Been Sick

Well of all the weekends to get the flu bug. The Lewis Family in this area planned this big Easter Dinner at the church Sunday. All of Uncle Ray & Aunt Wanda's family was here except for Doug's. Plus Bill& Beckys Boys came down. And it was Zacks bday. But this mean old flu bug visited again. I was in no condition to go anywhere. Saturday I had bad chills and fever, Sunday headache and fever. Today I am much better, but still feel pretty week. But looking on the Pollyanna side of things, I did lose six pounds!! Nothing like forced fasting to jumpstart your diet!

DANGEROUS WITH A CREDIT CARD

You do not want to set me loose with a credit card! I just managed to spend almost 4,000 in 20 minutes. Thats about how long it took me to book airline tickets for Alan & I and My sis and her hubby for Hawaii for next Feb. We booked early to avoid possible airfare increases due to fuel cost. We are sooo excited about this trip. We will be cruising the Hawaiian Islands on NCL. It is to celebrate our 15th anniversary and their 20th. Now time to start that diet & exercise program. Weight Watchers here I come!!

So Much to do So Little Time

I have finally found my camera usb cord and managed to transfer some photos. The first is of my mom. Her color is not real good here and she need prayers. We are going to see her again soon.

The second is of Alex and his airplane that his dad made. What a cutie he is. I just love my little guy. He has such personality. I am in the middle of spring cleaning, but still have so much to accomplish.

Sis. Teresa B. called this morning to let me know she had a baby girl at 8:40 last night. So I ran over to see her. Baby is healthy and beautiful. Now I am waiting for word on Dixie, Angela, and of course Trina. Time to do some gift shopping. I just love little babies, don't really need another one myself. But I love spoiling everyone elses.

Alan & I took a quick trip to Las Vegas to pick up a diesel motor he had purchased on ebay. We only paid 431. for it and with the trip cost we have less than 1,000 dollars invested in it. Well today he was working on it and it started up perfect. We are so thankful for this because we need to replace the motor on the drill (deck portion) so that he can make some money and we thought we were going to have to spend like 5,000 or more to fix it.

So this is what is happening around our place. Hope to here from you all soon.

O Happy Day

We had a great meeting today at Delta. After church Bro. Randy & Sis. Cherie N. came over for dinner. Then we get a call that there will be a babtizing for Trey Byers (who had attended Montrose Church today) at 4p.m. so we hustle around for that. Montrose Brethern and Delta Brethern use the same babtizing hole, and are mostly all related to one another. So there was a great mix of the assemblies there. We got down there and it was freezing cold, and the wind was blowing. But it went very well and then April Easter from Delta gave her hand for Bro. Bobby Easter to babtize her. So we are all very happy. The ordinance supper will be at Montrose at 7:30 tonight for both of them. Sometimes the spirit works thing in such a way that we couldn't possibly fathom and makes everything so beautiful. It makes me so happy to see the two assemblies working in unity together for good. Love You All.

Emily

This little beauty is my daughter Emily. She was all dressed up for a wedding. Her teeth have grown in since, but basically she looks the same. This is the one I begged God for. Still she was a great surprise. I just figured I would have all boys. Em is very much a girly girl. She loves clothes, the more the better. Shopping, preferably with only mom. She is teaching herself the piano and is getting pretty good at it. But, she also likes to play outside in the dirt with the boys, jump on the trampoline, ride bikes and wrestle with her brothers. Em is now 8 1/2 years old. Her birthday is in Nov so she will just be starting third grade.

Some people say she looks like me. What do you all think? Poor Baby.

Alex's Airplane

Alex is 5, almost 6 years old. He has no interest in learning his alphabet, counting, reading, coloring etc..however he does love bugs, trains, airplanes & PE. I took him to the library recently and he asked for as many books on airplanes as they would let him take. He told the libraian that he and his dad were going to build an airplane, because his dad could build anything. So after pouring over his books this past week he convinced his dad to build one. Alan is a typical farmboy and can build anything with bailing wire and a two by four. So he proceeded to build an airplane for Alex. Alex is so proud of that plane. It is very large & heavy, because it is made from a two by four, but Alex doesn't seem to mind. He put a star sticker on his dad's hand and said "you are my best friend dad cause you made an airplane""now can you buy me a remote control one." Well Alan got all choked up over that. When he and I were in town yesterday we found a remote control one for 30 bucks and bought it for his birthday. Hopefully it will fly.

It continually amazes me how every one of my childern are different from the others. Not just a little bit. They don't act like they come from the same parents. It is always an adventure around here.

Many Hands Make Light Work(well sorta)

Today was meat cutting day at Alfred & Minnie McCracken's (Alans PA & MA). We woke up at the ridiculous hour of 7:00 am, to Alan trying to heard the cows back up to our house. It seems that someone left the electric fence down and they decided to tootle off to the feed yard 1/2 mile from our place. So after that exciting start to our day, we headed to mom & dads.

We grow our own beef and process it ourselves with Randy & Cheri, Roger & Cendie, Mom & Dad & assorted childern. We have been doing this for several years now and every year we dread it. But when its all finished we are so happy to have a freezer full of fresh beef. Plus with so many people working on it, we get things done pretty quickly.

This year we butchered Thomas. He was a little bull that we have raised since birth, Alex named him after Thomas the tank Engine. But he had gotten a little onry so it was his time to go (watch out kids). He was a fun little calf but will be a great tasting hamburger. We worked from 9 to about 2 with a break in there for lunch. We split the meat between the four families. Now we are home and exhausted and ready for a nap.

Mason

Number two son is Mason. He is eleven. Loves his music (really into bluegrass), sits next his grandma in church and sings. I just love that. Gives me warm fuzzies. He is right between little boy things & being a big kid. Such a tough place to be sometimes. Since Josiah died last January he never leaves the house without strangle hugging me and saying "Love You Mom". All of the kids are dealing with that situation in their own way. Josiah and Mason were very good friends. Mason always made time for him even though he was 3 years younger. So sad to lose a cousin.

Today after school he went back to work digging his hole. Don't know why he is doing it. It dosen't really go anywhere, but he seems to be having a great time. Mason is my academic and begs me to homeschool him again because so much of Public School is review. He says the only thing exciting is math. He excels at that. We all know how much patience I have with homeschooling, so lets just say that we won't be going there anytime soon. Tyler, however, is going to homeschool 7th grade through the summer so that he can go right into eight in the fall with his proper class. Pray for me.

Meet the Family

This is our oldest child. Tyler turned 13 in Sept. Our lives have not been the same since. He is a great kids, but has serious mood swings. I hope he outgrows that soon. One minute he is happy, laughing, having fun, the next ....."Bar the Door" He gets mad, weepy, sullen. All within the space of about 5 minutes. But he is growing up quickly. Not terribly interested in girls yet, but can't wait until he gets a car and license. I'm kind of glad about the girl thing, cause I would rather put that off a while.

The picture is a bit dated. It was taken Dec. 2006 at Disneyland. But he just looks so happy there. We had such a great time on that trip. Hope to take the kids to Disneyworld in a couple of years.

Just started this blogging Thing

Hey everyone. I hope that you will leave some comments here and help me figure out how to do this. I feel like I am just starting grade school & everyone else started many months before. So I will have to catch up. I have loved reading everyone elses blogs. It is such a nice way to keep in touch with all our family & friends scattered across the country. For those who don't know me I'm JoAnn McCracken. Married to Alan for 14 years. We have lived in Colorado for the past 5 1/2 years. We live on a small farm, where we raise our own beef. We have our water well drilling business that we started Feb. 2006. It is called McCracken Well Drilling, (catchy Huh?)

Our childern are Tyler (13), Mason (11), Emily (8), Alex (5), Amy(4). Hope to hear from you all soon.