6 in the Sticks

This is from last weekend when we visited Auntie Em's studio for some fun shots with costumes on.

This was from yesterday. It wouldn't be a Halloween without a little snow the way things have been going. It melted right away.

Jackson's pumpkin. He wanted it to be throwing up. Reminds me of the movie, The Sixth Sense. "I feel better now.."

Charly's pumpkin

Ashley spent the night at a friend's house, so it was just the little ones out trick-or-treating. Because miss Ashley is not here, I put these last few shots by Emily Law on here so you could see Ashley's costume as well.

Dracula and Princess Pheona from Shrek. No, Charly didn't do her own makeup, her daddy helped her.

Have no clue but Jackson didn't want to wear his costume. Until Halloween morning. He wore his costume to his school party, minus the cape. He kept calling it his skirt. I suppose it was hard for him to remember cape from skirt since he has three sisters! Jeromy got a little defensive about him saying it was his skirt. I told him, there's nothing wrong with that. Right Uncle Bud? :)

After coming home, taking the cape off. He asked if he could sleep with his suit on. We said why not. He slept with his jacket and tie off. Woke up this morning and the first thing he had to say was, "Where's my tie?" He's had his suit on all morning. My little man is so cute. Maybe after lunch I'll get him in the tub and coax him into regular clothes. Otherwise, we'll have to invest in more suits for Jack. But I can't help it, what guy doesn't look so darn hansom in a suit?! Especially my boy. I know, typical mother.

Glow in the dark teeth.

"Happy Halloween!"

 After going to the next door neighbor's, we headed to Jessica's work and got some treats from her. She remembered their favorites! What a sweet big sister! Put a sweater on!

Whew, what a night. This was the year they caught on as we'd hear, "Can we go to another house?!"

We ended up going about two blocks and it was brutally cold. Like last year. Jeromy didn't have much patience with trick-or-treating as he said after the first two houses, "Wow, you guys got a lot of candy! Let's go home now." It didn't happen. I told him to enjoy the little they did this year, because from here on out, they'll stay out longer.

While we were out, Jackson saw a kid trick-or-treating by himself. He said to me, "Hey mom! Why is that boy walking around all by himself?"

Trying to answer quick with a cunning answer, the best I could come up with is, "Well he's around Ashley's age so he is allowed to go by himself. "

Jackson said,"How old is he?"   I guess."I think thirteen."

Jackson replied," When I'm thirteen, can I go trick-or-treating by myself?"

"I don't know Jack, why don't you ask me when you are thirteen and we'll see."

"Okay."

Well, after the sorting, and trading of the candy we managed to give them something healthier to eat and get them to sleep by 10pm.

We only got a couple of trick-or-treaters this year. Luckily I suppose because if Jeromy beats me to the door, half of the bowl of candy is gone with the first couple of kids. Not good if we ever end up with more like some years in the past. Moose helped greet the kids this year too, fortunately everybody loved him and wasn't afraid of being eaten.

Well, here I am. The night before deer hunting opener. I am surrounded by four snoring men. You'd think it was the night before Christmas as they all spazed to get tucked into bed by eight thirty. I understand though. Once the babysitter is all set, check. House in order for company, check. Food all set for weekend, check. Well that one was not really a check on my part as the guys all pitch in and everyone makes something to share and eat at any given time so everyone can hunt as long as they want. Hunting clothes all set, check. My hunting gadgets all set, check. All taxi driving done for the day, check. Kids in bed by eight o'clock, check. "Okay, let's party! It's hunting opener! What? What do you mean you are partied out. And you're going to bed?" Man, I miss out on everything. Oh well, just as well.

Now the responsibilities are all taken care of, I am excited to hunt. It does feel like I'm a child again just dying to hurry and go to sleep but can't sleep because Santa is coming. Maybe just his reindeer. Sick? I'm sorry. I know, it's all weird. But some of you know, it's what I grew up around. And now, am surrounded by.

I sure do enjoy it though. Which is weird when you think about it. Just today I was worried about a stray dog that looked like she wanted to live with us as she stayed for about four hours and played with the kids, and moose and couldn't get enough attention. And I love the fact that I see wild life every day. Deer every night. They are so beautiful. So I guess it is ironic that I also like to hunt as I am a huge animal lover. So that brings me to my secret prayer. I guess it won't be such a secret anymore after this is published.

It does get to me when people who are not at all into hunting make comments to me about "killing animals". Even though some of them I could wish be a better pet owner anyway. It still gets to me. So before every hunting opener, I say a little hunting prayer and ask for my guardian angels to look over me and keep me safe, and then I ask god if hunting is against his will to please don't send any animals my way as I sit in my stand. But if it is okay with him, that if I do see a animal, to help me shoot to kill instantly as I wouldn't want to have it suffer. Every hunting season, I see animals, sometimes a lot. And so far, everything I have shot, has in fact dropped instantly. Thank you God. With the exception of my turkey that one year. If I had only looked a little harder.

So, that brings me to another secret prayer. As a girl, hunting with mostly guys, and hunting consistently for "only six years" which doesn't make me know so much in some eyes,I feel the pressure to prove myself even more. So since these lovely gentlemen thought of themselves first by falling asleep so soon instead of hopping online and entertaining you wonderful people, maybe you could find it somewhere deep into to pretty little heart and pray for my safety as well, a clean kill remember if in fact God intends it that way, and a little extra Umph TO SCHOOL THE BOYS! I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you so much! Happy hunting to everyone that's for it. And for those who are not, don't do, don't hate, I still love you anyway.

Bill got a buck

Bob got a buckadoe

And the three of us are still trying. I am not hunting this morning as Ashley has functions today after church so maybe I'll get a chance tonight.

Hopefully the rest of our party comes back with deer. Jeromy is getting antsy, he was ready to move to another stand after sitting only one day with fresh tracks. Patience boy!

Bill and his buck. Bill seems to ALWAYS fill his tag on opener every time he comes. I suppose so he can hurry back home across the state line to his family so his wife can continue her hunt. I was a little freaked when he told me last night how his wife was stuck in her tree stand because the bears jumped at her every time she tried come down after she was done deer hunting for the day. Where they live they bait deer as well as bears. She is a very cool chick, hope she stays safe.

This is the stray that has been coming over to visit the last couple of days. Has a collar, but no tags. Very nice, cool dog. We've been calling her "The Bear". She needs a shower and brushing in a bad way. She's got a mullet going, doggy business on top, and party all over.

Deer so far. Nothing else yet, hopefully boys will come back tonight with a few more.

Bob and Jack. Bob has so much fun spoiling our kids and has the patience of a saint when it comes to Jackson, can't think of too many people that can handle his crabbiness. Bob claims his son is the exact same way. We were finally able to meet his whole family as they stopped by a week ago. His son asked Jackson if he wanted to go for a ride on Moose as he was pushing on Moose's back to feel if he was sturdy enough. Bob and his wife put the kabosh on that right away as we were all trying not to laugh. His son is nine years old I think, but was just like Bob said. He and Jackson were like two peas in a pod.

  And as far as spoiling goes, there goes my brother again. He's always thinking of us. The latest, is a small children's 4-wheeler for Jackson & Charly, with a parent remote too. Jack got to hop on and go for a spin around the yard a few times and then the motor died. He tried to work on it between hunting times but there was so much chaos so he couldn't dig into it very good. He used to be a car mechanic for quite a few years before he got his business in hard wood flooring. He doesn't miss it a bit he said as he was working on this.

"Come on bear, chase me, chase me dog!"

Hhhhhhmmmmmmmmm, Is this a buck or a doe?

Anyway, we are having a good time. My dad and uncle will be coming tomorrow if they don't have much luck at their hunting shack. I will hopefully get a chance to go hunting tomorrow or the next day and fill my tags!

My baby cone head on the day after you were born. Glad your head snapped back into place, I was a little worried.

Seems like just a few years ago it was your first birthday baldy, and here we are at fifteen.

You used to be so shy, glad you grew out of that. Your first manicure at age two and a half years old

Hope you have a very Happy Day, we love you!

We sang Happy Birthday to her.

Ashley had Driver's Ed and then came home to "deer camp" and we had cake and ice cream. She had a good day at school, she walked into her band class and the kids all stood up and sang to her. Later at lunch, some friends sang to her again. It sounded like a special day. I'm glad as I have always kind of felt bad for Ashley because out of all of the kids, she's the one that everyone spaces out her birthday as she was born on deer hunting opener. For a teenage girl, that can be a bummer. But she has always been a trooper about it. Later in the night, Jessica and Eddy stopped by to wish her a happy birthday. Jessica sang severely out of tune Happy Birthday To You, so Ash got to hear that song quite a bit.

Jeromy picked up fifteen balloons. It's kind of funny when you think about him walking out of the store with fifteen balloons and then trying for about fifteen minutes to squish them into his little red car without popping any. He did it! We put them in her room so when she got home she'd walk in there and be surprised. She said her first thought was, whoa, that's a lot of balloons. Then she counted them and realized why so many. Hope she had a happy day.

Bob's decoy has been having a grand time as well. It originally ended up being put leaning to the tree by the deer hanging when the guys went out for the morning hunt because Bob thought he probably shouldn't walk the power line with his decoy through the woods as other hunters are sitting there. Good choice Bob! Although, that would be a hilarious sight if it was a guarantee he wouldn't get hurt.

So from there on out he/she has moved around. Next was the deer feeder, I didn't get a picture of that. Next, he/she sat at the table with blaze orange on and a beer in a hoof. It hasn't moved since.

This morning I looked out my window to see that it now has horns. Nice buck.

Our family has their opener down south this weekend. GOOD LUCK GUYS! Hope you all fill your tags!

I am really having a hard time keeping up with Ashley's extra curricular activities. Tonight was the first show for the high school play. It was awesome! I forgot to take pictures but at least I got it on video. I'll have to pull some pictures from there. Jeromy is going to the show tomorrow night, maybe he'll get some shots.  I saw a couple of Jackson's schoolmates while I was there, I think one of them was looking for Jackson after he said hi to me. Jeromy and I have always "punished" ourselves by taking the kids to just about everything and last year was the last straw. So now we take turns staying home with the kids unless we think they can have some patience for it. Not to mention, it is finally nice to see a show or socialize somewhat without constantly tending to the younger ones.

I got to try net fishing for the first time today. My aunt has been doing it for some time now and asked me to join her this year. It was pretty neat seeing how it's done first hand as I have always heard stories on how it's done. I was pretty amazed at how she's managed to do it every year all by herself. It'll be neat to see how many fish come out of the net tomorrow, I can't wait.

I think Jeromy is going to try and go deer hunting in the morning, will update as soon as I can.

Bud called this morning and said he got a nice eight pointer, congrats Bud! Send us pictures! Hope everyone else hunting down south will be as successful.

Jeromy is still out this morning, hope he sees something.

We've been getting more snow. Today the roads were bad so we were able to stay home and play for a while. Jackson is standing next to this tree anticipating his next snowball attack from his dad. And not sure how much baseball dad played but his throw was a little off or Jackson was just too quick. He got hit a couple of times and would drop to the ground for five seconds. It was pretty funny.

Happiness of playing in the snow again.

What I thought was a stray has either been taken in by our new neighbor or just had a complete makeover to go with their new home next door. Remember "the bear" dog? Yes, this is it! She's awesome. She stops by everyday to play with us as we play outside, what a sweet dog.

Moose dog got his first chance to mush with a real harness. He didn't care for it too much. We will have to practice daily with something lighter other than the rugrats on the sled and build his strength up.

And we managed to get a snow fort made. Not sure why Jeromy put cardboard inside, maybe he was thinking of taking a nap.

Jackson joined Jeromy for the next show tonight. I think Ashley's nerves eased a little today. It was such a cute play, hope they enjoy it too.

Jackson had his first school picture taken this year with preschool, Jessica's senior pictures are on their way, and as soon as the photo studio for the school determines that Ashley is not Andrew and sends us the correct photo, (3rd time a charm?), we'll have little miss Charly missing from a school shot yet. So, I thought, I know...always scary, that maybe I'll take a bunch of shots of Charly in hopes to get one good one to send out with her sibling's school pictures.

My little "goose goose", one of the many nick-names I call her, decided she would sit nice, smile pretty, until she heard the beep of the camera letting us know the flash is ready and I'm about to snap a shot. This is a taste of what I got. Maybe we will try again another day.

  Such a goofball. I'll have to invest in a silencer for my camera. :)

E B D...EBD....EBD...EBD...EBD....That's all folks! Do you ever feel like a hamster on a wheel and no matter how fast you run, you will not get anywhere? That's kind of been our week, excuse me, my week. I know it is for the best, and it is so important for the kids to be involved and busy in this day in age but I struggle sometimes just going with the flow. A huge test for me is when the week is already hectic and you do what you can to make mountains out of mole hills and just when you think, "Whew, almost there, almost done", the phone will ring or the kids come home with some news that switches your whole schedule for the third time. Aye. I have never been the kind of person that can handle last minute changes or lack of good planning in some instances except for my days way back when working as a manager for a hotel in Bloomington, you have no choice there. People's plans get thrown all over the chart when they are traveling. But even in customer service it is an act. You have to be a nice person to start, with a touch of some good acting skills so people think no matter what, you've got their back.

I think aside from the drama queen rock stars and country stars, and I am not going to lie, it is definitely not attractive to watch someone who you saw on MTV thinking that they look like a nice person throwing a hissy fit like a three year old girl. Especially when they are a man. And lord only knows what pilots and flight attendants do to pass there free time away in between flights, minus the times they are busted by the hotel staff. But all in all, it is a far much harder job being a full time wife and mom! I can't say that enough. Khudos to those who can pull it off with grace and stride, but in some cases, thanks a bunch for making me feel like a freak by not living up to your standards! And thank you so much to those who have let me know that they would much rather work three jobs than be a full time mom because you make me feel like Supergirl!

So on that note, now that there is peace in our home today, I will share on some highlights of the past week.

Jessica's senior pictures came in so we sold the house to pay for them. Not really, but Jeesh! I know, I know, it only happens once in a lifetime but my penny pincher did in fact pick the priciest photographer in town. Hope she remembers that when prom dress time comes again and she thinks that she NEEDS to spend three hundred dollars on a dress. Hush to those who remember what I sucked my dad into sophomore year, we'll save those stories for when the kids are grown and gone.

Pictures.pictures.pictures. I now think it is impossible to get all four kids together for a picture for our Christmas card. And Charly. Still in the silly face phase, which is cute but all I want is one nice smile out of two hundred. Take what you can get I guess. So we will try again today and if a nice smile never happens, it never happens. People will receive our card this season and think Charly was maybe hit upside the head one too many times that's all.

Jack has another growth spurt this past week personality wise, and a little physically as his dinosaur jammies hug his rump now. His favorite craft project is still the homemade playdoh. The other day he made a giant squid and it looked so real. Yesterday he made some animals with organs included. He amazes me.

I think the snow has put Christmas on our brains a lot this week. I feel like I should be decorating and baking. I did hang some lights yesterday and started "winter" cleaning before we decorate more. The younger ones went shopping with their Halloween money from Granny and bought their own little xmas trees for their rooms. Target dollar section is awesome. Jackson is so much like Ashley in that sense. He futzes with his tree several times a day. Turns the lights and prepares the room before he lights his star. The ornaments get moved around on his tree constantly, one day they are scattered about, the next they are all at the bottom. Of course, Ashley pulled her decorations out yesterday as well. She kind of started the "my own Christmas tree" thing. It's fun for them and also helps keep them off of the family one.

Ashley finished her Driver's ed class last week and now just has to take the permit test. Basketball season is starting so practice time is here. Ash was asked to do the giving at mass last Sunday. That's where a selection of people bring the wine and the holy water up to the priest to prepare for communion. Poor girl was nervous enough when somebody knocked over the bottle of holy water she was to carry with the donation basket they were moving in and out of the pews. So she walks up the isle, hands the half full bottle to the priest thinking I can't believe this is happening, the priest looks at the bottle funny, then one of the girls that walked up as well leans towards him and whispers, "It got knocked over". Hee hee, poor Ash. Oh well, what's life without a sense of humor.

Deer hunting ends this weekend. Jeromy has been trying hard but hasn't had any luck. My attitude kind of fizzed out towards hunting this week. With all the running, preparing,pampering, and so forth this week the last thing I wanted to do is sit in my stand and think. I know I would think about everything that happened this week, what needs to happen next week and hunting should not be so stressful. What bites is that my tag is not filled, today is the last day of rifle season, and it's bitterly cold now and as funny as it looks, it's not fun climbing into my stand looking like the Staypuff Marshmellow Man. I'm hoping that what we are thinking is true and that's my rifle license can be turned over to a muzzleloader license and I can continue to hunt. I will call on that today so it's not a rush to get to my stand.

And so, in a nut shell, our saga continues............

ma mike sounds nice

check one

ma mike sounds nice

check two

Charly's Christmas tree on the left, and Jackson's tree on the right. They like to bring their tree to each other's room's and switch the ornaments around and light their stars.

When I went into Jackson's room to take a picture of the trees, I saw the rugrats in their deer stand. They were hunting.        Jeromy was watching them outside.

Jackson is on the left, Charly on the right. A funny thing is, is that the view of the neighborhood is pretty good from their deer stand as you can see into the yards of quite a few houses. Occasionally, I'll see them waving to the neighbors in their yards. And I realized I need to teach them some more manners when I saw Jackson staring into the neighbor's house behind us as they were sitting down for dinner. They waved, then he waved. I guess it's a good thing he didn't have his binoculars that day. They can get away with that kind of stuff at that age though, it would be a little more creepy if he was still doing that ten years from now.

Jack, Charly, and I went for a walk yesterday through the woods to let Moose have his run up and down the power line. He gets so excited to get off the leash and run as fast as he can back and forth on the four wheeler trail.

The white speck ,(I'm guessing is about two to three hundred yards up the trail), is our happy Moose dog.

Once he saw us heading back, he surprised us with the shortcut through the woods. Then we managed to find some cool things to take pictures of.

Frozen ice specks on the cold winter ground.

Crystallized ice in the hard mud.

Fragments of the past.

Also a rest stop for Charly.

We hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving this year! You are all in our thoughts and we are very thankful for each and every one of you!

We went to the Christmas Parade tonight and went to see Santa after he was in the parade. This was the very first time the kids saw Santa. Jackson decided he wanted to sit on his lap after all, as the kids had told us ahead of time that they didn't want to sit on his lap, just watch him in the parade and then write him a letter. Being that we never went to this before, we ended up being the last ones in line. The parade lasted ten minutes, the Santa line, an hour, but a good few minutes on his lap. This was a milestone for my little Jack, I could tell he was very nervous, and shy, but he tried very hard to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas. He told him he wanted a chainsaw (little tikes), a shark, and a pool table(kids tabletop). Hopefully he was a very good boy so Santa can make his present wishes comes true.

And when Santa saw Charly standing near by and said, "Well who do we have here?" This was the expression she gave him as she grabbed the chairs near her as she was definitely not going anywhere near him.

Down girl!

They both were given a chocolate Santa, a pencil, a bag of M&M's and a coupon to Norex to pick up our free picture with Santa. Thank you Santa! Charly is going to write her Dear Santa letter and ask for a piano with a microphone (like a Casio keyboard), and a pool table too, and lights for her windows.

There was so much chaos last night. This was taken pretty much immediately after Jackson hopped onto his lap. I think he was trying to concentrate about what he was going to ask Santa for Christmas while everyone was telling him to smile. A second after this shot was taken, he looked up, and smiled nice. Bummer they missed that. But we all know, that's how it goes. I think my parents got a few shots of one of us, if not both, crying at the same time on Santa's lap. Oh, the memories. I was so proud of him though!

There was a little of "miscommunication" after that. This morning, I had just woke up, the guys were all gone hunting, Charly laid Beside me as she does sometimes if she wakes up early to use the bathroom then hops into our bed to finish sleeping for an hour or two. I heard pitter-patter. I thought Jackson was waking up. I heard the pitter-patter again. Usually Jackson gets up, goes to the bathroom and comes downstairs to let me know he's awake. This time I heard him run into the kitchen, then into the living room, then back to the kitchen again. I'm thinking he was running to look outside through the windows wondering if the guys are out there or out hunting as he gets excited when we have company, and when they are hunting it is a bigger bonus.

He came into my room with big, sad eyes and said to me, " Mom, there aren't any presents under our tree!" I start to realize he must have got confused after seeing Santa last night and thought that it was Christmas already. Poor guy, my heart breaks just thinking about his sweet face as I'm typing this. I said to him, "That's because it's not Christmas yet Buddy, we have a few more weeks left." His reply was,"But you said Santa would come in the morning!" Oh my goodness, that sucked. I still can't remember what we all said last night to make him think I told him Santa was coming but I'm sure it was just the jumble of a whole bunch of people around, maybe he asked me while I was distracted and I just said yes without realizing what I had just said. Poor guy. He obviously thought he was a very bad boy. My little sweet man.

I guess I should reassure him that he was not really that bad unless he gets a huge lump of coal. :)

It's that time of year again! I've been out of commission the past few years if you want to call it that, basically just plain lazy, and thought it was finally time to get the younger ones on the ice! It seems with each child, I get them on the ice later in age. This year I'm making it easier and a little more fun. I decided we needed, yes needed, an ice rink in our front yard. Besides, how hard can it be, right Dad? My dad used to make one in our backyard for quite a few years. He taught me how to ice skate at age 1 1/2. I think we have old family movies of it somewhere.

I always loved skating, we spent a lot of time going to the park to skate as well. I spent a lot of time on my roller skates too now that I think about it. Anyway, later in life, sometime in high school, I taught ice skating to children ages 2 and up along with a couple of girlfriends from school for one of the local parks in Minneapolis. And of course, my friends were also hockey cheerleaders. Not sure what ever happen to Anne Marie, but Katie is now married to the captain of the hockey team and they have two boys who are also in hockey.  Funny how things turn out.

Now that I am done reminiscing, I started today on our rink. I scraped the snow away and patted it down just a bit. Froze. And sent the boys out to sprinkle the first layer of water. I hope it turns out. And hope the weather stays cold too.

Last night we got about three to four inches of snow. I heard another three to six inches is on it's way tonight. About ten o'clock last night, the snow was just pouring down swift and fast, Jackson and I managed to see a couple of deer come into our yard with about one inch of snow on their back and head as they leaned in to eat the corn that my brother threw in our feeder before he left. I REALLY wanted to take a picture but was afraid I would scare them away as I think it is the first time I've seen them at the feeder this season.

Yep, Jeromy was sleeping and missed it. We thought he woke up when Jackson told him and Jeromy replied, "Oh yeah." But this morning found out he must have been asleep because he said, "Hey, look at the tracks, the deer came last night!" Poor guy sleeps through everything. I guess that's where the expression, "You snooze, you lose", came from. :)

This is the only vanilla ice people around here know about. They aren't missing anything.

We have a few layers now. Jeromy has really been getting into this. He beats me to watering it every day, which is no problem for me. I told him to hook the sprinkler up so he didn't have to stand out there so long as our temp later tonight will be eleven below. It gets colder, so that's not too bad. He tried the sprinkler this morning. He left it on as he ran to the bus stop with Ashley. Worked good, made a couple of bumps but hoping to smooth out as we keep adding water. Made some cool icicles in the tree branch above, kids thought that was cool.

Two days ago, when Jackson was helping scrap away the snow. He told me how cool he thought it would be if threw a bunch of minnows down first and then sprinkle the water down and make thick ice, "and then we can watch them swim ALL around!" That would be cool. He now knows what would happen to the minnows if we did that. Not that we showed an example. Hopefully we'll have some smooth ice on the lakes this winter so he might get a chance to see fish swim around under the ice.

Our thermometer said -20 when I woke up this morning. It's really -6 but the wind chill puts a "freeze" in the air. I definitely felt it this morning when I put Moose in his kennel. What a funny dog. He is such a baby for a sled dog, and likes to be in the house. But when the weather is below zero, he gets so excited and begs to go outside. Uncle Bud made him a cozy little dog house with his name engraved in the front, and with some cozy straw, he's in heaven. He'll stay out there for hours. Not us. These are the days that you have to build a blanket fort or something to keep the kids out of your hair with their stir craziness. "Only destroy one room please."

Three more days until Charly's birthday. Easier for Charly to count down the days once the numbers of days can be counted on her fingers. I asked her what kind of cake she wanted. She's decided on chocolate cake, red frosting, and vanilla ice cream. When I asked her what she'd like us to get her for a present this year she sang, "Ummm, SURPRISE MEeeeeee." :) Monday is a school day and then her holiday party for ECFE is that night. She's pretty excited that the holiday party is on her birthday. So after that, we'll come home and have cake and ice cream.

Tomorrow is the Grand Opening of the new Pamida store. Ashley is going to sing the National Anthem with her choir class during the cutting of the ribbon ceremony. During the school open house, her choir teacher had so many nice things to say about Ashley. This is her first year in choir. She is still in band as well. Busy busy. Her bball team won their first game against Int'l Falls. Second game is tonight, hope they win.

The ice rink cracked a little. I am trying to get the courage to head outside and stand with the hose for a while to seal the edges. It's so cold!  I know, stop being a wuss and get to it. It always seems so bad the first time of the year. I'm sure it will seem like a heat wave again once the temp hits above zero.

Self portrait. A double one to boot. I found this on the camera when I took the pictures off.

Charly was in the bathroom again. Sometimes she'll call us to come and wipe her bottom at the top of her lungs, in a singing/hollering kind of tone. Today it was, "WIPE MYYYYYYY BU-UUUUUUUUUTT. WIPE MY BU-UUUUTT!" When I made it to the bathroom, this is what I found. Miss Charly with paper on her head and a silly little smirk.

She dressed herself today. And in honor of staying home, decided it was inside out day.

And in comes Jack.