Devin & Dalton's concert

Devin and Dalton had their concert tonight, which was really super cute, but first you have to see how really super cute they were before the concert.

First, they love each other...

and then one is too cool for the other. But really, this picture was taken first, so the love grew later.

Dalton is sure changing. He's taller and his overall look seems to be changing.

Miss Devin is still petite, but is slowly growing taller. She is very dynamic when taking pictures, so it's tough to find the sweet picture with the sweet dress. But this one was good.

The concert was full of movements that were adorable. And Miss Devin has the drama down to a perfection. I can easily see theater in her future.

carbon monoxide scare

We had a scare with our carbon monoxide detector on Friday night. I was busy cleaning out the laundry room and going through totes of clothes in the garage and was going in and out of the house when the carbon monoxide detector started going off. It said 59 and kept beeping. The only other time we have heard it beep is when is showed LB for low battery. We changed out the batteries and it climbed right back up to 57. The kids were scared, but I figured it out.

Mike had moved the truck back a foot in the garage so I could get to the totes. We never opened the garage doors for that quick 20 second run. Then with me in the garage and Jayden coming in and out, I figured out the exhaust had gotten into the house.

I opened the windows downstairs and the front door, the garage door and the door leading to our laundry room, so we could cycle fresh air through the house. We blew a fan out the window. The numbers slowly started to drop to 0. Once everything was down, we closed up the house and kept a close eye on the detector. It stayed at 0.

As scary as it was, we're glad to see that it actually works and alerted us to carbon monoxide. Thankfully it was just from the garage and wasn't anything else.

road washed away

Driving to a home visit today, I came upon this ugly scene, which used to a road. I needed to get to the other side of this road, but obviously wasn't going to happen.

So I had to back up the van on a narrow gravel road that had pretty good drop offs on each side in order to get turned around. After venturing around for a few minutes, I found an alternative route.
After hitting what appeared to be nothing, I realized the culverts on this road were sunken in and feeling like massive speed dips. There were four of these so called dips on this gravel road. Taking it slow worked, but wow, what a day!

family tidbits

Mike and I went on an actual date on Friday. I had won some tickets to the benefit for the Humane Society, which was a wine tasting event. Ironically, we don't drink, or very, very rarely if we do. So this was a funny win to us. But we went none the less and had fun. We walked around pretending we knew what we were doing, chatted with a friend who was bar tending, and ate hor d'oeuvres. Oh and we tasted wine. One took my breath away and make me cough, partially because I choked as I swallowed. Embarrassing either way.

Saturday we took the kids and bought some groceries and got Devin her dress and shoes for her concert next week. I still need to find stuff for Dalton to wear, but I have over a week. It looks like there is no concert for Joseph. Sometimes our school is like that...not having concerts for all grades.

Shaylee starts her Oral Interp Contests on Saturday. I'm anxious to see how she does as this will be her first year doing this. She's not thrilled to be up before 6am though. I'm so proud of her for being involved in so many opportunities in school. And she does so well, too!

I've started putting together the kids' summer rec activities and the prices. I've only got them down for ball and a few for swimming lessons and I'm already up to $300. I wish there was a limit on how much you could spend as a family because that amount of money is ridiculous, not to mention all the shoes and sports equipment that comes with each one.

Sunday we drove around and checked out the river, which was just starting to rise to a moderate flood level. Today it has left the banks and started to flow over roads and fields everywhere. So far it's not bad like it was in September last year.

We grilled tonight. Second time in the last week or so. I sure have missed grilled food. But the kids weren't totally impressed because they had hamburgers at school today and then tonight we gave them grilled cheeseburgers. They were big. At least they said our burgers were better than the school. I'm sure that doesn't take much!

do you see what I see

Do you see what I see? That the water is emerging?

And the geese are near?
And the fields are flooded with geese galore? Do you see what I see? The beauty of melting snow, birds returning, temperatures warming?

Remnants of the flood last year with hay bales still surrounded by ice and water?

Do you see what I see? Geese landing on a spot of open water? The sure signs of warmer days ahead?

The work of something ancient, yet so amazing?

Do you see what I see? Better days, hard work, a story told?

The melting snow that fills the fields?

Another attempt to get through a road that has been closed all winter? Do you see?

Because I see the end of winter, the beginning of spring, a year of flooding, warmer temperatures and the amazing beauty in old structures. Do you see what I see?

festival for young voices

Shaylee did a great job in her concert tonight. Of course I had my little 50mm lens on my camera and she was fairly far away from me, so the pictures I did take also include at least 25 other girls. Oh boy...some day I'll learn to take the zoom lens with me to these events.

On my way to work this morning I saw the huge pack of deer along the road again. They were there the other night too. It's just amazing to see over 30 deer together. The other night we stopped and I was making sounds at them and giggling as their ears perked up. Again no camera.

We are currently in a flood watch and are supposed to be in one of the worst floods in many years. We'll see how it effects us. Our sump hole has always been dry and there isn't even a sump pump in the hole. For some reason though, I'm wondering what this year will bring.

I've had a headache for 4 days now and as I was laying in bed tonight, I could feel my nose plugging up and my throat starting to feel funny, so I'm guessing I'm in for another round of sickness. I'm so ready for spring.

time change

The time change sure is hard to get used to. Instead of being tired at my normal time, I'm finding I'm getting tired an hour later. Funny how that works, huh?

Mike is feeling great today. He actually woke up at 1am and was hungry as a dog...yes, that is exactly what he says.

Shaylee has her concert tomorrow for Festival for Young Voices. Only 4 kids from her school are going, so it's another big accomplishment.

Coming home from town tonight I seen about 30 deer at the end of our road. It was really cool. Of course I was kicking myself for not having my camera with me.

I guess it's time to go lay in bed and try to unwind. Hopefully sleep will come soon!

pictures are finished

I finally have all the pictures that I want to develop uploaded to Snapfish. Of course, only the pictures that are on my computer are uploaded, but that's what counts right now. It was 2 years worth of pictures. I've already bought albums to put the pictures in. Now the hard part is to figure out why I can't burn these pictures to disk. That's been beyond frustrating and pretty much what led me to leaving over 2 years worth of pictures on my computer. Eek!

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Mike has been really sick today. It started out kind of as a joke with me poking fun at him, but now he's really sick. I've lost track of how many times he's thrown up, but I think he's surpassed 5 times. The reason I started poking fun is because he pukes so often. Seriously! If he ever has a headache, I always ask if he's going to puke. Because that's usually the case. He typically is puking every 2-3 weeks, but for sure once a month. However, today he feels miserable and has kept nothing down.

cleaning

It's a cleaning day and so far so good. Just had to stop to give my body some fuel since I hadn't eaten breakfast yet. Every area of my house is a mess, so this could take awhile!

bedtime tantrums

Jayden's bedtime tantrums are really getting old quick. The tantrums in general are getting old. Almost every night I have to fight him to bed...for at least an hour of constant screaming, throwing toys, stomping, throwing things against the door, and yelling for daddy. Then he doesn't sleep through the night and will have a tantrum in the night or just need to be covered up again. He's 4 and I wish he would grow out of these tantrums because I fear he will still be doing this at 8! None of our other kids have tantrums or fight bedtime or throw toys against doors or stomp.

Stewie

Oh Stewie, now that you have been in our home, rescued from the Humane Society, for 1 1/2 years now, we have really started to notice your quirkiness. Like randomly deciding to lay on a tall snow bank leftover from a plow,

or asserting yourself to look like you are tough, even though you roll over on your back because you want your belly rubbed,
or lick your chops and everything else with your 7 inch long tongue,

or refuse to look at the camera when your owner decides to take a picture of you,

or find a live mouse in the snow while you are out for a run and proceed to kill all while looking like the biggest chicken dog ever.
Even though you tip over garbages and have been known to put your paws on the counter to eat a full loaf of bread on my bed and to drink from the toilet and then come offer me a kiss, I have to say Stewie, I am still glad I rescued you and gave you this home.

it's hump day

It's hump day! A reason to celebrate because we are almost to another weekend. Yay! Yesterday was our anniversary. I had guessed I wouldn't see much of him because of the big storm that was coming, but thankfully it went south of us and we only ended up with a dusting. Mike and I went out to eat at Qdoba for lunch and then met up in time to see Shaylee's Honor Band Concert at 7pm last night. That was fun. I'm so proud of her for all of her accomplishments with music. She's got talent that's for sure!

I do have a cute story from yesterday, but I'll have to share later as it's time to get the little guy to daycare and me to work.

another storm

It looks like another winter storm is going to take over the week next week. I shouldn't be surprised anymore, though! However, with Tuesday being our anniversary, it's not looking like we'll be spending it together....and that's a real bummer. :(

tidbits

• I'm very crabby at winter and the lack of time my husband has for our family because of it.
• I'm finally recuperating from my cold, which turned to a near case of laryngitis.
• Jayden continues to have tantrums on a daily basis at all hours of the day or should I say, night?
• All of my kids went to bed early tonight. A consequence for none of them doing anything they were told when they came home from school, including their homework, which is to be done first thing.
• I'm ready for flip flops, but not the heat.
• I'm ready for capri's too.
• I have a tingling hand as I type this.
• I have so many things I want to do personally and things that I want to do to this house, but no money to do either of them.
• Shawndra got a letter in the mail from one of her teachers saying how wonderful she is and what a great job she is doing in class.
• Joseph finally got his glasses fixed after several months with the nose pads missing.