July

Just a quick post today.


July 4, we spent doing chores around the house and garden and then we went to Amery to watch the fireworks.








Cynthia (Richard's sister) and Jimmy came to visit for a couple of days (midnight on Sat. the 7th thru Monday morning). It was really nice to see them. Sarah really attached herself to Jimmy and was sad that she wasn't awake when they left.

The girls left for Girls' Camp on the 10th. They came home the 13th. It was cold and rainy most of the time. The boys (Richard, John and Michael) went to Scout Camp on the 14th. They've had a mix of cool & rain, and hot and humid, but the last 2 days have just been perfect. (about 80 with 50% humidity) They will come home tonight.

With the kids that were left at home, I took to the science museum and the zoo.

Today, Alisha, Emily, Sarah & Daniel built a fort in the woods, dressed up and they were the 'Keepers of the Key.' Tamara--recognize Alisha's dress?

That's all for today.

Patti

June 2007

June was a busy month. School ended on the 6th and Alisha, John and Emily got to go to Valley Fair on the last day of school with FFA and FCCLA. Just because school ended, didn't mean that we were done with school. Summer school started on the 12th. Daniel was in Pre-Kindergarten, where they learned how to be kindergarteners. Sarah took Outdoor Education, Kids in the Kitchen (cooking), and computers. Emily and Michael both had Outdoor Education and Swimming, and then Michael also had Golf, and Emily took computers. Michael rather liked the Golf class, and Emily and Michael became quite strong swimmers. Summer School went for 3 weeks and just ended on Friday.

Alisha started Drivers' Ed, taking the class in New Richmond every morning from 8:00-10:30. There was a group of kids from Clear Lake going, so they carpooled to get there. It also went for 3 weeks. During the first week, she got dropped off at the school for Marching Band practice. Which then went till noon every day. Emily then had to be there for Jr. High band practice from 1-3. The parade season started June 16 in Clayton. Emily also got to march with the High School band carrying the flag.

Clear Lake Days were June 22 & 23. My friend in town had a garage sale on the 22nd and invited me to join her. We did O.K. (much better than I'd EVER done having a sale by myself), and I almost broke even with what I spent at the other garage sales! :-)

The Parade was on the 23rd. Sarah and I marched with the Girl Scouts, Emily marched with the Jr. High, and Emily and Alisha marched with the High School. Later that day, Emily and John both worked at the cheese curd stand for FFA.

During the last week of Summer School, I helped put on a Girl Scout/Cub Scout day camp. Most of us who were the leaders had older Girl and Boy Scouts that needed service hours, so they helped us run the camp. It was actually quite a successful camp. The Brownies I worked with completed 4 Try-It badges during the week. Most days we met at the school after summer school, we all ate lunch, and then we walked to the park down by the lake where we took over a pavillion and grassy area. One day we stayed in town, and went to the town museum and town cemetary. The kids had a good time (and we came up with an idea for John's Eagle project!)

On the 25th, Alisha had her Track Awards night. They don't have JV track, so she is running Varsity level, and earned her Varsity Letter as a freshman. She also won the award for most improved.

John's birthday was on the 29th. He's 17! I had daycamp, so we didn't do much, but that night, we all went to see 'Ratatouille'. It is a very good movie, and I highly recommend it. Then we came home and had DQ ice cream cake.

I had a suprise today. I was called to be 11 yr old scout leader. Why not? One more scouting notch on the belt, eh?

I guess that's all for today. Perhaps I'll get on before August.
Patti

School is almost done~

One week from today it will be the first day of Summer Vacation.
Sarah seems determined to get a jump on her summer. She's been home since Memorial Day sick. Just a low grade fever, sore throat, cough and very very tired. The Dr. says its just a virus, so there isn't much we can do.

I completed a little album of Daniel's trip to see Thomas the Tank Engine last summer

by PattiH05k You can see it there.


May was a busy month. This is Emily at the school pops concert aka the Pie Concert because they serve pie. Alisha played at it too. It incorporates the Elementary, Jr. High and High School bands. They are all pretty good.

Alisha ran and ran and ran. She did track. She wanted to do sprints, but she got put as a 2 miler, and now she's upset, because she got good at it (13:42 at her last meet!) which means they'll now make her do it every year! She also ran the 800 (2:46) and the 4x800 relay. She made it all the way to sectional competition in the relay and the 2 mile.

Well, that was just a note, so you know I'm still alive!
Patti

Spring has sprung~

Spring has sprung, the Grass has riz, I wonder where the flowers iz? Oh, look! they're in my garden!

I've always said that flowers were my reward for enduring the long winter. When you don't see flowers until mid-late April, it makes winter seem very long, indeed.

Yesterday was VERY warm and daffodils popped open everywhere!

I had my play the last 2 weekends. This is a link to my photos of the play. I am one of the 'Bearers' (Pandora). We were the mortician & family. We were rather ghoulish, and I was trying to channel Morticia Addams in my role. I am excited for the next year--Amery has 'My Fair Lady' on their list, and Clear Lake is talking about 'Oklahoma.' Great! I can re-live being 15-16 when I'm 38~ :-)

Alisha is busy running track--Last week she came in first in the 2 mile. Emily does Jr. High track and does the 100m and the shotput.

John went through his Order of the Arrow Ordeal this last weekend for Scouts. It was a tough weekend, but I think it was good for him.

Michael is on a Math team that will compete this coming weekend.

Sarah (and I) went to Shell Lake a couple of weeks ago with her Brownie troop for a Theatre Workshop. The girls did a vocal workshop, and a body movement workshop, and then they put on a production of 'Sheherazade,' with makeup & costumes. Some of the girls were on stage, and others were the stage crew. It was really a lot of fun, and they earned their 'Let's Pretend' Try-It badge.

Daniel likes to pretend he can read and carries a copy of one of our Narnia books around the house--he even will mark his place to return to it later after he's looked at it for a while. I asked him once what was happening in the story, and he said, "I don't know!"

It was great having Mom along with Kaisey and McKay come to visit us this last weekend. The kids had a lot of fun. We are so sad that they are leaving Wisconsin! :-(

I guess that is about that~
Patti

states

create your own visited states map

This is kind of a cool tool. It tracks the states you've visited. Dad, I'd love to see your map! I'd bet it is almost all filled up!

Patti

Easter Break

No beating around the bush here, this was definitely Easter Break. We don't have any other Spring Break, just the Thursday, Friday and Monday around Easter. So--Thursday there was no school. Alisha had track practice in the Morning, but in the afternoon, we went to the Science Museum of Minnesota. The older kids have outgrown our old favorite of the Childrens' Museum, so this worked well for all of them. We even got a membership so we can go back several times during the next year-especially in the summer. They have an OmniTheater -Imax-style movies that totally surround you on a round screen. The movie we saw was about Jane Goodall and her work with chimps. It felt like we were IN the jungle. Emily, who has always been a little prone to motion sickness anyway, got a bit dizzy, but she survived.

Friday I had a dentist appointment in the morning, but I forgot about it until my Dentist office called and said that I was supposed to have been there 20 minutes previously! Yikes! At least I was already dressed, so I just jumped in the car and got there and I didn't have to reschedule. No cavities.
The way everyone is scheduled, I am in the Dentist office every month. John and Alisha are scheduled together, Emily and Michael are together, and Sarah and Daniel are together, and Richard and I are separate. With appointments every 6 months for everyone, we are there always. LOL.Its a good thing the dentist is close to home. On the dental front: John is getting his wisdom teeth in-straight. The dentist says he will probably be able to keep them. Richard's came in compacted, and I never got them at all, so we don't know where John's teeth came from, but fewer dental bills in the future are a good thing.

Alisha and Michael both went to the eye Dr. and got stronger prescriptions, so therefore, new glasses on both of them.

That day I made a quick, one day quilt/table topper.

Spring is coming-slowly- The snow melts, and then it comes back. This picture was from the first time the ice came off the ponds back in March. It came back last week, and today there is snow, but they are forecasting 60s for next week. Yay!

I now have a button for readers to subscribe to my blog so you can be notified when I update. Feel free to sign up! Its not hard at all!

On Saturday (4-7), we were going to have the Easter bunny come first thing in the morning, but, honestly, the house was such a mess that we just couldn't have that, so the Easter Bunny left a note for the kids saying that he had been by, saw the mess and left. We spent the morning cleaning house. It worked well. In the afternoon, we went to go do our paper route, and the Easter Bunny came while we were gone. The kids all got new books in their baskets along with all the candy.
Then, doing things backwards--we colored eggs. The Easter Bunny doesn't hide eggs at our house--we just color them and stick them back in the fridge. Besides the fact, it was 17 degrees outside, and the Easter Bunny didn't WANT to hide them outside!

On Sunday morning, we went to church. I was supposed to sing a solo, but my pianist went to go visit her mother. I was going to just record the accompaniment, (I'd have to do it at the church, because my piano is badly flat), but we had a young couple back at home visiting their parents, and she plays the piano and she graciously took the music, practiced it, and was able to accompany me. So, it all worked out. I sang a song called 'This is the Christ.' The words are by James E. Faust. It was really quite lovely. We are very grateful for this Easter season to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

On Monday, I had Emily's Girl Scout troop (7th grade) over. We earned the Pets Interest Project badge. The girls brought their dogs- we learned about dogs, we designed lost pet finder products, made Scooby Doo cookies, and took old towels to the Animal Shelter.
Then Alisha had track practice.
That night we celebrated her birthday. She won't be here on her actual birthday because she is going to the state FCCLA convention to compete with her Interpersonal Communication project. We played a rousing game of duck duck goose (Daniel's idea), opened presents, and had cake --I haven't uploaded those pictures yet.
I had play practice afterwards. Opening night is next week.

Guess that's all for today. Don't forget to sign up for updates!

Patti

Happy Birthday, Michael

Michael turned 11 yesterday. He is so ready to start Boy Scouts!
Despite having to go to school yesterday, he had a pretty good day. We had record setting warm temperatures. We got up to 78* yesterday, so a lot of time was spent outside playing. We had a giant hamburger for dinner, and a hamburger cake for the cake. We had the party for Family Home Evening where we played some traditional party games. He had a friend stay over over the weekend because there was no school on Friday for the end of the quarter.

I finished one of my quilts last weekend. These are paper pieced stars and they were done for a class. As soon as I laid it out on the ground to take the pictures, the cats decided I had set it out for them. Trying to take a cat free picture was not an easy task.
Well, that's about it for now.
Patti