Softball and that Darn Cat! and Dog!

Nathaniel is also very excited to see his daddy when he finally gets home from work. So much so that he usually is the first one to him when he walks in. In the picture below, he climbed up onto the back of the couch and was hugging him and patting him on the back. Also notice the haircut. His daddy did that. At mommy's request, since Nathaniel won't sit still for me.

I took this one this morning; because the boys went to bed so late cause of the softball game, David didn't get up until 9:30 am. He came downstairs and cuddled with Nathaniel while he was waiting for me to get his breakfast.


Richard's softball game didn't go as planned. His team lost 13-6. Which was considerably better than the previous team's loss (there are back to back games) which was 26-5. They would probably play better if they did a couple of things. One is practice. Two is not start drinking until AFTER the game is over. Because it was basically dark when the game started & I was taking pictures through a chain link fence, they didn't come out all that great. We sat in front of 3rd base, which is the position Richard played, and I did get a few, but they aren't all that decent. But for your viewing pleasure....

Here's David being a ham as usual.

Richard through the chain link fence.

Right after lunch I opened the front door to let Stormy (my dog) outside and what do I see? A dead mouse. Morgan the cat brought us a present. And Stormy apparently thought the gift was for her, cause she grabbed it. Luckily I got her to drop it before she ate it (yuck!!) and I scooped it up in a dustpan and took it out to the burn barrel. We've seen her catch mice and let them go & play with them, but this is the first time she's brought one to the front door. Lets hope she doesn't make a habit of it.

I think I'm going to regret this

Monday was the start of Richard's softball league tournament. His team's game was at 8:15 on Monday evening, so we didn't take the boys, but promised them that they could go to the next game, which is tonight. At 9:15. I found out earlier this afternoon. So, because we promised, we're taking them to the game. This is going to be interesting, as Nathaniel didn't have a nap this afternoon because I had a meeting for VBS that starts Sunday night. He's already had a couple of crying fits, and its only going to get worse as the evening goes on. Maybe he'll fall asleep in the car on the way to the game. I can only hope.

I'm planning on taking my camera, so maybe I'll get some decent pictures of Richard playing ball. He's very competitive when it comes to sports. Last years team was pretty good, this year's is so-so since most of them just come to drink beer and attempt to play softball drunk. Idiots. Anyhoo, if I get some decent pictures, I'll post them tomorrow.

Is it Friday yet?

No? Only Tuesday? Darn. I was hoping it was Friday. David and Nathaniel seemed to be at each other's throats today. All day. Except the 2 1/2 hours that Nathaniel napped. Then there was peace. You see, David likes to play with his Transformers and have the Autobots fight the Decepticons and set up these big battle scenes. And Nathaniel? He likes to come knock them all down. Which then upsets David and he either gets mad and tries to beat Nathaniel up or he gets upset and cries and says that he doesn't like his brother. Which we all know is not true. David also likes to color, and he's very good at it and he doesn't like to share his big box of Crayola crayons or the Crayola art kit Grandma and Grandpa got him for his birthday. Which I can understand. I wouldn't want to share those things either. Especially with a little brother that tends to break crayons 2 seconds after he picks them up.

So what did I get to do all day? Try to distract Nathaniel and keep him from bothering David, which only succeeded about 50% of the time. That child is so stubborn. Anyone care to venture a guess where he gets that stubborness? Yep. His Daddy. Cause I am not even close to being that stubborn.

I'm going to bed now. I'm exhausted. I feel like I played referee all day or something, and ended up being at the bottom of a pile of kids. Well, I didn't really, but I sure feel like it.

Some FPU pictures and a Deluge

I decided to post some pictures of our FPU graduation from last night, since I didn't last night. We had a lot of fun, and I cried. No idea why, I just did. Gratitude and appreciation, I think was part of it.

Here was most of our class, watching the DVD lesson. If you see the guy to the far right in the red hat, look back & a little to the left and you'll see Richard, back by the window below the clock.

A friend & co-worker of Richard's is a professional chef and made this credit card cake for us for free. It was chocolate with raspberry filling. Yummy! I had one couple who had not cut up any credit cards during class cut this one up.

In this quart sized mason jar is approximately 45 credit cards & about $100,000 worth of credit. We had 3 very sad ladies that cut up their Kohls' cards, but they did. Someone even chopped up their Victoria's Secret card! Much to her hubby's disappointment. :)

There's me, actually not waving my hands around as I talk for once.

It was a great class, I'm very proud of all of them! We're going to be starting another class in September and I'm very excited about it.

This morning was bed linen washing day. I stripped the guest beds and threw everything (not all at once) in the washer, then hung the linens up to dry outside. It was cloudy, but I didn't think it was going to rain anytime soon.

So after lunch we all head upstairs for naps. Nathaniel, David & I. I'd slept horribly last night, and could hardly keep my eyes open for most of the morning. Sometime while we slept it started raining. And all the linens were still out on the clothes line. When I woke up at 4:30 pm, I heard rain hitting our roof. I was hoping it was just sprinkling, but Noooo, it couldn't just be sprinkling. It was pouring. I went running downstairs, grabbed a laundry basket & threw a jacket on and rushed outside to bring the laundry it. Soaked was what I was when I was done. I was out maybe 5-7 minutes, but I was soaked when I was done. My hair was dripping wet, my pants were soaked and the only part of me that wasn't was my shirt cause I'd thrown a jacket on before I went outside. Note to self: check the forecast before you take a nap next time laundry is on the line. Literally.

Now I've spent the rest of the afternoon/evening getting everything dry. Serves me right, I guess.

Graduation Day!

Today was Graduation Day for our first Financial Peace University class. It was a lot of fun. We had drawings for 3 of Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makerover" Books, had lots of yummy food during our potluck and had a little graduation ceremony & cake afterwards. I'll post some pictures tomorrow. We had 16 families out of an origianl 20 graduate. The main requirement to graduate was that you attend 12 out of 13 classes, and we had several couples that had perfect attendance. It was great.

The last lesson is entitled "The Great Misunderstanding". Its about giving. Not only tithing, but giving in general. I had a lady comment to me after class that her husband had been commenting that he wasn't sure that the classes were very good, since they all seemed to be centered on getting out of debt/getting more money. This one lesson changed all that. It brings everything you learned in the previous 12 classes together, and it totally makes sense. Its awesome!

Our next class starts in September. I'm hoping to get at least 15 families signed up. Anything above that will be awesome!

Gone Fishin'

Not me. Nope. I don't fish. Well, I would if Richard put the worm on the hook & took the fish off the hook & cleaned & gutted it. But other than that, I don't fish. However, Richard & his dad took the boys fishing today. They left about 10:00 am and got home about 2:15 pm, after a stop at Pizza Hut.

David was the only one to catch a fish. And Nathaniel carried it up to my bedroom (I was napping when they got home) to show me. Almost put it on the bed. He was so proud of said fish that you would have thought that he was the one who caught it. But it was David's fish. I went out to take a picture of it but Richard's dad has already started to clean it and I didn't think anyone wanted to see a cut up fish, so no pictures. Nothing huge, just a little trout, but my boys were sure proud of it!

The Smothers Brothers

were hilarious! Just got home from the show. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. I think my favorite parts were the Yo-Yo Man and a clip from one of their tv shows from the '60s. It went something like this...
"You know, you can tell who is running the country by how much clothing they wear."
"Really? How do you tell?"
"Well, the normal people, like you and me, they don't wear so much, so they're the less-ons"
"And the people who are running the country?"
"They're the morons."

Have a great night!

I Won! I Won!

I was listening to the local country radio station today on my way to La Crosse and the DJs (a guy and gal) started talking about a give away. You had to be the first caller to identify a sound and you would win tickets to a show up in the Wisconsin Dells. The Smothers Brothers are doing 1 show tomorrow night. And I won 6 tickets. The sound I had to identify? The transporter from Star Trek. I was the first caller. Yeah for me! Now, I've been trying since 11 o'clock this morning to find 2 other couples to come with us. Do you think I can find anyone? Noooo. Apparently we don't have a large enough pool of friends to find anyone to go with us. I had a bunch of "we'd love to buts...." I hate to waste the tickets, even if they are free. Oh, well. Richard and I will go by ourselves and enjoy some time without kids. Which we don't get much of. My father-in-law with stay with the boys, and have to put them to bed. That in and of itself would be interesting to see. Hopefully they aren't still up by the time we get home, which will probably be close to 11 pm, since its almost an hour to WI Dells. I'm guessing the show will be about 2 hours, and since it starts at 8:00, it'll get over about 10 and then an hour drive home. I'll have to give a review of the show on Saturday.

One other thing I have to comment on regarding our trip tomorrow. Around here I hear people say that they're going up to "the Dells". Ok, the name of the town is Wisconsin Dells. I've also heard people say that they're going up to "the Wisconsin Dells". It shouldn't be "the" anything. It should be "we're going to Wisconsin Dells". But that's just me being picky. Would you ever hear anyone say, "we're going to the Dallas"? No. Maybe "the Dallas area". But I digress.

Have a great weekend, ya'll!

I Totally Had NO Idea!

I was doing some research on the internet this morning, looking for songs about money. I found a blog whose author had his top 5 movie money songs. The one that caught my eye? "Carry the Banner". For those who may not have seen it, the early 1990s movie "Newsies" has this song in it. Check out info on the movie on IMDB.com. Anyway, I was completely shocked to discover who starred in this movie. Are you ready? Christian Bale. aka Batman. This is a Disney musical movie. And Christian Bale was in it. I have this movie. On VHS. Love it. Haven't seen it in years, but LOVE IT! Anyways, I thought that was interesting, so I had to tell you.

While I sit at my computer, Nathaniel is napping, a loaf of bread is rising, and David, Conner & my father-in-law are out weeding my weed patch. I mean, my garden. Its a comfortable 73 degrees outside, partly cloudy with a light breeze. I really should be out there too, but I don't like to go outside when Nathaniel is sleeping. I can usually guess how long he's going to sleep, but occassionally he wakes up sooner and I don't want to be outside when he wakes up.

Oh, great, the dryer just quit. Time to fold more clothes. I hate laundry.

Happy Wednesday.

Past My Bedtime!

I had a meeting tonight for our Vacation Bible School that starts August 2nd. I'm helping with the music part of it. The meeting went well, but I didn't get home until around 10:00 pm. The meeting started at 6:30, and got over about 8:00. So what did I do between 8 and 10? Stand around and talk, of course. Or listen to other people talk. I had to. I was the only one left with a key to lock up the church. Plus a quick run to Wal-Mart and off to home. A pretty uneventful day, all in all. I'm off to bed now. Nighty-night!

Fishing Without Water

Richard and his dad took the boys to Cabela's in Owatonna, MN yesterday, and along with a spotting scope, Richard bought the boys a bunch of fishing tackle. They got to get all the tackle stuff out tonight, and after it was divided up, Richard got out their fishing poles and took them outside to practice casting. David has gotten pretty good at it, Nathaniel not so much. He likes to reel the line in though. They just had sinkers on the line so no one was in danger of getting hooked. Except the cat. She thought it was great fun to chase the sinkers as the boys reeled them in. Here's a few pictures of the event.

David getting ready to cast. That's my nephew Conner in the background with my father in law.

Nathaniel says "I fishing!"

David reeling his line in.....

Nathaniel reeling his line in while Morgan the cat chases David's line. Oh, the big weed patch in the backgroudn is our garden.

The boys spent about 45 minutes outside practicing their casting. It ended when the sinkers broke off David's line. It was good timing. It was almost 8:45 pm. They are usually in bed by 8:30.

Have a great week!

Piano Playing & Baking in Silence

Today's 1st service at church went fairly well. Couple of minor stumbles, but nothing that was too noticeable. The big one was the closing song. I was ready, did the intro to "Awesome God" and when I went into the beginning of the chorus, no one, including the worship team, sang. Apparently, unbeknownst to me, the words weren't up on the big screen. So there was a bit of an awkward pause, but oh well. I didn't get fired. Oh, wait, I volunteered.

I went to church today by myself, as Richard, his dad & the boys went to Cabela's in Owatonna, MN. So it was wonderfully quiet when I got home, aside from the welcoming barks of the dogs. I got some lunch, unloaded the dishwasher and started baking for treats for Financial Peace University tonight. In total silence. Its wonderful. No music, no kids yelling, no TV blaring, nothing. Shhhh. Do you hear that? Yep. Silence.

Hope you have a wonderful Sunday and a great week!

More Company and a Funny Email

Our nephew Conner & my father-in-law came for a week long visit today. It seems like every other week someone is coming to our house. Oh, wait. It is about every other week! Richard hasn't seen his dad since December when he went back to Idaho to elk hunt, and it was March, 2008 when the boys and I saw him.

I got a funny email yesterday from a lady in our Financial Peace University class. I got a kick out of it and thought you might, too. Here it is....

Do you know your HYMNS?
Dentist's Hymn..................Crown Him with Many Crowns
Weatherman's Hymn...There Shall Be Showers of Blessings
Contractor's Hymn..............The Church's One Foundation
The Tailor's Hymn......................Holy, Holy, Holy
The Golfer's Hymn............There's a Green Hill Far Away
The Politician's Hymn...............Standing on the Promises
Optometrist's Hymn..........Open My Eyes That I Might See
The IRS Agent's Hymn.................I Surrender All
The Gossip's Hymn.....................Pass It On
The Electrician's Hymn.................Send The Light
The Shopper's Hymn....................Sweet Bye and Bye
The Realtor's Hymn. . . . . . I've Got a Mansion Just over the Hilltop
The Massage Therapists Hymn . . . ......He Touched Me
The Doctor's Hymn......................The Great Physician
AND
for those who speed on the highway - a few hymns:
45mph....................God Will Take Care of You
65mph.....................Nearer My God To Thee
85mph.....................This World Is Not My Home
95mph....................Lord, I'm Coming Home
100mph.... ........ ....Precious Memories

Give me a sense of humor, Lord,
Give me the grace to see a joke,
To get some humor out of life,
And pass it on to other folk.

We had below normal temps again today. I think the high was 61. Its 59 as I type this. I hope you all are having a great weekend!

Cleaning House in 55 degree Weather

Remember how in an earlier post I had said that I wanted to get the house really cleaned up while the boys were at VBS this week? Yeah, well, it didn't happen. What did happen today was I baked a loaf of bread since we were out and I don't buy bread anymore. And I spent about 3 1/2 hours sorting through, organizing and discarding toys. We have a corner of our huge living room dedicated to toys. Two sets of shelves, a huge tub and a plastic 3 drawer dresser full of toys, puzzles, books, games - you name it, they probably have (or had) it. I had 3 boxes of stuff to give away when I was done. And they'll never miss any of it. Especially since most of it was buried and they hadn't played with it for 6 months anyway. I should've taken before and after pictures. Now its pointless cause the kids have gotten into their toys again. Oh well, maybe next time.

It was 55 degrees here for most of the day. About 10:00 am it was 59 and when I looked again around 11:30 am it was 55. The temperature in the house was a whopping 66 degrees. It looked like it was going to rain all day, but it didn't do anything but sprinkle briefly a couple of times. We're supposed to have a high of around 70 on Saturday. Yippee for us!

Have a great weekend!

Nap Time

When I picked the boys up from VBS this afternoon I got quite a surprise. Nathaniel was out cold on one of the pews. He's so used to taking an afternoon nap that he just couldn't stay awake. He had only been asleep for a few minutes, but he looked so cute laying there with his thumb in his mouth. So peaceful and oblivious to what was going on around him. One of the older kids that was helping offered to carry him out to the car, but as soon as she picked him up he was awake. That was totally normal; if I'd been taking him out of his car seat to carry him into our house, I could have taken him right up to bed and he would have gone back to sleep. But that 5-10 minute catnap was enough to get him through to a 9:00 pm bedtime. Now just thinking about it is making me want to go be peaceful and oblivious. You know, I think that's a fabulous idea. Have a great evening!

Halfway through July, A New Mower and An Up and Coming Artist

I can't believe we're already half-way through July! It hasn't been horribly hot (except for when we were in Texas) so it hasn't been too bad. I don't think I mentioned it when I started this blog, but its my goal to post something every day. So far, I haven't missed a day yet.

We got a call from the shop that we took our "new" riding grass-mower (what David calls it) to. Its all fixed! We just dropped it off on Monday, so we were suprised that it was done so quickly. We were a little apprehensive when we went to pick it up, as I thought he was going to call with an estimate prior to doing the work, but he didn't. So hoping the bill wouldn't be over $100, we headed over.....and the bill only came to $65!! That's with a new battery & new ignition switch. The batteries Richard had priced on the internet were $50! This one? $28! And labor? Hang on, its a doosey! $15! And a few other small things, and now our new-to-us mower is home.

This mower actually reminds me of a bit of dialogue in one of my favorite movies. Lets see if you can figure out which one. I'll tell you at the end of the post

"What a piece of junk!"

"....She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts, kid...."

David loves to create. Whether its with crayons, markers, colored pencils, glittler, foam shapes, stuff from my scrapbooking collection, you name it, he uses it. This was a picture he was working on at VBS today and finished it at home this evening. He's supposed to be the one laying sideways. I'm not sure what exactly is going on, but he's very proud of it.

I, however, am more proud of this one. You may have to click on the picture to see it, but I love what HE wrote, WITHOUT any help. (sniff, sniff) My boy's a 1st grader! Oh, and if you couldn't tell from the picture, he's a lefty. If he doesn't make a living in the Air Force; he says he's going to fly fighter jets, he'll be an artist. I love you, little man!

Oh, and the movie? "Star Wars: A New Hope" Where Luke sees the Millenium Falcon for the first time. Here it is again:

Luke: "What a piece of junk!"

Han: "She'll make point 5 past lightspeed. She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts, kid. I've made a lot of special modifications myself. But we're a little rushed, so if you'll just get on board, we'll get out of here."

VBS, Sam's Club, Car Parts and Pink Eye

We took the boys back to VBS today, and then headed to La Crosse to go to Sam's Club, and we had to make a stop at a gun store for Richard. He's looking for some specific scope for one of his hunting rifles. Anyhoo, we're almost to the gun store and my cell phone rings with an unfamiliar WI phone number. My first thought is something happened to one of the boys at VBS. Sure enough its Shelley, who also goes to the church we attend, but is helping with this church's VBS. She starts with "Don't worry. Everything is fine. Well, sort of." Then launches into the description of how Nathaniel's right eye looks red and is a little goopy, and they thought that he initially poked his eye, but after a half hour it still looks red, so can we come get him so we can take him to the Dr cause he might have pink eye. Well, no, we're in La Crosse, so we can't just be there in 5 minutes (we could if we were at home), but we'll be there as soon as we can. So we stop at the gun shop and I make phone calls to the Dr's office while Richard scopes out the scopes.

So by the time we left the gun shop its 10 o'clock. Nathaniel's appt is at 11:30. It takes about 30 minutes to get from Sam's Club to our house, but we're not going quite that far. Richard was wondering if we could make it to Sam's and to get Nathaniel and back into town to the Drs' office by 11:30. Of course! You're talking about Teri, the super Sam's Club shopper! I have a list, I know where everything is, and I have no kids with me. We were in and out of Sam's in 30 minutes. Then we had to stop for gas, $2.46 a gallon at Kwik Trip, 3 cents cheaper than where we usually get gas.

So as we're getting on the interstate Richard's cell rings. Its the Ford dealership where we'd taken the Bronco to get it checked out. The check engine light keeps coming on and we needed to know why. So it needs some throttle something sensor and some throttle body gasket or something, and they can do the work today and it'll only be $250. I think that included the $85 to hook the Bronco up to the computer, which is what we had done initially. So when he got home he started looking up parts. He can buy the parts he needs and some other do-hickey and be under the quote the dealership gave him buy about $50.

So I got the lucky job of taking Nathaniel to the Dr. Yep. He's got pink eye. I didn't want to gross everyone out, so I decided not to post a picture of his eyes. The left was starting to look yucky, so we're treating both eyes. Poor kid didn't want to go to the Dr until he discovered he got to ride the elevator. Oh, and the nurse weighed him while we were there. He's 41.5 lbs. He doesn't weigh much less than David does. He's more solidly built, though.

Grilling Out & One Short Haircut!

One thing that we like to do during the summer is grill out. A lot. Almost every night. I'm the one who actually gets to do the grilling, since Richard is usually on his way home while I'm working on dinner. Anyway, we were looking for some seasonings to add to our beef, chicken & pork, and we found these awesome Weber Grind and Grill seasonings at Sam's Club. Kick'n Chicken and Chicago steak. We're going to try the Kick'n Chicken on pork chops tonight, and we put the Chicago Steak on our burgers on Saturday and they were yummy!

David has been begging me to shave his head bald for the last couple of months. I kept putting him off. A month or so ago I bought a set of Wahl clippers, so I could start cutting the kids' hair at home instead of paying $25 for both of them to get their hair cut. Anyway, this past Saturday, David again asked me, "Can you shave my head?" So I countered with, "If Daddy says its ok, then I will." Knowing that Richard would probably say yes, but I wanted to make sure. And, of course, the answer was yes! I could shave his head without a guard on the clippers, but not shave his head with a razor like Uncle Chris does. He was so excited, he could hardly contain himself. I should have taken some before pictures, but didn't think about it until it was too late. So here is an "after" picture.

David hamming it up, as usual.

The boys had their first day of VBS today. David was kinda worried about it this morning, so I told him if he didn't like it today, he didn't have to go back. When we picked them up, David looks at me and says, "Mom, I think I've decided that I want to come back tomorrow. They're having a bounce house." One of those big, blow up jumping things, I'm assuming.

A Better Deal Than We Thought!

We went and picked up the "new" riding lawnmower today. And the bagger. Because the guy didn't know if the bagger would actually work with the mower, he just gave it to us instead of having us give him the previously agreed on $25 for said bagger. So $100 for a riding mower and bagger worked out to be a pretty good deal.

The past couple of Sundays have been busy for us. We had the Earl White reunion 2 weeks ago, and last week, nephew Conner was back. This Sunday we're back to normal. Normal being church in the morning and Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University in the evening.

For those not familiar with Dave Ramsey, he has a talk radio show, several best selling books, and developed a 13 week class on finances called Financial Peace University. We are leading FPU at the church we're attending, with 21 families taking the class, including us. The class teaches you how to develop a budget, get out of debt, save $$, invest, save for your kids' college. Its a great class for anyone to take, even if you have no debt. I've had people in my class say, "if we only knew about this 20 years ago...." which should be a hint to the younger crowd to take FPU. We are on week 11 out of 13 weeks, after taking a 2 week break. We're on track to have about 75% of our class graduate with perfect attendance, and about 80% total. You can check out Dave and Financial Peace University at www.daveramsey.com.

The boys start VBS at a church in town tomorrow. 9 am to 3 pm. Lots of time to get lots of stuff done this week!

Upside Down Tomato Plants, Our Kitty & Our Neighbors

Last year, and even during this past winter, we would occassionally see the TV Commercial for the Topsy Turvy Tomato planter, http://www.topsygardening.com/. We were curious about how well it actually worked, but we weren't going to spend the $20 (its $9.99 now) for each hanging tomato we wanted. On one of the forums that I frequent, I found a website that tells you how to do it yourself, without having to buy the kit. http://oldfashionedliving.com/tomato2.html After reading this we decided to do it. So for the cost of 4 5 gallon buckets ($2.99 each) and 4 packs of tomatos (we planted 4 in our garden, 4 in buckets and gave the others away). So for about $25, here's our upside down tomato plants. We planted them a couple of days before the ones in our garden, but these have little tomatoes on them, while the ones in our garden do not.

This is only a couple of the baby tomatoes on this plant....

This is our roma tomato plant.

Another cute, baby tomato.

I think these are our Better Boy and Early Girl plants, but I'm not sure which is which. We also have a Roma and a Grape tomato plant, which are on the other end of our clothes line.

This is our kitty, Morgan. We adopted her last June from a vet clinic in a nearby town. She is so sweet. She will let Nathaniel pick her up and pack her around, and you'll still hear her purring. She is one of the most affectionate cats I've ever seen. She gets along well with the dogs, too.

As I mentioned in a previous post, we have some unique neighbors. They don't make a lot of noise, don't have loud parties, they never have loud shouting matches and they stay in their own space, for the most part. Oh, yes, they are cows. There are probably 15 cows, maybe 10 calves and 1 big bull named Midnight. Usually you don't keep a bull in the same pasture with calves, but this bull is very gentle. I've seen him laying down with a calf cuddled up next to him. I also saw a calf head-butt him once, and he didn't do anything but lay there. Here are some pictures of our neighbors.

This is one of the cows up on the hill behind our house.

This is one of the calves. She came up almost to the fence and stood there until I took her picture. Then she turned and wandered off.

This is the youngest calf, born in late April or early May. David and Nathaniel just missed seeing her birth. They got to see her when she was only a couple minutes old.

In other exciting news, I found a riding lawnmower for sale on Craigslist. We went and looked at it today, and although its at least 10 years old, needs a new ignition, a new seat & some carb work, we decided to buy it. The nice thing about the ad was that it was an "make me and offer" ad. So we low-balled it, offering the guy $100. And he took it! Then, he showed us the bagger that they had bought for the mower, but never used it. He said he was going to list it in a separate ad for $100, but he said that if we wanted it, we could have it for $25. So we decided to buy it, too. Richard thinks that we'll need maybe $100 in parts, if that. We looked up the bagger when we got home, and its selling online for $349.99. So I think we got a deal.

Have a great weekend!

I've been tagged! And it stops here.

I've been tagged by my awesome cousin, Nancy. I'm supposed to list 6 things that make me happy, then tag 6 bloggers that I know so they can do the same thing. But I don't know 6 bloggers. I mean, I probably do, but I don't know that they're bloggers. So here's my 6 things, and if you want to tag yourself, please feel free. :) Oh, and these are in no particular order.

1. Sleeping in. Which for me is past 6:30 am. My kids are ealy risers.

2. Schwan's Chocolate and Peanut Butter ice cream. Way, way better than Baskin Robbins. Schwan's has these little peanut butter cups as well as lots of peanut butter swirled into the chocolate ice cream. Yummy!

3. Date night with Richard. Doesn't happen often enough. We do have an awesome babysitter, though, for when we do go out.

4. The stillness of kids taking naps. Just being able to sit and relax for a little while in the middle of the day is refreshing.

5. Seeing my boys peacefully sleeping. I like to go into their room (they share) before I go to bed and re-tuck them into bed and give them kisses. Seeing their peaceful faces is so sweet!

6. Playing piano. Undisturbed. This doesn't happen often. I haven't done it much for the last 10 years or so, and now I'm trying to get back into it. Now, if I could just find a piano bench.....

There's my 6 favorite things. Please tag yourself if you want. :)

No Swimming Today!

Well, I was going to take the kids swimming today. I called the pool to double check the time that they opened. Its a good thing I did. The pool was closed today for a swim meet. But the pool will be open tomorrow from 1:30-4:30 pm. What bizarre hours! When I was growing up, the pool at home would be open from noon to 5:30, closed from 5:30 to 6:00 and then open from 6:00-8:00. The problem with taking the boys tomorrow? Its supposed to thunderstorm; a 40% chance in the afternoon. Although there is supposed to be a high of 83 degrees tomorrow. We'll just have to wait and see.

I started mowing the yard today. I got less than a 1/3 of it done before I hit a big, huge (ok, not that huge) rock by the garden. It stopped the mower. I thought it would be a good thing to let Richard take a look at it before I tried to start the mower again. Its not usually a good thing when the mower shuts itself off.

Within the last couple of months I've started playing piano for the worship team at church. For 2nd service, which is no big deal since its a contemporary service & we mostly do praise & worship choruses, and all I have to play is chords. Well, the lady who generally plays for 1st service asked me a couple of weeks ago if I could play next week for 1st service, which is the traditional service, usually consisting of hymns. I agreed, albeit somewhat reluctantly. You see, unlike some of my relatives who can play hymns by ear or sit down and sight read music easily, I can't do either. Hymns are my least favorite type of music to play; its something I've always struggled with. So anyway, this lady picked out some songs for me to choose from, since it kinda appears that I'm supposed to come up with the song order and whatnot. Well, I just got the music today, since she just picked it out yesterday. I've kinda been bugging her for the last week or so, since I would be more comfortable having more time to practice the songs. Oh well. I'm manage. I hope.

What a dreary day!

Its a cool, gray, overcast day. We got a little rain this morning, but nothing happening this afternoon except cool breezes occassionally wafting through our open windows. Its 66 degrees right now. The high is supposed to be 75. I don't think its going to make it.

For some, this next topic will be boring, but I'm excited about it, and since this is my blog, I'm going to talk about it! :) Richard and I are HUGE Stargate: SG1 & Stargate: Atlantis fans. (maybe me moreso than Richard) Last season was Stargate: Atlantis' (SGA) 5th and final season. I was pretty faithful about watching them on SciFi Friday nights, but the few episodes I missed I bought the digital downloads off Amazon.com and watched on our PC or laptop. Well, Season 5 became available June 24th. I had pre-ordered it on amazon.com, and it shipped out late last week. It came in the mail yesterday. I was so excited I could (and can) hardly contain myself! I watched some of the bonus features already and the first couple of episodes. With subtitles & commentary on, of course. It drives Richard nuts, so I only do that when he's not watching with me. I like the subtitles cause one of the characters (Dr. Rodney McKay) talks so fast sometimes its hard to catch what he says. And the commentary? To get the perspective of the writers/directors/producers/actors, though not necessarily all of them are doing commentary on a particular episode. Don't worry, Dad. I'll be sure to bring it down when we come in August. :)

Nathaniel has his last 2 days of summer school pre-kindergarten this week. He starts pre-k in the fall. And so we've been struggling to get him potty trained. He knows what he is supposed to do. He wakes up dry most mornings. He likes to go potty in public bathrooms - at the store, restaurant, etc, but is reluctant to go at home. We even bought him a toddler sized urinal. Yeah, I'm not kidding. Check it out @ http://www.peterpotty.com/ It actually flushes, which he likes to do, but getting him to actually pee in it, well, that's another thing all together. We've tried borrowing Grandpa Dave's train clock, and letting him push the button that makes train sounds and sending the train around the outside of the clock. That's worn off. (we'll bring it in August, Dad) We've tried Tootsie Rolls as a reward. That doesn't work anymore, either. Nathaniel is just so stubborn and independent like Richard that it isn't funny. If anyone has any suggestions, they would be greatly appreciated. We can't make him go, its the same premise as "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink." If we even try to make him go into the bathroom (or to his potty downstairs) he has a meltdown.

If the weather improves tomorrow, I'm going to take the boys swimming in the afternoon. Its supposed to be partly sunny and 86 degrees, so we'll see.

An outside tour

So here's the grand tour of the outside of the house. I'm hoping to get lots of cleaning/sorting done next week while the boys are at VBS during the day. If that happens, then you'll get the inside tour.

As I mentioned yesterday, I did take pictures last night. However, I downloaded them onto the laptop last night, and they weren't there this morning. Which makes me ill, cause I just realized that the pictures of David's summer school musical/play were downloaded as well last night. And they aren't on the laptop either. Oh well.

And now, the tour (drum roll, please).....

Here's our house; this is taken from the road. There is pasture to the east, west and north of us. Our closest neighbors are cows. They are pretty quiet unless a calf wanders too far from mom.

Here are some wild blackberries that are about halfway down our driveway. If you look in the picture above, its the big bush on the right side about halfway down. Yummy!

Here is the front of our house, from about half way down our driveway. The garage was an addition to the house, probably done in the late '70 to early '80s. The living room above the garage is about 24' x 24'. Its where we spend most of our time.

This is the pasture behind our house, this picture was taken from the back west corner of the house so it angles to the east.

This is the pasture at the back of the house, the picture angles to the west, as I took it from the back east corner of the house. We usually have cows in this pasture, but they are father east in the mornings, they come over this way in the evenings.

This is the back of the house. We don't use this door. Haven't even ever tried to open it. It opens into our laundry/utility room. If you were to walk out this door, you've have about a 45 degree incline to walk up if you wanted to go to the fence line (which would be about 15 feet away).

This is the east side of the house. You can't really tell from the picture, but its a gradual incline to about where the back addition is (its the part that doesn't have a first floor window), then it increases to about a 40-45 degree angle. It doesn't look like it, but it is a pain to mow!

This is the west side of the house, and the main door. See the chimney at the very top of the house? Yeah, we don't have a fireplace. I'm just guessing, but the house was probably originally heated by the fireplace, then got upgraded to coal (maybe), then heating oil & now it has an lp (liquid propane) furnace and water heater. See the propane tank to the left?

Here's Richard's dog, Midnight. He has had her since before we met. She was about 5 months old when I met Richard. That makes her 12. She's very active for a 12 year old lab.

And here's my dog, Stormy. Midnight is Stormy's mom. She came from Midnight's one and only litter. She's not much of a hunting dog like Midnight, but she's a great family pet. Both of the dogs are great with the kids. They can climb on them, try to ride them, whatever and it doesn't bother them. When they've had enough, they just get up and leave.

A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That

Do you ever have one of those days when you, oh, I don't know, are just cranky? Have no patience? Maybe both? That's me today. I'm not sure why, and I know what you ladies are thinking. Its not that. Maybe it has something to do with going from having 1 boy to 3 in the span of 2 hours on Saturday. Its not that I don't enjoy having my nephew over to visit, I really do. Its just that now I have 3 boys to deal with instead of 2. which means 1 extra one to entertain, feed and make sure that they don't kill each other. I'm so glad that we're not having any more kids. 2 is plenty!!

I want to go in my room, close the door and hide from them until its time to go to bed. Thankfully, Richard has some stuff to do outside, so the boys had to go back outside to be with Richard and give me some peace and quiet. So I can finish folding the last 2 loads of laundry of the 5 that I did today.

Speaking of laundry, one thing that we have is a clothes line, right outside from the front door. I have been hanging all our towels and bedsheets outside, one, to save electricity, and two, 'cause I like the way they smell when they've been line dried. The one thing I don't like? Stiff, not fluffy towels. The sheets come out fine, but the towels, well, lets just say I prefer them dried in the dryer so they are all fluffy. I don't hang clothes out to dry though. I don't want to have to worry about fading.

Well, its official. Its been determined that the power source for our PC is dead. So Richard gets to order/buy a new one. A friend of his who is a computer geek and used to live out here (they were in the same unit, but Rob is back in Utah now where he's from) said that there is a computer parts store in downtown Sparta, so Richard is going to go there first before we order a part from Dell. Suprisingly, Dell has the cheapest power source that we can find on the internet.

We can again start putting the boys to bed at 8:00pm. (I'm doing the Snoopy happy dance) We have been having to wait till its darker (around 9:00pm) because their room is still so bright when its bedtime. I remedied that today. I put up cardboard in their east facing window. So now its perfect. And it will hopefully help them sleep later in the morning as well, instead of getting up at the crack of dawn.

You know, I think I'll go take a few outside pictures of the house, so I can give you all a tour tomorrow....

I got to take a nap this afternoon! After I put Nathaniel down for a nap, I told David and Conner that I was going to go upstairs to lay down. That was about 1:15. I woke up at 2:30, thinking I heard Nathaniel crying, but when I peeked into his room, he was still out cold. I heard David & Conner talking, but that was it. So I went back to bed. Nathaniel came into my room about 3:45, crawled into bed with me and cuddled for a few minutes. So cute! When we came downstairs, David announced, "Mom, we were hungry, so we had 3 granola bars." "Three?" I ask, "Three all together or 3 each?" I already knew the answer, but I wanted him to tell me. "Three each, Mom." "Well, how did you get them open?" I was thinking that they got his scissors out and used those, which would've been fine. "We worked and worked really hard at it, and finally did it!" I couldn't get mad at them, they were being self-sufficient. And I'm not suprised that they were hungry, they didn't each much for lunch. I guess I need to put granola bars on the Sam's Club list.

Later in the week I'm planning on taking all 3 boys to the Sparta swimming pool. I called them today to get prices and directions, since this will be the first time we've gone to the pool since moving here in March, '08. The kid I talked to, and really he couldn't have been more than 15 or 16, couldn't tell me how to get there. He couldn't even tell me what street it was on, let alone how to drive there. Do I know where the golf course is? Sort of. Do I know where the baseball diamonds are? No. Umm, well, go to the golf course, turn and there will be a couple of buildings, its right by that. Um, could you be more specific? No? So I called a guy from church, who I know because we sing on the worship team together. He works for the city, so I figured he could give me directions that I could understand. Success!

We didn't get a chance to mow the lawn before we left for Texas last week, because we kept getting rain, and the grass wasn't getting dried out enough to mow before it rained again. So we came home to more of a pasture than a lawn. Richard got most of it mowed on Friday, since he had the day off, but I finished it up this evening after dinner. Some may think that it really shouldn't take 2 people to mow a lawn. My mom & dad would beg to differ. As do we. While mom & dad have 7 acres, only about 1 or 1 1/2 is what they actually mow. We have about 1/2 an acre to mow. With a walk behind lawn mower. A good part of it isn't bad, cause its pretty level and there aren't a lot of trees. The part I mowed had a huge pine tree and a nice shade tree. Oh, and its on an incline. Granted its a self propelled mower, but you still have to push it up the hill. It only took me about an hour, but it was hard work. We really need a riding mower, but can't justify the cost. Especially since we just rent the place. There is no guarentee that we'll need it when we're ready to move again. Now if there was a used one available for a couple hundred dollars, we'd make the exception.

Have a great evening!

David's back & Transformers 2 review

We picked David up at Cabela's in Owatonna, MN today. And also our nephew, Conner. He's spending the week with us. David was happy to be back with us, I think. I got an awesome squeeze hug from him!

Ok, now for the Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen review....

To start with, I've been looking forward to this movie since I found out they were making a sequel to the first one. Despite the horrible reviews from the professional critics, I was excited about it as it got closer to its release. I grew up with Transformers. The cartoon, the toys; Chris had a bunch of the toys, but got tired of them as he grew older and sold them in a garage sale when he was in high school.

So anyways, there are a lot of action sequences. There was probably stuff in the opening sequence that I missed that I'll catch the next time I see it (once its out on DVD). The Autobots from the first movie are back, minus Jazz, since he died at the end of the first movie. There are lots of additional Autobots - Arcee, the Twins, and my favorite of the new Autobots, Jetfire. Next to Optimus Prime, the Twins have the most dialogue. Most of it swearing, unfortunately. Most of what I could understand of their ghetto style talk (the best term I could think of for it, but I'm sure there's a better one) was swearing. Enough about the nasty dialogue.

One of the reviews I read said that there were a lot of sequences where Sam and Michaela were running in slow motion. This is true, however it didn't bother me as much as it did the critic, I think. Shia LaBeouf (sp?) and Megan Fox do have some good on-screen chemistry, in the couple of semi-romantic (but non-sexual) scenes.

Lots of action sequences involved lots of exploding things - cars, buildings, Autobots or Decpticons, but nothing involving blood or body parts. It also shows people flying through the air, but again, no blood or body parts.

There are several scenes that the movie could have done without, since they have no relevance to the entire plot. If you have to go to the bathroom early in the movie, go when Judy (Sam's mom) comes into Sam's dorm room with a baggie with a pot leaf on it. Its a good 3-4 minutes of Sam & his dad chasing his mom around campus while she's high on pot brownies. Not relevant at all to the movie, although it is funny. Also not relevant and very unnecessary are the scenes where the dog Mojo is humping the new Witwicki dog. Twice.

Former Captain Lennox (now a Major) has a part in the show as well. He leads a human/Autobot team that goes after Decepticons. He has a funny scene with the new liaison to their human/Autobot group involving a parachute. I think this was the funniest scene in the movie.

There is a scene towards the end (the last 30-45 minutes) that I got a huge kick out of. I'm a big fan of the show "Clean House" on the Style network (channel 235 on DirecTV). One of the hosts, Matt Iseman, has a very small scene, 1 or 2 lines, with Major Lennox. He comes down the steps of a big plane, says his lines and goes back up the steps. As soon as he started talking I knew who it was. I only mention this in case someone else likes Clean House & is planning on seeing the movie. Watch for him. He's there.

There are a couple of scenes that definitely made this a no-watch for our boys. One is in Sam's dorm room. You'll know it when you see it, although its pretty short. The language is a big thing. There is a scene with Sam & Megatron that was the clincher for me. It creeped me out. If you have see any of the Stargate: SG1 series, part of it reminded me of a Gould symbiote. Enough said.

Two spoilers. If you don't want to know, don't read this:(Highlight it with your mouse) Optimus Prime dies. Sam dies.

All in all, I really liked the show. If they had not put in so much swearing, I would've really, really liked it. If they'd have taken out the unnecessary scenes I mentioned above, I would've loved it. I like it enough to buy it on DVD. I'm looking forward to being able to watch it with subtitles on, so I can catch the dialogue I missed since it was spoken so quickly.

Working again, David & Reunion Pictures

Well, Richard got the PC going again yesterday. We think the power supply might be going out. Luckily, its only a $30ish part, so if we have to buy one, its not a huge deal. Much cheaper than buying a new computer. And we’ve had this one since 2004. Yeah, we’ve added some memory, and some additional hard drive space (a terabyte), so there is no reason to get a new one if we can fix the old one right? We’ll see how much longer this one lasts…..

We talked to David again last night. I wasn’t even on the phone with him for 2 minutes before he started crying. Made me cry, too. I had to explain to him that he only had 2 more sleeps before he’d see us again. It was about all I could take. “I miss you so much, Mommy, and I miss Daddy, and Nathaniel and the dogs, too.” All said amid the sobs of a 6 year old.” And I love you so much, and I miss you so much and I want you to come and get me now.” Talk about ripping out my heart and stomping on it. This morning Richard and I were wondering who he was going to hug first. Richard’s theory? Whoever he sees first.

Here are the reunion pictures I mentioned earlier. Many thanks to Nancy, Sam and Will for taking them!

Richard and I in a rare moment without the kids.

All of the 2nd cousins. My brother, Chris, is behind me in the light blue shirt.

David and Nathaniel are on the far right, with the cousins that are under 10.

Our family.

Just the four of us.



Again, the four of us, with David doing what he does best. Hamming it up!

Richard and I are going to see Transformers 2 tonight. I'll have to give it a review tomorrow. Have a wonderful 4th of July weekend!

Not a Good Start.....

To the morning. I turned our PC on this morning, and its not doing anything. Well, that's not exactly true. The fan is running. Very, very loudly. Luckily for me, Richard left his laptop at home. He normally takes it to work, but didn't today.

Its really quiet right now. Nathaniel is at pre-kindergarten summer school; his last day for this week. Then he has it all next week. I should really get up and clean the kitchen & dining room, but my newest Star Wars book is calling my name.

I didn't get to talk to David on Tuesday night. He called my cell phone, but I don't get service at the house, so he left a message, which I got yesterday morning. It was so sweet. "I miss you, Mom. I love you!" It about made me cry. I did get to talk to him last night, which about made me cry again, 'cause he again told me that he missed me. He's been having a lot of fun going to the pool and playing with his cousins. When he talked to Richard last night, he started crying. He wanted us to come pick him up right then. Dad got him calmed down with the news that when we pick him up on Saturday we are also picking up cousin Conner as well. He'll be visiting for the next week. That seemed to cheer him up.

Well, I had some pictures I was going to post today, but they're on the other computer. If Richard can get it up and going when he gets home, I'll do it later tonight. Have a great day!

My first post!

Welcome to my blog! Here I'll talk about our family's recent goings-on, things to come and the hilarious things our kids do and say.

Our most recent big thing was a family reunion in Texas. It was my Dad's side of the family. I saw cousins I haven't seen since I was a teenager, and now they are married and one has the two most adorable kids (next to ours, of course) that I've ever seen! (Hi, Elizabeth!) This was also the first reunion since 2001 that Richard was able to come to a reunion since he was in Iraq for the last 2 reunions.

David scored big time this past weekend when he went with Uncle Chris and Aunt Heather from the reunion to their home in Minnesota. I miss him lots more than I thought I would, and can't wait to pick him up on Saturday. Suprisingly, Nathaniel has only asked about his big brother twice; I think he's enjoying his alone time with Mom & Dad.

Nathaniel is back in summer school today. He has his pre-kindergarten summer school class in the mornings until next Friday, and he'll start pre-k this fall. He'll just be eligible to start school in the fall. They take kids who turn 4 before Sept 1st. He'll turn 4 August 12th. He's so excited about school and getting to ride the bus!

Oh, one thing to explain. I think some folks at the reunion are under the impression that my David's first name is David. It, in fact, is not. He is named for both of his Grandfathers. Richard & David. So Richard David goes by David because it is much less confusing to do that then have a Grandpa Richard, his Dad is Richard & he be Richard as well. So David it is. Until such time that he decides he wants to be a Richard.