Tis the season!

Went Christmas shopping yesterday- BIG mistake! What was I thinking? Shopping on a Sunday around noon is not the best of times. Shopko has these huge semi-like carts and very narrow aisles, not a good combo. I tried to manuver around things, but ended up knocking many things over and making huge messes throughout the store.
I am laughing while typing this one:) While in the toy aisle this poor, frazzled woman came barrelling towards me, I tried to scoot my cart over as much as I could, but it was too late, she ran into the edge of my cart which made her cart scape against this huge yugi-oh display. Trading cards flew everywhere! I bent down to help pick up the huge mess and she totally cussed me out and told me not to bother helping! WELL!!! I got up and gladly let her clean it up:) See ya grinch!!!
I got most of my shopping done so all's good. Not much else going on. Steve has been working a lot so it's been pretty hectic! Trying to get things done and find time to get things done is so hard. Kids activities are starting to pile up again so I practically live in the car!
I can't wait to see everyone for Christmas! I feel rather guilty saying this since some family members can't be with us this year(LOSERS), but we will be sure to talk about you as much as possible:) ttfn

Back to the grind!


Thanksgiving was a good time. Steve had to work, and was missed, but the holiday went on. We spent the day at his parents house in Lincoln, then went to mom and dads later that evening. The kids were a little weary by that time, so we ate pie and had to leave earlier than expected:( It was great to see Heidi and hopefully she will come back for Christmas. There is never enough time to catch up with all the siblings! We went back to mom and dads on Sat. Steve showed up and suprised me with a cell phone. I've never had my own own cell phone before,well not if you count this bag phone I had in the 90's, it was a huge corded phone in a bag. I think it was the first "cell phone" ever made! I am giddy with excitement over my new toy. Heidi was shocked, maybe you all are? I'm so old!!!!
It's back to babysitting today, this picture is me and Ally along with two of the three kids I watch on an on-call basis. I really love it because it's flexible and gives Ally some playmates:)

Hayley is 9 !!!

We pretty much celebrated Hayley's b-day all weekend long this year.
Friday, I was invited to eat lunch at school with her. Wow! It tasted nothing like the hot lunch I remember. They served a traditional Thanksgiving feast. The turkey was real meat, not the rubbery stuff we were served. Hayley invited her whole class to eat with us. At first she had only invited the girls but then the boys begged her to let them join us too. So we all took our lunches into her classroom for a private lunch party. It was too fun!
Fri. night Zach had an overnight campout and Steve had to work all night so we headed for blockbuster and rented some girl movies and had a little slumberparty.
Saturday(B-day) Hayley received some money in the mail and she wanted to spend it right away so we went shopping. She picked out all sorts of fun craft kits that will surely keep her busy most of the winter. When we got home she made her cake. We had a small party for her that evening because Steve had to work that night.
Since Steve worked on Hayley's b-day we all went out for brunch on Sunday and that night some friends came over to hang out and butcher more deer so Hayley had quite a full weekend! (ME too, birthdays wear me out!)
Well, only two days of school this week for the kids and then Thanksgiving!

More from the garage...



You know you're a redneck if...
-your kids race to get there homework done so they can see all the dead deer!

Yes, we had another little deer gathering last night. Kari and her gang came over around 6pm to check out all the blood and carnage. Our kids are pretty desensitized to the whole thing, even little O.J. When Kari first arrived OJ ran over to the dead, bloody deer with it's tongue hanging out and tried to step on it. There were about eight kids running around in the garage at one point, and as one of Steve's friends' put it "Holy Romper Room".

How many guys DOES it take to slaughter 4 deer? Well, we counted eleven, but some of them looked like drunken wallflowers hanging out far away from the actual work. One guy fell twice by the side of our garage where just last week I stored about 10 tomato cages:) they make great booby traps!

Sorry about giving some of you nightmares and near hurling lunch experiences, but this stuff is just too cool. Also, if we do have a bird flu outbreak you all know where to come. Steve, Jarrod and their possy won't let us starve!

Here are some more pics from last night.
-Steve has cut up so much meat that he's growing antlers! (Ed is too funny) Jarrod posed so cute in the second photo. TTFN

LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL!!!
Steve's friend Cole shot this one tonight. It's not rifle season yet so the guys all go out and sit in tree-stands with their bow and arrows.
I'm not quite sure where the other leg went on this deer. Yes, it's as gross as it looks, but hey, I really do like the taste of deer. What could be better than free meat?

A Hunting we will go...

Well it's that time of year again! Steve has two weeks off and is determined to get a monster buck this year.

I am finally getting into all the excitement that hunting season brings. Not being from a "hunting" family, it has taken some time.

Here is Steve, Ally and our Lab "Sadie" you can't see all the pheasants in this pic, but the guys did good last weekend. My kids all love hunting and even the girls can't wait to go with Daddy some day:) Zach can take hunter safety classes starting next year, he already goes out with Steve sometimes, but can't get his permit till he's 12. He even learned how to gut a deer last year, he turned white as a ghost, but he thought it was pretty cool.

Steve's garage is more like the slaughter house come Nov. He already got everything cleaned up and ready to start cutting up the deer. He usually gets around three and then all his friends bring theirs over and have a big deer processing party. I will definatley have to take pictures so you all will see what I have to go through! Although the beer drinking part is quite fun:) So seriously, if anyone wants to come out during the festivities just let us know.

Happy Halloween(a day late:)

We had a marvelous time last night! The whole town of Panama really goes all out for the kids. There were hayrack rides, hot dogs, hot chocolate and lots of games and of course candy! It was pretty darn cold here though, but I think the kids handled it better than the adults. I am really sorry but I forgot to take pictures of the gang. Zach wore a creepy mask that scared the crap out of the little ones, Hayley dressed as a geisha girl and Ally was Strawberry Shortcake. They all had to wear hats, coats and gloves though because of the weather.

We went to the zoo a while back with some friends and just had to post this picture. There are a lot of new things at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, it was cool!

Way to go Zach!

Today was Zach's last game for the Screaming Eagles. He did an awesome job, with a total of 72 rushing yards! In the fourth quarter he made a 50 yd. touchdown (his 1st) and ran the ball in for the extra point. He was so proud:) His team won the game 47-13. They are undefeated and start playoffs the next two weekends. After that it looks like they will be playing in Olathe, KS against the best teams in the midwest. The dates are Nov. 11&12 so if you Kansans are free, come on out to see us. We will let you know more details when they are made available to us!

Who's the boss?

The kids don't have school today or Monday so we went to spend the night at Grandma's last night. The sewing room at Mom's house is awesome and all I want to do is sew, sew and sew! Hayley had her first sewing machine lesson last night and did great. Ally was in there with us too and she is just a kill sometimes. She asked grandma sheila who the boss of her house was, and of course grandma said "ME" Grandma asked Ally who the boss is at her house and Ally answered "ME and MY MOM" it was too funny!

Gardening

We got pumpkins!!! I'm so excited about the pumpkins this year. We actually picked up some seeds at walmart for $1.29 or something and planted them this spring. About six months later about a dozen big pumpkins grew:) Some were pretty big and some kind of weird shaped, but I guess you never know what your gonna get. What's weird to me is it almost takes as long to grow a big pumpkin as it does to have a baby! The kids got a big kick out of it too. We grew watermelons and cantelopes in the same area and they did good this year too. My tomatoes and green beans were just crappy this year though:( Steve wanted to plant carrots and onions this year and they are always a bother! The carrots always taste like dirt and the onions never get that big, so they taste bitter. Steve hates onions so I never quite get why he always wants to plant them???? Men!!!
I love gardening more and more each year. This past weekend I totally bribed my kids to rake leaves:) We have a huge tree in our front yard and it has lost all of it's leaves already! I told the kids they could have a can of pop if all the leaves were cleaned up, it got done speedy quick! Then yesterday Steve mowed for (hopefully) the last time this year. Steven also took out this stupid-ugly bush I planted a long time ago. It's the one to the right of the big front window. Last week I trimmed the whole thing up thinking it might look better, but, well no luck there! I need ideas for this empty space, suggestions anyone?

Squirrel Hunting...

We have a huge black walnut tree in our yard. The squirrels have been feasting and cracking on the nuts for weeks now. It's really fun to watch them gather the nuts and dig huge holes in the grass too!

This afternoon me, Sam and Ally sat on our front porch and thought what fun it would be to make a squirrel trap. We put all the black walnuts we could find in a bucket. I got a huge slab of rock and a stick to hold up the slab, then we put about 10 walnuts in the trap. It's really just a trap-making experiment, it shouldn't hurt the poor squirrel too bad. If it does I have a great squirrel stew recipe:) Plus, it kept the kids busy for over an hour! Priceless...

In other news... Steve got a new truck. It's a poop brown Toyota 4x4, 1987. Deer season is full on! Watch out Bambi!

Is Grandma home yet??? Boy, things are sure quiet around here without Mom! Kari and I are having major coffee withdrawls.
I really hope Mom and MaryBeth are having a great time. I'm sure they will have awesome stories to tell. I can't wait until the day that us gals (in-laws included) can plan little getaways:} I guess the Kansas City trip is right around the corner! I can't wait!!!
When mom gets home Kari and I will be helping mom rearrange her sewing room. We thought it would be fun to set up all of our sewing machines over at her house. Then whenever we come over we can all work on stuff together. Also, when anyone else(grandkids, Gina, Audrey, Heidi, Christa, Em, or any of moms' sisters) wants to they can
use the room too.
It should be quite a laugh, at first, because neither me nor Kari really knows to much about quilting. I've worked on a few things by hand, but using the sewing machine is still awkward for me. Kari is even more newbie than me. We even thought about trying to make clothing for the girls:) This should be a great adventure, hopefully we don't laugh ourselves to death.

I just took these pictures this morning. Ally wanted to go outside right away this morning. She started out in the backyard playing crazily in her sandbox. These two pictures were taken in the frontyard and from the look on Biscuits face she's about to be sacrificed. Actually, Ally gathered all the sticks in the yard to make a campfire and she is trying to get a fire by rubbing sticks together. Survivor Nebraska watch out!!!

What a beautiful Fall day! It's supposed to get really windy and rainy later so I better go get some yard work done.

Just Hanging Around

Go Big Red!!! Yesterdays game was awesome.

In other news, Hayley and Zach went to the big airshow yesterday and Hayley was interviewed by Ch.8 (eyewitness news) she looked so cute on T.V.
The whole gang (minus the out of towners) gathered at Dad's house to watch the game. I love watching football with dad he gets crazy:)

Today started way too early, getting all the kids ready for church when they are not wanting to get out of bed is a very difficult task. Zach usually grabs what ever is laying on the floor to wear, so I had to send him back to change. And I think bad fashion sense must run in the family because Hayley came out wearing this purple peasant top, black velvet skirt, white frilly socks with these white patten leather shoes. Whoa!!! We made it to church on time, but just barely. We had to sit in the front row.
Zach had a football game today. Their team is undefeated so far! Next week they have a tough game. Hopefully they win the rest of their games, if they do they get to go to the Midget Super Bowl in K.C.

Wow!!! Check out my hair. This is totally 80's man. It was like oh my god, totally narly! For sure! If anyone needs to know how to achieve this style just let me know:)

THE OMINOUS NEBRASKA SKY

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Summer is just about over. This is the first week the kids have had to wear jackets to school. It got down to 40 degrees last night. Burrrr...
Zach and Hayley are off at school, so it's just me and Ally gal at home(Steve got home at 6am and sleeps till about 3pm, then off to work again). It's a pretty slow day around here. Yesterday was crazy, busy! Getting the house back in shape after a hectic weekend, 4 loads of laundry(which still lay unfolded), Mowed the yard, parent-teacher conferences, Zach's football practice, going over homework with the big kids, Ally needed a bath(go figure!) Did we eat dinner? Oh yeah, "bowls of cereal for everybody!" Man, I hate when Steve works nights! Well, it's off to Wal-mart. I'm making dinner for all the guys at Steve's work(baked steak w/gravy) they always have a big dinner on their last night shift. Tomarrow starts his 7 days off. Amen!!!

Here's the gang in Minnesota! We had an awesome time this summer.
We stayed in a town named Blackduck, which is smack-dab in the middle of Chippewa National Forest. We did a lot of fishing and sight-seeing. Steve and I thought how great it would be to just sell all of our stuff and buy a little resort someday. Steve could be the maintenance man and fishing/hunting guide and I could be the boss and do the books. Pretty much like it is at home, but we'd make money doing something we enjoy. The kids said they would clean the swimming pool and the cabins! It would be so fun. The picture here was taken in Bemidji,MN. The local legend is that Paul Bunyan and his ox "Babe" traveled all over Minnesota leaving huge footprints everywhere, and then when it rained all the footprints filled up with water. Thus, we have the land of ten- thousand lakes. We also saw our first Indian reservation license plate in MN. I'm 35 yrs. old and never knew Indian reservations had their own license plates.