Happy Birthday!
It's my baby's birthday! Happy Birthday, Jonas!
He requested bunnies on his cake. I did bunnies jumping in bunny holes. I'm not sure where the last seven years went. He's growing up mighty fast.
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Family
We had Jonas' birthday party today. We always go for the family gathering, rather than the hectic children filled party. Tonight, Jared and I are feeling very lucky. Lucky that we have such a wonderful family base. We're blessed that we had great upbringings, that filled us with good values, blessed, that we can share this family with the kids. We're blessed, that the kids feel the love. It was a wonderful gathering, that has left us feeling quite warm inside.
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It’s late
It's 1:30am. I just finished Jonas' birthday cake. The worst part, was I needed white non-perils. I foolishly bought a 94 cent bottle of multi colored, planning on separating them. That took way more time than I anticipated.
Photos will come tomorrow.
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Cooking up a storm
Jonas' family gathering, celebrating the 7th anniversary of his birth is in two days. I'm a bit behind. Our house hasn't fully recovered from our last trip. I boxed up *many* of the kids' and my things to go into the attic, but they're still sitting in the game room floor. I also have not began on much of the food. I did spend the evening working on some dishes for the dinner. Jonas has requested an interesting cake, which I have not yet begun, or bought the supplies for. I also need to make some cupcakes for him to take to school on Monday, but they have to be gluten free/dairy free. So, I need to run to the health food store. I'm also making a batch of cookies for work tomorrow. The paras are out of chocolate. That's serious.
But, tomorrow and Saturday we'll buckle down, and have the place ready to go. Caleb informed me today, he was planning on practicing his trumpet for the required 60 minutes on Saturday, to get out of cleaning. I shared with him, that won't work.
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Job Search
I applied for a job today. One which I am not available to start until July 2009. I doubt I'll be too seriously considered for a job this far out, but I thought I could start getting my name out there. The place I applied with, even helps pay relocating costs. That would be exciting.
Today's big project is the kids' bedroom. I don't think they know what is ahead for them. I'm going to empty out their room, and create more space! Less clutter! How exciting! If the before picture weren't embarrassing, I would post before and after photos.
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No birds or ducks
After our 6 mile hike, we treated ourselves to McDonald's for lunch. We earned the calories. Jonas had chicken nuggets.
That night, at camp, he was holding his new stuffed animal he bought for himself, a bird. Over a discussion of beef jerky, he announced, that he does NOT want bird jerky. He loves birds too much. I mentioned, that the chicken nuggets he ate earlier, were made of bird. He was horrified. He announced right then and there:
"I am not going to eat any more chicken, if it's made out of bird or duck."
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On top of the world
I switched positions at work, last Thursday. It was very unexpected, but it is done. Today, I came home for the first time all year, feeling good. I had a good day at work, I was very happy. It felt wonderful. There was not the slightest bit of stress in my body from work.
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Rocky Mountain National Park
We had a wonderful weekend at Rocky Mountain National Park. We arrived on Friday, where it was raining, cold, and raining some more. Caleb pitched our tents, in between rain showers. We took some brief hikes, admired the elk, and got our fire started for warmth.
The next day, we were up bright and early, with plans to hike to Dream Lake. Last year, we hiked to Nymph Lake, and it was a strenuous hike. Dream Lake is further up the mountain. We did it though, not only did we hike to Dream Lake, we kept hiking up and saw Emerald Lake too. We were up almost as high as the tree line, there was snow and ice on the ground, it was cold and windy, but, it was beautiful. After we got back to the bottom, we decided that 3 miles wasn't too bad! We rested for awhile, did a short hike in the afternoon, and headed back for the campfire. (The boys' favorite thing was the campfire, I think.)
So, we decided we could handled a longer hike. We took a shuttle to Bear lake, and started our 6 mile hike down to Moraine Park (where we were camping). It was a much less traveled trail. No pavement here. Rocks, tricky rocks to navigate around. The trail immediately started by going up. This was a bit surprising to us. We ended up summiting two mountains. This trail allowed us to see the park at its most natural. There were no people, just nature. We went from the alpines, to the pine trees, we saw ferns growing in rain forest like areas. It was a hike that we are all very glad we did, but it tired us out, and I'm still feeling it a day later.
There are many photos here. They are grouped together with last years trip as well.
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Orange Juice
This time last year, we took our first annual trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. It is elk rutting season, and they are everywhere, bugling, trying to get those females attention. The weather is lovely (except when it rains at night). The scenery is wonderful.
However, this time last year, I came down with a head cold. I loaded myself up on benedryl, and toughed it out. I thought the mountain air would help it, but it turns out, the elevation, mixed with my sinuses, was not pleasant. But, again, I was a trooper, tried to limit the complaints, and did all of the hikes that were desired by the males in the family.
So, about a week ago, I wolk up with a scratchy throat. I rushed to walmart. I bought cold-ease, I bought orange juice, I bought defense cough drops loaded with vitamin C. I've really put up a good fight. I only had one day, where I felt pretty bad. I'm still ingesting a LOT of vitamin C. I *really* don't want to be sick this year for our trip.
A side note.. Jonas sure does look younger, with that full head of hair!
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Road trip gone bad
Alex and I left early this morning, for a road trip to Boonville to look at this house. We wanted to see what the ceiling height of the second floor is. Our new house will be a cape, like that one, but probably will wood siding exterior and log interior like this one. But it was a floor plan that was drawn up just for us. That link was just for the downstairs, the upstairs will be the master bedroom, bathroom, and a loft.
edited to add: We will also have a wrap around porch, on the front and one side!
Anyway. Back to the road trip. We were making good time, Alex was enjoying his beef jerky, and then the minivan declared that it was no longer happy. We just passed Lawrence, when I heard a strange noise. I looked down, and the engine was going at 4000 RPM, I saw it was overheating, and at the same time, I was losing speed. My heart dropped. I turned on my blinkers, and just coasted (since the gas was pretty useless at this point), and got myself into the Lawrence turnpike service area. I explained to Alex, it looked like we would be going back home, but let's get lunch first. My phone couldn't get a signal, but lucky for me, my ipod gets internet, and McDonald's has free wifi, so I talked to Jared via the internet for awhile, and let him know our plans.
We took hwy 24 back, because I could drive slow if needed, and it would be much easier to pull over.
It turned out, there were no additional problems. The minivan is handling just fine. I'll have it looked at before we drive to Missouri again.
Alex was such a trooper. He announced, that it was like we just went out to eat together, but decided to eat in Lawrence. He announced, it was his favorite trip to Lawrence EVER. He got ice cream, soda, beef jerky, and probably more. I was so proud of his cheerful attitude, that every time he asked me for something, I said SURE! I also took the time to show him one of my favorite buildings.
I've always wondered what happened to this building, but have never taken the time to find out.
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