Well It's Official...Matthew Is A Junior Higher Now

On Monday this week BPC Elementary had their graduation for the 5th grade class. It was really neat to watch, as they also had the DARE graduation at the same time. It is so amazing how quickly these little babies grow up and become young adults. It is very hard for me to comprehend that Matthew, my first born son, will be off to the Junior High School next year. It is so sad and exciting all at the same time. Any new stage in growth and development brings a lot of sadness and joy, as you know in your heart that with each milestone they will soon be learning to spread their wings and fly. I have enjoyed watching my children grow over the years, but watching Matthew grow into the young adolescent he is has been incredible. He is such an kind and compassionate child, but so incredibly intelligent. We are so looking forward to seeing him develop into the young adult that he strives to be. I will post some graduation pictures on the pic blog in a few days. love to all...

Breezey Had Her Baby...

On Sunday April 20th at 4:20 AM Breezey gave birth to a beautiful palomino filly. I think Kate was a bit disappointed that we were not there to see the birth, but honestly she went so fast we wouldn't have made it anyway. We were out to check on her Saturday night and she wasn't even showing signs of laboring or even being ready to begin laboring. So we really were surprised when we went out yesterday afternoon to check on her to find out that she had delivered already. Breeze seems to be taking to motherhood much better this year than she did last year, so we have great hopes for this little girl. We are not sure if we will keep her or allow the breeder to keep her in lieu of breeding Breeze again for a baby next year. The problem that we are running into is that this baby will be too old for Kaitlin to take to college with her. Which we didn't know when we chose to breed her last year for a baby this year. Anyway, I think that the plan is to let the breeder keep this baby in lieu of a stud fee Breeze for a baby next year. But of course this baby is only a day old so who knows what is going to happen. Kaitlin is very excited, but I do have to say even she knows that this years baby will be too old for the purpose in which she was looking to breed Breeze. At any rate this little girl is a really cutie...check her out at http://perchalskifamilypics.blogspot.com

The New Yearling Gets A Name...

Finally a name has been chosen for kate's new yearling. The barn name is Missy (I call her Little Miss though). With the registered names you usually take the dam's name and the sire's name and you combine them as a registered name. The reason behind doing that is because there are a lot of very well know names in the AQHA (American Quarter Horse Association), so when you have a baby that you are going to show you want to give him/her names that will be recongnized byt the judges. With all the being said Missy's dam's name is CL Bonnie Blue, her sire's name is Dudes Roman Pistol...so her registered name will be...Dudes Miss Pistol.

Waiting For Breeze To Have Her Baby...

Well here it is the 18th of April and Breeze still has not had her baby. She is driving us all crazy wondering when that little munchkin is going to arrive. By our guess she is about 3 weeks overdue, but of course breeding horses is not an exact science either. Kate is kind of hoping that she will wait until Jena's birthday, which is May 1st, but I am hoping not. That would put her almost 5 weeks overdue, and that is just too long. With each day that she does not have this foal it increases the chances of losing the mare or the foal or maybe even both. We know that her last breed date was April 24, 2007 and they only carry for 11 months so as you can see she is getting pretty far overdue. I am hoping to go out tonight and get some pics of her big fat belly, but usually when I try she won't stand still long enough for me to get any. But I figure at least it is worth a try. I will keep you updated and will most definitely let everyone know once the little stinker has arrived.

FFA Awards Banquet...

Tonight was the FFA awards banquet. It always begins with dinner and then they do the awards ceremony. I am proud to say that in addition to the awards that Kaitlin won at the sectional and district levels for her proficiency interviews, she also won the coveted sophomore award of "Star Chapter Agribusniessman". Basically that award is given to the Sophomore that creates a business plan, puts that plan into action, and makes a profit doing it. She won this award for her business venture as a barn manager for Beverly Steinburgh. We are very proud of her because we know she worked extra hard to achieve that goal that she set for herself. She also won the equine science record book for her chapter, and last but not least she earned all the credits needed to achieve the highest level of chapter recognition. Kaitlin also won a scholarship to a FFA Leadership Camp this summer, each school can only send one student to this camp and Kaitlin was the chosen student for this year. Kaitlin has a lot to be proud of these days as those are all big accomplishments. I know we are very proud of her and hope that she keeps up the good work next year. I have posted the pics of the banquet on http://perchalskifamilypics.blogspot.com

Our First Tornado Warning Of The Season...

Thursday this week was a very strange weather day. Every time we have one of those strange weather days, you had better watch out.

It started off pretty cold, very rainy, and terribly blustery. By mid morning the rain had tapered off and the wind had died down. Around 3:00 the sun came out and it really began to heat up. The sky stayed pretty clear for the remainder of the late afternoon. Probably at about 6:15 Kate's boyfriend, Robert, called and told her that we were suppose to be getting some tornado activity.

We turned off the DVR recording of American Idol Gives Back to see the weather report, and found that yes were under a tornado watch. For us, the Perchalski's, that is a big deal because once we go into a watch that is the time we begin taking all the animals to the basement of the big house. We have made that our plan since we moved here because our tornado whistle only gives a 2 minute warning. Which literally means you only have 2 minutes to take cover before the tornado is here. Since we have 5 cats, 3 dogs, 2 gerbils, 1 turtle, and the goat it is better for us to already have them in the basement if we end up in a warning. Both Paul & I know that if we went into a warning the kids would panic over the animals, so this plan makes it easier to get the kids to cooperate when/if that tornado whistle goes off.

Anyway, what was really strange was that on this particular day we literally went from watch to warning in about 15 minutes. That usually doesn't happen, what is a lot more common to happen is that the counties surrounding us will go into there warnings first and then it will hit us. Thursday that tornado was spotted so close that there was no almost no watch at all. The ironic thing was when we went into the warning the sky was still pretty light, it really did not look like much. It just goes to show that looks really can be deceiving. Well, needless to say the tornado did not hit Bushnell or anyplace else as far as we could tell...but it was our first tornado warning of the season. The only thing really scary about that is usually when we get them this early, it is a good sign that our tornado season is going to be terrible. I hope not, but only time will tell on this one.

Lots Of Pictures Of Memphis...

Just wanted to let everyone know that I have posted a bunch more of the pictures I took in Memphis on: http://perchalskifamilypics.blogspot.com/

ENJOY!!!