Having fun in Minnesota

  

Lucky to be in Minnesota???

I-man and I made an adventurous trip this morning to Minnesota. See, the husband took off to Las Vegas for a work talk and I thought I better take the boy home to visit the family once this holiday season if I was to remain in the family. We had to leave home at 5:30am in the pouring rain to get to the airport. This meant I got up at 4:45am. Ugh. Once we got to the airport (the darn new road and traffic circles are hard to navigate to the airport in the dark and rain!! You would think SOMEONE would have thought to put some signs up telling us which direction to go from the round-abouts) we walked from the parking lot carrying bags and the car seat. I had to carry the boy...and he was no help in carrying the bags! It was COLD and RAINY. Why didn't I take a cab??? Oh well....we did make it for our 7:15am flight to Minnesota and sat next to a guy whose flight to O'Hare was cancelled due to the Midwest Storm.

It was a chilly (but sunny!) 7 degrees when we landed in the great land of Minnesota. I-man got his first taste of the eyelash freezing cold air as we exited the plane. Is that really lucky? No snow, but dang cold...guess it's all in what you want from winter. I know my friends and family in California and Hawaii are laughing at us right now!

Name that bird

  

Picture needing a caption

  

This weekend's guests

 
Aunty Jo and Aunty Jess flew from the coasts for a Saturday evening dinner party in SB. On the menu this weekend: curry squash on Friday and ratatouille on Saturday night. They did most of the cooking, of course. I've got great friends!!!!! 

Where's the candy? And Neighbor Advice Question

So I went to the grocery store today expecting there to be great deals on left-over Halloween candy. There was NOTHING. What's the deal????

OK, so the neighbor dog was spotted on our front porch yesterday and the husband saw him take my garden shoe and run off. Now, we have never really MET this neighbor (he lives on the other side of the creek and there is no easy way to get to his house), but we don't particularly LIKE this neighbor because of his music, trashy yard, etc. etc. His dogs are cute young dogs, but they've been coming over on our yard a lot lately. So...what should I do?! Kind of pisses me off that the one took my shoe!!!

Guests and Soup

So, we have five weekends of houseguests planned. So far we've had two. The cool thing is that both cooked for us.Hmmmm...is that establishing some sort of criteria for the right to come visit us? Who knows, but it seems like a good deal from our standpoint. Both guests made squash soup. Variations on a theme and both were fabulous. So..those of you who are next better pull out your cookbooks and come up with a squash soup recipe. It's either that or raking the massive amount of leaves in our front lawn.

Happy Fall!!!!!!!!!

 
 
  

Morning tricks

As I sit here with the boy sleeping on my lap I'm thinking about morning "meanness". See, he played a trick on us. He went to sleep early last night and therefore was up and ready to go pretty early this morning. For those of you who know me and The Husband you know that early mornings are NOT OUR THING. Now the boy has gone back to sleep already...ugh..and I'm feeling pretty groggy. Made me wonder if the baristas at coffee shops ever get a mean streak in them on groggy mornings and decide to switch the decaf and regular coffee?

View out the back window!

  

A picture says it all....

  

Foot trick

 
Only after looking at these photos a few times did I note this cool trick I-man is doing with his feet...And he apparently thinks the firetruck on his shirt must taste prety good! 

Garden help!!!

  I pt the parents to work helping me with the gardening! They are good workers and cheap, too!!! 

Still smiling???

So why is everyone still smiling around town despite the big loss to Michigan this weekend? Well, I'm glad you asked! I think it has something to do with the fact that a new restaurant is opening this week and EVERYONE is super excited. Yeah...kind of funny that people can't stop talking about the new Chipotle that is going to open this week. Careful...that website makes NOISE!
Here's some talk about it in the SBTribune. Guess I'll get in line for a burrito today! My sis always tells me about the nutritional content of the food---not sure why she needs to inform me of all the calories of their burritos, but she does! I'm annoyed with Trader Joe's, though. Why don't they come here? It's not like they'd have any competition here!!! Sigh...

It begins again.........

Football season....and The Husband has that glint in his eye. This weekend is the home opener for the ND football team

Pirates

 

OK--so you can't see it in the picture, but below the pirate on I-man's onsie it says "If in doubt, swab". In trying to understand more about pirate speak I came across THIS website with a pirate speak glossary! Enjoy and practice!!! Sept 19th is coming soon! 

lucky nickname...photo

  

Lucky nickname

So...the other day I was reflecting on the benefits of having a nickname like Moose. The cool thing is that whenever one of my friends or family members sees something with a moose on it they think of me! Just think...all these people who know me all travelling about their day and BAM...they see a moose t-shirt or a moose picture and BAM...they think of ME!!! Isn't that kind of cool? It also leads to them purchasing the SAID moose item and sending it to ME! I have quite a collection! Lets see...recently I received a nice photo card from my friend Lizard. She had been travelling in Alaska and sent me a nice card with a moose picture along with some moose bookmarks. Other friends travelled to Maine and Vermont recently bought me some "Moose droppings" (hard maple candy, actually) and a classy moose bumper sticker. Our other friends bought us the "gorgeous" moose lamp as a housewarming gift. I-man has a few moose-stuffed animals and even Maggs has a moose-stuffed toy. I have two pairs of moose pajamas, moose towels, moose mail holder, and a moose stocking holderMy MIL got me a nice moose trivet and a moose for the fireplace. She thought she was pretty cool in finding it until she travelled in the Mpls airport and saw the store dedicated to moose stuff. I'm trying to put together moose kids books for the I-man. I have a few, but need to get If you give a moose a muffin (one of my favs). Recently, I saw this moose print on the web. Think I should get it for the husband??

book club book???

I-mans favorite book this month is called Big Rex, a big cloth book that he can read, chew on, and hug!!! Sounds like a winner for an Oprah bookclub pick?

I-man puzzles out the faucet

 
 
Don't know why this was so interesting today, but he spent a good 20 minutes figuring out how the faucet worked.... 

Ike takes a bite

 

This kind of sums up our weekend to KY. Frustrating on the whole...lucky for Ike that he can just BITE whatever comes near him when he gets pissed. 

Good Eats....somewhere in Indiana

  

Old man in the sand

 

Here's the hubby laying out for a score in the recent beach frisbee tourny. He assures me this WAS a catch and that the somersault afterwards was not gratuitous. I-man and I didn't see this...we were too busy hiding out under a tree away from the sandstorm winds on the beach! 

Some good books

Rainy day here in SB (a nice break from the heat and sun!). A good day to read books. I'm reading What to Eat (loaned to me from Ike's nanny...Prof. H!) She goes through the aisle at the grocery store and talks about the politics and nutrition behind groups of food. Interesting, but a bit depressing because you are left not really thinking anything we eat is good!!! Also, check out Tenspeed Press We got some fun kids books as a gift from them. Ike's favorite is "Hola Jalepeno". I like them because it makes for a more interesting read for us than a lot of the kid books.

New furniture

 
 

Here are the latest furniture additions to our house. One was a bargain used at only $10 and the other was handmade by Amish craftsmen. Can you guess which is which? Ike's not quite big enough for his toy, but he's going to love it when he can reach the toys!!! 

Confessions of a tea-drinking vegetarian who loves the outdoors

Or...one could title this "what has happend to me since having the boy". I daydream about turkey sandwiches and decaf lattes while trying to get the boy to sleep and I've become much more fond of hibernating indoors this summer than ever before! The sun and heat are too much for me. I'm much happier just hanging out in the cool dark house. Strange, but I think Maggs (the dog) thinks along these same lines. Except perhaps for the latte?

We're headed to Chicago for the weekend. Staying at a place off of www.athomeinnchicago.com
C to play in the beach frisbee tourny at Montrose Bay and Prof. H and I are going to hang out with the boy. Rumor has it that apt. we're renting has a baby grand piano!

My frisbee days are over, too. The thought of hanging out on the hot beach all day does not sound fun. I didn't have much fun there last year, either. The sand was so hot it burned your feet.

I wonder if they have good turkey sandwiches in Chicago?

Fourth of July

Anyone else looking forward to the end of The 4th of July? ARound here the 4th means fireworks and rednecks. There are ALWAYS rednecks around here, but it just seems like they are MORE dominant right now. Ugh. I apoligized to Ike today that he was born here. Poor kid. And poor Maggs. SHE HATES THE FIREWORKS. You know what a strange state I live in? Previous law here was that you could SELL and BUY fireworks in state if you signed a form saying you would then take them to ANOTHER state to shoot them off????????? What a weird law. But now it's legal to shoot them off on private property...which means every redneck around us is doing that. Ugh. And thats A LOT

C just downloaded this album by Bruce Springsteen

Not bad

Dad dresses me funny-day

  

Cool website-learn sign language!

I sent this website to a friend who is stuck at home thinking it would give her soemthing to do:

I learned the sign for "sloth" last night. Very useful!

momentary crisis at home

Tonight we got home at about 10pm to find the internet inaccessible. You can imagine our shock. Cable TV didn't work either....hmmm....the slick hubby made the quick conclusion that there must be a few Comcast bills piled up somewhere. A call to customer service indicated that yes, indeed, we were 2 months behind. Hmmm...wonder how long we can use the excuse: "yeah, we just had a baby and things are a little crazy around here". I'm thinking for at least 16 or 17 years??

Ike update

Weight today: 10.2 lbs at just about 14 weeks. Kid's got his Pop's metabolism.

Farm Art

 
 
 

I thought Jess would especially appreciate these photos. Taken at the Farm up in N. Minnesota. 

Visiting cousins....

 

Isaac and I went up North to visit family. Here he is with his cousins...M and J-J 

Leaving South Bend

 
Think this is a sign? This was what we saw driving to the airport on my way OUT of South Bend to go to Mpls. It was cool! 

Tree fell on the house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 
 
  

ICE CREAM!!!!!!!

Hey---have you heard of the new blizzard flavor at Dairy Queen? Monster Cookie flavor!! It sounds great to me!

new toys

what do you think of these toys?