Living with Cavemen

Happy Anniversary, Construction, and Summer Time

2010-06-19T14:19:00.003-05:00

Last weekend Ken & I celebrated our 14 wedding anniversary. He took me on a date to Stillwater, MN for dinner and a gondola ride. Stillwater is a quaint little town on the St. Croix River, on the MN / WI border, only about a 45 minute drive from our place.

Our dinner was fabulous. We ate a restaurant called Dock Side. It overlooks the St. Croix and you can see all the harbor boats coming and going. Then Ken told me that he had booked us the last ride on the little Venician gondola. He had planned that the sun would set while we were on the gondola, but it had rained most of the day, so all we saw was clouds. Fortunately, it had stopped raining by the time it was our turn for the ride, so that was a good thing. The gondola ride lasted for an hour. It was so pretty to see the city lights of Stillwater. With all the lights dancing on the still waters of the St. Croix.

The gondola was made in Venice. The owner had it shipped it over to MN. Apparently the owner of the gondola rides, retired from the tree trimming business, went to Venice, and learned everything he could about the gondola. They had Pavorati playing on board, so it was quite the experience.

School is out, and it's summer time. We've had some great days so far. Summer only means one thing in MN, construction! They are doing construction on the road that our backyard faces. Kevin has been out on his bike every day watching them closely. He still loves construction and the smell of new tar.

We made a schedule for the boys to keep them busy this summer. So far, so good. We've given them some light chores to do, reading and lessons to keep up their knowledge. Summer school starts on Monday, so that will keep them occupied for at least half the day for the next 4 weeks.

I got new hours at work. I was working 7-4. My boss has been working from 6:30 - 3:30 and we were talking about how nice that was. He said the half hour really makes a difference. So he challenged me to it. I said "Sure! I'll give it a shot." So Monday I reported to work at 6:30 am. I am not much of a morning person, I never have been, but this new shift is really nice. Getting up a half hour earlier has not been as hard as I thought. I have been getting to bed earlier, as getting up in time to get to work at 6:30 am, makes it easy for me to get to bed earlier as well. Around 9 pm, I'm ready for bed, as it's been a long day.

Getting off work at 3:30 sure does make a difference too. A half hour doesn't seem like much time, but it sure is. I get to beat the 4:00 rush of crowds running errands. And traffic is much lighter.

Next week is a busy week for sure. I will be golfing two nights next week, taking Sam to get sealants done at the dentist, I'm getting my 10 year service award for working at Dart Transit Co., and it is our last game of adult spring kickball.

Summer sure has a lot of plans on our calendar, and so far it seems to be going by pretty quickly.

Last Day of School

2010-06-11T23:11:00.003-05:00

Today was the last day of school. It is official...I no longer have any elementary school children. Both of my boys will be in Middle School next year. Sam got to tour the Middle School earlier in the week. He surprised Kevin, but coming up to him at lunch and saying HI! Kevin was so shocked, but happy to see him. They thought it was pretty cool that they'll finally be at the same school. They probably won't see each other, but they'll be at the same school.

They must have really told the kids that homework was going to be huge in Middle School, because Sam has said "I'm gonna be really nervous on the 2nd day of Middle School." I asked why and he said "Because you have to do more homework in Middle School." Sam (unlike his older brother) is very responsible when it comes to homework. He hates it, but he does it. I'm just nervous that he'll be at such a BIG school!

I'm a little sad that he is leaving elementary school. His school has been so wonderful and such a huge part of his success in his life. They have been AMAZING. I'm going to really miss them. Next year his elementary school turns 50, so hopefully, we can go to that party and see his old teachers.

Also, I now have 2 Tweens. Yikes! My boys are growing up so fast. I no longer have little boys, but young lads. I'm not looking forward to challenges of raising teenage boys. That is one thing I have no experience with and of course there is no manual. Of course there has been no part of their lives that have come with a manual, so I should be used to that!

I'm happy that my boys are growing up and becoming more independent. It's a great thing. It certainly gives me more freedoms!

On Monday Sam's 5th grade class got to go to Valley Fair. It's a big outdoor amusement park. He had a great time and the weather was PERFECT. His 5th grade class also got to go to a Twin's baseball game at the new outdoor Target Field, but Sam chose not to go. His words "Nah, baseball is boring." The event was in the evening and each kid was allowed to bring one parent. I didn't even tell my husband about that, as I knew it would crush him that his son thought baseball was boring, and that he was also missing out on an opportunity to go to the new Target Field.

Kevin's 6th grade class went on a Paddleboat on the Mighty Mississippi. It was raining pretty heavy and lightening early in the morning, so I was afraid his trip would get canceled, but by the time they left to go it had stopped raining and didn't rain for the rest of the day. Lucky kids!

The kids also got their yearbooks. Kevin's is pretty funny as I get to see all the kids I remember from when he was really little at his birthday parties and such. Wow, the changes. He also pointed out the girl he has a crush on. Aw....his first tween crush. He did ask her to sign his year book and she did and made a smiley face. I guess he got to sign her book too. He got embarrassed when I asked him if he had a crush on her. I guess that's not something a boy really tells his mom. So, I asked "Is she someone you'd like to talk to more and hanging out with her more often." He said "Oh yeah, definitely." Hahaha!

Relationships at this age are much more difficult than in Kindergarten. He had a girlfriend in Kindergarten, and they "broke up" in first grade. Kindergarten is when I learned "there is no kissing in Kindergarten." I'm not sure who kissed who, but it was a wee little Kindergarten peck on the cheek. Then in first grade she "broke up" with Kevin during lunch because he told her that he loved her too much each day, and that was not a good thing. She said "Kevin, you have to stop saying that you love me all the time." And that was it, love affair...Over.

In Kindergarten he was also infatuated with Becky the Bus Patrol girl. She would hold his hand and help him cross the street. He used his best Kindergarten charms on her. And she was the pretty Bus Patrol girl. He thought that was pretty cool as he LOVED the bus.

In 2nd grade, a girl invited Kevin on a trip to Florida with her and her family during the summer. Unknown to both sets of parents, of course. Apparently, her parents had slit, but the dad's airfair was already paid for. Well, that left an open seat and a paid ticket on the plane to Florida, so why not invite Kevin? They had it all planned out. Ha, if only if it were that easy! She was also the girl that wrote a big heart on an autograph page in his yearbook with a BIG heart and inside the heart, she signed her name and wrote BFF. (Best Friends Forever). They are indeed still friends. She is very much a tomboy, and has more "boy" friends than "girl" friends. I suspect she'll have plenty of "girl" friends when she's older (if you get my drift). At least I that is one less girl I will have to worry about during the dating years.

So the first 6 years of school are behind us and now we are onto the challenges and joys of the last 6 years of school. The dreaded teen-age years. Oh, boy....

Guilty Once Again of Blog Neglect - Lots Going On

2010-06-08T21:01:00.002-05:00

Well, it has been over a month since my last blog. Yikes, time flies when you are ultra busy. Since it has been so long, I'll give a quick run down (is that possible).

Garage Sale - Did I already blog about this? I don't think so. I had a garage sale at my house & 2 other families went in on it with me. Garage sales are definitely more work than they are worth. It took a whole week of preparation. The day of the garage it rained all stinking day long, so I'm sure that kept a majority of people away, but despite the rain, we still had a decent turn out. Each family that participated make approximately $100 each. Towards the end of the sale we started to buy each others stuff, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of having a garage sale to get rid of stuff in the first place. Hmmmm....

The day after the garage sale, I packed everything that was left over & hauled it off to Goodwill. Definitely, none of it was coming back into my house! There were several items that we ha

d that were worth some money, so instead of throwing it out or donating it, I posted it on Craigslist to try to sell instead. So I had a couple weeks of replying to buyers & arranging pick ups.

FreeCycle.Org

I love Free Cycle! It's a great place to recycle household items & such. So far I have gotten lots of really good things from Free Cycle. A piano, a fax/copy machine, a fur coat, tons of cleaning supplies, and lots of other goodies.

This one lady had a posting for a big back of hard back books. All good ones too. So I told her I'd take the whole bag. The value of the books was well over $100 and they were all in excellent condition. I went to pick them up on a Friday evening, only to find out she lives in the hood! Yikes! I locked my doors as I drove to her house & had my cell phone handy. I actually saw a guy shooting up drugs between his fingers on the grocery store stoop outside. Yikes!

I got to the lady's house & it looked like an absolute junk yard. The extremely funny thing was that she had a gate on her walk-way to her house. No surrounding fence, just a gate. Hmmmm...Yeah, that'll really work to keep people out of your yard. Your junk yard that is. So I collected my books and got the hell out of there. It was daylight hours. I had my doors locked, and I had my cell phone, so I didn't feel too insecure. I did make a phone call to a friend to let her know "hey, just thought I'd call & let you know my location just incase I mysteriously disappear." One can never be too prepared these days.

On my way home, I got lost. I couldn't back to the Freeway. That was odd. So I took a detoured scenic route of St. Paul. Pretty interesting and I was glad it was daylight. I did happen to drive through the Italian part of St. Paul, which I had no clue existed. Their buildings were a bit unique and it smelled of yummy pasta. I think I might have to venture down that way again on a weekend day and take photos of the interesting buildings and maybe try some of that good Italian cooking out. Oh the things you find while being lost.

Kickball- The adult season of kickball started and yes, I once again am captaining our team. So far we have lost every single game. We are used to that. We play mostly to socialize, capture our youth, and have a few beers with friends, so it's all good.

I was officially elected the Director of Youth Kickball with the EAA. Last year was just a temporary position to see if the program would work or not, and if the EAA wanted to keep it as part of it's program. Tada! Success! Youth Kickball will be played again this fall. I had to prepare a budget and have that approved by the board and it was. Sign ups are starting soon. EAA got a new fancy website this year. It's pretty neat. Definitely a step up from the old outdated design, with lots of new features.

The Kids-I have been busy filling out forms and more forms and more forms for them. End of year field trips, Sam's IEP and Middle School transition meeting and forms, CYC camp forms, and so on. Kevin really has been struggling in math, so I filled out a bunch of forms for him to allow the school to test him for learning disabilities. Turns out he will be placed in a small classroom (about 12 kids) for math only. His reading, and English skills test OK. 6th grade was a bit of struggle for him. I think the new school transition was a bit overwhelming. It's a big school he goes to and the expectations certainly have increased from elementary school. He'd be a straight A student if he paid attention during class & did his homework on time. So his grades were a bit on the least desirable side.

Memorial Weekend - Ken & Kevin headed up to Grand Marais for a father - son weekend. They went to Ken's parents semi-built cabin. They wanted to get some work done on it, but they got busy visiting, fishing, and having fun.

Sam & I stayed home. Not enough room in grandma & grandpa's RV and no place to sleep in the cabin, as it's got lots of work left to do on it. Right now it's basically the concrete floor, the outter shell of the cabin, and an outhouse.

With the two guys out of the house (the two that disrupt me the most and demand the most attention from me), I got so much done! I was able to completely re-organize my bedroom dresser drawers and closet. It is amazing what adding the book shelf has done. It feels so good to finally have that project done and out of the way. I've only been trying to get it accomplished for the last 3 months.

Sam & I took a fun day during the 3 day weekend and went to the horse track at Canterbury Downs. We had a great time. We made some bets, and didn't do very well. We only got $18 back of the $45 we put down. Oh well, so we split our winnings, and came home. But we did have a really good time and I do love the horse track. We did come close to winning big, but close doesn't cut it in horse racing. You either win or you lose. Race # 7 messed with our plans of winning big. Oh well, what are you going to do?

Fitness 19 - I joined Fitness 19 (a strip mall work out gym) a few months ago. I did have some hiccup weeks where I just plum didn't make it to the gym. But I've had lots of time to go as well. I go whenever I get the chance & really try to make it part of my daily routine. I've been lifting weights and working out on the exercise equipment. I can tell I'm getting stronger, gaining endurance, and in the process of shape shifting. Gaining muscle & losing fat. The second week of joining I did the elliptal machine for 20 minutes and thought that would be the end of me, and I was really sore the next day. Well, 3 months later I can endure an hour and a half on the elliptical, feel good afterwards, and not be sore the next day. Definitely an improvement! And holy cow does that thing make you sweat. But I keep this pace up, I'll be fitting into that motivational clothing sooner than later. It is kind of nice to see how many calories you've burned as you go. I can say to myself..."well, there went lunch, there went my mid afternoon snack!" Such a nice and energizing feeling.

Tulum and Maya Book Edits - I was on a roll this last month with these. I got quite a bit done. I do this when ever I can get the chance with all my free time I have. LOL... Those Maya were pretty crazy, yet interesting people. Keeping their 400 some gods and their 17 calendar system straight is a big task. Now try doing that with out confusing or boring people. I think the edits are going well, and I'm keeping the information as interesting and easy to follow as possible. It is amazing how incredibly complex of people they were, yet how completely zany at the same time.

Email Conversation With Kevin's Science Teacher

2010-05-06T18:38:00.003-05:00

Here is an email conversation I had today with Kevin's Science Teacher today:

Oh the joy of parenting!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: W

Sent: Thursday, May 06, 2010 1:28 PM
To:
Subject: Kevin Science Notebook

Hi Mrs. Bley,

I am Kevin’s science teacher and I should have written a month ago. My apologies.

Kevin is a great kid. His smile is contagious. He is a pleasure to have in class and one of the nicest kids I know.

Unfortunately, he is very, very behind in his science notebook. I have asked him daily about the notebook and he just smiles and says he can not find it. A few moments ago I sat down with Kevin and we were going to start a new notebook----but then told me he found his at home.

For him to get the work done he is missing, he would need to work into summer vacation. I think a better plan is for him to get the current work done and we leave missing work for when he has time. He hopefully has a list of current assignments (a pink sheet) and sent another home with him today. In the notebook pages are number with 1a on the front, and 1b on the back, then 2a/2b, etc.

What ever work he can get done between today and next Tuesday, I will give him full credit.

Thank you. I would appreciate your thoughts or ideas to help get him back on track.

Sincerely, Mr. W
`~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On 5/6/10 1:42 PM, Bonnie" wrote:

I guess he's going to be a very busy & grounded boy for the rest of the school year then. And if he has to do homework over the summer to pass 6th grade, then so be it. He's done it to himself by not being responsible. He can't go through life thinking everyone is going to hold his hand and give him a pass for not doing what is required or expected of him to succeed.

Please email me the full list of what he needs to do. You are being too nice to give him full credit for assignments he is being too lazy to do. He has realized through the school years that there really are no consequences for late or missing assignments, since teachers are no longer allowed to put the fear of God into their students about class work. (Sorry for that rant.)

Kevin really enjoys your class & he talks about you all the time. So, you are getting through to him & he's been learning a lot from your class.

Email me anytime & let's get this kid back on track.

Thanks,
Bonnie

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hi Mrs Bley,

Thank you for the reply. I like your philosophy.

I asked Kevin before we emailed you if he thought it would ok to send you a message. I always let kids know I am sending a message---good or not good. Anyway he said---oh my mom just sits at a desk all day and has nothing to do. Oh, the ideas kids have about work and the world---makes me laugh.

He should have a sheet with him. I will make a point to have him come see during flex or study time. Most important is that he brings the notebook to school. My philosophy is that there is always light at the end of the tunnel.

Thanks again,

Garage Sale, Dentist, and That's Not My Name

2010-04-30T22:28:00.002-05:00

I've been busy since my last blog. Gee, why do I feel like each time I blog I'm going to confession...Bless me father for I have sinned, my last blog was April 13, 2010. I have ignored mine and all other blogs 17 times...

Last weekend I had a garage sale at my house. Two other families went in on it & it was HUGE! It took the whole week before it to get ready for it. It ended up raining on garage sale day, so we couldn't put any of our stuff outside on the driveway, so my garage was packed. The people who went in on the garage sale came over & helped out all day Saturday. We had a good time. We each sold about $100 worth of stuff, of course making money off of each other. You know it's a good garage sale when you start buying each others stuff. We sold our trampoline and bought our neighbors outdoor basketball hoop. Towards the end of the garage sale, we were giving away things free to people who even just spent $1. We closed it up & I took Monday off of work to tear down & hauled off 2 van loads full of garage sale rejects to Goodwill. All of the big ticket items that did not sell, I took pictures of and posted on Craigslist. So this week, I've been busy coordinating Craigslist pick-ups.

The garage sale was part of my 2010 house cleaning and organizing project. It is amazing how much stuff you accumulate over the years. The kids are getting older, so we can have nicer stuff. But we had to sell off the old stuff to pay for the new stuff. Well...new to us..but gently used. Although, tonight I did build a bookshelf for my bedroom that I bought at Wal-Mart for $25 That was a sweet deal. Now I have room to put more books on, which clears up space in other places, which of course clears up stuff in other places.

May is turning out on the calendar to be the month of the Dentist. I had my 6 month teeth cleaning appointment a couple of weeks ago. They took X-Rays and turns out I have a filling that has come loose from the tooth and I have a cavity starting between the filling and the tooth. So I have to have a filling replaced. Kevin has a braces adjustment in May, and both kids have a teeth cleaning appointment with the Dentist. I might have to take notes from my big sis and do some retail therapy after my filling. Of course I'll probably just come straight home and go to bed as I'll be recovering from a cocktail of good meds for relaxant and pain.

This last month we have been dealing with Sam not liking his birth given name. Nope, he doesn't like it. He likes even numbers and Sam is an odd number of letters and so is Samuel. I told him he could spell his name S-A-M-M, which would give him 4 letters, is unique from any other Sam at school (and there are a few), and he still gets to use his name we picked out for him when he was born. Nope, he didn't want that. He'd do that at school, but at home, we are to call him "Cat King". Hmmmm...now that is an odd number of letters, but I guess since it has the word "cat" in it, it is somehow O.K. for him to use.

He loves cats and he is the king of all the cats at our house. So Cat King it is. Sometimes we forget and he reminds us. He received a birthday post card from the hospital he was born at. He was quite upset they did not know he had changed him name from Samuel to Cat King, so he took a pencil, scratched out Samuel, and wrote Cat King above it. There, now it was fixed. Luckily, his name changes rarely last long. Eventually he goes back to letting us call him by his real name. Which is good, as I believe this is about the 3rd or 4th time he's changed his name. He's been Snot Rod, Number 44, and now Cat King. Those have been the longest lasting ones that I remember anyway.

I think Snot Rod was the most memorable, as at a family reunion, he told some family members that we really did not know (distant relatives, of a relative, who belongs to another relative) and he introduced himself to them as Snot Rod. I admit, Cat King is much better than Snot Rod!

Guilty of Blog Neglect...Once Again

2010-04-13T19:19:00.001-05:00

Seems to be a bit of a theme with me…Hmmmm.... nor did I win any of the radio contests...maybe next time.

I joined Fitness 19 (a workout club) a little over a month ago. So far I've been pretty faithful at going 5 times a week and getting a work out in. I can tell I'm starting to build muscle. Things are shifting, but nothing that is noticeable to anyone else yet. These things take time as my fitness trainer that I got to work with told me. He said "Stay off the scale for a while, as you will be gaining weight while you build muscle." Building muscle, but burning fat and muscle weighs more than fat.

I only met with the fitness trainer one time. I got that as part of my club membership. It was a good deal. He was very informative and got me on the right work out path.

After I joined the club, I did some motivational shopping. I bought a bikini, a skinny pair of jeans (my goal size), and a size small shirt. I have them hanging on the back wall of my closet, so that every time I open my closet door. There they are, staring me right in the face. It's good motivation. I need that.

I have found that working out is quite fun. Odd, I thought I'd NEVER say that! I get alone time. Hmmm…alone time…now that is nice! Alone time & get in shape, BONUS!!! No, "Mom, when's dinner!? Mom, are you done working out yet?! Mom, he won't stop bugging me!!" That is what I got when I tried the in-home work out DVDs. After I was done rearranging furniture, and was just getting into that work out zone…queue in kids yelling. No, I just say "Mom's going to the gym, I'll be back in a while!" And out the front door I go.

The club is very convenient too. It is just about 5 blocks from my house. Couldn't get much closer than that! Did I mention it was cheap. Close, cheap, alone time…Jackpot!!

In March I hosted a "Purse Party". It was fun. I had a lady come into my house that sells replica handbags, scarves, jewelry, ect… I invited all the girls and had about 10 show up. Not too bad of a turn out for something like that. My house looked like a purse warehouse threw up in my house! Wow, she had quite the inventory. My kitchen table was filled with jewelry. My living room was covered in handbags, purses, and wallets. It was crazy.

Purse Parties are the new "thing", although, it's not the multi-level marketing thing. There are no pressure sales, no sales pitches, and no pressures to become a purse consultant. She just brings her purses and sets them all out & away you shop. You like it, you grab it, you buy it. Simple as that. She stays for a couple hours. That's it. Pretty easy! She does have hostess rewards, so it was worth it. And, I'm turning into quite the handbag hoarder. I'm addicted. I decided it was so much fun, that I might have to make it an annual thing to do. Two things women can't have enough of…purses and shoes!

For our Easter Festivities, we went to a nice Brunch with Ken's side of the family. It was really good. I indulged and blew my diet that morning! I don't think I've been to a buffet that large before (except at one of those Buffet Restaurants). They had this lovely chocolate fountain. Endless flowing chocolate…what's not to love about that!

After we stuffed ourselves silly (no one left hungry) we all went to the MN Zoo. It was a gorgeous day and it felt good to walk some of that brunch buffet off! At the Zoo we saw the grizzly bears (one of my favorites at the zoo, I could watch them all day). One of them was having fun playing in his little lake, playing with a stick and his toes. Ah the life..

Then we went to see the Farm Babies in that section of the zoo. We did see two cute little goats. As we were leaving the veterinarians, brought a pair of newly delivered goats to the barn. Back in we went after the mama goat and babies got put into their pen. They were so funny trying to walk right away. Their little tails were wagging and their little legs were shaking.

Last week Bon Jovi played at the Excel Center in St. Paul. I went to the concert with 3 of my girlfriends. Ken & Kevin went to the concert on a dad/son event. Ken was the coolest dad ever that night. Kevin was grinning from ear to ear and he enjoyed it a whole lot. It was a great concert! They put on a great show. We had pretty decent seats too. Ken & Kevin's seats were directly across the stadium from me and the girls. We girls went out to dinner before the concert and then when the concert was over, we all stayed overnight at one of the gal's house and sat in her hot tub. So we made it an entire day out. It was a pretty fun girls day/night out.

Spring has come early for Minnesotans, and I am really enjoying all this nice weather. We seemed to have a pretty mild and short winter. Boy, I sure could get used to that!

Caller Number 7

2010-03-22T20:42:00.002-05:00

All month long I've been listening to the radio. They have gone money winning contest crazy. Hey, I'm all about winning money for free! Who isn't?

One contest is "Pay Your Bills". You submit your bill (under $2,000) to the radio station. Then you listen at 7 am, 9 am, 1 pm, 4 pm, and 7 pm. If they call your name, you have 10 minutes to call in and claim the prize. Which is the amount of money your bill was. And for a bonus, if you signed up to be a fan of their radio station, they will pay you double the amount of money your bill is for. So far...they haven't called my name. Hmmm.... I guess I'll keep listening. The contest is only for this month, so I still have some more days for my name to pop up. Please, PICK ME, PICK ME!!!

Another contest they did was "21 G's with Luda and the Peas". This contest you listen to the radio station between 8am and 9 am, when you hear a Black Eyed Peas song or a Ludacris song, when the song is over, you call the radio station. Caller 10 wins tickets to the pre-show, and the concert. Now, I would never be able to tell the difference between Ludacris and Jay Z, or T I, or Timbaland if it weren't for the nifty little song identifier on my radio. I didn't really want to go to the concert. I was interested in the 21 G's. Caller 10 not only got tickets, but their name got put into a drawing for $21,000. Now, who doesn't want to win that kind of money just for being caller 10? So every day I listened and called, listened and called. I never got through, always got a busy signal. I was beginning to think my phone was blocked or something...Until on St. Patrick's Day...I heard the song and I called, and called, and called. I could not believe my ears when I heard a ringing phone instead of a busy signal. I had to check I dialed the right number. Yep, I did...Oh boy...ringing, ringing...."KDWB...you are caller number 7"

WHAT!! Caller 7! Lucky 7 on St. Patrick's Day. No, just say I'm number 10! Pick me! Pick me! So tonight I sit at home. No hanging out with Fergie and Ludacris, and a bunch of other people I'd never recognize. But I do not win $21,000 either. Nope, nadda for caller 7.

Lots of New Happenings

2010-03-06T19:02:00.003-06:00

I got exciting news the other day from my niece in California. I'm going to be a Great Aunt! She is going to have a baby boy in Aug. I'm so excited for her. Now I get to go baby boy shopping for her. And hopefully make a trip to California this year. She asked me if I'd come out & see her & the new baby. That made me really happy she gave me that invitation. So I'm hoping to make that happen. It sure would be neat if I could. My niece's baby will make my grandma (who will be 102 in 2 months) a Great Great Grandma. Five generations for my family in August. That is pretty darn cool.

I had a photo shoot in February that went really well. The little girl was so cute. She made such a good photo subject. I've had a couple leads of interest for Senior Portraits, so I'm hoping to get to work with those folks. I'm taking my neighbor boy's Senior photos free of charge as his family is some real financial hard times because of his dad's recent serious illness. It was the least I could do for their family as they didn't think they'd get Senior Portraits for him. Hopefully, he will send his friends my way.

My Tulum & Maya book edits are going really well. I seem to be on a roll. Those Maya were certainly interesting people. A little on the crazy side, but interesting.

I joined a Fitness Club called Fitness 19. It's close to my house & only $18 a month. So I really have no excuses to not go. I started going every day, although today I took a day off as I'm pretty tired and sore. I got a one hour session with a personal trainer and it was a really good session. Much better than I had expected. He went over my goals and how to achieve them. Then he gave me a work out regiment and he went through all the equipment and exercises I need to do.

The weather is getting nicer every day, so I hope that means that winter is over. We did have a pretty short winter this year, which is good in my book. We usually get the March Madness NCAA College Basketball Tournament winter snow storm, so I'm still expecting that. But I sure am welcoming this nicer weather. It's nice that the sun doesn't set until around 6pm and when I drive to work I get to see the sunrise.

Valentine's Weekend

2010-02-23T22:29:00.001-06:00

My Valentine's Date with my hubby was AWESOME! He took me to a nice restaurant. They had a lady playing the harp, so it was a classy place. My food was a little on the overcooked side, so I can't really rave about how wonderful dinner was, but it wasn't bad. The steak sauce that came with my steak was really yummy though.

After dinner we went to a movie. We hit the late show and the earliest late show we could get into was "Wolfman". Not what you'd think your typical Valentine Romantic Date movie would be, but I like to see movies worth seeing on the big screen. It was actually very good. And scary too. So I guess it wasn't such a bad date movie choice as I held my hubby's hand so the Wolfman wouldn't jump off the screen & get me.

On Valentine's Day, I got a sweet card & a box of chocolates from my hubby. Then he told me & the kids to get ready to go out for brunch. Yay! We went to Bon Fire's in Eagan. Brunch was great. Sam had chicken strips and kettle chips. He LIKED it! It is so hard to find that kid something to eat at restaurants as he's such a problem feeder. 9 months of feeding therapy 5 years ago and he still has a pretty limited diet. At least it's a variety of limited foods, but still limited none the less. I suppose there is still hope for him, after all I just discovered in Sept that I like shrimp. Who know. After all these years of clear disgust of shrimp, I actually really like it.

About an hour after we got home from brunch I had a horrible stomach ache. I ran to the bathroom & spent pretty much the rest of the day in there. No fun. The next 3 days were followed by horrid stomach cramps. They got better each day, and I was no longer making emergency trips to the bathroom, so I didn't make a trip to the doctor for him to tell me "hmmmm…probably some kind of virus or maybe you had food poisoning" .

So after 4 days of Ritz crackers, rice, and 7 Up…I was back to my usual self!

February Happenings

2010-02-13T12:05:00.005-06:00

February is here & half way over. Which means spring is just around the corner.

We got the official results of the State Lego Robotics tournament. Kevin's team came in 18th place overall out of 40 teams. So they didn't do too bad after all. They did get a medal for their Geothermal Bridge Ice Melting challenge as they came in 2nd place for that.

This month I took my old broken gold jewelry (necklace chains) to "The Gold Guys" store at the Mall of America. I walked out with a check for $220, so I took that check and set up my photography business checking account. With that I also applied for my Certificate of Assumed Name with the state, and got my Tax ID number. I'm officially official. Today I applied for a Small Business Grant for Women. Hopefully I will qualify for that, as that will help get a few more things for my Photography Business. I have a photo studio shoot coming up next week. I'll be photographing an adorable 3 year old girl. I'm excited to work with her. Hopefully, she'll be in a good mood for it.

Kevin turned 12 on the 7th of February. He chose to go bowling with the family for his birthday. We had a really good time. The kids really enjoy it, and the bumpers helped me out tremendously. I won the first round of bowling with a whopping score of 94. The next round Ken won, and my score was 112. We all improved on round 2.

I've been experiencing with different short-med length hair cuts. The first one I really liked, the second one had too many layers, and I really like the one I just got. I am however going to grow it back to shoulder length as not being able to pull it back in a pony tail is driving me crazy. Shorter hair is much more high maintenance than mid length to long hair.

In November, you may have remembered that I wrote a book about the Maya and the Tulum ruins in Mexico. I am now on round two of edits! The first round I organized paragraphs, order of topics, deleted repeated information, and deleted information that I could live with out. In this process, I was able to shorten my book by 12 single spaced pages.

Tonight the hubby is taking me out for a Valentine's date. We haven't had a Valentine's date in I don't even know how long. He was in charge of planning everything, so we'll see what he came up with. His first idea was to take me an ordinary restaurant. One we can go to anytime...he mentioned this to me (actually, he said "choose between Houlihan's, Green Mill, or Granite City")...my reply was "go back to the drawing board, it's Valentine's, Woo Me." Then he asked what movie I wanted to see. I told him one that would be a good theater experience. So, I do know we are going to dinner & a movie, I just don't know where or what movie. I told him not to tell me as I wanted it to be a surprise.

Only 1 Day Left of January

2010-01-30T22:07:00.004-06:00

January marks the very official opening and start up of BSquared26 Photography. I registered my Assumed Name with the State, applied for a Federal Tax ID number, and brainstormed on marketing, so I'm really official!

I entered some of my travel photos in a Frommers Cover Page 2010 contest. They were scenic photos of the San Diego, CA area, Wyoming, and one of downtown Minneapolis. You can view them at www.frommers.com, click on the camera where it says "Photo Contest", and search for BSquared26. Recommend my photos if you go there.

January also included talks of vacations for 2010,some home renovations (new couch, new kitchen floor, and window work), and plans to help out with Ken's parents cabin that we will get to use from time to time. It's been a slow process and it's a fun place to go, so Ken and his parents talked and decided to get things done, so we can all enjoy it more often.

Kevin was super busy with Lego Robotics practices for his team to prepare for the state tournament that was today. Apparently, the high school kids accidentally took their robot, and the kids made a new one. After they finished making & reprogramming their new robot, the high school kids returned their old one too them. The kids were laughing about it today, but they were frustrated at the time. They were missing one kid from the team for the tournament today, so they had to adjust for that as well. Turns out the kids didn't do so well, and they didn't place in the top 10 or get any awards. We were pretty proud of them though, as this was everyone on the team's first year doing Lego Robotics and they made it to the state tournament. I think the kids were so excited, nervous, and frazzled that their robot was acting up. At least they got the experience of working together as a team under pressure.

The last week of January has been hard on everyone. It's been very cold and not much sunshine. We are all getting a case of cabin fever. We're glad January is almost done with.

Hopefully Feb brings some warmer weather so we can go out and do some fun things!

ABCs of 2009

2010-01-09T18:30:00.014-06:00

Algebra - In 5th and 6th grade math. Yikes!

Braces - Kevin got braces at the beginning of the year. He's doing really good with them.

Cats - We added a new cat to the house. All 4 of our cats have been truck driver rescued cats.

Devil's Track Lake - Ken and his parents started work on the family cabin.

Elementary School - This is Sam's last year in Elementary School. It is hard to believe the kids are getting so grown.

Football - Kenny is really happy Brett Favre is helping the MN Vikings Football team win.

Girls Trip - Bonnie took a girls vacation to Playa Del Carmen, Mexico in February.

Homework - It's harder for us to help the kids with their homework. They bring home some pretty complex work sometimes.

Ignore - Our kids are getting really good at ignoring their parents.

Juggle - It is amazing how we juggle all 4 of our schedules.

Kickball - Bonnie made a proposal to the city athletic board to add youth kickball to its venue of sports. It was passed and 2009 brought the first organized youth kickball league to Eagan, MN. It was a very proud accomplishment for her.

Laguna Beach - Ken & Bonnie took a vacation with out the kids to California for her niece's wedding in California.

Middle School - Kevin entered Middle School in 2009.

NaNoWriMo - Bonnie finished her National Novel Writing Competition challenge of writing 50K words. 2010 will bring edits and trying to get it to a publisher.

Ocean - How we love to see the oceans. Bonnie saw the Caribbean & Pacific. Ken saw the Pacific.

Photography - Bonnie opened a Photo Studio in our home. She built it on her own, built a portfolio, and had 3 clients by the end of the year.

Quilt - We had a lady in MT make us a quilt using clothing from our kids when they were toddlers.

Robotics - Kevin's 6th grade Robotics team took 3rd place at their Regional tournamet, which qualified them to compete at the State Tournament in Jan 2010.

Softball - Ken continues to play softball with his brother. This is something they really enjoy.

Thanksgiving - We hosted Thanksgiving at our house. Bonnie got out all the old fancy dishes and we had quite the feast.

Used Piano - We got a free used piano (in very good condition) from Freecycle.org. Now we just need to learn to play it. Perhaps a 2010 venture?

Vitamin D - Bonnie was diagnosed with severe Vitamin D deficiency. She controls it by taking 3000 units of Vitamin D suppliments daily and tanning.

Weddings - 2009 was the year of weddings. We attended 5 weddings. One was in
California and Bonnie was a bridesmaid in one in MN.

X-Box 360 - The kids got X-Box 360 for Xmas. We haven't seen much of them since.

Youth Camp - Kevin went to CYC again this summer for a week. He really enjoys that week of summer.

Zoo - Bonnie saw her favorite actor Kevin Costner play in his band at the MN Zoo.

My Poor Neglected Blog

2009-12-22T19:48:00.004-06:00

Dec was a busy month for me. Aren't they all?

My home photo studio officially opened in Oct. My website was built and my portfolio. Oct and Nov I didn't see any business, which is ok. But in December I did 3 photo shoots. It was lots of fun, and my clients were happy with their results. It was pretty neat seeing the photos I took of their kids on a Christmas card they sent me.

We also attended a benefit for a friend of ours. He almost lost his life in November, but the doctors were able to save him. He somehow had infectious tumors in his neck and throat. He had 3 long surgeries in 5 days. He has about a 4 month recovery period. Needless to say his illness and recovery time has forced him out of a job. His baseball friends all got together and held a benefit for him. It was a really good time. You paid a cover charge to get in, and got free food and beer. Then they had a silent auction. We won/bought a Margarita/Mexican bag. It has chips, salsa, a chip bowl, 2 margarita glasses, and margarita mix.

I've also been working on my book edits. I finished my book on Tulum, Mexico and the Maya, so now it's editing time. Edits are going pretty good.

Kevin had a Lego Robotics tournament at the end of November. His team did a really good job, and they are moving onto the state tournament at the end of January. It's a really busy and fun day for the kids, but it's a very long and boring day for the parents. Lots of sitting, and even more time spent between performances. His team is made up of 5 sixth graders, 4 boys & 1 girl. They are all pretty excited about going to the state tournament. They have practices scheduled twice a week to get ready for it. I hope they do a good job at the state tournament.

This year for Christmas I only set up a small tree. It's about a 1 foot tall tree. With all the Dec happenings, I just didn't have the energy to go all out. Plus, with our new kitten, I don't trust her enough to stay out of it. I don't feel like coming home to a destroyed tree every day. Not to mention taking it all down. I usually never get my tree taken down until around Easter time. February if I'm lucky. It's such a big project.

So I put up the little tree on a table and next to it put a snow man snow globe, a nativity set, and a nut cracker. All small pieces. It's a nice little decoration, and the cat has only knocked it off the table 3 times. Not too bad.

I got all my Christmas shopping done. I did most of it online, and just hoping it all gets here in time. My mom and grandma's present is going to be late, but I get her the same thing every year. Not really a lot you can get a 72 & a 101 year old that they don't already have or haven't already given to you. But they will always need a calendar, and that's what I get them. Each month has a photo of us in some way or fashion. They really enjoy it, and it's a good way to show off their grandsons.

Our new kitten had her claws removed and spayed right before Thanksgiving. The little stinker was healing fine over the weekend that we were home, and then as soon as we all left for school and work, she tore out a stitch and managed to get her tummy surgical cut infected. So everyday, I had to clean it out, put antibiotics on it, and give her oral liquid antibiotics. Good thing she liked it. I had to put a cone around her neck and she absolutely hated it. It took a while to get rid of it, and I didn't dare take off the cone until it was all healed up.

Christmas is just a few days away. We plan on spending time with my husbands parents and family. That is always a real fun time. The kids have a real good time with their cousins.

This Christmas we are starting new traditions. My kids have reached that age where they know Santa isn't real and they want more expensive toys. The annual tradition of visiting Santa just doesn't cut it anymore. So we will spend time with the family, got to midnight mass (now that they are old enough to sit through it), open gifts on Christmas morning (as usual), and then we are going to a movie. I'm also going to make a nice Christmas ham. So as the kids grown, we form new fun traditions. I remember as a kid at their age, our mom would load us all up in the family car and we would drive around town and look at all the Christmas lights in town. We'd get home and before bed, we got to open one gift from an out of town relative. It was always so fun to get a sneak peek. On Christmas morning, we'd open gifts, and then go to Christmas mass.

This year also marks a first that my kids are old enough to understand the spirit of giving gifts. They took me shopping with them so they could get their dad and me a Christmas gift. I was just along for the money. It's always so nice that I'm so needed. It's the thought that counts, and I'm pretty proud that they wanted to do that all on their own. They are such sweet kids. They were able to hide my present from me, so I have no idea what I paid for. I'm excited to see what they picked out.

Merry Christmas to Everyone!!

November Happenings

2009-11-29T11:53:00.006-06:00

November turned out to be a very busy month.

I finished my novel! I started the challenge of writing a 50,000 word novel in November, and I did it in 15 days. Whew, talk about brain marathon! My novel isn't really a novel persay, it's a guide book to the Maya and the ruins in Tulum, Mexico. I'm at the editing stage of it now. I have it printed out and just need to go through everything and figure out which paragraphs go where and what I can delete out of it. 50,000 words equates to 98 single spaced pages of text. I plan on including photos and have assigned Ken to do some illustrations. Once I have it all edited and put together, I plan on getting it out to a publisher.

I'm glad I finished so quickly. I spent a week getting my house in order to host Thanksgiving at my house. I haven't hosted a holiday meal at our house in about 8 years. It was just me, Ken, the boys, and Ken's parents for Thanksgiving. Ken's mom has done the Turkey Day meal for a long time, and all Ken's siblings were out of town this year. We decided to give his mom a break.

I went all out. I made a feast fit for Kings and Queens. It was very tasty. I even made my own cranberry sauce. That was super yummy. Much better than from a can. We had the works, lots of appetizers, the main meal (turkey, homemade stuffing, real mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, squash, dinner rolls...the works!), for desert Ken's mom baked a blue berry pie, and I had 2 pumpkin pies from Trader Joe's (yummy goodness). I bought whipped cream and vanilla bean ice cream to go with it.

I also broke out the good dishes. Not my every day wear. I got out my great Uncle Elmer and Great Aunt Marietta's flatware. I had a floral center piece, and used my great grandmothers, and grandmothers silver and glass serving dishes.

I'm Declaring War!

2009-11-10T18:50:00.003-06:00

On my body fat that is....

Today at work a group of nurses came to our work for health checks. It is for health insurance discounts. You get a discount for normal blood pressure, normal cholesterol, and a normal Body Mass Index.

I filled out the paperwork, and went with nurse number 1 for my cholesterol check. I sat down and told her that I hated getting my finger pricked. She informed me that the pokers are not like the little razor blades that they used back when I was a lab tech. Ok, that sounded good. Wouldn't hurt too bad at all. So, I stuck out my finger, she stabbed it, and I yelled "OW!. The nurse lied! She pipes up and asks me if I've ever had babies, and that I should put it in perspective. Blah, blah, blah...you just stabbed me in the finger. Of course it hurts. It's stabbed and it's bleeding. She put a big band-aid on it.

Then I waited in the hallway for the next step. Getting weighed and measured, getting my blood pressure checked, and my BMI result. An older nurse came to get me. She said "Who's next?" I told her that I was and she said "No, you're not, your the nurse." WHAT? I'm not the nurse. She argued that I was. No, clearly I'm not your co-worker nurse. Not me. I'm here to get poked and prodded. So she took me back to the room and ran into the nurse she thought I was. "Oh, see you two look just alike!" That made me a bit nervous that she couldn't tell her patient apart from her co-worker.

I got on the scale and I swear it yelled "Hey chubby, get off me!" I did not like that number that I saw. No, I'm not telling what number that was, but it was not a good number! Then I got measured. Yep, I'm still 5 foot 2 inches tall. Then she asked my age and punched all my numbers into a thing that looked much like an X-box remote. She told me to squeeze the handles. So I did. "Squeeze harder!" So I did. Ok, she got the number. I missed the cut off for the discount by just a few points.

Then she took my blood pressure. The nurse puffed that blood pressure cuff so tight, I thought the spot where I got my finger poked was gonna pop open and squirt blood all over every one. Yikes, I've never had a blood pressure cuff pumped up that high before. She gave me my result and it was a much higher number than I normally run. I figured it must just be from running around in the morning and having the cuff so dang tight. Plus I'm not sure if she could really read the numbers right because she thought I was the nurse, and she had to check the BMI machine a few times, like she couldn't make out the numbers. Oh well, my blood pressure was still with in the range for the wellness health discount, so no big deal. My finger poke didn't pop open, and all was well.

While I was getting told my blood pressure was higher than normal and I'm too chubby, I got the results of my cholesterol. Yay! Passed those numbers with flying colors! So I qualified for the cholesterol discount and the blood pressure discount, but flunked the BMI test, so no discount for that.

The nurse gave me some informational sheets on BMI. It's a chart that tells you how much you should weigh for how tall you are. Hmmmmm......I need to grow a foot to catch up to my weight. How can I grow? Dang...I guess I'll have to lose weight. No more harvesting fat for future medical technology to start asking people to donate their fat. But hey! I have good cholesterol!

After a while I took my band-aid off my finger as it was too big and it was hard to type with it on. Guess what was there? A big fat bruise! Oh how, I hate getting my finger poked.

For lunch I went out and had a big fat juicy bacon cheese burger, some yummy french fries, and cake & ice cream for desert. Gotta celebrate having such a good cholesterol.

Tomorrow the diet starts...

Oh What A Night!

2009-11-05T18:51:00.002-06:00

Last night Kevin decided that he was going to stay late after school. I really love the fact that my son likes to stay in after school study hall. So the night before he & I discussed that I had to work until 5:00 and then I would pick him up, so I'd be a tad bit late, but he could wait for me. Ok, sound plan!

Well……yesterday I could not find my cell phone. So I had no way for the kids to get a hold of me. Well, they could call my work number and get me. I got done working at 5:00 and drove over to the school to pick up Kevin. I waited, and waited, and waited, and then suddenly all the kids who had stayed after school were all gone. They had waited for their ride to arrive. I thought to myself….maybe he changed his mind and went home after school, or maybe he decided to walk home, or maybe he caught a ride home with someone else. No way to check my cell phone though because I didn't have it on me. I drove home and no Kevin. ACK! I lost my kid and my phone!!!

I run around frantically to try to find my cell phone. I can't find it. So I tell Sam that I'm driving back to school to see if I somehow missed Kevin and if Sam could try to find my cell phone. I ran down the stairs and when I hit the bottom step, I stepped on one of Sam's shoes, twisted my ankle, fell down, and hit my head on the front door. Now, I'm crawling around telling Sam NOT to leave his shoes right in front of the steps, where's my cell phone, and where's my kid!!!

I hobbled back out to my van hoping I had not hurt my ankle worse than just a twist, but it sure did hurt. I drove back to the school, rubbing my head hoping it didn't leave a mark. I get back to the school and there are absolutely no kids there. Hmmm…where did the little shit go? I can't find my cell phone. Back home I go ready to call everyone I could think of where he might be.

I walked in the house & there is Kevin…."Where were you mom! I tried to call you & you didn't answer cuz I found your cell phone in the couch cushion, so I took the activity bus home & when I got home, you weren't here! I was getting worried about you!! "

Oh good grief!

Happy All Saint's Day, Let the Writing Begin, & What an October!!

2009-11-01T09:23:00.004-06:00

November is here. Happy All Saint's Day!!

Today is the start of the NaNoWriMo. National Novel Writing Month. I participated last year, but did not finish. Then the editor inside of me killed the novel & decided I would start over on it, at a later date though.

This year I have decided to write about the Mayan Ruins, in Tulum, Quinta Roo, Mexico. I visited the Ruins in February, and was amazed by the place. Such fascinating history. It was gorgeous and amazing. It is the most visited ruins, yet the least is written about it.

October was a busy month! It started out with my birthday. The following week Kevin was sick with a nasty cold. He missed a whole week of school. He's been busy catching up at school, and even goes to an after school study hall on Tuesdays. He is enjoying Robotics. November will be busy with practices for him and his team prepare for their Robotics tournament.

October also brought us a new little kitten. She is the cutest thing! So yes, I think this officially deems me as the crazy cat lady. We have as many cats as we do people. Kenny says "it's a good thing she's so cute". Hahaha....The kids named her Cali which is short for Calico. They fell in love with her right away. She is quite the little fearless frisky kitten. She chases the other cats around and pounces on them. She definitely keeps the other cats on their toes. The first few days they didn't know what to think of her and they all ran away and hid from her, but now they have learned to just swat her back. She is relentless though, and keeps trying to suck them into playing with her. It's pretty funny to watch.

My friend Kathy & her 18 month old came to visit us for a week. They made the drive from Montana. It was so good to have them around. I took a couple days off from work so we could have some fun. We sure did. We went out for dinner a couple of nights, we went shopping like crazy (definitely stimulated the economy), went to the Como Zoo, and just hung around at the house visiting.

A day or two after they left Kenny came down with a head cold & I had picked up a cough. Ken had his cold for a little over a week and he felt miserable. My cough was more annoying than anything. Kenny got over his cold and my cough got worse. I ended up with a viral bronchitis. I stayed home for a week feeling miserable. I went to the doctor's office and when I walked from the waiting room to the patient room, I must have walked to fast and got really winded. It was difficult to breathe, and I felt as though, I had run a marathon. The nurse said "let me go get the doctor". She came back to the room with three doctors, they had the blood pressure cuff, the finger oxygen reader, and were checking my pulse right away. They were asking me a million questions at once and I was just trying to catch my breath. They did a chest X-ray and an EKG. They said "we'll have to see what this shows before we decide what to do with you, sometimes virus' like this can attack the heart and require hospitalization." Yikes! I don't have time to be sick in the hospital! I'm the mom! Well, the chest X-ray and the EKG both came back clear and normal. So they concluded that I had an influenza related viral bronchitis and I was to go home, get plenty of rest, and drink lots of fluids, and ride it out. They gave me an antibiotic just in case there was some bacteria, but they really doubted it. I guess they were covering their bases and didn't want to see me back? They also gave me an inhaler to help me breathe better. That worked but only temporarily, but it still came in handy. I'm feeling much better now, and am ready to get back to the real world and back to mom-normality.

I had the Kickball Awards Parties in Oct. I wasn't feeling very good, but I pulled it off anyway. I don't think people realized I was feeling as miserable as I was. Which is good, but I came home exhausted.

Halloween was great for the kids. Sam's school had their Halloween party a week early. I missed the memo on that one. Sam came home & told me he wanted to be Godzilla 2000 and the party was tomorrow. TOMORROW! Who has Halloween a week before Halloween? So off to the fabric store we went. Wal-Mart has removed their entire fabric department, so we ended up in St. Paul. Sam found the material he wanted and we found what we would make the spikes with. I ended up staying up until 3:30 am putting together the Godzilla costume. I ended up burning my index finger on the glue gun about 5 times. You think I would have learned not to touch hot glue after the first time, but no. I guess it was too early in the morning for such lessons. The costume got finished in time for school party. The costume was a hit with Sam and his friends thought it was a good costume too. So the numb feeling in my index finger and the sleepless night was worth it. I definitely earned my mom badge.

Halloween I took the kids to St. Paul and the kids went trick-or-treating down Summit Ave. Summit Ave is known for it's candy and highly decorated houses. The Governor's mansion is also on Summit Ave. and they usually give out pretty good candy. One house had the smoke going in their yard and porch. They had people dressed up as scary characters from movies. They stood still and then would move as you got close to them. I have to admit it was pretty creepy. They left the little kids alone, but scared the older kids, and even me too. I'll admit I jumped and let out a scream when the smoke on the porch came screaming out of the machine. The kids just laughed...hahaha...mom got scared.

And now here we are in November. Kenny is heavily wrapped up in the Vikings Football team and the Wild Hockey team. Both teams are doing good, and he loves that Brett Favre is helping MN win. He also likes that it makes the MN-WI football rivalry more intense. He is really excited for Vikings-Green Bay game today. We are hoping that Wisconsin's Golden Boy will have a Vikings win on Green Bay territory.

How did it suddenly become Oct?

2009-10-09T23:26:00.003-05:00

So far we are getting robbed of a decent fall season. Not much of a summer & not much of a fall. I can't complain too much about Sept. Sept. we had great weather. The leaves are turning and early in the morning we are to get snow.

The youth kickball season came to an end. My 7-9 grade team took 1st place. My 4-6 grade team lost their final game which ended up putting them in 4th place. Oh well. They were a great group of kids. My 4-6 grade team all went out for Dairy Queen after our last game. The little girl on my team gave me a great big hug. Coaching was pretty rewarding. My 7-9th grade team had an end of season party at my co-coaches house. We cooked hot dogs and the parents all chatted in the kitchen & the kids all chatted in the tv room. Those kids were a pretty good group of kids too.

I got all the scores and stats in and updated on the kickball blog. http://eagankickball.blogspot.com I just have to wait for the awards to get shipped to me and then I'll be planning an awards party for the kids. It's going to have to be somewhere indoors as the weather is pretty cold to do something outside.

My adult league kickball season is pretty much over too. We had 2 rainouts, and I'm not sure when or if we'll even make those games up at all.

Now that kickball is all over with you may wonder what I will do with my time? National Novel Writing Month is just around the corner. Oct I will finish my outline for the book I plan on writing in November. I'm going to be writing about the Mayan Ruins in Tulum, Mexico. They are the most visited ruins, yet the least written about. I've been doing research on it since I got back from Mexico in February of 09, so hopefully it will all come out onto paper in November.

I had a birthday at the beginning of Oct. I celebrated for 4 days! I celebrated with friends the day before my b-day playing bingo. I didn't win anything, but 3 people at our table did. I had to celebrate my last day of being 40. On my birthday, I met up with friends at a nearby bar. My neighbor guy ended up showing up. He knew the DJ, so he told the DJ it was my birthday & the next thing I know, the whole place is singing Happy Birthday to me. The day after my birthday Ken & I went to Osaka's a Japanese seafood & steak house with another couple. The food was delicious! I had fillet mignon, lobster, shrimp, scallops, and fried rice. We did the Hibachi menu, so they cook the food right at your table. The chef does all sorts of fancy tricks. It's very entertaining. Then on Sunday (2 days after my b-day), I treated myself to a movie at the theater. I went and saw the movie "Fame". It was nothing like the original movie. The only thing the same was it takes place at the same school, and they had the singing, dancing, musical scene in the cafeteria. Otherwise, it was completely different characters with completely different stories. It was entertaining, and I enjoyed it, but I was expecting it to be more like the original.

Summer Madness Coming to an End

2009-09-28T22:18:00.003-05:00

This is the last week of youth kickball. Tuesday night Kevin & Sam's team plays. If their team will take 2nd place overall in the league. If they lose they will take 4th place.

Wed night my 7th-9th grade team plays and after the game we are all headed to Coach Beth's house for an end of season celebration. The parents are bringing all sorts of goodies, so that should be fun.

Sometime in October, I'm going to have an end of season party for the kids and hand out awards. Awards for 1st and 2nd place overall, most home runs, most runs batted in, and most improved player will be handed out.

Two weekends ago we had gorgeous weather! It was too nice not to get out & about. So the boys & I headed over to Stillwater for a Sunday afternoon. We had a nice lunch outside on a restaurant patio overlooking the St. Croix River. We got to watch all the big boats go by and watch the lift bridge go up & down a few times to let the big boats go through.

After lunch we walked along the sidewalk next to the river. Then we headed to the little downtown area. We didn't go into many shops as the boys really aren't into that. But I did manage to get them into a knick knack store. They had some really neat Cuckoo clocks. Hand carved and intricate. Kevin made one of them sound off. It played music and chimed and went cuckoo, cuckoo. So I asked him how he did that. "Well, you just move the hands mom". Ok, so I went for the big one. I moved the hands and nothing happened. Well, sort of nothing. The store clerk came over & asked me if I touched the clock. I couldn't lie as I had been caught red handed touching the goods. Ok, well you need to leave. Ok, not gonna argue with that! So out we went. You can't expect a grown mom to keep her hands off the cuckoo clocks. You have to make sure it works! Maybe they should be kept in a case of some kind for curious grown ups like myself.

After we got kicked out of the knick knack store, we went across the street to a coffee shop. They had cave tours (click cave tours to read about it) . It was a really neat tour. Even the kids liked it. Its not the kind of cave that you typically think of. It's quite wide and easy to walk through. Our tour guide was full of info and humor. Definitely worth the tour.

Kevin has his first night of Robotics tomorrow night. His dad took him to the initial meeting. You know, the one he had rights not to go to. When he came home from the meeting he couldn't wait to sign up. I'm sure it was just a bad idea because we brought it up.

Growing up in Middle School

2009-09-19T16:00:00.002-05:00

It's beginning to happen. He's growing up. The other day he told me that he could no longer play with the littler kids as now that he's in Middle School that's no longer cool and he doesn't want to be caught and be the laughing stock.

Also, the other day I was fiercely trying to get him to sign up for the after school robotics program. He was thinking of all sorts reasons not to, which I couldn't understand why. So I finally told him "Well, you are signing up for Robotics." Of which his reply was "I have rights to you know, and I don't have to sign up for it if I don't want to."

Well, I sent in the registration and his first Robotics meeting is on Tues. I told him to at least give it a chance and see what it's all about before he decides. I'd hate for him to miss out on an opportunity he actually might enjoy. He's just so cautious to try new things and put himself out on a limb.

He's been enjoying Middle School a lot, and we are starting the growing up process. It'll definitely be an interesting year of 6th grade.

Remembering 9/11

2009-09-11T16:40:00.005-05:00

It is hard to believe it was 8 years ago that the horrible terrorist attack was taken upon the USA. I remember the day vividly, as do many people. I was sitting at work when some one came running through the building telling people to turn on their radios, a plane hit the World Trade Center. Everyone thought, hmmm…some stupid person hit the Center in their little Buddy Holly plane. All the TV's in the building were tuning in. Employees throughout the building dropped everything and got to a TV. The employee break room was packed. We saw the second plane hit & couldn't believe what we were seeing. It was like some bad nightmare, or really good special effect movie. It seemed so unreal. How could something that awful really be happening? Employees looked at each other to see if they were seeing the same thing. Then we saw the Towers collapse. Faces of shock & disbelief filled the room. Complete silence. No one knew what to say or how to feel. It was so much for us to consume in our minds.

We somberly went back to work, with sadness in our hearts and minds coming to terms that this indeed was reality. Our country was under attack. We got back to our desks and listened to our radios. It was all you could hear through out the building. No office chatter, no keyboards plunking, no phones ringing. Then we heard that the Pentagon had been attacked. Fear was in us. What was next? How could this be happening? Who was responsible? We kept listening as the news came in and we just listened. Then the news of the 4th plane crashing in a field came through. It was unbelievable. Was it going to end? How many more planes? How many more people? And most of all where? Where would the next bad explosion occur?

Planes were grounded. People stranded at airports. Everyone's lives forever changed not matter how attached or detached to the people involved.

I went home for lunch and it was odd. Not one single plane in the sky. The sky was quiet and still. I work, live, and drive on the landing and take off path near the airport, so seeing and hearing planes is an every day, let alone every hour occurrence. It's a part of my daily life. To have it suddenly still was a strange reality of it all. I felt numb the rest of the day. How will I explain this to my children? How will I explain to them that such horror was true to life? How will their young minds even understand? How would this event impact them? I decided at home we would not have the TV on and I would keep the horror from my children at least for that day. Plus I could not watch it over and over and over. It was too horrible.

I contacted the airport and offered up my home to house displaced air travelers. It was the most I could do to help out. I felt we needed to pull together as a society and I needed to do my part. They declined and said things were taken care of but thanks for offering. All I could think of was how lucky I was to be with my family safe and how many people's family were suddenly torn apart and how many families were worried about loved ones stranded in airports around the world on what was supposed to be just an ordinary Monday morning.

The whole week following the Attack of 9/11 adults and children were waving flags on street corners and on bridges. Flags at businesses were at half mast. A feeling of coming together, patriotism, and how much we really do love our country was overwhelming.

As, we take a moment to reflect upon the events of Sept 11, 2001, let's remember that Freedom comes with a heavy price. When you see a soldier on the street, at the store, at the airport…make sure to say THANK YOU. They are making the ultimate sacrifice for the people of America. They put their lives at risk for freedom. They make sacrifices you and I could never know. They deserve respect and honor. THANK YOU!!

Living La Vida Kickball

2009-09-03T19:44:00.003-05:00

Kickball has pretty much been my life the past few weeks. I am coaching 2 teams. One team made up of 7th-9th graders and one team made up of 4th-6th graders. Kevin & Sam are both on my 4th-6th grade team.

My teams are great!!! The kids are so fantastic and the past few weeks have been so extremely rewarding. It is so nice to see the smiling faces of these kids having so much fun on the kickball field. I have had many parents thank me for bringing the sport into action and how much fun their child is having. Did I mention how great the kids are? I wish I could bring them all home with me. Well...I take that back. I'll just settle for the one hour each week I get with them listening to me. Did I just say kids listen me? Wow, now that is a new concept. Just add Coach Bonnie to my never ending list of titles.

Besides life on the kickball field....(Yes, I do have a life outside of kickball believe it or not)

I was in a wedding this past weekend. My good friend Jo that goes on my girls trips with me got married. I was one of her bridesmaids. The evening before the wedding we had rehearsal and went to dinner at the couple's favorite Mexican restaurant. It was good.

The day of the wedding I had my eyebrows waxed, my eyelashes tinted, and my hair done up really pretty. My hair stylist is awesome. She's young and energetic when it comes to hair. She knows hair! I told her she's the hair expert, have at it. I had no idea how I wanted to wear it. So she went against traditional updo style and gave me a really rocking updo off to the side. It was so adorable. I absolutely loved it. And wow, I got so many compliments on it.

The wedding was a complete blast. One of the most fun weddings I've been to. I've been to a lot of fun weddings. This one makes the top 5 (mine of course is number 1). But now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever been to a bad or boring wedding. Or wedding reception for that matter.

Yesterday my oldest caveboy had Middle School orientation. Yikes!! MIDDLE SCHOOL! Orientation was all day long. He met his teacher and class mates. He got his locker assignment and learned his combination. Their lockers are tiny! I'm not sure how they are supposed to fit all their books, hats, coats, ect. in there. When I went to school you should shove a person in your locker. I guess they are moving away from that? Nobody will be fitting in these lockers. I don't think they even a full 2 feet wide. They are only about 3 1/2 feet tall too.

Here is the little big man's daily schedule, which rotates on a cycle day. Blue & Green Cycle Days.

General Music / Phy Ed - Health
Math Lab / Phy Ed Health
Art / Science
Art / Science
Math
American History
Reading
English
Homebase (Study Hall/Homeroom)

He also got a map of the school. Yes, his school is quite large. It is 2 levels and I got lost going through there when I went to pick him up from orientation. Kevin seemed to know his way around, so apparently they navigated their way around a few times during orientation too.

Kickball Kick Off

2009-08-19T21:14:00.003-05:00

Monday night I had my first Kickball practice with the 7-9 graders. It went really well. I had another coach helping me and he knew most of the kids and had a bigger voice than me, so I was really glad he was there. I got a good feel for what positions they can play and how well they can kick the ball. They were a really nice group of kids. I can tell it's going to be a good season with them.

Tonight I was supposed to have practice with my 4-6 grade team, but we got rained out. I'm hoping the field will be available this weekend, so we can get a practice in before our first game next week.

Tonight I help an umpire training. It was supposed to take place right after practice on the field, but since the city closed the fields, I had the umpires meet at my house instead. There are only 4 umpires I'm working with. It quit raining by the time they showed up, so I was able to take them to the backyard to go over the rules (all 6 pages of them). The had lots of good questions and we went through every single rule. I was able to show them legal vs. illegal pitches, and how the catcher can play. Umpire training took 1 hour.

Tomorrow night I have my adult league kickball game. That should be fun. We are on a less competitive league this season, so that will make for a fun season.

My Poor Neglected Blog

2009-08-15T17:28:00.003-05:00

It has been a very busy couple of weeks. Kickball has been all consuming. I picked up my uniforms that I had made and they look fantastic! I'm so happy with how they turned out. I've been really busy finalizing things for kickball; schedules, late registrations, fields, equipment, ect...

My coaches meeting was on Thursday. It went really well and it was nice to meet everyone I'd working with this season. We met at Old Chicago. There are only 13 coaches, so it didn't seem practical to rent out a lecture room. I wasn't going to give any big speeches anyway, so I just wanted something laid back and practical. I gave out their equipment, and went over the official rules with them. Answered questions they had and that was about it.

One team I am co-coaching with is the Director of Traveling basketball and Inhouse volleyball. She also coaches those sports. She encouraged some of her kids to go out for kickball and is helping me coach so it is really nice that I have her support. So, she stayed at Old Chicago with me after everyone left and gave me some helpful tips.

The kickball season starts up on Monday. I'm pretty excited about it really.

Kickball, Kickball, and more Kickball

2009-08-05T22:29:00.003-05:00

My youth kickball league is coming along rather nicely at the last minute. I've had some later registrations which helped out a lot. I ordered the uniforms the other day and those will be in next week in time for my coaches meeting. I'm excited to see how they look. I didn't have a logo design that I really liked. So I told the guy at the uniform store, what I was thinking. Turns out he is the designer, so he ran with my idea and threw in a few things of his own, and is going to design it for me. They should be pretty neat.

Tomorrow, the equipment I ordered is getting delivered to my house. I ordered it locally and the sales rep is going to deliver it personally. It was the easiest shopping I've ever done. I emailed the sales rep at Metro Sports, told him what I needed. I called him today to see if he had my order and he said "yep, we have everything you need, when do you want me to bring it to you?" WOW, now that's what I call service!

Today I got my teams formed and finalized. I'm still waiting on a couple late registrations, but I have some of their info already. I have to wait for the people's registrations to get uploaded to one program, that uploads to another program, then gets to me. So my information is a day or two old by the time I get it. I did order extra uniforms for just that reason.

I also got the schedules formed today. I sent a copy of the schedules off to the lady who runs the fields of the city, so those are reserved for me. I've got some pretty nice fields to play on. The city has over 100 parks, so I had a few to choose from. I had to be careful with that as I'm head coaching two teams. One team for grades 4-6 (my kids are on) and one team 7-9. I needed extra coaches. I still have one team that is coachless, but I think I'll be able to find one for them before next week and it won't be me.

My coaches meeting is next Thursday. That's where I get to give them all their team stuff and hand out all sorts of paperwork. Should be fun, we're meeting at Old Chicago so it'll be less formal.

The season officially starts the week of Aug 17. I'm pretty excited that I got this program up & running. I was nervous I wouldn't have enough kids to participate, but things really picked up the last two weeks and it looks like a promising first season.

Another Week in Review

2009-08-02T17:34:00.003-05:00

Wed. night I went to see Kevin Costner & Modern West. They were performing at the MN Zoo. I took my camera with me,but it got confiscated by security (it was returned safely to me after the concert) before I could get into the concert. They were banning all cameras except cell phone cameras and small handhelds. Bummer...I was hoping to get good photos. Oh well...it didn't ruin any fun.

The concert was great. The group wrote and performed some new songs that were pretty good. Can't wait for a new cd to come out. My seats were great too. 10 rows up, right smack in center stage.

At the end of the concert Kevin decided to sign autographs up by the stage. By the time I got down there, he was done and went backstage. I did get down there in time for some weirdo to ask for a bottle from the stage that Kevin had drank from during the concert. WEIRDO!

Some people had back stage passes (the lucky ducks!), but not me. :(

I have 72 kids signed up for kickball! I've had lots of last minute registrants. It's pretty exciting to see it grow. I've got all my coaches lined up too. The season starts in 2 weeks, so this week I have lots to do in order to be ready for the season.

Today we took Kevin up to Roseville to catch his bus for summer camp. This is his 4th year going to CYC (Catholic Youth Camp). We drove up to Roseville, ate out at Perkins and then dropped him off. After he got loaded on the bus, we drove over to Half Price Books. I bought a couple of books on photography, a couple of John Saul books, and a WW2 book for Kevin. He's going to love it. It is all about the different battles with tactical maps. I didn't find anything that Sam would be interested in, so he didn't get one. I think I'll take Sam out to see a movie this week while Kevin is gone. One thing for sure, is this is going to be a really quiet week with out him around.

July

2009-07-31T23:27:00.001-05:00

Where did it go? If anyone finds it, please return it to me.

Conversations with my 11 year old

2009-07-26T22:08:00.002-05:00

Sometimes he is just too smart for his own good. This was from a phone conversation the two of us had on Friday.

Me: Kevin, don't forget to do some math today.

Kevin: I won't

Me: Really?

Kevin: yeah

Me: did you do any math yesterday?

Kevin: Yes

Me: When?

Kevin: yesterday

Me: Where is it?

Kevin: Well, I did it all in my head.

Me: Kevin, you should go up & down the stairs 10 times every day

Kevin: Why?

Me: Because I said so

Kevin: No

Me: What?

Kevin: No

Me: Why?

Kevin: Welll....

Me: Give me one good reason you can't do that.

Kevin: Cuz I don't want to.

Me: That's not a reason

Kevin: Well, you said "cuz I said so" and that's not a reason either.

Me: Well, you need to get some kind of excercise every day

Kevin: I do

Me : When?

Kevin: When I walk to the computer.

Me: That doesn't count, it's like 10 steps

Kevin: When I go to the kitchen

Me: That doesn't count. Walking from one room to another isn't exercise

Kevin: Well, sometimes I run from the kitchen to the bathroom.

Me: That doesn't count

Kevin: What? I'm running!

And They're Off!

2009-07-20T21:20:00.005-05:00

Monkeyseemonkeydo wins the race!! And we all stand up and cheer.

Yesterday, I had a girls lunch date. We went to Canterbury Downs for the horse races. That is so much fun. We reserved a table and were spoiled. We had someone wait on us for lunch and we also had a betting runner. She came right to the table, took our wagers, and paid us out on our wins. We had seats right on the finish line.

I had total beginners luck. I only bet $2 per race. Some races I put down 1 wager and some I put down 2 wagers. I won on every race except the 7th, but 7 races out of 8 is pretty dang good. I also took a shot at putting a wager on a Triple Play. You have to name the winners of 3 races in a row. The first one I did, I lost my $2. The second one, I won $100. I won a total of $140 for the day. Pretty good Beginner's Luck, I must say.

When we walked in we bought Jack or Joe or whoever he is tips on betting the winner. He predicts who is going to win and give tips on the horses in each race. I'm glad I only followed his advice on 2 of the races, as he only picked 2 winners out of 8. Good thing I listened to my grandmother's advice and picked the ones with the names I liked. Turns out she has the best advice. Maybe they should sell her picks instead.

We ventured outside for the final race, so we could be closer to the action.

I've seen jockeys on TV and they are little there, but up close and personal, they are tiny with big heads. One of them had a Superman jockey outfit on. I don't think he won any races though.

We had a really good time. We decided we'd definitely have to make that another girls day out venture. Hopefully, my Beginner's Luck will continue. I'll continue to follow Grandma's advice as it worked for me yesterday. Next time I'll wager $5 on some of the races now that I know how it all works.

Photos, Photos, Photos

2009-07-18T22:00:00.004-05:00

This last week has been a busy week of taking photographs. It has been a lot of fun though.

Tuesday, I photographed a couple of teenagers. They were pretty mellow and cooperative, so that was good. I got some really good portraits of them.

Thursday, I photographed a 4 month old baby. She wasn't as cooperative as the teenagers, and she liked to really wiggle around. We had to take a couple of breaks with her so she could eat and get used to all the props. She didn't like laying on her tummy much, mostly her back. She was pretty interested in her hands, so they kept getting in the way. I did end up with quite a lot of good photos of her. She is a little cutie and she gave me some nice expressions.

After the photo shoot on Thursday, we grilled out steaks and had a nice dinner with the baby's parents. It was pretty yummy. I love a good steak any day of the week.

Friday night, I did a photo shoot for a charity event. It was the Eagan Relay For Life Walk Benefit for Cancer. It was a pretty moving event. I was amazed by all the people there. They had luminaries around the track that represented a person who had either survived or passed away from cancer. That was pretty incredible. They had names on them and were decorated really nice by the families and friends. I was at the event from 5 pm to a little after 10 pm. I was beat when I got home.

Today, I went to the Kickball Tournament in St. Paul and took some photographs of that event as well.

Tomorrow I am headed off to the Canterbury Downs for the horse races with my girlfriends that I went to Mexico with. That should be a pretty good time. I'm of course taking my camera with me, but not sure what kind of seats I'll have to get close up photos. I'm not going to worry too much about it, as this is just for fun and hanging out with the girls.

I have 2 possibly 3 photo shoots next week and them I'm done with photos for my portfolio. I'll have a pretty nice portfolio built to get started out. I really do enjoy photography, so it'll be fun to have it as a second job now. It'll help fund my girls trips.

Guy's weekend

2009-07-14T21:19:00.002-05:00

This past weekend was one for the guys. Well, two of the guys anyway. Ken & Kevin went to a friend's cabin in Wisconsin that is on a lake. Sam & I stayed home. I had WAY too many things I wanted to do that I couldn't get done by camping in Wisconsin.

Kevin asked me before he left what he'd do with out me there. "Well, you'll have to adopt a mom for the weekend, there will be plenty of other moms there to adopt for a day or two." He was so sweet and told me he didn't need to adopt another mom to replace me. DANG IT ANYWAY!! Just kidding...I wouldn't trade him in either...well most times I wouldn't trade him in.

He had a great time hanging out with the guys at the cabin and doing some good male bonding with his dad. It was good for them to have a weekend alone together with out mom hanging around constantly. It's also good for the brothers to separate from each other every now & then too.

One the way home from the camping trip he told his dad, "You know, I didn't even really miss Mom & Sam. Is that bad?"

I'm glad to hear that he didn't miss us. It's great that he was able to have such a good time and not think of us and what he's missing out at home.

What did he miss out at home? Cleaning! And lots of it! Shopping! And lots of it! Sam & I shopped like champions. We did some grocery shopping and some new camera equipment shopping for mom. Sam was a bit disappointed that he did not get a new camera. It's not fair that he's the only one who doesn't have one. I told him he could share my purse size one with me, but he has to share it. He was fine with that.

We also did a bit of grocery shopping. The store we went to had a local radio station celebrity there and she was quite funny. She was much different looking than I thought too. Radio personality always is that way though.

Sam & I cleaned house. Wow, did I get lots done with out the other two in my way. In fact they wondered if they came home to the right house or not when they walked in. Thanks guys...

Ken & Kevin had a good time and didn't get nagged at one single time, Sam & I got lots done with out those two in our hair. And it was REALLY quiet too. Hmmmm.... We might have to send those two on camping trips more often.

He's a Healthy Boy!

2009-07-11T22:23:00.005-05:00

Thursday evening, Kevin had his annual physical. He's a healthy boy.

He is in the 60th percentile for both height and weight, so he's a square.

The doctor talked to him about healthy eating and not eating his parents out of our life savings. He also talked to him about hygiene. Good thing too. That kind of advice is so much better coming from a doctor than parents. What do we know? We are the stupid ones according kids his age. He seemed to be listening, so we'll see if it sunk in or went in one ear and out the other.

We also talked to the doctor about his growing pains in his heel and his calf muscles. The doctor poked around his feet, his ankles, his calf muscles, and his knees. Did the old "does this hurt? does this hurt?" routine. Some yes' and some no's, the doctor determined that he has Sever's Disease. Which really isn't a disease at all. It is an inflammation of the tendons that connect to the heel bones and is associated with growing. It can happen in the knees too, and that is called osgood schlatters disease, which is also not a disease. The doctor told us what kind of shoe supports to buy, and what kinds of things to do to help relieve the pain.

Kevin also received two shots. I made sure they were Thimerosal free and they were, so we went ahead with it. He got a tetanus shot in his right arm and a meningitis shot in the left arm. Double whammy. They are both long lasting shots and they both make your arms sore for a while. I've been having him do arm circles to keep them active, so they don't stiffen up and be sore and stiff.

Kevin was happy to hear that his little brother would get a physical too.

Where Are You Ice Cream Man?

2009-07-07T19:12:00.003-05:00

It's official. I scared away the ice cream man. He has not shown up since I gave him his orders to show up every Tuesday and Friday at 7 pm. He has no idea on the money he's missing out in our neighborhood. Not to mention the disappointed kids that keep wanting and wishing him to come.

I saw in the local newspaper that a mom and daughter started their own ice-cream truck business. They own a pink truck. Sam would love that truck. I suppose I should call them and put our neighborhood on their schedule.

Sam wants to own his own ice-cream truck when he grows up. I think he'd eat all his profits.

Week in Review

2009-07-05T23:00:00.003-05:00

Another blogger slacking week. I hate it when I get behind on these.

Monday- have no idea at this point what happened on Monday. Oh, yes, I do...I took Kevin to Kumon. He took two tests and passed the level that he started on, so he got to move up a level. Yay! Way to go! Good job Kevin. Math is getting easier for him, but he still needs lots of practice. Kumon has him doing a math packet every day. Repetition is key they say. Whatever works!

Tuesday - I did a practice photo shoot in my new in home studio. My friend from work brought his niece and his 3 kids over. They were a fun group of kids. I did individual photographs and group photographs. I started with the youngest and worked my way up to the oldest. That strategy worked pretty well. While I was photographing one kid, I had the parents getting the next one ready. It went really smooth. The started to get pretty silly and bored with it at the end, but all in all, they did great.

Wednesday and Thursday- I worked on editing photos

Friday - I had Friday off from work. Sam didn't have daycare, and Kevin didn't have summer school. I picked up an unmotorized Go-Cart that some guy's kids made in boyscouts. They no longer had use for it, so he posted it on Freecycle & I snatched it up. I brought it home (it was a lot larger than I had thought) and Sam had some fun in it for a while. Our driveway doesn't slope enough to get it going real fast, so his interest didn't last long. It needs a couple of new nails in it. It needs sanded and a new paint job. I think I can handle that.

Sam & I went to Goodwill on Friday as well. Sam bought a couple of new shirts. He picked them out all by himself. One is just a plain white t-shirt and the other is a button down, short sleeve blue shirt, with white Hawaiian flower print on it. It's actually quite a nice shirt and looks pretty good on him.

Friday afternoon, I ended up with a stomach ache, so I ended up eating Tums and taking a nap. After the Goodwill trip, I wasn't productive at all.

Friday evening Ken & Kevin went over & convinced the neighbor guy to light off some of the fireworks that he'd bought over in Wisconsin. Ken had some bottle rockets and others that he ran over to light off as well. No sooner had the neighbor guy lit off a firework, a cop showed up. Told us the fireworks we had were illegal in MN, and he confiscated them. Then he told us that if he came back we could be fined $1000 and sent to jail for 90 days. Buzzkiller. Apparently, he doesn't know that we have a fire fighter and a doctor on the block. That should be good right? Ok, illegal is illegal....fine...stupid people who light them off when they're drunk and hurt other people always ruin it for the ones who are safe. Things must have been slow at the police department. We figured they'd gone out to all the neighborhoods as there were about 5 pockets of fireworks being shot in the air and suddenly all activity ceased.

Saturday - We packed up the van and headed to Ken's sister's house about an hour away. She lives on a lake, so she had a family beach party. Ken got to waterski. He only waterskis about once a year, so he stayed up as long as he could. He was pretty sore today too. He was done when he did a face plant in the water. It looked like it hurt and I did not get a photo of his ever so gracious face plant, but I did get some really good ones of him on the water. (I'll post later) He wasn't hurt, thank Goodness, but he was done skiing. His siblings all took their turns waterskiing too. They are all pretty good at it. They've been doing it since they were kids. I have only ever gotten up on waterskis once in my life. That once was good enough. Water is not soft when you hit it at 40mph.

After all the water activity his sister had dinner done for us. She made a BBQ beef brisket. It was so delicious. She made some without BBQ for the kids and Kevin sure ate up a bunch of that.

We got home from Ken's sister's house around 8:30 pm, so we headed over to the neighbors. Kevin & Ken wanted to know if he was going to light off the rest of the fireworks. No go there, the neighbor's wife said absolutely not. The neighbor told us if we wanted to light them off we could, but he wasn't going to. I figured it was a bad idea too. We certainly didn't need anyone getting arrested on the 4th of July over fireworks of all things.

Kevin & I made some popcorn and headed over to a field nearby to watch fireworks so that we wouldn't have to fight the big crowd at the City Park. We got to see about 4 different firework shows from around the area. That was pretty neat. When it was over we were home in 5 minutes. No crowds at all.

We got home and Ken was in the neighbor's driveway with a bunch of other people. They had lit off the legal fireworks. No one wanted to chance the cops coming by again after Friday night.

We finished the night hanging out with the neighbors until it was really late.

Today we laid around. I went outside for a while to get some sunshine and worked on sanding the rust off of an old tricycle I bought at a garage sale for $2 I still have some work to do on it, and then I have to re-paint it. Apparently I think I don't have enough projects. Oh well, it's a fun project and gets me outside with something to do.

This evening I made hamburgers on the grill. Oh they were yummy.

This coming up week, I have a wedding to attend on Wed. We have a wedding on Friday, and then are going to a friend's cabin for Saturday & Sunday. So it will prove to be another busy week. I still have photo editing to do and work on the tricycle now that I've got that project started.

There are Wild Animals in my back yard.

2009-07-02T20:54:00.003-05:00

No wait, that's just the children! But they sound like wild animals! One nice thing about summer is that the kids can spend so much time outdoors. Sam, who normally likes to be a homebody, has been outside every day. Yesterday he was outside for 3 hours. We are so glad he's coming out of his shell and going out and playing with some of the neighborhood kids.

Ken is out in the backyard setting up the trampoline. He wasn't sure the kids were going to use it this year, but they have been begging him to get it set up.

Even the cat is outside enjoying a great day. She goes out on her leash and we tie her to a post, just like a dog. She sits in the yard and just watches the birds go by and enjoys the sunshine. The other 2 cats are too scared to go outside, so they just sit by the screen door and act like they want to go out. We did try to train them how to be on the leash like our other cat, but all they did was freak out and try to break away to get back in the house. Stupid cats.

Spring Kickball is over

2009-06-29T22:38:00.002-05:00

The Kick Busters Spring/Summer season came to an end on Thursday. What an end it was too. We had about 8 different teams participate in a cookout, not to mention beverage too. One team even had a bunch of pizzas delivered for their portion. Every one on this league was pretty fun. We won 2 games, tied 1, and lost 5. Which is MUCH better than the last two years we've been playing.

We lost our final game. Our game was the last game of the evening and every one was feeling pretty good. We decided for the fun of it that in the 5th inning the teams would run the bases backwards. After you kicked the ball, you had to run to 3rd base, then second, then first, then home. It's a bit confusing, but for some strange reason everyone did pretty good with it. We only did it for that one inning. We ended up losing our last game by a few runs.

Now, we just wait for the summer/fall league to start up again in August. There is a mini-golf league that I could join, but I think I'll pass on that one. I think I'm busy enough for now.

California Trip Update

2009-06-24T20:13:00.008-05:00

I got the hubby out of the cave and we took a trip to California. It was just the two of us. The kids went to spend the week with Grandma & Grandpa up on the lake.

Sunday we were busy packing, getting the kids packed and shipped out. My husband was packing like a girl. He was driving me nuts. I have three people to pack, he's on his own. He kept coming out in the living room with something on, asking my opinion, and if he should pack it. Then he'd go back to the room and few minutes later do the same thing all over again with a different outfit. I told him to just pack what ever he wanted. He explained he couldn't do that as I had the big suitcase. Of course I do, I have six pairs of shoes to bring, all my bathroom supplies, and several different outfits (at least 2 or 3 per day), so of course I need the big suitcase. So I told him, "yes, that looks fine, bring it and quit being such a girl."

I ended up staying up pretty late Sunday evening and into Monday morning. Between excitement of the trip and anxiety of flying and both of us being so far away from the kids for a whole week, I got very little sleep. I finally got to bed around 2:30 or 3:00 am. I had to wake up at 5:30 am to get to the airport on time. So I had a good nap.

Our flight left Monday morning at 8:00 am. The lines to check in and go through security were huge. It was a good thing we got there with plenty time. We had some time to grab breakfast and make our flight. Since I had gotten very little sleep the week before and that night, I slept really good on the airplane. We had a quick layover in Phoenix. Just enough time to get off the plane we were on and catch our connecting flight to California.

We made it to California and got our rental car, then headed to our hotel at Laguna Beach. Our hotel was pretty nice. It was on the Pacific Coast Highway, and we had to cross the street and go down a walkway and a bunch of steps to get to the beach, so the first thing we did was head to the beach. Ken hasn't been to a coastal beach in over 20 years, so he was really excited to be on the ocean. It was great. I was posing for a picture, when I got taken out by a gigantor wave. I totally did not see it coming. I was too busy posing and telling my husband to make sure to get a good picture. Yep, he got a good picture alright. A still shot of impending doom.

I couldn't figure out why he kept looking at me and shouting something. "Ugh, just take the picture would you?". The next thing I know, I'm being sucked out to sea and having pounds of sand invade my swimsuit. I managed to get out of the wave and get my bearings in time to get hit by a second wave. That wave took my beach hat out to sea. My sweet hubby went & got it. At first we didn't think we could get it, but it finally got swept back up to us. So the beach hat is saved!

After we were done getting beat up by the sea, we went back to the hotel to get out of our wet sand filled suits. I swear two pounds of sand and rocks came out of my swimsuit. I was picking sand out of my hair and my ears for the next day.

Tuesday we decided to head to Huntington Beach for the afternoon. We went out onto the pier, walked around, did some shopping, watched the fisherman and surfers, and then sat out on the beach and went swimming in the ocean. The waves at Huntington Beach were much nicer to us. The waves rolling in weren't as harsh coming into shore. We got some good sun and had lots of fun feeling like giddy kids.

We ate lunch at a nice restaurant near the pier overlooking the ocean. We ended up sitting at a table next to some Hollywood big wigs. They were talking about all the different projects they were working on. They sounded like a busy group of people. They really didn't seem to care that we could hear their conversation either.

We got back to Laguna Beach and we walked down the beach and just walked around and enjoyed the scenery. We didn't try to take on the waves. We'd had enough of that already. We saw one of the most beautiful sunsets I think I've ever seen in my life.

Wednesday we headed to Temecula, CA for my niece's wedding. We got there pretty early, so we made a stop at my sister's house since it was right on the way to where we were headed. We had a good visit and then headed to our hotel (Pechanga Resort & Casino which is also where the wedding was taking place). We got checked in and then I made sure that my mom and grandma got checked in OK as well. Once every one was settled, Ken & I headed to dinner. After dinner, I met up with my sister Patty and my baby brother Ed. We called my mom to come meet us in the casino, so we went gambling. I won $50 on the first nickle slot machine. I put $10 and whammy! Big money...show me the money! My sister Patty sat next to me and her nickle machine ate her $10 faster than you can say ten dollars.

Thursday morning after breakfast, my sister Patty, Ed, and I decided to try our luck again. I didn't have such good luck and lost $35 of the $50 I won the night before. Patty won $83 and Ed won $20. Oh well, we all ended up winning something, so that was fun. We just hung out at the casino and visited and had some good family time. My 101 year old grandma was there too, so we got a good visit with her too.

Thursday afternoon, we all parted ways and got ready for the wedding. While the siblings were gambling, Ken, and Patty's daughter and her friend all went and enjoyed the pool. I never did make it to the pool. I made it to the pool bar, but not the actual pool. I guess I was too busy visiting and gambling.

My sister Mary and her husband and two littlest girls showed up to our hotel room to get dressed for the wedding. They didn't stay at the hotel, so we let them invade our room to get ready for the wedding. The wedding was taking place on the outdoor waterfall patio at the casino. All the guests gathered in the lobby area and then we were seated outside.

The wedding was very beautiful. My niece Katie was such a gorgeous bride. The ceremony went as if they'd planned it for a long time when in fact they planned it in three months. The wedding was short, sweet, and to the point. They had photos taken after the ceremony. The wedding dinner and reception was held on the resorts top floor. It was really pretty up there and they had lots of big wall length windows that overlooked the mountains in the area. Dinner was really good, and so was dessert. The dance was pretty fun too. My 3 year old niece (the fwower goya as she told everyone) danced all night long.

Friday we all parted our separated ways. My mom, grandma, and brother headed home. My sister Patty, her daughter, and her daughter's friend went to Sea World ( where the girls got to swim with the dolphins. I can't wait to see those pictures.) Ken & I headed back to Laguna Beach.

On our way back to Laguna Beach, Ken & I stopped at San Juan Capistrano and we toured the old mission. It was very beautiful and serene in there. We also went to the new cathedral that they built outside of the mission. The alter is completely made of gold. It was such a beautiful place.

Our last night at Laguna Beach we went to the downtown area by the seashore and did some shopping. We bought souvenirs for the kids and I bought a really pretty painting from a local artist. Then we went and ate dinner at The Beach House and had some fresh seafood. Yummmy! It was really delicious. After dinner we walked along the shoreline back to our car.

That evening there was no sunset as it was too cloudy. So Ken & I grabbed a couple of towels and we walked down to the beach near our hotel and just sat on the beach and watched the waves roll in. We were sad that we had to leave the next day. But we were missing the kids, so we had a good reason to come home, even though we tried to think of ways to miss our flight and spend an extra day or two.

Saturday morning we packed up our things and headed back to the airport. Boo Hoo, we had to leave beautiful Southern California. We flew from Sana Ana California to Phoenix. We had enough time in Phoenix to eat lunch, since we never got breakfast before we left California. We got on the plane in Phoenix to come home. About 10 minutes of waiting to take off, the pilot came on the speaker system saying there was a computer malfunction and the computer had to be replaced, it would take about an hour to fix. We were instructed to stay on the plane. I put in my mp3 player headphones and took a nap.

Our flight home was the noisiest flight I've ever been on in my life. Lots of crying babies and grumpy old men. I seriously thought a fight was going to break out between one of the grumpy old men and one of the mom's of two of the crying kids. He told her very loudly not to bring children on a plane if they couldn't behave. She yelled back at him something and then they bantered back and forth for a while. Then she tried to get sympathy from the people and said really loud "can you believe this guy is for real?!" A little while later her kids started crying again. She got up to walk them around and said "Let's walk this way and stay away from the grumpy old man!" Nothing better than plane drama. Everyone on board was so glad we landed in MN.

Sunday the kids came home. It was pretty good to see them. I think they even grew.

The kids had a really good week with grandma and grandpa. They got to go fishing with grandpa and they helped grandma out too. So everyone had a great vacation!

Here are some pictures from the vacation and the wedding.

California Trip

Schumacher-Dwyer wedding

Guilty of Blog Neglect

2009-06-23T13:04:00.003-05:00

My poor little blog has been neglected so. My last post was June 8th. I didn't fall off the face of the world, I just got busy. The week of June 8-14 I was busy. I did a photo shoot on Monday, Tuesday eve I got a call from the school nurse that I had to go get Kevin from field trip camp because he was running a fever and not feeling well. That sure made a long night! I had to drive about 2 hours away to get him. I got lost on the way up to the Audobon Center as it was dark and foggy. The signs for the place were not lit and off on the sides of the road. So I missed a turn or two. Good thing for cell service! I arrived home with the little darling at 12:30 am. Ugh! Sure made for a short night when I had to get up at 6 am that day. That late night messed up the rest of my week.

Thursday I had kickball. We got our butt's kicked! It was fun, but man did we get clobbered! I quit keeping score after they were up by 15 runs. We did manage to score one run, so it wasn't a total shut out.

Friday night I was in bed early, as I had to get up at 6 am on Saturday for my work's 75th Anniversary Party and Contractor (Truck Driver) Appreciation Day. The kids got up early and came with me on Saturday. We didn't get home until almost 2 pm, so that sure made for a long day.

Sunday, we packed and Ken's parents drove down to pick our kids up for the week, as Ken & I were headed to Sunny Southern California!

All of that sure made for a busy week. A very blog neglected week.

Mundane Monday...Nothing really Mundane about it.

2009-06-08T12:11:00.003-05:00

This weekend was a cold rainy one. Which enabled me to get lots done around the house. Kevin wanted to go to a D-Day Anniversary celebration, but none were happening except 2 1/2 hours away. We'll have to plan that one better next year. Who knew an 11 year old kid would want D-Day as a National Holiday. So instead he stayed home out of the rain (unlike the soldiers on D-Day) and watched the D-Day Marathon on the Military Channel. Then he drew some maps of the beaches of Normandy. We also watched the movie "Saving Private Ryan". I told him that we would watch it together and I figured it was on TMC that it would have been edited. Nope. I told Kevin that it would contain lots of swear words and the battle scenes might be a bit too bloody for him. "Ah, it's OK Mom, I've seen this movie before. I can handle it". Apparently he watched it in segments on the internet. He claimed he didn't know it was rated R. Uh, huh sure. I should expect this of him. He did really like the movie Jaws as a youngster. When the shark blows up at the end, he would always say "Kaboomy!" One time I hid my eyes from the movie Jaws and he said in his little voice "You can look mom, it's only a movie. It's not real." Yep, that's my boy!

Sam pretty much enjoyed staying in. He played with his cats and laid in bed and watched cartoons. He just had a nice lounging weekend.

I cleaned and cleaned. I didn't get the whole house done, but I did get quite a bit done. I finished cleaning out the spare room and getting it reorganized into a photo studio. Yep, I'm turning into my father. Only an updated version. A digital camera, with backgrounds, and props. Which is a step up from a wool blanket taped to the wall like my dad used to do. I think Dear Ol' Dad would be proud. He probably thought I wasn't paying attention when he was teaching me photography as a kid. Little did he know, he's created a monster. I figured I enjoy it so much, and I've had people compliment me on it, and even a couple people ask me to take photos for them, that I decided to turn it into a side gig. Why not? So this summer I have people lined up to build my portfolio that I will have something to show the people who want to pay me for my photo services. Why not make some extra cash doing something that I love. It will keep me from sitting around being bored when I'm not writing or playing kickball.

Today Kevin took off on the school bus for a 3 day, 2 night field trip. Wow, what a way to end the school year. His 5th grade class went to the Audubon Center in Sandstone, MN. He'll be back on Wed. I can't wait to hear all about it. I didn't let him take his digital camera, as I didn't want it getting lost or stolen. Plus I want him to just have fun & not worry about taking photos. The weather didn't look too promising there for the next three days. When he gets home, he'll have three days worth of talking to do, so that will keep me busy all night. It will sure be quiet around here with out him that is for sure!

I Caught You Ice Cream Man!

2009-06-05T21:50:00.003-05:00

Tonight Kevin came running in the door, slamming it behind him in a big hurry. He raced up the stairs and dug into the change vase for a handful of quarters. "The Ice Cream Man is here!!" I quickly followed suit and grabbed a couple of dollar bills out of my wallet. No time to dig for change. "Hurry up Mom!" Kevin said as he raced back to the cul-de-sac. Sure enough it was the Ice Cream Man. There were lots of kids in line. Sam got a Pink Panther ice cream thing on a stick. Kevin got a popsicle called Lickity Lick. A popsicle of flavor explosion. I got the ever desired Jolly Rancher popsicle. Yummmmmmy!!!

While standing in line I asked the Ice Cream Man if he had a set scheduled route. He said yes. I asked him what it was and he showed me the cable inside the truck that makes the truck make music. No, no, no...what is your schedule? When and what time do you come to this cul-de-sac. He finally got the jist of what I was saying and told me every Friday night. I asked him if he came any other night besides Friday. He said "No, just Friday night, I come here." I said "No, that's not good enough. You need to come more often." He looked at me puzzled. I bet he thought he was working for himself and had no boss. Ha! Boy was he suprised. I said "You need to come every Tuesday and Friday around 7 pm. " He said "I do?" I said "Yes, you do. These kids wait for you, you need to come Tuesday and Friday at 7 pm." He said "Ok, I come Tuesday and Friday at 7 pm." Wow...I sure have learned a lot from my grandmother!!

Hopefully, he'll follow my command and drive his happy truck down our cul-de-sac on Tuesday evening.

haircuts, missing child, ice cream man, and kickball

2009-06-03T22:43:00.002-05:00

That has been my week thus far.

What was seeming like a relatively calm Monday, didn't turn out as such. The boys were in dire need for hair cuts, so I decided that since I've watched Fantastic Sam's and Kids Hair do it so many times, I could probably muddle my way through just this once. I did a good job! No patches, no bald spots, no chopped off ears, and it's not lopsided. I no longer have my electric clippers, so I did it with hair cutting scissors. The kids are old enough to stand still for me and not cry anymore.

After dinner Sam decided he'd go outside and wait for the ice cream man. Sam is really good at sticking to the cul-de-sac and following the rules of being outside. At 7:10 pm I went outside to call him inside as I had to go get my hair cut.

I walked outside and no sight of Sam. Hmmm... so I came inside, no shoes by the door. I checked the backyard. No sight of Sam. I went through the house searching for him. No Sam. Hmmmm....His bike was in the garage, his shoes are gone, where could he be? So I walked down the street...No sights of Sam. I crossed the street and looked in the other cul-de-sac. I asked a couple people if they saw him. Nope, no sight of Sam. Mommy panic button starts to go off. I have my cell phone in hand trying to call my hubby as he was not home from work yet. He doesn't answer his phone. I am headed home to get my van to search the neighborhood even further and call 911 to report a missing child. When who drives around the corner? My husband! I nervously ask him if he has Sam in the car. Sam is sitting in his car with a big fat smile on his face holding a Jolly Rancher popsicle. My husband said "Yeah, I have Sam. What's wrong? I took him to chase down the ice cream truck." So I said a few dirty words to him and told him that he scared the hell out of me." His reply "I'm sorry honey, I thought you'd be able to tell that I had him because my work shirt was by the door."

Ok...let me get this straight. You got out of your car, put your work shirt by the door, but didn't bother to tell me that you were taking Sam to go chase an ice cream truck? According to him, he didn't think I'd notice. Again...more dirty words out of my mouth. No, a mom would never notice that her child was missing and then start to panic. Nope, not me...Just call me Mrs. Non Caring Calm Mom. Missing child...eh, no big deal, he'll show up eventually. WRONG!

I heard on the radio the next moring, that someone did a study to test how men and women become stupider after talking to an attractive person of the opposite sex. Men & women were first given a battery of tests, then they had to converse with attractive people, then they retook the test. Of course the men failed miserabley on the second test. No surprise there. Women didn't do much worse than the first test they took. They also said the more attractive the person the worse the men did on the second test. So I'd like to know what sexy woman my husband was talking to before he took my child with out letting me know. I'd also like to know if he understands why mama bears tear animals or people apart who mess with their cubs. Yeah, don't mess with this mama bear's cubs!

After the ice cream man debacle, I jumped in my van to go to my hair cut appointment. Who do I see driving down my cul-de-sac while I'm leaving? The damn ice cream man! Oh, I hate that guy!!!

Tuesday night was much better. Sam waited for the ice cream man, like he does on a daily basis. I told him that even if he goes with his daddy somewhere, he needs to check in with me before leaving.

After dinner, I left the boys in the hands of their father and I walked to the Middle School for EAA sports face to face registration. Not many people showed up. 98% of the people that showed up were there for football. Those kids had to get weighed and measured for equipment. I had one kid sign up for kickball and the rest were K-3 signing up for soccer or basketball. Kickball isn't offered for K-3 in the first year. The EAA lady told me not to worry, the face to face registrations get smaller and smaller each year, because the online registration is pretty slick now. Registration is open and goes until July 8th, so I have another month to get kids to sign up.

Today Kevin got his braces adjusted. He said it didn't hurt to bad, and the adjustments were minor. This time around he picked out Navy Blue and Black bands. Not really much difference between the two colors, but that's what he picked. Then he told me it was because it was in honor of the Navy for D-Day. Wow. OK...that's cool. What other 11 year old would think of that?

Tonight was relaxing. Nothing going on. Sam & Kevin of course waited for an ice cream man who again did not show up. Then the boys ended up playing outside all day.

I have a busy Thursday tomorrow, but it should be fun.

Week In Review

2009-05-31T10:34:00.003-05:00

It's been a busy week since returning from Grand Marais.

Grand Marais 2009

We were all pretty tired out from our 3 day trip and all the activities and fresh lake air, so Tues and Wed were pretty quiet.

Thursday, my adult kickball league had a game. We tied 11-11. It was a pretty good game. The score kept going back and forth the whole game. We played all 9 innings even though we went over the 55 minute game time rule. The other team was able to tie us for runs in the last inning and we were unable to come back and score one more run. So far this season we are 2-0 and one tie. Pretty good record considering our team has not won a single game in 2 years which is 4 seasons. We play 2 seasons a year.

After our game I went to the Eagan Athletic Association directors meeting. We listened to a presentation from a lady from the University of MN. She was giving a presentation on youth in sports and why kids drop out from sports. She also talked of ways to be a good spectator and a good coach. It was pretty interesting.

After her presentation, I presented my budget to the board. It was approved! Then I was officially elected to the board of directors. So Eagan Youth Kickball is official! Now comes registration time. I really hope I get a good turn out of kids to register.

Friday night Ken had a softball game. Kevin went with him. Ken's team won their game. Kevin really likes to go to softball nights. He thinks he's pretty cool to hang out with the guys.

Saturday Kevin and I went to the MN Zoo. Our membership expires on May 31, so we figured we'd take one last trip. The zoo has a new exhibit this summer called "Africa" and yes, you guessed it, animals from Africa on exhibit. We got to see Ostrichs, zebras, and giraffes. The exhibit is really cool. Kevin and I got to feed the giraffes a biscuit. You could buy 2 biscuits for $5. Not bad for an experience like that. It's not every day you get to have a giraffe eat from your hand.

MN Zoo

Today we are going to see the movie "Night At The Museum 2". The kids are pretty excited. I'm hoping it's as funny as the first one.

Sam has been busy chasing down the Ice Cream Truck all week. And the Ice Cream Truck has not shown up all week. Sam has been riding his bike out in the cul-de-sac. I'm not going to tell him that he's not coming....If waiting for the ice cream truck gets that kid outside and riding his bike, then so be it. He tends to like to be an indoor kid, so it's good to get him out and exercising. I suppose I should see if I can find out the ice cream truck schedule before Sam gets too frustrated. Besides, I wouldn't mind having one of those delicious Jolly Rancher popsicles.

Memorial Weekend in Grand Marais, MN

2009-05-26T20:25:00.003-05:00

We spent the three day weekend in one of my favorite summer locations....Grand Marais, MN. Grand Marais is on the north shore of Lake Superior, about 20 miles south of the Canadian border. It is absolutely wonderful up there. The ice had just come off the lakes up there about a week ago, so there were absolutely no mosquitos!

We drove up late Friday night, and checked into our hotel. This year we didn't get to stay on the lake shore, instead we stayed a bit more inland, but we still had a nice view of Lake Superior. It was just a short walk to the East Bay and the Harbor where all the restaurants and shops are.

Saturday morning the boys woke up early and were ready to go. We headed to town for breakfast and some shopping. Some local artists were selling their crafts in a parking lot and a one man band was set up as well. I bought an amethyst rock that some guy mines up in Thunder Bay Canada. Then we stopped and listened to a one man band guy. He played guitar and wooden flute, and then he had pedals by his feet that he could make different instrument sounds. It was pretty neat.

After we were done meandering around town, Ken & the boys headed up to Devil's Track Lake where his parents have some land. They have built a garage on it, so now there is a place for storage and shelter. It's huge with lots of windows, so you could also build a space for living or relaxing.

The guys came back from the lake and we went swimming at our hotel. Sam had a great time swimming and I introduced the boys to the sauna. The sauna was a dry sauna, so you couldn't put water on the heated rocks. It took a while for it to warm up. The boys enjoyed feeling the warmth of it after getting out of the pool. It helped us dry off quicker too, so we weren't freezing and dripping wet back up the room.

After swimming we headed back up to Devil's Track Lake to do some fishing and have a campfire with Grandma, Grandpa, and the cousins. We did some fishing. Ken caught a small mouth bass, and he kept fishing and fishing. The sun was setting and he hadn't eaten dinner yet, so I walked down to the dock and told him to go eat. I practically had to force him to go as he was just really enjoying fishing, trying to catch just one more fish. Finally his dad came down and told him to go eat. I told Ken I'd fish for him while he ate dinner. About 15 minutes I yelled "I GOT ONE!" Ken came running down to help me get my fish off the hook and onto the stringer. He was pretty excited. I haven't caught a fish in about 3 years so I have to admit I was pretty excited too. Ken let me fish a little bit more and about 10 minutes later, I yelled again "I GOT ONE!" Ken came running back to see to help me get it off the hook and put it on the stringer. After he saw that I caught 2 fish in a row, he decided he needed to fish some more. I told him where they were biting. He cast a few times. He caught a big fish, and the fish bit at his hook 3 separate times. It finally got hooked and he reeled it in. We ended up staying up until 10:30 filleting the nice prizes.

Sunday morning we went to town to eat and shop again. The boys got their annual new Grand Marais t-shirts. I bought some huckleberry tea and huckleberry syrup. I wanted some huckleberry taffy, but didn't have enough for all 3. Choices, choices, choices. Ken & Sam went back to the hotel for a nap and Kevin and I stayed in town. We sat on the beach in the harbor and Kevin threw endless amount of rocks in. You could throw rocks in the lake all day and not make a dent in the shore. After his arm got tired, we went to Sydney's Frozen Treats and I got my frozen chocolate custard and Kevin got a bowl of strawberries and pineapples. Sydney's has THE BEST FROZEN CUSTARD EVER!! It doesn't taste like Culvers frozen custard. It is more like ice-cream. So so tasty.

We headed back up to Devil's Track Lake later in the afternoon with our filleted Small Mouth Bass. Ken's mom had caught a nice sized tasty Walleye Sunday before we got there. Ken's sister, husband, and kids showed up with hot dogs and brats. We had a FEAST! Fish fry and brats and dogs cooked over the campfire. Followed by S'mores. YUMMY!

After we said good bye to the family we went down to our hotel. Sam & Ken stayed at the motel and Kevin and I headed down to the Gunflint Tavern to hear Bump & the Boys. They are pretty good little band. Kevin really enjoyed listening to the music. I really enjoyed the super strong Tequila Sunrise I ordered. Holy smokes! One was all I needed. We called Ken to come get us and drive us back to the hotel, as we were tired of walking. Ken came and got us, brought us back to the hotel, then he went to the Gunflint Tavern to finish listening to band and have a drink.

Monday morning came around so fast! Time to leave one of our favorite MN destinations. Boo Hoo! We stopped and got donuts from the Best Donuts in the World. They truly are the best donuts in the world. So yummy. Then I went to Sydney's to get some more of the tasty frozen custard. They weren't quite open yet, but she opened the window anyway. Then she said...."I have a pint of frozen chocolate custard, but it's still pretty frozen, you'll have to let it thaw for about 10 minutes". HELLLLLOOOOO! New best friend...you ONLY have a PINT of the best desert in the world! Oh heck yeah...Bring on the pint! And I have no shame to say I ate 4 of the best donuts in the world and a pint of the best chocolate frozen custard in the world. Oink Oink! I felt like I needed to join Weight Watchers and Overeaters Annoymous that very day. My belly was happy & full!

Damn You Ice Cream Man!

2009-05-20T22:11:00.003-05:00

Today we hit 93 degrees. Yesterday it was 90. Yesterday the ice cream truck came around the neighborhood and we missed it. So, today word had spread amongst the neighborhood kids that the ice cream man is making his rounds. And seeing the ice cream man means two things....1) it's officially summer and 2) school is almost over.

Kevin and Sam waited for the ice cream man to show up for 2 1/2 hours. They waited with the little boy who lives down the street, who kept telling the boys that the ice cream man comes at 7 pm any time it's over 80 degrees. Well....he didn't show up today. Not at 7 pm, not at 6 pm, and not at 5 pm. Even with the kids shouting for him and waiting patiently, he never showed. The kids who had lined up on the street corner with their handful of quarters all went home near sundown very disappointed children. No ice cream truck today.

It would have been nice, as I admit, I also walked down the block with a handful of quarters to buy a Jolly Rancher popsicle. ( Quite arguably one of the best popsicle creations on the planet.) Not today.

Damn you Ice Cream Man!

Just Another Manic Monday

2009-05-18T20:48:00.002-05:00

Oh, Oh, Oh...Not my fun day....

Yes, my Monday has been crazy. Tonight I had planned on taking Kevin to Kumon Learning Center, working on EAA Kickball things to prepare for my Thursday night meeting, then watch the season finale of CSI Miami. But.....it didn't quite go that way.

I got home and Kevin told me he had another bad day. His heels were really hurting him and it hurt just to walk. I put his heels on ice and gave him some Motrin.

We made it to Kumon and he hobbled the entire time. He said when he was doing his work at Kumon he started to get shooting pain in his heels. Oh great. I figured, this must be something more than just growing pains, and perhaps we should see a doctor tonight.

After we finished at Kumon, we went to Urgent Care. The doctor checked him out and said "your problem is your shoes and you need to get new ones that offer better heel support." The pain in his heels started about the time he got new shoes. I'm glad it was something as simple as doctors orders to buy new shoes, than find out he has a fracture or something that we've let go for the past two weeks as we chalked it up to growing pains.

After the doctor, we stopped back at home to get the checkbook and grab a snack. Off we ran to shoe store. Famous Footwear has HORRIBLE customer service. There was one guy at the counter and one guy putting away shoes. Neither one of them asked if we needed help. They just kept on doing their own business and Kevin & I were the only ones in the store. We tried on several pairs of shoes to make sure we had the right fit and the most comfortable ones. Needless to say, I didn't put away any of the many boxes that he tried on. That will give Mr. Shoe Put Awayer something to do.

After the shoe store we were starving! Kevin wanted KFC and Sam wanted McDonalds. So they each got their own favorite fast food dinner as I was certainly not going to make anything.

We made it home in time for me to heat up some canned hotdish and catch the season finale of CSI Miami.

There was another good thing that came out Kevin getting new shoes....I also got a pair of new shoes. Kevin's old ones..... I told him not to put too much wear & tear into these new comfy shoes as I will be inheriting them as well when his feet grow another size!

Dandelions

2009-05-17T17:30:00.002-05:00

I know most people hate these noxious weeds, but I LOVE dandelions. I have a yard full of them. Of course right now they are getting mowed down by my husband. Good thing they grow back.

My youngest caveman loves to pick me dandelion bouquets. Today, he picked me a whole handful and put them in water for me. What a nice gift.

A long time ago my mom and grandma had a friend who made all sorts of various jellies. One thing about visiting grandma is she always has something new and interesting when we visit. Their friend had made them dandelion jelly. It was so delicious!

Tough Day at School

2009-05-15T17:12:00.002-05:00

Yesterday the oldest cave boy had such a rough end of his day. I asked him what was upsetting him and why his day was bad. Here was his reply:

Today after recess, our class went back outside to play Rainbow tag and it was lame cuz whoever was it just kept saying "rainbow", so we all had to run back and forth across the field forever. I didn't want to play anymore, so I just sat down on the side of the field and was done. Then I got told on by some stupid kid cuz I wasn't following the rules. I was tired of running and my heel was hurting me.

Then after that we had art. In art we had a substitute teacher. We had to do weaving and weaving is SO BORING. I hate weaving. It's dumb and boring, and I had to sit at a table with all girls. The teacher came over after a while and told me I wasn't weaving good enough so she made me take it all apart and start over. I don't even know why we have to weave in the first place. What's the point of it? It's SO BORING and lame!!!

I found out that Rainbow Tag is: All the kids stand on one end of the field. One person who is IT stands in the center of the field. IT calls out a color, and who ever is wearing that color must run to the opposite end of the field with out getting tagged. If IT calls out RAINBOW, then everybody runs.

I really had no words for him on the weaving. I couldn't honestly tell the lad to suck it up, he'd use this skill later in life someday. Cuz really...he won't. Weaving is boring, and no body weaves anymore do they? Don't they have machines or colonized religious people do that?

Woman of the Century

2009-05-09T07:00:00.005-05:00

Today May 9, marks the 101 birthday of my grandma. To sum it up briefly...she rocks, she's my hero, and I totally want to be like her when I grow up.

Last year I wrote an article about her. I haven't submitted it for publication yet, as I'm not really sure where to submit it to. I've looked through the listing of magazines that accept articles from new freelance writers. So instead, I publish it here. I wasn't really writing it to seek payment, I wrote it because she is truly amazing, unique, and I feel inspiring.

So, here is my article on my grandmother.

WOMAN OF THE CENTURY

By Bonnie Bley

Everyone gathered around Gracie Carlson as she climbed off the back of a motorcycle after a twenty-minute ride. Cameras flashed while she took off her helmet and revealed her smiling face. Her smile showed the lines of time, one hundred years to be exact.

“How was the ride?” shouted an onlooker.

“It was fabulous!” she exclaimed grinning widely.

Every one was amazed she was celebrating her one-hundredth birthday.

Wyoming had only been a state for eighteen years when she was born and through out her life Gracie experienced many life-changing events. Band-Aids, Kool Aid, and X-rays were all invented when she was a child. A postman on a horse who traveled through town once or twice a week, less if the weather was bad delivered mail. Packages were delivered by stagecoach. These were the only forms of communications between towns.

The hospital was a half-day's travel by horse carriage. Gracie was born in her home, just like her older brother and sister. Giving birth in 1908 was not easy. Each birth was a life or death situation for both mother and child. Gracie’s birth was no different. Her mother received no medication for comfort. She did not have a medical staff on stand by in the event of any complication and there was no option for a C-section in case the baby could not be born normally. Gracie’s birth was a success as she and her mother both survived.

Gracie was about five years old when she learned to swim. Some of the older kids in town tried to teach her in the only place available. The Greybull River had a current strong enough to sweep her away. She was small and courageous, but tried her best. The river currents were too strong for her tiny frame. The event was much like teaching a house cat to swim. The river pulled her under and she swallowed a lot of the water. She dragged herself out soaking wet from head to toe, shook herself off, and decided that moment to never swim again.

Instead of attending school in a one-room country schoolhouse, Gracie and her siblings were sent to private Catholic boarding schools. Her mother couldn't help manage the ranch with three kids underfoot at home. Gracie was ten years old, when her parents put her on a train to join her sister at the boarding school where she would live with other girls and the nuns who ran it. Her brother did not attend the same school as his sister’s; he attended a boy’s school in another state that was run by priests.

Gracie had her tonsils removed during school at around age eleven. The procedure was done in a chair in the school infirmary. She did not receive any pain medicine or anesthesia. The doctor told her to open her mouth wide and hold very still. Doing as she was told, he stuck a long, cold, steel instrument with a wire loop down her throat and yanked out her tonsils. She received no sympathy, and was sent right back to class with instructions not to cry. The school placed her on a soup diet for one week.

Her school years were spent at boarding school, and she was allowed home during summer months to see her parents and reunite with her brother, cousins, and friends at the ranch. She continued this life style until she graduated in the 1926.

Gracie had three career choices; to become a teacher, a housewife, or a nun. Her career was chosen for her, and she was sent to college, which was called “Normal School” to become a teacher, but she wanted to go back to the ranch and be a housewife and be near her parents.

Gracie graduated from “Normal School” in 1928, and moved home to help tend to her father. Her mother passed away and her father needed Gracie’s help at the ranch. In 1930, she settled down, became a wife, and soon a mother. She was married the same year that Breck Shampoo and chocolate chips were invented. Her children were born during of the Great Depression. She and her husband ranched close to both their families to make it through the turbulent era.

When her children were grown Gracie broke the mold of the typical jobs a woman held and owned her own business. Her little business thrived along with other businesses that were owned by men. Later she dissolved her business and went to work as a check station game warden. Her duty was to make sure the hunters and fishermen obeyed the laws and counted their bounty. She was not afraid to give tickets to law-breakers, and was very good at her job.

Gracie has been a large voice in her community. To this day, she is still an active member of St. Therese Catholic Church. One of her greatest accomplishments was obtaining funding to open a museum in the late 1970s. The Lions Club, Economic Development Alliance, and Friends of the Library are just a few of the clubs she played a key role in. She has organized several group events ranging from cowboys to motorcyclists. The organized events over the decades have brought many new tourists to town. The motorcyclist group even named a shoot out after her.

Gracie’s life has been like no other. She is an inspiration to women of all ages and is admired and respected by all who meet her. One month before her one-hundreth birthday, her driver’s license was renewed. She still owns her own home and travels the states with her seventy-two old daughter. The mother-daughter duo plans at least one big trip a year, including visits to family from Oregon, California, and Minnesota.

“Live life to the fullest and enjoy chocolate,” Gracie Carlson says, “you just neverknow how long you will live in this world.”

Sidenote: She also has a cocktail almost every day at 5 pm. Cheers Grandma! I'll definitely be drinking a cocktail at 5:00 in your honor!
Hoping you have a great birthday and many more to come. Hoping you have some nice days to enjoy a motorcycle ride or two as well. Happy, Happy, Happy 101 birthday.

Busy Week Again

2009-05-08T22:18:00.004-05:00

This past week we stayed pretty busy.

Tuesday evening I attended a two hour parent presentation for parents of kids who are going to Middle School /Jr. High next year. Kevin's school is HUGE!! The city has two Jr. High schools. Kevin will be going to the one near our house, and his class will have 390 students in it. I think there that many kids in my whole high school. We got to tour the school, and it is quite impressive. I felt lost on the tour, and the teachers said all the 6th graders get lost on their first day. The school has designated 8th graders that help the 6th graders get through the first week of school. The day before school officially starts, the 6th graders attend an orientation day. They get to find their way around the school, learn their class schedule, and ect..

Kevin is disappointed that a lot of his best friends in elementary school will be going to the other Jr. High, but I'm sure he'll make lots of new friends on top of the ones that will be in school with him. They split the Jr. High kids into two groups called "houses", and each group has their own side of the 6th grade school area. Within the "house" they have their class rooms. One house will have 200 kids in it and the other house will have 190. Each "house" stays with the same group of kids all year as they switch classes. So for example English teacher A will only see the same 200 kids all year, and English teacher B will see the other group of 190 kids.

All 390 kids will have lunch at the same time. That should be rather interesting. Also, their class schedule will change slightly from day to day as some of the classes are on alternating days. They call them Blue Days and Green Days. For the first part of the year, they will learn Spanish, and the second half of the year they'll learn French. All the kids have to take a Home Ec class, so they'll learn to cook, do laundry, and other household chores. So that is a good thing. They don't have a "shop" class, but instead its called Technological Art. That looked like a fun class to be taking. The current project we got to see was the kids had made rockets that they were going to launch later in the month. Kevin would really LOVE that project.

During the parent night orientation, they had 4 8th grade students each present a speech about the Middle School. It was quite comical. The one kid said the hardest part about Jr. High was learning a new locker combination each year. So I hope that is the worst of our Jr. High happenings, but I'm sure we'll have our growing pains through out as he grows up. It was weird to see the two boys who were speaking had deep voices and hairy legs. They go into Middle School as boys and come out as young men. Yikes, I'm not sure I'm ready for that!

Wed, I took Sam to the bank to cash his check he got for his birthday. He felt like a really big kid signing his name and making a full bank transaction all by himself. He can't wait to go shopping again.

Kevin got his braces readjusted. They did quite a bit of turning and twisting, so he was a bit sore when they were done. The orthodontist put a spring between two of his teeth to separate them some more to make room for the I-tooth that is coming in. Then he got to pick new color of bands. This time he went with Fire Red and Black.

After we were done with that, the boys helped me grocery shop. They sure were good helpers. Not like the old days where they each had to push a cart, run into people, put extra stuff in the cart that didn't belong, and then leave the store before the groceries were bagged...They were pretty good kids, so they each earned a couple dollars for being such good helpers. I think I found their new motivator. Money...hard cold cash...the good stuff.

Then we visited the pet store. This is a nice treat for them. Sam likes to talk to all the cats, memorize their names, and ask me if we can bring them all home with us. Kevin likes to go look at the snakes and lizards and remind me that I promised he could get one when he is 13.

Thursday evening was the first adult league kickball game. Spring season has officially started. We have quite a few new players, and they were pretty good for first timers. Definitely some keepers. We won our game 4-0. Go Kick Busters!! We rotated between 3 pitchers (me included) and we each had a 3 pitch inning during all 9 innings. That was a pretty great feeling. I like pitching much better than playing catcher, short stop, and I'm no good in the outfield. But I'm the captain, so I get to tell everyone where they play.

One guy who signed up for the team decided last night that he didn't want to play this season, so a new player on the team said he knows a guy that can come and play a few games with us. He couldn't make every game, but could make some. The even better news is this new guy was a field goal kicker for the University of Minnesota. Oh yeah...he can play on my team ANYTIME!!

Tomorrow I have a lunch date with the girls I went to Mexico with. I told my grandma we'd have a cocktail and a toast in her honor, since tomorrow is her 101 birthday. Definitely reason to celebrate even if I do live a thousand miles away.

Monday Ramblings

2009-05-04T19:46:00.003-05:00

This morning started out with me paying my $10 to the office booky. I said to him "What the hell?" and shook my head. He laughed, took my $10, and said "muddy track, anybody's race, and it wasn't yours." No it wasn't. Dang, I could have won $120

Work was busy with the usual Monday happenings. I booked my flight out to North Carolina for software training at the end of June. Yes, I get to go to the beach...again. (Big huge smiley face). Two oceans in one month for me. Oh, I am loving life! The Pacific in June for my niece's wedding and the Atlantic a week later for software training.

The hubby came home early from work. He is still sick. He has a sinus infection. He hasn't had one in a very long time and he is feeling miserable. He said he was going to the doctor, but I don't know if he's actually done that yet or not. It's his face that feels yucky and he knows the way to the doctor, so I guess it's up to him. I sure hope he went though.

We are once again doing 5th grade math. UGH! I HATE 5th grade math. Last week he brought home the same kind of problems. I ended up calling a guy I work with who has his masters degree how to do it. He said "THAT'S 5TH GRADE MATH!!"...Welcome to my world. I had called a couple other highly educated people and they didn't know. I guess I know who to call when I need help with 5th grade math again!

Today was a gorgeous spring day! Gorgeous enough to have the spring grilled out dinner. We are having brats and dogs on the grill. Oh yummy, yummy...I love beer battered brats!!

Sidenote: Today I looked at my calendar. Even though May has just begun, it is almost over.

Random Saturday Things

2009-05-02T21:35:00.005-05:00

Two things I hate about spring....allergies and dead worm smell. Especially when they are combined. My allergies have kicked into full gear and I haven't felt this lousy since before my reconstructive sinus surgery three years ago. It's either been windy or rainy and neither one of those things are conducive to my allergies. The rain makes all things I'm allergic to bloom and the wind blows the pollen all over the place. I have felt really cruddy since Thursday. It rained all day Thursday, which made things grow, and the rain also drives all the worms out of the ground to get run over and stink up all parking lots and drive-ways. Yucko!

Sam got a birthday card from his Aunt Patty in Montana. It had $10 in it. THANKS AUNT PATTY!! He was pretty excited and it went right into his wallet.

Today, on my third day of feeling cruddy with swollen sinuses, I got up and took a Prednisone that I bought in Mexico. It sure has helped. I can tell my sinuses aren't nearly as swollen as they were when I woke up, as most of the sinus pressure I was feeling the last few days has gone away. Plus, I actually had a small burst of energy. I'll take another one tomorrow and hopefully that should do the trick. Predinsone is an anti-inflammitory that you take for only two or three days. I'm glad I was able to bring some home from Mexico, as it saved me a trip to the doctor today.

Since I had a burst of energy, I decided to venture out to Goodwill. I was still trying to find a dress to wear to my niece's wedding in California. Something between a casual and dressy dress. The boys decided they wanted to come with me. Kevin didn't have any money, so Sam let him borrow $5 from him. I was shocked at that one. Sam has $50 in his wallet and he decided that he maybe wanted to spend some of it. So off we went. Kevin & Sam grabbed a cart and headed to the toys and games aisle. I headed straight to women's clothing.

Sam & Kevin both found some things they wanted to buy. "Hurry up, mom, we are done shopping and ready to go." Ha! Typical men...once they are done, they are done, and ready to leave. They didn't like waiting for me, but I made them. And I found a dress!! It's really pretty. It's a light blue color and is mid calf lenght. I just need to do sit ups for the next month so that I can tighten up my winter ice cream eating tummy. I also found a really cute top that if I find a cute skirt to go with would also be good for the wedding. Decisions, decisions, decisions. I guess I'll have to wait until I see how tuned up I get my tummy if I wear the blue dress for the wedding or not as the top and skirt combo would be a bit more conceiling to that. It sucks getting old!

I also found a very cute purse. It reminded me a lot of my grandma. She has a collection of elephants and every time I see elephants I think of her and her collection. Well, this purse has elephants all over it. So of course I had to get it. There are just some things a girl can't have enough of...shoes, purses, and clothes.

Since I was getting a new purse, Sam suddenly decided that he needed a purse to carry his wallet in. After all that's where I put my wallet, so it made perfect sense to him. He picked out a blue one. It took a bit of talking by both Kevin and I that boys DO NOT carry purses. Well, he really wanted one. He didn't want to just carry his wallet around with out something to put it in. We told him boys don't carry a purse, but lets see if we can find you a man bag. A more masculine looking bag to put his things in. I was so glad we found a blue one. It's a small Nike bag with a handle. It'll have to do until he gets a smaller wallet that will fit in his pocket.

I told the kids since they were ready to go, to take their wallets and their merchandise to the counter and pay for it. They did it all on their own. I was so proud of them. They learned how to be good consumers today. They really enjoyed it, and it made them feel good to pick out their own things, and pay with their own money.

When we got home, I watched the Kentucky Derby. Every year I get in on the Kentucky Derby office pool. I have never won. I end up drawing some horse for the race (there are 20 horses, you pay $10 and draw a name of one of the horses from a pot), that either gets scratched before the race, breaks a leg, or comes in somewhere close to last. This year I drew the favorite. I drew the horse that EVERYONE said was going to win. Ha! The stupid horse came in second to last. This year a horse with 50-1 odds won the race. It was the second biggest upset in Kentucky Derby history. What luck!

The boys have been busy with their new purchases since we got home, and I have been vegging out, blowing my nose, drinking hot tea, napping on and off, and wondering how the hell the horse I picked came in second to last place.

Happy 10th Sam I Am!!

2009-04-28T22:17:00.002-05:00

10 years ago my youngest caveman was born. Aw....Wow! How did he get to be 10 already! He was really excited for his birthday. He got 3 cards in the mail that had money in them. That seems to be his favorite these days. Prime Green Solid Paper Money....

The last month he's been earning dollars off of me from helping out. He got a liking to that and ran with it. I asked him to clean his room this weekend and he could earn a dollar. He got right to cleaning his room and then said
Sam: Mom, I cleaned my room. Do I earn $20?
Me: No, you earn $1
Sam: Do I earn $10
Me: No, you earn $1
Sam: But I don't have a $20 bill in my wallet
Me: Well, neither do I. You only earned $1
Sam: Oh, fiddlesticks, I wanted $20
Me: If you want $20 you'll have to mow the lawn.
Sam: Nah, I'm too young to do that.

Hmmm....So much for that.

His birthday money went right into his wallet. I didn't even get to see it, and when he did let me look, he was very guarded. I think I have a money hoarder on my hands. If he keeps this up, he can support me when he grows up. From all the allowance he's earned off me, plus his birthday and Christmas money. I guess the days of slipping it into my wallet & telling them it's going in their bank account is over. It gets to their bank account eventually. Just consider it a small loan...My mother did that to us..eventually she ended up giving us money, so really it just went back and forth from wallet to wallet through out the years. So, I guess I'm just handing down tradition. Well, those days are over. I guess now they'll have to pay for their own movies and McDonalds, now that they have more money in their wallets than I do. Besides, most of it started out in my wallet anyway. So it all evens out in the long run.

Sam had a great birthday day. He got a present from his bus driver, his teacher, and his daycare lady. He had his favorite for dinner tonight, French fries, apple sauce, and deli ham. He had a two-layer rectangle shaped chocolate cake with white fluffy frosting and green & blue icing. He had 10 multi-colored candles, so it was quite colorful. He didn't eat any of it, he just likes the pomp and circumstance of the birthday cake tradition. Which is fine with the rest of it, it means we get to eat more cake. We do a pretty good job of it too.

He got a watch, blendy pens, fake money & cash drawer, and the Dr. Suess Happy Birthday To You book. If you ask him what his favorite presents are he'll tell you the watch & the real money. Yep, he's 10 alright!

The first 10 years of his life were definitely challenging and boy did they go by fast. I sure hope the next 10 don't go by as quickly.

I've Got Work to do!

2009-04-25T23:19:00.002-05:00

Along with the new title of Eagan Kickball Director, comes the plethora of duties I must finish before May 21. Create a kickball email address, write an article for the newsletter due by Monday, create a flyer and get the flyers out and about town, help out with a write up for the local paper, create a detailed budget, create the final rules and guidelines of the game, create a webpage for the EAA website, prepare for registration and a sport showcase event, come up with team names to use, ect...

The youth sports use team names of the professional sports they mirror, but since there is no such thing as professional kickball, then that option is out and I don't want to really duplicate what the other teams are using. I think I want the team names to include the work Kick in it, like my adult league is named Kick Busters. Or perhaps I could name them after different types of animals native to Minnesota. I won't really need team names until I form my teams, but it's still a fun task I get to do. Any suggestions?

At least it is all fun work to do, and I'm excited about doing it all.

Meet the New Director

2009-04-24T00:08:00.002-05:00

Of the Eagan Athletic Association Youth Sports Kick Ball League. The first in Minnesota.

Tonight I met with the entire board of sports directors and gave my proposal to add kick ball to the youth sports program. Lots of questions, concerns, and comments from board members, but I was able to get the motion passed, seconded, and nominated as the director.

It went back and forth. For a while I was optimistic, yes, it's going to be added. No wait, here comes some opposition. Nope, back to being all for it. Nerves of steel, I made it through the blast of questions, comments, and concerns. A motion was passed, it was seconded. Every one said yay, no one said nah. Whoo Hoo. Complete elation came over me.

Onto the next step. I was given a budget. The next meeting in May I am to have a budget proposal, a more clear picture of how the program will work and operate.

So, tonight I begin history in Minnesota of adding Kick Ball to youth sports in Minnesota. A first. Kick Ball has been a co-ed adult sport for the last 6 or 7 years. It has grown and grown. I am hoping to bring the youth to that field.

Who knows what is next? Olympic Kick Ball....could be...don't count it out. Minnesota Youth Kick Ball..Bring it on!!

Another funny composition entry

2009-04-23T15:00:00.000-05:00

Last night I was looking through my oldest son's composition notebook. Here were a couple more I found.

Arizona/New Mexico

Somewhere in the world a snake is being killed for it's skin.
Somewhere in the world a snake's venom is being milked for anti-venom.
Somewhere in the world a snake's habitat is being destroyed.
Somewhere in the world someone is dieing from a poisonous snake bite.

My that's touching huh?

Here is another gem.

I Wonder

I wonder why my dad wears his slippers 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
I wonder why my mom wears her necklace all day and all night.
I wonder why the flight attendants on our plane had such a bad attitude.

He must have written this one after our California Thanksgiving trip. I don't remember wearing a necklace all day & night though, but I must have. And yes, dad does wear his slippers all the time.

101

2009-04-22T20:36:00.002-05:00

On May 9th this year my grandmother will be 101 years old. Last year she had a big huge party for her 100th birthday. Wow, she is pretty amazing.

Today I was flipping through the pages of my 11 year old's composition book from school. Here is what I found on one page.

My Summer - Wyoming

I went to Wyoming to celebrate my great grandma's 100th birthday. She rode a Harley Davidson motorcycle. Then the whole town made a talent show for her. The fire fighters also celebrate. Every fire truck engine, rescue units, and marshals went by the motel with their lights and sirens going off. Then 100 fireworks blew up the night.

Yeah, that is pretty much what happened last year. It was just cute to read it from the view point of a then 10 year old.

Those Evil Girl Scouts Are At It Again

2009-04-15T13:02:00.004-05:00

I love them. I hate them. I love them. I hate them. No, I really do LOVE them!!

Not only do the Girl Scouts prey on us with their super yummy delicious cookies each year, but they have infiltrated the ice cream industry as well. Yes, they have found a new way to get into our homes after we have devoured all the boxes we bought. We can now find them in the ice-cream department at our local grocery store. They sit in the ice cream freezer just waiting for us to walk by. Then it happens. We see that Tagalongs, Thin-Mints, and Samoas are added to Edie's ice cream. We stop our cart and we stare at the ice cream cartons lined up in a row. And then it happens....we drool. We just have to have that ice-cream with Girl Scout Cookies! We stand there and decide which cartoon of yummy goodness to take home with us. Eenie, meanie, miney, mo...No, let me do that over...Eenie, meanie, miney, mo...catch a Girl Scout by the toe....if she hollars make her pay....Hmmmm...which one do I want?

Sometimes it's an easy decision and sometimes not so much. My last grocery trip, the Tagalongs made it into my cart. Oh my heavenly goodness in a frozen vat of yummy goo!! I digress....the carton is now gone. Yep, I ate it all. I couldn't get enough and by the time I got towards the bottom, I just took my spoon and ate it from the carton, just like a caveman, except I didn't let anyone see my moment of weakness.

Girl Scout Cookies are my Kryptonite.

Enough Blogging For One Day

2009-04-10T20:20:00.004-05:00

Well, I think I got you all caught up to speed on us. (Start at the bottom of today and read up to here.)

I have finished blogging for the day and Kevin has finished his book. Hallelujah!!!!!!

ER Finale

2009-04-10T20:12:00.002-05:00

During the course of all the busyness the last 9 days, I of course took time out to watch the full 3 hours of the ER television show finale. I have watched that show from day one, and have hardly missed any episodes over the past 15 years.

The finale was great. They brought back old characters, tied up loose ends, and even brought back Dr. Green. Dr. Rachel Green that is.

The show ended with a big trauma brought to the ER and all the doctors and residents meeting in the ambulance bay ready for action. Life goes on in the Chicago ER.

I have to admit I was expecting something a bit more dramatic at the end. Something with lots of special effects. Like the L-Train derailing and falling into the building, or the ER getting exploded by a semi or suicidal unibomber. Nope, nothing like that...life goes on...Very sweet, but keeps me wanting more episodes of ER.

Kumon Learning Center

2009-04-10T20:00:00.003-05:00

Today I took Kevin to Kumon learning center for an assessment. It's not a test of brilliance or stupidity, but a test to see where to start the program. He did pretty good, but he doesn't have his multiplication math facts down pat. This causes him to use his fingers to count, which slows him down at school, which raises red flags with the teachers that he has a learning disability. Not to mention his lack of desire to do his reading projects. The school called me last week and wanted the ok to test him for learning disabilities. Um...no my child isn't a dumb dumb, he's just lazy, and there is no motivation what-so-ever to light a spark. They don't hand out zero's they give extensions, and the worst I can do is send him to his room and ground him. He's grounded right now until it's all done as a matter of fact. I also pointed out to the teacher that whenever he takes the required tests for how smart the kids are, he always tests out at average at grade level.

Since he's not doing the work, they figured he doesn't understand the assignment. So not true...He's just looking for an easy way because he knows he doesn't want to do the assigment. It's not interesting, so why bother? He'll just do it in detention.

He starts Kumon on Monday. He will attend every Monday and Thursday and he'll have Kumon homework every day.

I'm also thinking that his poor vision might be some of his problem as he hasn't been able to see well. So between having glasses and Kumon I'm hoping to keep this kid from riding the short bus.

The Time Nazi

2009-04-10T19:51:00.002-05:00

Sam is the time nazi. Oh that kid is SOOO obessed with the time. He has gotten after me every day for not picking him up at 3:58 from daycare.

Here is a daily conversation with Sam when I pick him up.

Sam: Mom, you are late.
Me: No, I'm not.
Sam: I told you, I don't like to be last.
Me: But you're not last, so and so, and so and so are still here.
Sam: Why don't you pick me up at 3:58?
Me: Because I work.
Sam: Well, you should pick me up at 3:58, so I can get home at 4:11, and have my snack at 4:13. I don't like it when you pick me up at 4:38. I don't like to have my snack after 5:00, so you should pick me up at 3:58.

Oh boy....he had driven me nuts with it one day, so I told him to get over it. Nope, he didn't let it go. I heard about it the whole ride home, and then again the next day. I picked him up one time at 3:58 and I'm really regretting that I did. I honestly don't know what day that was, but I bet if I ask him, he'll tell me.

Hockey Game

2009-04-10T19:38:00.002-05:00

Tuesday night I went to the MN Wild vs. Dallas Stars hockey game. I had originally bought tickets from a friend of mine at work. I decided to ask my friend Jo if she wanted to come to the game with me. Of course she did, but she didn't want to pay to sit in the nose bleeds. When ever she goes to a game, she buys tickets from a scalper and never pays full price for it. She always sits in good seats on the first level. That sounded really good. So I asked my husband and he said "who is going to watch the kids? You should ask Jo to go with you." Hmmmm....

So I asked Jo about how this scalping thing works and that I would re-sell the tickets I had bought. No problem.

We have a friend who gives us very nice hand me downs to us all the time. He just so happened to give us a big bag of clothes that included 2 almost brand new Columbia winter coats after I got the tickets from my co-worker. My husband said "Hey, let's give the tickets to that guy because he always gives us great hand me downs." What a great idea! So we gave the nosebleed tickets to him.

The day of the game Jo & I headed down to the Excel Center. I let her out to go work her scalping magic and I went to find a place to park. I've never bought tickets from a scalper before, so I am pretty green and she said "let me do all the talking, you just observe". She worked her magic and got us tickets on the goal line, 16 rows up from rink for $35 each. WOW! She's good! So if you want to go to a hockey game and get good seats, go with Jo.

The game was really good. Lots of checking and falling down on the ice. The Wild won 3-1. GO WILD!

5th Grade Science Fair.

2009-04-10T19:25:00.003-05:00

Last Friday night there was a big 5th grade science fair at Kevin's school and we HAD to go. I'm glad we did. It was very neat and huge! The students had been working in groups on science projects and they had to make a big display of what their project was and what was the outcome. Kevin's project was eating different flavors of Pringle's Potato Chips after smelling a dill pickle. They were seeing if the pickle would trick the brain into thinking the chip tasted different. Interesting....

At the science fair they had snakes, lizards, turtles, hedgehogs, and birds of prey. They even had a little alligator. Kevin LOVED those. In the main gym they had all sorts of different science experiments. I completely failed the smelling experiment. You had to pick up a little film canister with a hole in the lid and see if you could identify the scent. Then you put the canister on the picture of what the scent was. I got 2 out 8 correct. I got maple syrup and black licorice correct. One of the canisters I couldn't smell anything and two of the canisters smelled the same. So much for my sniffer...

They also had a section where you could look under different microscopes. That was very interesting. They had this really neat hand held microscopic device that displayed the image on a screen on the wall. You held the lens (with a light) to something such as your jacket, skin, shirt, hair, ect...and then you could see it magnified on the screen. She said that type of scope is used in alot of crime labs and you can even take a photograph of the image. Very cool.

Outdoors they had all sorts of telescopes pointed at the moon. That was really neat. One of the scopes you could see the moon very close. The astronomer by the scope said "See the middle crater with a spec in the middle that looks white?". I said "Yes". He said "That is a mountain in the middle of a moon crater and the white color is the sun reflecting off of it." Wow, amazing! Then he explained what the first early astronomers used for telescopes, which were very simplistic and amazing they could see anything at all.

Blog Neglect

2009-04-10T19:02:00.003-05:00

It's been 9 days since my last blog entry. Things have been busy, mostly with my child Kevin. This may have to be several blog posts as one post may be a bit too wordy. So we'll start with Kevin....

Kevin, Kevin, Kevin.... He pulled another "I'm not doing homework" strike on us. He had three weeks to read a book and do a book project on it. It was due this past Monday. Sunday night at 9:30 pm he asked if I could take him to Wal-Greens to get poster board for his project that was due the next day. I asked him "What project?". He said "the one that is due tomorrow". I hadn't seen him reading a book, so I asked him what book he was going to do his project on. Well, he didn't know the answer to that. So I decided to let him face the music with his teacher. I told him, to enjoy flunking the assignment and getting a big fat zero on it. Then I congratulated him on repeating the 5th grade.

Monday afternoon I got a call from his teacher. She started to explain that prior to spring break 3 weeks ago she had assigned the class a book project and that it was due that day. I said "Yes, how'd that go for Kevin?" Then she was surprised I knew about it. She asked me when I learned of the project and I told her "why it was just last night at 9:30 pm". She told me when she asked Kevin why his project was not done his reply was this..."My family couldn't afford the materials to do the project." She knew better and called him out on it. She told him that she had explained to the class if they needed something she would get it for them and the project wasn't going to cost any student any money.

Then she started talking about whether or not he understood the assignment. I explained that he probably did, and that he just didn't want to do it. She gave him a week's extention.

Monday night I went to the library. I returned all the books he had previously checked out and checked out 6 or 7 works of fiction. I came home and said "take your pick, and get to reading". He picked out a book and has been reading all week. His teacher told him to bring the book to school as he would be staying inside from recess to read his book. Tonight, he is reading his book. I think he will finish it tonight. He's on page 235 of 259.

April Foolery

2009-04-01T22:28:00.004-05:00

Mother Nature played the best prank of all today. We woke up to snow. Boo! Didn't she get the memo that spring is here?

This morning I sent an email out to my shop managers. There were about seven total that I pranked. I told them that the computer system was going down at 10:00 am and would be down the entire day. They would have to do all their work orders in the truck shops by hand on paper and then enter them all into the computer tomorrow. Then I sat back at my desk as they scrambled to the back up plan. I was proud of them that they had a back up plan just in case our computer system really did crash for an entire day. After about 20 minutes to a half an hour after I told them this, I sent them another email saying "Hey suckers, check your calendars and see what day it is, then get back to work. Muhahahahaa, enjoy the rest of your day."

Yes, then my phone rang, the emails started to fly. I'm da debil!

Later on when my boss went to lunch, I did this to his office. I wrapped his telephone, planner, calculator, keyboard, mouse, and office chair in Saran Wrap. Yep, I'm da debil!

Of course they all screamed about paybacks, but they need to learn the rules of being the April Fool. They have a year to think of ways to get me back.

The kids at home tried to get my hubby and I all day, but they couldn't keep a straight face or keep from laughing, so it didn't go over so well for them. Maybe next year.

Songs from my sons

2009-03-27T20:50:00.002-05:00

Here is the latest song being sung by my boys.

My little pony
Skinny and bony
Farted on purpose
and blew up the circus.

Followed by unstoppable laughter.

Metal Mania

2009-03-26T22:46:00.003-05:00

Yesterday the braces went on with success! He was in the chair with his mouth gaping wide open for an hour and a half. Yikes, that's a long time, but I think that's the longest he's ever gone with out talking, so it wasn't all bad. He wanted me in the room with him because he was a bit nervous. I brought a book with me, but only ended up getting two pages of it read. Oh well, it was worth a shot. The orthodontist decided to be a little Chatty Kathy. He must not get too much adult conversation as he seemed to be happy that he had someone new to talk to. We talked about reality shows and office pools, and poor Kevin couldn't get in one word. I bet that was killing him.

Kevin picked out camouflage colored bands for his braces. They have around 20 solid colors to choose from, and you could pick a color for every brace if you wanted to. Kevin picked green, black, and goldrush. Then they put them on accordingly. He was so happy. He can't wait to show all the kids at school his new grin. (The kids are on spring break right now.) The orthodontist told him he's the first kid to request camouflage. He thought he'd have to tell some of his other patients about that. Kevin just might have started a trend.

Kevin got all his instructions on taking care of his teeth and he got a goodie bag full of rules charts, floss leaders, mouthwash, wax, a travel toothbrush, and lots of other stuff. He got home and had that scattered all over the bathroom counter in a hurry. I'm glad he listened to them and I haven't had to nag about taking care of his grill.

Glasses shopping

2009-03-25T22:38:00.002-05:00

Monday night I took Kevin glasses shopping. First we went to Wal-Mart. They didn't have much of a kid selection. They had four rows of frames and one of them was all Hannah Montana. We didn't like the rest of them, so we went on our way. The next stop was Vision World. They were having a two for $99 sale. Well, only on certain frames that is... Those frames were all throw backs from the 70s I believe. He tried a bunch on to be funny, and we really got a good laugh out of it. Who knew shopping for glasses frames was so much fun? Vision World had quite a good selection of frames. He tried on about 20 pair there. He had a possibility pile down to 8. So when we were all done trying on frames and being silly, we went back to the possibility pile. We ended up with three pair we really liked.

Vision World was insanely busy Monday night, so there was no one assisting us. I don't even think they saw us walk in. I told Kevin..."let's leave these three frames right here, and go next door to Sears Optical just to see what they have." We left the frames together on the side table. I figured they'd still be there when we got back. I wrote down all the numbers on them just in case they did get moved, we would be able to find them again.

We headed over to Sears Optical. Kevin didn't believe me that they had eyeglasses, because Sears is a home and hardware store. It was a good thing we went there. Right away we found a pair of glasses that looked really good on him. That was definitely the pair. Then he started looking at sunglasses while I was talking to the sales lady. Kevin comes running over with a pair of glasses. "These glasses mom, I gotta have these glasses!" Wow, they were really cool glasses and they looked really good on him too. They were so him. They were half rims, with camouflage bows. They were a bit too big for his face, but they still looked good. I told Kevin we'd order the one pair, and see if we could order the camo pair online in his size.

I've been looking online today and not finding those glasses in his size.

Sears was having a special, buy the frames and get the lens for free, so we got a really good price, especially since the frames are Ray Ban. We paid $135 for his glasses and they will be here next Monday or Tuesday. I'm going to keep looking for the other pair in his size, or something very similar.

When were finished at Sears, we walked passed Vision World, and the three pair of frames were still sitting right where we left them. Then we went and grabbed a bite to eat, to complete a successful night of shopping for glasses.

Newest member of the glasses club

2009-03-22T20:02:00.002-05:00

Welcome the newest member to the glasses wearing club. Mr. Kevin indeed needs glasses. He needs them for distance vision, so he is near sighted. He won't need to wear them while on the computer or outside playing, at least for now anyway.

His eye exam went well. He was a little nervous about getting his eyes dilated, but he did really well on that part too. The doctor let him look at the pictures of the insides of his eyes. She showed it to me as well, and it was pretty cool. We got to see his retina, his optical nerve, and all the blood vessels in his eyes. He has very healthy eyes! His vision is 20/40.

He did try on some frames afterwards, but it was hard for him to see because his eyes were still all dilated, and he did look rather nice in them. They had neat signs up in the kids frame secion that said "You will look cool in these" and then had an array of frames, then the next shelf's sign said "All your friends will think you are smart wearing these" and another array of frames. Then Kevin said "Hey, so & so at school has a pair of glasses like this!" We didn't buy any there as we had to get home in time to get him dinner before going to the Gordon Lightfoot concert with his dad, plus we wanted to see if we could save some money by ordering them online.

I've been looking online for frames and have had no luck finding what we saw at LensCrafters. Shopping online for glasses is harder than I though. So, tomorrow I will take Kevin out to some eyeglasses shops and have him try a bunch on. If we find good deals, we'll just go ahead & buy it, otherwise we will write down the numbers, brand, and style of the frames and then order them online. I did find that Vision World is having a 2 for $99 sale, so we'll go see what they have.

He was so funny when we left the eye doctor. The doctor gave him a pair of those disposable sunglasses that you typically see on older people who just had eye surgery done. They took up most of his face, but he thought he was pretty cool. She gave them to him, so the bright lights of the mall and outside wouldn't hurt his freshly dilated eyes. He kept the glasses on in the parking lot (which you don't need sunglasses for). We got to our van and I unlocked it. He opened the door and then said "Hey mom, this isn't our van!" I cracked up so hard. Then he said "what?, my eyes are dilated, I can't see very well."

We got home and he kept the sunglasses on and he shut out any lights that were on. By the end of this week, he will look like a completely different kid.

Growing up changes for the oldest caveboy

2009-03-21T16:06:00.002-05:00

Last week he went to the orthodontist and got 10 spacers put in his back molars to prepare for getting braces put on this coming week. He said the bottoms one bother him and get a bit painful at times. I imagine so, as he has pieces of plastic stuck between his teeth moving them apart from each other.

He went to school and showed off his new mouth accessories (the cool blue colored spacers) and everyone thought that was pretty cool. Lots of kids his age have braces, and he won't have to wear any head gear. He is now trying to decide what color of rubber bands he wants to have.

Tomorrow he has a full complete eye exam with the optometrist. He has flunked the school eye exam two times in a row, so we may be looking at glasses for him. Double whammy in one week! I hope he adjusts to both major life changes and doesn't get teased at school. Kids can be cruel and will find anything to pick someone apart on their appearance at this age.

My sister sent me a link to an eyeglasses website that has pretty cheap glasses. We will go that route. That way when he breaks them on the playground, sits on them, or looses them we aren't out too much money. Also, I can order them two at a time in different styles. Also, we can take some time to see which pairs he really likes as you can try the styles on using a picture of yourself and take the time to really decide. Choices are a good thing, and there seem to be so many these days.

He has been pretty optimistic about the new changes coming, and has been studying them online. He's officially hit his ugly duckling tween stage of life, and in a couple of years will be a teenaged swan. I look at the kids at his school, and they are all at the same place in life, bodies built like squares, needing braces or glasses or both, and still learning about hygiene.

Mexico Trip Details....(finally)

2009-03-18T19:42:00.004-05:00

Day 1

We left the Minneapolis airport at 8 am. It sure was an early morning, getting up at 5 am to get ready. We all met at my house as I live closest to the airport. The stupid cat escaped from the house three times. It is not fun chasing a cat around the front yard at 5:30 am.

Our flight took off on time and it was a packed airplane. There were lots of people escaping the miserable cold weather.

During the flight (apparently Mexican airlines have much different rules than American airlines), the flight attendants opened the door to cockpit several times to have a word with the pilots. AT one point the co-pilot got up to use the bathroom and the flight attendant took his spot in the co-pilot chair. Um....hello people, does this freak anyone else out here but me? I know they have the planes on auto-pilot but still....I do not need to be able to see out the front window of the airplane! I thought the cockpit door could not be opened at all. But it was a chartered flight, there were no stops, so maybe the rules were a bit more lax.

We landed in Cancun at noon. It was a pretty smooth landing. We arrived early, so we had to circle Cancun before we got clearance to land. Once we landed the pilot announced that it was 84 degrees. The whole entire plane cheered and clapped as we also got the news that a winter snow storm was hitting back home.

We went filled out our custom forms and went through customs without any problems. We then made our way to the bus that was to take us to our hotel. Outside the exit of the Cancun airport is about 100 people shouting and holding up signs "Pick me!". We were told by previous friends who have traveled through the Cancun airport to ignore those people and not make eye contact as they are trying to get you to go with them to sell you a time share. We found our correct people to take us to the hotel. We asked the bus chaperone if we could grab a drink at the outdoor airport bar before we got on. She said "you can, but it's $5 at the bar and only $3 on my bus. Shhhh...don't tell anyone" Ok, let's get on the bus!

Once we got going the bus chaperone got on the loud speaker and told us "you will be at your destination in 60 minutes, that's like an hour". We cracked up laughing and asked her for another cervaza.

We got to the hotel and checked in. Upon checking in, we were served a very tasty glass of champagne. We were taken to our room and our luggage was brought up for us. We quickly changed into our swim suites and made our way to the beach, stopping at each bar for a drink on the way. We got to the beach and we all went into the warm ocean water and laughed our silly heads off as back home they were getting pounded with snow.

After we were done with sun and ocean, we went to our room. Lisa and I took a nap, Jo & Nickie went out shopping in town. When they came back to the room, we all went down to the lobby bar. We enjoyed our free cocktails and watched the entertainment. One thing about all inclusive...the cocktails flow pretty freely.

Day 2

We slept in, then made our way to one of the restaurants for breakfast. After breakfast we got our suits on and went down to the beach. It felt so good sitting in the sun. After soaking up much sun, we got dressed and went to dinner at the hotel. The food at the hotel restaurant was so good. It was a large buffet and fresh grilled style. Everything was gourmet and the variety was fabulous.

After dinner we went shopping downtown. Lots of shops and lots of people wanting us to shop at their shop and spend our American money with them. We came back with our goodies that we found and then went to the lobby bar to end out the night.

Day 3

We got up early to catch our bus for our all inclusive trip to Tulum and Xel-Ha. It was an all day tour. Our bus chaperone was telling us all about our day on the bus ride down and we made a couple of stops to pick up more people. She explained in both Spanish and English adding her own flare of humor. At one of the stops it seemed like it was taking a long time for people to get on the bus, so a few people got out to take pictures of flamingos. Finally Nickie decided she was going to take photos to. Nickie got off the bus and was taking photos and then the bus was ready to leave. We said "Wait, we can't leave Nickie here!" So the bus chaperone yelled out the door "Neeckie, we are leaving now!" Nickie was quite embarrassed and when she got back on the bus Teri (the bus chaperone/tour guide) said over the microphone "Ok, we can go now, we have Neeckie".

We got to Tulum and we followed Teri for the tour. She walked fast and you had to keep up. The tour was very interesting and the Tulum ruins were more impressive than I had imagined. After the tour was over we did have a little time for ourselves to walk around the area. We walked down the stairs to the beach and it was so beautiful. The bluest of blue and the prettiest turquoise I've ever seen. It is just amazingly bright and beautiful. When our time was up, we went back to the bus making sure not to be late as Teri told us we were not running on Mexican time, we were on Teri time and she would leave us behind.

After Tulum the tour bus took us to Xel-Ha. Xel-Ha is a natural occurring inlet. We had 5 hours to tour on our own and it was all inclusive, so all the food and drink you could want. The first thing we did was have lunch. The restaurant we went to had mostly Mexican cuisine except I did find steak and chicken as I am not a big fan of Mexican food. I'm pretty much a steak and potatoes kind of girl. The steak and chicken was fabulous.

After we ate we walked around the park and looked in some of the gift shops. Then we decided to go snorkeling. Snorkeling was hard to get used to, and it was my first time. I'm sure I looked like an geek, but no one knows me there. I finally got the hang of snorkeling and it was fun. By the time we discovered where the fish were hanging out (along the edges of the inlet in the little reefs) it was time to swim back and venture on. We only had 5 hours to tour Xel-Ha.

After snorkeling we walked around, grabbed a couple of drinks, did some shopping, and watched people swim with the dolphins. As we were watching the people swim with the dolphins, a bird pooped on Jo's foot. We all got a big kick out that and we were glad it was none of us. So we laughed at Jo's expense.

We had a little bit more time so we ventured across the floating bridge that crossed where the ocean poured into the inlet. It's a good thing the bridge was as wide as it was. It was so hard to keep your balance and you staggered all over the thing. It was the kind that you felt like you were still moving after you were on solid ground.

We took a peek at the underground river system through holes in the walk path. There are no above ground rivers in that area. They are all underground, as there is only about 10 inches of topsoil and then limestone. We had to walk back across the scary floating bridge. I figured out the faster you walked on the bridge, the easier it was not to stumble all over it. We shrieked like little girls going across the bridge. We ran into a gentleman who was wearing a Minnesota Gopher's t-shirt and a Twins baseball cap. We said "Hey, Minnesota!" to him and he replied "I don't speak English". Indeed that was the only thing he knew in English.

We made it back on the bus on time and didn't get left behind. Teri our tour guide, asked before departure if Neeckie was on the bus. Nickie raised her hand and the whole bus laughed. Xel-Ha is huge and 5 hours was not nearly enough time there. We only saw about 1/3 of the area. What we did see was amazing, total paradise.

After we got back to the hotel we rested for a bit. We had room service bring us up some cold beer and then decided to hit the lobby bar again and then call it a night.

Day 4

We enjoyed our last day at the beach and the hotel. After lunch we decided to go shopping again. There was a whole area that we had missed. It was over a mile of shopping. Any girls dream. We hit the jackpot. Lots of good bargaining and lots of good souvenirs.

It was starting to get dark but we were having so much fun downtown. Then all of a sudden there was a parade. We walked right into it. I still have no idea what the parade was for and what they were celebrating, but they were sure having fun. Their costumes were over the top.

After the parade we found our way to Senior Frogs. We sat in their fun swing seats, had a couple of beers, and then the shot lady discovered us, so we paid 20 pesos for her. She gives you the shot, she rubs your temples, then she grabs your hoo ha's.

We made our way back to the hotel, then found our way back to the lobby bar for our last hurrah. It was our last night and we were going to make it a fun one.

It turns out that a large group of people from the Minnesota Vikings (one player, his wife, then the behind the scenes people, and their wives) had checked into the hotel earlier that day. So I got to meet Chad Greenway and get my picture taken with him. He was a pretty good sport and I had to stand on a coffee table so that I wouldn't get cut off in the picture.

We said goodbye and goodnight to our favorite hotel bartenders, then went back up to the room. We decided not to go to bed, but rather call room service for more cold beer.

Day 5

Time to go home. We had to get up early in order to catch our bus to take us to the airport. The bus didn't show up, so the hotel sent us on one of their shuttles. The shuttle was full, so I got to sit in the passenger seat and listen to the driver's favorite Mexican radio station and watch him drive. My right mom arm reached out many times as driving in Mexico is pretty wild. No lane markers, not many stop signs, and the ones that are there, they run. One road we took had a tree growing out of the middle of it. Instead of cutting the tree down, they just paved the road around it, so not only do you have to watch for other cars on the road, but you have to watch for trees too.

We got to the airport and checked in."Do you have the bottom of the form you filled out when you got to Mexico?" the airline counter guy said. I was the only one who didn't. It was a piece of paper that you wrote your name, your nationality, and your birth date on. Then you signed it. I ripped mine in half and threw it away back at the hotel. Extra stuff I didn't need to carry around with me, I figured. WRONG!

He told me I had to go to immigration and get a new form. I couldn't get my boarding pass until I did so. Really? For a stupid little piece of paper that had less info than my passport? Isn't that why you have a passport? Ok, no arguing. I went to immigration and the immigration guy gave me my new paper to fill out and then said it would cost me $35, but I can't pay him, I have to go to the bank next door and get a receipt, and then take it back to him. I had no money left. Not even a penny in my wallet. I told the man I had no money and his reply "That's a big problem for you." Yeah, he didn't care. I also had traveled with out my credit card. (Yeah, I know who does that?) So I had to borrow money from Jo in order to get back into America. The immigration guy could have made up any dollar amount and I would have had to pay it.

The line at the bank was long. Very long. There were only two tellers and they were S L O W! Finally, it was our turn. Jo paid the $35 and I got my receipt. I took my form and my receipt, and gave it to the immigration officer. He looked at it, stamped it, and sent me on my way. The whole process took a little over an hour. Good thing we got to the airport early. I took my passport, my stamped important and expensive piece of paper back to the counter man, and he gave me my boarding pass.

Then we went through the TSA checkpoint. The X-ray guy said "Whose bag is this?" I told him it was mine, and he pulled it out of the bucket and got out his little swipey cloth and swiped down the handles of my carry on bags. I got the all clear so I could get home now. Who knew I'd be such a problem child getting out of Mexico?

We got on the plane, they did one last boarding bag check and we passed that. Which is good as we'd already been passed the TSA checkpoint.

The plane ride home, the cockpit was more secure. No flight attendants opening the cockpit door, and no pilots taking a potty break. It was difficult to sleep as there was a very obnoxious mom sitting across from us with her two small children. "Are we in the air yet? Now, Now...how bout now?" After we were in the air, the kids were quiet but the mom went on and on to her kids. We could hear the mom over the roar of the plane engine. I'm actually surprised no one said anything too her. She was annoying to everyone around her as even the people ahead of me turned around and gave her the evil eye.

We landed in Minnesota. I got off the plane and had my cell phone out to let my husband know we had landed. I got yelled at for having my cell phone on, and was instructed to shut it off. Again, I'm being a problem child.

We were told our bags would be searched when we were filling out our customs forms on the plane, so be honest and claim everything you are bringing back and the value. Well, I know that customs people get really mad if they find something you didn't claim,no matter how small. I wrote down that I had $10 worth of prednisone. You can buy that over the counter in Mexico. Well, they didn't check our bags, so I didn't really need to claim it, but I was just being honest. Here's how the conversation went between the customs guard and myself...

Guard: You are bringing back prednison?
Me: Yes, I wrote it on the form, did I need to?
Guard: Do you have a prescription for it?
Me: No
Guard: Why not?
Me: Because I don't
Guard: Then why did you buy it?
Me: Because I could
Guard: Why else did you buy it?
Me: Because I'm a mom and when and if I get really sick with a cold or bad virus, it cuts the time in half and gets me feeling better faster. It's been prescribed to me before. My son also gets croup and they prescribe it to him for that condition, so I figured it will say me an ER trip or two at 3 am. Are you going to take it away from me?
Guard: Well, even though you can buy it over the counter in Mexico, you can't bring it into the states with out a prescription, but since you have such a small amount of it, doesn't cause me concern, so I'll let you through with it this time.

This time!? Ok, whatever...Not like I'm going to Mexico all the time for prescription drugs I don't have prescriptions for. Are they going to save my customs form and next time I go to Mexico pull it out of a file and say " I told you last time you were here about this." Ok, fine I'll behave next time.

Really, I had no idea I would such a problem child at both airports.

We do our girls trip every two years. This was our second time. We really loved Playa Del Carmen and decided we would go there again in 2 years, but next time we'll stay longer as we didn't stay nearly long enough this time. And now that I'm trained in on all the rules, I won't be so much of problem child.

Here are the links to the photos.

Spring has Sprung

2009-03-17T22:34:00.004-05:00

It's official! Yesterday spring arrived. It was 63 degrees. The snow is melting, people are outside, and the sun was shining. Looking at the ten day forecast, it looks like spring is here.

Sam has a spring cold. He came down with over the weekend. It's not too bad, but it's enough to make him tired and cranky. Once he gets going in the morning he forgets he even has a cold until night time. When he is done and ready to be left alone, he will say "I have a disease!"

Kevin has been enjoying the past two days of spring. He has been playing outside from when he gets home from school until dinner time. Yesterday I had to flip his bike upside down and fix the chain as it had fallen off the gears. I'm not sure who was more impressed by my bike chain fixing abilities, my son, my husband, or me?

Mi Vida Loca

2009-03-11T22:42:00.003-05:00

Things are still crazy in my world here since returning from my trip. I'm thinking I almost need another vacation. Yep, four days was not nearly long enough. I'm thinking I should have stayed at least a month or two. Ok, that might be a stretch.

I did not clean my house before I left for vacation, because really, I was leaving the cavemen at home. What would be the point? I'm so glad I didn't waste my time. My house was more of a disaster than when I left. This weekend I spent an entire day cleaning. It feels so good to have a really clean home.

This weekend the oldest cave child was grounded from pretty much everything he knows as a life and was busy listening to me nag at him about homework. He somehow ended up being behind on homework from not turning assignments in, not doing homework while I was gone, and just plain old not doing homework at all. I need to send that kid to homework military. So he got the parental speech of how important homework is, and how next year in Jr. High if he doesn't do his homework, there is no free pass. I piled up any and all homework I could find for him. I even made some up. I'm so mean.

On Monday his teacher foiled my plans to forever keep him busy with homework by telling him he doesn't need to turn in this one and that one. Dang it! I should have called her and told her my evil plan. Turns out the child just likes to procrastinate (gee, I have NO idea where he ever got that from....Grandma Turney perhaps...yeah, I'll blame her...Hee hee...) Of all the good quality traits I could have passed onto my children, procrastination isn't one I was hoping for.

Turns out I had homework too upon returning from vacation. I had lots of forms to fill out for school and lots of checks to write. Lunch money, field trip forms and money, camp money...yadda, yadda, yadda... With in all the forms, not only did I sign the oldest cave child up for summer school, but I signed him up for the summer homework program. Oh, I am evil!

My youngest cave child has been obsessed with time lately. All of our clocks have to match and he is constantly checking the time. He's been able to tell time for a while, but he is obsessed with time, like a little Mayan ruler. Of course we had to "spring forward" this weekend, so he made sure we were on the ball with that. And we have all been instructed not to mess with the clocks. It was pretty upsetting to him that I have my bedroom clock set 25 minutes fast. He really didn't like that. I had to explain my reasoning for that. Not that it helps me any, but the logic is still there. Set your clock fast and you will never be late. Ha!

This weekend we also visited the library. This is now a ritual. We all have library cards and the kids are old enough to understand how the library works with out driving me completely crazy. Our library here isn't like the library of the old days. Sure they still have librarians, but I'm not exactly sure why. They won't help you find a book, every thing is computerized, you have to look it up and find it yourself. They have self check out. You scan your card on the scanner, then you scan your books, print out a receipt, and off you go.

I am still working with my vacation pictures. I do have all of them from all the camera's (we had a total of 6 cameras between us). I still have a few more to fix the brightness and contrast on, then I just have to organize them into photo albums in Picasa, and post them. This weekend...I promise. 1000 pictures is really a lot to go through, although, I have it down to about 600 now. Maybe less, I'm not sure, but it is a ton of pictures.

The last two days at work, I have been sitting in on software training classes. They've been very good classes, although they have kept me from contact with the outside world.

Hopefully this weekend I will have everything caught up and life will return to normal, whatever normal is that is, but I will take normal over crazy.

Back to Reality

2009-03-05T22:44:00.002-06:00

I'm back from my vacation (I'll post details & photos at a later date) and back to reality. We left behind a sunny 85 degree place and came back to lots of snow on the ground and freezing temperatures. Why did I leave Mexico? We had a blast!

I have been plummeted back to the real world both at work and at home. At work I have been taking care of things that were waiting for my return, plus keeping up with my daily duties. I think I'll be able to breathe sometime next week.

Home has been just as crazy. I've been busy nagging and harping about all the things that the cavemen saved just for me.

I have returned with over 900 photographs from a 5 day vacation, so I have been busy putting them together, deleting the incriminating girls silliness photos (none of us could run for public office). I have some editing to do on some, fix the brightness, sharpen some of them up, and crop the land sharks out before I show them off to the world. Although, with the amount of tourists there it will be impossible to crop them all out. Hopefully this weekend I will be able to get my head above water and have time to breathe. It's the usual vacation syndrome, you're going crazy with busy before the trip so you can get out of town, and you're going crazy with busy when you get home and then you wonder why you returned.

Just a Girl Getting Ready to Leave Town

2009-02-24T23:32:00.004-06:00

The forecast is looking marvelous for Mexico. Not so marvelous here in MN. While I am sitting ocean side, enjoying an 83 degree sun shiney afternoon, enjoying a Corona.....Minnesota will be getting buried with snow.... Sorry folks, as much as I love you all, I'm glad it will be crappy weather I am missing out on.

There is much to do to get ready to leave town and the cavemen behind for 5 days. Especially since there won't be any email or cell phone contact. Cell usage fees get a bit spendy when you leave the country. So, they will get the text that I have landed safely, then I'm shutting my phone off. In this day and age of constant instant contact, it will feel a bit weird not being in contact.

In order to make the cavemen happy and not grumbling the whole time I'm away, I have set them up for my absence. I am baking a chocolate cake (at 11:42 pm mind you), I have lasagna in the refrigerator, and babysitting and kid shuffling arrangements all planned out.

Last evening I did my last tanning session. I went to the upgraded bed for the full 15 minutes. I'm thinking 10 minutes would have been the way to go. I am now a lovely reddish brown color. Oh boy am I in for it when get there. I will be fully loaded with an arsenal of sun screen and after sun lotion. I got my last minute shopping done, disposable underwater cameras, extra batteries for my purse sized camera, a swim suit cover, ect... This evening I finished up the laundry, picked out which clothes are going and which ones can stay home, got my eyebrows waxed and eyelashes tinted, attended an informational meeting at school, filled out some last minute school paperwork for the cavechildren, and baked a cake. Yep, that should cover it.

I of course can not forget to come home with my list of items I need to bring home...a rattlesnake, a jump rope, a refrigerator magnet, a t-shirt, a kitten, and then what ever I want. I will see what I can do for that list and hope it all fits in my suit case with out making it weigh over 50 pounds.

I have also been practicing up on my Spanish. Hola! Dos Cervazas por favor. Gracias. Yep, that may be all I need to know. I am taking my cheat sheet along with me, just in case I need something besides beer. LOL.

Tomorrow that leaves me with tying up the loose ends, hoping that whatever it is I forgot to pack (there is always something), I can buy it when I get there or live with out it. And the last minute hopes and prayers that I land safely, have a great time, and am at ease that the guys can indeed live with out me, at least short term anyway.

Three Days Til Paradise

2009-02-22T20:17:00.003-06:00

Thursday morning at 6 am I will be headed to the airport with three great girl friends and board a plane to escape to Paradise, otherwise known as Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. I can not wait to escape the cold, the job, all my responsibilities at home.

I did some shopping for clothes for the trip, and got my stock of Tums, Immodium, and Airborne.

We are staying at an adult only all inclusive resort on the beach. It looks so lovely and we plan to spend much of our time enjoying ourselves there. We are also going to take a day tour to Tulum and Xelha. We will get to see some of the Mayan ruins and an eco-park where we plan to go snorkeling and cliff jumping.

I am taking two cameras with me and all my memory cards, which will allow me to take about 1750 photos. That's a lot of photos for 5 days, but that is the great thing about digital. My laptop will stay home, so I won't be able to download my photos onto it until I get home.

The hubby is jealous that he doesn't have a ticket to run away to paradise. Poor guy. LOL. I told him to take a guys trip this year and he didn't want to.

I spent the last month tanning, so that I don't burn to a crisp the minute my lily white skin sees the sun. I'm sure the sun will be pretty intense as Playa Del Carmen is just 20 degrees north of the equator.

I asked the boys what they wanted me to bring them home from Mexico. Kevin said he wanted a rattlesnake and Sam said he wanted a kitten. Hmmmm...I really don't think those two things will be coming back with me. At least not real ones anyway. If there was a way I could bottle up some of the sun and warmth, I'd definitely be bringing that home with me.

Wedgie Stops Burglar

2009-02-18T19:57:00.004-06:00

I heard this story on the news today and laughed. I had no idea that my son's teaching me about wedgies would be used to fight crime. Criminals beware...I know how to give a wedgie too! It's the new Super Hero...Wedgie Woman! It's a bird, it's a plane, No...It's Wedgie Woman!

Would-be burglar foiled by atomic wedgie

Posted: Feb 17, 2009 09:56 PM

By Christopher Francis

A Salt Lake City woman nabbed a suspected car burglar using a technique every schoolyard bully knows by heart... or by the seat of the pants, in this case.

Yvone Morris says she was working in her office at an animal hospital when she noticed a young man walking past her office. A few minutes later, she heard a car alarm going off.

"So I looked into the parking lot to see where the honking was coming from," said Morris.

She soon saw the man going through the car of a co-worker. Morris told the receptionist to call police and headed out to the parking lot.

"He came out of the building, got in front of the car and yelled 'Hey!'"

Morris said she told the man, Frederic Baze, 21, that he was busted and the police were on the way. But the suspected thief took off.

"He moseyed up the hill and took off around the corner and I just followed him," said Morris.

Morris caught up with Baze after he slipped on some gravel. She grabbed his hooded sweatshirt, but he slipped off the hoodie and kept on running.

"I grabbed the back of his pants which in turn ended up to be his under garments," said Morris.

That's right. Baze was caught by an atomic wedgie.

Morris admits it wasn't best idea. "In hindsight, yeah there is probably a lot of things that could have gone wrong but thankfully they didn't."

Still, Morris says she had to do something. "It's very personal when somebody does that to your possessions and I thought if there is someway to stop him, then I want to help," said Morris.

As for the suspect, Frederic Baze, he faces burglary and possession of stolen property charges.

KUTV/Salt Lake City contributed to this report.

Funny Sign

2009-02-15T19:18:00.004-06:00

Here is one good reason it is always best to travel with a camera.

Got my hair cut

2009-02-10T21:11:00.016-06:00

Before & After:

This is the longest I've ever grown my hair out. Long hair like this is a pain. It was fun to grow it out long, but I honestly won't be growing it out that long again. I just don't have the big thick head of hair like the Hollywood type. The long, luxurious, flowing, gorgeous hair in the shampoo commercials. NOT! When it's wet, it sticks to you. It sticks to your neck, your back, and your armpits. Gross. It breaks, it falls out, and gets all over the bathroom. I'm sure my husband will be pleased he no longer has to pull gobs of hair out of the bathtub drain. Not to mention I was starting to look like Cousin It and most of the time I was pulling it back because it got to annoying to deal with.

I told my husband before getting it cut that I was only getting three inches cut off. I came home having cut off twelve inches. One foot of hair. Yikes! After being together for 18 years, he is used to my drastic hair changes, so he wasn't too surprised I cut so much off, but it still had shock value. My oldest son was shocked and said "You crazy woman!" I guess he's not so used to me making drastic changes to my hair. When I look back at old pictures, my hair style isn't one that stays the same time after time.

The gal that cut my hair was so excited. My hair was the longest she'd ever cut, so she had a fun time cutting, sculpting, trimming, and shaping. I didn't donate any of it. The stylist didn't ask and I'm not sure it was in the best shape to donate anyway.

After my hair cut, I feel like I have so much more hair. My hair actually has some body and wave to it. Which is exciting considering my hair has always been so stick straight unless I curl the heck out of it.

11....Wow, he's 11

2009-02-08T00:40:00.003-06:00

My oldest cavechild turned 11. It is hard to believe that 11 years have gone by. He celebrated by going to a tubing hill with with two of his best friends, Lizzy and Anthony. He also invited two other kids, but they could not make it. The kids had a great time tubing. It was above zero degrees, and a bit windy, but not bad if you were moving and shaking.

I was a bit nervous that his friend Anthony would not make it to go sliding with him. Anthony's parent's don't speak English and it is hard to communicate getting together. But we made it. Good thing Anthony speaks clear English & has his own cell phone. So it was a bit challenging to get him to come with us, but we made it work.

Lizzy and Kevin are apparently good friends. Her mom got lost, so she showed up late, but she ended up catching up and having a great time with the boys. She's not a girly girl, so I was glad she had fun as she was the only girl that came with.

We dropped the kids off at their homes and came home. Kevin had a surprise visit from Grandma & Grandpa Bley, so he felt pretty special about that birthday surprise.

Last night we did our traditional watching the movie "The Titanic". 11 years ago, on Feb 6th, my hubby & I went and saw the movie "The Titanic". We caught the late movie, figuring it would be our last chance to go to the theater before the baby was born. It's a great movie and five hours after we got home from the movie, my water broke. 8 hours after my water broke, and Kevin was born. So it's tradition to watch "The Titanic".

All in all, it was a great 11th birthday. I just can't believe 11 years has gone by so quickly.

Groundhog's Day

2009-02-02T19:22:00.003-06:00

Today the Phil the Groundhog saw his shadow. Which means six more agonizing weeks of winter. I sure hope it isn't as harsh as January was, but it is only 4 degrees right now, with a windchill of -14 degrees. I'm not sure what Phil's odds are, but it seems like no matter what there are always six weeks of winter. I think we just need a reason to celebrate spring coming sooner than later, since January's are always so long and difficult. So we follow tradition and drag the little critter from hibernation and either blame him for a long winter or hail him for an early spring.

Groundhog's Day has always been a fun day in our household, as my mom's birthday is on Groundhog's day. I wonder if she saw her shadow today? Maybe she will bring us an early spring.

Happy Birthday Mom! I hope you didn't see your shadow!

My Big Kevin Costner Encounter

2009-02-01T17:27:00.008-06:00

Tuesday afternoon my husband informed me that my favorite actor of all time was playing in a band at a local club in Minneapolis. So of course I had to go.

I got home from work and got ready. I had to look good in case I had a chance encounter with him. I was as excited as a teenage girl getting ready for the prom.

My hubby got home and off I went to the club. Parking was full. I drove around a while to find a spot and finally, I found one. Right in front. Bonus! I wouldn't have to walk by 10 feet to get to the front door of the club. Perfect for a cold night.

I went into the club, paid my cover fee, checked my coat, and made my way through the crowd. It was pretty packed and many of the people were crowed around the stage waiting for the cover band to come on stage. So I went to the back of the club where there weren't very many people. I stood up at the bar in the back next to another couple. When the cover band was on their last song, the bar tender said to me and the couple "Stay here, Kevin and his band will be entering from that door behind you. He'll be walking right by you." Well, talk about being in the right place at the right time and having some good inside information.

Sure enough, Kevin Costner and his band entered through the door that was closest to us. I turned around and he walked right by me. I held out my hand as he walked by. He grabbed my hand with his right hand and shook it with a nice firm hand shake. We made eye contact and he put his left hand over my hand, so he had my right hand between both of his hands. The hand holding lasted all of about 3 seconds, but it felt much longer than that.

After they took the stage, I moseyed my way up as close as I could get to the stage so I could get a good spot to watch the concert. One nice thing about being short is that it is easy to make my way through a crowd. I was able to make my way close to the stage and be in the second row. Two old haggard Wal-Mart Cow-Girl hat chicks prevented me from getting right up to the stage, cuz they'd been there for 3 hours. LOL...So I got behind them and got LOTS of good photos. But I had to snap between their cheap straw hats and their arms. But I've got a GREAT one of him smiling as he was looking right at me. We made eye contact at least 4 times during the concert.

It was absolutely the best celebrity experience ever. After the crowd died down, I went to my car and found a lovely $34.00 parking ticket on my windshield. Oh well, it was worth having a nice safe parking spot. Especially since I had gone down there by myself.

I got home and could not get to sleep, I was on cloud 9 and just too thrilled about the whole evening to get much sleep. That man is SOOOOOOO SEXY!! I'm still on cloud 9 from seeing my favorite guy.

Here are the best photo's I got of him.

Here is the official Kevin Costner and Modern West website to get a listen.

Update on Youth Kick Ball League

2009-01-31T16:29:00.003-06:00

Last Saturday I met the city athletic association president for coffee to go over my proposal to add kick ball to the city youth athletic association. The meeting went well and he liked my proposal. The next step for it is to take my proposal (with me being the director) to the other top officials of the athletic association board. If they deny the proposal it is done and if they accept the proposal, then we move one more step forward and propose it the entire board (consisting of the other sport directors) for approval.

I will be meeting with the top officials sometime in February and then the entire board at the end of March.

The president explained to me how the city's youth sports board and programs work. It consists of all volunteers with the exception of a paid treasurer, publicist, and one other position. It's pretty neat that such a successful program is working with mostly all volunteers.

I'm pretty excited that my proposal has gotten this far, which is much further than I expected. The president said that often times adding a new sport doesn't happen as the person proposing it doesn't step up to the plate to move it ahead. In my case though, I am proposing that I will be the director of it, so I have a better chance at getting it added.

You'd think he'd learn

2009-01-30T23:58:00.003-06:00

The young lad missed his bus AGAIN! WTH!? Monday morning he calls me after his bus left..."Hello, Mom..I missed my bus."

Me: "WHAT???!!"
Caveboy: "Well, I was getting ready."
Me: "You missed your bus??"
Caveboy: "Well, I was getting ready."
Me: "Are you kidding me that you missed your bus?"
Caveboy: "I missed my bus."

I hung up and took a few moments to calm myself. I then emailed a friend of mine who is a foster parent and asked him if he wanted one more. After the butt chewing and grounding that kid got, he goes and misses his bus on Monday.

Tuesday morning, I left the house and said "If you miss your bus, I'm going to send you to foster care."

God, please grant me the patience with this child....

It's tough being 10

2009-01-23T21:37:00.004-06:00

The oldest caveboy is grounded. He is grounded off of TV, computer, and X-box until Sunday morning. This started yesterday morning, when he tried to claim that drinking too much orange juice in the morning made him have an upset stomach and he tried staying home from school. This after he claimed the day before his breakfast made him throw up and I let him stay home from school. Later that evening he was caught having a pillow fight with his brother. "Oh, I'm fine now" he said. Yeah, sure he was, cuz he was faking being sick anyway.

He didn't decide to be sick yesterday until 2 minutes before the bus was to arrive. So guess who missed the bus. Yep, my son. I told him his excuse was bull and drove his not sick body to school. I gave him the riot act the whole way too. I'm sure he was glad to get out of my van and be at school.

Being grounded off of all these privileges, which he deems as necessity, isn't just hard on him, it's hard on me too. In his world, his life has halted. Oh no, what else is there to do? I told him lots of things, reading, math worksheets, drawing, playing games, doing chores. He didn't like those ideas at first, but now that we are day into it, he's adjusting.

Last night after he realized that the punishment was set in stone and there was no redeeming himself and earning his privileges back early by good behavior, he ran to his room crying. I went to go see what the matter was and he sobbed out "why do bad things always have to happen to me?" Oh the poor boy.

Tonight, he asked me what he would do all day tomorrow with out TV, computer, or X-box. I told him to go through and read the books we have at home and do his homework. So then we decided we would go to the library and get some books for him to pass his time away.

I do hope he survives. It will be too cold to send him out to play. Which is really too bad. That just means he'll be antsy all day tomorrow for Sunday. God grant us the patience to get through his grounding.

Bucket List

2009-01-18T15:57:00.004-06:00

January is typically a slow month for us. Not much going on. Which is not a good thing. It gives me way too much time to think about things and it makes the month seem to last too long. What's worse is there are 31 days in January, and there is no escaping it. When I retire, I'm never spending a January in Minnesota or any other northern state again. January is cold, dreary, and blah.

My mother recently told me some news about the health of my 98 1/2 year old great aunt in California. She has a heart condition and needs a heart valve replacement. Well, obviously, she is not going to undergo the surgery because of her age, so instead her doctors told her to slow way down. My aunt still lives in her own home and actively gardens and gets out and about. So telling her to slow down is like telling the circus tiger not to try eat Sigfried & Roy. So the news has been hard on my aunt.

Since I've had nothing else to do in January besides think, I've been thinking a lot about my great aunt. I really hope she continues to do the things she loves to do. I hope she feels like she has accomplished everything she has ever wanted. And if there is something spontaneous that she hasn't done, I hope she goes out and does it. At 98 1/2 she is certainly entitled to do what ever she feels inclined to do.

Now, active women with longevity, seems to be a good thing in my family. Even some of the men have lived actively past the age of 90. Well, I am hoping that these longevity genes have been passed onto me. If that is the case, then I have another 10 years before I am mid-life, which is good, because I have a hard time believing that 40 is midlife.

All of this brings me to this point... What are the things I want to do in life? When I am 80 or 90 or even 100, I want to say happily, that I did the things I wanted to do and I grabbed life by the horns and gave it a good ride. I'll be going out on my own terms thank you very much with no regrets. So, I started my own Bucket List.

Things I'd like to do:
Learn to ski.
Swim with the dolphins
Scuba dive
Go on an African safari
Hang glide (I might save this one for last)
Learn to play the violin that sits getting dusty in my closet
See Mount Everett, I don't want to climb it, I just want to see it, maybe take a helicopter to base camp and hang out.

Places I'd like to see:
Alaska (I told the hubby he's taking me here for our 20th anniversary)
Havasu Falls of the Grand Canyon
Coast of Maine
Nova Scotia
Sweden
Southern Spain
Cape Town, South Africa
Angel Falls of Venezuela

I realize I have at least 30 or more years to do all things, so I'm hopeful of crossing these things off my list eventually.

I'm glad January is almost over and I'll have less time to think about such things.

The Great Outdoors

2009-01-17T19:56:00.004-06:00

We almost forgot what is was like to be able to stand being outside with out risking losing our appendages. Last night the hubby went to a friends house to play broom ball with a bunch of his co-workers. He got a new pair of broom ball shoes, so he can keep up on the ice. I guess they had a little too much fun as he came home with a black eye from getting hit with a stick. Boys will be boys, I guess. Even the big boys. So he has a lovely shiner today.

Today it warmed up to around 20 degrees. The hubby ran out and got all 3 vehicles cleaned. (By the way if you know anyone who would like to buy a van, we have one for sale.) I took the boys to the tubing hill that is about 4 blocks from our house. For $2.50 you can rent an inner tube and go sliding for as long as you want. There were lots of people there finally enjoying some decent winter weather. Lots of rosy red cheeks and smiling faces on every one as they came speeding down the hill. It was fun to see my boys having fun outside. It's been over a week that they've been able to actually play outside and get some much needed fresh air.

Sam was a bit reluctant to go at first. He just wanted to hang out at home. I don't think he believed us that it was actually not to bad out. When we got to the park, he got in his tube and slid down the hill happily screaming the whole way down. I asked him "How did that feel?" He got off his tube, and said "GREAT!" as he ran by me to get back up the hill. Funny kid. And he thought he wasn't going to have any fun.

Kevin loves tubing as well. He was all smiles as he came down the hill. No screaming from him. He enjoyed it by giggling all the way down.

I took my big huge camera and took some photos. There was a group of high school boys that decided to try to make some sort of pyramid on one tube and one guy was standing up. Surprisingly, they made it all the way down the hill with out wiping out. I took pictures of them as well, as I have never seen that feat pulled off before. They walked by me on their way back up the hill and one of them asked me "Are we going to make it in the newspaper?" I laughed. That was probably kind of mean. I wasn't laughing at them, I was laughing that my big mongo camera got me mistaken for a newspaper photographer.

Deep Freeze

2009-01-16T21:44:00.003-06:00

This whole past week we have had sub zero temperatures. The school buses have been running on time all week except for this morning. They ran 2 hours late. This morning was the coldest day so far with it being -28 degrees below zero. And that is not including the wind chill. The wind was blowing, but I didn't bother to see what the wind chill temp was. -28 was cold enough for me.

It is the kind of cold that makes you hurt. At work, parking is a total mess in the winter. No one can see the lines where to park and no one can seem to make a straight parking row with their vehicles. It's simple really...start on one end and each car should park next to one previously parked. It's like making a line. Instead they pull in all willy nilly and crooked and take up too much room, and before you know it, you've got a messed up parking lot. So to avoid getting stuck in the main parking lot, I always park in the extended parking lot. It's a bit of a walk from that parking lot to the main building. A long enough walk that by the time you get from your car to the building you can't feel your legs because it's so cold. You keep trying to walk as fast as you can with out looking ridiculous and with out slipping on the compacted snow and ice. I suggested they have a shuttle that goes back and forth from the extended parking lot to the main building, but no takers on that.

This whole sub zero week, I have been making sure to meet Kevin at his bus stop so that he didn't flash freeze from the bus stop to the house.

This evening we have warmed up to a balmy 6 degrees above zero. Finally...a temperature above zero.

It is supposed to snow all weekend, but at least it will be above zero. So I am hoping that we can all get out of the house, as we are getting a case of cabin fever.

The kids are happy for snow. Our snow hill in the cul-de-sac is already ginormous!

My Mom Started a Blog

2009-01-14T22:29:00.003-06:00

My mother will be 72 on Groundhog's Day. She decided to keep up with her daughters and start blogging. We could have created a blogging monster.

My mom is actually pretty computer savy for her age. Back when the internet was first popular (thanks Al Gore for the internet!) she had her own mIRC chat room that she was the Op of. It was mostly so that we could all get online and talk, since my mother and my sisters all live in different states, and keep in touch. She ended up inviting some of our friends in and we'd have some pretty good internet chats. I guess now we'll have to catch her up to speed on Yahoo Messenger.

My mom recently got a new lap top and look out, she's upgraded! She still does not carry a cell phone. But I would not be surprised if she showed up one day with a blue tooth ear piece one day. I certainly wish she'd get a cell phone (hint, hint, mmom we're all on Verizon). I could also see my mom with an iPod. She could listen to books with it.

When she turned 70, we pitched in and upgraded her to a digital camera. We got her off of film. Which was a good thing too. She's quite the photographer and she even won a contest and her photograph was made into a postcard.

So that is my little shout out to my uber cool mom. She's in her 70's and she's still cool!

Celebrity Morphing Fun

2009-01-10T01:05:00.003-06:00

My friend Leslie created a celebrity morphing mini video clip on her blog. I decided to see who I looked like. It really depends on the photo that you use because really, I do not think I look like Russell Crowe or Hugh Grant. I really did check "female" on the sign up box. Ok, so time to choose a different photo! Whoa la! Two of my favorite leading ladies.

I searched for a better photo to morph myself I was matched to Meg Ryan, which is funny, because about 8 years ago I took a photo of Meg Ryan with her super cute short hair cut to the salon. "I want Meg Ryan's hair", I told the stylist. She cut off lots of hair, permed it, and shaped it, Well, I did not come out of the salon looking like Meg Ryan, but rather more like Antonio Bandaras. He is a rather good looking guy, I will admit, but I did not want to look like him! So finally, alas...I was matched to look like Meg Ryan.

I then selected another photo, to find a better match, and found that I also look like Camilla Belle. She is the gorgeous woman in the movie 10,000 BC. It is ironic that I look like the leading lady in a movie about CAVEMEN! Camilla and I also share birthdays. I was born Oct 2, 1968 and she was born Oct 2, 1986. Ok, now that is a bit ironic. I guess if they ever make a movie about my mundane life, I think I know who will play me!

I decided to morph my caveman and whoa la! I'm married to George Clooney. Ok, maybe not the George Clooney, but the picture I chose of my hubby, he was matched to George Clooney. I'll take that! Eat your heart out ladies...I'm married to George Clooney's twin.

Miracle Fruit is CRAP!

2009-01-07T18:10:00.003-06:00

A month or so ago, my husband and I were watching CSI NY. We love that show. Their case involved a fruit from Africa with a big long name containing something called Miraculin or something like that and in short is called Miracle Fruit. It is a fruit that tricks your taste buds into thinking things are sweet.

The day after I did some research on the internet and decided to order some of this "miracle" fruit. Turns out it is real, and people have had good experiences with it. People in New York have parties and people eat the fruit and then taste all different kinds of sour or bitter foods. These parties are called "Flavor Tripping" parties.

I ordered some miracle frooties, which are tablets made from the extract of the fruit from the part that contains the miraculin. I received them in the mail this week.

Today I went to the grocery store and bought some fresh baby spinach, carrots, onion, snap peas, broccoli, and orange bell peppers. All foods I HATE. All foods I was expecting to have no taste or a slightly sweet taste after having the miracle fruit.

I put the miracle fruit tablet in my mouth and let it dissolve as I rolled it around on my tongue as directed. I did get a small tingly feeling on my tongue like it was a mild numbing feeling, but nothing too serious. So I figured this stuff must just numb your taste buds in order to remove the taste, but then where does the sweet come into play?

The smaller the tablet got, the more sour it tasted. I wanted so badly to spit it out, but I sucked it up and held out thinking I'm doing this for my own good. This will help me be able to eat foods I can't tolerate. As my face cringed and contorted from the sourness, I was looking at the food thinking "this had better be worth it".

After the tablet was completely dissolved, I waited a few seconds for the full effect. I took a big bite of baby spinach. I chewed it up and it tasted horrendous! I gagged and spit it out in the sink.

Next I tried a carrot. Gross! It still tasted like a carrot. I spit that out too.

Then I tried a bite of broccoli. EWWW! Disgusting! I spit that out as well.

Figuring something had to give, I took a bit of the snap pea. Nope, that tasted horrible too. Dang! I was getting so discouraged.

Next came the onion. BLECH! It was still a nasty onion! I spit that out too.

Finally, I hoped my last resort the orange bell pepper would taste sweet. I took a bite, chomped on it, and threw up. So much for the so called "miracle fruit".

After that I reached for the jar of peanut butter and ate two spoonfuls to get the taste of all the disgustingness out of my mouth. I'd just been traumatized!

I want my money back!

I went back on the website today to see if it had a big sign that read "Dork that fell for our miracle fruit crap" on there. That wasn't there, but it should have been. It did have a page of recommended fruit, such as lemons, limes, tomatoes, rhubarb, strawberries, green apples, pineapples, and grapefruit.

I figured out the secret after reading that. Of course those fruits will taste sweet compared the most extreme sour tablet you just had.

I'm glad I tried it. I went in with an open mind, and I can honestly say that I tried. I really would like to be able to eat those kinds of foods.

Back to School

2009-01-04T17:46:00.003-06:00

Tomorrow Winter Break is officially over! Whoo Hoo! The kids go back to school tomorrow. I think I am more excited about it than they are.

The kids had a great two weeks off. Daycare was also closed for those two weeks, so we had a college girl come in and watch the kids. They had a great time with her. They couldn't really get out much because of the cold weather. Sam did try to give the babysitter wedgies all two weeks, but was unsuccessful I think. Mostly because she was fortunate enough to have a warning first, so that gave her time to stop it. I wish they'd give me a warning.

The kids will get back in their normal routines of learning and not sitting around letting their little minds warp. My husband and I also get back in the routine of working a full 5 days a week. Having the holiday in the middle of the week sure does mess up a persons schedule.

Swimming also starts back up after a couple months off from that. Swimming is the only winter activity we have going on.

Sometimes I forget I'm 40

2009-01-02T21:35:00.004-06:00

Yesterday my son Kevin & I ventured out to Minnehaha Falls to get some great photos with our camera's we got for Christmas of the frozen fall. Neither one of us have seen an actual frozen waterfall.

It was BEAUTIFUL!

We decided that we would climb over the "stairs closed" chain and work our way to the bottom of the falls. Going down the icy stairs was not easy. The first set of stairs we hung onto the rail and slid down on our feet. There was no traction. So the next three sets of stairs we decided to slide down on our bottoms as it was just sheer ice covering the steps and it was pretty smooth sliding. You only had to slide down about 10 or 15 steps at a time. No problem! Weee...this is fun!

We made it to the bottom of the falls. It was spectacular!

Then....I decided it was a brilliant idea to make my way up the icy side of the hill and get behind the waterfall. Other people were doing it. And hey, that would be cool. After the fourth attempt, I finally made it up the slippery side of the hill and made my way behind the falls. It was so neat. Definitely worth the trip. I took more photos. Poor little Kevin just never got his footing and he kept sliding back down.

Getting down from behind the falls to the bottom was not as easy as everyone else who had done it looked. I sat down to slide myself down the icy slope. I held onto my camera so I wouldn't knock it around. Wow...you slide much faster than you would think.

Midway down, I didn't veer to the left like I was supposed to and like everyone else who slid down did. I don't know what went wrong. I hit an ice bump and ended up spinning around and hitting the middle of my back on a big ice rock. OUCH! Then I continued spinning on my back hitting every other single ice chunk, bump, rock in sight.

Kevin described it as coming down the hill like a rag doll. He asked as I laid at the bottom of the hill saying my last ouch if I needed an ambulance. No, I was fine, I just needed a minute to compose myself and assess the damage before I stand up.

I got up and was dusting myself off, when BAM! I got hit with an ice ball in the arm. It flew from out of no where. I honestly have no idea where it came from, but it hit me hard. Left a mark too. It was then that Kevin said "Let's get out of here, Karma isn't being very good to you today. What did you do to make it mad?"

We walked down the path that followed the river to try to find an easier way up back to the van. We didn't want to try to make our way up the icy stairs that we slid down. So we found a spot further down the path that looked like a good path on the side of the hill to make our way up. No ice! We could dig our feet in to get good grip and there were tree branches for us to grab hold of. It was certainly steeper than it looked, but we made it!

I told the hubby about our venture when we got home. His reply after I told him "everybody else did it that way, but didn't wipe out" was "How many of them were 40?"

Ok...he got me on that one. Smarty pants. But it was completely worth the beating. Although, I won't be trying that again.

Happy New Year!!

2009-01-01T01:53:00.004-06:00

2009 is upon us! We had a nice relaxing night at home and had my brother-in-law and his girlfriend over. The oldest caveboy stayed up to make noise with us and watch Robbie Knievel jump his motorcycle over a mini volcano in Las Vegas. Oh, the excitement was just too much. Ooooh, awwww....

We say goodbye to 2008. Here is my ABC's of 2008

A – Atlantic Ocean in September
B - Blog, oh how I love to blog. Blig, Blog, Bliggity, Blogger
C - Cavemen, where would I be with out you?
D - D.A.R.E - Kevin graduated from the D.A.R.E program this year.
E - Education - I'm always getting this with living with cavemen.
F - Forty - I went kicking & screaming, but ended up embracing being 40. I guess it's not so bad after all.
G - Godparents, we became Godparents to Baby Curtis this year in Montana. He's such a cutie patootie!
H – Horseback riding is so fun. Giddyup y’all.
I - Internet - I'd be so lost with out it.
J - Job, so glad we have these this year!
K - Kick Ball. I still play this two seasons a year.
L - Lottery - Keep buying them, still not winning. :(
M - Magic Wand - Really wish this came with Godparent status.
N – New Nikon camera & Novel I started in November.
O - One Hundred Year old Grandmother Gracie’s celebration.
P – Pacific Ocean in November
Q – Queen of the house, that’s me!
R - Remote controls - Why can I never find one?
S – Spuddie. My favorite Aunt. She lives in California, so I don't get to see her often, but she is the greatest. I got to see her this summer and it was really great spending time with her. She will be 99 in 2009.
T - Tattoo - Yes, it's real. Yes, I got one for my birthday. No, I haven't lost my mind.
U - Update. We updated our house this year and got rid of all our little kid and baby stuff. Our house grew up, as have our kids.
V - Vacations - We sure do love going on these!
W – Wyoming – one of our favorite places to be.
X - Xciting...ok..so nothing starts with X that we did in 2008. Kevin has an exciting year in baseball. His team "The Rangers" won the little league championship.
Y - Yawn...I find myself doing this a lot just trying to keep up with every one and every thing.
Z - Zoo. We just LOVE the new Grizzly Bear Exhibit at the MN Zoo. We also loved the San Diego Zoo too. Kevin's favorite exhibit was the snake pavilion, Sam & I enjoyed the Giant Pandas and baby panda. They are so cute. Too bad they are capable of ripping your face off, cuz they sure do look cute and snuggley!

Why is Farting so Funny?

2008-12-30T22:32:00.003-06:00

What is it about human body gas that boys and men find so funny? How do they have the ability to fart or burp on command? More universal questions that I will never know the answers to.

My children each have a container of stuff called Flarp. It is a gooey substance like silly putty, but softer. You push your fingers in it into the container at various speeds and it makes the most amazing realist fart sounds. The laughing involved in that is something else. Big huge belly laughs and smiles from ear to ear. Laughter until you start to hiccup, drool, and cry.

Then it's even more fun to blame every living thing in site for the farting noises. "Ew, mom, what have you been eating? Some farting foods?" followed by more bellows of laughter. Even the cats are not safe from blame.

The things that amuse cavemen. I'm sure cavemen were laughing at their farts and burps before they invented fire and the wheel. I wonder if the real cavemen played "Pull My Thumb"?

My Blog is Loved. And I Love yours too!

2008-12-28T17:42:00.004-06:00

The other day my sister gave me this lovely award. My first blog award. Thanks sis! I LOVE your blog too. Your posts have me laughing all the time.

To accept this award, and to pass it on to 5 others (difficult decision as there are so many good ones), I must answer a list of questions with one word responses. I'm not really a one word person, so this may be difficult for me but I'll give it my best shot. Here goes:

1. Where is your cell phone? Bed
2. Where is your significant other? couch
3. Your hair color? Brown
4. Your mother? Wyoming
5. Your father? Deceased
6. Your favorite thing? sons
7. Your dream last night? crazy
8. Your dream/goal? retire
9. The room you're in? bedroom
10. Your hobby? Writing
11. Your fear? Death
12. Where do you want to be in six years? Here
13. Where were you last night? Home
14. What you're not? Quiet
15. One of your wish list items? movie
16. Where you grew up? Montana
17. The last thing you did? eat
18. What are you wearing? Jammies
19. Your T.V.? on
20. Your pet? cats
21. Your computer? attached
22. Your mood? blah
23. Missing someone? Sisters
24. Your car? Minivan
25. Something you're not wearing? necklace
26. Favorite store? Wal-Greens
27. Your Summer? Hot
28. Love someone? Yes
29. Your favorite color? Blue
30. When is the last time you laughed? Yesterday
31. Last time you cried? Yesterday

I love a lot of blogs, but I'm passing this award and the list of questions on to the following:

Leslie - I love your photography & poetry
Dean & Kelley - Great recipes and Kick Ball people
Irish Mama - Your posts really make me laugh. Would love to go drinking with you someday.
The Francis Family - Sometimes you remind me of my family
Ambivalent Muse - Good diary free recipes and funny blogs.

I also love my two sister's blogs, but it would be redundant to share this back with them. But Mary & Patty ...I love your blogs too.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T20:00:00.003-06:00

We spent Christmas Eve with my husband's family. The boys had fun playing with their cousins. All of their Minnesota cousins are girls, but they have fun. Kevin and the oldest girl cousin get along so well together. She is more of tomboy so she will play the boy stuff that Kevin likes to do. Sam just plays chase with the smaller girl cousins and tell them stuff to do and they listen and do what ever he says.

Sam was ready to open presents last night at grandma & grandpa's house, so he asked if every one was ready too. Grandma said "No, some of us are still eating dinner." About a half an hour later, every one was finished eating. Sam looked around and said "Is everyone done eating?" He looked around and said " Yep, I say you all are. Time to open presents!"

So it was settled. Present opening commenced. Sam got the game Sorry and he was so excited. It was on his list and he couldn't wait to play it. He got some Star Wars pajamas and a Star Wars bedtime robe. He won't wear it if I call it a robe, so I told him it is a cozy blanket with sleeves and pockets. That got him to wear it.

Kevin got a book about WWII Navy Aircraft Carriers. He was excited about that. He got a Yadda, Yadda, Yadda toy, which you record your voice and then play it back either sped up or slowed way down. It sure does make us all laugh and I think the batteries are almost dead. He got a few other goodies, that he has horded off somewhere, so no one gets into them.

This morning at 7 am they woke up and woke up my husband & I, so we could all go to the tree together. I had to get in proper photography position so I could snap a picture of the looks on their faces. They had big smiles when they saw what was under the tree. Star Wars figures, a stuffed animal, and a poster made especially for them. Then we opened up presents. Sam got a virtual fish aquarium. It's pretty neat. It's a real fish tank with fake fish. It's so nice, we don't have to feed them, clean the tank, and the cats can't eat them. Kevin got a Nikon Coolpix point & shoot camera. He loves it. He's becoming quite the little photographer. He took 100 pictures with it today already. Most of them are just of things around the house. Anything he could take a picture of. I told him the rules with the camera are 1) he has to be careful with it and not leave it laying around to get broken & 2) it's not going to camp.

The boys got lots of Star Wars toys, a Star Wars Dictionary, and Star Wars Monopoly game. So it was a very Star Wars Christmas. They have been having fun all day with their new loot.

I made a big huge ham for dinner along with home made cheesy potatoes, Ken's favorite green bean casserole, relish dish, apple sauce. I made some stove top stuffing for Kevin and some french fries for Sam. I made an Apple Pie with the help of my good friend Mrs. Smith. She sure knows how to make a good Apple Pie. So our bellies are full. We'll have left overs to last us until New Years. Or at least pretty close to it.

And I have a gigantic pile of dishes to do. Where's my fairy Godmother when I need her?

Attack of the Wedgie

2008-12-23T17:09:00.003-06:00

One thing I have learned in living with cavemen is that you have to constantly be on guard. The littlest caveman has somewhere learned about the wedgie. Which is too bad for the rest of us. He thinks it is hilarious when he can give any one of us a wedgie. He likes to catch us in our weakest moments. He seeks the most opportune time for a major wedgie. Such as when I'm doing dishes and have both my hands in the sink full of soapy water, or when I'm taking dinner out of the oven, or when I'm taking things out of the freezer, or perhaps when I'm standing on my tip toes reaching something out of the cupboard. This is when he strikes. I seem to be the prime victim of the wedgies. The other two cavemen will come to my rescue though. Then they'll give the wedgie giving caveman a wedgie and it turns into one big wedgie fest.

That's ok...I have pictures of them that I will show their girlfriends someday. A mother's revenge is some times the best revenge.

Daycare Xmas party

2008-12-20T22:27:00.005-06:00

Tonight was the daycare Xmas party. It snowed all day long today and was cold, so it would have been nice to just stay inside. But we drudged ourselves out. Kevin wanted to stay home. He didn't want to be with a bunch of 2 and 3 year olds. He is 10 now and so grown up for that sort of thing. LOL... He acts like 2 and 3 year old children are from another planet. They possibly very well may be, but he forgets he was that age once.

Sam & I were headed out. I couldn't find my cell phone, so I tried to call it from my home phone before I left. Our phone was dead. I checked all the other phones to make sure none of them were off the hook. None of them were. I told Kevin I wasn't going to leave him home alone for a couple hours with out being able to call out in case of an emergency. He didn't want to go. He was afraid no one would be there his age and he didn't want to spend his evening with a bunch of babies. I told him we'd go drop off the presents and be right back.

We got to the party and Sam didn't want to come home. I couldn't get through to the cable company to find out how long the phones would be out or what was going on. High call volume is what their hold background kept saying. So I came home and got Kevin and took him to the party. I grabbed a present from underneath the tree for him to have at the party, since all the other kids were doing a gift exchange. So he wouldn't be left out of receiving a gift. Good thing I got them lots of presents this year. I told him he'd have fun as there were kids there his age. They were the older siblings of the little ones that go to daycare. Ok, well, he decided that wouldn't be so bad.

I had a hard time getting that kid to leave! Both boys had a great time. Our daycare lady is so wonderful. She gave all the kids that go to her a present. The kids made special gifts for the parents. She even gave each family a personalized Xmas tree ornament.

The kids had fun, the grown ups had fun, and the food was delicious!

Now we are home relaxing. Our phone is working, so that is a good thing.

More Christmas Shopping

2008-12-18T19:45:00.002-06:00

This year my youngest caveman has been the most excited about Christmas as he ever has been in whole life of 9 years. So I couldn't be a grinch this year. Last night I ventured out and did some more shopping. I scored big time too. My little cavemen will have so many presents to open.

I even got the hubby a few things so he'll have more than just the credit card bill to open for Christmas. And of course I even bought a couple of little goodies for yours truly. I mean, I have to have something to open on Christmas morning too.