We are home! It was a long but fun-filled vacation!

Day One-August 21, 2004
We packed up the van and headed out the door by 9 a.m. We stopped in Toronto and gassed up the van. Mr. Bill was not too happy about being in his car seat and started crying. He cried so hard that as we were pulling out of the gas station he threw up all over himself so we stopped and cleaned him up. I put clean clothes on him and let him sit on my lap until he calmed down. He sat quietly and we headed out on the road again. The kids did really well on the trip. We watched a lot of movies and we stopped in Sioux Falls to pick up one of those new video games that plug directly into your t.v. (no console required). It was a great thing for the kids. Becca really seemed to enjoy it.

We stopped again at Wall Drug so the kids could see the dinosaurs and get out and stretch.

We took a few pictures at the big dinosaur and then went into Wall Drug's Backyard to see the robotic dinosaur. Unfortunately he was out of order so we just browsed around. We had the kids change into shorts while in Wall as the temperature there was about 90 versus the cold 55 we had left behind in Brandt that morning. We told the girls they could spend the 10.00 Bob had sent them while we were there. After about a half an hour of trying to keep track of my kids and keeping little hands off of toys I had had enough and told the girls we would go shopping somewhere else. Billy got really mad at me for that but my head was spinning from trying to keep track of five kids, Mr. Bill who needed a nap and was throwing fits left and right, and girls who couldn't keep their hands off the merchandise. We left then and headed onward to Hot Springs.

We got to Hot Springs around 6:30 p.m. Aunt Vonnie was there waiting for us and very excited to see us. She was still very preggo and looked ready to have the baby. She was in a good mood though. The girls were just as excited to see her and they mauled her. We spent the evening just visiting and hanging out with Aunt Vonnie.

Day Two-August 22, 2004
We spent the majority of this day visiting our family that we haven't seen in awhile. We visited my mom and dad for most of the day. Aunt Vonnie came with us. We helped my mom rearrange her kitchen as they are getting ready to put in new linoleum. We also went swimming in Aunt Vonnie's swimming pool. The kids had a good time and Billy and I got some much needed R&R. We went to see my brother, Jamie, that night. He was fun to talk to, as usual. We reminised about when we were kids. We had a lot of fun but the kids got bored and it got late so we headed back to Vonnie's house.

Day Three-August 23, 2004
Aunt Vonnie had to work today so we decided to head up to Rapid to buy some groceries and do something fun as a family. We left the house at 9 a.m. Billy decided to check out Wind Cave National Park on our way to Rapid. We stopped at the prarie dog hills to show the girls the prarie dogs. At one particular stretch we stopped alongside the road and the prarie dogs came right up to our van. It was pretty obvious they were looking for some food. Amazingly enough, I had just cleaned out the van the day before and so we had NO food in the van. I did manage to find a piece of licorice and so I threw it out to the prarie dogs. I did not think they would eat it but they picked it up and devoured it.


There was a sign a good hour or two down the road that said, "Please don't feed the wildlife". Oops! We think this picture would make a good postcard.

We spent the next four hours driving through Custer State Park enjoying the scenery. We drove on the most twisted road I have ever been on. We went through several one-lane "tunnels" where they had blasted through the mountain to allow cars through. We saw Mt. Rushmore through the trees. We finally got to Keystone at noon. By then we were all starving so we decided to skip Keystone and head into Rapid for some lunch. We finally got into Rapid at 12:30. We ate lunch at the Golden Corral. MMMMMM. It is a huge buffet style place complete with salad, main courses, and dessert. I had salad with all the trimmings, nachos with beef and beans, taquitos, broccoli with cheese sauce and brownines for desert. We ate until we were stuffed. We left and went to Super Walmart to get some groceries. We let each of the kids pick out a toy at Walmart to spend their 10.00 on as well. After we finished shopping, we decided to take the short route home.

Day Four-August 24, 2004
Aunt Vonnie had taken today off being that she was due to be induced tomorrow so we decided to enjoy the nice weather and head for the beach. We took the kids out to Angostoura. Unfortunately it is very very very dry over on the west side of the state so the resivour was very low. We walked a couple of miles down to the beach and discovered the water was neon green. The kids jumped right in despite Billy's constant whining about the water (Billy III, mind you). I went it a couple of times when the wind picked up to chase after a floaty that had blow away but other than that I stuck to the beach. We spent a good two hours there and then decided to head home and get cleaned up. We went back and visited with my mom again that evening.

Day Five-August 25, 2004
Vonnie was off to the hospital at 7 a.m. this morning to be induced as her baby is officially one week late today. She called at 10 a.m. to say her water had been broken and she was on the pit drip but not having any painful contractions. We decided to get motivated and find something to do with ourselves while we waited. We drove down to see Lud and his ducks. We sat and visited with him for about three hours and then we went outside to feed his ducks. The girls and Mr. Bill had a great time feeding the ducks and watching them. After the ducks were full the kids walked around collecting feathers. We chatted with Lud for a few more minutes and then we left. We decided to visit the local Pamida and do some window shopping. I also had to buy a postcard for someone back home. ;) One of my sister's co-worker's at Pamida found us and told us Vonnie had called in a little while ago and said she was getting ready to push. That was at 3:30 p.m. We finished our shopping and headed home. Finally at 6 p.m. Vonnie's MIL called to say Vonnie had a baby girl, Shanna Mari Clyde, at 4:30 p.m.

Vonnie was resting and would call us later, she said. We waited around until 8:30 that night but Vonnie never called so we headed out to go walk the freedom trail so the kids could see the waterfall in town. We walked up the trail and under the waterfall. We decided to head up the V.A. stairs then. After we conquered those we headed up the other two sets of stairs in town. There are approximately 100 stairs in each set. It is a long way up.


Billy and I used to walk up them every day on our way to school. It was dark by the time we headed back up to the van so you can't see the waterfall in the background of this picture.

We treated ourselves to dinner at DQ once we got back in the van and then headed home to bed.

Day Six-August 26, 2004
Vonnie called this morning and wanted to know where we were. I told her we were waiting for her to call to let us know she was ready for visitors. She said she waited all night for us. :( I told her we would come up now and see her. We left for Rapid again (this time taking the short route) and got to the hospital at 11 a.m. We got to see Shanna and each of the girls got to hold her. Mr. Bill was not as interested in her. We spent a few hours visiting and then we left at 1.

Vonnie was going to be released around 4:30 so we went home and hung out while we waited for her. Tammy (my internet friend) called too to see if we wanted to meet tomorrow and spend some time together at Evan's Plunge. We agreed and she said she would call in the morning. Vonnie got home around 8:00 p.m. and mom dropped by at 9 to see the baby. After that we went to bed to let Aunt Vonnie adjust to life with new baby.

Day Seven-August 27, 2004
Tammy called about 10 to let us know they were on their way to Hot Springs from Hill City. Vonnie and Shannon and Shanna all went out to show their co-workers their new little girl. While we anxiously awaited Tammy's arrival my other sister, Angie, showed up at Vonnie's. We sat and visited with her for a few minutes but she said she had to run as she had to go to work. It was nice to see her, even if it was just for a few minutes. Shortly after Angie left, Tammy and her family showed up. We sat and chatted and then we decided to lunch in the park. We all had peanut butter sandwiches, chips, and juice. We had intended to stay at the park and play for awhile but it was a chilly 55 degrees that day so we all decided to head to the pool instead. We got to the plunge (49.60 for 2 adults and 4 kids, Billy was free) and the kids all jumped right in. Billy took the kids down the slide while I played in the kiddie pool with the little ones. Tammy sat and visited with me a little too. Tammy and her husband left with their two boys about an hour after we got there. We left a couple of hours later. (Had to get our money's worth ya know!). The kids had a blast. We went home and had dinner and just sat and visited with Vonnie.

Day Eight-August 28, 2004
We spent our last day on Vacation sitting and chatting with Vonnie and Shannon. We went over to mom's that evening to say our goodbyes so we could get an early start to our ride home the next day.

Day Nine-August 29, 2004
I got up and packed up the stuff and Billy loaded it all into the van. He went off to get gas while we waited for the dryer to finish up with our last load of clothes. We sat and talked with Aunt Vonnie. She began complaining of a pain in her lower thigh. I suggested perhaps she should check her pregnancy book and see what the symptoms of blood clots are. She looked surprised by I told her they are very common after a pregnancy. She consulted her book and found many of her symptoms matched. She called her doctor and they suggested she come in so they could check it out. They left for the doctor's and we left for home. She called later to let me know they didn't find anything and thought maybe it was a pulled muscle or something. What a relief.

We finally got out of Hot Springs at 1:30 p.m. We were supposed to stop at Bob's house in Sioux Falls at 6:30 for his coming home party but we knew given our late start, we were not going to make it. We stopped in Oacoma for dinner at BK. The kids were getting cranky but the getting out and walking did them good. We got back in the van and headed out. While we were driving, Becca took it upon herself to wiggle her loose tooth. Somewhere between Oacoma and Sioux Falls her tooth came out. We realized we needed to stop in Brookings then because the tooth fairy was out of cash. :) We stopped at Walmart at 10:30 p.m. and got a pattern for the girl's halloween costume (they are all going to be cheetah girls this year) and some milk. With cash in pocket and bladders empty, we piled back into the van for a short 30 mile jaunt home. We arrived at our doorstep at 11:45 p.m. tired but glad to be home.

The End
Sunday we slept in until 11:00 a.m. (Jet lag and the time change) and then we got up and picked up the house and unpacked. I decided to make some pumpkin bread and begin sewing one of the four skirts I need to transform my girls into Cheetah Girls. I cut out Becca's skirt pieces first and got it done by bedtime last night. The kids all sat down and had some pumpkin bread after dinner. About an hour later Mr. Bill started crying and saying owie owie owie. He was rubbing his tummy so I lifted up his shirt and holy cow!, the boy had hives all over his tummy and they were spreading up under his chin and onto his cheeks. I quickly gave him some benadryl and called the ER in Brookings to see what they thought. She assured me I should just keep an eye on him and if it didn't get better to bring him in. The benadryl kicked in rather quickly and the rash was gone in an hour. We could figure out exactly what had caused his reaction. It didn't appear he had eaten his pumpkin bread but that was our best guess. We sent everyone off to bed and Billy and I crashed too.

Today I gave Mr. Bill a piece of pumpkin bread again to see if that was the cause of his reaction. Sure enough, an hour later he had spots on his tummy again (not to mention the diarreha he has had all morning). I gave him some benadryl and concluded that my little guy is very allergic to pumpkin. (Not that odd since Becca is also allergic to them. Last year when she was pulling out the "guts" of the pumpkin she started crying because her hands hurt. We washed the guts off and sure enough she had a red rash all over where the pumpkin had touched her hands.) Becca can eat the pumpkin though. I guess he will be avoiding pumpkin for awhile. :)

So today I have a gazillion things to do and not enough time to do them. TTFN!

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It is off to Hot Springs we go!

We are heading out to the hills for a much needed R&R and a chance to see my baby siter's new baby. As far as I know the little stinker still hasn't been born but she only has until Wednesday and then the doctors will remove her from that nice warm womb whether she likes it or not. :) I can't wait to see her.

Yesterday I spent the day running odd errands. I went to walmart to get household necessities and spent over 300.00! YIKES! I hate the paydays when it seems everything runs out all at once. All I bought was cat/dog food, dishwasher soap, shampoo, hairspray, gel, toilet cleaner, toothpaste, fish food and filters, garbage bags, diapers/wipes, razors, etc. It was very depressing to write that check! We did get a cooler for our camping trip this week and a little grill since open fires have been banned in the hills. I was glad to leave that store!

Then we met Kristina, Lance, and Cailey in Brookings as they had bought a playhouse/jungle-gym for Lance's sister out of the paper and needed to pick it up. We played at the park with them and then we went to Walmart again as they needed to get Cam some football shoes. Her kids start school on Monday so she also had to pick up some last minute school supplies. Billy thought while we were there we should get new batteries for our van remote-thingies (what are those called anyway?). Both of ours seem to be dying as we have to be standing right next to the van to get it to unlock. Now they have new life again. :)

By the time we got home it was after 11. I got all of our purchases put away and Billy assembled the little grill he bought. Then we went to bed as well.

Today, I called the school to get the kids registered since registration is all next week and we will be gone. So I have to run them in today to do all the paperwork. I also called Cell One since they are running a new deal where you get a second phone for only 9.95 a month and the phone is free. We have been discussing the fact that Billy really needs one since he is the one driving all the time so now he will have one. When I first got my phone a year ago the only family plan they had was to get a second phone for 20.00 a month. Considering you share the minutes that just seemed absurd to me. I am much happier with the 9.95 deal. I also have to clean the house, pack our stuff, and get everything ready to go. Sheeesh! There just aren't enough hours in a day.

Well, don't look for a new entry for a least a few days. I will be sure to let you know how our vacation went and hopefully I will have some new pictures of my niece to share with you all! TTFN!

I find it very ironic just days after I post about my take on religion that suddenly it is in my face on a daily basis. You see, I found a woman on the Deuel County message board at Rootsweb who is originally from Brandt. She started emailing me and asked me if I knew any of her relatives (and they are numerous). I told her I had heard of them but had never met any of them. Well the other day, her sister-in-law showed up at my door to introduce herself and she invited us to the local church. She also mentioned that they were starting sunday school and if I wanted the kids to go I should let them know asap. I discussed it with Billy that night and he really didn't have much to say. This afternoon another of this lady's family showed up at my door. Apparently she is in charge of the sunday school program and she too, was curious if my kids would be going. I said I had talked to my husband but he hadn't really said much. I thought perhaps it would be a good idea for the kids to go since it will give them some time to meet other kids and make some friends that live in town. This, I think, will be especially good for Megan who is scared to death to go back to school since she doesn't have any friends. So, I agreed and now my kids will be going to Sunday School every Sunday through the school year. Whether or not Billy and I attend Church is another issue, one we will have to discuss in length.

In my previous post I mentioned how some things have happened in my life that make it impossible for me to deny there is a God. Well this week another such event happened. Rebekah, a friend from a online message board, is a minister's wife and she had posted in her blogger (I think) about how she had been praying daily for a new van as her family was in serious need of one. She said she was very specific in her prayer and said it over and over. Finally she got the van she wanted and needed and someone from their church approached them and offered to buy them a van. I am telling you this because I was "inspired" by her idea. After Billy got his eval in June I began praying to God nightly to please give us enough money to pay our bills, have some to spend, and some to save each month. I expected Billy to get a raise but the amount was up in the air. Well, on Monday he met with his boss and went over his eval. He was given a generous raise and the big surprise was a bonus. His boss mentioned that he should be getting a bonus more regularly. I told Billy then about my prayers and how I took this as a sign that now we are to put some of his bonus in a savings account. So for the first time in 11 years of marriage I feel we are able to save some money and still be able to pay all of our bills. For us, this is quite a feat. Money has never been a good thing for us. We spend it faster than we make it and despite all of our efforts to control our spending in the past, we never did. I could go into our financial history but it would take all day to write. I do believe God answers prayers and listens to us.

Off the religion topic, my sister is due with her first baby TODAY! I talked to her earlier this week and not much is happening so she thought this little girl was going to stay put. Her doctor is going to let her go 1 week over her due date and then one way or another, that little one will be coming out. I am excited to get packing and get out to Hot Springs to see her.

Last night I spent a good deal of my time working on my family tree. That is one hobby I think I will enjoy until the day I die. It is just like a treasure hunt. You start looking for a person and slowly you find records, family trees, obits, etc. It is so exciting when I finally find a person or new person to add to my tree. I have been working on my dad's family in earnest lately. His family is all from Norway and so I enjoy learning about what life was like over there. Very early into my searches (in 2001) I ran into a very nice gentleman from Denmark. He had much of the information on my dad's family in Bydebooks (farm books) and was more than willing to share with me. After a few months of searching we realized that we are related as well. His family's and mine cross in several places. His wife was suffering terribly from Alheimer's at the time but has since passed away. He is still very active in genealogy and drops me an email occasionally. You can view his website here.

Today, we are off to a foster parent training seminar in Huron. It should be fun. The kids are going to spend the time with Kristina and Lance.

See ya'll later!

"Courtesy of the Red, White, & Blue (The Angry American)"
by Toby Keith

American girls and American guys will always stand up and salute;
Will always recognize
When we see ol' glory flying,
There's a lot of men dead,
So we can sleep in peace at night when we lay down our head.

My daddy served in the army,
Where he lost his right eye.
But he flew a flag out in our yard 'til the day that he died.
He wanted my mother, my brother, my sister and me
To grow up and live happy in the land of the free.

Now this nation that I love has fallen under attack.
A mighty sucker punch came flying in from somewhere in the back.
Soon as we could see clearly through our big black eye,
Man we lit up your world like the Fourth of July.

Hey Uncle Sam put your name at the top of his list,
And the Statue of Liberty started shaking her fist.
And the eagle will fly,
And there's gonna be Hell,
When you hear Mother Freedom start ringing her bell!
It's gonna feel like the whole wide world is raining down on you...
Brought to you courtesy of the Red, White and Blue!

Oh, Justice will be served and the battle will rage.
This big dog will fight when you rattle his cage
You'll be sorry that you messed with the US of A
'Cuz we'll put a boot in your ass
It's the American way.

Hey Uncle Sam put your name at the top of his list,
And the Statue of Liberty started shaking her fist.
And the eagle will fly,
And there's gonna be Hell,
When you hear Mother Freedom start ringing her bell!
And it'll feel like the whole wide world is raining down on you...
Brought to you courtesy of the Red, White and Blue!

I absolutely love this song and Toby Keith's attitude. I totally agree with him on this song. If you haven't heard this song I highly recommend it. It gives me goosebumps everytime I hear it! This is a wonderful country we live in. Thanks go to Uncle Steve for his blogger entry that reminded me about how much I love the USA. We all need to take a few minutes to remember how special our country is and how lucky we are to be living here.

I have thought many times what my life would have been like had I been born in another country. I can tell you I most likely would not have lived to see 30. I am very strong willed and stubborn. I could be called a feminist, I suppose. I hate that people think woman are weaker than men and that we do not deserve equal treatment. I am pretty sure had I been born in a country as that, I would have been executed to shut me up. LOL THANK GOD FOR THE USA!

I am here, really I am.

Marea has hit the downslide of the roller coaster she calls life. This is typical for RAD children and fortunately the down portions are getting fewer and farther in between. They are stressful and taxing all the same though. It started on Wednesday with her telling us what to do, being bossy, and basically trying to take control of everyone and everything, a common symptom of RAD afflicted children. The "cure" is for me to spoon feed her everything and not let her have any choices or decisions until she remembers I am mom and she is the kid. So for the last five days Marea has been glued to my side only leaving to sleep. It has been stressful for me and not fun for her. I was hoping one day would be enough but apparently something has made her feel insecure and so she is really pushing me this time around. Once she feels loved and safe again she will be fine. The last downhill crash we had was in December and she ended up going to a respite home for the first and last time. There have been many hours this week that I wanted to send her off but I just can't do it. The one time she went to a respite home it was horrible for her (they spoiled her rotten but she came home more obnoxious then when she left--mission NOT accomplished) and I worried about her the entire time. Sheeesh! So today is promising to be a little better. She sits here beside me as I type and is bored but being complient.

Thursday last week the whole family was treated to a free pizza feast and a free trip to the zoo compliments of Child Protection Services. It was their Foster Parent/Adoptive Parent appreciation picnic. We drove up to Watertown and shared Pizza Hut pizza with several other foster families. As you can imagine the kid to adult ration was way off but we all seemed to have a good time anyway. After we finished pizza we headed into the zoo. The first thing we saw as we walked outside was a large statue of a bear standing on his hind legs. Mr. Bill saw it and started yelling, "KODA, MOM, KODA! HE IS GONNA EAT HIM'S STICK! KODA, KODA, MOM LOOK KODA!" I simply nodded and agreed with him. He was soooo excited. Then we headed into the bird cage and checked out all the odd and exotic birds. The kids weren't really impressed with this part. After that we headed over to the monkey's. Mr. Bill was very excited to watch the monkeys swinging around in the cage. I think we spent two hours watching the monkeys alone. We stopped at the petting zoo for the kids and they each got to feed the animals some corn. The donkeys were intent on making baby donkey's right in front of us which thankfully the kids didn't seem to notice. They were more interested in the minature goats that jumped up on top of the fence to steal their handfull of corn when the kids were not looking. We ended up being the last ones out of the zoo and almost an hour after the zoo was supposed to close. Ooops! We had a good time though and we went home happy and tired.

Friday was cold and freezing like each day previous in the week so the kids and I did some deep cleaning. The house never looked better. I spent a good part of the evening playing Pharaoh on the computer. It is a fun and addictive game. Each level creates new challenges and gets more and more difficult. I finally beat the level I was working on at 12:30 a.m. :)

Saturday we were lazy. I had to run into town to get my pills (birth control) so as to keep us from having more little children running around the house. We all decided to go in and do some window shopping. We ran into Uncle Steve who was working that day. He informed me that my new favorite author has several books out so I will be reading a lot more once I get my hands on some. We toured Walmart and checked out all the toys and clearance items. About an hour later we headed off again. We decided to do lunch and go to the park. We lunched at Burger King and then headed to the park. Mr. Bill fell asleep in the car so I just sat at the park and held him while he slept. The kids played jail, tag, and all the other fun games kids play for a good hour and a half until I said it was time to go. We got home at 6:00 so we had dinner, watched Tarzan, and sent the kids to bed.

Sunday we decided to tackle this bathroom project that has been on permanent hold. I sanded, Billy mudded and I think we are now 90% done. We still have one coat of mud to put on and then we have to rip out the hardwood flooring so we can put in the cement board for the ceramic tile that we will be putting in. It will be so nice to see the room done. :)

This morning I had to take all five kids into Clear Lake for Cassie to get enrolled in Preschool. They do a screening to see where she is at socially, emotionally, and developmentally. She passed them all with flying colors. Her teacher will be here tomorrow morning to go over a few other things and then she will be set for preschool. The other kids have registration sometime soon. I need to call the school and find out in case it is during our vacation so we can get it done before we leave.

I am off to make lunch. Have a great day everyone! :)

B-b-b-b-b-oy i-i-is i-i-i-i-it c-c-c-c-c-cold h-h-h-here i-i-in S-s-s-outh D-d-d-d-dakota!

I am sitting here in the middle of AUGUST in my sweatshirt, jeans,socks,and am still freezing my tushie off! We are looking for a high of 60 today! Cripes! Somebody turn on the heat!

Yesterday was offical grocery shopping day at the Sides Household. Billy got home late from work (are you really surprised?) so as soon as he got home we hopped in the car and headed back into Brookings. We treated ourselves to dinner out. I picked Taco John's. I had the super nachos and boy were they good. I stuffed myself overfull! MMMMMM. We headed off to the store and left 240.00 lighter. :) We go grocery shopping once a month except for milk, eggs, etc. It really helps keep our food bill down but it sure shocks the cashier when we get in line with two carts overflowing with food. :) We got home at about 10:15 and we all hit the hay.

This morning I got up and noticed Billy's bedroom door was shut so I opened it and WHEW! It smelled horribly of male cat pee in there. (Note: we don't have a male cat). I thought perhaps Ghost had peed in his room somewhere and actually found her sleeping in his closet on a blanket. I kicked her out and opened the windows. I couldn't find the location of the smell after she left so I thought maybe she was the source of the smell. I closed the door and went downstairs. About 2 this afternoon I went back up and opened the door again only to be knocked over by the horrible urine odor wafting out the door. Determined to find the source of the smell and get rid of it I emptied Mr. Bill's room. I mopped the wood floor with pinesol and took all the blankets out of the closet (this is used as my linen closet). As I was standing in hallway leaning on the plastic Little Tikes play kitchen I could suddenly smell the urine again! I quickly realized it was the kitchen that we had just taken out of the playhouse. I had scrubbed it down with Comet and water but apparently I missed wherever the cat had peed. Ewwwww! I threw the kitchen back outside and I put Mr. Bill's room back together. It smells fine now and the kitchen has been banned from the house.

Today I read a book called "Papa's Wife" by Thyra Ferre Bjorn (305 well-yellowed pages, c1955). It is a book based loosely on her family as she was growing up. They lived in Lapland, Sweden and moved to America. It is a very heartwarming book about God, marriage, love, and the undying faith of a minister who marries and has 8 children. It was a really good book. It is odd that it was so religiously based, given my last blogger entry. I did not pick this book for that reason. I didn't even know what it was about. I just grabbed it because it was one of the older rebound library books and it had an author with a scandinavian last name. I have a strong desire to learn as much as I can about that area since I began searching for my ancestors and found roots in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. I loved reading about life in Sweden and the traditions that go on there.

I also picked up a book by Erma Bombeck, who I guess is supposed to be a very good comedy writer. I got through about the first 20 or so pages and felt like I was reading a very dry, "A Day in the life of..." I put it down and haven't picked it back up. Maybe she just isn't my type of comedian? I am on to "The Girl In The White Ship" by Peter Townsend. I will let you know what I think. :)

Happy Birthday to my Dad! Today is his special day! Happy Birthday DAD!

TTFN!

Zucchini Bread, mmmmmm!

Yesterday while wandering through my sparse garden, I discovered the small zucchini I had seen a few days ago had grown considerably. I picked it and brought it in the house. I shredded the vege and proceeded to make zucchini bread. After about an hour of mixing and baking it was done. The kids were all upstairs playing while I made the bread, but one by one they filtered down the stairs to see what smelled "so good"! :) We had warm zucchini bread for lunch. MMMMMMM! Your veges never tasted this good.

While in the library on Friday I saw a unique collection of books that have had the wheels in my head going ever since. I happened to wander into the non-fictional adult section and saw a bible on the shelf. I thought that was a little odd but the books next to it were what caught my attention. They were books about the history of the areas where the bible stories occured. There were books that interpreted the bible, and books that "explained" the bible. I was very intrigued and tempted to grab a couple of them. I decided to wait until I had more time to put into one of those books so I walked away. Lately I have been struggling with religion and I wonder if one of these books might give me a clearer picture.

You see I was raised Catholic. At least I sort of was. My mom was catholic. My mom said my dad was aethist. I know he never willingly went to church but I never heard him say for sure he didn't believe in God. As a kid, I remember going to church rather sporadically. In Alaska my mom sent us so that we could do our first communion, a catholic tradtion. I honestly couldn't tell you exactly what the purpose of the first communion is other than I knew after that I could eat the "bread" and wine at communion during mass. We had to do several classes before the ceremony and we had to get a white dress and veil to wear for the occasion. I don't remember much of the ceremony itself except the cake they had made with all of our names on it. My mom has pictures and I still have the dress, veil, and rosary I was given at the ceremony. My brother, Jamie, went through this communion with me since he is only 18 months younger than me. After that I don't remember going to church much. I think we tried to go around Easter and Christmas but other than that we didn't go. I vaguely remember something about stations of the cross that we were required to do around Easter. Basically it involved various pictures of Jesus carrying the cross. We were supposed to walk around and stop under each one and say something. We didn't observe lent either although I knew about it.

We also had the pleasure of going to confession. For those of you who have never been privileged to do this let me explain: You walk into a little box with a "window" inside. There is usually some kind of screen covering the window. You walk in and sit down and say, "Forgive me father for I have sinned" (or some other equally humbling statement) and a man behind the screen says something that lets you know you can proceed. You tell this man (who I presume was a priest) everything you did wrong that week. He tells you how many Hail Marys, etc. that you need to say. You leave and go sit on a pew and do your punishment. I can't even remember the Hail Mary or the other recitations we were required to say but I remember a few Sundays we had to go to confession. I thought then it was a stupid idea and I still hold that opinion today.

After we left Alaska we didn't go to church again until we moved back to Hot Springs. I have a feeling that was because my Grandma (mom's mom) lived there and my mom wanted her approval. We went occasionally until my mom felt ostracized because she had been divorced and according to the catholic religion that is a big NO. We stopped going to church but my siblings and I continued to go on Wednesday's after school. I also attended Bible School during one summer with a friend at the Weslyean Church. We tried going to the United Church for awhile too but my mom, again, felt awkward so we stopped. My siblings and I just went because we always got to stop at the bakery and get donuts afterwards. What I learned from the catholic church is that there is a God and Jesus and Holy Spirit. I learned some of the stories of the bible but I learned nothing about the church itself or how it works.

During my teen years and well into my adult years I didn't go to a church. I still believed in God and Jesus and felt I had a pretty good knowledge of the bible. I tried on my occasions to read the bible but never made it threw Genisis. It is just not the most intriguing book I have ever read. I think it is better taken in bits and pieces. :)

After Billy and I got married we started talking church. He was raised much the same way I was. He went to Sunday school but church wasn't a priority in his life. He felt very strongly that church was just a social organization and he did not need to go to church to believe in God. I agreed with him but expressed a desire for our kids to attend Sunday school to learn more about God. When Becca was 8 months old a friend of Billy's invited us to a Wesleyan church in Brookings. We went and enjoyed ourselves so we started going more regularly. I think it made us feel like a better, more wholesome family because we were going to church. We had Becca baptized at that church. 9 months later when Megan came around we were still attending this church and so we had her baptized as well. After that we moved to Colorado and stopped going to church again. I didn't learn anything about what the Wesleyan Church believes in or their philosophies on religion. I spent most of the service chasing Becca and Megan around. :)

After we left Colorado we moved to Hot Springs. Billy and I started discussing churches again and decided to try a few in Hot Springs. A few days after we had this discussion a pair of Mormon missonaries knocked on our door. As a kid, this happened quite often and my parents had taught us not to open the door or tell them to leave. At this particular time however, Billy invited them in and chatted with them for a few minutes. He asked them to come back that Saturday since we were busy that particular day. They left and I asked him if he was humoring them or if he was really interested in the Mormon church. I still don't remember what his answer was, if he even gave one. Saturday rolled around and the missionaries came as planned. They seem surprised we were home. Appparently quite a few people tell them to come back and then aren't home when they arrive. Go figure. Anyway, they sat and talked to us about their church and what they believe. We were surprised to hear most of what they told us as it did not jive with what the general public believes they believe. They believe in Jesus, first and foremost. They believe in God. The believe in the Holy Spirit and the bible. They also have a book they claim was given to Joseph Smith. It is the book of Mormon. It is very much like the bible and in many places overlaps what is happening in the bible. They asked us to read it and give it some thought. I did read it, Billy didn't. (Surprised? :) We were invited to church and so we went. They are very much like any other church. They do prayers, a "lesson", bread and water, and songs. The only difference is they do Sunday School after the service and then do the Men and Woman's sections after that so you spend three hours at church on Sunday. After much deliberation, Billy and I decided to get baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We were baptized on Superbowl Sunday in 2000. We attended church regularly then and learned a great deal about what the LDS believe. I wasn't really shocked by anything, but rather intrigued by this religion. They have a great many ideas that govern how you can choose to live your life. Some may be thought odd by others, but in the scope of life, you can see that they are intended to keep you a happy, healthy, and strong family and person. After we moved back to Brookings we continued to attend church. I could see Billy was starting to have some doubts about what he had gotten into at that point. When we found our house and moved to Brandt in 2002 full doubt had set in and we quit going to church. By some coaxing of the church members and the elders (what the missionaries are called in the church) we came back to church for a few weeks. After a few months Billy flat out refused to go and has remained in that opinion since then. I too, have some doubts about the LDS church but I still like the majority of what they stand for. I think for Billy the social aspect of church and the fact that they all want money really deters him. I have to agree with him on the money thing.

Our good friend Bob, is an aethist and has no problems voicing his opinions on the subject. We sat down and had a talk about religion once and I must admit I was horrified to learn he didn't believe in God or that Jesus ever exsisted. Then he asked me why I believe in God and Jesus. I told him because I had learned about them as a kid and more recently in my life, things have happened that I can't deny His presence. He told me that just because I learned about them doesn't mean it was true. "True enough," I said. But I would rather be wrong in the end than to be wrong now and suffer in the end. :)

So you can see why these books have me thinking. I am going to take some time to find out what these other people think about the bible, and the people in it, and form my own decision about religion.

Not Dude, Mr. Bill!

Monday's seem to come so fast don't they? I don't remember why I didn't get here on Friday. I think I was in a foul mood and didn't feel the need to spread it around. At any rate, after a wholesome weekend of spending time with my husband and kids I am rejuvenated and feeling chipper once again.

Friday not much of anything happened. Billy got home late as usual and he had to get his mom's camper ready so she could take it to pipestone. She had called me about 1 p.m. and said she was leaving shortly from Sioux Falls. About an hour after Karen called, her sister Mary called and wanted to know if she was here yet. I informed her Karen was waiting on Angie and probably hadn't even left SF yet. Mary got rather upset at that as she was told that Angie wasn't coming. I told her she may want to talk to Karen so we hung up and she called Karen. I spent the rest of my afternoon picking up my house. Billy got home at 5:30 and Karen still wasn't here. Finally about 6:30 she and Angie showed up. I was rather surprised Angie showed as I figured Karen wouldn't have found her. I took the kids to the library then and left Billy and his mom to fix up her camper. We spent about an hour at the library and then came home. When we got here everyone was gone and so was the camper. A few minutes later the camper came back (they had gone into Clear Lake to get gas). A few minutes after that everyone left. Whew! That is my kind of visit, in and out! :)

Saturday we woke up at 8:30 to Megan informing us that Cassie was crying and wouldn't stop. The day before Cassie kept telling me her stomach hurt and she hadn't eaten lunch, snack, or dinner. I went up to see her and through her tears, she said her stomach really hurt. I told Billy to get up and get the kids dressed so we could run Cassie into the doctors office. The urgent care is only open 9-11 on Saturday so I knew we had to hurry. We got everyone dressed and out the door at 9. We took Cassie to the clinic then. Upon examination, the doctor couldn't find anything wrong with her so he suggested we try getting a urine sample. One would think this would be difficult with a four year old but fortunately I have experience with this. Megan had several infections when we lived in Hot Springs so I got good at catching urine in a cup. :)

Cassie was given a "hat" to pee in. It is a nice tray thingy they put under the toilet lid that catches the pee so I don't have to manuever a cup in there. She sat on the toilet for a good half hour and just couldn't go. Finally I suggested we get something to drink and try again in a little while. The nurse knocked on the door to see if we were okay just as we were getting ready to go out. She gave Cassie a cup to get some water in. We got some water and sat down in the waiting room to read some magazines. After she finished one and a half cups of water I suggested we try again. We went back into the bathroom and she sat for about 10 minutes when I suggested she wasn't going to go. Right as I finished that sentence I heard pee hitting the hat! Waaaahoooo! We left the sample for the nurse and went back to the other area to sit and wait. When the lab results finally came back we were put back into an exam room. The doctor came back and said she had the very beginnings of a UTI. He gave her some samples of antibiotics. She had three days worth. She took the last one today so I hope it works. She is still complaining that her tummy hurts. After we left the doctors office we stopped at Hyvee and got some donuts for breakfast. We took them to the park and the kids played for an hour or so. Cassie slept on me the entire time. We got home around 3 and the kids played and Cassie slept all afternoon. The rest of the day we spent being lazy and doing not much of anything.

Sunday we woke up late and we decided to go for a bike ride. The kids and Billy and I all went for a four mile bike ride. For once the kids didn't whine and complain. Max came with us as he gets sooo excited when we take our bikes out. He ran the entire four miles but near the end he kept stopping anywhere there was shade. Once we got home the kids turned on the sprinkler and played in the yard. Billy got out the slip and slide for the kids. Mr. Bill likes to run down it, which is fine as long as he has his shoes on. :) At one point Megan and Mr. Bill were playing on the slip and slide and she said to Mr. Bill, "Let's go surfin' dude!" Mr. Bill turned to her and said, "NOT Dude! Mr. Bill!" LOL Apparently Mr. Bill is cooler than Dude!

Billy made mac and cheese for lunch. Once we had cleaned up lunch Billy and I decided to finish the inside of the playhouse. We lined the walls with OSB and installed a light. After that we reused the old countertop for a table for the girls and we installed some shelves too. The kids love it. By that time it was dinner time so we came in and had showers and cereal. The kids got their jammas on and we all crashed in bed by 10 pm. It was a fun and full weekend.

We are making plans for our vacation out to the Black Hills this month. My sister should be popping here anyday now so we are hoping to get to see her new baby while we are out there. Also a lady from my message board is going to be there so we are hoping to see her as well. We want to squeeze a camping trip in as well. I am going to have to start getting things ready. Billy is leaving for Greece about a week after we get home and the kids start school two days before that. I will be one busy momma for a few days. :)

Have a great Monday ya'll!

Bob...

Scroll back to Summer 1995, Billy met Bob at Dak as they were both new student interns. I don't know the details of it all but I do remember Bob coming over quite a bit after they met. He would spend many days with us just hanging out. I was pregnant with Becca at the time. I was due on Jan 14, 1996. We finished up our semester at SDSU in the middle of December. We invited Bob to spend Christmas with us since we were not traveling to Hot Springs that year. I was too close to my due date. On Christmas day we had a christmas meal with Kristina, Bob and us. Billy had gotten a new Super Nintendo game for Christmas so he and Bob sat and played it. I sat and watched. I finally went to bed at 4:30 a.m. and left the guys to play. Bob and Billy finally called it quits at 6 a.m. and Bob left saying he would return later in the afternoon after we had all had some sleep. Well Kristina came knocking on our door at 11 a.m. that day and woke Billy and I up. I went to the bathroom and saw blood. I called the nurses and we headed off to the hospital. Apparently during my labor Bob showed up at our house thinking we had ditched him. LOL I don't exactly remember how Bob found out I was at the hospital but he showed up right before Becca was born. I think he was quite relieved to find out we were having a baby and hadn't just run from him. :) Bob got to hold Becca right away and for him that created an instant bond. He and Becca have a special connection I will never be able to explain. From that day on Bob has been a part of our life. He spends holidays with us, goes to the park with us, and just stops to say hi many days. 9 years later, he has become an adopted Uncle to the kids and a good friend of the family.

Boys will be Boys??????

After parenting four girls I thought I had this parenting thing down. I have been through temper tantrums, time-outs, biting, hitting, swearing, and all the other challenges a parent can face. With the girls we were successful in curbing the bad behaviors and accentuating the good ones. Then came Mr. Bill! For the first few months I really didn't notice much difference except when I took his diaper off. Many times I would even "forget" he was a boy until I was changing him. LOL As Mr. Bill gets older he has started showing those typical "boy" behaviors, hitting, pushing, and turning everything into a weapon. When the girls would hit us we would say ow! that hurt and they would feel bad enough that it usually only happened a handful of times and they never did it again. With Mr. Bill this tactic does not work. He thinks it is funny when you say OW! and he does it again. His instinctual reaction is to hit when he is mad, hurt, etc. I have tried putting him in time-out when he hits but he thinks time-out is fun. He will actually ask us if he should go sit in time-out when he is being naughty. And why oh why do boys think any long pointy object is a sword, gun, or weapon? And where, pray tell, did he even learn what a gun was? An innocent paper towel roll becomes a sword, a straw becomes a knife, and a stick, well a stick, has many possibilites. I have tried and tried to stop him from stabbing, poking, shooting, the nearest person but he just doesn't get it. I cannot accept that "boys will be boys" so I will continue to put a stop to this behavior. I try to redirect him to activities where hitting, pushing, etc. are okay but they just don't seem to be as much fun as chasing and beating on his sisters.

Life is good! So is chocolate! MMMMMM! LOL

Today I spent the day doing normal household crap and just hanging out. The neighbor girls came over at about 3 p.m. and Becca asked me if I would teach them how to sew. So I broke out my sewing supplies and fabric and let them in it all. Megan decided to make a jacket, Becca made a pillow, Cassie glued her fabric swatches on paper, Marea just messed with the fabrics, and the neighbor girls both made pillows. We spent three hours making our projects with me supervising most of the time. I had some elmo fabric so I decided to make Mr. Bill a pillow since he was sleeping and missing out on all the fun. The neighbor girls went home at 6:30 and we cleaned up to eat dinner. Mr. Bill woke up and I handed him the pillow I had made for him. He looked at it and said, "Oh my gosh. I can't beweeve it!" I almost fell out of my chair I was laughing so hard. I have no idea where he picked that up from but how funny! I love 2 year olds.

I made goulash for dinner and we just finished eating. We are off to Watertown to do a little shopping and playing. Have a great day ya'll!

Do you ever feel like you should pull the covers up over your head and hide instead of getting out of bed some mornings?

This morning I awoke to the sounds of kids watching t.v. It was still dark outside so I glanced at the clock and was surprised to see it was actually 8 a.m. I got out of bed to see who was up and realized it was raining quite heavily then. I had a chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting for breakfast. MMMMMMM! :)

I checked my email while I waited for the rest of the kids to wake up. I had signed up for a couple of SD lists on Rootsweb yesterday to see if I could be of service to those genealogists searching in Deuel county. Upon opening my email this morning I found two emails that were from two of the ladies who were on the old list that I encountered the evil woman I mentioned a few entries ago. I was worried that she had poisoned them against me with her angry slander. I replied to thier emails and felt myself get dizzy from the stress of it all.

I decided to separate myself from the internet for the morning and get on with my day. I did a few loads of laundry, cleaned up the living room, and informed the Schwan's man I didn't need any food this week. I finally sucked up enough courage to get in here and check my email again to see if I had been burned yet again. I opened the first emails and found nothing out of the ordinary. They did recognize me they had mentioned but had nothing bad to say. I typed replies to the various questions an comments and felt relieved I hadn't been ostrasized just yet. I went and read my other stops on the internet and came back to my email. I found one more email from one of the gals. She politely informed me that this same lady doesn't much care for her and that she regularly shoots off her mouth about her and quite a few others. I was incredibly relived to hear that this lady has not singled me out as it was beginning to feel, and I told this gal as much. She assured me that it was not me and this lady just has an attitude. LOL What a relief. She also informed me this lady had an aneorism (sp?) the other day but was still alive. I can't help but think what goes around comes around!

So besides that I just have some money stresses, kids stresses, life stresses, PMS, and missing husband blues to deal with today. I will be glad when today is over and life goes back to normal. Maybe if I go have some more chocolate I will feel better eh? LOL

I hope you all are having a very relaxing day today! TTFN!

What a weekend. I am almost glad it is Monday so we can stop and catch our breath! And the best news yet, BOB IS HOME!!!!!

Friday I drove into Brookings to check out Crazy Daze in town. We picked up Billy from work and headed down to main. Holy Buckets! The entire street was blocked off and there were people EVERYWHERE! We decided not to fight the crowds so we headed off to the mall. That was a rather pathetic version of Crazy Daze there. We also went to WalMart hoping they would have some good bargains for Crazy Daze. To my amazement there was NOTHING! Nada, zip, nil. Not a thing advertised for Crazy Daze. I was rather disappointed. After all the shopping we ate out and then came home. By the time we got home it was almost 10:00 so we all crashed into bed.

Saturday was Honey Days in Bruce so we were going to go there for the parade. Unfortunately we didn't get up until 9 a.m. and the parade started at 10 a.m. so we nixed those plans. We decided to go for a bike ride instead. We took the kids and three of the neighbor kids for a 4 mile bike ride. It was nice to get out and see the tall fields of corn waving in the wind. We were riding mostly on dirt roads and we lost two of the kids to the wipeout god. LOL Megan kissed the road at one point and took a pretty good gash out of her knee and scraped up her elbow. The neighbor kid followed suit and scraped up his elbow too. Megan refused to ride her bike the last mile home after that so I sat her on my handlebars while her dad put her bike on the trailer. It is rather difficult, I discovered, to ride with a kid sitting on your handlebars. By the time we got home it had to have been 90+ degrees out. I suggested we all hit the pool so everyone went in and got ther swimsuits on. Billy grilled hamburgers and made mac and cheese for lunch. The kids got in the pool and cooled off. We spent the remainder of the day in the pool and in the yard.

By about 6:30 everyone had had enough so we went inside. I decided to make the banner for Bob's house then. I got out the banner paper and the markers. I wrote Welcome Home Bob! on it really big and the kids each signed their names and drew some pictures for Bob. We made a run to Estelline to hang the sign up in Bob's house. As we pulled up in Bob's driveway we saw someone had the same idea as us. On his screen door was a banner that said Welcome Home Robert. It was painted in Red white and blue. It was nice to see someone else had thought of him. We carefully opened the door, so as not to disturb the banner and went inside. We hung our banner across his living room wall so it will be the first thing he sees when he walks in the house. Feeling proud of our banner, we all piled back into the van. As we were leaving Estelline city limits, Billy noticed the "service engine soon" light had turned on in the van. Cripes! I looked it up in the manual and basically it says something must be haywire with the emission/fuel system for that light to turn on. So we need to get the car to a mechanic asap the book said. Just what I want to do, right?

We made it home without any major breakdowns. We put the kids to bed and I checked the phone for messages. Bob's wife, Sarah, had called to let us know that Bob really would be home the next day and that Brookings was having a parade at 4 the next day. I quickly called Kristina to see what time Cailey's party was to see if we could be there for Bob. She confirmed the party was at noon and if we left by 2 we should make it in time for the parade. After that we all headed to bed.

On Sunday the alarm went off at 8 a.m. and Billy and I jumped into the shower. At least, I jumped. Billy sort of dragged himself. LOL We got dressed and Billy got the girls up and into the shower then. We sat down to eat breakfast at 8:45. I was amazed at how quickly we can get 7 people showered, dressed, fed, and out the door when we want to. Billy decided to take this opportunity to put the spare tire back under the van. Once he finished that we were off and it was only 9:30 a.m. We drove through Estelline and off to Highway 81 to Huron. We finally reached Huron at 11:00 a.m. Billy's mom and Kirstin, Jaymz, and Shad were already there. They had spent the night there. We sat down and chatted outside and let the kids play. Kristina and Lance made pizza for lunch. We were still waiting on Mel and her family to start the party. Shortly after noon Mel showed up. Kristina brought the cakes out then. She had graciously made one for me and one for Cailey. I thought that was sweet of her. We sang happy birthday to Cailey and then we both blew out our candles. (I only had one candle. LOL) Then we all went inside and watched Cailey open her presents. She got some clothes from Grandma, Elmo from Melanie and family, we got her a care bear and a Little People princess set. She loved them all. The kids all split into different rooms then and started playing. By that time it was a quarter to 2 so I started rounding up my kids and herding them off to the van. After many goodbyes and hugs we got out of Huron at 2:15.

The ride back into Brookings seemed much shorter than the one into Huron for some reason but we all arrived happy in Brookings at 3:30. We headed down to main to find a spot for the parade. We were surprised that no one was out yet for the parade. I told Billy to go drive down sixth and medary as I didn't think the parade was going down main this time. As we drove towards Medary we realized I was right. Everyone was lined up on medary and sixth street. We found a spot right near the beginning of the parade and sat in the grass. The people lined up across from us had signs, flags, and banners that welcomed home various soldiers. It was awesome to see so much support for the 740th. While we were sitting there some kind Boy Scouts came around handing out little flags to the crowds. The kids were excited to get one, especially when they found out they could keep it. It wasn't too long after that that the parade started. They put each soldier and his/her family in a separate pickup truck. It was awesome to see all the trucks lined up. We finally spotted Bob and Sarah towards the end of the parade. We all shouted as he went by and suddenly he stopped the driver of his truck. He ran over and grabbed Becca and Megan and took them into the truck with him. We waved them off and ran to get in our van. We drove the back roads in town until we got to the EconoFoods parking lot. To our surprise we were at the front of the parade so we stopped and got out and waited to wave and yell at Bob again. He was surprised to see us again but he looked very happy. We watched the parade leave then towards the multiplex.

We decided to go see where it was ending so we got back into the van and drove to the multiplex. For the first time ever there was a traffic jam in Brookings. Cars were lined up from the multiplex all the way back to Walmart. We took the back roads again and got into the multiplex. We were herded into a small room with about 200 other people until it was standing room only. The town did a small program for the soldiers and said thank you's all around and then the soldiers were free to go. We found Bob and Sarah and our girls and we all headed outside. Bob and Sarah were staying at the Fairfield so we all drove there and we waited while Bob changed into some civilian clothes so we could go eat. We met two of Bob other friends, Tim and Michelle, at Applebee's then and we sat down to order. Finally after a great dinner (I had fish with mango salsa and steamed veges) we decided our kids had had enough. We left Bob and Sarah to begin there honeymoon and headed home. By this time it was 9:30 p.m. Mr. Bill was out cold before we got home and the girls all headed to bed soon after we got home. I stayed up until 11:30 watching t.v. and relaxing and then I crashed too.

And now, it is Monday. I have laundry to do and a few small messes to clean. Since we weren't home most of the weekend the house doesn't look to bad today. I am so relieved that Bob is finally home safe and sound. I don't have to have that constant worry about him anymore. I hope he adjusts to life in the States easily. I know we are all proud of him and are so very glad he is home.

Have a great week everyone!