Instant Lawn!!!

I've thought ever since we moved into our house that sod would probably be the way to go when we were ready to do our lawn. Now I'm convinced of it! We had a huge crew show up Saturday morning to help us, and we laid over 3500 sq. ft. of sod in about an hour and a half. Thanks to all you friends and family members that helped! Also, a big thanks to Tony for all his work in getting the ground ready. It was a tough job and he spent hours getting it just right. We have grass! Yeah!!

This is what the ground looked like before any preparation--it's what the ground STILL looks like everywhere except in the front yard.

Here's the working man raking it smooth for about the millionth time! I love you, Tony!

After spreading manure, tilling, leveling, raking, getting the rocks out, rolling, and smoothing again and again, here's our dirt--all ready for the sod.

The sod has arrived!

Here's part of the crew laying the first few pieces. Exciting!

Here are a couple pictures of the finished product! Doesn't it look great? Instant lawn!!

Ten Reasons I LOVE Living on a Ranch

Yeah, you read the title right. For all you old friends whose jaws are sitting on their keyboard right now, go ahead and pick them up. Read on. I've just really been thinking lately of how good we have it here on the Micheli Ranch. So I've come up with ten reasons (not in any particular order) why I LOVE living on a ranch.

10. Our View! This is what I get to look at every day out our front window: the "Big Field," the hills on the other side, and then the beautiful Uinta Mountains! I love it!

9. Equipment. I don't know how we'd have done half the things we've done on our house without this backhoe and a number of other pieces of equipment that are parked around the ranch ready for us to use whenever we may need to. Of course, I don't know how to operate any of them, but Tony does a great job!

8. No neighbors. I suppose in some ways this isn't such a great thing. However, I've had several moments where I've been VERY glad this is the case. For example, when Connor was close to three years old, he would lose it and have terrible crying fits when he got tired. He couldn't fall asleep, obviously, until he was under control. Mylie was a baby at the time, and a very light sleeper. So, we'd set Connor on the front porch and tell him he could come back in the house when he was finished crying. I'm sure I'd be in jail or something for that if we had neighbors! Also, I have the luxury of being able to streak across the living room to get the phone or whatever I may need at the moment without the fear of the neighbors seeing me through the window. But maybe this isn't just for those with no neighbors. I seem to remember my mother doing this a few times when I was growing up, and we HAD neighbors.

7. Teaching my kids how to work. Now I know that this can be done in many ways. My parents found a way to teach us how to work with no ranch. But for a kid like Connor, who cannot stand doing indoor chores, but will do them so that he CAN do some outdoor chores, having some outdoor jobs to do is really nice. Just day before yesterday, Connor got a new job. He's taking care of a calf that needs to be bottle fed twice a day. He's very excited, and I'm excited for him to have this opportunity to learn some responsibility.

6. Gas. Tony works all summer and a lot of evenings and weekends throughout the year for a small check at the end of each summer, plus an awesome bonus: access to the ranch's gas pump. Now I know that they could pay us the money for all that work, and we could just go and buy gas at the pump like most people, but it's nice to not have the dollar amount staring you in the face every time you fill up.

5. Meat. Another perk of Tony's work on the ranch. Now, this isn't just any old meat. This is the meat of pampered cattle, which means they're raised on grain, not just whatever grass is in the field. I first understood what this meant at our wedding reception. Tony's family had some roast beef at our dinner, and then his mom packed some up for us to take on our honeymoon. I couldn't stop eating it all week! I'd never had anything so good. I knew I'd married into the right family.

4. Sex education. Now I hope this isn't inappropriate to post on my blog, but all you former ranch kids will probably agree that a ranch life gives kids a no-nonsense sex education. After seeing a few calves be born, Connor just knows how babies come out. It's not gross, and it doesn't make him giggle. It's just the way it works. Also, a few weeks ago, Connor said to me, "Mom, you know those things on your belly where Mylie used to drink milk? Well, that's just like a cow!" Yes, I suppose I am.

3. BIG LOT! Yes, we have a HUGE lot. I love that I'm not limited by the neighbor's fence. The possibilities for our yard's landscaping are endless. We're just doing a little at a time, of course, but I get excited just thinking about how it will all be when we're finished!

2. Room to Roam. I love that the kids have so many places to explore outside. We have the dump, where Connor loves to take a sack lunch, go in the old dump truck and eat while he pretends to drive to some far-off place like Lagoon or Casper. The kids' favorite (and it was their dad's when he was young) is probably the "Elephant Hill." This is a hill that is just out our back door practically. It was named for the slope on one end, which looks like the trunk of an elephant, wrinkles and all. This morning, I got some pictures of the kids climbing it and digging for something--could be fossils, arrowheads, Indian graves, you name it!

1. A Happy Husband. How can you put a price on that? Tony loves being outside and working on the ranch. Although I'm glad he teaches school as well, I'm glad he gets to do what he loves so much on the ranch. When he's happy, I'm happy!

Our Tiebreaker is on the Way!

In our family, we have two girls and two boys, but the tiebreaker is on the way! He or She is expected to arrive in 6 months from today, on Nov. 13th. We're very excited! I've felt great so far, and at my doctor's appointment this morning, everything looked good. Connor wants a boy, and Mylie says it IS a girl. I don't have any preference. My only hope if that it doesn't come early, since state volleyball goes through Nov.1st.

Crap Jobs

I loved Ashlie's post on her crap jobs. My first response was, "Wow! I don't think I've had any crap jobs." But as I thought more about it, a few came to mind. Now, they don't quite compare with Ashlie's, but I think they're worth writing about.

My first crap job was changing pipe. Getting up at five in the morning to gag on mosquitos for a couple hours, and then going back to do it all over again in the evening wasn't exactly my idea of a good time. That's why it only lasted one summer. Washing windows, although most people hate doing it, was actually fun, so I spent the rest of my high school summers doing that.

My second crap job was in college. In fact, other than summer work, it was the only job I ever had at college. I was a lunch lady . . . that's right, a LUNCH LADY. Now, I didn't mind some parts of the job, but I always cringed when I looked at myself in the mirror at the end of a shift. See, lunch ladies, even if they're 20 years old, are required to wear hair nets, which do a number on your 'do. Also, after standing over steaming food for a couple hours, your face looks like you rubbed a slab of bacon all over it. Or possibly like you could scrape it off and use the grease to fry something up. I also got the rare opportunity of working in the dishroom a few times after being "promoted," or at least that's what they called it, to Student Supervisor. To this day, if I get too close to the dishroom in a restaurant and get a whiff of that awful smell, I feel like I might not be able to eat my meal. I suppose there were a couple perks to the job, though. One was a free meal every shift, which is awesome when you're a college student. The other was seeing almost the entire football team almost every time I went to work. Tami, the Pieper sisters, and I would always dare each other to say something to various players. I guess we thought they might ask us out, with those sexy hair nets on.

My last crap job would be a babysitting job I had when we first moved to Mountain View. Actually, this job wasn't all too bad, except for the literal "crap" part of it. The little guy was super cute, but had some major stomach issues, and I changed about 6-8 messy diapers per day on him. Not too fun!

Well, that'll do it for me. I think this is a fun topic, so if any of you would like to share, I'm sure I'd have fun reading it. Later!

A little about the Micheli Family

Well, I don't really have anything current to write, so I thought I'd start by just telling a little bit about what our family has been up to the past couple months or so.

Tony--Tony was the assistant basketball coach at MVHS this year, and he enjoyed that. Now he is coaching track. He coaches the pole vaulters, and they are currently at regional track in Lander. He has spent a lot of time lately getting our yard ready to lay sod, which will be delivered in two weeks! We're pretty excited about that. He also loves to play with the kids, and becomes a kid himself whenever he is with them.

Taffy--I've spent most of my time taking care of kids, of course. We've traveled some, watching basketball and track, which is fun. I've been playing volleyball in a women's league here, and our team has done well so far. Our final tournament is next Tuesday night. I've also taken two online classes and learned about Photoshop Elements in the past couple months, which I have really enjoyed. Below is one of my favorite projects so far. Connor has this hung in his bedroom. About three weeks ago, I ran a half marathon, running a new personal best time of 1:49:20. If you want to see any pictures of that, click on my Parry link. Tami has some posted there.

Connor--Connor is all boy, and his current obsessions are dinosaurs, monster trucks, and kickboxing. He has been doing TaeBo every day for about two weeks now so he can get stronger and work on his kickboxing moves. It's pretty cute.

A couple months ago, Connor and I went on a "date." We went ice skating, and it was his first time. Although he must have fallen at least 100 times, he still enjoyed and thought he was pretty good by the time we left.

Mylie--Mylie is just as much GIRL as Connor is BOY! It's been an adventure have two kids with such different priorities. Two of her favorite things to do are fingerpaint, and help mom in the kitchen.

Mylie has very "unruly" hair, you might say. About a month ago, we finally tried to do something about that, and got her hair cut. What a difference it made, as you can see in these before and after photos.

Blogging? Here goes nothin'!

For about a month now, I've been looking at people's blogs and thinking, "Wow! This is such a great way to keep in touch with people as well as record the things going on in life." I debated starting one of my own, thinking I probably wasn't quite the computer nerd I needed to be to be a blogger. But in the past six months, I've bought a digital camera, a new computer, and taken both a basic and advanced class for Photoshop Elements 5.0. So I guess this is the next obvious step in my adventure toward computer nerdhood. Now I just need to decide what pictures anybody might care about looking at, and get busy blogging! I think this will be fun.