The Sky is Falling!!!!

Lil' Bunny Foo Foo's @ Lil' Broncs

Quote of the Week:

"Mommy you ripp-ead my chair! Naughty." - Luke after I tried to step on his chair and the seat ripped out. OOPS! If anyone has an extra Lightning McQueen moon chair, I'd be interested.

Basketball!?!?!

Easter Egg Tag

Well....We have gone from the mid seventies back down to the mid twenties this week.
The warm days were spent cleaning outside and the cold days were spent cleaning inside.
The former guest room turned exercise room is now turned nap room and the exercise equipment is upstairs in our room where the daycare kids have been napping. It is nice to have somewhere to throw laundry baskets and junk when company is coming. Our project of finishing unpacking our bedroom is yet to be accomplished, but the garage is looking awesome.


We also got new iPhone 4's this week and I switched to a NEW LOCAL PHONE # in hopes to help local parents who are looking for daycare. They are amazing. We are in love. The biggest problem we have found so far is there are 5 of us and only 2 iphones. Timers must be set. The boys want new ipod touch's for Christmas (START SAVING FOR BLACK FRIDAY DEALS NOW). However we are supporting this and their wish for iPads as they have everything rolled into one (reading, typing, games, movies, music, pictures and internet). Last year after their friends got PSP's they had stated they wanted these, however they are just as expensive as the ipods and can do far less, plus for each new game or movie you want you have to go spend more money to purchase them and keep track of them while the ipods and pads can have them downloaded, uploaded and stored on them. Luke is really good with it too!

Society today uses these forms of technology as second nature. They are starting to become widespread in classrooms. Wayne even had his students pull out their phones to use as calculators this past week in class as all the real calculators had been taken to be used for DACS testing and they still had to have class and to have class in an upper level math class, they had to have calculators. I chuckled when he told me as this is something he swore he'd never when it was mentioned as the "future" by the school board president last year. Not a single student did not own one and therefore it was fair and class was able to resume.


Our favorite Apps and features so far:

Wayne- Risk, Shazam, Pandora, iTunes, iMovie, eReader, Homerun Battle, Netflix, and Redlazer
Kandi- iPhoto, iTunes, the 5megapixel camera with HD, Facebook, youtube, allrecipes, kids games
Andy- baseball, bowling, carnival games, netflix, youtube
Zach- ant smasher, PBS kids camera, netflix, you tube, internet to look at facebook baby pictures
Luke- whak-a-mole, ant smasher, netflix and youtube, pandora to watch big green tractor

Restaurant and of the week:
We went back to Barbacoa's for our family meal out this week. Wayne got his CHUCK NORRIS SAUCE on his burrito and HONEY HABANERO sauce for his chip dipping. As good as it tasted he was quite sorry come today. I had their Barbacoa burrito (all of which come with lime and cilantro rice, your choice of black or pinto beans, a sauce choice, a meat choice and toppings). I chose queso for dipping my chips in. These end up MONSTROUS and I was unable to finish mine.

Outing of the week:

We went fishing!!!! It was our first time out and we wanted to catch some WALLEYE while they were in the run. SUCCESS!!! Andy caught his first walleye and Zach caught his first walleye. Unfortunately out of the Belle River and Orman Damn they have to be under 15" or over 18" to keep. Both of the ones we caught were 17".
The boys loved running around in the mud and muck with their dump trucks, diggers and shovels. They also loved sticking their hands in the minnow bucket and touching them. Zach would actually pick them up and watch them flail in his hand. He wasn't afraid to hold his fish by himself either once it was reeled in either. We had a picinic lunch on our Sherpa we got from Santa. It felt great to get back out to the river!

Today (Sunday) the sky appeared to be falling as snowflakes the size of toilet paper sheets fell from the sky. Everyone could be seen peering out doors and windows, or running around hands up and mouths open try to catch them. THEY WERE HUGE!!!!!

The pictures likely won't do them justice, but I had to try!

The Eeriest Road EVER!

I think that I-90 between SD exit 10 and WY exit whatever Moorcroft is, quite possibly is one of the eeriest roads I have ever traveled!!!

And I have been down the Funk-Odessa where an unknown, barely visible, extra passenger appears in your backseat to cross the bridge over the Platte. Usually, however, visibility is normal and roads are clear on that trek, excluding one Friday the 13^th in 2002 when I drove back from work at Cabela’s. That night was so eerie I decided to call a friend and take the road just to see what would happen but I never seen the fore mentioned fella.

I-90 WY has an awful rutted surface from over travel, short shoulders and varying terrain. It will be flat and windy one minute then mountainous and curvy the next, then back to open barren country. All of this makes the roads treacherous in the winter with constant blowing snow, drifting and icy patches. Now that it is spring and the snow is ceasing a bit and we are in the rainy season, the ruts in the roads from a winter full of constant commuters are full of water. The fun never ends. We hydroplaned every time we used the right lane.

We have yet to travel this road when there has not been one element or another making my neck hair stand attention and my hand favor the "oh shit" handle white knuckled.  It seems there will be thick fog for every start of ever journey, then it will lift in a brilliant cottony skirt over "Dead Buffalo Hill" right outside Sundance. By the time we hit Moorcroft it will be clear skies. This phenomenon occurs no matter the time of day or time of year. It is always impressive to us.

Some pictures from the past year or two of travels to Gillette during daylight hours.

 

An upside down car in the ditch near Pine Haven.

My little OOPS in Jan. right before Andy's bday party when we hit black ice,
slid over the median between two poles, accross oncoming traffic,
nearly t-boned a truck, clipped its mudflap instead,
 then plunged into the ditch full of snow where we rocked up on 2
wheels then settled. Luke was reacing over seat & ended upside down.
By the grace of God we had no injuries & no damage! We were actually
pulled out by neighbors chains and the truck of whom I clipped. SO SCARY!!

I refuse to drive the road after nearly hitting the ditch one night on my way over and seeing the car who just got done passing me landing himself there. Then my little mishap outside of Belle pretty much made me the Grandma-est driver out there for the foreseeable future. All of this and Wayne’s over controlling incapability to ride passenger to any female driver allows me a view from the right side, where I prefer to be anyway. 

      I decided I would never make it as a SoDak-Wyo commuter like so many friends and neighbors do. I am happy with my once every 2 month ride across the border and Mother Nature’s show along the way.

So why do were we traveling this eerie road this weekend? We went to our neice’s 2^nd birthday party as well as the Camplex Sale and visited an old college friend.

Maddie had a Tinkerbell party. Her daddy Mark decorated this adorable cake for her. It was so fun to shop for little girl gifts. She of course got a frilly little dress (I LOVE being able to buy a dress for someone), some dress up stuff and a “Paris Hilton” dog (as Wayne calls it) in a little purse with lots of accessories (Luke of course picked that part of the gift out). Her other friends and family members spoiled her as well.

Maddie plugging her ears while we sing Happy Birthday!

Luke was in heaven with their 2 puppies that were just his size, Zooko and Mae. And I was able to alleviate some baby fever by holding baby Megan who is getting so big! She is only 5lbs lighter than Maddie right now and will soon pass her. It reminds us of Zach and Luke.

Andy and I scored big at the sale on clothes. Being Gillette the price was a bit more than I like to fork over but we ended up getting a really good deal on much needed items. Andy was given his $5 allowance to be able to buy what he wanted with it. He and Daddy walked the whole place and he only spent $1!!!!! He bought an old school toy set with a set of jacks (what he wanted most), a yo-yo, a paddle-ball and a jump rope. He needs some practice with the jacks, but after watching Berenstain Bears play it a couple more times he thinks he will have it.

It was Zach’s weekend with Grandma and Grandpa T. They had fun getting him a new haircut, buying goodies at “the tooth store” and having a picnic in the backyard. We met them at McDonald’s (for Zach’s 2^nd meal as promised, like Andy) in Gillette, actually pulling off the exit right behind them, ironically. Luke SCREAMS "Nonalds, Nonolds!" everytime he sees the big golden arches and is going to carry on demanding his 2 meals there out of G&G as well. We told them we just couldn’t eat there one more time and had our favorite Chinese buffette instead. (It’s a G&G duty to eat at McD’s right? Grandma is also so sick of it she may have to hold out a while on Luke’s weekend just to gear up to the challenge).

Since the other boys both got their hair cut, Luke decided he wanted his done too and came into our bathroom and pointed at the clippers saying, "My hair cut tooo, not hurt me." We took advantage of his willingness and gotter done. They all look so much older with their haircuts. Funny how that works.