Somebody's Out There

The other night I stepped out of the house to smoke a cigar. It was almost dead calm and eerily quiet. Granted, it was after midnight so the traffic in the area and the human activity was minimal to none at the time. I stood outside enjoying the cool weather and was reminded of when I go out in the evening at my parent's farm. If I were out in the forest or something I might have wondered what large predator it was that was causing all the other animals to keep quiet to avoid detection. Suddenly out of the corner of my eye I saw some movement. Slowly I turned my head to get a better view. Just kidding. The way my story was going reminded me of the start of a scary tale.

Anyway, I finished my cigar and went back inside. Nancy had shut the windows because the smell had been wafting inside. Half an hour later I could still smell it in the house. Yes, I stay up too late.

Today the guy in the cubicle/cage next to mine was asked if he was dressing up as something when he took his kids out trick-or-treating tonight. He said he was going as an angry parent. Golly, you don't need a costume for that. I don't know, I've always enjoyed trick-or-treating, of course, but still do enjoy taking my kids around the neighborhood. We are considering going to the Governor's residence tonight to ask for some candy.

Sickness in the middle of the night and the real painting begins!

Samantha started coughing pretty bad around one this morning. I gave her cough medicine and went back to bed. Not too long after that she was really crying so I went in and she had thrown up all over herself and the bed so I changed her and the sheet and rocked her back to sleep-feeling a little queasy myself then. Gerrit said he felt a little queasy last night too. We missed Sunday School this morning but Aleah and I made it to church since I had the nursery this morning otherwise we probably would have missed church too. I didn't feel quite right (stomach was a little queasy) but later this afternoon I felt better and Samantha seemed okay today-just a little tired and she ate normal so I do think that she wouldn't have thrown up if she wouldn't have been coughing so hard. Hopefully that's all it was. I don't want to deal with a stomach bug with Halloween in three days and my parents are coming to visit too. That's exciting-they've never been around when the kids have been dressed up on Halloween.

Bruce and the kids got the potatoes and carrots out of the garden today and I did some paperwork for Girls Scouts-I got behind last year when mom was sick. Bruce and I also got some real painting done in the boys room-the ceiling is done and the first coat of the one of the colors is on-they're going to have a I guess you'd call it a dark beige/light brown color-Bruce said it's the color of calf manure (nice color, uh?) and the bottom color will be a forest green color. I'm hoping to get a camaflouge border to put in the middle of the colors-maybe. Gerrit is also getting a new camaflouge comforter since his current comforter is six years old. Donovan wants to stick with his Spiderman comforter.

Busy times and a bilingual child

We just got back from the Halloween Carnival/Haunted House at the kids school. We were there the whole time since as fifth grade parents we had to help with concessions-Bruce is a popcorn master now. Last year as fourth grade parents we had to help out with games and next year as sixth grade parents we'll have to help out with the haunted house as well as the games again since Aleah will be a fourth grader. I figured out that we will have a child in one of those grades for the next 10 years!!!! I guess we'll be experts by then and we'll probably end up being in charge-yikes! They also held the big raffle tonight and we didn't win anything-I thought for sure we would win the big TV but we didn't-Aleah and I won cakes though.

I can't believe how busy we've been lately. We had something every night this week except Tuesday. Gerrit and Aleah both had their school programs on Thursday night. They have one school program a year and they are done now so that's nice. It's the first time they've had them on the same night-they're usually months apart. Donovan will have a Kindergarten program in May.

I think we've decided the place where we're getting carpet from and we've also decided on the carpet. We're hoping for installation the week of November 12th. We have to finish painting (hard to do when it seems like you're gone all the time) and Bruce has to put down the hardwood laminate in a few sections of the basement and upstairs by the patio door. We're getting new carpet in the living room too.

I forgot to mention something about Donovan's IEP meeting on Tuesday. I asked his teacher if the kids could understand him or if they teased him about his articulation problem. She said they don't tease him but they don't always understand him. She then told about a time when they were coloring at his table and he said something about a pink crayon but it came out more like puke and one of the kids said that's not puke and another kid said he didn't say puke he's just speaking Spanish. So apparently the kids just think Donovan sometimes speaks Spanish making him bilingual.

We do see improvement all the time in his speech but it's something that he'll have to work hard at for a long time. One of his speech teachers told me that he has low muscle tone around his mouth and tongue and he has to work harder to form words right. Gerrit has low muscle tone in his arms and legs which just means he has to work harder to get stronger-his muscles are more relaxed then average. I have often asked Donovan's different speech teachers why this happened and the answer has always been it just does-why do people get cancer or diabetes or whatever-it just happens sometimes. I do think that all the ear infections he had as an infant certainly didn't help though.

Contest Winner

Ladies and gentlemen - we have a winner.

On Wednesday, Clint from Bismarck-Mandan Blog submitted the winning answer to our popular "Name That Song" contest. Congrats to Clint. He got it all right and even added additional information. Here is the text from the comment:

"That's too easy for an 80's geek! It's "We Built this City" by Starship. That was after they changed from Jefferson Airplane to Jefferson Starship and finally Starship after the final member of the original band left (and threatened to sue). If I remember correctly, the album title was "Knee Deep in the Hoopla.""

Nothing I could really add to that other than the album was released in 1985, hit #7, and had two #1 singles - "We Built This City" and "Sara." Wikipedia has entries for both Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship/Starship. Here is the music video on YouTube. Enjoy a trip back to the 80's. I know I did.



And a special bonus - the video for "Sara."

The fun never stops!!

I see my husband must not be busy enough with the basement and work as he has time to come up with a contest-just kidding.

The kids and I had a good time in Williston. It was so nice to go and see mom almost back to her usual self. The last time we were there was the end of May so it hadn't even been two months since the transplant and she was very weak still.

Since we've been home two days I have been constantly busy. The girl scout candy/nut order is done and turned in-Trish and I worked five hours on counting money and double checking stuff. Today besides Samantha's checkup (she's not constipated anymore but needs to be on her medicine until at least two months after she's potty trained) and Donovan's speech IEP and the counting of the girl scout money I canned nine quarts of spaghetti sauce and we had some for supper tonight-it was good.

Tomorrow I'll work out at the Y, bring Donovan and Sam to gymnastics, meet Bruce to pick out paint for the basement, do my Bible study for Thursday, go to church tomorrow night and get some baking done. Kind of a light day compared to the last two!

Name That Song

Good evening.

For many years I've been purchasing these Hot Wheel size cars, although most are not Hot Wheels. They are 1:64 scale, I believe, and I look for the Mopars. There is this Muscle Car Garage series made by Greenlight Collectibles that I've been buying lately, and the particular series does feature mostly Mopars. It is hard to remember which ones I've bought already and, sure enough, I bought a duplicate at Target in Aberdeen, SD. I don't feel like returning this one, so my laziness is your good fortune.

I've decided to give the car away to one of our lucky readers by way of an easy contest - a "name the song" contest. The radio choices in southern SD are a little limited for the music I prefer. I found a pretty good one, though, when I was down in the Winner and Bonesteel area. I don't know the call letters but remember they called themselves "The Bob," and they were a mostly 80's music station. Anyway, I heard a unique line from one of the songs that has stuck with me since then.

What I will do is give the line and the first person to correctly name the song and band wins the little car. It is that easy. I realize this probably isn't the best prize for everyone but it's what I have.

Let's see, I suppose there should be a rule or two. The first and most important rule is that you are not allowed to do an internet search to find the name of the song. Of course, you are on the honor system for this one. If you cheat and look it up online it is on your conscience, you cheater. Like I said it is pretty easy so if you were listening to music in the 80's it shouldn't be hard to get. Nancy and my brother Doug both got it within a few seconds. Hmmm, I guess that's it - I can't really think of another rule.

You have to name both the song that the line is from and the band that sang the song. I suppose this could make it harder because the band has had several names. I will only accept the correct name of the band at the time when the album was released. (I guess that is the second rule.) All you have to do is click on the "# comments" link at the bottom of the post and put your answer in the "Leave your comment" box. Include your name and click on "Publish Your Comment." First person to get it right is the winner. Yes! Depending where you live I'll either mail the car to you or drop it off at your abode.

Here is the line: "Knee deep in the hoopla . . ."

Good luck, my peeps!

The actual car in the box. The winner will receive this great prize.

A closer view of the car. Nice.

Insert Title Here, Bruce

Hello!

Nancy finished up with priming today (Monday) by working over two hours this afternoon. We used 7.5 gallons of primer to cover all walls and ceilings. Our drywall finisher, Mr. Kraft, had estimated by eyeballing the area that we would need 7 or 8 gallons. Boy, he is good!

We had a Cub Scout pack meeting tonight. Donovan went with Gerrit and I, and he really enjoys it too. After the formal meeting the boys bobbed for apples. During our meeting Nancy had another Girl Scout parent over, her co-leader, to tabulate their group's fund raising materials - double checking totals and adding up money. They worked from 7:30 until 11:00. They didn't get done so they have to meet again tomorrow to finish up. Seems to me they may need to cut back on "discussion." Just kidding!

Today I checked out both Menards and Home Depot for a scraper and they each have a floor scraper designed to remove old flooring material such as tile mastic. Should work for my application in the basement. I don't know, the 6" putty knife worked so nice when I tested it out so I don't really want to spend the money on something else. But I suppose it will save time and wear and tear on my knees.

Stay tuned tomorrow for a special event on The Dutch Scandies - a contest prize giveaway! I'll post the information between 9:00 and 10:00 pm Central tomorrow night (Tuesday).

Quiet Before The Storm

Excuse me while I enjoy a few final moments of solitude and quiet. Nancy and the kids are about 30 minutes from home, on their way back from Williston and visiting Grandma and Grandpa J.

Since I got home late Friday afternoon I figure I've done about thirteen hours of applying primer with a roller to the basement ceiling and walls. I'm a little burned out. I'd guess there are a little less than two hours of priming to go. Painting should take less time overall. Before painting I need to scrape all the concrete floors to remove mudding/texturing/priming residue. A six inch putty knife was working pretty good when I tried it this afternoon, but I'd rather not have to do the whole floor on my hands and knees. Maybe a sidewalk ice scraper would work, although it may be too stiff.

Take care, my friends.

Mmmm, Bacon

Jim Gaffigan on bacon:



If you see a blank space here - what is supposed to show is a YouTube video. On our computers this YouTube video doesn't always come up. YouTube and the Metacafe video a couple of posts down must not like each other.

Communication and Stupidity

This past week, in doing inspections, I worked with a hearing and speech impaired person. He could not hear and could not speak. What I usually do is have someone show me the buildings, take me to rooms or places normally locked, and answer any questions I think of at the time. In essence the person gives me a quick tour. After that I am able to work on my own gathering the information I need.

This hearing/speech impaired person was a custodian and took me around to five different buildings. We communicated mostly by gestures and by writing on note pads. Sure would have been nice to know at least some sign language.

One building was a 4-H exhibit building with a livestock barn in the back. A room to the side had an interior garage door that was locked. By gesturing and facial expression I indicated that I wondered what was inside. Tucker squatted down and gestured back in the room. My first thought was that he meant toilet and that it was sure a strange place for a bathroom. He could tell I was confused and so again squatted, gestured in the room, and then back to the open area of the building. Oh, this is where the chairs are stored. Doh! I am dumb.

Secret Magic

Penn and Teller show you how it's done. Enjoy!


Secret Magic - More amazing videos are a click away

Getting ready

I had a very full day. I made it to the YMCA by 8:45 to lift weights since I'll only get to twice this week. After that Donovan, Samantha and I headed to the MOMS Club business meeting. Jody Kerzman from KFYR-TV was there filming for her upcoming segment called Mommy Madness that will be on sometime in November. We left early to get to gymnastics and after a quick stop at Target we went home for lunch. Donovan occupied himself on the computer and Samantha took a nap while I painted. When the kids got home I made my breakfast dish for MOPS tomorrow and finished laundry and started packing.

We went to church tonight and we just had a time of fellowship and we played the game Apples to Apples or something like it-it was fun. The kids are already practicing for their Christmas program. Gerrit has quite a big part. I let the kids stay up a little later than usual since they don't have school. After MOPS in the morning we'll head to Williston until Sunday!

Doctor visits and the painting continues

This morning I had Moms In Touch. I then picked Aleah up at school for her doctor appointment with Dr. Tello. It had been a couple of years since anyone had any feet problems but he always remembers me-probably because I had the second worst case of plantars warts he'd ever seen and he said he was just telling someone about me yesterday-that if all the treatments for warts don't work and you're female-just get pregnant. He really does believe that the hormones from my pregnancy with Gerrit must have finally made the plantars warts go away since they were treated with acid, frozen, cut out, lasered, a twice daily ointment and a surgery. They kept coming back until I was pregnant and then they went away. Anyway Aleah didn't have a plantars wart. She had a piece of something-he thought a splinter of wood-in her foot. He got it out and we won't have to go back like we would have if it would have been a wart.

I brought Aleah back to school then and got Samantha home in time for lunch and a long nap. I primed some more then. When the kids got home from school we headed to the doctor again for Gerrit. His ear infection is gone and both his tubes are still in his ears. He will need to see the doctor after Christmas and if they're not gone he'll have to have them surgically removed since they'll have been in two and a half years at the point. They also tested his hearing and it was okay. We got groceries after that (I forgot eggs and they were even on the list-I'm not use to shopping with four kids) and ate supper. No one had homework tonight and there's only one day of school left this week. Donovan has a whole week off now since he doesn't have school until next Tuesday.

Bonesteel On My Mind

Nancy let the cat out of the bag, so to speak, so I might as well mention that I drove down to Winner, SD this afternoon/tonight. Left Bismarck at 4:20 and got to Winner at 9:20 - it is about 300 miles. It was misting/raining for the last few hours of the trip and rained steadily for the last 1 1/2 hrs. I just checked radar and it looks like Bismarck has rain moving in from the east.

I plan to be in Bonesteel and Fairfax tomorrow. These are located close to the Missouri River, on the west side, down by the Nebraska border.

The photo at the top is from a news aggregate and social networking web site. Daily they post one or more Photoshop contests where people take an original photo and modify or "Photoshop" it to look like something else or to add something to the picture. I often save ones that I like, and save them with the submitter's profile name so I know who did that particular Photoshop. Here is another example. The theme on this one below was to make a picture showing the last photo the person ever took. Remember Toonces from SNL?

What a lot of work!!

Unfortunately I didn't get much priming done over the weekend. Bruce and I worked for three hours Sunday afternoon and we didn't even get the boys room done!! It takes a long time. I did do some more today and finished that room and got half a wall done in the family room. I hope to start in the office/exercise room tomorrow afternoon between running children to the doctor and everything else there is to do. Aleah has an appointment with the podiatrist in the morning-she has a plantars wart-I am an expert on these things so I know she has to get it taken care of before it gets worse. Gerrit has a checkup for his ears after school. After another round of antibiotics (finished on Saturday) he's still not much better. His cough is finally better but his ears are hurting again and his throat hurts. I hope the rest of us don't get sick or we might not be able to go to Williston. My mom shouldn't be around sick people if she can help it. I can't believe it's been six months since her transplant!! She is doing so well and I hope she continues to get stronger.

I have more tomatoes getting ripe so I could have canned spaghetti sauce today but since Bruce left for South Dakota this week I thought I'd put it off until next week-I hope the tomatoes don't go bad!! I also thought getting more painting done was more important at this point.

Lions, Peanuts, and Pheasants (Oh My)

Well, it froze pretty good on Thursday night - got down to 28 deg. F here. Today I dug up the two peanut plants from the garden. I am pleased to announce that we do in fact have peanuts.

This plant had loads of them in various sizes, with many small peanuts, and they were in a tight bunch.

This plant had fewer total but a higher ratio of full size peanuts. These were pretty much loose - no bunching.

I cut a couple peanuts open and the nuts were very small. I'll let them dry for three to four weeks on the plant and then check them out again.

Pheasant hunting this year's opening day was OK. We had eight guys for most of the day and finished up with ten birds. It was more difficult because sunflowers and corn are still in the field and it seemed like many were in the fields during the day. Another result of a late freeze.

Here we are (minus Bruce, aka me) loaded up to head out after lunch. This is at my parent's house and we were going out to hunt the land right in that area.

This is my brudder Duane and his son Casey. I most often refer to Casey as my nephew. Duane enjoys being photographed. Casey seems ambivalent. Either that or he is giving me the evil eye. Hmm.

This is the emblem on the front of one of Duane's tractors.

Fortunately, we did not encounter a mountain lion/cougar on our hunting expedition. We did have a close call with some possible cougar prints, but they turned out to be what we think are dog prints. These prints had claws visible, although not in this photo, and cougar prints do not. If I remember right I don't think every print had claws visible so I imagine it is possible there could have been a mixture of dog and cougar prints in that area.

The dog, a Saint Bernard, belongs to Duane and Betty. Those paws are huge. I put a shotgun shell beside for comparison. Cougar paws have four toes and three distinct lobes at the base of the heel pad. Dogs also have four toes but do not have the three heel pad lobes. Dog prints have a more overall oval shape versus a cougar print.

You can check this site out for more info on dog vs. cougar prints.


Polar bears and penguins do not live in the same area in the wild. Polar bears live in the Arctic region about the north pole and penguins live in Antarctica. The south pole is located within Antarctica.

Weekend stuff

Bruce and the boys left yesterday after school for Strasburg to pheasant hunt so it's just the girls and me until tomorrow. It's kind of nice-a little more quiet anyway. I got the spots primed upstairs yesterday that the guy fixed and painted them today. I had planned to get started in the basement but I don't think it's going to happen today. Aleah was with her friend Zoe from 10-2 today at a movie and volleyball game and Samantha slept some of that time but I was too busy cleaning and painting upstairs to get started downstairs plus I kind of need Aleah around if I'm in the basement since Samantha might get into too many things while I'm painting. Hopefully I'll get started tomorrow.

Last night the girls and I went to Old Navy and found awesome deals on the summer clearance stuff and a few winter items as well-there were so many items for .97 or $1.97!! I got a huge bag of clothes for all the kids for just over $30!! We then stopped at Menards to get a paint screen for the five gallon bucket of primer. We had a slice of pizza at Sam's Club for supper and got a few things there. We watched the movie "The Princes Diaries" when we got home. We hadn't seen that and plan to watch "The Princess Diaries 2" tonight.

Now we're on our way to get a few things at Target, go get a treat at Starbucks and to bring Zoe home. We need to get to bed earlier tonight since we have Sunday School and church in the morning.

Pumpkin Patch Photo 2005

Someone help me. I can't stop posting pictures. I'm getting ready to head out to Strasburg but had a few minutes. Looking through our photo files last week on the computer I found this one.

This is from the pumpkin patch in Bismarck, two years ago. Donovan was on top of their big square straw bales.

I had seen this done to photos before and I'm sure probably most of you have, too. I researched how to do it and used GIMP, a photo manipulation software with features somewhat similar to Adobe Photoshop. I printed out the instructions and followed step-by-step. I couldn't do it again right now without the same instructions in front of me. It is quite a good amount of work and is time consuming to do a good job, and it looks OK. He looks a little red/orange but with the late afternoon sun and his red shirt that is what was there. I didn't attempt to adjust those colors. A nice touch would have been to also have the flags in color.

Until next time. . .

Ready For Primer

Our drywall guy finished up at 1:00 yesterday. All is now dry and ready for primer. Nancy might do some work on that today.

Mr. Kraft hard at work, spraying texture on our precious walls.

Just a picture of that same room with walls all nice and textured.

This is the ceiling texture.

Mr. Kraft put a knockdown texture on the walls.

Y'all have a good weekend now. I plan on being at work until about noon, maybe a little later. Then I have a little shopping to do before coming home to get ready to go to Strasburg. The mountain lion factor could add a whole new dimension to the pheasant hunt this year!

Home Science Experiment - Butterflies

I was out in the garden Saturday looking around, checking things out among the few remaining items we still have out there. Here in the carrots were these caterpillars. I put six of them in a gallon glass jar along with a bunch of carrot leaves and some sticks. They ate like horses and overnight almost all of the leaves were gone.

Doing some research on the internet, I found out they were the caterpillars of the black swallowtail butterfly. They lay their eggs in the late fall on plants such as dill, carrots, or parsley. If you click to enlarge this picture you should be able to see the drops of rain or mist on the caterpillar. Looks neat.

On the second night already, a couple of them had attached themselves to branches with a silk or web sling. There is stuff happening under the skin, although you can't tell.

After a couple or few nights of hanging on the branch, we had the last pupa stage or the chrysalis. Pretty cool. I did not know that the chrysalis develops under the skin and then sheds the skin when ready. You can see the skin of the caterpillar hanging at the bottom of the chrysalis. As of right now we have three chrysalis and two caterpillars hanging in the sling. The remaining caterpillar was running around looking for a place to set up camp. The three sticks I had in there were pretty full, so I added another one for this guy. Hopefully he finds it and makes use of it.

One thing they do before setting up camp is empty their guts, if you know what I mean. It is pretty amazing just how much there is. I suppose Nancy should clean that out one of these days. Ha.

Normally the chrysalis of this butterfly would winter and then open in the spring. I think, though, that if we have them inside it won't take that long. I'm not sure. We'll just let them in there until something happens. Pretty soon we'll have our own butterfly house where they roam free and alight on our shoulders or noses. No, not really. By the time the butterflies come out it'll probably be pretty cold and we'll have to "dispose" of them.

Basement update

The taping and mudding is progressing well in the basement. It has sure come about in a hurry. When Nancy heard back from him (Brian "C" Kraft - C for Corey) he said he could get started this week because there was a delay in a different job he was supposed to start. She didn't know when he would start, though - whether it would be right away on Monday or what. Well, he wanted to start right away Monday morning so we said, "Go for it."

Problem was, I hadn't finished a lot of work such as driving screws in further that we weren't able to get in with the dimpler bit and doing some other patches. I worked on it a few hours on Monday morning, worked from after work until midnight on Monday, and again for about an hour on Tuesday morning. Brian said we used screws that were too long and too thick, and we put in more than we really needed to. Austin had us put extra in because he said he likes good, solid walls.

I took pictures of every room, but for brevity have posted pictures from just one area showing the progression up to today. You probably don't notice a whole lot different from picture to picture, other than with each application the mud fans out further from the seams.

Here it was on Sunday night. This is going to be our family room area. I have to take that whole weight machine apart to move it into the back room. That should be a good time, right?

Monday night - taping is complete.

Tuesday night - first coat of mud is on.

Tonight, Wednesday - second and last coat of mud is on and some sanding is complete.

So far he has worked about four hours each day. Tomorrow it sounds like he needs to do a final sanding and then he will apply texture. We decided on a knockdown texture for the walls and a fine, sand-like texture for the ceiling. On Friday we, or rather Nancy, should be able to start with primer. I'll be heading to Strasburg Friday afternoon for the pheasant season opener on Saturday.

Brian explained that he is probably one of the best drywall finishers in the State of ND. He said in his thirty years of doing this - probably started right out of high school - he has worked with a lot of other finishers. Most are in such a hurry they don't do the job right or their boss has them take shortcuts in order to make more money. He doesn't say it in a boasting way, either. He is extremely nice and helpful and has given us a lot of hints and tips in the few days he has been here.

It is pretty interesting that he worked on Bill Gate's house while he was in Washington state. I don't know how long he was in Washington, but he said he got sick of the gloominess. I think he really may have moved back here for the hunting and fishing - sounds like he does a lot of it.

July is his least busy month, he said he only worked ten hours that month this year. January is usually his busiest month.

It's finally happening

It's finally happening. We have someone that is taping, mudding, and texturing the basement. He started today and will be done by the end of the week. He was telling Bruce this morning that he lived in Washington awhile and while he was there he taped, mudded, and textured Bill Gates' house!!! Wow! He also told Bruce he got a $1,200 cash tip! That's some tip-our whole project doesn't even cost that much.

After the kids got out of school we went to the Papa's Pumpkin Patch again. We went for Girl Scouts and the weather was really nice. 16 out of 22 girls showed up and some parents and siblings. We even got a hayride/train ride. It was really nice. Aleah had dance after that.

Bruce has been busy fixing a spot in the laundry room where the ceiling had been ruined from a leak and putting up a piece of drywall in the living room where the window had been from when the patio door was put in-that was in May. We want those things textured as well. Bruce also has to fix a few more screws in the wall tonight-he's been working constantly since he got home from work. It'll be another late night for him. I need to get to bed soon since I'm donating plasma at six a.m.

Gloomy weather yet again

Another gloomy day-hopefully tomorrow the sun will come out and it'll warm up a bit. We're having a Girl Scout outing at the Pumpkin Patch after school. I think only about 10-15 are coming instead of all 22 of them plus some parents are coming too so it'll be managable.

We went to church this morning and did stuff around the house the rest of the day. Bruce is still putting more screws in the drywall downstairs. I wonder how many hours he's been doing that total? We got all the scraps of drywall hauled out tonight after supper-we all helped so it didn't take long at all-we got them out throught the boys' egress window downstairs. I need to really start getting serious about what paint colors we want for the rooms downstairs. After all the painting and moving stuff is done downstairs I want to paint the girls' rooms too. I think a yellow for Samantha's room and in Aleah's room probably two walls pastel pink and two walls pastel purple. Our room can use some paint too-it was painted before we moved in seven years ago and that's it pf course it's white-that's the way the whole house had been painted right before we moved in.

I did get all of Samantha's summer clothes put away (the stuff that will be too small next year I'm giving away) and her winter stuff out. I must have another box with more size threes somewhere since she doesn't seem to have much now!! I did go through all of the kids clothes last fall and got rid of a lot of clothes that were too small, worn, or completely out of style or I know I'd never put Donovan or Samantha in anymore. I did see another box of girls clothes marked Sizes 3-5 but I couldn't get to it and Samantha is just starting to wear some size threes now so I don't need to get at that box until the basement is done.

Monsters cookies and a gloomy day

Today it was overcast and misting all day-windy at times too. I don't think it got much over 50 degrees. The kids and I made monster cookies and they are good!! We froze a bunch for another day-I think that the kids' Halloween Carnival at school has the fifth grade parents bring baked things to sell so we can bring some of those. I also went to the Y to lift weights and work out for a bit.

Bruce was busy drilling in more screws in the basement today since he didn't get to it during the week since he was in Chamberlain, South Dakota. He has to finish the rest of the work downstairs by tomorrow since I'm pretty sure we have found someone to come in and tape and texture the basement this week!! I called and left messages at so many places and they either just do commercial or are booked for the next 4-8 weeks. This person called me back and said he would come Monday to give an estimate and if we wanted him he could start since a big job he was going to start wasn't ready yet. I hope it works out. I spent a couple hours sweeping up stuff down there today and we still have to get all the big scraps out tomorrow. We couldn't do it today since it was wet outside.

Yay, it's the weekend!

Thursday was so busy. I went to MOPS then after that dropped Samantha off at Barb's and donated plasma and had a short workout at the Y. Samantha had a nap at Barb's. We were home for about an hour then I went to the school to pick up the kids since I had to drop off some stuff for Girl Scouts and I brought some peppers there too. Gerrit had Young Scientist Club after school and we picked up Riley (my friend Vicki's son to bring too since Vicki had to take her youngest to the doctor). The other kids and I made a quick trip to Target where I picked up some pictures I had developed. We got home in time for the Bookmobile so that made everyone happy. I made homemade pizza so everyone was excited about that.

Gerrit and Aleah both had Math and Spelling for homework so that took a bit of time too. After the kids went to bed and I got the rest of the red and green peppers cut up and froze I watched ER. I can't believe this show is still on. I think (and hope) it's the last year. I think it's been on since 1993-my grandparents were still living then. I have to stick with it though and finish out the show. I think Barb, Vicki, and I are the only ones I know that still watch it.

Today Donovan, Samantha, and I went to Wal-Mart and the kids had their last swimming lessons. Aleah is the only one that passed this time. We will be skipping at least the next session maybe even the one after that-that one would start in mid-November and go until almost Christmas and I think we better not add more activities during the holidays.

Thirsty Wasp

Today I filled gas for my company car and cleaned the windshield and side windows. While topping off the tank and hanging up the hose there was a wasp flying about. When I got back in the car I noticed this.

This wasp was drinking up windshield cleaner from the passenger side window sill. Yes, the window was shut. I was surprised how fast he/she drank that up. It only took about ten to fifteen seconds. Is drinking windshield cleaner harmful to them? I kind of hope so - I don't like wasps.

I caught this sunset tonight. I took more photos in that area and might post those another day. Take care, everyone.

Too many fundraisers!!

October is a crazy month for fundraisers for us. The kids are all selling raffle tickets for their school-there's many prizes with the big one being a big screen TV. We also have Gerrit selling Christmas wreaths and popcorn for Cub Scouts and Aleah selling candy and magazine subscriptions for Girl Scouts. Those would be enough but let's not forget that Donovan and Samantha are selling stuff for gymnastics as well. That's the one that gets me. I don't mind the school and the scouts stuff so much but doing one for gymnastics really gets me-let's just say I don't put any effort in that one at all-I buy a couple items and call it good. I don't think gymnastics should even have us do it unless the kids are on the performing teams since they're the ones mostly benefiting from it. Aleah also had to do a fundraiser for her preschool many years ago which I really didn't like since we paid tuition for her to go there. Basically I hate selling anything to anyone and we don't make too much of an effort except with Girl Scout cookies.

I think Kindergarten is tiring Donovan out. I had to wake him up at 9:30 this morning so he would have time to get dressed and eat before gymnastics this morning. I am so glad he doesn't go full days everyday. He also had speech today and we went to church tonight for Adventure Club and small group study.

Tomorrow I have MOPS then Barb is watching Samantha when I go donate plasma. I'm going to try to get a workout at the Y in sometime too. Gerrit has Young Scientist Club after school and then we can come home!! The bookmobile comes to our neighborhood tomorrow too. They come once a month and we missed them last month since we were in Wisconsin. I do think we'll end up missing them again because they come at five and we won't get home until about 5:20 and then they'll be almost ready to go-they park right in front of our house since we're sometimes the only people in the neighborhood that show up.

I told the kids I would make homemade pizza for them tomorrow night. Aleah really likes homemade pizza which is good since she's so picky about certain kinds of pizza-weird-isn't any kind of pizza usually good??

Recovered

I feel so stupid for not wearing gloves (not that I knew where they were) when I was cutting the jalapenos. I experienced such burning pain in my hands for over three hours. I actually had to wear wet washclothes on my hands to bed. I was very happy to wake up recovered. It did take quite awhile for me to go to sleep since I couldn't take anything for the pain-I donated plasma this morning and you can't take any kind of medications (that aren't prescribed and approved) 48 hours before a donation. Bruce has always chopped the jalapenos before but was too busy but I will gladly give him the job back.

Besides donating plasma I learned the week two weight machines at the Y. Gerrit also had an appointment to check his ears and he had an ear infection and has a lot of mucus draining in his throat. He has to get rechecked in two weeks. There was also a PTC (Parent Teacher Club) meeting at the school tonight so I haven't been home much again today-just time for Samantha to nap and to do a bit of laundry. I washed the floor tonight after the kids went to bed which is where I'm headed to in a bit since it's another busy day tomorrow.

Salsa Has Been Made, and Ouch

Today Nancy made and canned fourteen pints of salsa. We had some tonight with Old Dutch brand tortilla chips. It was very good - the chips with the salsa. Nancy can't type tonight. She forgot to wear gloves when cutting open the jalapenos and cleaning out the seeds. She chopped them up to little bits with the Pampered Chef food chopper so it could have been worse had she done that by hand instead. Both her hands are in pain, but she wanted me to relay to everyone that she is in love with her Pampered Chef food chopper for the easy work it makes of chopping vegetables such as onions and peppers.

In other news, I'm sure you all will be pleased to hear that my right arm is doing much better after all the fastening of drywall to studs using screws that I did on Saturday for about seven hours using Austin's 24 volt cordless hammer drill manufactured by Bosch and estimated by me to weigh close to ten pounds. I can actually lift my arm above my head now. It still hurts a little, so I suppose it is all right if you still feel a little bit sorry for me. Ha.

It did not freeze last night so there is no news to report on the peanuts. It is supposed to cool down again toward this weekend so we'll see. We had a high of 77 deg. today and tonight the low is forecast to be around the upper 40's.

Later, my people.