Oh man! It's been almost a year since I've posted a blog entry!
This year has been a HUGE learning experience. Nursing school put the hurt on me like a grade school bully demanding lunch money. Technically I know nothing of this analogy since I was home-schooled. But I figured it was a good way of putting it! lol
My family has been attending the Tanqe Verde Cowboy Church for just about a
year now and I LOVE it there! It's the first time in years that I've
felt comfortable and loved at a church. At my old church I didn't get
that. Which was a bummer, but live and learn!
For me attending a cowboy church is like visiting a different planet inhabited by really friendly space aliens, who enjoy a relationship with Jesus. When they talk about the Bible we speak the same language, but when they get wound up talking rodeo I'm lost. Typically I smile, nod and ask questions. Thankfully they are very gracious in answering all my rodeo questions without blinking at my inexperience with such things as "bulldogging" and "Bucking Chutes".
My Dad is by far the most gun-ho about the cowboy ways. I will say, I'm very fond of our fresh produce from the garden, all the yummy food from scratch and I'm having a lot of fun taking horseback ridding lessons from a girl in our church.
One of my friends calls me and my family "crunchy" because we make a lot of our own cleaning products and dehydrate fruits and veggies and make things like tinctures that can be used as antibiotics. I call my friend "a typical consumer". But that's okay. Sooner or later she'll become "crunchy" too!
My Dad likes to call our property (it's only an acre)"a homestead" but more and more I'm liking to call it a petting zoo!
My wacko parents decided that it would be a great idea to get a couple milking goats. But only one is "in-milk". I don't understand this term "in-milk".. They indeed are not standing in milk. You actually have to squeeze it out of them! So now I don't understand why they call it "milking the goat", I think they should call it "squeezing the goat". That way we can offer guests some fresh squeezed goat! Well this long standing idea came to flourish within a couple days time last week. And while goats milk is pretty yummy, we know where our milk comes from, what conditions the goat lives in, food the goat's fed and now we never have to buy milk at the store again. Sometimes I think this idea is better in theory.. Well.. At least at 6am when my Mom who is a morning person bounces into my room saying, "Wake up Ash.. It's time to go milk the goat!" Ughh! No Mom, it's time to turn over and sleep another two hours. LOL It's not too bad right now since Booger (My brother) and I are taking turns waking up every-other day to help.
Now my Mom thinks it would be a "brilliant" idea to get a rooster! You know those things that decided to "sing" at early morning hours?!? However singing is a relative term.
I would already like to put the donkey's across the road out to pasture. At sun-up and sun down they go at it like newlyweds but are as loud as an old married couple arguing. It's laughable when you're working around the yard. But it's a little weird to have to explain to company what they are hearing! By the way the neighboring donkey's have a now 2 month old baby who is really cute! Gee.. Wonder why? :)
My Mom really wants baby chicks to add to her chicken harem. My Mother however will not allow me to dye the chicks awesome colors. To this I say, "Fie on YOU!".. I've always wanted one of those chicks that they dye colors at Easter. And how much better could it get than having blue, pink, purple, green and yellow chicks running around your petting zoo?!? lol
A few weeks ago Booger and I started taking horse back riding lessons from one of the young ladies at our church and we're both really enjoying it. I've learned that staying in the saddle is more difficult than I thought! By the second lesson we were learning to trot and this "matching the horses gate" is both fun and painful. lol We decided after hauling horse panels all weekend to help horses displaced by the fire in Sierra Vista. That it might be a good idea to actually know how to handle horses. Then we can be of actual help if someone with horses needed a hand for whatever reason. Plus since we go to a cowboy church we know it will come in handy to not look like such a city slicker. But maybe at some point my Daddy will decide to add that pony I've always wanted to the petting zoo! Thus knowing what to do with said imaginary, pipe dream pony would be great! lol
Skipping back to church, currently I'm getting involved in the kids ministry.
And when I say "getting involved", I actually mean I'm the kids ministry coordinator.
lol There are four of us who are taking turns teaching the kiddos.
But the kids ministry is my favorite place in the church to serve! Always has been and probably always will be. That's just where God has always lead my heart.
Now aside from church and my crazies I call parents. This is what I've been up to...
God willing and the creek don't rise and I'll be
graduating from nursing school this coming May!
I can foresee this next year FLYING by me. Last thursday I just
finished a six week job as a nanny for three little girls (They're
2yrs, 3 yrs and 9 yrs). It was a challenge at first but I think I'm
going to really miss the girls! At some point I might post some of the hilarious stuff Princess P. and Miss Koda would say and do! The picture with this post is of me playing dress up with Princess P. (Sorry it's kinda fuzzy!)
Next week I'm supposed to take a 24 hour refresher so that I can
re-up my EMT certification when it's up next spring so that I
don't have to worry about it and finishing out nursing school.
The following week is VBS at my church.
The week after that I'm going on a missions trip to Chihuahua Mexico
to do a VBS in a brick making yard with the Indians that come from the
mountains looking for work.
And the week after that I'm going up to Prescott to help take care of
two little missionary kids (2 yrs and 4 yrs old) at a
Ameritribes/Pioneers missions conference. But hopefully I'll get a
chance to meet people and network a little.
That will bring me to August! And school starts back the 24th. So that
will give me a little time to recoup and get stuff together to start
school. :)
Holy Monkies! December here I come!
