Summer Vacation

I'm sure most of you have given up checking this site. I've had a request to blog, so here it is.
Summer has pretty much come and gone, and in 8 short days the girls are back to school. Becky changes schools this year so at least 2 of us have a few butterflies about it. It feels like yesterday she was wearing her little dress and I was holding back tears dropping her off for her 1st kindergarten day. Time marches on!
Jenny's routine changes too as we/I can't be at 2 different schools at the same time so she is taking the school bus. She thinks it's great, I'm not about to burst her bubble.
Daryl and I went on a business trip (for Daryl)to Vegas and a highlight for me was going to the Grand Canyon. I prefer God's natural made sights to the really loud and bright lights of Vegas. Vegas was good, a relaxing vacation spot it was not. The pictures are of our Grand Canyon tour. The first photo is of the new glass walkway they have built 4000 feet above the Grand Canyon floor. We were not allowed to take camera's on it and had to wear booties over our shoes not to scratch the glass. Very cool. 2nd picture is pretty much all I saw of Daryl for the next couple of hours. And the 3rd is self taken which is pretty obvious! Our tour included stopping at the Hoover Dam on our way back, but we didn't linger very long there as it was 118 degrees in the shade, and the only place where there was some humidity in Nevada.
It's good to be back at home and I'm enjoying every last morning we can sleep in.

Mother's Day

It is always fun to wait and see what little surprises your kids come up with on Mother's Day. I had to work, and they really wanted to get up and see me off, but I really just wanted them to stay in bed as every minute counts to get ready for work at 6 in the morning. I was treated to a wonderful supper (BBQ T-bone, potatoes and garlic mushrooms....YUM!) and Becky made a cake for dessert. Gifts came just before they went to bed which was a nice surprise. One of the best treats, is when Becky writes a poem for us. Here it is....enjoy.

Do you like your presents
cause today we are your peasents
you are our mother
we are going to smother
you with kisses
and maybey do the dishes
i love you
now i gotta go to the loo

Death and Life

Well, there was a sad day last week when Daryl's surgery on my vacuum turned into an autopsy. It was a quick death, a couple of sputters and it died, never to suck again. This was last Wednesday. It was decision time, do we buy another upright or do we make the plunge and install a central vac. With much research and asking many people of their opinions, we opted for the central vac with a couple of stipulations from me. It must suck as well or better than my old upright, AND I must have the kickplate in the kitchen to suck away all crumbs and dust. So, it has come to be. Daryl spent the whole day yesterday installing everything and late yesterday evening, my carpets are once again clean (ish), they need a real carpet cleaning this spring. I am happy to say, it sucks and I've swept my kitchen floor about 5 times today, just to see dirt disappear from under my cupboard.

Don't Run in the House!

Sometimes the parent should listen to their own advice. Jenny and I were out the door to pick up Daryl when I remembered a form I needed to take with me. Instead of kicking my slightly wet shoes off, I made a few big leaps across the carpet to the kitchen. My foot hit the vinyl flooring and I knew I was in trouble. In the next couple of seconds, I found myself looking up at the ceiling and pausing momentarily to see if there was any excruciating pain coming from any parts of my body. To my relief, there wasn't any except a little throbbing coming from my knee which probably was the first to smash into the floor. I have attached a photo of the marks from my shoes. I guess I'm not that old yet, no broken hips.

This is love...

Jenny got a gift certificate from Build a Bear from her Grandma as a Christmas gift. She was anxious to get there so, the earliest we could make it to the mall was Dec 28th. Mistake. The line up was out of the store to "stuff" your bear. An hour later we had Blueberry's birth certificate and were on our way out of the store. I told a parent in front of me it felt like we were lining up for some fabulous concert tickets. This is quite the store. You can buy all sorts of outfits, even underbears for them. Crazy!

Happy New Years!

We are snowed in on New Years Eve and having a great "at home" day. The girls have been playing in the foot of snow and Milo is trying to play, but he's not very big yet and gets snow balls stuck on his underside. He does like to be outside though! I have to work a night shift tonight and our kind neighbor will drive me in his 4 wheeled drive truck. I wouldn't get past the stop sign right on our corner.
Wishing you all a very Happy New Years!

Look who's home!

IMG_2157.JPG
Originally uploaded by Omega Man.

It was an extremely happy day yesterday as the newest family member came home. This is Milo. He's 6&1/2 wks old and he's very sweet. Becky was a good mama last night and tended to his whines. He's getting lots of attention to help him not miss his mama and sister.

New Baby!

Milo
Originally uploaded by Omega Man.

This is the baby boy we are adopting! The girls have named him Milo and he's a sweet little fella. He may come home as early as next weekend....Yipes! His mama is weaning him and he's eating solid food already. He's definately going to be loved!

Pippi

Pippilotta Viktualia Rullgardina Krusmynta Efraimsdotter Långstrump
Originally uploaded by Omega Man.

Halloween has come and gone and my thighs will need some stair work soon. Jenny declared that this day is the second best day of the year, Christmas being the 1st. I'm surprised her birthday didn't rank but she is the kid who LOVES candy. She needs to be thankful for her skinny genes.
Isn't she cute?

Young kids...

wedding89
Originally uploaded by Jalosa.

Anyone recognize this fine looking couple? Well, hard to believe this was 17 years ago today. It was a beautiful, HOT fall day that I got to marry a guy who was full of surprises and still is. Thanks honey!

Friends....

IMG_0176.JPG
Originally uploaded by Omega Man.

We had a great afternoon at a corn maze this afternoon with a bunch of friends. I particularily like this picture of me and my good friend Karen. She's looking for the easy exits! (we made it without having to use them)

The other woman...

Well, my husband is in love with another. Her name in Mini....Mac. He brought her home yesterday and spent all evening gazing and learning all about her. She's all sparkly and new and even worse...tiny! She does have some good points...she's made him very happy and of course, I'm sure we've got much more memory now!

Rare

Well, usually Daryl is the one taking pictures and occassionally, I have the camera in hand. Here's a photo of us together taken by my brother in law, who got our camera in his hands. As you can see, I always take my supermodel background seriously and have posed for you. (HA!)
A completely different topic, the kids are back to school and mama is home alone during the day. I am contemplating another pet. Vinnie doesn't love me like Oreo did and I'm thinking of a small dog to baby. We went to the humane society once and only found big, black barking dogs and one that could jump like a kangaroo. The kittens were tempting but we did not cave yet. I'm sure our home has room for one more furball to love.

Painting

Well, the summer is flying by and we are getting some chores accomplished at home. I have started painting the house after we had a lady come in and help us choose colors. I am almost done this color, just the kitchen walls inbetween the cupboards etc to go. It's called old salem grey, which is really a green hue. Daryl also built a shelf to go above the piano in the alcove, something he/we have wanted for awhile. The kids are off to camp for the week and next week we plan to do some camping as a family.

Shade

Well, for those of you who know our yard, we have been shadeless due to the lack of trees in new developments. Our backyard faces south and I have an inability to stay in the sun for prolonged periods. I have been begging Daryl for some sort of shelter. Well, here is our newest addition that I am quite pleased about. I am totally ready to go read a book tomorrown under it's shade. You can drop in and have a cool drink with us too, we are willing to share our shade!

3 F's

Today is the day before mother's day. I am sure I will be enjoying breakfast in bed, although Daryl just checked the fridge and there is no bacon, which is a favorite breakfast treat. He blamed the girls for not thinking ahead....sheesh! I'll accept whatever their breakfast consists of, I'm not fussy. The mother's day treats began today though. I received these lovely flowers, we had a fire this evening with yummy smores and there were fireworks in southdale that we could see and hear perfectly. What a nice start to "my" day tomorrow.

Spring Cleaning

If someone tells me I need a pencil, crayon, pen or marker...they are mistaken! I think we have enough to last us for the rest of my time here on earth and maybe more. We are cleaning up our basement to finish it out and have "combined" all the loose writing utensils in this home. It's ridiculous! Make sure I don't buy any pencils for the kids this fall, they can use what we have.
Our garbage man will be busy again this week. Old pillows, carpet, boxes and non sentimental (even the odd one of those) stuff is hitting the curb.
Not to mention the pile for the garage sale (I'd rather give it away) but the girls want to make some money. Our neighborhood has one in a few weeks that is popular, so if we can make a few bucks, it will be worth it.
If anyone wants to come and help....feel free! It's way easier to throw away someone else's stuff!

Happy Easter!

Well, it's almost Easter and the weather has been great! We've even had thundershowers already. Daryl and I started on some raking and lawn work, we had voles chew up some of our grass (as did many of our neighbors) Yesterday I bought a wheelbarrow, I'm not sure how we made it through the previous lawn/gardening stuff without it. It's a beauty! 2 wheeled, self dumping...a woman's wheelbarrow! I was trying to put it together before Daryl got home from work but that didn't work out so well. He has that stupid gift of being able to put stuff together without even looking at the directions, it would have taken me til next week to get all the right screws and bolts in the right spot. Today I am in the process of making paska and I boiled eggs for the girls to dye. Wishing you all a wonderful Easter weekend!

Spring has sprung, the grass is green...

So, it's April 1st and it feels like spring is well on it's way. The snow is melting at a tremendous rate and the fresh air is so good.
We went to the Brandon Winter fair this week and met my sister and her family there. These are some new farm babies we saw, the girls all had a wonderful time. Another spring item, I filed our tax returns today after much frustration with the program we got. I started on tuesday and we had a very short power outage which lost all the info I had entered. Daryl's comment, "save early, save often". Advice that was "a little late". Hopefully the refund will push all bad memories to the back of my memory, I'm sure it will once I'm out spring shopping!

Farewell good friend

We had to say good bye to our great family dog last week. Sam was 14 going on 15 years old. Daryl and I acquired him in 1994 from someone who could not afford to take care of him anymore. He was a great family dog and I am the one who probably misses him the most as he figured out years ago that he was probably going to get the most love and human food from me. I still wait for the bark when the doorbell rings and breadcrusts now go in the garbage (what a waste).I am sure he's exploring doggy heaven and enjoying every minute of it!