Idaho Roses

We Three Roses of Idaho Are...... Baking Cookies With Spices From Afar.......         December 14th marked the First Annual Vedder Sisters Christmas  Cookie and Candy Extravaganza!   Since this was clearly a collaborative effort, we shall all contribute to this blog.  (This also discourages lies, exaggerations, and highly suspicious hyperbole...) Michelle here...being the most angelic one of the bunch, I must clarify that I have NEVER been accused of lying, exaggerating or using highly suspicious hyperbole... Tracy here - Mishka lies when she says she's never been accused of above - why here am I now, accusing her of just that!  And that angel thing?  Totally not true.  And, as the final copy and photo editor - I pretty much get to say whatever I want.    Bwahahahaha. (Sister Cammi needed help deciphering spoon measurements?) Since I am the first born, I shall go first.   Tracy has the perfect kitche...

Sammy on a typical afternoon (or morning, evening, lunchtime, suppertime....) This is Samantha Josephine, our full-bred mutt.   Or, as some refer to her, a Labradoodle, designer-dog.  With that type of heritage she is a born hunter.  And our back pasture is rife with prey.  Prey of the gopher variety.   Left to their own devices, gophers would turn our back pasture into a full-fledged subdivision of Meridian; complete with traffic circles and a community pool.  That's where Sammy the Wonder Dog stepped in.  She has perfected the art of hunting the pesky gophers on their own turf.  Literally.  She's a digging fool. Sammy jumps in nose first Sammy is far from decimating the gopher population but not for lack of trying.  On any given day we can find her out in the back pasture, doing her part to keep the family ranch in good working order.   While gophers are her main target, she als...

I try to be a good person, I really do. But this morning would try the patience of a saint.... After being awake from 3:30 to 5 am, I snuggled back under the covers for a few snoozes, while George went to an early Mass......   Bang!  Scratch, Scratch!  This was Babs, begging for admittance to the Inner Sanctum.  (Or, at least, under the covers.). “No!  Go away,”... of course, Babs is now hard of hearing, so she continued to bang and scratch on the door, and I continued to holler. This went on for at least half an hour, neither one of us willing to give in. Finally, the Zero Hour looming (getting ready for church, and to pick Tracy up) I stumble out of bed and proceed about my day.  After taking my pills, I decide to call the pharmacy and reorder electronically.  Halfway thru the call I noticed that Miss  Bump has attempted to excavate the lemon tree George has recently purchased and nurtured. Notice that she has to stand on the coffee t...

Apparently, Dillard's has this annual big bash that they do in the beauty department.  My sisters thought this would be a ton of fun to attend this year.  I mean, I understand that we have pretty much reached our ultimate beauty, but we are open minded. We met on a wet and rainy night in Boise to check out the doings and decided to case the joint first so we knew where to hit for specials and the promised gifts, raffles and finger foods.  We had to make sure that our names were entered for the drawings because surely one or all of us was destined to win SOMEthing!  Entry forms completed, we were free to continue our reconnaissance. We fast walked past the fragrance counters with their spritzing and spraying and slowly moved beyond the soaps and lotions.  And then we were hooked .... MAKEUP!!! We found a really nice gal named Britny who, at Queen of Everything's urging, helped me find eyebrows and how to make them "normal" and eyeliner. ...

First, let it be said that Bear, our three and a half year old Appaloosa gelding, is a pee-squealer.  He’s always watching you out of the corner of his eye; looking for any opportunity.  An opportunity for what you ask?  Anything!   Among other things, Bear is our safe cracker – he’s learned to open gates.  Many gates.   And if he can’t get it open with finesse, there’s always hooves. As a foundation Appaloosa, his lineage is certified as descending from original Appaloosa stock, bred from away back.  Almost 100 percent, but not quite.   There’s a tiny percentage of something else in his heritage.   We didn’t discover what until recently.  We didn’t look him up on Ancestry.com.   No, it was a less scientific but no less certain a method.  It all began when my friend Kelly Just recently visited from Seattle.  Now Kelly had horses as a child and is no stranger to mucking – the ...

One of the best (and maybe worst) things about being close to your sisters is having someone with whom to share your secrets. The best?  Who else will listen to your embarrassing stories without judgment....just a few chuckles at your expense. The best?  Knowing that for every one of your silly secrets that they have at least one to match it, hopefully better than yours. The best?  Having the freedom to express your true thoughts and feelings about anything without someone thinking you are a horrible being, and realizing that even in your darkest moments, they still love you, judgment free. The worst?  When you realize they REMEMBER all those embarrassing secrets when they give you that “special look” or hand gesture that says....hmmmm, should I say something or keep it in the vault........hmmmmm. But, bottom line, the best thing is that sisters keep those “interesting” things close to their heart, never to (hopefully) see the light of day.  Right,...

It finally happened!  After much plotting and planning, the three Idaho Roses finally appeared in their first ever parade!   Originally, it was our hope that we could all three ride horses that we had very nattily painted and tarted up (if that was to happen on Dane's horses, we would have had to hogtie and blindfold him and lock him in the barn.  For some reason I think he's afraid that if ever released to the creative spirit of "the sisters ", the horses would never be the same!  Silly boy!) but after Tracy's tumble, we were MORE than happy to ride in style in Tracy's shiny red convertible.  Our fearless leader, Dane, would be the only one on horseback, and Brazen was a showstopper! In the months leading up to the parade, we wanted to coordinate our shirts and purchased one in red, one in white and one in blue.  We would be beautiful!   However, Dane decided we weren't patriotic enough for the Air Force Appreciation Day Parade, so he purchased ...

Sure, it's been awhile since you've heard from us, but that doesn't mean the "experiences" have stopped.  Just means we are lazy writers.  So, we will just dive back in and share this week with you! As sisters, we have found that things are generally a ton more fun if we do them together.  So, Cammi came into Mountain Home for her nail appointment and I went with her.  (Our delicate flower sister is really fun to watch as she is "tortured" during nail and pedicure appointments.  Although, we think that she is a born performer and that she is much more tolerant, i.e., quieter, when she doesn't have an audience.  But I digress....). Following the appointment, we decided to stop and split a sandwich at a local deli.  It was sooooo yummy, even though it contained the dreaded avocado which clearly offends the pretty, pretty princess' strange texture sensibility. We came home and sat to watch videos on Dressing Your Truth (more to come on that...

The Bee's Knees This is a rather interesting sight to appear before your eyes in your front yard.....  Many thoughts crossed my mind.....       A Hazmat Operation in the front yard....I really didn't think we had a meth lab in the neighborhood.......that sweet old guy who lives next door finally admitted to keeping his dead wife in the garage.....or, more realistically, bees, swarming Killer Africanized Bees!!!  Having settled on this last scenario, I proceeded to lock the dogs and husband in the house, and watched fretfully from the safety of the guest bedroom.      Fortunately, it was a swarm of honey bees, who, with their queen tried to move in next to the fire hydrant.  It was interesting watching how slowly he moved, and capturing most of the bees and placing them in a hive, which he let set in the yard for about 24 hours, as the stragglers found their new home.... In the Pit... No, I haven't taken up mud wrestling.  ...

Ya gotta love 'em, right?  And we truly do love these brothers of ours.  They are the fly in our ointment of life, the foam on the top of our mug of beer, and sometimes that worm at the bottom of the tequila bottle!!   We sisters have been blessed by two of these creatures.  They can always be counted on to offer a different (like time and space continuum different) perspective on most of our discussions.  And they can be fun to play with....like puppies. A couple of years ago, we decided we wanted to get tattoos to mark our commitment to our sisterhood.  Some of us were a little more committed than others because of their desire to keep their body a pure temple of the Lord.  Us other two hussies took the plunge.  We chose a beautiful infinity symbol with four birds representing us four girls.   If you look closely, you might notice two little dots on the left side. Those represent our brothers.  When the boys are nice, these a...