What a day!

Well , a fine day this 30Th day of October has turned out to be. A very low key day of work. Worked late actually, then headed home to one sick child and two who have very busy days tomorrow. Today was my 41st birthday. The really cool thing about it was that it was my first birthday since my discovery of Facebook. Facebook is an amazing little tool to keep up with extended family, old childhood friends, or anyone else you have ever spent more than 30 seconds with. I heard from over 80 people today. That's pretty amazing. I didn't know that I knew that many folks. It really makes you feel pretty good that so many people are willing to take some time out of their day to wish you greetings on your birthday. Thank you to all my Facebook friends and everyone else who contacted me in other ways for an interesting day. I enjoyed it. I also wanted to pass on a blessing that we received this week. We re-financed our house from a 30 year to a 15 year mortgage knocking 8 years off how long we will have to pay on the house, dropped our APR from 6.5% to 4.35% lowering our payments 6 dollars a month. We were also able to drop PMI and we will not have to make a house payment until 2010. God really poured it on with this one. We are very happy. I have been writing a lot lately about how busy clan Daniel has been and tomorrow is no exception. I wanted to post a few pics of what we've been up to prior to what I hope will be a busy posting day Saturday or Sunday. The Mrs. and I will be splitting the kids tomorrow. The Mrs. will be taking Sissy to show her steer (and Bub's too) at a show in Clifton. Nannie and Sister were supposed to go with them but Sister came down with the flu, so they will be staying behind at the homestead.This will be her first show so we are very excited to see what happens. I really wish I could be there. The kids have been working hard but there will be more to come. Ft. Worth, Houston, and possibly San Antonio are all ahead as well as some more small shows. Bub has his first playoff game tomorrow. We are playing a team that we beat rather soundly during the regular season so we should do well. Then of course tomorrow night is Halloween. In the Pearl this means trick-or-treating. They are serious around here about this and the streets will be packed with kids and parents searching for candy. I will try for some pics of that as well. It's really old school.
Thought you might like to see some pics of Butch to see how he's growing. Our goat, Lucy, has developed a bad habit of sticking her head through the fence and getting stuck. Butch loves this. She can't get away from his chewing and licking. Here he is chewing on one of her horns.

Apparently he feels she needs a bath. She looks happy don't she?

Here Butch decides on ear chewing. He's not lightly nibbling here, he's going after it. I hope Lucy figures out soon that the grass ain't always greener on the other side.

Bub walking his steer. I wish he could show this weekend as well but it's not meant to be.

Sissy is REALLY into this show cattle thing! I think she knows what happens after you sale them? I'm pretty sure we told her.

Bub lets Sister help on the grooming end. Good Bubba!

Sister's not quite ready for steers but she handles snakes with no problem. Good snake girl!

These next two are not pics of what we're doing but of what we've done. These are from our homecoming parade here in the Pearl. I just liked them because they are so "small town".

Blessed by God again to be placed in this great community.

Finally, sunset in the Pearl. God is good, all the time!

What a life!

Hello to all. It has been a long stretch between blogs yet again. As I stated in previous posts we are very busy right now. Football is still going strong since Bub's team made the playoffs. We will have our first of potentially 3 playoff games beginning this Saturday. This is cutting in to deer season. He and I were supposed to go hunting this weekend (youth weekend) but we had to cancel because of the game. Sissy is showing her and Bub's steers this Saturday at a show in Clifton, so for the first time (we knew it would happen sooner or later) the Mrs. and I are splitting up this weekend to cover all events. We are even employing the help of Nannie to help watch Sister. Life seems so busy and at times I wish we could slow down and maybe pull out of some commitments, but I think that we all find a lot of joy in most that we do. The Mrs. is still writing our local paper and after some changes to the process it seems to be working out. There was a time that I thought she would quit because of the time commitment but she was able to work out something with the publisher and has knocked 10 to 15 hours out of her paper commitment. I am still pulling my hair out at my job (not too much left - why did I ever get into management) and trying to stay as involved with the kids comings and goings as possible. Recently I was asked to serve on a committee at church to write a church constitution and by-laws. I know! Sounds dreadful doesn't it? As it turns out I am having a blast! It is very enjoyable pouring over your beliefs and really defining where you stand on certain things. Who would have thunk it? I hope to have pics up this weekend about some of the activities we are into. I will try. I promise. At least of the steer show and maybe the playoff game. I would like to take some pics around the home site but it has been raining so much of late that the place just looks terrible. Our septic tank and lateral lines are so full that we have to wait several hours after a rain to use it. Yuck! Well, I'm off now to the title company to re-finance the house. 15 years at 4.35% fixed! We're knocking 8 years off our payments! Anyway, gotta go!

What's going on in our world.

Where has clan Daniel gone? What is going on in our world that would prevent me from posting on the blog for weeks at a time? Why are there no new pictures up of all the different activities we have been doing? The answer is quite simple really, football season. I got to thinking the other day about how much I enjoy updating and sending out this blog and then I realized that it has been weeks since I have been on it. What's going on? Football. Monday night - practice for Bub, tumbling for Sissy. Tuesday night - practice for Bub and Sissy. Thursday night - practice for Bub and Sissy. Saturday - Game day for both! All games are at 1:30 and some are as far away as a 2 hour drive. This envelops your whole day.
Can't do anything before the game because it takes all morning to get everybody rolling, fed, and dressed. If it's an away game it all starts even earlier. By the time you finally get back home it's time to start supper.

Don't get me wrong, we have a lot of fun and everyone really enjoys it. It's just that football right now is all we do. We have 1 more regular season game and then the season is over... except Bubs team looks like it will make the playoffs. Four extra weeks! Oh well, it's what we do and who we are. I just assume that football pics up every week would get pretty old.

On another note, Bub had his 11Th birthday recently. He had an odd request for a present this year. He wanted a ball python. Actually he just wanted a snake, the Mrs. decided that the ball python was the way to go. That brings the total up (for those keeping score) to 2 horses, 3 goats, 10 chickens (who BTW produce 5 to 7 eggs per day), 3 dogs, 2 cats, a turtle, a lizard and a snake.

Sissy and Sister both also really dig the snake. Snakes name by the way is spike.

I really worry about the boy. I mean, really?