after Christmas activities

well Christmas is now behind us

everybody had a good time with plenty to eat

Daniel and I went down to Iowa City to try our luck at deer hunting we saw three coyotes the first night, a coyote and a flock of turkeys the second day and no deer

We helped celebrate Marie's birthday while we were down there, that was a lot of fun.

my procedure went well, I received a clean bill of health.  I am good for another 5 years.

The procedure itself was a peace of cake, they told me to roll over on my left side and the next thing I remember was waking up in the recovery room.  The prep the day before was not a big deal just an annoyance.  I want to thank dad for the Angel Soft, that was thoughtful!

It is amazing when you cannot eat anything, you have a terrible urge to eat everything!

Sarah and Dan were up here for a few days, it was good to see them.  Dan survived eating a super hot sandwich in Des Moines at Cactus Bob's BBQ Joint.  the challenge is to eat their hottest sandwich with their hottest hot sauce in 10 minutes without water and you have to keep it down and you get your picture on the wall and a T-shirt.  I have been there, there are not too many pictures on the wall, now there is one more.  Congratulations to Dan.

it is melting up here, we are supposed to get freezing rain up here.  what a mess, we get 12 inches of snow and within a week it is melting and now we have a slushy mess up here.

I am taking Matthew back to college tomorrow.

I am eating Oyster Stew everyday now,  I really need to figure out portions and quantities a little better

I hope everyone has a happy New Year!

posted by Randy

Chrismas is coming

Well we are at the shortest day of the year and now the days should be getting longer!

after Christmas I am scheduled to go in for a procedure

All I will say is the procedure will be on December 29, 2010 and the day before on December 28, 2010 I need to prep for the procedure

the preparation requires me to drink a liquid which after drinking the liquid, I need to make darn sure I am very close to the bathroom.

we received another 5 inches of snow on Monday, I would say we will be having a white Christmas this year!

Mary and Matthew are home from school

Daniel got his braces off

Philomena will be getting her braces on

Sarah has uninvited mice in her house

Mary will be going to London for a semester of college

everybody enjoy the remaining days before Christmas

posted by Randy

Winter Blast!

We survived our first Winter Blast for the year

we got about 6 to 8 inches of snow, but the wind was the factor

we had rain Friday night and into Saturday morning, and then when the wind switched it changed to snow and the wind kept blowing harder and the snow kept coming down faster

It basically shut down all the roads in Northern Iowa

and now it is cold the sun is shining, but the temperature is -2 below

I brought Keeley inside today just to give her a chance to warm up

everybody is looking forward to Christmas in a couple weeks

Mary and Matthew will be coming home this week,  I will be going down on Tuesday to bring a load of Mary's items home.

I am enjoying some free time particularly in the evening, it is kind of nice to not have to worry about a paper to write or a project to complete.

I am contemplating on which soup to make for Christmas eve.   I am thinking either Broccoli and Cheese soup or chicken and noodle soup.

stay warm

posted by Randy

December Activities!

Well as I said in my last post way back in September, that time is just speeding by.

December is here already, and we can probably say good-bye to December, and look forward to the new year.

Daniel got confirmed last month and we had family up for that

we had everybody home for thanksgiving, that was enjoyable,  Sarah brought home Dan Waterbery to visit, that was nice

Matthew brought home his XBOX with his Kinect that was fun to watch everybody do that

We do have our Christmas stuff out and slowly putting it up, it is hard to believe we are in the second week of advent already

on December 4th I finished my last class for my MPA so I am all done with my master's program

we only got a dusting of snow last Friday

Philomena won here postal shoot in archery

and Philomena was selected to go to the IBA band,  it is like the All State Honor Band for Junior High,  she will play down in Des Moines in May, 2011

We hope everybody is doing fine

we are keeping warm, I was not quite ready for this cold weather

posted by Randy

New Post...Finally! AGAIN!

Unbelievable,.....September is almost over!

Caroline survived her birthday, this will be her last year she will be in the forties.  Next year she gets to join the nifty fifty club like the rest of the older crew.

Daniel got his driver's license so he gets to drive to work and stuff.

Philomena had a 4-H skit at the Clay County fair last week.  Stephen got sick so I stayed home with him while Caroline, Daniel and Philomena went to the Clay County Fair in Spencer.  The skit went well.

My second to the last master's class started this month.  I have to give two presentations next month for the class.

Our south gutter on our house is clogged.  I have a friend who will make the climb to clean that out.

The ants are just plain terrible this month. The whole year has been a big ant problem.

Philomena is in Junior High Jazz Band at Ventura

The grass needs mowed

I am keeping Keeley's ears cleaned out.   she sees me with that little blue ear squirtter and she avoids me.

We celebrated our 25 wedding anniversary this month.  I was out of town on our anniversary date.

I hope everybody is doing well

enjoy the Fall season!

posted by Randy

Fifty is Nifty

Well I turned the big 50 this month, I have now joined Doug, Nancy, Janice and Doug into this age block. Caroline has one more year to go before crossing this threshold

It is like crossing the event horizon on SG1 you do not know what is actually on the other side.

The State Fair was hot,  Philomena did good on her presentation at the 4-H building.  I had my regular pork chop on a stick which was very good.  It is made by the Pork Producers, I do not know how they do it but that is the most moist best tasting pork chop I have ever eaten. It is a genuine pork chop and the stick is the bone part of the chop

Well August is now behind us and we can look back and comment on just where did the summer go?

I took Philomena and Stephen down to Iowa City this weekend to visit Janice and my nieces and nephews (except for Lucas who was back at home) who were in town to move in Nathaniel.  I was able to visit with them, as well as everybody else down there.

also I was able to see my youngest niece while I was there.

Everybody seemed to have a lot of fun together at supper time last night.  It was fun to see everybody.

I do not know the whole story, but Tom seems to be having some difficulty with coaching 5th and 6th graders football.  Hmmmmmmm, sounds like he is having fun, but I think I will buy more stock in aspirin and ibuprofen companies.

Also we took Keeley down for a check-up also.  She made it down and back without any problems.  No throw-ups in the car!!!

It was good to see everybody for the brief time we were down there.

Sarah is teaching

Mary and Matthew are back at school, and we got Mary and all of her stuff moved back to her dorm room.  I have no idea where all of that stuff will go into her room, or if it will even fit, but all that matters is that stuff is out of my hair for a while!!!!!!!!!!!

Well the way things are going Thanksgiving and Christmas are right around the corner and before you know it I will have another birthday.

I hope everybody will enjoy the remaining days of summer and have a good week

posted by Randy

New Post...Finally!

Well it has been almost 6 weeks since the last post

I cannot believe how the time has gone by this summer, a lot of activities and crazy schedules

Right after the 4th of July Daniel and I went out with a total of 10 adults and 20 scouts to Colorado for summer camp.  Out of that group of 30,  3 adults (which included me) and 7 of the older scouts went on a high adventure and backpacked, hiked, camped for five days in the Rawah Wilderness Area next to the Roosevelt National forest just north of Estes park about an hour and Northwest of For Collins.  We took everything we needed (food, cooking, tents, etc.) to survive for 5 days of hiking.

We did camp above the timberline at 11,300 feet one night

here are some pictures

The above picture is Twin Crater Lake all snow melt fed, when the kids skipped snowballs out into the water the snowballs just floated away and did not melt.

This is blue lake at 11,100 feet we saw two elk and a moose walk by our campsite in the morning

we hiked and saw mountains up close and personal

It was a lot of fun.

The kids did well at the County Fair this year and Philomena will get to present her project at the State Fair this year. She gets to present on August 19 2010, so we will be at the State Fair on August 19, 2010

I have to work the State Fair on the last day August 22, 2010

Sarah did an excellent performance in her community play in Cedar Falls it was Joseph and the technicolor dream coat.  The signing camels were funny

the grass just keeps growing

It has been very hot lately, but finally we did have a small break in the heat and humidity

School is just around the corner hard to believe August is finally here.

we went down to Burlington on July 23, 2010 for Caroline's class reunion,

We are filling up on Harrington's sweet corn, they are out of Nashua IA

Some girl hit our car when Caroline went down to see Sarah's Play, it damaged the back bumper, she was pulling out of a parking spot and clipped our back bumper with her front bumper. It was our trailblazer

the Trailblazer will go in to get fixed in about a week

that is about it, so hopefully we will get into a pattern and post more regularly now

posted by Randy