Spring

A lot has happened since January.  Curtis now has a new job.  It all started when the town finally got sick of the mess in my yard.  Where cars and car parts were piled up in the yard, I now have room for a garden!  EEEE!
So, he has a new job as a welder and he is the best there is.  His job was so impressed with his abilities, and knowledge that they sent him to school for schematic reading and he is now going to 3rd shift, 12 hour days with a big raise.  Considering this is more money we have ever seen in our lives, it has been a wonderful 3 months of bill paying and catching up.  I've never known what it was like to not qualify for food stamps, which we don't anymore, and its quite lovely to know that we are finally growing up.  No, I don't have issues with anyone who does, I am so glad this program exists for those who need it.  I am simply excited that Curt and I now have jobs that allow us to support ourselves fully and my share of the benefits that I was using, now can go to someone else who really needs it.

I will be enrolling the kids in a new online school this fall and Emmalyne will be joining them.

Rebecca has become quite good at piano and is coming along nicely with her violin and guitar as well.  She is looking forward to being one of the music people at the Old West in the Hills Festival.  She has been pressing me to let her add the harp and harmonica to her entourage, but I really think that with the 3 instruments, she has her hands full and I would like to see her master them before moving on to others.  Luckily, I have an amazing teacher for her that plays all these instruments and who is just all around a great lady.  She has also helped me and supported my homeschooling, having been homeschooled herself as well as homeschooling her own children, she is an awesome source of information and an epic cheerleader.  Not to mention the fact that she roasts her own coffee and gives me some every time I bring Rebecca in for lessons.  YAY!

In an effort to get Lucas away from the computer and out in the sun, I told him he needed to pick a sport that he can demonstrate at the Old West Festival.  One of the perks of being the offspring of one of the founders of the event forces them to participate heavily.  He has decided that he wants to try knife and hatchet throwing, so I have a set of knives and 1 tomahawk on order for him this week.  If I can turn him on to the long bow, he might be able to hold his own during the Iron Cowboy competition.  I think that would be awesome.   He also seems to enjoy bullwhip cracking, but hasn't shown enough interest to do more than one type of crack.

My job in the event is to run the carnival games.  I have the classic milk bottle baseball toss, balloon darts, 2 different sharpshooting games, 1 geared more for tots and one consisting of a water pistol and ping pong balls.  A fishing game, pick a duck, duck racing, stick pony races, etc.  Lots of stuff to do both for older kids and younger ones.  My demonstration bit is cracking a whip and I have been practicing daily with whips I have made myself.  To buy a quality whip online tends to be quite expensive, so I have been honing my own skills as a whip maker. The whole process is kept rather close to the vest, but after a few tries, I have gotten rather good at it.  As for the whip cracking itself, I have 6 cracks down as well as being rather good at target whipping, which will be one of the adult-geared events during our Friday night demonstrations:  A quick draw competition in which 2 people compete to see who can unfurl and break a target first after the word go.  It's been a pretty intense work in progress and while last year was slow, I am looking forward to seeing this year being a great success.  If any readers are interested in attending, you can buy tickets in advance by going to our website:  Old West in the Hills and we are also on Facebook.

As you can see, my plate has been quite full.  I am hoping to get these 2 trees cut down in my front yard so I can get my garden beds built up and planted within this next week.  Since Curt is taking a 3-day weekend to help him get transitioned to 3rd shift, maybe I can get him to at least get the trees down for me without much drama.  One is dead and he other is a big pine tree that casts too much of a shadow for a decent garden, not to mention the acidity it adds to that part of my yard.

I have a conference call for work that will be starting soon and after that, my own shift starts for the day, so I had better get busy.  Hooray!  I posted though!