TWINS Game, another LOSS

I have been to two Twins Games at the Dome and they lost both times. We played the White Sox and they won the two games before and lost last night 3-8. There were over 40,000 people there and the dollar dogs ran out before the 2nd inning. I only got one. Bummer.
Here are some photos of the game guests.

Wayne got all the tickets and then a parking pass at a friends business across the street from the dome. When we got there the parking lot was full and most did not have parking passes so we parked in the lane and blocked many in. Only one guys was still blocked when we got back to the car, he did not have a pass.
Eric and David, BFF.
Qatar, Alec, and Jacob.
David and I.
Gunnar, Jordan, Goetz, Jeff and others.
Lisa and Ashley leaving the game, great evil eyes.

Boys and Girls

Dawn was complaining about the notes to Caleb from girls and now I am complaining about the girls calling asking Gunnar out. Most calls go to his cell phone, but some come to the house. He was very diplomatic saying "no" with all of us in the room, if it had been on the cell who knows. I just told him to say he had a good year before he could date, He just said he was busy. Well he did say they could hang out sometime this summer, so I come downstairs and there she is on the couch. Cute little 15 year old girl playing the Wii with Gunnar, and the best little tattletalers ever, Ezekiel and JT. I think it is safe to go to my appointment with Edward Jones. Well gunnar is fast becoming a cutie. Scary Scary kids do grow up.

Arm issues

I have been having an intense itch on the front of my arms and hands. I called the nurse help line and they said to talk to the Dr., especially since I have no signs of a rash or skin irritation. Well the Dr. said to try this cream for arthritis. It heats up and feels really warm. This is to help with the nerve damage, they think I might have from sun damage to my arms over the years. My arms show no signs of rash or irritation. In fact they look great.

This cream is funny, or at least it is when I am not touching my eyes, ears or others. If I touch my eyes then they burn, same with anything I touch. JT and I were reading today and he said "Ouch my eye and mouth burn". I realized he was holding on to my arms and had touched his eye and his mouth. This is not the cream for the faint at heart.

If you get your skin wet where the cream is, it then burns really hot. You cannot wash this stuff off after it has been on a 1/2 hour. When I wash my hands I feel they are on fire a few minutes later. It does not show anything when it burns, it just burns. It is strange to lay in bed at night and think that at any minute your arms are going to spontaneously combust. The itching is better, but still annoys me at times and especially at night. By the way, if I do scratch it just gets worse, so no touchy and that is sosososo hard to do.

Summerset 110 Degrees in the Shade

Steven, Gunnar and Mark White Jr., were in the production of 110 Degrees in the Shade. Steven played Starbuck, the fast talking con man who claims he can make it rain for a mere 100 dollars. Mark plays Noah, the older brother of Lizzy who is a pessimist. He plays angry really well. Gunnar plays Freddie, a chorus member with a few lines. Gunnar did very well, much less stiff then usual. Steven showed him what to do and then bribed him with money every time his arms went above his shoulders. We counted opening night, he did it 7 times and then 11 times the next night.
Steven was amazing and lit up the stage. He did collapsed after singing Melisand during rehearsals from exhaustion and one of the other cast members said, "He never did that when he played Lancelot." Steven needed to remind him that Camelot was 16 years, five kids, marriage, mission, college and a few pounds ago.
Photos Gunnar, Steven signing autographs, Steven, and Mark Jr.

Track Meet

Well the last track meet of the year was a big success. Everyone went home with many ribbons, Ezekiel and Qatar placed in the throw and long jump. Go do your personal best. Qatar only did the throw and long jump, he helped keep track of everyones scores with Sister Asay.

Relay for Life

The meeting to count the money for the team was last night. The team raised almost $5,000. WOW. David joined the team and will walk his laps in the middle of the night. I was surprised when he joined he does not like to ask people for money for any reason. But, with a little help from me, he raised $295. Yea!! Go Team lets raise money so they can find a cure.
Relay for Life Mower County

Our Saturday

Qatar went camping in our Scout Master's backyard last night and when asked how it went, Qatar said, "Boring". Really a back yard camping trip Boring. Shocked. He is really tired and it is very humid, both lend to a grumpy boy.
Zeke, Cenny and JT went with Bonnie, Eric, Vanessa, and kids to the park and then to Culvers for lunch and custard. They used their free coupons from the 4th firework raffle. Well, free is relative, free custard with other purchase. Thanks Guys!
Gunnar had play practice then mowed the lawn. He kept singing a song from the play he is in and it sounded good.
David worked in the bedroom we are working on at this point. David also put my bike basket on so I can haul towels easier from lessons and such.
I just cleaned and yelled at the kids to do their chores. I did, however, find the time to figure out our net worth. Eric and I were discussing this at swimming lessons the other day, he mentioned a co-worker who figures his net worth every month to see if he is hitting his financial goals. The "Millionaire Next Door" has a formula, income times age divide by 10. Just interesting with how much talk their is about the maybe recession. This link will tell you were you are in relationship to medians for your age and income. Interesting.
Net Worth Calculator Here is the link on the article Article on Net Worth

Rain

We were coming home from swimming lessons looking at the sky go darker and darker. We made it two blocks from the house when it started to rain, large large drops. Well, we are not made of sugar so we made it home fine and wet. The sky had a line of dark clouds flowing north east and it was crazy to see them match across the sky. Clear sky and then a thick line of dark menacing clouds pushing the beautiful sky away. At least we had lessons before the pool was closed due to thunder storms.
Because of the rain the track meet was postponed until Monday.
We had the piano tuned today, yea, it was getting hard to listen to.

More Swimming Photos

We are now in the third session of swimming lessons and here are more photos. Qatar is in level 5 and JT, Cenny and Zeke are in level 2. I have not given them lessons before(except Gunnar and Qatar). I just got busy and did not think about it until this year. BAD MOM SLAPPING MY HAND NOW!!!
Also here is a shot of the third of July at the slide I was supervising for a few hours. This was one dollar a slide and I must admit, when there were no lines I let everyone go twice for a ticket(1 dollar). I think some parents could have paid for college with how many times their kids went down the slide alone.

Rednecks and The Host

I really enjoyed our "Redneck" dinner, Shawn is a great cook. We are camping in Oxbow the first weekend in Sept if anyone once to tag along, but you have to cook for yourselves(we keep Shawn, funny costume and all(see David's Blog)).
I read "The Host" Stephenie Meyer and I liked it. She is a good story teller. It is worth reading. I really could not put it down, no boring parts to get tired of. Give it a try.

Camping Cancelled!

Severe weather was reported to start happening around 9pm to 3am so we decided not to go and to reschedule for the first weekend in September. The kids are disappointed, but if the weather does happen(72% chance) I will be glad to be at home and not in a tent. Damaging hail sounds scary normally, but when sleeping in a tent it sounds much worse. I do hope it does storm, at least a little, it is so humid. The dew point is in the 70's and that is exhausting and wet. Scroll down the linked page to see the dew point scale. Dew point scale

Over The River And Through The Woods.

Gunnar and I went to see this play at the college last night. The actors did a great job. I laughed and laughed through the first half and then cried and cried through the second half. I think it hit a bit close to home. I hate things changing and it was about life, which I know always changes. The play was set in the main characters grandparents home and showed their relationship. He loved his grandparents, but they could drive him crazy. At one point he was able to see them as real people with lives (past and present) and not just as his grandparents. It was so funny at times that my eyes watered and then so sad that I cried and cried.

I think life would be great if it would just stop moving right now and sit still in this spot for awhile. But things keep changing, kids keep growing up and gaining more and more independence. One of the grandmothers in the play said of her grandson, "I just love him so much and just want to take care of him forever." I think that is the way it is with kids too. But, then it nice to see them become independent in many things and I guess eventually in all things.

My neighbor is having the same problem, she is not ready to let go either. We both had a hard week when Gunnar and Jordan were in DC. She commented during the fireworks on how we always sit together and that all the kids used to sit with us also, but now the oldest(Gunnar and Jordan) are off with their friends and even Qatar and Ryan were not there the whole time.

I guess that is life and in the end all we really have are our memories. Sweet spring memories in the winters of our lives. This is why I am camping this weekend. Not because I want to, but because the kids do, and it will make a good memory for the future. Good or bad the memories are the fun part, even bad ones (which are never as bad as the original may have been) and you all know that eventually we do laugh about all the things we swore we never would.

Cenneidigh's Baptism

Cenneidigh was baptised on Sunday July 6th right after church. She wore the dress we picked out a few months ago and she looked so cute. David baptised and confirmed Cenneidigh. The two Grandpas were the witnesses. Uncle Eric and Aunt Bonnie spoke, and Grandma sung a song. Our neighbors were able to attend and Cenneidigh was thrilled they were there.
After the baptism we went back for a picnic at our house for everyone that attended.
The day turned out to get very humid and then in poured rain. We turned on the AC and the pipe must have been clogged because the water leaked out of the ceiling. We took the ceiling down and accidentally knocked the thermostat out of the wall when the ceiling came down. He stayed home Monday and put in a new thermostat and cleaned up the tools in the garage.
Photos to come, when we find the camera. It has been a busy few weeks, we are lucky we know where all the kids are. Found the camera ha! Now for the kids.

4th of July Slideshow

Here are a few highlights of the 4th. We had a blast. Sorry if you were anywhere else in the world then Austin, MN.

Happy Birthday Cenny and America, we love you both.

What a great day for Independence Day.

The weather was beautiful, in the 70's with little humidity. Paige and I started the day before 6am to get a good spot for the parade, a police man stopped by to ask if we were staying until the parade and when we told him we were he laughed. He could not believe that someone would move your stuff if you left it unattended, steal no but move YES. We did push a few items, that others left, together to make more room for us. We needed lots of space for the large growing family of ours. Next year we want to sleep out, if it is legal. (You make your own fun and happiness in this life, why not have fun making more.)

The parade started at 11 am and went to after 1pm. Gunnar walked with the marching band and Qatar held a banner for Qwest. The kids got more candy then they needed and Cordy, Kristi's youngest was great. She screamed and dove for the candy like a pro. I screamed to get more attention to the kids and we also got lots of freezy pops. Hyvee threw out napkin packs and plates for the fourth. We did not need to open any of the ones I bought.

The picnic was great and the hot dogs went fast. We had a good variety of tasty food. Cenny looked so cute in the dress grandma made for her and all the fun stuff she collected for the day. Vanessa made her cake again, yea and thanks.

The fireworks and the concert were wonderful. The Symphony played for two hours and then into the fireworks with Stars and Stripes Forever. We sung during the fireworks, there were so many that ash rained down on us during the last half of the show. David hit Paige in the arm to put of a still quite lit piece of ash on her shoulder. The fireworks were amazing. Thursday nights were also great. Two days and nights of fun. Austin, what a great place to be July fourth, no place better.

What a perfect day and now I am sad that it is over, I cry at the fireworks every year, sad to see it go again. I LOVE Independence Day!!
God Bless America and Cenneidigh!!!!

Twilight

I finished the three books by Meyer and I really like all three. The forth book comes out in August. She weaves a goods story. I started them on Saturday, quick read.
Now that I am done with the books I can concentrate on the today, tomorrow and Sunday. Busy weekend foe all of us. Happy Birthday Cenneidigh.