Meet My Family--My Mom

Now that I have more time on my hands, it's time to get back to normal farm life (if there is such a thing as normal farm life). It's also time to get back to normal posting and hopefully in the near future (meaning before the baby is born) I will be able to finish introducing all my current family members. So to continue from where I was...

Meet my mom...My best friend. The lady who gave up her dream of being a midwife to raise us kids. A woman who has spent more time caring, tending, and nurturing us and doing a wonderful job at it.

Yes, my mom is my best friend and yes my mom and I are two peas in a pod. Ask my dad, we both tend talk the same way, think the same way, and even sigh the same way. May sound great but we are both stubborn and hard headed (me being the worst of the two). And that is one of the many reasons that we get along so well. Now come upon us when we don't agree and that's something different.

But I love my mom dearly. She's the one who has spent countless hours teaching us endless amounts of subjects--history (even if some time frames took us three years to get through), math, English (or the best she could with a difficult child), spelling, science, animal husbandry, child care, and the joy of reading and learning. I can remember her spending hours trying to get me to spell correctly and to have my English half way decent. Now she still continues to do so, but she gave up long on the idea of me ever being able to do a blog post without having to call out "How do you spell ____?".

My mom is the one that after one try at fixing something computerized will give a call "Katie, come work your magic on this machine I've HAD it with this machine!!". She's the one who got me hooked on medical shows and has taught me all that I know about midwifery and continues to teach me.

My mom is the one who pushed me to start my business and who still pushes me when I am having low times, am out of creative ideas for my soaps and candles, or just need some help. Even to the point of sitting me down and saying "Katie the very next batch of soap had better be made SOON and it had better be ____!!"

Yes we do tease my mom because there are tons of times when it feels like the goats get more attention then we do....

Kid: "Hey mom I think ____ might be off, but she's acting normal so I would worry to much!" Mom: "What's her temp? How do her eyes, gums, ears, feet, etc look? Has she been eating and drinking? Is she up to date on her hoof trimming, pre/post kidding stuff, does she need some minerals, more alfalfa, how about upping her grain, or should we dry her off?" ect.
Vs. Kid: "Mom I'm not feeling the best." Mom: "Go take some Tylenol and lay down for an hour or two and see if you feel better then."

Yep, that's my mom. Panics when any of the animals even looks off, but knows her kids well enough that for certain ones of us she doesn't really think about if we complain that we are sick and for the others tells us to take a break. Though being her kid and living with her you sometimes feel slighted, esp if you not feeling well. That is until your better and realize how much she knows you and cares for you. :D

My mom is Mrs. Competitive (and yes, dad is Mr. Competitive) never ply a board game with the two of them, and please always be careful in what you challenge them to do (and they wonder where I get my competitiveness from!!).

I would advise you to stay away from her before a goat show and NEVER, EVER get in between her and her goat while one of us is showing it. (She doesn't show, as she doesn't feel comfortable doing so...And for some weird reason she thinks I do!!!) Please don't get her hooked on a new game, TV show, or even face book! As she might spend hours trying to better other people just for the fun of it. And I won't even mention Ebay snipping. lol

That's my mom, friend to many, midwife for others, Aunt for more then just her sibling's kids, Our mom and best friend!!

Meet My Family--My Dad

Meet my dad--Tim Carlson Sr.

This is my dad, I do believe that though I have never properly introduced y'all to him I have written a post or two about him and the wonderful things he has done for me or my family. :D But here is a little on him to give you a good idea of who he is and how he has affected my life (besides being my dad), what I mean to say is all the things he's done to help make me the person I am and all the wonderful things he does

This picture was taken a year or so after we moved out to the country; he still had his city job. At that point we were sill in pre-dairy age. Dad would drive 50 miles there and 50 miles back so that we could live in the country and have goats, chickens, bee hives, and a large garden. And all this from "Mr. Do I look like I can live in the country".

Yup, that’s my dad I’m talking about! Not once, not twice, but many, many times over the years that my parents were married and we lived in the city (and that would be the first 19 years of their marriage.) Whenever someone would say that we needed to move to the country for all of the kids, or so we could save on the food bill with a garden and chickens my dad would laugh and say--

"Do I look like I can live in the country? No, sir not me! I'm a city boy through and through, I LOVE living ten minutes from the zoo, museums, Ball Park, and church. I love the city and got here as soon as I could, thank you very much!!"

But then his heart was changed, for a couple of reasons we moved out, since then what we do out here has changed. Including my dad. :D

My dad has gone from "Mr. City" to "Yes, I'm the farmer!". Through it all he has still been a good dad for us.

When we lived in the city he would take me to almost any Astros' game I wanted to go to. All I had to do was name the date and he would somehow come up with the tickets (I think that might have had something to do with the fact that he could get two tickets for $5 lol), if I wanted a book, he'd look for it until he could find it for me, be it from the library or a book store. And then there were those times when I was in need of discipline, he would hand it out to me as well, because I needed it.

This is the person who held me when the Astros' lost in the World Series, telling me that it was O.K. there was always next year we always have a chance the following year I just needed to pray that I didn't end up like him being the fan of a team that went 86 years without winning a World Series (nice guy huh?).

This is my dad, the man who takes time to read to us, give us book ideas, help us to love reading and history. This is My dad, the man who would do anything he could to help us learn more and to grow up and do things that we believe in or want to do, including driving an extra hour a day to allow me work for a campaign. This is the man who stays here and milks the goats with us, so that we can all have a family owned and runned business. The man who shows trusts in us, from allowing us to help him with the dairy to allowing us to work part time jobs that we enjoy by ourselves.

Some people know him has a good friend, some people know him as their bus driver, while others know of him as goat farmer or "That crazy man with a LOT of children". But I know him as my dad, the man who has been there for me whenever I need him, helped me when I wanted or needed it. Someone who backs me up when I need it or who tries to talk sense to me when I not. He's one of God's many gifts to me, and one I am oh so grateful for.