Rough Day

So Nate had a rough day yesterday.

It started out with him still dealing with a severe cold that has hit us. So he wasn't feeling very well at work. Work, by the way, is rather stressful at the moment and they are in high gear trying to complete their project before their deadline.

Nate was planning on working really late at work... but because Jenna wanted him to come home so they could wrap presents for Spencer while he and I were at church last night...he decided to come home and work from there (after presents were done of course).

Well, I got a phone call from him but I didn't hear it while running an errand ...but when I called him back he was changing a flat tire and he was obviously running late.

He called me back once he was on the road again. We chatted only briefly when his phone went dead. Now we have had trouble with our cell phones losing reception so I didn't think too much of it but when he called me back...

He had just been rear-ended by an RV! And then he was pushed into the car in front of him. He was stopped in traffic when he was hit and now my parents' Buick that Nate drove to work is a few inches shorter now. I will post a photo later. This happened 6 miles from where he had just changed the tire.

So I went to church with Spencer (and Jenna in tow) and waited to hear how things went. Well, Nate called when he got home- the car was still drivable at least. But to make his day worse he started to ache once the adrenaline wore off and was having trouble thinking straight.

So my dad drove him to the ER last night since that was the only thing still open. Once he was finally seen they said he had a mild concussion and something else (essentially whip lash, I think).

So yesterday was Nate's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

He is staying home today.


[UPDATE] Here are the promised pictures of the carnage.



The top of the bumper was sheared off and pushed a foot forward into the trunk.






Notice the sad little spare tire.

Karate Promotion for Jenna

This month Jenna promoted to a green belt with a black stripe. She was really excited because it means that for now she is the same belt as Dad! Here are some photos and also a video of her sparring.

We have kept Spencer alert at the promotions by letting him be the camera man. So I get a lot of photos but not all of them are posting quality- but he has gotten some good shots. We had to take the camera away for a while because he was starting to distract her!

Here her partner is doing self defense on her.

Holding the pad while they are showing knowledge of their kicks.

Jenna is on the right - this is just after she received her new belt.

Jenna is the larger of the two kids.

Somehow we managed to miss recording the sparring match

when her opponent ended up on his back!
Sorry, no sound. We used the digital camera for this.

NOTE: I could use some tips from those of you who have been successful at putting videos on your blog. This has not been a smooth process and I don't know if it even works. Email me any tips and I will update this page when I can.
UPDATE: Well maybe it does work fine- my connection must have been really slow yesterday- it took forever to load onto the page and forever to view the video.

It's Apple Season!!!

I love the fall... the leaves changing color, walking on crunchy leaves, the cool weather and apples! For possibly only the second time the apples on my parents trees were in good enough condition to pick this year. They have two trees one Jonathan and one Courtland. On Monday night we picked, cleaned, cut and froze enough apples for 29 pies or crisps. I don't think that my sealer has ever been so useful. The kids had fun helping with the picking.

The crew for the other steps included most of the available adults so there wasn't anyone to man the camera. We had quite the assembly line going with my parents, Lindsay, David (for part of the time), Me and then Nate when he got home. There are still apples to pick so perhaps another night will be either applesauce or drying apples or even more pie filling.

My dad and I were commenting on how I need to find a spot in my yard to plant one or two Honeycrisp apple trees- wouldn't that be cool! Now I need to figure out how to get one of those trees and where to put it so that it won't shade the blackberry bushes that I hope to plant someday too.

One of Spencer's goals- he has so many of them- was to climb a tree.
Well he enjoyed that on Monday.

Jenna was in charge of putting the apples into the buckets.

She was on a ladder later I am told but I didn't get any photos of that.


This is probably one of my favorite recent photos of the two kids.

I finally made one...

I have been wanting to do something different as a gift for when my friends have babies. For a while I wanted to make burp cloths (perhaps stenciling a cloth diaper), or crocheting an edge around a baby blanket or burp cloth (something I still want to learn) but I have never gotten around to either of those ideas.

I think that some of the most useful gifts that I have ever gotten were the hooded towels that Jeri made for my kids. Thank you again, Jeri! They have loved them as much as I have so I decided to make a couple of these this week. They were nice and easy for me. The hardest part was finding a ribbon I liked and towels that I wanted to use. I found them both at Walmart, eventually. I made three while I was at it so here is Jenna posing with one of them for me.

MN State Fair

So we all enjoyed our trip to the MN State Fair- it's called The Great MN Get Together. What did we see? Well, we ALWAYS go and see a horse show. This year we enjoyed watching the Canadian Mounted Guard? I think that is their name and it was so cool- they did this show to music and all of the time the horses movements were choreographed. It was like watching a marching band (at a performance not during a parade) but without the music or the instruments. Jenna kept trying to count them and Spencer really liked the uniforms.

There was the miracle of birth center- where they have lots of animals that are VERY pregnant and are due to give birth during the fair. If you are lucky you get to see it happening. Jenna loves this- Spencer does not. We saw some very newborn sheep and some chicks and other baby animals.

We had to walk through a few barns to see animals and the kids got cow neckerchiefs for finding out the questions to a cow knowledge test.

We walked around and saw a few things. Nate and I went another time without kids- that was kind of nice. We got to see things that the kids didn't have patience for- we looked at large prize winning vegies, lots of bonsai trees, seed art displays. My sister-in-law did bingo cards for us about the different types of people, look-a-likes, hairstyles, clothes, etc. you tend to see when in large groups. That made people watching a very entertaining part too.

There was also lots of food-of course.

Renaissance Festival

So we took the kids to the Renaissance Festival on Aug 25th. Spencer was excited- the history buff you know. He really didn't know what to expect and this was our first time too. Next time we will be able to plan the day better but we still had some fun. My sister-in-law Lindsay was dancing there so we were able to spend some time with her and my brother David as well.



Among the things we saw --- some Highland Games, Lindsay and others doing Highland dancing, some jousting, a juggling show and other displays.



Elephants? Are they part of that time? I don't know but how many times do you get a chance to ride one- even if it is only around in a small circle. Jenna and Nate were all over that.

King of the Log.
They were supposed to each take a bag and with one arm behind your back - try to knock the other person off the log. Spencer won all of the matches but Jenna got some shots in too.





Weapons- an intriguing part that the boys were not able to pass up. Nate and my brother had fun trying to throw axes. Their form needs a little work.




Spencer tried out the crossbow and didn't do too bad for his first time. There are 4 arrows there- Apparently they didn't feel the need to post up new papers until the other ones fell apart. He was aiming for inside a star and came really close on one of his shots.




We arrived later in the afternoon and there were several things that happened earlier in the day that maybe we will catch another time. We were all happy with the day and ready to go home afterwards.

1st Day of School Photos

So school FINALLY started here this week. Jenna has been counting down the days and Spencer has been excited too.

I took their photos in our front yard and maybe the tree photos could have been better but here they are. Spencer started on Tuesday (while Jenna only visited her class that day) and Jenna started on Wednesday. That's why there are separate photos of them.



When I asked Spencer how is day was when he got home he replies "It was between good and great!" I think he likes school. This is the first year that he has gone to the same school as the year before so he was excited to know so many kids.



Here is a close up of Jenna. She was more than willing to pose for photos and she was okay letting me take photos of the bus too- I don't think that Spencer would have liked that so I didn't try with him. I was lucky to have him pose for 1-2 photos before heading off to the bus stop.

Here are a few more photos of her first day.

At the Bus Stop.

Here comes the bus!

Onto the bus- not nervous at all- and she didn't do too bad either!

And the two kids return home together- Gosh they look grown up.

It was nice because Nate was working from home that day and he was able to see Jenna off and see them come home too.

Wow! New Focus!

As some of you have already heard I have been called to be the Young Women's President in our ward. That means that I am in charge of the girl's program (ages 12-18) at church.

Several people at church expressed concern about who was going to run the Family History program now but everyone was supportive of the call. Until they call someone to replace me I am going to continue teaching the Thursday classes for the month of September since I already announced them in the monthly newsletter. So I am going to be really busy.

Right now there are only about 12 girls total in the program so I am a couple of staff short -we don't want to out number the girls - so for the time being I am also the Laurel Advisor (there is only 2 of them) and the Secretary! It is kind of funny - but my mom is my second counselor so we get to spend lots of quality time together - good thing we get along so well! The shock is starting to fade but now I am just trying to figure out what I am supposed to do and to try and get organized. Wish me luck!

So Jeri- you and I haven't followed each other in callings for a while? (Thank goodness because I don't think we wanted too.) But did you want to start again? Is it your turn to be in Young Women's too?

One more thing...

So I finally got Jenna's eyes checked today. At her early childhood screening they said she didn't quite pass the test and I should take her to get a full eye exam. So we did that today- forgot the camara though. As it turns out she needs to get glasses (if I read the prescription right she needs a -1.00 correction in both eyes) so that is one more thing that we get to take care of as we are getting ready for school.

So now I am in the market for glasses for Jenna and will start making the rounds to compare prices and deals. Wish me luck to find the glasses and that Jenna won't lose or break them right away.

Hotdish- welcome to the midwest

So I was having fun checking out facts about the MN State Fair- it starts up today and we are trying to figure out when we are going. Wikipedia had some interesting facts about the MN State Fair and it referred to the term Hotdish because at the fair you can now get "hotdish on a stick" as one of the many offerings of food served on a stick.

Hotdish is basically a term for casserole. Around here when people are talking about bringing food to a potluck the term casserole is generally only is used by those "not from around here". But of course the Minnesota Nice personalities don't make fun of those who say casserole- we know what they mean. The requirements are usually a can of creamed soup and a cheese topping with the other ingredients usually including meat, pasta or potatoes, and a vegie or 2.

There is also a difference between hot dish and hotdish- check out the above link for this peculiar term from "up north".

Anyone else have know of other regional terms for food. I know all about the "coke" and "soda" debate- I'll stick with "pop" thank you very much.

No Power- A new list of essentials to get

Okay- it doesn't seem that long since I blogged about losing my internet connection. Now I don't know why I was complaining.

We lost power completely for 3 days. A storm rolled through here Saturday morning around 3:15am (our weather dog was kind enough to tell us it was coming- with her shaking and all around panic). We lost power around 4:30am and didn't get it restored until 5:10pm Monday Night.

My poor kids didn't know what to do with themselves. Plus our whole routine was off so that was hard for them too. Of course they wanted to watch tv and computer but that wasn't as disturbing as not having night lights, or music to listen to at bedtime. Jenna went to bed one night with a flashlight and pushed the play button to her music that she listens to at night. It didn't work obviously and I told her that her radio didn't have any power either. She was a little panicked and said "Now how am I going to fall asleep?" so Nate lent her his IPOD to listen to High School Musical. She kind of enjoyed that and requested it the next night too.

Note to self- Batteries are important and especially the big batteries (C and D). I realized that I didn't have batteries for the radios and flashlights.

A new item that needs to go on my preparedness need to get list is a generator. A tip from a family friend was that you get a smaller generator and just rotate it between the different appliances (such as the refrigerator and freezer to keep them both cold) every 5 or 6 hours.

I was even thinking that would have been a great idea so that I could have temporarily plugged in my stove to cook too. Having a gas stove would have been a plus since I would have been able to cook but no mine is electric but that isn't going to change anytime soon (I like my smooth top surface).

Also on my list is having food that I can prepare without power. We had all of the water we wanted but it was hard to put the food storage that I currently have into meals without needing a stove. Another item to preparedness list- camp stove.

Yes, I could have BBQed or used the camp fire but -as Spencer was constantly commenting- we need "fire utensils" to be able to cook more than just hot dogs and marshmallows. So another item should probably be pots or pans that can be used on the grill or fire pit.

After being so happy about getting power last night we had another huge storm roll through. I was a little nervous that we were going to lose power last night but thank goodness we are not one of the households without power this morning from that storm. I hope that it affected new areas- just for the sanity of those that had to be without for so long.

Luckily we didn't lose too much food and today is garbage day so the stuff I did lose gets picked up today- phew! We had just stocked up our big freezer for some future BBQs and I think that the large amount of frozen food worked well to keep things cold. Although I had a lot of frozen berries and I think they may have thawed a bit and now I may only have berry mush but I can live with that- we'll just have a lot of smoothies and things.

What was interesting is that Nate and I were just starting to stock up on preparedness items. We have been focused on the food aspect but now I am going to work more diligently on the non food items so that we are stocked up for the future.

Anyone have any other ideas of what essential items need to be on a preparedness list do to your own experiences?

I've been tagged...

Alright- even though I have already posted twice today I thought I would answer the challenge/tag from Callie. Don't get too used to multiple posts in one day though.

Jobs I’ve Held:
1. I worked in a root beer barrel (yes, you read that right) at the MN State Fair a couple of years (My uncle owns them and he sells just drinks-Pepsi products and yes...Root Beer)

2. Filene's Basement- A clothing store. The store I worked at closed.

3. Babysitting- lots of it.

4. Working at The Oasis a seasonal hamburger/ice cream restaurant as manager for my aunt (she is married to the root beer barrel guy!) The place is no longer however - After she sold it I think it became a parking lot.

5. I worked as an ESL tutor in Orem while going to school at BYU.

6. I did Data Entry for Signature- Nate worked there too and that's when he switched to programming after college. That company is gone now too.

7. I am currently working at our YMCA in the Kid's Area about 3 hours a week- sometimes more. I am just working for the free membership.

Movies I Can Watch Over and Over:
1. Totally Modern Millie "Soy Sauce!!!!!"

2. I love Musicals- 7 Brides for 7 Brothers, Singing in the Rain, The Happiest Millionaire, etc.

3. I really liked a few action films too- Batman Begins, The Bourne Identity (I don't like the filming of the other films), the others escape me at the moment.

My Guilty Pleasures:
1. The theme for us moms is catching those rare naps.

2. Doing Genealogy when I should be cleaning or doing other chores.

3. I am sure that there are others but I cannot come up with any right now.

Places I Have Lived:
1. Minnetonka/Hopkins/Maple Grove/ and Minnetonka again- all in Minnesota

2. Provo, Utah

3. Nearby Spanish Fork, Utah

Shows I Enjoy:
There are far too many shows that I enjoy so here are the ones I will admit to...

1. Monk- I love mystery shows. I grew up watching Murder She Wrote and Matlock and Columbo.

2. I'll admit that I enjoy the CSI shows

3. House

4. I was a Gilmore Girls fan and a West Wing fan but those are both lost forever now.

5. We also enjoy several shows on the Discovery Channel- Dirty Jobs and Mythbusters to name a couple.

What were likely the 1st things you thought when you saw your significant other for the first time?

Well, the first time we met we were on a group date with different dates and he was trying to overcompensate for the dullness of the girl he brought. He seemed nice but she was lame and since I didn't know either of them I spent the night talking to the others in the group. That was just before he moved into our apartment complex.

Places I’ve Been on Vacation (other an the U.S.):

1. Does having lunch across the Canadian Border count? You may say yes except that it happened while I was on a Boundary Waters trip- it is a canoe area on the MN/Canada border and it wasn't really obvious that anything had changed. We were just on the other side of a lake.

Favorite Foods:
1. Pasta- gotta have it.

2. I love Nate's smoked Chicken- okay I like anything that Nate smokes on the BBQ. I never want to cook a turkey the normal way again.

3. I enjoy ice cream- many flavors.

Websites I Visit (almost) Daily:
1. My favorite Comics

2. Family and Friends Blogs

3. Star Tribune Website- to keep up on the local news

4. Ancestry.com and other genealogy related websites

5. Google to search for everything

6. Wells Fargo

Nicknames I’ve been called:
1. Kimmer

2. Kim is technically a nickname and almost everyone call me that

3. Kimba -from those who know me from college

Now I Get to pick 4 other Blog buddies to do this!

I don't know that many people who blog who haven't already done so- so if you haven't done this yet- consider yourself tagged and then let me know!

Wildlife in the Burbs

We have had a lot of wildlife to observe around here. The most recent is a woodchuck. My mom has been trying to catch it for almost 2 weeks. It has been living under their shed and it has been getting into her garden- never a smart move. It was tricky to catch and in the mean time she has caught 2 raccoons and a red squirrel (all of which were transported to nearby -buy not too close- parks). There may still be another woodchuck in the area so the trap will stay baited. Here is a photo of the prisoner.

National Night Out

What happens when you don't go to the neighborhood meeting? You get picked to host the National Night Out neighborhood party! My parents were there and technically they sort of volunteered us but it all worked out fine. I was amazed at the amount of people who came. We had about 70 or more people mostly adults that showed up. I didn't take any group shots because I didn't want people to feel uncomfortable but they were all in our front yard under our shade trees.

Here are some photos of the area where all of the people were gathered. Spencer took these photos a while ago. We have a lot of shade available especially in the evening.




Just try and imagine this area filled with 2 picnic tables, a patio table, 4 card tables and another patio table with food and lots of patio chairs and other lawn chairs. It was packed pretty solidly.

We also had some visitors to our party.



A Minnetonka police officer came and talked for quite a while to the kids. She was available for adult questions too but there didn't appear to be any.

The former owners of our house also joined the party and Kathy works for a different city but her job is to bring McGruff the crime dog around and so she made a special stop to our party too.


It was a fun night- we met lots of our neighbors although without the name tags I have no chance at remembering all of their names.

Did any of you attend a National Night Out Gathering?

We're all okay

I know many of you have seen the news about the bridge collapse in Minneapolis today, and I can reassure you that we're all okay. I was in traffic at the time of the collapse, and I do have to cross the Mississippi every day, but I cross the river further south on 494.

Minneapolis straddles the river with the main downtown area on the southwest side. The bridge that collapsed is on I-35W which runs essentially through the middle of the University of Minnesota campus. You can take a look at the location here. The marker is on the Cedar Avenue Bridge immediately next to I-35W. Just downriver from the Cedar Avenue Bridge is a pedestrian bridge where the crowds are gathered watching the scene--including, according to the news footage, a couple of guys in white shirts, ties and black name tags leading some group prayers.

We just got a call from the Relief Society Presidency making sure that I made it home safe. They and the bishopric have been calling around to all the ward members that work over that direction, and thankfully all of those calls have been positive so far.

Harry Potter 7

Well, after receiving our copy of the book by mail on Saturday. Nate and I started reading. (Spencer is waiting until he finishes reading 5 and 6). In the past we have traded off on reading - we were not allowed to read more than one chapter ahead of each other. This book is really good though. Nate stayed up pretty late (or rather EARLY) on Saturday/Sunday reading. Then I caught up to him while I stayed home from church (Spencer has been sick.) For a good portion of the end of the book we just read it silently together. We finished reading last night.

My review? WOW. Intense at times but I enjoyed it. The best thing that I can say about it is that I am ready to read it all over again. And it also makes me more interested in the previous books too. I was nervous that after reading the final book that I would not care to read the rest of the series anymore. It is a great wrap up to the books and I think I would now be comfortable buying the audio versions of all of the books.

I hope that the rest of you Harry Potter fans enjoy it as much as I did.

A nice visit...

We have enjoyed a busy and fun week with Nate's parents. The fun activities began with an evening boating and also included several other fun things including:

1. A very large BBQ with a lot of yummy food
2. A chance to watch fireworks on the lake
3. I had help during my genealogy classes (thanks to you both!)
4. I now have a green family room and a red wall up my stairs- hurray for paint!
5. I learned how to make fresh salsa
6. My genealogy newsletter is now easier to email and to produce- thank you so much Jay!
7. My plants can and are being water much more efficiently now
8. A nice evening at the St. Paul Temple
9. We discovered a good locally made BBQ sauce
10. And we just enjoyed having our first house guests since we have moved in

Thank you for coming- your absence has been noticeable today.
I don't feel like I got a lot of photos of your visit (a few pics here and there) but I did get a nice shot of the two of you leaving- at least I am trying Regan!

Our home is welcome to anyone else who would like to visit. We even have overflow sleeping quarters at the neighbors (my parents) if necessary!

Birthday

We had a nice evening on Saturday celebrating Gpa Ashford's birthday. He even managed to avoid one of Jenna's normal birthday party standards and didn't have to wear a party hat. We had a nice evening of presents, pie and some Totally Insane Card Game.

Cookies for Nate....

A guy came to our door yesterday holding what looked like a paper grocery bag.

I opened the door and he says to me, holding out the bag, "Cookies for Nate".

"Excuse Me?" I said because I didn't think I had heard him right.

"Cookies for Nate" he repeated.

Well, on the bag is Nate's name and address and I start to peek inside the top of the bag and he says, "There is a card inside."

"Okay, thanks." Still confused I brought the bag in and called for Nate.

There actually were cookies inside. They were sent by his company to congratulate him on his promotion (Way to go Nate!) that he received last week.

I have never heard of Cookies by Design before so I had to take a few photos.

The card inside was nice because it was actually in part to the family thanking us for sharing our Dad with them (the company).

Happy (belated) 4th of July!

I hope that everyone had a fun 4th of July.

We had a very large BBQ at our house with about 50 adults and 20 children (including us). Nate was up at 6am starting up the smoker for the brisket- which I think was his best batch yet. The comment was made that it was a guy's BBQ due to the amount of meat prepared. We had brisket, chicken, brats, italian sausage, hamburgers and even a few hotdogs. There was some "girly" food like vegies and fruit too.

Can I hire someone to photo events that I host? No, I do not have any photos of the day. I was busy eating, visiting with guests, eating, refilling supplies, eating, ...you get the picture.

I did get some fun photos at night. We were able to watch fireworks on a friend's boat. The night setting on my camara did some amazing things with the glow-in-the-dark bracelets. (Michael's sells them 15 for $1)