My Dad and his dinosaur disease

So how do you explain the disease that is attacking your father's lung when you can't pronounce it or even spell it.

Yikes!

I have always said that the disease is bronchiosaurus. Honestly, it's not, but it's the easiest thing for me to say and spell. If I say it right, I think it's Bronchiectasis But even then I might be wrong.

Maybe it's Bronchiolitis Yikes, they really all sound the same and start out being described the same. Regardless, the disease is awful and it's slowing destroying his new lungs. The doctor at Henry Ford have talked to my Dad about the possibility of another double lung transplant. If they do, it would have to done in Cleveland and that is only if they find that his body and mind are strong enough to survive another transplant. Remember, he had a DOUBLE LUNG TRANSPLANT! Most people you hear about only have a single so they at least have one of their original lungs working. The man has been through so much already and it breaks my heart to see him in pain.

A few months back the transplant doctors explained that x-ray of his lungs are always going to look like he has Pneumonia One of the characteristics of the disease is that it scars the lungs and slowly takes away the lung capacity which is why he is now back on oxygen.

Before the transplant, that is what Dad wanted more than anything: Not to ever have to wear oxygen again. "I don't ever want to carry an oxygen tank again." That is what he told me. Six years later, he is.

How did this seminar on lung disease begin just now? Well, today around 11am I got a phone call from my Dad. He said that he woke up with a temperature and didn't feel quite right so he called Henry Ford and they said for the visiting nurse from Oaklawn in Marshall to come check him out. Not long after that, I got another call where he told me that an ambulance was on its way to take him to Jackson. I was to go down to Homer and get his hospital stuff around then head over to the hospital in Jackson.

There we were in the ER, again, waiting to find out test results and also what Henry Ford wanted us to do. Of course, it took four nurses getting two tries each to find the right vein to get his blood gas sample. OUCH! I could feel his pain. If you have never had a blood gas sample, count your lucky stars. So what is a blood gas draw? Good question. It's where they are looking at the CO2 levels in your blood to make sure your body is processing the oxygen properly. Look, WOO HOO, I didn't even have to give you a hyperlink for that one.

Well, a few hours into our visit and three inches into my knitting project. AH HA! So you wondered why I have a pick of some awful looking knitting project with a sick man in the background doing a breathing treatment? Well, now you know! I knit while I am at the hospital. What on earth did I ever do before when I had to spend all those countless hours in the hospitals with Dad.

So what am I knitting? My blue 10 inch square for the Hope Lodge Lap Blanket Project. Here are the requirements. You can join in an make a square too!

Summer Time Blues

Square-roughly 10 inches. Really, if it's not 10" it doesn't matter.

Machine wash and vaguely dryable-includes acrylic, Superwash wool and mixes there of

Any Pattern

Crochet or Knit

Any shade of blue-any

Where will they go?

They will be turned into Lap Robes and donated to Hope Lodge.

So I sat with my Dad in the ER knitting for someone else who will be in need of a loving lap blanket in the future. You see, my Dad got an awesome Lung Lovey from knitwithsnot for the days when he is chilled from not feeling good....like today. Except that his daughter, in all her awesome, left it on his recliner when she was packing his hospital stuff....but it will be right there where he can use it when he comes home.

So....lung lovey, lap robes, kidney kozies it doesn't matter. The point is to let people out there know you care and you can do it by knitting, crocheting, writing cards, sending flowers, baking cookies...you get the point.

So the wonderwhygal is knitting with love while she sits in the ER with her Dad because I have seen the wonder that a little bit of love can make for someone in the hospital.

ANOTHER REMINDER:

REGISTER TO BE AN ORGAN DONOR!

Yikes! Can't you tell that being an organ donor saves lives....like my Dad!

Check out the cool Gift of Life link on the side of my blog. Really, after hearing my story don't you want to register yourself and then tell everyone else they should be a donor. I do!

Pool, Pacas, Party, Pototo Salad, Pooped!

Another successful Morrison Pool Party!
(as you can see from the picture, no one ever wants to leave.)

I tell ya, we have the best friends ever! Since our daughter started Kindergarten, we have been hosting a pool party on the last Saturday in June for our great friends at the elementary school. This year was no exception. The only difference is that our son is now in Kindergarten so now we needed to find a happy medium on who to invite so that both kids could have their friends over.

Lucky for us, a good chunk of both the kids friends are sibling.


(our parties will wear your children out)

The only difference in the pool party preparations this year was that I also have a barn full of pacas to take care of. Hubby was concerned that the paca poo smell would mess up the party. Whatever! The sweet smell of my pacas? My newest perfume scent? Yes, I gave up my beautiful perfumes to wear the wonderful smell of barn and I LOVE IT!

So at 6am yesterday morning I was out scooping poo to keep the "smell" down. Hubby is insane, do you know that? Does he not realize that that minute you clean up a paca poo pile, those adorable alpacas are going to go and re-mark their territory. Silly Man!

Oh well....it's better to scoop it all first thing in the morning anyways. It gets too darn hot in the afternoon.

Our guests began to arrive at Noon and what a great time we had. We always have a potluck pool party so I had requested special dishes from my awesome friends. Stephani brough her awesome potato salad and Lynne made her amazing brownie that are to die for. Kris brought her baked beans and Missy made the best chocolate covered strawberries along with a totally delicious cake. We had veggies, hot dogs, my fresh squeezed lemonade (went through 7 gallons of that), chips, dips and Dee brought her watermelon. Poor Dee. She asked why I just told her to bring a fruit. Didn't she have an amazing dish for me to request. Oh boy, oh boy. Did she ever ask the wrong question. Next year my request won't be so easy on her :-)


Like I said, we had all the good fixings for a party: Good food, Good weather, Good friends! What we, the parents, didn't expect was that the biggest draw for the kids wasn't the pool. It wasn't the alpacas or the chickens. The thing that the kids craved more than anything was the kittens. I don't know how many times they would leave the pool to love on Friend and Furball. I can't count how many times that those two barn cats made their way to the pool, not by their own accord either. Then it happened! Yes, as you caner got her webkinz purse out and the poor kitten was toted around in that.


The kittens kept hiding but when you have 20 kids looking for them, it's hard to hide. So Friend and Furball were the hits of the party and boy, did they sleep the rest of the night. Poor kitties.

The kids did have a chance to feed the pacas and loved it. I wouldn't let them in the pen with the pacas because it would have been too chaotic but I did have feed for the kids to give the boys. We left the girls be which I think they were very thankful for but the Wonder Boys are little piggies and wanted their treats. After I have sworn up and down that pacas don't spit, Romeo , my Romeo, had to prove me wrong. I explained to the kids that alpacas will spit at each other and one of the boys got caught in the cross fire when Romeo wanted to get all the treats and not share. Well, he did share his spit.

After the party ended and everyone went home, we had a sleepover. Two of the girls got to stay the night and by 10pm, we had four kids crashed on the couch. I made my Mickey Mouse waffles for breakfast along with Cinnamon roles then....where did they go? Of course! By 8:30am, they were back out visiting the kittens. Well, at least two of them were. The younger ones chose to watch cartoons and play DS.

So, our Sunday has been a day of recuperation. Well, at least for me. Hubby has been out in the woods building a tree fort/hunting blind with two of our neighbors. All I could think of as I took this final picture was of three little boys making their tree fort except these are three grown men as excited as little boys building their tree fort.

So, until the next party....YIKES! That's next weekend for the Fourth Holiday. DOUBLE YIKES! I don't even get a weekend off. AGGHHHH!

TGIF?

TGIF!

Why I am so happy, I don't know because lately weekends mean more work. Of course this weekend besides all the work we have been doing in the barn, we are also having our Third Annual Morrison Family Pool Party for all of our children's friends. We started this tradition when our daughter was in kindergarten. Well, now both of the kids are in school so it's double the fun. Actually we have lucked out because most of our friend's children are right around the same age as our kids so all the sibling have classes together or at least play together on the playground.

Preparations for the party are pretty set. The house doesn't have to be cleaned because the pool is set away from the house and better yet...we own a port-a-john.

Yup! We put a second well in but not a second septic tank so our pool visitors get the Morrison Port-a-john to use. It all started when I had way too many wet kids and wet feet tracking into my house. I hate cleaning so the less mess created is less mess to clean up...or so I hope.

Of course, I have some children who will hold it rather than use a perfectly good potty but that's a problem for their parents to deal with because my kids couldn't wait to christen the new john! I know, strange kids. They must take after their father.


So we have the party to look foward to...and better yet, because I have been complaining about the heat all week we will have a nice sunny hot day to swim in the pool. HOORAY!

Now, Saturday night it's supposed to rain. I don't want it to rain too much though because I still don't have the gutters on my new barn or the sand/rock mix added to help with the rain. The contractor waited until 7:30am this morning to call and say he wanted to come deliver the goods. Ok, no problem except at that time I was already on my way to dropping the kids off at daycamp then going to help Hubby out with his work. WHATEVER!

I told the contractor that I need a wee bit more notice than that since I still need to move some stuff out of the barn....including my herd to the outer pasture, water for them to drink, and also move my new barn kittens.

Aren't they cute! The kids wanted cats.....we had cats once upon a time. One died, Crybaby, and the other we gave to a friend, Bella (short for Cabella) because she hated the two dogs and the two kids...honestly, she did. I vowed to never have cats again. That was, until I saw two mice in the alpaca barn last winter. Yuck! Double Yuck! Ewwwww!

So we went and picked out these two adorable kittens to live with the pacas and take care of the mice. The calico cat is named FurBall even though she doesn't have much fur but that's what Sister Bear wanted to name her.

The Orange and White is named Friend. Brother Bear named him. Ok, he wanted to name an alpaca friend and I said no. He already named one Buddy and Dude so Friend was not going to happen. Well, Friend does live up to his name. He is too darn friendly and I am the one wanting to bring them in the house to keep more than the kids.

I forgot the spell that cats put over you.

YIKES! I'm sorry dogs. You are my true babies! I will never love a cat more than either of you....

So, I am off to finish pool party preparations then figure out where I am going to temporarily move all my barn stuff until after the excavators finish fixing the water puddle problems.

YIKES!

Bathing Beauties

In case you aren't from Michigan, it is totally HOT here!

Now, living in Michigan we are used to all sorts of weather but we can be complete babies when the temp. reaches 90 degrees. I prefer being in my air-conditioned house or my swimming pool. My chickens prefer the shade of a tree. My kittens prefer the shade of the hay feeder. Alas, my Wonder Alpacas don't have that luxury....so, I have started giving the belly showers.

Belly showers are something like playing in the sprinkler for us except mine don't want the sprinkler. No, that would be too easy for me. My Wonder Boys and Wonder Gals want me to hold the sprayer and purposefully spray their necks, their bellies and their butts. Yes, you read correctly. They will even present their backsides and raise their tails so I can spray their under carriage. After that, their body temps lower and I have a happy herd for a few hours.

Of course, after I give all the Wonder Boys and Wonder Gals their romp in the water then refill their water buckets, I am drenched in sweat....good thing for my pool and air-conditioning.

I would provide amazing photos of my herd playing in the water but my hubby hasn't quite got the volunteer aspect down for spraying them while I play photographer and hubby is an awful photographer so.....I will show you the after affects.

As you will see, I have fans going to keep the Wonder Herd cool in the barn so my girls, who are nice and wet will go stand in front of the fans. Now, I forgot to tell you about Step B. See, Step A is to get wet and cool down, Step C is to stand in front of the fan to let the air hit your cool skin but Step B is the best! You see, right after my adorable alpacas get good and wet they will find the dirtiest spot in the pasture to roll around in the sand. Oh, How I love that!

The other wonderful thing about this weather is trying to figure out when on earth I am going to scoop all that glorious pacapoo that I rave about. Well, I found the perfect time today. 6AM. Cock-a-doodle-do! Yup, I got up around 5:30am, had some coffee then went out to scoop poo in 70+ degree weather and here it is 1:30pm in 90+ degree weather and the piles have mysteriously returned.


hmmmm, go figure.

So now that the air-conditioning has cooled off this Wonder Gal, I am going to go pick up my kids from daycamp so we can come back home and swim in the pool...and give the Wonder Herd another belly bath.

Do I look like I know what I am doing?

Ok, I am being totally lazy today! I just cut and pasted info from Holly's blog instead of redirecting you....so, for those of you who are totally true blog readers please check out Knit with Snot but since I am putting my own spin on her idea....I cheated so I wouldn't have to retype it all but, alas, as any good writer would do I am giving credit where it's deserve. You go, Holly!


So Holly wrote:
We need a new love in. I mean summer togetherness project. I think the squares thing went really well. Uh, except it was noted that maybe the color choice was a poor one.
I’m going to throw some options out at you. Please remember I don’t give a crap if you join in or not. This is not mandatory. This is what I am personally doing. If you don’t want to do this, don’t think you can do this, don’t want to, don’t have the time, money or energy, THAN IGNORE THIS WHOLE THREAD AND MOVE ON WITH YOUR LIFE.
Summer Time Blues
Square-roughly 10 inches. Really, if it's not 10" it doesn't matter. This is a ZPDK project, your square will be incorporated and loved. Remember the Long Lovey? I can now log cabin like a pioneer, it will work.
Machine wash and vaguely dryable-includes acrylic, Superwash wool and mixes there of
Any Pattern
Crochet or Knit
Any shade of blue-any
Where will they go?
To me, me, me!!!Then, sadly, I will put them together, hopefully with the help of Tracy b at the West Branch Fibery festival and other intrepid Zombie Prom Date Knitters.
They will turned into Lap Robes and donated to Hope Lodge. Think Winter, Think Snow. These are going to cool you down when you are working on your blue square in August when you go, “when is that West Branch Fest? I have time to make that blue square!”

and I wrote:
WOO HOO! I am knitting now so I am going to knit for charity like my great ZPDK friends. I went to YLYS and bought some blue yarn....now I have to figure out an easy pattern to knit.


Holly wrote:
Kidney Kozies-The Saga Continues
Jamie found not one, but 2 dialysis units in Battle Creek that had never heard of Kidney Kozies. Well, since we sort of made up the name, yeah of course they haven't heard of them.
Anyway, we adopted them and said we would do our best to get some knittin’ done for them. Sir-Frogs-A-lot has a Kozy in the works and I have asked Home Grange (you know Chicken BBQ every Month) to donate some lap robes to get us rolling.
Now Jamie a regular of the Kalamazoo Knit and Crochet Meet up Group, our arch rival group, has challenged us to the KIDNEY KOZY SMACK DOWN II. Which kind of stinks because the ZPDKs lose every time we challenge the other group. But I'm pretty sure any groups are winning when we knit for them.

Now, this is where I am totally excited. First, I have seen some amazing Kidney Kozies from my ZPDK friends and my father received a totally awesome Lung Lovey from Holly so I am so inspired to make one. Now, the dialysis patient that receives mine might not feel so lucky but goodness, I have skills and I am going to use them. I mean how bad can it look? Ok, that's a bad question to ask.....so stay tuned cuz this chicky is going to get knitting!

As a matter of fact, I am off to meet the ZPDK at the Grange for an afternoon of knitting. WOO HOO!

Knit under the Stars

Whew! Would yesterday never end?

Besides having a busy day trying to battle the thunderstorms and intense rain that has created massive puddles around my new barn, I also had Sister Bear's dress rehearsal for her dance recital tonight....those pics will be posted later. Anyways, I was busy calling contractors all afternoon to get estimates on gutters for the new barn and also to have sand, pea stone, limestone, etc brought in to help level out the mess that was created when the barn was built. Yikes! I love how the contractor who's son built the barn said, "Normally we would bring in sand/soil prior to building to build up the land." WTF, excuse the language, but WTF! Then why on earth did you not do that in the first place? Now I am going to have to do it by hand with a wheelbarrel because our pasture fencing is up and their big trucks can no longer fit in the area.

Honestly! Contractors really do get on my nerves! So called experts! Bahahahaha(evil laugh) It's a conspiracy against the WonderWhyGal, honestly, it has to be!

Ok, moving forward. So Sister Bear had her dress rehearsal and was totally awesome. Let me add that the awesome flexability and coordination where not inherited by yours truly! With that being said, she is as adorable as can be (that is inherited from me) and I can't wait to see her in the actual performance tonight.

Well, after I got Sister Bear home with Hubby and Brother, I took off again. This was my fourth trip to the other side of town but it was well worth it. I went to visit Your Local Yarn Shop, yes that is the name of the shop which will now be referred to as YLYS in this blogpost. Anyways, we went to Knit Under The Stars for a fundraiser for the Haven of Rest where one of the local radio stations was participating in a roof sit called Roof Sit For the Haven


So.....yours truly and a handful of the Zombie Prom Date Knitters set up camp at YLYS with jammies on and knitting in hand. They had pizza, pop, popcorn and most of all GREAT COMPANY! Along with a free fireworks, um, thunderstorm/lightning show. I still haven't finished my fabulous swirl scarf for Sister Bear. Apparently the final row (1600 stitches) takes a wee bit longer than I had calculated. YIKES!

I was a baby too! I left my fellow knitters at 10pm. I wonder who stayed until midnight. I went home saw my excited little ones off to bed, which was a late night for them because they never stay up past nine, then talked to Hubby which meant I was interrupting his movie.

Today! I swear today I am going to finish this scarf. I am so excited to see it swirl and do what it is supposed to do since the last one didn't. Then, guess what! I picked out some yarn to make another one for my niece. DOUBLE YIKES!

I did by some superwash blue yarn though. I am going to attempt some squares for Holly's project.

Ok, must sign off. Promised the kids two new kittens for the barn. Eek! A mouse! Not anymore....

Until later, gaters!


Happy knitting to all, and to all a good day.

BTW, YLYS has the event going on still today so if you feel guilty about not donating or knitting...go check em out!

Zombies Slayed at Barnes&Noble

Whew! We, The Zombie Prom Date Knitters, arrived at Barnes and Noble last night and there was no sign of the sulky Ipod girl who chose to ignore our charming bunch from last month. We even brought our shovels to take care of her.

What a fabulous turn-out. I lost track of how many people actually made it there but we had a wonderful time knitting, spinning (Yup, Spinsanity and crew brought their drop spindles) and have grand ol' conversations along with slurping down Starbucks Chocolate Chip Frapps...mmmmm, yummy! Yes, the evil dead camera did make it's appearance. wahahahaha Crystal and Em couldn't hide from me!

We had people there that I have never met before along with two young ones learning to knit. Woo Hoo! They can already knit better than me ;-) We got into spinning wheel discussions and our Fuzzy Wuzzy Spinning Wheel friend was there to shed her words of wisdom since I was still babbling (yes, I have been known to babble) on about my fiber and getting it turned into rovings and yarn. Yikes, tell me to shut up if I annoy you....if not, the off button is broken.

My spiral scarf got the seal of approval. Apparently, I am actually knitting this one correctly....it's actually starting to look like pig intestines (hopefully not one of your pigs, Holly) So maybe it will get finished this weekend.

I have decided to attempt some of Knit with snot charity knitting so I am going to get some washable pretty blue yarn to make 10 inch squares for a quilting project she is working on. I figure these 10 inch squares will be good practice for me to learn some different knitting techniques. Did you know that YO is not a way to get someone's attention but really means YARN OVER. Honestly, Yo Yo Yo....ok, I make myself laugh.

So....some lucky person will suffer the abuse of my knitting besides my fortunate family members. I love it though.

Well, until the next zombie sighting....must sign off. I have pacapoo to slay now!

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

Apparently I have fallen in love!

Hubby doesn't seem to upset about it. Honestly, you would think he'd put up a fight since it's not him that I am oohing and ahhhing over. Really, what is he problem? Oh, that's right! I am in love with a little cria named Sunshine. He doesn't feel threatened but maybe he should because she is the most beautiful creature that I have ever seen.

Today the kids and I went to Wind Walker to visit my Sugar Breeze and her little girl, Sunshine. In two days, she has grown. Ok, only a pound but she has grown. She grew even more beautiful than the day she was born. We are thinking her color is rose gray and she definitely has a pattern to her color.

Oh my goodness, is it possible to be so beautiful? Apparently so and thankfully we have decided to re-breed my Sugar Breeze to Chief Gray Ghost to see if we can make a carbon copy of our beautiful Sunshine. We are also going to breed our Confetti Reign to Gray Ghost because he is awesome. I watched him get sheared today and that totally confirmed my my decision. He is gorgeous.

On the thought of girls that are beautiful, my darling daughter was a photographer today. I let her use my little Canon to take photos around Wind Walker and she got some wonderful pictures not only of the alpacas but of me, trees, brother, barns, hay and I loved it! What better way to learn to love something than to just try it. Everytime I give her my camera, she goes crazy with the pictures and I am amazed at what she sees through the lens. I only wish that my mother would have encouraged my passions and interest instead of creating insecurities in me. AGGGHH!!! But that is another long story.

So, my beautiful daughter took great pics which, of course, let my son to want the camera. Ok, Mom indulged and what I got back was a camera that now has to be professionally cleaned because he dropped it in the dirt. Again, I didn't over-react because he truly wanted to take pictures and he did. At least it was my little camera and not my favorite camera. I might have over-reacted then.

Now, where was I? Oh, so we had a wonderful afternoon at Wind Walker which led us to miss a birthday party for my daughter's friend at the roller rink in Portage. According to the kids, I am a bad mom because I didn't take them there even though yesterday they went to a party at Pizza Galexy and my daughter ended up getting a last minute sleepover with her friend which led us to run late on all of our other plans. So I, being a bad mom, who had just bought them an icecream cone at McDonalds took them home.

Apparently my mothering instincts don't equal those of my Sugar Breeze according to my kids. Now MY original plans for the day were to visit Wind Walker then swing down to Vicksburg to the Car Show where my knitting friends were enjoying Knit in Public Day and most likely slaying Zombies then I was going to take them to the skating party. So, plans change. I thought we still had fun. hmmmmmm, guess not? Bad Mom, that I am. My goodness.

Now I am going to make them some popcorn and put a movie in for them to watch because that's what bad moms do. Then I will finish their laundry, pick up their toys and read them a story for bedtime...because that's what bad moms do.

Sugar Breeze, my darling new mom, you are going to be pregnant and having babies for the rest of your life. Please don't take it to heart when they reject you. They still love you....sometimes they just need to be sent to their bedrooms (pastures) to think about it.

I've got Sunshine on a Cloudy Day!

Literally! I've got Sunshine on a cloudy day.

No sun in the sky.

The only Sunshine today was the cria born.
The first Wonder Why Alpaca Farm Cria.

IT'S A GIRL! Our Sugar Breeze had her very first cria today! Isn't she a beauty. Some of these pics were taken when she was barely an hour old.

Sugar's Sunshine, born 6-11-09 at 360 days!

Her sire is WWR Grey Ghost and her dam is WWR Sugar Breeze. We are thinking is is gray...possibly a multi but today's overcast sky is making it very hard to color check. Regardless, she is cute as a button and has phenomenal genetics from both sides.

Let's see, how did my day go?

It all started with me deciding to stay home with the kids today. I got an email from Cheri at Wind Walker Ranch, where Sugar Breeze is staying, stating that Sugar is still very pregnant and most likely not going to deliver today. This was around 9am this morning.

So, ho hum, another day without my firstborn cria.

Next thing I know, it's almost noon and I need to get the kids their lunch so I had up to the kitchen and my hubby yells to me that Don Parks is on my cell phone and he thinks Don said that we are having a cria.

I get on the phone and Don tells me that they can see a nose.

HOORAY! I have a nose!

So within minutes I grab my camera and my son along with a bologna sandwich for him and out the door we go. My daughter couldn't go because dance recital is next week and today was dance class. Bummer for her.

Anyways, we are about halfway to Middleville when Don calls and tells me that I am a Grandma! Yikes! That's about twenty years too soon! So to keep me in suspense, Don asks me what I want most in my cria and I said a girl. The stinker wouldn't confirm. Yikes! I practically drive warp speed anyways but right now I wish that the Star Trek transporter really did exist. Even though Wind Walker Ranch isn't terrible to get to mileage-wise, we have to go through every rinky town on M37 to get there.

The next question Don asks me is what do I want second most in my cria. I said a Gray Girl.

Yikes! The man had me on pins and needles and I was already doing my happy dance while driving down the road behind every slow driver in the area. So after what seemed an eternity, which in reality was probably 20 seconds....he gave me the best news ever! Indeed, our first Wonder Cria was a girl and most likely a gray girl!

WOO HOO! YIPPEE! HOLY MOLY!

I just wanted to cry. As soon and we got there we bee-lined it to the barn and there was the most beautiful alpacas I have ever seen. My Sugar Breeze and her very first cria, Sugar's Sunshine.

Now why did we call her Sunshine? Well, first of all....who is the person who spread sunshine around to everyone she meets? Me, of course! As a little girl, my father called me his Sunshine Sugar Pinapple Princess so....I took a play on words and instead of Sunshine Sugar we decided to call her Sugar's Sunshine and rightly so. What a beautiful ray of sunshine she was today and will be everyday.

We had the vet come out today because we thought another girl was going to have her first cria and we thought maybe something wasn't right. She is ok, just not ready. Anyways, Doc checked over Sunshine while he was there and while he had Sunshine in his arms Sugar was freaking out because someone had her cria. Do you know what she did? She came to me and nuzzled me to make sure that I would get her cria back for her. Oh, talk about melting my heart. What makes that little action so special to me is that Sugar has never been on my farm yet. After I bought her, I kept her at Wind Walker so I wouldn't stress her during the last part of her pregnancy. I haven't had that much contact with her because of this yet she knew to come to me. Oh, she is MY Sugar!

Sunshine is now eight hours old and she is at Wind Walker and I am now home at the Wonder Why Alpaca Farm. Oh, how I want to run out to the barn to check on her but I chose to have her birthed at Wind Walker under the care of Don and Cheri Parks because I still have so much to learn about alpaca birthing and cria care and when I bought Sugar Breeze, I was truly terrified of today. Now that today is here, my confidence is growing but I am sure glad that my little Sunshine is getting the love and attention she needs from experienced alpaca breeders. When she gets a little older and her dam, Sugar Breeze, is re-bred then I will bring both Sugar and Sunshine home to the Wonder Why Alpaca Farm where we will all live happily ever after....until the day comes when I have to sell one of them. Oh, that's the bad part about breeding these wonderful alpacas. If you want to make money, you have to sell your alpacas....even the Sugars and the Sunshines...but fortunately, that's not today.

Today I am the proud owner of a beautiful girl named Sugar Breeze and her wonderful cria, Sugar's Sunshine.

Oh I am just too darn happy! Honestly, she is too cute! Really, you had to hear her and her dam humming to each other all afternoon. I had goosebumps. You had to see them interacting with each other. You had to feel their wonderful lustrous fiber. Had you done this, you would truly know the wonder of alpacas.

See the Wonder
Hear the Wonder
Feel the Wonder
Know the Wonder