Snow Day!!

Today is the first snow day of the school year. David & Nathaniel slept in till about 7:45 am, much to my delight. They wanted to go outside right away, but I've been making them wait a little while. They do need to eat breakfast, and they have a few chores to do before heading outside to play.

In the meantime, here are some pictures just to show how much snow we've gotten since yesterday afternoon.

This is Stormy, up to her chest in snow, but she loves it.

Our poor grill is covered.

Stormy again.

And somewhere, under all that snow is our red car. Oh, right. There it is.

We've gotten over a foot of snow so far, and it just keeps coming. The wind is starting to pick up too. I'm guessing when the kids finally go outside, it won't be for very long.

In other, non-snowy news, Richard has bronchitis. He went and saw a Dr on post yesterday. So he's on drugs for the next 10 days. Poor guy. I'm still not feeling great, but I am feeling much better compared to a week ago. I still don't have my appetite back, which is good for the waistline.

Monday evening was our last FPU lesson for this class session. I'm going to take a break until the end of February, and then start another one.

Have a great Snow Day!

I Have a VERY Good Reason....

for not posting anything for an entire week. In my previous post, I mentioned that David was sick. Well, he was running a fever all last weekend, and then Monday afternoon, while Nathaniel was out with Richard, he got sick as well. But not just throwing up sick. Out the other end as well. So I made a Drs' appt for David on Tuesday, and of course had to bring Nathaniel along. Turns out it was H1N1. Yep. Both at the same time, just a couple days apart symptom-wise. So we didn't go to Iowa for Thanksgiving. So up until yesterday (Saturday) we were all doing fairly well. Until about 2:30 am, when it was my turn. So I spent all day yesterday in bed, while Richard held down the fort. He called the Dr for me and a Rx for Tamiflu was called in for me, so he and the boys went and picked that up. The highest my fever was all day was 101.9, and its down around 99 now. I'm feeling much better now that I'm not throwing up every 30 minutes or so like I was early yesterday morning. Richard is such a good hubby, he even ran a bath for me yesterday since my back was hurting from laying in bed all day.

I did get some Christmas shopping done on Friday, the craziest store I went to was Old Navy. There was a line to check out almost all the way back to the back of the store. I was out of there quick. Not wanting to fight crowds.

See? I did have a good excuse for going so long without a post.

Only 25 shopping days left til Christmas! :)

This and That

Let's see... what has been happening around here?

Oh yes, Richard finally got a buck a couple of weeks ago. It was the 8th of November, to be exact. A little rack, but he doesn't usually go for trophy bucks, just something to put meat on the table (or freezer). That one he shot with his bow. He just shot one yesterday, another buck, with his rifle. Actually, with my rifle. His buddy talked him into doing a European mount of the head/antlers, which translates to a bare skull & antlers. Much, much cheaper than a full mount. By about $400-450 dollars.

Richard took the boys with him yesterday up to his buddy's house to cut up the deer. He called me about a hour after they left to tell me to come get David. He threw up in the parking lot of a gas station. I talked him in to letting him rest and see if it was just motion sickness, but he kept throwing up. So I had to drive an hour and 15 minutes to get them (all 3 came home with me). I left at 7:45 pm, and we all got home about 11 pm. We, of course, had to stay and visit for a little while, which is why we got home so late.

Oh, and I celebrated my 30-something birthday this past Thursday. Richard and the boys took me out to eat at Famous Dave's in La Crosse. It was a lot of fun. That day I also went to help out in David's class, and I brought in birthday treats for the kids. There was a substitute teacher, and she was helping the kids make a giant birthday card for me when I arrived. It was really sweet. And they sang Happy Birthday to me and I got hugs from several of the kids. They kept asking how old I was and I told them I was older than 30 & younger than 40. They were a little disappointed with that answer.

Can You Believe It!?!

Yep, its another post from yours truly. Finally. We haven't had much going on since David's exciting coloring contest win, so no posts. Still don't have much going on, so this is likely to be short.

Have you ever seen something that just breaks your heart? Of course you have. And I have too, but what I saw on Monday ripped my heart out and stomped on it.

I go in 2 times a week to help in David's class. Monday I went in, and went to PE with the class. I noticed a little boy who was wearing jeans that were so short on him that they could've been capris. And his long sleeved shirt was more the 3/4 length. I didn't see any kids teasing him about it, but that doesn't mean that it didn't happen. And this isn't the first time I've seen this boy wear clothes that were obviously too small for him. Obviously, his parents either can't afford to buy him clothes that fit, or, well, I guess that would be the only logical explanation. So after thinking about it & praying about it, I asked Richard if we could buy the boy some new clothes. Anonymously. And he agreed. I was almost in tears talking to Richard about it, it had me so upset. So I'm watching sales, and hope to go shopping for him this weekend. We're going to make sure to take all the tags off everything so that nothing can be returned for cash that the parents will spend on themselves.

In other news, David gets out of school early today & will be home around 2pm. He's excited about that. Except that I told him he might have to take a nap. :) Maybe. We'll see.

Oh, and Richard & I went on Sunday afternoon to see the high school production of "The Sound of Music", one of my very favorite musicals. The cast did a fantastic job! It was actually made up of elementary school age up to high school. The girl who played Maria did an awesome job! And the boy who played Captian von Trapp was very, very good as well. Richard basically went because I really, really wanted to go, but he ended up being very impressed as well. Two of the von Trapp children were played by two girls from church. They did a great job as well. The entire cast was great. I do have to say that the boy who was cast to play Rolfe did a good job, but his makeup made him look like a girl. It didn't help that he had long hair that was in a pony tail that was tucked into his collar. But other than that, I'd go see it again. But it only ran over the weekend.

David's Picture

For those of you who asked, here is a picture of the picture David drew for the Hometown Heroes Coloring Contest that he won (see November 6th's post). I jokingly asked him last night if I could throw the picture away. With a look of panic on his face he said, "NO!" To which I answered, "I'm just kidding!" What a look of relief!

Among other news, Richard is out hunting this morning. He left the house around 5:30 am. I still haven't heard anything from him, and I'm not going to call him either. Hopefully he'll get something today.

I'm also taking David to the eye doctor this afternoon. He started complaining on Thursday that the words in a book we were reading were fuzzy, and when I mentioned it to his teacher, she said that he said he couldn't read the words on the board at school. So we'll see what the Dr. says.

A Big, Super Cool Announcement!!

Ok, some of you are probably wondering what my Big, Super Cool Announcement is. So let me tell you now......

No, I am not pregnant. :)

Here's the announcement part.....

David, was one of 2 1st graders (they picked 1 boy & 1 girl) that won the Hometown Heroes 2009 Coloring Contest, sponsored by the Piggly Wiggly grocery stores in Wisconsin. From what I understand, all the 1st graders in town entered in the contest. They had to draw a picture of a hero(es), on the back of a Piggly Wiggly brown paper grocery bag. David drew a picture of an army tank and a helicopter. He got a huge trophy, a $50 savings bond & a reuseable grocery bag full of junk food from Piggly Wiggly. We went to the dinner/ceremony last night, where David was given his award. His teacher, Mrs. Vian, was there with her husband. We sat with them & chatted & ate dinner together. It was a nice time. Below are some pictures of last night.

Nathaniel gives me a big kiss. Do you see that mischevious look in his eye?

David & his teacher, Mrs. Vian, and her husband. David is showing them how to play Big Game Hunter on Richard's phone.

A self-portriat of Nathaniel. He loves taking pictures.

A picture of Richard taken by Nathaniel.

A picture of David & I taken by Nathaniel.

David explaining his picture to everyone. He then walked around and showed people his picture. He is such a ham!

Here he is getting his $50 savings bond, which was promptly handed over to me.

David and the big, big trophy. Its at least 2 feet tall!

David and all his goodies. Sorry the picture is sideways. He got lots of not-good-for-you treats in that bag!

So that was my announcement. Sorry to disappoint some of you. :) I'm so proud of this boy, I'm about ready to burst. He was great!

Oh My Goodness!

Has it really been over a week since I last posted anything? I am slacking. In defense of my lack of posts, I, well, I don't really have any. Wait, wait, yes I do! We were gone from Oct 28th to Nov 1st visiting my parents in Iowa. Ok, that does nothing for anything prior to the 28th or after the 1st, but still!

We did have a good, long weekend visiting Grandma and Grandpa. The boys love seeing them, and I know the feeling is mutual. We got to take the boys trick or treating on Friday (in the rain) and although there was only 1 in 3 or 4 houses giving out candy, they still ended up with lots of treats.

One of the highlights for Nathaniel when we visit Grandma & Grandpa are Grandpa's trains. Dad has been working on a setup for a while, and although not yet finished, it thrills Nathaniel to no end. He would spend hours watching the trains go round and round if we let him. I think when he gets to be a little older, he'd help Grandpa with the construction of the train display.

David & Nathaniel also got to go outside with Dad and Grandpa and shoot the little .22 rifle we bought David a while back. David is getting pretty good at hitting the spinner target without the use of a scope. Nathaniel just had fun pulling the trigger.

And what was I doing during all this? Playing Scrabble with Mom, of course.

Soccer Pictures!

Yesterday morning (Satruday) was David's last soccer game. They lost 2-0, but they played well and had fun. There were 7 kids on the team, but only 5 showed up yesterday, and one was late enough that he missed the first quarter. And since there are only 4 on the field per team at a time, all the kids played the entire first quarter. David was the defender (of the goal). He really enjoys playing defender. Here are a few pictures of the final game.

David is the one with the ball.

David kicking the ball after the other team scored.

Here's the team after the game.

The team & their coaches.

And David.

After we got home yesterday afternoon, David asked what he could sign up for next. He said he wanted to play badmitton, although I'm not sure where that came from. I think there is a spring soccer league, so we'll probably sign him up for that. And maybe ragball in the summer. We'll let him choose. We're not going to let him do so many things at once that we're never home.

A Midnight Update

No, not an update at midnight. An update about Richard's dog, Midnight. Cousin Nancy was the one burning the midnight oil. I hope she's sleeping now.

Anyway, Midnight seems to be doing fairly well. We've got her on painkillers and anti-inflamatory drugs, and she seems to be responding well to them, aside from the fact that she sleeps a lot. More than normal, but that's the painkillers. It was really evident yesterday morning when we accidentally gave her a double dose of the painkillers. Richard gave it to her before he left for work, and I gave it to her after I got the boys on the bus. She slept very soundly for a good 6 hours. But she's none the worse for wear. Richard did comment the other day as to how much longer we want to keep drugging her. Eventually we'll have to up her dosage again. And then again. How long is too long to wait? That is the unspoken questions floating around our house right now.

Onto other things...

David has his last soccer practice tonight. If its not raining, that is. His last game is Saturday morning. Pictures. I must take pictures. One thing I thought was odd was that the kids didn't get any type of uniform. I remember having a uniform, at least a shirt of some sort. The kids here wear their own clothes and a pull over jersey that they give back after every game. For the $21 registration fee you think that they could give them at least a t-shirt that has "Sparta Youth Soccer" on it so something. Oh well.

We've Been Saved....

by the pest contol guy, Randy. He came this afternoon and sprayed the outside of the house. And bugs were dropping off the side of the house, like, well, flies. Ok, that was bad. Sorry. But seriously, they were, and its great. Well worth the $90.

David and I were talking about what he did in school today, and he mentioned a fight he had with a boy named Daden. I'm not sure what it entailed, exactly, but the school never called me, so I'm assuming no blood was drawn on either side. He then mentioned that sometimes he has doodles with his friends, Dylan & Tristan. I knew exactly what he meant, but it was too cute to correct him. He said that they don't doodle with guns, but they just hit each other. Yep, duels is what he meant to say. And again, I've never been called about these duels, so I'm guessing that its just playground games. But doodles was too cute!

We're Being Invaded.....

Seriously. By Japanese beetles. They look like ladybugs, but they aren't. They live in the soybean fields, and once harvest starts, they are all over the place. And guess what happened today. Yep, everyone and their brother are out harvesting. You can literally see them flying around outside, there are that many of them. I don't envy David having to walk down the driveway when the bus drops him off. Wherever there is a little hole, in they come. In through the air vents, through the window air conditioners, through the door when you open it. I feel like I have an inkling of what the Egyptians went through during the plague of locusts. But I'm sure that it was much, much worse that what we're dealing with right now. I just called our landlord to find out when the pest control guy was coming. No one answered. Someone, save us!!!

A Difficult Few Days

I haven't posted anything for a few days. Wednesday I had no excuse, but Thursday & Friday, I had other things on my mind. Richard's dog, Midnight, who is 12 1/2 years old, began having trouble walking Thursday afternoon. I took her to the vet on Friday, and after X-Rays, the vet had some bad news. Midnight has a degenerative spinal disorder. She's lost some control over her back legs, and can't feel much in her feet. Its not going to get better, it can only be controled with pain meds. She's on the doggy equivalent of Tylenol and Codine, so she's spent a lot of time the last day sleeping. She is walking a little better, but we can tell she's still hurting.

Richard & I slept on our hide-a-bed last night, since she's not supposed to go up/down stairs anymore. Neither of us slept well, and I woke up with a migraine.

The boys know that she's not feeling well, and tonight, as gently as we could, we explained to David that Midnight isn't going to get better, and eventually we'll have to have her put to sleep. The poor boy. It breaks my heart that we had to tell him, but we felt we needed to prepare him. Please keep us in your prayers, as the next few days will be very difficult as Richard makes the decision whether to put her to sleep or keep her around for a while longer.

David asked me if we had pictures of Midnight. I looked through a bunch of pictures, and found the ones below. Most of these were pre-Nathaniel.

David & Midnight, February, 2005

Midnight (laying down) & Stormy, June, 2006

David & Midnight, December, 2003

David & Midnight, July, 2003

What Is That Stuff?

This was yesterday. Yep, that white stuff is snow. It never did stick and it turned to rain in the afternoon, but the kids loved it while it was falling.


We had FPU last night. It was on credit bureaus and how creditors can use underhand tactics to collect debts, and what you can do to protect yourself. Dave Ramsey never teaches to try to dodge a debt, but this teaches you how to deal with creditors. We also had 4 people cut up a total of 5 credit cards to the tune of about $6000.00. It was great.

I just started a book today, and am about 2/3rd of the way through it. Its by Jerry Jenkins, co-author of the Left Behind series. The book is called "Soon" It was published in 2003. Here is what amazon.com says about the book.

"Paul Stepola, an agent working for the National Peacekeeping Organization (NPO), has been assigned to enforce compliance with the world government's prohibition on religion. Paul relishes his job and is good at it. He is determined to expose underground religion--flush it out, expose it, and kill it--until his life is turned upside down and he is forced to look at life in a different way.
As Paul begins to unravel the truth about what he has found, events taking place around the world start to make sense. Something big is coming--something that can't be stopped. And it is coming soon. "

Its very intriguing, and I just realized that its the first in a series, and from what I can tell, our church library doesn't have the rest of the books. Well, I guess I have something to ask for my Birthday & Christmas.

Let it Snow....

It is snowing. Yep. I said snowing. Its not sticking yet, but it is snowing. Has been for a couple of hours now. I love how pretty falling snow is. So silent and peaceful.

Snow?!?!

They are predicting a snow-rain mix tomorrow, around an inch. We'll see what comes of it, but it would please Nathaniel to no end. He's been asking when its going to snow for at least 3 weeks now. He desperately wants to build a snowman and play in the snow. It was so difficult to get him inside last winter that I'm not really looking forward to this winter in regards to that. I do love the snow, though.

Well, our team did it again. The Broncos beat the Patriots in OT 20-17. It was a good game. Did you know their new coach is only 33 years old?

David had a soccer game yesterday morning. Boy, was it cold! The team played hard, but the other team won, 3-2. No one from our team was very pleased with the other coach though. He was constantly trying to influence the ref's calls (She was an 8th grader & not much taller than the tallest kid playing), and his team was constantly pushing, shoving, grabbing, etc. And the ref wasn't calling any of it. Our coaches were going to have a talk with the guy in charge of the league about the coach and the ref, since she wasn't calling anything unless the ball went out of bounds.

David finally goes back to school tomorrow! He had a lot of school work to do after missing a week of school, and he got it all done today. Spelling & Math, mostly. He's pretty good at math, he just doesn't want to sit and do the work.

Finally!

David is fever-free! His temp was normal when I took it yesterday morning! Yippee! He would have gone to school today except that there wasn't school due to parent/teacher conferences. So he and Nathaniel got to go play at a friend's house while I got my hair cut & colored. I had the appt originally for last Friday, but had to change it since David was sick, and when I rescheduled it, I'd forgotten that the kids didn't have school. My friend Lisa, who has 4 kids, a boy who is David's age & her youngest daughter is Nathaniel's age, agreed to watch them for me. The boys had a great time with Daniel and Isabella.

We had our FPU class last night instead of Monday night because of the Monday night football game, Packers vs. Vikings. Its a big game since the teams are huge rivals & it was made even bigger this year since Brett Farve is playing for the Vikings. We usually root for the Packers, but wanted to see Brett Farve beat his old team. And beat them he did! Anyway, class was good. We watched the "Dumping Debt" DVD, which is my favorite out of all 13 of the lessons.

Tonight is the 2nd episode of Stargate: Universe. Well, technically, its the 3rd episode, since the premiere last week was 2 hours. But the 2nd week. I'm looking forward to it. Its also the season premiere of season 2 for Sanctuary. Both are on SyFy, back to back, starting at 8pm CST.

Really, Truly Almost Not Sick

David's fever has been down under 100 degrees all day! He won't go to school again tomorrow, and there isn't school on Friday due to parent/teacher conferences, so he has another 4 days to recuperate before school next week. I received an email from his teacher this morning, and 1/2 of his class was out sick Monday & Tuesday with the same symptoms as David. Apparently 2 students were back today, but probably shouldn't have been. At least he won't be the only one who is behind on his schoolwork.

Still Sickly....

David still isn't feeling well. His fever has been around 101 all day, just slightly less than that with Ibuprofen. While we were at the Dr's office for my appt, he re-checked David voluntarily (he offered, I didn't ask). He again said that if he's still running a fever over 100 tomorrow to bring him back and they'd run some tests. What I thought was neat was that he said even if he was booked full for appts, that he'd squeeze David in in between his scheduled appts. I really like this Dr! He's very thorough.

Fevers and Coughs and Sniffles....

Oh my! I took David to the Dr today, along with Nathaniel. Without making Nathaniel sleepy, there isn't a lot we can do for his motion sickness, except try things like crackers, or peppermint candy. Oh well, it was worth a shot. The Dr can't do anything for David, either. Although he did say that if David is still running a fever on Wednesday that I should bring him in for some tests. Tests, I'm guessing, that include checking for the H1N1 virus. We'll just wait and see, I guess.

Richard is going bow hunting after work tonight. Again trying for a deer. Every time he's gone, his buddy has either seen one or more deer, or has shot one, and Richard has seen none. Hopefully tonight will be the night.

Almost Not Sickly

David's fever broke last night, and he was normal this morning. But this evening his temperature is back up to 99.2. Which isn't high, but isn't normal, so he's spending one more day home from school. And since I have to take Nathaniel to the Dr to see about his motion sickness, I'm going to see if I can get David in at the same time to have him checked out & get both of them flu shots if possible.

I have a re-check on Tuesday at the Drs for my migraines. The anti-depressant seems to be working better than the beta-blocker, but I'm still getting migraines, although much less, probably by about half. That's still 1-2 migraines a week though, instead of 3-4. I haven't been doing as good a job of keeping track of them like I was before, so that number isn't quite as accurate, but its pretty close. So we'll see what he decides.

I do have to say this though, before I close.....

GO BRONCOS!

Those of you who are Cowboys fans will understand.....

Stargate: Universe & A Still SIckly Boy

Richard and I watched the premier of Stargate: Universe last night. I have been looking forward to this for, well, since the series finale of Stargate: Atlantis. I'm going to keep this spoiler free for those who haven't seen it yet. (Its on Hulu.com if you want to watch it and you don't have cable/Dish/DirecTV with SyFy) I really enjoyed it. My favorite character so far is Eli Wallace (David Blue). Lou Diamond Phillips is in as well, but his part is smaller, you could almost call his Col. Telford a secondary character. The biggest disappointment to me was the sex scene towards the beginning of the show. Totally unnecessary. But other than that, I really liked it. It was a 2 hour premiere ("Air parts I & II") with a cliff-hanger ending that will be resolved in next week's episode "Air III". That's all I'll say about it for now.

David is still not feeling great, although he's better today than he was yesterday. His fever is still high, 101.1 as of 7:00 pm, so not as bad as yesterday. I'm hoping his fever will break tonight so he can be fever free tomorrow and go back to school on Monday.

A Sickly One

David came home today not feeling well. He said he didn't feel that bad, but was cold and couldn't get warm. After I finally got him talked into putting on a long sleeve shirt & he still couldn't get warm, I took his temperature. It was 102.5 degrees. He's not going to school tomorrow. School policy is that the ill student has to been symptom free for 24 hrs before going back to school. And if he's still running a fever tomorrow, he won't be going to his soccer game on Saturday.

Nathaniel threw up on the bus again today. But it wasn't as bad as it sounds, since he threw up in the garbage can & didn't get any on himself. Since he hadn't had anything to eat, it was just stomach fluids, but still. Sometimes that's worse. I'm taking him to the Dr on Monday to see if we can get him something for motion sickness.

What to do?

I blogged a few weeks ago about needing a new bread machine. http://richterihart-meandmyboys.blogspot.com/2009/09/i-labored-on-labor-day.html My good friend Lynna suggested using a Kitchen Aid stand mixer. Richard got me one for my birthday last year, so I thought I'd give it a try.

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but the bread dough isn't rising as much as it did when I used my bread machine. I dissolve the yeast in warm water (about 115 degrees) and then add the rest of the wet ingredients & then the dry. I even mixed the dough longer that I did the last time, but it still isn't rising like it should. Any suggestions?

I'm just warming up the oven to put my latest loaf in the oven, and it is so much smaller than the loafs that I get when I use the bread machine. Help!

Its Definetly Fall.....

I had to get up at 3:00 am this morning to turn on the heat! I kept waking up freezing, and finally got up and turned on the heat. That, and I had to put the cat outside. It was 61 degrees in the house at 3:00 am. It was 66 when I got up at 6:00 to get the boys up for school. I turned off the heat & its only cooled down to 64 over the course of the day. I did put fleece sheets & our blanket on the bed today. At Richard's request. :)

Tomorrow we get to sleep in! School is starting 2 hours late, so the bus won't come until about 8:30 am. And since school isn't starting until 10:00, Nathaniel doesn't have school at all, since he is only in school for 2 hr & 45 minutes.

Nathaniel's First Field Trip

Nathaniel had his first school field trip today. They went to a pumpkin patch to pick pumpkins. He was so excited to come home and show me his pumpkin! Its not very big, about 5 lbs or so, but its an almost perfect pumpkin. He is so proud of that pumpkin! But he was playing with it this afternoon. Rolling it around on the floor. I kept telling him that if it broke open we would have to throw it away. So he'd leave it alone for a little while, then I'd hear more thump-thump-thumps as it rolled across the hardwood floor. If it makes it till the end of October, we're going to make it into a jack-o-lantern.

I Got The Best Hug....

today from David. Just a little while ago. He crawled up in my lap, wrapped his arms around me and I wrapped my arms around him, and we just sat like that for a good 5 minutes. Not saying a lot, just sitting there. He told me I was his "best mom ever", and that he could never have a better mom. (sniff, sniff) I hope he never gets too old to say stuff like that.

He Shoots! He Scores!

Twice! David made 2 goals today during his first ever soccer game. His team won, 6-2. They dominated (can 1st, 2nd & 3rd graders dominate?) the first 2 quarters, then the other team scored 2 goals in the 3rd quarter and both teams didn't score at all during the 4th quarter. Both teams played really well for only having 3 practices.

Other than that, it was a pretty leisurely Saturday. I baked chocolate chip cookies while Nathaniel napped & David & Richard did their own things. Which included looking at 1980's Transformer toys on the internet. David's idea, of course. He is obsessed with Transformers. That's almost all he can talk about. Its almost annoying.

The boys (all 3 of them) just came in from shooting their bows. Time for snacks and then bedtime.

Soccer Practice!

David had soccer practice tonight. He was really excited to go, and Nathaniel was too, but mainly because he got to play on the playground equipment. I spent the hour chatting with a mom whose daughter is in Nathaniel's pre-k class. She is a 4-5th grade teacher. She gets the kids in 4th grade and has them through the end of 5th grade. Anyway, before we started chatting, I was watching Nathaniel play, and all of a sudden he says, "I pee, Mom!" and heads away from the play equipment and starts to drop his pants. I was like, "No, not there!" so he moves. "I pee on grass, Mom!" and drops his pants. So I kinda blocked him so he wasn't totally exposed, but there wasn't anywhere for him to pee, and not any trees close enough for him to hide behind. Oh well. He's 4.

Nathaniel threw up on the bus again today. He's not sick. Just motion sickness. They got him cleaned up at school, and I picked him up when class was over so he wouldn't have to carry the dirty clothes & backpack home. I was able to wash everything, including his backpack, so that's good. No more milk before school!

More Fresh Salsa!

Ok, so my friend Lynna posted a comment that I should roast the peppers before I add them to any fresh salsa that I make. So I searched the internet & found directions, and gave it a try this morning. I did it on our gas grill, as I didn't want to turn our oven on, since it was pretty warm today. Anyway, the peppers roasted fine, but even after leaving them in a plastic bag to sweat, rinsing them in cold water & cutting off the stems, I still had trouble peeling them. I ended up leaving a good portion of the skins on, since they wouldn't come off anyway, and chopped them up and added them to the tomatoes, cilantro & red onion. In total, it was 6 roasted garden salsa peppers. I did not sample it, as I wanted Richard to taste it first & see how hot it was. So he tried it when he got home, and said that it had a kick, but not too bad. So I tried it. Too much of a kick for me, but I don't like hot stuff.

Richard & the boys spent a little while outside this afternoon shooting their bows. David and Nathaniel are doing pretty well. Not very accurate, but they're having fun. Richard shot an arrow. With another arrow. Seriously. It doesn't happen often, but when it does..... he split the shaft of the arrow about half way down, and was not happy. Arrows aren't cheap.

Today was a dreary day....

it was cloudy and cool, but not cold, and very humid. Everything feels damp. I hate that. I had to dry my bed linens in the dryer because they never would have dried out on the clothes line. It did rain a little, but not too much, but we're looking at rain for the next few days. Hopefully it won't rain during David's soccer practice on Thursday, or during his game on Saturday.

Richard spent most of the day deer hunting since a class he was supposed to teach was canceled. He didn't even see a deer the entire time he was in the tree stand. He might go tomorrow. It depends on when he gets done with work.

FPU Week 2

We had a good class tonight. Dave Ramsey is a very smart, funny man, and he's right on the money. (excuse the pun, please) We had a good group discussion; usually we split into 2 small groups, but we were missing 4 couples tonight, so we all met in the same group. It was good.

Richard went hunting for the first time tonight. Didn't get anything, but is going to try again tomorrow after work.

I'm tired.....

and I'm heading for bed. Not much happened today that's blog-worthy. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Fresh Salsa!

I made my first attempt at fresh salsa today. I searched around the internet looking for an easy recipe and found one. Of course, every recipe calls for jalapeno peppers, of which we have none. Didn't plant any this year. So I substituted garden salsa peppers, which are milder. Instead of 2 jalapeno peppers with no seeds, I used 3 garden salsa peppers with seeds from 2 of them. The result was an awesome flavored, very mild salsa. But since I was really making this for Richard, at his request, I added 3 more garden salsa peppers, with all the seeds. I'll have to get his opinion a little later on the revised version.

David had another soccer practice this morning. He had a lot of fun. They had a practice game at the end of practice, and he really enjoyed it. They don't play with goalies, and only 4 from each team on the field at one time. They have a half circle close to the goal that they can't go in unless the ball strays accidentally. It'll be fun to watch a game next week.

Toy Story in 3-D!

We just saw a trailer for Toy Story & Toy Story 2 as a double feature in 3-D! Starting Oct 2nd, and only for 2 weeks. We're going to take the boys if it comes somewhere near us. Nathaniel especially loves Woody & Buzz. He sleeps with them every night.

Oh, sleep. That sounds like a good idea. Night-night!

A Big Day!

Today was a big day for David for a couple of reasons. One, Daddy is home! Yeah! And two, it was his first day of soccer practice! He was so excited he could hardly eat dinner! I took the camera, but then realized that the battery was dead, so no pictures tonight. They have a practice on Saturday morning, then for the next 5 weeks its just practices on Thursdays and games on Saturdays. He's so proud of his new soccer cleats and socks & shin guards.

I got a call this morning......

from the bus barn. Nathaniel threw up on the bus, somewhere between David's school & Nathaniel's school. Its only about a 5 minute drive, even in a school bus. I think he just got motion sick because he's not running a fever, he hasn't gotten sick again and he's acting totally normal. But because some other kids in his class have been sick, I took him home just to be on the safe side. He took a bubble bath (cause he really smelled) and then laid down on the couch to watch Tom & Jerry. He fell asleep around 10:00 & slept till about noon.

While he slept, I took the opportunity to continue cleaning up my computer/scrapbooking room. As I type this, I'm sitting at a totally clean computer desk. Yippee! I filed papers that needed filing & sorted through a bunch of papers & threw a bunch away. I had a bunch of stuff to burn, and Nathaniel helped with that after his nap.

Richard is in Chicago right now, awaiting his 8:00 pm flight to La Crosse. He's thinking he'll be home about 11:00 pm. I'll be out cold. The nice part is he has Thursday & Friday off.

David starts soccer tomorrow. He's really excited.

Its Only Tuesday??

It feels like it should be Friday! Today was pretty uneventful. Our lp tank (liquid propane) was filled in preparation for cooler weather & turning the heat on. It was a pleasant suprise when the bill came to only $365.40. It was $1.40 a gallon. This time last year it was around $2.00 a gallon, in the winter of '08 we paid as much as @2.30 a gallon. Hopefully the price per gallon will stay low.

One thing I forgot to mention that I did yesterday was that I went and helped in David's class in the morning. It was fun, and I started learning everyones names and started getting a hint of the different personalities in the class. David was so excited he could hardly stand it! I'm going to be helping on Mondays & Thursdays, so I'll be going back in a couple of days. I'm really looking forward to it.

Only 1 more day till Richard gets home! He's been down in Mississippi since Labor Day for training. Tomorrow is his travel day home. Unfortunately he won't get home until around 11:00 pm. His flight gets in about 9:00 pm, but he has to drive from La Crosse to Ft. McCoy to take a buddy home, the come back to the house. He does have Thursday & Friday off, however.

Monday night Football? Nah!

How about Financial Peace University? That's where I was tonight. It was great fun. Everyone seemed to have an enjoyable time & everything went smoothly (except a minor technical issue with the DVD player). We've got a good group.

I do believe that's all I have to say this evening. Except I'm tired & I have a headache. Time for bed.

It Was A Good Day....

Church service was good. I played piano for the worship team, which went well. We had a guest speaker today because our senior pastor is out with his family since their 8 year old son, Benjamin, had open heart surgery on Tuesday. I believe he had a hole in his heart, but the surgery was successful. Praise God! Benjamin is a great kid. After service we had the annual Hot Roast potluck, which was yummy. Always lots of good food, most of which my kids won't eat, of course. After the potluck, we had what was dubbed the Psalm 150 service. (you should read it) We had some people sing, play piano & the worship team did a couple of songs. It was fun. Nathaniel fell asleep during it, which was suprising since the music was pretty loud.

The boys were in bed about 7:20, but I had to go up about 8:00 to take Nathaniel to the bathroom. Twice in about 5 minutes. David was out cold. I wish I could sleep like that.

Tomorrow night is our first FPU class of our 2nd session. We had a last minute sign-up this morning at church, which brings out count to 19 people. I'm excited!

Tomorrow morning is my first morning to help with David's class. Its only for an hour, but I had a lot of fun last year, and thought I'd continue to help until he thinks its uncool for his mom to help in his class. :)

It was a lazy day....

and a no nap day for everyone. I was conducting a test of sorts, to see how Nathaniel would do on an ordinary day without a nap. About the only time he doesn't take naps is if we're out and about. He did ok. The boys didn't have any more tiffs than usual. We played outside, blew bubbles, kicked the soccer ball around (David wanted to practice before his first soccer practice on Thursday) and played hide and seek. Although Nathaniel's version of hide and seek is "Here I am!" after you count to 10.

The kids went to bed at 7:30 this evening. And I haven't heard anything from either of them since. Ah, silence. Blessed silence.

Oh, and you'll never believe what time David got up this morning. 6:30!!! He gets more sleep during the week! I told him he could never complain about having to get up early for school since he only slept a half hour past when I wake him up for school.

Its Finally Friday!

And I get to sleep in tomorrow! At least until the boys get up. 6:00 am is early to get up to get ready for school, but I bet that they're up by 7:00 am. 7:30 at the latest for Nathaniel. David has been known to sleep to 8:30-9:00 am, so we'll see.

I did a little more cleaning today, besides my daily chores. I took on the daunting task of cleaning off the top of the entertainment center, as well as sorting DVDs & putting DVDs in their respective cases. We're really bad about putting the discs back in the cases, especially the kids' DVDs. But now the top of the entertainment center is clean as well as the top of the TV. My next task is my computer/scrapbooking room.

As Promised........

Here are some pictures of our living room. These are all taken (with a couple exceptions) from the north doorway into our dining room. So the big window faces south.

Here is the west side of the room. All the kids' toys, and directly to the right of where I'm standing is the front door. And that is Stormy in the picture.
Here's the middle of the room. I love all the light that huge window lets in. We put our Christmas tree right in the middle of the window. And Midnight (on the left) and Stormy.

And here's the east side of the room. Entertainment center, kids' table & our free hide-a-bed couch. The piano is behind the couch. You'll see it better....
....here, in this picture. The piano, with the non-matching bench. Ask me about what happend to the original piano bench sometime. Its a long & interesting story. Oh, and that big greenish thing? That's "the rock". A big memory foam bean bag type thing. Very comfy.

And last, but certainly not least, the kids' toy corner. Its not usually this neat, but my new goal is for the boys to put ALL of their toys away EVERY night. The cool Star Wars tent was a Christmas gift from my parents to both boys. They love it.

Counter troubles

Out of curiousity, I looked at my cousin, Nancy's blog, and her counter is above 11,000 too! It was around 7000 the last time I looked. Hmmmm.......

What the heck?

I just looked at my blog to see how many visitors I've had, and its over 11,000! Last night it was 730 or something like that. I either got really popular all of a sudden, or the counter is messed up. So we'll see if it gets un-messed up.

So tomorrow (or whenever) when you read this, post a comment as to what the counter says when you're visiting. Just out of curiousity.

Why Is It....

...so dang hard to get the kids up at 6:00 am to get ready for school, but they're up and out of bed at 6:00 am on Saturday & Sunday???? Both David & Nathaniel are just like their dad. Hard to wake up & it takes forever to get them going in the morning.

Nathaniel didn't want to go to school this morning. I put his jacket on him & he took it off. Its wasn't until I had picked him up and was walking out the door that he wanted his jacket back on. Then he didn't want to get on the bus. Until it stopped in front of our driveway. But he won't give me a hug and kiss until he's on the bus. Its a good thing we're the first stop.

I put the kids to bed at 7:00 tonight. Well, it was actually 7:15 when I finally closed the door. But I had to go back up twice because Nathaniel was calling for me. He had to go potty. You can't argue with that. I think he's finally asleep now. It took David all of 5 minutes to go to sleep. Must be nice.

I think I'll take some pictures of my nice, clean (for now) living room tomorrow and give you all a look-see at our main living area.

If Its Not One Thing....

Its another. This morning, immediately after I put the kids on the bus, I got out my Rainbow vacuum. Now I've been having problems with the switch on the vacuum, not the canister, but the switch you have to squeeze to send power to the vacuum for it to actually work. Its been sticking for a while, and it was stuck this morning as well. But when I turned on the canister, the dang thing wouldn't work. I fiddled with it. And fiddled with it some more. After about 10 minutes, I determined that there wasn't anything I could do and that I'd have to buy a new vacuum if I ever wanted to vacuum the living room.

So I started researching the best place to buy a vacuum. But not just any vacuum. This vacuum: http://www.dyson.com/store/product.asp?product=DC25-ALLFLOORS. I've been wanting a Dyson for a while, and I just said on Saturday while I was talking to my sister-in-law, Elizabeth, that when my Rainbow died that I wanted to get a Dyson. I found this vacuum at bestbuy.com, and it was on sale for about $425. With tax, it was $450. I was able to do the in-store pick-up, but the store didn't open until 10 am. Here's where it got tricky....

Nathaniel gets out of school at 10:30, and it usually home (last week, anyway) around 11:15 am. I had to wait to get an email from the store that the vacuum was in stock, and I was out the door and on my way at 10:10 am. Its about a 25 minute drive to Onalaska, and I spent about 5 minutes in the store, and another 25 minute drive home. I got home about 11:10, and had time to go in, use the bathroom and go back outside before the bus pulled in the driveway. Never again will I cut it that close. If I hadn't been home, they would have taken Nathaniel back to the school and I would have had to go pick him up there.

Nathaniel helped me put the Dyson together, and then I set to work. Now its been a couple of weeks since the living room was vacuumed, and with 2 dogs that shed, plus 2 kids, it was in dire need of it. I had to dump the canister 4 times while I vacuumed the living room. Now before you are completely disgusted, let me say that the room is about 24' x 24'. So its not a small room. And it'll be way better after this. Now that the kids are in school, I have a schedule of chores to do for each weekday, and the living room will get vacuumed 3 times a week, not including the weekend. Yes, I am a nerd. :)

I Labored on Labor Day

I did changed the linens on the boys' beds, did 3 loads of laundry & made bread. Twice. I had a little guy helping me the first time & we forgot to put yeast in the bread, so I had to make it again. In a bread machine that is starting to die. I have to stay and watch it for the first couple of minutes to make sure it doesn't start overheating. If it does, I have to unplug it, wait a few minutes & then try again. So I've been researching bread machines on the internet. The only thing I use mine for is to mix dough, so it doesn't have to be fancy, but it does need to work well, so if you have any suggestions, please let me know.

Since today was a holiday, the boys didn't have school today. Nevertheless, Nathaniel was up about 6:30 am & David was up shortly after. We had about 20 minutes of cuddle time in my bed & then we headed downstairs. You know, I just realized the boys never ate breakfast. David was busy playing with his Transformers (he got some new ones on Saturday) and Nathaniel was playing with his Thomas trains while they sort of watched a Ben 10: Alien Force marathon on Cartoon Network. The day was pleasantly without much conflict even though Nathaniel only napped on the couch about an hour.

The worst thing that happened today was Nathaniel's total meltdown. We found a new show on PBS Kids this morning (before Ben 10) called Dinosaur Train. It looks cute and Nathaniel LOVED it. So this afternoon after his power nap, he starts asking to watch Dinosaur Train again. Of course its not on until tomorrow morning after they leave for school. That's all he wanted to do was watch Dinosaur Train. He threw himself down on the floor, kicking & wailing like it was the end of the world. I finally thought to look at the pbskids.org website to see if they had anything on it. Sure enough they had 2 little shows that make up an episode, so he watched those and was a happy boy after that. I didn't hear another word about Dinosaur Train the rest of the night.

Oh, did I mention that the boys went to bed at 7:30 pm? Yep. 7:30! I only had to yell at Nathaniel 1 time to go to sleep. Yippee for me! So I've spent the last hour picking up the remnants of the toys in the living room in preparation to vacuum tomorrow morning while the boys are both at school. Now its my turn to go to bed.

Home Again & Bows & Arrows & Soccer

We home again. Finally. Well, I really shouldn't say finally, as we've been home since about 12:30 this afternoon. However, I feel like I've done nothing but be gone for the weekend for 3 out of the last 4 weeks. Oh, wait. I have. :)

Within 20 minutes of us getting home, Richard & David left to go to a bow shop in a little town about 30 miles away so Richard could pick up the new bow he bought on Friday. And to let David shoot a youth bow to see how he liked it. David liked it so much that Richard bought it for him. Its a left-handed bow, since David is a lefty, and David is very, very proud of it.

Richard & David spent a good part of the afternoon shooting their respective bows, while I went and picked the dogs up from the kennel, fixed dinner & cleaned the kitchen up after dinner. We just got the kids into bed about 15 minutes ago (Nathaniel took a long nap so I wasn't in a hurry to put him in bed), and now Richard is packing to leave on a trip for work. David is devastated that Richard is leaving although it'll only be for a few days. The one bright spot is that we're signing up David to play soccer this fall. Practices start next Thursday, and games will be on Saturday mornings. I'll have to get some pictures of the practices & games. He's really excited.

Busy Day

We had a busy day today. We went to the park, went to an ice cream shop, Target and went swimming for a while in the afternoon. Richard and I went to see G.I. Joe. It was pretty good for a movie based on action figures & a cartoon. Left it wide open for a sequel, of course.

Its late and I'm tired. Have a great Sunday!

Not again!

I did it again. I forgot to post last night. We drove up to Richard's sister's place in the Twin Cities, and we didn't get there until after 8:00 pm, then we had a late dinner and a really late (9:00 pm) swim in the chilly indoor pool before sending the kids to bed about 10:00. They slept until about 7:00 this morning, and have been playing with cousin Conner's Transformers ever since.

Richard's sister is taking their dad to the airport to fly back to Idaho today. After that we're going to go do some stuff around town. Richard and I have a date night planned tonight, I think we're going to go to a movie and dinner.

A Funny Thing Happened.....

while I was mowing the yard this evening. I looked over to the house and watched Nathaniel walk outside and start down the steps of the deck. I glanced away and when I looked back I see him standing on the bottom step, peeing into the yard. There was a nice arc to the stream and at that moment I wished I had my camera. It was so funny! And cute!

Stormy has been stealing ripe tomatoes off the plants. I caught her eating one this afternoon. Goofy dog! Now I know where the one almost ripe tomato went that was on one of our hanging plants. And I was going to pick it today! It was gone this morning when I went outside to get it.

Tomorrow ends the first week of school. Its been a busy week but fun for the most part.

Volunteers? Anyone?

The other day I took some pictures of the volunteer pumpkins that we have growing in our yard. Richard threw an old pumpkin we had from last fall over into the cow pasture sometime during the winter, and just a couple of weeks ago we noticed this huge mass of leaves and vines. Upon closer inspection we found a mini pumpkin patch. It started on the pasture side of the fence & ventured into our yard.....
We have 5 pumpkins in varying stages of growth. Well, 5 that we can see. There might be more on the other side of the fence. There's another one that is smaller than this one.

This one and the one in the picture below are the largest of the pumpkins we've seen. To me it seem pretty late in the season for them to just be developing, but its been a weird summer for gardens, so we'll have to wait and see what happens.

Obviously I don't have a lot to talk about since I'm showing you pictures of pumpkins. :)

We have 7 couples registered for Financial Peace University. I'm ordering the kits on Friday so we'll have them in time for a Sept 14th start date.

We're going up to the Twin Cities for the weekend, not including Monday. The boys are excited since we're staying with Richard's sister & her apt complex has an indoor pool.

The First Day

Did not start out well for me. I woke up about 3 am with a horrible migraine. It felt like someone was pounding spikes through my forehead & I was naueous as well. I took an Imatrex and after an hour took another one, which Richard went and got for me. I was finally able to fall asleep, and then Richard's alarm went off. Mine went off shortly after Richard's, but I stayed in bed until almost 6:00; my alarm was set for 5:30. I still had a migraine, but it was almost gone, so it wasn't horrible to get the kids up and ready for school. The nice thing is that I don't need to worry about breakfast, since Nathaniel eats breakfast at school instead of lunch, and new this year at David's school is a free lunch program, so the kids eat breakfast in their classroom. So with that, I think we can safely get them up at 6:00 instead of 5:30. Here are some shots of the big day.

This first one is my favorite. David sometimes says he doesn't like his brother, but this just proves how much he loves him!
I was hoping that they'd hold hands on the walk to the end of the driveway, but they didn't. But its still a cute picture.

Nathaniel insisted on putting David's hood up on his jacket before we walked out the door. It was cold this morning. Not more than 50 degrees. David wanted to wear shorts this morning, but I talked him out of it.

Here's another cute pose. The white square on Nathaniel's jacket is a name tag with his name & what school he goes to. The pre-k school sent it in the mail. Apparently they want them to get to the right place. :)

Here comes the short bus. The driver, Barb, seems really nice. She brings Nathaniel home as well. The red barn behind the bus is our landlord's barn. So we're really close to them. Shoot! Just remembered I need to take rent over!

Nathaniel had no qualms (great Scrabble word) about getting on the bus. In fact, he was so excited I didn't even get to hug & kiss him goodbye! I didn't realize it until after the bus was gone. (sniff, sniff) But I didn't cry like I thought I might.

And here's the 1st grader! Didn't get a hug or kiss from him, either.

I went back to bed after the kids got on the bus. I slept until about 9:45 am, and after cleaning up I went out to wait for Nathaniel to get home. He was done with school at 10:30, but didn't get home until 11:45! Its a first day of school thing. Making sure everyone is on the right bus & then getting everyone home. Barb the bus driver said that it'll most likely be closer to 11:00 to 11:15 when he's dropped off once she gets the route down.

When David got home from school he said that the day was too short! But he couldn't really remember what he did at school.

9 1/2 hrs and counting.....

till I have to get the boys up to get ready for school. Because their bus will come about 6:30 am, I'm getting them out of bed about 5:30ish. Itsn't that horrid? Last year David was the first one on the bus in the morning. This year I'm not sure if the boys will be first on or not, but we'll find out soon enough.

It was difficult getting Nathaniel to settle down tonight for bed. He's so excited to go to school tomorrow and see his teacher. Since he's in AM pre-k, he'll eat breakfast at school instead of lunch. He's not one to eat really early in the morning, so I doubt I'll be able to get him to eat something before he gets on the bus.

I plan on taking pictures tomorrow morning, so watch for them tomorrow.

An Outdoor Service

We had our last outdoor worship service at church this morning. It was beautiful out. Sunny, a light breeze and COLD! I'm not sure what the temp actually was, but it wasn't any higher than 60 degrees, probably closer to 55 degrees. The worship team was set up in the shade of the church building, but by the time church started, we (us singers, anyway) were in the sun. The congregation was in the sun from the beginning, so they were relatively warm the entire time. We had a potluck afterwards, and had lots of yummy food to eat. It was a lovely close to the summer.

Two days till school starts! Yippee! I mean, oh, I'm so sad that my kids will be going off to school and leaving me at the house by myself. (sniff, sniff) :)