pools and pianos...

So we emptied the pool halfway. Mike was so frustrated because he put so much time, effort, and money into getting this "free" pool to work. Well, more like to get the water to NOT be brown. SO he emptied half of it last night, and has decided that for an hour every day, he is going to connect the hose from inside the house to the pool. Water coming directly from inside the house is filtered, and thus will be CLEAR. Though by this morning, the entire pool managed to empty, so I don't know if a valve or something was left open on the pool itself, but the rest of the water leaked out. What a pain anyhow. I'm so over it. But of course the kids are disappointed. Mike figures with the cool weather this week, there wouldn't be any swimming anyways, so let's try this filtered water thing out. Hopefully that'll do the trick. I never had a pool growing up, and while I probably wanted one when I was younger, I was never a swimmer or water lover anyways. I definitely never thought we'd have a pool. But when something's free...what do ya do? Try it out I guess.

Which leads me to a MUCH more exciting freebie. I happened to go on our church/new school website to check out registration info, etc. There I found a post for a FREE piano!!! Yes, a free piano. The school is giving it away, for no charge. The reason?? They just don't have a need for it; the 7 & 8th grade teacher doesn't play the piano (that is the classroom it was in). Every other room already has a piano, or uses the internet/smart board to access hymns (I am a bit shocked by that...so parochial teachers are no longer required to play piano, or what?? Technology...) SO, I went to look at it today, expecting I don't know what. But I loved it!! Yes, it's big. But it plays beautifully, didn't even sound like it needed to be tuned. It definitely needs to be refinished, but I don't even care. I'd be in no rush to do that. A free piano. For those who don't know, I am a self-taught piano player. In my parents' last house, a piano came with the house (so, that was approx. 1993 or so when they bought that house I believe). While my Aunt had taught me the basics, I listened to songs I loved and my Dad would buy me cool sheet music (Tori Amos, for example) and I would play till I could get it right. I am so excited!! I've been dying to play again; it's been almost 10 years... And Kaycey wants to take lessons. Conveniently the new school offers lessons by two different teachers: either during the school day or after school. We chatted with the principal (he's also the 5 & 6 grade teacher) and his wife (Maddie's soon-to-be preschool teacher). They are so nice! Not that we ever had direct run-ins with the principal at the public school, but even just in passing she was not particularly friendly. I really feel good about the switch. Kaycey and Cal still do not...

ups and downs

Up: Had an awesome night Friday! Yes, it's true...I'm crazy. I went to see NKOTB again...but we are saying it's because my Mom really wanted to see them and didn't go to the other shows with us (my Mom took us 20 years ago to our first New Kids concert!) This one was the best one so far. I know everyone is thinking, OMG, Whacko!! But seriously...we had pretty good seats, but the best part was they set up 5 stages in the walkway one row ahead of us, and the boys performed there for a bit!! We were FEET away! My sister almost had a heart attack. I should've taken a picture of her. I swear, I wish I could go to a concert like that every week. To sing along to songs you know and loved 20 years ago, remembering the dances, and just listening to my sister and cousin reminisce is so much fun. I just can't get enough of it. It makes me so happy! I know this picture is a little fuzzy, but I didn't zoom in at all; they got this close to where we were sitting!!!

Down: Got home around 2:30am, tired, headache, and had to work the next day. I still feel icky.
Up: Went to the campground to see Mike and the kids yesterday. Maddie had a blast! Mike really wishes he would've taken her along all weekend.
Down: I got super sunburned, and I don't even know how. I don't swim, I had a towel over my legs, and wasn't outside for all that long. I am usually a stickler for sunscreen, but maybe in my exhausted state, it slipped my mind. My arms and portions of my legs are now the color of lobsters. Ouch.

Up: I have a new niece (Mike's brother and wife had #3 over the weekend).
Down: They didn't tell the name till she was born...the name was on my top 3 (has been since we had Maddie) : ( Mike says who cares, because ours is going to be a boy. 3 days till we find out!!! Honestly, if it's a boy, I think he will remain nameless forever.

So that journal I am keeping...it really is not a journal. More of a one-liner kind of thing. Just things I hear or randomly remember and I don't want to forget. One I wrote down today: Maddie singing "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" in her own way..."Girls just wanna have fun at the park" (she really thinks those are the words!!)

murky water

So last summer I had won a pool in a raffle. One of those pools that have a filter, a cover, a ladder, but you take down at the end of summer. I had no idea what a pain in the butt it would be to have a pool. We went back and forth about whether or not to bother putting it up--for one, wherever we'd put it would destroy a chunk of our lovely green grass; for two, I fear the neighbor kid jumping in at his leisure. Anyhow, we put it up over the weekend. I bought every chemical possible for it. Even though our little test kit says everything is A-OK, the water is brown. Yuck. We have well water, and the iron concentration is very high (the water in the house goes through a powerful recirculation/filtering system in the basement, so in the house the water is fine, water coming from hose does not go through the basement system). Hence, the brown/orange water. This stinks!! The perfect week for swimming and we are stuck staring at the pool, hoping for it to clear up. Mike went to the pool store with sample in hand, and purchased something to help clear it up. While now you can at least see the bottom of the pool now, it is still very yucky looking. Poo. We're not sure what we'll do if it doesn't clear up. Lots of people out here have pools, but we found out several of them (inground pools) get theirs filled by a service. Guess I shoulda just sold the pool on ebay or something!!!

follow up to comments

Okay, so maybe there is a better way to do this, but I don't know. I wish that as follow comments were posted on blogger it sent an email to let you know. I mean, I would love to respond to comments, but where do I do it?? Just email each person?? I'm not sure. So, I thought I'd make a few comments on my own after reading some recent comments on my blog. Maybe there is a better way to do it, but I don't know about it.

So, yeah...sometimes I wonder if I'll make it through a day. So thinking about ten years from now...hmmm. That was a very aspiring and "feeling motivated" kind of day. After working my tail off cutting grass and cleaning the garage yesterday literally all day, I wondered if I would make it till this morning!! There's so much I want to do, but wonder if I'll ever have the time to do it all...

Minnesota would be a great place for a little place on a lake!! Land of 10,000 lakes, right?? : )

Camp Phillip is through the Wisconsin Lutheran Synod. They even offer scrapbooking retreats now!

I do really love the name Grayson. And besides, it's so cool that it's my Great-Grandma's maiden name. I totally think Lola is adorable!!! It seems like Ava is getting kinda popular, but we have an Ava on Mike's side of the family, too. I suppose with Mike's big family it might be hard not to have a name double up somehow at some point! On his Dad's side between Mike's siblings, his Dad's sisters and brothers, their kids, and grandkids, there are 30 kids under 16. Several of the names are in the top 10 for most popular, so I don't really worry about that, since we likely wouldn't use them since they are so popular in the first place. But there are a few names in the family we do like, probably wouldn't use...Mike's one cousin has 4 kids, all named after presidents. I like all the names, too. McKinley, Grant, Harrison, and Madison. Mike's cousin is Lynsey, and we've always loved that name. Anyhow, Christina, I really got a kick out of Brock Lee...did Rich really not think about the green veggie? : )

When we get to painting the porch , I found out we are going to actually remove the sections of posts and spray them with paint instead of undergoing the tedious task of hand painting it all. I have a slight feeling I still would maybe finish it faster if I hand painted it instead of waiting for someone to take off the sections and spray them...

As for cleaning...I am by no means sloppy (yikes, right now I am a cleaning machine and that never happens); if you come over, my house will probably appear pretty clean at most times--esp. the kitchen because that's my favorite room in the house (okay, clean other than the kid stuff all over the place). Just don't open closets or miscellaneous drawers : ) I save way too much, don't want to part with it, just don't know where to go with it all (mostly papers 'n stuff like that).

Okay, just thought I'd add my two cents to everything : )

Off to bed, way too late. My back feels like someone punched me. Guess I worked too hard yesterday.

cutting grass...and cable...

I am pleased to announce I cut grass for the first time in my life yesterday!! We have a riding lawn mower, so that made it a piece of cake. I really enjoyed it. Until I ran over the cable line that was never buried. Oops. Goodbye internet and cable!! Mike has the wireless internet rigged somehow right outside the window (usually it goes through our basement). We'll fix it eventually, I'm sure. So much for me cutting grass, I guess, at least until the line is fixed and buried!!

I am exhausted today!! I can hardly stand up! After cutting the grass yesterday (which took probably 1 1/2 hours to do the back yard, which turned out to look like a lovely zig zag/curly-Q pattern) I cleaned half of the garage. Friday I cleaned our bathroom from top to bottom. This "nesting" stuff has really struck, I think! I better keep with it while I feel like doing anything!!

Ten year plan...

While I have been more deep in thought about this than Mike, we did talk about it. We both agree our location is perfect, especially for him to go to work (it takes him less than 30 minutes, and rarely is there traffic). But we both are in agreeance that our neighbor situation, quite honestly, sucks. I have my reasons, and he has his; but we see eye to eye on that. He is much more willing to live with it than I am!! My issue generally lies with the naughty neighbor kid, and the grumpy Grandpa. But we recently found out from the neighbor on the other side of us (a REALLY nice guy. Older, but always looking out for people, a bit nosy perhaps, but really nice) told Mike that Grumpy Grandpa dude has been complaining to neighbors that since we built our "monstrosity" next to him, he has alot more water in his basement. Okay, before we built he told us he had some problems. Mind you, since Grumpy found out we were building a 2 story house, he was irate anyhow. He told us we were taking away their sun (uh, the houses are far enough apart, our house never shades them at any given time). How frustrating. Mike is worried this guy will take it to the Town Board or whomever, and then people would come out and force us to hire engineers (again) and change the grading of our lot ($$$$). That's all pretty hypothetical, and possibly unlikely. So Mike told me we all have to be extra nice to Grumpy dude and his goofy grandson just in case. Ugh.

So on that note, Mike and I were discussing the possibility of moving. This obviously isn't a sure thing, and we just threw it out there knowing we are both okay with it, at the moment anyhow. We've heard many people who have built houses within the first year talk about building again (oddly), maybe that notion will wear off for us, too. BUT, so--to my 10 year plan. If we did move, we think it would be in about 10 years. Cal would be in college, the girls in high school, and little one would be 5th grade or so (okay, that's all very scary!!). We absolutely love North Prairie (Cal plays sports out there). It's another 18 miles NW from where we are, but it is even more "country", WAY more land/bigger lots, and added bonus--it is the same high school district as our current one. Or stay in our town, just get more property & not in a subdivision. So anyways, like I said, this is all hypothetical, but of course it's on my mind. Another piece to the 10 year puzzle is me becoming a pharmacist. It could be done, though it may be tough. If that happens, we could move, and we'd hire alot more out if we did build again (which I can't imagine moving into a house you didn't design, after having already done so)instead of Mike working on it so much (though there are some things he would not give up doing because he enjoys it). Or maybe instead we'll buy a boat & a little getaway cabin on some lake somewhere. Ten years is really a long way off, I know. Big dreams. But that's okay : )

Pages to post...

Over the weekend, I scrapped just a teensy bit. I did 3 singles page layouts, but one isn't finished yet, so I'm not going to post that one.

Cal, 2001

Kaycey, 2003

Yay to me for using up stuff I had!!

I told you I'd be better about keeping up with this blog!! : )

Off to Camp

On Sunday, my grandparents and I drove Cal up to camp. My Mom took the girls for the day. Here are the girls yelling goodbye as we pulled away.

When we got there, I made him get out of the car to take a picture of him by the sign.

"Mom, you're embarrassing me!!!" was the response I got. But he did it anyways, and it's a good picture.

It seems like such a fun place, I had always wanted to go when I was young. We got him all checked in, and made our way to his cabin. When we pulled up, he said, "That's my house?" I think he thought he got a house all to himself.

Really though, inside there was a big room with 5 sets of bunkbeds. Room for 8 kids and 2 counselors. They also had their own bathroom with 3 sinks, 2 bathroom stalls, and 2 showers. Most of the kids were there already, and instantly a group introduced themselves to Cal and asked him to play cards. I don't think he would've said goodbye, except that we said goodbye to him!!

I have a feeling he won't want to come home, and he will be very eager to go back!! We pick him up Wednesday morning. I'm sure he'll have lots of fun stories to tell!! My Grandparents bought him a journal, so I hope he wrote some things in it so we know about all the fun he had.

after the dance

Rewind a little bit...Just some pics of Maddie's weekend...after her recitals. She did such a great job, she totally belongs on stage!! For the first time, she did the whole dance routine (I never saw her do the whole thing in class!) While it was alot of driving and running around, she loved it so much so it was worth it.

I love this picture!!!

She was so proud of her flowers!!

Kaycey, Maddie, and Cal


Mommy & Maddie...she really does look alot like me!

Daddy & Maddie...but I also think with the expression on her face, she looks a bit like Mike in this one!

Back to school time...

for me, yes for me. I have been DYING to get some new textbooks and be in school (I know that sounds slightly off!!)

I spoke with someone briefly about the Pharm program at Concordia U. and she was so wonderful and positive, it really is motivating me to start back up again. I know, I always pick the most inopportune times to go to school (I am positive that I was in school every time I was pregnant). Obviously I am in no rush, with a new baby on the way. But just glad to know it can be done.

Keep me motivated, people : )

Baby names...

that we aren't going to use. I know, that's no fun : ) These are names I love, but because either (a) Mike doesn't like it, or (b) it just doesn't sound right with Cal, Kaycey, Maddie, so we aren't using it. There are plenty of other names I like, but simply because they are on the 20 most popular names, I won't use 'em. I remember in grade school, I loved being the only Elizabeth in the school. And in our combined class (we were always combined with another grade, 1&2, 3&4, and so on...)There were 5 Lisa's out of 25 kids. Yep, I won't do that to my kids.

For a girl:

• I love Charlotte, Mike does not. Though he thinks Charlie is cute for a girl. Huh.
• I love Hadley, Mike says, "What kind of name is that?" I guess it sounds like Maddie a bit, too.
• we both like Gretchen, sounds too harsh with the other kids' names. And ends with "en" which kind of repeats Madilyn.
• We love the name Carleigh (and that's how I want to spell it). Mike said no to the spelling, and it sounds kind of repititious with Cal & Kaycey. That's how I would want to spell Ashleigh, too. Mike thinks I like to torture the kids with spelling their names like no one else does (Kaycey, Madilyn...) I think it makes it unique.
• Peyton. Madilyn, Peyton. I don't know.

For boy:

• I love Grayson!! Had been a name on the list when we had Maddie. Also it's my Great-Grandma's maiden name. But it sounds so close to Kaycey...
• Still, I really do like the name Brett, but well...I'll leave it at that
• I like Kendall. Mike thinks it's a little girly, and well back to that whole "K" sound thing. Too much of it.
• Ryland. Again, Mike's response, "what kind of name is that?"
• Finn. (Finnegan) Mike said, "no".

Mike says "no" alot.

I sure get technical, huh? : ) I have other favorites that are still possibilities, but we'll see about sharing those later : )

It's in his blood...

So Cal is convinced baseball (and football) is in his blood. I think at first he thought it was because he was named after Cal Ripken, but now he has a true reason. Recently he found out that my third cousin was a quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons (Steve Bartkowski), so he is obsessed with this; it's rather funny. I personally have never met the guy, though my Mom and several other family members had the opportunity to see him play on multiple occasions and meet him (I was a toddler at the time, so I stayed with Grandma). Cal wants to write him and meet him. Then Cal found out Steve's Dad played for the Cubs, and my Great-Grandpa was on the farm team for the Texas Rangers. He was unable to play majors, because he went to war instead. But I guess this means it really is in Cal's blood. He made two outs for his team playing first base Thursday night in one inning. Here is one I caught on video. Perhaps he is destined for the big leagues like his ancestors : )

Dancing queen

Maddie yesterday afternoon before rehearsal, with her goofy grin...

Maddie and her friend, Lauren, after their rehearsal.

I seriously own enough makeup to fit in a small ziploc bag, and I don't really have a knack for doing hair. But she turned out pretty cute anyhow. Too bad she fell asleep on the way to the rehearsal (the location of recital is 40 minutes away) and her hair went flat by the time we got there. Sheesh, some girls there had their hair professionally done and more makeup on than I don't know what. Oh well.

Big recital night tomorrow and then again Saturday. Photos aren't allowed during the show, and group photos were taken the night of the rehearsal, and so I took a few, too.

irresistable!

The first purchase I've made for the new baby...$2.99 on clearance at the Children's Place.

and probably there won't be too many more purchases, seeing as we have plenty to go around, be it boy or girl. If it's a boy, I might have to buy some more outfits, seeing as what is packed away of Cal's will be 10 years old!!! We are buying a new crib. We really should've with Maddie. I'm sure we'll just go to a resale shop or rummage for that.

a few things...

Cal has slept over the past two nights at my Grandparents' house. The girls have been inseparable...literally. Sometimes it involved nice things like reading or playing doctor, but there has been an awful lot of wrestling and arguing and fighting. It's going to be a l-o-n-g summer.

The kids had excellent report cards, plenty of 4's (great!!) which are hard to come by (the public school gives 1-4; I find it very weird & I don't like it). While we intend on sending them to the private school in fall, curiosity still hit when finding out who their teacher would be in fall, hypothetically remaining at the public school. Poor Cal, for the second year in a row not a single close friend in his class. People he knows, yes. But his two best friends were each put in a different class as well (there are 3 different classes for his grade level). Same thing happened to him last year. He made a best friend in second grade, and then hardly spoke to him again once in third grade since they were separated. Kaycey's grade only has 2 different classes, so chances of her getting friends in class were much higher. I can't stand this method, and will never understand it I suppose. I was with the same 18 kids for 9 years, and I wouldn't change that at all.

I have been searching high and low for landscaping ideas for a sloping front yard. I am not having much luck, and will probably end up at the library. Not that that's a bad thing. And not that we are in some rush to landscape. Neither of us want a high maintanance yard anyhow. But I thought maybe there was something I could work on in the summer, besides painting the porch. We'll see. Our to-do list keeps growing!!!

Another big thunderstorm last night. This time we unplugged the *new* TV.

officially summer...

That Maddie...what a ham.

Though I'm not sure it feels like summer. Today was the kids' last day of school. Weatherwise, today was a great day. In the days ahead, not so much. I don't think it will feel like summer for a while. We will keep busy for sure no matter what the weather, with house stuff, baseball Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights thru end of July for Cal & Kaycey, Brewers games, gymnastics (for Maddie), dance day camps (for Maddie), Girl Scout camp for Kaycey, Girl Scout day activities, baseball camp for Cal, overnight camp for Cal through Camp Philip (through our church)...just to name a few things!! It'll be one crazy busy summer.

I made a few very simple cards; one for each of the kids' teachers and one for the bus driver. The kids took the cards on their own and wrote in them.

card for the bus driver

for Kaycey's teacher

for Cal's teacher

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

Went to the Dr. today (nothing exciting today, but 3 weeks and 6 days till we find out if it's a boy or girl!!!) but they needed a urine sample. Maddie was rather fascinated by this. Quoting Maddie, "Wow, when I grow up I wish I could pee in a cup just like you, Mom"

nesting?

I have been cleaning and organizing like crazy. Not that I don't clean the house regularly, but I am talking cleaning out drawers, reorganizing rooms completely. Seems quite early for that whole "nesting" stage they talk about with pregnancy, but I don't know what else to attribute this crazy cleaning organizing sweep of the house to. I am super anxious to find out what we are having this time around (we didn't find out with Maddie), so I think maybe that's a little part of it because I spent an awful lot of time reorganizing the kids' rooms and playroom, in great wonder who will be sharing rooms...if it's another girl, Maddie would eventually share with baby girl and Kaycey would get her own room; if a boy, he would get the spare room and the girls would continue to share. I have big plans...don't know how it will pan out, or if Mike will allow it : ) I am sort of thinking the area in the bonus room that was to be my scrap space would make an awesome bedroom for a preteen/teen...I have big plans for the play area side of the bonus room, too. I am going to take a corner of it and create a play kitchen for the kids (white/black checkered floor, get an old or cheap sink and stick it in some cheap laminate countertop, have stools with an island/peninsula, red/white tile on some plywood nailed to the wall behind the "sink"). Then, my plan is to make it so that as they get older, we can have a mini fridge, microwave up there. A hang out place with their friends. Don't think it's cost effective to get plumbing put up there for a real sink, which is unfortunate, I wish we would've. ANyhow, so I've been getting house decorating ideas in my "off" time from scrapping. Though with all the crap I've been buying, I plan on reorganizing the scrap stuff tonight so I can get cracking!! Where would my scrap space be if Cal got the potential bedroom in the bonus room?? Well, I would love for it to be in the dining room (currently the family room, really). Don't know that Mike will go for that one. But alot of my stuff has been sitting in there for months in piles, so what difference would some more stuff be ???

I also came up with the bright idea to have a book--kind of like a journal. In it, I am putting everything I don't want to forget. Things I remember the kids saying when they were little, things I remember from school, anything and everything so I don't forget all those things I don't want to forget. Perhaps it will serve as inspiration as well as I get back into high gear with scrapbooking!!

Flashback Monday

Okay, so I'm a few days late on the flashback ...with good reason, though. The kids and I slept at my Grandparents' house all weekend. Mike went up North with a friend Thurs-Sunday. While I think normally I would've been fine staying in the house with the 3 kids (I won't sleep there alone), a friend passed along some info and I was too startled to sleep in the house. She let me know that a subdivision not too far (within about a mile and a half from our house) has been having series of break-ins in the middle of the night. WHAT?!?!? I thought we lived out in the country where these things don't really happen. It sounds like it's the result of people leaving doors unlocked, but their homes have been robbed while they are sleeping!! Okay, I've always double checked that all the doors are locked every night before going to bed (I'm a freak that way). While I know stuff happens everywhere, I was too paranoid to sleep in my own house. SO we were gone for the weekend, too.

Okay, so this is BASIC scrapbooking at it's best. Didn't even use much paper. SO does it count? I don't know. Alot of magazine clippings. In one of those fancy peel back the pages books. This is something my friend, Kerri, and I put together at the end of senior year of high school. To fill you in a bit, I was dating someone named Cass (someone I had been friends with for years), Kerri had a major crush on my friend, Pipp (that was his last name, he didn't like to be called by his first name), and our friend, Alyssa, had a major crush on Phil, a friend of Pipp and I. Those boys were real cuties. I should dig up some of those pictures, too.

The guys in this page are Tony (a friend of mine & Cass'; and Ricky, someone I had small crush on in high school) Kerri created the lift the flap over Cass' name so that it appears to say "ass" but when you lift the flap it says "Cass". Pretty crafty, huh??

Hours after a party or just a late night up all night sort of thing, we would drive down to the lakefront to see the sunrise. A beautiful sunrise : )

I have a few more I can post later. Maddie's turn to play webkinz : )