Hot Summer Days!

Hi everybody! This has been a fun month so far! We have been tubing with our cousins. Swimming at Twin Lakes. Had a huge party at the park for all of the people in the family who have August birthdays and we will be going to the rodeo this weekend. Diamond has to judge the crops entered in the county fair. It should be pretty interesting.
Emerald and Onyx start school on the 26th. They are both very excited. Emerald is excited because his cousin is going to be in the same class. Onyx is excited because he gets to ride the bus!
Ruby loves living at Grandma's farm because she is spoiled rotten. Also because she loves all of the animals. Each of the kids has gotten to pick a kitten that lives in Grandma's barn. Ruby has a cute little black kitten that has one orange paw. She didn't understand the naming thing, so I named the kitten Buttercup for her. She ended up naming it in her own way anyhow, her interpretation of the name Buttercup is Buttercat. Everyone calls it Buttercat now.
Opal is getting so big! She is nine months old now. She has just had her nine month appointment. She weighs in at 17 pounds. She crawls everywhere and makes a beeline for the outside whenever there is an open door. She has learned how to wave and play pat-a-cake and walks around all of the furniture. She makes us all laugh with her copycat actions. She saw me put a tissue to my face and blow my nose so she put her hands over her nose and made a similar sound. Diamond was playing patty-cake with her today and when he was done he patted her little bottom. She began to play patty-cake all by herself and ended by patting her own bottom. What a cute girl!!
Diamond and I celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary last week. I can hardly believe it has been ten years. We are still living in the basement. We are still working on purchasing a farm. I never realized how long it takes to apply for financing on a farm. I tell you it is not for the faint of heart. I am doing my best to be patient but I usually just feel disgruntled and grumpy about it. Here is hoping it will be over by the end of the month!!!