Cowgar Family Adventures

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Po-Po Smackdown!

So, yesterday, we decided to go do a little shopping for potty prizes up in Medina. On the way back into Wooster, we notice a helicopter circling around, and at first thought life flight, but it was getting further away from the hospital. Upon reaching the house, the thing is hovering around OUR house! We stay outside and watch it...noticing now that it is a sheriff chopper. We look up our street, and of course there is a cop car there now, and tons of guys with bullet proof vest and US Marshall shirts. Wooster decided to do another drug raid. I guess they had units spread across town from all over the county.

They did this last fall when we had gotten back from the Cleveland Zoo, and we were just at the Akron Zoo over the weekend, so we are thinking if we keep going to the zoo, maybe the city will get cleaned up quicker! Last fall though, it was right outside the house, the duplex across the street was raided and there were people running everywhere!

Needless to say...we need to get rid of this house. That is twice in less than a year we've had a helicopter circling with cops running around guns drawn and all! So, everyone...feel free to volunteer to come over and help finish projects so we can put this place on the market. I have a LONG to do list!





Potty Training

Lexi was fully potty trained day and night by the time she was 2 1/2, and it was pretty easy with her. She initiated herself, and just never looked back. I have a goal to get Lilly potty trained by November, so we only have one baby in diapers, so I have casually gotten ready for her. I have a potty chart in the bathroom to put stickers on, and a bin with a few potty prizes. She didn't really seem to have much of an interest with the potty in May, but I started asking her before bed and before bath and in the morning, and she would sit for a couple minutes and tell me she's done.

Well, the past few days there has been an explosion! She is running around naked right now and has only had one accident, and it was poop. She loves getting her stickers, and her Lightning McQueen cars as prizes. I can't stop her!! It will be interesting to see how she reacts when we are out, and she will still be in a diaper at night for now, although this morning she had pulled it off and went on the potty chair in the bedroom all by herself.

And I can't leave out Lexi. We have a little potty chair that goes into the bedroom at night, and stays in the living room during the day, which she has used faithfully since not wearing diapers. She has now graduated to going into the bathroom, putting her potty seat on the big potty, getting her stool over there, climbing on the potty, doing her business, wiping, and putting everything away and flushing. So I've got potty duty going on all over the place lately! Hopefully it stays this easy.

Weekend at the Akron Zoo

We became members of the Cleveland Zoological Society, which means we can not only get into Cleveland Zoo for free, but also the Akron Zoo...along with a big list of other zoos around the country for free or discounted admission.

On Saturday we decided to finally make it to the zoo, and had an awesome time. The girls loved walking around, and it is small and very kid friendly. The big attraction was 3 jaguar cubs that were born back in March, and I saw them better in the pictures that Luke took than I did at the zoo. There were two or three guys with huge cameras completely hogging up the glass, that even the girls couldn't get through to the glass to see them. They are only on display in the morning, so it's a madhouse around there.

We saw lots of other animals though, penguins, jellyfish, flamingos, a snow leopard, lemurs, bats, and lots more. We ate lunch at the Komodo Cafe, and took some time in the garden's so the girls could play in the foutain.

We went back Sunday morning for a few hours since we pass it to get out to Newton Falls. Would you believe the same guys with cameras were still hogging the jaguar display!!! They must live there or something. I swear if they are there the next time we go, I am going to send Lexi towards the glass with her camera and chew them out for not letting a child get through to see the exhibit!

We have some video that will be coming soon...

















Mama Cowgar's Birthday Bash

Her birthday got trumped by Father's Day and Papa Cowgar's IFR test, so this past Sunday we celebrated her birthday at Great-Grandpa Caldwell's house in Newton Falls. We had hot dogs from the famous hot dog shop in Warren, and then had some cake. The candles were the kind that are "magic" and keep relighting themselves...if Luke and I would have been let in on the joke, I would have recorded it, but, we only have pictures. The girls had a fun time playing with their cousins, but we were pretty tired and didn't stay very long. We had been at the Akron Zoo that morning, and all day on Saturday, so I was beyond exhausted!



















Father's Day

For Father's Day we did little wooden craft projects for the boys in our life. We bought some pre-made choo choo and airplane wooden wall hangy things and had the girls paint them. We did airplanes for Papa Cowgar, Uncle Chuck, and Uncle Jeremy, and choo choo trains for Grandpa Perkins and Great-Grandpa Caldwell. We did a picture frame for Papaw in West Virginia (sorry, I haven't gotten an envelope to mail it yet!)

Luke's present was a spare battery and a 5 pack of 2G cards for his camera that we purchased before the Indy airshow.

We started the day at Grandpa Perkins' house with some Dairy Queen. We hung out on the porch for awhile and then went up to Mama and Papa Cowgar's to wait for Papa Cowgar and Jeremy to get home. Papa Cowgar has his private pilot's license and took is IFR rating. They took a lot longer than expected, so we ordered pizza, and when they got here we celebrated his test passing with some angel food cake and some chocolate covered cherries.



















Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Meal Planning and House Cleaning...

We had a pretty good weekend for Father's Day...but that will be a separate post with pictures and details.


For now though, I would like to say that we didn't do too bad with our meal planning last week. Tuesday through Friday we had lunch and dinner at our house, with food from our kitchen...and honestly that is probably the longest stretch we had ever gone without eating out...with the exception that we did go to Starbucks...but I had a gift card I got from a credit card rewards thing of mine...so that doesn't count;) Saturday we were out and about and had a graduation party to attend, so that day was shot...and with Sunday being Father's Day...well that day was shot as well. Monday we had lunch at home, and had dinner at Keith and Angel's house. We hadn't seen their house since they moved in. I wish we would have put that kind of work into our house before we moved in, then we wouldn't be living in a construction zone with kids right now. We didn't get a grocery list together for Luke to do shopping last night, but there isn't a whole lot we need, so I need to come up with another meal plan for the week.

Being a Tuesday, it will be trash night tonight, so I am focusing on some much needed cleaning today. I have the dishwasher going, the living room is picked up and swept, the laundry is going, and I'm tired. I will fold some laundry here in a bit with the girls' help. When Luke gets off work, he will mow our forest outside, and hopefully we have time to pressure wash the plastic toys outside, and we need to do the sides of the house and back porch sometime as well.

I want to come up with a weekly/biweekly cleaning schedule that I can stick to. I really think that would help out, because it seems that as soon as something gets caught up, it falls apart again. I think that's all for now...time to figure out a late lunch!

Thursday, June 18, 2009

First Storm Chase of the Season!

First off, we are huge weather buffs, and I'm pretty sure we have agreed that when the kids hit their teenage years, we are doing a bus tour through the Tornado Alley during peak season, in hopes of catching a few twisters out there.

Yesterday was a day filled with rain...on and off all day. Perfect conditions for weather to pop up out of nowhere. We worked on dinner a little early, in case we were gonna lose power or something (which it doesn't matter since the stove is gas..duh me!) We had "Krabby Patties" and "Kelp Fries". The girls did decent with dinner, although they didn't try the meat, and the fries were homemade, which was a first for us.

Anyways...the baby was craving some Starbucks, so we packed up in the car a little after 6PM and headed across town to hit the forbidden place, and Lexi wanted a Rice Krispie Treat from the gas station...so we stopped there as well. While this is happening, we are simultaneously watching some beautiful clouds in the southwest sky. Nice cotton, fluffy, white clouds that Luke wanted pictures of. The only way we were going to catch them was to head further east to get in front of them, because they were moving pretty quick. We headed out Back Orrville and turned south on Eby Rd. and swerved through some back roads to a nice open field. The cotton clouds from town had disappeared, but the sky was still pretty, so Luke pulled over and snapped a few shots.



Pretty eh? Then we turned around and looked to the North. Boy that sky was dark. The clouds were hanging really low and we found ourselves right in front of a wall cloud of the approaching storm. We kept our eye on the front point of the wall cloud, because it really looked like it could touch the ground at any time!





Luke snapped the pictures and then dove for the car before the rain hit. We drove through a lot of heavy rain, and I took a bunch of video on my little powershot camera. When we got home, we looked at the radar and realized that we were actually driving through a tornado warning!



The 10PM news on Fox had a couple pictures from Wooster and Sugarcreek that had funnel clouds, but there were no reports of a touchdown. To be honest, looking at the pictures, we don't think they were funnel clouds, but the tip of the wall cloud instead. I've seen a funnel cloud before, and it looked different from those pictures, and if those were funnel clouds, then apparently I've seen a ton more funnel clouds in my life than I thought, even in storms where there were no watches or warnings!

When we got home the girls threw some rocks in our driveway we have now nicknamed "Cowgar Marsh", because it's one big mud puddle with some grass mixed in.





Anyways, Luke put together a very short video of some of the clouds and rain we saw yesterday. It's the beginning part of a song from the "Twister" soundtrack. We both enjoy that movie, so as more weather rolls our way this season, we will probably reference that movie a whole bunch :)

Monday, June 15, 2009

Recapping the Weekend

Friday we booked out to the Lodi outlet malls to look at dresses. I have this idea in my mind that when we go to Florida for the shuttle launch in August, that I want to get really pretty pictures of the girls on the beach, and also some maternity shots. I want the girls to have two dresses for pictures, I will have however many I feel the need to have for a beach shoot, and we will get Luke one or two nice beachy outfits so we can maybe get some family shots or something. We primarily went up there to hit Gap, and we found the perfect dresses, white and blue, and we also found a nice dress for me as well (black). We stopped into The Children's Place and found adorable hats that would go really well with the dresses, and they were clearance at .99 cents!!

Saturday we took pictures of the girls in there dresses, and they are over on the photo blog if you wanna take a look. We took a few pictures of me Friday night in my dress, but Luke didn't really like the lighting he was getting, but maybe I can get him to get a picture ready for this blog. We spent the majority of the day cleaning the living room and dining room, and we ran the steam vac in the living room Saturday night.

Sunday we spent the early afternoon at my dad's just hanging out on the porch and playing, and then we headed for Luke's parents so we could go swimming in the pool. Lexi has been looking forward to it all week. The girls loved it, and Lilly kept screaming "I swimming" while floating around, and Lexi was afraid to get in at first because she said she would sink! I guess we need to look into swimming lessons for her. I have no pictures, because Mr. Photog was swimming as well! We got home a bit late and once we got the girls to bed we ran the steam vac in the living room again. The floor looks awesome now, but we still need to do the rugs before the living room will be back together again.

Today is payday, and since we seem to be failing at our budget, always going over, we are going to grocery shop every week instead of once every pay period. I am busy making a grocery list and meal planning for 7 days. I have volunteered Luke to go out to Wal-Mart on Monday nights after the girls are in bed to do the shopping. It will be easier than dragging the girls through the store, and he will have a detailed list that he won't stray from. The girls aren't allowed in Wal-Mart right now anyways, because last time we went in (before the airshow) we tried putting them in the cart and they both had a meltdown, so we marched them right back out of the store and I sat in the car with them while Luke grabbed what we needed.

Anyways, it shouldn't be so hard to meal plan and stick to it when we do it on a weekly basis. We have an entire cow and half of a pig in the freezer, we just need to use it. I have dry heaving that sets in as soon as I walk in the kitchen, so we need to deep clean that kitchen really soon so I can actually get in there and make meals without getting sick. I guess it would also help if I knew how to cook and organize the kitchen properly. I want to try and do things as healthy as possible, but the budget just isn't there to back it all right now. On top of things, the girls aren't big into meat, but hopefully if we start making the meat in the freezer on a regular basis, they will start to take to it. Otherwise I don't know what they will eat!

On another note, I had a yardsale going Wednesday-Sunday. I threw everything onto the porch and made a sign that said everything was .25 cents. I advertised on Craigslist and the local yardsale yahoo group. I had Luke make a wooden box that we screwed to the porch, and just had a note that asked people to leave the money there. For not manning a yardsale for 5 days, we made $50. I still need to pack up the porch now that it is over with, and I will probably do a repeat next month, and hopefully again in August. Every little bit helps right?

I'm hoping that we can turn our focus onto the bathroom this week, but I've been saying that for months, so we will see how far we actually get. I just keep trying to convince Luke that if anyone would come into this house to get pictures done in the "studio", they would probably never come back because this place is a construction zone of half finished projects.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Homeschooling Ramblings...

I’ve been doing a bunch of thinking lately about starting “Preschool” for the girls this fall. Lexi will be 3 ½ and Lilly will be 2 ½. Lexi is old enough to send her to preschool this fall, but the only one around we would even entertain would be the Montessori school, and that’s a few thousand dollars a year! ::cough:: Not happening here. I’m not really sure how Lexi would take to being by herself with other children anyways. She is extremely shy, even towards family members she has been around for her entire life. It takes her quite awhile to warm up when we go to visit, I cannot imagine how long it would take her to get used to a school setting with a bunch of strangers. I had both of the girls in the YMCA’s Tiny Tumbler gymnastics last summer, and she never once interacted with the teacher, and really not even with the other children. Last fall I had her in an art class at Wayne Center for the Arts. She would never answer a question for the teacher, or interact with anyone. I think she is just a homebody right now, so I think it would be best to start her off at home, and supplement with story time at the library, or an art class or gymnastics to get her out with other kids her age.

Lilly on the other hand, is still too young for preschools around here. The problem with her is the lack of attention she will give you. I highly doubt she could stay seated and listen to a teacher at all right now. I know that she probably won’t pay much attention to the schooling I do at home with Lexi, and get bored easily with the work, but she will still somehow pick it up. She is just a hyperactive kid, but somehow still absorbs things.

Right now Lexi and recognize her name (mainly just the “A”), say her full name, and she can sing her ABC’s. She recognizes A, B, and sometimes C, but only in uppercase. She can also count to at least 12, knows some colours and shapes, and can sing other nursery rhyme songs. She knows the road we will on, and the city we live in, and can recognize our house when we drive by it.

Lilly knows her name is Lilly, and can count to 10 most of the time. She knows some shapes and colours, and sings her ABC’s, but really doesn’t say all of the ABC’s, its just mumbles. I know she recognizes A and B in uppercase. She will also sing “Row Your Boat”, and knows parts of many other nursery rhymes. She can also recognize the house when we drive by it.

This website: http://education.ohio.gov/GD/Templates/Pages/ODE/ODEDetail.aspx?page=3&TopicRelationID=1696&ContentID=14936&Content=66487

Has guidelines as to what your child would learn in each grade, and I’ve looked at the Preschool guidelines and have come up with the very basics I want to touch on this year. I just want to start something a little more formal, and see how the kids respond and make changes accordingly. I have until they are 5 or 6 before I really have to worry about Kindergarten, so I have at least 2 years to get the preschool stuff down for Lexi, and I’m sure it won’t take that long. She loves learning things, and I know she will love to learn to read, so she doesn’t have to keep asking me to read things for her!

I have some simple supplies I am going to start off with. I have a colouring book with the ABC’s that I can use more for Lilly, to keep her occupied with something. I am using the http://www.starfall.com block manuscript printouts for Lexi, along with their computer game they have for the ABC’s for both of them. I also have the Hooked on Phonics Learning to Read for Pre-K that I found on clearance at K-Mart last year for $12 (normally $46) that teaches the ABC’s, both uppercase and lowercase and a CD Rom disk. I also got another Hooked on Phonics deal through a bargain board forum I frequent, and got a Pre-K gigantic workbook, and the Spanish program with a CD Rom disk. I also have a few math workbooks that Lexi got for her birthday to help learn numbers. I also have 2 sets of science books from when I was little. One is a Discovery Kids series, and the other one is a Weekly Reader series. Both are very informative about seasons, weather, nature, and practically everything we would want to cover.

The Wilderness Center and some neighboring counties park systems have some preschool age workshops and story times that I would like to do with the girls. I’d much rather Luke go with me, and they all seem to be during work hours, so I don’t know how feasible it will be, but with a new baby coming this fall/winter, next year will not be nearly as hectic as this year, so maybe we can schedule something to attend a few of these. The library also has story time, and the YMCA will have gymnastics they can do, and the Art Center will have art classes they can take as well.

I much rather go with a year-round schedule, so we never have too much time off (I would probably never start back up), and it will keep things fresh in their minds. I found tons of different schedules for this upcoming school year, but really found one that fits our needs for this year. School will not start until August 24th, so our shuttle vacation will be over with. It gives a week off in October, lots of time for fall foliage and hiking, or a small fall vacation. It gives the week of Thanksgiving off (which is when baby is due) and gives 2 weeks off for Christmas, which is usually a standard for schooling. In March there is a 2-week spring break instead of 1 week, and school ends June 18th. That gives us a bunch of summer still. Other calendars I found start school back up in July, and that just won’t work for us this year with the shuttle launch being the beginning of August. Of course, between now and August, I will finalize what my school schedule will look like, how long will we focus on each letter, and we will continue to touch base with all of the things we plan on learning throughout the year.

I’ve got a couple plastic tubs of craft and school supplies; the girls have book bags I got on clearance from Oshkosh, and lunch bags I just got from Pottery Barn for a great sale price. I want to make it as fun as possible, so having the responsibility of the book bag, and packing a lunch will keep there attention just a little bit longer during the day.

At most, I think we will only be at everything for an hour or less. I’m not sure if it will be morning or afternoon, I guess it depends on if we do any outside activity, and when that would be scheduled. It’s a bit long-winded, but it helps me get my thoughts in order, and keeps me accountable to get things ready this fall! I'm hoping if we have a nice little routine going before the new baby gets here, it will help the transition go a lot smoother then just chaos with 3 kids 3 and under!

So here is my quick calendar rundown and basic concepts we will touch base throughout the year.

2009-2010 Year-Round Schooling for the Cowgar’s—Grade Pre-K

August 2009

24th-(Monday) First Day of School

September 2009

7th-(Monday) Labor Day—No School

October 2009

19th-23rd—(M-F) Fall Break—No School

November 2009

23rd-27th—(M-F) Thanksgiving Break—No School

December 2009

21st-1/1/10—(2 weeks) Christmas Break—No School

January 2010

4th—(Monday) School Resumes

18th—(Monday) Martin Luther King Jr. Day—No School

February 2010

School as usual. Will have school on President’s Day.

March 2010

8th-19th—(2 weeks) Spring Break—No School

April 2010

School as usual.

May 2010

24th—(Monday) Memorial Day—No School

June 2010

18th—(Friday) Last Day of School

July 2010

Summer Break as usual.

August 2010

23rd—(Monday) First Day of School for 2010-2011 school season

Special Craft Holidays:

Labor Day—9/7
Columbus Day—10/12
Halloween—10/31
Veteran’s Day—11/11
Thanksgiving—11/26
Hanukkah and Christmas—December
MLK Jr. Day—1/18
Valentine’s Day—2/14
President’s Day—2/15
Easter—4/4
Mother’s Day—5/9
Memorial Day—5/31
Father’s Day—6/20
Independence Day—7/4


Subject Focuses for the Year:

English:
ABC’s—Sight Recognition and Sound
Practice Handwriting of Letters and Numbers

Math:
Numbers 1-20—Sight Recognition
Counting Groups
Basic Shapes
Concept of Time

Science:
Seasons
Weather
Animals/Insects
Nature
Earth/Moon/Sun—Day/Night

Art:
Colours
Using scissors and glue
Drawing
Zippers/Snaps/Buttons/Velcro/Tying Shoes

History:
Holidays
Calendar—Days of Week

About Me:
Learn Name-Recognize and Write
Learn Home Address
Learn Mommy and Daddy’s Cell Phone Numbers
Learn Birthday and Age

Spanish:
1-10
Shapes
Colours
Simple, everyday words

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Baby Checkup at 16 Weeks

Today we had a normal OBGYN appointment for the new baby, one day shy of 16 weeks. Blood work is all fine, and the baby's heart rate was 152 (it was 154 last time), so that is excellent. I think I lost a couple pounds, but I attribute that to sweating to death at the airshow last weekend. Hopefully I won't gain as much weight as with the girls, since the majority of this pregnancy will be over summer, instead of winter holidays filled with cookies!

We go back in 4 weeks for another checkup, but the big news is....AN ULTRASOUND!!!! It is scheduled in 3 weeks (July 2nd), one day shy of being 19 weeks along. The girls were modest during their ultrasounds, but we can't help but be excited that we could potentially know what this little bean is.

The plan is that if we can't find out, well, then so be it. It will be just like the girls' pregnancies were. If it's for sure another girl, we will definitely let everyone know, so no one has that boy hope lingering for the rest of the pregnancy. If the tech is pretty sure it's a boy, I think I will ask for a second opinion...lol. We will then keep quiet letting everyone know that we didn't find out, and secretly schedule one of those 3D/4D ultrasounds to get a second opinion, and after that place tells us it's a boy, I'm sure we will still tell everyone it's a girl, because we just won't believe it at all!

After having 2 girls, and Luke's brother having 4 girls, I'm pretty sure this one will be another girl. They both must have been contaminated as children, and therefore cannot produce boy swimmers. I think Lilly will be as close as I get to having a boy...but I guess we shall wait and see.

UPDATE EDIT:

Here is the ultrasound of the baby at 7 weeks 3 days. Can't see much but a blob...

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

We Survived the Indianapolis Airshow

and all I got was a lobster for a husband ;)

We finally got on the road about 6:30am on Friday (5th)and didn't stop until we got across the border (about 3 hours). We arrived at Mt. Comfort Airport a little after 10:30am. The girls did extremely well on the car ride and only napped a tiny bit towards the end. We spent all day until about 4:30 looking at the static displays (they were still parking some of them) and watching the practice fly overs. (Friday was Media Day, so not a real show) The girls and I were tired and went back to the car about 3pm to soak up some air conditioning, so we watched the Blue Angels from the car while Luke went back to the flight line for pictures. Luke ended up using the 5D most of the day, because it seemed like his Sony wouldn't focus on any of the far away airplanes.

Our hotel was in Greenfield, about 15 minutes away, so we drove and stopped at an AppleBees and ordered the Carside-to-go. The girls were crashed, but woke up when we got to the hotel. We ate and got into our swimming stuff and swam in the pool at the hotel for a bit. After that Luke headed out to Wal-Mart to buy some supplies he would need to try and fix his focus problem on the Sony. He had wanted to head back out to the airport at dusk because they were doing hot air balloon flights, but it just got so late so fast, and I was so tired, and with his camera problem and sunburn, it just didn't happen. We had lights out a little after 9pm and we were out!

On Saturday we were up pretty early, about 8 or so. Luke went down and got our continental breakfast and we slowly packed ourselves up to head out for a day at the airshow. Luke had fixed his focus problem with the Sony, so we packed up. Luke feared a sunburn on top of his sunburn (He was too manly for suntan lotion) so he wore pants and his hoodie to keep off the sun. Since we had already seen the static displays, we went straight for the flight line and picked a spot to sit in. Luke went off to buy a couple of the umbrellas that mount on the back of folding chairs so we could have a little shade. The girls kept busy with some toys and coloring books. By the time the Angels flew by (they came in from the Indy airport) Lexi was busy cleaning the wagon and had little interest in them, and Lilly wouldn't keep on her earmuffs, so she sat in my lap and I held her ears. Luke had had enough and was nearing heat exhaustion, so we packed up right before the Blue Angels ended and got to the car and fought traffic out of there and heading for home. We made it home about 10pm and put the girls and ourselves to bed, and that was that.

We had a good but exhausting time, and Luke is by far the worst of with burn on his arms and legs. He also has had a problem with one of his ankles swelling a little bit before, and now both ankles are pretty swollen, so they have been up and wrapped and iced, and I'm sure we need to find a doctor for him to go to.

We took over 1500 pictures, and have been going through them and lots of video, so I will post them here as they turn up.

The airshow does have a photo contest for unedited pictures in 4 categories, so we picked a few and he's been asking everyone for their top 2 favourites in each category so we can decide which ones to send in. The link for them is here: Photo Contest Page

Here is a video Luke put together about our trip.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Ugh...Buy My House!

I still have a few posts to do to catch up to this upcoming weekend (we are going to Indianapolis for an airshow), but I just have to vent about today.

We've been running around trying to get things packed up, and the car needed a good cleaning, so Luke was outside picking out trash and sweeping. I meanwhile, started a load in the dishwasher, and a load in the washing machine, and came into the living room to help the girls pickup some toys. Luke comes inside and all I hear are curses. We knew we had a clog in our kitchen sink, because yesterday the water drained really slow...no big deal, we barely use the kitchen sink since we have the dishwasher, so it can wait. Well, the dishwasher and the washing machine drain into the same pipe that the kitchen sink drains into. Apparently the clog was a lot further down than we thought. The entire kitchen was flooded from the washer draining. Chris was in the basement at his reloading bench, and it started raining on him so he came up as well and ran upstairs to turn off the washing machine while I turned off the dishwasher. All of Luke's tools are on the kitchen floor because Jeremy borrowed some of them to make beehives and they never made it back to the basement.

Luke and I pailed out the overflowing sinks into the bathtub and grabbed every rag and towel we had clean to soak up the mess (I think I need some Zorbeez or ShamWow's or something). I think some of the water dripped onto the balsa wood in the basement for Luke's model airplanes, but I'm not sure if it was enough to damage anything or not.

Luke and Chris ran to Lowe's for parts and they are going to re-pipe the drain to a bigger drain that flow's right beside this one. It looks like the little bit of metal drain that was left probably collapsed on itself and clogged the drain, so right now they are downstairs working on replacing it, then it's back to car cleaning and packing! At least it happened while we were home...

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

An Overview of May

May seemed to have flown by, and I didn't get any less lazy. We are planning on a busy summer, so I am working with Luke to try and get us up-to-date with this blog, and then I won't fall further behind. He still has some pictures to upload, and I still have a few posts to do for both April and May, but here are some miscellaneous pictures from the month.


We don't get too many pictures of daddy since he is the cameraman.

Lexi with a flower in the backyard.

An ant hill in the backyard.

Lexi getting ready to pollinate our backyard with dandelions.

Feeding the ducks and geese and the skating pond south of town.

Walking around the skating pond.

BEES!!!

Luke's brother Jeremy and his wife Crystal decided that they would try their hands at beekeeping this year. They originally started with just two hives, but it just kind of grew and grew, and right now he actually has 7 hives, but only 5 are populated and functioning at the moment. It seems as though the other two hives up and left for someplace else.

It doesn't seem like too hard of a process, and Luke and I are considering it for out at the land. I love honey, but it's really expensive, so we don't ever buy it. We just need to get the land cleared out some before we could even dream of putting ANYTHING on it.

These pictures are early pictures of the first two hives inspections. Some of the other hives he has now are top bar hives that have windows in them, but we haven't been over recently to get any new pictures, so this is what we have for now.


Jeremy and the bees (a bit later when he braved it without the bee suit)

Close up of bees on the hive.

A bee on Jeremy's finger.

Jeremy in the bee suit checking a hive.

Disassembling the top of the hive to check the queen's status.

A bee on the camcorder I was operating!!

Smoking the bees.

The bee suit.