I was talking with Nicole on the phone last night about being home late because of work obligations (she graciously accepted this) and then she started laughing. I asked her what she was laughing at- it was our blog. She was reading through the Sunday night postings.
I have always said there are two things in this world that can always make me feel right as rain: the first is hearing Nicole laugh. I love to hear her laugh. There is something about her laugh that just makes me smile, inside and out. And to hear her laughing at something I did (because the thought it to be funny) really made my day.
The other thing is hearing Eliana laugh- that is my newest favorite sound. I just cant get enough. Last night we were playing with the exercise ball and I was pounding on it like a boxer does with a speed bag. She just had her hands resting on the ball. As the bouncing got faster and faster her hands bounced around the ball like one of those football players from the old vibrating game of our previous generation. She laughed and laughed until my arms grew too tired to continue and I would start to loose the rhythm and slow down. Then she would smile and start hitting the ball with her own hands, wanting me to do more. Neeless to say, my arms are quite sore!
Love, Laugh (a lot!) and Live!
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
100 VISITS!
The first milestone since starting our blog- 100 visits to our blog! What is in a number? Well, 100 pennies will get you a dollar.
Some interesting facts about the number 100:
100 is the sum of the cubes of the first four integers (100 = 13 + 23 + 33 + 43)
100 degrees Celsius is the boiling temperature of pure water at sea level
The number of years in a century
A 100 year old person is known as a centenarian. George Burns. Bob Hope, and United States Senator Strom Thurmond were among those who had lived to 100.
The number of pounds in an American short hundredweight
The United States Senate has 100 Senators
The number of subunits into which many of the world's currencies are divided; for example, one euro is one hundred cents and one Pound Sterling is one hundred pence
The number of tiles in a standard Scrabble set
The denomination of the U.S. hundred-dollar bill with Benjamin Franklin's portrait; the "Benjamin" is the largest U.S. bill in print
The denomination of American savings bonds with Thomas Jefferson's portrait
The denomination of American treasury bonds with Andrew Jackson's portrait
In Greece, India and Israel, 100 is the police telephone number.
In Belgium, 100 is the ambulance and firefighter telephone number.
In United Kingdom, 100 is the operator telephone number
Hundred Days, aka the Waterloo Campaign
"The First Hundred Days" is an arbitrary benchmark of a President of the United States' performance at the beginning of his term
100 is the HTTP status code indicating that the client should continue with its request
STS-100 Space Shuttle Endeavour launched April 19, 2001
The 100-Series Highways are a series of arterial highways in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia
SEPTA Route 100, also known as the Norristown High-Speed Line, is an interurban line system operating between Upper Darby and Norristown, Pennsylvania
NASDAQ-100 is a stock market index of 100 of the largest domestic and international non-financial companies listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange
The American Film Institute series
Radio stations such as Z100 WHTZ New York and Z100 KKRZ, Portland, Oregon
In English slang, adding the number 100 to a particular skill or subject denotes introductory knowledge ("Physics 100", "Soccer 100"), akin to the name of a first
year university subject.
Games 100 is an annual listing of the year’s top games
The Time 100 is a list of the 100 most influential people in the world, as assembled by Time. The list has developed into an annual event.
The One Hundred Years War
One Hundred Men and a Girl is a 1937 musical comedy film starring Deanna Durbin
100 Grand Bar (formerly known as $100,000 Bar) is a candy bar produced by Nestlé
Monterrey, Mexico is located at 25 degrees 40' N latitude and 100 degrees 18' W longitude
Pope Valentine succeeded Pope Eugene II to become the 100th Pope in August 827
The minimum distance in yards for a Par 3 on a golf course
The number of yards in an American football field (not including the end zones)
So, what "100" did I miss? Send a comment and we'll see what else we all didn't know!
Some interesting facts about the number 100:
100 is the sum of the cubes of the first four integers (100 = 13 + 23 + 33 + 43)
100 degrees Celsius is the boiling temperature of pure water at sea level
The number of years in a century
A 100 year old person is known as a centenarian. George Burns. Bob Hope, and United States Senator Strom Thurmond were among those who had lived to 100.
The number of pounds in an American short hundredweight
The United States Senate has 100 Senators
The number of subunits into which many of the world's currencies are divided; for example, one euro is one hundred cents and one Pound Sterling is one hundred pence
The number of tiles in a standard Scrabble set
The denomination of the U.S. hundred-dollar bill with Benjamin Franklin's portrait; the "Benjamin" is the largest U.S. bill in print
The denomination of American savings bonds with Thomas Jefferson's portrait
The denomination of American treasury bonds with Andrew Jackson's portrait
In Greece, India and Israel, 100 is the police telephone number.
In Belgium, 100 is the ambulance and firefighter telephone number.
In United Kingdom, 100 is the operator telephone number
Hundred Days, aka the Waterloo Campaign
"The First Hundred Days" is an arbitrary benchmark of a President of the United States' performance at the beginning of his term
100 is the HTTP status code indicating that the client should continue with its request
STS-100 Space Shuttle Endeavour launched April 19, 2001
The 100-Series Highways are a series of arterial highways in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia
SEPTA Route 100, also known as the Norristown High-Speed Line, is an interurban line system operating between Upper Darby and Norristown, Pennsylvania
NASDAQ-100 is a stock market index of 100 of the largest domestic and international non-financial companies listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange
The American Film Institute series
Radio stations such as Z100 WHTZ New York and Z100 KKRZ, Portland, Oregon
In English slang, adding the number 100 to a particular skill or subject denotes introductory knowledge ("Physics 100", "Soccer 100"), akin to the name of a first
year university subject.
Games 100 is an annual listing of the year’s top games
The Time 100 is a list of the 100 most influential people in the world, as assembled by Time. The list has developed into an annual event.
The One Hundred Years War
One Hundred Men and a Girl is a 1937 musical comedy film starring Deanna Durbin
100 Grand Bar (formerly known as $100,000 Bar) is a candy bar produced by Nestlé
Monterrey, Mexico is located at 25 degrees 40' N latitude and 100 degrees 18' W longitude
Pope Valentine succeeded Pope Eugene II to become the 100th Pope in August 827
The minimum distance in yards for a Par 3 on a golf course
The number of yards in an American football field (not including the end zones)
So, what "100" did I miss? Send a comment and we'll see what else we all didn't know!
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Two new members in the Will Family
The Will adventure is always changing, expanding and even growing. I just planted two new 5' trees! We now have a honeycrisp apple tree and a Mesabi cherry tree. I can't wait to try the fruit! Since the trees are only 5' tall, we still have a few years before we get some bumper crops (hopefully). I am always looking for ways to create memories and opportunities for memories-I see this as planting for our future!
So, you are invited to an apple picking, cherry eating fall of 2012! Please RSVP by December 31, 2011.
Hover shoes and insecta shield personal repellent force fields will be provided. Please bring your own laser apple slicer.
So, you are invited to an apple picking, cherry eating fall of 2012! Please RSVP by December 31, 2011.
Hover shoes and insecta shield personal repellent force fields will be provided. Please bring your own laser apple slicer.
the back yard
The back yard is coming together. I have finished digging for the two patios and filled one on the back of the house with gravel. I still have to finish fixing the fun I had with the bobcat.
Lesson learned- well, none.
I knew I would probably tear up the back yard. I was just tired of digging by hand. I got 3-4 hours of hand digging done in 15 minutes with the bobcat. Problem is, I probably will spend 3-4 hours fixing the tracks. Heck, I'll just pick up some seed and you will never be able to tell that there were 6" ruts running around the back of our house. I'll just set the mower deck to 7" in those areas and no one will be able to tell- until they watch Eliana fall and disappear into a trench on her way to the swing set...
Lesson learned- well, none.
I knew I would probably tear up the back yard. I was just tired of digging by hand. I got 3-4 hours of hand digging done in 15 minutes with the bobcat. Problem is, I probably will spend 3-4 hours fixing the tracks. Heck, I'll just pick up some seed and you will never be able to tell that there were 6" ruts running around the back of our house. I'll just set the mower deck to 7" in those areas and no one will be able to tell- until they watch Eliana fall and disappear into a trench on her way to the swing set...
Sunday service with a view
I have two great friends climbing Denali right now. Click the link to follow them in their daily dispatches. How amazing would it be to have Church on Mt. McKinley?!
C4C Denali Expedtition
C4C Denali Expedtition
Timmmmmmmmmm-berrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
So what have we learned that we constantly need to re-learn? No, not “I” before “E” except after “C” (like the word SCIENCE, beige, codeine, conscience, deify, deity, deign, dreidel, eider, eight, either, einglish, feign, feint, feisty, foreign, forfeit, freight, gleization, gneiss, heifer, heigh, height, heinous, heir, heist, leitmotiv, neigh, neighbor, neither, peignoir, prescient, rein, seiche, seidel, seine, seismic, seize, sheik, society, sovereign, surfeit, speilling, teiid, veil, vein, weight, weir, weird…)
Just don’t trust the weatherman- or at least, look at what he is trying to tell you. When he says that the high is going to be 70- just figure on it being 65. When he says the low is 45- just figure on 40 degrees. But this is where he really got me- he said 20% chance of showers- an don’t you know it- it rained about 15% of the day! Granted, these rain showers were dished out in 10-15 minute sessions throughout the day. It was sunny, then windy, then raining, then sunny and windy, then raining then mostly sunny then raining… you get the idea.
So, why the lumberjacks? Well, this is what we did on Saturday. We moved about 80 trees, mostly pines and a few oak, that had fallen over and were cluttering up the grounds around the camping area at El Rancho De Mahoney. There is probably 3 to 4 times this many that need to be cleared- anyone want to volunteer their back and hands for a weekend? The payoff is going to be great fires throughout the summer and one HUGE bonfire this winter.
Eliana, Nicole, Tim, Jill and I loaded the trailer and Tim’s Chevy with enough stuff for a week to go over night camping in their oh so much better than a tent camper. When you don’t know what the weather is going to be like or when you do know what it is going to be like and you don’t like the weather, having a camper really makes the time more enjoyable. Here are the top ten highlights:
#10 Using bratwurst grease to season the pan for cooking pancakes in the morning
#9 Watching Jill plow through the underbrush on her ATV – in reverse- to get lined up to haul a log
#8 Starting a fire with only 1 match (and no gasoline/cheating stuff)
#7 Nicole learned a new skill
#6 I got to use all the cool lifting techniques I learned from watching numerous World’s Strongest Man competitions
#5 Listening to Eliana recite every name she has learned - over and over and...
#4 Watching Tim cook 4 brats at once
#3 Watching Eliana try to eat (and wear) a cooked marshmallow
#2 We were using chainsaws all weekend
#1 First listening, then watching Eliana climb out of her pack and play while we were watching a movie. Once out of the pack and play, she crawled under the curtain with a big smile on her face. We couldn't resist- we let her cuddle with us for most of the movie. She would start on one end of the bed and cuddle with each person for a few minutes before going on to the next. When she got to the last person, she went back the other way. She probably did 5-6 cuddle laps.
Pictures will come later this week- I brought the film camera and need to drop the roll off to get developed.
I just got my camcorder back from Canon. The tape loading mechanism had an error and although it is out of warranty, it is a known issue for Canon camcorders. I let them know that I knew that they knew about this issue with their camcorders and that they have a flat rate to fix this issue (they originally wanted $145 but I reminded them that it is only $50) – short story short- I have a working camcorder again!
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
I love my job
Today is one of the days that I can say "I love my job". I took my residents to see "42nd Street" at Chanhassen Dinner Theater. My day started at 9:45am getting the bus ready to load. I start by picking up my Cluster home residents first, one by one, I stopped at each of their townhouses to pick them up. It's so cute on days that we got out because they each dress up and wear a nice outfit. After each Cluster home resident is picked up I make my way up to the Assisted Living building and pick up the ladies there. Today, I had two other families members join us which adds to the excitement for the day. The more the merrier!
We made our way to Chanhassen and entered the theater about 11:00 am. Lunch is at 11:00am and the show begins at 1:00 pm. They loved the first class service and a chance to get out of building and be treated to a nice meal with friends. We visit and learn about each other's lives. These times I think of my residents as if I'm just hanging out with good friends not my job. I'm blessed.
The show was great! Lots of music and tap dancing, everyone was tapping and singing along. I was happy when intermission came...with it came my dessert and coffee! It helped keep me awake the second half :) Hey, a dark room and a tired mom...it's a wonder I stayed awake for the whole thing!
Since I live in the area I knew which back roads could take us back to Bloomington without rush hour traffic at 4:00 pm. They even loved the scenic tour of EP.
So, all is well in the land of JOB...or should we say LIFE!
Coming up on the list of outings with my residents is: the Arboretum, "Made of Honor" movie, Mystic Lake, Old Log theater, Lake Minnetonka boat cruise, Minnesota History museum, Swedish Institute...and that's just June and July!! I'll keep you posted...
We made our way to Chanhassen and entered the theater about 11:00 am. Lunch is at 11:00am and the show begins at 1:00 pm. They loved the first class service and a chance to get out of building and be treated to a nice meal with friends. We visit and learn about each other's lives. These times I think of my residents as if I'm just hanging out with good friends not my job. I'm blessed.
The show was great! Lots of music and tap dancing, everyone was tapping and singing along. I was happy when intermission came...with it came my dessert and coffee! It helped keep me awake the second half :) Hey, a dark room and a tired mom...it's a wonder I stayed awake for the whole thing!
Since I live in the area I knew which back roads could take us back to Bloomington without rush hour traffic at 4:00 pm. They even loved the scenic tour of EP.
So, all is well in the land of JOB...or should we say LIFE!
Coming up on the list of outings with my residents is: the Arboretum, "Made of Honor" movie, Mystic Lake, Old Log theater, Lake Minnetonka boat cruise, Minnesota History museum, Swedish Institute...and that's just June and July!! I'll keep you posted...
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