365 Days at a Time

May 28th

2011-05-29T10:55:00.002-05:00

May 28th, 2011

Since the middle of February Saturday's have been "Rally Day" here in Madison. Every weekend there is a rally of some sort.

Today there were not any big rallies. You see, it is Bratfest weekend here in Madison. The worlds largest bratfest to be precise. However, this fantastic, enormous bratfest is sponsored by Johnsonville Brats. I company with some sketchy politics, one of which is being a huge supporter of Governer Walker.

So, instead of rallying at the capitol, the people put on their own bratfests. Sure, the "official" bratfest was still big and crowded as ever, but three alternatives sprung up for people who didn't want to support Johnsonville.

Today we went to two of them the "People's" bratfest and the "Wurst of Times" brat fest. They were both great, but I have to say that the Wurst was better! 20 free live bands to enjoy, and great brats.

Before we went to either fest though we stopped by the new democratic party offices in Madison to help them decorate the walls. The boys were glad to donate thier signs from the first rally that we went to (the one for the teachers). The picture of them with their signs on the wall is portrait and so it won't fit in my 365 book, but this one of them outside the office is pretty cute.

May 27th

2011-05-29T10:46:00.002-05:00

May 27th, 2011

I love this new light that we got for our back patio table. It is solar, so it charges all day and then I can turn it on at night (when I am sitting outside working).

I hope that I get to continue to enjoy it all summer (you hear that mosquitoes! Stay away!)

May 26th

2011-05-29T10:45:00.001-05:00

May 26th, 2011

Like I said, we have all been spending a lot of time in the hammock.

Today I was sitting in the dining room and I looked out the window to see this. Nicholas just laying in the hammock looking at the sky. He is such a cute boy!

May 25th

2011-05-29T10:42:00.002-05:00

May 25th, 2011

We are all really enjoying the hammock! The dogs are still a abit jealous. Today Dion helped Marley to climb up and snuggle with me. We were happy in the hammock together for over an hour.

Also, I love the beautiful springtime weather we have been having!

May 24th

2011-05-29T10:39:00.002-05:00

May 24th, 2011

Today we had an excellent playgroup at my house. There were 5 boys, and they all played nicely together with no fighting! And there were 4 moms and we all had a great time. I even learned how to use an extra long needle to knit with the "magic loop" technique that lets you knit any size hat/sweater/sleeve/sock on a 40 inch needle.

It was an excellent day!

May 23rd

2011-05-29T10:37:00.003-05:00

May 23rd, 2011

This photo is sadly kind of blurry, but I love the way that my bulbs are coming back this year! We planted a few new things, but mostly all this green is coming back from last year. Also, I love how nice my Mother's Day hanging baskets are looking.

May 22nd

2011-05-29T10:30:00.002-05:00

May 22nd, 2011

On our way home from Ashland we stopped for lunch/dinner in Minocqua. While we were in town we went to a park, the boys got thier swim clothes on, and they went swimming.

They had a blast, even though the water was VERY cold. It was a fun end to an excellent weekend.

May 21st

2011-05-21T22:19:00.003-05:00

May 21st, 2011

This weekend we are on a "mini" vacation up to Ashland, a lovely little town on the south shore of lake superior.

We had a nice (but rainy) drive up through the north woods. Our hotel has a waterpark in it. We had dinner at a nice grill/brewery in town. As part of our deal we got tokens for the arcade.

So far it has been a lovely time. I especially enjoyed watching the sunset over Lake Superior. Just gorgeous.

May 20th

2011-05-21T22:14:00.003-05:00

May 20th, 2011

Today was Jonathan's 2nd grade field trip to the zoo. Dion and I were both signed up to chaperone but we didn't get a sitter for Nicholas. Oops.

So Nicholas and I hung out at the zoo all day (and met up with Dion and Jonathan for lunch). We had a great time having a "mommy day." It was one of the most gorgeous days we have had yet this year, which was very lucky for a field trip!

May 19th

2011-05-20T06:11:00.002-05:00

May 19th, 2011

Yesterday when we were getting supplies we got the hardware to hang the hammock. We fell in love with the hammocks that we used during our trip to Costa Rica last summer and so we got one for our house. All winter I tried to figure out where to put it. The other day I realized that under the tree fort would be awesome.

It is a little bit high, which has some good points and some annoying ones.

On the good side, the dogs can't jump onto your lap (though trust me they try), and in fact they can walk right under you. One the bad side it is a little bit hard to get into. We can always lower it but for now we are enjoying relaxing in the shade!

May 18th

2011-05-19T09:56:00.003-05:00

May 18th, 2011

Today we spent a lot of time trying to catch up on the to do list (which seems to always be what we do for the first week after a semester ends).

We had lots of yard stuff on the to do list. While we were at the store getting supplies I finally found a bird feeder that I liked. I have been wnating to get one for a while, but haven't found one I liked. We hung it and it was fun to see the birds start coming to get food! I put it where the dogs can see it from thier favorite stop on the foot of my bed in case they decide the like to watch the birds!

May 17th

2011-05-19T09:53:00.003-05:00

May 17th, 2011

Tonight our local Culver's did a princess and superhero night. Every child who came dressed up as a princess or a superhero got a free kids meal. The boys were told they could go and were left in charge of thier own costumes. They were pretty cute. My favorite part is that they each picked a stuffed animal and put a mask on it and called it a villain and carried it around with them!

May 16th

2011-05-19T09:48:00.002-05:00

May 16th, 2011

What a ham. Nicholas was wearing this blue vest. The vest was made by my mom for my older brother when he was little. Since I thought that was kind of sweet I said "hey, can I take a picture of you in Uncle Mark's old vest" Sure he says. Then this isthe smile he gives me. What a ham.

May 15th

2011-05-19T09:32:00.005-05:00

May 15th, 2011

We had fun dog sitting Barley and Hopps. They are excellent dogs, and Jonathan loves them. He could have slept in the bed of course, but in the wee hours of morning I found him curled up on the couch and the dogs guarding him. At which point I went to the guest room and slept in the bed.

May 14th

2011-05-14T19:33:00.002-05:00

May 14th, 2011

Today was the Bike Rodeo. They have a bike rodeo every year, adn every year we miss it. This year we finally mae it to the rodeo and Joanthan did great.

May 13th

2011-05-13T22:20:00.003-05:00

May 13th, 2011

Nicholas loves to cook. This morning he woke up and told Dion he wanted to make donuts.

They were great. Sawyer especially enjoyed them! He jumped up on the table and ate a BUNCH! Bad dog!

May 12th

2011-05-13T22:16:00.003-05:00

May 12th, 2011

This mushroom is awesome. It is like a natural birdbath! Love it. Sadly it isn't at my house.

May11th

2011-05-13T22:12:00.003-05:00

My 11th 2011

It was really a crazy weather day. Dion and I ran errands and got stuck out in the hail storm. Thankfully we were really close to El Patron and we stopped in for lunch. These Carne Asada tacos are awesome, and definitley enough food to share!

May 10th

2011-05-10T22:34:00.004-05:00

May 10th, 2011

Today I had to work in a school, but it was beautiful so Nicholas and I went to the park before I had to go.

They just repainted the rock wall over the weekend and he was really excited to show me (and you through this photo) how well he could climb accros it!

May 9th

2011-05-09T23:20:00.003-05:00

May 9th, 2010

We needed to go shopping for pants for Jonathan (man the boy can wear through the knees!)

We went to Old Navy. While we paying I heard the boys giggling about something, but coudn't find them. Can you find them?

May 8th

2011-05-09T06:54:00.002-05:00

May 8th, 2011

Today was Mother's Day.

After sleeping in, we went down to the capitol and had lunch on a patio where we could see the beautiful tulips. Then we went to the zoo for a while. When the zoo closed we came home and made dinner on the grill and ate outside. it was a fantastic day!

I tried to get a cute picture of the boys outside the capitol. This one is very cute, but not quite what I was going for.

This one is more of what I was looking, for but check out the not so happy looks on their faces! They clearly were more interested in taking the other picture!

May 7th

2011-05-07T16:06:00.003-05:00

May 7th, 2011

Today was the first Farmer's Market here in Sun Prairie. There weren't very many stalls set up, but there was a great selection of organic veggies, herbs and flowers! It was great!

May 6th

2011-05-07T16:03:00.002-05:00

May 6th, 2011

The flowers are blooming! I have been jealously watching my neighbors flowers bloom, and finally mine ahve popped out some color! That's what you get for having your flowers in the shade! But, I had to use the sunny space for growing food!

May 5th

2011-05-07T16:02:00.002-05:00

May 5th, 2011

I love the freckles! Love them!

May 4th

2011-05-07T15:48:00.003-05:00

May 4th, 2011

We love our milk in a bag. First, because it is in a bag which is how they sell it (sold it) in Ontario, Canada, and brings back good memories. Second, because they get it all from local farms!

May 3rd

2011-05-03T22:09:00.002-05:00

May 3rd, 2011

Nicholas fell asleep on the couch this afternoon. We think he might be a little bit sick. The best part is that he fell asleep snuggling with his lego ninja.

I love him.

May 2nd

2011-05-03T22:06:00.001-05:00

May 2nd, 2011

Mmmmm. Cookies.

May 1st

2011-05-03T22:04:00.003-05:00

May 1st, 2011

Sawyer loves the dog park.

I love Sawyer after the dog park.

He was in my spot. I asked him to move, but he was too tired. He layed like this for hours.

April 30th

2011-05-03T22:00:00.003-05:00

April 30th, 2011

These boys love Angell Park! They beg to come here. They have been begging all week, and today we took them. They had a great time, and especially loved the tire swing.

April 29th

2011-05-03T21:54:00.002-05:00

April 29th, 2011

He is such a funny little man.

He came into my bedroom carrying his brother's laptop with a pair of his brother's pajamas on. The Pajama shirt was tucked into the pants and the pants were pulled up to his armpits.

He proceeded to sit down on his dad's side of the bed, set up the computer and surf the web.

Crazy boy!

April 28th

2011-05-03T21:52:00.003-05:00

April 28th, 2011

It's kind of a long story, but this woman is awesome, and a whole bunch of strangers bought her this iPad, and I helped out with organizing the donations.

That is all.

April 27th

2011-05-03T21:42:00.003-05:00

April 27th, 2011

When we moved to Wisconsin we learned that one of my students, Jay Valai, had come to UW Madison to play football, and is in his 5th year and is a captain of hte football team.

Jonathan quickly decided that Jay is his hero. We watched football games, and he wanted a jersy and football cards for Christmas and his birthday.

I finally got up the nerve to contact Jay. I was kind of afraid that he wouldn't want to talk to me. I did teach Physics, which isn't generally a fan favorite with High School students. I was at the Spring Football game and I saw him hanging out on the sidelines, and called him over.

Thankfully he wasn't upset to see me, and he agreed to meet Jonathan after school one day before he going back to Texas, for the year.

It took a two tries, but we met up with him, and he even signed Jonathan's coveted #2 jersey!

April 26th

2011-05-03T21:38:00.002-05:00

April 26th, 2011

So I took off a few months... about six to be precise.

But I am going to try to start again. I have about a picture a day from the interm, but I don't plan to catch up.

Tonight Dion made me this super tasty dinner. Sausage, and bell peppers and onions... yum.

2011-02-25T07:34:00.003-06:00

Good Morning, Dion here

Last night was the Luau Fund Raiser for Westside elementary. As part of the fun there was a book sale make your own sundaes and a dance party. also very cool was the surprise visit of Bucky Badger. And for those of you outside of Wisconsin, that is a very big deal.

Our kids just love seeing Bucky.

Here is a link to Bucky teaching the kids to do his dance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUBqI2-b8G0

So this blog has kinda gone a bit silent since last October. Chris and I will work on it together every now and again, it might not happen every day but we know folks follow it. And enjoy what we can get done with it.

October 31st

2010-11-01T12:14:00.004-05:00

October 31st, 2010

Finally it is Halloween! I put up more pictures on Facebook and you can view them here (even if you don't have facebook).

Nicholas made a last minute decision to be a dinosuar instead of Dr. Horrible. He didn't really explain why except to say that he still likes Dr. Horrible he just wanted to wear the dinosuar costume. Maybe it is because he wanted to match his pumpkin? Or maybe he just wanted me to feel good that he was wearing the costume I made for his brother and it is awesome!

Either way a very cute dinosaur and an awesome ghostbuster came home with tons of candy!

October 30th

2010-10-31T08:56:00.002-05:00

October 30th, 2010

Today was Nicholas's Halloween Party at school. The boys were excited to put on thier costumes, and have a good time. There were baby pumpkins to decorate, cookies to frost and eat, and dancing. There was also a costume contest and a pumpkin carving contest. We won 2nd place (my Quetzecoatl) and 2nd place (Nicholal's Buddy) and Honorable mention (Jonathan's radioactive man) in - apparently we tied ourselves for second...). There also were bags to decorate and trick or treating out on the nature trail.

October 29th

2010-10-31T08:53:00.002-05:00

October 29th, 2010

MISSING PICTURE! Jonathan had Thursday and Friday off from school this week because of the state teachers conference. Nicholas never has school on Fridays. So today Dion took the boys to Chuck E. Cheese while they were running errands on the west side. It was a fun boys trip!

They brought home some pictures for me, but I haven't had a chance to take a picture of them to put up yet.

October 28th

2010-10-28T22:53:00.003-05:00

October 28th, 2010

Yep that's right... my pumpkin is so cool it gets two days!

The top is a bit doctored because my camera doesn't do so well in low light... but the pumpkin looks great in person. I am thrilled with how it turned out! Now back to dreaming up what to do next year and getting kids into their costumes for the big night!

October 27th

2010-10-27T21:50:00.003-05:00

October 27th, 2010

Every year it is a big process to decide what to carve on "my" pumpkin. Last year it was a day of the dead skull (see here). The year before I did a mummy with bandage wrappings all the way around the pumpkin (see here). This year I decided to stick with the Mexican theme and do a carving of Quetzelcoatl. The image that I am using is here. I started working tonight but didn't finish. I got the head and the tail started, and got a few inches of body, but have a long way to go to connect the head to the tail by wrapping the body around the pumpkin! When it is done the blue areas will be where I cut all the way through and the light shines through.

I hope it turns out well!

October 26th

2010-10-27T21:46:00.002-05:00

October 26th, 2010

As you can see from this photo of our friendly neighborhood traffic light! It blew over today.

October 25th

2010-10-26T12:33:00.003-05:00

October 25th, 2010

Nicholas wanted a dinosaur train pumpkin this year. He picked buddy and picked out a picture for me to use. It came out pretty well, so we sent it in to the henson podcast. Hopefully they will like it but it doesn't really matter because Nicholas is thrilled.

October 24th

2010-10-26T12:31:00.001-05:00

October 24th, 2010

Tonight we carved pumpkins. Jonathan has been a bit *obsessed* with radioactivity lately. So, he made a radioactive man pumpkin. If you look clocely you an see the big yellow radioactive sign that is the eyes, nose and mouth, and then within the nose there is another one. He is very proud of his design!

October 23rd

2010-10-26T12:27:00.003-05:00

October 23rd, 2010

The basement has carpet again. We are so thrilled. I immediately started moving everything out of its hiding place and back into the living space so that we could enjoy spending time down there again.

Sawyer though has not had reason to go down to the basement since we got him because it has been closed off waiting to be fixed almost the entire time. It is now clear that he is afraid of the stairs. So while we hung out in the basement most of the day he sat at the top of the stairs looking lonely.

I tried really hard to help him come down the stairs. I enticed him with very tasty treats. But the furthest I could get him to come was to put a paw on the top stair and then stretch his neck to reach my hand. If I pulled further than that he stepped back and barked at me.

Silly dog. He will need to learn to come downstairs at some point... otherwise he will miss out on a lot of family fun!

October 22nd

2010-10-23T12:05:00.004-05:00

October 22nd, 2010

Nicholas took his Abula to the new children's museum today. They seemed to have a good time. Nicholas had fun in all parts of the museum. I enjoyed watching him make pizza's and pies for us at the diner!

October 21st

2010-10-23T12:03:00.001-05:00

October 21st, 2010

More haunted fridge art!

October 20th

2010-10-23T12:00:00.002-05:00

October 20th, 2010

Today was hat day at Jonathan's school. The "hat ladies" come with a bunch of triangles, tassle pieces, and band pieces. The kids get to pick out the pieces that they want and then it gets sewn together for them. It is a huge hit. Jonathan was pretty excited about his hat. The band (blue and yellow at the base) has footballs on it. In this piece he is wearing his American Flag piece on the front. Then one side has blue and yellow for the packers and the other side has white and red for the badgers then the back has a "sports" piece that he picked because there was a soccer ball, that unfortunatley ended up mostly in the seam :(

It is very, shall we say, unique... but he really likes it!

October 19th

2010-10-23T11:58:00.004-05:00

October 19th, 2010

The kids love to go to the PAC (Prairie Athletic Club) to play while mom and dad take classes or work out. They especially like it when the upstairs gym is open (which is dependent on number of children and staff there at any given time). As you can see they do all kinds of fun things up there!

October 18th

2010-10-23T11:54:00.002-05:00

October 18th, 2010

Nicholas is going to be Dr. Horrible for Halloween (if you haven't seen it I posted it below). We ordered the "welders" goggles off of amazon. We had a lot of fun helping Marley dress up as "Dog"tor Horrible!

October 17th

2010-10-23T11:53:00.002-05:00

October 17th, 2010

Another haunted poem on the fridge...

October 16th

2010-10-23T11:49:00.002-05:00

October 16th, 2010

Tonight Dion and I went to a haunted house for a friend's birthday party. It was a lot of fun (especially for me since it was a very large but not very scary haunted house!)

October 15th

2010-10-23T11:45:00.002-05:00

October 15th, 2010

We have a halloween set of magnetic words that are on the fridge. They are pretty fun. This is Dion's first sentence (it has been up for a few days... but I didn't take a picture that was "for" today.)

October 14th

2010-10-23T11:43:00.003-05:00

October 14th, 2010

Did you know that they have Star Wars Costumes for the bears at build-a-bear. I have been informed that we *need* the whole set. The chance of anyone getting any part of the set... very low.

But they are pretty fun huh?

October 13th

2010-10-13T22:48:00.001-05:00

October 13th, 2010

After we were both done with our commitments for the day, and before the kids came home from school, Dion and I went for a stroll through Olbrich Gardens. We had so much fun finding this! We have walked past it on the other side of a bush with the kids a whole bunch of times... but took a different path today!

We are pretty excited to take the kids back to see them!

October 12th

2010-10-13T22:46:00.001-05:00

October 12th, 2010

Sawyer has funny ears. They are always flipped over. Maybe as he gets older they will get "firm" and stop flipping. But he is so cute when his little ears flip!

October 11th

2010-10-11T21:27:00.004-05:00

October 11th, 2010

We haven't had a picture of the tasmanian devil for a while! He is growing bigger. He is calming down a little bit, but mostley he is taller and can jump higher. He is a good puppy though. He will grow up and be a dog soon! (I hope...)

October 10th

2010-10-10T19:49:00.002-05:00

October 10th, 2010

We had a very special breakfast today - Halloween Pancakes!

The other day I happened to be in William Sonoma looking for some cookie cutters that Dion was hoping for (Star Wars... just in case you were wondering what kind of cookie cutters Dion would like! If you need a christmas present to give to him feel free to let me know, I have three sitting in a bag, I have it on good authority that he is super excited to unwrap all three!

I couldn't resist the pancake molds though, cookies are fun and all, but halloween pancakes are awesome! It is easy, it is tasty, it is breakfast... and it doesn't require decorating!

October 9th

2010-10-09T21:41:00.004-05:00

October 9th, 2010

We went to our first Badger game today. It was lots of fun. We bought a friend's set of two season tickets... and then traded up for a set of four seats in the Varsity Club (by the way Steven's Construction in Sun Prairie is an amazing company, you should use them for all of your construction needs! www.stevensconstruction.com).

We had a great time at the game. There are a few pictures below. The top one is the "picture of the day" I love the way that Nicholas is trying to use my grandmother Isabelle's opera binoculars to see the game.

These are our "upgraded" tickets... they are so nice.

Our view of the game!

The boys sharing the "good" binoculars (that we got from my dad, with a binocular strap that I am pretty sure my mother made).

The band getting into formation on the field.

It was fun to take nice photos of the field by putting my point and shoot camera up to one side of the binoculars...

I was hoping to see Jay Valai #2 play today. He was in my Physics class when I taught in Texas, and is a senior this year, and a captain. He plays most games, and is really quite good, but this was basically what I saw him doing today. :(

This is the closest I saw him get to the field... in the huddle and walking back to the sidelines. Maybe I will make it to another game before he finishes the season!

And for all you badger fans out there, I have to say no one knows how to jump around like we do!

October 8th

2010-10-09T21:40:00.001-05:00

October 8th, 2010

It is fall in Wisconsin! It is a warm fall, but still fall. We had a great time this afternoon at a friends house playing in the leaves! What fun.

October 7th

2010-10-07T21:51:00.003-05:00

October 7th, 2010

They say that the day a dog gets neutered it is important for them to rest.

Sawyer, however, can't be convinced not to wrestle with Marley. Marley seems intensley curious about what is going on with Sawer... and enjoyes wrestling as always.

Hopefully the wrestling isn't causing problems with the incision or ehaling process.

October 6th

2010-10-07T21:49:00.002-05:00

October 6th, 2010

O'hare from the sky. Just about the only part of my flight from SFO to ORD that I didn't sleep through!

I really enjoyed flying over the airport like this, even though it meant we were late (only one runway was open...)

October 5th

2010-10-07T21:42:00.002-05:00

October 5th, 2010

Yes it is a new tattoo. It is on my back between my shoulder blades and it was drawn from a photo I took of a horse in 1996 or 1997 ish. It was before the days of digital so finding a date would take some work.

The horse in the photo was a colt. Specifically was my horse Lil's colt.

I have been planning this tattoo for a while, but haven't found an artist that I felt comfortable with. When I got to San Fransisco I started looking around for reccomendations for a great artist. I found one who is clearly amazing. She was booked out for over a month but fit me in because she loves horses (she is from Boulder Colorado... ).

I am very happy with the work she did! If you are ever in the Bay area and need a good tattoo artist let me know, I will get you her contact information!

October 4th

2010-10-05T10:27:00.002-05:00

October 4th, 2010

Which picture to use? I have a fantastic photo of the amazing chips, salsa and guacamole I had at lunch (during which time I decided that it is not just the recipes that suffer in Wisconsin but the actual ingredients themselves - avocadoes that have to travel that far just don't taste as good!), I have a shot of a hilarious sign in the mission (but it might not be appropriate for all audiences...), and I have this photo... of the beautiful and loving Hailey.

I had to go with the dog. Much to my surprise it has been really hard to be away from my family for the last few days (okay, well maybe I am not that surprised. Nicholas did break his nose and all, and that is probably a major factor here...). It made me feel so much better to snuggle with a dog! And of course to have a lovely dinner with a good friend, not to say that the dog was the best part of the evening ! ... more that she just helped to quell a longing for my children and four legged friends at home!

October 3rd

2010-10-03T13:02:00.004-05:00

October 3rd, 2010

My plan for today was that I would be able to use a lovely picture of a friends wedding. But, I think that instead of always being the day that Sonya got married, it will be the day when Nicholas broke his nose. Though that is not technically confirmed as I write this, the picture his dad sent seems pretty clear to me!

Apparently he was doing some climbing, and his dad decided that his "apparatus" (otherwise known as the laundry cart) was unsafe. The cart was moved to a different room out of sight. Clearly for Nicholas though out of sight did not translate to out of mind, and he snuck into our bedroom and continued to climb. When he fell he landed on the wooden edge of the foot of our bed... and ended up like this.

Last I heard he was at the hospital, the doctor had confirmed that it seemed to be broken and had gone ahead and done a CT scan because the bleeding hadn't stopped. Good thing kids are relatively indestructible - I am sure he will be fine, eventually!

October 2nd

2010-10-03T12:57:00.003-05:00

October 2nd, 2010

I got to San Fransisco uneventfully today. I don't remember much about my travel outside of falling asleep and waking up.

I am staying here with a friend from college who I haven't seen in forever. She has an adorable boy who we went to the park with yesterday. It is fun to be around other peoples kids... they are so cute, and it is funny when they cause mischef! It never seems as funny or cute when it is my own kids!

October 1st

2010-10-03T12:48:00.003-05:00

October 1st, 2010

I was supposed to fly to California today for a wedding. I ended up taking a voucher (thank you American Airlines!) to fly tomorrow morning. Which was good not only because it meant that I would arrive at a more reasonable time of day, but also because I had been having one of those days. You know, when everything that can go wrong will. Based on everything that had happened before I arrived at the airport and was offered a voucher, I am not sure how my flights would have gone!

My favorite thing that happened was that my scooter unexpectedly ran out of gas. I know, how does it happen unexpectedly? Well, I think that the change in temperature affected the dial, and though all summer I have been able to run it below the empty line for 10 or more miles, it ran bone dry before reaching the empty line at all.

Such is life. Nicholas was offered the opportunity by his dad to be a "superhero" and go save mom. He poliety declined before discovering that it wasn't really a choice, but more of a polite framing of what they were going to be doing!

He came around when he got to put my helmet on and sit on the scooter for a minute after helping me fill it with gas! What a cutie.

September 30th

2010-09-30T22:11:00.002-05:00

September 30th, 2010

There was a game on Tuesday night. I missed it because I was at the Obama Get Out the Vote Rally. Apparently, though, Jonathan made two goals! There were no pictures though.

Tonight though there were pictures. Because of an open house we had our game at 5 instead of 6, and so it was still light out.

When I say there were pictures, I should be clear. There are 240 pictures. I know, it was excessive.

But the good news is that I got this one! It is a great shot of Jonathan Dribbling. Also I had 5 shots of Jonathan touching the ball in some way! Hooray.

Jonathan is doing a great job at soccer. He enjoys the games, and he enjoys his team. Dion and I enjoy watching. It is really nice!

September 29th

2010-09-30T22:07:00.002-05:00

September 29th, 2010

I feel so grown up. My first yard sign!

In Texas I was always afraid to put up yard signs. Not just because we lived in the heart of Republican Country and I would have put up signs for the Democrat candidates. The more important factor was that all my students knew where I lived... and I was kind of afraid of the eggs, and toilet paper, and awkward conversations in the classroom.

Then in 2008 we lived in an apartment during the Presidental election (but you better believe that I would have put the biggest Obama sign available in my yard if I had a house at the time).

So here I am. 31. And putting up my first yard sign! Hooray!

September 28th

2010-09-28T20:33:00.003-05:00

September 28th, 2010

I had the wonerful opportunity to see our president speak today. It was a long day. I was up late finishing a project proposal, and up early, well still finishing a project proposal. I had classes all morning, and then went into a class to recruit for a study. I thought about not going because it was just so much work, but decided that no matter how tired I was, this is just not an opportunity you waste.

So I stood in line and in crowds from 2 pm until just after 6 pm. Then the president spoke for about 45 minutes. It was amazing to see and hear. I will admit that I am clearly biased, because I am truly passionate and positive about our president. And for me, the rally served its purpose, it reminded me that my vote matters, that we have contested races here in Wisconsin that matter not only on a local level (like our Governer's race) but also on a national level (a senate seat).

I am committed now to go out and vote on November 2nd for the things that I believe in. I will stand and have my voice counted - in favor of heath care for everyone, tax cuts for the middle class and lower classes, technology for clean energy being developed and built at home not over seas, higher education opportunities for everyone, better funding for our schools, a repeal of the supreme court decision to allow corporations to act as individuals in political contributions... and yes even those controversial subjects like the right for everyone to have equal benefits in the eyes of the state gay, straight, or confused! and a repeal of don't ask don't tell! and a womans right to make her own choice about her own body (along with a healhty dose of support for adoption as a wonderful, humane, and caring alternative)! and stem cell research as an integral part of the future of medicine! and an end to unecessary military involvement overseas! and the list goes on.

So, if you read this and you don't know where you stand, take some time to educate yourself about the issues, and find your own views. Make sure you are getting information from reliable sourcs, learn the facts, and then get out and vote! If the people don't go to the polls and make their voices heard, then we all lose!

P.S. as you can see I had a hard time getting a good photo. You can see the president's white shirt, but his face is mostly hidden behind a teleprompter! Oh well, I was still there!

September 27th

2010-09-28T20:29:00.001-05:00

September 27th, 2010

It is a grand day around here. We moved Sawyer out of our room, and put him in the living room. Whenever we have tried this before he has cried all night long. But we learned a trick. Take a blanket that I have been sleeping with, and that smells like me, and cover his cage with it, and he sleeps quietly all night long. It is so nice.

Sometimes I have even caught him in the crate all by himself! With the door open! Amazing.

September 26th

2010-09-27T11:54:00.002-05:00

September 26th, 2010

Today we put up our halloween decorations (we usually wait until the first but I will be out of town this weekend). It is so fun to see them all come out... and apparently we did really well after halloween last year because we have some awesome new things this year!

September 25th

2010-09-27T11:52:00.003-05:00

September 25th, 2010

Today we went with Abuela to get more apples (just Nicholas and I), it was fun. We went up to the upper orchard where we got Jonafree's and Golden Delicious. We also got to see the awsome sheep that live up there, which was very exciting!

September 24th

2010-09-27T11:50:00.001-05:00

September 24th, 2010

Abuela Susan came to visit this weekend. After dinner tonight we played our new lego game. It is called Creationary and it is very similar to pictionary. You roll a die to get a category, and then you get an image of an item. You then have a time limit for how long you have to build it with legos.

You get points for guessing correctly and for people being able to guess your object.

It is very fun. Some very creative and interesting things were made. Jonathan and I are excited to play again, and grateful that Abuela was a good sport about learning how to play the game with us!

September 23rd

2010-09-27T11:48:00.003-05:00

September 23rd, 2010

Someone left out a glue stick when we were making get well cards. He (being kind of short) left it where Sawyer could get to it. Sawyer decided that he wanted to make a card too. He didn't ever get ahold of paper or stickers though... just the glue stick.

September 22nd

2010-09-27T11:46:00.003-05:00

September 22nd, 2010

One of my friends from school is sick. Last night and this morning the kids made her some get well cards. This morning I delivered them on my way to campus. The one on top is Nicholas's. He glued the curled up thick brown paper on all by himself. He was very proud of it. Her cat really liked that part!

September 21st

2010-09-27T11:43:00.003-05:00

September 21st, 2010

I know pictures of a bad corner on a siding job are not the most exciting thing to have on here, but it is pretty representative of a big part of our life lately!

When they did the siding the overall finished effect was fantastic, but in addition to the problem in the basement, the details left something to be desired!

This window corner is a great example of the problem. The corner is not aligned right, and the caulk is messy. It was nice that the basement issues were resolved, but now we are fighting them to fix this! Today they told Dion that this is what the windows are supposed to look like. It drives me crazy when people do stuff like that! Just own up to the bad work and fix it! Don't jerk me around!

September 20th

2010-09-21T11:13:00.003-05:00

September 20th, 2010

Dion and I went to go see Roger Waters perform the Wall last night. It was the first U.S. tour date. The last time a member of Pink Floyd performed The Wall in the U.S. was in February of 1980. I was less than a year old. Dion was 9.

It was a great show, and though anyone I had contact with that day can tell you that I dragged my feet about going (I am just so far behind at work right now, and it seemed a bit irresponsible... but when we bought the tickets last spring I had no way of knowing what life would be like this week), I am glad that I went.

There are more pictures here.

As a side note: I gladly add this concert to the list of aging Rock Stars that I am glad to say that I have seen perform before they die. Yep, I know that sounds kind of morbid. But, there are so many people who are gone and I will never see, I keep track of the people I see that are aging...

So this list now includes Roger Waters twice (we also saw him perform Dark Side of the Moon when we lived in Texas), Bob Dylan, The Grateful Dead (with Jerry Garcia), Ray Manzerek and Robbie Kreieger (of The Doors), and Tom Petty. I have seen lots of other people perform (don't get me started on female performers, specifically folk singers, that I am collecting. I am sure that Dion's list is longer than mine (especially since he saw Pink Floyd perform twice without Roger Waters in the 80's and he saw Queen perform a few years ago... and you know he is older than me and stuff...)

I am sure that there will be videos on You Tube at some point, but we need to go through and see which ones are good enough to be worth posting (thank you Roger Waters for having your only rule be small cameras... we have LOTS of video). they will be on Dion's account - skylinedriveinmovies - when they go up.

September 19th

2010-09-20T05:46:00.002-05:00

September 19th, 2010

Tomorrow I have to present my first year project, which for those of you familiar with the Ed Psych program at the University of Wisconsin is a self explanatory statement... but for others might need some explaining.

Wisconson is what is called an R1 school. This means that research is the primary focus. In my area research is kind of always the primary focus, but the focus of the school determines the structure of the program. Our PhD program is an apprenticship model. We take classes to learn theory but the most important thing we learn is how to be a researcher, something that doesn't necessarily happen in class.

We have 4 major milestones in our PhD path. First is the First Year Project. Its purpose is to show that you can do research. We all need to present a poster in the fall after sucessful completion of our first year. If we don't have any of our own research to present at this point we might have a problem (there are plenty of valid reasons why people present thier first year project at the end of thier second year... but it is kind of a temperature taker for how things are going and if the program is a good fit, so it is discouraged). The first year project isn't defended or necessarily evaluated formally.

Next is the Master's Thesis. The nature of this varies by area. In my area it is called a MAP (Major Area Paper), and it really just a paper written from a research project that we did. There are some guidelines about how much help we can get, and what we can and can't get help on. We don't have to defend our proposal, and we don't have a formal defense for our paper, but we do have a committee that signs off on it. We are encouraged to write it so that it is the appropriate length for publication. Which is nice, because publication guidelines are often shorter than the average thesis.

Once our MAP is accepted by our committee we are officially admitted as PhD candidates and awarded a masters.

Then we do our prelims. They are essentially a lit review that will form the backbone of our dissertation. We have to go into a "cone of silence" where we don't talk to our peers, or anyone else really, about our topic and we have 8 weeks to write. We have to get approval in advance on our outline and question, and then have a formal defense.

When the prelim defense is final we are dissertators. We have a dissertation committee, we have a proposal that gets accepted then we write then we defend. Then we are done!

All that to say, tomorrow I present my poster for my first year proejct. It feels significant and fancy. The boys helped me to get my poster printed up, and we hung it in my office to dry and flatten over night. They were very excited to help carry it.

I had hoped to complete another research project that I am working on in time for tomorrow, but research always takes longer than we think it will, and so I am presenting some work that I finished last may. Even though the work on the poster can never be published or taken to a conference (I wasn't able to get approval from the research reveiw board (irb) due to some small complications), it is my work and it is exciting to see it on a poster.

It makes me excited to move forward on the two research projects I am working on now. One is just for a conference (that happens to be in Hong Kong, fingers crossed that it gets accepted) and the other is for my MAP. I can't wait to see that work up on a pretty poster, or even better in print in a journal or conference proceedings!

September 18th

2010-09-20T05:39:00.003-05:00

September 18th, 2010

The grass is glorious. It is late in the season, and getting cold, but we are hopeful that if we water it well it will take.

The dogs are so glad to have grass back in thier dog run. Sawyer still can squeeze under the fence if he wants to, but after the grass was put in today, he started to actually stay in his part of the yard!

It is so nice!

(Marley likes it too... he has stopped standing at the gate to the rest of the yard and crying when he needs to go!)

September 17th

2010-09-17T21:11:00.003-05:00

September 17th, 2010

I have a terrible problem with purchasing flowers for the front porch and not getting them set up in a nice way before they finish their season. Today I took five minutes and put up hooks for the mums that we bought almost a week ago. They look nice (and will look nicer if we get around to painting the lovely railing Mark made, and getting the door replaced before they die).

Hopefully they will have a nice long season!

September 16th

2010-09-17T21:10:00.003-05:00

September 16th, 2010

Soccer Game #2. I am so glad that I made it to this one on time! Jonathan did a great job (so did the rest of his team). It seems that we are off to the start of a good season!

September 15th

2010-09-17T21:08:00.001-05:00

September 15th, 2010

Technically this picture was taken tomorrow, but I had too many pictures to fit them all in... This is the wall in Dion's office with the drywall that had mold on it removed. This was not all the drywall that was wet, just the part that had mold. Oh and the carpet is gone too.

September 14th

2010-09-17T21:06:00.003-05:00

September 14th, 2010

Not a picture technically taken today, but a very relevant picture for my day today. We got some water in our basement while the gutters were off during our siding job. Today was the second day that I had to miss work to stay home and deal with it. It seems though like today we finally made progress! We will be so glad to get the mold out of our house!

September 13th

2010-09-13T23:01:00.003-05:00

September 13th, 2010

Jeannie leaves in the morning but tonight she took Jonathan to Soccer Practice. Once again I am grateful that she was there taking picures when I was stuck somewhere else.

I love this picture of Jonathan getting a nice drink of water.

There was another picture of a beautiful apple pie that Dion made today... maybe I should have used that for my picture of the day. The best part is that as beautiful as it was... it tasted even better!

September 12th,

2010-09-13T22:59:00.004-05:00

September 12th, 2010

We really enjoy our yearly trip to the apple orchard. It is so much fun to watch the boys pick as many apples as they can fit in their basket.

We always end up with way more than our family can eat... which means that we end up finding a new recipe to use with them each year to make it interesting!

September 11th

2010-09-13T22:57:00.003-05:00

September 11th, 2010

Nicholas is getting so tall! The other day I got Jonathan's old bike down just to see how close nicholas was to fitting the frame, and to my surprise he is ready for it.

There are no training wheels on this bike, so right now he needs help riding it. But, he loves it and can't wait to ride it by himself!

September 10th

2010-09-13T22:54:00.002-05:00

September 10th, 2010

Every other week Jonathan has a personal training appointment at the gym. When he turns 8 on his birthday he will get to go to some of classes for kids, so we asked Kevin, his trainer, to focus on getting him ready for those classes.

Tonight his Grammie Jeannie went along to watch what he does during training, and she took some pictures for me (thanks!).

Jonathan loves this activity, he thinks it is so much fun and so cool to box!

September 9th

2010-09-13T22:53:00.003-05:00

September 9th, 2010

Jonathan's soccer team had their first game tonight. They have some nice bright yellow jerseys so they are pretty easy to spot on the field.

Jonathan really enjoyed playing and is looking forward to the rest of the season.

September 8th

2010-09-13T22:52:00.003-05:00

You know Sawyer has really worn himself out when you find him sleeping belly up like this on his bed!

September 7th

2010-09-13T22:50:00.003-05:00

September 7th, 2010

Tonight I had a goal of getting a picture of Sawyer that really showed his face... awake.

It took me about 100 pictures and lots of tricks, but I got this one. He is really a sweet puppy, and the cute factor doesn't hurt either!

September 6th

2010-09-13T22:48:00.003-05:00

September 6th, 2010

Tonight Jonathan had soccer practice. There are some rules about where dogs can and can't be at the park, but it was such a beautiful day we didn't want to leave them locked up inside so we brought them with us.

Both Marley and Sawyer did great with all of the kids coming up to them to pet them. As you can see, all the attention wore Sawyer out!

September 5th

2010-09-13T22:45:00.003-05:00

September 5th, 2010

We had a great time at the park today. I was still very sick, but we got some sandwiches and went to the park and ate them out in the beautiful weather. It was nice to get out in the fresh air (even if it did wear me out... and I ended up right back in bed!).

The boys ran into some friends, and had a great time hunting grasshoppers.

I love this photo because it shows thier teamwork, and it shos how scared they are of bugs! What silly boys!

September 4th

2010-09-13T22:30:00.004-05:00

September 4th, 2010

I keep meaning to take a picture of the front of the house with the new gutters (this picture was actually not taken today... today I was in my bed sleeping all day long, and there are no pictures).

I like this picture though for a few reasons (one of them however is definitley not the reason it was taken for, which is a really long story).

First, it shows that my house isn't blue anymore! Hooray! I love my neutral house!

Second, it shows that the garden is still growing, even though some crops are finished for the season.

Third, it shows what the new windows look like installed. I love the nice dark brown framing. When I picked out the paint color for the fence it was kind of a blind guess at how dark the windows would turn out. It seems to be a pretty close match, or at least a coordinating brown!

September 3rd

2010-09-13T22:21:00.002-05:00

September 3rd, 2010

Dion and Nicholas went to the children's museum today. They had a good time. It was less busy than the last time we were there. Dion sent me this picture at work, and it was so nice to see Nicholas's smiling face.

Nicholas's favorite part of the museum seems to be the climbing structure, too bad he moves so fast over there we can't get a good picture.

September 2nd

2010-09-13T22:15:00.003-05:00

September 2nd, 2010

Sawyer discovered several things today.

First he discoverd that he likes mud. It is fun to dig in, to roll in, to play in....

Next he discovered that muddy paws make a nice design on the floor.

Then he discovered that muddy dogs get a bath.

He doesn't like taking a bath!

September 1st

2010-09-01T20:38:00.003-05:00

September 1st, 2010

Today was Joanthan's first day of second grade. He had a great time, and is really excited about his new teacher! When we were walking the dogs tonight (yes dogs, Sawyer is doing great on a leash), he told me that he didn't know what he liked best, except that he got to go to school and that he has a good teacher. Hopefully he will have just as good a day tomorrow!

August 31st

2010-08-31T22:48:00.004-05:00

August 31st, 2010

Today was Nicholas's first day in his new "4K" classroom at little explorers. They have created a class with all of the oldest 4 year-olds that is specifically set up to prepare them for Kindergarden. They have an excellent new teacher with lots of experience who is going to do a great job moving them beyond just knowing thier letter names and sounds and number names, but knowing what to do with them! We are really excited.

He had a great first day in his class. He a few of his friends from both his summer 4 year old class, and his three year old class are with him in this new class, which is great. Also, he knew that there was some question about whether we would leave him at little explorers or transfer him to the school district 4K, and today when he came home he said, "Mom, can I please stay at little explorers, I like it there!" Which is wonderful to hear after his rocky start last fall!

P.S. for those of you who really don't care about seeing kids (dare I say cute and adorable kids), and who would rather look at pictures of a puppy... I started a set on flickr for Tom Sawyer's pictures - http://www.flickr.com/photos/dewaldfam/sets/72157624853476498/

August 30th

2010-08-31T00:11:00.002-05:00

August 30th, 2010

Jonathan had his first soccer practice today. He did great. We are looking forward to the season. He has practice every Monday and games every Thursday. His coach seems great (very enthusiastic) and two of his friends are on his team.

On a relatively unrelated note. Jonathan was thrilled when he asked me this morning what day it is, and then realized that if today is Monday and school starts on on Wednesday, then school starts the day after tomorrow. He can't wait. Neither can his mom and dad!

August 29th

2010-08-29T22:57:00.003-05:00

August 29th, 2010

It was pretty hot out today so we spent the afternoon at Dolphin's Cove. The boys were pretty excited to show all the waterslides and the lazy river to Shirley. She rode around the lazy river twice with Nicholas, rode the "purple slide" twice with Jonathan, and rode the green slide once and blue slide once with Nicholas. They were in hog heaven - Mom never rides that many rides with them in one day!

August 28th

2010-08-28T22:08:00.003-05:00

August 28th, 2010

Sun Prairie has a great Midget Race Track and we try to go once a year to see the races. Our plans earlier this season got rained out, and we are down to the last few races of the season, so we made a point to go tonight.

It was a fun race. We saw this hot air balloon during the national anthem, and Jonthan's favorite car won both its heat and its race. We also saw two crashes (we have always seen one crash, but this is the first time we have seen two in one night). The second crash was the first time we have ever seen the driver ever actually taken away in an ambulance (he did get out of the car, take off his helmet and walk to the ambulance to get checked out, but then they decided that he should go to the hospital for observation).

It is sad to think that the Midget Races are ending for the year because that means that the summer is almost over. But, at the same time, we sure do love fall! So, I guess we still have things to look forward to.

August 27th

2010-08-28T22:06:00.003-05:00

August 27th, 2010

I didn't get to see the house much in the daylight today because I had a long day at work and we had plans tonight. But, Dion sent me this picture showing me the finished band between the two different siding styles. They were hoping to get the outside done today, but there are still some places that they need to wrap with the brown metal (like you see on the divider between the two siding styles) and we still need gutters. But it is starting to look better!