tHiS & ThAt......

All I have for ya tonite is a little bit of this and that!!! Sorry nothing really crazee tonite!!!!! We did have a cross country meet tonite in Oskaloosa at Lake Keomah. Taylor got 6th again with a time of 15 minutes and 49 seconds.....much improvement from last week!!!!! And Laney ran in 16 minutes and 53 seconds taking 13th place one step up from 14th last week......also a big improvement!!!!! AWESOME job ladies!!!! We are sooooo proud of both of you!!!! And they both got a medal....again!!!! No pictures tonite did not get them put on the computer and they all start looking the same so do not want to bore you with that!!!!

Demster update......he is coming out of his quiet stage and into kind of a rowdy one!!! He has also found his voice......wow sometimes when you are least expecting it....gives you a little jolt!!! And he wants to chew on EVERYTHING!!!!! He has alot of toys but those do not seem to be what he likes to chew on so I feel like I have a toddler in the house.....constantly saying no or stop that and then he gets sassy and barks at me......no respect at all!!!! But ya gotta love him cause he is just so darn cute!!!!

I have 2 birthday kids this month so I should get some pictures rounded up so I can give you a little get to know the kids section this month......hmmmm.....now that's a good idea.....I just might do that!!!!

And last but not least......Shawn at Eclectic Whimsy is working on my new blog design right now as I type!!!!! I am very excited to see what she comes up with....so soon we will have a new look....so make sure you let me know what you think of it when it comes!!!!

GrAnDmA DiXiE....

Ok....I am going to try to do this without rambling on and on and talking in circles....like I already have!!!!! For starters Grandma Dixie is Troy's grandmother....his mom's(Jan) mom and Mike is Jan's husband....Troy's step dad. I told you a while back I would do Troy's family "bush" a little at a time as not to overwhelm you!!!! A few years ago(I will not try to guess how long ago because I am sure it is longer than what I think) we had to help move Grandma Dixie into assisted living...now she LOVES it!!!! But at the time she was not at all impressed by it!!!! And made sure Jan knew that!!!! She is the sweetest little lady you could ever meet.....but boy is she ornery!!!!! Nor is she shy....things kind of come out of her mouth sometimes that maybe she shouldn't say(Jan is usually not impressed by that!!)....but I can't help but giggle about it!!! So Jan says I do not help out the situation very much!!!! So that being said she is in assisted living because she has dementia. And it is really very sad because she is as healthy as a teenager but she just can't remember s**t.......that is what she will tell anybody who asks her!!!! She can not tell you what she ate for dinner 5 minutes ago but she can tell you what she did when she was 16 years old....it is just mind boggling to us!!!! But everybody who knows her.......LOVES her!!!! So I hope that kind of tells you a little bit about her and just how special she is to ALL of us!!!! She is the only grandparent that Troy and I have left!!!!

So on Sunday nite they had an open house at the assisted living(and it just happened to be grandparents day!!) This week is assisted living week. She just crack us up...we got there and she thought Troy was his uncle and just some stuff that she said was just funny!!! The women who work there just love her. So we had snacks and the kids got to visit with her even if she asked them the same 3 questions over and over.....the kids have gotten better about it.....Kale used to remind her that she had already asked him that....now they just answer her again and again!!!! Bless her heart!!!! I took a few pictures so I will share those with you so you can put a face with the names!!!

Troy and the kids, Jan(in red), Grandma Dixie(middle), and Mike(tall one:) So when I called grandma a "little" lady that is really what I meant.....Taylor is not very tall....maybe 5 foot 2 inches....MAYBE....so I think you can see that both grandma's are not very tall.....that must be where Troy got his height from....and Taylor too!!!!

Kale, Delaney, Grandma Dixie, and Taylor....I am so happy for all of them that they are old enough to remember their great grandmother!!!!
This is grandma and her very dear friend Elanor.....they do everything together!!!! And I am very sure there is never a dull moment when the 2 of them are around. It is just AWESOME to me that at that age they can enjoy life every single day and not worry about the little things.....laugh and giggle like they were 16 again!!! It just makes me think that maybe I take life way to serious sometimes.....I need to relax and enjoy things a little more.....because you never know what tomorrow will bring!!!!!

gRaNdPaReNtS

Good morning to all you grandparents!!!!!!! HAPPY GRANDPARENTS DAY!!!!!! I really do not know where I should start......you all do soooo much for us to help out when needed, support us when we are a bit weak.....like listening to me for HOURS on the telephone and probably wondering if she is ever going to shut up!!!! Going to the kids' activities......I know that really means alot to all of them!!!! And just the get togethers.....that is really what it is all about.....spending time together so that when you all are gone they have a ton of memories to hold on to!!!!! I think we all take life for granted when we are young so if you don't get to see them as much as you would like I do apologize....I will not make up excuses that just doesn't cut it. But I know now that I have "aged" I still remember alot of things we did at my grandmothers house......so it is not the amount of time we spend together it is the quality of the time we are all together. So I want to thank each and every one of you from the bottom of our hearts for every tiny little thing you do!!!!! And yes I have a quote for ya!!!!!!

THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE......AREN'T THINGS!!!!!!

So enjoy your day and give yourselves a pat on the back because you are ALL AWESOME grandparents and we love you all very much!!!!!!

mY LiTtLe HeLpEr...

My little helper. I was putting dishes in the dishwasher the other nite and turned around to get more out of the sink and Demster must have decided to help......or he smelled something good...to him anyway!!!!! He appears to be the only one interested in helping with the dishes these days so maybe we are on to something!!!!! And we are not going to make a habit of getting on the dishwasher door for several reasons but one huge one may be his weight eventually!!!!! He helps out ALOT around the house....like carrying your dirty socks to the living room when you are sorting clothes or when scrubbing the floor grabbing at your cleaning rag or mop to "help" out!!!!! But we can not help but love him!!!!(maybe I should say I can not help but love him!!!) I do tell him almost every day that it is a good thing he is so darn cute because the average dog would not get away with some of the stuff he puts us through!!!!!

cRoSs CoUnTrY...

We just got home from the first cross country meet of the year. Taylor and Delaney both run this year.....the Melcher-Dallas school district does not have a cross country program so the girls go to Pleasantville(nearby town) to run. The girls cross country in Iowa run a 4K race....that is about 2 1/2 miles. We went to Corydon tonite. Taylor(junior) ran her race in 17 minutes and 21 seconds and got 6th place....Delaney(freshman) ran hers in 18 minutes and 22 seconds...very good for her very first time ever running cross country!!!! As a team the got first place!!!! Everybody had a good nite!!! They score the team scores by taking the top 5 from each team and add the place they get to each other...if that makes sense.....for example Jessica got 4th, Taylor got 6th, Delaney got 14th, Tricia got 15th and I am not sure what the other runner got but you add 4,6,14,15 and the other score and that is our total...the least amount of points wins!!! That does not happens very often!!!! Taylor and Delaney and the rest of their team coming around the first corner.Taylor on the left and Delaney on the right coming right past us on the first corner.
Here they are with the "prize".....they both got medals....they placed through 15th place...it was Laney's lucky day.....makes all that hard work worth it.

WeLcOmE!!!!!!

Ok I just want to thank all of my friends for helping me get this blog started Steph...for talking me into this.....I love it, giving me ideas, actually reading it and leaving comments.....and thanks Angelia I am going to have a new design coming soon from Shawn at Eclectic Whimsy....I just love your design!!!! So I sent out my invite to all of my family and friends last nite to come check it out.....the reason I am doing this is to keep in touch with everybody because we all get busy with life and there never is enough time in a day to do everything that I need to do....so rather than calling some of you at midnite.....I can get on here and type away and keep you up to date with everything the kids are doing and some of the weird things that go on in our house. And if there is something you want me to blog about please feel free to let me know.....I am open to JUST about anything!!!!! So please leave comments if you would like because I love to read them and I hope you all enjoy reading about our CRAZEE life!!!!!

"NaTuRe"

I just want to start off by saying that I like animals and I like being outdoors and in "nature". But when I have to share my living space with them that is where I have to draw the line!!!! When I got up with the dog this morning at 6:30....much earlier than I had planned....I couldn't really go back to sleep because I had to keep an eye on Demster.....it's like having a baby!!! So I got in the shower and got dressed and ready to face whatever the day had to send my way!!! Troy had to go to his office for a couple of hours to do some paper work so I thought I could get some cleaning done......So when the kids got up, ate, and got out of the shower I decided by the way my dirty clothes pile looked I better start there first....so I got everything sorted and put in the basket and off to the basement I go to the washing machine.....I set the basket down, stand up ready to turn the knob on the washer and right in front of me on the wall........NATURE!!!!!!! Now this is not the first time we have had "nature" in our house but none the less it FREAKS me out......I ran up stairs and had huge goose bumps all over my arms. Now what am I going to do.....I have to wait until Troy gets home......but that could be an hour or LONGER!!!! And what if "nature" wakes up??? Not that doing laundry is my favorite thing but I need to get it done. I keep going to the bottom of the stairs to make sure "nature" is still there. And finally Troy gets home.....I tell him, he goes to look at "nature" and he likes it about as much as I do.....but he had to eat a sandwich for lunch first.....I had to be ok with that because I am at his mercy at this point because the only answer to the problem for me was to MOVE.....he thought maybe I was being a bit out of line!!!! So after lunch he says he needs me to help him catch "nature" I think holy cow I can't do this.....but all I had to do is hand him these "GOFER" things like tweezers with a long handle.....I did my job and RAN up the stairs as fast as I could......and he got rid of "nature". He's my hero!!!!!! Please tell me you all know what I am talking about....if not take a close look at the picture below!!!!!!! This thing was almost eye level with me when I turned around to start the washing machine!!!!! Hanging there just sleeping away.....Yuck it just freaks me out looking at the picture. If you can not tell by the picture it is a B-A-T. That is another time we had a bat and Troy spelled it out like the kids wouldn't know what he was saying if he spelled it......I think you can spell bat in preschool!!!! Anyway it is gone!!!!