The McTingle Farm

So... I'm pretty much a farmer now. Here's how that came about...

One day, Brandon and Mike (McCartney) got together and started talking about how cool it would be have a "mini farm." They even told Adrienne and I about their little plans... Well, of course they got serious and started talking about where they would keep them and how much everything would cost. Next thing you know, we've got 2 goats and 4 chickens!!! It's actually been really fun having all of the little critters around the house. The goats are just the sweetest things, and the chickens are completely tame. I'm super excited about the eggs that we'll be able to collect once they start laying. 8) Fresh omelets!
The animals were actually given to us for free! Miranda Gibbs and her really sweet family from Zachary gave us both goats and all 4 chickens! They were extremely sweet and took wonderful care of all of their animals. They had a really nice, small farm and needed to get rid of a few of their animals. (They had acquired quite a few from the Hurricane) They actually tried to give us a couple more chickens, but we told them that 4 would be plenty to start off.

The one next to me is named Ipod and the one next to Brandon is named Sweet Pea. Ipod is my favorite because he's so little and cute, and if you Baa at him, he'll Baa right back at cha! Ipod is a little male. Sweet Pea is a female. Oh! And they're pretty funny because they follow Mike and Brandon around the property like little kids. 8)

These are our cool chickens! Right now, they aren't laying because they're a bit stressed from the move, but once they settle in, we'll have some yummy eggs to eat for breakfast "out on that there farm!"
Brandon and Mike being silly! 8) Adi and I love our men! P.S. Mom, Brandon's wearing the tie you bought him! It looks great and he loves it!

On Saturday, my family came out to visit. My mom, Wendy (my sis), Holly (my sis-in-law), and I went shopping for fabric. The kids came to see the farm and absolutely loved it! Starting from the left, it's Madalyn, Ipod, Kailey, and Dathan aka Boogie. I have no idea why they are looking the other way...nothing was over there... oh well. They are still super cute! Oh, and by the way, goats like to climb on things so they climbed onto a big pile of plywood while the kids were trying to pet them.
And here's one with just Boogie and Ipod! He was a little nervous at first, if you can't tell. 8)

Anyway, we had a great day and can't wait for everyone to come visit again! Oh, and if anyone wants to take their kids on a field trip to the "petting zoo," feel free to call me! 8)

Our House

We finally have a place to call our own! Our beautiful new home is now located at 42483 Ferguson Lane.

We haven't moved into it quite yet (we're waiting to get the electricity turned on), but we're definately working hard to get it ready for when we do. When we first got it, the shutters were a hunter green color. That's not really my favorite, so I decided to take them down and paint them.
So Brandon took the shutters off, and I got busy painting them black. They look pretty awesome, if I do say so myself! 8)

Once I was done, Brandon put them back on the trailer.

We absolutely love our new house!!! And can't wait to move in!
Oh, and Blaze loves it too. 8) The 1st time we took him to see it, he ran circles in the living room around the couches! It was too cute!

It's Finally Here!!!

Our house is here!!!
I haven't been able to do any posts recently due to stressful classes and a busy schedule. But a couple of weeks ago, we got our new mobile home! It's taken almost 5 months to get it! It's absolutely wonderful, and we love it. Well worth the wait. While I've been inside unpacking and painting a few things here and there, Brandon and his PawPaw have been working (for a couple of weeks) on sewer and power lines getting it ready to move into. And we should be getting the electricity switched on the beginning of next week! Yay! When I have the opportunity, I will definately post some pictures.

Knocked Out

Well, Brandon had his wisdom teeth removed this past Thursday. He is doing well, but the past couple of days have been quite interesting.
When he arrived at the oral surgeon's office, they knocked him out with some anesthesia and removed all 4 of his widsom teeth. The doctor had some problems getting one tooth out, so they woke him up, x-rayed that tooth, then knocked him out again! They had to dig deeper into the bone to get the last piece out.
Anyway, he's been doing pretty good while at home. He doesn't really like to sleep, and would prefer to be and about. He was an extremely sweet patient, but there were a few "interesting" moments. Thursday evening, he informed me that he "needed to be somewhere." I told him that he didn't and that he needed to rest, but he proceeded to get his car keys and headed for the door. When I asked him what he was doing, he told me that he "needed to be somewhere." I asked him where and he told me that he forgot. :) I was able to get the keys from him and lour him to the couch with the promise of a back scratch! There were many interesting comments that he made while "drugged up," but I'll have to get his permission to post them on the blog. :)
Anyway, the 2 pictures are of him at the surgeon's office after his teeth were removed.

Destin

So we took a little trip to Destin, FL the weekend of the hurricane. It was absolutely gorgeous! This is a photo from the balcony of the amazing condo where we stayed. We were literally across the street from the beach. Pretty sweet!

It was a much needed vacation, especially for Brandon, who worked his little tush off in the weeks leading up to and after Hurricane Gustav.

Brandon had lots of time to relax!

And when he wasn't relaxing... he was relaxing! 8) Oh yeah. He's in there!

It was great being able to spend time with friends and family! This is Holly, Kailey, and Eli all working together to build a sand castle.

This is "KK" showing me pieces of the sand dollar that we found! She's so cute!

Here's Brandon and Brandon! We met Brandon and Jennie Kern for the 1st time on this trip. They were super cool. All Brandon and Brandon talked about was how Brandon T. does MMA (Mixed Martial Arts). Boys will be boys. 8)

At night, Brandon, Sarah, Ryan, and I all went crabbin'! I had to hold the bucket :* And it got pretty scarey towards the end of the night. The bucket got very full and they were all trying real hard to get out!

Ryan and Sarah caught a really big one, but his little arm fell off! 8( It was real sad and I felt pretty bad about it...

And then we had to pose with the huge crabs we caught... well, they caught... The one Brandon's holding is a blue crab. He was a mean little sucker!


I got the one with one claw! HA.

And Brandon is holding a flashlight...not a budlight. 8)

It was a great trip! Thanks again to the Wilcox's and Joel & Holly for the invite!

More From Gustav

More pictures from the Hurricane cleanup.

It Sure Was Windy!

As everyone knows, Louisiana was recently hit by Hurricane Gustav. While some chose to evacuate, Brandon & I, along with most Brandon's family decided to stay. We were all prepared and hoped for the best. Luckily we had a generator to get us through the uncomfortable times of no electricity. And it turned out nicely! We actually had some amazing meals thanks to Mr. Ronnie. Brandon and I especially loved the filet mignon! Anyway, there were a few damages from the storm. Here are a few pictures!

This is MawMaw & PawPaw Richardson's house. Brandon, PawPaw, and Mr. Ronnie were just about to walk out of the front door to go check on Ms. Allison (an elderly woman who lives next door) because a tree fell on her house. If they would have gone 30 secs sooner, they would have be crushed by this tree! What a blessing that they didn't! It covered the entire front side of the house and branches were within inches of breaking through the windows. But amazingly enough, no real structural damage occurred!


Here's a picture of where our mobile home would have been. Now there's just a huge pecan tree! Not getting our trailor was a blessing after all!

Brandon and I were both really sad to see it fall because it was such a beautiful tree... almost 100 years old!

And just so you can get an idea of how HUGE this tree was, here's a pic of me
standing beside it! I think the root behind me is as tall as I am!


A special thanks to those who helped chop up these massive trees!!! And good luck to all those about to withstand the forces of Hurricane Ike!