Ugh it's hot and sticky!

We have resorted to turning the AC back on. Man that sucks. We're pretty "tough" in that we can suffer a bit more through the heat than others we know. But the past 2 days have been rough. No sense in showering (even though we do) as you never really dry off throughout the day. It's so sticky and wet! I will say, that the kids and I didn't have the AC on until Keith came home for lunch around 2pm. But the boys and I spent most of the day outside. Spent time in the pool, lots of bike riding and skateboarding! Oh the boys made their "garage band"! Kaden was so happy. It only lasted about 30 minutes before they broke out the skateboard in the garage. But that's okay, our garage is not insulated, so it was loud. I had to put a towel over the drums for Salem to dampen them as he was rocking out a bit too much!! Kaden was guitar and vocals. It was fun watching them and I know they had a blast, but I wish I had ear plugs, they need some lessons!

Keith had his MTB ride tonight. None of the other guys showed up, so he rode solo. No prob though he got in about 2 hours of riding time. The boys and I went to the local mall to wander. Not many stores left, it's become flood headquarters. All the courthouse offices and city officials have been relocated to the mall. Fema is there, Red Cross, the city busses, all sorts of important things are there. Kinda fills it up now...but still non exciting! After that we headed over to Target to wander. Bought some strawberries for milkshakes tonight (which were yummy!). Then it time to pick Keith up. We had to go visit a Tupperware friend of mine to pick up some stuff I had ordered. Stayed and chatted with her for about an hour. Then home and kids to bed!

Tuesday's savings!

Had to share my GREAT deals I got at the stores yesterday! Big THANK YOU to Eileen and Derek for sending me the coupons!! I was able to get 3 boxes of Easy Mac and a box of Wheat Thins for only $3! I did that deal 2x and then my CVS was out of the Easy Mac. I think I might price match it at Walmart to get some more! I also got 9 packages of Koolaid and 3 packages of Oscar Mayer hot dogs for $1.80!! CVS has a candy deal going on where you buy $10 in candy and you get $5 of their store money back. I did that 3 times yesterday. Now to hid come of it from Keith so he doesn't eat it in a week! Oh and gold fish were $1.33, not a great deal, but cheapest I"ve seen in a while. I'll price match that at WM too so I can get some better flavors. I bought some muffin mixes, made banana and chocolate chip (not so tasty). And Kaden's favorite deal, we found 20lbs bags of colored sand for $1! Normally $6.97, ouch! We got 4 bags of green, 1 bag of blue and 1 bag of purple. Our goal today is to empty the plain sand out of his sandbox and put in the colored stuff. He hasn't played with his sandbox in a long time and I was going to get rid of it, but now I won't. It does still keep him happy sometimes.

The kids were troopers yesterday enduring all my stores. Keith has been riding and working so I don't have much time to get out without the kids. Poor kids get dragged everywhere. I told them if I did all my stores yesterday we woudn't go to any today. And we're not! We'll play in the pool and do the sand. It's supposed to be nice and hot again today. Oh we do need to fix the pool. We lost the rubber seal and cap fo the water part, so we took the one off our air mattress. Seems to nto hold back the water as it's been leaking, darn it! No clue where it got put. Going to have to go to a pool store to get a replacement, I hope they sell them. WM did not.

I have a few more deals to do, but we'll save it for tomorrow when I have to get my car registered and my license renewed, not a fun day!

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday

What a nice day! We dropped Keith off for a bike ride with the HBA guys this morning. They planned on doing a 60-70 mile ride! Fools I say! The boys and I came home and played outside all day. I cleaned out the garage. Didn't mean to do all I did, but I kept moving one thing and sweeping and then went to another and before I knew it I had a HUGE mess on my hands and HAD to clean it before I could think of putting it back. I got every little leaf out, every piece of dirt, I evicted so many spiders, it's not even funny! The garage is still full of crap, but it's a TON neater! I didn't mess with Keith's work bench. He's got tools all over it and I didn't feel like doing it. If he wants to find the tools, he can work on that some other day. I'm exhausted from all of that! The kids played across the street for quite a while. Salem is still very tried from camp, so he came in after a few hours to relax and watch some tv. Kaden was out for just as long as I was. The neighbor let his grass grow a bit long and he mowed it this morning leaving lots of grass clippings. Kaden has this thing with collecting them and making nests out of them. So he was over in their yard collecting all the clippings and putting it into a HUGE pile. Silly kids! Neighbor said he's gonna have Kaden come over every time so he doesn't have to rake them up. Not like he ever rakes it anyway. Keith came home after a few hours and I sent him and Salem to get a trap to put under the big pool. Wanted to get that set up since we're staying here and we can enjoy it. So that got set up tonight, found 2 holes though. One tiny one along the bottom and one in the top. Patched it up a bit tonight, will see how it holds, maybe need something stronger. Added the chemicals and should be good to go tomorrow!

Keith ended up riding 67 miles today! Add that to the 50 he rode yesterday in a road race and the 14 he rode with Salem yesterday when he got home! He's still moving and helping out! Salem looks a bit tired though!

We love the bunnies in our yard! They're fun to watch. The kids know to walk on the sidewalk if they are in our top yard and to not chase them. I think they've gotten too comfy as one has made a nest in the middle of our yard! Yup, darn middle! UGH! When we came home from NY there was a big bare spot in our yard with a hole. I thought squirrels as there was a nut laying in the spot. Seems babies are coming soon as today we walked out and the bare spot was covered in bunny fur! So we'll have to keep an eye on things. When Keith and I went out tonight, bunny was in that area and didn't run away too far as we walked by. I know we have a nice yard, lots of clovers to eat, peony's and lilies to hid in...but our neighbor kid is an animal killer and we like to play in our yard! We shall see how this pans out!

Tour is over...what are we going to watch on tv now?? Kinda sad Cadel Evans did not win the tour. Wish he had a better time trial yesterday...or Sastra has a worse one. It was an exciting tour though, lots of yellow jersey changing. Crazy crashes too, I hate seeing the replays, makes my cringe! I guess we can now catch up on all the episodes of Deadliest Catch we haven't watched. Clean up our DVR drive.

Kaden's elbow is looking better. Still gross and hole-y, but healing. Here's a pic. I didn't post the gross close up one, although I think if you click on it, you might be able to see it better. We've been bandaging it but letting it air out when he's just sitting around. It actually looks really good in that pic. Compared to the other day, yuck it was! It's not so red anymore and the rash around it is healing nicely.

I'm trying to get pictures out to everyone. It's been a long time since I put albums out to see. I always take SO many pictures and love to share them. I just need to sit down and get them out. I got a few albums out today. I'm hoping for a rainy day so the kids can stay inside and I can get more out! Alright, I've got another album with the pictures uploaded, need to go put quotes and maybe get it out still tonight.

Oh hey, Salem lost a tooth yesterday! He was sitting outside eating Doritos when he came inside and said "guess what just happened??" I guessed right! Number 10 for him!

Exciting Friday!

We got Salem back!! Went to pick up Salem at 3pm today. They put on a little skit show for us parents. It was cute! Sure was gld to see Salem! Kaden had said he didn't want to pick up Salem, but as soon as we got to camp all he wanted to do was find him! Ah brotherly love! Salem was well known at camp for his massive amounts of mail he got! Everyday he had a few letters waiting for him. One day there was 8!! In order to get your mail, you were required to sing the "grey squirrel" song. Salem knows it by heart! The one medic gal said she has never seen another get as much mail as Salem did. He loved reading all the postcards and letters! And loved all the chimpanzees/monkeys!!

Tonight Salem and I were heading out to get dinner (Dominos pizza) when Kaden crashed his bike. But this time he didn't get up right away and he was crying. Uh oh, knew it was serious. He scraped his knee and hip, but his elbow took the brunt force! He's got a little hole in his elbow, it was gushing blood pretty good, but it did stop within a couple minutes. Keith was good to get me some paper towels to get the kids upstairs, but as soon as he saw the hole, he left. I don't blame him, it's gross!! We put some cream and gauze on it. But then later was thinking he might need stitches since it's deep. But there really isn't any good skin to stitch up. And he started freaking out about needing them. So after talking to a few people, we decided to hold off on the stitches. I figure it's his elbow, so doesn't need to be too pretty looking. But we'll keep an eye to make sure it's heals well. My sister in law is a nurse and she said to put ice on it and make sure the bleeding doesn't start back up. Otherwise do what we have with it.

Dinner was yummy! Salem had 4 pieces! And to think he ate the camp food too. Kaden an I made him a welcome home cake. So that was dessert. And off to bed at 9! Early day for Keith tomorrow, he's got a bike race. We're not going though. It's a 50K back and out road race, so not really exciting for us. I'm gonna stay home and sleep! Salem'll be glued to his gameboy I'm sure. Kaden...he'll probably be playing his guitar, or playing school in his bedroom with his Webkinz.

Salem had a GREAT time at camp. I'll write up more about it tomorrow and get his input. (the first pic is of Salem and his counselor Trek.

On a blogging roll today!

So final full day without Salem. It went okay. I had to wait for a package this morning, which showed up about 9am, just as I was rolling out of bed. Had to take a quick shower because Kaden was ready to hit Chuck E Cheese!! Went off and pulled to see a bus! Oh man, that means busy! I figured it would be busy being summer vacation, but not bus busy. I guess it was a wild crowd as the manager checking us in said we picked a busy time, lol. Not much choice for us, but it's bad when he mentions it! I didn't think the group was horrible, loud, but hey it's CEC! Kaden had a blast and was able to play all his games. The group ended up leaving about 30 minutes after we arrived and it emptied out pretty quick. We stayed for just shy of 2 hours. After CEC we came home to chill a bit. It was sprinkling so we stayed inside. Kaden broke out his guitar and wrote a new song called "24 Hours" He gets so "into" being a musician sometimes. He strummed his guitar for a while and made up some words. Then he sat down and wrote the words down. He doesn't really know how to play the guitar, so he didn't wrote any notes down for that. He said the drummer could play whatever they wanted. It was fun listening to him work on his song.

Keith had his group bike riding again tonight, so we dropped him off. I decided I wanted to get my hair cut and Kaden said he would be fine with that. Thank you Kaden!! He sat and looked through a magazine while I got it cut. It never fails, anytime/anywhere I get my hair cut the gal always tells me how much hair I have and how thick it is! Yes I know, thanks. This time the gal "thinned" my hair. Interesting procedure. Kinda cool, hair definitely feels lighter now. I didn't have much length chopped off, only 2" in the back and 1" in the front. Not sure what style I want, so keeping it basic. Although now I can't put it in pigtails. After my hair cut we stopped at a local park to let Kaden play for a while. He ran all over the playset from one slide to another and seemed to be playing with imaginary people. Kept himself happy though. Finally had to break him away and had to get home so Keith wasn't locked out of the house.

Oh Kaden had fruit salad today. He ate it all but the mangos, wasn't a big fan on those. Oh and the lemons I cut up were quite sour! He loves drinking lemon juice, but I guess eating chunks of it is different.


So we're still up in arms about the whole moving/job thing. It's a big mess. We thought it was a no-go on the moving, but then the job came back with a new offer. We're trying to make Keith happy and make Ang happy but yet to do that it makes both of us not happy for a short time. Or one of us is happy and the other is not. It's confusing and I don't want to get into much detail as both of us still are not sure what for sure to do. Hope we will have an answer soon. Whatever the answer is, we didn't arrive at easily. We'll let you know when we figure it out.

More flood pics

Here are the pics we took driving through downtown and other areas on Wednesday.

More flood pictures

We just got a letter!!

Well, really it's a postcard..but from whom?? SALEM!! And Kaden got a letter yestreday from GG Snoop and a postcard today from GG Hackbardt!

Here's what Salem had to say (typos and all):

Hello Peeps,
I'm having so much fun (except for that I'm really sweating)! This morning I had cereal and toast. Our counslers names are Cricket and Trek. Cricket's British and Trek's Izreal. After we got packed (I believe he meant UN packed) on the first day we went swimming. For lunch we had mac and cheese and sauseges. Good luck with the cleaning!
Love, Salem

Sorry, I'm a slacker!

Yes I'm a slacker I know. Haven't kept up on my blogging. My bad! I'm going to blame it on Wacky Zingoz week in Webkinz world! I've been trying to catch the flying zingoz and get a trophy for the past few days. I finally realized how I can keep multiple windows up. Now I can shrink them and I've got 3 windows up right now! Darn plushies are not flying though! I told Salem I would try and get him some while he was away at camp. I think I've gotten him 3 so far! Today is the last day. I haven't been sitting on the computer much though, trying to keep Kaden busy. Last night I was up till midnight. Stayed up trying to catch zingoz and I typed Salem a 2 page letter. I went wacky with the colors and fonts. Stuff he does when he writes on here. Hope he gets a kick out of it. I haven't gotten any letters from him. I was hoping I would, but kinda hoping he is kept so busy he woudln't have time to write. I'll have to hear all about it when he gets home.



Kaden's getting spoiled these days! He had an ice cream cone after lunch and after dinner tonight he had a "wednesdae". He never has that much ice cream. We cut back desserts a while ago after they were insistant they needed one every night. We do let them have fruit or veggies. But not so much on the sugar stuff before bed. No need for it. Heck, they love fruit anyway! We bought a bunch of it tonight at the grocery store. Kaden picked out some apples, banana, pear, peach, lemon, grapes and a mango for a fruit salad tomorrow. Oh and Keith got some cherries, so we'll add those in too.



Let's see what's been going on here?? We've been doing okay minus the one child. Salem's usually pretty quiet anyway. Only speaking up when he's hungry. Been trying to keep Kaden busy. He's doing a good job of playing. I do think he enjoys playing by himself, but then he starts to get a little lonely and asks me to play with him. Sure, no prob!



Tonight we drove Keith over to meet up some guys to go mountain biking at a park here in CR. Of course Kaden wanted to ride too, but that was out of the question, so Keith said he would tell him how it is and if it's ride able at some other time for them. So Kaden and I went to return a bunch of cans we had. Then headed over to Toys R Us. Found some cool water guns for the kids. Well, they're probably not cool as they only cost $6 on clearance. But for the water holder, you use a 16oz bottle. So that's kinda neat. Kaden is waiting for Salem to come home to try them out. After TRU we went to the dollar store, surprisingly we walked out with spending only $3! A bottle of gatorade for Kaden, a bottle of cold ice tea for Keith for after his ride and an outside thermometer. Kaden loves the weather and I can't believe we have never put one up. So now to decide where to put it. Then after $ store we went to Target to wander a bit waiting for Keith to call us when he was done. Kaden was getting sick of shopping and I was ready to leave. But just then Keith called and was ready to be picked up. So off we went.



On the way home we drove around downtown CR to check out the flood clean up efforts. I post a link to the pics shortly. I'm impressed with how downtown has cleaned up. The houses are still in very poor shape. But I know alot of that is the city has not decided what to do with the houses in the 100 year flood plan. Most houses cannot do any work until they get permits and the city is not giving any out. I'm sure it's very frustrating for people!



Tomorrow I've got a package I need to sign for. Hopefully it arrives in the am. Then I told Kaden we'll go to Chuck E Cheese for a little while. Keith has bike riding tomorrow night again. I don't think we'll ride. I want Kaden to help me decorate the house a little bit for Salem's welcome home. We'll put up a couple signs and balloons around the house.

Monday madness or sadness?

First night without Salem wasn't too bad. Kaden took hold of his "life size" Bob the Builder pillow "doll" to make up for the Salem he usually crawls into bed with. He also brought him down to the couch in the morning too. Keith came down in the morning and both were sitting on the couch with Kaden playing video games like S&K normally do. Kinda funny. Since then Kaden has been dragging Bob around with him. Nothing too serious, more in the am and pm though.

I had my dentist appt this morning. Finally got all my work done. Still need to get a cleaning and maybe a couple small fillings worked on, but I found out I have reached my max limit on our insurance...not good! After the dentist we came home and played a bit. Keith came home for lunch and that was a nice break for Kaden to see daddy. After he went back we headed out to The Playstation. I was afraid we wouldn't be there for too long since he didn't have his brother. But the place was pretty full of kids, so he soon made new friends and we were there for over 2 hours. Had to leave to come home and get dinner ready, which we had some yummy tacos!

After dinner we went to the bike store so Keith could pick up some new bar tape. Kaden and I wandered around the store checking out all the bikes. They have a bunch of time trial ones, which are Kaden's favorite right now. Also scooped out a possible MTB bike for Kaden, but they didn't have his size, so he couldn't try it out.

It had been looking like rain for a little while, but it ended up going all south of us. Which meant we could take Kaden over to FMI! He was SO happy! As son as that kid hit the track with his bike, we knew he was on could nine! He's got 2 cards on his bike that hit the spokes, so he's extra loud now! He rode and rode and rode around that track for what seemed like ever! Finally at 8:30 we called it quits. By then he was a tad bit tired and wanted to make a "mondae" before bed. He ate that and we let him watch part of a movie up in bed...with Bob of course!

So first full day without Salem wasn't too bad. Definitely quiet and less arguing. Kinda seemed like he was at a sleepover or something...that lasted all day. We'll see how tomorrow goes!

Salem's at camp now

Well, he's gone! Off to camp for a fun filled 5 nights and 6 days! We dropped him off at 7pm tonight. Had to wait in line after line to get checked in by everyone. But finally we were off to his cabin. He's cabin 3 with 12 boys. Salem picked a bottom bunk...although I'm not sure there was a top bunk open. He did hope for a bottom bunk, so that is good! The counselor had the kids change into their swimsuits and was going to take them off to the pool to swim while they waited for everyone to arrive. We hugged and said our goodbyes before he changed. Keith almost had to drag me out of there, lol. I was good and didn't start crying until we got back to the car. Keith was nice and stopped to buy me a white chocolate caramel cappuccino on the way home to make me feel better.

Salem did notice a few kids from his school, but none of his friends. We didn't see alot of kids though, so he might see more throughout the week that he knows. A weird thing...all the counselors are from Australia, well they all have that accent. I'm not sure about that, strange to be in the middle of Iowa and hearing everyone say "mate". I'm sure the kids will get a kick out of it.

Kaden lost a tooth!!

Kaden lost his tooth about 2am last night in the car in Illinois! He woke me up around 2am and told me his tooth fell out and he lost it in the car on the floor somewhere. UGH! I recall telling him cool, and we'll look for it in the morning and to go back to bed. The boy stayed up and found the tooth. Which he had to again wake me up to tell me. I feel bad for not being more excited, but it was early, I was tired and needed sleep! He found a baggie from our food stuff in the car and put it in that to not lose it again. Tonight he put it under his pillow and is awaiting the Tooth fairy.

Salem and camp

Oh man, poor Salem! Tonight as I put him to bed, he started crying. Says he's gonna miss us when he goes to camp. We talked for a while tonight trying to get him to calm down a bit. I guess it finally sunk in he's going to be gone for a whole week by himself. He did say if one of his friends from school was there he'd be fine. Geez, didn't realize how replaceable I am! I talked to him about how much fun he's going to have, making new friends, trying new things. Kinda tried to remember how it was when I went to girl scout camp. I told him about the one time I went to camp and every letter I sent home to my parents said how I hated camp and wanted them to come pick me up. Well they didn't and by the end of camp, I didn't want to leave!! Salem chuckled at that one! Tomorrow night will be a sad one for us all. But I'm very excited that he will be able to try new things, make new friends and do all that camp stuff! Salem is looking forward to being away from Kaden for a week, lol! It'll be tough for us at home too, we'll definately be missing him!!

Interview day!

Today was THE day, the reason we came out here. Keith had his interview this afternoon. It was a nice drive to Margaretville. Got to the business and he went in to talk, while I decided to walk around the town. I checked out the library and talked to the lady in there. She gave me some good info on the area. The boys wanted to know about the library, so I was glad I found it. It's very small. I think we have more kids book than the library did. I didn't expect much though. After that I headed down main street. Walked up and down it stopping into a few stores that caught my eye. There was a countrish type store. Lots of moose and bear items. I behaved and walked out empty handed! The town has a 99cent (and more) store. What an interesting store! Had so much stuff it was packed and lots of junky things. Every little gadget and junk you could never need. Fun to wander through though. I found the local skate park...nothing to write home about. I think they might need a tetnus shot before anyone skates there! There is a little creek running through town and a cool bridge with lots of ducks. The town has a CVS and A&P grocery store. Lots of little stores, cute to visit.

Keith was to call me after his interview to find out where to pick me up. One small problem...not much cell service! I was able to hear him say meet for lunch and then it went dead! He did send a text telling me where they were meeting. So I was able to walk to the restuarant and met with Keith and the 2 main guys from the company. Had a nice little lunch and then headed home. Stopped at a really neat covered bridge on the way home.

Not sure about the job. They still have not given us a salary! They have not officially offered Keith the job either. The guys are supposed to talk to Keith on Monday and hopefully we will have all our answers by then. I (and Keith too) was hoping we would know a yes or no on the job by this afternoon. But nope, have to wait even more.

While we were in Margaretville, Grandma and the boys went mini golfing! They also played in the sprinkler and scootered outside. Ran her ragged!

After we got home, they were getting ready to go to Walmart, so they left. Keith went on a bike ride. Wanted to ride up a steep road that is nearby. I was left home alone to relax! Loved that!!

Later tonight we all went back to the mini golfing place. It's a nice place, but tricky at spots! It's got a cave and a covered bridge. A lake with bull frogs, although you don't have to hit over the lake. It's got a nice waterfall scene too. Came home to Carvel ice cream cake and coffee! Oh we stopped and picked up some Dunkin Donuts for breakfast! Or maybe a late night snack, lol! They didn't have a big selection, no strawberry frosted or peanut covered. We'll have to check tomorrow earlier to get some better ones!

Going to finish watching the recording of the Tour and hit the hay! Tomorrow we're going on the Arkville train ride. Should be fun!!

Deep down and the nose knows!

Had a fun filled day today! Started off by playing outside waiting for the Pods guy to come and take the pods away. Kids wanted to watch it happen. After he did that we headed over to Howe Caverns. Very cool place! You take an elevator down below the Earth and get to walk through all the caverns! Lots of stalagmites and stalactites to see. All sorts of cool rock formations! The caverns are a steady 52 degrees year round, so kinda chilly. You walk 1/2 mile through tunnels. All of them you are able to stand up in, but do need to watch your head on the sides as some rocks stick out. After the walk we take a 1/4 mile boat ride to the edge of the waterfall! Then go back in the river and to the walkway again. We get to walk through the winding walkway, which is a very tight walkway that curves back and forth. Salem smacked his head on one section, lol. I smacked my head too, but not in that part. I stepped back to take a picture of the boys and ran into the wall sticking out. Oops. Keith had to watch his head on many parts as the ceiling got really low. The high point of the kids was when they got to touch a stalagmite! The tour was about 1.5 hours long. The kids loved every part! Kept them interested the whole time...us too!! Only problem was the picture taking was horrible!

After we got out of the caverns we came back to the house to get some lunch. Stuffed ourselves then headed out to do a cache. It was at the top of the mountain that looked like a nose. It is called Vromans Nose mountain, and the cache was The Nose Knows. You walk to the top of the mountain, with lots of cliffs off the one side once you got closer to the top. The kids were very good about staying to the left side. Keith was scaring his mom going out on some of the ledges. Halfway up the mountain attached to a tree was a box that said "Register here". Kinda interesting to see. It was just a log you could sign your name and such in. We made it to the top and WOW what a view!!! Finding the cache was easy. Just a short ways off the trail under some rocks. Kids each grabbed a little toy. Re-hide it and headed back down. The trail makes a full loop, so we kept going to see where this side took us. Down...down steep! Not sure I would have liked to climb up that side. Going down was "fun" enough. Terrain was rated only a 2. Funny how terrains are rated in each state. In Iowa (okay we don't have mountains, so this is only hypothetical) but it'd be rated a 4! Didn't tire the boys out too much, they enjoyed the hike and sights!
After the hike we came back to the house again and played outside. Keith and the boys played waffle...I mean wiffle ball, lol. Then we threw rocks from their yard into the creek behind their house. Then it was time for dinner. Off to Albany to The Barnsider. Yummy restaurant! Salem sure was hungry. He had a steak and french fries and ate it all! Plus ate some of Kaden's fries too! Kaden had a burger, but didn't like it. He said it tasted funny...it was real meat, not Mc D's cheap stuff.

Now we've put the kids to bed and ready to head there ourselves. Big day is tomorrow! Keith's interview is at 11am. Grandma is keeping the boys and I'm going with Keith. I'll wander downtown to check it out and meet up with him afterwards.

We've been here 2 days and have YET to have Dunkin Donuts! NOT cool!! Tomorrow we will for sure have it!!! I will drive there myself to get some!

Sunday/Monday recap

Sunday morning woke up early to head off. First we had the bike race, then we had the trip to NY! You can read all about Keith's racing adventures in his blog. We did stop and do "our" cache since it was on the way to the bike race. Then to the race! It was not a sepctator friendly course at all! You were only able to get into the woods in 2 spots. 1 spot took you far away, the other took you in circles and coulnd't see many spots. Plus the course was SO very skinny it was hard to find spots to be able to stop and take pics without standing in the course, prickers, bugs and who knows what else! We stood in the woods for lap 1, then headed to the feed zone safe from everything but the sun. Salem gave daddy his bottle when he came through. He does good at that! Plus it lets me able to keep taking pictures. Kaden was happily playing in the sand oblivious to all the bottles that were being tossed his way. He ddn't even flinch when a couple hit him! Keith finished 5th place overall in the Open sport class. And they broke medals down into age group. So Keith won 2nd place in his age group! We had to wait quite a while for awards, but that's okay. Keith came away with a cool looking medal and I came away with a pretty severe sun burn on my back and shoulders! At 3:30 we were finally able to leave for NY! The drive was fine, nothing exciting. Kids were pretty well behaved. Kaden was...well Kaden was Kaden. Not happy with anything he brought to do. Oh well, we made it! Arrived in NY at 4pm Monday. Monday was a lazy day. Kids were glad to be out of the car. Grandma and Grandpa Snoop has a nice driveway for their scooters. Kaden and I had a game of Waffle ball, lol. Okay it was wiffle ball, but Kaden kept calling it waffle ball. I won! Keith and Homer spent breaking and unbreaking the wireless internet stuff.

Today we are heading out shortly to Howe Caverns. Should be prety cool to see! It's great weather out here. No bugs, no humidity! Great views with all the mountains!

Awesome bike story!

Check this story out. It rocks!! This is the Chris Horner we have met at Jingle Cross!

http://everydayathleteblog.com/2008/07/12/chris-horner-gives-fallen-rider-and-bike-a-2k-ride-to-the-finish/#more-322

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday

Man it's early! I had to get up at 6am yesterday too for a dentist appointment at 7am. The only one they had on short notice. Needed to fix my filling, which ended up being just fine, so he polished it up just to do something. I was in and out in 10 minutes! Headed over to WM (it's empty at 7am!) and picked up some stuff we needed for our trip. Kaden was up by the time I got home, but Salem was still sleeping. We had planned to go to Family Christian Bookstore for their special kids showing of the new Veggie Tales, HuckleLarry Fin movie. I tried waking Salem up, but he wanted nothing to do with that, so I let him sleep. Kaden and I went by ourselves. I guess Salem slept in until 9:15! Yeah for Salem! So Kaden and I got to watch the movie and they gave away a free 1-2-3 penguins movie to everyone. They had a drawing for some pretty cheezy stuff. A couple movie premier posters to the VT Pirate movie and a VT decorated BOX that their promo stuff came in. Yeah I told you it was pretty cheap! But Kaden won that box and man he could not have been happier!! He was SO excited to win that box! It was too cute! (I'll post a pic later)

Yesterday we decided if we were leaving Sunday (aka today) we might want to start packing, lol. I had done the laundry on friday, so that was all set. Just needed to get it all in bags. So we ran around yesterday packing stuff up. And running a few errands to get goodies. Stocked up on fruit for the trip.

Keith first has a bike race this morning in the Quad Cities. We're doing that and then heading to NY! He can't skip this race as he's on top of the leader score board! Not sure how that is going to put us for driving this afternoon, but we'll see.

Alright I need to get going so we can finish packing and get on the road! Next update will be Monday from NY!

Knock on wood!

With 3 boys (1 big and 2 little) you would think we'd be visiting the emergency room more often. But lucky us (knock on wood) we have only had to go there due to illness. I've learned as a mother of boys not to get too worried when they try things. If what they're going to try is a bad idea, I'll will them no, but I do offer a suggestion how they can be daredevils but in a tad bit safer way. And as always, if it has wheels, a helmet MUST be on! The kids are really good at that rule, they have never complained about it. This past week, they have included knee and elbow pads to their attire when riding. It might have started when they both crashed doing the same trick and both their left knees got scraped up in the same spot! Either way, I'm glad they wear them! It lets them be crazy and the fun doesn't stop when they wipe out! I do turn my head when the bike ramp gets broken out on the sidewalk. On the grass I'll watch and take pics, but when they bring it down on the sidewalk, that's too much for me. I've got 911 on standby and the first aid kit in my other hand, lol. But again, they've been very lucky so far!

Of course we then go and buy them more bone breaker toys, ugh! At Kohl's today they these FREE (my favorite word) wheel things when you bought a shirt. Great ploy by the shirt people to buy their dumb shirts! Add a cool cheap toy and sell more shirts! Well it worked for me. Kaden's shirt was pretty cool, I'll admit. (no pics of the shirts yet) Salem's kinda dorky, but I figured for $9 they get a shirt and wheelie things. Way cheaper than Heelies! You can see in the pictures what these wheelie things are. I've seen a couple other kids wearing them. Their like the poor mans Heelies. Salem and Kaden waited till dad got home to try them out. It was horrible watching them! They started out with just helmets on, but after one fall they went for the rest of the pads! Kaden needed butt pads and he gave up after only a few minutes! Poor kid couldn't grasp it. Salem stuck to it and kept trying. Still doesn't have it, but didn't give up yet. Keith decided to try and see how hard they are, or if it was just our kids who were being dumb. It was just the kids! Keith got it right away, but you do have to lift your feet just so much, not too much. Salem will get it eventually! Maybe we'll strap a pillow on Kaden's butt for him!

Click on the picture box below to see all the pictures!

Boys

Yeah Salem!

3 cheers for Salem! He can swallow pills now!!! We tried it last year with some allergy medicine and it didn't work. Lots of yelling and crying and wasted pills. So he has been taking chewable pills since then. Last week we talked about trying swallow-able ones again and Salem was enthusiastic about it. We bought a small 5 pack at Walmart for him. The first day it only took him a couple tries to swallow it. After that he downed it the first try! We're so happy for him...and he is too!! Today we stopped at Sam's club and picked up a 75 pack for him.Kids were great today! We went and saw the new Veggie Tales movie "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything". Great movie!! The kids used their allowance movie and bought a kids pack to eat during it. We need to rent it so Keith can see it to. Only bummer was they didn't sing their pirate song. After that we went down to Learning Ladder a big educational store that has toys and learning things. It's a great place to just wander around. After that was my dentist appointment. The kids again did great waiting in the waiting room. They had their DS's and there is a tv there playing Nick jr shows. I got my one tooth filled. Hopefully I'll be able to eat normally soon! My right side is still sore, the gums are. The left side is sore from the drilling. Still eating soft foods.

After the dentist we went to Sam's Club where Kaden got upset because I wouldn't let him push the cart. He eventually got over it and climbed in the cart. We got some goodies, including poptarts for him, which he then loved me again! It was past lunch time so we hit Burger King which has Pokemon toys in their kids meal.

Came home and played outside. My car needed a good cleaning. Salem helped me clean the garbage out and then I vacuumed it. Salem and Kaden raced around the yard. Salem on his bike and Kaden on his moon shoes, lol. We had big waffles for dinner and I made green slushies for the kids.

We're watching the tour tonight and then early bed. Nothing too big going on tomorrow. Maybe we'll break out the slip n slide!

Holy hot yesterday!

Yesterday was HORRIBLE!!! As you can see in the picture, it was HOT!!! We tried playing outside in the morning and it was too much. The boys were hot and soaked from sweat. When Keith came home for lunch he turned the AC on and I left it on until bedtime. Inside time gave the boys a chance to clean their playroom...or as they did...just play in it. I think they did clean it up a little bit, but still a mess.

Today is much cooler! It was in the mid 80's I believe. I had a dentist appointment. The boys sat in the waiting room and did great! My appt lasted 1.5 hours! UGH! But I now have temporary crowns and set to get my real crowns on the 21st! I do have to go back tomorrow to get a cavity filled. It's been bugging me, but didn't do anything until today. I was afraid it had hit the root canal point. But the x-ray shows it's okay for a filling. So yeah on that one!! I can't wait to be able to eat real food again after all this dental work is done! Then we'll need to get the kids in for their cleanings. That's a hassle, they will fight me the whole time...plus the dentist!

Kids played outside for a while today after my dentist appt. Salem crashed and torn his knee up. Getting peroxide on him wasn't bad at all. Wrapped his knee in coban and he was back out riding. (Mental note...running out of the stuff, need to buy more! Maybe stock in it too!) But then it started raining and we had to come inside. After Keith went out riding, we went back outside. Kaden...not sure what his deal was...ran into the back of Keith's work truck. Not once, but twice! They were riding behind the garage and then back between our cars. And it is kinda tight and tricky with the hill, but still it's a big white truck, hard to miss! Kaden slams into the back of it! I told him after the 2nd time if he did it again, he would lose his bike for tonight and tomorrow! Well, sure enough he runs into the back again! He yelled a bit when I told him to park it, but he did. And when I was at plasma tonight and Keith took the boys back out, he rode his scooter. I thought for sure he'd try to pull a fast one, but nope, he didn't. Thank you Kaden!

Tomorrow is free movie day. Veggie Tales new movie is showing! I cannot wait to see that one!! After that is my dentist appointment. Then we'll go to Sam's Club and hope for lots of good samples! Have to start getting stuff ready for our trip to NY on Sunday.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have some more pics. I didn't take any today, GASP!

A hot day with long racing!

Keith signed himself up for a 100K (62 miles) team time trial today. He's blaming me for "making" him do it. I guess I told him, he needs to do more group stuff and make bike friends and this TTT would be fun to do. I didn't realize the TTT was 100K for starters. And since when does he listen to what I say and do it??

Anyway, TTT was today up by Waterloo. There was to be a Group A and a Group B from HBA (Hawkeye Bicycle Association) the group who runs the Night at the Oval races. Also the group who has been bugging Keith to join them. Last night at 10:30 an email was sent out saying Group A was not going to be participating. Sucks! That was our fast group! Atleast our Group B stuck to it. It consisted of Keith, Mac (a junior), John and Jason (order in the picture above). We met at the trailhead and carpooled up to the start. Oh Vern (head guy of hba) was with us too. He drove the other 3 guys, so we just had 2 vehicles. That made it nice, the other guys could sleep on the way home, lol.

HBA was set to start at 10:26am! Group number 14 on the road. They set groups off every couple minutes. The boys LOVED seeing all the different bikes people brought. Some road basic road bike (like Keith, Mac and Jason). Others had areo bars (John) and others had FULL time trial gear, the whole 9 yards! The course was 19.33 miles long, and they did 3 laps. The laps were estimated to be about an hour each.

The boys and I brought things to do in between. We sat in our chairs and Kaden had dirt and hot wheels. He was happy the whole time! VERY dusty afterwards, but that's okay! Salem went back and forth between his gameboy and playing with the weeds. Where we were sitting was where the guys tossed their empty water bottles before they grabbed new ones. I put Kaden to work picking them up and piling them by the feed zone. Good helper!

Keith did a great job racing! They all did!! It was hot and dusty! Temps got up to 92!! The boys and I were exhausted and we didn't even race 60 miles! HBA finished the race in 2 hours 43 minutes and 59 seconds! Averaging 21.22 mph! They placed 7th in the mens category. Mac did drop out between the 1st and 2nd lap. His heart rate was way high and he couldn't recover enough to get it back down. You had to finish with 3 guys, so they were still okay. Alot of groups fell apart and only finished with 3. 1st placed finished in 2:10:15 averge 26.72, they were flying!

Almost forgot to mention Keith's amazing trick! On the 2nd lap I knew the guys would all be needing water, so I went to help Vern hand out the bottles as the guys flew by. Of course this meant no pictures, but if I didn't help the guys would have to actually stop to grab the bottles and that would cause them to lose time and possible leg cramping. So I set the camer down and grabbed 2 bottles for Keith, Vern had 1 each for Joason and John. Not sure how Keith was going to get the 2 bottles though. Suprise me when I hold them both out and he lets go of the handlebars and grabs both bottles at the same time! GO Keith!! Come to find he was going about 15mph when he did that! It's hard enough for some guys to grab 1 bottle sometimes without bobbling or crashing, so for him to grab both, that rocked! He was getting "mad props" from the other spectators that saw it. Awarded him most athletic or something like that...only in theory though. I wish I had a picture of him doing that, it was awesome.

Keith was pretty useless the rest of the day. Heck, I was too. We both took a nap on the couch when we got home. Kids laid around the rest of the afternoon too. We even turned the AC on. First time this year! When I put Kaden in bed he asked if we had a busy day planned for tomorrow. I said nope, just hanging out. He said good, he was tired! Good, maybe he'll sleep in!

Happy 4th of July!!!

Our day was relaxing. Keith and I slept in until about 10am. Kaden slept in until after 8am! Salem slept in till after 7am! That's rare for everyone!

Finally got moving, Keith and Salem went for a bike ride. They were gone about 45 minutes, rode 11 miles. Salem was pokey at times. He's gotta work on staying up to a good speed all the time, in due time I guess. Kaden and I stayed at home and decorated his helmet and bike! Kaden LOVED it! We started doing Salem's bike just as he got back. Salem helped do his helmet and mom did his front wheel. Keith mowed the lawn today and split some wood so we can do a fire tomorrow for some camp food.


We made a fireworks run today. What a hassle that was! I hadn't picked up any sparklers yet and knew we needed some. Kaden had seen this pack at Walmart that had some silver and gold confetti shooters in it. I didn't buy it all the times were had been to that store in the previous weeks. So we went there today to see if they had it. Of course they only had the $30 pack and it had a bunch of junky things, but it did have his confetti shooters. We refused to spend $30, so only got some sparklers there and left...much to Kaden's hatred of us. We went to Drugtown and got some 3foot tall morning glories! Still not good for Kaden. Drove to Walgreens, they didn't have anything good left. Off to Hyvee on the other side of town. Last time I was in they had a bunch of stuff! Of course looking for fireworks on the 4th of July was pretty dumb thing to do. HyVee had those "poppers" that shoot confetti when you pull the string. Kaden loved those, so we made him happy! (Not and easy thing to do!)

Back home for dinner, burgers on the grill, and playing before we had to start getting ready to go. Keith and I were inside while the boys were riding their bikes outside. Kaden decided he would ride his bike off the front porch and down the front stairs. He did it once just fine. 2nd time he crashed! I had been saying earlier not to crash cause we wouldn't be able to see the fireworks from the ER room! Well, he wasn't hurt too bad, good road rash on his knee. We took him up to the bathroom and Keith said he needed peroxide to clean it out. Man what that horror! It took us over 5 minutes to do that! He worked himself up into a huge fit, and by then we weren't going to back down, it was dirty, had to be cleaned. When he finally calmed down and let us pour it on, he said it was fine, didn't hurt that bad! Now if he'll remember that for next time! So we bandaged him up, even put patriotic coban on his knee. And off we went to see fireworks!

We sat in a huge field and watched some crazy lady drive halfway across it with kids all over, dumb! We got there around 7:45 and it was very empty. Buy 9:30 it was PACKED! It was a very good spot though! It did take us almost an hour to get home though! Majority of that was sitting in traffic, plus the cops were routing us the long way around. Oh well we made it home. Salem took a nap on the way back.

At home we broke out the sparklers and stuff. Fun times!! I'm gonna get some more to play with again tomorrow! Partly because I found a cool setting on my camera to use with them.


Now we're exhausted and ready for bed. Everyone better sleep in again tomorrow!!Hope everyone had a great 4th of July!!

It's been a long time!

Sorry, I've been so tired by the end of the day that blogging hasn't happened. Figured I write a quick HI tonight.

We survived day camp! It was questionable at times, but the kids had a blast! I've recovered for the most part. Remind me next year not to do it again! Or make sure there is someone else in charge of our 24+, not me! It was fun, they learned lots of things. The weather wasn't too bad. Very hot Tuesday and Wednesday, cooler but humid Thursday and Friday. I'll send out some more pics maybe this weekend. I really need to catch up on those!

Let's start back with today since I can't even remember what we've done the past few days.

We set up a small pool today for the boys. Didn't want to set up the big one since we are leaving in a couple weeks and the pool will be nasty while we're gone. The small one we can empty every few days and take it down while we're gone.

Oh yeah...big news...we're heading out to New York in 2 weeks. Keith has a job interview! He has been talking with a small phone/cable company on the phone and such and they agreed to bring us out there for an in person interview and to check out the area. It's looking pretty good...on our end. Still have a few issues that may make or break the deal, but those will be discussed at his meeting. The town is a small one called Margaritaville, oh wait, it's Margaretville. First time Keith sent me the link to their town, I read it as Margaritaville. Cool I thought! Now it's not as exciting, lol. But that's okay.

So back to today. The boys played in the pool. It was quite cold, so they didn't play for too long. But then Salem rode his bike around as I poured cups of pool water on him. Kaden was busy hammering some nails into some wood. Not sure what he was making, just playing around.

Tonight Keith had his Night at the Oval racing. I think I'm going to keep track of the questions we most get asked. #1 is When is Keith going to upgrade? #2 When is Keith going to join HBA racing? and #3 When am I going to start racing? I think we get asked that atleast once a race. Keith might be winning on #1 &2, but #3 is close last. We all know 1&2 will happen before 3 though!!

Keith had a good night racing! He did very well, you can read his blog to get more info. Not sure on his overall placement as results aren't up yet. But he won a few races, lost a couple.

Tomorrow we're going to the free movies to see Charlottes Web. It's supposed to rain so we might hit The Playstation afterwards. And they have to clean their bedroom again. Kaden has a bad habit of when looking for clothes in the morning, he empties all his drawers! Plus they did laundry the other day. So the floor is covered in clothes!

If the weekend is nice, we're going to try and camp out in the yard. There are a few camping recipes we learned at day camp the kids want to redo at home. One called Snake Bread. It's yummy!!! Our city is doing fireworks on the 4th, so I'm hhapy about that! It's on the other side of town, so we'll have to fight traffic, but hopefully it'll be worth it!

That's all for tonight. I've gotta go to bed, the boys are going to wake me up at 9am so we can get a seat at the theater.