Nature Walk

Today we decided to head to the East River Trail and go for a "nature walk". The boys had a good time. We didn't walk long...once we got into the forest-y part we ran into some mosquitoes.

Wesley, Eli, and Justus (above and below)

All the little nature walkers

Some nature we saw...other than mosquitoes!

Unfortunately, we didn't see any animals but we did see several birds including a trio of goldfinches. We heard a chickadee but didn't see it. I think it was Justus who recognized the call. We haven't seen (or heard) a chickadee in quite awhile. They were common at the old house but not so much here on Trotter Court.

After we finished the walk we had a snack and the boys played at the playground. They really enjoyed the merry-go-round. Those aren't a common toy on playgrounds anymore! Wesley was spinning around yelling: "This is AWESOME!". Hayden was a bit scared but toughed it out. We headed home a bit later to the usual "when can we come backs?"

First Grade

We started school this week. If you are interested in what books we are using...here are a few links:

The Well-Trained Mind--explains it all

• Math--Saxon 1
• Language/Grammar--First Language Lessons
• Reading--various books related to the history/science we are studying
  
• History--The Story of the World Volume 1: The Ancients along with The Story of the World Activity Book
• Spelling--Spelling Workout A
• Science--various books like the Kingfisher Animal Encyclopedia, Kingfisher Human Body, and Green Thumbs
• For the Twins: Letter of the Week
  

A New PBS

No, not the Public Broadcasting System...it's Paperback Swap! I have been hearing about this site for a while now but never gave it a try. Now that I'm on the lookout for an inexpensive source for good books to use for school I thought I'd join.

The great thing about PBS is...the books are all FREE! You list books you don't want and when someone requests your book you mail it to them (costs about $2 or so). For each book you send you get a credit to request one of your choice and the other person pays to ship it to you.

It's perfect if you want to...

• read books the library doesn't have...
• get books cheap...
• get rid of some books...
• reduce, reuse, and recycle...
  

When you list your first 10 books you get two free credits to give it a try. Then every time you send a book you get another credit. Jerry and I chose 12 books we didn't want anymore and listed them. Almost immediately we had 3 requests. I was shocked. Now these weren't bestsellers. They were an odd assortment of non-fiction and cookbooks. But most people, now us included, have a "wish list" of books and as soon as one of those books is listed you get an email.

If you love to read or if you have books sitting around collecting dust that you'll never read...this is for you! You get "new" books and get rid of ones you don't want anymore! The selection is awesome and changes constantly. Jerry and I had a great time putting books on our wish list! Now the real fun starts though...as we are shipping books and getting others in return.

You can also get credits for referring new members...so if you are interested and want to give it a try...click on the blue PaperBack Swap button on the lower part of the side bar on the left. (Below my reading list) Then we can get an extra book!! And if you have any questions let me know!

GGS Visits

Last week Jerry's dad (aka Grandpa/Pop Pop) was here visiting from Arizona. We put a little book together for Grandpa to bring back for Grandma Molly...a little something to remember us by!

Several years ago, Grandma Molly got the nickname of Grandma Gray Squirrel. We eventually shortened it to Grandma GS or sometimes the even shorter GGS. I was on the lookout for a little squirrel to use for our project. My mom spotted the perfect one at JoAnn's. We took several pictures of the kids with the squirrel and with the squirrel doing various things that Grandma likes to do when visiting.

At the end of the week, I went down to CVS and made a photo book. The book turned out really cute. We sent the book and the actual little squirrel back to Arizona with Grandpa. (Wonder what the luggage inspector thought of that!) We had a great time doing it and best of all Grandma Molly really enjoyed it! I didn't think to take any pictures of the actual book. But here are a few pictures of the kids and GGS:

Wesley chats with GGS

Hayden and Eli read with GGS

GGS watches the kids play

Rosalynn's 17th Birthday

Tuesday August 19, 2008

Here are a few pictures of the birthday girl on her 17th birthday. I was going to get an old baby photo to post here as well but I never got around to it. Oh well...there's always next year when she turns...oh my...EIGHTEEN!

Bay Beach

Monday August 18, 2008

We headed to Bay Beach with Grandpa (aka Pop Pop) to ride some rides. It was a bit warm but since we went early in the day it wasn't too bad. The lines were short which is always nice for impatient little people.

Roz came with us so she took Wesley to ride some of the bigger rides. Now that he has had a taste of the bigger rides he thinks the kid rides are "for little boys". It still freaks me out seeing him flinging through the air on those swings. For such a "big" boy he sure looks little up on those! Anyway, since he was off with Roz most of the time I didn't get any shots of him this time.

Here are a few pictures:

Justus and Hayden in the boats
(Eli is in the yellow boat in the background)

Eli's first trip down the slide with Dad
[Justus took a turn with me but Pop Pop
has that shot on his camera.]

Roz (not sure what that face is about!),
Jerry, and Hayden on the slide.

JD enjoyed Bay Beach by taking a nap!

A rough end to the week...

This is a photo of our fridge.

Do you think that:
a)Uh-oh, here comes a post on "How to Properly Clean a Fridge".
b)We are leaving on an extended vacation.
c)We have run out of money.
d)The fridge broke about 12 hours after I went shopping for this week.

If you chose "D" you are correct. I went on my grocery shopping trip for the week last night. At my house grocery shopping means 4 gallons of milk, tons of yogurt, cheese, fruit and various other items that need refrigeration. Not good.

I don't know what happened. It was working fine yesterday. And we didn't notice anything amiss at breakfast. But when lunch rolled around Jerry complained his yogurt was warm and sure enough...so was just about everything else. We tried everything we could think of but nothing made a difference. The strange thing is the freezer is working fine. Just the fridge is having issues.

Did I mention it's Saturday? Did you know no appliance repair places are open on Saturdays? So we have to wait until at least Monday morning to have this fixed.

So...we currently have most of our stuff at my grandma's in her fridge, a few items in a cooler full of ice, and a few items in a mini-fridge we had been saving for Roz to take to her dorm room next year. (My dad won it and I'm sorry to report I think it would do better if we flipped it on it's side and filled it with ice like a cooler. It was short notice and all so it didn't have time to really get cold before we threw stuff in there. It is cool in there but not fridge cold.)

Yesterday wasn't much better. We started out with a trip to Urgent Care for Wesley. During breakfast he had a sudden onset of severe abdominal pain. It was so bad he curled into a ball and wouldn't straighten up. He got pale and clammy and I thought for sure it was his appendix. But after an exam and x-ray it appears it was just severe cramping from being a bit "backed up". I had to give him a few over the counter medications to help him out.

Sweet boy that he is about had a fit when I told him I was going to buy the meds at Shopko Express. "But Mom, CVS is better and they have medicine too!" So true. He is such a smart kid! I'm glad he's been listening. But since I was charging it to the HSA and Shopko Express was a lot closer I just went with them instead. He felt better by lunch and was completely back to normal today.

Also this week, Jerry's back driver side window went down and would not go back up. As much as we needed the rain we were really glad it didn't rain while he was at work this week when it was stuck in the down position. And when it did finally rain last night the car was safe in the garage. Big John is going to come look at that tomorrow sometime. The good news...he can get it to close one way or another. The bad news...it might have to stay closed forever.

I am so behind on posts it's not even funny. So in the next few days you'll be seeing several out of order posts from last week...

Buster Bar Dessert

We had a party for the August birthdays here at our house yesterday. Instead of cake for dessert I decided to make this ice cream "cake". It's a great, cool summer dessert and always a big hit!Buster Bar Dessert

1 lb. chocolate sandwich cookies, crushed
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/2 gallon of ice cream, softened slightly
1 cup peanuts, chopped
1/2 cup butter or margarine
2/3 cup chocolate chips
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1 can (12 oz.) evaporated milk
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix crushed cookies and 1/2 cup butter or margarine. Pat into 9 x 13 " pan. Freeze for a few minutes to harden. Spread softened ice cream over top of cookies. Sprinkle peanuts over ice cream. Place in freezer. Mix 1/2 cup butter or margarine, sugar, chips and evaporated milk in a saucepan. Boil, stirring constantly, 5 to 8 minutes until thick. Cool and add vanilla. Once cool, pour over ice cream mixture. If it's not cool, it will melt the ice cream. Freeze. Remove from freezer a few minutes before serving (makes it easier to cut it).

Dancing

Hayden loves the movie Cars so when Roz borrowed the soundtrack from Carter last week he really enjoyed listening to it. He kept requesting the "race" song. His style of dancing was cracking me up so here is a video of it. He was so into his moves that he didn't even notice I was taping him. As an added bonus there is a short video of JD dancing too.

First JD:


Now Hayden:

Another great new baby gift!

I just keep finding all these cute baby gift ideas that I have to try! This one is quite easy and turned out really cute. I had been searching for some way to crochet an edge on a baby blanket when I came across some instructions on a blog.

Originally, I was thinking more of a thinner thread edge on a light blanket but that required equipment I didn't have. When I saw this it looked much easier and I didn't need anything special.

The Blanket Corner

I got it done in just a few days working on it here and there when I had a few minutes. Poking the holes took almost as long as the crocheting. I hadn't crocheted in awhile so it took me a few stitches to remember, but once I got going it went fast. You know what? I remembered I really enjoy crocheting! Once I was done I wished I had another little project to work on. So place your orders now....just kidding!

The Finished Blanket

Ready to give to New Baby Cooper!

Depending on the fabric you choose these wouldn't have to be a new baby gift. Fleece comes in so many patterns these days you could make one for anybody! If you want the pattern let me know! And if you don't know how to crochet and would like to learn. YouTube has a TON of videos showing you how to make each stitch! Wish that would have been around a few years ago when I taught myself from a good old fashioned library book!

Our New Cousin Cooper

Cooper Harold LeClair
Born August 6, 2008 at 5:28am
Weighing 7 lb. 10 oz.

I got a 2am wake up call this morning to head over to Abby's to watch the three kids while they headed to the hospital. Abby is fast like me...she left her house at 2:30 or so and little Cooper was here by 5:30! Momma and baby are doing great. I don't know if she'll be heading home tomorrow or Friday.

We took the boys up for a short visit this evening. They were really begging to go and Cooper was the word of the day at our house! They were very well behaved. As long as we were there, we stopped for a short visit at the NICU. We saw several of our favorite NICU nurses. The boys, except for Hayden, were pretty shy but they like to see where they were when they were born. And Justus, who loves any safety sign, has a field day asking what all the various hospital signs meant.

Congrats to Abby, John, Carter, Little John, and Morgan!!! And I'm off to bed!! :)

Electronic Helpers

I have been trying a couple new website services. Both help me keep track of things and save me money. And both are FREE.

The first is called Library Elf. I'm ashamed to admit that one of my un-frugal habits is overdue library book fines. Well...no more! Thanks to my new little Elf friend. I put in my library card number (and the rest of the family's too) and let Elf do the rest.

Elf will email you a few days before you have books due. Giving you time to either take them back or renew them. Then it keeps emailing you daily until you return the book. It also keeps track of all your holds and lets you know when they are ready. Most of the time even before the library calls. It keeps track of everyone's checked out items on one calendar/page. I've been using it since June and have not had one overdue book! That might be a record for me.

The second, I just found. It is Rebate Tracker. I have sent in a lot of rebates this year (about $70 so far not including Walgreens). I had just been keeping track of them in a spreadsheet. But the other day someone mentioned this site and I thought I'd give it a try. You put in your rebates and it will tell you how many rebates you have outstanding, from where, when they are due, etc. It will even tell your savings percentage. Even with factoring in postage my savings is 152%! That is because most of the things I send rebates in for were free to start out with.

I put in all my currently outstanding rebates. As I was doing this I realized two were long overdue (they show up in red on the list if they are "late"). I emailed one company to ask about my rebate and looked into the other and found that my rebate is coming, just late.

So two sites, one to keep me from wasting money on library fines and the other to make sure I get back money I already spent.