Happy New Year 2010

Just a short note to wish everyone a Happy and Blessed New Year.

Posted by Randy

Post Christmas message

I hope everybody had a wonderful Christmas.

We had a super wet snow over Christmas eve and Christmas it was unbelievable the amount of heavy slushy snow we had.  we received a good four inches of good snow on Thursday and then Friday it was rain on top of it.  Then a snow rain mix, and when the snow plow came by on Friday the plow left large huge boulders of snow in front of our driveway. 

Daniel and Matthew tackled that job with the snow-thrower and shovels to clear the drive way and entrance away before it froze hard.

And froze hard it did,  this morning it turned cold again and everything is as hard as a rock.  Wherever the snow is, that is where it will be, it will take a jackhammer to move it.

Our Christmas meal went well, the food was all good.  Sarah wants me to make ham and bean soup, so I will make that this week after Daniel and I get back from deer hunting.

I came across this picture. Take a gander at it and see if you can name the person in the photo.

That is all for now

posted by Randy

Birthday Wishes

Well it appears we have a string of birthdays this week

Happy Birthday wishes go out to John, Joachim and Maria and Catherine and to Marie

I hope everybody is enjoying the last week of the Advent season, Christmas is in just a few days.

Last Sunday Night Philomena and I went to see the Broadway show Annie at the NIACC Center.  Annie is on tour again and they performed in Mason City at NIACC.  It was very good, and enjoyable, that is one of my favorite Broadway shows.  I saw it in London back in 1979, Des Moines in 1981, and now in Mason City.  they had a good cast of people.  Philomena had a front row seat I had row three.  We could see the conductor and the musicians in the orchestra pit playing.  They were actually playing and not using a CD!  I had Sarah fooled for a minute when we saw the Phantom of the opera a couple years ago.  I told her they were using a CD and everybody was just lip syncing the songs!

We have snow, we had another 2" drop on us last night and we are expected to get another 2 to 4 inches tonight and tomorrow.

I have decided on cheesy broccoli/cauliflower ham soup and oyster soup for Christmas eve dinner.

Daniel and I have late-muzzle-loader deer licenses and we are planning to hunt down at the 80 on December 28 - 30  we will probably come down Sunday and get things set up down there. I hope we shoot a deer.

Sarah will be coming home today weather permitting if not it will be tomorrow. 

Our house will be back to capacity

I will need to add back a leaf in the dining table.

I hope everybody has an enjoyable Christmas and take a moment to thank God for all the blessings we have had throughout the year.

Posted by Randy
Hey! I just found the spell-check button on the google bar, I am back in business for checking for spelling errors!

New Post...Finally!

My Accounting class is finally over and I do believe I survived it.  I turned in my final report last Saturday and now I just have to wait for the final grade. I did good on my tests and quizzes so I think I will do fine for the final grade.

I am glad that class is behind me.  All I could do during that time was study for that class.  It consumed every available minute of my time.

Now I can watch TV with a blank stare and mouth open with no worries!

During the time of the last major post we visited Burlington and saw everybody down there, and over thanksgiving we went to Iowa City to visit everybody there.  With the exception of Doug and Nancy and family they were in Texas.  Daniel and I scouted the 80 for deer.  We located some so we are going to spend a few days after Christmas to muzzleloader hunt down there, and John has given us an option of locating some farmers down in Burlington also.

Greg and Val were kind enough to open their kitchen to making cinnamon rolls.  With the help of a bunch of young chefs we made about 7 dozen cinnamon rolls.  Thanks to Val for distributing them to each family member for their Sunday breakfast.  Here are some pictures of the operation

making the dough

rolling the dough, putting down lots of melted butter before the cinnamon and sugar goes in and then it is rolled into a tube to cut into individual rolls

The final product and some of the helpers who had a hand in making all of these cinnamon rolls

Greg suggested about sterilizing the countertop everytime we layed down the dough.....we quickly kicked him out of the kitchen and out of the operation :-)

If you received a pan of cinnamon rolls, please return the pan to Val, since the pan belongs to Val.

Marie and Clare are good bakers and they can probably make up another batch for everybody for Christmas, and they can teach Katie and Anna on the operation, just keep Greg away from the kitchen along with his sterilizing solution :-)

It is cold up here, our snowthrower broke on the day of the big blizzard, picked up a part a few days later and we are back in operation.

Philomena and Daniel had their Christmas Band concerts last night they did very well

Upcoming birthdays!  Well I see on the calendar, Noelle has one coming up this Thursday, Happy birthday to Noelle.

Well I hope everybody is enjoying the Advent season and are looking forward to an enjoyable Christmas.

I am still deciding what soup to make this year for Christmas eve.  I make the standard Oyster Soup and do one other.  I made vegetable beef last year,  I am debating on making a Broccoli/Cauliflower cheesey bacon soup this year.  Any other ideas or preferences?

Happy Birthday Gabriel!

Happy belated birthday Gabriel!

I finally had the chance to see the cute little tyke for the first time at Mass today.

I hope everybody is enjoying thanksgiving day today.

Daniel and I after lunch will head down to the 80 to scope out the deer down there.

then tomorrow we will take Tom along with Crazy Daisy down to the 80 to let her run some of her energy off.

Matthew made it off on his road trip of spelunking over the holiday.  I was amazed he could actually wake up that early.

have a happy day everybody

posted by Randy

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to Carl

Caroline took the kids down to Burlington this morning to help celebrate Dad/grandpa's birthday today.

I will follow tomorrow after a meeting I have in Des Moines.

Hopefully there is some cake and ice cream left for me.

Someone told me this is your 70th birthday?  Did you decide to repeat a decade?  Caroline still says she is 29, so you can figure where the bad math came from.

All I will say is that there better be a thorough light bulb inspection being completed before I arrive tomorrow afternoon.

posted by Randy

Three posts and no birthdays..is that a new record?

man, this guy is awesome

he built a Wall-e case mod.

now if he would just give the dimensions, i could build one myself.

and yes that really does hold his computer.

and now as is me i will completely switch subjects


             

and another one

             



lol, everything blends [except Chuck Norris]

Chuck Norris doesn't "style" his hair, it lies perfectly flat out of total fear.

Chuck Norris grinds his coffee with his teeth, and boils the water with his own rage.

well that's all for now, hope this brightened your day!


posted by Daniel. [if you didn't already guess]

Eagle Scout

Matthew came home last night to do his board of review for his rank of Eagle for Boy Scouts.  They have them on the second tuesday of every month.

Matthew is now an Eagle Scout.  He was very happy.  It is a major accomplishment for him, we are very proud of him

Caroline took him back to school early this morning.

Posted by Randy

NCIBA Honor Band

I'm in Honor Band!

Well I've known since the beginning of October, but I was busy catching up with school and stuff.

The date for the concert is the 14th of November in Humbolt, at 5:00pm.

posted by Philomena

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Alicia!

I hope you had a wonder celebration of your birthday.

I hope school is going well for you. 

We will try to send some snow down your way some time this year so you will have a chance to enjoy it


posted by Randy

Happy Birthday

Matthew was home over his fall break so we were able to celebrate his birthday ON his Birthday....well we actually celebrated it a day early.  He went back to school tonight.

Happy Birthday Mathew!

As you can read by Mary's Post she had a wonderfull time in Minneapolis.  It is amazing she did all of that in one weekend.

Everybody have a good week

posted by Randy

the play's the thing!

its me!!

hi all!

so updates from mary.

i went hunting with dad, got a duck.

i liked it alot =]

ok so this weekend i went to minneapolis and saw four plays. wow. all of them were so good!

first-

Radio Golf


was so interesting, it definably got you thinking.

it was about a black charactor running for mayor, and his wife and friend were helping him along with a project of renovating a ghetto part of town into shops and parking lots. but its halted for a bit when an old man said that he didnt get any notice that his house was sold, and that he had to pay taxes since someone always paid them when his mother was alive. the politician finds out they bought the house before it went on sale on the market so it was illegal. after he finds that out he finds out that his dad was the one who was paying their taxes. and upon finding that out he finds that they are related! so he loses his election, his friend and wife, and the play ends with him going to help the old man with his house. all in all the least interesting play that we saw but it was so interesting! Andy was finding so many points that was like "its a wonderful life"

on to the next one!

Bert & Ernie, Goodnight!



what can i say about this? AWESOME!

i cant really explain, but watch these videos and you dont get the feel but its enough i think






both of the actors did a wonderful job of pysical work, using their bodies like they were muppets, the flailing around and stuff =]

if you ever get a chance to see it, take all your family and go! i loved it and i think youd have to be a rock to not enjoy it.

then we saw

The House Can't Stand





which was a one man show. well a one woman show. it was two hours long and the energy that he had playing this character was amazing! to clarify.

Steve Epp is really famous and with Dominique Serrand directing him on what he had written, was amazing.



here i'll just tell you what the thing said,

"The Southern Theater presents the world premiere of a new solo performance and the debut of a new Twin Cities theater company. This compelling story of a lonely mother in search of a future was created by former artistic directors of Theatre de la Jeune Lune, Steve Epp and Dominique Serrand, and by the team that brought you such acclaimed productions as The Miser, Carmen, Fishtank, Don Juan Giovanni, The Deception and Maria de Buenos Aires." -- http://www.southerntheater.org/2009_10-22_epp_and_serrand.htm

just wow. wowsie. overwhelming. Jeune Lune had to disperse because of money trouble i think so i feel really privileged to have seen such a great play. or monologue rather.


the last play was

Ruined



wow. what an impacting play. it was set in Africa during some of the rebel wars,
and focused on more of what happened to the women and how they get through it. just wow. it was amazing.

well now im off! good bye!




Posted by Mary

Accounting class

Let me tell you about my Accounting Class that I am currently in

First off:

Assets = Liabilities + Owner's Equity

In short that is a big headache.

I will put you through our instructor's teaching method in a way that maybe will help you understand what I am going through.

Imagine a big tape playing machine standing in front of the room.  For the younger generation a dvd or a Blue Ray disc.  At exactly the starting time the play button is activated and it begins to talk, and it will talk and talk and talk without slowing down, (imagine a car travelling while on cruise control).  If you ask it a question the tape machine will stop, rewind and play what he said over again.  If you ask it again it will stop and rewind and say the exact same thing again.

The machine will actually stop talking sometimes, only to have you solve a questions. Not quite so simple task. As you begin working out the problem to solve it, the machine believes adequate time has passed and will turn back on and begin discussing the problem.  You never get to completely solve the problem so you never know if you really understand what you were trying to solve for.

The machine feels a 15 minute lunch is more than enough time to get something to eat, and sitting for 2.5 to 3 hours at a time has no effrect on learning retention or bladder control. The tape inside the machine just keeps playing.....without stopping.

I have two more weekends with this tape machine,  they tell me if I can make it past this class it is all down hill from here.

Well back to Accounting,.....eat...sleep...Accounting, that is what I am doing

Posted by Randy

my day today

so, me stephen, philomena, and caroline went to a corn maze up in northwood today. the corn maze was fine exept for the map that they gave us. one problem was that stations 6 and 8 [there were 15 in all] were nowhere near each other, yet you could see each one from the other. and to top it all off when we were done our trailblazer wouldn't start. we ended up haveing to call a tow truck and get a jump. so we made it back home.

i also watched the jay leno show. 


lol, crazyness of me.

i also found this

there's no substitute for brains either

one day a customer walks up to a counter in a store[this didn't happen in clear lake]
and asks for water pills

employee: sir there are no sutch things as water pills

customer:  yes there is there is pills for everything else

employee: but no water pills

customer: fine i'll find them myself[wanders over to vitamins to look for water pills]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

wow people can be stupid like thinking that pop tarts are healthy because there a breakfast food[this happened to a friend of mine]

well thats all for now so long!!

posted by Daniel

Helpful Tips for large families

Marcy made some comments regarding her grocery cart being too small for the amount of items that need to go in it.

Well that got me thinking that Marcy is slowly realizing, just what her older siblings with large families have figured out a very long time ago.  Not that Marcy is a slow learner, it is just that she was last in the line of the 7 siblings.

So I thought I better clue her in on some helpful tips of managing a large family.  I gave some of these tips to Bret and Anne when they joined the club.  Come to think if it......... I have not heard any feedback from them about my wise and wonderful tips I provided them?

Groceries:
This will be one of your biggest expenses.  When your kids get older and move into adolescents they will turn into a human vacuum cleaner.  By the time they reach adolescents you need to come up with a plan.  You will soon figure out, that when you get home from the gorcery store. The food that you just bought has already dissapeared, even before you are able to set the sack down and put the food away.

To cope with this phenomena:
You can try having the food truck unload first at your door before it goes to the gocery store, or
you will need to begin shopping for grocery items that your kids do not really like to eat. 
Now, they will still eat the food they do not like but, by using this method it will slow down the rate and speed in which they will eat it, thus you have food in the house over a longer period of time.

Chores are a good thing,  the younger you get them to do chores the less whining you will have when they get older.  You will still get whining mostly on the front end but it will diminish on the back side since the older siblings soon realize you have become tone deaf to their frequency of whining and they no longer use that noise to try and avoid the manaul labor, plus the chores will become routine for them and they know it needs to be done before they can do anything else.  Take note,  the whining will continue as they get older but it will be for different situations.  Whining is a part of life.


Bathroom use:

First and for most, everyone needs to learn that you flush solids FIRST!  Then flush the paper.  This must be done in two separate or more flush cycles.   Life is not fun, when the little ponies leave their corral,..... if you know what I mean.

Hot water and showers:
Unless you have a hot water heater the size of your city water tower, you will encounter running out of hot water and somebody will be taking a cold water shower.
As they get older, for some reason the hot water goes quicker.

you have multiple options dealing with this issue
Options #1
Always be the first one to take the first shower and there is no need for you to ever worry about this issue.

Option #2
prioritize who gets to take the shower first.  Meaning the person who uses the most hot water goes last. 

Option #3
Rationing......you would be surprised how fast they get done taking a shower when the cold water exits the shower head!

Option #4
buy a larger hot water heater,.............about the size of a city water tower


Sleeping

The sooner you can get them to bed the better, 
It cuts down on the amount of whining you have to listen to. and you have the evenings to yourself

As they get older that free time is reversed.  you lose your evening time but you gain back that time by having more morning and afternoon time to yourself as they tend to sleep in and stay up later.

Whining

throughout the post I have mentioned whining, and being on the receiving end to this noise.  Well as they get older the roles will reverse and soon THEY will be on the receiving end of this high pitched noise reverberation.  "get your school work done"  "pick up your clothes"  "where are you going?"  "Are you planning on sleeping all day"  Now some people may call this nagging, but I like to refer to it as a more mature form of whining.

So listen to their whining and learn from what they do and how they do it, because when they get older you will use it back on them, so you might as well learn from the best.

Marcy I hope this helps.

Posted by Randy

this that and other things, take note no birthday posts!

Mary was home for fall break, and she wanted to go duck hunting.  We went out Friday morning and she bagged a green-wing teal. She had a couple more  opportunitites that morning but they just did not want to come into our decoys.  As you can see with the smile on her face she had fun.  And so did I.

Daniel will be next, we just need to break this string of bad luck we have been having when Daniel and I go out hunting together.

Saturday afternoon we went over to Summner and celebrated Sarah's belated birthday.  We came, we invaded, and we left.  It was  good time, Mary finally got to see Sarah's new place. Everybody had a chance to play with Watson (Sarah's kitten).  I put up some curtains in her bedroom.  I did forget to do a light bulb inspection.

Mary is going back to school Sunday night. The other three kids just got done doing a big pile of dishes that back logged over the weekend.

My Accounting classes for my Masters class is a killer.  The darn book is written all in Greek.  It is called Accounting principles for Government and not-for-profit organizations.  First of all since when has the Government balanced an account? So If you think about it, what I am learning is basically theory and "dream-on" material, not real world stuff. But, ...Anyway I will get done with that class on December 4th. 

Mary has her Steel Pan concerts on the last weekend in October.

Sarah's musical she is assisting with is coming up soon also.

Well that is all for now. hava a good week

Posted by Randy

Happy Birthday to Sophia!

Thank you Sarah for catching this.
I had my dates mixed up, I was a week ahead of myself, now I have to go back and work that week I skipped.....bummer!

Happy birthday Sophia, I hope you receive lots of presents and eat a whole bunch of cake and ice cream.  Enjoy your special day and have a fun party

Posted by Randy

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Jacinta!

I hope you had a fun day filled with presents, cake and ice cream!


Posted By Randy

Happy Birthday to Stephen!

Happy Birthday to Stephen!

Yes, if you look closely that is an actual real bug inside that lollipop he is licking! (well it is dead....at least it was not moving)

Sarah got those on her Wartburg Spring band trip last spring.  She gave one to each of her brothers.  Stephen was the only brave one to try it.  So, ....did he eat the Bug?  No.  When the bug became exposed, he stopped licking the lollipop.  But he was braver than his other whimpy brothers who didn't even open the wrappers to their lollipops!

Believe it or not Sarah found those gems at the Amana Colonies.

Stephen is all excited, he did pick out his breakfast cereal, even though he does not eat cereal.  It was Apple Jacks (good choice)

for a cake he chose Chocolate

for icing it was Chocolate

for his first choice of ice cream it was Chocolate

for his second choice of ice cream it was Chocolate  (you get to choose two ice creams)

I think he likes chocolate.

We will celebrate his birthday sometime in the evening.

posted by: Randy

This time I think it is finally fixed!

OK,

I do believe I finally fixed the problem posting comments to the blog site.

so when you post a comment it should take you to a new page and you will see the comment box and the random word you are supposed to type in and then select the user profile you are going to be.

Anna has been my quality control expert, she has been trying and trying and it kept kicking her off.  But I do believe I outsmarted it and fixed it.

If Anna can get through then I know it is finally fixed.

posted by: Randy
(Well this is a fine howdy-do, I updated the program to post blogs and I just noticed that the place where I type the blogs no longer has a spell checker option.  How am I to know if i spleled a woord corretcly?)

problems commenting on blog

It has come to my attention that there seems to be a problem posting comments on the blog.

It will not let you post a comment for some reason, particularly if you choose the anonymous choice.

Here I what I did to get around that issue

type in your comment

Choose the anonymous choice

click post comment

if it will not let you post or not give you the secret letters to post you comment

then click the preview comment button

that will get you the secret letters to type in

type in those secret letters and then it will post your comment.

the comment that was deleted was my test comment to see if it worked

posted by Randy.

I am kind of wondering if I am typing in the wind?

Message to all family members

Dear Family members,

parents,

Brothers and Sisters,

aunts, and uncles,

nieces, and nephews

Siblings,

Did it ever occur to you to try and consolidate your birthdays, anniversaries, into one tight group or month?

It seems like this is all I ever get done doing is wishing someone a happy birthday.

The following pairs have the program down and know how things should be:
Daniel and Xavier, Andrew and Monique, Joachim and Maria, Doug B. and Katie, and Jason and Carlon they all share the same birth date! Arlene and John H. get a double bonus for having their birthdays on the same day, and married to each other (minus a point for their anniversary not as their birth dates)!

Nancy and I come close with our birth dates side to side and Doug and Janice throwing in an anniversary alongside us, I believe that is doing pretty good.

Let us look at September, which is just packed with birthdays and anniversaries
Daniel and Xavier share a birthday

Caroline and I have our anniversary alongside Carl and Donna's with Kolbe and Bret blocking us with their birthdays on each end of the string.

Doug and Nancy should have some credit with their anniversary right next to Caroline's birthday but Greg and Marcy stretched it a bit having a day space after Caroline's b-day.

Joseph and Donna did good, but Sarah is all by her lonesome down at the bottom of the month.

What is up with Stephen, Sophia, Jacinta and Matthew? Their birthdays are completely scattered across the month of October? I believe you four need to communicate better to tighten up that pattern.

Carl and Gabriel, have a seven day spread which is doing good for November, but Alicia your near the beginning of the month, you could have at least dropped down a week! Remember November is a light birthday month you all need to be team players!

December is looking good with a nice tight pattern with Noelle, John S., Joachim/Maria (on the same day), Catherine, and Marie. I applaud Catherine for hitting the lucky number in December.

Unfortunately January is scattered again with Allen, Carrissa and Angelica, with a good save from Doug B. and Katie (birthdays on same day)

February being such a small month it sure packs a lot of birthdays with Anne, Aunt Lourdes, Doug S. and Martha and Chris which they have kept their birthdays good and tight, but Franseco and Philomena slid away from the pack with birthdays at the end of the month.

the reason March is so windy is because of all the birthdays for that month. There is Jim, Teresa, Tom, Mary, Nathaniel, Greg H. Janice, Dominica, and Raphael and with Carlon and Connie's anniversary.

April seems to be easier on the eyes, with Joey, Val, Mathias, Marcy, and Michael celebrating birthdays with John and Arlene celebrating an anniversary.

May is nice and compact with Birthdays of Grace Annie, Claire, Robert, Arlene/John H. with Jim and Martha's anniversary starting the pattern, but Greg and Val throw the curve with their anniversary at the end of the month.

Megan, Melissa, and Connie share the month of June all to themselves. BOYS take note June is an all girls birthday month. There is not a single boy birthday in that month. Be careful of June.

July erupted with birthdays with Lucas, Jason/Carlon (same day), Mary H., Nicholas, and Martha H., and with Bret and Anne's anniversary

But August is looking real good, a nice pattern, a nice consolidation, a nice even flow. You can tell the birthdays and anniversaries just knew what they were doing in August. All other months should emulate August. August knows what is going on. August is one smart month.
Did I mention I was born in August? Along with Paul, Emmanuela, Nancy, Randy(me) and Greg, but there goes Greg again by having that wide spread, it is so hard to reign him in at times. Anniversaries go to Tom and Melissa and Doug and Janice.

If I had to count (OK, maybe Caroline counted) But if I did happen to count up all the people on our calendar it would come up with 38 nieces and nephews 4 parents, 9 siblings with 8 spouses, and 6 children. And to think there are 365 days in a year


posted by Randy

Happy Birthday to Sarah

Happy Birthday Sarah!

May your day be a special one.

We will have to figure out how to celebrate your day

love Dad

The usual birthday salutations and more

Happy Birthday wishes go out to

Joseph

and to

Donna

May you enjoy your special day with lots of cake and ice cream and plenty of presents

Schoolwork is getting to be the norm around here, the big goal this year is to keep them motivated about school and learning. That is the challenge we are working on

A couple weeks ago I took Philomena and Stephen to the County Conservation Center and we chased monarch butterflies and tagged them. it was a lot of fun and we did some other things at the Center while we were there.

Stephen is excited about a book he has found, it is called "Don't Touch That! the book of gross, poisonous, and downright icky plants and critters" by Jeff Day M. D. Stephen is making sure I know all that is in the book, because he is reading it to me every chance he can get. He reads a couple pages in the morning and then in the evening. We have learned everything from poison ivy to bee stings and now we into gross bugs. We are half way through the book.

Philomena is having me find Waldo, White Beard and the scroll. We have been to places where many Waldo's have been before. I sure wish Waldo, White Beard and the scroll would be a lot bigger. I do get lucky and find them first some times

Daniel is going on a weekend camp out with the scouts this weekend. They are going to a State Park and do some fishing. It should be a fun time. They are getting the food tonight for the camp out. Daniel is taking wood shop and metal shop this year. Daniel now has his school permit so he drives to school every morning to catch the van that takes the students to Garner for Shop.

I finish Class #3 of my masters program this weekend. It was about measuring outcome performance. 7 more classes to go and I will be finished.

We have not celebrated Caroline's birthday yet, or our anniversary, I am not quite sure when we will get around doing that.

Sarah is getting a cat, and I don't think she liked the suggested names I offered up for it. It is a male cat which is going to be neutered rather quickly when she gets it. So here is the big question? Does it really matter to give the cat a masculine name if it is neutered?

Mary is back at Central and finding out that she needs to slow down on the number of text messages she is sending out. She has unlimited minutes to talk, but texting seems to be the way to go. I believe she is in the Steel pans band again this year.

Matthew checks in once in a while. Now, we have received suggestion from others parents whose children also fail to phone home on a regular basis. These parents have provided us with some successful techniques they have used in the past that are very effective. I do like the idea of shutting off their phone, that one ranked high on every one's top 10 list.

We finally got some rain up here this week. We have been dry for 24 days. You had to be careful driving, because of all the oil build-up on the roads it was slick as ice when the roads were wet.

Everybody have a good weekend

Posted by Randy

College kids do not forget to call home!

Happy Wedding Anniversary

Happy Wedding anniversary Greg and Marcy!

Stephen is selling his cub scout popcorn now. If you would like some popcorn let us know.
It is quite good, especially the White Gold
I like the microwave Kettle corn

The hunting seasons are starting to roll through so my fall is starting to pick up. This weekend was the duck opener which lasts for 5 days.

I have my final weekend for my 3rd master's class on Friday and Saturday. It is on Performance Outcomes. It was interesting, I finished my portion of our group project tonight.

I did see Marie's homecoming pictures on her Facebook page, they were nice. Obviously the young man must have passed the gruelling grilling Greg must have had with him since he did get into the picture with Marie. :-)

I do believe I have some contacts with the Iowa City Police Department! HMMMMM!!!??

well that is all for now,

have a good week

Posted by Randy

Happy Birthdays and Anniversary

Happy Birthday to Caroline, Need I say anything more?

Except someone called 911 when we lit all the candles, somebody thought our house was on fire with the smoke and flames and all..........the fireman did stay for cake and ice cream!


Also Happy Anniversary to Doug and Nancy

posted by Randy

Happy Birthdays

Well......A string of Happy Birthdays to

Kolbe

Bret

Andrew

and

Monique

can you name the one who could probably use some Grecian Formula?

or the one who could have asked Shawn Johnson out on a date?

or the one with the longest hair?

or the one who first saw the world in 2001?

Keep those birthdays coming!


Shawn Johnson is the Olympic gold medalist from Iowa

Posted by Randy

Happy Wedding Anniversary

A Happy Anniversary to Carl and Donna they are celebrating well over 50 years of marriage. I'm thinking about 55 or 56 wedding years. That is a lot of years of light bulb changing!

Posted by Randy

and stephen wanted to go on the log ride...

but i didn't...

although i did go on the tornado, which was my first roller coaster. and the first time is always the worst. and now thinking back, i do kind of want to go on it again. along with the raging river, the sawmill splash, the silly silo, the bumper cars, the underground the g-force and the tilt a whirl.
so technically another trip to adventure land.

I'd forgotten how much fun it can be...

..especially after going on the tilt-a-whirl, the bumper cars, the silly silo,the silly silo again, and then the tilt-a-whirl again...can really make you nauseous, but i did NOT throw up! ;)

but i still had a great time with my friend Chris [second from top in photo], my mom and my younger siblings.
i think Philomena especially had fun going on [one right after the other] the log ride the silly silo the tilt-a-whirl and the tornado. and then later in the day going on the dragon twice in a row.
along with Chris who went on the log ride the silly silo twice the tilt-a-whirl and the tornado with the only break being the walk between rides. and also went on the dragon twice in a row with Philomena.
and it was also moms first time on the raging river because she was always holding one of us in a stroller! and while we went down the river i went directly under the water fall and got soaked!
and then dried off on the combination of rides i mentioned above

only Stephen escaped unscathed

and then proceeded to go on the log ride where he got drenched.


sorry mom that your anniversary was the only available day to go, and i thank you for bringing us!

posted by Daniel

Wedding Anniversay

Well it is our wedding anniversary!

24 years ago on September 7 who would expect or imagine all that has occurred from that day forward? In just 24 short years!

It was a hot day, a very hot day, in fact the whole summer was relatively cool (a lot like this summer year), and then on our wedding day it became HOT and humid!

we have a lot to be thankful for and to be proud of.

We are thankful for having great parents (and we do not have to separate them out and call them in laws because we consider them all one big set) (or call them outlaws....just kidding)

We are thankful for all our brothers and sister and their families

We are most thankful for our children

We are proud of our children and all the accomplishments they have made, and continue to make as they grow into adults.

We are proud of all the nieces and nephews and what they are doing and how they are making a difference in the activities they do.

how are we going to celebrate our wedding anniversary day?

.....Well Caroline is going to take the kids down to Adventureland and I get to stay up here and work!

We will probably go out to dinner sometime this week.

So I guess some things never change!

So, Caroline it has been 24 years, I loved you when we got married, I love you now, and I will love you in the future.

Posted by Randy

More Birthday wishes!!!

No icon this time, since that is all you see is birthday icons!

As usual a belated birthday to my brother Greg S. he is following close behind me in age.

Happy Birthdays to Daniel S. and Xavier who share the same birth date!

Daniel has already picked out his birthday cereal along with the cake, icing and ice cream. we did forget to get milk so rationing may have to occur tomorrow for breakfast.

Xavier I hope you have a super tremendous birthday!

Daniels may have to be delayed until after the weekend.

Thank you Raphael for the neat birthday card I really enjoyed it, that was great!

Daniel now has his school driving permit, and he drives to school each morning to go to shop class.

The ridge vent is up on the house, and the upstairs bathroom vent is now vented outside so the problem of too much moisture in the attic in the winter time is cured.

Also I washed down the house. I rented a boom rig for the day. so that worked out really nice. I had a friend come over and he put in the ridge vent and bathroom vent.

I started my third masters class last week. It is going good, the class deals with measuring performance outcomes.

We now have 3 out of the house, Sarah is in her own place in Summner, IA teaching school, Mary is back at Central, and Matthew is at Buena Vista in Storm Lake. We had a whirlwind of moving.

It took a little while to get use to the new kind of quiet in the house.

Matthew finished his bat house and he still needs to finish one more merit badge to earn his Eagle. We are hoping he finishes that merit badge very soon.

If you have not checked out Sarah's latest blog site you need to check it out. Here is the link "http://www.exuberantflute86.blogspot.com/"

If that did not work here it is so you can copy it and past in your browser:
http://www.exuberantflute86.blogspot.com/

September is here and we are enjoying the cool nights.

That is all posted by Randy

a non boring post [yay!]

or you could call it ''hallelujah someone posted!"
'cause nobody does, except for randy and his b-day updates.

lolz are made of awesome :D

unlike this computer monitor,
with its annoying blue line and gray area,
and sometimes a 5th of the screen goes black ):[

i was going to show you a funny video, but i forgot what it was.

oh yeah now i remember.

since i can't upload it onto here [anyone know how to do that?] you'll have to go here.

so randy is on top of our house fixing the roof, that has been leaking through the light fixture in Stephens room and causing various other water stains throughout the house.

i have been chatting with my friend on windows live, occasionally inviting Mary and Matt as they become available,

they don't say much, they probably just sit back and laugh at our extreme randomness. :P

pandas,

like that, sometimes we wonder who is more random.

grifball is the best game in the world,

me, it's me.

you don't know the meaning of random till you have met me.

well I'll try to brighten your lives later but that's it for now,

so remember, nobody posts, annoying computer monitor and mountain dew.

posted by Daniel

Its my Birthday

Well it is my Birthday! One year less than the half century mark.

Our church bulletin yesterday had an announcement of an open house next Sunday for Monsignor Slepicka who will be celebrating his 80th birthday. He does not look a day over 60 and he has been to Alaska this past year. I hope I have that much energy when I am at that age!

We will be celebrating my birthday tomorrow. Things were too busy today.

Everybody have a good week

Posted by Randy

de ja vu on birthdays

Thanks Daniel for adding variety to the blog by posting a new blog.

Well another round of birthdays for the week.

Happy birthday to Paul on last Monday and Emmanuela today! Paul I hope you had a fun birthday party and you had enough cake and ice cream left over so you could have seconds

Emmanuela I hope you had a real good time today on your birthday enjoying cake and ice cream and blowing out the candles, and you felt like a queen all day today!

I see Tom and Melissa will be celebrating a wedding anniversary on Saturday, Congratulations on their wedding anniversary.

Nancy will be celebrating a birthday on Sunday (will all those candles fit on one cake?, I guess it depends on the size of the cake!) Not to worry I will find that answer out in a couple years! :-)

Doug and Janice will be celebrating an anniversary on Sunday also, so we extend a heartfelt congratulations on their wedding anniversary. I hope they have a wonderful day.

And on Monday I begin my final year in the 40's bracket. Do they still make Geritol? What does it taste like?

We just finished Matthew's Eagle project tonight. The bat house is done! I am sure he will post pictures of it on his blog sometime soon. I am really proud of him. It was a good project and is an excellent addition to the outdoor classroom at Clear Creek School. Now the nagging will continue to get the project put on paper and sent to the Boy Scout office in Waterloo before August 24, 2009.

Sarah has left the building!
Sarah has now moved down to Sumner, IA and begins her new career this week starting Thursday with new teacher orientation. My first tax deduction has flown the coupe!

Mary is finished with summer camp for the year, she is up at Valley Fair, having fun. I wonder if she is getting her phone wet again?

The pyrotechnic Guild International (fireworks) is back in town for their big conference. they set off fireworks every night showing off their stuff and styles. Pyrotechnic professionals from around the world come to this conference. It is like a big trade show for people who put on firework displays. Instead of rolling out a new car or computer to show off or display they shoot off fireworks they design. They were here 4 years ago, and they liked Mason City so much they came back. It definitely brings in a lot of people.

Well have a good week

Posted by Randy

randomness, because nobody has posted in forever.

OK. since nobody has posted ANYWHERE! I'll have to do it.
and unlike the last one i posted, this one is true.
and a little scary.

One day a rookie pilot was ready to take off from the tarmac and the pilot supervising him decided to have a bit of fun at his expense.
so as the large passenger airliner climbed, the supervising pilot turned on the gust lock, a devise used only on the ground that locks the tail so that it doesn't blow around in high winds.
and so with the rookie pilot extremely confused as to why the plane wouldn't level out the supervising pilot thought that the joke Had gone far enough and released the gust lock.

bad idea

since the rookie didn't have any idea what was going on he had left the controls in an extreme position and with the release of the gust lock the airliner went into a nosedive.
and since the rookie and supervisor were NOT strapped in they both went flying.
and one of them hit the engine shut-off switch which turned out to be a good thing as it slowed down there descent. so that the co-pilot who WAS strapped in could level out the aircraft at about 300 feet from the ground and make an emergency landing at a nearby airport.

at first it was blamed on a systems malfunction, but the truth eventually got out about the ill conceived practical joke.
and the supervising pilot?

he was fired.

posted by Daniel

Another round of Birthdays

Boy, it seems like I no sooner get one round of birthdays done another set comes flying by.

Happy belated birthday to Nicholas! Nicholas good buddy I hope you had a fun party.

Happy belated birthday to Martha H. Martha I hope your day was filled with fun times and lots of cake and ice cream!

Our trip to the boundary waters went very well. We all had fun. The weather was OK, it was mostly overcast, we had a few times where the sun would shine through, we had a couple times we were caught in the rain while paddling around.

On the second to last day we decided to move to a campsite closer to our take out point. Unfortunately we had to battle a head wind to get there. After our last portage we headed to our campsite, but the head wind was particularly strong, and we had to battle it to get to the backside of an island that had more protection to get a break from the wind. Daniel and I were paddling and it just seemed like we were paddling, but we were not getting anywhere. I looked over at Matthew's canoe and his partner, and they were paddling and their canoe was not moving even though they were paddling fast. I thought "Oh Boy! this is not good" and then it started to rain. Well the rain stopped and we finally made it behind the island where it was easier paddling. We did make it to the campsite that we wanted, so we set up camp, and we went swimming.

The next day we had a mile left to paddle to the take out point. The head wind was stronger and spitting rain again. We had to keep the canoes pointed into the wind so they did not go sideways into the wave troughs, which could cause the canoes to tip over. We made it and it was fun. The shower we took before we left for home sure felt good.

Philomena is at a week long camp at camp tanglefoot, and she will be canoeing this week!

Sarah is busy painting the inside of her house that she is renting in Sumner, IA

Hopefully Matthew will finish up his Eagle project this Thursday evening.

I had lunch with a couple of our summer officers today. One of them stated that his parents and sisters will be coming up to visit for a week and wanted suggestions on what to show them around the area.
I mentioned the tour of the Winnebago plant in Forest City, and to go see the Bill Baird puppets at the McNider Museum, the ones that were used in the "Sound of Music" musical. He looked at me and did not have a clue what I was talking about. He never heard of the Sound of Music! I then quizzed him about "The Music Man" Meredith Wilson, how that is based on Mason City, I asked him about the Bill Riley talent show? Buddy Holly, the surf ballroom? He did not know any of those people, musicals or events. Fortunately the other summer officer did know all of those things so there is some hope for remembering the classics.

I will be working the State Fair in the afternoon starting at 2:00 PM on August 20, 2009 at the DNR Building.

I have now finished two of my MPA Classes I have 8 more classes to go to get my masters degree! So far I have a 4.0 GPA!

Summer is rolling along real fast now.

take care and have a good week!

Posted by Randy

Calendar? What Calendar?

So I get home tonight from a gruelling day on the water, and this is how the conversation transpired:

I asked a simple question of if any of the parents called, and Caroline replied no, but her parent were coming up tomorrow.
I replied "that was news to me, nobody told me!" Caroline replied it has been on the calendar for months.

so looking at the calendar with a magnifying glass I was able to find it among all the other squibbily lines and words for that day. Boy.....it was a darn good thing I decided to change the 3 burned out lights in the dining room this morning, or I would have been caught red handed. For some reason I had a sixth sense to change those bulbs today. I was waiting for the last two in the light fixture to go out, and then finally change them. Oh well.....maybe next time. I guess I will need to pay attention to the calendar and gage my light bulb event between visits.

Boundary waters is Sunday YEA!!!!! things are going to move fast this week to get everything pack.

Matthew's eagle project is taking shape.

Philomena is entering things into the fair this week

that is all for now

I still enjoy listening to my Pandora radio mix of Broadway tunes, and it still drives Caroline nuts having to listen to it.

have a good week
Posted by Randy

Belated Birthday wish!

Well tie me up to an ant hill and cover me with molasses!

I cannot believe I forgot to wish Lucas a Happy Birthday! Happy Birthday Lucas sorry for the oversight. I just cannot believe I did that, especially to my favorite nephew!
I hope everything went well for your birthday!

I might as well add happy birthday wishes to Jason S. and Carlon T. for their birthdays coming up on the 12th

And also to Mary H. for a happy birthday to her on Monday!

All these birthdays........ it just makes a person feel old.

We had some rain and wind the other night, but not as bad as Cedar Falls got hit.

we got a new computer, I bought a program to transfer the files, but it keep getting an error message that my old computer memory is full and it will not do it. Drat, now it is the slow painstakingly way.

Everybody have a good week

posted by Randy

From my blog..

Hi everyone!

I have a job for the fall/spring semesters!!

I called 2Fix* (the IT dept. @ BVU) yesterday, and they said they'd contact me when the move in dates are!

(2Fix requires all new employees to move in at least week early for training)

*Some info about 2Fix:

Basically 2Fix is the dept. that repairs/maintains anything that uses electricity, whether its computers, phones, TVs, or projectors.

They offer around 15 hours a week (but are flexible to your schedule), and possibly even 40 hours during the summer with free rooms.

:D

That's all, its raining outside, have good weekend everybody! :)

Happy Anniversary wishes

Happy Anniversary to Bret and Anne. I hope they had a wonderful day enjoying their anniversary. A toast to them!

Well the 4th of July is here and gone, Philomena has been up to camp at Schoenstatt, since last Sunday. We pick her up tomorrow night. Things are pretty quiet around here without her bouncing around. I missed her wit and smiles.
My next mpa class starts on Friday, the professor has assigned a lot of reading material for us to go over and discuss. It is about business ethics.

I am slowly getting the boundary water trip organized. We leave at the end of the month. That will be a lot of fun.

Matthew will be doing his Eagle project for Boy Scouts next week, He is constructing a bat house at the outdoor classroom at the Clear Creek School in Clear Lake.

Matthew registered for college last week.

Mary is at Camp Tanglefoot working.

Stephen is enjoying riding his bike around the circle and up to the stop sign. He does like to go fast.

I enjoyed seeing some of Marie's pictures from her DC trip that she posted.

I think it is really neat the Alicia picked a college in a location that does not have snow in the winter time and she gets to play soccer! Way to go Alicia!

It will not be long before we will have 3 out of the house. I am just hoping our water bill will reflect that reduction!

We have been fortunate on the weather enjoying some cool days and nights. The A/C has not been turned on for a couple of weeks.

I hope everybody has a good week, you are all in our thoughts and prayers.

Posted by Randy

belated birthday salutations!

Another set of birthday salutations, except they are of the belated kind.

Happy belated birthday wishes to Melissa, I hope you had a nice birthday, your birthday kind of snuck up on me, I did not see it coming (notice a little short humor interjected there) :-)

Happy belated birthday wishes to Connie, Caroline's youngest sister, I believe they celebrated her birthday earlier than the scheduled brithday date.

I hope cake was eaten by all.

I have been looking through all of my records and for some reason I am having some difficulty trying to find their true ages for these birthday girls?

Now that June is almost behind me and my training is just about winding down I need to begin preparing for the boundary water's trip at the end of July! That will be fun since I missed the St Criox canoe trip this year.

We have the A/C on which makes the house nice. Daniel helped me clean the central air unit again this year. The outside coils and fins of the unit gets dirty and by cleaning them every year it lengthens the the life span of the compressor and A/C unit.

Stephen got his upper braces on today, he chose green for his color of his bands. He is slowly learning how to ride his bike.

that is all for now

Posted by Randy

father's day blog

Happy Father's day to all the Dad's out there.

I had to work so that was my enjoyment for the day.

Sarah grilled brats for Supper, those were good

Right now Sarah is at Mason City playing in the municipal band, and Matthew, Daniel, Philomena and Mary are at a movie, so it is just myself, Caroline and Stephen at home.

I am enjoying the peace and quietness of the house, just the hummmmmm of the central A/C.

Another 2 days of training in Des Moines starting on Tuesday. After that things will get back to semi normal.

my presentation went well last Saturday for my MPA course, now I have to write up a report for my final project and that is one course in the bag! A group of 5 of us are collaborating on the final project. We will submit our reports and one person volunteered to collate them together.

Have a good week!

posted by Randy

June is half over!

Sarah has two interviews this week! Tuesday afternoon she has a general music and 5th grade band job interview with the Tripoli school district. Tripoli is SE of Charles City and NE of Waverly. Wednesday morning she has a 2nd-5th general music and 5th-12th grade instrumental music job interview in Bedford. Bedford is SW of Des Moines down by the Missouri border. Say a prayer for her.

Mary is at Camp Tanglefoot. The campers came today, before it was just the training part with all the other counselors. Mary is the Craft Director this year. She feels really old because one of the new junior counselors is someone Mary used to babysit. Mary was home yesterday for a day off and to do some laundry, but she forgot to take back her deodorant. Randy had to drop it off at camp for her.

Matthew made the front page of the Mason City Sunday Globe-Gazette yesterday. You can view the story at http://www.globegazette.com/frontpage_history/pdfs/2009_06_14.pdf . There is also a video online of Matthew and Daniel at http://www.globegazette.com/shared-content/search/index.php?search=go&l=20&s=recent&r=&d1=06/01/09&d2=06/15/09&q=how%20to%20fold%20a%20flag folding a flag. The multimedia box is on the near right side part way down the page, scroll down the video list until you come to "How to fold a United States Flag". It is right after "lawn mower maintenance".

Daniel and Matthew are both going canoeing on the St. Croix River this Thur.-Sat. with the Boy Scout troop. Randy doesn't get to go because he has a class. Daniel is still working at Fareway, loading groceries, often in the rain. Matthew still works there too and has been sleeping in since the new Assistant Manager isn't scheduling him for the 5:00 am shift unloading the truck.

Matthew received a couple of local scholarships he applied for: the Knights of Columbus gave him $250 and the Clear Lake Friends of the Library gave him $300. The library was a brand new scholarship and Matthew had to write an essay for it. Matthew will also receive a Conservation Officer Association scholarship for $500. All that money adds up and helps him pay for college! Mom is happy!

Philomena went to an aviation camp on Sat. at the Mason City Airport. There was a ground school for a couple of hours and then they got to go up in an airplane for a quick flight around Clear Lake. It so happened that Philomena got to ride in Msgr. Hemann's plane! She really enjoyed it and wasn't too scared about it. Philomena is also doing activities at the library this summer. Tomorrow they learn how to make balloon animals and Thur. is crafts and theatre class.

Stephen just got back from cub scout camp with Randy, but didn't get to go swimming because the camp pool was not working. It was too cold to swim anyway. Stephen is also doing activities at the library. He especially liked the program Dan Wardell from Iowa Public Television gave last week. I took a picture on my phone, but when I went to put it on the computer, it disappeared. I'll have to try to find it in cyberspace somewhere.

Randy is out-of-town quite a bit this month. I counted at least 11 nights in a motel. He is currently at his pursuit driving recertification class for a couple of days down in Ottumwa. He also has his other two classes, a certified public management class and masters of public administration class, several times this month. One meets at the Drake campus in Des Moines and the other class meets at Mary Greeley Hospital campus in Ames. (I probably got the class titles wrong.)

I am still doing my Hallmark and Perkins jobs. I just wish the weather would warm up a little so I could take the kids swimming.

Posted by Caroline

sneaking a last birthday wish in before the day is over

I had to sneak in a last Happy Birthday wish to Megan, whose birthday is today.

Happy Birthday Megan, I hope you had a real fun day and had lots of candles to blow out!

Cub Scout camp went well it only rained on Friday, Saturday and Sunday were great with cool nights for sleeping and no mosquito problems

Best quote at camp from an 8 year old from our group. "Dad, I don't want to wear the poncho. A poncho is just a dress with a hood on it"

For some reason wearing a poncho is not cool even after pointing out all the other people wearing ponchos. We even saw an Iowa Hawkeye poncho!

Happy Birthday Megan!

Have a good week

Posted by Randy S.