Ok it's been a long time since I have blogged let's see what's been going on Well Mckenzie is now a junior At Purdue studying genetics. Has her own apt and works at subway to supplement expenses. DALTON JUST graduated high school and works full time at Steiner gee construction and will start at ivy tech in the fall for diesel and ag. Hunter is now a junior working on getting her drivers license and also works at a horse farm 3 days a week she plans to study radiology once she graduates. AVERY IS NOW A FREASHMAN AND ALSO WORKS AT THE FARM SHE IS INFATUATED with train horses and recently did a fantastic job training her mare to game she is hoping to win highpoint at fair this year and last but not least Aiden he is in 6th grade also works at the farm his job is to drive and run the equipment and tractors which he love a lot
 His plan for the future is to become a hay farmer lol good luck buddy. But also he has become quite the equestrian this year. We almost have him talked into showing his horse. AS for Bill and I well he still works at CAT and I work at the hospital in Winamac we hope to retire at these facilities. Life is Def changing having one out of the house already and one getting ready too is definitely hard on this oldom I miss the kids so much
. BUT when they succeed I know we've done something right.

Since my last post lots has happened. McKenzie graduated from the Academy with honors, we are so honored to be her parents, we could not ask for a better child and role model for the others, I truley believe that she can do anything she wants in life. These last 2 years have been bittersweet, letting her go to the Academy was not a easy decision, at least not for me, when you love someone as much as I love her you tend to fight with your emotions when it comes to the "big" decisions I knew the right choice was to not hold her back but my heart physically hurt knowing that our "little family" would truley never be the same. But sometimes loving someone means letting them go and being truley being selfless, and when it comes to my kids they always come first no matter what. She will be taking off for Purdue this fall then who knows where, but one thing is for sure I will never worry about the choices she makes, she definitely has a good head on her shoulders and nomatter what she chooses in life we will always be here to support her. Our mare "Glory" did finally have her foal, she delivered a healthy bouncing baby boy, we named the colt Fury, and he is full of fire. and Glory is the best mother we could ask for, unfortunately she waited till noone was around to have the colt, so we didnt get to witness the birth, however the placenta was intact and healthy and Glory acted like she knew what she was doing. We are having so much fun with this little one, he is growing so fast, he definitely is going to be a jumper which is exactly what we were hoping for, he is what you call a Warmblood, which is a fancy breed that they use in the Olympics for jumping as well. I will post pictures when I get to a computer I can do that with. We found out yesterday that Bills Brother and sister in law were approved by a birth mother to adopt her child, we will be praying everything goes smoothly for them and baby. Aiden amazes me every day, he is such a witty young man, and a very hard worker and sooo compassionate, I couldnt love this child more, he literally makes me smile every day I am alive, somedays I truley could not make it through without him and I really mean that.  Hunter and Avery and my constants, I can always count on them, they are so determined and so grateful for each and every day they truley LOVE their horses and would do anything for them, Im pretty sure they get their love of animals from me lol. Its soo nice to have them to count on they are soo special and they love their jobs working with the horses at the Schroders they cant wait to get home each time to tell me a story, they act like its recess instead of a job, I hope they always keep that fire in their hearts, it makes me happy to know they are happy, isnt that what life is truley about.  And last but not least Dalton.  This last year has been very rough for him and for us raising him. He is going through lots of changes emotionally,physically, and spiritually, his priorities are changing and thats OK, it is his life to live, it is just hard for me to watch the pain and sometimes the sorrow that goes along with it. As a mother your first instinct is to Love and Protect. I am like a mother bear I would fight to the death to protect my son, but sometimes I have to stand back and let him fight his own battles and its hard for me. I love this child more than life itself, we have always had a special bond, we have always just understood each other, he knows when I am hurting and I know when he is struggling. But he is growing up into a wonderful young man, and I truley believe that he knows right from wrong and I want for him whatever he wants as long as it makes him happy. Whether that be going pro, or moving on to trade college I will be so proud of him nomatter what he chooses, I never ever for one minute in his life, through all the physical therapy, occupatonal therapy, speech therapy, educational tutoring etc questioned whether he would be successful in life, never a doubt crossed my mind, failure was never an option, he would succeed no matter what we had to accomplish and I still believe that today, I love you Son dont ever forget that, when it seems like things are getting to hard just look back and Ill be right there behind you, as I will for all my kids. I remember being pregnant for each child and wondering how can I love the next one as much as the last one, and with the birth of each one I just did, isnt it amazing how you can have 5 totally different but equally amazing children and love them all equally and feel just as deeply for each and every one of them, Im not sure I deserve them but I Thank God everyday for them, and I pray for their Health, Happiness and Safety each night before I sleep. I have a friend that recently lost her 2nd son within a years time, so I will try to never take advantage of the time we have together.  I love you McKenzie, Dalton, Hunter, Avery, and Aiden!!!!!!!!!!!!

So apparently I am not very good at keeping our blog updated LOL. I guess our lives have been pretty boring that I havent fealt the need to update.  Lets see what I can come up with, Kenzie will be graduating in a few short weeks, hard to believe our baby girl is growing up and is almost 19, surely I am not old enough to have a child of that age?? She has been accepted to Purdue and will be attending there in the fall majoring in Genetics, she really likes research and would love to work in a lab somewhere, hopefully helping match people for transplants or discovering some cure for some genetic mutation.  Dalton has started his motocross year off with a bang, well not really LOL he is on a new KTM 2-stroke this year and it is taking him some getting used to as well as some dumb bad luck, he so far has taken a large rock to the nose and crashed pretty nasty last weekend with some bruised or broken ribs, so was unable to race the rest of the weekend. But he will get used to it, it is just going to take time. Also big news for Dalton he is now the proud owner of his own truck, he is soo happy.  Hunter, Avery and Dalton all 3 have jobs now they work every Tuesday and Thursday for 2 horse farms, one is a breeding farm for halter horses and the other is a ranch for Western pleasure horses, they clean stalls and feed horses as well as work with the foals and sometimes the girls get to exercise the horses, they absolutely love it and the girls have been using their income to support our horses hay habits and Dalton has been using his for gas money as well as parts for his truck and bike, which has helped mom and dad out a bunch as the horses eat $120 a week in just hay.  Yes they are worth it, but it does get a little overwelming at times.  Our Mare Glory still has not delivered her foal she is now over 2 weeks overdue, she is driving us all nuts, we keep thinking that tonight will be the night, she is tired of being locked in a stall as well but we do not want to take a chance of her delivering where the other horses may bother her while delivering.  The kids will be finishing out their school year at the end of May, it will be nice not to have to worry about that for a while, however I am looking for a new curriculum for next year, Abeka is a excellent program however it is very expensive and very time consuming for the kids, Hunter sometimes takes 8 hours just to finish one days work and that is not my goal in homeschooling them.  Of course I want them to learn but I also want them to have a life. Bill and I have just been working a way, no big news there, Aiden has started raising chickens, he has 8, he and Daltons girlfriend are going to have a competition to see whose hens lay the  most eggs LOL. Aiden has this all figured out how to sell them and what they need to eat and how much light they need etc. he is becoming quite the little farmer boy, and also let me tell you this kid has grown, OMG we just had to buy him all new jeans at Christmas size 10s he has already outgrown them. its only been 4.5 months WOW.  Well hope that tides you all over for a while. LOL

Not much going on around here lately, just trying to get by.  Kids are going stir crazy with out the hustle and bustle of Motocross and 4-H activities, however Bill and I are staying busy as usual working our lives away.  Thanksgiving has come and gone, it was nice to have Kenz home for a week and shortley she will be home again for Christmas. Usually this is a exciting time of year but this year not so. So many problems going on everywhere is making this season hard to get excited about or enjoy.  Hope the kids understand Christmas this year is going to probobly be different from what they are used to, but whats important is that we have each other. Homeschool is in full swing, the kids are reaching burn out LOL.  I have realized that I have accidently been assigning Aiden 2x as much Grammer,Spelling and Reading as needed so he will finish the 3rd grade in these subjects 1/2 way through the year so I am trying to decided wether to move on to 4th grade material to finish the year or find another 3rd grade program and review, he did quite well the first time however Spelling can always use more work I think its a testosterone issue LOL. Bentley is doing great from his colic surgery only 13 more days until he can be ridden again, he is ready, he is mopping around like he is depressed, he really enjoys the time he and Hunter spend riding together, so I hope he gets back to his normal self.  Dalton is dieing to get back to racing, we have offered to hire him a personal trainer and he has shown no interest I am beginning to wonder just how much he wants this Motocross career. He just doesnt get it, and I am afraid it may be to late before he does. I really dont want him to regret his decisions later in life, This could be the one thing that stands between him and his dreams and he wont listen to us. Working at the Veterans home started out very difficult, had a very rude and unpersonable cooworker but she is slowley coming out of her shell.  I have never worked a Monday through Friday job before no weekends or holidays and 8 hr shifts before, I have always had to do weekends worked 12 hr shifts and had to work holidays so this is a nice change.  And the pay aint bad either It couldnt have come at a better time either.  Well hope everybody else has a wonderful holiday season. God Bless Everyone!!

So theres been alot of crazy stuff going on since I have last blogged.  For some reason it has been a terrible year for horses, we have had 3 of ours colic with one of them requiring surgery. By the grace of God they all have survived. But alot of people we know and love have not been that fortunate, not sure if the weather has had a part in it. But none the less I know of at least 6 people who had to put their horses down this fall already, my hearts break for these people. We have homeschooling well underway now, and we are using ABEKA this year, it is a good program however it takes up the entire day, I am not so sure I like Hunter having to work well into the evening to do her schooling. But we will continue on throughout this year and reevaluate for next year. Racing season comes to an end for Dalton today, he has had a very successful year, it is bittersweet when the season ends, its nice to actually to have family time again, but they do miss racing alot too.  I have a feeling Dalton is not going to enjoy his time off from the track as he wont get to see his girlfriend as much, but I am sure we will figure something out. McKenzie is doing wonderful away at school, she has applyed at 4 colleges thus far and has been accepted to IU and IUPUI so far we are waiting on Purdue and University of Iowa I believe. I have accepted a full time position at the Veterans home in Lafayette so I will cut back on my PRN jobs and just do that as finances force me to do so.  Hopefully my ailing body will agree with this change. I am not sure if I have posted this before or not but we were able to trade the walker for a pony for Aiden, she and he are a perfect fit. she is not much to look at but he thinks she is the most beautiful thing in the world and she thinks he is amazing as well, it was love at first sight for both of them her name is China Mae.

I know its been a while since I wrote and yes there has been alot going on around here, I have started 3 jobs. I now work at the Veterans home in Lafayette, I work at Whispering Pines in Monticello and Pulaski Memorial Hospital in Winamac. All of them I am doing Prn so I am still able to continue to homeschool the kids. But it is a bit hectic trying to keep all the schedules right.  At first I really didnt like the Veterans home, it kinda seemed more like an assembly line than a patient care facility, but I have found my groove and I am getting to know the residents and not to mention they pay pretty well lol. I started the kids back to school on Monday we are using Abeka this year, it takes alot longer than the program we used last year, Hunters especially, she is working on her studies around 8 hours a day, doesnt seem quite right, hopefully once we get more into it, it will get better. McKenzie went back to school on the 10th, she was sooo ready. We are going to have Kenzie's senior pics done in Oct. cant wait to see what they come up with.  Dalton is having a blast with his Motocross this year, not to mention he likes to go hang out with his girlfriend LOL.  We really need to get on them both to start training harder, they are both doing well racing, but really need to be running and working out during the week. We have had lots of inquires on our horse Cody but no buyers ugg!! we really need to get him sold, hay is going to be hard to find this winter.  He is a beautiful horse, someone will get a nice horse. Dalton is still taking drivers training, he is such a good driver, I cant wait till he gets his own lisence so he can run himself around LOL. The girls have been riding the horses everyday, so hopefully they will be ready for the September show. Aiden has been showing interest in the horses lately, he is soo cute trying to ride my horse, he kicks and kicks and Cowboy just stands there, so he usually switches to Sassy and she listens perfectly the only problem with that is Avery is soo attached to sassy she doesnt like to share her pony, if we could sell a couple horses we could get Aiden a pony of his own, but none of us can agree on what horses to sell other than Cody. And Avery thinks even when she outgrows her pony she is keeping her OMG these kids are hard to please. I know a kids first pony is very special to them, but geez you gotta give us parents a break. So the pics above are Aiden and Sassy, Avery and my horse Cowboy and Hunter on Brody

Ok so everybody is giving me grief for not keeping my blog updated. So here you go. I now have 3 jobs I work at Pulaski Memorial Hospital, Whispering Pines, and Indiana Veterans Home. I will work PRN at all of them hoping between all of them to add up to a regular full time job, but by doing prn you get paid more and have more freedom to choose your hours, so I can continue to homeschool the kids. Things have been pretty crazy around here lately with me orientating at all 3 facilities and this being our fair week and trying to sell a horse and also picking up another horse in Chicago there hasnt been alot of down time around here. I dont know if you all remember back in February when I was scammed out of the horse I was buying and had been making payments on for over a year, well the women was never able to pay up, so her solution was to give me this mare which is another Friesian Sport Horse which is what I wanted in the first place but the mare is in foal to a pretty impressive Warmblood stallion, but now this presents me with another set of problems, now I need to figure out how to construct a foaling stall before March. So actually in the end I got more than what she actually owed me back,...........providing everything goes well with the baby and delivery and that the baby sells fairly quickly, the actual foal will be worth at the minimum $5000-8000 according to the stallions hx. and books. so we will see. I intend to actually include the gestational process and delivery in our homeschooling this year, may as well take advantage of it and make it a learning experience for the kids. Dalton did well in his drivers training, now all he has to do is finish out his driving times and wait to get his liscence. Cant believe my babies are growing up. Makes me sad. The girls really did well last night at the contesting show at fair, they absolutely love barrel racing etc. and their horses love it too. We will starting school up here again soon, I have to say I am not looking forward to it, but has to be done. Dalton and his girlfriend went to Redbud a couple weeks ago and they did great, I wasnt sure how Dalton would do with it being his first time with that many fast people but I am very proud of him. Its hard to believe he will be 16 here soon.  Kenzie goes back to school on the 10th, she is so ready , I really thought this summer was going to be hard with her home because of her age and her type A personality, but it has actually been great I am going to miss her alot, but I know she is getting the best education she can get , the Academy is amazing.  So for now we are going to finish out Daltons race season, start school and attend at least one more horse show before fall gets here. So there you have it. The insanity of the Packards lives on LOL I added a picture of Kenzie from her prom this last year.