The "B" word.... BOREDOM.

Oh yeah, it's Monday....and those kids of mine go back to school today!! It's a good thing!! They were getting a little....bored. (We don't allow that word in our home). So bored that they resorted to desperate measures this weekend...

Case in point... making the dog look like Princess Leia from Star Wars. They called her Princess Bella Reia.


and Mom went to Michael's craft store to buy Anna some crafts...and look who ended up helping put it together... but be sure to notice the basketball game on the t.v. though (smile).


Stay tuned tomorrow for an interesting "Ben- boredom story".... Have a good day! Jill

Easter in Iowa

While we were at church on Easter morning, the Easter Bunny came to visit Grandma and Grandpa's house...can you believe that?? Here's a picture that I snapped after all of the hoopla was over... yes, those are cans of black olives--the bunny knows that we love them!! Have a great weekend!! Jill

Grandpa's Magical Car

While we were visiting my parents in Illinois, my Dad had an opportunity to show Anna his "special" car. The special feature on his car works like this...whenever you stand behind the car and push your nose, the car trunk pops up. Isn't that amazing?? and not just anyone can open it by pushing their nose. So far, it's been only all four grandchildren that can make this happen. It's funny, this feature has been available on ALL of Grandpa's cars over the years. He must pay a hefty price to get this unique feature. Anna had to test it out in the Wal-Mart parking lot last weekend.
It worked!! Grandpa just had the biggest smile on his face...and the remote in his pocket....

In Memory of our Precious Annie Bananie...

February 1, 1993 - March 25, 2008
yes, that's 15 amazing years!! WOW!

We're Back!!

Happy Easter to all of you....We celebrated Easter with a trip south to Iowa and Illinois. Good thing we left late on Thursday night. Our area got 16 inches of snow on Friday!! HOLY COW!! It was great to be out of the snow band and into temperatures up in the 60's!! Like I said, we packed up the van...


and hit the road...

let me tell you..6 people and 2 dogs in van for 4 hours is not my idea of fun....but it was worth it. Where else can you eat pumpkin pie for breakfast??


or be in a "prayerful state" right after Easter dinner...for 20 minutes. He awoke from his "prayerful state" well rested, I might add.


Even the dogs were spoiled...Annie had Gramma Sue fixing chicken breasts poached in broth for her and Bella, the "lap dog", had a lap to keep warm...

and did I mention the beautiful Easter dinner??? YUM!

More Spring Break adventures to come... Jill

2 random thoughts...

Just had to tell you that Luke calls this "Bella's Chicken Legs"...isn't it funny??


and I think our kids and the neighbor boy are really hoping that spring comes soon...check out their game of "extreme" 4 square... and check out the snow banks behind them. Yes, we are expecting more snow tomorrow...3 to 6 inches...ahhhhhh!!

Works for Me.....Wednesday

One of our traditions after church on Sunday is to have subs from Subway. This past Sunday, we had to deviate from that plan, and I announced that today would be a "YO-YO lunch". One of my friends overheard me say that to the kids, and she asked "what in the world is a yo-yo lunch?". I was happy to tell her.... You're On Your Own for lunch. This summer we will have plenty of yo-yo lunches. It works for us!! Jill

The Artist

Our little artist was busy this past weekend. She surprised us all with this amazing work of art, complete with the Kindergarten spelling of "Our Family". Isn't it great??? We love it!! I just didn't realize my nose was so pointy. hee, hee Jill

Lots of boys and a slushie...

The highlight of the weekend for the boys, I would have to say, involved sports, pizza, and some of Ben's friends from the basketball team. John wanted to invite his basketball team over to have some fun and to use the new "basement area".

The premise was that the boys would sit and watch the Wisconsin/ Illinois game, eat pizza and just "hang out". Well, let me tell you, these boys can sure eat...


and they sure did have fun playing...


but they did not watch a stitch of the basketball game.

Anna couldn't believe how many boys were here and decided she and I needed some "girl time", so we spend an hour or so at Target where she spent some of her hard earned money on some High School Musical pencils....oh the fun....and YES, I treated her to a strawberry-banana slushie... Jill

Student/Faculty Game

Last night at our school we had our student/faculty game. The 8th grade boys and girls basketball teams challenge the teachers and some coaches to a friendly game of basketball. So, it was this team...

versus this team... (no, I have idea what the teacher on the far left is doing, but who can complain, he's 6 foot 8 inches tall!!!)


It really wasn't much of a game this year because we didn't have many 8th grade boys that even wanted to go out for the team, but it was sure fun to watch!!

Look who decided to play....Coach Peterson and his assistant, Andrew (a Richfield Alumni).



Coach Peterson made some of his typical 3 point swishes and the assistant Coach chimed in with many lay-ups too. Fun to see them having a good time! The best part was that Andrew was reunited with a few former teammates from his Middle School Days!!


TGIF!!! Jill

Bella's Birthday

This past Saturday was a big day at our house. Bella's 1st birthday!!! We've never had a purebred dog,until now, so we only could approximate a birthday for our other dog, Annie. The kids were excited as usual as with any family birthday.

A friend told me about a frozen dog treat made by Purina, called Frosty Paws, so I HAD to go find some of those to celebrate. Frosty paws is like a frozen peanut butter ice cream... Here is her treat just before we sang to her...


When we gave it to her she licked it and licked it. She finally grabbed it with her teeth and dropped it onto the floor and slid it around until it smeared up the floor REALLY good. Just great... but she LOVED it!!

Here's the birthday dog!

Wordless Wednesday...Looks Like Lunch (macaroni & chopsticks)

A Steakhouse experience...

Well, so far, so good. No one else is bowing to the porcelain throne.....I'm feeling much better today!!

Last Friday night we had dinner with some friends at a popular steakhouse in our area. This is not your typical Ponderosa, folks. Just check out some of the food. Here is John's wedge salad....


and check out the dessert. Carrot cake with white and dark chocolate...and lets not forget the beautiful mint garnish... John and I shared the dessert.

No, I didn't get a picture of John's entree--he ate it too fast...let's just say..It was beef!!

There were many laughs throughout the evening, but one of the biggest laughs was when the bill came. Each one of the 3 couples that were there had at least 3 or 4 gift certificates, so we all threw them out on the table. We all just started laughing... but we had enough gift certificates to cover the bill and STILL have at least 1 gift certificate to take home... to come back and use again.


Can you believe I can actually LOOK at food today?? WOW, after the day I had yesterday...that's a miracle!!! Jill

Oh No!

Mayday....Mayday.... we're going down-- I repeat, we're going down.... with the stomach flu......ugh... 2 down, 4 to go.

Mt. DirtyLaundry

Years ago our family took a vacation to the Canadian Rockies. Looks like we don't even need to board a plane to have a wonderful view of the mountains around here.....Case in point....Mount Dirtylaundry in Ben and Luke's room.

Yes people, they had 3 full loads of darks and 1 load of whites to do!! Mom helped them conquer the pile during the day....but they did the folding and putting away......
Happy Friday... Jill

This guy is....

BUSTED!!!


Actually, he's not. He gave his whole bag of Valentines candy away and kept this BIG candy bar. He just needed a little chocolate fix....I get it! Jill

Works for me Wednesday....

Here is the recipe for the smoothie that Ben likes....

Strawberry Banana Smoothie
2 cups of ice
1 cup vanilla yogurt
1 cup orange juice
10 frozen strawberries
1/2 banana
2 tsp. ground flax (optional)
1/2 cup strawberry/banana kefir (optional)
Blend together in your blender.

Now Ben thinks this isn't sweet enough so he adds some sweetener...you could use splenda, equal or sugar. I added the last 2 ingredients (on a friend's recommendation) to make the smoothie even healthier...the kids can't even tell!!
Try one today...it works for me! Jill

Smoothie Boy

A few weeks ago, I made a special after school snack for the kids. It was a smoothie. The kids all liked it but Ben raved over it. So...last night at 8:30, Ben got the hankerin' for a smoothie. He got out the ingredients, and the blender and I taught him how to make one. So here he is, after having one glass already of his strawberry smoothie and about to finish the rest...


I felt good about him making the smoothie because it has such healthy ingredients BUT... I'm left with the mess... oh well... Jill
I'll share the recipe tomorrow....

Ahhhhh...quiet

Our weekend went well, but it was sure quiet here....
John and the boys went up north on Saturday morning after Luke's game. They had a blast with all of the snow...about 3 feet on the ground!! They had the brilliant idea of jumping off of the railing of the deck into the deep snow. Good thing Mom wasn't there--I would have said "No way."


In addition to jumping off of the railing, they had a great time sledding and snowboarding too. They especially loved going to the restaurant that served a "canoe" full of greasy appetizers...gross.

So what did the girlie and I do while they were gone???? Well, we had a girlie morning...went to Bath & body works and blockbuster. Then a friend called to invite Anna over. I was a little torn if I should let her go or keep her with me to do more girlie stuff. I let her go over for a few hours, which actually turned into a "sleepover" on Saturday night. So, I had a chance to work on this a little bit....


On Sunday, Anna and I went to church and then headed for the mall to find these beauties....


Sunday night, the boys came home with dirty laundry, wet coats and smiles on their faces...and they brought home this pup who was thoroughly worn out...