Thursday, August 30, 2007

The list never ends...

I have a constant to do list running through my head.
  • lay grass seed for bald spots lawn at home.
  • paint cabin
  • plant tree spikes for tree at home.
  • kill hornets or wasps at cabin.
  • don't forget to turn on hot water at cabin (never fails, I wait til I want to take a shower to remember this)
  • water trees at home
  • water plants at home
  • laundry
  • make a food list for cabin.
  • pick up house.
  • kill dogs (just kidding) they are just really noisy tonight.
  • remember paint, air chuck, and bug spray for cabin.
  • remember to buy dish detergent for work kitchen. I just used the last of it today.
  • check on laundry
  • find out why the kids have the TV on and no one is watching it.
  • Get a new keyboard. The one I have, the space bar doesn't always like to work. Grrr.
  • pack clothes for cabin
  • rent movies for weekend.
  • bring some bikes up for the weekend?
  • buy some asphalt sealer for the driveway at the cabin?
  • Kill kids that are whiny and crying???? Ahhh, only 5 more days until school... who's idea was the 'waiting until AFTER THE HOLIDAY'?
Wow, that is quite the list, maybe I need to get out my Complete Book of Pocket Positives and get some encouragement.

Yikes!

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Are we done yet?

Today was Ducks Unlimited at the EAA fairgrounds in Oshkosh. We decided to bring only one dog, the lucky dog today was Lighting. He generally listens better. After letting Dad sleep a peaceful 2 hours, we woke him up and headed out. He was actually very much awake and ready to go.
After parking, we headed directly to the dog area where we tried our dog with others to see how well he was at retrieving. I am so glad it was Duner up there with the dog.
After getting into the water, he lost the dummy and began swimming in circles. At least the dog before him was worse.

After that was canoe and kayak time, catfish fishing, rockwall climbing, bike riding, archery and paintball shooting.The boys had fun. Zeb was a little pre-occupied with the thought of going to the races today. By the time we finished the Rock wall he kept suggesting that we need to leave so "Mom can drop me and Dad at the races."

Unfortunetly, I wasn't able to lose the other two.

So I am home with the older two boys...




On a side note... Let the Exodus begin.... I think the neighbors are finally fed up Crazy neighbor Craig's driving everyone has decided to leave our old yard!
House#1 (Almost exactly across the street)
House #2 (Next to House #1)
House #3 ( 2 doors away from House number 1)

Friday, August 24, 2007

Today was school shopping day with the boys. We began at a shoe store, found a buy one get on FREE event and got one pair for each. Then we headed to the Outlet Mall in Oshkosh to see what they had there.

Someone told me there was a pretty good deal on some shoes at a store down there, I didn't find any shoes, but I did manage to pick up a few shirts for Zeb and Reece.

We shopped at Oshkosh B'gosh, Some shoe store, Old Navy Outlet, The Children's place and Land's end outlet.

We also managed a stop at a few fun-for-Mom stores, like Ralph Lauren and Bath and body Works Outlet.

The kids Loved the Bath and Body store, it was completely hands on activity for them. They were allowed to smell and Try just about everything.

One of the items they tried was a smelling area for room fragrances line called Wallflowers. They fell in love with a fragrance called Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream, so we picked it up.

I talked Reece into putting it in his room, now the boys keep coming up from the basement looking for my Chocolate Candy Cane cookies... YUM! Not really the ice cream but still sounds good!

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Pre K shot day

I like to prepare my kids. I don't like to surprise them with getting shots. This time it was Z's turn.
He is entering preschool at the public school, so he needed to have immunizations. Four to be exact. Yes 4. That is his age. It is hard but not impossible to reason with someone that age. I hear all kinds of 4 yr olds SCREAM, when it comes to the shots. Brock was just about IMPOSSIBLE to reason with when it comes to shots.

Anyway, I warned Z the night before about him getting shots. I told him he would get some medicine so it would not hurt so much, before we even left for the doctor appointment. I worried about it some more, and I kept trying to reassure him he was going to have medicine to help with the pain. I told him it wasn't going to take the pain away, but it will hurt less. Again, I just really don't like to lie to my kids. I will joke around but lying is just not a good thing to do to them.

Z fell asleep next to me on the couch that night and when he woke up the next morning, the first thing he said was "I don't want any shots."

**sigh**

"Sorry honey, but you will be getting your shots" I replied. Bummer. Sleep didn't help anything.

So I gave the Tylenol before hand, brought his tough brother R with us for support, so he could tell him how he doesn't mind shots at all.
They brought in the shots. I asked for an extra nurse, just because Brock is such a wimp when it comes to shots. We laid him down and I tried to side track him, while the double teamed him. He whispered "OW, OW, OW" a few times but otherwise did GREAT! No screaming, wailing, or hitting from him!! I have seen teenagers do worse than him.

Monday, August 20, 2007

And then they were GONE!

So I was outside, when it briefly wasn't raining this weekend, and I kept having to look at my watch to see what the date was. What a temperature change from last weekend. I swore that it was September already. It was over cast, rainy and chilly this weekend, all weekend.

On Sunday I figured I would fully take advantage of the crappy weather to kill some wasp's or hornet's that made a nice home by the dog's kennel. They said on TV the high temperature for Sunday was 61 degrees. I know how much they hate cold weather, so flying wouldn't be so easy for them. I bought a bonus package of wasp and hornet killer, that said it could spray up to 27 feet.

The kids wanted to help take care of them so I had them watch from behind the dog privacy fence. They had they perfect view of the action, but they kept trying to sneak a better one.

As soon as I sprayed they started dropping like rain. It was perfect for this. I kept spraying until I used up all the spray, just in case. You could see where they had baby wasp's or hornet's and I wasn't taking any chances, everything had to go.

We have a ladder but we left it up at the cabin. If I could have gotten on top of the roof I was going to us a shovel to get the nest down. Brock was insistent that I not wreck it, since he wanted to see if the queen was in the nest, but since I couldn't get on the roof, I had to use water to knock it down. I tried to spray just the top of the nest, but after a short time I had to shoot towards the middle of the nest to get it moving.

Parts and pieces began to fall down the siding. The more I shot, the more stuff fell down. Soon half of the nest fell down. The kids scampered over trying to see the nest. They were disappointed to see the condition of it. Nope. They don't hold up well to high pressure water. The kids decided it was no longer fun to watch, so they went on their way playing what they were before we started with the bee's.
I finished spraying down the rest of the nest and put it in with the dog waste. It had nicely sealed container and the contents were going into the trash for pick up the next day. All that was left was some black marks where the nest was hanging on.

Now that we know they were there, I am sure the kids will let us know when more appears again.

Ha! Take that you nasty beasts!

Yay!!!

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Boy's Paradise

Thanks to happy miscalculation on our part we were able to take the kids out to eat last night and to a place I like to call Boy's Paradise.

We loaded all the kids in to the car and went out for supper at Mr.Cinders. Zeb sometimes orders and sometimes doesn't but after the peanut and butter sandwich that Brock made for Lunch, he was hungry for supper. He ordered the Mac-n-Cheese with apple dippers (apple dippers are the newest favorite for him). We happily watched as he chowed down his mac-n-cheese, then worked on his apple dippers. He actually ate 3/4 of it!

He was very well behaved, it was Brock and Reece that wouldn't take there hands off each other. Constantly poking, tapping or pushing each other. They were a little excited. We ended up having the kids separate and were not allowed to even look at each other, that was actually quite fun to watch that. Reece finished his sundae with his hand up by his face the entire time. If he would briefly forget he would let out a Homer Simpson 'D,Oh!' and put it back.

Reece ordered a Cheeseburger with fries, a usual for him. He ate just over half of his burger, and then a small sundae (it was included with the meal).

Brock ordered a grilled cheese sandwich. He ate all of that, then he just wanted to go, so he didn't want his sundae.

Duner had the All You can eat Whitefish. I had my typical grilled chicken sandwich and cup of chili.

We finished our food and headed out the the paradise.

Lil' Zeb likes to call it Golden Corral. We keep explaining to him that Golden Coral is a Restaurant, but he has short term memory loss when it comes to this. He also knows the location to it but not the actual directions. It is conveniently located just off a highway, so when we took the exit before it Zeb told us we were going the wrong way. We explained to him we were taking a short cut and he was happy with that.

We purchased a package, which was cheaper,and got in line for the go-carts.

For August, it was a little chilly, so I wasn't looking forward to it.
We all hopped in to a car. Dad with Zeb, Brock, Reece and I in our own. Thankfully, the heat off the engine kept me warm. I was stuck the entire time behind Reece. He takes up the entire track when he drove! If you get to close to someone they shut down your engine, so I had to slow down.

I went once, Duner took Zebbie 2 times and once by himself (cause all the double go-carts were taken), and Brock and Reece got to go 3 times each.
Needless to say they didn't want to leave, but Duner had to work.

As soon as we got home Zeb was asking to go back there.

And when he woke up this morning what was the first thing he said?
"Can we go to Golden Corral today?"
"No, and it is called Badger Sports Park." I replied...

What was his 2nd question?
"Where is Brock and Reece?"

I think he is in search of some allies...

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Road Trip!

So as we headed out on Saturday the kids were excited to say the least. They began chanting 'Road Trip, Road Trip... ' before we even left Appleton. Our Camry has the basic of air conditions, called open windows. After about an Hour and half Zeb asked "How much longer?" Happily I replied "Only 30 more minutes."

As we arrive in Downtown Wisconsin Dells it is 3-4pm and the street is full of people and traffic in all directions. The kids are excited but when we turned left onto the road with the Hotel on it they become beside themselves with excitement. Wow. Look at that! Can we do that? Can We go there? Were phrases I heard over and over. We found our hotel with no problem and check in. We quickly became the minority there. Three Chinese looking women were checking in and many dark skinned and hair people around us. He scooped out the view of the indoor water area and it was filled with African Americans. It is so different to see that in a Wisconsin town, even if it is a tourist place. A lot of the staff seemed to have a strong accent of some type. Ordering our food was interesting. The guy was very nice though.

We spent our time going between the indoor and outdoor area. We got a life jacket for Zebbie, but we were unsuccessful in getting him to go down the water slides they had.
We took a break from swim time for food about 6:30pm, just in time for the Packer Game. We went up to our room, via stairs due to the elevator being down, ate and took some time to let the food digest. The kids were to excited to sit still so they found the arcade. It was on level 2. Our room was on level 3. We only gave them a few dollars but only 1 dollar at a time, so they had to keep coming up by us for more money. Finally we headed back for 2 more hours of swim time.

Zeb did a constant flip flop between the kiddie slide and hot tub. (probably to warm up) Toward the end of the night we actually go Zeb talked into the deep water, with the life jacket, to doggy paddle by HIMSELF. He was so pleased with himself.
I tried to work with swimming for all the kids. Brock actually does a very good front crawl. He kept his head in the water face down, only turning as he should to breathe.
Reece's technique is a work in progress. He still has a tendency to arch his back to breathe, instead of turning his head.

Unfortunately, we had to go to the room to hit the bed.

We woke up bright and early to goto a favorite restaurant of ours called Paul Bunyan's.
Can you say YUM?

We quickly attack our buttermilk donuts, as they bring out our drinks. Brock- Decaf coffee, Zeb- milk and Reece-Orange Juice.

As we finish our donuts out comes the scrambled eggs, fried potatoes, sausages, ham and pancakes. Our server asks us if we would like biscuits and gravy, but we declined. Zeb said yes, but he was just about up for anything, even though he hadn't yet finish his donut.

We quickly finished out food an hour before the water park even opened, so we browsed the gift shop for a while to waist time. Zeb got a truck and car that was on clearence (half-price), goodboy Zebbie! Reece got a bow and arrow set with tiny suction cup arrows. Brock got a mini pirate set, Duner got a new T-shirt and I got a anti-gas sign for my house. (Yes, I know that would help..).

We get back to the hotel change into our swimsuits, sunscreen ourselves, and check out. Our hotel was directly across from the water park. We quickly found a parking stall and began to exit the car.

After getting our wristbands for Noah's Ark, Zeb immediately sees the Stingray slide and decides that is the first thing he wants to go on. Not the best choice. After we get to the top, we found out Zeb can't sit on our laps, so only one of us can go. Duner quickly chickens out after seeing the drop so I am it. Zeb had to sit backwards because they want the heavier person in the back. Zeb's tiny little butt, just barely staying in the tube. As soon as we move to the edge I realize just how bad this ride is for Zeb. As we are going down on part of the slide to head to the other, he folds in half. When we reach the other side I quickly grab his leg, just in case he would panic and try to get out. After losing my sandal under his butt, the ride slows down quickly. When we stop Zeb has a hard time getting out of the tube. He wanted to make sure it really stopped.

The next was bumper boats, then Flash Flood. The boys didn't want to go on that ride so they waited on the bridge to get soaked, as Duner and I rode the ride. It was so empty that we got to go on 2 times in a row. They have special nets and railings on the bridge due to the powerful water that comes due to the boat. It was very fun for us and the kids. I don't know which ones got more soaked, us or the kids.

The rest of the day was spent on various tube rides, rope gliders, short slides and in the wave pools. Zeb found some kiddie pool areas that he throughly enjoyed. The older kids couldn't wait to head in to the wave pools, I hardly had a chance to tell them about not going to deep before they wandered in. Luckily the waves go in timed waves. They turn off the waves to tell if anyone is having a difficult time in the water. After the first time, a lifeguard actually had to jump in a save a boy that was near Duner and Reece. He looked to be about a year or two younger than Reece. He was ok, just shaken up.

We managed to sneak in the 4-D theater, that had the smell of pickles, the feel of air and water, and real floating bubbles. We also stopped by the Noah's Incredible adventure, that Zeb loved.

By the end of the day, we had sore feet and thirsty mouths, but we all loved each and every minute of it. As we left, we wondered, what can we do there NEXT year???

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Reece's Triathlon 2007

Reece was in the water warming up here... Very Nervous. After a stop at the poly john (aka Port-a-potty) He confessed he felt like he was going to toss his cookies.
Coming out of the water after the swim! He did great in the swim! Coming out in 3rd place. He later told me "Mom, my legs were SO tired after the swim. I liked the run better than the swim." His swim goggles were only for looks, they never made it to his eyes. He completely forgot about them until he was getting his bike helmet on.
Just Finishing the bike, heading in to transition area to start the run.


Wow! What fun! Here Reece is holding up his Medal. I love that all the kids get a medal. Brock is pretending to be sad in this picture, Geez, can you tell?
I had a blast watching the 2 and 3 year olds do this. Zeb would be awesome. It was cute to see them walk the swim (only going up to there waist) and run out to the transition area. One little boy was carried the entire swim, crying just like a siren, but as soon as he came out of the water, he was movin'! I think Reece's entire Triathlon was maybe 20-25 minutes max. It went quick but he was so tired. This was a great self esteem booster for him. He worried about it so much. He didn't mind when other kids would pass him, he said he told a few of them 'good job', as the passed him. I was glad to hear that because he is so competitive. We didn't stay for the trophies. Reece didn't think he would have gotten one. (He did take his time in transition, so I don't think he did either).

He did a great job, just tri'n.

Now, on to Wisconsin Dells...
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Friday, August 10, 2007

His Final Countdown...

Ok.
Swimsuit. check.
Socks. check.
Shoes. Check.
Goggles. Check.
Towel. Check.
Bike. Check. Safety check of bike. check.
Helmet. Check.
Gee, Did I forget anything? I guess we will find out. Tomorrow is the big day. Reece is VERY nervous. Mainly about the swim. I think this is almost as stressful for me, trying to make sure he has everything he needs. I can't imagine having more than one doing this tomorrow. Yikes!

Sunday, August 05, 2007

Busy Saturday...

Where do I start? Boy, what a crazy weekend!
I began it with a 3 mile run, not record breaking but I did it. I had been running on a treadmill the last 2 times so Saturday I wanted to see if it helped at all. Not yet.
We then went shopping for landscaping. We wanted to get more in our yard than the limited items we have now.
Large trees are NOT cheap. I have tried with 3 small trees, with no results. We visited 2 local plant nursery's and 2 local home improvement stores. I was hoping to get some year or season ending plants but they aren't quite on sale yet. We did get a birch that was kind of sad looking but it is larger than normal, so I am hoping we can nurse it back to health.

We then had to get ready for our neighborhood block party. Duner had to work but the rest of us still went. We met more neighbors that are building than we did of people that just moved in to the neighborhood. We met 3 neighbors that are building homes and 1 that just built behind us. They have twin girls that kept them very busy, so they didn't stay long.

They had a pig roast, which really grossed out many girls but not my family. Of course they were all checking it out. It was stuffed full of wieners and sauerkraut. Also, they had cob's and cob's of CORN. YUMMY! First it was soaking in a tub (of sugar water, I think) then they used a metal barrel cut in half the long way for a grill to grill the corn on. The kids were in heaven. Brock said he had over 10 ears of corn. I heard another kid had 18 ears! They had a blast. There was a water ballon fight and a pinata was a hit. Reece got bummed out because he was next in line to hit when it was busted. The candy seemed to ease his pain a bit.
Zeb had to use the bathroom, but asked if Their toilet took 'took long ones'. Meaning he had to go #2 but was afraid to plug up the toilet. After some reassuring he visited the restroom.

Duner stopped in from 8:30 to 9:20, then he had to work at his other job for 4hrs. I let the kids tell me when it was time to go, finally Zeb wanted to go home after midnight so we headed home and went to bed.

The next day I learned Duner stopped by after work and there were still people there. He stayed for a little while and then headed home, too.