Going, Going, GONE!

We finally did it. Our house sold. We are signed, sealed, and done with it. Thanks to all those who prayed with us to get it sold. We took this picture the day we signed the papers. Brett and I went early in the morning - about 9:00 a.m. and then I went home and loaded the children up in the car and took them over to the old house for one last photo opp.

We did have some nostalgic memories though. When we moved in, Caleb was not quite three, which means he was smaller than Claire is in the picture. Eli was just a month old, Emily and Claire were not even thought of.

Flood Fun

We had a flood in town one night, and the day following, the boys had a friend over. There was a big water/mud puddle in the back yard, and the boys decided to play baseball. Before they played baseball, they decided to play in the garden patch (still not planted), and they sunk to their knees. When I went out to help them clean off, I realized that the hose was not at this house. We had taken the hose to the other house to clean out the gutters, and we left it there. Lucky for us we have a sump pump, and the boys got to hose off in the ground water (very cold). They had a blast playing outside in the mud. Oh - when they were playing baseball, they decided that the big puddle was second base, and they slid into and through and past second almost every time. Even the neighbor boy decided to come over and "dive in."

Here we have a bridge in town, and this shows how high the water got.

This is a covered bridge out at the nature center, and the water level is normally about three feet below the bottom of the bridge.

I Did It

I cannot tell a lie... I chopped down the tree.

The other day I decided that our tree needed to come down. I went out with the only tool I had for the job, and it was not an ax or a hatchet. It took a very long time, and I wanted to quit (However, once I started the project, I knew that I couldn't stop, especially when the tree had some major cuts in it. I could just image me stopping, leaving the tree damaged, and then having a giant storm with some major winds; then the wind would blow the tree I had been working on, and it would fall over and seriously injure someone or something. I couldn't have that on my conscience.), but I continued until the job was finished. After the tree fell, Eli and I cut off the loose branches. Emily helped to take pictures of the event.

Small Fry

Caleb bought fish last Friday, so we got them set up in the tank. We brought them home and he thought that one of his fish was pregnant. He borrowed a V-trap from his friend, because Marigold Swordtails have live births, and they - as well as the other fish in the tank - eat their babies. We did not realize that the mama was ready to have her babies, and yesterday Eli came up and saw a baby in the tank. Caleb and his friend said it was poop floating around, and they decided that it was really a baby. Oops! Someone ate it. We quickly put mama in the trap, and during the couple of hours she was there - NO BABIES. We had to leave, and when we came home there were 5 babies in the trap. VERY EXCITING. We watched for about three hours, off-and-on, and no more babies. We decided to take mama out of the trap and this morning Brett found 3 more babies. He rescued one and I rescued the other 2. They are tiny little things and they occupy too much of our time, but it is a fun adventure... especially since I won't have a dog or a cat.

The pictures are of the fry in the seperated tank, and then to give an idea of how small the holes are I took a picture of a ruler. The holes are about 1/16" and the babies can fit through them.

Rained Out

We didn't have to worry about missing soccer - it was rained out. It was very cute though, because Emily's coaches got her team medals and certificates. We were planning to go to the soccer field so she could get hers before the piano recital, instead, we got to meet her coaches at the YMCA.

Eli didn't miss soccer - it was rained out! We went to the piano recital, and the boys did very well. I reminded Eli to practice his two pieces before we left home, and he played them well. I didn't remind Caleb to practice (something he hadn't done since Monday), and he struggled a little bit, but did well.

Over Booking

I am getting in trouble for double and triple booking the children. IT'S NOT MY FAULT. I have slightly double booked Eli on purpose - one day he has dance that ends at 6:15 and soccer that goes from 6-7 pm. Other than that I haven't double booked them. It is the extra activities that go with the ones they are signed up for. This week is bad. Eli and Em have to miss soccer today because the piano teacher scheduled a recital and dinner - not my fault, in fact, I just found out the exact date and time last week. Also, there is a dance recital and dress rehearsal which has been on the calendar for at least six months (probably nine), and then we signed Eli up for Tae Kwan Do right before the dress rehearsal. Again, this week I found out that there is a baseball clinic on Saturday (NOT MY FAULT). So, the boys will miss most of the clinic, Eli will miss Tae Kwan Do because of the clinic.

I did double book Caleb on Wednesday nights, but it wasn't on purpose...I signed him up for baseball this summer, and he has scouts on Wednesday nights. In my defense, I didn't know his baseball would be on Wednesdays, and when I signed him up, he wasn't in scouts (KIND OF MY FAULT).

OOPS!

I Looked Out the Window, and What Did I See?

This is the tree in front of my house. It is a crabapple tree, so we have crabapples falling off during the early spring, then we have "POPCORN" for a couple of days, and right now all of the flowers are blowing off. It is a very beautiful tree, and it adds color during the cold, Minnesota winters. The berries are a beautiful red, and when the frost is on them, it is spectacular.

Also, in the spring, there are birds in the tree. I even got a picture of a baby robin. The baby can barely fly, and the mother bird is still taking care of it and feeding it. The joys of spring - which happens to be my favorite season.

Finding Frogs

We are finally getting around to turning the soil in our garden plot so that we can plant. Brett had the shovel, and he was turning the soil. We were finding a lot of worms. He would hold out the shovel and the girls would pull the worms off (he commented how it was cool to see his girls playing with worms). Emily was looking in the turned soil for worms and she found a worm going crazy. She she discovered that it was a frog. Brett and I investigated, and indeed it was. Brett pulled it out with the shovel and we discovered that it was injured. After the investigation, we decided to put the frog to rest. The girls were thoroughly impressed.

Super Sniffer

Caleb was checking out his birthday presents - he really wanted a fish tank, and none of them were big enough to be a fish tank (that's because the fish tank was hiding in my bedroom). We had him convinced that we would give him some money to put towards a tank, but he would have to make up the difference, and he accepted that.

He started lifting them up and shaking them. A couple of them sounded like Lego's. He got to one, and it didn't make any noise when he shook it - so he put it to his nose and sniffed it. He looked at me and said, "It's a Dance, Dance Revolution Mat." I told him he was crazy and asked where he got that idea from. He had me smell it and told me is smelled just like the mat we have downstairs. He was correct. It did have a pretty powerful smell, but I still told him he was crazy.

Now, about the fish tank... One of the problems with getting a fish tank was the logistics of it (where to put it, what size to get, the upkeep, etc.), with the biggest problem being where to put it so that it didn't just sit in a cold basement in the back corner of a bedroom. When I went shopping, I found a stand, so the stand was wrapped up to give to him. Claire kept telling Caleb that we got him a fish tank, and I kept saying that it was only a stand and Caleb had to buy his own tank. Caleb thought Claire was confused.

Needless to say... CALEB WAS SHOCKED that we got pulled out the tank. (It is now in our kitchen, on the stand, in the corner, by our table - so that the sound of the water and the swimming fish can be enjoyed by all.)

Oh, it was a DDR mat, it wasn't Lego's but add-ons to the game Battleground: Crossbows & Catapults, and he did get a fish tank and stand. He claims it was the best birthday ever. Yay! for us.

Helmets & Acid

What do these two have in common?

In Emily's world they have swear words in them. The boys were talking about acid rain one night, and Emily went crazy. She kept telling them so stop swearing. Of course, the boys couldn't let this one pass (oops, there is another swear word), so they started chanting, "Acid, Acid, Acid. Emily was whining and telling them to stop. They continued to talk about wearing a helmet when they rode their bike, etc. This got Emily fired up, too. So then they broke out talking about dams and how they hold water back. Brett and I told of our trip to the dam on jet skis. They told Emily there was an animal called a jackass. Well the whole time, Emily was frantic with the boys swearing. They went back to talking about acid, and we knew it had gone to far when Claire blurts out, "asses." So, we stopped.

It could be a lot of fun trying to see how many words there are that contain "swear words."