Bloggy Break

I think I'm in need of a little break since my brain just can't come up with anything to blog about. I'll be back in about 1 week- hopefully with lots of new bloggy material!

ice fishing

Nick, Mark and a friend from church went ice fishing last weekend. Other than getting stuck in the snow and needing to be pulled out all went well. Ice fishing always makes me a little nervous, but I'm glad they had a good time.
Here's their catch.

Giggle

You have to go read Kelli's blog- the giggle post.
There is just nothing better than a baby's giggle!

No power

We lost power last night. Mark was outside snow blowing at 9:00 last night so he wouldn't wake everybody up early in the morning at 4:00 before he went to work. While he was outside he said there was a blue flash in the sky and then everybody's power on the street flickered and then there was another blue flash in the sky and then the power went out for good. He came in- I don't know what the blue flashes were- maybe it was that lightning that happens in winter- I can't remember what they call that but he said it was pretty weird outside!
We all went to bed because there was nothing to do. At least I tried to go to sleep. My neighbor started up his generator. It was extremely loud. I ended up hunting down an ear plug and finally fell asleep.
I was thinking it would be a long day today with no power and therefore no heat but the power came back on around 1:00 this morning!
Just on a side note- Halle fell asleep on the couch with Mark the other night so I snuck a picture! Hope you have a great Monday!

Please Pray!

Well I got done posting today and went through to read the blogs I read every day.
I've posted about Amy before but she's just updated that the cancer has returned.
Go here to read her blog. I have tears streaming down my face and it's not me that this is even happening to. I'm praying that God will continue to give her His amazing grace and her whole family in the upcoming weeks.

Carpet and Markers

What is this you're looking at you might ask???








Well yesterday I was merrily vacuuming the living room and I thought from afar there was a pink string on the floor as I got closer I thought someone spilled something. I knealt down to take a closer inspection and much to my dismay it looked like marker on my carpet. Halle came into the room and I asked her what is this on my floor. She happily chirped up that it was an "H!"
Then she realized perhaps by the look on my face that I wasn't overjoyed with her artistic ability on my carpet and started to backpedal. I told her you don't ever color on mommy's carpet and she had to help clean it up. I'm thrilled that with my "Tuff Stuff" it came out! I love that stuff- it works so well. Hopefully I won't need to use it again for awhile though!

Last installment of ice sculptures

Here's the last pictures. I'm boring myself so I've picked the other ones that I liked. Just a side note for you all. I have my own little groundhog here. Halle came running into the bathroom this morning when I was getting ready and was all excited. "mom, mom- spring is here- there's a little spot of grass outside!"
I have to agree- I'm sooooo ready for the snow to be gone!
Enjoy the pictures.
1. Drawbridge
2. Kid flying kite
3. Coastguard helicopter
4. Cupid

Middle Age

My devotions this morning were about middle age. Boy I can relate to this one. It made me laugh so I thought I'd share just a portion of it.
The verse this correlates to if 1 Cor. 15-42-44
So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

Tonight as I stood in the grocery store checkout line, I had a coming of middle age experience. I surveyed the contents of my cart, and the realization hit me like a ton of Metamucil: I was about to purchase my first pillbox. No wimpy 7 compartment pill box for me. No, sirree. Nothing but the most advanced state of the art deluxe pillbox for this tough old bird. I could hardly believe my eyes. I had just eked out my last child, only to run headlong into the maintenance heavy middle ages. How could I be old enough to take enough supplements and medications to require such a square possession? It seems that just as I get one pesky condition under control, another pops up. It's like that arcade game where you whack a mole back into his hole, but it's impossible to keep him down, He keeps coming back like last year's fruitcake.
Why do they call it middle age anyway? My theory is that we reach the age where our middle becomes the focus of our lives, bulging and expanding like an inflatable swimming ring with a mind of it's own. Other signs of approaching middle age include transitioning from 100 percent cotton undies to 100 percent spandex and having enough spider veins in our legs to resemble a walking atlas.

Hope this gave you a chuckle this morning also!!

Here's the next installment of the ice sculptures:
1. Chef
2. Anchor
3. Lighthouse
4. Steering Wheel

Ice Sculpture Festival

We went to an ice sculpture festival on Saturday. It was pretty cool and the kids really liked it. I don't know how people can do these- the pictures don't show all the detail but they were really neat to see. I'm going to drag this out over the next
couple of days because I'm behind on laundry and I'm getting a cold and apparently it's sucking my blogging brain cells because I don't have much to say so enjoy the pictures!
The sculptures are:
1. A piano- my favorite one!
2. A trolley
3. An Indian
4. A sand castle

He's alive and well!

Well Badger made it through his terrifying time with Mack and isn't any worse for the experience.
Mark got home and went in his kennel and retrieved him. He was wet and snowy but no damage!!
Mack must have taken pity on him because the other 2 animals we gave him didn't fare as well.
Halle will never know the difference. Another trauma diverted!

 

The demise of Badger

It's a sad sad day here today. Mack is still coming in at night to sleep because of the cold weather. Mark has been bringing him out in the morning but it was still really cold this morning so he was inside.
While I was eating breakfast he kept acting like he had to go to the bathroom so I opened up the kennel and opened up the door to go outside. I didn't know that Halle's very favorite stuffed animal(Nick gave it to her when she was a baby) was around the corner. Well Mack darted and grabbed it and ran outside before I could get it. Then he promptly ran right to his kennel and went inside his coop and deposited it around the corner and in the back where there is no way I can crawl in and get it!
I've seen him a couple of times from inside the house taking it out and playing with it so I know by the time Mark gets home there is no way it's going to be salvageable!
I'm not happy with him right now!!!
I don't think I'm going to say anything to Halle!

I could never be a plumber!

I hope you've all eaten breakfast already and it's settled.....

Last night we were all ready to get into bed and Nick got out of the shower and told Mark he needed to fix the drain in the shower because it was draining really slowly. It had been getting to this point for awhile so Mark decided to just quick take the drain cover off and get out what was slowing it down. Well I knew I didn't want to see what was down there so I waited in the other room. Well I tried to anyway. My curiosity got the best of me and I went in and checked and not much was happening yet. I returned to the living room. As I waited in the other room, Mark yells out "Cher- DO NOT COME IN HERE!"
I heard mumblings between him and Nick and I half jokingly said-"why- is it a mouse?"


YES he says!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now at that point even though I'm in the living room I shreek and climb up on the couch so this dead mouse in my drain can't crawl out and get me!
After I calmed down a bit I hear "Oh- it's not a mouse it's a snake!"
What!! I said "a real snake?"
No- it's a plastic snake!
Originally he thought the snake was the mouses tail and you know how grosse it is in drains with the hair etc.... He thought that was the body.
Apparently someone (I can't imagine who!!!!!!!!! Oh wait I can- Halle comes to mind!) put a plastic snake down the drain cover and that was what was the main culprit. Our drain is now running great. I can't tell you how relieved I am that it wasn't a mouse because I would have forever been showering downstairs never again to return to my bathroom!

Playworld

We get together with my cousin and his family once every 3 months or so. It was my turn to host it and I thought it would be fun to get together at Playworld so the little kids could play. It was so busy there. We had to watch for empty tables to get one. We finally got a table that would fit us all. The kids seemed to really like it. They all had red cheeks and were exhausted when we left. Halle fell asleep on the way home and Arianna wasn't far behind! It's always fun to get together and reminisce about old times although this year dad was the topic for awhile because Patty had heard about his "friend" as well!

Laura the Israelite

Laura- this one is just for you.

I want you to go read this blog entry.
This is the blog of my friend and I laughed out loud when I read the post and you just completely opened the door for me to pass this wisdom on to you today!
It has your name written all over it after your last post!
Love you!!!!!

Matt Kenseth

Last week, Mark and Nick and Bob and Andy went to the car show because Matt Kenseth was going to be there. They had to go down on Thursday and stand in line for arm bands which guaranteed them to be able to see him on Friday. The weather wasn't great but I'm so thankful it wasn't on Saturday!
They had so much fun and said how nice Matt was. He really went out of his way to give people good photo opportunites. Mark won a hat which Matt also autographed and Nick brought a car which Matt signed. What a fun time and great memories!

Getting back to normal

Not much of a post today- Now that the kids are back to school after the blizzard I'm trying to get my house back to normal. However- there's 1 large problem yet- in fact it's about 105 pound problem. MACK!!!!
Now he's been quite good up until this point, but yesterday afternoon it started. He sits at the gate in the kitchen and whines and barks and whines and barks some more. I was so fed up by the time Mark got home he knew he had to do something with him, so he started up the heater in the garage and him Nick and Mack went out to the garage for about 1 hour to give me some peace.

The countdown has begun- he has 3 more days in the house and then he's out!!
In a way this is a blessing because I was really feeling guilty about sending him back out because he just loves to be around us but I can't take this anymore!!!
If he was about 1/2 the size and being potty trained would be hugely helpful also!
Enjoy your pampering now Mack your time is coming to an end
3......2........1........

Just how cold is it?????

We went and sat in the hot tub and this is what the results were:








Any piece of hair that got wet froze. I love the picture of Arianna-I don't know if you can see it on the picture - click on the picture to enlarge it and you should be able to see it-but even the tips of her eyelashes froze.
Now don't think we're terrible parents. We weren't cold- just our hair was!

memories of mari and duane

The kids went out to play in the snow. Nick was the first one in- his feet were freezing. Arianna was soon to follow and Halle didn't want to come in. I told her she had 5 more minutes and then she had to come in. She was playing in the backyard by the swingset. The time came for her to come in and she tried- she really did. I was watching from the door and the snow was over her knees. She was really struggling - her boots kept getting stuck in the snow. Nick went out to help her. When he got to her he picked her up and I hear him tell her- I'm doing this because I love you! It brought to mind the incident of Mari and Duane getting stuck in the mud when they were little. I'm sure Mari told Duane she was helping him because she loved him too!!

Mack's moving on up!

Well since it's single digits outside it's not safe for mack to be outside so he's in my house!
Now this is an untrained, very large dog so you can imagine how this is working! Actually, Mack is behaving very well he's gated inside my kitchen and hasn't had an accident yet!
We gave him a bath before he came inside and you can see from the pictures how much he liked it. He did really well though!



Look how excited he was to get in the tub!
He's thinking- look what my life has come to!
A nice clean puppy!

You can imagine how excited Halle is to have one of her best friends inside the house. Now she doesn't have to walk outside to have her daily talks with him. I learned something from having him inside- apparently Halle has an incredibly relaxing effect on him- look at the trance like glowing eye gaze he gives her- her talk must be really interesting!!

It looks like he'll have to be in the house until Wednesday when it warms up just a smidge- I hope I make it that long!

Zoo Trip

The zoo trip turned out really well. It wasn't too cold at the zoo we were all surprised. For quite a bit of the time we were inside so all was well! Halle fell asleep on the way there so she was a bit groggy at first but then she livened up and was back to normal!
The first picture is Halle in front of the mountain goat- when he looked at us Halle was very excited and told me- look mom he's smiling at me- he did look like he was smiling- very cute!
The next picture is of the tiger- I thought that picture turned out really nice.
I apologize for the next picture. Apparently we got there when it was feeding time and there was the snake eating a mouse- thank me though because in the next cage was a very large snake with a very large large RAT waiting to be his dinner- very gross!!
The last picture is of her class. We had a really nice time!!

Brrrrr

I don't have much time so it's going to be a quick post today. I have to go to school today to take a field trip to the zoo with Halle. It's going to be so cold and it's snowing outside!
We're going to freeze. I hope they cut it a little short today. I'll post pictures tomorrow!
Wish me luck and send me some warm fuzzies!!