Turkey day's over ... now, ON TO CHRISTMAS!

We had a great time back in Wisconsin for Thanksgiving. The trip down was pretty smooth - even though we waited until school was out on Wednesday and ended up wading through traffic for an hour just to get across the cities. The rest of the ride was fairly uneventful and we made the normal 4-hour-trip in a little less than 5 hours. Not bad. The good part (as always) was seeing Mom and Dad (aka Gramma and Grampa) at the end of the drive :) Thanksgiving, as always, provided way too much food - especially since Gramma (aka Great-Gramma) hosted and cooked most of the food.

Over the course of the next five days, I think I ate about a pound of broccoli salad, though - thanks Aunt Vicki! - the leftovers are gone :) It was great to see everyone and we got into playing a game that I haven't played in a while - Scattegories. That's probably a must-buy now for the BadgerCubinMN family! We got to swim at a hotel with my cousins and my kids - which is always fun.

My wife and my mom even did the whole "black Friday" thing by getting up early on Friday morning and taking care of quite a bit of shopping. Too bad that some goofy stuff happened with the credit card. You gotta love a credit card company/bank that calls you with every fraud possibility, though. Thank goodness we caught the actions early (only $60) and our cc company will take care of it. I gotta believe that customer service is still here! Just don't care for the people that are trying to use OUR CARD!

Anyway, the trip home was nice on Saturday. Gave us a break after the weekend to kind of get back into home life. We got our tree out and up (as you can see in the pictures) and the kids decorated with my wife. In fact, the entire house is "beginning to look a lot like Christmas!" Wonder when we'll start getting our snow - since the cold is starting come now and it actually is starting to feel more like winter. I got to go play basketball again this Sunday - which is good for everyone - even if it makes Sunday nights a bit harder for my wife initially.

Monday morning brought about my son's allergy appointment. Surprise! He's NOT allergic to cats (or any pets). He MIGHT be allergic to burwood/ragweed and Maple-Box Elder, but even those were very minor reactions. We'll have to keep checking what's making his eyes/cheeks red - maybe dry air, maybe blinking and something with his vision. We'll keep watching, but he seems to be doing okay lately. Anyway, my wife actually took my son to the appointment, so my daughter and I got to do our grocery shopping as a twosome today. Fun and quick! Yeah! Now, let's have a great week! Onward to victory! ... or something like that :)

Love and Peace to All this Holiday Season!

Good weekend :)

So, Friday night was a success. First, my wife dropped off the big guy at his buddy's movie/pizza birthday party. She took his backpack with overnight stuff and a sleeping bag with a pillow so that they could take him right home afterward and he could sleep over at his friend's house. It all went so smoothly (or so it seemed). Meanwhile, during the day, our nieghbors and us had decided to celebrate two promotions in the families that occured recently - my wife's change of job at Medtronic (and promotion) and our nieghbor's promotion to VP. Anyway, we were frantically calling and texting around to find a sitter. Finally, I found a familiar neighbor girl to take the kids (which ended up being just my daughter and the youngest neighbor daughter because of two sleep-overs).

Anyway, after my wife came back from dropping off my son, we got ready to head out for dinner and whatever else was in store. We fed the kiddo, had our friends come over and waited for the sitter to get home from school (she's a college student and was coming back from UofM for the weekend). While we waited, we talked about holiday plans and eventually came to the realization that we wouldn't mind seeing the Bodeans this year between Christmas and New Years. Then we figured out that they are playing the Barrymore in Madison on December 27th. We could do that, we said. So we got online and bought our tickets. Yeah! Haven't asked Mom and Dad (Gramma and Grampa) yet, but I hope they can sit for the kids :) Bummer is, we won't stick around for New Years. I think this will be the first New Years in 15 years that I won't be with the old gang for New Years. Anyway, our night continued on Friday - went PF Chang's for dinner, then the Lookout for a band. We were even home before midnight. Had fun.

Saturday morning I had an appointment to get new tires on the car. Got to Goodyear; they were all set for me. After an hour, they made sure I new they were doing the alignment on the front end and would be done soon. Went to pay and noticed "Comforttred" on the receipt. Uhhh - not the tires I ordered, I said. They would take care of it, they said. Unfortunately, as they figured out, there were only 6 "Tripletred" tires in my size in the state. Thank goodness they had their names on 4 ... in New Brighton (30 minutes away). They took care of me, though. I had my wife pick me up (Goodyear's about a mile from the house). And when I got back to pick the car up - they took off half the price of the labor. Plus we got $50 gift card to the store (yeah, free oil changes) and $50 rebate (both to mail in for). They made a mistake, took care of it without me arguing at all, and now we're all happy - especially my wife - who loves the tires. Did I mention that we picked up my son from his sleepover and he said he had a GREAT time? Another small snag, though - we noticed he was wearing the same clothes he had left in - even though we had packed pjs and new clothes for the morning. Uhhh, no backpack. Uhhh, where'd that go? We finally figured out that it had been left in OUR car when my wife dropped him off - between the front and back seats, hard to see with some of the same colors as the interior of the car. Oh well. It's nice to know that you can have the wrong tires placed on your car and your son can wear a Gopher shirt to sleep in (borrowed his friend's shirt) and we can all still be happy. :)

Besides an ugly Wisconsin-Northwestern game that I tried to watch without yelling, the rest of Saturday was nice - putting up decorations, helping clean the house. Sunday was good, too. Church, helped my wife move her stuff from space to space at her building, quick stop at Target for some necessary items for gifts, Packer victory, football outside with the boys (my son and his friends), dinner with the new sesame sauce from Teesa (good stuff, Tees), and Sunday evening basketball with a bunch of the guys.

All in all. Nice weekend. Now I'm doing LOADS of laundry to catch up. Fun. Thank goodness it's a short week! ... and I'm in a GOOD mood! Happy Thanksgiving everyone - in case I forget to blog again this week, of course.

Pretty Good Week

Still got no pictures. I guess the camera needs to get dusted off a bit :)

We went places this week, though ... kind of. I ended up showering ... and shaving :) Even made it to the grocery store on Tuesday. Washed the floor Wednesday night. Vaccumed on Thursday - kids even helped! But ... still didn't scan the pictures. See, the scanner is in the basement, and right now, I'm sooo much a first floor person :) We went to the pet store to see all the animals on Thursday. We got to see "fancy rats" digging under their "igloo" habitat (don't worry - still IN the cage/aquarium). Also saw a tortoise reached it's neck/head into a bowl of shredded lettuce, pull it out and munch on it - COOL! Lots of puppies on Thursday. Big puppies, small puppies, brown puppies, black puppies with white spots. My daughter loves the puppies!

Anyway, the big guy has a birthday party to go to after school today - which is neat. It's a movie party (at a theater) with a pizza party afterward (pizza place next door). The REALLY cool thing is that his friend asked him to sleep over afterward - BIG STEP! This'll be his first real sleepover - without Mom and Dad (or Gramma/Grampa). I'll be anxious to see how it goes - and post another entry :)

Monday, Monday ...

Didn't shower. Didn't shave. Didn't grocery shop. Didn't clean. Didn't scan pictures. Didn't blog (until now). Didn't post pictures.

Droid does what ... - Wait! That's a commercial. Never mind.

Thank goodness my wife's home :) Now, as for Tuesday ... (to be continued)

The week that was ...

So, I was going to post some cute photos from my son's birthday week(s) at school. They ask us to send a disposable camera and take a bunch of pictures. We got it developed a while ago, but I just came across the pictures again Monday as I was "organizing" the kitchen island. I thought that I would scan them, along with a few pictures of the little girl, and post them on our blog ... and then ... I decided to become busier than I thought this week :)

I always forget how hectic Monday is. Between grocery shopping, bills and money to take care of, my son's homework (which I HELP him do - NOT do myself), dinner, and dance class - it ends up NOT being a day to do the extra stuff I thought I could. Tuesday always brings more school - swim class and my daughter's preschool. This week I made it up to Park Center to talk with a few people and check up on the field. That was nice, but it meant that I didn't get any work done at home. Wednesday seemed to be the day I SHOULD have gotten stuff done, but apparently I found things to do that needed my attention OTHER than the plans. Thursday, I got back up to Park Center to spread agri-lime on the infield (NOT in my job description, but it was nice to have 9 baseball players there to help). I also got our COOL new jackets for baseball. I've worn it everytime I go outside since - just 'cause it's cool :) Had a couple extra young'ens over last night (Thurs) while my wife and a coworker went to funeral home for visitation hours. (Nobody TOO close - another coworker's wife, though - sad! - ovarian cancer)

Tonight, I should've stayed home all night. Instead, we went to "Turkey Bingo" at my son's elementary school. All that needs to be said is, "too many people; too little space." I hope it makes a @#$%-load of money as a fundraiser for the PTO, but I don't think I'll be going again. They sell pizza, candy, pretzels, pumpkin pie. And they raffle off 100's of things. Plus there's a silent auction. All good stuff, but they do it all in the gymnasium of an elementary school - and there's not enough room for all the people that show up. In addition, I don't do very well with LARGE crowds. So, the first 10-15 minutes we're there, I'm ... well ... worthless. I finally adapted a bit and made the best of the situation - thank goodness we had a few neighbor families and friends there to help us find a seat and take care of us :)

Anyway, all this before the weekend and now I'm actually blogging at 9pm on a Friday. Oh well. I will post some pictures (hopefully ones that I have been planning to scan, in addition to some new family shots) soon. For now ... kids asleep, and soon I will be, too :)

Hawkeyes lose :( Badgercubs win, have fun in Iowa :)

Went to Iowa this weekend to spend time with my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew. No, we didn't go to the football game - thank goodness. I don't know if I could have handled that many dissappointed Iowans in one place. Too bad their season (and the hope of the Big Ten) was changed by one play. Anyway, we had fun with the family. Nice new house is soooo comfortable to hang out in and around. The cousins enjoyed playing together so much that when my sister-in-law called on Sunday after we got home, she had to tell us that my nephew was already missing his two cousins. Only wish we lived closer. Cousins are fun :)

Apparently, there was a tiger hunt in the house, a sand storm on the back patio, a golf course in the back yard, and a fire in the fire pit at the neighbors' place - with games in the garage :)

Sharks, turtles, previously seen smiles, and a birthday.

Went to see these guys today. Sharks were swimming and Calypso the turtle crawled right up the glass as I watched.

I can't resist posting my family's cute smiles (and sleeping face). And I HAVE to wish my wife an early Happy Birthday. She'll be turning 29 (again) on Sunday :) ... and she doesn't look a day over 28 :) I love you honey!

The week after ...

... Halloween is an interesting week. Somehow candy is eaten at ALL hours of the day. It occurs with and without parental knowledge (kids can somehow FIND where it is HIDDEN - or NOT hidden - and kids can be SNEAKY). There are sugar highs and lows and there apparently is a lot of screaming from 3-yr olds (that, I don't remember from the last one). Anyway, kids are still FUN. And challenging. And rewarding. I can't remember I mentioned the GREAT parent teacher conference we had for the big guy last week Wednesday. Apparently he's AWESOME! Proud parents! :) (Need to remind myself of these things when we have the screaming and the yelling at home - Kids are awesome, but not perfect - except in grandparents' eyes)

Here's some pics that we got from neighbors from Halloween. And a drawing from my son. He was proud and sent it to his cousin in Onalaska that had sent he and our daughter a drawing of them that she had done from a picture. Apparently our son has a desire to give back when people do things for him. Yeah!

Boo!

Okay, so the formatting for posting pictures is going goofy on me, so you'll have to "bear" with me on the Halloween pictures. My puppy dog and "Snake Eyes" both had a blast. I figure that I would post these pictures and not talk too much about the 4 1/2 hour drive to Green Bay (and then back again) to watch a team that can't play special teams and doesn't have the discipline necessary to beat a team that is beatable. I still had a good day with my dad :) Too bad the Green and Gold couldn't finish the day off. Like I said, I'll just let these pictures show what fun Halloween was - from carving pumpkins to choosing candy :) I'm sure a week of Halloween isn't enough for my wife and kids ... but I'm happy to say I enjoyed it JUST enough :)