Wordless Wednesday

I know, I know just say it....I know your thinking it....It is "Wordless Wednesday" but I don't feel like being wordless today LOL!!


"Wolf Moon"



Love the glistening snow in the moonlight!!



Love my wagon wheels...:)



My house under the moon and snow!



Moon lit night...

God Kissed Kansas Morning...

The last 2 days here in Kansas have been full of freezing fog! What a beautiful sight it makes! I am not a lover of all things cold but I do love the beauty of "frosted trees"....

Do you Love Birds?!

Over the last few weeks we have had an over abundance of birds at our house!! Every time I look out of my kitchen window I am baffled at how many birds are out there!! Cardinals is what I have and they are SO gorgeous!! We keep filling the bird feeder now and they will have it gone within 2 days!! It amazes me the vast difference between the males and females!! With the blah winter color around here the females literally blend into the scenery!! I actually have to look carefully to see them all, I would guess at any given time I have had as many as 25 male and females out there!!




They are everywhere!!



Love the boldness of the males!!







Can you see the camouflaged females in the barren bush?!?!



The females are much more muted in color, but still pretty!!

My Prize Painting!!!

So a few weeks ago one of my very FAVORITE bloggers had a contest!! Becky over at Farmgirl Paints is absolutely one of the sweetest people on earth!! I have yet to meet her in person but I hope someday I get the chance!! SO anyhoo she had this contest "Custom Tree Giveaway", and I entered and WON!! I was so excited!!! When Becky announced the Winner, little ol ME I was just ecstatic!! So my job was to decide what the theme of my tree would be and I chose "Life" and the things that make up my life are my family!! So Becky hand painted my very own "life tree" and boy was I excited when I got it in the mail last week!!! So I wanted to share it with you all!!

I was SO excited to open this pretty package!!!



My Beautiful Life Tree!!



Thanks SO much Becky!!! I absolutely love it! And I have it in my most used room in my house, my Kitchen!!

Wordless Wednesday

Looking into the Lives of Other's

So I have thought a lot about writing this post and have finally decided that the truth is the truth and it should be heard, right?! I have always been the type of person that is very "in-touch" with the facts of life and I spend a lot of time looking at adversity's that others are facing as a baseline for how I live my life. Why am I writing about this, and why is this hard for me?...Well let me tell you what I have been watching...

4 months ago one of my life long Best Friend's husband was diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer that has also invaded his liver and spleen. At that time he was basically told that he had little chance of survival. He chose to go to a University hospital and do treatments that could or could not help him. After enduring this for a short while he was rescanned and found that the tumors had not responded to the treatments at all. So he was given only one other option by the doctors - and that is surgery. The invasive surgery would involve the removal of his pancreas, spleen, and almost half of his liver. The survival rate for this extensive surgical procedure alone is barely 50%, providing that the surgery is a success, he would eventually need a liver transplant somewhere in the near future with chances of survival no better than the 50%. After hearing this news he did not feel like God was directing him towards that, rather he was directing him in a whole different way. The surgeon that he was seeing told him about a place called Eden Valley Institute in Colorado. This place is a facility that will concentrate on a proven nutritional plan along with supplementation and proven non-invasive therapies. They have researched this place extensively and have found that the survival rate is very high and so this is the route he is choosing to take. So now is the place where I should mention that my friend has been separated from this man for going on 2 years now. It has been very difficult for them both as they have a diabetic son together who requires a lot of special care...

Then another family we are friends with the dad was just diagnosed with Large B-Cell Lymphoma. I asked for prayers in this post here. The diagnosis that he got was not the worst news in the world but yet it is devastating to him I'm sure. Basically he will receive treatments for 18 weeks with an 80% survival rate and a chance of recurrence being the strongest in the first 2-3 years after treatment with a then survival rate of 50%...His family remains in good spirits and I believe God will pull them through all of this.

The last story I want to share with you is difficult to say the least...A family with a 13 year old boy that runs in the same rodeo association as DD had a tragic accident a week ago Saturday. The 13 year old boy took a friend to show him a hunting rifle that he had gotten and there was an accident with another gun that I believe they thought was unloaded and the 13 year old young boy was tragically killed. The moment that I found out it was him, I thought to myself I wished I hadn't ever heard "who" it was...We did not know this family really well but we have watched him rope many a times and I see his face in my head every day, and I think about how devastating this is for his family...

So now why am I telling you all of this sadness? Because I want share with you how I see life. I get SO upset with people who take their lives for granted or their children's lives for granted...Not to say that I myself don't need to be reminded at times because I do. I see my family as the greatest gift on earth!! I cannot imagine my life without them, and I honestly don't get people who cannot put their kids or families first!

For me, I admire anyone who has half the strength as these people and I hope and pray for them everyday...

So do we chose to give into the storms....



Or see the light shining through the clouds?!

I'm being attacked BY......Armadillo's?!?!

So last week I was left to take care of everything here at the ranch as the Hubby had to go out of town for work...No that's not an unusual part of his job but it is a very frustrating part!! With the work that needs to be done here on a daily basis and the kids' schedules it gets to be a bit much when I am handling everything alone! The Hubby does his very best to always try and schedule around the kids' sports etc... which is great because the kids HATE when he's not there!!

So one day last week while I was watching out my kitchen window, looking at all of the pretty birds flying around (we have had an over abundance of Red Robins lately), I see it....An Armadillo!!! Just back there digging away in the ground! UGHH!! I call the Hubby and tell him there are critters invading, and he said I had to shoot them or they will keep coming back. Now Armadillo's are not my favorite things to shoot at, I do not like the fact that they jump straight up in the air when you hit them and run around in circles!! So I take the 22 out and shoot the nasty critter but he had armor of gold! It was only chipping his shell! I hit him 4 times and nothing!! So I had to go reload and when I came back....Yeah....he was gone...

So that night we were gone somewhere late into the evening and when we got home the kids were out letting the dogs out they find another Armadillo in the front yard. So J comes in and asks what gun I'm shooting them with and I told him the 22, so he says well will you open the gun safe so I can go shoot him. I go over and open the safe, get the gun, walk outside, and shoot the Armadillo, it jumps straight into the air then runs off into the dark!! So J was a little mad at me because I didn't let him shoot it well we were in a bit of a bicker at the moment so I choose to do it myself as a "small punishment" :)

So then Friday afternoon I was on the phone with my girlfriend and I am looking out that kitchen window again and lo and behold there's ANOTHER freakin Armadillo LOL!! So we weren't exactly done talking and I didn't want the Armadillo to get out of my view so I decide well I will take my cell with me while I go out to shoot it!! My friend could not believe that I hit it while I was talking to her on the phone LOL!! She asked if I felt bad about killing the nasty thing and I said to her NO way!! These things tear up my yard and they are just vicious looking!! Now I won't just shoot anything but opossums and armadillos are fair game! So then she proceeds to ask me if it is therapeutic to shoot the gun when I am frustrated and I said "sure it is"! So now she's ready to come down and get some shooting lessons LOL!!!!

Friday's kill...Look at those claws!!!



Thing was trying to dig along the concrete of my house!!



Does anybody else have nasty critters that try to make your home their home?! And if so what do you do about it?!