Everything's a Competition

This summer we have a house of 8 active high school boys. We made that choice last August before we knew we would be placed with girls. It's been fun, especially for me! The guys will come ask me for various household supplies and I get to defer them to Dan since they are kept in a locked closet in the bathroom. It's been a much better division of labor.

It's also been fun to find creative ways to determine who does various chores in the house. Once night Dan challenged the boys to a game of knock-out (aka lightening) to decide who had to clean up the snack. Out they went to practice their shots. About 20 minutes later I joined them to watch for a bit. It was fun to hear them cheering each other on; "Come on, Mr. you can get him out!" "Hurry!" "Mr. are you out already?"

The beauty of this is that once they all start playing, they will continue to play for 45 minutes or so and they end up tired and ready for bed!

Another time the competition was Tenzi but this time it was for the house chores.

The chores were all ranked from easiest to hardest and the 1st person to the the designated number received that chore. The competition was fierce as most of them wanted an easy chore. Then they willingly headed off to accomplish their chores.

We haven't gotten to eating competitions yet, and hopefully we won't ever get to those.

I Hate It When That Happens!

Just one piece and the border would be complete!

Time to hunt through all 55 million other pieces to find the 1...grrrr....

Snow Geese Sightings

Last year we had some noisy birds stop on their migration path. They sounded much like Canada geese but they didn't look anything like that type of goose. We later learned that they are snow geese. They are noisy, but very pretty. From a distance a large flock can resemble moving snow on the ground.

We had a couple different groups fly past our house and it was mesmerizing to watch them:

 

(The video might be sound only for some reason. You can hear the geese best after the siren passes.)

A few days later I was running an errand and saw another flock of snow geese on the ground enjoying a meal from the freshly turned earth.

It's been amazing to observe these animals the last couple years.

Something to Shoot For!

I didn't realize that...

...has so many locations:

Hmmmm...I wonder if our discount works at all the locations? And, how hard will I have to beg Dan to visit all of them and find out? Future break itineraries!

Diet Problems #1, 2, 3, & 4

These are my favorites. They are distributed by Hershey. They've been out for a couple weeks in several stores. We get discounts on them at Chocolate World. I'm in so much trouble!

An Imaginative Distraction

This was a stethoscope & magnifying glass for the 3-year-old girl who sat on my lap in church today.

Ag & Zoology Related

So the saga of the double yolks continues...

When I finished the dozen, 10 of the 12 were double yolks!

We live among corn fields:

The corn might not be quite elephant eye height but it does surpass Dan's eye:

Over the summer there was a orange bullfrog outside the student home. Well, since then we've seen two outside OUR HOUSE! The first one appeared at home on an night out for Dan. I wondered if maybe I'd have to kiss the toad to get my prince back:

 

 

 

 

Lately they've gotten a little bolder...the two frogs were guarding our door:

 

It's kinda cool to have them here but kinda creepy at the same time.

We've seen a hawk seen several times outside our house. It's remarkable to see it just resting on the wires looking for something to eat. One day we even saw a couple of them a few feet apart:

I won't post the pictures of the huge spiders we've seen so far; just know they aren't big, they are HUGE!!!!!

Agriculturally Speaking

I only cracked two eggs...

We're hoping that this means were in for a long stretch of good luck!

So Much to Say...

...no time to say it!

We're busy packing for our move across the US to Pennsylvania. As a result I'm having to prioritize and again blogging falls to the bottom of the list. Now if I were an octopus I'd be able to blog & pack at the same time, but then I'd be slimy, have to live in the ocean, and creep along...maybe that's not such a good idea after all.

Here's what I will have to catch up on sometime in the coming weeks:

• Uncle Harold's Funeral
• Trip to PA-O'Hare layover
• Updo
• New Job interview process
• Packing
• On the road again
• Next adventures in our new home & new job
• Anything else that comes to mind

Best guess is it will be a couple weeks before the time can be found. I will shoot for find time sooner, rather than later.

Of All the Things That Fade with Age

Dan loves to brag about having a great memory. After his typical comment comparing his mind to a steel trap we had the following conversation last night:

D: "My mind is like a steel trap."

J: "Uh huh"

D: "Did I take my pills?...I know  got them out but don't remember if I took them or not."

J: "How's that steel trap working for your now?"

 I'm still laughing about this conversation and the timing of his questions. How he keeps me entertained.

Here We Go Again!

Day # 3 with the water off! Thankfully, we haven't had any other notices of water going off since the third one....Maybe the third time really is the charm.

Spring & Easter

While strolling through a store we'd not been in before, I kept smelling and hearing chirping. Eventually we discovered the source:

They had two big water troughs with chicks for sale. It was fun to watch them interact, sleep and climb on top of each other. We opted to leave them all at the store even though we found them fairly cute. If you are interested, I'm sure they are a better deal now that Easter is over.

For Christmas, Amanda gave me cute homemade serving plates/dishes for a couple holidays. I "patiently" waited for Easter to arrive so I could pull this one out and fill it with goodies:

It was a fun addition to the few other decorations I have.

A while ago, I saw this picture and the tutorial and thought, that looks easy enough:

Originally found here



 

I blew up balloons, purchased some yarn, and got the other supplies to make these. I thought I would start with three of them to figure it out first and see if I needed to do any adjustments. Two were with yarn and one with embroidery floss. I made sure to let them dry for a couple days so that I wouldn't have that problem, however, when I popped the balloons something didn't seem to work quite right:

 

They just shrivelled up and lost their egg shape.

 

 

At least I had one work...but those aren't very good odds...and they look nothing like the tutorial. Whoops. Maybe next year I'll try again but this time I suppose I'd better do it exactly how they suggest rather than using what I have and following the suggestions of others.

 

 

"I Had to Laugh..."

"I had to laugh" is a phrase my dad frequently uses to start a story so I thought I'd borrow it. :)

A few weeks ago I was in a thrift store. I can't remember exactly what I was shopping for but on this particular day I decided to stop in and browse. As I strolled through the aisles, I found myself in the book section. The order of these books seems somewhat appropriate:

Yes, sometimes the Idiot's Guide to Dating does need to include The Idiot's Guide to Organizing your Life.  As a result, you might even change your Body for Life, and then hopefully you Flourish regardless of the relationship. An employee must have been bored while shelving books.

The end of February Dan's beloved Uncle Harold passed away (more details on that in another post). On our way back from the funeral, we made a pit stop and this sign had me giggling out loud each time I looked at it:

A very cleaver "marketing" icon. I think I need to find (or recreate) this to post in a guest bathroom followed with the comment, "Relax, you made it just in time." Ha ha ha ha...

Hoping The Dust Settles Quickly

This was left on our door Friday:

It was our 2nd business day in a row without water. Luckily we were warned and able to prepare and make sure we had water enough to last us until it came back on. Another blessing is that the water didn't go off right at 9:00 and came on before 1:30 as we were warned.

The reason the water's been sporadic relates to this image right outside our complex:

The city is thrilled to announce the hard work of our tax dollars to redo some piping under the road. This particular day we had a flagger right outside our driveway and we couldn't go in our out without their ok. The project is supposed to be finished sometime this summer...it's going to be a long  and inconvenient spring and summer...

When the Cat's Away...

I made myself a 1/2 batch of caramel popcorn one night while Dan was at work:

I did leave some for him to enjoy when he got home, though I have to admit that wasn't my initial plan.

70s Revisited

I'm growing out my hair and as such I haven't had it trimmed since December. As a result, my bangs are diving me nuts! One morning I had the idea to curl them back with the rest of my hair rather than under. It got them out of my eyes much better, however, I can't quite decided if it is a bit too retro for me...

I kinda felt like I'd finally achieved the famed Farrah Fawcett hairstyle:

 

I suppose that's an improvement since for awhile I thought I had David Cassidy hair:

 

 

Can't wait until my hair is more up-to-date!

 

"Snow on Snow, Snow on Snow"

This is my attempt at capturing the beauty of the snowfall a couple weeks ago:

The next morning I was going to be sure to capture the trees and bushes but by the time I was ready to take pictures (after a long phone interview and shoveling a couple of neighbor's driveways) it was all melted from the trees. These will have to do, but they don't really do it justice...

While You're At It, Houston...

We had only a few rows out at the start of the season. By the time we took it down, this is what it looked like: 

 

Bless his heart, Dan took all the light strands off our formerly pre-lit tree. Guess we'll be investing in lights to go on the tree this year...

(Have almost the same issue with one of my 4' trees I keep outside, all the lights are gone on one of those. Just not our year for pre-lit trees.)

Houston...I think we have a problem...

This is how our washing machine has looked for the last couple days.

I realized, after trying to spin a load three times, that the drum wasn't spinning at all...kind of a problem...So we took the cover off (thank you YouTube for the video instructions) to see if we could see anything stuck and blocking the drum. No luck and the end of our fix-it ability. A call to a friend from church and we still don't have it fixed (beyond his skill set too).

Thankfully I just received a call from the place we purchased the washer & dryer and they are on their way to work their magic--they predict it's the coupler or clutch that needs to be replaced--they guarantee they will fix any repair for $50. YAY! I have at least four loads of laundry waiting to be washed, including the wet batch I was washing when I discovered the problem.

An Apple Just Discovered

I was going through some pre-digital pictures for another project. It was so fun to have so many great memories run through my mind as I looked at the pictures from years-gone-by (1987-2002).

When I saw this picture of me from 1996...

It reminded me of these pictures just a few years before of Amanda & Sid (about 1993, it's so strange to think we could have crossed paths before we actually did)...

Years before we knew about the pictures or each other and yet there seems to be an ever so slight familial similarity. Who knew???