Twins game

Joe Mauer warming up.

 Up to bat

 The view from our seats.  We were on the 1st level in the 11th row.  They were great seats.

 It was windy, cold, and rainy.  Good thing the girls brought blankets to keep warm!

 Target Field is really cool.  All the seats are decent.  It's wide open and you can see the buildings of downtown.  Definitely a neat experience.

 Us waiting out the rain delay.

 Finally untarping the field.  Lots of hard working men.

LMFAO Concert

We surprised the girls with a quick trip to the cities this past weekend.  They knew for a couple of months that we were going, but they didn't know what we were doing.  They guessed we were going to the Mall of America or to the zoo.  The Wednesday before we left, we told them we were going to the LMFAO concert and a Twins game.  Shaylee and Shawndra were very excited.  The other kids stayed with grandpa and grandma.

Here they are before the LMFAO concert, sporting their new neon colored shirts.

And here we are before the concert.

All 4 of us at the concert.  We had good seats, but after being there, I don't think there was a bad seat in the house.

 Box Head, Redfoo and Skyblu.  They were so fun to watch!

If you aren't familiar with LMFAO, you need to understand that sporting speedo's is normal for them.  This was the encore, which we all knew was coming because stripping down to their speedo's is part of their signature.  Just go to YouTube and check out their songs and you'll understand why.

The song was Champagne Showers and they sprayed the crowd with many bottles of champagne!

We all had so much fun!  There were 5 opening bands that played for 2 hours before LMFAO even came out.  Then LMFAO played for over 2 hours.  It was a fun show!

middle school graduation

Today was the Middle School Graduation and Awards Ceremony.  Shaylee graduated from 8th grade today and will venture on into high school next year.  Man, where have these years gone?  She has grown into such a beautiful and intelligent young lady and I was one proud mama today.  Shaylee received awards in all of her classes for having all A's, along with a tardy free award, science fair awards, and honor roll.  The girl is smart, I tell ya, and she's been known to say, "it comes easy".  Lucky for her because it wasn't as easy for me when I was her age.

Here she is receiving her certificate of graduation.

 I should have counted how many times she got up from her seat to go get another award.  (I guess I could because the awards are in the kitchen, but that would mean getting up, and right now I don't want to.)  I would estimate 8 times or so? 

The most exciting part of today was what she won!  For reading books and filling out a BINGO card in the library and getting at least 2 blackouts, the students would be entered into a drawing.  She got at least 2 blackouts, along with maybe 15 other students.  The first name to be drawn got to choose between a Kindle or $50.  Low and behold, Shaylee's name was drawn out of the basket first.  She chose the Kindle!  She has been wanting one for awhile and had put that on her list for her birthday.  I guess she'll have to come up with a new idea, huh!?

 Moving on, Shawndra also received awards in all of her classes for having straight A's.  Today's awards ceremony was also for the 6th and 7th grades.  Shawndra is in 7th grade, so she has one more year.  She also received tardy free and honor roll as well. 

I couldn't be more proud of the these girls.  Teachers have told me time and time again that they appreciate their hard work and attitude and that they are great girls.  

it's us

Many pictures were taken today.  In fact, I had about 125 to sort through.  Lots of them turned out blurry.  And this one we are looking at the other photographer.  But it is us, none the less.

new blog picture

So I'm pretty excited to know that tomorrow I will have a new family picture for this blog.  I doubt we'll have matching clothes and look perfect, but it will be updated, and it will be us, and it will be spring looking instead of this dreadful clash of winter coats and a frozen lake.  :)

Tomorrow is Grandma Dorothy's 75th Birthday party and she wants to have a big big family picture.  I plan to use this opportunity to see if I can stick someone behind the lens of my camera and snap a few pictures of us, too!

Mother's Day



Planted two tomato plants in my whiskey barrel. Things were going good until the bottom band broke. Luckily my husband had a quick fix until he brings the bander home.

We also went shopping at Medary Acres where I picked out a new plant for the front yard.

And a new bush to replace "Bushy" that died.  We have lots to do in the front yard ever since we ripped up the landscaping.

Jayden caught a caterpillar and kept it for a few days, but then decided to let it go.

We discovered a robin's nest under our deck, which is such a weird place for a nest.  It is at chest level.  We held a mirror up to it and could see 3 eggs. 

Shaylee spent a lot of the day in the yard reading and suntanning.  Our yard has such big trees she was forced to move frequently due to shadows.

And Jayden rode his bike through the gutter spraying water everywhere.

Shawndra in Track

Shawndra ran in a track meet the other day in Volga.  I was able to pop over and watch several of her events.  She did really well and we are so proud of her.

Look at those muscles!

She took 3rd in the hurdles.  That was my favorite event to watch.  It's something I never tried, so to watch her succeed at it is fun.

She also ran the 400.

tidbits

• Shaylee is done with volleyball club.  Her last tournament was last weekend.
• Shawndra is out for track.  Took some pictures at her meet on Thursday and hope to post them on here.
• Things are still tough.  And confidential.  And that makes things all the harder.
• Joseph has an eye appointment on Tuesday.  His glasses are being held together with tape. 
• School is out on the 21st, but there is a school near here that is done on the 9th.  That is way too early!
• Jayden has a huge goose egg on his forehead.  I earned Mother of the Year award for it.
• Devin is doing well with no major issues to report. 
• My mom had knee replacement surgery, so I've been busy helping her this weekend since Craig is out of town.

This week has been one of the most difficult weeks to go through pertaining to my job.  I have come face to face with the biggest challenge and most heart breaking situation anyone could even imagine.  Due to confidentiality, I cannot disclose on a public blog what is going on.  Just know that I would deeply appreciate your thoughts and prayers as this week (and following weeks) continues.

blogger changes

Blogger has yet again changed how it works and I dislike it.  I used to be able to make nice, symmetrical posts and now the changes they made are so difficult.  I tried for 2 days to get these pictures up of the fence.  The picture loading is a pain and then trying to find places for text is just as bad.  Now I see the final post has weird frames around some and some sentences are centered and whatnot. 

Be patient as I try to figure this out. 

finished fence



The north side of the fence.  Very long and never ending, or so it seems.

The fence goes along side the trees.  We cut the branches up high on the fence side and left them low on the street side.

This is the view from the street.  The trees are large and help hide the fence.

This is the east side of the garage.  There is a walk-in gate on the left and a drive-in gate on the right.

This is another view of the outside on the west side of the house.

tired

After working on the fence for 10 hours yesterday, I am so tired today.  So tired that I woke up at 7am.  Haha.  It rained again last night and we still have one side to finish up.  Maybe 2 hours and we'll be done.  I'm so excited!  Probably head outside after a bit.  Once the fence is done we have lots of mud piles to clean up.  Either way, I think we will be totally completed today.

fence

I haven't had time to post pictures of the fence, but have had time to rant about Lowe's. Again, that's another story which isn't finished yet. The posts finally arrived on Monday evening. We've been going to town put them up...one...by...one. It's very time consuming, but we're hoping to be completed by this weekend sometime.

This is where we were at on Tuesday night when we quit. Last night we did another couple of hours, so we are much farther down the long stretch.

I cannot wait until this fence is done!!

Lowe's

I have been royally frustrated with Lowe's. They have screwed us over and over with this fence. It all started when we went in and ordered all the supplies and lumber, then paid for it. All items were on hand and paid for. So that means they were ours, right? Well, they called us the day before delivery and said they only had 11 of 45 posts. Mike was upset because his brother was coming up on Friday to help with the posts. He went to Lowe's and talked to them and they said this shouldn't have happened. They arranged to get the posts from Sioux Falls.

The next day, the delivery truck called 15 minutes before leaving the store and said they only had about 200 of 750 pickets. Again, we were upset, made several phone calls and were told that there was nothing that could be done and hopefully the pickets would be in on Tuesday of the next week, or Thursday at the latest. They said they would call. Well Thursday night came and we still hadn't heard anything from them so Mike called them. The employee knew nothing and couldn't find the pallets of pickets. When the pickets came in they were supposed to set them aside with Mike's name on them. After the employee couldn't find them he asked to speak to the manager. With a little digging, they found the purchase order and looked up the order to learn the truck never showed up.

Several more phone calls and no luck. The truck with the pickets never delivered. The next day Lowe's called us and said they had found about 200 pickets. Mike went in and got them (even though we had already paid for delivery). This morning we went out to start putting the pickets up, but quickly realized the pickets were bad. They were really rough, too short, or very knotted. The entire load was bad. Mike and I think they were pickets that someone else had already returned as "bad" because when we ordered pickets, they said they would suggest ordering 1/3 more because there will be bad ones. So of course we had to load up the trailer again with the bad pickets and take them in.

Dropped them off at Lowe's this afternoon and we wanted the bad quantity to be added to our order. We got to the truck and realized they had refunded us the money versus putting them back on our order. So we had to turn around and repurchase the pickets. As I'm watching this I'm realizing that it's more expensive because we had a coupon for 10% off our entire order originally and now we had full price. I pointed that out and complained about how everything that is happening is really inconvenient, etc... They ended up giving us 10% off.

Lowe's is apologizing for everything and say our names are at the top of their priority list, yet they have offered nothing to us. I think they owe us something, whether they give us some money back, or a gift card or something. I mean we paid for this stuff and they turned around and sold it before they delivered it to us. Ugh, this is so frustrating!

Right now, Lowe's does not get good reviews from us.

volleyball champions

10 hours of volleyball, 2 hours of travel, 14 games played consumed our Saturday. But it was well worth it because they won the championship!

The full team with their medals.

Miss Shaylee who played a major role in the winning of the games. Her serving streak was phenomenal.

The games were so intense. Point by point and very close. I thought I was going to have a heart attack!

tidbits

• I think lately I do more tidbits posts that anything. I'm busy, what can I say?!
• I survived the interview in Madison and got complimented on a job well done. Also got told the reason I was chosen is because I am that good. That was nice to hear.
• We're building a fence. A 6 foot privacy fence. And it's taking tons of time.
• Bob is peeing and pooping in the house on a daily basis. I cannot wait for this fence to be done, so we can just open the door to let him out, not to mention, train him to go to a door when he needs to be let out.
• I'm thankful for a carpet cleaner.
• Easter was low key, but good. More work on the fence.
• Shaylee sprained her ankle in volleyball practice last night. I'm hoping it is better by Saturday since there is a tournament, but considering she can hardly walk on it today, it's not looking good.

nerves

My nerves are going to be the death of me. Our Head Start program is going through a federal review this week, which happens every 3 years. I was told yesterday to come to Madison today for a meeting at 1pm. There will be 5 of us within this area answering questions to a review team member. I'm seriously about to puke.

tidbits

• I went to Walmart today for a quick visit and within 5 minutes, I had 3 different people compliment me on my weight loss. It feels so good to hear those positive things because it helps me to see the hard work is paying off.
• I haven't been able to walk/run for 5 days now. I think I pushed myself too hard the last time and now my knee is hurting me. The knee that I have had surgery on two other times. And the pain isn't getting better, so I'm really hoping I didn't screw it up again.
• Tonight we took the bikes out and let the dogs run beside us as a test to see how they do off the leash. They did great. Bob felt the need to run in the middle of the road for awhile, but at least they didn't stop in other people's yards.
• We have typical teen hormones raging in our house, with both girls. And of course, no other kids do chores. Ahem.
• The locates for the fence have been called in. We will start the fence project on Friday. Actually, Mike will start the project on Friday and I will be painting the outside of the house.
• This weekend I pressure washed the whole outside of the house and focused on the paint that is flaking off. I have to paint the window frames, door and garage frames and all the cement blocks on the bottom side of the house. It will be a lengthy project, but needs to be done because the paint was flaking off badly.
• On Saturday, Mike's brother will be coming to help with the fence. It will be a 6 foot privacy fence and will be wonderful for the dogs and for us.
• Lots going on lately and just staying super busy with outside house stuff with all this beautiful weather we are having.

ouch my legs

My husband has started joining me in my efforts of getting into shape. It's only
taken 6 months for him to jump on the bandwagon. He's been walking or jogging with me and even without me and I have to say, it's been nice to have the support. Even the days where I don't feel like getting up to go walk, I still go.

I never regret finishing a workout, but I do regret skipping them.

Tonight we went for a 2.77 mile run and my legs are killing me. We got about half way through and all of a sudden I had sharp pains shooting through my shins. If I can guess, and not being a runner, I'm guessing it's shin splints. So we altered the walking and the jogging. I still pushed myself, even through the pain. As I sit here now, my shins are aching or throbbing. I sure hope I didn't set myself back tonight. Tomorrow nights workout will probably be something different, to give my legs a break. I'm thinking about biking instead.

losing weight

The best thing about losing weight is when people start to notice. My dad stopped over today and one of the first things he asked me was if I had lost weight. I said I had and he told me he could tell. It feels great. I love feeling the desire to workout and the love to push myself harder. And jogging, who would have thunk it? I love it! Now to keep losing, so my knees don't hurt after I jog. Perseverance!