A Couple of Surprises

I've had a few surprises lately...

Yes, that is a deer skull.  It is hanging above the chalk board in our dining room.  I awoke last weekend, came downstairs, and stopped dead in my tracks at the sight of this thing.  But, I was assured by a friend that it is currently in style.  A deer skull!

The other surprise was on a bag of frozen peaches.  We freeze peaches every year and this year Aaron helped me bag them.

This message says, "Amanda is HOT."

Aaron wrote little messages on the bags of peaches.  Not all of the messages are... appropriate... so it looks like Aaron and I will be the only ones allowed to take the peaches out of the freezer:)

I spent last weekend with three of my nieces in Mankato. It was so much fun!

We are to address this little lady as "Cinderella."

We played and danced and were kinda crazy the entire weekend.  We are always sad to leave, but we will be back!

You maybe a nurse (or maybe a mom) if...

You may be a nurse (or maybe a mom) if...

~ You clean cat puke up in the middle of dinner and then return to your food as if nothing happened.

~ Your house is a mess.  It is a statistical fact that nurses (and moms) have messy homes.

~ You get yelled at by a family member, for nothing in particular, and you think, "You got nothing on [insert a certain physician or child here.]"

~ You can hold your bladder for 12 hours straight... and then go to the bathroom only because you just realize that you have not peed for 12 hours.

~  You can survive solely on coffee.  It is its own food group.

~  You decide (because crazy runs rampant on your side of the family) that normal every day life isn't busy enough... Lets have a ginormous garden, can/freeze/dehydrate enough food to last well into the next famine, invite people over for supper, teach your kids how to read music, do homework (oh yeah, yours and theirs,) lets play with Play-Doh before everyone arrives... yes please let the drooling-dirty-hairy dog into the house while I am making supper... and then go work a 12 hour night shift and not even get to eat.

~  You may or may not wear Super Woman underwear and envision them giving you super hero powers.  Or secret spy like capabilities.  May or may not.

~ You know the nutritional content of buttermilk pancakes and bacon--- and you know way down deep that bacon is not part of the meat section of the food pyramid.  But, you throw a few apples on the plate (to make it 'healthy') and eat it anyway.  Because. It. Is. Delicious.

~ Your husband calls you and says,"I fell off of a ladder.  I am going to the Emergency Room."

You respond, "Are you driving yourself?"

Several seconds of silence. 

"Yes," he says.

And then you say, with his well being in mind of course, "Then you can go to the clinic."

~  Your husband rents a fancy hotel room... with a Jacuzzi... and you both fall asleep watching TV at seven o'clock.  When you are packing to leave the next morning, you realize that the tub didn't even get used and the sheets are still well made.  How sad.

~  You enter a room to find a couple who have been married for 65 years holding hands.  The wife suffers from dementia. 

You lean down to a level where she can hear you and say, "Your husband loves you very much."

She knows nothing of what is going on... she has no idea where she is, why she is here, or the day of the week.  But, she smiles sweetly and whispers, "I know."

She turns her head to look at her husband, and you look at him with tears in your eyes and see the tears running down his face.  He gently rubs her hand and smiles.

You maybe a nurse... or a mom... if seeing that in real life (or maybe just in your minds eye) brings you to tears--- That is a memory I will never forget.

The Difference in Brothers

The past couple of years I have chosen to take the boys school pictures on my own.  Although the traditional school pictures are... ummm.... nice.... they are also costly. 

Taking school pictures of Noah is a breeze.  He sits where I want him to.  He adds his own unique flare and ideas.  I love it!

Pictures of Abram on the other hand are never easy...  He has so much energy and such a strong will.  The evening that I was trying to take photos, little brother and his dad were "working" together so sitting still for mom was the last thing on his mind.

"You get one picture mom and that's it!"

"If you sit still for a second so I can get a decent head shot we would be done," says mom.

"I was done along time ago," says Abram.

 

"Are we done yet????"

 

"How about now????"

"How about now????"

Alright big guy, we are done!

 

Wow... I Finally Made a Decision

It has been a goal of mine to take the adventure of "going back to school."  I was going to do it a couple years ago but it didn't work out.  Things kept coming up and it just didn't feel right. 

But finally karma and the universe have aligned...  and I feel like I am finally ready.  God has given us so many blessings and now I must be thankful for one more. 

I am not sure where this road is going to lead my family and I.  School is something that I have done with kids, so I know how that goes.  This time is going to be different... I do not have an infant and a four-year-old to take care of... I can cut back from work and not feel too guilty... and I won't have to commute two hours everyday. 

This is going to be a big change for us, a good change.  A change and a chance that I am willing to take. 

Wish me luck!

Bamboozled

I was bamboozled by a couple of elderly ladies.  Both had white cottony hair, glasses on lanyards around their necks, and fanny packs.

I should have known the moment I entered their little antique shop and smelled the home made cookies and coffee.  I should have ran like the wind out the door.  But, alas, I did not.  Before I knew it, I had a warm cup of coffee in one hand and a soft melt-in-your-mouth cookie in the other (I'll never say no to coffee and a gooey chocolate chip cookie.) I aimlessly wandered around a crowded junk vintage shop thinking, "Crap, now I have to buy something."

I meandered through the store, nibbling on the cookie and letting the warmth of the coffee heat my hands, looking at all of the stuff.  Tons and tons of stuff.  Piles of stuff.  Some of the toys I recognized from my own childhood... very very sad that they are in an antique store.

The ladies chatted about the cold weather and a new business in a nearby town.  They would laugh and sway to the Beatles music that was quietly playing in the background. 

I felt like I had to buy something.... anything.  You can't take a cup of coffee and cookie from a couple of old ladies without buying something from their store--- right?  Right.

The only thing that really caught my I was a bookshelf (yes another book shelf.)  How many book shelves does one person need?  Apparently three.  But I ended up walking out of the store with an overpriced, rickety book shelf. 

I cleaned the cob webs off the shelf and then loaded it into the car.

The cat would not get out of the picture. I would move her and she would walk back into the photo.  Whatever.

As I was driving away I suddenly realized... I was completely and totally bamboozled by a couple of elderly ladies.  How could someone not buy something when you are greeted with hot coffee and homemade cookies?  Wow.  Those are impressive selling tactics.

Dude Where's My Car?

Heads up--- This post is me being completely dumb---

Yesterday I had to get celery at the grocery store.  You have to understand that this is a big deal for me because I planted celery and it did not turn out which is very frustrating!

Anyways, as I was leaving the grocery store I was completely in my own little world.  Not noticing my surroundings or the weather or anything.  La La Land.  I could have been talking to myself.... I don't know.

I headed towards the area of the parking lot where I thought I had parked my car, pulled the keys out of my purse and pressed the button to unlock 'my car.' Usually my car beeps when the doors unlock, but I was in La La Land so I wouldn't have noticed that it did not beep.

This is where it gets totally stupid...

I placed my bag o' groceries into the passenger seat and walked around to the drivers seat and got into... ummm...  a truck??? 

A totally random TRUCK. 

I was sitting in the drivers seat of a strange (although nice) truck???

My consciousness totally slammed back down to earth as I ran red faced back around to the passengers seat and grabbed my grocery bag and stood frozen in the middle of the parking lot.

Where in the #$@% is my car?  Ummm...

On the other side of the truck.

Green Beans

I love the smell of fresh green beans.  There is no other smell like it. 

If I wore perfume... I'd want it to smell like fresh picked green beans soaking in water in the sink.

That's not weird at all.

This year I was a rebel.  I refused to tip both ends of the green beans.  Yes, that's me, a rebel.

Although, my canning green beans for the season is complete, I left the five rows growing in our garden.  I like the way they look.  I like going out and picking them and eating them fresh.  I like that my boys eat them fresh, right out of the garden--- dirt and all.

Crock pot spicy green beans... Yum!

 

 

I also love tomatoes... but that is a different post!

 



Off to School

The boys left for school on the bus this morning.  It was amazing.... only 15 min of whining from little brother.... several minutes of hair styling from big brother.... and a united front as they boarded the bus.  No pushing each other out of the way.  No fighting for a seat. Just two brothers---who are growing up way to fast--- hopping aboard the bus to their school.  It was almost as if they were friends, not brothers.

Amazing.

This summer went by all too fast.  It is ridiculous. 

I was so sad to see them go. 

Especially when the bus was out of sight, and I all was left with was Abram's bike in the middle of the driveway.

A Little More Winter

Every winter I think to myself "Why do I live here?  Why do I live in the arctic, with snow banks so high you can't see over the tops and ice crusted roads?" 
 
The winter blues have snuck up on me... but it's almost over.  Spring is only three weeks away... right?
 
One thing I love about winter is the frost covered trees.  This morning it looked like delicious cream cheese frosting.

Maybe not cream cheese frosting... I think I am just hungry for cake. 

We were lucky enough to take a short reprieve to Dallas.  It turned into a far more stressful trip than what it was worth.  But, for a day I did a whole lotta nothing while Aaron learned about the new combine guidance systems.


Sitting outside, sipping water, reading a good book, and getting a little color on pasty skin was a bit of heaven.

Do see the moth?  I haven't seen any sort of bug for months!

Running water... outside... in February.  Amazing!  (We don't get out much.)

We returned to the Midwest after a short couple of days, and in between snow storms.

We are hanging in there... trying to get through winter and looking forward to spring!



It Was One of Those Days

{Wow!  I haven't been here (on blogger) for over a month... Craziness.  Where did January go?}

It was one of those days when school was cancelled for blowing snow and 40 below temps.

The boys started out clothed but quickly ended up shirtless, strapping various weapons to their bodies for an epic battle--- 'The Chinese vs. The Dwarfs' --- completely their thing.

It was one of those days where I heard a crash in the next room and then a clear, "I am OK!" statement ring through the air. 

It was one of those days where I did not shut the shop door just perfectly for Rex.  Oh yeah, and when he was in our entry way sleeping, I might have accidently forgot about him and started the vacuum.  Well, the combination of the shop door and the vacuum sent him spiraling into an Emotional. Melt. Down. Mess.  Oh, he is so sensitive. 

I tried to talk to him and explain the weather.  "It's too cold out here for you.  Go into the shop where it is warm," I'd try to gently coerce him.  Rationalizing did not work.  Not even bribery with dog treats and food.  I was only trying to help him be warm and safe.  But he was stubborn... refusing to leave the porch... All because I shut the frozen shop door too hard and started the vaccum.

Sorry buddy.

Apparently, he was perfectly fine laying on the porch, in sub zero temps.  There was no moving our almost two hundred pound big baby... I tried.