Yeah My Kid Rocks! What Can I Say?!

I just couldn't be prouder of my boy this week! It seems like he is doing something everyday that blows my mind and reminds me how lucky I am to have such a driven and smart young man!! Aside from just being the most awesome 15 yr old boy I've ever known he has had a great week!

A couple of weeks ago he was a bit in the dumps because his "Burb" flaked out... We bought the suburban last summer for J for his first real vehicle. I know a bit odd for a teenager but it's all about safety for me! When we bought the Burb we had to put in a new engine so the Hubby bought a used one from a guy and put it in. All was well until December when the tranny went out and we had to replace that! So the latest issue was the engine burned all of the oil and spun a bearing... UGHH!! He had checked the oil about a week prior and it was a tiny bit low but somehow it all just disappeared!

Beginning of the school year when the Burb had life..



So he was a real trooper about understanding it was back on the big yellow bus! Well the Hubby surprised him last Friday with a new (new to him of course) truck! J was so excited when he and I pulled up and he saw it sitting there. He started screaming "WHAT IS THAT"?! "WHAT IS THAT"?! I just smiled until I was parked and he flew out and was instantly in love again LOL!!

He's totally lovin this truck! Of course we will be putting his Ranch Hand bumper and his nice wheels and tires on this truck soon! You did know that's a must, right?!



Then Wednesday night was our high school's FFA Awards Banquet. During this banquet they award all of the individual achievement awards and install the new officers for the 2010-2011 FFA year. J had his interview last week. He has been really active in FFA and I think it has been so great for him. One of his greatest achievements this year is he qualified for State in Cattle Judging so we are very excited for that! He was also awarded the "Proficiency Award for Agricultural Communications", there were 5 boys in their chapter that went to this contest and overall they ended up placing 3rd out of 20 teams for their speeches!! His next award I think is pretty cool, he was awarded "Outstanding Sophomore Award" which is an award the VP of the school and FFA leaders choose for who they think per class who the most "outstanding" was! To top off his night he was installed as the 2010-2011 FFA Advisor!







OHHHH and did I mention this super busy teenage boy also achieved Honor Roll! He has always been a good student but his freshman year he had a tough time in his math class with no help from the teacher, he passed the class but not with the best grade and it dropped his GPA. It's taken him some time but he has gotten good grades his whole sophomore year and finally got them back into honor roll territory! I am definitely one proud Mama!!

And The Race Is On....To Fatten Up Some Piggies!

Every year our county fair is a big deal and we absolutely love it!!! Every bit of it, even those moments when we think we're gonna lose it from all the stress involved LOL!! But this is something that our kids really look forward to, not just because they are showing animals that they have raised but because of all the other kids involved! J is showing for FFA and DD shows for 4H I can honestly say that last year during fair I don't think J spent one night at home! He spent every moment with his buds and doing his duties as County Fair King.

Piggies in the trailer awaiting their new home! J's pig is by the wall, his name is "Porkchop"!



DD checking them out



J standing on the scale to weigh them!





Last year both of the kids showed pigs and DD also showed her steer and did horses! As much as we would have loved for her to do beef again this year we did not find a steer in time for "tagging". So they will both show pigs and DD will of course do all of her horse stuff LOL!!











Our area as with much of the state and southern states have NOT had good pig litters this year... J really likes showing Hamps and DD really likes Duroc's, those are the breeds they showed last year and wanted to do them again this year. Unfortunately our breeder that we normally buy from has had a horrible year with hers so far. She has lost litters to Circovirus (a sow was carrying it and passed it to the litter), one sow sat on a litter, she has also lost at least 1 sow who got a small tear at her vulva and bled out! Her litter was saved. I can't even remember it all but she had another sow come down sick and they had to euthanize her. And this is the case for many breeding families! Many local sales were canceled this year due to lack of numbers and the sales that are going the pigs are going for way to much money!

Finally learning how to drink out of the barrel!



This one is the feeder, has an injured back foot from being stepped on by his mama :(
His name is "Chop's JR"



DD's pig Maggie




So we contacted a family that we have bought from years ago and they had 2 show pigs and 1 feeder left. They are all blue butts, which are not my favorite :( And they are all small! The smallest one was 40 lbs and the biggest was around 44 lbs I think, this is around 20 lbs lighter than our smallest one from last year! UGHH!! But at this point beggars can't be choosers so we are just happy to have some period! Now the force feeding begins! I think we figured these babies need to gain at least 2 lbs a day in order to make weight for the county fair... We will be worming in a few days and we will check their weight again.

Moving their new "house" to the pen






Notice DD's Sharpei and J's Aussie sticking their heads in being nosy!!

FFA Work Auction...And Yes I Sold my Son Again!!

Last year as a freshman J did his very fist FFA Work Auction. This is where all of the FFA students and faculty are auctioned off to a buyer in the community to work a maximum of 8 hours! Last year when J was auctioned off he was bought by one of the local banks and they did NOT make any of the kids work their hours!! J was thrilled to have gotten off so easy LOL!

About a week or so they held the annual auction and chili feed for his sophomore year, for some strange reason J was very nervous about this one! To me it was strange because last year he was so calm about it! He for some reason was feeling like maybe no one would want to buy him LOL! The Hubby told him to go on stage and flex his muscles and do push ups! J wasn't thinking so!!

So finally when his turned arrived he headed up with a bit of nerves at his side, but that quickly faded and a smile braced his face (no pun intended since he is a brace face) as he soon realized that he had a bidding war going on for him! And NO it wasn't me bidding on him LOL!! One of the bidders was a local organization and the other was his very Best Buddys step-dad! He was so thrilled when his "other" dad won the bid!! So he was told that for his work he and his Buddy will be collecting limbs and they will hold a HUGE bonfire that night! I think that is an ingenious idea!! The boys love bonfires, so this is right up their alley!!

OH SO much better now!!



Auctioneer in action!!




J and his "buyer"

Not so much

Ok so today did not go as planned...My SIL and I had hoped to get some work done on the website, and it just didn't happen. To many roadblocks, hoping to get more done this weekend.

So J went today with his FFA class for livestock judging. He took 2nd place in his Freshman class!! He was really stoked about that, the best thing is he can judge his own animals now and know if they are show worthy!!

DD had dance and gymnastics today...Very interesting time, I often wonder where some people place their thinking brains..So this lady is in there and is on her cell phone while her baby is crawling around with a stinky diaper!!! And I do mean STINKY!!! This woman left her child like that for 45 minutes while she was on the phone, OH and telling the person she is on the phone with "eww he has such a stinky diaper" several moms where gagging from the smell, one mom even got the lysol out of the bathroom and sprayed it all over LOL!! Well finally the lady leaves....or so we thought....no she just went and got a diaper since she was finally off the phone and changes her baby in the bathroom and then leaves the dirty diaper in the bathroom thrash. Ok let me give you a visual of this room, it is about 20 x 20 and the bathroom is along the back wall so it's not like she did us any favors here. So I think well if you want something done then do it yourself, so I got a trash bag from the instructor and changed out the trash myself while yet another mother now has a can of Febreeze and is spraying it all around the room LOL!! Well I am pretty sure she knew why we were doing this but never aknowledged anything. So that is the highlight of the parent room tonight!! DD did great in gymnastics, she spent her whole hour on back hand springs. Where I had to go in and record how to spot her as I didn't do it right the other night and I dropped her on her head....But in my defense she didn't throw her hands out..Dance went good too..