2012- Week 21

 1. Bryce went to NYC for four days.  The main purpose was for the TechCrunch Disrupt event.  He also fit in seeing his brother Ted and nephew Mason, and his friends from college Laura and Chad.

2. I had a bit of a crappy week.  Despite all the good vibes I was getting I didn't get a part in Oliver and my boss didn't pick the person I wanted (Mari) to work with me for the VISTA summer position.

That's me with the rose in my least fav costume.  Claire (Karin's sis) is next to me in the multi-color. 

 3. Denise's Dance Studio is having its 20th reunion so Karin and I participated in the alumni dance recital Thursday and Friday.  It is a pretty easy dance, but I still get nervous.  I was in Denise's 6th dance recital. 

4. Link and I went to pick Bryce up from the airport on Tuesday and made a day of it.  We went to Jumpin Jane's and it was almost empty, which was much less overwhelming.  We went to Goodwill and found some toys (including a small horse on wheels he rode all through the store).  We ate at Pepper Sprout, a little restaurant I have been trying to get to for a while.  Link and I shared gnocchi with sauerkraut and sausage.  They also specially made a chocolate milk for Link when he ordered it himself.  I needed a place to get Link to nap (I wish those existed in places where they have customers driving over an hour to get to them) so we went to the airport early, but it was too creepy for me.  We were there a half hour and didn't see a single living soul anywhere, so we just drove around.

Two of my favorite hipsters ready for prom.  Kendra shaved one side of her head after I did.  Neil shaved his face like this just for prom and check out his monocle.  Oh my... (I say, shaking my head.)

 5. Graduation parties this week included my cousin- Sierra Moore, and four musical kids- Kristen Wilke, Niel Blair, Kendra Hoeger, and Ellie Berhns.  We missed actual graduation.  I put Link down for a nap so he wouldn't be cranky and started cleaning.  Soon I had three rooms clean and was hearing Pomp and Circumstance drifting through the windows.  Link slept 3.5 hours! 

6.  I've been on a shopping spree lately.  I bought Bryce a whole slew of new t-shirts (which he needed badly), some pants for me, mosaic tile for my project, and much, much more.  I love getting packages in the mail.

7. After school programing is done for the year.  We had an award banquet for the Lego kids which they really enjoyed, showing there parents what they have been doing and getting rewarded for their work.  We took the other kids to Fort Fun. 

8. Thunderstorms were super loud and beautiful.

9. Car broke down again.  Down to just the van for a little bit.

Lincoln Log House with a door, seats, and stage.  Star Wars characters watching a cowboy musical.

10.  Link has been really fun this week.  Lots of laughs and playing.  He is also growing an attachment to Pinky Dinky Do.

2012- Week 20

1. Amy gave me rhubarb on Friday so I tried my hand at cooking with it.  I love rhubarb.  I bet if I dipped it in sugar I could eat it raw.   I just baked it with sugar and flour and then had it over ice cream.

2. Saturday night we went to see the Dueling Pianos.  They were performing for a playground fundraiser.  They were very entertaining, but didn't duel as much as joke around.

3. Sunday we had a Mother's Day dinner at my Aunt Linda's home. It was nice and warm so played outside a lot with Justin and Monet. 

4. After our Mother's Day celebration Bryce took me out for my birthday.  We went to Cup of Joe, then the Gallagher Bluedorn to see Burn the Floor (an amazing show), and then to Applebee's for mojitos and 1/2 price appetizers..

5. Bryce got me patio furniture for my birthday/Mother's Day.  I love it.  We finally have a place to sit and eat outside.  On Tuesday night we ate outside and the high school band concert wafted outside and made the evening even more lovely.

6. I volunteered to help the marketing campaign for the skate park in Prairie du Chien and I love it.  Someone once told me most people know what they really want to do in 5th and 6th grade and then they lose sight of it as they get older.  When I was in 6th grade I wanted to go into marketing.  How did I lose focus?

7.  After school is winding down, but we are still keeping it fun.  I taught them how to make pinch pot and coil bowls on Monday and I let them decorate a button and use my "Badge a Minit."

8. Oliver auditions were this week.  Wednesday auditions went great.  They even had me sing for the main part.  However, Thursday brought me back to reality as all the talent showed up that night.

9. Bryce was called for jury duty but was dismissed due to his trip to NYC.  This same week a young man (17) in Manchester killed his grandparents and after three days was caught.  He showed up at the Elkader courthouse due to probably heat from the public.  However, Bryce says that wouldn't have been his case and that he will be tried in Manchester.

10.  Link was very good this week.  On Tuesday he came to work with me and besides being loud he was very good.  He even created his own story.  It goes like this:  "Once upon a time the birds fell down.  Then the super hero saved the birds."  If you ask him to tell it to you a second time he adds a word: "Once upon a time the birds fell down, again.  Then the super hero saved the birds."

Link's 20 Questions

I always thought Link was too young to answer these but one of my friends recently did this with her daughter who is younger than Link so I thought I would give it a try.  I changed a few things.  There seemed to be an over emphasis on food so I made new questions and I changed the wording of some questions.  I don't think kids should be ask what they want to "be" but instead what they want to "do."

So here are Link's questions and answers:

1. What is your favorite color? white

2. What is your favorite toy? xylophone

3. What is your favorite fruit? oranges

4. What is your favorite tv show? cat in the hat

5.What is your favorite stuffed animal? 2 monkeys

6. What is your favorite thing to wear? clothes.  these (overalls he has on) like grandpa

7. What is your favorite game? matches  (that would be the matching game, not starting fires)

8. What is your favorite food? bread

9. What is your favorite animal? elephant

10. What is your favorite song? cat in the hat

11. What is your favorite book? the sheep (I do not know what book he is talking about.)

12. Who is your best friend? diana (cousin)

13. What is your favorite favorite place to go to? the burger barn (we have only gone once this year, but he talks about it a lot.)

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? slide

15. What is your favorite drink? juice

16. What is your favorite holiday? i don’t know (he doesn't know what holiday means yet)

17. What do you like to sleep with? a blanket

18. Who do you like to play with? super dad

19. What do you want to eat on your birthday? cake

20. What do you want to do when you're older?  get a hair cut

2012- Week 19

Stella checks out the donkey.

 1.  We made plans to see Sadie, Jason, and family on Saturday night, but Jason's cousin was having a 5-months-after-being-married reception near Elkader so they asked us to join them there.  It felt a little odd not knowing the hosts and we planed to slip in and out unnoticed, but going in Link would not take off a giant lady bug hat and going out our van got stuck in the mud, but other than that we had a great time talking and playing with donkeys and chickens and looking at fish in the pond.  Ohh, and Sadie and Jason are looking into buying some farm land back in the area.  Woohoo!  Link was so excited to see Stella again. 

Not surprisingly I had to have really funky hair for prom.

2. After about 2 months we finally had a day where no one in the family had a thing to do.  So we stayed in our jammies.  I cooked apple rings dipped in pancake batter (thank you pinterest).  We played.  I went through some boxes of old high school stuff.  Did you know that I can fit all my prom dresses and homecoming dresses in the bottom of a rubbermaid tub and it only fills up 1/8 on the bin? Couldn't do that with dresses they wear today.

3. I'm getting tired of Link disagreeing with me about everything so for the past week I have been saying everything the opposite of what I want him to do.  "Link, don't eat all your vegetables," "Link, you can't go over to Grandma's," etc.  It has been working out superb, however I hope he figures out what I am doing soon so we can go back to regular talking.  I'm a little nervous that if I keep doing it he might grow up thinking that I give into whatever he disagrees with.

4. Feeling creative this week. At home I made avacado fries, apple/peanut butter sandwiches, baking soda and vinegar activity for Link, handprint mother's day cards.  At after school we made solar cars, decorated butterfly wings, and made flower pots with flowers we have been growing for a few weeks.

5. I presented drama awards at the high school awards night.  Neil Blair received the highest drama award.  I got my hair braided for the event, which I was hoping would last a few days but came out that night.

6.  I called in for the first time to KDEC.  They were giving away Wilco tickets in Rochester.  I won!!!
For those of you who don't know who Wilco is, here is my favorite song "You and I" with special guest Feist http://youtu.be/HYhQ2ReEyvQ  and here is President Obama introducing them at FarmAid http://youtu.be/nmR32cFfGTQ.

“You should be kissed everyday, every hour, every minute."

7. Wednesday night I decided to have a girls' night since there were two chick flicks in Prairie that I didn't mind seeing.  After a few phone calls and e-mails it eventually ended up just being Cheri and me, which I didn't mind.  Cheri is open and honest and easy to talk to.  We ate at Wasabi and then went to The Lucky One.  And the analysis is: dinner A, movie C-.  That god awful caption is the actual line said in this frame.

8. We had our church directory photos taken.  They were terrible.  The whole time Link's head was in front of part of mine.  The photographer kept saying "Oh, I got a great one of Lincoln," and they were seriously some of the worse faces that Link could make.  It was also weird that he didn't take continuous shots with a kid, but posed ones.  Have you never photographed a child?  Needless to say we are not taking home any to put on our walls.  I do however now have a lust for their tripod on wheels with a easy rotational camera angle thingamabob. 

9. Whimsy Market is filling up.  We had two vendors expand and three new people request space.  It is very exciting.  Archive (Michelle and Sara's store that broke my heart) opened up this weekend and I love it, just as much as I hate it.  Though I wanted to buy everything I couldn't bear to buy anything there so I went to the Buttery and bought a great painting that I fell in love with right away. 

10. Bryce is getting a new laptop and design software from work.  He is very excited about it.  And he is planning a trip to NYC to go to a tech convention later this month.  He is loving being more involved with the company.

2012- Week 18

1.  I felt the love at our office meeting on Monday.  Amy presented me with an award I was unaware of that I won for ads that I had made for 4-H.  I also was given a round of applause for continuing to stay next year.  And the office decided they would buy Adobe Creative Suite so that I could teach them how to do the programs so they can continue to have nice looking stuff in the future.  (For all my design friends, they can get the entire Creative Suite 6 for their County for $280!)

2. Our family decided to take a drive to Tuscany.  Oh no wait, that's still Iowa.  Steve and Ann McCorkindale live in this gorgeous Tuscan style house in the hills where they have their own vineyard and make their own wine.  They are hiring me to create a mosaic on a small section of their house.  Gulp.  So they had our family over for dinner.  Lamb, pasta, rosemary bread, wine, wine, wine, coffee. 

3. Got a text that theater buds were eating at Fennellys' and then going to a movie.  We joined them for dinner only.  Link had a good time playing with the Fennelly kiddos.

4. Link and I ran an errand in Oelwein.  We went to Goodwill after.  Link got to pick out a toy.  He picked out roller skates and barely took them off the rest of the day.  He loves them.  I was stocking up and was nearing $100 when I went to the register and was informed it was 1/2 off everything day! That made my day.
 

5.  Link has been really social this week so we decided to venture over to the neighbors and played with their little boys, Vaughn and Tyce.  They have another little one, Cade, who was sleeping.

6. Marge Banse is going to school for massage and healing therapies.  I had a Thai Massage this week.  It was clothed and involved being moved a lot and having some hot spices in cloths pressed on you.  Really cool.

7.  My mom's community club had their annual Mother's Day dinner with a speaker.  My childhood neighbor and friend, Leah Moellers Thompson, gave the presentation on her medical trips to Haiti after the earthquake and rural India.  She also announced she is accepting a emergency medical position in LaCrosse, WI next year.

8. KCRG is featuring Elkader this year in "Our Town" so we went to a breakfast at Caterpillar to meet the people and newscasters who were collecting stories.  Link got to pick out all the names from the jar for prizes.

9. Went to Guttenberg Garage Sales.  Scored lots of great deals for the family and the store.  I got the store some mirrors, large picture frames, rugs, and clothing.  I got Link a basketball hoop, a baseball mit, some balls for a ball pit and a Barbie VW van.  Ran into Sadie and Jason who are back clearing out their house, just signed papers this week for the sale.  :(

10.  Karin invited us to last minute dinner with them at Schera's, which we gladly accepted.  Which means I have had a week full of fun with friends, but only one meal cooked at home.   Oh my.