A Trip Back in Time...

Nothing better to make you feel old than to watch your munchkins grow up way too fast....

Clayton turned 9 years old in March and Shayla turned 7 years old at the end of April.... And yes, I realize it's August, but I have a back load of partial blogs stashed in my drafts and I'm just now getting around to posting them.... Better late than never right??

ANYWHO....

I really hate birthday parties...... REALLY HATE THEM.

Last year we did the whole pizza party thing at the arcade. Kids had a blast.... I, on the other hand, couldn't help glancing at the fake guns wistfully wishing they could put me out of my misery for at least an hour.....

This year, I asked if the kids would like a trip vs. a party. If they really had their hearts set on  party, then I would suffer through it.... That's what parents do.... Parties are almost as bad as "The Night of Horror"...

No, no.......let me take that back, the night of horror ended quickly, where as the parties full of hyper screaming kids torture you in a slow, methodical manner with no end in sight.....

Thankfully, my kids were agreeable to the trip idea!

Clayton, being my lil brain with aspirations to be a paleontologist really enjoyed the day at Dinosaur Valley State Park in Glen Rose, Texas. He enjoyed the preserved tracks and loved the river, though crossing it by hopping across the stones didn't work out quite like we planned.... The water was deeper than it looked, still quite chilly, and Shayla fell in... We all ended up with soaked jeans/boots.



A bit shocked by the foot size?!




Kicked back in a preserved dino track...



When we finished up our explorations, we hit Dino World for some shopping.... Clayton, of course, picked out more fossils for his collection.

For Shayla's birthday, we went to East Texas to spend the weekend with her Pawpaw & Momma Jan.

Shayla & Pawpaw

I must say, I think I enjoyed her birthday meal as much as she did!! They took us out to Medieval Times and we had a blast!!! Our waiter was energetic and fun and Shayla giggled over him pouring her a tall goblet of Dragon's Spit (soda)...

Beautiful birthday girl outside Medieval Times

Tator showing off his new quill from Momma Jan

While we waited for the tournament, we met the horses and the falconer and of course, hit the souvenir booths.

Shayla sipping her virgin Pina Colada & checking out all the beautiful horses

Shayla was REALLY into all of it. Standing in her chair screaming for her knight, and turned several shades of red when he kissed a carnation and threw it to her in the stands (to which she blushed and asked me if I thought he was cute too.... Lord save me!)

The brave knights of Medieval Times

Clayton, my child who takes everything very LITERALLY was apprehensive.... Eating with his hands was not the norm in Tator's world, and heaven forbid we do things differently. He got into the spirit of things though but still watched the riders very intently. They had dancing Andalusians, the falcon came out for an awesome lil show and a few rounds of tricks and story telling, he was mildly interested in these entertainments, but kept asking when the joust would begin...

When it came for the actual joust, he was on the edge of his seat.... When the knight was unhorsed and the sword fighting began, he stared, bug eyed, as sparks flew with each clash of the swords....

One knight was tiring, clearly loosing and when the victor lunged in for the kill, Clayton jumped up, with a white knuckle grip on the table edge and said:

"WHAT THE HELL?!?!?!"

He was so intense, so serious, it was hilarious.... After the downed knight was pulled out of the spotlight, I pointed out to my son that he was ok.... Didn't know why he was so shocked... We told them what the show was.... Later I find out my husband told Clayton that the joust was REAL... LOL

You'd have to know us to "get" our humor, but the whole things was just freaking hilarious. Clayton laughed about all of it, and enjoyed the rest of the show with the same awe and excitement as before, just none of the worry.

All in all we had an awesome time and I would love to go again in the future.

I'm hoping next year the kids are willing to forgo parties in favor of trips.... I know I'd certainly enjoy it.....

Simply can't beat birthdays that take you back in time with dinosaurs & dashing knights!

Fun in the Sun

This summer hasn't been the best..... It’s been especially brutal on my munchkins and we decided that a lil vacation was in order….…

Clayton has been mesmerized by the ocean since he was 18 months old. By 2 he could identify 25+ species of sharks, tell you the depth they preferred to live in, diet & tooth shape….. by 4 he decided he would be a marine biologist & “Shark Week” is an important holiday at this house. So, the ocean was an obvious choice for vacation since the kiddos have never been… Everyone needs to see the ocean at least once in their life.

Would have loved to take them to a better beach, but Galveston was what was doable (about 8 hours away), so we headed out bright and early on August 2nd.

Bought 2 day passes for The Moody Gardens and Thursday afternoon when we arrived we hit the sea wall & found some seafood (which BTW do NOT eat at Benno's…. absolutely HORRIBLE.. Both staff & food...).

Tator looking for critters in the rocks by the sea wall..

Shayla claimed this stretch of beach :)

Friday was spent at The Moody Gardens- We went through the Aquarium pyramid, the Rainforest pyramid, the Discovery pyramid, watched a 3D movie, & took a ride on a paddle boat.

Checking out sharks in the Aquarium pyramid

Tator in a shark cage! Parents, in case you're wondering.. No, they won't let you take the cage home!

Hanging with the birds in the Rainforest pyramid

Amazon river exhibit

Took an hour long ride on the "Colonel"

Jerimiah spotted "The Ocean Star"which was an offshore drilling rig & museum… So of course we had to go there too….

Jerimiah & Shayla under the derrick

Hit the Lone Star Flight Museum, had lunch at Landry’s and then went back to the Moody Gardens to swim at “Palm Beach”… Which was a small water park with a lazy river, various pools, live music, water slides and such…. I think I had just as much fun on the water slides as the kids did, though I couldn’t convince Jerimiah to try ‘em out.. At Landry’s the kids decided they’d be “daring” and try raw oysters on the ½ shell…. Absolutely hysterical! To say the kiddos aren’t raw oyster fans is a vast understatement…

Lone Star Flight Museum

Had a blast playing at the water park, but Tator wanted one more dip in the ocean so we headed out to Galveston State Park for some beach fun & swimming in an uncrowned area… Original plan was to go to the State park, but we happened upon a nice stretch of almost empty beach right outside the park so that’s where we ended up swimming and then enjoyed playing on the beach in the dark… Didn’t make it back to the hotel until almost 11:00pm and the munchkins were out cold as soon as they hit the pillows.

Jerimiah & Tator jumping in the waves..

Saturday we went for a tour of the Moody Mansion. Beautiful, 28,000sqft house, lots of interesting history, though the tour guide was a stuffy, cranky gal who seemed to enjoy trying to shove an entire group of people into impossibly tiny rooms…

Think “Human sardines”…..Not my idea of fun..

Bit annoying, but it was neat to see the house.. Well, part of it because half was closed due to un-repaired damage from hurricane Ike… So, for $28 we saw ½ of the mansion, couldn’t take pictures and got bossed around… Like I said, some of it was interesting, but I’ll certainly not repeat the experience.

Went back to the Aquarium pyramid one last time before heading out, then hit the road.

There was quite a bit that we wanted to do, but didn’t have time… Had a lot more fun than I expected and will certainly go back….. I’m so happy we got to go, the kids made some great memories, I added an actual color to my legs (we shall call it “off white”, since it’s not particularly “tan”, but it’s several shades darker than my blinding, glow in the dark shade I sported before running around Galveston in shorts) and Jerimiah & I celebrated 11 years together on the trip up there on August 2nd.

Life deals an unfair, cruel hand sometimes…. I miss my Momma every single day….. But life is far too short and you must make the best of the time you have…….

Take last minute, poorly planned vacations, snap pictures of everything and find something worth laughing about every day.

Life is Short & Seldom Fair

             There are things in life that you simply can’t prepare for. 

I lost my mom, my best friend, on Saturday, June 16th at 9:00pm. There is no pain I can compare this to, no way to fill the void left behind and though I’ve been told there are steps in grieving and you learn to cope, I simply don’t believe that.

This pain isn’t one I can learn to cope with, instead, I think I’ve simply developed a greater capacity for feeling pain. The guilt, the "what ifs", though I’m told they are pointless, haunt me.


How do you tell the story of death? Do I make it cut, dry and use proper medical terminology? Do I simply speak of the time before, and the time after, while glazing over the actual event?

Friday night, I took the kids to visit mom in the hospital. As you know from previous post, she was diagnosed with a very rare form of leukemia called Chronic Neutrophilic Leukemia. Her spleen had grown far too large, so they admitted her into the hospital. The game plan was to do platelet transfusions, get her white cell count down and once the blood work was as ideal as possible, they were going to remove her spleen. Things were going well, the WBC count was coming down gradually and she felt much better after her platelet transfusions. My brother stayed with her at night, and I came and visited during the days.

Friday, we stopped by, had some idle chit chat and she was in good spirits. My brother said Saturday morning she was feeling great… Got to take a real shower, took a walk around the halls and was chipper. I was supposed to go up there after breakfast to bring her some diversions and visit, but I accidentally hit snooze and was running behind on chores.

My brother called me, said mom was acting strange, kind of mumbling, fidgeting…. I told him to go grab a doctor and let me talk to her while he did…. I suspected a small stroke at worst… I asked momma if she knew who I was and she said “Of course, you’re Crystal”. I asked if she knew what day it was and she said “It’s Saturday..” I asked if she knew what month it was and she said “Yes silly, it’s January, your birthday month”.. Then she just repeated a loop of “You’re Crystal, it’s Saturday, it’s January” over and over and over… I interrupted her, told her I loved her and I was on my way and she said “Ok honey, love you.. It’s Saturday, you’re Crystal, it’s January”…




My baby brother, Ethan, Momma & middle brother, Kevin

 That was my last conversation with my mom. Why I wasted it with questions the doctor could have asked, I dunno….. I wanted to tell her how much I loved her, I wanted to tell her about the silly prank Jerimiah and I played on the kids… I wanted to beg her not to give up, to please be ok, wanted to scold her for scaring me and have her laugh at my mock stern tone… I wanted to tell her not to worry, everything was going to be okay and she would be getting out of there soon and then we’d go see that movie she wanted to see…

I arrived when they had mom in the MRI… The waiting was horrible, but I was so hopeful. Maybe momma had a stroke, we could deal with that, lots of people lived just fine after a stroke….
I followed them out of MRI, down to CT scan…. There was just me, my youngest brother, Ethan, and a nurse…. Momma crashed before they could get her into the CT scan, and I had to hold her head up and to the side because she was sick, then everything erupted into complete chaos. I was pushed out of the way while the room filled with people….

During this the oncologist came to talk to me… There were spots on mom’s brain…. As the oncologist explained the possible causes of this, machines and hospital staff hustled in the back ground… He was hopeful it was an infection they had somehow missed.. If so, it was treatable and we would know more when they got the CT scan results back and conferred with a neurologist… Up to ICU we went to await results… I don’t think I’ve ever prayed so hard in my life… Hours ticked by, and finally we got to have our results..

Mom’s brain had hemorrhaged in multiple places all at once. She was on life support and they could not operate. Her low platelets, and the locations of the bleeds (most in the lower center of her brain) made it impossible. Her brain was swelling… They gave us a glimmer of hope, a medication they could give to help with swelling and they would set her up for a blood brain flow test to see how the blood flow was in her brain. More hours of waiting, at 4:30pm, Jerimiah tried to take me to grab something to eat and as we left, my brother called and said they had checked her and she had lost her brain stem…. Her pupils would not respond, no pain response and the area of her brain that controlled functions like breathing was gone.

At 7:00pm they did the brain blood flow test… At 8:00pm they asked me to come look at the scans. Her brain was so swollen and there was no longer blood flowing in her brain. They asked me to make a decision.

How does one call for the death of their own mother? They offered to move her to hospice and keep her on life support, but my momma was no longer there and she told me more than once that she had no interest in living as a vegetable.…. The hardest words I’ve ever said was to take momma off life support…. Mom’s heart beat one last time at 9:00pm and my best friend was gone. The one person who knew me from birth… Was there for my first steps, birthdays, heartbreaks, the one knew my every flaw and loved me regardless was gone.

Me, Ethan, Mom & Harley 2001

Did I make the right choice? At times, I think I did when I’m thinking rationally… At other times I can’t help but wonder if I should have left her on life support and hoped for a miracle? It’s a pointless question as I will never know the answer…

The doctors were amazed that with how numerous, and severe the bleeds were that she didn’t have neurological symptoms before hand that would have hinted to this…. But then I wonder, did she?

Friday night, during our visit, she signed some goat registration papers for some goats she was sending to a friend… Her signature was sloppy and she was kind of slow signing… I thought it was the low light and lack of glasses…but was it? Did I miss an early warning sign because I was getting ready to leave to get the kids dinner? After all, I’d seen mom sign legibly without glasses on many times before….

My brother said she had a nose bleed Friday night (Saturday AM actually), from 3:00am to 7:00am and was complaining about it that morning when he woke up… I should have been there, but I was home because I had to be here for chores. Chores! Of all excuses to not be with your mom, that is surely the most pitiful….

I would not have slept through her being up with a nose bleed and left her to deal with it. Why didn’t a nurse come in and check on her during that time? Dr. Balbastro had warned me about bleeding of any sort… I had been there for every doctor’s visit, all lab work and I was about a fluent as could be in Chronic Neutrophilic Leukemia speak as anyone without a medical degree could be….
If I had been there and got the doctors then, could she have been saved, or would it have only been a heads up to an unavoidable outcome? If I hadn’t hit the snooze Saturday morning, I could have been there, I could have had just one more conversation, gave her one more hug, but I hit the damned snooze and then wasted our last conversation….

My momma was only 48 years old. She was my best friend. She accepted me fully, my hot temper, goofy sense of humor, obsessive nature and every odd quirk. I rarely went even one day without speaking to her… Even before she came to stay with us, we always called each other every day just to chit-chat….

She shared my goat obsession, was the one who started it all actually, when I was just a little girl. She camped out in the barn with me for days while we tried to save Astra… Was here for almost every kidding and if she missed a kidding, you can bet your bottom she was there shortly after to “Ohh & Ahhh“ over the new babies... She cried with me over losses/disappointments, and was just as excited about doelings as I was…. We joked that we were self taught goat vets, educated at the Google/Youtube University. When we got sick of paying the vet for blood draws, we broke out some Hershey’s Huggs, watched a “how to draw blood” video on Youtube, and then went out and poked until we got it figured out.

The first few days after she left, I couldn’t stand to even look at the goats. It was raining the night mom died and I didn’t get home until around 11:00pm and had to milk in the rain…. I thought that was miserable, but milking the following morning was even worse.. During milking, she wasn’t out there to chit chat like she always was… When I took the lambar bucket out for the babies, I foolishly expected to see her sitting out there on the play steps playing with the babies like she did almost every morning. Each time she wasn’t there was like a kick to the gut…. I didn’t want the goats anymore, wanted to sell them, give them away, I didn’t care, I just did not want to look at them. What is the point of a hobby if the one you shared it with is gone? When something you once loved turned into a scheduled torture session twice a day, every day…. Jerimiah talked me out of it, asked me to please wait… It is a little easier now, but that flash of pain still creeps up on me when I least expect it… What once was something shared is now quite lonely…

I see her everywhere. She marks every aspect of my life…. I can’t pack her things away. Her pillows still smell like her. Her crazy, off the wall things still clutter my kitchen. Used to annoy me and now I can’t make myself put them away…..Everything is a marker… When I finally made myself cook, it wasn’t just dinner, it was the first meal I cooked since momma left. When Saturday rolled around, it wasn’t just the weekend, it was 1 week after momma left…

My mom was so vibrant, care free and never one to try to fit society’s idea of “normal”. If anything, she strove to be anything but “normal”… She was impulsive, crazy, funny and it was so frustrating that she could never be on time for anything….. It didn’t matter the reason, or time of day, I have always known I could call mom and she would talk to me for however long I needed her to. She may not have been able to arrive on time for a scheduled event, but I could always count on her to drop everything and come to me if I needed her.

She played in the mud with my kids and took them exploring, just like she did with my brothers and I as children…. Gave them their love of coffee and played hide-n-go seek with them. Caught frogs and built “habitats” for them and never hesitated to bring home some stray critter that needed fixing….Anytime I took myself too seriously, she was there to remind me that life was not meant to be a series of serious events… Shopping with her was fun, she’d usually climb on the buggy and let me run through the store pushing her, and any road trip we ever took, she navigated and always got us lost... Mom was a modern day, female Macgyver... She could make anything out of nothing & though the method may have been convolted, if she didn't know how to do something, she quickly figured out her own way to do it.

The few times we fought, they were loud, intense, heated disputes, that always ended with us laughing and usually chocolate in some form was the icing that made it all better again.

You never had to guess what was on her mind, because she was sure to let you know, regardless of the outcome. She believed in me, and encouraged me when the world kicked me in the teeth and discouraged me…

We had so many plans. We would sit up until 3:00am, solving the worlds problems and planning grand schemes. We used to sit in this lil hippy coffee house, she’d drink a pot of coffee (literally), while I worked on my blog… Then she’d read it, pat my head and say “Oh honey, you do worry me”… In some cases, she'd lay her hand on my cheek and ask "Honey, are you SURE you wanna admit that to the world?!"

I wish my house hadn't burned in 2007... I had so many great pictures of mom that I would love to share.....As it is now, I have 5, just 5 pictures.... I take pictures of EVERYTHING.. Why hadn't I snapped more of mom recently??..... I've been trying to get into her laptop to get pics I know are stored there, but so far my password guessing skills are not working...

It's hard to admit she won’t be here for my next birthday. We won’t go see that movie we had planned on seeing..... She won't get the kids some horrible, awful, annoying Christmas present that they'll just adore.... I’ll be sitting all alone in the barn this kidding season and she won’t see my children graduate or meet the bimbo girls and idiotic boys my munchkins decide to date....

Just so many things I expected her to be apart of and contemplating these events knowing she won'be here just hurts so much....

I’m better now than I was a week ago… I can have a normal conversation and keep everyone from worrying. I don’t cry in front of the kids anymore & I’m doing my best to handle everything since she always counted on me to get things taken care of.

She had no insurance, no will and that has complicated things quite a bit. My youngest brother is taking over her land, the middle brother I gave her jeep to and I’m having her cremated.

Momma never had much in life. Mostly because she gave to anyone in need, despite how it would effect her. After a rotten 2nd divorces, she saved and bought her dream place… 20 acres of land with nothing on it what so ever. She actually camped out there in a tent for the first 6 months until she could afford water/electricity/septic. Most wouldn’t have done that. Most would have been depressed to have nothing but a piece of land, but mom thought it was fun. A big adventure. A new chapter and a step forward towards her dream.. So what if it didn't have power or running water, to her, that just made it interesting! She eventually worked up to a camper, and then a lil cabin and it was the only thing in life she really wanted… A lil farm surrounded by woods. A place no one could take away from her, a safe haven for her children if they ever needed it. We will bring her home and lay her to rest under her favorite tree where she loved to sit and drink coffee…. I’m thinking of getting a fountain for her as I simply can’t see my mom with a plain old tombstone….. A simple headstone seems so conventional and my mother was anything but conventional.

At times I’m just angry. Why did I worry so much over my chores at home? Why wasn’t I there the night her nose started bleeding? Why didn’t she calll & tell me about the nose bleed?!? Why did I waste our last conversation? Why couldn’t I at least have a good bye? Why did I have to play to role of Grim Reaper and call for the death of my mother? Why, oh why did MD Anderson screw up like they did?? They lost her paperwork, TWICE, and jerked mom along every step of the way. Had she been able to go, and not get jerked around, her spleen could have been removed way sooner and perhaps it wouldn’t have come to this.

I miss her so much. I catch myself grabbing the phone to call and tell her something, or ask her a quick question….. Instead I just listen to her voice on her voicemail, acting exasperated, which she was, because I hounded her to set up her voicemail.

I am a bit more rational now. I can see that though I didn’t get my goodbye, she at least went quickly and unaware. She didn’t have time to be afraid, to worry. She didn’t have to see the terror on our faces. For that one single mercy, I am thankful.

I’m thankful that my good memories surpass any bad memories by leaps and bounds. I’m thankful she stayed long enough that my kids got to know her.

I could wish for a goodbye, for just one more conversation, but in my heart I know that wouldn’t be enough. So I take it one day at a time. Some good days and I’m almost normal, and some bad days that feel like the misery will never end…. I’ve had a few rare moments where I laughed till I cried over some memory…. My crazy mother brought laughter anywhere she went.

"One day at a time" is my chant these days.

Love you momma, miss you more than words can say, and I hope you’ve found peace.




Demitri Geneva, known to those who loved her as "Brandy"
October 13, 1963 - June 16, 2012



My Mother's Day Surprise

Mother’s Day is that time when you’re supposed to sleep in, get spoiled and then spend hours cleaning up after all the “surprises” your spouse & children made for you (Seriously… If you ever cleaned up after my crew when they cook/create, you’d fully understand the horror) …

I made mine more difficult by impatience.........

Casper was due to kid on the 11th. Mom had another appointment on Monday and I knew that with my luck, Casper would kid the moment I pulled out of the drive way Monday morning. I needed to attend the birth to pull the kids, so I decided to induce her. A shot of Lute & a shot of Dex and I settled into a routine of frequent barn checks.

Last check was a lil before 4am on Mother’s Day… Sat out there for about 20 minutes watching her. Ligaments weren’t fully softened yet… no goo and no sign of impending labor (she was up munching on alfalfa pellets) so I went back to bed.

Up again at 6:35am (was supposed to be 6:00am, I accidentally hit snooze) and when I arrive at the barn it’s pure chaos!!

Casper had kidded and her pen mate had stolen one of the kids, Casper was screaming at the end of the run farthest from the barn and the new would be momma was snorting & fussing. One dry lil one and one tiny lil one, cold, still partially in the sack.

Gathered them up, and brought them in the house… It has been a buck year for me. No doelings… So of course it would be my luck that the cold kid left on the ground in the barn drama was a doeling! The ONLY doeling! And of course it would make sense that the buckling was the warm, fully dry, vigorous one.

Oh life how I do loathe your sense of humor sometimes…..

After warming the doeling and failing to get her to eat, we had to resort to tube feeding. Had a few moments where I just wasn’t sure if she’d be ok or not… After food was in her and she had her shot of Bo-Se and a Vit E capsule she was up walking and everything was normal… except that she would not suck and what lil bit of milk dripped into her mouth she wouldn’t swallow. Finally after 2 ½ days of all her meals coming via the tube into her stomach, she started nursing as if she had never an issue one.

So now I can share her with y’all…. My very first, bred by me, with my herd name, keeper is Noodleville’s Trick or Treat AKA- “Tricks”




Newborn Tricks looking a bit bewildered..

Isn’t she just precious!!!??? Her brother, currently unnamed, is a pretty boy… He’s longer and has a longer neck, but in all else they are pretty equal. Would love it if she were a bit longer, but I’m certainly not complaining!



Casper x Tonka Twins

New babies meeing the March doelings.... Heidi was NOT impressed! 

I had my doubts about Casper…. She was dam raised and a bit timid, and after my "Bloody Battle of Wills" with the last first freshener, I was not looking forward to milking. Her teats looked a bit short too, so I prepared for a fight and hand cramps.

Casper at 4 months old

Needless to say I was pleasantly surprised when I had neither!! Casper was a bit nervous and unsure, but stood still anyways.....Her udder is butter soft and out of all my does, she is by far the easiest to milk.

Here is a picture of her udder at 5 days fresh and about 9 hours full (forgive the bad haircut):

She actually has a fore udder!!!! Ginger has hardly any fore, Sabrina’s was badly pocketed and Bleu’s is ok, but I’d like it to be more smoothly blended and extend a bit further. Casper though, I have no complaints about and I see this maturing into a really pretty udder...

Could be blended a lil smoother, but it's very well attached and balanced so I'm happy to keep a doeling from her. She could use a smidge more height in the rear udder too, but there's lots of attachments, its wide and her teat placement is great!

Her doeling has a higher escutcheon than her dam, and a more level rump, so perhaps luck will favor me and I’ll have a doeling who is an improvement over her dam…. That is the goal anyways...

Tricks 6 Days Old

I can’t keep many goats… Can’t afford the feed, don’t have the space and can’t handle the work load, so I’m frequently forced to make cuts. I’m not as attached to Casper as I am Bleuberry, so I decided, before she kidded, that I would sell her if she had a doeling for me to keep.

Made arrangements with a 1st time dairy goat owner, and let her know that if she didn’t have a doeling, then she could take Comanche instead…

These folks are really nice and have been working hard to get everything set up and ready for Casper… So it is a bit bittersweet that I’m loving her stand manners, her udder, ease of milking and that at 5 days fresh, she milked 6.4lbs of milk. Got in touch with the new future owners to give them a choice of taking Comanche bred, or Casper in milk and they have their hearts set on Casper.

I keep telling myself it is only logical to let her go.. I have her daughter and I want to add another doe, but this is one that isn’t going to be easy.

Either way, I hold to my word, and they’ve already shopped for her and are pretty excited, so next Sunday Casper goes on to her new home. Thankfully they aren’t too far away and they are also open to me breeding Tonka to her again this fall and we may split the kid crop if the numbers/gender work out, so all is not lost.

With potential travel in my future (hopefully getting mom into MD Anderson) having one less milker will make things easier on my helpers too….

You might recall my husband's attempt at goat milking...

If not you can read all about it here:
Helpful Husband Extraordinaire

Needless to say, me keeping more milkers than I need will be doing hubby no favors when he is my milker.... He's more than willing to help, always is.... But it's best to make this as easy on everyone as possible...lol

And since y’all haven’t got to see Tonka in a while… Here he is at about a year old.....

Tonka out on a browse eating walk as a reward for tolerating the bath & shave so well.

I’m so proud of how he’s turned out and am looking forward to watching his doeling grow. He got shaved & bathed as I had intended to take him to the Big Buck Bonanza, but financial obligations with mom’s medical issues came first so we’ll have to try again next year…

Tonka was added to the ADGA Young Sire Development Program with an ETA of 69-75 and I’m really looking forward to freshening daughters from him.

I didn’t notice it at first, but if you look at the kids, Tricks has Casper’s pattern/markings (even similar shaped white splashed up both sides), but in Tonka’s colors, while the lil' buck has Tonka’s markings/pattern with Capser’s colors.

Sweet baby boy...

Anywho… I hope all the mothers out there had a great day and I do hope all the daughters/sons take time EVERY day to appreciate their mothers.... Mother's Day is a great time for presents & treating mom to something special, but life is short and unpredictable so every day you wakeup is a day to be thankful for.

Speaking of moms… My mom finally got her diagnosis. It wasn’t what we had hoped for, not at all.

She has a rare form of leukemia called Chronic Neutrophilic Leukemia. There haven’t been many cases documented, and at this time, no cure. Mom is hanging in there though. Some days she’s a trooper about it all, and she has her glum moments from time to time, but we’re not giving up.

My momma is one of the most head strong people I’ve ever encountered, if anyone can beat this, it’s her. It gives me hope to see her strong, determined and hopeful.......When the inevitable times of doubt creep over her, she has me for a flamboyant, never ending distraction, a job I take VERY seriously….

No matter what, we’re gonna make it through this!

They say there is no cure, and gave all sorts of morbid numbers and tossed life span terms around as if we were discussing the weather…. But just because they haven’t found a cure, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, it just means they haven’t found it yet! Here's hoping the paperwork for MD Anderson is processed soon so we can explore more options...

My Remedy for Writer's Block

Well, I got an email from a friend letting me know my blog was fading & followers were flocking away. Actually, the message wasn’t that nice and was more along the lines of “If you're gonna have a blog, then BLOG, you're boring your followers to death”!

But here I sit, suffering from writer’s block of the worst sort...... I have a mass of words that won’t string together into actual sentences, and a bunch of jumbled thoughts. Chaos in life tends to do that to you I suppose...

So, as a remedy, I gave up my previous topic & I have baby goat pictures!

Yea, yea, I know that’s cheating….but my last post, I left everyone hanging so now y’all get to meet the newest babies here in the land of Noodle. Plus we all know I have a tendency to get overly wordy anyways, so pictures are a great substitute.. Haha

As mentioned in my previous post, momma & I made a road trip to go pick up goats… The original plan was to get a single doeling. Then I was offered her dam, Ginger, a beautiful 8 year old doe who has moved quite a bit in her life and I think she prefers her old Idaho home to her hot west Texas home… In addition to those 2, I was also offered the doeling’s half sister who was a tiny lil' thing, half the size of her twin, with the cutest lil chocolate nose & dished face…

So one, turned into three, and by the time we got up there, we ended up loading a total of 4 goats into my car (Yes, I did say FOUR). Which, BTW was a sight, as I drive a lil Dodge Nitro and hauling 2 humans, 3 goat kids and one adult doe is not what my car was designed for!!

First up is MY baby….. Her name is Heidi and she is the daughter of Ginger, born March 15, 2012 and is just tooo sweet. Quiet, mellow and loves to snuggle in my lap…. It did not take her long to establish her place as my favorite.. This girl is LONG and just beautiful, I can not wait to see how she matures.




My sweet, fuzzy Heidi, not quite 2 weeks old



Shayla & Heidi

Cookie is Heidi's ½ sister and the lil runt, born on March 13, 2012. She has tons of attitude to make up for her small size and isn’t much of a people goat.. Unless you’re my mom…. She adores my mother and they’ve kind of claimed each other. Given the trials my mom is facing right now, I think baby goat therapy is just what the doctor ordered.

Miss Attitude - AKA Cookie :)

#4 was unplanned, and I swore I’d never buy a Nubian, but once I saw her I had to have her…

This long eared beauty is Daisy… I wasn’t going to mention her because shortly after bringing her home we lost her in a sad accident… But she was so sweet, and too pretty not to at least give her mention. The smallest of quads, she wormed her way into our hearts very quickly… RIP Daisy.

R.I.P Sweet Daisy

I’m usually a planner… I stew and think over every single detail to the most mundane things….. But sometimes I can be very impulsive….. Daisy was Shayla’s present for her 7th birthday and the loss was VERY hard on her…. Right after the accident, and seeing the shock & heartbreak on my kids faces, I called the breeder in tears to see if she had any other doelings she was willing to sell… Thankfully she did, and we loaded up right then and hit the road. We bought Daisy’s cousin, and since the does in this family all had flower names, Shayla named her Rose.




Rose - Born March 6, 2012

Rose enjoying pecan leaves after winning "Queen of the Mountain"

 Rose is just striking and oh so beautiful. Being Pruittville on both sides of her pedigree, I wouldn’t expect anything less.

She is a character and very much the love bug. In the beginning she was LOUD and I kind of wondered if I had made a mistake…. But my lil Alpines seem to be a good influence on her and if anything she’s quieter than Cookie.

My view from above the lambar bucket... Lil' chunks are going though 9 quarts of milk per day!

Cookie headed for the top of the stairs..

Nothing better than baby goat snuggles

The trio impatiently waiting for their lambar..

I have a few pictures of Ginger, the 8 year old doe, but technology HATES me and for some reason, I can't get them to upload, so I'll just give Ginger her very own post later on.

The loss of Astra, and all the plans/hopes she represented really hit me hard. I'm without an Alpine buck for this year and I feel like I'm having to start at square one all over again... But these 3 lil ones give me a bit of hope and a chance to try again......