WOO-HOO FOR WATER

YEAH! So everything is great and I now have water that I can cook, drink, wash cloths in, clean, and shower in. I have the washing machine going right now, I was told to cycle the washing machine 3 to 4 times before I actually washed good cloths in it. I put some Iron Out in the first load cause the drum is a little rusty from the well water. I am not used to good water pressure so I am a little scared to take a shower tonight cause I am afraid that it might hurt. The bill wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be and I think we can split the bill with my parents but I will have to check with Darren on it. It didn't take too long for the rural water to be put in. Everyone showed up around 2:15 pm and they were gone by 3:45. I have some pics from all the work below...enjoy them...there is a really good one down there that I am going to dedicate as my HNT pic. Even though it's not a pic of me, I still think it should count. What do you think Mr. Toast??

One really tired Cassie watching Dora the Explorer but there is no sense trying and put her down for a nap since the rural water work is about to begin. 

A man from All Seasons Water getting ready to put in the meter and set it as soon as all the backhoe and pipe work is complete. 

The guys scoping out the yard getting ready for work. 

Cassie was totally focused on the backhoe when she heard it start up. I think she watched the backhoe at for for at least a half hour before she got down from the chair I put infront of the door for her. 

Cassie and I watch as the guys start on ripping apart my yard. 

Half of my front yard ripped up by the backhoe....oh well, at least I'm getting my water. 

HA! A true plumbers crack!! Sorry, I just couldn't resist posting a pic of that!! 

The last step of the whole process was the guys from All Seasons Water in Bottineau hooking up the meter and then opening the valve to the rural water line. 

I AM STARTING TO GET ANNOYED

God is teaching me patients today. The guy still isn't here to start digging my rural water and he say yesterday that he would be here in the morning to do it. He better be dead because that is the only excuse that I am going to except if he doesn't show up today.

But hey, when you have gone 4 years with bad water what's another week right?!?!

I SHOULDN'T HAVE WORRIED

I don't think 5 minutes when by after my last post and the gentleman who is doing my water called. He was 3 minutes from the house. When he got here, he took a quick look at everything and said that he would plug in the backhoe here at our place and then they would come back right away tomorrow morning and do everything. That's fine with me, at least they did show up and the backhoe is in my yard so they have to come back for it before they start anything. They will be done before Head Start shows up at 3:30. Since they can't do anything this evening it at least gives me the chance to go to my mom's house and wash Cassie's stuff tonight cause I can get all her stuff clean in one load. Then after Head Start tomorrow, I can go to my mom's and then get mine and Darren's laundry done. I am sooooo excited. I know I have said this a 1,000 times but once you live with crappy water that is only good for washing dishes and bathing in, and you are tired of dragging your dirty laundry everywhere (literally) You really appreciate small things like that. If any of you own a well, I pray that it's a good one and not like ours. I can't wait to finally use my washing machine that hasn't been touched in 4 years. Now I can kindly ask Darren and my mom for some cool diaper covers that I will use when the baby gets here.

This is a wonderful site to see. Even if the backhoe is right in my front yard, I am happy to see it. 

GETTING WORRIED

I'm starting to get a little worried. The guy hasn't shown up yet to start on our water. I hope that he is still coming. When I talked to him last night he said that he would be here today. It's going to start getting dark soon and I don't know if he is going to have lighting equipment with him or not. He better no blow me off without calling the tell me he has to wait until tomorrow.

I absolutely hate businesses that can not keep people informed on what's going on. If you tell me you are going to be at my place then you better damn well come, otherwise call me at a decent time, not 9 pm, and say "um, yeah, we aren't going to get there today (no shit, it's already dark) so it's going to have to wait until tomorrow". I have a total lack of respect for a business that can't hold it's end of a business deal. That reflects pretty poorly on the business.

I think what really upsets me about the whole thing is that I have stayed home all day waiting for this guy when I have had things outside of the home that needed to be done. Number one being going to my parents place and doing my laundry. I didn't want to be gone when the guy got here cause he more than likely will need to get inside the house after the stuff outside is finished. I have Head Start for Cassie tomorrow so I won't get to my parents tomorrow until after 5 pm.

I could wait until Thursday but my cloths really need to be washed and Cassie has been going through hers like candy. Friday is a possibility too cause I am watching Carson for Brandi until about 3 pm. I will have to see.

I am just hoping that the dude shows up today as promised

WATER

If I was a native american I would do a Happy Rain Dance. I wouldn't be embarrassed to don the whole rain dance outfit...moccasins, robes, bells, head dress and all and I would do it in front of everyone that drove by my house.

Since Darren is gone all week and my dad is STILL stuck in Minneapolis because of the weather, when the gentleman gets here tomorrow to dig the trench for our water he is just going to do the whole thing so we don't have to worry about it. My mom and dad are going to help us pay for some of the cost that it's going to take for him to do everything. I called the gentleman today to make sure he was still coming and he said yes and it wouldn't be a problem for him to do everything because he is doing two water hookups in Leeds before he comes here to York so he will have everything with him anyway.

It's going to be so nice to have my water by the weekend!!!

And call me crazy but I am kind of excited to do the whole cloth diaper thing. Darren wanted me to try it so we wouldn't have much of an expense when the baby is born and I told him I would IF we had rural water by then. I found this really cool site(wigglewormbottoms.com) that is a cloth diaper site and you can even custom make your own diaper covers from cloth that you can view on the site and there are many pretty patterns that I would like to get. People don't think I will do cloth diapers very long....but that's what most of my friends said about me nursing Cassie too and I am very proud to say that Cassie never had to have formula.

COLD DAY

I was going to go over to my mom's house to wash cloths today but with how cold the wind is and with the light mist that froze to everything during the night, I don't want to chance having an accident on the road so I think Cassie and I might just hang out and watch TV today.

My mom called yesterday afternoon around 4 pm. They were still in Minneapolis. They were getting ready to go to church yesterday with my sister and my mom's Jeep died on the way to the church so my dad had to walk a couple of miles to an open gas station and have a tow truck come and get the Jeep. They found a mechanic place that was open and they were still waiting for the Jeep to get done. What a bummer. At least it happened in the city and not out in the middle of nowhere. My mom said that she called work and told them she wouldn't be to work on Monday and they were going to leave Monday morning. I told her to check The Weather Channel online cause during the football games they were announcing a bunch of really bad weather for the Grand Forks, Fargo/Moorehead, South Dakota, and Minnesota areas and it might not be a good idea for them to leave because they will be driving right into it.

My mom called me later in the evening and said that they checked the weather out and it's supposed to be really crappy around those areas today so they just might spend another night in Minneapolis at my sisters and not come home until Tuesday. She spoke to my uncle in Fargo, cause they dropped off Grandma at their house on they way to Minneapolis, and my uncle told them it was REALLY bad in Fargo already with all the freezing rain. The rain pretty much turned everything into a sheet of glass and people were in the ditches all over the place and it was only going to get worse with the weather today. With the roads the way the are, if they do get a foot of snow, and if the winds do gust up to 40 miles per hour like they are supposed too....that's a blizzard and I would rather have them in Minneapolis where they are safe than try to come home in it.

I have the DVD's of the old Rankin/Bass holiday classics that you see on TV a lot around this time of the year so I think it's a perfect day to dig them out and watch a few of them. Cassie really likes Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer anyway so it will be fun. I am even going to make some popcorn and some hot chocolate for the both of us to snack on while we watch the movies. I will put something in the oven for lunch that takes a little while to bake so I won't have to worry about getting up to make lunch during the shows and maybe even later Cassie and I will bake some cookies after her nap.

THE TAG

Young children from babies through toddlerhood find absolute comfort in the smallest and sometimes oddest things. Mothers, even when we know how weird the items are, let our babies have these items because it's the only thing that may keep your child calm and let us keep our sanity. Whether it's a short car ride to run errands or a 7 hour car trip that takes them across two states, this one item can make a terrible trip very pleasant.

For a shower gift back in August 2003 before Cassie was born. A family friend gave me a very cute white fleece blanket that is covered in colorful pastel teddy bears. This blanket became Cassie's security blanket and not because of the teddy bears, but because of the tag that was sewn to one corner of the blanket.

When she was rocked to sleep, fussy, or crying because she hurt herself Cassie would find the tag and rub it gently across her face and over her nose. It brought instant calmness to Cassie. The first thing she will ask for when she gets into her car seat is her blankie (and then the nook) and when you give her the blanket she will turn it around and around until she comes to the corner with the tag and she will start rubbing the tag on her nose and we can drive for hours.

She gets upset when we wash the blanket. She's constantly looking for it and asking where the blankie is. Sometimes she gets so upset that she will even cry and check the dryer several times to see if the dryer is running and her blankie is still in there.

Today one of the worse things possible happened and I blame it all on my mom (well, I don't hold her totally responsible but I have to give her grief about it because she said it). A few weeks ago Cassie was having a bad moment cause she was waiting for her blankie to get out of the dryer. The dryer soon quit and I gave Cassie the blankie and she immediately hunted for the tag. My mom, watching from the dining area said, "Boy kid are we ever in trouble if that tag ever falls off your blanket". And that is exactly what happened.

Cassie was watching Tarzan and running the tag from her blankie through her hands. I was on the couch behind her and I heard this faint snap sound and new right away what it was. Cassie sat up, looked at the tag in her one hand and then checked out the corner of the blankie in the other. She turned around to face me and said, "mommy I broke it" and she started to cry. It wasn't a little fussy cry, it was a loud sobbing/gasping cry and her eyes were big and her face was just soaked from her huge little tears. She came over to me, threw the tag on my lap, handed me the blankie, and told me to fix it. I wasn't sure what I was going to do because I don't sew. I don't even have a simple sewing repair kit in my home. No thread, not a needle....nothing...but I knew something had to be done otherwise the situation was going to get really bad.

I had a pair of slacks that I had a small safety pin in so I went to my dresser and dug the lacks out and pinned the tag back to the corner. I apologized to Cassie because that was the best mommy could do but we would take the blankie to Nana's on Monday and Nana could fix it for Cassie when Nana got home from work. The pin worked, at least she stopped cryin, Cassie was very puzzled by the safety pin and she checked that over for a little bit but then got used to it and now she is happy again because her blankie is fixed.

Now I just hope that something doesn't happen to it until Monday.

A GOOD TURKEY DAY

Thanksgiving was pretty relaxed. I made a turkey breast, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, green beans, home made buns, and an Andes mint cream pie. It all turned out a lot better than I thought it would since this was the first time I had prepared Thanksgiving dinner myself. My brother stayed for a few hours and then headed back to Rolla because he had an article to write for the paper. Darren stayed until about 9:30 and then went back to Harvey. He said that it stopped snowing at Esmond and there still isn't any snow in Harvey at all. I wish we didn't have the snow we got yesterday, I don't know how bad that's going to effect getting my rural water. I have a guy coming out to dig the trench on Tuesday so I am hoping that I can call my dad and we can get everything connected the same day so I don't have to worry about my well freezing. If my well freezes while we are doing the work for the rural water, I won't have water at all and we will have to find a place to stay until the well unfreezes...which could take until spring.

CLEANING AND A LITTLE VISIT

Mike is coming done from Rolla to celebrate Thanksgiving with us since nobody from our family or Darren's is going to be around. I really cleaned the living room and our bedroom (since the bedroom is the only room with a working toilet) and I have started on my kitchen and my just finish it up tomorrow morning after breakfast.

My mom made some fresh home made buns yesterday and sent three packages home with me...one bag for Mike, one for us, and one for our neighbor down the road. My mom called me on her way to Minneapolis and said that she left two bags of buns on her counter for Tanya Broden's parents and I could run them over to them. I had to run to town after EHS to get milk so I stopped and grabbed the buns. Everyone was home at the Broden's except for Tanya's sister Tiffany. Cassie and I stayed for about two hours just talking and laughing with Tanya's parents. Cassie spent most of her time chasing one of Tiffany's little kittens named Dexter and we had some good laughs over that too....thank god animal babies are tough!! I also think that Cassie has a crush on Tanya's brother Justin. I know that Cassie is only 2 but she remembered who Justin was from the last time we saw him two weeks ago. She kept saying "Hi Justin" and smiling, she wanted him to sit next to her on the couch in the living room, and when Just made himself a peanut butter sandwich with one of my mom's buns Cassie wanted on too. The surprising thing is that Justin did make her one too and she finished the WHOLE thing while sitting with Justin in the kitchen. I have never see Cassie eat an entire bun, especially with peanut butter on it. She was such a little flirt, but it was cute. Marcie (Tanya's mom) even said she was flirting too!! We didn't talk about Tanya and it was actually very nice to just have a normal conversation without feeling so terrible. It was really great to laugh and hear stories of what has been going on. Marcie told Cassie to come and visit again soon and I think I just might have to hold her up on that offer.

I was very surprised during the night last night. I don't think Cassie fell out of her bed once. I checked on her twice, once around 1:30 am and again around 4:00 am and she was in her bed both times I checked and Cassie was back in my room right on time to wake me up at 8:30. She was a little more quiet about it this time but she did keep peering over Darren's side of the bed and saying "get up mommy" until I started moving. I was dead to the world and I didn't even hear her come across the kitchen like I normally do so she did startle me a bit. I am waiting for the day when she learns all the correct buttons on the remote and she just turns on cartoons and watching them instead of coming to wake me up. And since I never noticed her out of her bed last night, I am hoping that she finally figured out her boundaries on her bed and won't fall too very often anymore.

BOMB THREAT

The only thing exciting to happen today was some dumb kid at the Leeds High School said that he/she was going to bring a bomb to school and blow up the school tomorrow. The student, from what I heard was taken to Devils Lake and school for Leeds High tomorrow has been canceled. All the students are going to have to make up the lost day on December 22nd, which would have been the first day of their Christmas vacation. I don't know if the student was male/female, how old, or in what grade. All I know is that this student's last name is Strand and used to go to one of the Devils Lake schools and got into trouble in Devils Lake. In Leeds, with the population of around 150 people, I doubt that would happen but now days with everything you hear on the news I guess you just never know.

A HISTORY LESSON

Have a history teacher explain this----- if they can.

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.

Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.
Both wives lost their children while living in the White House.

Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.
Both Presidents were shot in the head.

Now it gets really weird.

Lincoln 's secretary was named Kennedy.
Kennedy's Secretary was named Lincoln.

Both were assassinated by Southerners.
Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson.

Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.

John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839.
Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.

Both assassins were known by their three names.
Both names are composed of fifteen letters.

Now hang on to your seat.

Lincoln was shot at the theater named 'Ford.'
Kennedy was shot in a car called ' Lincoln' made by 'Ford.'

Lincoln was shot in a theater and his assassin ran and hid in a warehouse.
Kennedy was shot from a warehouse and his assassin ran and hid in a theater.

Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.

And here's the kicker...

A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe, Maryland.
A week before Kennedy was shot, he was with Marilyn Monroe.

Creepy huh?

SOMETHING TO POST

I am getting ready to go get my glasses in Devils Lake, then I am thinking about stopping at Wal-Mart quickly to get and item or two as Christmas gifts. I HATE going into Wal-Mart after Thanksgiving and until Christmas Day is over. It's a fricken zoo in there and there is so many people it takes forever to get through the isles and to check out, even with the self checkout lanes, I HATE IT...I HATE IT...I HATE IT. As you can tell, I'm not a big crowd person. I would like to go to more concerts than I have, but I don't go because of all the people that are there.

Then after Wal-Mart I am thinking about stopping at Hardee's and getting a charbroiled chicken club for myself and a cheese burger slammer for Cassie. I am totally addicted to those chicken club sandwiches that I get one almost every time I go into Devils Lake. It's getting just as bad as having to stop at the Liquid Bean for coffee. Which I am going to have to stop doing soon because I want to try and cut out all the caffeine that I can before Birth Day. And those little slammers are a perfect size for Cassie.

Then I will stop at my mom's house on the way home so we can eat our lunch and I can finish putting the lights on her Christmas tree. Then I will have to come home so that I can watch Nip/Tuck (I am so pissed cause I missed last weeks extended episode) and I also have to clean the house a little because EHS comes over too and then Darren will be home tomorrow night sometime.

We finally found a building that we can use for a barn...right here in York in fact...so all the out of town looking seemed pointless. The guy we sold Tango to has been starting to saddle break him and said that he is going to turn out to be a great little horse and the guy likes working with him and since we gave him a good deal on the horse he said that we could have a grainery that is right next to his big stock barn. It's big, so it might take a bit to move and we will have to try and do that now too before it freezes. My dad called me today and said that he ran into another farmer that we called about an old chicken coop. The farmer asked dad if we still wanted the building and dad said that we found one and the guy told that that he could just take that one too because all he was going to do was burn it down anyway. So....now we have two buildings that can be used as barns...wow, why does everything need to get done all at the same time? I don't know moving two buildings, getting rural water connected, and getting the inside of the house ready for baby are going to get done in a month or less! Please pray for me cause I am going to need it this fall!!!

MERRY FREAKIN' CHRISTMAS

I feel bad for all the employee's of GM. GM is laying off 24,000 employees and the ones that do get to say are in jeopardy of their $24/hour salary dropping to only a mear $7/hr. More people are buying less expensive foriegn hybrid cars that are cheaper in fuel instead of trucks and SUVs. I don't blame america for doing so because that's the same reason why we bought a Impala instead of a Dodge Caravan like we were going to. Rumor has it that Ford is shortly behind GM in making a similar decision with it's own company. What a pretty shitty deal for a company to do right before December.

CASSIE AND A CHRISTMAS TREE

Lastnight was the first night since Cassidy started sleeping in her toddler bed that I got a full night sleep...and I loved it. I heard her fall out of bed once before I went to bed so I tucked her back in and then I went to bed. I got up around 2:30 to use the bathroom and figured I should check on her since I was up. When I went into her room, she was on the floor sleeping in the fetal position right next to her bed. That just proved to me that it really doesn't hurt her when she falls out of bed. Either that or she is just getting used to it and it doesn't wake her up anymore.

In the morning I woke up to her squealing in her room. She was playing with something but I don't know what yet. I decided to lay in bed jsut to see what she would do. Not a minute later and I heard her go through the kitchen and she was heading to my bedroom. I pretended like I was still a sleep and she came to the edge of my bed and whispered "mommy". I didn't say anything and then all of a sudden Cassie shouted "WAKE UP! IT'S MORNING!" I had to laugh. So now when she wakes up she will probably come to my room just to make sure that she isn't in the house alone.

This afternoon I went to my mom's house to wash cloths and while I was there I started to put the lights on her Christmas tree but I have to admit that I didn't get far at all. My glasses came in at the eye clinic in Devils Lake so in the morning I am going to go into town and pick them up so on the way home I am going to stop at my mom's and finish putting the lights on her tree. When it's finished I will have to take a pic of her tree because she has one of the most beautiful Christmas trees once it's all together.

VINKINGS BEAT THE PACKERS AGAIN!

No one will really care about this except for maybe Karissa, whom is probably doing a happy dance right now. I just caught the last 26 seconds of the Packers/Vikings game on TV and the Packers, AGAIN, lost to the Vikings by a last moment field goal. Poor Kevin...now his beloved Packers are going to be rated lower than the Vikings. And Billy, that goes for you too!

BUSY WEEKEND

My weekend has been busy. Saturday Darren, Cassidy, and I ran into Devils Lake to do some shopping and get a few odds and ends taken care of. Then on the way home, we stopped in Leeds and rented 4 videos (National Treasure, Meet the Fockers, Taxi, and Hostage) which were all really good shows. We got through National Treasure and meet the Fockers but Cassie was having a rough night and fell out of bed a few times and the last time it took her a little bit to get back to sleep so I didn't get out of Cassie's room until 2:30 am and I couldn't stay awake to watch anything else.

Cassie didn't get up again until 8 am which is really close to the normal time she wakes in the morning. I haven't had any problems with her getting out of bed at night and running around the house. She stays in her nursery and calls for me if there is a problem. She also stays in bed in the morning and she will call out,"Mommy" until I come in her room, then she will ask if she can get out of bed which is really cool.

Sunday we watched Taxi after breakfast and Cassie played with her toys in the living room for a while and then when Cassie went down for her nap Darren and I watched Hostage (which is a really kick ass film) and after Cassie woke up, we all left for Harvey. Darren had Cassie and I follow him to Harvey so that we could go out and eat supper with his roommate. I guess Darren wanted him to meet the family. Cassie and I didn't stay long, we ate, then went to the place that Darren and his roommate share, and then came home. We didn't get in until a quarter to 10 tonight. Cassie fell asleep on the way home and stayed sleeping when I put her in bed. She has only fallen out of bed once since I layed her down. Normally she falls about of bed about twice a night but she pretty much stays sleeping and I just go into her room, pick her up, and put her back in bed and then I lay down unless she wakes up while I am putting her back in bed.

Well, because I am so drained from this weekend. I really need to get some form of sleep before, or if, Cassie falls out of bed again cause I don't know how long it will keep me up when it happends. Night Y'all.

FRIDAY EVENING

I couldn't find the energy to finish all the cleaning that I wanted to, so around 5 pm Cassie and I ran to Leeds to get milk and stop at my mom's.

When we got to my mom's, she surprised me with one of the first purchases for the baby. She bought the flannel ABC blanket that I was eyeing at the Craft & Bake sale at the hospital. She also got some cloth books for Cassie but we are going to save one for Christmas. Also, my mom ordered a new artificial Christmas tree from some fake tree company and that also came today so I put it up for her because I wanted to see what it was like and it's really REALLY nice.

So far, so good on the toddler bed. Cassie has been sleeping for the night for a few hours now and I haven't heard her get out of bed or hit the ground. Just to make sure she had a soft landing if she fell, I layed out a few blankets on the floor after she fell asleep. Tonight I sat by her bed and I don't think it took 10 minutes and she was sleeping so I think she's adjusting well.

After watching Cassie sleep in her big girl bed, I got to thinking how fast she is growing and she's only 2 years old. She can talk in sentences, she lets me know what she needs weather it's juice, cookies, a movie...., she can drink out of a cup, she uses her fork/spoon/and knife, she can undress herself, she brushes her teeth, washes her hands, she loves to feed the dog by herself, she can get in and out of her car seat without help, and the list goes on. She's so independent that I feel a little sad sometimes cause I am not sure if I am ready for her to be so "big". In another year, she won't need me for anything other than fix her meals, fill the tub with water, and make sure her cloths are clean. However, it's going to be really nice when the baby is here and I keep telling myself that, yes, I do want her to be so grown up. It's just been amazing to watch her grow and I have loved every moment of it.

CASSIE'S NOW IN A TODDLER BED

I finally got Cassie's toddler bed in her room. My only problem now is that no matter where I put the bed, the bed goes across and outlet and I am worried that Cassie may play with them during the night while she's in bed. There are outlets on all four walls and the outlets are right in the middle of the wall so no matter where I put the bed, there is an outlet in the way.

If I could place just the headboard against the wall I wouldn't have a problem but since Cassie has to adjust from crib to bed, I want to make sure the bed is against a wall to help keep her in the bed and she can only roll off one side.

I called my mom at work and she is going to pick up some of those outlet safety caps and I am going to try those. I just hope that Cassie can't pull them out by herself. If she does, then I am at a TOTAL loss of what to do next.

I am also paranoid about the middle of night. I am worried that she will get out of bed and run around and I won't hear her until she gets hurt or something. I hope that she adjusts quickly and I don't have many problems with her getting out of bed.

Well, Cassie is tired and getting ready for a nap. I am going to grab a few books, maybe many, and take her to her room and sit next to her bed and read to her cause reading always helps relaxes her before bedtime. I know that when she falls asleep I am going to check on her 100 times to make sure nothing happends. Good thing about a toddler bed is that they are only about 6 inches from the ground.

CLEANING

I was staring at my blog just listening to the new music video that add and I noticed that I totally snubbed KSoFM on my "Blogs I Read" list. I didn't mean to do that at all. I swear I thought it was there. If anyone else noticed, yeah, I like the guy and I didn't mean not to list him. I will have to work on that and try to remember how to do it again.

Today went by fast. I got some super cleaning done in my house. Now if I can just get all the junk out of the back room and get all of Cassie's toys back there so they are not in my living room any more I should be good to go until the baby gets here. I would rather have all the toys in the far back room where no one goes cause if it's a real mess it's no big deal cause nobody goes back there anyway when we have company over and to hide it all I have to do is shut the door. I wish all of life's problems were as easy as closing a door!!

Tomorrow I have to run to my mom's house cause I forgot my box of baby wipes there. I had to open a new package at home and put them in a tuperware container so they wouldn't dry out. I also have to go to the store and get some milk. Cassie and I have been flying through milk lately.

My mom called and said that all her buns sold out right away and by 9 am there weren't many cookie trays left either so when she got home she started making MORE buns to take tomorrow and she was going to throw together another 20 cookie trays. By the way it sounds, she isn't going to come home with much if she comes home with anything at all.

I WANT TO GIVE MY NEIGHBOR GOLD FOR CHRISTMAS

My neighbor (Randy Silliman) that lives right across the railroad tracks from us called me tonight about 3 minutes after I walked in the door. He wanted to know if I called a company in Dunseith about using a backhoe to dig our ditch for the water line to connect our rural water. I told him no but I had planned on doing it tomorrow. He told me not to worry about calling them because he said the company was over at his house today drilling his rural water and when they were finished he told them that I needed someone with a backhoe just to dig out our yard. The company told Randy that they have a bunch of people around here that need backhoe work done anyway and they would be back tomorrow with their backhoe so Randy showed them where we lived and told them that it's not a big area, only about 35 feet, and they put our house on their list. Randy was basically calling to say that if someone showed up at my door in the next few days with a backhoe to dig, I wasn't supposed to turn them down. I was so happy that I wanted to cry. I had called Randy last week to get the company telephone number but I could never get a hold of the boss. I was so worried that I may not get water by the time the ground froze and now it looks like it may happen after all. My nights of endless praying for some help with my rural water were answered. Now, I just hope that the weather stays decent enough for the company to come back this week. Sometimes with contractors when they tell you "oh, in the next day or two" they actually mean weeks not days.

If they do show up and start digging, I am going to have to get a hold of my dad really fast and buy the pipe we need to connect everything right away so that the power and water won't be turned off in the house for a long period of time. I hope that I won't have to stay at my parents place for more than a day or two before the water is actually connected and able to use.

I am so thankful that my neighbor was kind enough to think of me while those contractors were at his place today. He could very possibly be the difference in actually getting water this year or having to wait until spring. If I do get my water connected in the next week, I really wish I could send Randy gold for Christmas. A few painted rocks will have to do.

TODAY

Today I ran some more baked stuff to the hospital for my mom so that she didn't have a whole bunch of stuff to take with her in the morning to work. The sale begins tomorrow at 6:30 am and goes until 8 pm. The sale also goes on Friday but I can't remember how long. While I was there dropping off my mom's stuff, I took a peak at the stuff that the staff had already set out for tomorrow. There was a lot of baked stuff but nothing that looked as good at my moms. There was a pumpkin bread with cream cheese filling roll that looked really yummy that I might have to have my mom pick up so we can try. Someone also had a fleece baby blanket that was white and covered in pastel ABC's that I would like to have for the baby. There was also this really nice car seat cover that had trains on it and if I knew we were having a boy I would have my mom pick it up, but we don't know what we are having so I don't want to buy it if we have a girl. Darren's grandfather worked for the railroad and so did my grandfather and uncle so I thought if we had a boy we would go with a train theme and that car seat cover would have been perfect...we will have to see. Maybe if we do have a boy, my mom can talk to the lady that makes them and have another made for us.

I also ran by Ramsey 1 Hour Photo to see April for a quick moment. It thought that was the least that I could do since I scared the hell out of her when she was going on her lunch break yesterday. Yesterday I was driving by her place of work and I honked the horn as she was coming out the door and I saw her jump and mouth the words "OH MY GOD!" then she recognized me and started to wave.

After seeing April I ran to Leevers and bought some cheese balls for my mom. She is supposed to take a cheese ball to work tomorrow for something but with all the baking she didn't have time to make one so she sent me with some cash to pick them up.

I am really tired and my butt is dragging. I hope that Cassie really sleeps in tomorrow because I am just burnt out lately. I hope to get some house cleaning done early tomorrow and then just waste the day watching movies and doing stuff with Cassie.

EYE AND DOCTOR APPOINTMENTS

My eye exam went well, however, the optometrist said that I have a moderate amount of stigmatisim in one eye and that's why I have problems with newspaper print and have trouble seeing at night or when the sky is grey. He gave me a prescription to help correct the stigmatisim and since contacts don't really do anything for a stigmatisim I got glasses. I should have them in 7 to 10 days.

I saw two old friends from high school when I was there too. One of them is working at the eye clinic in Devils Lake now so I got to talk to her for a while and she even helped me find a pair of glasses that, believe it or not, look really good on me and they are even covered by my Medicaid.

The doctors appointment wasn't bad. I had the option of eating just 65 jelly beans or eating 15 jelly beans with a can of coke. Well there was no way in hell I was going to be able to choke down 65 jelly beans without anything to drink so I opted for the 15 beans and can of coke. The blood draw was terrible. The nurse that always draws my blood wasn't there and a nurse that I wasn't used to had to do it. She poked my left arm with the needle and only a small amount of blood came out so she started moving the needle back and forth a bunch of times and was going to work the needle in a little further. This went on for about 3 minutes and I finally told her that she had to stop cause my whole entire elbow started to burn terribly. When she poked my right arm she got the vein right away and didn't have a problem. Needless to say the inside of my left arm is bruised pretty good and sore. I hate it when they have to poke you more than once.

A VERY LATE NIGHT

My apology to KSoFM. Should have had the common sense to know that he didn't care for the WWF wrestling style when nothing was on his blog that evening about something that happened in the early morning of the same day. If it was a sport that he cared about, he would have been right on top if it as usual (and that's why I like his site :) ), plus he has NEVER posted anything remotely close to WWF on his blog. I'm sorry. I just assumed and that was wrong.

Today I have been helping my mom all day get her baking together. We have busted our butts, it's 2:30 in the morning, Cassie has been sleeping since 10 and we are still going at it. I am dead tired and hope that we and stop sometime soon cause I have to go into town tomorrow for an eye and doctor appointments. Since my first appointment is at 1 and we are supposed to get more bad weather (and I have a little shopping to do) I need to get to town early and be home before the bad weather hits...which is supposed to start around 4 pm.

Cassie was also jumping on my mom's couch. This doesn't bother us cause she does it all the time, but she was coming down from the couch and I don't know if she caught her foot on something or if she slipped but she fell face first into my mom's coffee table and banged the bottom of her chin on it. Cassie's chin turned black almost immediately and she had a pretty good scrap under her chin that only bled a little bit. I felt so bad but she will heal and in 5 minutes she forgot about the whole thing.

I better get back to the cookie trays if I want to get to sleep anytime soon.

EDDIE GUERRERO

I just heard on the news that WWF Wrestler Eddie Guerrero passed away this morning in a hotel room in Minneapolis. No cause of death yet had been determined. I don't know much about the guy other than he leaves behind a wife and two daughters. KSoFM may post more about him.

A POST FOR THE GUYS

This is actually a post for the guys that read my blog, so I guess it's really for Doug and KSoFM.

If you got mad because Karissa/Mrs. KSoFM bought a box of sundae cups and some pushups for the little one, would you go out and buy a holiday ice cream tin and then an Andes mint ice cream pie for yourself?

If Karissa/Mrs. KSoFM was working on potty-training and they realized at the same time the little one was ready for a toddler bed, would you tell her not to worry about the toddler bed (even though there is another baby on the way and you don't want another crib in the house) and just stick with the potty-training so that you don't have to buy diapers for both kids and refuse to fix a broken toilet? And tell her all these things on how she should do it and then not help?

Would you demand Karissa/Mrs. KSoFM that you put up your second child for adoption because they obviously can't take care of the one that they have just because they accidentally may have dropped the little one while trying to get cloths on them while she/he is jumping around and kicking?

Yeah, my day was terrible and that wasn't even a quarter of it.

DOCTOR, SNOW OUTFIT, AND COOKIES

My doctor appointment went well. I am 28 weeks. I totally can't believe that I only have 12 more weeks and I am done with the whole pregnancy bit. It's going to be really nice since I have started to get into that really fat and uncomfortable stage.

I start seeing my doctor twice a month in December. I have appointments on the 5th and 20th. I also go in this coming Tuesday and I have an eye appointment before the doctor appointment and I am really glad that my mom is off of work until Thursday so she can watch Cassidy for a few hours for me.

The other day when I was in DL, I got a cute little 4 in 1 jacket for Cassie along with some ski bibs, boots, and gloves (she already has a hat but I am going to have to find a scarf) and I couldn't have picked them up any sooner since we are getting snow today. I hope it doesn't last, but oh well if it does, it is the middle of November. One thing I haven't done is cut the tags off of everything because I remember the trouble Karissa had with Isabella's outfit, "she didn't fit" into her carseat with the outfit on so I want to make sure Cassie can ride in her carseat before I remove any tags...with the exception of her gloves and boots.

I have found a girls name that I like. I am going to run it by Darren when he gets home tonight. I am hoping he likes it cause if he does, then I can stop looking and I am getting tired of looking at baby names.

My mom and I started putting together her cookie trays for the bake sale this weekend. My mom wants to do 200 trays, each tray has 2 and 1/2 doz cookies, and I got 61 together today. So I went through 1,830 cookies and it takes 6,000 for all 200 cookie trays. I'm not even going to want to see another cookie until next year after getting ready for this bake sale. Plus, on Tuesday my mom is going to start making home made buns, wheat and white, and she makes any dozens of those too. I don't know how she can do it all. I like to make stuff, but I don't like it that much.

Sunday I am just hoping for a lazy day at home with the husband and Cassie. If Cassie wants to go walk in the snow, I think I will have her dad take her outside if he can get her into her bibs and new jacket.

GOT A LOT OF RUNNIN' TO DO

I need to get my butt in gear cause I have to take a shower and then get Cassie ready and take her to daycare so tha I can get to the doctors office by 4. I should also clean my house a bit before I leave too but I don't know if that's going to happen or not.

After my doc appointment I was thinking of running by April and Kevin's place but when I go there they are never home...wait, they were home ONCE. I don't know where they go cause there isn't anything to do in DL. I suppose they go to one of their parents place or something. I always go and visit my parents when I am bored. I also have to stop at the grocery store and cash my WIC check and pick up a few items while I am there too.

I don't know if I should start buying stuff for Thanksgiving or not because Darren hasn't said what we are doing yet. I would really like to cook something here at our house cause we always go up to Willow City every year. We would probably do Thanksgiving at my parents house this year but they are going to Minneapolis this year and we can't go since Darren only has the one day off. We will have to see.

I have been thinking about running by the cemetary again on my way to Devils Lake. The cemetary is only like 3 minutes off of HWY 2 and you drive right passed it going to town anyway. April will have to let me know when she wants to go because I can show her the way when she's ready. I'm not sure if I am going to stop if I go with Brandi and Carson, I don't know if Brandi will want to stop and she didn't really know Tanya all that well.

Well I better run and get some crap done before I jump in the shower. And, no Mr. Toast, there will be no HNF pics from the shower. Sorry.

AN AVERAGE DAY

Today we got a great surprise. Darren stopped by the house at around 10:30. He was covering a route for Reed because Reed is still in Minot and it just happened that the route Darren was on took him right by our house to some folks up by Hurricane Lake which is just north of York. Darren didn't stay longer than about 10 minutes cause he had to go, but it was still great to see him. The route took him all the way up to Rolla and Belcourt and he is spending the night in the hotel at Rolla and is going to get together with my brother when he got done with the route.

Then in the afternoon Cassidy and I went to my parents and, with my dad's help, moved the horses back here to York and got Tango over to Bob's barn. It was a little weird cause we took Tango to Bob's before we brought the other two home and the other two horses don't even miss him, they weren't neighing or looking for him. They just checked out their surroundings and started to eat the good grass left in the pasture.

Cassidy and I went back to Leeds with my dad and we stayed until my mom got home and we talked to her for about an hour and a half and as we were leaving their house, Brandi and her son Carson were coming out of Leeds and stopped us so the four of us went to the restaurant in Leeds. Then after supper Cassidy and I went to Brandi's house so the kids could play with playdough (thanks for giving Cassidy some playdough to take home!!) and then we had to come back because the Schwan man was coming and Cassidy didn't have much of a nap and was getting tired so I had to get her in bed early.

Tomorrow I have another doctors appointment...man, January 13th is coming up fast!!...and I might be going into town with Brandi and Carson which will be fun. I hope the appointment goes well.

I have also started my Christmas cards, really early I know, but if I don't start them now and get them in the mail by December 1st I will be too busy to get them out at all. So that means Darren, Cassidy, and I have to get our butts to Aprils place and take a family pic really soon cause I will need those to be put into the cards. For some reason the older relatives get really mad when there isn't a picture with their cards and letters.

YOU'RE IT

I have been tagged by Brandi to do this, I'm still trying to do Karissa's but that takes much deeper thought, so I tag April and Karissa.

Three Favorite Colors:
1. Blue
2. Red
3. Black

Three Truths About You:
1. I like being a mother
2. I can be lazy
3. I try not to get into confrontations with people

Three Things You Want Really Badly:
1. To not be in debt
2. I want to own a newer home
3. I want time to enjoy my horses like I used to

Three Things That Scare You:
1. To think God and heaven don't exist
2. If anything bad even happened to Cassie
3. Knowing that someday my parents will die

Three Everyday Essentials:
1. Rolaids
2. Coffee
3. Toilet paper

Three Favorite Songs at the Moment:
1. Cecelia by Simon and Garfunkel
2. Miss Me Baby by Chris Cagle
3. Who Wouldn't Wanna Be Me by Keith Urban

Three Things You Want in a Relationship:
1. Honesty
2. Respect
3. Love

Three Places You Would Love to Visit:
1. Australia
2. The Netherlands
3. A Caribbean beach somewhere

3 ways that you are stereotypically a dude/chick:
1. It takes me forever to get ready to go somewhere
2. I like to wear makeup
3. I am addicted to shopping

3 People You Talked to Last:
1. My mom
2. My dad
3. A lady that I used to live next door to in a trailer park in Devils Lake

3 Regrets:
1. Not finishing college
2. Every time I was dishonest with my parents when I was younger
3. Not being a good friend

Three Things You Want to do in the Next Few Years:
1. Take a vacation somewhere
2. See all of my debts paid off or at least a significant decrease in the amount owed
3. Have the trailer house and the truck paid off and maybe look at buying a new home

CONGRATS TO TOM AND JUDY FREUND OF CANDO

Tom and Judy (Judy is the daughter of the late Ole Solberg and he sister, Roxanne Gillespie lives just south of York) Freund became the proud parents of their third child on Nov 3rd! A little girl named Cecelia who was 8 lbs 2 1/2 oz and 20 1/4 inches long. This is their third little girl! Poor Tom and all the estrogen in his home, what's a man going to do?!?!

Cecelia Freund

...ALSO CONGRATS GO OUT TO...

Corey Nelson and Jacinda Schwan on the birth of there second child, a baby boy named Joseph Lee. He was born Nov. 7th in Devils Lake and he weighted 8 lbs and 4 oz and was 19 inches long. I can't believe that their little girl, Hannah, is already 5 years old. I remember working with Jaci when she was pregnant with Hannah and it doesn't seem right that she is already so old.

Joseph Lee 

HUNTERS THAT PISS ME OFF

One thing that really pisses me off is the senseless and useless killing of animals. Now I'm not saying that I am a hippie huggin' animal lover nor am I a registered member of PETA cause the Lord knows I am excited when Darren shoots the squirrels in our yard (fricken squirrels) and I have killed a bird or two when I was younger but what I saw today really pissed me off.

While my dad and I were putting the rest of the fence up around the slough, there were 6 dead geese and 1 duck thrown, just discarded, over the shabby fence and laying right next to the slough on our land. Someone just killed them and threw them away like nothing.

My husband is a hunter and that doesn't bother me because Darren doesn't shoot what he doesn't need. The geese and deer that he shoots we eat or he knows someone who would like to have it and gives it to them. He wouldn't just shoot something to kill it and then throw it away.

My dad thinks that it's a local person just shooting them to kill them and then getting rid of them because if Game & Fish caught him/her with them the would be in big trouble. The slough WAS a perfect spot to dump them because we weren't using it and ever went back there...until today. I don't know if it's local or out-of-state hunters, but either way it doesn't make it right and it still makes me mad.

FENCING, SOLD HORSE, AND A SHORT VISIT

I took Cassie to the sitters around 11:30 cause my dad and I were going to finish fencing here at my place to get the horses moved back. My dad had to run to town and ended up stopping at the bank and my mom got home from work before my dad got home so I really didn't need to take Cassie over to the sitters. I was bummed cause that was $10 in a sitter fee that I wouldn't have had to pay but thankfully my mom paid the sitter for me and on Thursday I am going to pay my mom the $10 back. My dad and I got to my house around 4:30 to finish the fence. I was surprised cause we didn't think we would get it done and there is only about an hours worth of work to be done and we are finished with the north half of the pasture. My dad wants to come over around noon tomorrow to burn out the slough and then we can finish the west half and we are done and the horses can be moved. I am hoping that we get started right away tomorrow and a sitter fee isn't wasted again. I'm not complaining about it though cause Cassie loves to go over there and play with all the other kids anyway so it gave her something to do for 6 hours.

Tango has become a real pain in the ass lately and he's started to get out over at my parents house so my mom made the decision to sell him. He's pretty and we would like to keep him but we can't keep a animal like that just cause he's pretty. My mom called my neighbor who raises horses, and he owns Tango's daddy, to see if we could keep him in one of his stalls in his barn if he wasn't using all of them until next Friday so we could take him to the horse sale in DL. The guy called me this morning and said that he would buy him from us instead of taking him to a sale because the price of young horses right now is just ridiculous. A yearling is going for $25 to $50 bucks right now at sale barns. The man offered a price that was better than a sale barn so we told him that Tango was his and I hope we can get Tango dropped off at the guys barn and then bring the mares over tomorrow when the fences are finished.

I went out to the cemetery today where Tanya was buried. It's been a week since her funeral. It was really cold outside so I didn't linger too long though I was there long enough to say what I would have told her if I would have seen her before she died and I left a few things behind. As I was leaving this young deer walked out of the tree line on the west side of the cemetery and started eating the grass. It was weird cause it wasn't scared of the car and just looked at me like "thanks for the visit" and then continued to eat. I know this is going to sound completely dorky but it was like a sign saying that she heard me, or she understood, or that she was even there. It was odd (and stupid I know) but it made me feel really good. It even made me smile.

A SCARY SITUATION

It's been a while since I posted pics of Cassie and I meant to post her Halloween pics before now but I've had so much going on lately that I haven't gotten around to it until tonight.

Darren left for Harvey around 9:00 pm tonight. He called me when he got to Harvey and said that when he got there, all the lights in the trailer were on but nobody was there. Reed, the guy Darren has been staying with, left him a note saying that by the time Darren read the note this guy would already be on his way to Minot to have himself admitted to the psych hospital because he felt that he was close to harming someone. He also left instructions for Darren to take care of his pets and also had a rifle and two shot guns laying out that Darren is supposed to take to a friend for him. Darren called his boss and then called the friend that the guns were supposed to go to. When Darren talked to the friend about the guns, he told Darren to maybe call the police to make sure that Reed made it to Minot without hurting himself. The police came over, took some info and the note. I guess it wasn't too much later and the friend called Darren back and said that Reed had called him and he was in Minot. Reed said that he just needed someone to talk to and he was thinking about coming home. The friend told him to stay and check himself in and do what needs to be done before coming home, they all were glad that he didn't hurt himself.

I can't imagine for Darren to go back to something like that. It would be scary. I worry that if Reed spaced out like that again that he may hurt Darren just because Darren is there, not that Reed would have anything against him or anything. Darren was worried after he read the note that he was going to find Reed dead somewhere and he wouldn't have known how to handle that if it happened. Thankfully everyone is okay and I hope Reed will stay and get the help that he needs and he won't be away too long.

TaDa! To perfect her bunny "costume" I used white face paint on her cheeks, I used a black liner pencil to make whiskers, and I mixed the red and white face paint to get a light pink color for the top of her nose. You can't see it good in the pic but she looked really cute. However, it didn't say on longer than 10 minutes because she kept rubbing her face. 

She's showing off her perfect bunny face with the pouty lips and scrunched up nose! 

Here's another cute face. I was trying to check blogs and she peeked at me from over the couch to get my attention. I like how you can see the reflection of us in the living room mirror. 

WHAT TO DO TODAY

I was talking to my mom about our colds and she told me to call the clinic and make an appointment to see our doctor on Monday and if our colds get better over the weekend we can just cancel our appointments. Well I called the clinic and the receptionist said she had one appointment around 4:30 on Monday and when I told her what was up and that both of us would probably have to come in, she said she was going to pull our file and have a nurse check it out because maybe they could squeeze us in today or Monday and a nurse will call me back later.

I don't know what we are really going to be doing today cause the snow really gathered. Cassie wants to go outside and walk in it but I don't want to let her since she has a cold. We may do some more cleaning in the back room but there's not a whole lot more I can do without Darren checking the stuff out.

And just when I thought I got over Tanya and I could talk about her and not cry but smile instead, on the 10:00 new last night they interviewed her dad and they were talking about the accident and how it should have never happened and that the hwys 19 and 281 are poorly marked and people from Minnewaukan have even been complaining because you can't see the signs. The state said it wasn't their fault because it was properly marked but in the last few days they have put up more signs that are better but the state says they did that because the road construction moved and not because of the accident. They are all asses. They are just making up excuses because someone died and they don't want to be responsible for it.

BORING DAY

I feel dumb, and I feel even worse after reading Dougs blog about people getting their shit right about songs and artists. The song Radios In Heaven isn't by A Change of Pace. It's by Plain White T's. I found that out when I tried to search for the song but couldn't find anything with that name by Change. And the song Calling All Angels is done by Jane Siberry with K.D. Lang (thanks to Billy Jo who told me). So anyway....


Today since it was snowing out I decided to work on cleaning out our back room. That room is ferocious and I try not to go back there if I can help it. There is shit everywhere. It's pretty much become one huge ass storage closet and since the baby is due in two months I figured that I better get my ass crackin' on it. I worked back there for about four hours and there is still a bunch of stuff that has to go (but Darren says he wants to look at it before I throw everything out) but I did clean enough out to get a dresser moved back there that has been sitting in my kitchen for four weeks.

I have been calling around and trying to get someone to dig out our yard so we can hook up to rural water but it seems like everyone is busy. My dad gave me the name of this guy in Cando and I have been trying to reach him but he doesn't answer his phone. Today Darren told me to call Johnson's Plumbing and Heating in Rugby just to see what it would cost of them to do everything cause Darren is busy so I called them and the guy wanted $250.00 just to dig the trench and for them to do everything would cost between $450 and $750. That's way to much for us so I am still trying to get a hold of the guy my dad suggested and it dawned on me that Darren's uncle works with someone that has a backhoe and sometimes they let Darren's uncle borrow stuff like that if he needs it so I called Darren's aunt and she is going to talk to her husband to see if he can borrow it. The bad thing is that it's opening of deer hunting this weekend and Darren's uncle is a huge hunter so I am not sure if he will make it out on a weekend or not...but I am still calling the other guy just in case.

Cassie and I are both sick. Now I have a stuffy nose, cough, and sore throat. Cassie has been sick for a week. I don't know how we got it but it doesn't seem like it wants to leave. I have a doctors appointment next Friday so if we are still sick by then, we are going to ask the doctor about it.