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.