Happy Birthday To Me!

My b-day was a little over a week ago - I think - and both my parents sent me some money. I had been waiting a few new kitchen utensils for a while now and figured I'd use my money wisely. I am finally able to throw away my gross old plastic cutting board which looks nasty, no matter how many times I scrub it! Yipee! And we no longer have any teflon in our kitchen - I've changed to cast iron! :) Except for my stainless steel pots. But I do have a dutch oven that I use occasionally. :)

Thanks mom and dad!


Then there's Jodie...she sent me a gift certificate to this website! What am I going to get from there?! LOL I guess the circular knitting needles that I got with the gift she sent me last year wasn't "girly" enough! LOL You're a great friend Jodie with a big heart. :)

Yesterday's Words

Since yesterday was Wordless Wednesday I figured I would post the words today. Those are Russian Blue Potatoes. I got them for Thanksgiving but only made enough for Luke since we went to Bob's families - that way Grandma wouldn't have to make special mashed potatoes for him. They were great! I have had them since then and figured I should use them up so I made mashed potatoes to go with a roast I made on Monday night. They are really good and of course the kids love them! I got them from a food co-op I am in - they aren't a regular at the local grocery store! LOL I loved how even the little sprouts were purple! I read someplace that you have to boil them with the skin on so they retain their color. I did peel one and it wasn't as pretty as the ones that the skins were still on. They taste like regular potatoes and can be used for whatever you use regular potatoes for - unless you have issues with different colored food! :)

Wordless Wednesday

I added a new blog to my list of Blogs I Follow...

Christmas with the Family

Here's what we did for Christmas this year. Unfortunately because of bad weather we were unable to attend the church Christmas Program that the kids had worked so hard on. They changed it to the weekend we were going to be at bob's Dad's and we couldn't make it back home for it. We were with Bob's family the weekend before Christmas and spent Christmas day at home because Bob had to work that morning. Fortunately we had the evening free and we went to dinner at the home of some wonderful friends (thanks again Carole and Jim!). On our way home we almost ran out of gas, went in the ditch, and hit a deer...almost! We had neglected to put gas in the car before we left and we knew it was on E...we just forgot because of the rush. Then the wind had come up and when that happens on the prairie with the snow it amounts to some pretty nice snowdrifts across the roads by the fields...Bob underestimated one but quickly got things under control. Just a mile or so down the road there was a deer in the middle of the slippery road and because of the blowing snow it took longer to see it than normal - and in the dark - but he nonchalantly walked away and we again were saved from an accident!

We decided to celebrate Advent this year and read a wonderful book called Jothem's Journey by Arnold Ytreeide. It's a story about a boy in biblical times who is journeying to find his family during the time of the birth of Christ. The kids loved it and couldn't wait to sit and listen and light the candles every day of Advent. There is one part where a boy unfortunately gets his fingers cut off as a discipline- which you could easily change to say that he got his hand slapped but it reflects the times and shows the evil of the man who did it. Every day ends with questions to reflect on the story and how you feel about Christmas coming.

I had surgery on my sinuses the week after Christmas. It wasn't anything major - the sinuses in my cheeks weren't draining so the dr. had to put holes in them and suction them out. So now there are perminent drainage holes in them...hopefully once they heal it should help keep my sinus infections under control. Or at least keep them from lasting through 7 rounds of antibiotics over 3 months! I still have to go back to the dr. to have things cleaned out up there but my healing is going well and I've had very little pain. Which surprised me because my mom had the same thing done about 12 years ago and came home with both nostrails plugged with packing and 2 black eyes. She was also awake enough through the surgery that she was talking to the dr. and nurses. I was so glad to hear that they were going to put me under and that they use the lathroscopic thingy! I didn't have any packing and no black eyes. You wouldn't know to look at me that I had surgery - unless my noese started bleeding! LOL

Well, I'm off to the post office to mail my first sold used curriculum. I am so excited! And I made $60! This is what I sold.

Oct. Trip to MI

*Be forewarned! This is a long post! There are lots of words and pictures! So sit down, relax, make sure the kids are in bed and your favorite tv show isn't coming on soon, and enjoy!*

We had a wonderful trip to MI to see most of our family. We borrowed our mom's van and Levi drove the whole time we were there. It was great to spend so much time with him, I really wish we lived close enough to see each other on weekends...

We started out our time visiting at our Aunt and Uncle with our dad for a week. Their home is on a private lake and our time there was very relaxing. I had a sinus infection come back that I thought I had gotten rid of before we left so I ended up having to get an antibiotic that my insurance wouldn't cover...great! The kids spent most of their time outside while we were there. One day Jozie and I went shopping with Aunt Debbie while Luke went to an Amish farm with Uncle Lyle and Uncle Levi. Later that afternoon when we got back Luke went with his uncles to shoot the cannon - that was an experience that he won't soon forget!

We took our time getting to the UP, stopping in TC to see our old friends, Amie and Jeremiah. It was great to see them and their kids and though the kids were a little shy when we first got there they were all reluctant to part when it was time to go! LOL Isn't that they way it always is? :)

We would normally follow US2 through the lower part of the UP, following along Lake Michigan for a time but the cut river bridge was out so we had to go farther north and take an alternate route. The TomTom didn't like that. We didn't reroute it when we passed up the US2 turn so it kept trying to get us back south all the way across the UP. At one point it told us to "turn left now" on a snowmobile trail that was overgrown and without possibility to have a car drive on it - much less a minivan! The drive along Lake Superior is always my favorite part of that drive - besides the part of reaching our destination! LOL

We spent our time in the UP at the farm where we grew up. We went through some of our childhood toys and things that we had stored in an outbuilding that needs to come down. Levi and I didn't keep much - neither one of us had room to take them home nor the desire to store them once we had them home so we TRIED to get rid of a bunch of stuff. It didn't work. Dad kept saying things were "saleable" and decided to take them back to his friend - who is an woman - so she could sell them on e*bay. LOL From what I understand she didn't get much for what she did sell!

Luke was feeling pretty sick with a nasty head cold by the time we got there so he didn't want to leave my side. He went grocery shopping with my dad and I one afternoon while Jozie went for a nice long hike through the woods with Uncle Levi. They roamed through the woods on our property just seeing what there was to see. She said they walked about a mile and a half...then she did the same thing a couple of days with Uncle Kimmy (he watched the kids the afternoon after they spent the night at their house while A. Darlene was @ church and Levi and I took dad to find a new cell phone...which is a whole nether story!) a few days later - only that time Luke went with them. :)

Good Lord! Who ever knew that finding a cell phone was such an ordeal! We spent hourssssss...notice I used an S several times on that word....at cell phone store fondling every button and examining every aspect of every phone available! And then we did it all over again! Needless to say it was an experience that I DON'T care to ever have again! That took us most of one day...

It was great to see our grandparents. I miss them so much! I really wish we lived closer so they could see the kids grow up. Levi took some pictures - I was pretty miserable from the cold/sinus infection that I didn't think to use my camera - but has yet to send them to me. I think he told me he can't find his card reader so he can't get his pictures off his camera and onto his computer right now. I was kind of waiting to get pictures from him to post all of my pics together for that trip so I will just have to post what I get from him when I get them - if I ever do! LOL

On our last leg of our journey we were planning on going to Minneapolis but decided not to because of our all being sick with colds of some sort and because it was such a long trip for only a short time. We had also planned on seeing our friend, Jeremy, but didn't tell him. When we called to tell him we were on our way he said he was sick and also had things to do that he just couldn't get out of so we didn't get to see him either. But because we had routed the TomTom through there it took us an hour or so extra to get home since we were half way down the center of the state by the time we told it we were going someplace else. We also decided to follow it without question that day through the UP, even though we knew the quickest route by heart from traveling that way countless other times. For some reason it routed us through Bond Falls - which is WAY off the main road - so we stopped for a little stretch at the retention lake there. It also took us way through and around a town that added almost 15 or so miles onto our drive that didn't need to be there...we don't know what that was all about but we'd never seen that town before since we usually turn where the TomTom told us to go straight...who knows with technology! LOL So we ended up making an 8 hour trip into about a 10 hour trip. I guess the next time we'll know better than to just follow the voice on the dashboard! LOL

The morning after we got to my mom's I woke up feeling a bit itchy...by that night I had a full blown case of the hives! I wasn't sure what had caused it because I had never been allergic to anything in my entire life so I took my antibiotic again that night thinking that it MAY be the cause but I only had a couple of doses left...how bad can it get? Oh, it got bad, REAL bad. And since I was out of the state of SD our insurance wouldn't cover ANY medical care - unless it was a life and death situation which it wasn't because my airway hadn't closed up - yet. I had hives - literally - from the top of my head to the bottoms of my feet and the palms of my hands. And my throat felt thick - like I had a pill stuck in it that wouldn't go down. At this point I was so glad I was at my moms and not in Minneapolis!

I was miserable and high on benadryl and covered with cortisone cream but the next day we took the kids to the Lincoln Park Zoo in downtown Chicago. They had fun seeing all the animals but I was close to tears most of the day. So I didn't take many pictures - that's why I need my brothers! LOL People kept looking me like I was strange but then I realized that as hard as I was trying not to scratch most of the say I was rubbing the itchy places - which started on my chest and well....lets just say if I were them I would have given me funny looks too!

We took a trip to Fair Oaks Farm on the day that Sami had off from school. It was pretty cool but I didn't take but one picture there. I think my favorite part was the smell of the cows and the birthing barn. Jozie was exhausted so I took her back to the van to sit with Uncle Levi while everyone else stayed in the birthing barn. Luke was so excited when he finally got to see a baby cow being born! I think it was one of the highlights of his trip! LOL

So because of my lack of sleep (who can sleep when every square inch of your body itches?!) and my terrible itchiness I didn't get to see my dear friends, Janice and Jennie and their kids while we were there. Jozie and Luke were pretty disappointed but I just couldn't subject them to my misery!

We did a little shopping while I was there and I got to spend some money on yarn *sigh* but we didn't have a whole lot of room to take things back on the plane with us - I borrowed a suitcase from my mom as it was...

This was Jozie and Luke's first time to fly. They were pretty excited - and apprehensive at first. But by the time we got on the plane in Mpls. they were thoroughly convinced that this was the way to travel! They took tons of pictures for Daddy and Luke was thrilled to tell an old guy sitting next to us and telling Luke how the plane works that his daddy is an airplane mechanic! LOL So I guess by association he already knew most of what the old man was telling him! LOL

The flight home was a little more difficult for me than there. I guess I was missing my family already - mostly because who know when I will see most of them again - and I hadn't eaten breakfast so my stomach was pretty empty. I was feeling airsick and couldn't even eat the sub that I got for Jozie and I to share while we were in Mpls. The flight in the little plane from Mpls. home was dark and not very crowded so I thought I would be able to sleep but the old guy behind me asked that I didn't put my seat back because he was too tall for the seat he was in...so much for a nap. Thankfully Jozie fell asleep on me - she was feeling a bit nervous because we had just left her Amma and there was a ton of turbulence so that wouldn't have helped her at all. When we landed at our local airport I had to wake her up twice to get her out of the plane! LOL It was so nice to be home again!

PS I ended up figuring out that I am allergic to Augmentin so no more penicillin for me!

Well, I think I like this one better, but how do I get rid of the box around it?

I just wanted to see how this would look and work...I added a signature but I'm not sure I like it...