Friday, February 29, 2008

Stranger Among Family

Who am I ? That is a question I sometimes ask myself. I sometimes feel like a stranger when I am among my family. Maybe that is my own doing. I left my parents home at the age of 18. There are a lot of things that lead up to this happening and you can never go back and change things. For my sisters it was really hard. I hurt my parents in doing this and them at that time I was young and thought I knew everything. We have many years between us girls and that is no ones fault. So, we really did not grow up to be close friends. We all get along for our parents when we are together. We do not talk on the phone or share little stories about growing up or anything that a lot of other siblings may do. Mainly with me. I have hurt them both.

With one I keep things a secret that she had asked me to do and I thought I was doing the right thing by keeping her confidence. In the end I was wrong. And I happen to be one other those people who gets upset when confronted and said things to her and my parents that I can never make up for or taken back.

My other sister and I have always been distant. I did try to make things work but when you had me as a big sister it is kind of hard to get past me being the way I was. I guess I told her I hated her and was very very mean. I never really appreciated what it was to have sisters until I was older. Now it is to late.

I want the long conversations on the phone about nothing and the spending time together being silly. But, I know in reality that will never happen. There is nothing that I can do to fix the past. I am trying to set a future.

Now, my youngest sister is getting married. I am so excited to watch her walk down the isle like I did when my middle sister got married. I still have her program from her wedding with the pictures that I took. Now, with the youngest getting married I can make scrapbook of their weddings for me to reflect back on.

These are the memories that I keep.

Do I wish we had a closer relationship? You bet. But, for me to call or stop by I just feel out of place. Like I said I am the stranger among family.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Out and About with Mom

Last Friday I had made a run up to Moose Lake, MN. I took Michael with me since he does not have school on Fridays. And it is nice to have our time together. He asked me"Mom, are there Moose in Moose Lake?" I said " I do not know I guess we will have to wait and see." So, while there we found a statue of a Moose. And then we took our pictures in front of it. Then, we decided to do a little adventuring. We headed over to the State Park that is located there and did some looking around their visitors center. Michael found out that this park is a great place to find Agates. He got a small one when we were there. I decided that this would be a good adventure for us this spring to go up there and look for cool Agates. And to top it all off it will be educational.
The kids(and me) have shown interest in Geo Caching also, But, I am trying to decide if it will be worth the expense of buying a GPS unit for this adventure. So if anyone want to get one for me I will not protest. Hint hint hint

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Round Robin Challenge - Shoes

Welcome to this round of my Round Robin Challenge. I really had a hrd time with this one. Ithought about going to the shoe store and taking pictures and then I thought about just pulling all my shoes out of the closet, and then it came to me. I would photograph shoes of my family. Since I was surrounded by my family this week. So, while we were having a big family dinner I proceeded to tell every one show me your shoes. And these are the pictures I got.These are my shoes. If you were to see them
now You would be sad. My Dog ate the sole.

This is my sisters shoe She would only let me see one

This is my cousin's shoes. She gave me a nice pose.

These are my girl friend boots. She is a boot girl.

Here we have a dual pose. My aunt and uncle giveing me there best shoe on

and shoe off pose will my uncle joining in.

Thank you for stopping by my challenge. Do't forget to check out all the others.

*also for those of you who use AOL Journal. I do stop by and visit. I am just unable to comment.

Friday, February 22, 2008

Check out my Slide Show!

Family

This past week I went to Green Bay, WI for the first time in many many years. It was really hard to go because I was going to say good bye to my Grandmother. I had to remember to celebrate her life not be so sad that she was gone. Which for me is very hard to do. I just get so sad and am still forgetting that my mom has passed and I will begin to think oh, I need to to tell mom this. Then I remember oh, she already knows.
So, while in Green Bay spent some quality time with my Aunts and Uncles. I stopped by my Aunt Janets house. (which happens to be my childhood home). I walked around the house and remembered how it was when I was a kid.
Drove by lots of places that hold memories for me.
I also took lots of pictures of myself with my family. Usually, I am the one who takes all the pictures and I do not come out from behind the camara. But, I have begun to realize I need these photos of myself with people I care about. So, now begins the all the pictures that I took because all everyone said was will we see these on your Blog.
For all of you who wanted to see yourself on the blog here we go.
I added a slide show above for all to see.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

My Other Babies



Those eyes just drag you in to cuddling


"Mommy please hold me"


Only have one of Charlie dog because he does not like the camara.
And he moves so much it is hard to get a good photo of him most that I have are a
Blurry dog.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

SORROW

My life has lots of saddness these past few months. I am fully depressed. I fight the tears, the anger and the pain. I always try to push it away. I have begun to talk with someone about these issues I have. My biggest fear is letting go. I am afraid of what will happen if I break down. My family needs me strong for me to become a pile would show weakness. I had received good news yesterday and was thinking all the bad luck was now going away. Until last night when I get a phone call informing me that my grandmother has passed. I thought it was a dream I had to call my dad this morning to varify that I was not dreaming. Now again I must tell my children that another Grandma has passed on. For me that is the hardest thing to do. Now, I have to be strong for them. When all I want to do is curl up in a ball and be left alone in my sorrow.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

300

What do yo think when you see 300. A movie, dollars?

Well, I am talking about HOTWHEELS. Today Michael was looking through his Hotwheels Magazine and he saw a boy who had just under 400 Hotwheels.

This of course struck an interest in him to see how many he has.

So, after about an hour in his room he brought down a laundry basket full of Hotwheels.

Now, all are not Hotwheels but, most are. Then, we searched the living room and bathroom for the rest. (I am over run with cars. Toy cars the are everywhere in this house and outside.)

He loves cars. As a parent I buy him one when he asks. They are only $1.00 and some times 2 for a $1.00. It makes him happy and beats the $20.00+ toys that are out there that he looks at. And does not play with after the first day. A Hotwheel makes him happy. He will spend hours on end playing with them. I know not ALL 300 at once but alot at a time. So we decided to photograph this event. Now, did I also include that he has Hotwheels movies, Toy computer and clothing, tracks. And that is not everything. Plus, we go online and play racing games at Hotwheels.com. So I will not hold you all in suspense here is the end results.
Can you see the look on his face. He is very proud that he has 300 cars.
Now, with the knowledge of know how may cars he as you would think that would stop me and his father from buy anymore. I can not say for certain that I will not. So, I will just say I will try.

Round Robin Challenge - Veggies

Welcome to my Round in the Round Robin Photo Challenge. I was so excited to see this one was going to be on Veggies.
This year we spent a lot of weekends at the Minneapolis Farmers Market. So I had some amazing photos I was excited to share with everyone. Here is my first photo I was just amazed by the size of this cabbage that I need to use my nephew as a measuring devise just to show how big this head of cabbage was. (imagine the amount of egg rolls that would make)

Next we have another head of cabbage and it was already next to a watermelon so you can see the size is very large.

This is my favorite photo of them all. I did not do any photoshop to this picture this is the was they are grown. We have Purple and orange cauliflower and a hybrid of Broccoli cauliflower. Amazing isn't it. The things people come up with. I have no idea how they do it but it is so cool. The kids thought that it was cool to eat such colorful veggies. Now we have to wait till next season to get more.

Just a side note. For those of you who use AOL Journel. I am unable to comment. But I do stop by and check out your photo's. Thank you to all that stop over for a visit.

Friday, February 8, 2008

Spelling Bee

Last night was the Spelling Bee for our school. Four kids out of each grade competed against each other. They had to take a spelling test before hand to get in. Brittany made it this year. She also competed when she was in 5th grade and now again in 7th. Michael was excited to see her spell he said when he is older he is going to be in speeling bee's also. Unfortunately, she lost the first round. She was nervous and miss spelled her word. We are so proud of her for doing her best to get that far. So, with that said I am going to take her out tonight because she is beginning to put effort in her work at school and show her how proud we are of her. Maybe she will continue to do well with her school work.
Keep you posted.

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Update Time

On, January 31st Jim (from now on going to be know as the One handed Wonder). Had his surgury on his wrist.


We arrived at the clinic at 6am and the began the procedure at 7:45am. It lasted about an hour but he had some severe pain when he was coming out of the anistetic so they ended up giving him a Block. We were able to leave and come home at around 11:15 that morning.


And because I am such a wonderful caring wife I photgraphed some of his moments to share with everyone.




Other updates Britt had to bring home a progress report from her english class for the week and it is the first one she has ever given me she usually hides htem or throws them out. She of course was missing two assignments and had a D- average for now. She asked me if I could sign it so she could get the credit for it. I told her she had to give me and the teacher a expaination of why she is preforming so bad she wrote: " I am just being lazy or I do not care and I am now going to do what it takes to get good grades". Now, I told her I would sign it. So, somehting has kicked in and we will see how it goes.