6/30/2006

Schedule

I was reading through my posts from last June and found a post about my schedule from this time last year. It’s funny how much has changed about my routine in a year’s time. So here’s our current routine…
7:45 ish: wake up and get ready for our day.
8:00 breakfast: Oatmeal for kids, nothing for mom – who’d rather check her email in peace
8:30 – 11:00 Morning project for mom, playtime for kids. Baking, cleaning, yard work, and most recently – picking fruit
11-12:00 School for kids. I have been so bad this month, my project time has overflowed into school time so many days it’s not even funny. I’m going to have to write half this month off as summer vacation.
12:00-12:30 Lunch
12:30-1:30 overflow time from my morning – whatever didn’t get done. Some projects, some school, start thinking about supper…
1:30-2:00 I put the girls to sleep for naptime. They used to be able to put themselves to sleep, but now if I just leave them they’ll get up and play.
2:00-4:00 (If I’m lucky) the girls nap, Alex watches a movie, and I do a little scrapbooking…
4:00 – 5:00 (If the girls are still sleeping I keep scrapping) otherwise I kill time until Jory comes home. I start supper, do a little cleaning, finish my morning projects, whatnot.
5:15-6:15ish Supper and dishes.
6:15-7:45 help kids pick up toys, kids play outside with Jory, general cleaning.
7:45-8:00 get the kids ready for bed
8:00 kids go to bed, the grown ups either read or watch tv.
10:00 bed for grown ups.

6/28/2006

Adventures

So you remember how I said my mom had a freeking ton of cherries on her cherry tree? (or did I? I can never remember) Anyway, the other day she and I picked a ton (approx 2 gallons), we could have easily picked two more, but then we’d have to pit them, and frankly… I just didn’t want to. Pitting 2 gallons of cherries takes a really long time. Besides, I have enough cherries in my freezer to make 7 pies, and I have to leave room for the raspberries, which I’m going to start harvesting here in a bit. Sorry kids, we don’t have room for ice cream, your mom has to hoard berries.

(side note: I can’t decide whether collecting all this fruit makes me feel like Martha Stewart or Freddie the farm hand *pfth*)

We just got back from another adventure out to the lake. This time my friend Sharon and her son Jacob, my brother Drew and his friend Billy came out too. Our trip was rather enjoyable, despite the fact that we couldn’t get the boat to work… so we just sat on it and pretended we were going for a ride. Billy and Drew had an encounter with the lake monster. Sharon and I took the girls shopping this morning while the boys played at the house. I scored some $5 polo shirts for the girls at the Carter’s outlet, and some new scrapbook supplies (yummmm)
But now I just have 3 whiney kids, no idea what to do for supper and 20 minutes until Jory comes home. Yahoo.

6/26/2006

Picnic at Miss Patti’s house.

Yesterday we were invited to have a picnic with some friends from church. We met at their house after church, and had a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon. The kids were super good just playing in their “sandbox” – ok it was really a dirt patch but who’s counting? And the grown ups just sat and chatted. You know how long it’s been since I got to just “hang out” with friends from church? It was good. Really good.
So my raspberries are starting to ripen up a little. I’m headed out here in a little bit to check on them again. It seems that two of my best producing vines from last year are dead (which I’m rather peeved about, but what are ya gonna do?)

6/24/2006

So THAT'S why Noah didn't have a Harley-Davidson!


A Motorcycle Adventure with Jory

I'll admit, it didn't rain for 40 days and 40 nights ... more like 4 or 5 hours. And I wasn't carrying any animals (unless you count myself, but I doubt that many people would be convinced that I've got an "animal" personality). Whereas Noah built the ark with his own hands, my method of transportation was constructed by some fine people in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Nevertheless, I feel qualified to share my thoughts on why Noah did not ride a Harley.

As my lovely wife stated in a previous post, we got a lot of rain here at our house. People around here do not seem to like the rain; they consider it a nuisance. Having grown up in a dry, dusty part of the world, where rain is a rare occurrence, I love to sit out and enjoy the abundance of rain that we get around here. The smell, the freshness … just wonderful!

My thoughts on rain may have changed slightly during my attempt to get to work on Thursday morning … but I get ahead of myself. During the magnificent thunderstorm on Wednesday night, our power flickered a time or two, but was running just fine when we went to bed around 11:00 (after the storm had passed and the danger of severe weather was over). As an interesting side note, we seem to be on a different power circuit than most of the city … a few years back, when the power was out from here all the way to the east coast, our house never lost power. So when I woke up in the morning, and our electricity was nowhere to be found, I figured that my office was probably out too. Having no desire to hurry and get to work just to sit around in the dark, I decided it was a good day to ride my motorcycle (Mistake #1).

The morning was beautiful … bright sunshine, singing birds … or were those frogs … or fish? Anyway, it was nice. After thinking briefly about my normal route through the park (which crosses a small stream that fills it’s banks during even a slightly moderate rain, and was bound to be swollen) I decided to go the long way around, just to make the most of my morning ride (Mistake #2). As I started off, I noticed many many lakes in the neighbors’ front yards, and the ditches were filled to the brim. The road was dry for the most part, with a few sticks and odd piles of debris, a stray puddle or two, but nothing bad.

Um, I take that back. Just up the road, I can see something … what is that? Holy cow!! The road is covered in running water for maybe ¼ mile or more … but a pickup is coming through it ok … so I should be able to make it, right? (Mistake #3)

So, I take off into the depths of the ocean. Now, boats like Noah’s Ark are made just for water (i.e. they float!) but motorcycles are a different animal altogether. Not only do they refuse to float well, they also require balance, typically assisted with some traction from the two tires (half that of your typical automobile, which does not fall over if it stops moving). With these thoughts in mind, the fearless motorcycle maniac concludes that fast is good – we are less likely to fall over if we are traveling at a higher rate of speed, and this will all be over sooner if we go faster (Mistake #4).

Water splashes. It splashed up and over the front of my bike, right into my face (well, it would have been my face if it hadn’t been for the helmet I was wearing) but regardless of the details, I could not see. This is bad. So, what does fearless motorcycle man do? Does he put the brakes on, risking a fall into the murky depths? Does he slow down, reducing the amount of water restricting his vision, and take a chance on the engine stalling out and possibly being stranded in the midst of a large body of water? Oh heck no! He sticks with the original plan … ‘It will be over soon!’ he says. Perhaps he even twisted the throttle a tad bit more just to coerce that thought into reality (Mistake #5).

I drove right off the road. Without my sight to guide me, all I could feel was a bump (‘Oh no! I just fell down!’) and a pressure on my leg (‘I’m sliding down the pavement!’) with the strange sensation that I was still upright (‘What the #$%^*’). I decided to try the brakes. I stopped. I was still upright. Weird. And my right leg hurt. Oh, hello there Mr. Guardrail, how are you on this fine morning? Thank you so much for catching me and my misguided motorcycle. Now what?

Well, let’s shut the bike off … at least the engine did not stall out. Get off the bike, look both ways to make sure nobody saw me (‘Darn it, here comes a car!’), and start to feel quite embarrassed. Tug at the tires to see if they will budge (they’re stuck quite nicely in the mud … and under several inches of water to boot) and notice that where I ran off the road … it’s dry pavement. I almost made it! (That only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades I’m told). Take my helmet, gloves, and jacket off (it started to get strangely hot) and figure out how to get out of this mess.

An old fellow stopped, and asked if he could call anybody for me … I didn’t know who he could call … it didn’t seem like the type of situation that my wife and kids could do much to help. He went on and I studied the bike. Looks like the foot peg got wedged underneath the guardrail … great! How am I gonna get that out? A younger fellow about my age stopped to see if he could offer assistance … we tugged and pulled … but it wouldn’t budge. I mentioned to him that I got myself into this mess, and I guess I would find a way to get myself out … and thanks anyway. I cranked the engine up again, stuck it in first gear, and managed to get the peg unstuck, and then the mud released it’s grip, and the bike was free to get back on the blacktop. Whew!

Ok, now what to do. I really felt like turning around and going home, tossing the bike back into the garage, and changing into some dry clothing (the term “soaked” is a major understatement). But, I wasn’t really feeling up to crossing the Puddle O’ Death again, and without electricity I wouldn’t be able to shower off when I got home, and maybe if the power was out when I got to the office, they’d let me take the day off or something. So I decided to carry on (Mistake # … I’ve lost count … sorry!)

The rest of my trip was relatively uneventful. There were more puddles along the way, but I took them very slowly without mishap. Oh, and when I got to work, the power was on … don’t think it even went out during the night at all … lovely. So after taking off my boots and socks (how do those things soak up so much water!) and sitting around in wet jeans for most of the morning, I decided to shuck the pants and run around in my shorts (thankfully I had on some knee-high athletic shorts instead of simple boxers). Kinda weird running around work in a polo shirt and shorts, barefoot. Almost felt like a kid when school gets out for the summer!

On the way home, I did not want to go back through that nasty puddle, so I tried hard to find an alternate route. Between closed roads and detour signs, I ended up being one street over from my earlier adventure, and the topology was about the same … there must be a low spot, like a trench, that runs the same direction for a long distance … oh boy, here we go again! This time, there was a convoy of vehicles traveling towards me in the oncoming lane (well, some of the time, they sort of drifted this way and that) so I let them through before I set out. This time, slow and easy, I made it through. I’m not really sure, but this water may have been deeper than the stuff I went through before, it was up to my ankles with my feet on the pegs … the adrenaline was pumping pretty good there for a while. I got two big “thumbs-up” when I hit dry ground on the other side (from some highway-workers putting up a “Road Closed” sign … I think they were glad they didn’t have to fish me out!) and I was feeling great. You know, that feeling like when you’ve climbed a tall mountain, or accomplished a very difficult task … that feeling of overcoming an obstacle. It was cool.

I made it home just fine. I’d put on my rainsuit this time (not like it was much good … my clothes were wet already) but I think it helped keep some of the water off, but the worst part was having to tell my wife about the whole ordeal. She was very understanding, and glad that I was not seriously hurt. My knee hurts today, but I can hobble around alright, and my foot peg is bent and will need to be replaced, but that seems to be the extent of my injuries. Could have been a lot worse. And hopefully I have learned from this experience.

Good ole’ Noah … I bet he was much happier with an ark than a Harley!

P.S. The photo is one that I “digitally enhanced” since I wasn’t carrying a camera at the time of the accident. Why is it that you never have a camera when the really cool stuff happens?

6/22/2006

Storm of the decade and cherries

Well it wasn’t Katrina, but it was pretty bad for a thunderstorm. Rainfall accumulation was around 4-5 inches over a 4 hour span. No major tornadoes or hail that I know of, just lots and lots of rain. Our house is fine, our property is probably 25% underwater – most of it is from the ditch overflow. I’d show you the pics, but my editing software is giving me a head ache – you’ll just have to wait until jory can fix it. I went out for a tour earlier just to see where the floods were, the roads in my immediate area were fine, but they were pretty bad to our north and to our west, I had to turn around twice.
In other news, Annie and I spent our morning picking cherries from Grandma’s cherry tree. Then the kids helped me pit the cherries (read that - they munched on the cherries that had been pitted while I pitted the rest). So we’ll be having cherry cobbler, cherry dumplings, cherry pie, and whatever else I can come up with while I wait for my raspberries to ripen up.
PS. It’s raining again.

6/21/2006

Midweek adventure

On Monday afternoon my mom and I took the kids out to the lake. After our adventures in the ocean I was just hoping that my kids would actually get into the water this time around. It didn’t take them very long to warm up to the water. All three of them ran in and out of the water as if they’d been doing it their entire lives. Until a boat came by and made waves, then they ran for cover. Fortunately there weren’t many boats out on Monday evening/Tuesday morning. Of course when you go to the lake house, you have to go to the Amish bakery for pie and peanut butter cookies. Mmmmmmmm.
The mosquitoes have been loving the girls this summer. It’s so weird. Alex and I hardly have any bites on us at all, while the girls have like 40 bites apiece. I kid you not, I took the girls out to look at the flowers growing in my yard, we were out for less than 10 minutes. I didn’t see one mosquito the entire time we were out. When we came in, Louisa probably had 10 bites on her arms. I’m not exaggerating. I keep thinking next time we walk out of the house going to coat them in bug spray so that I won’t be such a bad mommy, and every time I forget.

6/19/2006

Weekend happenings

Jory and I got to have a date this weekend. There was a free babysitting event at the church, so we dropped the kiddos off and enjoyed a night with out them. We went to TGI Friday’s for dinner, then went to see Cars – which we really enjoyed. It was our anniversary date that we never had because he was in New Mexico on our anniversary.
Saturday was pretty normal, except I came down with a migraine when I was teaching at the kidz program at church. Blech. So my Saturday night was pretty miserable.
We didn’t do anything spectacular for fathers day. Jory doesn’t like to be fussed over, so we didn’t. But he says I better take him out to dinner this week – I think I can handle that.
Happy father’s day to my dad – wherever you are!!

6/15/2006

Just some stuff.

I’m not feeling very interesting today, so bear with me if you will…
Question of the day from Alex: Why are your toenails on your toes? Good question kid. I’ll add it to my list of questions to ask God when I meet Him. Anyone else ever stop to question the logic behind the toenail?
I just got 100 pics developed the other day. Add that to the 100 + photos I already have in my “to scrap” pile. Ugh. Please step away from the camera. Seriously. Nobody’s allowed to do anything cute or remotely fun for the next six months. Just sit there like lumps so I’m not tempted to take pics. Think it’ll work? Nah.
What else. Ah yes. Yesterday a pack of wild dogs (they were actually just strays, but wild dogs sounds so much cooler) caught and killed some kind of ground hog/raccoon/unidentifiable critter in my yard. Some kid from the neighborhood saw the attack and came up to make sure that it wasn’t our pet they were tearing up. Nice kid. Alex and I went out to check it out (from a VERY safe distance). Now there’s a science lesson for ya. Yuck. I won’t even tell you that after the attack was over I went over to check out my lily patch near the attack spot, and there was fur everywhere. Gross.

6/12/2006

All that jazz

Another weekend has come and gone. This one was not all that remarkable… Saturday I went shopping (alone – ahh) then went to help out at the kidz program for children with special needs at church. There’s never a dull moment with that group…
Sunday was good. We were done with church early because there was no Sunday school… In the afternoon we went to a graduation party for our friend Chris. We’ve been friends with the family for a very very long time, I used to baby sit for him when he was in preschool - makes me feel old when I think about it. But I was very proud of him. Such a sweet kid.

6/07/2006

Gone

I take back all the mean thoughts I had about the dog warden. After I called again yesterday they very promptly sent a nice lady over and together we easily got Rover Joe into her little dog catcher mobile. Good riddance pup. I also take back the comment about the shot gun.
I thought today I’d do a kiddo profile. Just for fun.
Alex: Turns 4 here in a few weeks (when did that happen?) Is completely terrified of dogs, even though he pretends to like them (when he’s in no immediate danger of coming into contact with a real one) He’s extremely curious, and asks way too many questions.
Annie: Is contemplating potty training. No success that I know of yet. She’s extremely independent. I hear “no, Annie do it!” more than I’d like to admit. She’s also rather dramatic – you wouldn’t believe the sob stories I hear from that kid.
Louisa: she acts all sweet and innocent, but she’s the one who usually steals the food from the pantry and shares it with her siblings. Of my children, she reminds me the most of myself.

6/06/2006

Day 3

Guess who’s still on my porch… I’ll give you a hint; he has 4 legs and barks. A lot. No it’s not Alex. I called the city dog warden yesterday, but they never showed up. Shock of all shocks. They must have had a busy afternoon wasting time with the city water people who practically put me to an early grave this time last year. Days like this make me wish I owned a shot gun.

6/05/2006

Rover Joe


Meet Rover Joe. This little guy showed up on my back porch Saturday morning. We get stray dogs from time to time, and they usually go away on their own. But this one is still here. At first it was really cute, Louisa took him stories and “read” to him through the sliding door. I knew I was in big trouble when I went out to load the van (to go into town) and he tried to get in the front door, tried to climb in the car, did laps around the van as I was trying to back down my (really long) driveway, and chased me half a mile up the road. I thought he’d go away if I ignored him long enough – no food, water, attention… but no. We tried to “lead” him away from our house on the way to church yesterday. We drove slow enough that he could “follow” us – which he did. For at least a mile and a half. We drove home a different way from church (so he wouldn’t see us and try to follow us home) but I guess he remembered the way on his own, because he was on our back porch waiting for us when we came home. I tried calling the dog warden to come get him, but they aren’t open on the weekends (of course). I’d let him stay, but frankly Jory and I hate dogs (except for my cousins dog, Kelty) and 2 of my kids are terrified of him. So he goes. Today hopefully.
Lets see… what else… Jory is home from his motorcycle tour. When we went to the beach, he went out west to visit his family. It’s good to be a family again. He said he’d write about his trip himself.

6/02/2006

Beach photos




Here are a few from the masses of photos I took. There are more over at flickr.
Reality is such a bummer after being on vacation. I don’t want to do laundry, eat blechy oatmeal for breakfast or clean up after myself.
Oh and happy anniversary Jory! Today’s our big 5. Wahoo!

6/01/2006

Back from the beach

We just got back from a fabulous week at the beach. We had a ball playing in the sand, hanging out with cousins, and eating lots and lots of seafood.
Here are some memorable vacation moments:
Alex fell asleep in front of the huge fish tank at the aquarium (to his credit, we were sitting watching a feeding presentation)
My feet got sunburnt early in the trip. Ouch.
We listened to the same muppet cd for 9 hours strait. Ugg. (dad – moo)
I climbed to the top of a 2 story McDonalds play land. Not because I had to get a screaming kid (well not the first time anyway) but because it looked like fun. (For the record, my knees were against the idea from the start)
Every time we drove over a bridge my kids all sang “up and down, up and down” it was the cutest thing ever.
Stay tuned, I’m sure I’ll think of more.
Oh and I’ll post pics later… after I sort through all 200+ pics

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