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