Merry Christmas

I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. I hope that you are able to have Christmas with family and loved ones.

Blizzard

Well, our first snow storm of the season was a doozy! Instead of it just being a snow storm, it was a blizzard. The system that starting dropping snow yesterday morning still continues as I am typing. It has dropped approximately 15 inches of snow on the ground with approximately 3 foot drifts in front of our garage. The system is winding down and they say that the wind should stop blowing sometime after dark with sub zero temperatures to follow.

Schools let out 90 minutes early yesterday and canceled classes altogether today. After getting home yesterday, the temperatures were still warm enough that the kids and I were able to go outside and have a snowball fight.


Today, however, the temperature and wind chill are too cold to allow the kids to go outside and play, much to their disappointment. They can't wait to get outside and tromp through the drifts in our back yard.

The Polar Express

This morning, several local businesses along with our local movie theater teamed up for a special showing of movie The Polar Express. Admission was free with the donation of a new or gently used winter coat or other winter item. I decided to take David and Benjamin to the movie (Isabel was at the Science Center for the First Lego League competition).

Both David and Benjamin enjoyed watching the movie even though they had seen it a couple of times before. Benjamin did a wonderful job and only had to leave the theater twice to use the bathroom.

After the movie, Santa was waiting for all of the kids that came. David chose to get his picture taken with Santa (to be posted later) but Benjamin did not want to.

Tornadoes

I made changes to blog again, including adding pictures of tornadoes. I have always been fascinated with tornadoes and love to watch Storm Chasers on the Discovery Channel.

My husband and I also hope, that one day, we will be able to go on vacation with a storm/tornado chasing group. This may sound like a strange way, for some, to spend a vacation but it is a dream of ours. A dream that we hope will become reality some day.

What a Week

This week has not been the best of weeks for me. Monday night around 11:00 I woke up very suddenly feeling the urge to get sick and had some pain in my upper right abdomen. Fortunately, I did not and was able to get back to sleep. I went to work on Tuesday, still not feeling the best, but since I didn't have a fever or wasn't vomiting, I didn't stay home. Wednesday morning I woke up feeling even worse. I was very nauseous and the pain continued. Despite the fact that I really wanted to stay home, I had an extremely important meeting with my supervisor and went to work. I managed to make it through the day, then came home and crashed. I chose to stay home yesterday.

This whole time, I was thinking that I had the stomach flu considering the fact that one of the students that I worked with on Monday came down with the stomach flu on Tuesday. But, the more I thought about things, the more I realized that stomach flu didn't make much sense considering that the pain I was experiencing was in my upper right abdomen and not the lower section. Then it dawned on me that it could be my gallbladder. I had experienced similar symptoms this summer and the doctor was thinking gallbladder but the pain went away before it was determined if it indeed was the gallbladder was the culprit and the doctor and I opted to wait and see if the pain came back.

I went to the doctor yesterday and the she felt the same way. Today, I had an ultrasound to see what is going on. The lab tech mentioned that he didn't see any gallstones, which is a good thing, but did not mention if anything else abnormal showed on the ultrasound. I will have to wait until Tuesday before I get the full report.

I am starting to feel somewhat better. The nausea is gone, for now and the pain is manageable. I am so glad that the nausea is gone as it makes eating easier. However, I am somewhat scared to eat for fear that it will bring back a full blown attack. I am really watching what I eat and eating small portions.

Carving Pumpkins

With Halloween approaching quickly, we have been carving pumpkins. We carved Benjamin's pumpkin on Monday...


We carved David's pumpkin on Tuesday....


and tonight we carved Isabel's pumpkin.

Budget Cuts

With Governor Chet Culver's 10% across the board cuts here in the state of Iowa, the Des Moines Public Schools have to cut 17.5 million dollars from their budget. Currently, among many other things to save money, only essential items are being purchased and the supervisors are the ones who get to decide if something is essential or not. This affects me directly due to the fact that my work computer is slowly dying. The battery inconsistently holds it's charge and despite being re-imaged over the summer, it continues to run slow. Before the announcement of the 10% cut, I was going to be ordered a new computer. Now, it is up to the supervisors to decide if it is essential or not. While I am hoping that a new computer will be declared essential, I won't be surprised if they say it is not.

However, I still have a job and will continue to have a job; for this I am truly grateful. So, if I don't get a new computer it won't be the end of the world. I will find ways to make it work and just pray that my computer doesn't die on me.

Long Day Take Two

After I posted my blog yesterday morning I did attempt to go back to sleep. I somewhat did go back to sleep, but it was not a good sleep and I did not feel any more rested when the alarm did go off.

I was able to make it through my day, but by the afternoon I was so tired that I started feeling ill. When I got home around 4:45 I had decided that I needed to go straight to bed. However, my husband and son had a pack meeting to go to after supper. Fortunately, my mother and father-in-law are visiting and I was able to ask my mother-in-law if she would watch Isabel and Benjamin while Jeff and David were at the pack meeting. So, I headed straight to bed. Unfortunately, I was not able to fall asleep immediately, but was asleep by 6:00 pm or so.

I was able to sleep most of the night and finally woke up about 3:00 this morning. I am feeling much better although I am still tired. I figure that it will take another good nights sleep before I truly feel better.

It's Going to be a Long Day

I have a feeling that it is going to be a very long day for me. Currently, it is 2:40 am and I have been awake since 12:25 am. I have had 3 hours of sleep so far (I do hope that after I am done blogging, that I will be able to go back to sleep).

It is rare for me to have insomnia, but it has happened from time to time. Typically, I can watch a little bit of TV (CNN or some other news channel) and fall back to sleep. However, that did not work for me tonight. So, I got up and switched laundry around and folded the clothes from the dryer. I have also gone through winter outer wear that my children have outgrown and decided if it could be washed and passed down to my niece and nephews or if it needed to be thrown out because it no longer wearable. I now have a new pile of laundry to be washed and then boxed up so that I can give it to my sister the next time I see her. I will not be able to pass any of the winter outer wear onto my brother as the "boy" items are too small for his boys and the rest of outer wear are for girls.

I also have too many thoughts running through my head. These thoughts are not helping me with the being able to fall back to sleep. Every time I close my eyes, they start racing though my head. Thoughts about what I need to do at work, things that need be done around the house, things that I need to remember to do in the morning before I go to work, the fact that I am not able to get back to sleep. I am hoping that by blogging about everything that I have been thinking about, it will clear my mind and allow me to fall asleep and get at least a couple more hours before I need to get back up.

Well, it is now 2:50 am. I am going to end my blog and head back to bed. Hopefully, sleep will find me quickly.

Miley Cyrus Concert

As part of her birthday present, I took Isabel to see Miley Cyrus in concert at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines this past Friday. Isabel's best friend and her mom were also going, so we rode down together.

We arrived at the arena approximately 5:45, with the concert starting at 7pm. We were able to quickly find a parking spot and quickly walked to the arena. With credit card and driver's license in hand (the show had paperless tickets) I was ready for admission. However, there was a slight problem. The credit card did not register as being the card I had used to purchase the tickets. After trying a couple of different times, it dawned on me that we had out account for our debit cards changed due to some unauthorized charges on our account a couple of months ago. When I realized this, I told the ticket guy that my card had been changed and he took me over to the customer service area. I explained my situation and they stated that they would be able to help. They asked if I had brought my confirmation information by any chance. By luck, I did. This helped speed up the process and they were able to give me the tickets that I needed to get in.

Isabel and I then went to find out seats. We were in the nose bleed section, but given the fact that I did not remember to buy tickets until several hours after they went on sale in June, I was fortunate to get seats at all. We passed the time away by talking about her school day. We also took a little bit of time to get some drinks and purchase a Miley Cyrus shirt for Isabel.

The opening act for the concert was Metro Station. I was not impressed with them. It was very difficult to understand the words that they were singing and their act was not that good. It was interesting that the lead singer in the band was Miley Cyrus's older brother.

Miley's act was wonderful. The costumes were really good and the stage show was fun to watch. Isabel sang along to every song except the very new ones that were just recently released. Isabel was also awed by some of the "stunts" that were done. There were three different songs where Miley was hoisted up by cables. My only complaint about Miley's part of the concert was some of the costume changes were a bit long. In all though, I enjoyed myself and really enjoyed watching Isabel's reactions.

After the concert was done, we met up with Isabel's best friend and her mom and headed back to the van. It only took us about 10 minutes to get out the parking lot and head for home.

Isabel and I had a really great night. I wonder what concert we will go to next.

Preschool Experiences

All three of my children are now in school, with my youngest in preschool this year. Isabel and David went to the same preschool that Benjamin is now going to and I can already tell that Benjamin's time in preschool is going to be interesting.

When Isabel went to preschool there were really no issues. She did what she was told to by the teachers and followed directions. About the only "big" issue was that Isabel was very quiet and shy at the ages of 3 and 4 and therefore rarely participated in class discussions about the things they were learning.

David's preschool experience was different. He, too, for the most part followed directions and did as he was told. However, David had some issues with authority and often threw tantrums. We, along with is preschool teachers, tried many different things to help David through this time and to teach him more appropriate behaviors. Fortunately, these behaviors were not everyday occurrences during preschool.

Now to Benjamin. He just started preschool this past Wednesday. I took the morning off from work so that I could take him and pick him up on his first day of preschool, just like I have done with Isabel and David. My only real big concern about him starting preschool is the fact that he still sometimes has accidents as he doesn't always like to take the time to go to the bathroom. When I picked him up at the end of the morning his teacher indicated that she needed to talk to me before we left. This caused me to become very concerned. When I got a chance to talk to his teacher, she informed me that Benjamin had run off from them and that all three teachers were looking for him. They found him in the basement of the church where the preschool is located. I was utterly surprised by this and equally embarrassed. What a way for my son to introduce himself to his teachers. (I should also mention that we attend this church and so Benjamin is very familiar with the layout of the church.)

After several talks with Benjamin about expected behaviors at preschool, his second day (Friday) seems to have gone much smoother as I did not receive any phone calls from the preschool teachers. I do have a feeling though that this year is going to be a big learning curve for Benjamin as far as what is expected of him by other adults. While his daycare does a wonderful job with Benjamin, I think they let him get away with too many things because they think he is cute and funny.

It is going to be a very interesting year!

First Day of School

On Wednesday, Isabel and David started back to school. Isabel is now in 5th grade and David is in 3rd grade. Where does the time go?

Anyway, I have a tradition of taking 1st day of school pictures of the kids.

Isabel on her first day...
David on his first day...Isabel, David and Benjamin...

Where has the Summer Gone?

Well, my summer is almost over. My kids start back to school/daycare on Wednesday and I start back to work next Monday. At the beginning of the summer, like every summer, I have big plans and ideas of what I am going to get accomplished while on my summer break. Each summer has varied in how successful I am at getting those big plans done. However, this summer, I have completely failed to do any of my plans.

I had really wanted to set up blogs for two of my children and have them blog about their summer. However, this plan got derailed when I ended up watching my friends daughter for the summer. My kids fight over using the computer enough as it is, I didn't need another one fighting over getting to use the computer. So, I will place this plan on hold. Maybe I will start them shortly after school starts.

Another big plan was to paint the kids' bathroom. Last summer we replaced the shower wall in their bathroom, but did not get time to paint. So, I thought that I would do that this summer. However, we have struggled to find a color that we can agree on. We also decided that we really need to replace the sink and vanity in their bathroom before painting. However, this cost money, which we have yet to set aside. So, now, this project has been moved back to possibly spring break. What a fun spring break that will be.

My third, and final, big plan was to repair the wall outside of the shower in the master bathroom and then place tile on it. This is something I know absolutely nothing about and called upon my father-in-law for help. He is very willing to help, however, with my (or I should say the kids') busy schedule and his busy schedule, this hasn't gotten done either. I am hoping that this will be done within the next month or so but time will tell.

I did get some things accomplished. I read a lot of books this summer, something that gets put on the back burner during the school year and I enjoyed spending the summer home with my kids. I also managed to survive the summer with a fourth child in the house.

A Week

This week, all three of my children are spending the week with their grandparents. That means that there are no children in the house. It is amazing how quite the house is without any children in the house.

The main reason for all three of our kids is the fact that I have PODD training this week. However, we plan on taking advantage of the fact that we don't have children in the house. Last night we went the Adam Sandler movie "Funny People". The movie had some funny parts, but overall, I did not like the movie.

We plan going out to eat this week and maybe taking in another movie. Either way, it is looking to be a nice, quiet, stress free week.

Double Digits

Today, my daughter hits a milestone in her life. She is now in the double digits for age! That's right. Isabel is now 10 years old. 10 years ago tonight I was recovering in the hospital and greeting visitors (she was born at 2:51 p.m. and weighed 5 pounds 5 ounces...she was a month early!).

Isabel is celebrating her birthday by having 5 of her friends over for a slumber party this evening. Should be interesting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anniversary

Today, my husband and I celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary. It is hard to believe that we have been married for 14 years and that we have known each other for 18 years. We don't have any special plans for today due to the fact that our church has Vacation Bible School this week and I am teaching the preschool group. We do plan on either going out to eat or getting something delivered for supper so that neither of us has to cook.

I do want to take this opportunity to tell my husband how much I love him.

I love you honey!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Recipies

To help us with our grocery shopping, my family creates a menu every week. During the school year, it is fairly easy to come up with meal ideas since we are only cooking supper at home. However, the summer months are harder. With myself and the kids home during the summer, we have to plan for lunches as well as suppers and I am running out of ideas for meals.

So, I am asking anyone who may happen to read this blog to share their favorite meal, if you feel so inclined. If you could include the recipe as well, that would be greatly appreciated. My children are somewhat picky and do not like mushrooms or peppers in their food.

Changes

I was getting tired of the way that my blog page looked like, so I have decided to change it. Not sure if I will stick with the changes I have made or if I will try a different look soon.

Dump Him

South Carolina Governor, Mark Sanford, now admits that he has "crossed the line" with other women including his so called soul mate from Argentina. He now says that he is trying to fall back in love with is wife. I say dump him. His wife should divorce him and walk away. She would be better off without him.

Madoff Gets 150 Years

I normally don't blog about things happening in the media, but I couldn't resist expressing how happy I am with the fact that Bernard Madoff has been sentenced to 150 years in jail for scamming people out of millions of dollars. I was appalled that Mr. Madoff had the audacity to ask for only 12 years in jail. I am glad that the judge who was able to use some common sense and do what was right.

New License Plates

My Alma mater, Wartburg College, came out with their own license plates about a year or so ago. Ever since I have been aware that there were now Wartburg license plates, I have wanted them for my van. So, for Mother's Day, that was my gift; sort of. My husband gave me the form to fill out to request different license plates; I got to fill the form out. This was OK though, since I wanted personalized plates.

Yesterday, I was able to pick up my new, personalized, Wartburg license plates. I am so excited!

Vacation

We traveled to the Black Hills in South Dakota last week. In addition to the five of us going, Jeff's parents and brother also came with us; making this an "extended family" vacation. On Monday, our first stop was in Omaha to see a couple of trains. My brother-in-law is into trains and had specifically requested this stop. We then traveled to Sioux Falls and spent the night there.

The next day we stopped in Mitchell, SD to see the Corn Palace. The Corn Palace was an interesting place and the best thing of all was that admission was free. We then continued on to the Badlands National Park. This place is truly amazing and beautiful! Words can not truly describe this area. We really enjoyed hiking within the Badlands and we even saw some wildlife. We then traveled onto Wall, South Dakota and went to Wall Drug. Wall Drug is essentially an over sized Walgreen's.

On Wednesday we headed to Rapid City. We were supposed to camp; however, do to the all day rain, we opted to stay in a hotel. During the day we visited the Museum of Geology which is located within the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. This was an interesting museum, however I think that the staff was overwhelmed with the number of visitors on this day. We also saw the movie "Up" since there wasn't much that we could do. I would recommend this movie to anyone who hasn't seen it yet. The kids really enjoyed it as well as us adults.

On Thursday we went to Mt. Rushmore. Although it was a cool, rainy day, we still enjoyed everything that Mt. Rushmore has to offer. The kids were in awe over the size of the faces of the presidents. We also rode an 1800 train through the Black Hills. The train ride was fun and the scenery was awesome.

Friday was one of the better weather days in that area and we were finally able to set up camp near Sylvan Lake in Custer State Park. We spent the day setting up our tents and just relaxing. That evening, I took Isabel for hike around Sylvan Lake and then we had smores.

On Saturday, we broke camp due to weather forecasts of more rain. We then drove through Custer State Park. This was a fun day. We were able to see lots of wildlife (bison, wild turkeys, elk, mule deer, white-tailed deer, and prairie dogs). The kids really enjoyed this, especially when the bison were walking on the road in front of us. We then started heading for home.

We arrived home Sunday evening, tired and weary. We really enjoyed our vacation and the kids had lots of fun with grandpa, grandma, and uncle along.

Schools Out for the Summer

Well, I am officially done with my school year and am now on summer vacation. I'll have to say that this has been one of my better school years in quite some time. I think that this has a lot to do with my new position and being a classroom teacher.

I will be busy this summer. I will have a few "school work" duties that I will need to do throughout the summer; but they be few and far between. We also have swimming lessons, a vacation, summer camps, summer dance, and a few other things scattered throughout the summer to keep us hopping.

Late Night Clean-Up

When Benjamin goes to be, he normally will get back out of bed and say that he has "owies" that he wants kissed. Last night was no exception except for the fact that he stated that his stomach hurt. Now this was new. Never before has Benjamin said that his stomach hurt. That should have been a BIG clue that something wasn't right. However, we just told him to go to bed and he would be fine in the morning.

About 20 minutes later I heard some coughing. NOT a good sign. I went to check on him and discovered that he had thrown up in his bed and several spots on the bedroom floor. YIKES! I yelled for Jeff to come up and help. He took Benjamin and got him cleaned up while I got the privilege of cleaning up the bed and floor. Not the funnest job in the world, but it beats being thrown up on. While I was cleaning up the bedroom floor, Jeff was sitting on our bed with Benjamin in his lap. Benjamin started coughing and threw up on Jeff's foot (which was resting on the floor and thankfully not the bed).

Benjamin appears to be doing better today. He woke up this morning saying that stomach was "all better." With no fever to speak up, last night or this morning, who knows what caused him to become sick.

Last Day of School

Today was the last day of school for Isabel and David. Isabel was so excited this morning that she woke up before her alarm went off. David was his usual self and had to be waken up this morning.

I have a tradition of taking a picture of the kids on their last day of school. Below are those pictures.

Three Day Weekend

Our three day weekend was very full. It started Friday evening when we took off from our home and headed to Jeff's home town to visit his parents. It is approximately a 3 to 3 1/2 hour car ride and we arrived about 8:30 that night. We let the kids visit with their grandparents before putting them to bed.

On Saturday, Jeff went with his dad to work on a Habitat for Humanity house. My mother-in-law and I took the kids and went into Davenport for lunch. We ate lunch at Red Robin and then went to see "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian." Benjamin did not enjoy the movie very well and became restless. At one point, he started crawling down the stairs in an attempt to entertain himself. I retrieved him and between my mother-in-law and myself, we were able to keep in the same row as us. The rest of us enjoyed the movie. I really liked the actress who played Amelia Erhart (Amy Adams). In my opinion, she added a lot of "spunk" to the movie. I didn't like the movie as much as the original. I thought that the plot of the sequel was a little lame.

After the movie, we stopped off at the boyhood home of Buffalo Bill Cody. He lived in this house until he was three years old. The main reason for our stopping at his homestead was due to the fact that two baby bison were born within the past couple of weeks and we had hoped to see them. Much to our dismay, the baby bison would not come out to their little hut. We did walk through the home, which has been turned into a museum. The short tour lasted only about 5 minutes. Benjamin was very interested with the different items found in the house. So much, that he ignored the rope that roped off sections of the house and walked into the restricted sections to explore. After retrieving him, we quickly finished the rest of the tour and left.

On Sunday, Jeff and I took the kids into Chicago to go to the Shed Aquarium. Our adventure was interesting. We didn't leave the house until about 9:20. We arrived in the Chicago city limits about 12:30, but due to traffic (both the White Sox's and the Black Hawk's had games going on that day) we didn't arrive at the aquarium until almost 1:30. Once we arrived, we started looking for parking. The only parking lot we found took cash only! We didn't have enough cash on hand, so Jeff dropped me off at the front doors of the planetarium, where I went in and found an ATM machine. Once I had cash in hand, we went back to the same parking lot only to find that the lot was full. We looked for a place to turn around and upon doing so, discovered that they had re-opened the parking lot. Once we parked we headed to the aquarium. We then had to stand in line to get in. A magician happened to be entertaining the people in line and David and Isabel got to participate in his tricks. They really enjoyed this and helped pass the time. It was almost 3:00 before we got into the aquarium. It was well worth the wait. The kids had a blast. Benjmain could not get over the fact that there were so many different fish in one place. He kept racing from one tank to another calling for me to come and "check this out." The kids especially enjoyed the Beglua whales and the spider crabs.

One word of advice, if you decide to visit the Shed Aquarium, purchase tickets in advance to avoid waiting in line to purchase them.

We were able to see almost all of the aquarium and left Chicago about 6:00. We arrived back at Jeff's parents late on Sunday. After allowing the kids to share their adventures from the day with grandpa and grandma, we got them to bed as fast as possible.

Today was more laid back. We stayed at my in-law's house until after lunch and then piled into the minivan to come back home.

Freedom Rock

For the past 1o years, an Iowa artist has painted a rock (called Freedom Rock) in honor of the veterans who have served our country, both in war and in peace. The artist, Ray "Bubba" Sorensen II, paints the rock differently each year, right before Memorial Day. Above is a picture of one of the paintings that he has done on the rock in past years.

Thank you to all of the men and women out there who have served this wonderful country of ours in a variety of capacities. Also, a big thank you to my dad, who is a Vietnam Veteran.

Winter Coats in May!

The sun it out today (finally!) and from inside the house it looks really nice outside. Looks, however, can be very deceiving. The temperature is only about 48 degrees and the wind is blowing very strongly from the NW (so the wind is a cold one).

David happened to have a baseball game this morning. Now, the sports complex where the baseball fields has no protection to offer. There is no wind break to shield us from the wind. So, today, while watching David play his game I wore my spring coat under my winter coat. I had both of the hoods from my coats up and cinched tight. I had two pairs of gloves on my hands and two blankets on. I still wasn't warm enough. The sun felt good, but the wind cut through everything. Yes, you can call me a wimp if you want. I get cold really easily and it takes me forever to warm up again.

I am hoping that the next game will have warmer weather.

Nephews

I got to watch my two nephews overnight last night. They are ages 3 and 1. It was great having them over...I don't get to see them often enough. My nephews and my own children played well together for the most part expect when we had a slight scuffle over a toy. The scuffle ended quickly and they were back to playing again.

Both of them slept through the night and woke up at a decent time this morning. When their parents came to get them, my oldest nephew didn't want to leave and in fact told his parents "no" when they told him it was time to go. The youngest was happy to see his parents and started blowing kisses at me and saying "bye."

We need to have them over again soon.

Happy Mother's Day

I want to start out by wishing all the mothers out there a very Happy Mother's Day.

My Mother's Day has started out well. I am surrounded by my family and I couldn't ask for more. What the rest of the day holds, only God knows.

Physical Therapy

For the last 3-4 weeks my knees have been hurting whenever I am sitting or standing. I finally went to my doctor last week to find out what was going on. My fear was that the pain was the sign that arthritis was setting in (I have a family history of arthritis). However, X-rays showed that there was nothing wrong with my knees; no arthritis! My doctor recommended physical therapy to help with the pain.

I had my first physical therapy appointment today. The physical therapist I was assigned to seems good. She did a complete work-up and told me that my knee caps on both knees have moved slightly from where they should be. My left knee cap has moved farther off course than my right knee, which explains why my left knee hurts worse than the right. This problem has been caused by the muscles on my inner thigh being weak and the muscles on my outer thigh being too tight. The physical therapist showed me some exercises that I can do to help strengthen the muscles that hold my knee caps in place which should help get rid of the pain in time.

I am positive that this will help me. I have had physical therapy for a couple of other things in the past and have successful outcomes.

Field Trip

The 4th grade classes at Isabel's school went to the Living History Farms today as part of their studies about the Midwest Region of the United States (they are learning about each region, the states names, as well as the capitals). I was able to go with her class on the trip as a parent volunteer.

We left school at 8:30 this morning and spent the whole day at Living History Farms. We started at the 1700 Iowa Indian Farm where we learned about what the Ioway Indians planted (squash, beans, and corn) and that they planted everything in one field. We then moved onto the 1850 Pioneer Farm where we learned about how the Pioneers lived. People at this time started having livestock and planted corn, wheat, and potatoes. We then moved onto the 1900 Farm. Here, families had a house versus a log cabin in the 1850's. They grew mainly oats, hay, and corn.

In the afternoon, we spent our time in their little town of Walnut Hill. This is a recreation of an 1875 town. Here we got to visit different types of shops and listen to the people working in those shops what was done there and what the duties of the people working during that time would do. This was very interesting and I wished we would have had more time to see all of the shops. Time only allowed us to visit certain ones.

It was a very nice day. The rain held off until the very end of our trip. I enjoyed spending time with Isabel and her class. It was also nice placing faces with the names of students that she has talked about.

What the?

I went to a conference (Tech and Learning Midwest Tech Forum) last Friday in Chicago, Illinois. While there, one of the vendors that sponsored the event was giving away thumb drives. I picked up one as I am always in need of thumb drives. Today I chose to use it to store some pictures that a teacher needed. Upon placing the thumb drive into my computer I discovered that it already had some files on it! This really makes me wonder why this company gave away thumb drives that were not empty. Are they that hard up for money that the give away thumb drives that have been previously used by their employees or were they just completely unaware that the thumb drives had been used when they brought them to the conference?

I did it again!

I am a person that really likes to have clothes that match when I wear them. However, I have a pair of navy blue slacks that are so dark that they can look black in the right (or wrong light, depending on your view) light. Today, for the second time in a matter of months, I mistook the navy blue slacks for my black ones and put them on along with a purple shirt. The light in my closet is not the best and I was so confident that the slacks that I had pulled from the closet were indeed my black pair. It was not until I arrived at work and was sitting at my desk that I realized my mistake. I was self-conscious about my mistake for the rest of the day. No one noticed my mistake that I am aware of. Either the people that I encountered today did not notice or they chose not to say anything to me.

Doctor's Appointment

My son, Benjamin, had his 4 year check-up this afternoon. Benjamin did well during the appointment, they were able to check his vision among other things. Benjamin is now 40 1/2 inches tall, which places him in the 55% for height. He currently weighs 42.4 pounds, which places him in the 95% for weight.

The worst part of the appointment was the shots. The schedule of when immunizations are given has been changed since the last time my other two needed shots. Previously, the last round of shots was done when children turned 5. That is no longer the case. Children are now given those shots when they are 4. Needless to say, Benjamin was not too happy about getting shots and cried most of the way home. The nurse at the doctor's office did give him some Tylenol, and I think it is finally kicking in. He is much calmer now and he is no longer saying that his legs hurt.

Baseball in April

My son had a baseball game this past Saturday. I have come to the conclusion that baseball and April don't always mix. On this day the temperature was a cool 48 degrees and it was windy and raining. Despite the fact that the game only lasted an hour and fifteen minutes, the weather conditions made it feel much longer. We did come prepared for the weather; we had our winter coats, hats, and mittens on. We also had blankets and umbrellas with us as well.

It was a good game and our team played well despite being cold and wet. David wasn't too sure at first about playing in the rain, but also did well. He even caught a ball hit by a batter causing the third out in the last inning!

Baseball

The baseball season has started for us. David is playing in the coach's pitch section of Little League. This season, the coaches pitch to the players. Part way through the season, however, the players will start pitching in practice for next season where the players pitch the entire season. David will have games once to twice a week through the end of May. Let's hope that the weather cooperates.

Birthday's

Yesterday we celebrated David (whose birthday was in March) and Benjamin's (whose birthday is this week) birthday's. We chose to celebrate their birthdays together due to the fact that my two nephews and my niece also have birthdays in March and April.

The party went very well and David and Benjamin shared the spotlight nicely. They took turns opening up presents and even shared a birthday cake.

After everyone left the party, we decided to go to Wal Mart in order to allow David and Benjamin to pick out their new bikes (which are our presents to them for their birthdays).

Easter

We had a fun, busy Easter Sunday. It started early this morning with our children finding their Easter baskets and hunting for their Easter eggs. The hunt for eggs did not go exactly as planned. Benjamin found his eggs quite easily, as they were out in plain sight. Isabel and David's eggs were hidden around the house. Things started out well, but when Benjamin found all of his eggs right away and Isabel started finding the other eggs quite easily, David became upset. After a few hints, David was able to find some more eggs, but became upset again when Isabel found all of her eggs, leaving him to be the last one to finish. He did finally find all of his eggs and was again happy. We are considering (not too seriously) just having Benjamin find eggs next year because he is the only one that truly enjoyed the thrill of finding the eggs. (Although, Isabel is becoming very suspicious about whether there truly is an Easter bunny; but that's a topic for another day.)

The rest of our Easter was fairly uneventful. We were unable to go to church today due to the fact that my grandma had Easter dinner at her house. She lives in NE Iowa and the trip is about 2 1/2-3 hours one way to visit her. It was well worth the hours spent in the van to see her, and other family members, which is not often enough.

Rare Night at Home

Our week nights are usually very busy with activities that the kids are involved in and with church activities going on, especially during Lent. I thought that I had bell choir tonight, so I went to church. However, when I arrived, there were only three other members of our bell choir there. I called the conductor of our group and discovered that we did not have practice tonight. So, I was able to come back home and relax. Isabel and David still have their respective meetings tonight (girl scouts and cub scouts) but my husband dropped Isabel off before heading, with David, to the cub scout meeting.

April Snow Showers

Usually the saying goes "April showers bring May flowers." However, today instead of rain showers, we have snow showers. It started out as rain last night and continued that way through mid morning when it then changed over to snow. Fortunately, the ground temperature has warmed up some, so while some of the snow is sticking, a lot of it has melted already.

Knowing that it was supposed to rain and snow, I choose to spread grass seed on our lawn yesterday. My thought was to take advantage of the moisture that was coming our way and not have to worry about watering the lawn for a few days. Rain is in our forecast for later on this week, so I shouldn't have to water the lawn until next week at the earliest.

Exhausted

I don't know why, but I woke up at 2 am this morning . I fell asleep about 9:30 last night, so I received approximately 4 1/2 hours of sleep. After laying in bed for an hour and a half, unable to fall asleep; I finally came downstairs. I was able to do some laundry, pick up the living room and dinning room and vacuum. My family sleeps very soundly at night and vacuuming at night (or early morning) does not wake them up. I was also able to watch a show ("My Boys" on TBS) that I tivoed last night. This was all accomplished before I left the house at 4:50 am to go to the gym.

Needless to say, I am very exhausted; to the point of feeling sick. While I do occasionally have problems sleeping, I can usually get back to sleep. Last night, however, my mind started racing about things that have been going on at work and I was unable to turn off my mind. I plan on going to bed here very soon with the hopes of sleeping the evening and night away.

Family Pictures

The family pictures that we had taken in February have finally arrived. I was actually kind of worried that we were not going to receive the pictures since it seemed to be taking so long. I even called the company that we purchased the pictures through to check on the status of our order. I made that phone call yesterday and found out that the pictures had been shipped out last Friday. They arrived today.

Arrival of Our New Furniture

Our new couch and chair arrived this morning. As I am blogging right now, I am enjoying sitting in the new chair, which is extremely comfortable. Our next thing is to now figure out how to arrange all of the furniture in our living room to make everything fit and look just right.

Fan of the Game

My husband took our two oldest children (Isabel and David) to an Iowa Energy basketball game at Wells Fargo Arena last weekend. Throughout the game, David was cheering on the team, in a nice, but loud way. At the end of the game, one of the cheerleaders for the Iowa Energy team came up and asked David if he would like to be "fan of the game." (This is where they pick one person who was at the game to come down onto center court after the game and have his/her picture taken with the player of the game.) David accepted and went down onto the court and had his picture taken with Othyus Jeffers. David also received a small basketball, autographed by Othyus Jeffers and a t-shirt.

947 Miles

947 miles. Round trip, this is how many miles we have driven since we have taken off for our spring break adventures this past Tuesday.

After leaving Clinton, Iowa on Thursday morning we traveled north on Hwy 61 to the St. Paul area where my sister and her family lives. Hwy 61 follows the Mississippi River up through Decorah, Iowa, into Wisconsin, and then over to Minnesota. This a beautiful, scenic route to travel and would love to do it again in the fall when the leaves are changing colors.

Our trip was fairly uneventful except for my middle child got car sick while driving through the bluffs. The combination of the curvy, winding, road; watching a movie on the DVD player; and having a snack did not mix. Fortunately, we had a change of clothes for him. After he cleaned himself up (he's at the age where he doesn't want help from Mom or Dad), we moved him up to the middle of the van and turned off the movies for a while. After eating some lunch, he was feeling much better.

Today, after leaving the St. Paul area, we headed to Owatonna, Minnesota to shop at Cabela's for a tent for our vacation this summer. We found a really nice, big tent for the five of us. One that has enough space for all of us to sleep and room to store our luggage. The tent even has dividers that allows you to create up to three separate sections within the tent. This will definitely come in handy when trying to put the kids down for the night this summer (they won't all have to be sleeping in the same open space).

After leaving Owatonna, we drove to Albert Lee and stopped for lunch. We ate at a locale restaurant. The food was OK. I had an omelet that was a bit on the greasy side, but not enough to complain about.

From Albert Lee we headed home to Ankeny. Although we enjoyed our travels and visiting with everyone, it is nice to be back home.

Spring Break

This week is spring break for the Des Moines Public Schools and surrounding communities. My husband and I took advantage of the wonderful weather this past weekend and trimmed one of our trees in our front yard and raked and bagged leaves from the back yard. We were also able to take time to have some fun. I took two of my children on a nice bike ride on Monday, while my husband and daughter went geochasing.

On Tuesday, we headed to Clinton, Iowa, to visit my in-laws. We basically hung around their house on Tuesday. Today we went out near Sabula, Iowa and saw how maple syrup is made. My in-laws have a mutual friend in common with the people who make their own maple syrup and we were invited out to watch. It was a nice day to hike out into the woods and see where they had tapped the maple trees. We were also able to see how they cook the sap (mixed with water) down into syrup. We were told that it takes about 24 hours before the syrup forms. They were still in the process of cooking the sap, so we were unable to try any.

We then at supper at Poopy's Pub (yes, Poopy's, much to my children's delight) in Savanna, IL. The food was good and the menu was entertaining. I had the Little Poop (a small hamburger) with steak fries.

Tomorrow we head to the Minneapolis area to spend the night with my sister and her family. We are looking forward to visiting with them.

New Furniture

After nearly 13 years with the same couch and recliner, my husband and I purchased new furniture. We were able to go shopping today, without the children; which made shopping that much easier. I had today off due to the fact that Des Moines Public schools had conferences Wednesday and Thursday and my husband took a day of vacation (Ankeny still had school today).

We went to Homemakers Furniture Store which is located in Des Moines. We choose to shop at this store first due to the fact that we had received a postcard in the mail from them that had a 10, 20, or 40% off the price of of your purchase. After we scanning our card, we found out that we had would be able to receive 10% off. After looking at several couches and recliners, we were able to find what we were looking for, at the price we wanted. The sales person who waited on us was very nice and allowed time for my husband and I to talk things over and decide if this is what we truly wanted. In the end, we walked out of the store owners of a new couch and recliner, which should be delivered to us sometime next Saturday.

Seriously, Terrible, Amazing

My youngest child has some interesting words that he loves to use in everyday conversation. His favorite word is "seriously." A few weeks ago, he was wanting me to come with him to a specific room in the house. I had told him that I would be there in a little bit. He waited for me for about a minute and then came and said "Seriously mom, are you coming?" He has also used the "seriously" in response to us. We had told him that we were going to a our other son's basketball game and he responded "Seriously?!"

His next favorite word is "terrible." He likes to use this word when something bad happens to him or to someone else. One recent example is when his brother got hurt messing around and he said "That's terrible."

His newest that he has now started using is "amazing." Just tonight, he was playing with a clock that has a second hand. The second had was going around the clock and had just past the 2 when he said "It's by the 2, that's amazing."

I wonder what he will say next.

Back Seat Driver

Lately, my 3 (almost 4) year old has become a back seat driver. He has started noticing the street signs on alongside the road and points out ever stop sign that he sees (regardless if the sign is on the street that we are driving on or on a side street) and proceeds to tell us to stop. He'll say "Stop, mommy (or daddy), stop. Don't crash." Whenever he sees an oncoming car in the other lane, he will say "Watch out! Don't crash." When he sees railroad tracks up ahead, he will say "Watch out for trains."

It is quite amusing to listen to him. It makes me wonder what he will say next.

Smarty Pig

I have been using an on-line savings account at SmartyPig to save money to pay for various expenses like car insurance, property insurance, property taxes, and a vacation that we will be taking this summer. I have met my first savings goal; the cost of car insurance on one of our vehicles.

SmartyPig is a free, on-line savings account. Once you log on, you can set up as many savings accounts as you like. You enter in what you are saving for, how much you need to save, and how soon you need the money. The website will then calculate how much money a month you will need to set aside to meet your goal. You are guaranteed 3.25% APY. Once you have set up your saving(s) account, the site will automatically withdraw your money from your checking or savings account each month. It also sends you monthly updates on how close you are to approaching your goal.

Seven Becomes Eight

My 7 year old son is now 8! Today is his birthday. It is hard to believe that it has been eight years since he was born.

My son has had a good birthday. He opened his presents this morning. We gave him a couple of Goosebumps books. He will also be getting a new bike for his birthday; but that is hard to wrap and we want him to be able to pick out his own bike.

In addition to opening presents this morning, he took birthday treats to school. The teacher passed them out right before lunch, allowing the students to take the treats with them and eat them at lunch.

After school we went for a walk to a local park. With temperatures in the low 70's today, it would have been a waste to spend the day inside; especially since it sounds like we will be back down to the 30's next week.

My son has requested homemade macaroni and cheese, corn, hot dogs, and applesauce for his birthday supper followed by mayonnaise cake for desert.

Smoke Detectors

Last night, while watching the 6 o'clock news, there was a report about several house fires that have happened lately in Iowa and that fact that several people have died in these house fires. During the report, the reporter mentioned that some of the houses did not have smoke detectors. They also mentioned that some of the houses did have smoke detectors, but that they were not working properly. They went on to stress the importance of having working smoke detectors in the house.

This specific report prompted me to check all of the smoke detectors in our house. I discovered that two of our detectors did not work due to the fact that the batteries were dead. I replaced all of the batteries, even in the detectors that were currently working recalling that the experts suggest replacing batteries twice a year.

Snow

We have been blessed with a string of nice, warm days last week. Temperatures ranged between 40 and 65 degrees. With the nice weather, the majority of the snow that we had on the ground melted away and it was starting to feel like spring. But, I'm in Iowa and spring does not start in February. Winter returned with a rude awaking this past Friday. We received between 5-7 inches of snow. The once bare ground is now white again and the temperatures are once again below freezing.

Once upon a time I loved winter. I use to enjoy playing out in the snow and doing various activities that snow offers. Now, I could honestly live without it. I still enjoy going sledding and playing outside with my children; but I honestly don't do that very often in the winter due to the fact that I get cold easily. I have said many times that I would move to a warmer location if it were not for the fact that the majority of my family lives in Iowa and that I really enjoy my job.

So, for now, I will continue to accept the fact that I live in a place that has winter for approximately 6-7 months out of the year, despite what the calendars may say.

Family Pictures

We had our family picture taken today at our church for the church directory. I was a little worried about getting our picture taken due to the fact that our youngest does not always like to cooperate when pictures are being taken. When we arrived at our church, they were not quite ready for us, so our kids went into the nursery to play. When it came time for our picture to be taken, I went to retrieve our kids. My youngest didn't come willingly and I ended up having to carry him to the picture taken area. However, once we sat down and they started taking our picture, our youngest did a wonderful job and smiled nicely. In the end, our pictures turned out nicely. We ended up purchasing pictures to give out to family and they will even come framed which is an added bonus.

Day Off

I got an unexpected day off today. My youngest child woke up in the middle of the night last night with a nasty, croupy cough. Needless to say, we chose to keep him home today and I stayed home with him. It's been a nice quiet day. I did take him into the doctor this morning to make sure that there was nothing else going on. The doctor stated that his lungs sounded good and his ears were nice and clear. The doctor did prescribe a steroid syrup for my son to help with the inflammation in his throat. Hopefully he will sleep better tonight, which will help speed up his recovery and allow the rest of us a good nights sleep.

Girl Scout Cookie Time

Life has been really busy lately, both at work and at home; so I don't have much to say. I can say support your local Girl Scout (which my daughter is a member of). Right now Girl Scout cookies are being sold; at least they are in Iowa. Girl Scout cookies are delicious and freeze very well. Girls who are selling Girl Scout cookies do so in order to earn money towards camp in the summer. So, even if you order just one box from a Girl Scout, you are helping her earn some money towards summer camp.

Proud to be an American

I had the opportunity this morning to watch Barack Obama take the oath of office and become President Barack Obama, our 44th President. I am proud to say that I voted for him back in November and I am extremely happy that he won the election.

I am excited to see what will happen while President Obama is in office and how the United States will change during this time. I am very hopeful that things will change for the better. I just hope that people clearly understand what President Obama stated in his speech this morning: that it will take time for things to improve. Things are not going to improve overnight and that it might even be a painful process at times.

Game Night

Friday night we turned off the TV, stayed away from the computers, and played games as a family. We ended up playing Twister, Guess Who, and Connect Four. We had lots of fun and laughed a lot, especially while playing Twister.

My 7 year old learned to start thinking strategically while playing Connect Four. It was fun to watch his strategic skills improve with each game we played. He learned to start looking at all possible moves and decide which move was the best one to make. In the end, he did win a couple of games, which made him extremely happy.

I think that we have decided that we need to have "game night" more often.

Cold Weather Day?

With the extremely cold temperatures and even colder wind chills, all area schools, including Des Moines Public have decided to cancel school for tomorrow. Technically, this can't be called a snow day since it isn't the snow that is causing school to be cancelled, so I guess that it needs to be called a "cold weather day." While this means that we will have one more day to make up at the end of the school year, I am looking forward to staying home tomorrow with my children. This has seemed like a long week, and it is only Wednesday; so a day off is a nice reprieve from my busy schedule. It also means that I won't have to be out and about in the too cold for man or beast weather tomorrow, traveling between school buildings.

It is also nice that the school districts gave notice this evening that classes were cancelled for tomorrow. This means that my children don't have to set their alarms and will hopefully sleep in in the morning.

Frustrations

My seven year old son has sucked one specific finger since the day he was born; despite numerous attempts to get him hooked on a pacifier as a baby. Over the past several years we have tried almost everything under the sun to try to get him to stop sucking his finger. We have tried the over-the-counter stuff, putting pickle juice on his finger (he now likes pickles!), putting vinegar on his finger, putting a splint on the finger, putting band-aids on it; nothing worked. As a last resort, we took him to the orthodontist last September. The orthodontist attached a thumb guard; which is a device that is hooked to two of his molars on each side of his upper row of teeth. The device then spans the roof of his mouth, preventing any sucking motion when he puts his finger in his mouth.

Just before Christmas, it was decided that my son was doing so well with not putting his finger in his mouth, that the thumb guard could come out. I was really hopefully that he was completely broken of the habit. He started out really well, even saying that he no longer wanted to suck his finger. However, he has again started sucking his finger. With a great sense of frustration, I called the orthodontist this evening and scheduled an appointment to get the thumb guard placed back into his mouth.

Now, I just hope that this will be the last time we have to do this.

Return to Work

Today was the first day back to work, for me, after a two week break. My children actually don't go back to school until Wednesday because Ankeny School teachers have two days of inservice. Despite the fact that my children didn't have to go to school today, they still had to get up at their "normal" time to go to daycare. My children did a nice job of getting up this morning with their alarms and got ready with no problems. I fear, though, that tomorrow will be another story. All three of them are tired and cranky tonight because they had to be up shortly after 6 am (they have been sleeping in until 7:30 or so over break). I will be sending my 3 1/2 year old to bed early, but my son has Cub Scouts and my daughter has Girl Scouts tonight.

I myself had a good first day back to work, although, I will admit that I, too, am tired as I, too, have been sleeping in over break.