UGH!

Boy, am I an a Pattitude.....or is it a
Mattitude.....or just plain
Sattitude!

Whatever this Attitude I've got, I realize I need to change it into Gratitude ASAP!

Do you know what selfish thoughts I've been thinking lately? Some really "feeling sorry for myself thoughts." Like:
"UGH! I have to go to work".........MAYBE I should be thankful that I have a job in this crappy economy and that I'm getting some income to pay for the food, water, electricity that we use day in and day out.
"UGH! My shoulders are hurting, my neck is stiff"...........MAYBE I should be thankful that I am able to move and exercise, that I have all my limbs, fingers, and toes and they aren't taken off like brave soldiers out in war.
"UGH! Cramps!"....................MAYBE I should be thankful that I have my "equipment" and was able to have babies and that my "equipment" isn't full of cancer like some self-less people out there.
"UGH! The kids are bickering"............................MAYBE I should be glad to hear the sound of their voices and know that they are alive and healthy and bless my each and every day.
"UGH! My husband's clothes are on the floor"...........................MAYBE I should be grateful that I have a husband to fill my life with love and humor, a great friend that I confide my whole self to and one who co-manages the household with me.
"UGH! There's dog slobber all over the couch again".........................MAYBE I should be glad to have two fur balls in the house that love me SO much that they follow me around the house, they look at me as if I'm the best thing since slice bread, and if I yell at them, they still love me unconditionally!
"UGH! I have to go Christmas shopping in crowds!".............................MAYBE I should step back and be thankful that there are people who surround me everyday with love and I get to give back to them.

As you can see, I have the potential to turn this attitude around.....so I'll do some hard praying during this time of advent to change my attitude into Gratitude and be thankful for the day that the Lord has made, each and every day!

Wish me luck and if you feel like praying for a selfish fool like myself, I'd sure appreciate it.

[breathe in]
[breathe out]
GRATITUDE. GRATITUDE. GRATITUDE........

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone will have a blessed day.
Hope everyone will be surrounded by the ones they love.
Hope everyone will think about gratitude.
Hope God blesses each and every one of you tomorrow.

Gobble Ti'l Ya Wobble!

Let Them Eat Cake!

Pack 206 Annual Cake Walk

The room was filled with energy, as if the boys had already eaten the sugar!

Here they are voting for the cake that best represents Boy Scouts.

I personally liked the fuzzy bear and the tiger, C-man voted for the camp-site cake at 10:00.
This category was the cake that would taste the best.
Again, I personally would have chose the peanut-butter one on the bottom right.
C-man chose the patriotic one.
A lot of competitors for the "coolest looking cake."
C-man voted for the tank and I appreciated the football but only the side with the Hawks on it!

Two categories on this table: Weirdest cake and What is it?

Our favorite: the eye-ball!

C-man's number was picked right away and he went straight for the tank, along with another boy. So to make it fair, one of the Mom's decided they should do Rock, Paper, Scissors and........ Paper covers Rock!

We took home ourselves a tank that is now disassembled and in the kids' bellies!

What a cute idea!

Our next big Hoopla is preparing for Pinewood Derby!

They are allowing family members to race too....so Miss O may get to race a princess car, we'll see how it goes.

Piece of Cake!

The official Pack 206's cake walk is tonight and with gathered effort; Paul, C-man and myself have finished the desired "LEGO" cake.

Here are the pics! Didn't turn out too bad. I had to make it pastel blue or I'd have dump the whole blue food coloring into the icing. Thank goodness, LEGO's these days are all kinds of colors. Hope C-man approves of this final project!

I thought it was quite easy to assemble. Paul and C-man made two loaves of chocolate cake. I sliced off the "hump" of the cake and flipped it over so the bottom was up. Iced it. Then I took "Little Debbie" cupcakes and iced them and placed them on top. Used a bit of blue gel to write the logo.

I can't wait to see the other cakes tonight, will have to take the camera just in case there's an amazing one!

Tiger Scouts Visit the Firestation

"Go see it: Firestation"

Looks like it was a hit!
C-man with his Den.

What happens in the ambulance.....

C-man, our future Fire-fighter, Nurse, and Pilot. This is according to a paper he wrote in school describing what he wanted to do in the future.

Lovin' the tour!

Lovin' the Farm

Only a Grandpa would love their grandkids SO much, that he'd get out the four-wheeler, (winterized and hibernating for the winter) out for his grandkids and give them a ride!

He warned the kids, if it didn't start it just won't start.....but their luck, it started and enjoyed some rides around the farm.

Miss-O means serious business with Grandpa on the 4-wheeler!
2 points! C-man, playing a little b-ball while waiting for his turn to ride.

Smile and wave boys, Smile and wave!

Other happenings on the farm:

• celebrated Austin's birthday and got to play with him Friday night and Saturday morning.
• looked at old photos of the family, per C-man's request.....some photos, he thought I was Miss-O
• played and played and played
• played on the swings outside
• Daddy & Indy went hunting for pheasant, but no such luck
• Daddy & C-man practiced some archery on a haystack
• last but not least, enjoyed Grandma & Grandpa!
• 
  

Happy Birthday Austin!

"Oh My GOSH!" Austin, making a b-line to his new gift from his Dad.
Oh Yeah! A new bike!

"Saweet!" Lovin' his Bop It!

7 years old!

Baseball cake that Grandma Mehmen made for Austin.

Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary Danny and Michelle!

Hope you have a marvelous day and many great years ahead of you!

Love, Us.

Crazy

We've been dealing with crazy things lately......

• Indy chewed up my massage chair one day while we were at the grocery store...guess he qualifies for kenneling again.
• Indy chewed up my purse when taking C-man to school....I'm thinking he doesn't like me so much.
• Our Sunday paper is on our roof.....paper-boy must not play baseball..or at least should not go out for baseball.
• I broke our bar stool, while getting off of it......just call me Goldilocks...or over-weight which ever rolls off your tongue better.
• Work has been crazy for both Paul and I....but that's a good thing, job security!
• I started running again, that's crazy in itself....on to week 2 of my program..I advanced a level woo-hoo!
• I bought groceries last week and totally lost my wallet.....thank goodness they let me take the groceries home and try to find my wallet....I panicked couldn't find it....looked on-line to see if my account was being fooled with...then found it in the cranny between the passenger seat and door of my car!
• C-man went to his "go see it" for scouts at the fire station, but the fire-fighters just left for a call.....so we'll try it this Sunday!
• I've been shopping for Christmas and I'm overly organized...that's very crazy!
• I'm looking into Master's programs and I think I'll be settling with my Alma Mater; Allen College..........kinda crazy and exciting all at once!
• I'm not sure how I'm financing my education....guess I'll be applying for many scholarships and financial aid....and to think this year I finish up my college loans.....CRAZY!
• I'm not sure if I should confess this; I was hit on at the cafeteria last night at work.....the liner was....."How's the soup? Married? Happily?".....crazy idiots out there.......I thought it was funny at first, but now I'm quite disgusted about it....replaying it in my mind the shoulda, woulda, coulda's........
• finally, we're looking forward to a fun and busy weekend; going to Mom & Dad's for the weekend, celebrate Austin's birthday, Paul's going hunting on Dad's land, he's going to teach the boys some archery, and the boys get to hang out and play on Saturday. Sunday, C-man is attempting the "go see it" at the fire-station, I'll be digging out pumpkins with my MIL and SIL....we're making decorations for our care-givers/teacher, and then we'll be wrapping it up by going out to dinner for Grandpa Danny's birthday.
• PHEW! The week sounds even crazier, but I'll spare details...I'll just blog about it!

Thanks a Bunch!

Just a shout out to the Burley Bunch and thanking them for the fun weekend. The kids didn't want to leave (and secretly, neither did I), but life needs to continue. A month ago, I called my sister for a Scrap-booking date and some serious catch-up time. I was needed a fill of my big sister time......and Jo I noticed my guage is showing low in my little sister time too!

Friday night, we scooted our way east in the dark..only it was 5:30! C-man kept on exclaiming, he couldn't believe he's eating and staying awake in the middle of the night! I kept repeating that it wasn't in the middle of the night, but it sure felt like it.

Friday night, we hung out with Rob and Paula, the kids loved playing with Jaydin and Rachael....C-man discovered Guitar Hero and talked his Uncle Rob into playing it with him...he was totally pumped! Miss-O followed Jaydin and Rachael around paying attention to every move and hanging on every word they said!

Saturday, we started our major scrapping day....I totaled 10 pages and was satisfied that Christmas of 2007 was finished and 2006 almost finished! Halloween 2007 was started on! Woo-hoo! Now the day was interrupted with much fun and play with the kids. Jaydin & Rachael, I truly enjoyed the improv mock trial that took place.....and with the interrogation prior! More video games to play, great game of Hide and Go-seek in which Miss-O felt obliged to do it all her self after we helped her a couple times, we had ourselves a blast!

Thanks a bunch Burley Bunch for having us in your home and entertaining us! We truly enjoyed every minute of it. At first, I felt bad that I forgot my camera to take pics.......but on the way home I thought about it and sometimes, just good memories are enough to have planted in our hearts....we don't need to record every waking moment of our lives....especially when we were just "being." (plus, one less scrap-book page I have to make, HA!.......no really, I do enjoy scrapping and archiving, it's the time that's hard to carve out of my life to do it!)

We had visitors!

Yesterday, my friend since 5th grade and her family were in town and stopped by for a visit. We enjoyed catching up with them and the kids loved playing with each other. We also contacted our college friend and they came along for an "Incredible" eating/playing experience.

The air guitar worked out in C-man's advantage, winning him 100 tickets!
Gabe picking up C-man!

Miss-O adored Natalie!

Kristi and Eric decked out in matching outfits! (even after an upset on Saturday)

Natalie struck it rich getting 500 tickets in one shot!

Leaf Fun!

Sunny skies and temperature near 70 degrees!

Daddy and the kids took advantage and had some leaf fun yesterday.

What's for Dinner, Lake Girls?

An idea was thrown out that we should get together and make a bunch of dinners to freeze. Michelle took on the task to orchestrate this event and last night we had a cooking party.

Before our event, Michelle collected our recipes for the night and made a recipe book. We gathered our ingredients for our meal x 8 households. (My meal was White Chili) Then we met at Amie's to cook and prepare meals for almost 4 hours! Okay, the last hour was mostly social.

Enjoy the pictures, even though they are a bit grainy....need to have the hubby fix the camera settings.

Our Hostess: Amie, making her dream spaghetti.
The keepers of the stove-top: Tanya and Donna, making turkey tetrazini and mac-n-cheese.

The gabby ones! Michelle and Sue, taking a break from making dijon chicken toss and cavatelli.

Hard at work; Angie making her chicken veggie casserole.

At the end of the night, we had a total of 7 meals to freeze for the fall!

It was a successful and super fun night and I hear there may be another one planned in the near future!

Super Star Student

I don't know who is more excited, C-man or Indy!

C-man is Super Star Student this week, this means he gets to share photos, toys, and pets to his fellow classmates. He also reads a book to his class. They interview him and write a book about him. He also is line-leader this week. He is super thrilled that this week is ALL about him!

With permission, we brought in Indy to share with his classmates. They loved him and he loved them. He couldn't contain his excitement. C-man shared interesting facts about his dog; he snores (OH YES HE DOES! and very loud snorer too!) he's losing his teeth, he's learning to hunt, he knows a few tricks like sit, stay, and leave-it. He has a ticklish spot that if you rub a certain part on his tummy, his leg won't quick tapping...........it was fun watching the kids.....the best was this little girl in his class says, "I just wasn't expecting a dog today!"

We are Mad Scientists this week!

Candy Lab

I was reading in my favorite magazine; "Family Fun" see http://www.familyfun.com/! They had an excellent idea of what to do with that load of candy your kids get from Halloween. They interviewed a family that does a candy lab. BRILLIANT! The kids and I selected 10 candies to observe.

1. We wrote down our observations of the candy in it's own appearance. (ie. circle, orange & purple, smells like orange and grape, hard.)
2. Then we decided to add water to the candy and immediately we observed changes. We wrote down the changes.
3. Within minutes, we noted more changes! Last night the kids reported every half hour the changes, it was fun seeing their excitement.
4. We've decided to observe for three days.

Some interesting observations so far....Kit Kat's float! The rest of the chocolates have sunk! M&M's lose their coating and the M's stay intact and float on the water...kinda gross! We're thinking about adding vinegar to candy OR microwaving the candy....so there may be more experiments in the future and maybe less dental cavities!

Where the Wild Things Are.....

Paul + Outdoors = Heaven......

This I didn't know about Paul, until he met my family. The men-folk of the family introduced hunting, fishing, and other outdoorsy things to him and he was hooked. Now he has dabbled in Deer hunting, duck hunting, pheasant hunting, turkey hunting, fishing & camping. He definitely likes to be where the wild things are......

These are pictures of his recent pheasant hunt and annual fishing trip.

My brother and his two dogs, and Indy's first time hunting.......wonder if he knew he was hanging out with his Mommy all day?
Paul's Big Catch

Rob waiting for the Big Catch.....

My Dad and Brother with their loot.

Couple of nice ones

update

This last week we learned a few things and here they are in the ever-so-popular bullet points~

• C-man may or may not have had the H1N1 flu, but we did our duty and kept him from school for three days, he was out with the symptoms for total of 5 days. Headache, Sore-throat, Cough, lo-grade fever. Usually the fever & cough came on in the am and night. We learned that if we treated his symptoms, he did well.


• DO NOT EVER, NEVER< use disinfectant wipes on the keyboard, The chemicals will erode the whatevers that is under the keys and then the keyboard will not work. When C-man was out, he wanted to play on the computer, I allowed him if he wore a mask, washed his hands before and after and then also wipe down the keyboard. BIG MISTAKE! Masking and washing hands is quite substantial, don't have to go OVERBOARD!
  
• When on-line access is non-functional, the phone works just the same! We almost had to reduce ourselves to writing letters and sending them in the mail....but didn't quite get there.....although, there's nothing wrong with that, it's great getting something friendly in the mail. Since we were isolated from society for a few days, we couldn't use our public library's computer.


• Buying a keyboard with a USB port is a nice substitute for a laptop keyboard, just cumbersome.


• Miss-O has been presenting with a yucky cough, stuffy head, sporadic lo-grade fever...no complaints of headache or sore-throat and is very annoyed if you ask her IF she has one or not! Again, treating the symptoms has maintained her. It's hard to treat a cough of a 3yr old, when there isn't any medication to give. What have we done? Rubbed vapo-rub on her chest and feet. Humidifier continuous in the primary room she is in, treat her stuffy head, & encourage lots of liquids. What we haven't tried is "Little Nose's" that's supposed to be good too.


• YAY, I'm done for awhile with the students, they were wonderful, respectful, intelligent, competent nursing students. Apparently, I had no great stress working with them this fall. I think the college gave me the cream of the crop, probably some conspiracy to hook me into their program!


• There really are good people in our neighborhood, it brought back many a memory trick-r-treating. The only thing I'm not used to down in the southern part of this state is expecting kids to have a joke or a trick! I just used to say "TRICK OR TREAT!" and I got candy. I explained to C-man, because I came from a small town USA, the people were too caught up in identifying who was under the mask, to ask for a joke or a trick.


• Indy did well with hunting his first time out with Daddy. He ran with the other dogs, tried to play with them, but he did age-appropriate behaviors. GO INDY!


• Last but not least, definitely take up the offer when your in-law's suggest the kids stay over-night on day-light savings time. Extra hour of sleep was indeed obtained. With kids, this isn't necessarily so!

Our little Beggars

Happy Halloween!

From our un-bearably cute bear and our batty Batman!

Friday night, we gathered with our neighbors and did some trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. (1st time in 5 years!) It started out rainy, windy, and cold....and ended up windy, and cold.....but we stuck it out.....after an hour out in the neighborhood, we decided to knock on Grandma & Grandpa's door.....They didn't even know who we were! We hung out and gave candy to other kids.....we loved this night!

Pumpkin Night

Wednesday Night, we finally had some time and health to carve pumpkins. The kids designed their faces on the pumpkins and then Dad took the knife to the pumpkins and this wonderful evolution of art began. C-man, was really into getting in the pumpkin and digging out the inards. Miss-O, on the other hand, didn't want to touch the slimey stuff. Paul is the fastest carver there is and he carved each pumpkin in 5 min. flat! (We teased him it was from his fish filleting abilities!)

Miss-O did build up enough courage to touch the inards of the pumpkin, but immediately didn't like the feel of it. Maybe next year! Please note her shirt! It was "backwards" day. She likes to pick out her own outfits and this particular day, she put her shirt and pants on backwards. Like her cousin Jake a few years ago, she declared the day "backwards" day. Sorry folks if you didn't get the fashion memo!

C-man, enjoying the ooey-gooey mess! We saved about 1.5 cups of seeds and roasted them for the first time. (thanks Mom, for searching for the recipe on-line for me....since we didn't have access for awhile, ya, we'll get to that later.)

After three photo shots, this is the best that turned out.....they really were giddy about doing pumpkins, although this pic depicts other emotions!

Sitting them on the front steps and watching them glow!

C-man also took out the "kaleidoscope" aka. telescope and looked at the moon. Then he came in and wrote a report about the moon. He brought it into class the next day, and he got to read it aloud to his classmates!