Don't be a hater, because we're famous...

What in the world could that title possibly mean? Well, I'm glad you asked. Today was a snow/ice day, and although I will HATE it when we have to make them UP, I LOVE them TODAY!!! I got SOOOO much done, I embroidered all day (mainly for other people, but that means, I'll have them all done when I need to do my OWN!!!) They have already called school for TOMORROW too, so just THINK what I can get done!! Hopefully, more sewing AND some baking!! But I digress... you are wanting to know why I've talked of fame...

So, my friend Beth calls today and says, "You OWE me one, just so you know." Now, you need to know about Beth to appreciate this. I LOVE LOVE LOVE her, and she truly is one of my dearest friends, but one may wonder why we are friends at all. She is very athletic, I bake. She is thin, I bake. She is EXTREMELY organized (is starting her own business with that by the way), and I bake. You may see the pattern here. Once I sent her a video clip and forewarned everyone to whom I sent it, that they would cry. It was about a little girl, whose brother had been gone a long time for some kind of chemo treatment, so when he got home, she had shaved her little head to give him her hair, and I mean, when I watched this clip, I SOBBED. You know, the body shaking kind of crying where you can't see the computer screen through your blurred vision. She emails me back, "If you want me to cry, you're gonna have to do better than that!" OK, now that you know about Beth, I can continue with my story. So I bite, and I say, "Now remind me WHY exactly I owe you?" She says, "Because I bought your chicken today at Wal-Mart and it was more expensive". (we also went through our Dave Ramsey class together, so I know that she was pained by doing this) Well, I assure her that Wal-Mart does not carry Perdue chicken, and she told me it wasn't Perdue, it was "Harvestland". Well, sure enough, Harvestland is a private division that Perdue provides chicken to. Again, knowing that she would not have that knowledge, I say that there is no way that she had done me a favor, as she didn't know anything about the chicken she was picking out. She said, "OH, but I DID. Ted (her SF husband, happened to be shopping with her today) saw this chicken, and HAD to get it because of the name that was on it. He INSISTED on buying this chicken!" Still not too impressed, but thinking maybe he and Shane had discussed Perdue being under a different label, she tells me, "He wouldn't get any other chicken because this had SHANE'S name on it". I say, "Yeah, right, whatEVER" and she insists, "SERIOUSLY, Shane's NAME is on the package." I hear Ted in the background (they are in Wal-Mart from what I can tell) and he is insisting that Shane's name is ON the package of chicken in the store, for all to see. She asked me didn't I know this, and I assure her that I didn't, and I am going to have to SEE it to believe it. Well, ladies and gentleman, may I present to you... A chicken that used to live at my house, but now lives in Wal-Mart for the highest taker. Actually, this picture was taken by Beth, so this particular bird is not available... Can you BELIEVE that?!?!?! I had NO idea!! My friend Theresa later calls, because she talked to Beth, and she too, didn't realize she was friends with a famous family!!! HAHAHAHA

This was almost as good as feeding the queen!! I'm posting the picture of the bird from the store, to show you guys too!! We were quite thrilled, although I DO think they should have thrown the word "Jerri" on the label SOMEWHERE... Thanks Beth for the pictures, and Ted, for loving Shane enough to INSIST on the chicken... He hunts here, so I guess he figures he should support us, so we don't lose the farm, and he lose his hunting spot!! :)

I thought you'd all enjoy that fame story, and thanks for reading a day in the life of the chicken farmer's wife!! love to all!! Jerri

And then there were 6...

My dearest chicken farmer called me today at school. We chatted for a moment, and then he said, "I have some GREAT news!!" You can imagine my thoughts... He got a raise? Perhaps won the Powerball? How about he wants to get someone to clean the house? Well guess which won of the above he said!! NONE!!!!!!!!!!! That's right! Not a one!! He proceeded to tell me that when I got home, I'd be excited to see that we were SIX horses richer. WHAT?!?! Did you say HORSES? Did you MEAN to say "$5 million DOLLARS richer?" Nope, he said horses... You can imagine how the conversation went after that, but the gist of it is one of his buddies knows him PRETTY WELL. Just kidding, a friend of his has these 5 horses, and they keep getting out of this fence where he keeps them. Well, they are tearing up the neighbors stuff when they are out, so they are threatening a lawsuit, so he had to find a place for them ASAP, until he could get his stuff done. Yeah, bring us your down trodden, your pit bulls, your kittens, your HORSES... "Give 'em to SHANE... HE'LL take ANYTHING!!! This is a picture of the pregnant mare. YES, you read that right, let's throw that into the mix as well. Now, for Shane being such a good friend, he's getting to keep the baby. SO?!?! Really? I know, you gotta love him... but come on... FIVE HORSES? I didn't even go out to the stable. I told Graceson to take a picture, and I'd come and look at them when it was daylight and warm. Then of course, let's not forget Lucky!! Shane said that whene they let the others out, he GALLOPED as fast as he could over to them, blowing and snorting, letting them know whose casa they were trodding on.
I will tell you that I do really like Lucky, but as for "his people" that are now visiting, I'll let you know... They aren't saddle broken, so it's not like they serve a purpose. When you come down to it, most don't. Last week, Lucky was at the gate, and Shane was putting up the lawn mower into our shop. One of the goats that share the pen with him, walked up behind him. He wasn't interested in her being there, so he picked up his back leg, and ever so gently put it up against her side, and pushed her away. He didn't try to hurt her, he didn't kick, it was just a "push". That's just his personality...
In the mean time, have a GREAT night and thanks for sharing a moment in the life of the chicken farmer's wife! love to all!! Jerri

You're a mean one...

You are about to see, perhaps one of the cutest things you have ever seen. OK, ok, I am to never use "cute" and Garrett in the same sentence, so I will rephrase, you are about to see something really FUN!!! In youth, Bill never wants anyone "NOT" to go on a mission trip because they cannot afford it. So, to help them out, they have the opportunity to work each week, and instead of getting paid cash money, it can go as a credit in their accounts toward a mission trip. Tonight, he had a contest. The contest was simply to dress up as your favorite fictional Christmas character. Sara talked to me about an idea, and we went with it. Now... at 5:30 this morning, if you had asked, I would have told you that it wasn't going to work out, because I thought Garrett had strep, he was up 4 times last night getting sick, and he was about as green as his costume when I woke him up. I got him into the dr. by 8:45, they did the rapid test, and it came back negative. His dr. wasn't confident that it really WAS negative, so he decided to grow the culture overnight, and gave us some antibiotics anyway... Now... fast forward 12 hours.

Garrett and Conley dressed up as the Grinch and Cindy Lou Hoo. As you can see, they were the BOMB!!! Lilli even got in on the action, and she dressed in drag, as his dog Max, with the antlers and a Santa coat. I felt like, they were without a doubt, the best dressed, but alas, the judges didn't agree. They did, however, get 2nd!! That is o.k. though, because EVERYBODY needs trip money, and ANY is better than NONE!!! How this came to pass... (besides their mothers saying, "you'll do this") is that Garrett and Conley are great friends. They will argue just like he does with Gra, but he would fight someone for her too. No matter how many times I tell him, he is convinced that they are related. I have told him and Gra too, that they are NOT, but they both agree that I am wrong. They share an uncle and an aunt, so therefore, they MUST be kin... There is no other option. It doesn't matter that Garrett's UNCLE is married to Conley's AUNT, it still counts... Just ask him (AND Gra as well!!) (They are the TX Fowlers that you've read about) You can also see my friend Anty from youth. This is more of a close up picture of Lilli dressed in drag, pretending she's a boy. Anty was excited to be "making" the blog!!

Tonight was dress rehearsal for the Christmas play at church. If you aren't doing anything, you should REALLY make a point to come to one of the performances. They will be at 7 pm on Friday, 6 pm on Saturday, and 3 pm on Sunday. You won't be sorry if you do!! I've always thought that Graceson got her "drama" part of her body from me... Come to find out... it's her FATHER!! He is officially part of the "drama" team I guess, since this is his 3rd play!! Last year he was a shepherd, and he can man handle those farm creatures, like they were small cats. He also had a bruise on the top of his foot, where the goat that he led up on stage stomped his foot, since the shepherd's of Jesus' day were barefoot. He is a shepherd again this year, however the first night, he will be in "another" position. He came home the other night, and told me that Charlie was going to be missing, so just for Friday he would be the "Rabi"..............................

I gave you a minute to figure that out... Our church is: Hillcrest BAPTIST Church, so I am pretty sure in our Christmas production, we wouldn't have a Rabi, which is a Jewish leader. I thought it was QUITE funny!! I asked him did he mean he was going to be a "Magi" and he agreed!! I am a behind the scenes girl for the performance. I actually call myself "Jesus' nanny", although there was never such a person noted in the Bible. Mary is on stage, when an angel comes to her and tells her and Joseph what is going to happen, and then shortly, she is holding a baby, then in another scene, "kid" Jesus goes on stage. Our baby Jesus is named "Cash", and he is really precious. I get him to Mary, and then get him from her, get kid Jesus to her, take the baby around back, then come back and get kid Jesus, take him around back, eventually get the baby back, and deliver him to the opposite side to go back out on the last song. Our "grown up" baby Jesus (kid Jesus) is Jiles. I have never been around him before tonight, but he was SUCH a sweetie. His mom's blog is listed on the left, "Journey to our Baby". He was SOOO good behind the curtain, and just stood there, holding my hand, waiting to go out. You would have thought he was 14 years old, as good as he acted.

And in case the above happenings didn't make for a good day, I had a meeting after school and I won a DOOR PRIZE!!! Man!! An oil change, opry tickets, and a gift certificate? If you can tell me how to find my lucky numbers, I need to get a Power Ball ticket!! :)

There are so many things I could write about, but I am beat. I wish I could blog every day, but it is just not feasible with getting up everyday before 6 a.m.! Maybe if Shane ever insists that I quit work because we are loaded or something, THEN I can post daily!! Until then... I'll just update as I can!!

I hope you ALL have a GREAT night, and thanks for sharing a day in the life of the chicken farmer's wife!! ALSO... Graceson's choir performance is the FOLLOWING Sunday at 6 pm if you are interested. She has a solo, and we have listened to the practice cd so much, that I am certain that Garrett and I could BOTH be her understudies if we needed to be!! Talk to you soon!! love to all!! Jerri

WHAT a great week!!

I hope that all of you has had as nice of a week, as I have!! I say "week", not starting as of the day before yesterday, but since my last post!! It has been busy, but LOVELY!!! Of course, I was off for FIVE days last week, and although we're ALWAYS off 2 days each week, those EXTRA ones just are the BOMB!! You remember my YOGA from Wednesday night, well... you don't need a calendar to know that I go back TOMORROW!! I am going to try and do better about not opening my eyes, while they are supposed to be closed, seeing if everyone else thinks that they are looking like a big dork. It could certainly be relaxing if you can get past the silliness you feel from doing it. The part where you sniff up one side of your nose, then let the air out the other while holding the side you just sniffed from, made me as dizzy as a cat!! I guess I am not used to being "oxygenated"!! (is that a word? maybe I should go into one of those O2 bars the next time I'm at Opry Mills!!) I WAS sore for days, but I am looking very forward to going back tomorrow! Wednesday, I washed clothes, got a lot of stitching done, and seemed to have cooked one thing or another, all day long... That day was so so, but it was still marvy because I was HOME!!! Thursday was a GREAT day!! I have so very many things to be thankful for and about! We ate at Shane's moms, and had T'giving at my mom's on Saturday morning with breakfast!! Isn't that a great idea? You can only eat turkey so many times...

While at Shane's folks, his dad broke out his MeMaw's old "TENS" unit. You know, it is one of those things that you hook to yourself (like with those heart monitor looking pads), and turn it on. Well, I always seem to have a neck ache, so I was ready to try it out!! He hooked it up to my neck, and turned it on. OK, no big deal, how can it help? It just felt a little like the prickly needles when your foot goes to sleep, and they are poking you until the feeling comes back. Since it wasn't that bad, I guess he thought he'd let me see it a little higher... HELLO? I am a newbie at this... be gentle... He cranked it up to I am not sure what, but my neck started twitching, I was hollering, and it had it bent all over, with my ear to my shoulder, and I couldn't straighten it up. It WAS a good hurt though, but I had NO control!! We turned it down a bit, and I will tell you, I would LOVE to have one of these machines myself!!! After I took it off, my neck was SOOOOO much better, I couldn't BELIEVE it!! I even went back the next day and hooked it up voluntarily!!

Friday, I don't remember anything specifically that stuck out. Saturday, however, was EXCELLENT!! Shane and I went to the Melting Pot for our 16th anniversary!! YES, SIXTEEN years!! Am I old enough to have been married that long? I really don't think so. He must have had to get permission from my parents to marry me at the age of 10, but I'm not sure!! Before dinner, we went to Opry Mills and did some shopping. The GREATEST thing about going shopping with Shane, is that he VOLUNTEERS to carry the bags!! What a guy!! So, after making our rounds at the mall, we went to the restaurant. While we are sitting at our booth, the manager comes over and asks us if we enjoyed it. We assured him we had, as we were moaning from being so full, and he asked us which anniversary it was and blah blah blah. (they ask you if it is a special occasion when you call for the reservations) He came back a few minutes later, with a gift sack and said, "I looked at your reservations (you make them by phone number), and I see you've come here for the last 3 anniversaries. Since you've been so loyal, I wanted to give you a bottle of one of the dressings you ate tonight, and a bottle of the garlic and wine seasoning!!" OMG!! People NEVER just randomly give you stuff!! How super!!! We leave there to head towards home, and decide to stop in at Circuit City. We have been saving for a tv, and got Christmas money from the folks instead of a gift this year, so I thought we were just stopping to get an idea of what we'd get. We LEFT with a 52" flat screen!! I had no IDEA that Shane was such a "barterer". (I called him something else, but don't want to offend anyone!!)

Sunday was a great nap day, and I got some more embroidering done (you know the Christmas season is upon us, so between my gifts, and everyone else that wants things done for people, I stay pretty covered up). So Monday, is BACK to the grindstone. Graceson and I are on our way to school. (Garrett had the stomach bug again, so he stayed home in the bed). We were listening to "The Beaver". (I listen to several different stations every morning. When Shane worked at the police dept, I got in the habit of listening to WHOP, the local radio station, because I knew that if I didn't hear his name on it, then he had made it safely and uneventfully through the night, because he used to get off of work AFTER we left for school. Now, I just listen to it for the weather, and out of habit. THEN, when I get in the car, it is on the Beaver. I usually listen to WAY FM, a Christian Station, but I can only pick it up until I get about 5 miles from home, so I switch it over to the Beaver, and it stays on that, until I am headed back to town and get its service. Well, the "Beaver Brain Buster" came on, and everyone was answering and no one was getting it right, or getting the answer that I knew that it was. The question was, "What are people doing less of now, than they did 20 years ago?" My answer was "recycling", but I wasn't getting through, so it didn't matter. Well, I finally get through, and it rings and rings and rings. I keep saying, "recycle, recycle, recycle" in my head, so I wouldn't forget it. I guess I am next in line to be answered, because I hear them talking on the radio while it is ringing in my ear. All of these guesses, and no one is answering it correctly. Then, the guy says that you see something about this every time you turn the tv on, and the woman said that people may be doing it less because it's so expensive. (I'm still repeating the word "recycle" in my head like Rainman, and they PICK UP!!) The say, "Beaver, do you have a guess?" I then shout out, "DIET!!" WHAT?!?! Where did that come from? I was going to say RECYCLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And Fletch says, "YOU're the WINNER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I won 2 tickets to the Grand Ole Opry for this Saturday night, and a certificate to get my oil changed from a place here in town. Shane was SOOO much happier about the oil, by the way... So, they tape our conversation, and put me on hold to play it on the radio, and will come back to me to get my information. Well, evidently the "Beaver" is all they listen to when they are loading trucks at UPS, because while I was on hold for the Beaver, Shane called FIVE times!!! I did call him back after I got off the phone, and his buddies had all heard me on the radio. HOW FUN!!! I guess I should have bought a lottery ticket yesterday!!

Today, was a super busy day at school, but THEN, we had our Christmas party!! It was SOOO much fun!! First, we went to Mary Jane's, one of our teacher's homes for appetizers-it was LOVELY, and then we went to the Carriage House for our meal. We played the Left/Right game, and just had a great time socializing. The talking was probably the best part!!

When I returned home, THIS is what was waiting for me!! You knew about the TV, but the part I hadn't told yet, was about this entertainment center!! The Pottery Barn people called and said that they'd be here between 5 and 8, and when I got home, they'd been here!! YES, I LOVE their stuff, and would love to be able to just open the catalog and get what I want, but that is really not an option because of their price. BUT... for whatever reason, I thought I'd call and check on my "points" from my credit card. I mean, I signed up YEARS ago for this "point" thing, but never really thought I'd use it. When I found out how many I had collected, I couldn't BELIEVE it!! There were a BUNCH!!! They sent me a catalog to see what I wanted, and I chose a gift card to PB!!! How great is THAT? Now, it certainly didn't cover it ALL, but it made it LOTS better!! In the catalog, the shelves were filled with baskets, but I couldn't bear to pay an extra $250 for 5 baskets, so I am just going to have to hope for the best that I can find some in the measurements I need!

Chickens go out over the next 2 days, so I am getting ready to go and set up one of the houses for catch. They are catching at 1 a.m., so I will go up at 12-12:15, and raise all of the water and feed lines, unlock doors, etc., so that they can be caught. The next catch is at 5 a.m., so Shane will get that one ready right before he goes to work... They always catch at night, but the hours this time are about to kill us both!! It's ok though! I can sleep when I'm dead, and that's what Red Bull is for!!

Well, I hope you all have a WONDERFUL night, and thanks for sharing a WEEK in the life of the chicken farmer's wife!! love to all!! Jerri