a little snow.

We woke up this morning to a little snow...according to the morning news, we had about 4" - 7" by 8:00 am.  Lots of blowing...the neighbors' driveways were bare, so that must have meant the wind was blowing my way & my driveway must have been covered.  I didn't venture out to confirm that assumption.

Here is what the chair on my porch (which, by the way, I never sit on in the summer & never put away in the winter) looked like around 10:00 am:

It continued to snow & blow all day long.  Snowiest December day in Minnesota history (Really??  Minnesota is pretty snowy...and it is December...but, I guess we're still a couple weeks shy of winter...).  Brady & I ventured out around 8:00 pm so I could survey the damage & take some pictures before the plows were able to venture back on the roads.  (Snowfall update at 8:00pm was 18" for Shakopee...our little town).  So, here was my neglected little porch chair at 8:00 pm:

I'd say that it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!

10:00 pm update...21.5" in Shakopee (17.5" at the airport)...we seem to be in the bullseye of the storm.  And now we hear that the Vike's game is moved to Monday night at 7:00pm...worried about the dome roof caving in (can we get a new stadium, please??  And a note to L.A. - PLEASE don't use this storm to lure my Vikes out to sunny southern California).  Oh, and the NY Giants are stranded in Kansas City...I guess we're "icing" the kicker...and the quarterback, and the receivers, and the coach.....

thankful.

Today was Thanksgiving.  I love Thanksgiving.  It's a day when you don't concentrate on the petty things you complain about each day, but instead are able to focus on all the things that we should truly be happy about. On Thanksgiving, you feel a little like the Grinch...after his heart grows 3x its size in one day. Brady & I have lots of things we are thankful for this year.  I hope you all have lots to be thankful for as well.

Each year, Brady & I start off the day by watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (okay, I watch it...tell him when the good floats, etc. are coming up and he comes running to see). But, he is front and center at the end of the parade when we watch together for Santa to ride into town. Then we debate whether it was the "real" Santa or not (thankful for that).

After the parade and a little bit of football, we headed over to Grama's...it was COLD, but the roads were dry (thankful for that).  Yesterday was another icy/snowy day, so we left work at noon (thankful for that!).  At Grama's, we played a couple games and had a long discussion about the Easter Bunny & where he lives (thankful for that). (By the way, we think he may live in his own chocolate factory hidden inside a mountain in the Swiss Alps!) Then...it was time to eat!! (Thankful for that!!)

Are you jealous of how perfect this turkey looks??  It was delicious...really!!  Brady, on the way home, mentioned that it was the first time he had turkey that really tasted great.  And here is mom, cutting it "Bobby Flay" style...

Definitely need to do this again next year!  SO yum!!

Grama didn't have her new kitchen yet, but we are looking forward to Christmas in her new kitchen (thankful for that).  Meanwhile, Brady showed how he would fit in the new oven...

And here are a couple other pictures of the day:

  

So thankful for this day.  Tomorrow we decorate for Christmas (thankful for that).  Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!  Feel free to click on "comments" and let us know how your Thanksgiving was!

oh. happy. day.

Today is a good day...if you're a Vikings' fan (yes, I am).  I'm feeling a little like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz after the Wicked Witch has had the bucket of hot water thrown on her.  No disrespect to Mr. Childress (and by NO means do I want to see him suffer the fate of the Wicked Witch), but it was time for him to go.  More than time.  And today, Ziggy Wilf made it happen. Thank you, Ziggy. Leslie Frazier is the interim coach and we can move on from what has been a heartbreaking season (something we Viking fans are used to, but never expect). 

Now, I did hear reports that our green & gold rivals friends across the border are boasting that they are single-handedly responsible for the firing of 2 head coaches this year (Dallas & Minnesota).  If, in fact, this was the straw that broke the camel's back & caused the firing of Childress, I will offer the moldy, cheese wedge wearing group Packers this sentiment (listen closely as I will only say this ONCE)...thank you!

Oh, and by the way Packer fans (that's you Brady), we could have won the game on Sunday, but our players chose the sacrifice bunt...letting you win to ensure the release of Chilly! 

Just saying!

By the way, the lumpy dumpy smiley face at the top of this post is a cake pop that I made attempted to make on Sunday (before I knew about the firing).  If you have patience, time and a lot more baking skills than I do, I would highly recommend trying out a version of these tasty treats.. Check out what they should really look like here http://www.bakerella.com/hope-these-put-a-smile-on-your-face/. 

imagine...the beatles.

Brady loves Lego Star Wars sets.  He has bought and received several sets.  We usually work together to assemble them according to the set's instructions (I think Brady's generation will be well equipped to put together IKEA furniture!).  The fully assembled ships last for a few hours, sometimes days, then they are destroyed disassembled and added to the Lego bucket that we use to create our own ships and bases.

Saturday, after returning from a day playing with Grandma, he disappeared into his room. About 30 minutes later, he came downstairs, Lego creation in hand. I recognized it immediately as Ringo and his drum set (look at him jammin' out!):

Pretty impressive, huh??  Inspired by his creation, he headed back upstairs to perfect his Beatles Lego Set, made from the pieces and parts of his Star Wars' sets. He carried down his bucket, imploring me to help him find one more "hair" piece.  We couldn't find what he was looking for, so he settled on using the "girl hair".  Not a real problem, I thought...when we're talking Beatles, the girl hair probably works better!

So, he was able to piece together the cover of Abbey Road:

And finally, Ringo's drum set would not be complete without the iconic Beatles' logo on the front, so we had to create that on the computer and attach it to the drum set before the whole band assembled for a concert (complete with colorful light sabre guitars!):

Imagine...John Lennon sang about it. Brady did it.  (OK...world peace versus Legos...it's a stretch.  But how can you go wrong using your imagination??) 

making the grade.

On Monday, Brady got his 1st quarter report card from 4th grade.  And this was a big one.  It was the first report card in 6 years of schooling (including pre-school & kindergarten) where he got "real" grades, a.k.a. letter grades.  Up until now, all that the report cards showed were a bunch of letters & numbers indicating that he met, was progressing or not progressing toward grade level expectaions and whether he needed continous teacher support or was doing outstanding. 

Yada, yada, yada. It's always reminded me of Dad's annoyance of kids playing a game but not keeping score.  There is always a winner & a loser he would say...otherwise why play the game?  Although I was happy with his "progress reports", I wanted to know if Brady was a winner or a loser. (Of course I knew that he was a winner...but I wanted the validation!)  And Monday was the day I would find out...finally!

For some reason, I've always loved report cards, including mine (if I can remember back that far).  But his.  They really make me happy.  I anticipate them almost like a  Christmas present. (I can hear you laughing here...please stop.)   I have an idea of how he is doing, after all I see all his grades as they come home & I even see mid-term grades at conferences.  But, I look forward to seeing the final results up close & personal. So...the day came.  Brady's teacher  awesome teacher, Mr. Wegner,

let him look at his report card before he brought it home ...Brady's take??  He told me that he was "a little impressed" with how he had done.  I told him that I didn't want him to tell me what he already knew.  Don't spoil my surprise.  I needed to sit down, take a look...see, feel & touch them for myself (again, please stop laughing!) And of course, he didn't spoil my surprise.  SO... have I built up the anticipation enough??  Here's the reward:

Looked pretty good to me!  (A few of those silly M's, P's and NP's still sneak through...).  Brady got straight A's, with a B+ in writing.  SO...I thought  it would be fun to compare it to MY 4th grade report card (of course I've kept this...stop laughing).  Here that is:

Wow...we had the SAME grades...all A's, other than writing!!   In my defense, we didn't have + or - in our grading system, so I will assume my writing grade would have been a B+!!  :)

And the bonus today (Thursday) was that Brady came home with a SHARP award...what is a SHARP award, you ask??   

Well, it is the Shakopee Academic Recognition Program.  He received a certificate during a ceremony in the cafeteria where he was recognized & rewarded a certificate (that now resides proudly on our fridge) for "academic excellence in reading, writing, math, science, social studies, health, and spellling" and was signed by both principal & teacher.  

Happy validation!!

he's home.

I am so happy that on Friday, my nephew Neal returned home safely after serving a year in Afghanistan.  Thank you for your service and most of all thank you for returning safely! 

We are so proud of you! 

79 and snow.

We woke up today to our first snowfall of the season.  About 8 - 10 inches of the white stuff.  Heavy, wet snow.  

I was hoping that the storm would miss us because we had a great day planned. But, this time the forecast was correct.  Today is mom's 79th birthday and we were planning to go to lunch and take in the big Autumn Craft show.  But Mother Nature had other plans.  So we'll wait a day and try again.

At least it's better than last year when she spent part of her birthday taking me here:

Yep, we know how to do birthdays right around here!!

Happy Birthday, mom!!

braces.

Thursday was a big day here.  Brady got braces. 

When I was a kid we had lots of names for braces & for those of us who had to wear them.  Railroad Tracks. Metal Mouth. And then there was the talk about a boy and girl who both wore braces and might kiss...their braces were sure to get "locked" and it might take the jaws of life to separate them!  It was enough to deter anyone from kissing!!

But somewhere along the way, someone got smart & made braces "cool".  They added colors.  Little tiny rubber bands in different colors that hold the wire on the braces. I'm thinking that the makers of Silly Bandz might want to step in & create Silly Bandz for braces, where kids can choose shapes like footballs & drum sets & glow in the dark bands for their braces! But then would come the trading, and even a non-germ-a-phobic mom like me might get SERIOUSLY grossed out by kids trading brace bands!! Oh well, it was a thought.

SO...back to the braces.  Two months ago, I knew Brady was going to need  LOTS of dental work.  He had a lot of baby teeth.  He'd only lost 3 or 4 of his own, and usually there was already a permanent tooth making its way into his mouth before the baby tooth was gone. By September he had 2 permanent teeth pushing through the roof of his mouth behind his baby teeth.  We put off pulling teeth until after Cathy & Topper's wedding.  He had lots of baby teeth showing then.

But 2 days before his 10th birthday, he had his 4 front upper teeth pulled. (Expensive day for the Tooth Fairy!!) Let's just say the appointment did NOT go well...of all the medical issues we have dealt with in the past, this was one of the WORST things I had to endure.  But endure we did, and he did not hate me after all the pain. 

Last Friday we had to put "spacers" in his teeth in prepartion for an "expander".  That, again, did not go well at all.  A 4 minute procedure took over 30 minutes.  And it brought on a change to his orthodontic plan...we would now put braces on first because this would be easier than the expander (really??).  But we had a LOOOONG talk about what would happen and how he needed to be brave so that they could get the braces on him...and he listened!!!  He did awesome!!  I was SO proud of my little guy.

When it was all over, he thought the braces looked pretty cool!  And yes, he chose green & gold bands...and I let him!

Let's Get Started...

Well, I've decided to start a blog.  I want a place to share the photos I take and a place to write about the things going on in our life.  Since I haven't embraced Facebook, I thought this might be the spot for me.  We'll see.


Mostly it will be a place that I can document the little things that happen in our life that I usually jot down on a piece of paper & then lose before I get them into a journal!


So, let's get on with it! We've had a really great Fall (with great weather for the most part...I'll save that for another post), including Brady starting 4th grade, attending Cathy & Topper's wedding, celebrating Brady's 10th birthday, enjoying a visit from Debby, and taking part in lots of fun Fall festivities. But let's get started with the most recent event - Halloween.


Brady decided to go as Waldo (as in Where's Waldo).  This was only after I shot down being Bobba Fett.  We made his costume & found him a cane.  I think he looked pretty cute.

At every house we stopped at, he asked if they knew who he was.  I think there was only one house, maybe 2, that weren't sure.  A few kids yelled out, "Hey, I found Waldo!"

After our trek around the neighborhood, we headed home to count the loot!

One thing about Brady...he's not much of a candy kid.  He likes Kit Kats, Kisses, Reese's, butterscotch Dum-Dums and that's about it.  He scored 14 Kit Kats which made him pretty happy.  So he pulled those out, snagged a couple Reese's & some kisses from the pile & then turned the rest over to me!  I pull out anything with nuts to pass along to grandma, pull out everything I like & bag the rest up to take to work, where it never lasts long! 

I have to wonder each year why we spend hours making a costume just to walk around in the cold for an hour or two and then give away all the candy!  That's Halloween, I guess.  For us, at least.  With any luck, I end up with a couple good pictures to remember it all!