1-30-2011 WiR

7:05 am Monday Morning…

SCREEEEECCHHHH!!!

What was that!

SCREEEEECCCHHHH!!!

You’ve got to be kidding me…it’s the SQUIRRELS…

See, we have squirrels living in our attic.  I’ve been telling Ryan for over a month but he didn’t believe me until last week when they were scurrying around above our heads at 2 am and we couldn’t get to sleep.  BUT NOW…NOW they’ve gotten so comfy up there that their little community needed a town crier to wake the colony up…Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike squirrels??

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7:05 am Tuesday Morning…

CRASH!! SCREEEECCCHHHH!!!

Seriously??!!

After a great start (sarcasm) our day consisted of a trip to the dentist, Dade calling home sick from school (it’s been almost a week now he’s been ill), and a nice evening with my visiting teachers.

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7:05 am Wednesday Morning…

CRASH!! SCREEEECCCHHHH!!! CRASH!! SCREEEECCCHHHH!!! (for about 30 minutes)

Ryan has a plan to get rid of them.  YIPPEE!!!!

While my mind relished the thought of a squirrel free attic I continued my crazy day.  8:15 am Dr. appt for me.  Leave at 8:50 and call to get an appt for Dade.  Can I be there at 9:35? SURE!  Call home to wake Dade up and Corben (who’s supposed to be at school) answers the phone but hands the phone off right away to Dade who’s asleep.  Try to get Dade to wake up Ryan to take Corben to school but end up getting home before anyone does anything.  9:10 rush out the door to get Corben to school and Dade to his appt across town.  Realize that there’s NO way I can pull both of them off so I just go to Dade’s appt. (where they decide he might have a sinus infection…SERIOUSLY??  Didn’t he JUST have TWO surgeries to stop all that??!!) and THEN I take Corben to school an hour and a half late.  I drop off Dade’s prescription, fill Ryan’s car with gas and pull in the driveway just in time for Ryan to leave for work.  SIGH.  Luckily I got to spend the rest of the day with some amazing company!  My SIL Jessica came over for a play date with the kids!  (RJ lined them all up and asked me to take this picture! LOL)

Later in the evening my little Sylvie started complaining that her head hurt…sigh…her comes the sickness…

Sure enough, while mom took everyone to scouts (Dade missed his wrestling match due to another day out of school and still not feeling well….), Sylvie spent the entire time curled up in my lap while we watched a movie and while I played with pictures…

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5:00 am Thursday morning…

Sylvie’s bad dream…

Sylvie: (Screaming, crying, only half awake) I’m Scared! I’m Scared!!

Mom: (half awake with heart racing from being woken by screaming child) Of What?!

Sylvie: Of Crocodiles!….They HURT! They Hurt! They Hurt…

Mom: (Scared she’s getting eaten or something & trying to wake her completely)

Sylvie: (sobbing)…They Hurt…they hurt…my FEELINGS!!

Mom: (alert & awake now)…What?

Sylvie:  (awake but still whimpering)  They were trying to take me to jail!  I didn’t WANT to go to jail!

Okay, not as scary as I thought but apparently horrible all the same.

7:05 am Thursday morning…

CRASH!! SCREEEECCCHHHH!!! CRASH!! SCREEEECCCHHHH!!! (for about 60 minutes)

I bang on the ceiling until they scamper off…

Ryan’s plan goes into motion…

So, once everyone is finally awake (Dade is home AGAIN) I realize that Sylvie is burning up with 103 fever so I have to call and cancel our long awaited trip to the Museum today with cousins.  Tam had already pinky promised her kids they were going, though, so she ventured out alone…what a very  brave trooper…

Ella woke up talking and breathing like Darth Vader.  At least she’s not acting sick!

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7:05 am Friday morning…

Silence…

Ahhhh…..Thanks, Honey….

Snore…

If you feel the need to know how the squirrels were removed, please ask Ryan.  Squirrel removal is so not my thing.

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It’s PINEWOOD DERBY TIME!!

Well, it’s that time of year again and I always worry.  Will he win?  If not, will he be a good loser?  Last year, I was really impressed because he handled a broken car and defeat much better than I expected.  I was actually quite impressed.  But each year is different so I just hoped for the best.  Corben’s been working on his anger so I decided to trust him.

We started out with Corben leading the pledge…

Then the Webelos hung out while the Bears and Wolves did their races…I was so impressed with their comradery.  I even heard Corben congratulate some of the younger kids, even when they lost.  Me=Proud Mama!

THEN, the Webelos races began…Corben did FANTASTIC!!  He even handled his few losses with style.

 

Here’s Corben winning against Nate, his really great friend… (Nate’s car IS driving backwards)

It was a nail biter but Corben came in 2ND PLACE!!    Nate was the winner…go Nate!

 

And the best part??  The boys were GREAT SPORTS!!  Nate kept insisting that Corben should have won and invited him to come to the finals with him.  Corben talked about what a great race it was and how glad he was to have gotten 2nd.  I am SO PROUD of BOTH boys!! Way to go, guys!

 

After the race, the boys headed to our house for some great friend time and Ella headed out for her sleepover with Fama & Bean!!  They are SO excited!

Mom called me on their car ride home to tell me about stories the girls were telling each other in the car.  Bean was telling a story about being lost in the woods with her mom and praying and knowing that “You can’t get lost if your walking with God!”  She talked about asking Him whether to go left or right and being told that it didn’t matter because you can’t get lost if you’re walking with God.  Ella talked about always choosing the right and Jesus telling her in her brain what the right thing to do is.  Mom was trying to record their profound conversations.  Out of the mouth of babes…

So what do you do at cousin sleepovers??  Well, you make Snowglobes!

And you Sleep…some…(thanks Mom for all these pics!)

Then you get up and make Pancakes!!

Then you get dressed up really cute, spend time together, and then go to Church!! (Yes, my mom still has her Christmas tree up…)

Okay, seriously, aren’t they the cutest things EVER??!!

So, how did we help Sylvie deal with the absence of her sweet sister?? We had a sleepover at OUR HOUSE!!  My niece and nephew came over for their first sleep over EVER (and mom & dad’s first time with no kids!).  We watched movies, played the Wii, and had a lot of fun!!

Well, the weather outside’s been beautiful and church was equally as wonderful.  I got some much needed time in with Dade today and can’t wait to go spend some time with Ryan! Goodnight!!

1-23-2011 WiR

Happy Martin Luther King Day!

Since there was no school today, Ryan and Corben got some much needed time to work on Corben’s Pinewood Derby car….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we were treated to a night out at Golden Corral by Ryan’s dad.  Ryan thought my plate was funny so we took a picture.

(p.s.  In case you ever wondered…Golden Corral has the grossest food EVER.  Seriously.  I couldn’t even eat the pizza.)  Luckily the company was fantastic!

Tuesday the girls got to have some friends over and my camera got some much needed recharge time.  It’s tired…

Wednesday… 5:45 take Dade & K to Seminary .... hang out until 7:am because they don't have school and take both boys home. 7:30 leave with Corben to take him to the C’s (who will take him to school) so Ryan & I can go to the temple. 8:45 arrive at temple....11am leave temple & rush home.  11:33 meet Dade in driveway with girls (one in a sleeveless ballgown and one in pj's and crocs -- grumble grumble). 11:42 drop Dade off 2 minutes late for wrestling.  12pm pick Corben up from school due to stomach ache and having two kids step on his neck after he fell and kids ran over him... 12:20 home in time to feed kids and type this. 1:15 leave to pick Dade up from wrestling and drop him off at the C’s where he will be bbsitting until 5pm.  2pm go home and be thankful I don't have to pick Corben up at 3:45.  Fall asleep for hours...(All of this is true except the falling asleep for hours part. – Just change that to dragged myself around the house wishing I could either sleep or wake up but getting nothing done…)  I’m too tired to type anything else.

Thursday – PRODUCTIVE!!!  I had a page long list of things to do and did ALL OF THEM.  Sweet.  Then I took the kids over to a birthday party for a friend where I talked with the manager and they agreed to help in our big canned food drive!! (more on that later)

Friday – I found this note slid under my bedroom door after school…

At least he was willing to back up his argument! LOL  Apparently, one of these was given to his math teacher, as well…Gotta love my kid!

Sent Corben off for the weekend with my mom and enjoyed having Dade home for another day due to it being EOC week at school.  Tonight at bed time I had the following conversation with Ella…

Ella: Mom, can I have a drink?
Me: No, Ella, just go to sleep.
Ella: Mom, can I cry?
Me: No, please just go to sleep.
Ella: But I think I need to, I miss daddy.
Me: Well, alright, just not too loudly, alright?
Ella: Okay, thanks mom.

I sure love that girl! LOL

Saturday I headed out for a full day of errands.  My first stop as at a local kids’ bounce house to drop off info so they could run a food drive in line with the food drive our stake is involved in.  Much to Dade’s teenage horror, I processed to stop by several other businesses in the building and stopped a family in the parking lot to get others involved.  It was funny to see his eyes roll when I would say, Just one more…   We then got a ton of shopping done for Dade (despite the fact he was feeling ill).  We went shoe shopping and (lucky for me) he willingly paid for his own shoes!!  His style has apparently exceeded my budget.  I’m okay with that.  It’s his money, NOT MINE!

Sunday…what happened on Sunday?…OH WAIT…Ella cut her hair!!! AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!  Alright, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been but she did take 5 or 6 slices out and at least one is within an inch of her scalp.  Luckily most are on the underside of her hair so you only really notice that her hair is much thinner on that side (hard to do since it’s already so thin) and you might notice the short slice in the back.  I haven’t taken a picture yet.  I was too traumatized at the moment…

Then, before bed…

Me: …Humpty Dumpty had a Great fall…
Sylvie: No, Mom! It wasn’t a GREAT fall, it was a BAD fall!  He broke his head, and his arm, and his leg, and his……

And finally….kids to bed, cinnamon muffins just out of the oven, a fire in the fireplace, and some much needed time with my hubby!

1-16-2011 WiR

Remember last week when there were no pictures…I made up for it…

NORMALLY, I don’t hate the kind of weather that cancels school and forces you to stay home and do nothing…BUT this time I’ve actually been on a roll with getting things done and having everyone around and no way to leave has been cramping my style.  My “cleaner” house is constantly dirty with everyone hanging around and I’ve not been able to get in my much needed ME organizational time.  Tuesday was kind of cool but hard.  Ryan got to spend his first day telecommuting to work!  Normally he would have either braved the ice or just not gotten paid but not anymore!  Only problem was that the only table available was in the dining room and if you’ve ever seen my house you know that’s right smack dab in the middle of everything.  The only other 3 rooms anyone lives in branch off of this room.  To add to that, he wasn’t just working, he was taking customer support calls so any noise was carried through to California or Canada or who ever and filling their ears with screams of She’s hitting me! or I have to go Potty!  It was a rough day…for me…Ryan thought it was great.  Guess I shouldn’t complain.  Look how far we’ve come!

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By Wednesday the weather wasn’t so wet so after a 2 hour delay the kids headed out…but I just haven’t gotten my groove back.  I’m keeping up with the basics but haven’t done anything major (wait, Corben & I cleaned his room on Monday and that was HUGE).  Anyway, maybe tomorrow I’ll do better….right?

Here’s Sylvie dressed for bed…as Snow White with her Snow White dolls….

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Thurs – I woke up to my email flooded with comments on a photo that I'd entered in a contest a few days ago.  Why was everyone suddenly looking at it?  Why did it have almost 200 views??!!  No way…NO WAY!!  I rushed to my blog feed and SURE ENOUGH…I made it into week 2 of Pioneer Woman’s Photos of Food contest!! YIPPEE!!  These photos are picked from hundreds if not thousands of entries….it’s so cool to have been noticed.  Granted, my photo probably didn’t make it for skill (though it did have to meet strict criteria to be considered) but more likely for content.  It won’t make it to the finals BUT it made it into the weekly so I’m SUPER EXCITED….in case you wondered.

This picture is from a tomato story we did a couple of years back.  Here’s the link to the original Tomato Blog…

http://schnegelkins.blogspot.com/2008/08/attack-of-killer-tomato.html

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Friday I finally got a pic of Ella writing her name!!  She’s been doing it for a couple of days now and I’m SO proud of her!!  This is also the Earth looking like the Sun with Jesus on it…

Dade also had a wrestling match today and WON!! Way to go, Dade!!

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We headed out EARLY Saturday morning to go to Ft. Fisher to attend the events celebrating the 150th anniversary of the first battle there and the 146th anniversary of the day it fell.  My GGGrandfather, Ralsey fought there with the Bladen Light Brigade and was captured on January 15th 1865.  He spent several months in a POW camp in Elmira, NY before being released after swearing allegiance.  The soldiers were expected to walk home.  For years I’ve wanted to go on the day and see what it felt like and what he may have saw.  It was so exciting that they were actually having a huge event this year!

As we were on the tour, it was mentioned that we were kin to a Ft. Fisher vet and so the News asked if they could interview us!!  She filmed us on and off for almost 45 minutes but only 2 minutes of me being a baby made it in.  OH WELL!  My heritage DOES mean that much to me.  So fun!  Here’s the link if it’s still up…

http://coastal.news14.com/content/top_stories/635426/fort-fisher-celebrates-150th-anniversary-of-civil-war?ap=1&MP4

Here’s the video recorded off of my computer screen onto my little video camera so excuse the house noises!

Corben in the video…

WHY IN THE WORLD do I always get on TV the day I put on NO makeup and have my wet hair up in a bun…seriously…it’s like the 4th or 5th time…Maybe I should start looking nice ALL the time…lol

5:04 PM

Fort Fisher celebrates 150th Anniversary of Civil War

By: Breanna Walden

KURE BEACH, N.C. — The first commemoration event for the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War in North Carolina fired off at the Fort Fisher State Historic Site in Kure Beach on Saturday.

Visitors to Fort Fisher enjoyed new exhibits, artillery and infantry demonstrations and special tours. This is the first of many events planned for different sites across the state this year. Visitor David Vinson tried to soak it all up because his great great grandfather and other family members fought there during the Civil War.

"They were part of this and there's a lot I don't know about so this is interesting and I can learn about it," said Vinson.

Historians say Fort Fisher was the largest and most important earthwork Fort in the South, as two major battles were fought there. While 2011 marks 150 years since the beginning of the war, it also marks the 146th Anniversary of the second Battle at Fort Fisher.

"An estimated 20,000 canon balls have been throw at this fort. It was virtually raining iron," said Ray Flowers, tour guide.

On Jan. 15, 1865, Union forces took over Fort Fisher and the war ended only a few months later. And for the special commemoration event only, Vinson and other visitors were able to walk to the peak of the fort.
"It's really surreal, it makes me feel really close to my family, and to come here and see some of the sacrifice that my grandfather gave and all that he went through is really special," said Christy Schnegelberger.
Even 150 years later Fort Fisher stills stands in memory of those that gave the ultimate sacrifice for freedom.

Anyway, here’s the run down in pictures….

First we watched the infantry demonstrations…

When we stood up we discovered we were COVERED in painful little burs.  OUCH!!

Then we went on the tour!

 

As a special treat to those on the tour we got to go up on the mounds…while up there we were interviewed and filmed by the News.

THEN, a HORRIBLE thing happened.  We’d been warned (but forgot) that there were cactus & burrs up on these mounds.  Suddenly I was in pain and looked down to find inch long cactus spines through my tennis shoes.  At the same moment Ella fell down.  She started screaming and when she got up it was like a cartoon but not funny.  Her bum was covered in huge cactus that had gone through her pants and were stuck in her little bottom and legs.  We carried her down and spent much time removing spines from her hands and feet and everywhere else.  She wasn’t the only one.  Dade’s shoes were filled with invisible spines that hurt him the rest of the day…

 

We then explored the Fort…and paused periodically to remove more spines from Ella’s socks.

We stopped to find my GGGrandfather’s name in the books…and buy souvenirs….

Then we headed to THE BEACH!!! (which was right across the street…)  I went a little picture happy.

                

Then we played under the beach trees until it was time to go watch the canons go off!

Here are some of Corben’s souvenirs…

No home birth pics for me…sigh.  CM was due today and I was supposed to be there to take pictures but despite the fact that I was back in town in time, she went so fast that the midwife didn’t even make it there.  Luckily, Daddy’s a good catch!  Congrats, C & R!!!!

And, once again, it’s Sunday and…I need a nap.  The End.