Labor day

Well this is the final weekend of summer :( The pool will be closing and the Studt's will be starting school. We will not be able to get in another camping trip :( and I wonder where did summer go?
Darryl wants to start this weekend tearing out the drywall in our ceiling in order to raise it back up to the original height of almost 10feet. So we will be using heavy tarps and moving all the furniture out in order to keep it from getting dusty. I may be going to my mother-in-laws to live if I can't handle the dust with my allergies. Because above the drywall will be a plaster ceiling which will be extremely dusty to remove in order to hang new drywall.

Then Labor Day is the Lisbon Fire Dept. pancake breakfast. Darryl will get there early and I will roll in between 8am-9am to help clean up tables, wash dishes, and make sure the butter and pancake syrup on the table is full. So a normal day for me besides the early morning part :)

I hope you all have a wonderful Labor Day and a great last weekend of SUMMER!

The DNC

Tonight we finish up the DNC and it has been a good one. I don't know that in the past that I have taken time to watch but this year I did get to see a lot of it. Michelle Obama had a great speech the first night. Hillary Clinton who I didn't caucus for did an excellent job. I clapped four times up in my room at what she was saying. She was very much to the point of what an a** Bush is and how McCain will continue this country on the wrong path. The more I thought about she spoke on the 88th anniversary of women having gotten the right to VOTE. And had she won the most delegates I would have voted for her and History would have been made not only for her being the first women President but being the only wife of a former president to be voted in. How cool!!!! Then Joe Biden spoke last night. He has had a lot of misfortune in his life and had been a single dad after the death of his wife and other children in a car accident. He would be an excellent Vice Pres. and a great choice for Obama. Then I was able to listen to former Pres. Clinton and he too will go down in DNC history of being a very good speaker and inspiring the Democrats to come together and get a Democrat into office.
And then tonight Barack Obama. He laid out his plan for America if he was elected. It is exactly what this country needs. Eight years HAS been ENOUGH! Life for the middle class ("those who make under 5 million" -McCain )yeah right!, will change and we will have more money to work with and to use to help our children out and ourselves. If you didn't get a chance to listen to it, get online and listen to his speech. I will listen to McCain's when it comes his turn and see what he has to say that he will do. I hope he sticks with facts and doesn't make petty remarks about Obama and his love for this country etc. Like his political ads do. He just needs to give us the truth and the facts of his plan and keep his opinions to himself. Because they are lies.

Anyway it was a great week for Democrats at the National Convention.
Don't vote on one issue that hasn't changed with republicans in office, and think about the America you want and the opportunities you want for your kids and make an educated choice.

Tramatic Day at the Dentist

Alivia had a dentist appointment yesterday to get two baby teeth pulled. She was getting these pulled as requested by her orthodontist so her big tooth would have room when it came down.
So of course she was nervous but a brave little girl. I told her if she can get stitches in her lip she can do this and it would be a lot easier. Well I lied :(

He worked on the bigger tooth first which was towards the back of the mouth and it had some big strong roots. It was gross for me to watch him try to get that tooth out. But at last yeah it was out. So he gave her a few minutes and the next tooth would have fallen out this year and so we knew it would be an easy pop out and it was.
We finish up he gives me the instructions about soft food etc. They put her chair up, she gets up and goes to the "prize room" to pick out something. We walk to the receptionists desk and I'm talking a little to her . Alivia says to me "I feel dizzy". I put my arm around her she puts her head on my side, her eyes roll up in the back of her head and she goes limp. I carefully get her to the floor and yell for the dentist who is just a steps away. He comes out gets the gauze out of her mouth and about a minute later she comes back to us.

She is still glassy eyed and wondering why mom is crying and why there are 4 people from the dentist office looking at her and why is she lying on the ground.
So she slowly gets up we have her lay down for a while on the couch at the office. She drinks some sprite complains that her stomach really hurts and her head. I tell her to relax and just close her eyes.

So after a while we get ready and go. I call Darryl crying and tell him what happened and how I didn't freak out on the outside but on the inside I was panicked at seeing this happen to my child.
So she took it easy yesterday and laid on the couch all day and night. This morning she woke up had $6.00 from the tooth fairy although the tooth fairy thought about giving her $50 :)
And is back to her chipper self and acting normal, and I couldn't be happier!

IOWA STATE Fair

We get up at 6:30am Friday morning to get ready to go to my parent's home in CR to go to the fair. We get there a little after 8am and wait for my mom to finish breakfast and head out. It was my mom, sister and her two little ones and myself and my kids. We always take her van to places far away since we get to park up front in handicap parking ;).

We arrive around 10am get everything unloaded and head in. We get to see a magic show which my kid's loved and then headed off to the barn area to see animals which my 3 yr. old nephew want to see. I took extra allergy pills that day since I'm allergic to hay (which was everywhere) and wool ( they sheep barn was a killer). So we spend almost 4 hours looking at animals with my sister taking lots of pics.

My mom was tired of animals and wanted to look at crafts and hot tubs and other things. So we found the different buildings and did that. The kid's got to ride on the giant slide and on the sky glider.

We left around 6:30pm stopped and had supper and headed home. It was a good day at the fair and we didn't even get to see it all. If you ever think about going you should next year it is a good time. Just bring lots of money or else your own food.

Our 15th Anniversary

This is late getting on here but I was gone all day yesterday at the state fair. So here goes....
Thursday August 14th we celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary. Darryl worked all day and I took an older lady that we help out to CR for a pedicure (she paid for me to have one too) and to Aldi's. After getting home I took Alivia to the pool for about an hour came home took a shower, shaved my legs and got ready for my night out.
We went to Iowa River Power Company in Coralville for supper. It was nice and quiet in there(not a place to take kids for supper) and our table had a view of the dam which was nice and calming.
After dinner we walked along the path that goes over the dam. Then we headed off to Iowa City to try out this piano bar.
We get there soon after 7:00pm(when they open) and no one was there besides one worker. So we left and walked around went into Old Capitol Mall (in which the stores were closed?) and so we left there went into a few stores outside that were still open and headed back to the bar about 8:00. We walk in and once again no one. Well my feet hurt from these cheap heels that I have so I told Darryl let's just sit down and have a few drinks. We sat at the bar where we could see the tv, I asked him if he would turn it to the Olympics and he did. Then Darryl asked him when does the piano player come in.... about 8:30 he says. Darryl asked are you guys usually busy on a Thursday night. he said yes we get busy around 11pm to which we both said we will be in bed by then. Now in general I don't feel 3* , I feel more like 28,29 years old. But on Thursday I felt like I should have been 62 years old. So Darryl got a coke and I got a Strawberry Martini. Wine and Martini's were half price that night which was good because they normally charge $7.00 for a martini. I have no problem paying that in NYC but in Iowa.....no. So I drank that down the piano player Sean got there and started to play. It was nice listening to him. I ordered another martini this time a chocolate one for my dessert of the night and it was so so good. So I asked the bartender for the recipe. So Sherry come next month when the guys are gone in Kansas City we are having some Chocolate martinis!
It was a good night and we had fun. This was the first time I had been to a piano bar. I wanted to go because I had seen a "Friends" episode where they went to a piano bar but you could ask the piano player to play a song and you could sing. Then there were commercials for a piano bar in CR (which got flooded) and the same owner runs the IC one. We left around 9:15pm to get home so I don't know if they ever let you sing but it was nice to hear him play and sing. I would go back again. And I think I will make the girls go to one in NYC this May.

THE MOLE

Last night was the season finally of The Mole on ABC. When the competition first started I had on my list as suspects Liz - because of her age she would be able to use that as an excuse to fail at certain challenges and also because she would be like a "mom" to the other players and who would peg their mom as The Mole. Craig because of his size he would also be able to fail at many challenges because he is in bad shape plus people that big are usually very friendly and funny and so no one would peg him. Then third it was Bobby. Although a skinny little guy he had a lot problems with leg cramps etc. in the first few challenges.

By about week 4 my front runner for The MOLE was Craig. I think Liz had been executed and Bobby was just a bad player with lots of problems. As I continued to watch Craig everything about him and his actions confirmed to me he was The MOLE.

As it got down to the final three Nicole, Mark and Craig, I kept saying Craig was it. So between Mark and Nicole, I had hoped Mark would win. He is 42 his wife is pregnant with their 4th child and he works 2 jobs and she works as well. If he won the money he would be able to let his wife quit her job to stay home with the kids which is what she really wanted to do. Now Nicole is an OB-GYN and more of a high society snobby girl (that's the impression she gave off). She is single and already makes enough money to support herself plus. So I was hoping for Mark to be the winner.

As the winner was reveled last night it was........Mark!!!! I was so happy I actually had a few tears of joy that he had won.
Then The Mole, was it Craig or was it Nicole? The door opened we waited and out came........Craig just as I had thought.

It was just the way I had hoped the show would end. The Mole is a great show and I would love to see my hubby try to be on it or heck maybe even ME.

Sauerkraut Day's Parade plus

Like Heritage Day's the kid's walked with Tae Kwon Do in the the Sauerkraut Day's parade. As observers and knowing lots of people Darryl and I got a ton of candy for them. They had fun but both said their feet hurt from walking.

Later that day we worked the BINGO tent as a family, the kid's got to feed the animals in the petting zoo, going on the expensive rides, and throw water balloons at the racers during the bath tub races. And then Darryl and I enjoyed the band for a while Saturday night. So over all it was once again a good Sauerkraut Day's weekend.

Kraut Route '08

My alarm went off at 7:01am :( I was a little nervous the night before and didn't sleep to well.

I make my way downstairs, get some OJ and take some vitamins, plug in my hair straightener, and Darryl tells me we may be running in rain this morning. I get dressed in my new Asics Cornell Track shirt ( thanks Keri and Lonnie) and start to stretch. Do my hair, brush my teeth, and get ready to head over to the park with my hubby. It was sprinkling off and on. We get registered and stretch some more until race time...........

We get on our marks...get set....the gun didn't go off. We try again.... on your marks....get set..... the gun didn't work a second time. We do it again, on your marks.....get set.....nothing!! I was like OK Mr. Timm we don't need a stupid gun shot just say GO geezzzz. So the fourth time, on your marks...get set...and he yells GO! We had some walkers in front of us blocking us a little bit and I about yelled HELLO Runners behind you move duh! But we(Darryl and I) just pushed by them instead.

At the mile marker I was at 11min 24 sec. (which is good since I had been running 12min miles).

But this was the start of the dreaded hill from the dark side. I made it up the big big hill and up the medium hill and up the two little hills and then finally we were at the two mile marker just past our house, my time was 22 minutes. The kids stood at the end of the driveway and cheered us on as we ran on through our last mile. With about 1/2 a mile left to go we pass a lady runner in my age bracket (yes) and then we passed another lady in the next older age bracket (yes again) we go by Keri and Lonnie's and they were out with the boys cheering us on and she took our picture (thanks Keri). So we are about .2 miles from the finish almost there and the lady in the older age bracket is running faster to get across the finish line. Fine I let her pass, but then I see the other lady in my age bracket out of the corner of my eye and she too is sprinting for the finish line and I said to myself....self there is no way you are going to come into last place, so I hauled butt with Darryl beat her and got 6th place out of 8 ladies in my age group and had a great time of 34 min. 16 sec. my new 5K record :)

All in all it was fun and I was glad Darryl was there to move me a little faster and we had a great time doing something together.

Sauerkraut Days

At the end of this week is Lisbon's annual Sauerkraut Day's. It will start on Thursday with a pie and ice cream social at the City Park followed by Friday late afternoon thru Saturday night events. There will be BINGO ( Darryl and the kids and I will be working on Saturday from 4-6pm if you want to see us) a car show Saturday, parade (the kids will be walking with their Tae Kwon Do group) expensive carnival rides that are a big rip off :), lots of brats and sauerkraut - yuk! And on Saturday morning the thing that I have been training for now for 6 weeks........ the Kraut Route 5K run/walk. Darryl is going to join me so we will be the cute couple running together! Come out and cheer us on, we will go right by our house so feel free to park and come to the sidewalk and cheer for us, we would love it!!