Blogger's Block - it is what it is...

For the first time in a long time I seem to have come up with blogger's block. I am used to getting scrapper's block when I just cannot seem to do anything with a scrapbook project, but this is something new to me. I guess things have been pretty uneventful around these parts lately and I just don't feel like doing a post on our new sink pipe put in by the plumber last week to the tune of two hundred bucks or on my Thursday adventures in St. John's Day Care although I could write a book on that subject if I was in the right frame of mind.
So, that being said I think I will just do a few thoughts on "it is what it is..."
President Obama and his stupid teachable moment and his Bud Lite-it is what it is...
The plumber's bill-it is what it is...
Rain again on the weekend-it is what it is...
School rooms-it is what it is...
Big Brother-it is what it is...
The hand you are dealt-it is what it is...
Taking control-it is what it is...
My life right now-it is what it is...
AND THIS BLOG ENTRY-IT IS WHAT IT IS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Weekend recap

BUGLINE BIKE TRAIL ON SATURDAY

On Saturday we rode the Bugline trail which starts here in Merton. The weather was perfect for a bike ride, the trail is scenic and fairly level so the ride was a very good one. We did see one snake which caused me to panic a bit, but other than that all was fine.
Another fish at a playground for Tiz! Who knew so many playgrounds had fish in them?
Lunch at Pepino's in Sussex, followed by ice cream in Merton. We just eat those pounds right back on during a bike ride!
And here we are at the end of the trail, 24 miles round trip. This is in Menomonee Falls. Beautiful day for a bike ride. We had fun!

And yes, Tizu, we have yet another slide for you when you come to our house. This one was given to you by Sarah Jameson. Thanks, Sarah!

TAKING DOWN THE PUSSY WILLOW TREE BUSH ON SUNDAY

Check out these pretty garden gloves that I used for taking the pussy willow tree bush down. Well, I helped take it down, actually John "Pa" Ingalls did most of the big work. I got these stylish gloves from one of my students.
The big pussy willow bush tree before we took her down.
Here I am hauling one of the big branches up to the curb. I am wearing my pretty little garden gloves. Always looking stylish!
Pa John Ingalls with his little axe showing the bush tree who is the boss! Those trunks were really thick and hard to take down. If we owned a buzz saw it would have been much easier, but if you know us, you know we like to live like the Ingalls. I really wanted John to make us a rail fence with the wood.
This is what we are left with. An ugly stump that I prefer to call artsy and enough new shoots to still have pussy willows in the springtime. I would miss my pussy willows that I take to school each March.
These are the armstrong hand tools that John used to take that tree down. The axe handle did break in the process. The axe came from Uncle Herb's collection and has probably taken down hundreds of trees and bushes. Not sure where the hatchet came from.
So, folks, that was our weekend. Not as exciting as a visit with Tiz, but interesting, none the less.

Our President acted stupidly...

This blog has not been political nor is it my intention to make political statements on here. You can mossy on over to John's blog if it is politics you want, but I could not resist this post especially after seeing this sign on our bike ride yesterday. It inspired me to post. John also posted about it on his blog, but it was me who came up with the idea.
I feel we need to take these signs down since the police are no longer able to stop suspicious activity outside your home because the President says they act stupidly. I asked why is it his business to stick his nose into a local police situation. Now I realize that a reporter asked his opinion on what happened during his health care speech, but he should have answered, "I don't know the whole story, so I cannot comment at this time." It upsets me that he made it racial. The police were called to the home and were doing their job when they asked for ID from the black professor. He, for some reason, refused to show it. Why? I would surely show ID to a police officer when asked and then I would thank him for doing his job and checking on my home even though it was me who was breaking in. Where is the racism here? I am afraid this president is going to create racism with stupid remarks! There I am done being political at least for the time being.

Planes, Trains, Automobiles, and/or boats...

Last night we went out with our good friends, Connie and Paul. They are our Jimmy Buffet, angel sharing, St. George Island, Wausaunian forever friends. They will be celebrating their 35th anniversary next May and we will be following by celebrating our 35th in June of 2011. I have been toying with several different ideas as to where John and I should celebrate this big event. My ideas have been scattered and all over the map sometimes traveling by car, sometimes by train, sometimes by plane, sometimes by boat. You know how much of the fun is in the anticipation and planning. I have also been paying myself $10.00 a day to put toward this vacation/celebration.
Well, in talking with Connie and Paul over some shark water (and, yes, Courtney, I think it tastes very much like college, however the other three did not agree with me) and beers, it seems they too, have been talking about a trip of some sort. Actually it was mostly Paul and his ideas were right on track with mine. So, now the research begins for this big trip in 2011. I will just whet your curiosity here and not go into any of the ideas but suffice it to say it will involve planes, trains, automobiles, and/or planes.

This one is for Tizita!

Hi Tiz,
This entry is just for you. I wanted you to see that Mimi is still sleeping on the little bed that you made for her when you were visiting us. She misses you, but Grandma and Grandpa are taking good care of her until you come and visit again. If it gets cold, I will cover Mimi up with that little blanket with the flip flop shoes on it, okay?
Now, be careful eating cherries, "Don't choke on the pits!" and "Don't fall in the grossie water!"
We love you so much and cannot wait to see you again. The next time we see you, we will take you to the big zoo in Milwaukee. They are getting a new hippo named Happy!
See you soon.
Love,
Grandma

Shades!

Who's that behind the Foster Grant's? Courtney 1981 and Tizitz 2009

Where were you 40 years ago?

Forty years ago, July 30, 1969, the day man walked on the moon. It seems we are always able to remember where we were when earth changing events happened, usually right down to the smallest detail.
On the day that President Kennedy was assassinated, I was watching the movie Treasure Island in the gym at St. John's. I was in fifth grade. They stopped the movie, made the announcement and we prayed together for the President and his family. All I know is I was so scared t the communists were going to take over our country.
On Sept. 11 when the twin towers fell, I was in my classroom teaching my Preschoolers at Mary Linsmeier School. I remember parents calling and telling us bits and pieces. I remember the mom of our two Muslim children calling and asking us to please not say anything to them until she could come and pick them up. I remember worrying about Alissa who was away at college, Courtney drove home from Milwaukee. It seemed we just wanted to be with people we loved.
This brings me to July 20, 1969. I was in the box office at the Classic Theater selling tickets to the movie goers. I think I was totally unaware of anything happening up in space, probably didn't even know there was anything up there at the time. I got home from work and my boyfriend and a few other friends were in my living room with my parents watching history unfold. They had all been at the ball park and wanted to find a TV to catch the moon walk on. Since we lived right up from the park they came to our house. So, I guess I was pretty oblivious to this whole historic moment in time!

More of Imagination Station just because it is so cool

This park was just too cool to not post a few more pictures. Be sure and read the previous post to hear about our fun filled weekend!

A recap of our weekend

We are coming down from a very fun weekend. Courtney, Paul, and Tizita arrived Friday morning to begin the festivities. We went over to try out a new park in Oconomowoc, Imagination Station. The park was recommended to me by my hair stylist and she was right about this fun park.Here is the Van Auken family before the crash happened. You see that Paul is on the fastest middle slide while Tizita is on one that has two huge bumps. Well, she stopped on the first bump while Paul continued down holding her hand causing her to tumble head over heels down the slide! She was none the worse for wear but stayed away from these slides for the rest of the day!

Here we are having fun on the teeter totter. The ground is covered with soft recycled tires and is nice and squishy.
Here are Tizita and me in the animal cages yelling, "Let us out of here, right now!"
After our time at the park, we ate at the Chocolate Factory and headed home. Courtney and Paul went over to Herb and Pearl's old house to dig up some plants for their gardens. They came home with a carful of assortd perenniels to plant when they returned home.

We met Alissa and Nathan at Elias for a fish fry to celebrate Nathan's 30th Birthday. He has requested Elias fish and we were all more than happy to comply since it is the best fish fry ever!

The birthday boy and his lovely wife.

Helping Uncle Cheddah open his gifts.

The birthday cake. I made Nathan the candy bouquet you see in the picture.

The young people went out to continue the celebration on the town while grandpa and I babysat!


On Saturday Tiz got to try out the new slide and she enjoyed it just as much as we knew she would!
Courtney and Paul took off to work on planting their flowers and they let us keep Tiz overnight. What fun we were going to have! Alissa and Nathan also headed home on Saturday afternoon.
When Tiz woke up from her nap we took her back to Imagination Station. We wanted to share this fun place with grandpa.


This is grandpa and Tiz sitting in a bandshell type area enjoying children playing some drums.

This was an area that Tiz really liked. She enjoyed walking up and down these lily pad steps.
After our time at the park we ate pizza at Rocky Roccoco's, a favorite spot of ours. Tizu went to bed so well for us and because Courtney had forgotton the diapers we had to hope she would wake up dry and she did! I think the diapers can be thrown out!
On Sunday we took Tiz up to Oshkosh and met Courtney and Paul at church. We enjoyed their service. Paul plays his bass in the church band so we got to hear that. It was a good service.

It was especially hard to say good bye to our little Tiz today. I miss her running around our house and waking us up in the morning, I miss her spunk and her sense of humor. I miss her laughing and singing. I won't see her again for a few weeks and I know that will seem like a long time. But I won't cry because it is over, I will smile because it happened! ( I read that on the middle school message board!) Oh, the life of a grandparent, some parts not as easy as I thought it would be...

Bartels Beach, then and now

This is me sitting on the sand at Bartel's Beach in Lake Mills, WI sometime in the summer of1954.

Here is Tizita on the same very same sand on Bartel's Beach in the summer of 2009.

(I realize that is not the same sand, but you know what I mean)



Summer 2009
Just so you can compare the shore across the lake from the way it looked in 1954

Comparisons...

Here are two little girls who both like to ride their trikes. Courtney was 2 yrs. 5 mo. on this picture. She was riding her trike at our house on Bayberry Dr. Tizu is 2 yrs. 7 mo. and is riding her trike with Grandpa at our house. It looks like Courtney could already pedal at this time while Tizu is still trying to reach those pedals, but she is close.

I thought it would be fun to make a few comparisons between Tizu and her Mama Courtney. The fact that I have conquered the scanner definitely helped with this idea. The only problem I had here was getting the words where I wanted them. This paragraph should have been at the beginning of the post, but I couldn't figure out how to get it up there. Oh well, more to learn...




Here are two little ladies who clearly enjoy their time in the pool.
Like mama, like Tizu!



Both Tizu and mama were 2 yrs. old.

And here are two little girls both enjoying a ride on a Merry-go-round. Different locations, thirty years apart, one on a horse, one on a panda, one with her mom, one with her grandma, but both having fun. Tizu is 2 yr. 7 mo. while Courtney is 2 yr. 5 mo. Courtney is at the 4th of July celebration at Riverside Park while Tizu is at the Madison Zoo.

Success, finally!

After what seems like hours and hours of experimentation, frustration, and many unsuccessful attempts, I finally got this picture up and it seems to be the right size! Now I am going back to see if I remember how I did it. I forgot to mention that I had to use two different computers, too! So here goes nothin...

Scanner is finally up and running

I am trying to figure out how to use the scanner we bought over a year ago. I am having trouble sizing the pictures and putting the words in the right place, but I will get it eventually.
Anyway these are my two babies taking a bath in 1980.
There will be more pictures to come.

Farmer's Market Goodies

isn't your mouth watering looking at all these yummy things I found at the Farmer's Market this morning. I cannot wait to begin enjoying them!