Annual Truck Trip with Hot Hubby (June 23, 2010) First stop South Dakota

South Dakota. . . the first stop on our week long truck trip. We were supposed to head out on Monday, but ended up having to wait until Tuesday in order to fix something on the truck. Every year I take a week off work to drive around with Dave on the truck. I always look forward to this time with him. It goes to show you that he must love me, to be stuck with me 24 hours a day non-stop and still want to be with me:)

This is where we unloaded our rebar that we picked up at Nucor Steel in Plymouth. When I got out to watch them unload, I was approached by a lady working there who commented on my choice of shoes. I was wearing flip flops and apparently needed steel toes shoes to be allowed to walk around the job site. She settled for the tennis shoes I brought along. She was really nice and talked to me for a bit when Dave was outside working. Dave found a bird that had made it's nest way up in the crane!

This is our second year in a row to end up in South Dakota! It is really beautiful there. I believe it is also called the grasslands. It's makes our desert look really brown. I loved looking at the flowing grass hills! This is our second time to only be miles away from Mnt Rushmore. I told Dave that we have to come back with the kids and actually stop to visit Mnt Rushmore next time!

Here are some pictures of us driving through South Dakota. . . You can just double click on a picture and it will show you a full size version.

Music

I love music. I am also a very repetitious person. I can listen to the same C.D. and nothing else for 8 months straight and not get bored. I can listen to the same song for hours and hours on repeat. I found another one of those songs that I love to have on repeat. I heard it first in church. In church I heard the Michael Mclean version, which brought me to tears in Relief Society. On Itunes I could only find the version sung by a women on the Michael Mclean's C.D. "Tender Mercies." The song is called "Ninety and Nine. "You may not like the music at first, give it a chance and listen to it several times if you need to. It is a great song about how the lord doesn't only love the lost lamb that he goes to find. He loves the other 99 lambs that never left and try everyday to do their best.

I also am learning to love the "Eclipse" movie soundtrack. I found that when I watched "Twilight" the first time, I thought the music was really bad. So for "New Moon" I did what I do best and once I got the soundtrack in the mail, that was the only thing I listened to until the movie came out. By that time I loved the songs and when I heard them in the movie, I wasn't thinking what a stupid song. So I decided to do the same thing for "Eclipse." The first time I listened to the C.D. , I was dreading having to listen to it again. It got better and so far I love songs 1-5 & 9. My sister Michelle thinks I am crazy, but I will be the only one in the theater not irritated by the music, so jump on board Michelle and hit repeat:)

Dave being eaten by Pugsley (June 19, 2010)

Ugh. . . gross! I always knew you looked good honey, you must taste good as well! I wouldn't let the cows get that close to me! Surprisingly, this isn't the full length of the cow tongue, it get's even longer. Makes me wonder who actually buys cow tongues in the grocery store to eat them!

Feeding Grandpa's Cows (June 2010)

It is fun to watch all my three boys play with Grandpa's cows! Will got the brown cow called Pusley to click his hand. One time when it was licking Will, it got all of Will's fingers in his mouth. It wasn't until Dad told us that the cow could crush Will's fingers, that we stopped letting the cow suck Will's hand!

My three legged love . . .Tasha (June 5, 2010)

I adore my cat, probably beyond what is considered sane by most people. Isn't she beautiful! She can jump a little more since her accident. She can jump up to her rocking chair. Will put a stool by his bed, so she could get up on his bed. She uses my treadmill to get onto the couch. She still can't jump up onto my bed. To get up on the bed she will just sit on the ground and cry for me to lift her. Of course I jump up at the first cry and help her up (yes, I still feel guilty for hurting her). In this picture, she is in Dave's office looking out the window. I had to put her there too. She likes it there, because she can see the hummingbirds and still keep an eye on what Dave is doing. I love my Tasha.

Pregnant Kaylyn (June 4, 2010)

Doesn't Kaylyn look really cute pregnant!! She is tiny everywhere and just has her little belly. It is really fun to watch Jon around Kaylyn. You can just see the love he has for his wife and his daughter. He will just sit there and rub her little belly. It's really sweet to see.

We have been told she will be induced on Aug 9, 2010. That way her birthday will be 8-9-10. We can't wait to hold her and introduce her to her Ga-mama and Ga-papa!

Tyler 3rd grade store (June 2, 2010)

This is the 3rd grade store I talked about in an earlier blog. This is where they all get to make something to sell. The kids all loved Tyler's bean bags! Tyler put his desk right next to Toby's. Toby sold chess pieces made into key chains. They both had a lot of fun! Tyler gave me lots of play money to spend.

Being a Mom, it made my heart go out to all those kids who parent's didn't help them and they had nothing to sell, but paper airplanes or something like that. I made sure to buy from every kid that had a hard time selling their things to others kids.

Backyard project (or nightmare. . . ) May 31, 2010

Backyard fun and stress at the same time! Dave is a great sport, seeing h0w he get's to do 99.9% of the work himself. I make myself useful as a cheerleader, drill Sargent, shoveling gravel or packing (heavy, heavy, heavy) bricks from one place to another.

Our backyard is on a steep hill, made of clay and has a huge city pipe running lengthwise through our yard. Most people probably take for granted how easy their backyards are to finish. With the hill it adds a lot of complications.

Complication #1. . . water. . . clueless neighbors who send all their water our way. . . bees that like the mushy clay drenched in water. . . basement flooding due to water, etc. To solve our water problem, we have put in 2 drains, along the length of our backyard. This was heaven sent. We covered our drains with this cloth stuff you can buy at home depot to keep the dirt out and on top of that we put in gravel. This immediately solved our water issues. We are planning on putting in two more sets of drains on top.

Complication #2. . . what on earth do you do with a backyard that is on a steep hill??? My husbands original answer was to get rid of all the dirt. So he rented a tractor and went to work trying to get rid of a ton or two of dirt. It was working rather well for him, that is until he hit the big city pipe. The pipe wasn't disclosed to him when he bought our house, so of course he had no idea until he ran into it. That changed his plans from getting rid of a lot of dirt to dealing with the dirt.

I really like plan # 2 he came up with. We are going to have two tiers (retaining walls) with stairs in the middle to lead to what little grass we can have on top. We have our first wall done and are currently working on the second wall. The bottom layer is the hardest. Dave has to make sure everything is level. It's fun to watch him work, I know I would never be able to figure it out myself.

So I will take pictures for you throughout our backyard process. We are hoping to get the second wall done this year.

End of School Carnival (May 28, 2010)

Every year our school (King Elementary) has a carnival. They have a bunch of blowup rides for the kids to bounce through, slide down or run across. The boys always have a lot of fun there. The top picture is of Will, 2nd of Toby Roos and Tyler and the last one is Tyler. Will just finished 5th grade and Tyler 3rd. It's hard to imagine having a kid in 6th grade! They sure grow up fast!

Tyler sleeping (May 25, 2010)

I can't resist taking pictures of my kids sleeping. . . It just warms my heart to see them so peaceful and carefree.