Who you callin' an ass?

Queen Kris inspired me to write an informative post regarding mules. I know, just what you wanted to learn about was mules, right?!

Mules are made by breeding a horse with a donkey. Technically, mules are out of a female horse bred to a male donkey (jack). This is the most common mating since the offspring are bigger. The offspring from a male horse and female donkey (jennet or jenny) is called a hinney. Confused yet?

The thing about mules (beyond their ears!) is that they are sterile. No mule bloodlines to be had. Therefore, it's hard to perpetuate a really good horse/donkey cross since each one is terminal. I'm sure that makes for lots of headaches in the mule making world!

Kristina's family has draft horses for pulling. They recently sent a few of their mares over to a jack to get bred. Can you imagine these big draft girls and the considerably smaller donkey?! I hear he needed a little ramp to get the job done...!

Royalty

Last night our very most favorite babysitter, Kristina, came over for some free food. The girl is from South Dakota and had never had chicken and dumplings! David and I needed to remedy that, pronto! (Kristina worked for David at the horse unit for several years and is now a very busy vet student.)

Over a bowl of chicken and dumplings Kris divulges that she used to be THE South Dakota Draft Horse and Mule Queen! Twice! I asked if she had to do some serious gyrating and posturing to garner the title but no, it was just an election. Of course my next question was whether her crown had big mule ears on it but no to that too.

Ella just loves Kristina and tried to monopolize all of her time at our house.
She roped her into reading Cinderella but doesn't look too thrilled with it:

Ella in the presence of royalty.

Happy 100th!

This is my 100th post! Happy Posting to me!

We had a nice, calm Thanksgiving. We went over to Angie and Scott's and celebrated with them and some of their family. I had cooked our standard fare so we were able to enjoy leftovers in addition to being with friends! Scott smoked the turkey and it turned out bee-u-ti-ful (and delish)!

Yum!

We went and picked up the boots that we ordered for Ella's birthday. I was pretty excited about seeing her in them so we let her decide to get her present early. Keep in mind that Ella picked these out herself a few weeks ago. As much as I tried to push the red ones, she was all about K-State purple!

These make a statement, don't they?!

Other than that, the long weekend was pretty uneventful. I think that may be in preparation for all of the madness of birthdays and holidays that looms ahead!

We Are So Thankful

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving tomorrow. I hope that it is filled with people that you love and who love you, family or not. I hope that you eat so much deeeelicious food that you beg for mercy from the waistband gods. I hope that you all take the time to truly count your blessings. I hope that the thought of all those blessings brings tears to your eyes. I hope that there is a nap in your future, post feast. And I hope that you get to bed early enough to be at your elbow-throwing best at 5 am at the Wal-Mart.

I thought about starting a list of what I am thankful for but decided that you and I both would be here a while. If you read the blog you can tell what I have to be thankful for. And there is so much more beyond that! I am, indeed, a lucky girl. I'm sure that next Thanksgiving I will have even more to be thankful for, beyond what I can imagine. And I'm thankful for that, too.

Let the eating commence!

(Oh, one thing that I am extra thankful for is being in possession of the recipe for the best damn Southern Cornbread Dressing that a girl could want. David and I will eat it 'til it comes out our ears!)

Turkey Time

Last night we got artsy and painted up some wooden turkeys. Ella LOVES painting and is pretty darn good at it. I helped her with hers about 10%. All the rest was pure E. I went the classic route while David decided to create Tom the Turkey Commando.

gobble gobble

Sunset

Kansas is home to some of the most beautiful sunsets. They seem to pop up (or down!) more during the fall and winter.

Last night

Congratulations!

Last night we heard from the infamous Wingnut (Andy) down in south Georgia. He and his beautiful wife Beth are expecting a bundle of joy next April! Yea!

I have a feeling that no matter what the sex of the baby is, it will be hotrodding and getting in trouble with his/her daddy. (David is a prime example of the fact that it's hard to hang out with Andy and not do something crazy!)

Please join me in congratulating Andy and Beth (Andy is a faithful reader, he'll see your kind words).

And let's all hope that the baby looks like its mama.

Fall Trees

Berries left on the tree

A few leaves still hanging on

Vibrant red outside my office

Short Haired Cowgirl

Good ol' Scoot

E yelled "watch my hair bounce!" as she rode off. How funny!

(Believe it or not, I actually rode Scooter once around the arena! I can't remember the last time I was horseback... 5 years?!)

Rapunzel no more

We took the plunge Saturday and got Ella's hair chopped off. The girl cut it a bit shorter than I told her to... Thank goodness E's hair grows like a weed! Of course, she stills looks cute as evah!

Before

After

Gymnastics

I know that I have been slack when it comes to posting, and I'm sorry! It seems like not much is happening over here or I haven't had much to say... which is so unlike me!

We went to gymnastics last night and I thought that that would be a good opportunity for some pics. Here are a lot of pics to make up for the absence earlier this week!

That'd be the the bear walk...

Miss Mal is quite the little gymnast! and E's fave, the trampoline.

Ella does some fancy toe pointing on her way to jump into the Pit

A little trapeeze work

David jumping down onto the trampoline and TA DA!

Reining Cats and Dawgs

Some days you're off, some days you're on and some days, rare as they may be, you are on fire. That was me this past Saturday. It doesn't get much better than the Dawgs whipping Auburn (sweet!) and THEN the Cats beating up on the Texas Longhorns!



I was given some tickets to the KSU game so I kept Ella up a little past her bedtime and we went to the game. Our seats were next to the Texas fans, which was OK, except that they rubbed off on Miss E. Ick.

E throws out the "Hook 'em Horns!" sign. Oh no.

She luvs the Wildcat popcorn.

Just us girls.

Bed Head

After Ella's bath last night I braided her hair while it was wet. She slept with it like that and this morning she had some crazy hair going on!

Rumsfeld comes to town

Today Kansas State University hosted a lecture from none other than Donald Rumsfeld. It had been sceduled for a while and just so happened to come right after the announcement of this resignation. Aren't we all special and timely?!

Since Kansas is a decidedly red state, I'm surprised that no one asked him the question that is on every Republican's lips: "Why in the hell didn't you resign BEFORE the election?!" (Especially since Republicans lost two key races in the state.)

If you would like to watch the lecture click below and then click on VIDEO by Rumsfeld's name.

Rumsfeld Lecture at K-State

Gone Huntin'

Last night Ella was on the hunt. For coyotes. Riiiiigght. I can't believe my beautiful little girl wants to hunt coyotes! But she did, so a huntin' she went (along with her trusty sidekicks David and Woody, the horse).

Getting ready for the hunt.

With deadly accuracy, E takes down a coyote. (See D on his horse?!)

Uh oh. A baby coyote got hurt.

Stitching up the baby coyote (with a spaghetti noodle).

Be Heard

I voted, have you?

Dog Eared

This weekend we didn't do a whole heck of a lot. And that was kind of nice.

Ella kept herself busy by doing Lilly's hair a fair amount of the time. How can she do the hair of a short haired dog, you may ask? E is one smart cookie and knows how to make pigtails. (I almost fell over when I saw what she had done!)

Lilly earns her keep for another year.

We did do a little playing at the park Saturday morning before we went over to Vanderbilt's to cruise the little girl boot department. How do we always end up in that department?!

Faster! Faster!

I Bleed

I could rant and rave about the happenings this weekend with the red and black but I think this sums it up pretty well.

Text message sent to Angie and Scott Saturday night:

We need drinks. GA lost to KY -
the school without a football team!

Fortunately, Angie and Scott can recognize when people really need some liquid painkiller and told us to rush right over!

I still love my team and wore red today to show it (either that or because my heart is bleeding PROFUSELY). BTW: David now says he never even attended college. Yikes.

Grease Monkey

I got to don my grease monkey hat on Saturday and replace the coolant temperature sensor on the Honda. (It has been acting a bit sickly as of late and we are working down the list of possible causes.) Usually David gets the nod when it comes to tinkering under the hood but since this required the use of his newly stitched up left hand, he was out.

I have to say that I really enjoyed working on my car! I can't stand the helpless female feeling when it comes to automotive stuff. I do my best to learn what's going on and how things operate so that I can speak intelligently to the boys at the auto parts store. I think I really impressed them when I came in with the old part and grease on my hands! I'm more than just a pretty face and hot bod *cough*!

Five Things to Eat

I just love the Farmgirl Fare blog. She has such a pleasant writing style and some beautiful pictures. One recent post was about the Five Things You Should Eat Before You Die. Once I read her list, I started to compose my own.

1. Something that you grew yourself. I whole heartedly agree with Farmgirl on this. There is nothing quite like sitting down to a meal knowing that it was produced on your little piece of earth, tended by your hands and intended wholly for your nourishment.

2. BBQ from a local joint. Whatever the style, as long as it's local. Even if it's as local as your Daddy's house.

3. Food made by someone from another country. Authentic food is oh-so much better than the Americanized version.

4. That special dessert made by somebody's grandmother (or your own). The beauty of this one is that it can be repeated over and over and is never the same! Grandmothers just have a way to make desserts like no other.

5. Ice cold Coke from a glass bottle. You have never really had a Coke until you drink it from a glass bottle.

What else would you include?

Naturally, sort of

Yesterday I went and got my tired roots freshened up. I thought that back to basics was the best route, so brown it is! When I sat down in the chair Amy broke it to me that I, in fact, had a grey hair. Yikes! I didn't give her the chance to search for others. Begin color! Immediately!