Memorial Day Weekend

I have a long weekend off work this weekend...mostly to get some things done around the house before work really starts getting busy.....But we decided to nephew-nap Ian and Hunter for a couple of days and have Bobby and Dani over for a sleepover. Oh, and Brad's dad will be in Hawaii for 2 weeks so we are watching his dog, Abby...whew!

Here are some pictures from our adventures...the rest of the pictures are on Facebook or here on Shutterfly.


Ian chowing on his fries and chicken


Sammy rolling in the grass



Hunter going for the touchdown

Ian running to catch everyone else going to the park.

help, me please

Monkey Girl, Dani

S'mores!

Hunter had to stop and gas up his bike on the trail, so Brad decided to gas up, too.

me and Ian bringing up the rear

Brad and Ian on the twirly slide...who's is having more fun?

Hunter on the climbing wall.

Bobby's track meet

Last weekend we traveled to Van Horne...I think...to see Bobby's track meet. The wind was blowing at about 30 mph (no joke) and gusting to probably 40...the track was on the edge of town so the wind was constant with no break. And we thought it was supposed to be like 65 or something .... not so much....luckily we had some decent clothes with us and I had a blanket in my car.

Speaking of car...so on the way down my car started making a horrid rumbling noise and shaking sometimes....we weren't sure if we were damaging the car...so Brad spent the first part of the track meet in Cedar Rapids (it was only 15 minutes away) trying to find out what was wrong with the car....turns out that the aluminum wheels start to warp...my car is 11 years old...and it happens....luckily we weren't damaging it all...it was just annoying.

So back to the track meet...Bobby was doing the shot put, the 800 and the 1600. We watched the 800 and missed the shot put because he did it right after the race and we didn't see him head over there. Then we took shelter in the van with our schedule in hand...We listened for the announcer to call his race and then headed back out to cheer!

Here are some pictures and the rest are on Facebook or this Shutterfly page.

Bobby at the start line

Brad and Dani hiding out in the van

Me and Dani taking cover from the wind

Dani and I playing, rock, paper, scissors...that turned into rock, paper scissors, bomb, and in this picture....asteroid...she was trying to take out my asteroid with her asteroid

Run, Bobby, run!

iPod

This a facebook game, but I thought I'd post my results...It's pretty funny to do actually!

Instructions for those who dare share what's on their iPod.
1. Open your library (iTunes, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play4
. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don't lie

Here's my life:

Opening Credits :In The Meantime (Spacehog)

Waking Up :If Today Was Your Last Day (Nickelback) CREEPY

First Day of School :I Will Wait For You (Elliott Yamin) ??weird??

Falling in Love :Single (New Kids On The Block) HA!

Fight Song :Declaration (David Cook)

Prom : This Is Home (Switchfoot)

Life :Avalanche (David Cook) wow...

Mental Breakdown :Love Remains The Same (Gavin Rossdale)

Driving :Little Miss Obsessive (Ashlee Simpson) This is a total windows DOWN song!

(where's all the rock and roll on my iPod???!!!)

Flashback :Talking To The Walls (Finger Eleven)

Getting Back Together U & Ur Hand (Pink) .... or not getting back together!!

Wedding :In The Middle (Theory of a Deadman) -- not bad :)

Birth of Child :Time of My Life (David Cook) ummm....some of these are scaring me....

Final Battle :Rainmaker (Matchbox 20)

Death Scene :Crackerman (Stone Temple Pilots) FINALLY some rock!

Funeral Song:Get Stoned (Hinder) FUNNY! (not as good as Jessica's though)

End Credits :Say Goodbye (Theory of a Deadman) -- ok, i have goosebumps now....

Pictures, Pictures, More Pictures!

So I love posting pictures here, but it can be a bit time consuming. So I'll still keep posting pictures, but this site will have more pictures on it. :)

I'll add it to some of my posts if you'd like to see more!

http://dellits.shutterfly.com/

Family Time....our way

Recently, my cousins Melissa and Todd, Aunt Sue, and Uncle Rod were in town....we blew off some stress with some of our crazy family activities!


Brenda posing between rolling the pigs.....yes, pigs....


Melissa & Brenda making money airplanes to throw at my Mom when she wouldn't take money for pizza.


Hunter wearing the paper hat

Hunter wanted to take pictures with my camera...here's a fabulous picture of a plant.

Here's another Hunter picture...this one, a great tow truck shot

Melissa rolling the pigs.

Jessica and Ian hamming it up.

Me and Hunter hamming it up.

Brad...doing something crazy for Hunter

Ian, being Ian

Brad's Birthday

We broken in the new house and deck with a party for Brad on his birthday...Special kudos to my dad, Brad's dad, and Brent who picked up, moved and assembled all of our new bed and other furniture just in time for people to start arriving!!



When you turn 33, you have to take a HUGE breath to blow out two candles!



Tim wearing Brad's birthday hat....Did it bring him good luck in poker?




Princess being Princess...on Shannen's shoulder

me and Courtney

Dad trying to figure out Brad's new Red Neck game on the Wii...Char and Bobby are watching intently!

Becky and me --- oh my gosh..next time call before you come over & let me know you are 15 shades darker than I am....and I'll get some tanning lotion! :)

Me and Dani...by cupcake time, the bags under my eyes were catching up to me. I had spent the whole week in Florida for work and got home the night before.

Brad's dad, Abby, Brad and his beer, which he is obviously proud of

My mom watching Jordan rake in the chips...Becky, I'm sure he cheated!

Courtney veggin'

Char and Bobby playing red neck games. (are they like reindeer games?)

Saturday

Saturday is my favorite day of the week (At least until I start working them sometime in June or July).

It's nice to have a break from work today...while I love my job, information and things to do are coming at us like rapid fire as we open our new building. We are only about a month away from opening to receive new freight, so we have lots to do in little time. We got done a little early yesterday which was nice, so I came home with intentions of blogging, couponing, and picture uploading, but I fell asleep for TWO hours. Guess I needed it.

Last night after visiting Grandpa, my Mom, Dad, Grandma, and Uncle Rod came over for some Papa Murphys pizza and a little bit of Wii action. It was nice to have some fun after the long week we've had.

So today, Brad is right now at the vet with the pups for their first visit here and I'm getting ready to hit the trail with Charity. Then I'll be doing the couponing and picture uploading I sleep away last night before heading up to visit Grandpa at 2. Then I FINALLY get my hair colored this afternoon. I had to break up my cut and color due to my schedule and their schedule and boy can you tell - YIKES!

Tonight, I'm going to try and convince Brad to go see Wolverine and maybe tomorrow Star Trek - yeah!! We've been talking about these movies for almost a year. I am reeeaaallllly craving some movie theater popcorn!

Happy Saturday!

Grandpa & co.

It's been a rough week, as Grandpa is in the hospital. It's one nice thing about being back here, being able to be there for things like this...They are trying to figure out if his medications are giving him trouble of if it's something more, like dementia.....

It's one of those things that comes with aging family, but as he has always been the patriarch of our family, it's been pretty hard.

Alot of family happens to be back this week...My aunt Sue (my dad's sister) is visiting....her husband is in CT because his son is very sick with cancer. My cousins, Melissa and Todd are in town this week and my uncle Rod (dad's brother) is also here.

We have been trying to make the best of the situation, by being patient while Dad, Rod, Sue, and Grandma are trying to prepare for all Grandpa's options, depending on how this hospital evaluation goes. We try to spend some time together and even have a little bit of fun...probably to escape for a little bit from the decisions ahead. I have pictures to post when I get around to them this weekend....

The family may come over tomorrow night before Rod goes home to play some Wii or maybe we will do something else, but at least we can all spend some time together this weekend.

I'm not sure if aunt Judy reads this blog or not, but she (my uncle Rod's wife) is also battling a form of cancer...but I am thinking about her lately, too. She battles a lot of pain but uncle Rod caught me up today and she is doing much better than they ever thought....so hopefully she will continue to make progress. (if you are reading...Hi aunt Judy :) we are thiniking about you.

Well, time to get to bed...It's been an exhausting week...thank goodness tomorrow is Friday :)

They don't come with a manual

So, my friend, we'll call her Georgie..

just created a blog about kids. She wants to share stories about parenting and get stories/suggestions about parenting.

At the request of her privacy, I won't mention her real name, but here is her link and it will always be on my blog roll on the sidebar of my page.

Obviously I don't have kids, but so many of my friends do, I know that you could all connect and share stories and suggestions.

Happy parenting :)

They Don't Come With A Manual

Checking in

So I haven't blogged in a week..It's been rather busy, I'd say. I got home from my Florida trip last Friday afternoon and on Saturday spent the day buying up things with Mom for Brad's birthday party, while Dad and Brad picked up our new bed and some other furniture and started putting it together. The party was Saturday night (which was a blast -- I'll post pictures as soon as I can) and then Sunday we spent with Tim and Shannen....Breakfast at Perkins and we gave them the very exciting tour of the area. We went to UNI and took pictures with Courtney at various landmarks and then headed home to play games and hang out on the deck.

Sunday night we went to Charity & Dave's for a BBQ and some Guitar Hero....I tried to channel my inner Kirk Hammett, but I don't think I'll be replacing him if he ever leaves Metallica. :) Only my 2nd time ever picking up the guitar I bombed and then was able at least to finish a song!

Monday was a 14 hour day at work -- For the entire month of May we will be doing system testing & interviewing. Yesterday was supposed to be a long day, too, but I was able to get out of work early because Grandpa is in the hospital...not life threatening, but a long story....My aunt Sue and all 3 of my cousins, Brenda, Melissa, and Todd are in town this week so we met them at the hospital to visit Grandpa. Then we headed to Grundy and had some dinner and spent some time with them.

So it was a bit of a late night and I'm pooped already and it's only Wednesday. Hopefully today will be a good day and I can get to bed at a decent hour.

I also hope the weather holds up so I can go out for a run tonight...My race is quickly approaching!