334- Wood, Buffalo and Tile

I love having a mudroom. I love that it has tile floors. Its so nice to be able to bring our wet clothes and waders inside to dry before we hang them out in the garage so they dont freeze.

 Saturday morning Chris was up guiding at the pheasant club. Kennedy and I slept in. I was so excited to have a little bit of time to clean the house, do some dishes, go grocery shopping. All those little things we havent had time for. Kennedy and I got ready, cleaned the kitchen some, got some laundry and dishes done. House picked up and decided to go to the dollar store and Walmart. We had been out of milk for like two days. 

 We headed to the dollar store and made it about half way through there before Chris called and said he was on his way home from the ranch... and that he was going to go help his dad and my dad cut wood and wanted us to come help. Todd had text me at 9:50 that they were going out and meeting at 10. Kennedy and I had just gotten out of the shower and still had so much to do we told them we'd catch up with them in a while. So we hurried at the dollar store.. rushed Walmart where I forgot half the stuff I needed but got the essentials. As we were leaving I spotted Zacks old truck in the parking lot. I was pretty excited and had to text him a picture of it. He got rid of it like 10 years ago. I always loved that truck.

We hurried home, unloaded the groceries. I threw some Jambalaya in the crock pot and we headed to east Garland. This lady wanted her trees cut down and said we could have the wood if we just took them. They had about a quarter of it done when we got there. We hurried and went to work.

 There was Ash, Ry, Mom, Dad, Todd, Jana, Me, Kennedy and Chris.

 Chris fell one of the trees

 I helped limb and cut it up with the chainsaw. Hence my sexy orange chaps. Mom had been sick so I deemed her the official picture taker so she wouldn't try too hard to lift too much and wear herself out. The trick only lasted so long but it worked for a minute!

 We loaded it all into mom and dads horse trailer. It was some really dense heavy wood.

 About 3/4 of it was still wet since they had to cut down most the trees. But once it dries out it will be great firewood

 We went back to Todd and Janas to unload it all. She had a computer install for work so she had to leave the cutting party early and go home. Ash and Ry went home too. Mom, Dad, Chris and I unloaded the trailerful. 

 Then we were getting ready to take the trailer back when Dad says to Todd "wanna go move a buffalo? the trailers already hooked to your truck" This is how things run #1 in our family and #2 in Willard. We are getting them accustomed to our lifestyle out here.  We had been talking about buffalo all morning because Mom and Dad share 4 cow buffalo with Rod (our family friend) They usually butcher one up every few years but haven't had a bull to breed them too in a while. They bought a few but they died off. We are looking to either find a bull to breed or a few to buy so that we can get some more babies. Buffalo meat is AMAZING. It is so good and SO very healthy for you. Rod lives just two blocks from Todd and Jana. We stopped in to see if we could get her into the trailer. The problem is she is in a big open area. So we make a small pen out of panels.. but you have to get her into the small pen made from panels and she knows this trick.

 We threw some hay in there hoping to coax her into there

 She would get close then take off running like nope.. I know this trick! Not gonna happen.

 The idea is to push her slowly towards either a fence line and keep her there.. and push her down to the gate. Or push her slowly to the gate by closing in space on her. However buffalo just like to run ha!

 It just wasnt happening and she was getting exhausted so we stopped. We will try again another day!

 After that we dropped the trailer, dropped off mom and dad, and Chris, Kennedy and I headed to Home Depot to get the tile stuff to hopefully soon put in the fire place. We found some nice 16 inch tile we really liked. Got some dark grout to go with it.

 We ripped up part of the carpet and took off the baseboard..which we found out was glued on.. not nailed so it ripped off part of the paint.

We found the beautiful hardwood floors underneath I want to restore SO BAD. I hate carpet in a high traffic area like our living room. Chris hates hardwood floors. Its going to take some convincing for me to talk him into letting me tear out the carpet and finishing them.

                                        Todd and Jana came over to bring some tools and help. 

Chris's friend Taylor showed up too. He recently had shoulder surgery so he was dying to get out of the house and do something.

By the time we got all the board in and the bottom tiles set it was 9:30. We called it a night. He couldnt do the first row of wall tiles with out having to cut a hole for the outlet so we figured thats the best stopping place for the night. 

They did get the tile all measured and ready to cut first

333-Black Friday and Duck Hunting

We started Black Friday not too early.. We met at Chris's parents at 6am. They have a Black Friday tradition. They always go to Browning (which opens at 10am) So we can hit a few stores before, but after all the big crowds. We started at Cal-Ranch. Then went to IFA where we found some cute stuff! Then to Sportsmans Warehouse were Ash and Ry met with us. After we were done there we went to Morgan for breakfast at Larrys Spring Chicken Inn. The food was amazing as always. Then we headed over to Browning for the store to open. We were there about 10 minutes before 10 and there were a lot more people there than last year.. but not bad. We got our presents and were on our way!

 After that we went out duck hunting. Kennedy was at the movies with Auntie 'Sha. They went to see Frozen. Which I guess the theater was PACKED and they had to wait in line forever. Apparently everyone decided to go to the movies instead of shopping. Todd, Chris and I headed out to Perry.

 Tank helped Todd set out the swan decoys

 Decoys all set out just waiting for some to come in. We had been sitting there a few minutes and hadnt seen anything. Chris stood up to go fix some of the decoys and a mallard kicked up out of the set of decoys. We didnt even see him sneak in!!!

 Todd packed us snacks in the dry boxes he got on sale that morning. 

 We had 2 ducks come in that we ALL missed. Then a while later we had three come in. Todd dropped two of the 3. Tank and Chris went to go get the birds. Chris has one bird and Tank has one. Not bad for a 4 month old pup. He carried it a long ways.

 Happy pup right there!

 Todd and his ducks.. he said its only because he has on his lucky hunting hat

 The inversion has been so bad lately.. you can kinda tell in this picture

 The sunset was pretty though. We didnt see or get any more birds after the two. 

 We ended the night with pie. Perfect. Maddox chocolate mousse

332-Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving morning Chris went out duck hunting. I let Kennedy sleep in and got to work on my desserts. I made two pumpkin pies, one strawberry cream pie and these fun treats. Rice Krispy treat drumsticks. Put on some brown and orange sprinkles just to make them a little more festive.

Chris got home from hunting about 1130 and we headed for his moms house at noon. We got there around 1. He took a nap.

 Then it was lunch time at 2. We had a wonderful meal. Turkey, potatoes, sweet potatoes, ham, green bean casserole, rolls, two types of stuffing. It was very good! They had tables set up in the garage so there was plenty of room for everyone. 

Derek and Ask

 JaNeale and Jimmy

 Miss K in her new Thanksgiving outfit, she was so excited to get new a holiday outfit. Hunter and Ry

 Zola (JaNeales Mom)

 Oh Chris....

 Ry chowing down on a krispy drumstick

 And then it was naptime again for Chris. He ate way too much and it was over.. as he cuddled with his My Little Pony

 He took one more nap and then we headed to his Dad and Janas house. My mom was going to go down to his parents for Thanksgiving since my dad worked but she got sick. So it was just Todd, Jana, and us 3. We tried to get a family picture.. but miss K slept the entire way home and still wasnt awake when we tried. 

 We .. Ok I .. had another round of Thanksgiving at Todd and Janas.. just some turkey, prime rib and sweet potatoes and we were off to Walmart. Jana had TOLD me earlier that week I was going with Todd for 'grey Thursday' to help him get a tv. She doesnt have the patience for large shopping crowds.. in fact she HATES it. Chris didn't want to go either so it was going to be just Todd and I going. I didn't mind at all and laughed when she 'volunteered' me to go. Todd LOVES shopping and he loves Black Friday. It cracks me up. Chris decided he couldn't miss out on all the fun and wanted to come with us. We only needed one thing. They wanted the 60 inch Vizio Tv. They have had an old analog tv forever and this one was on a great deal. We got to the Perry Walmart at a quarter to six. IT WAS PACKED!! The ENTIRE parking lot everywhere. The road. The Peak parking lot. That new strip mall parking lot to the east. Cars lined the roads and went down the roads. It was crazy. I wasnt sure how this was going to go. We went in through the lawn and garden center where we noticed they had a cash register open. We headed back towards automotive where they said the tv's were supposed to be. We got back there and didnt see a stack of tvs. I head an associate ask a guy are you looking for the tvs. I tracked him down and asked him where the line was and where we needed to be. He said right here. Here you go, handed me a tag, and said you cant check out til 6. Then just drive around back and pick up the tv. WHAT!?? Thats it?????

So we high tailed it to the lawn and garden center to check out.. where we were the only people in line. We had to wait six minutes for it to be 6. Seriously. That was all the line waiting.. waiting to check out etc. That freaking simple and they saved almost $400 on the tv they wanted. We pulled around back where it was clearly marked and had two one way lanes made up with cones. Handed the people the receipt and tag and they loaded it in the truck and we left. We were seriously out of there by 6:15.

 It took them longer to install the tv than to buy it!!

Happy new tv!

Jana made a bunch of food in containers for me to take up to mom since she couldnt make it down. I took her dinner and visited for a minute. 

Chris got a fire going

and we relaxed and enjoyed the rest of the night!

330-331

One great perk about working in the same building as my dad.. we can have lunch dates! He brought me in Chinese food the other day and it was fabulous!

                                       

Now that Ive got my bow figured out Ive been scoring better. The first few scores gave me a good handicap and now Im improving over that (obviously ha!) and getting a better average

Although this last week when we shot both of us didnt do too amazing but we had fun!

 Kennedy drew us a picture while we were shooting. She didnt have kids leagues this week because of the holiday so we were able to do our open shooting that night. It says "I am thankful for my family" and it has her standing next to Dad (Chris) with his spiky hair and her arm around him.. and me in the attic 

That night we were paged out on a call. It was the first one Chris, Todd and I had been on together. Todds first call with WFD. Kennedy hung out with Grandma Jana while we were gone. When we got back she was OUT. She had too much playing for the day. Grandma Chris watched her for the day, where she played with Kinlie all day long. Then Kinlie came to our house, had dinner with us and we took her up to the archery range where her and Kennedy played the whole time. The to the warm basement with the fireplace going.