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