ew

We have another construction project happening at our house. With all the construction, remodeling, gutting, ect. that we have done over the years, we've never had one of these for the workers...let alone two! I must say though, that there aren't leaves on the trees, so they really can't "go" in the woods. But, couldn't they drive to Casey's? And why TWO? We figured one was for "number one" and the other was for "number two." Ew.

Well, the red one was gone at the beginning of last week, so our "number"theory was out the door. Then we had those super strong winds on Thursday...when I got home from work, this is what I saw...

 Ew.

I took this pictures from my car window. Jack was out and about in the yard and asked him if "checked" out the porta potty. He looked at me and said, "Yea." 

I asked him, "Ew?" 

He said, "Very Ew." 

EWWWW!!

Congrats, Jack!

In October, Jack's school had a fire safety poster contest. Jack came home and knew exactly what he wanted to create for his poster. He sat down, drew a smoke detector, smoke and the slogan,

 "Hear the beep, when you sleep! 

All bedrooms should have a working smoke alarm."

 

Well, wouldn't ya know it, Jack's poster tied for first place!

Congratulations to you, my son!

His winning poster was made into bookmarks and available at his school's library. Jack got a special laminated one. 

He also gets to choose one of the three options as a prize:

1. Have your family take a CPR class.

2. Have a firefighter come and eat lunch with you at school.

3. Have the fire truck deliver pizza to your house! (great birthday idea!)

"Wow, Jack! Those are some great choices! (decision, decisions) What do you think you will do?" I asked him.

He looked at me and said, in ALL seriousness,  

"I think I will do the CPR class."

"Oh. OK. Sounds like a good idea to me."

???????

It is his prize, not mine!

Vikings Game...

(For some reason, my posts haven't been going up!! UGH!!)
Anyway...
 
Last weekend, we all headed up for our once a season family football game in Minneapolis. It was long overdue for the four of us to get away and hang out together. 

On Saturday, we headed to the Mall of America for shopping (me) and riding rides (the boys.)

Jason and Sam are in the front row on the right side! Sam mentioned that he had never ridden in the front row before...check that one off his list!

Before heading to the game, we ate brunch at a fun little dive place in the city. We decided that Sam has been growing (again) because he LOVED the brunch and made his many trips worth the cost!

We catch the train to the game and then cab it back. Super easy!!

Lucky me to have this gentleman sit in front of me!

 And his wife sat in front of Jack!

 Yep, Sam is growing. Whine he packed, I asked him if his jeans still fit. "Yep!" he told me. Well, they still fit, but they are about six inches too short!!! He told me that his ankles got chilly a times because he could feel a breeze on them! oh my.

This weekend was to honor men and women in the services. It was really cool to hear stories and then see the actual people at the game. Well done Vikes! 

 Before the game, several players come down to the end zone to pray. Petersen is on the left and Teddy is on the right.

 AP

 Teddy prayed hard on this day. I was afraid he might miss the beginning of the game!

Jack thought the day was a success because he got to eat his favorite stadium snack...fried cheese curds!

It was a nail biter of a game. Went into overtime, but the Viking pulled it out once again! Phew!!

One of Us is Doing Their Own Thing

We recently applied for our passports and they just arrived in the mail.

Look at these handsome guys! And I though passport pictures where like driver's license pictures! Silly me!

And then I opened mine!

Sam immediately started to giggle!

Did they run out of toner? I am barely there!!

Passport pictures ARE like driver's license pictures!!

AWFUL!!

Uh Oh

Have you ever done something and suddenly you say, ''Uh Oh."

Poor Sam experienced one of my "uh oh" moments. 

I cut Sam's hair. It's super easy. I've done it so many times and I have a little routine down.

1. Put the #1 or 1/8" trimmer Guard on the clippers.

Doing this will cut Sam's hair 1/8 all around.

2. Take the guard off  to"shave his neck and trim his sideburns."

This goes all the way to the skin...like a razor.

So, Sam asked me to cut his hair the other night. No problem. We were talking when I started trimming his hair and suddenly I said "uh oh."

Sam immediately screeches, " What!! What did you do? " 

His face is red in panic!

"Ummm..I forgot to put the guard on. I shaved your head."

"WHHHAAATTT?!?!" His voice went up about 10 octaves.

Me: "Ya. I just shaved your head."

Here's what it looked like after I finished cutting his hair with the guard on...you can see the strip right up the middle of his head where I shaved it. He wanted me to take a picture to see how bad it was!  

In walks Jason. "What's going on?"

"Well," I tried to explain. But all Jason did was look at Sam's head and said, "Are you kidding me?" 

Me: "It's not that bad, I think I can fix it with scissors."

Sam: "Mom, no offense, but you are not trying to fix my hair. Dad, can you fix my hair??"

And so, Jason calmly picks up the clippers and spends about 20 minutes evening out the landing strip I created on the back of Sam's head.

In the end, all was well and extremely short with Sam's hair!

Will Be Back Next Week!

Life is pretty hectic right now, 

so I will be back next week sometime! 

Meanwhile, remember this very wise advice...

See you in about a week!!

Happy Halloween!

We had a busy weekend filled with all sorts of tricks and treats!!

Friday night we headed out for begger's night. Sam revived an old costume at the last minute...the dreaded clown, and headed out with his friends.

Jack found it quite frightening.

Jack was in full Halloween gear with his Bart Simpson costume!

The only draw back was that it was a bit difficult to see out of the eyes. His friend had to help Jack walk, especially up and down steps.  Oh! And the mask is solid rubber = hot.

Sam was suppose to walk in the Homer costume, but at the last minute he decided that going out with friends would be more fun! (Who wouldn't!!) A friend invited Jack, so Jason stepped into the costume to fill in for Sam!

 We piled into the car to find a neighborhood to Trick or Treat. (So no one would recognize us!!) We had a bit of an issue getting Jason in the car... he made it work, but it was a very snug fit!

Jack had a very successful night of trick or treating and sorted out his candy the next day. He had a pile of chocolate candy, chewy candy, hard candies, items and full sized candy!

 On Halloween, the boys decided to try our their very first Haunted House. Jack was soooo excited to go and couldn't wait to experience a real fright! Sam was ok with it.

 

Well, I think Jack's experience has scarred him for life. The first "room" was a girl and she was yelling, "JAAAACCCKKKK! Where's Jack?" She had an empty Jack-in-the-Box in front of her.  That was the end for Jack. He pulled a "Katie" grabbed the back of Jason's coat and buried his head into his back. At one point, a guy jumped out and scared everyone. Jason said, you could hear Jack yelling, "YOU ARE SUCH A JERK!" Sam wasn't sure what to expect, but since he went, he thinks he might be able to go again.  He thought it was scary, but doable.

Jack...he is never going into another one as long as he lives.

Happy Halloween!

The Halloween season is wrapping up this weekend, so I thought I would share some of the Halloween happenings that have occurred at our house!

Jack visited the Halloween aisle in Target.

Jack brought out the scary clown mask...

..So he could scare his Aunt who fears clowns.

 

Aw...this poor little Lego guy got attacked by the birds.

Sam ate some eyeballs.

Jack blew his eyes out with all his video game playing and his uni-brow is totally out of control!

Jack ate a cupcake with gummy eyes on them. He put frosting on his eyelids and stuck the gummy eyes into the frosting!! We think that sticking out his tongue helped keep the eyeballs in place.

 And then he lost one!

No worries, my MOM put it right back on for him, because this entire event was HER idea and doing!!

 

I will give her credit...she did help clean his eyeballs up!

This weekend, we still have trick or treating, maybe a haunted house, hopefully some pumpkin carving and scary movie night! Check back Monday to see how we survived!!

Happy Halloween!!

This and That...

Here are some odds and ends that went on in October!

 Both boys love to spend time with their dad doing "guy" things!  On this day, Jack and Jason went up to an Iowa State Football game together. When they leave I always remind them to take pictures!! Jason does a great job sending me pictures of what they are up to!

When Jason sent me this photo, I wondered whose shoulder Jack was leaning on, but it's just the way the picture was taken. You can see that Jack is clapping and cheering on the Cyclones as they walked onto the field.

They had great seats for the game..not that the game was that wonderful, but the weather and view was wonderful!

 Sam went to an overnight retreat with his youth group. This is what he looked like the entire next day!

 Sam wrapped up a successful first season of school ball. The amount he improved was amazing and so fun to watch. I actually miss going to the Tuesday night games. This was taken at his last game with a few of his fans!!

Sam and Jason headed up for a football game at ISU on a Saturday evening. Sam told me the conversation about the "picture" went like this -
Jason: We need to take a picture to send to your mom. 
Smile. 
(click) 
Okay we are done with that now. That should keep her happy.

The pictures DO make me happy! Thank you, Jason!

Mitch...

As I said yesterday, I think Jack was a little inspired by the movie birds. He came in the next day and said, "Check this car out I just made, it's a lot like the one Mitch drove out of town in the movie!"

Jack also created a Mitch. Love how he drew the tie on Mitch.

He found crows and put them on the car and on "something." I asked him what was that thing the crow was sitting on...he said the railing at the house!

 Here is the car from the movie. Jack's isn't silver...they are not enough silver Legos! Notice the birds on the railing!

 

 And here is Mitch!

 

Here are a couple other views of The Birds Lego creation by Jack. You can see more details of the car.

 

 Jack took this picture and he loved the shadows!

 I must make a mental note of what movies we watch in the future, due to what he may decide to create. Hmmmm...might be too late.