6 in the Sticks

The other night Charly had Daddy & Me night with her ECFE class. She was so excited to bring her daddy to class with her. I had put the flyer on the fridge so he'd remember. As he's walking out the door he was reading the flyer and said, "Uh, I have some questions about this Daddy & Me night. This says Music, Movement, & Stories. Daddy doesn't really do music and movement." I'm laughing so hard inside as I'm pushing him out the door telling him to go, and it will be fine.

He ran into one of his college buddies who now has a boy in Charly's class and he was really banking on him being there. He wasn't. Jeromy walked in five minutes late, which was probably killing him inside. He recognized one daddy. And smelled some others. He was so disgusted at how when he walked into the classroom it smelled as if a crowd of gents had forgotten their daily shower, especially in the feet area. He said the worst part was that they took their shoes off while on the carpet part of the room, which never happens when there is regular class and kids and parents are always on the carpet with shoes on. I'm sure Charly was so happy and proud to be there with him. She loves her daddy so much.

Earlier in the day Jeromy was getting ready for work and had his shirt and tie on and Charly said he needed to wear some stuff. When she was done adding her touch, he had a homemade bead necklace, a bright green fluffy boa, and a cardboard birthday crown. Disturbing how natural he seemed with it all on.

My dad and sister are up this weekend. We're about to head out ice fishing. I was debating about entering the crappie contest on the lake near our house. After asking my dad if he wanted to do that with me, and twisting Jeromy's arm, I worried about all of the hurah that may be involved in the contest. So, after some more twisting of the arms we decided that we'll hit some small lakes that we're familiar with. Hopefully it'll be like the other time I went and I caught my limit. Christine said she didn't care, she just wanted to actually catch some fish, as she's never had much luck the few times she's gone out with Jeromy. I have to say, I think he's lost his touch a bit. We've all been skunked so much this year whenever we go with Jeromy. Funny thing is, I catch them like crazy when I'm with Jackson. Hhmmmm. Maybe his touch was transferred. Maybe I'll rub his head for luck before we leave.

Ashley is watching the kids while we go out. As people with children know, you can't actually fish when they are with, although our kids are getting the hang of it and it isn't as bad as it was a year ago. Jackson is a little upset that he's not going. We reassured him that next weekend is family fish weekend and he'll be going then.

Wish us luck!

Thank you for your good luck wishes! We caught some fish! Well, I really didn't, okay, and neither did my dad, but hey, it's all good. Team effort. But if one were to actually tally, one might say that Christine "schooled" us all. And Jeromy gets the first fish prize.

First fish.

First hole.

Christine, Jeromy & Dad.

Christine.

Jeromy and me.

Dad, me, Jeromy.

Christine, Dad, Jeromy.

Christine, me, Jeromy.

Enough with the posing already, time to get back to business!

I think the total we came home with was eleven. The fish were very finicky today.

Surf and turf! We ate very well tonight, as you can imagine. Fried fish and T-bone steaks. Yummy.

Today was such a BEAUTIFUL day weather wise as well. So gorgeous. I think we all came home with a tan! We missed the little ones getting out there with us, but these kinds of days come few and far between and it was an absolutely wonderful day.

But now I must hit the hay. YAAAWWNn. Good night.

My dad and I took a snowmobile ride to where Jeromy and I shot a moose two seasons ago so I could  look for sheds but the snow was still pretty deep and had a sugar like texture so it was extremely hard to walk through the snow to look around. There wasn't any real fresh tracks but there was a couple of recent ones anyway. I love this spot, it is such a beautiful spot. Pictures do not give it any justice. I wish I could be buried here when my time comes to head to the pearly gates. That is when I am very old, and have traveled the world and spoiled my grandchildren just short of pissing my kids off. Not due to a freak accident caused by my accident prone husband. Lol. I'm thinking too much again. Yikes.

This is where our moose came in to our calls and where we took him. Next he walked where I put the dotted trail to where he dropped where the arrow is pointing. The terrain is very treacherous but in any of the pictures, you wouldn't be able to tell.

The tracks on the right are snow covered moose tracks.

My dad. Looking around for tracks. I must say, it is quite hard to take a picture while driving a snowmobile. Much easier while driving a car.

Sunday sled rides while Dad was packing up to head back home.

Don't know how well you can see this but the kids are waving goodbye to me in the above and below photo.

Back home again. Complete with all limbs in tact. Thank you God. Again, look who's driving. He gives me the heebie jeebies. I hear him say, "oops", WAY too much around the house, just hope it doesn't involve the children. Better the china than the children I always say. Lol

Then Jackson and Jeromy packed the sled and went out fishing for a little while. They both caught a crappie.

Whoops. Saw a bit on the news this morning regarding angry parents upset with Spencer's gag gift stores across the nation. (This used to be one of my favorite stores twenty five years ago hanging around Southdale in most of my spare time.) The news claimed that the store has gone too far since twenty years ago. Some parents went in for a purchase and saw what they took as pornographic items being sold to a couple of teenagers. The parents confronted the store clerk who then explained to them that it is okay for him to sell those items to them, the only thing he is not allowed to sell to them by law is the lighter fluid.

So, these angered parents went into the store with a camera, tried to post the video of the items being sold to minors on Youtube. They were red flagged on Youtube with a warning of the material not being suitable for children under eighteen years old. Hhmmmmm.

This reminded me of my Best Buy scenario. I haven't forgotten about it, but did unintentionally put on the back burner. The gift card got returned.

My mom hasn't been feeling up to par lately. She has been in and out of the hospital and gearing up to go back in soon. Up to this point there has been a lot of tests done as a process of elimination. It has been so nerve racking, especially for my mom. We hope that the tests within the next couple of weeks will provide accurate answers and she'll be on a speedy recovery. Thank you so much to those who have sent the get well wishes, I'm sure once she's feeling better you may hear from her. Right now, she's pretty exhausted and her phone rings off the hook between her doctors, my brother and myself. She's got you on her mind though.

Not sure when I'll have a chance to get on here again so will leave you with a few rednecks and deep thoughts.

Peace out.

Deep Thoughts By Jack Handey

Isn't it funny how whenever a party is winding down at somebody's house, you can always keep it going by talking a lot, and eating and drinking whatever is left.

One time I don't think you should listen to your body is when it says "I'm dead".

I wish somebody would invent a fruit that had no seeds, tasted delicious, and would scream when you ate it.

My Star Wars dude. He bought a uniform with his job money.

Jack likes the red picture the best because it looks just like the movie.

Jackson had his 2nd kindergarten screening this morning and Charly had her first. His didn't go so well. He had never been to the building before, and he just hasn't been himself the past two days and just wasn't having anything to do with what all of these strange grown ups were trying to coax him into doing. He ended up crying, I ended up crying because it pisses me off that I push my kids so much into doing uncomfortable things just to make someone else happy. Needless to say, thank God for understanding people. He'll have his screening again soon and I'm sure he'll be fine.

Jeromy's parents are coming up for the weekend for a visit and I'm sure we'll get some of us out fishing again. Hopefully, Jeromy will get an opportunity to catch a lunker in honor of his birthday on Sunday. As he feels he's so old. Not much sympathy from me as I am older. I told him I'd be happy to trade birthdays with him if he'd like.

" Hey! It's my birthday!!"

We hope you have a wonderful day today birthday boy! We love you and are so happy you're apart of our lives!

My in-laws came up last weekend for a little visit. We thought the weather was supposed to be slightly above zero but no can do. We still managed to get out and go ice fishing. The wind was so brutal though. The depth finders showed there were fish at the bottom of the lake, but they weren't biting.

I had forgotten our camera but was banking on Linda carrying hers as we were heading to the lake with separate vehicles. She forgot hers as well. Too bad too, because we could've gotten some fun fun pictures of all of the excitement that went on even though we didn't get any fish.

The kids had such a good time chasing after Grandma, then trying to build a fort with snow chunks which ended up being an island in a pretend lake for some minnows to snow/sun bathe on. After a bit, Grandma crawled around with Charly on her back, and Jackson standing on the back of her legs as if she was a sled for a sled dog team. I think she was pretending she was a horse though. I REALLY wished we had our camera for that! Yes, I still cringe at the sight of my kids getting horse back rides. For those wondering why, I broke both my collar bones at the age of 4yr from falling from a horse back ride. Very painful. It put my mind at ease knowing there might be soft snow to break their fall.

Sunday morning Les and Jeromy went out and came home with one nice sized crappie though. The birthday fish.

Linda made "Better than sex" cake, she called it "Better than crappie cake". And we sang Happy Birthday to Jeromy. After looking at this shot, the song must have been a little loud for the kids.

Make a wish!

After Grandma and Grandpa headed for home, the birthday boy decided he wanted to get out fishing again as the temp was going up a bit. Jackson didn't feel like it. But Charly piped up, "I'll go fishing with Daddy!" That was cool too, because it was her first time ever going ice fishing with her dad. Too bad she fell asleep in the van and woke up when Jeromy started the van to head home after not catching anything. The story of how she wouldn't wake up is a little fishy, but we'll let that pass. After all, it WAS his birthday.

Not sure how he played it off as the fist words out of her mouth when waking up were, "Are we going fishing?" Poor Charly. Another time soon hopefully, and no napping allowed because mommy doesn't care for staying up with you until near 1am on a school night.

This picture was taken as they were loading up to go.

Deep Thought By Jack Handey

If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all of the time, for no good reason.

We had a whopping 46 degrees today. Global warming. Anyway, one thing the kids and I will be sad to see go is our homemade ice rink. The kids and I headed out there this afternoon and skated like it was our last time. Actually, I brought my skates out and realized that the ice was cracking a lot from just the kids alone so figured I'd better sit this one out if I wanted the water to freeze smooth again if it gets below freezing tonight.

My mom is still in Mpls waiting for a second day of tests and a liver biopsy. Her spirits are good and she's very happy with the specialists that are trying to rule out everything possible. Hopefully she will be done and on a speedy recovery by the end of the week.

Let's see, what else is new. I've been trying to get my family into more raw fruits and vegetables. Baked and broiled meats/fish. I bought the book, The Cure By Dr. Timothy Brantley, and read it immediately over a year ago. The whole time I read his book I was like, duh. How many years have Dr's told you to eat more fruits and vegetables and exercise more. But what I really found interesting is the different stories from people who had cancer, diabetes, MS, Alzheimer's that followed this simple routine and cured their diseases. One of the key things about eating the fruits and vegetable was to eat PURE. Which kind of follows into organic, basically no pesticide and processed foods, again, people have said for years. In any case, I have slowly but surely been turning a new leaf within the past year. The more I do, the easier it gets. I learned more about what certain foods can do or cause depending on what's added to it, actually do to your body, starting from my children's pediatrician. The Cure, opened my eyes more, but it was still hard to change my ways, even though I was more strict on what the young ones have to eat than the rest of the family. Now I see little take off's from that book on tv info-mercials. The whole "detoxification" in just one little herbal pill. C'mon, get real. I guess if you're going to fall for that ca-ca, don't forget to pick up your latest copy of the Enquirer to make yourself feel better. You're on your own.

The struggle with finding the pure foods, if you're like our family and just can't fathom a salad and piece of fruit each meal, is actually zeroing out the good foods in the store. I don't think the store in my town actually sells real cheese, everything has been processed and pasteurized. Juices, they get you with their false label that reads, "100% real juice". How many bottles of that can you find no "made from concentrate" in the small print below? Pretty darn hard for me. Then again, it's been ten years since I've shopped in a REAL grocery store. Seriously though, I figure, it's not going to hurt to try anyway. It has been a slow process for us to change our ways but hopefully will get there soon. I do get an inner gratitude that when my kids say they are full, and there is still food on the plate that I have broke the chain by not saying" You will not leave this table until you are done with your food" or "Whose a member of the clean plate club?" Maybe in some small way this will prevent them from having health issues as they grow older and will be thankful that we're not doing what all of their friends are doing, like chugging down the pop and chips every day. Maybe.

Anyway, on to the pictures from today.

You may laugh at their hockey net but it was one of Jackson's designs. He's a bit ingenuitive and precocious at times. You have to watch out for those shy ones.

Below, Charly refused to give Jackson his puck back but smiled for me so I'd be distracted from her teasing her brother. It worked.

Charly was jumping up and down on the ice and was real steady. She hasn't even learned any cheers yet! She's gifted as well. I think she ended up with all of my energy from my cheerleading years as she is a little singing, dancing, cheerleader most of the time. She really cracks us up.

Good bye ice.

Jackson stayed home from school again yesterday. He woke up with a fever and wasn't feeling good. He basically wanted nothing to do with food except broth and fluids. By nighttime his fever was at 101.5. I gave him some ibuprofen and he threw up within ten minutes of taking it. I remembered that you're not supposed to give anymore medicine when a child throws it up because there's a greater risk of overdosing as a good portion of the medicine is already in the kid's system. Anyway, gave him some water and within the hour his temp was up to 103.1. I gave him Tylenol and wiped a luke warm washcloth all over him. I called the hospital and they told me to give the Tylenol at the most an hour and see where he's at. My poor guy.

His fever went down exactly 64 minutes after that to 101. After that, I kept with the wet washcloth and checking on him until almost 4am. Not much sleep but I am so glad that he's back to a 99 temp.

I am getting so frustrated at how often he's been sick this year, we're talking a new bug almost every week. I hope this was the last of it. Today is a home day so hope he gets better fast. Although, I'll watch him as Jeromy said his teacher said that someone in his class has strep-throat. Aye.

Today is Mom's biopsy. I hope all goes well and that she'll start feeling like herself again very soon. That whole situation has been extremely frustrating. I've been doing a lot of research as the Dr's continue with tests. Mom's been teasing me because I've kept a notebook and have written everything down, and then head to the Internet. I understand it all, my problem is remembering it all. And pronouncing it all. Good to reference my notes. I think it's helped a little as far as knowing what to expect in some cases, and what else to ask the doctors. Mom has a high pain tolerance, but has a hard time not knowing what to expect, so it's been nice to have the Internet at our fingertips telling us in detail how her procedures are going to happen. Eases her mind a little to prepare. Anyway, really hope all goes smooth today and she remains comfortable. My mommy.

This morning Charly woke up at the usual time but I was so groggy from being up so much, I popped in Snow White for her on the computer next to our bed so I could rest just a little bit longer. I dozed off for a little bit and woke up as I couldn't move my foot. I looked to the end of the bed to see our fat cat Cally comfortably beached upon my foot, intensely watching Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Our dog/cat cracks me up. She is not like any other cat I've known. She is so silly. And the stuff she puts up with. Okay, so I'm glad we have her. But nobody get any ideas to just give us pets because we have them already.

What's up pussy cat? Whoooaaaaa oh whoaaaaaaaa!

Below she's on guard because Moose was heading down the stairs. It's pretty funny to watch them play together and antagonize each other.

Jeromy had another talk radio debut this morning. I called him because I see one of his clients gave him some soap made from goat milk and rainwater and I wanted to ask where the heck he worked yesterday. He answers his cell phone, "Hey. Can I call you back? I'm on hold with MPR. I'm gonna ask a question about the mold/mildew in our bathroom. They're hav'n a mold guy on today." I say, "Yeah, but don't our names and where we're from."

So we tuned in on my clock radio just in time to hear, "We are tuning in to our caller, Jeromy from (I'll say),LorraineBobbit, what is your question?" Urgh, now we'll have to dodge the paparazzi. lol.

The kids were kind of confused until I explained that Dad is calling from his cell phone to the radio station, yada, yada.

The "mold guy" :) said what we were expecting. Gut the bathroom asap. I often wonder if that is the foundation for the reason of our kids getting sick so much, mainly Jackson and if it's just coincidence that someone else in his class is ill. He's missed too much school for my comfort. We've had someone look at the mold/mildew, and instruct us what to do. I've done it. It came back. Not a good sign. Don't you just love old houses? In any case, I am thankful we have a house.

Ashley is heading out of town for the day tomorrow with her choir class. They are in a contest I think with other schools. Ashley will be singing a solo. I am hoping that all goes well with the sickos in my family so maybe I can go see her. She is very nervous but I'm sure she will do beautifully. It's been fun hearing her practice her songs at the piano. I've been pushing her to play a song from one of my favorite Jane Austin movies, Sense and Sensibility, because at times, her voice sounds so classical. Hope she schools the room.

My mom is so proud of her as it has brought back memories of she and her siblings being asked to sing at school assemblies. There definitely is a gift on that side of the family when it comes to music and dance. I guess I have it on both sides of the family now that I am remembering my grandparents and their square dancing competitions. I used to love to look at their costumes when I stayed at their house. My parents danced pretty well together too. I remember that I loved to watch them dance together.

Well, back to our day. I suppose I'll get the Easter decos out today since I removed the Merry Christmas sign out of the ground the other day since the ground thawed a little. There was about four inches of snow on our van this morning. Not sure what else is in store for us, but love how the clean white snow covers all of the dirty muck that comes every spring.

We got the phone call yesterday evening, our baby girl puppy came into the world yesterday afternoon. We are so excited. She is a chocolate lab and will stay with her birth mom for the next ten weeks before we get to bring her home. We have a good intuition with her and know that she will be a very good "bird dog". We have decided to name her after an amazing, intelligent, women from the early 1900's that would not accept giving in, in any situation. "The unsinkable Molly Brown". Our baby pup's name is Molly Brown Flom. We'll just call her Molly. Our family is happy and we can't wait to bring her home. Can't wait to get pictures of her on here too.

This family is finally starting to feel better. Jack has really had the brunt of this last bug that came our way. Poor guy felt bad that he struggled to make it to the bathroom at times.

My mom is still waiting for more tests to be done this week. My family and I are really hoping that the doctors can get to the bottom of this and that she can just focus on recovery very soon.

My brother came up and he, Jeromy, and myself got out fishing on Saturday afternoon. I really can't remember what we ended up coming home with, I'll say we came home with twelve crappies and four sunfish. I'm just so proud of the fact that I didn't get skunked again and that out of the six crappies I caught, I had a few nice ones. I really had to work for them. Tricky little fish.

Jermy. HElloo!

Brian. The Thinker.

Fish.

On the way home, we passed an area that had just been logged. Some deer had come around 6pm to eat the tree tops I'm sure. I think we counted about fifteen. I tried to snap some shots but my eyes could see better than the camera. Maybe you can catch them in the shots below.

Yesterday Jackson and Charly finally colored Easter eggs.

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Deep Thought By Jack Handey:

Whenever you see a bunch of Italian guys talking Italian, just walk up to them and start talking fake Italian. They may not understand you exactly, but at least everyone will get a nice warm "Italian" feeling.

We've felt the green today for St Patty's day and we're not even Irish! It's just fun.

One of these things is not like the other............

I said to Charly, "You made another leprechaun?" Her reply was, " They're not the same Mom, see? One has hair, and one does not.

I'm getting a hankering for corned beef and cabbage. Yummy. Maybe we'll settle for green eggs and ham.

The kids were pretending to bear bait and hunt yesterday. Jeromy was out with them and snapped quite a few shots. He wanted to put on the blog before we left but worried about the his time frame. So, he'll get to it when we get home.

We're heading to my mom's for the weekend. She came home last week and is still waiting for more tests. The Doc's are still working on it. She has more tests to come within the next couple of weeks. It was nice to hear her voice yesterday as it was the first day within the last two months that she was peppy and wide awake all day long. Hope she has more of those.

Well, I was afraid I spoke to soon. Our lovely little girl puppy might be a boy. There was some miscommunication as far as where our rank was in picking order. So, our Molly might be a Mike. We're really not going to name it Mike if it's a boy but you get the gist.

We wish everyone a wonderful Easter weekend and may your baskets be full of chocolate eggs instead of chocolate colored bunny terds. Thank you Easter Bunny, Bock! Bock!

I waited. I waited and waited for Jeromy to do a "blog entry", as he calls it. So, since I think he forgot, go figure, I thought I'd speed things along a tad.

These are pictures that he took of the kids one day a week or so ago of the kids playing outside. They were pretending to bear hunt. They loaded their wagons up with logs and pretend bear bait and set a site up near their deer stand. They played and played and spent so much thought and effort into this, it was cute.

We are looking forward to doing absolutely nothing this weekend except the chores we've put off around the house. Jeromy plans on working on the brakes on his car. He's been getting pretty excited for his turkey hunting season coming up. I didn't get picked this year, it was probably a blessing in disguise as Ashley is supposed to be getting her braces on and she has a play as well. Kind of hard to reschedule.

I guess we missed Jessica last night when Jeromy and I were out on our dinner and a movie night. She's not so good, actually terrible at returning our calls and emails, unless she needs something. I hope that'll change in the near future. Kids. But for the most part, she's doing good. Working and going to school and spends her free time with her boyfriend and friends. I can't believe she graduates this year. I really have no clue what happened to the time, it kind of creeps up and bites you. I still can't believe I have my twenty year class reunion this year. I went to the five year reunion and I feel like that was just five years ago. I remember I showed my friends pictures of my babies, Jessica 3yr and Ashley who was less than year old at the time. I'm sure it freaks some of those friends out now who are just starting their families when I tell them that Jessica graduates and Ashley is in high school. Time, why'd you run away?

Deep Thought By Jack Handey

When I think of all the arguments Marta and I had, I realize how silly most of them were. And it makes me wonder why she would want to argue over such stupid things. I think I'll go ask her.

I couldn't take it anymore. The previous owner of our home painted the counter tops in the kitchen and bathroom, and over the linoleum floor in the kitchen.

She must have done a pretty good job initially as we didn't notice it when we first bought the house. After a few years, and a few scratches became apparent, it was clear that it was not a plain linoleum floor, but a painted linoleum floor.  I'm assuming the linoleum is from 1968 when our home was built as it looks it. And as much as I dislike the style, as some would say it's coming back into style, I feel it should be left in the past with bell bottoms and spandex. But anything will be nicer than chipped paint on the floor, especially with kids and animals in the house. So I started stripping last weekend.

I thought it would be easy as I've never had a problem stripping paint off of things before as you just have to, "set it, and forget it", for a while. Not the case with the floor. This small space above took three generous coats of stripper and a lot, in fact too much scrubbing, scraping, and wiping. Urgh.

I would highly recommend that you refrain from painting the kitchen floor no matter how influential those home makeover shows glamorize simple fix its to beautify your house. Unless of course, you plan on stripping it yourself if not rip the whole thing up and redo the floors. Call me mad, but I kept imagining whopping the previous home owning ditz upside the head while asking, WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?! One can only dream though.

So the next day, after a good nights sleep and a rejuvenated attitude, I took another trip to the hardware store and found something more powerful. HALELEUIA!!!!!!

It's been going A LOT easier and the hardest part is working around the meal times and family wanting to dart through the kitchen for something. I will be glad when it's done.