Ryan and Nancy

Wordless Wednesday

2012-01-25T08:09:00.003-05:00

Wordless Wednesday - the Saturday edition

2012-01-21T11:27:00.005-05:00

Wordless Wednesday - The snow hit

2012-01-18T09:02:00.005-05:00

Wordless Wednesday - This is January?

2012-01-11T09:15:00.000-05:00

Moving Advice

2012-01-10T21:09:00.006-05:00

We have moved all our stuff seven times since college using everything from friend’s pickups to professional movers. I am going to put up a few thoughts for those who are thinking of moving (long distances).

I admit I would prefer a professional mover, then ABF, then Penske, last would be using U-haul and or our own vehicle. (Though Ryan did buy a minivan just to move our fish and plants from St. Louis to Detroit.) Buying and selling a vehicle is a smart way to do it, but make sure your insurance is up to date.

Now for some advantages and disadvantages of each method.

1) Do it yourself – your vehicle with found boxes

· Cost – Gas, your time

· This works if you have only a little stuff like when we left college, or special stuff movers wont move for you. Putting a mattress on your roof and having your arm out is not a viable option in our minds.

· If something gets broke, it’s your fault.

2) Do it yourself U-Haul & found boxes

· Cost - $500 for the U-Haul including towing a car and then the cost of gas

· This is good if you don’t have a lot of cash and you don’t have a ton of stuff to move either. When we moved out of state we had more stuff that what their trucks could hold.

· Our experience with U-Haul is not good - in multiple cases, even with a reservation, they did not have what we wanted. We had to drive an additional 50 miles away and still pay the gas. If you are going to use a larger Uhaul truck just go to Penske or Budget, they bailed us out and had better trucks.

· When you use found boxes they are not all the same size. This is a problem when loading the truck. It is a mess enough to load, playing Tetris with many different size boxes is a pain. Equally sized boxes fill the space better.

· If something gets broke, it’s your fault.

3) Do it yourself Uline Boxes and ABF to drive the truck (Our chosen self move method (sans fish))

· Cost $359 for the Deluxe Moving kit and $1,400 for the truck driven by someone else

· Uline sells a moving kit with boxes that are strong and pack neatly to each other including wardrobe and dish boxs. Bubble wrap, newspaper, knife and tape are also in the kit. I recommend also getting a roll of shrink wrap to protect the edges of beds and couches, and to keep moving blankets wrapped around the furniture and dresser drawers closed. http://www.uline.com/bl_7907/Moving-Kits

· ABF drops off the trailer, you have two days to load, they drive the trailer to your destination and then you get two days to unload. ABF only charges for the space you use, extra space is used as parcel post or other comercial shipment space.

· They also offer services like help unloading the truck. Our last move was this way and it went very well. http://www.upack.com/

· Note that for all the above ways you will need moving blankets, lots of them. One for each chair, two for each larger piece of wood furniture. And more if it a really nice piece. We own 30 of these blankets and if we move again will rent at least another 24 to 36 of them.

· I recommend packing as many boxes as you can in the weeks leading up to the move. Then on truck filling day have two crews, one for the morning and one for the afternoon. Each of 5 to 6 people. The next day have a mop up crew of 3 to 4 to finish the job. Professionals take 12 hours to load a truck, you will not do it any faster. You will need two people in the truck Tetrising, and the rest bringing it out. Rope or strap your load as you fill, every 4 to 8 feet as you work back.

· If something gets broke, it’s your fault. If one of your helpers is doing a poor job stop them or give them the southern curse "bless his heart."

4) Professional Movers

· Cost $5,000 - $10,000 2 days to pack and load, a day to unpack.

· They take the things out of the kitchen cupboard for you, pack it and take it to your next place to unpack it, and set it all over the floor and cupboards etc. They make special boxes for artwork, fish tanks, marble tables etc. We have had 3 professional moves, and have learned a lot from them. We have even seen them pack our light bulbs. They use hundreds of moving blankets each time.

· They don’t know what is important to you. We had a piece of artwork severely damaged because they didn’t listen. You may still want to pack the important stuff yourself. The professionalism of each crew varies, we have had great but more often we have had movers who expect the insurance to catch their mess.

· If something gets broke, they pay for it because they packed it and they have insurance. But what is the dollar value of your daughters first ceramic bowl?

Most moves are a combination of these. Given the number of times we have moved, and have helped others move we are seasoned non-professionals who now have a pretty set opinion.

Trip to the Cabin

2012-01-02T22:47:00.000-05:00

This Christmas we spent 14 days in Freesoil Michigan at my inlaws cabin. Its a true cabin with an outhouse, gas lights and wood fire for heat.

We got 1 day of snow which is a good thing when you want to take lots of walks and when you have an outhouse.

We got to have Ryan's parents for a visit.

They got to be the guests.

Larry made a great breakfast of french toast one morning. He was teaching Lilly to crack eggs.

Lilly wanted to go out with anyone on their way to the outhouse. Anna was trying to convince me there was a "duck pond" behind the outhouse.

Ryan's Blackberry worked here.

Look at my angel in the wreath. He made it himself.

I love how the girls helped each other.

My baby!

The girls at the dinner table. You can see all our winter gear behind them.

Lois and Lilly coming back from the Hello Tree. They share the initials LKD.

Snow on the honeysuckle.

Lilly is sitting on the stump of the tree that fell this year at the cabin. Maybe it was 70 years old.

This is the tree we made. Ryan made the scaffolding, we found a green wool blanket and made ornaments from scraps bought at the local quilt shop. Yes there were presents under that tree too.

We read a ton of books including 5 Judy B. Jones. I found Anne's Bookstore in Manistee and I think I got 30 books there. And there was the Kindle Touch there too. I was glad not the have the Kindle Fire so that no one could watch movies on it but read books.

Where the wood was stored.

By the end Lilly could put her boots on alone. She would go anywhere so we had to keep an eye on her when she would blaze a trail in the woods.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-12-07T22:33:00.002-05:00

Wordless Wednesday - Thankful Thanksgiving

2011-11-30T21:43:00.002-05:00

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-16T23:02:00.006-05:00

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-12T14:45:00.001-05:00

Wordless Wednesday - With Words

2011-10-26T00:15:00.004-05:00

Wordless Wednesday

2011-10-19T22:19:00.000-05:00

Wordless Wednesday - Helping Daddy

2011-10-19T15:25:00.002-05:00

Wordless Wednesday

2011-10-12T13:14:00.002-05:00

Wordless Wednesday

2011-10-05T09:25:00.000-05:00

KinderGARDENS X is for Exciting

2011-10-03T13:14:00.008-05:00

We got to go out to our friends Rob and Tammy Faux of Genuine Faux Farm this weekend. We get our CSA from them that helps supplement our garden.

It was the catapulting of fetid fruit at chickens and turkeys festival.

The birds are organic so they need all the good food they can get.

It was wonderful to see a bunch of turkeys go nuts over a tomato hurtling toward them.

It was fun to hand out with carnivores, vegetarian and vegan and know we all enjoyed the great food from the Genuine Faux Farm CSA.

KinderGARDENS W is for Winter

2011-10-02T07:40:00.005-05:00

We keep getting frost advisories here.

It seems we are bundling up more.

Lilly even gets to wear her bibs when she goes out to help.

Every night before we tuck in the girls we tuck in the tomato plants (and our pepper crop of 2).

Its amazing what $8 at St. Vincent dePauls will get you.

After the first night with our own sheets we decided it was better to use something we didn't care if a chipmunk tore apart.

Since I have a ton of safety pins from quilting we use those to keeping the sheets together. It works better than rocks and easier to see too.

See the big hole? We are making a hotbed for the winter. We just need a yard of horse manure and we will put the dirt back. With some row cover the plants will stay warm and grow. Lettuce sounds good now.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-09-28T02:41:00.001-05:00

KinderGARDENS V is for Vines

2011-09-27T14:50:00.002-05:00

We are seeing how far our pumpkins can go from where we planted them. Right now they are further away than my 10 foot tape measure reaches. Ryan and Anna measured it at 26 feet today.

Our 24 inch tomatoes are taller than I am too.

I just hope the vines make it through the frost tonight. We have so many green tomatoes and I really don't know what to do with them.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-09-21T08:55:00.004-05:00

KinderGARDENS U is for Underground

2011-09-20T20:23:00.006-05:00

We know we have horrible soil. Where we didn't do anything this year to the soil we are planting daikon radishes. They grow big and break up the soil. You leave them in to rot and they add nutrients to the soil.

Ryan is also making a hot bed for broccoli and carrots over the winter. All we need is a yard of horse manure and he can make a layered bed. We

can plant and then put some kind of top on it. We will report back on how that works out.

We have also started saving seeds from our beans and tomatoes.

I got some currant tomatoes during the Decorah Digin this year so I crushed them, put them in water and now I wait a couple days for them to ferment. Then I scoop the bad ones off the top and dry the good ones for next year.

Wordless Wendesday - Farm Crawl

2011-09-14T07:13:00.004-05:00

KinderGARDENS T is for The End?

2011-09-08T13:45:00.007-05:00

Our cucumbers are slowing down to a crawl. We used to not be able to keep up with the 6 inch cucumbers coming off the vines and now we are hoping to get some 2 inchers to make some pickles before they completely die off.

Its getting cold at night here - about 42 degrees and the 70 during the day doesn't feel that warm. We had some rains and now the tomatoes are slow to turn red. Even the okra is slower at growing. I need to rejoice that we are getting to eat from our garden and have even canned a few things.

The funny thing is we are finally getting flowers on our purple beans and a few pepper plants. Now that seems a bit odd to me. Especially when we are picking the dried pintos and cow beans. Things behave differently in different beds, only a few feet from each other.

We tried the 3 sisters planting - corn, beans and squash and it didn't work. Only one squash came up and died. The beans strangled the corn and dragged it down. I think we grow beans because we can but I don't know if we really should.

This is what we Tuesday and no we are not growing purple head bands :)

Wordless Wednesday

2011-09-07T20:38:00.006-05:00

KinderGARDENS S is for Sunflower

2011-09-06T13:12:00.007-05:00

We planted a sunflower house twice.Here is what we learned:

Animals eat the seeds - we put up fencing
Sunflowers are heavy feeders - we planted in compost, next year we will use manure
6 inches is too far away - ours have small heads so they are not interfering with each other. It just didn't look right.

We did grow some beautiful flowers. I look forward to saving some seeds and eating the rest.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-08-31T13:05:00.002-05:00

KinderGARDENS R is for Roasted Cucumber

2011-08-25T21:02:00.011-05:00

We have a lot of cucumbers. Even with a case of wilt we still have a few left from our vines. You can see how sad our cucumber tree looks now. We also have some cucumbers from our CSA though Genuine Faux Farms.

Ryan and I went to Art House Cafe and talked with our friend Dan Ankrum, we needed ideas.

Ryan decided on his own creation - Cucumber Marinade

4 cups of skinned cubed cucumbers

1 large onion

Pealed bulb of garlic

Peach Honey

Canning salt

1) Grind to separate the water from the pulp, keep both.

2) Start reducing the water, put wet pulp in roaster pan (add back some water if too dry)

3) Cover with 1/4 to 1/2 cup of peach honey, and a table spoon of salt.

4) Roast pulp until browned on top, add to water and reduce.

5) Let cool, mix in blender, grind again to separate seeds from sauce (I covered the end of the grinder with a spoon to shove all the good liquid through and end up with a very dry pulp (seeds) that I threw out.)

6) Can the sauce into (12) 4 oz. jelly jars.

7) Water bath for 10 minutes.

8) Let jars sit in canner 5 minutes or your juice will get everywhere and you won’t seal well.

9) Take out and put on a towel for 24 hours. Don’t move the jars or tighten the rings as this may mess up the seal.

10) It is doesn’t set in 24 hours refrigerate and use in 3 weeks or reprocess with a new lid. Clean jars, label and store in a cool dark place for a year.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-08-24T20:41:00.002-05:00

KinderGARDENS Q is for Quantity

2011-08-23T14:22:00.009-05:00

Here is what is growing well:

Cucumbers - 4 batches of pickles and relish worth
Okra - Just starting to grow and they look good
Beans - Pinto and Cow which are drying out on the bush now
Corn that is trying to stand up under the weight of the beans
Tomatoes - lots of varieties weaving in and out of each other

Here is what did ok, meaning we harvested at least some tiny thing and ate it:

Onions - none bigger than a 50 cent bouncy ball
Garlic - small cloves this year
Lettuce - 1 of 3 plots produced
Beans - Purple and white which are strangling our corn
Paris Carrot - I ate one the size of a marble

Here is what came up but didn't do anything:

Chives
Rainbow Carrots
Parsnips

Here is what we know we planted but there are no signs of it now:

Peace Pipe
Leeks
Radish

KinderGARDENS P is for Pickles

2011-08-18T06:29:00.000-05:00

Now we are harvesting from our cucumber trees.

This year the first batch of dill pickle spears tasted great and were crunchy.

Last years were soggy, I think I picked my cucumbers too early. I am also using the Pickle Crisp from Ball.

Yesterday I made dill pickle slices, spears, bread and butter pickle spears, little pickles, slices and gallons of relish (5 pints). I actually had more juice than cucumbers so I quick picked every one an inch or longer

and pickled it.

I use my Grandmas recipe for relish which was from a 1930's Kerr canning

book.

You can tell I call her too much when she sent me two 1950's canning books on loan until canning season ends in

September.

Wordless Wendesday

2011-08-17T10:24:00.000-05:00

Wordless Wendesday

2011-08-10T09:09:00.000-05:00

Gold Bug

2011-08-09T07:03:00.008-05:00

We found a gold bug in our rain barrel. At first we thought it WAS gold bug but no it was just a gold bug.

We took it inside to get a better look at it, and in the process put in city tap water in his bowl. We no longer had a gold bug but now a green bug. Something in the tap water killed the Golden Tortoise Beetle and changes the color from gold to green.

Sorry we didn't get any pictures of it when it was gold but this is what it looked like when green.

KinderGARDENS O is for Organised - HA!

2011-08-09T01:26:00.000-05:00

We decided this year to do square foot gardening.

We thought everyone would stay in their space but it turned out to look more like a kindergarten classroom after snack time.

This is how it looked at on July 21st.

And here is it this morning:

I think it is escaping.

Watching kids is easy

2011-08-05T17:46:00.000-05:00

Nancy had to run out for some chores.

It should only take her an hour.

It is my turn to watch our kids.

Our highly active.

Demanding.

Bouncing off the walls all day.

Kids.

Lillian.

And Anna.

This is easy.

Wordless Wednesday - Sticky Situations

2011-08-03T12:39:00.004-05:00

KinderGARDENS N is for Natural

2011-08-01T18:38:00.007-05:00

This weeks assignment is colors in the garden. It would be easier to just keep dressing my girls in cute sun dresses than to find colors as we are still in the growing and blooming stages.

Basically everything is green. Green on the tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkins, basil, peppers, broccoli, okra, corn, carrots, onions. Lots of green stems, shoots, leaves and vines. We keep hoping for other colors as that means its time to eat what we are growing.

We do have white bean flowers on the pintos.
There are brown spots on the butterfly plant.
There are also white flowers on the amaranth leaf.
We do have some blue clover in the happy chicken garden.

Yellow in the flowers and black on this little bug on our cucumber.

The red of crimson clover in our happy chicken garden.
Purple in this butterfly flower.
Orange in our first tomato on its way to turning into something yummy.

KinderGARDENS M is for Mold

2011-07-28T09:32:00.005-05:00

This post isn't about that cool neon yellow mold. We haven't seen any of it in a few weeks.

We have 15 cherry tomato heart molds Snap n Shape. We put some on the tomatoes that grow big and they really are not keeping their shape once the molds are off. We need patience and when the right fruit is ready it will work. We tried it on a bean and it is growing in a spiral. The cucumbers are just not growing once the mold is on.
We are having much better results with Vegieforms and we even read the instructions.
The rectangles will be put in a salad when we visit my parents this weekend. Ryan took one to work and the guys had some interesting comments trying to figure out what that "engineer guy" did. I wonder if I will can square pickle slices this year...
Here is what it looks like in the form. We would have let it grow longer but we were going out of town and I didn't want it to rot. After all that work I don't want it ruined. Next time we will let them stay in the form longer.
Here are the faces and smiley one and a grumpy one. I think I will sneak a head under someones lettuce Friday night :)

Wordless Wednesday - Click on the images if you want what we have

2011-07-27T15:39:00.003-05:00

Dolls

Cucumber

KinderGARDENS L is for Lilly

2011-07-20T19:50:00.010-05:00

Anna has been at both sets of her grandparents these past weeks so its just Lilly and me in the garden in the mornings. Doesn't everyone have a garden fairy?

Lilly has a spot where she moves dirt, sand and sticks. This keeps her occupied and keeps her from sitting on tomato plants or petting the peppers.

This is after about 5 minutes after getting into the watering buckets and making mud pies.

We harvested our garlic and like Lilly they are tiny.

This is our sunflower house. Right now only two sides are growing and this is the second planting. I wonder if it will get over 3 feet. Ryan says next year the girls get a cucumber house since we know we can grow that.

Wordless Wendesday

2011-07-20T03:27:00.005-05:00

KinderGARDENS K is for Kitchen Creations

2011-07-18T07:17:00.009-05:00

There have been a lot of questions about where we got the molds to make heart tomatoes. We got them at Clean Air Gardening and they are Snap and Shape Tomato Molds for cherry sized tomatoes and peppers.

Having kids makes a great excuse to experiment in the garden.

The Snap and Shape forms look like this on the plant:

And they do this:

I also got some rectangle cucmber molds and face molds from Vegiforms. They are retired now but they still have some stock.

This head form usually goes on zucchini, small gourds and cucumbers. We are experimenting with a tomato because its what we had growing at the time :)

Wouldn't you like to put these tomatoes in your salad or hand your mom a cucumber with a face on it?

KinderGARDENS J is for Jack and the Cucumber Stalk

2011-07-17T15:40:00.006-05:00

Us girls and mom were away and we came back to daddy's newest contraption a tree for the cucumbers to climb. It consists of 3 pieces of conduit and a little girls bike tire rim. They are hammered into the ground with twine hanging from the rim for the cucumbers to climb.
This is a set of 4 plants going up a 7 foot tall stick.

This is how they look from the gate.

From the fence up top.

Cucumber wannabe...

KinderGARDENS I is for Itty Bitty

2011-07-14T21:19:00.008-05:00

First we start with an itty bitty farmer named Lilly.

Then we try molding an itty bitty tomato into a face for fun.
... add an itty bitty yellow cherry tomato heart too.
and a future cucumber.
What kind of itty bitty beans will these be?

Wordless Wendesday

2011-07-13T09:31:00.006-05:00

KinderGARDENS H is for Help

2011-07-07T21:17:00.001-05:00

Even though we are following the Squarefoot gardening book we do go out to water every day in this hot weather. We replanted the sunflower house. This time we used chicken wire and compost. They seem to be growing on 2 sides.

Anna helps by grabbing some basil for our dinner.

Lilly helps by not pulling out any plants or markers... most of the time. She did sit on a tomato plant yesterday.

Daddy helps in watering and engineering projects.

Wordless Wendesday

2011-07-07T11:32:00.003-05:00

KinderGARDENS G is for Gross

2011-06-30T09:27:00.001-05:00

I have girls and I am amazed that girls can be gross. These are mud pies made out of garden soil.

The composter is dirt in progress. Anna is willing to water it if she gets the hose.

An interesting mold that just shows up in the garden and then ...

the next day looks like this.

Wordless Wednesday - Summer Work

2011-06-29T19:15:00.003-05:00

KinderGARDENS F is for Flowers

2011-06-28T18:23:00.000-05:00

Can you see the lightening bug?

We ordered the Happy Chicken Garden for a dead space in our front yard. It is a place where last year we tossed hostas. We don't have chickens, we are raising kids instead.

This spring we regraded the land to get the water away from the house and put in the seeds.

Once we noticed it was a major path for kids we made stepping stones. Now Anna and Lilly love to play in it. Anna races her friends. Lilly eats the dirt and likes to sit on the stone with her name on it.

KinderGARDENS E is for Eating

2011-06-27T18:08:00.000-05:00

We were having noodles for lunch and Anna had a great idea. She came back with some scapes and a few basil leaves. I cut them up and she sprinkled them. We had a good meal from our garden.

KinderGARDENS D is for Digital Pictures

2011-06-25T17:51:00.006-05:00

I handed Anna the camera this morning and said "Take pictures of what you like in the garden."

"Anna turn the camera around."

Anna loves to eat the scapes right out of the garden. These are the flowers off of garlic. This stuff is potent but she loves them and Lilly likes to eat the flowers too.
We had to put a limit on how many basil leaves Anna eats in a day, she loves them.

This is a butterfly plant that will hopefully get us some butterfly's when it blooms.
These are some rainbow carrots. Last year they didn't come up so she is excited to see and eat them later in the season. When we go to the farmers market she always asks "Are your carrots ready?"

Wordless Wendesday

2011-06-22T10:25:00.003-05:00

KinderGARDENS C is for Community Gardens

2011-06-16T06:43:00.001-05:00

Our church Prairie Lakes asked permission to use some land to make a garden for the House of Hope, Boys and Girls Club and other places that serve people in Waterloo.

Tomatoes, onions, peppers and beans are planted and growing well there.

There are 7 beds and 2 were empty on Monday. Lilly and I headed out with my bag of seeds and a mission - Squash!

We raked the weeds out of one bed, made lines to plant our mounts and did some planting. Cantaloupe, yellow and green squash, cucumbers, and butternut squash are what we put in the ground.

We came back Tuesday and the other plot was planted - I just wish I knew what it was.

Lilly could handle one bed and then needed to go to bed.

Wordless Wednesday - Beds

2011-06-15T21:42:00.003-05:00

Wordless Wendesday

2011-06-08T16:34:00.002-05:00

KinderGARDENS B for Bury

2011-06-03T16:11:00.007-05:00

First you bury the seeds.

Then you add water.

Then some animal comes by and decides to check what you buried and eat it.

What ever it is it really liked going after Anna's peas and sugar pumpkins. Then it went after the cucumbers. Next on its list were our little snapdragon sprouts. We put screen over the peas after they were dug up 3 times.

Any suggestions on varmint removal? Lilly only likes to eat the dirt so it isn't her.

KinderGARDENS A is for Animal Grasses

2011-05-25T09:07:00.007-05:00

Right now in Anna's Squares Bunny Tail Grass and Cat Grass are growing. The rest is going a little slow. Maybe these 2 days of rain will help.

Anna and I also planted her sunflower house last weekend. You can see where the sticks are is where its outline is.

Wordless Wendesday

2011-05-25T08:58:00.003-05:00

Wordless Wednesday - Random Work Pictures

2011-05-18T13:17:00.003-05:00

Planting Anna's Garden

2011-05-16T21:08:00.007-05:00

Anna gets to have 9 squares in our garden.

She and I planted while Lilly told us how to do it. I helped Anna figure out how close the seeds should be.

Anna's seed list:

Bunny Tail Grass

Cat Grass

Snow Peas

Cosmos (2 squares)

Snap Dragons

Rainbow Carrots

Chives

Butterfly flowers

Nasturtium

Zinnia

Anna is so overjoyed to water them, I just have to help her know when to stop.

The back row is perfect for climbing things so we get to put some cucumbers, tomatoes and maybe sugar pumpkins there.

I told our neighbor that a pumkin may be poking though our fence. He said if there was a pumpkin on his side he would see if he could grow it in a bottle or a cube. I look forward to seeing if that works.

Wordless Wednesday - While the cat is away the mice will play or how did I get dirt there?

2011-05-11T20:56:00.000-05:00

How to make Compost

2011-05-07T07:02:00.009-05:00

Step #1 Feed Baby fruits and veggies.

Step #2 Clean up after Baby and put it into the kitchen counter composter.

Step #3 Put in outside composter and stir. When it looks like dirt it is dirt.

Short Cut

Step #1 Go to your towns grass clipping and wood drop off site with 4 five gallon buckets and shovel.

Step #2 Shovel and take it home.

KinderGARDENS 2011

2011-05-07T06:43:00.009-05:00

The Inadvertent Farmer is linking a bunch of us who are gardening with kids so that we can learn from each other and share our crazy ideas. Its called KinderGARDENS 2011 the link is to your right on our page. We will try to keep up with a post a week on what Anna and Lilly are doing in the garden.

This year Anna is getting her own square foot garden. Anna's I think will have more flowers and cool looking plants than our garden. She was excited to see the purple pole bean pack I have. She is my bean addict. Lilly is still in the eating dirt phase so I think she will watch the garden more than be in it this year.

Anna got 2 butterfly plants at the cattle congress this weekend for her garden.

This is our second year in this garden low in the ground. I have been growing food since I was a kid. Last year Anna helped with the picking of the beans, tomatoes and cucumbers. She also helped me with the canning of them.

We are also planning a sunflower house. Its where you plant sunflowers in a square about 4x4 or 6x6 and leave room for a door. Then when the flowers are 5 foot tall start training them to a center point that is tied together. This will give Anna and her neighbor friends a place to hide and play.

We are all excited to try the square food gardening and the sunflower house this year.

Digging

2011-05-05T08:53:00.011-05:00

We have a leaky basement and the cheaper way to fix it is to get the water away from the house. I got to get 100 feet of pipe and we grabbed our shovels on Saturday. Lilly was sleeping and Anna had the camera.

This is the third house we have moved the downspout on and this time we sent it all the way to the curb.

I think the worst part was getting it under the sidewalk.

wordy wednesday

2011-04-27T22:53:00.000-05:00

Nancy lost one of her diamond earrings today.

While she was adding compost to her square foot garden.

And mixing in the compost.

First I thought like a miner and used our driveway like a sluice table and water from a hose on the 5 gallons of most promising dirt that she thought held the earring.

It did not.

I then moved on to stage two, archeology, slowly brushing away dirt in the square foot garden.

Brushing dirt away.

Brushing away well composted dirt.

Brushing away not yet composted leaves.

Brushing away vermiculite each grain the size of a diamond earring.

I found a worm.

I had to pick up and move the not yet compost from horses that would not brush away.

But I could brush away the peat moss.

And pick up sticks.

Then I stopped.

I struck gold. White gold. And a diamond.

A fun hour of playing that got me a very nice back rub from my no longer a pirate.

Wordless Wendesday

2011-04-20T12:31:00.000-05:00

Wordless Wednesday - Whats your caption?

2011-04-12T21:46:00.003-05:00

Wordless Wednesday - Ryan's Artwork

2011-04-07T10:45:00.002-05:00

Wordless Wednesday Part 1yr Old

2011-03-23T19:51:00.000-05:00

Wordless Wendesday

2011-03-23T13:30:00.002-05:00

Minitrip

2011-03-19T22:00:00.001-05:00

Friday I took off work and Nancy and I took the girls on a slow drive east and north. We enjoyed Heartland Acres, had lunch in Strawberry Point, walked McGregor, celebrating the birthday of a cat. We smelled too much at the fish place. We found a hotel, and then dinner where we were scared by polka music & octogenarian dancers. We hid in the cafe and still had a wonderful time at my first salad bar that had more kinds of cheeses on it than vegetables.

Saturday found us driving to LaCrosse via the slow road, then home again.

In a short two days we had a restful fun vacation that included too much driving and just enough fun, conversation, and sleep.

Wordless Wendesday - Life Sized Lilly

2011-03-16T08:31:00.002-05:00

Computer's New Table

2011-03-14T14:56:00.022-05:00

At Christmas Ryan brought home Computer, his Beta in a pitcher with a phelodendrin on top. We were going out of town and Computer needed a babysitter. Computer never made it back to work. He is a now working at home. We found he likes it warm so we put him on a table that Ryan made in High School shop class. That table used to be used in our living room. It was the table that got moved around all over for holding cups, food, books, and computers by the couches.

One Saturday Ryan said he needed a table for his computer because Computer was using his table. He found a set of legs he took out of a neighbors trash 3 years ago. He grabbed some 1x4's & plywood from some past project and he and Anna set out to work.

They figured out how to make the sides work with the legs and sanded the top to make it smooth. Next came to painting. First, several layers of blue paint on the top and sides. Then the legs were sanded and painted black along with the rest of the table.

Now this table made out of trash is a treasure in our living room. It works great to hold mugs of cocoa, a computer, books, Junior Monopoly, and cribbage. I have also found that it blocks Lilly from crawling to the stereo and is a tunnel for Anna.

Sugar Season

2011-03-05T22:14:00.000-05:00

I love maple syrup. I grew up with six maple trees in my yard and I never taped them and boiled the sap down.

The next best thing is to visit a nature center, or farmstand, and have them do the tapping and boiling. This weekend is Hartman Reserves fundraiser, a pancake & maple syrup fundraiser.

I have been looking forward to going all week.

To taking Nancy and the girls.

Nancy did not feel good.

To taking the girls.

Anna did not feel good.

To taking the baby.

Lillian and I enjoyed visiting and she was entertained during the hour long wait by twin nine month old boys (one also in a Moby) in front of us.

A nice grandma gave me wipes to clean up with, and got Lillian more pancakes after she devoured (dropped in my lap) her first silver dollars so quickly. And I had devoured mine.

Lillian ate three silver dollars lightly coated with syrup, and mashed around four more.

I ate six big pancakes all so completely saturated with syrup that I did not feel good for four hours afterwards.

First Daddy Daughter Outing with Lillian completed.

Girls

2011-03-03T13:32:00.004-05:00

I have daughters. I had a brother growing up so I don't remember being too prissy or dressed up but it is so fun to play dress up with Anna and Lillian.

On Sunday we were not going to turn on a TV or a computer so we spend TIME with each other.

Anna wanted every barrette in her hair and then she started dolling up Lillian.

I made sure they each had tutu's and fun. I love my girls. They had to take off the tutu's before church and maybe 40 barrettes but they were still so cute.

Its a lot cheeper now to do this than when they are in high school at its a prom dress.

Wordless Wendesday

2011-02-23T12:34:00.001-05:00

Granola Bars

2011-01-26T11:56:00.004-05:00

Sorry for the delay. Below is the recipe I have done the way I did it. It is very hard for me to adherer to any recipe, I am a scientist by heart.

1 Cup Brown Sugar

2/3 Cup Peanut Butter

1/2 Cup Corn Syrup

1/2 Cup Melted Butter

2 teaspoons Vanilla

Combine and add

3 Cups Oats - I like Quaker

1/2 Cup Craisins

1/3 Cup Wheat Germ

2 Teaspoons Sesame Seeds

1 Cup of a chocolate chip mix (Butter Scotch, Vanilla and Chocolate)

1 Cup Rice Chrispies

Other suggested add-ins

1/2 Cup Raisins

1/2 Cup Coconut

1/2 Cup Sunflower Seeds

Mix everything.

Use a 9 x 13 pan which I have sprayed with cooking spray. Put it in the pan and press down. This makes the bar stiff like the ones we buy.

Bake at 350 F for 25 minutes.

Cut while hot, its much easier than sawing later. Let them harden and then I put them in snack sized bags.

Other suggested add-ins

1/2 Cup Raisins

1/2 Cup Coconut

1/2 Cup Sunflower Seeds

Fruit Leather and Granola Bars

2011-01-24T10:49:00.011-05:00

I canned 40 quarts of apple sauce and got tired of just eating it out of the jar.

Searching the Internet I found a recipe.

Any pointers are made because I found out what not to do.

This the batch I started at 8am with 2 quarts between the 3 pans. This is after 3 hours in a barely turned on oven, less than 200 degrees. My plastic wrap fell over so you see the results of the not dried edges. I rolled them over so they should be ok in a couple hours.

Anna helped me get these in before school. I asked if she wanted some apple sauce in her lunch and she said she preferred hers roasted.

Take a jelly roll pan - cookie pan with slight edges. I just picked up a 3 pack of Wilton ones at Joann's for $7 with my 50% off coupon. Make sure its completely dry or the wrap will melt to the pan.
Line it with a piece of plastic wrap. Trim edges so they don't burn on the rack or edges of the oven. You get smoke if you don't and a bad smell.
Pour in a jar of apple sauce 1/8 inch deep. You can mix in a blender other fruits too. If the plastic folds over that part may not ever dry.
Put in oven at warm - less than 200 F for 6-8 hours. If its too think you will never dry out the underside. Too thin and you burn.
When the fruit leather is ready, you can easily peel it up from the plastic wrap. Cut in strips with a pizza cutter. I cut them into tiny pieces and Lilly likes to eat them. To store it, roll it in its plastic wrap, put it in an airtight container. I put them in a zip lock bag. You can wrap them singularly for lunches too.

Tomorrow I will be making and posting about granola bars. I need the pans i am using on the leather. I also need the oven twice as hot which would burn the fruit right now.

Cooking Together

2011-01-18T18:40:00.000-05:00

I guess this could be titled cooking together. Or should it be why servants should wash their feet.

Our kitchen was designed for tall people, Nancy has trouble reaching items in the upper cabinets and is not above standing on a chair or using a spatula to knock something down. Anna has figured out her own method of plate retrieval.

We do not encourage her to sit on tables, backs of chairs, etc... but we do encourage getting jobs done with quality and safety.

Update for January

2011-01-07T11:13:00.009-05:00

Anna turned 6 on 28th of December. Her and Daddy made a Lego Brick with 2 containers of frosting.

Anna is on the horse saddle at Texas Road House for a belated 6th Birthday. Yes, she is wearing her cat costume. She loved having people scream YeHaw. Anna turned 6 on December

Lilly is eating her carrots because steak is too hard, she only has 2 teeth out and her eye teeth are on the way.

Artwork with a Hand Sander

2010-12-16T18:10:00.005-05:00

Ryan is getting back to his crayon art work. This time its not on butcher block paper but on wood. He is experimenting with using a hand sander to get the crayon on and melting it. He amazes me with his creativity.

when to grill

2010-12-12T19:00:00.000-05:00

Winter storm warning, 0 degrees, wind chill down to 30 below. Option 1, call for delivery. Option 2,

grill. We called for delivery yesterday when it was just freezing rain.

Nancy also decided to grill last year on the coldest snowiest day of the year. We also did delivery then too. I chalked that time up to her being pregnant.

This time Nancy marinated eight venison steaks because we were planning on a party that has been postponed. Rather than throw the raw meat back in the freezer we thought it was better to cook them first. So yes I encouraged the grilling.

15 Two 15 Four

2010-12-05T14:36:00.000-05:00

This one is for the grandparents. Anna is learning all about adding to 31, taking turns, and not folding cards. She also says we need to turn up the heat in the house.

Kitchen Sink Cookies

2010-12-02T09:52:00.007-05:00

This one is a twist on the old Quaker Oats recipe I got from my Grandma Voit :)

1 stick butter
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
2 1/2 cups quick oats
1 cup craisins
1 cup butterscotch chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Beat the butters and sugars together. Then mix in the eggs and vanilla.
Use the mixer to mix the dry ingredients except the chips and the craisins with the wet ingredients.
Add the chips and craisins, stirring with a strong wooden spoon.
Use a small scoop or a spoon to shape the ball and put it on a greased cookie sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes.
Let the cookies sit on the sheet 1-2 minutes and then put on newspaper to cool completely.

Our Financial Plan

2010-11-17T21:33:00.000-05:00

I am so frugal with my money that even though I won a gift certificate for CSN.com from Michelle Wegner I am having trouble spending it. (it is cool that CSN's banner add showed pictures of things I had looked at at their site the day before.)

It has been one year since we have taken the Dave Ramsey financial peace class. Four years since we have become debt free. Ten years since we started paying down our debts faster than the minimum payments. We have used Quicken, MS money, Donor Manager, Dave Ramsey's software, Dave's paper forms, Crown Financial's software, and Crown's paper forms. Since January we have been using a simple one page paper budget each month with good success. A second quarterly paper form tracks our funds and investing. There is one other form, which we have not used since 2006, tracked how much debt we had, principle, interest, and number of payments remaining. Each of these forms are in excel, printable and readable on one page.

Having done the DR baby steps and now being on 3B (save for 20% down on a house) there are some changes I would make to it. Note I am stealing 99.9% of this from a post by Jason (gatherer) posted on YNAB discussion site at the bottom of the page.

0. Get term life insurance 5x your annual income if you are married, optional if single or its complicated.
1. Live on last months income, make it last month spend it this month. This is going to be larger than the 1000 Dave said to put in this category and plan your spending over the month so you never have less than 1000 in the bank. This is a baby emergency fund and simplifies your spending plan if making different amounts each month. That bring me to:
2. Have a spending plan. Each month write a new one, call it a budget or a pain or Evil Aunt Matilda just know that once you set this plan it rules you. This is where Nancy and I fail. a) we plan too much into savings and don't have enough in spending. b) i will want something that was not planned and we will get it that instant. Nancy is smart, while our rent, phone, tithe, giving, internet go out by EFT our grocery, gifts, eating out, baby sitting, entertainment, auto, and allowances are in cash taken out on the 1st and 15th of each month. Car repair and insurance are also checking based. Spend nothing on things you want, as little on things you need and as much as possible on:
3. pay down debt except the house. Every single debt. Use Dave Ramsey's debt snowball.
4. Boost your term life insurance to ten times your annual income, the end of the term should be about the same time you plan to retire.
5. Six month emergency fund. What you spend for six months now, not what would last six months if you cancel the cable, phone and only eat spam and your front lawn. In a long drawn out emergency, such as a job loss, you should be only use about 1/5th of this fund before you have an income again, any income. This is again where I failed, loose engineering job, go get second shift pizza delivery or UPS job and look for new engineering job.

Ok those were steps done only one at a time. Now for the ones that you can do combined.

6. Create sinking funds. For example once each year we get hit with bills for life insurance, car insurance and stuff insurance. They total $3000 so each month we set aside $500 for those bills. We drive two cars over 12 years old so we put $400 into savings for our next car. We want a house so I want $1000 each month into the house fund. (again a lie we cash flow the insurance, and the car & house is one fund.)
7. 15% of your pretax income to retirement. I do a Roth 401k that my work matches. They are invested in the 4 mutual fund types Mr Ramsey recommends, that is what I recommend too. I have also rolled my pension and old 401Ks into IRA's (most are Roth because in 2006 I had no income so the tax hit was not bad for me. One fund is not because the phone jockey at Fidelity did not do what I asked...) Use a local person, someone you are willing to deal with long term, who listens to what you want. Fire them if they are telling you what to do and you don't understand what they want. You need to learn about investing to pass this step.
8. Help out the kids for college. Tell them to plan on two years at a community college, and three at a university after that those kids are on their own. Hopefully you taught them #0-5 by now.
9. build sinking fund accounts into super-fund accounts... "these are accounts where if you need a car you take the interest you've earned off this money and go get one. these are accounts where you don't drain them to 0 like the sinking fund accounts. replace sinking fund accounts with this type of account - can use a snowball method to get this happening ..." -Jason (gatherer)
10. pay off the mortgage. OK I don't even own a house. Renting is good. I owned two houses and spent so much fixing them up even when they did not need it. Being a renter means that we pay $1000 a month and that is it. I have a great landlord he paid for the materials for the fixing up projects I did here. Mortgage is debt and debt is dumb so get rid of it.
11. retire wealthy. Be reasonable, if you find yourself with insane amounts of money you need to:
12. give give give. Because really that is the goal goal goal of doing this whole thing for me.

Saving for a pillow pet

2010-10-28T06:28:00.005-05:00

Anna has been saving for a Unicorn Pillow Pet. She saw it on TV and it stuck.

When I knew this one wasn't leaving her brain I made a chart for her to see how close she was to getting it and every 2-3 weeks we would do a total. She would color up to the line and we would talk about chores.

She earns:

0.10 for emptying the dishwasher silverware

0.25 for organizing the shoes in the closet

0.02 per nail we can cut (this is to discourage fingernail biting)

There are other jobs. We just want her to feel the work that goes into getting her valued stuff. I give her extra when I feel she did a really good job.

Her friend next door came back on a Saturday with hers. She got it from being good. Anna looked like she would cry. Her words were "Mom. When I have the money can you make sure the store has them?"

I made sure, I called all the stores in town and one did have it once that pig was good and fat.

Anna is sleeping on Nay Nay right now . I am a very proud mommy.

Now she wants to save up for Samaritan's Purse shoe boxes because there are kids out there with no toys or Christmas.

Just add meat

2010-09-15T09:23:00.003-05:00

Todays harvest are some cherry tomatoes, black green beans and some calypso beans. Just add meat and you have a single serving of chili.

I admit I ate 4 of the cherries on my way inside. Needed the nutrients to make it 20 feet from the plants to my door.

Anna is in Kindergarden

2010-09-05T19:25:00.004-05:00

Anna is now in her 3rd year of school and she is 5.5 years old.

Year 1 - PreK at St. Andrews in Little Mount India with Mrs. Ursha

Year 2 - Preschool at Small Wonders in Waterloo Iowa with Mrs. Kirby

Year 3 - Kindergarten at Kingsley with Mrs Anderson

I am grateful that Anna gets to be active and educated all day with Mrs Anderson. That gives me time to rest and spend some time Lilly :) I pray that she will be educated on mathematics and English and kept away from swearing, fads and just trying to be like every other kid. She is a unique individual and still very impressionable. I want to keep my baby safe like all other moms.

Decorah DigIN

2010-08-21T20:18:00.000-05:00

We spent the day touring farms and sustainable homes and farms around the Decorah Iowa Area. I have a even greater respect for those out there that are making a living by providing us with organic food.

Thank You.

And thank you even more to those of you that take time out of your busy schedule to tell all of us about what you do via your blogs and Facebook posts.

In a pickle

2010-08-16T12:04:00.004-05:00

Anna and I canned pickles today. She helped plant, pick and cut them. I am very proud of my five year old.

She says our tomatoes will be next.

Family Pictures

2010-07-10T14:41:00.009-05:00

We took the opportunity to have some family pictures taken of us. Sadly it was an overly sunny day with high winds so most of the pictures are squinting with windblown hair.

We also all picked up a touch of poison ivy, Anna must have gotten it on her hands when she picked some flowers and given it to Lillian on her face, who gave it to mom's arm and chest, who gave it to dad's arm. Not a lot of blistering, just enough to be annoying. Lillian is too young to scratch, and the rest of us did our best not to scratch and it was gone in two weeks.

It did take a while for Anna to warm up to the camera and photographer. But Lillian was good for a smile from the get-go.

A fun afternoon for us. Followed by dinner at Zippys.

All photos by Faith Knepp http://www.enjoythemomentphoto.blogspot.com/

Our Garden and Scapes

2010-06-10T06:38:00.008-05:00

What is a scape? Green garlic, the stalk of the flower to a bulb of garlic.

This year we are growing a garden, a huge one! Anna and I planted garlic cloves last year. Its coming up and about to flower. You have to cut off the flower or all the energy of the plant goes into the flower and not the garlic underground.

I made asparagus soup last night with the scapes from our garden. I added chives and spring onions, all from Iowa farmers markets.

Crafts on Saturday

2010-05-08T15:59:00.007-05:00

Lowes has a wonderful method to figure out what kind of parent you are, and what kind of child you have.

From several weeks of projects there are:

1) Parents that yell at kids while kids do project.

2) Parents who do the project for the kids.

3) Kids who stomp off.

4) Parents who stomp off.

5) Parents and children who have extreme patience with each other and can finish a project together.

Add to the high possibility of not putting the project together correctly will add even more frustration. These projects are not easy, for being simples 3d puzzles with predrilled nail holes. Nancy and I are good about having Anna be the one to nail the parts together. And if possible get the part and put it in the right spot. Sometimes this is not easy for me to figure out.

It is easy to get distracted by all the other kids and parents, some no longer on their best behavior. I am still amazed how much patience I have. Anna only hit my finger once with the hammer. We got the project together and Nancy was given a $10 off $50 coupon. It was great to have my parents there to watch :)

We found two other families we knew there. Peggy had three of her grandkids there. I helped 3 year old Lilly put hers together but she much preferred working with her grandma. :) My feelings were not hurt by that. We also saw Mia and her mom just starting their project as we were leaving.

As these projects are free, as well as an easy challenge this is a good way to spend a Saturday morning with your child. Way to go Lowes (and Home Depot) for offering these projects!

Names

2010-04-06T19:07:00.005-05:00

One of the biggest challenges of life is naming someone.

Names have so much meaning. And we only get to choose one, I guess we could string together several but in our culture that is not common.

How did we name our children?

We start with lots of prayer. Then Nancy and I have lots of discussion, reading names in the credits of TV shows and movies, blurting out names, perusing websites, books and listening to friends and strangers. Then we keep praying. And we start comparing names. For example Anna vs Emily, no Em wont work because that is a cousins name... Anna vs Dutch, no we are not naming our child after the cat. Not the cat, Ronald Regan one of the greatest presidents this nation has had. ... this goes on for nine months or more. Yes we are looking for names that tie back to our surname and could reasonably be given to someone born in Netherlands but Dutch is just not going to work.

If there is a name we like we will research it on the internet... learning that the majority of girl names out there mean grace. And most baby name websites are more about the adds on the side than the quality of the information about the names. They all give the same limited information. And for some reason think I want my child's name to be associated with some Hollywood starlet of questionable values.

With Anna we prayed, and Nancy had a dream that that is what the name of our child is. The Biblical reference of Anna in the temple greeting baby Jesus with celebration is a comforting added touch.

Lillian was much harder, no dreams or visions of what to name her. The choice was on us. And while we can give a child any nickname the real name should be solid and good. Contrary to what we say when you ask us what we are going to name our next child, we like traditional names. We want a name that could be in the Freakonomics 2015 list. So why Lillian? 1) We enjoy garden ponds. 2) It is old fashion, yet somewhat popular. 3) It has variations, Lil, Lilly, Le-an. 4) we could not think of anything better. Most websites state that Lillian is a variation of Lilly and Ann. or Flower and Grace. Graceful Flower. One website said the name came from Elizabeth. Ellie. Lilly. My God is and oath.

My God is an oath is a much better biblical reference than consider the Lillies. When I pray while holding Lilly I know that she is and will be my comfort.

The neat thing about our culture is we also have middle names so we have some method of emphasizing our disappointment in our children. Or if the unfortunate event they are one of the few sick souls that have attacked a US president. A common theme in our family is that the middle names start with a K. Anna has Kathryn, an unused spelling of a very common name up both family trees. The ryn is a play on my name. But Lillian, her middle names starts with K, ends with K and is only one character long. Yes Lilly I hate to break it to you but you do not have a middle name you have a middle initial. This is just like your mom, she has a K. Your mom is adamant that it is K. K PERIOD. So technically you do have a two character middle name.

What does the K. stand for? Well we like ponds, it could be Koi. It could be so many other things. But no Lilly K. does not mean anything. In math K means 1000 which is pretty close to infinity which is pretty close to everything. So my little Lilly when people ask you tell them that K. means everything.

Lillian K.

2010-03-22T18:59:00.002-05:00

Lillian K. DeVries

8lb 1.5oz

20.5inches

1000 Things Update

2010-03-10T19:25:00.003-05:00

In 2009 I only worked part of the year, as a result we cut back on our giving. Usually we are above the standard deduction for giving, not so in 2009 and it looked like the value of our 1000 things would not get us there. Being so thrifty weNancy just took things weshe did not want and put them in a box in the basement under the stairs waiting for 2010.

I think there are more than a 1000 things under the stairs now that I added the 4 things I don't want.

Now that 2010 is upon us weNancy is entering into DeductionPro, that wonderful sister program found with H&R TaxCut. This helps to assign a realistic value to all our wonderful gifts to charity so we can get an accurate tax write off.

Nancy has entered in about 150 items so far. Lo and behold DeductionPro is helping us get there! Lets go through an example. Shirt, thrift store value $1.00. Save file. Open file. Shirts $5.00 total. Save file. Open File. Shirts $25.00 total. Save File. Open File. Shirts $125.00 total. Nancy called the help desk and was able to figure out a work around before the person at the other end could even understand what was going wrong. No it is not PEBKAC. For some reason if anything is donated and assigned to the other category there will be five of them if that file is reopened. Open and close the file again and there will be 25 of that item. All other categories are fine and stay correct, there are issues with other. The work around is once you save and close a file, never reopen it.

A file is supposed to represent everything given to a specific charity on a specific day. Our plan was to catalog everything thus far and then call St. Vincent and have them pick the stuff up. New plan is to tell the software we are donating each day then when it is all documented call St. Vincent and have them take our many days of donations away in one day.

Late breaking news! Nancy just found another solution. Use her computer instead of mine.

Baby Update

2010-03-08T13:08:00.003-05:00

The update is that the baby is still on the inside. Nothing is happening, no contractions and the Doctor doesn't think I will go into labor. Normally they would go for a C-Section at 39 weeks but thankfully Dr. O is on vacation.

Who:
Baby DeVries - we don't know if its a boy or girl yet

Where:
Convant Medical Hospital
3rd Floor
441 East San Marnan Drive
Waterloo, IA 50702

319-272-5626

When:
3:30 pm on March 22nd

What:
C-section

Why:
Because its too comfy for a baby to stay in me :)

Saying Goodbye

2010-02-27T09:19:00.004-05:00

I wish we did not have to say goodbye,

even though I know it is for the best.

I think about the times we shared and cry,

you never acted like I was a guest.

Remember the time we found the bird's nest?

We thought about the birds all afternoon,

until they flew around and became pests.

Then there was the time we found the balloon,

the colors on it were white and maroon.

We wanted to split the balloon in half,

But all it did was fly up to the moon.

Remember the time we just sat and laughed?

I am going to miss you my dear friend,

even though I know this is not the end.

-Angie A.

October 1992, 6th hour English with Mrs. Magennis

(I also have the poems of Kerri V., Erin D., Amy R., Kirsten W., Denise W., Jim G., Jennifer C., Creager, Tim H., Kari B., Kerrie L., Scott B., Ryan B., Audra B., Steve S., Darrell D., Scott T., and a Heather)

4 weeks left

2010-02-17T12:50:00.003-05:00

I can't believe we have 4 weeks until the next baby comes.

Sorry we don't know if its a boy or a girl. I am glad I kept the unisex clothes I had when Anna was born. Any name suggestions?

Sorry this is the best picture I have of me pregnant at the moment and yes I do have a neck. Pay no attention to the little girl sitting on the counter.