The Coolest Army Dude Around!

This is my dad, you all know him , and most know him well! Probably the coolest man that I know.

I respect him more that he will know.

He WANTS to go to IRAQ because he loves his country

and is protecting his family, friends, and even enemy's.

Daddy, thank you. I love you.

YOU ROCK!

(mom, you know I totally stole this pic from you, but I love it!)

OLE`!!!

Tonight we went to Los Flores with Tony, Adam, Cassy, and Corina! OOO yummy yumm! It was so good! Cassy, Mike, and I had something called a Quesadilla Fajita. OH MY GOSH! IT WAS SO GOOD! Basically it was a Quesadilla shell with grilled onions, peppers, tomatoes, beans, chicken or beef! I love their rice too! Tony very generously got us yummy beef nacho plate for and appetizer and a pitcher of strawberry margaritas! Oh so good! We had so much fun and Corina even got to wear a sombrero! She was so cute! We put the adult size on her and she loved that one too! Tony taught us some Spanish sayings (in Tony Spanish) to get what we wanted or to say thank you. Then Mike taught us the proper way to say thank you..."Grassy Ass". I think we all really enjoyed our selves and our meal! YUM! Now, off to bed with me! Zzzzzzzz....strawberry margaritas....Zzzzzzzz...

Oh and I also forgot, after I picked Tony up today we stopped at Dusk to Dawn my favorite little country store that sells amazing decorations for CHEAP! I found a really cool mud room sign that I really wanted and he surprised me and got it for out house warming gift! What a nice guy! I also got some cards to mail out and he found some cool cell phone holders and coasters! What a guy! It was really fun shopping with Tony...shhh don't tell him I said that!
Tonight Mikey and Tony are making some REDNECK CUSTOMS stickers for a few members of the club! I can tell mudding season is fast approaching! Hope to have more to write soon!

Yay Yay Daddy's Ok!

Hip Hip Hip Hooray! Daddy's ok, and going to Iraq! Thank goodness for second opinions!! Ok I'm glad he's ok but not to glad he's going to Iraq. I'm happy for him but not happy for Me or the rest of our family. I just found out so I don't know any details yet! I'll update soon! :)

Wudda Week!!!

Dad had a stress test last Thursday which led to a cardiac cath (angiogram) on Friday. Briefly, the doctors were just about to place a couple of stents but thought maybe it would be better to do bypass. Of course, they tell you this and expect you to accept major surgery in the moment. Dad was still sedated when they told him and of course, that was a major blow to him. Dad and Mom talked to 3 cardiologists that night and they all agreed it wasn't an urgent matter and he could go home and think about it. Believe me, that is all we thought about all weekend! Monday morning Dad called Dr. Kabel and Kabel understands Dad's position pretty well. He is sending Dad to Mayo Clinic to be further evaluated. They may do stents that day....otherwise, it will be bypass here in Waterloo. If they do stents, he will be back to work Monday and Iraq is a go. Bypass would mean no Iraq and quite a recovery period. His heart muscle is healthy and the doctors believe that he will bounce back quickly from the bypass if he should have it done.

Friday night we went home and a few close friends came over to relax with us. It was nice to be able to relax with friends after such a long day at the hospital.

Saturday Mike had to work a long day and I had a baby shower present to buy! I did let my self sleep in a bit but then I was off to the mall to find the cutest baby outfit that I could find!! I was successful, after several attempts. I should have known that Younkers would be the store to provide the masterpiece that I was looking for...blue and gray camo romper with hood and elephant saying...Stomp Stomp. Green camo romper with hood and dog saying...Woof Woof. ORANGE romper with adorable embroidered tiger that says...Little Tiger. Oh my gosh! All Carters too! After that I had to get the wrapping paper! I was so creative that day! I found plain blue and yellow paper and a really cute wide yellow and blue ribbon that said baby on it and had duckies and bottles and rattles and all sorts of cute baby stuff on it! Oh and when I was done wrapping I was going to take a picture but then I thought that would be silly, but now I was wishing I had one to show you! OK enough with the wrapping! Mike came home from work shortly after I got home from shopping, so I showed him the gifts and he rolled his eyes and layed down to take a nap. Later that evening after Mike woke up, our friends Chris and Mandy came by to see the house and visit. It was really nice to see them, so nice in fact we stayed up until 2:30, not remembering it was daylight savings, so it was really 3:30. Mandy and I were going to the baby shower the following day and we riding together because it was out of town for both of us! Luckily just as we were going to bed Mike remembered that we had to turn the clocks back!

Sunday Mandy and I safely and sleepily made it to the baby shower for Krystal and Dusty. We had so much fun but played some REALLY hard games! It was a really good time though! It was supposed to end about 3, I think we stayed til almost 5! After that we headed home for a "relaxing" night. When I got home, Cassy stopped by with her puppy so she could meet our girls and they played for a while, then we all (minus puppy) went to Wal-mart to return cans and get some groceries! Bet we screwed around so much we didn't get home in time for me to watch Dirt, or so I thought. Thank goodness they play it right away again at 10! So don't worry mom, I didn't' miss a thing, and I think Mike's getting into it too!

Other wise this week has been very low key for us again, it doesn't help that we are poor and can't go anywhere because GAS IS SO FREAKING EXPENSIVE!!!! Last night it was so nice out we drug out the hose and the power washer and sprayed down the cars! We would have washed them but we are pretty sure we left our bucket full of all our car wash stuff in the shed at the duplex :( but I think we can still go rescue it!

It's supposed to be another nice day here in Iowa so I'm excited!

BAD NUT!

I love when dogs learn new things...it's so cute...NOT!

Peanut now knows how to unroll the tp and shred it up in the 9 mins that I am in the shower!

BAH! Now she is just stuck barking in her kennel in the morning.

Today I couldn't find Molly, which is really strange, normally she's right at my feet. So I was calling her name and whistleing and running all over the house begining to get worried, when much to my suprise Molly was burried 2 legs and her face in the cat box. GROSS!!! My perfect little angel is not perfect anymore! :(

Let it rain (snow) down on me!!!!

It snowed, it rained, it snowed, it iced and last night it rained, iced, and snowed! Makes for ideal driving you know. We did have a beautiful day yesterday though, it got up to about 50. We got up bright and early and went to the Fireman’s Breakfast. It was so good, I tried something called Rinderwurst. Very good! They made some really good French toast and eggs etc. Mike and I spent most of the afternoon outside, chopping old ice and organizing our mess we like to call a garage. Mike got these shelves from work that are really handy and hold a lot of stuff! Peanut got into trouble, she decided to wait until I had one shoe on and one shoe off and run down to see what the neighbor was doing, well apparently he doesn’t much are for curious little puppies! So Mike had to go rescue her from the grump old man. I think we live next to the town grump. (Readlyn, 857 Nice Folks, 1 Town Grump). Anyway it was really funny to watch big ol’ Mikey chasing lil’ ol’ Peanut down our street! I think she thought he was trying to play with him! She was having the time of her life, and it ticked him off when I called her name from the driveway and she came running home and into my arms. I think she found every mud puddle in the street to jump in! She’s filthy. Needless to say she got a spanking and went in her kennel for the next hour or so. Now Molly my perfect little angel just sat there and watched as Peanut was punished!
The rest or our day was spent going to my parents house, Wal-mart, and Mike’s mom’s house. We had a big day! When we got home Mike made us some awesome Mushroom and Swiss burgers! Oh so good! I’m making myself hungry!
I forgot to tell you about Saturday! We got to spend the whole day at the Amish. I was very excited. We actually got to eat treats from the bakery before they ran out and they were even still warm!!! So so good! We didn’t find a lot of deals at the dented grocery store, and that was sad but we still got some taco shells and Chex Mix. We rented a movie and went home. It was a good Saturday!
The only plans we have for the rest of the week are returning our big garbage can full of pop cans and bottles and making some money back! Yay!!
Well that’s all for now!

Think Spring!

So I decided to change my blog so it looked more springy, but it didn't' turn out as well as I planned it would/ It's more like...GO PANTHERS! Oh well, I like it! We have had a really boring week! That is not normal for us, we actually stayed home, every night. But it was nice to just be for a while, but now were getting restless! So, Mike has the possibility of getting Saturday off, so I'm thinking we can go to the Amish alllll day. I don't think Mike really wants to do that so we will probably have to do something that guys like to do too. :( Humph!!! My luck he will have to work and Ill be stuck being bored at home ALL day. We did get more snow yesterday! We got about 3 inches of the heavy stuff, and it was still blowin' around this morning when I went to work. Yay! Now today, it's supposed to warm up and this weekend it's supposed to rain! Then Sunday night the rain will turn to ice and snow...my favorite combination! :)

I really need to get our and build a snowman before it's too late, does anyone want to help me???

Hooray for the Snow!

The weather is welcoming me home properly!! We are getting pounded with snow, or are supposed to! The new update I heard is for upwards of 8 inches! Yay!

We had a lot of fun with the family this last week. I got there Wednesday and Mom and I worked at grandmas for about 4 hours and then went to Dave and Elaine's to enjoy spaghetti and Hayley and Hannah! My 2 new favorite people in the whole wide world!! We went to bed and got going on Thursday back over to grandmas for more packing. Then we took grandma shoe shopping! She got some shoes that were good for her feet but not her "normal" size. So in the end i think they are returning them because she has never worn and * double wide in her life, always a 7 double wide! Then we went to Dave and Elaine's so my mom could make Chicken Pot Pie! YUM! And I got to enjoy Hayley and Hannah again! I should mention that I enjoyed Sara too!

Friday we decided to skip the packing and go down town and go shopping! We went to the Kitchen window so Mom could snoop and went to Pensky's Spices and bought some cool stuff there! Then we went to Salasarita's for lunch! YUM! After that Mom and Elaine dropped me off at Lane Bryant so I could exchange some Jeans and then we went to World Market. We all found a few things we just couldn't live without! Later Sara and Tim took me out on a date so we could get away from the old people! We went and saw Fools Gold! I'm buying it! Such a cute movie! After that we went back to Dave and Elaine's and Mikey was waiting there for me! I was so happy to see him! We relaxed for the rest of the evening and went to bed because we had to get up early to help Grandma move!

Saturday Morning we didn't get going as early as planned but when we did we really got going! When we got to grandmas I think we just attacked her apartment! We worked for a little over and hour and it was lunch time, so Mike and I went to get lunch and met Sara and the girls at McDonald's! It was fun to eat with them! When we got back with lunch most of the apartment was all packed up in the vans and trailers, besides the big furniture! It was sure nice to be a girl because the boys did the heavy lifting and the girls did the un-packing! It was great! When the boys went back to get the rest of the furniture Sara and I took grandma on a tour of the place and introduced her to her neighbor across the "street"! After the long day of packing and unpacking, we all went out to dinner at Red Robin and had awesome burgers and steak fries! After dinner we were all tired but grandma needed groceries so Elaine and Sara took her to the store and we all headed home to sit back and relax.

Sunday was the day we were headin' home, but because we were so tired on Saturday we didn't say goodbye to anyone! So we made a trip over to grandmas before we left town and helped unpack and fill her curio cabinet. That was fun! Then we said our goodbyes and headed out the door! On our way home we stopped at Ikea and got some lights for our bedroom and other stuff we really don't need! Oh we did get some knew glasses because almost all of our other ones got broken when we lived in the duplex...stupid metal sink...
After we left Ikea we went to Mystic Lake Casino. That's were we always used to go before we were 21 so according to Mike we were "reminiscing". But got lucky and won most of the money I spent on the trip back! So that was exciting! By the time we left there we were hungry so we went to Cracker Barrel! Yum! Finally after dinner we headed for home, didn't' get there until 9:30 or so.

I think All in All I had an awesome time and can't wait to go back! Love you all!! Thanks again!!!

Moving Day for Grandma

Wow are we tired! We started at 11 this morning and Just got home at 9! We are all sore! Grandma is moved into her new apartment! I will write more later!! I promise! I just had to get these fun pictures up tonight!

Another Minnesota Morning!

OK! I am having way to much fun with these kids! Sara, you make the sweetest babies!

Yesterday we spent alot of time at Grandmas again, so today we are taking a little time out to go shopping! Hooray! I bought a pair of jeans when I went to Iowa City with Cassy and for some reason I just told them my size and bought them, well they sold me petits I may be short, but not that short!!!!! So I have to exchnge them. We are also going to a kitchen shop in Down town and probably World Market. I'm excited! Then it's back to Grandma's to finish off most of the packing! Hooray! OK I'm hungry and I will write more later, oh Iowans...it's at least 20 degrees here...IN YOUR FACE!