Searching.

I am searching for a family, preferably with a few kids, a ranching family, that has been affected by the tornadoes in Oklahoma. Maybe 1-2 families would be great.

Send me an email to katy@rafterwdesigns.com, with their name & children's name(s), address, the name and address of a close friend or relative that could deliver a small package to them, ages of children, your name and phone number so that I can call.

We would like to do something (although I haven't informed the rest of my family of this yet)!!

A Short Story

Once upon a time there was a little country girl. She wanted to do everything her big brother did. Including riding either her tricycle or bicycle with training wheels around the front drive. Every day she went farther and farther, would get stuck or need to be rescued.

The other evening was no exception. Tana started around the drive and got half way when she became stuck in the loose rocks. After pulling her tricycle for a few feet, she gets off, and decides she's done.

 Tate convinced her to stay on her tricycle, but she was still stuck.

 So he told her to wait, he'd be back.

 Riding in the barn on Tana's bicycle...

 Tate finds a small rope.

 Ties it to Tana's tricycle to pull it in.

 This time Tana wants to ride.

 All was going well until they wrecked. (Ryan and I saw this coming, but it was something you just had to let happen and they were too cute!)

 Now Tana is really done, Tate drags in the tricycle by himself.

Tana had no scratches, just the dirt off the rocks. She made a full recovery and rides often. That is until she wouldn't listen the other night and daddy took away both the bicycle and tricycle for two whole days... And she can see them. So every time she asks to ride I have to remind her why they are put up.

Check out Tate's pages for a special critter or two...Aunt Kathy - don't look.

Before the Truck Stopped

...Tana said, "Bye, momma, later." She's had such a great time playing with friends, and making friends her age. She didn't want to leave yesterday and woke up this morning, put her shoes on and was ready to go. I had to force her to take a shower!!!! She's making friends and I'm buildinga stronger friendship too.

Plans for the weekend - get caught up on laundry and dish, clean out the frig, and organize my pots and pans. I have no idea what is in there!!!! A side note about the small corner cabinet in the kitchen: while I was 7 months pregnant, I crawled through the 12" opening to secure the bolts on the underside of the counter. The kitchen was the last thing completed before we moved in to the 'bunkhouse'. Maybe, just some day maybe, we will get to build a house! I've been dreaming! Wouldn't know what to do with a bathtub, closet larger than 35" wide, a true laundry room, a place to set my laptop (much less keys, purse, coat, etc.) and the kids to have their own room and bathroom. I think Tana will enjoy the baths too. Okay, still dreaming,. Back to reality!!!

Speed Bumps

There are often times when speed bumps appear in the middle of our day!!! Let's just say I had one. But life goes on, you just have to make the best of it. I was extremely productive yesterday and got to spend the evening taking pictures around the ranch, including this one:

Ryan fed the heifers at the south part of the pasture and he found plenty of trash in the ditch. Not trash that someone could throw out the window, trash that someone had to stop and put in a pile. Once when I was picking up trash in the ditch so that we could mow, I found a whole case of beer bottles. Again, someone had to stop on the side of the road and set them down... This is a huge pet peeve of mine, don't litter.

Moving on - at lunch today we ate at one of my favorite restaurants and I'm not naming names. My great friend Barb and I have a lunch date every week unless one of us is out of town! Today we split a meal. It would be the same as splitting a plate of nachos, but they charged us $1.50 for the extra clean plate. Really? If I had known that we would have just shared the plate. Oh well, we will know better in the future.

Check out the rest of the pages, major update under way with some way too cool photos!!

Catch Up

Playing catch up. Too much to tell, too short of time to tell it in. My sidekick, Tana, loves to help! Clean, mop, sweep, feed cows, cook, do laundry, you name it and she wants to do it. So don’t spoil it and tell her that cleaning isn’t fun!


Sunday I stepped on a piece of barb wire in the pen (where it’s not supposed to be). And after a small gash on my thigh (the piece was four foot long), Tana was very concerned. The blood dribbled down my leg and she says, “Momma hurt, momma hurt.” I assured her I was not hurt, blotted the blood and rubbed on it. Then I asked her if she wanted to feel it. That’s the first time I’ve asked her to do anything and I got a really disgusted look back. Long story short…she skinned her knee a few moments later. She was pulling on my finger and I wasn’t hanging on, so when she let go, she went flying across some rough concrete at the horse barn. With tears streaming down her checks I ask, “Tana does it hurt?” She says, “No.” And my heart broke. She say my gash and that I wasn’t hurt so she was being a tough little girl. And that’s exactly how I’ve raised her. To put her shoes back on and walk to the house, to lift the bucket she put too much feed in, to pull the water hose and help water. She’s more than a two-year-old, more than a little girl, she’s my sidekick!!!

Tate is playing baseball; we’ve been busy, too busy actually. The animals have to get fed, the water filled up and the garden tended to, and we’ve had some late nights. So tonight we’re having a super easy dinner: crescent rolls with hot dogs in them. I roll the dog up in the crescent roll and back until very well done. I seem to have issues with hot dogs unless they are black and crunchy!!! We then dip in whatever – mustard or ketchup. Super easy, super fast and not much cleanup!

Beyond Empty

I’ve shared before that I ran out of moisturizer many weeks ago. And while the bed time baby lotion is doing a superb job…once I ran out of mineral foundation…it was time to place an order. An order that has yet to arrive!!!! Yesterday I used the last of the mineral foundation I have, I mean cleaned out the container.
 

 After checking the post office box yesterday and not having a package I began stressing! But this morning I found two days worth of makeup, on the bottom of the plastic insert. I have enough to get me through tomorrow!!! Yipee. Talk about not wasting a single spec.

Check out the family page, new photos, here's a sneak peak:

Tate and Tana lounging on a sand pile:

Tana with my makeup:



What a Morning

Uh oh…I was suddenly woken early this morning to thunder and lightning, but no rain. I panicked (evidentially more than I was aware of), flew out of bed and tip-toed to the front door, where I sat for thirty minutes. Once it started to sprinkle and the fear of grass fires dissolved…I quietly crawled back into bed. Only then did I find a husband not so happy to see me. Ryan says that when I flew out of bed…I said, “Honey, its lightning.” He says, “Ok.” And then I said, “Don’t you remember yesterday...” And I stormed off.


Yesterday we had a terrible storm roll through, and if you’re reading this and living anywhere are me, I’m not dreaming, there were a few claps of thunder and fires started by lightening. That’s all it produced! So we are celebrating the much needed shower!!! The kids can get their mud boots out, I think they forgot what they were even supposed to be used for.

We are on about night four that I've done something...or moved...or flopped like a fish in bed...so Ryan's about fed up with sleeping with me!

How to Break a Bad Habit

…To start another one that isn’t as bad. Okay, that’s not right either. But how have I gone from drinking Dr. Pepper’s frequently to not having one in a while. Sweet Tea. I love sweet tea, and this morning filled a travel cup with sweet tea and I have not in the least bit desired a Dr. Pepper. I might be on to something.



Two years ago I received a tree for Mother’s Day, and then had to dig the hole…this year, dirt and grass seed. I spent the weekend emptying bags of topsoil into the holes in our yard and have now been watering so that the dirt/seeds don’t blow away, we hate wasting money. Will be posting pictures this week, of the flowers and garden, which will receive a lot of attention this weekend!!!

My Motto

From the words of my mother...who knows me best!


My new motto:

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.”

She couldn't have put it any better!

If It Works, Use It!

After reading another blog I follow some days, and yes I need to update my list on the right. I decided to comment on her article on skin care on my own blog! I am not fancy and tend to use whatever is in the drawer no matter how old it might be and thank goodness my mom tends to pamper me at Christmas with new shades of lipstick and new sticks of mascara. But in the end when I’m out…I’m out. I don’t like spending money on much of anything (unless it’s a child or has four legs!), but especially makeup.


So when I ran out of moisturizer, the same container I’ve had for at least two years (maybe much longer), I didn’t know what to do. Drive two hours and buy an overpriced moisturizer? Or buy online and pay shipping on the same thing? Well after four weeks of using: Night Time Baby Lotion on my face morning and evening (yes I can smell it all day)…I broke down and ordered new products yesterday. And they just happened to have mascara on sale, so shshshshsh, don’t tell my husband but I splurged…again…two times in one week. (The other was while I went to the store and bought orange juice in a bottle. It’s so much more expensive than mixing it yourself, but it tastes so good!!!)

While I do believe skin care is extremely important and I do have a special moisturizer with SPF in it for those days when I know I’ll be working in the sun all day….it’s just not something I stress/worry over as long as it’s working for my skin. And evidentially Night Time Baby Lotion has worked well!! Unfortunately I tend to neglect all other areas of my body and often when I take my jeans and socks off you see very, very dry skin, and we won’t even talk about my feet. But something I can’t pass up mentioning about would by my hands. They are rough, they have calluses and I do own a pair of gloves that fit them perfectly. I use my hands and forgot to take care of them…until I shake hands with a man who has nice, soft, freshly lotioned hands…and then I giggle and think - I work a whole lot harder than you do and I smile!

Playing Hooky

Minus the wind, today would be the perfect day to play hooky and get the yard work done. Only one thing...I haven't picked up my plants yet because the weather has been so out of whack. I mean who has to start a fire in May to keep the house warm? The lawnmower is still stored from last year. Let me clarify, the push mower is still stored and needs gas, in which we keep forgetting to get in town. And the old riding mower has been stored for over a year because it needs a part that I just haven't brought myself to order yet. The yard is much improved from last year and the year before, we have grass, actually trying to fill in the places where there is no grass.

So my big surprise / new flower arrangement...well you will just have to wait. If nothing else arises today, Tana and I will complete it tonight and post photos tomorrow. Although I must say the flowers do not look great as they've been sitting in the shop for a few days, but we'll try to revive them!!!!

And the garden, that will wait for the weekend. But as I look out the window one more time, I wish I was sitting on my front porch drinking a nice cup of lemonade looking at all the work I accomplished, but for now I must dream!

Everyone Has One...

Everyone has one of those cows that you just can’t trust. You know the one that will take off running from the other side of the pasture and you don’t know whether she’s bluffing or not. Well….we have one. Her name is Flop; she’s big, black and the best momma in the pasture. Her ears hang down to her nose and her feet are huge. Well this weekend we moved a few cows and their calves through a gate to another pasture. One cow, which recently calved, lagged behind, with a group of 10 calves following. Tana and I were in the gator, quietly pushing them toward the gate, where Ryan had already called the cows across with the feed truck.

This group was not cooperating well, and even though Tana was shooing them and slapping her leg, just like I do, they wouldn’t go. Ryan drove back into the pasture, honked the horn and two cows came back with him. Which is great, gave this momma and all the babies an idea of where they were supposed to go. Except, one of those cows was Flop. At this point I am standing half way between the gate and the gator where Tana sat. All I know if Flop is at a dead run and I’m thinking…Is she going to stop?

Not taking any chanced I make a beeline, running for the gator. All the time Ryan is laughing in the feed truck, and then proceeds to honk the horn and everyone follows with Tana and me bringing up the rear of the calves on the gator. First thing Ryan says….You Chicken… We both laughed. It has taken Flop a long time to be comfortable contained in a pen, with or without other cows. But when it comes to babies, they don’t even have to be hers and she’s still going to protect them!