A Trophy Wife

I played at being a trophy wife (some prize, I know) last night. We got invited to a holiday cocktail party at Kurt's boss's house. Kurt thought it would mostly be people at his level and above. We're talking Directors, VP's and people who have 3 letter titles like CIO, and CFO. Keep in mind some of these people are the ones who told me and my former employees that they weren't closing our site, we wouldn't lose our jobs, and other assorted untrue BS. (Note...I am FINE with losing my job! I was hoping for it, but most of my team member desperately needed their job).

Anyway, it was a very nice time. Good food, good margaritas, and very nice people. The ones who had lied to me didn't remember me. I answered questions about my time with the company in a positive manner, I kept my snorts of disbelief in check, and I didn't drink as much as I wanted. I even wore pantyhose...and you all know how much I hate that!

Game Night

Thursday night we went to supper at Kevin and Theresa's place. They have two kids, Ella and Austin, who are are 3rd and 1st grades. We haven't seen them since the wedding in June. Scheduling is just too difficult most of the time.

We played games with the kids and tried to visit. We got in UNO, checkers, Trouble, and Battleship. We also managed to wolf down two pizzas and catch up a little.

It wasn't the evening we thought it would be, but it was still fun.

A Cheap Date

Kurt and I went out on Wednesday night. We'd heard there was good food one town over. I wanted some MEAT! We arrived and there were two bars with equal amounts of cars in front of them. We decided to go with the one that looked newer. It was mostly a bar. They had 6 plasma screens and lots of college kids home from Christmas. The air was smokey and the menu was disappointing. It was mostly sandwiches. NOT what I had in mind. We ordered a couple of beers and some cheese fries. Both of them were disappointing as well.

We decided to try the place down the street for dinner. It to was a bar, but looked like it had a separate dining room. When we entered we ran smack into a bride. It brought back memories of being a wedding photographer. (It also reaffirmed my belief that I made the right decision to quit the biz). Kurt and I made our way to the "dining" side of the bar and got menus. There was an empty salad bar against one wall so I started to lose hope. The waitress said we could order anything off the menu. Kurt and I each got a 6 0z Sirloin which came with salad, a baked potato, and a roll. He got a beer and I had soda. It was DELICIOUS!! Our bill came to....gotta love smalltown Iowa....$17.12.

Out with the Old

Kurt and I have WAY too much stuff. I'm not kidding. We have 100...that's right...100 rubbermaids! We liberated 3 of them tonight (but filled up another two). We managed to throw out alot of computer parts, outdated records etc. I have another 3 boxes to go to Goodwill. They LOVE me.

Marnie and I had a great time in the Twin Cities. We saw White Christmas at the Ordway. We had fantastic seats. We were in the last row of the Mezzazine level. We were actually the two seats closest to the aisle. We were seated in side chairs/arm chairs! It was great! Our buckets fit and we could push the chairs back so we didn't have to stand up for people to go in and out. Plus we could stretch out our legs and had room on each side of us.

David Odgen Steirs (Winchester from M*A*S*H) was playing General Waverly. I think I recognized the lady that was the housekeeper, too. I can't remember her name offhand. We took the skywalk to the theater. It took us 35 minutes to get there! After the show we chose to walk outside. We were in the room and in our jammies in 10 minutes!

Wednesday morning we had the 99 cent breakfast at IKEA and then shopped. Not my cup of tea. It's a huge warehouse of a store. They did have some good prices on somethings though. The one thing I really liked was a double porcelain (sp) sink.

Today was the kids' last day of school. I'm taking them shopping tomorrow. Pray for me.

Christmas Vacation

My Christmas Vacation...I mean Holiday Break...is off to a roaring start. Christy woke up with the flu this morning. Luckily, Kurt dealt with it for the most part. I took Nick and Alex to the dentist this afternoon. I did make some Puppy Chow. I'm in the mood to bake but don't know if I will.

I don't have to go back to school until January 8th. I bet it will go really fast and I won't get half the things done I want to get done.

I need a good book to read. Anyone have any suggestions? I just reread A Year in Provence for bookclub. I realized though that I won't be able to go because my sister and I are going to the Twin Cities to see White Christmas at the Ordway. It's my Christmas present to her. "Sisters, Sisters...there were never such devoted Sisters!" Maybe we will wear blue dresses!

So Sad

I realize I haven't been a parent for very long, but some people's parenting style appalls me! Christy had a friend come over after school. That in itself is great. I'm glad she's making friends and wants to socialize. Of course, Christy still doesn't know our phone number so she couldn't give it to the girl's parents so they could call us to check us out (which I will require before Christy goes over there).

They walked here after school, had a snack, and got to the playing. I asked Christy when the girl had to be home and what her last name was. She said "I don't know" and "I"ll ask" to both the questions.

As it was getting darker I went down and asked the girl what time she had to be home. She said, "My mom doesn't care. Whenever. I should probably be home before it's too dark though." Well it's winter in Iowa. It was already 5 o'clock and pitch dark. Now keep in mind the girl's mom has virtually NO idea where her 11 year old daughter is, when she'll be back, and whether or not there are any adults present! Once it hit 5:30 I had Alex and Christy walk her home. Christy asked if she could come over again tomorrow. I wonder what the family situation is at that house.

Crisis Averted

I was FORCED to switch to Beta Blogger. I'd heard so many horror stories of lost archives I didn't want to do it. One day I went to sign in and it said I had to change so I said FINE. Today, I try to log in to dash off a quick post and I can't. I can't find my password. Amazingly it was very easy to reset.

The semester is winding down. I have a test tomorrow and a final on Thursday. I also get a take home final tomorrow. My final final is on Monday. I tried to sell back my Accounting book yesterday. A new edition has been picked up. It isn't worth a thin dime now. You do have to love the continued screwing of the college student.

For some reason 9 x out of 10 I can't answer my cell phone without hanging up on the caller. Evidently, a flip phone is too complicated for me!

Happy Birthday to Me!

I used a portion of my birthday money to get myself a cut and color at a nice salon. (Keep that money coming...GEESH it was pricey!)

The stylist chick straightened it when she dried it. My friends have tried to tell me it would be the way too go. I'm WAY too much of a roll out of bed at the last possible minute to deal with that ever day.

If we hadn't bought Nicky a new bed today, I'd have Kurt take me out tonight!

I'm not really handling 35 very well. It seems pretty stinking old to me.

I should have had the eyebrows done too. Doesn't look like a little make-up would kill me either!

Turkey Day continues

I'm so full I may never eat again! However, I am having a cinnamon roll right now. We had a great yesterday. Kurt's brother Kelly, his wife Jackie, and three boys arrived in the afternoon while I was at the first 50th anniversary party. Greg, his other brother, arrived from Rochester around 5 p.m. He told us of his adventure at Target yesterday morning. He was a nice guy and helped a security guard open a case which led to him being one of the 5 people that got an Xbox something or other with a bonus pack. The armed guard ended up escorting him to the check outs!

Alex came over to see his grandparents and cousins, go for pizza, and swimming while Nicky and Christy declined. We had a 48th Anniversary party for Lyle and Audra Kae at Pizza Ranch. Everyone really enjoyed the buffet and the chocolate cake we brought.

I need to write a memo for my staffing class and I'm having trouble finding an article for it.

We'll have a houseful trying to solve the problems of the world again. It's exhausting!

Anyone for leftovers?

A letdown

We were planning on having a huge Thanksgiving dinner here. It was going to be around 16 or 18 and now it's down to 6 possibly 7 people total. The kids' mom was awarded Thanksgiving (for this year) in the ruling. Normally that is one of our holidays. Kurt's parents and brothers aren't coming until Friday and my Great Aunt isn't feeling well. I will, of course, make too much food. I've just made the pumpkin pies. I might do the apple tonight if I can make the apple corer peeler slice work.

On the menu we have:

• Turkey
• Mashed potatoes
• Gravy (hopefully mom can make it)
• Dressing (courtesy of my mom)
• Cranberry relish (ditto)
• Seven Layer salad (ditto, ditto)
• Assorted crudite - pickles, black olives, cheese and crackers, radishes, carrots, pickled beets
• Pumpkin Pie
• Apple Pie
• Waldorf Salad
• Green Bean casserole
• Corn Pudding

I think that may be it. Hosting is expensive!

Tonight is book club. We read IN COLD BLOOD. I'm wavering on going. I'm not feeling too hot because I've got a bacterial infection. Mom is going to get us next month's book which is A YEAR IN PROVENCE. Kurt is comatose because he's had a rough 2 weeks at work with 130 am and 530 am conference calls. The 530 calls he has to do at the office so he's been getting up at 4 a.m. That's happened a half a dozen times. Last night they migrated a CMS system so he was gone from 10pm til 830 am this morning.

He was awake long enough (and between conferences calls long enough) for us to have lunch at the tearoom here. It was FANTASTIC! The lump crab cakes are too die for! They say they fly it in from Miami. There were two of them the size of a hamburger for $9.95. It was WAY better than the crab cakes we had in D.C.

Tomorrow is cooking and cleaning. Thursday we're hosting Thanksgiving dinner, Friday Kurt's entire family is arriving. We also have 5oth anniversary to attend as well as the family party for Kurt's parents' 48th anniversary. Saturday is another 50th anniversary party, and Sunday is my Great Uncle Melvin's 90th birthday bash. It looks to be a busy food filled weekend!

Good-bye Old Friend

I had to make the decision to put Lewis down yesterday.
It was the worst day I've had in a long while.
Today is even worse.
I miss my puppy. I keep looking for him.
For years he was the only thing I had to look forward to at the end of the day.
He was always happy to see me.
I'm glad he didn't suffer much. He got to chase a cat on his last good day.
We buried him in the evergreen grove at my parents.
He's wrapped up in a blue blanket with his favorite tug of war rope.
I wish I had taken the bandages off his legs.
I wish his last memory of me weren't putting him in the crate at the hospital.
I had him for 1 month short of ten years.
I loved him. He was a good boy.

Good-bye Old Friend.

Poor Baby

My Lewis is one sick puppy dog. He stayed at Mom and Dad's last night because we were out of town. They called early this morning to say he was throwing up and listless. We headed for their place and called our wonderful vet, Dr D.

Dr. D gave him an IV and took a blood sample.

Lewie had been throwing up bile, had blood in his stool, has an astronomical white count and his liver function is incredibly high, too. He has congested lungs and is wheezing. He also has a low temp, is dehydrated and pale.

They are going to keep hydrating him and so some xrays. They will call me in the morning. He's not as bad off as he sounds. He's got a serious infection of some sort.

Dr. D will call me in the morning.

My poor baby :(

He's so sick he even let Ryan pet him!

Against All Odds

As many of you know we had a custody trial in the middle of October. We were hoping for a ruling by Christmas. Monday, night I saw there was a decision in our case posted online. I called Kurt and he raced to the courthouse just before close of business.

Long story short....WE WON!!!!

The kids have been placed with us except for 3 weekends a month, 4 weeks in the summer and alternating holidays. She has been ordered to pay us child support.

Nick and Christy start school in the morning.

This has renewed our faith (that and the Democrats winning!).

It's been a very good week.

Thank you to everyone for their thoughts, prayers, good wishes, and caring concern. We appreciate it more than you can ever know. Eventually, the kids will, too.

I've got mine! Do you have yours??

An AWESOME DAY

Details to follow!

Matchstick Marvels

On Saturday we took the kids to the Matchstick Marvel Museum in Gladbrook. We figured they would really like it (especially Nicky since he builds things out of craftsticks). The first thing you see when you walk in is a HUGE model of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It is unbelieavable. It looks just like in the movies! The detailing is incredible. The docent was a very nice old lady. She gave us incredible bits of information about the models and the artist. Hogwarts and another model have been sold to a museum in Spain. Many of the artist's previous models are in Ripley's Believe it or Not museums worldwide. We were especially lucky to get to meet the artist as he brought in another piece of Hogwarts. Making the marvels is a hobby for him that he only works on in the winter. He's employed full time besides!

Notre Dame de Chartres is the other model that has been purchased by the Spanish museum. I was especially impressed with this model because I've been to this very cathedral! The artist has even added the rose windows and 110 saints statues on it. All of the models are to scale.

The United States Capital -

A Very Crooked House

On our way to Gladbrook we swung past the bitty town of Lincoln and went past the EXTREME MAKEOVER HOME EDITION house. It wasn't as impressive as I thought it would be judging from all the press I'd heard and read. However the fact that it and 2 outbuildings were made in a week is astounding.

Overall it was a great day for a drive and a great bargain for the museum!

Here's Hoping

For a good weekend. The kids were little pukes last weekend. Tonight it appeared so far so good. Kurt and the 3 of them went to see the Sound of Music at the high school. Alex's girlfriend is in it. I couldn't face another production of it. I've seen it at West Central, once possibly twice at Indee as well as a community theater production. I'm not even sure I'd go and see a revival with Julie Andrews in it!

Weekend plans....we have none for once. I'm sure it will involve laundry, dishes, and cooking. Maybe we can find something fun to do too!

Happy Halloween

Our little goblins are here. They were going to go trick or treating but they have no costumes. They were going to hand out candy, but they are watching NOVA. I guess we get to feed them, expend extra gas and miles, and not get credit for an overnight stay. It's more work for me. Kurt will be doing dishes.

We all got flu shots today. Luck had it that the flu shot clinic was the same day as Halloween so we were able to get them vaccinated. I hope it works!

I withdrew from my accounting class. It was kicking my a**. Missing a week of school didn't help either. I still have plenty to do with my remaining 14 hours of class.

Icky

We survived the trial. Three very full days. Kurt in the courtroom and me in the f*&^)(*ing hot hallway. Now we wait.

We each have upper respitory infections. Different strains. Different meds. Thanks, kids!

We went to Ryan's first birthday party yesterday. It was fun to watch him explore frosting and get his first taste of sugar. He's such a sweetie. It was WAY crowded in Ms. Marn's house. It made me very thankful we've moved out of our itty bitty Waterloo house.

I missed an entire week of school. I need to study and get back into the groove today.

A Little Behind

We've had too much going on for me to take time to blog. I've got tests in all my classes this Friday, OCTOBER 13TH! All the profs said they were sorry, but I don't think they meant it. So here's what's been happening around here:

• Fred came for last weekend. We haven't seen him since June.
• All the kids went to a hayride and weinie roast last Saturday. The 70 degree weather was perfect for it!
• We all went to see Antigone at Theater UNI. It was a modern adaptation and very well done. Christy especially liked it.
• We had $1 sundaes at McDonald's afterward
• Conference cross country is tomorrow afternoon. I baked 2 doz brownies and am prepared to work in the concessions stand
• Kurt and I had our first big fight. It was a DOOZIE!
• My printer died...at least the portion that prints black ink. Thought it was a bad cartridge. So now I have $70 worth of ink and no printer it will work in. Joy.
• My severance ran out and I'm officially on the dole
• My car needs $2200 in repairs
• I have a math test due Friday, too
• It's snowing outside!

Guilty!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061005/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_life_regifting

An Ebay Find

I occasionally do Ebay searches of my and Kurt's hometowns just to see what it will turn up. A few weeks ago Kurt's came up with a 1955 Legion Cookbook. We bid on it and won (imagine that!?!). It arrived today. Kurt is going to be VERY excited. It's got recipes from his maternal grandma and his aunt in it. I think there may be a couple of other relatives, too. The names sounded familiar, but I'm not well acquainted with the "outlaws" on his side.

Dubuque Dubuque

Saturday we took a family day and went to Dubuque. The weather was lovely, Alex didn't have a cross country meet, and Kurt had found $60 worth of travelers checks when he was cleaning out a box.

We went to the Fenelon Place Elevators which is billed as the world's "shortest, steepest incline" via a train. It goes up the side of a bluff where there is then a beautiful 3 state view. There was a busload of screaming kids when we got there, but we stayed anyway.

Following our ride we boarded the Spirit of Dubuque for a 1 1/2 hour river cruise. We steamed up river to just below the lock and damn, turned around, and headed south to the Julian Dubuque Monument. Along the way we saw piles of coal and road salt, a bald eagle, some spectacular homes, a nunnery, and several barges. The sun came out and made the water glisten. Nick, of course, was a bump on a log, but Alex and Christy really enjoyed themselves.

After the boat ride we decided to drive to the Julian Dubuque Monument and check it out. It was quite the adventure! The way wasn't clearly marked so we got to see quite a bit of the country side. Hwy 52 heading south is pretty "Deliverance"-esque! We had less than an 1/8 of a tank of gas so we headed back to town. We eventually managed to find the place. It has spectacular views, a free viewing telescope, and lots of fresh air.

It was getting late and the herd was hungry. We called some friends in town and has dinner with them at a local Mexican restaurant. There was a strolling guitar player along with lots of warm chips and hot salsa. It was a great end to a great day.

When we got home Christy said she had " a great time" and she hoped Sunday was just as great. I'm afraid she was sadly disappointed.

Fenelon Place Elevators 

Rolling on the River 

Julian Dubuque Monument 

Growth chart

Kurt measured the kids again and the results are in!

Alex - holding at 6'.
Nick - 5'7 and 1/2"
Christy - 5'2 and 1/2".

So am not yet the shortest (but I will be soon!)

This and That

Been busy with school so this hasn't gotten much attention. We attended Alex's Cross Country meet last Saturday. He did pretty well with the hilly course and strong winds. He had another meet yesterday. He said he got 39th (out of how many I don't know). Tomorrow we have school conferences for him and Kurt has to go to Davenport. Friday night we have the Parent's Meeting/Dinner for Cross country. Saturday is the 1st Annual Brew B Q. www.celebrateindee.com We're hoping the weather will be nice for it. I had a test on Tuesday and got one back on Monday. Ugh. Last night was book club. We read THE GOOD WIFE by O'Nan. Shockingly, everyone had read the book. Next month is IN COLD BLOOD. That's the second day of our trial though so we may be too wiped out to go.

The pool picture is from our vacation at Kurt's brother Greg's house. The other one is from the murder mystery dinner we got for a wedding gift from my parents and sister and brother-in-law. (I did it by the way!). It was and the Lion and the Lamb B & B.

Who Dunnit Dinner 

Vacation Revisited 

Heading for the Finish 

Our Mustang 

Crop for the Cure

Saturday was the long awaited event. It was the "Crop for the Cure" Day. Marnie, Jen, and I (plus Jen's sisters, Steph and Roni, whom I hadn't met before) were a few of the 100+ women scrapping booking and raising money for the Susan G. Komen Foundation. All together the day raised $16,000+ for breast cancer research. All of us won door prizes except Ms. Marn. I got my Washington, D.C. scrapbook started (and finished)! I also did some pages of Ryan. I work in an smaller format, 8 x 8, while they were all doing 12 x 12. I got 29 pages done in 12 hours! Marnie did 9 and the others did considerably fewer. They however spend a lot of time planning and replanning. I just tend to slap things down on there. It was a lot of fun.

Mom and I rode to DSM together since she was going to babysit the munchkin while we cropped. He is getting soo big and verbal. He stands and walks along things. He likes to be naughty and check to see if you are paying attention. That kid can army crawl VERY fast if there is an open door. He's a sweetie.

Unfortunately, once we got home it's back to the books. I don't know what in the hell I am doing in my accounting class and my first test is on Friday.

Scenes from Washington, D.C.

Sushi - YUCK!!!




Wet at World War II Memorial



Kurt with Washington in the Palm of his Hand

Korean War Memorial

The closest Kurt will get to the Moon - Touching a Moon Rock

At the Capital

Washington DC

Kurt and I went to the Capital for the long weekend. Despite Hurricane Ernesto we had a wonderful time! It was relaxing and enjoyable. Since there was a deluge 3 of 4 days there weren't many crowds. It's been at least a decade since I've been to DC. It seems cleaner and brighter now. I think some of that has to do with 9/11. There are GIANT planters of flowers everywhere. The planters have been chosen as the barricades around all the museums and government buildings. It's next to impossible to drive up to any of the buildings. The cops were also very busy stopping trucks, u-hauls, and having cars towed. I've never seen such a show of force!
I wanted to see the World War II Memorial since that's new since I've last been there. We walked in the blowing sheets of rain and falling branches from there to the Lincoln Memorial and
back. The Vietnam Wall in on the right hand side of the reflecting pool and the Korean War Memorial is on the left. The Korean Memorial is pretty neat. It looks like a platoon out on patrol. Due to the weather there weren't all kinds of tributes and veterns at the Wall like the other times I've been there.
Kurt was really impressed with the Lincoln Memorial. It is quite grand. Abe is HUGE. The Gettysburg Address is on one wall and his 2nd Inauguarl Address was on the other. The steps were WAY slippery. I'm surprised I didn't biff it.

A Workout

Rikki and I worked out this morning!! Supposedly, we are going to do it 2x a week. (My commitment is more doubtful than hers). We met at UNI at 8:30 a.m. I did the elliptical machine for 5 minutes and then I rode the bike for 8 minutes. It was a recumbent bike and I chose "random". That setting made it change the resistance like I was biking up and down hills. It would tell me to pedal faster or slower. I went a total of 3 miles. I noticed it takes a HELL of a lot of exercise to burn any significant amount of calories! We ended with some hand weights and stretching. We didn't exercise for long, but at least we did it!

The Pink Shirt

I finally convince Kurt to get a pink dress shirt. I think he's way sexy in it. He's got the right coloring for it (being of Danish and Swedish stock and all). We got one at Kohl's on sale. It's a $50 shirt for around $12. Wrap it up we'll take it home!

Now he resisted the pink shirt for a long time. He didn't think it was manly enough. He didn't want to be a metrosexual. Who knows what the reason was.

He wore the shirt yesterday with his new khaki dress pants (he calls 'em slacks). He got a flat tire on the way to work. He was in the process of changing it; standing there deciding how to best get the power bolted on lug nuts off...When a WOMAN offered to do it for him. Since he was in his dress clothes and she had on her work clothes. I asked if she worked at the truck stop. He said no but she did have on more "work" type clothes. He declined her offer feeling a bit humiliated. A bit later a trucker came over and asked if everything was alright wondering if Kurt needed help changing the tire.

He told me about it when he got home. He was M - A - D!!! "Just because I'm wearing a pink shirt people think I'm helpless!" It was the best laugh I've had all week. I wonder if he'll wear it again?

Weekend Wrap Up

Well, the children and I survived our week together. It wasn't without tears and frustration on any of our parts though. Another vacation done. This year our highlight was trip to Rochester to stay with Kurt's brother, Greg and Sister-in-law, Kim. Their two boys, Sterling and Chandler are 19 and 14 (I think). It was nice. Great "hotel". They provided all the food and entertainment. The kids were glued to the TV playing video games, only breaking to eat sweets or get in the pool. The lack of organized meals, limits, and bedtimes was making me crazy. We were there from Friday afternoon until Sunday noon.

On the way up we stopped at Niagara Cave in Harmony, MN. It's one of the top ten caves in the US. Pretty good as caves go. Not that I've been in many. You go on a walking tour down and into the thing. It's like 80 feet underground and then you wind your way back in there a half mile. Christy REALLY loved it. "Take a picture! Take a picture!" I got a little claustrophobic at one point. Kurt was walking in front of me, so he was blocking the little light there was. The walls were only about 6 inches on each side of me. Check it out at www.niagaracave.com

I'll post some pictures as soon as I unearth the camera and get caught up on the laundry!

Feeding the Fish 

Wild Child at Backbone 

The trout are swarming 

Sitting still for once! 

Death By Chocolate 

Adventures

This entertainment director stuff is tiring. Today we just chilled at home. These children have turned me into my mother (again). I just told them to go run around the house. They are banging around and annoying the snot out of me. I just sent the red headed demons to the park. Christy is busy crafting away. She's made a flower, feather, flag and sticker arrangement on floral foam. She's repaired her dagger. Now she is making a shield. I've got blueberry muffins in the oven and am hoping for a nap.

A Visit from Grandpa and Grandma

Kurt's parents are here for the weekend. They came Saturday afternoon while I was at the Cootchie Campout. I premade a lasgne so they'd have something to eat when they arrived. I didn't get home until 9:30pm. Today we had a big turkey dinner, read the paper, and did an Independence mini tour. We spent the afternoon playing Trivial Pursuit and Outburst. Grandpa and Grandma treated us to Pizza Hut tonite. We'd won a free movie from the video store so we rented "Duma". It's about a kid and his cheetah. It was very good.

Tomorrow starts our week's vacation with the kids. Since Kurt switched jobs he doesn't have any vacation so it's me entertaining the munchkins all week. It should be interesting!

Stripping

It's not what you think. I'm stripping wallpaper in our bedroom. The bottom half came off easily in full sheets. Above the chair rail however is awful. I'm using the blue gel stuff and the add in the really hot water stuff. The lady at the paint store told me vinegar water was the way to go. I don't want to stink up the room though. Kurt's parents are suppossed to be coming this weekend so they will sleep in our room. I'd at least like to have it all stripped before they get here. I know getting it painted isn't going to be possible. We have the hearing and school registration tomorrow and Friday I go to the cootchie campout.

I LOVE giving stuff away!

My new favorite website is www.freecycle.org! In the last week we have gotten rid of storm windows, a bookshelf, and dum dum da dum.....the piano!! It's fantastic. I recommend it to each and everyone!

I went to DSM on Sunday afternoon. Marn and I went and "scrapped" today. (We also got some scrappin' in last night while baby boo was napping). I got 13 pages done and I only spent 8.75 at the store. We had breakfast this morning at HY-VEE. It was like a retirement community in there. Wall to wall old people. I have seen my future and it looks like Hy-Vee at 9 am!

My plans for tomorrow are: go to the library and wait for my mom to come pick up the pickle crocks. That's it. :)

Sweet Freedom

My center did in fact close at 9:15pm on Monday the 24th. I am joyously unemployed! I've got so much going on. I'm like those retired people that say "I'm so busy I don't know how I had time to work!"

I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED!!!!

Despite getting WAY below a "F" on my math final (45%). I passed the class. My homework and other test score were much better. Since so many people did so badly on the test (read only 7 out of 25 passed the final) she eliminated the requirement that we pass the final to pass the test. The gods and my genius and loving husband were smiling on me!

Help me I'm melting!

It is so stinkin' humid outside. Yuck. I weeded my gardens that are in the shade. The ones in the sun will have to wait. The quack grass didn't put up much of a fight after all the rain we got last night. The storm managed to knock 3 little tomatos off the two plants I have. I wrestled what is left of the plant into cages. That's it for me outside today. There is plenty that I can work on inside.

Only 3 more days of work. YAY! I called the unemployment office today and spoke with 2 different people. The information they gave me was 100% contradictory. Trying to collect is going to be a real good time, I can already tell.

Before

My beautiful Lewis - all fluffy and furry.

After

I got Mr. Magoo groomed. I was trying to be nice. I swear! I'll never do it again. My poor puppy :(

He can't escape my kisses! 

Seconds later they turned on the fountain! (He's sitting on it) 

Fred turns 19 

I really am short! Kurt, President Truman and me 

Mr. Wedemeier, I'm ready for my close up!