Josh's first time on Cross-Country Skis, this weekend. In his words... he "rocked the skis"!
In honor of all the snow we’re having right here in the dead of winter, I’ve decided that it’s time we got out in it! Snow can be SO MUCH FUN, so let’s have some. We can have hot chocolate and popcorn over a roaring fire while we’re thawing out in our snuggies later on.
So… grab your skis, your sleds, your toboggans, your snowshoes. Harness up your dogsleds, saddle up your ponies, and gas up your snowmobiles. Most important, don’t forget the long underwear – we’re headin’ out to play with Mother Nature.
While we’re at it, we’ll be talking – since it seems that nobody and nothing can shut us up!
Be nice… if you’re not, we bury you in a snowbank and use your backside as a target during our snowball fight!
Us Girls..Our Views 
Josh is looking good:) But, hey!!! Where’s his mom? How come I’m not seeing you on skis? Being the photographer is NOT a reason! I’m pretty sure Josh knows how to work a camera!
His mom WAS on skis, and she WAS the one who took the picture. This was at a Cub Scout weekend, so I was one of the few women there… and you know men – most of them don’t bring cameras. They rely on their wives to take the pics. That guy behind Josh? One of the dads from my den… I’ve got plenty of pics of him!
That picture of Josh is simply adorable. I’d frame it.
Yeah, even Miss E asked yesterday if we could go “sledding.” Unfortunately, we’re under the weather. The kids were pretty sad looking on Friday, and I kept them home from school. Saturday a.m., we went to the doc and they took 2 throat cultures for strep. The “quick test” came back negative for both girls. They sent the other set to the lab, but said it would be very unusual for both “quick tests” to be wrong. Meanwhile Miss E (who had been dying Friday) was practically back to normal, so I decided it was just a one-day bug. We went to the Russian music progam and grocery shopping as planned. This morning the kids seemed OK so we went to Sunday School and late church, followed by lunch buffet. Miss E was doing a lot of coughing in the second half of that, but I figured, it’s the dry air (that’s what the doc thought too).
Well, after I put the kids down for their nap, the doc calls and says Miss E’s strep test at the lab was positive, and though Miss A’s was negative, they were going to prescribe meds for both of them. About an hour later they woke up all miserable, feverish, etc. So now they’ve been taking the meds for half a day and they won’t be able to go to school / therapy tomorrow. Awesome. Needless to say, I am not caught up on my work yet! And of course, I am getting sick as well. Gotta love strep!
I feel kinda bad about taking my kids all over the place with the strep, especially after the coughing started. Yeah, we probably should have stayed in this morning. Oh well, hindsight . . . .
Hey – since we’re chatting – do you guys notice all the “hate” you surround yourselves with day in and day out? I mean, that’s what I’ve been hearing for the past week. We conservatives just inject our nastiness into everything, and that’s the reason why crazy people go on shooting sprees. Of course, I’m reading all these gentle, loving accusations on liberal websites. The % of their web space dedicated to “Palin should apologize” is really pretty amazing even for libs.
But today I read that the Tea Party leader in Tucson has been receiving threats and vitriol including “you’re dead,” even though there is no connection whatsoever between the Tea Party and the crazy shooter. Surprisingly (not), the liberal discussion sites have been completely silent about that.
So I got to wondering. I am pretty conservative, yet I go about my day without hateful speech or behavior toward others in my life – and I’m surrounded by plenty of liberals. I have my opinions, but I don’t go up and down the street spouting them or encouraging my neighbors to grab their guns and march on the Democrats who are running the place (mostly into the ground). I don’t include mail bombs or anthrax with my outrageously large tax estimate payments. I don’t teach my kids to be racist or homophobic or to insult serial single moms on welfare (though the latter do piss me off personally). But – am I the weird one?
And also, will Joy Behar be the test case to find out whether loving talk will bring about a better world than “hate speech”?
Yep, I’ve noticed… but only online. People around me rarely talk about it. We barely talk politics, except when I go to my neighbor’s family get-togethers, and they’re a bunch of “union liberals”, so there’s really no point in arguing with them. One of them was a Precinct Captain for Obama in ’08, and he cornered me once, trying to get me to vote for his guy. He kept talking about the need for “free healthcare” that Obama was going to push through. I kept reiterating the question, “How is it “free”? Who is going to pay for it?” and he just kept saying, “the rich”. Oh, it made me so mad, because he was obviously so uneducated – or the plan itself was never fully articulated, which is what I believe more – but he was so sycophantic about Obama. This guy was going to save the world, and if you questioned his qualifications, anything, you were the one with the problem. I disengage from any political talk with them pretty quickly now. They’re good people, and I don’t want that to come between us. We can agree to disagree on politics.
Unfortunately, people online, they don’t do that. It seems like they are absolutely invested in changing your mind, and if they don’t, they feel perfectly justified in calling you names and telling you to shut up and go away.
And Palin just brings out the “best” in them. Honestly, I don’t know why they hate her so much. Maybe it’s because she’s ‘got it all’. She’s pretty, she’s got a gorgeous husband, a really nice family (yes, they make mistakes, but none that other politicians’ families haven’t made), and the ear of a lot of people. I really think they’re worried that she’s going to not only run, but have a good shot, so they have to preemptively strike – destroy her so bad, blemish her reputation so it’s beyond repair, so she hasn’t a chance in Hades of even getting to the nomination process.
And the fact of the matter is, they jumped SO fast to lay blame that they looked like fools. And as a person who has done that in the past – jumped to a wrong conclusion too soon – it’s very hard to admit that you were completely, utterly wrong. So now, they’re in the “yes, but” phase… “yes, this guy is responsible for his own actions, BUT… Look at what Palin did a year ago!!!” They’re in that defense cycle, they know they’re dead wrong, but they cannot and will not admit it. So they deflect blame, and we engage. Have you noticed, on The Stir, anyway, that I didn’t engage in any of it? I kept saying, “step back – find out what’s REALLY going on”, and “His actions, his responsibility”. I refuse to engage. It’s what they want.
Yeah, but they never actually said “I was wrong.” They kept insisting that crazy people act the way they do because of Conservative political speech.
I also loved the way J.S. published an article trashing the parents of the 9-year-old because they “should have gotten off TV” (note that their message was to NOT blame politicians or guns – shut them up); and then posted another article defending the parents of the shooter (who lived with them). Because Rush Limbaugh said, all these people who are searching for any possible link to Sarah Palin aren’t even bothering to ask the most logical question – what did the guy’s parents notice and did anyone ever seek help for him? And then they found out he listened regularly to some music talking about violence, and posted an article on how it was idiotic to think that might be a factor in the guy’s choices. And they posted an article about the sheriff being right about blaming political speech, but never bothered to mention that cops knew of his erratic/violent history and did nothing about it. Because of course, Sarah Palin alone owes the world an apology! Ugh.
And then you have those who took another tack: It was a gun! Ban the guns! Ban all guns!
I do believe we had something to learn from that incident. That is, we need to have safeguards when it comes to mental illness. This guy had a history of acting crazy and violent, yet he was able to legally buy the gun and ammo that was used in the shooting. And in that sense, this isn’t really an isolated incident. We hear all the time about people with scary mental health histories shooting, knifing, bombing, drowning their kids, driving cars into crowds, etc. With all due sympathy for those with mental illness, if they have a history of violence, they don’t need to have a gun; and we also need to review mental health cases more closely before we put them back into situations where innocent people could get hurt.
Following that trail… perhaps Hipaa needs to be a little more open. I don’t know how it can be done, but I DO know that, unless I can prove that I have Power of Attorney, I can’t even ask Steve’s doctor if I can give him an aspirin. Ok, I can ask, but his doctor can’t tell me. I wonder how HIPAA plays into things like gun purchases, and if that can be flagged somehow?
we should probably be having this discussion over on “What’s Up”…
I noticed in my latest “privacy” statement from my health provider that they are REQUIRED to send all the info to the government (which I was NOT pleased about). So the gov’t has the info if the person has been to a doctor – but that doesn’t mean they are using it for every logical purpose. Now what about kids who have had run-ins with school cops and such, like this guy had? They knew he was mental. Seems they should have had to report his illegal behavior to the feds, since the feds are the ones who do gun background checks. There was other info too, that didn’t come up in the gun check. If only people could just look at stuff rationally, maybe we could prevent a repeat of this without stomping on millions of good people’s rights.
Yeah, I took Steve to the eye doc recently, and he had to report ALL medications that he’s on, his entire health history, even stuff that has nothing to do with his eyes. Why? Because they’re required to report everything to the Feds. They’re not happy about it, either. It’s amazing that I can’t know anything about my own husband, mother, father, etc., but the federal government gets to know everything. And they STILL can’t use it for good.
What did Joy Behar do now? I quit watching The View for the most part because of her. I find her sense of humor sick and find her almost repulsive. She hates everyone who doesn’t agree with her and she thinks there’s humor in everything. She’s the epitome of a “comedian” that I can’t stand.
Oh, I don’t know, I sure don’t watch her. I just think she is the perfect example of a liberal who personifies political “hate speech.” The libs are so desireous of seeing a change “on both sides,” but the only people they name are Palin, Beck, and Rush. So I just thought I’d balance it out a little. Do you think Behar could control herself if her life depended on it?
Absolutely not. She’s a loaded hate cannon. She makes too many jokes for my taste. Yes, I like to laugh but I don’t think everything is funny. Yet if you pick on her or disagree with her, she gets just pissed. I miss The View at times but I just couldn’t take her anymore. She would make me sour too early in the morning. I will occasionally watch The View if I know someone who’s going to be on that I really want to see. Barbara Walters has also really started getting on my nerves. Sometimes she just acts like a simpleton.
Today my family got together and went snowshoeing to celebrate birthdays. We had fun! It wasn’t too cold once we got going and the kids had a blast. At least I think they did! We started our volleyball league tonight (Sunday) and thankfully there are 5 teams so we are still going to have it! There’s no school tomorrow so I switched my work days this week to be home with the kiddos. I’m so looking forward to sleeping in it’s not funny!!! My only goal for Monday is folding/putting away the laundry I did all weekend. Other than that, not much is new for us.
I had so much fun with the kids last night. They thought my “pop machine” was the neatest thing they ever saw. Trin and I watched the last Hannah Montana and Christopher loves that dang Lego book. I’m glad you were able to play again this year.
Yeah, they said something right away about the pop machine and how neat it was! And then Christopher said, “And grandma can make energy drinks!” I thought, uh-oh, all they need is an energy drink! LOL!
What’s the pop machine Joy?
I totally get the whole “my goal is sleeping” thing. We had Polar Bear Weekend with the Cub Scouts – that’s the picture – and from Saturday morning when we woke up until our arrival home yesterday (Sunday) at about 12:30(? Gosh, I can’t even remember what time we got home. Bears game was on though), we were going-going-going. One thing about these outings, vacations, whatever, I never, ever sleep well the first night. Saturday night, I got maybe 3 hours sleep, and twice, when I had *just* dropped off, Steve shakes me awake, and asks me to take him to the bathrooms… which were OUTSIDE, in -3 air. And of course, the minute that icy air hit me, and knowing where I was going, my body says, “sure, why not?” THAT SEAT WAS COLD!! So then I was wide awake. Sigh.
Anyway, by the time we got home, even though I was running on a LOAD of Mt. Dew, I could barely walk (did I mention, I was a driver? Two hours each way), and I went up to bed and slept for 3 hours. I tried watching the game, really, I did. I think I saw two plays.
But it was worth it. That weekend was such fun… It was Josh’s first time on XC Skiis, and he really enjoyed it. Once he got over falling, he was shusshing like a pro! Sunday, he tried snowshoeing, and really, I should have had more faith in him. I didn’t get a pair for me, figuring that I’d have to help him stay up. But no, five or six steps into it, he was literally, off and running, finding snowballs to crush with the webbing. I quit about halfway through it, because the snow was a foot deep, and I was sick of breaking trail. NEXT YEAR, I will absolutely be on those shoes! The thing that they went for – the sledding – the boys (Josh hung with his friend Montana most of the weekend) quit pretty quickly. It was a really good hill, complete with moguls, but the line was just too stinkin’ long! It was a rather narrow hill, (maybe 20′ wide?) and they’d only let one sled go down at a time, so you had to stand in line. I think they went down a total of 3 times each. The whole weekend. I only went down once, and that’s when I took the boys on the toboggan… that was a hoot! Pulling it back up was not.
It’s funny you talk about sleeping. I wrote a post yesterday about that for later in the week. Funny.
We used to cross country ski all the time. We’d do it 3 or 4 times a week when we lived in Mpls. It’s too hard where we live now. There aren’t many groomed trails out here but when we came out here we started the snowshoeing. We got the kids their own pair three years ago and I’m always so surprised how kids catch on to things. They really are like little sponges. I watched Trinity and Christopher last night for a few hours and I could tell their butts were dragging from doing it in the afternoon. I think those snowshoes were a really good investment. Nikki, does Bailey ever go out in his?
Not really, there is no where around her to really go. I can’t drive somewhere and let him go, he’d be on his own.
I think snowshoeing around your property is also something Steve would be able to do. It’s easier to control than ski’s. I got ours at LLBean.
We need you to come out soon again for a day of fun and food. We could fondue or something.
YES!!!! 🙂 We’d love that!
You set it up with Jason and we’ll do it. The kids would have a blast. Even if the weather’s bad lets still get together.
This Saturday we are volunteering at the HS for Baseball registrations. The following Saturday would work!
Oh, you know what, I believe Trinity has a tournament that day.
Yes, this Saturday is a tourney in Annandale, the next Saturday (29th) is the Kimball tourney, the 1st weekend in Feb I’m on call and then the following 2 weekend in Feb are tourneys. Depending on what time games are on the 29th, we could still get together.
How about Feb 12 for Paul’s b-day? He’d like that.
Perfect! Lets plan that!!! 🙂
That is perfect! Trin plays in Paynesville at noon and 1pm so we’d be home by 3pm and we can fondue for supper!
Let’s keep it quiet for now and surprise him later. He’ll like the attention.
LOL Great idea!!! I love this little plan…Mwahahahaaa
Well then you’d better erase these comments! Or doesn’t he read the blog anymore?
He’ll be too busy playing Farmtown tonight. He glances at it sometimes but he won’t tonight. If starts to I’ll say something and cause a diversion and come and erase them. So if you see it’s gone, that’ll be why.
Hunter and I have caught the cold. YUCK! He’s coughing alot today. I can’t stop sneezing and my nose is running. It sucked sleeping lastnight because I was so stuffed up and everything was draining. Hunter must of been so tired yesterday cause he was asleep by 7:30. This cold must be wearing him down. He’s been really grumpy during the day and just whiny. Wearing me down too!! lol. I’ll ask him to do something and he’ll say “NO mom, I’m dumpy!!!” (grumpy) Well its supposed to be warm today… haha like upper 20’s. So we’ll be outside getting fresh air today. Hopefully that will help with everything!
Poor Hunter. He seemed okay yesterday. Poor thing. I was just outside feeding and watering the birds and it’s gorgeous now and I’ll bet both of you will feel better.
Our weekend was good. Saturday we went to Ruby Tuesdays and I’ll for sure go there again. Very good food! Then we went shopping for new cleats for Bailey. He ended up getting the same exact ones he got last year, only 2 sizes bigger. And purple socks! Can’t wait to see him all suited up!
Sunday we just watched football at noon, then headed to the batting cage for a couple hours. Came home, and finished watching the NE/NYJ game. I’m glad the Bears won, for Laura’s sake. I felt odd about cheering for another team other than the Vikings…the things we do for friends! You owe me big time! 😉
Which brings me to Facebook! I got into a “fight” with this stupid girl (a friend of a friend) who said if you cheer for another team that isn’t yours, just because your team isn’t in the playoffs, that makes you a trader. We went our rounds and it ended with her asking if I stood on a street corner. My question is why do people feel like that can talk tough when there is computer screen between them? Then she acts like, it’s no biggie, I shouldn’t have taken it so seriously. Well if someone called me a trader to my team to my face, I wouldn’t have let that slide…people really piss me off sometimes! I am NOT a trader!
Today, Bailey and Jason are both home. It’s rather warm out, so we might actually get out and enjoy the snow! I put a roast beef with some Beefy Onion soup mix in the Crock-Pot. Mmmm
Josh looks too cute on those ski’s!
I know what you mean about the internet. I changed my screen name on the one “mean site” I still visit. So lots of people don’t recognize me and aren’t as quick to fling insults. However, yesterday a commenter started her post toward me with “are you thick” and ended with “you suck.” Why? Because my previous comment said I am not generally a fan of IVF, and why (not in personal terms). I wasn’t being snarky or rude or anything, just apparently ran across someone who can’t stand my point of view for her own personal reasons. Oh well!
I know about “those kind of people” too. Cheering for a football team at this stage of football is just that. Being a football fan. Doesn’t that girl think people should enjoy and cheer for a team in the big game? That makes NO sense. It makes you a trader if you don’t pick your own team when they’re playing which is another story because I didn’t pick the Vikings three times this season. Not when it came to the amount of money that had been carried over.
I think people feel braver behind this ol’ monitor and feel their opinion is the only one. Then you have people who take everything so literally. Then before you know it, you’re in a war. I can’t stand that. You know you won when you go round and round and someone picks on a misspelled word or a grammar mistake. When there’s nothing else to say I find people pick at that.
I feel bad for you Nikki. You’re so not a fighter.
No, I’m not a fighter. I don’t usually engage in arguments, but she really pissed me off. I ended up privately messaging the mutual friend and he stuck up for me, but it wasn’t fun at all…
I said just that, I am a fan of football. It’s my right to cheer for anyone I chose too.
I feel bad for you, too… it’s interesting how the computer changes people’s views on stuff. I’m in an argument right now about whether Ricky Gervais was a “bully” at last night’s Golden Globes. I don’t know, call me crazy, but when some guy gets up and throws nothing but nastiness at people, that’s a bully. They call Rush a bully, Beck a bully, etc., but Gervais is just being funny. Fascinating.
And for the record? You are NOT a traitor for cheering for the Bears. Technically, you’re supporting your “home team” if you cheer for the Bears OR the Packers (you’re cheering for the Bears next week, RIGHT???), since they’re in the same conference as the Vikings.
Of course, I am cheering for da Bears!!!! 😉 All the way baby!!!
I didn’t realize, “traitor” was the correct term! You learn something new every day!
Now I’m in it with you “over there.” I thought Ricky Gervais was a jerk last night!!! How can people think anyone deserves to be treated the way he treated Hollywood last night? I found him appalling.
Honestly, I didn’t even watch it. I just know his humor, and I read what he said. What I find ridiculous is the fact that some of these people who are calling me names were on there last week screaming about “vitriolic and hateful speech”. Suddenly, it’s ok because he’s “Ricky Gervais”.
I’m telling you, those people are nuts.
OH!!! And each question – for the two Gervais posts – are asking for your personal opinion. I love how you answer the question, and whammo! if they don’t agree, they slam you for it. It happens everywhere, and it never fails to amuse me.
hahha I laughed at Ricky Gervais’ jokes. I thought he was funny. Really, you can’t take that stuff serious. That’s not the 1st time he’s hosted that either. I like him.
I just read that he’s been banned from hosting that event ever again…LOL
Funny! I won’t click on LS’s posts, though, so I’m staying out of that part of the discussion. Not like I watched it or even know who the guy was. But I understand what you mean about the hypocrasy. That’s what I was meaning to get at in my comments up above (I forgot to put down some of my thoughts, though). We’re supposed to “know how to take” everything expect conservative political speech. When it comes to Palin, Beck, and Limbaugh, we’re just too stupid to be able to run it through our filters. They sure do give the conservatives a lot of credit, without meaning to. (I’m sure there are other sites that go to the opposite extreme, but somehow the “mom” sites I’ve been at are always overrun by libs.)
Oh by the way, JS actually deleted some of my comments on her posts last week. I tried 3 times to comment on one post, before finally giving up. Ha! Must have been truth I was speaking (I didn’t swear or anything).
I just feel what he did was too personal Jenny. Funny is one thing but he was attacking way too personally. I also didn’t realize that they took him off for a little more than an hour. It’s okay to tease but he was way to serious and I think, treated everyone like it was a roast when it was The Golden Globes.
I had a really good weekend. I cleaned and straightened up my kitchen because I needed room on a counter which was nothing but a catch-all and a horrible mess. As I mentioned above, we got a Soda Stream and I needed to make room for it. I wanted it out so I’ll use it. So far I really like it. The carbonated refills are going to be the only pain in the butt but they suggest you have one on hand and when you get a new one delivered you can send the old one back right with the UPS man. So, that’s easy. This stuff has no high fructose corn syrup or aspartame in any of the flavors which is really nice but I didn’t even buy it for that. I bought it to save on the pop cans and cost of pop. With one $4.99 flavoring you can make 60 liters. It did take a little getting used to as it’s not nearly as sweet because of that corn syrup but it’s really good. I drink half a can of pop each afternoon and this is nice. I can make a 1 liter bottle, put it in the fridge and pour a little when I want it. So far so good but you know something new is. It seems fun. I bought this with my birthday money and I got the red one so it’s cool.
It’s beautiful here today. It’s very cloudy and we were supposed to get a snow storm but we’re not and it’s 21 degrees. It feels like summer. I almost feel like putting on shorts!!!
I also went to a Scentsy party across the road and Vicki and Jenny were there. We had a lot of laughs. That’s always fun. We’re all going to get together and make pierogi’s in two weeks so I’m looking forward to that. It’s so much easier to do this in a big group as each person can do something else and we’re going to make a whole bunch of different kinds. If you know any good recipes for them please let me know. It’s also a lot of fun. I think Toby wants to help. He’d be good at the dough. We’ll see what happens but I think it’s going to be fun. I LOVE PIEROGI’S.
Have a great day and week everyone.
That machine looks pretty cool. So what flavors can you make? I put Winter Wonderland in my scentsy warmer this morning. It’s peppermint and smells so yummy! Has helped with my nose a little bit.
I bought a 12 pack sample box to see what everything tasted like before I got the big bottle and so far we’ve had grape, orange, root beer and then a Sprite and a Mountain Dew type. Then there were also 6 diet pops and Paul loves those. There was cranberry/raspberry, cream soda, Sprite and root beer. There’s also like Christopher said, an energy one that they compare to Red Bull but I’l never use that one. When I ordered the big ones I got, root beer, orange, grape, cream soda, diet root beer, diet ginger ale (Paul’s favorite pop) and diet Sprite. If you drink a lot of pop it ends up being a lot cheaper with none of the garbage and if you don’t drink a lot of pop it’s nice too because the bottles are 1 liter so they sit in your fridge easy and it doesn’t go flat for days so I can take 3 or 4 days to drink one liter and it tastes good. You can also have spare cold ones in your fridge so you can make any kind you want it it’ll always be cold.
I can’t wait to try this…Bailey will love it too! Rootbeer for him, of course!
I have vanilla cream in mine.
I’ve been looking at that, too. They say that some stores carry the refills, so you might check into that. I don’t expect it around here anytime soon.
Can you use “outside” concentrates? I’m trying to get off of pop completely (although without the hfc and aspartame, I might go with it), and was wondering if you could use a 100% juice concentrate? I’d love to make me some sparkling grape juice, and Josh loves when I make other juice with sparkling water instead of regular water.
Keep me posted… I’d like to know in a couple of months if you’re still as enamored with it.
I’m not really sure yet Laura. I know you can add lemon, orange or grapefruit to the water after you carbonize it but I haven’t tried any of that yet. You can really put any flavoring in it you want to. The CO2 things just adds the carbonization.