6 in the Sticks

No turkey for me this year, better luck another time. We did see about thirty but only had one hen come into my shooting area. It is so neat to see the turkeys running around. And I am always in such awh whenever we go to Cannon Falls with the beautiful hills and valleys and old oak trees. Everything turns so green faster than the northland.

We went down on Sunday and planned on dropping Jackson and Charly off with Jeromy's mom and then Ash, Jeromy, and myself headed back to Brooklyn Park to my dad's before heading to my grandparents new home in Minnetonka.

When we were on our way to drop the little ones off with Linda. Jeromy said that his mom "had some singing thing" at another church other than the one they usually go to and that we were going to drop the kids off there with her. So we pull up to the church, and see many cars parked around the building. I ask Jeromy, "What's going on? Are they having a service right now?" Jeromy says, "No. I don't know. I told you mom had a singing thing here and that's all I know!" So whatever, we get the kids and walk through the door to see the pews packed and grandma up front center singing her pretty little heart out. The kids are stunned as we told them we were just going to drop them off with grandma. There was a man standing at the doorway trying to get us to come in as Jeromy tells him, "That's my mom. We're just here to drop the kids off." Talk about embarrassing but yet comical. Linda came over and grabbed them between songs and said goodbye. As we drove away, I totally laughed to myself through the shock of that situation. It was so funny to think what the people in the church were thinking. "We are just here to drop our kids off. Is this the church / daycare?" I'm sure we looked like anti-church going rude kids that Linda has. Anyway, we chuckled about that as we left.

Then we went to my dad's and hung out with him for a bit before we all headed over to the home where grandma and grandpa live. I had to prepare myself for the worst as it takes nothing for me to get sentimental and start to cry. What can you do. They had a nice set up though. Grandma and grandpa have their own room with a bathroom and then the livingroom and kitchen are shared with all of the tenants. There is 24hr staff there to take care of grandma, do the laundry and all of their meals so grandpa can still live with grandma and not worry about taking care of her as he is able to come and go as he pleases. Very nice place although my grandpa didn't think so. But what can you do. Grandma doesn't remember me anymore. As we were leaving she told me it was nice meeting me. I think she thought she was related to Jeromy and I was with him as he was familiar to her, and Ashley as well. One of the hard parts was the look on grandpa's face when grandma told me nice meeting me, they melt my heart so much. I feel so fortunate to have grown up spending so much time with both sets of grandparents. Anyway, that was hard but what has to be has to be. It was hard not to think about that kind of stuff while you are hunting, and then trying to stop crying from time to time, it's just hard. Good thing I had Jeromy sitting there with me cracking me up for the most part.

So most of Monday we were out trying to get a turkey to come closer to me. It rained and even hailed on us, which hurt, and then it got cold as we didn't bring our rain gear but I wasn't giving up. We drove around for a bit until the storm died down and saw some turkeys out and about during the rain and hail. I couldn't hunt them because they weren't on my hunting land. But it was cool to see that they didn't hunker down for that. The next morning was a whole different story. It was so windy out. We heard a couple but never got one to come in.

We managed to spend a little time with Jeromy's family as well. One night we had a big dinner and got to visit with some relatives we hadn't seen for some time, like grandpa Flom, aunt Gail, Darryl, Cindy and kids, Bud, Abbie and baby Zabey who so huge now. Huger than huge, and sooo cute, the little budlet.

And even the next day we got to say hi quick to grandma Hernke and aunt Tammy. And I have absolutely no pictures to show for it. We packed the camera in our hunting sack and we were just too bushed whenever we came back from hunting to go back out to the vehicle and grab. I know. Lazy. But we had a great time as we always do. Better luck next year.

This last week went by so fast, I suppose with coming back home on Tuesday kind of started the week out late for us. I kept thinking Wed was Monday and it threw me the rest of the week.

Wednesday we had gone to Jackson's preschool open house at the school so Jackson was able to meet his teacher and see where he will start preschool in the fall. He'll be going two to three days a week. He was pretty excited because she has a live rabbitt in a cage, and a corner with a real bear skin rug, some turtle shells, and deer horns. A couple of the kids from his ECFE class will be attending too so it should be good for him.

We also had a few ads run in Wednesday's paper for our old van, glastron boat, and dryer that's been sitting in the laundry room collecting dust for the past year or so. Thursday and Friday our phone was really ringing off of the hook. Thursday, a couple came and picked up the dryer and looked at the boat, I'm sure because Jeromy was being pushy but nice and trying to use his salesman qualities to see if they'd bite. No dice.

Friday was more crazy with kids, and enquiries but my mood was happy so it really didn't matter. Easier to go with the flow with every little blow when you're happy. The kids were back to normal, emotional wise and the sun was shining.

So at 8:30am, a guy called and said he was interested in the boat. So I pass that call to Jeromy to give the guy more info on the problems we had with the motor and so forth as I'm sure a guy doesn't appreciate my, "the thingy was doing the whatchadingy and was making the weird uuhhhhh sound but other than that, it's fine", sort of speech. So, then I was off downstairs to clean and reorganise the rooms before I shower and the phone rings again. It's Jeromy, he needed some info printed from the computer for our lovely audit on 2004. Okay, I'll do that right away before I forget and then I'll get started.

The phone rings again. The caller ID said Blomberg oil so I was wondering why they were calling us, figured something to do with all of the hunting and fishing licenses we purchase a week or so ago. Nope. It was a man that said he was coming over to look at the van but couldn't find our house and needed directions.

So I realized I had 5 minutes to comb my hair, throw some makeup on and get out of my grubbies, call Jeromy to tell him someone is on their way and his response was, "You better start wearing a bra all of the time now hon cause we're gonna have people dropping by a lot! Hahahahahaha." What would I do without my husband? :) In any case, I think we sold the van. The man is supposed to come back with his wife next week.

Shortly after that, the kids and I are playing outside a little before lunch and now that it's easier for the little ones to walk in and out of the house all of the time, it's easier for our Moose dog to bail and say hi to all of his canine friends around the block. I loaded the kids up in the van and drove around the block a couple of times calling for my dog and finally he came running to the van and hopped in. So I figure I've got the kids buckled up, might as well head to the gas station, pull up, reach for my wallet to pay at pump as I always do when I'm alone with the little ones, and no wallet. Shoot, left me wallet at home.Went back home for wallet and grabbed the dvd I forgot to bring the first time and went back to gas station.

After a bit of being home, we were off to the bus stop to pick up Ashley and hopefully start on the basement. We were at the bus stop for 5 minutes when I heard some regurgitating behind me, Charly threw up. Jackson whips his buckle off a minute or so later squeezing his nose in disgust from the smell telling me he is going to be sick. I got out, opened all of the doors and hope they can settle down until we get home. And they did. What a way to greet Ashley after school too, she understood though and we made it home okay with no more bodily fluids spewing out.

We had plans to go fishing today with the kids but Charly is still throwing up so I told Jeromy to go ahead and take Jackson. Charly felt so warm, and her eyes were drooping, and she looked so miserable and she started to cry and say, " I feel better now so I can go fishing too." Awww, it was so sad. She had her heart set on going fishing. Hopefully she will feel better tomorrow so she can go then.

Hoping to attack the basement tonight.

It got to be so hard to reel in so Jackson said he'd help her out. See next two below.

7:30am I woke to what I thought was Jeromy falling down the stairs but turned out to be that he was just overly excited. He had woke up at an ungodly hour and went fishing and caught 9 sucker fish, came home for more worms and to wake us all up. The kids were a little groggy at first but then were so excited to hear that the fish were biting. This is Jackson & Charly in Brian's "green machine" yelling at us to get going, "Let's go fish'n!" We ended up catching 19 more. The kids had a blast. I spent most of time just watching them, it was so cool, the kind of moments I'd dream about when I was younger and thought about having kids when I was all grown up. Jackson pretty much mastered his new open face reel, and I think Charly might want one soon as she wanted to keep fishing with my pole. Ashley was too tired to fish today. Jess won't go near fishing anymore, more important things to do these days I guess.

I had cut off jackson's face so thought I'd ad again because it was so priceless. This was when Jackson reeled in Charly's fish when it got to be too hard for her.

Jackson was trying to get the hook out.

We packaged the fish up in packages of three or four and froze them so eventually we will smoke them.

Jackson would be embarrassed if I told him that I'm sharing with everyone what he did the other day. But I just had to journal it for the future because it is so funny.

Jeromy was watching the kids the other day while I took Ash to town. Jackson and Charly were playing around the yard and Jeromy was busy tinkering with stuff as he watched them. While he wasn't watching them, Jackson showed Charly that he could pee on Jeromy's car. Charly ran to Jeromy and said "Daddy, Jacky peed on your caarrrr." Jackson walked up as he heard her telling on him and got mad and said, "Charly! I told you not to say anything!" Jeromy said he walked up to his car, and sure enough, there was a big wet spot all over.

A little over a month ago, the kids were playing in their room and the same kind of scenario happened with Charly running up to me and sharing that Jackson just peed on their bedroom wall, I suppose because it was fun, he could, and they thought it was funny. At that particualr time, Jackson totally denied it and tried to play off that "What? I didn't do anything?" look. Little boys and their toys. I wonder what age he'll start to write his name in the snow.

I guess Ashley shared these stories with some friends at the lunch table and she said the guys at the table were laughing so hard that some just about had tears in their eyes. Little boys.

Brothers!!

Thank you Charly!

"Come on Charly, Just one nice smile and then I'll leave you alone."

Charly got this t-shirt last week and it is SO appropriate for her. Jackson IS trouble. He laughs the more he bugs his sisters, and the more they react with drama, the more he bugs them.

Charly just did not want to sit for a picture, so this is what I got.

The kids got to go sucker fishing again on Tuesday. This was jackson climbing in the tree in our front yard giving me the thumbs up. They came home with three sucker fish, and two chubbs. The kids were so happy.

Charly was so funny the other night. After her bath, she said she had to grab a book from our bookshelf. I didn't see what she was grabbing at the time but heard her say, "I need to get this book. This is my favorite book and I can read it by myself." So we make our way back upstairs to the kitchen table as she kept repeating herself over and over. I was busy futsing with things I needed to get in order for my things to do the next day and hear her again, "This is my FAVORITE book and I can read it by myself." I finally turn to look and see her sitting with the Thesaurus. So funny.

We bought these little flower pots with seeds for Jackson and Charly to plant. They planted them the end of last week and we kind of let them do what they wanted to do by theirselves.

Jackson had watered his like he was filling a cup of water. The pots don't have holes in the bottom, so I was pretty surprised that his seeds grew, passed Charly's up in fact. Anyway they had fun and continue to get excited as they check on them and watch them grow. They planted radishes, oregeno, and bazil.

Me on the other hand, I've been freaking out that we haven't even tilled our garden yet, I can't wait to plant the seeds I got from "L-O-meno-P", like Jeromy calls it. Basically L & M.

The chives came up a while ago now and Jackson has been sneaking around the house and coming back with a mouth full of them. For a while he was eating them faster than they were growing. We'd ask, "Jackson, what are you eating?" he'd reply, "CHIVES!" as if he was saying DUH in the same sentence. He and Ashley are the onion eaters out of the kids. They both will eat raw onions as well. Little Ogres. I guess Ashley isn't so little anymore but you get the point.

It was so hot on Wednesday. I took this while I was heading off to work to cabin clean. Jeromy filled the pool and dumped their bath toys in there. They were so excited to go swimming for the first time this year, the day was definately approapriate for it as well.

Whew, talk about feeling like you're in the sticks! Lightening struck down the block and we had life with no internet for about a week. It felt like an eternity.

Will blog our updates later.

So much going on on our end lately I'm having difficulties remembering what day we are on.

My dad came up straight from the cabin on Saturday and gave us his old riding lawn mower. He bought a new John Deere to leave at the lake. It's quite luxurious but as he explained to me, it is very needed at his age. It even comes with a beer holder, like Jeromy said. The old one he brought us is very old, but it works and can get the job done. I feel like I am riding a horse when I am on it, it wobbles with every little divit in the yard and you slide and rock and roll as you plug along. It will really come in handy next winter as there is a plow for it as well. Just in time since our snow pup went kaput the last big snowfall we had.

Jessica moved out last weekend. It has been very hard, my parents have been so open-minded supportive of me and it has helped ease my pain of feeling like I've failed as a mother.
I've been trying to focus on what kind of rearranging and themes we'll do on the kid's rooms, which has also made a little fun in the situation.
I had told Jess that she should send out address change cards. She said, "Well who would I send them to?" I was shocked and said, "Like all of your grandparents and family members." As I was thinking DUH in my head. She got a panic look on her face that reminded me of when I had become pregnant with Ashley before the wedding date was set and my mom expected me to tell MY grandparents. (I chickened out) Jessica said, " I don't want to tell them." So I know she is at least wondering if she is making a good choice.
She had invited us over for dinner. We went and it was so cute to see her panicked in the kitchen. She made tacos and had everything set and ready to go when we got there. Eddy's mom stopped by with his grandparents and aunt to see the house and Jessica was so worried because they didn't call first and she wanted it to be just us, and then she was a little freaked worrying about how much food she had, so it threw her a little. They looked at the house, and chatted a bit, and then left. All and all, It was a nice first visit though. They are completely unpacked and have the house set up cute. Hope she'll be okay, I'm pretty sure she will be, but I have to keep saying it. Lord give me strength.

Jackson went to the Dr for a check up. They drew blood from his little arm, I thought he'd freak out but he didn't even flinch. I had to bribe him with caps for his cap gun in order to get him to step on the scale at the beginning of the appt.. He's healthy and right on track with his consistent growth in the tenth percentile, my little terd. The Dr reassured me that his anxiety and tantrums are a normal thing and part of his personality traits and a common thing for kids that are shy. Sometimes it's a good thing, and sometimes....well, I feel like yelling, "Why does it always have to be MY kid!" It's so funny though sometimes, the pressure we put on ourselves and our children just to be nice to people that could sometimes harm the situation. And of course it hurts when people question where he gets it from, like he's a little freak or something. I usually put the blame on myself but really have no clue, just that God blessed him this way for a reason and I will be forever greatful for this little boy I have to raise.

We're still having technical difficulties, can't access our email so will let you know asap.
Can reach us on our cell phones too if you can't get the home phone.

Not sure what was the problem , but whatever happened, it is finally fixed. Phone, email, internet, dsl all back in tact. Really missed checking the weather online, news, family blogs, and just checking email. We had a little bit of rain the past couple of days so all of that combined was so depressing. Hope to get more pics on here soon.

A game of Boyz in da hood. Just kidding. He wanted to be outside with us so bad and when he was out he was shivering so we dug into Charly's dolly clothes and found him a sweatshirt. He seemed happy to be warm and not miss out on the action.

Poor dog, at least we didn't put him in a real pretty dress and paint his nails. I'm sure he can't wait to get out of this house full of estragen.

Tea time. Too bad we didn't have anymore bisquits.

A morning walk.

We had such a good time babysitting Sparky, (Em & John's youngest Law boy). He was so good around the kids and he and Moose had such a good time playing together once Sparky was done "getting his groove on" with Moose.

Yesterday Jeromy and I got our garden planted and I had put Sparky in Moose's kennel for a little bit since we were in the backyard, I figured he could watch us for a while. Jeromy went into the house and as I was finishing up a couple of rows I heard Sparky's collar jingle right from under me. I looked down and sure enough, it was him. He is so little that he just slipped right under the door to the kennel. Our neighbor was coming over to chat and was laughing at him. He said, "So you got another kid huh?" I responded, "No, he's our nephew. We are babysitting him for the weekend."

We had a little fun with him too. The tea party was just for fun and pictures. Just wanted to let the Law family know that he was such a good boy, and a trooper, and hope that he can come again another time after you see some of the pictures. :)

This morning Jackson woke up shortly after me. Charly was still sleeping, Jeromy and Ashley had headed out for the day. Jackson and I were in the bathroom chatting away while we were still trying to wake up a bit. Suddenly Charly pops into the doorway acting like a monster and says, "ROARRRR!" She was smiling so proudly. She got us both. She then says, "Did I scare you guys?" Yeah, you can imagine that Jackson wasn't happy about that. He was on the verge of crying and then he was mad that Charly could do such a thing. Charly's expression changed for a second thinking that she hurt Jacky's feelings. Even though it was about time she gave her brother a good dose of his own medicine! I told her that she sure did scare us and let her know that it was okay as I see her worrying about Jackson. That was so funny. It's crazy how fast they are growing.

Jackson, Charly, and I were winding down for the day by sitting in the livingroom, in the dark, just watching the wind blowing the trees around outside. It was quiet for a bit and then Jackson, out of the blue asked me, "What's Bleu Cheese?" So I quickly come up with diffirent ways to describe it in my head so I'm not just answering him by telling him it's cheese. So I tell him that it is one of the white kinds of salad dressings. The kids already know Ranch, and a few actually, they are big salad eaters. Anyway, I perceeded to tell him about how it can come in a clump like he saw in a scene from Snowdogs, one of their favorite movies, and how the main guy was eating Thunder Jack's big chunk of Blue Cheese as they were arguing in a little store in Alaska. Jackson said, "OH, I like Blue Cheese. We need to get some. A big chunk." So I tell him, "yeah, sometime Buddy, we'll have to do that." So we move on to diffirent subjects and about 15 minutes later Jackson said, "Mom, when I'm bigger, I need to go to Alaska with you." I said, " Yeah, buddy, maybe someday we could do that."
You see this subject has come up many times before because he hears the stories about daddy working and fishing in Alaska, and then how we were married there and again, more fishing stories. And then there are those good old hunting videos from Uncle Brian with monsterous bull moose hunts in Alaska. So this wasn't the first time I heard Jackson say how he wanted to go to Alaska someday. So I was kind of taken back with his comment immediately following mine.
"They have a lot of Blue Cheese in Alaska, Huh?"
I really need to work on my analogies because then I told him how Blue Cheese doesn't come from Alaska and they have to fly it up there, and how I'm not sure where Blue Cheese comes from, maybe France. France is known for all of the different cheeses they make, so to have him figure out France, I go on about Paris France and the Iffle Tower and reminded him of the picture of the Iffle Tower Charly has on her toy camera. The kids are looking at me absolutely puzzled by this time and Ash steps into the room and pipes up, "You could've just said Wisconsin." OIEY! It's too late and I am too tired, why don't these kids just go to bed already. Where the heck does Blue Cheese come from anyway. Another trip to the library I guess.
I figured I'd better journal that in here before I forgot, now I can go to bed!

What else can I say? It struck me funny when I went into the basement yesterday and this is what I saw. How Ironic huh. This is Ashley's cat, Cally. We struggle to keep her fit every year. The vet has scolded me the last two visits because she is so unhealthy for her age. She is like a garbage disposal though. We cut her food down, and she's sneaking dog food, no animal food around, she eats my plants, plants put out of her reach, she eats the PLASTIC ones! Crazy kitty. And I wish I would've gotten a picture of her when she and Sparky met face to face, Cally swelled up to about twice her size, including her tail. Not sure what Sparky thought about a cat bigger than him!