Sunday, September 30, 2007

Ok that was FUN!

What a busy weekend...
First I meet the girls from the neighborhood out a local establishment to record a Happy Birthday message secretly to a neighbor. I drove a neighbor and passed one walking to the place on the way. We probably could have walked to but we both had time reasons to leave early. She is a nursing mom and Duner had to work nights Friday.

Bright and early on Saturday I woke at the crack of dawn to get ready to spend the weekend away. I showered, packed and headed over to my friend's J's house. She was ready and waiting for me to get there. After loading up my bag we headed out. Three hours later we were pulling in to a parking stall and gearing up for a busy day of shopping.

Warrens is a town of 400 that becomes flooded with about 100,000 people. The entire town gets taken over. We walk all over the place. In peoples yards, in Church yards, in ALL the streets and a few nearby fields.

After a loaded baked potato, we warmed up a bit. The air had a slight chill to it. Every year the weather in this city is the opposite of what you think. It was forecasted to be in the high 70:s on Saturday, it was really in the low 60's in the highest. We decided after it began to sprinkle after 4 hours to head back to a hotel and sit in a hot tub and realax.

We had forgotten the name of the hotel we had a reaservation at. We were able to stop in at a hotel to use their computer to look up the name of our hotel. We kind of wished we were staying at that hotel, but we had another reservation.

After checking in our hotel, the hot tub was in need of a really good cleaning so we retreated to our room. After calling a local theater for movies times and prices we decided to rent a DVD player and some movies instead. It was nice. I learned my friend has not seen very many movies recently, but I was still willing to re-watch any that she wanted. We picked out Knocked Up and We are Marshall.

After the first one, we barely made it through the second. It was a busy day so we went to bed early.

The next day I woke first and tried to get the coffee going for us, but when I turned on a light I ended up waking up her too.

Within a short time we were ready to try our luck again.

The weather was beautiful!! We heard there was a posibility of showers, but none appeared. It was nice being only two. I think we covered more ground. I definitely got further than I ever have. We found better deals on day two; Not to mention many less people. It seems like a shame, so many people stuck it out on a crappy day, to miss out on the deals and weather the very next day.

I came home and learned Reece got his first bee sting. Apparently he is not allergic. He went to some festival with his Aunt Shannon and was using a port-o-potty and as he was getting out it got his hand. I guess the bee's were just mean that day because Aunt Shannon ended up getting stung too!

Sounds like they had fun too! Enjoy the Photo Show, just ignore my funny face...

Friday, September 28, 2007

Help for Brock, Please.

Please allow me list little bit of your time for my child's benefit. I don't do this often,
I really despise this about the K.A School District, but they send this home each year.

B. is selling magazines. They will will plant a tree every time a 3rd magazine is purchased by the same household through a non-profit organization called Plant-it 2020.
Brock is desperately trying to sell as many as he can. He hopes to earn enough for a MP4 player. (That is 75 magazines...) so any help I am sure is appreciated.
They have all different kinds.

Cooking
Fitness
News, Business and Home
Lifestyle
Sports & Leisure
Entertainment & Fashion
Outdoors
Travel


Please go to this Website.
Click on Order Magazines.
Then enter the School's Code. WC2350.
Then click on 'Start Shopping'
Enter B's First Name. Enter the Last name. (So he can get credit for it)

If you are more comfortable please email us your choices and we will reply back.

Thank you for your time....

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Wow!

Who knew a dictionary would be such a treasured item? Too bad R is in not in 3rd grade.
Apparently the 3rd Graders from R's school think it is the 'Greatest Dictionary EVER!'
Take a peek

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Field Trips Everywhere!


I am not really sure why but this school district likes to front load all of the field trips for the kids in the early parts of the year. I don't know if parents aren't as likely to pay later in the year or what, but it is a bit overwhelming.

Two kids have a field trip to an apple orchard. I am sure they will pick apples, probably some gourds or pumpkins, too.

One to a historical state park, Kettle Moraine State Park, and a local nature center.

Some need a bag lunch others not. Apparently if I would agree to chaperone, I need a background check. That never happened in the other schools. I guess it is a nice feature, but I just didn't realize they were so picky.

Then my oldest tells me that he only has $7 in his account for school lunch. Ok, we are less than 3 weeks into school and he should have had more than enough to make it through the first month, no problem!

Well, evidentially, he has been getting some extras... ala carte. His school lets him buy additional items if he wants for additional money.

He told me at first he was getting an extra milk. Hmmmm.

After a little bit I thought no there is more than just milk.

It didn't take much longer for him to crack. He confessed to having COOKIES AND MILK!

AH HA!

Monday, September 17, 2007

Boxer Boy


Brock has been looking to break the the world record for length of wearing underwear without washing. Yes, he is out to impress, I know. I don't think there is an existing one, I Google'd it but was afraid I was getting too many porn references.

So, this AM I had to wake up Brock, he forgot to set his alarm and I just happened to get up 2 minutes before he is to leave. I quickly told him to hop in the shower and I ran around getting clothes and making sure he didn't miss the bus.

While I was looking for clothes I noticed I couldn't find any clean underwear. Hmm. I remembered the 'record' he was trying to set. I wondered if he secretly hid the others to remind him of his record setting attempt. Yes, I am so very proud of him.

So, after doing some laundry today I asked him about the lack of underwear.
He said he didn't know where more were.

To which I said "Either they are lost or they ran away because they didn't want to have to be on your butt that long. There is only one on your butt and one in the laundry room."

He was so amused by that he had to run down to his brothers and tell them what I said. He giggled about that for a good 10 minutes.

So, I will be adding boxer briefs to my next clothing adventure. (probably not in camo)

Saturday, September 15, 2007

We are goin' to Albuquerque!

It's official we are going March 9th to March 18th.

I was online yesterday and found an insanely cheap airfare. I called a travel agent just to make sure that was correct and she said it was and we should snap it up since it's not often that happens.

We are going for 9 days. Now, I have to finish preparing for our baby's 5th birthday party, opening of bow hunting season, Warrens cranberry Festival, Duner's Colorado trip, and Halloween. All in the next 45 days. Yikes!

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Gone!

Well it is official.

I have 3 (yes, 1.2. and 3!!) kids in public schools!

Ahhhhh!

Of course we had to get some last minute pics, which he hammed up for the camera.




He was the first one on the bus, I had to buckle him up as he got on.

At the last minute I stuck a ID Badge, that I was going to use for his birthday party on him with which teacher he belonged to, so he wouldn't get lost.




One last picture then he was off on his way on the little bus...

I am sure he will be just fine.

Now I must get my butt out on a run/walk. I am hoping to do 5 miles today. Yikes!

Monday, September 10, 2007

Learning to swim in a sea of chaos

This weekend I was able to escape the craziness with kids to live the life of non-kidness.
What a nice change.
I went down to Madison to volunteer with the Iron Crew for Ironman Wisconsin. Otherwise known as the Cheddar shredder. My sister had some pics on it on her blog. It will also air on TV on FSN network on October 15th at 7pm.

I can't possibly begin to describe how my fun, it truly was. Our shift began at 8:30am and lasted until 12:30pm. I was so filled with the adrenaline that I couldn't believe it was done. It went so quick!

My sister and I both worked at the food both. It was part of a long line of refreshments meant for the athletes. Water, Gatorade, bananas, oranges, power bars, and gu. There was MANY athletes from different countries as well. It was fun trying to understand some of them as quick as they rode by pointing and repeating what they needed.

I gave bananas. My sister was oranges. She began handing out bananas and oranges after while because a lot of the athletes wanted bananas. Probably to avoid the cramping that was inevitable after excising as hard as they do for at least 10 hours straight. I was the first person of our food station, immediately after the water group. Lots of athletes wanted water. It was scary to see them get so close, and so fast. I would say less than 10 athletes actually slowed down. Many times I had to keep my eyes on the water guy in front of my because you have to run with the athlete. Yah! Try doing that backwards! They are going DOWN HILL and about 2o miles per hour, some up to 30! Not easy! (I know this because they had a police radar trailer set up monitoring speed, so you could see it as they went down hill)

I also had to watch for flying bottles of water that were slipped out of the hands of athletes as they tried to grab some water. Some not realizing they twisted open would throw the unopened bottles back at us. Yes, a little Scary, but so FUN! We also, had to make sure the road was kept clean from debris. We didn't need any bikes plowing in to us or the crowd across from us.

The athletes went by us twice. On mile 55 and 95. Some kept going past on the first round, but as they came around again that was when it got tricky. Some said thanks to us for working that day, some cursed they way they were given their water/food. Some would be delighted with the options and say 'Ohh, BANANAS!', some would say 'GEL, GEL, GEL' in a heavy accent. (Meaning the high energy Hammer Gel or GU packs that we had.)

I saw one guy take a nasty dive in the water part. Luckily, he was the only one, even though others ran into him, they didn't fall. On girl also fell, but she got back on, too!
Two athletes had to replace tires, one had to replace 2 tires, his spare had a hole! One guy needed some screws tightened.

After some pizza, my sister and I headed out to cheer on some athletes. It was interesting to see the people that cheered people on too.

Many people had T-shirts custom made for this event. (or maybe many events, I am sure)

One groups said...
'See Mike Swim
See Mike Bike.
See Mike Run.

Another said "The beatings continue until the morale improves". The had some kids with them and they were all decked out in pirate bandannas.

The groups cheering on the Mexican Ironmen were by far the most colorful and excited. I don't know if it is the Spanish language, but it always sounded so encouraging. One woman had a mega phone and would yell anytime she saw one of the over 300 Mexican team members. They also had many instruments to help make noise. That was a nice idea. My hands hurt so bad by the time we left at just before 3pm.

I had almost forgotten about the Packers that were playing during that time, until one of the female athletes asked us what the score was.

I had gotten a nice T-shirt and sunburned face to remind me of this adventure. It was definitely not the last time for this!

Thursday, September 06, 2007

It's Begining...

So I am at work today and I get a phone call from Brock. Exactly 4:22pm. (The time he gets off the bus) I was very busy so I had to call him back.

I get a minute and call him.

He answers the phone "MOM" (obviously he saw the Caller ID)
"The weirdest, most strangest thing happened to me today. You'll never guess." as he continued...
"At lunch a girl asked me out, but my friends and I ran away from her. Later, as I was getting on the bus I told her I don't want to go out with her and I don't like her."

ok.

So, I told him that he will need to be more considerate when declining a date. You never know when she will get a really cute friend that you will need help with.

It's deader than dead!

The other day, we put up the deer head that Duner's bro mounted for us and Zebbie asked me
"Mom, When you put that up, will it come alive?"
"Oh No!" I replied.

Later Duner said I should have told him 'Yeah, the rest of it is on the outside of the house.'

Bad Daddy.

Reason # 5

to hate Circuit City....
Our computer monitor decided to die. Yes, not even 10 months old and it dies.
Apparently the salesman that sold us the computer didn't include the monitor in the 'optional warranty' that we purchased.

Lovely.

The recommend we call Gateway.... THREE phone numbers later, they tell us our monitor will cost us $40 bucks to have them LOOK at it.
**sigh**

I love Best Buy.
I love Best Buy.
I miss Best Buy.

We hop in the car and head to Circuit City to chew someone's ear off, but by the time I get there common sense takes over and we decide they won't exchange a monitor no matter who I talk to, so we just have to chalk that up to a learning experience from Circuit City and bite the bullet and get a new monitor. GRRRR.

We grabbed a new keyboard too since our space bar only worked part of the time. (Which is partly why the blog has been quiet).

Now 4 hours later...
1 new monitor
1 new keyboard (cordless no less, it was cheaper than the corded)
1 new mouse (it was included)

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Finally!

Ok, now Breathe! Ahhhhhh.

After much running around the kids and I made it up to the cabin late Friday night. We washed the kitchen counters and fridge down and popped in a movie. Brock won the coin toss so we watched Blades of Glory. I didn't care too much for it, but Brock was dying to see it. After trying Zeb's movie Called Kart Racer, we ended up putting in Reece's movie, In the Army Now, since Zeb's didn't work. I had to talk Reece in to getting that movie, but he LOVED it so much he watched it twice.

We got together for a horseshoe tournament this weekend at Crooked Lake. Duner and his Brother team up each year. Last year the had a really bad loss to kick them out in the 2nd round of play, so this year the goal was to make it past that. They succeed! They made it into 4 rounds and then a couple of older guys that have played much more than Duner and Cory, kicked their butts. But they were still happy. They made it further than they did before.

That night we lit a campfire and let the boys dig a large hole to fit Zeb in it all the way up to his neck. We stopped the fun when the boys began to dream up tunnels underground and rooms big enough for more than one person. They were so dirty, we made them bathe before getting in bed that night.

They had so much fun they decided to dig the next day too!
We gathered up the boys, and some fishing gear and headed out to a small pond. The boys caught about 12 Pumpkin Seed fish.
We didn't expect to catch that many fish, so we didn't bring anything to keep them in. We had to release them all.

After lunch we walked through the woods near the cabin and picked out some wild Sweet Ferns. The kids also got a nice lesson about poison Ivy. Thankfully, no one got a rash or anything, but we came close. The woods we were in had roads made of sand, Zeb and baby G loved that. They slid, rolled and ran around on them. The boys loved the carpet moss they found in the woods.

We ended up coming home that night to get the kids ready for the upcoming beginning of school the next day.
Of course the kids waited until the last possible moment to tell me they don't have this or that.

It was so nice to get that over with. Reece was afraid he wasn't going to wake up in time, but by 6am he was fully dressed with his backpack on. The boys were very excited to get the day going.