Dawn's Blog

Monday Madness on Wednesday 5-31-06

With the letters from Memorial Day, let us know what you did this past weekend.

Milwaukee Art Museum
Eat at Noodles (Whole Grain Tuscan Fettucine - YUM!)
Memorial Day Parades in Sheboygan and Milwaukee!
Observed many different kinds of art, from abstract to almost photographic!
Ran Sarah to the high school to get ready for the parade
Impressionistic art
Andy Warhol's tomato soup cans
Lake Drive, where we drove past lots of expensive houses

Drove the Passat TDI, because it gets such great fuel economy, about 40 miles to the gallon of diesel fuel
Acted like tourists, only an hour from home!
Youth marched in both parades.

BLT Sandwiches

Um, last I knew, they were supposed to have lettuce in them, but I forgot all about the lettuce, until we sat down to supper tonight! Argh. We just ate them without the lettuce. I can't believe I didn't think of it, when were at the store, last night. We also had fruit salad and strawberry-banana smoothies. It was a great supper, but would have been better with the lettuce!

Wow, summer has hit Wisconsin. We were in the 80's today. Too bad I was stuck at work this afternoon! It will be nice tomorrow,too, though!

Soon, the kids, dog and I will go on a combination walk/bikeride. This means that the kids ride their bikes, while the dog and I walk! The kids talked about their bikeride and the dog started going nuts. She can't wait, either!

Monday Madness 5-23-06

How many simple things have you learned to appreciate more, for one reason or another? Please list them and feel free to elaborate on each.

1. Hot water
In 1998, we had a flooded basement after a 10.8 inch rainfall. It was 4 days before the gas company could get to our house to check out our water heater. I took one cold shower, in that time span and it was horrible, but I needed to be clean! For the kids, I heated water on the stove, so they could at least have a lukewarm bath. They thought it was fun to have a bath like the pioneers. They were 9 and 6 at the time.

2. Combination screen and storm windows
Our house was built in 1956 and had separate storms and screens. So, twice a year, it was a chore to put the screens in, or to put the storms in. I could put the first floor screens in myself, but for the storms, I needed Gary's help, because they were heavy. Sometimes, it's a pain to get him to help me with it! Once, the changeover was done, then sometimes it would be too warm with the storms on, or to cold with the screens on. Transitions between seasons can be tricky sometimes. As of last year, we have all new windows in our house and that biannual chore is one of the past now. If we are cold, we shut the windows. If we are warm, we open them up! It's a good thing.

3. Our inside-the-house garage door remote
We have an unattached garage and found out quickly, that it was a pain to have to run outside to close the garage door, if it was left open. So, we bought a remote and velcroed it to the wall in the kitchen. It's nice to be able to push the button from inside the house, especially if it's cold or rainy.

4. My Simmons Beautyrest
It's just so comfy to sleep on!

5. Good health
Enough said

6. Family
I love my family and my dog. My life wouldn't be the same without them. I have two great kids, who get good grades and really don't get into trouble. My husband is a good guy, too!

Monday Madness

Monday Madness 5-15-06

I hope you all had a very good weekend! Thanks for playing Monday Madness, and have a blessed week ahead! Now, for this week's challenge....

Fill in the blanks...

1. If I could change ONE thing from this past weekend, it would be having much nicer weather. It was cold and rainy ALL weekend.
2. One of my favoriet recipes includes a variety of veggies and diced chicken. (Pasta primavera sounds sooo good.)
3. If things don't go as originally planned, I tend to freak out. That can be frustrating.
4. My daily routine is very boring. I'm looking forward to summer and having a different routine! (Get up, take the kids to school, go to my lunch job, hang out a little while. Go pick kids up from school, etc.)
5. The one television show I will probably miss, since the season is coming to an end, is SuperNanny. I can never believe someone let those kids get so bad!
6. I have a calendar hanging/sitting on my kitchen wall, my basement wall, and in my purse.
7. I'm really picky about changing the calendar when the day/month changes.

Still raining and windy

It's STILL raining, although not very hard now! Just glanced at the radar and we have a lovely comma of rainy weather, with a little snow, farther up north. I'm glad I mowed yesterday.

Rainy and windy

It's been raining since I got up this morning, but it did start during the night, at some point. It's very windy and the temp has been dropping all day.

It started about 47-48 and now it's 41 on my house thermometer. Weather Underground says 42, with northerly winds of 8mph, with gusts to 22 mph! I think it's sustained at more than 8, though, the way the trees are moving and the way the rain is being whipped around. The windchill is 37, but I didn't feel that cold coming home from work.

Heard on the Christian radio station, someone's commentary that you should date your potential spouse for a FULL YEAR, before you think of getting engaged. Well, Gary and I broke that rule! LOL! We went our for the first time around November 6, 1986, got engaged on March 14, 1987, and got married on October 24, 1987. So, we bucked their odds, huh?

I was also thinking, that Gary and I knew of each other, when he was in 8th grade band and I was in 7th grade band. (7th and 8th grade bands played together.) Who knew we'd get married, for one, and who knew that 10 years later, we would end up in the same central WI town (Marshfield). It's true, though, that we had people down in Port Washington, who pulled a few strings in us getting together, but we still both had to end up in Marshfield, after college. He worked as a photojournalist at a newspaper and I worked as a nurse at the hospital. Weird.

Earth, Wind and Rain

Tomorrow, well, actually tonight sometime, it is supposed to start raining. Along with 2-3 inches of rain, we are supposed to have 45 mph winds! (tropical storm anyone?) My flowering crab is about to bloom! I'm worried that that much wind and rain will wreck the buds! Ugh! I hate this! If they are wrecked, I will have to wait a whole 'nother year to see it bloom again! I'm so depressed! It got so big last year. I was really looking forward to seeing it bloom. The tree was planted on Mother's Day of 2001, so it's been there 5 years already! (well, nearly 5 years!)

My tree in 2004.

Monday Madness 5-7-06

1. List three words that describe YOU.
Creative, fun-loving, and computer-savvy
2. List three words that describe YOUR HOME.
Small, cozy, comfortable
3. List three words that describe YOUR TOWN.
Close to Lake Michigan, medium-sized, and brat-loving*
4. List three words that describe YOUR STATE.
Green Bay Packers, cheese, great state parks

*brat-loving referring to bratwurst, a spicy German sausage, and not a spoiled child. LOL!

Planting Flowers 5-7-06

Yesterday, we were very busy planting flowers. So, far, this is what we have planted:

Jack-Be Little Pumpkins
Sunflowers
--Mammoth
--Sunrise/Sunset Mix - short sunflowers
--Summer Trio
Marigolds
--Jaguar
--Crackerjack Mixed Colors
Poppies
--American Legion
--Double Choice Mix
--California - Sunset Mix
Pansies (Trimardeau Mix)
Bachelor's Buttons (Tall Double Mix)
Painted Daisy Mix
Sweet Basil
Red Hot Pokers (torch lily)
Zinnias (Burpeeana Giants Mix)

Butterfly/Hummingbird Mixture:

Four O' Clocks, Love in a Mist, Rocker Larkspur, Nasturtium, Zinnia, Calendula, Cornflower, Malope, Marigold, Sunset Flower, Cosmos, Purple Coneflower Standing Cypress, Rose Mallow, Toadflax, Lemon Mint, Shirley Poppy, Scarlet Sage, and Dairy Pink.

Now, we just need to wait for it all to grow!

Another word from the movie

argillaceous

Containing, made of, or resembling clay; clayey

It was just running through my head, this morning!

New Words

We saw Akeelah and the Bee, over the weekend. It's a great movie about an African-American girl who makes it to the National Spelling Bee, in Washington, DC. My 16 yo daughter, DH, and I all loved this movie.

I learned 2 new words, from the movie. I'm such a word freak, that I even had to just search the dictionary, for the second one, because I couldn't find it on the internet, since I didn't know how to spell it, other than knowing that it started out "r-a." So, last night, I got out the dictionary and started going over the "ra" words! Then I found it! I was so happy!

The first word is one that Akeelah misspelled, in a regional bee. When she was given this word in the movie, I realized I had NO CLUE how to start spelling it!

Synecdoche

A Synecdoche is a word that refers to a part of something to mean the whole, like saying "50 head of cattle", where the word "head" refers to the cattle.

Ratiocinate

reason methodologically and logically

Rainy Sunday, as well!

Ugh. It rained ALL day! I put off doing my grocery shopping until after supper and still had to do it in the rain. I couldn't put it off until tomorrow, either, because we needed stuff for lunches and we were almost out of toilet paper!

Tomorrow for supper, we are going to cook turkey tenderloins and then make a chef's salad. The plan is to cook them on the gas grill, but if it's raining, then I might either cook them on the foreman grill, or cut them up and just cook them like ground hamburger. Maybe it will stop raining long enough to them on the grill, though.

I haven't gone to bed yet, but it just passed midnight, so Happy May Day!

Monday Madness 5-1-06

Good Monday to you all! Let's fill in the blanks this week! Thanks for playing! =)

1. Sleeping in for me means sleeping until _until about 8am_.
2. Staying up late means I don't go to bed until _around 1am_.
3. I probably spend more time _goofing off on the computer_ than I would like.
4. And I don't spend nearly enough time _cleaning out the closets that need attention_.
5. I have zero tolerance for _people who pull out in front of me_!
6. I have a lot of patience when it comes to _the kindergarten kids I work with at school_.