Live from Tormville!

testing...testing....

let me know if you can't see this video - I'm not sure I did the settings correctly....

I'm not even remotely proficient at taking videos, let alone having any idea how to edit them - but I know the grandmas and my aunt who love kid's programs were wanting to see Wendy do her part.  She opened up the Disney segment of tonight's program and she was sooooooooooooo nervous, but she did well for all her nerves!   You can't even tell that we had a big wardrobe argument just 45 minutes prior! 

My first youtube upload ever. 

flight night * date night

Denny was in need of crew last night so Greg and I both went - leaving Allan home to babysit.  Date Night!

We rarely have date night. 

This was Greg's second time crewing. He's really enjoying learning the science behind it all. Here they are measuring the angle that the test balloon took off. They prefer a 45 degree angle or more. 

Greg got the crown line and me ..... can you tell? I said the other day that you can always tell from the photos I take. 

I'm doing the exact same thing that Sonja is doing - but on this side, and with a camera strapped across my chest. I'm that good. 

Greg drove the chase vehicle, and I navigated - which makes for a fun date night. You can read into that whatever you want. 

It took awhile to find a landing spot, so the balloon ended up down off of Brighton Road. I actually had to dig out the map once it flew over Coon Lake Rd. 

Balloon down, Sonja sent the new guy running with the crown line. 

Packing it up

Rachel spotted us chasing about mid route and followed to the end as well. Perfect. 

Another flight complete
I'm taking the next two nights off - it's a busy time of the year.  

Oh - and we came home to World War III, reminding us why we don't do date nights on school nights. 

Reality

*****

As for today - 3 kids to the dentist for 8:30. Ugh. 
Wendy has the opening lines in the 5th grade concert tonight - I'll have to make sure there are batteries in that little point and shoot video camera
Finishing Project Life Week 19

be good!  

he made me squeeeeeee

rule of thirds - my favorite rule 

Brian came home from school today and ran upstairs with his backpack in hand.
He came down again very quickly with his hoodie zipped to the neck and a smirk on his face. Two seconds later he was opening the zipper with a 'ta-dah'
A new shirt. I love it!  I had NO idea.  
Brian's self drawn portrait is the one on the very left of the bottom row.

Squeeeeeeee!

Cutest shirt ever.  

________________

ETA:   Since there were so many that were interested, I dug around a bit and found out a little bit more about these shirts. 

They were created through j.j.jinkleheimer & co., the owner being a parent of one of Brian's classmates, but you don't have to be local to have these shirts made. I got this from Art (the parent and owner), which I'll just cut and paste here:

Basically we just need the kids to take a plain white piece of paper and with a thin Sharpie marker make their drawing and sign their name under it.  We then take all the drawings and scan them to resize them and add the appropriate text.  I would then email the client the final proof to approve.  You can choose the t-shirt color and the imprint color.  Prices do vary depending on the quantity ordered and how many pictures we need to scan.  Thank you, Art

Neato, right? 

Their contact information can be found here:  jjjink contact info

 

warning: wobbly kid on a two wheels

 

On Monday we got an email that next Monday is a biking thing for Cub Scouts.

Which finally pushes the need to get this kid on a bike to the top of our busy lives list. Where does time go?

He lost a year due to his femur break and spica cast
And then we didn't have a bike for him
And then we didn't have training wheels

And then last fall we got two bikes but no training wheels and man, it's not as easy to teach bike riding as it was 7 and 13 years ago.

Where does time go?

This spring we had two bikes,two pairs of training wheels, and two boys overdue for learning. The boys have been biking laps daily now with the added assistance.  

And then the notice about Cub Scout biking and a little pressure to not be the only kid on four wheels.  

We took the trainers off on Monday and he did just fine, went all the way around the block last night no problem but is struggling with starting. A few more days of practice and he should have it, with a few scabby knees and elbows. Just don't bike too close to him yet. 

We took Mark's training wheels off too - but he still needs a bit more practice or older sibling assistance.

******

Others stuffs

• It was too windy for ballooning last night
• We might have to retrain Tippy to be an outside dog. She was an outside dog for 13 years until she came to us, and even then - she was completely outside from July until the snow flew. These last two nights she has woken earlier than usual and tried to get outside - eating nearly all the doorwall blind slats in the process. My kitchen looks like a warzone. Either she goes back outside, or I hang bells from the door. 
• While I was laying in bed awake from 5-6:30 this morning with my husband snoring beside me - my husband was apparently oversleeping. He usually has a fluctuating schedule in the morning and as long as he works his time, it's okay.  Apparently today he had a meeting - and didn't even have time to make coffee because he woke up too late. Oops. 
• We're like ships passing in the night. 
• We did have time last night to discuss the purchase of a storage box for the van that I had found used online, and he did have time to go and see it. It's perfect, and purchased just in time for his and Allan's four wheeling camping trip coming up. If they put all their muddy gear in there instead of in my new van, it'll be worth it. 
• Mark only has 3 days of school left, and this morning I'll be helping in his class. I'm so glad that the 7am school cancellation call (due to no power) we got this morning wasn't for our elementary school.
• That was quite the wind that brewed up quickly last night. I thought someone was knocking on my door at 11:30 but it was my new watering can (Mother's Day gift) that the wind had slammed against it. 
• We've decided to try some diet elimination things with Wendy to see if we can help her bellyaches - so now we're working on menu plans and debating if we should do dairy first or wheat. They both seem daunting to me now and will require lists. Suggestions welcome.
• My knee is feeling a little better today - I actually took the stairs up normally. Taking the stairs up one at a time is so much more of a drag then taking them one a time coming down. 
• time to pack the kids backpacks.....
• be good

after school dialogue

In under 5 minutes:

Wendy:  BRIAN, would you PLEASE stop playing the harmonica!!!
Brian: If you don't want to hear my harmonica just go in your room and shut your door

****

Mark - with a mouth full of cookie and his arms crossed over his chest very much like my youngest brother used to do back in the 80's:  I didn't WANT a cookie!!!!

Me: Who put a cookie in Mark's mouth??

Allan:  I did - he had his mouth open by the cookies so I stuck one in it. 

Mark preceded to spit the whole cookie into the garbage

****

Allan:  Brian, would you PLEASE stop playing the harmonica!!
Brian: If you don't want to hear my harmonica, go in your room and shut the door!

****

Mark (after he cleaned out his mouth of the unwanted cookie):  I didn't even ever want a cookie. 

****

Brian, setting his harmonica down for a minute: Vampire bats only drink from cows, not from people, but vampire koalas eat frogs. 

****

They're home! 

 

the rest of the last night's flight....

Alright...

showered
kids off to school
laundry humming
breakfast dishes stacked
the project that kept me up until 2am - complete. I can't share for at least a week though - don't let me forget.  *smile*  

But. Now I can share the rest of last night's flight before I get them mixed up with tonight's flight.

My sidekicks for the night were my Wendy and the twins, but they had to walk from the launch over to volleyball for 7, so while they saw some of the prep stuff, they missed the launch. Next time.  

sealing the envelope

You can always tell what my job is by my photos. On this night, I was in charge of the fan. I was asked if I could drive too, but when I said it's been ten years since I've pulled a trailer, he decided that Rachel was the better bet. I'm confident though, especially after some of the stories I've heard, that I can do it if needed.

We had to fill it twice again tonight - it went all cock-eyed once it went up and you can't shoot the flame if the balloon isn't straight. 

I'm keeping a favorite ballooning photos file this year, and this one is going in it. I love that I can take the same shot hundreds of times, but then get one that I like more than all the others. 

And for Preston. Preston knows balloons and is a common sight at the launches and landings.

I'd never met Tommy before - he's concentrating on not getting tangled in the ropes.
Right Tommy?

The pilot and co-pilot trying to figure out where we are now that they're on the ground. 

It's all good. 

Back to the laundry for me....

morning came early

I went ballooning again last night, and I'll share more pictures later (including the one of you, Preston)...but last night after I got home I got myself involved in a fun project (that I can't wait to share) that had me up until 2am when I finally forced myself to go to bed.

Morning came early, and I was working on the same project again this morning

I'll share the rest of last night's photos a bit later - after I eat...and shower.....and do the morning dishes....and get some laundry on the line......and....and....and......

be good! 

Peas and Knees

*insert my grandpa eskola inherited jowl shake and growl here* 

frustration

So. Here's the deal. I probably haven't mentioned here before that I occasionally experience mild discomfort with my knee. More often than not, I take the down steps one at a time. I've never had a problem going up.  It's been this way off and on for years, but I never gave it a second thought. 

With the four 5K's I ran last year - I didn't have a problem until that last one in the fall. I figured that this one caused problems for a few reasons. 1. I wasn't as in shape as I had been for the other three 2. I really really pushed it and 3. Two lengths were on uphill inclines. 

After that last run - I had to walk very carefully and couldn't lift things (like my box of Rice Dream from Costco) and go up a step at the same time. 

But then it went back to just the 'normal' mild quirks after about two/three weeks. The quirks that weren't quite quirky enough to get me to the doctor. I AM my father's daughter, and honestly, while I've had quirks for years - it's never been what I would call bad. 

Then came this past month when I purchased the Fitbit and found myself to be a bit more competitive than I realized. I signed up to be on a scrapbooking group which tracks how you rank as far as steps/activity and distance and then puts your position and activity up onto a leaderboard.  My goal was to stay in the top ten, and during this past week I've been in 2nd place out of 107 members. 

My average is just over 6 miles per day and 13,904 steps.  I've lost 10 pounds in just under a month. 

The reward? Now my knee is bothering me more than ever. While I've never been great going down steps - I've never had a problem going up. Until this week.  This week I'm feeling it when I get into the van and drive.  It's FINE when I walk or stand, it's only bothersome on inclines and odd movements - like getting into the van sideways.  While it usually sounds like gravelly sand paper, now it sounds like sand paper and rocks. 

So I called and made an appointment to meet my PCP (but because we've not yet met - that appointment is just under a month away), and it looks like from there I'll be going to an orthopedic surgeon. 

For now I have instructions to let up on the walking, but it's okay to bike, and to ice it for 20 minutes 3x a day. I also purchased a knee brace, which I'm not sure is the right size. I measure on the exact number that is the top of one size and the bottom of the next. I bought the smaller one after trying it on in the store, but may go back for the larger one.  

Getting older bites. 

 

 

happy mother's day to me

I have several rules for mother's day. No whining, no bickering, and I get to take a photo of all four kids together. 

It only took a dozen shots this year. *pumps fist* 

My Sister & I

My sister has been at my dad's this week, and I hadn't gotten a chance to see her until today. She lives in North Carolina, and we just don't see each other all that often - so it was fun to be able to go and pick her up to go garage saling. 

We didn't have any luck garage saling at all. Every single sub sale in lower Michigan is next weekend. But we did have fun. 

Over lunch at Red Robin, Wendy shared that, "you two are the same in that you have the same hair, the same teeth, the same voice and the same eyes, but you have different noses, different laughs and different fashion sense"

She pretty much nailed it. 

We also both ordered the same thing for lunch.