6 in the Sticks

March 1st already. This week has been so confusing for me, even if it doesn't take much. Jessica was diagnosed with mono on Monday and has been home all week. Jackson and Charly missed school on Tuesday because they both had fevers and weren't feeling well but I don't think they had mono. Ashley came home from school sick and fell asleep right away until this morning. She went to school anyway.

We are supposed to get 10-20 inches of snow and I haven't seen a flake yet. I saw that the Minneapolis schools closed today, wonder if we'll get any of that.

I was worried that this so called blizzard was going to hit last night while I had my Intro to Business Planning class in Ely but I was very relieved that it didn't. My class was awesome, I have so much more to learn but the class flooded me with things to work on and think about. And the more I research and dig the more I realize we need to research and educate ourselves even more. I'm a little scared but yet excited about what is ahead of us. We will make this happen! Mark my words.

Jackson and I were talking the other day and he was talking about when he grows up and so forth. I don't know where he got the idea but he tells me that boys don't go to school, they just work and girls only go to school. He said that Ashley, Jessica, and Charly will only go to school and he will just grow and go to work. I'm guessing he's giving himself anxiety about going to school.

Then we were talking about some things he might do when he's a man and I ended up asking him if he thinks he'll get married some day. He said, " Oh no! I'm not going to get married! Getting married is so disgusting!" He cracks me up. Kids say the darndest things alright! Not a day goes by that they don't bring a smile to my face.

Like yesterday, Jackson was told to go and do something, I can't remember what it was, but Jeromy was trying to encourage him and said, " Go ahead, just go to town." Jackson looked at him puzzled and repeated him, "You want me to go to town?" He's looking at him like why does dad want me to go to town? We chuckled and then explained to Jackson that it was just a figure of speech and how he really doesn't want him to head to town.

We are so excited today. Our new couches arrived. Here are a couple of photos. It is so amazing how fresh paint and a couple of new things make everything feel so nice and refreshed. It's kind of giving me the trickle down affect. Slowly but surely we'll get things done that have been put on the back burner for ages.

Happy Birthday Jermie! (like Ashley would say)

When you are not making nice with the wildlife and wilderness, or working hard on the road, you are always there for us! We love you very much and hope you have a wonderful day today because you are such a wonderful person and we are so lucky/blessed that you are apart of our lives. You are such a fantastic daddy, an awesome stepdad that means more than just the title stepdad to the girls, and such a caring husband. Hope your day at work goes great, flies by fast, and smooth. And hope you have a very relaxing weekend even though it can seem like a circus around here at times!

Love you!
XOXOXO
Kim, Jessica, Ashley, Jackson, Charly, & Moose dog

Charly:
My little sweetie. She continues to crack me up everyday. She's in the fun three year old girl stage where she should walk around with a sign plastered to her head saying, "I can do it myself!" I think Ashley had a t-shirt like that when she was three and it is so true. I think of that jingle that goes something like,"Anything you can do, I can do better..." She spends her days, singing songs she knows, or just singing about anything happening around the house like "I want some chocolate cereal....I want some chocolate cereal". Playing with her baby dolls and makes sure to feed them, change them, and tuck them in. She is at the stage of transposing syllables/words. All of my kids have done that, Jessica would say things like oosh for shoes, Ash would say bus school for school bus, Jackson just got done with that stage and now he really concentrates on pronouncing words correctly.
I have been pretty sick this week and the other night as my fever was spiking, I was trying to get the kids down for bed and I told them that I was too sick to read books and that I would lay in their room and they could read to me. Charly was all over it, so she read me Green Eggs and Ham (one of my favorites when I was little) which consisted of "I do not like green eggs and ham!" on every page with a little improv on what was happening in the pictures. And when she finishes a book, instead of saying The End, she says "Be endin!" So cute, she melts my heart. And yesterday she talked to Jeromy on the phone while he was at work and handed me the phone without saying goodbye. So I asked her, " Did you tell daddy goodbye?" Charly replies, " Oop, I got for." And grabbed the phone back. (she says got for for forgot) And when she's looking for the remote control (because she can start a movie all by herself) she says, "I can't find the bemote" Silly little kids.

Jackson:
Jackson doesn't miss a beat, and sometimes he adds one too! He was talking to me yesterday and I was in my own little world putting dishes away and realized he was talking to me and I had missed everything he had just asked me. So I said, "What's that?" He starts chuckling in his old fart kind of manner and said, "Okay, Brian. Whats' that?! What's that?! You silly uncle Brian! Brian always says that."

I don't have funny little sayings from the older girls today, but I bet something will come up very soon. So I will just say what they are up to so I can get a good journal in for today.

Jessica:
Jessica continues to come home with bags and boxes to store in her closet for the big day she flies away. I couldn't help but give the "we are not a storage facility" speech to her again last night as my imagination ran wild with images of her room being stacked to the ceiling with junk. I really don't get the rush, but then again I do remember being seventeen.

Ashley:
Ashley got her cell phone privilages back again with a limit on her texting and so forth. She was addicted to texting. She had quite the overage in charges about three months in a row. After lots of time talking to her about privilages,responsibilty, and so forth she said, "I admit it. I have an addiction to texting." So that was a couple of months ago and now that she's graduated from rehab she's doing better.
Basketball season is done except for a banquet we are going to next week. Jeromy and I are on the basketball banquet committee this year so we'll be helping set up the room that night. Ashley now spends her afternoons after school in the elementary school helpinhg with play practice for the 5th & 6th grade play as she is now the Stage Manager. She enjoys that so much and she is so appreciated from the director who has had a special place in my heart with everything she does for the kids. Both Jessica and Ashley have enjoyed working with her. And Ashley just can't seem to break the ties. I don't blame her. Anyway, this year's production is Annie and I can't wait to see it. Every year we pretty much know all of the songs as Ashley walks around the house singing show tunes for a month and a half. It is really amazing how these young kids put on a fabulous show every year.

I'm still feeling a bit under the weather but trying to snap out of it because it's my hubby's birthday today and I am going to take him out to dinner and a movie tonight.

We're having fish tonight!!

Jeromy went out fishing all by himself yesterday and came home with three crappies. He had asked us if we wanted to go out but we were just not up to par yet. So we told him go ahead and bring some dinner home. It was a little sloppy on the lake because it was 48 degrees, but there is still 3 feet of ice out there. Which I'm sure all of you fishermen out there are saying to yourselves, yeah, I know.

We had a pretty mellow weekend. Jeromy and I went to dinner and a movie on Friday, (his birthday). We ended up seeing the movie Catch & Release with Jennifer Gardner. There really wasn't much to choose from but it ended up being a cute movie. A refreshing change from a movie we rented the other night, Facing the Giants. One of the worst movies we have seen, we were regreting that we spent the $3.99 to rent it and had watched something cheesy on PBS instead! Ufdah, terrible movie but good for a person who is dumber than dumb I guess.

Jessica spent most of her time with friends, and was off to work late yesterday because she forgot daylight savings. She was bummed because she had been reminded by her boss because she tends to forget a lot. Amazing sometimes how she and Jeromy are not blood related.

I took Ashley to Hibbing and we stopped by the home show to check on Auntie Em & Uncle John. They had a booth there. Very very nice. If you haven't seen Emily's work yet, you should serf by www.flomfotos.com sometime and check out the amazing pictures she takes.

It was also nice to spend a little alone time with Ashley, and also very cool to come home a feel a little more appreciated for what I do with the little ones around the house.
Ashley was asked out by a boy again. I am pleased that she seems to be level headed and patient a little when it comes to these things, but I also know, she's freaking out inside just like all of us girls do. Anyway, she told this guy that she would think about it and tell him on Monday. So we will find out tonight what happened. She was so thoughtful too, because she asked me, "How do you feel about it mom?" we had a good talk about what was involved in "going out" and her expectations, and mine and so forth. Oh my gosh though, as a mom of teenage girls I feel as though as soon as I catch my breath from one bad roller coaster ride, I need to take another fierce grip for another ride to come! Whew, Lord, give me strength!

This morning was a great morning at Jackson and Charly's Positive Preschooler class. Jackson is finally feeling a little more comfortable breaking away from me and Charly and is interacting with boys his own age. The theme at school today was FISH. Which was excellent for my kids because they love just about everything about fish. When we were heading home from school, Jackson said to me, "Mom, I really liked school today." That was so cool.

Last night Jeromy asked the kids if they'd like to go ice fishing again. Charly piped up, "Yes! I want to go ice fishin!" Jackson said, "No, I just want to go water fishing." Which means fishing from the boat in the summer time. It's funny how they think things should be said as they are learning the english language. So darn cute.

Jessica went and got her hair cut and came home sooo excited because she is now like the only girl around here that has a "modern mullet". I kind of disagree because I can count about half of a dozen in women in town that have their same cut from 1985, or women who have the layers up higher, but what do I know, I'm just a mom and so uncool.

Ashley said that boy wasn't at school yesterday so that situation is pending. She has a Youth Board meeting tonight after play practice. She has a dance this weekend with a black and white theme. I think the kids are looking forward to it because there is going to be a black light there so that should be fun.

Another warm day. Winters sure are not like they used to be around here. I'm wondering if that was it. I think the little ones and I will go for a walk into the sloppy woods anyways and see if we can see anything neat.

We ended up going for a slushy, mucky, sloppy walk through the woods. Jackson ended up slipping and falling into a nice icy puddle and was such a trooper about walking back home with drenched pants. When we got home, the kids played in the front yard for a bit slopping around in the puddles. You could hear Jackson say occasionally, "Watch out for the pile of deer poop Charly." What a nice big brother. Some natural springtime hazards living in the Northland I guess.

This picture didn't turn out but I couldn't resist putting it on here because of Charly's face. I guess it's been a while since she touched a fish (last summer). It didn't help that it was still flopping around. I always think it is so weird how when you go ice fishing and catch fish, throw them on the lake and they freeze, bring them home and put them in the sink with water and they thaw out and come to life again. And one of them spit out the minnow he ate from the hook.

The little ones and I are very SLOWLY getting rid of a virus we have had for a week. Last night Charly was getting warm again and said, " Mommy I need some medicine because I have a head-dock." That's how she says headache.

This morning she wet her bed a little. The first accident we've had since they've been potty trained. She was so sad about it, poor little girl. I told her that it was okay and I know she is still sick and that happens sometimes. And then her sweet little lip went back in and the crocodile tears stopped. My little chachie.

Jeromy's at the store right now getting some oil to fry up the crappies he caught this weekend. He went fishing all by his lonesome again this weekend and managed to cath five crappies. Someone was fishing in our regular spot so he had to settle for another location. He said it was a mad house on the lake this morning. But I'm sure he was in the spotlight driving good ole blue, (his old silver toyota) on the lake with muffler problems while all of those other poor souls were fishing with their 2000 model trucks parked. They are just jealous Jeromy! LOL.

Jackson and Charly picked out what they wanted to wear for hunting clothes, so here ya go. Not an advertisement for Realtree or anything but they have potential.
Sporting two diffirent kinds of cammo on a warm March day is my little Elmer Fud wearing not only his gun of choice but his debonair smirk as well. Look out little girls!

Our Moose dog. He is on the road to recovery still. He has almost gained all of his weight back. He is back to himself as far as running aorund with the kids, begging for treats, terrorizing the cats occasionally. We are looking forward to many years to come with him.

I've been trying to catch Jess as she flies in and out of the house to get a recent picture of her, especially with her "new age mullet". Hopefully I will have one posted real soon.

Ashley has been flooded with plans this weekend with friends as well. I'll have to snap some shots of her too because she is at that stage where she changes every second. This past year, she has grown so much that she practically looks like a women now. I really don't know where all of the time as gone, with all of the kids for that matter.

Yesterday we spent a good amount of time outside. We started with a trip down to the bridge to check on the water situation. Jackson and I drove the old skidoo pulling Jeromy's otter sled with he and Charly in it through the woods. Brought the camera with hoping to snap a lot of pictures but silly me forgot to bring extra batteries so I was only able to take two. see below. After we got situated at home, the little ones decided to put on some hunting clothes and pretend to go hunting. See some pics below for that too.
Then some shots of Jeromy and his fish.

Friday I was informed that I was eligible for the scholarship for the class I'm taking the next two weekends (Core Four- business planning) I am so excited!

I was able to snap a shot of Ashley before she headed off to youth group yesterday. Still need to get some of her without her hat, I just realized that I had put a picture of her simular to this one on here before.

She thinks it's a new look. I'm looking at her and seeing a blast from the past. Now I know I am old! I'm suddenly hearing Pat Bennitar's Hit Me With Your Best Shot, and want to say Rock On to Whitesnake.

The sun is shining!! Oh it looks like it is going to be a beautiful day today. We're trying to hurry up with our chores so we can go for a walk.

The week has flown by, as usual I guess. Jackson & Charly had school on Tues. and got tickets to the Old Turtle ballet in Hibbing on Wed.. So, Jeromy and I went with them. I was very surprised to see Jackson sit so good for most of the production and Charly, the one who can't go a day without a little production of her own with a song and a dance, got antsy and loud because she didn't feel like sitting the whole time. They have kind of traded places this past week with personalities. Jackson has been easy going and Charly has become more independent and has started to test us more. Must be a 3yr phase they go through. Anyway, for the most part I thought they did a good job for their first ballet. Jeromy's first too I guess, or that he can remember. And he even told me that he would like to go to another ballet sometime, just he and I. I thought that was really cool because I have always loved the theatre and I never thought Jeromy was the type that could sit through something like that. So that was a nice surprise. I thought it was funny though because he was wondering why the ballet costumes seem to accent the male genitalia so much. He said, "Why do they have to do that?" LOL.

Jessica went to the clinic the other day because she was having difficulty breathing. She had asthma pretty bad when she was young, as some of you know, and it seemed to clear up pretty much once she wasn't around second hand smoke so much. The Dr. was kind of stumped so he gave her an inhaler and she will follow up with her regular Dr. next week. Her boyfriend smokes, so I'm not sure if that plays into this or not. Who knows, maybe it has nothing to do with smoke, I just hope they get to the bottom of it so she feels better.

Ashley has another dance tonight. She's spending the night at a friend's house too and then going to the mall tomorrow. Still plugging away with her stage manager duties at the elementary and coming home singing show tunes, and then Jeromy starts whistling along.

I have my first class tomorrow from 11-5. I am so excited. Wish Jeromy was able to go with but he has been so cool about letting me go and come home and talk about all of the work we have ahead of us. It'll be some time as the main thing we need to do is get our finances in better order but so far, I think our idea for a retail business in Ely could be pretty successful. I wish I could elaborate more, but will in time once we have a patent or have our plans set in stone more. "Ancient chinese secret" sort of thing. Remeber that commercial? That was so funny.

Where did the weekend go? The girls don't have school today. Yestreday Jessica spent the night at a friend's.

The rest of us headed to Hibbing for a trip to Walmart and to stop by Em & John's for a little visit. It's always so fun when we go over there, my cheeks hurt when I leave from all of the silliness. Cheeks on my face that is. Adam and Barbie were there for the day and it was good to see them too.

Saturday I went to my class. It was awesome and I came home with a ton of information and more resources for research and places to contact to get a ball rolling. I have another class next Sat..

Meanwhile...back at home, Jeromy threw some minnows in a giant puddle in the yard and Jackson and Charly practiced their casting by trying to catch a minnow. Jeromy took some shots.

Ashley like fairies. She was looking at her book by her favorite fairy artist, Amy Browne.

Charly loves puzzles. This is her newest one that she's been playing with everyday. It isn't the hardest one she has done but it's fun because of the alphabet letters and pictures.
Sometimes when we go to the library, she'll just want to play with the puzzles instead of reading books or playing with the animals they have in the kid's corner. She's been interested in chess too, so I've started to teach her names of the pieces and soon will try to teach her the function of each piece. I once heard that children that learn how to play chess grow up to be good problem solvers and good in math. Not sure where I got that from, so really not sure how much is factual. Jessica and Ashley both know how to play chess and niether one has struggled in math, in fact they are both in advanced classes. Things that make you say, hhmmmm. Anyway, it's fun.

Charly has been surprising me with some serious dance moves, I can see I have another girl getting ready for dance class.

Charly got some new headbands and was trying to put them on by herself. Jeromy came home early yesterday to haul one more load of wood for the year since the weatherman is talking about rain and snow this week. Jackson went with him and Charly stayed home and played with me.

I walked around Miner's lake with Laurie yesterday night too. I used to do that quite a bit when I lived in Ely. It felt good to do that again. On my way home, I saw a young moose eating off of a pine tree along the road. This is the second time I've seen him, I saw him on saturday too. I think the people who live in the house nearby may be feeding him as well because he is totally tame and just keeps about his business while people keep stopping and walk up to him. His hair has shedded off of his face and neck, someone told me that the word around town is that he has deer mites. His mom is dead, and they are wondering if he is mentally challenged because he is not scared of anyone. But who knows, and how do they get this info? Things that make you say, hhhmmmmmm.

I noticed a little change the other day so I figured I'd better take a pic as I had said before that it changes all of the time and I need to start posting it.

The Keep Out skull is the change. "As if that's going to keep me out...Ha..Ha...Haaaaaaa!! We'll see about that my little prettyyy!"

The pussywillows are here! I have no idea why that always makes me so excited every year. I saw that they were coming in the other day on my walk. So today I took Jackson and Charly with me after we stopped by the vet for another bottle of meds for Moose. The past years, I've just picked them and brought them home and put them in a vase, so they thought it was kind of cool to see them grow and pick some theirselves. We also ran into a couple of animal carcases, I think both deer, kind of gross but that's springtime on the northland.

After we got our pussywillows in a couple of vases I figured I'd better dig out the Easter decorations. I was reading lifeupnorth.com and saw that the Law's were gearing up for Easter and thought, oh yeah time is really creeping.

We had problems with our water pump leaking all over our storage last year and unfortunately lost quite a few things we had stored in boxes. So after unwrapping Easter decos, Jeromy and I kind of chuckled because he had the most left between the two of us. You see his were all preserved because they were wrapped by his mom and Grandma. Some of you know what I'm talking about, scotch tape, and ziplock queens! Those cute little figurines would have floated away unharmed! These are qualities I am slowly but surely learning! If my whole storage room would've been tubbed to begin with, I wouldn't have had anything to cry about. Anyway, we had some fun unwrapping those tonight.

One more thing...one was wrapped so delicately that I thought the little ceramic bunny had on a muff hat and then realized it was some kind of sponge packing stuff with a good amount of scotch tape around it to protect his little ears. And another was wrapped and labled Jeromy, then opened to find it layered with some more bubble wrap and labled Peter (I thought, okay, this is a Peter Rabbitt), opened it more to find, Happy Easter Peter! Love G.H. Love you guys! Jeromy busted a gut that he had Bud's figurine all of this time and got on the phone and left Bud a message, and called Emily for a chuckle too. Good laughs, so cute.

Jackson had his preschool screening yesterday. He did very good and is right on track for kindergarten, even though he doesn't start until 2008. He also obtained his snowmobile license, naw, just kidding. Another ten years maybe. Anyway, I got to be in the same room during the screening and a couple of diffirent teachers asked him questions, and had him to do some physical stuff too. I was filling out forms and it was funny to hear him answer questions. At one point he had told her about his dad chopping wood and playing with minnows in a bucket and kind of took over the conversation. She was impressed with his vocabualry she said. My little man, I left there feeling like I do when the kids have their first day of kindergarten. Good job Jackson!