New Look

In honor of my newly painted door on my house, I have changed my blog to match….orange.  This seems to be my new color choice lately.  I have never been an “orange person” but seem to be gravitating to it.  I even got orange flowers on my verandah to match!

I know it has been forever since I blogged.  Life is busy, what can I say.   I am at the office now, suppose to be working, but thought I would take a minute to catch up on the blogs.  Seems a few of you bloggers have been slacking off with the nice weather.

To update you on the Mullen medical news:  I have surgery on Monday, June 4 to remove my portocath…yah.  Geoffrey has surgery on Tuesday, June 5 on his ear.  Since he was a baby he has had ongoing ear problems with several sets of tubes.  His eustacian tube on his right side is not working properly, which is beginning to “thin and bow his eardrum” and also causes him to have ALOT of pressure in his ear. Hopefully this will relieve the pain for him.  Both procedures are day surgery and we will be home that evening.

A friend wrote in her blog how she was reading the book of Proverbs to her children.  I thought what a good idea. So I am rereading it, sometimes to myself and sometimes to Sara.  The other morning Sara and I were sitting at the patio table on the verandah having breakfast and I was reading to her.  Right in the middle she stopped me to tell me she had to go to the bathroom “but to please stop reading till she came back!”.  She very intently listens although I am not sure how much she understands at only 3.  I am finding all kinds of new things that I didn’t ”see” before and it is amazing the little gems of truth you find when you reread something.

I just want to remind everyone to stop for a few minutes, early in the morning perferably, take a deep breath, look around and thank God for the beauty that surrounds you, your health and those you love.  When I go out on my verandah in the morning I am in awe of the green of the grass, the country smells, the vibrant colors of my flowers, the sounds and noise of our animals…its hard to give justice to it.  You’ll just have to come visit our farm and see for yourself. No matter what is going on in your life….Life is good.

Stampin Up

I am having a Stampin Up “Retirement” Party on Monday, May 21st, at 7pm at Susan’s house (just meet at my house if you need directions).

The new catalogue comes out July 1st and many,many sets from the current catalogue are being permanently discontinued so this is a good opportunity to place an order before you can no longer get that set you’ve always wanted.  The discontinued list  can be seen on their website, www.stampinup.com.

Plus I’m making a fabulous dessert!!

RSVP to my email or phone. 

A day in the life of farmer Kelly

I really wish I could post some photos.  I have some really great ones from the mink barn…Sara holding a baby to name one…too cute.  Oh well!   If anyone has the HP photo program and you know how to resize the photos when sending to your blog, please let me know.

You know how some days you think back and wonder what you accomplished.  Well, today I feel like I actually did something and I’m not bragging but man, I really got alot done:

-got the boys off to school

-did 2 loads of laundry, cleaned the kitchen, made  beds, you know, the usual

-cleaned out part of the barn and made a “huge”pile for spring clean up

-cleaned up the horse feed room in the barn

-cleaned out the chick room and got it ready (new shavings, food and water) for the 100 chicks that arrived this afternoon.

-raked out my shade garden and planted a new hosta in place of the creeping vine I replanted near the chicken coop and then had to replant a little maple tree from the chicken coop to out by the road

-speaking of chicken coop, fed chickens and collected the eggs

-planted two holly bushes in the front garden and moved some perennial plants there from the side garden

-Sara and I started a vegetable garden out back

-Sara and I also mowed part of the lawn ( but I don’t really consider this work because it is a ride on mower and is really quite fun)

-did the mink rounds 3 times (checking for and replacing any babies that fall out of the nest)(I will also do this once more tonight)

-and in between those things I painted 3 coats on my side door…”vanilla persimmon” or what it really looks like, orange.

Plus all the other million “little” things that we, mothers and wives, do everyday. 

I think I’ll sleep good tonight. Yahoo!

WET PAINT!

The boys room needed to be painted and I thought it would be nice if they had some input into the color of their room.  Well, Andrew wanted red and Geoffrey wanted blue and there was no compromise to be made. So the wise mother that I am suggested we use both colors (am I out of my mind!!).  The window wall (3 big windows) that are trimmed in white got painted red and the remaining three walls I painted blue.

While the boys were at school I got the red wall competely finished with Sara’s “help”….luckly it was latex paint and the little red footprints wiped off the wood floors!  I had the edges all taped off and started the blue by the time the bus dropped them off.  There was no cutting around windows, just straight rolling so I figured it would go pretty fast. I was also really hoping I would have had it all done by the time they came home but  the ferrier had come to do the horses and I had several other interruptions so it was not to be.  Needless to say they wanted desparately to help me paint. Let me just say that I will NEVER do that again.  If it means I stay up all night to paint while the kids are sleeping that is what I will do. There was more paint on us, the floor, etc. than the walls. Paint containers got knocked over more times than I can count. A whole bookcase of books and the hamster cage got knocked over…lets not even go there. But by the time they went to bed that night the room was painted and put back to rights and looked quite wonderful.  I can look back at the situation now and laugh but at the time I was not having fun. Oh well, I have two very happy little boys who are thrilled with their room so in the end it was all worth it.

Mullen News

May 2, 2006 10:00 am, one year ago this month, I was given the news that I had breast cancer. Happy “I am alive” Anniversary to me!!

I met with one of my surgeons, Dr. Shih, who put in my portocath.  I am having it removed on June 4.  He asked me if I wanted to be put to sleep or have local freezing…its funny because everyone I tell this to say, oh definitely put to sleep.  But if you tend to get really sick from the drugs you might choose the local which is what I did.  He said they basically freeze the area, he cuts open the same incision, cuts away the scar tissue, pops out the port and sews me up. In and out in an hour verses 4 hours with anethestic.  I hope he gets to let me watch.  Maybe I should bring a mirror.

A totally new subject….

As some of you know we are now raising mink. They stink like nobodys business. Anyway, they are currently whelping aka. giving birth…all 1600 of them.  Since the majority are first time moms if requires checking the litters several times a day for things like tangled umbilical cords, cold babies (we warm them in an incubator and put them back with the moms), sufficient milk production, too large litters (we farm some out), record birthing details on the cards, remove dead babies,etc.   So tonight after the kids were in bed asleep I head down to the barn to do a final check (Randy is working in the yard).  I didn’t realize how late it was but around 10 o’clock at night as I am standing by a cage with 3 babies in my hand the lights go out. It is PITCH BLACK! I forgot the lights are on an automatic timer. There is no moon to guide me or glow from lights, just total darkness. I dump, um whoops, I mean I very gently place the babies in the cage in front of me (and hope the mother doesn’t bite me or escape because I am doing this all by touch since I can’t see) and feel my way along the row of cages to the front of the building, stumble across to the door and let myself out. Then I breath. It is a little disconcerting to be in full light then total darkness without warning.  Next time I am bringing a flashlight along.