Back to school ’09

September 8th, 2009

Today was the first day of school for Colleen and Christopher. They both said it went great. Colleen has been “so excited” for school to start for the past week, and she came home saying how great it was today. She was most impressed that you can get pizza EVERY day in the cafeteria and that there is a separate sub sandwich station. Ahhh, the perks of the new school she is attending. Christopher wasn’t quite as thrilled but he said it went well. He did say that he got confused when the teacher asked everyone who had been to the “thinking chair” before and he raised his hand (even though he has never been there before). I’m just glad he remembered to get off of the bus this year on the first day at our stop and that he didn’t forget his backpack again (although somehow he lost the card that you wear around your neck saying which bus you’re supposed to get on…hopefully that turns up tomorrow).

A note got sent home with Christopher saying there is a kid in his class with extreme peanut and other nut allergies. It said not to bring anything nut related and that if your child eats anything with nuts for breakfast at home that they have to wash really well before coming to school. It then said a list of approved snacks could be found on the back of that piece of paper. I found it funny that the back of the page was blank – given the tone of the letter that may have been intentional 😉

We went to the state fair twice again this year. Kristin, Tom, and Big A were up last weekend from KCMO. We had a great time and helped set the all time state fair attendance record – something like 1.8 million people attended this year. It was cold last weekend. How cold was it? Cold enough to get Beth to dress up like this!

We also went to the Mall of America with K & T and of course had to stop and visit Spongebob and Patrick.

How come no one has told us not to buy a pool? Even the sane people that I’ve asked haven’t said we’re crazy. I’m struggling with needing money some day verus spending now while I can still enjoy it. There’s plenty of time to save for college and weddings and who knows what else later on, right??? Give me your opinion – save it or spend it?

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Up North 2009

August 31st, 2009

We had another great trip up north. Our 2nd such trip. Grand Marais again. But with cheaper lodging. This hotel gave us more of a feel as to what cramming everyone in a tent would be like. Maybe next year. Lots of rock throwing and hiking and rock throwing and snacking and rock throwing and donut eating and rock throwing – we threw rocks until our arms ached. That’s all everyone does. And somehow there is always an endless supply of rocks to throw – magic. I had a few 10…15…20+ skippers…it’s a beautiful sight. I was craving the chowder at the Angry Trout Cafe in Grand Marais. Here we are with a smoked fish platter – Colleen couldn’t wait to dig in.

This year we drove 30+ minutes up the Gunflint Trial. Nothing but trees, trees, and trees for miles and miles, and then you run into this place in the middle of nowhere that people flock to for their milk shakes. Their sign says they serve 30 people/per day for 10 months out of the year and then in July & August they serve 500 people a day – we were 5 of the 500 that day, and tried their maple syrup malt – yummy. Christopher with the camera somewhere on our first venture into the BWCWA (Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness Area)…

Here’s that personality shining through.

We got to be a bit more adventurous this year. This is where you climb to peak down into the Devil’s Kettle.

Stacking rocks out back of Nanny-nanny-boo-boo’s lodge (Naniboujou)…

Any surprises as to who got the wettest?

Swinging at Naniboujou…somehow the kids managed to have fun without a TV blaring…amazing.

Here’s Megan, walking up a beach that has rocks as far as the eye can see…and can you see how packed her shirt is? It’s filled with tons of rocks…she was worried she wouldn’t be able to find any.

Remember this picture from last year? Looks the same to me.

By the raging river. I couldn’t help but wonder how many people end up getting whooshed down the river…seems so easy to do.

On the way home we hit Gooseberry Falls. Somehow the water wasn’t near as deep when they walked out to that big rock.

Our hotel served donuts straight from the World’s Best Donuts shop…one of the few perks there 🙂

Last night was a promotion at Famous Dave’s bar-b-que. If your name is Dave you get a free meal. I called and they said this was valid on take-out with no other purchase necessary. So of course I took advantage of that. I got there and the place was nuts. Guys named Dave standing everywhere. They would call out an order for “Dave” and it got to be fun. I ended up taking Dave Paulson’s order which thankfully was very close to mine. What a great promo – thanks Famous Dave.

Went to the state fair yesterday – got our fill of cheese curds, cookies, milk shakes, etc. Kristin and family came up from KCMO for the weekend. It was a fun time. We ran the Milk Run together which we’ve done off and on for the past 4 or 5 years maybe. We didn’t set any records, but…I also just got my results from a 5k a few weeks ago – finished in under 8 minutes miles for the first time. On my pseudo bucket list I have an item to finish in the top 3 in my age group in a 5K…I just need to find a new 5K that no one knows about, huh? Anybody else have a bucket list? Show me yours and I’ll show you mine 🙂

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Sad week

August 17th, 2009

If you’re looking to get cheered up then you’re at the wrong spot.

#1. A plane crashed in Eden Prairie. It burst into flames on impact and killed both passengers (53 year old man and a 29 year old woman). This is a rare event to happen so close to home. I was working and didn’t respond to this incident.

#2. I found out the next day that the 29 year old woman who was killed was the wife of a co-worker. Although I had never met her, I work with her husband Gene on a weekly basis. I attended her funeral yesterday. I was proud to see over 20 other co-workers – and this was the longest processional I’ve ever been a part of. Given the circumstances, everything about the funeral and burial was beautiful. It was a Jewish service and I really liked the way they approached life and death. For instance, at the burial, we were all asked to help bury Irene (Rivka), and although it was work, it wasn’t to be rushed, so we were to use the back side of the shovel to lift 2-3 scoops of dirt each to put on the coffin. She had recently competed in a cross-country all-female airplane race and they had to write facts about themselves. They read all of her facts at the funeral – it was touching – especially #8 “I do not like time. It always goes too fast.”

#3. Colleen and Christopher have been coughing for just a week. That was their only symptom. Nothing else. Just a dry cough. So we brought them into the doctor this past Saturday…they both have pneumonia. We were shocked. I stayed home with Colleen today as the antibiotics seemed to make her worse, or she knew at this point she had a sympathy card to play that was guaranteed to work.

#4. My dad has turned into a tropical storm.

#5. We thought a mop ate our dog but then we found her again.

#6. Megan may have chickenpox. It’s the strangest thing – there are dots everywhere.

#7. Colleen’s ego can no longer fit in her bedroom so we need to build an addition. Colleen had her picture in the newspaper twice for safety camp (including once on the front page).

#8. We haven’t had time to pack yet for our upcoming weekend up north (Grand Marais). I can almost taste Sven and Ole’s “Uffda zah” pizza.

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Our little baby is cuatro

August 10th, 2009

This summer is still going by crazy fast. How can it be so long between posts?!?!? Busy times. Last Saturday one of my co-workers had an open house. He’s the one on my links with the house he built last year that is as green as green can be (solar panels, geothermal heating, steel roof, let’s his yard go wild, etc). His house is almost an hour away so we made a day trip out of it. We started by following the Mississippi south to Wabasha – home of the National Eagle Center. They have several live eagles that you can get right up to and more facts about eagles than your brain can store in one sitting. Glad we saw it but I’m even more glad we never planned a trip to Wabasha just to see this center.

After that we hit Red Wing’s River City Days (a small town fair and art festival). We’d never been to Red Wing before – it seemed like a nice place to drive through 🙂 After that we hit Paul’s house which was way cool to see. He has a beautiful house and it’s great to see people take the initiative to protect the environment. As we left his house, driving down a gravel road, we saw a red fox sitting by the road before it slipped into a corn field. And then on Sunday Beth’s company had their picnic at the Minnesota Zoo. Check out the tongue on this beast – the zoo keeper better start brushing that tongue! Nasty. Megan was the only adventurous one to help with the feeding. It was a beautiful day and it was nice to finally meet Beth’s co-workers.

I have a box of old computer paper – you know, the kind with the holes going down both sides that you have to tear off, and all the sheets are also all connected so you have to tear them apart. So…I told Colleen this was her new drawing paper (actually I wrote a note on the top sheet letting her know that). And she wrote me back that day saying “no”. So I wrote back “why not?” and she wrote back “it takes a lot more time to get a piece and it’s not even white”. I laughed because it looked white to me until she got a piece of our new printer paper and put them side-by-side and she’s right – twenty years in a box, traveling from New Hampshire, to Purdue, to Chicago, to Minnesota has somehow turned it to a shade of something that isn’t quite white anymore. We agreed that as long as I tear the paper then she’ll use it…deal. I’m really trying to go through stuff that’s been just laying around forever…wish me luck!

Megan has taken over the role of being my biggest helper. She will spend (what feels like) hours helping me in the yard…picking things up and doing exactly what I’m doing…she is prone to spells of non-stop energy, so this if fun for both of us.

I heard something picking at my window screen the other day…glad it wasn’t a squirrel or chipmonk…

A few weeks ago when Colleen and Christopher were with Beth’s parents in St. Louis, one afternoon Beth and I went out on the town with the credit card…we bought a new oven (5 years of not knowing if 350 = 350 or 500 finally got to us), another set of bunk beds and mattresses. The idea was to get the kids to start sleeping in different rooms…oh well, maybe that will happen in a few years…(I took this picture in the dark – and captured the animals moving about)…

Guess who turned four???

Here’s what’s on Megan’s mind this year on her birthday…

My favorite food is…mommy’s macaroni and cheese

When I grow up I want to be a…firefighter (she tells Beth this all the time too – that’s my girl!)

My favorite restaurant is…Culvers

My favorite toy is…my baby dolls (all of them)

My favorite color is…blue and purple

My favorite song is…I’ve been workin’ on the railroad. This is her favorite because it is the longest song that she knows and that means mommy or daddy will stay in her room longer at night singing it to her. Stinker.

My favorite holiday is…Christmas, Easter, and 4th of July

My favorite season is…winter (because I “can go whee down the hill”)

My absolute favorite thing to do in the world is…play baby dolls

If I could do anything tomorrow I would…eat birthday cake

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Roadtrippin’

July 26th, 2009

<><><> Warning – long post – lots of pics <><><>

Whew – busy week packed full of good times. It’s hard to leave for a week when the yard and garden are showing off and growing like crazy. It’s been a great year for both flowers (plus the new path I’m building this year) and veggies…

First stop on the roadtrip was Chicago to get some quick pizza at Giordano’s for lunch. I called ahead as we left Wisconsin since stuffed pizza takes 45 minutes to bake. It was awesome as always (spinach, mushroom and sausage – yah)! Then we were off to Rochester, In. Grandma T was doing great – we talked a lot, ran over to the dam, got some pizza and saw many other Thompson’s and a couple of Biggs’. It’s always good to see everyone but there’s just never enough time to stay long enough.

We left Rochester early the next day and zipped to Lafayette. We made a few stops on campus…the fountain…the Union…and t-shirts for me…and then saw Wendy and her kids (and a few of her sister’s kids). Again, the trip was great but WAY too quick…

From Purdue we headed to the Great Wolf Lodge in Cincinnati for the Percy family reunion. We stayed there for 3 nights and apparently didn’t take any pictures (lucky for you). One day we went to King’s Island which was right next door to “the lodge” (so close that we could walk there). It was kind of a chilly day which meant that we could ride the river raft ride as much as we wanted to – we didn’t even have to get off of it, we could just keep looping. This was the best river raft ride I’ve been on – and typically the line can be over an hour…so we started and ended our day riding this…and walked around with soggy britches in between…

We also went to the Hofbrauhaus in Newport, Kentucky. It was a German restaurant where you were strongly encouraged to dance on the benches (but not the tables – we watched a group get thrown out for dancing on the table…seems like a fine line to cross). It was fun but the food convinced me that I never want to travel to Germany. Not my cup of Kartoffelpfannkuchen. My stomach ached the entire next day.

From Cincinnati we drove to St. Louis were we stayed for two nights before coming back to Minnesota (with just Megan). While in St. Louis we went to the coolest place downtown called the City Museum. Their tag line is “where the imagination runs wild” – this place was out of control. So many places you go to these days go overboard in terms of safety and not letting kids explore and play…this place was the exact opposite. I left there bleeding and bruised in several spots (seriously) – and I couldn’t have been happier. You could climb, crawl, hang, slide, you name it – EVERYWHERE in this place – under the floor, in the walls, overhead, behind the exhibits, indoors, outdoors, and they built this place with any material they could find – which was largely cement and metal (and of course no foam or anything to protect sharp edges, etc). When is the last time you slid down a cement slide? Or a slide made of rebar? This place is impossible to describe and words wouldn’t do it justice…so here are a bunch of pictures. In the outdoor pictures just look for Christopher in the green shirt. I definitely recommend this place to anyone visiting St. Louis – your kids will LOVE it!

The sign above this slide just said to keep your arms raised in the air…because if your fingers got caught while sliding down a slide made or rollers…well…let’s not think about that…

If your child got trapped or hurt in many of these places there is no way you could even get them…I was in some spots where I seriously had to go through spaces one arm at a time or I wouldn’t fit. Fun fact, on Friday nights they let the alcohol flow and open this place up to the college kids…so cool.

And a train to ride…kids can climb underneath the center area where you see the red bars in the back…

Cousin Matthew way up top…

Christopher underneath the walkway…

This is a 7-story slide that spirals the entire way down. This building used to be a shoe factory and this slide was used to slide shoes from the top floor to the bottom of the buildling…and we slid down the actual slides from way back when.

And…another highlight of the trip…Megan turned 4!!! Our little baby is 4 years old – hard to believe, huh?

The laundry chute never gets old. Here is Megan dropping her baby doll down to the basement. Grandma’s only rule (learned by experience) is “no spitting”. Yuck. This time the kids would send one kid to the basement armed with a mop. They would hold that up to block the chute at which point the kid up top would jam it full of stuff. Then another kid in the basement would put a plastic tub over their head and would proceed to have an avalanche of junk pour onto them. Oh, to be a kid again.

Colleen and Christopher stayed in St. Louis with Beth’s parents for a few days. Here’s Megan entertaining herself outside with all of her baby dolls. She still LOVES those dolls. She would take them one by one and hook them up to the dog’s chain outside and take them each for a walk…hee hee…

Ok, enough for now.

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Busy busy busy

July 12th, 2009

Man is life crazy. Home life has something going on all the time and work is getting busier and busier. So much for the down economy and slow business. Happy July! Leave for Cin-cin (via Chi-town, Rochester & Lafayette) this week for the Percy family reunion. We’ll come back through St. Louey, and get home next week with only one child. The other two will be returned to us with postage due a few days later by Beth’s p’s.

We hit the Arborbitietum (it comes out different every time Megan says it) today. The theme is “water” this year. As compared to past years the kids think their theme this year should be “lame” or “boring” or “where’d the fun stuff go?” – I must say I agree with the kids.

Can you find Colleen and Megan in the maze? Christopher missed out on all the fun because he was experiencing what Love and Logic would call a “learning opportunity” – temper, temper, temper 🙂 He gets grumpy just like his daddy does when it gets hot outside.

Last week Colleen got a brand new bike and Megan rode a bike with training wheels for the first time. Just in time for the 4th of July kiddie parade!

Every 4th of July I work at the fire station. If there is a call I would be the first to respond, but since the fireworks are at a park right across the street then Beth and the kids typically come up and hang out and eat dinner and watch the show. This year I had an idea to charge $ for people to ride up in our ladder bucket…other people acted on this idea and we ended up raising $400 in just a few hours (more money to donate to the Relay for Life). People were thrilled to get a chance to go up to 90′ in the air on the ladder extending from our fire truck. We even did a silent auction for someone to watch the fire works show in the bucket. They said they could count 21 different fire works shows going off at the same time while looking all around. How cool is that!

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Quack quack

June 29th, 2009

Congratulations are in order! I didn’t even realize we were expecting but suddenly we have 7 or 8 new mouths to feed. Momma duck hid another nest from me, right behind the pond…and this time was successful! I went out to the pond to take a picture of the water lily that was opening and I was surprised to see a bunch of little duckies floating around. Made my day.

Here they are: hack, yack, smack, snack (I hope he doesn’t live up to his name), thumbtack, 8-track, paddy-whack, and tic-tac.

Randomness…

Megan went around the yard tonight and kissed all the opened day lilies good-bye after I told her they each only stay open for a day.

We had a very successful first car wash to raise money for cancer. I helped organize it and must admit I was skeptical at first that we could pull it off. We ended up raising over $2000 – and it was a very cloudy day. Next year there’s no stopping us! Thank you to those that have pledged me!!! And for everyone else there’s still time – click here: Dave’s Relay for Life link. Our sign at the car wash that was 100′ in the air attached to our ladder got people’s attention – who needs high school girls in bikinis on every corner???

Beth and the kids had a good trip to St. Louis. They were down and back in under 3-days (whew!). They saw cousin Ava in the play Annie at the Muny. Here the kids are on stage before the show. Quite an impressive place.

Our chief posted a recent “save” on his fire blog – credit goes to a few guys from my station who performed CPR for an hour and shocked this guy 6 or 7 times. Gives me chills just knowing that when they first got back to the station they weren’t feeling like this was going to have a happy ending. This is why we do it: A Stunning Result

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Happy Father’s Day

June 21st, 2009

We had a nice relaxing weekend…I took the kids to two soccer games yesterday (and watched Colleen score the only goal in a 1-0 game)…camp fire last night (we roasted hot dogs and s’mores)…made a vat of sangria (yummy)…breakfast in bed today…disc golfing with the whole family…frozen custard…everything was perfect.

Megan helped me cook lunch a few days ago. We were getting lunch ready for Colleen and Christopher so we decided to take 3 pieces of pasta and make a bowl of yuck and tell them that’s what we were serving. Megan helped me pull bizarre items from the ‘fridge…when we were done we had 3 pieces of pasta covered in ketchup, mustard, chocolate sauce, wheat germ, lemon juice, and parmesan cheese. Of course Colleen and Christopher wouldn’t go near that and knew we were teasing them…but guess who then took the bowl back to the table…ate all of it…and asked for more!?!?!?!?

Beth heard her cell phone ringing from her cube last week while she was in her boss’s office but she said she didn’t need to get it. It stopped ringing but then rang again a minute later so she said with three kids in separate spots in day care that she should get it because it could be something urgent. So…she left her boss’s office, ran to her desk, answered the phone, and a girl screamed at her “quit f*ing texting me” and hung up. Kids these days 🙂

Here’s Christopher wrestling with his new Webkinz…

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Gooooooaaaaaaaaalllllllllllll

June 14th, 2009

Warning – here comes a whole bunch of randomness…

I’m bringing the kids luck at their soccer games. I got to watch them both score goals in the past week. Colleen is a scoring machine but Christopher on the other hand is our staunch defenseman. I was the substitute coach for his team last week so it was even cooler that he scored under my watch. Soccer hasn’t quite clicked for him. He looks at it as social time where he can catch up on all that’s happening with his buddies on the other teams. He’s quite the chatterbox out there!

Beth’s parents were up again all last week – they are a huge help with everything, especially since school let out for the summer on Tuesday. It seems like every night we keep busy doing something these days too.

I ordered my “complaint free world” bracelets today…wish me luck. Google it.

The kids made Indian headbands on their own last week. I then asked them to make their best Indian face for the photo. I don’t think any of them had a clue what that meant, probably because we aren’t allowed to say “Indian” any more in school. Criss cross applesauce faces???

This week is sports life church camp for the kids. This will also be their first week at the YMCA for the summer. Colleen goes to a water park tomorrow and Christopher goes Thursday I think.

I’m busy helping organize a car wash in a few weeks for the fire department so that we can raise money for Relay for Life (cancer). I’ll be at Beth’s family reunion for the actual Relay for Life this year (I’m very bummed about that but the family reunion will be fun too). I don’t ask for money very often on this blog but if there is one event that you want to support me on this year then you should pick the Relay for Life. No pressure (ok, a little pressure) – you should be able to find my name at one of these links on the Eden Prairie Fire team (the first link should work but if it doesn’t you can find my name on the 2nd link):

http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFLFY09MW?px=7304795&pg=personal&fr_id=16133

http://relayforlife.edenprairiefire.org/default.aspx

See…the fishies do survive the winter. The pond is really coming to life – all of the plants in it survived the winter which is way cool. Hopefully the water lilies (with their flowers) will come back in full force this year – the flowers are awesome to see. We saw an artist a few years ago at the Uptown Art Fair that I thought was really cool. He painted and cut metal shapes (copper I think) but the art I really liked was looking down on a pond just like this. I don’t know where we’d put it but here’s my hint to Beth (hee hee) – Michael Bruckdorfer was his name.

I saw Up today with Colleen and Christopher (while Megan went to the park with Beth). Up was good – funny parts here and there with grown up themes. I think it just may change my life…as soon as I can get enough balloons saved up…

Ok, enough rambling for today.

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Slip sliding cheese curds

May 31st, 2009

Schooner Days happened this weekend. This is the 3-day carnival that comes to town for Beth’s birthday (it came a week early this year). It raises between 20 – 25K and I think we contributed at least a 4th of that this year. We went all 3 days 🙂

This morning I got up early so that I could start a 1/2 marathon at 7:00 a.m. in downtown Minneapolis. I’ve only ever run a total of 13 miles in a week twice before, and I’ve only run 10 miles 2x in my life, so I wasn’t sure how today would go. I finished in 2:06, or 9:40 miles. No complaints. My goal was to finish the 1/2 marathon before the full-marathon people passed me – I easily did that. It was a beautiful morning and this was the first running of this race so they only had 2,500 people enter it 🙂

Every year I like to see a deer in my yard and pick up a turtle somewhere nearby. The turtles are out in full force so I can check that one off my list for this year. Megan and I spent some time inspecting a turtle that was smashed in the street too – Colleen wouldn’t go near it. Although Colleen helped me name it…Flat Stanley.

The past few years there was a snake in our yard and pond. I knew where he liked to curl up in a few spots and I could find him pretty regularly. Maybe the last time I mowed the yard last year Mr. Snake showed up in a new spot and I chopped him in half. Bummer. The past few years I’ve also had a little tree frog that likes to stay on the edge of the hot tub. I usually push him down to the ground when I go in the hot tub so he doesn’t get smooshed. Sometimes he would jump into the hot water so I would have to work to catch him. He always was on the side of the hot tub…so the past several weeks I’ve been watching out for him. Well…he decided to change his location too and ended up getting smashed behind the hot tub cover. I’m slowly unintentionally killing all my woodland friends. Note, I had nothing to do with the duck eggs getting eaten – can’t blame that one on me.

We are in desperate need of rain. It is dry, dry, dry – maybe the driest May on record. Perfect time to bring out the slip-n-slide. Colleen now has a 2-piece bathing suit and Christopher is puzzled by what he’s calling her “swim underwear”…

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