The Berke Five

2010-06-26T11:41:00.001-05:00

Look at those adorable children. How could they have been neglected for so long?

BLOG POSTING ON THE WAY!

And the Winner is…

2010-01-17T18:11:00.001-06:00

I was working out of town this week, but my girl sent me a text to let me know that both she and her brother had won their respective spelling bees that day. I was so excited, and so very sorry I had missed that. Now they will compete against each other on January 27th. And wouldn’t you know, I have to work. I am desperately seeking substitute. Is anyone available?

And in other happenings:

Ethan is not the only member of our family that LOVES biscuits and gravy.

Over the Christmas break John and I took the kids to Des Moines to visit some friends. We had a great time together catching up. Our friend Brian is half-nude only because he was the only parent devoted enough to get into the pool with the kids.

And Gertie learns to swim. Well, we’ll call it swimming.

I’m just throwing these in because I think they’re cute.

And don’t you just love when big sisters spend a little quality time with their little sisters?

Gertie is all dressed up for church. The sweater lasted on her body a total of 13 minutes. Apparently, she doesn’t need to keep her torso warm.

Whoa. Back Up a Minute.

2010-01-05T14:14:00.001-06:00

Its been a while for me. I really offer no excuses. I’ve been out here. I’ve been watching you too closely to make my own news. The problem is, there’s been plenty going on around here. Now I offer this humble posting and hope I haven’t lost my already sparse readership. (Actually, most of you are family, so really, you are stuck with me. And I know that.)

Here is one picture of my boy playing football this year. His first year in pads. This is one of about 300 pictures I took, and this is the best one. That may or may not tell you something about my photography skills. I just absolutely loved watching him play football.

And while we’re on the subject of Ethan, this is the speech that rocked the ~~world~~ Neveln Middle School and got my son elected treasurer of the student body.

This is what happens when you pile your kids into a van loaded with face paint and drive for 4 hours. It was supposed to be for some football-player black-eye the next day, but I think they went a little overboard a little early.

And then came Halloween. We had been to a wedding out of town that day, and I really wasn’t sure when we’d be home, so I hadn’t stressed the whole Halloween thing that much. But as we were driving home, the girls started talking. We had this cute little ladybug outfit for Gertie, and Grace decided to go as a bug catcher. It was actually a lot of fun.

Ethan protested the whole Halloween thing on religious grounds, but when we came home from trick-or-treating, this is where we found him, happy as a clam. Those were some serious convictions until the candy showed up. He rolled right over and started begging.

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And then he turned 11 on me. Isn’t he cute? They do that, you know; they turn 11 someday. Some of you know just what I’m talking about.

And this is Grace as Annie. This was such an exciting experience for her, and she just did a great job. I was so excited to see this performance, and we had a great time. Gertie was crying while watching this production of awkward pre-teens play out the story of an orphan that finds a loving family. She’s cried every time she’s watched the dvd of Grace as Annie. And that’s a lot of times.

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I snuck away to see my sister and her family in Arizona. This is the one picture I took, which is ridiculous, considering the main attraction for the visit was my brand spanking new baby niece Amelia. Do I have a picture of her? No, I do not. But the little cutie next to my my sister’s look-alike there is my cousin Katy’s girl, Amy. I had so much fun spending days with my sister doing just average day-in-the-life things. I really miss her and think she should consider the cooler temperatures of Minnesota when she’s suffering in the Arizona heat.

And now Christmas. Guess what Grace got? She really shot big on her Christmas list, and Santa obliged. How could you not get that sweet girl just what her heart desires?

And EJ has such a grateful heart for whatever comes his way. In his case, this year, it was a Welker jersey. Unfortunately, Welker just got hurt and won’t be finishing out the season, or maybe even be able to play next year. We shall see. We’ll have to have a picture of him in that jersey to follow soon.

And this? Need I say anything about this?

Love the disaster photo after all the fun.

Here we are having a bit of sledding fun. We’ve sure had plenty of snow to play around in, and this was a beautiful day before the temperatures dropped to Arctic levels.

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So this brings me almost to today. Hope you’re all snuggled in and staying warm.

I’ll try harder. I promise.

2009-10-22T20:53:00.002-05:00

My long lost bloggers are starting to resurface. It is inspiring to me. I am trying again as well.

My little sister had her baby number 2 on the 21st. Her name is Amelia.As in Amelia Bedelia. Remember her?

I just got lost on Youtube viewing some good old Amelia Bedelia pairing the vegetables and drawing the drapes and dressing the turkey. I love it. This is going to be fun!

I am crazy in love with my kiddos these days. Grace is growing up so fast I just can't stand it. She's off to orchestra camp this weekend. Her legs are really getting long.

Ethan is reading up a storm. He loves those Alex Rider books. He's doing great in school, and he's been an all-around honest, hardworking boy as of late. Well, mostly. Yesterday morning I took him to school, and he was rambling on about some sort of poop joke or something as he got out of the car laughing. I knew I wasn't supposed to think it was funny (and I didn't), but I really did love it that he was so happy, even with his cheesy boy humor. I love that kid.

Gertrude has been doing so much better, really. She's getting nicer by the day. Except today, really. Today she was whiny and wanted to be carried all the time. She is three, you know. I don't think I should have to carry her around. And she seems to be very good at breaking dishes. Do you think this could be an inherited quality? I wouldn't have thought so, but I know I broke a few dishes in my day as well. I think we are on the third glass in two weeks or something.

Now I'm going to spend some time with my husband. I like that guy too.

I have to be up early for work tomorrow. Good night. Sleep tight.

A Minnesota Scrapbook

2009-09-05T22:05:00.002-05:00

These are a few pics of the kids and I that I had taken while we were on a walk. I thought we got some cute ones.

And these are just a few miscellaneous shots that I liked throughout the whole week.

And then these are a bunch from a walk. It was a beautiful day and it was just a great time. Again, a few favorites.

And this last one is an ode to my oldest. She loves the camera. I know Julie took one and I took a couple, I think, but the rest are hers. She got some good shots.

Boating on Portage Lake

2009-09-05T18:34:00.035-05:00

Well, I've given much thought to how to do this. There are too many pictures, but I want to share so many of them with my family that I'm posting a ton. I didn't think the slideshow worked all that well, so I've spent a lot of time loading them up one by one. I've limited this set just to boating. There are many more to come of this week with family. I'm going to be brief. Just enjoy the pictures.

Verena, Gertie and my Dad on the boat.

My stepmom Judy and my Aunt Jean. Two good-looking chicks.

Ethan and Dad and Judy's new pup, Becky.

My Aunt Jean even got out on the tube with Grace. I insisted she wear that ridiculous life jacket. She thanked me later. Trust me.

Becky.

I stole this one from Judy. Me and my little girl.

I think Chad looks like a true captain with his crew of boys.

Gertie and me again. She loved tubing.

This was Grace's favorite place on the boat. You could find her here.

Enjoying the ride.

No words necessary. (Except that is Hunter, for those that don't know.)

I just like back shots of cousins. What can I say?

Foxy lady.

Verena and Bethie. I miss them already.

Baby V. What will I do when she grows up?

Aawww.

Becky getting a little lovin'.

Gracie and Gertie.

Abandon ship!

Gertie.

When you pull three kids behind a pontoon boat, the kids quickly discover they've got a pretty stable ride. So they start on the tricks. Here they are:

Julie and John enjoying the sun.

Chad and Tate made it out for a bit too.

Marge Turns 80 (Figuratively, not Literally)

2009-09-04T06:57:00.029-05:00

We just went over to John's mom's to say hello when we got to town, and then family started appearing out of nowhere. It was such an unexpected treat, that first night. I couldn't stop smiling. All this family, some of whom we hadn't seen in a long time, and some of whom we'd never met before. Gertie was getting reacquainted with all her cousins by running up and down the sidewalk. Quite entertaining. It went on for a long time. Huge giggles.

This is Ted (Brianne's boyfriend) and Hutch (John's brother-in-law) and Brianne (Hutch and Nancy's daughter). I was truly all smiles just watching them interact. They were having a good time.

This is Tricia and Heather, John's sister Barb's girls. Aren't they sweet? I got no pictures of Barb or her husband Steve, or of Becky, their other daughter that was there. I did not spend nearly enough time taking photos in South Dakota. I really regret that.

Even though this isn't the best picture of Marge, I love this picture. I just like how it shows this handsome grandson of hers (Drew) sitting next to her and soaking her in. And she's soaking him in. She loves her grand kids.

And this is John's Aunt Suzie and his brother Mark's wife Janine with their son Zachary. They looked great and it was so fun to see them again. Mark and Janine live very far away, and we don't get to see them all that often any more. Janine and I took our big girls shopping, and we had a great time together. I remember when Zachary was born in South Dakota, and I would go over and visit them after school and snuggle that little baby up. Good memories for me. He's grown since then.

And here is Kaelyn. She was wanting so badly to dig into those mints, but she was waiting for everyone else. Polite little girl! She is John's sister Nancy's granddaughter. Even though I had heard so much about her, I hadn't met her until this visit. She was a spunky little treat.

And John's sister Nancy MADE this beautiful cake. Isn't it gorgeous? She made our wedding cake too. It was perfect. Thanks, Nancy.

Now this was a planned family gathering, but a surprise birthday party for Marge. She really doesn't turn 80 until September 29th, and this was taking place on August 2nd. And we didn't bring out the cake until after all the eating had been going on for quite a while. A few people had stopped by and told her happy birthday, and she was very confused. (But maybe starting to catch on just a bit.) She told me later that it took quite a while for it to sink in that all these people were there to celebrate her birthday. She was very touched.

And this was a big deal to our family. John's siblings are spread from coast to coast. I think we were all together a little over fifteen years ago for Mark's wedding, but never since then. All of Marge's five kids and their entire families made it back for this birthday. And some of those kids have families, and they brought them. Marge had only one granddaughter who didn't make it, and she had a good reason. His name is Levi. He was born just ten days after this party. He is super cute, and I can't wait to meet him.

And this is Nancy, cake baker and sister extraordinaire. Isn't she cool?

This is Tricia and Grace. Aren't they cute? This picture reminds me of one taken at Heather's wedding many years ago, after Tricia had fixed Grace's hair before Grace marched down the isle sprinkling flower petals down the isle with real thought and precision. Oh, memories. I love this family!

And these are some of John's cousins, and some of their kids. Good looking family I married into!

John's brother Mark in blue visiting with Marge's brother Steve in the hat. That is what I think my man will look like in twenty years. I'm good with that.

And this sort of picture may be my all-time favorite. I would like to line pictures like this along the hallway where many people line up the graduation pictures or the wedding pictures. I think you should have pictures of cousins eating Popsicles or ice cream or some sort of summer treats together during family get-togethers. It's pure joy, isn't it?

And here are the "little girls" running off to do big girl things together. Pushing the stroller, the biggest "little girl" Savannah acting as babysitter and general "Person in Charge." The two younger girls, Kaelyn and Gertie, just relishing in some summer freedom. Happiness.

Then we took Gertie to the pool in the park. She's cute. And I like her. So here she is.

And again.

And now you need to fast forward in your mind through way too many fun family moments and cousins swimming and playing and getting reacquainted, and siblings laughing and getting to sit up late and talk on the porch in the woods (or something like that. I wouldn't really know because I was going to bed early). I didn't get my camera out, and we don't have pictures. Only memories. And they are good ones. They'll stick with us.

But here we are at the place Barb (John's sister) and her family rented. She hosted a birthday party for Nancy and invited us all out to share in the fun. Ryan and Heather are gaming experts. Really. And I am not. But I still like to play. Anyway, they brought out this game where you put the bottle on top of the pipe, which is stuck in the ground, and then you throw the Frisbee at the pole and try to knock off the bottle. You have to do this while holding a drink in your hand, and when the other team knocks off your bottle, you have to catch it before it hits the ground. Got it? Good. Here we go.

Ryan is super good at this game, and he's teaching Ethan everything he knows. Ethan is duly impressed.

Heather is having the same effect on me.

But I'm not catching on as fast as I should.
And my Ethan goes in for the kill. I don't remember if he got it. Sometimes he did. Sometimes he didn't.

Here is Dan's wife Lisa enjoying the show. It was a good show.

John's brother Dan up on the deck with Tricia and Marge.

And I like this picture. Aren't they cute?

And this counts as one of those cute cousin pictures. Girls like horses, you know. The cutie in green is Mark's daughter, Allyson.

And here is my man with his boy. I'm crazy about them. A good ending.

I’ll Have the Usual

2009-07-30T16:17:00.001-05:00

Please make a note: If you come to visit the Berkes, we will insist that you visit the Spam Museum. We do, after all, live in Spam Town, USA. So when John’s nephew and his girlfriend came to visit, we led the way to the local tourist trap.

They have this little station that looks like a diner, and the egg yolk is the mouse, and the butter is the clicker.

Drew and Ethan looked right at home.

And Ethan always enjoys testing his strength by pulling this rope to lift a huge crate full of Spam. I think he now, at age 10, officially weighs more than a crate of Spam. Victory!

And here are Meg and Drew, testing out a new career on the factory line canning Spam. I think they enjoyed it, but I guess they are still heading off to college.

In fact, they left today. We enjoyed having them for a spell.

The kids did too, although they are glad to reclaim their space on the top floor.

This Really Stinks

2009-07-29T07:17:00.001-05:00

Good morning. I am out of bed early—kicked out, really. Gertie came in during the night, sardined me up against my husband, and I woke up with a kink in my neck, an ache in my shoulder, and a horrible smell being blown in by the fan in my window.

The Hormel plant is located about a mile west of our house. We did know this when we moved into this house. What we did not know, is that occasionally, the very thick smell of burning pork comes rolling straight to us on the breezes that blow by. We were horrified by this, and I thought my husband was going to pack up all we own and move our family again.

That was back when we moved in. And since then we’ve realized it is only occasionally, and for a brief period of time. We’ve made it. We’ve put it mostly out of our minds.

This last week, however, the air has been very thick again with that horrible smell. For long stretches of time. Gagging stretches. Last night I was threatening to call the City and tell on Hormel. Do you think they’d shut Hormel down? I’m thinking they won’t. Do you think they’d insist Hormel do something more environmentally friendly about their burning pork flesh emissions? I’m just not sure they would.

I have been reminded just recently that people around these parts call that the “Smell of Money.” Pew.

In other more fragrant news, we’ve had John’s nephew Drew and his girlfriend Meg staying with us this last week. They are on their way from Pennsylvania (home) to South Dakota (college), and asked if they could stay with us and hitch a ride with us when we go back for the reunion weekend. It’s been fun having them around, and they’ve been very helpful every time they’ve been asked to chip in. I know my kids are very much enjoying having them around. Especially Gertie. Especially Ethan. Especially Grace.

We’ve (really Grace) also been watching a friend’s kids during the morning hours this week. Gertie’s been loving having the playmates. She’s tuckered out by bedtime. And sometimes before.

I need to take some pictures of all these goings-on. I’ve put that on my list for today.

Ethan has his last baseball game of the season tonight. I’m debating whether or not I should wash that dusty uniform from Monday night’s game or just slap it on him dusty. It’s the last game. (Does that really matter, it being the last game and all?)

I’ve put that on my list as well.

Grace got a new bike. She keeps growing. That really makes me mad.

I am so excited for our upcoming vacations. The first is the South Dakota one where all of John’s siblings and their kids and their kids are coming for visit. That is going to be so fun. John’s mom turns 80 this year, the reason for the big celebration. But sshhh. Don’t tell her it’s all about her. She doesn’t know that yet.

Then we head straight up to Northern Minnesota, for a much smaller reunion with my Dad and Stepmom and my sisters. We’ve not explored Minnesota north of the Twin Cities at all yet. I can’t believe that is true. But I’m really looking forward to this get-together. We have two full weeks of fun packed in right before school kicks up again.

Better get to that list. It keeps growing as I sit here.

The Zip Line

2009-07-25T12:54:00.001-05:00

Here we are before we start. This is going to be fun!

This guy was making all these funny faces each time he was in a picture. But here is my sweet Abby. Beautiful.

And my cool Uncle Dale. Zip lining. He is a stud.

I know these are too many pictures. Many are the same, but it was my adventure, and I’m posting it in full.

I thought this was a beautiful view.

And here we are in the sky.

It was fun. And the last piece of my Panama postings, finally.

2009-07-16T17:35:00.000-05:00

Gertie was hard at work today. This is important stuff. Let me know when you figure it out.

Grace is 13!

2009-07-12T17:22:00.006-05:00

My Big Girl turned 13 last week. We had a super-successful slumber party. Fun was had by all. She deserves a better tribute than this, but I'm playing catchup again. This is what she gets.

My sister Julie had won some concert tickets that she wasn't going to be able to use. She passed them onto John, and he recruited Brian Kniffen. He brought his family with him, including wife Amy, which I was grateful for, because she kept me company through that super-successful slumber party. She definitely helped make it super-successful.

This is Colton. He had a lot of wisdom he passed around freely. I learned a lot.

We fished. Wyatt didn't really catch any fish, but he reeled in a stick or two.

And we jumped. It was some good fun.

Panama

2009-07-08T01:00:00.001-05:00

So much has happened in this busy life of mine…school ended, I got away for two whole nights alone with my husband, Grace was great in the play, Ethan’s deep into baseball…

But I don’t have time to catch you up on all that. Things have been good. That will have to suffice.

The big deal is that I went to Panama to visit my sister. I had the best time I possibly could have asked for. I had asked my Uncle to go with me, and he obliged. He treated us like princesses the whole time. I felt so very blessed. He drove us where we wanted to go. He stopped to eat when we were hungry. He saw what we wanted to see. I hope it was over-the-top fun for him as well.

Most of you probably know, but my sister Abby lives in Panama. She’s in the Peace Corp over there. I really wanted to see her and know her in her own element. And I got to. She is a lovely young lady just seeped in the culture over there. She loves them and they love her. I was in awe of her ability to speak the Spanish language so fluently. In awe.

I tried to determine best how to do this post, and I guess I decided on a slideshow. Probably boring at some points for even my two most devoted fans (Mother and Step Mother), but considering my time constraints, and the huge amount of pictures, I think that’s best. **I just watched it, and it is slow. I am sorry. I am leaving it. It took forever to create. Don’t feel obliged to watch. There will be no quiz.

Ugh.

Now how do I blog out all my special memories? I just don’t know. I’ll try to hit only the high points.

Dale and I arrived in Panama City relatively early in the day, but we had the hardest time finding the hotel. Finally Uncle Dale paid a cab driver to lead us there. The upside is that I got to see so much of Panama City. My first impressions were: colorful, lots of trash, lots of people, wild buses, sky scrapers.

We finally found Abby, and it was so good to see her. She looked good. We were so hungry, so we found a nice restaurant. Abby and Uncle Dale both speak Spanish so well, and I realized right then I was going to do a lot of smiling and nodding, as I had no clue what was being said. But the smile was genuine. I loved listening to them talk.

The next morning we hiked up to the tippy top of Panama City (these places actually have genuine names other than tippy top, but that’s how I remember them). The city is beautiful. The vegetation is so interesting and lovely. I wanted to photograph everything. Shameless tourist.

I found my favorite souvenir in the trash on our way home from this hike. It is an old window, I believe, about three feet high, with the metal decorative bars running up and down. Very shabby chic looking. My favorite thing. Shameless tourist.

We visited the canal. Huge. Really nice museum there in Panama City. The Panamanians are very proud of their work with the Canal, and they should be. Got a history lesson on how it came to be. Loved the education.

We drove to the beach at Santa Clara and stayed a night there. Not much time to spend, but it was also beautiful. We had a stray dog in heat and her suitors that followed us everywhere. Wonderful morning to wake up next to the water.

Very long drive to “Abby’s town.” She always called it “my town,” so the name of her town never really sunk in. I do know it. But not right now. The drive was tough because it was raining hard all the way there. Six hours (or what seemed like six hours). Uncle Dale had a meeting later in the week in Panama City and decided to take the midnight bus instead of drive back there. I don’t blame him.

Abby’s town is small. Her house is small, but cute. I was shamefully scared of bugs and such, but I forged ahead. I truly loved the adventure. Abby has a dog named Lula that keeps her on her toes. The town is basically all along one (or two) roads. So different from the US.

We visited a school and I took pictures of those adorable kids. Irresistible. See for yourself. The school was hosting an environmental fair of some sort. The kids had made these banners and they had a program of some sort (remember, I understood absolutely nothing. Smile and nod.), and then they had a parade.

We visited Cerro Punta. My favorite place. It was gorgeous farm country where they grow most of the area’s vegetables. It makes a beautiful pattern on the hillsides. Dale and I talked too deep too long, and Abby got fed up. And the country was really worth some silence. Strawberries and cream on the way home. Absolutely delicious. I hated not being able to finish it. It followed a filling lunch. Lots of good food on this trip.

Abby and I had the next day to ourselves. It was a slower day, but I just enjoyed it with my sister. I got to know her so well. And I like her. I knew I did, but I treasured this time. I am so proud of her, making her way in this far off place. We ate at the local restaurant. The food was delicious. I took a picture of the restaurant and the ladies that ran it. They were too good to us.

We also visited the school that Abby works at. I took more pictures of kids. They loved having their pictures taken, and then looking at the pictures. Sweet smiles. I loved being swarmed by them. The ants swarmed me and bit me too. And I didn’t like that so much. But those kids mobbing me was the best. All I needed was a camera.

We went to Boquette the next day. Uncle Dale came in from the bus at about 6:45am, and we said, “We need to leave in five minutes.” He said, “Okay. I’ll just grab some breakfast and change my clothes.” We said, “No time for that.” Bless his soul, he got right back in the car and headed off for the zip line. I told you he was good to us. The zip line was fun. Those pictures will have to follow. There were some fun ones.

Uncle Dale took us to a Peruvian restaurant in Boquette for lunch. He wanted us to try some foods he knows to be delicious, and I did. I wanted to try them, really. I genuinely liked the cow’s heart. I know that’s probably not that big of a deal, but I’ve never eaten the heart before. And then some sort of fish that is “cooked” with lime juice and no real cooking. It really wasn’t too bad.

And the next day it was basically time to head home. We drove back to Panama City and stayed in a nice hotel close to the airport to avoid any mishaps. All went well.

I learned I love to be around my sister. My Uncle Dale is full of humility and grace. He treated us better than we deserved. Abby is strong and determined and graceful and beautiful. I missed my family, and wanted to share all of it with them. I couldn’t have survived without a Spanish speaker. Thank the Lord I had two. My first trip out of this country, and there wasn’t a bad minute for me.

My Kids Took My Camera

2009-05-20T08:27:00.001-05:00

First I have a few shots of Gertie. Our Pastor’s wife gave Gertie this little ice cream cone full of chocolate smelling bubbles on Sunday. She’s had so much fun with those. She is so proud of them.

And then Grace and Ethan took my camera yesterday and got some pretty good shots, I thought. Unless it’s just because I’m their mother and shamelessly proud of all that they accomplish. You be the judge.

Grace took these. They are a couple among many. I loved the way the dandelion shot was focused on the buds instead of the seedlings. (And I can’t stand the thought she found that in our yard. She had a few to choose from.)

And then she took many shots of her brother practicing his baseball skills. Love them all.

I mean, just look at his form.

Really, I know nothing about form. I just think he’s cute.

And here is my sweet peaches.

And how cute is this one. If only she hadn’t cut off the top of her brother’s head.

And obviously Ethan got a turn to take a few pictures of his pretty sisters.

I wonder what would have happened if they would have given the camera to Gertie?

I’m glad they didn’t.

Really.

Week-End Update

2009-05-15T19:43:00.002-05:00

Hello there.

Today I’ve been garage saling—not the kind where you get to shop around; the kind where you sit in a chair behind a cash box and add up quarters and dollars and peel little stickers off old shirts and toys and stick little stickers into a notebook. (We are having a multi-family sale.) It is more of a test of my accounting and secretarial skills than I would have imagined. Now add a toddler that’s been dragging said goods all over the lawn since 7 am and is now sick of it all and ready to go home, but we can’t go home yet because it isn’t over and it looks like rain any minute.

I’m making it sound like a bad day, and it wasn’t; it was a good day. My page is full of stickers in the amounts of .25 and .50, and when all is said and done I may just have $20 or possibly even more! But what really makes me happy is that I am rid of so much of the junk that’s been accumulating around our house. And people are buying lots of things. Things you would think nobody would be interested in. It astonishes me. Except they don’t want any wicker baskets. Of which I have many. Do you want some? They’re going for .25 a piece.

Changing subjects.

Grace is off on yet another year-end field trip. It is for orchestra, and it should be fun. She’s going to the Mall of America, and then off to see a real orchestra in action. She won’t get home until about midnight tonight. It’s been a very busy week for her, and I bet she’ll sleep until 2 pm tomorrow if we let her.

I am so glad the kids get to take some of these fun trips, but I am considering giving her a $100 year-end field trip budget next year and seeing if that even comes close to covering all the fun things they plan for these kids. John and I feel like we’re shelling out ridiculous amounts of money every other day for this trip or that. Maybe it’s because Grace is involved in so many extra-curricular activities. I don’t know. But this is getting expensive.

We went to her choir concert last night (another Mall of America field trip coming up next week. She wants me to chaperone so I can buy her things while we’re there, I’m sure.) It would have been watching that concert if Gertie wasn’t so fidgety during the whole thing. Ethan seems to think he can “help” by tickling her toes and kissing her and making funny faces. It seems to not matter that I ask him to “help” by sitting still and keeping his hands to himself. It matters not. Tickling. Kissing. When I glare at him, he goes, “Why can’t I kiss her? I just want to kiss her.” As if I am the cruel mother that doesn’t want my children loving each other. But Grace is adorable in the red bow tie and cummerbund and her brother’s white dress shirt that so small that she has to roll up the sleeves to make it work.

“I don’t even know if we’re allowed to roll up our sleeves.”

Thankfully, there were probably 13 girls there with their sleeves rolled up. I guess lots of 7th and 8th grade girls have been growing this year. They all have roll up their sleeves, whether they’re allowed to or not.

Changing subjects.

EJ has a field trip this week to the Twins game in Minneapolis. We gave him $10 spending money and he said he could afford no souvenirs . What is this world coming to? I said, “Not even a baseball?” He said, “Fifteen dollars.” I said, “How about a big hand that says ‘Number 1’?” He said, “Eleven dollars.” I said, “Did you get a hot dog or something then?” He said, “Yeah. And a pop, but they said I couldn’t have the lid.” Well, I didn’t quite understand the significance of that, but that conversation had worn out its welcome. Maybe it meant he couldn’t take it on the bus home if he hadn’t finished it. Or maybe he just wanted to save the lid as a souvenir. I just don’t know.

He received his poetry award also this week. Now he wants a new PS2 game.

Oh, and Grace was in the paper.

Isn’t she cute? That’s my girl. She was scared for the person being tazed.

Talk to you later. I better go feed my family…

Okay. One More.

2009-05-11T14:05:00.002-05:00

Okay. Just one more. I can't believe I neglected to throw this one in before. I was having a hard time toward the end of my post last night.

But this is my mother's childhood friend Becky and her husband Bob who hosted our whole crew for the couple days we were in Iowa City. She is a hoot. We all love her and she makes us all feel so comfortable.

She and my mom were in the hospital together when they were born, and they've been able to get reacquainted over the last several years. Very fun hosts.

(sheepishly) Just One More. Am I Overdoing It?

2009-05-10T23:48:00.003-05:00

I just loved this picture and wanted to include it. My last post just absolutely refused to take it. I'll show them...or it...or you. Whatever. Just enjoy the picture.

Good night.

Iowa City 2009

2009-05-10T23:45:00.001-05:00

It has been a flurry, but I wouldn’t give it up—no way.

Beth has been visiting since Friday, May 1. You saw the last post. Too busy to write, but I wanted to get the pictures up, especially for Mike, because he was missing his baby, I am sure.

Now I’ve had time to reflect. And I have many more pictures to post.

Beth and Verena’s visit to our home was fun. I feel for Beth because I know it has been an exhausting trip for her. But she sees the end now. That new fresh tile floor awaits her. It’s calling her name.

Beth…Beth…Come home now. I miss those baby toes crawling all over my cool surface…Come home.

Anyway, I digress. We had so much fun having them around. Verena is so cute you could eat her up. But she wants her Mama most of the time. She’s largely off the menu.

Gertie likes Verena much of the time. And sometimes she likes her toys more than Verena. Well, maybe that’s not true. Maybe she just knows that her toys like her more than they like Verena. Anyway, she protected them with valor, only releasing them to Verena’s clutches on threat of punishment. Much of the time, Verena didn’t seem to notice, really, so all was well.

THE ROAD TRIP

Julie and my Mother came on Thursday morning and Beth and Verena and Gertie and I hopped into Julie’s van to drive down to Iowa City. We had lots of fun listening to the ipod and fighting over the temperature in the car, and we made it safely to Iowa City in time to enjoy dinner with our cousins Christy and Nicki. I’ll be tempted to say it time and again during this post, but I just love this family of mine, and getting reacquainted with them is all joy.

The only thing squishing the joy was that Verena arrived in Iowa City with puke down her front and a fever of over 102 degrees. But we chatted over pizza, and I visited with these cousins that make me smile. I got to meet Christy’s daughter Heidi again. She is a young lady now. We were laughing and eating, and then Beth felt she needed to have Verena looked at by a doctor. So our party split up, and things got a little crazy. Some were driving to the Urgent Care, some were staying for pizza and visiting—no, wait—some were coming back to take the chatters to the EMERGENCY room to join the ailing one, and the rest were going home—no, wait—some were turning in for the night while the rest braved the ER—no, wait—nobody wanted to brave the ER after all, and we all went home and tucked ourselves into bed. Whew. It was crazy for certain.

And my Gertie, whom Christy had been trying to win over during dinner with seemingly little success, suddenly became desperate to be with Christy. She needed her. She needed to see her again. To know where she was. To touch her. To say goodbye. That’s just like her.

All told for that reunion, I got this picture. We are waiting out in the rain for our ride (Nicki) to arrive and deliver us to the emergency room. No picture of Nicki.

Then we met the next afternoon with my cousin Becca and her husband Ian and their adorable little Annabelle at the local children’s museum. Annabelle was born just a month before Gertie, and they were fun to watch.And this was a fun sort of place.

There was grocery shopping, complete with shopping carts and way too many vegetables and fruits and danishes and money.

And this big red fellow is supposed to be Elmo. Gertie was convinced. Gertie liked him, but still a bit skittish about getting too close.

And then there was the baby nursery. Gertie’s all-time favorite past-time: babies. This was the area she didn’t want to leave, the one she begged to go back to. The one she left only by being picked up and carried out of kicking and screaming.

But that didn’t last long, because then we found this room. This is Gertie and Annabelle on the slide. Aren’t they just the sweetest.

And Verena didn’t forget what the slide was all about. She’s a pro by now.

They had golf balls everywhere in this area. It was a very cool room. Lots of room to run around.

But Verena didn’t forget about those slides. (Did I say that already?)

Annabelle.

This was the closest I could get these girls for a picture. And that is even blurry because they were on the go. I love these girls.

We followed this adventure up with some much needed rest before we went to Aunt Ann and Uncle Bill’s for a family dinner. She made a delicious taco salad. I love taco salad. Aunt Jean and Uncle John were there. I took no pictures, but had the biggest smile on my face the whole time.

John and Julie talked high finance. Beth started in with politics and everyone joined in. Gertie and Annabelle had the very best time being chased around and giggling and hiding and giggling until I drug Gertie home and she collapsed into bed. I just love this family and listening and watching and learning. They are simply dear to me. Watching our girls run rampant reminded me of our old times playing with the cousins during those happy reunions. These times are so precious.

And the last leg was the grave tour. Maybe only interesting to a few, but a sweet melancholy for me. It’s good to be reminded of where you came from.The first stop was in Iowa City to my Great Grandmother Verena’s grave.

This is Baby V at her cherished Great Great Grandmother’s grave. Needs a frame if I do say so myself.

You know, we left there and Beth and I and our little girls headed out to Grandpa and Grandma’s old place. We had the best hike around their place. The weather was beautiful. We were able to keep a slow but steady pace, disappointing no one because it was just us. We hiked our old trail out to the picnic table and down to our swimming pond. It was quiet and peaceful and brought back so many memories. We headed up to the old spring shack and back around to the house. It didn’t take too long, and really it was the perfect distance. The kids survived it pretty well. It is heaven to me. I am so glad that the new owners are agreeable to letting us visit, and I look forward to doing that until I’m gray. I love that place and the memories it holds. I loved doing that hike with my sister and our girls. It was perfect. Julie would have joined us as well, but she woke that morning not feeling so well.

We were determined to see it all, so we headed over to Tipton to visit the family gravesites there. Another melancholy spot, but it means so much to be able to do it.

Grandpa and Grandma Furnish.

Great Aunt Betty. And is your last little baby ever so cute you just can’t stand it? You want to freeze time because you know it won’t last forever? You would eat her up if you could? This was one of those days. I love her up.

Let the Pictures Tell the Story

2009-05-04T16:51:00.001-05:00

My Sister Julie, the beautiful drink maker.My sister Beth and her Baby V. Tate, Gertie and Verena before the baseball game.

My Gertie at the park.

Verena slipping on the slide for the first time. All smiles.

Gertie trying head first.

Verena gets some action at the game.

Tate at bat.

My personal favorites every time. The line-up the cousins and snap some pictures. Guaranteed good ones. Just missing Grace.

Our Own Little Stay-cation

2009-04-14T15:56:00.001-05:00

We wanted to get out and about, but we knew we couldn’t go far with John not being mobile. We decided on the Nature Center here in town. We had a good time rummaging around in the woods.

We stopped off to look at the snakes and salamanders, and Grace fell in love with this beaver.

Grace and Ethan hopped the creek stones to get to this little island. Gertie wanted to join them, so she just waded through the water. She was pretty excited to be there with the big ones, though. Look at that smile. And they are pretty cool.

Gertie was coaxed into posing next to many stumps and dead trees. She’s awfully cute next to trees and stumps.

And then we discovered a big tree root that had been uprooted when the tree fell over. A perfect little hideout for these gangsters.

And this is the only picture of Ethan without his hat on. I missed his hair, sticking up like it does. I had to see it, if only for a moment.

Have a happy Tuesday.

Happy Easter

2009-04-12T20:38:00.001-05:00

Yesterday Gertie and I went to an Easter egg hunt at a local church. We had so much fun. They went all out with a bunch of carnival games and a puppet show and cookies and punch and a truckload of eggs out on the big church lawn.

John hurt his back again on Thursday, so he’s been laid up since then. I’ve realized (not that I had any illusions otherwise) that I don’t make a good Dad. In my house the good Dad cooks and grocery shops and takes very good care of his family. I help, but we make a good team. I like the team.

Pray for speedy recovery for him. This tends to take him out for a good while.

We also decorated eggs yesterday. It was a great time, as usual, and these are the favorite works of art from each of my kiddos.

Gertie’s still got the napped-on remains of the bunny painted on her face at the egg hunt. Gertie was quite impressive in our own personal egg hunt this morning. She held her own with the big kids. And if she thought Ethan found too many eggs, she just took them out of his basket and put them into hers.

Grace was off to church early to prepare to play her cello as part of the worship team. She did great, and I was a proud Mama watching her. Ethan was in the service too, swinging flags. Very fun to watch. I barely pulled off getting the ham and potatoes in the oven before we left for church, but our dinner was delicious, even though my hands were the ones that prepared it. I am thankful for that.

And I’m so so thankful that Christ rose from the grave on this day many years ago. I needed it.

Happy Easter, all.

The New Bike

2009-04-12T20:23:00.001-05:00

This is a post I’ve been wanting to update. Little Miss Gertrude got a new bike. Of course, we’re in Minnesota, so she’s riding with hat and mittens.

She’s working on getting the pedaling thing figured out. I would describe the progress as a bit slow.

And every time she gets close to the edge of the sidewalk, which is often, she gets off and straightens herself out with her hands. Like this. I love this…

Basketball

2009-04-04T18:55:00.000-05:00

this is grace. my mom wanted me to add some captions to these pictures.

look at our boy

i told him to just pretend i wasn't here, so he walked away...

Marisa's Song

2009-04-04T18:27:00.005-05:00

A month goes by...I just don't seem to be in a blogging mood lately. I am wondering if it might be because my wireless has gone funny and now I have to sit tethered to the computer desk instead of roam any old place, and usually my husband's soft, fluffy Lazyboy rocker in the family room. And I've had stuff I'd like to blog about too. And I'll get to all of it, but the reason that drove me to actually sit down and publish is that my darling and extra-talented son won his poetry contest at school. They call it the Eberhart Poetry Contest, and they chose one finalist from each school in our district. He had written this poem for an "old" friend that has moved away. It was a song, actually, and he had to alter it slightly to fit within the guidelines of the contest, but here it is.

Marisa’s Song

Don’t you remember how it used to be?

Well, if you don’t, I’ll tell how it was.

It was you and me sitting under that old tree,

Then you would chase me, catch me. I would laugh.

Don’t you remember how it used to be?

It was just us two. We made a good team.

We would just sit there, play a game or two.

We might just have fun, or we might be sad.

But everything changed and got rearranged.

Now I’m just a creep who can’t go to sleep.

Mellowed out dude, you could call me rude.

Thoughts have gotten caught thinking about you.

Think I should let them.

We would just sit there.

Play a game or two…

Don't you just love this kid?

Hi there.

2009-03-08T15:19:00.002-05:00

John and I have the quiet house to ourselves. I should be sweeping and finishing the lunch dishes, but instead I've got my feet up and I've been wandering around Facebook and reading my e-mail. The dishes and the dirty floor will still be there in a few minutes, right?

Yesterday we shopped all day looking for white pants and red shorts and white tennies for a play that grace is in. It is the school version of Grease. Suffice it to say that in our sleepy little town--and I do mean the whole little town--there is not a pair of white pants to be found. We found white tennies, but not in Grace's size. Keep in mind, these have to be the simple canvas white tennies like they wore in the '50s.

So, although we bore not much shopping fruit, I did really enjoy my kids. We had a good time walking around together. Ethan had some money burning a hole in his Spiderman wallett, and it took him no time at all to hone in on a new PS2 joystick. He felt certain it wasn't a ripoff because it says on the box that if this item doesn't work, we'll replace it or repair it for free. Well, there you go. I'm convinced.

I scraped the bottom of my billfold to find $1.25 for two cookies at the cookie shop. Ethan picked a sugar cookie with sprinkles and Grace got chocolate peanut butter or something. I was so happy sitting there watching them eat up their cookies and talking about this and that. Some simple family moments bring the most joy, don't they?

I didn't have enough money for a drink, but Ethan and Grace pooled some change and shared a pop. Just like the old days. I loved it.

And we've been watching the old family videos again. I am so glad John made all those little movies. Gertie just loves watching her brother and sister float around on the big screen when they were just her size. And so do I.

This week holds some work for me, but not too much. Grace says she needs her eyes checked yet again, so that is on the books as well. And I need to start those taxes. But maybe not this week.

So, the days are good, but the house is messy. I must remedy this.

My Baby is Three

2009-02-25T21:35:00.011-06:00

It is late and quiet around here tonight. I've been wanting to post some pictures of Gertie's third birthday. She had a good time playing with her Grandma Mary and eating cake--I mean, frosting. She is completely on board with being three, and never needs reminding.

What do I say about my three-year-old? She comes into my room very sweet and happy in the mornings. I love that. She promises me she's going to be quiet and sleep, but she wiggles non-stop and talks and sings. And I just smile. But I'm still too slow to get out of bed. She likes a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast. I believe this is because Ethan is usually making one for his lunchbox, and they look so good. She asks me if we can turn something on t.v. for her, and I usually do. She seems to have no absolute favorites, just a variety of kid shows she likes.

So, my baby is three now. Time really flies. And it really hits me when I look at my big kids. I just don't understand how I got to be the mom of this 12-year-old and this 10-year-old. They're so big and independent and fun.

But back to the little one. She loved having her Grandma here. They like each other. A lot. That makes me happy.
Gertie liked her frosting so much that she used her index finger to remove all the remaining frosting from the leftover pieces of cake the next morning. Personally, I liked the cake better. Gertie and I make a good team.We were treated to another magic show by Ethan. I must say, he's improving some of these tricks. And, boy-oh-boy, does he need a haircut or what. I'll get right on that.

Tomorrow I work, and we're supposed to have a doozy of a storm. John will be feeling miserable, I'm fairly sure, and I am guessing Grace will be home from school again. Tricky. So I'd better get myself some sleep, because who knows what the morning will bring.

I promised pictures.

2009-02-14T17:22:00.003-06:00

My little magician has been making frequent appearances lately. We gave Ethan this magic kit two Christmases ago. It has surfaced occasionally, but it's making a surge lately. I love watching him. He perfects nothing before he comes out wanting to show us all his tricks. That is so in his nature. He just wants the glory.

This is just a picture of my Gracie I took recently. She is growing up so very fast. She went with John to visit his mother this weekend. I miss her.

And then I attempted to take a cute picture of Gertie post haircut (and bath) this morning. And she made this face.

And then she made it again.

And then Ethan reversed it, but made basically the same face.

Gertie is napping now. I watched a whole Cary Grant movie all by myself without any interruptions. I love that. It was a nice treat for me today. My loving husband called this morning to wish me a happy Valentine's Day. I miss him too.

Yoo Hoo. Over Here.

2009-02-06T14:47:00.003-06:00

Well, I think my absence has been a record length. It is really for no other reason than it's been a very busy month for me. I've been working on a big trial transcript that kept me at business, and not so much pleasure, on the computer. It seems I still found glimmers of time to read blogs and e-mail, but not much else.

And last night I caught "The Office." Andy is single again? What's up with that? I didn't even see Angela on the show. I need to check out some past episodes. Apparently, I've missed much. I'm saying that presuming you all watch "The Office." If you don't, check it out.

I don't want to give any boring play-by-plays. I feel like I do a very boring job of those. Even I don't want to really read them when I write them.

One highlight is we finally got Gertie's hair cut. My girl has bangs now--looks just like Grace. Oh my goodness--and she doesn't cry or scream or yell at me when I try to kick that rat party out of her hair. They are small little baby rats, and I am happier with that. She can see better, and things are good for her all around. I have to say, it was a very bittersweet moment for me. Even though I knew it was for the best, there went my sweet baby's first little hairs from her cute little head. We waited a long time for those hairs. A very long time. But the curls seem to be hanging on, at least so far.

I'm almost tearing up over baby hair, so it must be time to move on. I'm at work today, covering for a gal that is visiting her daughter in Africa for a week and a half. I am so happy for her to be able to go there and see her. As a parent, I bet that would be so hard. Like my Dad and Judy for our Abby. (We miss you way over there, Abby.) So anyway, it has been a bit slow here and I've brought plenty to do during the lulls. I caught up on Bible study, which I was way behind in. Still in Genesis, and still loving it. We are up to Jacob now, and his marrying Leah and Rachel. He's already deceived Isaac into giving him Esau's blessing. It all seems so unfair, but also a good reminder that God blesses us and loves us not based on how we act, but just because he chooses us. And I am glad for that. I am on a mission to be more patient and kind, especially with my family, who bears the brunt of my opposite behavior.

Being at work, like I say, I've caught up on Bible study, updated my calendar, completed several phone errands and balanced my checkbook (which I hadn't done since August, I see) Yikes! I do check on it, but as tax time is approaching, I need to write it all down. I must have set some record there, too, as far as neglect. That is bad, and I resolve that won't happen again.

The furniture movers are probably already finished replacing our old and ugly couch with a new one that John and I picked out together. I am so excited to get home and sit on it and stare at it. Although, at this point, while sitting on it, I'll be staring at the old oneuntil we figure out what we're going to do with the eyesore. It was too cold to move it, and we have no idea what to do with it, so it will crowd the living the room until we do something about it. We have temperatures at freezing now, so I think we can move it out of the house without suffering frostbite. But I'm wondering if my muscles and my tender heart can survive hauling a heavy hide-a-bed couch out of the house with my husband. Sometimes our tempers seem to flare when we don't think exactly alike about which way to lean and push and pull. And my muscles are small. Oops. Refer to prior paragraph about patience and kindness. I can do it!

Grace is just out of gymnastics and into the next school play, Grease. She was disappointed that her part is nothing special. She is just in the chorus group, I think, but she still needs to be at all but two practices. That seems substantial to me. I really wish for a stretch of no activities at all. I want to enjoy the evenings with my family all at home, and not racing here to there, but I'm sure that wouldn't go as well as I imagine in my mind. I know a few things are good for them. John told me that Ethan's coach asked him to be on a smaller wrestling team. I think the coach hopes to take a handful of kids and really work on improving their skills for the team. I think Ethan is a wrestler at heart, but one busy kid. I'm not sure what the decision is on that yet.

Two weeks ago I would have said basketball isn't going to stick (Maybe I actually did say that.), but lately the kid has been shooting nonstop baskets in his room. It brings back such memories. He's picked out two uniforms (home and away), and he runs through all the plays, makes me watch as he misses, then says "One more," three more times until he sinks it. I love it. I'm sure it's the pasttime of boys all over the place, but it's my Ethan. I like that kid. Maybe he'll have to chose between pro football and basketball and baseball afterall.

He was supposed to be in the talent show at his school last night. We had no idea when he was supposed to appear, and each time Grace was in it, we had a schedule. I told him I didn't think that was right. When we got there and found the teacher, she said EJ did try out--he was going to play a piece on the piano--and she invited him to be a part, but he was supposed to turn in the sheet accepting that invitation so she'd know he'd be there. He didn't do that, so no performance for Ethan. That was disappointing. For me, not so much for him, it seemed.

It is just that he doesn't seem to be interested in so many school activities, and I was so glad he took the initiative to go for this one. And I was excited to see him up there, but then to find out that it's just one more little organizational piece that he didn't complete. It's been a hard week for Ethan. Earlier this week he didn't get his homework done, and part of it was that we took him to Grace's last gymnastics meet, and he didn't have time, but then the next day, he was messing around instead of getting his homework done. John and I came down pretty hard on him, and it really seemed to hit home this time. He felt bad about the choices he'd made. He told me that the teacher was going to let him off the hook the next morning, and he had to fight for the "strike" he gets for not completing an assignment. I was very proud of him for taking responsibility for that choice, and telling her he really deserved the strike. He doesn't always take responsibility. Could this be a point of maturity? Can he be getting it? I think it's a start. The Spirit's at work in that kid's heart. He's cleaning house! Wa-hoo.

So, I'm missing my family, loving them, and wishing I was with them now. But truly, I guess if I was there, I'd probably not be finally getting around to this post. I was thinking about that on my third day of eating lunch out by myself, that I've had these peaceful moments to just sit quietly and think. I do miss those, too. Just dead air. People watching. Aaahh. But I need to start packing a lunch. I think I'm going to the grocery store (gasp) and buying some freezer meals or something to bring to work next week. It seems I have the best intentions, but I don't get around to making myself a lunch in the mornings before work. I'll put shopping on the list--or ask my sweet husband to pick them up while he's there.

I think John is going to see his mom this weekend. Suddenly I realize that is like today! Maybe tomorrow. It is so strange to me how little time we have to talk sometimes. I'm not even sure if he's going for sure, and if he does, it's likely to be right away. Poof. He'll be gone.

Oh, I hope you've stuck with me for such a droning on. It's been so long since I've done that, and it did feel good. I promise to get pictures up soon of my Gertie. And whatever else.

2009-01-06T15:20:00.023-06:00

Oh, my goodness. This has been my longest blog vacation yet, I think. I really do feel naughty in the sense that I've been occasionally checking in and enjoying all my friends' and family's blogs, but really lived an internet sparse vacation. It wasn't internet free, just sparse.

So, for posterity's sake, I need to rewind all the way to the week before Christmas...

It snowed. We shoveled. It snowed. We shoveled. It seemed to go on just like that for days. The kids had a snow day. Then they canceled John's classes. Those classes were his last day of finals. That was bad. That complicated things. Significantly. He was supposed to have a crazy-grading weekend right before we flew away to Maryland for the holidays. Now he had to wait until Monday morning to try to coordinate at least sixty loose college students taking make-up exams and turning in papers. He got all but three fixed up, so I call that a victory.

We zipped up to see my sister and her family, and my mom. We got there later than we had wanted to, but we still had a good time before Julie drove us to the airport the next morning.

Our ten a.m. flight was canceled, but we decided that was just okay with us, because they put us onto a lightly populated, nonstop plane to DC at 1 p.m. The city traffic had cleared, the roads had time to be plowed. It was a safe and relaxing (if I can say that when I wasn't driving) drive. Thanks Julie.

Our other adventure was learning that we were going to have to pay $15 each way for each bag we wanted to check. I hated that idea. So I went about mooching carry-on bags from my friends and family. We pulled it off. We each had one carry-on suitcase and one bag or backpack besides. And we could have pulled it off, too, if it weren't for that pesky two-year old who not only can't carry her own bag or pull her own suitcase, but also wants to be carried much of the time.

I wish I'd had a picture of this warrior family to show you. We rocked. Grace carried her backpack plus pulled two suitcases. Keep in mind, we had a carseat and a stroller as well. The stroller was just taken along so that we'd have one extra thing to lug. The little one wasn't that interested in sitting in it. The big ones were, but that wasn't an option.

We arrived in DC exhausted, sore and happy. The weather was beautiful. Like 50 degrees. We basked.

It's been a very long time since I've spent a Christmas with my Dad and Stepmom. It was so much fun. We had already had a mini Christmas at home so we wouldn't have to squeeze gifts between ourselves into our already stuffed carry-on bags.

We went into DC one day. I wanted John to be able to check out the National Art Gallery in peace, so I took the kids to the Natural History Museum. We saw some of our favorite things. And it was much fun, outside of the fact that I had to take Gertie to the bathroom every 30 minutes (and it took 30 minutes to get to the bathroom each time). She had diahrea the whole time we were there. Bummer.

Here are the kids and I in front of a fossil that my Grandpa donated to the museum.

Grace and I went to the top of the Old Pavillion Post Office, and I took this picture of my beautiful big girl.
Then we took an overnight trip up to Pennsylvania to see John's brother Dan and his family. We hadn't seen their home yet, and it was beatiful.

Gertie got reacquainted with Uncle Dan. He was very good to her.

And Ethan and Quinn, like usual, seem to get along great. They played lots of video games.

And look at this Berke trio. I love it.

And one last picture of the adults, compliments of Gracie. We had just gone out to eat, the adults, all alone, at a local pizza joint just a few blocks from Dan's house. It was so fun exploring their hometown and visiting their local haunts. And I'm in my new vest that they gave me for Christmas. I didn't think I was a vest person, but I love that thing. Warm, warm, warm.

And here is my handsome husband in the new Phillies jersey we gave him for Christmas. Isn't he handsome? We had a good time playing Mexican Train and watching Ethan guzzle root beer without actually opening a can. Not just anyone can do that.

My New Year's Kids. They grow up so fast...

Judy snapped us actually ringing in the new year. It was pretty wild. My kids stayed up way too late all vacation long.
Here is Papa snuggling a couple of his biggest fans.

And Nana and the kids making bon-bons. And Ethan guzzling more root beer without actually opening the can.
That had been the night before we left. We wanted to get some bon-bons made so that they could deliver them to Abby in Panama. It was different not seeing her face around there. It makes me think about how life is really changing. She probably won't again live with my Dad and Stepmom (although, who knows). Sam will be a junior in college this next year. It just becomes harder to get everyone together the older and busier everyone gets. These are rare times to hold in memory. Precious.

Dad took us off to the airport after a family lunch at Chick-Filet, compliments of my brother Sam.

But then we flew back to Minneapolis where we had everyone together. This is everyone (minus my husband, who wasn't there, and myself--someone had to take the picture). It is rare for us, but I'm glad we squeeze it in every once in a while. We had a great time watching the cousins play, and we got to see Baby Verena walk all over the place. Gertie really enjoyed Verena and walked her around and played with her every chance she got. I got to catch up with my sisters and my Mom. It was very nice. Verena is a fun addition to the pile of cousins. Now we just need to teach her and Gertie how to play PS2, right Beth?

Now I looked at this picture and realized we were missing Grace. I can't believe I forgot about that. She wasn't there either. But what a sweet pile of kids.

And now we return to real life in the Berke household. The adventure continues...

Tagged

2008-12-16T21:13:00.002-06:00

Well, I've been tagged by my Stepmom in this little photo game. You are supposed to go to your sixth photo file and post your sixth photo from that file, telling all about it. First I went to Picasa, but my sixth folder in there was from Halloween, and each of my kids was looking sideways. Then I went to the bottom and counted up. Not much better. So I decided to go to my other picture folder, the one in Windows. I accidentally went to my fifth photo file, and didn't like number six, so I decided to go with number five, but when I uploaded it, it turned out to be this picture, which is actually the sixth folder and sixth picture. I give up. Here it is.

I have no specific memories of this picture, but I have many specific memories of this child. She is my last baby. I'm crazy about her. She was grumpy to me when she was little, which she still is, really. Little, not grumpy. But now she tells me things. Like she wants a doll, a big girl doll, that talks, with a button. And a bus. A school bus? No. A bus that drives.

I am going to remember this girl as permanently having her hair in her eyes, except for the first twenty minutes of the day, and maybe several three-minute periods throughout the day after I reclip her hair back.

She is very into dressing herself lately. Yesterday she had her underwear on backwards, her shirt on backwards, and her shoes on the wrong feet. But don't worry. The shoes don't last. Or the socks. Or the shirt, for that matter. She likes being naked.

She likes to tromp in the snow. It's irresistable. There before her lies the scooped sidewalks, but she veers over to the small mountain (yes, it is a mountain here) and clomps all over it. We are trying to wear only snow boots outside now.

We saw a brand new baby in church on Sunday. She wanted to go get a closer look, and we stood there, amidst the crowd of others oohing and aahing over this sweet days-old little girl, and she said, "Is that the baby Jesus?" She seemed a little disappointed, like it wasn't what she had expected.

Those are my random thoughts on Gertie tonight.

Now I tag you Megan, and Heather. I hope you're reading.

2008-12-13T07:38:00.002-06:00

It is so quiet around our house this morning. Everyone is sleeping but me. Gertie came into our room at 6 a.m. telling us that it was morning, "Grace said it was." I think she slept with Grace last night. Lately, she's been sneaking out of her bed into one of her siblings' beds after we put her down. I have even started reminding her when I leave that I want her to stay in her own bed, and she says she will, but then she must change her mind. I guess I don't mind horribly if they don't mind. But I don't like that it's sneaky, if it is.

Grace spend the last three days at a place called Eagle Bluff. It is an environmental learning center. Outside. In December. It is something that the whole pile of 7th graders get to do in this town. They are outside for stretches of 3 hours at a time. She said she stayed warm and learned a few things. She was so tired when she came home that I haven't heard much about it. I heard about a tiff and drama between her bunkmates, but that was it. Oh, and that they were trying not to waste food, and it was sort of a contest. The kids got into it. They were trading food and eating other's leftovers so they wouldn't waste more than they had. Grace said her group did very will, with only 7 1/2 pounds of wasted food for the three days. I don't know how many were in the group, and I know that the syrup on the pancakes killed them in the end. I know if I added up the weight of the wasted syrup around my house I could feed many hungry. They might get sick eating all that syrup, though.

My kids eat almost nothing I prepare at our house, and they are way too picky about what John prepares. I think we should try this experiment at home. Maybe they'd get into the challenge and EAT. What we fix. Gertie ate some sugary cereal yesterday. Gobbled it up. Asked for more. As soon as I dumped more into her bowl she declared, "I don't like this." And she pushed it away. What is that? I hate that. And she can't seem to leave anything she doesn't care to eat on her plate. I remember the others being that way a bit too. But what is with that? Can't it just sit in the corner until you're done?

In Bible study we are reading the story of God asking Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. I have always had a hard time understanding this story. It bugs me. I am open to a new lesson from God here. There really are some great stories in Genesis. I've loved rereading them.

Gertie just woke up...

A Study in Self-Portraits

2008-12-11T21:00:00.000-06:00

Christmas in the City

2008-12-11T20:56:00.001-06:00

Well, that wasn't very nice, was it. I wanted you all to come back, and my intentions were pure, but I have just been spending every waking free moment working on a big trial transcript that I want to get out before Christmas. Anyway, I'm done with the biggest task, now I just have to proofread it, and enter my corrections. I'm feeling pretty good about that.

And since Christmas is fast approaching, I need to finish with Thanksgiving. I just found out this year about a sort of hometown kickoff to the Christmas season around here. The night after Thanksgiving our small downtown is abuzz with activity. They have a parade (sort of) down Main Street to where they light up all the Christmas lights in town for the first time. The local businesses participate with special treats or small giveaways. So we drug Heather and her family downtown, in the freezing cold, to eat some cookies and get the kids pictures taken with Santa and let the kids ride a train. I would say, overall, it was a good time. John thinks we froze out those southern cousins (Sorry, southern cousins!)

And this post isn't all that I imagined it to be, but I need to do some catching up around here.

Portland in a Box after Turkey

2008-12-01T20:13:00.015-06:00

We sat down for a game of Portland in a Box, which was a Christmas gift from Niece Heather many, many years ago. Savannah was excited to play an Oregon game, and it was fun to play with some folks who had actually been to every square on the board.

It was a bit slow moving with so many players, but we all had fun. Even Heather. Even in this picture.

Savannah had quite a flair for rolling dice. She rolled doubles a lot and really held her own in this mathematically challenging game.

This is one of Grace's artsy pictures. I just like it.

And this adorable little child is just too irresistible for the camera. What can I say? Just plain precious.

I think there's kind of a Brady Bunch thing going on here. Completely unintentional, but how clever. If it had been intentional.

And this little guy really liked his turkey pin. And I really like this little guy. Those cousins are fun to be around.

Is it time for turkey yet? Again?

We finally abandoned the game looking just like this. Grace had one property. I had two. Heather wouldn't trade. Apparently it's a long-held conviction. Savannah loves her Daddy and gave him whatever he wanted...and Ethan started giving away everything he owned as soon as the Playstation started calling his name. And it calls his name, believe me.

This has taken me a very long time to download all these pictures and I'm not even close to done. So this is going to come in parts. That will be good for my blogging habit, and it's sure to make you check back for more. (smiley face here)

A Real Trendsetter

2008-12-01T20:03:00.003-06:00

If you've seen my youngest lately you probably know that she's a bit neglected--in the hair department, I mean. And I'm coming to the point where I'm ready to cut her hair. Well, have it cut, I mean. We're talking about it.

Anyway, tonight I thought it was so telling when she sat down with her bag of barrettes and stuck a countless number in her own hair. I really do try to keep the hair out of her eyes, and it never fails that they are always falling out or the hair is falling out of them. I haven't actually tried this method, though. Maybe I should do that.

And please don't judge on the snotty nose and peanut butter face. That is an entirely different type of neglect (which I am only sometimes guilty of). I should have prepared her for the picture, but you know, sometimes you need to take the moment at exactly the moment it presents itself, or you'll never capture the moment.

I am working on (in my mind) a Thanksgiving post, but it will have to be bigger. Grace took 90 pictures and 53 of them were good ones! I need to try to choose and post. Big post to come.

"I can't say, "I like you," because I have tea in my mouth.

2008-11-17T10:35:00.002-06:00

I just said, "I like you," to Gertie.

She replied, "I can't say, 'I like you,' because I have tea in my mouth."
She had just taken a drink of tea.

She cracks me up.

We had a high school friend die in a hunting accident last week. His friend was getting out of the truck and the gun accidentally went off, shooting Lanny, who bled to death. He was in John's class and had helped us buy a few cars over the years. He sold cars. One was a cute little Mazda 323 turbo. I really did like that little car.

His wife was my best friend in the whole wide world when I was in middle school. She lived just a couple blocks down our street, which was the highway. We called each other every day many, many times. We had sleepovers. We coordinated our clothes that we'd wear to school. This was in the days of leg warmers. Should we wear the blue polo and the red leg warmers or the red polo and the white leg warmers? We babysat and dearly loved the Martin family girls for years together. They had Mandy, then twins, Katie and Kyla, and then Mara. While they were very young, they needed two sitters, but after a couple years, one of us could handle it, really. They gave us the option: We could take turns or stick together and each be paid half. We mulled it over (not for long) and decided to babysit for 50 cents an hour so we could keep doing it together. Boy, we loved those kids.

Anyway, it was a very sad occasion, and John and I both wanted to be there, so we began scrambling to make that happen. My friend Brenda agreed to take the big kids, including carting them all over high heaven to get them where they needed to be when they needed to be there. She bought a birthday present for Ethan's little friend's party that I forgot about. She is a saint. The previous owners of our dog took her in. They do that when they can. They are saints.

We took Gertie with us. She's a saint...well, not quite. She did a great job at the funeral, though, until she got hot. She had been very fidgety, but quiet for the most part. Until she got hot. Then she said in a whiny whisper, "I'm hot." I nodded. She said in a scream, "I'm hooooot." John took her out. I love that man.

We saw many friends from high school. Lanny's funeral was very well attended. You just don't think people you know are going to die so young. Very hard. They have three kids, 17, 15 and 12. Pray for them. They'll need those prayers.

Grace was in Alice in Wonderland and was a beautiful and perfect "Small Alice." I was so proud of her. Actually, all those junior highers did a great job. It was a fun play. But...I'm so glad it's over. Just in time for gymnastics to start.

That's what's on my mind. We are running these kids around like crazy. We want them to be in all the stuff they want to be in, but sometimes I feel like this just shouldn't be life. Ethan has basketball practice until 8:45. He is supposed to be in bed at 8 o'clock. It's just too late. And on December 1 we add wrestling. Crazy. I feel like I'm on the fast train and I can't bring myself to jump off. Things just must slow down a bit. What do we give up? Piano? Cello lessons? Gymnastics? Basketball? Wrestling? Church?

How will my children possibly become well-rounded happy adults without gymnastics and plays and church and piano and cello and basketball and wrestling? We. Must. Press. On.

Oh, please.

We will fix this.

Did this happen to you?

Don't let this happen to you.

This week I don't have to work. I am glad. I have tons of laundry and lots of errands to run. I've missed Bible study for two weeks because of work, and I've missed it. Genesis is so cool. I can't get enough. I eat it up.

Gertie is being so good, but I need to play with that girl, so I'm off.

2008-11-10T13:53:00.000-06:00

We had our first snow this last week. It was actually beautiful, making the trees georgous and big, fat flakes. I always love fresh snow, and this was perfect, melting as it hit the sidewalks and roads. When it piles up and has to be shoveled and plowed it turns dirty and is much less appealing to the eye. Gertie made a few snowballs. It was fun.

Ethan is so pleased with this Lego tower he made. Can you all read it? I don't recall what the message was referring to, but the consequences of your choice certainly are severe!

Then we had Ethan's birthday party. We played a game called "Straight Face" where one person tried to crack the rest up, as they were desperately trying to break a smile. Grace made us smile. How can you not?

These are some ten-year-old boys doing what ten-year-old boys do. I said I wanted to take their picture, so the all simultaneously picked their noses. Lovely.

I tried to throw this party together on very short notice, and I think they had fun. Grace, my hero, helped me wrap gifts and bake and decorate a cake, and set this birthday table. I really felt like I couldn't have done it without her.

Gertie is sick, and she was yesterday for the party as well. We hated to cancel, and she wasn't coughing too badly, so we decided to segregate her and go ahead as planned. It all worked out because she slept through the whole commotion.

But I wouln't describe last night as going so well. She was up frequently. She was so hot. She was crying and needed me to be sleeping with her. She needed a drink. She needed to me hold her. She needed me to not touch her. At one point she said, "I don't want your jammies." I thought, "Well, that's fine. You don't have to wear them." Then she said, "No. It's...it's...it's...it's fuzzy. I don't like them. It's fuzzy and you have to take them off. It's fuzzy and I don't like them and you have to take them off." Apparently the same thing I love about my pajamas is the same thing she hates about them. They had to go. I'm hoping for a better night tonight. You know, my own bed. A solid night's sleep. Keeping my pajamas on...

Stinky Attitude

2008-11-01T13:39:00.003-05:00

We are driving home from dropping my basketball star off at practice number two this morning and Gertie finds a loose packet of Skittles in the car. She starts telling me how she wants to eat them. I tell her no. She starts crying that she wants to eat them. I tell her no. She starts screaming that she wants to eat them. I tell her no. And then...

Me: Your attitude is very stinky right now.
Gertie: Stinky, what does that mean?
Me: Bad. Your attitude is very bad. It's a no-no.
Gertie: You mean my attitude is bad and it's stinky?
Me: Yes, that's right.
Gertie: Well, I don't even understand what that means!

Don't you love that?

The Halloween Report

2008-11-01T09:03:00.005-05:00

Oh, isn't Halloween fun? I was just feeling a bit blah yesterday, which is too bad, but that's the way it happens sometimes. After I ironed 6000 shirts for John, I laid down on the bed and started to read Water for Elephants, which I am really enjoying so far.

My sweet husband took over and roasted the pumpkin seeds from the pumpkin carving yesterday. He even delivered me some in bed. We always roast them, and I always don't like them very much. But it's a tradition, right.

I recruited Grace to help Ethan with the French hobo costume, which I don't think my son had given a bit of thought to. She was all over that, though. She found some older pants and destroyed them, same with a shirt. I finally came downstairs and Ethan just looked like a kid with torn up and dirty clothes. It was the face paint that did the trick. I thought he was actually pretty cute. Gertie decided to go with the Tinkerbell costume, over the bumble bee. That suited me just fine. Our sitter and friend had donated those costumes for her, and nothing could have been easier. She woke up from her nap on the crabbier side yesterday, so it was a bit of a challenge getting her into the costume and out the door, but we finally got it.

Grace had asked to go trick-or-treating with her friend across town. Both John and I were disappointed to lose her, but I guess we both understood and remember being that age and wanting to go off with your friends.

I took Gertie and Ethan with me to drop Grace off, and figured that could be our trial trick or treat. Gertie said trick or treat, but it was below a whisper. She didnt' hold her bag open, she just stared at the big girls and the rest of the family. And with some prompting she said thank you.

This could be interesting...
We decided to hit our old neighborhood first, because if Gertie pooped out, Ethan could still go around our neighborhood a bit. The first house we went to there was a woman all dressed up with pink spiky hair and pink and silver sparkly stars painted all over her face dishing out the candy. Gertie walked up, whispered trick or treat, and then did a combination of dropping and throwing her bag toward the woman. It was like she really wanted the candy, but wasn't going to get too close. We picked her bag up and said thank you and went on to the next house.

At each house she'd ask me if they were going to be scary. She actually was doing such a good job with her manners after a bit that I let her walk up with Ethan alone. She would come running back to me jumping and giggling and telling me that she got a piece of candy. She loved it. Although, really, what kid wouldn't. Think about this holiday. We teach our kids to knock on doors and get free candy. It is quite the score. Anyway, one day a year...I really don't know what I'm doing with my camera. I turned it to night-time setting and took this picture. Apparently I lose auto focus when I swich settings, and my hands are just too shaky, not to mention the moving people I was trying to photograph, but I thought this picture looked kind of cool. Kind of like I had super-imposed this family of mine into this shot.

Ethan faithfully said "Treeck-or-Trreat" (that is my best attempt at his French accent) at every house. One guy said, "What are you? A hobo or something?" Ethan said, "A French hobo." The guy roared with laughter and loved it. He said that was the best one he's seen so far. He made my son's night.

We came to our home where we had stocked up on a huge bowl of candy to give out, but at the end had decided that we wanted to both go trick or treating with the kids, so no one manned the door here. I feel badly about that not only because now we have a huge bucket of candy on top of three way too big collections of candy, but also that when we pulled up to our house, we had left the porch light on, so I bet we had lots of eager knockers and then no one here to answer the door. We decided that next year we really need to keep one of us at home. It's just that each of us hates to miss it. A friend of ours said he saw some big bowls of candy just left out on the step for help-yourself trick-or-treaters. There is an idea.

It was a good time for our family. And when we picked Grace up, she had a big bag full of candy, and a wagon full of non-perishable food items for the Salvation Army's Food Shelf. These girls had split their time between candy and a service project. This idea had never even occurred to me. I was so proud of them.

Happy Day to all. Oh, one more thing. For a Minnesota Halloween, we couldn't have asked for more. The day was probably in the low 60s. It was beautiful.

Now I need to pack up all this Halloween stuff and get ready for Thanksgiving.

A Slither

2008-10-31T07:58:00.000-05:00

Gertie is killing me this morning. She's got a sliver, which she is obsessing about all the time. It hurts, but she doesn't want me to touch it. Every once in a while she approaches me and says, "Mommy, don't take my slither out yet." He He He.

Halloween's on the Way

2008-10-30T13:48:00.002-05:00

Halloween is tomorrow. I think we will finally carve a pumpkin this afternoon. The weather is beautiful here, and I hope it stays that way. Gertie is a trick-or-treater in training. She's been eagerly anticipating knocking on doors and being handed a piece of candy after she says, "Trick or treat!" And she tells me many times about how she's going to look them in the eye and say, "Thank you."

Grace is going to be wearing the Alice in Wonderland costume that we paid nearly $20 for at Walmart so she could wear it in the school play in a couple weeks. At least her costume is covered. She is on the border of being too old for trick or treating. She informed me a couple weeks ago that if she did go trick or treating, she'd rather John and I didn't go, but that she just take Gertie and Ethan herself. That way she'd feel more comfortable knocking on doors and begging for candy.

Ethan has been telling me he's going as a French hobo. I am still wondering what difference there is between a French hobo, and just a hobo, but I guess we'll see. I'm not expecting much.

My Dad was here to see us last week and I have not even one picture from the visit. Very disappointing. We had a good time together all the way around. He helped me take care of some unpleasant errands and shook his head as he opened our van's hatchback. Let's just say we haven't vacuumed the van out in a while, and it needed it. He did that for us, he gassed us up. He bought fish for Ethan, which Ethan noticed right away when he came home from school. It was a good time.

The days are just whizzing by around here. Tonight John and I have our small group, which is new. I am looking very forward to that.

John finally ordered and received a new turntable to play his vinyl on. That is what I wanted to get him back on September 4th, his birthday, but I was hesitant to pick one out. I asked him to do it, and he was slow to make a decision. But now he's got one, it's hooked up and spinning often. We all like it.

And Gertie has just been a kick lately. She has got the funniest sense of humor. After all her grumpy days, I think she's finally coming into a little sweetness. I am really enjoying her.

Catching Up Again

2008-10-22T21:27:00.003-05:00

Oh, it's been so long since my last post. It seems like just a few days ago. Things have been going well for us around here. I just really do like this life.

The Phillies are in the world series this year. That is John's favorite team. He's been loyal to them since he was just a little guy. I remember when we were early married they made it to the world series and won. But that was a long time ago. We are rooting for them big time in this house.

Ethan has just finished doing his homework tonight and it is shortly after 9 p.m. He had church tonight, and we decided to let him go even though that homework wasn't done. I'm really not sure what to do with days like this. He was feeling pretty overwhelmed and on the verge of a meltdown. I knew he'd be up late, but I also thought he needed a break. I really think he has a hard time staying focused on schoolwork sometimes after a long day. He had spelling, math (tons of it) and social studies and reading. That's a big load. We settled on doing the social studies during the lunch hour tomorrow and tackling the rest tonight. I was just finishing getting Gertie into bed, way too late, by the way, but she had church too. Anyway, Ethan wanders up with a big smile and a ho-ho in one hand and a fist-full of peanuts in the other. Oh, my word. He was so glad to be finished. Conquerer. I just love that boy. But he's got to get organized....

I don't know if I hit the nail on the head with the low blood sugar, but I've been trying to make sure Gertie has a bit in her belly before each nap and so far, so good. We've had a good week, and I'm enjoying that girl. The other day I was snuggling Ethan (yes, he still likes to snuggle) and Gertie was jealous. I was telling her it was his turn. She could join us, but I wasn't ousting him. She really wanted me to herself. She fussed, and then cried, and then gave up on that. After a bit she said to Ethan, "I know, Brother, you can go over on the couch and I'll have this side of Mom." She was proposing it like it was a great deal for him. He didn't fall for that. She fussed a bit more. Finally went to sit with Dad (who is great, but obviously not as great as me) and after a bit, she said to Ethan again, "Brother, you can drive my car if you want." I just loved how she was trying so hard to coax him away. Very manipulative. He let her have me at that point. Loving brother.

My Dad is coming in the morning. I am excited to see him. I think the weather is going to be poor, but I guess we'll just have to cozy up. I'm just looking forward to having him around for a day.

And my automatic van door has been very testy for a very long time. It only sometimes works, usually when it's warm. And if it's cold out, there isn't much hope. Well, it's gotten to the point where if you have to manually open it, it is so hard. The kids can barely do it. It's really bad. I took it to our car place, and they said, it's fine. By this point the day had warmed up and it worked fine for them. Then one cold morning I was so irritated that I drove over to the car place unannounced and said, "Come out here and try to open this door. It's impossible." Well, I wouldn't recommend that tactic. Two guys come over, open the door, stare at my like I'm a psycho (which I kind of am at this point) and say, "Well, it's tough, but they usually are when you open an electric door manually like that." Very maddening. So at least another month goes by and I get so mad the other day again (not to mention that John and Gertie and I had had a lunch date before John had to go back to his office. He left us at the restaurant and Gertie was wanting a sugary donut from the buffet. I was telling her that she needed to finish her chicken first. She screamed at me! Very loudly. I just picked her up and walked out. She was screaming and kicking and fighting. Ugly. Please have sympathy for the next mom you see this happening to. It just isn't right. ) Well, I digress. I fought Gertie into the car seat knowing my next errand, Target, wasn't going to work with her in that state, so I decided to take the van to the Chrysler dealer and let them look at the door even with a screaming toddler. I was preparing to say, "Just don't mind the screaming toddler in the back seat." She actually calmed down by the time we got there. They said they knew just what to do and I could bring it in tomorrow morning. Woo hoo! I'm so excited to have this fixed. And then the icing on the cake is that they called today to tell me that we are still under a service contract (that we had no idea about) for about 400 more miles and this is a covered repair, as well as a bearing that they is--suddenly I don't know what would be wrong with a bearing, but whatever it is, they're going to fix it, and that's covered too. So now I'm racking my brain trying to think of anything else that's wrong with my van that might be covered as well. He said he'll look it over real good and fix whatever he sees. How could we have not known this? I guess I need to just be happy to have found out now.

I'm having a home date with my husband tonight. I love that guy. But he doesn't love that the date is beginning with a long and boring and unneccessary blog entry. Not really dating material. Although the Phillies and the Rays isn't really dating material either, right?

Hope your days are fine.

PPP, PPP, PPP (It's not the ABCs)

2008-10-09T14:41:00.005-05:00

We've been busy around here. Last weekend I offered to go get John's mom for a visit. John had been planning on making the drive, but he was having a hard time getting up the gumption to get going. I thought a bit of peace (even though it's staring down a long straight stretch of interstate) and a good book on tape sounded pretty good to me. I drove to SD on Saturday and back on Sunday. I worked on Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning. Football was canceled due to an extremely wet Tuesday around here. Gertie and I had Bible study yesterday morning and then Marge and I headed out to Target while Gertie napped in the afternoon. We had a long good time shopping without distractions and came home to a slightly grumpy husband who thought we were a little out of control.

Gertie has been up and down on waking up from her naps in fits. The other day I received an e-mail from a friend seeking help about a kindergartener waking in the night upset and afraid. Unfortunately I had no sage advice for her, but it did spark the idea that there are other people out in the world who may have my problems. I just googled something like "toddler wakes up screaming from nap" and found a few sites of parents having the exact same problem with their little ones. It sounded almost exactly the same, just irrational, inconsoleable crying that lasts about thirty minutes. Do you know what advice they were being given? That it might be low blood sugar. Wow. That was a new idea to me. It makes them behave that way. They suggested making sure that you feed them some good protien before they nap. I think there might be something to this for my Gertie. We try to nap her around one, but depending on what's been going on, sometimes it itsn't until three or so. At one o'clock she's just eaten lunch, but at three, it's been a while. I don't recall any pattern, but now I'll be looking for it. Yesterday she was down early after a good lunch and she woke up in a great mood. We've had a good couple of days. She is certainly headstrong, and likes to do her own thing, but I can usually coax her back to obedience by reminding her that if she doesn't obey me she'll be disciplined. And then I remind her that "she loves me and she doesn't want to disobey me."

I just got off the phone with Beth and she solved my video problems. I had tried to upload this video so many times. Then I tried youtube. I thought it never worked, but she told me to go back and look. There it was. I am so excited. I'm really not sure any of you will be. (I guess I'm hoping the grandparents will like it, but it's probably even a bit long for them.) So watch what you like, and I promise not to quiz you on it later.

It is homecoming week for the university in our old hometown. We like to go to that if we can, and I guess we can. So we are headed out again this weekend. We always have a great time and see some familiar faces. We had a homecoming parade here for the high school and lots of kids threw candy. Gertie keeps talking about the kids that threw candy at her. She wants to eat it. I guess when I write that, it doesn't sound so odd. When she says it, it makes it sound like they assailed her (but she liked it). It's raining candy. Can't beat that.

Ethan has football tonight, and I'm really hoping John's mom will join us for the "fun." It's hard to get her out. She just doesn't enjoy it much, but we like having her around.

My Girls

2008-09-30T21:26:00.000-05:00

These are a bit old, but a couple--and actually the only--pictures I took of the weekend I spent with my girlfriends a couple weeks ago. They are my oldest friends and I love these pictures.

Also, the last picture of Gertie was actually my attempt at posting a video. I'm having a heck of a time, but I am determined. I will get it on here. It's probably too long...

2008-09-28T21:25:00.000-05:00

What's Up

2008-09-23T14:55:00.003-05:00

It's been a very busy, but very pleasant day so far. Gertie and I had a grooming morning, clipping toenails and cleaning ears. Her nails had been long neglected. I don't love grooming. I actually don't hate it either. I just don't seem to take the time to do it often enough.

Then we headed out to the Nature Center here in town again for another walk with some friends. That was just plain enjoyable. I can't tell you how much my soul hungers for that connection with others. I love conversation and discussion, and I just can't seem to get enough lately. Good days.

Gertie had a great time getting absolutely filthy exploring the creek and the bugs and the sticks and such. I was thrilled to watch her digging about. The Nature Center is a museum-type place with lots of stuffed birds and smaller animals, as well as skins and bones and antlers of various animals. They have a snake and a bee hive and a few salamanders as well. It is small, but fun for kids to explore. And then the bulk of the excitement revolves around a wooded area with paths and a creek running through it. It's got prairie and just lots of nature to explore. She didn't want to go home, and when we couldn't check out the snake (that lives safely inside a big glass box) because they were closed over the lunch hour, she was quite upset and crying. We'll have to go back again soon.

Then we met John for lunch and I raced Gertie home for a quick nap before we begin the race that is Tuesdays at our house.

I am really wanting to get a video of Gertie (and maybe the kids that don't change quite so quickly as well). I promise to do that soon.

I am working the rest of this week...

Answered Prayers

2008-09-20T22:35:00.003-05:00

I'm very tired and I'm not doing the math, but I think it's been two nap days since that post and both awakenings have gone very well. Yesterday I was gone, and John said there was minimal fussing because I was gone, but there were no tantrums and all went well.

Today, again I was gone, but she wandered downstairs and was in a great mood. Everybody cheered her on and made a big, big deal about how nice it was that she was so happy when she woke up.

I just can't believe that once I finally put this out for all to see she does a 180. Thanks for prayers. God is good, good, good. Even to me!

I Love Gertie, really, I do.

2008-09-17T18:12:00.002-05:00

Gertie continues to wake up from EVERY nap screaming and crying. She is irrational and uncooperative. I just don't know if I can put on paper (or, uh, the internet) how incredibly frustrating and exhausting this is.

Today: Wakes up screaming for Mom. John goes up and she'll have nothing to do with him as he tries to bring her downstairs, calm her down, but evenutally gives up, leaving her screaming in her room. John and I are just discussing what to do because this is becoming an ugly routine. She starts screaming for Dad. He goes and brings her down, telling me that she's going to calm down. Her face is blotchy and red, she can't regulate her breathing yet, and she clings to me, still whimpering. I sing a bit to her, and she tells me, don't say that. I ask her if she'd like something to eat. She starts crying. She's not hungry. She doesn't want a banana. She wants a banana. I take her in my arms to get the banana. She wants to peel it like a monkey. Mind you, all of these comments come out in on-the-verge-of hysterics cries. She takes three bites. She doesn't want any more fruit. I want Cheerios. I place her in her chair to set her up, and she's still screaming at me. She needs a drink. I've had it. I take her up to her bed and she screams up there for a few minutes. She tells me she's going to calm down, so she is allowed to come down. I sit her back in her chair as she whimpers for her drink, then her Cheerios. She eats. She watches Dora.

That was ten minutes ago. Now she is cheerfully talking of going to church and how she wants to go to her class. Go figure. And, heeelp meeeee, please.

Rocking Horse

2008-09-12T19:08:00.002-05:00

I
I realize I've been a little short on pictures lately. These are of the kids playing on the rocking horse we picked up off the curb in front of our neighbors' house. Have you ever picked up someone's trash from the curb? In my part of the country it is kind of an understood thing that if you put something out on the curb you are hoping that someone will consider it a valuable treasure and take it off your hands, that way you don't have to pay to dispose of it. I think our neighbors have moved by now. There is no car there ever anymore, and for a couple weeks before they moved they were frequently placing things out at the curb. We have another set of neighbors that snatched up most everything, which is just fine with me. But the other night Grace spotted the rocking horse and raced over to check it out. She hollered over to me that it was in good shape, and I hollered back to go ahead and bring it home. Real classy.

Now I have a huge rocking horse sitting in my living room. The kids love it. Gertie keeps taking her babies for rides on it. Ethan is a crazy man on it. But what am I going to do with this big rocking horse? I am thinking after a bit, maybe it will be on my curb.

As for other goings ons, we are in the full swing of school. We are all adjusting well to the fall schedule, racing from here to there and there to here. Ethan starts football tomorrow morning, and he's excited about that.

I've been doing laundry all day. Lots of it. John told me this morning he's got no clean underwear. Well, now he does. Ethan told me this morning that he was wearing his last clean pair of pants. Not anymore. The kids are on the trampoline, and John has built a bon fire for s'mores. It is a good family Friday night. (Except that I'm in here blogging, but that's about to change.) All my chicks are in the nest.

As for me, I'm off to Sioux Falls to visit my girlfriends this weekend. I don't know what we're going to fill our time with, but it will most certainly be girly-girl things that our husbands won't much enjoy doing with us. These are my oldest and dearest friends, and I am really looking forward to it.

Quotable Quotes

2008-09-04T08:41:00.003-05:00

Gertie keeps saying a few things that I want to make sure I write down. I can't recall if I've mentioned them before, so sorry if I'm repeating myself.

First is the rhyming. She is rhyming everything. I love you bove you. There is the school pool. I want a cracker tacker. Rhymes everywhere.

Then she is telling me I'm the favorite mom in the whole world. And Dad is the favorite dad in the whole world, and so on. And it seems to be required after she says it that I say it back for her. You are the favorite Gertie in the whole wide world. If I don't say it back, she repeats it in an angry way until I fall in.

The biggest repeater is "Mom, I love you and I don't want to disobey you." She says this all the time. All the time. Not after she disobeys me. Just when she's sitting on your lap or crying because she's "really sick."

Just a quick post.

School Days

2008-09-02T14:42:00.003-05:00

This morning I got up early with Grace and we ate breakfast on the porch. It was a dark and windy morning, although it has still produced no rain. The kids went to school, first Grace on her bike, then Ethan on the bus.

Grace has little lists posted about the house:

eat breakfast
don't forget cello book
gym bag

She is definitely a list maker. She also isn't very tidy, so I find them laying about. I enjoy them. It is fun to see what is on her mind. She was ready so early, but that was good because she helped me out a bit in packing Ethan's lunch and got off to school early enough to take care of a few loose ends.

Ethan was sluggish. He went to bed early enough, but he's got a cold, or allergies. I am never quite sure. I almost considered keeping him home. He was planning on riding his bike, and I was going to take Gertie to join him, but Gertie was a sleepy head this morning, so he was faced with a lonely ride to school. At the last minute he opted for the bus. I am glad because I don't completely trust his ability to not be hit by a car. He watches for traffic 90% of the time, but every once in a while I catch him dart out into the street without even glancing sideways. We have charted a very low traffic route to school, but one of the streets is now under construction, so he'd have to take the busier street. It was a good day for the bus.

Gertie has had a great morning. She still comes to me occasionally saying that she is really sick or would I love her for a minute, but overall, this morning, she played on her own some, she was happier, she ate well and has been drinking a bit. I was able to get a lot of laundry done, some phone calls (even a fun one with sister Beth) and many errands run. We had a good day.

I just finished putting scalloped potatoes and ham in the crockpot. Pray for good food. Dinner is usually John's forte, but he's working all day in Albert Lea today, and won't be home in time to fix anything. I thought I could help with this burden. I just don't cook much, so I haven't tried this recipe. I'm sure it will be delicious, though, right?

It has been a good first day of the usual school-day routine. I am not the mom that is so anxious for summer to be over to get my kids out of my hair. I actually like having them around, but around now I do get anxious to get the show on the road. I want my "normal" days to start. And they have.

The kids should be home any minute now to tell me all about their days. Well, at least Grace will...

The Long Story Long

2008-08-31T11:05:00.003-05:00

If I had read a post like that I'd be checking in, so I felt I better update. Although, it is Labor Day weekend, so maybe many of you won't read this until I've already caught you up. So for my memory bank as well, here is the story:

Yesterday when Gertie woke up from her nap John saw a big bright red drip of blood on her lip. We looked in her throat and could see some blood and a big bright red spot in the back of her throat. We knew we'd need to take her in, but the blood didn't continue to come out her mouth, and we were trying to determine if we could take her to the urgent care here in town, or head to Mason City where the ENT doctor has his practice. I tried to call the triage nurse, but I got voice mail, so we had decided to just head to Mason City. As we were walking out the door, the nurse from our local hospital called back and assured me that they could determine whether we needed to head down to the ENT or if they could handle it here. So we changed gears and decided to go to the local urgent care. A very long two and a half hours later they told me that I needed to go to Mason City, and would I like to ride in the ambulance or drive myself? I opted for our own ride, so I collected John and Grace (Ethan is visiting Cousins Hunter and Tate) and we drove down to Mason City.

Things moved much more quickly while we were there. The doctors made a decision that they'd like to remove the blood clot and stop the bleeding. Gertie didn't even cry when they put the IV in her wrist. She is so brave and I am so proud of her. The nurse gave her a bunch of stickers and she immediately stuck them all over her lower arm. They were lots of dime-shaped stickers of the Disney princesses and they were headed in for surgery. John and Grace left for some much needed dinner, as it was 8:30 or so by then. I was able to stay with her as we walked toward the operating room, and left her only as they walked her into the operating room doors.

When the doctor came out he told me that she is quite a trooper. She did great. They found a couple veins that were trickling, but nothing that was gushing blood. That was good. They cauterized the whole area, I think he said, and it would be extremely rare for this to occur again. He kept us in the hospital overnight. The nurse on staff was great. Gertie slept pretty well after I finally insisted on turning Snow White off the television at 11 p.m. I couldn't believe she was still awake. I figured she'd be so tired after that long day, but she was mesmerized by the movie. What she really wanted was something to eat, and the nurse gave her a popsicle. She kept insisting that she wanted another one that was purple, but the nurse said no. She needed to go easy after the anesthesia.

The doctors came in before 7 a.m. and woke Gertie up by basically sticking a big popsicle stick down her throat, and that didn't go over very well, but they said everything looks good and she can go home.

Since home she's been very clingy, a little spacy, and hungry. I am trying to be very careful about what I give her to eat, but she's going after the popsicles again. She has a bit of a fever, but I believe that's pretty normal. Nothing to worry about unless it's up to 102 degrees.

John seems to think she needs some Disney movies now. He is on that errand. It was making us remember Grace when she was about Gertie's age, shouting at me as John and I were having a serious discussion about something, "Don't say that about my father. He's not crazy. He's a genus!" We both looked at her and realized that that was a line straight out of Beauty and the Beast (except for the "genus" for genius part). That was the beginning of Grace's acting career, reciting everybody else's lines as well as her own.

I am hoping for a nap this afternoon, a long one. I think we're all exhausted.

Prayer Request

2008-08-30T20:42:00.003-05:00

Please pray for Gertie. I realize many of you won't read this in a timely fashion, but I'm making my pleas. She is in surgery right now because of a blood clot that formed in her throat. The doctor feels that the best thing to do is to remove the clot and cauterize the source of the bleeding. I think we're looking at an overnight in the hospital again, but I'm not absolutely sure.

Please pray that they easily find the source, that they are able to stop the bleeding, that she tolerates the anesthesia well (she did great with the tonsillectomy), that her mom isn't overtaken with fear, that we can be a comfort to Gertie as she recovers again.

Just Call Me the Nurse

2008-08-26T21:16:00.002-05:00

I kept thinking something blogworthy would pop up to post about, but I have nothing, so I'll post anyway.

We are in recovery mode around here. Gertie is doing well in the sense that she's had no complications. I think her throat hurts quite a bit. She isn't eating all that well, although, she is eating, so that's good. But she wants a lot of different things, and tries to eat them, and then decides she's done after a bite or two. As the enabling parent, my excuse is that I want her to eat something, so I keep it coming. She wants peaches. I get peaches. She eats two bites and then she's done. Five minutes later she wants pudding. I get pudding. That is a one-bite snack, and then she's done. First she makes a mess of her face and arms and chair, then she's done. Then she wants a cheese taco. That she mostly eats. Then she wants a gogurt. Two bites. Then she wants a bagel, but I say no. Then she wants a bowl of Kix. Again, I say no. I'm ready for bed. Time for bed.

And when it comes to drinks it's almost just as comical. Again, because I'm trying to get her to drink a quart of liquid a day (and she's not doing it) I keep the fluids coming. The last few days she carries around a chocolate milk and a juice and sometimes a water. When she snuggles with me--which is almost all the time--she needs both drinks, both in her lap. Of course, she rarely takes a drink from either of them, but she needs them close. In her lap.

What she does like is popsicles. She eats them in the morning, afternoon and evening, one after the other.

She is whining again an awful lot. I feel bad because I know she isn't feeling well. She tells me many times in the day that she isn't doing very well. She comes to me often and says, "Will you love me for a minute?" So I feel sorry for her and I've had many adults tell me they had their tonsils out and they remember it, either from being an older child or even an adult, and it really hurts and it takes a long time to heal up.

So I am creating many, many bad habits that I'm praying we are able to break when the time comes. I am neglecting so many things that need to be done because she must be in my arms most of the day, and if I do go off to do something, she becomes desperate for me. I am trying to remain patient.

And then I really rode Grace and Ethan hard today. They were very helpful and did lots of chores for me. When we were cleaning the bathroom, Grace kept complaining about being freezing. I said, we'd better take your temperature. We did. It was high. So I've been keeping her going all day and she doesn't feel well either. I don't know what her virus is. She seems okay other than this fever. She did say she's tired, though.

John is teaching two back-to-back three-hour classes on Tuesdays this year, and he's doing that about 45 minutes away from us. He just got home, exhausted, and I'm going to greet him.

The Medical Chart

2008-08-23T07:58:00.005-05:00

My prayers were answered, and Gertie's surgery went very well. She was scared when they carried her off. I had prepared her for them rolling her away on a little bed, and she many times was telling Dad and me the story of how the people in masks and hats are going to come in and roll her away on a bed.

But when the time came, they just took her from my arms. They were in scrubs, but most of them didn't wear masks, only hats. They said it would take about 45 minutes. I felt like that time flew by. I don't think it could have taken that long. The surgeon said that her tonsils were pretty big, and her adenoids not as big, but the surgery went well and she's waiting in recovery. She'll probably be in there for about an hour. They'll come get you. It must have been about 20 minutes later that they said she was asking for me. And it was a long walk through the halls until I reached her. When I saw her she was kind of sleeping and little bottom lip was sticking like she was sad (because she was). I climbed into bed with her and she cried for a minute, and then she'd fall back asleep and then wake up and grab me as she cried out. That went on for a bit and then they wheeled us up to the hospital room.

She had no vomiting or nausea that we could tell. She drank right away and ate popsicles. At lunch time they brought her a clear liquid diet of jello, broth and juice. She ravenously went at all of it. Just one bite after another. She said, "Something else."

Grace and Ethan were in the hospital room by the time Gertie and I arrived. Grace really wanted to be there, so John had dropped them off on his way to work. They both did really really well in the room. Gertie didn't seem to want their hugs or affections for the most part. She just wanted mom. That made both of them a bit sad, but I told them not to take it personally. Ethan was going a little stir crazy after a bit. He was tossing the stuffed elephant around and stuffing his arms and legs and trunk into his body. That made Gertie mad. Lots of things he was doing were making her mad. Not really mad, but just irritated. My friend Regina came with a Sponge Bob painting and coloring book. That was a big hit. She had lots of goodies for Gertie, including stickers. That kept Gertie busy for a good while, and I was thankful for all of it. (Thanks, Regina) Then she took the big kids off for lunch. That was great too. A big help to quiet the room down for a bit. And they brought back some books that were great for passing the time as well.

John came over after he was done with work, and she was very happy to see him.

One of the nurses brought her a stuffed kitty cat. She really clung to that. A friend from church brought a zoo book with flaps for her to turn up. That was a huge hit considering we just went to the zoo not too long ago.

Any time food was mentioned she cried out that she wanted whatever it was. We quickly learned not to discuss food. By dinner time I asked if she could eat something, anything. They said as long as it was soft, so she had mashed potatoes and gravy, chocolate milk, cottage cheese, peaches and pudding. She ate ravenously again. It tired her out pretty quickly, though.

I think it was because we were just there for observation, the nurses weren't in and out too terribly much. They would check her vital signs every couple of hours and give us pain meds when we asked for them, but when we went to sleep, they really left us alone. That was nice. Gertie slept fitfully. She woke up several times crying out, but it was in a sleepy state, and she'd roll over and fall right back to sleep.

By morning she said she had no pain, although she was still a little irritable and clingy, so I think she had some, but not too bad. At one point the doctor told her that she wanted to look in her throat, but she needed to go get the light first. She left the room and Gertie said, "Mom, I don't want to do it, but I have to, right?" She is getting an early understanding of how doctors get their cooperation reluctantly. They said she was doing great and we went home around 9:30 a.m., I think.

Well, I hope this wasn't too dull. I wanted to remember this as it went down. Thanks for all your prayers. Thanks to my Lord, my faithful Lord.

Excuse my French

2008-08-20T15:24:00.004-05:00

Last night Gertie and I were reading before bedtime. She had chosen this book that a college student of John's had given to Grace. It shows pictures of so many different things and gives the French word as well as the English.

Anyway, we came upon a picture of a hamburger and I asked Gertie what that was. She immediately said, "That's a crabby pattie!"

Some of you may not be surprised. Some of you may know that that is a common term from Sponge Bob Square Pants. But I just couldn't believe that my daughter identifies a burger by relating it to a Sponge Bob prop. I did wonder if she'd know what a burger was. We do eat them--a lot--in the summer, but we just cut up a few burger bites for her with no bun, so I wasn't sure we'd ever called them hamburgers to her.

It struck me that my older kids, when they were younger, would have had no clue about crabby patties. I turned my nose up at Sponge Bob and we didn't watch it. But now Gertie knows the Simpsons and Sponge Bob and many other things that aren't appropriate for her.

And the worst offender is John. I think he prefers Sponge Bob to Dora, and he definitely prefers the Simpsons to Little Einsteins. There is no hope for me!

And in other happenings, both John and Grace are sick now. The bug has made it's way to everyone except me. Please don't find me. I have a call into the doctor to make sure we should still be going forth with surgery in the morning with the bug floating around our home. Gertie is feeling fine, and this bug started with her. She's long over it.

And the nurse just called. We're good to go. Bright and early...

Zoo Pictures

2008-08-19T16:41:00.000-05:00

Catching Up

2008-08-17T19:38:00.002-05:00

Once again, I find myself putting this off. I'm not sure why. I think maybe it's just too much to say.

We had a very fun family vacation:

Chapter 1: Work Before Play

We decided to head over to John's Mom's house for the first leg of our trip instead of the end. She was having a garage sale and it was one week to moving day. I was very concerned about arriving with three kids and being "helpful," but it all worked out. John was able to accomplish a few tasks that she wanted done around the house. I helped pack up the rest of the kitchen and haul some things over to the apartment.

The apartment is really nice. It is big and clean and new and nicely laid out. I think she'll fit nicely in there, and the laundry and mail are close to her apartment. She is excited about settling in.

Her sale went very well, and she got rid of most of the bigger things. Some of the smaller nick-knacks and dishes and things didn't sell, but those were and easy trip to the good will, I believe. What didn't sell, we stuck out on the curb and prayed somebody would come along and take it. They did. All of it. Marge's sister Susie and her husband Larry ran the sale, they did a good job and stuck it out until the end.

I talked to Marge a few days before her move and she told me that her house sold. Apparently a woman of about 70 years old and her son have been looking for a home. They showed up at an open house that Marge's realtor was giving for another home. They started talking and telling her what they were looking for, and she thought Marge's house was perfect. They looked at it and made an offer. Things are falling into place beautifully and Marge feels the hand of her Savior over the whole situation.

Chapter 2: All Work and No Play Makes John a Dull Boy

When we left South Dakota we headed down to Omaha to the Henry Dorley Zoo. This has been a favorite place for us for several years, and I have to say, this year was definitely no letdown. Gertie has reached the perfect age to be so excited about all the animals, and the big kids (and the biggest kids) really enjoyed the animals as well. We spent the whole day, the weather was perfect, just a bit overcast to keep the hottest sun away, but no rain.

We also stayed in a hotel the night before and swam and swam and then all snuggled into bed together and watched the Olympics until the wee hours of the night. Just a good family day.

After the zoo we spent the night with our friends Brett and Dawn. They are a groovy couple sans kids, but they always make us feel so welcome. We played a yard game where you toss two golf balls on a string and hope they wrap around one of three bars. I can't seem to remember the name of it, but it was fun. Gertie fell asleep on the way home from the zoo, I transferred her into a bedroom, and she didn't wake up until 6:15 the next morning. That was very early, but I was just glad she slept through the night.

We were sort of planning on hitting Adventureland on the way home, but we were a bit exhausted after the zoo day, and we kept imagining Gertie watching the big kids ride rides and getting mad that she couldn't, and we kept imagining standing in line for twenty minutes to ride for three over and over again. We decided to table that and wait for an opportunity to take in a place like that without Gertie. Or wait for another year. I know there would be rides for her, but there is such a disparity between her and her sibs that I think it'd be better to wait.

We did stay in a hotel again, though, and had a great time. We checked out several hotels and I wasn't happy with any of them. I complained that the pool was too small. I wanted a suite. It wasn't clean enough. I got grumpy and pouty so John drove down the road and we found a new patch of hotels that were the same, but cost $40 more. That will teach me. I took a nap and felt much better, and my gracious husband didn't hold it against me. We swam and swam again, and Gertie is really starting to enjoy the water. She was putting her face under, floating around on her floatie by herself, and jumping into the water by the time we left. Ethan still likes me to watch everything he does. I am supposed to rate it. How big was the splash? What would you give me for that dive? How long does it take me to get from here to there? But I loved it all. It was all good.

Chapter 3: An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

I took Gertie into the emergency room on Friday night. She woke up from her very long nap crying and clinging and super hot. When I'd ask her if her ears hurt or her throat hurt, she said no, my chest. Then there were a couple times she was crying inconsolably. She didn't have a cold or stuffy nose or anything like that, so the chest pain was worrying me, and the fact that I couldn't calm her down. I arrived at Urgent Care at 8:20 p.m. The sign on the door said they're open until 8:30. I thought, phew, I just squeezed in. But apparently not. They put us in the emergency room. Her fever was over 103 and the chest pains might have been what did it, or they just wanted to go home in the Urgent Care department. I'm not sure. It just costs me a lot more money because of that decision. And the doctor said virus. He doesn't think that will interfere with her tonsillectomy on Thursday. I hope not. She has her pre-op appointment tomorrow morning.

And now Ethan has the bug. Ugh.

Chapter 4: Give Thanks with a Grateful Heart

This morning the girls and I went to church. I was so blessed to be there. I just love my church family and praising God and worshiping God. The sermon was good to think on about how we as Christians reach out to the people in our world. In so many ways we aren't that good at it. We need to really love on the unlovable. I have a long way to go in this area, but I want to grow.

Pictures later. I just don't have it in me right now.

My Brand New Bed

2008-08-04T14:47:00.004-05:00

John came home from his mother's house yesterday. It is so good to have him home again. We really missed him. Gertie bumped into a drawer last night and started crying, I walked over to comfort her and she just shoved me aside and ran to Dad. She missed those strong arms too!

He brought a van full of stuff from Marge's, which we've been tackling today. The one I want to talk about is a new bed for Gertie. We took the crib down this morning and set up the new bed, rearranged the room a few times, and finally settled on a placement. Gertie was excited as we made the bed up, but then we went down to eat lunch.

I've been trying to restore order to the house (which sometimes seems to create chaos first) by settling so many things John brought back into their homes. Pretty soon I noticed that Gertie was nowhere to be found. That can't be good. That just doesn't happen with her. She doesn't get into too much trouble that way because she seems to really like the company of others more than she likes exploring. But still, I was a bit concerned.

Then I found her asleep in her new bed. I had been sorting some clothes and reorganizing, and I had left a small pile on her bed of things that needed to be hung up. She found them, and dressed herself up before she fell asleep.

I am so excited that she likes that new bed so much! I am hoping that it will go okay, this transition between crib and bed. I remember Ethan just didn't understand he could leave his bed for the longest time. When he'd wake up, he'd yell out, "Mom, I'm awake." I never really clued him in because I was afraid he'd start getting up whenever he wanted to. Hopefully Gertie will be so cooperative.

In other news, Ethan had lost his retainer on Thursday night. We looked everywhere and couldn't find it. He's been incredibly faithful with that thing, and I figured it must be here somewhere. I kept trying to get him to retrace his steps, to think back to the last place he had it and he had nothing to offer:

Mom: Where did you put it when you took it off?
Ethan: (absolutely no thoughtful pause) I don't know.
Mom: Did you take it off before breakfast?
Ethan: Yes.
Mom: What did you do after breakfast?
Ethan: (absolutely no thoughtful pause) I don't know.

After a bit, Grace recalls that while she was taking her contacts out before we went to the pool, Ethan came in and made some sort of joke while flashing his retainer. So we know he had it then.

Mom: Do you remember telling Grace that joke?
Ethan: Yes.
Mom: What did you do next?
Ethan: (absolutely no thoughtful pause) I don't know.

After this goes on for a while, I really do start to get irritated. I tell him that if he is uncooperative, maybe he'll buy the next retainer with his savings.

He mopes about the house for a while, and as I'm tucking him in, he asks me if a person can create their own nightmares. I say I'm not sure, but why? Because I want to die in my sleep. I'm such a failure. Blah. Blah. Blah.

That just made me even more mad. Now he wants to end his life because of a lost retainer?!? An hour ago he didn't seem quite so distraught. I told him that he's going to have failures in life a lot bigger than a missing retainer, so he needs to prepare for that, and that God has numbered his days already and he better not mess with God's plans. I did say some nice, encouraging things too...

This happened Thursday night, and we had an orthodontist appointment already scheduled for today. When we told the orthodontist what happened, he said that he didn't think we should replace it. His mouth needs to have a little give to let his incisors grow in, so we'd better just skip it. I said I'm worried about those teeth getting real crooked again, and he said they will probably give a little, but if he'd continue to wear the retainer, then the incisors would probably come in real high and forward, so it's just a matter of balance. He's probably going to need braces again in a few years anyway, to correct all his teeth.

Then we were off to the eye doctor. Ethan's eyes are a bit weak, but he still doesn't need glasses. Grace's eyes just continue to get worse. Ugh.

Prarie River...and some other Catch-up

2008-08-03T17:57:00.003-05:00

Hey! It's been a while. I thought i'd talk mostly. I haven't taken pictures in forever.

To start my week... i babysat the Moreland kids on Monday. we had good fun, except the 0.7 mile walk to Ellis and back (Ellis is the middle school I attend which serves free lunches to kids under 18). did i mention me and Ethan had to switch between a wagon with a 22 lb. Toddler and a 5 year old, and a stroller with a 30 lb toddler uphill? On the upside... we saw two baby racoons on a driveway and stood to watch them for about 3 min. that was cool.

Tuesday i had a cello lesson at 9:00 am, but other than that i relaxed.

Wednesday I watched the kids again, and a little later i went to the doctor. 3 shots. OUCH!! Only one hurt later though. It got swollen and sore with a slight redness on friday, but it's normal again now.

Thursday i was planning to go to work with mom... but as you know she finished early so i couldn't. I watched Gertie while she went and cleaned her office. Then we relaxed.

Friday the kids came again. in the afternoon we went to the pool in a nearby town (much more little kid friendly than our pools) And then immeadiatly when we got home i head off to a one night work and fun camp. Basically, we had some fun friday night and roasted marshmellows. However I was up till midnight and got up at 7:00. Then i helped haul some tables and cleaned some garbage cans and a fridge. Then I weeded untill lunch then after lunch for a total of 4 and a half hours of weeding. Then we walked down a river and found a mailbox, and a TV. Adriel (going into her Senior year of college) decided to try some raw clam meat somebody found. I don't even want to talk about it. finally we went on a climbing wall and a zipline. Lots of fun but the harness was very uncomfortable. When I got home I was SO TIRED!!! but now, i'm just kinda chillin.

Sorry no pictures. I was very busy as you can see.

Prize-Winning Cabbage

2008-08-02T12:41:00.007-05:00

At the end of school last year Ethan brought home a little cabbage plant in a styrofoam cup. He had a sheet of paper that explained that if he grows this cabbage and takes a picture of it when it's all grown up, he'll be put in a drawing for a $1000 prize.

I don't think it necessarily has to be the best cabbage or the biggest cabbage. It is just a completed and good-looking cabbage.

We cut it this morning. It is huge. It is 11 pounds! Really, I'm not the master gardener. I don't quite know how many of the leaves to peel off before we get to the real head. His may be smaller if I knew that. It's very oval shaped.

Now what do I do with this cabbage? If anyone has any recipe ideas, please let me know. The gal that cuts my hair said she stir fries it. That doesn't sound too bad, but I already can't remember what she stir fried it with.

And this is my little cabbage. She didn't want to be left out.

I Ran the Race.

2008-07-31T23:55:00.002-05:00

I am done working! We had a jury trial scheduled for the rest of this week, but the guy decided to plead guilty, so now I'm home again. Yippeee.

I found this out yesterday, so I raced home and took Grace to the doctor. She had to get shots. Then this morning I needed to go back to tie up loose ends and gather my things. I left home, and as I was driving they were talking about a very bad storm heading our way. The kids were by themselves for just a couple hours until the sitter would arrive. I was worried about them and called home as soon as I got to work. It all worked out, and the storm wasn't too terribly bad where we are.

We had a good day, and ended it with a swim in the pool and movie afterward. It was fun. Gertie went to bed well.

She is getting her tonsils taken out on the 21st of this month. They really don't look good, and I thought the ENT might recommend this, and he did. They want to keep her in the hospital overnight since she's so young, but it's pretty routine. I'm trying to be a big girl about the whole thing. I can do this.

John is at his mom's house trying to help her prepare to move. I miss him.

I'm sleepy and I need sleep. ZZZzzzzz....

Corrections

2008-07-28T06:29:00.002-05:00

I've been having a hard time with this Blogger. I don't know if it's Blogger, or it's me. It's probably me. But I was posting pictures, and they were showing up and looking fine, and then I'd go back later and they'd be gone. And then I was having a hard time uploading pictures into Blogger. This morning I finally got it all straightened out, but if you've checked in in the last couple days, please go back and look at my pictures to make sure you saw all I wanted you to see. I'd hate to have you miss out on some really cute kids.

Would You Swear or Smile?

2008-07-27T19:58:00.001-05:00

And one important note: Spaghetti is not on the menu.

You're Outta Here

2008-07-27T08:22:00.003-05:00

Can you tell I'm in a collage sort of mood? Ethan's baseball season came to an end this week. I love watching that kid play. And these are some memories.

2008-07-26T17:58:00.001-05:00

I had to get this one on here as well. This was some more of the fun from the Jazz Fest with the Morris Family. Good memories.

Jazz Fest '08

2008-07-26T17:48:00.005-05:00

I know too much time has passed. When the time gets away, it is harder to sit down and recall with any sense that you're holding the attention of anyone reading, but I'm going to try. Last weekend we went over to Sioux Falls for the Jazz Festival. My social calendar hasn't been so full in a long time. I had a very fun time with my husband and children on Friday night. We had arrived in Sioux Falls at about 4 p.m., I think. We checked into our hotel, let the kids jump in the pool, grabbed some dinner at the Cracker Barrel, then headed over to the show. The kids had a lot of fun watching the crowds and enjoying the music. John took the kids up close to dance around a bit and Gertie came back reporting that she "stood in line" with Dad for a while. We were there until midnight. It was way too late, but well worth it.

We switched hotels the next day. We found one with a water park that was very reasonably priced. We checked in just in time for Gertie to take a very long and much needed nap, and the kids put on their suits and swam all afternoon.

My best friend from high school brought a couple of her boys over and we got to sit by the pool and watch them run around and go down the slides as we caught up with each other. It was so fun to see her and her kids. Her son Jacob is starting to look so much like her.

And then after we ate some dinner together, John and I took our kids back over to Jazz Fest again for another dose. We were going to meet Ethan's great friend from school that had moved away a couple (boy, does time fly) years ago. He was so excited to see Marisa, and I loved watching them meet up again. They looked like they wanted to give each other a big hug, but they restrained themselves. They had a good time catching up while we got to visit (as much as you can while music is blaring) with her parents. It was good to see them again. We were up and down and over there and back again so much that the time flew by and it was time to get home before I knew it. There was no room for another midnight journey home again.

It's a Wrap

2008-07-24T07:10:00.002-05:00

Just to continue my embarrassment, last night after Ethan's last baseball game of the season his team went to Taco John's. His coach is a police officer. He came over to the table some of us adults were sitting at, including me and the coach. He rattled off our story in a very confusing manner, ending with asking his coach to write Gertie a ticket. Then I felt like I had to explain the situation, which was VERY embarrassing, although he was very kind.

Yesterday I worked a very short day, so John and the kids drove up to Rochester with me and we shopped for a bit. Basically, we only went to Sam's Club, where I looked again for my chai tea and they still don't have it. I can't recall if I told you all the I joined Sam's Club about a month ago, paid my $35, so that I could get my hands on this fake chai tea powder drink mix that I like so much. I had been asking a friend from church to pick some up for me whenever she went. I was starting to feel a little cheesy doing that, so I thought I'd better pony up and get a membership. John hates it, because he hates WalMart, but I NEEDED that tea. So I pay my membership, head in to pick up my tea, and they don't have it. I was so upset. I wandered aimlessly for a bit, but I was very disappointed. Now yesterday, still no tea. It can really ruin a girl's day. I can still taste that tea!

Up and Down

2008-07-22T20:27:00.003-05:00

We were supposed to have jury trials today and they all settled!
I ate my leftover salad at lunch for the second day in a row, which wouldn't be so bad except that the salad wasn't that good the first day.
I got great bargains when school supply shopping with Grace.
I fell down the stairs when trying to race out the door to Grace's cello lesson. My arms were full of library books and Gertie. My knee hurts, but other than that, we're okay.
We were only four minutes late to Grace's lesson.
I got pulled over by a police officer on my way to pick Grace up from her lesson.
She didn't give me a ticket!

And as a side note, when the police officer took my license back to her car, I was explaining to Ethan that I had been speeding, I shouldn't have, and I was going to get a ticket. He was asking some more questions as Gertie started saying, "I want a ticket. I want a ticket." When the police officer came back to my window carrying only my driver's license and no ticket, I was thanking her, and she was walking away, Gertie was starting to cry that she wanted a ticket. If I'd had more time, I would have asked the officer to oblige--for Gertie, I mean.

The Duct Tape Purse

2008-07-14T11:35:00.002-05:00

I should let Grace create her own post about her birthday party. I just wanted to say that the duct tape purses turned out pretty well. But that was all they did. It took forever. I finally gave up, with some last-minute instructions to help them out (as if I know what I'm talking about) before I went up to bed. I said, if I'm still awake you may ask me a question, but if I'm asleep you may not wake me up.

I never heard another peep from them. The last I knew they had the Newsboys blaring in our living room, and they were hovered over a table full of folded duct tape. I fell asleep to awake at 4:26 a.m. with a start because I wondered if they got them done.

It is such a strange and ridiculous thing that I want to feel so needed (or important) that I almost got out of bed a 4 a.m. just to check on the scene. As I was falling asleep I had said to John, you're in charge now. Grace and I had agreed on bedtime around midnight. He was now the enforcer.

I don't know if I'm saying it right, but I just couldn't believe it was now 4 a.m. and nobody had needed me all night. They got settled into bed on their own, they apparently ate junk food on their own, without my setting limits, they completed the purses on their own. I guess the world still spins when mothers sleep.

I did inspect the area when I did get out of bed at 7 a.m. It looked good. They had opened up the bag of chips, but tucked it neatly away in the kitchen. They had cleaned up the duct tape mess and the table was clear. The one purse I found looked very good. I'm not sure if it was Grace's or another's, but I approve.

Saturday Night

2008-07-12T21:49:00.002-05:00

I just tucked the kids in. I just love those kids. It's way too late, almost 10 p.m. I am thinking about how much I've loved spending time with them over this last week, and how I will be going back to work on Monday. I can't wait until this stretch is over. I'll be happy to spend my days with my kids and husband again.

Gertie has been calling things "stuffses," as in, "Mommy, throw those stuffses into the water and I'll pull them out." I love that. She is still going through some serious whining spurts, and I'm still plugging away asking her to say it again without whining, but progress is slow. It is getting better, though. I took her to the doctor yesterday because her tonsils are the size of grapes, and there are some white spots on them. The strep test was negative, so it is just a virus is the word from the doctor. Tonight I asked her if her throat hurt, and she told me no, that Dr. DeSilva made it better. It still doesn't look good. The other issue was the snorting and snoring and foaming at the mouth as she sleeps. She always sleeps with her mouth open, and she creates these foamy bubbles. She stops breathing for a few seconds pretty regularly. It is very restless. She's going to see an ENT. I'll be glad for solutions, but I am not hoping for surgery. I need to not get overly concerned yet.

Ethan is just as goofy as ever. I just have the most stereotypical kids in so many ways. I don't think he's as naughty as John was at his age, but he loves to pester his sister, or me, for that matter. I bought him a new bat yesterday. $30! That was after we'd shopped around a bit. I really can't believe they are that expensive. Anyway, he is so thankful, and telling me over and over how great I am. Today we were outside, he was hitting the ball around, and a guy from the neighbor's yard said to him as he was chasing a ball close to their yard, "You throw like a girl." I didn't hear it, but he came to me almost in tears. I am not sure that they really said that, or that they said it to him. I just don't know. I can't imagine an adult shouting that to a 9-year-old boy in his own yard. But he was really hurt by it. I kind of wanted to say something to them, ask him if he said that, ask him why, tell him how rude it was. I don't know. I also don't want to get riled up about something that isn't that big of a deal. We've had a pretty good relationship with our neighbors. They weren't outside at the time. I think they were drinking beer, which could help a person come up with a mean-spirited remark to a child. Anyway, I'm not sure why I'm writing it down. It is just on my mind.

We are preparing for Grace's birthday party. She invited six girls, and two can't come, and three can come for only part of the time--it's a sleepover. She is disappointed. I'm sure it'll be a good time for her, though. They are going to make duct tape purses, eat pizza, play Apples to Apples, jump on the trampoline with the sprinkler underneath it. I wasn't really going to make another cake, but maybe I should. I better see what she'd like.

My husband is asleep on the couch. He's not been feeling the best either. He turns his grades in on Monday, so that will be the end of his summer work. We just found out that his mom got an apartment. It opens on the 1st of August. I am so happy that she'll get out of her house. It is just that now the big job of getting her out of that house is fast approaching. It will be such a relief, though, and she is so excited. I am thinking maybe I already blogged about that. Sorry for the repeat.

Dial M for Murder is on tv. Good old movie. I think I'll sign off. Church in the morning. I've been missing it.

2008-07-10T14:40:00.007-05:00

This was one of our days at the beach. I guess I just don't feel like writing much. I can't say enough about how relaxing it was, how my spirit enjoyed visiting with family, how much I love that I'm not at work today, or the next day, or the next. This is a good week of vacation.

Oh, and one tag-a-long pic of Grandma reading to Gert. She (meaning Gertie) was a bit stand-offish much of the time, so this was a sweet moment. And Grandma soaked it up. But she always has. I have many memories of her reading to Grace and Ethan at bedtime, and it would take FOREVER. Marge really enjoys it.

2008-07-10T14:19:00.005-05:00

These are some pictures from our South Dakota vacation. We had a great time visiting with family.
John's mom lives right next to a big park with the local public pool. We went a couple times. The kids had a great time, and Aunt Lisa likes to swim even when it's not sweltering hot outside. That makes her a little more fun than mom. That is Cousin Quinn in the picture with them. Ethan and Quinn had a great time getting reacquainted.

I just thought this was a sweet picture of Quinn.

Uncle Dan bought a bunch of fireworks and we drove out into the county to set them off. It was just us and the bugs. I wish I could have captured Ethan's excitement at "blowing stuff up." He had so much fun. Gertie desperately wanted to be part of the fun, and when we let her have a sparkler, this was the look. She kept asking for more and more, but she crunched her shoulders up and always made this same worried expression.

And here is my birthday girl. She's twelve now, and seeming quite grown up. She had a fun day with swimming at the beach, lemon delight cake (thanks, Judy!) and a late-night viewing of "The Princess Bride."

ho hum...

2008-07-01T22:09:00.005-05:00

What to say, what to say?...It's been a busy week. Grace had her first summer cello lesson this week. Her teacher just graduated from high school. She hadn't met him before today. She said he is a nice guy. She said she didn't do as well as she could have during her lesson, but I'm sure she'll work on that. She really hasn't practiced since school was let out.

Ethan was hurt pretty badly at the last baseball game. He was playing catcher and as one of the hitters released the bat, he swung it loose to strike EJ in the arm. Ethan loves being catcher, though, and he made a really great play called a collision (I hope that's right) where the runner came at him pretty fast, but he was able to tag him out. Ethan said it hurt, but it was a badge of honor. This guy came and took pictures, and these are some of them...I just really like that kid.

My long vacation from work starts this Friday. We are headed back to South Dakota, and John's brother Dan and his family and his sister Barb and her hubby will be there. I am looking forward to seeing everyone and catching up. I am very much looking forward to a week of not having to go to work. And then I just have to finish out this month of July. When I review in my mind that today is only July 1, it is again seeming so far away. I'll make it! As Gertie and the Little Engine that could like to say, "I think I can. I think I can."

A funny little note on Gertie. She must have heard me call Ethan "Ethan James" too many times because she seems to think we're all named _____________ James. The other day I wasn't listening so well, and she said, "Mommy James!" And then tonight I was asking her if she was a princess or a fairy, and she said, "I'm Gertie James!" I know she's called Grace "Gracie James" as well. Funny little kid.

Verena

2008-06-22T19:52:00.001-05:00

This is my sister Beth and baby Verena. They look so much alike. I know they're both wearing orange, but really, they look just like each other. I thought these were cute pics...

And this is just one nice memory for me. We were taking an evening walk, the whole bunch of us.

Happy Birthday to Me

2008-06-20T19:00:00.004-05:00

Once again, it's been too long. I've had some things to blog about, just no time to actually sit down and do it. We'll see how this goes. Gertie is on the loose, so I'm stealing time.

My birthday. I turned 39 this year. My highlights were:

I woke up at the crack of dawn and got some cleaning done before my sister and her family arrived. I was actually loving getting things done, them staying done, and the look of an organized, clean home.
I took the kids to the park to have a play date with some other kids and see some other moms I miss. It was horribly windy, and a bit rushed, but we had fun catching up. The government has a program going on this summer again where they will provide a sack lunch for any child that shows up to pick one up at a school in our neighborhood. At first, I thought the program was a waste of our tax dollars. ANY child? Some kids don't need a free lunch. But then I started to think that it's my tax money too, and it's so convenient and FREE, so we do that every once in a while. We've been trying to get together on Fridays over lunch and let the kids play. But finally to the birthday highlight: My friend Amy shared her little dill pickles with me. I know that's ridiculous, but I am the only one in my family who likes pickles, I rarely do the shopping, so I rarely get pickles. She just kept them coming, and I just kept eating them. Yummy!
John asked me what I wanted for dinner, and I said shishkebobs (no idea how to spell that word). He made them for dinner, they were delicious. We had a delicious watermelon to go with them. I loved my birthday dinner.
My sister brought that sweet little new niece of mine to see me.
My husband and children gave me chocolate for my birthday. Lots of it. Tons of it.

So those are the things that made my day special. It was a good day.

My mom added to our crew on Saturday, and she brought my nephew Tate, whom I rarely actually saw over the whole weekend. He disappeared with Ethan and they barely popped their heads up for air. They had a great time together. My mom gave me a couple of clematis to plant along our fence for my birthday. I can't wait to watch them grow.

I often found my mama wandering out in the yard early in the mornings and at other various times throughout the weekend. I think she's chomping at the bit to get her hands in the dirt. (At least that's the way I like to look at it!) A friend had dropped off some perennials, and she helped get those in the ground, but the major project was trimming the way-overgrown hedge at the front of our house. I've hated the way that looked for so long. I love it now. We just took those huge hedges down to almost nothing. They are kind of artsy looking now, with bare stems and a little green at the top. Maybe I'll have to get a picture to show you, but it looks so much better. It was a very big job, and Beth was in there too. I love this family of mine that sweeps in and tackles these things for me. I'm very grateful.

We finally got to see Grace in South Pacific. She did great. We had front row seats, the production was over-all very nicely done. Beth had thought it was going to be a school production, but it was a community production. The singing was nice and the show was fun. John wasn't able to go with us (on FATHER'S DAY) because I had completely forgotten to try to line up a sitter. I can't believe I did that. Actually, I can. But I knew Mike wasn't going to go, he was going to stay with Verena. It was on my mental to-do list until then it wasn't. But it turned out that he went with Mike the next night, so it all worked out okay.

John and Ethan went to the college world series in Omaha in the middle of the week, with a quick side trip to see John's mom in South Dakota. We didn't hear hide nor hair of him the whole time (can you ever hear hide or hair? I don't think so.) Anyway, I know he had a great time. I wish I
could get him to blog sometime and give you the highlights.

Now we're already to our anniversary. John and I have been married for sixteen years today. I can still relive that wedding day in my mind, and I love the memories. I'm thankful for this man in my life. He's been kissing me today, and he loves me too, I just know it! We've had a good marriage and a good life. I like knowing how he ticks. I like how he takes care of us, cooking for us and shopping for us. I just love him all around. My man...

Pictures will come. I just don't have it in me right now. I've got to go.

Elephants, Chairs, Baseball, phones

2008-06-18T14:37:00.003-05:00

I thought i'd share quickly that Gertie has decided that her favorite animal is now an Elephant, without ever seeing one except in pictures, books, or maybe on TV once or twice.

Today Beth, Mike and Verena go home. Mom is working, so i put Gertie down, and it nearly broke my heart. I followed the usual routine, read a few books, put her in bed, sing a few songs. I got through reading the books, and tried to put her in bed, but she didn't want to. She wanted to sit in the chair and snuggle. it's hard for her without mom or dad (dad and Ethan went to the College World Series). i didn't have a heart to refuse. I sang to her and rocked her for about 15 minutes, till she fell asleep. Then I lifted her into her crib. i love her so much.

Just a little about dad and ethan. first they went to go help my grandma, she's moving into an apartment soon. This morning they left for Omaha. Dad called this morning around 10:00. The conversation went like this:
"Hey Grace"
"Hi daddy"
"Is your mom home"
"no, she's at work"
"oh yeah, that's right, can i have you do me a favor"
"yea sure"
"can you look up Bret and Dawn's phone number, i'm going to stay with them and don't have their number"
i gave him the number
"Thanks, bye"
"Love you dad"
"love you too, Grace"

I would've liked to talk to him a little more, after missing him for a day, but no, get the phone number and go. That's my daddy.

FLOOD

2008-06-13T05:57:00.004-05:00

Well, I woke up yesterday morning and looked out the bathroom window to see a pond where the street used to be. We had almost four inches of rain overnight, and we were looking at a flood. The neighbors all said, and I knew previously, that our house has never flooded. It is too high up. But when the water is encroaching your space, you start to worry.

This picture is the part of our yard that borders the lake. The little inlet is a staircase that leads down to a lower level of grass that stretches at least 8 feet before we enter the water on our DOCK. Thankfully, among many blessings, the dock is still there. At least the frame is. The boards actually floated away several days ago. John saw the metal poles coming up out of the water as it has receded quite a bit since this morning. You can see a couple boards of our swing on the left there. That used to be on the right side of the yard. Again, I'm thankful we didn't lose it.

This is the view I woke up to, minus the dump truck. There is usually a big grassy lot on the right of the street that the city maintains where many people come to fish and enjoy the nice summer days. That was completely under, and it spilled out into the street. The city employees worked very hard yesterday morning building up a berm with lots and lots and lots of dirt. The Creek that feeds our lake crested at around 10 a.m., so we felt we were going to be okay. And we were. Praise the Lord.

I have to say, it was a very unsettling feeling. I mean, we started trying to haul things from our basement just in case, and it is a very defeating feeling. What do you grab? It's just very overwhelming.

Austin had a huge flood like this just a few years back. Much of downtown was under water yesterday, and I'm sure they still are today. I know that some businesses had moved after the last big flood, and I'm sure they are thankful today. The ones that didn't were deep under water. One gas station was really buried. If I were a gas tank (and thankfully, I am not), the water would have been up to my neck. And that was around noon. The river flooding that area wasn't supposed to crest until 10 p.m. last night. Very sad situation.

Now on a funnier (definitely not happier) note, I wanted to share this picture of my youngest. Here is how the story goes: It was a laundry day, and we were folding up the laundry and putting it into piles on the couch. We were having a good time and working together, in the way that I had to pick up and fold everything Gertie folded. Andyway, when it came time to carry it upstairs, Gertie wanted to carry her own pile. It had severel things in it, but she is small, and her clothes are small, so I agreed. On the way up the steps she dropped a pair of panties. AND I PICKED THEM UP! That was the beginning of a major meltdown that lasted a good screaming twenty minutes. She finally got to the top of the steps and laid her head down on her pile of laundry, refusing to move--or do anything for that matter.

Well, I know from personal experience that nothing cheers you up more when you are furious than having your picture taken. So I obliged...
And I'm anxious to get my little ball player on the blog as well, but I need to work on some good pictures. He's been doing a great job this year. He is hitting with a bit more power and makes some smart plays out there. I'll get something going here soon.

New Me!!

2008-06-10T16:14:00.003-05:00

This is the new me!! For those of you who don't know, i'm in the play South Pacific, and had to look more like a native, so my hair was dyed darker and i'll be wearing makeup and tanning to look darker too. It's not a very good pic, but it's the best angle before my camera ran out of batteries.

Sorry the pic is sideways, but this is of my old hair.

Just thought all you might want to see.

Can You Smell That?

2008-06-08T17:35:00.002-05:00

You all read about my yard project, right? John bought four bags of pine mulch and threw them into the back of the van. They sat there for a while in the sun, and the bags were kind of wet, so there came to be a horrible stench in our van.

He left the back and all the doors open for an afternoon, he sprayed the car with freshener. Still, the van stinks very badly every time you get in.

Finally, the other day he told me he found the source of the smell. It was Gertie's little backpack, which had been in the van for DAYS, and which contained one sippy cup full of milk! (Or should I say cheese?)

John got everything out of the bag, washed her clothes three times before they started to smell fresh again.

And even today, as we went to church, my whole family is gagging at the rotten smell that refuses to leave our car.

Ethan, Gertie and I went to Rochester today to watch Hunter play in a baseball tournament. His team took first place, by the way, and they were very pumped up. So was my son, overjoyed for his cousin and the big win. We had a good time.

When the game was over, we decided to go for lunch. Julie wanted to ride with me. I turned on the air conditioner, but she opened the window. I said, "Are you too cold or is there some other reason?" I'm thinking she's avoiding stinking up my car. She says, "It is a smell, but not what you're thinking." It was the sour milk smell again.

It didn't even spill in the car. It just existed in the car. How long is that smell going to linger?

Rain rain go AWAY!!!

2008-06-08T14:34:00.002-05:00

It's been raining every day here since last week. I'm supposed to be on summer vacation, but it's not summer if there's no sun. It's been raining so much, all the boards on our dock floated away and it's completely underwater. GRRRRR!! Would give a pic, but it's still raining.... When will it STOP!!!!!!!!

Look, Mom!

2008-06-01T22:08:00.001-05:00

Here is a picture of my little guy mowing our very big lawn. Ethan was pretty excited (for about a day) about his newfound responsibilities. He kept telling me things he knows about mowing. I had no idea there were so many things you could know about mowing. As we pulled into the garage, he walked over to the mower telling me, "I know how to turn this on. You push on this and pull up on that. And then you lift this up when you want it to go." Well, this is information I'd like to remain in the dark about. But I'm happy for him...however, John asked him to mow again this week and he said, "No, thanks."

Okay. Are you all sick of park pictures? I just love taking them. I love taking Gertie to the park and she loves going there. This is her little friend Jaylee. I thought this picture was so cute. These girls are just weeks apart in age. Future best friends.

And here is my big project. We've had this section of our smaller, fenced in yard that the grass didn't grow so well under. It is very shaded, and the people that lived here before had a fountain or something back there that killed a bunch of grass.

So one day, I said to John, I'd like to mark that part of the yard off and turn it into a little play area for Gertie. I think it would look cool. Well, John and I historically don't do projects together very well. I think he thinks I get too bossy. i don't know what his problem is.?! Anyway, we tackled a smaller little rock garden a couple weeks ago. did I already blog about that? It turned out pretty nice, and I think it inspired us to go ahead with this one.

The people that lived here before left all kinds of stuff around--some of it was actually garbage--but some of it was this great field stone that I knew we could do something with. Then they also left about 15 or so of those stepping stone patio blocks. I still have other resources to tap into, but I'll need to work on ideas for a bit more.

The landscaping in the front of our house just looks horrible. The bushes are very overgrown, and they squish and bury other bushes that could look so pretty. We had hostas everywhere, but they were horribly placed. I knew I wanted them moved, but I just can't bring myself to dig things up for some reason. I hate that about myself, but I just worry I'll do it wrong, or I'll plant it in the wrong place.

John and I had made the border with field stone and placed the steps and laid down a bunch of mulch, I just needed to do the planting and finish the mulch.

So, enters my hero--my mother! She drove down on Saturday and I gave her a tour of the yard, telling her all my ideas, and she was telling me her ideas. We developed a plan and jumped in with four feet and four hands. I recall a gentleman walking by as we were digging up plant after plant from the front yard saying, "You're going to get rained on." Well, it was about twenty minutes later that we did get rained on. My mom said, "Don't worry about it. We're going to keep digging. " Then it started to hail! We were sopping wet. We ran into the garage. John and Gertie were standing in the doorway watching us. I'm sure she was thinking we were crazy. I know John was. But when the hail stopped after a few minutes, we headed right back out there. We dug holes. I was so happy and excited to see this project come together. I can't believe how happy those things make me.

John made us burgers for dinner. We changed out of our sopping wet clothes, ate quickly, and headed right back to it. We spread more mulch, placed some rocks, cleaned up the entire mess. We were exhausted. We could barely move. Mom read Gertie stories while I raced around trying to get everything settled for bed and then we hit the hot tub. It felt so good. I had such a good time doing that with my mom.

I can hear her saying, "Don't be careful. Don't be careful." I love watching her in the garden, because she isn't careful. She just digs it up, drops it in, steps on it a little, and moves on to the next one. My mom counted like 45 holes, including the digging up and the replanting. We were filthy and laughing and really having a great time. I am learning.

So, thanks, Mom. I love you! And I really appreciate your help.

Tug-o-War

2008-05-27T06:21:00.002-05:00

Every year at Ethan's school they have a Spring Fling fundraiser. It's my favorite one. There is no overpriced wrapping paper or frozen pizzas to buy. Just a good old fashioned fun day for these kids. This year the theme was the Oregon Trail. They got covered wagon rides, watched a rodeo demonstration on roping cows, learned to line dance (I really wish I could've seen that) and played carnival game. Oh, yeah. And the fundraising part is a walk-a-thon. They walk around the school several times.

Anyway, they always end the day with a series of tug-of-wars between the grades, and the winning class of each grade gets the traveling trophy for the year.

This is serious business for Ethan. So here he is, fighting with all his might. And, please, zoom in so you get the full effect of how hard he's working here.

But...they lost anyway.

It's Not You, It's Me

2008-05-26T08:01:00.004-05:00

I think I may have been avoiding you. I don't really want to, and I'm not sure why, but I am. I went back to work two weeks ago, and while I like it very much while I'm there, I'd rather be home. I guess I knew this before I went in, but I thought it would be a good opportunity to bring in some extra money for my family, and also help out a friend who needed a replacement after she had her baby.

It really should be getting easier this week as John is done with school now (except for preparing for his online summer class that starts in two weeks). But my Gertie is already picking John as favorite again, and that just hurts. Bad. That didn't start until the very end of this 3-month gig the last time. He must be a good daddy.

Last week was hard because both Ethan and Gertie were sick. Ethan had a bad cold that had been going on for a couple weeks. Started out as a sore throat, turned into a cough. By Monday evening he was having a coughing fit every ten minutes. Gertie woke up from her nap on Monday a little clingy, but that isn't that unusual. By Tuesday morning she had a fever but was behaving fine, but since I had made an appointment for Ethan I thought I'd have her checked out as well.

Ethan was diagnosed with a sinus infection and allergies. She put him on Zyrtec and he woke up a new boy. I just couldn't believe it cleared it up that fast. Gertie, on the other hand, was diagnosed with an ear infection. This is only her second, compared to Grace, who had many, and Ethan had a bunch too. But anyway, her week only went downhill. I stayed home from work on Tuesday and sat with her on the couch. There was no getting up (at least not without taking her with me). She seemed to get worse and worse. On Friday she was still running a temperature, and her eyes were pink and watery, runny nose, sneezing, coughing. I called the doctor and she prescribed Zyrtec for Gertie as well.

She is doing so much better. We had a pretty good weekend. We didn't go anywhere, though. In fact, Ethan came into my room on Saturday night before bed and said:

What are we going to do about Memorial Day?

What do you mean?

We always go to Yankton to the cemetery on Memorial Day.

(This is somewhat true. We go to Vermillion's cemetery to visit John's dad's grave. I tried to tell Ethan this, but he didn't believe me for quite a while.)

We just didn't get back there this year.

Why not? Is it because of the price of gas and the taxes? I saw on the news a story about the price of gas and taxes. Everybody's worried about it. Is it because of the price of gas and the taxes?

I just love that kid. He is so darn cute. He looks just like his dad.

This year was a whole different deal. We worked on our yard. And trust me, there is still plenty to do. I'll have to get some pictures of it up here, but for right now my rear is stuck to the couch at 6 a.m. I've been waking up so early. I am talking like 5 a.m. It is kind of nice because the house is so quiet and I can catch up on whatever and do my Bible study in peace and quiet. The down side is that I falling asleep at 8:30 or 9:30 every night.

Well, Grace heads off to tour the capital today, and then her first day of play practice. It is going to be a very long day, as they aren't supposed to return from the capital until 5:30, and play practice starts at 6. But it will be a good day.

Gertie is going to play with Elizabeth and her kids. She's our sitter. John has some training classes for the internet software they use to teach with. I'm glad he's going. Maybe this will help him be even more efficient and use all the goodies they have to offer for that internet instructing.

It is a trial week for me. We'll see what kind of drama enters the courtroom today. Sometimes a good story unfolds before my very eyes.