Christmas Pictures

Here they are. Nothing special, but they are done. Yippee!

Christmas program

The kids' Christmas program is on Thursday and I can't wait to go see it. They kids have been telling me they are not supposed to tell their parents what they will be singing or doing. It's supposed to be a surprise. Joseph finally caved and gave me a little taste of what is to come.




Ummm, perhaps this is why it is supposed to be a surprise. They maybe want the parents to actually come.
I'm thinking I should dye his hair black, slick it and call him Alfalfa.

P.S. My apologies if this post brought tears to your eyes. LOL

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We took some pictures this past weekend to use for our Christmas cards. I will get them up here tomorrow. Too tired to do it now.

Elizabeth Earns a Belt

On monday Elizabeth had testing for her first ranking karate belt. She's now an ORANGE belt! Way to go Elizabeth.











This is a short video of the form she had to do for testing.

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The Pinball Wizard

Matthew wants everyone to know that he has smoked everyone in pinball. Him and I battled over high score for a year now. Which was around 130,000,000. Ahh, I think the machine is broken because he played a game the other night that lasted about an hour and he got 497,000,000!

Learning a New Skill

The boys were due for haircuts, so Sunday I got to give haircuts. Yes, we are cheap and do it ourselves. I used to have to do it all the time, then Brent learned how to do it, now I only have to do it once in a while. This time after I cut Joseph and Alex's, Alex volunteered to cut Matthew's. I thought that would be nice, I would have to do it even less and Alex would get to learn a new skill. Matthew was not too keen on that idea though. To fix that I told them that if Alex did anything funny, we would shave Alex bald. Of course, I have to supervise and show Alex how to do it. Matthew was a little more cooperative then. Alex did a great job on Matthew's hair. I think I will pass the clippers on to him.

My Early Christmas Present

I got my Christmas present from Brent tonight. He took me to see Tonic Sol Fa in concert. We went to see them last year because I had requested it for my Christmas gift, but this year he thought of it all on his own to bring me. What a nice guy. These guys are very entertaining, well worth it to go see their show.



Here someone set their Chrismas lights to one of their songs. Pretty cool.

Official Pace Car of Minnesota

The official Pace Car of Minnesota made it's debut last weekend. (and they've been out almost every day since to spread the dirty salt, gotta love Minnesota) They sure hyped up the storm we were to get, but as you can see from the pictures we got snow but not nearly as much as they predicted. The kids have been enjoying it, though. They don't even care that it's been in the teens or lower every day. (Elizabeth tipped me off that they go out just so they can have hot chocolate when they come in.) I also enjoy the freshly fallen snow, but I can't stand the cold. I don't think I've ever told anyone that before. lol. I'd hibernate under a cozy heated blanket all winter long if I could.
Kids made a snowmanish looking thing in the front yard. It is hard to see though when the sun won't come out, everything is grey and just blends together.










Had to put the pictures of Anna up just because she's so darn cute.

Priceless

Our little Bag Lady

Little Tikes shopping cart from a garage sale.........25 cents

Wheels and axles to fix the shopping cart...............$6

Dora backpack from Good Will..................................$2
Being able to carry your treasures around all day............. Priceless

(Btw, Emma picked out the cute outfit all by herself. If it's pink and "busy" she will wear it.)

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Elizabeth had her very first spelling test yesterday and spelled all the words correctly.

Way to go Elizabeth!

(we need to work on those numbers though lol, #'s 2, 3, 4 and 5 are all backwards)

Sunset

This is the beautiful sunset we had on Tuesday night right out the front of our house. Matthew took the pictures. He did a good job. Then he asked me if I was going to put them up on the blog, so here they are for you to enjoy.

U of M appointment

Today I had my yearly (supposed to be yearly, but it's been about two and a half years) follow up visit with the neurologist at the U of M. I must say, Brent and I are in agreement that we do not want to ever live in the twin cities. There are way to many one way streets and streets that just take you in a big circle or lead you to a dead end or to another city. You'd think we would get it, we've been down there enough. They must change the streets around between times that we go just to make it fresh and interesting. Anyway, the appointment was fine. Same appointment, different year. The doctor said, (about a cure) "We are getting smarter, but not that smart yet" He did say they are doing clinical trials on patients with Duchenne MD and Beckers MD, and if they work for them then they will try it on people with Limb Girdle. Probably a long way off though.
If nothing else, it was nice to just get out for a day.

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On our way home we saw a couple of people that must have forgot to put on their brains this morning. They were out walking on the thin film of ice on one of the lakes. Most lakes we saw had no ice at all. Who knows, maybe the air by that lake has been colder than all the rest, or maybe I'm just too overly cautious.

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Kitchen update?? Parts of the cabinets are painted, parts are only primed. Little by little Brents plugging away at it. I am ready for it to just be done though.

Brent earns Husband of the Year Award!

Brent is finally getting around to doing something to our kitchen. Since we can't afford a real kitchen makeover, we're doing the lots of effort, little money kind. We'll see how it turns out. On Sunday, Brent started to sand all the cabinets so they could be painted. Um, someone should have told us it would be a lot easier to clean up after the sanding if we would have boxed up everything in the cabinets before hand. But no, we spent last night and ALL of today wiping out cabinets and washing everything that was in every one of them. That was not fun! The bright side is, (since I am the optimist) everything is clean, we got rid of really old food, and things we never use, and the stuff is somewhat organized now. Now, this would be the 4th night of working on it and Brent and Alex have started priming. Looks like that part will be done tonight. Now I'm off to bed while Brent finishes up. lol Real nice of me huh?!?










This is what it looked like with the dust flying.

Circle of Love

We may struggle at times (ok, lots of times), but our faith in God and His Divine Providence keeps us going. It is at the times when we think we are struggling the most, when God most noticeably bestows His Blessings upon us. He has Blessed us with 6 beautiful children to raise up to know, love and serve Him. We always seem to get clothes passed on to us at just the right times, we have never gone hungry, we've always been able to pay our bills on time (even when I think we are going to be short).
Well, today we received a piece of mail that was addressed to the whole family. Joseph was the one to go get the mail and asked if he could open it. I could see through the envelope that the card said thank you, and there was no return address, so I let Joseph open it. When he opened it there was $$ in it and he started jumping and yelling something. I asked him what the card said, of course he didn't even read it. It said, "Thank you, for being my inspiration and letting me see the beauty in your family. You've got an amazing family." and it was signed "Circle of Love" I never thought of us as being able to inspire others, but I guess different things inspire different people. In any case, a great big THANK YOU goes out to our angel, "Circle of Love" and may God Bless them many times over for their generousity. This is not the first time this has happened to us, btw. God is good!
I must confess, I am able to trust in God and accept his Will in most things. But, I am human and I do struggle with a big one. That being my condition. I am consciously working on it though, and am sloooowly accepting that I can't do everything that I would like to be able to do.With lots of prayers, though, I'm sure someday I will be able to fully accept His Will in all things.

You know it's windy when....

...a brick is thrown through a window!
On Wednesday, Alex and Grandma were out in the new development with Grandpa's Jeep and trailer picking up the pink styrofoam insulation that had blown all over the neighborhood. They were using bricks to hold the styrofoam down while they ran and gathered the scattered pieces. During one of their stops a huge gust of wind picked up some of the styrofoam with a brick and threw the brick right by Grandma's head and through the back window of the Jeep.
Thankful nobody got hurt!

The wind's accomplice!

8 Random Things About Me

Ok, I've been double tagged. No getting out of this one. I was tagged by Kathy:I am who I am and "Lucille".

There are a few rules one must follow to play the game. When tagged, you must link to the person who tagged you. Then post the rules before your list, and list eight random things about yourself. At the end of the post, you must tag and link to eight other people.

My 8 random things:

1. I have NO patience for computers. If I absolutly have to I can figure out how to fix things that aren't working. (but I would rather play dumb and let someone else fix it LOL this could get me into trouble) It just takes too long to mess with it when it's not working. AND waiting for pictures to upload for this blog. UUUGGGGGHHHH.
2. I really wish we lived somewhere warmer.
3. I really really wish we lived somewhere warmer.
4. My kids hate it when I have a headache. lol It's not pretty.
5. I like to drink Diet Sunkist, in my house it is aka: rat poison. The kids keep asking why I can drink rat poison (phenylalanine ) and I won't let them. Still trying to come up with a good answer that can not back fire on my.
6. I "like to buy and sell on ebay". lol this is what one of the kids told his class when they had all the moms for mothers day.
7. I love "Grandma and Grandpa Day" (used to be called "June and Marge Day" until they went and left us for sunny and warm Florida. We're sad they moved but, I guess that just makes visits with June and Marge more special) Today and most Wed. is when my kids get a break from me. Bonus is , I get to regroup also. lol
8. My favorite channels to watch are.... TLC, Discovery Channel, HGTV, and EWTN. That right there probably says more about me than the other 7 items. ;-)

Now for the poor souls that I am tagging..
http://notmotherteresa.blogspot.com/
http://1newbaby.blogspot.com/
http://therockingpony.blogspot.com/
http://annettes-stuff.blogspot.com/

Ok I'm going to have to break the rules, for now this is all I could find that didn't already post 8 random things. If I find more I will add them.

Report Cards!!!

Report cards were sent home yesterday. We only got Joseph and Matthew's though. Not sure why Elizabeth didn't get her's yet. And I'm still working on Alex's. The boys did well.

June and Marge, I will be sending a copy to you soon. I'm hoping to get Alex's done by the weekend. The kids are using the church for school right now because the old church building is being taken down. I think the kids go back to the school the week after Thanksgiving but I'm not really sure. They told the kids it was for safety reasons, plus it would have been too much of a distraction. On Monday they had a whole school field trip to the Y here in Willmar. While all the kids were away they had people moving desks over to the church. They also get Friday off this week. Not sure what that is for. Then they get Wed., Thurs., and Fri. off for Thanksgiving. And on Tuesday next week Grandma and Grandpa are taking Joseph's class to the Pavek Museum down in the cities. I'm sure they well have a great time there.
We are glad you made your trip back home safely, and hope you had a good time with the kids. They sure enjoyed playing games with you over at grandma and grandpa's house.
Hope your both feeling well and enjoying the blog!

Note to self.....

Note To Self: Yes, Emma is a big helper, BUT ..... do not send her to put stuff away in the bathrooms anymore.



I sent Emma to put something away yesterday and she went MIA for about 10 min... i figured she was playing in the sink or with make-up. She came out and showed me it was option #2. I was not too surprised, it's happened many times before. She is getting much better at putting lipstick on though. I put up the pics from yesterday and one from 6 months ago so you could compare and see for yourself.

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Here are a few pictures of what happens when I go to the bathroom all by myself . Emma stamped "For Deposit Only" all over herself. I should maybe take the blame for this myself, because maybe a couple weeks before this happened I stamped her hand (one time only though) with the same stamp. Ah, what was I thinking. lol

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Our own young Einstein!

Unsolved Mysteries - Alderink Style

Here is just a sample of the Unsolved Mysteries at the Alderink household...







How does Joseph levitate like a Jedi Knight? Did he take lessons from Master Yoda?












How in the world did this piece of glass get in my bed? Yes, a piece of glass! I found it a couple nights ago while putting my hand under my pillow.



This one baffles me the most... Do my children actually shower when I send them to go take a shower?!?!?! Just yesterday after Matthew took a shower, I found a coloring book and colored pencils in the bathroom. He was in there an awful long time.... silly me I thought he was getting extra squeaky clean.


Why would we want to do this to our Jeep? (OK, this is not really Brent's Jeep. He just wishes he was doing this with his) Now ya gotta give Brent credit, he doesn't go out to the bars, he doesn't sit in front of the TV for endless hours watching sports, he's not gone every weekend during hunting season to sit quietly in the woods in hopes of seeing a deer to shoot. He does, however, have a passion for off-roading in his Jeep. (I will admit, I also think it is kind of fun once in a while. Just don't tell Brent I said so.) (Oh, but what that Jeep in the picture is doing... I think that would scare me!) Anyway, I had to add this because this week Brent got the newsletter from the off-road club that he belongs to. He read it and told me they added on to the rules of off-roading because of him. What did they add?? They added that they strongly recommend that all drivers carry a fire extinguisher in their vehicles. Thats right, when Brent was at the last club run over Labor Day weekend, he had a small fire and didn't have a fire extinguisher to put it out.
Having a new rule added in your honor is quite an accomplishment!

Who's your hero now, Debby?? LOL

So, Debby (my cousin in Omaha) leaves a comment yesterday evening saying "Emma Rose is my hero". Well, that's a nice thing to say and all, but, you really should see the "behind-the scenes" with this child. Last night, within a few hours of that nice compliment, miss Emma Rose was in bed. Well, actually she was on the floor in the school room. It was "camp-out" night ya know. It was quiet for about 20-30 min. so I thought it was all clear peace and quiet time. Silly me! It was then that Emma came out to the kitchen and matter-of-factly tells me "mommy, I got the glue". Yes, we do keep the glue up high. She must have scaled the bookcase to get it. Anyway, she came out with glue dripping from her hands, and in between her toes. I didn't even notice the marker on her face right away, but the picture caught it. So as she's sitting at the kitchen sink washing it off, I went to assess the damage to her "camping-out" spot. I have no idea what she was trying to glue but she had it on a hair pretty, on the carpet, and on her favorite sparkly pink purse. The really crazy thing is that she chose the carpenters glue, what was she thinking?? I couldn't see anything around where she was that she was building, and she had nothing anywhere near her that was made of wood. She could have at least used the all purpose glue. lol This is one of those "stuck between a rock and a hard place" deals. We either skip nap time so she zonks out right away at bed time. (and doesn't get into this kind of trouble) Or give her a nap so she doesn't whine all afternoon. (then she plays in bed until it's very late) What do ya do?!?

So Debby, who's your hero now?? Unless maybe your hero type is the curious, mischievous type. lol

We're off to see the Wizard!

Here they are.... the wizard of oz. As you can see we have the Wizard, the Scarecrow, the Tinman, the Lion, Dorothy, and Glinda. Sorry, the Wicked Witch couldn't be in the picture..... she was taking the picture. (if you want to see the picture bigger, just click on it. In case ya didn't know)

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Update: forgot to give credit to my mom for making the kids' custumes. Thanks Grandma!

And I was/am the Wicked Witch lol. I just sound like her, I didn't have green skin and I wasn't wearing black.

The Many Faces of Anna

Cheeky Anna She makes this face a lot. I hope it's not a sassy face. She's too young to be sassy. lol

She's always happy when she's eating!!

Anna plays with her eyelashes when she's going to sleep.

She also plays with her hair or pretty much anything else she can get her hands on.

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Shheeeeeesh, just last week he turned 13. Now he's joined the grey haired club. Boy does time fly.

Ok, this is a preview of the halloween costumes. I still don't have the rest of the pictures loaded into my computer. I will have them up here by tomorrow.