He's of the colour of the nutmeg. And of the heat of the ginger.... he is pure air and fire; and the dull elements of earth and water never appear in him, but only in patient stillness while his rider mounts him; he is indeed a horse, and all other jades you may call beasts. ~William Shakespeare, Henry V

Tuesday, May 31, 2005

RUNNING RUNNING RUNNING

Sunday was pretty lazy. I got over to my mom's house early to wash cloths and my mom and dad took off on the motorcycle to go to Devils Lake for the big Motorcycle Rally over the weekend. When they got to The Great American in Devils Lake for registration there was nothing there. I mean absolutely nothing. No table, no packets, no sign-up sheet and there wasn't any information left at the front desk. My mom and dad said "screw it" and then went to the grocery store and picked up their own steaks, came home, fired up the grill, and make steaks and grilled potatoes for themselves and Darren and I. Cassie had some grilled potatoes and a hot dog. It's been a while since I had a steak off the grill and I really enjoyed it. On Memorial Day Darren spent a good time mowing the lawn and then later in the afternoon we all headed up to see my brother Mike. My mom bough him this really cute dining room table and chair set so we thought we would go up there and help him put it together. When we got there, my brother was trying to mow his yard in the rain. The guys went inside to get started on the dining set, mom watched Cassie for me, and I finished mowing Mike's yard. Mike only had a little bit left so it wasn't bad, but there is this lilac bush in the corner of the yard that is a pain in the ass to mow around...especially when the damn thing was wet with rain! When the guys opened the box for the table, the underside of the table was smashed up so my mom called the place where she got the table and they said that she could return the table top and they would give her a new one. We got the chairs put together anyway and they are really nice. Then afterwards we went to the Dairy Queen and then we came home. Since then it's been raining here like crazy and mom, Cassie, and I went to the Pizza Hut in Rugby to eat today after getting the new table top. We couldn't eat all our food so I put it in a box and when we got back we ran it out to the Pasta Plant for Darren to finish off.

FUNERAL

The funeral has been set for Ralph Masterson on Friday at 10 am at the Lutheran Church in Churchs Ferry. Darren and I plan on attending. I am hoping that miss Cassie behaves herself during the service. I am almost sure though at some point I am going to have to take her outside so she doesn't get too ancy. My mom is upset because she won't be able to make it because she has to work and my dad isn't sure if he's going to make it now or not because there is a Fire Show thing going on in Minot and he may be there on Friday. I hope it's a nice day on Friday and it's not rainy and cold.

Sunday, May 29, 2005

IN MEMORY OF RALPH MASTERSON

I heard today at 11am from my dad that a great friend of ours past away lastnight and he was found dead in his bathroom this morning. Ralph was married to Trudy Dyste and they had three boys: Joshua, Jesse, and Jeremia(sp). They also had a little girl that was born before Josh (she would be the same age as me) who would have been there oldest child but she sadly past away 5 days after birth due to a heart defect. Ralph and his family lived across from us in Churchs Ferry. I remember him as being a very nice, funny, and pleasant man. Ralph loved hunting, fishing, snowmobiling, and camping. He was active in the town and involved with the Mason's Lodge there. He worked effortlessly at his job at the Crossroads where he worked for MANY years. When you would go to the Crossroads, he would smile as you asked him to change the oil in your vehicle and would even clean the windows and vaccum the inside interior when he was done. He divorced Trudy and then was married to Barb Henderson. Barb had four children of her own: Dawn, Jeremey, Billy Jo, and Tony. Ralph really loved and enjoyed his grandson A.J. I am glad that Ralph lived long enough to see him and partake in A.J.'s first birthday. Ralph wasn't old and there was still so much more in life that he should be around for like Jeremia's high school graduation next year, the mariges of Josh, Jesse, Mia, and Tony and all of the grandchildren yet to come. Even though since I have gotten older, married and moved away, I want to cry when I think of all the good memories of him. He was an oustanding man who will be greatly missed and never forgotten. I hope God takes good care of him and that Ralph can now spend a lot of time with his daughter.

Saturday, May 28, 2005

VISIT WITH AUNT SHIRLEY, FUNNY FACES, AND NO KEY

This morning Darren's parents called to see if we were doing anything today because Darren's Aunt Shirley was coming home from Jamestown and was going to arrive in Rugby at about 3pm. So we pretty much lounged around and I put Cassie down for her nap around 1pm so that she wouldn't be crabby and needing her nap when we got to Rugby. She didn't wake until 3pm and we got one the road around 3:30. We met everyone at Darren's Grandma's house and we sat there for a while and talked to everyone. We were all getting hungry so around 6pm we headed over to Bob's Pizza Inn to eat. While we were waiting for our food Cassie was making faces at Grandma Hanson. It was really cute, she was just acting like a total ham. There was also a piano in the sitting room at the apartments that Darren's Grandma lives and Grandma Hanson and Aunt Shirley took Cassie down there to play it so all evening Cassie was saying "piano, piano, piano". This morning after Darren got up, I was going to go up to the barn and clean it out and then pick up the stuff around the pasture that needs to be taken care of. When I got up there, the key for the tack door in the barn was gone. This pissed me off because I figured that the guy we rented the place from took the key just to make sure that we fixed everything first before we got our crap out of his barn. I came back down to the house and called the guy. He didn't know what happened to the key either but he had someone at the barn the other day and figured that guy must have left with it. He said that he would check with him and then call me back. The guy did call back a bit later and said that the other guy did have the key and he would have to go pick it up because there was some stuff that he wanted to do up at the barn too and would also need the key. Tomorrow I have to wash cloths so am hoping that the guy we rented the place from comes over tomorrow and Darren can get my tack out of there. I still think that he took the key on purpose. This guy is really starting to tick me off and I am actually happy that I don't have to deal with him anymore. The guy is going to get a surprise himself because on Monday I am calling Ottertail to let them know that we no longer use the property and don't want to pay the bill and to have it transferred back to the guy. If Ottertail won't transfer the account, we are just going to stop paying the bill and let the electricity be shut off. I know by doing this, my husband and I are just bending down to his level and this should be taken care of in a more adult and polite manner but at this point I just don't give a damn.

what's that Grandma? You wanna see my tongue. Posted by Hello

Okay, here it is. Posted by Hello

What do you think you're laughing at! Posted by Hello

Just for that no more tongue. Posted by Hello

Friday, May 27, 2005

FINALLY, A DATE WITH MY HUSBAND IN I DON'T KNOW HOW LONG

So shortly after I got home from DL, Darren saw the ad for The Longest Yard on TV and said "Man, I want to go to that!". I called the movie #800 line and it was in DL so I called my mom really fast to see if she could come over and watch Cassie. While I was waiting for my mom to come over I cleaned the bathroom, got Cassie's nursery picked up, and I washed the dishes so that she didn't have to do any house work when she came over. The Longest Yard was a really good movie. It was really funny and there are some parts that make you feel bad and I have to admit that I almost cried at one point in the film. I want to purchase it when it comes out on DVD. Then we picked up a romantic meal at Micky D's (da da da da da...I'm lovin' it) and then we came home. It was actually really great to do that since we haven't gone out by ourselves to enjoy something like that in a very long time.

POTTY CHAIR AND CLOTH DIAPERS

Cassie has been really fighting me lately when I try and put her diaper on. I have pull-ups but they are so expensive I don't like to use them a lot. Today I was taking her to the bathroom every 2 hours to sit her on her potty chair. She likes to sit on it and will play with her pull-up when she is sitting. She didn't go to the bathroom in her chair for me or dad all day. It seemed like we were always too late or too early. She did finally go, once today, in her potty chair for Grandma Savaloja while dad and I were at the movies. I am so excited! I can't wait until she is potty trained because then I don't have to fight her into diapers/pull-ups and I won't be spending all that extra money on that stuff. I said this when I was pregnant with Cassie and I know I gave up early on it, but I will use cloth diapers on our next child. It will be so much more easier for me. Besides, I have all the cloth diapers and diaper covers already so why not use them...and I will like using them if we can actually wash our cloths at home. That's one big thing that stopped me from cloth diapering, I didn't want to drag those dirty stinking diapers with me in my car over to my parents to wash! YUCK!!

NEW LICENSE

I finally made it into town today to get my drivers license renewed. My eyes have gotten really bad and I was positive that I was going to fail the eye exam that they do but, amazingly, I past it so they took the "eye care required" off the back of my drivers license since I could see all the letters. I know better though, I will wear glasses when I get them which may take a bit. It's been a while since I have had to renew that this is my first license with the new drivers license number on it. It's weird but I am sure I'll get used to it. I am just happy that I didn't have to take all those crappy tests all over again.

Thursday, May 26, 2005

TOMORROW

Tomorrow I am running into Devils Lake to get my drivers license renewed. Darren is going to stay home with Cassie so I don't have to take her with me, which is going to be super nice because running around always goes faster when she isn't with. My mom and dad are also going to take flowers to the cemetery's tomorrow. I would like to go with but if Cassie is crabby tomorrow then it might not be a fun trip because my dad can not handle her when she is crabby. I think we are going to try and get some of the work done up at the barn too and hopefully we can get it finished over the weekend if the weather is decent. We don't have anything planned for Sat. or Sun. I know that Darren wanted to go to The Longest Yard when it got to DL but sometimes finding a sitter is hard and this weekend it tough because it's the bike rally in DL this weekend so I am sure my mom is going to attend some of that with my dad. Mike is supposed to be coming home tonight and then going to Grand Forks in the morning to cover some track thing there. He is going to spend the night at our aunt and uncle's home in Manvel. It would be nice to see him while he is home, but with his reporting he tends to stay pretty busy.

ARGH, STILL NO JOSIE!

I still can't get Josie's site to come up. I an anxious to find out what has been going on with them lately. So much happens to them that if you miss a day speaking to them you are totally lost for weeks before you can get stories straightened out. Has anyone emailed or phoned her to see what's been going on??

NO MORE BARN

It's official. The guy that owns the barn called Darren around 1 pm and he came to the house and told Darren that he doesn't want us to use his barn anymore. He wants us to get all our tack out of the barn along with the square hay bales I have in there. He also wants us to move the manure pile out of his half of the pasture. I don't know where we are going to put 6 months of horse crap or how we are going to move it without a tractor. Darren suggested moving the manure into the slew behind our house that stays dry for the most part. It doesn't drain anywhere and is normally only wet 2 months out of the year. I thought it was a good idea first, but then the thought of the smell off all that horse dung in stagnant water repulsed me and I am sure that the people at the elevator along with the farmers that take their grain there would just LOVE that. There is some other things that he wants us to do. They are going to cost us some money and he wants them done RIGHTNOW but we don't have the money to do it so we are going to have to wait and hopefully he will be patient about it but I doubt it. He's been kind of an ass lately. I tried calling a guy that has some older buildings but I couldn't get a hold of him directly so I just left messages on his answering machine and hopefully he will call me back. If not, I will try calling him again in the next day or two.

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

LATE DELIVERY

Darren and I are sick. I think Cassie might be too because she has been crabby lately. Darren is so sick that he almost called in sick for work but wants to save all the vacation time that he has so that his last paycheck will be bigger than normal. Darren asked if my mom had decongestants so when I left work I asked my mom for something and after I watched the finale of American Idol I ran the meds out to him. I hope they work. Cassie fell asleep in the car on the way home so I put her in bed and I jumped online quickly to check email and stuff and the Schwan man showed up at about 10. He had a late start in the morning so he was here a lot later than normal...which was cool with me anyways because Darren brought up at work that we forgot to leave the Schwan man a note for an order and he wanted some stuff anyway. Darren never did tell me exactly what he wanted to I just make a guess and bought a few things along with 2 tubs of ice cream. But I should run cause I have to get up really early and I need to eat something quickly because I forgot to take my last dose of Glucophage for the day and if I don't take that stuff with food, I get sick!

WEEK STARTING SLOW

I got off work early on Tuesday so Cassie and I went to my mom's. My mom ran to Rugby and while we were waiting for her to come back I took Cassidy out in the wagon that she got from Santa. She had me pull her about 100 feet and then she wanted out. When I let her out she walked along the wagon and then started to fill the wagon up with rocks. She has a rock fetish! She will pick up every rock she sees and will stuff all her rocks with rocks. When she runs out of room or if she has an outfit on that doesn't have a pocket she will put the rocks in my pockets. Of course, I shake them out when she isn't looking. I hope that it stays nice outside now for a while. It's great to get outside and do something instead of being stuck in the house all day. Besides, Cassidy loves to go out and walk and play with the dog. I am hoping that it will help me loose weight too. Tomorrow I don't have any FedEx at work until some come in by fax during the day. I may get out early and if I do I was thinking of taking Cassidy to the park after dad sees her for a bit.

WE MAY NO LONGER HAVE A BARN

The guy that we rent the north half of the pasture from which has a barn was up at the barn Friday last week so Darren ran up there to talk to him. I guess the guy thought the pressure pump was going out on the water tank and he was up there digging around the tank to bring the pressure tank above ground to work on it. Darren asked when we could open up the gate that divides our two pastures and let the horses in to eat the grass. Well the guy said he wasn't sure because now he is thinking of putting sheep up there. I guess he has a friend that is having problems with the state and the state told him to clean up his yard and get rid of some of the animals so he was going to bring his friends sheep over here. That would suck because we do need the barn because we don't personally own one and all my riding equipment and stuff is in the barn and I would be fighting sheep to get in the barn. Also, it would make it more difficult to saddle my horse and take a ride without the hitching post. I think the guy just doesn't want us using his barn anymore and just doesn't want to come right out and say it. My dad was expecting something like this because we have had issues with the man in the past. I just don't want the sheep to be a problem for us. I would hate for one of the sheep to get loose into our pasture and have one of the horses to hurt it or stomp it to death. I know where there are a couple of old buildings laying around so I will have to call the people who own them and see what we come up with. Hopefully I will be able to find something before winter otherwise I don't know what I am going to do for shelter.

NEW FRIENDS

I was checking some of my past blogs to see if anyone has had anything to say about my posts. I noticed that KSoFM posted on one of my sites. I have caught him on Aprils blog (www.aprilsthoughts.blogspot.com) and seems like a great person. Thanks KSoFM for checking me out! I hope to hear more from you in the future.

Monday, May 23, 2005

ALMOST A PRETTY NORMAL SUNDAY

Today I went to my mom's to wash cloths. When we got to my mom's Cassie saw the horses and she wanted to go pet them. I let her out of the car and he ran to the fence and was trying to crawl through the wire by the time I caught up to her. I helped her over the fence and I held her while she pet the "ponies". My mare was relaxing next to us and was starting to fall asleep so I put Cassie on my mare. She really liked it. She played with the horses mane and even scratched the horses back...which the horse really LOVED!! After a little bit Cassie asked to get down so we went inside to have a juice box. I laid Cassie down for a nap shortly after that and then Darren came over and helped my mom mow grass. Then Darren took my dad's Goldwing out for a ride. He really likes riding motorcycle and hopefully he can get a good one of his own someday. My mom and I went up to Rolla to see my brother. Mom had some food to drop off for him and I wanted to see him since it had been a while. We went out to eat at the Chicken Hut in Rolla and while we were, there my cousin Sherry, her two girls, her fiance, and the fiance's mother came into the restaurant. We talked to them for a while and then we picked up ice cream and the Dairy Queen and then came home. Tomorrow I have to run into town and renew my drivers license. I hope I don't have to retake any of the test or anything but I didn't know it, but my license expired in February. Then I also have to call the vet because I need to have Tango gelded.

Sunday, May 22, 2005

IS ANYONE ELSE HAVING PROBLEMS WITH JOSIE'S BLOG

For the last 3 days I have been trying to read Josie's blog but when I get to her blog it's just one big white page with absolutely nothing on it. Is anyone else having problems or am I the only one??

IT'S ANOTHER SATURDAY....HEY THAT'S OUR DOG

On our way home from my mom's place on Friday we got about 2 miles from York and Darren hollered "That's our dog!" and wouldn't ya know, Tucker went screaming across Hwy 2 and was trotting around the road construction workers. We pulled over really fast and hollered for him. Tucker came to the car but a road construction worker had to walk him a little way before he came by himself. We just couldn't keep him out on the Hwy, I am surprised he hadn't been hit already, so I got in the back seat with Cassie and Darren put Tucker in the front seat of our car. The darn thing was soaking wet, dirty, and he just reeked. We got home and we noticed that the clasp on his chain had fallen apart and that's why he was running around. So today Darren, Cassie, and I went to Rugby so Darren could get a new clasp at Hardware Hank. Also, Darren's folks were in Rugby too so we were able to meet up and visit with them. We all went over to Pamida and Darren's mom bought Cassie some neat sandal's, M&M's, and a pair of sunglasses. Then we went over to Deb's cousin's place and hung out for a while. Darren's uncle Steve was even there too which was cool because we hadn't seen him in a long time. After we were done chilling there for a couple of hours we went to the Pizza Hut to eat and then we came home. Darren got the clasp changed so we don't have to worry about the dog being hit by a car now and I need to get ready to wash cloths tomorrow.

IT WASN'T THE CREDIT UNION

We stopped at my mom's place quickly coming home from Cando. I asked mom if she and Grandma took their ride to the bank. She said yes and, no, Grandma didn't get them to the bank. My Grandma lives in apartments right next to Heartland Care. Mom had Grandma get into her Jeep and give her directions to the bank. Well Grandma had her turn by Prairie View School, then they went down 3rd street past Rainy's parents house and Dr Petty's home. The crossed the street to the Great Northern building. Grandma had her turn left there and they went past Jerome's Wholesale then under the overpass. Grandma was going to have her turn right at Ottertail but she told my mom too late so they turned around in the K-Mart parking lot. As they went back by Ottertail and turn, then my Grandma said "this is where I got confused". They got to the Pizza Ranch and Grandma told mom that is when she gave up and went home. Mom had Grandma give her the directions that she took home, so mom got on Hwy 2 and then Grandma told her to turn left which put them at the Dukes car wash. My mom drove Grandma down the frontage road there and stopped in front of the Credit Union. She told Grandma here was her bank and it was right across the street from the Home of Economy. Grandma told mom that was not her bank. When my mom told her that it was her bank and she had been banking there for 20 years my Grandma said "No, I have never been in that bank in my life". I think they did get inside to get her paper work for her rent signed. When mom took Grandma home she told her if her mind is playing tricks on her and if she can't remember where things are then she needs to think about not driving anymore. I hope she doesn't take off and not tell anyone where she is going. Who knows what could happen after this.

NOT AN EAR INFECTION

I took Cassie up to Cando and it turns out that her ears are clean. Her tube in the right ear actually has come out, it just hasn't fallen out yet. Jeana said that it's in a ball of wax inside the ear and it will come out with the wax. I think that is cool because I want to clean it up when it falls out and save it (the tube, not the wax) and show it to Cassie when she gets older. Mom was thinking that maybe she just needs a bonnet or a little hat to keep the wind out of her ears and maybe it's just the wind that is bothering her. I still have her bonnet from last year and I am going to have to check and see if it fits, she actually looks very cute when she is wearing it. If it's too small, my mom said that we will have to look for another one. I am just hoping that when both tubes fall out, we don't have a problem with ear infections again.

Friday, May 20, 2005

EAR INFECTION AND NEW JOB WOES

It's really hot outside today and Cassie is down for a nap right now. Darren is outside mowing the lawn and I have to get started on cleaning the house but I thought I would blog quickly first. I think Cassie might have another ear infection. She has been crabby the last two days, last night she woke up in the middle of the night, and today she's been whinnying and crying all day. This is her typically normal pattern for an ear infection. I even tried to give her a bath right away this morning, because she LOVES baths, but all she did was scream the whole time. I think that's the fastest I have bathed her since she started taking baths in the big tubbie. We couldn't get in today to see Petty so we are going to see Jeana Jorde, a PA up in Cando at 3:30. When we get home I am going to have to clean more and I am sure Darren will finish his mowing if it's not raining by then. Darren is also a little worried about his new job now. He thinks they gave the Rugby route that he wanted to another guy that started last week. The whole reason he applied for that job was for the Rugby route. He doesn't want to be driving a route somewhere that he isn't familiar with. I don't blame him. I told him to wait until he actually starts (June 6th) and that maybe the guy is just running the route until Darren gets his own truck. I hope he does like it and it works out for him. I am trying to be as supportive as I can be, but when he starts to doubt himself and the choices that he's made even when I try to give him encouragement it's hard. I have told him that I will do anything that he's willing to try to make this job work for him. I am really praying that everything goes well because we really need this job to help with bills.

MY GRANDMA IS LOOSING IT

My mom is concerned about my Grandma. Yesterday my mom went to my Grandma's apartment to help her with a few things. While my mom was there, Grandma told her that her rent went up and so she had to go to the bank and sign something so that the extra amount will withdrawal from her account since her rent is automatically deducted, but she couldn't find the bank. My mom asked Grandma what she meant by "couldn't find the bank". Grandma told her that she drove to where the bank was but it wasn't there anymore. The whole building was gone. Mom told her that the building is next to Home of Economy and that it was still there. Grandma said that is where she went but swears that the building is gone. Today mom is going to have Grandma drive her to the bank and see where they end up. Last Friday at my Home Interiors party, Grandma and I were looking through a book and she started to comment on how pretty the lighthouses were. I didn't see any lighthouses in the book and I asked her where she found them. She told me that I was looking at them. Instead of lighthouses, it was two kids flying kites. She ask me if I was sure and I told her that I was pretty positive they were kids flying kites. this worries me too because she could get lost or even into a bad accident if she can't see things or if she forgets where she is going. I feel really bad for my Grandma. It's hard watching something like that happen to people that you love. It brings back a lot of memories from when my Grandma Savaloja got very VERY forgetful and lost her mind before she past away. I didn't expect to go through something like that again just yet. For the most part, I just hope that my mom and her brother and sisters can keep her out of a nursing home as long as they can.

Thursday, May 19, 2005

DAD, ICE CREAM, AND HORSES

Cassie and I met Dad at Nana's place as usual so that Darren could see her before he went to work. After he left, Nana got home and we went with her into Leeds to get gas for her lawn mower and we stopped at the Leeds Cafe for ice cream and coffee latte's. While we were at the Cafe, we ran into Bethany Ritterman and her son Jayden. It was great to see her because I haven't seen her for a while. As we were talking, I brought up my PCOS and it turns out that she has it too!! She was diagnosed with it when she was 13. She had a lot of positive things to say and she gave good recommendations for my Glucophage that I am on. She said that it will make me loose weight like crazy and and when I told her that it's supposed to work as well or better than the fertility drug clomid, she told me that when she and her exhusband were trying to get pregnant, she took clomid and within a week of using clomid she was pregnant. We will have to wait and see what happends. After that we watched the Worst of American Idol at Nana's which was pretty funny. My mom and I talked a while back about going to Minneapolis in June. My mom took time off to go but now my sister might not be home for our trip so we may not go then. We are going to look at going later in the summer. I hope that we can make it this year, if we don't, I doubt that I will get there any time in the remotely close future, just depending on Darren's new job and if we move or not. Tomorrow we have running around to do in DL. Hopefully it won't take too long and we can get into DL and back home again before the rain showers that are predicted for around 2 pm. Cassie was pretty cute today at my parents house. Since I the two horses over there now, Cassie likes to walk around the back yard and see the horses. She isn't afraid of them one bit! She tries to crawl through and over the fence to get into the pasture to walk around with them and pat their legs. Cassie even calls for the horses too. She can say Luna but she can say Cholla even better. When she calls for Cholla she pronounces it really clear. I am so happy that she is turning into a little cowgirl and that she likes the horses as much as I do. It's going to be really cool when I can take her for her first horseback ride and it will get even better when she has her own horse and we can go out riding together.

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

WHAT TO DO

It had been a week since I talked to the nurse from Minot about starting my Glucophage, the nurse said that she would call me back Monday but never did so I called Minot today. The nurse spoke with Dr. Billings and he said that to definitely start the Glucophage right away. I called my mom and she was just getting off work so she was going to run to the clinic pharmacy in DL and pick up the prescription for me. There are some nasty side effects to the Glucophage that I hope I don't' get but we will have to see how it goes. I still want to check with my doctor and see if there is anything besides ibuprophen that I can take for pain because the ibuprophen doesn't work all the time but it does bring the pain down to a level where it is tolerable, thank God. Tonight Cassie will be at Nana's again and I hope that I get done with work in time to see American Idol (I hope Bo Bice wins!) and hang out with my mom for a bit before I have to get home. Cassie's Day Care provider said that she will have a full-time opening for Cassie in June, which is next month. I talked to Darren about it and he hasn't said much. I am trying to figure out if working full-time will be worth it or not because then that's more money I will end up giving to Day Care and I just might save money and have more money in my pocket if I stay at part-time at the plant. Also, I don't want to go full-time and then move to Harvey a few months after doing that. It would kind of be unfair to my employer and Donna has someone who will take the full-time position in Day Care if I don't and she could loose that person (and maybe Cassie) if I go full-time and then quit right away. So I don't know what to do, I am really undecided. I would like to go full time because maybe I would make a little more than I am now, but is $20 actually worth it?!?

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

SHORT DAY AT WORK

I got to work at 8. I did my FedEx and finished up my little baggies for sample kits. I can't put any kits together though until they run some 5 Cheese raviolis at the plant. Since I was totally finished with all my stuff, I asked the Day Super if there was anything she needed extra help with. One of the guys had to leave around 11am today for a dentist appointment so she was a little short handed. I sat on the line and relieved people for breaks but shortly after I got on the line, the Super shut the line down because they had to wait for more dough and she said since they were waiting I didn't need to help them because everyone would be looking for something to do until the line started again. I punched out around 12:30. I ordered lunch to go at the restaurant for Darren and I, then I picked up Cassie and came home. Cassie fell asleep in the car because it was close to nap time when I picked her up. I got her right into her crib when I got home and Darren and I watched TV as we ate our bacon cheese burgers and fries. Cassie slept for 2 hours and Darren is getting ready for work now. When he leaves I may to go my mom's house and hang out for a little bit and then come home. It's sprinkling outside right now too and we have a 70% chance of thundershowers and I don't know if I really want to go anywhere if it's supposed to storm cause then I will just end up coming home in it...but we'll see.

Monday, May 16, 2005

LONG DAY FOR CASSIE

Cassie didn't get up until 11:30 today!! I am very surprised because normally she doesn't sleep any longer than 9:30. It was too much sleep for me though because I had a headache and I just felt sick to my stomach and I get that way when I sleep too long. When I went to get her, I noticed that the picture carousel that April and Kevin gave her was gone from the top of her dresser. As I looked farther into her room, I saw all the confetti from my baby shower, papers that the doctor wrote when I was pregnant (even the paper he wrote when I went into preterm labor in August so that my boss would give me medical leave), and the wristbands from the hospital. I couldn't' figure out what had happened. It looked like someone went into her room and robbed only the carousel. Then I noticed the carousel in the corner of her crib! She must have gotten up early, stood up, saw the carousel, decided she could grab it, then played with everything inside of it until she fell asleep again. I picked everything up and I moved the carousel. Then later today, I took her over to my mom's while I worked. Cassie didn't take a nap because of how late she slept in. To keep her awake until I got done with work, my mom gave Cassie a bath. Just as they were ending their bath, mom's phone rang so she just let Cassie run around naked. While mom was on the phone, Cassie climbed up in a chair they have next to their fire place and peed all over it. I just had to laugh when my mom told me this. What do you expect when she doesn't have a diaper on. Better on the chair than her carpet, right? I brought Cassie home and put her right to bed. I think she passed out immediately when I laid her down. Tomorrow morning it is supposed to be in the 50's so I will pack shorts for daycare tomorrow and if it's really nice, maybe we can go up to the restaurant in Leeds when I get off work for ice cream...she really loves her ice cream!

CAN I GET A WITNESS

It wasn't long after I got inside the house after letting Tango out of the barn that a Jehovah Witness from Rugby knocked at the door. I was lucky, I was in the bathroom when it happened so Darren ended up answering the door. I don't really like talking to them so I stayed in the bathroom until the guy was gone and while I was in the bathroom it reminded me of how Amadon would actually invite those guys into his place and actually talk to them for 2 hours about the bible, Christ, church, etc. until the Jehovah got tired of it and made their own excuse to leave. It made me smile, ya know, I would actually pay to sit in on one of those conversations today if I had the chance. I also remembered a story that my dad told when I was younger about someone answering the door naked with a can of beer. The Witness didn't even say any, he just turned around and walked away....I hope it wasn't my dad that actually did that, but I can see my father doing it.

...AND HE'S OFF!!

Around noon I went up to the barn to let Tango out. He had not seen the outside world for almost twenty-four hours and since he had the night to calm down a bit and Darren was home, he deserved to be outside. Tango was pretty anxious to get out of the barn, he walked pretty good with me to the south half of the pasture considering his mother and "auntie" were no where around, plus he had to sing all the way just to let every other horse in the county know where he was. I tied him up next to the water tank so he could have his afternoon drink as I walked back and shut the dividing gate to our pasture so he would be down next to the house just in case he decided to try something. When I let him loose the dirt just flew! I think the ran all over that pasture whinnying for an hour or better. He finally calmed down and started to eat but occasionally he still takes off running and will whinny periodically. He hasn't ran through any fence yet and his behavior is really good. He's not taking the separation near as bad as It thought he was going to. I tried to get some pics but it was hard because he wouldn't stand still for anything very long. A majority of them were blurred. I will post the good ones I got though for everyone to see.

I like this pic too because it shows how black his mane and tail are turning. He is going to be quite pretty for a riding horse. Posted by Hello

I think this shot is just cool. I was randomly taking pics so my camera wouldn't shut off and Tango ran right by as the camera captured the pic. Posted by Hello

Warm sun, black dirt...what a wonderful place to roll. Posted by Hello

Sunday, May 15, 2005

ROLLIN ROLLIN ROLLIN, KEEP THOSE DOGGIES ROLLIN...RAWHIDE

Today, with Darren's help, I got the horses moved to my parents place. I went outside today so Cassie could play in the yard and to fill the water tank and when I looked out across the pasture the grass looked grey. The horses had eaten the grass down so much you can actually see the dirt right through the grass and the pasture grass just isn't growing worth a darn right now. I called my dad and let him know that I was bringing them over. The horsetrailer has been at there place since last spring so I collected the cloths and Cassie's stuff and we went to my parents, dropped Cassie and the cloths off then put air in the trailer tires and came back for the horses. When I put Cholla in the trailer, Tango followed her right inside. I had Darren close the trailer door while I was still inside and had him hand me Tango's halter through the bars in the trailer and he stood like a perfect gentleman as I put his halter on. Darren opened up the trailer back up and I took Tango out and tied him to the hitching post, then I loaded Luna. I led Tango into the barn and tied him to a corner post in the barn and then shut the barn door. This way if Tango somehow got his rope untied he still couldn't get away. Besides, I like to have him confined since he's being weaned it's easier to work with him because he will be constantly looking for mommy and his behavior will be a little rough for a couple of days until he learns to handle things without her. We got the mares to my parents and they didn't even miss Tango. They were nice and quiet When we let them loose in the pasture, instead of running around looking for Tango, they immediately went right to eating the good grass that's growing in their pasture. Later in the evening before I came home with Cassie, I ran back to the barn by myself just to make sure that Tango hadn't kicked the door open or hurt himself in any way. He was doing great just munching on a hay bale. I grabbed his lead and brought him outside. He whinnied like crazy and wanted to run so bad. I held on to his rope and let him trot circles around me. I was going to let him loose in the pasture tonight but because Darren was gone in DL to see April and Kevin, I didn't dare let him loose because he was acting pretty frisky and I didn't want to risk him running through the fence to look for the mares in the middle of the night when I couldn't catch him because Cassie would be in bed. I led him back in the barn and he started back on his hay and I shut the door. Tomorrow should be really fun. I will take my camera with me because Tango will look pretty running around the pasture in the daylight.

YELLOW NOSE, CLOTHS, AND KEVIN'S RECEPTION

Yesterday we ran to Ruby to see Darren's mother and his aunt. It was great to see them. I forgot to take a Home Interior book up so they could see it so I may mail them some books. I would appreciate an order from them. Also, Darren's uncle has a nephew and an uncle that live in Harvey and Darren's uncle told us that there was a guy who moved there last year and that person actually found a farmstead with a pasture and a barn to rent because he had horses too, then eventually he got his own place. So Darren's uncle is going to check and see if that farmstead is still available to be rented out. That would be nice because then I wouldn't have to worry about the horses. Bad side is that we will probably end up buying all my hay in Harvey instead of getting it from Darren's dad. But we will see what happens. Also while we were there Cassie was picking dandelions and she would hold them all up to her nose and smell them. I think she was pushing them into her nose too hard because the end of her nose turned yellow. I had my camera and took some pics but when I got home to download them, the pics were all white so I am going to have to check with Darren's aunt and see if she got any good pics of Cassie's nose. Deb was going to buy Cassie some shoes too at the Pamida while we were there but they only had ONE pair of infant size 6 shoes. I couldn't believe that. So we may check Wal-Mart when we go into town later today. Mike came home for the weekend so I think he and Darren are going to jump on the motorcycles and drive to Harvey and check some more things out. I have to wash cloths today and then this afternoon we are going to run into DL for Kevins reception. It's nice outside right now so I want to take Cassie out before she takes her nap. She seems to sleep well when she plays outside.

Jillian, Carson, & Cassie enjoying cookies during my Home Interiors show. Posted by Hello

Scrappy napping inside my blanket. Posted by Hello

Friday, May 13, 2005

A PARTY AND A BABY

I had 9 people show up at my Home Interiors party which was pretty good. I made enough in sales to get the small porcelain statue, I would like the bigger one, but I will take either as long as it's free. If any of you would like to place and order, I am keeping my party open until the 26th of May. I can run books over for ya'll to look at if yer interested. Also, Rainy had her baby yesterday by C-Section at 8:15 am. It was a little girl, Eris Pearl. She weighed 7 lbs and 3 oz and was 19 inches long. I hope things go well for them and that she has her "perfect" family now. I just thought you all may have been interested. It's not that I talk to her a lot, but I do check out the baby web pages for DL and Cando all the time and I saw the pic of Eris and remembered that my mom told me way back that she was having surgery on the 12th.

Eris Pearl Posted by Hello

WOO-HOO

Darren just got his phone call. It was Butch from Schwan's Frozen Foods. Darren had applied for a job driving truck with them a couple of weeks ago and Darren was just waiting on his back ground check to be completed to find out if he go the job....HE GOT IT!! Darren thinks it will be a good job for him because he likes driving around and he doesn't have to carry anything that he thinks might be too heavy for his back (plus, if someone orders a lot of food he can make multiple trips from the truck to the house). There is a warehouse based out of Harvey so Darren is going to try driving back and forth from York to Harvey for a bit to see if he likes the drive. If he doesn't like the drive but loves the job, then we are going to move to Harvey. We have been thinking about it and all the pros and cons that will go along with moving there. But since I wouldn't be working, if it's easier for Darren's job then we will do it because it's not really going to effect me a whole lot because I would be home with Cassie. This is really great because Schwan's pays their employee's weekly and there is a start base pay of $600 per week plus commission of what he sells off the truck. So at the minimum, he will make $1200 per two weeks which is double what he makes at the Plant right now. There is also better insurance. Darren pays close to $200 from each pay check at the plant for a family plan but Butch from Schwan's has one of the highest plans and he only pays between $50 to $60 so will will save $100 there. Plus he also gets dental and vision which he doesn't get at the plant. There is 401K and Profit Sharing too. They will also pay Darren 29 cents per mile for driving to and from work. Schwan's pays for his lodging and food when he is on the road so there is basically no expenses there. Schwan's will also pay for a hotel room (up to 5 weeks) while Darren finds a place to stay. I am just as excited about this new job as Darren is. It will provide our family with so much more than what the plant is right now. It gives us an opportunity to relocate to a small town that has everything from a pool, clinic, hospital, dentist, optometrist, 3 grocery stores, a Pizza Ranch, Ben Franklin, and even a swimming beach on the Sheyenne River without a big city scene and we still have that small town feel. We have been looking at homes for sale around Harvey and on the web. We found a house that we want to give pics of to April to see if she can do that color thing to it like she did with their apartment. I am not sure what we are going to do with the horses but I can always sell them. We won't move right away until Darren knows for sure if this is a job that he wants to keep for a while because there is no point in moving if we are going to move back to York in 5 months. Darren starts the new job on June 6th. The down side is that there are a couple nights a week that he will be overnight on the road, but that's better than him working nights all week long right now. Now Darren just has to tell the manager of the pasta plant that he is putting in a 3 week notice. I just hope that they give Darren the two and a half weeks of vacation that he has saved up...either that or his 3 weeks are going to be really easy to put in!

FRIDAY THE 13TH

Today I don't have much planned except I am hosting a Home Interiors party at my mom's house at 7pm. I need to be over there by 6 because that is when the Home Interiors rep will be there to set up. I have gotten a few calls the last couple of days from people not going to be able to make it today. One lady wanted to come really bad but she found out yesterday that they were going to induce her pregnant daughter today so she wanted to be in Minot with her daughter...totally understandable. There is this western pocelain sculpture that I want really bad and I am having the party because there is no way that I can afford to buy it right out of the magazine. I hope that I have a good turn out. I will be bummed out if there is hardly anyone there. Darren is expecting an important phone call today so I have to hurry and type this and then get off the internet. It could literally be a life-changing call for Darren, Cassidy, and I. My brother wanted us to go up to Rolla and visit him this weekend but I am not sure if we are going to be able to or not because on Saturday Darren's mom wants us to meet her in Rugby because she will be at Darren's Aunt's house helping her with a city wide rummage sale. Then I think my dad will be leaving Sunday for a Nebraska. He will be there for a week for a fire school thing. Josie, if you aren't sick and if you feel a little bored, feel free to come out to my mom's tonight. It's okay if you even have the boy because there will be other children there (and Cassie too). Also this weekend I have to find some time and get the fence restrung at my parents place so I can take my mares over there and Darren and I can watch the colt. I do want to see Mike but I don't want to be running around all weekend.

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

50 SEAGULLS, A PIG, A MOODY HUSBAND, AND ONE REALLY WET CHICKEN

Darren ran to town to get the smog pump for his truck this afternoon. Before he left he asked me to pack his lunch for work if he wasn't home by 4. 4 rolled around and I started packing his lunch. He called and said that he still had not gotten the pump on because it was was really tough to get on and he was having problems with it fitting right. I told him not to worry about coming home to get his lunch and that I would run it over to my parents house for him. On the way there right outside of York, there was this huge flock of gulls flying in perfect sync over the road. Wouldn't you know right as I went under them, about 15 of them had to shit at the same time and covered my windshield with little white dots. I was a little mad about that and I was trying to get Darren his lunch at a decent time before he left for work so I was doing 65 mph to my parents house. There is road construction on Hwy 2 right now to fix the road between Knox and Leeds so the speed has been reduced to 60 mph. There has never been a cop on that road...until today. He stopped me not even 5 miles from my house. I didn't have my seatbelt on, I couldn't find the current insurance card in the car (all I had were old ones), it took me a while to find the registration, and I didn't know that my license had expired in February. Out of everything the police man was nice enough to let me off with a $20 fine. This is my first ticket in my life. Everything until just now had always been warning. When I got to my parents place, I wasn't in the best of moods and since Cassie copied Grandma's words the other day I have been doing okay at not swearing around her and Darren knows that I don't want ANY swearing around her...When Cassie and I got out of the car at my parents he was fighting with the smog pump yet and he started to say F#%@ this and F%*@ that. I told him sternly to watch his language and he didn't need to talk like that and he just kept going. Every other word out of his mouth was the F word and Cassie was right there. I got pissed, grabbed Cassie and we walked around to the other side of my dad's shop where some of his trailers are and Cassie and I hung out with my dad until Darren came to say that he was leaving for work and then he left. It was cold so I took Cassie inside. A while ago, mom gave Cassie this big chicken from one of those CLAW machines. Well she confused it for a duck and thought it needed to go for a swim so she chucked him in the toilet. Of course, it was a few moments before I realized this and after I saved the chicken from a swirley I threw him in my mom's dryer. Cassie and I hung out to watch American Idol and then we came home. Tomorrow I will probably go over to my mom's house after work because Darren took a vacation day tomorrow and will more than likely end up putting that smog pump on his truck. If he starts with that temper and swearing again, Cassie and I will leave and he can come home when he has cooled off. At least my dad and I put Darren's truck in one of my dad's poll barns so that he won't be working in the snow if we do get that 4 to 6 inches of snow they are predicting.

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

HOORAY FOR A LITTLE FETUS

I adopted a cute lil' cow fetusfrom Fetusmart! Hooray fetus!

Okay, I was feeling jealous because everyone I know seems to be having a baby or trying. I really would like to have another child but I don't know if it's medically possible for me to have another baby yet so to curb my craving I adopted a fetus from FetusMart.

I SEE LONDON, I SEE FRANCE, I SEE MOMMY'S UNDERPANTS!!

I was going to the bathroom at my mom's and I heard Cassie coming down the hallway calling my name. I called back to her just to let her know that mommy had to go potty and when I got finished I would be coming out. I heard her babbling something then all of a sudden the handle flipped on the door and into the bathroom walked Cassie. My mom failed to mention that because of the door knobs in their house (they have long handles and you pull them down to open the door) Cassie can reach them, pull them down, and open doors. It didn't freak me out too bad because I was finishing up but I was paranoid because my father's guest was still at his house and I didn't want him coming down the hall and busting me on the toilet. What an embarrassing situation that could have been. Man, I can't believe all the things that my little girl has done in the last few days. It just boggles my mind that she can learn and comprehend that kind of stuff at such a young age. I LOVE HER SO MUCH!

MAKE ME GAG

Today at work they were making tortillines and everything was going well until the dough guy started to open up the second pallet of 5 gallon pails. Each 5 gallon pail holds 30 lbs of whole eggs and it takes a pail and a half for one batch of dough. The dough boy popped the top off two pails, made his batch of dough and when he opened up the next two pails the room just filled with this awful stench that literally made you gag. That is the closest I have come to throwing up at the plant since I was pregnant. Over half of the pallet of whole eggs had gone bad. Funny thing is that they weren't past their expiration date yet. The plant couldn't send them back because it is a perishable item so it's a cost that they had to "eat". The Quality Assurance Manager at the plant wanted to get the entire case order filled so she told the dough guy to chip frozen whole egg from the freezer into the batches. Well that doesn't work and they have tried to do it before and when they do that the dough doesn't stick and everything pops open and they just waste everything. The manager of the plant just told the QA to let it be and when the dough guy was done with the batch in the mixer, they would shut down and just leave early. The dough guy figured that since they weren't past expiration, the pails must have been defective. He doesn't think that the pails sealed correctly where the whole eggs were processed from.

OH WHAT A NIGHT

Last night Darren called me from work at 11:30 and told me that his altenator on his truck went out when he was giving a part-time employee a ride home. Since Cassie was in bed sleeping there wasn't much else that I could do except call over to my parents house. Thankfully my dad had company that was spending the night and they were still up. My dad and his friend ran a vehicle over to Darren so he had a ride home and my dad just drove Darren's truck to his place so it wouldn't be sitting out at the plant all night. Today, Darren checked his altenator and it was fine but the cause of the problem was the smog pump. No parts store had that piece on hand so he had to have one ordered and it should be in tomorrow so Darren will have my parents vehicle for another day or so until he can get that changed over. Stupid vehicles, if it's not one it's the other one. On Saturday coming home from Grandma Hanson's there was a terrible shaking in the car and a really bad grinding when we slowed down and pressed the brakes. Darren checked the car and the brake pads were bad and there was even metal shavings from how badly they were being worn down. Fortunately when Bumper To Bumper in DL closed, Darren was able to get them pretty cheap for the Buick and he put them on so now the car doesn't shake or sound as bad anymore. I can't hardly wait until the end of this week to find out if Darren gets that new job he applied for. If he does, he is going to be doubling his income and after bills are caught up we can buy that Dodge Grand Caravan that we have been looking at.

Monday, May 09, 2005

CASSIE'S FIRST INAPPROPRIATE WORD

Cassie has really started to talk and she will copy anything you say. We have been trying to watch our tongues around her because I'm afraid of what she will say and where we are when she says it. My mom came over again tonight to watch Cassie and she and I were talking about some stuff and my mom just happened to say "bull shit" and wouldn't you know...Cassie was right behind my mom, pointed up at Nana and said "bull shit" right back at her. It stunned me so much that I couldn't even react at first and Nana was so shocked that she slapped her hand over her mouth and started to laugh. I told Cassie that word was naughty and we don't say that but after a bit I had to laugh too because it was sort of cute. Now after that we are REALLY watching our language and what we say about people around her.

PRETTY NORMAL DAY

For Mother's Day I spent the entire day washing cloths at my mom's house. I got up with Cassidy at about 9:30 and waited until 11 when Darren got up. Darren took his shower right away as I got the cloths ready to be washed. We left the house a little after 1 and there was a Mother's Day dinner up at the Leeds community Center so we went to that. We just made it there in time to get our plates of food and then they started to put stuff away. Darren said that if he would have known when it was going to end he would have gotten up sooner but that's alright because we were still able to eat. Mike was at my mom's house for Mother's Day and later that afternoon my Aunt, her husband, her two children, and my Grandma all came out for a couple of hours. It was nice to see them but I didn't get to talk to them a whole lot. Cassie had fun playing with my cousins. When I got home I gave Cassie her bath, Mike came over to pick up his memory card for his camera and then he went home to Rolla. When Cassie went to bed I watched CSI and then went to bed. It was a good day, it would have even been better if it wasn't raining. Darren is thinking about taking a sick day on Thursday so maybe when I get off work we can do something in the evening.

Saturday, May 07, 2005

GRANDMA HANSON'S HOUSE

Today we ran up to Willow City to see Darren's folks. We got there around 1pm. Cassidy didn't take a nap on the way up there like I was hoping she would do, but she didn't. To my surprise she actually did very well. I thought she was going to get really crabby shortly after we got there but she didn't take a nap at all while we were there. She fell asleep in the car coming home though, we didn't even go out of Willow City before she fell asleep. When we got to Darren's mom's house, Deb treated us to dinner from the Willow City Cafe. His sister placed the order to go and went and picked it up so we didn't have to go anywhere after just getting there. The food was really good. Cassidy was just a sweetheart and boy does she like to entertain people. Cassidy sang the alphabet and she repeated letters from the alphabet back to auntie Missy all the way up to the letter M. Cassidy can also say ABCD and she can count 123 on her own. What a smart little girl. It was great to see Missy since we don't see her a lot. She lives in Bismarck and works at Cedric-Theels car dealership in Bismarck so she doesn't get home a lot. We didn't get to see Grandpa Dave very much because he was at the farm fencing. Grandpa Dave didn't come to the house until about an hour before we left. I feel bad that he didn't get to see Cassidy longer than he did. Yesterday Cassidy did get up early enough for us to go with my mom to Grand Forks. Mom picked us up about a little after 8am and we ran to a couple of banks in DL and then picked up my grandma before we left town. Cassidy did well in Grand Forks. I let her play on the grass at the hospital while I was waiting for my mom to come back out. Then we ran to Sam's Club and Cassie loved walking around that place! Then after Sam's mom gave me some money to run into Gordmans to see what they had for cloths for Cassie. I must say that I love Gordmans more than I do Target now. I saw one outfit that I absolutely had to have. There was a tank top made out of red bandana cloth with spaghetti straps and there was a pair of jean shorts with a red bandana belt to go with it along with a denim hat. It cost most of the money that mom gave me and after we picked up my grandma from the hospital and ate at Perkins we went to Target and then back to Gordmans. Back at Gordmans we loaded a shopping cart half full of cloths for Cassie. We have her whole summer wardrobe now including a swim suit. I will have her model some of the clothing and I will post them for you all to enjoy. My poor Grandma is starting to get "old". She really doesn't remember things anymore so it's hard to keep her up to date with stuff. Also, she misplaced some of her partials so she doesn't chew very well. When we were at Perkins it took us an hour just for my Grandma to eat and that's not including the wait for the drinks and food. My Grandma also tried to give Cassie soda when we were in Target and I have told her before that we do not give Cassie pop right now. There are a few other things that had happened but that stuff just happens to people when we all get old. I feel sorry for her because she can't keep up when we walk places and she gets tired fast. I wish it was possible for everyone just to age gracefully. I just hope that my mom and her brother and sisters don't have to put her in a retirement home anytime soon and that she can remain living on her own but with her mind and habits right now it is inevitable.

Peek-a-boo! Posted by Hello

I love the look on her face in this one but the pic is so blurry. Posted by Hello

Hop on Pop. Posted by Hello

Big hug. Posted by Hello

This button right here. Posted by Hello

GRANDMA SMELL MY FEET!! Posted by Hello

Here's Cassie and Grandma Hanson. This didn't turn out as I hoped it would.  Posted by Hello

Thursday, May 05, 2005

CIRCUS

Well, we didn't actually go to the circus but my dad did. He's a shriner and goes to those things and helps out if he can. I wish we could have taken Cassie. The circus was in Minot and dad said they had bear cubs they were taking pictures with. They were about three months old and dad said they were nothing but hair...how cute! Also, there was this fat lioness. She was a wuss but there was a Plexiglas cage that she stayed in. Dad said when people took their pics next to her, they took the pic in such a way that you couldn't see the glass and it looked like you were actually standing right next to her. There was also the pony and elephant rides. They didn't have monkeys or dogs though...that's kind of nice since that is the only things you see in Jose Coles Circus that comes to DL. Dad said he was selling Hershey candy bars for a buck. Inside the wrapper of some of the bars were stars. Depending on the color of the star, you got a prize. They ranged from little stuffed dogs to a free bicycle of their choice (worth $125) from any store of choice. He had a guy come over and buy 40 bars and didn't get one ticket, a lady came up next and bought 5 bars and got two stars! I think they sold $10,000 in bars. After things were done dad said he wanted a stuffed dog for Cassie. He picked out this really cute black and brown stuffy that looks like a rotweiler pup. Also, (all shriners have them) my dad got her a fez with her name on it! It's really cool! I think it's weird that he got one for his Grand daughter but neither of us three kids got one. I know... a lot of you are probably thinking that those little red hats are stupid looking but my dad has been at this a long LONG time and I am used to seeing them. I can't wait until I can get a pic of Cassie in her fez and my dad in his. I think that would be just an awesome pic. I will post the pics when I get them taken.

MAYBE

I might go with my mom to Grand Forks tomorrow if Cassie wakes up early enough. My Grandma has a doctor appointment and when she is at her appointment my mom was going to run around and do some shopping. There really isn't anything for toddler cloths around her so I would like to go with and hit Target and Gordman's for cloths. Cassie has been getting up around 7 and if she is up that early tomorrow I am going to call my mom and have her pick us up. If she sleeps past 7 my mom is just going to take off. It won't worry me too bad though because my mom, Cassie, and I went to Pamida in Rugby today and my mom bought Cassie 5 to 6 new summer outfits because they were having a clearance sale on most of their cloths. Darren has his physical tomorrow and I was thinking of visiting my brother but Mike has to go to Minot with two other reporters for the Star and then Saturday they have to go to Rugby for something and Darren wants to take the car to Harvey so that scratches that out. I may go into Leeds and visit Brandy Tracy and Billy Weixel for a bit tomorrow while Darren is gone. Saturday we are going to Willow City to visit Darren's folks because we haven't seen them in a while and it's nice to visit them...besides, when we are there Cassie gets a lot of Grandma time and I can relax a bit. I have no idea what we are doing Sunday. Sunday is Mothers Day and I don't know if Darren has anything planned or not. We really don't have money to do anything but I like surprises, even if they aren't "big". Something simple can be just as nice and shows how appreciated you actually are and the men haven't forgotten about us even though we may think so.

"PRECIOUS DOE"

I was just watching the FOX NEWS channel and I saw the most disturbing thing. A child was murdered by her mother and stepfather. The girl didn't want to go to be so the stepfather beat her and then kicked her in the head. The mother and stepfather let her lay on the floor as she slowly died. After she died, they cut off her head with pruning shears to easily dispose of the body. Oh my God! What kind of people are these! I can't think of anything that would make me want to kill Cassiy. After I gave birth, I had postpartum depression and there were times that I was worried that I would do something wrong and hurt her or myself, but there wasn't ANYTHING that made me want her dead. I feel very sad for this poor child. At least she is in a better place where she is truly loved.

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

READY FOR THE WEEKEND

This week has just been flying by! Tomorrow I have a bunch of orders for Tuesday that I am going to get started on. It's nice when people order things from the plant and keep it simple, but all these orders want pasta ranging from 1/2 lb to 2 lbs. Shitty thing is that all the product comes in 3 lb bags so I have to open them up, divide them, and weight them all out to make sure they are the proper weight and that is what takes all my time. Darren has a DOT physical in Harvey Friday at noon. That's pressure on him because he is short one guy at work this week so he has been getting in really late from work and Thursday is going to be a late night and he is concerned about not getting enough sleep before leaving for Harvey and he is also worried that some of the meds that he is taking for his back is going to show up negatively on his physical. We told him just to tell the doctor doing the physical about the meds that way they know about them and won't think it's drugs if the test comes back funny. Today I had a WIC appointment in Leeds, after the appointment I ran to the grocery store. After getting my groceries Cassie kept asking for milk as I was putting her in the car. It was getting to be around noon anyway so we went to the restaurant in Leeds to eat. We ran into Billy Wexiel and her son AJ there and after we finished eating we took the kids to the park to play for about 20 minutes and then I had to come home and put Cassie down for her nap. Grandma watched Cassidy again here at my house so I could work late. She took Cassidy outside for a while to play after I left for work. When I take Cassie outside, we let the dog run around because they like to play together but my mom doesn't let the dog loose because she thinks the dog won't listen to her. Cassie was trying to play with the dog today and he was hyper because he was still tied up and ended up knocking Cassie over into his water dish so Grandma had to bring her right back inside to change her cloths and they put her jacket in the dryer. I am really hoping that things go well for Darren on Friday. I know that this is another mystery thing and I will tell you all about everything when I can, but for know, we have to be careful because there are some people that we don't want to know what is going on just yet.

Monday, May 02, 2005

THE WEEKEND WAS A WASTE

Sunday afternoon around 2 we left for Minot, on our way there Darren took me through Harvey and I have to say I was pretty impressed with the town. There is actually a lot of stuff there for how small it is. We arrived in Minot around 5 and went right to Jeff and Jessica O'Rourke's place where we spent the night. Shitty thing was that the Mall closed that evening at 5 so we went to Target and picked up a few things. After we got done at Target we met Jeff and Jessica at Denny's and had supper then we all went over to Wal-Mart. Cassie had a wonderful time at the O'Rourke household. They have two dogs that are basset hound and labrador cross. They look just like basset hounds but they are black. One is pretty lean but the other one resembles a pig. All Cassie said the whole weekend was "PUPPY, PUPPY, PUPPY". The dogs actually did really good with Cassie after they got used to her. At first there was a lot of jumping but it didn't last too long. Monday at 10:30 I had my doctors appointment with Dr. Billings for my PCOS. Since I thought I knew where the building was, we left around a quarter after 10 for my appointment. We got to the building where I thought the OB/GYN office was but the guy at the information desk said that they moved to a different building just recently. So we went a block to another building that said OB/GYN on the sign. We stopped there and that wasn't the place either. We called the hospital and got the address for the new building and told them that we were driving around looking for it and we were obviously late for the appointment but they were nice about it. After driving around for another 20 minutes we found it...it was (and I am not joking) just six blocks from Jeff and Jessica's place. Right down the road infact, you didn't even have to turn off the main road leaving from their house, the freakin' road took your right past it. If I would have been paying attention while we were driving to the old location we would have saved ourselves a half hour. We ended up waiting another half hour (at least) in the waiting room and then another 20 minutes in the doctors office. When the doctor came in and checked over my records, he discovered the Devils Lake didn't send them any of my PCOS info from the clinic. So the doctor can't check, review, give me meds, or show me what was up with my ovaries until he gets the info. There are some blood tests that Dr. Billings wants and he is going to check with Dr. Petty to see if some or all the tests were done when I had the first blood draw back in March and is also going to request the ultrasound. If the tests weren't done, then I have to go back to DL for another blood draw then Dr. Billings will take a look at it and we will go from there. I asked him the main questions that I had on my mind and I didn't get everything answered and I didn't get everything out of the visit that I was hoping to, but the doc seemed to act like this really wasn't too big of a deal so that I just how I am going to handle it. He did, however, call in two prescriptions for me, one for Glucophage and one for a birth control pill. I am not supposed to fill them until we know for sure what I have though because it would be pointless to fill them if I don't have PCOS for sure. I am upset because we did all that basically for nothing. I wish DL would have transferred my files but there isn't anything that can be done about it. I will just have to wait to see tomorrow when I call DL to see if I have to go in for a blood draw or not.
 


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