6 in the Sticks

I really need to practice what I'm preaching here. Thought it would be cool to pass the word, and maybe make some kind of difference. Campbell's is doing a cool fundraiser along with all kinds of facts and education on heart disease. Some recipes too! Check it out! Just click M'm! M'm! Good!

We have another stay home day, I am so glad. Today, Jeromy and I are FINALLY building Jackson's deer stand bed that he's been waiting months for! I should say Jeromy. He likes to take over, so I tell him my plans and let him do the building. Key word: LET. Fact is, I could do too, just would take me longer. IE: The stand that Jeromy's fish tank stands upon, I built, by myself. My mom's wood coffee table with a glass top, I Built, by myself. Sorry, I can't help but feel the need to blow the sexism stereotypes out of the water. As Jeromy encountered yesterday when he was standing in line at the grocery store. He was holding some already cooked rotisserie chicken. A guy behind him thought he was a clever little smart ass and said to Jeromy, " Your cook'n tonight huh?!" HA! What a comedian. Fact is, Jeromy CAN cook (working on healthier ways), and he can sew too. Better than me. Jeromy turned to the guy and said, " Uh, it's already cooked."

Anyway, now that I spewed that all out, bottom line is Jack is so excited, hope all goes smooth. I will try and get some crack free shots of our work. After I delude some of this caffeine in my system. Whoa! Zing. I'm on a roll.

We're having a heat wave again, it'll be nice to get the kids outside to burn off some energy ice skating or something as well. Another thing I haven't took a picture of lately. Jackson and Charly have been getting into hockey a little more as well. Jack wanted a hockey net so bad, so we ended up making one, with his instructions. Jeromy nailed some tree branches together, and then Jack and I wrapped yarn all around. Although Jeromy and I are thinking that'll do for now, Jackson thinks it's the coolest thing ever.

The kids watched the movies, Mighty Ducks and MD 2 sometime last month. I think Charly has been singing We Will Rock You by Queen every day for the past two weeks, and Jackson about three times a week. Charly is like Ashley and myself used to be as she sings and dances about 90% of her time. Now that I think about it, Ashley has been singing just as much when she's home. Me? I jam when nobody is around. :) No more hair brushes in front of the mirror anymore.

Anyway, will try and get more pictures on here later, for now you'll have to put up with the redneck and deep thought quotes.

Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey:

We're still working on the deer stand bed. It all started like this.

Empty space.

A Jeromy ponder moment.

Tools that still kick pretty good.

A good start.

Crack free shot I promised. Good boy.

Kids patiently waiting while working on some valentines for school.

Wonderful spousal conversation.

Jeromy: " I can't find my block of wood. Have you seen my block of wood?"

Kim: " Check above your shoulders."

Moments later. Jeromy made a very loud beer belch.

Kim: " Eewww. PIG."

Jeromy as Kim is stepping out of room for moment: " HEY! DON'T GO TOO FAR."

Kim: "Okay. BOAR."

Jeromy: " NO, duh! I mean don't walk too far away, I'm going to need your help again."

Oh what fun a married couple has while working on household projects together. Seriously though, I put the cart before the horse earlier. Jeromy is doing a fantastic job! It is coming along great and he hasn't even broke anything yet! Really though, it's going to be beautiful. And we are just having fun.

And the kids are SO excited. Jackson keeps popping his head in to check on things.

They are waiting for the ladder now. More pictures to come.

Ashley was on the cover of yesterday's Ely Echo along with some fellow freshmen classmates. They were the champion's of the tug-a-war at the Winter Frolic pep-rally at school on Thursday. (And Jackson and Charly weren't even there singing we will rock you.)

I will let Ashley explain how it all came down. Take it away Ash!

First the freshmen were supposed to go against the seniors, and we were all like "Great". But then the seniors all wore their socks so it was really easy to beat them. Go figure. So the seniors play the juniors, then the juniors played the sophomores. The sophomores were in the lead, until they played us. It took awhile but after a few minutes and a lot of cheering from the side-line freshmen, WE WON! We scored one hundred points and became tied with the senior class (which is impossible to do because of cheating lol) in the Winter Frolic events.

So there you have it, straight from the mouth/finger tips of Ashley. Thanks Ash. Great Job!

Deer stand bed update: We had a road block in our building of the bed. Short a little lumber and being that we live in the sticks, every store is closed so will have to wait until Monday I guess. Can't wait until it's all done. So, more pictures to come.

Charly started another class today. She has been going completely INSANE waiting for ECFE to start again. We had an option to put her in a 3yr old preschool class where Jackson goes, but chose to wait and have her go to preschool one year before she starts kindergarten like my other three kids did. But my little "old soul" child is all about moving forward. She writes her name, has been working on her ABC's. I bought her a notebook to practice writing as she wants to do homework all of the time. So , after more input and consideration we decided maybe we would put her in a kindergarten readiness class that is done by her ECFE teacher. It'll be a little more running on my part, and a longer day for Charly once her ECFE classes start up again but we think it'll be good for her.

This morning she moved faster than she has ever moved to get ready when I told her, "Okay, time to get ready to go to school." Charly replied, "Okay Mom! I'm coming." And she ran to the bathroom and brushed her hair and brushed her teeth again. She packed a stuffed animal into her backpack, along with the notebook I bought her and told me that she needed to show her teacher her homework. Her shoes, and a straw hat that Grandma Flom gave her for play time.

Here is what she looked like when we left.

And this next shot she was heading to the van and just so excited to be leaving for school. She turned and said cheese when she heard the camera beep getting ready for a flash.

Way too funny. When we got to school, she walked in like no big deal, unpacked her backpack into her locker, immediately opened her notebook to where she had written her name and wrote ABC and handed it to her teacher. It just cracks me up. I don't know yet if this is a good thing or a bad thing that she feels the need to do everything the proper way. Pushing in chairs that someone left sticking out at a table, shutting off lights that someone left on, telling Auntie Laurie that her boobies are sticking out and that she should cover them up. For the record, Laurie had a tad bit of cleavage at Christmas but a lot less than you would see on tv or at your local bar. That was pretty funny though.

Jeromy is picking Charly up this afternoon and I can't wait to see how her day went. It is the fist time she ever went to school for a few hours without me. They are growing so fast.

Jack was very excited to go to school today as well. His class had a field trip of walking to the park to see the snow sculptures. After school he wanted to go back immediately because he was told that the kids are only allowed to touch the snow sculptures if they are there with their parents. So funny. We drove by instead. We'll go again soon and bring Charly and take pictures. Once again, the sculptures are amazing.

Deep Thought by Jack Handey:

How come the dove gets to be the peace symbol? How about a pillow? It has more feathers than the dove, and it doesn't have that dangerous beak.

Well the ladder and railings are finally done on the bed. Next step will be the painting/decorating and the making of his hunting shack below. Fun.

I've created a monster! The kids have been so addicted to watching Star Wars and playing playstation's Battlefront game. Actually Charly cheers Jackson on as he plays. And when they are not playing or watching, they are reenacting. It's pretty hilarious to hear Charly run around with a nerf gun while yelling, "pew! pew!" Jackson has asked me to make him a costume for pretending.

It's all fun though. It kind of brings back some memories as well. Wishing we kept/stored our Star Wars toys from when we were young. Oh well. I love Yoda. Chewy's up there too. Okay, R2D2.

Nothing much else going on. Our phone tech guy came today and fixed our dsl again. Must be so many problems because we live in the sticks. Who knows. One full day of no internet killed me. My husband was already contemplating where he'd dump by body. Please inform him that he could do it legally if he donated it to a body farm. What a fun road trip that would make, huh? Lucky for him we are back up and I feel alive again. Or, lucky not he is.

Oh yeah, we are expecting an addition to our family! Jeromy is finally getting his "bird dog" he has said he's wanted since the first day we've been together. She is due to arrive in March. We will bring her home in May. A chocolate lab. We are so excited, and it will be good for Moose dog too to have a sister of his kind as well.

Deep Thought By Jack Handey

I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it.

We had so much fun today. Bud "stopped" by with a truckful of young'ns because he happened to be in the neighborhood. No really though, it was a lot of fun. Thanks again Bud for heading our way and bringing all of the kids, we really had a fun time even though we only had a little bit of time. Wish we could all get together more often. Thanks again! Here are some of the things that happened while they were here.

It started with Holden, Harrison, and Charly going outside to slide across the ice. Charly had ice skates on but found it more fun to do whatever the boys were doing.

Holden is looking at a soft spot in the ice from Jeromy forgetting that he had the hose on the rink last night. It cracked and bubbled and they found it kind of cool to watch.

Harrison came to investigate too.

Next Charly and then Jeromy. And then, Holden decided to put some old skates of Ashley's on and give it a try. He did such a wonderful job. What a go-getter and wonderful attitude to just keep going and going, even after little terd Charly skated to him and pushed him down. Good Job Holden!

Jeromy said it was easier for him to learn using a chair when he was younger so Holden gave it a try.

Looks like Charly attacked Harrison as well.

Next, came Uncle Bud sporting his Blades of Glory by showing a good example while skating with grace while puffing on a cancer stick.

Charly still isn't too sure what to think of her uncle Bud.

His fancy footwork got the best of him. That's going to hurt in the morning. But he's off again!

Meanwhile, Jackson and Leslie were tuned in pretty intensely to battlefront 2.

Not for long though after they heard Jeromy was starting the snowmobile to take them for a ride through the woods.

"Go Jeromy go!" Oops, need a little more umpf.

There we go. that's Leslie in the front, Jackson in the middle, and Holden in the back.

Back home again. A few laps around the yard.

And then a dump. Jeromy said later he accidentally dumped them. leslie came in the house saying it was so fun and "that Jeromy dumps you!" :) Zabe was taking a nap and Bud gave Charly her Xmas/bday present. Thank you so much guys, she will have SO much fun trying to do hair the way Uncle Bud does.

After a bit, Zabe woke up and Jeromy was excited to get him into our "roadkill" room. We were able to sneak lots of kisses and hugs with him too. Cheekie monkey.

I think I got him saying,"bear. Raarrr!",pretty good. Not sure if he's said it already or not. Will have to check with mom and dad later and see if it stuck. And it wouldn't be a Flom get together without a deer ride.

It was so funny, no problem with the deer and the bear, but when the cat started to rub up against him, that was too much.Here is was looking over at his daddy wondering what he should do about this cat pushing him around. I wouldn't trust Dad's advice on this Zabe, better ask Mommy.

All kids inside, warmed up and accounted for. Time for guitar hero 3. You rock Holden!

Boys.

Okay, you rock too Uncle Bud. Good times.

Crabs. More pets in the house. We have hermit crabs crawling around our big tank in the family room. They are low maintenance, and kind of fun to watch.

Deep Thought by Jack Handey:

Whenever you read a good book, it's like the author is right there, in the room, talking to you, which is why I don't like reading a good book.

Nothing much going on this week but our normal routine. Except the van broke down. Radiator didn't want to give me a little more time. Jeromy's hoping the weather will warm a bit so he can replace it himself. Until then, we've been sharing his car. I've driven it a few times. It's so funny because when I was younger I was all about having a small car, now, after having leg room in the van, it feels like I am a clown in the circus when I drive the little Saturn. At least I'm able to get around. Bummer to worry about Jeromy's work schedule along with three kids though. We'll survive. This is Charly playing guitar hero 3. She basically hits all three buttons as she strums. Amazingly, she ends up getting kind of far on the game.

This is our biggest and most social hermit crab. He is a strawberry hermit crab. Jackson named him Strawberry. He said I could call him Berry, and he will call him straw.

We rented lego star wars 2 from our movie store. The kids have been having some fun playing this game together. Mind you, they don't get much time to play video games, unless Daddy is watching them. I'll leave that subject alone for now.

It just cracks me up. I'll have to search through pictures and see how many I have of all of the kids playing video games and the expressions they have on their faces through the years. Doesn't it just make you want to say, "Duuuuuuuuhhhhhh." And in this shot Miss Charly didn't want to brush her hair first. On this particular day, they wanted to play for a little bit before they had their breakfast. They say "Princess Lee-ah" and Charly says, "Look, there's Darth Elevator!"  Kids.

They both woke up with a nasty cough. Hoping Jack will be okay for school tomorrow as his class is celebrating Valentine's Day since he doesn't have school Thurs..

Deep Thought By Jack Handey

You know what's probably a good thing to hang on your porch in the summertime, to keep mosquitos away from you and your guests? Just a big bag full of blood.

This image was drawn by someone in our house. The instructions were to draw an image of one of your earliest or first memories. Can you guess who drew the picture and what animal that is supposed to be?

Basically Happy Valentine's Day!

Jackson art goes on the top of the fridge, Charly art on the bottom, and sometimes, one of the girls will feel jealous that they don't see their stuff on there anymore and will make something and stick it on there.

The kids came down with a nasty bug again, so frustrating since we just got rid of one last week. It started with a nasty cough and then Jackie got a fever and had to miss his first Valentine's party at school. He was a little bummed as he worked on the valentines himself and decorated his box. Jeromy dropped off his valentines and at the end of the day was able to pick up his box and see all of the sweet notes and treats he got from his classmates. There was a couple homemade special ones from some girls. I told them that those girls must really like him, he smiled and said "yeah, they like me so much" I said to him, "Do those girls try and kiss you?" He was repulsed and said, " No, they won't kiss me. I don't like to kiss girls." I hope he feels that way for a very  long time. And for some of you that are thinking the alternative, knock it off! :)

Charly woke us up last night because she wanted to tell us she was going to throw up. It's a funny phase they are in as they always get permission to go to the bathroom, and in this case, get sick. We have told them so many times not to ask, just go. Oh well, maybe more comforting to know mom or dad are standing on the sidelines.

Jessica came over last night with her little rat, Taco. Jackson was holding Taco and she fidgeted and he accidentally dropped her, where she landed on her back onto a wood toy. She yelped for a while and then seemed fine. Jess called this morning and said she whimpered when they felt her in the rib area. So hopefully all is fine. I know Jack feels kind of bad too.

All Jess shots were taken by Charly.

"Whoa, that's the smallest cow I've ever seen!"

Just kidding honey. We do need to put your drawing on the fridge too. :)

Ashley has a basketball game again tonight. It is also parents appreciation night tonight, so after the game, each player meets their parents in the middle of the court and presents them with something to thank them for all of their support during the season. It looks like Jeromy will go tonight since Jackson and Charly are still sick. Jeromy and I alternate which one of us goes to the home and close to home games when the kids don't go with us. There was some talk about Charly becoming their mascot as she was a big hit the last time we went. She was wearing the school colors and cheering and clapping for everyone, sometimes when the other team made baskets too. It would be cute, but I don't think she'd be able to do that every game.

Hope everyone has a fantastic day!

Feel the love.

Jermy brought little Taco to the vet this morning and all is well. Jessica called last night and said that Taco would whimper when she touched her side. She wasn't able to bring her to the vet until Monday so we offered to help her out.  Taco has a "Fi-fi" kind of carrier if you want to call it that. The carrier has a playboy bunny print all over and Taco was wearing a t-shirt that said " I chase tail". Jeromy walks in to the vet, all by himself holding this while the little rat is barking at a high pitched frequency as a lot of small dogs tend to do. He looks around the room, and sees what he said, " And of course, there are manly men standing there with their labs and carharts and I'm holding this thing. So I told them, 'Uh, this is my daughter's'." What a man! The things he goes through for this family, what a guy! Glad there is nothing wrong with her, Jack will feel better too.

Speaking of feeling better, the kids are still sick. Charly has a fever that keeps spiking, and Jack has a very congested cough. He missed school again today. Hope they get rid of this junk very soon and that the rest of the family doesn't get it.

Ashley is on her way to Mpls right this minute. She is going to the Acquire of the Fire concert at the Target Center with her youth group. Hope all goes okay and that the trip is safe, especially since we live up north, my kids severely lack street smarts. And I suppose, I also hope that she has fun, but not too much fun if you catch my drift. Will be happy when she's home again.

I haven't snapped any pictures lately. I sent Jeromy to the game last night with the camera but he was too worried about what people would think if he sat in the stands snapping. Like they might think he's a proud parent or something. Right Jeromy? Don't worry, my paybacks are coming. Maybe a little too harsh though, Jeromy said yesterday that he wants to learn how to post on the blog. Just remember honey, I COULD be worse.

Today for your viewing pleasure, we have a small but choice selection of random family pictures taken through the past couple years.

Happy Friday!

I'm sure this is the image that people see when Jeromy's working in their area.

Peeper.

Deep Thought By Jack Handey

I remember one day I was at grandpa's farm and I asked him about sex. He sort of smiled and said, "Maybe instead of telling you what sex is, we should go out to the horse pasture and I'll show you." So we did, and there on the ground, were my parents having sex.

So I don't know if all of you bloggers know but Kim left me. She went out to visit her mom who was ill in the hospital for a couple of days. She had a virus in her liver but is on the road to recovery. Her mom is going to be fine. I thought while she was gone I could learn how to blog but had to wait until my sweetie came home to show me how. So here i am first time blogger long time blogger looker at er. Probably will be one of my last blogs as what I have typed thus far has taken me 15 minutes thanks to my chicken pecker technique of typing. I finally got the bug that our whole family had last week temp of 103 fun fun! Well i hope this finds everybody in good health and enjoying the beautiful weekend , bring on spring!!! Bye for now.

We got this email from a friend of ours today and it just cracked me up so much I thought I'd share it. The email was titled, One Tough Kid.

Everyone was home sick today except for Charly and myself. I was teacher helper at Jackson's class today so sent Charly to ECFE without me. Weird being at Jack's class without him.

Not sure how many people Charly suckered because she came home with another birthday crown like the one she got on her ACTUAL birthday last December. I guess a girl's got to do what a girl's got to do to feel special once in a while.

Hope this nasty bug stuff leaves everybody's system REAL soon.

Oh my goodness do the kids get stir crazy when they aren't feeling up to par. I think I am actually losing hair. We had some peaceful moments between the crying, fighting, teasing, whining, phone ringing, dog barking. Aye. They made turtles today and that took some good peaceful quality time, thank goodness. Here are some shots. After making them they pretended their turtles were swimming in the sea. And then the fighting began again. Looking forward to healthy days again.

I've been trying my best to disinfect the place and kill all possible germs that have attacked our home. I bought this plant based cleaner. I LOVE it! No strong fumes and it really works well.

These are pictures I took over a week ago of a rose from Valentine's Day.

Deep Thought By Jack Handey

If you lose your job, your marriage, and your mind all in one week, try to lose your mind first, because then the other stuff won't matter as much.