A Day In The Life

Movie Night.....

2012-01-28T19:24:00.001-06:00

Some nachos, some popcorn, a movie and a dog who is just hoping you drop something. Looks like a perfect movie night to me!

Basketball, basketball and more basketball...

2012-01-18T21:14:00.002-06:00

We've lived and breathed basketball just about everyday since January 1. Between in-house league practice and games as well as travel team practice and tournaments, we're either at a gym or we are sleeping. I love it!! The travel team (pictured) is such a good group of kids and their parents are all so much fun as well. This is the first year these boys have all played together and they are shocking us all. It is just so much fun to watch them! They have won two championships and two third place trophies. Looks like I'll be adding another shelf in Colton's room!

Dinner With My 5 Year Old

2012-01-09T20:52:00.001-06:00

Since Colton and Mike were at basketball practice, it was just the youngest and me for dinner tonight. I'm not sure how this conversation started or how it jumped all over the place, but I just had to share.

Brett: Mom, did you know that when you are a grandma, you'll still be my mom?
Me: I know. Cool huh?!

Me: Are you going to want me to live close to your kids like Grandma Claudia or far away like Grandma Sue?
Brett: Probably far away like Grandma Sue.
Me: Really? (So not the answer I was expecting). Why?
Brett: So that way my kids can play a lot of video games on the way to your house.
Me: What if they don't like video games?
Brett: Oh, I guarantee they will.

Brett: When you are a grandma and you and dad move away, you'll have to call me and tell me where you went.
Me: Deal.

Me: So, do you have a girlfriend?
Brett: No, I broke up with all of them.
Me: How do you know about 'breaking up?'
Brett: That's what they say on T.V.
Me: Huh. So, did you tell all your girlfriends that you broke up with them?
Brett: Nope. Because I never even told them they were my girlfriends.

Love this kid!

5 Minutes of Brotherly Bliss...

2012-01-03T20:35:00.003-06:00

Brett received a snowboard from Santa this Christmas. On New Year's Eve we finally got a little bit of snow. The morning of New Year's Day, the boys were running out the door determined to teach Brett how to use this contraption. I watched from afar and saw my adorable boys work together to accomplish something. I quickly grabbed my camera and snapped a few shots.

Colton was helping Brett get his feet situated:

"Hold my hand Brett...." (sooooo cute!)

And they're off!!

Not to fool you that my boys get along for long periods of time, approximately 8 minutes after these pictures were taken, Brett came back inside saying he was done because, "Brother took my goggles and I can't snowboard without them."

2012...

2012-01-01T20:48:00.001-06:00

I almost forgot how to long into this thing. It's been awhile!

Here it is. The beginning of a new year. A time to reflect on all that has happened the past year and what your hoping for in the next year.

I'm not a resolution maker. However, this year, I've got a few goals for myself as well as for my family.
For some reason, if I throw them out there for the public, I feel a bit more obligated to stick to them. Wrong or right, it is what it is.

The family goal for 2012 is to focus on needs vs. wants. This goal is two-fold. The first is to focus on all that we've been blessed with and to be thankful for all that we have. This message was loud and clear to me when we were all watching The Blind Side over Christmas break and in the movie, Big Mike shares with LeAnn that he's never had a bed before. Colton just couldn't believe it ~ that this truly happens in today's world. It was an eye opener to me that we need to spend some time in 2012 helping/encouraging/supporting those that aren't as fortunate as we are. The second is to not spend money just to spend it. We do alright for ourselves, but aren't swimming in Benjamin's in our indoor pool (no we don't really have an indoor pool). I'm great at going to Target to get a few things like toilet paper and lettuce, but then walking out with 2 books, some new pens (when I've already got 36 in the drawer) and some things for the boys because I know they will love it. My husband on the other hand does really well avoiding the day to day purchases, but is more of an impulse buyer on big ticket items. Thankfully we're both on the same page for this goal.

I have a couple of personal goals for 2012.

My first is the standard goal that 99.9% of females have; eat less and move more. I have some great girlfriends that are all on the same page as me and we've got our own little program that kicks off tomorrow. Yee-haw! If you are interested, I strongly suggest the iphone app - Myfitnesspal. It helps you track your daily calorie intake and exercise.

My second is to get and stay organized in 2012. I spent a majority of this weekend clearing out closest. I went through my bathrooms and realized that I had 7 bottles of sunscreen. Seriously?!! I also cleaned out my spices and have to admit that I had many duplicates and containers that expired in 2008. Oops.

My third goal, which is a combination of goal 1 and goal 2, is planning out meals. This helps avoid any last minutes take-out orders or pizza calls (helps save $ for family goal and helps with lbs for personal goal). I've got the first week of meals planned out. Our schedules are crazy with basketball for the oldest 3-5 times/week plus wrestling practice for the youngest and school work on top of that.

And last, but not least is to facebook less and blog more.

Here's to an AWESOME 2012!

Daddy's Helper...

2011-09-11T21:28:00.002-05:00

Hut Hut...

2011-09-11T21:20:00.003-05:00

Being in 4th grade means you get to play tackle football. Colton couldn't be more excited. Me on the other hand couldn't be more nervous. Don't get me wrong. I really enjoy watching football. However, I don't enjoy the thought of my offspring being knocked unconscious, breaking a bone, etc. We've got 2 weeks of practice and one scrimmage under our belt and so far so good. There isn't an injury to report.
Here's a few pictures from this past Saturday: Doing some warm-up drills. My kid is the one with the skinny legs. He gets that from his dad.

Kind of hard to pick him out so I thought I'd help you out. Defense is his favorite. I asked why he couldn't just be a kicker. He told me that was boring. Can't blame me for trying.

Here he is carrying the ball - into a sea of kids that want to knock him down. Lord help me.

First Day of School....

2011-09-11T21:02:00.004-05:00

Like all the other parents out there sending their kids off to school, I too think, we're did the time go?

Colton is starting 4th grade. His last year at the elementary school. I keep telling him that I have vivid memories of 4th grade and that is seems impossible that I'm sending one of my own into 4th grade. The morning of the first day, you told me that you weren't really that hungry because you were just so excited. I love that you love school! My baby. Entering kindergarten. Wow. You are so proud and I love it. You had it in your mind that you were wearing a mohawk on the first day. Lucky for me, I was able to tame it down before we got to school to take your pictures. You love that you get to wear a backpack, ride the bus and have school friends like your big brother. It's been a week of school now and you haven't stopped smiling when people talk to you about kindergarten.

Family Vacation...

2011-09-04T18:49:00.003-05:00

A few weeks ago we took the boys camping at Jellystone in Wisconsin Dells. To say we had a blast would be an understatement. We spent a day and a half at Noah's Ark riding all the water slides. Not sure who had more fun there, Mike and I or the boys! The campground was great. We stayed in a tiny one room cabin that had bunk beds for the kids and a bed for the adults, a small table, a dorm fridge and a microwave. It work great as the weather was wonderful and we were only in our cabin to sleep. There was mini-golf, activities for the kids on the hour every hour and nice lounge chairs at the pool for me.

So.Much.Fun.

Currently...

2011-08-21T18:10:00.002-05:00

I got this idea from Jenny over at stickyfeathers. We got back from a family vacation at about midnight last night, I'm up to my eyeballs in laundry and thought a mindless post is in order.

loving: My vacation weather. Nothing but sunshine and 80 degrees!!
pondering: Watch a movie tonight (The Kings Speech) or catch up on blogging, facebook and Words w/Friends. (I know. Lame.)
reading: The Help - well, technically I just finished it today
anticipating: School starting. 4th grade and kindergarten ~ how can it be???
cursing: All the calories I've consumed on vacation.
wearing: shorts and a t-shirt. No make up worn since day one of vacation...I look a little frightening!
deciding: Where to buy new carpet for the family room.
hoping: I can get my to-do list done before Tuesday.
planning: My upcoming weekend
dreading: Tuesday - back to work
wishing: That the money tree in my backyard would start growing.

The 5 Year Pictures...

2011-08-13T18:37:00.004-05:00

I attempted to take Brett's 5 year pictures today. Never mind that he's been 5 for a month and a half. He really, really , really wanted to wear his new hat in his pictures so I figured why not. After about the first 5 minutes, the kid was workin' it. "Mom, how about I stand here and do this. Mom, what about this. Mom, that was really fun."
We had a great time and managed to snag a couple cute pictures. Here's just 4 of the 74 we took today.

5 Things....

2011-08-10T20:56:00.004-05:00

5 Things that have kept me busy this week (other than work and kids).

1. Our front porch has been bugging me since winter. As you can see in the 2nd picture, we had a railing with spindles. This winter, one of the kids was snowboarding down the hill on the side of our house and ran into the porch snapping one of the spindles so it's looked really classy over the past 7 months. Apparently on Sunday I had had enough and grabbed Mike's tool box and some tool and started wrenching on the mile long screws that held it into place and after about an hour of sweat and a few choice words, I got all the pieces off.

Here's what it looked like before. Don't be distracted by the band Naked Bacon that was performing in our front yard.

It's still in need of some work. I'll be borrowing my father-in-law's pressure washer and applying a nice fresh coat of paint. I was very happy when I called the city to see at what height railings are required and mine is low enough to not need them ~ yeah!

2. Still in the "clean this place up" topic, I gutted out Colton's room. I threw away so much stuff and reorganized everything else. It took me 2.5 hours, but it.looks.awesome! Luckily for me, Colton wasn't around to say, "no, don't throw that, I play with it all the time" with the million and six things he hasn't touched in years.

3. We are taking a little vacation to the Dells soon and the kids are excited! We are staying in a cabin that provides a whole lot of nothing, so I've been busy making a list of all the things we need to pack including meal plans for each day. I love doing this kind of stuff. I've got a great spreadsheet started with multiple categories. I'm so type A!

4. I'm helping again this year with Vacation Bible School. I've been busy attending prep meetings over the past few weeks. I think this is my 4th year helping out. I've been upgraded from leading kids from station to station to heading up the crafts station. Nothing like young kids, glitter and glue!

5. Words with Friends. Need I say more? I'm loving this game. Currently I've got 10 games going and two of those are with random people that the game hooked me up with.

What's keeping you busy this week?

Photo Printing...

2011-08-05T18:42:00.002-05:00

I'm overwhelmed. I have a bazillion pictures on my computer. I download them off my cameras, might do a little editing and then they sit. I haven't printed pictures since early 2010. Ugh.
I had a notebook of all the folders that I printed pictures from in an effort to not duplicate print orders (which I may have done a time or two). Not sure where that notebook is. Great.
Do you print your pictures regularly? If so, where do you do it - online, at home, bring your card to Target?
I have no idea where to start. I'm thinking I'm going to start with the most recent and work my way back. I think I'll start tomorrow.

Back To Blogging.....

2011-08-04T19:57:00.002-05:00

I used to blog regularly. Looking back, I would post a few times a week. Now I'm lucky if I get one post done in a month. I blame that on a few things - working full time, raising 2 busy boys, summer and Facebook. Yes, Facebook. That lovely vortex that sucks away my time. It's much easier to post a sentence than to compose a paragraph or two.
However, I'm coming back. I am going to make a commitment to myself to blog at least twice a week. It might not be a lengthy post and it may not include pictures, but my intent from the beginning is to capture moments of life to look back on down the road.
You in?

Happy 5th Birthday!

2011-07-09T21:28:00.004-05:00

My sweet boy. We are so lucky to have you in our lives. This past year, your personality and preferences have really shined through. You are incredibly witty ~ especially for a 5 year old! There isn't a day that goes by where you don't make us belly laugh. I adore that about you.

You can hold your own with your brother. The two of you can't be so angry with each other and then in the next blink of an eye you are snuggled up on the couch watching a movie.

You love lasagna, yogurt and french toast sticks with my special dip.
You are very polite.
You are such a boy. You love to get dirty, catch bugs and torment the dog.

Thank you for being an amazing boy and thank you for still wanting me to tuck you in at night. Happy Birthday buddy!

4 Wheels to 2 Wheels....

2011-06-19T15:20:00.003-05:00

Brett has been asking to take his training wheels off for a couple of weeks. The day finally came and he was so excited. At first. For being a little daredevil, he was extremely cautious when it came to trying to ride his bike. He wouldn't keep going fast enough to keep the bike up no matter how good Mike's pep talk was.

He mastered the "lean" and was trying really hard. See the tongue hanging out? That's when you know he's really concentrating.

He'd make it a few feet and then just stop pedaling. We all know what happens when you stop pedaling and don't put your feet down.

You got it. Wipe out. A handle bar to the ribs.

And he's done. He wouldn't get on the bike again after that. He wanted his scooter.

Guess we'll try again another day.

Daredevil...

2011-06-19T15:15:00.001-05:00

Let's Play Ball.....

2011-06-19T15:00:00.002-05:00

This is what we've been up to every Monday and Wednesday evening since the end of April. Colton is loving baseball this year. It's more competitive and the kids are pitching.

Here's Colton warming up. Right after I took this picture, he looked at me, shook his head and said, "geez Mom, really?!"
Here he is playing first base. One of his favorite positions.

Here he is pitching. His favorite position and my most stressful position. I get so nervous that he's going to hit somebody (which he has) and more afraid that he's going to get drilled by the batter (which thankfully he has not).

Playoffs start next week. Go Blue Jays!

Brothers....

2011-05-07T18:20:00.004-05:00

On Easter I attempted the near impossible feat of getting a decent picture of my boys together. When they both are dressed somewhat decent and when they are both looking at me with an unforced smile.
Here they are posed by the tree in the front yard. Then a distraction. A car driving by and they both say cheese while turning their head to see who's going to catch them looking all dorked out. Then boredom sets in. Colton is clearly annoyed and Brett's making faces to entertain himself.

I must have said something hilarious (as I'm one to do) as Brett is laughing while Colton is attempting to remain composed as he wouldn't want me to think that he thinks I'm funny.

And here it is. I love this picture of them. This is who they are and I love them to pieces.

Can You Really Be 9???

2011-04-21T20:41:00.004-05:00

I cannot believe you are already 9 years old. I never understood what my parents were saying when they told me, "the older you get, the faster time goes." Now, I get it.
What an amazing kid you are. You are so smart. You are so witty. You are so sensitive. You are so boy. You have no idea how much I love you! Happy Birthday buddy! Mike and I made a decision when we started having kids that we'd have family only parties until the kids were school age. Then we'd have a family party and a kid party. When Colton turned 6 in kindergarten, we gave him a choice. If you want to go somewhere for your birthday and have your party, then you don't get a gift from mom and dad. If you choose to have a party at home, then you get a gift from mom and dad. Maybe we are harsh, but those destination parties aren't cheap! I will tell you that every year since his 6th birthday, he as always chosen a destination party. This year was GrandSlam.

These are some of his closest buddies. They are a great group of boys.

Laser Tag was the hit of the party. They went in with team strategies and came out sweating and replaying every twist and turn and shot taken. Of course their team always won no matter what the scoreboard said.

Off to the bumper cars. I have never heard a group of nine year old boys giggle so much.

The hardest part of the day? Trying to figure out what trinket to cash all their tickets in for.

Last but not least, the birthday cake. Colton requested a baseball cake this year. I have so much fun creating the birthday cakes. I have overheard him bragging to his friends, "you should see the cakes my mom makes. She's better than the store." Thanks bud!

Guess Who?

2011-04-01T20:24:00.003-05:00

This is Brett's new obsession. Guess Who. In both the Superhero version and the "reg-le-ur" version. We don't just play the best out of three. It's more like the best out of 37. Watch out. He's pretty good!

PS - don't mind the uncovered outlets. I removed them for painting and they've since been covered up.

Face Lift.....

2011-03-12T15:45:00.003-06:00

It took us 9 years, but we finally updated our kitchen counters. When I was trying to find an "old" picture to compare the counter tops, I realized I've done an exceptional job at avoiding taking any pictures of my kitchen. I had to dig back to Colton's 6th birthday in 2006 to find one.
We went from a lovely country blue laminate: to Yorkshire Brown granite. I.love.it.

I painted the kitchen Behr's Pale Honey right before the counter tops were installed.

Did you all see that faucet? I put that in and hooked it up myself. That's right. I didn't sustain any injuries except for a butt cramp as I was curled up under the sink. My boys were quite impressed. Now it's onto the living room to finish painting.

Basketball Season

2011-02-18T21:30:00.002-06:00

I took full opportunity of Colton "letting me" coach his basketball team this year. I'm guessing next year it won't be cool to have your mom hanging out with you so much. I'm actually co-coaching as I'm 110% certain I couldn't handle 12 eight and nine year old boys on my own.
We have a great group of kids on the team with the widest range of skills that you can imagine. Colton is #19 in the white - the one with the ball. Last Saturday I attempted to coach and take pictures. Not the greatest idea since just about all of the came out blurry as I was attempting to multi-task. Oh well.

I'm really enjoying this season and can't believe that we only have 2 games left!

Valentine Treats....

2011-02-08T10:16:00.004-06:00

I wanted to do something a little different than the standard piece of candy and card for Brett's Valentine's day party at daycare. I saw an idea on one of the blogs I frequent and thought it was perfect!

All you need:
bottles of water
paper
stickers / markers
straws
individual drink mixes (I used Target brand sugar-free grape mix)
tape

I put little labels on the drink mixes making them "love potion"

Brett is beyond himself with excitement to give these to his friends.

9 Days Left.....

2011-02-05T15:17:00.002-06:00

Wow. I can't believe it's been almost 1001 days since I created my 101 in 1001 list. Clearly I will not accomplish all that is left in the next 9 days, but figured I should see how close I came.

I try to keep up with the latest in the blog world. I realize I'm a little behind on the "newness" of this concept, but none the less, here's my list of 101 things to do in 1001 days. I created the list on Monday, May 19th, so 1001 days from then will be: February 14, 2011
1. go camping
2. scrapbook Brett's first year (DONE)
3. give up soda for 30 days
4. print and organize photos (DONE)
5. buy bedroom furniture (DONE)
6. get a pedicure (DONE 7/24/08 - 30th b-day gift from Angie)
7. drink 3 glasses of water every day for 30 days (30/30) (DONE)
8. take the boys to see their great-great grandmother (DONE 6/5/08)
9. have a party for no reason
10. go sliding (DONE 12/26/08 +)
11. reach and maintain my goal weight (DONE)
12. take the boys to the beach (Done July 2010)
13. replace kitchen counter tops (DONE - well at least they are ordered now)
14. participate in a cookie exchange (DONE 2010)
15. surprise husband with something he'd love (DONE)
16. perform a random act of kindness (DONE)
17. update bathroom flooring
18. install garbage disposal (it's going to happen once the new sink is in)
19. read one book per month for four consecutive months (4/4) (DONE Aug '08)
20. try a new recipe once a month for 8/12 months (DONE)
21. complete front landscape project (DONE 5/31/08)
22. pay off Mike's student loan (DONE 11/09)
23. visit a winery (DONE 10/6/08 - Door County)
24. buy a bike and use it
25. paint my bedroom (DONE)
26. get a massage (DONE 11/18/08)
27. vote (DONE 11/4/08 - Obama!)
28. buy a new computer (DONE 10/24/08)
29. do at least one load of laundry every day for 2 weeks (DONE)
30. visit a state park (DONE 7/24/08 - Tettegouche)
31. make a gingerbread house (DONE)
32. have a girls weekend (DONE 8/1- 8/3/08 - Di's Cabin)
33. start a salsa garden (DONE 6/09)
34. potty train Brett (DONE 7/09)
35. clean the inside of my car once a month for six months (DONE 6/6)
36. watch a movie in a theater (DONE - Alice in Wonderland 3/10)
37. take a class through community education (DONE 3/09)
38. compile family tree (DONE)
39. do not eat out for one month
40. buy myself flowers (DONE)
41. download 15 new songs on my ipod (DONE)
42. don't eat after 7:30 for 2 weeks (DONE)
43. give up tv for one week/7 days
44. visit 3 states with the boys (DONE)
45. find the perfect bra (DONE - 7/23/08 - actually found 2!)
46. have a pro teach me what make-up to wear and how to apply it
47. volunteer for 3 school activities (3/3) (DONE)
48. arrange a progressive dinner
49. visit the Children's museum (Done 2/22/09)
50. look into hiring a maid (Done - too expensive)
51. update work wardrobe (DONE)
52. send a hand written letter to somebody (DONE July '08 to G.Gram)
53. update family photo
54. make cookies with the boys (DONE Halloween cookies 10/11/08)
55. get a manicure
56. jump in the leaves
57. plant a lilac bush
58. buy a watch
59. take a day off of work for no reason (DONE)
60. have a garage sale (DONE 6/09)
61. visit a farmer's market
62. plan 1 week's worth of dinners ahead of time once per month for 1 year (DONE)
63. go fishing
64. swim in the ocean (DONE January 2011)
65. take a photography class (DONE 11/20/08)
66. blog 20/30 days in one month (30/30) (DONE 11/09)
67. go to a concert (DONE 11/19/08 Jason Mraz)
68. listen to a book on CD (DONE - The Shack)
69. deliver baked goods to the neighbors (DONE 9/15/08)
70. go to a nice restaurant with my husband (DONE 9/10)
71. go 30 days buying only the bare necessities
72. have a squirt gun fight with the boys
73. watch a parade (DONE 6/15/08)
74. make sushi rolls
75. ride on a roller coaster (DONE)
76. beat Mike at rummy
77. attend a wine tasting event (DONE 3/08)
78. fly a kite
79. go ice skating
80. buy a set of good knives (Done - however I got them as a gift 12/08)
81. go to a Twins game (DONE 5/09 vs Red Sox)
82. organize recipes (DONE 10/10)
83. make campfire smores (DONE 7/4/09)
84. take the stairs at work every morning for 60 days (60/60) DONE
85. buy new bedding (DONE 10/25/08)
86. organize family room closet (DONE 8/29-30/08)
87. get Brett into "big boy" bed (DONE January 2009)
88. stain the deck
89. take the kids to the zoo (DONE 7/21/08, 8/17/08 - Como Zoo)
90. skip rocks (DONE)
91. make my bed in the a.m. 50 times (DONE)
92. eat breakfast everyday for one week (DONE)
93. experience the day after thanksgiving shopping (DONE 11/28/08)
94. organize Brett's closet (DONE 8/31/08)
95. organize Colton's closet (DONE 9/1/08)
96. buy a pair of shoes that I love (DONE)
97. help plan a family reunion (DONE July 18 09)
98. call a friend just to chat once a month for a year (DONE)
99. volunteer to help with VBS (DONE August 2008, 2009 & 2010)
100. go to an amusement park (DONE) 1
101. visit another country (DONE January 2011)

Looks like I've got 22 left. Guess it's going to be a busy 9 days!!

Vacation....Final Day

2011-01-23T16:36:00.002-06:00

It was cold. And windy. And the boat was rocking. I'm not talking a little wave here and there. I'm talking full blown HUGE waves to the point when we were learning the Thriller dance steps everybody on stage would lose their balance and we'd all tumble to the side. At this point in time, the rocking didn't bother me. I actually found it quite funny watching everybody trying to walk a straight line. After some bingo and trivia, a few of us made our way to the farewell party really having no clue what it would be like. They caught our attention with their advertising of free drinks. Let me tell you, the boys took full advantage of this event!

We hung out, gambled and then were sitting around waiting for dinner at 8:15. At this point, the sun had set and the boat was still rocking. Now that I couldn't see outside, I was starting to feel a little "off." I kept not trying to think about it. Figured mind over matter and I'd be fine. Then I started noticing that they were putting puke bags by all the elevators. Ugh. About 5 minutes before dinner I stood up, looked at everybody and said, "I've got to go, see you later." I couldn't take it anymore. I never got sick, but let me tell you that laying down felt like heaven. I didn't move the rest of the night ~ I was out cold.

Other than the last night, we had such an awesome time. I would go on a cruise again in a heartbeat!

Vacation Day 4....

2011-01-15T08:35:00.004-06:00

My favorite day of the whole trip. Mexico! Our ship landed in Cozumel at about 8am and we off for fun in the sun shortly thereafter. The weather was perfect! We ended up paying one of the hotels $13 each to use their beach and pool. $10 of the $13 was eligible for food and drink credits which was right up our alley.

We spent the day lounging...

and snorkeling.

A few of us hit up Fat Tuesday's for lunch, cerveza's and frozen drinks.

By 4:30 we were back on the ship. What a fun day! Little did I know that I was stung by a jellyfish. I don't remember it hurting and nothing really showed up for two days. However when we were zipping through the Dallas airport, I remember my carry on hitting my bu-thigh area (you know the area where your butt and your thigh meet) and thought, whoa, that hurt. But I thought it was perhaps my book corner. Nope. Once we got home that night I checked things out. Two huge welts. On to google I went to search for pictures of jelly fish stings. Question answered. I'll spare you a picture of it and instead will close this post with a picture of the beautiful sunset leaving Mexico.

Vacation Day 3....

2011-01-15T08:17:00.004-06:00

I think I took only 5 pictures this day. Three of them were waterslide pictures of Mike, Nathan and Madison. The temperatures were in the high 60s and the wind was a bit breezy. I must have sat in about 20 different lounge chairs trying to find the warmest spot to sit. We hit up the hot tub, the track, the steam room and the gym. There was always plenty to do!

Apparently, I found some sun as proven by my little bit of a sunburn ~ oops.
We had the best waiter at our table. Zubin was from India. He was hilarious and kept us laughing all through dinner. Zubin wasn't afraid to tell you if you dinner selection was something you shouldn't try. He'd just say, oh, no, you do not want that. Loved it.

Vacation Day 2....

2011-01-12T21:00:00.003-06:00

The start of the day was quite comical. Mike and I were itchin' to get on the boat and decided we were just going to get a move on it and everybody else could catch up to us later. We were standing outside the hotel waiting for the shuttle 20 minutes before it was suppose to get there. My dad, and the other 6 were still driving to Alabama by the time Mike and I had a celebratory cocktail poolside.
Anyhow, back to the comical part. I got out of the shower and was walking towards my suitcase. I noticed something white behind the chair in the room and asked Mike if his T-shirt fell back there. Nope, wasn't his T-shirt. It was a nice big old pair of granny panties. AHHHH!! What the hell? The best part of the story? There were 2 Busch Lights left in the fridge too. I don't even want to know what happened the night before. Disgusting. I have to laugh or I'd probably puke.
The weather wasn't quite as warm as I was hoping for. The first evening we hung out indoors playing trivia and exploring the ship.
Mike and Rachel did karaoke but a couple old drunk ladies stole the show and all eyes were on them until their young little boy toy was escorted out by security.
Next thing we know we hear the captain telling us that we have a passenger that is needing to leave the ship (no it wasn't the boy toy). We had to wait for the coast guard to come right outside our room and take somebody away. Really, the dude didn't even make it 2 hours from departure.

Vacation Day 1......

2011-01-12T20:50:00.003-06:00

My dad and step-mom gave a wonderful gift to us this year. They purchased tickets for all of us to go on a 4 night cruise together. We went on the Carnival Elation which left out of Mobile, Alabama. Mike and I got into town on the afternoon of January 5th. By the time we got to our hotel we were ready to go find ourselves some dinner. We enjoyed some crawfish tails and oysters. A first for me!!
Unknown to us, the big daddy football bowl was in town and they were having a parade right where we were eating dinner. It's what I imagine Mardi Gras looks like, but about 50 times more calm. There were beads and moon pies everywhere!

A great start to our vacation!

Christmas 2010....

2011-01-12T20:32:00.003-06:00

I am finally getting around to posting a few Christmas pictures. It's been a very busy past 30 days, but looking forward to things slowing down a bit now that the holidays are over and we are back from vacation.
One of my 101 in 1001 days was to make a gingerbread house. I can cross that off the list. Actually I helped make two of them. One was foam and the other was a true gingerbread house. Here's the proof which includes my little elf helpers. We were up north with my mom and step-dad this year for the actual holiday. We spent lots of time outdoors building forts, looking for deer and riding the snowmobile.

I love the my nieces can beat up on my boys. It's good for them.

After about 314 attempts at getting a group of all the grand kids for my mom, I let them all strike a pose. Loving it.

Christmas morning with the boys wrapped up in their snuggies.

Checking out all their loot from the red suit guy.

The guys spent countless hours trying to master the new hunting game. The "older" boys stayed up until 2am trying to find some creature and were totally unsuccessful.

I'm pretty sure that I have a picture of at least one of my boys in this pose on the way home from a weekend of late nights, good food and great company.

Ralphie or Brett?

2010-12-30T09:09:00.005-06:00

Brett somehow discovered some old glasses that my mom had in some cabinet over Christmas. While not quite the same shape as Ralphie's, I thought there was a striking resemblance.

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-12-27T12:12:00.003-06:00

In an effort to try and get back into blogging, I'm going back to Thanksgiving. We decided to head down to Missouri this year to be with Mike's grandparents. Here's our Thanksgiving weekend via pictures:
There were many rounds of Uno Attack: Lots of time spent ganging up on dad/Uncle Mike:

We attempted to take a picture of Grandpa & Grandma with all the great-grandkids

Here's one with the more cooperative grandkids:

The day after Thanksgiving, we went with Mike's aunt & uncle to pick out their Christmas tree. It just seemed so weird to not wear a jacket and not see snow!

Brett was being quite the stinker this day and decided to go off on his own. This is how I found him:

He brightened up a bit when he saw Santa, but wouldn't go anywhere near him. In fact, he asked me to go sit on his lap and tell him what he wanted. Didn't happen.

It's A Wrap....

2010-11-23T19:52:00.002-06:00

I'm throwing in the towel on this whole one blog post a day thing. I already missed one day and quite frankly I've got a million and two things that need to get done each day and by not having to do this every day, I'm down to a million and one. I gave it the ol' college try.

Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving everybody!

Menu Monday.....

2010-11-22T19:16:00.003-06:00

If you read my last post, you'll see that I started my holiday baking. I came across a new recipe this year and just had to try it. If you like puppy chow, you will love these cookies!

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cookie Treats (aka cookie crack)

1 pouch (1lb 1.5oz) Betty Crocker peanut butter cookie mix

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 tablespoon water

1 egg

Coating:

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1/4 cup peanut butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 - 2 cups powdered sugar

Heat oven to 375. In large bowl, stir cookie mix, oil, water and egg until soft dough forms. Shape dough into 1 inch balls. On ungreased cookie sheet place balls 2 inches apart. Bake 8 -9 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Cool completely - about 15 minutes. In small microwaveable bowl, microwave chocolate chips, butter and peanut butter uncovered on high for 1 - 1 1/2 minutes. Stir until smooth then add vanilla. Place powdered sugar in large ziploc bag - set aside. Place 12 cooled cookies in a large bowl. Pour 1/3 of chocolate mixture over cookies in a bowl. Using rubber spatula, toss cookies gently to coat. Place cookies in bag with powdered sugar; gently turn bag to coat cookies. Remove cookies and place on cooling rack to set. Repeat with remaining cookies.

Bullet Post....

2010-11-21T20:04:00.003-06:00

Whoops. Looks like I forgot to post on Saturday. Oh well, what's a girl to do?

A little weekend recap:

was awoken by my youngest at 6:45am on Saturday morning telling me that his belly hurt from all his "cough-is" (That's plural for cough to a 4 year old).
cleaned the kitchen and had 2 loads of laundry in the process by 7:45am
ate lunch at Cabela's. yeah, you read that right....
went shopping at Cost-co only to enter into operation abort your cart because it was so stinking busy in there it was ridiculous
came home and started my Christmas cookie baking only to realize once I started I didn't have enough eggs, nor did the neighbors. It all ended well, but had to run to the store since I left my eggs in the cart at Cost-co
awoke to glare ice and slid sideways in the car on the way to teach Sunday school
thanks to Mother Nature, shopping plans with a girlfriend had to change to a late lunch. still fun, but not as fun as some shopping would have been for us.
getting ready for a short but busy week

Thoughts For Thursday.....

2010-11-18T20:51:00.005-06:00

This year at work, I'm on a committee that is coordinating efforts to adopt families for the Christmas season. We had no idea how many families would get adopted as this year has been hard economically for many. To our surprise, we had to go back to the county and get more families as the initial 20 families were all adopted within 5 days.

I was lucky enough to have the list of all the families needs and wants and asked my oldest child to read through them. I didn't have to say a word about the types of things the kids on the list were asking for. He just looked up at me and said, "wow."

It really puts things into perspective when 14 year-old boys are asking for sweatshirts, shoelaces and chocolate for Christmas instead of Ipods, gaming systems and Lego kits that sell for $50+.

I'm really excited to be adopting a family this year. It gives me goosebumps every time I think about it to know that the employee's I work with are helping over 100 people have a brighter holiday season.

Do you or your family have a tradition of giving back each Christmas?

Wordless Wednesday....

2010-11-17T18:58:00.002-06:00

2006 - Little did I know how much these boys would fight with each other and little did I know how much love they would show each other.

Kid Honesty.....

2010-11-16T20:02:00.002-06:00

The scene:
Mike driving his truck. Colton and Brett in the backseat. Mike making up a goofy song to pass the time in traffic. Mike gets done with his little tune.

Mike: Did you like my song?

Brett: Bad.

Mike: What? What do you mean bad?

Brett: Horrible. But I still like you.

Menu Monday....

2010-11-15T18:47:00.002-06:00

Crock Pot Stroganoff

1 1/2 pounds round steak cut in bite size pieces

3 small cans of mushroom pieces

1/2 stick of butter

1/2 medium onion diced

3 cans cream of mushroom soup

salt & pepper to taste

3/4 16oz container of sour cream

Combine all ingredients except sour cream. Cook on low for 8 hours. Add sour cream and heat through - about 20 minutes.

Serve on egg noodles

Making Pasties.....

2010-11-14T18:03:00.004-06:00

For as long as I can remember, my grandma would make pasties every winter. We would get our supply every Christmas. My grandma passed away over 2 years ago. My mom and I decided that this year, we were going to carry on her tradition.
Friday morning at 8:00 the process began. We chopped and diced until our arms hurt. When it was time for the crust. We hit a minor road block and might have used a few curse words. Then we got the giggles. Finally we figured out the right mix of flour, shortening and water to be able to roll it out without the crust being an inch thick.

Here they are getting ready to go into the oven.

The final product:

In the end, we made 41 pasties. Hope we made Grandma proud!

Answers.....

2010-11-13T15:31:00.002-06:00

Here's my answers to the questions left for me earlier this week.

1. From Libby: What is your favorite sport or athletic activity to do?
I would have to say walking or doing the Jillian workouts.

2. From Jill: What are your 3 guilty pleasures?
1. Peanut butter & cookie dough concrete mixers from Culver's
2. Rap music
3. ????

3. From Kim: What do you want for Christmas?
I would like my boys to get along for one week. No fighting, teasing, screaming....but, since that is completely unrealistic, I'm hoping for a watch.

4. From Jaci: What is your dream vacation?
Fiji - warmth, water, beaches = perfect.

5. From Marilyn: Would you rather be invisible or have the power to read minds?
Invisible - hands down. Would LOVE it!

6. From Jenny: What do you miss most about a) childhood, b) high school, c) college, d) life without kids?
a.)having no responsibilities except coming home for dinner when my mom yelled for me
b.)all the free time to spend with friends
c.)sleeping in, taking naps, happy hours and just living in a college town
d.)having money :)

Frugal Friday......

2010-11-12T19:34:00.003-06:00

I'm always looking for a deal and really hate to pay full price for almost anything. There are a lot of websites that I visit to help me find coupons, specials or free items. Here's a few:

www.thecoupongoddess.com
www.coupons.com
www.afullcup.com
www.fatwallet.com
www.retailmenot.com
www.couponingtodisney.com
www.couponcabin.com
www.dealseekingmom.com

I would love to hear what sites you visit ~ please share!

And The Winner Is......

2010-11-11T20:03:00.001-06:00

Congrats to Marilyn! She was randomly selected the old fashion way (names in a bowl) for the giveaway post.

I'm saving the answers to your questions for another day as right now I'm enjoying some time with my Mom.

Wordless Wednesday....

2010-11-10T20:42:00.005-06:00

This is one of my favorite pictures of Mike & Colton.
Colton was 3 years old and at his first Twins game. Little did I know how huge of a fan he'd become and how he would learn the stats of every player perhaps even better than his dad.

My Apple That Didn't Fall Far From The Tree.....

2010-11-09T20:25:00.001-06:00

A few weeks ago, Colton had a list of 25+ things to pick from to share with his reading group about a book that they had just finished. He picked to do a presentation.
I helped him do a little research about the topic and he got very engaged trying to gather every little bit of info he could find on crickets. He typed up his information and printed out a few pictures. He laid out all his work on the poster board and rearranged it about 12 times until he had just the look he wanted.
The next morning he admired his final product and thought perhaps there was a bit more he could add. I kept thinking to myself, "oh my gosh, he is me when I was his age." It made me smile a bit.
As if that wasn't enough to give me a little glow, this past weekend he had to do a project about the word "oak." He asked if me if I would help him create a Power Point presentation. Be still my heart!
He was just jazzed putting it together. His friend called to play and he told him, "not now, I'm working." Too funny. He shared his presentation with the class on Monday. When he came home he asked if he could make another Power Point just for fun.
If I didn't know before, that's enough proof for me that this kid is really mine.

Menu Monday.....

2010-11-08T19:52:00.002-06:00

This is one of my oldest child's meal favorites.

Potato Soup

6 cups peeled & cubed potatoes

5 cups water

2 cups chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped celery

3/4 cup thinly sliced carrots

1/4 cup butter or margarine

4 teaspoons chicken bouillon granules

2 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 12 oz can evaporated milk

3/4 cup bacon crumbles (optional)

3 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley (optional)

In a large crock-pot, combine the first 9 ingredients. Cover and cook on high for 7-8 hours. Add milk, bacon and parsley. Mix well. Cover and cook another 30 - 60 minutes until heated through.

Enjoy!

Giveaway....

2010-11-07T19:34:00.004-06:00

I'm going to "blog-lift" this right off my friend Libby's blog - thanks for the idea Lib!

I'm going to do a giveaway and all you have to do to qualify is to leave me a question in the comment section. I'll answer all the questions and then pick a random winner out of those that were submitted.

Best of luck to ya.

Oh, you have until the 8pm on Thursday to participate.

Random Photo.....

2010-11-06T18:38:00.003-05:00

Sometimes you just have to take the easy out. I saw this on another blog. You are supposed to look at your clock and note the time then go into you photo folders, find the picture that correlates to that time and tell the story of the photo.
So, for me it was 6:33. I found the 6th photo album and the 33rd photo. If you don't have that many photos in your particular file folder, then you can use one of the minute numbers to select your folder - meaning I could have used my 3rd folder instead.
This picture was from October of 2008. Brett and I were in his sandbox. There were so many Asian Lady Beetles around us that Brett began squishing them with his little finger.

Frugal Friday....

2010-11-05T17:24:00.002-05:00

For the rest of the Fridays this month, I intend to dedicate a post to ways in which I attempt to save money. I'm not sure this post will help you, but I was pretty excited when I did the math.

I had a coupon for $3 off 3 boxes of General Mills cereals. Last week Target had their GM cereals on sale for $2.50 each. $2.50 x 3 =$7.50 then I applied my coupon and my total was $4.50. I hadn't realized this at the time, but I had movie codes on two of the boxes of cereal which was enough to get one free movie pass valued at $12.00.
Using my girl math (more about that some other time), I'm up $7.50 at this point ($12 - $4.50). I'm actually getting paid to go to the movie theater!
Low and behold, I was flipping through one of those annoying coupon fliers that comes in our mail that never has deals for things other than oil changes and free cream cheese wontons for all the Chinese restaurants, but I came across a coupon for a FREE large popcorn at the theater valued at $7.00.
Again, doing my girl math, now I'm up $14.50 ($7.50 + $7)! After I pay the $5 per kid to get them into the movie, I'm up a whopping $4.50.
Guess where we're going tomorrow?

Thought For Thursday......

2010-11-04T18:29:00.003-05:00

I spent all day at a patient safety conference. For somebody that doesn't work directly with patients, it was very interesting and gave me quite an insight. This post has nothing to do with what I learned, but more about what I observed.
I'm guessing there were about 300+ people at this conference. There were speakers that are known across the country for their expertise. In my mind, people are quite privileged to be at this event and hear what these amazing people have to say. Apparently, not all people think the same as me.
Let me preface this by saying that I'm not against a one or two word comment to your table mates when you hear something that the speaker said that really resonates with you. Now, that I've got that out of the way...
Multiple times I witnessed and heard people having full conversations while a speaker was presenting. And these people were not even at the same table as me. I'm not sure if they thought that they were whispering or what, but for the love of God, either zip your lips or excuse yourself and have your little conversation out in the hallway. I find it completely rude and disrupting to the presenter and to all of us that are trying to pay attention.
Now, my question for all of you is, not whether you are a conversation participant, but has anybody ever had to tell you to pipe down or have you had to tell anybody to quiet down?
I wanted to say something to these people throughout the day, but I never did. I did however give them the stink-eye a few times. I did hear people "shush" the talkers a couple of different times which brought me a little joy. A look that I've really perfected being the mother of two boys.

Wordless Wednesday....

2010-11-03T19:05:00.003-05:00

Born Again - Cory Chisel & the Wandering Sons

Enjoy the music video of my talented cousin, Cory Chisel.

8 Things.....

2010-11-02T21:05:00.003-05:00

I'm in trouble. It's only day 2 out of 30 and I can't seem to come up with a good blog topic. So, I'll just share 8 things about me that you might not have known.

When I go up stairs, I find it close to impossible to not count them as I go up them. However, I don't feel the need to count when I go down them.
I can sing the French alphabet.
I have a bad habit of looking for split ends when I'm sitting at a red light.
A girl that lived with me (and 7 others) in college is now a professional wrestler (I realize that technically this one isn't about me, but it's a fun fact none the less).
I really don't enjoy having to talk to anybody for the first 30 minutes that I'm awake. Just ask my husband. Or my mom. Or my kids. I'm working on this though.
I can't curl my tongue - you know, make it look like a hot dog bun.
I played the trombone in my high school band. I was awful.
When I meet people for the first time, many times I don't even listen to their name when they introduce themselves because I know I won't remember it.

Menu Monday.....

2010-11-01T18:58:00.004-05:00

To help me get through the next 30 days of posting every.single.day. I'm going to have to use some themes to help keep my limited creative skills flowing.
So, I'm thinking that Monday's will be MENU MONDAYS where I'll share a recipe and possibly a few pictures if I remember to take them before I manage to eat all the food.

Without further ado, here's the first recipe.

PUMPKIN PANCAKES

2 eggs

1 1/4 cups buttermilk

4 TBSP melted butter

5 TBSP canned pumpkin

1/4 sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/4 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp allspice

a few drops of orange gel food coloring

Combine eggs, buttermilk, butter, pumpkin, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Use an electric mixer to blend ingredients. Add the dry ingredients and blend with mixer until smooth. Add just a few drops of gel food coloring until you get a nice orange color - it doesn't take much. Pour or scoop the batter onto a hot skillet 1-2 minutes each side.

BLACK CINNAMON SYRUP

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 TBSP flour

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup water

black food coloring gel

In saucepan, combine all ingredients except for the food coloring gel. Bring to a boil, stirring continuously. As it starts to heat, add in a little of the black food coloring. Allow it to boil for a few moments until the mixture has thickened. Remove from heat, allow to cool and put into a squeeze bottle.

I made these for the boys on Halloween morning. The loved them! They reminded me of a pumpkin muffin. Very tasty. I doubled the recipe and froze them 2 per ziploc bag for a quick breakfast whenever they want them. This recipe was courtesy of http://www.tidymom.net/

I decorated the first pancakes for the kids and then they wanted a chance to be the artist.

Enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T20:45:00.003-05:00

Halloween 2010. Colton came up with his own costume this year. I think he did a great job picking out his outfit! Here he is as the King of Pop: Here's my little Justin Morneau. After 25 costume ideas, this is what he ultimately chose.

This was the first year that Colton carved his own pumpkin from start to finish. He worked hard on that thing - switching tools, double checking his cutting with the pattern - he did such a great job.

Then there was this guy. He was more concerned about how his hair looked. As you can see, he went and gave himself a mohawk. Unknown to me, he left the water running with the drawn closed. Needless to say, there was an overflow in the bathroom that lead to watermarks on the ceiling in the basement. Ugh.

The picture is a bit blurry, but Colton's pumpkin is the owl and Brett's/mine is the face.

Hope you all had a happy and safe Halloween.

On another note, November 1st starts NaBloPoMo - one blog post per day for the whole month of November. I'll be giving it another go again this year. Wish me luck!

Family Time....

2010-10-24T18:27:00.002-05:00

This weekend was all about family. I stayed home with the boys on Friday since Colton didn't have school and Brett didn't have daycare. We stayed plenty busy. The boys watched Karate Kid (I caught bits and pieces in between loads of laundry and dusting), made wooden airplanes to paint and then it was on to making Halloween sugar cookies. I baked, they frosted and decorated. It was a mess as always, but they love to do it.
Next up was researching crickets. Yep, crickets. Colton has a presentation to do in his challenge reading class. I know more about crickets then I ever thought I would. He was so proud of his finished product. Can't wait to hear how it goes on Monday.
Mike's grandparents are in town from Missouri this weekend. I adore those two. They remind me so much of my paternal grandparents ~ it's wonderful.
Saturday was spent at Mike's parents visiting with them and letting the kids run wild, eating food and enjoying some good laughs. Sunday we were over at my sister-in-law's house. More time for the kids to run around and burn off some energy. The kids play so well together. Brett and Kyler are a year apart and could play cars and motorcycles until they crash from exhaustion.
Here's the younger two with their great-grandma. Nevermind the pizza sauce on Brett's shirt. He refuses to use a napkin if he's wearing clothes. Seriously.

Colton and Jadyn spend their time playing sports and video games.

The kids thought it was so cool that their great-grandma could roll her tongue and thought it would be a great idea to take a picture and of course I took advantage of the opportunity.

Weekends like these are my absolute favorite. No stress, no rushing from here to there, just being in the moment with family.

Fish Lips....

2010-10-16T21:09:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was the school's PTO carnival. The boys and I went up there to play for an hour before my volunteer shift started. I took a big risk in letting Colton stay with me while Brett went home with Mike. I was nervous letting my 8 year-old loose in the gym with 100+ other people, but we laid down the ground rules and luckily for me he was hanging out with one of the most well behaved kids I've ever met.
I gave Colton a bunch of tickets to play games with. At the end of my shift, I went to find him in the gym and saw him with this on his face.
Right when he saw me he turned to the side and started making fish lips. I couldn't help but to start giggling.

He was so pleased that this fish painting only used up 4 of his tickets!

Father Son Day.....

2010-10-03T13:00:00.002-05:00

At this very moment, Mike and Colton are entering the Twins game for a little father/son day. Colton is excited beyond words. Here the are all decked out in their gear.

This picture is blurry, but I love it! A little pre-game chest bump.

He was going to make a "Circle Me Bert" sign, but didn't want to carry it around so he opted for a little hair color instead.

Corn Maze....

2010-10-03T12:51:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I met up with some girlfriends and their kids to go to the corn maze. What a perfect day for it! The place had a petting zoo, a kids maze, hay rides and then a huge corn maze with the MN Twins logo. The goal was to find the 20 questions and if you got them all right, you'd be entered into a drawing for 2011 season tickets. Here's Marilyn, Jaci and our brood of kids attempting to answer a question. We gave up after about 6 as we had no clue. These trike/bikes were a huge hit in the kid play area.

Ahhh...the petting zoo. Gross slobbering barn animals that the kids chased, fed and loved. Thankfully for my issues with animal spit, they had a hand washing station nearby.

My boys getting ready for the wagon ride.

It was a fun time and the kids have asked when we get to go back!

100 Years.....

2010-09-20T13:52:00.008-05:00

The boys and I boarded a train (the first time for all three of us) on Thursday to begin our journey to Michigan to celebrate my great-grandmother's 100th birthday. We rode in style from St. Paul to Chicago with our own family sleeper car. Apparently, when you purchase a sleeper room you are in first class! What does that mean? Well, for us, it meant sitting in a more posh waiting room with a tv and couches (see photo below). It also meant "free" meals in the dining car and most importantly? It meant you can confine your rowdy children in a room where no one else can see them being naughty.

The experience on the train was great! Below is a picture of the lounge car. It's first come first serve. It was packed the entire ride to Chicago so we didn't get an opportunity to sit there at all which was a bit of a bummer.

The first couple of hours went pretty smoothly. Colton dove right into his homework and Brett kept himself busy with his activity book. I thought to myself - so far, so good. Then things took a little turn. After about 4 hours, the boys started getting antsy and annoying to both me and each other.

I tried to get Brett to take a nap. No luck. At least I could confine him to his "ceiling bed."

Whew. Time for lunch. The change of scenery for the boys was helpful.

We had a short lay over in Chicago before we boarded another train heading for Indiana. We didn't have our family room anymore so I was a bit nervous about how the kids would do with the general public. Thankfully they impressed me and the ride was only 1 1/2 hours. My mom and step-dad picked us up at the train station and we headed to my Great-Grandma's house in Michigan which was about 30 minutes away. The boys zonked out right away in the car. I got the boys settled in to bed and busted into a big ol' bottle of wine.

Friday was spent visiting, feeding the fish in great-gram's lake and a trip to Lake Michigan.

I think Minnesota's great lake got the shaft. Why are Lake Superior's beaches not white soft sand?!!

Saturday was the big party. We were able to get a few family pics in before we went out for dinner with the family that was able to be in attendance.

Gram picked out the location based on the fact that she like their burgers and chicken wings. It was an interesting location. The place was probably as old as she is, but she was right, the chicken wings were tasty!

So what does a 100 year old eat for her big birthday dinner? Chicken wings with hot sauce (I'm talking H-O-T) and a Miller Light. She rocks.

I'm so glad I got this picture of her. This is her chair where she sits most of the day until it gets too cold on her three season porch. I love that she is smiling and enjoying the company even though I'm pretty sure she didn't hear a thing anybody was saying as it's hard for her when there is more than one conversation going on at a time.

The boys and I headed home Sunday and spent all day on the train. I'm not kidding. All day. Other than a melt down by my youngest, the way home went much, much smoother.

Riding the train was a great experience and I'd gladly do it again.

Naked Bacon Band.....

2010-09-12T15:36:00.003-05:00

Colton's band had a gig at our house today. The band's been together for a week and they've practiced twice. It's just him and the two neighbor kids. They've all been friends since kindergarten. It.Was.A.Riot. They played about 6 songs with not one lasting more than 30 seconds.
I now share with you, pictures from the first ever Naked Bacon concert:

The crowds came by the masses:

Then this guy snuck on stage when the band went to write more songs:

Outtakes....

2010-09-06T10:38:00.002-05:00

Brett and I went out this morning to attempt to take his 4 year old pictures - never mind the fact that he turned 4 two months ago....we've been busy.
The whole process went fairly well. I did bribe him with an ice cream cone if he did a good job. I knew I could get about 20 minutes tops before he would lose interest and get irritated with me.
Here's a couple outtakes from the morning. Not really sure who he was about to fight here.

This was probably the last picture. He was getting antsy and wouldn't stay still. This is when I knew we were done whether I had a good picture or not.

In the end, he got his ice cream cone at 9:30 in the morning.

Action Filled Evening.....

2010-08-24T21:52:00.002-05:00

My sister-in-law had asked me to make a cake for my nephew's kid party on Wednesday. I finished 99% of it on Monday and was going to finish it up on Tuesday evening before she came to pick it up. I was running behind and the next thing I knew it was 5:15 and she was at my house. I had to put the arms on the cake (Spongebob), pack up the boys (they were staying at her house so that they could attend the party) and wrap up the gift. I was flying around the house like a mad woman!
All is fine and they take off and head home. Mike and I sat down to have dinner together when the phone rings. It's my sister-in-law. She left her truck open with the cake in the back. She went to bring it over to her neighbors house (where the party will be), took it out and realized that the dog had helped herself to a little birthday cake.
So, over she comes and we try and repair it as best we could. Luckily the dog didn't touch the top half. She ate one arm, took a big ol' bite out of Spongebob's pants and part of his leg. As we were working our magic, her cell phone rings. This is what I hear on my end of the conversation:
"For real?"
"No way."
"Shut up. Knock it off."
"A bump on his head?"
"The one on the front is from daycare."
"On the back of his head?"
"Which nephew?"
"The younger one?"
"You called the ambulance?"
"Let me talk to Colton"
"Colton, what happened?"
"OK, I'll be there in just a minute. Don't let them take Brett in the ambulance yet."

What is going on?!!!

Come to find out, the boys (my two and her one) where over by the bike jump by her house. Kyler didn't see Brett and he went over the jump. Kyler's pedal cracked Brett in the back of the head and he started bleeding. "Really bad" according to my brother -in-law. He and the neighbor weren't sure what to do so they called 911.
I called Mike right away who was on his way to a friend's house to help move some things. He takes off to Lisa's house and I hop in my car and follow Lisa (and the repaired cake) to her place. Mike gets a hold of my brother-in-law. By then the paramedics had arrived and said Brett was fine. Didn't even need stitches.
Mike cracked up as he drove up to the scene. Two cop cars with lights on, an ambulance, about 15 neighbors and my little Brett standing in the driveway with two police stickers in his hand with not a care in the world.
The sweetest part of the whole ordeal? Colton had blood all over his elbows from holding his brother, but he was also in tears. Mike asked what he was crying about. His reply? "I was just so scared for my brother."
I'd be okay if I never got one of those calls again.

60 Miles - Day 3....

2010-08-24T20:18:00.003-05:00

The final day. By this time we had already walked 43.2 miles. Only 17 miles to go. Piece of cake. Right?

The first 10 miles were painful. Painful. I think I had been compensating for my blisters on my right foot the day before and by doing so I really ticked off my knee. My body was angry with me, but I didn't care. I had to walk the last 7 miles. Lunch was at mile 10 and when we finally made it there it felt good to sit down. Well, at least to me. Marilyn thought it felt better to stand then sit.

I have no clue what happened at that 20 minute rest, but the next 5.5 miles flew by and then I saw this:

1.5 miles to go! That was it! I had done it!

The emotional closing ceremonies were held at the State Capitol. I doubt there was a dry eye in the crowd. All the walkers came in wearing our white victory shirts. Then all the survivors walked in wearing their pink victory shirts. Tradition is for the walkers to get down on one knee and hold up a shoe to honor the survivors. It was an amazing site.

A very special thank you to my wonderful family. They kept me motivated, forgave me for missing family time while I was out training and were very patient with me while I focused so much time fundraising. You boys are the best! I love you all!

I walk because I can. I walk because I cannot walk away. I walk because everybody deserves a lifetime.

60 Miles - Day Two....

2010-08-23T21:26:00.003-05:00

Ah. Day two of our 60 mile journey. As you can tell by the picture, it was a bit misty at 6:30 a.m. on August 21, 2010.

I was feeling pretty good at the start of day two. A little stiff, but a nice slow and steady start warmed up the ol' calves. We walked 23 miles this day. Twenty. Three. Wow.

Marilyn and I received a fabulous surprise at one of the cheering stations. Our friends Jaci and Jill and their brood of boys came to cheer us on. That definitely was the highlight of my day (thanks ladies)!

The last 4+ miles felt like 100. It was on a straight path and it felt like I could see forever with no end in sight. I'm pretty sure each leg weighed 100 pounds and each foot another 50. By the end of day two I developed a few more blisters.
I hit up the medical tent after dinner to have a few of them lanced (that's just the "technical" term for popped) and immediately felt better.

The second best part of the day? Sleeping on a mattress. The first night we roughed it and that totally blew. Those 1 inch mattresses were a little slice of heaven that night!

60 Miles - Day One......

2010-08-23T13:20:00.003-05:00

Friday August 20, 2010 we began our 60 mile journey to fight breast cancer. Opening ceremonies started at 7:00am. There were 2400 walkers ready to go. We started in Edina, cruised through Minneapolis and ended the day at Macalester College. 20.2 miles. The last 3 or so were up a nice steady incline.
The entire day was great. There were so many people at the cheer stations. Little kids handing out bracelets, mints, popsicles and candy. Survivors cheering us on with their signs. Such motivation!
Here we are at the start of Day One - full of energy and excitement. Here we are at the end of Day One. Smiling, sweaty and exhausted.

We were bussed to camp in Maplewood. Here's a few shots of our home away from home.

The showers:

Yes, those are semi-trailers with showers inside them. They were fantastic! Luckily Marilyn and I got done early enough during the day that we didn't have to wait in line.

The dining tent:

This is were we ate our breakfasts and dinners. The dinners were FABULOUS! This is also were we had the camp show every night which consisted of games, music and celebration.

The Rosemount football players volunteered their time to grab all of our gear and set up hundreds of tents.

This is the Remembrance Tent. While completely heartbreaking, it was something simply amazing. Inside were pictures of just a few 3-Day participants that lost their battle to breast cancer. There were also journals upon journals of people's message to the loved ones they have lost. Each city and their own white tent where you could write your personal message.

Each night the last walker into camp would raise the Never Give Up flag.

Day one was a memorable day despite the hour of rain and the fact that Marilyn and I missed a sign and took a wrong turn that added about 1 mile to our journey. I ended the day with just one blister which I consider very successful. The only downfall to the day? Having your tent neighbor (who was about 2 feet away) snore All.Night.Long!

Weekend Through Pictures....

2010-08-09T13:43:00.005-05:00

The boys and I headed up north this weekend. We had so much fun! We spent hours playing with the rocket launcher:

Brett attempted to go on the slip and slide....it didn't work out so well for him. He face planted and didn't go near it again:

Colton went down it a few times, but decided in the end, it was just too chilly!

The boys saw a doe with her three fawns in the backyard:

and thought they would be able to sneak up on them:

Friday night was the town's Relay For Life event:
The night ended with Grandpa and Grandma buying the kids ice cream cones:

On Saturday we headed to Duluth. My mom bought tickets for Walking With Dinosaurs. It.Was.Amazing! We all loved it. I wish I would have brought my camera in, but didn't think they'd allow photos. Bummer.

Before the show, we were lucky enough to catch a 700+ foot boat come through:

What a great weekend!

What Seemed Like the World's Longest Hair Appointment....

2010-08-02T20:01:00.003-05:00

I purchased my first Groupon a few weeks ago. I paid $15 for a $30 offf coupon at a local hair salon. I made an appointment for Sunday afternoon. I thought it would be nice to sit back and enjoy some hair TLC after my long training walk. Hair cut and hi-light, here I come.
As I walked in the door, I did a quick eye scan of the staff. My eyes went right to a gal that appeared to be about 58 or so with 80's permed hair who was trying to look and act about 25. Please not her. Please.
I check in at about 1:45 for my 2:00 and said lady comes running up, "Oh, you must be Leah." Damn.
I tell her what I what done. All one color underneath, a touch up on the hi-lights and low-lights and a trim to freshen up the edges. Not all that complicated right?
Right away she asks one of the other stylists to come over to get an opinion. I can appreciate that as she's doing a double check. Out she comes with 2 bowls of color and a handful of magazines.
Here's where I should mention that I prefer not to talk while getting my hair done. I talk all day long and here is where I like a little peace and quiet. She can tell I'm reading, but she keeps asking me questions. I answer in short responses and continue on catching up on the latest from The Jersey Shore.
As she is coloring my hair, she is making comments like, "Oh, this is my favorite thing to do. I love to do color. You have so much hair. Your hair is so healthy. My manager at the other location talked me into going to beauty school." On and on.
So she finishes up with the color and foils and conveniently forgets to move the hair out of my face until I do it myself and then she says, "Oh, yeah, I bet you can't even see can you?"
I'm sitting there for about 20 minutes or so. She's checking the progress every now and again and then the other stylist comes walking over. My stylist kept saying, "she's processing well." No comment from the other gal. I think to myself, oh crap - this isn't good.
Next thing I know, the other stylist comes out with a bowl of something and starts applying it to different sections of my hair. Again, my stylist feels the need to comment about how well it's processing. Still no comment from the other gal.
Time to go back to wash out the color. As I'm getting to my seat the other stylist comes out with yet another bowl of something. They rinse out the color and apply this horrible smelling stuff that later I find out is toner because I'm pretty sure I had a nice shade of ORANGE in my hair.
My stylist went to go help a customer and when she was out of ear shot the other gal (who was working out the toner) says to me, "Sorry, she's still a little new." Awesome.
To make my long story even longer.....
The cut goes fine. Doesn't take very long and so far I can't see anything wrong with it. Blow dryer comes out. She's got that sucker on at about 425 degrees and it's hot. Really hot. She seemed to forget how to move the stupid thing around until I had to start moving my head before my scalp started on fire. At this point I was done. I wanted to get out of the chair, pay and get myself home.
But, no.
She insisted on straightening it about 1/2 an inch at a time. She started this process at about 4:00. At 4:25 she was still not done and made the comment, "I should have you out of here by 5:00. Are you okay, you look uncomfortable." "Just getting a little antsy" was my response.
Finally the last strand of hair is straightened. "Do you like a little volume?" "Sometimes." My God. When she spun me around, I looked like Snookie!
At that point I just didn't care about being nice. I quickly ran my fingers through my hair to tone that bad boy down. I jumped off the chair and cruised up the cash register, paid, said thanks and hit the road.
In the end, my hair is fine. I don't love it, but I don't hate it. Don't think I'll be making any plans to go back anytime soon.

A.K.A.

2010-07-29T20:28:00.003-05:00

A local bank hosted a fun in the park event tonight. The kids had a blast playing all the games, but their favorite part was the face painting for $1. Of the 25 or so choices, here's what they picked:

Batman (aka Brett) and The Punisher (aka Colton)

Birthday Par-tay!

2010-07-23T21:52:00.003-05:00

This past Tuesday was Brett's birthday party. I was only a couple of weeks behind, but he didn't seem to mind. Each year I ask the boys what they would like their cake to be. Luckily for me they haven't picked anything overly elaborate.

Brett wanted his 4th birthday cake to be a monkey. Oh, and it needed to be holding a real banana. When I showed him the finished product, his reaction was, "wow, and he even has a belly button."

I think this picture is cute. I love how Brett's head is tilted as he seems to be listening to his brother's lovely song called Happy Birthday.

Once again, the kid was showered with gifts. There was so much commotion during the actual opening that he inspected everything very thoroughly the following morning.

Believer....

2010-07-18T21:30:00.003-05:00

I've always believed that everything happens for a reason. The good, the bad, the indifferent. Today I experienced another example that helps me realize this even more. Bare with me and I'll share my story.

Today I knew I had to go grocery shopping. I had intended on going right away in the morning, but I got busy doing other things around the house - cleaning bathrooms, scrubbing floors and doing laundry. I figured I'd just go when Brett woke up from his nap. Around 2:00 he woke up and we played a bit and then the two of us took off to the grocery store.

There happens to be a dollar store across the street from the grocery store and I had a quick thought to swoop in there and pick up a couple of tablecloths for Brett's birthday party. So we stroll in, look around a little and I turn around to somebody on their cell phone saying, "Oh my gosh, Leah!" It was my aunt Judy.

Not really a big deal on the surface of the story, but Judy happens to live 245 miles away. She just happened to be at the dollar store 5 miles from my house. It just happened to be on the one year anniversary of the death of her son. It just happened to be that I didn't go to the grocery store in the morning as originally planned. It just happened that I remembered I needed some tablecloths. It just so happened that she was picking up some tablecloths and plastic spoons and forks for their bbq tonight. It just so happened that she came to the cities to be around her sister and other children and family to help her through this tough day. I just happened to give her the biggest hug I could possibly give her and let her know that I had been thinking about her and that I love her.

Coincidence? Not to me.

Homemade Slushies....

2010-07-14T19:10:00.003-05:00

I scored some cool mom points tonight when I showed the kids how to make their own slushies. I got the recipe off another blog, but can't remember which one, so I can't take any credit for creation.
2 cups of ice in a big freezer bag:Add 1/3 cup rock salt (same thing as ice cream salt) to the ice cubes.

Pour liquid of your choice (we chose lemonade) into a sandwich size ziploc bag. I have no idea how much we used. It just depends on how much final product you want.

Place small liquid bag inside the bag of ice and rock salt. Then shake, shake, shake until you have your desired slushy consistency.

Keep shaking. I think it took about 5 minutes, but that was with a few checks to see how things were looking.

Final product:

The kids were amazed!

Slow Down!

2010-07-14T19:08:00.001-05:00

If riding with my son when he turns 16 is anything like riding with him in a golf cart that doesn't go over 20 mph, I'm doomed.

Wildlife

2010-07-05T21:02:00.002-05:00

This post is for Colton. We were pulling into the cabin road after the big 4th of July parade and Colton says ever so calmly, "hey, there's a bear." I look and sure enough. I threw the truck into reverse and grabbed my camera.

At about this moment, Colton says to me, "uh, mom...don't you think we should be going now? It's getting a little close."

Brett on the other hand his yelling to the bear to come as he wants it to come to the truck so he can pet it.

Fourth of July Weekend.....

2010-07-05T20:14:00.006-05:00

We had a great 4th of July weekend. I took over 140 pictures, but don't have time to go through them, so here's a little taste.
We headed up to Ely to spend the weekend with my mom and step-dad at the cabin. The ride up seemed to take forever! This was our first trip with the dog so she was freaking out until she realized that she wasn't getting out anytime soon and my little guy asked no less than 1 million 13 times - "how many more minutes?"
Saturday was spent celebrating Brett's 4th birthday. He was king of the day and got to choose our activities. He just loved it.
I made him sit on the bench and close his eyes until we pulled his bike out of the truck.

He only looks innocent.....little bugger snuck up and his Grandma and brother and squirted them both.

Lots of time was spent on the pontoon and in the water. It was a perfect day to be at the lake.

We headed into town for the parade. The kids made a haul with candy. Oddest thing there? The fact that one of the floats tossed out full sized Butterfinger bars, containers of pepper and chili seasoning packets. I still don't get it.

Now it's time for unpacking and laundry. Hope you all had a safe and happy 4th of July!

Happy Birthday Brett!

2010-07-05T20:12:00.001-05:00

Happy Birthday buddy! I can't believe that you are already 4 years old. You are such a joy. So funny, so stubborn, so loving, so you. I am so happy that you are a part of our lives.

Unipro Show

2010-06-28T20:59:00.003-05:00

Tonight we got the privilege to view the world's greatest unicycle rider. Seriously. He is. He showed us his award that he just received in New Zealand. Jamey is my brother-in-law's brother and he happened to be in town and was willing to do a show for his niece and nephew's neighborhood. It was so much fun! The pictures don't do justice, but you can check out his website at Uniproshow.
Here's Brett and Kyler waiting for the show to begin.
Here's Jamey juggling fire sticks.

Piece of cake....riding a 9 foot unicycle (he couldn't bring his 12 foot one from Australia) and juggling at the same time.

So impressive and funny! It was a great show.

Bridal Shower

2010-06-28T20:53:00.003-05:00

This past Saturday, I hosted (along with my aunts) a bridal shower for my darling cousin Tara. It was just family and we had a great time catching up with each other.
My mom and I made this towel cake with the towels that Tara had registered for. It was so fun to make and decorate and it made a great centerpiece. Here's the beautiful bride with two of our wonderful aunts.

Wishing you a wonderful wedding Tara!

Happy Birthday!

2010-06-28T20:50:00.006-05:00

On June 25th, my dear hubby turned 34. Happy Birthday babe!! PS - I have no clue what Gene Simmons (aka son #1) is doing in this picture.

Memory Lane....

2010-06-23T19:11:00.002-05:00

I attended a two day seminar for work related topics. It just so happened that it was at my Alma mater. It had been about nine or so years since I had been on campus here. I was a little surprised and what had changed and what had not.
I thought it might be interesting to show you were I lived during my 3 1/2 years at SCSU. Ready? Ok, here we go.
My freshmen year was in the dorms. I stayed in the lame dorm where girls where on one wing and boys were on the other (versus every other floor). I'm pretty sure the dorm with the sticker in the window was mine - I think. After 9 months in the 4x4 cell, I was ready for bigger and better things. I moved into a house with 8 other girls. All but one were a grade ahead of me in school. Shall we just say it was an interesting year? There were creepy crawly things in the basement, lots of cloggged showers due to all of our long hair, but lots of fun and memories were made.
I couldn't get a picture of the front of the house, but here's the back. I can't believe this place is still standing. It looks extremely questionable and I'm guessing that's why the "For Rent" sign is still on the side of the house....
We used to go out on that little deck, but only 2-3 at a time for fear that it would crumble beneath us. All eight of us were ready to high tail it out of there by the time June rolled around.
My third year I downsized and brought one of the gals from the house with me to this duplex. We lived on the bottom level with 2 other girls - one of who we did not get along with so luckily she moved out and another gal came in. Lots of fun memories here! We had to replace the screen in the front window a few times as we'd forget our keys and that was our only way in. Well, unless we wanted to pay our landlord $50 to come let us in, but to a college kid, $50 was more than enough for 3 nights out on the town!

My last semester, I commuted but luckily 2 of the girls rented the duplex for a second year and would let me crash on their couch one night a week.

College was a blast and was life changing, but being back on campus gave me no urge to go back and pursue my masters. Yet.

Why I Had Kids....

2010-06-23T19:09:00.001-05:00

Duh. It's so I can make them do the cleaning that I hate to do....you know, like scrub the unidentifiable crud out of the patio door track.

Here We Come....

2010-06-19T20:03:00.003-05:00

As we were getting ready for my cousin's wedding, I thought I'd try and get a picture of our family while we all looked somewhat presentable. Easier said then done. I hauled out the tripod and the family and attempted to get set up. I hit the button on the camera and then started to run across the deck to get in the picture. It all sounds simple and easy, but as I found out, my heels were a perfect fit for the space between the boards and I about face planted as my shoe got stuck. The boys thought it was pretty funny. This is the only picture we ended up with because I wasn't about to attempt the dangerous run across the deck again. I don't know about you, but I. Love. Weddings. Love them. I don't even care if I barely know the bride and/or groom. The boys had a good time too. They kept busy stealing all the snacks and nuts on the tables at social hour.

While we were waiting for our table to be served dinner, I look over and see this:

Sometimes it's a wonder we get invited anywhere.

Proud Dad....

2010-06-15T20:55:00.003-05:00

Tonight was a baseball night for us. Thankfully the rain stopped for the game as we've had a sketchy season based on the weather. Colton had an amazing game! Actually, the whole team did a fantastic job.
Mike is one of the assistant coaches. I was watching him at the same time as watching Colton. I think I saw a tear in Mike's eye. A proud tear. His boy, the one he's been playing catch with, the one he's been pitching to, had his best game ever. Mike just couldn't stop grinning.
It. Was. Adorable.

I'm Clocking Out....

2010-06-13T17:23:00.002-05:00

After a week of not getting anything done around the house, I was on a mission this weekend. Mike was gone on a fishing trip so it was just the boys and me. I got so much accomplished!

Washed and put away 413 loads of laundry (give or take a few) including some delicates that I've been meaning to wash for the past 2 months.
Cleaned the boy's rooms
Vacuumed the entire upstairs and downstairs
Vacuumed the steps
Enjoyed a visit by some good friends that were in the cities for a wedding reception
Watched The Blind Side (loved it)
Cleaned out the freezer in the garage
Weeded the front garden
Went to a parade
Caulked the downstairs shower
Cleaned my car
Put together a puzzle with Colton
Read books with Brett
Made banana pancakes
Wrote thank you notes

And now? Now, I'm clocking out. I'm going to park myself on the couch and watch a movie with my three favorite guys.

Questions For You.....Again

2010-06-11T19:08:00.002-05:00

I think I did this back in November when I blogged everyday that month. Let's see how it goes this time around.

Questions

1. If you could have free, unlimited service for one year from an extremely good cook, chauffeur, housekeeper, masseuse, or personal secretary, which one would you chose?

2. Do you squeeze your toothpaste from the bottom, middle, top or do you roll it up from the bottom to the top?

3. Do you save greeting cards (birthday, anniversary, thank you) or do you toss them? Why?

4. What is your first memory?

Answers

1. Hands down - housekeeper. I cannot seem to stay on top of things. Every time we clean, we keep saying, ok, let's try to keep things picked up. Then life happens and I'm pretty sure a tornado comes through our house on a very regular basis.

2. I squeeze from the bottom. My kids and husband squeeze from wherever. Drives me nuts. But, I've come to accept it and just have my own tube to use it how I want to.

3. I don't save them. I've got nowhere to put them. I take that back. Kind of. If they are from my parents, husband or kids and they've got something extra special written I'll keep them. But 99% of them get tossed within a week or two.

4. This is TMI, but what the hell. I remember not liking to wear underwear when I was young (or socks for that matter...you know that seam that runs across your toes? I couldn't STAND to have that at the tips of my toes. Thankfully I got over that in time). Anyway.....I remember being in preschool and my teacher saying to me, "I have a granddaughter that is about your age and size, what size pants are those? She kind of pulled out my pants to read the tag and I was mortified that she had seen me without underwear. You know, I never thought that situation was all that weird until right about now. Hmmmm.....

Your turn.

Why????

2010-06-09T19:11:00.002-05:00

I will be billing my parents for any therapy I will have to go to as a result of my popped collar and knotted bandanna/headband. Do I even need to mention the hideous perm that looks like it didn't take all that well?

What Would You Do?

2010-06-07T19:46:00.002-05:00

We have this family in our neighborhood. They have been here for about a year and I have never seen the parents. Ever. However, there are anywhere from 3-4 kids living there at any given time. The cars that are parked in the driveway rotate monthly.
My dilemma is that the kids, who I'm guessing range in age from 5-12 roam the neighborhood at all hours of the day and night. I'm not opposed to the roaming so much, but the fact that they zip down the street on their bike/scooter/skateboard without any regard to traffic. I have heard horns honk multiple times when I know that they are outside. Mike has had to slam his breaks on twice to avoid hitting the kid cruising down a neighbor's driveway into the street while he's laying on his skateboard.
What would you do? Do you go to the house and knock on the door and inform them of what their kids are doing? Do you try to talk to the kids about what could happen if they keep thinking they rule the road? Advice please.

Walkin'.....

2010-06-06T20:11:00.002-05:00

Today was the day of our 20 mile training walk. The 3-Day isn't until August, but Marilyn and I want to get in a few really long walks before the big event. We started out at 7:45 am. Lucky for us, Marilyn's dad put together a route that wound us through the suburbs of the cities where we ended in Edina at a burger and malt shop were we enjoyed some really tasty lunch.
By about mile 15 or 16, I'm pretty sure we started to get a little delirious. My feet felt pretty heavy and every now and again I'd trip over the air and we'd just start to giggle. At one point, we had to cross the street and had to jog across it before the cars came. It was nearly impossible for me as I felt like each leg weighed 150 pounds and we started to giggle. Marilyn got a battle wound by stepping on a stick and it came up and scraped her shin. We didn't giggle about that, but that fact that she was looking for something in her fanny pack (yes we wore them), dropped some band aides, had to bend over to get them and almost face planted because it was so hard to get back up - we did giggle about that.
All in all, I feel pretty good, but if I had to wake up and do it again tomorrow and the next day? Yeah, I'm pretty sure I would die. Luckily, I've got another 80+ days of training!

A New Version

2010-06-05T10:06:00.004-05:00

Brett's really into doing eenie meenie for everything! In trying to decide if he should wear shoes or sandles - eat vegetables or potatoes - which book to read. The list goes on....

Incase you can't understand it, here's Brett's version of Eenie Meenie......

Eenie Meenie Minie Moe

Catch a pod a tide a toe

My mom makes the berry (very) best food eva (ever) eva again

Moments.....

2010-06-03T21:03:00.002-05:00

It's moments like these that keep me smiling during the craziness of life.

When I grow up.....

2010-06-02T19:29:00.003-05:00

I'm always looking for a challenge, so when I got an email from NaBloPoMo tempting me to post every day in June and they'd help with a topic a day, I figured why not. I may or may not use their ideas each day, but I'm going to try my best to post each day.

Today's topic (well, not really today's - it was yesterday's topic, but whatever): When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I had two. I wanted to either be a teacher or a business woman - whatever that means. I remember that I had a real classroom desk in my room. You know, the old school kind that opened up and had a chair connected to it. Oh, and I had a chalk board too! I remember going into my mom's closet and wearing her high heels and making sure I walked through the kitchen to make them click on the linoleum floor.

Looking back, I think I must have known I wasn't cut out to be a teacher. I remember "setting up" my classroom. I would write my student list all nice and neat, take attendance and lunch count, put a few grades in the grade book, but that was it. I had no interested in actually teaching my pretend students.

I didn't know what a business woman meant, but I remember thinking it was important.
Secretly, I think I wanted to be a business woman because I figured they got to wear high heel shoes and boss all the boys around.

What did you want to be?

What a weekend!

2010-06-01T20:21:00.003-05:00

It was a busy one! Mike had to work overnights all weekend so the boys and I kept out of the house during the day. Saturday we hit up the Minnesota Zoo. We had so much fun. When I asked the boys what their favorite part was, Colton thought the mister was the best and Brett thought the cows were the best. Had I known that, we could have saved some money and drove down the road to the local farm and came home and ran through the sprinkler in our clothes. :) After the zoo, Mike was awake so we hit up the beach with some neighbors. The kids did a little shore fishing, dragon fly watching and then we grilled hot dogs for dinner.

On Sunday, we took a little road trip to my dad's to have a little belated birthday party. We grilled steaks, played some baseball and set up a tent which the boys thought was the coolest thing ever for some strange reason.

Brett hit the wall on Monday. We tried to go out in the boat, but all Brett wanted to do was lay on the beach on the towel. Poor little dude was exhausted. I took him home and he laid in his bed or on the couch from noon until bedtime.

It sure was hard to get up today and return to "normal" life.

A Great Day.....

2010-05-15T20:34:00.002-05:00

What a great day! The weather was beautiful and the boys were so well behaved. Life doesn't get much better.

We intended to walk to the park, but Colton's bike had a flat tire. By the time we tried to fix it (unsuccessfully) it was lunch time. We grabbed some sandwiches and decided to have a picnic. It was a blast. We were the only people at the park. We enjoyed lunch and then got busy - the boys on the playground equipment and me with the camera.

What better way to continue the day then eating multiple popsicles on the deck.

I just had to share this picture of my little daredevil. He was trying to do tricks on the skateboard - hilarious!

I just tucked in the boys after their movie and am soaking in the perfectness of today.

Mother's Day....

2010-05-09T16:44:00.002-05:00

What a great day it's been! The boys let me sleep in until 8:00!! That. Was. Fan. Tastic.

Brett made me some french toast sticks with special dip in his play kitchen for breakfast. He walked out to the table with plastic french fries (the french toast sticks) and a big bowl of plastic fruit (the special sauce) and told me "Happy Mudder's day...you don't have to do anything today cause you're the pretty in the whole world." It's almost like somebody told him about my previous post!
After Sunday School, we ran a few errands and then I went on a 6.5 mile training walk to break in my new shoes while the boys stayed home and napped.
The boys had homemade gifts for me...so sweet! Coasters with their pictures on them and marigolds grown at school. Perhaps the best gift of all? Somebody wanting to clean my car:
Just to be sure the suction still worked....Happy Mother's day to all you wonderful moms!

Supper Nanny...Are You Out There?

2010-05-08T14:13:00.002-05:00

See this kid? Looks pretty innocent doesn't he?! For the past week and a half, this child has challenged my patience and parenting skills more than I could have imagined.

Where do I even start? He and I went up to the Outlet Mall to pick out some clothes for my niece's birthday. I was at the front of the store flipping through tank tops and I look over and see Brett standing right by the front door with a look on his face. You know, the one where you can tell they are thinking, yep, I'm going to run...try to stop me. Sure enough, the kid blots out the door and runs down the sidewalk at full speed. The little bugger is quick. I caught him five stores down and he starts laughing. It's all I can do to keep my composure - I was so mad!

His other issue? Not listening. I know he hears me and understands me, but quite frankly, he doesn't give a crap what I've got to say. So, he's been spending a lot of time in his room. When he doesn't listen, he loses a toy (or 8) and then has to go to his room. This worked the first couple times but now do you want to what happens now? You put him in his room, take his books and walk out of his room and shut the door behind him. He then walks out of his room (without permission) and laughs. So, I grit my teeth, walk him back to his room and he says, "what are you going to take next?" I respond and then he says, "what about next time, what are you going to take then." OMG!!
What. A. Challenge.

Thank God it seems to be making a turn for the better. Today, he's been a sweetheart. Starting the day telling me "Mom, you're the pretty in the whole world."

Still Kickin'......

2010-05-03T20:13:00.003-05:00

I'm still here. Not very often, but still here.
Life has been very busy the last few weeks. A good busy though.

I'll share some of the things that have kept me off the blog as well as some random thoughts...

Prepping for a garage sale fundraiser. I went through every room in our house, our storage areas and the garage to find things we could get rid of. It's just amazing how much stuff you can accumulate over the years. I had 12 big bins full of goodies and much more.
The sale was very successful despite the somewhat crappy weather. Between the 2 of us, we raised over $1100!!
I made a few observations during the sale. The things that we laughed at were some of the first to sell. The good stuff like the Pottery Barn bedding and shelves were never purchased. We had baked goods there as well. They were bought my the older men and the women with kids. No surprises there.
We had a successful beer bust as well. Lots of friends and family helping us raise money for the 3-day event.
Baseball has started and Mike is assistant coach. That's twice a week, but very fun.
Mike's softball league has started. That's on Wednesday nights. That's usually when I let the kids eat breakfast for dinner and they think I'm cool for letting them do that. The coolness wears off by bedtime though.
We attended the wedding of one of my college friends. It was great to have a nice date night with my husband and catch up with people that we don't see all the often.
We attended a benefit for the wife of Mike's old boss. She was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer last September. They did a CAT scan before starting radiation and found the cancer had spread to her liver. Attending the event helps you get your priorities straight. They were raising money so that she could take her kids and grandchildren to Disney. Gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. Cancer can suck it.
I'm into week 2 of my online photography class. I love it!
We are starting to come up with some fun things to do this summer with our kids. I want to start a tradition with them, but what, I'm not sure. Any suggestions or fun things that you do?
I was on a 4 mile training walk tonight with the dog. We got to about mile 3 and it started hailing. That's right. Hailing. On us. It hurt and the dog freaked out. I had to carry her. Luckily I brought my cell phone and Mike came and picked us up.

Birthday Weekend....

2010-04-11T18:20:00.004-05:00

What a fun, action packed weekend we had. Friday night was the family birthday party. Colton picked burgers and a cake made with oreos, mint ice cream, fudge and cool-whip - yum! Here's the birthday boy waiting for Mike to light all the candles.

His grandparents surprised him with the Joe Mauer quick swing for his gift. We couldn't even get it off the deck before he was hitting balls.

The next morning he was out swinging the bat right away!

For his kid party, he opted for a dirt bike birthday cake - complete with doughnut holes for large boulders and coca puffs for rocks.

Sunday afternoon was spent at the pool. I had no clue how much energy eight 8-year old boys have!

After two hours of swimming, these boys devoured the cake!

Happy 8th Birthday

2010-04-10T14:25:00.003-05:00

Today you turn eight. Where does the time go?

*You are a really good kid - most of the time.
*You excel at math and reading
*You love to learn
*You are witty
*You love to play baseball and football
*You love to tease your brother, but you stick up for him if anybody else does
*You have a sweet tooth
*You have a great memory
*You know more about computers than your dad
*You get frustrated when things don't come easy for you
*I love that you still let me hold your hand in public
*I love that you are mine

Happy birthday buddy!

Happy Easter

2010-04-04T20:55:00.003-05:00

We had a great Easter! We spent the morning going through the loot that the bunny brought and just enjoying each other's company.

Stella might have enjoyed her goodies the most!

Then we headed over to the kid's great-grandparents house for Easter dinner and a huge Easter prize hunt.

Here's Mike's parents with their 4 grandchildren.

My sister-in-law and I decided last year that instead of getting each other's kids gifts, we would just supply the prizes for the Easter hunt. This year we assigned each child a color and those were the only prizes they could find. If they found a prize that didn't have their color on it, they had to move on and not tell the other kids. They had a blast!

My Head Is Spinning.....

2010-03-30T19:09:00.004-05:00

Life is a little busy these days. I'm a little overwhelmed and instead of writing a list for me to cross all my to do items off one by one, I'm taking what little time I've got and posting on my blog. I mean, really, I've got priorities.
Since I apparently don't feel like I'm busy enough...you know, working full time, co-parenting two busy boys, raising a new puppy, running a household (paying bills, laundry, grocery shopping, etc.), training to walk 60 miles in three days, working on fundraising $2300 for the 60 mile walk (making cookie jars, selling t-shirts, pricing a bazillion items for a garage sale, helping to plan a beer bust), catching some shut eye here and there, planning a birthday party for 8 eight-year old boys, I thought to myself, what the hell, I've got a free nanosecond each day, why not sign up to take a six week online photography class!
Actually I'm really excited about the class. My girlfriend and I are both taking it so we have a built in support group in case we have no clue what the heck we are doing or suppose to be doing.
Now I've got to find some time to finish the first assignment - reading the manual!