Our Fourth Little One (Butterfly)

Are you all sick of hearing about our butterflies yet? Well, we had our fourth butterfly emerge from its chrysalis this morning. As I mentioned in a previous post about the third butterfly, I could tell it was going to be some time today. My wish came true this time and we got to see it come out.

This I took last night to illustrate how I could tell it was about time. The one that emerged today is on the left. When compared to the chrysalis on the right, this one is much darker and the bottom part (abdomen) is curved.

The chrysalis skin becomes extremely thin and you can see the wings through the skin. When inside the butterfly is pretty much wrapped by the wings.

The process is very quick. I took a look at it and it looked the same as last night. I stepped away, walked by a minute later, and here it was crawling out.

It was less than a minute before it was completely out of the chrysalis. It was exciting to watch. Nancy tried to get it on the video camera but wasn't able to get it ready in time.

Here it had just crawled around from the bottom side of the branch. Notice how small the wings are and how large the abdomen seems. This is another male. We've now had two females and two males. There are two more chrysalises left.

It crawled up to the top of the branch and scratched around on the glass (back of the fish tank). They don't have "suction" feet and cannot climb on surfaces such as glass or painted walls. In fact, they have a hard time even just walking on a table or other solid horizontal surface. Finally it settled down on the side of the branch and started to pump up its wings. It uses fluid from the abdomen to do that. Here it was in the middle of the process.

A blurry picture of the completed process. I'd guess it was about fifteen minutes from the start of the emergence. Without the pretty wings, it would just be an ugly bug.

This was our post about the first butterfly. It includes a link to a post about the caterpillars turning into chrysalises.

The plural form of chrysalis is either chrysalises or chrysalides. I looked it up.

Little Drummer Boy

Growing up, the Little Drummer Boy was one of my favorite Christmas shows. I remember I was always sad when the lamb was run over but happy when it jumped in his arms. This video is the ending - the last five minutes or so.

Weekend happenings

Last night I went out by myself (very nice) and got some shopping done. I had a lot of stuff to get done and I had to get some candy and apples for the church for the goodies bags they pass out after the program. The youth group and I will get the bags ready tomorrow morning. I decorated a Christmas tree cake for a friend's daughter's birthday when I got home. She and I had the first babies after MOMS Club started in 2001. Now Emma is six and Donovan will be six a month from tomorrow-talk about time flying by!!

Today I got up and started working in the kitchen. I made a pizza hotdish for us that we just ate and one for Barb and Jason as well. I also made brownies-some for after the program tomorrow night a few for Barb, Jason, and family although I'm pretty sure Barb won't share with her family. Another butterfly hatched this morning and we saw it happen. It happened at 10:01 a.m. and it's a boy!! Bruce got some pictures.

I picked the kids up from program practice at noon (they got pizza there) and came home and did some more stuff. Aleah had to perform at a dance competition this afternoon. Her group was basically the entertainment between the high school students competing. They were from all over the state. I wish I could have stayed for more of it but there's too much to do around here.

Tomorrow we'll go to Sunday School and church and come home and do more stuff. I'm making beef pinwheels for supper tomorrow night since Bruce's parents and grandma will be here for the program. I usually make them for Bruce's birthday but we went out for his birthday this year. They take awhile to make. The kids and I also have to get the gifts ready for their teachers. The day will be busy and fly by!

I almost forgot. The curtains for the living room came in and I picked them up last night. Bruce got them hung up and they look great! Of course anything would have been an improvement over the blue sheet that was hanging there!

Grandma's Kuchen - Westfield, ND

Just this morning Grandma's Kuchen of Westfield, ND was on New Morning with Kimberly Whitfield, on the Hallmark Channel. She (Lois) makes the best kuchen I've ever had! Many are a lot of crust with a little filling but hers are the opposite. Goodness. Makes me crave some of her kuchen.

I grew up five miles from Westfield. We went to church there and spent a lot of time doing things within the little unincorporated town. Man, I could go on and on - church events, vacation bible school, riding motorcycle with friends, roller skating, exploring the trees and old houses/buildings, shooting fireworks on Independence Day.

I even lived there for some years while I worked at the cheese plant in Pollock, SD. In fact, I rented the house that is now home to Grandma's Kuchen.

The hall owned by the church, the parish hall, is mentioned as having been used for roller skating. This was a big event after Catechism every Wednesday night.

Here is a video of the segment of the show featuring Grandma's Kuchen. It is very good. You'll likely have to turn the volume up. I forgot to check that before uploading and it did end up low.

Note to Russ

About two years ago I bought an old pickup, a 1973 Dodge crew cab 2WD. In looking through the materials in the glove compartment I found a note. I wouldn't call it a love note - it appears to be more of a "like" note.

The original owner of the pickup was Twin City Roofing. I don't know if the note was to someone who worked for the company or whether it was for an owner of the vehicle after Twin City Roofing sold it. There is no date, so there is no way to know the time frame. Who doesn't put a date on a note? Tracy, apparently.

Below is a photo of the note. I typed it out, along with any spelling or grammatical errors, for your easy viewing. The phone number Tracy gives is in Elgin, ND.

Russ,

I was hoping to say good-bie to you today, but I had to go fishing with my mother and her relatives. I really hope that you aren't up-set with me because of the other night! I want you to know that I really want to still be good friends even after what happend! (Excepially after what happend!!) But if you don't want anything to do with me I'll understand. Well, have a good weekend. If you would like to see me when you get back on Monday give me a call, O.K. My phone number is: 584-xxxx. I know that I would like to see you again! Take care of yourself!

As Always,
Tracy

Anyway, it was interesting to me to find this note in that old pickup - so I thought I would share it here. Gerrit read it and said, "It sounds kind of like they were boyfriend/girlfriend and one of them did something to make the other one mad."

So many losses

A few days ago I wrote about how Silas the little boy with cancer from my parent's church died. There's also a co-worker of Bruce who just lost his 15 year old daughter to leukemia a few days ago. Also our friend Jason lost his stepmom Shirley on Saturday very suddenly due to a stroke. It's the same way his mother-in-law died almost nine months ago. I've been praying more lately for Jason, Barb, Jason's dad and Shirley's kids. Jason's dad has been widowed twice. It's always hard to lose someone. I imagine it's even harder this time of the year (Christmas) when it's suppose to be such a happy season. I can't imagine losing a child either. The parents must feel such a void. I can't begin to imagine how one would ever cope with it unless they had some kind of faith to cling to.

Samantha and I met Bruce for lunch today and ordered a curtain for the patio door in the living room. It should be here in a week. It will be hard to say goodbye to the sheet that's been hanging there for a couple months-not really.

We had our Girl Scout troop meeting/Christmas party yesterday after school. It went well. We went caroling at a nursing home and then to Trish's house for the party. It had been awhile since I had been in a nursing home. I just got done reading a book a couple weeks ago that referred to a nursing home as "Heaven's waiting room." I really liked that. I suppose some people don't but I guess most of the time people in the nursing home are elderly and hopefully they are getting ready to go to heaven. I always enjoyed visiting my grandpa and grandma in the nursing home. It was a nice small nursing home and they were wonderfully cared for there.

Billy Gilman - O Holy Night

I figure it's about time we start to get into the Christmas spirit here at The Dutch Scandies. Enjoy!

Another Belated Birthday

Happy Belated Birthday to my brother-in-law, Bleau. His birthday was Friday, December 7. Bleau and my sister live near Sioux Falls. Lisa was recently featured here for her November birthday.

I found the time tonight to dig through some old photos to look for one of Bleau. I found a few and this was the oldest one, taken in 1991. Unfortunately, Lisa is also in the picture. Just kidding, Lisa.

Bleau is not wearing a stained t-shirt. Those are either on the print or were on the negative when developed. I used to use Clark Photo because they were so cheap.

Anyway, hope you had a good birthday, Bleau. See you at Christmas.

Happy Birthday Bruce!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband Bruce! I would post a picture but I don't know how. Bruce did want to show me awhile back but I was too tired to learn something new that night and I'm kind of slow at learning new computer things so maybe next year. I hope the next year brings some free time so you can relax and do some fun things-you've worked so hard this year and I do appreciate it-I love you!

We kind of made a last minute decision tonight. We had a babysitter lined up for Bruce's work Christmas party but we decided it would be more fun to go out by ourselves (something we rarely get to do) so we went to Johnny Carino's. It was okay but Bruce wished we would have went to Texas Roadhouse instead-I let him pick. We did some Christmas shopping afterwards. I don't have too much shopping left so this week I think I'll concentrate on getting the Christmas letter sent out and a few other things and do baking and cleaning the week after.

Wendy and I had a good time visiting while she was here-I briefly got to visit with Sonja too when she dropped Wendy off on Friday night. I'd really like to get up to Minot sometime this winter for a college friends getaway weekend. I did have to take Gerrit to the walk-in clinic this morning too since his ears were draining. The doctor gave him antibiotic drops that were $40-that's with insurance otherwise it would have been $150!

Brrr

When I got up this morning it was -9 degrees Fahrenheit in Bismarck. That's fairly cold but not so bad. What really can make this cold weather more dangerous is the wind. We have a slight breeze right now and the wind chill showed -20 deg. F.

Today will involve more work in the basement. I plan to work more on doors and on trim in the boy's bedroom. I'd like to get their room done so we can proceed with moving them down there. I'm hoping to have all the work done before Christmas, but if not I have some time off between then and New Year's Day and then should be able to finish everything.

Oh, and Happy Birthday to me. Another year older, another year deeper in debt, right? Another year wiser sounds better to me. I was born the same year as a famous March blizzard, just about nine months later.

Have a good one, everyone.

Another Transformation Is Complete

At some point today our third black swallowtail butterfly came out of its chrysalis. I had noticed yesterday that the chrysalis was starting to look different and when Nancy came home from doing her stuff this morning she found our newest butterfly.

This one the kids named Oscar. I used to have a dog named Oscar. Best dog ever. Still think about him and miss him once in a while. He was part wiener dog.

We are fairly sure this one is a male because we read that males have a lot more yellow and this one certainly does. The other two were females and, sadly, they are no longer with us. We've had trouble finding something for them to feed on. I'm considering getting some cheap flowers like carnations from a grocery store or something just to try.

This is my current project in the basement. I have four of these doors to sand, apply wood conditioner, and apply two coats of wood finish. Believe me, if I had a choice I would not have solid wood six-panel doors. Because the current framing (door rough opening) that was in place for the doors was 2" shorter than the standard door size, I have to cut about that same amount from each of these doors. You can't cut that much from a flat hollow-core door without all the work of re-blocking the bottom. I guess staining these isn't that hard, just time consuming. The harder work is getting to all of the surfaces to sand. By the way, I had to get pine doors instead of oak because pine is actually a solid piece of wood while oak is veneer with a different solid wood in the middle. Would have had issues with chipping out when cutting the oak door.

Our artificial tree had clear lights with it, and tonight I put on the red and green LED lights we bought new for this year. After supper was cleaned up Nancy and the kids decorated the tree. This is the end result. You get to see our beautiful curtain (bed sheet) for the sliding door.

Tomorrow night we will have a guest in the house. One of Nancy's college friends from Kenmare plans to stay to attend a wedding in Bismarck on Saturday night. Our first guest in the newly (almost) finished basement! That is truly special. The smell of the wood finish should add a nice touch. Ha.

Sad News

There's a three-year-old boy from my parents church (he's the pastor's nephew) that passed away today from cancer. It's so sad. Silas had been diagnosed with stomach cancer last December and had pretty much been in Rochester since late October. He was his parents only child. I feel so sad for them. I hope their faith gets them through this hard time and that they can picture that Silas is safe in Jesus' arms now and he'll never be sick or in pain again.

Three weeks until Christmas

The days are flying by and it's just three weeks until Christmas. Bruce and I sometimes joke around in June (or earlier) and say Christmas is almost here-because time seems to just fly by so fast.

The Christmas tree is up now. We got a new artificial one this year-pre-lit! We had never bought one before-we had inherited ones before and the last two years had real trees. We plan on decorating it tomorrow or Thursday. Bruce wants to put more lights on it first. The other decorating is coming along too. I think I will focus on cleaning tomorrow and I have to do some baking as I have two gatherings to go to on Thursday that I need to bring something too and I'm having some friends over Friday morning as well. Donovan has speech at 11:30 and we have small group Bible study at church at night and the kids have practice for their program. I'll get an early start since I'm donating plasma at 6:30 a.m. I better get to bed soon.

Drive carefully

We are now in winter driving season - time to change our driving habits. Here is a photo I took last year. The car ahead of me was going only about 5 mph so I had plenty of time to grab my camera and snap a shot. This particular incident happened exactly one year ago to the day, and was after snow or ice on the road had melted earlier but froze again later in the day. This location is right after a curve and the person obviously came around the curve too fast.

The carpet is installed

The basement is looking more finished now. The carpet installers were here for about five hours and it looks great! The family room furniture is coming on Wednesday afternoon and we'll have our first guest try out the sleeper sofa this weekend. My roommate from college is coming this weekend for a wedding. Mom and dad plan to come the weekend after that for the kids Sunday School Christmas program and then we'll have company after Christmas too-VERY BUSY TIMES!

I need a plan of action to get all the Christmas preparations done in time! Decorating and cleaning will consume the next few days and there's the Christmas letter to get out, gifts to buy and wrap, and all the baking and everything else. I can't believe Christmas is just three weeks from tomorrow! We also have to get the boys moved downstairs too and that will take some time. Bruce and I are really hoping for some relaxtion over the Christmas break. He especially deserves it! He worked so hard this weekend (and more weekends then I can count lately) to get things ready for the carpet installers. I wish I could say his work is done but there's still more finishing work to do-at least he enjoys the little detail work though.

Tomorrow I have Moms In Touch in the morning and then I think Samantha and I need to go look for different window coverings for the living room-Bruce and I decided that what I got wouldn't work so well. The color is okay but I need to look for a different type of fabric. I hope it won't take too long since I need to get cleaning and decorating.

December 1st-a nice day for a swim

Gerrit, Aleah, Donovan and I went swimming at the YMCA this afternoon and we had a blast. I felt I needed to do something fun with them since we've been so busy working on the basement and they've been good about entertaining themselves while we've been busy. I was able to leave Samantha at home since Bruce's mom was here to watch her. She did nap most of the time we were gone-Samantha that is not Joann. Bruce and his dad were busy working downstairs.

They got the casing on the doors and some of the trim along the floor. It's looking really nice and I can't imagine what carpet will do to make it look even better. Bruce and I will be busy downstairs tomorrow getting ready for the carpet installers to come on Monday. I do have to bring Aleah to the Civic Center around 1:00. She has a dance performance there since the Pride of Dakota showcase is here this weekend and they must be the entertainment. I'm anxious to see how they do. They've been practicing since September.

We also have church in the morning and Gerrit will be working most of the afternoon on his homework. I imagine Donovan will be watching Bruce and I work and asking questions and watching for any mistakes he's sees-he spots any little imperfection and points it out to us.

Burning Tree

For the two previous Christmas seasons we have had real Christmas trees. We have purchased a fake tree for this year and hopefully that tree will serve for many years to come. Two years ago the real tree had dried out fairly early - a couple of weeks before Christmas. It was in the house for a few weeks after Christmas and then I took it out in the garden to burn it. That was amazing! It went so fast and the flames were at least 15' above the tree. I regretted that I did not photograph or videotape the event.

Last year we also had a real tree, but were able to keep it moist through the Christmas season. After that I took it out and put it in the shed. Several months later I took it out to burn, but was disappointed. I had even set up the video camera this time. I think what happened was that this tree was out in the higher humidity air after it had warmed up and snow started to melt where the previous year the tree was in the dry inside air during the cold part of the winter when the furnace ran fairly often.

I had gotten the idea from the web site of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). They have a page about fire safety for the "holidays." I wonder which holiday they mean? Memorial Day? It's almost funny - to avoid saying "Christmas trees" they use the term "trees used indoors for the holidays." Anyway, on that page they have a video of a test burn of a Christmas tree inside a fake living room. At the time I first saw the video I had no idea it would burn so fast and consume the room so quickly. With a Christmas tree fire like that you really don't have much time.

I love the Discovery show "MythBusters." A while back they did a section on Christmas tree fires. Here is the episode language from the web site: "Is it really true that leaving some Christmas lights on your tree overnight could cause it to heat up so much that the tree bursts into a ball of flame?" Well, they basically ended up proving that a fire will not start, even with a very dry tree, from hot lights. They had to present some ignition source like spark or flame, and that ignition source could occur in the home from a damaged or overloaded cord. Their final test to try to induce a fire with lights was to load an extremely dry tree (so dry it was brown) with hundreds of the clear larger bulbs like C7 or C9 bulbs. They stood a distance back, turned on the lights, and used an infrared meter, I think, to check the temperature of the lights/tree. I believe the temperature went up to over 200 deg. and stayed there; and they were still not able to ignite the dry tree. Pretty interesting stuff.

Here is the NIST video. In this video they introduced flame to the dry tree with a propane torch. My tree that first year burned pretty much the same as this one. They were not able to light up a moist, green tree with the torch, or if a section did burn it went out when they removed the torch.

A Boy Scout??

Tonight I took Gerrit to an informational meeting about Boy Scouts-he's been in Cub Scouts since he was in the first grade and now he's the only kid in his den which leaves Bruce and I in charge of the things he gets done and experiences. Needless to say with the basement project and everything else he hasn't done much this year but still attends the pack meetings once a month. He enjoys them so he wanted to check out this meeting. Bruce was busy hanging a door downstairs so I was sent to find out all about Boy Scouts. Troop 11 sounds like a really active group. They do a lot around the community and do a lot of camping.

He can start coming anytime now to their meetings but I think we'll wait until at least February since he has the big Pinewood Derby with his pack in January and he won't be considered a Boy Scout until he finished his Arrow of Light award. It surprised me that there is a lot of parent involvement in Troop 11 so that's a positive thing. There's 36 scouts and 20 parent members as well.

The scouts were able to play with Nintendo Wii's, XBOX, and Playstation and Gerrit won the grand prize-a free scout shirt, hat, and all the patches that go on it-that's over a $50 value and he got a flashlight too.

I made the big Wal-Mart trip this morning. I can't believe how cold the wind was-I almost wondered why I was out but needed to get quite a few supplies and I think I found some window coverings for the patio door in the living room. After that Barb watched Samantha for me while I donated plasma. She said Sydney and Samantha played really well together and they were really cute to listen too.

Tomorrow Bruce's parents are coming to help with the finish work downstairs. I'll be busy in the kitchen and helping how I can downstairs and I'd like to take the kids swimming at the YMCA for them to do something fun this weekend. Gerrit has tons of homework to do too this weekend-not quite sure what the complete story is there-I kept asking him at the beginning of the week where his homework was from when he missed school while he was sick but he said he didn't have any and then last night he brought home more homework then he usually has in a month.

Excuse Me, You Have A Leg . . .

Excuse me, but it appears you have a leg sticking out of your trunk.

When I got in my car recently after one of my seemingly constant trips to Menards, this sight made me do a double take. I opened the window and snapped this photo.

Here - this should be better. I don't care who you are, that's funny.

Today another butterfly emerged triumphant from its chrysalis.

Samantha is a big girl!!

Samantha had the best day yet with potty training. She stayed dry all day (even during nap) and she went #2 in the potty chair!! She says she's a big girl now. I hope this keeps up-if so she'd be the easiest to train. I didn't even have to remind her to go to the potty she would just say I have to go potty and she'd go!!

I went through a bunch of old VHS's today and threw some old ones away-I haven't had an urge to watch any of these things for the last 15+ years and I don't foresee that I will so I tossed them-mostly things taped from the TV. Hopefully Bruce will follow suit. While we were doing this we watched a tape of Gerrit in Kindergarten when he was interviewed on the news about a tea party his class had-this was almost five years ago!! We still laugh at how he referred to the party as being "Nice and fancy." I think he's kind of embarrassed about it now but it's really cute.

Float Like A Butterfly

Sting like a bee.
That was a quote from
Mohammed Ali

Big news! Remember this? Well, we now have a butterfly in the house. Very cool. We had hoped to catch one exiting the chrysalis but discovered it just before supper yesterday already out and fluttering its wings. Oh well, we should have five more chances! Gerrit took it to his cub scout pack meeting last night, although we didn't let them take it out of the glass jar. When I got home from work today I took it out and set it free inside.

Hi, I am a black swallowtail. How are you?

Here is a look at the back side of the wings.

It sat like this on my finger for a couple of minutes, fluttering its wings really fast. It felt weird.

A view with flash - you can see the colors a little better.

Right now our little dude is hanging out on the bed sheet over our sliding glass door. (We don't have curtains for the door yet.) Tomorrow Gerrit is going to ask a couple of teachers if they would like to have our butterfly.

It sure is cold!!

I guess winter is here. When we started Girl Scouts at 3:30 yesterday the temp was 39 and when we drove home at 5:30 it was already down to 9!! I know it's almost December but I'm not ready for the cold-I don't mind snow but I so hate the cold but then I guess you wouldn't have snow if it wasn't cold. I don 't think it got much about 12 today.

My fun at Lunch Bunch was cut short today (I brought Deviled eggs and they were really good) because Gerrit called just when I got there at 11:30 and said he had forgotten his viola for orchestra (he's been forgetting a lot lately) and could I please bring it. Lunch Bunch was way up north and the school is way south-about a 20 minute drive. I told him I'd leave at 12:15 which gave Samantha and I just enough time to eat and chat a bit. Orchestra starts at 12:30 but I told him I might be a little late. I had to stop at the house too to get the viola but made it to the school just in time and handed his viola to one of his friends that was passing by on his way to orchestra. I had wanted to stop and get a few groceries (the sale ended today) on the way home from Lunch Bunch but wasn't able to since Samantha would have fallen asleep and her nap would have been messed up so I had to get the groceries after school. I'm not sure why I didn't have Dan's deliver since the bill ended up being over $50-I didn't think I had much to get but I bought quite a bit hamburger and chicken and that adds up fast.

Most Tuesday nights we don't have anything so we're able to work on a lot of homework or do something fun. Tonight was homework and Bruce managed to get the weight set in the office-another thing done!!

I was thinking about going to the YMCA in the morning before Speech but think I'll skip it and get the kids clothes organized before the boys move downstairs and go through some toys we can give to charity.

Carpet Is In The House

But not on the steps. Nancy explained in the post previous. Please feel free to scroll down and take a read. I'll wait. In Nancy's post there is a cute story about Samantha.

OK, like Nancy said, we have our new carpet in the living room. I'm now opening bets on how long before a food or liquid spill occurs. My guess is within the first two weeks. Can't supervise the kids 24/7, you know.

Our furniture was all in the dining room. It was a tight fit. This view is looking east to our new sliding patio door and the new laminate floor by the door that we laid a couple of weekends ago. The deck is just outside the sliding door.

I worked in Garrison today. It was very cold and windy. While driving around town I saw what appeared to be a club with exotic dancers, but it was just a guy with a sense of humor who put some painted wood cutouts of scantily clad women on the outside of his shop along with a couple of signs that said "Girls" and "Go Go." I took a picture but Nancy asked me not to post it here because of its increased level of risque-ness. I got a clue it was just a joke when another sign on the side said "Exotic Dancers - Shows Tomorrow Night Only."

Update: Just a note to confirm that there is a definite rule of no food or drink (or shoes) in the living room. But we realize it is a certainty that the rule will be broken at some point and at some point that food or drink will spill. Thank you.

Samantha and Sinnin' Sam

Here's a funny story that happened yesterday at church. There's usually a children's sermon each week that the kids go up for and sit in the front. Gerrit is too old for it now but Aleah and Donovan go up there. When I saw who was doing the sermon I thought maybe Samantha would enjoy going up there-the guy giving it usually wears a costume or brings a object that the kids enjoy. Well....Aleah brought her up there and after the kids were seated in came "Sinnin' Sam" and I knew then that Samantha was not going to like him. You see "Sinnin' Sam" wears a long hair and beard, hillbilly teeth, funny glasses, a coverall and gloves covered in grease-well, he hardly got a chance to sit down in front when Samantha came screaming in fear down the aisle. It was pretty funny and everyone was laughing. I took her out and calmed her down. I don't think she'll be going up for the children's sermon anytime soon.

The carpet is now laid in the living room and looks great! They didn't do the stairs yet since they wanted to do it when they were finished with the other two rooms in the basement so that will be done next Monday. They were only here an hour and a half and they took a coffee break in that time too.

Another busy day after school tonight. Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts and Aleah had dance too. Gerrit has scouts again next Monday since they're doing their annual helping sort through toys at the Salvation Army.

Greetings and salutations!

Hi, everyone! We are alive and well. Some of you may have thought we caught the stomach flu and so have been absent from here. Nope - just very busy with home projects. On Friday I put down laminate in the back office/gym room. Yesterday I hung one door and worked on a few small projects. Today I tore out the carpet on the stairs and in the living room.

The installer is coming tomorrow to work on putting new carpet in those areas. We had to postpone carpet installation in the basement because we are just not ready. I still need to move the weight set to the back room, hang one more door, and put all the base trim on. Moving the weight set is fairly involved because it has to be taken apart.

Here our stairs are ready for new carpet. The old carpet here was just stapled - there were no tack strips and there was no pad. Removing the staples took a long time. I got two blisters on my tender hands.

This is our living room area all set to go for the carpet installing peeps. This was the standard installation with carpet, pad, and tack strips. This was also a lot of work to get ready. The installers of this carpet really put a lot of staples on the pad. This carpet was only a few years old and was worn out. We had purchased it as a remnant from Menards and I guess it wasn't good quality. I think we paid more for the installation than the carpet and pad.

Until later, my friends.

Thanksgiving Feast

We got back from our trip down south at 9:08 tonight. Because we know about how long it takes once we turn west at the Moffit corner, we have a little contest to see who can guess the exact minute we drive up to the house. Nancy was the winner this evening. I had 9:07 and Gerrit had 9:06. Aleah did not participate. Donovan was sleeping. Samantha doesn't care (she's 2).

Yes, we were all well enough to meet with my relatives for Thanksgiving so we were happy about that. Nancy and I are almost comfortable in saying we are out of the woods as far as getting the stomach flu from the kids. Aleah even went to school for the last half day yesterday. She seriously loves school and doesn't like to miss.

The Thanksgiving dinner was excellent as usual. We met at a church in Linton - we have too big a group to meet at someone's house. We ate and then some played games and others sat together and talked. After that our family did go to my parent's house near Strasburg and we stayed there until after supper.

Well, I'll close with a few pictures. I need to get to bed so I can get up in a couple of hours to get in line. Some of the stores are opening at 4:00 am for Black Friday. No, I don't really do that. Several years ago I did go to Menards. I don't remember whether they opened at 5:00 or at 6:00 that year - and I'm not sure what hour they open this year. Anyway, I did not think Menards would be bad but I was very wrong. I got there right when they opened and was lucky to find a spot in the lot. I was just amazed at how many people were there. It was hard to walk around without bumping into someone. I stayed about twenty minutes and by then the checkout lines were to the back aisle, a distance of probably at least 75'. It was then I decided to leave without making any purchases.

This is our group after the dinner. I was in the sanctuary looking at the stained glass windows and took this from inside the sanctuary. The group looks smaller, I suppose, because the women were working in the kitchen. We had between 25 and 30 here today, and a good number were missing because of illness or other obligations.

A plate of mustard flavored pretzels that Donovan found revolting, and refused to eat. Donovan finds a lot of food revolting, though.

I sat near the kids while they played Monopoly Junior and watched for a while. Samantha was with me for part of the time and had me taking pictures of her hair bands. I thought they looked like eyes so I set this up and took a photo.

Crop Circle?

For the part of my work that is involved in performing building and property inspections, I will review aerial or satellite photos - mainly through Google Maps and sometimes using Microsoft Terraserver for those areas without Google Maps coverage. A couple of weeks ago I was working south of Mandan and was taking a look at the aerial views. I noticed this strange item in a field in the area.

I don't know how well you can see it, but it is in the light field area west of the Heart River. You may need to click on to enlarge for a better view. Across the river is the Prairie West Golf Course. This location is on Hwy 1806 just north of Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park. At first I was confused as to what it could be. Was it a crop circle? Why hadn't I heard about this?

I zoomed in for a closer look. What the heck? Finally it dawned on me - this is the corn maze south of Mandan. It is likely that this satellite view is from late 2004 or early 2005 and taken after the corn was harvested. The local family that runs the maze calls it the A.G.A. Maize. This one was called Lost In Space.

From checking out the site, it looks like the MAiZE is a company that designs and makes corn mazes for people or companies. They will either come out and cut the maze for you or else train you how to do it. Obviously a GPS is involved. The owner of the company is only 36 years old - aMAiZEing. Ha.

I love mazes. On our honeymoon to the Black Hills/Rapid City in 1996 I took Nancy to a maze in the area. I had a great time. Nancy doesn't particularly care for mazes, as I found out in the middle of working our way through the maze. Lesson learned. It was hot and muggy, though, and the walking surface was several inches of pea gravel - making the journey even more laborious for the bride.

And The Award For The Most Sick Children In One Night Goes To . . .

As Nancy said Gerrit was sick when he went to bed last night and was the same all day today - mostly chills, upset stomach, and muscle aches. He has not thrown up, though. In the middle of the night Samantha gave Nancy a nice vomit bath and kept on with it (not on Nancy every time) every half hour or so for a while and periodically throughout the day today. Aleah woke up needing to use the pail and has been all day as well. So now all four kids have come down with the illness that started with Donovan on Saturday.

Nancy and I are kind of on pins and needles. Every little odd feeling we have we start to wonder whether this is it or not. It would be great if we were spared but it probably isn't likely. Who knows, maybe we have had this particular strain already and are immune. That would be nice. Hopefully we'll get to see all our peeps down south on Thanksgiving day!

Just kidding about the title. I know it is no record but I don't think we've had three sick in one day before.

The sickness passes to...

Donovan seems much better today but tonight Gerrit went to bed feeling achy and chilled plus his stomach is hurting so I guess the sickness passes to Gerrit. I've felt queasy today but otherwise okay except I finally went to the doctor for my ankle. It hurt really bad for awhile two or three weeks ago and got better but the past two days I've been in so much pain and could hardly walk. The diagnosis-arthritis with some tendonitis!! I guess that means I really am getting older!! The doc gave me some anti-inflammatory medicine so hopefully that helps.

The girls and Bruce so far feel okay. Samantha stayed dry all day (even at naptime) and goes potty much more than she really has to-chocolate chips are a great motivator! I hope this keeps up. It seems like each child has gotten easier to train-oops, I shouldn't have said that now I just jinxed it.

We'd really like to spend Thanksgiving with Bruce's family but it seems kind of up in the air now with the sickness going through our house. Hopefully it passes the rest of us. I'm still planning on making my salad to bring.

Jim Gaffigan On Holidays

As we are heading into the holiday season this humorous look at the holidays seems appropriate. The staff of The Dutch Scandies enjoys Jim Gaffigan. His humor seems to be clean and we find him funny.

Happy Birthday Loren!

Today is my favorite brother's birthday. I won't say how old he is but he was born the year Richard Nixon resigned-there's a trivia question for you. He is also now the age our mom was when she gave birth to him which means that she is twice as old as he is now.

If you're wondering what to get Loren for his birthday maybe a new shirt might be a good idea or at least some patches.

Hope you enjoy a big cheeseburger today, Loren!

This picture is taken north of Duluth. Loren really enjoyed the hiking and beautiful scenery while he lived there.

I believe this picture was taken in September 2006 while Loren and Kelly were on a dinner cruise for his work. Mom and I had met them at a Perkins shortly before this picture on our way to mom's checkup in Rochester.

Here's hoping you have a great birthday Loren. I'm glad God made you my brother even though when dad asked if I wanted a little brother or sister I told him I wanted a rabbit. You're way better then a rabbit!

Use The Pail, Young Donovan . . .

. . . the pail is with you. Donovan just threw up for the third time tonight - each time in nice piles next to the pail we gave him! He went to bed early last night because he was way tired and didn't feel good. Today he seemed normal and he ate well at each meal. Again tonight he went to bed not feeling well, and the puke monster reared its head big time. Man, pretty soon we are going to run out of sheets and blankets.

Although we understand he is a little guy, it is kind of frustrating that he is not using the pail beside him. I suppose maybe it comes on so quick he doesn't have time to think about the pail.

Of course, our hope is that it doesn't make its rounds to the rest of the family. Personally I don't think I've thrown up since New Year's Eve 1996 - from stomach flu. Believe me, as much as I'd like to share, you do not want to know the details of that day!

UPDATE: As I was typing this Donovan got up to use the bathroom and ended up ralphing again. This time it was in the toilet. Poor little dude.

Remodeling update

Bruce's parents called about eleven last night and said they could come help today. The plan was while I was donating plasma Bruce would take Donovan with him to go get the hardwood laminate at Carpet World and have the stuff here when Milo and Joann arrived -that was the plan. When I got to Biolife I noticed I had both sets of the van keys and I had Bruce's car so there was a slight delay in getting started but Bruce made use of the time by cutting out part of the carpet in the living room where they finished putting the laminate down-right in front of the patio doors. It looks great.

They started on the downstairs in the family room but didn't finish but at least it's a start. Now I'll have to help Bruce with that and the office/gym. I did get the trim painting done in the laundry room and when the kids go to bed soon I plan on finishing!! Bruce is getting some stuff at Menards now.

Today's Birthday Girl - Lisa

Happy Birthday to Lisa - my favorite sister! She and her husband live in the Sioux Falls area. They have three kids and one dog.

Well, here is the semi-mandatory unflattering picture. Lisa is on the farm coming up from the barn. I'll assume she just finished helping with the nightly milking, but I'm not positive about that. Nice coat, right? This was taken in 1988 - almost twenty years ago already!

To redeem myself for the top picture here is a better one from 1989. Looks like she got some flowers from her boyfriend - now her husband.

I've always liked this picture, taken in 1990. That's my mom with Lisa in the kitchen of the house on the farm. My oldest brother and his family live there now. Have a good day, Lisa!

Birthday Boy - Laurence Herbert J.

Belated birthday wishes to my father-in-law, Mr. Laurence J. His birthday was yesterday. He has a lot of quirky sayings and one of my favorite is, "Gives you something to talk about." He usually says that to my mother-in-law.

It's tradition to publish bad photos at someone's birthday, isn't it? When they come down for a birthday party of one of the kids, he usually ends up asleep on the couch - even during all the hubbub of opening gifts. I'm pretty positive I'll be the same way if/when I have grandkids. This picture was taken in 2004.

OK, here is a better photo - taken at Loren and Kelly's wedding in September. Karen found something interesting to her right and Laurence to his left.

Flu shots and family fun night

Donovan and Trevor had a good time this morning. I was wondering how it was going to go since when we left Trevor's house he was crying-this is the boy that cried everyday in school for at least a month-major seperation anxiety from mom-but he was okay after a minute and they kept busy for three hours. I would have fed them lunch or a snack (Donovan wanted me to make chocolate chip cookie bars for Trevor) but Trevor didn't want to eat so by the time he left at one Donovan was very hungry-Donovan did have a small cookie bar while Trevor was busy building something with Legos. He's my snack monster.

After school the kids all got their flu shots and it went very well. I'd say Aleah was the one that resisted the most but not bad. Samantha told the nurse while she was getting the shot, "Don't like this." I drove over to the Bismarck Burleigh Public Health right after we were done because they were having their flu clinic for adults from 1-4:30. I got there at 4:25 and by 4:40 I had my shot. Now we're all vaccinated since Bruce got his shot at work yesterday.

We went to Sam's Club and had pizza for supper and got a few things. When we got home we got ready to go to the school for Family Fun Night. There were a few guest readers there (including a police officer and his trained police dog-he was a hit) that read stories to the kids and then they had a book exchange after that and milk and cookies. Donovan wasn't happy with the book he got but I think it's because he was tired-he went right to bed when we got home.

Tomorrow's plans include me donating plasma in the morning and working on the basement and painting. It sure would be nice if the kids had some play dates arranged tomorrow. At least I hope the weather is okay so they can play outside.

Teachers are never wrong and potty chair mania

Donovan looked at our one calendar that just shows today's date and was very sure we had it wrong. We had the 15th (which it is) and he turned it back to the 14th because his teacher told them all day today that it was the 14th and little kids always believe what their teachers tell them. We couldn't convince him that Ms. S must have got mixed up since today is Thursday the 15th (Happy 79th Birthday to my dad!). The kids even told him you never go to school on Wednesdays and showed him the calendar and after a little while I think he finally accepted the fact that Ms. S was wrong.

After being gone all morning (I won a $10 gift certificate to Space Aliens at MOPS this morning) Samantha and I came home and she had a good long nap. I rode bike for awhile and got a few things done but not painting. I'm not sure if I'll get to it tomorrow either since Donovan has a friend coming over in the morning and right after school the kids get their flu shots and then we're going to Sam's Club and after that the school has a family fun night at seven so I guess it will be just another project to finish on Saturday-I will not go to bed until the laundry room is finished painting!!

Samantha had great success using the potty chair this afternoon and early tonight. She must have gone five times!! She's rewarded with a few chocolate chips. At least she knows what she's suppose to be doing. I'm getting so excited about being done with diapers!!

Simple Weather - It Really Is Simple!

To the right you might have noticed I added a Simple Weather Bismarck current conditions graphic. I really like this web site for the simplicity - there isn't all that extra stuff, just the basic info for your zip code.

When you first go to the site you have to enter your zip, then it goes to the weather for your city. When you go back in the future it remembers your city. If you need to change it you can go to the search in the drop down menu at the top. If you have entered more than one zip code it remembers those for the drop down menu as well. Another way to get to your city is to enter the web address with your zip code behind, like www.simpleweather.com/58501 for Bismarck.

One thing about this blog graphic is that it is a beta or test. For example, tonight it shows conditions as clear but has a graphic of the sun. I assume it won't be too long before they fix that.

This was yet another service provided by the fine people at The Dutch Scandies. We want to thank you and we hope you have a wonderful night/morning/day/afternoon/evening.

It feels like winter is coming!

With the strong winds and cloudy day it really feels like winter is fast approaching and I guess since tomorrow is the middle of November it is!! I made a cheesy potato soup for supper tonight and it was so good. I love making homemade soups in the winter.

I managed to get all my errands done today but no painting-not with church tonight. Donovan really enjoyed storytime today and Samantha and I had a good time at the library-we did puzzles and read books. Samantha used the potty chair for the first time tonight!! She had taken her diaper off to get ready for bed and she said, "Can't go potty on the floor," so I said why don't you try the potty chair and she did! We all praised her a lot!! Hopefully it's a sign of things to come.

Tomorrow is MOPS in the morning. I'm not sure if I'll even start painting in the afternoon since after school Gerrit has his Young Scientist Club that I have to drive him too and then I have to pick up fundraising stuff at gymnastics.

Will it ever end??

Will it ever end? I'm talking about painting. I'm now working on painting the laundry room and stairway. One wouldn't think that these two fairly small areas would take so long but they do. First I had to dust the laundry room walls free of lint and move things in there to other parts of the basement and tape some areas around the doorways. I started painting yesterday but didn't finish. It's my goal to finish tomorrow or Thursday. This will be the only place where we have white walls. Right now we have white walls in Samantha's room (with the exception of the yellow alphabet border I painted in there seven years ago) and our room but those rooms will be painted within a couple months. I'd like to finish the girls rooms before Christmas but that might be a lofty goal if I actually want to get ready for Christmas.

Today after MOMS In Touch I stopped at Menards to get more paint-one gallon wasn't enough for the laundry room and stairway then I met Barb and Sydney at Gateway Mall and we let the girls play in the play area. We ate lunch at the Rockn' 50's Cafe. That was the first time I ate there and it was really good. We took the girls to the pet store to look at the puppies and kitties after that. Even though we were home by 12:15 Samantha had fell asleep on the way home and it was just long enough that she didn't sleep anymore. She was in bed by eight tonight. I don't know what her problem is lately-she goes to sleep after 10 and gets up at 7 which is not enough sleep for a two year old even with a good afternoon nap!!

Mom's report from the doctor came back that he got all her skin cancer!! She just has to watch it and of course keep putting on the sun screen. She's felt good since she's had her heart moniter on but she needs to wear it for a month.

Tomorrow morning I have a bunch of errands to do and I'm going to take Donovan to storytime at the library. He'll enjoy it. It's for kids four to six so Samantha and I will hang out in the kid area while he's in there since the librarian there doesn't like extra siblings that won't sit still and be quiet (she's not really a kind children's librarian but she's been there forever) and I know Samantha won't. I could take her to a different storytime for 18 months to three year olds but I'm not sure she'd sit still very well for that either. My kids love to be read to one on one but not in a group setting at a young age.

Jim Gaffigan on Hot Pockets

by Mennen!

Where's The Bread?

This is a reprint. I've had another personal blog since early 2004. It was pretty much just for the entertainment of Nancy and myself. This past Sunday, after church, we ate at the Asian Buffet in Kirkwood Mall. Of course, we were reminded of the following story - copied in its entirety from a blog post in June of 2004. The buffet does have garlic bread now.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell this funny story. It's one I'm sure I'll remember for the rest of my life.

Nancy's parents took us out to a local Chinese buffet restaurant this weekend. We are eating and Nancy's dad goes back for more. I see him talking to one of the employees, asking, "Where is the bread?" He had to repeat it because I assume her English wasn't the best. She summoned another employee to talk to him. He asked for the bread again. The answer was, "Oh no, we don't have bread." To this Nancy's dad said, "Well, you should. This is a farm state and we need to support the farmers." It wasn't really embarrassing because he often says stuff like that, it was more amusing than anything. He really is big on his bread. Not happy unless bread is on the table. If you think about it, first of all, there is breading on most of the food in the buffet, and secondly, the farmers really don't get that much from a loaf of bread. Every little bit helps though, I suppose.

Maybe someone else wouldn't find it funny, but it was to us. We'll most likely mention it every time we go to an oriental buffet.

The Paint Hounds

If anyone visited yesterday, I was testing out a way to put up some music once in a while. You know, subject you all to my unusual tastes in music. Ha. It was so slow, though, that it isn't going to work. I removed the post. I'll keep my eye out for something else.

Painting continues to hound us and haunt our dreams. Well, not quite so bad. We did some more painting this weekend - mostly touch-ups and painting where the walls meet the ceiling. Nancy had done the boy's room and I had done my office room previously, and this weekend we finished up around the top of the large family room area. Nancy started and I finished up. I put the trim on the recessed lights, and I need to purchase two more to finish up. For that job I had to remove a remove an existing socket plate, remove the socket, install the socket in the new trim unit, install the trim unit in the light fixture, and then clean up the light bulbs. Most of the bulbs had varying amounts of joint compound and paint "oops."

This was taken a while back in the boy's bedroom. Good thing the tray is almost empty.

Our ceiling paint was color changing. It went on violet and dried to bright white. Pretty helpful to be able to tell what had been covered already. Good old Dutch Boy.

The crazed painter at work.

Working hard at doing a good job at the ceiling line. Takes a lot of concentration. Note the extended pinkie - I did that just for the picture. Wow, vertical stripes really are slimming.

Two of the rooms are a two tone, with dark on bottom and lighter above. To get the line we rented a rotating self-leveling laser level. This is a laser level that rotates 360 degrees. You set it up to the height you want and turn it on. It self levels the laser unit and then starts spinning. Using that laser line we ran the tape around the room. It worked great! Made the job so easy. Normally this laser level unit is used for surveying and grading purposes. We are trying to decide between putting up a wallpaper border or a chair rail where the colors meet. Cost is about the same either way. The dark primer seeped up into the tape while the paint did not. The primer was much thinner.

A certified super sitter and the "Bee Movie"

Gerrit really enjoyed his Super Sitter class at the Y today and passed his test so is now a certified super sitter-try to say that real fast. I'm actually very impressed with the knowledge and actual hands on work he did today. I remember taking a Red Cross babysitting class many years ago and it was all talk and a little first aid training and changing a doll's diaper but today Gerrit actually got to practice childcare first hand. The instructor had the kids helping in the Y's daycare so Gerrit changed two diapers and fed some infants some baby food and the kids had to taste the baby food themselves as well. They also had to help put the kids down for naps. He told me that was easy-you just rub their backs and they fall asleep. I did tell him it's not always that easy-that these kids are use to it. He said he really enjoyed playing with the little kids. I've enjoyed watching him with Samantha. He's very gentle with her and she really likes to sit and rock with him.

Bruce has been in Williston since Tuesday and we met him at the movie theater late this afternoon to go see the "Bee Movie." It was Samantha's first movie. She did so so. She got tired of sitting. All the kids have been over two and a half before we've brought them to a movie (except Donovan was over three since he wasn't much for sitting). She was free too which was different because I know we had to pay for Gerrit and Aleah. The movie was okay. I guess I was expecting more but it was still good. I'm not sure if we'll buy this one though. It's no "Finding Nemo" or "The Incredibles." Samantha did wear her sweater that has a bee one it. We went to Lowe's and Menards after so by the time we got home to eat supper it was after eight.

It is finished

It is finished-I'm not talking about the basement but about the yearly canning of the spaghetti sauce and salsa. I think this year I only got about 22 quarts of spaghetti sauce and 24 pints of salsa. This might sound like a lot but I usually do more. We didn't have the best tomato crop this year but that's okay since I need to be helping in the basement. I'll still have enough to give as gifts to the kids teachers and some for our own use.

There's no school tomorrow and Gerrit is taking a Super Sitter class at the YMCA from 9-3 tomorrow. They get pizza for lunch. I guess there's usually a couple boys that take it any given time although Gerrit wouldn't be bothered if he's the only boy anyway. I can't believe Gerrit is approaching an age where he old enough to babysit younger kids. He does well staying by himself when we have girl scout meetings.

Bismarck Airport in 1965

This is the Bismarck Airport in 1965. Here we are southeast (and above) the terminal, looking to the northwest. The building you see just past the airport is the current Runway Express c-store slash Honda or import car service shop. It is hard to see, but it does not look like the current Airport Road going north past Runway Express has been built yet. Just look at all the undeveloped areas that are now completely developed. All this in only a little over forty years.

I don't remember for sure where I got the photo, but I think I saved it from the Photographic History of Bismarck portion of the Bismarck Library web site. If you have the time it is interesting to look through all the pictures, and there are a lot.

Did you know the Bismarck Library has framed art prints that you can check out for 60 days? They are viewable on the web site and are on display in the library. I've walked through and looked at them, and many are pretty nice. Before my current life in a cubicle, when I had a private office, I always thought it would be nice to check those out to put in my office. Every 60 days or so you could then go and pick out some new art for a fresh look.

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Deciding on wedding pictures

Loren and Kelly both emailed today that the members of the wedding party each get a 5x7 picture of our choice so we have to make some decisions now what pictures we want. It shouldn't be too hard-of course we'll get one of the whole wedding party and one of our whole family-mom, dad, Loren, Kelly, Bruce, Gerrit, Aleah, Donovan, Samantha, and me. Kelly emailed they had been married 60 days today.

Donovan and Samantha finished gymnastics last Wednesday so we had extra time at home this morning before speech-very nice. Donovan didn't get dressed until almost eleven. Tomorrow if I didn't have to bring Gerrit to Young Scientist Club after school I actually wouldn't have to leave the house (that would be so nice) but I do so I'll probably go get a few things we need at Target in the morning and meet Barb there or stop in and see her and then after school when Gerrit is at YSC the kids and I will go to KMart and get the camouflouge comforters-Donovan decided he would like one after all and they are on sale this week!! I should make salsa tomorrow too then I will be done canning for the year!! Friday I plan on painting some more.

Parent teacher conferences and mom's results

The parent teacher conference went well yesterday. Aleah's only problem is that she is too soft spoken in class (but she is getting better now) which we think is funny since she's probably the loudest at home-she sometimes comes in the door from school screaming-we think because she's kept all her loudness inside all day. We've always told her teachers she's such a loud child at home and they all say we just can't believe that-believe it ladies-she can be very loud and annoying sometimes.

Gerrit is doing well and apparently is now starting to hand his homework in on time which was news to me since he's been saying that he either doesn't have any or he finished it-he has started remembering lately after he's gone to bed that he's left some at school, etc. so at least he's thinking about it now. Also I found out that the school district started doing a new math a couple years ago-around the time Gerrit was starting to learn multiplication and they were encouraged to not use flashcards, etc. and surprise the school district is now finding that the kids aren't doing so well in Math so I'm teaching Gerrit the old ways now-flashcards and repetitive problems-it seems like he didn't quite know about carrying and borrowing in addition and subtraction-makes you wonder what kind of Math they were teaching the kids. Normally I think that North Dakota schools are very good but somethings happening with the Math curriculum that needs to be fixed.

Donovan is doing well. He knows his letters and numbers quite well and his handwriting is very good. We were surprised to know he's having a hard time with the sounds of letters so he's getting help for that and we know his hearing is okay so if he continues to have struggles with that he might have a problem with hearing the sound and processing it-I wonder if this ties to his speech at all??

Mom's skin biopsy showed that she has basal skin carcinoma which is a treatable skin cancer. The doctor cut more of it out and will send if off and if the tests reveal that it hasn't spread she'll just have to watch it and if the doctor didn't get it all she'd have to see a specialist in Billings or Bismarck. She is also having a heart moniter put on for 24 hours to moniter her heart. She says she feels good though.

UPDATE: I talked to mom and she said that she had to wait 45 minutes to get in to get the heart moniter only to have them tell her they didn't have it yet and wouldn't until next week-I guess Williston only has one heart moniter. Plus she doesn't just wear it 24 hours it's a whole month.

Look At That Calculator, Man - That Is Huge!

A couple of months ago I was mentioning (complaining) to Nancy about how I didn't like an old calculator of hers. A little bit later she showed up with this huge calculator she picked up at Hobby Lobby for a couple of dollars.

I have both a regular size pen and the offending regular size calculator in the picture to illustrate the size of this monster. I feel like I am playing with a movie or stage prop when I am using it.

I think she has told some people that I didn't like the small keys. The issue really was that the keys required such a hard stroke, making sure that the key hit bottom, that I ended up missing a lot of numbers and having to start over. No biggie - just frustrating. I do use the giant one all the time now. Thank you, Nancy.

By the way, you should use an Elvis accent when you say the title to this post. Remember Tiny Elvis from SNL?

Until later, my peeps.

Painting and more painting

We finished painting the boys room and the office yesterday-just a couple touch ups left and this afternoon we got the family room painted-I just need to paint the parts the roller couldn't get. Bruce primed the touch up work Brian did in the laundry room so now we need to repaint the whole laundry room since the primer is such a bright white it makes the rest of the room look dingy so I'll be doing that and the stairway this week too in addition to making a last batch of salsa.

The kids have their parent teacher conference tomorrow and won't have school on Friday the 9th and Monday the 12th so they'll have two four days weeks and then a three day week since Thanksgiving is the week after that!!

Donovan had a birthday party to go to yesterday afternoon-his best friend at school. His name is Trevor. Gerrit was also invited over to play at Joseph's house and Aleah's went over to Zoe's house so if Samantha would have taken a nap yesterday we might have accomplished a little more in the afternoon! Thankfully she did nap today and the kids occuppied themselves well this afternoon while we were painting.

We had a good time with my parents while they were here. Mom seemed to be doing well but when I called her tonight she had said she almost passed out and was cold and clammy yesterday so I'm not sure what's up with that. She does go to the doctor tomorrow to get the results of her biopsy-the doctor had taken one on a sore that won't heal on her arm-I'm hoping it's not cancerous and that her episode wasn't something to worry about. She said she felt alright tonight but she sounded tired. She hasn't been sleeping well lately.

German-Russian Heads

The photo in the post below highlights pretty well my big "German-Russian" head. I mentioned that before but have never explained.

I don't remember the fine details but our family was at Duling Optical in Kirkwood Mall for new glasses. I'm pretty sure both Doug and Lisa, my brother and sister, were there - but I'm not positive. I was looking for new frames and must have been having some trouble finding the right one for my noggin. The manager knew we were from Strasburg and assumed we were of a certain heritage. I think he said he was of similar heritage and he had a big head, too. At one point he said something like, "Must be that big German-Russian head." I think we let it go and didn't mention we were 100% Dutch. We thought it was kind of funny at that time and on occasion after that would reference my "big German-Russian head." I still say that to Nancy - about my head, not hers.

A few years ago when I got a new motorcycle helmet I had to special order because they didn't have my size in stock. It is a good thing I have such wide shoulders, as they sort of disguise the issue.

I get to the mall so infrequently that I don't even know what is presently in the old Duling Optical spot, which was right next to JCPenney in the mall. There is now an Arby's across from where Duling used to be. I know at one time it was a Sterling Optical. I can still picture the guy, though. Wonder where he is now. Boy, now that I think about it, that was a long time ago - for sure over twenty years. Where does the time go, people?

Oh, and I don't mean to imply that I myself think that either German-Russian or Dutch people have big heads in general. Just this Dutch boy.

Hallow, How Are You?

Trick-or-treating went well on Wednesday evening. The weather was on the chilly side but there was almost no wind. Kids got a lot of candy and snacks. We did go to the Governor's residence with the kids. First Lady Mikey was handing out Kellogg's Yogos. Yogos are yogurty-covered fruit-flavored snacks that feature a colorful, creamy, yogurty coating around delicious fruity-flavored, chewy centers. Donovan doesn't like them so he wasn't happy. He immediately gave his to Samantha.

After visiting Mikey we went over to Barb and Jason's house to get some candy. We were going to go to the house on Washington Street that does extreme but fairly tasteful decorating for almost every holiday. The house belongs to Jerry Woodcox - a Burleigh County commissioner and owner of Arrowhead Cleaners. Supposedly they get around 1,500 trick-or-treaters each year. We drove by and there was a long line to the front door. We kept driving.

We got back to our neighborhood and commenced knocking on doors here. The houses are spread apart and the driveways so long that it makes for a lot of walking. At our house we had 31 kids come to the door. My sister and her husband in the Sioux Falls area had 181 trick-or-treaters. Busy night there.

The kids posed for a picture before we headed out for the evening. Donovan is a penguin and Samantha is a ladybug.

Nancy took a picture of each of them individually. I "accidentally" got in one of Aleah's pictures. I don't like to look at pictures of myself.

North Dakota turned 118 today. Happy Birthday, North Dakota! You don't look a day over 100.

Back to painting I go . . .

I'm still here

We have been so busy lately with Halloween, continued painting (how long is this going to take??) and my parents have been here visiting since Halloween which has been nice. Mom will be 66 tomorrow-that's a miracle.

Hopefully Bruce will get some time to post pictures of the kids in their costumes sometime this weekend between all the painting we have to do. Mom and dad are leaving tomorrow. Gerrit has been home sick today and came home about 1:30 yesterday-he's felt nauseous but that's about it-he hasn't ate since yesterday.