Look Who's Nifty!

Things have been busy, and I haven't been able to blog, but I wanted to catch up and write about my surprise birthday parties. The first party was a part of our Christmas White Elephant exchange when we got together for Teryn Lee and Holly's wedding. Ivy, my sister, brought the red hat and associated gear, and we had a lovely Christmas and birthday celebration all rolled into one. Teryn Lee came in a saw me with the red hat and said, "You're not going to wear that to the wedding are you?" I was awfully tempted!

At the time I thought I was celebrating with all my favorite people, but Teryn reminded me that I had quite a few other favorites. I didn't realize it then, but I got to celebrate my birthday with my other group of favorites too.

Every Saturday evening for the past 5 or so years, Teryn and I get together with a group and study the bible. As you can imagine, the group has become pretty close knit! Anyway, Tricia arranged to have a surprise birthday party for me at our chapel meeting. It was a complete surprise! Holly and Teryn Lee, Tricia and her kids, and all the chapel group helped to celebrate the occasion. My sweet, and talented, friend Karen even wrote a very special song for me! I can't say how blessed I am to have so many people that I love, and who love me back.

Friends

We had a treat last week when Michelle and the girls came to visit. We got out our trusty saddle donk, and the girls helped me train him a while. Ivy is riding Mihijo almost all by herself in this picture. We took a walk in the creek and found a nice sandy, place to sit and talk while the girls played. It was great getting to spend time with them again!

Crock-A-Diddle-Dandy

And you thought the Croc was a bachelor! Nope, he's been married almost 30 years! I've been thinking for a while that I was married to him, but yesterday I knew for sure! Last night when the goats came in, we could tell that one of the nanny's had kidded while they were out roaming. Problem is that the ranch is huge, and the goats go where ever they want. The babies could have been anywhere! We decided to go looking for them on the off chance that we might get lucky! We headed North East bacause we saw the goats come in from that direction. Pretty soon we saw some buzzards, so 'Croc' said, "Lets go look over there." Sure enough we found 2 beautiful, healthy baby goats. On the way home, we found another Nanny hidden behind a cedar, she also had just had 2 babies, and the buzzards were beginning to circle. 'Croc' put her in the truck - the only place she would fit was the front seat between my legs, and he held the babies till we got to the pens. This morning all 4 babies and their mamas are fine! We're pretty sure that if we hadn't found them, and if the buzzards didn't get them, the coyotes would have!

The story of Croc-A-Diddle-Dandy is an old one! One of the exchange students was trying to say Crocodile Dundee, and said it wrong! It's never been the same since!