Friday, August 31, 2007

Page Twelve John Braden's Diary

monday 19
it was my birthday i am 34 years old i have got a very bad cold i am going to take a dose of saltz it has been raining some to day

tuesday the 20
i picked corn Ed was here this morning it is cloudy

wednesday the 21st
i picked corn to day got a letter from marion still cloudy

thursday the 22
a nice warm day i picked corn

friday 23
shucked corn till noon don the chores after noon

saturday the 24 christmas eve
i helped to take the cattle to town i got register letter saw Ed got a 10

christmas 25
i took a load of straw to town to bed the cars and help load the cattle

monday 26
wife and i went to town to day saw Ed ma left the children at barnes

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Page Eleven John Braden's Diary

monday the 12th
lee took the heater back and got a bigger one wife is better baby is cross

tuesday the 13
Ed came to day told me ma got her pension

wednesday the 14th
Ed went to town to day got me a smelter we got some letters a papers one letter from tom ____and one from stearns one from marion and one from ma

thursday 15th
we halled straw

friday 16th
we halled staw and hay lee sent a calf here paid____it

saturday 17th
Ed and i went to town i got 15 dollard from lee and i still owe him 13 dol and 90 cents i paid my store bill and paid for the high chair and got a rocking chair for $2.50 then we came home Jo and family was down to night i salted my meat weather is very fine now

Sunday the 18th
i went up to monroes got his gun but dident see anything to shute Harry shot one load out Jo and family stopped here to take Ed home with them i rote to ma and to tom

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Page Ten John Braden's Diary

thursday the first of december
sent a letter to Ed to day

friday the second
me halled some hay for the fat cattle to day

Saturday the 3rd
it was a stormy day

sunday the fourth
cold 18 below zero i made Harry a sled mr lee came out to day

monday the 5th
lee got me a load of coal i went down to Jo B and got my hog and iron kettle it is snowing to night

tuesday 6th
we butchered to day Jo helped us my hog weighed 514 lbs

wednesday the 7th
we rendered out some lard to day

thursday 8
i ground the sausage to night wife has the soar throat

friday the 9
mr lee brought some more stears to day head weighed i mixed the sausage wife is no better

saturday the 10
lee got us a stove heater i played the fiddle

Sunday 11th
mr lee and wife was out to day wife is very sick i churned it was warmer to day

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Beautful Morning!

Younger son and I were up at 3:15am! We wanted to watch the Lunar Eclipse this morning. We went outside at 3:30 and watched until after 5am. Older son came out at 4:15 to join us for a half hour or so. Milo was just so darn confussed, but enjoyed the early walk. Younger son and I were able to enjoy a nice quiet talk and just sit together. One of the most amazing things we saw was at 5:05 am. Just as the sky was lighting up a shooting star came out of a cloud and went across the sky. I have never seen one that well before. I just happen to be looking right at the exact time and place it started. By the time I could tell younger son to look it was gone. On September 1 there are supose to be metor storms so we will be back out for that! Then we came in and showered getting ready for the day and went to breakfast. We were sitting by a window to watch the sunrise together while we ate. We made it home to take several shots of the sun still on the rise. I wish I would have had my camera with. The location we were at was a much better spot, but the pictures turn out nice anyway.

Full Moon

Lunar Eclipse Just Starting

About 1/4 Covered

About Half Covered

About 3/4

Almost Gone

Sun Coming Up

Sunrise

Page Nine John Braden's Diary

wenesday the 23
me halled 4 loads of straw and three loads of foder lee came out this afternoon gave us a chicken for thanksgiving dinner

thursday 24 thanksgiving
we dun up the work and after dinner george and (i) hiched up to the slay and went to webster city lee came out a little while in the morning

friday the 25th
it snowed to day lee was out all day george went home to day we halled straw to day

saturday 26
dident do much to day but the chores

Sunday the 27
snowed some to day mr lee and i moved the feed rack to day

tuesday 29
snowed some warmer to day jo Barns was here to day we got our clock home again had it to the shop to get fixed

wednesday the 30
we went down to barnes to day for dinner mamies birthday had a good time theay danced to sets mr firrel called for them Joe and mamie danced

Monday, August 27, 2007

Page Eight John Braden's Diary

tuesday the 15th
i got two loads of corn lee eat dinner here we had chicken for dinner John is pretty sick

wenesday 16
i got to loads of corn i helped lee catch some chickens lee paid me 19 dollars to i owe him 8 __ yet

thursday 17
i got two loads of corn lee got me 19 __bb of coal

friday the 18
i got two loads of corn

saturday 19
i got two loads of corn went to town at night done some trading and setteled with the store and with the furniture store got a high chair 125 credit got a set of irons $1.00 cash got two letters one from Ed and ma one from Effie and tom

sunday the 20
Mr lee came out this morning and again to night John is quite sick i filled a bed thick good night

Monday the 21 st
it Snowed and Blowed a regular blizzard

tuesday the 22
a terrible Snow storm last night the snow was piled up 4 or 5 feet deep lee came out after dinner clear to night and cold

Only One Moon

Turns out after I dragged the kids out with our cameras for the last half hour we found out the information I had on the two moons is not true. Mars will be brighter tonight, but you would need a telescope to see it. I should have checked before we went out, but I thought I had read in in the paper. When I check our relieable astronomy site that we get weekly mailings from they had adressed the issue. I guess this information was passed out to a lot of people. Oh well, there are metor storm coming up in a few days so we can look forward to that. Next time I will check the facts before we go stand out side :)

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Sting is a Bad Word at Our House!

As we were on our way out to visit older son's new college and fill out the paper work on Saturday, younger son walked Milo. Yep, as younger son stepped out of the house he was stung twice by a wasp. We are still not finished with the antibiotics from the Oak Mites! He took it fairly well, we stopped to put a paste on the bites and gave him Benadryl. Off we went running late to the school. We have a bunch of stuff to get together and go back next week. Older son will take the entrance exam and meet a few more people. Just for the fun of it younger son is going to take the entrance exam with with older son. The school was up for it and he is excited thinking he could out score older son :) I am going to down load a couple of test questions for a entrance exam for a local college.

Today we went to my parents for dinner. Older son, my niece and father went out to buy my father his first digital camera. I am trying to talk him into getting on line too. We finally replace our printer too. I though it may have been the cable connecting the printer to the computer, but the new one works with the old cord so it was the printer. I am so excited to get it up and running.

Tonight we are trying to go out and take pictures of the two moons. Mars will be the brightest in the night sky. It will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. Mars will come within 34.65 miles of earth. It will look like the earth has 2 moons. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287. If we get any picture I will post them.

Page Seven John Braden's Diary

Wednesday the 9 of november
i got two loads of corn today lee was here for dinner it was cloudy all day snowed some Harry is some better i rote to tom

thursday the 10
i got two loads of corn lee was here for dinner barnes kids brought us some meat it was a nice clear day

friday the 11
i got two loads of corn lee eat dinner here wife sent some letters to town this is wifes birthday 32 years old i played the fiddle for the boys to dance to night

sunday the 13
we had quite a snow storm was home all day we poped some corn

monday 14
it was a Bad morning i got one load of corn dident shuck in the after noon Banked up the water tanks lee eat dinner with us John was sick to day i got some clippings good night

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Page Six John Braden's Diary

wednesday 2
i got 2 loads of corn wife and i are a little under the weather lee took dinner here

thursday 3
i got two loads of corn lee eat dinner here

Nov 4 friday
i got 2 loads of corn Mrs. Barnes was here to day mr lee Took dinner here good night

Saturday fifth
got two loads of corn lee Eat dinner it was dreadful windy day a little colder to day good night

Sunday 6
a nice day went up to Jo B this afternoon got our caned tomatoes got some turnips and sweet potatos Jo gave me a stiff hat good night

monday 7th
To loads of corn lee eat dinner here good night

Tuesday the 8th
to loads of corn Barnes came down to day and got the sausage grinder Harry has the sore throat it was very cold to day good night

Friday, August 24, 2007

Not John Braden's Diary :)

I have done a few of John Braden's diary entries so I thought I would catch up on present day :) We had a pretty uneventful week this week except for the weather. We have had storms everyday. On Thursday our town made the news with 75 mile an hour winds. The storm area was wide and we had two different storms come through. We were told to take shelter because of tornadoes in the area. This was the first really bad weather while we were all in different places. Older son had just left for work as a sheet of rain coming sideways hit. We didn't have on the TV or radio, so we had no idea the storms were coming. About a half hour earlier the sun was out and shining as I drove younger son to the mall. I had one son driving through the storms on his way to work and one at the mall doing his war gaming. Younger son called (What did we ever do without cell phones?) from the mall letting me know they evacuated the second floor where he was and everyone went to the shelter areas. Talk about heart wrenching! We were all safe and the storm passed in just a few minutes. We had sever storms on and off all night. As soon as it was clear I headed to the mall to pick up younger son. He thought it was quite an adventure :)

I have been working a lot this week on genealogy and getting my charts in order. Some of it is going in the cookbook. I want to scan some of my information onto the blog, but again my scanner needs something updated from the website that I am clueless about. I will have to work on that. The kids have been busy this week with school. Younger son not as much since I am finally getting around to doing a schedule for him today. He has just started his Spanish course and a few assignments in each of his books. Older son is hardly ever home this semester! He has already caught up until October on his Music Appreciation on line course (mandatory for graduation this December)and is at college all 5 days this semester. I have actually seen books this semester so I think that is a good thing :) We go Saturday to visit his new school and fill out all the financial stuff and meet everyone. I am praying for him, he really wants to go here so we are relying on the school to figure out a way to finance it. By the time younger son is ready, we will be pros at this!

Driving around today we have a lot of debris in the streets and branches all over. It seems like the town over from us had more tree damage. There are street light out and traffic is slow because of it. We are very happy we did not lose our electricity. What would I do with out the Internet up! :)

I have had a lot of traffic through here lately which is great! I was amazed when I saw how many people found this blog through googling itching mite bites! I guess younger son is not the only one that has been bitten. I just looked younger son over and although he still itches a little all his rashes have gone away, the swelling is gone and only small scabs are left. He only has 3 more days of antibiotics left so he has itched now for longer the the 10 to 14 days! He thought they were mosquito bites for over a week and it has been 8 days since I called the doctor after he showed me them and his ankles were all swollen. I wish I would have thought to take picture last Thursday or Friday. Oh well, maybe next time....

Page Five John Braden's Diary

thursday 27
I picked two loads of corn greased the wagon Lee took dinner with us Jo B came down to night brought the mail good night

friday the 28
Been a nice warm day but is raining to night i picked two loads of corn lee dined with us good night

saturday 29
i did not do any thing much till noon picked corn after dinner i went to town after supper got some groceries and a pipe good night

sunday 30
i done up the work shaved off my mustache Barnes and Monser came down a while Mr lee came down a while good night

monday the 31st
I shucked two loads of corn i got a letter from the head clerk of modern wood _____ in regard to ___ ______ mr lee took dinner with us today good night

november the 1st
i shucked to bushels of corn went to town after supper to send my dues to forszth got 2 dollars from mr lee got some thread and envelops mr lee took dinner with us

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Page Three & Page Four of John Braden's Diary

wednesday oct the 19 got some salt

cloudy all day i done the usual work Laid my first tile to day snaped a load of corn ditched most all day got some groceries Boilers one dollar and 75 cents. good night

thursday 20th

Butcherd a hog to day finished the ditch halled straw picked up corn for the hogs cloudy snowed some Mr ferel brought our things home friday the 21st picked up a load of corn shucked a load of corn 5 cents of salt _____ 15 cents of peper made sausage
loned lee one side of meat cloudy all day good night

saturday 22 shucked corn to day my hands got awful sore good night

sunday oct 23 1898

done the work come in and shaved went up to Barnes got more salt and got some beans and popcorn and two heads of cabbage ____ the hog at 275 pounds took _______ salt home Barnes came home with me me paid him back his _______ i met mr and mrs lee on their way home theay had been at my house. good night Monday 24 shucked 2 loads of corn lee took dinner with us to day good night oct 25 tuesday i shucked 2 loads of corn cold and windy lee dined with us to day good night

wednesday 26 lee took dinner with us to day i shucked 2 loads of corn it was a nice sun shining day got a letter from effie she sent the pictures to us george got me a pair of finger stalls 15 cents and one bar of tar soap good night

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Page Two John Braden's Diary

Saturday 15 Oct

Was home all day worked in the house all day washed the windows and put down the carpet good in tight Sunday 16 I help fred to feed the cattle this morning it rained all day made to benches for the feeding by my self Wife unpacked her fruit and cleaned up a little good night

Monday the 17th I got up this morning there was snow all over the ground it snowed untill 3 oclock and then begain to rain i feed the cattle and then i came to the House untill after dinner and then helped the carpenters till time to feed good night

Tuesday the 18 it rained most all day snowed some done the chores done some ditching got a pair of shoes two dollars a clock one dollar and 25 cents Mr lee paid for them good night

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

We Begin With Page One Jonh Bradens First Entery

Webster City iowa

i John Braden was born in illinois macon co 19th day december 1864 will indever to rite a diary from the time i came to iowa about the last of august 1898. i hired to jo Barnes to work a month for $18.00 my wife came here on the 22 of september she staid at Barneses with me for three weeks thers i hired to E K lee & on friday october the 14 1898 i moved my goods to lees farm in the morning jo & i took -- -- of for a tow to Webster city & i got some grocries $15.00 of stove pipe & 3 beds paid &6.50 for them Jo brought us to lees farm we set up the stove i had to borrow some salt to get sulfer i borrowed some meat of Jo I played the fiddle for the children filled a bed ---

There is the first entry. I know without punctuation it is harder to read, but I am copying it as is.

John Braden



John Braden is my great great grandfather. He was born in 1864. He started this diary when he moved to Webster City Iowa. He only kept the diary from October of 1898to September 1901. There are also some notes up until 1911 in the back of the note book about work hours and supplies. After reading it 20 years ago I wanted more! I am very lucky to have a glimpse into his life even if it is only for a year. I decided to write a page in the blog each day from the diary as written. As you can imagine some spot are hard to read. I will do my best to be accurate and at times leave blanks for unreadable words. I hope you enjoy the journey with me back to the 1800's

John Braden and His Wife Alsina Gatton



These pictures are photo's of the ones I just framed and put on the wall. For a better picture of this scroll down to Aug 18 and click on the frames I made. The pictures are still old and some better then others, but they are a little clearer.

John Braden with His Fiddle

Cover of John Braden's Diary

Page One of John Bradens Diary

Opened to a Random Page

Monday, August 20, 2007

What American accent do you have? (Best version so far)
Northern

You have a Northern accent. That could either be the Chicago/Detroit/Cleveland/Buffalo accent (easily recognizable) or the Western New England accent that news networks go for.

http://www.youthink.com/quiz.asp?action=take&quiz_id=9827

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Down Town Today

My mom, sister, niece and I went on a brunch cruise boat at Navy Pier today. It was a great trip except for the rain and choppy water. We took a limo downtown since the air and water show was today and mom was worried about the walking. We only saw two planes the whole time. It was pretty cloudy and foggy. We were able to get a few pictures before the cruise. It started raining right before we boarded. Since the water was so choppy a few people were getting sick. I had my handy dandy Dramamine so I was fine. We circled Navy Pier for the two hours. I am not sure if we stayed close because of the weather or it was their usually route. I enjoyed taking some pictures off the back of the boat, but when we tried the upper deck it was raining too much to bring the camera out. We had a blast watching people try to walk around! It was a challenge to get your food and be able to get back to the table. The wait people were having fun with the drinks too! Our table was covered in coffee, champagne, and water by the time we left. We had to go up a flight of stairs to get to the bathrooms. Going up was ok, but the fun was trying to get back down with the boat rocking.

After we came back home we stayed at my parents for a bit and picked out the pictures for the cookbook. We are doing all pictures of my grandparents at different stages of their lives. I love the cover picture we picked. I am still thinking about putting some of the older family pictures in back with a family tree page. Now I just have to type in all the recipes on the computer. I figure since we are starting our school work tomorrow I will take a couple of hours each day and type in the recipes. The first time I started typing recipes in it took a couple of hours for 5 recipes! I have picked up the pace some, but it will take a while to put in around 300 recipes or so.

While I was on the boat the boys went to my best friend's daughters 21st birthday party. I met them there after my parents. We had a great time sitting around playing cards. I only stayed a couple of hours, but we always have a great time with her family. Happy birthday Julie!!

Well I am trying to keep better hours now that we are going to be getting up early again. I see I didn't make my 11:30 cut off, but it is only the first night and older son and I had to get in a CSI Miami :)

Down Town Right Outside Navy Pier

Sky Line

Our Boat

The Pier

Light House

Sky Line Facing Navy Pier

Saturday, August 18, 2007

The Frame Are Complete!

I finished all three frames today with only one more trip to get photos printed and then had to return a frame that was broke and buy a third one. I have wanted to do this for years. All this because I needed to pull pictures for the cookbook :) We will pick those picture tomorrow. Those are a little more current and mostly my grandparents. I am thinking of trying to put a few of the older ones in too. I am so glad the frames are done. Now we just have to hang them.

Picture of Frame 1

Picture of Frame 2

Picture of Frame 3

Friday, August 17, 2007

Older Son's 19th Birthday Photo

Oakleaf Itch Mite

If that name is new to you, it was to me until a couple of days ago. I read about it in our local paper Thursday morning. I didn't pay much attention to the details, just skimming the article. Well I came home today with two articles about it from the doctor. http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/Health/story?id=3487296
and
http://www.cookcountypublichealth.org/staging/PDFs/Insect%20bites%20in%20suburban%20Cook%20County.pdf

Younger son does not have infected mosque to bites or a weird skin disease. Which I am thankful for. He has been bitten many times buy these mites new to our area. The doctor said the are invisible and float in the wind or can fall out of the tree onto you. They are just seeing cases at the doctors office this week. The local hospital for just a couple of weeks. Younger son's are either infected or he is just having an especially bad reaction to them. He is on high dose antibiotics for 10 days, a tropical cream, and Benadrtl every 6 hours. The rash is not contagious and once the mites bite they do not stay on you. So he will itch for 10 days to 14 days and hopefully will not get anymore. Have I said already I can't wait until Fall? I want a good freeze and to be able to have our windows open. That was an other thing. The doctor told us no open windows or doors. Air conditioning only. The mites could blow in with the wind through screens. I think the worst is over. He is still itchy when it is time for more Benadryl, but this is nothing compared to when he fell with his whole body into a stinging nettle bush! That was before I was blogging. They had to get poison control on the line in the emergency room and of course there is not suppose to be any stinging nettle in our part of the country. He was scarred all over his body for a couple of years until it slowly faded away.

Younger son was thrilled today. He watched Disney channel all day since he had to keep his feet up. It couldn't have happened on a better day! High School Musical 2 was finally on tonight and the pre show started at 9am! They played a marathon of the show, "The sweet Life of Zack and Cody" and in between each episode they had The Making of High School Musical 2 on. Then after they played High School Musical 2 they had an other new show on and then played HSM2 again! So he just went to bed singing all the songs. If he's happy, I'm happy.

Older son ran up to the college today and turned in a voucher from his work. Then had softball practice again. Younger son and I will stay home tomorrow instead of going to the softball game since he is suppose to stay off his feet for a day or two to let the swelling go down. He is leery of being outside right now too. This way older son can go out with his friends after the game if he would like.

After the doctors appointment I did some more running around with pictures again. I took older son's pictures today. I usually do a portrait of the kids each year around their birthday. I decided to start doing them myself. They turned out nice, but I did horizontal pictures instead of vertical. By the time I realized it, older son was pretty much done with picture taking :) I will just turn the frame on the wall and rearrange a little. Since the two new frames will be going up I would have had to adjust them anyway. I have all my pictures back now and ran out with one more tonight. I am excited to start putting the frames together! I think I will get off and do that now.

I Am Dreaming of Slides!

I spend three days and many hours going through my grandfathers old slide he took from about the early sixties until the late 90's. I am guessing around 2000 to 3000. Many were in the old round thingy that played the slides through a projector. Since I didn't have a projector I did them all buy hand. Originally it started out looking for old pictures of my grandparents for the cookbook. It turned into a week of an other big project that I am still working on. I have a lot of old family photos. Many dating back to the 1800's and early 1900's. I was very involved in genealogy before kids and always had it in the back of my mind since. I always said I am going to do a generational picture family tree of sorts. Well while looking at all the slides and knowing I was going to get them made into pictures, my mind snapped and I took out ALL my pictures and had to call a relative or two, but I managed to copy parents, grandparent and can you believe one set of the kids great, great, great, great, great grandparents. Yes I had to count the greats after I typed them :) Now as you can imagine some are not great prints and the 5th great for the kids are the last pictures in the photo store. They were negatives that I had made from the original tin prints about 20 years ago. I am glad I had them done. The only problem was finding someone capable of printing them. They are rather large. I had all the prints made into 4x6 prints. A copy for me, both kids, my sister and her kids. I spent almost as much time writing who everyone was on each picture in relation to the person receiving it. I found two wonderful frames that each hold 9 4x6 pictures. So after I figure out witch ones to display I will have pictures of all the generations from the kids grandparents to 5 greats on one side. I was lucky enough to ask for pictures on their fathers side years ago and can even do that side to grandparents on one side and great great grandparents on the other. I actually may need a third frame. I am taking a wedding picture in tomorrow that have the kids great grandparents on their dad's side and standing behind them are the bride and grooms parents. I am not even sure of their names, but they are there :) After I get them all framed and up I am of course taking a picture of them and posting it here. I have a dairy from one of my great great grandparents from 1865 I believe. I should post some of it here. It was fascinating to read. My aunt is mailing me one last picture that will complete as much as I can for the kids. Now if they get married and have kids, I hope their wives come with family picture :)

For other news, I hope all the family history isn't too boring for the blog! Younger son went to the mall for the day with a friend. He is now back into war gaming and dreaming of the forts he will build and guys he will paint. When I picked him up he was limping. I knew he had some mosquito bites a few days ago and didn't think much of it. Turns out many look bad now. Around his ankle they are huge, I know he scratched them, but I am thinking they may be some other bug bite now. He can't walk on his ankle because they are causing pain. The one on his arm his also red and big and has a very strange rash that started. I talked to the doctor tonight and he is going to see him in the morning. It even sounds strange for a spider bite. So I have to be up by 6:45 to call and get an appointment tomorrow morning. That of course is the morning once a month Orkin comes to spray and each week our milk is delivered on Friday too. I though older son would be here, but he has to leave around 10 am, so we will see who is here for what after I know what time I am going in. Younger son is very upset and worried. His friend mentioned West Niles and the new itching bug they found and now he is a little panicked. I am just hoping they are bad mosquito bites he scratched and will be fine.

Older son has a charity baseball game through work on Saturday and he had practice this morning and tomorrow. I hope they don't get rained out I want to go and watch. With camera in hand :)

I have an almost funny Milo story. I say almost because it really ISN'T funny! He tends to chew paper if he happens to come across it. He has chewed numerous papers the kids leave around. Not all of it, just enough to be a pain. Well older son FINALLY received a check that he had coming to him from a party he did (ladies first check bounced, she had her account stolen, she was on vacation, she is sick, her sister stood me up twice, wired a check, had to wait for stop payment to issue new one, well you get the idea it has been almost 2 months!) she finally stopped by today with not the cash she promised, but a new check. Yep, I closed the door and the wind caught the check knocking on the floor. Before I could say LEAVE IT, Milo chewed her name off the corner! The bank took it, but I am not holding my breath. It is an out of state check from a credit card in her mom's account. So we shall see in 5 days or so if it clears. I am hoping I didn't take Milo's lunch away from him needlessly :)

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Paintjam Dan Dunn

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Waiting For My Strawberries to Harden

Most of the day was pretty quiet. Older son is at a 21st birthday party for a friend of his tonight. Younger son mostly played with his war gaming guys and played video games. He did manage to fit in his reading and practice his trumpet.

I am just waiting to take my chocolate covered strawberries out of the fridge and put them in containers for tomorrow. We are going to dinner at my sisters. I made the 7 layer Rigatoni again since I am the only one that really liked it here. If it is well liked it is going in our family cookbook. I thought is was really good. We will have between 11 and 15 people for dinner, so it will be a good test. After that was cooked I melted the chocolate that I usually use for the chocolate fountain, but didn't use the vegetable oil. It made it a little thicker and clung better. I did strawberries and mini pretzel rods. It is the same chocolate I made all the scout suckers from. There was a little chocolate left on the sides and a couple of strawberries, so I was able to sample it before it hardened. The chocolate was really good!

That is about it for today. My timer will be going off soon.

Friday, August 10, 2007

Friday

Today in the mail came a package I forgot I ordered. Don't you love surprises? From some of my recent pictures I took I ordered cards to be made. They turned out so nice! Most are blank inside so I can write to my chemopatient and senior patient. It will be like a letter and picture in one. I was surprised at the quality of the card and envelope that came with them. I ordered through Walgreens.com. I used pictures of the dog, recent zoo pictures, a picture of me with the kids and I even made a really cute 21st birthday card for my best friends daughter. I took a picture of her and her boyfriend about a month ago and used that one. Too cute :)

On the college front, older son talked to the head of the department and a counselor and has been approved for all the classes. He has 21 credit hours this Fall. I believe it was 7 classes. Six at the college and 1 over the Internet. He visited the 4 year college he is interested in and loved it. They are really motivated after meeting him for him to attend. They are even looking into all the criminal justice classes he took and seeing if the material is close enough to their classes and may transfer more then expected. So he may still have his bachelors in two years! If they don't transfer he will have to go 3 years. The only drawback, well you knew there had to be one :) The cost is astounding! I thought he was kidding when he told me. The school works with his employer on a regular bases and will look into helping him get loans. The school has a 100% job placement rate for last year and the head of the criminal justice department has 35 years on the force. Only 8 to 10 students to a class and he would go from 7:30am to 3:20pm three days a week. The school is only 20 minutes from his job and he starts at 4pm. So it would all line up. If the school can figure out a way to get him financing he will be attending, if not well, I'm not sure about that yet. I will keep you posted!

Today we were all up early. Older son had to go to the bank this morning and then took me to the repair shop to pick up my car. They can't find any problem with it, so I am hoping I don't hear anymore noises. They already think I am crazy :) They are the nicest people. This is the second time there was no charge for looking at the car. After we were home for a short time we went to pick up younger son's friend and went to see, "The Simpson's Movie". The first half was funny, but we all agreed the second half could have been better. Can you believe the Simpsons have been around since the year older son was born!

After the movie younger son's friend came here for the day. I am taking them to the swimming pool for the 6 to 9 swim. Older son stopped by to register for his extra classes today and the went right to work. The rest of the afternoon should be quiet. I am off to write letters on the new cards! Have a great day!!

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

I Can't Believe it is Only Tuesday!

We had some bad news today. Older son saw his advisor at the college today to talk about what he still needs for his degree. He choose to go on to a 4 year university after getting his associates degree at the end of this year. I was so happy he made that decision since he can't apply to be a police officer for about a year and a half yet, so he has time to finish his 4 year degree. He found out today that 60% of the classes he took won't transfer. He will still get his associates, but to get his 4 year degree he will have to retake all his criminal justice classes at the other college. The only classes that transfer would be his core classes. I guess if you go on to a 4 year college it is a whole set of different classes he would have had to have taken. He has a full load coming up this semester and then found out he needs a either an art or music class too, so he is adding a sixth class and then was told the last class he needs isn't going to be offered until next Summer. The head of the department may substitute two classes in place of it so he can be done, but he hasn't heard back yet. Then he would be up to 8 classes in one semester! If he doesn't ok it then he will have to stick around unit next Summer. In the mean time he will be able to pick up extra core classes in the Spring that will help with his 4 year degree. Older son was so young starting college, that knowing what to always find out was hard and the counselors may not have pointed him in the right direction. Everything happens for a reason so maybe this is where is is meant to be for a little while longer. He will have to start with student loans because taking 8 classes about doubled his tuition for the semester. We were hoping not to need student loans until he transferred, but 6 to 8 classes is beyond what we can pay for. He already did his internship at a local police department, but he is going to check and see if he can still drive along once a week or so just to be in the field. He was not happy today, but I am sure it will all work out. He is still only 19 and will have his first degree soon. He does have a meeting with an other college on Thursday so we will see what happens there. I am so glad we home schooled through high school, we always could plan ahead not having to wait for phone calls and other people to decide what work counts and doesn't. Some good news though, older son is a supervisor at UPS and he likes his job. He used to love the physical work and exercise it took. When he was made supervisor, he was given a office and put in charge of new employee training. He doesn't get to load anymore and misses the physical part of the job. Well, he thinks they are going to offer him a dock of his own to run and he is really excited about it. It would be more physical again and he loves being out there, so I am hoping that happens soon. He will be with them at least 2 or 3 more years.

Sunday night older son and I stayed up all night again watching tv. He slept until he had to go to work on Monday afternoon. I was up with younger son so only slept and hour and a half. I can't do that as well as I use too :) So Monday younger son and I stayed home all day and played a couple of games after he was done volunteering at the library. He beat me at Word of Mouth! I never lose that game, but on so little sleep he may have had the advantage :) By the time older son came home from work I was ready for bed!

Today younger son went to the pool with his friend for most the afternoon and older son and I went out. It was nice being driven around for a change :) A store by us had DVD's for $3.99 and $6.99 so we picked up a few older movie we all wanted and the new season of Full House came out today. Younger son collects that one so we picked that up too. One of the Full House disks and an other movie skipped so we will go exchange it tomorrow. Our neighbor came over and watched a movie with us tonight. Younger son put in TMNT. I haven't seen the turtles in years. Older son use to watch them all the time.

With older son off school for a few weeks and younger son off, our hours are really different then normal. I am looking forward to getting back into a routine when older son starts Fall classes. I love going through the new books and getting new school supplies. I love new pens, pencils and notebooks. It great hearing the school bus come in the mornings and seeing all the kids go by. Better yet when we go to the store, zoo, library, museums and just out and about it is quieter and all the kids are in school. I use to love Summer when the kids were in school because we actually had time together and not rushing with homework and getting to school. Since we homeschool, my favorite part of the year is all seasons :) We always get to spend time as a family and do things together.

Can you believe we had a glitch in our airline tickets too! What a couple of days. I never saw the payment go through my account for the tickets. Debbie and I went in and paid over a week or two ago. I called the travel agent and she told me to check with the account and I did. Nothing was pending. So I called her back and guess what happened? They charged my friend Debbie's account for our three tickets and her three! She was not a happy person. They did get it all fixed, but it wasn't easy since Debbie already sent the payment to her card in and had a zero balance. She would have caught it when her other card came due and she saw three more ticket on it. Now if the agency wanted to give us free tickets, I would have taken them, but it is a good thing I looked into it since there is only one flight going that time of day. We may have lost our seats since they had to cancel the reservation and redo them. Again everything ended well and we got the tickets for $9.00 less, but it about gave Debbie a heart attack!

Sunday, August 05, 2007

August 5, 2007

We have had really hot weather and today we had storms go through. We had a tornado warning for about a half hour. They were already spotting funnels. Younger son and I grabbed the camera just to take a quick look, but it was already raining and the sky didn't look to bad yet. We ended up shutting down to computer for a while just in case.

Let me back up a bit, going back to Thursday younger son was suppose to do a mystery play at the library. Kind of like the murder mysteries we do each year with my sister's family without the murder. The drama teacher had a bunch of unfortunate things happen to her last week so it was canceled. Maybe they will get to do it again.Younger son was disappointed. There isn't much he likes better then plays and ad lib mysteries!

Friday Younger son had his eye check up again. We have seen our eye doctor a lot this year. He is still having problems, but his eyes are looking much better. We don't have to go back for 3 months now. I love our eye doctor. She is the person older son did his Eagle project for. She is wonderful with the kids. She is the type of person you feel like you have always known. You could go out to lunch and just sit and talk.

That brings us to Saturday. Younger son went with his new scout troop to a day out called, "Pathway to Eagle". He worked many hours preparing the 4 merit badges he completed this weekend. He now has earned Citizenship in the World, Dog Care (one of the very few older son didn't earn because we never had a dog before he turned 18), Sports, and Photography. He had 2 or 3 requirement's left to earn Personal Management so he will finish that up next. He had a good time. The day was mostly meeting with counselors, but I am sure they had down time to have fun too. I think he is happy to be back in the swing of things again.

Mean while older son was home all weekend! A very unusual event. We managed to get through the end of season 5 of the Sopranos. He even ran out and rented a couple disks instead of waiting for Nexflix. We will only have the first half of season 6 to finish. That is all they have out for now.

Today neither older son or I was feeling our best, so we just stayed home today and watched the extra disks of the Sopranos and played games. I think it had something to do with White Castle at midnight. Younger son was SO happy, We all like playing games, but for us to all be home the whole day to play doesn't happen much. We brought out the Boy Scout version of Monopoly. We have only played it a couple of times. Same rules as regular monopoly, but with an all boy scout related board. Older son wiped us out in a short time. I think we only played a hour or so. Today was the first time younger son beat me at scrabble! Not only did he beat me, he beat me buy about 20 points on his very last turn.

I tried a new dish this weekend too. It was Seven-Layered Rigatoni. I thought it was great. Older son ate one piece of it saying it was ok and younger son won't even try it. Neither enjoy sauce on anything. It will be a good dish to take to others houses. I am now pretty tired of it since I had it for lunch and dinner Saturday, today and still have some left for tomorrow. It made a large casserole, so I won't be making it just for us again. I can't wait to see how others will like it.

I think I am caught up now. Older son ran out for a an hour to go have ice cream with a friend and just made it back home, so we are off to finish the tape so he can return them tomorrow.

Have a great night!

The BSA Version of Monopoly

Older Son Beating Us All At Monoploy

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Just Relaxing



This is my favorite that younger son took.

Youger Son's Picture for Photography Merit Badge



Love the leg dangling!

Happy August!

I can't wait until October :) Cooler weather! They are saying 91 degree's, but it feels hotter. Tomorrow it is suppose to be 93. I shouldn't complain I have air conditioning, but I am ready to open up the windows and feel a cool breeze. At night I could do that in the living room, but the bedroom has the air conditioner in the window, so even when it is 80 it is too hot in the bedroom with out the air on. So no opening the living room up either since there would be no breeze without the bedroom opened.

Older son was up and out early. He helped a friend move today. He was back a couple of hours before he had to dress and go to work. I am sure he is looking forward to cooler days at work too. Last night we stayed up way too late and finished an other disk of CSI Miami. We are on season 4 of that and the Sopranos. We are sure getting our money's worth with Netflix this year. No sleep, but a lot of great use out of Netflix :) Even if he comes home at midnight one of the first things he says is CSI or Sopranos tonight. Then we end up watching just one more and one more.

Today younger son had his trumpet lesson and then went to the pool with his friend. So I was able to run a few errands. Younger son is doing a couple of merit badges at a scout outing this weekend and had to finish up a few requirements before he gets there. He is doing Citizenship in the World, Dog Care and Photography. One of the requirements of photography was to pick a subject and take 20 pictures of your subject and make it into a poster board. He picked Milo as his subject. I just ran up the store to pick up the photos and he did a pretty good job. I will post my two favorite. He has only a couple of Eagle required badge and a Eagle project left to do before he can achieve his Eagle rank.

Tomorrow Younger son is doing something special at the library with a few kids from his drama group. I will have pictures and a post tomorrow!

Stay cool!