to work!

Der Santa I hop you ramembr me M******* J* R*** I want a uicorn a babe pelo pet a picshn a lade cat a rel cat yes way decrashinz a krismis trree Interpretation: Dear Santa, I hope you remember me: M J R. I want a unicorn, a baby pillow pet, a pictionary man, a lady cat - a real cat - yes way (I told her no way, so she emphazised) decorations, a christmas tree. Love her. ....we didn't put up a christmas tree this year because our home has no space for one...this is why she is asking Santa for one.... A pic courtesy of Aunt N from our trip to Kansas for the wedding & thanksgiving.

Justi visited yesterday and we were talking about what we all wanted for christmas; Justi whispered in E's ear to tell me, but when he said it I was distracted.  So I asked again: me: E, what does Justi want for Christmas? E: She want baby in her tummy for Christmas. This is not what Justi said, but apparently E knows what she really wants! Later we went around looking at Christmas lights.  One house we passed had everything: light-up nativity, moving lit deer, lights all over the house, lit christmas carolers, elves, santa....etc. We all oo-ed and aawed. M:  How did they get all that to fit in their cart? And later while viewing Christmas lights, we saw one with mints and candy cane lights around the edge of their house. E: MMM. Candy........can't eat it though. M: NO.  That would be way too hot in your mouth. Love them.  They crack me up.

So, I can't wait for the Twinners - they're lame-o!  At least Megan is back.  Gotta love her.  Stinkin' organic fruit her children expect! Pah.  My kids don't know what organic is .  No big surprise there, I know :)  Ok.  Above this post is a widget that is a wish list - for those of you who need ideas as to what to get my kids, there it is. I want a pottery wheel.   Just sayin'.  Megan informed me "Yeah right.  Ok."  So ,maybe not this year, I don't have anywhere to put it now in any case.  I would like clothes, shoes, and jewelry.  I need some cute stuff.  A nice pair of jeans.  Some dresses for work (skirts are good too).  And might I remind you, I have both Christmas and Birthday coming up - combo gifts work just peachy :) ok, I'm done begging for stuff - unless you need a J list also.  I'll have to work on that. We are going to Kansas for Thanksgiving, plus a wedding for my cousin...

Um, what is going on sisters??  I need to know what is going on, yet none of you are friggin bloggin!  Where are your priorities? I suppose I could call, but what would everyone else do?  And if  your answer is :  they could call too,  think about how little you would get done because everyone was calling ALL the time and all you could ever get done was re-telling your stories to all those callers.....just think about it. Let me know what you decide. Oh, and just for good measure, I am not going to blog again until all of you do...and I would like to mention, I have some awesome stories that need to be told, so get your blog on.

We were grocery shopping the other day, and M went with me to pick out some hamburger.  Next to the hamburger there are the more interesting edible parts of the cow.  I decided to show M the cow tongue...her expected response - "Ewww.  Gross."  Just after J came back with E we showed them as well and as we were standing off to the the side, M all the while saying  "ewww...gross", a guy came up behind us and selected a cow tongue, so I showed M:  "See, he likes cow tongues.  I told you some people like to eat them."  She screwed up her face and looked at the guy with a 'are you crazy?' smile.  I decided it was a learning oportunity and asked him how he cooks/eats it.  He was very kind and stopped and explained it all to us and emphasized that it was very good. M is still unconvinced, but J thinks we should try it.

 This is the car we made for E's costume - he loved it...as did M! M & E - M is Rapunzel, E is  a car!

Well, Colorado is giving us a nice welcome to winter. We had a weather warning on Tuesday saying that Wednesday we would have 8-16 inches of snow. I'm pretty sure we got somewhere near that much. At least a foot. And it was wet HEAVY snow, which means a lot of trees breaking, lots of damage, and loss of electricity - I had no internet yesterday, and we lost power temporarily today. It was beautiful though. This weekend it is supposed to be 60 or some such. Go figure. Look here to see some pics - not mine, but pics none the less.

Love you Grams!  Miss you Like CRAZY!

 Home-made Playdough, courtesy of the Toney family - came in powder form!