411 The Walters Bunch

So much can happen in such a small amount of time.  I guess the biggest surprise we have is we finally bought a travel trailer. That's right after toiling in the hot summer sun for months while fixing the pop up, we decided after only two trips we wanted to upgrade. I am pretty frugal so it is a big deal for me to loosen the purse strings enough to buy something we don't need, but just want and to go from something that is paid for to something that needs payments. However, I think what pushed us over the edge was our last two trips were weather extremes and having to set up and take down gets that much harder.  The pop up was way easier to set up and take down than tent camping, which we did as a family for years, but I guess you just get to a point where as you get older it gets harder to bear the heat and frigid air to do stuff. We didn't even want a slide in our new trailer. We can park anywhere and have immediate access to the entire trailer. Being able to stop at a

I have seen the 10 year challenge posts lately and thought it would be fun to participate.  Here we go: 1.)  C2 2008- C2 is 15 C2 rocking T in 2008 2008 2018 T and C2 2018 C2's 25th Birthday 2.) T  This pic of T is from 2009 because he was a tiny baby in 2008. 10 years later, T is a big 10! 3.)L 2008 L was 2.  NEVER went anywhere without puppy. We even had a back up in case puppy was lost. A and L Ready for July 4th, 2008 2018 L turned 12 4.)A 2008 A was 5. She was my little ham. Always ready for pics of her! 2008 She actually liked pink then 2018 A turned 15. 5.)D 2008 D joins the force. Please forgive me I just had a baby 2 months prior. 2008 D Ok honey I didn't realize your shirt was that old. I am glad the dog ate it. Apparently I was out of candles. He was 30 not 5. 2018 D painted that pumpkin..and won the rigged contest 20

Oh, what a difference a week makes. The nice milder weather has retreated and in its place it frigid air. It is current 26*F  with about 20 mph sustained winds and 40+mph gusts. It is down right COLD! I have discovered that there is a least one thing I like about the super frigid weather, the ground is FROZEN. Why is that important? Because this means that the mud pit of our yard is frozen and that when the dog goes out to make her rounds 1.) she is quick because it is so cold and MOST importantly 2.) her feet DO NOT get muddy! We are SO sick of washing her feet every time she comes in. I think she purposely picks the muddiest areas to tromp through. However, the below freezing weather means the snow on the deck and other non sun facing sides is still there and we have to deal with frozen chicken waterers being changed out periodically through out the day. I think we decided we prefer doing the chicken waters, but that is only because we have spent the past two weeks cleaning the do

Our crazy anti social cow dog! (She really is a cattle dog X) T he weather has been fairly mild for January, but until the past few days everyone has been taking turns being ill. D was the first one to bring this lovely illness into our home. He was so ill that he actually willingly called into work for 2 days! That itself says how bad he felt. He usually likes to spread the wealth and go to work (suffering is apparently a manly thing to do...I guess), but he was pretty much useless so I am glad given his profession that he realized work was a no go while he recuperated and started on antibiotics. T was the next to fall and as with all kids ANY illness they fall to is manifested in the reproducing of whatever meal they ate last. It was fun. The girls and I were lucky. We just felt super tired and listless for a couple of days with no serious implications. Unfortunately, T fell ill the day before his basketball game so he had to miss it. His team did manage to win though. He has ano