Project 365: Day 26

After discovering pages of drawings submitted by kids in Puddler magazine (those of you with duck hunting husbands may be familiar with this...but probably not), Sydney had to get to work on her own masterpiece.  There will be a follow up to this entry if her "ducks swimming in a lake by a cabin on a mountain top" ends up gracing the pages of Puddler magazine.  I'm really proud of her "hey, I can do that" attitude!

  

Project 365: Day 25

Motorcross racing on Pokegama Lake in Pine City.  Doesn't that look fun?  Some members of Jesse's family race quads (a local newspaper article on them here) so we thought we'd go cheer them on.  This picture is not any of them, but he had a big lead and gave me this little nugget during his final lap.  For that, I thank him.  Jesse and the kids were able to watch the action from the warmth and comfort of the truck.  I, on the other hand, fell victim to the constant fogging up of my lens from using the truck as my warming house between races, so I sucked it up and enjoyed some bitter wind and sleet to get a few racing shots.  Aw, what we do for the things we love. :)  

Project 365: Day 24

The Backyardigan's Swing-Along ride at Mall of America's Nickelodeon Universe.  This was their Everest. 

Project 365ish: Day 23

I love a shop that has a daily brain teaser on a post-it in their drive thru.  The question of the day was "What kind of candy on a stick should last All Day?"  I half-heartedly guessed peppermint stick, but I felt like the answer was in the question.  It was.  He laughed and told me I was too young to know the answer.  That made me happy.  Well, the young part, maybe not the humor he found in my ignorance.  He didn't mean anything by it though.  The last time I was there it was a math question and I told him that I couldn't do math until I had caffeine.  That answer had amused him too.

For those of you dying to know and are as young as I am the answer is an All Day sucker.  The giant colorful suckers.  I am familiar with the suckers but was unaware of their formal name.  And the coffee shop is the Nesting Grounds in Wyoming.  Try the Toasted Snowflake.  It's gotta be 1,000 calories but it's winter, so you're wearing a lot of sweaters anyways.  

Project 365: Day 22

Alright, so apparently I'm going to miss a day here and there.  I've accepted that this may end up being "Project 298" and I'm completely at peace with that.  I just wanted to be up front regarding my own expectation level.  If you don't over-commit you can't under-produce, right?  Wow, how lame was that phrase?  I promise that is not my motto in life.  Instead, I will say that I may miss a day here and there, but as long as what I do is done with purpose and something I can look back on and be proud of, well, then I am satisfied.  Whew, that felt better than those quitter words.  Who was that girl?

Anyways, trip to the doctor's office.  Just a check up.  However, even though we fortunately haven't frequented the doctor this winter it seems like we've been having trouble keeping illness out of our house.  Is anyone else experiencing this?  I need to be buying stock in Kleenex.  Now that the kids are older and exposed to more kids they seem to be walking petri dishes.  When someone comes home with a runny nose I should just check into a hotel, because my immune system is no match for them.  They will take me down.  Every time.

Project 365: Day 19

It probably started with an eye roll, because it usually does when my husband suggests we take his commuter car anywhere.  It's just not my preferred method of travel.  But my kids love it and call it the "race car" so I was quickly out-numbered.  On our way home from a nice family brunch I managed to spill coffee all over myself.  I blame it on a flimsy cup holder and NOT me trying to stuff too big of a travel mug into too small of a cup holder.  That's when it was discovered.  Frantically looking for something to soak up the spilled coffee I opened the glove box.  Dun Dun Dun...  It took a minute to register, because you don't anticipate finding a mouse nest when you open a glove box.  I slammed the door shut and hauled my butt into the backseat in between the kids, both of whom looked stunned and confused at the sight of their mother scurrying towards them in fear from the front seat.

The nest was empty.  Not that that matters too much.  They were there.  They built a nest inside of the glove box.  I hope this is the grossest blog post I put on here.  But, it was undoubtedly a memorable moment of my day so here it is.

I'm positive the eye rolling will continue at any mention of "can we take the race car?"

  

Project 365: Day 18

The kids and I took in a couple of basketball games over the weekend.  I have a couple of cousins that play for Coon Rapids.  They both won their games and were fun to watch.  I really hope my kids enjoy sports as they grow up.  My husband and I are both sports enthusiasts but certainly aren't pushing them hard core in any particular direction.  We'd prefer to expose them to a lot of different activities and see what sticks.  Considering my son was more interested in his Mario figurines and my daughter kept calling basketball "football" I probably shouldn't set my hopes too high.  Personally, I wanted to run out onto the court at half-time with the other kids and shoot hoops.  I'm curious to see if my jump shot is still in tact.  Aw, memories.