There's a giant grasshopper in your house!

April Fool's! (That's Katie's joke)

I have some quick pictures to load from our trip to the Mall of America yesterday. We went there to meet my niece, Sarah, who was in town on a school field trip to the dinner theater. They stopped at the mall for a bit to eat and shop.

So I guess you would think that I would have pictures of Sarah and the kids, but no. We ate together then let Sarah hang with her friends while the kids went on a couple rides in the park. I had some left over ride points from our last visit so they each got to do a ride. While we were walking around we happened to see Dora doing a meet & greet, so of course we had to stop. Will was NOT impressed.

We saw that Dora's cousin, Diego, was going to be there in about 15 minutes so we stopped back after our rides. (I also realize that if you are over the age of 15 and have no children, you probably don't know who in the sam hill these characters are.)

Will liked Diego a whole lot more than Dora...even gave him a high-five. Diego was just funnier...

He liked Katie's sparkle shoes, played with her hair, and got them both to laugh.

On our way out we found a bunny that was more to Will's liking. Also, could be that everyone we'd talked to in the last 30 minutes had fuzzy, giant heads - so it was becoming weirdly normal.

Oh yeah, and this rabbit gave out candy and colored chalk...that always helps.

Doe, a deer, a female deer.....

Here's Will singing a song from The Sound of Music. He used to sing it SOOO sweetly. Um, not so much anymore. Maybe I was wrong to take the video after he'd eaten two marshmallows. Seems a bit hopped up on sugar.

A visit with the Easter Bunny

The kids and I went to see the Easter Bunny on Monday. And even though I'd been talking all weekend about it with Will, I still didn't think he would go NEAR the bunny. I was right.

We spent about 15-20 minutes sitting 'near' the bunny, watching other kids take their turns, but Will insisted that he not be made to go anywhere near that rodent. Katie, on the other hand, enjoyed it very much and couldn't wait to take her turn with the silent bunny.

In the end, Will got the paper ears which, turns out, was all he needed anyway.

Reason #7,461 I love my husband

John finished up one side of our new wall window.

As you may remember last October we decided to create a peek-a-boo window in our dividing wall between the kitchen and living room. Just this past spring John re-wired the wires that we found in the wall, put new wood in the frame, stained it and put up the trim.

Looks pretty darn good right? It looks so good that I don't even mind that it turned into a 6 month project. He really took his time so that everything was JUST right.....as if he was worried about not getting hired for the next project job. :)


(You'll notice the new paint job too that I completed last week. One room down, 3-4 to go!)

Friday Funny

This one goes out to my husband and mother-in-law....

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Not only do I get to say Happy St. Patrick's Day, but I also get to send out more birthday wishes!

You know....with all these birthday wishes, I should really have some funny pictures to go with the birthdays....oh wait - I do.

Happy Birthday to my sister, Janet. Janet and I have spent the last 6 years being able to talk on the phone during the day...now she has switched shifts at work and it as work all day. No more phone calls. Oh well, I think I will survive.

My sister, Janet....not sure how old...hey, I wasn't even born yet!

More Happy Birthday wishes to my friend Julie Everson. I wish I could give you a great big hug today! Julie lost her daughter last November and I know it's going to be a bittersweet birthday for her. Here's to a better year ahead. :)

Julie having fun in college...this was after an expecially "fun" day.

And because I didn't include a picture with my nephew's birthday...here's how old I will always see Jordan.

Depot - Day 3

On our final day at The Depot, John and I slept in - a bit. Our room package included a free movie so at about 7:30 as the kids were waking, I set them up with a movie. Katie and Will watched The Princess and The Frog and from their reaction they liked it a lot. At least it allowed a few more winks of sleep for us.

After breakfast we packed up our belongings, loaded the car and walked over to the ice rink. This was only my second time ice skating - John had gone a few times, and Katie has gone about 8-9 times. With that kind of experience, we figured we'd lace up Will as well.

As you can see by the following videos it took a while, BUT we came away with no broken bones (although Will clocked his nose...but that occurred off of the ice, out of ice skates.) John is still the "speed skater" among the 4 of us, however I was able to make it once around the rink in about 3 minutes without grabbing onto the side rail. :)

Happy Birthday!!!!

I have to sneak in a Happy Birthday today to my nephew, Jordan, who turns 16 today.

Holy crap. 16. How did that happen???

Happy Birthday!

Depot - Day 2...afternoon

By 1:00, the kids were HOPPING to get into the water. So, after our lunch at the museum, we came back, got changed and took to the waterpark. Oh yeah, kiddie part of the waterpark? A GIANT train. I'm kind of surprised Will's head didn't explode.

As far as Katie and Will go - they are pretty different when it comes to the water. Katie takes a long time to warm up, doesn't like to be splashed or get her face wet unintentionally. Will is pretty much up for anything, and takes things as they come. He is usually the one doing the splashing.



The train had 3 different water slides coming off of it. Will's favorite was the one right in front. He was happy going down on John's or my lap at first. But then he decided that he'd rather just do it himself. :)



Thanks to the life jacket, Katie could swim in the deeper pool so that's where she spent the bulk of her time. John and I would switch off between kids and each took a few turns going down the big waterslide. It was a great waterpark - just the right size for us.

The whole day was just a bit much for some of us. One minute Will was crawling around on the bed...the next, he was asleep.

Depot - Day 2

We woke up Friday morning with some time before the waterpark opened. So after breakfast, we headed out to the Mill City Museum which was just 1 1/2 blocks from the hotel. Built into the ruins of what was once the world’s largest flour mill, Mill City Museum is located on the historic Mississippi Riverfront. They promised to have activities for all ages so we gave it a try and they were right - we all had a good time.

One of the activities was a "Flour Tower" ride. Basically, you ride up 9 stories in this elevator and hear information about the flour mill while watching some film clips and other scenes. Once at the top they have a viewing area of St. Anthony Falls and the Mississippi River.

More trains...but for some reason Will was not in a 'picture' mood, but, like always, Katie was!

Leave it to the farmer boys...they were pretty taken with the steam engine tractor.

We had a nice lunch at the museum before heading back to the hotel to dive into the waterpark for the rest of the day. More on that tomorrow!

Weekend at the Depot

We took a mini vacation Thursday through Saturday and spent some time at The Depot in Minneapolis. The Depot is an old train depot that has been turned into an indoor skating rink. We stayed at the Residence Inn that is attached and we all had a GREAT time. So, the next few days are going to be filled with pictures and videos from our time together and all the fun stuff we got to do!

We arrived Thursday afternoon and the kids were very excited to get inside the hotel. It's so fun to watch them explore the room and see their faces. All week Will had been talking about the "how-tel" and had packed a bag of books and toys to take along. (Which we never really had time to get into!) After dropping off our things in the room, we all went exploring through the hotel halls and history.

The last train left in 1971, but the Depot still stands as a monument of rail days gone by. For nearly seven decades, family members and loved ones stood at the atrium of the Depot and waved to passengers boarding the trains of the Milwaukee Road line.

In 1998, the Minneapolis Community Development Agency approved a land sale to CSM Corporation for the development proposal currently underway at the Depot. The finished complex includes The Depot Renaissance Minneapolis Hotel, the Residence Inn Minneapolis Downtown by Marriott, an indoor water park, an interpretive history center about the Depot, The Stone Arch Bar, Charley's Restaurant, banquet space, underground parking for 650 automobiles and an enclosed seasonal ice rink. The entire project was completed in July of 2001. (One of John's jobs was the ice rink a few years back.)

As you can probably guess, there were a lot of train decorations, and yes, Will LOVED them all. Katie was in charge of taking pictures on our tour through the hotel.

A cute little model train...can you see Will trasfixed in the reflection?

A map showing the train routes...interesting because it not only shows Minneapolis, but also our hometown in IA.

The kids quenching their thirst with some water.

For supper we ate at Charley's restaurant in the hotel. We were surprised by how kid-friendly it was. The kids got special kid-cups, crayons and toy animals to keep them occupied. The food was yummy - especially the sorbet we all split for dessert.

Katie slept on the pull-out sofa while Will slept in the pack-n-play the hotel provided. While John and I were in the next room, we could hear whispers and secret conversations among them. They had a great night - eventually falling asleep. We also found out the next morning that they had been sneaking fig newtons.

It's pretty much exactly what I was hoping they would do together. :)

Friday Funny.....on Saturday

Will has a new favorite accessory. For the last 3 days, Will wears this hat and runs around the house yelling "I A LADY! I A LADY!"

That doesn't worry me...although the pose he struck for these pictures DOES....

Congratulations Waukon Girls!

As most of you know, we are originally from Iowa. Last night the girl's basketball team from our hometown made it to state finals. The championship game is Saturday night and thanks to the wonderful Internet, we've been able to listen to the games.

Best of all, our niece, Sarah is on the team! She sent Katie this Waukon basketball shirt, which Katie wore to school today in honor of the team. (Even though it was 'orange' and she made it clear that wasn't her favorite color.)

How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria...

This is currently the song circulating throughout the house today.

On Saturday, Katie and I went to The Sound Of Music which our church was putting on. Each winter our church puts on a musical to fund their mission trips for the summer. This year they really outdid themselves and went above and beyond any expectation. It's amazing what 40-50 people can get accomplished in about 6 weeks. And so - Katie has been re-living the songs.

This week, Katie is the "Special K" (K for Kindergartner) in her class. We got to make a poster about Katie filled with pictures and things she likes that hangs in her classroom all week. She also gets to be first in line and leads the activities at circle time each day. We also have a visitor in our home all week. Katie got to bring the class bear home for a week. His name is Little Bear and we've been busy filling in his journal with pictures and stories about what we have done with him.

Whew - that's a bunch about Katie. What's up with Will? Will has been pretty grumpy all week. More so than usual. Here he was at supper time...normally, his favorite time of day.

That's ok. We've got one up, one down...our own yin and yang...pretty much all you can ask for.

Friday Funny

This is a video of Fran and Marlo Cowan. They have been married for over 62 years and they put on an impromptu piano recital as they were waiting in the lobby of Mayo Clinic's Gonda building in Rochester. (One of John's jobs, by the way.) It is really heartwarming, funny and is guaranteed to make you smile.

This video was posted over a year ago on YouTube, and rumor had it that the couple was going to visit again at noon yesterday...we'll see if there's more.

Statue of Liberty

The theme this month in kindergarten is Famous Faces, Famous Places. On Tuesday, Katie came home from school dressed up. Luckily, I guessed who she was...

So now, she wants to go to New York City and see the Statue of Liberty for real. She didn't care that Sarah and I had already been there. She says it's her turn now. I think I'd rather wait until it's warmer.

First sick day

I kept Katie home from school on Monday. She had a TINY fever Sunday night so she 'rested' at home on Monday while her cough got better. It's about gone now. We had spent the weekend in IA so she was pretty exhausted as well. Now of course, it's Will's turn for a cough. Katie went back to school yesterday. Not too bad - in 6 months of school, we've only had 1 sick day.

Last Thursday the kids had a check up at the dentist. Katie had 2 cavities, which we go back to fix today. Again - I can't see them. They say they can see them on the x-ray. Sometimes I feel like it's all made up. Especially when I get an estimate of care and they charge $51.00 for laughing gas. When I go to the dentist, I get charged $30.00.

Stations - Part 2

Yesterday I got a last minute call to help out at Katie's school. I did 'stations' last month as you may remember when I had to teach the kids card games. This time it was going to be an activity with pennies and I had no choice but to bring Will along.

We got the call about 8:45 and had to be there by 9:00. Stations start promptly at 9:15. So I grabbed Will and ran out the door. We got to the school, gathered our supplies and began to read through the activity around 9:05.

Usually there is very little setup that must be done beforehand. We read a story, ask questions, do an activity. Here are the setup steps for my activity to 'Clean Pennies"

1. Cut 20 pieces of string, each 2 feet long.
2. Fill one bowl 1/4 full with water
3. Fill one bowl 1/4 full with salt and water
4. Fill one bowl 1/4 full with vinegar and salt
5. Tear off 20 paper towels
6. Set up 10 spots with a glue stick, scissors, 1 red star, 1 white star, 1 blue star.

Oh yeah, and you have 10 minutes to do this before 20 kindergartners descend on you. (Plus you have a 2 year old to entertain!) GO!

I SCRAMBLED! Luckily I was able to get most everything together. We were to drop a penny in each bowl and observe what liquid made the penny shine. It was supposed to be the vinegar and salt, however it did NOT work - so I cheated and grabbed an already shiny penny to show.

Then we read a story and talked about what's on the pennies. Then each kid cut out stars, glued them together, taped a penny in the middle and we tied all the strings into necklaces. After that I passed out magnifying glasses so each could get a close up view of their pennies. WHEW!

Honestly, I think teachers request parent volunteers so that we are less likely to criticize them. It's VERY difficult work and I felt like I was scrambling for 90 minutes straight.

*Note - after we got home, Katie decided that we need to clean all of OUR pennies too. So I got a mixture of vinegar and salt together and ours worked MUCH better. I'm thinking they didn't add enough salt to our mixture at school.

My confession

I've been hitting a dry streak with things to post on the blog. Not too much is happening here and I tried to think about why that is. The only thing I can come up with is that I am watching way too much TV. (But, c'mon...it's Minnesota...AND it's February. There aren't a lot of options.) Now I know, you're gonna say I could play games with my kids - and my husband and I both do. But have you ever played UNO with a 5 year old for the 76th time in one day? When you have, then you can criticize me.

So I thought I would share the horrible TV choices I have been making lately and see if they are worthy of defending.

Before I begin, on a positive note - I really don't watch TV during the day. No soaps, no Oprah (well, maybe once a month). My only TV time during the day comes 1-2 times a week I watch The View (don't judge me!) I really like their banter and their political discussions. Also, 2-3 times a week I watch an episode of Beverly Hills 90210.....the early stuff from the early 1990's...when it was too edgy for my to watch in my young years.

(Again, let your judgement slide...it's only gonna get worse.)

I might as well get the worst of the choices out of the way first. I've been sucked into my first season of The Bachelor. If you have never watched it, the idea is pretty simple. 25 women vie for the attention of one man, deemed, The Bachelor. He sends away the ones he can't see spending the rest of his life with. As John could tell you, because he was forced to watch it the other night, it's now down to 2 women....I can't turn away! It probably wouldn't be so bad, but each episode is 2 HOURS long! So I feel as though I wasted an entire night after I'm done watching it. As God as my witness, I'll never be sucked into this show again! (Well, unless, of course - they choose my favorite girl from this season as the next Bachelorette, I mean, c'mon...(kidding)) My defense? At least this show is a tiny step above Bret Michael's show, Rock of Love.

Second - I am a sucker for any tv show put out by Dr. Drew Pinsky. He has done all of the Celebrity Rehab shows, as well as the recent "16 and Pregnant" and "Teen Mom" show. Seriously, that pregnancy show and Teen Mom show was very well done. It probably didn't get much viewership from the 18-34 male demographic, as John couldn't stomach more than 10 minutes, but it really showed how horribly difficult it is to have a baby before you are ready - at any age. My favorite girl, Caitlyn was 17 and put her baby up for adoption. It followed her as she tried to deal with still identifying herself as a mom, yet having no contact with her daughter. Also - she had hillbilly parents from HELL who were against the whole adoption idea. It was very sweet to watch her and her boyfriend support each other and communicate with each other better than some couples who are much older. The other girls were just fun to watch because they sure made you feel like a "good mom" - no matter what kind of day you had!

Are you still with me - or have you given up and logged off?

I love the FX series, Nip/Tuck. It's about 2 plastic surgeons, one is arrogant as hell, a womanizer with an ego the size of most of his boob jobs. The other seems normal, but has very serious issues with self esteem, his morals, etc. This is the final season and I'm convinced they are going to kill each other off. Another show I've recently gotten into is The Amazing Race. It's fun to watch people under stress in foreign countries. No wonder so many other cultures don't like Americans.

So as I try not to get pulled into another season of American Idol, I wait for the sun to warm up the skies, the giant piles of snow to melt and the days to get longer. There, I've cleaned out the skeletons in MY closet a bit - but what about YOU? :)

Are there shows you watch, but aren't proud of? If you don't watch much TV, are there shows you WANT to watch?

V-Day bloodletting

This year John and I decided to give blood again. Our chiropractor has an annual blood drive for Valentine's Day and gives a coupon for a free 30 minute massage to every donor. Last year went pretty smoothly, although I did get kinda woozy.

We had to go at different times so that someone could stay home with the kids. John went first and said everything well well. I took off after he got home, hoping for the same results. Unfortunately, after 20 minutes of pokes and changing angles every vein they tried to drain collapsed.

They couldn't really tell me why this happened - could be severe dehydration, so when I got home I searched online and found the only answer was to give up my severe drug addiction. (Hope you sense the sarcasm!) I don't seem to remember sticking myself daily over the past year into my veins so there must be another reason, I'm thinking I was dehydrated although I drank OJ, coffee, water and milk all before my appointment.

Oh well, another time....perhaps.

Friday Funny

V-Day is coming

Obviously there hasn't been a lot going on at our house this week...hence the limited number of posts. We've been busy making Valentine's for Katie's class party tomorrow. This will be her first official Valentine's party and she's very excited. She's already made plans to wear a skirt for the occasion.

Katie has 'requested' that we all make her a Valentine...I haven't done that yet, but I plan to. Better get busy....

Overall, that's about the bulk of our holiday plans. (Can you really call this a holiday?) Do people really go all out and buy each other big ticket items for Valentine's? I suppose there are. John and I were never big Valentine's Day people. Prior to kids we usually went out to eat...crowded restaurants, long waits and all. He sent me flowers one year before we got married and he's brought flowers home after work in years past after his co-workers suggested it. :) But I'm ok with no flowers too.

He gets the short end of the stick, really because I don't give him much. He got candy in his truck one year...years ago. He'll probably score a card this year and some take-out food.

And you know what? That's pretty close to perfect.

Ok...anytime now!

It's snowing here again today...

We had two days of 'shovel-able' snow last week and are set to get another 5-10 inches through tomorrow. School has been let out early, although Katie still had normal kindergarten this morning.

I don't mind taking 6 more weeks of winter, but could it possible not snow the WHOLE six weeks?

The view out my kitchen window...our small back deck...the thermometer is covered up so I can't even tell how cold it is!

Friday Funny...you know you missed it.

American Idol....Pladsen style

We sometimes get the chance to catch a few minutes of American Idol, in between supper clean up and PJ's. The other night we were watching and Katie decided that she wanted to be a judge. Of course Will wasn't really up for singing or performing. "Will, do you want to sing your ABC's?"

"Ummm, No fanks."

So that leaves John and I...two people just craving for the spotlight. (That was sarcastic in case you didn't catch it.) We had to stand up in front of everyone while Katie sat on the couch, high on her throne. I sang Twinkle Twinkle and the I Love You song. I got 2 big thumbs down for my song choices. For one audition she told me better luck next year, but then I begged and got a "yes", and the other song I got straight through to Hollywood.

John stood up and sang I Believe in Miracles by Pearl Jam, (he sucked up, knowing that Katie likes that song too). While Katie liked his song choice, she told him that he needs to sing louder, but sent him through to the next round as well. She's ruthless.

I hope Katie never wants to play this 'game' again. It's really stressful.

Girl's weekend

I was lucky enough to skip out on John and the kids this past weekend and spend it with some friends. Saturday morning I headed to Wisconsin to hang with some of my roommates from my college days. We planned the weekend a few weeks ago and decided to make it just us girls; no kids, no husbands. It had been about 6 years since we got together like this so it was much overdue.

We felt very strange realizing that we didn't have to make sure kids were fed by 6:00. So we headed out to eat around 6:30 and spent almost 3 hours talking, chatting and laughing. Our first stop was The Starlight Lounge. It's a martini bar complete with 70's furnishings. The girls each tried some fun martini's, but I stuck to my usual beer. I'm never sure how my stomach will react to hard liquor so I like to drink what I know. After our drinks we went down, (I swear) the steepest steps in Wisconsin, to Buzzard Billy's and had some tasty southern cooking.

We were asleep by around midnight and headed home the next afternoon. Even MORE interesting is what the kids did with John while I was gone. Somehow or another, Katie managed to talk Dad into talking her and Will to Chuckie Cheese....on a Saturday. I think John scored some MAJOR points there because it sounds like it was quite a fun time. Maybe he's started a new Saturday tradition that he'll just want to continue every week from here on out.... :)

No Friday Funny....again.

Sorry - no Friday Funny here.

Katie's fish Betty died yesterday. (Well, yesterday was the first I noticed it....thinking it had happened earlier.)

Anyway, she was understandably very upset. We've talked about it and today we got Betty out of the water and cleaned her tank for the last time. (Katie wanted to leave Betty in the water for one more day.)

There's been no talk of more pets just yet. I don't think Katie is interested in another fish, and I'm not up for a turtle, which is what she wants. For now, house training Will is taking up enough time.

YAY! Someone is reading me!
The blog world is full of 'awards' for different blogs. This is my first, and I'd like to thank all the little people that make my blog what it is. (That'd be the ACTUAL little people themselves...my kids.) Anyway, thanks to Shelley Bakes for passing this to me. If you have a moment, check her out...she's yummy.

This award comes with instructions, which are as follows:

1. Post the award on your blog. Present this award to seven others whose blogs you find brilliant in content and/or design, or those who have encouraged you.
2. Tell those seven people they've been awarded HONEST SCRAP, inform them of these guidelines, and ask that they link back to you.
3. Share TEN HONEST THINGS about yourself.

Hmmm...10 honest things, ok. I'll give it a go...gonna try and make them ones not everyone knows.

1. I color my hair. I do. Can't deny it. It's not a drastic change from my natural, just a something with a bit more kick. I've colored my hair on and off for the past 14 years and don't have any reason to stop.

2. The only reason I attend church is because of my aunt Carol. She is my Dad's sister and passed away last May. She was very big into the church and took me every Sunday when I was younger, sometimes kicking and screaming. So now, I don't go to church to feel closer to God, I go to feel closer to Carol, which I do.

3. I don't like chocolate. I can eat a candy bar, but that's about it. I don't want cake, ice cream, brownies, etc. This weekend I got peanut butter bars with chocolate frosting on them. I cut off the frosting and just eat the peanut butter part. Some consider that blasphemy.

4. If I had a million dollars and there was no risk and no recovery time, I'd get a boob job. Sorry, I just would....probably. When it comes right down to it, I spose I would chicken out. However, I like to imagine a boob job.

5. I'm a stay-at-home mom right now, but when Will is old enough to go to school I'd like at least a part-time job and that scares the hell out of me. I'm scared that after 7-8 years of being a full-time mommy I no longer have the traits employers are looking for. I'm not 'in demand'. So these days I'm trying to buff up my resume with volunteer work when I can.

6. My husband and I are in agreement that we are done having kids. Two is a great number. But....we have both admitted that there are days when we could be talking into another. (For the record, he admitted this before I did.)

7. I used to smoke. It's hands-down the stupidest decision I ever made, but at the time I was too young and invincible to care. I smoked for about 7 years and quit once we decided we wanted to have kids. There are days I wish I had a cigarette. About once a year I'll get the opportunity to have a couple puffs and they almost take me down. Can't comprehend how I used to do that every day.

8. I was in a bad relationship when I was much younger, not very healthy, not gonna go into details. Over the last year I've really been able to let go of the anger I carried around because of that. No longer holding grudges against that person and it's a very nice feeling.

9. I can wiggle my eyes. I don't know how else to explain it. I'll show you sometime if you're interested. People used to get weirded out.

10. I love summertime...I'll even take springtime. Round about this time of year I start to get itchy for spring...but really longing for summer. It's never long enough, I never get everything done I want to do, never get to the park enough, etc. But I wouldn't want to live in a place where the seasons don't really change at all. I think I would take things for granted. It's good to lose summertime too so that you'll notice when it comes back.

I don't read a LOT of blogs, so I can't pass this on to 7 other people because I just don't have that many....so I'm just doing one.
I'm passing this award and instructions on to....

Heather and Drew Just 4 Alicia

Will's Gym Class

Last week Will started attending a child gym class. Katie used to attend these classes when she was younger. I won 4 free weeks of classes for Will in a drawing held last year and I've finally made time for it. (I also won 4 weeks of kickboxing classes for myself...we'll see if I ever make time for that!)

Anyway, on Thursday morning now Will goes to "Gym Class". Last week as we were going to class he said that Grandma Mary would be there too. What?? If finally dawned on me that he is thinking "Jim Class" as in Uncle Jim. After the initial disappointment, he recovered and had a good time.

I started taking Katie to this class when she was about 10 months so that she could play with other kids her age. She really had a hard time adjusting to other kids. Usually she was afraid of them. By the time we stopped going she was over 3 and could have taught the class herself. Will doesn't need the socialization, he gets enough of that through our other commitments. I'm hoping that these classes will help him with listening and following directions. (I can hope.) I plan on continuing these classes probably through the next 3-4 months. Once it gets warm outside I think we can find other stuff to do. Hopefully I'll get some pictures of Will in class soon.

Our own Frosty

John and Katie were very busy Sunday afternoon. (Prior to the Vikings game) Katie and John built a snowman on our back patio. And while he scares me every time I open the blinds, he is a very cute snowman.

We also bought a new TV over the weekend. It only took 18 months to finally break down and get one. Unfortunately it wasn't enough to help the Vikings pull out a victory last night. Oh well. I'm ready for baseball to start anyway. It's fun to hear the kids cheering for the Vikings. Every time a touchdown was scored, Will got upset because he thinks it should be called a "touchUP". Probably since we were raising our hands in the air as we shouted it.

7 Years

Today isn't a Friday Funny post, instead it's our anniversary. And while I could use this time to crack a joke or make a funny comment about marriage, I won't. Today we celebrate 7 years of marriage, and to me, that's a big number.

Some of you readers may have been married 20+ years and you laugh at the thought that 7 years is a long time. Well, you gotta start somewhere, every year is important. And I know in my soul that we'll be celebrating 20+ years as well, just not yet. :)

These days it seems that 7 years of marriage isn't as common as it used to be so I'm proud of us and our family. We've both had great examples to follow in our families.

So today we'll probably break out the wedding video and wish that we were on the beach in Key West again. We'll have crab legs for supper and I'll make Key Lime Pie for dessert. And it will be the perfect way to celebrate 7 wonderful years. I couldn't imagine spending it with anyone else.

Fort Zachary in Key West

Outside Kelly's (restaurant) - after supper

BTW...I'm so proud of my $200 dress. It was a steal!

Happy Birthday!

There's a few birthdays this week I wanted to acknowledge....

Happy Birthday to my sister Denise, my BIL Jim, and our friend Joe! They all celebrate their birthday's this week and weekend...have a good one!

Day 2

Day 2 on the "Extra Time" snow pants front...

It went VERY well and extremely smooth. Good morning.


Disclaimer: Past performance is not an indication of future results.

(I knew my time in the investment field would come in handy.)

F@#king snow pants

I've always hated the winter season...cold, dangerous, etc. This year I have a new reason for my contempt of this time of year: snow pants. Oh yeah, and lets add boots to this list too.

4 out of 5 of the mornings that Katie gets ready for school she throws a fit when she gets her snow pants and boots on. This fit usually lasts only a few minutes, but it's long enough that we are hurrying and yelling at each other because the bus is a-comin' on down the road, and it seems to spiral out of control. I add gas to the fire, she explodes. She pushes my buttons, I yell. And we both have a rotten start to our day, which should be spent enjoying time with each other.

Here's her issue (and I really can't blame her because I think I would feel the same way. Probably the reason why I chose to NEVER wear snow pants to school.) Once she gets her snow pants on...she's still fine. I pull her pant legs down on the inside so they aren't scrunched up inside. She's doing ok. Then we move onto the boots. Here's where things get hairy. As she steps into the boots, they push up her jeans inside her snow pants. There goes hell, breaking loose.

I've tried to pull her pant legs down and tuck them into her boots, but then her boots won't close.
I've tried pulling her pant legs down OVER her boots, but her pant legs are too small for that.

I've tried rolling up her jeans before we put on the snow pants, but that just makes getting the snow pants on impossible. And the school requests that she wear snowpants to school because they spend the first 15 minutes of school playing outside.

My solution? Start getting her ready 10 minutes early so she has time to throw her fits. Just work them into our morning routine. Oh yeah, and add brandy to my coffee.

The bus comes at about 8:10. I like to be out there by 8:08. We start getting ready at 8:00. Nope, not going to work anymore. So today I had her start getting ready at 7:50. I thought, well now she's going to be mad because we're going to be standing around and she's going to get hot. No way. She was a perfect angel getting ready this morning. Everything went ok...she still complained that her pants didn't feel good, but she used a calm voice and explained the problem, which we decided we couldn't fix. We headed out the door at 8:07 and the bus came right on time.

Do you know what this means!??? Yes, Deb, you've found a solution to your problem.

No - silly readers. It means tomorrow morning is going to be hell.

One afternoon a few weeks ago, Katie decided she wanted to play outside. She got all dressed, threw a MAJOR tantrum (which I walked away from) only to find her 15 minutes later...asleep....on the floor...in all her gear.

Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street

On Saturday the four of us went to Sesame Street Live. Katie and I had been to these shows before, but it was the first time for the boys. As you can see, everyone was excited.

Once the show started, Will was pretty enthralled. His interest started to wander towards the end, but we never had to get up from our seats. He didn't get scared either, even though it was pretty loud.

It's fun to watch the faces on the kids, and sometimes even more fun to watch the faces on the adults. Seems everyone knows at least one character on Sesame Street.

Friday Funny

This is kinda fuzzy...hope you can still read it! It helps to click on it...will open in a new window.

A day in kindergarten

This morning I volunteered at Katie's kindergarten building. A few days each month they have 'stations'. These are small group activities that parents volunteer to lead. This was my first day and holy cow it was stressful. Those kindergartner's take a lot out of you.

Katie had already asked me not to tell everyone that I was her mom. She said it would be way too embarrassing. Too bad! The teacher who introduced me made sure to point out that fact. :) So in the first group I lead (I lead 2), Katie sat in back and didn't raise her hand for anything. I had to call on her. But she did say I could come and volunteer again.

The good thing is that they already have all the supplies and activities lined up for you. I was assigned to teach a couple card games to the kids. We read a story about winter, talked about outside activities, inside activities and some fun things to pass the time in the winter...hence the card games. They were pretty simple games - war and old maid. (Of course you can't call them that...the PC names for the games were Top One and All But One. Yeah, I threw those out the window and went with War and Old Maid.)

After school I asked Katie if she thought I did a good job.
"Well, it went a LOT better than I thought it would go." said Katie.

"Well thanks. I was pretty nervous!" I answered back.

"Yeah. Me too. I thought for sure you'd mess it up."

Name that tune

So....can you name that tune?

January Thaw

It's above zero today for the first time in quite awhile. This week is actually supposed to get close to 30 so maybe it's time to break out the shorts.

It was a pretty quiet weekend here. Didn't do much or get much accomplished, but that can be good too. Will wore underwear yesterday for awhile...I think we made it 30-40 minutes before he wet himself this time. Last time we tried them he only went about 15 minutes. It's clear to me that he isn't ready yet; completely lacking the muscle control to 'hold it in'. Hopefully we'll get somewhere with it this spring/summer. ( I offered him a little garbage can to pee into and he was totally against that idea. )

Katie is in school today. I'm volunteering with her class on Thursday. I told Katie I was excited to meet her friends. She said that she'd rather I didn't tell anyone I was her mom cuz that would be too embarrassing. Yes, she's still only 5.

So I figure I'm gonna give her a big old kiss in front of everyone.

Friday Funny

I just couldn't help myself. I laughed OUT LOUD at this one.

I DO have friends. I swear.

Adios Holidays

We've taken down our Christmas tree and all the other decorations. Today I took down the Christmas cards that adorned our wall. We got about 40 this year. That's if your count the cards from our colleges and our insurance salesman. Oh, plus Katie and Will each got one from their dentist.

I thought I'd share one that made me laugh.




Thanks Wade and Donna Hogen. (For those of you that know them...you're saying to yourself, 'Yep. They'd send something like that.' :) )

Happy Birthday!

A happy birthday goes out to my brother-in-law, Jeff Mezera! Hope you get a good dinner out.

Kennedy Center Honors

Last week we were able to catch the Kennedy Center Honors on tv. Each year are awarded to a handful of people for exemplary lifetime achievement in the performing arts. It's always a good show with a wide variety of attendees.

For 2009, they honored Robert DeNiro, pianist and composer Dave Brubeck, singer Grace Bumbry, Mel Brooks and Bruce Springsteen. It was quite a good show and I thought I would share a couple of my favorite clips. The first clip shows Jon Stewart talking about Springsteen and a song sung by Sting. (This is about 8 minutes long.) The second is Eddie Vedder doing a Springsteen song. (About 2 1/2 minutes) Both worth your time. :)

Sandbakkels

On Sunday I took a crack at making sandbakkels for the first time. I got tins from my mother-in-law for Christmas. These are a Norwegian cookie that's a bit of a tradition in our family. My aunt Carol used to make these every so often, and so far no one has been able to replicate her perfect form. That is, til now. I think I've come pretty darn close. Another family tradition I revived while making these? Arthritis. It's HARD to press dough with your fingers for 2+ hours.

Press the dough paper thin...

...and out they pop 15 minutes later.

c'mon, this is darn near perfect.

A little history....Sandbakkels were one of many cookies prepared during the Advent season. Norwegians would serve cookies with a glass of wine at midday or with after-dinner coffee. Cookies such as sandbakkels became popular among the professional class, and were adopted by the peasant class much later in the 19th century. Some websites have suggested putting jelly or other filling in the middle, but that's pure blasphemy as far as I'm concerned. :)

I'll take a crack at lefse too...sometime this year maybe. I found a cute story about that too...

This version of Lefs's history was submitted by Jim Berg from Albert Lea, MN.

Now Den, vot you know bout dat....
Did you know that lefsa was invented by the norweigen Vikings...
Von day, dey vent and was going to raid Ireland.....
Vell they got over der, but they couldn't suprise dem
Irish people cause they were making too much noise coming across
the Nort Sea from Norway.
When they got to the shores of Ireland, they tried to land
But couldn't. You see the Irish heard them coming and began
throwing their potatoes at
them darn vikings so dat the cud not land. Vel by golly,
do you know vat. They load that ship with all the potatoes
dat got trowed at dem, pulled out their oars and finally got back
to Norway. When they got there they played aroung with those
potatoes and came up with a bread, and called it LEFSA.
They had a big party that night, day got out that old foul smelling
fish and put it on Lefsa and that is where the Lutefisk Supper vas
born...........My Grate, Grate, Grate, Grate, Granfodder was on that
ship that raided Ireland.
I'm sure glad they brought it to America other wise we would not have
Lutefisk Suppers Today.

My Lena makes the best darn lefsa in Minnesota. Corse I have to help
otherwise she'd eat it all up while she was cooking it and we would not have
any for supper that evening....

I'm sure glad they have Lutefisk Suppers around Thanksgiving and Christmas every year.
My mother Palma, made all the lefsa by herself. They wern't very round,
but then she always said you could not taste the round......
Your Friend.......... Ole

CEDAR RAPIDS — The buzzer rang, and the Waukon Indians stripped.

Off came the black uniform tops. Revealed were white tank tops. (Which they had made to surprise Coach Klinge)

On the front: “939 WINS.”

On the back: “CONGRATS COACH.”

Gene Klinge became the winningest girls’ basketball coach in state history after Waukon defeated MFL MarMac, 48-38, last night as part of Rivalry Saturday at the U.S. Cellular Center.



Congratulations to Gene Klinge and ALL the girls on Waukon's basketball team. (Especially Sarah!)

A visit with the Sorums

Over Christmas the Sorum family from Washington state came back for a visit. John and Scot have known each other since elementary school and were roommates in college. I'm still hearing new crazy stories from their Iowa State days. We've been out to see them a few times and whenever Scot comes back to Iowa to visit his family we try to hook up. Now we all have kids so it's fun to see them interact.

Last Wednesday night we all went to the Mall of America, ate supper and walked around a bit. The kids all got along well and had to say goodbye too soon.

From left to right: Will, Katie, Madison, Mackenzie and Deb (Scot's wife).

Madison, Scot, Will and Katie

Happy 2010!

Hey everyone - Happy New Year!

So did you stay up til midnight last night? Funny, but those new year's have a way of showing up whether you ring them in or not. I offered Katie the option of drinking some juice out of a champagne glass, but she was not into it so we didn't even do a countdown at 8:00. Fine with me...last year she was running around the house for a good 2 days shouting "HAPPY NEW YEAR!"

John and I stayed up til midnight, if you can believe it. This was our 11th New Year's Eve together. We've only gone out 1 year, otherwise we're parked in front of the tv. We got a couple invitations to people's houses last night, but staying home is just fine too.

I wouldn't have been able to stay up, but we watched the new Star Trek movie. I am far from a 'trekie', but that movie was freaking awesome! If you are even remotely interested in the original Star Trek, I advise you to see this movie.

Hmmm...2010...what do I want to accomplish this year? What are my resolutions? I honestly don't know. Make it to 2011 seems like a good start. Get Will in a big boy bed....hopefully potty trained...cut Katie some slack...be a more flexible person. (Not literally...I can touch my toes, that's good enough for me.)

So now it's your turn....what are your resolutions? What do you hope 2011 brings for you?