Sad, Sad, Sad...

Today I am Sad, Sad, Sad. It has been a real rough month for our hog business which we call, Mor-Pork. Due to extreme financial difficulties a couple of days before I left for my Annual Training for guards Marty and his Dad made the decision to liquidate the hogs. This means we are selling all our hogs and we are no longer going to be owning our hogs. During the two weeks I was gone 1700 sows were halled to market in semi-trucks. These are our Momma pigs that are not suppose to go to the meat market until they have given us several good pregnancies and litters of baby piggies.

This means Mor-Pork as it has been for the last 20 years will no longer be.

This makes me SAD, SAD, SAD.

A little over 2 weeks after this decision was made the farrowing barn is completely empty. Before the pigs started to move out I had Marty take the kids and I over to the farrowing unit for one last look. This is the first time Zach has seen piggies. When I looked to the future I always pictured the kids someday going with Daddy on maybe a Saturday and helping with chores and feeding the pigs, just as I had done when I was a kid with my Dad. Now we don't know what the future will hold. Circumstances over the last year have what lead us to this decision. First is was high grain prices - corn which is the primary ingredient in pig feed. Then it was the falling hog market. Then we get a disease TGE that effects our newborn piggies. Then the Swine Flu hit which again made hog prices drop even farther. Then we get another disease. We kept hoping that if we just hang in there for a couple more months, or till spring, or till the end of summer... things would turn around and we would be just fine. But it is like a bleeding wound that just doesn't seem to stop. We keep bleeding and Marty and his Dad decided to make it stop so we could start to recover.

Right now we still have nursery pigs and finisher pigs. The finisher hogs will grow out and be sent to market and the nursery pigs will be sold in a month or so as roaster or feeder pigs. Marty says by the beginning of September the barns will be completely empty. At the beginning of May we owned around 20,000 hogs. This liquidation will also contribute to the unemployment world as we had 11 employees who are gradually being layed-off as our hog population decreases.

For the future we hope that some investor such as a larger hog business or a feed company will want to put hogs in our barns and then Marty can take care of them. Maybe a few years down the road we will own hogs again... but it is hard to say.

As for all of us we are doing OK. Somedays the reality of what is happening hits us hard and brings out the SAD's but then we have to just remember that we put forth our best effort to make this work - especially Marty and his Dad and hopefully something better is waiting for us. I keep praying and telling myself and Marty that hopefully this is the terrible end leading to the beginning of a much better situation. God must have something waiting for us which hopefully a year from now we will understand. Please keep the Malecek's in your prayers.

Annual Training 2009

For the last two weeks I had my two weeks of Annual Training (AT) for Guards which was at Camp Ripley. My battalion spent almost the entire time out in the field (the woods... for those not accustomed to military lingo). I captured a few pictures with my cell phone camera. Amazingly I was able to keep the charge on my cell phone and get reception so I could call home in the evening and talk to the family. We have generators that run occasionally giving us power in our tents. I haven't been out to the field for an annual training for about 5 years or so. It never fails that when we are at Camp Ripley sleeping in tents and not getting showers it rains... and rains... and then rains some more. Then of course it is hot and humid... and there is an abundance of ticks. We came in to contonment (the base) about every 3 days for a shower. We did lots of good training. My role is of a nurse in the military... so mostly I help with the training of the medics. In the real scenario I would be in charge of Patient Holding. This is an area that I could keep soldiers for a max of 72 hours who are in need of medical attention. The platoon I am part of if Treatment Platoon. My platoon is made up of about 20 medics, 2 doctors, 1 physician assistant, 1 nurse (me), 1 dentist, 1 dental assistant, x-ray techs, pharmacy tech, a platoon leader, and a paperwork person. Our responsibilities are to treat the injured soldiers, trauma and non-trauma. We get soldiers from the Ambulance Platoon - who go out and get the injured soldiers. So during AT it is all about running scenarios to better prepare us for the real thing on a deployment. We do simulations of Mass Cals (mass casualties) and different possible injuries such as sucking chest wound, amputations, gunshot to the abdomen, head wound, etc. I am fortunate to be with a great group of soldiers and even though the living conditions are not quite like they are at home it I am always able to reflect back and say I had a good experience and was able to learn.

Our company TOCC

Our Treatment Tent - this is where my platoon works out of.

My living quarters for 2 weeks. The picture above is our tents and the picture below is my sleeping bag and cot. I also should add that the first night it rained I did get wet due to a poorly put together tent!

Our means of transportation while in the field.

We did some helicopter training on a Black Hawk. We put our litters (patient stretchers) on and off the rig and then we got the pleasure of having a ride!

This is me all buckled in the Black Hawk.


This is one of the training exercises we did... low crawling with a litter (stretcher).
I sure missed the kids while I was gone, but luckily I have a wonderful husband who took on the job of Single Dad. Thanks Sweetie! He did get a little help from my Mom and his Mom. Thanks Grandmas!

A new set of wheels...

Check out who has a new set of wheels.... Cousin Jesse! It's a battery powered mustang with a foot pedal and everything. This was on Memorial Day. Jesse took Gracie for a spin around the block (the Daddy's rode along on teh bikes). It was absolutely adorable. Then to top it off they put on their shades! I think someday Little Jesse might be a bad influence on my Little Gracie.... it is awfully cute right now!

Planting Trees

At the beginning of May we planted some broad leaf trees out in our yard to go with the evergreens. Gracie had a blast playing in the dirt, jumping in the holes, and helping put the trees in the right spots. We planted a maple, sunburst honeylocust, 2 apples trees, and 2 flowering crab trees. The yard should look pretty nice in a few years!

Zach's 8th Month...

Month 8 has been a busy month for Zach. He has finally learned how to sleep through the night... not every night, but a good majority. He has learned how to clap his hands... see the video below, he has learned how sit up without being held... see pictures below, he has learned how to get up to his knees, no crawling yet, but it I don't think it will be to terribly long. Seems like all at once he is developing all these new skills. His hair is growing fast too, I almost sent him along with Marty to get a hair cut last weekend (J/K)! Zach and his sister get a long pretty well. Mostly Zach is facinated with Gracie and will just burst out in laughs sometimes. It is pretty cute. Gracie likes Zach too, except when he gets a hold of her hair or her toys or sits on Mommy's lap... then some jealousy can come out.

One year ago...

I know I am very, very behind on my blog posting... and I was doing so good at the beginning of April. Anyways I downloaded the camera tonight and realized I have all these cute pictures of Gracie's 2 year birthday party, coloring Easter eggs, planting some trees in the yard, going to the park... the list goes on and on. My hope is to put a few of these events up, but I thought I would put the following pictures up tonight. I am sure my sisters will appreciate remembering what we all looked like 1 year ago in May 2008...

One year ago May 2008, Christy was about 8 almost 9 months pregnant, Shelly was around 6 months and I was 5 months. Christy, I am sure was completely miserable at this point, Shelly was just about to get to that point and I was in the stage that the bump was finally looking like a baby and not an excessive weight gain!

One year later and we all have the following cute bundles of joy.

Kate almost 1, Joe almost 9 months, and Zach almost 8 months.

Boy how a year can go by so fast.

Stay tuned for hopefully more postings later this week... (key word is hopefully...)

6mo and 2 yr pictures

Zachariah Martin 6 months old and Gracelyn Elizabeth 2 years old.

They grow up soo fast!

The All-Nighter

• So I am sitting here thinking... about what the term all-nighter means. I think I had my first all-nighter back in grade school when my church youth group did a lock-in at a bowling alley and we stayed up all night of course bowling, and then watching movies, eating pizza, drinking pop, eating popcorn... who knows what else. The point of course was to stay up all night.

• Then I think in high school the all-nighter may have been a post-prom party hosted by the school. Again the goal was to stay up all night doing activities such as a hypnotist show, movies, popcorn, games, ect.

• As I approached college the all-nighter started to change a little. It now could be staying up all night to study for the midterm, or it could once again be staying up with friends doing, you know, what you do in college.

• Now I am thinking what the all-nighter currently means in my life. It is very much the opposite of years past for now it means my little boy has slept ALL NIGHT and I also had the long desired pleasure of sleeping ALL NIGHT (last night) as well. Little Zachy has only done this less than a handful of times in his 6 1/2 months of life... so it is very much appreciated.
  
• So what would I rather have the crazy days of staying up all night to party and hang out with my friends or sleeping all night as my little boy sleeps. I don't know. I think it is a toss up. As I love my children dearly and wouldn't trade a million, trillion bucks for them, I do miss the carefree days of when all I had to worry about was myself. Now that I have my head thinking about this thought, I guess it really isn't that hard of a decision. I choose my all nighters that I get now. I cannot imagine for even a tenth of a second not having my Marty, Gracie, and Zachy in my life. I wouldn't trade them in a million, trillion years for that once carefree-only-worry-about-myself time.

• Thanks Zach for giving Mommy an all-nighter. You can do it again real soon, she won't mind.

Funny Gracie

I have to share this story with you all, cause it is just so cute. Gracie for the most part sleeps very well in a big bed and rarely will wake up at night. A few times she will come into our bedroom or she will wake up crying. A few times I will be sleeping in bed facing the edge and I will for some reason wake up, open my eyes, and see Gracie staring at me. That is a little disturbing, because initially it is kinda scary to wake up in the middle of the night and see someone staring at you, but also disturbing because... how long has she been standing there? Has she wondered to other places of the dark house in the middle of the night? This leads me to the adventure I had last evening and the funny part of this story, which was what I woke up to last night. My little Zachy is still enlightening me by waking up at least once a night to eat (just 3 weeks ago it was still 2 times a night!). So at 3am last night I wake up to him crying, which as I said is the usual for the night, but the unusual part was as I get up I find Gracie sitting straight up in the doggy bed that is in our room. She is wide awake, just sitting like a good little girl with her blankie. It was like she was just sitting there patiently waiting for me to wake up and find her. But this gets me thinking how long has she been waiting? Did she stand next to the bed and stare at me for a while? My only guess is she did, and when I didn't wake up she decided she would wait in the doggy bed. Luckily Willie (the dog) has been sleeping sprawled out on the floor because he is hot with his thick winter fur. What if Zachy hadn't woken me up? (I am patiently waiting for those nights). My best guess is she would have fallen asleep in the doggy bed and I would have found her in the morning all cuddled up with her blankie. Then I think, if only she would try to wake me, by touching my nose or talking a little... then I would just gladly pull her in bed with us. But no, my sweet little Gracie just sits and patiently waits. Why can't she be that patient during the day? So that is my adventure for last night. We will see what tonight brings.

Sweet Dreams My Darlings.

There is something so comforting and peaceful about watching someone sleep, especially little kids and babies, especially your own babies. As I stand there and watch my kids I think how could anyone not love a child. As I see my kids sleeping deeply it reminds me of how vulnerable and helpless they are. How much they need me. How much I need them. How much I adore them. How much I love them. They don't even know I am watching them. They don't even know I am thinking of them no matter what I am doing or where I am every day. They are mine and I am theirs forever and ever! In light of our upcoming Easter holiday... these very feelings of mine make me think of how God feels for us, his children. He is watching even though we don't realize it. He is thinking of us every minute of every day. We need Him. We are His and He is ours.

Happy Easter my dear friends.

SWEET DREAMS MY DARLINGS.

MAY GOD'S BLESSINGS AND LOVE FOREVER SURROUND YOU.

It's a Baking Sunday

This was actually a couple of Sundays ago... but I never was able to finish the page to get it posted, so I am finishing it now. The Sunday started out with the idea I had to make homemade pecan Carmel rolls. A friend of mine had posted some wonderful pictures and step-by-step instructions on her website... and I thought "I could do that" So Gracie, Zach and I were off for an adventure to make from scratch homemade Carmel rolls. I have made rolls before, but mind you it has been several, several years and at the time I had the little girl hands and my dear Grandma Sohre had the big girl hands. Amazingly I still remember some of her tricks and the way she did things. I miss those days of spending the whole day with Grandma making rolls, and of course I miss eating them! Hopefully this adventure can happen again in the Malecek home and I can pass onto my kids the treasure of making homemade rolls!

Gracie is my biggest helper. She will bring the big chair over from the dining room table all on her own and start digging into the utensil drawer. She has learned that Zach's high chair is on wheels and she can push him over to where she is to join in the fun. As you can see Zach is enjoying himself as well discovering the joy of kitchen gadgets!

It's time for Gracie to be in the highchair and actually help out.

She has learned that the best part is always sampling and licking the spoon!

Now for the prize we are trying to create.

I think I need to learn how to dissolve yeast a little better, because they didn't rise the best... but hey this is my first time by myself... so I am learning.

Rolls that are fresh from the oven. Remember these are Carmel rolls......so on to flipping them over and ta da... don't they look yummy?
Of course we had to share with Grandma Betty and Grandpa Joe so we dish up a few servings. Grandma Betty has given up sweets and rolls for lent...

but we got her to cheat a little (don't tell)!
Gracie eating her 1st homemade Carmel roll along with her dolly.

Zach will get to eat his later in the liquid breastmilk form.

So there was our Baking Sunday Adventure.

We hope we made your taste buds water!