Same old...

Not much new hereabouts. I feel like I've been making some progress on little projects some days. Others are a waste of oxygen. Of course, all bets were off when HP 7 came in the mail. I got that knocked out and was satisfied all around. With that distraction out of the way, I've been able to get back to some work. iPastor has been all handy and stuff lately as well. He installed some carpet in the student room and got some little outdoor projects in hand. I've been trying to glean and clean closets. With summer here, the girls wear shorts and skirts far more often than pants, but when they do have jeans on, I'm seeing lots of ankles, so I've been trying to empty the drawers of items that don't fit.
Also in the mail came our copy of Sweet Land. I missed it in the theater, so it was the first time through for me. Our family is all present in the depot scene, although after spending two days on set iPastor's screen time is whittled down to a flash of him carrying a crate full of chickens. My girls are planted in a little family behind the lovely leading lady as she's studying an English primer. I'm not too far back from them in a cluster of ladies. Mostly I recognized my really big hat. It was fun to see all the familiar faces in the church scenes, and the church itself. Zion Lutheran was one of the first parishes in the county, and years after it closed, the Norwegian Historical society expressed interest in shipping it to Norway as part of an exhibit on emigrant life after they left the homeland. When that happened, it sparked an interest in refurbishing it and keeping it functional, which the families of the original parishioners did, so now its used several times a year for weddings and other special events, including Christmas and Memorial Day concerts where I usually wind up singing.
On the 19th, Arnold's Park held its premiere party, but we had to miss that. Bummer. iPastor had a good shot in the original trailer, so we'll have to wait patiently for that one to hit screens or shelves to see how the final edit came out.
Today Nina's dad is hauling our trailer out to the dump, as our only vehicle with a hitch is kaput. After I get that emptied, I can start reloading it. We've had a heck of a time with bikes. I buy cheap ones and my brother brings garage sale bikes for the kids. They break, then I let the neighbor boys scavenge them for parts. Choppers are back, and the kids seem to be having great fun creating ridiculously large ones. But now I have a shed full of frames and rims, as well as other miscellany that has seen its time come and go, so that's the next batch for the dump. I've been piddling with laundry and other things while I wait for him to bring the truck, and I suppose I should log off and not let this become a bigger distraction.
So, with that in mind, onward and upward. Excelsior!

Psalm 8:3-4

As I walked the dogs tonight I looked up into a clear night sky and was reminded of one of the things I like about small towns: stars. I wish I had a little better than ye olde idiot-proof, point-and-shoot camera, to capture the depth and glow of that sky tonight. Something like that needs the KJV:

3When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;

4What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

For Crying out Loud...

Nina's family got an inflatable waterslide to keep the kids entertained this summer. Today, her little sister, Eliza, fell off the thing, broke her arm, and had to go have surgery to set it and pin it. Enough!
***
We, on the other hand, got the kids safely off to camp. Thing 3 was a touch apprehensive, but as soon as we got there she was distracted by new friends and her big sisters promised to be there if she needed them. Good kids.
***
On the way home, iPastor and I took Thing 4 for supper at Cafe Persepolis. The website could stand a healthy dose of spell/grammar check, but has cool pics. Good food. We were just discussing finding new places in our greater regional neighborhood, so we started tonite. We also dropped a load of coin at home depot. The bathroom needs a little help, so we got some tools to get going.
***
Thing 4 is not going to know what to do without his sisters. He was lapping up the attention tonite, though, so I'm sure he'll survive.
It's late now, and I must sleep. Ta!

Summer in the City

Summer in our city, anyway. Not the urban hub of hot weather activity are we. However, we do have great fun. Saturday nite we had a pickup frisbee game with representatives from most of the houses on that side of town either participating or spectating. It was great fun. The one bar in town was having its anniversary party in the parking lot, so we all got a free live band whether we wanted it or not. In a moment of mommy softness, I allowed the big kids to stay out for "night games." We do have a curfew in town, due to some unfortunate incidents with bored teenagers a few years back, but they can be in someone's yard. They came in tired out and slept hard.
Yesterday we cleaned out and washed the van in anticipation of the trek to camp today. When that was done, we decided to take a quick trip to the lake in the clean van and see if the dogs would swim. We haven't had them out yet. It was a moderate success; the dogs paddled about a little, but were far more interested in all the interesting smells along the shore. The water was nasty, too. Lac Qui Parle is a shallow, dam-enhanced lake full of geese and pelicans. It was like bathwater, but decidedly greener. That beach can be so nice early in the year or during a rainy summer. Unfortunately, if it's a wet year, a good part of the park stays closed and flooded, so you don't get to enjoy the beach so much. Kind of a double-edged sword, that. Since I had the good sense to wander around gravel roads after washing the car for the first time in ages, I pulled back up to the hose and rinsed the dust off. I also got out the power washer and had my semi-annual fun of hosing off the area rugs. Nothing says "clean" to me like 1300 PSI! (Yes, I know, it's just a little weenie household model.)
Well, I'm off to try to weasel out of work so I can ride along to camp, and maybe sneak in a trip to home depot on the way by. This time it's church camp. It's old hat for Things 1 and 2, but this is Thing 3's first year, and she's pretty excited. All the old cliches about how quickly time passes pop to mind. While we played frisbee the other night, I was startled to see all these little boys who are suddenly young men. I've been watching them grow for years, but it seems like baby fat has melted off, jawlines have appeared, and they've added several cumulative feet to their height overnight. I'm already having apoplectic fits about the curves appearing in all the appropriate places on Thing 1, and the evidence that Thing 2 is not too far behind. Now Thing 3 is old enough for sleep-away camp. Yikes.

Cranky!

The dental work went fine. Thing 3 had an office visit yesterday (fillings and a crown), but Thing 4 went to an outpatient surgery center for all his work this morning. One of the possible side affects from pediatric anesthesia is irritability. In spades, apparently. Oy. Thing 4 woke up hard from his dental work. He was a bit freaked out from his IV (fluids) and pitched a hissy until they removed it. He was upset but unable to really articulate any specific pain or discomfort, as he was still groggy. The nurses chalked it up to disorientaion. He sucked down about 3 glasses of juice and water which he saved to upchuck in the van on the way home. He then had a case of puke euphoria, and turned into a chatterbox, alternating between talking a blue streak about the new game dad bought him, and screeching at his sisters for various and sundry infractions on his personal space, his possesions, or his private oxygen supply.
We've recently done some rearranging and put a much smaller TV in the living room, now that we use the projector or movie watching. We hooked up a VCR, and with the lack of cable hereabouts, the kids have been dragging out the old VHS movies. With 5 years between kids, all the sudden the old Disney tapes have been rediscovered. Tarzan, and his crew are new again. Cranky pants and his sisters have settled in to enjoy. I think I'll join 'em. G'nite!

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Greetings from Watertown, South Dakota! Things 3 and 4 require some extensive dental work that has been referred to a pediatric dentist and oral surgeon on this side of the border. Thing 4 needs pretty basic work, but enough of it that they want to sedate him and do it all at once rather than subject him to multiple visits. We had to schedule over two days, so we got a hotel room. The hotel has a pool, which is awesome for the kids, a hot tub for mom, and free wireless internet for dad. When we first got here and the hotel was nearly empty, we got speeds of around 1.2 meg. It's calmed down a bit with more ppl on the pipe, but still nice and zippy. We've been cussing our ISP (curse you MVTV Wireless, curse you!) for quite some time because our services is quite unreliable and slow. Unfortunately the ISP's proverbial butt is covered by it's sale of "unmetered" (not unlimited) service of UP TO 1 meg, so when we complain of our 356 up and down connection, our choices are basically "take it" or "leave it." Whee. Qwest DSL doesn't come so far, so our other option is dialup. Hooray. So for today anyway, in between relaxing by the pool and having supper and perhaps drinks out with my brother and his wife, we are enjoying the speedy goodness of wireless.
We went out for supper and are now enjoying Mythbusters. We shut off our cable earlier this year, so it makes TV new again! We gather around the set together just like the old time radio. I think I'll go back to watching Jamie and Adam shoot things. Cool.

Now is the summer of our discontent...

Noble motivations aside, the Things right now are the crabbiest little bunch of Bickersons I have ever seen. Unfortunately, that behavior is contagious, so Mama's cranked up, too. I assume this will pass with the heat, but only time will tell.
Our 4th was fun. Saw friends, enjoyed works, and rolled down a hill. Every grownup should do that once in a while to remember what it's like (ONCE in a while; twice made me want to hurl.) We also had large fun with a projector, A PS2, and a game of Guitar Hero.
Thing 4 turned 4 this week. He's all boy right now; baby's all gone.
Yesterday I packed the grouchy kids into a vehicle with broken AC, and trekked halfway into the next county to witness the baptism of the new nephew. Cute as a bug. It was a bluegrass service, which apparently means country music with a banjo and a harmonica, because it didn't sound like bluegrass to me until they put down the instruments and sang some a capela stuff. Nice, but just not quite there. Picky me. Afterward, it was off to the in-laws house to enjoy some supper and visiting until the sun went far enough down that I didn't have to drive into the glare. On the way home, one of the small towns in between was having its fireworks display for the local festival, and it gave the kids something to watch for a good 20 miles.
Now it's off to church. Hopefully it'll cheer some of us up.

Looky what I got!

Woohoo! I gotsa button! Me likey. Many thanks to Michel for making me feel like somebody extracts something from the drivel I post (and promises drinks!) Now I guess the idea is to pass along the love, so let's see...

To Bossy: Often I can't follow WTF she is saying, but she spews forth comments that make me snort coffee over my keyboard. And one of her handles is Rocker Mom, so who better?

To Britmum: With bonus rockin' for her
Gran.

And to Kelly: Who has to deal with other people's kids en masse on a daily basis, which really rocks.

Copy/paste that button and Rock On!!