We've been bitten....

By the H1N1 flu virus. Abigail is the first of us to come down with it. I am pretty sure Shelby will get it. I don't think that Steve or I will get it, but I am knocking wood every time I say that. One of her friends that she goes to school with and plays ball with has tested positive. Abbie has all of the same symptoms. The highest her fever has been is 103.0 this morning, and with Tylenol and Motrin on board, it goes down to 99.8 - 100.2. The only other symptom she has is a cough. She is achy sometimes, but really only complains about the cough making her throat sore. This is day #3 of fever, so maybe only a day or two left. She is a little disappointed though, she was named Star Student of the Week this week at school and she is missing out on all of her "duties". I just pray that this is the worst of it and she doesn't develop any other problems. Pray for her speedy recovery!!
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I am hopefully going to post more often now that ball is winding down and the summer activities are over. The pigs are doing great. If you are in our area stop by and see them. But you might want to wait til it dries out a little bit. Sixteen inches of rain in the last few weeks makes everything soggy. Glad the sun is out today!

New digs for Lou Lou

As some of you know, we will be having baby pigs very soon (like in 9-12 days). One of our show pigs from last year, Lou Lou, aka "the racehorse", has been growing, and growing, and growing. We have borrowed a farrowing (?) crate from Michael Jahns (thanks Michael), and have poured concrete in her shed. Here are some pictures of the boys working hard, getting it all evened out.

We have set up the crate inside the shed and have hooked up a mister to keep her cool and also put a fan out there for her. She is so uncomfortable. She sometimes doesn't even want to get up to eat. Make sure you come by to see the baby pigs in just a few weeks. Baby pigs are so cute. Then they get bigger and turn into eating and pooping machines. Hopefully there will be some good pigs in there that Abbie will be able to show at the stock shows next year in February and March. So I guess now we are officially pig farmers. Yay for us?

Crazy life.....

Ok, so I am falling down on keeping up with my blog. We have been so busy I ususally just check my facebook to see what is going on around here. I'll probably have to do several posts to get everyone caught up.

First of all, I am an aunt! My brother Brian is a new dad. For those of you who don't know, no, he is not married, this is just a happy surprise. His name is Colt Dawson Jones and he was born on May 26. We have gotten to see him just one time so far, but pretty soon Brian is going to be getting him every other weekend, so we will have a baby in the house again. I couldn't be more excited. Here is a pic of him on his first visit to meet his Aunt Cathy, Uncle Steve and his cousins, Abbie and Shelby.

Welcome to the world Colt!

We are finished playing ball, for now. Both of the girls want to play in the fall league in Temple, so they are both on teams. It will keep us busy through the end of October. I can't believe I am even writing this down, but school will start in just over 3 weeks. Boy the summer sure did go by fast.

Summer is here.....

Summer is officially here at the Bruggman's house. We have been swimming, playing softball, and working in the garden. I have been watching the girls cousin's again this summer. They all love being together every day and they are old enough that I really don't have to hover over them all the time. I usually make them go outside in the mornings while it is still cool. We have lunch and then head outside to the pool to play for a little while before their mom comes to pick them up at 3:00pm.
Abbie's softball team is doing ok this year. We moved her up to play Midget Girls (where the kids pitch). Her team is actually good enough to make the playoffs this year. We were not expecting that. These are 3rd graders (about to be 4th graders) that are playing against 5th graders (about to be 6th graders) and they did great! I should have some pictures to post next time.
I have applied for a job with Rogers ISD. Until I know about school for sure, I need to have a job that gives the family health benefits. Working with the school lets me still be at school with the kids and I have the same hours that they do. That is a huge plus. We will see what happens after that.

Camping....sort of

I don't like to camp. I am a girl who likes her nice soft bed, nice smells, no sand, dirt, mud. I like showers. I don't like to "squat". So imagine my husbands surprise when our friends asked us to go camping and I agreed. We made our plans and we joined them on Saturday afternoon out at the Brazos river near Calvert. Things were going great. The boys had gone to set their "lines" and some boys and all the girls stayed behind to start cooking dinner. Cole started making a campfire so we could roast weenies and marshmallows.
The boys returned and we finished with supper. We roasted marshmallows and made some very yummy smores. It was starting to get dark and all of the adults were sitting around the campfire talking. The kids had locked themselves out of the camper so Derek had walked over to the camper to open it up. Abbie says that he was taking too long so she started to walk back over to me. And that is when it happened. She let out a piercing scream and RAN over to where we were sitting. She crawled up in my chair and there they were, 2 small puncture marks. That's right folks, you guessed it, a SNAKE BITE!!!!! Abbie was starting to panic a little so I was trying to calm her down. In the mean time, Shelby was starting to panic because of what happened to Abbie. AHHHHHH! We decided to just leave all of our camping stuff there and got in the truck and began the 1 hour and 10 minute drive to Temple. We got to the ER around 10:45 pm and luckily we knew 2 of the nurses working so they got us back to a room really quickly. We saw a doctor really quickly and were quite the star of the show for a while. We had 3 doctors in our room taking pictures with their iphones and such.

We got moved up to the Pediatric icu at about 3:30 am and they gave her the first dose of anti-venom at 4:30 am. She finally slept at 4:00 am and didn't wake up til 8 am. She is feeling pretty good right now, and will probably get out of the hospital tomorrow some time. She has had alot of visitors today and mom is exhausted. Dad went home to sleep because he has to work tomorrow. Unfortunately for us, we do not have health insurance right now and this anti-venom medication is going to run about $20,000. Luckily this is a charity hospital and they will work with us on paying for it. Thanks to all of you who knew about this and said prayers for Abbie.

Sad Day

Today when the mail came I had my letter from TC in it. If you have read my other posts, it was an Unfortunately letter. I'm not sure what I will be doing now. I may apply to MCC for their Spring 2010 nursing class. Right now I am very unsure of what I will be doing and even if I want to go thru this again for the 3rd time. Maybe that will be the charm.....

It's been a while.....

Well, almost 2 months have gone by since my last post. I have been subbing at school everyday as a PE teacher (boy do I have a good tan). We have 8 days left of school (yay)! The girls are getting very excited for the summer to be here. Their cousins be coming again every day to play (and earn mom a little extra money), their Aunt Valerie is home from school and they get to go away to camp again this year. What more could a kid want!
We have been getting the pool summer ready the last few days. It always takes a while to get out the leaves that have gotten in their over the winter and then one of us has to get in and get the yuck off of the sides. Not a fun job. It should be ready to swim in by the end of the weekend.
I should be hearing in a couple of days whether or not I got into nursing school. Hopefully it will be a Congratulations! letter, not an Unfortunately, letter. Keep your fingers crossed!
I have been working in my garden. WEEDS are overrunning it. I go out every day just to stay caught up with pulling them. My tomato plants are so big and heavy I have to go out and stake them today. The radish's are already out of the ground and have been very delicious. I can't wait for the squash to get ready. Abbie is excited about the cucumbers. She wants to learn to make pickles. I swear that child has to be related to Joey somehow! I sure don't like pickles that much.
I will try to post more often, especially now that we are gonna be out of school and I will be home every day.

So much to do, so little time

I have been seriously falling down in my blogging. We have been very busy. Softball has started so we have practice twice a week on Sunday and Thursday evenings. We have CCD at church on Wednesday evenings. This week we are getting ready at our church for our annual Spring Fest. Last Tuesday I went to Green's Sausage House and helped the ladies of our parish prepare the dressing that will be cooked that day for the meal. It took us most of the day to get it prepared. Tonight we will meet at the church hall to cut the vegetables that go into our cole slaw and then on Saturday morning we meet back at the hall to mix the cole slaw and do last minute preparations.
And during all this, Abbie's birthday is tomorrow. She wants cupcakes to take to school for her friends since she is not having her party until the end of the month. I just don't know where all the time goes. I am turning in my application for nursing school today, after finally receiving my transcripts from Blinn yesterday (after requesting them 2 times).YAY!! I will not know if I got in though until after the fourth week of May. Keep your fingers and toes crossed! I have been substitute teaching at the school quite a bit. As much as the kids can be so bad, I will admit that I will miss it next year. I love being at the school with my kids and they really like me there too (it means they don't have to ride the bus to school).
To sum all this up, I am feeling the pressure of too much to do, and to little time. Anyone else feel this way?

The results are in.....

Well, a few weeks ago, Abigail (3rd grade) took the Reading portion of her TAKS test. For those of you who do not know what that is, it is the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (I think, it changes every few years). Well, we got report cards today and enclosed in the envelope with her report card was the TAKS test results. I am very proud to say that Abbie only missed ONE!!! (the last one, as a matter of fact). She had a very good report card as well. She takes the Math portion of the TAKS in April. Steve and I are very proud of her.

I'm back....

I didn't realize that it had already been two weeks since I promised an update after the San Angelo Stock Show. Time is just getting away from me. Well, Jack-Jack ended up getting sifted out of the show and once that happened he has to get on a truck to go...well, we don't say the B-word (bacon) around our house right now, but that is where he went. There was some tears after she left the ring and she went outside to watch Jack-Jack in the holding pen before he was loaded onto the trailer. She was better by the time we got home later that night, but the next morning she asked me if I thought Jack-Jack was still alive or not. That is the last she has asked about him.

Baseball season is upon us now. Abbie is going to play and Shelby is not. Abbie is actually going to move up & play with bigger girls this year. She has one more year to play coach pitch, but because of some other things that happened, and not much of a returning team we decided to move up one year this year, get all of the girls back on one team together (they were split last year), and then we would be able to play together for 3 years, instead of just 2. Her first practice is supposed to be tomorrow, but we are expecting rain and very cold temps so I doubt we will have practice. Opening day is April 18th so wish Abbie luck with her softball season.

Shelby is ready for Spring Break which is next week for us. She likes school but hates waking up in the mornings. She was music student of the month for the whole 1st grade last month. I am so proud of her. She is always singing and dancing around the house. She is not playing ball this year. It interferes too much with her social life when we are at the ball games.

I have still been subbing quite a bit at the Elementary school. I like being there with the kids and it give us some extra money each month. Keep your fingers crossed and the prayers coming that I get accepted into nursing school this fall. I will find out by the last week of May. I know that sounds far away, but it will be here before we know it.

Steve is still working hard at the dealership. He has been such a blessing to me. He has worked so hard so that I can go to school and stay home with the kids this past year. He always puts me and the girls first and I can't even begin to say what that has meant to me and what it will mean for our family in the years to come. He has been unselfish and giving and I just can't believe how lucky I am to have him in my life. Enought mushiness (Joey stop crying.), I just realized recently how lucky I am to have my family and my friends.

I hope everyone else is doing well. Joey, good luck finishing up the move. Know that I am with you in spirit! Spring will be here before we know it. Today we are getting some good rain that we need so desperately. Hopefully it will rain the rest of the week.

San Angelo Fair

Yesterday we traveled to San Angelo for the Stock Show, Fair and Rodeo. Abbie's pig had to be in place by Wednesday afternoon, even though she doesn't actually show the pig until Friday. Danny and Jane made the trip out here also to watch Abbie show and some of our friends are here also with their kids, so it has been a fun trip so far. Last night we ate at Zetner's Daughter. It was ok. Steve loved it. Tonight we are going to eat at Western Sky, home of the 52 oz steak! I don't think I will be getting that! One of Abbie's good friends is here, so she has been having a good time. Shelby on the other hand, has been a little clingy. It has been so hot (95 degrees today)! When you have a hot child on you it only gets hotter!! She has been better this afternoon, and her and Abbie are getting along pretty good. Abbie shows her pig, Jack-Jack, tomorrow. We think she has a good shot, but then again you never know. I will post soon how she did, along with some pictures. Keep your fingers crossed!!!

Fair Time

Well, the fair is over. Thank goodness! I don't think I have ever been so tired. We had a good week. It began on Sunday, Feb. 8th. We moved the pigs (Sally and LouLou) into the barn at the Bell Cty. Expo. After we got there some of our friends who had been vacationing in the Hill Country over the weekend stopped by to see us really quickly before heading back to Frisco. Jeff, Amy, Jordan it was really good to see you and we can't wait to spend some time with you guys in March. We came home on Sunday afternoon around 6 pm and Abbie began baking for her food contest. She made a Southern Praline Pecan Pound Cake and a German Chocolate Pecan Pie. I am very proud of her. She got a 6th place ribbon for her cake and a 9th place for her pie. On Monday we had to weigh the pigs to make sure they weighed enough and to make sure they didn't weigh too much. This was the official weigh in for the fair. The pigs did fine and were very happy after the weigh in because then they could eat and drink as much as they wanted. On Tuesday the pigs got a bath for their big appearance on Wednesday. Here are some pictures I took while Abbie, Steve and Megan (one of Abbie's friends) washed the 2 pigs.

Wednesday finally got here, the day of the show. Abbie was very nervous. She did a very good job. The first pig that she showed did not receive anything. It was sifted out. The second pig did a little better. It received 10th in its class. For her first year I think she did very good. She entered 4 items in the show (2 baked items, 2 pigs) and received 3 ribbons. She had to control her pigs while they were in the ring with 20 other pigs. She did wonderfully. Steve and I are very proud of her.

Animals, Animals, Everywhere Animals

Right now at our house, both inside and out, we have 3 dogs, 6 new puppies, 7 cats (anyone want one?), 3 pigs, 15 big goats, 9 little baby goats, Chip (who is an orphaned calf that we have taken in), 1 fish (that refuses to die so I can get rid of the sticky aquarium), and a partridge in a pear tree. Now some of these animals will eventually go away, because we have the Bell County Fair in a few days and we will take 2 of the pigs to the fair. We may or may not bring them back home, depending on how they do in their show. Here are some pics of the pigs:

We also have new puppies. They are 4 weeks old today. They were born on January 8th (Elvis' Birthday) and are Miniature Schnauzer's. They are just starting to get around and poop on my floors. I have a couple of pics of them also, but there is only one or two in the pic.

The following photo is of our little orphaned calf, Chip. He was making a really funny face when I snapped the pic, so I just has to put it on here. There are also some of the goats that were standing around also.

Lots of animals to feed and take care of, but I like it. I really like living on a farm that has animals on it again. It is fun and I think it teaches the girls really important things, some are hard things, like when an animal dies, but most are good things, like learning you can do things that you thought you couldn't do. When they discover something new it is so great to see their faces.

Well, next week is the county fair so hopefully she will do well with her entries. Everyone cross their fingers and if you are in Belton next week, stop by the Expo center and check out all the animals and exhibits the kids do. It is really awesome!

Happy Cows!

Just a random thought. I really love those Happy California Cow commercials. The newest one is is a cow from Korea, and it has subtitles! How fun is that!

I'm joining the blogging world!

Well, I can't say I was forced into it, but since everyone else I know seems to be doing it (didn't my mother always say "If everyone else jumped off the bridge would you do it too?" Hmmm, just a thought) I guess I will too. It can't hurt, right? Since I am still new to this I am going to need all the help I can get, so any suggestions are very welcome. I will be adding my pics soon too. Blogging world here I come!