I don't like bunnies

it's not even raining, stupid G-Mail

2012-02-02T05:28:00.003-10:00

G-mail 'improved' their options, which we all know means they've changed things and we're not going to like it, but tough noogies, g-mail users, because you're using it for free and aren't really in any position to complain. Because of these improvements, I had to change my ninja background because it made my screen all dark and yucky, which I guess would only help a real ninja be all stealthy, but I just want to check my e-mails, so yeah, it needed to get changed. So I changed it out to this little bus stop looking theme which has been working fine. The people at the bus stop change regularly so it gives me some random e-mailing excitement and stuff, except for when the giraffe is sitting on the bench and I start thinking, hey, why is there a giraffe waiting for the bus, shouldn't he be in a zoo or something? And would he even fit on the bus with that long neck and stuff? Also, it turns from day to night at the bus stop and sometimes it snows. But today, I click on it and it's all gloomy and rainy at the bus stop and even my control panel background is dark gray (which is why the Ninjas had to go). What the heck, g-mail? Rain? Yeah, we're having an unusually warm winter and all, but still, it's February and it doesn't rain in February unless you live in Seattle or something, which I most certainly don't. Besides, didn't the groundhog see his shadow this morning, which means that the sun was shining this morning (and still is here, actually), so, get your weather reports right, g-mail.

I also wish I could see myself like my husband sees me. He'll look at a Victoria's Secret catalog and say, hey, honey, you could model for this (and I almost think he believes it). The other day, he told me that with all the treadmilling I've been doing, I could probably enter a thong contest, and I'm all like, a thong contest? But I'm not a very good thinger. Maybe I could play the piano?

Talk about the treadmill. We've got a hole in the wall at floor level between the bathroom and the laundry room. Two weeks after we moved in here, the bathtub got all bunged up and we had to rip stuff out and we haven't fixed the hole yet. Don't judge us, people, it's an old house remodel job, it'll get fixed eventually. So anyway, the cats love to crawl through the hole from the laundry room while you're sitting on the toilet and totally freak you out. Today though, Muse, aka fat cat, couldn't fit his fatness through the hole and gave up. Hubs was laughing at how fat the cat was getting and it must have hurt the cat's feelings because next thing I know, Muse is sleeping on the treadmill. You've got to give the little fatty some credit, he's kind of trying.

apparently, pregnancy was more fun when our moms did it

2012-02-01T13:12:00.002-10:00

So, I'm reading this book written back in 1960 about a pregnant woman (The L-Shaped Room, in case you were wondering) and as I'm reading, I'm going all, what the heck? This girl is doing all kinds of stuff I wasn't allowed to do when I was pregnant. She got totally drunk at a night club, when to a bring your own bottle Christmas party, she lights up cigarettes (at work!!) while other people are puffing away around her and her doctor gives her pills when she doesn't feel good and tells her to eat lots of food and get plenty of bed rest. Totally the opposite of what I was allowed to do when I was waiting on a baby. I haven't reached the end yet, but I feel pretty safe guessing that even though she's doing all the stuff we were told would result in a 3 armed alien baby, her kid's going to come out perfectly normal (after a labor where they give her more drugs...and possibly a shot of brandy - and let her sleep through the whole thing) I think pregnancy was a whole lot easier when my mom did it. If that chick were in a book written now, CPS would probably put her in bad mom jail or something.

I had one of those days today that are all screwed up. I was going to do my time on the treadmill, but I was going to wait for hubs to do his first. So, I sat around in my pajamas waiting for him to do his run (it's too cold in the house to put my shorts and t-shirt on until right before I exercise), but he kept doing other things. So it's like, 10am, and I'm still sitting there in my jammies and the gas guy comes to fill up our tank. I had to run upstairs and put some clothes on because I didn't want the delivery guy to see me in my Tinkerbell jams. I get him paid and finally hubs starts his run. I finally get my chance to go on, but he's working at his desk so I can't play music or watch videos or anything because the machine is right next to his desk, so I got bored and got off after 30 minutes instead of my usual 50. Then I finally got my shower taken and real clothes put on and it was already stinking lunch time and I felt like such a slug. I think exercise makes me look lazy.

listening to one side of a conversation is funny

2012-01-31T17:28:00.002-10:00

So, hubs is on the phone with a buddy of his from Hawaii. He hadn't talked to him in awhile, so they were playing catch-up. Funny thing is, Muutuu (the Hawaiian friend) kind of has his brain fried from drugs (that's not the funny part, the funny part is coming up) and he's telling Muutuu that he's back up in Wisconsin and said, "yeah, lots of cheese. What town are you living in now? Pepperjack?" And I'm like, Pepperjack? That's a weird name for a Hawaiian town, then I realized that Muutuu was still stuck on the whole cheese part of the conversation (also, he was probably high). Muutuu's whole life is kind of like that, sort of one step behind the rest of the world, but he's a sweet guy, just not real bright. He's also an awesome musician and just made some decent money playing a wedding. Funny thing, he speaks in really strong pidgeon and I can barely understand half of what he's saying, but when he sings, the accent is gone and his voice is super. He's a Hawaiian version of a redneck. Yep, you can find rednecks everywhere.

My friends and I have an awesome girls night out planned for this Saturday night. We're getting hotel rooms, going out to dinner and were planning on seeing One for the Money, which we've all been looking forward to seeing since we heard they were turning Janet Evanovich's book into a movie. I checked the movie showtimes for this weekend and can you believe it, One for the Money isn't playing here! :( :( :( I am SO bummed, I was wanting to see this with my friends so badly and getting the four of us together at the same time is such an event (Jamie lives 2 hours away from the rest of us) that the odds of us getting together to see it later on is almost nil. I suppose the other 3 of us could get together and see it, but it just wouldn't be right if Jamie wasn't with us. Now, we'll probably just skip the whole movie thing and sit around gabbing all night like we did on our last girls night out. That's fun too, but I had my heart set on seeing some Stephanie Plum (and I really wanted to see Grandma Mauser shoot a roast chicken). BTW, in case you were wondering, I'm totally Team Ranger

it's a record breaker

2012-01-25T10:31:00.002-10:00

Last night, Angel #4 did what I think every kid in the country in the past 50 years has done, she went into Guinness World Records to see what record she could break. She finally decided on making the worlds longest staple chain (fyi, I went for the pogo stick record). She started before we sat down to supper, but while we were eating, I noticed the dog was playing with something. You guessed it, Diesel ate her potential record. She had to start over again and spent the evening stapling and connecting. I figure it's a relatively harmless record to try to break (at least she's not going for sword swallowing) but I can't help but think that some time in the very near future, I'm going to need to staple something and we're going to be all out of staples.

Hubs gets home from Hawaii tomorrow. It'll be nice to have him back, our family unit has shrunk considerably in the last year. It'll only get smaller as WE and #4 make their way out into the world, though we've got over 5 years to go before #4 graduates high school, so I've got a little while with some of my kids yet. I talked to a friend today that announced that she's expecting baby #4 come August and another friend just had #3 on Monday. It's nice to see that the future is still being born, I'm just glad I'm no longer being the one supplying all those babies. :P

fun in South America

2012-01-23T17:49:00.002-10:00

Angel #2 sounds like she's already enjoying herself in Uruguay. After her adventurous time getting there, I'm glad she's all settled in. Of the 4 plane rides she had to take to get there, 3 of them were delayed, 2 of them for over 2 hours. That kind of thing makes a long trip even longer. But, she's there now and having a great time. She's been wandering the city, shopping the markets and had her first day of Spanish class today. Tomorrow, she starts horseback riding. She's already made friends from all different countries. Wow, I just think it's all so cool and I'm so proud of her that she was brave enough to leave her comfort zone and start seeing the world.

And then there were 2

2012-01-21T09:43:00.003-10:00

Please Afton, enough of the holding your feelings in already - I don't want you to get an ulcer or something. lol

Things got a little crazy Thursday night. Angel #2 had been s-l-o-w-l-y cleaning out her bedroom (which is always a disaster area) and trying to get her bags packed for Uruguay. She's a bit OCD, which makes everything more difficult. She was scheduled to leave around 1:30 Friday afternoon and we were planning on meeting Rent-a-Grandma for lunch near the airport around 11, so she was planning on busting her butt Friday morning to finish things up. Then, around 10 Thursday night, we get a call from hubs (who's still in Hawaii). He just got an e-mail from United saying her flight from Chicago to Washington DC was cancelled (predicted blizzard in Chicago for Fri aft). Hubs said he'd call United and try to get her rebooked somehow. About half an hour later, he called to say that she was rescheduled and would be flying out at 6am Friday morning. Yikes! She ended up doing some speed packing and didn't get to be until 12:30. We were up and out of the house at 4:15am Friday morning getting her to the airport, which was made especially fun because it was -7 degrees outside. I got her there about 5:15am, got her checked in and took off for home. WE and Angel #4 didn't know about the flight change and I didn't want them to get up for school, find me gone and freak out.

#2 called from Chicago to say she got there safely though her flight there had been delayed for half an hour. She then called at 9am to say that her flight scheduled to leave at 8:45 had mechanical problems and they were all sitting in the airplane waiting to take off. Finally, around 11, she called to say they were leaving. I was getting a little concerned, hoping they'd take off before the blizzard showed up and grounded them for good, but she said it had just started snowing when they left. Due to the morning flight change, she had a scheduled 10 hour layover in Washington, DC, which was shaved off by a few hours by the mechanical issued in Chicago. She contacted a friend of ours in DC who picked her up at the airport and gave her a quick tour of the city and took her to dinner during her layover, she said she had a great time. She'd always wanted to see DC, though not maybe quite so quickly. She called one last time to say she was back at the airport waiting to board her plane to Buenos Aires and that's the last I've heard from her since once she's out of the country, no more cell phone. She had a final flight from Argentina to Uruguay and is scheduled to arrive in about an hour and a half, so I'm hoping I hear from her soon so I know she's all safe and sound. This morning I got an e-mail from United that said: On behalf of United Airlines, we want to express our sincere apologies for your
experience with flight 847 on January 20, 2012. They were offering some kind of compensation for flight difficulties. I assumed this was in response to the mechanical trouble in Chicago, until I saw that the flight number they were referring to was the one from DC to Buenos Aires, so now I'm really curious as to what the heck happened. Traveling is a pain in the butt, that's why I prefer to just stay home.

Things at home have been pretty chilly lately. The last couple days, temps haven't gotten to much about 5 degrees and frequently dipped to the negatives. I didn't realize how quickly you just get accustomed to the cold until this morning when I went out to shovel some snow off the deck. I grabbed a shovel and, just wearing a sweatshirt, I shoveled off the deck and the sidewalk leading to the garage. At the time, I was thinking how nice it was to have temps warm enough to go outside with just a sweatshirt, then I noticed the temperature outside was 10 degrees. Hardly balmy weather by anyone's estimation. Sheesh, Wisconsin sure has hardened me.

even the bank was frozen

2012-01-19T07:24:00.002-10:00

Well, it finally feels like a Wisconsin winter outside. It was -5 outside when I got up this morning. I stopped by the drive thru bank this morning, there were two bank employees outside by the ATM unfreezing it when I drove up. Then when I tried to use the drive-thru, the little door on the canister kiosk was frozen shut so I just gave up and went inside instead.

We're going to have a little less cat around here after today. Both Fred and Pepper went in this morning to get fixed. I wanted it done before Angel #2 left since they're her cats and I didn't want to be responsible for it. We can pick them up this afternoon, a bit groggier and sore, but also unable to increase our cat population, which is a very good thing. Though, this summer, we're going to have to get a couple of barn cats to take care of the rodents out there. But barn cats are different, you don't have to clean their litter box and they don't sit on your head at 6am when you're trying to sleep (yeah, I'm talking to YOU, Fred).

Angel #2 is spending the day packing and cleaning, getting ready for the great exodus tomorrow. I'm going to miss her when she's gone, but it'll be nice to have her all safely on the plane and on her way down there so I don't have to worry about MY part in all this anymore, which is namely: getting her safely on the plane and one her way down there. I get worked up over stuff like than and have been having trouble sleeping the last couple weeks. I think once she's gone, I'll be able to relax a bit. Besides, she's been on a real country music kick lately and I'm getting those songs stuck in my head. Between "Red Solo Cup" and "I Wanna Check You for Ticks", I think I'm going to go crazy.

snowy

2012-01-17T06:15:00.002-10:00

Well, it's snowing today. Besides the few inches we had last week and maybe an inch or so last month, that's been about it. Even the weather's been exceptionally warm. Not only did we have temps up to 50 last week, but it hasn't gotten below zero all winter yet - in fact, I don't know if it's gotten below ten degrees more than a day or so. Of course, that doesn't mean I haven't been whining just a bit, after all, it's winter, you're required to whine. It's not even the cold, it's that darn wind that is so awful. A couple weeks ago, hubs and I went to grab something to eat at Culvers. When we left, he headed out a door opposite of where we came in. As we were trekking through the parking lot, I was complaining of the extra walk outside. He pointed out that it wasn't that far and what was I complaining about. I said, hello? It's winter and it's cold outside. He said: You realize you're eating an ice cream cone, right? I shut up.

Angel #2 is getting ready to head out for Uruguay on Friday afternoon. She's only bringing a relatively small suitcase, so it'll be interesting to see what she's decided I can't live without for two months. One thing's for sure, since it's summer down there, she's gladly leaving her winter coat at home. Uruguay is sounding nicer and nicer.

Ding Dong Ditch - kitty cat style

2012-01-11T18:06:00.003-10:00

WE came downstairs last night telling us he made a discovery. For the last week or so, he's been hearing a scratching at his bedroom door and, thinking it was his dog, he got up and opened the door to see no one there. But, last night, he heard the scratching, but the dog was already in his room, so he knew something nefarious was afoot. He waited right by the door til he heard the noise, then quickly opened the door and caught Fred, the cat, trying to run for cover. Yep, the cat was purposely tricking him into getting up and opening his door then hiding around the corner so he didn't know who was doing it. Fred is kind of a stinkbutt.

For the last couple days, I've been trying to build a website for our heating company. It's been slow going, not only because my computer is getting really bad and freezing up every few minutes, but I also don't know the slightest thing about building a website. I was working on it yesterday and ran into a problem. I called GoDaddy tech support for help, told the guy my issue and he went into our account to see what was going on. Then he said the words that made my stomach plummet and my heart stop beating. "Oh, that's scary." Seriously? Is that really something you want to hear your tech support guy say? He's suppose to be SUPPORTive, that's part of his name, not terror inducing. After he talked to some other tech support guys that also couldn't fix the problem, he had me download a completely different program and bypass the one that was giving me the problem. Things are working a bit better now, which is good, I thought for sure I broke our website for good.

In some amazing news: it was 50 (FIFTY!!!) degrees out today. Remember, this is January 11 in Wisconsin - not a place or time when 50 degrees is even relatively normal. Everyone was out and about, walking the sidewalks, visiting outside, it was simply amazing. It's been gorgeous like that all week, but today it peaked. Tonight we're back to our regularly scheduled winter and have winter storm warnings with 5-8 inches of snow expected. Looks like we'll have to get our shovels out this winter after all.

how did THAT slip my mind?

2012-01-09T06:28:00.003-10:00

The fact that I didn't mention something else that happened Friday night either shows that I was really tired when I last posted or that my life is so bizarre at times that the craziest things can slip my mind.

During Friday nights shopping trip, I decided to do a little bra shopping while #4 and her friends were at the store. So, I'm in the fitting room, half naked, when my cell phone rings. I see that it's a call from home, so rather than ignore it, I decided to answer it in case it was an emergency. This is what I heard when I answered WE said: "Hi mom, I've got an emergency! (see how accurate my mom instincts are?) Diesel (the dog, in case you've forgotten) walked in some blue paint when he was outside and I didn't notice until he'd walked all over the place. There are blue footprints all over the kitchen floor." I told him that since I was half-naked in a fitting room at Gordmans, there wasn't a whole lot I could do about it and that he'd better get down on his hands and knees and start scrubbing the floor. Well, he did what he could, but since our kitchen is still in the remodeling stages, that lighting in there is pretty bad, so neither of us saw the extent of the damage until we got up on Saturday morning. Here's what apparently happened: A few weeks ago, a bucket of (really really) blue paint got dumped on the ground by a back corner of our deck. Since it wasn't a place where people commonly walk, we let it there to dry up so it could be dealt with later. Since the weather got cold shortly after that, instead of drying up, it appeared that the paint froze instead. The weather was in the 40's on Friday, thawing out the paint. Diesel investigated, got it all over his feet, walked around the deck, up the steps to the door, through the unheated entryway, into the house, through the kitchen and dining room and into the bathroom. I felt like Steve on Blue's Clue and had the irresistible urge to sing "Someone's Got a Letter" and figure out a mystery. Instead, I got all the paint scrubbed off the vinyl floor in the kitchen/dining room but there's nothing I can do about the blue footprints on the wood deck or the wood floor of the entryway. The kids say it adds 'character' to the house, but I think the house had more than enough character before the blue prints showed up.

Sunday, I had another busy driving day on the road. Right away in the morning, I had to drive hubs into Green Bay so he could catch his 9:30 am flight to Hawaii. I got home and had about 45 minutes to get ready for church, 20 miles away. We all stayed after church and had a great lunch/gabfest together until I had to leave around 1 so I could drop the kids off at home and head out once again for the 35 mile drive in the opposite direction to get Angel #2 from her weekend away. My poor little mini-van really burned up the miles this weekend.

there, away and back again

2012-01-06T17:06:00.002-10:00

I had one of those "running around all day" days. Some friends wanted Angel #2 to spend the weekend at their house. They live over an hour away, so we met in a town in the middle for lunch and switched her out. So, I started at noon by leaving home and driving 35 miles west for lunch. After a wonderful lunch, I boogied out at 1:30 and headed back to the high school in our town to pick WE up for a doctor's appointment. The appointment was in a town 25 miles east of our house, so off we went. After the appointment and a few errands, we went back home and arrived at 4:45. I needed to be home before 5 because I promised I'd take Angel #4 and 2 friends shopping in a town about 10 miles away and the friends were done with basketball practice at 5. (keeping up so far?) So, before I had the chance to head out again, hubs called and said he needed me to pick up a furnace part for him...guess where? The town 35 miles away I had lunch in. I picked up the girls from basketball and told them we were going shopping in the big city instead, so off we went. I picked up hubs stuff, the girls had a good time shopping and we headed back towards home. The 3 girls were spending the night at someone else's house, so I dropped them off there, got home around 9pm and now I'm in my jammies relaxing from my day as chauffeur to the teens.

a wild and crazy new years eve

2012-01-01T07:11:00.002-10:00

We cut loose at the Daydreamer household last night in honor of the new year approaching. It was an evening of drinking and debauchery with a bit of crazy talk thrown in. Yep, you guessed it, it was hot chocolate, popcorn and a marathon family game of Skip-Bo, and the crazy talk? Angel #2 spent the evening talking with goofy accents. We shut it down around 11:00 and I don't think anyone made it until midnight. I feel so fortunate that with a house full of teenagers, they were all content to spend what's supposed to be the biggest party night of the year with us playing card games.

We woke up this morning to wind and snow. It wasn't too bad, but the plows didn't get out until mid-morning, so we decided to skip the 35 mile drive to church and stay home this morning. We could use the extra time in bed sleeping off the affects of all that hot chocolate and junk food.

Yesterday, hubs and WE were going to finally get our mailbox set up. We've been living here since July, but since we have a post office box in town, we didn't really see a need to hurry up with the whole mailbox thing. Well, about 2 months ago, the guys got the post put in for the mailbox, but didn't get around to mounting the box on it. Yesterday, they were going to put up the box, but discovered they needed longer bolts, so the mailbox is, for some reason, sitting on the living room sofa. Pepper, the cat, is oddly attracted to the box and last night, we found her taking a nap in it, like a little, furry, Publishers Clearing House letter. This new found nap place of hers has the potential to scare the living bejeebers out of the mailman some day.

in which I lose my skirt in a parking lot

2011-12-27T13:10:00.002-10:00

We had something special for Church on Sunday, so instead of going to our usual place Sunday morning, we met in a large hall with a lot of people from churches from the surrounding area. Anyway, during the lunch break, Angel #2 and I headed out to the parking lot to put our lunch leftovers back into the car and as we were coming back inside, I realized that it wasn't the seam from one of the skirts tiers that was rubbing against my thighs, but it was, in fact, the waistband. The elastic in the waistband had been slowly giving way, but it decided to give up the ghost entirely on Sunday afternoon, in a parking lot. Since I don't carry around one of those huge mom purse's that contain everything but the kitchen sink (though the bathroom sink IS there) I didn't have a safety pin and spent the rest of the afternoon hoiking my skirt up. Yes, I find it difficult to even go to church like a normal person.

We got a phone call from Angel #1 on Friday. It was great hearing his voice and, now that he's got a sort of military international go-phone, it's nice to know that we'll be able to talk to him occasionally while he's out there. He told me what he's missing out there and I'm in the process of putting together a care package for him full of beef jerky and peanut butter.

And now, in other breaking news. Angel #1 won't be my only international Angel. Angel #2 has decided to take a Spanish immersion course followed by a one month internship at a ranch in Uruguay. She's brushing up on her Spanish and is deciding what to pack so she's ready to head out on January 20th, a few days after her 18th birthday. I'm so excited for her and I'm sure she's going to have an awesome time down there. If she really likes it, she's considering staying down there, we'll see what happens I guess. It's always something.

Where did the time go?

2011-12-19T16:59:00.002-10:00

First off, I want to thank you for your kind words, Jeannie, it's a little overwhelming if I think of my little boy in such a scary place, so I try not to think about it. Then, when I do think about it and start to feel helpless, I just think of those poor mothers who live there and are trying to raise their children in such horrible circumstances and it puts everything else into perspective.

On a cheerier note, I've been really painting up a storm lately. It all started a couple weeks ago when I decided that I'd been avoiding painting my kitchen long enough. I had intended to just do the trim on the walls, so I took out my 1 1/2 inch brush and got to work. Well, one thing led to another and I just kept going until I'd painted all my kitchen walls with that tiny little brush. It's now an awesome shade of turquoise. Well, after my walls looked so cool, my gross cabinets looked worse than ever. We'd taken the doors off the upper cabinets before we moved in because the previous owners had removed the ceiling and only replaced half of it before giving up. We took out the cabinets, ripped out the nasty looking boards they were putting up for the ceiling and got as far as hanging 2 sheets of drywall up. We put them on the north side of the room so we could replace the cabinets there, but never got around to putting the doors back, figuring it would be easier to paint them if they were off. BUT, I'd been avoiding the whole painting thing, so I had ugly yellow, doorless cabinets since July. Well, that's changed now. I sanded them down and put primer and 2 coats of paint on over the course of 3 days. By then, I was sick of painting for awhile, so only the upper cabinets got finished, the lower ones are still yellow while the uppers are this great shade of dark melony orangey-pink (salmon??). I retired from the painting business for a bit, but then hubs and I went to the REStore on Saturday. The REStore has got to be my new favorite place to shop. Saturday was 50% off day. We got upper cabinets for the laundry room, more linear feet than what I've currently got in my melony orangey-pink kitchen cabinets, all for under $20. Before we could hang them up though, I needed to get the laundry room painted. Someone who lived here at one time a long time ago, really loved the color pink, it looked like Pepto Bismol exploded in my laundry room. NOT attractive. I searched through my collection of random paint that's piled up in my basement. I found white for the ceiling and trim and a sage green color for the walls. It looks great, but after painting the room from top to bottom, then helping hubs hang the cabinets, I was pretty pooped out. Today, I put contact paper on the shelves and put all the laundry room stuff that had been sitting in boxes since we moved in onto their very own shelves. Old houses are cool, but they sure are short on storage space. But slowly my little castle is catching up to the 20th century (getting it up to the 21st is waaay beyond its capabilities).

grrrr

2011-12-06T06:21:00.003-10:00

Just an FYI for the world's enlightenment: 1. Turn your phone off when you go to a concert. 2. If you don't turn off your phone, put it on vibrate or silent mode. 3. If you don't do the first two, if someone calls you during the concert, turn off the ringer and don't answer. 4. If you feel you have to answer, quietly say you're busy and you'll call back, don't say "what's up??" 5. If you're a complete idiot and do none of the above, the LEAST you could do is not visit during MY KID'S SOLO!!! Some people should be shot. /rant

Besides idiots on cell phones sitting behind me, Angel #4's concert was wonderful. Since she's on the list of what Angel #2 called The Overachievers, she got a lot of stage time, being in the band, the tonechimes group and the choir, where she had a small solo, we got to see a lot of her.

Angel #1 is currently in Kurdistan, at least he was the last we heard from him. Now that he's out of the country, he's no longer using his cell phone and he doesn't have a computer with him, so we'll just have to assume he's where he's supposed to be. He's using someone's phone to update on Facebook, which is why I know he was in Kurdistan yesterday. He called on Sunday, right before he left the States. He told us he was sitting on the runway, so we assumed he was talking to us from the plane. We didn't know why he could be on the phone during take-off, but figured he was on a military transport or something. Until a half hour later he was still talking. Turns out he was literally SITTING ON THE RUNWAY with his platoon waiting to get on a plane. #1 isn't a particularly chatty guy, so he didn't see the need to explain himself further.

Thanks for your encouraging words, Tanya. About the crying thing, you'd be surprised how tough you can be when you've got to be. I figured my crying would make things harder for him, so I sucked it up, you do what you've got to do. Now, we begin the countdown to when he comes back home. Seven months and counting!!

finally

2011-11-29T17:47:00.003-10:00

After some computer troubles that I thought were internet troubles which led to getting a different (much better) internet carrier then fixing the problem with my computer, I'm back on line, baby!

Saturday morning we dropped Angel #1 off at the airport. We won't seem him again until June, when he gets back from Afghanistan. I did real good and didn't cry until we were driving away from the airport. I'm going to miss my boy so much and will worry about him a lot, but I'm going to try not to think about it and tell myself he's just gone somewhere on an extended vacation or something.

After spending the last week or two avoiding it, I finally took WE out driving today. He did really well, but refused to drive on the highway. We stuck to back roads, which is really easy to do around here since 90% of the roads ARE back roads. He kept going to extremes though, either driving too slow or too fast, which is all part of the learning curve. Besides the time we took a corner on 2 wheels, my nerves were pretty steady. He kept up a constant monologue on potential hazards such as: oncoming car, make sure I'm on the far right side of the road and there goes a gas truck, potential explosion. Yeah, it was fun.

Diesel, the doofus dog, loves chasing a laser light. Angel #4 was having way too much fun today with his laser obsession. She tied a rope around his collar, sat in a rolling chair and would put the laser ahead of the dog so he ran and chased it, pulling her around the room in the chair. This made making supper a bit difficult since she insisted on lasering her way through the middle of the kitchen, but Diesel is a very tired dog tonight, I think he'll sleep well.

and we've got another one on the road

2011-11-14T13:35:00.002-10:00

WE got his temporary driver's license today. We actually went over a week ago to get them only to find out that after standing 45 minutes in line at the DMV that WE couldn't pass the eye test. He couldn't even read the top line. He had his eyes tested a year ago and had a slight prescription, but I guess things got considerably worse as the year went on. So I hauled all the kids to the eye dr's, got WE some glasses, Angel #2 a new prescription for her contacts and was told that Angel #4 is good for now, but may need glasses in the next year or so.

After the eye doctor, we headed to the mall, a place I hate, but my kids love. We had an hour or so to kill before the big event of the day. We went to the airport to pick up Angel #1. Yay!! He's home for a 2 week leave and will be going back after Thanksgiving. Also meeting him at the airport were a couple of his friends and my sister and her family. We all went to Perkins for some celebration pie, where we were met by my brother and his little girl. All the little kids were glad to see their cousin, #1 is the oldest of all the grandkids on my side of the family and his little cousins (especially the boys) think he's just the coolest thing ever. His coolness quotient is going to go up incredibly on Friday when he takes my sisters kids to Wild Air for the evening. Wild Air is a big bouncy house place where even adults can go on the equipment. #1 thought it sounded like fun, so he's bringing his cousins there for camouflage.

I picked my van up at the fix-it shop today. It's so nice to have my vehicle back and all ready to face the upcoming winter. It had better face the winter after what it cost to have it fixed. But, sometimes you've got to fork over a little money if you want to drive without worry.

More Letters for WE

2011-11-08T17:19:00.002-10:00

We were at the fall sports award program for the high school tonight. WE got a letter in cross country, that makes 2 letters now, he'll have the whole alphabet before you know it! He's been working out in the weight room after school now that the cross country season is over, he's also been goofing around with the wrestlers. He managed to take down a couple guys that were quite a bit bigger than him and is gaining a bit of a reputation, but he's still not interested in joining the school wrestling team. Tonight, he was talking to a kid who decided that WE's new nickname is the Flyin' Hawaiian. WE's planning on wrestling that kid tomorrow and was wondering if that's what the guy was planning on doing to him but the kid said he meant it in a good way. I dunno though, I remember seeing that particular kid on the football field this fall and looking him up in the program because he was so much bigger than the rest of the kids. He tops WE by about 5 or 6 inches and over 100 pounds. I hope there's something left of my little boy when he's done with him.

Tomorrow my van going to the shop. It's been sitting in the driveway for about a week now while we debated if we wanted to spend the approximately $2000 it's going to take to rebuild the transmission. The decision was made for us this afternoon when Angel #2 brought the car into the shop to get an estimate on getting the brakes done. The car fixer place said that the car isn't long for this world and it doesn't even pay to get the brakes done unless we want to spend $1100 to get everything fixed. Since we only paid $450 for the car itself, we really can't justify paying over a grand to get it road worthy, so we'll run it til it's dead and get on with life. But, in the meantime, we're going to need a reliable, not going to fall apart, kind of vehicle, which means we've got to fork over the big moolah to get the van running again. It's always something, isn't it? But, once we get that fixed, we should be good vehicle-wise for awhile. *fingers crossed*

Hubs is on his way to Hawaii again tomorrow, but he's taking a side trip to Aspen on the way, the lucky skunk. Some of our best friends from Hawaii now live in Colorado and he's going to spend a couple days with them before hitting the sandy shores of Hawaii. He's cutting his trip fairly short (only 9 days) so he can be home to spend time with Angel #1, who'll be here for 2 weeks on leave. YAY!! We've all missed #1 and can't wait to see him again. I'm planning on moving all the breakables out of the living room, since that seems to be my boys favorite place to wrestle around. When both boys are home, it's like the testosterone kingdom around here.

The ROUS is still running free

2011-11-03T13:36:00.002-10:00

We haven't had any luck getting our silverware drawer eating ROUS trapped, though I have't had any more drawers eaten, so we're at a rodent impasse at the moment. I know there still at least one roaming the house because I heard it scrabbling in the wall over our bed last night. Why, oh why, do those stupid things choose MY room to scrabble in? It's like they know my rodent phobia and just like messing with me. More proof that rodents are evil. Tanya, I'm glad I can give you a laugh, I know you can use one right now. Living with a diet restricted husband has got to be a major pain in the butt, especially since you're used to having him on the road and now he's stuck at home. I'm sure he's NOT a happy camper.

Angel #2 and I went to the REstore today and had way too much fun. I needed some lights to put in the kitchen and I really wanted some that keeps the 1950's feel to the place. I figured the best place to do that is the REstore. I was right, I found 2 great ones for the kitchen and one for the dining room that'll probably have to be rewired, but it's so cool looking it'll be worth it. We also found a turquoise toilet seat which #2 wouldn't leave the store without, so now our downstairs bathroom is going to go turquoise. We decided that the REstore is as much fun as St. Vincent DePaul and we're planning on hitting the one in Green Bay some day as well. We've become REstore addicts.

Holy rat bait Batman!

2011-10-31T12:50:00.002-10:00

I was blaming Diesel, the doofus dog, for eating my wooden spoons. I kept finding chewed up ones and having to throw them away. But, the other day, I found a wooden spoon in the drawer, chewed up with shavings in the bowl of the spoon. Diesel gets himself into lots of predicaments, but even he can't open the silverware drawer, so I investigated. The whole back of the drawer was filled with wood shavings, not sawdust, but actual big shavings-like pieces and there was a big whole chewed in the back of the drawer. Now, these aren't whimpy, off-the-shelf kitchen cabinets, these are handmade, 1950's era cabinets made with inch thick lumber and some big freakin animal chewed right through it! What was especially disturbing about the whole thing is that it had chewed its way OUT of the drawer, not into it...and it also chewed up all my wooden spoons. This was no ordinary mouse, people. My sister thinks we've got a renegade beaver in the house, I suspect it's R.O.U.S.'s (Rodents Of Unusual Size for you Princess Bride impaired people) and I'm going to have to hire a heavy hitter to get rid of this creature. "My name is Inigo Montoya, you ate my silverware drawer, prepare to die!" We also got sticky traps and a big snappy trap in case swordplay fails. So far, we've only caught one little mouse in the basement, hubs suggested that instead of putting peanut butter on the traps we use a wooden spoon since that seems to be the most attractive to our unwanted guest.

poster child

2011-10-26T13:01:00.002-10:00

WE is in drivers ed. The problem with the class block system that our high school implements is that kids are required to spend an hour and a half each day for 9 weeks for each class, even when it's a class that doesn't really need that much class time. Because of this, the driver's ed teacher really scrapes for things to keep the kids occupied. The thing he chose to occupy them with this week is that they had to make traffic safety posters. WE wasn't real dedicated to the poster thing, he figured that if driver's ed's main requirement is good poster making skills, he probably doesn't want to be on the road anyway. So, last night (the poster was due today) he was asking the family for a good slogan for his poster. He went with the old Calvin and Hobbes standby: Be Careful or Be Roadkill, thankfully, sans Calvin's spaghetti sauce, he figured the pictures of car accidents would have as good an effect. He said his was one of the worst posters in class, but at least he got his point across.

Angel #2 and I were at a thrift store today and what do you think I found there? A Mouli! I still haven't found mine and I was seriously debating buying the one at the store, it had all the blades, was in mint condition and only $8. But, I decided that I would hold out and hope for my own Mouli to someday make a reappearance. Besides, I've got my nifty Salad Shooter now and I really love that little guy.

vroom vroom pbthhh

2011-10-25T14:42:00.003-10:00

I was running errands for hubby yesterday. Errands for hubby aren't like normal people errands, these errands involve fitting 2 furnaces along with the needed ductwork into my mini-van. Thank goodness the seats come out of those babies. So, I got all the stuff picked up, then started heading thirty miles away to do the delivery when my van decided to not go into high gear. I checked the relevant fluids and they all seemed okay, so after a telephone consultation with hubs (who really needed the stuff I had) we decided that I keep on driving and hope for the best. Just in case you didn't know, it's really nerve wracking to drive fifty miles an hour on a 65 mile an hour highway, but I sure didn't have to worry about being pulled over for speeding. I made it safely to hubs then made the 35 mile drive home at 45 mph then an additional 5 miles to the car fixer guy. It doesn't sound like it's going to be an expensive fix, which is a good thing, expensive fixes aren't any fun. (just got a call from the car fixer guy - he can't do the repair, looks like things might get spendy :( )

**I also have to say that I can't stop giggling about Castle calling ghosts Apparition Americans. :p

I will talk to you, singing will cost extra

2011-10-20T16:30:00.003-10:00

I did my very first author talk for pay today. Imagine, getting paid to talk to a group of people who can't leave because they've got lunch and a meeting afterwards. It's like your birthday, 4th of July and Christmas all rolled up into one! I was asked to speak to the district meeting of a women's group, a whole bunch of people I'd never met before. Our local librarian gave the organizer my name as a suggestion for a speaker and we dealt through e-mail, so I didn't even know who I was looking for. I didn't think it would be that big of a deal until I got to the place where the event was being held and saw that about 3 or 4 different organizations were holding meetings there. I went up to one group and asked if they were who I was looking for, the woman asked if I was there to sing. GAH!!! I KNEW I was in the wrong place. I finally found out where I was supposed to be and did pretty good for my half hour speech. Afterwards I did a book signing and met some of the people, a very nice group of ladies.

I also went grocery shopping this afternoon. I hadn't gone in a couple weeks and my cupboards were starting to look bare. With all my canning and stuff, I still probably had twice as much food as a normal person, but I get antsy when my food supply drops past a certain level. I feel much better now seeing full shelves and a filled freezer. It's the little things in life that make me happy.

We used to laugh about this day

2011-10-17T14:25:00.003-10:00

As of last Thursday, my baby girl aka Angel #4 is 13 years old. Way back in the day before we had kids, hubs and I used to joke that we were going to have 14 kids. Well, after Angel #4 was born, we rethought our options and decided that, unlike opinions expressed in popular tv dramas from the 70's, 4 is enough. When people picked on us for reneging on our original 14 kids, we explained that they misunderstood us and we were going to have four TEENS at the same time. Well, here it is, 13 years later and sure nuff, we're now the parents of four teenagers at once. I don't think we believed that day was ever really going to come and now here we are.

Friday night, #4 had her birthday party. I brought her and 5 of her friends to Wild Air, which is a big bouncy house place for big kids. WE decided that if #4 was going to have a bunch of her friends over, he needed reinforcements, so he had a friend overnight as well. At around 9 o'clock, Angel #2 walked in with a friend who was also going to stay the night. If you haven't done the math yet, that makes 10 teenagers sleeping in my house. #4 and her friends were watching movies in the living room, WE and his friend were in his bedroom watching '300', and while I love Gerard Butler, it's really hard to fall asleep when his Scottish/ancient Grecian accent is yelling for the Spartans to die for glory or whatever he was growling about. Angel #2 and her friend were up until 2am making soap and bath salts to sell at a craft sale they were vendering in on Saturday. So yeah, I didn't get much sleep. There was also an airsoft war going on and I have the feeling I'll be stepping on plastic bb's in my house for the next month or two. Thank goodness Angel #4 only has birthdays once a year.

an owange cawnation, how womantic

2011-10-11T16:05:00.003-10:00

Tonight was Angel #4's volleyball parents night. Hubs and I, along with Angel #4 and Rent-a-Grandma all went to watch her play. Between the 8th & 7th grade games, each play called her parents out to the court where we were given an orange carnation tied with a black ribbon (orange and black are the school colors). Of course, I managed to break the stem of the flower off before we even manage to get home. I've got skilz. With orange and black being the school colors and with me being a cheapskate, I'm planning on hitting the clearance sales after Halloween and buying up orange and black socks, tee-shirts and whatever else seems school spirit-ish and giving them to the kids so they can show their Panther pride without me breaking the bank. Thursday is #4's last volleyball game. WE has got the conference meet for cross country on Thursday and the sectional meet the 22nd. Since the odds are pretty slim that he'll make state for cross country, I think that we'll soon be in the clear for after school sports practice...until someone decides they want to take part in the next round of winter sports. WE keeps waffling back and forth about wrestling and #4 doesn't sound like she's too interested in basketball, so I may have a couple of quiet months ahead of me.

I finally finished painting my dining room today. I had almost the entire room done, except for one corner where hubs has his desk. When I painted the first stuff, I was too lazy to move the desk, so today I finally decided that I should have at least one room completely painted and done. There's still a little bit of trim that needs doing in there, but nothing too noticeable. I also painted part of the stairwell. It's got a really really high ceiling that's going to take some creative scaffolding to finish, but did what I could with just standing on the steps and moving the paint roller as far as I could. So now my stairwell is an interesting mixture of lime green on the bottom and pepto-bismol pink on the top. It looks like something you might find in your Easter basket. The only way you can see the two-tone though is if you're upstairs looking down or right at the bottom of the steps looking straight up, so from the dining room, my stairway looks utterly respectable. So, that makes one respectable looking room in my house. Some day, I may even get around to getting my kitchen cabinets painted, but don't hold your breath.

we ran all the way over there for that?

2011-10-07T13:25:00.003-10:00

Overheard in the library bathroom yesterday:

Mother: come on Ashley, hurry up and poop. I won't watch, just hurry

Ashley: I did. See my poopy

Mother: that's it? We came rushing in here for that little turd? You can do better than that.

Ashley: no, I'm done pooping now, lets go back to the park.

Me (in my mind): I'm SO glad my kids are grown up!

Yesterday I was driving along the country roads, the Eagles blasting on the radio, the van windows open, the smell of harvesting corn in the air and the beautiful colors of the fall leaves on that gorgeous Indian Summer afternoon and I felt sorry for anyone who didn't live in rural Wisconsin. Today was exactly the same and, according to the weather reports, we've got more of the same coming into the middle of next week. I planted a bunch of tulip and daffodil bulbs this afternoon which will be a welcome sight come spring. I also took advantage of the weather and got all the old dead weeds and plants cleared out of the garden, so that looks all pretty and ready for winter as well. Life is good.

Tonight, hubs and I are going to the high school football game. Angel #4 is playing the halftime show with the middle school band. Fortunately, since the weather is nice, we won't have to freeze our patooties off. WE had his last regular season cross country meet tonight, I haven't heard how he did yet. Next he's got conference and sectionals, then he should be done for the season since I don't foresee him going to state. It sounds like he's wanting to go out for wrestling this winter, which will be something new for us around here. Hubs and his dad were both pretty big into wrestling when they were in high school and college, we'll see if those skills were passed down to the next generation.

purple hair and toilet paper

2011-10-01T15:57:00.002-10:00

Yesterday, Angel #2 decided to fix her turquoise hair, she claimed it made her look like a mermaid, but apparently she decided that the marine look just wasn't her. So she went to a professional this time where they dyed her hair close to her natural color, then put purple highlights in it. I never thought I'd be a fan of purple hair, but it's much better than the turquoise.

Yesterday was also my sister's birthday, so I gave her a call. We hadn't spoken in a while, so we had a little bit of a gabfest. I was telling her that I thought our cats had taken care of any mice we may have had in the house. Of course, you know what that means. About 3:30 this morning, I was woke up by the sound of a mouse scurrying across the bedroom floor. I guess we'll be leaving our bedroom door open tonight so the cats can take care of that little issue.

The mouse in the bedroom incident made me realize how tuned in my ears are to certain sounds. After the Homecoming football game last night, WE went out with friends toilet papering peoples yards. I feel sorry for high school kids in big cities, they never get to experience that great, autumn small town sport, TPing. Anyway, he was told he had to be home by midnight. I heard him come in the house at about ten to twelve, and once I knew he was home safe, I conked right out and didn't hear a thing til the mouse. It was when I woke up this morning that I saw that sometime after WE got home, our yard also got TP'd. WE found out from his friends that 2 minutes after they dropped him off and drove away that they turned around and TP'd our yard. I never heard a thing, even though we've got toilet paper wrapped around the front porch posts and WE's best friend's name was written in silly string on the side of our mini-van. We also decided that our dog, Diesel, is a really sucky watch dog, he never even made a peep. I had WE clean up some of the yard this afternoon, but he left the paper in the trees. His reasoning is that it's even more fun to TP a house after the first round of toilet paper has already been picked up, so if he keeps our trees filled with paper until Sunday, it won't be quite as tempting to hit our yard a second time.

Right now, WE's at the homecoming dance. I still can't believe he asked a girl to the dance. He claimed he wasn't nervous or excited about it, but he was all dressed and ready to go by noon for his 5 o'clock date. She came to pick him up and he waited in the driveway, practically on the side of the road so we couldn't get a good look at her or embarrass him in anyway. Us, embarrass him?!? Can you even imagine such a thing?

Today, I got to meet my first Congressman. He's not the Congressman for our district, but a friend hooked us up with an invite to a bar-b-que the Congressman was holding. He's someone hubs needed to network with in an effort to see if he could meet with some people in Hawaii. Anyway, mission accomplished. Reid (he told us to call him Reid, so now we're on a first name basis la-di-da!!) was already planning on being in Hawaii with his family this winter and sounded like he'd be happy to do the island hop to do some speechifying. My husband is a networking dynamo!

I guess I've been busy

2011-09-29T07:53:00.003-10:00

Once again, I've been a blog slacker. There's just so much going on around here that time's limited. We've got volley ball games, cross country meets, gardening, church convention and a minuscule Indian summer dealt with. It's our schools cross country invitational today, so we're going out to cheer WE on as he's running through the park. Each CC meet he's had he's beaten his previous time and he's hoping to get a consistent 7 minute mile in today's 5K, we'll see how he does. He's also got other things on his mind since it's also homecoming week and he managed to get himself a date to the dance on Saturday night. This will be his first boy/girl date and he's being very cool about it all. The girl's a junior, a year ahead of him, so he snagged an upperclassman with a drivers license, which will omit having to have us drive him over to pick up his date (good thinking on his behalf).

Angel #4 is still loving volleyball and is doing well. She's got 3 games left in the year, then I don't know what she's going to do all her excess energy. Probably drive me nuts.

Angel #2 dyed her hair turquoise the other day. The roots didn't take, so she's got about an inch or two of natural color roots before the turquoise begins. When I first saw it, she was just getting out of bed and she had massive bedhead and was looking very Medusaesque. She couldn't understand why I was laughing hysterically. Kids, what ya gonna do?

now we're gasping in a different way

2011-09-13T16:28:00.002-10:00

That wildfire up in Minnesota must be one heck of a big blaze. We're almost 500 miles away from it and we're smelling smoke and not just a little. When I went outside this morning, I was wondering why my neighbor had a fire going so early in the morning. It took til someone mentioned it on facebook this afternoon for it to click that it was the MN fires. Look out Afton, the stink is heading your way!

Though things are unusually warm in northern Minnesota, there's a threat of frost down here in Wisconsin so I've got the whole September Wisconsin garden thing going on. All my tomatoes, peppers and eggplants are nicely tucked in under old sheets and curtains to protect them from the frost. Tomorrow morning I'll uncover them and will probably have to RE-cover them again tomorrow night. It's so much fun tucking your vegetables in at night.

one of summer's last gasps

2011-09-11T15:51:00.003-10:00

BEAUTIFUL day today. The sun was shining, the temperature was perfect. A great day to go running around with my girls. On our way home from church we stopped at a couple rummage sales and the grocery store for a few odds and ends. There was a farmers market set up in the parking lot at the store, so we hit that as well. I didn't get much at the farmers market since I've got a garden of my own, but I did get a big head of cabbage (my cabbage is kind of small), some fresh blueberries and lettuce.

After we got home and unloaded our loot, we headed right out again to St Patricks. St. Pats was a big catholic church complete with separate priests house, sister house and another huge building (maybe a school?) that's now an apartment building. There's also a ginormous cemetery. It's all closed down now, but still maintained by the Friends of St Pats society. Every year they hold a harvest festival to raise money. There's a bake sale, silent auction, drinks, snacks and the local food standbys, brats & sauerkraut and chicken booyah. This is all topped off by music from a local polka band. Angel #4 ran off immediately with friends while #2 and I wandered around the grounds. We explored the nun house, which is totally gorgeous. It's got some rocking linoleum floors from the 50's, along with some great retro bathroom fixtures and original stained woodwork. A beautiful house. We even snuck up to the attic, which wasn't open to the public and checked that out too. Afterwards, we bought some stuff from the bake sale and I sat down to listen to the band while #2 wandered off somewhere. I must have caught the bandleaders eye because I wasn't sitting there more than 5 minutes when he announced that the next song was dedicated to the young lady in the front row with all the food on her lap. I never had a polka dedicated to me before, so that was a first. Later on, they played God Bless America with a polka beat and the whole place got to their feet and sang along. It brought tears to my eyes, patriotism Wisconsin style. We won a few things in the silent auction, so we hauled that, our baked goods and the bucket 'o booyah the I bought home and have been eating ourselves silly ever since. Thank goodness the weekend is over, I need a break.

Haystacks for Ahm-lets

2011-09-10T08:22:00.003-10:00

Last night we went to a haystack supper put on by our local Amish community. All the proceeds go to their school. I go past the school quite often, it's only a couple miles down the road, and I love seeing all the bikes parked by the door and all the little Ahm-lets (Ahm-lets = little Amish) outside playing baseball in their suspenders and hats or the girls in their pretty blue dresses. I guess it says something about my hermitness to say that I knew more of the Amish people putting on the feed than I did of the 50+ people there chowing down. Anyway, after stuffing ourselves on haystack, hubs and I went for a stroll around the lake next door to our house to walk some of that awesome food off. (FYI, a haystack is a handful of crushed tortilla chips on a plate then meat, beans, lettuce, peppers, onions, cheese sauce layered on top of them and topped with crushed Doritos. For dessert, homemade pie and ice cream)

I dropped hubs off at the airport this morning. He's on his way to Hawaii for 10 days or so. On the way, he's making a side trip to San Diego and spending a couple days with Angel #1. He also had something he wanted to do in Austin, TX, but decided against it. A few days after his decision, we heard of the wildfires in that area, so I'm glad he's skipping Austin this trip. WE came along with us this morning and I left him at the airport as well. He was picked up by a friend who lives near the airport and he's spending the weekend there. I guess I'll see him again sometime tomorrow. He was looking forward to a little break. He's been busting his buns in Cross-Country - he had a meet last night and beat his personal best by a full minute. His time for the 5K is now 23:30. His ultimate goal is around 19 minutes since Angel #1's best 5K time is 19:20 and he really really wants to beat his big brother.

I've canned about 20qts of carrots in the last couple days and am getting a bit sick of doing them. I've still got about half a row left to pick, which will come out to about a 5 gallon bucketful. I put some in my new food dehydrator yesterday and they dried up real nice, so I think I'm going to do another dehydrator or two full and see how that goes. I'm also going to shred some zucchini and see how that dehydrates. Since I still haven't found my Mouli and it's really cramping my style, I picked up a salad shooter this morning for $2 at a rummage sale. I'll try shredding my zucchini in that and, with any luck, I'll be able to make zucchini cake this winter.

I guess this is why they call it Labor Day Weekend

2011-09-05T04:27:00.003-10:00

There's just so much to do around here. I get overwhelmed and then just sit down and read a book. Not very proactive. But, I did get a lot done despite my literary escapes.

Friday morning, we had huge storms. Our power went our around 10am and finally came back on again around 6:30 pm. I don't mind the lack of electricity that much, it was day time, I've got a gas stove, we didn't need the heat or a/c on, so no big deal. What I do hate is the lack of water. This doesn't happen when you have city water, but in the country, you've got your own well which pulls water up from the ground and through your pipes using, you guessed it, an electric pump. Fortunately, since I try to be on top of things, I keep a large supple of water stored up in our basement in old orange juice bottles, so it would be awhile before we really felt the hit, but you don't realize how often you wash your hands until you don't have a working sink.

Fortunately, Angel #2 and I were invited to a friends house for lunch on Friday, so we had a perfect excuse to escape our waterless home and have a delicious lunch to boot. After lunch, we hit a few rummage sales before going back home. WE had a cross-country meet on Friday evening, so when we went to town to pick him up. He had an awesome meet and beat his personal record in the 5K by 3 whole minutes. We stopped by the football field and watched the last half of the high school game going on. Our Panthers handily beat the other team, who had an even small team roster than we had, which is pretty unusual since we've got a tiny school. Theirs must be even tinier. One of WE's spring track cronies plays on the football team. This boy is a fast runner, but has a very unusual, unorthodox way of running. It's so unusual that though he was in full football gear complete with helmet and was only standing on the sidelines at the moment, I knew who he was from his posture alone. Now THAT'S distinctive!

Saturday, I put the girls on chopping and dicing duty and we canned up 9 pts of zucchini relish, 2 of cucumber relish and 5 pts of apple butter. I've got about 20 pts of apple butter made and I think it's safe to say, my whole family is sick to death of the scent of apple butter cooking down. I think we're done with windfall apples for the year, so thankfully, Saturday's batch should be my last one.

Sunday was a potluck after church. SO much delicious food and great conversation. I visited with an acquaintance I hadn't talked to in years. She was reminiscing about the days when my kids were little, laughing about stuff they did. I said that I was so pleased and surprised that WE turned out to be such a wonderful teenager after what a stinker little kid he had been. She said she was surprised he lived to see 4 years old.

Today, I'm going to see what else in the garden is yearning to be thrown into a jar and boiled to death. The girls and I are also going to participate in that age old, cold weather tradition of throwing wood through the cellar window and stacking it up to be burned when things get chilly outside. Since the weather turned this weekend and we've had to dig out our long pants and sweatshirts, that probably won't be too far in the future. After the canning and wood throwing, we're going to get this house in some semblance of order. It's been woefully ignored lately. It doesn't really pay to scrub the kitchen floor only to spill pickle juice, apple peelings, green bean clippings, etc, all over it right afterwards. But since things are getting dirty enough where I could probably just replant the garden inside, I think we ought to do something.

Sigh. Better hit the Publish Post button and get to work.

too cool for school

2011-09-01T11:31:00.003-10:00

Angel #2 celebrated the first day of her not going back to school by sitting on the porch with a bagel and cappuccino watching her younger siblings get on the school bus this morning. She took a few pictures and waved them off. I think she's enjoying this waaay too much. Both WE and Angel #4 have sports practice after school, so I haven't heard how their day went yet. I would be enjoying the peace and quiet, if only all the critters in this house would have got onto the school bus as well, but, as it is, I'm stuck with 5 cats, 2 cockatiels and a dog. Not so peaceful.

I was pretty busy on my first day w/out kids. Picked and canned 5 quarts of beans, 7 qts of pickles and canned up the 7 pints of apple butter that I made up yesterday. I've got pinging jars sitting all over my kitchen table. Next on my list is to figure out what to do with all the zucchini and yellow squash I've got sitting around here. I'm thinking zucchini relish should put a dent in my plethora o'squash. I've got so many yellow squash that it's piled on the counters and we're even using one for a doorstop. It's gone out of control. We've got a potluck after church on Sunday, I'm thinking I'll take a bag of squash with me and pass it out among those poor gardenless souls who don't have squash doorstops. I think it's safe to say that I'm getting just the teensiest bit sick of my garden.

Tanya, I'm talking about Jersey cows. Guernsey's are okay, as far as cows go, but Jerseys are MUCH cuter.

fairest of the fair

2011-08-25T16:35:00.003-10:00

We went to the county fair today. I like going through the animal barns at the fair, they're all so clean and neat and the animals are scrubbed up and nice looking. It almost makes you forget what a pain in the butt they can be. I like the cow barns...and in Wisconsin, there are plenty of those. If, and that's a huge IF, we ever got a cow, it would have to be a Jersey, they're so soft eyed and pretty, plus, they've got some of the highest percentage of butterfat, which would be a priority to me since if we had our own milk, I'd want to make stuff like butter. Then we went to see the goats, which are really cute when they're not being mischievous. After the animal barns, we hit the midway and the food stands. I don't know if they're as important to your fair as they are to ours, but cream puffs are a Wisconsin fair tradition. So, I had the traditional fair cream puff then, I found Nirvana. Deep fried chocolate chip cookie dough, people. Oh, and topped with whipped cream. I was not leaving the fairgrounds without one of those little lovelies in my gullet. There were 3 of them, each a little bigger than the size of a golf ball. Hubs and I each ate one and split the third, which was waaaay more than I really needed. Not exactly an important part of the food pyramid, but hey, it's the fair, you've gotta splurge just a little. I should get some credit for passing on the deep fried blooming onions, deep fried twinkies and the elephant ears.

if he only knew...

2011-08-22T14:41:00.002-10:00

Tomorrow morning, angel #4's cat is going into the vet to get neutered. He's 8 months old, so this is long overdue, but it's been a busy summer and this is the first we got time. I want to get him fixed before it starts causing problems.

The craziness of school is starting already. Last Monday WE started cross-country practice and Angel #4 started volleyball practice. #2's practices are from 9-11am and WE's are from 6-8pm, so that makes for 4 trips back and forth to town to get them to practice. Once school starts, they'll both have practice at the same time so we'll only have one town trip a day, which will be much nicer.

Still haven't found my Mouli, but I'm still looking, because I KNOW it's here somewhere, so I refuse to look for or buy a new one. There's no place else it could be. WE lost his running shorts he wears to practice as well, we suspect that his shorts and the Mouli ran off together. I'm not sure what offspring a union of that sort would produce, but I bet it would be able to grate cheese in a real hurry. :P

WHERE IS MY MOULI????

2011-08-11T14:54:00.003-10:00

Besides a couple of boxes of books, winter clothes and a box of small and basically useless electric kitchen appliances, we're all unpacked. But I've got a missing object to report. I can't find my Mouli. It looks like this bad boy:

I got it about 15 years ago for $1 at an auction still in its original box and I loved him with all my might. He made the trip to Hawaii with us and came back up when we returned to Wisconsin, though one of his blades got a little bent up in the move. I used it for shredding cheese, zuchinni, and Fels Naptha soap (I make my own laundry detergent). I love that little guy. But, I've turned my house inside out and upside down and I can't find it. I last used it right before we moved, so probably the end of June. I noticed it was missing on Saturday when I had a bunch of zuchinni that needed shredding and I couldn't find it. I've also run out of laundry detergent and have had to resort to using store-bought stuff, because my MOULI HAS DISAPPEARED!! I've re-searched all the unpacked boxes, crawled through the grainery, barn, attic and garage looking for it. I'm at my wit's end and it's not pretty people. So, if you've seen my Mouli wandering around looking lost, please send him home, I miss him.

In non-disappearing Mouli news, Saturday we went to a beautiful wedding. A girl we've known since before she was born got married in her parents backyard on a beautiful sunny day. Sarah looked gorgeous and it was hard to reconcile that beautiful young woman to the little girl who used to play with Angel #1. I think #1 was really missing being here to watch his lifelong friend get married, but those are the breaks when you join the military, I guess. Anyway, around 3:30pm, just when the bride and groom were saying their goodbyes, they had a little surprise in store for them. There's a small, grass airstrip on her parents farm and the bride's grandpa hired someone to land his plane there and pick up the bride and groom. We all stood off to the side and waved as they flew off to start their life together. It was almost like a movie.

My mom's side of the family had a reunion on Saturday as well, but we'd had a busy couple of days and were really just wanting to go home and chill after the wedding. My refrigerator died on Wednesday night and at 10pm, the girls and I were hauling our refrigerated stuff outside and to the garage refrigerator. We went out of town early Thursday morning to work at the day camp for the mentally handicapped that we like volunteering at and spend the night at Rent-a-Grandma's house so we could go there again on Friday (the camp is a 2 hour drive from our house). We got home late Friday night, left early in the morning for the 2 hour drive to get to the wedding and finally got around to taking the old fridge out and putting the garage fridge into the kitchen on Saturday night. That was a bit chaotic since I was also trying to make a zuchinni cake for my dish to pass for the family reunion for my dad's side of the family, which was on Sunday. A lot of that time was spent looking for my Mouli so I could shred the zuchinni. Our doorways are really narrow, so hubs had to take all the doors and hinges off the fridge to get it into the kitchen. Things were a bit crazy.

The girls and I went to the reunion right after church on Sunday and, since something happened and my cake turned out looking awful, I didn't put my name on my cake pan and had one of the girls quietly slip it onto the dessert table so no one knew it was mine. :p I also found out how much I adore my cousin Theresa when she told me the story of how one of her roosters attacked her and she took out a gun and shot it. I think she's my hero. My family also has a 50/50 raffle every year. In case you don't know, a 50/50 raffle means that whoever holds the winning ticket gets half of the proceeds of the raffle, the other half goes to a charity. In my family's case, the charity is one my cousin's disabled daughter takes part in. It never fails though, every year, whoever wins the raffle ends up donating their winnings to the charity as well. How can you not love a family like that? This year, the winner was a young 4th generation relative who is getting married soon. I'm sure he could have found a use for that $100+, but didn't think twice about not accepting the winnings, even when someone brought up the fact that he was kind of broke. It gives me the warm fuzzies. So you don't think that my family is just a bunch of boring do-gooders, they also got out the water balloon launcher. In another family tradition, a whole bunch of kids stand out in the yard and try to catch the water balloons as they come whizzing through the air. By the time they run out of balloons, they're all covered with welts and bruises. So yeah, we're all a bit warped as well as altruistic. After a few ears of grill roasted corn and some hugs from a couple of awesome aunts, the girls and I headed home. I think this was our busiest weekend of the summer and it's all downhill from here. I don't even want to think about frost and cold, but, since this is Wisconsin, things will be getting downright chilly here in the next month or so. I miss summer already and it's not even over yet.

And just when I think it's over

2011-08-01T15:01:00.002-10:00

The crazy continues. Saturday afternoon, the car broke. Literally broke. It was an old car, older than all my kids, and it was definitely showing its age, but when it decided to give up the ghost, it made its plans totally clear. Angel #2 was driving down the road, thankfully through town, so she was going slow, when the steering went out. The car started pulling to the left and she steered to the right and the steering wheel just spun, like a kiddie car in the carnival. She crossed a lane of traffic, thankfully there were no oncoming cars, and came to a stop at the side of the road facing the wrong direction. One of the first cars that went past her was a cop, so she flagged him down for help, since the rear of the car was sticking out into traffic, and he directed traffic until the tow truck came to take our old faithful car away. The tow truck driver took one look at it and said it couldn't be saved, the entire sub-frame broke off, which apparently, is something that helps hold the car together. So the car headed off to the junk and Sunday, we scrambled to find a cheap vehicle fast. Our only remaining vehicle was our pickup truck, which only holds 3 people and is stick, which Angel #2 isn't very proficient at. Fortunately, we've got wonderful friends and by Sunday afternoon, we were driving home with a 1996 Taurus. It's not perfect, but it's much better than what we had, besides, the a/c works, which it didn't in the old car, so we're coming out ahead. Considering we paid $600 for our old car and it lasted us a year, we came out ahead all over the place. Hopefully, this new one will hang on for a long while as well.

Now are we done with the crazy?

2011-07-29T16:13:00.002-10:00

I think we've finally hit the end of the pet parade. WE came home last night with a year old black lab mix named Diesel. Diesel is a pretty good dog, but it'll take a little while for him to learn the rules at our house, like no going on the furniture, no licking and no begging - apparently those things were all allowed at his last house. He's slowing figuring it out, he's already learned to stay out of Angel #2's bedroom - his presence there causes all sorts of ruckus since she's got 2 birds in there, along with a very freaked out kitten.

I was a canning whirlwind today. I started out doing 5 quarts of green beans, then the girls and I went on to the bushel of peaches sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor. The three of us got an assembly line going (or as Angel #2 referred to it 'a sweatshop') and got the peeled, pitted and turned into pie filling and jam. At the end of the day we ended up with 7 quarts of pie filling, 15 pints of peach jam and 3 additional quarts of plain peaches. I love hearing the 'ping' of jars sealing. Such a feeling of accomplishment. I don't have a few key pieces of canning equipment and couldn't find them at our local store, so instead of a canning funnel I had to cut off the bottom of a plastic McDonalds iced coffee cup and use that. It didn't work nearly as well as an actual funnel would, but beggars can't be choosers. I also found out that I only have 3 wide-mouthed jar rings, so I had to use regular jars, which made the whole funneling thing an even bigger challenge.

Why yes, I DO need more crazy in my life. Why do you ask?

2011-07-25T11:02:00.002-10:00

Angel #2 got a kitten a few weeks ago. I think it was the runt of the litter, it's really tiny. Then her boyfriend brought a cat over, a 7 month old that really dwarfs the little one, but doesn't stop the little guy from trying to attack. Angel #4 took over ownership of Muse, the big cat. But now, Pepper, the little guy, is no longer the little guy. Angel #2 got a call from the vets office where she helps out, someone had a tiny kitten abandoned by its mother, did #2 want to bottle feed a 2 week old kitten? What a silly question. So now we've got this tiny little thing mewing and bottles and formula lying around. WE is still on the lookout for the perfect dog.

In other exciting news, hubs got my oven working correctly finally. It had been sooting everything up and making a real mess of my pans and my kitchen in general. After working on it and being completely stumped, he went against all his good manly judgement and read the instructions printed on a big metal tag attached to the inside of the cooktop. After following the instructions, things are now soot-free and cooking nicely, though hubs IS in danger of being kicked out of the he-man club for stooping so low as to read instructions.

My garden is starting to produce something other than weeds finally. Saturday I canned up 7 quarts of green beans. I should have some yellow summer squash and some zuchinni within a week as well. Yay for fresh veggies! I also painted the entryway by the back door on Saturday. We bought the paint for the kitchen & dining room a couple days ago, but I don't really have time to do it right now, but I really wanted to get something on the wall. Since the entryway is going to be the same color as the kitchen, I figured I'l slap a coat on those walls so I felt like I accomplished something. It's a gorgeous turquoise color and really pops out with the white trim. Now I'm really antsy to get the rest painted. Oh, to find the time.

A day of Lowes stalkers and crazy cat ladies

2011-07-20T11:16:00.002-10:00

Hubs and I went to Lowes yesterday. One thing we've noticed since the economy is taking a nosedive and people are losing their jobs left and right, is that in many places, especially those mega building supply stores like Lowes and Home Depot, employees are trying desperately to be invaluable. This was especially evident in Hawaii, when, at the height of the building boom there, store employees acted more like you were an interruption than a paying customer. But now, things have changed, they're falling over themselves trying to help you so they don't get discovered standing around, doing nothing, and getting downsized. Hubs and I were standing in the middle of an aisle, discussing something non-hardware related, at Lowes yesterday, when an employees asked if he could help us find something. I told him no and we moved on, but hubby started complaining to me about being constantly pestered by sales clerks. He goes to these stores all the time for work, and is sick of having his shopping constantly interrupted, especially since you can never find any of these people when you actually need help. As we were escaping the first employees, a 2nd one was right behind us, talking on the phone with a customer. In an effort to dodge her, we went down a different aisle, only to have her follow us, still yakking away. We ended up going outside in the garden department, hubs saying that there shouldn't be any employees out there since they prefer to stay inside in the air conditioning than be in the 95 degree heat. We split up and hubs was a few aisles away when I heard someone ask if he was finding everything okay. I was standing there, all by myself, when I burst out laughing so hard I started to snort. Anyone watching me had to think I was deranged. Which leads me to my next adventure.

Since, as I mentioned before, it was really hot and humid outside, I just wanted to do a quick scan of the reduced plants to see if they had any interesting veggies I could stick out into the garden at this late stage in the game. A lady standing next to me started up a conversation about flowers. She said she just wanted to buy them all because she hated the thought of leaving them there to die. I wanted to remind her that these were begonias at Lowes, not puppies at the animal shelter, but just smiled nicely and said I was looking for vegetables. She said that with only the two of them, she didn't bother planting veggies and I said I was feeding a houseful of teens and needed all the help I could get. Then she said she didn't have any two legged kids, only the four legged kind, and I knew I was in trouble. I said I wasn't much of an animal lover, hoping to deflect what I knew was going to come, but it didn't work. I got to hear all about her 9 cats and 2 dogs, her troubles finding a vet and about the cat that she's had for 11 years that won't let her pick it up. I was polite, but kept wandering away, hoping to get out of the garden department and back inside where it was cool and critter-free, but she kept following me around and chatting away. I know she was lonely and I should have spent more time with her than I did, but I figure that 10 minutes in the sun and heat was about the limit of my good deed for the day. It was hard looking at her when she was talking anyway. She had pure white hair, but no eyebrows, so they were drawn in with brown eyebrow pencil. But they were only about half an inch long, so were only little dashes above her eyes, and they kept moving up and down when she talked. I could not resist looking at her bouncing eyebrows, it was like I was hypnotized. Eventually, I made my excuses and escaped to the coolness and safety of the store. I found hubs and we picked out some linoleum for our new upstairs bathroom and paint for the kitchen and dining room. Now I've just got to find the time and ambition to paint those rooms. As much as I want to get going on it, it may have to wait until winter. I got my first big batch of green beans today and will have to start canning them up within the next couple days. I've got fresh peas to shell and the battle of me vs. potato bug still wages on.

Angel #4 got home safe and sound yesterday. She had some really good flights, so she landed early in Chicago, which helped her catch her final flight home, which also landed 15 minutes early. She met a friendly man on the first leg of the journey and had a pleasant time chatting with him. She said the flight attendant thought they were together until they explained that they were just flight buddies. That's a great thing about my youngest, she makes friends wherever she goes. She worked hard in the garden this morning pulling weeds and squishing bugs, so things are starting to get caught up in the weeding department also. Summer is So busy.

Hitchcock Revisited

2011-07-18T15:06:00.002-10:00

We had another bird-y morning the other day. They were pecking at the screen and dive bombing the window. I went outside to see what was going on and about 30 birds flew off my roof. I don't know what the big attraction is in my shingles, but I wish it would stop. After the mosquitofest we had the night before, I was really wanting my sleep. I bet I killed about 25 of the blood suckers before we finally got enough silence that we could sleep. The mosquitoes are big here too, like B-52 bombers, which is helpful in a way, they make an easier target when you slap your hands together to get them in midair. The day after the great mosquito massacre, hubs fixed the screens on some of the windows. With this being an old house, some of the screens are in pretty bad shape.

Screens aren't much of an issue at the moment, though. It's so hot that we turned on the air conditioning. Hubs got the ductwork and the inside of the furnace all cleaned out first before turning it on, who knows how many years of dust and crude were in there. But, things are working fine now, which is nice. The temps have been in the 90's and it's really humid. No one likes this kind of weather but corn and Jeanie C. Fortunately, with our house being perched on a hill, we usually get somewhat of a breeze, which helps a little, even though our breeze feels like someone opened a hot, wet oven.

Angel #4 comes home from her Virginia trip tomorrow afternoon. She's a little nervous about flying by herself, mainly it's the plane change in Chicago that's making her nervous. We've given her instructions on what to do, and even if she misses her connection, another flight leaves for the same airport an hour and a half later, so she'll get home eventually. Then, we'll have to deprogram her after all the spoiling I'm sure she got while she was out there. It's nothing an hour or two out weeding in the garden won't take care of.

a weird way to wake up

2011-07-13T13:35:00.002-10:00

I woke up this morning at 6am to the scritchy-scratching of little feet over my head. I lay there, eyes wide open, wondering if we had rats or mice in our attic, then wondering how they could make scritchy-scratchy noises while walking on the insulation in the attic. I heard banging on something metal on the outside of the house and deduced with a sigh of relief that there must be birds doing some kind of tango on my roof. I crawled across the bed to look out the window and suddenly, a bird landed right on the window sill about 2 feet from my face, then just sat there looking at me. I was thinking "what the heck???" when I heard WE voice verbalize my exact thought from his bedroom. I asked him what was going on, and apparently he had a bird on his windowsill trying to get into his room. I looked back at MY bird, who decided to fly away. He wasn't gone for long though, a few minutes later, he came back with a friend, they each took a window and started pecking at them. Especially weird since they weren't even woodpeckers. WE said his bird was now next door at Angel #4's bedroom window, pecking at that. It was like an audition for an Alfred Hitchcock movie or something.

Finally, all the psychotic little tweeters left to find somebody else's window to peck at. After lying in bed for a little while, I realized I wasn't going to get back to sleep and got out of bed. It was then that I realized that my marathon weeding session on Monday had come back to haunt me. My neck was so sore that I could barely move my head to the right and the joints in my right hand felt the same way those red glowing hands did in those arthritis commercials Patricia Neal did back when I was a little kid. I put stinky muscle relaxer stuff on my neck and hand, but I'm still pretty sore. A hot shower didn't do much either. I think I'm going to lay in bed with a heating pad tonight and hope for the best tomorrow. This must be what getting old is like. It sucks.

recovery day

2011-07-12T14:44:00.002-10:00

After my marathon gardening session yesterday, I took a little break today. I headed into town to restock my library books and do a little grocery shopping. I also had to take back the loaner cell phone booster that didn't work, so I still have very unreliable cell phone service. We may have to go retro and get a land line. I did a couple loads of laundry and made a pasta salad for supper, since it's been too warm to want to do much cooking, though today was nice and only got to about 80. Last week, I noticed some asparagus plants randomly growing in the yard by the garden. I assume that that was where the long ago asparagus patch was back in the day. Since I planted a new patch in the complete opposite side of the yard this spring, I figured I'd try to dig up the old plants and put them in with the new ones. Hopefully, they'll take, because you can never have too much asparagus, in my opinion. I know that it likes rich soil, so I mixed in some really old pigeon poo before planting. I don't care what anybody says, you can call it fertilizer as much as you want, but at the end of the day, it's still pigeon poop. I got this stuff from our little silo room, and it's probably decades old, since it's about 4 inches thick on the floor. I can just imagine how many feet are in the bottom of the silo where the birds actually roost.

After spending quality time shoveling poo, I headed back into the house. I've been without an oven now since we moved in, and frankly, I'm going into oven withdrawals. I commonly make a batch of cookies impulsively, simply because I've got the munchies. I haven't been able to do this without an oven and it's really starting to drive me nuts. Today, just to feed my cravings, I made a batch of chainsaw bars, at least, that's what my mom always called them, she said they were so chewy you needed a chainsaw to cut them. I've never made them before and when I looked them up on allrecipes.com, I couldn't find them under that name, so I entered the ingredients. Apparently, the rest of the world calls them Scotcheroos. They'll always be Chainsaw Bars to me.

Angel #4 posted a status on her Facebook today. She headed into Washington DC and went to a museum. She said it was "like a nightmare, just room after room of stuff." That is no spawn of mine. I love museums. She didn't know what museum she was at, but if it was the Smithsonian and she's complaining about it having too much stuff, I just may have to disown her. Spending an entire week at the Smithsonian has always been a dream of mine.

Help, I'm weeding and I can't stop

2011-07-11T16:47:00.002-10:00

We had a big storm last night, lots of wind and rain. The rain was perfect for watering the garden and softening the dirt for easy weeding. I've been working my way through weeding the garden all week, but the going was hard since the ground was dry and solid. Well, not today, things just pulled right out. I went out about 9am and started pulling. I needed to make a run into town in the late morning, so I was planning on stopping around 11. Then the people started coming. First, the Jehovah Witnesses stopped by, they came out and talked to me by the garden since I was weeding so industriously that I didn't notice they'd driven in. Shortly after they left, the internet guy came (early). He was the reason I needed to go to town, since he was going to put an antennae on the house so we could be new internet since our old stuff doesn't work real well. Turns out that we're so far out in the boonies that HIS internet service doesn't come here at all, so we're stuck with the old stuff, but then I didn't need to go to town because there was no reason to pay him since he didn't do anything. The internet guy was still here loading up, I went back into the garden and then someone else drove in. He was selling books we don't need, so I sent him on his way without listening to his spiel since I really wanted to get back to the garden. This house was quiet and abandoned for over a year and in one day, everyone and their uncle shows up. I guess we just attract people.

I came inside for a little while and ate some lunch, but just couldn't stay away from the garden. The ground was rapidly drying out and I knew my time of easy weed pulling was limited, so back out I went. I finally came in for good around 5:30-6:00, very sweaty, dirty and really sunburned. Since my skin is immune to the sun most of the time, I very seldom use sunscreen. Today, by the time I realized that I had a sick weeding addiction, it was too late to put some on. The thought of smearing greasy cream on my sweaty, dirty body just didn't appeal to me. So, I've got red thighs and a red right arm. No biggie though, the way my skin works is that the burn will fade within 2 days and my skin will be lily white again. It's a gift.

After a day of frenzied weeding, I've got all 6 rows of potatoes nicely cleaned out. I discovered some plants had potato bugs on them, so WE and I squished lots of bugs and had orange bug goo all over our hands. I hate potato bugs.

Jeanie, your comment about nuns being regular people made me laugh. I think the thing that first attracted me to my nun cousin when I was a little girl was the fact that not only was she an active participant in the annual family reunion water fight, but many times, she initiated it. It's been years, but I've still got the vision of Sister GeorgeEllen, in full-out nun regalia, pelting my cousin Joe with a water balloon.

Neighbor-palooza

2011-07-08T17:31:00.002-10:00

Just got back from the neighbor's house. Every year he holds a huge party after July 4th and this year, we were invited, along with literally hundreds of other people. It's all the beer/soda you can drink, along with a booyah feed followed by fireworks. Neighbor guy told hubs he spent $10,000 on fireworks this year, and I believe it. They topped just about anything I've seen municipalities put on. Neighbor guy has a big private lake, about 17 acres, surrounded by beautiful manicured lawns, a huge shed full of man toys and the cabin, which would make a really nice house for somebody. No, he doesn't live there, he's got a big house about 40 miles away. Some guys use their basement for a man-cave, Ken has a 200 acre one. So anyway, every year he puts on this party for all his friends, which, fortunately, we've become. They shoot the fireworks out over the lake. It was a little awkward, since the only person I knew out of the hundreds that were there, was the host himself, and since hubs and Angel #4 are both out of town, we were missing the family extroverts, so we didn't do a lot of mixing and mingling. At events like this, I usually trail in hubby's wake and let him introduce himself to people and I just sort of hang in the background and smile. I'm not particularly outgoing, but since hubs is, it makes us a perfect couple.

Angel #2 got a kitten today, so our animal population has grown to 16 chickens, 2 cockatiels, and a kitten. WE wants to get a dog yet, and Angel #4 has plans to get a cat of her own when she gets back from Virginia. We're also going to have to get a couple of cats for the barn to keep the rodent population down. I think our zoo is going to keep getting bigger and bigger.

Fun with Nuns

2011-07-07T15:52:00.003-10:00

"I'm sorry I'm late getting to the convent, but I couldn't find the tattoo parlor."

Just the fact that I made that statement today means that my life is filled with 36 flavors of awesomeness. Aren't you jealous? You should be. Not many people can use the words 'convent' and 'tattoo parlor' in the same sentence in general conversation. My mom's cousin is a nun and has been now for almost 50 years. When I was little, I idolized her and wanted to be a nun, just like she was. Of course, the fact that I was a little Lutheran girl as well as the fact that the only Catholic stuff I knew was what my mom taught me from her years in a Catholic elementary school, which consisted of "Hail Mary, full of grace, washed her hands and forgot her face," which I'm pretty sure isn't even doctrine. Anyway, flash forward 35 years, I got over the wanting to be a nun thing, but became reacquainted with Sister GeorgeEllen. Through a bizarre series of events, she moved to Hawaii on the very day that I moved away from the Aloha State, but she's now up in Wisconsin on home visit, staying in a convent only 25 miles from my house. So today we arranged to meet up after so many years. As long as I was heading in that direction, Angel #2 asked that I drop her off at the tattoo parlor, her boyfriend was getting a tattoo and she wanted to be there for moral support. We had a little problem finding the place, and I really question the wisdom of getting permanent body art done at a place called Stinky's Tattoo Parlor, but hey, it's not my back getting inked. Eventually, we found it, but I was late getting to the convent, which necessitated me making the statement above.

I got a full on tour of the convent, I'd never been to one before and have only been to a Catholic church for a handful of weddings and funerals, so it was an interesting experience. The convent itself is almost 200 years old and looks like a big old castle with gorgeous wood carvings inside. I got to see the kitchens, infirmary, library, etc and met both the former and present Mother Superiors. Very interesting. After the convent tour, we went to a public garden right on the shore of Lake Michigan and afterwards, went out to eat. Of course, the obvious place to go to eat with a 70 year old nun is Taco Bell, where we pigged out on burritos and gorditas. During the entire 5 hour visit, we talked constantly and had a wonderful time. We've decided that we're going to get together again next year when she's back on home visit.

In farming news, we had another weird egg today. This one didn't have a shell, the inside egg goo was just floating around inside the membrane. It was all floppy like a water balloon and looked utterly disgusting. It went directly into the compost pile. Life with chickens just leads from one adventure to another.

Happy Independence Day!

2011-07-04T16:41:00.003-10:00

Summer is finally here and it's gorgeous! Warm and sunny during the day and a nice cool breeze at night. Wisconsin summers make up for the horrible winters. The mosquitoes seem to be enjoying it also. Last night, I was in the kitchen and when things got quiet (which occasionally happens around here) I could hear them all buzzing and whining at the screen. Made me pretty darn grateful for the little bit of mesh between me and the great outdoors.

I dropped hubs off at the airport this morning. He's got to do his part to keep the residents of the state of Hawaii cool and dry. Funny thing though, he wasn't nearly as eager to go this time as he was back in January. Amazing the difference an 80 degree temperature change can make. Before he left, he had a list of things I needed him to do. He busted his butt and got the whole list done, which is pretty awesome since I had no intention of spending the next 10 days of him gone with no stove or washing machine. Not only did he get those much needed appliances hooked up, but he also rehung most of my upper kitchen cabinets which, up til now, had been sitting on the dining room floor. They're now up where they belong and full of food and dishes. I still don't have everything unpacked, but I made a pretty good dent. We moved the kitchen table into the dining room now. It had been in the kitchen, which made sitting at the table kind of a challenge. With this being an old, old house, the floor in the kitchen are a bit sloped. By 'a bit' I mean a LOT. Our kitchen chairs have wheels and we all got a chuckle that first night when WE sat down at the table and the chair rolled to the opposite side of the room. I suggested we just drill a hole in the northeast corner of the room and when it's time to wash the floor, I just hose it down and let all the water run out the hole. I think it would work and would sure cut down on my housekeeping time.

With hubs in Hawaii, Angel #1 in California and Angel #4 in Virginia, my family is a bit spread out at the moment. Angel #2 spent the weekend with her boyfriends family at a reunion, so it's just been WE and me today. He's got his bedroom all done to his specifications, one of the chores on hubs list last night was putting up WE's bedroom door. He's got his computer set up there now and he spent most of the day holed up there. I thought I'd give him the day off since he's been working his butt off this last week. He spent 3 long days helping hubs on a furnace job on a new house a couple hours drive from here, then worked like a trooper helping with the move and all the construction that went with it. I figured the poor kid needed a break. But tomorrow, I'm cracking the whip again and sending him and Angel #2 out to weed the garden. As much as I like doing it, the garden is much too big for me to handle on my own, especially since we don't have a tiller. Before you know it, we're going to start doing some harvesting, then we'll have a whole new brand of work to look forward to. Summer just isn't long enough for all the stuff that needs doing.

Sometimes, it's not always the ghost's fault

2011-07-02T15:13:00.003-10:00

Since moving in, Angel #2 and I have been blaming mysterious noises, everything that goes wrong or gets lost on 'the ghost'. We haven't had any evidence of a ghost, but it's much easier to blame an invisible being than to accept the fact that we keep loosing things. Last night, we heard a loud bang upstairs, like something fell over. We went up to see what the noise was and didn't see anything, granted, we didn't look too hard. We figured that with all the junk we have piled up, we wouldn't notice if something fell over anyway, it got blamed on 'the ghost'. Until hubby came home and headed up to our bedroom, then called down for me to grab a broom and garbage can. Turns out the noise we heard couldn't be attributed to kin of Casper after all, but a chunk of our ceiling fell onto our bed. I'm really really glad it chose early evening to fall, since waking up to 50 pounds of plaster falling on me doesn't sound like much fun. I know it wasn't fun cleaning it up off the bed. We're still placing the blame for the lost fingernail clippers onto the ghost though.

Jeanie, you can come on over for chicken any time.

I need a maid

2011-07-01T04:36:00.002-10:00

Well, we're out of the old house and into the new. Of course, now the work is just beginning. Since we're in the process of remodeling the new house, there isn't really places to put all our stuff, so it's just sitting around in bags and boxes all over the place with little trails for walking. I feel like I live in one of those houses on the Hoarders show. I've got the living room mostly cleared out so we've got one room that we can relax in, otherwise, things are pretty chaotic. But, it's home, so it's all good. Now that we're onsite, maybe I can manage to spend a little time cleaning up the garden as well, but I'm taking a small break this morning. Yesterday, Angel #2 and I cleaned and scrubbed the old house for 5 hours straight. I like to make a point of making sure that a house is as clean or cleaner when we leave than how it was when we moved in. Some people appreciate that, other landlords still charge a cleaning fee, just to get every stinking penny out of your security deposit that they can. I've dealt with both, most of the time you see a security scammer ahead of time, but I optimistically clean anyway in hopes that I'm wrong. I'm usually not though, which really sucks. I don't foresee any problem with the place we're leaving now though, we've always had a great relationship with the landlords. I just want to make sure they get a clean house back.

In farming news, hubs caught a cannibal chicken red-handed, or yellow beaked, as the case may be. She ate 5 eggs right in front of him. She's since been put in solitary confinement and is sentenced for execution tomorrow. Once an egg eater, always an egg eater, so now we're going to be chicken eaters. It's a tough life out there.

you know you must be busy when

2011-06-27T15:40:00.002-10:00

you had no idea it had been over a week since blogging. But man, things are just buzzing around here like a moth in a bug light.

On the 21st, Angel #1 headed back to life with the Marines. He's in California again for the time being. He let us know a couple days ago that he's being deployed in December. I'm not too thrilled about my baby going to Afghanistan, but he's excited about it, besides, going to dangerous places are what you do when you're a Marine. Worrying about your baby is what you do when you're a Marine's mom.

Rent-a-Grandmas son's wedding reception was on Saturday. It was a beautiful day and a wonderful time. Since we don't get to her area much anymore, it was great seeing some friends that we hadn't talked to in a while. It was also nice to see the whole Rent-a-Grandma extended family. Through the years, we've gotten to know her sister and her family as well as her sister-in-law and her family. Everyone's kids have grown so much over the years. Angel #4 made friends with one of the nephews daughters, which was pretty cool, especially since, through a series of events, Angel #4 is spending the night at the girls house in the south side of Chicago tonight. #4 was invited by the bride and groom to go back to Virginia with them for a while this summer, so they headed out this afternoon. We're not quite sure when she's coming back. They're driving out there, but she's going to have to fly home at the end of the visit. The deal is that she's going to earn the money to pay for her flight while she's out there. One of the ways is by helping the bride, who's from Thailand, on her English. She and #4 really hit it off last time they were together and so #4 is really looking forward to spending more time with her.

Because of her spur of the moment trip decision, she needed to do some speedy work at home before she left. We've moving out of our house on Thursday, so she needed to get everything in her room packed up and ready to move out before she could go. She managed to get it all done, with a little help from me. Now, if only I could find the magical moving fairy who would come overnight and pack all the rest of our stuff up for me, I'd be one happy camper. There just aren't enough hours in the day for all the stuff that needs doing. Today, I painted a couple bedroom floors at the new place, brought two loads of stuff over and spent about an hour working in the garden, which is being sadly neglected due to the gazillion other things that are more pressing than weedfree onions. Since we're remodeling the new house, I don't really have places to put our stuff when we move it over there, so we've just been piling things up in the grainery, but sooner or later (hopefully sooner) hubs will get my kitchen cabinets off the dining room floor and back on the wall so I can at least unpack my kitchen things.

Sigh, I need a couple clones.

so, what came first, the egg or the egg?

2011-06-18T09:15:00.002-10:00

Breakfast was interesting yesterday. Our chickens lay some huge eggs, so big sometimes that we can't close the egg cartons all the way. Yesterdays egg was particularly large, with a bizarre rippled pattern to the shell. The shell was also pretty fragile and cracked a bit when I was washing it, so it was first in line to become breakfast. I cracked it and put it into the egg poacher and saw, what looked like a double yolker, which I've had before, but then noticed that the color of the yolk wasn't yolk colored. Upon closer inspection, it wasn't another yolk, but another egg. Yep, there was a little egg, complete with hard shell, inside the first egg. It was about the size of one of those bigger shooter marbles. When I cracked the little egg, which had a really hard shell, incidentally, it had a little tiny yolk and everything inside it. How weird is that?

After breakfast, we loaded the family up in the car and roadtripped it out to some friends of our who live a 3 hour drive away. Angel #4 had spent the week with them helping out with their kids, so we needed to pick her up. We had a great afternoon with them, then decided to visit some other friends who live near them. They just bought a new house and we wanted to go check it out. We got the tour of the house, the yard and gardens and ended up staying and visiting with them until 8:30 or so before heading back on the long drive home. Our car doesn't comfortably carry 6 people, but we all squeezed in and had a great time on the way home. Traveling with the family is a great way to have good conversations with your kids, you just have to resist the urge to turn on the radio. It was a great trip and I'm so glad I had that extra time to spend with all my kids. With Angel #1 going back to the Marines on Monday and Angel #2 working her way toward her own apartment and independence, times like that are going to become more and more rare.

When we got home, we discovered that we had extra passengers in the car we weren't aware of. Our friends yard was full of ticks, and now, so were we. I pulled 3 off of myself, 4 off Angel #2, #4 had one in her neck and I'm not sure how many hubs pulled off himself, at least 5 or 6. We were all paranoid after that, and soon all the kids were stripped down to their undies so I could do a full body tick scan on them. Of course, this had to be done in the kitchen so I could pop all the nasty culprits down the garbage disposal when I found them. Someone peeking in our window around 11:30 last night, would have definitely been wondering why there was an entire family standing in the middle of the kitchen in their underwear picking at each other like a family of orangutans.

Today is warm and slightly overcast, perfect for working out in the garden. I went out by myself for about 2 hours this afternoon and really enjoyed messing around out there. I replanted a few things that didn't come up and found deer tracks all over the place. Hubs was going to put up some fencing, now it's going to have to be sooner rather than later since I'm not spending all that time sweating out there to provide a Bambi salad bar.

so, which is better?

2011-06-13T03:43:00.002-10:00

I looked at the extended weather forecast for this week. Tomorrow it's supposed to be a high of 70, partly sunny and nice (the exact words). Wednesday it's going to be a high of 70, partly sunny and pleasant. So, which one is the better day, partly sunny and nice or partly sunny and pleasant? And, what's the difference? What makes Tuesday less pleasant than Wednesday? Curious minds want to know.

We had a great time at Angel #2's graduation party on Saturday. I'm not sure how many people were here, I'm guessing around 40. The original plan was that we were going to set up folding tables in the garage for eating, but it was pretty stinking cold, so the set up was moved inside. Thankfully, we live in a house that can easily accommodate 40 random people wandering around, even a bunch of teenagers having way too much fun popping balloons and playing a very boisterous game of spoons in the basement. Our very good friends from Hawaii showed up early in the afternoon. They were our closest friends when we were living in Hawaii and moved to Colorado a few months before we moved back to Wisconsin. They were on a working vacation in the Midwest and made a detour through Wisconsin so they could spend some time with us and it worked out perfectly that it fell on the same weekend as the graduation party. What a great weekend.

well, we had summer, now it's over

2011-06-09T14:05:00.003-10:00

We had a couple days of 90 degree hot miserable weather, but overnight our temps dropped and this morning it was 51 degrees outside. I guess we had our summer and it's on to fall again. We had a bigger temperature span in 12 hours in Wisconsin then we ever had in the 5 years we lived in Hawaii. We had a monster thunder storm last night, which created the break in the heat. The wind was blowing and there's trees down all over the place. Lots of rain and a creepily orange sky made it look like an apocalypse storm or something. Thankfully, no tornadoes that I heard of.

We're more than happy to have a break in the heat. The whole family has been working together to tame the weeds trying to take over the garden. The heat and humidity mixed in with the dusty, dry soil made us look and feel pretty nasty. The girls and I had a little break on Tuesday and after working in the garden all morning, showered up and headed to the local library to set up for the booksale they're having this weekend. It was still hard work, 3 straight hours of hauling and piling books on tables, but it was in the air conditioned basement of the library, so at least we got a chance to cool off. Then, to celebrate getting it finished, we headed to McDonalds for nice, cold frappes. After we got home, we had to unload all the books we bought at the sale. That's one of the perks of helping set up for the book sale, we get first dibs on all the books. Yay for books. I think we're going to help take things down next week, so I'll pick through the books that didn't sell and dig through those. You just can't have enough books.

Today, the girls and I went shopping to get the food for Angel #2's graduation party. She wants a costume/fancy dress party, so not only do I have to make the food, but I've got to get dressed up too. I'm not sure what I'm going to wear yet, I don't have a whole lot of costume stuff sitting around in the closet. I'm sure I'll think of something, I usually do.

we finally meet

2011-06-06T17:13:00.002-10:00

Yesterday, we went to a friend's daughter's graduation party. I've known this friend for about 18 years. We met when our two oldest sons were babies. We didn't see each other often, about once or twice yearly at church functions, we spent a lot of time together in the nursery since we each had babies number two and three around the same time as well. Until our recent move back to Wisconsin, where we now see her every Sunday morning and Wednesday night at church. Anyway, after knowing Julie for all this time, I've never met her husband, though she would talk about him frequently. Last night, after all those years of hearing about him, I finally met him. Now I can finally put a face to the name. He seems like a really nice guy and we had a great time over at their house. Next weekend, I think they're headed over to our house for OUR daughter's graduation party. What a busy time of year.

Angel #1 gave WE a Marine jarhead haircut Saturday night. When their hair is cut short, the boys have almost the same color, so now, when I can only see the back of one of the boys heads, I have a hard time telling them apart. Once I see the rest of them though, it's obvious who's who. Angel #1 definitely has turned into a man with huge, broad shoulders while WE is still in the middle of the whole boy to man transition, though WE is now taller than his big brother. He's got to take his glories where he can though, because even though he passed him by heightwise, #1 can still out run, out wrestle and out maneuver his little brother. Some day WE will equal or surpass #1 physically, but at the moment, he's still the dorky little brother.

finally silence

2011-06-03T13:56:00.003-10:00

Angel #1 got home around 1am this morning and the first thing he did was attack his sleeping brother. Fortunately, they settled down and didn't get all wound up again until morning when they started arguing around 8am about who could do the most push-ups.

Angel #2's boyfriend has been spending the last couple nights sleeping on our sofa due to the fact that his mother is psychotic and he's working is way over to live with his grandmother. I think that besides his mother screaming obscenities, his house is usually fairly quiet, with everyone preferring to watch tv rather than talk to each other. He's having a bit of a culture shock being with our family 24/7, because it's really noisy and active at our house. I'm willing to guess that this is probably the first time in his life that he was woke up by a 15 year old boy galloping around the house like a horse while carrying his Marine Corps brother around on his back. This kind of goofing around went on pretty much all day and I was more than happy to have hubs take the boys out to the new house to get some work done. Now all the kids, including #2's boyfriend, have loaded up in the car to go to a friends house for a bonfire. For the first time since school let out for the summer yesterday afternoon, my house is peaceful and quiet. *sigh*

2011-06-02T16:22:00.002-10:00

Thanks all, for the congratulations on the new house and on #2's graduation. So many changes in such a short time. The story of my life. Hubs is on his way to pick up Angel #1 at the airport. He graduated from combat engineer school today. Angel #4 and WE had their last day of school today and are already to goof off their way through summer. They'll have a rude awakening when we put them to work at the new house. We've already got them hauling out remodel garbage and weeding the garden. Now that we'll have them available 24/7...bwa-ha-ha They'll be our SLAVES!!! We gave our 30-day notice for the house we're living in now, so we've got a deadline to get the place livable. It wouldn't be so bad if hubs hadn't gotten carried away knocking out walls. Though it was necessary for some of them to go if we wanted the bathroom in, it just seems like walls were disappearing on a regular basis. Today it was the original bathrooms ceiling that got knocked out. It had to go so we can extend the plumbing to the new upstairs bathroom. Oh, so much work, but it'll be worth it.

Since it's such an old, beat up house, I'm going to have fun and go a little wild with the paint. I've got a plan for the kitchen and have searched the internet in vain for a kitchen with the color scheme I'm envisioning. I think that either means I'm ahead of my time or a crackpot. But, people made fun of my kitchen ideas when we built our house awhile ago, but once they saw the finished project, I got tons of compliments. Hopefully the same will happen this time as well. My first paint job will be the floors though. All through the upstairs, the living room and laundry room are all hardwood floors that have over a 100 years worth of coats of paint on them. I'm planning on adding one more coat to the collection. I'm also going to see how many layers of wallpaper I can get off the kitchen. My record is 5, which I peeled off the kitchen wall of the very first dilapidated farmhouse hubs and I lived in when we first got married. Now, 20 years later, we've come a full circle and are once again going to live in a dilapidated farmhouse. I've got a soft spot in my house for dilapidated farm houses, apparently.

Well, this wasn't the plan, but it'll work

2011-05-31T13:46:00.002-10:00

Guess what? We bought a house! We've been working on the deal for a couple weeks now, but I didn't want to say something until the papers were all signed. I didn't want to jinx the deal. We weren't looking to buy a house and didn't really even want to buy a house, but we passed this place that had a For Sale sign in the front of it. We called the number on the sign, looking to see if they're rent it to us if it didn't sell. The owner offered us such a deal if we bought it that we just didn't see a reason to not go ahead and sign on the dotted line. It's an old farmhouse with 5 outbuildings. We've already got a chicken coop built and full of happy clucking chickens who are giving us almost a dozen eggs a day already. We're going to fence in some pasture for more critters, because you know my family, it's just not complete without a herd of animals wandering around. We put the garden in almost 2 weeks ago already, a couple days after we put the offer in on the house, actually. We wanted the garden in as soon as possible and decided it was worth the risk of the house deal falling through to make sure it was all planted and growing before it was too late.

Now, the coolest thing. The house is really old. It only has one bathroom, so we want to get a 2nd one in before we even move in, especially since all the bedrooms are upstairs and the bathroom is on the first floor off the kitchen. So hubs is knocking away lathe and plaster, we've hauled over a ton of it to the dump already, and he starts chipping away at an outside wall to see how much insulation there was in it. Once he gets a small hole in the wall, he's trying to figure out why there's no insulation and a wall beam stuck in a weird position, then he realizes what it was. Our house was a log cabin! How cool is that? He knocked out the rest of the lathe and plaster on that wall and found great big old square cut logs with chinking in between, right out of Little House on the Prairie. I found an old newspaper stuck in the wall, it didn't have a date on it, but there was an advertisement for books in it and all the books were published in the 1880's, so that's probably a pretty good guess. We're planning on moving in around July 1st, so we've got a busy month ahead of us. Angel #1 is coming home on leave for about a week and a half, so we'll have another grunt to help with the heavy work. I can't wait to get in.

Half my kids are now out of school

2011-05-28T15:10:00.002-10:00

I was incredibly proud to see my beautiful oldest daughter receive her diploma last night. I was also relieved to see that she didn't fall off her ridiculously high heels while doing it. The graduation ceremony was very nice and much much shorter than Angel #1's was last year where they had both the principal and valedictorian give horrendously long boring speeches. Plus, #2's class had 51 kids graduating, while #1's graduating class had over 300. My, how things change in a year's time. They announced scholarship winners and there were a few kids who really cleaned up. Each time one walked on stage to get their scholarship certificate, I could hear their parent's checkbook sighing in relief. Since #2's decided to not do college, my checkbook is safe for the time being.

Rent-a-Grandma and Hubby's dad and older sister came for the graduation. I hadn't seen hubs sister since before we moved to Hawaii. She lives in Manhattan and makes it to Wisconsin about once a year, but never at the same time as my once a year trip to Wisconsin, so it was nice to see her. We didn't have a whole lot of time to visit, but it was nice to see her nonetheless. I think she's looking better than ever and I'm wondering what her stay young looking secret is. I suspect it has something to do with never having any kids. :p

Yay for Graduation!

2011-05-27T09:47:00.002-10:00

Today is Angel #2's graduation day. Two down, two to go. We've finally nailed down a date for a graduation party for her. It'll work out good, because Angel #1 will be home on leave during that time as well. I'll have all my babies together again, for a little while at least.

WE ended up in two relay races at the Sectional track meet last night. The team didn't do real well and in one race, one of the boys dropped the baton, which was real frustrating for poor WE. By the time it was his turn to take the baton, all the other teams has finished the race. One of the downfalls of being the team anchor man, I guess. They came in last in the other race as well. But, considering they were a team of freshmen and sophomores competing at the sectional level, I think they did pretty darn good even just getting there. Nows he's all excited to start cross country practice this summer.

yay for gardening

2011-05-24T04:31:00.006-10:00

The girls and I pretty much finished planting the garden on Saturday. We got the last of the potatoes planted as the rain drops started to fall. It rained the rest of the afternoon, giving the seeds a happy start in life. We still have about 3 or 4 empty rows to plant. We had one big packet of seed corn and 4 or 5 little ones and I thought that would be more than enough, but when we opened the little seed packets, there were only about 15 seeds per envelope. What a rip-off. So we planted what we had and will wait a couple weeks and plant the remaining rows, that way we'll have corn for a longer stretch, though I've got the feeling that by the middle of August, we're going to be sick to death of corn on the cob.

Last night was the regional track meet. I thought after that we'd be done with track, but now WE thinks that his relay team did good enough to go on to the sectional meet. Sectionals are held in a town about 3 hours drive from here, I don't think I'm a good enough track mom to go that far to see my kid run for a total of about 45 seconds. I'm just happy he's enjoying himself so much. I talked to his coach last night and he was telling me what a great kid WE is and what a great job we did raising him. As much as I'd like to take all the credit, I know WE's a great kid just because he's a great kid. I'm so glad other people see that in him as well. He was such a little stinker when he was little, I have to admit, I was a little concerned about what kind of teenager he'd be. He hasn't given us a sleepless moment yet. We've been blessed with all 4 of our kids.

Redneck Girl

2011-05-20T16:31:00.002-10:00

A beautiful, sunny day today, FINALLY. We were going to put the garden in tomorrow, but I just couldn't help myself and I got most of it in today. We just need to get some seed potatoes in and plant the corn and we'll have one beautiful garden. Not so beautiful was the sunburn I got. I was wearing a tee-shirt, so I guess you could call it a farmer burn since farmer tan would be an incredible understatement. After being covered up from the elements since September, my poor skin freaked out at the sight of the sun. Oh well, no big deal. If I know my skin, which I do since I've had it for 43 years, I'll be almost as white as ever within 3 or 4 days and it'll look like I never saw the sun.

Tonight we had the school athletic banquet. WE got a letter in track, which made him pretty happy. Angel #1 comes home on leave in a few weeks and WE's pretty sure he's going to be able to beat him in a race. I told him he'd better not get too cocky, not only does his brother run for fun, but he can do it with a grenade launcher in his hands. I've got the feeling that I'm in for 10 days of intense one-upmanship between my boys this summer.

Danger: Pressure Cooker Crossing

2011-05-19T10:56:00.003-10:00

Thanks for the tip, Jeannie, now all I have to do is find our county extension office and I'm good for canning. I read an article today about a woman in Florida whose pressure cooker fell off her stove, exploded and sliced her leg off. Then I read the comments on the article, because frankly, I usually find the comments more interesting than the articles themselves, and so many people were freaking out and saying that pressure cookers were unsafe, unnecessary and should be outlawed. What a bunch of bologna! The woman was 80 years old, so her pressure cooker was probably one of those old ones that don't have pressure release buttons, which is why it exploded. Secondly, it was a FREAK accident. Pressure cookers don't commonly explode (especially now with the safety features) and if they do, they don't take body parts with them when they go. That's like saying if a clock fell off the wall and hit you in the head, you should outlaw clocks. Thirdly, you better believe they're necessary if you can vegetables or meat. The first time I ever canned green beans, I didn't read the instructions properly and canned them in a water bath canner, fortunately, I noticed they all went bad and dumped them before we got poisoned to death or something, but you better believe that I was a whole lot more careful after that and I loved my pressure canner.

Okay, rant over. Yesterday, angel #4 had her spring band concert and rent-a-grandma came to watch it. It was really nice and #4 was so happy to have her there. Afterwards, she spent the night, since it's an hour and a half drive back to her house and this morning we had a great gabfest over coffee. She's planning on doing the same thing when Angel #2 graduates next week, so we're all going to get a lot of quality grandma time.

We're planning on putting in the garden on Saturday. The good news is that the weather is supposed to warm up as the week progresses, with a high of 68 on Saturday. The bad news is, there's supposed to be thunder storms as well. To tell you the truth, I'm over this whole "spring" thing and will welcome summer (if it ever comes) with open arms.

it's been here, now it's gone

2011-05-16T06:19:00.003-10:00

Well, summer came on Thursday. We had a beautiful, sunny day and I even got a sunburn in the back of my neck when hubs and I went on a 5 mile walk. I'm glad I enjoyed it, since by 6 o'clock that evening, the clouds rolled in and we had a monsoon, which necessitated hubs and I making a mad dash from WE's track meet and rowing our truck home in the rain. Now that we had summer, fall is here and the temps are back in the 40's and it's so freaking windy I can't hang my clothes on the line. I'm suspecting frost soon, then snow, possibly a blizzard or twelve, then maybe, just maybe, we'll get another summer day sometime in mid 2012.

It looks like we're going to manage to get a garden this summer (if it even shows up), and I'm extremely excited for this. We haven't had a decent garden in years and I can't remember the last time I did some serious canning. The girls and I did a few city-wide rummage sales this weekend and I hit gold at the very first one we got to on Saturday. I managed to get a pressure cooker canner for only $10. It's exactly like the one I used to have that I had to get rid of when we moved to Hawaii. I was afraid I'd have to break out big bucks and buy a new one, (they range from $75-$200) so I was one very happy camper when I scored a used one that I was already familiar with operating. Now, I just need some canning jars.

When will it stop??

2011-05-11T06:34:00.002-10:00

Froze our butts off yet again last night at WE's track meet. It was a gorgeous day, warm and sunny, until about an hour before the meet when it got cloudy and the wind picked up. I'm so sick of freezing my hiney off and I can't wait for summer to finally get here. On the bright side, the woods surrounding our house is full of spring flowers. That's the neat thing about moving to a new house. Since we've never been in this house in the spring, we keep getting surprised by unexpected flowers popping up all over the place. I think there's about 5 or 6 different kinds of flowers sprinkled around the yard right now. So pretty after brown grass and snow for so long.

WE did great at the meet last night and surpassed his own personal best in all four of the events he competed in. The coach has given him extra team responsibilities and has mentioned that he may have him competing at varsity level by the end of the year. Pretty good for a lowly Freshman. Since yesterday was an all Conference meet for freshman and sophomores only, I got to see that the competition looked like. As I've mentioned before, our kids go to one of the smallest high schools in the conference, there's only one that's smaller. All the other schools outnumber ours by at least 150 kids...and when you're schools entire population is 260, 150 kids is a LOT. In so many events, we had one kid competing when other schools had 4 or 5, and our one kid had competed in 3 or 4 different events when the others were only in 2 or 3. That makes it pretty hard for them to get a decent amount of team points. Fortunately, the coach is a great guy who helps keep things in perspective for the kids. Despite a last place for the meet, WE came home bubbling with excitement over how well everyone did. The coach does a great job building the team and the kids up. I'm not a big fan of sports in general, but when your main competition is yourself, you can come out of it a better person - IF you've got the right attitude. I'm so glad WE's enjoying himself and doing well.

The middle school had an informal track meet for the 5 & 6 grade yesterday as well. Angel #4 had a lot of fun and is discovering that she enjoys track events. She beat the entire 5 & 6 grade, boys and girls, in the long jump, which thrilled her to no end. My kids definitely get their athleticism from their father.

During her ride along with the vet yesterday, Angel #2 ended up on an emergency call for cows. She goes along on Tuesdays because that's horse day for the vet, but a cow emergency is a cow emergency and can't be ignored, especially here in dairy country. She decided that she definitely prefers horses to cows, but was disappointed that she's going to miss the cow surgery the vet scheduled for Wed morning. I don't thing an intestinal obstruction sounded all that enticing, but to her, it's fascinating. To each their own.

Ah spring, when thoughts turn to winter coats

2011-05-06T04:31:00.002-10:00

I froze my patootie off last night at WE's track meet. It's his only home meet of the year and I didn't want to miss it. In the truck on the way to the meet, it started raining and continued almost steadily until the meet was almost over. Cold and wet is not the way I like spending my evening. What really stunk was that WE wasn't in his best form (he wasn't feeling good) and didn't do well anyway. He's got a couple of meets left, if we've got some good weather on a day when there's one nearby, I'm sure we'll go, just so we can enjoy watching him instead of spending all the time shivering. A lot of the talk at the meet was about a boy who died on Wednesday afternoon. He was a freshman who went to school at the town 5 miles away from ours, our school competes against them in sports. This boy was in track practice and basically dropped dead during the warm up. They suspect an undetected heart problem. It's just so spooky having your perfectly healthy kid suddenly die like that, I gave WE a few extra hugs after that one, it hit too close to home. It had to be extra traumatic for the boys friends on the track team who saw him die right in front of them. A coach and a teammate did CPR, but it wasn't enough. So sad - I keep tearing up thinking about it. Between that and the death this week of a local boy fighting in Afghanistan, I've really been appreciating both my boys a lot lately.

Happy Birthday to WE

2011-05-02T16:35:00.002-10:00

Yep, it's my little boy's (well, not so little anymore) birthday today. It seems like yesterday he was earning his blogging nickname and he was eating worms for fun and profit, and now he's a 15 year old high school freshman with girl problems and anticipating getting his drivers license. He had a great day today, it was the freshman/sophomore invitational track meet and he got 2 ribbons and got a 3rd place medal, he also got his personal all time bests in all the events he participated in. He was positively glowing when I picked him up at the school once the bus got him back to town. I'm so happy that he enjoys track so much and that he's doing so well in it. He said that even though his whole team did great, that their final team standing was still 6th place out of six teams, but he said that some teams had as many as 25 kids on their team and his little school had only 7 freshmen and sophomores competing, it wasn't that bad.

When he got home, he had a big celebratory piece of birthday pie. I made him a pie for his birthday and we did all the singing and stuff for him yesterday since we knew he was going to be at his meet today and we wouldn't see much of him. He's got another meet tomorrow and a 3rd one on Thursday, so he's going to be a busy boy this week. But, it's Wisconsin, you've got to run laps while the sun shines and the snow's not falling.

I saw the sun yesterday

2011-04-30T05:37:00.002-10:00

We had a brief flash of springlike weather yesterday. Temps in the 60, the sun was shining, I went for a walk and hung out my laundry. It's over now and we're back to grey and blustery. Argh! When will it stop???

Apparently, most of the country was obsessing over the royal wedding yesterday. I don't get it, we fought that war over 200 years ago, but, whatever. I will say that I got sucked into it just a bit, but it was the hats. I don't get into clothes, hair, shoes, etc, but I am a sucker for a gorgeous hat and where's a better place to go hat obsessing than a royal wedding? So, I don't know what Kate's weddng dress looks like, but I DO know that Lady Frederick Windsor has about the most awesome hat in the universe, followed closely by the princess from Spain (I don't know who those people actually are, but they've got great taste in hats).

is it spring yet?

2011-04-26T16:32:00.002-10:00

Hubs and Angel #2 are both in Kona right now enjoying the Hawaiian heat and right about now, I'm ready to join them. I'm pretty much over this whole so-called spring. Poor WE was so excited for his track meet today, and, once again, it was cancelled. At least this time it was because of rain, last time it was because of a blizzard. That means that they've cancelled 3 out of his 5 meets, and the only reason they could have one of those is because it was a pre-conference meet in an indoor track. The other ones were called due to cold and rain and/or snow. He's got another meet scheduled for Thursday and according to the weather forecast, it's looking like it's going to be a repeat of today, keeping my fingers crossed that the weathermen are wrong. Those poor kids are working their tails off, it's only fair they can attend a couple meets so they can show their stuff.

Got the cool news that hubs big sister is going to be flying in from New York for Angel #2's high school graduation. There are going to be 3 high school graduates in hubs family this year and they're all graduating the same weekend (#2 is on Friday and the other two, who go to the same school, on Monday) so she'll be able to make them all, how convenient is that? Angel #1 is graduating from combat engineer school in the Marines sometime in the beginning of June as well. Looks like my kids are really growing up.

fun with Rent-a-Grandma

2011-04-22T15:41:00.002-10:00

Rent-a-Grandma and her new daughter in law spent the night here last night. I hadn't met, Batty, the D-I-L yet, so it was nice to get to know her. We got about 8-10 inches of snow dumped on us Tues/Wed and no one was happy about it but Batty. Batty's from Thailand and hadn't had the dubious pleasure of snow before. Grandma said Batty had so much fun playing outside, and after a snowman making lesson, there were snowpeople all over her yard. Once Grandma and Batty got here, Batty and angel #4 had a lot of fun playing snow soccer, snow badminton and sledding. They both came in the house soaking wet. Angel #2 had a couple friends over as well and they made a snowman in the side yard. I think the kids played outside more yesterday than they did the whole winter put together.

This morning, I rode with grandma when she took Batty down to the airport. From here she's heading to Texas, which should be a whole lot warmer than it is here. After her time in Texas, she's back to Virginia. Though Batty's only been in the US since the end of February, she's sure done a lot of traveling. Slowly, she'll get used to our country and our little idiosyncrasies. We have a picture of the kids when they were little, all standing inside the rear tire of a Big Foot monster truck. Batty liked the picture, but wanted an explanation. How to you explain monster trucks to a person from a country like Thailand without sounding like Americans are utter whackjobs?

we'll be brown bagging it forever

2011-04-19T05:09:00.003-10:00

Sunday, we had an all day service for our church. People come from miles around and have a wonderful day together. One of our kids friends was there and she had a surprise for WE. As one of their jokes, WE frequently tells her to 'get in the kitchen and make me a sandwich, woman!" Well, she made him a sandwich for his lunch on Sunday. It was a big sandwich. It was a HUGE sandwich. She started with a big, one pound loaf of Italian bread and loaded it up with meat and cheese. It weighed in at over 4 pounds by the time she was done with it. WE did what he could to eat it on Sunday, but barely put a dent in it. It's sitting in our fridge right now, whenever someone gets hungry, they lop a piece off, but it's going to be awhile before that baby gets gone.

WE is supposed to have a track meet tonight, but it'll probably be cancelled. We've got a winter storm warning in effect and estimates of up to a foot of snow in our very near future. **checking calendar - yup, it IS April. sigh There was a big invitational scheduled at the school for last Saturday, but that was cancelled due to weather as well. Which was just as well, since I really didn't want to sit outside on metal bleachers in 30 degree weather watching a bunch of boys run around in circles. They've only had 2 meets so far this year, one was a non-conference one early in the season held in an indoor gym at a nearby university, the other went on as scheduled though there were fears that it was going to have to be postponed due to snow on the track. I just LOVE spring in Wisconsin.

e-reading

2011-04-15T10:02:00.003-10:00

I'm having fun playing with my new e-book reader, though I've decided that I'm going to have to come up with a short, snappy name for it, since it's a bit bulky to keep saying e-book reader whenever I talk about it. Angel #4 started messing with it and is now enjoying The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which is nice. At first she said she didn't need to read it because she saw the movie. *GASP* Now, don't get me wrong, I love The Wizard of Oz movie and have adored Judy Garland since I was a little girl (I love singing You Made Me Love You at the top of my lungs along with Judy) but watching a movie version of a book and thinking you know the story is flat out heresy. The movie is never, never, ever with a cherry on top, as good as the book. It's an irrefutable law of man and nature. So, I'm glad to see that my daughter will now learn about silver slippers and Winkies.

We got the good news from Angel #1 that his checking account is safe, as is the money in it. As a precaution, he's going to put the majority of his moolah into a savings account and only put the money he needs to pay bills into his checking, so if this happens again, there won't be as much money at risk. Thankfully, this turned out to be a free, though nerve-wracking lesson about life and its possible suckitude.

Last night was Market Day at Angel #4's school. We got to see a talent show put on by the students which was a lot of fun. Then, after buying tickets, we could walk around the school and purchase merchandise made by the students, food or donate tickets to the various 'street musicians' who were showing us their stuff. There were door hangers, bug jars, seedling trees, starter tomato plants, midway games and all kinds of things to do, along with a whole lot of noise and random, running around kids. #4 got together with a few of her friends and had a musical quartet. They played in a corner of the gym and collected a good share of tickets. All the money made went toward student centric things like field trips and fun things for the school itself. All in all, a fun, family filled evening.

mean people suck

2011-04-13T05:48:00.003-10:00

Poor Angel #1 discovered yesterday that someone cleaned out his checking account. The money he'd been saving up to buy a new motorcycle is gone. The money he worked his butt off for in basic training has disappeared. He's working with the bank today to get things straightened out, so hopefully he'll get the money back, but we haven't heard from him yet today to hear if he got any good news yet. The really sad part is that his 2 roommates accounts were also cleared out and one roommate had both his debit card and his ID stolen, so that means that someone who had been in their room is probably the thief. Someone who they'd considered a friend, someone they may have to depend on someday to watch their backs in a war. I hope they catch the guy real soon.

In good news, Angel #2 had her first ride along with the local vet yesterday afternoon and she absolutely loved it. To make things even better, what she was hoping would happen did, she's already gotten a job offer from one of the horse farms she'd visited yesterday. I don't know if she's going to pursue the offer or not yet, but it's nice to know that in this economy where people are fighting for work, she had a dream job fall right on her lap. She also got to give a horse a shot, do some testing and help with a castration, which she was morbidly excited about. The weirdest things make that kid happy.

Hubs and the kids got me an e-book reader for my birthday yesterday. Hubs also got me a yummy ice cream cake from DQ. I didn't know he was going to get me a cake, so I'd already made myself a birthday pie, we're not real big cake eaters in this family, pies go over much better - besides, cherry pie is my all time absolute favorite dessert. So now I've got all kinds of yummy stuff luring me into the kitchen.

Jeannie, we've got a big centralized DMV that is located about 40miles away from us. So everyone from the surrounding area goes to the same place, which is why it is so crowded. The only thing our local police department can do is register vehicles and renew vehicle registrations. That's why our DMV line is so painful. The friend we met up with there lives 40 miles in the opposite direction of the DMV from where we do, to give you an idea of the area they've got to cover. It ain't pretty. BUT, yesterday, I found out that there is a DMV office 25 miles away in the opposite direction that usually isn't so crowded, so next time we have some DMVing to do, we're going there.

blowed right by

2011-04-11T06:38:00.003-10:00

Wow Jeannie, only 5 minutes at the DMV? Must be nice to live on your planet! It took me longer than that just just get through the line to get to the guy who told me what line to stand in.

We had a great day yesterday. We had an all day church event and got home around 4pm. All the way home, we were seeing lightning and hearing thunder all around us, be we didn't get much rain. Tough it was nice and sunny during the day, the temps were gorgeous, upper 70's baby!! Things were clear at our house when we got home, so Hubs, Angel #4 and I went on a long walk. There's an abandoned log cabin about 1 1/2-2 miles from our house, so we walked over there to nose around. On the way there hubs and #4 had a race along the top of about 15 big round hay bales that were lined up along a field, we inspected a flooded out culvert and honked at a bunch of Canadian geese who were resting in a field. There was a pussy willow tree (bush?) near the cabin. I haven't seen one of those in years. We broke off a couple of branches and now they're sitting in a jar on the kitchen counter getting all puffy and fuzzy.

After eating supper, things started getting dark and the lightning came back with a vengeance. Since there was no rain yet, the whole family went out on the deck with blankets and pillows and watched the lightning show for about a half hour, til the rain sent us back inside. We had a little wind and rain, but nothing major. The area around us wasn't so fortunate. There were tornado touchdowns in quite a few places. One cousin has to replace his roof and fix an 8 in hole in his bedroom wall from where a chunk of something literally blew right through the wall. Another cousin reported that though her place had minor damage, their neighbors gazebo had disappeared. There was some bad weather out there yesterday. I'm glad it decided to bypass us.

And in some happy news. Hubs and I went for a walk this morning and saw flowers blooming in the corner of our yard. FLOWERS!!! Yay! Spring's (hopefully) here!!!

smile

2011-04-07T17:17:00.002-10:00

My birthday is coming up, this year, that means I have to get my drivers license renewed. Turns out, that even though I relinquished my Wisconsin drivers license when I got my Hawaiian one, that WI keeps your license active until it expires. So, instead of having to go through the whole rigamorole of changing residencies and stuff, I just had to renew my license before it expires, which will be on Tuesday. I've known about this for awhile, but have avoided doing anything about it because, no one wants to go to the DMV. It's not a happy place. One thing that the Hawaii DMV has over the WI one is that at our local HI office, they let you look at your picture and if you don't like it, they'll let you get a retake before committing it to laminate. Since Wisconsin doesn't really care that you look like you just swallowed a frog on your drivers license picture, I think I'll be missing my HI license when I have to pull out my license to identify myself.

Once nice thing about going to the DMV was that we just happened to see our friend Loopy, who was getting his truck registration renewed. So we got to sit and play catch-up with him, which made the eternity we sat waiting for our numbers to be called seem just a little more pleasant.

Afterwards, we went shopping for barn boots for Angel #2. She's doing work study for school for the last quarter. For some reason, she thinks it's more enjoyable to shovel horse poop than take a college lit class. I would have opted for the lit myself, but to each their own. On Tuesdays, she's also doing a ride along with a local vet when he does his horse rounds. She's pretty excited about that as well. I still think I would have opted for doing an in depth study of The Great Gatsby, but if she wants to look at horses private parts and get pooped on, more power to her. Someone's got to do it I guess.

The weather's been really getting nice lately. Angel #4 is thrilled to be able to get outside and do something. The problem is, we really didn't have anything to do outside. So, when we got #2's barn boots, we also picked up a couple tennis rackets, a soccer ball and a baseball glove, among other things (it was the thrift store, so we still got out for about $20). She and hubs spent the rest of the day after she got home from school out in the road playing badminton. It's nice to at least see the hope of summer coming up. Before you know it, the temps will be in the 50's and everyone will be running around in shorts. I love spring in Wisconsin

Mom clean

2011-04-04T14:09:00.004-10:00

Friday night, WE and I went to the town's first responders benefit fishboil. I love me some fishboil! Hubs and angel #4 had left early Friday morning to help a friend who lives a few hours away move into a new house. They've got a baby, so #4 wanted to go along to brush up on her babysitting skills. Angel #2 had to work Friday night, which is why WE and I were the only two nomming on boiled fish.

Saturday, I spent more quality time with my boy when I decided it was time to sort through all the clothes in his room. There are two levels of bedroom cleaning in our house, kid clean and mom clean. Saturday was a mom clean day. He's grown a lot in the last year, well over half a foot, and a lot of his clothes were looking short, tight, or just downright ratty. By the time we were done gutting out his closet, we had 2 paper grocery bags filled with clothes to head to the thrift store and an entire 13 gallon garbage bag filled with stained, ripped, buttonless clothes and a pair of shoes whose soles you could almost see through. Once we found his floor, we gave it a thorough vacuuming and I washed a couple loads of random clothes that smelled horribly of boy funk. One nice thing now that I no longer have to deal with when mom cleaning a room is random toys. I used to have a pile of Legos, Barbie dolls, Beanie Babies and other debris piled outside the bedroom door waiting to be hauled down to the basement toy room. One of the benefits of getting rid of everything when you move is that once your kids outgrow toys, they get left behind during the move. Though Angel #4 did bring some Barbie dolls back up with her, the only time I've actually seen them out since we lived here was when my 4 year old niece came to visit. I've got to say, I sure don't miss toys laying around and am happy that doing the Steppin' On a Matchbox Car Dance is a thing in my distant past.

unlimited monkeys

2011-03-30T09:15:00.003-10:00

Today at lunch, hubs and I had an intense discussion about the theory that if you give a roomful of monkey's with typewriters unlimited time, they'll type the works of Shakespeare. I was firmly on the 'con' side of the discussion while hubs was holding fast to the theory that it was possible. We both left the table still convinced that our conclusion is the correct one. So, what do you and your spouse discuss when you're eating lunch?

I've been on a cabbage kick the last couple days. I bought a head yesterday while I was grocery shopping and for supper I made pirogies cooked up with shredded onions, carrots and cabbage. Today, I've got a pork roast in the slo-cooker with a couple nice hunks of cabbage sitting at the top. While I was making the roast, I was also eating sauerkraut straight out of the can. Apparently, I'm making up for some severe insufficiency in my diet...or I'm trying to give my family terminal gas attacks.

In another one of our weird discussions, last night, hubs and I were talking about visualizations. He explained that sometimes it takes him a little while to think things through because his mind has to translate things into pictures in order for him to make sense of it. I've always known that I'm not visual. If you've read any of my books, you'll see that there's very little description in them. What I do have, is kind of throwaway, because I can't picture my characters or their surroundings. I don't know what Moxie looks like and her description in It Takes Moxie is in there because it needs to be. Same with Will and Adeline's house in Eye of the Beholder, the speakeasies Susan and Jake go to in Not Looking for Trouble, and everything else in my books. I think in words, not pictures. So, last night, during our discussion, I tried to pull a picture up in my mind. For the last week or so, I've been working on a jigsaw puzzle and I finished it last night. You'd think that after being intimately involved in every aspect and nuance of a picture, I could visualize it without any problem. But, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't see the entire puzzle. I could picture portions of it, a door, a person, coffee cups, etc, but when I tried to put them all together and see the puzzle in its entirety, I couldn't do it. Strange, huh?

I was born in a small town, and I live in a small town

2011-03-29T16:24:00.002-10:00

A few things happened in the last 24 hours that reminded me that I live in a very small town, and I like it that way. First off, we had Angel #2's spring concert last night. The concert and jazz bands did great, as did the concert and jazz choirs. They had 5 or 6 kids singing the solos that won them a chance to compete at state level. But the thing that I noticed is that this is a small enough place that there was more than one song the choir sang that involved God, as well as one of the soloists. It was nice to hear it, and for the record, I wouldn't have been offended if they'd sang Jewish, Hindu or whatever songs. It was just the fact that they aren't afraid to let a higher power into their lives.

Now, on to the second thing that reaffirmed my small townedness (is that a word?). I was driving into town today and saw three teenage boys standing on a side road, all three carrying guns. Unlike in a big city where I'd be wondering who they're planning on shooting at, I simply wondered what they were hunting at this time of year. It's so nice to not even have the thought that you have something to fear come into your head.

Lastly, once I got into town, I went to the library. The librarians know me there. Not only do they know who I am, but when I walked in, one of the first things said was a book recommendation for me, and they were right, it looked good and I checked it out. They know me and they know what I like to read. Then, the checkout lady at the thrift store asked how I enjoyed my first Wisconsin winter after my years in Hawaii. I guess I just like living in a place where people know me, yet, I can stay separated enough from them that they don't know EVERYTHING about me.

So, yeah, small towns don't have things like big performing arts centers, museums, stadiums, etc, but, in my opinion they've got more to offer than the biggest cities in the world.

Everyone gets their 15 minutes

2011-03-25T12:58:00.003-10:00

Have you ever just cruised around the web and found a random picture on yourself on somebody's website? I haven't either, but our buddy, Chris did just that. Chris has been known to do odd, random things, which led to loads of fun both here and when he spent a lot of time with us when we lived in Hawaii. Anyway, Chris enjoys dressing up when he goes to car races, his favorite character being Papa Ferrari. It makes him real popular and people are always taking pictures of him. Apparently, one of those pics has hit the mainstream: http://www.ferrarifag.com/ferrari-fag-11/ We laughed our butts off when we saw it and Chris will hereafter always be known as Ferrari Fag #11.

Today the kids only had a half day of school, it's the end of 3rd quarter. Somehow, I let Angel #4 talk me into chauffeuring her and a friend around town on a shopping trip. I dumped the girls at the store and ran my own errands, so it worked out rather well and I've made a buttload of mommy points now that I will redeem at an advantageous time.

#4 also had her school spring concert last night. School music teachers always amaze me when they put on these incredible song and dance shows. You've got to have amazing patience to teach 40 five year olds how to, not only sing a couple songs, but to also remember the dance steps that go with them. The theme was Go West and we got to see square dancing, pony riding with stick horses, and a dance involving axes made from wrapping paper rolls and construction paper. Fun schtuff!

Snow? Seriously?

2011-03-20T12:32:00.002-10:00

I had a wonderful time slogging through sloppy sleet and snow on the way home from church this morning. As much as my brain is telling me to not even get my hopes up for spring before the beginning of May, the beautiful weather we've been having lulled me into a false sense of security. At least the garbage we got today didn't stick to the ground.

I had a great time this weekend with my friends. We spent Friday night at the Ramada and we up gabbing until 1am, waaay past all our bedtimes. I got home Saturday afternoon and when the kids asked what we did, I realized all we did was eat and talk when we were together. None of us drink or get too wild, so yeah, closing down Barnes and Nobles at 10pm was as crazy as we got. But we had SO much fun and laughed so much. I wish it was easier for us to get together more often. Three of us live fairly close together, but friend #4 has a 2 hour drive to meet up with the rest of us, so it makes planning things a bit more complicated.

When I got home, I found Angel #2 lying on the bathroom floor suffering from a stomach virus. She was still barfing away at 10:30 last night and has spent the day lying on the sofa. I hope she doesn't spread it to the rest of us, because she doesn't look like she's having a nice time.

Hubs had fun at the wedding he went to out east. As an added benefit, Angel #1 is stationed not too far from where hubs is at, so #1 found a ride over with one of the wedding guests and my two boys got to spend part of the weekend together. #1 was all gussied up in his dress blues as he escorted Rent a Grandma down the aisle. It was Rent a Grandma's son who was married this weekend. Hubs has already sent me some pics and I'm sure he's got plenty more to show me when he gets home tonight.

Spring is springing

2011-03-16T05:10:00.003-10:00

I don't want to commit myself to saying spring has sprung, because it's only March 16, and I do remember enough about Wisconsin winters to know that snow has no problem falling around here right up until May and most of the time, there's still frost danger until Memorial Day weekend. BUT, it was GORGEOUS yesterday. About 45-50 degrees and beautifully sunny. I was in town doing some grocery shopping and I was driving around with the windows open. There I was, windows open, cruising along the interstate at 70mph and Journey comes on the radio, so I got to sing Faithfully along with Steve Perry at the top of my lungs. Does life get any better?

Actually, yeah, it's going to get great on Friday when I meet up with 3 of my friends for a girls night out, and since it's been so long since we were together, we're getting hotel rooms and having our girls night out overflow into Saturday. Yay us! Hubs left today for Washington DC and a friend's wedding, so the kids will be on their own on Friday, so they're looking forward to a parent-free night as well. Cool thing going on. The friend who's getting married has a friend in the military (I think he's military, anyway) who lives in the same place as Angel #1, so he's giving #1 a ride to the wedding, as well. So, not only is hubs going to have fun at the wedding, but he gets to see our little boy, too. I'll have to have #1 give me a report on the ceremony. The guy getting married has been a family friend forever and considers hubs an older brother. He's asked hubs to officiate at the wedding. I'm sure that's bound to be interesting. Since the bride just moved here from Thailand, she's never been to an American wedding, so, no matter what happens, she'll think it's normal, because she doesn't know any better. Poor thing is in for a BIG education.

besties

2011-03-13T09:22:00.002-10:00

When the kids were little, they fought like cats and dogs...they still do, actually. But back about 10 years ago, I was afraid they'd kill each other before they managed to reach adulthood. So, imagine my delight this afternoon when my boys were chatting online with each other. I truly think my boys are best friends with each other, which is so cool. Angel #1 is now in North Carolina and he bought a laptop, so today he and WE were skyping each other and it's so nice listening to them just talking to each other. It sounds like #1 is going to have some time on his hands for the next two months. After he arrived in NC, he found out that the school he is supposed to be going to is 6-8 weeks behind schedule, so he's stuck there doing busy work until he can actually start taking classes. I have no problem with this, since the way I see it, the longer it takes for him to get whatever education he needs, the longer it will be before he gets deployed someplace scary. When I explained my reasoning to #1 though, and said that not going to Libya or Afghanistan right now is a good thing, he simply said, but Mom, it's what we do. WAAAAHHHH! I guess 18 year boys/Marines look at things differently than their mothers do.

I was glad to hear reports from many of my friends in Hawaii hearing that they and their houses are all still intact. Kailuatown is a bit messed up, but nothing that can't be easily remedied. There were 6 houses that were destroyed and one got sucked right out into Kealakakua Bay, the picture in the paper showed just the roof of the house out floating in the ocean. But no one was hurt, so it's all good. After church this morning, we all got to talking about the tragedies over the weekend. One of the men there works at the nuclear power plant in town and was explaining to us a little of what was going on in Japan. He said that when they try cooling things with seawater, it's a last ditch act of desperation, so that's not too promising for the Japanese. Then we got to discussing if something like that could happen to our nuke plant. He said the reactors are capable of withstanding a direct hit from a crashing airliner. They've also got it set up to suck in water from Lake Michigan if necessary, but once again, if they've gotten to that point, we're in deep doo-doo. I guess I'll keep some iodine pills around, just in case.

My cup runneth over

2011-03-09T17:31:00.002-10:00

Wow, this week just keeps getting better and better. Today, the mail lady slogged her way through the snow piling up in our yard to hand deliver my Wondermill Junior grinder! It's the niftiest thing. It's a hand cranked wheat grinder, so you can grind wheat berries into fresh whole wheat flour. I did a lot of research online on which was the best grinder to get, then I asked Lyle what he's heard. Lyle is the owner of the local bulk foods store, and he's Amish, so I figured he'd be the one to talk to about this, especially since I wanted one that didn't require electricity to run. He said a family from their church bought wheat berries from him and ground it up, so he'd ask them what kind of grinder they used, if they liked it, etc. So, last week when I was there, he showed me a picture of the grinder the family said they used. It was ELECTRIC! We've got cheater Amish in our town! It's bad enough they cruise around on tractors, but now they're plugging in their wheat grinders, too. If you can't trust an Amish family to not use electric wheat grinders, who in the world CAN you trust? What is this world coming to? I can't wait to try out my new grinder and show those slacker Amish that some of us around here don't need to depend on electricity to do our simple daily chores. :p

oooo, shiny

2011-03-08T11:11:00.004-10:00

My ability to get excited over little things has hit rock bottom today. Yesterday, I told you about our new water softener and the damage done to our dishes because we had limey water for so long. Today, I decided that since our water was all nice and softy now, I was going to get rid of all the lime deposits on our glasses because, frankly, they were gross to drink out of, especially now that I had the option of having them shiny. So, I soaked all our drinking glasses and coffee mugs in vinegar, then hand washed them. A five minute soak in a tub of vinegar made them all look soooo purdee! I had to go show hubs the difference between a soaked and a non-soaked glass and he snapped a picture of me holding the 2 different glasses to forever preserve my housewifely nerdiness into eternal posterity. Once I was done soaking the glasses, which took all morning because I only had enough vinegar to soak 2 glasses at a time half way (so I had to flip them over at the 5 min mark), it averaged 5 minutes a glass, I filled the dishwasher with all the bowls and plates I could fit in, emptied the vinegar tub into the dishwasher and ran it, thus deliming our plates and bowls as well. I am now happy to announce that you can come over to my house to eat and drink and I won't be embarrassed about the state of my tableware (I won't give any promises about the quality of my cooking though).

While I was deliming, I also did a bunch of laundry. The house rule is: if you want your clothes washed, you must have them sorted in the laundry room. All the kids claimed their laundry was sorted, so I went to work. When I take the clothes out of the dryer, I toss them on the sofa, then fold them and put them into individual piles for each person to pick up and put away in their room at the end of laundry day. FOUR of the people in this family had normal sized piles, about what you'd expect from about five days worth of dirty laundry. But, WE's pile on the other hand, was sorely lacking. He had a pair of jeans, one ripped tee-shirt, a sweatshirt and one sock (not one pair, one sock). He showers and changes clothes on a daily basis, so I'm really curious as to where in the world the rest of his laundry ran off to. Maybe his teen age boy funk reacts with the fabric, making it dissolve into a pile of lint after a certain amount of time. So, instead of laundering, a regular vacuuming is all that's required to take care of his dirty clothes. I suppose that saves on water and laundry detergent, but would cost a fortune in vacuum cleaner bags.

You'll be thrilled to know I'm still alive

2011-03-07T15:29:00.002-10:00

On Saturday, I finally felt human. It was a nice feeling. I even made a batch of white chocolate macadamia nut cookies with the mac nuts hubs brought home from Hawaii. Sunday, I even went a step further and made a big turkey/mash potato/stuffing dinner. Between that and the big pot of veggie soup I made on Saturday, we'll be swimming in leftovers for quite awhile. I love leftovers (most of the time).

Saturday, Hubs brought WE in to the doctor to get his sports physical for school. Tonight after school was WE's first track practice. He's a bit sore, but it sounds like he liked it. He's not sure what events he's going to do, he's never done any kind of track stuff before, but he knows he's not doing long distance running, one glimpse at their practice regime helped him make that decision.

Sunday, hubs and I had a romantic shopping trip to get a water softener. The one in our house hasn't been working since we moved in and finally our landlord said to just pick one up. Hubs knows how to install them, so we're no longer showering in lime water and eating off gritty dishes. I think I'm going to have to soak our glasses in vinegar though, the lime made them absolutely disgusting looking and it was embarrassing to give someone a drink of water out of the nasty looking things. I guess when you've been married 20 years, it's just as exciting to get a new water softener than it is to get a new diamond ring...sparkly glasses are better than sparkly bling anyway.

I don't know if you should send an ambulance or a hearse

2011-03-04T11:00:00.002-10:00

I'm still sick - sicker than I've been in years, I think. And, I'm not getting the required amount of sympathy from my family because most of them are and/or have been sick already. I WANT MY SYMPATHY NOW DARN IT!!!

This morning, I was laying in bed, half dead, and at 7:38 hubs asks if I'm going to take a shower. I said yeah, then he said, okay, the nurse is going to be here in 22 minutes. Nurse? Then I remembered that he had told me that a nurse was going to come today to do physicals for a new life insurance policy we're taking out. What he didn't tell me was that she was coming at 8 o'clock in the morning...at least he didn't tell me that until 22 minutes to eight. Fortunately, I have the ability to speed shower, so I was out by 7:50 with freshly shaved legs and 3 feet of drippy hair hanging down my back. When she showed up at around 8:02, I even had the coffee maker going. I've got speed skilz.

I learned something interesting about myself this week. A local radio station was giving out a survey and for the first 100 surveys taken they were going to pull out 5 names of surveyors who would win a 2 night stay at a resort in Door County (that little sticky-out thumb part of Wisconsin) where all the cool kids go on vacation. The survey asked my opinion on several different songs and I had to click on numbers 1-5 how much I liked them. My personal system I developed was a song ranked a '5' if I cranked up the radio and sang along with the entire song when it came on the radio. A '4' was a cranked radio singing only the chorus, a '3' was a don't even touch the volume knob, a two was a possible station change if it came on and a '1' was when I would cringe and immediately change the station. It was while doing this that I realized that a lot of Beatles songs ranked a '1' for me. (sorry Jeanie) I knew I didn't really care for the Beatles, but I didn't realize that they ranked right along with Neal Young on the cringe scale. Who woulda thunk? I don't know if the station will listen to me and purge the Fab 5 from their playlist, but I can only hope. (I can only hope more that they pick my name for the resort package, for that, I'll even listen to Eleanor Rigby a couple times)

welcome to typhoid alley

2011-03-02T17:20:00.002-10:00

There has been constant coughing, sneezing, snotting or wheezing going on at this house since January. I had 2 out of 3 kids stay home from school sick today and I was sick as well. This is one of the bad things about winter in Wisconsin. We never had a month 'o sickness when living in Hawaii. In Hawaii we had a wider variety of illnesses since the tourists brought their sick germs from exotic places like Japan, Australia and Nebraska by the boatload (literally), but we were outside so much more often that we just didn't stay sick for long. Here, though we're restricted for the most part to good old Wisconsin germs, they circulate around in the air for months as we're all trapped inside until it's warm enough that our nosehairs don't freeze off if we inhale too deeply when we're outside. I'm ready for spring.

Hubs has avoided the diseases so far as he's spent the last 2 weeks working in Hawaii. He was supposed to be home this morning, but due to a flight change, he was 'stranded' in Hawaii an additional day. I think he thought I was supposed to feel sorry for him, but I was too busy shoveling the slush out of the driveway to waste time on sympathy for him...especially since he said he was going to try to get a little surfing in before he left. I think I'm going to cough on him when I pick him up at the airport tomorrow.

Last night I took Angel #2 and her boyfriend to an open house at the local university. It's a small, two year school that's close enough to our house to make it an easy drive in. She started doing the math and decided that going there is a bit more economical than going to her school of choice. So, though she's already been accepted at West Texas A&M, I think she's going to stay closer to home and save a little $. She had a little epiphany last week when she was making lists of things she needed when she lives on her own and realized that buying those things takes money. Yep, who woulda thunk? So she's finally decided that maybe she should be saving a bit more of the green stuff than she has in the past and cut down in the impulsive gummi bear/tee shirt/concer ticket purchases. I'm glad she came to this realization at the age of 17 rather than at 25 when she's up to her eyeballs in debt and trying to figure out how to dig herself out of the hole. I got myself a smart kid!

tacos and friends, what a great combination

2011-02-26T14:05:00.002-10:00

We're at a friend's house for a taco night last night. These people have been our friends for a long time and they're especially special because they pretty much adopted Angel #1 this summer when he was living on his own and he became one of their honorary kids. Their daughter was one of #1's friends who came to San Diego to watch him graduate boot camp back in January. We had a great time together and nobody wanted to go home when it was time.

This morning, Angel #4 and I went through a couple more parade homes. There are some really big houses out there. I don't think I'd want a house that big anymore, now that the kids are starting to move out on their own. Once #2 goes off to college, we'll be down to only 2 kids in the house. Not only would I not want a house that size, I really don't feel the need to have an indoor basketball court or a huge home theater system in my house like we saw today either. I'm a less is more kind of person, I guess. But, it is neat to see those kinds of houses, even if you have no plans to ever live in one of them.

After going through the houses, I dropped #4 off at her very first babysitting job. She was pretty excited to join the employment world, though more than a little nervous. Fortunately, the little boy she's sitting is almost 3 and potty trained, which head up her list of worries, since she's never changed a diaper before. She's a conscientious, enthusiastic kid though, and I'm sure she'll do fine and handle any problem that may come her way.

I got a call from Angel #1 today. He spent the last week shooting machine guns and grenade launchers, so it sounds like he was having a good time. There's nothing boys like more than to blow stuff up. He said he's enjoying this second phase of the military much better than boot camp. He graduates this 2nd phase in a week and a half, then he's off to North Carolina for new adventures.

snap!

2011-02-23T18:08:00.003-10:00

Did you know you can make a car out of a mousetrap and 4 cd's? Did you know that if you look at the directions, it should take you about half an hour to make it? But...if you try to do it on your own, it takes approximately 3 1/2 hours, THEN you look at the directions, and it takes an additional 5 minutes. The mom in this scenario repeated ad nauseum for 2 of those 3 1/2 hours that the step by step instructions were online and JUST READ THE STUPID INSTRUCTIONS. But, WE, being a 14 year old boy, hence, the male of the species, refuses to read instructions. Once the car was completed, he needed to journalize his accomplishment. Since he's the kind of kid who's truthful, as well as likes to give his teacher a laugh, commented in the journal that his mom kept telling him to read the instructions, but that he knew how to do it without any stinkin' instructions. The lady who helped me pick out supplies at the hardware store for this project has a daughter in WE's science class and helped her daughter with her mousetrap car the night before, so she knew exactly what things were needed, so at least we had all the materials. I hate science projects.

another snow day

2011-02-21T05:49:00.002-10:00

Here it is, 9:50 on a Monday morning and my kids are all still in bed. Why, you ask? Because we're having another snow day. There's about 10 inches of snow piled up on my deck and WE's going to have to get the snowblower into action if we're ever going to want to get out of our driveway. Personally, I think they could have gotten by with a simple 2 hour delay since I haven't seen a flake since I got up around 7 o'clock, though we do have a bit of wind. Oh well, life in Wisconsin.

Talk about life in Wisconsin, I'm really appreciating my husband right now. With all the kerfluffle going on in our state, I'm so glad we can talk about it and are on the same page as far as our feelings on the situation. I'm thankful we're both in agreement on our basic beliefs in God, politics and family, it makes for a much happier family life. I don't know how people who can't agree on stuff like that manage to stay married....maybe they enjoy debate more than I do. The sucky part is, Hubs is in Hawaii, so I'm limited on my political conversations to phone calls in the late evenings when he's not busy working. Another week and he'll be back home to man the snowblower, hopefully by then, Wisconsin won't be front page news anymore.

I love a parade

2011-02-19T17:00:00.003-10:00

Angel #2, my sister and I did the annual winter parade of homes today. Back when I used to live here, my sister and I made it a yearly pilgrimage and now that I'm back, we decided to reinstate it. Angel #2 is now old enough to come along and be an enjoyable part of the day, so she got to come along, in the past, sis and I used the day as a way to get away from our kids, but I no longer feel the need to escape #2, so she came along for the ride. Things have changed a bit in the 5 years since I did the parade. The economy definitely is making a difference in the homes we saw. We used to see quite a few homes with theater systems, hidden rooms, etc and we wouldn't bother with a place if it was under 3000 sq ft. This year, there were only about 4 homes out of the 35 that met out 3000 sq ft criteria, so we changed it to about 2300 sq ft. We only saw one hidden room and 2 theater systems. That didn't mean we didn't see some great houses though. Most aren't something I'd want to live in, but it's fun to look around in them. It makes me feel kind of naughty to go nosing through closets and cabinets of a house that isn't mine, even if it's expected from a parade house. We also got through the day with relatively little damage. My sister and I have the unladylike habit of snorting when we laugh too hard and we only had 2 snortfests during the day. We also almost had to pull over due to uncontrollable laughter while driving from one house to the next. So, all in all, a very good day. Our tickets are good until next Sunday, and we didn't see all the houses we'd like, so #2 and I may do a little parading on our own this week.

there goes my blogger of the year award

2011-02-17T06:51:00.002-10:00

Wow, 9 days since my last post. Time sure does get away fast, doesn't it?

Wisconsin got its January thaw a bit late this year and we're currently enjoying temps in the 40's. It's really brought the snow level down, which is nice. When you have snow piles taller than your car, it's really hard to see what's coming when you're sitting at a stop sign. Now the piles are getting down to manageable size.

Angel #2 enjoyed her time at the Snow Ball. She didn't get chosen as queen, but her friend did, so it was all good. The next dance to conquer is the prom in April. But, before that, both girls have to get through Solo Ensemble, #2 with her flute and #4 on drums. #4 hasn't been doing a whole lot of practicing, but for some reason, she decided she needed to do it last night, when I was fighting a raging headache. Of course, then I get the huffy, "you tell me to practice, but then when I do, you tell me to quit." *sigh* kids

Angel #4 decided to not extend her basketball season to include tournaments. Her coach has 5 or 6 weekend tournaments scheduled for the next two months. Basketball season is officially over, the last game was Feb 5, I really didn't see the point in dragging my daughter all over the place for an entire weekend of basketball and am shocked that people do it. What about people who have more than one child? How can you have real quality time with your family when your free time is spent sitting on metal bleachers in some random gym? I would think that kids would start suffering from sports burnout before they even get into high school. I'm glad #4 came to that conclusion on her own.

Angel #1 has called us a few times from San Diego. Now that he's out of Basic Training, he's allowed to use his phone on the weekends. It's nice to be able to hear from him once in awhile. The Marines encourage the men to get their haircut once a week to make sure it doesn't get too long. #1 said there was a huge line at the base barbershop, but one guy was thinking ahead and brought his own clippers. He was cutting guys hair in the bathroom for a buck a head. Angel #1 took it one step further and simply shaved his head so he didn't have to worry about it for a couple weeks. He said he's not going to shave it again, but it sure is easier to take care of.

wow, that went fast

2011-02-08T12:14:00.002-10:00

At 4:15am today, hubs and Angel #1 went off to deliver #1 to the airport and back to the Marines. That was a really fast 10 days. Fortunately, he got to spend time with friends and family during that time as well as going to 2 funerals - which weren't quite as fun, but he got to see people he wouldn't have seen otherwise. Since they were both funerals for women who'd lived long productive lives, they weren't necessarily sad ones either, which helps. Though #1 didn't seem too eager to leave, I think he'll be glad to get back to doing something productive after spending his downtime at home being pretty lazy. Before he left, he needed a haircut, so I took out my clippers and gave my first 'high and tight', which is the Marine style haircut, shaved on the bottom with a little left on top. #1 complained that it took me longer to do it than it did the Marine barbers, but I think they've had a bit more practice, along with the fact that they really don't care too much how it turns out in the end, when I wanted my boy looking sharp.

I'm still coughing and sniffing my way through an awful cold. I haven't gotten one this miserable in years, but I've had worse and I'll survive. But, that doesn't mean I have to like it.

I got a surprise call from an old friend today. Since I got a new phone, she had to call around a bit before she got my number, but I'm glad she made the effort. It was great catching up on her and her family. Whenever I see her, I remember a weekend we spent together waaay back when. It was a church function and she sat there, holding Angel #1 on her lap for hours at a stretch for 4 days straight, always saying that she was fine and didn't need a baby break - which I was fine with, because I certainly needed a little baby break. It was just ironic that she called the very day that he was headed back to the Marines. I don't think he'd fit on her lap anymore.

enough already

2011-02-06T15:03:00.002-10:00

I can safely say I'm really looking forward to the Super Bowl being done. Everyone's got some sort of Packer brain infection, and living right in the heart of Packer Country is an obnoxious place to be if you really don't care about football. I live about a 30 minute drive from Green Bay, a town that has streets named things like Lombardi Ave. and Holmgren Way, and I'm sure there's tons more streets named after Packers players and coaches as well, but I'm such a non-fan I don't recognize the names. I was in town yesterday, the city buses are emblazoned with Go Pack Go banners and someone spray painted their snow green and gold. We won't even discuss the 5am brat fry some local dj's had in the middle of Lambeau Field...not only are brats NOT something I'd want to face at 5am, especially since they're best eaten smothered in sauerkraut, but Lambeau Field aka Land of the Frozen Tundra, is really really cold at 5am in February...heck, it's always cold in February, no matter what time it is.

Today, I took the girls shopping. A local thrift store was having a prom dress sale. They opened the store during non-opening hours and catered entirely to girls in search of inexpensive prom dresses. They had racks and racks of the dresses and both of my girls had a blast trying different ones on, though Angel #2 is the only one with any hopes of going to the prom in next couple years. As I said earlier, Angel #2 is on Snow Ball court, so she also needed a dress for that. Snow Ball dress code lies somewhere slightly below prom, so she needed a short dress-up dress instead of a long one. By the time we were finished, she had both a Snow Ball dress and a prom dress, so she's good for next weekend's dance and for April's prom. She also got a pair of glittery shoes to go with the Snow Ball dress and a hat that looks like something Elmer Fudd would wear. Fortunately, she's not wearing the Elmer Fudd hat to the dance, she figures that if she actually makes Queen, she'll need room on her head for the tiara. I'm so glad she's thinking ahead. :p

Angel #4 had her last season basketball game yesterday. It was another blowout, which makes her team undefeated for the season. Her coach has another 4 tournaments scheduled over the next 2 months, since they're not part of the regular season, they're not required. We opted out. I think 2 months of a sport is enough, besides, as I mentioned earlier with the sports parents, we really want to step back from the whole sports atmosphere. It's fine to be all worked up about sports if that's where your priorities are, but we prefer to direct our emotional energy into something different. We've seen too many families messed up because of sports and we don't want to join them.

We had a nice turnout yesterday for Angel #1's party. About 25 people were here chowing down on soup. They were a fun group and we had a great time together. I've got a little leftover soup, but not so much that we're going to get sick of eating it before it's all gone, so it worked out perfectly.

'Snow Problem!

2011-02-02T05:37:00.004-10:00

Enough with the snow already! I'm not sure how much snow we've gotten, but WE just got in from shoveling and announced that there are drifts higher than his head...and since he's taller than me, I think that means I won't be wandering around the back yard any time soon. School was cancelled yesterday and today, though the snow stopped falling before 7 this morning, so they probably jumped the gun a little on today's cancellation. But, the wind is still blowing pretty hard, so I'm sure there's still going to be a lot of drifting. Angel #1 is a bit bummed though, he wasn't planning on spending most of his 10 day leave time sitting at home with his family. He's had to cancel plans he made with his friends since nobody can go anywhere. What makes it even worse is that his best buddy's grandma is seriously ill and has only a matter of days left to live, so that will cancel a few more plans, I'm sure.

We've got a funeral today for a friend we used to go to church with. She was 95 years old, so she had a good long haul, and the last 5 years she's suffered from severe dementia, so her death is a blessing. But even so, that doesn't stop making you feel sad at her loss.

It was kind of nice yesterday having all 4 kids together at home. Since we were snowed in, they

couldn't go anywhere or have anyone over, so it was just the 6 of us together. The girls and I worked on a jigsaw puzzle, the boys played their computer games and watched a guy movie with hubs. Today, we head to rent-a-Grandma's before the funeral. We're meeting up with some other friends there who are also going to the funeral. Those friends are about a 3 hour drive from us, so I'm glad we're going to get a chance to see them and their 3 little kids. I'm sure they've grown a lot since we saw them last in September.

Angel #1 told us of something that happened the night he reported in to Basic Training. He hadn't gotten his Marine haircut yet and, unfortunately, the officer in charge of checking the guys in noticed #1's unfortunate resemblance to Napoleon Dynamite (especially in those awful

military issue glasses they gave him). Poor #1 was forced to say "eat the food Tina" and even had to go up in front of another officer and say "Gosh". We were laughing our butts off when he was telling us, though I'm sure he didn't think it was too funny at the time. We were in the Marine Museum on the base when he was telling us, and while we were there, one of his Marine

friends came up and said, "hey, remember when we got off the bus? Gosh." That got us laughing all over again. We just told him he should be happy the guy didn't make him do a Napoleon dance in moon boots. I think #1 is going to keep his hair short from now on so he'll never be mistaken for Napoleon again.

Here are my boys, Kip and Napoleon aka WE and Angel #1

Semper Fi and stuff

2011-01-31T14:34:00.003-10:00

Well, I've finally got some time to sit down and report in. Let me tell you, life's amazing. Three months ago, I shipped out a well-behaved, but fairly lazy teenager. This weekend, I brought home a young man who's heavy into yessirs, no ma'ams, and thank you, sirs. He also shoveled the driveway, emptied the dishwasher and carries groceries, all without being asked. I think I'm going to send my other 3 kids to basic training next month!

We had a wonderful time in San Diego. On Wednesday, we went to Balboa Park. If you ever get to San Diego, I highly recommend going here. It's got some beautiful gardens and architecture and a whole bunch of museums. Hubs and WE went to the air and space museum while my FIL and I went to the Museum of Man and learned how they shrink heads (it's pretty cool) and make mummies. We did supper on the pier and watched the sun go down on the Pacific, something I haven't seen since moving from Hawaii.

Thursday we met up with a couple of Angel #1's friends who also came to the graduation. We all got a crash course in following orders and getting yelled at by drill instructors, as well as learning what the guys did during basic. We got to watch our soldiers both start out, then finish a 4 mile motivational run, though I'm not sure what's motivational about running 4 miles. Though we could see them, they weren't allowed to even so much as look at us. After there run, they got cleaned up, then showed off their marching skills before being dismissed for the first liberty they'd received since they left home October 31st. Once they got the dismissal, we all swarmed down on our Marines and did a whole lotta hugging. People warned me that I wouldn't recognize #1 because Basic changes their looks so much, but, besides the fact that the guys all wore the same clothes and had the same 'high and tight' haircuts, I picked him out fairly easily...except the glasses threw me off a bit. Let me tell you, they don't call military issue glasses 'birth control glasses' for nothing. I think they did a study to find the more horrendously ugly eye glasses possible, then made the uglier, then stuck them on my son's face. Whenever we took a picture of him, he made sure to take his glasses off first. We only had about 5 hours with him and he wasn't allowed to leave the base, so he just showed us around and we took him out to eat at a buffet they have on the base. The funniest thing about the whole day was how much #1 talked. He's normally a VERY quiet, taciturn kind of guy, but wow, he sure was a chatterbox on Thursday. He had so much to tell us and just talked and talked. We were all laughing about it by the end of the afternoon.

Friday was the big day - graduation. I did pretty good about not crying, but I have to admit, my eyes were pretty watery when I watched those young men come marching out in such perfect order, knowing that just 3 months ago they were a bunch of ragtag kids. The ceremony was all very precise and orderly and the only flaw was one of the guys in #1's platoon passed out twice. Afterwards, #1 told us that that guy was one of the platoon slackers and whiners and no one was surprised that he messed up. He also said the drill instructor was so mad he was cussing the guy out under his breath during the rest of the ceremony. I was just happy when they were dismissed and the most difficult and challenging 3 months of my sons life was over with. He later said that it wasn't that bad once he got used to it. I thought maybe hearing all that you went through to be a Marine would change WE's plans for after high school, but now he wants to be a Marine more than ever. So I'll be going through all this again in another 4 years from the looks of it.

Anyway, now I'm home and doing tons of laundry. Not only do I have the catch-up laundry from being out of town for most of the week, but I have 2 sea bags worth of Marine clothes to wash. I've sorted them into different patters of camo, except for one set that gets a load all its own. #1 said he wore them for The Crucible, which is this huge endurance thing that's spread out over 3-4 days. I'm not sure exactly what they all do, but from the looks of it, at some point they all got up close and personal with a mud puddle. Those clothes could almost walk themselves to the washing machine.

It sure is great having all 4 of my babies home together again, even if it's only for 1 1/2 weeks.

Am I allowed to say I'm sick to death of the Packers?

2011-01-24T07:00:00.003-10:00

Packer fans are rabid under the most common conditions, put those boys in the Superbowl and it's gonna be nuts around here. I've got to say, I'm happy to be heading out of here tomorrow for a while, that many fewer days I have to hear about the mighty green and gold. I'm thinking it won't be that much of an issue in San Diego.

Talk about San Diego, we're getting ready to head out tomorrow. I can't wait to see Angel #1, though that won't be until Thursday. Wednesday, we're going to Balboa Park and check out a museum or two. I'm just looking forward to warm weather. Angel #4 looked at the thermometer this morning and was excited that it was warming up outside...it was 17 degrees. Oh, how far we've fallen from the Hawaiian mentality! It doesn't take long for winter to beat you down and force you to lower your expectations of what constitutes a 'nice' day.

I think I became a fail mom in two different venues this weekend. First, I was at Angel #4's basketball game. One of the little girls playing had spent the night at our house the night before. Apparently, she wasn't really on her game and afterwards, her mother started yelling at her for how badly she played. She was told that she can no longer have sleepovers the night before a game since it affects her performance the next day. See, this is where I fail. I don't really care how my kid plays in a game. Sure, I'd love for her to play well, but I really don't have that much ambition or effort invested in sports to really, deep down, care. I was under the impression that games were supposed to be fun and there shouldn't be consequences for your kid when they don't perform according to your expectations, especially when they're only TWELVE years old. I'm totally NOT a sports mom.

My second mom failure shows that I'm also not a tiara mom. Angel #2 told me that she and her boyfriend have a really good chance at being on their schools Snow Ball Court. I think at this point, as a mother, I was supposed to get teary-eyed and start discussing hair styles and new dresses, instead, I burst into laughter. Then, when I asked if she might have to wear a crown and she said yes, the laughter ratcheted up until I almost wet my pants. #2 and her boyfriend are really, really not your typical Snow Ball Court material. The only reason #2 signed up was an impulse, and I think she thought it would be funny. She didn't tell her boyfriend she signed up until afterwards and thought she'd really have to work to talk him into it. Fortunately for her, he's an easy going guy and went along with it. But the thought of the two of them on the court is pretty hilarious...for the record, she thinks it is too and was laughing right along side me. It'll be interesting to see if they make it on the court, the image of all the blonde, blue eyed kids up there with my emo kid and her multi-pierced boyfriend is pretty darn funny. I'm totally NOT a tiara mom.

I'll be computerless while in San Diego, so I'll give you an update, and probably some pictures, when I get back next weekend.

it's cold

2011-01-20T08:08:00.002-10:00

It's cold today and going to be even colder tomorrow. I think tomorrow's high temp is 4. Yeah, just '4'. Of course, the wind chill is supposed to be -30, which adds a few new numbers in the mix, but I'm not a big fan of temperature numbers that have a minus sign in front of them. I think I'll just stay in the house.

Angel #2 had a chance to use her Spanish speaking skills yesterday at work. She's always trying to learn new Spanish phrases. When a customer came in and said "no speak English", her mind when blank and the only word she could remember was 'si'. Ironically, she starting Spanish class in school today. She's now on a mission to learn how to say all the pizza toppings in Spanish so she'll be ready next time Francisco gets the munchies. She was also pretty upset about something else. She takes great pride in her work and, in her words, tries to make 'pretty pizzas'. Yesterday, a customer came in during the day before she was at work and claimed he'd gotten a burned pizza the night before and wanted his money back. The Angel's boss called her and asked her about it (this guy had done the same thing a month earlier). Not only did the Angel remember who all her customers had been the night before (and this guy wasn't one of them), when she found out he was black, she knew for sure. Seriously? When you're trying to pull a scam, claiming you were someplace the night before, depending on people not remembering if you were there or not, you should probably NOT be a black guy in a place where there are NO BLACK PEOPLE! Yeah, we've got an Asian family and a few Mexicans (Francisco, the non-English speaker for example), but there just aren't any black people here, so if one shows up, people are going to remember. The same thing happened with another guy a few weeks ago, the Angel said, this guy had a bunch of face piercings. The Angel said she's seen one lip ring the entire time she's lived in this town, someone's going to notice if you've got a pin cushion for a face. Some people are so stupid.

One of our local radio stations, in honor of the Packers/Bears game, is playing the song The Bears Still Suck Polka every hour, round the clock, for an entire week. I barely ever listen to the radio, but I'm still amazed at how often I still end up hearing that song. It was playing when my clock radio alarm went off this morning, I think I'm going to change to a buzz alarm. I'm in no way a Packers fan, I'm not a football fan at all anymore, though I don't mind watching a game if it's in front of me. Packermania is more than a tad bit annoying, imo. Besides, let me in on one of my dirty secrets...after 25 years, I'm still just a leeeetle bit in love with Jim McMahon. And, I can tell you, that, 25 years ago, our local Green Bay radio stations NEVER played The Superbowl Shuffle. So, when is this stupid game going to be over?

Well, we tried

2011-01-18T06:22:00.002-10:00

So, hubs didn't get to Washington DC yesterday like we'd planned. Instead, he flight was cancelled due to the 3-4 inches of snow we got throughout the day. He rebooked and I dropped him off this morning and he's now in the air on the way east. They let the kids out from school a little early, only 10 minutes. I guess they figured the buses were already there and the sooner they get the kids on them, the sooner they'll get them home. Anyway, everyone was home, safe and sound last night, which is just the way I like it. I just hope we don't have to deal with weather next week when we're going to and from San Diego.

busy weekend

2011-01-16T17:07:00.003-10:00

All kinds of things keeping us busy this weekend. For the first time, hubs was home to watch Angel #4's basketball game. Once again they won, making them undefeated by a wide margin. Saturday morning, Angel #2 went to a nearby town for an all day rehearsal of the the regional high school honors band. It was pretty cool, they gathered a bunch of the best band kids from each of the schools in our conference, gave them music to practice ahead of time, then brought them together for practice on Saturday. We were all invited to the concert they held at the end of the day. Those kids were so good, I literally got tears in my eyes. After only 6 hours of practice, they sounded downright professional.

Today was Angel #2's 17th birthday. I made her favorite, angel food cake. Her boyfriend came over and took her shopping for the occasion. That was about it, we didn't do anything too exciting.

#2 got a smart phone last week when we all got our new phones. WE, Angel #4 and I all just got regular phones - if they're not considered smart phones, would that make them dumb phones? Anyway, she's now developed an app addiction and is constantly downloading different apps. It got so bad that the other day, her pencil broke and, without thinking, looked to see if there was a pencil sharpener app. She downloaded a DDR app, but since you can't actually dance on your phone, you do it with your fingers. To make it more interesting, she and Angel #4 did the dance steps anyway, just jumped around on the floor while trying to focus on that little screen on her phone. Did you know they made a remake of The Witchdoctor? I figure why even bother to top The Chipmunks. But, someone always thinks they can improve something.

Hubs is headed out to Washington DC again tomorrow for a few days. He'll get home Saturday, just enough time for me to get his laundry done and we'll be out the door early Tuesday morning for San Diego. He added up his days away from home last year and discovered that he was gone over 90 days. If he keeps this up, I'm going to forget what he looks like.

Fire!...or maybe not

2011-01-14T12:56:00.002-10:00

Wednesday night, we were on our way home from Bible study. About 3 miles from home, we passed a fire truck going the opposite way, its lights off. About 30 seconds after that, Angel #2 announced that she got a text from a friend who lives near us, wondering about all the fire trucks on our road and is it our house? *gulp* Then Angel #4 got a text from a friend whose dad is on the fire department and he heard there was a fire reported on our road, was it us? *double gulp* Needless to say, we all were holding our breath as we got closer to home and you could hear an audible sigh of relief when we saw our house sitting there, dark and quiet, just as we left it. But, we could smell smoke strongly, so the fire must have been nearby, but by the time we got home, all the fire trucks apparently had left, so we don't know whose house it was or what happened. I was just happy to see our house still standing. But, I wasn't happy to see that we'd missed a phone call. Angel #1 had called while we were gone to go over our plans for his graduation and his flight home. It was so disappointing that after missing him so much that day, we ended up missing the first phone call we've had from him since the beginning of November.

Tomorrow hubby is finally going to be in town to see one of Angel #4's basket ball games. He's been gone so much lately that he hasn't been around for a single one yet. After the game, we're going to Angel #2's band concert. She was chosen to participate in the regional honors band program for seniors, so she'll be there working with other kids from other schools all day, then in late afternoon, they're going to have a concert for the parents. It'll be interesting to see what they can accomplish in one day.