Ice Fishing

We had a fun get-together with family, neighbors and college friends this past weekend. Here are some highlights:Here we have Marcus (my little cousin), Isaiah and my cousin Courtney's girls, Josie and Grace, chit-chatting around a fishing hole.

My Uncle Doug (Marcus' dad) came up from Milwaukee with Marcus and my Grandma.Matthew somehow convinced my grandma to get in the truck and actually go on the ice and fish. Grandma had never done this before. Matthew kept her toasty in the truck while she fished out the window. She caught one heck of a fish too but it hopped off the line just as Matthew was landing it for her. He was bummed as he would have gotten the fish mounted for her as a souvenir.Our buddy from Bavaria, Manfred, and my dad. Just discussing the ins and outs of ice fishing I'm sure.My sister, Sally, Manfred and my dad. I think something was very funny.We had some snow angels grace our presence while on the ice.This is an Anna-angel.Matthew's college buddy, Chris, took the kids for rides on the ice with his 4-wheeler.Anna went for a ride, too. Apparently Anna was ready to go and Chris was speaking with someone on the sidelines. I hope he was prepared to fly. That girl likes speed.There was even some inside fun. Anna had a blast playing her best friends. Ally and Emma are the twins across the road. I believe they were all the mommies and they were taking care of their babies.After a long morning on the lake we all had some lunch in the shop. Matthew's taking a break with my Uncle Doug and Marcus.Just some more folks eating lunch.
My cousin had never had a snowmobile ride before so Matthew took Marcus for a spin.

Manfred, from Germany, had a lifelong dream of riding a snowmobile. His dream was achieved and apparently Manfred spend the evening and much of the night playing on the snowmobile. Later, he walked into the shop and said he had had the best day of his life. Ha! Snowmobiles are only used by ski slope workers and rescuers in Germany. There is no way members of the general public can ride sleds.After lunch we toured around the animals. We are all saying hello to the sheep here.
We were watching the chickens in this photo.

It was a long and fun weekend. We had a great time hanging out with friends and family and thankful for the memories.

Field Trip

Earlier this month my mom volunteered to attend a field trip with Isaiah's 2nd grade class. Mom had Isaiah and another boy and they walked around the center and learned all kinds of neat things from years gone by. Being that I wasn't there I can't explain the photos but I'll do my best.This is a photo of Isaiah demonstrating how one would card wool. I guess the museum worker asked if anyone knew what those paddles were and Isaiah piped up and said he knew. I was pretty proud of him for remembering that.

Not too sure what this photo is all about but I'm sure the boys are learning something very interesting.

Most likely ordering something from an old Sears & Roebuck catalog. Again, just a guess.

Here the boys are demonstrating their carpentry skills.

Isaiah is practicing for some sort CDL, I'm sure.

Isaiah was thrilled that Grammy could attend his field trip and I think Mom had a pretty good time too.

Redneck Decorations

I just received this photo in an email from my good friend, Ursula.

Hey, Matthew should we do this next year? Right smack dab in the front yard, woo eee. I bet we'd get some traffic on our road for sure.

Just for the record, this is not Ursula's home. She was just forwarding an email. If Ursula were to hang a deer it would definitely be a real one.

Health and Nutrition

I usually buy the economy sizes of the Malt-O-Meal brand cereals, you know the ones in a bag. I also typically purchase the non-sugary variations.

Matthew, on the other hand, occasionally gets the variety pack of the name brand cereals, as a treat. The kids were going wild with excitement over all the sugary cereals there were to choose.

Being the nice Papa that he is Matthew asked the kids which ones they didn't want to eat. Not surprisingly they were trying to persuade him on the greatness of plain jane Cheerios.

Matthew said, "Cheerios? You want me to eat Cheerios?"

Isaiah said, "They are good for your heart."

I looked at Isaiah like, really? Nice try.

Isaiah said, "What... I saw it on a commercial. They are good for the immune system too."

I said, "Immune system?"

Isaiah said, "Oh wait, no, that's Welch's."

Health teacher, politician, whatever...

Time

It is much easier to blog on a regular basis when your littlest person takes naps. It's also easier to blog when you don't add on a part-time job being a bookkeeper for the best darn sign company in Hudson.

Whadya Gonna Do?

When Matthew and I got married (over 9 years ago) we went through the whole wedding ceremony and dinner and dance afterwards. We had a great day. I surprised him by staying at a Bed&Breakfast that night. One of the perks the B&B did was have a little (think airplane size) bottle of wine in a basket of goodies. I did not like red wine at the time, still don't, and we never opened it. I did keep it though, as a memento.

When we got married we were living in an old farmhouse in Baldwin. We lived there for three years total. When Isaiah was 6-months old we moved to an apartment building in Hudson. We lived there for three years as well. Then, we were fortunate enough to buy our first home in Hudson and lived there for about 3 1/2 years. Last October we moved to our current home and have been here for over a year now. That little bottle of wine came with us to all our homes and made all the moves. I've had that bottle for over nine years. I was saving it, just because.

Last Sunday Matthew wanted to make a batch of beef vegetable soup. Before starting the broth he pre-cooked the beef. Matthew loves to throw things together and cooks with no recipes, just whatever he wants to throw in, he throws in. Matthew decided to sear the beef in onions and RED WINE.

Here's the quiz.... do you want to take a wild guess at what he pulled from the fridge, OPENED and poured in the pot?

I saw what he did after the fact. I stared at him with my mouth wide opened, in shock. I asked if he knew what he just did. He did not. I explained where that little bottle came from. He didn't believe me. I believe I became believable after my mouth hung open for a good 10 minutes. You know what he said?

"Well, how was I supposed to know?"

What I don't get is how that bottle lasted over 9 years and through four houses when the beautiful silverware set my sister gave us for our wedding had so many lost pieces that we used to use plastic whenever we were serving more that five.

Matthew also knocked a shelf off the wall a couple years ago that was holding our little wedding cake topper figurine. He did this while horsing around with Isaiah. The cake topper broke but I know how we aren't supposed to bring up past stuff so, I won't...... sigh

New Blog of Note

I have a wonderful neighbor down the road, Ginny. Ginny's niece, Amy, is doing missionary work in India for three weeks. Amy is working with children suffering from HIV and sharing God's love. Please check out her blog, it's amazing what she's been doing.

Agape India '09


Amy also has been dealing with an ear infection that ruptured her eardrum. Please pray for a speedy recovery as well as for the children with whom she is helping.

Delicatessen

Matthew introduced the idea of using mayo. on sandwiches to our kiddos. I don't put mayonnaise on my sandwiches, I like it, just don't use it. As a result, I don't put mayonnaise on the the kids' sandwiches either.

Papa does. So Isaiah and now Anna enjoy mayonnaise on their sandwiches as well.

The other day I gave Anna a couple choices for lunch and she chose a turkey sandwich with "ham-naise". Is it wrong that I asked her a total of four times what it was that she wanted? I couldn't help myself. When Papa came home I made Anna tell him, three times only, what she had for lunch.

To: Anna From: God

When I was little there was a family that lived down our street that had a little boy. This little guy had huge brown eyes. I remember my mom asking him, "Where did you get such big brown eyes?" He replied, "Sears.".

This morning I told Anna I liked her toes. I said they were pretty cute toes, too. Then I asked her where she got such cute toes. Anna said, "From God."

Christmas Celebrations

We had a super duper Christmas. Lots of fun, many memories and laughs. It started with Christmas Eve. We have a birthday party for Baby Jesus. What's a birthday party without cupcakes? We spent a few minutes in the afternoon decorating birthday cupcakes.




After supper Matthew read the Christmas story from the book of Luke and then a children's story about the first Christmas. Then Anna, being the youngest, got to hold the Baby Jesus from the manger scene as we all sang Happy Birthday.

After an evening of gifts around the Christmas tree...


we watched the Christmas Story, the one with Ralphie...Matthew had been waiting 9 years, since we found out Isaiah was going to be a little boy, to give his little boy a real Red Rider. Christmas Eve, during the movie his waiting ended...Christmas Day we opened stockings and then went to my mom and dad's for the day. We all had a fun time of gifts and food. My mom made the most amazing meal that day. Thanks, Grammy.

Opening hand painted ornaments that Grammy secretly did with the kids one day so they could give to us during Christmas.

My mom and grandma made a sock monkey for Anna.

Isaiah and Anna made recipe cards for Grammy. Anna did a recipe for blueberry pie and Isaiah did one of his own creations Po-tacos. It's where you get all the fixings for tacos and pile it on a baked potato. It's actually really good.

We gave my sister a toaster but how fun is that to open so we spiced it with a little mystery. First she opened blueberry jam. She was thankful but understandably a bit confused with a jar of jam. Later, when she opened gift #2 she was even more confused when she opened a wrapped package of Lender's bagels. She was a very gracious recipient. She laughed and said she was probably THE only person that received bagels for Christmas.

Isaiah had a keyboard unit in music class this fall and LOVED it. Auntie Sally thought he should continue the skill. She thinks he'll receive a Julliard scholarship one day. I personally feel she may be a bit biased but, we'll see...

Gramps and Papa putting the Nascar racetrack together. Gramps and Isaiah are the champion racers for sure.

We are so thankful for the fun of the last week and are the most thankful for God's gift of His most precious Son, Jesus. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Three's a Charm?

I am bravely claiming Anna is now potty-trained for the third time. I do hope this is it.

Also, I have a bone to pick with all those folks out there who say girls are easier to train than boys.

You Think YOUR Job is Tough?

My dad periodically sends me emails he receives from friends at work. This is the one he sent me this morning. All I can say is - give that brick toter a raise.

He'll need it for the chiropractor's bill that is sure to follow.

Ouch.

Afterthought

Dear Self,

Just because you have a headache after Thanksgiving supper is no reason to forget to label the FoodSaver bags with their contents.

You see 2 1/2 weeks later you'll want to have some leftovers. You'll open the freezer door and think which one of these frozen, hard as rock bags has our Thanksgiving leftovers? You won't know. You won't be able to tell. Surprisingly, raw frozen chicken thighs look very, very similar to a frozen bag of turkey, potatoes, gravy and dressing. You never would have guessed this to be so. It's true.

Next time, suck it up and get the Sharpie.

Sincerely,
Self

December Fun at Gramps' and Grammy's

We needed a break. Matthew and I have been working pretty long hours on stuff for the company and we needed a "downtime" day. Grammy has been working hard on the same stuff but that is a long, long story that probably won't get told. Suffice to say we wanted to hang out and do nothin'.

Grammy said we should come on over. Grammy had some secret stuff she needed to work on with Isaiah and Anna so Matthew and I went out for a couple hours and knocked off some items from our Christmas "to-do" list. Can I just say shopping is much easier when it only involves adults, in case you weren't aware.

When the secret items were accomplished Grammy made some cookies with Isaiah and Anna.

I'm assuming that Gramps and Auntie Sally played with Isaiah and Anna while Grammy was most likely cleaning up the frosting, sprinkles, cookie crumb and M&Ms explosion that quite possibly occurred in the kitchen. This is just a guess of course.

Thanks Mom, Dad and Sal for a very fun day. You have no idea what a nice break it was. We really enjoyed our day with you guys and feel blessed to have been able to hang out and laugh.

Not What I Meant

The steps going downstairs are wood. If one is wearing socks it can be slippery. This is the reason I like Anna to hang on to the railing if she is going up or down.

The other day Anna had her hands full with items she wanted to bring downstairs. She had a lightsaber (not a real one), a plastic plate, toy truck and one other thing I can't remember. This meant her hands were full and she couldn't grab the railing.

As we were about to walk down the steps I said, "Anna, you will have to hang on to something when you go down the steps."

Anna said, "Mama, I am hanging on to sumpin'."



ps "lightsaber" is not in the spellcheck, I think we should let Mr.Lucas know