I've Gone Country A blog about a city girl learning a whole new world

We went to check on Violet and Jethro.

He is so cute….. and sweet.

I always have baby fever.  It doesn’t seem to matter what kind of animal it is…a baby is just adorable.

I had asked Billy if he would hold Jethro, so I could get a picture.  They grow so fast, I just want lots of cute pictures along the way.  I have found that I better take several because I never know until I download them if they are as clear as I like.

And it seems that whenever I snap the picture, I often miss the perfect moment.  I thought the pictures were turning out pretty good so I kept taking them.

Jethro looked away and Billy said hey Jethro….give me a kiss.

And so he did!   I was so glad I caught it in action.

Surely that stole Billy’s heart!  It did mine.

Violet blessed us with a new baby boy.

This is Jethro.  He was born on January 27, 2012 at 2:30.

We named him that in keeping with his brother and sister who were named before we got them.  We have Jed who was the father on the Beverly Hillbillies and Pearl who was Jethro’s mother on the show.

When I arrived in the pasture it was the sweetest thing.  Almost all the animals were looking on.  It was like humans do, anxiously waiting to hear the good news and get a peek at the baby.

You can see here that most were facing Violet and the baby.  Punkin and Bailey are facing the camera.  They let out a nice bellow when I arrived…like hurry….your gonna miss it!

He is beautiful.  Mother and baby seem to be doing fine.

This is after the birth, we were about to take them to a place where they could just be together.  Violet turns to all the animals and it looks as if she is thanking everyone for coming.  I am telling you, these creatures are amazing.

Violet is such a sweet goat.  She let me hold him without any hesitation.

I sure was glad because I DOOOOO love babies!

He seemed to like it to0.

I have enjoyed my husband’s sense of humor.  He does little things and then goes about his business never letting on.  Eventually I see what he has done and it makes me smile.

Such as this…he likes to tease me about “pillows”.   I had not really even thought about it.  I just fix a bedroom with a comforter, and yes, usually there are pillows to complete the set.  I usually make the bed, but occasionally he will.  So you know what that means….pillow arranging Billy style.

Recently I was under the weather, he brought me a bell, so I could let him know if I needed him.

And so I did.  I rang that bell when I needed a slurpie…( our way of saying…I need a big ole coca-cola).  When I needed him to fix me some chicken noodle soup.  When I needed him to fluff my pillows.   When I needed…wait…where’s my bell?   So let’s just say…he confiscated the bell pretty early on….HEE HEE.

Maybe that was because I would text him, while he was busy on the land, and ask him if he couldn’t hear my bell?  🙂

But he did continue to make the bed for several days.

He would add things that he found around the house.  He is very creative.

I just had to take a few pictures as he continued to amuse me with all his creative styles.

1 Peter 4:9 (NIV)-Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.

I think he displayed this very well.

He told me today that he thought I was all better and besides that he had run out of ideas.

Too cute.  Laughter is great medicine.

It has rained and rained and rained.

Makes you think about Noah and his family.

When my son was little, I would take him to the library each week.  We would check out books and VHS tapes (tells you it’s been a while..huh?)

This was one we liked.  Everytime I look at this cartoon I get amazed at the imagination of these cartoonist.  I believe you could watch this a hundred times and find something new everytime.  The animals are so cute the way they help out.

I hope we see the rainbow soon!

Hope you enjoy!

My friend is working on this quilt.

It was  pieced by her husband’s grandmother!  The exact age is not known…but the grandmother passed away 49 years ago.  So it is VERY old.

The fans are from the original quilt top, but through time the material they were attached to deteriated.  So she  just couldn’t stand the thought of throwing it away.

She patiently and carefully disassembled the fans from the quilt top, with the help of her mother.  She picked out new material and sewed the original fans onto new quilt squares.

She now has it on the quilting frame and is attaching it.  We  had fun looking at all the fans and how different they were.  You can really tell that it is old material.  It feels different, the patterns are not what you normally find today.

Look at all the stitching that already has been done….and there is a lot more to come.

You couldn’t help but wonder where the scraps of material came from originally.  Was it a favorite shirt, dress or an apron.   Clothes were worn until they practically wore out.   It was then that they were used for other purposes.

I couldn’t help but notice her pin cushion. I remember my mama having one  just like that.

She shared with me that one of the thimbles is hers and one is her mother’s.   Although her mother cannot sew any longer, she keeps it close and it feels as if she is there working alongside.  They have pieced many quilts together through the years.  What wonderful memories to hold in your heart.

There have been two different sides of this family that have lovingly worked on this project.  Oh, it could have been tossed away and forgotten.  But there is just something special about seeing stitches hand sewn over 50 years ago by someone that  is a part of you.  You can’t help but admire, treasure and respect it, knowing someone put so much time and love into it.

I think these quilts did more than keep you warm they warmed the heart as well.

Last month I had a post asking for prayer about getting some goats into mexico.   There was a family that was trying to get the goats to the village area where they are missionaries.  They were still trying to get permission up to 10 days ago.

They were not able to take the goats over the border.  Except for one.  She had to find a home in the states for the others.  Indeed the goats found a great new owner who loves them and is taking good care of them.

Shelly is very attached to her goats, and if you remember she was taking them so that she could help supply the village with goat milk and goat cheese.  Needless to say she was very disappointed.

However, later she learned that it is actually better for the goats to come from the area they will be living.  In the part of Mexico that they are in, the climate is a big difference from where the goats originated from.  If the goats had gotten to make the journey, it is most likely they would have died off.

When she learned about this, she said it felt as if she had been spared the pain of watching that happen.  So far the only goat that was able to cross the border is doing fine.  When the missionary couple can afford it, they will purchase goats there.  In hopes that they will still be able to do as they had planned with helping the village people.

Thank you for your prayers concerning the matter, and please continue to pray for Shelly, her family  the village people and for the ability to buy the goats they will need.

Just thought you would like to know…the rest of the story.

Can you spell…..WOW…..

Look at that HAIR!

This is my baby sister and my niece Minnie.  At Christmas they had matching hair streaks.  Not sure what they call this in particular…but some of the hair attachments like Minnie is wearing are called “bling strings”.

And …WOW…today my niece had on some neat  feather earrings.

Last week I attended her spelling bee.   The students participating were from the 4th-8th grades, there were approximately 15 students.

Minnie is a 4th grader and came in 2nd!  We were sooooo excited.       She placed next to an 8th grader.  I was impressed that the eighth grader came up to her after the event and congratulated her.  She also encouraged Amelia to continue entering future spelling bees.

Today was a Regional Spelling Bee.  The students were from the 3rd-8th grade.

I believe there were 17 students and she came in 4th!   Once again we were soooooo excited!

Some of the words I remember that  she had to spell were: cauliflower, democracy and physique…there were a lot of others.

I even had to think  twice about some of the words.

The word she missed was Ramada.  I know she will never miss that word again.  And I can pretty much promise you that she won’t EVER want to stay at a Ramada Inn either.

Of course she would have loved to have won today, and was disappointed that she didn’t.  However, it is that kind of determination that has gotten her this far.

Minnie is a great student and she reads all the time.  She started reading billboards when she was just a little girl in her car seat.

These two spelling bees, are the only ones she has ever entered.

Now that is something to …WOW… about.

Before we left the building today, she had a new study book of words.  Ironically the 8th grader from last week gave Minnie her book.  This was her last year to be able to compete.  Once again she encouraged Amelia to continue on.  I didn’t hear the words kindness, maturity or encouragement spelled out…but I saw them in action.

Hmmm for some reason…I think I will be going to more of these next year!

CONGRATULATIONS MINNIE….we are very proud of YOU!

….WOW….

I have been going through my pictures and cataloging them.   What a big mess.  I thought having lots of prints were hard to sort and do something with.  Digital photos are good and bad.  It would help if I had just had half a clue as to what I was doing on a computer.  I find it amazing that something can just “disappear”.   I mean one minute you are working on something and it vanishes…ok…so maybe I clicked something and then it vanished…but anyway I tried to unclick…or use the back arrow or whatever…and NO…it is GONE.

At least with printed pictures….you might set them down somewhere, but you would eventually find a HUGE stack of pictures.   NOT so with the digital. UGH>>>ARGH>>>

Breathe deep….count to 10….ok….

These pictures were taken back in 2008 when we went to the Kentucky State Fair, I believe.  We were able to see lots of contest for pies and cookies and cakes and jams and there were quilts and lot of art pieces.  It was really neat.

They had this display set up and I thought it was so creative.

This is a cowgirl made completely out of balloons. Neat Huh?

But that wasn’t all…they had a whole little ranch made out of balloons….Cowboys complete with ropes, hats and boots all of balloons.  Horses, cactus and even the split rail fence was made with balloons.

My husband is such a “GOOD SPORT”.  He is very secure in his masculinity….so he appeases me with such silly things as this.

This one however, pushed the envelope.  I had read about seeing the “biggest dog” in the world in the pamphlet we had.  It was to show at a certain time.  I wanted to see it sooooooo bad.  Billy was like…You know it’s not for real.  I said “sure it is” it says right here….

Being that we were on vacation…he agreed that he would go to the showing of the biggest dog in the world with me.  SERIOUSLY…I was SOOOOO disappointed.  It was this pretend dog.

Needless to say, I didn’t beg to see anything else.  I obviously was not a good picker outer.

I ABSOLUTELY love rocking chairs (and swings).  This one was a great one.  It had the smoothest rock…which is very important.  And it was made to look really rustic with real hide.  So, I had to give it a few minutes of trying out….Ah…that took all the built up aggravation from the  pretend dog all away.

Billy was able to check in on the bee hive stuff.  They had a full display showing how it all worked.  Lots of honey to taste, it was really cool.

They had one of those rock climbing walls, I started up it  I wanted to ring the bell at the top.  Then I turned around to look at Billy…he was a dot on the ground….and I lost my nerve and came down.   Bummer….why didn’t I just go a little more….I was almost there.  Next time, I’m going to ring that bell!  Our friend on my right…stayed the course…he rang that bell!

Billy has a stomach of IRON….he can ride anything.  He loves it…look at the look on his face….he was so excited.

We saw lots of animals…actually on my last post the pigs were from this trip.  This horse was really cute.

But he was even cuter when you could see how small he was, especially next to Billy.

We had a great trip…except for seeing that silly dog.