Merry Christmas ya filthy animal!

Here's my Christmas card for ya!  I put a lot of work into it so you'd better appreciate it.  The cost of stamps about killed me, not to mention licking all of those envelopes.  Just know I sacrificed a lot for you!  You're welcome.

Really...this is the thought that enters my mind when I open my Christmas cards from some of you.  Thanks for taking the time and spending the money on me, but the least you could have done is enclose a short personalized "Hi Keely, Love you!" message before I throw it away. ;)  I always think, man...they must have a lot of money to be mailing out Christmas cards!  But lets face it, I'm cheap, and sometimes practical, and don't want to spend money on something people are just going to throw away the day after Christmas. 

In case you were wondering CHRISTMAS IS IN THREE DAYS and honestly, it feels like mid January.    

"Charlie Brown...you're the only person I know who could take a wonderful season like Christmas and turn it into a problem.  Maybe Lucy's right....of all the Charlie Browns in the world, you're the Charlie Browniest."

I had to laugh watching this the other night because I've maybe, kinda, sorta turned into Charlie Brown. I have found the older I get, the more I tend to lose the Christmas spirit.  It could be the fact that my family and friends keep dying, or maybe my kid isn't quite old enough yet to bring back the magic.  (No pressure Kyla)  But either way, Christmas just isn't what it used to be.  

It was exciting as a kid.  You would be soooo anxious for Santa to come that you could barely sleep at night.  You started counting down the days with your cool homemade paper chain tracker, that it was all you could do to refrain from pulling an extra day off  just so Christmas would get here sooner.  December felt like YEARS waiting for Christmas.  Now I don't have any countdown to Christmas and I swear the month of December is 6 days total.  

The older I get though, the more I realize the work that my parents put into making the holiday what it is.  For instance, we wouldn't put our tree up until the week before Christmas.  This was one of my favorite days to look forward to through the month.  Why so late you ask?  Well...my dad always loved to keep the spirit of Christmas lingering through January, and you can't do that with a fresh cut tree if you put it up at the beginning of December. 

Christmas eve has always been my favorite.  You would think the Queen of England was invited to the Ward family Christmas eve bash with the sea of amazing food my mom prepares.  Games with the family, and lots of good food is how I will always remember Christmas.  My mom works so hard to make sure it's perfect, and now that I'm older, I recognize the time and effort she puts in to make it special for the family.

I may sound pretty selfish in all of this, talking about the worldly side of Christmas.  I know what Christmas is all about, and nobody says it better than Linus... 

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this [shall be] a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

My most favorite Christmas song is Judy Garlands version of "Have yourself a merry little Christmas" from Meet me in St. Louis.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas

Let your heart be light
Next year all our troubles will be
out of sight
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Make the yule-tide gay
Next year all our troubles will be
miles away
Once again as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Will be near to us once more
Someday soon, we all will be together
If the Fates allow
Until then, we'll have to muddle through somehow
So have yourself a merry little Christmas now.

I'm going to have myself a merry little Christmas, even though I'm muddling through somehow.  I feel like it's part of being the adult.  You have to deal with problems that your kid version didn't have to worry about, or didn't quite understand.  Just know you're not alone.  The adults just have to work that much harder to keep the kid in us alive.   So here's hoping next year all our troubles will be miles away.  If Judy Garland says so then it must be true.   

My dog turns TWO TODAY!

Watch out folks, the terrorizer turns TWO TODAY!  It's hard to believe I have a two year old.  I'm sure it's even weirder for my parents to have a 26 year old.  Thank heavens you only get older a year at a time.  More has happened in these past two years, than has happened in my entire life.  So here's hoping things are a little less eventful in the years to come.  That'd be great.

Besides pooping and peeing all over the place, my kid can be pretty darn cute.  She is getting the hang of talking.  "Oh NO!" is probably my favorite thing she says, along with "wuv you," and "ohhh boy!"  Ok, so basically anything she says is adorable.  Her favorite thing to do is have us chase her through the house.  We generally hide and scare her,just to see how fast she runs.  We may have a sprinter on our hands but looking at the Ward and the Richman genes, I'd say that's pretty much impossible.  But maybe the odds will be in her favor.  However, I can guarantee she will be a dancer.  Her little tap shoes are her most favorite thing, and her wicked awesome dance moves can stop anyone in their tracks.  Yup...America's Got Talent, here we come!

She keeps us laughing, even through the frustration of her horrible listening skills.  Hopefully those improve over time.  I won't hold my breath though.  For her Birthday we are going to attempt to take her to the movie "Trolls."  She will be securely locked in her car seat the entire time, and I am packing enough fruit snacks to keep her mouth full if she starts whining.  I am hopeful it will go 85% as planned.  I'm sure I'll have some wild story after the night is through, so to be continued.....

Happy Birthday Kyla!  Thanks for finding us and teaching us a ridiculous amount of patience.

That one time I raised a dog...

My blog is my journal because I'm really fast at typing, and I don't really have the time or patience to sit and write on paper.  Sometimes I do, but this is not one of those times.  Plus, if reading about my life helps make yours just a little bit better than that's an added bonus.

It's no surprise my life is in complete and total chaos right now.  It's a mess.  My life is one big MESS.  Between harvest, (which has now ended for me and my red wagon) crazy picture season, losing my sister, and my kid now starting into her terrible two's, my emotions are COMPLETELY JACKED UP!   Yup, just in time for Halloween too.  This chick doesn't need a costume.  Throw me in the nut house and call it good.  

With my emotions being in complete disarray, my patience has also become non existent.  Yesterday was just one of those days.  Lets face it, in a battle with a almost 2 year old, the 2 year old will always win.  I hate losing...HATE IT, but I'm finding out it's hard to argue with a person who can't even wipe their own ass.  

I set myself up for failure right from the start.  I have taught my kid that the toilet is the "no no."  Well... it's more like the "NO NO!"(insert crazy eyes and arms flailing)  Why did I do this?  Because every time my kid goes into the bathroom she instantly runs for the toilet, not to sit on it, but to play in it.  Every time!  So yes...I, being the genius that I am, told my kid NO every time she runs for the toilet.    

I'm kind of getting off track here, but this is the problem I am going to have to deal with shortly when potty training season arrives.  But, back to last night....

So I was already frustrated from Kyla getting into everything she shouldn't and touching everything she shouldn't and eating a tube of chapstick that she shouldn't. Don't judge.  She's quick, and I'm slow.  Well bath time arrived...YAY!  We are always happy during bath time.  Well, except when she decides to poop in it.  So as she's doing...well....her business, I try to run her to the toilet.  The NO NO!  Ugh....well, that doesn't work out well, and I end up with a huge mess.  I don't know why I didn't just let her finish in the tub, but whatever.  I clearly am not a react on my feet type of person.  So I now have her out of her dirty bath water. Well....  I'm cleaning up the mess to find she's over in the corner now peeing on her dads clothes. (I'm obviously raising a dog.)  At this point I SNAP and start punching the wall.  Word of advice...don't do this.  Don't punch anything, except for a soft fluffy pillow that will cushion your hand.  Casey runs in to see what the heck is going on, and starts laughing at the whole scenario in front of him.  Poop...everywhere, and pee.  A little dog in the corner, and me sobbing.  

The only thing left to do at this point was laugh, but man alive....this whole patience thing needs to hold up a bit better.  I hate getting frustrated because I feel like crap afterwords, and the only one suffering from the whole thing is me.  

So here's my story that I want my kid to read one day when I'm telling her how she pooped and peed all over like a dog and she doesn't believe me.  Yes Kyla, you did, and I still loved you through it all, even if you were being a TURD.  You're welcome!

Love, your awesome, slightly crazy, Mom.

The Cassia County Fair

If there's one thing I love it's the smell of fair in the air.  (Yes, the fair has a smell.) It's a mixture of fresh sawdust, greasy food, dirt, with a small hint of cow manure.  If you don't believe me, go see for yourself.  There's nothing quite like it.  I always loved how the scent lingered once you arrived back home after the weeks festivities had come to a close. You'd pop open that show box lid to get one last whiff of the good ol Fair.  But besides the smell, there are a THOUSAND things a small town kid loves, that the average human could never understand.

For most kids, their summer consisted of taking the annual family vacation to somewhere awesome that was most likely out of state.  My childhood was a little different.  Our awesome family vacation was spent 50 miles away in big old Burley, Idaho living at the Cassia County fair.  I'm serious.  It was the best week of my life.  All of the Almo families usually stayed in the same motel so it was basically one huge party! ( Not that we spent much time in our rooms.)

Weigh in always consisted of someones steer getting lose, or someone getting mowed over, but there was always plenty of help to capture the critters. You quickly became an expert at "mixing drinks" because your animal couldn't stomach the awful taste of city water.  Therefore you tried everything in your power to come up with a concoction so your steer didn't look starved for the big show.  I found that tang usually worked, but as the years went by some genius discovered leading your animal to water did the trick.  WHO KNEW?! 

By the time you got your steer washed, dried, fed, and groomed,  you were so exhausted and hoped and prayed that the judge was fast so you didn't have to sit there while trying to lift your 1200 pound steers head up, because someone didn't tie him up as much as they should have throughout the year.  I was always competitive, but you were always competing against your friends, and you just hoped you all did good and got to sell your animal by the time Saturday rolled around.  

We always had "stall duty" which is just a glorified word for pooper scooper.  But this is what the average kid doesn't understand.  It was during the scooping of poop that all the fun was had.  This right here is where the magic happened.  Your parents were never around because it was during the middle of the day, when the heat of 1,000 suns wanted to melt your face off.  (I'm pretty sure kids under the age of 18 are immune to it.)  If you weren't old enough to drive, you'd find a friend who was and run to the DI to purchase the cheapest couch you could find.  One year it was yellow.  One was a bright orange.  We had plenty of brown couches, but the color never mattered.   Why?  Because these couches always served their purpose of bringing good friends together to sit and tell stories, take long naps, hold your fair flings hand, or eat your millionth snow cone.   The plus side was, we didn't have cell phones back in the day so your parents just trusted you were fine and were staying out of trouble.  By not having phones, we actually had to communicate with other human beings.  Weird, I know!

Water fights were always a must, along with wheelbarrow races and roping practice.  Nights were usually spent trying to sneak into the rodeo.  If you were lucky, you had connections and never had to worry about getting a seat.  The Wild Bunch was where it was at.  You'd get excited hearing Mr. Bells voice echo over the loudspeaker, and you knew the Cowboys Prayer by heart.   The hardest part of all though always came on Saturday night when "Happy Trails" played its last tune.  I may or may not have cried, but you always knew the fair was over.   Summer vacation had come to an end, and you'd have to wait another year to get a maple bar, and funnel cake, and turkey leg, and maple bar.

Fair was about hard work, but getting to have a little fun too.  I looked at fair as my reward for not killing my animal throughout the year, because lets face it....the Ward steers were usually a little psychotic, and I deserved a hell of a lot more than a week at the fair for taming those wild beasts!  

The fair will always hold a special place in my heart, and I am eternally grateful for those friends who sat on the couch together and talked about anything and everything.  We are the ones who know the true meaning of fair, and I thank my lucky stars I'll get to keep those memories forever.  Happy Trails friends.

-Keely

If you guys have any old pictures lying around I'd love to see them!

Mexico 2016

Case and I were able to take a trip to Mexico at the beginning of the month and after all was said and done, we are going back! Puerto Vallarta...see you in 2018!  We left Kyla with the grandparents.  The great thing about vacationing without your kids is it gives you something to look forward to once you get back home.  It was quite lovely.  I was excited to get to Mexico and just as excited to get home. WIN WIN! 

This was mine and Casey's first "International" trip together, and his first time swimming in the ocean.  (Gotta love that mouth full of salt water.)  We didn't do a whole lot which was exactly what I wanted.  If you think it's tough laying on the beach all day listening to the waves crash against the shore, it most certainly is not.  The most energy I exerted was getting up to move my beach chair under the palm tree if the sun got too far ahead of me. (Real tough...I know.) 

One day was spent touring the older part of the city and frolicking on the boardwalk (which is where I took those statue pictures.) We ran into some fellow Idahoans while walking through town. Turns out they were from Twin Falls!  It really is a crazy small world.  Another night was spent at the "Pirates of the Bay" dinner show which was a blast.  If you vacation in P.V. be sure to check it out.  However... if you like having a good time this dinner show is not for you.  Just a heads up. 

I was glad I took my big girl camera for the trip, but I made a big effort to limit my picture intake.  For the most part I think I captured our vacation in 25 pictures or less.  Not too shabby for a chick who takes 800 photos in one whack eh?  FYI...everyone assumed we were Canadians.  Apparently Puerto Vallarta is quite the vacation spot for the Canucks.  We saw one who sat on the beach for 6 hours without any sunscreen application.  Clifford the big red dog made an appearance the very next day! 

Oh and if any of you are thinking about booking a trip, I used Expedia and had no problems at all.  Two thumbs up from this girl.  

 I have no idea who that lady is. For being at the beach she doesn't look too thrilled. 

Barracuda our pirate! 

 These guys put the Las Vegas statues to shame.  Yes he is holding himself up with one arm and didn't move for the 20 minutes I saw him.

 Yup...its a real dude.  Pretty awesome!

 Tequila the parrot