ROLLIN' With The Punches

Piano and Christmas Programs

2011-12-23T09:30:00.003-06:00

Here it is... the girls' first piano performance. It's short but the did great.

And the Christmas programs.. for school and for church.

Part 1

Part 2

Yes!! More Snow!!

2010-02-08T13:21:00.001-06:00

I was just thinking… We haven’t had any snow in such a long time. I mean it’s been at least a few days or so, and it’s starting to look so… summer-like here. Finally, it started snowing last night and is supposed to continue on into Tuesday morning.

When we got up we checked to see if school was late or anything. Although everyone around us was either late or cancelled, we were on time. We are the Mighty Dragons after all. We can just shoot flames out our mouths and melt a path to school. And because school was on time, I was very saddened. I really wanted to have my ~~hyper~~ excited kids home with me for 2 more hours for some extra special bonding time. I even had to excuse myself for a moment to go weep for my loss. I did pull it together and mustered all I had to pretend to be cheerful with my good-byes as they departed.

10:20 – Grandma says, “I bet they get out early today.” So, I looked up the school closings on-line and discovered, with extreme joy, that the district was closing at 10:30. I had to shoo Grandma to quickly go pick the kids up. Bonus!! When they got home they asked if they could have a couple friends over. The more the merrier, that’s what I always say. At least there is a little snow for them to play in. (because our deprived kids have nothing to play with in the house. poor kids!)

Technorati Tags: snow,more snow,more winter,will it ever end??

Happy Birthday Little Princess!

2010-02-02T16:09:00.001-06:00

Anna is the big 3 today!

It was just three short years ago the Dr. asked if we were “ready to have the baby?” It was 4 days before you were scheduled. She thought something just didn’t seem right. You’re growth had slowed down for the last week. And your pulse was slower than what it had been for all the other check-ups. As it turned out the umbilical cord was wrapped around your neck. It wasn’t bad at that point, but it’s a good thing we didn’t have to wait. I am very grateful to have the wonderful doctor that I have.

So, here you are already three. Still making everyone laugh with your silliness, singing lovely songs for us. Who cares if you know the words or not. When you make up your own words, it just makes the songs more fun to listen to. Everyone seems drawn to you. While at the Catholic Schools week pizza party, I don’t think your feet touched the floor the whole time we were there. Several different kids felt the need to carry you around. Good thing you enjoy the attention.

Zonked after a hard day of playing, still wearing her new “sunshine shirt”.

And here’s a shot of the back of her head. The bald spot is where the huge lump was that she got from falling off the counter back about a week before Thanksgiving. Wonder if the hair will ever grow there again??

Technorati Tags: Anna's birthday

Baby, It’s Cold Outside!

2010-01-02T23:21:00.001-06:00

It was down to 27 below zero. (Depending on the source.) That’s not the wind chill either. Wind chill made it feel like 35 below. I’m still wondering when/waiting for global warming to hit Minnesota.

The kids did get a chance to enjoy all the snow we got for a couple days before the frigid arctic air fell upon us.

Just some laughs

2009-12-17T22:34:00.001-06:00

Hope you enjoy these as much as I do. The first one is Angela in her jumpy seat. She really enjoys that thing. Anna is playing a running game on the Wii. The second one is Joseph making her laugh. She was a little tired and silly.

Grandma and Grandpa’s house

2009-12-17T22:22:00.001-06:00

J & M,

Here is the video I was supposed to get up here for you a week or two ago. Yes I’m slow these days. It is in four parts. It may be hard to really see the inside without the sheetrock up, but you’ll get the idea.

Vote for me..

2009-10-22T22:25:00.001-05:00

So, I had started scrap booking our trip to Europe a long time ago, but never got the book completely done. Then I saw that Blurb was having a contest, so I was motivated to just turn our trip photos into a book. I got it completed, yea! It’s only been 4 years, not too bad.

It would be great if you would go and vote for my book. Tell everyone you know to go vote too.

You can click here for my book.

Just so you know I’m not trying to sell my book, just trying to get votes.

Tell me what you think of it. Honest criticism is always helpful.

Water Park of America

2009-10-11T21:45:00.000-05:00

We spent about 5 hours at the Water Park of America today. The water park sponsored a pool party for the MDA families. Everyone had a great time. Well, except for Angela. Poor baby had to stay with grandma and grandpa and miss out on the fun. Hopefully we didn’t traumatize her by not including her. lol It was really nice to all be doing something together that all the different ages of our kids could enjoy.

Joseph finally tried the body board surfing. Him and Alex had a blast doing that. Matthew and Elizabeth tried it also, maybe next time they will enjoy it more. I think it scared Elizabeth a little bit when she fell off the board. Emma and Anna loved the area for the smaller kids and the lazy river. Anna even went on the really high and long family water slide. She liked that too, but Brent got a little tired hauling her up all though steps.

Of course, we were going to leave early because the kids had school the next day, should’ve known better than that. How could we tear the kids away when they were all having so much fun, and being pleasant. (bonus!!)

Technorati Tags: Water Park of America,WPoA,MDA,Muscular Dystrophy,family fun

School '09

2009-09-08T07:35:00.001-05:00

Here we go........

Annual U of M Trek

2009-08-31T09:55:00.000-05:00

I had my annual trip to the MD Clinic today. As long as we had to go to the cities, I had scheduled to get my wheelchair serviced today too. Side note on that.... a week and a half ago I was going down the hall and stopped to say something to Elizabeth in the laundry room. As I stopped and started to turn my back caster wheel fell off. Yes, right off, and there my chair was stuck. Thankfully, I still have my old scooter around for a back-up. If I didn't have the back-up, my poor kids would have had to put up with this lady......

Anyway, back to the Doc. appointment. He always asks if there is any changes. Of course there is never daily changes, but looking over a whole year there is always some more muscle loss. Just the nature of Muscular Dystrophy. Then he does a quick assessment of the strength in all my muscle areas, then usually he tells us there is no hope for me. No, just kidding!! He usually tells us they are working on a cure, but they just aren't there yet. Well, this time we got uplifting news! First, there are many forms of MD. I have Limb Girdle. Then there are several types of Limb Girdle, I have type 2E. My doc said they have done clinical trials with type 2D were they use a type of virus to deliver the corrected gene to the muscle cells, and it appeared to work! Since the different types of LGMD have different defective genes, they will need to do more testing to see if they can get the other genes delivered to the muscle cells as effectively. He said, it probably won't be in a year, maybe, but probably not in two. But, he seemed quite optimistic about them finding a way in three to five years. Now, I'm usually the optimistic type, and I'm very excited about the news my doctor gave us, but I'll save my celebrating until he tells me I can start a treatment. I think it has lifted my spirits though, I feel a little more cheery!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

About 2 weeks ago Joseph found a really cool rock and gave it to me.

My kids are so sweet!!

I'll be updating posts from between the move and now. Check back....

Technorati Tags: Muscular Dystrophy,Limb Girdle,heart rock

"Our Six Year Old's A Surgeon"

2009-08-30T20:19:00.002-05:00

Guess this sums us up.
I had two requests for homeschooling this year. So, we are going to give it a try again. Should be fun and interesting.
Only a little over a week left until school starts. I better go get some books ordered now! I sold most of what I used in the past. What was I thinking!!

Here is another great video by Tim Hawkins for you to enjoy. Too funny!!

Big Ears!

2009-05-24T20:38:00.004-05:00

Elizabeth: Mommy, what if somebody had really big ears and a bird laid an egg in it?
Mom: Umm, I think they might notice a bird laying an egg in their ear.
Elizabeth: Well, what if it laid it in there when the person was asleep?.... It would be really noisy when it was time for the bird to hatch.
Mom: Hmm, I'm glad my ears aren't big enough for a bird egg to fit in them.

Chalkboard Art by Elizabeth:

(she is always writing love notes)

"Look mommy, I'm a saint."

"No, I don't want you to take my picture."

Angela at two weeks. That has got to be the fastest two weeks of my life.

She's here!!!

2009-05-06T19:04:00.000-05:00

Today we were scheduled for a c-section. We were supposed to be at the hospital at 6am but we didn't make it until about 6:45. I was hoping they weren't going to make me wait another week or something because we were late. lol Anyway, they got me all ready for the surgery and brought me into the operating room at 8am and at 8:30 we got to see our newest little princess.

Angela Catherine

7 lbs 12 oz 21" long

She checked out perfect!!!

There is a rumor going around that I had some difficulties. Here is what happened...

Towards the end of the c-section I started to have some difficulty breathing. Then it started to feel like my chest was being crushed. While I was being stitched up my heart rate started to go up... a lot. At this point I was only a little concerned that I couldn't catch my breath. My doc had to do an abbreviated stitch job as they were concerned that I might have had a pulmonary embolism. Now I was thinking, hmm this could be bad... good thing I'm in a hospital. Right after they were done stitching me, they brought me to have a CT of me lungs. I had to keep my eyes closed for that... I'm a little claustrophobic. Then they brought me to the ICU to wait. We found out it was not a pulmonary embolism. But my heart went into atrial fibrillation. That caused my BP to drop. It was bad enough that they told me they needed to shock my heart to get it back into a normal rhythm. When they said "shock your heart" this normally calm unshakable person that I am got scared! Good thing they only gave me about 30 seconds to think about it. That's how long it took them to sedate me so they could shock my heart. It worked, when I woke up my heart was back to normal. I was sleepy and very nauseous for a few hours after, then I felt just like my old self again. What caused it is still unknown. The doctor said it could have been placenta that got into my blood, which will remain a mystery if that was the case. Or it could have been from some underlying heart problem, possibly from my type of Muscular Dystrophy. If that is the reason, than it will most likely happen again sometime in my life. My doc said could even be decades later but most likely it will happen again.

So, that's the birth story for baby Angela.

And yes, I am appreciating all my babies a lot more these days!!

Technorati Tags: new baby,c-section,atrial fibrillation

Chocoholics!!!

2009-03-17T18:16:00.002-05:00

As I was directing the girls in the cleaning of their room on Saturday, I saw something under one of the beds. Yes, I even made them clean out under there. They both played the “what? I don’t see anything” game. Then they pulled out these…….

They just wanted to “keep some snacks handy” in their room. At least they were in baggies so they wouldn’t get the carpet all full of chocolate.

Never Ending Winter

2009-03-12T15:15:00.000-05:00

This has been another looooong and very cold winter. This past Tuesday we had another blast of snow with very cold temps. School was canceled… again. Then They had a late start on Wednesday. (I’m really wishing we could have moved south instead of staying in this rotten cold and snow.)

Don’t you hate it when your earmuffs get stuck in your hair?!?!?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Joseph and Matthew got and early birthday present of and R2-D2 clothes hamper for their Star Wars bedroom. It started out life as a can cooler display in a convenience store, but we rescued him and turned him into something more ~~smelly~~ useful. I will post more pictures of their room when they get their wall project done.

Just had to make note of this……

2009-03-11T15:04:00.002-05:00

Tonight, Elizabeth ate more the one bite of her supper. I guess it’s not that she’s picky, she just has expensive tastes. We had ~~fake stake~~ mock tenderloin.... AND SHE ATE!!!

By the way, here it is about 3 months since she lost her 2 front baby teeth and the new ones still are not growing in. AND.. she has lost another one on the bottom. If she keeps this up she have to switch to a liquid diet.

Science Fair - Matthew

2009-03-02T13:52:00.000-06:00

Matthews turn to do the science fair. At St. Philip’s each grade has one first place, one second place and one third place, the rest get a participation ribbon. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd place kids get to go to state. Matthew got 3rd place of the fourth graders. He was so excited, he said he “didn’t hear a word they said after they announced my name.” He also said his knees were shaking when he went up to get his award. His topic/subject was, does music affect test taking scores. The whole family got to enjoy helping out Matthew with this project by taking tests 3 nights in a row. He did a great job with it. He did complain and stall, because I wanted this to be his work and not mine. He was hoping I would think for him, but I was persistent in making this be his project. After he got his third place I asked him if he was proud of it. Of course he said “yes”. Then I pointed out to him he wouldn’t be so proud of it if it wasn’t really his work and he agreed. So, now he gets to go to state with his project on May 2nd. Way to go, Matthew!!

Official Home Owners…. Again!

2009-02-27T13:26:00.000-06:00

Yes, we were living in the house almost 2 months before we actually owned it. Not by our choice though. Our part time loan lady was new and very slow. Paper work is all done and it’s official now, so we can all breathe a sigh of relief.

A New Smile

2009-02-16T13:19:00.000-06:00

Joseph got braces put on today. The orthodontist said he gets to have them on for 18 to 24 months. Just ice cream for him the rest of the day….. yippee! He gets to look forward to at least a few days of a sore mouth. And then again every time he goes in to get them adjust, a few more days of a sore mouth.

The orthodontist has ordered for him to get two of his teeth removed because of overcrowding. So he will have that done on March 18. Another not so fun day.

Science Fair - Joseph

2009-02-05T13:00:00.000-06:00

Joseph had his science fair tonight. His topic/project was, which kind of football flies the farthest. And he had 3 different kinds of footballs to test with. Poor Brent was the unlucky one to have to throw each football 50 times, out on a cold windy day. In the middle school everyone either gets first second or third place. From the ones getting first place are chosen a few to go to state. Joseph got a second place. Way to go, Joseph!

Happy 2nd Birthday Anna!

2009-02-02T11:13:00.000-06:00

Happy birthday Anna! Hard to believe it’s been 2 years already! At 2 you are a chatter box, talking up a storm all the time. Some times your a little bit too sassy. Most most of the time you say the funniest things. You try your best to keep up with your older siblings. And you like being the center of attention and make everyone laugh. You also like to sing a lot, and you do a wonderful job of it. At your 2 year check-up, the doc said you lost weight. No surprise, since you never eat unless you sneak cookies. But, your head is at 100% for kids your age. No surprise there either, your smart just like me. LOL

From cute bald baby:

To a beautiful 2 year old princess:This is part of the silliness. “Anna, go grab a new diaper.” And she comes back with one on her head. In 14 years we’ve only had kids get up in the night maybe 4 or 5 times (this does not include sick kid times) just to say they had a bad dream or to tell me they had to use the potty. But Anna, she had to go and change that. She never did it before we moved, but since we have, she discovered how easy it is to climb out of her crib. If she doesn’t feel like going to sleep, she’ll just climb out of the crib, turn on her light and play, or just leave her room. One night recently, I woke up to a noise in the hall. I laid there and listened a few minutes, and didn’t hear anything else. Just thought maybe I was hearing things and went back to sleep. A little bit later I woke to Anna crying in her room, so I sent Brent to see what was wrong. She didn’t say anything, just went back to sleep. The next morning Emma told me Anna came down to her and Elizabeth’s room and turned on there light, started to climb up the ladder to the bunk bed but fell off and started crying. I didn’t really believe her, until Elizabeth came home from school and said the same thing. So, Anna gets bored in her crib and decides to go visit her sisters in the middle of the night. How sweet of her. Elizabeth and Emma did not really appreciate the light turning on in the middle of the night though.

Cat in the Hat

2009-01-30T11:10:00.000-06:00

Anna will be sharing her room with the new baby. Their room got finished (well it’s almost finished) in Dr. Seuss style. I repainted the dresser that was Precious Moments. I enlisted Grandma to paint on 2 of the walls. I got some curtains made and I painted the 2 kids that will be sitting in front of the window. Then I drew 3 more pictures to hang by the crib. Grandma offered to do a red stripe around the room… we’ll see if that really happens or not.

Lost In Boxes!

2009-01-10T10:54:00.000-06:00

We got moved OK, I just got lost in the mountain of boxes. We did find help to get the stuff moved. Both my brothers, my uncle and a couple cousins helped. With all the help it didn’t take very long to get the job done. Of course it was cold, but they did get done just before more snow found it’s way here. Alex is assembling his new captains bed. With Matthew watching and learning. Grandpa helping with some last minute details. The kids all enjoyed their supper break in side the kitchen cabinets.

And here is the kitchen, dining room and living room all done and unpacked.

YES! I have a pantry. No more using the hallway closet for a pantry. Too bad we have no food to put in it.

WE'RE MOVING!! wanna help?!?!?!

2009-01-01T18:51:00.001-06:00

Yes, it's true. The time has finally come. Well, actually the time has been here for a couple weeks, but the weather has been either 60 below zero or snowing. Brent is going to get the moving truck Friday after work, so him and Paul can try to get it loaded. Now the forecast for Sat. is SNOW. Go figure! Snow or not we're moving. The truck might be going down the road 10mph, but it will be going.

We are still waiting for our cabinet guy to get the center island done and installed. Guess he'll have to work around us now!

I guess this means I'll be signing off for a few days. LOL, as if I've been regular with my posts lately.

Technorati Tags: moving

Christmas 2008

2008-12-28T10:57:00.000-06:00

We are spending this Christmas living with Grandma and Grandpa. The house is pretty much ready for us to move in. Just a few minor finishing things need to be done, but it’s mostly the weather right now that has prevented us from getting any moving done.

Here are a ~~few~~ a lot of pictures of the kids opening up gifts after coming home from Christmas Eve Mass.

Our Angel painting that Elizabeth made in school.Very sweet cards that Joseph made for us. Really cool lighted glass block that Matthew made for us in school. I got Brent a GPS so he wouldn’t get lost while out off-roading. He was very fond of his new Littlest Pet Shop set he got too. LOL

Christmas morning before going to the relatives we stopped at the house to see what Santa brought. He left us a Skee Ball machine and 2 Plasma cars. They are ride on cars that are powered by steering side to side. Pretty cool!!

Almost Done!

2008-12-11T13:13:00.001-06:00

There has been a lot going on at the house this week. Here's the most updated pictures I have...........

So, the trim is all done, walls are painted, and most of the flooring is done. This week they are finishing up the plumbing, electrical, laying the carpet in the kids' rooms, and the cabinets are being finished up and installed. Then we will need all hands on deck to do the final clean up, then it should be about ready to move into.

Technorati Tags: more house pictures

House update

2008-11-25T08:32:00.006-06:00

Thanks Paul for being a trooper and cutting all the tiles. I'd recommend you and Brent to anyone that is looking for tile layers. Though, I know they couldn't pay you guys enough to want to do it again. LOL

Technorati Tags: more house pictures

Emma thought we needed some excitement!

2008-11-25T08:06:00.001-06:00

On Saturday as we were starting to get ready to go to Mass, Emma thought she'd make it a little exciting. (You know, since it's been so boring around here lately.) She found a little pocket knife in a desk, and opened it up to check it out. Normally she doesn't even touch sharp knives. She asks for help when something needs cutting. Well, when she went to shut it she sliced her thumb open. It was cut from the tip down all the way through her finger nail. I think she screamed for 1.5 minutes at the top of her lungs with out taking a breath. Since Brent was working on our floor, Grandma and Grandpa ran her to the ER. She had to wait.... so Grandma stayed with her and the rest of us went off to church. (BTW, on our way to church, Joseph suggested we pray for Emma, so we did. My kids may not always show it, but they really do care for each other.) She was still crying when they got to the ER, and some kind young lady that has a little girl of her own brought over a packet of fruit snacks for Emma and magically she stopped crying. She had to wait almost 3 1/2 hours before she got to see a doctor. When the doc finally saw her he brought in 2 ambulance guy to help hold her down while he gave her a numbing shot and stitch her up. My big brave Emma didn't even need those guys to hold her. She handed over her thumb and he did his job and she didn't even cry. The doctor was very surprised and impressed. After he numbed it he had to check if it was cut all the way through. Sure enough it was. So she got a stitch on the skin side and one through the nail. She will have to go back there a week from Thursday to get the stitches out. She's been a big girl about it. We are supposed to keep the bandages changed daily. Now for the ishy pictures....

Technorati Tags: cut finger,ER wait

CSI: Science Museum

2008-11-23T12:45:00.000-06:00

Alex and Grandpa were treated to a trip to St. Paul (for their birthdays) to see the Art Car Show. Well, really that was just the bonus, and it was only one car.

The real attraction was the CSI: The Experience exhibit at the Science Museum. We found human remains in the desert and had to figure out who it was and how they died. It was pretty interesting learning about the forensic science and technology they use now to solve crimes.

Alex and Brent....

and Grandpa and Joseph using the computers to put pieces of the puzzle together. Here Brent is studying the chemical make up of several different types of beer to determine which is the best one to drink.

Technorati Tags: CSI,Science museum of minnesota,best beer,art car show,minnesota weirdos

My choir boys

2008-11-12T14:20:00.001-06:00

Alex and Joseph had their first choir concert last night. Brent and Emma went, I stayed home with the rest of the kids. Brent said they did very well. After each grade did their own songs they did one song at the end all together.

Both boys are really enjoying the choir and both plan on continuing to be in it as long as they are in school.

And... since we are still homeless and living out of boxes, I could not find our video camera. So, we had to use Grandmas digital camera to take some lesser quality video. Brent was able to get one song of each grade alone, then the one they did together at the end. Just so you know, if you hear any kids singing out of tune... it could not possibly be either of mine. :)

Here is Joseph's class.... He is the handsome on the left with the red and gray striped shirt.

Alex's class.... He's the handsome one in the middle with the dark shirt with the light stripe across it.

And the combined choirs.

Technorati Tags: choir concert

Overnight Surprise

2008-11-07T09:27:00.001-06:00

SNOW!!!

It's not supposed to snow yet. We don't have our driveway poured. Hopefully the sun will pop out to melt it all away today.

Kids were just a wee bit excited this morning, naturally. The snow is perfect for snowballs or for making a snowman. Of course they chose to engage in a little snowball fight before heading off to school.

This is actually the second snowfall. First one, it all melted as it hit the ground.

Technorati Tags: snow again

The Tie Breaker

2008-11-05T21:05:00.001-06:00

Here it comes....

The tie breaker.....

It was nice of the ultrasound tech to capture the baby as it is looking like an alien.

Yes, it's true, we are having another child. We are happy and the kids are all happy and excited. We already know how some family members will react to our GOOD news. So, you don't even need to say anything to us unless it's positive. We (Brent and I) were going to just keep the news to ourselves, because we are so tired of the things that we have to hear about how many kids we have. But, we decided I would put it up on here, because it's just too exciting to keep to ourselves. Plus, I know that there are people that read the blog that will be happy for us.

I do have to admit that I did have a selfish moment just after we found out. I took that selfish concern to God at Mass one Sunday and said "WHY??" and I didn't hear any voices or anything but instantly into my head came the answer... "because there are so many that are refusing My precious gifts". Very quickly after that I snapped out of my selfish state.

Anyway.... I had an ultrasound today that put the baby at 14.5 weeks. I did have some bleeding around 8 weeks, but the doc says everything is looking good now. I have also been feeling sick a lot, only throwing up a little though. (my kids might tell a different story, but, a little, a lot, it's all relative) The doc put the due date at May 2nd. But since the last 2 were c-section the doc says this one will be too, so she likes to schedule it about a week before the due date. So that would probably mean we'll have it in April. (and no we did not plan for another one in April, we already know there's like 28 birthdays that month already LOL)

AND... we are on the ball this time and have a name picked out already. I know, I know, shocking! We have decided on the name Sequoia.

Technorati Tags: new baby,alien baby,ultrasound

Somewhat updated house pictures

2008-11-04T13:45:00.003-06:00

This is a shot from the living room looking at the front entry and down the hallway.

This is what our cool spray in foam insulation looks like. Supposed to be very good stuff.

There is sheetrock up now and the guys are taping and mudding right now. I'm still waiting for someone to get me pictures with the sheetrock up. It's really starting to look like a house now. The sheetrock guys will be done on Thursday, then Brent will be starting to put the tile and laminate wood floors in. My brother Paul is going to come this weekend and give Brent a hand with the tiling.

The cement guys were supposed to come back today and get the garage and driveway formed up so they could get it poured. They weren't there this morning, hopefully they were just out voting and showed up late?!?!

I've got most colors, flooring, etc. picked out for the house. It's fun to pick out stuff for a house maybe one room at a time, but to do it for a whole house at once seems to be a bit much. Slowly but surely it's all coming together though.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's update!

Happy 14th Birthday Alex!

2008-10-26T21:44:00.001-05:00

Wow how the time flies! Hardly seems possible that Alex can really be this old. He's catching up to me very fast. Before I know it he'll be older than me.
I have enjoyed every minute of watching Alex grow up from being like this......

...... into this.........

I think I will blame this on the teen-age years. Although, have to say, Alex has a VERY good sense of right and wrong. He even listens to his conscience, well, except when he's being a pest to his siblings. (ahem, Alex!) Anyway, for now, I'm not too worried about Alex turning into a monster during his teen years.

I was hoping to put on some cute pictures of Alex as a strapping young lad, but being homeless, it's really hard to keep track of where stuff is. So, no cute Alex pictures at this time.

Next, I will work on uploading some updated pictures on the house.

House Update

2008-10-02T16:51:00.005-05:00

Picture update of our new house. It's coming right along nicely. The last 3 are from this afternoon.

Our New Home

2008-09-23T20:50:00.004-05:00

After looking at quite a few houses for sale, we came to realize that building was the best option for us. So, we found a lot and building commenced on Sept. 16. We will be about 10 blocks from the middle school, guess that means the boys get to walk to school. Even in the middle of winter when it's 80 below wind chills, with 4 feet of snow on the ground, and... it's up hill both ways! Go figure.We've already met our next door neighbors, they seem very nice.

Here's the latest pics of our new house...

Homeless

2008-09-15T12:11:00.000-05:00

This is the day we officially became homeless. It is a strange feeling signing a house away to someone else after 14 years. But, since we put the selling of our house into Gods hands, I guess it is time for us to move on.

All that work Brent did to the kitchen and the floors?? Good practice for Brent so he can do it to our next house. Great practice run Brent. You'll do a wonderful job in the new house I'm sure. ;)

Technorati Tags: homeless,selling house

Happy Anniversary

2008-09-04T12:06:00.000-05:00

We made it to 15 years! Not that I ever thought we wouldn't.

I guess you'll have to see here for the most recent pic of us. I'm not going to post it again because it is that bad.

Yea us!

I am still wondering what my anniversary gift is going to be. Maybe I will never know?!?

Technorati Tags: 15yr anniversary

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMMA

2008-08-24T21:49:00.000-05:00

The years are sure whizzing by... Emma is already 4!!!

Emma is a very curious sort, in case you couldn't tell. I love how she is not afraid to try anything (well, except for new foods). She loves to learn about everything.

People are always drawn to Emma. Wherever we go people will watch her/talk to her, comment about how CUTE she is.

New Pool

2008-08-22T22:04:00.000-05:00

The kids bought themselves a pool. Poor Brent was kept busy with that while it was up. Of course it's back down now, you know, it's Minnesota and we only have 2 weeks of summer. Plus we are vagrants now, and it is a little bit too big to have in our Suburban with us. They did enjoy it very much in between all the packing we had to do.

Note to selves for next summer: When they say make sure to put pool on level ground, it's for a reason! The pool will move down the hill!

Technorati Tags: salt water pool

Deadly Weapons

2008-08-01T19:25:00.000-05:00

No doubt my title will bring by a whole new set of people stopping by my blog.

Since I'm so famous and people are swarming me all the time I needed to hire a group of body guards. They only cost me a few years of karate lessons. LOL, whatever, it doesn't hurt to dream.

On July 24th the kids tested for new belt ranks. Elizabeth, our pint sized Karate Kid went from an orange belt to a GOLD belt.

Matthew was a green belt and tested for his PURPLE belt.

AND... Alex and Joseph tested from their brown belts... ...to RED belts! That means their next belt will be BLACK!

WAY TO GO KIDS!!!

Technorati Tags: body guards,karate,red belt

Happy Birthday Princess

2008-07-30T22:53:00.004-05:00

Happy 7th Birthday Elizabeth.

I love how Elizabeth always has a smile. Well, except for when someone (coughgrandmacough) gave her a sucker for the ride home when she was only 12 months old and she was so sticky she couldn't even blink her eyelids or open her mouth or take her hand off the stick. (I think that must be the longest sentence I have ever written.)

More of our exciting life to come soon.

Back in Time

2008-07-15T17:43:00.001-05:00

Saturday, we took a day trip down to Walnut Grove. We saw this...

But, we really went down there to see the Laura Ingalls Wilder Pageant. The boys discovered, and read (still reading) the Little House on the Prairie set of books that I had kept from when I was younger. They enjoyed the books, so we took them to see one of the places they lived. The book On the Banks of Plum Creek is the one that tells about life in Walnut Grove. They lived in a dug out along the bank of Plum Creek.

That is what it would have looked like 140 years ago (the picture is of one of the props for the play), but it has caved in so now it looks like this...

There was also a museum, there that we bought them to. It had lots of family pictures, artifacts (no originals, they're all in Missouri) and they had smaller replica buildings of that time. Everyone enjoyed the play, but it didn't start until 9pm. (Anna got left home, too long of a day for her) The kids had a good time, and they even learned a few things about "the olden days".

I really need to get me one of these....

Here is what Emma says "looks like a toilet thingy"....

Hopefully we'll be able to get a couple more adventures in yet this summer.

Technorati Tags: Laura Ingalls Wilder Pageant,Walnut Grove Minnesota

Too Close For Comfort

2008-07-14T01:52:00.001-05:00

Friday evening, around 6:30, a quick moving storm came through here. It brought with it a tornado that touched down on the south east side of town. We were in the stuff*mart (they made us all gather together in the back of the store) which is about a mile or 2 from where the tornado touched down. Thankfully there was only a couple minor injuries from it, and it looked like only 2 homes were completely destroyed. There was a mobile homes sales business that was destroyed. I only ever recall seeing 6-8 trailer homes there at a time. That is where they showed all the damage on the news though.

Here is a link to a video of the tornado that came through here. July 11, 2008 tornado.

We got 2 pictures on our way out of town on Saturday morning.

Nice timing on the second picture, huh?

Technorati Tags: July 11,2008,tornado,minnesota

Surprise Birthday Party

2008-06-30T00:24:00.001-05:00

Today we had a surprise birthday party for my grandma, my dad's mom. She turned 88 years young on Friday. My uncle Greg put together a tribute/family history video, all the family members had contributed video for the project. Then they rented out the movie theatre and everyone went there to watch the video. My grandma knew nothing of what was going on, they had to trick her to get her to go the the movie. When she came in, it was dark so she couldn't see all the family and friends that had come before her. I don't think she even realized while the video was playing that the theatre was filled with people she knew. They told her at the end then the lights came on, and everyone sang happy birthday to her. We each got a copy of the video. That, no doubt, will be a treasured keepsake. My kids had been looking forward to seeing the video on the big screen, because three of them starred in a segment of it. (If I am able to crop it out of the movie, I will add it here.) They consider themselves movie stars now, and already had to sign autographs. Nothing like making their heads swell. Anyway, many antics of all my dad's siblings were aired. Wow, I thought my kids were bad. Nope, my kids are a walk in the park compared to my aunts and uncles. Maybe I should just be quiet now because my kids are still young. I just hope I'm able to keep laughing at the crazy things my kids will no doubt end up doing.

So, we had a wonderful day visiting with relatives. It was a very rare occurrence to have every one of my grandma's children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren all in one place at the same time.

I will get a couple family pictures up when I get them loaded into the computer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This past Wednesday we journeyed to St. Paul to go to the Science Museum of Minnesota to see the Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination exhibit. We did our part to stimulate the economy going there. It was $24 per child (Emma and Anna were free) and $27 per adult (Alex was an "adult" at 13) That includes getting into the museum, the Star Wars exhibit, the Omnitheater show Special Effects, and the $3 per person service fee for buying the tickets on line. This is the reason we don't get out much and do things. Unless it's free or near free.

The kids did enjoy the museum though. They would love to go back and see more of it, since they only got a glimpse of the other exhibits that were there. Not enough hours in the day. We first saw the Special Effects movie in the Omnitheater. That was really interesting, they showed how they do many of the special effects in different movies. Anna was a trooper and lasted most of the movie, but about the last 5 minutes or so she started yelling so Brent took her out. Then, the kids quickly went through the human body exhibit. That interested them, they said they would like to go back to see more of that.

Then, the rest of the time was spent in the Star Wars exhibit. It was mostly a display of costumes and props.

One little "science" center in there that had all the kids intrigued was on electro-magnetic vehicles. They had to build magnetic "train cars" out of Legos, then they learned what makes them float above the track and how they move. After all that then of course they had to get the souvenir photos. Those turned out really cute. (Wouldn't want to get myself into trouble by posting them here, so I'll show them by other means)

Oh, then there was another extra deal for $3 a person you could go into a replica of the Millennium Falcon and "experience the jump to light speed" while they talk about our solar system. Emma wanted to go in, but when she went in she heard they were going to go for a ride far away in space. She had enough right then and Grandpa (Yes, Grandma and Grandpa came with to the museum for the Star Wars experience too!) had to leave the ship with her. (No refunds for that non-ride... bummer)

It was an expensive day, but the kids really enjoyed it, and have all said they would like to go back.

Technorati Tags: Grandma'ssurprise 88th birthday party,science museum of minnesota,star wars,special effects,stimulus check

North to Canada

2008-06-24T22:53:00.001-05:00

Over the weekend we went up to visit our good friends Maria and Jake. It was only about a mile from the Canadian border. Well, maybe it was more like 200 miles. That's some beautiful country up there. We went up there with the four-wheelers to ride on the trails around their house. We got up there about noon on Saturday, ate a lunch and headed out to the trails. Jake and Maria were leading, the kids were following, then I was riding with Brent and we were in the back. We rode for a little bit then we needed to head back to their house to get cleaned up for church. Since we were in the back, Alex said "Eat my dust", and we sure did. For some reason everyone was laughing at me during and after that ride. I guess nobody has ever seen me covered in dirt from head to toe.

The cool little man sitting with me for the picture is Michael, Maria and Jake's son. Our 2 littlest didn't go with us, they stayed with Grandma Judy. Anna didn't have a choice, she had to go to Grandmas, because I still refuse to ride for more than 30 minutes in the car with her. Emma, she's not really a fan of off-roading so she decided she would have more fun visiting Grandma.

So anyway, we were able to get somewhat cleaned up and off to confessions and Mass on time. When we got there Maria decided to help her friend out with the music, so she went up in back and played the piano, and sang. She did a beautiful job. Strange thing though, she stopped playing right in the middle of the Lamb of God. Then moments later we hear a scream back there. There was a bat flying around church and got a little too close for comfort for Maria and her friend up in the choir loft. Then the bat flew up into the Sanctuary, made a couple circles, then flew out a side door. The priest quickly darted over to shut the door behind the winged visitor. Then all was well.

Back at Maria's some rain and lightning threatened us, but went around and left us alone instead.

Elizabeth and Michael on the swing set. On Sunday as we were packing up to go home, Elizabeth came to me and said, "I think Michael is the first boy that I was able to get along and play nice with." She's so cute.

We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful weekend. We had a wonderful time visiting and exploring the land. Well worth the drive up there! Thanks Maria and Jake for having us!

Tomorrow.... STAR WARS at the science museum!

Technorati Tags: visiting friends,four-wheeling,getting dirty,rainbow,star wars,science museum of minnesota

My Aching Heart

2008-06-20T18:03:00.001-05:00

This post is intended for my kids, not to be pity post.

(I am going to be putting my whole blog into a book for my kids using Blurb. Pretty neat site to make your own books at. I tried it out by making a Jeep Book for Brent. Turned out really neat.) Anyway...

Last night in the middle of the night we had a little situation. Emma woke up vomiting! I woke up Brent to get her and help her. Sorry Brent, that's just our life situation. Emma was crying, "I want my Mommy!" over and over.

Off and on I get stressed and frustrated about my condition. I realize there is nothing that can be done about it, and I need to work on accepting it in all situations, but still, it stresses me out. There is so much that I can't do physically, or I have great difficulty with. You guys pretty much know those things I can't do because you need to be big kids and help me out all the time with them. And there are things Daddy has to help me with, or Grandma or C. (my home health aid). The absolute worst and hardest for me to accept is not being able to help you guys in the middle up the night when you are sick, or just need a hug and a bottle to get back to sleep. In the day time when I'm in my chair and you get hurt, at least someone can bring you to me. Or if you're sick I can somewhat help you get cleaned up and comfort you. Sure, at night if I was able to do it all myself, I would be gagging just like Daddy. I can't stand puke almost as much as Daddy can't. As it is, it would be a lot more work for Daddy to get me up, and he'd still have to help out with you. It just breaks my heart to have to lay in bed helpless listening to you crying and Daddy crabbing about having to deal with it all. I'm sure, just because it's in a mother's nature to be the comforter, I will never be able to accept that I can't be there for you in the night. Sure, you will grow out of the need for help in the night, but I think I will always carry that horrible feeling that I have of not being able to help you in the night with me to my grave.

Now, I need to list some of the things that I am thankful for that I can do with you, so that this is not a pity post. I am very thankful that I have the brains to be able to teach you and help you with you homework. I love enjoying the outdoors with you, like going around the block, watching you guys have fun on the four-wheelers, riding bike and all the other crazy things you do outside. I'm thankful that we can play board games and sometimes the Wii together. I'm most thankful for, and the best part of being you mom is being able to just talk and laugh and pray together.

Picture of us all when Anna was born in Feb, '07. We really need to get an updated family picture.

Technorati Tags: aching mothers heart,abled,disabled,night puking,being thankful,Blurb book

Another Unsolved Mystery

2008-06-16T22:07:00.001-05:00

Over the looooooong winter some one, or some creature was desperate for some gasoline. Both the push mower and the riding lawn mower suffered the wrath of something trying to get at the gas in them.

What in the world does this to gas caps?!?

Technorati Tags: unsolved mystery,gas snatcher,high flying squirrels,crazy rodents

Schools Out

2008-06-16T21:09:00.001-05:00

School has been out for almost 2 weeks now. The kids' last day was June 2. That was a happy and sad day for Joseph. Every kid is happy for that last day of school, but this was Joseph's last day at St. Philip's. He is still unsure if he wants to go to the public middle school over there or be home schooled. Something to pray about I guess.

A great bunch of kids that just finished 5th grade!

Joseph with the principal, Mrs. McCarney, and his fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Buschette.

The Three Stooges!

Joe, Dan and Sam

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I was keeping the kids busy with getting ready for the garage sale, and we did start to pack up stuff around the house. Now that the sale is done, I'm going to have to come up with ways to keep the kids busy to keep the fighting down to a minimum. I guess I could threaten them with more packing if they start to get too unruly.

Oh, a couple weeks ago I called Brent to ask him to pick up some boxes on his way home from work. This is what he came home with...

After about four or five trips into the house carrying boxes, he tells me he had drove the Willys to work that day. He had fit all those boxes into this........

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The kids have a couple friends over from school today, and they were all jumping on the trampoline. I just happened to look out the back door when I saw Emma fall head over heels down the steps that go to the trampoline. As my eyes were bugging out of my head, I hear her yell, "Guys! Did you see that?!? I did a force flip down the steps!!"

We've got STAR WARS on the brain!

Technorati Tags: school's out,St. Philip's Graduate,moving boxes,force flip,star wars,science museum of minnesota,silly quotes

Living Simply

2008-06-16T19:43:00.001-05:00

Garage sale is done and over with. We did quite nicely with the sale. We now have enough money to take the kids to see the Star Wars Exhibit at the Minnesota Science Museum. (We are going next Wednesday, the 25th. Count down has begun!) Everyone is very excited about going. Emma does NOT want to see Darth Vader though.

Anyway, we got rid of a ton of possessions that were starting to possess us. It really is a good feeling to not be crowded out by stuff! Seems to be a lot easier to keep the house picked up too. Bonus!

Garage sales attract all kinds of people. Some are frugal, some are greedy ("you have $5 on this, will you take 50 cents?"), some people that come I think are just lonely and like to have a chance to talk to other people, (or maybe I have a sign on my head that says "Need someone to talk to? I'm here for ya!"), some just simply enjoy life! One lady found a piece of bubble wrap in the freebie box, (I have no idea where it came from) and asked if she could have it. "Sure," I said. Then she tells us that she just loves to sit at home and pop all those little bubbles. I want to be able to find that much joy in the simple things of life!

Technorati Tags: garage sale,bubble wrap,joys in life

Minnesota's Other Season

2008-05-30T23:53:00.001-05:00

Yes, as winter is slowly fading, our other season is ushering in. That would be the Mosquito season.

Over Memorial weekend we got to enjoy the presence of a cousin spending the night. The kids thought it would be a good idea to camp out outside. So they set up camp right on the deck. Wouldn't want to be too far from the door. (Baby steps) (BTW, we were informed we have werewolves in our backyard. Can you say... too much Scooby Do?!?!) Well, it only took like 834 trips in and out of the house to get all set up and whatever else they could think of just to go in and out of the house. One of those time of opening the screen door let in the new season. It was a giant mosquito, the size of my hand. Oh, I guess it was the size of Anna's hand. It was huge! Alex got a picture of it just before it met it's demise.

Ok, now here's the real one just so you know it was for real. Although there is nothing in the picture to compare it's size to, it really was huge.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The cousin got to go out four-wheeling with Brent and the kids. She says she had a great time. She wants her own four-wheeler now. (lol sorry Brian, it's catchy)

Isn't she cute?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anna loves the outdoors so much, she has figured out that if she puts a box by the door, she can reach the handle! She probably would have gotten the door open and fallen on her face had she been given the chance. She can get the sliding screen door to the deck open though. We need to make sure that door stays locked when we want her to stay inside! She's so smart. What can I say, she takes after her mom!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Technorati Tags: Mosquito season,giant mosquito,camping out,four-wheeling,escapee,I'm exhausted!

A New Gift From God

2008-05-30T23:09:00.001-05:00

LOL, no it's not us this time. Silly people!

While we were stuck in the belly of the whale we got news from the outside world that our new nephew/cousin arrived. He was born May 16th.

Welcome to the world Elijah!

Technorati Tags: Gift From God,new baby,Elijah

In The Belly of the Whale

2008-05-30T22:44:00.001-05:00

I think I know what Jonah felt like when he was swallowed by a whale. Since we put our house on the market we have been going through things, and getting rid of everything we don't need or want to move. Which is a huge part of our house. The worst so far was going through the toys. I think we spent about three months on sorting all the toys that contain 1,362 pieces each.

OK, so maybe it was only like 6 days. Surely it would have been longer if our realtor hadn't called and said, "Can we show your house tonight?" That was Wednesday of this week. That was a stressful day, but I am thankful we have people at least interested in the house, and it was a great motivator to get that daunting task done. No thanks to the kids, I might add. Their theme song through this whole ordeal has been "We are the Pirates Who Don't Do Anything"

Now we have a new rule for our household. No toys are allowed to enter that contain 1,362 pieces. Those toys that only have 2 pieces.... we MAY consider those. Depending on the mood of the day.

Back to the belly we will go, and onward we will trudge until we've got the whole ~~belly~~ house cleaned out.

Technorati Tags: Belly of the Whale,Jonah,moving,cleaning,too many toys,garage sale,man I'm pooped

Only A 3 Year Old

2008-05-05T23:49:00.002-05:00

This is what she did tonight after going to bed. At least the blankets are nice and neat on my lampshade this time. And... yes, that is a pair of tights on her head. She is such a creative little girl.

Edited:

Today when asked why she put the tights on her head, she said, "To keep my hair out of my eyes." Well shoot, how could I have not known that??

Technorati Tags: tights head

My Rabbit

2008-05-05T10:39:00.001-05:00

Elizabeth (1st Grade) brought this paper home that she did a couple weeks ago.

In case it's not readable, it says:

My Rabbit

My rabbit's name is Julia. We like to eat chocolate carrots. We dug a hole in Grant's yard. Grant filled it up. We dug it again.

by Elizabeth

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Speaking of rabbits.... we are raising the Energizer Bunny. Emma has been banned from going to sleep in her own room with the other 2 girls, because she just talk to her sisters and plays with things.... for hours. The other 2 can both go right to sleep when Emma is not in there. So, now she has to lay down on our bed until she goes to sleep, then Brent puts her into her own bed.

Here is a sample of what she does after she is in bed. She redecorated my plain and boring lamp shade. She made me a much more colorful and interesting bedspread, and she tried on a bunch of Anna's clothes. Here she has on a lovely ensemble consisting of her own favorite Dora nightgown, Anna's pretty white tights, and an adorable little yellow baby hat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now.... are you sitting down???

Look at this.... we have a whole room done!!!!

Yes, this is the "pool table" room. The same room that just a week ago you could not even walk into the doorway. It was filled front to back almost to the ceiling with all our treasures. Now all that's left is a couple empty boxes, some things that we really do need to store, and some sheet rock. Now we will need to get that room barricaded, so that the rest of our treasures can't just escape into there without us going through them. Yep, our things move about our house all by themselves, because our kids always keep things put away in their proper places.

Now, back to work I go.

Technorati Tags: 1st grade writing story,energizer bunny,spring cleaning

An award? For Me??

2008-04-28T22:45:00.001-05:00

Damama awarded me these crown jewels because I am ~~Queen Bossy of my domain~~ raising "6 ~~wild injuns~~ ~~insaniacs~~ angels".

Well, thank you for the award! Really the award should be going to the people behind the scenes who help me out every day to make my job look easy. I would pass it on to them, but none of them have their own blog. Oh well, I will wear it proudly for them.

Technorati Tags: crown jewels,blog award

Happy Birthday Brent

2008-04-28T22:19:00.001-05:00

I'm only a day late.

How nice it was to have a blizzard for Brent's birthday. Maybe I'll get snow for my birthday too.

The picture is from Saturday. Sundays snow was actually kind of pretty (If ever snow in April could be pretty) with the great big snow flakes. Anyway, back to the birthday. Man, Brent is getting pretty old. (cough37cough) What was I thinking marrying a guy so much older than me. I guess his good qualities out weighed the huge age difference. Not too many guys would be too keen on giving their wife 18 piggy back rides on a snowy, 42 below wind chill day, just to go window shopping. Thank you Brent!

Brent just told me age doesn't matter as long as your young at heart. He also added that it would be nice if his body would play along and feel young too.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It looks like Emma has a twin out there somewhere that we don't know about. I got a magazine recently, and when it came Alex noticed the girl on the front looks a lot like Emma.

And......... yesterday, that ~~mischievous~~ beautiful little model look a-like of ours got into a little trouble. As I was reading an e-mail in the school room, Emma was sitting behind me on one of the kids' desks. I heard something that didn't sound very good. I asked Emma what that noise was and she said, "You mean that cutting pants noise?" Sure enough she was cutting her pants with a scissors. Right ~~in front~~ behind me. Then I went and made a huge parenting mistake... I laughed at her. Yea, you people that know her, picture that sweet little voice saying that line so matter-of-factly and not laugh.

Yes, God knew what he was doing giving us this child as number 5 instead of 1 or 2. He didn't want to scare us from having more kids.

Technorati Tags: Brent blizzard birthday,Faith & Family model,mischievous Emma

SNOW.... AGAIN

2008-04-25T20:57:00.002-05:00

They predicted right, and it's been snowing off and on since early afternoon.

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Just the other day Alex said to me, "Use your imagination. It's a fort, not a mess." I guess I need to work on getting back my imagination.

Couple more silly quotes:

Emma: "Grandma's not a contractor, she's a Good Will girl"

Alex: "We should put Matthew in a wine (whine) bottle.

Emma: "But his big fat head won't fit in the bottle!"

Emma (aka Sassy Girl): "When I tell you to look at the yo-yo, you look. Is that clear?!"

Joseph: "It made me feel like a criminal!" talking about how they took pictures of his mouth at the dentist. Holding a piece of paper and turning for side shots.

Every time I hear a big crash (which is quite often)... "I'm OK Mommy!!"

And one from long long ago, Alex: "It's noisy outside" every time something was scary to him.

Don't remember where I found this but, the definition fits for our house.

And thanks to J & M for sending this valuable info on to us:

Hang on to any of the new Minnesota Quarters if you have them, they maybe worth much more than 25 cents.
The US Mint announced today that it is

recalling all of the Minnesota quarters that are part of its program featuring quarters from each state.
This action is being taken after numerous reports that the new quarters will not work in parking meters, toll booths, vending machines, pay phones or any other coin
operated devices.
The problem lies in the unique design of the Minnesota Quarter, which was designed by a team of Norwegian specialists. Apparently the duct tape holding the two dimes and the nickel together keeps jamming up the machines.

Happy 11th Birthday Joseph!

2008-04-24T22:30:00.001-05:00

Wow, it's been over 3 weeks since I've posted anything! Busy, busy, busy!

Well, I thought I was going to be able to put a picture of Joseph with his beautiful birthday cake, but nope. My camera was loaned out and somebody that was taking pictures (we won't mention any names, but her name starts with Grandma and ends with Judy) was supposed to email me some pictures. So here is just a everyday boring picture of the birthday boy...

I really have no idea why he would even consider putting the babies smelly pants on his head. OK I will admit, weirdness just runs in the family.

Oh, I had a great full length song I was going to sing and put on here dedicated to Joseph, but, darn the luck. I have no video tape to put in the camera. I'm so bummed, as I'm sure everyone else ~~better be~~ is.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, we have been super busy doing some major "spring cleaning". Maybe we'll be done by the time spring actually gets here. lol Anyway, those of you that know what our school room usually looks like, you would probably faint if you saw the progress we have made. I have the dreaded closet in there to go through yet, but then one whole room will be completely "spring cleaned". Yippeee! ~~Pack Rat~~ Brent is doing a great job of cleaning out his ~~crap~~ treasure trove of goodies ~~that he has been hoarding~~ that he has neatly stored away, also. It's amazing how much stuff a family of 8 can accumulate. It's going to be so nice to get it all gone. The kids are not liking it though. We find things that nobody has touched in years, try to send it to the garage sale pile, and they have a fit. I try to explain to them that we can not keep everything we have, we just don't have the room for all this stuff. So, a lot of things (that they don't even know we have) are disappearing when they are not around. We need you all to cheer us on really loud so we can hear you and be motivated to keep on weeding through the stuff.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yesterday..... 73 glorious degrees. Tomorrow..... a chance of.... SNOW!!! Will it ever end?!?! Global warming?? Whatever!

I need summer.... I feel like a prisoner, locked up in my own house.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now the fun stuff.........

No picture for this one, (Brent was way too efficient and cleaned it up right away) Emma took a black Sharpie permanent marker and drew a huge circle on the wall by the girls' bedroom door. I asked her why in the world she would do that. "Well, I had to make a doorbell for the boys to use to come into our room." She is such a creative young lady!

Have you ever taken a shower, gotten all dried off and dressed, come out of the bathroom, and hear, "Umm, I think you forgot to rinse your hair. It's full of soap!" Poor Joseph must have had a lot on his mind that night. Just couldn't remember everything he needed to do.

Babies are attracted to toilets, because they see it a whole different way than we do. It's their size, it's like a catcher for all things they can fit in their tiny little hands, it has water (babies just love to splash water), it's sparkling clean (ok maybe not that one), it's something they can CONQUER!

Dorkman or Batman... I'll let you decide.

And just one more, so I can get to bed at a decent time...

Major Bed Head

This is how Anna looked after her beauty rest! She was mighty proud of it too.

Technorati Tags: Joseph Birthday,babies and toilets,shampoo man,Batman or Dorkman,Major Bed Head

Where did I park??

2008-03-31T21:46:00.001-05:00

Have you ever gone somewhere, parked your vehicle, gone in, and then come out and your vehicle is seemingly misplaced?? Well this happened to grandma when she came over today. It had already been snowing for a while before she got here. Then she drove up the driveway and couldn't quite make it up to the top because of the slippery snow, so she just parked where she made it to. She came in and started to give my 2 littlest girls a bath. Then Alex went to ask grandma why she didn't park up in the driveway. Grandma was thinking maybe it was April Fools day and Alex was pulling her leg, but nope. he was serious. Her van slid all the way back down the driveway and came to a stop less then 9" from the mailbox. Thankfully it didn't hit anything or go straight into the street into another car. I'm thinking it's a good thing we have Guardian Angels.

I think they forecasted only 3 weeks of summer this year. Yikes!

Technorati Tags: never-ending winter,slippery snow,guardian angels

Happy Birthday Matthew (Yesterday)

2008-03-31T21:18:00.002-05:00

Matthew is getting so old. 9 already!

Brent took last Friday off and surprised the boys by taking them to the Water Park of America. That was for Matthew and Joseph's birthday presents. The girls and I hung out at home. The boys were surprised and excited, they had been wanting to go for a long time. They played hard and came home exhausted. They said it was very busy there. Spring break time I suppose. Joseph went right to bed, but Matthew and Alex had just enough energy to talk my ear off for over an hour telling me all about the fun they had.

I've added a video of Alex surfing there, and a couple pictures, but they are from the first time we went there about 2 years ago.

Then Saturday Brent's family came to celebrate Matthew's birthday with us. All the boys went out four-wheeling. (Well, Paul R. convinced Amanda she needed to go out too... just so he could spray mud at her. She changed to quick when she got back for anyone to get a picture though.) The mud they brought back home must have weighed about as much as a car. Oh well, it's all about the fun! Plus Brent is in charge of the mud clean up, so it doesn't bother me at all.

Then on Sunday after church we headed up to Sauk Centre to catch up with our friends, the Rivers. It's always fun to get the kids together, and they all get along, so that's a bonus. They also served us a wonderful supper.

So, the weekend went by way too fast, but it was fun.

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The kids made me do this video. I do not want anyone saying anything to me about it either, because I watched it and I already know how bad it is. This is what crazy moms that love their kids do.

Technorati Tags: Matthew birthday,four-wheeling,muddy kids,visiting friends

Giant Easter Snowman

2008-03-24T21:57:00.001-05:00

We had a wonderful Easter, of course. My family all came to our house to celebrate the day. Thanks to grandma we had lots of great food to feast on. To wrap up our day together, we made a birthday greeting video for my grandma's surprise 88th birthday party in June. We made our video in front of this giant (almost 12 feet tall) snowman. My cousins, (right next door to my parents house) were building this huge snowman Easter day. Apparently they had way too much energy and my uncle kicked them out of the house. I have now lost all hope of my kids growing out of that stage.

The cousin with the "California" shirt on... not sure if he really helped with the building part. Perhaps his helmet was on too tight. LOL

We got a group shot of our whole family. Too bad the one that we all look normal in the snowman's head was cut off. It's a good thing it didn't take long to get a family shot and do the video, because it was quite cold standing out there.

Winter laughs in the face of Spring!

2008-03-22T18:07:00.003-05:00

I just love spring time in Minnesota. We get more snow in one day (Friday)than we got all winter?!? It sure put a grin on Brents face though. It was also the first day of the kids' Easter break. They have all of next week off too. But the snow should all be gone again by the end of Monday. Supposed to get up to 50F. Yippeee!! We ventured out in the snow yesterday to go to Good Friday services. There were a lot of people that forgot how to drive in the snow and had gotten themselves stuck. lol

Today we are getting ready for a house full of people for Easter. We are having Easter here, because I have refused to travel anymore than 10 minutes in the car with Anna. Maybe when she is 3 or 4 we can travel with her. lol

The boys will be serving at the 9a.m. Mass in the morning, so we need to get finished cleaning up and get to bed early. How's that saying.... early to bed, early to rise, makes us healthy, wealthy and wise? That must not be right, because we are none of them.

Have a Happy and Blessed Easter!

Angry Wheelchair

2008-03-12T17:15:00.005-05:00

Emma: "Mommy, you have an angry wheelchair!"
Mom: "What?!?"
Emma: "Your wheelchair is angry, because it ran over my toes the other day."
Mom: "Oh, well my chair is sorry then."

Emma is not a typical 3 year old. (In my experiences of 3 year olds anyway.) She remembers everything. And always says very funny or interesting things. I really need to write down more of the things she says.

The other day we were looking at some pictures of Disneyland, and we saw some kids next to Pooh and Tigger. Emma said, "Oh, they got to see Pooh and Tigger, but I didn't know they were giants."

Within the past couple months she started to tell me she wants to be a nun when she grows up, because "I love Jesus, and that's what he would want me to be."

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Anna decided that she likes Doritos. While Alex and I were at the other side of the counter, working on school work, Anna quietly snuck into the chip cabinet and started to pull out all the chip bags. Then dumped the Doritos, so she could eat them up. When we went to see what was going on, right away she hands over the chip and says "thank you". She's so polite. lol

I think it's a good thing she didn't get the bag of Flamin' Hot Cheetos open. Probably would have turned her into a very unpleasant little girl!!

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Joseph's snowman he made in school. He's so proud of it. lol I think he said he named it "Buddy" or something like that.

He keeps telling me he's torn about what he wants to do next year. Go on to the middle school over there or be home schooled. I'm torn too. Guess we need to do some serious praying.

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I wonder what the kids were trying to convey when they put the mobile on Anna's head???
Just today she was playing in the girls' room and climbed up the ladder to Elizabeth's bed. When I went into the room to check on her, she darted for the back wall of the bed. Then when Alex went up to get her down, she started to whack him in the face.

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I should really start drinking something more healthy than diet Sunkist. I am such a softy when this sweet face asks me for a drink of my pop. Or anything for that matter. If I drank something healthy she probably wouldn't even ask me for some, and if she did, it wouldn't really matter.

Tooth Fairy Time

2008-03-05T16:17:00.003-06:00

Elizabeth finally lost her first baby tooth. (last Wednesday) It was so loose that when it came out there was no blood. The tooth was ready to come out for a few days but Elizabeth was not quite ready. She was a little nervous that it might hurt. The best part about it for her was that fact that she could now use a straw without even opening her teeth. The most impressive part for me was that the Tooth Fairy actually came when she was supposed to and I didn't have to try to come up with some lame excuse for why she missed our house.

Floors Are DONE!!

2008-03-02T12:03:00.003-06:00

Oh happy day! Last week Brent finished up the floor. Thanks to grandpa, Pete and the boys for lending a hand as they had the time. Kids have been enjoying the floor too. They decided that roller blading through the living room and down the hall was great fun. Well, the rollerblading was fine, but the falling was not so great for the floor. Floor was only done for a few days and we already have a...... slight flaw in the floor. We had to put a break on the roller blades. lol Oh well, such is the life with kids.

The very same night Brent finished putting the trim back up around the the floor he told the kids to start unloading the front closet! Now, those of you that have ever been here and have helped the kids get/find their boots, hats, or mittens know how stuffed our front closet is storing 8 people's winter coats, boots and the rest of our winter gear. The first 2 pictures as you can see are after the kids already unloaded a ton of stuff.

After the stuff was thrown out into the livingroom, Brent started to put up a closet organizer. This guy is on a roll!!! We now can see our closet floor. There is places for all our stuff now. And, there is still room for more stuff, if we should need it. The closet has been done for 5 days now and it is still neat and tidy in there. Amazing! I have been on closet patrol though. Making sure the kids hang their jackets and put the rest of their stuff away where it belongs.

"This is the way we clean the floors"

2008-02-23T18:45:00.004-06:00

Here's the video of the kids cleaning the floor. Sorry, these are both from the digital camera, so not very good. Why would we take out the video camera and have good video when we can just use the digital camera. We're so smart. Not.

And one of Anna dancing to music. This was from Oct. 5, '07

Lunar Eclipse

2008-02-22T15:22:00.007-06:00

The kids, well the boys anyway, wanted to stay up a little later to watch the lunar eclipse on Wednesday night. This is what we saw from Minnesota. We thought we would see the moon looking red, but there was not much of any color to be seen from here. The moon also looked quite small from here.

Follow the bouncing moon.

This is what we were hoping we'd see. Pictures are from www.spaceweather.com

The photographer had the shutter open for almost 3 hours in this picture. Emma said, "That looks like a ear thingy!"

It's a Jeep thing...

2008-02-20T20:55:00.004-06:00

If you live in Minnesota, and you plan on going off the road, you better just get yourself a Jeep.

Brent's coworker/buddy, we'll just call him "Pete" here, needed a place to park a trailer that he was borrowing for a few days. So, he parked it in the empty lot next to us. While it was parked, it snowed, not much, maybe an inch. When "Pete" came back in his Ford Expedition (an off-road vehicle wanna-be) to get it, he couldn't even get all the way off the road on to the yard to get the trailer. Right where it's sitting in the picture is where he was stuck. Then Brent the Jeep Man jumped into action and pulled the big lug out of the snow bank with his super-lifted-big-tired-ultra-upgraded-finely-equiped-Jeep. No problem, like pulling a light-weight kid on a blanket across a slippery floor. After the big red bomb was safely out of the way, the Jeep got into the snow and pulled out the trailer. Again, no problem.

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

2008-02-20T17:08:00.006-06:00

No more duct tape on the floor! Yippee!
It's been a slow start, Brent's family came to visit on Saturday, so I had to give Brent the day off. Good thing it was actually somewhat warm outside, so they could all go out on the four-wheelers. Anyway, atleast the hallway is almost done and I'm not confined to just the kitchen any more. It's all the cutting for around the doorways that are dragging the project out. Paul C, you should be here for the cutting of the wood. You did a wonderful job cutting the tiles. Brent and measuring, they just don't really get along.The livingroom floor.... that should go faster since there is mostly just straight cuts out there.
If technology is on my side tomorrow, I will get a video up of the fun new way we clean our floor.

Boots

2008-02-14T22:06:00.002-06:00

This is going around in emails. Thought I'd add it to here, just because it's so darn funny.

To all those who have taught or been involved with children...enjoy!And, anyone who has ever dressed a child will love this.

The Cowboy Boots

Did you hear about the Michigan teacher who was helping one of her kindergarten students put on his cowboy boots? He asked for help and she could see why. Even with her pulling and him pushing, the little boots still didn't want to go on. By the time they got the second boot on, she had worked up a sweat. She almost cried when the little boy said, 'Teacher, they're on the wrong feet.' She looked, and sure enough, they were. It wasn't any easier pulling the boots off than it was putting them on. She managed to keep her cool as, together, they worked to get the boots back on, this time on the right feet. He then announced, 'These aren't my boots.' She bit her tongue, rather than get right in his face and scream, 'Why didn't you say so?', like she wanted to. Once again she struggled to help him pull the ill-fitting boots off his little feet. No sooner had they gotten the boots off when he said, 'They're my brother's boots. My Mom made me wear 'em.' Now she didn't know if she should laugh or cry. But she mustered up what grace and courage she had left to wrestle the boots on his feet again. Helping him into his coat, she asked, 'Now, where are your mittens?' He said, 'I stuffed 'em in the toes of my boots.'
She'll be eligible for parole in three years.

P.S. I sure hope you weren't picturing one of my sweet little innocent children when you were reading that. LOL

Happy Valentine's Day

2008-02-14T19:13:00.006-06:00

Happy Valentine's Day to all. My kids are so sweet and thoughtful. (most of the time, anyway) Elizabeth asked me if she could decorate a cut-out heart cookie. I told her yes, and a few moments later, she came back with the cookie that she decorated for me.

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Anna tried spaghetti. As you can see from the picture she enjoyed it. She enjoyed eating it, smearing it on her face, and she really enjoyed throwing it all over the floor.

She went in to the doctor today, because she has had a bad cough for 4-5 days now. Keeps her, and us, up at night. Turns out she has an ear infection in both ears. So, she started an antibiotic today, and hopefully she'll be feeling better in a couple days.

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Some homes have guard dogs, some churches have gargoyles, not us. We get to have a guard dragon. Sculpted and colored by Master Joseph.

The mail man hasn't come in a few days. You think maybe he's scared of the feirce looking dragon?

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You might be a RedNeck........

.....if you use duct tape to hold down your carpet.

Guess whats happening this weekend!

That stuff thats on the floor that looks like a sand box spilled... That is almost 15 years worth of dirt that worked it's way through the carpet and padding down to the floor. I was surprised. Guess I shouldn't have been with all the traffic going through this house.

Time to sign off and go fix the other computer. One of my most favorite jobs.

A high of -4F

2008-02-09T23:51:00.000-06:00

This is such lovely weather we're having. Wind chills approaching -45F. J and M, I hope your enjoying your beautiful weather in Florida. And Brent's sister, hope you all don't go into shock when you get back here from vacation in Florida. And Grandma J, how was Hawaii?? Wish you could could have stayed another month or so?!?! I think the ground hog said like another 6 months, or so, of winter this year. OK, I'm done now.

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"Yer right Pa, she shore is a perdy girl, our little Emma Jean. How we ever gonna keep all them little boys from chasin after her?!?"

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Oh, Heaven help us with this child. She just may give Emma a run for her money. I wish I would have had the video camera for this. I never think of it until it's too late. That's just the way it goes, I guess.

Last night Brent watched Anna open the dryer, take out the clothes, put those clothes into a nice pile right in front of the door, and used that pile to climb right on in to the dryer. She thought she was so funny. She was laughing away inside of there. Then she'd take a look out to see who all was watching her. Then go on back in, check things out, giggle some more. This continued until she got the whole family gathered around the dryer to watch her entertain us. (LOL, man we need to get out more) She would have loved to just sit in there for a while but..... I had Brent grab her out when I saw Emma slowly get closer to the door with this look of "hmmmmmm, I wonder what would happen..... if I shut this door on her?"

Happy Birthday Anna Marie!

2008-02-02T20:56:00.000-06:00

Picture by sweet big brother Joseph.

I can't believe my baby is already a year old. Time is flying by way too fast!

We are such awful parents. We didn't even buy the poor deprived kid any toys. All she got was practical gifts. Sippy cup, set of bowls and plates that sucktion to the table (this child loves to dump her food off of her plate or out of her bowl before she will eat it), non-slip socks, and pajamas. I suppose we will be blamed for years of therapy when she is older because for her first birthday she didn't get any toys. Hmmm... maybe tomorrow we should wrap up a few of the gazillions of toys we have laying around here for her to open up.

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This past week was a night-mare. Beginning last Sunday we had kids throwing up everyday. It went from one kid to the next to the next to the next....... all 6 of them! I only got vomited on once, that was by the baby. But that once was too many. I think the kids left their marks in pretty much every room in the house. And, we had the other problem that comes with rotten stomaches too. Yea, thats what was all over Anna in the picture. She was covered from head to toe. After a nice long nap she started crying, this is how she looked. Thankfully they are all done with the throwing-up, but they are still "running" to the bathroom. Brent and I have been spare.... so far.

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"Take a picture, it'll last longer."

The kitchen was clean so I took some pictures quick before it got messed up again. We had Brent relatives over for a Christmas party last weekend.

Brent and Paul got the floor done a couple weeks ago. They did a great job! Brent keeps reminding me we saved $1,100 by him doing it. He must want to buy something big.

"I love you"

2008-01-16T19:33:00.000-06:00

This morning I woke up to Emma Rose handing me a piece of paper and saying, "I wrote a note for you mom. It says I love you."

It's things like this that make everything worth it.

Enough said.

We're supposed to clean under the stove?!?

2008-01-15T16:25:00.000-06:00

It was quite the disgusting site when Brent pulled the stove out so he could start on the floor. (Mom, I don't recall ever seeing you clean under the stove, or hearing you tell me to do this. Did you do it while we were in bed or at school?? Did you forget to tell me?!?)

There was another strange thing we found behind the stove on the wall. Apparently when Paul C helped with the painting there was a thing on the wall. He thought maybe it was like an end cap on something that was coming out the wall there. So, he just slapped some paint right on top of it. Check out the close-up picture and see if you can tell what it is.

Yep.... it's a cap to a juice container. Stuck to the wall!!! If we pull it off now there will be a white circle. I think we'll just leave it there and if we ever move, the next owners can wonder what in the world it is. LOL

Tile is all down, Brent just needs to do the grout. It's looking so much better in the kitchen.

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~~Our neighborhood dorks messing around~~ Some fine young neighborhood boys got just a little carried away going aroung the corner. Just like they do every time they drive through here. Only this time they got stuck in that giant snow bank on the other side of the road. The innocent pedestrian stopped to watch, she probably thought they were going to break free and run her over. He was only stuck for about 5 minutes before his buddy came and pushed him out. Maybe their next vehicle should be a Jeep. (right Brent??)

Sunday Sillies

2008-01-06T22:23:00.000-06:00

That oh so lovely picture of me, nice huh? Brent and the kids were trying to hijack my blog to put that on here. Guess they thought it was funny or something. Whatever.

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Kitchen Update

beforeso far....next up.....Can't wait til the floor is done. This should have been done 13 years ago when we moved here. Paul C. is coming to help Brent this coming weekend. Should be interesting. Neither one of them has laid tile before.

"Uh oh"

2008-01-05T22:48:00.000-06:00

I'm back. I just know you all have been on the edge of your seats waiting for my next post. LOL
The kids' school Christmas program was wonderful. It's always a treat to listen to the kids singing Christmas songs. (June and Marge, I will work on getting the video of the program up on here so if your ever bored some day you can enjoy watching the kids)
So Anna is talking now. She says "bapba" grandpa (or grandma depending on which one she's looking at) (I'm so proud this child has just skipped over mama and dada) and she also says "uh oh". She plays the game of throwing the food on the floor so she can practise saying uh oh. It's so much fun.
Anna's "Uh Oh" would have been most appropriate last weekend at church. Joseph was altar serving and during the Agnus Dei he turned pale and had a look of panic on his face. Then because he "didn't want the other server to have to finish serving all by himself" (what a thoughtful young man) he leaned over to rest his arm and head on the altar and proceeded to throw up over the side. Not once, but twice. Ugghh. He wasn't even sick before or after that. Just one of those things, I guess.

I'll be back..............

Christmas Pictures

2007-12-19T16:02:00.000-06:00

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

Christmas program

2007-12-18T22:50:00.000-06:00

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

2007-12-13T19:22:00.000-06:00

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

2007-12-12T12:15:00.000-06:00

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

2007-12-09T00:12:00.000-06:00

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

2007-12-08T13:49:00.000-06:00

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

2007-11-30T11:14:00.000-06:00

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

2007-11-29T10:53:00.001-06:00

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

2007-11-26T21:36:00.000-06:00

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!

2007-11-21T22:00:00.000-06:00

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

2007-11-17T18:33:00.000-06:00

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....

2007-11-16T13:47:00.001-06:00

...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

2007-11-14T13:28:00.000-06:00

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!!!

2007-11-14T12:38:00.000-06:00

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.....

2007-11-13T21:17:00.000-06:00

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

2007-11-10T20:35:00.000-06:00

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

2007-11-03T15:18:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-11-03T12:05:00.000-05:00

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

2007-11-02T11:25:00.000-05:00

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.

Happy Birthday Alex! Yikes, 13!

2007-10-26T18:59:00.000-05:00

Man, I am now officially a parent of a teenager. Please, please pray for me! lol I'm not really even old enough to have a teenager, I'm only like 26 myself. (something like that anyway). Alex is big into pretty much anything Lego. So most of his presents were legos. Star Wars Legos, Castle Legos, and Bionicle Legos. Should keep him busy at least for a couple days. He also got a cool remote control helicopter, that you can see in the picture. Baby sister Anna was scared of it though. She starts bawling every time it starts to fly. Guess he'll have to fly it far away from her. Oh, Joseph wanted me to write that the Bionicle box was a trick. Joseph wrapped up some candy for Alex in the box to trick him. It worked. Alex thought it was a Bionicle, but nope, it was a couple boxes of candy. Sneaky.

Wish me luck on my new adventure!

Caught red (err yellow) handed!

2007-10-24T22:03:00.000-05:00

Apparently, Emma thought our deck needed a little spicing up this past weekend. We can hardly get mad at her for trying to paint the deck..... the can of yellow spray paint must have looked very inviting to her just laying out in the yard. For that we have the boys to thank! Even though nobody would ever claim the responsibility. They had paint out to paint on pieces of scrap boards they made into "pod racers". I'm sure in Emma's mind the deck was ok to paint because it too is made of wood.

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"I gave Anna some KoolAid." said Emma. I was a little worried when she told me this because both girls were in the school room. I asked her where the KoolAid was and she pointed to the closet of the school room. She just kept insisting she gave Anna "just a little" KoolAid. So I told her to bring the KoolAid to me. .......She brought an ink stamp pad. Good thing Anna only got a little KoolAid on her cheek and nowhere else.

Ave Maria

2007-10-24T12:22:00.000-05:00

So here is Emma saying the Hail Mary in Latin. Yes, she did just turn 3 just 2 months ago. LOL she wanted a picture of her saying it to put on the blog.

Ave Maria,

gratia plena,

Dominus tecum:

benedicta tu in mulieribus,

et benedictus fructus ventris tui Jesus.

Santa Maria,

Mater Dei,

ora pro nobis peccatoribus,

nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen

She only messed up the very last line of it. For that she went to bed without supper. lol Kidding!!

I think kids are way smarter than they have us believing.

Anyway, enjoy the video. I'm sure Emma will remind me daily to replay it for her.