Yard Sale

So Chris and I have lined up our weekends and are going to have a yard sale tomorrow. We have had them in the past but not for a couple of years. The rain came today, so we should be safe tomorrow. I got some tips from Good Morning America or something. I got some nice red table cloths to make us look high class :)

The whole pricing thing just cracks me up. I have no clue how much things should be. I give a price, Chris says "What?!$#" and then writes her price and adds up her profit. Most of the stuff is from Dad's house, we'll see how it goes.

I really don't like the whole selling thing. It makes me uncomfortable. I hate bargaining prices with people. Why can't they just pay what you ask for? Chris loves to bargain, that's why she likes flea markets (I hate them too). Some people just want to get things for free.

I have a feeling the boys will be coming out with things to sell. When we first mentioned it to Jacob a month or so ago, he came right home and filled a box of toys to sell. Slowly he used the toys and really didn't prepare any today. I'm sure tomorrow when things start, they will find some toys to sell. Four wheelers with only 2 wheels left, snow mobiles without the skis, nothing but the best for our customers.

Did I mention that we just started preparing for the yard sale at 7 pm tonight? I have no change. They say you should have plenty of ones. I think I have two. I will have to beg Ed and Jim to run out in the morning. Well, wish us luck. I will be on the lookout for wooden nickels.

It's official. The surgery is off!! They do not allow you to use hair products the day of surgery. What do they think I would do without hairspray?? Just kidding. I will be going under the knife next Wed. Man that came quick. I do fine until they start drawing blood, talking about breathing tubes and give me advance directive paperwork.

Happy Friday!

Good Old Fashioned Smackdown

Today we had another fun night of badmitton. Auntie Chris and Emily came over for some dinner and a visit and convinced me not to go painting. Bad influences!! They kept making fun of me but it is clear that they are just jealous of my talents. Mainly those I picked up from Monica Seles. I can take it though, I have broad shoulders. That is what my dad always said. (or was it that I was big-boned) Did you know you can work up a sweat playing that game, that is unless you are on Jim's side. That's because he tries to be a one man show, a birdie hog. Just ask Emily. Though I'm not sure if he was hogging the birdie or if she was just trying to give me some competition with sitting back and looking good. She is a stalker of my blog and has been taking tips from my pictures. I'll have to keep an eye on her. Doesn't she know there is only one me. Next thing you know she'll be trying the 'mall bangs' that I wear. That's what the hairdressers called them. I didn't know they had a name- 80's mall bangs. I thought it was just 'style'.

So Joshua started the Afterschool Program today. He has been going to a friend's house afterschool since I can't be home in time for him to come right home but it just wasn't working out anymore. They had been having quite a few illnesses and I had to scramble to get coverage and sometimes at the last minute. He didn't want to go to the afterschool program but I couldn't take the stress anymore. He will have to go there next year so I really think it will be a good transition. As many of you know, he has lots of 'worries' around school. But he did AWESOME with the change. I actually think he is going to like it. I know I felt a sense of ease just knowing that I didn't need to race to get him.

Why is it when we get what we have been waiting for, we don't really want it anymore? I'm sure this applies to many things in life, but I am referring to the weather. All winter we complain about the snow and cold. Now that it is starting to get hot (and humid), I can't stand it!! It takes my body a while to adjust to the warmer weather. Just 70's makes me feel like I am overheating. Today about killed me. Enough to make Jim and I break down and go out to eat just for the AC. Now it wasn't that hot, maybe 78 but still. Shorty's it was...and it wasn't even that great. The weather man says cooler the next few days. I'll take it.

Memorial Day Weekend

We're back. The laundry marathon has begun and I have already been to the grocery store. It's not too good to come back to an empty refrigerator. As it was, Joshua had a jelly sandwich for lunch on Friday :)

The weather wasn't as good as it looked like it was going to be here at home. A bit more chilly and breezy. Come to find out, we would have loved more wind for the rest of the weekend. The May flies were unbelievable. Unbearable really. They kept most of in for the most part. Of course the two little boys didn't let them keep them down. But they also have the bites all over to show for it.

We went riding on Sunday. It was a nice day. We got some redness from the sun. We should have gone on Saturday. The boys were just so excited. We didn't hear about much else. They even had trouble sleeping the night before. Riding is in their blood. It was almost like Christmas Eve. I was so happy that Bailiegh got to join in on the fun with us. We loved getting to hang out with her.

My computer is being a pain and stopping every few minutes. I have posted more pictures on the friends and family site. The link is on the right side if you want to see them. But here are a few.

The views are really beautiful on the trails!

Happy Long Weekend

I am looking forward to the long weekend. I shopped for food today and am trying to pack up clothes tonight. I want to get out of here early tomorrow. We are heading up to the camp for the three day weekend. I really like to get up there on Friday night and wake up there in the morning. I just love that the kids can wake up and have the whole day there. We are going to bring the machines to go four wheeling as this is opening weekend. You can't go during "mud season". That is Joshua's favorite thing to ride in. The boy loves his mud.

We just found an ad for a 4x4 mud event right where the camp is for July 4 weekend. We have never been but I am sure we will check it out this year. I know Jacob will love it too. Any bit of rain that falls makes great 'mud pits' around our house for his little four wheelers.

I'm sure you all have fun plans for BBQ's with friends. Have fun, enjoy and be safe. Please all think of Auntie Chris as she has to work all three days.

Check back in a couple of days. I am going to try really hard to take pictures throughout the weekend and not just on Monday when I remember.

So I bit the bullet and made a surgery appt. today. I will have my thyroid removed on June 4. I have been seeing a doctor since Sept. 2006 and have been trying to avoid dealing with it since then. Medication without surgery could at some point deplete my white blood cell count. I tried it for a month but when my second opinion doctor heard I was on it, he proceeded to reiterate the side effects and scared me enough to stop taking it. The surgeon today said that he estimates that it is 10X the normal size. Man, imagine how much weight I will lose when it is removed. Just kidding. I can dream can't I. The problem with my thyroid is that it is slightly 'overactive', so I should be skinny. Go figure. I have always thought I was a skinny person trapped in a fat body.

I will only be in the hospital for one night. The bad things that 'could' happen are they could damage the vocal nerves and I could have a Demi Moore voice and they might not be able to salvage the glands that make calcium or something like that. I will have a Frankenstein scare about 4 inches. Sadly, that is what I am concerned about because I don't heal well. I will have to invest in some mederma.

So it is done and I am going through with it. I will continue to need all of your encouragement as I am freaking out about the general anesthesia the most. I have never been put under and with kids, it is heavily on my mind.

Good Old Fashioned Fun

So the carpet didn't finished getting installed on Saturday like the plan, so we were thrown off on Sunday since the rest of the work depended on that. Uncle Ed had driven down from up north and Auntie Chris had the day off so we didn't want to waste it, especially since we were supposed to get a wash out and the weather was great.

The night before, as you remember, the men fell asleep. I have to admit, part of it may have been my fault since I was watching Top Chef on one channel and the Food Channels hamburger cookoff on another during commercials. So anyway, who can resist a good burger. It inspired us to have a cookout on Sunday. I made blue cheese burgers with blue cheese in the middle and inside out burgers with bacon and sharp cheddar in the middle. Yummy, I am hungry again thinking about them.

When we were cleaning out my dad's basement we found a croquet set and badmitton set (never opened or used). We set up the badmitton set and had a blast. Everyone got in on it, even Jacob, until I almost ran him over that is. I try to remind Jim that good old fashioned fun doesn't always have to cost lots of money.

Here are some pictures of the excitement.

Really, I didn't mean to run the kid over. I just had to get to that birdie.

Sometimes my job was to stand there and look good while Uncle Ed did the work.

And sometimes it wasn't.

I really think Joshua got the best effort award for the day. The kid gave it his all. Just look at his 'body language'.

Don't forget to check for ticks...

So I never like to give Jacob haircuts because he looks like such a little boy afterward. I want him to stay my little baby. Having two older brothers that he wants to be like makes him grow up so fast. Hugs and kisses are scarce. But Auntie has been bugging me about his hair being so long. I mostly feel bad when he wears his helmet and plays like mad because then his hair gets soaked with sweat. So here is his haircut adventure tonight.

Little boy.
Man, look at that kid's scar.
Big boy.
Uncle Ed came down this weekend to help with Dad's house. From this picture, it looks like he had a rough night last night.

Actually, he is an early bird. He always falls asleep around 8 o'clock when he comes to visit, even before the little boys go to bed.

I've included this picture just to let you know how exciting it is around our house once the boys have gone to bed.

P.S. Auntie Jeanne put new pictures on the friends and family site. Click on the link on the right side of the blog if you want to see them.

A countdown

6 days until my consult with the surgeon for my thyroid surgery

5 weeks until school is out

4 day weekends to look forward to this summer

3 days until the carpet is installed in Dad's house (we're getting close)

2 days until Joshua has the Teddy Bear picnic at school for the 1st graders

1 haircut to give tonight

0 drops of green fluid fell from the van today :)

Man that can't be good

Oh man, just as I thought my life must be getting boring and that I had nothing to write about, I looked out the door and saw fluid puddling from my car. Following my precise observation, I determine it to be green fluid. Let's just say no one left a lime green popsicle to melt behind my tire. All these years Jim has had a work vehicle and we have always had a spare. Not anymore!!! Man this better not be bad.

A Little Piece of Heaven

So it was a quick trip but we are back. Jim called me last minute on Friday and said let's go up to the camp for Mother's Day weekend. $110 just for gas made me think twice, but we really needed it and I just love to go there. Who wouldn't want to wake up and look out to this.

Going the frog pond and fishing are Joshua's favorite activities at camp. It was quite windy up north which is not good for either but we gave it a go. He did catch a fish and we didn't make it to the frog pond across the way. I tried to paddle them there around the outskirt of the lake, but the wind just took us over. At one point we had to stop on the shore because the wind was just so strong, but it happened to be at a place that had like 12 dogs in a pen. They were not quite happy to see us or really happy, because they barked and barked. I'm sure their owners just loved us.

Jacob like the wormies. He didn't have any luck getting a fish. But he was just as happy.

The snow in the mountains is just hanging in there.

We actually saw people skiing here yesterday. Diehard skiers.

We're off to the camp!!!!!!!!!!!

Spring, Camera, Action

Jeffrey getting a little hair. Did I say hair? I meant getting a little "air".



Monkey see, Monkey doo.


Hey I have monkey's too! Or are they piggies? Noooo, they're froggies.

Are you jealous of my cute socks, or just the nail polish showing through?

Jacob taking a rest. My camera's view from above.

I remind you the last time he played around on this he ended up in the ER and had shoulder surgery!!!

Late nights, short post

You'll notice that many of my posts have been late. That is because I am wrapping up a year long project for school. It is due Friday so tonight is my last night and tomorrow during school is my last day. Deadlines give me structure. Last minute structure, but that has been the story of my life since my own school career.

I am just here to say hello and thank you to those who check in on my blog to see how things are going. I wanted to give you something to make your trip worth it. So 'hi' and thanks for visiting. Don't be afraid to leave a comment like my friend Karen and sister in law Michelle. It isn't that much work. Say hi, tell me I'm funny you know all those good things.

Bye for now.

Guess who

Let's play a game...........Guess who?

"I don't feel good."
"I think I'm sick."
"Can you get me the thermometer?"
"Can you get me some animal crackers and a drink?"
"Do I have a fever?"

Is it Joshua, Jacob or Jim?

It's Jim.........Why do men act like they are dying if they get sick? I had to remind him of what I was doing when I was sick last week- Taking care of two sick kids at the same time. He of course reminds me that I am a superwoman...sarcasm at its best.

Needless to say, now that he is sleeping, I have to work on my school work and fold the three loads of laundry I did tonight.

Oh yeah, I made yummy chicken pot pie tonight. It is becoming one of my favorites. So easy- 2 cans of can greenbeans (sorry Karen), 1 can cooked carrots, frozen bag of corn, I forgot the chicken (perdue short-cuts work great) mixed with 2 cans of cream of chicken soup, baked in a baking dish topped with flat crescent rolls. YUM-O!

Enough is Enough

Well the weather is just not cooperating with us. We have had at least 5 days of rain on our vacation. I guess that's what I get for trying to make everyone jealous that I had a week off. So much rain made me break down and bring the kids to Chuck E Cheese, with the rest of the world on a rainy school vacation day. On a good note, I had a coupon for $10 worth of free tokens when you buy $10 worth. I have to say the place is a great value, every game is a token, not 3 or 4 like Funworld. On a negative note, Joshua's bug is just hanging around. He was clear for 24 hours and then boom 2:45 am, sick again. Clear again, then boom pull up in Chuck E Cheese parking lot, sick again. And oh yeah...in the van!

He of course felt great after that. Thank god my kids make a pit out of my van because I had a shirt and a sock to clean it up. I then made a donation to the trash can. Joshua really wanted me to clean the shirt. The kids loves his clothes.

Here is Jacob and I making the best of it.

I got much of what I had put on my list done this week. So that was good. I have a consult appt. on May 20 for my thyroid surgery. I know many of you will be proud of me for that. Not that I am looking forward to it any better. I have never been under and am quite nervous. The most I ever had was novacane for wisdom teeth extraction and epedurals for c-sections. I have this control thing about going under. Grant me the courage please.

As you can imagine tomorrow is predicted to be sunny and 70's, just in time to go back to work.

There's something wrong when 3 adults are more into a kids TV show than the kids. Tonight we let the kids stay up to watch the Zoey 101 movie they just had to see. Of course, as they were jumping around we were the ones telling them to get out of the way of the TV so we could see :)

Joshua went to a friend's house today. He has been there once before and to one other friends also. It is a big thing for him to be out of his comfort zone. I think today was bigger for me. He was gone for like 8 hours!!! Auntie thought I was boring her because I kept looking at the door. He's never been gone that long. I am glad that he had fun though. Jacob wanted to know why he couldn't go somewhere special since Joshua got to. We always talk about how he will have friends when he goes to school too. Of course that wasn't the explanation he was looking for. He wanted to go to Funworld or Chuck E Cheese. I really had to get all of the 'sickness' laundry done so it wasn't a good day. So I did what all bad moms do. I bought him some candy and all was good.

Jacob is so smart. Following right in Joshua's footsteps. I was worried because I always pushed Joshua being that he was my first. He dressed himself early, zipped his coat at 2, rode a bike at 4 and tied his shoes before kindergarten just to name a few. With Jacob being my baby I didn't feel that I pushed him as much and thought that he wouldn't be as advanced. I was wrong. He walked a few days shy of 10 months, rode his bike without training wheels at 3, can write his name, zip his coat, uses vocabulary that surprises us daily and is now tying his shoes. He has persistence just luck Joshua and kept at it tonight until he got both shoes tied. I have to give lots of the credit to his fantastic babysitter Kellie. I didn't even know that they were working on writing his name or shoe tying. She calls herself our childcare provider. I tell her she is much more than that, she is "Our Kellie".

Man were we sick ones yesterday. Joshua started us off, which is not unusual. He usually gets some stomach bug about 2 times a year. He was up many many times in the night, which meant I was up too. Jacob and I both woke up in the morning still feeling "full from dinner" in his words. And he was right. We both soon lost our dinner. Sadly we had alfredo which is my favorite food in the world. I can promise you I won't be eating that for a loooong while. We pretty much occupied the couch for the entire day. I do like when the boys are sick a little though because that is the only time I can get them still enough to cuddle with.

We're better today. Looking forward to a long day of degerming the place and laundry, laundry, laundry. Of course, if those are raindrops I see outside, I might have to freak out!