A Tree To Remember

Dad, Grandma and I continue to be overwhelmed by the love and thoughtfulness shown to us by the Orearville community after having lost grandpa. The Orearville staff surprised us one afternoon by presenting the 3 of us with a lovely new bench, that now sits outside of dad's office, in grandpa's honor. Above it hangs the nicest plaque and picture of him. It's nice to walk into work each day and "see" him. We were so touched.

Then last Monday night, the Orearville 4-H purchased and planted a Blooming Pear tree in his honor. The tree was planted in the southeast corner of the school lot. They too put a plaque stating that the tree is there in honor of AW Neff.

I know he is smiling down from heaven for the acts of kindness done on his behalf. He would be so proud and so very honored.

He was such a good man and loved by so many. We miss you grandpa.

Cowgirl Karson

Yippee! Karson got first place yesterday in the 3D NBHA horse show at Thompson Stables! We are so proud of her. She has been working so hard with her horses and taking riding lessons at least once a week and it finally paid off. Her horse journey has been a long one but she has stuck with it and continued to work hard. She began this endeavor with Bailey. She has made a lot of progress with her but she just isn't "race" ready yet. Uncle Lance convinced her to try Classy. Classy has a little more attitude then Bailey but a lot more barrel experience. Karson was game, she'd try it. She's been riding Classy daily, taking her lessons and gaining confidence in herself and the horse. Feeling more confident about her riding ability she decided she would try Chance. Chance is Melissa's old barrel horse, that really hasn't been ridden in a long time. Chance quickly became apart of Karson's daily horse routine. Finally after all her hard work, lessons and even a couple butt chewings, she and Chance walked away winners yesterday. For winning she received a check and a bag of horse treats. To show Bailey and Classy how much she appreciated all their hard work, Karson shared the treats and gave them each one. However, Chance was the winner and he got TWO! Congratulations Karson and Chance.

Cajun Easter

The afternoon of Easter we went to Jerrie and Nelson's house for Easter lunch. The whole Neff gang was there. Boy did we have a smorgasbord. My mouth is watering just thinking back about it. Jerrie and Nelson fixed gumbo and etouffee that were both to DIE for. Wish I had some right now! My first experience with etouffee was in Mexico (I know a strange place to have my first encounter with cajun food). Nelson made it for us one night for dinner and I have been craving it ever since. They also made a small turkey and Robbie brought chicken. Was suppose to be fried but ended up being broasted. No one really minded expect Nelson, who had already feasted on his gumbo and etouffee the night before and was very much looking forward to fried chicken. Robbie's story was that Walmart was out of fried, but we girls (and Nelson) were thinking one of two things: 1) you didn't pay attention to what they asked you to bring or 2) you didn't pay attention to what you picked up at the store. Regardless it was good. Even Nelson had to admit to its yumminess. Then of course there was all the other dishes that we filled our plates with and ate ourselves into a food coma!

After lunch we hid a million eggs for the kids to find (I might have miss counted by a few but not many I promise). They had so much fun running around the backyard and looking anywhere and everywhere for those candy filled eggs. Their baskets were overflowing. Kassidy and Jackson even had to go in, dump their baskets and start again. Too fun!

It was an all around perfect Easter. Thanks for having us Aunt Jerrie and Uncle Nelson!

Easter Morning

It's a little late, but I wanted to get the Easter blogs in before they were long forgotten. Kassidy was the first to spring out of bed this year. She was quick to run through the house announcing that the Easter Bunny had been there and we should all quickly get up and see what he left. We all made our way out of bed and in to find the Easter baskets (not with the same enthusiasm as Kassidy). There, just like Kassidy had said, waited 3 overly full baskets. Kylie was thrilled to find "outside" her basket the cowgirl hat she had been wanting and Kassidy was equally thrilled to find "outside" her basket the boots that she had been begging for. Karson...nothing waiting outside her basket. Had the Easter bunny forgotten something BIG for her?? She said nothing about being disappointed and appeared to be excited for her sisters as she quietly began digging IN her basket...candy, sunglasses, dvd, more candy, earrings, more candy, what's this?? A black thing? Tears sprang into her eyes and the biggest squeal of delight we have ever heard when she discovered that the Easter Bunny had gone against everything that Mike and I had been telling her and brought her a CELL PHONE! To say that she has been begging for one is a bit of an understatement but we kept telling her she had to wait until she was a Freshman. That is when Kylie got hers and she would just have to wait, no ifs, ands or buts about it. For some silly reason the Easter Bunny decided to ignore Mike and I's rule about the phone, but after seeing and hearing her reaction, he's been completely forgiven! Such a smart bunny.

New Experience

After 22 years of marriage, Mike and I did something in bed that we have NEVER done. Get your minds out of the gutter right this minute, it has nothing to do with hanky panky! (sorry to disappoint you). Are you ready????
We slept on the opposite side of the bed. I always sleep on the left and Mike on the right. Doesn't matter what bed we are in....ours, hotel, etc., this is how we sleep.
I decided to take our comforter to the laundry mat and wash and dry it. Needed a little "freshing" up. One round in the washer---done! One round in the dryer---not done. Another round in the dryer---still not done. My final $1.25 and still not as dry as I would like but I figured it was dry enough to take home and put on the bed. It looked so pretty on the bed, all nice and clean.
Bed time....threw back the covers, jumped in and YUCK...damp sheets. Guess it was wetter than I thought. Reached over and felt Mike's side. Dry, dry, dry. He's still in the shower, maybe he won't notice that I'm on his side. He noticed and wondered why. He didn't notice however that the sheets were damp. Don't know how he didn't but he said it wasn't bothering him. Rolled over and he was quickly snoring. I on the other hand tossed and turned for what seemed like hours until I finally decided I would take a Tylenol PM to help with this uncomfortable situation.
Good news, I finally fell asleep. Better news, the sheets are now dry and I'm back on MY side. I'm such a creature of habit.

Scientific Process

Scientific Process is what I call "egg coloring" at our house. We had to wait until Friday night to color the eggs because Kylie couldn't miss out on all the fun. Mike and Kylie are the king and queen of crafts and they turn this simple project into quite the production. We don't do just the basic egg dye set, oh no, we do the camo eggs, the tye dye eggs, the glitter eggs and pastel and bright eggs, I think we had every dye set that Walmart had available. We had every coffee cup and anything that resembled a coffee cup filled with the water/vinegar mixture so that the fun could begin. This is why I leave these things to Mike. If it was up to me, we would do the simple 6 colors, dunk the egg and BAM...you're done! The house smelled of egg and vinegar for a while and I now have 4 dozen beautifully colored eggs sitting on my kitchen cabinet that will soon make their trek to the trash cans but I love the fact that this is something that the girls look forward to each Easter. It's an evening that they know dad is going to sit down with them, have fun, laugh and make a huge mess for mom to clean up!

Home Repair

Monday night the bottom wire of Karson's braces came loose. I'm not sure if a rubber band came off or a bracket broke but regardless, Karson had like 2 inches of wire hanging loose in her mouth. Her orthodontist is only in town on Thursdays, so I was hoping that with wax we could manage until then. Well, the inside of her poor cheek was just becoming more and more irriatated. She was beginning to have trouble even talking. Last night she just couldn't take it anymore and so we decided to have a make shift orthodontist appointment. With Uncle Lance holding his shop light up to her mouth and wiping his wire cutters on his jeans, he snipped the wire off. I'm not real sure how much this helped, she still had a sharp end but at least it wasn't so much in her mouth. We were trying to help!
This morning I call the doctor first thing so that she can get in. They were nice enough to say bring her right in, we will work her in. Karson was so relieved to be getting this fixed. Needless to say, Dr. Shultz was NOT impressed with our work. We got into trouble for cutting the wire. He said we did an awful job and just made the situation worse. I stood there and took it from him, he is the orthodontist but in my head I'm thinking "you know what mr.??? she was just here a week ago and it came off on Monday. Maybe you didn't do such a great job either and you're suppose to know what you are doing and you're getting paid the BIG BUCKS!" Guess next time this happens we will leave the wire hanging and let it continue to cut the inside of Karson's cheek. Not.