the Life of Olena

Introducing my nephew.  Due to join us on or near April 11th 2013.  Today was a lot of fun - my BFF Rickie, had her ultrasound this afternoon and found out she is having a boy.  I will admit, I am a little bummed she has crushed my 100% dream accuracy because she was supposed to be having girl :) but I am still beside myself with excitement and I couldn't love him more. Rickie is not just any friend...she is my best friend...my other half.  Being that I haven't been successful in carrying a baby, going through it with her has been the next best thing.  She has been so great about letting me share everything right along with her.  Talking about what she learned in her books, letting me be the first to know about all the cool stuff (like the sex of the baby!), listens to my name suggestions regardless of how much she hates them, and just letting me be excited !!   It makes me smile, it...

Much to my surprise I won employee of the month!!! this is fabulous and it was a big shock.  I know I am an awesome employee ;O) but we also have several others who contribute a lot to our Company.  Yay for me! I haven't received my "prize" yet but I will let you know as soon as I get it! Our backyard is completely filled with mazes of wood stacks.  Sadly I still haven't had a chance to take a picture because I have been so busy but I really don't think you can fully understand unless you see it.  From the view out my huge dining room window you would swear my house was encased in a wood stack fortress.  We heat our house with a wood burning stove and the price of wood has skyrocketed so to help keep the cost down Jason has been collecting trees that have been cut down.  So we have this years stack, next years stack, stack of small logs and stack of big logs to be split...oh and don't forget the stumps that are lined up because they are too big to stack....

 

  As much as I wish I could say he was our new puppy...he now belongs to my parents!  Cooper is 3 months old, and a complete cutie pootie ball of wrinkles who I absolutely adore. He is a rescue from the local shelter who was scheduled to be euthanized because he contracted the parvo virus.  Thankfully the Detroit Animal Welfare Group felt he was worth saving because they amazingly took him out, got him to the vet and a now a few weeks later, here he is...happy and healthy!!

A few pictures I was able to get while visting my parents today.  

My definition of "pretty dirty" xoxo  she steals my heart with that smile.  

It is surely not my intention to go so long before posting but our life's path has taken us off roadin' a bit so I haven't had much time or energy to blog.  Now hopefully I can bring you up to date without making a novel of it... The biggest change is that I am now working full time.  Yes we are still homeschooling, and Yes I have no idea how I do it or survive it.  My typical day looks like this... 4:45a the alarm goes off 5:30a I leave the house at work by 6:00a off at 2:00 and home around 2:30p We have "lunch/dinner" as a family and J leaves for work shortly after Olena and I work on school stuff from about 4:30-6:30p We have a light dinner together. She plays, I do my chores. She showers and goes to bed by 8:00 I get stuff ready for the next day and I am in bed around 9:30. In addition to this I am "oncall" for work every night at 5p...all night through the next day so while doing all this running I am constantly taking phone calls (eve...

This is one of Olena's favorite horses, and one of only 2 mares that they have at Banbury. She is a beautiful horse...but a tad sassy! LOL

Amira  

Just a handful of her friends at Banbury.  She loves everyone there and they all equally adore her.  The girl with the ball cap and really long hair is Amber, she is one of Olena's instructors and she is AMAZING!! we love her and she brings out a lot of Olena's talents and abilities.  We are highly considering having Amber instruct her in private lessons next year.

  Showing off her riding skills.  She demonstrated 3 various styles of trotting... Posting is to rise out of the saddle seat for every other stride of the horse's forelegs, thus smoothing out the jolts you will encounter if you just sit. This makes riding the trot much more comfortable for you and your horse. Two Point   to lift your bottom out of the saddle, tense but don't grip tightly with your upper legs and stand slightly in the stirrups. Then you have to try to control the stance with your muscles, rather than by putting all your weight in the stirrups. lastly, sitting trot which is nothing more than staying in the saddle while riding, but moving your body with the horse. And to my amazement she did this all on a horse that she had never ridden before.  This just blows me away because to be able to perform as well as she did on a horse that was much wider than any other horse she ever rode, she didn't know his personality and vise versa, and it was a sad...

August 14, 2012 this earth lost a strong and wonderful woman, my grandmother Ida.  While I was extremely blessed to be by her side and say goodbye, she will forever be missed.  She was an amazing person and I can only hope that Olena will be able to hold on to even just a fraction of her memory.  My mother asked me to give a eulogy at the service on Friday, I thought I would post it here so that I never forget the words that I spoke and the feeling that I had that day.  I love her deeply and always will.  I know one day I will see her again and there she will be waiting with open arms.  ******************************************** On behalf of our family, I wanted to take a moment to share a few words in memory of Ida Mary Crocker or as some may know her, Jeep.   I think we all feel very fortunate to have been able to share in her 70 years of life.   To be honest I can’t stand here and tell you much about Jeep as a child or even...

Ok, so this is not exactly the most nutritious sandwich to eat but I have to say it is totally amazing.  I saw the recipe on TV today and decided to give it a try.  I have a few over ripe bananas I needed to get rid of anyway.  Give it a try, you'll love it too! Make a sandwich using peanut butter, bananas and marshmallow.  They used marshmallow fluff, I had a bag of whole ones so I just sliced them and layered them on top of the banana and it worked perfectly.  They will melt anyway.  Once assembled give the sandwich a smoosh! :) Coat it in flour, then egg, then panko bread crumbs. Fry in a pan with about an inch of oil.  Few minutes each side. Cut in and half and let cool.... really let it cool because I ended up with very hot gooey marshmallow stuck to my lip and that didn't feel so swell! It was delicious, not too sweet but very very filling and heavy! I was thinking it would make a great camping treat. Maybe next time I...

Sorry it has been so long since I have updated but life happens, things get busy and either I forget or I just don't have the motivation.  I have a few spare minutes tonight so I figured I would at least enlighten everyone with an Olena update! She is growing like a weed. Haven't weighed her lately but she surely is getting much much taller! I have decided once again to try and grow out her hair...hopefully this time we can make it happen.  And just so that you blogger friends know, this is not all my decision.  She, just as much, finds her hair frustrating.  She cannot stand her hair to be in her face but she has a double crown so everything on top of head naturally falls forward...into her face.  It drives her batty! In addition to that, she does not have a particular liking to rubber bands and barrettes, regardless of what I get to easy the discomfort.   Lately she has been a bit more relaxed about it so we have managed to get her in a pig ...

I have been pretty busy but I will have some free computer time in the next few days...watch for updates!!!

We just returned from a family trip - just the three of us - from Mackinac Island.  According to Olena we went to the "very tippy top of Michigan , the lower half" and then we "went over the longest bridge to the upper half of Micigan and we stayed at the bottom!"  Translation: We camped in Mackinac City and even took the Mackinac Bridge over to St Ignace for a car show. Some fun facts: The Mackinac Bridge is currently the third longest suspension bridge in the world. The Mackinac Bridge is the longest suspension bridge in the western hemisphere. The total length of the Mackinac Bridge is 26,372 feet. The length of the suspension bridge (including anchorages) is 8,614 feet. The length from cable bent pier to cable bent pier is 7,400 feet. Length of main span (between towers) is 3,800 feet. All suspension bridges are designed to move to accommodate wind, change in temperature, and weight. It is possible that the deck at center span could move as much as 35 fe...

Now missing 2 teeth! Could she be any cuter??