Ok ok Tim's getting married

Ok!Yes I've seen this!!! Really I'm not the only one blogging about Tim am I?   Since this as been live and online for over a month I don't feel as though I'm delving into private business.  So here is the wedding announcement for Tim. So again I say let's raise a glass and wish Tim & Maggie the very best.

A Nov. 2 wedding is being planned by Maggie Steinheiser of Renfrew and Timothy King of Valencia.
The bride-to-be is the daughter of Terry and Kathy Steinheiser of Renfrew. Parents of the prospective bridegroom are Lisa King and Joseph King, both of Valencia.
The bride-elect is a 2007 graduate of Butler High School and attended Butler County Community College.
She is employed by Butler Memorial Hospital.
Her fiancé graduated from Mars High School in 2004.
He is self-employed as a farmer.

Farm Kings Season 2 episodes 8, 9, 10 & 11

I thought about breaking this up and doing 2 posts but I really don't want to be lagging behind anymore.  SOOOOO here we go! 

Episode 8
This was centered on getting irrigation for the animals set up so Pete could quite hauling water all over and Lisa coming up with menu's for the Farm Market.  As Pete said the hauling the water did make his arms look great and he couldn't have been more spot on!   That said it had to really suck doing all that manual labor in addition to everything else he had to do.  Joe took charge and was very active in getting the water system set up.  For one second when they went to test it on top of that hill I didn't think it was going to work.  Thankfully it was all systems go! 

Lisa was tasked with coming up with a menu for the Home Market.  It makes perfect sense that they have her running a food operation there.  From all accounts Miss Lisa can cook and does it well.  The problem is that Lisa always wants to do what she wants to do end of story.  Having a design your own panini or smoothie is great for a place that is slow.  For the Kings sakes I hope that isn't the situation for the Home Market.  There really hasn't been anything on any of the following episodes showing the Farm Market cafe so not too sure what happy medium was  agreed upon. 

There was also Sam trying to plant with Paul & Johns help.  You had to feel bad for the guy.  It can't be easy going into a position of authority of your siblings.  Also was I the only one who wanted to bi$ch slap Betsy the marketing girl when she was suck a little biotch about Sam saying they didn't have time to answer her questions?  Rude girl!

The highlight was watching Sam get ready for prom and seeing the Joe, Bitty, Tim, Pete & Dan's prom pics.  

Episode 9
In this episode Dan is switched from the home market to the Farmers Markets to help make things a bit easier for Pete.  Of course the show left it as a cliff hanger and made it seem as though Dan was in some sort of trouble.  Not the case at all.  Actually it seems like Dan is going to do a smashing job at the Farm Markets.  On the way to the Farmers Market the truck breaks down.  Big bummer when you think about the loss of income.  They aren't at the market selling as long as he's stuck on the road and then there will be a repair cost on top of it.  Dan tried everything he could do get the truck running again to no avail.  I felt so bad for him when the police showed up on the scene.  Once they got to the market he did a great job selling. 

As always Lisa is up to her old tricks trying to sneak things by her sons any way she can.  It's comical but kind of sad at the same time.  While I completely understand that its easier to apologize than ask permission it has to get old.  The first thing is when she takes Lily outside the Home Market to plant some flowers in the raised beds there.  In this cases I COMPLETELY agree with Lisa on all fronts.  Flowers should be planted there not veggies.  It is a visually pleasing aspect that might gain some costumers.  She's absolutely right about that.  She isn't right in using Lily as a means to an end.  What is that going to teach Lily?  SO, in the future Tim should just let her go completely flower crazy and that should be the end of it.  There was also the whole thing about Lisa needing shelves for the home market.  Now the fact that Joe is evidently a bit tight with money as to be a problem.  Lisa waiting to ask permission to buy something until he isn't paying attention because he's on the phone isn't the most honest way of going about it.  It was a complete riot watching Lisa & Bitty going shopping.  I wouldn't want to be the person to have to keep Lisa on task on an excursion like that!  It was nice that after worrying the boys that they wound up finding a free set of shelves on the side of the road.  Gotta love successful junking!   

It was nice to see the family "relaxing" playing volleyball at the end of the show.  As always they are competitive but enjoy there family time together. 

Also for anyone keeping track on this episode Pete's girlfriend helped out at the beginning and Dan's girlfriend helped out at the Farmers Market.  So ladies they're dropping like flies!   

Episode 10
This show mostly was covering the home market opening and an event that was a collaboration between Miss Pennsylvania and Special Olympics.  I loved this episode for so many reasons.  As a mom to a special needs child who would love to participate in a pageant it was awesome to see this girls giving of themselves and spending time with the special needs girls.  I think there is a preconceived notion for girls that participate in pageants and this was a wonderful way to disprove that point. 

As always Lisa wants to do what she wants and things milking would be a great activity.  Joe just sees the insurance nightmare factor and really who can blame him?  So the cow shows up and Joe sends it on its way.  The younger boys had a great time being surrounding by a lot of pretty girls.  The event seemed to be successful and kudos to the King family for again embracing Special Olympics and the special needs population!

Episode 11
OK-  who was cringing whenever Dan sat on one of those dang bulls???!!!???   Also who was kind of surprised to hear about Joe trying it when he was younger?  He just doesn't seem like the rough and tough type.  Also why do they guys have to give Dan about a hard time about wanting to do what they'd tried when they were younger?   He should have probably waited until winter but part of youth is being impulsive, right?  I'm just glad that he didn't get hurt worse than he did. 

Again Lisa decides that she's going to do something without any go ahead.  On the surface you'd think that she really didn't need to get permission to take on a cookbook project but Joe shows without a doubt why it was necessary.  Also as anyone who has been watching the show knows Lisa doesn't follow recipes and she doesn't use measurements per se.  She does it by sight.  I about lost it when she suggested enclosing little baggies with what a "pinch" or a "handful" is to her with every cookbook  SERIOUSLY?????  Bitty had it right when she just tried measuring everything.  Again another job that I wouldn't want to keep Lisa on task with! 

SO- short but sweet recaps since I was so behind.  I'll try to do it better so when life (or my daughter) throw me a curve ball it will won't be such a mess to catch up. 

Where did August go????

Ack!  Where did this month go???!!!???  Yes I am perfectly aware that I'm a few (ok 4) Farm King recaps behind.  I'll try to do those in the next day or so.  It's just amazing to me how fast this summer flew by and now the school year is in full swing.  Princess Bear (PB) started 5th grade this year.  That meant moving to a new school since she's now in middle school.  It's so hard to believe.  I still remember the cute little girl with the curly mop of hair that I took to school when she was 3.  Now this child of mine is as tall as I am and looks entirely too old for my taste. 

When I took PB to observe at Lindbergh last spring she wouldn't even look Mrs. Morgan, her teacher, in the eye let alone talk to her.  Today Mrs. Morgan asked me how I felt PB's transition had gone and let me know that she thought PB has done a wonderful job.  The only thing PB isn't doing is wearing her glasses.  She is doing well with switching classes and seems to be settling in well.  She goes to a mainstream classroom for Science and Social Studies daily.  The homework and tests are modified to be at an appropriate level for her and things seem to be going very well. 

In all honesty the roughest part of this transition is that school starts an hour earlier than it used to.  Also instead of it being a few blocks away its a 10 minute car ride.  My child is a night owl as I am and she is not liking getting up at 6:15am.  I hope that she gets better at this as the year progresses because as of right now its a bear to wake her up in the morning! 

All in all I've got to say that I've got high hopes for this year! 

Farm Kings Season 2 Episode 7

OK before I recap this episode is there really only going to be 13 episodes this season? Any word on season 1 going to DVD? I have 18 hours of Farm Kings on the DVR and I can't delete any lest I deal with a melt down from my daughter. She goes through phases where she likes to watch different episodes over and over and over again. Her two favorites are the family ski vacation and the fall festival. I do believe I have created a little monster! This week’s episode kind of turned the tables a bit on who you were inclined to feel a bit of empathy for I think. I definitely felt bad for Lisa and the lack of help she received. I also felt bad for Joe when Tim kind of one upped him by having water delivered for the pond. I'm ahead of myself here though. The episode started with the younger boys helping Tim put up some green houses. It definitely makes sense for them to employ as many greenhouses as possible but I surely wouldn't want to be the one putting them up! The show shared the frustration of the boys tackling a fairly new task. They are beyond capable but there is a learning curve to everything, right? Then Lisa showed up none too happy because all of the boys were working for Tim. Tim also addressed the fact that farmers have big families because there is so much work that needs to be done. The more hands on deck the easier it is. I suppose in theory I understand this but nothing like knowing that you're very existence is to be a farm hand. That said I also understand when Lisa says that the younger boys kind of "owe" her. As a mom there are times I expect Princess Bear (PB) to do something for no other reason than I'm her mother and I need her to do it. Paying your dues is the term I believe. I also loved it when Tim promised his mother and said that he is a man of his word. I think in this day and age that is a very honorable trait to be sure. A lot of the episode centered on Joe and Pete building a pond for Lisa. After the heartbreak of having to cut Lisa off from the water supply because of the drought it was a great thing for the boys to do. Now the fact that the boys just showed up with equipment and no real plan or discussion is a bit of a problem. Joe was so non challant when Lisa came running to tell him he was digging up her flowers. Since they hadn't seemed like the pond was a high priority she had planted sunflowers. I see both points of view in that the flowers were gone and weren't coming back but the flip side factor of frustration had to be pretty great. It seems like the Kings certainly aren't immune to Murphy's Law and the boys hit shale within a few feet of digging. This brought some of Joe's engineer experience into play. I loved it when it talked about "mining this beautiful shale". It also threw a major monkey wrench in the plans. It was going to take more time and cost considerably more than they had planned. They also quite literally rain into a few problems when they hit a french drain. All the problems were tackled with usual King finesse and a beautiful pond was built for Lisa. Atta boy boys!!! Bitty also played a bigger role in this episode than she has in the past. It seems as though she has tired of working at the Cafe and approached Lisa about working with her. She missed being outside and needed the change. It was beautiful when Lisa was discussing the fact that maybe Bitty needed her mom and her mom certainly needed her. No one can ever accuse Lisa of not completely loving her children and wanting to spend time with them. The biggest problem with this change of venue for Bitty is that is leaves the Cafe without a King presence. Something that Joe feels is extremely important. Now I will admit that Bitty should have probably talked to Joe first before addressing anything with Lisa and certainly before she stopped working at the Cafe. I don't understand why Joe felt the need to point out that Bitty wouldn't be getting paid if she wasn't working for Freedom Farms. It doesn't seem like any of the Kings want to rest on their laurels and expect to be paid for no work. I loved it when Bitty assured him that she had talked to Lisa about the job and that she completely understood that she would not be paid by Freedom Farms when she wasn't working for them. I think Joe takes his role of protector very seriously and wants to make sure that everyone is taken care of. The episode wrapped up with an "unveiling" if you will of the new pond. Joe had obviously done a great job and the pond looked wonderful. Lisa was hassling him about the lack of water in it. I loved it when Joe pointed out that he'd done his part and that the rain would fill in the pond. He couldn't very well do a rain dance and have the heavens open. He did what he had promised and did a grand job of it. Now the next while a completely loving gesture on Tim's part did kind of undermine the hard work that Joe had done. Tim clearly still felt bad about having to cut off Lisa's water supply last year and ordered water to be delivered for the new pond. Like I said a very loving, thoughtful thing to do. It just kind of rained on Joe's parade. Know what I mean? The pond scene also showed Jessie, Pete's girlfriend, and Cam (I think that's his name) Bitty's boyfriend. Now it was a pretty quick pan shot when they did it but it still doesn't look like the illusive Maggie (Tim's fiancée) was in attendance. I wonder when she will appear. Someone has pondered if they will have the wedding be the season 2 finale. Since she has yet to appear on the show I really don't think she's going to be willing to share her wedding day as her debut. Someone else pondered about the date of the wedding. The person is married to a farmer and had to put off her dream of a fall wedding because it was such a conflict with harvesting and end of the year responsibilities. Well November 2nd will be here before we all know it and maybe there will be more answers then!