Halloween Eve

Duner and I are invited to a Halloween Party on Saturday night. We are welcome to wear a costume, in fact, I was at this very same party last year and wore my 'triathalon' gear as my costume and I felt a bit under dressed.

This year Duner will be able to come with me, and I wanted to do something fun. I asked a co-worker of mine about costumes and she brings over a neat ghost, cave man, 60's chick and a nun. Complete with jewelry, accessories and make up!!! Thanks K!

I absolutely LOVE the pink wig. I talked Brock and Reece into modeling for the camera.
I would have no problem being either. In fact, it would be kind of funny to have Duner dress up as the girl!! ha. ha.
Do you think he would go for it?








Wednesday night we carved pumpkins. I had a template I printed for me and Zeb, but Reece came up with his own pumpkin.
He did a AWESOME job! He made it 2 sided. We have a Welcome side that says Night, and a back side with a wizard on it.

He was really proud of himself...




Brock's ADHD was in effect that night so he accidentally did his upside down. But he did his best. He decided to make it in his likeness and added glasses.

Zeb emptied his out and he helped me staple the pattern on, but I pretty much did the rest.


Tommorrow night we will have a Ninja, Brainwashed Child and Arrow Boy out begging for candy.
Happy Halloweenie Everyone!!

Whatcha' ma call it....

Saturday my Mom called to tell me they got a new puppy. A few weeks ago my parents dog had to be put to sleep.

She had told me 'They weren't going to have any dogs for a while'. Apparently, a while is about 2 weeks time.


This is Zeb with the new border collie pup.






Reece fell in love with her. She is a 39 days old.
Apparently, she was a puppy mill product.


We went to Grandmas to check her out last night instead of going out to High Cliff and the first thing Zeb said to me this am was 'Can we go to Grandmas and see the puppy today?'

I told them is they hurry up and got ready for Church, we can make it there before and if they behave, we can stop by after.

I have NEVER seen them get ready so fast!!!







They took the girl out to go potty twice.













She doesn't have a name as of yet. Some suggestions were BROWNIE, MARSHMALLOW, PENELOPE (PENNY), FRISKY, HONEY, SUGAR. The lady at the puppy mill called her 'Red'.

She has one blue eye and one green eye.
She was a bit unsteady yet, but she is still pretty young yet.

Grandma said she picked her was because she kind of sat away from the rest of the crowd. Almost to say "Let them go first'.

Grandma figured that would mean that she had a good temperament.






She looks a little pissed off in this pic but reallly she is a sweetheart.

And seeing how we just found an AWESOME home for our two dogs, NO WE WILL NOT BE GETTING ONE ANYTIME SOON!

We will just puppy sit once in a while and be good.

Fast Freaky Day

Saturday was an extremely busy day in our house. First thing, bright and early at 7am Zeb and I headed out to the freaky 5k. He was doing the 1/4 mile fun run, and the 5k with me.
Reece was supposed to join us be ended up with Strep on Friday,so he stayed home and slept.
I was looking forward to this because of the costumes that were involved.
This wild couple is only one of the many costumes that were displayed. I work with one of them but I won't tell you which one. I didn't get to stay for the judging, Zeb wanted to play at Brock and Reece's old playground. (A school near the park we were at.)
We saw a irish dancing girls, Oreo Double stuff cookie, M&M's, Witches, a lil' Chicken pushed in a stroller by a bunny, walking with a Cat. Zeb said to me "Mom they are all animals". Yep, he was right.


Zeb just liked to walk through and sometimes stop to 'rest' on our walk. He did really well considering we did run a little bit in the beginning.
















I thought these were a fun costume. It was part of a group of Teachers (I think they also did the half marathon too) that poked fun at the WLUK situation that I blogged about not to long ago that is still not resolved. You can't see it but it says 'NO SERVICE' on top of the walking sticks that they have and they had tv antenna's on there heads.






Here is the Ketchup and Mustard, and a not so 'hot dog'. Ha. Ha. get it?

If you could feel the temp that morning you would think the guy in shorts was in costume. Burrrrrr.














This was my lil' Ninja as he came running in from the 1/4 kids run that he did. He did great!











Then we had a Halloween Party at Zeb's School, we went home and grabbed Reece (he was feeling better and had been on his meds for over 24 hrs) and we made the rounds at Z's school.

At one point a woman asked Reece to show her son that Reece was really just wearing a mask, so her son would stop freaking out. Poor kid. It was funny to see how most kids were amazed at his mask.
Reece actually got sick of the attention, yes- rare I know, and took it off.
The kids got a free meal from Red Robin, culvers, snacks and stickers. So, We decided to go eat at Red Robin for supper. Brock Loved his burger. He said it was almost as good as FUDDRUCKERS. Wow.
We were on our way out to High Cliff after that but Grandma called to say she got a puppy and the boys wanted to see it immediately. Now they are asking to go see it again.... Maybe I will get a picture of it today.

Fortune...

This is what our Movie room looked like 5 months ago.... and after much sweat, cursing and tons of trips to the 'fix it' store....

It is coming along. We still have to finish the flooring (tile and wood floor), install the doors and finish the window in Brocks Room.

Zeb has been after us to get him lunch box since the 2nd day of school. He has desperately wanted to take cold lunch to school. I found this little cutie online and told Zeb it would be here in 7 days. He made a countdown on a sheet of paper and faithfully crossed off the days each day til it came... exactly as I said it would... And I was just guessing! Whew! Lucked out there!!
The first day we sent him to school with it, I put in a buck for milk at lunch and he accidentally threw it out! Hmmm. I guess we have to do drink boxes instead.

Tuesday we had a dental check up and Brock was terrified that he might have a cavity. Especially after what happened last time. Now, our dentist's office is loaded with TV's!! Every room has one. Zeb got to watch Nickelodeon and the older boys watched Casper the Friendly Ghost, while they hygienist worked. I got to watch HGTV.
Last time Reece was smug because he didn't have any cavities while we all did. Now, he got paid back for saying he didn't 'have to brush'. Now he will be getting 2 teeth pulled instead.
Gotta Love Karma.
One the way to the dentist Reece said to me 'Mom, Zeb's education is much more important than mine so you better bring him back to School first.'
Silly kid.

So... What have I been doing lately?

The kids newest 'FAVE' game is Spore. They have been saving their pennies to purchase it ($50 bucks) and are half way there, but they lucked out an found a friend that can't use the game on his computer so he lets Brock and Reece play it here. They have had it all week and are LOVING it.

We are going to have a bathroom in the basement within the next two weeks. We picked out some tile call Mocha, with accents of Hazelnut tile. The guy that is going to do it is a professional that has just began doing this on his own. We heard so many good things about him so we are really looking forward to this.

We also just had the plumber come and fix Duners, um, water problem... remember the Brady Bunch post? Yayy!!! It took him like 5 minutes.

I have been feelin' all like an athlete or somethin', since I just signed up for a Half Marathon in Sarasota for February!! Can you believe it?

A girl I work with was tellin' me during the Fox Cities Marathon that she was going to be doing the Sarasota Grouper Half in February, and she was going to be running it. Wow! I thought. That is AWESOME! We haven't even finished this half yet and she already signed up for another one! So.... Fast forward to this past week... I was looking for some motivation to help me with the newest weight loss challenge I signed up for and asked her if she wouldn't mind if I trained with her. I told her I wasn't going to do the half but I wanted to train with her.

She said SURE! I was happy. I needed the encouragment. I like to know someone is waiting for me. We begin the 'training on October 26th. (Today I was quickly getting McDonalds on my way to work and who is in the drive thru behind me? She was!!!) Too Funny. I had a pretty good weigh in so I allowed my self 4 days of fat and bad eating, followed by 10 days of good, lean eating.

Then Wednesday she said "You should do the Half too!"
Wow. I guess that I never thought about it. REAL Athletes do stuff like that, not me.

Hey. I can be a REAL ATHLETE. Thanks Katie!!

I checked the price of tickets, and the race.... asked if my husband didn't mind me not being around on our golden anniversary (14 years on Valentines Day!) and he said "Go Ahead!"...

So February 12, I leave for Sarasota without my kids... or husband... to RUN! for 13.1 miles!!
in Sunny Florida....ahhhh.

High Cliff Ride

Today I rode my bike out to High Cliff quickly, I got called in to work so I had to squeak it in before Zeb's swim lesson and the impending rain... How can you NOT want to ride out with such great scenery.... If you live in the area... I HIGHLY recommend taking a drive/ ride out there ASAP.

I pass this house a lot on my rides out to High Cliff. I love the bones of it. It has such mystery. I always wonder why it was left to ruin. I bet it used to be a charmer.

This is the top of the hill at High Cliff. Love those Colors!

Yep, I actually stopped on the hill to take this and MANY pics... I know, I need my head tweaked.

This is the area at the bottom of the hill. Not a pretty as the top, but still nice.

It took about an hour to get there from my house, but only 35 minutes to get home... thanks to the wind. My legs are feeling it now. But my mind is thanking me. I had forgotten that I was actually getting exercise. I just got lost in the colors of the season.

Tonight when I asked about the MP3 player that Reece had in his back pack, he said ....

"But then you can't hear the sounds of the wilderness, like 'Get off the road you crazy biker!'. So peaceful."

Always my clown.

Breast Cancer Awareness Run/ Walk

With Thanks to Dez, I am back in another contest for weight loss. This one lasts til December 31st. We have to weigh in every other week, it is nice to have a longer time between weigh ins.
It is also nice to have some races to help motivate my exercise.

Today was the Breast Cancer Awareness Run/ Walk at Greene Isle Park in Green Bay.

It is a 2 mile or 5 mile race. I met some girls from work and we decided to all ride together. My employer gave us all T-shirts for Free to use on that day. So we all had ours on.

It was at a pretty area lots of trails and trees. Lots of people had signs on that said who they were walking/ running for. Over 2500 people took part. It kind of makes you realize just how BIG cancer is. It affects so many people.
Some people had "In memory of..." on there shirts, that made me want to push harder.
I saw lots of "In honor of...", but not a lot of signs saying 'SURVIVOR'.
A few, but not many.
I saw 2.

People die from this everyday, I was so lucky to be able to run it especially on such a nice day!!

There were 5 of us doing this walk/run. One of my co-workers, brought her Daughter that is between Brock and Reece's Age. I'll call her M. She was willing to run with me for parts of the race. On the way to the race her Mom announced to us that she just ran a mile in 9 minutes the other day.
Dang, I thought, Ok she is WAY FASTER than me. Ok Rachel... GOALS HERE... Think BIG.
*sigh*
As we began the race I kept thinking happy thoughts and asking her if M was ready to run yet. for about the first 8 minutes or so we hung together as a group, they kept our path narrow so it was going to be pretty hard to run around people, so I was glad she didn't.

After the first mile we decided to start to run. I think M humored me for the first 50 feet or so and hung by me, but before the next mile I just couldn't keep up to her anymore. She was easily weaving in and out of people. At one time I panicked when I couldn't find her, but she had started to walk. I was so glad...er... able to breathe again. She said her knee had 'popped'. I think she felt bad for me.
: )
I was grateful.

We walked to the next aid station, where they had Water and CHOCOLATE, M was very happy about the chocolate. She even pointed out an unopened chocolate that was abandoned on top of a cone that was marking our way. She was telling me about her cross country practices and meets for most of the rest of our walk, it was interesting. I really want Reece or Brock to do that next year, but we will see. No pressure.

As we finished the race, M picked up the pace just a bit, we finished just over an hour.

Unfortunately, her mom wasn't feeling so well when we finished. I began to think how lucky we were when we did the 13.1 mile walk, no one got sick, all did great.

Not today. Her poor mom spent the rest of the time dizzy and nauseous, I ended up driving her big truck home. I hope she is feeling better. We were all just happy to be no longer pelted by BITING ASIAN BEETLES. They were all over! And they were HUNGRY!!

TV Drama...

Up here in Northeastern WI we have a local cable company called Time Warner. Then there is Direct TV or Dish Network.
Or nothing.

When I was growing up, there was many times my Mom would shut off the cable due to the price increasing too much. There was not much say we had in that situation. Then somehow magically we would get it back again for a while.

Last week Friday Time Warner Failed to 'negotiate' a contract with our FOX Channel know as Channel 11. Meaning they can no longer broadcast their signal. They are the ONLY station in the area that I watched at 9pm to get my fill of nightly news, I do miss that.

Which also means no more PACKER GAMES.... um... without an antenna. Which does kind of suck. Yep in the Heart of PACKER COUNTRY, they can not see the games in HD PERFECTION!!

I usually only watch the last 15 minutes or so, but still. I have been told that Antenna's are hard to come by these days and Time Warner gave away a bunch of them to people so they could get the signal (aka: watch the game).

Currently they are airing some kids movie channel on that station 'until they can resolve the situation'. It is beginning to sound like an election campaign with both sides airing 'commercials explaining their side of the situation.

Channel 11 would like to receive 'fair market value' for the broadcast of the signal.

On one hand I understand Time Warner's stance and appreciate them standing up for us, by not wanting to pass on the bill to us... the consumer. Time Warners statement says that we should not pay for something they can recieve for free. True?

On the other hand IF, the other stations receive payment for broadcasting of signals, then I can understand FOX's view too. Apparently they were able to reach an agreement with Dish and Direct TV.

I wonder if WBAY, or WFRV or NBC26 get payments for the signals like Fox is asking for. I really don't want my bill to go up, but seeing how many Packer Games are left and How FOX is the ONLY station with the nice early newscast... I wonder how many complaints they Negoiators are able to put up with.... Then again, they are maning the phones or customer complaints.

It will be interesting to find out the results. Hope fully soon. I hate conflict.

I need Zen and Harmony, ok, and the Packer Game or early new would be nice again, too.
I just kinda feels like my Mom just cancelled cable again. Only time will tell.

Catch Up Time

There is nothing that reminds you of how long ago school was, then trying to help kids at school figure out how to spell words for the first time. Arrggh. It is so frustrating to work with different kids, they don't know what you are saying or how you say things. Your kids understand you. They know you. It's weird.
Today I helped out at Zeb's classroom then I got to make sure Zeb's picture turned out for picture day. Yay! I will have at least one kid that is not sun burned...


I have not fallen off the face of the earth, but have been busy moving a TON OF FURNITURE. Getting all kinds of dust up my nose, and baking my butt um..... off? (more like baking my but on.. yummmmmm.) Any way, We got carpet in the basement now... (All together now... Yaaayyy!) we still need laminate (for the game area) and tile (bathroom). Currently I have been staining the doors.
Our living room furniture is now in our basement. Brock's Room is in the basement and he loves it. I put molding in Brocks New room and cable tv. He was so excited I hardly saw him the rest of the night! (But if grades begin to slip that is the first to go)
Last week I baked 2 different kinds of banana bread (gone in 24 hrs) and angel food cake that didn't last 12 hours.
This week I made triple chocolate cookies and devils food cake. I am going to make a German Chocolate frosting for that.
Brock and Reece had a contest this week who can cook a better burger. Brock smashed a bug into his , so I wasn't about to try any of his, neither was Reece so no one knows who won.


























We were Treated to a 'performance' by Reece as he practiced his cello tonight. Zeb and Brock helped him out by setting up the chairs and some stuffed animals to occupy those seats.

Can you tell how excited I was?

Maybe just a bit of excitement.









Crossing the finish line with Juls! I managed to get both her and Katie to 'run' in with me!! I was SUPER HAPPY!







Here you can see the time we finished. Technically minus 5 minutes or so, since our time didn't start till we crossed the start line. There was a lot of people...

Birthday Catch UP!

Last Wednesday was Zeb's 6th birthday!!

You know what that means... he is 6. My baby boy is 6. That is sad. This is the little boy that said, last year he didn't want to have any more birthdays. He wanted to stay 5 forever.

This year we kept it low key and asked him what he wanted to do... His answer?The place where a kid can be a kid of course...

It was a crazy week with the weigh in's, meetings, lessons, and life in general, so I missed picking him up a birthday present, so I took him Friday night to Wal-mart and let him pick what ever he wanted... within reason of course. He first picked out a Star Wars set that was over one hundred bucks. Um. NOT.

Then we took a walk down the action figure isle and almost instantly Zeb picked out this Star Wars Clone Trooper helmet with voice changer. He fell in love with it... I was amazed at how easy it was to pick up, so I ask him if he was sure. He said yes and we picked up a few more things on our way to the check outs.

I had to laugh. I can't tell you how many times I heard kids say "Look at What he has!"









He was absolutely beaming with delight.

Fox Cities Half Marathon Losers!

This weekend was the final weekend for our Biggest Loser Challenge at work. We did our final weigh in at 5pm. It was interesting since every other weigh in was first thing in the am, so we didn't have to eat anything before it. This happy girl is our WINNER!
This was Tammy and her Husband, Tim. She has been VERY lucky, he has been an HUGE motivator in this competition. He filled in for one of our girls that wasn't able to make it at the last minute, so he was able to be in the race with us.

Check out her BEFORE photo... Unfortunately the T-shirt doesn't do her justice, she looks GREAT!

Me, Sharon, Angie and Katie are all trying to keep our bodies warm while we wait for the beginning of the race to start. It was in the low 50's this am.

This is my bud Juls from way back. I have known her since I was in Elementary School. I was lucky enough to have her join me in this challenge which really helped make it more fun.

Just before the race, Dr Al Came up to us and gave us one of his famous pep talks. His Wife was doing the full marathon. She qualified for Boston today. She did great!

The short wait for the long start. There was over 6,000 people registered for today's race. You can see the balloon arch way up in the distance. Sharon, Angie and Tammy are waiting patiently in front of us.

Katie and Julie are coming up to the first stop in the race. A lot of the water stations were themed. The first one was M*A*S*H themed, complete with a Dr and a guy in a dress and boa! Loved it! I had to us the porta potty and it took me so long to wait for people that I had to run about 4/10's of a mile to catch up to Julie and Katie that I told to keep walking and I would catch up.

I didn't take many pictures from miles 2 thru 8, but at Mile 9.5 we were cheered on by an adorable young man, and his dad. Juls stopped to get some love and then we continued on to the finish line.

The finishing line balloon arch. Tammy, her husband Tim and Toni wait patiently as Teri is making her way into finish the race. We were all waiting to cheer her on, she managed a high five for us! Woo Hoo!! Finished Strong, she did.

I was so proud of all of these girls, they all pushed themselves to finish in under 4.5 hours!! They really accepted the challenge and excelled at it! They were so proud themselves as you can see, we even received some very heavy medals. I was hoping they all would've been able to join us. We missed 2 of our Losers, but we still had a great turn out! It was a Perfect day, um, minus my sore toe.... about mile 8 it was getting sore. This is my pretty blood blister that I ended up with... But it was all worth it...because...

I got my flowers from the girls and my new finishers medal!

The Notebook kid

Brock is my ADD child.
He was diagnosed early in elementary school with learning disability's and attention deficit disorder.
I heard once the reason kids with ADD fidget is because it is easier for them to focus. Brock shakes his legs a lot. Many times we will be sitting in our car at an intersection and his legs' movement rocks the car while we wait. He also has other habits.
He has to write himself notes. He says it is to remind him of things. But the only trouble is he has SO MANY that he forgets that he wrote things down or loses them. It is almost comical how he is with all these notes. He writes notes like...

Things to to monday.
wake up.
get dressed (really ?)
eat breakfast (um. no you can take a break on that today)
play on runescape (ok. do you really think you need to write this one down, B?)

Reece says "BROCK, NO MATTER HOW MANY TIME YOU WRITE 'WAKE REECE UP' YOU ALWAYS SEEM TO FORGET!" My kids love to get up insanely early... at 4am to play on the internet. BUT I block them til 5am at least, so they must sleep in. Reece likes to sleep more than Brock, but I just consider that a part of his 'disability'.

He has to speak to himself a loud. He obsesses a bit about things. Such as shots. He hates 'em. Borderline TERRIFIED. He is already worrying about his booster for Tetnus. yep. EIGHT more years.

At the last check up the MD said "It sounds like he needs a notebook to write things down." What a great idea.
So tonight, I finally dug out a notebook and said "Brock this is YOUR NOTE BOOK, FOR NOTES. Use it. Please."

sigh.

I feel like I am such a slacker Mom, but it has been a busy week.

We were visited by our nephew, Gage, this week on Wednesday and Thursday.


Tuesday was the FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL here, and Zeb began a full day of school. He really likes it. I think he likes being able to play with friends his age, and loves riding the bus!
As most Mom's this week, I couldn't resist taking my pic with him... I had to!
We sat in the back of the Durango and waited for the bus to pull up in front of our house. He rides the 'monkey' bus, which is SO like him, at least that is what I told him.




Tonight was a nice night and I probably should have gotten a run in, but I was a slacker. I signed up for net flix and so I had a movie that I wanted to see and the kids wanted to play with their friends, so I got to quietly watch a movie. It was a nice night to a CRAZY BUSY week at work. (and home!)

Tonight, we picked out costumes for Reece and Zeb. Reece is going to be a brainwashed child. Zeb a ninja. (no surprise, since that is what Reece was last year.)
Brock is going to be himself with a glowing nail headband.

I have been a slacker, so tomorrow I will be riding my bike in to work at the Y. Hopefully it won't rain. I think I am going to rent out a locker at the Y so I no longer have to ride with my back pack anymore. I guess I haven't necessarily been a slacker, but between painting the basement, school, laundry and cleaning I haven't really sat down much but I still feel like a slacker.

Well, it is bed time already!!
Wow!

I just had to post something to let you know I am alive.

I have just been so busy...

Working

painting

cleaning

painting

laundry

running...

painting...

working...

watering... (my FOUR, yes FOUR PUMPKINS! OH YEAH!)

cleaning...

oh yeah, and sleeping, but man where is the time going?
Geez... now, sleepy time again.
: )
Good night!

Oh,
and say a little prayer for the Mom and family of a guy I worked with at the Y last weekend. His name was Chris and he passed away in his sleep on Saturday night. I worked with him on Saturday (and about once or twice a month). He was 59 and a personal trainer at the Y. It was a shock for us. He was a great guy and is going to deeply missed by us at the Y and anyone that knew him I am sure. I am so sad to hear he is gone...

Thanks for all the pizza, Chris!

Ok, that was painful.

So my alarm blissfully tries to wake me at 4am, I hit snooze.
Five minutes later, it manages to get me out of bed. My body was moving, but my mind was says "Maybe it will be raining and I can go back to bed?".

I check the weather online.

Kinda looks like a storm briefly coming through our area! Then I begin to think of the other girls that were supposed to meet us and I can't just not show up. Even if there is a storm.

I grab my rain gear and hope that they are worried about the weather too and head out the door.
Yes. At 4:30am.
I was supposed to meet her at 4:45am at Y I work at, so I could shower and get ready for work there.

As I drive I see no one in the parking lot, waiting for me, so I drive further to see if Tammy and her hubby are walking up the trail. Sure enough they are comin'. Bummer. I have to do it.

"I am hungry" I thought. They were far enough away that I was able to stop by Mc Donalds for breakfast and eat it before they got to me. I need energy, Right? Of Course!

I sat in the car a short time before they came to meet me. It was still black out. I didn't know how the storm was looking so I brought my rain gear with me. They were booking right along when I joined them. She apologized for going so fast, but I was ok.

The plan was to walk to our work, Aurora in KK and back then I was going to walk all the way to their house and then back to the Y.

About 45 minutes into our walk the rain began. It was more like a mist again. We liked getting cooled off a bit but the water.

We walked to a gas station for potty break and headed back out to the Y. We stopped at the Y for some water and continued on to Tammy's house.
My left lower leg started to ache. Specifically the tibialis anterior. (According to the picture on the right) Tammy was game for running a bit which helped ease the pain, but didn't help the tiredness, of the walk. I made it to Tammy's at mile 9 for me, 10.5 for her.
After some water and a very appreciated banana I headed back to the Y. I decided to continue on going down to the end of her street and taking a different way to the Y. I ran 2/3 of it just to get it over with. I was tired. I had tried to get someone to take over my hours at the Y, but I had no takers. I made it to my car about 8am after 11.64 miles. I now know that last bit was the LONG ROUTE. I added almost 2 miles to an already long enough route!
Ok so it wasn't the 100 mile Lean Horse ultra that Mr. Geek Grl is RUNNing today (yes, he is running 10x my short route, and hoping to finish within 24 hrs!) Good Luck to Mr Geek Grl! WOW!
This was the route we took...

So I am home from the Y, I am not in pain, but my body just wants to lay down and not move. I kind feel like a slug. I am trying to help Zeb learn how to tie his new shoes. Thankfully that requires no leg movement. Right now he is taking a much deserved mental break.
We are trying to figure out how to make supper without me having to move.
Dang, I think my break is coming to an end.
*sigh*
It was nice while it lasted.

I am trying to get sleepy.

I have to get up early tomorrow because I am going for a 10 mile walk.

At 4:30 in the morning.

*sigh*

Not getting to sleepy.

So I will tell you about my day.

Today I took off the day from work so I could organize and get a grip on 'pre' school stuff. I managed a 5.45 mile run this am. It was overcast, but it was EXTREMELY HUMID. I would rather have sun and dry, at least you can randomly catch some shade. I am not sure how long it took me because my watch band was broke and so I didn't have it with me.
I came home woke up Duner, who worked nights last night and we headed to Appleton. Duner had to donate plasma, so the kids and I did some more shopping (for shoes) and got some tickets to the Great Outdoors festival at EAA in Oshkosh. Zeb cried all the way out of the store because he didn't want me to buy shoes that required him to tie his shoes. *sigh* Oh to have those issues.

We picked up some NAKED brand fruit smoothies while we were picking up the tickets. Naked drinks have one pound of fruit in each bottle.
My favorite is Strawberry Kiwi Kick. It is supposed to deliver energy. I could use it after my run that morning.
Reece also chose an energy booster, called Orange Mango Machine.
Zeb picked Blueberry Pomegranate. It was an antioxidant booster.
Brock picked one called Protein Zone. It had pineapple, coconut and banana. 30 GRAMS OF PROTEIN!! Now that is a ton of protein!

How did they rate?
Reece liked his... It was like Tang.
Zeb liked his... It was always by his side til it was gone. I didn't get a chance to try it.
Brock did not like his. At first he did, but it had a chalk like texture he couldn't get over. But that was ok, since Duner could use the extra protein since he donates plasma.

So What else did we do today?
Grabbed some food from Burger King and headed to the Outdoor festival. The kids road bikes, shot bows, road 4 wheelers, fished for catfish, tested canoes and kayaks (saw someone fall into the water), watched some dogs jump into water to retrieve things, and road the tram tractor... which Zeb loved.
Oh yeah and got some sunburn, just a bit. It was overcast and somewhat rainy, er, misty today. It was just enough to annoy you, but not enough to water my plants or trees. Then again, we weren't home, but I am pretty sure it was the same here.
*sigh*
Oh, and I tried this really good beer battered Tilapia recipe tonight! It is supposed to be good for you too! I found it at Real Age.com, Check it out! Real Age has this 'age calculator' that tells your 'real age' instead of your natural age. It says I am 18 months younger than I really am. Thats nice.
ok.
Time to sleep.
now.

Obsessions

Zeb was in on Tuesday for a check up and shots. Since then Brock has been asking me about every 4 hours if he will need any shots next week when it is his turn. EVERY 4 HOURS. He even called me twice at work to see if I asked the nurses yet.
There is a way to look it up online but you need to enter info, but for some reason I wasn't able to do that at home.
I didn't want to bother the nurses, because they are busy enough with stuff at work. I finally was able to bring it up and print it off at work for him, through the state website.
It said he doesn't need any shots. BUT... The nurses (and probably DR) do recommend kids his age getting the shot for Meningitis. It is not required for now, but recommended.
I told him he did not need any shots but I explained the Meningitis shot to him. He said he would rather die of the disease than get the shot. If you saw us try to get him his tetanus shot update 2 years ago, you would understand why I am not pushing this right now.

Hmmm. Maybe I should see about something for ANXIETY or OCD? WOW!

Reece was trying to talk him into it, and told him "If you would die I would miss you, Brock!"
All together now... Awwww...
How sweet is that!

It is kinda strange how Reece is almost looking forward to getting some shots next week.
What a difference the kids are!

Basement Update

Our Drywall guys left today, they were all done by 6pm. Yep. It only took two days. They were great! Bellis Plastering is who did it, if anyone needs some work done, they are well worth it! The layed down paper and tarps all over, and cleaned up everything when they were done. I think they cleaned up better than me! It looks Awesome! Um, ok not so pretty on this wall , but just wait!
I spent 2 hours on Sunday hanging pegboard in out basement to organize some of our stuff in the new workshop. Note the new switch plate. Aren't the flowers pretty? he. he.
This is the finished walls in the main room. It looks like a neat paint job right now, but that is because the walls are still wet.
The other direction, our new TV/ Computer area. They did a great job fixing out crappy outlet cutting job!
This is the bump out area where we are eventually going to put the 'game' or 'model' table. Zeb is so excited, he wants to build model cars with Dad. We told him we can't buy any 'til our basement is done.
My head is spinning with all the different paint colors I can chose from. The wall behind the pool table I am thinking of putting a big 'Wisconsin' W. The Wall to the right would be nice for maybe a Green Bay Packer 'G'. Then, of course, we would need a wall for the Brewers... hmmm.
This will be the new 'kitchen' area. It will have a sink, mini fridge, microwave and Do you see our new water access shut off in the ceiling? Nice, Eh?