new word

B has a new word this weekend: MINE.

Oh, joy.

We had a housefull this weekend! What a great time we had. My sister Kristen, her husband David, and their son Ryan came over Friday night. The boys had a GREAT time playing Friday night and Saturday. They ran all over the house giggling and chasing each other. It's nice that they are only 2 months apart in age, they have a ball when they are together. Saturday afternoon we played outside and they practiced jumping off the wood border around our yard and into the grass. Giggles galore. They practiced and practiced jumping on the floor inside, too.

Saturday night my mom and dad came down. They haven't been here in a long time so it was good for them to come. Unfortunately, Kristen and David had to leave shortly after my parents got here, but at least they got to see Ryan for a bit.

Sunday, the rest of our company came. Let's see- we had Craig and Lennie, Josh's uncle Dwayne, our friends Mark, Erin, and their daughter Avey, Jeff and Beth, Beth's parents Carol and Wayne, Josh's cousin Brady, his wife Stacey, and their son Parker, and probably some other people that I'm leaving out (but not on purpose!!). We had a great time. The guys went golfing in the Saratoga High School Football fundraiser tournament at Old Baldy and the girls and kids hung out all afternoon. We played at the park, we got to see the new house, and we went on a photo tour and got some great pictures. Unfortunately, I have misplaced the cord that connects my camera to the computer so I will have to post pictures later.

Today after breakfast with Craig and Lennie and Jeff and Beth, they all left for home (my mom and dad left early this morning) and we relaxed all afternoon. B is WORN OUT. Sharing his toys and playing hard all weekend made him a tired kid! He slept in this morning, only woke up once last night, slept in his OWN BED all night long, and still took a 2 1/2 hour nap this afternoon and went to bed early tonight!

We've had an afternoon full of thunderstorms and hail today. Good moisture, at least. Birdie is a big baby when it comes to thunder so she's been freaked out all afternoon and refuses to go outside. Hopefully we can convince her to at least go potty before we go to bed.

Happy Memorial Day!

jumpin' on the bandwagon

Since everyone else in my family (except my sister, which I'll get to in a minute) wrote about tornado experiences, I'm jumpin' on the bandwagon and doing it myself.

My sister spent the entire afternoon, about 4 or 5 hours, in her basement with her crabby almost-2-year-old, her husband, 4 other adults, and 3 other crabby children. They were all at the house when the UW texting alert system had it's debut, alerting everyone to get shelter because here comes a tornado. From what I can gather, several tornados touched down in Laramie yesterday. Kristen's power went out but I was calling her constantly throughout the afternoon and so was her father-in-law, who was watching the weather service in Wisconsin, where he lives. And Kristen said the new texting alert systerm that UW put in place worked fabulously- updating with text messages every 5 minutes. Awesome!

Kristen drove around last night to see the damage and called my mom. Walmart was closed at the time of the tornado because of a power outage so no one was in the store at the time the tornado hit it. Her friends Debbie & Sean were working at Gem City Bone &Joint (right next to Walmart) at the time and there was a surgery going on at the time of the tornado and a window was sucked out of their van in the parking lot. They saw some uprooted trees, siding torn off motels and homes but no destroyed buildings. Another tornado was said to go right past the high school. Around the high school area, they saw sports equipment (hurdles, soccer goals, etc.) blown up against the fences but no other damage that they could see. Josh had heard the bus windows had all been blown out, so kids had to wait for their parents to come get them. As a teacher- what a nightmare. Trying to keep all those kids calm and not let them leave until their parents got there? And man- they spent 4 hours in the hallway doing the tornado drill. Yikes. We've never even practiced that drill at our school this year. Perhaps we should.

Watching www.wyoroad.info yesterday showed some scary pictures of the interstate right as you get to Laramie- there was a semi tipped over in the middle of the road, and then the strangest one I saw, a big huge BOAT that got blown off a semi. Scary stuff.

I'm glad all we had was rain yesterday. LOTS of rain though. On my way home last night, there was flooding all over the fields. Canals are flooded. The ditch that runs in front of my house is only about a foot from running over with water.

I see on my email right now that Kristen emailed overnight, so her power must be back.

Praise the Lord that everyone we know (including Annie's sister, Stacey and Brady and Parker, and my family and anyone else we all know!) is SAFE! What a freak storm to come through this area. Makes me glad my new house has a basement!!

sold!

Our house, that is. In 2 1/2 days of being on the market. Holy smokes, that was fast. When we moved here, we put our house in Lingle on the market in May. It sold in 10 days. We thought that was a record. We thought with this house, there would be no way we could get that lucky again. And we weren't- we were LUCKIER!!!!

It wasn't a full price offer, but close. We asked $139,700 and the lady offered $135,000 with no other requests. So we said yes and signed the papers! We're working on getting a really fast closing date so we can move before we go to Florida. The lady buying our house would be OK with that, and hopefully the other people can get out of our new house that fast. They were in the process of moving out when we looked at the house last week, so it shouldnt' be too difficult.

YAY! We're pretty excited right now.

sounds of summer

and the air was full of them today...

• birds chirping
• kids playing
• parents taking walks with strollers
• lawnmower
• sprinklers
• Brecken slurping a slurpee on the front porch

it's official

Our realtor already put the sign up in front of our house!

under contract!

We bought a new house today! Kind of.

The house we've been waiting and waiting to see finally opened up to buyers on Monday. The owners are building a new house outside Laramie and that was behind schedule, so the showings of this house kept getting cancelled. Finally, we got to see it on Monday. It's just about perfect for us! It's in the neighborhood we have wanted to live in since we moved to Saratoga. It has a beautifully landscaped yard. It has a dog kennel already built with acess to a kennel inside the garage. The back yard is fenced. It has a big wooden deck on the front and a brick patio out back. It has 4 bedrooms plus a playroom. It has a fully finished basement. For us at this moment, it's just what we're needing. So we put an offer in on it- FULL PRICE (it hurt to do that!), they pay closing costs, they pull the carpet flat downstairs where it is a bit bubbly, and fix the two heaters that aren't working (the owners were going to do the two previous things anyway...) and then wait 60-90 days for us to sell our house. We thought it was a pretty good offer.

They counter-offered yesterday. Full price, they will NOT pay closing costs, and they will give us 15 days to get our house under contract. If after those 15 days ours doesn't have a buyer, and someone else comes along and offers full price and can move in right away, we have 72 hours to come up with the money for our house AND their house. Otherwise they can void our contract. We fretted all night about that. 15 days is NOT a lot of time! Our house in Lingle sold in 10, but surely we can't be that lucky twice!

Today we went into the office to list our house, and the other houses' agent said they would go to 30 days instead of 15 for us to sell our house. That made us feel a lot better and we signed the deal.

Our house already has an appointment to be shown on Tuesday. And the agent who has the house we are buying has two other parties that want to see the house, too. And the broker has a list of people to call, too. HOPEFULLY, it won't take long to sell. It's the ONLY one for sale in this price range right now. We're listing it for $139,700. The next cheapest is $112,000 and the next expensive is $165,000. So hopefully someone only wants to spent up to $140,000 and buys our house. :)

There is some work that needs to be done in the new house, but nothing major. The three upstairs bedrooms need new carpet, and the whole house needs painted inside. (This lady likes pink!) And eventually, we'd like to update the floor of the upstairs guest bath and some things in the other bathroom upstairs. But like I said, nothing major. Here's what it looks like!:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8EctXLRw1atDk

graduation

My baby sister graduated from the University of Wyoming on Saturday. She's now Kristen M. Winegar, BSN. She got her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree and we are all very proud of her! Way to go, Krissy!!

Senator John Barrasso was the speaker for the Health Sciences Commencement:

Josh graduated yesterday, too. He completed his Masters in Curriculum and Instruction. However, his graduation ceremony was in Bozeman, MT. And since we were in Laramie, WY, we weren't able to make it. :( We're very proud of you too, Josh! It's not easy to finish your Master's while working full time, adding a baby to the family, coaching, and being a great husband!

picture day

Today was the day my Senior class, who I co-sponsor, went out to take their traditional Senior class picture. It will go on their composite which includes all their Senior pictures and will hang in the hallways of Encampment School for eternity. We have frames dating back to the 1940s in our hallways! Today we left school and headed to Baggot Rocks outside Encampment. We climbed up what seemed like miles of rocks to find good spots to take pictures. It was high noon, I was fighting direct sunlight and shadows, but I compromised and took pictures where they really wanted to, because to get these 14 kids to agree on anything is a miracle in itself, so I just shut up and took the pictures. :)

Here is the Encampment class of 2008:

my son has a friend!!

Josh came home from school today saying we had to go to a concert- a really good guitar player that did an assembly for their kids today. He built a new prototype of guitar with a man who has a guitar shop here in Saratoga that builds guitars for all sorts of famous people. So, we went to the concert tonight. B came too. Deb and Jake and their kids sat one aisle down and across from us. While waiting for it to start, Chandler, their 3 year old, came to say hi to Brecken. B thought that was great. As Chandler left, B ran to his diaper bag and got out two rolls of Smarties that I had in there to bribe him into being quiet during the concert, and ran over to where Chandler was sitting and gave them to him with a big ol' grin on his face. Chandler said, "Thank you, Brecken!" and B nodded and then ran back to us. He shared with a friend! How nice. That's the first time he's shared like that. He shares food with us, and with anyone else that happens to be around while he's eating, but this is the first time he's gone out of his way to get something and bring it to someone!!

He liked the concert but had a hard time knowing to be quiet. He danced and danced, though. He really liked the music. The guy was excellent. Writes his own songs. He's kind of a motivational musician- Josh said he talked about bullying in their assembly this afternoon.

i see london, i see france...

I see Brecken's underpants! His pants got dirty today so I threw on some of his new shorts that were handy. I just bought them a month or so ago, for the summer. They are size 6/9 months.

And they are falling off.



I feed my child, I swear!

same word, different meaning

When we woke up this morning, B had a runny nose and a cough. I asked him, "Do you have a cold?" He replied, "Brr!"

Time to teach him the meaning of homographs. :)

give them a hug

We watched ESPN2 tonight, there was a story about a girl I went to high school with on it. She is a fantastic runner, and is trying to make the Olympic team this summer. But the story was really about her husband, who died during a marathon last November. They were training together to make the Olympic team. The worst part of the story is, they were married for 4 months. That's it. It reminded me of how fragile life is. Alicia, the girl in the story, told her husband she loved him at the starting line to the race and never spoke to him again because he collapsed a few miles into the race from a heart problem nobody knew he had. I cannot imagine losing my husband, especially after only being married 4 months.

I read a story once upon a time about a woman who lost her husband in a car accident on his way to work. Someone asked her how she could cope so well. She said that they made a point of ALWAYS having the words "I love you" be the last thing they said to each other as they went to work. The morning of the accident, they had a big fight and he stomped out of the house mad. She chased the car down as it was backing out of the driveway. She made him stop, roll down his window, and she gave him a kiss and said, "I love you" and meant it. She said that is how she could cope so well- she knew that the last words he heard his wife tell him was "I love you". That story sticks in my mind every day. (Though the story said it much better than I just did.)

Hug your husband, your wife, your children, your parents, whoever you love in life. Never take a single moment for granted.

the bug

I think I have B's bug today. I woke up with a bad stomach ache. I haven't puked, but I slept until noon! Good thing Josh is home now.

Brecken was SOOOOO glad to see Josh yesterday. We were watching out the window for him, and saw lots of trucks go by. But when he saw Josh's, he yelled, "DADDY!!!!!!!!!" and knocked on the window so hard I thought he was going to break it!! Josh brought him a stuffed wolf puppy and a board book about animals you see when you go camping, and I got a t-shirt and a new mug for my soup.

Josh had to go down to the community center this morning to get his health fair results. While there, Senator Barrasso walked in and right up to Josh! He introduced himself and I guess had quite a long conversation with Josh. They talked about the Teton Science School, Gillette, (Josh said I grewup there and he said he was there last night for the Crawfish Feed!) and a few more things. I asked Josh if he asked Dr. Barrasso to interpret his results for him. :) He said no, but the aide took their picture while shaking hands and then asked Josh for his mailing address. I told Josh we now have Washington covered- I know Sen. Enzi and he knows Sen. Barrasso. :)

Today Josh was supposed to help out with the track meet Saratoga is hosting, but it got cancelled because it was snowing hard this morning. It quit snowing but it didn't ever get very warm today.

Brecken can now identify Mickey Mouse. He pointed to the poster we have of him in the bathroom, and said, "Mappy!" That's good, since we only have two months until we leave for our trip to Disney World!

We were invited up to the Hayes' house for a BBQ tonight, but I stayed home since I'm not feeling that great. Josh and Brecken went though. It's kind of nice to have the house to myself for once!

not-so-fun field trip

I had to take my choir kids to Cheyenne yesterday for our annual music festival, where they sing for judges. They did great- my solos got 26 out of 30, 27 out of 30, and my duet got 34 out of 35! I was proud of the kids.

However, yesterday morning at 3:00, Brecken woke up puking. He puked again at 6:30. I couldn't leave him at the babysitter's, so I had to take him with me since Josh is in Jackson. What a not-fun day. He puked all day long. My two students were awesome though- never batted an eye, helped take care of him in the car, and even took turns reading books to him. What troopers I have!

When we got back to the school I told my secretary that I'd need a sub for today. Brecken puked before bed, but slept for 12.5 hours and didn't puke. Hooray! This morning he woke up and asked for water, which he promptly threw up. He slept some more, then has been able to keep down some Saltines and Gatorade. He has slept most of the day today. I did make it up to the store to get some Pedialyte and Pedialyte popcicles, so we'll have those this afternoon. He's sleeping again. Poor kid. And poor Mommy- what bad timing for Josh to be gone! Cleaning up puke for two days by myself isn't my idea of fun!

prom night

I had two smokin' hot dates to the Saratoga High School prom last night. The little one danced his heart out until about 10:30, when he finally gave in and fell asleep on my lap. HOW he slept through that loud music, I don't know. But he did! He loves dancing, however, so he had a blast. Plus, there was pretzels and cake with chocolate fondue, so he was in 7th heaven. :)

Here is B, ready for the Prom:

Dancing with Dad:

Even dancing while snacking:

growing up

You know how it just hits you like a ton of bricks sometimes, that your baby is no longer your baby? Tonight was one of those nights.

and this little piggy went wee, wee, wee... all the way home

These little piggies didn't go wee, wee, wee, but there was plenty of snorting! Josh's Ag teacher breeds pigs each year and B and I went up to see them this afternoon. I wish I would've known when they were born because they would've been a lot cuter then! But they aren't too ugly right now. B didn't scream this year. He didn't get too close, but watched them pretty intently!

I haven't been very good at keeping up with the blog lately. I feel bad, because I know there are people that check in every night! I'll try to be better. I guess we've just been pretty busy. Josh had Parent/Teacher Conferences twice last week at night, and B and I went to hang out with him for a bit each night. This week, he is setting up for prom from 4-7 each night, so we won't see much of him this week, either. And next week, he'll be gone all week on a trip with the 8th graders to Teton Science School. Then maybe we can have our daddy back!!

This past weekend we went to Lyman to see Beth and Jeff. We had a great time. Saturday we spent the whole day shopping in Park City and Salt Lake City. Everyone found great deals except for me. Rats. We had a wonderful weekend though.

It was BEAUTIFUL today. I love it when we don't have to wear coats! Brecken even had to have a bath at daycare because he had mud everywhere, Deb said. Even in his hair! He must have had one heck of a time playing outside this morning! He was wearing his extra outfit when I got him after school because his clothes he went in, plus his coat, were all in the washing machine. :) He's an outside lover, that's for sure.

spring

I went outside today, hoping to find signs of Spring. This is what I found instead:

But after searching hard, I found signs that Spring should be here soon:

trick rider

bubbles

I forgot to mention in my below post how long we were stuck on Sunday. I wrote it in my original post, but as I hit "publish", the internet said, "Cannot display the webpage" and I LOST everything! I had to start over. Anyway, we were stuck in the truck stop for 6 1/2 hours. Yes, SIX AND A HALF HOURS. It was miserable. But not as miserable as some people- a teacher I work with just got back from Rawlins this afternoon! She didn't get out while they were letting Saratoga people go on Sunday night and she got stuck all night, all yesterday, all last night, and all this morning. She finally got back after lunch today. Wowzers.

Back to the subject of bubbles. Craig and Lennie were here for a couple days to babysit for us. It was wonderful and B had a great time! They brought him some Easter presents, and his favorite of them is a big ol' bubble tube. He and his grandparents spent some time outside today blowing bubbles. This afternoon after they left, he asked me, "Bubba?" which means bubbles. I asked "Do you want to blow bubbles?" and he nodded yes and ran to the bathroom, where he takes bubble baths! Silly kid. So we blew bubbles in the bathroom.