Flippin' Sweets

Loving Xara 3D!

2009-09-27T13:26:00.002-05:00

I found a new toy! I think I've gotten over my long creative slump... Lots of new projects lately, including t-shirt designs for a new division of my company has awakened the creative juices! Yay! I found a new program this weekend, Xara 3DX, and it's amazing! It makes it sooooo easy to do 3D letters... Here's one of my first creations, with many more to come!

ABC Swim Finals, 2009

2009-07-27T17:55:00.000-05:00

Hello??? (echo echo echo)

Anybody there?

Ok, I know I've been extremely negligent in posting here. Blame facebook. It's way too convenient and I can post little snippets of stuff here and there without having to actually sit down and think. It's a lazy, preoccupied, distracted ADD mom's dream. But, I've missed my little spot of blog and have decided to reform myself. Again. I was talking with my friend Tammy recently and realized that we share the same problem... there's so much PAST stuff we feel we need to blog about that it was just too overwhelming to even start. So I'm starting fresh, and if I get to the past stuff, great - if not, oh, well! Feel free to check back, I'm going to try and hit all the highlights of the past several months, but I'll be backdating the posts. I'm sneaky like that.

This past weekend, we attended ABC swim finals in Mankato, and we had a blast! Madison was qualified in 4 events in her new 9-10 age bracket. William qualified in 12 events, but opted out of the longer distance events (800 and 1650), as well as the 200 butterfly. So he swam a total of 9 events. Both kids did great! Madison didn't have any time drops, I think the outdoor meter pool threw her off a bit, but she gave it her all and had lots of fun. William dropped a good amount of time in 8 of his 9 events and got a few new B times. He also took first place in his division in the 400 IM, yay!

Here's some pics and commentary from our weekend away...

William's new favorite stroke is butterfly, and he's getting pretty darn good at it! As mentioned above, he opted out of the 200 FLY, but only because he's never swam it in a long course pool. A LC pool is one that is 50 meters long (versus 25 yards), so you don't get the benefit of a new push off and a millisecond's rest at each end every length. This is him swimming fly as part of the 400 IM, which is a pretty brutal race! You swim 2 lengths (100 meters) of each of the 4 strokes. He took 1st place in this event!

Here's his staple favorite (mine too), breastroke:

And a little bit of freestyle. I'll leave the backstroke out, he hates it even more than I did.

Here's Madison doing her favorite stroke:

William doesn't like to pose for pictures anymore, but my Madison is always game! Beautiful :)

Since William turned 13, we are now "all dayer's". In competitive swimming, the 12 and unders swim in the mornings and the older kids swim in the afternoons. So we were at the pool ALL day (7AM-7PM) Saturday and and until 5 on Sunday, and it was exhausting! William also swam Friday night. Usually I would rather remove my toenails with rusty shears than bring Caden with me to a swim meet (those of you that know and love him will not question why). Fortunately, this venue had the benefit of a park right next to the pool so we setup base camp next to that and didn't move from that spot (except to go to the hotel to sleep) all 3 days! Our base camp included a canopy, comfy reclining chairs, an air matress, a BBQ grill, toys, books, iPods, and plenty of food and drink. Brent had his laptop and was glad to find out that someone had an unsecured wireless router, so he was all good.

Caden spent hour upon hour playing on the playground, and his only casualty was a bloody nose when he ran in front of someone swinging and they couldn't stop in time. (Again, those of you that know Caden know that this is quite minor and impressive). The Childrens museum came out for a few hours on Saturday morning, and he had lots of fun with that too.

Took me quite awhile, but I was able to get the bucking bronco down for a nap both days! I carefully concealed the duct tape.

So, now we're off swimming until September! Looking forward to sleeping past 6:30 AM, and not taking 3-4 trips to the pool every day. I'm sure we'll find SOMETHING to fill the time.... :)

Always our CHAMP!

2009-02-23T09:10:00.005-06:00

Yes, I know that I've been MIA - blame Facebook!

I have to get out there and write about my sweet, strong, and amazing daughter. This girl of mine has had an entire TRANSFORMATION in swimming the past month or two. She has gone from someone out there having a good time to being a girl on a mission to become the best that she can (while still having fun!). She has dropped well over a minute of time on her combined events over the last month alone.

It recently became clear that she excels in the Breaststroke (just like her brother and mama!). She dropped 30 seconds on the 50 Breast since the beginning of the season (September). After our February home meet a couple weeks ago, she was within 4 seconds of a champ time in the 50 Breast.

Her last chance to get that state time came and went this past weekend. On Sunday, she swam it and missed the champ time by .20 of a second. Ouch! She had the opportunity to do a time trial in it at the end of the meet, giving her another chance. My girl had it in her, and dropped another 3/4 of a second, earning that champ time. Unfortunately, as I watched with shaking hands and tapping feet, I knew that this time drop was not going to give us the result that we wanted. As an ex-official, I am quite in tune with technique and was watching her and the officials closely, so I saw that she'd been disqualified, which meant that her time wouldn't count. My heart was broken for her, and it was so hard to watch her as she became so excited to see her time and then rush to me with the biggest smile on her face that I've ever seen. I had tears running down my face. Tears of pride, tears of joy, tears of disappointment. I hugged her as hard as I could and told her how simply AMAZING she was and how proud I was of her, hating that I was going to have to break her heart but knowing that I couldn't let her go on thinking that she'd be going to state.

She is disappointed. I think that I am possibly even more disappointed for her. The kicker is that the time standards change in April, and as of then her legal time will be a champ time... qualifying her for state automatically in August... BUT she ages up in June, so that champ time won't count. She's a hard worker, an amazing swimmer, and I know her chance will come. She's our champ.

Here she is with her finals shirt, she took 2nd place in the 50 Breast:

More awards, and a certificate for her first EVER A time!

We had a special celebration for her last night. It was fun and made her happy. Wish I could get over it as easily, this mommy has guilt. If I'd bought her a new suit for the morning session, maybe I pushed too hard, maybe we shouldn't have tried to teach her the underwater pull... But amidst all the heartache, one factor remains. She's our champ, and she's made me proud.

Santa 2008

2008-12-08T14:35:00.002-06:00

In one of my "lets get organized" fits sometime last month, (about the time I was making a zillion dr./dentist appointments), I had the foresight to make our appointment to see Santa Claus. No kidding, at the Mall of America, you can now schedule your time in advance! Of course, I couldn't forsee that we'd get our first dusting of snow on that night, which meant that the usual 45 minute trip to the mall turned into an hour and a half... sigh. Oh, well!

I was dismayed to find out that the "appointment" Santa wasn't quite as santa-ish as their regular "stand in line for hours" Santa. I guess if you have to wait you get the real deal. This Santa was great with the kids, but a little small. Way to skinny, and I think William was taller than him.

One thing I like about the Santa(s) at the MOA is that they actually take time to visit with the kids. They all sit on the floor and have about a 5 minute dialog before they do the pictures. During this dialog, Santa reminds all the kiddos to be good and mind their parents, and eat their vegetables. Santa asked each kid what their favorite vegetable was:

William: "Peppers." (This kid definitely got the hot and spicy Mexican genes that seemed to skip me over)

Madison: "Broccoli" (also known as trees, it's been her favorite since she was 2)

Caden: "French Fries." (insert head smack)

Yes, I suppose that technically real french fries are a vegetable. I have a feeling that he was talking about the McDonald's variety, though, and I'm not so sure about the vegetable content in those. It got quite the belly laugh out of Santa and a giggle out of Santa's elves, and anyone else that heard him. Yes, Caden is so far my only picky child. Doesn't touch much for veggies, and doesn't eat his dinner (or lunch) half the time. Thankfully, he's a big fan of milk and breakfast cereal, so he won't starve anytime soon.

Here's this years Santa pic, I think it turned out nice! Merry Christmas!

Utter Exhaustion...

2008-12-01T19:11:00.002-06:00

Yikes, so I didn't do so great on the blog front last month... this is such a busy time of year! When I re-entered the work force, I knew that there would be a trade off with my job - the seasonality of our product would allow me to spend lots of time playing with the family in the spring/summer, but time is at a major premium this time of year. I'm ok with this, but after weekends like the one I just had, I really question my sanity. The store that I work for opened at 10 PM on Thanksgiving night and stayed open for 24 hours. I headed over around 8:30 pm and was surprised how crowded the area already was. I planned to stay until around midnight to make sure that things got off to a smooth start, but that was not to be. I didn't get out of there until after 3 AM, and I'd been planning come back at 8 AM - that got pushed back a bit. I had a bit of a run in with mall security, who (being the bullies that they are) were trying to tell customers that they couldn't turn down the road that accesses our parking lot because it was full. (Our store is situated directly behind the outlet mall). Freakin' idiots. They were actually sending people away that were saying they were trying to get to us. It was utter madness, I cannot fathom the number of people willing to go shopping at that ungodly hour, but we made it through. Only a few more weeks, and then we get to make the trip to UT to see Grandma and Grandpa Bradford, The Hensons, and lots of friends - we're ALL very excited for that!

In other news, the television that is up in our room died. It had a nice long life, I bought it with my ex when William was just a baby - it was time to replace it. Brent got a steal of a deal on a 46" Sony LCD (thank you Slickdeals). I have to say that Caden is in heaven not that he gets to watch his Wonderpets in the evenings on HD. Actually, I'm probably lying, I don't think Noggin broadcasts in HD - but you get the picture.

Kids are all doing well. Madison has a swim meet this Saturday and her first piano recital this Sunday. William is done with club swimming and started with the Middle School swim team today. Caden is excited about Christmas. We have an appointment to see Santa and get pics at the Mall of America this Friday - he told me that he want Lightning McQueen and a Butterfly toy (???) for Christmas.

Here's some pics of the kids from Thanksgiving - I wish everyone a safe and Happy Holiday Season!

9 Appointments in 7 Days...

2008-11-13T09:25:00.004-06:00

Yes, I know you always knew I was crazy. I haven't been around much, and this is why:

Since "my" store traditionally is a big crazy blur between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and because I've been putting off several appointments for way too long, last week I decided to just make them all. So I did. 9 appts in 7 days - Caden's 3 year check (2 months late), 4 dentist appts, 2 eye dr. appts (plus another follow up for a contact lens fitting for Madison, an ADD checkup for Madison. All this in addition to our regular hectic schedule of swim team practice, swimming lessons, and piano lessons.

I'm about halfway through it all, wish me luck!

Halloween!

2008-11-08T23:23:00.002-06:00

Sorry for the lack of bloggy news, life has been crazy as heck lately. I promise I'll do some news soon, but for now, here's Halloween pictures. Caden was adorable this year, he was so excited and a week later wakes up each morning asking if he can go trick or treating again :)

He loved pumpkin carving once he got over Daddy scaring him!

Please pray for my Dad...

2008-10-17T23:10:00.002-05:00

I got a call yesterday and learned that my dad is in the ICU.... he has more than one significant health issue going on and could use all the PPT's that you can spare.

My Dad is a selfless and wonderful person, hard working, intelligent, the ultimate problem solver. I'm so much like him in so many ways (both good and bad, I'd say... I definitely got my packrat tendencies from him!)... The compassion and selflessness that he models towards those that he loves is the foundation of the type of person that I try to be. He's one of the good ones, the really good ones, and I'm so lucky to have him. I may not be able to solve all the worlds problems, but he did show me that I can strive to leave the world a better place for my having been in it. Dad, please know that you have done that for me and for countless others a million times over, and you continue to do so every day. I love you.

Update on us and Apple Orchard...

2008-10-13T21:31:00.002-05:00

Sorry for going so long without an update, but it's been a busy several weeks. Business at the store is picking up, swimming is in full force, so we spend several nights per week traveling back and forth to the store. We've managed to squeak in plenty of Fall Fun, and even a trip to the ER on Friday night. I'll give you ONE guess who it was for.... sigh.

Caden had one of his toes very nearly cut off on Friday night, after an unfortunate run in with the recliner that Brent was sitting in. When Brent leaned forward to pull Cade up on his lap, the mechanism under the chair clamped shut, and Caden's poor toe was in the way (he'd been climbing up to get on Daddy's lap). It was absolutely horrible to see his poor mangled toe (I'll leave out some of the words I can say to spare you the visual that still haunts me)... We were at the ER for several hours, but fortunately he was spared any bone damage. But 8 stitches on a little toddler toe is A LOT of stitches to sew a tiny toe back together :(. Caden is fine, of course, resilient as ever. His toe will never be the same, and his toenail bed was damaged to the extent that it'll probably never come back... but he'll be ok.

Now that we have that unfortunate business out of the way, I'll leave you with some pictures from our recent trip to the apple orchard. Mmmmmmm.... Apple Cider and Honeycrisp Apples, I LOVE this time of year!

George...

2008-09-27T08:37:00.002-05:00

Like much of the nation, I've been watching the news and activity warily over the threatened impending economic doom. Economics is not my strong point and I don't know what the answer is, but I truly hope that those that are responsible for fixing it figure it out, otherwise life a year from now could be pretty gruesome. I think George says it best:

Too cute for that suit...

2008-09-19T05:28:00.002-05:00

Caught Caden trying on my swimsuit, I think he wears it better than I do. I think the Cars underwear really "make" the outfit, don't you?

These days in September are always a little hard for me. My dad's birthday was earlier this week, and I enjoyed a nice talk with him. Happy Birthday, Dad! Tonight/Tomorrow marks the 22nd anniversary of my mother's death, and it's hard to imagine that it's been that long. That night is by far my most vivid memory, and one that has and will continue to impact me for the rest of my life. I clearly and vividly remember holding her hand as she passed, and the heartbreak I felt knowing that the world as I knew it was gone. Part of me will always be that 10 year old girl who misses her mom, but another part of me is a different, stronger person for having that experience. I think that it's affected many of the decisions in my life. My sister Liz wrote a beautiful post. Love you, Mom, still miss you.

Thankfully, I have a fun weekend planned to keep my mind occupied. I'm going up North with several girlfriends for a "Girls Weekend"! We'll be staying at a beachfront cabin on Gull Lake at Craguns. Facials, shopping, and probably a few drinks (rare for me). It'll be fun. Brent will be holding down the fort at home, but that's ok - he owes me as he'll be in Vegas on business next week, and I'm still bitter that he's going to one of my favorite places without me!

Birthday Leftovers...

2008-09-17T19:53:00.003-05:00

Here's a few pics from Caden's "real" birthday party. It was tons of fun, we had grilled chicken and beef kabobs (Jo - if you see this THANKS for the idea :), grilled corn on the cob, spinach dip, clam dip, fruit and blueberry dip, and of course, a CARS cake. Actually, it was a pull apart cupcake cake, which ROCKED! No mess, no knife. Plus I bought the premade ice cream cups, so we didn't even need plates! These things were made for slackers like me.

Cade got his plasmacar, and LOVES it. Other big hits were sidewalk chalk, more CARS merchandise, and a huge semi that holds all his matchbox cars.

Fogo De Chao

2008-09-14T10:04:00.003-05:00

Oh, my.

Last night we had a rare treat. Brent's aunt generously offered to have all 3 kids come and spend the night. Woo hoo! We decided to take advantage of the situation and planned a nice evening out, with dinner and a movie... well, actually since we had to make our reservations last minute, it was movie and a dinner as our reservations were not until 9 PM.

Brent had been wanting to see Death Race. It had the dude from The Transporter in it, which I'd enjoyed, so I thought "what the heck". I'm pretty eclectic in my movie tastes, but I tend to squirm a bit during those with loads of gratuitous violence and mayhem. This one, I actually really enjoyed. Wow, that sounded bad. It's apparently a remake of an older movie from the 70's that I never saw. Without going into details, it's kind of a "The Fast and the Furious meets Gladiator"... though not as good as either of those, it still kept my attention for an hour and a half, and I left saying, "that was pretty good".

We'd made reservations for a place that opened up last year in downtown Minneapolis. We've been hearing RAVE reviews about it, and thought it was time to check it out. Fogo de Chao DID NOT let us down, wow, I think I have a new favorite. Fogo De Chao is a churrascaria, which is a Brazilian Steakhouse.

When you are seated, you first had the option to head to the salad bar, which I will tell you is AMAZING. Be careful not to fill yourself up, although I could easily do so with all the wonderful things they have. My personal favorites were the wedges of baby swiss cheese, fresh crispy asparagus, marinated palm and artichoke hearts, and OF COURSE the makings for fresh caprice salad (fresh mozzarella balls, sliced tomatoes, and basil). Heavenly.

After we each had a modest plate from the salad bar, the real fun began. I know of a few of my readers are vegetarians, so I hope this doesn't gross you out too much, but I loved it :)

At your table you each had a special "coaster" that was red on one side and green on the other. If you turn it to green, you pretty much immediately have a string of gauchos presenting their hot sizzling spits of various cuts of meat directly to your table. You can say yes, or pass and go on to the next. They carve it table side and you use a little set of tongs to grab it from them as they slice. It's all you can eat, and as soon as you have enough on your plate, you flip your coaster over to red. When you're ready for more, flip it back to green. flip. repeat. flip repeat, and so on until you're DONE.

All the meats were absolutely wonderful, although I was full well before I'd had to chance to try everything that I'd wanted. I got a lot of my taste preferences from my Dad, and this meat was hot, rare, and well seasoned, just how I like it. There was no steaksauce (A1 sauce is an atrocity in my mind), and after the meal I asked Brent if he'd considered asking for it (he has ruined many cuts of meat by pouring that stuff on, much to my chagrin). He said that he didn't cause he didn't want to get kicked out :).

My personal favorites were the filet mignon (of course), Frango (wonderfully seasoned chicken drumsticks), and Beef Ancho (the prime part of a ribeye).

They also brought a few additional sides to the tables. There was a fun chewy bread that had cheese baked inside, which was enjoyable. Buttery toast with paremsan, which was nice. The mashed potatoes were just "eh" and I chose not to waste any of my carbs on them. I thought they were fake, but Brent was tacky enough to ask while were leaving and they assured him they were not, so they must have just been overly whipped. He just wanted to settle a score with me, but I was mad at him for asking :). They also had fried bananas, which I was skeptical of since I kind of have a "thing" against cooked fruit (except applesauce) - I did try a tiny bit. The flavor was strong, and they were hot, and not really my thing.

All in all it was wonderful food and a very nice evening. We'll definitely be back, but at $47 a person, it'll be a special occasion type of place for us.

We're off to pick up the kids in a little bit, and then I'm going to try to talk Brent into going furniture "looking" - we desperately need a new kitchen table set and bedroom set. Have a happy Sunday!

Who should you vote for?

2008-09-09T10:13:00.004-05:00

Ok, this is not the best of these tests I've seen, but it's only 25 questions, so I took it anyways. Brent and I "fight" frequently over politics, but in all honesty I take the opposite side mostly to antagonize him. :) I am SO split on the major issues, that there's no candidate that I'm completely happy with. I suppose most people are in that predicament.

Your Issue Profile: 60% Obama, 40% McCain

Truth be told, you're not really satisfied with either of the candidates.

You could vote for either of them. You are the typical coveted swing voter.

You may want to narrow yourself down to a particular set of issues in order to pick your president.

Or start looking at third party candidates. One of them might suit you better.

Should You Vote for Obama or McCain?

The second one I took was even fewer questions regarding fewer issues and clearly left me in favor of Obama. Oh, bother.

You Should Vote for Barack Obama

Where you and Barack Obama agree: Cuba - Education - Global Warming - Health Care - Immigration - The War in Iraq - Taxes

Where you and Barack Obama disagree: Abortion

Who Should You Vote For?

The wheels on the bus...

2008-09-06T00:24:00.002-05:00

It's that time of year again. Freshly sharpened pencils, a backpack full of notebooks, binders, and glue sticks. $120 calculators that will be lost by Christmas, but they have. to. have. A closet full of new clothes. Anticipation and excitement from the girl and a resigned acceptance from the boy. Madison spent an obscene amount of time organizing and re-organizing all of her school supplies. William took his all to the open house and left the whole shebang in his locker, backpack and all.

The kids started back to school on Tuesday. Madison loves it and William's tolerating it. I haven't decided if he *really* dislikes school, or if he just thinks that as a cool 7th grader he's just supposed to say that he does.

Caden had a fun time going to the open houses. He took his little "Cars" backpack, filled with the necessary supplies. Toy cars, a crayon, and some animal crackers. He was just disappointed that he didn't get to ride on the bus. 3 more years!

Here's a few pics... I'm lucky to have gotten one of William at all, he told me in no uncertain terms that there was no way he was posing for one outside where his friends could see...

Happy Birthday, Dear Caden...

2008-09-04T22:32:00.003-05:00

My boy is 3. I look at him and can't believe that my "baby" is now a little boy. He's potty trained, as of a few weeks ago, he's smart, he's funny, he's a handful, and he's mine. He had a good birthday, and is having a small family party on Sunday. We did take him out to Chuck E. Cheese's (aka Chucky Cheezits) tonight, which was followed by a small cupcake party and opening a few small gifts. He was thrilled :)

Happy Birthday, Sweet Boy!

A Fair Day...

2008-09-03T14:55:00.000-05:00

Bear with me, I’m way behind on posts! The last few weeks of summer were nice and busy, and chock full of fun summer activities. The Minnesota State Fair is one of my very favorite places to go. I’ve been living here for over 13 years now, and have only missed it twice (with protest). This year, we had a perfect day – the weather was a mild 70-something (since it’s in August, it’s not uncommon to hit high 80’s or low 90’s during the fair), and we all had a lot of fun.

Caden and Daddy watching the parade:

Caden LOVES corn!

Madison had a “Fair-Do” done, and loved. Here she is BEFORE the Fair-Do:

And AFTER! She chose to do it in SeaDevil colors J

We spent a good deal of time climbing on tractors and ATV’s…

Taking a Break…

Fun at the GIANT SLIDE!

Caden is SUCH a chick magnet!

It was a fun day at the fair!

Beware of Falling Knives...

2008-08-28T09:19:00.003-05:00

Phew. It's been a busy week or two, full of end of season swim parties, trips to the State Fair and the waterpark, back to school open houses and other such fun. I'm several posts behind on this blog, so please stay tuned for updates on what we've been up to.

Since we don't have enough going on, Madison thought she'd add a little excitement yesterday with HER first ever trip to the emergency room. I guess she thought she'd better catch up with her little brother or something. She had a run in with a knife while helping clean up the kitchen last night. Despite much counseling and education on knife safety, I guess some sort of instinct kicked in when she dropped a knife, and instead of jumping back and letting it fall, she tried to catch it. I think that it caught her instead.

I was up in the master bathroom unclogging a drain and heard her scream and then come running yelling "I cut my hand open REALLY bad!!" My heart dropped, and as I rushed out, she was running into my bedroom, blood everywhere. I ushered her into the hall bathroom, and got it wrapped up as tight as I could in a towel, sent her to the car and ran outside. Thankfully my neighbors had just gotten home, and I asked them to go pick up Caden, who needed to be picked up from daycare.

I called Brent, who was still about 45 minutes from home, and told him to hurry home to get Caden, and to have the neighbors check to see if I'd left the water running up in the bathroom. (I didn't, but thought for sure I had).

We were at the ER for 3 hours, and Madison now has 6 stitches on her left hand/index finger. It was quite deep, and they were worried that she'd cut into the tendon, but luckily that was not the case. She did SUCH a great job, all things considered. She was VERY scared to get the stitches, and I had to work very hard to keep her calm, but she didn't scream though she did shake and cry a lot. Poor girl. (Dad, it wasn't NEARLY as bad as the great splinter episode of 2006.)

We just picked up a digital piano for her yesterday, as she's starting piano lessons in a few weeks and one of the FIRST things out of her mouth after it happened was if she's still be able to play the piano, she was very worried.

After we left the hospital, we stopped at Target to pick up some wound care supplies, some blood cleanup supplies, and I told Madison that she could pick out a carton of ice cream as well. I jokingly told her that if she wanted some ice cream, all she had to do was ask!

Speaking of Ice Cream, I found something very disturbing in the ice cream isle. I remember reading a story a month or so ago that manufacturers were reducing the quantity of a lot of their products to cope with increased production costs. You know, you get 26 diapers instead of 32, but the price stays the same. Hrumph. Well, Caden's out of diapers, so I was fine with that, but they did it to my ICE CREAM! I call foul.

Almost all of the cartons were these smaller cartons, which are 1/4 of a quart smaller than the old size. Darn them.

After our ice cream treat, I sent everyone to bed (it was nearly 10:30), and went to work on the carpeting, which was riddled with 100+ blood droplets that adorned our staircase, hallway, and the entrance to our master bedroom. That's ok, it needed a good scrubbing anyhow.

Benign...

2008-08-20T18:28:00.002-05:00

Thanks to all for all the happy thoughts, they paid off. All 3 biopsies taken came back normal. Brent does have a condition in his lower esophagus that they will have to keep an eye on, as it is something that over time can turn into cancer. He still has to meet with the surgeon to decide what to do with the "mass", but it's apparently not anything to worry about at this time.

Thanks again to everyone for the well wishes, I appreciate it more than you know.

Freaking Out.

2008-08-19T13:11:00.003-05:00

Got a text from Brent. He hadn't heard, so after my harassing him to do so, he contacted the hospital to see if they had the results yet. They said they are back, but they can't be given out over the phone. He has to wait and get them at his appointment which isn't even scheduled yet. I think the specialist he's supposed to see is on vacation.

I'm petrified and shaking, as I can't see how this can possibly be good. If the biopsy were normal, they would have told him so. Right??? But on the other hand, if it's serious, I'd think they'd have called to get him in with someone right away... Right???

To add insult to injury, I can't get ahold of Brent on his cell phone, so I can't even pump him for more details. So here I sit, alone at work, trying to smile at customers when they come in, with tears running down my face. My relief comes in soon, thank goodness.

Thanks to everyone that has offered their PPT's and please keep them coming. I feel like the world is crashing down around me, and I'm trying to stay positive, but I'm having a hard time. I am a major control freak, and I can't stand not being in control of a situation... especially one like this.

My hero...

2008-08-16T22:34:00.002-05:00

Like much of the country, I have been caught up with Olympic Fever for the past week or so. And for the past week or so, the focus of my attention has (surprisingly) been focused on swimming. And on one swimmer in particular.

Tonight, he achieved the unthinkable, beating out Mark Spitz and taking home EIGHT gold medals in a single Olympic Games. I haven't missed a single race. It has been amazing to watch, and I'm so glad that my kids were able to see it too. Way to go, Michael, now go rest, you've earned it.

Happy thoughts needed...

2008-08-13T10:29:00.002-05:00

As recently mentioned, Brent went in to have surgery done yesterday. Prior to the surgery, they did an endoscopy through his throat/esophagus down to his stomach to look for a certain type of hernia that would exclude him from having this experimental procedure done.

During the endoscopy they found a tumor in his stomach. They took a biopsy and had to abort the procedure... It will take 4 days to get the results back, but they did an ultrasound to make sure there weren't any other growths on the outside of the stomach and didn't find anything. He will be seeing a specialist next week, as either way they'll need to do surgery to remove the tumor.

Brent has been very happy with the Dr.'s and staff at the U of M and Fairview. The Dr. said that someone must be looking out for him, because if he hadn't signed up to do this study, it wouldn't have been found and we wouldn't have been able to get a jump start on it. Whatever "it" is.

Please keep us (especially Brent) in your thoughts... I am trying not to freak out about it, and am being careful not to stress Brent out, but this type of thing terrifies me so I'm struggling.

Happy Birthday, Mom...

2008-08-12T13:41:00.004-05:00

Just wanted to take a moment today to remember my mom's birthday... She would have been 72 today, it's amazing and saddening that it has been 22 years since she passed away way too young... I look at my kiddos and wistfully think about how it would feel to have her see them and love them as I know that she would have. I regret that they never had a chance to meet her. I talk about her a lot, and show them pictures... they know how important she was to me, but it's just not the same. We are so lucky to have had multiple other surrogate grandmothers step in for them over the years, and we are so thankful for them and for loving my kids as if they were there own grandchildren.

Lucy Cuen Bradford was an amazing woman. In a word, beautiful. Funny. Smart. Witty. I got her bad temper. I think mine might be a little worse than hers, actually. She spoiled me rotten. I was her baby, the youngest of 8, and although I know she loved us all, she always made me feel like I was her favorite.

I regret that I never had the chance to talk to her as an adult... Adult relationships are so different than childhood relationships... I wonder what I could have learned from her. I think in some ways, having lost that opportunity with her has changed how I treat my relationships with my own children. I consciously try to have deeper and more meaningful conversations with them, and hope that they take what I have to say with them...

Happy Birthday, Mom. I love you. I miss you.

Me and my mom... ignore the birth year, I've got it wrong!

My mom and my Grandma Angela (my namesake)...

My Mom, Dad, Older Sister and I the summer I was born... 1976...

Beautiful...

The following pictures blatantly stolen from my sister's blog... Thanks's Liz!

My mom with my oldest sister Felicia

I'd never seen this picture before, I presume it was from my mom's first marriage - beautiful!

National Night Out and Weight Loss Woes...

2008-08-06T11:58:00.002-05:00

To start out, we had a great time at National Night Out last night. A bunch of neighbors got together to BBQ and have fun with eachother, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. It was nice to sit and relax on a warm summer evening and chat with friends and neighbors while watching the kiddos run around and splash around on the water slide. I didn't take any pictures, unfortunately, but actually it was kind of nice to just sit and relax instead of running around with my camera :).

A couple months ago I heard about a weight loss study for Vbloc, which is an experimental device and process where they surgically implant leads that attach to your vagal nerve. You then wear an external device that gets turned on and off intermittently to block "hunger" impluses that are sent to your brain. The trials so far have had good success, and I'm very interested to see what happens with this study. Brent and I both qualified on paper for the study, and we both attended an informational meeting a month or so ago. One of the requirements for the study is that you can't have a friend or relative that is also participating in the study, so we knew that only one of us would be able to do it. I had also been told be 2 doctors (including the one in charge of the Vbloc study) that in my situation he recommended Gastric Bypass instead of "messing around" with an experimental study. It was recommended because of my age and the fact that Gastric Bypass would likely immediately "cure" my diabetes. In other words, I needed to fix it NOW. So... the decision was made to have Brent go forward with the Vbloc study and I would pursue Gastric Bypass. He has surgery scheduled for later this month.

So... I went to an informational meeting yesterday afternoon on Gastric Bypass (and the lap band too) and I'm more wary and confused than ever. I knew it would be a huge lifestyle change, but I really had no clue how huge it would be. Hearing all the changes that I would have to make also made me realize how incredibly much my life is impacted by food. I love food. I love serving food. I love baking food. I love the taste of food. I am so sad at the prospect that so much of that part of my life will have to change dramatically if I move forward with this. But I also know that all needs to change anyways if I want to live a long and healthy life.

But I am also scared. I was diagnosed with diabetes at age 30. I SUCK at managing it. I don't have the discipline to manage it. I KNOW that the long term effects of diabetes are horrible, but that hasn't made me change my habits. But, while Gastric Bypass would probably "cure" it, the time, effort, and discipline needed for it to be effective seems so daunting to me. I'm not sure that I can do it. I'm not sure that I WANT to do it, and that SUCKS because I know the consequences :(. My mom died way too young and I had to grow up without her. The idea that I could be on the road to doing the same thing to MY kids... breaks my heart! Why isn't that enough to kick me in the ass and make the changes that I need to make?

I am terrified that I will go through it, and then just learn how to cheat and gain all the weight back. I know that happens with lots of people. I'm terrified that I could be the 1 in 200 for the mortality rate for bariatric surgery.

It's not that I haven't tried to lose weight. I have, but have never found a lifestyle that I can maintain long term, I always gain it back. It's been about 4 years since I've lost any significant amount of weight, which was around the time that I started having thyroid problems. I wonder if I use that as an excuse... but I'm scared of trying to lost the weight on my own again, the thought of all that effort and not seeing any results is terrifying to me.

And to tell the truth... I'm afraid that I will lose JUST enough weight to lower my BMI below the threshold where I qualify for Gastric Bypass! How horrible is that???

Obviously I'm not ready yet... but I'm going to fill out the paperwork and send it in and see where it goes. Part of the process is a psychiatric evaluation, and hopefully we'll get me sorted out there...

If anyone has any experience with gastric bypass or other weight loss remedies, please sound out!

Stranded at the drive-in...

2008-08-04T11:02:00.003-05:00

Ok, so we weren't really stranded, but I couldn't resist the images of John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John that phrase brings up.

I have always favored drive in movie theaters. My earliest movie memories both take place at the Drive in Movies... they were:

AND

I don't remember much about Indiana Jones, but I remember EVERY detail of Gremlins... I would've been around 8 years old... The Gremlins terrified me, but I LOVED Gizmo. I did pretty good with the movie until the very end when they said to make sure you looked under your bed for Gremlins, then I burst into tears.

This was the first weekend in a LONG time that we didn't have somewhere to be at the crack of dawn on one or both mornings... No early morning swim meets, no plans to go boating, my store was staffed and running smoothly... Perfect weekend for a trip to the drive in! We usually go 3-4 times in the Summer, but this has been a busy summer, and I couldn't believe it was August already and we hadn't gone once!

So we packed up Brent's truck with lawnchairs, pillows, blankets, and a cooler and we set off. Our favorite drive in is Vali-Hi drive in. The price is right - a triple feature for $7.50, and kids 12 and under are FREE. They let you bring in BBQ grills and your own food, and have a decent concessions stand. We always arrive soon after the box office opens so that we get a decent spot, it fills up FAST! The kids love running around before the movie, and there's something relaxing about sitting on a lawnchair in the back of your truck on a warm summer's night while the kids toss a frisbee over on the grass.

The lineup for this weekend was The Dark Knight, Hancock, and Get Smart. We'd already seen The Dark Knight, but didn't mind seeing it again. We were looking forward to seeing Hancock, but everyone but Brent fell asleep during The Dark Knight, so we didn't end up staying. The theater is about 50 minutes away, so we wouldn't have gotten home until around 3 AM if we stayed, so we decided to just wait for video on that one.

Here's some pics from our evening, I took them with Brent's new iPhone, and was pleasantly surprised with the quality of pics... not bad for a camera phone!

2008 Long Course State Championships

2008-07-31T20:19:00.002-05:00

This first picture is actually from Finals last week and was taken by my friend and fellow swim mom, Tammy... I LOVE this picture, it's probably one of my most favorite of him ever, and definitely my favorite swimming one.

Here it is with a little edits, but I think I like the original better...

What a week! Our state fun started on Tuesday with a "carbo loading" spaghetti dinner with about 70 swimmers/family members. It was a blast, even if I did have a heart attack at the prospect of Caden spilling cherry slushie all over the Roberts' white carpet!

The highlight of the evening was the gift bags assembled by the coaches, which included an AWESOME apparel item, along with cool "good luck" gifts from the other families. Thanks to Tammy for some of these pictures, as my camera's battery died! (by the way Tammy, in my family we call that ocean salt stuff "slick sh!t" - well... I guess I call it that, my kids know better even if I don't!)

The jackets are SO cool! We had to deal with a tad bit of little sister jealousy when we got home, but she's happy and proud of William like the rest of us, and was cheering for him louder than anyone today.

Today I drove William to Rochester and back (about 4.5 hours total) so that he could swim in the boys' 11-12 400 Medley Relay. I teased him that he was lucky I liked him enough to drive 5 hours to watch him swim a 2 minute race... BUT he knows as well as I do that I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

This is most of the boys' relay team, chatting before warmups:

Getting ready for warmups...

I had my camera in moron mode, as usual, and ended up with a bunch of blurry pics... but I kinda liked this one, it makes him look like he's going SUPER fast (he was cruising pretty good, but was "just" warming up)...

THE BIG RACE!

William's Splits:

This was a good time for him! It's not an official time, since it was a relay start, but his first 50 was his fastest ever by about 1.5 seconds, which was AWESOME. His 100 was within .61 seconds of his fastest time from last weekend, so all in all, it was a great race!

We had to come straight back home today, since I have to work... We hadn't planned on him making the state team, so we had to do a lot of last minute rearranging in order to accommodate it but we are so glad for the opportunity. Most of the team will be heading up tomorrow for the weekend. GOOD LUCK SEA DEVILS!!!

WILLIAM'S GOING TO STATE!!!!!!!!!!

2008-07-27T21:32:00.003-05:00

YAY! Omigosh... what a day today was! We had a great weekend in Winona, and the kids both did SO incredibly well at A/B/C Finals. Madison got her chance to swim today and dropped a good chunk of time on her 50 Free! Way to go Madison!

William had another phoenomenal day as well, dropping time on everything that he swam.

Shortly after leaving the meet, we received a call from William's coaches... based on his performance this weekend, he was invited to accompany the team to STATE championships this coming week in Rochester! He and I will be driving down this Thursday so that he can swim the 100 Breast leg of the 400 Medley Relay. He is so incredibly excited, and I think that I am possibly even more excited than he is... He has come so incredibly far over the past year. To think at this time last year, he was so far from even a C time, and now he's going to STATE! We are so thankful for this opportunity, I think that it will be great for him to see first hand what this is all about, and to help him visualize his goals to qualify for state on an individual level in the coming seasons. I seriously get teary eyed thinking about it, he has worked so hard for this and I am so proud of him.

Caden and Brent joined us at the pool today, and thankfully there was a playground on site to keep the boy entertained.... he had a blast! Please ignore the fact that he's wearing Madison's shirt.... that's what happens when you leave your husband behind to get the little one dressed and checked out the of hotel...

After leaving the meet, we took a drive up the bluffs that overlook Winona... it was so beautiful, and I couldn't pass up a photo op... Excuse William's closed eyes, I am too jittery to mess around with photoshop to fix right now :)

Then on the way home, we had to stop by an AWESOME toy store that one of the other swim mom's told me about - wow! This place was SOOOOOOO cool. Lots of vintage and up to date toys, but the best part was this amazing carousel inside the store... Each "horse" was a unique hand carved and painted animal, and it was seriously one of the coolest things I've seen. William wouldn't ride on it, but Madison, Cade, and Brent all took a turn... Caden rode the "dwagon" and Madison the unicorn.

They also had this AWESOME ride on "car" called the PlasmaCar - wow, was that thing ever cool! Caden jumped on and was whizzing around like a pro immediately, and the older two were impressed as well. I really have no clue how it works, but it was fun to watch the kids zooming and spinning around! I am SO getting one for Caden's birthday in Septemper.

Ok, that's probably an overload, but it was a BUSY day! Hope ya'll have a GREAT WEEK!!

Winona... Day ONE!

2008-07-26T14:16:00.003-05:00

Oh. My. Gosh. What a GREAT day we had at the Swim Meet today. William swam 4 events. He has 3 more tomorrow, and Madison has 2 tomorrow. MY SON dropped MEGA time in every event he swam, including 10 SECONDS in the 100 Breast, and 14 seconds in the 400 Free! I am SO proud of him! He took 1st place in his division for the 100 Breast, and 2nd Place in the 200 IM. I left before the placings were finalized for the 400 Free, but I know he did well on that one too. Great Job William!!!

He was very focused for the meet, and he had me razor shave his head for the meet last night. He also wore his fast skin (a special swimsuit) for the first time, and WOW!

Here's some pictures from today. I've decided that it's MUCH easier to take pictures in natural light (outdoors), I love the colors, and I didn't have to do a darn thing to get them! I'm always fiddling around with my camera setting to get the right balance under the horrible lighting in most indoor pools. And since I really haven't the slightest clue what the heck ISO, White Balance, and F Stops are, it's pretty much a crap shoot.

Here's my baldie...

Getting Ready...

He was so fast on his breaststroke today I had a hard time getting a pic! I have about 8 of these pics, I was too slow to get him, yay!

Backstroke...

Freestyle...

I was thrilled to get a call from California during the meet. I have a new niece! Welcome to the world Madilyn Rose, and Congrats to Ray and Tracy!

The Great Shave Down...

2008-07-26T14:01:00.005-05:00

This weekend is A/B/C Finals for our team's swim club. We'll be in Winona Friday-Sunday, but any would-be burglars (since I'm sure they would be reading my blog) should know that:

1 - My only valuables (computer, ipod, and camera) are with me.
2 - Our house is being watched by 3 very ferocious labrador retrievers (and our neighbor), and...
3 - one very ornery cat named Jack. Jack is a very loving kitty to his family, but he has been known to attack unsuspecting visitors, so proceed with caution. Don't forget to take out the garbage, we forgot to haul it before leaving.

William was very excited because I'd promised him that he could shave his head bald for the occasion. This is a long standing ritual that many swimmers (typically male :) - do for the last big meets of the season.

Elm Creek Park Reserve

2008-07-25T13:55:00.002-05:00

This is one of my favorite things about summer... There's a great sand bottomed pool about 15 minutes away. You can get a family pass for $20, and then visit as often as you'd like. We go at least once a week during the summer! Here's a few pictures from our most recent visit... And before anyone tells me that Caden needs a haircut, I took him on Thursday after looking at these pictures!

Foot Loose and Polyp Free!

2008-07-18T10:57:00.003-05:00

I have had a bad week. A very bad week.

1. A close friend had a tragic experience in their life, where a close friend of hers was the perpetrator/victim (??? can you be a victim in this scenario... I'm not sure I think so...) in a horrendous murder/suicide, which included the attempted murder of a 6 year old. I was with her when she found out, and it was and is a horrible experience.

2. I found out that my ex quit his job, which puts child support in jeopardy. Thankfully his is working with me on it and actively pursuing employment so I am hopeful that this will have little affect on our Standard of Living, but I'm slimming down the recreation fund for now anyways.

3. My computer crashed. Crash. Boom. Gone. Won't turn on. Thankfully, I have a "Computer God" for a husband, and he is fixing it (something to do with the processor blah blah blah). He was able to get the data off my hard drive today and out onto our backup drive. But not before the poor guy had to put up with a full blown tantrum (crying hysterically, kicking, pounding fists, etc.) the other night at the possibilty that I may have lost about 3000 digital pictures, HD home movies, important work stuff, important swim club stuff (omigosh, how would I have recreated all that volunteer hour tracking!)... After we knew the hard drive was ok I got a lecture about that fact that I had nearly 100 GIG of pictures/video and other treasured files that I haven't been bothering to backup onto our massive NAS drive. Ok, lesson learned.

4. On Monday I began preparing for my first ever colonoscopy. Don't worry, I'll spare the gory details, but it really wasn't as bad as I was expecting. So I had to follow a low fiber diet for 2 days, and then a clear liquid diet the 3rd day. Oh. My. Gosh. The low fiber diet wasn't too bad, there were still plenty of things I could eat. But the liquid diet day sucked. I was cranky and crabby, and that evening is when my computer crashed, so the fact that I hadn't eaten anything substantial that day probably contributed to the tantrum mentioned above (or at least that's what I'm telling myself and my poor husband). In the evening I hat to gulp down 64 ounces of gatorade mixed with 2 bottles of Miralax... now THAT was fun. Plus, I'd asked Brent to just take the kids out to McD's or somthing (had to be somewhere that I didn't care about going so that I wouldn't get sadder). Instead he picks up a Papa Murphy's pizza and cooks it at home, smelling up the whole house. Hrumph.

Anyways... After my completely CRAPPY week (no pun intended), I was fully expecting to find my insides riddled with polyps at my appointment yesterday, which would of course require an emergency colonectomy and I'd end up with one of those bag things that you have to empty. Yes, I know that's quite pessimistic, and that the power of positive thinking can go a long way, but I was still convinced. Much to my surprise, my colon was BEAUTIFUL! Did you know there was such a thing as a beautiful colon? Perfectly clean and not a single sign of a nasty polyp anywhere! I was truly amazed, and I guess I'll have to start obsessing about something else. I don't have to go back for 3 more years, YAY!

We're going to see The Dark Knight tonight to celebrate. I've been looking forward to this movie for AGES. Have a great weekend!

4th of July

2008-07-15T07:23:00.003-05:00

We spent a long weekend camping up at Crosslake for the 4th of July. Well... really it was our neighbors doing the camping, we stayed on our boat but spent plenty of time hanging out at their campsite, but then had the comfort of beds and air conditioning on our boat once we settled down for the night.

Here's some pictures of my boys on the boat:

And my drama queen...

Playing in the lake...

Honey, Can you watch Caden while I make dinner?

Where's Caden going?

Honey???

That's ok... William to the rescue! (weightlifting and swimming does a body good!)...

my two boys...

Sam...

Playing Frisbee...

Madison at the campfire...

It was a good trip. No one fell into the campfire or off of the boat, and everyone came home with all limbs attached. And I only had one spider meltdown when I spotted one on my leg. I call it success.

Gotta Dance, Gotta Sing, Gotta Come and Do that Party Thing!

2008-07-10T19:40:00.002-05:00

Phew! Madison's birthday party was a few weeks ago, but I'm still recovering I think. We had 12 girls (ages 5-9) over for a party and sleepover, and wow, what a trip that was. I think I'll scale it back next year, although I'm surprised it was the actual party and not the sleepover part that did me in.

We had pizza and junk food, followed by a pinata and other typical party games. For the pinata, the rule was that no one picked up candy until it was completely empty (to avoid someone getting smacked with the baseball bat... Well, someone forgot to tell Cade, and when the first candy fell, he dashed for it (breaking out of big brother's grasp), and I dove for him to keep him from getting hit. Well I got a nice good whack to my hand, narrowly missing my digital SLR camera... I about passed out, but Brent and I both agreed that better my hand than the camera.

Then there was a non sanctioned candy fight (sigh), and I had to nurse an owie on the noggin left by a root beer barrel. (sigh). We did the cake, which was High School Musical...

and opened a whole bunch of presents...

Then we settled everyone down in front of movie screen to watch High School Musical 2, and I collapsed. I fully intended on getting pictures of them with their jammies and sleeping gear, but I just didn't have the energy and was still nursing an injured hand (which STILL hurts when I try to grasp a heavy object in my right hand, by the way).

The girls all clonked out by 11:00 (not quite early enough for me, but could've been worse), and woke up bright and early to make blueberry pancakes. I am SO glad that my kids are spaced evenly throughout the year, I'm not sure that I could handle 2 parties closer than 3 months apart.

Day Camp Pictures

2008-06-30T13:18:00.000-05:00

I finally got around to uploading the day camp pictures... none were taken by me, thankfully the day camp director got a bunch! There's a few of me and Madison in there, but most are just a nice example of all the fun!

Making Aprons...

Bicycle Safety...

Magic Bubbles...

We are the cougars!!!....

Frog Eye Salad...

Exploding Soda Pop...

Food Shelf Donations...

Mixing Gorp...

Madison hula hooping and jump sticks...

Mad Scientists:

Apple Pies! This was a lot of messy sticky fun!

Craft Straws...

Making Recipe Books - Look how patient I'm being!

And... the program specialists!

Day Camp and Stuffin' the pinata...

2008-06-26T21:25:00.005-05:00

The end of an exhausting week is drawing to a close... I spent the last 3 days as a program specialist at Madison's Girl Scout Day Camp. I've come home absolutely exhausted and cranky each night, but it has been an absolute blast. I've spent the past few days helping 150 girls decorate aprons, making GORP (aka trail mix), making frog eye salad, mini apple pies, recipe books, and preparing our "no cooking bag lunches" for tomorrow's beach day. While I have had a lot of fun, I have also remembered why I didn't become a teacher. I have NO patience, and when I have 15 5-6 year old Daisy Girl Scouts ALL whining to me at the same time that they "CAAAAAN'T do it" (loop their plastic lanyard through their punched holes to make the recipe book), because it's "TOOOOOOOOOOOO HAAAAAAAARD", I had to REALLY struggle not to start whining right back at them. I think my kids would have been amazed to see how well I kept my cool, cause I know I woulda bit their heads off it were my own.

So the last day of day camp is tomorrow, and I'll get home around 5 PM... at 7 PM I have about (12) 8 year old girls coming over for a SLEEPOVER??? Am I NUTS or WHAT?

We went shopping tonight for the party gear, and came home with a High School Musical pinata - Madison and Cade had a BLAST stuffing it. Caden kept shrieking "Tannah Tannah", which is his word for Hannah Montana - he get's Madison's characters mixed up a bit.

As they were stuffing the pinata, Caden reminded himeself every 1.7 seconds to "No eatin' da candy".

I got a little nostalgic while watching them stuff the pinata... As a child, my mom always bought me a pinata for my birthday parties. I have many fond memories of stuffing the pinata the night before my party. That and sorting the beans for the chili she'd make the next day. She always threw a big party in our backyard in San Jose with dozens of aunts, uncles, and cousins. I remember feeling so special and loved. I hope that Madison will look back on these years with the same fondness.

Wish me luck for tomorrow!!! More pictures to come!

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!

2008-06-22T21:15:00.002-05:00

Another fun day of swimming today. William reluctantly added a C-time in the 50 backstroke, and swam within 1 second of his other times, so all was well. Madison has fun no matter what she's swimming, she just loves to swim!

A shout out to Grandma and Grandpa Bradford, Madison wants to thank you for the ADORABLE new "build a bear" - she LOVES IT!!!!

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

2008-06-21T20:38:00.004-05:00

I can't believe that 8 years have passed since my girl was born. I still remember the elation I felt when I found out she was a girl - some of you may recall that I didn't find out that fact until she was born because she was shy and crossed her legs during my ultrasounds. Today while I watched her listen to my iPod at the swim meet her legs up in the air and her underwear showing to the world I couldn't help but reflect upon that memory with fondness.

We spent the majority of the day at a swim meet at the University of Minnesota. This venue is AWESOME!!! It's an indoor 50 meter pool, and it was both kids first time swimming in a pool this size.

Brent and Caden joined us down there later in the day, and there was lots of room for him to run around and get in trouble. It was mostly uneventful, only one scare where he fell down several cement bleacher stairs, but the nice lady in the front row broke his fall. There were a few tears (mostly my own), but a few minutes of cuddle time with Daddy and he lived to give me a heart attack another day.

Both kids did well today. William added another C time under his belt in the 400 Meter freestyle. He was very close in the 100 back, and I'm not convinced that he threw that one on purpose - he was heard saying that he didn't WANT to get a C time in anything backstroke because that would mean he'd have to swim it again. No doubting that he's my son, I felt the same way when I swam, backstroke stinks!

Madison did really well - she got a best time in her 100 Free, and had some fun with the 50 Breast, though she ran up to me when it was done and said she think she "got DQ'd'ed" - but she said it with a smile and was on her merry way.

Here's some pictures from the meet:

The meet ran late, so we had an impromptu present opening in the car - Madison got a new toy called "My Life" - a little handheld game... Up until 3 days ago she wanted an iPod, and then changed her mind... I wonder if she'll realize when she's older that the iPod was about 3 times as much money... we sure ain't complaining! She did get some new clothes too, which evened the score:

Then we headed to Old Country Buffet for dinner, although William tried his best to convince her to choose Khan's Mongolian BBQ instead... But all you can eat stirfry up against all you can eat ice cream??? Forget about it!

At OCB, Caden gave us yet ANOTHER classic moment. He went to pick up a slice of pizza, and got a gob of pizza sauce on his hand. "Puck", says Caden. Except the Puck really started with an "F". Unfortunately, this has happened with him before, so I was not entirely shocked, and knew from experience that reacting strongly would only make it worse. I simply and sternly told him that was not a nice word, and to please not use it again.

Not 15 seconds later, he was taking a bite out of a corn on the cob, and corn juice squirted in his face. "Dammit", says Caden.

I'm sorry, this time I could NOT help it. Brent and I both turned our faces to silently laugh. Then we told him that was a naughty word too and to please not say ANY naughty words. His next exclamation awhile later was "Holy Cow", so hopefully he got the message this time.

I know it's not funny, and that a toddler with a potty mouth may be hysterical, but a child with a potty mouth is annoying. I know that we need to nip this in the bud. I know that the fact that he can use naughty words like these in context is a poor reflection on our parenting skills. But, it was too ~~damn~~ darn funny.

I'm exhausted and need to get myself to bed. We've got another day down at the U of M tomorrow!

It's a Friendly City

2008-06-19T21:45:00.003-05:00

My little town is self proclaimed "The Friendly City". This motto is inscribed on all of our town signs, and I'd say that overall it's pretty true.

This past weekend was the annual Friendly City Days, comprising of your typical overpriced small town carnival, fireworks, cheese curds, mini donuts and parade. The family spent some time there on Friday burning through carnival tickets and the kids had a good time. Pictures are below, and don't think I'm a bad mom cause there aren't any of William. He's too cool to hang out with us anymore, he was off with his own friends.

Caden LOVE LOVE LOVED the rides, and was his typical beastie terror self not wanting to wait his turn... oh, I love these toddler years... but he had fun!

After the rides, we decided to stick around for the fireworks. I quickly found out that there was no way I was going to stay still enough for decent pictures, so I had some fun with it instead.

Then I decided to take some pictures of Caden. This is the position he assumed the SECOND the first firework boomed and there was no coaxing him out of the position. Funny thing... when they were done he wanted them to start again, go figure!

The next morning we had to get up bright and early for the Hopkins Happy Days swim meet, which was a fun 50's themed meet. It was very small, which means short, which was a nice change. Despite the quick turnarounds on swims (having to swim 3 times in about 20 minutes), William had an EXCELLENT day. He got 4 best times, including his first ever B time in the 50 FREE, wow! I expected his first B time to be in the breastroke, which he has been very close on for a long time. Madison had a more leisurely day, but had fun and did a great job!

Caden kiss it!

2008-06-08T23:20:00.004-05:00

The end of another weekend, and a busy week coming up. My boss will be in town, a swim meet, planning for Girl Scout camp, and our town's carnival type thing (Friendly City Days) including a parade on Sunday that we have an entry in, so I'll be keeping busy.

We had a good weekend. We got some good news late last week. Brent has been interviewing with a company for the past couple of months, and they put through a really nice offer that he couldn't refuse, so he gave notice to his current company on Friday. It's a great opportunity for him, and I'm proud of him, albeit a little nervous - there's some potential for a lot of travel depending on the client that he's working on, so it could mean a lot of changes in our household.

On Friday I took the kids (ok, Caden got left out - he was at daycare and it was nap time) to see Kung Fu Panda, and we ALL loved it. Those that have known me a long time know that I have a soft spot in my heart for pandas (panda bayyyyybeeee), so this was a fun one for me.

I actually saw 3 movies in the theater this weekend, that's likely a record for me. Friday night, Brent and I went on a date and saw The Strangers - pretty creepy and enough to make me double check the security system for the last couple nights. If you like those type of movies, this one's not too bad.

Today we FINALLY took the kids to see Prince Caspian from the Chronicles of Narnia series. We've been wanting to go since it came out, and just haven't had the time. I was quite impressed, and we all enjoyed. it.

Ok, now for the title of this post... This touches on inappropriate to tune out now if you're a sensitive sort... but I just had to mention it because it left me in stitches tonight. Brent and Caden were chilling out on the couch, and Caden was being his usual squirmy beastie self using his Daddy as a jungle gym. He... ummmmmmm.... squashed Brent a little in a sensitive spot and Brent yelped. Since I am trying to raise a sensitive son, I told him to please be careful and that he'd hurt Daddy. Caden is concerned and then brightens and exclaims "Caden Kiss It!!!!" and immediately goes to do so... Brent and I yell "NO!!!!" in unison, confusing the heck out of poor Caden. I about burst a blood vessel trying not to laugh, and I told him that he should just hug Daddy instead and used it as a little personal boundary lesson for him... but after he was in bed, we had quite the laugh over it. If we could all be so innocent.

Back on the boat...

2008-05-28T11:41:00.003-05:00

We took advantage of the long holiday weekend to take the boat out on the river. We had a great time and avoided most of the severe weather that our small town saw this past weekend. Unfortunately, our house didn't fare as well, we came home to some cracked siding and reports of tennis ball sized hail. Thankfully our vehicles were in the garage, our neighbors cars look like someone took a small hammer to it.

The kids were glad to be back on the boat!

Taking Samantha to the island for some relief... she got impatient and jumped out and swam there herself :).

Going through the lock:

Feeding the ducks.... they seemed to like chili cheese fritos the best (smart ducks)...

I'm the king of the world!!!!

Craziness...

2008-05-20T09:38:00.003-05:00

Sorry to have been MIA once again, but it's been a pretty nutty past couple of weeks. Kids have started back to swimming, which means that Mom's Taxi Service is back in full swing. It would be too much to ask to have them practice at the same time, though, so on any typical night, I'm ferrying back and forth between the pool 3-4 times. Fun. Even more fun on the days that Madison has gymnastics because that means I'm basically back and forth between the middle school from 3:30 PM until about 9 pm.

We had our spring/summer home SWIM MEET this past weekend, and let me tell you I am still recovering from it. In addition to all my volunteer coordinating work (upwards of 200 back and forth emails and phone calls last Thursday/Friday), I also am now a certified swim official. The officials are the ones in the white shirts and khaki's that raise their hands to disqualify those swimmers that break one of the MANY MANY rules governed by USA swimming. I am really thinking that I should have my head examined for taking on this role, but I committed myself to it, and need to see it out. It is SO MUCH HARDER than I anticipated it to be! With my swim background, I thought it would be a piece of cake, but I did not anticipate the emotional aspects of disqualifying these little guys that are working so hard. It literally broke my heart. Plus, I am WAY too indecisive and unsure of myself to be playing such an important role. I need to be calm and collected, decisive and firm, but instead I was a MESS and unsure of myself and the calls that I was making, and it was completely obvious. I think the only reason I didn't get fired was because they felt bad for me. I hope it gets easier, otherwise my career as a swim official is going to be quite short.

Now.... the kids!!! Wow, they did SO AWESOME this weekend! One of the downsides of being an official now is that I have NO pictures to show off (sob sob sob), but believe me when I say that they were PHENOMENAL! William got 3 or 4 NEW C times, so he's up to 6 or 7 of them now, and he's close to a B time in a couple of events. For those that have no clue what this means, it basically a way to group the levels of swimmers. For each age group, there are different levels of times, A, B, C, and Champ (which is State). It's very fun to watch them progress and improve and earn faster qualifying times. And my little Madison got her first 2 C times too! She was very excited!

Now, this little one of ours is still keeping us on our toes. I truly cannot believe how much more mischievous and cunning this one is than either of the other two. He is just so curious and gets himself into precarious situations all the time. He can climb up on the counters by himself now (no more need to push a chair over to them), and is constantly raiding the cupboards. He's constantly taking tumbles and falls. He falls down the stairs, he falls off his chair. He climbs into the refrigerator in the garage and pulls the door shut behind him. We had a couple HUGE scares with him over the past couple of days, one of which landed him in the emergency room (all is fine), and another that could have been absolutely disastrous - we're very lucky he's still here with us at all. I will not go into details for fear that CPS will land on my doorstep to swoop him up and give him to someone that can keep him safe. But, I think that the shock and fear took several years off my life. Seriously, I am very tempted to lock him in the dog kennel until Kindergarten. He's supposed to be finally moving into his own room here soon, and the idea has me petrified!! how in the world am I going to sleep knowing not knowing what he might be getting into. I think we'll have to install a camera in his room!

Anyways, I'll try to stay better at updating the blog now that things hopefully will be settling down a little. School gets out soon, and I'll be working less hours this summer again, looking forward to that!

Cheese Art!

2008-05-01T13:20:00.001-05:00

My creative boy really knows how to play with his food.

I'm back! and Madison's Concert

2008-04-30T13:05:00.000-05:00

Sorry I've been MIA around here - I've been Super Busy as of late. Spring Cleaning, Ebay Auctions (can you believe someone bought a "lot" of 14 STAINED Carhartt shirts for $62.49??), and of course the kids started back to swimming - so that's been an awful lot of back and forth taxi driving.

Madison's music concert was 2 weeks ago, and she did SO GOOD! In addition to singing all the other songs, she had a part of a dancing chef, and she also had a solo on one of the other songs. I was SO proud of her, she did GREAT!

"Good Morning, Mama. I stuck."

2008-04-15T13:14:00.002-05:00

Caden is really big into getting himself dressed (and undressed) right now. Over the weekend, I went in to get him up from his afternoon nap to find that he'd undressed himself and tried to put on his Build-A-Bears shirt. He looks at me and says "Good Morning, Mama. I stuck!", and rather than help him I just had to grab the camera first.

Strawberry Shortcake!

2008-04-09T10:50:00.002-05:00

Mmmmmmm.... this has got to be one of the best desserts ever. Strawberries were recently on sale (2 for $5, not bad!), and the sweet aroma stopped me in my tracks as I walked into the store. I love the smell of fresh strawberries.

Now, I'm very particular about how my strawberry shortcakes are made. I absolutely will not buy that weird gel that they sell near the strawberries... I personally think that stuff tastes like strawberry flavored petroleum jelly. ew.

I stick by the method that my stepmom (Hi Suzette!) taught me years ago, it's simple, fast, and best of all, GOOD!

Ok, so you get a nice looking batch of fresh strawberries:

Slice them up, and coat generously with sugar. Don't forget to stir them up:

Cover and refridgerate for at least 2 hours. See how nice and syrupy they get?

And, Voila! Strawberry shortcake!

These critics approve. I'm sure yours will too!

A girl and her dog...

2008-04-03T13:14:00.003-05:00

One afternoon last week, I was ~~scrubbing my bathroom floor~~ playing on my computer, and looked up to this adorable sight. Madison was practicing lines for a solo that she tried out for (found out yesterday that she got it!) for her Spring Concert. Sam the lazy Labrador played her part of a fluffy pillow rather well.

It's a bird.... It's a plane....

2008-04-01T22:44:00.003-05:00

No! It's.....

SUPER CADEN!!!!

LOL... I was messing around on the computer tonight and all of a sudden Caden went running by my office door doing his pretend flying thing with his arms stretched out. Now, usually when he does this he has one of his blankets tied around his neck. This time though, he'd put his new Superman underoos (brought by the Easter Bunny) on over his clothes... I asked the little superhero to pause long enough for me to take a picture and he favored me with some very hero like poses.

So long, Spring!

2008-03-31T21:20:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, I was grilling burgers outside on our grill.

This was the view of our back yard from our kitchen this afternoon.

Nickelodeon Universe!

2008-03-30T20:21:00.006-05:00

I'd promised the kids that we'd do something "fun" to end up Spring Break, so yesterday we found ourselves spending some time at ~~Camp Snoopy~~ ~~The Park at MOA~~ NICKELODEON UNIVERSE!!! You'll have to excuse my confusion, but the amusement park in the middle of the ginormous mall here in MN has undergone a few name changes in the past couple years, so it's hard to keep track of the current name. I'm a bit disgruntled over the whole thing, to tell you the truth, I am a big Snoopy/Peanuts fan. But, I digress....

Nickelodeon Universe is pretty much the same as the other two parks have been... with the unfortunate inundation of everything Nickelodeon plastered, hanging, or embedded on any blank service. Now, I don't mind everything Nickelodeon (Dora and Blues Clues are ok), but I truly truly TRULY dislike Sponge Bob Square Pants. I mean, truly. So that was a bit much for me. The kids seem to like him (it?) though, and we went there for them, not for me... so I coped.

Caden absolutely LOVED the ride that used to be the Frog Hopper... It's something to do with ducks and boats now... He laughed the whole time and then begged to go on it again.

We also learned that our little one is not all that great at waiting for his turn in line. He practically gouged out Brent's eyes trying to get down from his shoulders so he could cut in front of everyone. Here's a picture of him actually waiting patiently for his turn...

While William was going on a few "scary" rides, we killed some time in Lego Land!

We ended the evening with a little ride on Blue's Skidoo... Does it make me a bad mom to a 2 1/2 year old that I have NO idea what the name is of the pink doggie, or that I wasn't even AWARE that there was a pink blue's clues doggie? Or was that just for the ride? I know some of my Sprite friends will be able to set me straight. At home Caden watches Cars, Teletebbies, Cars, Barney, and Cars.

All in all, we had an enjoyable day, and when the kids asked when we could go back next, Brent's face went kind of pale and he muttered something about when hell freezes over... I don't think it was ALL bad myself, but then again I was playing with my camera, not spending 45 minutes in line with a 2 year old... So I'll give him that for now :)

Why I love photoshop...

2008-03-25T11:25:00.003-05:00

Those who know me well know that I've long been interested in photography. Problem is... I'm really not that great at it. Yes, I do have an abundance of great pictures of the kids, but I attribute that more to the quantity of pictures I take than to any skill that I might possess. Odds are, if you take 237 pictures, ONE will turn out good.

Then, there are some days when I can't get a good one to save my life. That's when photoshop comes in handy. In photoshop, you can make gray teeth white, erase stray hairs, make acne go away, erase backgrounds if you want, or even cut off the head in one picture and paste it onto another picture. This last trick is especially good when you have fidgety 7 year old that blinks a lot or a 2 year old with a 3 second attention span.

In photoshop, you can turn these...

Into this!

Yay for photoshop!

Stay tuned, I have more Easter pics coming...

Easter Eggs!

2008-03-22T20:21:00.003-05:00

Ooooh.... well the eggs are colored, the damage was minimal, and I can cross that off my list for another year!!! Phew! I about had a heart attack around Caden with all that dye, but the only thing that got damaged was his pajama top - I can live with that. He kept grabbing the eggs and tossing them in the cups, and grabbing another egg and tossing it on the counter... we ended up with a few cracked ones that will shortly be egg salad. Can we say that he was a little.... eggcited?

Groan.... I know, that was bad.

So, here we go! I'll call this one ANTICIPATION...

Horton, Haircuts, Teeth andTaxes

2008-03-19T10:02:00.005-05:00

Last Friday we took all 3 kids to see Horton Hears a Who. When you first see Horton, Caden was beside himself and yelled "Mommy, it's a COW!!!!".... after shushing him and ignoring the chuckles behind me I told him, "That's not a cow, silly!"... he looks at me, looks a Horton, and then exclaims "It's an ELLIE-PANT, silly Caden"...

It was a very cute movie, and I was quite impressed with Caden's behavior throughout the movie. He's been to a few movies before, the first being "Happy Feet". This one was a disaster and Brent and I took turns with him out in the hallway. We saw Alvin in the Chimpmunks a few months ago, and he did pretty good at that one too.

This is such a big deal for me because Caden is just... BUSY. I outright refuse to bring him places like swim team or gymnastics practice, because he just doesn't have the ability to NOT race up and down the bleachers or make mad dashes for the pool. Those that know me well know that I lack patience, and Caden is as accident prone as they come. Not a good combination. He's had his nose bit by a bird, a black eye, a bloody fat lip, fallen into a campire, scraped up his nose and face, and countless other minor injuries. And really, I'm not an inattentive mom - I keep a good eye on him, but stuff just happens faster than we can react with him. I love this age, they are so darn funny and witty, but I'm just hoping we make it through this summer without him falling out of the boat or being attacked by a flock of angry geese. If that happens, I'll consider it a raving success.

Anyways... I think Caden's tooth is dying. One of his front teeth. Last fall he was running around on the ceramic tile in our kitchen, he slipped, and smacked his mouth on the staircase banister. Ouch. At the time, it was a fat bloody lip and a red bruised area on his gums... No loose teeth, so we didn't go to the dentist. Apparently, he did some damage though, because over the past month Brent and I started noticing that one of his front teeth were becoming discolored.. it's turning grey, and I'm sure it's dying. I made an appointment for him at the dentist, but I'm not optimistic. I'm hoping that he didn't do damage to anything that will affect his permanent tooth. I'm SO bummed about this! I love that age from 2-5 or so where they have these gorgeous perfect smiles. Anyways, here's his new smile - from what I understand it's only going to get worse, and may turn BLACK. ew.

Oh, well. At least I'm good in photoshop, I can doctor up all his pictures for the next few years...

So.... onto haircuts.

I'd been noticing for the past week or two that poor Caden had to tilt his head back in order to look at us, because of his shaggy locks. Plus, he was bumping into stuff, and we all know that he doesn't need any help in the clumsy department. The last haircut he got was at Fantastic Sam's and was an utter disaster. He had to sit on my lap, and refused to wear the plastic cape so we both got covered in hair. He would lean away and tilt away from the stylist, and whip his head around just as she was making a snip. He came out with jacked up crooked bangs, and a little nip on his ear.

So after putting it off for way too long (I ALMOST took the buzzing clippers to him myself) I decided this time to take him to Snipits. Madison has gone to a couple parties there, and I'd liked what I'd seen. Wow, what a difference!!! Snipits is definitely designed with the wee ones in mind. They have small chairs with seatbelts that elevate far enough so they don't have to sit on a booster. There's a nice parent sized chair next to each station so that I don't have to feel like I'm hovering while still keeping a watchful eye. They had a TV at each station with a cute little movie going to help keep their attention. And the stylists are definitely used to working with miniature sized customers. The cost wasn't bad, just about $3 more than I'd usually pay, so I'd say it's definitely worth it!

Caden BEFORE Snipits

Caden AFTER Snipits

I was browsing around on the IRS website this morning, cause I'd heard that the schedule was out there telling us when we could expect our Economic Stimulus Payment. I'm eagerly awaiting this, as Brent got the tax return, and I get the stimulus payment. Mine is already spent, I need to finish paying of a credit card that got built up a little last fall/winter, and it'll probably pay for the kids spring/summer swim team costs too. Anyways, I was glad to find out that we'll be in the first round of payments going out, so should have the money in our account around May 2nd. You can find out when you'll get yours here.

I'm skeptical that this measure is going to do what "they" are hoping it will. While I appreciate the concept, I don't think that it's going to do much to slow down the recession that we're undoubtedly going into.

Warm Happy Thoughts....

2008-03-17T12:14:00.004-05:00

It's yucky outside today. Wet sloshy snow, greyish white sky, yucky muck everywhere. My Kota Kitty would have been 13 today... so, I guess you can suffice it to say that I've got a case of the blah's today.

On the upside, I am wearing a new snazzy green Carhartt t-shirt today, they just started making it in Kelly Green, what better color for St. Patty's day?

We had corned beef and cabbage last night, and Sam the very naughty lab got in big trouble for eating the leftovers (about 1/2 or a large corned beef brisket) while I was upstairs for a moment. You know that she's been up to no good when you find that she's kenneled herself into a self inflicted time out. I was not happy.

Anyways, I'm rambling all over here, but the purpose of this post is to celebrate the fact that while it's gross outside right now....

Isn't that a beautiful thought! These images summon up thoughts of warm summer nights, kids laughing and playing, fuzzy navels, and grilled steaks. The boat will be coming out of storage in a few weeks, and our yearly Memorial Day Weekend boating trip is planned.

Here's a few more happy thoughts.... ignore Brent in the first one, it appears that he is contemplating flipping off our kind neighbor Rob. (This is how these two wave to eachother).

While looking for boat pictures, I came across these pictures from our trip to Lake Superior a couple years ago. The kids look so little!

Duluth Harbor at night...

Keep thinking those warm happy thoughts, Summer will be here soon!

One Dozen....

2008-03-08T09:44:00.003-06:00

One Dozen. Not a big number, really. Not incredibly special in and of itself. A Dozen Eggs. A Dozen Bagels. My personal favorite... a Dozen Roses (red, of course). We all know that things are Cheaper by the Dozen, sometimes even a Dime a Dozen. We've got The Dirty Dozen and a Baker's Dozen, which really isn't a dozen at all, but 13.

My first born baby boy is One Dozen Years Old.

William, I am so proud of you and all that you have accomplished and the person you are and are still becoming. I puffy heart you with sprinkles on top ;).

On William's birthday, we started out the day by making...

Later in the afternoon, we braved the freezing rain and went to Dave & Busters (for those of you that are not familiar with D&B's it's kind of like Chuck E. Cheese's on steroids with good food, a bar, and you can actually redeem those prize tickets for GOOD stuff rather than pure junk). In our family it is reserved for birthdays and special occasions because we drop a small fortune every time we go. Fun was had by all, and Madison donated her tickets to William as a birthday gift, that's my girl!

William also had a party with some friends. They did rather well, spent the evening playing rock band and eating, they were a hoot to watch!

Happy Birthday, William!!!!

Awwww....

2008-02-21T11:57:00.001-06:00

This lion was hurt and dying in the wild, and a woman found him, nursed him back to health, then brought him to the local zoo. Here is the lion's reaction to seeing her for the first time ---

http://www.telestereo.com/Archivos/video.html

Do you C what I C?

2007-12-02T15:52:00.001-06:00

How about TWO C times from TWO great kids!!!

That's right, today both of my little swimmers earned their very first C times, and this momma couldn't be prouder!!

Madison did it first with a C time in the 50 yard backstroke. I am cheating and putting another picture of her swimming from another meet - I didn't take my camera with me today, doh!

William, not do be outdone by his little sister proceeded to drop NEARLY 10 SECONDS on his 100 Breast, earning his first C time too! I was so proud, his breaststroke is improving so much, that's definitely going to his stroke! Yay!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

2007-12-01T21:43:00.001-06:00

It's the first official snow storm of the season! Yay! William was at his dad's this weekend, but the rest of us got out for some fun in the white stuff. We had lots of fun, Cade LOVED the snow, especially being pulled around on the sled.

All bundled up:

Madison's Snow Angel:

Momma, my snow!

Red Cheeks!

I had a hard time getting him to come in, and he wouldn't keep a scarf on his face, so his cheeks were still pink the next day! There's something magical about the first snow, and the kids made me kind of like the stuff again... for now.

Hey Four Eyes...

2007-11-30T15:42:00.001-06:00

My beautiful second born has unfortunately been cursed with my astigmatism and poor vision. A few weeks ago I got a letter from the school saying that Madison had failed her vision test. Off we went to the eye doctor, and today we went to pick up her brand new glasses! She was actually very excited!

I spent a good deal of time telling her how beautiful she looked, and making sure she wasn't concerned. A few minutes later daddy came home and looked at her and said, "Hi, Four Eyes".

(insert head smack)

He did follow up and tell her she looked "cute". I guess that'll have to do, that's a raving complement coming from him.

Here's my sweet girl in her new specs:

Fall Fun at the Apple Orchard

2007-10-21T20:16:00.001-05:00

Yes. I'm a shameful cheat. I changed the date on this so it didn't look like I haven't posted in the past 2 weeks.

~~Last Weekend~~ Today we went to Apple Jack Orchards, and had lots of fun. It was a GREAT day to go, nice and warm. Caden got a haircut this morning too, no more shag.

Isn't he handsome?

In my typical fashion, the kids had to pose for a photo shoot prior to leaving:

Once we finally got out the door, we took the short trip to Apple Jack Orchards. I like this orchard because it's close and fun. I'm too cheap to buy my pumpkins there (egads, do they KNOW that $1/lb makes a VERY EXPENSIVE pumpkin when they pick the biggest one)? So, I buy my pumpkins for $2.99 at the grocery store. Never fear, I still believe in supporting my local apple orchard. I spent well over $50 on pony rides, apple cider, carmel apples, and hayrides!

Caden ran straight for the haypile so that he could roll around and get all dirty. At least he was wearing his Carhartt's!

Then we did pony rides. William was too big for the pony this year, so he walked along Caden instead. Madison and Cade both enjoyed their rides.

All had fun crawling in the tree tunnel thingy...

And of course we had to find out "How Tall This Fall" we all were:

All in all, a GREAT day... and I LOVE their apple cider, yum! I love Fall!

Go William! Or maybe not...

2007-10-14T19:07:00.000-05:00

If I could choose one word to describe myself today, I'd have to choose the word oblivious.

1 : lacking remembrance, memory, or mindful attention
2 : lacking active conscious knowledge or awareness —usually used with of or to

That pretty much sums it up!

William had his first "away" swim meet today, and he did GREAT! Before I go into how absolutely AMAZING he did, I have to tell you a funny little story.

It's the first event of the day. The 200 Medly Relay, which is where each swimmer swims 50 yards of a different stroke. William was on the program as swimming the first leg of this relay, which would mean he was to be swimming backstroke. I missed the swimmers entering the water amidst my own personal chaos - juggling a camera, camcorder, and throwing cheerios at Caden, who I had ~~tied down~~ secured safely into his stroller right next to me. The race starts and here is idiot me yelling and cheering for William, completely oblivious to the fact that everyone else is cheering for someone else.

The first leg of the relay ends and I'm yelling "Good Job William, etc." while throwing more cheerios at Caden and juggling my program and telling Madison to sit down for the 8th time in 2 minutes. My friend Dawn behind me says "Wasn't that Henry?". I look at her in a puzzled sort of way and say, "no, that was William". We proceed to have a short conversation about this, her saying she could've sworn it was Henry, and my nodding and saying, nope, it was William.

I glance up at the blocks, the relay is coming to an end and the last swimmer is getting ready to dive in. Hmmmm.... that last swimmer looks an awful lot like William. Crap.

Out comes the camcorder. Again. I cheer William on. Again. He does a GREAT job. Again. Ok, not really. Henry did a great job the first time.

A little later I'm cheering on other SeaDevils and based on the name on the cap, I AGAIN made the mistake of cheering a boy on by first name. I hear someone else cheer the same kid on using a different name. I'm like, ok... NOT AGAIN - and consult my trusty program. The last name on that swim cap is a last name that I KNOW... but apparently they borrowed the swim cap from a friend, cause that's not the kid swimming. Double Duh.

So, what I learned today is that it is much safer to keep my cheering extremely generic unless I hear someone else using the name first. I spent the remainder of the meet whooping and hollering non specific words of encouragement, and I'll probably do that for awhile. All the kids look the same when they're wearing those darn yellow caps.

Ok, that's enough of my antics, let's get to William. He did great, I can not even describe how proud I am of this boy! This was his second swim meet, and he dropped SO much time!

He swam 3 individual events: 50 Free, 50 Back and 100 Breast. He dropped several seconds on each event. I think he has a real chance of getting some C-Final times this season! Good job, kiddo!

Another brag about my boy...

2007-10-13T22:49:00.000-05:00

I got another fun email about William yesterday, and I feel the need to put it out there. I am so proud of him, though at times I wish he'd show more of this side of him at HOME... he can be a bit too smart for his own good for me. It's not fair when an 11 year old can argue convincingly with you, and actually make sense. Makes my "cause I said so" seem rather weak.

Anyways, this email came from his swim coach :)

Hey…did William say anything about being a “lane leader”? It was so cute…I was giving my description and explaining why I needed lane leaders and what their responsibilities would be, then I announced who would be the leader and the alternate in each lane, when I said William’s name he looked around and then I said yes….you are the only William (last name) I have! He was grinning from Ear to Ear! And it is so cute, he has taken his responsibility very seriously and does a great job keeping his lane in tact!

He has his first meet of the season tomorrow morning, and I don't know who's more excited... him or me! I know it's a bad idea to live vicariously through your children, but I can't help it. He's swimming the 50 back, 50 free, 100 breast (yay! that was my event), and something in the medley relay too. He has improved SO much since last season, I'm excited to see how he does. I'm sure I'll be posting pics tomorrow!

Madison is a bit more laid back about her swimming, she likes to take her times and diddle around. That's ok though, she's having fun with it! She swims in her first meet on Tuesday the 23rd.

Wish us... I mean, William luck tomorrow! :)

Get Ready to GIGGLE!

2007-10-09T17:23:00.000-05:00

Typically large emails that take forever to download and bog down my system irritate me (just a little). At least they do until I've had a chance to watch/view whatever could possibly be taking up 18 meg. Then my irritation goes away. I'm an irritable person by nature, so please don't take offense if you've ever sent me one of these behemoth emails. I promise I've gotten over it and DON'T want you to stop sending them to me! After all, my impatience on the computer doesn't keep ME from sending them to someone else!

My boss sent this one to me today. I've gotten this particular email from a few people now, but I've been so busy that I hadn't taken the time to watch it yet. It took my boss sending it to me to actually WATCH it (just in case it was work related, ya know). I laughed my hiney off and hope that you do too.

For the record... I do think that I said EACH and EVERY one of those things to my kids yesterday... at least twice.

Enjoy!

Told him so!!!

2007-10-04T11:00:00.000-05:00

So... according to the nifty website dateandtime.com, I have been with my ~~darn~~ DEAR husband for approximately 3093 days, 3 hours, 9 minutes and 19 seconds. So that would mean that for the last 3092 days, 3 hours, 9 minutes and 19 seconds I have been complaining about his HORRENDOUS snoring and his habit of not breathing for several seconds at a time and then scaring the snot out of me with a gasping snort every 15 seconds or so. ALL NIGHT LONG.

That's assuming that I waited a full day to start harassing him. Knowing me, that's unlikely.

This mans snores have been responsible for waking my children from a dead sleep (in other rooms), making dogs bark and howl outside, and keeping everyone in a campground awake all night. There are no words to express exactly how horrible his snoring was. I have literally ended up in TEARS down in the lowest level of our house in the dead of the night with a PILLOW over my head over this little problem.

Two nights ago, after years of ~~threatening~~ pleading and begging, my husband went in for a sleep study to confirm what I'd been ~~yelling at him~~ telling him for years. Sleep Apnea. Like Duh.

He must ~~realize~~ think that I'm not so bright, cause at first he tried to tell me that they didn't find anything, and that he had no problems. That was SO not even an option, so I wasn't buying it all? What truly, does he think that I'm that gullible? I am choosing NOT to let him know that last winter when I was REALLY busy at work someone called me on the phone and told me my shoe was untied. That person was 1000 miles away and we were talking on the PHONE... and I still looked down to check. I attribute that to stress and being overworked, it WAS the week before Christmas in a retail store for goodness sakes. Oh, and it doesn't even matter that the shoes that I was wearing didn't have laces.

So, my oh so dear husband got a APAP machine, which makes him look a little like Mr. Snuggleupagus.

How am I supposed to keep my hands off him when he looks so cute?

Last night was our first time with the APAP machine. I'm reserving judgement. The good news: He did not snore ONCE!!! YAY!.

The bad news... I like to ~~bug~~ talk to my husband as we fall asleep. You see, we have this long standing rule that he's not allowed to fall asleep before me, cause if he does than I can't get to sleep. When he's wearing that darn machine he can't talk. Or at least that's what he says.

Also, I had to deal with him tossing and turning all night long and listening to this Darth Vader type breathing whenever he opened his mouth.

So the reveiw's still out, I'll keep ya'll updated. He has an appointment tomorrow, apparently there's something that they might be able to do surgically to help him out. Short of removing a lung or pouring cement down his throat, I have no idea what that might be. And, as much as his snoring drives me crazy, I'm not about to do anything quite that drastic. He drives me crazy but I'm kind of attached to the guy.

JACK ATTACK

2007-10-02T20:18:00.001-05:00

We had a new member join our family last month. Earlier this Spring, my beloved Dakota, aka "Kota Kitty" died at age 12. I was heartbroken and was promised that I could get a new kitty at the end of the summer after we were done with vacations for the year. Well... we ALMOST made it. I heard of a litter that was ready to go home at the end of August, but we had to pick up the kitty right away. Only problem is that we were planning on going out on our boat/camping with neighbors for a long weekend that coming weekend.

Hmmmm.... our boat has PLENTY of room. The kitty is small. Yes, you see where I'm going.

I called up Brent and he has a way of knowing when I want something. Maybe it's because I'm really pleasant and nice or something. He always knows when somethings up if I'm nice. I told him about my ~~brilliant~~ plan and he was like, "you want to take a cat on a boat". I said no. A kitten. Kittens are MUCH smaller.

Of course he had no way of resisting my ~~threats~~ charms so he told me to go pick up the ~~damn cat~~ little darling.

Now, in his defense... Brent had perfectly valid reasons for not wanting a new kitty. You see, Dakota liked to pee on his clothes. And crap on the bed. On HIS side of the bed. I don't think that Dakota liked Brent much, cause he left my stuff alone. Dakota was a ~~GOOD~~ very naughty kitty sometimes.

So far so good. It's been a long time since I've had a kitten though. I forgot that kittens attack anything that moves. Including Labrador Retrievers and 2 year old kids. Oh, and that they see nothing wrong with jumping up on the counter and sticking their paw in a pan of spaghetti sauce that's warming on the stove. Or crawling INTO the ~~bucket~~ bowl of ice cream that you're trying to eat.

Anyways. We got the kitty. We took him on the boat. (Bad idea, by the way, we're STILL picking kitty litter out of every nook and cranny). I told Brent that it was a bad idea to take the cat on the boat but he wouldn't listen to me.

The cat's name is Jack. Jack Bauer to be precise. Jack Bauer is our most favorite TV character ever. I let Brent name him, I thought I might have a better chance of keeping the kitty if Brent got to name it. Even if it does start crapping on his side of the bed.

Here's a picture of Jack:

OOPS. Wrong Jack.

Phun with Photoshop!

2007-09-30T21:15:00.001-05:00

At William's swim banquet last month, I took the opportunity to take some pictures of the kids by the river since it was such a pretty site. I finally got around to playing with them in photoshop tonight, I got a few good ones! Caden was not cooperative, so I have a lot of him squirming and making faces, but thankfully the older two cooperated for the most part. They are quite used to my photo shoots and have perfected the "fake smile" over the years. Caden will learn in due time. ;)

Doesn't it figure that the ONE picture where Caden is looking at the camera with a pleasant look on his face... Madison is picking at tree bark. Nonetheless, it was still one of my favorites, and shows Madison's daydreamer side, a nice candid of her.

A letter from the teacher....

2007-09-26T21:53:00.001-05:00

Last night William reported that I was supposed to email his science teacher.

Uh oh.

Okay, I really wasn't too nervous. If it was something bad, they'd call me, right? Right?????

So here's the email I got back today. I knew I had a good kid, but it's so nice to see other's recognizing it as well. I'm very proud of my boy.

Angela,

Thank you for emailing me...I just wanted to touch base with you as I have been overwhelmingly impressed by William! He does a phenomenal job both in class discussions and in labs. He has really shown a great concern for others and I appreciate the knowledge he brings into my class.
So with that...I want to thank you!

Have a wonderful day and please let me know if there is ever a question or concern!

Mrs. Science Teacher

Here's a picture of William on the first day of school. He hardly put up with it, and refused to let me take a picture of him getting on the bus. He thought that it would embarass him now that he's in Middle School. Silly boy ;) (no I wouldn't really do that to him, but it's fun teasing him).

Remembering Mom...

2007-09-20T22:27:00.001-05:00

21 years... that's a long time. My 21st birthday was bittersweet for me because it meant that I had now lived more years without my mom than I did with her.

Now, yet another year has passed and my mother has been gone for 21 years.

Lucy Cuen Bradford passed away from colon cancer at the age of 50, on Septmember 20th, 1986. I was 10 years old at the time.

My mother was beautiful, and I will always remember her that way. There's just no way to describe the effect that she had on my life, though my time with her was much too short.

The following is a video of my mom. I'm the little one with her most of the time.

The following is from http://www.coloncancerfoundation.org/anyage.htm

Please Know the risk factors of developing colon cancer.

They include:

A personal history of colorectal polyps, previously treated colorectal cancer, or inflammatory bowel disease
Race : African Americans are more likely than other racial or ethnic groups to get colorectal cancer
Being physically inactive
Eating a diet high in fat (especially from red meat)
Obesity
Smoking
Alcohol use
Eating a diet low in fruits and vegetables
Having a family history of colorectal cancers, certain other cancers, and benign colon polyps (Fewer than 10% of colorectal cancers are caused by inherited gene mutations.)

If you experience any stomach discomfort, bleeding in your stool, or sudden weight loss, please contact your physician today.If you are not confident that your doctor is providing you with the correct information, or is not investigating the possibility of colon cancer immediately get a second opinion DEMAND THE PROPER DIAGNOSIS AND CARE. It’s you and your loved one’s lives at stake!

Caden got a HUMMER for his Birthday!!!

2007-09-05T14:32:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was Caden's 2nd birthday AND the first day of school, and we had a good day. He had his 2 year visit yesterday (along with a burn check, everything's good!). He's 29 lbs, 1 oz, and 38 1/4 inches long. Tall boy! I was looking at baby pictures of him and he doesn't even look like the same kiddo, he's so tall and lean now!

We had a small party for him last night (just our family). Daddy surprised him with a hummer ride on toy, he LOVES IT! He screamed and cried when we finally dragged him away from it to have his birthday cake. I made him a jello poke cake and that was a hit too (once he got over being pulled from his truck).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CADEN!!!

Our Day at the State Fair

2007-09-01T15:56:00.001-05:00

We did our annual visit to the "Great Minnesota Get-together" yesterday and had a blast! Caden was in good spirits until he needed another dose of ibuprofen in the afternoon, but otherwise really enjoyed himself!

I think he liked looking at the baby animals the best, there were some baby ducks and chicks that he just went nuts over. He also really enjoyed cheese curds (I know, not a good thing but I HOPE a couple don't clog his arteries so soon!).

I've copied some pics below from our day :). Cade's burns are doing REALLY well. It's a major pain to re-dress them each day, but they're healing well. The deep one on his upper thigh is still bleeding a lot, but the other ones have stopped bleeding and the new pink skin is already forming. phew... We go to the doctor again on Tuesday (his birthday!) for a followup and to do his two year well child visit.

Here's some pictures from our day, the big kids had fun too! (Editors Note: The reason why this post was Caden centered was because I shamefully copied my post off of my September 2005 baby list).

Don't you wish YOU had a pickle hat??

At the BIG SLIDE:

Caden fell into the campfire...

2007-08-27T14:22:00.001-05:00

11+ years of no major accidents or illnesses in my kids is over. I had what I think was the scariest day of my life on Friday. We were boating/camping with several neighbors and Caden tripped and fell halfway into a roaring campfire. He has several 2nd degree burns and a few superficial 1st degree burns.

I have been second guessing myself ever since about how/what I could/should have done to prevent it. I have always been SO PARANOID with my little ones around fire and water, I can't believe that this happened. It happened so fast. I was cooking dinner on a grill (set up on a table), and Caden was sitting on the other end of the table eating cheetos. My back was to the campfire about 10 feet away. Brent had to use the restroom, so I was keeping an eye on him while I cooked. I went to the grill to flip the steaks and glanced up and Cade was gone. I turned around just in time to see him trip and fall against the metal campfire ring and his left side fell into the fire. I don't know how I got there so fast, I caught him just as he was going in.

He was screaming of course, and I was keeping calm and ran over to the water faucet to get some water on it and all the neighbors came running and started screaming and yelling advice, and then I lost it and started crying myself. Once we got Brent out of the bathroom we jumped in the truck and used Onstar to get to the closest emergency room. It was very scary, and Caden was so pitiful it hurt my heart to look at him.

He's doing ok now. We went to his ped this morning for a followup visit, and he says we're doing a good job and it's healing nicely. The two worst ones are on his legs.

I have a feeling that it's going to take longer for me to heal that it will for him to heal.

SeaDevil's Banquet - YAY WILLIAM!!!

2007-08-16T21:11:00.001-05:00

Last night was William's end of season swim banquet. This was his first season swimming and he really took to it and worked really hard. I was SO thrilled to see that he got the ENERGIZER award for the Developmental group! Way to go William!!!

I GAVE BIRTH TO A 14 LB BABY!!!

2005-09-04T21:35:00.000-05:00

No, it’s not a joke.

Announcing…

Caden Scott Jurkovski
7:30 p.m., Sunday, September 4^th
14 lbs, 0 oz., 23 ½ “

Short birth story:

As many of you know, I was induced Sunday morning after having determined via ultrasound that my baby was “big”… estimated last Thursday (3 days before induction) as 9 lbs, 7 oz. Induction went pretty slow, until they broke my water around 2 p.m. – there was a TON of water, it just gushed and gushed. Very abnormally high. We joked that maybe it was a 5 lb baby and my size was just due to all that fluid…

Things picked up, and I FINALLY got an epidural (progressed too quickly the other two times)… Around 6 pm I was complete, and started pushing. I could tell fairly early on that something was wrong. I had him crowned within a few pushes, but just couldn’t push him out further than that. Pushed and pushed for over an hour, but we couldn’t get him out past his forehead. He was in distress from being in the birth canal so long, and at 7:30 they called an emergency c-section and he was born 5 minutes later (they knocked me out).

I’m glad I was knocked out, cause the next little bit was pretty scary. Apgar’s were 2 and 6. He was taken directly to the Level II nursery, and I got to meet him finally around midnight (after insisting that I could stand long enough to get in a wheelchair). He was on oxygen, very fast respiration, and his blood sugar was dangerously low. I got to hold him finally on Monday night, and he had his first bottle then too. He’s been steadily progressing, and we hope to be able to take him home this weekend or early next week. He also has bruises on his shoulders and arms from me repeatedly pushing and slamming the poor guy into my pelvic bone… I left the hospital earlier today and we’re on our way back for the evening after dinner. It’s so hard to leave him behind.

I had undiagnosed GD (they were able to do a test that found that my average blood sugar over the past 3 months was 150+). It has been very scary, and I am SO in love with this big guy. He’s a trooper, rarely cries, and just loves to be snuggled. I’m attaching a few pics… Please pray for him.

We and the hospital were contacted by a few news channels, but they can’t go into Level II, so don’t know if anything will come of that. I’m just happy that he’s getting better. I have NO clothes to fit him, and a whole lot of 0-3 month stuff to sell on ebay… He had to go straight into size 2 diapers (they had to borrow them from the pediatrics unit).

I feel fine, quite sore of course, but lots better than hauling around that chunky monkey.

More later…

Angela

I had my baby today!!!!

2000-06-21T22:22:00.000-05:00

And It's a GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please help me welcome little miss Madison Rose!

It's a BIG girl, 9 lbs 8 oz, 21 inches long, born at 1:22 p.m. Central Time on June 21, 2000...

I SO wanted a girl, and I am SO EXCITED... I feel great, I can't believe I had a baby today.... It went EXTREMELY fast, everyone had to rush to get in there, and the doc came running in in suit and tie to catch the baby... it's quite funny now, but at the time when they were trying to tell me to stop pushing, I didn't find it so funny! 2 pushes and she was out. No rips, no tears, no episiotomy. I had some very painful contractions, and again (as with William) went from 2 to 10 centimeters in less than a half hour, ouch!)... I had Nubane as a pain killer and was once again deprived my epidural due to moving so fast... about 3 minutes before I started pushing, the nurse had come in and chastised me for complaining when I was only 2 centimeters, and that they couldn't do an epidural until I was at least 4 centimeters... I felt so awful, and NO WONDER, they found out when I started pushing 3 minutes later I had already gone through transition and was fully dilated - plenty of reason to complain! The Nubane didn't do a whole
lot for the pain for me... It DID make me not care though, I just felt really floaty, and felt the pain, just didn't care... kind of weird, but that's the best way to explain it. It was SO funny (now) when the nurse went to check my dilation, and all of a sudden I screamed that I had to push while she was just putting her hand down there... all of a sudden she felt this big bulge (baby entering birth canal, I assume), and yelled for Brent to push the panic button...

I feel ready to go home now, but we're staying overnight, but not the two days, unless something goes downhill tonight... She is SO perfect guys...

I am attaching a couple of pictures (sorry if this bogs down anyone's email!)... She's a doll!

Love,

Angela