Marissa versus the Popcorn

On Marissa's birthday, we went to the Scott County Fair in Jordan, MN. It was a pretty impressive fair, nicely kept up and clean. And unfortunately for them but good for us, somewhat poorly attended the day we went, as it was threatening rain. But we went anyway and the kids had a lot of fun.

Here's a photo of Marissa's biggest challenge of the day: a very large bag of kettle corn. It's longer than her torso. That's all she wanted to eat all day. All offers of other food, cheese curds, hot dogs, etc, were met with an emphatic "no." By the time we left nearly half the popcorn was gone, thanks to Marissa.

She was past her naptime on the way home and cried most of the way home because we finally let Lindsey take the popcorn bag from Marissa. She got herself into such a state that when we got home she threw up while we were trying to get her down for her nap. Nothing like kettle corn throw up. It smelled like an old theatre.

She did finally settle down after that, got a nap in, and was in a better mood after.

A Doggie Doo Doo Walk

A couple of evenings ago our family took a little walk around our neighborhood. Our kids were fascinated by a couple of displays of large dog poop. You would think that this would be a common sight, but people are pretty conscientious around us about picking up after their dogs. Since we own a dog that weighs all of 16 lbs, our kids are used to the little piles that they need to watch for in our yard, not the big heaps we saw.

Twice they stopped to study for several minutes a couple of piles. Then later on in our walk we encountered a man walking a boxer breed. A boxer looks similar to a Boston terrier, which is what our dog is, but weighs about 50 lbs more. They have the same shortened nose and build, but a lot taller and more muscular. One of their other traits is their bobbed tail, which leaves their behind...well, exposed.

The man and dog walked by us and Lindsey watched it as it went on its way. And then she commented, "That dog had a big hole."

"A big....what, honey?" I asked.

"A big hole in his butt. I betcha he could make those big poops we saw."

Enough said.

Marissa's Present of training skates

Marissa had a good birthday, for just turning three! She had a party on Saturday with some of her friends from KinderCare. Then on Sunday, her actual birthday, she awoke to a load of gifts from her family to open, including one from her Grandpa and Meme Floria.

One of the gifts that I bought her was a pair of training roller skates. She's more adventerous than Lindsey in whole, and I thought that she would like to try roller skating. Much to my surprise it was the least favorite gift and Lindsey gravitated to them.

So near the end of the day as Marissa was getting ready for bed, I told Lindsey that she could try Marissa's skates on outside.

She was clad in knee pads, elbow pads and I held both her hands the entire way. She was slipping and sliding all over, but by the time we were getting finished up she was starting to actually skate one food at a time. I would stop each foot by putting mine in front of her, but she was getting the groove of it.

Then she stopped for a moment to pick her nose, which promptly began to bleed. I went in to get her a kleenex and by the time I came back out she had several drips of blood down her shirt. So we got the skates off and got her inside to clean her up.

Of course, she comes inside with a bloody nose and Wayne assumed she fell and bonked her nose.

But she's the only kid I know who can get a bloody nose from picking her nose while roller skating.

Cake Wrecks

In honor of Marissa's 3rd birthday today (Happy Birthday!), I thought I'd direct you to a newly discovered site that I am thoroughly enjoying: Cake Wrecks.

Click on the link above or newly added to My Favorite Places.

I thought of my friend Renee when I came across this site. She and her sister both took cake decorating classes this past year, with some good and bad results. These are some good ones!

Car for Sale

Slight water damage, was bright red but was chlorine bleached to bright orange. Real cheap, good deal. Call 800-DUMB-BLONDE.

Reading Recommendation

I am nearly done reading "The Grapes of Wrath." What an incredible read. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a new book.

I do NOT, however, recommend reading it during a downturn in the economy, or, as I like to think of it, a recession, which we what we are in right now. It isn't a very big leap from where we are today to where the characters in this book end up. At least, it doesn't seem that way in my imagination...

The storyteller

Anyone who knows my dad knows that he revels in and inspires to be a great storyteller. Which, for the most part, he is.

Here he is telling a little ditty about my Grandpa Tom, his former father-in-law. I'm glad I was able to capture my Grandma's reaction, too.

A Morning Skate

This morning, while the girls were amused by Sunday morning cartoons, I went down to Lake Harriet for a little Rollerblading excursion.

I drove down there (yes, I drove; the hills are too steep for me to skate), and began preparing to go skating: doing some leg stretches, getting my water bottle out, putting on my skates and finally my iPod. But it seemed sacriligious to turn that iPod on, it was so beautiful out and the sounds so content. What a shame to drown them out with music that I can listen to at anytime.

If you are one to read my dad's blog(s) (see links to the left), you'll know that he enjoys his morning walks around his property and writes picturesque descriptions of his walk. I have different sights and sounds in the area that I live, but I thought I would share some of my impressions from this morning's skate.

I took in the sounds and sights of:

• A family enjoying breakfast on their patio at their home across from the lake. Laughter, calls for more coffee, and the opening and closing of a screen door as more coffee is fetched.
• An elderly gentleman dressed in his Sunday morning church clothes with a camera bag over his shoulder. As I passed him, he was crouching down and taking a photo of some wildlife by the lake.
• An elderly Asian woman wearing a safari-like hat, briskly clipping along on her morning constitution. She was slightly hunched over but clearly in good health as she passed two young ladies on the walking path. She walked with such purpose she stood out from those around her.
• A young couple walking with their newborn in a stroller, both with coffee in hand, gazing at their sleeping baby as they walked in silence. I can still feel the exhaustion yet happiness that they were probably experiencing.
• A dad with a double stroller, toddler in front and baby in a carrier on his chest. I imagine the mom sitting at home, enjoying a quiet morning with the paper and coffee while takes the kids out for a stroll.
• The jingle of leashes as dogs of all shapes and sizes are being walked. At one area there is a "dog beach," and three dogs were frolicking in the water, happy barks resounding over the water.

On my second loop around the lake, I finally began getting tired and turned on my iPod for inspiration. But what a grand inspiration the first loop was!

Child Sexual Offender Caught

This morning on the radio I heard about a child sexual offender who was recently arrested in Michigan. He had been arrested at a home where he had thought he would be meeting a 14-year-old girl for sex.


He showed up for the meeting with the teenager wearing a shirt that said "World's Greatest Dad."



I feel for his kids.

Michigan Vacation Photos

You can see by the above photo why I kept calling Lake Superior an ocean, right? It was so unbelievably gorgeous, and I couldn't believe how still a lake that large could be. Yet even just an average wind sent up long rollers to the shore, crashing so loudly you had to yell to talk over it. What an incredible lake.

This photo of the sunset was taken at 10:30 at night, driving back to our cabin after a day out at Dana Lake with family. Yes, 10:30 pm. It's amazing the difference being just a little further north and on the western edge of the Eastern time zone can make to the length of your day.

As mentioned previously, it was a wonderful vacation, despite a shaky start with a rough ride north. We ran into some severe thunderstorms with, you guessed it, hail. Marissa hid her head under her blankie at one point because of the noise, and we had to pull over to the side of the road. It rained the whole first day, but after that we had beautiful weather.

We rented a cabin right on Lake Superior -- we could follow a little stone path out the back and came out of the woods at the beach. It was our own private beach practically, with nothing but cabins in the area and no one out.

We spent lots of time in Munising seeing family, my Grandma Dolaskie, widowed now for two years, and my Aunt Carol and Uncle Chap, Uncle Tom and Aunt Anne, a multitude of dear and wonderful cousins and, of course, my dad, sister and brother-in-law.

I'll share other little stories here and there as I think of them. Thanks to everyone for their hospitality and for helping us have such a fun Fourth of July!

The Long Way Home

Okay, so it wasn't the long way home, it was the long way to go strawberry picking.

As noted previously, earlier in the year we attempted to go strawberry picking only to have the place be closed when we got there. So after our long vacation we decided to try once again since the season was exceptionally late this year and we normally would've already missed our window of opportunity.

I picked out a place in Hastings, MN, called the number and confirmed their hours and that they were indeed still picking strawberries. So mid-morning on Saturday, July 12th, we set out.

The expected route:

1. 35W north to 94East
2. 94 East to County Rd 15
3. south to 90th St in Hastings
4. East on 90th Street and follow signs.

Expected travel time: 45 mins.

The actual route:

1. Almost got on 35W north, but it was closed for re-paving. Due to one way streets could not re-route to other options to get on to 35W beyond the closure.
2. Got on Portland Ave South to hit alternate route of 494 -- stuck in crawling traffic as it was handling re-routed traffic from 60th Street, which was also closed.
3. Finally got to 494 east. Slow but still moving.
4. Got on 35E north to hit 94 East through St Paul. Lanes went down to 1 lane, so traffic was crawling.
5. Got off on Shepard Rd to bypass through downtown St Paul. Shepard Rd closed 2 miles after exiting onto it.
6. Re-routed through downtown St. Paul, had to hear yelling from the back seat as we passed the Children's Museum but didn't stop.
7. Finally get out on 94 East.
8. Had to stop for much requested water and pit stop. Took Ruth St exit off of 94, only to find that we could not re-enter 94 EAST from Ruth St, we could only go back WEST. Took 94 west to the next exit, go off and turned back around.
9. Took the remainder of the route there and finally arrived.

Actual travel time: 2 hours

Actual strawberry picking time: 45 mins, including the 5 min. tractor ride to and from the field.

Years taken from life due to travel experience: 2

Our Michigan Vacation

Could we have had a better time??? I think not.

More later, but we spent a week in the Upper Peninsula (U.P. for you non-Michiganer's) spending time on Lake Superior, visiting family, and taking in a small town 4th of July parade.

Could we have had more fun?

Only if the kids had slept better at night. But it was a ball regardless.

More later, but here's a tidbit.

Marissa Reprises Lindsey's photo

I loved Lindsey's photo of this, and Marissa was willing to reprise it for me.

"I get married," she said to me when I asked her to hold the peony.

And just in case you forgot what the first photo looked like...

Marissa-isms

This weekend Marissa said a couple of things that had us all in stitches.

The first time we were at a little cafe having breakfast for lunch. Lindsey and Marissa had just been served their Mickey Mouse pancakes and I had cut some of it up for Marissa to eat. She picked up her fork, closed her eyes and moved her head from side to side, saying "Where my Mickey Mouse pancakes? Where my Mickey Mouse pancakes?"

Then she opened her eyes, pointed to her plate and said, "Oh! There dem are." She proceeded to eat while Wayne, Lindsey and I giggled.

The next one happened while we were driving home from this same visit. We were up in Anoka, after a failed attempt to go strawberry picking (yet another story), and we had a bit of a drive ahead of us (45 mins, which is long in our books).

Lindsey was chatting. The. Entire. Ride.

Some people think Lindsey doesn't talk. She just doesn't talk around people she doesn't know well. She makes up for it when it's just the four of us.

So Lindsey was chattering and chattering away and we were listening to this for some 20 minutes or so. Finally Marissa says, "Who's talking??"

She said it as if she'd been tuning out the words and just realized that someone was STILL talking and wanted to know who it was.

Pure entertainment!

Family Photo

Finally got a decent family photo with all four of us in it.

a Photo Pictorial

Hey look, I'm pretending to read the paper with Aunt Sherrie!









I can even lay on the arm of the chair -- lookit me! Lookit lookit lookit! Cheeeeese!






Look, I love the camera, I'm going to lean just a little closer and...hey!! I fell off!



(Note the smile on her face as she doesn't realize she is falling off yet.)

Time Article: Pregnancy Pact by Teens

Click on above post title for the Time article.

The saddest statement of this story has to be:

"They're so excited to finally have someone to love them unconditionally. I try to explain it's hard to feel loved when an infant is screaming to be fed at 3 a.m."

-- Amanda Ireland, 18-year old graduate of Gloucester High School, who had a child her freshman year.

Amanda theorizes that many girls in the pregnancy pact saw her as a role model and agreed to get pregnant together.

Where are these girls' parents?

Apple: Amazing Marketing

Now that Father's Day is over and Wayne's present has been given (and now has to be returned), I have to relate the experience I had of buying his gift. I found the experience fascinating; those who aren't marketing-minded may not.

I wanted to get Wayne an auto accessory for his iPod so he could play it through either of our car's sound systems. Neither vehicle has an auxiliary jack made for today's MP3/iPods, so something like an FM tuner adapter or cigarette adapter were my only options.

I went out to the Apple website and did a product search for car audio accessories. There were so many options with so little for descriptions that I had to click through many products to figure out if they would work for our vehicle. I was doing this at work over lunch (same way I'm writing this post) and finally ran out of time and closed the page.

A few hours later I check my personal email (company time again, ahem hem), and lo and behold I had received a promotional email from Apple. The subject line was something like "Apple accessories: Make your life mobile!" Of course this piqued my interest and when I opened the email, right there on the front page was one of 9 products specifically for running your iPod through your car stereo. Not their docking accessories, nor their headphone accessories, but specifically the car stereo accessories.

Coincidence? I think not.

I think there is some very smart marketer on the other end who saw my IP address land on the accessories, look around a little and close out, then had their software program evaluate which of several hundred canned promotional emails would be appropriate for me and followed up to my inbox in an appropriate amount of time to not make me suspicious that someone (other than my employer, perhaps) is tracking my online activities.

Smart smart smart.

Of course, I purchased the accessory right from that link via the email, affirming in Apple's database the fact that this is indeed a smart marketing strategy.

Now I'm going to screw them up when I return the product because, despite my having read the description as closely as I could, I STILL ended up buying one that needs an auxiliary jack in your car to run the sound through the car stereo.

Now if only they could work on their product descriptions, they would be perfect.

Photos from our weekend visitors

Had to post a few pics of the fabulous weekend we had this past weekend when my friend Amy visited with two girls in tow. I realize now that I don't have too many photos of Molly, and didn't get a single one of Amy and I together!

The story of the weekend (outside of Marissa having at our couch and her books, previously told) had to be how Amy surprised her former neighbor Marilynn, who was the highlight of the weekend. Marilynn was like a grandma to Amy and Jim's two girls, and she turned 80 on Friday, June 6th. The whole reason for the visit was to attend Marilynn's 80th birthday party on Sunday.

On Friday Amy landed at the airport and was driving to our house with the girls when she gave Marilynn a call on the phone to say "Happy Birthday." Marilynn, who describes herself as "long winded," was still chatting away when Amy pulled up to Marilynn's house. Amy got out with the girls, walked up to the door and rang the doorbell.

Marilynn says to her, "Oh Amy, someone's at the door, just a minute, I have to see who it is." She drops the phone, opens the door, and drops her jaw. Then the tears started.

She had such a hard time believing that Amy was actually here that later on that same evening she walked down to our house just to make sure they were still there and she wasn't dreaming. It couldn't have been scripted better.

Doesn't Marilynn look great?! I can't believe she's 80, I would have never guessed it.

Top 'Er Off

Yesterday I was going by a gas station near our house and decided to top off the Civic even though the tank was three-quarters full. After all, this particular gas station was a full 12 cents cheaper than every other one around us!

So I put $16.08 worth of gas into the Civic, which was 4.05 gallons.

$3.97 is now a "deal" for gas.