As The Stuewe World Turns

Things That Bother Me

2012-03-01T21:45:00.000-06:00

Yes, riding on the school bus CAN stink. Yes, there is a lot of bad behavior on the bus. But I just want to say that we have a good bus company and good bus drivers here in St. Peter. We all have our faults, but overall a good bunch of a people they are.
Not yesterday, but the day before, Sam was momentarily "lost"! For about 6 minutes I might add, it actually felt like about 30!

On Tuesdays Sam normally rides a different bus and gets off at the other elementary school and goes with his PCA for a couple hours. Well Tuesday she called and said he didn't get off the bus, well he didn't get off the bus that comes home either. No need to panic, called school, nobody answered in the office, called Bill on his cell because every once in a while he will pick up Sam, nope, he didn't have him and said Mrs. Bly remembered putting him on bus 11. Called the bus company, they radioed over to that bus, nope the bus was empty. That's when my heart sank and then Tim, the bus driver, pulled over to the side of the rode, checked the bus and sure enough Sam was fast asleep and he couldn't see him in his mirror because he sank down in his seat. We know Tim, great guy, he asked where I wanted him brought. Home sounds good. Tim brought him to my front door and helped Sam down the steps of the bus because he was pretty out of it.

Everyone assured me they always check the buses at the end of the day for sleeping kids, and to be honest that wasn't my worry. My worry was what if he had accidentally got off at the wrong bus stop. We have come up with a lot of "what if" plans, but what do you tell your kid if you get off at the wrong stop by accident, where do you go? Into a house? A safe person? Who IS a safe person? We have come to the conclusion IF you get off at the wrong bus stop, do not go into any one's house, just stay on the sidewalk and mommy and daddy will find you in a very little bit. If it is VERY, VERY cold out, ask another kid that got off the bus if you can come to his house to call your mom.

Does it ever seem impossible to come up with a scenario for every bad situation that our kids might encounter?

We were reading the Berenstein's Bears book about strangers. We talked about what a stranger looks like, are they yucky looking or nice? BOTH! Can't tell. Sometimes nice looking people are naughty and icky looking people are nice. Don't talk to strangers, don't take candy from them, don't go look at a puppy with them, nothing! If they say something bad is going to happen to their mom or dad or brother or sister if you don't go with them, they are lying. Nothing bad will happen to us.

Run
Kick
Scream
Yell
Bite
Scratch

whatever you need to do to get away.

Sam's response to these actions: "Ben would be really good at that".

That's it for today folks, this post is a good demonstration of why I don't sleep at night. I worry about crap like this ALL THE TIME!

Note to self: talk to the doctor about my medication dosage.

13 Days

2012-02-07T08:54:00.000-06:00

Thursday, January 26th
New struts in van - $960

Van in shop overnight

Friday, January 27th
Pick up van from shop, the repair was painful, but now it's done

Sunday, January 29th
Hot temp light comes on in trailblazer

Monday, January 30th
Trailblazer diagnosis - new water pump

Service shop is now planning their new Spring Bash they are putting on for all employees because of increased revenue.

Tuesday, January 31st
Pick up trailblazer from shop - $805 (not cool), but at least they washed the inside and the outside of the vehicle. Yes, sarcasm is intended here.

Wednesday, February 1st
New month, things will be better, right?!?

Nope.

Bringing Sam to an appointment, miscommunication about parking spot, we back into somebody IN. THE. PARKING LOT.

Rachel is super excited to be in her first "car accident", Sam is laying in the back seat with his hands on his ears and Ben was oblivious to what happened.

After inspection of other vehicle it is determined there is NO DAMAGE! Thank you Jesus!

Saturday, February 4th
I am cleaning out the garage getting ready for Girl Scout Cookie delivery and discover three electrical outlets in the garage that aren't working.

Emily is in the middle of doing laundry and between loads, the dryer mysteriously won't power on.

Monday, February 6th
Call and electrician to fix electrical issue with dryer, he comes 3 hours later, problem resolved. Haven't got the bill yet so who knows.

Trying to fix a leaky tub drain and something "snaps". Not good. Call a plumber.

All three TVs cable boxes stop working.

Sam is home sick today and when I tell him that Mediacom can't come fix it until tomorrow he says "maybe you should tell them your son is sick and he really wants to watch Batman On Demand!".

As I was driving down the road after getting groceries, someone came 'this close' to hitting me as they were pulling out from their parking spot.

I go to the Mediacom office in person here in St. Peter and explain to them the urgency of getting our TVx fixed as my son really wants to watch Batman, but for some reason they don't really seem to get it. Maybe they need to pay a visit to our house.

Tuesday, February 7th
8:15am Plumber is here fixing drain, I am encouraging him to work fast.

Supposedly Mediacom is coming (you guessed it) sometime between 1:00-5:00 this afternoon.

At this point, I am afraid to drive anywhere or use anything within the home in fear it might blow up!

PS - My ear itches really bad, I want to use a knitting needle to get in there and scratch it.

The end!

Update

2012-02-04T11:23:00.002-06:00

OK, these pictures have been sitting in this blog post since November. That is SAD. Some of my nieces harass me when I don't update, so I feel the pressure to get 'er done.

First up.....First Day of School!!

Oh my gosh, how sad is this, first day of school post in January?!?

This is ridiculous, but at least the kids are cute!

Sam started first grade this year, which meant, he got his own desk!! Very cool! I know I am bias, but I also believe this to be fact - Sam is the cutest first grader at South Elementary!

Then there is this little stinker.

First day of preschool.

Ben goes to preschool at South also, although oddly enough him and Sam have only seen each other once.

Emily is in her second year at the U of M.

In September we went up to bring her some stuff and made a trip to Lego Land and the Jungle.

Whenever we would ask Ben where he wanted to go, he would say "ahhh Lego Land and jungle". The "jungle" was actually Rain Forest Cafe. Funny thing, by the time we actually got to the Rain Forest Cafe, they kids were all totally exhausted and slightly freaked out by the surroundings.

Then along came October, which meant, Happy Birthday daddy.

As you can see in this picture: 1. Emily missed me so much she had already come home for a visit. 2. Rachel very much enjoys getting her picture taken. 3. Ben is probably at the start of his potty training experience the same time this picture was taken and it is now February 2nd and he has finally mastered going #1 on the potty, but still craps his pants all the time. and 4. Sam must have been hot, which really is of no surprise to anyone that knows Sam.

Don't worry people, earlier in the day I went down to City Hall and got a burning permit so we could light the candles.

Then there was this really sad day that Rachel was in Girl Scouts.

I don't know why she looks so gloomy there, it really was a happy day.

This is how Ben spends a lot of his time.

Ben also thinks his brother Sam is pretty much the coolest thing since sliced bread.

Also in October we went to the pumpkin patch. There is this nice little pumpkin farm right outside of town. You get to take a ride out on the hay rack to the pumpkin field and pick your own pumpkin.

I guess it actually is a pretty big pumpkin field?!? I don't know, but that looks like a lot of pumpkins to me.

Emily comes to visit me often because she misses me so much.

You know what else is a big deal?

The crib that we bought when I was pregnant with Rachel, the crib that was up in our house for just under 10 years was taken down and sold.

No, Ben is not sleeping on the floor.

He has a big boy bed now!

Here is our attempt at our ghost picture we take every year.

Yup, that's Ben the blur, running away from the picture.

He finally half agreed to be in the picture as long as I would too.

And here is last year's ghost picture.

You see last year, Ben was determined to hold on to Bill's cane he was using after his foot surgery.

And here was everyone in 2009.

Look how little Ben is!

Here we are carving pumpkins.

Rachel was a big helper and had her hands full cleaning out that big pumpkin she picked out.

This is typical Ben....ATTITUDE!

Sam? He worked on pumpkins for a little bit and then moved on to a sandwich and a little TV!

Here is what our pumpkins looked like when they were all done. I thought we did good!

I try to let the kids pick their own Halloween costumes. I say try, because let's face it, I'm a control freak. So it really was hard for me when Rachel decided her costume for this year.

WOW! What happened to like princesses, Hannah Montana, Dorothy from the Wizard Oz? Nope, this year she wanted to go scary!

Sam and Ben on the other hand made it easy. I can't remember who decided first but they made a great pair.

Mario and Luigi!

And Ben's Mario costume? When we buy costumes, they get A LOT of wear. Ben wore his Mario costume all around town for the entire month of October. In case you wanted to know you get a lot more compliments on your costume when it's not Halloween Day!

Here is everyone after school.

No, these are not all my kids, some daycare kids mixed in, I think you can figure which ones are ours.

Here is Santa, oh, 'er, I mean Sam!

And this again is a good representation of Ben.

If you look closely at this picture, you will not only notice the popcorn spilled on the floor, the juice cup on it's side, but also the piss in his pants!

That's my boy!

But, THIS is my boy also!

Look how cute and innocent he looks! Deceiving I'm telling you.

Fast forward just a bit more and we get to pre-Christmas celebrations!

Let's break out the Santa Hats and enjoy some IPAD time.

For those that have been patient and following this blog for a while know about our tradition of everyone putting the star at the top of the Christmas tree!

So here goes the pictures.

Ben

A blurry one of Sam.

Yikes, that blurriness hurts my eyes and the sad thing is I probably have a better one, but I'm too lazy to upload another picture so this is the one that is going to stay.

Miss Rachel

And Emma Jean

There was one Saturday in December that we made cookies pretty much all day.

It's not that we made that many cookies, it's just we took our time making them.

The kids really got into frosting the cookies this year, it was very fun to watch their creativity!

The finished product!

Ben and Rachel both had a Christmas presentation of sorts at school.

Here we are waiting in anticipation for the preschool classes to arrive.

And then they arrived!

and waved

and sang

and clapped

and even a little dancing

Ben was curious about what his friend was doing, because of course Ben would NEVER break the rules (at least not at school).

Ben, what are you looking at?

It's the big man in the big red suit!

And what did Ben tell Santa he wanted? "Smokey the Firetruck and a big garbage truck"! (he got both)

Ben learned the songs and LOVED singing them. Here he is singing one of the songs at home.

Rachel's class did a couple different skits. They had to "audition" for their parts.

She got the part of "dizzy the elf".

She played the part very well.

And you see that big red sheet of paper on the left hand side?

When Mr. Nelsen asked the class if anyone wanted to bring it home, who do you think said ME!

I think you know the answer to that.

Moving along.

Christmas Eve.

Ben was a little excited to get the "big garbage truck"!

And yes, the Knex Roller Coaster was fun to put together, just ask Bill.

The boys were super excited to watch the little car go around the roller coaster track but had little interest in putting it together.

On a side note, Ben was super sick over Christmas. He got sick on Christmas Eve night with fever, cough, wheezing and just a splash of puking.

That meant that Ben got to stay home with Bill on Sunday while the rest of us went to Hulke Christmas and Ben stayed home with me on Monday when everyone went to Stuewe Christmas. Ben felt poorly but after three days of struggling, we went to our favorite Dr. Kundson on Tuesday and he hooked us up with some prednisone and life got better real quickly for Ben.

Ben also figured out real quickly that when the rest of the family left for a while, they were sure to come back with an arm full of presents! He might have been sick, but not too sick to open presents let me tell you.

Back to that roller coaster, Bill spent most of his Sunday home with Ben putting together that Knex roller coaster and that my friends was hit for everyone!

Ok, let's finish Christmas Eve. Rachel was super excited to get her present from Emily.

What's up with blurriness in these pictures? I clearly picked the wrong ones to upload to the blog, and I am SO ready to be done with this post, so I'm not re-doing pictures at this point.

Emma Jean got herself a new pair of running shoes. She's trying to keep up with her mom! :)

And this is the best we got for a Christmas Photo this year.

Taking this picture is truly the craziest part of Christmas each year. And PS, please note the new jammies (Emily didn't put her's on, but she got some too).

And this picture, recaps Christmas 2011 rather nicely!

And now it's January.

What are we up to in January?

Yes, Rachel is a Girl Scout.
Yes, She is selling cookies.
And YES, I am the "Cookie Mom" for her troop.

What does that mean?

On Monday, I am picking up 2,952 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies.

No, I am NOT kidding!

Catching Up - Emily (Finally)

2011-09-21T08:58:00.000-05:00

Here she is, my beautiful baby girl in all her glory!

Remember the kids get to pick the "theme" of their cake? Well Miss Emily picked Tie Dye. I did the best I could. (Just so you know how far behind I am in this post, her birthday is in June people).

Here is all the kiddos. No we did not adopt another child, that is Paul, Emily's boyfriend. We like Paul, but we really want Paul to return my laundry basket. Paul I know you stalk this blog, if you don't return my laundry basket real soon, I am going to start to disclose things about you on this public blog that I don't think you want everyone to hear. ;)

Here are us girls, we are pretty special!

The following is a pretty typical snap shot of what happens around here.

Emily will be doing something on her laptop and the boys, and Rachel often too, just love to watch her make that thing dance.

Remember Paul? Yes, Paul has a puppy named Ernie. The little kids LOVE Ernie!!!

Ernie will come for a visit and Ben loves to torture him. Not really, but Ernie does react a little to the loud factor here at the Stuewe house.

Emily got her wisdom teeth out in August.

She did FABULOUS!!!

The thing is with wisdom teeth is you really don't know what to expect. Some people get infected, there cheeks look like chipmunks, terrible. Others you hardly know anything happened.

Well because I am SO smart (not really), I chose the mind over matter approach with Emily.

"Emily you are doing so great"
"The doctor said the teeth were really easy to get out, I'm sure you won't have much recovery with this"
"It's 24 hours and you aren't swollen at all, just keep icing this is going great".

You see the idea?

Well, it worked! She did in fact do great and was back at her old life (aka partying) in no time.

The summer wound down and we all started getting a little nervous about Emily leaving. I was most worried about this little guy.

He LOVES his Emily!

But after repeated requests, Emily did NOT want to transfer to Gustavus and stay at home, so we started packing.

We packed her car.

We packed the trailblazer.

The move in plans changed a couple times, so we ended up having to use the trailblazer in it's full packed up beauty for a day. Here is what Ben looked like riding in there.

He kept saying "Emmy's junk". Pretty funny, but also pretty accurate.

But then, she left.

Saddest. Room. Ever.

Well as it turned out, I did NOT like the ECHO in her room. I did NOT like the empty, so I immediately (within 2 hours) started to move some of Rachel's stuff down into the room.

Let me explain the rooming situation here at the Stuewes. We have 4 bedrooms in our house. Bill and I share a bedroom (because we love each other), Ben has his own (it's small and he's loud), Rachel and Sam share a room (upstairs) and Emily's room is downstairs.

Emily's last crying wish when we moved her out last year was that we keep her room for her. Well enough, we can handle that, Rachel really wasn't ready to move down there by herself yet anyway.

But, now it's different. Sam and Rachel are needing a break. Sam needs his own space, Rachel needs her privacy. Emily signed a 12 month lease on her apartment, so yes she will be coming home for visits but not like when she was in the dorm and the dorm would close over Christmas or summer or whatever.

So we decided to move Rachel downstairs and Sam would keep that room for himself.

Emily had a queen size bed, Rachel and Sam had bunk beds. After much deliberation, it was decided to move the bunk beds downstairs and when Emily came home she would sleep with Rachel and Sam would get the big bed.

Here is Sam's "new" room.

When Rachel and Sam shared this room two of the walls were already this blue color and the other two were a lavenderish/pinkish color. Each kid had two walls to decorate how they wanted. Sam wanted trucks etc. So we kept that theme for the two new walls and I had left over paint to paint the two "Rachel" walls the blue color.

This little construction bit was a three part stencil and was kind of a pain in the butt.

Not because it was a three part stencil but because the texture on that wall was more rough than the other walls so it was hard for the stencil to stick. But I got it done.

We went with airplanes on this wall.

I got this decal from Uppercase Living. LOVE IT!!!!

All the kids have their wooden letters I painted for them when they were a baby (except Emily's were painted when she was 10 yrs old).

We also were able to get Sam's "egg chair" in there. Very helpful, the top folds down so he can take a break in there as needed. We also were able to move his Lego shelf in his room as it was in my porch (oh I'm going to have to do a post about my porch).

Here is Sam's big boy bed!

Sam doesn't say much about rooms, but he did say when I was finished with it that he "LLLOOOOVVVVEEEDDDD his new room". My heart melteth, I was so happy.

Now on to Rachel/Emily room.

The wooden letters were put above the closet door where Emily's letters use to be.

More Uppercase Living stuff, that was actually put up for Emily but now Rachel gets to enjoy it.

As you can see from the next picture. The bunk bed is actually a lofted bed with a twin bed that fits underneath. Emily had this bed back in the day.

But instead of putting the twin bed under the bed, we stuck it over in the corner so Emily would feel like more of a big girl when she comes home.

And even though Emily brought her wooden letters to her apartment, I bought some new ones and put them above her bed to make her feel extra special. I always want her to know that even though we moved Rachel downstairs into her room, there is always "room" and place for her at HOME!

I had to search online to find an 18 inch nightstand, because that's all the room we had in there!

Here is Rachel's UpperCase Living verse!

Emily left her stereo for Rachel for now. Rachel thinks she is SO cool and she is!!! :)

The closet is by far one of the nicest things in this bedroom. It is hard to believe that Sam and Rachel use to share a very small closet. Where was all that clothes?!?

I love making the kids' bedrooms fun and nice for them! Makes me feel good!

And that brings us current with our kids. Next up posts will include: first day of school photos and my "new" porch. ;)

Talk to you soon!

Catching Up - Rachel

2011-09-08T07:46:00.003-05:00

So, I admit, this blogging thing is getting a little out of hand with how out of date my posts are. But, I'm hoping now that everyone is back in school I can get back to it.

This particular post is hard because it's about Rachel and basically the whole summer and what she did. I have started it about 5 times and keep walking away because it seems so daunting. BUT, I am going to finish, you may just have more pictures than words. Sound OK?

First up, 9th Birthday Party!

Rachel turned 9 on July 5th and had three girlfriends stay overnight. It was an American Girl doll party, so everyone brought their dolls, stayed overnight and had pancakes in the morning.

We then went to the Mall of America (Rachel's first time there or maybe her second, either way she was completely overwhelmed with how much there was to see).

We did the American Girl Doll party/lunch.

If you haven't ever experienced this, it is quite the well, umm, experience.

The have their dolls sit in little chairs and the waitresses completely talk to the dolls like they are real.

A little strange?

Yes I thought so too.

But the girls enjoyed it!

It was a fun thing to do with my little girl.

They even supplied a birthday cake and we all sang Happy Birthday!

Next up....softball!

OK, is that the cutest softball player ever?!?

She was so nervous to start the year that she wouldn't be able to hit the ball. Well as it turned out, she could hit the ball and pretty much wherever Rachel hits the ball she can get on first base because she is a very fast runner!

We spent a lot of quality time with Emily.

And yes I realize this is an awful picture of me, I still like it because it is "US GIRLS"!

OK, when I uploaded the pictures to blogger they got completely out of order and I am too lazy to move them around, so it is what it is.

Here is Rachel on her actual birthday! We brought Brownies and put candles in them for her softball team to sing to her!

She was so proud.

What's that? This is suppose to be about Rachel?

Well, I just need to add that on July 7th, Bill and I celebrated our 10th Wedding Anniversary!

10 YEARS?!? Where did the time go?

Bill being the romantic guy he is made me a carrot cake because we had carrot cake on our wedding!

Rachel was NOT in Tai Kwon Do, but she liked to pretend she was by wearing Sam's uniform.

We got new clothes for pictures and also to be worn for school. She modeled nicely for this picture.

Since all the kids' birthdays are within 3 weeks of each other, we do one big birthday celebration.

And in case you are wondering, like my brother Perry was, the four candles were representative of the four kids!

Another fun part of summer was we went to Vikings Training Camp.

I haven't been to training camp in well, 10 years, the year Bill and I got married and let me tell you it has changed A LOT!

The kids were way more into the activities then watching the players practice. I mean really how exciting is that anyway? They had fun doing the catching, running and golfing activities they had set up for the kids. We went to a morning practice during the week and the crowds were hardly anything.

We did wait in line to get autographs. Rachel and Parker (one of my daycare kids) thought that was really fun, but Sam and Ben, not so much.

August came along and it was County Fair time.

We live about 8 blocks from the Fairgrounds, so we go about everyday. The kids love to look at all the animals and get free stuff from the vendors. Well I'm not going to lie we do our share of rides and food as well.

Rachel has been growing her hair out to donate to Locks of Love. Well after some researching we decided to donate to Pantene Beautiful Lengths instead of Locks of Love. Let me tell you why. It turns out Lock of Love charges for their wigs and Pantene Beautiful Lengths makes wigs and they are given through the American Cancer Society FREE of charge.

Here was Rachel before her haircut.

The picture quality isn't great because we actually went in for a trim and at the last minute Rachel decided to get it cut. So, I had to have Mary take a picture with her cell phone.

Here she is after.

It was important to Rachel that she still be able to put her hair in a pony tail.

One of the last things we did this summer was go fishing.

We went down to Mill Pond here in St. Peter and we caught NOTHING!

To say the kids were bummed, would be an understatement but at least there was a park there to play at.

And to make matters worse a month before that we were at family bible camp at Inspiration Point and the kids went fishing there.

Rachel and Sam both caught multiple fish and expected that to be the standard of how things went when you go fishing.

Ya, not so much.

Here is Rachel just last week on her first day of 4th grade!

Bill went back to workshops on August 22nd.
Rachel's first day was August 29th.
Sam's first day was August 31st. (pictures coming soon)
Ben's first day was September 6th. (pictures coming soon)

Well that about brings us up to date. I hope this didn't feel to rushed, trust me it wasn't. Even with the fewer words it has still take me over a half hour to put together.

Catching Up - Sam's Next

2011-08-02T22:30:00.000-05:00

This was Sam's last day of Kindergarten.

That picture seems like a lifetime ago. It has been a long summer (and it's August 2nd, wow).

At the beginning of summer, I asked Sam what activities he wanted he to do. In the past we haven't really tried many structured activities with him, but I thought this was the the year we would try.

Sam picked baseball and Tae Kwon Do.

He went to two baseball practices and decided that it was too boring.

Tae Kwon Do on the other hand, he liked!

He was excited to pose for this picture.

There were a couple nights he didn't want to go but for the most part it was a good thing for Sam.

Speaking of not wanting to go places that is pretty much the theme of the summer for Sam.

Sam do you want to go to the park? No!
Sam do you want to the swimming pool? No!
Sam do you want to go to the library? No!

You get the picture.

Transitions are not going so well for Sam. Lack of structure is not good for him. He needs a schedule. We try to add as much structure as we can, but let's face it , we are a family and it's summer so it's hard.

We do make it out sometimes though. Here is Sam at the park.

He has fun when he goes (most of the time), it's just tough for him.

Here's another funny picture.

Sam sleeping with his foot out of the blanket.

What's funny about it is that, that is EXACTLY what I do when I am hot.

"stick a leg out"

Bill gives me grief about it, but somehow I've managed to pass this trick on to our kids. LOVE IT!

Sam also had his first "overnight friend birthday party".

We went to the Wow Zone for bowling and games and let me tell you this, if I EVER say I am going to do this with four boys, one toddler, one daughter, and an "adult" daughter with her boyfriend, please, smack me right across the face.

It was STRESSFUL!

Honest to God, this is the best picture I could get of Sam with his friends.

We tried.

Another bit of excitement was our day in Nicollet at Friendship Days. It's always a fun day for us. We get to watch the parade with my family and go on some rides.

Here is Sam watching the parade.

Oh and here is Ben watching the parade.

Kind of reminds me of Sam three years ago watching the parade!

Sam and Ben do look alike don't they?

So, as much as Sam is struggling with things, he is still the most lovable little boy.

Last night when I was putting Sam to bed, I said "love you Sam" and he says "guess what I love you more"!

My cup runneth over!

Did I tell you that Sam got a grant for an IPAD from ACT Today?

Well he did.

It is AWESOME!!! He, and of course others, love to play games on it (duh), but it also has been great for creating schedules, practicing letters, visual exercises etc. I am looking forward to finding more and more apps that will benefit Sam!

So if I had to sum up Sam's summer with one word, it would be TURBULENT!

We go from this

to this

in a matter of minutes. Not kidding! It is very unpredictable around here!

OK, I need to hit publish on this post because it is closing in on "tomorrow" and I said I would post "today".

Here are Sam and Rachel at the Monster Truck Show that was in St. Peter a couple weeks ago.

Initially I had bought 2 kid and 1 adult tickets thinking that Sam, Ben and Bill would go. But the day ended up being a bit humid (surprise, surprise, all summer has been like that) and we thought it might be a bit much for Ben.

So Rachel went in Ben's place and they had a good time.

Earlier in the day we had driven past the fairgrounds and saw the Monster Trucks. Ben kept saying "wow, yellow Monster Truck". When it came time to for the others to leave for the show, I decided Ben and I would take a little trip to Mankato and ride on the Carousal at the mall. It was a fun night for him, but when it came time to go home he kept saying "where Sammy, where daddy, Benny go monster truck party".

It was so cute and so sad all at the same time.

We drove over to the fairgrounds, parked and looked at the trucks, after about two minutes he asked to go home. Yup, I made the right decision about sending Rachel in Ben's place.

Well, that is another update. Talk to you all tomorrow again!

Catching Up - Ben First

2011-08-01T15:40:00.011-05:00

Here's my problem with blogging.

I'm really consistent with it and then if I get even ONE day behind, I completely fall off the wagon.

So, today and for the next four days I am going to try to bring you up to date.

One kid at a time.

This is Ben!

Remember him?

Ben has been having a fun summer. He loves having his dad home to play with.

Lots of excitement for Ben this summer.

First up......NUKEY aka (mee-mee).

The dreaded mee-mee. (Ben came up with that name for it about 8 months ago. Seeing we really encouraged his talking, we just went with the silly name that he came up with.

I knew the mee-mee needed to go, as I knew it was interfering with his communication, but I just wanted to wait until it was a good time to do it. We had a vacation planned for the last week in June which required 3 hours in the car (one way) and let's be real, there was NO WAY I was traveling without the mee-mee!

I decided July 6th was going to be the "magical" day of the demise of the mee-mee.

My plan was simple.

1. Inventory mee-mees currently in the home.
2. Start putting a small cut one at a time in each mee-mee.
3. Eliminate mee-mee entirely from the home.
4. Listen to 7 days of crying and possibly no sleeping but come out the other end alive.

Well. We found out we had three mee-mees. I cut the first two, no big deal, he said they were broke and threw them away. He was pretty attached to the last one (which happened to be the pink one, don't ask why that one didn't get cut first but anyway) so I thought I would give him a couple days with the last one. And let's face it, I was scared to death to cut that last one.

On Tuesday, July 6th, Bill had a meeting to go to for the later part of the afternoon and evening. Rachel had a softball game so the little kids and I packed up and went to the game. Well, as fate would have it, we LOST the last, good mee-mee. It ended up being a blessing in disguise because I'm not sure when I would have ever had the courage to cut that last one. But trust me, we looked and looked and looked for that thing and couldn't find it.

Ben was quite sad, but he knew it was really lost, so that was that.

We got home from the softball game and everyone needed a bath. Ben was the first one in and when he got done he was running around and air drying. Sam was next up, after he was done, I was getting him situated on our bed to watch some cartoons and all a sudden I heard some "liquid hitting something". I turned the corner and there Ben was standing by the potty and peeing! Wow, mee-mee took away and potty train on the same day. Bill needs to leave the house more often!

Yes, indeed, that night he wanted to wear underwear and yes indeed we thought he was ready for big boy pants, but continue on reading below for the REAL answer to that question.

Back to the mee-mee story. When he went to bed that night he asked for his mee-mee I showed him the broken one (that I dug out of the garbage, sad I know), he didn't want it. I said pinkie (yes we had them named, big deal) was missing. He went to sleep and slept ALL.NIGHT.LONG! And the best part was nap the next day was complete success and the nukey is HISTORY!!!

The only time he asked for it was when he fell out of his crib (another don't ask kind of thing). And the kicker of it is about a two weeks ago I found pinkie in the bottom of his diaper bag. But I hid that sucker in the laundry room so that he doesn't find it! Yes!

Good Job Ben! Mee-mees are for babies!!!

Now as for potty training.

Do you just love the Thomas underwear? What about how he stands on Bill's foot to get a better look at the table? Let's not even talk about the look on Bill's face. He obviously is in the middle of a big teaching session with Ben right there.

Back to potty training.

Let's recap quickly.

1. I bought 14 pair of underwear.
2. I got LOTS of shorts from Once Upon a Child so we were ready for accidents.
3. I got a lot of 150 Hotwheel Cars off Craigslist for incentives for going.

And what happened?!?

Failure!

Ok, that's a harsh word, but seriously, SO not ready for this. The first day was OK. Probably 3 accidents - not bad.

The next day - he had 4 pee accidents and 3 poop accidents in 3 hours! The others kid that I am watching and Rachel and Sam were kind of giggling at him and that was all the ammunition he needed to keep right on a peeing. I was done, he was done, we will try again!

Oh and the same day I declared "doneness" to the potty training I TOTALLY wounded myself during a self pedicure that took place in my own bathroom.

Warning, warning, warning, do not attempt at home.

You know when you get a pedicure and they take that little razor thingy and totally clean your heals all nice? Dead skin goes flying everywhere? Your heals feel so soft, it's like they have butter on them?

Honest to God, I lost so much blood, I had to have Emily come in the bathroom because I was getting light headed. I lost so much blood that after I put on gauze, bandages, and pair of socks, I still left a trail of blood where I was walking. I lost so much blood that after I put on MORE gauze and a bigger bandage and THREE socks, I still bled through. I lost so much blood that after FOUR hours when I went to inspect the wound I had to cup my hand to catch the blood that was dripping from my heal.

Oh and did I mention this was a day that Bill was gone too? Yeah.

And PS, Emily is not the most sympathetic person when it comes to an injury such as this.

But, this post was suppose to be about Ben.

He can be happy, sad, sassy, pouty and funny all in the course of about 5 minutes.

He loves his brother and sisters but has a weird way of showing it. He often, hits, kicks, bites and scratches. We frown at those kind of behaviors at our house.

Did I mention that his talking has totally and completely taken off this summer. Now that he can request what he wants we make bacon at weird times of the day and often have ice cream before noon. (he could use the extra calories).

Speaking of weight. Here's a good one for you.

Benjamin - 3 years old

Weight - 28.8 lbs (14%)

Height - 36.6 inches (22%)

Samuel - 3 years old

Weight - 37 lbs

Height - 40 inches

That's 3 1/2 inches and little over 8 pounds difference. As a matter of fact Ben at 3 is more like Sam was at TWO.

Samuel - 2 years old

Weight - 26 lbs

Height - 36 inches

So yes, Ben can have Bacon and Ice Cream and snacks, we just need him to EAT!

And can I tell you something else?

This is one of my favorite pictures of all time!

Ben loves my dad. My dad plays good physical humor with him and Ben just eats it up with a spoon.

And to wrap up this post, here is a series of pictures, that well represents the power of Benny's ways.

I really like Reeses's Peanut Butter Cups.

But they make these wrappers so hard to open.

Here is a fake, cute smile, maybe that will get me what I want,

Now we're talking.

I love my dad!

He give me CHOCOLATE!!

Now get me off this counter so I can go torture my siblings. (note to Ben's left side, this was taken when mee-mee was still around).

PS - My heal is better now.

Emma Jean is Nineteen

2011-06-29T22:03:00.012-05:00

This past Sunday, June 26th, Emily turned 19 years old.

She picked her cake to be a tie dye cake.

We ended up celebrating her birthday more on Monday because she was busy with her friends on Sunday. (go figure, friends more important than us?!?) :)

Love the smile.

This was kind of a unique birthday because Emily turned 19. I gave birth to Emily when I was 19. Not going to lie, it wasn't always easy, but it was so very worth it. I could never have done it without the support of my parents, that's for sure.

But now 19 years later, it is awesome to have an older daughter who can be an awesome older sister to her other siblings.

After three birthdays this month, Ben is really starting to figure out this whole birthday thing. He is actually singing the Happy Birthday song along with us. Pretty cute.

What wasn't cute was the stinky, poopy butt he had while this picture was taken. Don't worry we changed it right after we sang Happy Birthday and before we took this next picture.

This is my kids, plus Emily's "not boyfriend", Paul.

We like Paul, he is nice to the kids and they LOVE to wrestle with him.

Because I REALLY wanted a "my kid" picture I asked him to step out for a second and got this awesome picture of our four kiddos.

They are the loves of my life. Each one fills my heart with a different love that can't be described. I was so worried when I was pregnant with Rachel that I wouldn't be able to love two kids. WOW, it's amazing how much love you have to give. And that doesn't even factor in the love for my husband. Such different loves, can't be described.

Here is Emily with her older sister, uh...'er.... I mean her mom (that be me).

And Ben wanted his picture taken too.

Or didn't he?

Here is me with my girls.

And how we look on a normal day.

Just a heads up, we are going out of town for a couple days, so I'm guessing there won't be any updates until I return. I was really hoping to get a couple done today and have them future post, but seeing it after 10:00pm I don't think that will happen. So, you will all have to wait for a Monday update!!!

Have a good weekend.

Are you ready to go, are you ready to go, are you ready to GO FISH!

2011-06-28T16:00:00.001-05:00

Have you ever heard of Go Fish?

They are AWESOME!!

They're a group of dads (right here from Minnesota) that create music for families that creatively communicates traditional biblical values.

(Yes, that wording is taken from their website.)

Last summer we went to the Vacation Bible School that was held at Hosanna Lutheran Church in Mankato and we went again this year. They have been doing the Go Fish VBS curriculum.

The Go Fish Guys have an awesome VBS program and the kids love it. The best part is the week is wrapped up with an opportunity to go to one of their concerts.

Me and my friends, may or may not be crazy people. But, I consider my friend Lisa to be a "reasonable person". So when she suggested we get to the church at 4:30 for the 7:00 concert so we could get good seats, who was I to argue?

Yup, that's us with our kids (and one other lady).

It took about 45 minutes and then more people started to file in.

and more

Here is Lisa - she is obviously mad at me for taking her picture or she is mad at me for getting out of line?!?

.

That's my friend Jen on her phone.

The long wait paid off, we scored us some front row seats to the concert.

Really, the concert is a bit more exciting then them just standing there.

During this time they were presenting the gospel to the kids, talking about the awesomeness of Jesus dying on the cross for OUR sins.

Both Rachel and Sam really listened intently while they were talking.

That night before heading to bed, they both said something that touched me. The next morning I emailed The Go Fish Guys, because that's just what I do when I want to tell someone something. :)

Here is the email I sent:

We were at the Go Fish Concert last night in Mankato. Two of my four kids attended the VBS at Hosanna all week and it was nice to celebrate with the concert on Friday.

The best part of the night that was when we got home both Rachel (9) and Sam (7) wanted me to pray with them. We say prayers every night so I asked them what specifically they wanted me to pray for with them.

Rachel wanted to tell God she was sorry for sinning and thank him for dying on the cross for her sins.

Sam was nervous because he said "shut up" when he was four and that was sinning and he was "so glad" Jesus dyed on the cross for his sins and please mom let's pray so I can “go into the light” (his words, not mine).

A little history about Sam. Sam was diagnosed with autism when he was 2 years old. He has made significant progress in his development and he is very “high functioning”. We are active in church and Sunday school and talk about God, but I wasn’t sure if Sam was ever “getting it” if you know what I mean. Well last night when you guys talked, Sam LISTENED and he GOT IT!!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Words can’t describe how excited I am about how Sam talked in his own Sam way about Jesus dying on the cross for HIM!

I’m just so excited this morning and I wanted to share with you guys (I’m not even sure if you actually will ever see this email, but thought I would try).

Thanks again,

Tracy

Isn't that awesome?

And here's a kicker for you, the next day I received an email from both Jason and Jamie.

Jamie asked if he could put some of my email on his blog. You can check that out here:

Jamies' Blog

Pretty cool stuff, huh?

Happy Birthday Ben!

2011-06-27T09:59:00.000-05:00

Three years ago Ben entered our lives and things haven't been the same since.

Sam and Ben are alike in some ways and not others.

But they both LOVE (in Sam's case LOVED) Thomas the Train, so Ben's cake was a Thomas cake.

Ben's birthday was on Sunday, June 19th which was also Father's Day. We spent the first part of the day with the Stuewes and had supper with the Hulkes.

We sang Happy Birthday with BOTH families, but here is the picture with his Hulke cousins, and Sam and Rachel of course.

Ben thoroughly enjoyed his cake.

And he was good at blowing out his candles as well.

For those that don't remember, Ben was born with a club foot. I haven't talked about that in a really long time, but I am happy to report his foot looks really, really well (maybe a bit smaller than the other, but we are so thankful for such a good end result after all the casting that we had done.

We love you Benny!!!

Dirt

2011-06-24T23:24:00.001-05:00

This is Ben after one of Rachel's softball practices.

Yes, he was THAT dirty!

Well, like his shirt says...

I LOVE DIRT

And reason #439 not to let your now 3 year old get a hold of your camera.

This is Emily with two of her very good high school friends (Jessica & Patty) and obviously Rachel and Sam too.

This is a better shot of their legs.

And a good closeup of their knees.

Well I am off to bed, but I PROMISED an update tonight so I wanted to get this up. And as I look at the clock I better hit publish quick, because it is 11.23!!! :)

Happy Birthday SAM!

2011-06-23T10:54:00.019-05:00

Enough is enough, time to get back to the daily updates already. It's not as if I don't have content to update the blog, but it's to find the time.

As I mentioned earlier I am now doing licensed childcare for school age kids and it really keeps us all very busy. But I am going to start to try my very bestest to get back to the daily updates.

Let's go back a week shall we?

Monday, June 13th - Samuel Robert Stuewe's 7th birthday!

In past years (up until about 3 years ago) I always made the kids' birthday cake.

That all ended the year Ben was born and I decided to buy cakes that year out of necessity for my sanity. Well, for the next years to come it then turned into this "let's look in the book at the bakery and order the $27 9x13 cake that mom could make for $2".

So, this year I made a decision to go back to making our own cakes. I told the kids they could pick what they wanted their cake to look like and mom would make it special for them. But I also told them to be gentle because mommy wasn't no cake baker.

Sam initially picked Batman and then for a brief second said Sonic.

Let's be honest people, I really wasn't going to be able to pull off Sonic. I mean seriously.

Yes, that's what I thought, I little more detailed then what I'm up for.

Thankfully, Sam quickly changed his mind back to Batman.

After searching at Target, Shopko and Walmart for Batman figures, I came up empty handed. But, a quick shout out to my friends yielded me three sweet looking Batmans!

Which then resulted in a very happy Sam.

Sam told me I did good on my cake and also told me it smelled awesome!

Here Sam is with our daycare crew.

That is them looking at their best, this next picture is a little more representative of what a normal day looks like.

Sam enjoyed having his candles lit and having everyone sing Happy Birthday. Ben looked on with excitement in anticipation of his birthday which was just a few days away.

Blow out your candles Sam. (Once again notice Ben practicing his blowing.)

But the highlight of the day was the gift!

It wasn't just a gift for Sam, it was a gift for ALL the kids' birthday!

Here it is!

That's right, we are going to have us some fun and yes that is Bill jumping in his pajamas!

PS - We got this trampoline at Sam's Club. It was the best price we could find and it went together rather nicely. I've heard horror stories of trampoline assemblies, but Bill and I got it ready in a couple hours. I was pleased with that.

Tomorrow another update (I promise), I'm back to daily updates.

It All Started

2011-06-10T08:00:00.015-05:00

This was last weekend, you know before it was 102 degrees outside, and you know before it was 59 degrees out 3 days after being 102.

What the crap is going on with this weather anyway?

Bill decided to water the grass and Ben immediately decided he needed his swimsuit on and Rachel was totally in agreement with him.

Now you might wonder what is going on with the broom in Ben's hand.

Bill and I think it had something to do with battling the water or something.

Speaking of Bill, yes that his him bending down in the background pulling some weeds. Nice butt shot for the blog I thought.

Then Rachel started this funny dance thing.

And Ben continued the battle with the broom.

Yes we had a swimming pool up also, that was collecting some of the extra water from the sprinkler, we are cool and smart like that.

Then we moved on to sword play and water.

Sam was quite worried that the paint would come off the swords, but I assured him it would be OK and it was.

The water got a little too close and Ben ran away, I mean who wants to get wet when playing in the sprinkler?

And then Rachel, in true girl fashion, laid down for some tanning time.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Ben's Preschool

2011-06-09T13:18:00.003-05:00

I just know you guys have been at the edge of your seat after I told you about Ben's assessment preschool.

You are just up at night wondering, did Ben "get in" to the preschool or is he just too darn smart?

Well, both are true.

He did get in to the preschool, but by the hair of his chinny, chin, chin!

He (Ben) needs to be on the 7th percentile or below in two areas of development to qualify. He was on the 4th percentile for Social/Emotional and the 7th percentile for communication!

We know that his communication is delayed, but honestly had they waited another couple months and assessed him I'm not sure he would have qualified. His speech has been taking off these last couple weeks. Example: This morning Ben said "Knock, Knock" I said "Whose there?" Ben says "Benny". Funny kid he his.

I truthfully believe that because of his multiple ear infections (two sets of ear tubes) he just wasn't getting the opportunity to really hear what was being said very clearly. And now that he is, I feel his talking is really taking off.

Well his talking AND his photography skills.

Sum, Sum, Sum, Sum, Sum, Sum, Summer Time

2011-06-06T08:00:00.031-05:00

Today is the start of summer vacation or as we now call it here in our family summer BREAK.

Last year when we called it summer VACATION Sam was always asking when we were going to go on vacation because it was after all summer VACATION! So this year, we are on summer BREAK, makes it much easier!

This was Sam on his last day of Kindergarten.

He wasn't exactly thrilled about having his picture taken.

Come on Sam, show me your excited about being a First Grader soon.

That a kid, that's better.

And here is Rachel on her last day of being a THIRD grader!

Wow!

Such a big girl. It's hard to think that when Emily was this age, Bill and I got married and we moved to North Mankato and soon to be St. Peter. And now my little baby girl Rachel is "that old".

Last summer was a little interesting because Bill had surgery on his foot and he spent most of the summer recovering, laying on his back in bed watching ESPN Sports Center.

This summer we have no surgeries to plan around and a whole lot of fun to be had.

And some big news for me. Today I am starting my first day of Licensed Childcare in my home. Now don't think I am completely crazy, I am not taking any younger children, just school aged. At this point I have four kids coming full time this summer (except Wednesdays I am taking off as that is my therapy days for the boys). We are planning on doing lots of pool fun, parks, VBS, beach days etc. It should be much fun for my kids as well as them.

With that being said, I am going to sign off for the day. I am still hoping to do daily (Mon-Fri) updates through the summer, so hold on to your hats and get ready as we share our life with you this summer!!!

Until tomorrow.

Yesterday

2011-06-02T08:44:00.000-05:00

I didn't update yesterday.

It was a busy day.

Ben had school therapy in the morning.

I went to the park to say Hi to Sam during his Kindergarten Walk to The Park Day!
(Why do you say I did this? Well in the morning Sam was very excited about going to the park and he says "Mom, mom, mom, guess what, guess what mom, wouldn't it be cool if you drove past the park when I was there and honked your horn and waved at me?" Now seriously, how can you resist that?)

I met some awesome girlfriends for lunch.

I brought Root Beer floats to Rachel's classroom for her summer birthday celebration.

Ben spilled Rachel's root beer float all over someone else (don't ask).

I got supper in the crock pot while Ben napped.

I brought Ben to therapy in Mankato with all FOUR kids coming with!!

I went to Game Stop to redeem our warranty for a DS that had a funny screen. We got a new (used) one, all is good once again in DS land.

We ate supper.

We brought Rachel to softball.

We helped Bill at school get ready for Field Day (which is today).

We gave the kids a quick shower.

I went to bed exhausted.

The end!

And the picture of the day is...

Safety first my friends, safety first!

As They Should Be

2011-05-31T09:22:00.000-05:00

Some people think my refrigerator is a little busy.

I think it's just how it should be.

I mean really, if I didn't keep all my special things on there, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to look at this picture this morning.

Sam made that picture last week when he has to wait for me to do some Parent Council stuff.

Sam waited patiently in the office and decided to color a picture.

Without any prompting he chose to draw his family.

I thought it was interesting.

THIS is how Sam sees his family.

Blue Sky, Green Grass, And Six Happy People

Last week didn't always seem like a "blue sky" kind of week. But, Sam reminded me with this picture that we do have it pretty good.

So I will take it as a sign from my six year (soon to be seven might I add), that LIFE IS GOOD!

So, let's have a PopTart and start the week shall we?

Little Boy - Big Bus - Big School

2011-05-24T10:00:00.003-05:00

As you read yesterday we had a sad weekend and a crazy week lies ahead of us.

Life still goes on for those of us still here doesn't it?

This week Ben is going to the assessment preschool room. For those that don't know his communication has always been a bit delayed which results in him being delayed in some other areas as well.

He has been receiving services with the school for about a year (meaning they come out to our house once a week to work on things), but now that he turns 3 next month, the next step would be preschool. To see if he qualifies for the special ed preschool they have a week where the kids come to the classroom and they do full assessments to see where they are at in all areas of development. So that is what is happening this week with the "assessment preschool".

The helpful part is he gets bussed to school and bussed home. Yesterday I was signed up to chaperone Sam's field trip to the farm. I know I could have gotten out of my commitment, but Sam was excited for me to go and I was excited to go with him. So I decided to keep the plans as they were.

Because Bill was home from work (he is taking off at least through Thursday), he helped Ben get on the bus. But, let's back up for a second, before Sam and I left for school, Sam was helping Ben get ready for school,.

It was the cutest thing.

They sat by the front door waiting for the bus. Sam was telling Ben all the important stuff about preschool like "when you get on the bus there will be a seat belt on the preschool bus, you need to put it on and be nice so the driver can drive the bus" and "don't worry preschool is just like daycare you get a snack and you get to play".

You know, the important stuff.

Sam was making sure Ben knew what to expect.

I love their love for each other.

Ben just kept nodding and saying "mmh mmh".

After the orientation session was over, we headed outside.

Shortly after Sam and I left so we could get to school on time and dad stayed back with Ben.

We didn't get a picture of Ben going on the bus, but managed to snap this one real quick of him getting off the bus.

Such a little, big boy!

FYI he did great on his first day. We will find out next week if he "qualifies" to for the classroom for next fall.

I don't know for positive if I will update tomorrow as tomorrow is the day of the funeral for Bill's dad. I will see what time we get home and if I have any energy left.

Thanks for checking in with us.

A Great Man

2011-05-23T21:00:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the late post today.

It is with much sadness that I tell you that Bill's dad passed away during his afternoon nap on Saturday.

He was a loving husband, a great dad and an awesome grandpa.

He will be missed so much.

Here is his full obituary.

Stuewe, Robert E. age 85 of Cologne passed away on Saturday May 21, 2011 at his home in Cologne.

Funeral service held on Wednesday May 25, 2011 at 2:00 P.M. at Zion Lutheran Church in Benton Twp. Cologne with Rev. Eric Zacharias officiating. Visitation will be from 12:00 Noon until the time of the service. Interment Zion Lutheran Cemetery.

Robert was born on September 11, 1925 in Cologne the son of Robert and Marie (Rolf) Stuewe. He was baptized on September 27, 1925 at Zion Lutheran Church in Cologne by Rev. Herman AmEnd and confirmed on April 2, 1939 at Zion Lutheran Church in Cologne by Rev. Herman AmEnd. On July 2, 1949 he was united in marriage to Marian ZumBerge at Zion Lutheran Church in Cologne by Rev. R.W. Rottmann.

Bob dearly loved his wife, Marian of 61 years, his four sons and enjoyed his grandchildren. Bob farmed his entire life in Cologne on the land that he treasured. He enlisted in the U.S. Army and served from 1944 thru 1950. Sports were an activity that Bob thoroughly enjoyed, watching the Vikings, Gophers and Twins. Long drives through the countryside with his wife Marian and watching the birds brought much happiness to him. His gentle spirit, soft spoken and meaningful words will be missed. Our family was blessed to have him in our lives. He was on the founding committee for Mayer Lutheran High School and was on the board of directors for many years. Bob also served on the Benton Township Community Chest for a period of time. He sang with the Men’s chorus, active as an elder and various leadership positions at Zion Lutheran Church in Cologne.

Robert was preceded in death by his father Robert, mother Marie, step-mother Minna; brothers and sisters-in-law Edgar and Edna Stuewe, Marvin and Vera Stuewe, Howard and Esther Stuewe, Harold Stuewe; sisters and brother-in-law Edna and Harold Hill, Esther Stuewe; father-in-law and mother-in-law Henry and Gertrude ZumBerge; sister-in-law and brothers-in-law Virginia and Clarence Harms, Henry ZumBerge.

Robert is survived by his loving family: wife Marian; sons and daughters-in-law Robert and Lynn Stuewe of LeSueur, Thomas and Deb Stuewe of Norwood, Paul and Sue Stuewe of Cologne, William and Tracy Stuewe of St. Peter, grandchildren Matt Stuewe, Kate Stuewe, Joe Stuewe, Emily Stuewe, Daniel Stuewe, Clare Stuewe, Rachel Stuewe, Sam Stuewe and Ben Stuewe; sisters-in-law Norma Stuewe of Belle Plaine, Joyce Harms of Cologne. Nieces, nephews other relatives and friends.

Casket Bearers were his grandchildren.

We love you dad!

Garage Sale Finds

2011-05-20T11:28:00.000-05:00

Bill took Sam and Rachel out for some garage sale excitement last Saturday.

They scored some free stuff.

Rachel got a big stuffed animal (don't even get me going about that) and Sam got a wooden car. He had big hopes and dreams for the future of the car and it involved painting it.

So after waiting a couple days until mom ~~finally gave in~~ got him set up with some paint, he worked hard on getting it just the way he wanted.

He concentrated very hard.

Got a little pain on his cheek.

But finally - the finished product!

Those were the pictures I took, then Sam grabbed the camera to get some unique angles on his design.

A closeup of the wheel, which actually got repainted black (but I didn't get any new pictures yet).

Apparently he didn't like yellow wheels and opted for black instead.

Sam was proud to announce that he used only primary colors to complete his masterpiece. (this was before he wanted the wheels black)

And a view from the back.

What a artist!

Very Random

2011-05-19T08:13:00.000-05:00

I sat down to blog this morning and couldn't think of what I wanted to share. So, I decided to pull some pictures from my camera and see if there was anything of interest.

Apparently Rachel or Sam? must have had my camera outside. This is what I saw.

A beautiful picture of our swing set with the double slides.

Oh and Ben!

And then, in case you were wondering and even if you weren't, here is Rachel's bike.

And these next two are pictures I just took this morning.

This is the Mother's Day card that Rachel made for me.

I LOVE IT!!!

And finally, some flowers.

The funny story about these flowers is, yesterday when Sam got off the bus it was so beautiful out that I met him outside and we were talking about his day.

I noticed this beautiful flower on one of our new plants we added to the our little project we are working on (no you haven't missed a post about the final product, we aren't done yet).

I asked Sam if we should cut that flower off and bring it inside to enjoy. He simply responded with, "no I think you should just sit on the couch and look out the window and enjoy them that way".

Once I explained to him that the plant wouldn't die if I cut off one flower it would actually get many more flowers, he was all about it. And now we have a pretty flower on our table.

So how random of a post is this?

It's Good to Have the Extra Help!

2011-05-18T08:46:00.003-05:00

With Emily home from college it means an extra adult hand around the house.

She spent a couple days with Grandma and Grandpa Berbrich earlier this week, so last night was her first night home (unless you count the weekend when let's face it, she isn't really "mine" as I do let her out with her friends and she may or may not come home at night).

Rachel was home sick Monday and Tuesday this week with strep throat. She felt terrible on Monday (hallucinating and the whole bit), but started feeling better yesterday. So, we decided to have her start on her homework. Rachel is a very smart little girl, but sometimes homework can be SO stressful, because she gets so tensed up when she is working on it.

It is the middle of May and I need a break from homework, it is STRESSFUL!

So last night Emily sat with Rachel for quite a while and helped her (as did Bill and me), it was nice to have Emily with a fresh mind and spirit to step up and help.

After she helped with homework and after we sat outside for some relaxing and after we had our first family meeting and after we ate supper, Emily took Ben outside for some play time.

Ben was very concerned at first because Emily was going to go outside without shoes. Silly Emmy, but don't you worry Ben made sure Emily put shoes on.

First up was the sandbox. As I saw them playing so nicely I grabbed my camera, walked down the stairs...

oh, you don't literally want EVERY move of mine recorded. Oh, OK.

Emily and Ben played in the sandbox

and then played with bubbles

Ahhh, it is indeed good to have the extra help!

Thanks Emmy!

Uh-Oh, Change is a Comin'

2011-05-17T08:00:00.002-05:00

That's right take a look at the outside of our house.

That isn't just an ordinary pruning my friends, big change is a comin'!

But we aren't done yet, so you will just have to wait and see!

Sam is Smart! (and so is Emily, Rachel and Ben)

2011-05-16T13:50:00.000-05:00

Now that Sam is finishing up Kindergarten they are doing all the "end of the year testing".

It is fun to see sheets like this come home.

and this

I am SO proud of Sam. He has to work so hard just to focus enough to SIT there and LISTEN. So, it fills my heart with great joy to know that not only is he sitting and listening but he is LEARNING!!!

A huge thank you to the phenomenal teacher Sam has as well as his awesome paraprofessional (helper). They are great and know Sam so well and push him just the right amount.

And now a story about his math skills.

Last Friday it was Sam's "summer birthday" at school (aka you get to bring treat and feel special even though your birthday is in the summer)!

Mrs.K always has the kids, on their special day, answer questions for the class. Because she knows Sam so well and knows he loves math, she asked him a math question.

She put on the board 6 - 2 = __

Sam immediately said 4. Wow Sam how did you know that? With a smirk on his face, he says "you gave me that one last time".

OK, so she puts up another problem 7 - 2 = __

Sam again immediately says 5. Wow Sam tell me how you knew that? He then went on to tell some story about his dad working math with him and telling him if 5 plus 2 equals 7, then 7 minus 5 equals 2 because those numbers go together.

My response was, wow that's really cool.

But, what I was thinking is really? my husband, he's not much of a math person and I thought it was odd I missed out on this little math lesson with him and Sam. It would have been something that would have stood out to me, seeing that Bill is NOT a math person, did I mention he's Bill's not a math person? Kind of like I'm not a sit outside and weed the garden person, we all have our strengths.

When I asked Bill about "the math lesson", he had no idea what Sam was talking about. But regardless of where he got it from, Sam knows himself some math.

This morning Rachel wasn't feeling good (as it turns out she has strep, which is why this post is going up late because I just got back from the doctor) so anyways, this morning I was trying to keep Sam distracted so he didn't get in his head that he was going to stay home from school too.

So I say, Sam you want to do some math problems? YES! Ok, what is six minus two? He looks at me like I'm smoking weed and says I don't know. Ok, what about seven minus two? Once again, a very bizarre look back at me.

And then, in my mother wisdom, got a sheet of paper and wrote.

6 - 2 = __

Sam says FOUR!

7 - 2 = __

Sam says FIVE!

And yes my friends, that's what it means to be a visual learner.

SAYING math problems to Sam he was clueless, SEEING the math problems, he was a genius!

I love getting to know Sam's mind better as each day passes. And yes SAM IS SMART!!!

PS - in an effort to show equal love to all my children, I also think that Emily Kristine and Rachel Kristine and Benjamin Harley are also very smart!

Short but Sweet

2011-05-13T14:57:00.000-05:00

This is the first post in a VERY long time that will not include any pictures.

I want to stick with my commitment of updating Monday-Friday, but don't have a lot of time. Blogger was down this morning so I couldn't update at my normal time. Now it is 2:45 and I need to get things in order because Bill will be home in a couple minutes and we are leaving to go move Emily back home.

It's hard to believe her Freshman year of college is already complete. Wow!

Well I need to go get things ready. I will have a much more exciting post on Monday!

All right I lied, I'm adding a picture. Here is Ben from when he was 7 days old! WOW!!!