Covered in dust and mud and eating Christmas cookies.

We've been a little busy.

I am more than a little tired.

Our goal was to be done by Christmas, but....

Christmas was moved to next Saturday.

Welcome to the future

I love Brad Paisley's song, "Welcome to the future".

In fact I am living it at the moment. EB is driving us to Mom and Dad's and I am on the Internet. In the car. Amazing to me.

The kids are playing DS. I wish I could say it was quiet, but it is late and the kids are cranky.

I need a drink...

I need lotion....

Z is laying down on me.......

You know what thethe best part is. I am not even listening to it. See I got these new headphones, with all my rewards points, and they block out background noise. Yes I consider my children background noise when their whining.

Yes, I know I should be conversing with my children, great conversations about what state license plates we've seen. But then again I could be listening to Tim McGraw.

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and a little black friday shopping. This is the first year, in about 10, that I am not going shopping.

That lovely EB is going to get the one thing I want. I am so lucky.

Spinning

The world is spinning and I feel as if I am about to be flung off.

I had grand delusions of spending Sunday on the couch watching football, but alas there is always one more thing that needs to be done.

Another trip or two to Mendard's

The house is mostly decorated, inside and out.

Christmas pictures are ordered.

Packers won, even if I didn't get to watch.

Vikings won, even if I won't watch.

Jimmie Johnson took home another cup.

Taylor Swift took home everything.

Friends shopped so much that I think their plane must have been flying low on the way home.

Kids picked out a new CD " 70s Roller Disco"

S A T U R D A Y Night!

With the windows open and the kids singing at the top of their lungs.

Susan Boyle's CD is pretty darn good.

"Wild Horses" is my favorite. "Day Dream Believer", was a surprise.

I think I have been broken down and may buy something ridiculous from that A.... Girl store.

There will be lots of deliveries to our door step soon.

Basement is half finished.

I watched "Pride and Prejudice" again, twice.

Turkey is coming. And Pie, oh so much pie.

I need to go hit the treadmill, so I can partake in more pie.

So much for conserving water

When we decided to put in a whirlpool tub, I didn't really think we would use it. I thought it is such a waste of water and electricity, but we have used it several times already.

The kids got to take their first dip in it tonight, after I let them have Mc Donald's for dinner.

I must not be feeling well.

G went to a Halloween sleepover last night where she stayed up until 2 am. So after swimming lessons and a bath, she crawled to her bedroom and was silent immediately.

BTW, body wash is not the same as bubble bath. I had to take a couple of buckets of bubbles out of the tub.

Poopy day.

Isn't that a lovely title.

I had to let some one go today.

She deserved it. I gave her many opportunities to prove to me that she could do the job.

Still sucked.

8 hours later it still sucks.

On a much happier note. A place for everything and almost everything in its place.

Okay, not everything. but much closer than a couple of weeks ago.

I'm back

I did figure out the whole internet connection.

Now I just need to figure out where to find the time.

Still have a garage full of boxes.

But a beautiful house, just waiting for friends and family.

I would post a picture, but blogger doesn't seem to want to do that right now.

Or it could be my sloooowwww internet connection......

Now I have to go watch some football.

BBL

Dilemmas

I really don't know what to do about this whole looming internet problem.

I built a room in our new house, specifically so I could monitor the kids on the computer while I was in the kitchen.

And of course the ease of hopping on to see what all those bloggers are doing.

I am getting down to the wire and I am distraught knowing in one week I will be disconnected unless I want to fork over some cash. Way more cash than I want to put down.

I had visions of being back to blogging every day!

Promise to post more pictures before the we move. Just in case.

Busy days

So close yet, so far away. They ran out of soffit, so another delay. The front door, after waiting for over 6 weeks, is the wrong door. I love Lowes, but they will be replacing the cheap door they gave me when I paid for a really expensive one.

I spent the Labor day weekend, picking out fabric and making Roman Shades. Yes I labored most of the weekend. Thanks to AC for that great idea.

Master curtain fabric.

Boys curtains, almost done.

Spare bedroom fabric, also almost done.

The Roman Shade is pretty easy to make, unless you do like I did and use blackout fabric. Now I could have used other liner except that EB wants it dark. That lining requires extra sewing and lots of needles for the sewing machine.

Gymnastics started today. There go my new walls.

G says she is going to have to go to Beginner II class because she had to demonstrate for all the other kids, as well as help them do handstands. I said let's see how this session goes.

Cabinet installation started today.

I am going to love my very big island.

Other than all of that, I have the creepy crud and have gone through no less than 5 boxes of Kleenex in the last two weeks. All courtesy of Z.

See you in a couple days.

Recovering.....

Vacation is over and we are all pooped. The children go back to school tomorrow and I go back to work.

They are excited.

I am not.

There are still too many things to do.

Curtains need to be made, some time in the next couple of weeks.

Ten things I am most looking forward to.

1. Burners that turn on when you turn them on.
2. A dishwasher that doesn't spew 2 gallons of water on the floor.
3. A refrigerator that doesn't need a bowl of water emptied every couple of days.
4. An actual laundry room, with dark gray slate tile, that should hide all dirt.
5. New glasses that aren't ruined by the dishwasher that spews water all over.
6. Neighbors who don't scare me.
7. Windows, windows, windows.
8. A garage I can park my car in.
9. Kids riding home on the bus.
10. A place for everything and everything in it's place. A girl can dream can't she.

Only a few more weeks to go. Of course if you walked through my house you wouldn't know that we were moving very soon. We plan on throwing things in the truck as we go. Besides everything in the garage is already packed.

Wild weather

Friday night the grandparents came and took the grandkids camping, just about 25 miles from where we live. This allowed us to carpet and appliance shop "child free" on Saturday. Yeah!! Anyway Friday night around 1:00 the thunder started to roll and the lightening exploded. EB and I were awake for about 2 hours, it was that loud and bright. Our kids do not like thunderstorms, so I was really worried about them in the camper and whether G & G would get any sleep.

I called G & G Saturday morning to see if they got any sleep. They said the kids slept right through it.

I said, "Didn't it wake you up?"

They said, "Yep it was really loud."

I said, "What did you give my kids before bed?"

Saturday, after a very successful shopping day, we headed to the campground. We ate, sat by the fire a while, beat off some gargantuan mosquitos and then headed home. When we were pulling into the driveway there was a weather warning on the radio. We sat in the car to listen to what was going on. There was a tornado warning, about 40 miles away. Z got all upset and threw up in the yard. They were a wreck. It took us 20 minutes to get them calmed down and in to bed. An hour after they got in bed, the tornados came pretty close to us and there warnings for our town. We got them up and went into the bathroom. They fell asleep on the floor! After it passed we put them back to bed.

Not one of them remembered that Sunday morning.

Still alive and kicking.

Home with sick child again. This time it is Z and we are headed to the pediatrician shortly to see if we are up for round 4 of strep throat. Right now, he is feeling fine and playing a game he found on the computer called potty racers. You race a port-a-potty and when you crash you know what happens. Nice isn't it. At least it isn't blood and guts.

Here is a few pics of the house. If all things continue on as they are we will be in by Sept 18th.

Library

Library/Kitchen

My closet

Living area

It is all just a big open area. Our room is on one side of the house and the kids are down the hallway you see above.

I should lower my expectations

On facebook, I said it was really great to see people and how wonderful my classmates have aged, but the truth is I am not sure I really enjoyed myself. I did enjoy catching up with about 6 of what would have been my really close friends back then, but that was about it.

I had envisioned everyone talking to everyone, but that really didn't happen. For the most part people hung out with the people they hung out with in High School. Now I can't say that I made a great effort to talk to people, I tried but it was just to difficult. Who would have thought, I would turn into an introvert when confronted with people I actually new once. I can talk to complete strangers for hours, but not to my old classmates. High School insecurities run deep. There were about 75 classmates in attendance. I did spend a lot of time trying to remember who people were. I heard people say the same thing about me.

I did find out, in talking to some of my classmates, that one is gay (he told me himself not rumor), one had a brain tumor 5 years ago, and one wants to get a divorce after 23 years of marriage. No sister I won't tell you who told me what.

I survived unscathed. I am very glad I went, if for nothing more than to connect with those 6 people.

Off to meet up with some old friends

This weekend is the big 25th reunion. I surely hope I don't make some big fool of myself. I am sure I did enough of that in high school.

Not sure why this whole things makes me sort of nauseous, but it does. It has managed to bring out my completely insecure 16 year old self.

The new neighbors

First, you know it has been a long time since you posted when you can't remember your password.

Last night we went to a block party, courtesy of Edy's ice cream, in our new neighborhood. I think I am going to really like our neighbors. Everyone is fairly new there, less than 3 years, so there were only a couple of people who really knew each other. We all wore name tags. I thought we should wear them for the next six months, but I was overruled.

We talked to one couple who, it turns out, lived in the exact same half of the duplex we live in. They know the creepy neighbors. They lived here right before we did.

There are three awesomely tall women. Not enough kids and definitely none our kids age. They were either much older or much younger. There are two teachers, maybe one will be a math tutor:)

We also came upon some devastating news........ There is NO INTERNET in our new neighborhood.. I feel like I just stepped back 10 years. NO INTERNET. The life of this blog could be prematurely hacked off. Oh yes there is dial-up....not, can't, won't. I looked into using our cell service, $60 a month. YIKES. I pay $20 now. I can't do $60.

On that note and the pain in my shoulder I am going to bed.

Who knew.

Last night we took the kids to the drive-in. I haven't been to one in probably 18 years. The last movie I saw at the drive-in was a horror flick with Demi Moore. I don't like horror flicks.

It was a triple feature with Ice Age 3, Night at the Museum 2 and the Hangover. We took the truck, blankets, lawn chairs, pillows and snacks. We didn't bring our grills like everyone else. These people had quite the spreads going on. We also didn't get there early enough. Gates opened at 7. We got there at 8:30 for movies that started about 9:30. We had an okay spot, but next time we will go much earlier.

It was 15 bucks for the five of us to see 3 movies. Of course we didn't make it to the second two. Everyone was crying because they really wanted to stay, even though Z slept through most of the 1st movie. G says, "I stayed up until 2 am last weekend..........." I am a mean mom and said we were going home. All 3 were asleep before we got out of the parking lot.

Collar bone is feeling somewhat better, but still a long way to go. Too much typing for today.

Hello gravity!

Posting is going to be mostly pictures for the next 6 - 8 weeks.

Once again I must remind myself that I am not 18.

No, alcohol was not involved. Although it might have hurt less at the time.

He will be missed!!!!

I am not talking about Michael Jackson, Ed MacMahon or Billie Mays.

He was much sweeter, softer and always happy to see me.

I knew it would happen sooner rather than later. He was 15.

It still broke my heart.

We miss you Sammy, even G.

Tell Mavy we miss him too!

We have been a little busy

There has been dance.

There has been fishing.

There has been baseball.

There has been more baseball.

Then there has been this...

and this...

and this...

and this...

and more of this...

Tomorrow there will be walls.

I am looking forward to the weekend. I know it is only Monday, but we have no plans, I can't remember the last weekend where we had nothing to do.

Too much fun or too much sun

We took the kids to their first concert yesterday.  It was an all day event.  

The weather was beautiful, 72 and sunny.  We were outside for about 8 hours.  

I am sure it was the first concert I have been too, where I didn't get pushed around by drunk people.

We saw several great bands.  Including Mercy Me.

Lincoln Brewster  (Used to play guitar for Steve Perry)

We also saw Chris Sligh (American Idol), Tenth Avenue North, Josh Wilson and PFR.

We did our best to stay cool during the day and then warm at night.

They didn't quite make it through Mercy Me.  

We got home around midnight.  We carried the kids in and sent them off to bed.

I went to kiss Z goodnight and I didn't see him in his bed.  I hadn't turned on the light, so I nearly stepped on him when I found him on the floor.  He looked dead.  He had his pants and his underwear down around his knees and his arms up over his head and he was sound asleep.  We could not have been home more than two minutes.  I couldn't stop laughing.

I picked him up and took his sweatshirt off and pulled up his pants.  He was dead weight.  

Must really have been too much fun.

I made it 8 hours in the sun yesterday without getting a sunburn, but this morning I go for a 2.5 hour walk and fry my shoulders.  It was 9:00, I thought I would skip the sunscreen.  Moron.

Too much excitement

I know this will be hard to believe.......but the builder closed on our lot yesterday.  

We are really really really going to build our house.  There are even stakes up every where on the lot.  Corner house, corner gar, corner driveway.   

I really can't believe it.

Today we are off to see a lot of great bands, but most excited about seeing Mercy Me.

Where has time gone

I can't believe it has been 10 days since I posted. Crazy life here. The only reason I have even three minutes today is because G came down with strep throat yesterday. I said she was fine until I looked in her throat, Googled "pictures of strep throat" and sure enough it looked suspect. So we took a visit to the urgent care last night. Second to last day of school. Oh well, a little Penicillin and she is on the mend. I think we might have even found a pediatrician. G was thrilled with the doc. The nurse looked looked like she was 18, but whatever.

BTW I thought Penicillin was old hat and they only prescribed amoxycillin. Maybe it is special for strep.

Let's see what else happened this past week.

G had her recital last week. What a great show. I am so disappointed she isn't going to dance next year.

Spent the weekend in the rain with 7 people in a 100 sq foot camper and we all came out alive.

Went to a bunch of baseball games.

Wow we are an exciting family!

Mistaken identity

Turns out those aren't just cute little caterpillars.  They are the invasive Gypsy Moth caterpillars, hated by all, except my children.

Many of them did not survive the day, guess I won't be crying.  I told the kids we should extinguish them, but they weren't having any of it.  I couldn't do it either, so we just set them free.

Calapiter crazy

It is calapiter heaven in our yard.

They sleep in a lovely pink easter basket, filled with grass, twigs, rocks and a spaghetti jar cover with a dash of water.   We discovered that more than a dash of water could cause a tragedy.

Their easter basket resides in this lovely painted condo, made from recycled material.

You may recognize the exterior.

It has a few extra security measures to keep the buggers from escaping.

There are eight of them, right now, could be more or less later.  Jacus, Chili, Harry, Harelson, Cody, Blueie, Riley,  and Andrea.  Five boys and three girls.  Hmmmm.

They are getting plenty of exercise this afternoon.

They might even make a good afternoon snack.

BTW only 9 days until school is out.  I have only heard this 500 times this weekend.

P.S. No bear sightings yet.

Looking back over my shoulder

Around 6:30 am Saturday, I put on my walking shoes, my music and headed out for a stroll. It was overcast, misty and cool, but I didn't know when I was going to get a chance to get a walk in so off I went.

I had just left my drive way and crossed the street when a car pulled up an rolled down the window. An older gentlman said, "Hi neighbor, I live at the next driveway on the right. I just wanted to let you know that about 20 minutes ago there was a black bear walking down the street between your driveway and ours. I just wanted to let you know to keep an eye open while you are out walking."

Great. Friday night if I had walked out of my house 3 seconds earlier, I could have been taken out by the deer running through my yard. Just feet from my sidewalk.

I said I wanted to live in the country!

I can't believe we made it this far.

G & Z turn 8 today.  

Some moments it seems like just yesterday that they were born at 12:10 and 12:24 am.  I tried my darndest to have them on separate days, so they could have their own birthday, but alas, not a doctor in sight.

They make me laugh, cry, pull out my hair and they make my heart grow twice its normal size on more occasions than I can count.

They are as different as night and day.

This is one of my most favorite pictures of them together, it was their 5th birthday. 

Okay blogger is being weird and it won't let me add the picture, so I will add it later.

Tonight we are off to see "Night at the Museum" and I am very excited.  I have heard it is even better than the first one.  I am not a Ben Stiller fan, but I loved the first one.

Weary traveler

It has been a whirlwind, yet wonderful week.  I am exhausted and have gone to bed at 9:00 the past two nights.

There was a lot of driving.

There was shopping.

There was swimming.

There was more swimming.

There was eating. Possibly drinking, but just a little.

There was snuggling with great friends.

There was more driving and then flying on a baby plane.

There were some horses.

There was some dancing.

There might have been a little drinking there too, but just a little.

There was also some work in there.

Then more flying on another baby plane.  

All leading to a very weary traveler, who would do it all again.

Interference

It is sad when work interferes with your personal life. 

We are heading out of town to meet up with friends this weekend and then I am off to Nashville for a conference for 4 days.  As I was planning all the packing and such, B reminded me that he needed a costume for his concert, that is the day I get back from Nashville.  So I asked for tomorrow off so that I can do all the packing I didn't do last night while I was running to the fabric store and putting together a Robin Hood costume.  Which, by the way, is the easiest costume I have ever made.  

He is very excited and wanted to wear it today.  Once less costume to come up with at Halloween.  

Well I am off because I can't be blogging when I have so many things to do.

Take me out to the ball game..... or 25

Baseball season has started and it looks to be a busy one. B has practice two nights a week for the next few weeks. Then the games start two nights a week and then practice on a third night.

Z only has a couple of practices and then games twice a week. Thank goodness dance only has 4 weeks to go.

We are also getting ready for the big weekend with friends. The kids are going to be so shocked.

Big birthday extravaganza

Today was EB's birthday. We started out with a trip to the Machine Shed with Gpa and Gma for some down home, artery clogging, breakfast food. Then we hit Sam's Club and ventured home for the real excitement.


The kids planned a little birthday fun for Daddy-O. They were so cute. Here was station 1.

Station 2 was La Crosse target practice. You threw the ball against the trampoline and then had to catch it. You had three chances.

Then there was the classic, four square.

A little hide and seek.

The Grand Finale was hitting the golf ball between B's legs into a hole dug by the neighbor's dog.

It was his best birthday ever.