The Princess and Alex - Oh the things they say!

Can you believe it? The weather people are prediciting another storm coming with rain/ice. We finally got power back yesterday (Mon) after being without it since Sat...I hate this. We have lots of small and some big tree branches down over the entire yard. It is a mess.

The princess was a riot - she was furious on Sunday and said - why give that Groundhog a day - if he is going to mess things up??We all laughed so hard...
Alex told Kay that he had to go potty bad last night on their way to pick up their van from the shop. So she is ready to pull into a convenience store to run him in, when he says - I don't have to go anymore Mom. She said - why don't you have to go (thinking he wet his pants)? and he offered that he burped and was fine now! Then he and Grampy were going to go run some errands before going back to my parents house - Grampy told him they were going "tom-catting". Alex was so excited, when his brothers asked what he & Grampy were going to do - he said they were giong to look for wampus cats! Then he asked Grampy what a wampus cat was??? Dad told him to ask Uncle Pat - he knew more about them!

I am tired of being cold. I don't feel good today and just want to be warm.

Dear Santa...

Well...needless to say, the princess has been bouncing around with excitement the past 2 weeks, waiting for Santa! We went to Grandpa's for Christmas Eve and the "real" Santa (according to her highness) stopped in to sing carols and chat with the kids and hand out some small packages.
She LOVED it! She has totally thrown herself into the holiday, she hung the majority of the ornaments on our big tree and helped wrap a big share of our gifts. Pat promoted her to management in the holiday family program, she is VP of Gift Giving and Director of Wrapping!
My sister offered to give her a better promotion if she came to her house and help - to President of Cleaning! (The princess got the giggles about her options!)

The "Prince" is really growing up. He has a car now...I am not ready for this one! It's older, but not bad for a first car! A little rust here and there...a few paint chips, but better than walking in the cold weather!

So far, our holiday gatherings have been fun, however a few family members had been bit by an intestinal flu bug and then poor Grandma got sick after Christmas day...hopefully no one else gets the flu bug!

We are looking forward to the bowl games and cheering on our favorite team!
Happy New Year everyone!

Fall in the countryside

What a gorgeous weekend, the temperatures were perfect, the leaves are changing colors and starting to fall to the ground. The princess and I had a fun girls night out on Friday while Pat and the prince went to the high school football game. "We" won. Saturday the prince and I went to see our college football team play, it was Homecoming. It was a great game, "we" won! Pat volunteers on the sidelines, it is his 6th year. He loves the sport and being a part of the whole group.
Sunday afternoon the princess played soccer and then in the evening we went to my aunt and uncle's house for a bonfire-weiner roast and hayrack ride. It was such a nice night for it. The kids all wanted to tell & hear scary stories, so I helped out! The bonfire felt nice and smelled so good. Larry drove the tractor pulling their new - freshly painted - hayrack. The clouds covered over the moon some, made it perfect for the stories.
The combines are rolling - lots of soybeans are already picked, corn is just around the corner.
The box elder bugs and asian beetles (look like orange ladybugs) are trying to get inside as it gets colder out. I hate the bugs.
Pat & B have been working on his room faithfully. It is shaping up and starting to look so nice. He painted the walls a color like dark tan-khaki. He has sanded the hard wood floors and is testing stain to decide which one he wants. I am hoping it is ready for him to move back into by Halloween.
It is supposed to have a light snow Wed night here, then warming back up.
Have a good night. Nice to read you again Jill!

Family Golf Outing

What a weekend. We had family in town for our annual family golf outing on Saturday. The weather wasn't too bad. A little rain, but otherwise decent temperatures. Everyone had a good time and Debbie did an awesome job setting it all up. Normally it is just the siblings and cousins that play, no kids, however this year they were short a foursome/1 tee time. So the prince and his cousin got to play (next generation) along with a friend. They played well and were very good at following the course rules, so they may get to play next year too - which he is excited about.

The Princess had her 1st soccer game of the fall season today, gorgeous weather.
Kay came to watch it with me, we had a fun time. The twins gave her some "helpful hints" from the sidelines - it was a riot! (acutally it was good advice- just funny how they phrased it!)

Shawn took the nephews - all 3 older boys (except Alex) to play 9 holes of golf today. The twins really loved it, since they were too young and didn't get to play yesterday. Good time for them. When they got back we went out to supper (I know "dinner"...but this is the midwest!).
Great food, was fun spending time chatting with him.

Shawn lost his job a few weeks ago. He has been with the company since college graduation. They were changing directions, downsizing, etc. The good part was he has a good severence package. Now he just has to decide what he wants to do for the next part of his life! So he is doing some soul searching and deep thinking about what he wants to do next. The "good" part of it all - is that we get to see him more often now!

Pat's dad had the rest of his teeth pulled Friday and was not feeling too good later that day still. Personally I think he should switch dentists - he was bruised on his chin and his jaw felt misaligned from pounding on it. But - it is over now and they are all out. He said the dentist held a chisel while he had the hygentist use a hammer to hit it - to break the tooth up!? Sounds barbaric to me! Plus he said he told the dentist his left arm was numb to his fingers and his thumb felt like an ear of corn. He was in the chair for over 2 hours. Oh well...over and done.
Stories like this are why I have such problems going to the dentist!

Have a good night.

Ms Fabulous

Well - the princess came home after her first day this year and when we asked how her day was, how her teacher was - she replied: "She was FABULOUS! Her dress was so cool - it had rubies and other sparkling things on it!" I sent the teacher the reflection of the first day, thinking she would get a smile out of it, which she did. She thinks it was a little overstated though! I assured her it was sincere and this little one truly believed her teacher was awesome and how happy we were - to have her enjoy her teacher this much. On another note, my friend Jaquel had a baby girl last week. Named her Avalahna. I can't wait to see pictures of her.

School is here

Took B. to get his haircut tonight. High school starts in 2 days. I am feeling so very old! Took him to the outlet mall on Sunday to get some new shoes. Found 2 pairs of his size 15s on sale! Happy about that. Got some shorts for him also at Old Navy and some shirts at Reebok & Nike stores. I took the princess shopping a couple of weeks ago for some school clothes. She is growing by leaps and bounds also. She got to go to her classroom tonight and put away her supplies and see her teacher. She loved that. She got to keep the same teacher she had last year - the teacher moved up a grade, as she learned sign language for a child in their room last year. They moved the princess and 3 other girls up with the one child, as they liked playing together and had learned/retained a lot of signs. This is great - the princess will stay learning sign language, which will be great.
B decided to skip football this fall, after the arm break a year ago, he doesn't feel the need to do that again! Plus he loves basketball too much to risk missing a season due to an injury.
Tonya had an ultrasound Friday. The baby is waving it's hand beside the head! We don't know the sex of it yet - so we all get to be surprised in December!
Grandma wasn't sleeping well this week, according to my mom. But I believe it got better over the wknd.
Crops look good around here. We have had some nice rains, compared to some areas.
We took a short vacation with Kay & family, went to the zoo, was a good time. Our hotel was very nice, we both had suites with a living room/kitchen area off of the bedrooms. Kay & I enjoyed it - when the kids and husbands went to sleep, we both had a place to relax and read in peace! We stayed 2 nights there, then went to the Wasserbahn. The kids all enjoyed that. Kay & I even did a water slide...I did the fast one and she did the gentle one - but it was fun. The princess giggled so hard - she ran to get all of the boys - to tell them what we were doing! (Thank Goodness there are no photos of that!) Alex would jump in to the pool - in my arms yelling Cowbunga, Missybunga, Mommybunga or Alexbunga! He made us laugh. Pat would swing him out by his arms and drop him into to me. He'd just laugh...
Have a good night.

What a week...the fair is done for another year

Well, it has been a LONG week and yet short.
It started last Friday. Shawn & girls and Debbie, Neil, Colin all came home for the parade, then we (Pat & I) got their kids from Sunday through Tues! The prince got his projects judged before the parade (good parade by the way!). He made a wooden cupboard for above the toilet (got red - needed 3rd coat of varnish), he had 6 photos - got 4 blues and 2 reds. The reds were due to the film developement, but still counted against him. They were pictures from July 4th, Brianna with sparklers. We thought the lines on the house siding was probably a reflection from all of the kdis and they had several kinds of sparklers going that were green smoke, etc. Oh well.
On Monday afternoon, we took the kids to the fair. I made a scavenger hunt for them and we divided them into 2 teams, Shawn took T, M, C and I took N, B and A. They had to find someone with a cowboy hat, farmer hat with seed corn patch on it, bib overalls, 2-3 breeds of every animal at fair (had to change this to colors - smaller kids couldn't read!), a sewing project, a photo of a dog, a photo of a pig or cow, the prince's items, a 4H member that could recite the pledge to them (we found someone we knew/no stranger danger stuff!), a booth giving out ruler, pencil, bag, a brand of tractor for sale, etc. It kept them busy and we got to see all of the fair! Eventually we met up with Pat & Grampy. We watched the fair queen contest next. The youngest kids fell asleep at that point! We dropped Colin off to Sherry's on Tuesday afternoon, for her turn. We hosted in M. Hall on Wed evening. Then Thurs evening we watched fireworks and got rained on while chatting with Larry and Cheryl - near - guess - the rabbit barn! Hardly any rabbits this year. Several rows empty.
The princess wants to join Clover Kids next year - has projects all planned out in her mind! It has been horribly hot here all week. Today was heat index of 110. Pat & Prince worked on his bedroom, got it ready to start re-construction! I talked with Gary at the fair. We discussing the price of gas/oil/diesel going up and relating it to how much he has to pay for farming, drying and hauling his grain. He also had to pay someone else to have his crop planted & sprayed this year due to his health this spring. He was pretty distressed about it obviously. We have cut out unnecessary trips since the price of gas has gone up. In fact, we skipped our usual big summer vacation and just went to Chicago.
On a lighter note, the prince is taking drivers ed and is almost done - doing great! He drove home last night from Quad Cities and did great. It really is making me feel old though! Oh well... Plus it was interesting watching teenage girls at the fair watch him and try to get his attention!
Kay agreed to take the puppy! They are coming tomorrow to get her.
The kids need a dog and to learn responsibility.
Good night!
PS- anyone heard from Jill lately?