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