Kaleb's planning a surprise...

DAY 181 - June 30, 2009


Kaleb's been talking about planning a surprise for the family for about a month now. He really wanted to put it into place for July 1st but it just wasn't going to work out since Doug had to work. We decided to push it back to July 18th so that they would be back from their trip to Iowa AND my mom would still be in town after driving them back home. I've taught him well I think because here he is filling out the necessary stuff to send in for a coupon from the Entertainment Book so he can get a good deal on his surprise. On this night he was learning what a "self-addressed stamped envelope" was.

The necessities of life...

DAY 180 - June 29, 2009

This is what my car looks like every morning as I head into work. It pretty much looks the same in the afternoon on my way home as well. Every day I take my bag to work and most days it comes home untouched. I keep things I "need" in there and feel the need to carry it with me. It contains things like doctor bills that I need to call on about insurance issues (is there ever a time they'll actually bill me right?!?), ads I want to look through, coupons I want to cut, a book I might like to read at lunch but never find the time for, and an umbrella in case it's raining when I leave work. It also contains my lunch bag...this bag is my life though I rarely get through it all. Often I'll try to sort through it and end up throwing things out that I had good intentions of looking through. The bills don't get thrown out though as much as I'd like to toss them!

DAY 179 - June 28, 2009

I got new shoes today! My tennis shoes were in need of replacing but I just never got around to it. I've been running 3 days a week for about 2 months now and I knew I needed some new kickers. Dick's Sporting Goods was having a clearance sale and we were tipped off by a friend that works there. I rarely go into Dick's so I was happy for the info. She also turned me on to a coupon so I got these $120.00 shoes for $70! It's more than I like to pay for shoes but I figured I needed some good ones if I was going to continue running. My regular tennis shoes still have some life in them so these shoes will be used only for running. I never thought I'd buy orange shoes but I do really like these!

Greenwood Freedom Festival

DAY 178 - June 27, 2009

There's one day a year that NO ONE gets the day off at the Greenwood Police Department and that day was today. It was the day of the Greenwood Freedom Festival which is held every year the weekend before the 4th of July. This year Doug was supposed to be on his regular day off but obviously had to work. This morning we headed down for the parade with him. We usually go the the corner that he's been assigned to and watch with him close by. I rarely get the chance to snap a picture of him working so I took the opportunity today.

In the evening Doug had to go down to work traffic control before, during, and after the fireworks. Kaden asked if he could take Megan Goldman, his friend from school and the neighborhood. Her parents had plans for the evening so she came over around 5:30pm and hung out with us until we had to leave for the fireworks. We ran to dinner that night at Texas Roadhouse so I got a picture of the kids at the restaurant. We headed home for a while after dinner so that Doug could get ready for work. He went down to his assigned location while the 3 kids and I headed to watch the fireworks with Peavlers. It was a beautiful night and perfect for sitting under the stars.

A bit older but the same pose...

DAY 177 - June 26, 2009


We've got a GREAT picture of Doug and the boys taken at the Iowa State Fair a few years back in this same pose. It's one of our favorite pictures and can be found on my desk at work, in Doug's police car, and often the wallpaper on our computer. Doug suggested we try to get a picture mimicking the same pose. I think it turned out great!

A sad day...two pop icons passed.

DAY 176 - June 25, 2009

What a day! Two pop icons passed away today. Earlier this week Ed McMahon also passed away. They say these things come in 3's and they sure seem to in this instance as well. First, Farrah Fawcett passed away, losing her battle with cancer. She had been fighting the disease for several years and it was slowly obvious she would not win this battle.

Michael Jackson died suddenly today as a result of a cardiac arrest. It's so strange to think that he is dead. He's always been around and, no matter your age, you know who he is. There has been controversy surrounding him and a lot of strange personality traits have emerged through the years. None of that changes the fact that he was first known for is music, his dancing, and his videos. I told Doug that he was our generations' Elvis...not long after I said that the news commented with the same sentiment.

Explosive fun to come...

DAY 175 - June 24, 2009





Kaleb got a "Build Your Own Volcano" kit from my mom for his birthday. He's been wanting to build it ever since he opened it and we finally took the time to start it today. It was relatively simple to put together to start. As you can see...he was all decked out and ready to go. He was the one to get messy and put the concrete-type mix on the platform/mold and he did a great job shaping the thing up. It needs to dry overnight at least and can then be painted. After that it will be ready to "explode"...putting the thing together was not too messy...we'll see how the actual explosion goes!

We keep finding these things!

DAY 174 - June 23, 2009


Nerf guns...what would a boy do without them?!? The boys have SEVERAL guns...and with several guns comes several darts. Kaden decided he wanted to use his 6-shooter tonight and decided to see how many time he could load his gun without using the same darts. He put them all in little piles of 6 darts and then was so proud to show me. As you can see, he can fill it up, fire it, and fill it up again several times over!

Another feathered friend...

DAY 173 - June 22, 2009

We have another momma duck hanging out at our place! This one has made a little nest that is full of eggs right over our front porch in the shrub bed. Here she is keeping her unhatched little ones warm...We sure have had fun watching the ducks this year. We're hoping for some little ducklings to show up here soon. Keep you posted!

We pulled it off!!

DAY 172 - June 21, 2009

It's Father's Day! We made it a morning all about Doug today...unfortunately he had to go to work this afternoon. We got Long's donuts...his favorites...and gave him his gifts this morning. He got some cologne from me and the 3 of us worked on his stepping stone we'd bought last Father's Day. We always meant to work on it together with him but it just never got done that way...it turned out pretty good and we all had some input on how it was designed.

For lunch we met with Doug's parents and Dawn and her family to celebrate the day at Johnny Carino's before Doug had to go into work. Unfortunately he had to go in uniform so I know that wasn't very comfortable. We were happy we could spend as much of the day as we could though with him.

DAY 171 - June 20, 2009

Well, we did it! We were able to pull off the surprise 60th birthday party for Chris today. As you can see...she was surprised to walk into the "Disney meeting" this afternoon to find a house full of her friends. The party went off without a hitch and was a great success. John, Dawn, and Doug were really the masterminds behind the whole thing and put together the guest list and menu. I didn't really do much except help get the house in order...which, I'll admit, Doug actually did most of! I cleaned the floors, bathrooms, and picked up and that was about it. We did scramble to get our new patio furniture together as well finally finishing up THIS MORNING about 4 hours before the party started! That will have to be another picture and another blog entry!

Crowded tonight!

DAY 170 - June 19, 2009



Tonight is the night before the big surprise party for Chris' 60th (shhhh!) birthday party. Nick came to help set up a few things tonight and we decided to kidnap him for the night. The boys couldn't decide where they wanted to sleep so they chose to see if they could all fit in the same bed. As you can see...they made it work. I'm not sure how comfortable any of them were but they seemed happy to be able to get it done. They all slept fine and no one fell off the bed so I guess it worked!

Last day of baseball...

DAY 169 - June 18, 2009

Today was the last day of the regular season of Edgewood Baseball. The boys did so great this season and showed a lot of improvement from last year. They made it past one game in the tournament and ended up losing this one. The top picture is one of the coaches; Coach Tom. Coach Tom was the pitcher when it was time for coach pitch. He was a very positive influence on all the boys and really encouraged all of them. He did it in a way to give them confidence if they were having trouble connecting with the ball or by saying "I knew you could do it!" if they made a great play. We're very proud of our two little baseball players and had to take our picture with them and their trophies also.

Getting and returning favors.

DAY 168 - June 17, 2009

Tonight I got a little help from the Goldman's (who live in our neighborhood) and also gave a little help right back. The boys and I were at Target tonight and happened to check out the patio furniture. We've had our eye on a table and chairs there but didn't want to spend the money on it at the time. Well, tonight it was on clearance so, after texting back and forth with Doug who was at work, we decided to get it. The problem was that we didn't have a truck to fit it all to get home and, if we bought it tonight we had to take it tonight. Apparently, even if we purchased it, they can't hold it for us because it's on clearance. Doesn't really make sense to me but whatever. So, we ended up driving down to the police department where the rookie Doug was riding with had his pick-up truck that he was willing to let us use. We got the truck, drove back to Target, picked up the furniture, and dropped it off at home. Kaden had desperately wanted to play with Megan this evening and I thought we'd have plenty of time for him to do that since we didn't originally have plans to do much. By the time we got home it was 7:00pm and the evening was quickly slipping away. I stopped at the Goldman's on the way to take the truck back to the department and they were nice enough to let KC hang out there while Kaleb and I did that.

Turns out they're leaving on vacation tomorrow and needed to run an errand themselves so I returned the favor and let their two girls hang out with us while they did that. I know how hard it is to get what you need sometimes with kids that don't want to be there shopping with you. This is Kaden's good friend Megan and her little sister Rachael. They definitely kept busy this evening playing Guitar Hero on the Wii, coloring, getting the piano keyboard fitted with new batteries so they could use it, and riding bikes and scooters.

Another re-connect made possible by Facebook!

DAY 167 - June 16, 2009

This is my friend Tara from high school. We got back in touch through Facebook recently. She was in town for business and we made sure we got a chance to visit and catch up. I haven't seen her for about 18 years and it was so nice to see her. She hasn't changed a bit! She was always a wild child in high school and continues to be a "grown-up" version of one today. She was nice enough to tolerate the pouring down rain as we waited to find out if the boys' baseball game was going to be cancelled. That goodness it was because I would have been mortified if we had to do our catching up sitting on some cold, wet bleachers under an umbrella! The game was finally cancelled so we headed back to our place to catch up. Later we ran to dinner at Texas Roadhouse with the boys - Doug was going to take 1/2 day PTO time to watch the game but since it was cancelled he decided to save his vacation time.

When we got back to our place we chatted a bit more and she gave Kaleb a few pointers on the games on Pogo.com which he's become addicted to (and that she informed us she's been addicted to for about 10 years). Kaden passed the time coloring some pictures. When she was getting ready to leave he handed her a couple coloring book pages that were folded in half that said "To: Tara From: Kaden"...he had colored two pictures especially for her. I thought that was so sweet! We took a couple pictures and then said our good-byes.

It's always good to catch up with an old friend. I think we chatted just like it was only last week that we'd seen each other!

Lookout Goodwill...here we come!

DAY 166 - June 15, 2009



Well, I guess you could say that our garage sale didn't go very well. We only made about $50 and I really don't think that was worth my set-up, mark, and tear down time. A lot of this stuff was left from last year's sale when I boxed it back up, took it down stairs for the year, and brought it back up for this year's sale. This time around I wasn't going to do all that again. Instead, I boxed it all up, packed it in the truck, and dropped it off at Goodwill. As you can see, the truck was full! The entire back was full as was the front passenger seat. The boys did have a place to sit but they had to share their seat with a big soccer goal and actually had the thing going "over" them because it wouldn't fit any other way. I do wish I'd made a little more money on the sale but I'm happy to have all this stuff out of my house once and for all!

A "campout" and a little fishing.

DAY 165 - June 14, 2009



We went to some friends' house tonight for a birthday party for Nick. They had a pond and a nice dock to fish from so we packed the boys' fishing poles and fished after we ate dinner. Everyone caught some fish...there were both bass and bluegill in there waiting to eat the worms we were throwing in. They must have been hungry because they were biting like crazy! Here is the bass that Kaleb caught. I guess you could say he was lucky with this one because the next picture shows just how he caught it. The hook barely went into the lip! What a nice evening hanging out with friends and the kids and fishing!

DAY 164 - June 13, 2009

Kaden made a surprise for him and Kaleb tonight. He planned a little camp out for them and even got it all set up. Kaleb was right there in the same room playing the Wii but was completely oblivious to what was going on. Kaden got out a big comforter and spread it out for them. He added a couple extra blankets for some added padding. Then he went upstairs and got their pillows, blanket from their beds, and 4 critters each to sleep with. They started out watching a little TV but it wasn't long before Kaden was fast asleep! Kaleb took a bit longer to fall asleep but the both slept good...and they slept in...until about 9:00am!

Getting rid of some junk...Oh...I mean "nice things".

DAY 163 - June 12, 2009


We are having a garage sale tomorrow...so we spent this evening getting things set up for it. Garage sales can be so much work! I luckily had a lot of things from last year that didn't sell so I boxed it all up and kept it all year in the basement. I say "luckily" because that meant it was all previously marked so that was just less I had to do! Everything got set out tonight so I could just open up the garage and hopefully get rid of some stuff making a little extra cash along the way. Whatever doesn't sell this year will be boxed back up and taken to Goodwill. I'm NOT carting all this stuff down to the basement again only to have to set it out again next year. I'm sure by the time we have another neighborhood garage sale there will be plenty more stuff I'll be able to clear out of the house!

Great seats!

DAY 162 - June 11, 2009

A friend of Doug's has season tickets to the Indianapolis Indians baseball games and we were able to get them for tonight's game. After a torrential downpour that seemed to last forever the game finally started about an hour late. We were glad that we stuck around because it turned out to be a great night for a game. It cooled off nicely and was very comfortable. As you can see, we had GREAT seats...two rows behind the Indians dugout. Unfortunately we had to leave early - at the bottom of the 5th inning - because it was getting late. We left around 10:00pm...but when we did the Indians were up 7-4.

Simple storage.

DAY 161 - June 10, 2009



We bought these 2 deck boxes a few weeks ago and just got around to putting them together. I'm not sure why we waited so long since they were both put together in about 20-30 minutes! They were super-simple and I was a little afraid we would be disappointed in how sturdy they were. We were not...they were nice and big...big enough to put all the pool toys in one and all the chemicals and pool equipment/accessories in the other. They are strong enough and will even hold 2 adults using it as a bench. The nice thing was that they took absolutely no tools to put them together. Everything snapped into place. We feel a little more organized around the pool now!

Picture perfect - in more ways than one!

DAY 160 - June 9, 2009


Today was dentist appointment day for the boys and I. We were all scheduled for regular check-ups and a cleaning. Kaleb has made it quite clear the last couple days that he's tired of having his picture taken every day. I think his birthday events put him over the edge! Anyway, since he didn't want his picture taken I opted to get his x-rays and chart here at the dentist. We all had good check-ups and no cavities this time around. I'm very thankful for that and it seems the hygienist feels they've improved on their brushing. That's a very good thing considering we've dealt with cavities for Kaden and soft enamel for Kaleb that caused a lot of decay on his back teeth. We took care of those issues and had a good check-up!


DAY 159 - June 8, 2009



Getting ready to make our Father's Day gift for Doug...SHHHHH! We bought this stepping stone a year ago for Doug for Father's Day with the intention of making it together with him. Well, that never seemed to happen so I figured that we'd make it for him as part of his gift this year. This is a neat one because it's made so you can put pictures on it by attaching them to some little plastic pieces and putting those pieces in the cement. We worked hard to make it look just right and to do that it took us about 2 1/2 hours! I didn't think it would take that long but after the pictures were all put together we had to figure out the design. We ended up with a design that incorporated a little bit of each of our ideas. You'll have to wait for Father's Day to see the final product...

More Birthday Happenings...

DAY 158 - June 7, 2009


Kaleb got a lot of birthday money and gift cards this year. He's been saving up for a big Indiana Jones Lego set...it's cost...$80.00! He got enough Target gift cards and cash to buy it plus have a little left over. He was SO EXCITED to make this purchase that we went this afternoon and picked it up. Kaleb came home and worked on this thing the rest of the day with the exception of about an hour when I had him go outside to play with Kaden and a friend from down the street. In total, I believe he spent about 6 hours on this thing! He wanted it completely put together to show Doug when he got home from work. It had almost 1000 pieces so I think he did a great job with it. He sure loves putting these things together!

Kaden has also been saving up some money for a special purchase from Target. What did he want...as you can see it's a guitar! It came with some chord cards that show you where to put your fingers as you strum. He's been practicing a few of those and really picked it up quite quickly. We got online and looked up a couple easy songs and he's been working on it. He even played Doug a quick "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" when he got home!

DAY 157 - June 6, 2009

Kaleb's 10th Birthday party was today. He had an Indiana Jones theme going and here is a picture of his cupcake cake. Since it was cupcakes they were eating instead of an actual piece of cake; it seems the boys thought they should have a race to eat them. Or should I say shove them in their mouths and ultimately all over their faces as well? We didn't even have the passed out to everyone at the party and some of them were already coming back for seconds...not because they were starving or wanted another one...just because they wanted to race each other. They had fun and I was definitely we were outside on the deck!

After pizza, cake, presents, and the first round of swimming the boys went out front to play whatever boys play. That would be tag, capture the flag, or just wildly running around in the front yard. I got them to sit still long enough for a quick picture of the whole gang. Of course, to get a nice picture there had to be promise of a silly one to follow. Here's the gang...back row: Caleb, Ben, Jacob, and Nick. Front row: Daniel, Chandler, Mason, Kaden, and Kaleb.

It's all about Kaleb tonight!

DAY 156 - June 5, 2009

Tonight Kaden spent the night with Jacob with last minute plans. That gave Kaleb and I an unexpected night to ourselves and we made the most of it. I knew we had to run a couple errands to pick up some supplies for his birthday party tomorrow so we set out to do just that together. I think he enjoyed having a night with just us AND using it to shop for things for his party. We stopped at Target for a few things and to check out the birthday supplies. They didn't have anything Indiana Jones so we didn't get much besides some paper plates and napkins. We did hit the Dollar Spot to pick up a couple water sling shots they could play with in the pool.

Next it was off to Subway for dinner...Kaleb really likes Subway so it's usually what he prefers when we're grabbing something quick. This time it was nice because we went to a Subway that was pretty quiet. They even had a couple comfy chairs set at a little table we sat at rather than the usual stiff restaurant bench. We had a good chat while we ate our sandwiches.

From here we stopped at Factory Card Outlet to check out what they had. Again, not much luck on Indiana Jones...all we got was a "Happy Birthday" banner. They didn't even have a balloon with Indy on it! We hadn't planned on getting a balloon bouquet this year but decided to since there wasn't much we could decorate with like he wanted.

Our final stop was a quick one...just ran into Goodwill to see if they had any play shorts for cheap that we could pick up for Kaleb. They didn't have much but we did get 2 pair that will work fine for play. Our big purchase there was just over $4!

It was a good night. We came home, put our things away, and hung out until Daddy got home. What a nice evening with my 10-year-old!

Summer Reading

DAY 155 - June 4, 2009



We went to the library today to sign up for the summer reading program. Every year we participate in this program and the boys really enjoy it. They get to choose books to read and, based on their difficulty, they get points for the books they read. They also get points if they read to me or if I read to them. We collect our points every summer and usually cash them in close to the end of the program. There are always fun things to get with points like Children's Museum Haunted House tickets, Indians game tickets, IMAX tickets, etc. Of course there's the usual stuff like the bouncy balls, fun pens, bookmarks, bubbles, and the random "squishy" toys. This year I noticed they've even got books that can be bought with points. Let the reading begin!

A birthday celebration...

DAY 154 - June 3, 2009

We celebrated Kaleb's 10th birthday today because we couldn't all be together last night. He chose The Cheesecake Factory for his night out so that's what we did. Kaleb likes this place a lot...actually, I think it's more the cheesecake he likes a lot. They don't have a kids menu here so he and I usually split the turkey club sandwich and fries. Kaden usually gets the mozzarella cheese sticks appetizer as his meal and Doug gets whatever he's in the mood for. We all know we're really there for the cheesecake though!

Kaden wanted to get Kaleb something with his own money for his birthday. He decided on the game Battleship and Kaleb really like it. It wasn't 10 minutes after opening it that they sat down to play this game.

Entering Double Digits!

DAY 153 - June 2, 2009


Well...where did the time go? It seems like only yesterday we had a little boy that used to love chasing our bulldog Mattie around in his walker. He'd make that thing go all over the kitchen and living room chasing her into a corner and just laughing and laughing while she pushed her way out. How'd we get here already? Now we've got a fine young man that's suddenly 10 years old. Kaleb is sweet, sensitive, caring, loving, funny, and an all around great kid. He likes school, loves cooking (and eating), loves trying new things, loves to snuggle in before bed, likes playing with friends and on the computer, enjoys reading, and likes baseball and swimming.

I'm sure today was not his "ideal" birthday but we made it work. Unfortunately, both Doug and I had to work so our usual birthday dinner couldn't happen. We did try to make it a special day and do plan on actually celebrating tomorrow with his gifts and a birthday dinner at a restaurant of his choice. Doug took both the boys out to breakfast to start off the day. They LOVE going to a little restaurant close by called FlapJacks. The 3 of them love breakfast food so it's their favorite breakfast stop. Kaleb got to have his favorite (and rarely allowed) strawberry cheesecake pancakes.

Because Doug had to leave for work around 1:30, I decided to come home and spend the afternoon with them rather than shipping them off to the baby sitter's. We spent the afternoon in the pool and then got ready for baseball practice.

On our way to practice I stopped at Aldi and picked up some cookies to share with the team after practice in honor of KT's birthday. Here he is with what's left of the cookies. I'd meant to get a picture of him handing out the cookies to his teammates but the swooped in and grabbed the cookies before I could even think about turning on the camera so that obviously didn't happen.

First Summer Reading Pick...

DAY 152 - June 1, 2009


Every summer we participate in the Reading Program hosted by the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library. The boys love to collect points for the books they read and cash them in for all kinds of goodies at the end of summer. We also try to read a chapter book that we all agree on...this is our choice for right now. School was out last week but we can't sign up for the reading program until next week so we picked a chapter book we have at home that we haven't read yet. The boys usually like it when we work through a book together. I think part of it is that it gives us some guaranteed snuggle time on those nights. I also think that they like it because it's usually me reading the book to them. FINALLY they get to sit back, relax, and just listen to the story rather than reading it themselves. I don't mind at all though. They're both good readers and enjoy it so I don't mind giving them that break.

This and that...

DAY 151 - May 31, 2009

I tried to do a little prep work this weekend in anticipation of the boys being home all day every day for the summer. I know it will be different for everyone so it was my goal to at least get it going as smoothly as possible. I remember last year when I was home with the boys and it seemed that they always needed something. I'd no sooner get breakfast cleaned up and they'd be ready for a snack or want something else. So...we bought all the "stuff" to make trail mix to have on hand. Each made their own concoction just the way they wanted it. Kaden doesn't like all the usual things that go into a trail mix like raisins and other dried fruit or nuts. Kaleb, on the other hand, does like all that stuff. As for the sweet to add to it...Kaleb of course likes chocolate and Kaden doesn't. Kaleb chose Reeses Pieces to add to his and Kaden chose Sweet Tarts. They had fun making it and liked it enough to make it their snack for the evening. Hopefully it will work well when they're looking for a little snack while they're home with Dad.

DAY 150 - May 30, 2009

Errand day today. The boys really hate these kinds of days but it had to get done. We had to go to Target to make a return so I went ahead and bought the things we needed that I knew Aldi wouldn't have. After hitting Target we went to Aldi for the groceries. Each of the boys had a list that I'd made out for them that they were responsible for getting. It really helps make the shopping trip go so much quicker, not to mention that they're not asking the entire time "How much more is there to get". They're usually done with their list when I'm done getting the things that are on mine. We had a cart full of groceries, checked out, and had it boxed up within about 30 minutes. Not bad for a big grocery trip in my opinion. The thing that helps the most is that Aldi is small enough that I can set them out on their own to get what we need and we've really got these trips down to a science.

After Aldi we stopped at McDonald's for a simple dinner. Not my number one choice for dinner but it was quick and cheap and what they boys wanted. They were a big help to me today and didn't complain at all so I figured it was the least I could do. It was a beautiful night to sit outside for dinner. We even offered some of our fries to the birds hanging around.

Doug had a special request for Sour Cream donuts from Krispy Kreme for Sunday morning. We decided to go inside in case they were actually making up the donuts because the boys wanted to watch for a few minutes. It must have been slow enough or they were ahead enough with the donuts that needed made since the line wasn't running. They boys were a little disappointed not to watch but were happy to be done with errands so we just got our donuts and headed home.