Our Little Wildlife Project

The younglings have been re-released into their natural habitat. An adjustment period will be necessary. We are hoping that the reintroduction will be deemed successful.

(School is out and summer vacation has begun)

Fugitive

If you were to drive down a certain street in a certain town in the Midwest this morning at exactly 7:26am, this is what you would have seen.

• One father with a dirty knee climbing back into his car, now late for work.

• A gaggle of giddy kids, the smaller ones still in their pajamas, the older ones now extremely close to missing the bus.

• One wet haired mother, clad in a red bathrobe and flipflops, carrying a very large and very guilty looking white and black bunny.

Two for Togetherness. A meme.

Twelve years ago, Chilihead tagged me for this meme. Being the procrastinator that I am, I'm finally getting around to it. Twelve years later.





2 things you compliment your husband on while in his presence.
1. How great he looks in his brown corduroy pants.
2. He rocks at the internet.


2 compliments you make about your spouse to your friends.
1. He knows a little bit about EVERYTHING.
2. He is a master lawn-smith.

2 traits you married him/her for.
1. His heart for God.
2. His commitment.

2 days you cherished the most with your husband being together.
Okay, the obvious answers would be our wedding day and the birth of our kids, so I'm going to say those are a given and require myself to list two OTHERS.
1. We lived in Grand Forks North Dakota when the city was flooded in '97. The whole town was evacuated and we fled our home with our two little babies in a line of cars that was miles and miles long. It was scary but I felt safe with him. We made it though that day together.
2. When I had a miscarriage. He just held me and let me cry.

2 material things you could give your husband if you just inherited a fortune.
1. A gift certificate to Tiger Direct. Because there is NO WAY I can pick out computer stuff for him.
2. A riding lawn mower and a house with a big yard to go with it.

2 things you would miss the most if she/he left for two weeks.
1. Know that he is there when I hear scary noises that could possibly be axe-murderers.
2. Sitting and talking with him after all the kids leave the dinner table.

2 thoughts that crossed your mind when you first met/saw your spouse.
1. Oh my gosh. Look at those eyelashes.
2. He's a junior AND a football player. Wow.

2 favorite dates
1. When we were teenagers, we spent an evening ice skating on the river. It was dark and we were the only ones on the ice. The huge slow snowflakes were falling down through through the light of the street lamp. It was a magical moment.
2. The midnight showing of Star Wars Episode Three. It wasn't really a date, some of his buddies were there too, but he let me come along. We are geeks like that.

2 funny odd things you love.
1. Can it be a love/hate thing? Three words: Restless leg syndrome.
2. He loves the movie "The Last of the Mohicans" and can hum the soundtrack. And does. Often.

2 places you have lived with your spouse.
1. The ghetto
2. married student housing

2 favorite vacations
1. Omaha zoo and stealing firewood from an old man's garage
2. Chicago in the winter and the dangerous trip he made to the downtown pharmacy for our sick little Caedmon.

2 people I tag
1. Melanie, Yes they are all hers.
2. The lady who hides in her bathroom.

I Am Not the Center of My Universe.

I was sitting around, wallowing in my own self pity, and minding my own business. The last three days have been rough and I have allowed myself to just sit and marinate in my own whine. I have been sick, the three littlest kids were doing everything they could to make sure I didn't get any rest, and the cupboards were almost empty. Or so we thought. I didn't really feel up to a trip to the grocery store, so I was treated to the lovely complaints from my kids about how we didn't have aaaaaannnyy thing to eat. They didn't like the cereal choices and bean soup for supper wasn't going over very well. And then I read my dear friend's blog.

She would like you to think that she is as dull as dishwater, but don't let her fool you. She is wonderful and vibrant and so generous and makes the best cup of coffee for miles around. She also just wrote about some heartwrenching yet encouraging things . Things that make me feel so petty. I was sobered by what she shared and the photo she posted is stuck in my mind forever. If you want to be yanked out of a self centered funk, go see what "T" has been talking about.

Testing, testing, 1 2 3

Raise your hand if my blog crashes on your computer.

I am having problems with my blog and Internet Explorer. They just can't stop bickering and it usually results in all sorts of errors. Interestingly enough, it doesn't happen when I use FireFox. Give me a status check people.

I hate to say it, but the argyle might have to go.......

How many links can I put in one post?

Ahhhh. Monday morning. It's so hard to drag myself out of bed on a Monday, but once I do, I'm ready to attack the week. Funny how that energy fizzles out by, say, Tuesday. Heh.

Nate is back. Let's all breath a collective sigh of relief. *Phew*

He was out of town for five days, helping his parents "Up North". They have a cabin on a beautiful lake in Minnesota and they were getting a whole lot of work done up there. I don't like to tell the internet while he is out of town. I prefer to let you know that he was gone after he is home. You know, axe murderers and everything. But he's back now, and I can sleep in peace again. (I suppose it would help if I quit watching shows about horrible savage polar bears and psycho-pregnant-lady-kidnappers.)

The kids are done with baseball practices and the actual real games begin tonight. We are entering the month of the year where we either eat supper at 4:30 or 8:00. Any great crockpot recipes would be greatly appreciated. That is if I remember to start the crock pot during the day. The next month will be pretty intense, but I just love it. Baseball season is so festive. It's the true essence of summer for us. Go Yellowjackets! Go Cardinals!

I found a new fun little website for kids. Orisinal. The games are so stinking adorable. I'm trying to steer my kids toward games like these instead of games like these. The pretty music and sweet little graphics don't go over as well with an eleven year old boy though.

A couple photos to go with previous posts. Just got them developed.

Remember the worms in the tub?



Here we have Tyler and the thorn that impaled him. I swear, it looked MUCH bigger in real life.




Shannon asked about what kind of a vehicle we drive. Sometime I'll have to tell you all about our twelve passenger van that we call "The Beast". But for now, let me direct you to some photos of the interior, with WAY too many people inside.

Off to refill my coffee mug and "attack" my day. Yeah right.

Friday Flashback-Minivan Style

Just taking this opportunity to remember what it looked like when we fit in a regular type vehicle:

And also, remember this a few weeks ago? I found these close ups in a long lost file on the computer. Who knows what else my hard drive is hiding from me!

Why I've Been Scarce

I have recently jumped on the "Lost" bandwagon. Could I possibly be the only person in the whole wide world who doesn't watch this show? In order to catch up, we* have been renting the first season DVDs and I am totally hooked. I just returned discs two and three and rented four and five. I'm such a loser. And a chicken.

You know how on the show the "unknown monster thing" tears up trees and stuff? It kind of reminds me of a two year old in a patch of lilies of the valley. Know how I know that? Because today my little Jack, who is unrelated to Jack on the show, stood in my lilies of the valley and ripped them right out of the ground, tossing shiny green leaves all over like a savage beast. Not really sure what he was thinking....

I love my flower beds but they are suffering at the hands of my children. Gemma was found gnawing on the chives this morning. Countless plants have been trampled as they tried to emerge through the soil and mulch. Some have been sacrificed for the "greater good" aka, digging for worms. All but three of the little round buds on the peonies have disappeared AGAIN. This is the third year with minimal blooms. I admit it though, they do scream, "Pick me! Pick me!"

I wish I had some lilac bushes, then my life would be complete. I pick them over at my parents' house, bring them home, and then I take hits off of the lilac bong all day. The scent is absolutely intoxicating.



*Nate, Tyler, and I. Yes, we are such responsible parents. He's eleven, he can handle it.

Getting crazy with the camera phone

A couple new things around the Laundry Pile.

You remember our bunny Banjo. He's not dead, in fact he is thriving. Check out his new toy, I mean OUR new toy.



Isn't that great? Banjo now has a little harness. It is intended for small dogs such as Chihuahuas or little mini wiener dogs. Come to find out, it also works for excessively large rabbits. Here he is in action.





I'm thinking that now we can take him on little walks around the neighborhood. Wouldn't that turn heads? A woman strolling down the street with a gaggle of children and a rabbit on a leash. Our neighborhood already thinks that we are a daycare, now we can be an animal shelter too. Banjo is enjoying the new found freedom. He likes to nibble on the grass and dig holes in the yard. Nate may murder him.

Here is something else new. One of the children has been trying out his super powers on our silverware:




Maybe he is using sheer mind power, I don't know. I DO know that it's getting difficult to find a straight utensil to eat my dinner with. Gah.

Friday Flashback- Bubbly Pancakes

You asked about the pancake story and now you get it.

Growing up, our vacations were camping vacations. We had a tent and an Astro Van and we saw the world. Well, we saw a lot of the Midwest and little bit of the Rocky mountains. We took a lot of trips growing up, but this story comes from one of the most memorable.

First of all, I want to give my parents props for taking all six of us camping. Vacations are hard with a grumbling un-grateful teenager. I know. I was one. We would drive all day, set up the tent that evening, sleep, and then pack everything up the next morning and take off again. Sometimes we stayed in one place for a few days, but STILL! Our little family has dabbled in camping but we have not yet tackled the "moving every day" type of travel. My children want to live long enough to come back home. It's stressful enough staying in one place; ask the people camping next to our gargantuan tent. They can hear the yelling. "Caedmon! How many times have we told you to stop jumping on the air mattress?!"

Aaaaanyway. My Dad made a little "camp kitchen" for my mom. It was a little wooden box, maybe a foot and a half by a foot and a half. The front of it folded down and she packed a lot of her camping supplies in the camp kitchen. Inside were aluminum foil, silverware, paper towels, salt and pepper, etc. This particular morning, Dad was making breakfast for us. He was frying up pancakes and had oiled the skillet with some vegetable oil from a little tupperware container in the camp kitchen. He made a big pitcher of orange juice and we all sat down and dug in. It wasn't until after we washed our pancakes down with a few sips of the oj that we all started foaming at the mouth. "Oh Ma! I don't want Old Yeller to die." Come to find out, the "oil" was NOT oil. It was dishsoap. The pancakes tasted fine, but when we took a drink, the bubbles were activated. We all had a good laugh and made sure to supervise Dad's cooking in the future. He has become a legend among chefs.

A Moment of Silence Please

I mourn.

Trivial Tuesday

Just a list of nothing.

1. Today was a bad hair-day. I'm talking "helmet" hair, bleh. I'm hanging on to hope that tomorrow will be better. These things are so unpredictable.
2. I'm pretty sure that if there is pop (or soda for you soda people) in heaven, it's A&W Rootbeer. I had myself a ice cold glass of the nectar of the gods today and it is so doggone smooth. It's like buttah.
3. Sometimes, when Nate and I are sitting side by side at our respective computers, I get really mad and yell at him. "You're hogging all the bandwidth again!" Stupid game. I wish he would just cancel. *grumble*
4. If your husband asks you to hold the ladder while he climbs up to the very tip top to unclog a clogged up rain gutter, you might want an umbrella. I know this because I was standing underneath my husband when the putrid water started spraying and dumping down on me. Good times.
5. A golf ball sized ball can clog a downspout quite nicely.
6. Tyler found another tick. I'm so proud of myself, I pulled it out all by myself. Then I died.

The Hunter Becomes the Hunted

In my last post, I eluded to the fact that the morels are popping up all over the place. We did our fair share of hunting this weekend. The kids had a great time exploring Grandpa and Grandma's woods. Caedmon managed to find a tiny little baby toad in a sea of undergrowth. He has toad radar; it's his super power. We scoured ever square inch of their land, and came home with a delicious bounty. We love to eat them floured with a bit of salt and pepper and fried up in a whole lot of butter. Mmmmm. We came home full and happy. But we did not come home alone.

We were followed. As soon as I saw the first tick on Camryn, my skin started crawling. The ticks love Camryn, she seems to get more than everyone else. She pulls them off herself, because she knows that I am TERRIFIED of them. I can handle spiders and other creepy crawly things, but ticks give me the heebie jeebies. It's not that I'm scared of Lyme's disease, maybe I should be. It's just that ewwww, I don't want some little bug crawling on me. So here's how the terror went down. After being in the woods all evening Saturday, we came home and put the kids to bed. As I was stepping into bed myself, my tick radar kicked in. (It's MY super power) Right there, on the floor beside my bed was a tiny brown bug. *shudder* Of course I freaked out and refused to sleep in my bed. Nate was on the computer in the family room, so I decided to sleep on the futon. I'm laying there, feeling all creepy crawly, but I finally begin to doze off. Suddenly, out of the clear blue sky, a tick drops onto my temple. I was about to barf I was so freaked out. Just ask Nate, I was on the verge of tears.


I searched for this fun little photo to show you all what the blood sucking bringers-of-death look like. Can you even imagine how hard it was for me to look at fifty images of these little terrors? Again, EWWW!

I'm going to bed now. Pray for me.

Friday Flashback and some other stuff too

Busy busy busy. It seems that since spring has sprung, I am spend less time on the computer and more time outside. I guess that's a good thing, especially for my family. We have realized that if Jack is outside, he needs a grown-up following him AT ALL TIMES. The kid is an escape artist if I ever saw one. Here he is, trying to get into the gated kitchen by using the overturned vacuum cleaner as a stepping stool. This year he reeeeally wants to be at the park with the big kids, but the park is at the end of our street. Running down the middle of the street alone just isn't a good idea when you are two. So I am officially his personal body guard, protecting him from himself.



We have done a bit of gardening, not veggies yet but mostly moving flowers around. I keep waiting for one of our trees to start growing money so that I can make a big trip to the nursery and pick up all kinds of plants. Yeah, I don't see that happening anytime soon. We have nice green trees, but it seems that they are of the non-money bearing species. Gardening can be expensive, especially when your husband loves his lawn almost as much as he loves you. So we are buying lots of not-fun type things as well. Weed and Feed, turf builder, blah, blah, blah.

Tyler was impaled last night. That's a great way to start off a paragraph isn't it? Really grabs the attention of the reader. We were doing a bit of mushroom hunting (morels are out in full force people) and he took a running dive under a locust tree. I'm pretty sure it wasn't on purpose, the kid totally tripped. Anyway, when he stood up he realized that his chest hurt a little bit and upon further inspection, we found a small black dot. It was the end of a thorn that was stuck straight into his skin. Nate had his Swiss Army knife and pulled out the tweezers. He managed to do a minor surgery right there in the woods and pulled out a thorn that was between 1/3 and 1/2 inch long. I'm kind of bad at estimating length, sorry. It was nasty though. Tyler was pretty proud of his wound, being the true boy that he is.

Finally, I give you a Friday Flashback. I forgot what a pair Camryn and Caedmon were before Cam had to start Kindergarten. They were almost as mischievous as Caedmon and Jack, but not quite. It seems that Cam wanted to practice her drawing skills and decided that her little brother's naked skin was the perfect canvas. I wish you could see each little person she drew on his back, they were hilarious. He must have just sat there so still while she did her work. It's a good thing she wasn't into pointillism.

The Best Burger King Kid Meal Toys So Far

The kid in me still pulls the toy out of the kid meal before I unwrap my burger. When Spongebob was the prize at the bottom of the bag, I was giddy. Call me juvenile, but this pic cracks me up every time. Feeling down? Just pull out the photo of the army of Spongebobs.