The Hammer Family: 2009

Monday, September 21, 2009

Just an update on our family....

I think it's time to break the 4 month long streak of no one posting! :) We have been SUPER busy the last few weeks! Tack is in pre-k and he loves his teacher. He is already learning so much. Jake is getting so big, its hard to believe he will be 2 in a few months. He is into everything, he definatly keeps me on my toes!

Brent loves his job still. Right now it is time to wean calves, so it is one of the busiest times of the year for him. There is hardly any farming to do (which is good~the hours are long enough with over 4,000 head of cattle, much less add farming on top of it!). They did have to plant wheat a few weeks ago. But they were able to plant 1,115 acres in 10 days. Not bad with just a few guys! So for the next few weeks, they will be weaning and checking cows and moving things around and shipping them off. Brent is ready for the winter time to come, when the hours aren't so long. We also have bought a 2 year old red roan gelding and Brent is working with him. He is green broke, but he needs lots of work, still.

Ashlee is loving school this year. She is starting to take things more seriously, and realize school is not just a social gathering, but that there is a thing called "learning" involved too. Her grades are great so far. She is playing the trumpet again this year. In Cheyenne, when you are in Jr. High, you are more or less in high school. Since there are not very many students, you take your extra curricular classes with all different grades to make a full class. So she is technically in the "big band" this year. She made second trumpet, next to a boy who is a senior. There are 4 trumpet players. So she is doing really well with that. Today she is at the Oklahoma State Fair marching in the parade with the band. I wish I could have gone, but we just got back from OKC last night, and there is no way I could make the trip again today. She is also doing a lot of things in 4H. She will be showing a goat in the spring this year. She has started doing livestock and crop judging. When we had our local harvest fair, she did so well she qualified to go to state. So over the weekend, the kids and I went to OKC to the State Fair so she could do crop judging on Saturday. She was moved to the senior division because there were not enough kids to team up with in the junior age division. Ashlee and her partner came in 3rd place in the whole state! The other girl she was on a team with is also new to judging. Not bad for only their second time! In her individual score, Ashlee got 7th in the state. Now she wants to start horse judging too. But we will have to see if I have the time for that too!
Callee is doing really well in school. She is the top reader in the whole 2nd grade. Since moving to Oklahoma, she has become somewhat "obsessed" with anything Native American. So she spends her time learning about them. We have vistied several museums and different places dedicated to N.A. She has decided she wants to go to college to learn N.A. languages and how to interpret them and teach them to other people! And as always, she likes to sing when given the chance. Over the weekend at the state fair, she got up in front of several hundred people and sang karaoke.
As for me, I am busy all the time. I decided to quit my job at the hunting lodge, even though I loved the work. Since Tack started school, and has to be picked up at 11 am every day, my hours at the ranch needed to be cut down so I could go and get him. So that mean less money~but I was still having to pay the babysitter the same amount. Which really didn't make it worth it anymore. I will try to make arrangements with the kids during actual hunting season if they need me to help at the lodge. They have not found a replacement as of yet, so I'm not sure what they will do. I was going to stay until they found someone else, but my babysitter also quit to take on a full time job~so that left me without one! But I have plenty to do, so that is o.k. As the kids get older, there is more for them to be involved in. So between that and just day to day living, I am never left with nothing to do!

I guess that's about it for our family. It has been a while since we have been down to Texas, but hopefully we will be there sometime in October. Hopefully things will slow down enough around here that we can get away for the weekend! We look forward to seeing you all soon!