Glob of Goo

This was a fairly quiet weekend but there was some progress. The bed was moved to the basement where Pete continues to try to fix it. I agree it is too nice to give up on just as long as it is not done in my dining room. So,he will try a few other things. I put my nativity set and the victorian angel and santas given to me by Pete's parents this year in the curio rather than packing them away. So, the living room is back to normal with the exception of a blob of goo that is stuck in the carpet and we have to somehow remove.

Sunday I could not resist and looked for open houses because you never know when the perfect house might become available. There were two both within a mile of our house. One was the one we were scheduled to see when John and Betty left but cancelled and since they were having an open house, we went to see it anyway. Pete thought it was great and I thought it was ok..too pricey and too many steps (ranch with walkout basement) but it did have a first floor laundry and walk-in showers. Neither Pete or Breanna smelled smoke but I did as soon as I walked in. The other house was also nice but no first floor laundry. It did have two options to put one in off the family room or one of the bedrooms. Anyway, neither seemed perfect so we will keep looking.

I made lasagne last night for the first time in about six months and also bought some frozen garlic texas toast. The last time I bought frozen garlic toast about ten years ago and it was terrible but this time it was pretty good and not too expensive. I have to remember things can improve.For instance, the same thing with frozen pizza...used to be terrible but now it is not too bad. Either that or my taste buds are more tolerant than they used to be. Since I stopped driving about ten years ago I am stuck in a time warp and think everything is the same.

Luke and his class went to the theater to see "Clifford the Big Red Dog'. This will be his first time on a school bus so he was excited about that and the show. He said he had a good time.

I finally sent in a postcard to Regis and Kelly to try to win a trip for the family. We really need a vacation. Today was the first day of the contest and they did not call but I will not consider myself a loser until the last day of the contest. Then, and only then, will I go to John's loser party.

The other thing I did this past weekend was about ten loads of laundry (Pete informs me there is more). I found a penny in the dryer and decided it was my payment for the job. (I would do laundry more often if I would find more money!).

Speaking of laundry, time to go start another load, this will be load number 12...I really need to get a life!

Lori

i win by brea

your probably wondering what the tittle is about and what did i win . well you have to read on . It won't be right out in the open well mabye it will . Are you bonceing off the walls ? scraching you head like crazy . Am I driveing you nuts, bongo ,or just plain silly? I'm driveing myself nuts ! This is so insane! Out with it girl out with it. what am I writeing oh yah what did I win. I won opps i got to go bye . JUST KIDING ! Ok I'll tell you since your probably laughing your head off . Well every year we have a oprea at are school so we have to find a colored paper with a drawing of the oprea on it . each color means a diffrent prize. 12:00 i'm in my class room theres one more left in the class room destine found the first one. I spoted what I thought was it and so I waited and waited till right before lunch and went over to see if that was it .Kayla .h got up and I said no but she walked right past it and i pulled what I thought was it and it was it ! I got the gold one and so I got the grand prize a jar full of whoppers or maltballs . the crazy object breanna htsyas (hope to talk to you all soon )

It was a good week. After rereading my last blog and seeing all the things I still had to do, I did about half of them so I feel like I accomplished something.

Pennie spent Wednesday with us as part of her vacation. She took me out to breakfast where we had to wait FOREVER for the the food and then the waitress gave us coupons we could not use. We went to pick up Luke at school who has not had a 'thumbs up' day for awhile and in fact, if memory serves, he has only had one. When I went to get him on Friday the teacher said she could not remember if he had a good day because most of the class had a tough one. I give up. If we were not commited to the carpool situation, I would put him to a different school.

Back to Pennie, we went to the movie 'Brokeback Mountain'. Although the subject matter is not ideal, I was expecting an Oscar caliber film and was disappointed. We both gave it a five on a scale of one to ten.

It was nice to get out on a weekday so thank you Pennie!

Luke and I were outside most of Friday afternoon. He played while I took down most of the Christmas lights. Pete sure put up a lot of lights. Of course, I could not find a place to put them in the garage so I made three piles, lights, rope lights and extension cords.

Breanna had a good week at school. Each classroom had two tickets that were hidden somewhere in the room. She thought she saw one up on a shelf but could not get up in the middle of class to go get it so she had to wait FOREVER until class was done. She went up and sure enough, she found the ticket and was able to turn it in for a prize at school. (This makes her ineligible for the Loser's Party although she is a Packer fan). She was happy she finally found a ticket since the school does this every year and she has never found one before.

Pete has been playing his computer game every night. I have doing the soduku game in the paper every day. I checked for open houses today and there were none. After reading John's blog I am thinking I won't look anymore. I wish we had the money to help them out and return the favor. Maybe they could move into our house and we will get a smaller house as my poor eyesight makes it hard to keep this house clean.

The inflatable bed has one more chance to work and then we are putting it away so I can get my dining room back.

Lori

The land of the 'still and still nots"

I am thinking of all the things I have to do and haven't done.

The property taxes are still not paid.

The inflatable bed is still not working.

The living room is still not back to where it was before Christmas.

I still have not made a dentist appointment for Luke.

Maya is still sick.

I still have not decided whether to walk the marathon although I did talk about it with a friend last night so I made some progress.

I still have not finished cleaning my bathroom.

I still have not done the laundry (might as well just lump all household chores into this one).

I still have to call my mom.

I still have to write some Thank You notes.

I still have to come up with a budget plan.

I still have to get Luke's birth certificate to the school (finally found it!).

I still have not listened to my new cd I got for Christmas.

I still have not opened the yoga video I got from Pete (and I asked for) three Christmases ago.

I am still eating too many cookies.

I still have not sent in the postcard to win a trip from Regis and Kelly even though I have all the clues.

On the flip side, I still love my family, I still feel pretty lucky to have the life I have and I still wouldn't trade places with anyone.

I still have to make lunch!

Have a good one...Lori

Welcome Back to the Family

We almost lost an important member of the family.(I am blogging about this after noting John has already mentioned it in his blog). I was reading John's blog and discovered he was taking George, the statue, to the antique dealer. The first time I walked into the parsonage to meet Pete's parents, the first thing I saw was George and immediately liked him (the parents were nice, too). Anyway, I quick ran downstairs and asked Pete for a favor...to stop whatever he was doing and call his parents to see if we could possibly have George. I supposed I could have called but in my excitement was having trouble speaking English. He obliged and we got him in the nick of time. Whew! I have been looking for something like George since we bought our house and have not been able to find anything so I am happy we will have the real thing. John and Betty will be able to visit anytime.

Speaking of John and Betty, I looked at the open houses this weekend and there was nothing available. I was happy to see new listings which means hopefully every week there is a possiblilty of the right house becoming available. There were three homes with first floor laundry but all were on the east side.

Pete has been a busy man this weekend. He worked on two computers for friends of ours, trying to fix the patch on the inflatable bed so we can get it out of the dining room and working on his bathroom in the basement to get it the way he wants it.

Breanna had a girls night out with Pennie Friday night. They saw a movie, had dinner and then went shopping.

Maya was sick last night and not doing well today. We are keeping an eye on her and hoping for the best. I hope we do not have to take her to the vet...poor puppy.

Right now we are watching the playoff games and currently, the Steelers are all over the Broncos. I would like to see Bettis get a ring.

I hope you all had a good weekend...Lori

To walk or not to walk?

We went to Breanna's conference and it went well. She mentioned blogging more so she can improve her keyboarding skills and we all agreed that was a good idea. We also signed Luke up for Kindergarden even though we are not sure if the school right down the street from us will have half day. (They pick a school and send all the half day kids there).

We finally made it to my mother's house for chili. She also made ham since I do not eat chili(thanks, mom). I told her she could be invited to John's loser party because she always enters the Reader's Digest contest but never wins anything even though she has been doing it for years.

Due to my early blogging, everyone found out about John and Betty's decision about waiting until the fall to move to the area except the realtor!!! I had called him right after I talked to Betty and left a reather long and detailed message about their decision and said if he had any questions, to call me. Sure enough, I got a call from him today regarding another home visit and he had not yet gotten the message I left yesterday. I filled him in on all the details and he seemed fine with it and would continue to e-mail.

I am trying to decide if I want to train to walk in the marathon this year. For those of you who don't know, I walked it two years ago and missed walking through Lambeau Field by ten minutes!!!! This year they are extending the race time for those who walk and to encourage more people to do the race. The guy who runs it sent me an e-mail giving me free registration since Lambeau had closed and I walked all that way for NOTHING! I have to decide by this weekend because that is when I would have to start training. I can do it during the week but it is the long walks on Saturdays that take a lot of time. Any comments on this would be appreciated. I'll let you know my decision this weekend. I really need to get back in shape. Half a marathon is not an option, it's all or nothing, baby!

Have a good one....Lori

It was a long but exciting weekend looking at houses for John and Betty. It is amazing the range of homes we looked at; some not good at all,and others soooooo close to what they are looking for. Betty just called to tell me they decided to wait until fall so they can take their time getting used to the idea and getting ready. Hopefully, Pete and I can keep and eye out for something that will be perfect for them. We sure enjoyed having them here and miss them already. Meanwhile, when we go to Crystal, we can help pack of few things and bring them here for storage if they want us to (or not). It is such a hard decision and I am not even making it!

Tonight we have Breanna's parent teacher conference and registration for Luke for kindergarden. We are hoping there will be a half day option available at his school because we think that would be ideal for him. Afterwards, we are going to my mom's house for chili which she has made twice for us but we have not been able to get there to eat it. It is supposed to snow today, but we are going!!!

Until next time, Lori

House Hunting

What a weekend we had house hunting. We only went to open houses to see what was out there and what the market is like. Supposedly it is a buyers market in Green Bay because there are so many houses for sale and builders keep building more homes.

Saturday we were disappointed with what we saw, none seemed to be in move in condition but Sunday brought better results. Since I was still sick, I stayed home with the paper and whenever Pete and the kids got done looking at a house, he would call me and I would tell him which one to go to next. Pete is great at house hunting because he looks at all the structural stuff as well as what his parents needs are. Breanna votes as well on the one she likes.(Luke said one was particularily(sp?) smelly so that one was tossed).

We spent some of the money we received from Christmas on a new digital camera and printer. We had been looking to get one for awhile and decided now was the time since our old one seems to only last a few pictures before the batteries need changing. Hopefully we will have a system so I can e-mail them or post them on the blog on a regular basis since I was having difficulty with the old camera. The new one prints great pictures and Pete was thoughtful to buy a camera that has a large picture window so I do not have to look through the viewfinder which is hard for me to do now. We printed out a few pictures and they look pretty good!

This week on Wed. I am room mom at Luke's school so I hope I am feeling better so I can go. Breanna has dance. She had a sleepover at a friends house Friday and since she came home has been "so bored" unless we were out looking at houses. She has kept in mind that Grandpa and Grandma love storage (don't all Linnas?).

Have a good one!

Lori

It is Friday and Luke and I are both sick with colds and sore throats. I only hope it is not strep because that means I have to go see a doctor and get a prescription that is supposed to work within 24 hours but for some reason takes about three days for me. Anyway, I kept Luke home from school today. He had a good day Wed. at school. I have a system worked out with his teacher, if she gives me thumbs up that means he did well, if not, then I stay and talk to her about what happened. So far he has a winning record of 1-0 so he cannot be invited to Grandpas loser party.

Breanna is on flag duty at school where she and another student put up the flag in the morning (very important to not let the flag touch the ground!) and take it down after school. She is doing so well in school and I am so proud of her. We have all been having trouble getting back into the swing of things since we had two weeks off and sleeping in late but she is always up and ready to go to school.

We had a good New Year's and are now looking at houses for John and Betty. I am waiting for the Sunday paper to see if we can go to any open houses. Pete got the number for the house down the street from us (very nice blue ranch) but has to call on it and another one near Lambeau.

I took the ornaments off the tree and Pete and I took the tree out to the curb.(Wish we had a video of that whole scenario). It was a nice tree. Luke asked us why we took it out and I told him Christmas is over but we will get another tree next year. He then said he wants Easter to come soon. Easy come, easy go, I guess.

This weekend we will try to get over our sickness and get better.

Have a good one, people.

Lori