HEELLLLLOOOOOO

Well hello there strangers. Its been along time since I have heard from you all. What on earth have you all been doing? If you all would get off of your lazy bums and post more often, perhaps I wouldn't have to wonder how you have been or whats been going on in your lives. ;O)

Our household has been bbbbuusssssyyyyy! I have not had much of a chance to get on the computer at home or at work. I have been training at work, and I don't think "training" means teaching one how to spend hours searching for the end of the internet. When I am not doing something productive at home, I am either sleeping, or making sure someone else is being productive. I feel a bit like a dominatrix cracking that whip, except for the leather clothes and gag. :O) All though, that gag could come in handy some days. Note to self....Make road trip to Olivia's. Whoa, hello there. Forgot I had an audience. We have been cleaning, gutting, fixing, plumbing and roofing. Just to name a few things. Everyone here is still alive. I have allowed them to live another day. :o) God has blessed me with a teenager, a terrible two year old, a roofing hating husband, a psychotic old dog, a yappy little dog, a big dumb dog and b**chy old cat. Thank you Lord.

Tanner started 7th grade. He is not loving it, but did any of us at that age? He is going through all those fun changes and still thinks his parents are lame. I am guessing that will be on going for the next 5-10 years or so.

Colter turned two on the 5th. He is still my little angel, only now his horns are poking through. He has most of his teeth, talks up a storm and continuously amazes me with how smart he is. We had a big party for him last weekend. It was great that almost everyone could come. I cooked for an army and got some good reviews. I think I may have surprised a few folks with my abilities. ;O) Colter got lots of TRUCKS!! That is what he is loving right now. He also got an electric atv ride on from his super rad parents. Colter had a great time at his party.

Al and I had our 9 year wedding anniversary on the 11th. Al bought me a nice antique hutch. He's a great hubby. We decided instead of going out for supper together, we would make it a family affair and take the boys with us. After all, it was the day that we became a family. We enjoyed a meal at the local mexican restaurant. Al and I decided that for our 10 year, we may actually try to do something special. Like revisit the cabin we stayed in for our honeymoon. But that is a story for next year.

Well, I am going to leave you with a few pictures.........

Birthday pics

The 2 year old

Presents!

Testing them all out

Truck cake

The teenager

Look mom, just like my daddy

Later Gators!!!

birthday boy

It's official. We have a teenager in the house. Tanner's 13th birthday was on Wednesday. I suppose this means he is technically 14 now. :O) Even though his birthday was only one day, it seems he has been celebrating or 2 weeks now. He has been a bit spoiled this year, but he deserves it.

His super cool parents helped him by a PSP and some games for it. He has been wanting one for ever and now he finally has it. He carries it every where. I think it is starting to grow into his hand. On Monday, we wanted to take Colter to the zoo and forced Tanner to go along. He had a good time, but he wanted to eat at Chucky Cheese. More like, he want to play at Chucky Cheese. So we took the boys there and Tanner played all the games while Colter rode the same rides over and over. Afterwards, we stopped at Barnes & Noble, where Tanner then conned Dad into buying him a book.

On Tuesday, aunt Stacy dropped of a card with money and cupcakes, which didn't take long for him to consume. Wednesday morning, I trashed his room by filling it up with balloons, streamers and a birthday sign. His great aunt dropped of a card with more cash. By noon, a card from the step grandparents had arrived, and it was filled with even more cash. I was going to cook Tanner's fav supper of enchilada's, but we started working on the kitchen and it was a mess. Instead, I let him decide where he wanted to eat. He picked pizza from the gas station and we pigged out. After supper, his Grandma Judy & Grandpa Chuck showed up with even more money. Including some from his Great Grandma Billie. They stayed and helped Tanner eat some off his cake and ice cream.

After all this fun, you would think that would be the end of it. Nope. His friend wanted to take him to the boat races in chamberlain for his birthday. So, that is what he is doing this weekend. He should be back sometime today. I am sure this will not be the end of it. We want him to have a party with his buddies, but the two he really wants to be there are out of town for a while. So I am sure sometime in August, we will be celebrating yet again.

Have a great week. Oh yeah. I would also like to wish a Happy Belated Birthday to Tess. She and Tanner share the day. I won't tell your age though!

Kitchen progress

Thought I would throw out a quick update on the kitchen progress. We actually worked on it a couple of days this last week and accomplished a lot. All of the cabinets are now in. Most of the handles are on. Some of the back splash has been installed. And we started working on the floor. I'll probably jinx myself by stating the following. We should be able to finish installing the floor tomorrow. Al said he was going to get my sink in this week. I plan to have the rest of the pulls put on this week.

If these goals are accomplished, all that will remain is the trim & finishing touches. And then organizing my kitchen. And getting rid of the boxes!!!! Yeah!!!

Here are a couple pics of the progress.

The Zoo

4th of July

We had a great 4th of July. Did I mention its one of my favorite days of the year? Well, it is. Everything about it is just great. The fireworks, grilled food, warm weather and a day of fun in the sun. Of all of the holidays, I have the best memories of the 4th.

I can remember waking up early and setting up to start shooting fireworks. Mom wouldn't let us start until after 8am. People could still be sleeping. At exactly 8am, the fireworks would start. We would shoot fireworks all morning then take a break to eat. Dad would grill burgers and hot dogs. After dinner, the fireworks continued. By now, it was time to start getting creative. Just shooting them wasn't as fun. It was time to blow stuff up. Hot wheels, pop cans, roadkill...anything was fair game. After all the destruction, we took another break for supper and waited anxiously for dark to shoot the fun stuff. I always had such a good time. Even the time I almost blew my fingers off and the time my brother's friend started my hair on fire. Good times.

This year we spent the day out at the lake at a friends place. We grilled, shot fireworks, enjoyed a few totties and I relaxed. It was extra special this year because Tanner was here. It has been a few years since he has been home on the 4th. We went all out and got him a ton of fireworks. He had a blast (no pun intended) lighting them all. Colter enjoyed the snaps, but was a little unsure of the smoke bombs. He was a bit frightened by all of the loud fireworks, but seemed fine as long as he could sit in my lap. I brought his playpen so I could lay him down in the house if he got tired, but he was not about to let me leave. So I pushed a love seat over to the window and held him while we watched Al and Tanner shoot off all the fun stuff. Colter and I made it back to town around midnight and Al and Tanner came home shortly after.

I think everyone had a great time. I know Tanner did, and that is really all that mattered. I hope you all had a happy and safe 4th!

Tanner's visit

Its late. I have something on my mind. Its bothering me. I have purposely kept my rants of this kind from becoming a post. I don't intend to make it a habit, but I hope putting it out there will help, at least for tonight. So I can get some sleep.

Tanner just came back from a 2 week stay at his moms. He generally stays for a better part of the summer, but this year he didn't want to. We have been telling him its his decision. We don't want to keep him from his mom, but at the same time, if he doesn't want to go, we stand behind him. Its come to a point were I am ready to say no more.

The reason his summer stays are becoming shorter are because of the mental abuse he has to endure while he is there. His step dad is not very nice to him. He does things to deliberately be mean to Tanner. Here is what Tanner told me about his most recent visit.

First night there...All the family are enjoying an ice cream bar. Step dad tells Tanner he doesn't get one. Just because Tanner was clipping his toenails and didn't come immediately when called.

One day, Tanner wanted to go over to a buddies house. 5 year old brother wants to go with and Tanner says no. Next day, Tanner is eating cereal and trying to feed 5 month old sister. He asks his 5 year old brother to hold the bottle until he finishes his cereal. Brother yells down to step dad asking if he has to feed sister. Step dad says no. Tanner asks if he can just hold it until he finishes breakfast. Step dad says no. Brother shouldn't have to help you because you wouldn't take him with you to your friends house.

And the one thing that really burns my bottom.....Tanner has a name when he is there. And its not Tanner. Its retard. Tanner said he was only called by his real name may be 3 times. Step dad got mad because he didn't come right away when called retard. Step dad says you will come when I call your name. And that name is retard.

What does his mom say about all this? Nobody is forcing you to come here.

What do I say about all this? Somebody may just start forcing you to stay here.

To step dad....Your a real big man.

*FLOWERS*

I thought you all might like to see just what has been keeping me so darn busy..... Flowers!
Flowers!
Flowers!
And more flowers! My flower/gardening fetish just came out of no where a few years ago. If you know me personally, I am sure you would never have expected this from me. My mom says she thinks I come by it naturally. Apparently there were some great gardeners in the old family tree. Unfortunately, I didn't get to know any of my grandmother's, so I didn't pick it up from them. Mom always had tulips, but she never did much gardening. I personally think I have some subconscious telling me to do things people would not expect. I always seem to be full of surprises.

I have been trying to clean up around the house and make it look better. Even though it still needs paint, I must be doing something right. There seems to be a lot of lookie lou's lately. It could be my mad gardening skills (cough) or my sexy legs (choke). May be its disbelief that someone would stick money into the old house. My best guess would be that they are checking out this cute little guy.

He is a pretty good helper. I would hate to loose him to one of the psycho old lady stalkers. I might have to put up an electric fence to keep him safe and keep them out!

Have a great week ya'll!

Good morning ya'll. Or afternoon, or evening, or whatever time of day it may be. Waking up on the wrong side of the bed doesn't seem to effect my day much anymore. Thats because I am lucky enough to see this guy every morning.

He smiles even if I wake him up. (He does not get that from me!) Heck, he smiles and laughs all the time. Its hard not to smile when he is around. ~Lucky girl~ thats me!

Summer days

A big hello to all! I hope everyone is doing well. I hope I can get a chance to get around to every one's blog and get caught up again. I will most likely continue to be hit and miss for a while. I hope you will not forget about me!

For the past month, we have all been staying busy with work, play, funerals, sickness, helping people shingle and all the other wonderful things life brings us. We are still having plenty of laughs and keeping our sanity. Life is always interesting.

Being surrounded by men, I have become somewhat of an expert on their ways. For instance... We all know that by the time a man reaches adulthood, he has developed selective hearing syndrome. While a boy is still pre-teen, you may notice signs of the syndrome starting to take effect. If your pre-teen boy says huh or what, after everything you say, then your boy is well on his way to joining the ranks of his forefathers. Those huh's and what's are the practice that leads up to the nods and yes dears. Okay, so you say you all ready knew all this. But did you know, that your precious little toddler is also in the early stages of selective hearing syndrome? Of course you did. That is why when you are telling your adorable little toddler how it is or something he doesn't want to hear, he just covers his ears with his hands. He does this, because he has not yet learned that this will generally make a woman more angry. All though, when your still an adorable toddler, you may get away with it more often.

Another manly wonder I have become accustom to, is their ability to regress back into a small child whenever they become sick. I know all you woman are saying "uh-hu". Men, stop denying, you know you do. Woman on the other hand, can never be sick. And if they are, they better get out their super hero cape. A house can not function with out mom.

This past week, my wonderful toddler so graciously shared his cold with me. The night before we were going to head to Menards, I had a hard time sleeping. I was so plugged up, that I slept on the couch so I could prop myself up. My loving husband was concerned and thought perhaps we should not go to Menards the next day. I told him we were going because we had been planning it for so long. We were also going to meet Tanner's mom so he could visit her for a couple weeks. So the next day, we headed to sioux falls. I popped a couple of cold pills in the hopes of feeling better. I did for an hour or so. Then it just hit me. I don't know how long we were in that store. I thought I was going to die. I had a major headache, the chills, and no energy. I just wanted to go home or sit down, but I felt guilty, so I somehow managed to keep my feet moving. Very slowly.

After an eternity of torture, we were heading home. I made Al drive, which should be a neon sign as to just how sick I was. (If you have never rode with him, I certainly wouldn't recommend it.) Once home, I got out my big comforter and laid on the couch. Colter used me as a jungle gym, but I didn't really care. I just wanted to stay there and melt into the couch. Colter managed to figure out how to put his finger in his throat and gag himself. Why he thought it was funny, I'll never know. I tried to deter him by telling him no, but I was to weak to grab his hand away from his mouth. He continued to do it, until he threw up all over me and my blanket. Fantastic. It took all I could muster to get my blanket to the wash, get him to bed and find myself a new blanket. By the time Al came back into the house, I was a pile of mush and just didn't want to move. He tried to get me to go to bed, but I was not going any where. Al then kindly told me how great I looked and thought perhaps I should go to the hospital. I was obviously dying. Mom's are never sick like that. I tried to assure him that I was going to live.

I am still fighting this nasty cold, but I can at least function again. So, I guess life is back to normal. I don't know when I will find time to post again. Hope everyone is enjoying their summers!

Still Alive

There has been so much going on in Miah land lately. I am trying to get caught back up on everyone's blogs. I hope you are all well. I leave you with a few pictures......

Awesome Memorial Day display

Yet another fab pic of brothers

I want to help mom!

Wait a minute, I need to check this out first.
Astila Vista Baby.

BMX Superstar

Friday night, Colter and I went for yet another walk. I decided to take it out of my neighborhood for a change of scenery. I have been stalking houses looking at the landscaping and getting ideas. I like to stay in the "older" parts of town. The trees are large and many of the flowers are what grandma would have had. Right up my alley.

I passed the Kerrie Meyer residence and her door was open. I saw movement, so I yelled Kerrie Meyer Rocks. No one came running out, so I assumed they thought there was some crazy outside and went into hiding. :O) We did manage to get into one house.....but it was family. They didn't have much of a choice. After visiting with family for a bit, I decided to head back home. Colter was getting tired and so was I.

When we were a block from home, I see the naughty little neighbor kids are out. Naughty, because I don't think they have much adult supervision. One of the boy's starts yelling at me.

Boy: Hey! Will you watch me? I want to show you something.
Me: (argh.) What do you want to show me?
Boy: Just watch. (dragging a ramp out to the sidewalk.) I can jump this on my bike.
Me: (Oh!) You should be careful. You could get hurt.
Boy: No I won't. I have done it before.
Me: Okay. Be careful.

I continue walking, because I really don't want to witness this kid crack his skull open. And I really just want to get home.

Boy: I'm ready. Are you going to watch me?

Awe fiddle sticks! I could tell this kid was just dying for some attention. I very well couldn't just ignore him. So I stopped and turned around to watch him.

Me: Okay. I'm watching.

He rides like mad, gets to the ramp and his bike gets stuck on the top.

Me: Good Job!
Boy: I can do better. I can go much higher. Do you want to see? Please?
Me: Okay. Lets see it.

Once again, he rides like mad and this time he clears the ramp.

Me: (clapping.) Wow! That was great! Your pretty darn good. You better keep practicing. Some day when your a famous BMX superstar, I want your autograph.
Boy: I can do it with no hands. Will you watch me?
Me: (I had to draw the line here.) No way. I don't want to see that. That would scare me.

I turn around and take off for home, as quickly as I can. I am trying to make my escape. The boy comes riding his bike past me and turns the corner. When I get to the corner, I turn the opposite way, because my house is across the street.

Boy: Where are you going?
Me: I have to go home.
Boy: You do?
Me: Yep.

I felt so bad for the little guy. He seemed very bummed that he couldn't follow me on my walk. He was obviously desperate for some attention. I hope our 10 minutes of interaction made him feel good, but I know it was no where near enough.

Lovey Dovey Curtain

My Mission? Buy el cheapo shower curtain. Why el cheapo? Let me explain.

It is a boys bathroom. Not exactly a glamorous setting. Far from spa like. The floors are covered with a hideous linoleum. The walls? Some kind of board that looks like it was suppose to have looked like fake brick at one time. Now it is covered with layers of paint. The sink is old and has what looks like legs from a walker. Their purpose? Not sure, but I assume it is to hold the sink up. The best feature of the bathroom? The shower. :O0

Someone really handy installed the shower. It is obvious that at one time there was a claw foot tub. It was replaced at some point with another tub. A half wall had to be put in to accommodate the knobs and faucet. I am not sure what type of material they used to build that wall. I don't think they wanted anyone to know, because they covered it with contact paper that is suppose to look like wood grain. Pretty. Later, someone decided they wanted a shower. If your going to have a shower, you need curtains. So, rather than make walls and have some type of surround, they rigged up some rods that form a circle all the way around the tub. The rods are held up by 1/4in cotton rope that is tied to hooks in the ceiling. Because of the lack of wall to hold the shower head, they decided going with the wand type would be best. Soon, they realized that holding the wand over their head made their arms very tired. So what better way to fix that problem then to get a board, attach it to the super curtain rod and drill a hole in it so the shower head could be fixed to it. The duct tape is to help keep it from falling through that hole.

Because the boys bathroom has the hillbilly theme, I am sticking to el cheapo curtains. I found some real cheapies at the dollar store and picked up three of them. Three because I have to go all the way around the tub. Once I got them home, I threw them on a shelf and forgot about them for a while. When I finally thought about them and had a moment, I put them up. Apparently, they were so thankful, because they have been trying to suffocate the whole family with big bear hugs every time you are in there. How awful they must feel at the constant whining and punching that they receive when they try to show their love. No one in the house feels the love.

Poor shower curtains. Perhaps I will let them stay a few more days.

Attempting to get a hello........I could'a had'a V8.

Happy Mother's Day

To all of the Mother's, expecting Mother's, Grandmother's and Step-Mother's out there....

Happy Mother's Day!!!!

An extra special Mother's day wish to my Mom and my Mother-in-law!! These are two very special women in my life. Both have given me life, just in very different ways. I can never thank them enough and I hope they know just how much they mean to me and how much they are loved.

Love ya Mom & Ma B (or S)

You Rock!!

Howdy

I am getting horrible at updating. I know this. My family has been holding me hostage. Well...the 1 1/2 year old has been anyway. I love being outdoors, but he is an addict. His every waking hour is spent outside, or trying to convince me we need to go there. I am enjoying it though.

It has been a couple of years since I have been able to work in the yard. Believe that I have been stalking the yard/garden isle for months now. Every green house has been receiving a visit from me at least twice a week. Sometimes twice a day. :O) When I am not chasing Colter around, I am thinking about what I can put in my yard. I have lots of idea's, but no where near enough funds to complete them all now. Besides, what fun would that be? What would I do next year?

Colter's vocabulary is constantly growing. I would say he says at least 30 words. Some of those, only mom understands. He says a couple of two word phrases like....oh no, all gone and where at. And of course he jabbers up a storm. He witnessed mom talking with her hands a while back, and now he likes to jabber and move his hands like mom did. He saw his dad spit and now he imitates that. However, he doesn't actually spit, he just looks down and says blah blah. He cracks me up.

All is well at the homestead. We have just been getting out and enjoying some fresh air. Hope all is good with you all.