Pampered Chef

I love Pampered Chef. I have most of the tools they offer. I buy them with the intention of using them and making new recipes. It probably works for about a week, then I go back to the same old stuff. I do think they make great tools though. My favorite is the can opener. I would die without my can opener. I'd almost bet that is also the safest tool they make. You can open cans and NOT get cut. You can run your fingers along the edge of the can and the lid when you are done and nothing. Safe as anything.

The food slicer (or, what we call the finger slicer) is a whole different ballgame. I have the first version, the finger slicer version. I should probably get the newest one on the market. It would probably save a few fingertips in the future.

I bought our "finger slicer" back when we lived in Memphis. I remember it vividly. I can't remember who sold it to me; however. Anyway, I remember when it was brand new and how SHARP it was and how awesome we thought it was. Scott and I were making supper and he was using the "finger slicer" to slice potatoes. He was slicing away and all of a sudden, yelled some profanity. He sliced the end of his finger clean off! No kidding! It was so sharp, that there wasn't even any blood. It took the tip of his finger right off. We looked all over for his fingertip and couldn't find it anywhere. I guess we must have figured that it went down the drain in the sink or something? Since there was no blood and we couldn't find the tip of Scott's finger, we went ahead and finished making our side dish of potatoes, which we called "Tony Potatoes" because of the seasoning we used on it. The next day, when Scott was at work, he was in the lunchroom eating with Steve Adair, I believe. I think Steve almost puked his entire lunch up when Scott yelled out, "Hey, there's my finger!" and proceeded to show everyone his fingertip, which had been cooked in the potatoes. Nice...........I know.

I would bet, that ALMOST EVERY SINGLE TIME I use the "finger slicer", I get injured. You would think I would get rid of the stupid thing, but it works so well at slicing potatoes (and fingers!). Tonight I made scalloped potatoes and ham for supper. Yes, I'm sure you know right where this is headed. You'll be happy to know there were no body parts in our supper tonight; however, I sliced my damn finger! Actually, my thumb. It hurt like hell. It's obviously not as sharp as it used to be. When I yelled, the kids came running to see what happened. "It's okay guys! I just sliced my finger, that's all!" Now, you are probably wondering why Pampered Chef would sell such a dangerous piece of equipment? Believe it or not, it comes with a safety guard. Do you think we use it? NO! And why, you ask? I guess it's just plain stupidity. You have to slice the potato in half first, then stick it into the guard and it just makes it awkward to use and takes more time. My plan, typically, is to slice the potato using my hand, without the guard, until it gets small enough that I can't do it safely anymore, without cutting myself, then I stick the potato in the guard and finish. I seriously had just said to myself, in my head, that I should probably get the safety guard, then it happened. I sliced my thumb. AARGH! I'm thinking that maybe we should take up a donation so we can buy the newest version of the "finger slicer"? What do you think?

End of the month

Do you remember what was supposed to happen at the end of the month? If you guessed Emma getting her ears pierced, you were right. I'm hoping she forgets about it! Yeah, right! She asked me the other day how many more days until May was over. When I told her about 35 she looked at me funny. She, of course, was talking about April, not May. She has been trying very hard at school to hold her pencil correctly and I suppose I am going to have to get a report from her teacher to find out if she is still trying and doing it before I go through with this plan. I really didn't think she would do it. I should have known better; however, I am very glad that she is trying to hold her pencil right. I suppose she deserves to get her ears pierced if she can correct that bad habit.

Last night Scott brought home Gage's baseball schedule. I think we are going to be QUITE busy with baseball this summer. He has 2, sometimes 3, games each week. I got everything written down on the calendar and there are a few dates that Gage and Emma have baseball games on the same night at the same time, but if Scott is in town, it shouldn't be a problem. Scott said Gage did pretty well hitting the ball at practice last night and he seems to be pretty excited. Baseball seems to be the only sport, so far, that he says he likes. I enjoy baseball, so I'm good with that.

I can't believe this school year is coming to an end. It went by really fast. The summer is going to go faster and we have so much going on it's going to be crazy. I guess I need something to keep me off of Facebook! :-)

Tuesday practice

It was chilly out today, especially with the darn wind blowing like it is. I hate this in-between stuff. I am an "all-or-none" kind of person and I don't like this weather. If it's going to be cold, then I like COLD! Well, I guess I can't really turn that around, because I don't like it HOT. I'll take the cold, I guess.

The kids were relatively easy to deal with this morning prior to school. Gage wanted to wear his Heelys, but they aren't allowed in school. I told him he could wear them without the wheels at school; however. He couldn't find the plugs to plug the hole when the wheel is out and tried blaming that on Emma or me. He finally found them in the basement, right where he left them. :-) He rolled to school and then I had him pop the wheels out and plug the holes and I took them with me so he couldn't lose them, or get in trouble with them. I then proceeded downstairs to the library to put some books away. There are tons of new books in the library and they had me salivating. We are currently reading the Gary Paulsen "The Hatchet" series. It is really good. We have read "The Hatchet" and are almost done with "The River". Gage loves it when I'm reading books to him that I really get in to because I say, "Just one more chapter" and then can't stop at the end of that chapter and we keep going on until I just have to make myself stop. Tonight while I was sitting in the car while Emma had soccer practice, I cheated and read through the end of the book on my own. I knew he would be home late as he had his first baseball practice, which Scott took him to, and we wouldn't get a chance to read it. Now I can't wait to get started on "Brian's Winter". I'm not sure if we can get through the whole series before school lets out for the summer though.

Scott is home from trapping ducks. I was glad to have his help tonight. Gage's baseball practice was at 6:30 tonight at Rita Murphy Elementary baseball field and Emma's soccer was at 6:30 at Grimsrud Elementary. They are on opposite sides of town and it would have been difficult to do by myself.

I'm quite tired, so I think I will call it good.

Last show-and-tell day for Gage

Man, I HATE it when Gage has show-and-tell at school. Each kids gets to do show-and-tell about once a month, one kid assigned to each school day. Today was Gage's day. I thought if it just as I put them to bed last night, but I didn't want to say anything then, because I knew he would never go to sleep. He has such an AWFUL time figuring out what to take. This morning, at about 8am, he said he wanted to take Sid, the salamander. Good Lord, it was almost time to leave for school and there was no way I could arrange for that to happen. I thought they weren't supposed to take animals to school for show-and-tell, but he told me his friend Alexandra has taken her tadpoles and someone else had a hamster. I told him it was too cold out for Sid and he would have to figure something else out. He was ticked and whining and crying. He asked if he could take his Heelys and I told him he could, but he couldn't ride them at school. Then he didn't want that either. After he figured out that I wasn't giving in about Sid, he knew he needed to pick something else, and in a hurry, because it was almost time to leave for school. He asked if he could take some Legos and I decided what the heck! Go ahead! If you lose them, don't come home crying! He couldn't decide and was upset again because he couldn't take Sid. I then asked him if he wanted to take his MTT Star Wars Lego set. The HUGE set I built for him last fall. He said, "Really?" He was happy then. After school when I picked him up, he said that everyone was so jealous of his show-and-tell. LOL. I guess that's what he wanted. Thank goodness today was his last day for show-and-tell!

Not much happened today. I got all the laundry done AGAIN. I try to make Monday my day for laundry since there isn't anything else going on, usually.

Scott is out in the field trapping ducks and should be home tomorrow afternoon. Gage has his first baseball practice tomorrow at 6:30 and Emma has soccer at 6:30, so I need him to be here to help shuttle kids. Actually, I hope it rains, like they are forecasting, so there won't be any practice. I know we don't need the water right now, but just enough to wet the fields would be nice! :-)

Pictures as promised

I decided I better blog before I get distracted on Facebook, so here goes.

Not too much happened today. It was cold, rainy and there was also a little bit of snow. The snow wasn't too much to speak of and we're needing 1.2 inches to beat the all time snow record, so we need some of this precipitation in the forecast to be snow, so this year can be remembered in the record books.

Since there wasn't much going on today, I'm just going to post the pictures I took yesterday, as promised.


This is the flag ceremony to begin the Scout Show at the State Capitol.

Gage and Tyson making neckerchief slides. I don't think they are going to be very "functional" but I'm looking through the Bear handbook to see if it will count towards earning his bear badge.

This is how it's done! We had to then bring the neckerchief slide home and bake it in the oven to make it harden.

Gage making a Pinewood Derby car display at one of the Pack's booth. This was a neat little craft that does count as an achievement in the Bear book, so we're already on the trail towards earning the badge.

Gage getting a few instructions on how to hammer a nail without bending it. :-)

This is what I call concentration. I see there are safety goggles here that are not in use. Hmmm.

It's much easier to hammer a nail two-handed!

Emma takes a crack at the climbing wall. She didn't make it all the way to the top. It's a bit taller than the one at the zoo, so I think it was not that it was too challenging to make it to the top, but that she was a little too scared to try.

Dad and Emma taking a little break before the closing ceremonies and Pinewood Derby awards.

Emma won 1st place in the "Outlaw Division" of the Pinewood Derby races. Her "Flower Power Love Bug" cannot be beaten! It seriously didn't lose a race and this was a district wide race!

All the winning cars. :-) Gage says that Emma is NOT racing that car again next year. He was quite upset that she won the race and didn't care that it wasn't him that she beat. I'm quite sure Emma will not be retiring the Love Bug any time soon!

Gage snaps his wheel into the bottom of his new Heely's.

I told him I needed a picture of them before they got all scuffed up so I can put it in the scrapbook with his first big accident, when it happens. Notice I say "when" and not "if"!

Gage wanted Dad to help him out just a bit at first. He was outside playing around with these for a few hours yesterday afternoon and he is actually getting pretty good at it. However, he is still crashing and there were a few big "thuds" heard on the living room floor this afternoon. Gage was not very happy about the rain today as he wanted to be outside Heelying (can that even be a word?) Scott made Gage read through the instruction book on how to take care of the Heelys and it said not to use them when it's wet, as it will cause rusting, or in the dirt, which can clog up the wheel. Let me just tell you that I have Heely wheel marks all over the living room and dining room floor. He's not going to be happy when I tell him there's rain or snow forecasted for most of the week! It's going to be a fun week, I can already tell!

Busy Day

We had quite a busy day today! Emma and I started our day off with soccer. She did such a great job and scored 2 goals. I was really proud of her and excited about her aggressiveness, which you know Gage has been lacking in the sports department. I think maybe Emma is going to be the athlete in the family. She ran hard and did just what she was supposed to do. She was playing against a team that one of our Daisy Scouts is on, so she was excited to see Paige there and they had fun playing against each other. After we left the soccer field, we headed to the Capitol for the Scout Show. There were tons of things going on there, which is where we spent almost the rest of our day, it seemed. I have tons of pictures that I will post tomorrow. The kids were exhausted tonight and fell asleep relatively quick after putting them to bed. Gage used his money he's been saving to buy himself a pair of Heely's, so I've been telling people we've seen outside this evening that we now have 9-1-1 on speed dial! I'm almost sure we'll end up with a broken bone before the summer is over...............heck, maybe even before the summer begins!

Scott brought me a note (like Emma does) asking me to join him for a movie and popcorn upstairs, so I better get going. I'll post the pictures I have on here (and Facebook) tomorrow.

Bismarck Youth Baseball

Tonight we had to be at SMCHS at 5:30 for Emma's T-ball team uniform distribution and team pictures. I have to say that Bismarck Youth Baseball is the MOST organized group I have ever seen. They have things figured out, let me tell you. Two summers ago we signed Gage up for Parks and Rec T-ball and we were so disappointed. The only thing we enjoyed about the season is that Jody Jennings helped Scott coach Gage's team, which meant Emily and the kids were at most of the games and I had someone to talk to and Emma had someone to play with. That was the MOST unorganized group I have ever seen! We showed up (Scott was the coach, mind you) and there were no bases, no T's to hit off of, no helmets, no nothing. After that season, I was determined to get Gage into the Bismarck Youth Baseball program. Last year, initially Parks and Rec wasn't even doing baseball and it was all Bismarck Youth Baseball, so everyone who wanted into the program was allowed in. I was happy that we were able to get in that way. Anyway, I was super impressed with the whole organization and how smoothly everything flowed. It was no different tonight. We arrived just a little before 5:30 as the team was supposed to be ready for pictures at 5:40. When we went inside the school, they had a table set up with a guy there to register each team. Only the team coordinator was supposed to register at the table. Then when they called your team, they had all the kids line up to go into the gym, no parents allowed, to get their uniforms. I had to go make sure of how it was going to work this year, because last year they had a rental truck and all the kids, one team at a time, piled into the truck, stripped to their underwear, and they came out fully dressed in uniforms. I wanted to make sure, since Emma is the only girl on her team, that they didn't take her into the room with the boys to get dressed. I think that would completely traumatize her. They told me they had a separate room for the girls, so not to worry. Then, the parents just stood around talking and waiting. The kids then came into the other gym where they lined up for a man to take individual pictures. When he finished with each child, they then went to the area where the team photo was being taken and one of the volunteers would bring each parent a sack with their child's clothes in it. They took the picture and then we were given the schedule and sent on our way. They make sure that all of the uniforms fit, the zippers work, etc etc, so no one can come back saying they didn't get this or that, or say that the zipper was broke when they got them. Everything is in working order when it is put on each child. They get hats, jerseys, pants, belt and socks. The hat and socks are yours to keep and everything else gets turned back in at the end of the season. I think part of what makes it so organized is that they keep the parents out of the way and then do their thing. When I saw Emma in line in the gym for the individual pictures, I almost started crying. She is SO CUTE in her uniform it isn't even funny. It is mandatory that all kids have their complete uniform on for games, or they don't get to play. Hat included. Emma had her hat on with her little piggy tails sticking out the bottom and she was adorable. I wish I had my camera with me. I will be getting pictures though, so don't worry about that. Emma is playing for the Twins and Gage is playing for the Diamondbacks. I'm sure he's going to HATE wearing purple!
Tomorrow we do the same thing again for Gage.

Nice weather = Sunburn

Emma got her first sunburn of a long, hot, summer season ahead. UGH! We fight nearly every morning about what she wants to wear to school. She wants to wear tank tops and I tell her that that is not appropriate clothing for this time of the year. I went to Old Navy yesterday to see if I could find some things that she would be able to wear OVER her tank tops, to make her happy. I found a cute gray zip-up cardigan sweater that will go with just about everything. She looked very cute this morning in her knee-high argyle-like socks, tan skort, navy tank top and gray sweater. I know she takes the sweaters off inside the school when she gets hot. This bothers me, but there isn't a whole lot I can do to control this unless I am going to sit in the classroom with her and be her shadow. However, I assumed that she wouldn't be allowed to go outside like that. You know what "ass"uming does! Today Scott picked me up at lunch and we ran a couple of errands and on our way home, we drove by Corpus Christi and saw Emma's class outside at recess. She was only wearing her tank top, not the sweater. UGH! Scott says, "Stacy, I don't know why you don't just let her be. It's not that big of deal." Okay, well, to me it is and her coming home looking like a lobster makes it even MORE of a big deal to me. She has (and has had since this fall) a small container of sunscreen hooked inside her backpack, but she didn't think to use it. I can't put sunscreen on her at 8am and expect it to still be working in the afternoon to prevent her from getting sunburned. We talked about it while I gave her her bath tonight and told her how she is going to have to take extra special care of her skin since she is red-headed. We talked about skin cancer etc, etc. Hopefully she will remember to put the sunscreen on next time if she decides she can't wear her long sleeves outside. As I said, it's going to be a LONG summer.

The nice weather has helped tire the kids a bit and I didn't have too many difficulties getting them to sleep tonight. Scott was gone for the evening and after I had them in bed, I laid down on the couch to watch Survivor. I was apparently dozing because one time Gage came up to say, "Mom, I want a pair of Heely's and Alexandra having them makes me jealous. Can we get some tomorrow?" Then Emma comes up and says something just about as off the wall. They were both asleep when I checked at 8:20p though, so I thought I was did pretty good. I slept better last night and am planning to get a good nights' sleep tonight. I'm going to need it tomorrow as I am filling in for one of the lunch ladies at Corpus Christi! Thankfully they won't be eating nacho boats tomorrow!

Tired and Cranky

Ha, I'll bet you thought I was talking about the kids, didn't you? Nope! I'm talking about myself this time. I haven't slept well the past 2 nights. I often have troubles falling asleep, but lately it hasn't really been much of an issue. It has been the past 2 nights. I've been laying awake, tossing and turning, and unable to fall asleep. Last night it occurred to me that I am not going to be able to go to the all day Scrapbooking event on Saturday like I had planned to do. I'm more sad about it than anything else. There's no one to be mad at about it except for myself. There is a Scout Show on Saturday from 10a-2p which Scott was going to take Gage and Emma to, along with my friend Sherry's boys and our den. That was going to work out great until I found out last night that Emma's first soccer game is Saturday at 9:30am and Gage has to be at SMCHS at 10:40a to get his baseball uniform and have pictures taken. I obviously can't scrap in the morning. I think I could make it for the afternoon, but I'm sure I would get nothing accomplished because I'll be exhausted from a morning of running around and it often times takes me a few hours just to "get going" on my albums. So, I was awake most of the night trying to figure out how to make it work so that I can go scrapping all day. I didn't come up with much of a plan. So, today I'm tired and cranky, and that's all I have to say. :-)

What was I thinking?

I screwed up! Can you believe it? :-) I didn't realize when I signed Emma up for spring soccer and also for T-ball that the 2 events will be happening at the same time! Not to mention that I signed Gage up for Lower Minors baseball, which means I have 3 events happening at the same time! UGH! I didn't realize it until yesterday when we started getting phone calls from the soccer and baseball coaches that the seasons completely overlap.

Emma had her first soccer practice tonight at 6:30. She had alot of fun. One of her good friends, Emily Just, is on her team so she is excited about that. There are a few other Kindergarten girls from Northridge on the team as well, but they are in different classrooms. Due to all of the snow/flooding we missed a few weeks of soccer apparently. Her first game is on Saturday morning at 9:30. On Friday Emma's T-ball team will be meeting for team pictures and uniform distribution and will practice next Tuesday at 6:30. Hmmm..........yes, there is a problem with that. Emma's soccer practices will always be on Tuesday at 6:30 and I'm praying Gage's baseball practice isn't always going to fall on Tuesday at 6:30. I guess with that conflict, if Scott is in town, I should be okay as we can both go different directions. Now I just need to find out what days and time Emma's T-ball team will be practicing and playing to see what's going to happen. I hope it's a different day. I'm sure you are thinking that it would just be easier to take Emma out of one of the activities, but with baseball for Gage and Emma and soccer for Emma, I have $235 invested that I don't want to waste. I'm sure by the time the seasons are over, I will have learned a little lesson here! (I hope so anyway!)

Our summer is looking pretty busy. I said that keeps me out of trouble, didn't I? We'll see!

Painted Wolf Ceremony

Tonight's Pack meeting was a special ceremony, called the Painted Wolf Ceremony. Gage and his den advanced from the Wolf den, into a Bear den. We are very proud of Gage and all of the things he has done to earn this award.


Den 6 (Gage's den) was in charge of the flag ceremony. They are advancing the colors.

"I pledge Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America......."

The Painted Wolf Ceremony requires Akela to paint the sign of the Wolf on the Scout's face.

The black on the chin stands for happiness from your days as a Tiger Cub.

The red on your forehead is for bravery when you become a Bear.

The yellow across your nose is for sunlight along the Wolf trail.

This is one proud Dad!

Akela gives Gage his Wolf badge. The instructions were to pin the badge in it's place, upside-down. The badge is not to be turned right-side up until the Scout does one good deed for someone without being told or asked. Gage did not like having his badge upside-down and was acting mad about it. On our way home, he came running up to me to tell me that he held the door open for people coming out of the school and said that he could turn his badge around the right way. LOL!

Dad places Gage's new Bear Scout neckerchief and slide around Gage's neck.

Gage displaying the sign of the Wolf. He is now on the trail to become a Bear.

Den 6 has grown by 3 Scouts. There were 2 Wolf dens but the other leader and his Scout quit, leaving 3 Scouts hanging without a leader, so they joined our den. We now have 8 boys in our den and I think it's going to be twice as wild! It's also going to be twice as hard for me to keep up with everything! I don't know if these other 3's parents realize how anal I am? LOL!

I think the boys really enjoyed the ceremony tonight. Our new Cubmaster is doing a great job already and I think this will help encourage the boys to stick with it and also entice more to join.

Tired kids

Gage is still exhausted, trying to recover from his weekend turkey hunt. He was up late and up VERY early and we are still suffering because of it. I think tomorrow, while they are at school, I may try putting aluminum foil on their windows so I can get them to fall asleep at a decent time. If that doesn't work, it's going to be a LONG summer!

We ate wild turkey for supper tonight. Are you surprised? I wasn't expecting much. I am SO TIRED of pheasant that the thought of eating it almost makes me gag, and I really thought the turkey would taste alot like the pheasant. Boy was I wrong! It was really tasty. Scott cooked it on the grill with the Tony's cajun seasoning and I surprisingly liked it. The one turkey breast he cooked was huge and he froze the other one. I wondered why he didn't pluck it, but I'm glad he did it this way. I'm sure it also took much less time to breast it out than to pluck that huge thing.

This morning we had a treat a church. The Missouri River Boys played most of the music. I could totally be a Missouri River Boys groupie. I love listening to them. I'm hoping that when Mom and Dad decide to come and visit, that it will be at a time when I can take them to listen to the Missouri River Boys in person. I bought them the CD awhile back, but it is so much better live. They certainly draw a crowd at church. We almost had as many in attendance today as we did on Easter Sunday!

Tomorrow evening we have Gage's pack meeting to attend at school. The wolf and bear cubs will be graduating, or advancing, into the next level. We have worked hard this year and accomplished quite a bit in Gage's wolf handbook. With our new Cubmaster, I think the ceremony is going to be fun for the boys. They will get their faces painted with war paint that symbolizes certain parts of Cub Scouts. I'll be sure to take pictures.

Emma starts soccer practice Tuesday evening so our spring activity calendar has sprung I do believe. Or at least it's going to soon. I get in less trouble when I'm busy. :-)

First Turkey

Scott and Gage arrived back home today around 2pm. Gage and Emma were fighting by 2:30, so it was already back to normal.

I wanted to share this picture of Scott and Gage with their first turkey ever. It's a Merriam's turkey that they got in the badlands of North Dakota, near Bowman. Scott has already gotten the fan stuck into his turkey decoy to make it look even more real.

Gage had fun, but he apparently didn't get enough sleep because he returned grouchy. I figured that would happen. I wonder how old he needs to be to grow out of that? LOL! I know, he probably never will. He needs his beauty rest!

Emma and I watched Marley and Me this morning and it had be bawling again. I just can't handle the sad part. It's a pretty good movie though.

The weather is a bit cooler here today and I think it's supposed to be again tomorrow. I wish it would just make it's mind up and either stay cold or stay warm! I hate this back and forth stuff. It needs to stay warm so Scott can get all of the dog crap picked up out back. It's all over the place and I won't even let the kids play back there because someone will for sure come inside with crap all over their shoes! It's disgusting.

Emma has a birthday party to go to tomorrow afternoon. That's about the only thing that is planned for any of us tomorrow. I'm thinking every girl in her class has invited her to their birthday party. I'm tired of birthday parties! It's getting too expensive!

Emma has been doing a pretty good job of holding her pen correctly. I asked her teacher on Friday about it and she said she's been doing really well! I guess getting her ears pierced at the end of the month is good motivation. I'm going to have to come up with some excuse as to why she can't get them pierced yet! LOL! I'm such a MEAN MOM!

Girls' Night

It was girls night here at our house. I talked Emma into getting take out from the China Garden so I was excited about that. We went to Target to get popcorn (I love Target's snack stand popcorn!) and then went and rented a movie from Video Action and picked up our Chinese food and came home to have some fun. Emma picked the movie An American Girl: Chrissa Stands Strong. It was a good movie about bullying. There were a few snotty girls treating Chrissa badly. I told Emma I sure hope she never acts like that. She assured me she wouldn't.

Scott and Gage shot their first turkey yesterday. I was hoping that Steve would get his today so they could come home this evening, but it doesn't look too promising now that it's nearly 10pm! I guess Gage got some huge eyes when the turkey started gobbling back at Scott when he was calling at it. I can't wait to hear their stories!

This morning I walked around the Tom O'Leery loop with Kara 2 times. I know I slow her down a bit, but I think it was good for my back. I haven't had as many mini spasms today anyway.

Not much else is happening here. Hopefully the guys will be home fairly early tomorrow. I think Emma gets bored without her brother here to pester her (or vice versa!).

On the verge

I think I am on the verge of a major back spasm! I haven't had any back pain for quite awhile and have been quite happy about that. I started having some pain in my lower back last Sunday, and I seriously think it was because I spent the entire Easter day in the kitchen fixing supper. I remember when I was making the noodles, I had bent over to lean on the counter because my back was starting to get sore. I guess I shouldn't spend that much time in the kitchen from now on! :-) Every now and again it will start hurting really bad and then it will go away, which makes me thing it's spasming and when I least expect it, it's going to take me down to my knees. I just pray it isn't this weekend while Scott is gone turkey hunting with Gage. Although, I'm sure Emma would be a great little helper if something like that happened. I remember when Gage was just a little guy, still in his crib, when we lived in Montana and I was sitting at the computer while he was napping. When he woke up and started fussing, I got up from the computer and whammm-o, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I fell to my knees and had to crawl to his room wondering what I was going to do, as Scott wasn't home. After I got to his room, I decided I needed to get to the phone and call Scott. I attempted to stand up and couldn't because the pain was so bad. I had to crawl to the phone and then crawl back to Gage's room to call Scott to tell him to come home. Thankfully he was in his office at the university and he was able to come right home. We lived about 5 miles out of town, but he made it home pretty quick. I had to sit on the floor in front of Gage's crib just talking to him and trying to make him happy. He wanted out and there wasn't anything I could do about it. I've had these kind of back spasms at least a handful of times and they certainly are not any fun! I end up on painkillers and muscle relaxers. I may self-medicate before bed tonight to see if that helps. My combination of migraine meds would probably help some (prescription strength Naproxen and Flexeril, which is a muscle relaxer).

Maybe it's all this harvesting I've been doing on Kysa's Facebook farm?

Facebook

I have got to stay off of Facebook! It is addicting and it's scary how much time a person can spend messing around with it. My blog is suffering because of it!

The kids were excited to ride their bikes to school for the first time today. It was nice temperature-wise, but boy was it ever windy! When I was out and about earlier today, there was so much dust blowing that it almost looked like it could turn into a dust-blizzard! It also made my teeth hurt when it was hitting my car because it sounded kind of like scratching a chalkboard with your fingernails!

Gage brought home his homework today for the time he is going to miss tomorrow afternoon and Friday. I think he even finished it and I didn't hear any screaming and hollering! I think Scott was surprised that he didn't know how to do math "the new way". Don't feel bad hon, I can't do it either! It's not good when you can't even help your 2nd grader with his math homework!

I'm not sure what Emma and I will do while the boys are gone. I'm sure she'll be begging to do something though, like go to the movies or something similar. I know there's a Hannah Montana movie out but I don't know if it is 6-year-old appropriate?

I get to work with Juanita tomorrow afternoon at Corpus Christi. :-) Jan has meetings all afternoon, so I am glad I get to come in and help out. I like getting a little bit of something for a paycheck every 2 weeks, even if it is for just a few hours!

I need to call it a night. I spent too much time harvesting Kysa's crops for not enough money to fence in my animals! Stupid Facebook!

Girl Scout Field Trip

Why is it that my kids are always the worst behaved at functions that we are in charge of i.e. Gage/Baseball; Gage/Cub Scouts; Emma/Girl Scouts. I think maybe this is a sign that we need to stop volunteering to be leaders or coaches? It is SO FRUSTRATING! Today I picked Emma and IsaBelle up from school because we had a Girl Scout meeting. We met up with Gage in the library at Northridge. As soon as I walked in, he was asking me to call his friend's Mom to see if he could go over to her house instead of go to the meeting. I told him we couldn't do that because we needed to plan for something like that in advance. That was NOT what he wanted to hear. He threw quite a fit and showed my friends in the library, Juanita and Jan, just how he can be when he doesn't get his way. I threatened him that if he didn't straighten up and behave on this field trip we were about to go on, then he would not get to play with any friends the remainder of the school year. He was on quite a pity pot and I wasn't quite sure how it was going to go. We were going to the Ruth Meier's Hospitality House to donate Girl Scout cookies and get a tour. After Juanita had a little talk with him, he seemed to take what she said to heart and started to behave a little better. (Thanks again Juanita!) We discussed in great detail with the girls AND Gage what kind of behavior we expected out of them. I seriously think all of that information goes in one ear and right out the other. Emma and Gage and one other girl were not listening when we got there and acting silly. I had to get on them a time or two. THEN, when we were in the food pantry room, Emma saw the macaroni and cheese boxes and picked one up and put it behind her back like she was going to steal it. NICE! I am praying she was just joking around with her brother, although that wasn't the behavior I was wanting either. AARGH! This happens quite a bit and I don't understand it. As I said, maybe we need to stop being leaders/coaches and let someone else do it? They would probably learn more and I know they would behave better. It's quite frustrating to say the least.

The weather was beautiful today! I was actually hot when we were driving to our field trip destination. Then, when we got there it had to be about 80 degrees inside! I don't know how they could stand it? Kara was suffering from a migraine and now that I think about it, that was probably terrible being in that hot building with a throbbing head! Sorry Kara! I hope you're feeling better!

We are supposed to be around 70 degrees tomorrow and most of the snow is melted. We still have a big pile in our yard because it doesn't see a whole lot of sun with our big pine tree out front. There is quite a bit of flooding going on around the state. Last night Interstate 94 was closed from Bismarck to Jamestown as there were 3 places where water was running over the interstate. They showed some clips on the news and it was quite amazing! Scott is just thrilled to death with all of this water because it's GOOD FOR THE DUCKS! :-)

Laundry day

I don't have too much to report today other than the fact that I washed, folded and put away 6 loads of laundry. There wasn't time to do anything else!

The weather was beautiful today. I think I can FINALLY stop sending snowpants, mittens and stocking hats to school with the kids! WOO HOO! However, we are supposed to get some "stuff" towards the end of the week. Who knows if it will be rain or snow or both? The kids have their bikes out of the shed and are dying to ride them to school tomorrow. On our walk home today they were both complaining, saying, "It's hot!" "I'm too hot!" "It's too hot outside Mom!" WHATEVER! I think we got up to 60 today. You know you're from North Dakota when you think 60 degrees (above zero) is a scorcher of a day! LOL!

We have a fairly "low-key" week ahead *knocking on wood*. Tomorrow after school we have a Daisy Scout meeting and we are going to take a field trip to the Ruth Meier's Hospitality House to drop off the Girl Scout cookies that were bought and donated through the Cookie Share program. We didn't have many takers on that. Everyone was wanting the cookies for themselves and weren't willing to share! I think we have about 10 boxes to give and I bought 3 of them! LOL! However, I must admit that I forgot to mention the Cookie Share program to most of the people we sold to, so it was probably due more to me than people not wanting to share GS cookies. Thanks to Kara, my co-leader in crime, we will be getting a tour of the place as well. Should be interesting. (Thanks Kara!)

Hope you all had a good start to your week!

Easter 2009 - Good news!

The good news is no one choked to death on any chicken bones tonight at supper! The chicken and noodles were actually quite good, despite what the kids said. Emma didn't want the mashed potatoes under the chicken and noodles and Gage didn't want the chicken and noodles over his mashed potatoes. I guess they should have shared the same plate and ate what the other one wouldn't. Unfortunately the kids weren't impressed with my idea of an Easter dinner. What's new? I guess that's one of the reasons that I don't like cooking so much, because someone isn't going to like it most generally. Gage did say he liked the deviled eggs, but I screwed up on those and tried to go by memory of what Kim told me on Facebook. She said 1/2 tsp of apple cider vinegar and I put in 2 tsp. Oops! Both of the kids liked them though, so I guess that was a good mistake. I definitely had way too much food and I spent way too much time preparing it. I'll try and remember that next year. Maybe we'll just go to Perkins?

They were calling for rain in the forecast today, so last night after I logged off Facebook and went to take my bath, I started thinking about how today was going to go. (I do my best thinking while soaking in the tub). I had all of the kids' stuff laid out on the couch and Scott and I were trying to decide how we were going to hide the Easter eggs. He wanted to hide them while the kids were in Sunday School, but we got a postcard in the mail this past week notifying everyone that there would be no Sunday School today. Hmmmm......now what? I thought maybe it would be a good idea to hide them last night before going to bed since the temperature wasn't going to be cold enough to freeze the eggs. Peter "Scott"ontale wasn't too fond of going outside last night at midnight to hide Easter eggs. And, it's kind of hard to hide eggs when you still have 4 feet of snow in the front yard! Needless to say, the kids found them all pretty fast as they were all laying in the driveway, on the steps and on Scott's truck. LOL! I was glad to have that all done before we went to church.

It takes so much longer to upload picture to my blog than it does to Facebook, so I only picked a few to put on my blog. If you want to check out the others, you'll have to do that on Facebook.


Even though I was told I must have been confused as to what holiday it was, Christmas or Easter, I didn't think I did too awfully bad. This is what the Easter Bunny left for the kids. Basically, besides the candy, they each got an Easter outfit, spring pajamas, a Webkinz and a DVD. Since Emma's DVD came with the movie and also the book on CD, I figured Gage would get upset so I found him a cheap DS game at Walmart "The Best Tests on DS". He was griping the other day that the only games I ever buy are ones that teach him things. I was waiting for him to notice the connection between the types of games I always buy and the one the Easter Bunny left. I suppose one day he'll thank me for that. I hope I'm still alive when he decides to.

Emma's Easter basket with goodies. I never buy real Easter baskets. I almost always buy some sort of container that can be used for storage or organizing in the kids' rooms. This year is it was DVD storage containers. I'm hoping to use these on our long trips to Iowa to keep all of their DVD's and personal belongings organized in the car. (I know, wishful thinking!)

Gage checking out his Easter goodies.

Hunting Easter eggs in 4 feet of snow in the front yard!

Emma's new Easter outfit. I had her all fixed up and when she went and looked in the mirror she got ticked off because she didn't like how I fixed her hair and she didn't like her pantyhose. Blah blah blah!

They are growing up way too fast!

I decided to take their picture at church inside the front door in front of this picture of one of the stained glass windows in the church. It will be a great picture for their scrapbooks.

I always try to get some sort of family photo taken on Easter. Credit goes to Juanita this year. It worked out much better than setting the timer and running to the couch and diving into my spot between Scott and the kids! One bad thing about taking a family picture on Easter each year is that I seem to have the same clothes on, or variations of the same outfits. This is exactly what I wore last Easter. Oh well!

Scott and I were signed up to be greeters/ushers at church today. I don't think I've ever seen the church as full as it was today. Since we only have one service now, the congregation isn't split up into 2 different groups. The balcony was jam packed, which is where we always sit. Thankfully we had our own assigned seats, being the ushers in the balcony. It was also good that Gage and Emma were able to help us pass the offering plates. It usually isn't too difficult to do in the balcony because there aren't always that many people, but that wasn't the case today. Scott and I need lessons in how to pass the offering plates through the pews so they don't meet up in the middle of the same row! LOL!

We went out for a drive this afternoon to look at all the water flooded along the highway to Menoken. Actually, the reason we went is because it was reported to Scott that there were boatloads of ducks on these flooded areas. There were quite a few ducks, thousands of snow geese and we saw a flock of sandhill cranes. Scott is already drooling and looking forward to the fall hunting season.

Speaking of hunting seasons, Scott is taking Gage turkey hunting this coming weekend. They are going with our friends Steve Adair and I believe Ellie is going as well. Scott will be taking Gage out of school early on Thursday (2pm) and he will miss Friday as well. I am not in favor of this and told Scott it was up to him to get all of Gage's homework assignments from his teacher and they have to be completed BEFORE he goes. I am not dealing with it because of the huge fit he threw after being sick with strep throat for 3 days. We'll see how much work this turns out to be!

Their Last Supper?

Okay, so being the youngest of 5, with 3 older sisters isn't ALWAYS a good thing. It means that I never learned how to cook. I took advantage of the situation too, let me tell you! I hated to cook then, I hate to cook now. I am not one of those people who can add a little of this or a little of that. I need a recipe with nearly every detail written out.

While I was home last week, when I was visiting with my sister, Kim, we somehow got onto the topic of food. She was telling me about a recipe she has for homemade chicken with noodles. I love homemade chicken with noodles. Well, I love my Mom's homemade chicken with noodles. I've been begging her to fix them each time we are planning to come home and it never seems to work out. She's either out of commission because of back to back surgeries, or it's just too much with all of the other chaos going on with 20 some people in the house. I thought, well, if Kim can make that, surely I can make that. I only say that because she never learned how to cook at home either, and could have written a cookbook after she got married on 1,001 ways to make hot dogs. Thankfully her husband, J.L., is a good cook and has taught her well. Anyway, she wrote out her recipe for me on Facebook and I wrote them all down with plans to make a yummy Easter dinner tomorrow of homemade chicken with noodles. Kim's recipe, although it seemed easy to do by reading it, is a 2-day process. Day 1 requires you to cook the chicken all day in the crockpot with chicken broth and cream of mushroom soup. We had some chicken for supper tonight, and then afterwards it says to pick the rest of the chicken off of the bone and get all of the bones out of the crockpot, then refrigerate until tomorrow. When I attempted to get some chicken out of the crockpot for supper, it was so tender it was falling off of the bone. That's a good thing, but that's also a bad thing. Now I have 100's of chicken bones loose in the crockpot. And, the recipe didn't tell me to remove the neck from the open body cavity so I didn't. UGH! I wonder how many vertebrae a chicken has? TOO MANY! I have been fishing bones out all evening and panicking that this isn't going to turn out. I think I found the liver and the gizzard, along with some white lumpy cartilage or something (I hate dealing with raw meat, and this cooked chicken was almost as disgusting!) After posting on Facebook about the situation and asking what I should do, I attempted to strain the bones out with the colander, but there was so little juice and so much meat, etc that it really didn't help all that much. I finally ended up going through all of the meat by hand trying to find the bones. There were some that were so small that I know there's no way that I got all of them out. How am I going to live with myself if my kids choke to death on a chicken vertebrae? Or worse yet, a scapula? I have heard of people choking to death on chicken bones. I'm going to have to make sure they chew their food very well so they can pick out any bones I may have missed. Hopefully it won't be their last supper!

The other things I decided to fix are also recipes that I have never made before, i.e. deviled eggs and Mom's potato salad. I sure hope Perkins is open tomorrow!

Bowling with the Cub Scouts

Today we got our den of Cub Scouts together for an afternoon of bowling. One of the electives in the Wolf Handbook was to go bowling, and there is also a bowling belt loop and pin they can earn as well. We all met at the bowling alley at 3pm. Unfortunately I forgot my camera so I had to drop Scott and the kids off and run back to Bismarck to get my camera. I'm glad I did. I posted all of the pictures I took on Facebook as it is much faster to download, so you can check more of them out there.

I have no idea why Gage is bowling left handed? He isn't left handed and has done nothing else that I have noticed, left handed.

Emma had to have a little help from Dad. Her 10 lb bowling ball is a bit too heavy for her!

We had called ahead of time to see if we could get a little tour of the bowling alley for the Scouts. The tour we got was quite fascinating. I had no idea what the pin setting machines were like. They can be quite dangerous and there have been a couple of people killed by them, one being a worker in a Fargo bowling alley. He also showed us the machine they use to wax the lanes. It is a very "smart" machine and has a blue tooth memory (I think that's what it is called) that it uses and it will wax all of the lanes without much guidance from a human! He said the machine was $46,000, but that it will eventually save money as it frees up the workers to do other things.

These were the final scores of the den (plus Emma and Brayden) G=Gage; T=Tyson; T=T.J.; B=Brycen; E=Emma; B=Brayden.

Tyson, T.J., Brycen and Gage (missing: Cameron)

After we finished bowling, Scott talked to them about how to keep score, which is done by computers at this bowling alley, and several other things to help each of the boys earn a bowling belt loop and pin. While we were getting our tour of the, "behind the scenes", bowling alley, the worker found a cracked bowling pin and gave it to us. All of the boys wanted it, so I said that whoever got the highest score would win it. Needless to say, that made everyone get a little competitive because they all wanted it. Brayden, who is an older brother of Brycen, who is in our den, won, but since he wasn't in the Scout group, his Dad told him he couldn't win it. T.J. ended up getting to take the pin home. Gage wasn't very happy, but he was sidetracked at trying to get Tyson to come over for a playdate when we got home. The answer was NO and Gage was not satisfied with that. He proceeded to throw a nice little fit at the bowling alley, which continued the rest of the evening. We can pretty much guess when this is going to happen, because he's ALWAYS like this the day after getting to sleep later than normal, which happened last night because of the Maundy Thursday service.

We needed to run to Sam's Club for a few things and we listened to Gage gripe and moan the entire time. I don't know what sparked his memory, but he then decided that today was the day he wanted to get his hair colored green. Well, it's now 6pm! After we left Sam's Club, and were driving by the mall, Gage was still griping about the fact that he has waited FOREVER already since when we said he could get his hair dyed green. I told Scott to turn into the mall and we would check at the JCPenney hair salon. I think Gage was a little shocked that we were actually going to do it! We all went in and they said they had time to do it. I asked Gage if he was sure, because he would have green hair for Easter. He didn't care. I did! However, I decided I wasn't going to fight this because I was sick of hearing it and we went back to get his hair dyed green.

The beautician talked to Gage a little bit trying to find out if he wanted just to have green streaks or to dye his whole head. He wanted his whole head. She asked him, "Are you sure you want to do that?" The concern in her voice made him start second guessing himself. He was getting worried about it and then asked if she could do the streaks and if he liked it, then just do the whole head. She initally said there wouldn't be time, but then she told him she would. I think she was feeling bad for him because he was starting to worry a bit.

Does that look like a face of worry or excitement to you?

We had to wait awhile for her to come out of the back with the hair dye, so I snapped a few pictures of Gage, as he sat, nervously waiting.

I think he's contemplating whether or not this is a good idea and shocked that we actually stopped to let him get this done. I believe he just wanted something else to gripe about and couldn't believe it when we decided not to "go there".

After several minutes of waiting. She came out of the back room with a few different hair colors. She discovered that they didn't actually have green. She showed him the other choices, which were pink, red, purple and blue. Gage has pinkophobia so there's no way he would EVER let pink dye be put into his hair. He wasn't thrilled with the other colors either, so he decided to wait. He was completely ticked off and pouting when we left, even though he was scared to death inside. He knew it was safe to gripe because it wasn't going to happen anyway.

We then ran to Target and while there, I remembered that I needed to get Emma some white shoes for Easter. They didn't have any in Target so I took Emma to Payless Shoes in the mall. I remembered that there was a hair salon right outside of Target, in the mall, so I had Scott go over there with Gage to see if they could do his hair. They said they would have to make an appointment so they could have the hair color on hand. Needless to say, when Emma and I were coming out of the shoe store, Gage was sitting in the middle of the mall bawling his head off. UGH! It was certainly past time to get home and get to bed!

I'm praying tomorrow will be a better day! And I'm thankful Gage won't have green hair for Easter.

What a "Good Friday" this has been!

Maundy Thursday

While I was in Iowa, I got an email from the church asking if Gage could be a candlelighter at the Maundy Thursday evening service at church. He's only had the opportunity to be an Acolyte once so far, on Ash Wednesday, so we said yes. So, last night (Thursday) was the night. We had to be at the church by 6:30p as the service started at 7p and they needed to get instructions. The pastor's wife, Gwen, gave the instructions and when I learned that Gage would be sitting up in the chancel area during the entire service, I panicked! Gage sometimes has a hard time sitting through a normal service with us, let alone a special evening service without us! There were 2 candlelighters and the other boy is 2-3 years older than Gage and has been an Acolyte for awhile, so he was certainly more experienced. They each had a candleabra with about 7 candles each to light. After Gwen went over what they were supposed to do, I did a quick recap to make sure Gage knew what he was supposed to do. I was a nervous wreck! Not only did he have 7 candles to light, but the cross that had purple fabric draped over it just happened to be on Gage's side and I prayed like crazy that he wouldn't accidentally set it up in flames! Scott, Emma and I sat in the front row of pews on Gage's side so we could help him out if needed. (Unfortunately none of us knows sign language so it probably would have been a better idea to sit in the back of the church, where we couldn't see what was going on!) After all of the candles were lit, the boys were to sit in the seats on either side of the big pillar in the front of the church (normally the pastors sit in these seats). There would also be communion served, by intinction. I hate to admit it, but we had no idea what this meant. Thankfully I have friends that I feel comfortable asking these dumb questions to! (Thanks Juanita!) When Gwen was explaining to Gage about how he would be served communion I really got nervous. To take communion by intinction means to go to the front of the church, tear off a piece of bread from the loaf, then dunk it in the cup of grape juice. Did I forget to mention the candlelighters were in white robes? UGH! I kept telling Gage over and over that he isn't to completely saturate his piece of bread with juice, just dip it in a teeny tiny bit! I wasn't able to see how he did, but there were no grape juice stains on the robe, so I guess it was successful! It took a long time for communion and then there were several readers who took turns reading scripture from the Bible. The boys were instructed to put out a candle after each reading and AFTER the choir sang. They would do this until there were 2 candles left that were lit, then they would put the last 2 out at the same time. Well, needless to say, with communion taking so long and all of the other stuff, neither one of the boys were paying attention, and they were actually supposed to put the candles out BEFORE the choir sang. When it was time to start putting out candles, both of them were off in la-la land. Pastor Jake was trying to get the other boys' attention and after saying his name as loud as he could in a quiet whisper, he got his attention. Unfortunately Gage was on the other side and couldn't hear him and was still off in la-la land. I was trying to, as discretely as I could, get Gage's attention, without any luck. It seems like several minutes were passing by as he sat there in space. THANKFULLY, we have friends in high places (or in the right places anyway) and Juanita was able to get Gage's attention from the choir area. WHEW! He appeared startled when he finally discovered that it was time to start putting out candles. In the meantime, I can feel my neck turning all blotchy red and my ears on fire as my face turns a nice shade of burgundy. He pretty much stayed on cue with the remainder of the candles. When the choir stood up to sing after the initial candle was put out, I made eye contact with Juanita and mouthed to her "THANK YOU!" The service ended up being about 1 hour and 15 minutes long. Gage has never sat through a service of that length without complaining ALOT! You could see at times that his facial expressions were saying, "COME ON ALREADY!" He was also doing alot of yawning (our usual bedtime is 7pm, so that's not a shocker that he would be tired) and leaning on the wall he was standing next to. At the end of the service Pastor Jake slammed his Bible shut (thankfully we were informed of this beforehand) and left the sanctuary. It took a few seconds to convince Gage, using terrible sign language, that it was time to leave the sanctuary. I think he was relieved when it was finally over and I will remember this in the future..........DO NOT LET EMMA BE A CANDLELIGHTER AT THE MAUNDY THURSDAY SERVICE!

All of this to say, Gage actually did a great job! I was very proud of him and everyone told him he did a great job after the service. On our way out of the church, I once again gave much thanks to Juanita for saving the day! I'm not sure how anyone would have gotten his attention if she hadn't been in the choir area!



Emma was quite thrilled when I pulled this new outfit out of the closet for her to wear to church. I found it on sale at JCPenneys and we used the gift card she got for her birthday from her G'ma Stephens. She told me, "Mom, I would like this kind of stuff instead of toys!" YOU GOT IT DUDE! I would much rather spend money on clothes for her than toys. However, she doesn't always like my taste.

What cute kids we are so fortunate to have!

No Starbucks coffee yet!

Mom, I just want you to know that I drove right by a Starbucks and didn't stop and I also walked by the one in Target and although I slowed down and thought about it, I walked away! You can do it too! Just use your knitting as your escape because you can't smoke when you're knitting anyway! Then you'll be making money instead of smoking it away! I know you can do it! You just have to make up your mind that you want to!

Okay, enough of that.

We had some nice weather today. The snow is melting AGAIN! They are talking rain or snow on Sunday, so the Easter bunny might have to hide the eggs inside this year? He hasn't done that yet for the kids and I'm hoping he doesn't start now! Although, there aren't many places to hide eggs with all of this snow on the ground!

I found a cute dress with a dainty white poncho for Emma to wear on Sunday. I was afraid she might not like it, because I did. She tried it on tonight and it fits her great and she actually liked it! Now, if I can find some white shoes to go with it. I have a hard time finding cute dressy shoes nowadays for Emma. They make them with a higher heel and I don't like high heels on little girls, unless they are playing dress up! I haven't looked at Shoe Carnival yet, so maybe I'll go there tomorrow. There were some at Payless that I may have to go get if I can't find anything else.

Tomorrow I am working at Corpus Christi in the lunchroom. I know, I know, I swore I would never do that again. They are having nacho boats and I"m sure it will be a mess, but I'm thinking that will be better than mashed potatoes that can be used like baseballs, breadsticks that double as light sabres, and chicken drumsticks that can also be used as light sabres! Wish me luck! It's only 1 1/2 hours and I can certainly handle it for that short amount of time. They pay well, which is what keeps me coming back! :-)

Blog neglect!

I have been neglecting my blog and I feel quite guilty about it! I totally forgot to post last night and didn't think about it until I had already gone to bed and it was already late, so figured I better just stay in bed. I have been having too much fun on Facebook and it has been monopolizing my time, especially since my whole family is on there!

Easter is sneaking right up on me! I went out today and got a few things for the kids' Easter baskets. I'm burned out on the toys and don't plan on buying any (really Dad, I'm serious!). They have some good videos out so thought I would get them each a video. I finally got some eggs and dye today so we'll be able to do that later this week.

We are going bowling Friday afternoon/evening for our den meeting this month. That should be fun. The boys will get a 5 minute tour of how the bowling alley works. Should be interesting. They will earn belt loops and a pin for this, so the boys will be excited about that. We haven't had a den meeting since December because Scott has been trying to get an ice fishing date set up. Unfortunately that didn't work out, and I REFUSE to go out onto the ice when it starts warming up this time of year! I'm scared to go out on it when it's 20 below zero! Drowning is just not the way I want to go!

I seem to have jumped right back in to my role as a parent without much difficulty. It's always nice to have a little break every now and then. I get them less frequently than that; however. We have a short week this week, so looking forward to that. Gage is the Acolyte at church at the Maundy Thursday service. We have never been to one of those so it will be interesting. He has a few more candles to light I think? Hopefully he doesn't burn the place down!

While I was back in Iowa, we were all trying to encourage Mom and Dad to stop smoking by voluntarily giving up something we like that isn't necessarily good for us. Kim is giving up diet pop and the suggested I give up Starbucks. I agreed that I would do that if Mom and Dad would quit smoking. I have passed by Starbucks 3 times already since I've been back and have wanted to pull in through the Drive-thru and get a coffee, but I didn't. I tried calling Mom and Dad tonight to see if they have smoked, because if they have, I'm going to drink a coffee. Unfortunately (or fortunately) they weren't home, or didn't answer, when I called, so I am still in limbo. You guys better not be smoking!!!!!!

Land of the Living

I think I am ready to rejoin the land of the living!

I was completely exhausted last night when I got home. My flight was uneventful. The kids were very excited to see me. Emma kept giving me hugs and I could tell she was glad to have me home. We went out to eat supper at Texas Roadhouse and had to wait FOREVER! Finally when we got home I went to bed. I woke up in the night with a darned headache and still had it this morning when the alarm went off for church. I skipped church, which I rarely do, and Scott took the kids. I slept until about 11:30 or so when they got home. I've been dragging all day and I should be in bed right now. Not a whole lot was accomplished today. We did attend a performance by the Chamber Orchestra at the Heritage Center and we really enjoyed it.

I'm hoping I'm feeling less tired tomorrow; however, it's doubtful since it's midnight and I'm still not in bed!

At the hospital

I am able to post on my blog today, since my sister, Kim, brought her laptop with her. I think I really like this thing!!

Mom went into surgery around 10:30 this morning. She was quite nervous and if she could have left, she would have. Everything came out good. The doctor came out after he finished to talk to us and had the plaque that he removed in his hand to show us and have us feel it through the gauze he had it in to show us how hard it was. The blockage that was thought to be 70-99% actually turned out to be 65% so it wasn't quite as bad as they thought it was, however, it is a good thing it was removed. She is quite groggy yet and is in her room in the ICU. Only 2 of us can be in the room at the same time, so it's a good thing they have a big waiting room with a television, couches and wireless internet! If all goes well, Mom should be discharged from the hospital tomorrow.

Thanks for all of your prayers, they worked!

Mom's appointment

We got up bright and early this morning for our 1 1/2-2 hour trip to Des Moines for Mom's appointment with the vascular surgeon. I learned that I am grateful that I live in the city and don't have to drive so far for things we all take for granted! Anyway, the appointment went very well. Her previous surgery was a success and he is quite pleased with the blood flow Mom has to her feet now. We also learned that her bloodwork was all good and she will be having her carotid endarterectomy tomorrow as planned. Mom isn't too happy about it as she is quite nervous. Who wouldn't be? This surgeon is only 1 out of a handful that does this surgery while the patient is awake. That is the part that scares Mom so much. His reasoning is quite understandable. He says that if he has the patient awake he is able to detect any mental deficiencies as they arise, if they happen to, and can correct it right then versus waiting an hour for the patient to wake up, only to learn something didn't go right and then it's too late to fix. He is a very nice doctor and gave Mom a hug before we left. Not many would do that! I talked him into some medication to help her rest tonight so she won't be so anxious. I'm praying it works and don't wake up to find that she has skipped the country!

Please keep her and the rest of our family in your prayers. We leave bright and early tomorrow morning (around 5:30a) so she can be checked into the hospital by 8a and the surgery will be at 10. He said it will take about an hour to do. She will also have to stay in the ICU overnight as a precaution so the nurses can keep a closer eye on her to make sure there are no complications, so I won't be posting on my blog or Facebook tomorrow. Maybe Scott can post on my blog and on Facebook to keep everyone updated.