Flip Flop Update

I don't know about you all but I have found some of the most awesome friends through my blog. Marla being one of them she has helped me when I've been in some real pickles!! And now she is currently helping me make the Flip Flop Swap a Shoe Extravaganza!! Marla has such vision! I swear if any of you aren't following her you better be!! Now back to the Flip Flop Swap. Marla and I got to talking about the work involved and what needed to be done to pull this off. And she actually began thinking bigger then just me and my little humble blog. I was just going to do a little ole swap for me and my followers and each of us could get one glam pair of flops and call it a day! But no Marla sees bigger then my little hole in the web. She said why get one pair of Flip Flops when you could get 30? And that's all it took! I was ready to listen!! So soon I will be unveiling the new rules of the Flip Flop Palooza once Marla puts the finishing touches on it. We have been going back and forth on little ideas and soon we will have it all wrapped up and ready to reveal!! And I can't wait! This is going to be fantastic!!! I really can't wait to share it with you all.

Love and Hugs!!

Flip Flop Swap!!

Last night at my Book club meeting one of the gals had an adorable pair of flip flops on. They had a pretty little bedazzled butterfly on the top of her foot. And so I commented on it. And she said a couple years back she got a chain letter sent to her. It had about 6 names or so at the bottom of the letter. And all she had to do was buy 1 pair of flip flops for the girl at the bottom of the list and then forward the letter out to 10 or so of her friends. I think she said if it worked she could get like 36 flip flops. (I'm not sure if I've got the numbers right) She said she ended up getting about 10 pairs! And she only had to buy 1 pair!!!

So this got me thinking. What if we did a bloggy flip flop swap? Instead of doing a chain letter and all that it entails. We would just do a Secret Santa type of project. Anyone who is interested could e-mail me their name, address, and shoe size. Then I would throw all the names in a hat and draw a name. Then we would all have to get our flip flops mailed by July 25th!! And we could even do a bloggy check in on the day so we all could post pics and announce who got who.

I think it could be lots of fun and we would find out more about each other. Please think about it. We wouldn't have to do elaborate or expensive flops. We would have a price cap. And we could even do plain/solid color and we would have to decorate the pair to fit that blogger's personality.

This is just an idea. So please think about it and get back to me!!!

Email me at: farmerswife06@ hotmail.com

Love and lots of Hugs!!!

I cracked the door...

...of the Infertility closet and stuck my bright 1940's secretary red polished toe out and let the light hit it....

I'm not going to say I have come completely out of the closet like one of my heroes But I'm taking baby steps to get to that point. Last night was our monthly book club meeting and it was fantastic!! When I walked into that meeting last night the thought of announcing my struggle to conceive a child was not on the forefront of conversation topics. I use my book club meetings as some what of an escape. Maybe an escape from reality. Que: Queen!!! ::I'm just a poor boy nobody likes me...:: But really I hate to say this, but with all the trials that test a soul it is nice to just step out of it all sometimes. And that is what my book club bubble has become for me. A getaway. So last night we discussed last month's book which was quite gut wrenching to read. It was: In Harm's Way by: Doug Stanton. Which is the story of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis. Which was a very tragic event in WWII. I have to say there was so much information it was hard to read. And the author was VERY GRAPHIC in his description of what happened to these men. But that isn't what led me to crack the door to my closet. We had such a flowing conversation on this book. We got worked up and angry at the government who didn't protect Our Soldiers. We cried about the terrible losses this country had because of it. But then with that we walked our way into so many different places in our discussions. And some how or another we found ourselves in a discussion about labor & delivery, babies and the all too common ttc conversations. Someone mentioned that they would have loved to have gotten the chance of "Trying" to get pregnant instead of being surprised each time. And then she said it must be fun to just be able to "Try?" And then it just spewed forth from my mouth! I couldn't catch it! No it's not!!! I stated! Try, 2 years of having to "Try." I saw the words floating out in front of me. With no way to stop them! I haven't EVER told ANYBODY that in a public setting! Except here where I'm safe to express my feelings. I only have a aunt who knows and 2 close friends who somewhat know what we are dealing with but they don't quite know the extent and here I just announced to the whole room the TTC sucks!! I just brought my reality into my Never Never Land. I led it by the hand into the room kicking and screaming as I dragged her. But here is the surprising thing: After I had said it we talked about it and the conversation naturally moved along to other things. But something changed in me!! It didn't feel like I had that scarlet letter "I" embroidered on my heart anymore. Even though no one in the room even noticed I had made such a monumental step last night. I felt better about it. Okay, now women I don't know that well, know something about me, my own family doesn't even know! But it felt GREAT! Why? I have no idea. But like I said it was a huge step in accepting this whole pile of crap I've been dealt and as of late I have tried hard to avoid. Mostly because there are so many more major things going on in our lives. One being Mama Farmer's illness. But today is the start of her final chemo. She will get hooked up in about 2 hours and will carry her last pack of chemo around for the next 48 hours. On Friday they will remove it and that will be it for treatments!! God Willing in 4 to 6 weeks when she goes in for her next PET scan she will be Cancer FREE!!! And then maybe 2 months after that we can slowly get some semblance of order back into our lives. She will get her sense of taste back, she will begin to slowly gain some weight and won't look like a little girl playing dress up in her mother's clothes. Maybe my husband and I can get a little bit of our old routine back... And then maybe, just maybe I could begin to think about treatments for myself again... I just feel so hopeful today!! All because of one outburst!!! Who would have thought saying something I have been afraid of admitting to would make me feel better?

Baby Chicks

As promised I'm sharing some more farm animals today... I guess probably because these are the only creatures I get to spend time with... I talk to them pet them and sometimes if there good they get a squeeze!!! First are some baby chicks. Mama Farmer works for our local School District and she is good friends with the first grade teacher. And every year the teacher comes out to Mama Farmer's farm to get eggs to hatch for her class. The class learn about incubation and eggs, chickens and the whole nine yards and then when the baby's hatch they get sent back to Mama Farmer to raise. It's a fun time for the kiddos. The kids actually remember her years later when they see her in town and they ask about the chickens its pretty cute. This time around we had she had about 26 or so hatch and now we have a little coop of baby chicks to stare out each night. They are so cute when they first hatch.... And then they get to the awkward half chick/half chicken stage which is just scary!!!

See how cute they are here?


But now they are starting to lose the cute fuzz


And now!! They have hit puberty!!


It's just a matter of weeks from the time they are hatched till they start getting feathers. I hate it! I wish they would stay cute and fuzzy forever... But then I wouldn't get eggs... So I guess it's a good trade off.


See this little gal looks like she is going to be a loud one!! I can't wait.

And now for the horses:

Maverick And Misty

About a week ago we had a scary situation with Maverick. He's getting older and he has been losing a lot of weight. He's almost 26 years old. And he got down and wasn't wanting to eat. It scared us half to death. But the vet got him all fixed up and eating again but it wasn't a good week in the Farmer family Households!!! Maverick is Mama Farmer's Baby and she hasn't been doing to well her self and if we would have lost Maverick I don't know what she would have done!! She probably would have lost it. I know that some people wouldn't quite be able to understand that. But he has been a part of this family for a LOOOOONG time he IS a child to her. And I can't imagine what that would do to her. I just pray he doesn't decide to leave us anytime soon. Mama Farmer is still needing prayers though!! Keep them rolling her way please! She just can't seem to get a break. Although this coming Wednesday will be her LAST Chemo!! But the Chemo has just been whooping her teeny tiny behind. She has lost sooo much weight she doesn't even look like the women she was 5 months ago. Cancer has been so hard on this family!! I wish I could take it from her but I can't so we all do what we can. But it's so hard to watch this wonderful woman be eaten alive by a monster no one can see.

Melon Season II

It's spring time and that means WORK! Work Work Work oh yeah and More WORK!!!! Can you say YUCK? Yes it does get old and there are times I just want to scream for my hubby to come home and lay on the sofa with me for a couple hours and watch sappy movies. But I know better! I chose this life and that's what we do! So I put on my big girl panties and deal with it. Most days I don't complain too much because really it can be pretty fun!! So here are those pics I told you I would try and get. I didn't have time to get pics taken up close while the kids (Being of legal age to work... ie. local teens who help out on farms for extra cash and a good tan!!) were actually on the setter. Cause I had hungry horses to feed and they aren't too happy if your late!!! So I zoomed in as best I could and snapped a few and then ran back to the big babies to make them happy.

Farmer Kid is driving today... You see there is a pecking order in the whole produce production business... When it's nice out (meaning not 100 degrees in the shade) then someone higher up (ie old Farmer Father In Law's) would kick farmer kid off the tractor and Farmer Kid would be stuck on the back setting the melon plants and getting dust kicked in his face. But since today is UNBEARABLY HOT Farmer Kid is where he likes to be: Driving!!!

This is a Setter. The seats aren't too bad. The green framed trays hold the flats of plants. Which you can see sitting in front of the girl in the above picture.

This is the spiky thingy (Not the correct name but MY handy dandy Farmer is out farming so I can't get the info that I need. Sorry) that pokes into the plastic right before the plants are placed in the ground.

A MUST HAVE in Melon Farming!!! You will FRY in the Indiana Sun. It's terrible.

Plant stakes. These are in the flats when they arrive to our farm... Up until a few years ago most farmers actually grew there own seedlings here in greenhouses. But the costs involved are getting higher and higher and so it's just cheaper and actually healthier for the plants to start out at a nursery and then arrive right before planting season...

That's all for tonight! Tomorrow I shall share some pics of the Big Babies. Mavrick and Misty oh and maybe some not so baby chicks!!!!

Love and Hugs to you all!!!!