Bull Dozing and 50's day at School

Doyle in April rented a bull dozer for the property on the Brazos River. Well, give the two boys in The Borchgardt Bunch a real live bull dozer and away they went! Blaine had a great time learning how to drive and operate a bull dozer with his father. When it does finally come time for Blaine to get his drivers license, he sure will of operated many types of operating machines, farm equipment and 4 wheelers and such! Somehow the play bull dozers and monster trucks Blaine has have lost all their meaning when you get to drive the real deal!

It was 50's Day at Forest Ridge. Suzanna helped out at the Sing a Long just as Blaine did with the Rodeo day! Here are some pictures and a video for you to watch!

We have made it to April!

APRIL is HERE!!!!!!!!

Blaine before church, the children's church, Big House opened.

He was so proud to usher.The Hearst Court Skateboard Crew... drive by Hearst Court on any afternoon and you will find the skateboard crew out and about. Blaine is learning many moves from the teenage boys! Suzanna does ballet skate dancing! She is my precious precious girl for sure. No Tom Boy at all.
Scootch, a month later after being rescued =)!

Well, our month long adventure with Scootch has been just that an adventure! We have come to discover that our beloved Scootch is in need of manners and more manners and then even more manners. The first walk we took him on ended with him barking at and charging the cars that drove by. Hmmmmm....we have come to believe Scootch never was on a leash. Then I took him out for a walk only to have him lunge after a smell and found myself on the pavement with a skinned knee, but nothing tops Doyle's bike ride adventure with our Scootch! Scootch caught a smell and off he went before Doyle was properly organized on the bike. You can imagine what happened next...Doyle fell FACE first into the pavement. He has a pretty serious road rash from his nose to his chin and the handle bars imprinted on his chest. He was banging up pretty good and still is recovering. Woodstock the animal rescue organization is going to take him and train him. When he is up for adoption they will call us to see if we want him back, but you know I think two large dogs is more than the Borchgardt Bunch can handle!

Last Saturday night I went to a Brazos Christian School fundraising event with some church friends. I dressed up, actually put my contacts in which is hard these days since my eyes are rejecting them, blew dry my hair , had a full face of make up on and even a coordinated outfit. When Blaine saw me he said, ' Mom, you look beautiful!" I said, "Thank you, Blaine." He stared at me again and said, " No, Mom. really, go look in the mirror!" It was if Blaine had no idea and he must have thought that I had no idea, that I do clean up pretty good =) =) =) =)! It was if that was the first time he had seem me looking the way I should look every day.

I am also taking graduate school for my principalship certificate. I love learning. I enjoy researching, writing papers and learning all about best practices in education. It has just added more wild and wooly days here with The Borchgardt Bunch.

Blaine's comments on my appearance made me realize that after so many days of just putting anything on and rushing out the door, maybe I should invest in a little more time for myself. Balancing working full time with two 8 year olds and rescue animals and of course husband Doyle many days leaves me depleted with nothing left to give, so who do I give nothing to ...ME! I have a beautiful blessed life, by no means am I saying that. I am just saying balancing does not come easy for me. I wish I could find a way to feel that I am doing every role ...teacher, friend, Sunday School teacher, mother, sister, daughter, wife to the best of my ability. So many days I am living completely on GRACE which is how God intended it anyway!!!!!

Spring Ball has begun. Blaine is a Marlin and of course still imitating those professionals with pounding before he swings. We love baseball at The Borchgardt House for sure.

Scootch.... the yellow lab is rescued

We are officially out numbered at our house now by rescued pets. It is amazing to me how animals in need of rescue just always happen to cross someone in The Borchgardt Bunch's path. Last Tuesday, March 4th, Doyle and Blaine took a late afternoon drive to the river in South Brazos County to check on several cows who should be having calves. Suzanna and I passed on this quick trip to the river as I had just grabbed her from ballet class. Doyle was headed after the river run to Brenham to celebrate his mother winning Tax Assessor for Washington County. Needless to say a busy night at our house. I receive a phone call about an hour and half after the boys had left from Doyle who sounded distressed. Apparently they stumbled upon a yellow lab male who had been attacked by other dogs or coyotes. He was covered in mud and blood and could only walk on three legs. Doyle had wanted to drive off knowing good and well what was in store for us after the Cowboy rescue which ended in orthopedic surgery at Texas A&M. Blaine fell in love with the lab and as Doyle began to drive away not wanting to rescue the dog Blaine cried, " Mom would do it! God would do it!" Doyle said when your son tells you how Christ would respond in a situation, you have no other choice, but to respond as Christ would. He loaded the injured lab up and called me to get the on call vet to the clinic for a long night ahead of them. Sure enough ,it was a long night as they had to bath the lab 3 times to get the blood and mud off. He had xrays done to find no broken bones, but his wounds were three days old and horribly infected. Antibiotics, rabies shots, worm medicine for the grossly out of control hookworms he has and specail rinse for his wounds are now my daily regiment. When the vet called and said, ' The stray ( Blaine later named Scootch) is ready to come home." I thought, ' Home? Where in the world is the stray's home?" Well, now it is with us in our zoo of rescued animals. Each with their own story to tell, but certainly all now healed and restored.

When sharing the story with my father on how we now have come to adopt "Scootch" the yellow lab his one comment was, " That was the Christian thing to do, Sara. You did the right thing!"

Scootch is FULL of energy and our sweet loyal faithful Cowboy has to learn how to now make room for him. Cowboy is quite protective over Blaine and Suzanna! Here is Blaine telling the story of how he found Scootch! and got the uneven hair cut =)!


Here is me "On 10" afraid of the dogs fighting while the kids are swinging and jumping on the trampoline =)! Looking at our backyard from the video, we do need to pick up a bit.

Now and Then......

January flew by in a whirlwind of after Christmas excitment, back to the routines of school and into the new year of 2008! With the beginning of each year also comes the celebration of the duos birthdays! This year they turned 8!!!! 8 years! When Blaine and Suzanna were younger everyone told me, " Enjoy it! They grow so fast!" " Don't blink! They will be grown before you know it!" I thought then that I would stay immersed in bottles, diapers, sippe cups, naps, Barney and Bob the Builder for ever! Oh how now I wish I just could have frozen them then and cherished them...really savored every moment of their baby talk and learning to walk and playing with Fischer Price Little People and lazy days that stretched for ever at the park or pool with no where to go or be...just us! I love 8 though. I love each season we are in, but with it we say good bye to another season. Cherish those seasons! Cherish them!

Blaine and Suzanna are the light in my life! They are the wind beneath my wings and they are so much of who I am now as each day we embark together on a new journey in this big wide world to find what it holds! Blaine encountered his first school bully this week and I mean BULLY! We learned a new cuss word from the bully and we also learned what real friends do when someone is being hurtful as one of Blaine's friend jumped between him and the bully to protect Blaine. That is what a friend does...jumps in front of you when you can not jump for yourself. It was a precious story. I realized though bullies today are not like the bullies I recall. As this bully had profanity I had not even heard and had an agenda to harm in a way I am sure I never experienced. On the bus she told the students closest to her she would bring a knife to school and stab me, Blaine's mother. I am sure that this was just a threat.... something she had seen on tv but still pretty vivid, pretty scary and pretty real to a just turned 8 year old. So this is where we send our kiddos off to school to see and learn how to deal with the real world??? Is this the real world????? Do I deal with this today as an adult? Wow...how scary if it is the real world. Right???? Teach them well I keep hearing ringing in my ears. Teach them well. They know Jesus! What a journey we have been on just this week.

Here are my angels....Now and then some from then =)!

Little Boys

I received this in an email. I do not know who wrote it, but they certainly must have a Blaine in their life as well. This made me smile from ear to ear. I am sure all the mothers with boys will certainly relate. There is nothing quite like a little boys energy level combined with a wild imagination. It certainly makes for lively days! Enjoy the list.

For those who have sons & those who are happy that they don't.

1. A king size waterbed holds enough water to fill a 2000 sq. ft. house 4 inches deep.
2. If you spray hair spray on dust bunnies and run over them with roller blades, they can ignite. 3. A 3-year old Boy's voice is louder than 200 adults in a crowded restaurant.
4. If you hook a dog leash over a ceiling fan, the motor is not strong enough to rotate a 42 pound Boy wearing Batman underwear and a Superman cape. It is strong enough, however, if tied to a paint can, to spread paint on all four walls of a 20x20 ft. room.
5. You should not throw baseballs up when the ceiling fan is on. When using a ceiling fan as a bat, you have to throw the ball up a few times before you get a hit. A ceiling fan can hit a baseball a long way.
6. The glass in windows (even double-pane) doesn't stop a baseball hit by a ceiling fan.
7. When you hear the toilet flush and the words 'uh oh,' it's already too late.
8. Brake fluid mixed with Clorox makes smoke, and lots of it.
9. A six-year old Boy can start a fire with a flint rock even though a 36-year old Man says they can only do it in the movies.
10. Certain Lego's will pass through the digestive tract of a 4- year old Boy.
11. Play dough and microwave should not be used in the same sentence.
12. Super glue is forever.
13. No matter how much Jell-O you put in a swimming pool you still can't walk on water.
14. Pool filters do not like Jell-O.
15. VCR's do not eject 'PB & J' sandwiches even though TV commercials show they do.
16. Garbage bags do not make good parachutes.
17. Marbles in gas tanks make lots of noise when driving.
18. You probably DO NOT want to know what that odor is.
19. Always look in the oven before you turn it on; plastic toys do not like ovens.
20. The fire department in Austin, TX has a 5-minute response time.
21. The spin cycle on the washing machine does not make earthworms dizzy.
22. It will, however, make cats dizzy.
23. Cats throw up twice their body weight when dizzy.
24. 80% of Women will pass this on to almost all of their friends, with or without kids.
25. 80% of Men who read this will try mixing the Clorox and brake fluid.

Happy New Year!

I created this great video of all my very favorite photos from year 2007! I know that I should be able to have it automatically appear for you from one true media but am having trouble accomplishing that! If you know, send it onward. Anyway, I am hoping if you click on this link then you will be directed to the Borchgardt Bunch 2007 year in review! Hopefully some one can help me in the mean time!

http://www.onetruemedia.com/share_view_player?p=488ee4337cf85077dcbbf5

Christmas in Review

Christmas Time is over. How sad it is to come crashing back to the reality of the real world. After 9 days of food, family and celebration it is hard to join the real world again! We were blessed to spend our time with family, more family and then even more family. I had intended on coming back a little early from the family ranch to get myself settled in for 2008, but quickly learned I was being held hostage as I could not peel Blaine, Doyle or Suzanna away from the wide open spaces and celebrations. What memories were made this Christmas. As I took the tree down last night, my heart saddened to see it over. We should remember Christmas all year shouldn't we! (Without the shopping! ) Here are just a few fun filled highlights!

Big Borchgardt Christmas Tree
The tree at the ranch after Santa visits
Doyle's great lighting on our house!
Doyle, Uncle AT and Blaine go wild hog hunting.

Doyle's dad's side family Christmas was held at Aunt Betty's !
Suzanna and cousin Morgan!
Blaine and Cowboy take a rest from all the holiday frenzy!

Suzanna and her Aunt make a Gingerbread house. Blaine and the deer from the Brady deer lease!
Catherine and Scout enjoy some down time at the ranch as well.
Doyl'e mother side Christmas! This side of the family has two sets of twins and a set of triplets!
Blaine and Suzanna and their sweet Aunt , my sister at the ranch!