Bountiful Harvest

I, with the help of our three oldest children, harvested the tomatoes and peppers (bell and jalapeno) this afternoon while Samantha was napping. I am saving the potatoes, carrots, and peanuts until after we get a freeze. Could be tonight. I'm excited about taking a look at what, if anything, has happened underneath the peanut plants.

From six plants we picked five gallons of jalapenos. It's much more than we need for salsa. If you need some let us know. Seriously.

Not quite a wheelbarrow of tomatoes. This was from seven plants. This spring when I started the plants indoors, I used up leftover seed to get rid of a bunch of packets. I wish I would have kept track of varieties because there was one plant that clearly outproduced the others.

The kids are loading up the already picked bell peppers on top of the tomatoes.

The wheelbarrow is full. We had six bell pepper plants.

I found this on a tomato. This "thing" is inside some sort of web sack. If anyone knows what it is, let me know. I'm curious. I've included the picture because of the interested effect. I took the picture on the macro setting, hoping for it to focus on the "thing" but instead it focused on the stem. It is interesting because I think it looks like it was taken with flash in a darkened area, but was taken in full sunlight just like the rest of the pictures. Well, it is interesting to me, anyway.

Have a good one!

The Patch (Pumpkins and much more)

Wow, what a beautiful day. On the chilly side, but a wonderful fall day. After Samantha's nap we loaded up the van and went to Papa's Pumpkin Patch. It was a lot of fun and the kids had a great time.

That place gets bigger every year with a new grass maze and two new slides this year. We didn't have to buy pumpkins, though, because our two pumpkin plants came through for us with nineteen pumpkins. The kids each have their carving pumpkin picked out and we put the rest on the front patio area. We took a bunch of pictures and here are some of them. As always - click on the photos to take a look at the larger versions.

Gerrit and Donovan on one of the bale towers. Gerrit is talking with one of his classmates.

Samantha on her first run down a slide. Whee!

Aleah takes her turn.

Gerrit tries out the higher slide. He looks stiff because he was just in the process of raising his arms. I took the picture too early.

Donovan mugging for the camera on one of his runs down a slide.

Samantha tries the higher slide and looks a little bit scared.

The four of them posed in a shelter on the nature trail.

Here is one of the open areas of the patch. Pumpkins galore from which to choose.

Posing on Mr. Antique, an old tractor in one corner of the patch.

On and in Ralph the truck.

Donovan standing on top (!) of Bert the tractor. Mr. Fearless.

Screwed on, and done (almost)

I screwed drywall for about seven hours today, and my right arm is killing me. Specifically, my elbow and shoulder.

Well, folks, the drywall is hung. Finally. We finished up getting all the panels hung at 5:30 today (Saturday). Like Nancy said, Austin was here along with my dad. As the contractor, Austin was in charge of measuring out, cutting, and placing drywall; as well as making all the decisions about the project. Dad helped out wherever he could and pretty much my sole job was screwing the drywall to the studs using a cordless drill. The battery on my old little drill was dead within around an hour, so Austin let me use his Cadillac. By Cadillac I mean his Bosch 24 volt cordless hammer drill. So much nicer and easier to use than my Black & Decker. It is a heavy unit, though, and that is a big part of why my elbow and shoulder are in such pain. I think the thing weighs close to ten pounds.

My Black & Decker sells for $40-50 and I think the Bosch he has goes for around $300. When you are a general construction contractor, as Austin is, you need good equipment like that. Makes your job easier and enables you to make more money.

I still have screwing to finish up. I was able to get a good part of it done but had to let some go so that we could get all the panels hung in place. It was not really possible to keep up with dad and Austin. Some may not know this (I didn't), but there go somewhere between 30 and 40 screws in each 4' x 8' panel of drywall. I think we used 50 panels.

So, I need to finish screwing. Then I need to do some more work on the ceiling panels driving screws in a little deeper. There were quite a few that we weren't able to drive all the way using the dimpling bit because the house is built with real hardwood - not the light stuff you buy for studs and joists these days. After I finish with the screws I need to get some mud (joint compound) into the larger spaces and the mistakes ahead of doing the actual joint taping and mudding.

Austin has other projects lined up and is only able at this time to help me out on Saturdays. We have to make a decision, I think, whether or not we need to hire someone else to finish up and move this project ahead toward an earlier completion.

Is it summer or fall??

The calendar says it's now fall but after being outside for almost three hours at a Girl/Cub Scout event and the temperature being over 90 it sure didn't feel like it!! I actually had thought that having an outside event the last weekend of September could get a little cold!! There were a variety of things to do for the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts at Sertoma Park this afternoon and I took all the kids since Bruce is busy hanging drywall with Austin and Milo-I think they're almost done with hanging it!!! This is so exciting that another step is almost done. It won't be long before I'll be priming and painting.

Stay at home mom??

Where did the term stay at home mom come from??? I wish I could stay home just one day!! This morning I picked some things up for Girl Scouts then went to Bible study. After that I had a little time to kill (not enough time to go home though) before I had to go to the dentist so Samantha and I went to Barnes and Noble. I thought I'd let her play with the trains. We saw Barb's cousin Sheila there and visited a bit. Samantha really filled her diaper then and I changed it in the van-it was a bad one-not only did it require a diaper change but a full set of clothes-she is not constipated anymore!! Bruce met me at the dentist and took Samantha walking at the mall. I had no cavities!!

I met Bruce and Sam at the mall and we ate lunch at Arby's then did a little shopping. Samantha and I came home and she napped. We were home for less than two hours and I did some laundry and rode bike-the stationary one downstairs-I did not leave my child unattended to go riding outside! The bus was 20 minutes late getting home so the kids grabbed a snack and we took Gerrit to Young Scientist Club. Aleah, Donovan, Samantha, and I went to Wal-Mart. Bruce picked up Gerrit and I got home unpacked our stuff and as soon as Bruce and Gerrit pulled into the driveway I left to get a haircut. The family was eating supper when I got back. I then helped the kids with homework and cleaned up a bit. Bruce got some more drywall hung.

School Picture Day & Two Year Olds Reunite

Gerrit and Aleah had their school pictures today-Gerrit again choose the green background-I think he has done this for at least the last four or five years-green is his favorite color. Aleah went with blue and Donovan is going with blue also-his picture day is tomorrow. Of course it was rainy this morning so I'm not sure what Aleah's hair will look like in the pictures.

After gymnastics this morning we went to Barb's and had a nice visit with Karen. The girls got along for the most part. The picture taking session was funny. We all had our cameras for the first time). We have a picture of the girls (this is the third time we've done this) from every summer-okay it is technically fall now but at least we got it done. We usually sit them down from left to right Samantha, Grace, and Sydney but for some reason we switched Grace and Sydney around, took a few pictures, then tried to switch the order-not a good idea-they freaked out a little and we got some pictures with crying and rubbing eyes. It's amazing how much they grow each year.

We had Adventure Club and Bible study tonight and then I tried to get some Girl Scout stuff organized. I almost wish we didn't have such a big group-I hope no more girls join!

Here is the good picture before attempting to switch the order to match older photos. Left to right: Samantha, Sydney, and Grace.

The first photo after the switch. Grace is definitely not happy and we think Samantha is either putting on a fake smile or getting ready to cry. Sydney is a cool cucumber.

Samantha is definitely crying here and Sydney is wondering what the fuss is about.

Samantha is in full cry mode, Grace is wiping tears, and Sydney is starting to feel their pain.

Now Samantha and Grace are coming around, but Sydney thinks it might be her turn.

Killer Bees and VW Beetles!

After my post from a bit back about our game of counting VW Beetle sightings, I was reminded of a TV movie about "killer" bees I saw when I was young. I did some internet research and found out the title of the movie was "The Savage Bees" and it came out in 1976. I would have been nine or ten years old. I suppose that was about the time of the scare of africanized bees moving up from South America.

I don't remember much detail about the movie but I do remember the final scenes involved a car covered with bees. Of course, a woman was trapped inside the car and I suppose the bees were trying to get to her. I recall her having to deal with some that were finding their way into the interior, and toward the end she was getting more and more inside - creating a greater urgency to the situation.

She either drove the car or someone else pushed the car into the Superdome. They then kicked in the AC to cool the stadium and at some point the bees were chilled enough to be immobilized (at 45 deg., one web site said), saving our lady in distress.

I had an aversion to or fear of bees/wasps back then and I still do. I suppose that is the reason the movie made an impression in my memory.

The car covered with bees was a red VW Beetle. I found some captures from the movie on a web site and have included them here. The site appears to be French and the web address is on each photo.

Anyone else remember this movie?

Courtesy of Wikipedia, here is an animated graphic illustrating the spread of africanized honey bees up through 2003. I don't know, I'm pretty sure they are also in Florida and some other southern states by now too.

Back to School

The kids went back to school after their long weekend-they actually only had school one Monday in September since yesterday and Labor Day were off days and we were traveling back from Wisconsin on the 10th. It sure was quiet with just Samantha around-kind of a nice break.

After MIT (Moms in Touch) Samantha and I went to the YMCA and I think I only did six weight machines today. I now do these same machines two more times and then next week get trained on some more. It's a 12 week instruction period and it's free!! Samantha does really well in the child watch. We got there this morning just in time for snacks and she went right over and sat down at the table with the other kids.

I helped Bruce hang some drywall tonight. His friend Austin is coming this Saturday and they should be able to get all of the drywall hung. I'll have to take all the kids to the Girl Scouts Rock the Park this weekend. It's actually for the family so it works out-usually the special events for Girl Scouts are just for the girls.

No School Today

There was no school today-the teacher's had an inservice. We didn't do anything special though. We were pretty busy over the weekend and I thought the kids needed some down time-I know I did! Donovan still had speech and Aleah had dance and Gerrit had a pack meeting for scouts. Bruce also took Donovan to the pack meeting tonight too. They had minnow races and the boys loved that. Donovan will be able to join scouts next year.

I helped out at the school last night getting the raffle tickets put into envelopes and labeled for the kids to sell for the raffle that will be held on the night of the Halloween carnival-October 27th. It took us two hours-there were only five parents helping.

After Moms In Touch tomorrow I plan to go to the YMCA to get started on the weights-it's been over five years since I used the weights there and some are new so I wanted some instruction on them before I started. Barb and I had planned to go to Washburn to see a friend but she's actually coming to Bismarck on Wednesday so we'll get together then and go to Washburn some other time. We all have two year old girls!!

Missouri Valley Mopars

Missouri Valley Mopars is no more. For many years now our car club has seen declining attendance at meetings and events. Finally the guy (Dave) that has pretty much been running the show got tired of all the effort he put into it without people showing interest. This spring he let us know that he would be stepping down in September (election month) and they would need to find someone else. After that a ballot was put out to members with several choices but the one that won was to continue with the club in a limited function of two or three meetings/events per year. Dave agreed to continue on in that capacity. A few weeks ago we had our first such meeting, the last meeting of 2007, and only two members showed up in addition to the four club officers in attendance. Our memberships are due in June/July and only two renewed their memberships. Basically these things were the last straw and the indicators that there was really no interest by most of the members to continue the club.

The decision was then made at the meeting to dissolve the club and have a picnic next year to spend the remaining money in the club's account. I am the secretary and write the newsletters. I'll put out a newsletter within the next couple of weeks and then another in the spring when the date for the picnic is decided.

In my opinion there were a couple of main things that contributed to the club's demise. We used to put on a fair sized Mopar car show in Mandan every June. That ended four years ago, I think, when the owners of the speedway in Mandan (wisely, from a liability standpoint) prohibited burnouts during the show. The decision was to not do a car show that year, but search for a different venue for the following year. That never came about. They had a couple of small shows in a parking lot during the Buggies 'n Blues show in Mandan, but never again had the Mopars on the Prairie car show. That show was the one main event every year that drew everyone together. After that ended I could see interest and attendance continue to drop throughout the years.

Another factor, I think, is the skyrocketing prices for Mopars in general. It is pretty hard at this point for the general new enthusiast to purchase a classic Mopar because of the cost. When a beat up 1969 Plymouth GTX sells for $17,000 at an estate auction, it has to have an affect on those without a lot of money. It is tough to get into it if you don't already own a Mopar.

I'm sure there are other factors such as people just being too busy to get involved in one more thing, but I see the end of the annual car show and the prices for Mopars as the two major ones.

For anyone wondering, Mopar generally refers to a Dodge, Plymouth, and Chrysler muscle car of the classic era (late 50's to mid 70's). It is usually expanded, though, to include other years and non-muscle cars and can include DeSoto, AMC, Jeep, and Eagle. Mopar is a shortening of "Motor Parts," the Chrysler Corporation's parts division. This shortening was done a long time ago and the name eventually came to apply to the cars themselves as well.

Wedding Photos

Well, here we are on a hot summer day for the first day of fall. We had 88 deg. F at 1:00 and just hit 90. Too hot, especially for this time of year. We were thinking of going to Papa's Pumpkin Patch today, but didn't because of the heat. Plus the wasps are bound to be thick on a warm day like this. Personally, give me a day with 60-70 deg. temps and sunshine and I'm happy. This is why fall is my favorite season with spring coming in second.

With that, here come a bunch of photos from the wedding of Loren and Kelly in Waunakee, WI - two weeks ago now. I apologize in advance to anyone on dial-up.

The sanctuary.

The nice pipe organ.

Here are the little men and ladies from our family. What's wrong, Samantha?

Here they are with grandpa and grandma.

Loren and Nancy.

The bride and groom with mom and dad J (Laurence and Karen).

Loren and Kelly with her family. Back row, l-r: Rich (dad), Loren, Mike (brother-in-law, Julie's husband); front row, l-r: Laura (younger sister), Kelly, Carolyn (mom), and Julie (older sister).

All of the bridesmaids with Loren.

All of the men in the wedding party with Kelly. Includes ushers.

All of the men in the wedding party with Loren.

Loren with his best man, Kelly (previously K1 - now K2). Some explanation is needed. Loren first knew this Kelly from way back. He then dated two other Kellys (women) before meeting his bride Kelly H. Somewhere along the line, to avoid confusion, they started to be known as K1, K2, K3, and K4. Kelly H. was K4 but is now obviously K1.

For the final round of pictures, we headed to Madison's capital building. These and all the following were taken after the wedding.

Loren and Kelly posing on the lower steps.

Aleah giving me an attitude look.

Loren and Kelly coming down from the upper steps.

The ice sculpture at the wedding reception.

This little boy enjoyed dancing/playing with Samantha on the dance floor.

Maybe TOO much.

Loren with his cousin Randy.

Laurence with his nieces Linda and Arlene.

Good day!

Red False Mallow

I have/had an experiment with growing some wildflowers in a corner of our garden. They are called red false mallow. Ever since I was a kid I really liked them and would often go out and pick some for my mom. They have pretty orange blossoms and grayish leaves. Probably four or five years ago I dug some plants out of my dad's pasture and transplanted them here - in a corner of our garden. They grow well and spread well by seed, as you can see in the pictures below (taken in early June). My hope was that possibly I could put them in the flower bed in our front yard.


I found out, though, that after they go to seed they lose most of their leaves, the remaining leaves lose their gray color, and you end up with a bunch of scraggly looking sticks. So, while I'll never put them in the front yard, I maintain this patch in our garden. After they seed I pretty much just ignore them unless there is a weed to pull.

While watering tomatoes, peppers, and peanuts this afternoon I noticed the patch was full of crabgrass. Yes, a prudent lawn caretaker's worse nightmare, I guess. When the hose was running on the various plants I spent the time pulling the crabgrass. At first I thought it would be a big hassle, but I noticed that they had shallow roots and pulled very easily while the "good" plants did not. So I took care of them by just running my fingers tightly through all the plants and was able to get them out without too much problem. When done I put the offending grass into a grocery bag and threw it in the garbage. Crabgrass be gone! Now I'll just have to pay better attention to the patch in future years.

Friday

I didn't make it to the Y this morning. It was such a busy week and by Friday I am usually starting to drag. Donovan, Samantha, and I did go see baby Summer. What a beautiful baby! I got to hold her too! It's hard to believe the kids were once that small. Samantha really liked her but Donovan wasn't too impressed. We got some groceries after that and ate lunch when we got home. After Gerrit and Aleah got home from school we went to swimming lessons. Bruce got back from Grand Forks and Mayville a little after five and he made spaghetti-I had all the things out so we were able to eat when we got back from swimming-the kids get so hungry after they swim.

The doctor called today to say that Samantha was very constipated (that's the result of the x-ray) and if she didn't produce a BM by tonight we should give her an enema but luckily she did and I drove it over to the clinic-yuck!! Now we're waiting to hear about the urine and stool samples.

The kids have a three day weekend-the teachers have a in-service on Monday. Sometime this weekend we should go to Papa's Pumpkin Patch. We're also going to put out our fall/Halloween decorations this weekend too-that is if I can get to them in the crowded storage room-extra stuff is in there until the basement is finished. We have plans to go to a friend's house tomorrow night. I think it's their first house party since they've moved in there in May.

Tests

I left MOPS a little early to take Samantha to her doctor appointment. I'm glad the doctor did some tests. He ordered a urine and stool sample (the stool sample we're still waiting to get-this is part of Samantha's tummy problems-constipation) and she had an x-ray. I told him how she only has two BM's a week (the other kids had two or three a day at this age) and how she's always saying her tummy hurts and sometimes wakes up crying saying her tummy hurts. He said he didn't feel any masses. He also prescribed a stronger medicine-she's been on lactulose for quite a long time now. The new medicine is a powder you mix in with some juice and she took it very well today. She did cry during the x-ray but the techs were impressed with how still she laid so they got a good picture on the first try. I'm not sure if the doctor will call me with the results tomorrow or if he's going to wait until we have a stool sample. I pray it's nothing serious. I guess even bladder or kidney infections could cause tummy pain and he said it's good I want to get this problem taken care of before we start potty training.

Samantha and I had planned to visit Janet and Summer today. We got to the hospital just after noon but her door was shut and there was a sign on it that said visitors only from 2-4 and 7-9 and there weren't any nurses around for me to ask if I could go in so we left. I did call Raylene tonight to let her know that I had stopped and she said I should have gone in but since I'm not immediate family I didn't think I should. Anyway I will try tomorrow with Donovan and Samantha. Janet did have a blood transfusion today. Also Summer was born late Tuesday night instead of early Wednesday morning like we originally thought.

After our long morning Samantha was ready for a nap shortly after we got home and I had a little quiet time before the other kids got home from school. Gerrit got stung by a wasp today. His class was on a field trip to Camp Neche to do some obstacle courses. His teacher had tried to call me but my ringer was off since I was at MOPS and the voice mail didn't show up until over an hour later when we were leaving the doctor appointment. Luckily he didn't have a bad reaction. He had Young Scientist Club after school and I took the others to a park for awhile. We then had pizza at Sam's Club and got a few things we needed-they were completely out of the diet Gold Peak tea. Bruce and I LOVE this ice tea and we haven't had any for weeks so I was quite disappointed. It's in a glass bottle and once I brought it to a friend's house and someone there asked me if I had brought some beer-it kind of looks like a beer bottle.

I think I plan on going to the YMCA to workout in the morning. Donovan and Samantha would enjoy playing in the Child Watch. It is tempting to stay home though since it's been such a BUSY week. The kids have swimming lessons after school.

Summer has arrived!

Yes, Summer has arrived-not the season, but a baby girl! My cousin Janet had a baby girl very early this morning. Summer Belle weighed in at 8 lbs. 3 oz. and her Aunt Raylene says she's beautiful. Janet on the other hand had a very tough time of it. She was admitted to the hospital Monday night to be induced and at two this morning was stuck at 9 1/2 cm for three hours. The doctor said she could keep trying but she was unlikely going to progess so Janet consented to a C-section. I'm not sure of all the details yet but the doctor had a really hard time to stop the bleeding and Janet was in the ICU for awhile after the C-section. I plan to go see her tomorrow. Raylene said Janet was really out of it today.

This morning I made a quick stop at the MOMS Club business meeting and then took Donovan and Samantha to gymnastics. We then went to Burger King for lunch and to Gateway Mall-they have a nice play area for younger kids. We made a quick stop at Jo-Ann's Fabrics and then Donovan had speech. Tonight the kids had Adventure Club at church and I went to the small group Bible study. It was the first night and we will be studying how the 10 Commandments are still relevant today. Pastor Shaner will then have his Sunday sermon about what we studied at our small groups. Our small group wasn't very small though-there were at least 20 of us so I think we'll break up into two groups.

Tomorrow I have MOPS. I missed the first meeting since we were in Wisconsin. After that I'm taking Samantha to the doctor since I'm concerned her tummy hurts so much. She even cries sometimes when she says it. I just want to make sure nothing is really wrong and I hope the doctor at least does an x-ray or something. I plan to go see Janet and Summer after that.

Busy Days

Yesterday was pretty much consumed with getting ready for our first Girl Scout meeting. It seemed like everything I was doing wasn't going well plus I had to get to Wal-Mart and Donovan had speech but I managed to get everything done and the meeting went well. I did most of the preparing and getting a note about the special events ready to so there was more work this time. There were 21 girls there-22 if you count Samantha. I'm pretty sure we'll end up with 20-22 girls this year-that is an extremely large group. I hope some other parents come forward to help especially since next year I'll be moving up from a Brownie leader to a Junior leader and that will leave my co-leader without help. Right after Girl Scouts Aleah had dance. At least her Mondays will only be busy once or twice a month.

Today I donated plasma at six then came home did a few things and went to Moms In Touch. After that I went to the YMCA to work out. I need to start working out there at least a couple times a week (that's about all I have time for this year) and I can put Samantha (and on the Fridays he doesn't have Kindergarten Donovan can go too) in the Child Watch. She loved it! I remember taking Gerrit and Aleah there when we first moved to Bismarck just a couple times and gave up since Aleah pretty much cried the whole time.

Today was another major laundry day too!! I think it was just as bad as last week when we got back from Wisconsin-I guess the problem was I didn't do any laundry over the weekend-too busy hanging drywall I guess. I also washed the kitchen floor after the kids went to bed so at least it will remain spill free for 12 hours or so!! I am going to bed pretty quick as I'm about out of energy.

My cousin Janet has still not had her baby. They induced her around six last night and mom told me her water broke around two this afternoon. I hope she doesn't got through all this labor and then end up with a C-section.

Wedding reception slideshow

Well, here it is - the infamous photo slideshow Nancy and I made to show at the reception of Loren and Kelly's wedding. Although it was well received at the reception, I've done some editing since it was shown. Kind of ran out of time and had to finish it quickly before we left for Wisconsin. The editing was mostly to reduce black space and adjust start/finish times of the music a bit. The length now is 9:59. I just watched it on YouTube and I'm not sure I'm happy with the quality. There is some jerkiness that isn't on the original. That's OK, I suppose. It is what it is, right?

Loren and Kelly picked the songs to play during the show. There are three parts - photos of Kelly, photos of Loren, and then of Kelly & Loren together. Everyone should know the first artist, Cyndi Lauper. The second song is "The Best Day" by George Strait and the third song is "1,000 Miles" by Mark Schultz.

Grab a tissue!


Yes, that really is Wayne Newton.

Patrick? Mountain Lions?

I came to the computer tonight and this image was up on the screen. Any explanation, Nancy? This is Patrick Dempsey - one of the actors on "Grey's Anatomy." Yeah, I suppose - I have to admit he is handsome.

We drove down to Strasburg today to mom and dad's farm for my mom's birthday. Well, her birthday was yesterday. We went to Sunday School at church today but had to miss the service so we could get down there in time for dinner (aka lunch). Fortunately, Pastor Shaner puts the recording of the services on the web site and we'll be able to listen later.

The big news from my parents is that a pair of mountain lions have been sighted within a mile of the farm and a neighbor about a mile away has been finding footprints in the mud. There have also been stories of spooked cows breaking out of corrals and five wire fences and of freaked out dogs barking like crazy in the evening. We kept the kids inside as a precaution.

There is another interesting story to go with this. The neighbor that came to let my parents know about the mountain lion sighting was at the c-store in Hazelton. Fueling was a pickup with a horse trailer. There was a commotion inside the trailer. When the person went in to pay the guy walked over to peek in and supposedly it had a bunch of mountain lions inside. I'd assume they were caged or in crates. When the person came back he told him to get away as it was a federal offense to tamper with this vehicle. So, the rumor is that mountain lions are being planted throughout the state by the federal government. Why they would do that, I have no idea. It seems kind of strange.

We kept a sharp eye out hoping to spot one of the big cats, but this was the only one we saw.