3 Surprise Pictures For The Day

First off, this van cracked me up. I have no clue who they were, but the way they stuck their sticker on their license plate cracked me up.

Mom and I spent the whole day in Sioux Falls today. At the end of the day, we stopped for a treat, and let me tell you, it was tasty!

And finally, when the snow melts, I guess it goes somewhere. Except on our road, there's no where for it to go, so it just puddles up and makes a deep pond. Now what's going to happen when it freezes?

And off to work I go. I've done great posting on this blog every single day this month, sometimes twice a day! I'll update more on the press conference when I have time.

Birth to Three Funding & Eggs!

Tomorrow should be an interesting day. I will be going to Sioux Falls tomorrow for the press conference and Legislature briefing to stop the proposed cut for the Birth to Three program. There will be a lot of people there tomorrow and I truly look forward to sharing my story, if I can, and to hear how the Advocasy group will work.

Governor Rounds is proposing to cut $2M from the program, which would basically halt all services that these young children are receiving. My own son receives OT and Speech. Without these services, where would he be when he starts school. I work with families who receive services, who also need them badly. Is it better to save $2M now or pay $10's of Millions in the future?

Children are creating the most important brain waves during these first three years. They are the most critical years of a child's life, and it's really sad that Rounds can't see that. I hope and pray the proposed cuts for Birth to Three are not approved and these innocent children can continue to receive the help they need.

Now....on to something a bit lighter.

Or not so much lighter, but better?

Have you ever met a really special bunny that comes out this time of year, every year? He tends to visit several stores, even before Valentine's Day has come and past. Well, this special bunny holds a very dear place in my heart (and my sides) simply because he lays the most delicious eggs!

I dare you to try just one. The bunny has left a sweet nest on my bed. Now if only I could say no.

Dakota Ethanol

I took a picture of the steam coming out of Dakota Ethanol today. It was so unbelievably windy that the steam didn't have a chance to go up, it just went sideways. It was kind of eerie how windy it got, but maybe that's because I just watched the movie Absolute Zero the other night, which by the way was a good movie even though it was cheaply made.

Sick Baby

We got a phone call from our daycare provider today that Jayden was just laying around and had a slight fever, green nose, and green stuff oozing out his ear. He had just finished his 3rd round of antibiotics over the weekend. Now he's on his 4th round of antibiotics. We're starting to run out of options as his body is becoming immune.

So you have an idea, here's a picture of his ear after it has oozed some more. Poor guy is not feeling well.

Devin also went to the doctor. They didn't test her officially, but are treating her for strep throat. Poor girl, she didn't even complain she felt sick, but did have a cough, so we had her checked.

Squirrel Friend Up Close

Here he is after I cropped the picture.

Squirrel Friend

I have several squirrel friends that play and jump in the yard. Today they were out playing, jumping from tree to tree. This picture was taken really high up in the tree. I took over 15 pictures of this one squirrel. He stared at me the whole time. I was hoping he'd come down lower so I could get a closer picture. My zoom was already out all the way. Still cute though!

Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.


I most certainly did NOT back into my garage door while it was still down. And I definitely did NOT laugh when it happened.

I did NOT eat a bag of Twizzlers in the past 3 days. At least I did NOT eat them in one day!

I really did NOT get upset when my 4 year old painted the bathroom. And I did NOT send her to bed after she cleaned it. I was most definitely NOT mad when I seen her artwork all over the sink, cabinets and wall.

I really did NOT laugh when my almost 2 year old accidently caught the cats paw in the cupboard door. Only because I did NOT recognize the sound comming from her mouth! I definitely did NOT give her any loving to make her paw feel better.

I did NOT take 200 pictures at a wedding that I did NOT want to go to. And while there I did NOT have any fun. :-)

I certainly did NOT buy a nice camera and new CD player and charge it to my employer when they told me that there was extra money that needed to be spent by the end of the month.

Presenting "Slim"......Only 17 Years Later

"I had beans last night for supper." She asked, so I gave. Enjoy.

Strange Apartment Building

This apartment building is so strange. I see it when I go on a couple of home visits. Someone in Madison told me a few years ago that it was a flat roof, but they added the peak onto it to help with saving energy.


Without the peak, you could take one big step and be on the roof. I just thought it looked goofy having the door sitting like that and the apartment under ground.

Approaching the Terrible Two's

I really thought Jayden had hit the peak of his tantrums for awhile. Then he went into a phase where he threw anything in site down the stairs or across the floor. So we started time outs. Now he tests his boundries by lightly throwing things, except he also tries to tip big things over, like chairs, hampers, shoe racks, or dumping out all of the DVD's. Tonight he started his tantrum at one side of the kitchen and scooted himself backwards across the kitchen floor. Next month he turns 2!! Wow, I cannot believe how fast the last 2 years have gone...

We went to a wedding tonight and had a great time. I wish Shaylee could have been there, so we could have gotten some pictures of her as well, but she spent the weekend with her dad. The kids loved dancing. Jayden was even busting some moves of his own. I think they danced for several hours. It was a fun night. Enjoy the pictures.

Mooooo Cow

On my way to a home visit, I drive right by these cows. They are beside a gravel road really close to me. I had a blast taking pictures of them!

Fog Creates Ice Crystals

I got some great pictures today when I was traveling over by Minor County for work. The rolling hills are beautiful and when I came over the hill, the fog looked like a blanket. Once I actually entered the fog, I found so many neat things covered in ice crystals from the fog. I took a bunch, but am only posting a few.

This one was the first one. It almost looks like a frozen lake in the background, but that is the fog.

This next one shows how the ice crystals were attached to a piece of grass in the ditch.

And finally, a poor bushy weed all covered in white. Everything looked like this. It was really amazing.

Bruise

Jayden fell into the end table this weekend and hit his eye. He's had quite the bruise from it. I like this picture, well besides the bruise I do.

Strange Ice Sculpture

As I was driving in Madison today, I came across this ice and snow sculpture. I have no idea how they got it to be so straight or how they balanced the top piece on. It was just unusual from anything I've seen on a normal day. Enjoy.

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to http://www.mycharmingkids.net">her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.


In all of my freetime, haha, I follow many different blogs. One of my favorites is from MckMama. She invented the Not Me Monday. Here goes my first!

I did not eat a Twix before eating my lunch. And I did not finish eating the 2nd Twix while carrying my lunch to the table!

I did not send my kids outside to play in the snow for hopes of a few minutes of quiet. And I was not bummed when they came back in saying the snowpants and boots were still in the van, which is not at home.

I did not just spend over 30 minutes trying to figure out how to add MckMama's button to this post. And I most certainly did not giggle to myself when I found the link button up top. Haha.

Yesterday I definitely did not drool over my friends pictures from the Bahamas. And I did not wish I was there, AT ALL. I'm glad I was here in a blizzard.

I did not go to Wal-Mart today with no makeup or crusted up tears on my face. And oh, no, never, did I not cry while cutting an onion. I did not spend an hour this morning cutting celery, potatoes, ham, onions, and beans to make homemade soup to find it stinking so bad it had to be removed to the garage to cook. Oh and I did not have a back up plan in case this stuff is not edible.

Finally, I did not chase my cat around the house while spraying air freshener in the air. And my husband most definitely did not try to help chase the cat.

Mailbox Stuck in Snow

This is a mailbox I pass by each day I leave my house. The only thing you can see is the front of it to open and close it. The rest of it is covered in a huge drift. Sometimes I wonder what our road would look like if instead of snow, it was rain. Let's just say, I don't think we would have to go far to go swimming.

Medicine

Jayden being such a good sport and taking his medicine. I love how he's looking up at dad while he sucks it in.

Spent a majority of the day at Wal-Mart dealing with the insects....wait, nevermind. Haha. Hopefully tomorrow will bring a more interesting picture.

Cinderella

Cinderella, who stands 2 1/2 inches tall.

Nothing special, just playing with camera settings.

Spaz of a Cat

Sophie is such a spaz! She spies from the stairs until she's ready to pounce. Just happened to be that I caught her in mid jump attacking her toy. Priceless.

(Almost didn't get a post done in time today....darn work schedule!)

Tea from Jordan

One of my families I serve is from Jordan. Each week I come they serve me tea. The first week they served me coffee and that was nasty to say the least. Anyhow, that's a whole different story. From then on, they have served tea and it's always been cinnamon tea, but this week they served me sage tea. I've never been exposed to hot tea before I met them. It's become something I look forward too. This week I asked them how they make it because both their coffee and their tea is made Jordan style, not American. The mom was so kind and gave me a bag of fresh sage and cinnamon straight from Jordan so I can make my own tea. I'm looking forward to it and hope I can make it as good as them. It was so generous of them.

I really liked the sunset tonight on my way home from Wal-Mart, but the

picture just doesn't do it justice. It reminded me of a picture you would use

for a jigsaw puzzle. I guess the picture didn't turn out to bad considering I

held up my camera while driving and just pushed the button!

Everyone in the house seems to be feeling better tonight. Knock on wood that

it's finally moving out of the house and that we can all be healthy.

Beautiful Sky

This picture shows the calmness that came after the storm. On my way to work this morning, I noticed how bright the sun was illuminating the clouds and there was a sun dog to the left. The camera didn't catch the sun dog as well as it was in person, but you can still see it slightly. Then on my way home from work tonight, it was blizzard like conditions again. Guess we really do live in South Dakota, huh!

On a side note, we now have 6 of 8 people in our home who are sick and puking, or on the verge of puking. It strikes faster than anything I've seen before. Hopefully we can keep Jayden and Devin healthy. Jayden already has enough troubles with his health, I don't think he needs to fight the flu on top of it!

Blizzard With Low Visibility

A blizzard strikes again, this time without much warning. We knew it was coming, but the morning started out fine, nice and clear, and within an hour, visibility was down to nearly nothing. I had an adventurous trip home from Madison today. I seen many cars in the ditch and traveling was very slow. It took me almost 2 hours to get home from Madison.

This picture shows how hard the flag is blowing with that cold Northern wind.

A decent shot of a white out blanket looming right after the bridge. The interstate was solid ice. Traffic was moving at 30 MPH. At some points, cars (myself included) could not get him hills because the car would slide whenever the gas was hit.

I'm very thankful to be home. And I will be more thankful when my husband is home with me.

Where's your tongue?

Jayden has finally figured out he has a tongue! You have to remember, he's been delayed in many of the things he discovers or does. So when he does something as cute as this, we get excited. :-) I think the shadow in the background is kind of cute as well.

What's up?

I almost forgot about our other spoiled pet. This is Fish. Everyone calls it a different name. I call it Fish. Some of the kids think Fish is "Chips", but "Chips" already died. Fish is spoiled. She lives in a 29 gallon tank all by herself!

She was even posing for the pictures! I took 10 pictures of her and she would stare at me, open her gills and pose. Haha. Is that even possible?

3rd Times a Charm?

Mr. Jayden is back on antibiotics for the 3rd time in a row. First he was on Azithromiacin, then he was on Cefzil, and now Augmentin. He hasn't gone more than 3 days in between the medicines without being sick. Hopefully the little guy can kick this nasty stuff, as Dr. said we're running out of medicines for him. He didn't go into detail what we would do next, so like I said, let's pray he can get over this. This time around it's sinus infection.

Snowfall again

I thought this picture was really neat. I was originally trying to get a good picture of the snow falling. My camera got the flakes with the flash shining off of them. Kind of cool.

Cat Bath

I laugh looking at this poor pitiful cat. HAHA. She got

her first bath and the poor thing looked like a drowned,

well, cat! However, she tolerated it very well!

Out Of Control

Today's post is a special treat. It was a part of my crazy day, just one small part. Project 365 is supposed to remind me of my day later in life if I were to look at it. However, I didn't want to limit this post to one picture only.

My boss and I were conducting a mini investigation and were headed back to the main office. I never have my boss with me in the vehicle. How ironic that I did today. Anyhow, I had just turned off the main road onto a side street driving toward the office, when a bright red Grand Am came flying around the corner headed straight towards me, head on. Literally! I can't remember what I screamed at that moment, but I remember slamming on the breaks and steering to the right as hard and as fast as I could. The snow on the side of the road wouldn't let me go much farther. As I watched this Grand Am come beside me I think I raised my leg to avoid being hit. Kind of funny how that works, as if raising my leg would help my van to not be hit! Next, I heard the funkiest sound as we had gottten hit on the side. I watched in my side mirror thinking, holy crap, this guy isn't stopping! He went sideways in another "s" shape and hit the vehicle on the other side. He slammed so hard into that one it lifted it up and flipped it completely around in the parking spot and settled it on the sidewalk. Did he stop? Nope, he then bounced off that one and swiped the one next to it and proceeded to fly out onto the main road.

My initial reaction was he had to be drunk, stoned, or having a medical problem. I noticed him in the apartment building next to the parking lot. He had pulled in around the corner, stopped and was checking out his damage. I started saying, "There he is, what is he doing? as I called 911. Next thing I noticed, the car was gone and so was he. So I took off down the street to get a glimpse of the direction he had gone. Luckily I got his license plate as he came around the block. I think he knew he was caught because he came back, stopped and got out, saying, "Nobody's gonna get in trouble are they?"!! Oh my gosh, this guy just smoked 3 vehicles, wasn't trying to stop, and tried to leave the scene. Well you all know me, I looked at him with the most dumbfounded look and said, "You hit these vehicles, so YOU will be in trouble."!! He didn't even realize he had hit them or how many. I showed him the one he flipped around, and he asked me if the damage was bad. At that point, I gave up on him and told him to go look at all the damage.

Some guy from the Colony came driving by and said, "That guy is crazy. CRAZY." I have to admit, this guy was the weirdest looking person, who spoke strangely and was definitely not in his right mind. WOW.

The car in the middle WAS facing the apartment complex.

The back view. The passenger side is mangled.

This was the car parked next to it that he

hit after the Impala.

And this is my work van. I ended up with a 2 1/2 foot

long scratch. So all in all, considering he was coming at us head on, we got very lucky. My boss and I got in the car after everything was taken care of and we kept laughing because she thought the guy was going to shoot us and here I am bitching at him about him causing the accident. She's cowering in the hood of her coat and I'm all bold and straight forth coming!

I was not able to get pictures of his car. The front end was badly beaten, hood was crumpled, and headlights or one knocked out.

Our life lately...

We bought a treadmill last night and spent 2 1/2 hours putting it together. At the very end, we found out the brackets to tighten the belt were broke. So at 9:30 last night we headed back to Wal-Mart to do an exchange. That treadmill is NOT light and is/was a pain in the butt to get in and out of the van. I was not happy we did all that work to turn around and do it again tonight. But I am anxious to start using it!

I will be headed to the doctor on Thursday, which will likely result in surgery, hopefully outpatient. I'm not going to say anything more until we find out for sure. But we would appreciate prayers.

The kids went back to school today. They were actually ready and didn't complain much. That makes it much easier on us when we don't have to fight with them to go to school.

Green Leaf (Day 5)

Close-up shot of my plants leaf.

Sadly, my plant is dying.

I have a green thumb.

Just like my mother.

Project 365 Day 4

Sophie loves going outside in the summer. Well lately she has decided she wants to go out in the winter. She usually only lasts a few minutes outside and she curls up on the railing of the deck. Today when she went out she left the cutest paw prints in the snow. Here is one for your enjoyment.

What is it?

Do you ever look at something so often or so long that you finally see the beauty in it? Well, this is something I stare at each day, over and over, and still cannot find the beauty in it. I do try.

This is the back splash in our kitchen. It clashes with everything. I have gotten used to it being "present", however I wish I could change it. The sad thing is, the only way to properly fix this problem is to take it down, except, whoever put it in, placed it behind the cupboards. I've thought about trying to paint it. We'll see what the future holds...