Medora - August 2007

I am way behind on posting photos. Here are some from our family reunion day trip to Medora back in August. The reunion was held at the Pitchfork Steak Fondue, which is on the same level as and east of the parking area for the Medora Musical's Burning Hills Amphitheatre.

It was hazy from the forest fires in Montana and the smell of smoke was in the air. This picture was taken looking sort of southwest toward the covered picnic area (aka the Tjaden Terrace) of the Pitchfork Steak Fondue. There were a lot of people there. I think they said about 600 were fed that night.

A more clear view of the Tjaden Terrace.

East of the terrace are these statues of Harold (this is an interesting link with a good bio) and Sheila Schafer as kids. Harold was the founder of the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation and of the Gold Seal Company. Remember Mr. Bubble? I do. I think I remember it as a powder. Mr. Bubble once was a Gold Seal product but now is made by a different company.

Harold was the father of Ed Schafer, the current Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture and a former governor of North Dakota. Harold passed away in 2001.

Excuse me, but there is something on your head.

Donovan poses for me.

Overlooking the town of Medora in the distance.

Here is a view of the amphitheater and stage from the side/back.

A closer view of the theater.

I think these elk are on this ridge for every performance of the musical. The ridge is south of the theater and visible from most if not all seats.

Change

Sonja emailed me that Lois is not being flown to Rochester today. They are going to do some more tests to see if there are tumors in other parts of her body other then her brain and make a decision then. If she goes onto Rochester Wendy will go with her. I'm glad that she'll be able to do that.

I was up early donating plasma this morning. I did it Tuesday too so I'm done for the week. I had skipped a couple weeks so it's nice to be back-I get a lot of reading done there-if only I didn't have to wake up so early those days.

The girls both had problems falling asleep last night and Samantha got into bed with Bruce sometime after I left at six this morning. It's funny how the boys were so good at staying in their beds (especially Gerrit) but the girls (especially Samantha) get up so much. Samantha is already thinking of excuses to put off going to bed-having to go to the bathroom, having the covers just so, having the right stuffed animals, having a different sippy cup of water (she never drinks any by the way) , and my favorite from last night when she heard Bruce and Aleah (who was up yet again) laughing-"I hear fun" and wanted to go see what was going on before I stopped her.

What's your opinion on this?? I signed I think it was Sydney's birthday card Sami (that's what Syndey calls her) and Bruce said he preferred the spelling Sammy. The kids are kind of split on the spelling. Any comments? I kind of left it as Samantha can choose the way she wants to spell it when she gets older. We actual call her Sam or Samantha more then Sami anyway. We asked her what she likes to be called-Sam or Sami or Samantha and she replied, "Mantha" so she wasn't any help.

Wednesday's Safe Baby Handling Tips

OK, this is my last post on these - some more of my favorites of the group. This book would make a great gift for first-time parents.




Sunday's Safe Baby Handling Tips gives information on the book and on the company of the authors.

Updates

Bruce wrote all about Gerrit's Pinewood Derby-it was fun except for the big mix up during the awards. I am so glad Micah got an award that he deserved!! Too bad he couldn't bring home the trophy that night.

Sonja called me about an hour ago with news on Wendy's mom. The doctors found three tumors on her brain and are sending her to Rochester tomorrow. Please pray for strength for Wendy, Dale, and Mark. This has to be so hard for them. Also for wisdom for the doctors to know what to do to help Lois. I know how hard it is not to be able to go with and be with your family when someone you love is sent to Rochester. You want to be there knowing what's going on and it's hard to carry on in your daily routine when your heart and mind are somewhere else. The news doesn't sound good but neither did my mom's and look at the miracle God provided in her life.

I called mom to tell her about Lois and to see if she could remember the hotels that were across the street from St. Mary's Hospital (her treatments were at the Rochester Methodist Hospital so I was familiar with the ones near there) but could only remember the name of one across from St.Mary's. Mom couldn't either but I went online and found three right across the street so I passed the info unto Sonja so she could give that to Wendy's dad so he could make a reservation.

Mom also told me that Randy Erickson (this is the dad of Silas-the little boy that died of cancer almost two months ago) was just diagnosed with prostate cancer and is on his way to Rochester. I pray that they've found it early enough that he can have a full recovery. This is surely a lot for one family to deal with!!

I'll be done babysitting Summer on Friday. Hopefully I can start getting to the YMCA on a much more regular basis. I was going today-I didn't have Summer-but it was so cold and Donovan and Samantha were playing so well and so I didn't go. We did have to go out for Donovan's speech and we met Bruce for lunch and picked out curtains and shades for they the family room and the boy's bedroom. Gerrit complains almost every night that the light outside bothers him so it needed to be done.

Tonight we have church and I need to go help Gerrit with his Math homework!! He may have his friend Joseph stay overnight on Friday. Aleah is going to Zoe's birthday sleepover so I guess I'm up for keeping the number of kids in my house at four!

Pinewood Derby Videos

Here are videos of a couple of Gerrit's heats from the Pinewood Derby last night. Enjoy!



This second video below is of a heat that included Gerrit's car, Micah's car (the blue car), and the car that placed second overall. That car, Nolan's car, is the one in the right lane (the video's right). Gerrit was first, Nolan was second, and Micah was third in that heat.

Tuesday's Safe Baby Handling Tips

As before, these are explained in Sunday's Safe Baby Handling Tips.

Pinewood Derby Results

We had a great time at Gerrit's Pinewood Derby race tonight. His car took first place in the race! His car took second place in the best of show voting! Best of show is voted on by the kids in the pack.

Each car races in six heats and Gerrit's car took first in all six. The second place car took first place in all but one heat - the heat that it raced against Gerrit's car. The race was scored by finish place. First place got one point, second place two points, and so on. The car with the lowest overall score gets first with the other places determined by next lowest scores. There was no tie, but if there had been there would have been a race between those cars to break the tie.

The cars numbered and in their positions in the staging area. There was one car that came later to make a total of 26 cars.

The crowd screams in excitement for a heat to begin. The ritual was to make a bunch of noise before the starter would release the cars from the gate.

This photo shows Micah's car in the middle of a race. His is the one in the front. Micah took fourth place overall, so we were definitely very happy about that.

Gerrit's car in a race. His car is the one in front, in the second lane from the picture's left.

Gerrit accepting his second place trophy in best of show.

Gerrit accepting the first place race trophy.

My son posing with both his trophies.

I'll upload videos of a couple of races and maybe post those later tonight or possibly tomorrow.

There was a big mix-up by the Cubmaster (Brian) in awarding the trophies. In looking at the score board we knew (or thought we knew) that Micah was fourth place. When it was announced, though, it was a different boy. Confused, we thought maybe he got third. Nope - that was someone else. Same for second - it wasn't Micah. At that point the older boy who had been doing the scoring came up to talk to Brian. After a couple of minutes, Brian announced he had made a mistake for fourth place and that it was in fact Micah.

Someone spoke up and said he thought the other boy should get to have a fourth place trophy anyway, because it was a mistake and not the boy's fault. I don't have a problem with that. Only, they let that boy keep this trophy and Brian is going to order a trophy for Micah. The boy whose car actually placed has to wait for his trophy. I'll never be against giving a kid an extra trophy for a mistake made by an adult, but the kind of unfortunate part of the whole deal is this boy's car tied for last place. Almost every time they had to push his car across the finish line because it never made it that far down the track. As adults I suppose we see it as not being fair to all the other kids whose cars did so much better in the race.

In my opinion it should have been up to the parents to step up and say something either when the boy's name was announced or after the mistake was found. If their boy's car placed last in every heat there is no logical way it could have been fourth. Or they could have said something to Micah like, "You know, your car really placed fourth - go ahead and take this trophy and we'll wait for ours." Although if I put myself in their place I'm not sure what I would have done.

Anyway, all trophies were awarded including Gerrit's for first place. Brian is talking to the group about something else and some parents came up to say that their boy's car placed second instead of the one Brian announced. He had done it again! Same procedure - the first boy gets to keep the second place trophy and the one placing second has to wait for his to be made.

The award fiasco was but a blip on the night, though. Overall, it was a lot of fun to watch. The kids had a great time and were very tired and ready for bed when we got home.

Monday's Safe Baby Handling Tips

Information on these is at the bottom of Sunday's Safe Baby Handling Tips.

Pinewood Derby Cars Completed

We finished up the two Pinewood Derby cars tonight in time for the big race tomorrow evening. The gold one is Gerrit's and the other belongs to another boy (Micah) in Gerrit's Cub Scout pack. His dad is in Iraq so we helped him out with his car this year.

Micah wanted a car like a top fuel dragster. This is the best I could come up with. It doesn't look too bad. Micah did a good job with the paint and stickers.

For Gerrit's car, he and I were looking online for some ideas for a car design. He saw one with a Star Wars theme similar to this and the decision was made within one-half second. We went off on our own and made it quite different from what we saw online. Looks pretty cool if you ask me.

We are excited for tomorrow night. We hope Gerrit's car does well for his last Pinewood Derby. We also hope Micah's car does very well. I don't think Micah has had much luck in past years. Hopefully we can update later tomorrow night with the results.

Goodnight!

Sunday's Safe Baby Handling Tips

These are from a board book by a David and Kelly Sopp. I've seen a bunch of these on various web sites, so they are obviously making the rounds. The name of the book is "Safe Baby Handling Tips." The authors have a company called Wry Baby - selling baby clothing with funny and/or cute captions/graphics/sayings.

The birthday weekend is officially over!

We successfully held Donovan's birthday at the YMCA this afternoon and everyone (except Noah) that was going to come last week was able to come this week. I think they all had a pretty good time and I know Donovan had a blast. He looked so happy swimming. He was very ready for bed tonight. Besides swimming they ran around on the indoor track too-I don't know why they thought that was so much fun but they did. I also put Aleah to bed earlier than usual again tonight and she was mad at having to go to bed early again and told me she would not go to sleep until nine-I pretty sure she's probably asleep already.

Yesterday Aleah and I got home from the sleepover and buying groceries (the grocery store is not busy at 7:30 a.m.) by eight a.m. We brought doughnuts home for everyone. After we ate breakfast I went to bed for an hour since I maybe slept four hours at the sleepover and then I finished decorating Sydney's cake. We then went over to Barb and Jason's for Sydney's party and we had burgers from Burger Time last night. Aleah would not go back to bed when we got home in the morning (she didn't get anymore sleep then I did) so I had her in bed at eight last night. Gerrit and I started watching the movie National Treasure that I had recorded before Christmas. We're only an hour into it but it's very entertaining.

The sleepover went alright. The girls had a good time-there were about 80-100 Brownie girls, Cadet girl scouts and moms there. The girls were told that once the movie was on (The Princess Diaries) they needed to be quiet and after the movie (about 12:30) they needed to go to sleep. There were about three girls (very close by us) that would not be quiet. Finally about two I think they shut up or were moved. The women in charge got us up at six a.m. so everyone was ready to leave at seven. At least the floor didn't seem as bad as it did in the cabin where we stayed last summer. Aleah is also invited to a sleepover/birthday party at her friend Zoe's next weekend. She's never stayed at someone's house without one of us being there but she'll be fine. They're going to dress up in fancy dresses (thrift store finds) and jewelry and paint their fingernails etc. They'll have a blast. There'll only be four or five of them so that's a nice number.

Bruce and Gerrit are putting the finishing touches on the Pinewood Derby car tonight. Bruce finished Micah's a few hours ago and is finishing Gerrit's now. He's showing Gerrit all the steps. It should be a fun time-it would be kind of funny if Micah's car beats Gerrit's but Gerrit said he wouldn't care that he'd be happy for Micah since he's never placed before and gotten a trophy.

Brian Regan - Foods and Food Labeling

Amazing Grace - Blind Boys of Alabama

The song below is Amazing Grace by the Blind Boys of Alabama, from the album "Spirit of the Century." Unless you've heard this specific song, I can pretty much guarantee you've never heard a version of Amazing Grace like this one. Very unique. I won't say you'll for sure like it, just that it is unique - something totally different.



Yes, the band members are blind. They've been a group for a long time - since 1939 I think their web site says (although some members were added later), and they've done an album or two with Ben Harper.

Working Sick (Mailbox Repair)

I was home from work sick about a week and a half ago (a Tuesday). Had aches, chills, and weakness along with some slight nausea and a bad cough. Early in the morning I looked out the front door and noticed someone had hit our mailbox sometime in the middle of the night and knocked it over. We share a mailbox post with our duplex neighbor, aka our house neighbor.

So, on top of being sick as a dog, I had to go out and take care of the situation. (Our house neighbor isn't the type to do this kind of work.) I investigated and the vehicle did not skid before striking the post and the end of the vehicle striking the post had the driven wheels. In other words, if it was a front wheel drive someone drove forward into it but if it was a rear wheel drive someone backed into it.

We don't really know what happened. If it was a backing, it was probably someone visiting our house neighbor. Otherwise it looks like it was quite possible someone drove into it on purpose to try to knock it over. There have been quite a few houses in the immediate area that have had their wood mailbox posts knocked over within the last few months. Who knows. No one came forward, anyway.

I had a scrap piece of plywood that I have been using on Independence Day, for a fireworks shooting stand. Took that and attached four small blocks to hold the post bottom in place. Cut the bottom of the post off so it was straight and not jagged. Cut 45 deg. angles on several pieces of scrap 2x4s for the post supports. Set the plywood out at the road with another scrap 2x4 below the back side to level it some.

Nancy came out to hold the post while I leveled it and attached the post supports, and then she went back inside. I carried out a couple of 70 lb. bags of sand to hold the contraption down. So far it hasn't moved and the post is very stable. Time will tell. When spring thaw comes I'll have to put a new post in the ground.

This is the post end that I cut off - the part a few inches below the ground where it broke off. It was fairly rotted and I am a little bit surprised it didn't break on its own before this.

After completing this project I really felt a lot worse. I didn't warm up until later that night. I think I probably slept eight hours that day!

Upcoming sleepover

Tomorrow night Aleah and I will be attending a Girl Scout sleepover. I do hope we get some sleep. It starts at seven and ends at seven Saturday morning so it's only 12 hours. I think they'll try to wind things down by eleven or midnight. We have 12 out of 23 girls attending from our troop. I imagine if I would have called some of the parents of the girls that didn't sign up and reminded them again about it there would have been a few more but they have to take some responsibility. I'm certainly not going to call after numerous letters and emails.

I baked Sydney's cake tonight. I'll decorate that tomorrow. Her party is on Saturday and Donovan's will be Sunday so it's a party weekend. Samantha and I stopped at Barb's today and I picked up the edible image Sydney wants on her cake. She cried when we left-she wanted Sami to stay and play longer. They play so well together-partners in crime.

Wendy left a message for me yesterday that nothing had changed with her mom and that she would call me again. I would call her but don't know how to get a hold of her.

People Get Ready

You know, it won't be long before we are subjected to the annual barrage of Vermont Teddy Bear television commercials. This information is provided as a service of the staff at The Dutch Scandies, in order that our visitors may mentally prepare. Please spread the word. Valentine's Day is only 21 days away!

Middle of the week

Tomorrow is already Thursday. Gerrit even commented on how fast the week was going-I told him that the school week was short since they didn't have school Monday then he asked when the next vacation will be-I believe it's President's Day-February 18th.

I didn't have Summer today. Janet still didn't feel well so she stayed home. I got a lot done this morning. I cleaned Samantha's room (the crib can be taken down anytime now-she was climbing in and out of it when I was cleaning her room so it wouldn't keep her in her room now anyway) and did some laundry before speech this morning. I will have Summer tomorrow morning now though even though it was Janet's day off but she's going to work in the morning. I just won't donate plasma this week.

Samantha did not nap this afternoon. She hadn't done that for while. She actually did okay though and didn't have any breakdowns later this afternoon. I thought for sure she'd fall asleep on the way home from church tonight but she didn't. I think she must have fallen asleep within five minutes of when I put her to bed tonight.

Tomorow I have to bake Sydney's birthday cake and get some Girl Scout stuff ready to mail and I have to put things that are in the office back into the storage room-that will take quite awhile-especially since the storage room is already full of things that don't belong in there!

Happy Birthday, Doug!

Well, today is the 39th birthday of my younger brother, Doug. Doug lives near Mitchell, SD and teaches vocal music at a school in the area. He has taught at several schools in South Dakota and has been very successful at each one. Happy Birthday Douglas Wade.

Here is Doug with his cake from his 13th birthday in 1982. I could've figured out the year with the math but it was easy based on the photo at the bottom.

Doug goofing around in the snow in 1989. Most likely we've just come from the barn or are going to the barn.

His college senior recital in 1991. We drove to Aberdeen to attend this event. It was very good.

So, yeah, here is how I easily figured out the year on Doug's 13th birthday photo. This one was on the next page in the album. This is my brother Duane, his wife Betty, and their first son Ryan. (I just about typed "his first wife Betty.") Ryan was born in October of 1981 so it was easy to know the year of the top photo. Dang, you two look like kids! I'm sure we'll think the same thing of ourselves in fourteen years from now when we look at pictures of us with our firstborn. Heck, we almost think that already.

Heath Ledger died

Barb called me earlier today to tell me that Heath Ledger died. He's a 28-year-old actor from Australia. He was a very versatile actor. Early reports sound like it's a suicide by overdose. I wonder what he felt was so bad that he wanted to take his own life-very sad. I really enjoyed him in "The Patriot" with Mel Gibson. I guess he's also going to be the Joker in the new Batman movie this summer-it's finished filming.

Summer was here today and didn't seem to feel good. Janet and Chris came to get here early since Janet also didn't feel well. There wasn't Moms In Touch today but I wasn't going anyway so I'm glad I didn't miss anything. Donovan wanted to go to school this morning and did okay.

Tomorrow Donovan has speech and we have church at night.

A day off from school

The kids didn't have school today because of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. We didn't do anything special. Donovan had a relapse and doesn't feel good. He's not throwing up but his stomach hurts and he has diarrhea. He missed speech today. Bruce doesn't feel so good either and I've had a few symptoms but not bad. Aleah did have dance practice tonight.

Summer was quite fussy today. She has a checkup on Wednesday so she'll get her ear checked there in case the antibiotics didn't clear up her infection. I have Summer every weekday this week except Thursday.

Loren called me this afternoon to tell me that he had to bring Kelly to the ER today. She had slipped in the shower and hit her head. The tests they were going to do would have taken awhile and since she was starting to feel better she went to work and I guess she was going to have the tests done tonight.

Sonja emailed that Wendy's mom is still holding her own and she did say her own name yesterday and told the nurse no to something so that's promising.

Donovan loses his first tooth

Donovan lost his first tooth today. He feels better today and was eating and it just came out. It had been very loose for a long time and the permenant tooth was right behind it. At six years and four days he becomes (so far) the oldest to lose his first tooth. Gerrit was about five and a half and Aleah lost her first tooth the day Samantha was born so she was 24 days from being six.

We didn't make it to church today. Bruce and I don't feel the best. Hopefully we'll be better tomorrow. Mom and dad stayed until almost three this afternoon. Mom played a lot of Wii with the kids-mostly bowling but a little baseball and golf too.

Bruce is working on Gerrit's Pinewood Derby car. He'll paint it tonight to make sure it dries completely before he puts the wheels on. The derby in on the 28th.

I'm going to go watch "Ratatouille" with the kids now-I haven't gotten a chance to see it yet.

The kids don't have school tomorrow so they are excited that they'll get to see Summer tomorrow.

I haven't heard anything new on Wendy's mom so I'm hoping that she's making some improvements!

Unexpected happenings

Today didn't go quite as planned. Donovan woke up about 2:30 a.m. and was crying that his stomach hurt. I told him to try to go to the bathroom. Bruce followed him in there just in time to see him throw up in front of the toilet. He went back to bed and woke up and seemed okay this morning. We got ready to go to the Golden Corral and five minutes before we were there he threw up in the van. We turned around (not a fun ride home by the way) and went home. Bruce called his mom to tell her we couldn't make it and she thought he was joking because he often tells her something and then says he's kidding.

I tried to call my parents to see how far they were from Bismarck. If they weren't halfway I would have told them to turn around since I didn't want to expose mom to anything but she didn't have her phone on so they got here around 3:00. Bruce's parents did stop by in the afternoon to so Donovan could open his gifts. Everyone had cake except Donovan-poor guy. There's still quite a bit left though so hopefully he can have some cake tomorrow. I didn't have any cake either though since I'm not feeling that great either.

I called the YMCA and was able to postpone Donovan's party until next Sunday at the same time so I also had to call all the kids and it seems like everyone should be able to make it next week too!!

I also got some sad news this afternoon. My college friends from Minot-Sonja and Marsha-called to tell me that Wendy's mom had a stroke early this morning. I'm going to call them again tonight to see if they know much more. The next 72 hours will be critical. Please say a prayer for Lois and her family. As a mother she's the heart of their family.

A great visit and the cake is decorated

Barb, Tricia, Vicki, and I had a great visit today. They were here for three hours! Sydney and Samantha played very well together. Summer napped some of the time and was held by Vicki and Tricia when she was awake. We snacked on the banana bread I made and the cinnamon log Barb brought from the Bread Poet's-that was really good. I wish we had time to get together more often. Vicki and Tricia's boys are all in school full-time now so Vicki helps her husband full-time with their business and Tricia is taking courses for medical transcription plus since David is in Iraq until May she's very busy taking care of her boys.

I finished decorating Donovan's dinosaur cake for when the grandparents will be here tomorrow afternoon. I really wouldn't have had to decorate a cake since the YMCA provides a cake for the party but since I always make the kids a birthday cake I couldn't let this year be any different.

We are going to the Golden Corral for lunch tomorrow to celebrate Bruce's Grandma Slagh's 86th birthday-she's 80 years older than Donovan almost to the day.

Bruce is busy working on a design for Gerrit's last Pinewood Derby car. He'll (Bruce) get to continue with designing Pinewood Derby cars since Donovan will be in scouts next year. Gerrit plans on it too but he'll be a Boy Scout and we don't think they do the Pinewood Derby. We all enjoy going to the Pinewood Derby every year to see who wins!!

The three S's

Today I watched Sydney and Summer and Samantha. It was quite entertaining to watch two almost three year olds playing together. They really do play together now unlike before when they use to just play besides each other. There were only a few fights over toys. It's kind of funny that Samantha doesn't usually care about her toys until someone else is playing with them. I did take a picture of Samantha holding Summer and Sydney all sitting in a chair-can't post it yet since I haven't learned how to do that.

Barb did some shopping for me while I was watching Sydney. I needed to pick out a birthday gift for Donovan from mom and dad (since I know what he wants) and Barb did that for me. She picked up a turtle Webkinz which he really wants. I hope mom and dad can make it on Saturday. It depends on the weather-mom seems to be feeling alright lately.

Aleah had a dance performance at a halftime girl's basketball game at St. Mary's High School tonight. It must have been a sophomore or JV game since there weren't many people there. The parents that brought their daughters to dance outnumbered the people watching the game. So far the only song they've danced to is Crocodile Rock. I hope they're working on more. Last year at this time they had three different songs they performed but the group is much bigger this year.

I'm off to wash the kitchen floor. I have company coming in the morning. Barb, Tricia, and Vicki are coming over. We tried to get together before Christmas but that didn't work.

Happy Birthday, Donovan!

Well, my little dude is six today. Time sure flies. I think he had a good day today. I always like to post some pictures on birthdays, so here are some nice ones of Donovan.

This was taken during our day trip to Medora in August for a small family reunion on Nancy's side of the family. It was 85 deg. in the mid-afternoon when we left Bismarck and around 100 deg. when we got to Medora. This picture was taken on a bluff to the east of the covered picnic area (aka the Tjaden Terrace) of the Pitchfork Steak Fondue - on the same level as the parking area for the Medora Musical's Burning Hills Amphitheatre. The sky was hazy from all of the forest fires in Montana and you could also smell the smoke.

This one was taken at a local park playground, about a week after our trip to Medora.

I've found Donovan to be my little helper, always willing to help me out and almost always sticking with it - not losing attention and heading off somewhere else. He also pays a lot of attention to detail. In the basement he was often pointing out my little mistakes or errors - many times things I would probably never have noticed on my own. He has shown a lot of genuine interest in the entire project. He really enjoys being in the garden and helping out there, too.

Happy Sixth Birthday Donovan!!

Today Donovan turned six years old. How can our little guy be six already? I remember so clearly six years ago when he was born on Wednesday, January 16, 2002, at 11:24 a.m. via C-section (a new experience for me) because of his breech presentation-weighing 9 lbs. 1 oz. He had lots of black hair and was absolutely beautiful. I didn't get to hold him until after two that afternoon even though I had been back in my room and out of the OR for over an hour and a half. It's not like there were a lot of babies born that day either. He was definitely worth the wait though.

I do remember as Dr. Orser was pulling him out and commenting that, "Oh, my gosh, what a moose, he must be the biggest baby I've ever delivered." I was thinking just how big was he since a few days before she had told me she had delivered a baby that weighed 11lbs. 5 oz. When the nurse brought him back in and said he weighed 9lbs. 1 oz. Dr. Orser said are you sure that's right and he's not at least ten pounds. I guess he had big shoulders or something. That's actually funny that Donovan was ever called a moose since he was such a little peanut (at least compared to Gerrit and Aleah) for such a long time. I think he's a pretty average sized Kindergartener now.

Donovan started his day by opening some birthday presents and then after breakfast he helped make some cupcakes and we read books for awhile. He also played with his Thomas the tank trains and he was chipping away at dinosaur fossils. We went out to eat at Pizza Hut for lunch and Bruce met us there. We then went to KMart but had to leave because Gerrit called that he wasn't feeling good. He said his stomach hurt bad but by four o'clock he seemed fine and he ate okay tonight.

We watched American Idol tonight and that's about all. We usually go to church on Wednesday nights but since Gerrit did come home from school early and it's so cold out we did stay home.

Tomorrow I'm watching Summer and Sydney. Barb has to take Evan for some allergy tests and it takes quite awhile so Sydney is coming here. Samantha will enjoy that.

Projects, bathroom fun, an upcoming birthday, etc.

I have been much busier than usual lately. Friday I did go to book talk and had Barb and Karen over for lunch. I made cheesy potato soup and it tasted okay but looked a little weird-I must have gotten the milk too hot or something-anyway it's one of Bruce's favorite soups and when I heated it up for supper that night it was unedible. Barb and Karen said it tasted okay though and Karen had two bowls so it couldn't have been that bad! I've never had that happen before. We all went to Barnes and Noble that night and the kids all picked out a book and used their allowance money. It was nice to have Bruce home after him being gone for three nights. I don't think he's been gone that long since in November.

Saturday I donated plasma and then got groceries. I don't normally grocery shop on the weekends but I didn't want to bring Summer out and I knew if I ordered the groceries online I'd forget something I needed and I'd have to go to the store anyway. I baked Donovan's birthday cookies that he took to school today that afternoon and made hamburger stroganoff for supper that night and I made a lasagna for Monday night since Bruce's parents were here and I had girls scouts until 5:30 and Aleah had dance at six so I had to have something that could be put in the oven!! Bruce also moved the double bed that was downstairs (it had been in the garage since June) into Aleah's room and the twin bed that was in there into Samantha's room.

Sunday Samantha and Donovan had colds so Bruce stayed home with them while Gerrit, Aleah, and I went to church. That afternoon Micah came over and Bruce helped him and Gerrit with their Pinewood Derby cars. Micah is my friend Tricia's son and her husband David is currently in Iraq serving as chaplain. Also Barb and I went to the sneak peek of the movie "27 Dresses." It actually doesn't open until Friday but they had one showing Sunday afternoon and Barb took me for my birthday-thanks Barb!! We both loved the movie. It's definitely a girl movie though. The theater was full of all women and about five men. It really was a good movie-especially if you've ever been a bridesmaid. That night I got ready for girl scouts. That took a long time and I was still getting ready for it the next day-good thing Summer was really good that day!

Monday was all about getting ready for girl scouts and transporting kids to speech and dance and getting ready for doing a project with Donovan's Kindergarten class today. His teacher asked parents to sign up anytime during the year with an activity we'd like to do, etc. I thought it would work great to do it when Donovan celebrated his birthday (his birthday is tomorrow but he doesn't have Kindergarten on Wednesdays). I didn't know girl scouts would be the day before or that I'd be babysitting at the time but it worked out. I read a book about penguins (the cookies he brought were also penguin cookies) and I had them do a cute penguin craft that I precut all the pieces for-Bruce did help me a little with that. It went really well today even with Samantha and Summer with-Summer slept the whole time we were there. I also had Moms In Touch this morning but was able to leave Samantha at home since Bruce was home sick-he's got a terrible cold. Gerrit has also been home the last two days just feeling nauseous and chills, etc. I hope we're all somewhat well for the birthday celebrations this weekend. Bruce and I also had to put our mailbox up this afternoon-someone must have backed into it early this morning-maybe the neighbors??? I also got Donovan's dinosaur cake baked tonight-I'll decorate it tomorrow or Thursday-it's for Saturday when the grandparents come.

The bathroom fun I'm referring to in the title is that Samantha has caught on to all aspects of toilet training and has now become a poop machine. I think she goes at least ten times a day-partly because she never really finishes and just seems to go all the time. She actually used the toilet tonight too instead of the potty chair. She is also sleeping in a regular bed as of the last three nights and is doing well with that. My baby really is becoming a big girl!!

Bruce's great uncle Mike in Lodi, California, passed away today at age 85. We haven't seen Mike and Lois for quite a few years. I guess he'll be cremated and buried in Westfield, North Dakota. We're thinking Lois will probably come out this summer to do that.

America's Favorite Ketchup

Ladies and gentlemen, I present "America's Favorite Ketchup" written by Aleah to the tune of "Let It Snow." The song is performed by Aleah and Gerrit.



This came about in a moment of silliness at a local restaurant as Aleah read the ketchup bottle and continued in the minivan where she wrote the lyrics.

Duane's Hospital Pictures

After going to Menards today to purchase a scroll saw to work on Pinewood Derby cars, I got to stop and visit Duane and Betty today. Ryan, their son, had just been there and I missed him by minutes. Arlyn VB from down Strasburg way had stopped by earlier today also. It sounds like it is pretty sure Duane and Betty will be able to head home tomorrow. I took my camera in this time so I would be able to get a photo of Duane.

He was doing pretty good and has nausea issues yet, worse in the morning. The heart shaped pillow actually serves a purpose. He has to hold it tight against his chest whenever he coughs or gets up or sits down or gets in and out of a vehicle - basically whenever he exerts himself. The way I understood is that it helps hold things in place.

These are the cards and gifts Duane has received. I didn't notice it right away and you may have to click on the picture to enlarge in order to see it, but just beside the left "horn" of the dog (the dog's left) you can see Betty outside on the street corner talking with Ryan before he left. One of them has a blue coat.

Hopefully Duane doesn't kick my butt for putting his picture here. I guess he probably can't right now and my hope is that when he is more able maybe he will have forgotten or forgiven! Duane, you wouldn't really do that, would you? He hasn't so far in our lives and he is such a good hearted guy, so I think I'm pretty safe.

It was a nice sunny day today in Bismarck. It is 6:00 pm and the temperature is at 21 deg. F. Very nice for January. Next week is supposedly supposed to chill down some.

Red Green Show - Power Windows

Referencing the Gary Moore post below, this video is what reminded me of DivShare. It was on a web site I frequent.



I haven't watched The Red Green Show for many years, but I enjoyed it a lot. The series is over - no more new episodes. It ran from 1991 to 2006, ending after fifteen seasons with episode 300! I would assume episodes are still airing. "If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy."

Duane - Friday Update

I've been out of town since Tuesday on a trip that took me to Plaza, Parshall, Minot, Stanley, New Town, Williston, Dickinson, and Richardton - in that order. Today I was able to go visit my brother, Duane, for the first time since his surgery.

His long beard is gone. He had a long ZZ Top style beard and now it is trimmed much shorter. They told him to either cut it or they would, so they trimmed it down at home the night before the surgery. I guess it isn't good to have hair hanging in an open chest.

You know, he looked pretty good and seemed to be in good spirits. He still has some nausea at times and the blood sugar level is still an issue. I think Duane said his last test had been around 170. There will be long road of recovery and there will be a lot of painful rehab, but it looks and sounds like he has a good start.

The doctor has told Duane and Betty he should be able to get them home this weekend - obviously either on Saturday or Sunday. Although they may be anxious to get home, my opinion would be that Sunday would be better. Another day under nurse and doctor care can't hurt, especially since they live eighty miles from Bismarck.

I gave Duane a couple of music DVDs, both live concert videos. One is a DVD that has two Stevie Ray Vaughan concerts and the other is the Clapton Crossroads Guitar Festival featuring a whole bunch of artists. Hopefully these will help pass some time during recovery.

Gary Moore - I Had A Dream

Quite a while ago I tested out this DivShare - a way to share files with others without a download. I thought it would be a good way to put music and videos on the blog here in a format similar to YouTube in that it uses Macromedia Flash. At the time it was extremely slow and didn't work well because of that. The speed seems to have improved so I'll try it out again.

It doesn't play until you click on the play button. If you are on dial-up you may want to think twice because it still is a large download to the browser.

To me, it may be a way to share some music once in a while. You'll be able to hear some of the music I enjoy listening to. Yippee, right? I do have some different tastes in music.

I'll start out light with a song by Gary Moore titled "I Had A Dream" from the album Close As You Get. The song is over seven minutes long and my favorite part is the guitar solo covering about the last half of the song. This is a slow sort of blues song. I guess you could call it a blues ballad.

Duane - Wednesday Update

I talked to my mom and Duane seems to be doing pretty good today. As good as can be expected, I suppose.

Last night at 1:30 am they did give him medication for nausea and he then fell asleep. Betty went to sleep in the ICU waiting room but they woke her up at 3:00 am. Duane's blood sugar was high - 370. I guess it is somewhat normal to have elevated levels because of the stress of surgery, but this is pretty high. It was down to 266 by morning. I think they gave him insulin. The doctor is wondering if he might have diabetes to some degree.

They did remove the ventilator at 4:30 am and put him on oxygen. Betty was there when they took out the tube and it sounds like it wasn't very fun to watch. I know with Nancy's mom they had Nancy and Loren leave the room when they performed that procedure.

Mom and dad went up to visit today. He is now out of ICU and in his room. He still is somewhat hot and flushed. They stopped the morphine and instead are giving pain pills. According to Betty, insurance approved him for a three day hospital stay (unless the doctor indicates a need for a longer stay) so it is possible he could be heading home on Friday.

Thanks to anyone who said a prayer for Duane. We appreciate that. We are very thankful he had a good surgery and came out OK. Any surgery carries with it some anxiety because of the risks, but open heart surgery especially so. Thanks again.

The invitations have been sent

Donovan and I got his invitations sent for his birthday party. His birthday is one week from today but since it's a Wednesday we will be having his birthday on Sunday the 20th. He wants it at the YMCA so he can go swimming. That weekend is a three day weekend so hopefully people won't be out of town or sick-you never know about sickness in January!! When he turned three Gerrit, Bruce and I had influenza and Donovan and Aleah just had colds. Samantha was couple months from being born.

Duane is moved out of ICU already. Bruce will probably add more later but he appears to be doing as well as can be expected.

My college roommate Wendy called me tonight to wish me a belated birthday-she knew I would be busy with company on my birthday so waited until now. We had a nice chat and I hope to get to the Minot area for a college friend getaway weekend sometime in February. I went on an overnight trip up there by myself I think it was in 2003 so that's been a while!! I know Donovan wasn't quite two and he's almost six now.

Tomorrow I'm going to donate plasma while Barb watches Samantha (I don't watch Summer tomorrow) and then I'll go to the Y to work out. I've got a bunch of things to do when I get home and Friday I have book talk and Barb and Karen are coming over for lunch and I watch Summer!!

Duane's Surgery Update - Nausea

Duane entered the operating room at 11:45 am today for his single bypass open heart surgery. At 3:45 pm the surgery was over and he had been moved to recovery. According to the doctor everything went very well and Duane came out out of the surgery and off of the heart and lung machine very good as well.

Duane's wife, Betty, had planned to sleep tonight at her son's apartment here in Bismarck. Duane wants her to stay with him, though. He is nauseous and hot and sweaty and just doesn't feel well. Betty has been cooling him with cold wet rags. They would give him medicine for the nausea but his blood oxygen levels are not high enough, I guess. He has to stay on the ventilator for now. Sounds like both of them could have a rough night.

Have a good night, everyone.

The thoughts of a two year old

Bruce will probably post about Duane but he came out of surgery fine and is experiencing some nausea.

Samantha had yet another dry day, she even goes to the potty without me having to prompt her. She did however ask for a diaper after supper tonight. I asked her if she had to poop and she said yes. So I said why don't you try going in the potty (she has done this before a few times) but she said she needed a diaper. I gave in and put a diaper on her and she closed her door in her bedroom and came out a little later and said she wanted to be changed. I don't understand the logic of a two year old-it would certainly be easier to just go in the potty chair but she isn't quite ready for that yet. I do know from experience that it does not work to push them-this only leads to big time constipation problems and since Samantha already has problems in that area (without her medication) I really have to let her decide when she's ready. I actually had a friend who's daughter was close to four that would need a diaper when she had to poop-I certainly hope Samantha doesn't take that long!!

The Eagle Has Landed

Today I saw my first bald eagle "in the wild" (outdoors in some place other than a zoo). I was driving a few miles north of Underwood and saw a bird a distance ahead. It was flying fairly low above the highway and I noticed it had a large wingspan. When I got closer I saw it had a white tail and then it swooped up to land in a tree. At that point I could see for sure it a was a bald eagle. I wanted to stop to get a picture but didn't have time - I was already a little late for my next appointment.

I ate at a restaurant today and the cashier asked me twice in a half a minute how I was doing. I know my rugged good looks can sometimes fluster the ladies, but still.

The holidays are over

I put away the last of the Christmas decorations today. It's back to normal around here now. Donovan had speech this morning-he almost had a three week break from it. I watched Summer today and Samantha stayed dry all day!! She even wore panties. Maybe it helps having a baby around. Samantha would watch me change Summer's diapers and I kept telling her babies wear diapers and you're a big girl.

We're thinking of moving the double bed into Aleah's room this weekend and putting the twin bed that's in there in Samantha's room so she can start sleeping in a bed-no more crib. It's kind of sad to think of my "baby" not needing her crib anymore and also that we don't need the crib anymore. I think it's time to list that and the changing table on BisMan Online.

Tomorrow I have Moms in Touch and I watch Summer. Donovan has school tomorrow too. I've got tons of stuff to do around the house and I need to start getting ready for our Girl Scout troop meeting that is next Monday. I want to be all ready for it before Monday. Plus I'm doing an activity with Donovan's class next Tuesday. I'm not sure what yet but I thought we'd work it around the snack he'll be bringing for his birthday. He has to celebrate it in school the 15th since he doesn't have Kindergarten on Wednesdays. Donovan and I are leaning on doing something with penguins.

My Brother's Surgery

Early tomorrow morning my brother, Duane, plans to go in for an open heart bypass surgery. Not all who visit here know Duane, but please say a quick prayer for him.

Duane, here is a nice song I found on YouTube the other day. The guy with the mane can really belt it out. It is the Gaithers and the Gaither Vocal Band.

Christmas Lights

On New Years Day we went out for a quick supper at McDonalds on Main Street. Following that we went to take a look at a Christmas light display we had seen the week before - mainly for the purpose of getting a few pictures. The well-to-do house where this is located is on Burleigh Avenue just west of Washington Street. This is in far south Bismarck. On Burleigh Avenue here there is a large tree in the middle of the road with the lanes split to go around the tree.

There was no traffic approaching, so to joke with Nancy I drove toward the center of the road and when the tree showed up in the headlights said, "Didn't there used to be a tree here?" After getting nearer to the tree, I gently turned back to our lane and went around. Gerrit piped up from the back and said, "I was really scared!"

The time was 6:08 pm. The ventilation system was set on Auto Lo and all three zones were at a balmy 71 deg. F. This photo is for documentation purposes. No, it was really just a test of the camera.

They had smaller pine trees and some other trees decorated with lights but they also had this large tree lit up with a display way in the front that said "God Bless Our Troops." I would guess the tree is 40'-50' tall.

A zoomed-in view. These looked like the more expensive LED lights. I would guess that was a pretty large expense, not to mention what it cost to put the lights up.

There are a lot of nice light displays in Bismarck/Mandan but this one was a nice surprise.

Our House Is Alive!

Our house now breathes. With this basement finishing project, we put in a door to our furnace room where previously there was no door. The furnace room is located just north of our new family room and south of an existing bathroom and west of our new office area and east of an existing laundry room. The furnace room door opens to the new office area.

Way back our friendly building inspector (he really is friendly and helpful) told us he wanted us to bring in outside air to the furnace room and put in 20" wall openings, one high and one low, both to the office area and to the laundry room. To fulfill the outside air requirement, we put up an insulated 6" flexible tube going from the outside to the furnace room. Of course, we did this a while ago before the ceiling drywall was up. Now the room and the house "breathe" freely.

Just yesterday I got to putting in the wall openings for room ventilation. These are just holes cut in the partition wall with sidewall grilles to make it look nice.

All of this is simply to make sure the furnace and water heater in the room have enough oxygen for combustion (they are both natural gas). They call this combustion air. Without enough combustion air there can be a buildup of carbon monoxide, and that is never good - especially in a house. Building code has calculations for the square inches required for openings to the room based on the size of the room (cubic feet) and on the total BTUs of the appliances in the room.

This was the first hole cut - the low opening between the furnace & water heater room and the laundry room.

Here both holes are made in the laundry room. I don't know if you can see, but I painted the inside of the wall (exposed studs, exposed drywall, drywall cut surfaces) a flat black in order to make it less visible through the grille. This may not have been so much needed if I would have just had the bottom hole, but was very much needed for the top hole where you can see right through the grille. I tested out hanging the grille upside down, but it was actually easier to see through.

Finished with the grilles here.

The top hole has been cut on the office side (opposite of the laundry room side).

Here again I painted flat black. These wall openings had a stud down the middle. You may also notice I cleaned out the room because all that crap was in my way.

Finished here.

Of course, every little project seems to have its own snafu. The last grille I was going to put on was missing the packet of screws needed to attach the grille. I have screws but these have a white head to make them less visible. So, I had to drive back up to The Home Depot for a quick exchange.

Peanuts! I Got Yer Peanuts!

Although they aren't hot roasted peanuts. Quite the opposite.

I've been negligent in updating about the peanuts I grew in the garden this year. I posted about them a couple of times, but the most recent post was in October 2007 - when I pulled them from the ground.

I let all of them dry and they were pretty much dry within a few weeks. All that remained of any substantial size were these five. They have been on the counter all this time and I shelled them last night.

After shelling this is what is left - five small to medium sized nuts and several smaller yet. I threw them away after taking these pictures.

There are seeds left over, so I am definitely going to try to grow them again this year. I'll have to start them earlier in the house to give them a head start and even then it will probably still be difficult to get a good harvest.

Back to school after the holidays

The kids headed back to school after the holidays today. It sure was quiet. Samantha kept asking where the kids were all day. At least she was kept occupied by watching Summer-she refers to her as baby Summer. I'm babysitting Summer a few days a week this month for my cousin Janet until Summer starts her new daycare. She's three and a half months old. Yesterday she cried so much and since she had a cold and wasn't eating much or sleeping long when I laid her down I told Janet I think she might have an ear infection. Janet brought her to the doctor and she did. I guess when you have three out of four kids that had chronic ear infections you learn the signs.

Mom, Loren, and Kelly are still fighting their stomach bug. Mom also has a sinus infection and her throat was so irritated it was bleeding but she said that was better today. So far we've been okay around here so I hope we're in the clear.

Tomorrow I plan to go work out at the YMCA-it's been at least six weeks since I've had a chance to work out. I think it's good that I'll have both Donovan and Samantha with so Samantha can get used to the Child Watch again with Donovan around. We have to go get groceries after that and pick out birthday invitations for Donovan's party. He wants a swimming party at the Y and I think he's choosing a dinosaur theme-they have four you can pick from-they even provide the cake but I will make him a dinosaur cake for his real birthday too! I also have to put away the Christmas decorations. I have never waited this long after Christmas to put them away before but we did get them up a little later this year.

Basement Dwellers

I'm pretty sure Nancy has already mentioned the boys moved down the basement. We have taken a lot of pictures of the basement project and here are some taken during and around the time they moved.

Here Gerrit and Donovan are ready for bed on the first night. This whole bunk bed setup was in the room that Aleah was also in and now has to herself. That room was packed.

Their closet. I picked up the closet system from Menards. Worked pretty nice and was able to make a nice setup for their stuff.

The basement bedroom egress window completely finished on the inside. It took a long time to make and install the 1x8 trim extensions from the window jamb out to the drywall. I paid a lot of attention to making the pieces as level, square, and plumb as possible. It was made harder by the fact that the box around the window wasn't made very square, level, etc. Had to add shims in various spots on all four pieces. Looks nice now, though. Donovan likes to sit and stand in there. He is just almost exactly the same height as the interior frame. We've already run through the drill of how to open it and exit in case of a fire emergency.

Here is Aleah in her bedroom upstairs on the same night as the boys moved out. She now has the room to herself and it seems empty. Within the next couple of months (or so) we plan to paint the walls a light shade of pink and possibly replace the carpet with laminate. The picture reminds me - we need to get new blinds or curtains for the room.

We picked up a new TV for the basement family room and also got a new TV stand/storage cabinet.

The kids were watching Parent Trap on the new TV the other day and I took this photo. The set of recessed lights for that area are able to be dimmed, and this makes a very nice atmosphere for watching TV or movies. Of course, that just gives the kids another thing to battle over - how much the lights should be dimmed!

Bismarck's New Year's Butterfly

Bismarck's first butterfly of 2008 emerged from its chrysalis at 10:13 am on January 2, on the counter top of Bruce and Nancy. The little female butterfly soon crawled up to the night light plugged into the nearby outlet. At 12:48 pm it was sighted on the living room sliding door curtains. Later on in the afternoon it flew downstairs. Sadly, it cannot currently be found.

I don't really know about this being Bismarck's New Year's butterfly. It may be true, but there is no way to be certain. For all I know there are other strange people in Bismarck like me - hatching butterflies in the winter in their kitchen or maybe their secret basement laboratory.

This is our fifth butterfly, and one remains in its chrysalis. The previous four each died within a week of coming out. We've had trouble finding something for them to eat. Looking online we found some references that said they'll feed on nectar, of course, but will also feed on aged or brown bananas or on an orange that has been cut open. We don't plan to spend the money on a flower with nectar (not all have nectar). We did try the bananas and oranges but none have partaken of those fruits. One teacher gave us a vial that could be used to feed sugar water but they didn't seem to care for that either. I don't know the life expectancy of the black swallowtail butterfly, but I'm pretty sure it is longer than four to seven days. I've read that the average life expectancy of all butterfly species is probably around two weeks - meaning some live shorter and some longer than that.

The butterflies always go to the windows - like any good bug would. I wish I could put them out but they wouldn't last very long outside. Last night we got down to -6 deg. F. Right now we show 25 deg.

Here is the link to the post about the fourth butterfly. There are some pretty good pictures. We caught that one coming out of the chrysalis.

Happy New Year 2008!

To me it still seems like December 31 since it's just minutes into the new year but the clock says it's Tuesday and so we start the year 2008-it seems like it was just 1988!!

I donated plasma this morning (the 31st) and came home and cleaned and Bruce finished the family room this afternoon!!! Also the aquarium is not on my kitchen counter anymore-it had been there about the last five or six weeks since we got the new carpet in the living room and we had to wait until Bruce finished the trim downstairs before we could move it.

We had Jason, Barb, and kids over tonight. We had a good time and played some Wii and Mad Gab. The kids got to bed just at midnight so they will hopefully sleep in a little tomorrow. We do not usually let them stay up so late but for Independence Day and New Year's Eve (usually when we have the Barb and Jason over) we let them stay up late. We plan to watch some movies and go out to eat tomorrow night. I think Bruce should not work at all since he's been so busy all of his "vacation." All that's left downstairs is the trim work in the office. Of course after that we'll be starting other projects in the house-it never ends.