6 in the Sticks

Jeromy and Ash were on their way to the bus stop the other morning. They turned the corner to head down the highway and they both saw right in front of their eyes, just next to the road in the grass, a spike buck. Jeromy said he thought to himself, "Oh, a spike!" And then he saw that he was apparently, "going to town", if you want to call it that, at licking his butt good and clean. Jeromy said he didn't say anything to Ashley but was thinking, that's different.

Just after they turned the corner and they both gazed at that busy little buck, Ashley spoke nonchalantly, "Well there's something you don't see everyday." Jeromy busted a gut as he was telling me all about it. He said, "And she's right! That isn't something you see everyday!"

Ashley is so funny that way. She really cracks us up sometimes with the remarks that come out of her mouth.

We are having a very busy week again, I thought today was Thursday instead of Tuesday because of the added errands, it seems like a lot of days have passed. I just became a council memeber with ECFE (Charly's positive preschooler school). Not sure of what kind of duties are expected of me, but I'm sure it will be fun.

Jackson's enjoying his preschool class. You can tell that he feels like such a big shot going to preschool all by himself. I think the kids have been doing better without being involved in the same program together too.

Ashley is in yet another play. The high school play of the Princess and the Pea. I don't know when show dates are yet, but guessing sometime in November. Probably Deer hunting opener. Murphy's Law.

Jessica says her college classes are going good. She started bar tending at the restaurant she's worked at for a a year or so now. Yes, I worry. And worry some more. She says it's fine and she likes the extra money.

The boys are going to try and fill their bear hunting tag again this weekend. And our friends are still working on their moose tag.

I worked my last day yesterday cabin cleaning for the summer so I will be quarantined again until spring. No really, I'll miss it a bit. Crazy that I think that can be fun at times.

Jeromy heads out of town again the end of the week. Keeping up with his education in the business. So I will also need all of those rsvp's back on the "wild party because my husband is gone" get together. Just kidding honey. You know I will be anxiously awaiting your return by standing by the door with a cocktail in one hand and the newspaper in the other. Or not.

I walked Jeromy to his bear stand yesterday and took the camera along for some fun shots of the seasons changing.

He didn't see anything. Better luck tomorrow night if he's able to make it back in time to go out.

They have been sick the past couple of days. Along with that comes bickering, silliness/hyperactivity intensified, whining, fevers, lack of sleep from not being able to get comfortable, snotty faces being wiped across the arm before you can run over to push the kleenex instead. Ishy. Will spare the details when a sneeze kicks in, you get the picture I'm sure.

They were troopers about running the bear baits with me regardless the other day. They got out to run around a bit and climbed on a big rock. When I told them I wanted to take a picture of them, this is what I got. Wisenhowers.

Over the river and through the woods to see a moose, oh boy!

We had a fun filled weekend loaded with a variety of hunting. Brian was bow hunting and shot this doe Friday night. Jeromy shot his bear Saturday night, it's on the left hand side. It's kind of hard to see. And Brandon & Matt finally shot their moose this morning. They came to our house and woke some of us up and off we went into the woods to check it out. Such an amazing animal! I didn't get a chance to do any grouse hunting this weekend, hopefully soon.

Another bird bit the dust. Jackson saved another bird from dying after hitting our window pretty hard. This time it was a woodpecker. Cute little thing. Jackson put an umbrella above him so the rain wouldn't bother him while he gather his wits about him.

Speaking of rain, it hasn't stopped for weeks. I think I've counted three days in over a week that it didn't rain. Crazy. Maybe we should transfer our home into a boat.

Graypoopon Mooseterds

I thought I should post a couple more shots from last weekend. The pictures really do not do the real deal justice. The butt of the gun in this shot laying next to the head makes it almost look like a toy gun. You kind kind of see how massive this animal really is. They are so beautiful.

I'm hoping to get out sometime after hunting season and do a couple of calls and see if I can't get a couple of live photos/video too. I absolutely love moose.

The boys were only able to shoot a bull this year, which hasn't been the case in the past. The moose population dropped somewhere near 27% in the last year. The DNR gave hunters science kits or what have you for them to take liver, blood, and a couple other samples to help determine the health of the animals. I sure hope they find out why this is happening.

Jackson has always LOVED his baby sister. They play together so nice, and at times, they fight together pretty good. It's so funny to see the typical older sibling behavior shining through at such a young age in Jackson when it comes to other kids hurting his sister.

The other day, they both went to school. On the ride home, we discussed how their classes went and so forth. When Jackson was done talking about what happened at school, Charly was ready to get her turn in by saying, "Jackie, a boy jumped on my head and hurted me." I interrupted immediately after seeing Jackson's expression of concern and explained to him about how she was playing with her class in the "muscle room", a gym for toddlers. And how the boy did in fact jump and land on her but that it was an accident an the boy apologized to Charly.

So after a bit, the subjects changed several times and then there was a minute of silence. Jackson spoke. "Charly, what's the name of that boy in your class? Because I am going to go to your class and tell him he can't hurt you anymore."

Yes, it was sweet. But you can also imagine how many different levels of discussion we ended up getting on to get Jackson to understand that it's okay now. Oh my goodness.

Jackson made his first on the air radio debut today on a field trip with his class. Of course me being the terrible mother I completely missed it!

He told me that the guy at the radio station asked what his name was and that he told him. I wasn't quite sure if he was on the air or not until my aunt called tonight to let us know how great he sounded.

Good job Jackie!

Singed squirrel tail hair. Skin burned off of the belly. Not hard to solve this case in a zap.

We really don't have an obsession with dead animals. They've been dropping upon us. Literally.

In this case, the kids were playing in the back yard near Moose's kennel while Jeromy chopped wood.

I was downstairs folding clothes with the tv on. The power went out for five seconds.

One minute later Jeromy rushes in the door asking if the power went out. He said a squirrel got zapped on our electrical pole and dropped to the ground. "It's kicking a little and smoking! The kids are outside watching it!" I reply, "Okay, don't throw it into the woods until I take a picture of it!" I know. What the heck have we become.

But when it comes to a valuable lesson, the kids now witnessed what can happen when someone gets electrocuded, as we've had the discussion several times. And oh the discussions we have!

So, I'm a little slow. I just went through all of the comments and realized I have never seen quite a few. Oopsie. You guys are pretty hilarious though, it was fun going through and reading a bunch at once. Thanks for sharing!!

Getting ready for Halloween. Spooooookyyyyyyy.

It was pretty brisk outside yesterday. We managed to have some fun running around outside anyway. The first time of the year we were able to get a bunch of leaves together and play.

Moose.

Thought I'd update on Moose's condition. We believe he is now Blasto free. He has come a long way from the day we thought we were going to lose him forever. I truly believe we have the BEST vet anyone could have. We will continue to watch Moose for symptoms as the disease has a way of creeping back after the first negative blood test after the treatment. But for the most part, I think he'll be fine. Thank you to all that enquired about him and sent thoughts and prayers!

The Orange Pupcen

One day there was a pupcen on the steps. He had yellow eyes and a yellow nose. The athers lafted and they lafted at him. They thoted he looked funning. But the pupcen did not know what was so funning.

But one day a girl pupcen was sitting on her stairs. He looked at her and he looked and he looked at her.

The End.

Wasn't that funny? I typed it exactly how she wrote it. I wish I would have put the year on that. I found it in the bottom of a Halloween decoration box. The girls were always so good at writing stories.

The Comment Of The Month Award goes to John for his insight to Sept 2nd's posting of Congratulation's Bud.

Good job John!

Who will be the winner of October's award? God only knows. And maybe a few friends.

Jackson took this picture on our walk through the woods.

After this shot, Jeromy told Jack to go ahead and slide down the rock. I told him to be careful and to watch the tree so he doesn't slam his testicles as he was headed straight for it with his legs wide opened. Yikes, it was a close call. And then Charly pipes up as she's climbing up the rock,"I want to slide down the rock too. It's okay mom, I won't hurt my testicles." Yeah, yeah, we reminded her that she doesn't have testicles, maybe when she starts dating I'll remind her of that and tell her date that she had tesicles. Oh the wicked web we weave!

We enjoyed our evening by going for a walk through the woods and taking in a little of the good weather before it rains. AGAIN. It is sad to see summer go, but it is also so beautiful, especially on the sunny days. It has cooled off where I'm sure the snow is coming soon.

We went to visit Auntie Em and Harrison yesterday. Emily's new studio is VERY nice. Can't say it enough Em, we are so happy for you!

Jackson must have thought it was going to be years until we visited her again because he talked, and talked, and talked to her through the whole lunch. His excited stutter kicked in pretty intense so I could tell he was worried about getting a chance to tell her all kinds of things.

Afterwards we went to a couple of stores looking for a new fan for our wood burning stove. Bad idea. The kids weren't feeling up to par as I think they got another cold this week and the more we ran around the harder it became for them. I have no clue what it is about these two when they are sick, maybe most kids, but it can be pretty challenging as a parent, especially in public. When they don't feel good, it's like everything makes them cry, they act as if you started pounding the cans of pop into them from daylight and every piece of candy along they way. Got the picture now?

Well, after all of the choices, distractions, and a little discipline along the way, we stopped at a gas station for them to use the bathroom. I wish I had never done that but had no choice. We must have spent about a half an hour, 20 minutes of it in the public restroom with miss Charly and her temper tantrom, screaming at the top of her lungs, crying, and refusing to get off the toilet. I can't remember the last time I was so embarrassed, even though it probably wasn't too long ago. And my lovely husband whose thoughts are "this just isn't acceptable so therefore she shouldn't do it", made me think he was the most patient person in the world when we first started dating. I am now convinced that was a front.

I can't remember how glad I was to be home ever before. The magic of cozy jammies, your own pillow, a quiet house, a little talk, a hug, a kiss, goodnight.

I've been teased about being a member of the CSI team because I've been photographing dead animals. Oh well. This is a skeleton of a coyote in the woods. Cause of death, unknown.

Shark bait!

We took the kids to the Monsters of the Deep exhibit last week. It was pouring outside so we got a little wet heading to the exhibit. That's why Charly's pants look as if she's been wading in the water. The kids got a kick out of it though. Jackson was our tour guide as he probably already new 75% of the sea creatures displayed. It was very cool for him. Charly loves puzzles, so she and Ashley had fun taking apart the floor puzzles and putting them together again. Ashley loves to color! She colored every possible sketch they had available to color. And of course it wouldn't be an outing without being scolded by the Ironworld staff on my biggest misbehaved child, my husband. Yeah, I can't take him anywhere. If they had the little yellow schoolbuses where he grew up, I'd bet money that he would've had to ride it.

But really, does anyone have a clue what the giant tricycle on display at Iron World is really for, other than Jeromy giving kids a ride?

Charly is having her turn at "Camp Gramma" this week. It feels so weird not having her here. I almost walked back out to the van last night thinking I had to carry her into the house after Jackson. This afternoon I went to fix a snack for the kids for snacktime and I grabbed two dishes like I do every day and then realized that I only had to grab one.

It's only been one night but I had to grab baby animal a couple of times for my chachie hug. We already miss our sweet baby girl but we know she is having the time of her life visiting grandma and grandpa. She's been waiting a long time for her turn, she kept asking when she was going to go.

We skipped her preschool class today. I actually thought about going without her because it's been one day a week of getting out and talking to someone my own age! I asked Jeromy, "Would it be weird if I just went without her?" He said I would look pretty pathetic. "Oh, okay, guess I'll have to miss owl day." I should've gone, I think I'm about ten years past the age of trying to be cool.

Yesterday we headed south for baby Zabey's bday party. A five hour drive one way. But it wasn't bad at all, with the exception of some of the conversations we had on and off along the way. On the way down the kids were talking about the cows we were seeing when Jackson was educating us on bulls and cows, "Those are cows, and there's a bull. But you don't want to milk a bull!" We tried really hard not to lose it.

On the way home, we were minus one child. Jackson was sleeping for a couple of hours and Jeromy did the educating this time and it started out like this. " Oh, see that color brown on that car over there? That's the same color of brown my car was when I was dating my cousin." Oh god. I'll spare the details but if you know my husband, you also know he uses a poor choice of words at times, and he doesn't care. At all. Good thing we weren't in public. La la la la la.. too much information!! Heebie Jeebie moment.

An hour or so later, Jackson woke up. Ate some food for the first time of the day basically. He was just too excited to eat I guess. And he said as he gazed out of the window, "That was a good trip. I am really going to miss Charly." He said he misses her a couple more times since then.

They were so cute when they said goodbye to eachother too. I had told Jackson that when Charly is at grandma & grandpa's, I'll take him fishing. He had told Charly that if he caught some fish he was going to mail some fish meat to her. I told him it would be best to keep it in the fridge until she gets home.

So yesterday, they hug, they kiss, and Jackson told Charly, "Good bye Charly. I'm going to catch some fish for you and put it in the fridge so you can eat it when you get home." She replied while they are still in eachother's arms, "Okay Jackie. Thank you. I love you."

Happy Birthday Abbie! Today I realized I need to take pictures of you when I see you. And see you more often for that matter!

So, in honor of your birthday, a Top Five Birthday Wishes Come True List.

5. A remote control for time.
4. More weekends away with the girls.
3. A babysitter button for early am after an evening out with the girls. Oh wait, do you have that
already?
2. A virtual game where you could control animals to stalk Bud while he's hunting in the woods.

And the number 1 birthday wish come true for miss Abbie Doo is.......................................

Bee retardant pants for walking in the woods!

Hope you have a wonderful today! We're thinking of you and love you.
Kim, Jeromy, Ashley, Jackson, Charly, Jessica, & Moose dog

"Mom, should we take a picture of this?"

Jackson helped me put these decorations here earlier and said we should take a picture but it was raining at the time. So, the other day, he remembered when it wasn't raining.

What do you think? Groundskeeper when he grows up? Whatever he choses I'm sure he'll be good at it.

We saw snow for the first time this year. It was snowing a little bit as we headed in to school.

My sweet little man. He has been having difficulties recognizing his letters of the alphabet and writing his name. I try like the dickens to get him to sit at home and go over five letters of the alphabet and practicing the letters of his name for a couple of minutes each day but he wants NOTHING to do with it. So, I bribe and do whatever I can so he can be familiar and doesn't struggle so much at school.

Today the teacher told me that he's been stuttering quite a bit since the beginning of the year and wanted to know if we noticed it. He has been stuttering more ever since we went to lunch with auntie Em a couple of weeks ago. I was trying to figure out what was going on because he used to do it a little bit a year or so ago, but it basically stopped and hasn't done it all unless he's around other people and excited. Hopefully this is a phase and we can look back and chuckle at how cute it used to be. But it did make me worry about him even more and think of every little thing that happened during his pregnancy and birth and wonder if he didn't have any complications that could've effected his devopment. Urgh. Motherhood. Lord, give me strength.

First of all, this is my first time using the live writer program, and I already love it! Thank you thank you John! This is so beautiful. Fun fun fun.

Jackson and I went fishing yesterday. We brought the video camera and thought we'd make his first fishing movie for fun. He thought it was pretty cool that Uncle Bud made a movie of his bear hunt. Remember Jackson told Charly he was going to go fishing and catch some fish and save her some "fish meat"? Well, he kept his word.

We weren't catching anything but had a great time. We decided to head towards home where he's caught perch time and again as he wanted to catch a sunfish. We ended up meeting Jeromy. So we picked him up and I dropped the boys off at the dock while I ran to the grocery store before they closed. Yes closed! I know my city slicker friends probably can't comprehend such an inconvenience, but it is true. Like I said before, everybody up here works banker's hours. 

Anyway, I remember thinking, "Murphy's Law", Jackie will catch a fish now that I'm at the grocery store. Sure enough, I pull up to where he is and I barely see what he's struggling to hold....Is it? Yes!! He caught his first northern! Yay Jack! He was so excited! Jeromy said he wasn't able to video the actual catch because he was afraid Jackson would loose the fish.

They both had a pole in the water and Jackson had  just cast his pole out and said to Jeromy, "Hey, I'm getting a bite.  Yeah, I'm getting a bite." Jeromy said he's thinking, yeah, yeah and suddenly he saw is pole go, "BOO", as he put it.

The neighbor came over to see what Jackson caught and managed to tell Jackson he's going to have to start teaching his dad how to catch fish. He teases him a lot because Jeromy has been getting skunked quite a bit this year. It was so funny to see how excited Jackson was and proud as he agreed and said, " Yes. I'M GOING to have to teach Dad how to catch fish! We all laughed.

"My fish meat"

Forensic evidence concludes this case to be a factor of "The circle of life" road kill.

Victim's name, Jane Doe. Instant death due to blood force trauma to the head. Was dead on arrival to the scene. Shall we call it a day?

Oh, the things I do for fun these days. This deer was gone the very next day. I figured either the wolves got to him, or someone brought it to the wolf center.

An eagle was getting a good dinner from it as I pulled up. This was about the fourth time I have driven by road kill on the highway to find an eagle eating off of it along side the road.

We see eagles almost every day up here. One year it was pretty cool to have a momma and her two young ones soaring through the wind above our house. This time I had my camera with but scared the eagle as I got closer. Yes, I'm saving for a new camera with a zoom. Until then, here are the shots I got.

At this point I'm sure he's thinking, "What the heck is this crazy lady doing? Get the heck out of here so I can eat my dinner! She won't leave. I'm getting out of here!" I did feel a little like I was stalking him. I drove past three times trying to get a picture of him eating. Each time he flew up into the tree, so I pulled over and got out and walked as close to the tree as I could. And then he flew off.

After he flew off, I got back into my car and waited for him to come back. A lady pulls up and sees the messy road, stops dead on the highway and rolled her window down and says to me, " Another road kill?" I replied as I was holding my camera, "Yeah. I was taking pictures of an eagle eating off of it and then I scared him away." She said, "Oh, an eagle? Oh! Look! There he is! I better move ahead!"

He was sitting in a tree just above my van waiting for me to leave I think. So she pulled ahead of the dead deer and waited for a couple of minutes to see what the eagle was going to do. It was kind of funny to think about what we looked like as it was rush hour, for up here = ten cars driving by within five minutes. Anyway, my point is that even though we get to see these animals on a regular basis, it is still very cool to watch them and even get a tad bit close to them.

Here is another shot I got from the highway. The sun was shining so beautifully that day and it had been a long time. And by evening these clouds rolled in. It was kind of cool but I do miss that sun already.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

LOVE this day! So much fun, have a spooktacular time!

This is a picture from a while ago. It is my favorite picture of the girls. I used to take them to get pictures every year and at the time of this shot, I had told them to pretend they were screaming. The photo studio thought I was a little weird, but it has ended up being a very popular photo. Too many people were stuck in the old day of a picture having to look one way I guess, nice to see more people express themselves these days. The picture is a little worn from being in my wallet.

We have a pretty busy day today, a lot of running around too. Jackson has his Halloween party at school, and Charly is getting over a bug. She just stopped crying from a 25 minute cry for Daddy. Whew, it's going to be a fun one!

Check your candy! Be seen! Be safe! And all of that good stuff!

My Grandpa. His sign reads, "HELL on WHEELS". And he was! :)

You can see some of the costumes got recycled through the years.

I realize that some of the shots are very small, bear with me while I am still learning how to get my pictures back from shutterfly, and remove from this page. But, you get the picture, so to speak.

On Halloween, I miss the neighborhood and home where I grew up in Minneapolis. The hundreds of houses we had to go to for treats and tricks in some instances, the haunted houses we could count on every year, and the joy my mom got from dressing up on occasion. I will forever remember when my mom dressed up as the Incredible Hulk and jumped out of the door at the trick-or-treaters. That show was popular on tv at the time. She looked exactly like him with her ripped jeans, sweatshirt, shoes, and green face. I can almost still hear the kid screaming as he ran away from our house. So many memories. I am really glad that I moved to a town where Halloween is still such a big deal and the grown ups are into it as much as the kids.

Hope you have a very Happy Halloween!