Hey! Did You Miss Me??

LOL You might have noticed (or maybe not) me being more quiet than usual on the blog. You probably DID notice I haven't been commenting lately.  We took a road trip to Sioux Falls, South Dakota to visit Steve's family. We left last Sunday(at o'darkthirty) and got home late afternoon yesterday. All in all, it was a great trip. Well, except for the fact that I caught a nasty cold (I've not had one in about a year and this one is a doozy!). Most of the week the humidity was "low" by Sioux Falls standards, and it was windy, so it made the weather a little more bearable, if you know what I mean. Although Friday and most definitely Saturday were quite sticky! All the way to SD, it was bright and sunny and just about all the way home it was cool and rainy. Even here at home. I was sure any fireworks would be postponed as it poured here, but I was wrong. There was just enough of a break in the storm for the shows to be held, even if we needed coats and umbrellas. LOL

I took a bunch of pictures on our trip, but will spare you a "what I did on my vacation" post loaded with pictures (for the moment anyway, LOL) and share just a few highlights...

We went to a local swimming pool...Amy jumped off the HIGH diving board.

We went to play miniature golf and they had go-karts....Jessica REALLY wanted to ride one, my little daredevil.

Of course, we went fishing...Amy caught a "lobster!"

And to the Butterfly House   *Ü*

And to Steve's sister's house out in the country.

Jessica wanted to ride in the big red tractor,

but not Amy.

Amy on the other hand, did learn how to set off fireworks. Oh my, we might have a mini pyro on our hands.

On the way to this sister's house, we stopped by a fireworks retailer and picked up a few to set off after dinner. Wasn't sure that they'd be able to set them off as it was rather windy, but it all worked out.

So, we're back and I must work on the mountain of laundry that needs to be done and re-stock the fridge.

Oh and work my way through reading a lot of blog posts. LOL

Ahhhh, it's good to have a vacation...

but...

it's also good to be home.

Lazy (?) Days of Summer

Ahhhh...the good ole Summertime has officially started this week.

Which means in a few short days Amy will have a birthday. (Her 9th, sniff, sniff)

We've got a family road trip coming up soon, too.

Until then, we've managed to keep ourselves busy at home. 

Well, not AT home, but around town.

*Ü*

We've been to swim, a playdate (a make up one, since the originally planned one was postponed due to one of the playees becoming sick), roller skating and a local carnival. And three of those occurred in one day!

Ahhhhhh, the lazy days of summer.

Steve noticed a carnival set up in the parking lot of a local mall and after dinner last night said he'd like to go. 

So, we loaded up into the car (sans camera-darn) and headed over.

I was quite impressed at how daring the girls were this time, especially Jessica. She was quite vocal on the attractions she wanted to try. And try them she did, with a big happy grin on her face.

Amy wanted to ride the Sizzler, which is one of those spin type rides she discovered last year when Grandpa was in town. You know the one where you sit side by side and as the ride gets going one of you gets smooshed by the other one. I wore flip flops (what was I thinking?), so couldn't ride with her. Steve got the honors and they both had a blast. (Jessica wasn't quite tall enough, so she hung out with me).

It was a fun, happy time. 

And while the prices they charge are exorbitant, 

the smiles on their faces, 

while munching on a 2 dollar snow cone 

was definitely worth the price of the ticket(s).

This fun trip was after the made-up playdate, and 

the terrific time at the roller rink.

Yep, I have to agree with the girls, it was one awesome day.

Lazy days of summer, indeed.

For the record, they were up this morning, before 7am!

As you can see, Mommy has still found a little teeny bit of time to crochet.

This is Mama Tortoise. Baby may (or may not-I'm ready to work on other projects) follow soon.

I couldn't find the same yarn as the sample in Crochet Today, but I really liked the colors in this multi colored yarn and decided to throw caution to the wind and make a pink turtle. LOL

Hope your summer adventures bring you lots of smiles, too!

First Few Days...Done!

Hi There!

I hope this finds you well and ready to enjoy a lovely late summer weekend. Our weather is supposed to be warm (hot?) and dry. A good weekend to be out and about. Both girls made it through their first few days of school and their enthusiasm and spirits are still very high. Jessica told me there's a new girl in her class from Afghanistan! Her teacher is still really, really nice and she comes out of class with a bright smile on her face. Amy adores, I mean, adores her teacher! It's so nice to see my girls excited about school (kind of like I was when I was their age). Amy's teacher had them sitting on top of their desks while they were doing a social studies lesson on the continents (I think). Anyway, they were "flying" from continent to continent during the lesson. Way to make it fun and interesting, huh? Amy was in awe that the teacher let them sit on TOP of their desks! LOL I heard Amy's friend, Hattie, tell her mom...I just LOVE Mrs. H...I think Amy feels the same way.

I thought maybe I'd get out into my craft room during the week, and obviously, that has not been the case. And I'm not sure just when I'll get back out there. Someday, soon, I hope. Here's the deal, just to give you a heads up. Several weeks ago, Steve bought a new version of Quicken. He's been inputting all our financial data into it. He wanted to show me the facts and figures and said, now that the girls are in going to be in school full time, have you thought about going back to work? The answer to that is no. And I felt a little mad that he wanted me to think about it. But I couldn't ignore that my purchases weren't helping our situation(it's not bad by any means, but the economy has done a number on our investments, like it has so many others). So, knowing that it's very important to me to be able to stay at home, I've been extremely conscious of my spending since then. I'm making use of free resources where I can and the library has proven to be a good thing. It's an older library and for a long time didn't have books I wanted to check out, but that's changed somewhat, or I'm more open to what they have to offer, LOL. Plus they are building a brand new building up the road that I think is supposed to be bigger. ANYWAY...I've been checking out books on cutting costs, living frugally, being thrifty, whatever you want to call it. And, some crafty books, too. (*wink*) If I'm brutally honest, there isn't a thing I really need in terms of crafty supplies. Sure, there are things I think I want, but I've got enough supplies here to last me a long, long time. And I've made a vow to myself to USE it! LOL So, when I get back out to my craft room, that's what I'll be doing. Stretching my brain and creativity to use what I've got. That should definitely help the budget(and give the old brain a workout).

As an off-shoot of that whole way of thinking...one of the things I've been really looking forward to now that the girls are in school full time is finally getting to work on getting better organized around the house. You know...without distractions! And I'm hoping doing these things will help me "earn my keep" around here. Maybe if I work on not spending needlessly AND taking better care around the house, I'll be able to be at home for a while longer yet. I don't think I'll be bored, but if I am, once I get done what I want to around here, then I'm sure I'll be much more open to maybe looking into some part time work.

So, with that in mind, I've gotten started on some of the things I've neglected for too long around here. Yesterday's project was finishing up washing the screens on the windows and getting the windows washed. Which entails much more than that implies. Our windows have storm windows in front of the actual window, so it's like I have two sets of windows to wash, plus all the debris that accumulates on the sills. And because it's time-consuming...I've not done it in a long time, making it take that much longer to get done now. I'm proud to say that I've done ALL the screens and gotten three more rooms of windows done, as of yesterday. I still have two more rooms to do and then this project will be done for a while. With plans to do it more regularly, so it doesn't get this bad again. LOL

BUT, if you've gotten this far, it's not all work and no play for me. I HAVE been working on crafty stuff...just not making cards. I've finally been working on making a pair of socks for me! Remember I started a sock earlier this summer? Well, in my recent library visits, I came across a book about knitting a pair of socks at the same time! Not just one, but both, so when I'm done with the project, I'll have a pair completed instead of just one and then having to start all over again for the second (which makes one want to sigh...I have to do this all over again??). I hear they call this Second Sock Syndrome, meaning a lot of times only one sock ever gets made. LOL

I found two circular needles similar to the length recommended in the book (a smidge longer than called for, but it still works) in my mom's stash of knitting needles that I found several months ago. They are all plastic, which I wasn't used to at all, but they are working out fine. And here's where I am with the project as of yesterday...

I've actually done the heel part (the part that intimidated me the most about making socks) and it wasn't too bad at all! Last night I finished the sole and am now working on the foot part, then it'll be the toe and I'm all done! Because I have rather "muscular" calves, thanks to my mom and grandmother (I could never wear tall boots comfortably because my calves are kinda large, couldn't zip them up without catching some skin-ouch-or squishing them so tight the boot never fit right) I am making these shorter socks than the pattern calls for. I figured I'd never get the sock over my calf and I don't want to do the work and not be able to wear them. This is just a basic sock, no fancy stitches or designs. I wanted to figure out how to do it first before trying to get all fancy. LOL

And if you got this far, bless you! I hope I didn't bore you to tears. I just wanted to give you a heads up as to what I've been up to and thinking about lately. I'm not upset or anything about the changes...I'm thinking of it as an interesting challenge and something kind of, sort of, fun to see how well I can do at cutting costs.

I hope you have a terrific weekend! The girls are itching to swim again and now that the weather is supposed to warm up...I think that's what we'll do.

Back to School Time!

Okay, so I'm a day late...school actually started yesterday. But man, I took advantage of the kid free time to delve into some deep cleaning and before I knew it, it was time to pick the girls up! LOL Then the adreneline rush from feeling good about how clean my entry way is wore off and I was pooped.

Both girls were so excited to get back to school that they were awake before their normal wake up time. The had gotten dressed, ate breakfast, made lunch, and brushed their teeth well before it was time to leave. They were definitely chomping at the bit. LOL (Geez, didn't they have a fun summer with their old mom?)

Ahhhhhh...that they would retain this enthusiasm and excitement for school throughout their academic career.

Both girls were just as excited about school at the end of the day. Jessica said her 1st grade teacher is really nice and Amy proclaimed third grade to be awesome.

Both girls got up early again this morning, yay! After I dropped them off, I had a teeth cleaning appointment to keep, then I got back to cleaning after I got home. The bathrooms are sparkly today. *Ü*

I hope you are having a positive week full of enthusiasm as well. Thanks for stopping by!

A Hiking We Will Go...

We decided to go to El Dorado State Park this afternoon and have a picnic. I almost didn't go, but changed my mind with it being the last weekend before school starts. I'm glad I went. We had a great time exploring a few new to us trails and enjoying some lovely weather.

As we were hiking along the trail, this mountain side was on our left. There are many rock climbers that scale these things. They are much braver than I.
This is where we ended up having lunch. We hiked along the stream for a ways, but couldn't find any place to have our lunch. Just before we got to where we started hiking, we found this lovely spot.
Amy and Jessica set up our blanket and we feasted on sandwiches, chips and some grapes.
Then we explored the water. Amy found a stick to poke into the stream and made lots of bubbles. She also slipped and got one leg pretty wet, but she was just fine.
Jessica wanted to go on the same rock as Daddy.
We hiked a bit more after we ate and came to an area where the girls could take their shoes off and enjoy the nice, very cold, mountain stream.
Yes, even I waded for a few minutes. It felt great for about 2 seconds, then it was bone chillingly cold!
My two intrepid hikers who fear nothing even rocky trails. Jessica led us most of the way.
This is a shot of the same area where we had our picnic, only from the bridge that was right by us.
And just about my most favorite shot of the day. Walking back to the van, Jess and Daddy shared a sweet moment talking about how much fun they had on our little hike.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Hope your Sunday has a special moment or two to treasure.

Screeeeeeech.....

Stopping by real quick to let you know I haven't completely fallen off the face of the blogosphere!

Summer weather has decided to make a comeback after a week or so of very cool temps and rain, so I've been taking the girls to the local pool for swim time almost every day. Hey, they cool off and it's cheap entertainment. I sit under the umbrella and work on whatever handwork I've got going, so I think it's a win-win. *Ü* (even though I've not made it out to my craft room at all recently)

Then yesterday afternoon, Steve's sister, Sandy and her hubby, Jeff rolled into town on their motorcycle. They live in Sioux Falls and went to Sturgis (a big motorcycle rally) for a couple of days and took a huge detour to come visit us for a few days. If all goes well, they will head back to the rally for a few more days after they leave here and then they'll head home. It was really iffy that they would even come our way as Jeff's mom is ill, but she told them they should follow their vacation plans.

So, after a yummy breakfast at Gunther Toody's this morning, we took them to...can you guess? No...not miniature golfing...but to Bass Pro Shop (to see the huge kittycat fish) and then the Museum of Nature and Science. We didn't get tickets for Expedition Health as open times were too late in the afternoon, but we managed to have a good time showing them around the museum anyway. LOL

Before all that happened, you would not believe who was willing to take a quick spin on Jeff's motorcycle this morning. You might be surprised....take a peek...

Amy apparently said, No way! But Jess was game. She said it was a little bit scary, but a lot of fun, too.

So, that's the in a nutshell update to let you know all is well and good, just a tad busy. Hope to see you again soon, but in the meantime, thanks for your patience as this thing called Life keeps me hopping.

Drive By Post...

Happy Wednesday to you! It's Wednesday already? Yikes! LOL I've got no artwork to share, but thought I'd pop in anyway to say hi!

I can safely say this summer has been quite enjoyable and we still have about 3 1/2 weeks or so until the girls head back to school. I think this has been one of the best times I've spent with my girls. I love it!

On Sunday I was in a "mood" and didn't head out to my craft room. Could have been PMS or just that I needed some downtime after working so hard on getting the room set up. I headed to the bookstore instead and enjoyed looking at various titles. When I'm feeling "moody" this seems to help me work through it. I have been reading a bit more (various subjects) and enjoying it. One of the books I read (I've had the book for a long time, just haven't taken the time to read it) was about organizing (something I aspire to be and haven't quite gotten there). I like to read different titles on the subject and usually find a nugget or two that inspires me. I also like reading in front of the girls so they can see Mommy practices what she preaches! (well, I don't preach, but you know what I mean). Anyway, as the start of the school year approaches, I keep going through in my mind some of the things I'd like to accomplish during the day while the girls are in school. I am looking forward to working on establishing more habits that will help me feel better organized. So, reading this book motivated me a bit.

So much so, in fact, that yesterday, I made a deal with the girls. Their room is a mess. No way around that fact. The girls share a room and that means double the amount of "schtuff" crammed in there. Add to that, they are reluctant to part with things. Well, I go in and clean it up, but then they don't have anything vested in the upkeep. So I decided to entice them to help me out (okay...maybe it was a bribe...whatever). I told them if they gave me a couple of hours in the room, with no griping or complaining and if they gave a good faith effort to give up some things, then I'd take them to do something they wanted to do. They wanted to go minature golfing again. So that was our deal. And before we started I asked them how the room made them feel, what they'd like to DO in there and what they would need to do to get to that point. All this really seemed to motivate them!

It took the better part of the day and two quick trips to Goodwill, but you can SEE the floor right now and everything is picked up off of it! Yay! I was impressed at how well they were able to part with some items that were just taking up space. While we didn't get through every single little thing, we managed to plow through a good chunk of the room and did I say...I made two trips to Goodwill to donate? (it helps that the Goodwill opened up a huge store and donation center about 5 minutes from our house? LOVE that-makes it quick and easy to drop off items before you have a chance to second guess your decisions-LOL).

I think it also helped that a cold front moved through the state and it was cloudy and only in the low 70s (if that). So it wasn't an unbearable task either. And the girls and I DID get to the miniature golf course and had a blast playing for an hour or so.

They were quite excited to show their dad when he got home from work. Now to work on keeping it this way...hopefully! That's gonna require effort on my part to establish a better pick up routine. Baby steps, right?

So that's what we've been up to, in addition to our usual activities.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope your week is productive and happy!

Still Crocheting...

Wanna see the latest projects? LOL

I just finished this bathrobe this morning. It took a few days to make the body part. It's 7 1/2 inches long/tall. It took a bit of time (and I had to rest my wrist a couple of times) to get enough rows crocheted to reach that amount. The rest of it went fairly quickly.

And, yep, there was a pattern for slippers! Jessica picked the colors and specifically asked for the slippers to be made first. LOL

This is not a great shot of Jessica's swim suit cover-up. I haven't pressed it at all yet and you can tell. The girls also asked for a tote bag and a beach ball.

The tote bag was fun, but I couldn't find the beach ball anywhere when I was taking pictures. I used a variagated thread (that you can see on the handle & top row of the tote bag) to crochet the beach ball. If I find it, I'll share if you want.

We took Grandpa with us for swim lessons and lunch this morning.

He was quite impressed with both girls' abilities.

After lunch we headed back over to Adventure Golf because the girls wanted to play another round. We didn't bring the camera this time. It turned out to be good that we didn't, because 1/2 way through the course we were caught in a thunderstorm and got a good soaking for about 10 minutes!(there really wasn't any place to get shelter and the camera would have gotten pretty wet) We continued to play since we weren't going to melt...LOL The sun came back out before we finished the last hole. We tried a different course this time and weren't overly thrilled with it. It was a tougher one, full of obstacles. The girls were a smidge frustrated, but soldiered on very well. It was still a lot of fun and we've got the story of getting caught in a rainstorm! Oh and Amy got a hole in one for the first time! Yay, Amy!

That's it from me today. We'll be taking Grandpa to the airport in the morning so he can continue on to Minnesota. He's going to visit his mom, who is turning 98 later this week! She lives in International Falls, and that's where my dad grew up.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Til next time...

Lakeside Amusement Park...

Today's adventure was a trip to Lakeside Amusement Park in Denver. They are celebrating 100 years in business this year! I'd never been, although Steve took Amy a long time ago. So long ago she didn't remember it. What a great day it was. Our friend Dave went along with us and so I can officially call this An Adventure With Dave. (Anytime we go somewhere with Dave, it's always an adventure. He knows lots of great trivia and just what to do to have a great time)

First up we took a train ride around the lake. I can just imagine how pretty this would be at night.

Jessica really wanted to try this ride out.

The girls wanted to go on the Spider and Mommy was happy to ride along. This was right after Steve and I rode the Wild Chipmunk, a roller coaster ride where you felt like you were going to fly out of the car or the car was going to fly off the track. I loved it. Steve...not so much.

Grandpa's day was complete when he rode the Tilt A Whirl with his girls.

One mustn't leave the park until one rides the 100 year old Merry Go Round.

We waited quite a while for this next ride, but Amy and Jessica insisted we had to ride it, Bumper Boats! It was pretty close to being worth the long wait. There were only 5 boats being used and a ton of people in front of us. Of course, most every one wanted to ride alone, so you can imagine this ride didn't move along too quickly. But we (Amy and I) got a few good bumps in once we finally got into the boat. (hee, hee)

Before we left Grandpa wanted a picture with his girls.

While the park is showing its age and not all the rides were open, one can definitely see where this was a happening place in its heyday.

We are all glad we went and we had another fantastic day.

Fun Times With Dad!

Hello there! I hope you are doing well this fine Sunday morning. I thought I'd pop in and give you a quick (or not) update on our time with my dad.

Hi Dad!

We had lunch at Gunther Toody's one afternoon. He turned 79 on July 13th.

Looks great, doesn't he?!

One of the things Amy most wanted to do with Grandpa was go miniature golfing like we did last summer. As part of the Summer Reading program we are doing, we had free passes for the kids and two adults. So, after paying for Dad, we had a fun couple of hours.

For those that don't know, my dad has macular degeneration and can't see very well. But he sure can see well enough to play the pants off of us at miniature golf! LOL

I'm trying to hit the ball down the center lane so that we can see the flames shoot up out of the head. Unfortunately, this time, none of us was able to do it, so we got shot with water instead. LOL We all had a great time and then went to lunch at Gunther Toody's.

We took Dad to the Museum of Nature and Science so he could see the Expedition Health Exhibit and the Space Odyssey as well as Prehistoric Journey. He loves this musuem almost as much as Amy does. No pictures, though. The lighting sure is tough to get good shots there.

Yesterday, we went to a place that I keep hearing being advertised on the radio called The Wildlife Experience. It's an interactive museum dedicated to the conservation of animals and their habitats. It's located just south of Denver and it was pretty darn cool.

This is what you see as you walk up to the entrance. So pretty! The building inside is equally beautiful. There is a lot of rock and artwork as you walk through, plus great inspirational nature quotes on the walls. You go through an area designed for kids to be hands-on and you travel through several biomes.

Amy and Jess thought walking around in the flippers was pretty cool. There was lots to see and do here, but I didn't want to post TOO many pictures.

This painting was huge and it was gorgeous, so I had to take a photo of it. So did Amy. LOL

Next we walked through the exhibit called Globeology. This was REALLY cool. I took a bunch of pictures of the different areas (or biomes) but this area was of particular interest to the girls because it "snowed" as we walked through it.

This is what the "snow" actually looked like.

Again, I took a bunch of photos, but don't want to bore you with too many "what I did on my vacation" shots. LOL It was a very neat experience and one I'm glad I thought of doing.

I'm not sure what's on tap for today. I'd kind of like to head over to that City Pool so Steve and my dad can see it first hand. The girls have been asking to go swimming every day and we haven't gone yet. We'll see how the day plays out.

We are having a great time, that's for sure!

Thanks for stopping by. Dad leaves on Tuesday morning and hopefully not too long after that I can finish setting up my craft area and do some creating! Until then, have a great day!