Poor Puppy

Isn't that the most pathetic looking puppy you've ever seen? This poor puppy was not well today. In fact, you could say he was a poopy puppy. Our dog, Ranger, had diarrhea all over his kennel. Ranger's space occupies about 5 feet x 10 feet in our downstairs basement, which is where he spends his days while we are away. He never goes to the bathroom in this space, unless he's sick. Poor little guy and poor us for having to clean "it" up. "It" was everywhere. The poo was on his bed, on his blanket, on his toys and on a pair of shorts that he must have pulled through his kennel that were Madison's. He must like her smell. And, of course, it was caked on his backside. UGH! The most unfortunately part of the story has to be that Andy is out of town for work and I am left to clean it up. Well, not totally, the kids helped...
Here is Tyler bagging his hands (we didn't have any rubber gloves) for an outdoor dog bath. The weather was nice and I didn't want to scrub the tub, so I bribed the kids to do the job. I told them if they cleaned the dog's back end they could have whatever they wanted for dinner tonight. Madison said a burger from Burger King and Tyler, believe it or not, said Ramen noodles. Wow! I got lucky on this one!

Last night, Tyler mentioned that Ranger looked a bit sad. I asked why he thought this and Tyler explained that Dad ran over Ranger's all-time favorite toy with the lawn mower.
This is what remains of the blue dog for our now "blue" dog. Of course, the lawn mowing man doesn't think to clean it up either. Andy must think it's bio-degradable.

Do you suppose that Ranger has IBS like his owner? Do you suppose he's suffering a loss of a friend? Hmmm....makes one wonder! Hope my doggie feels better tomorrow!

Photo Hunt Challenges #3

Here are my photos for August's Photo Hunt Challenges #3. I must say I am pretty proud that I did not use one single archived photo this time around. I am a simple point and shoot amateur who loves to take pictures and dreams of one day owning a Cannon Rebel. I also try to include at least one picture of each of my kids in these photo challenges. It's darn cheap fun!

1. Fountain (Omaha Zoo)

2. Road or Pathway (Nebraska State Fair)

3. Fence (taken after school in my classroom)

4. A Symbol (Archiver's in Omaha)

5. Black and White Photo (Omaha Zoo)

6. A Clunker Car (Culver's Car Show on Friday nights)

7. A Cool Car (Culver's Car Show on Friday nights)

8. A Portrait (Nebraska State Fair)

9. Amusement (Lancaster County Fair)

10. Back to School (my class in line for lunch)

11. Urban/City (Omaha, NE)

12. Suburban (Sam's Club in Lincoln)

13. Country/Rural (Lancaster County Fair)

14. Something Domestic (Omaha Zoo)

15. Something Wild (Omaha Zoo)

16. Something Silver (Nebraska State Fair)

17. Something Gold(en) McDonald's in Omaha

18. Something Shiny (Nebraska State Fair)

19. Something Miniature (Nebraska State Fair)

20. Something Delicious (Panera Bread in Omaha)

Days 236-240

Friday, August 21st - Here we are trying to get Grant to go to the bathroom before bedtime. We are planning on "hitting it hard" tomorrow on the potty training or at least that's what Andy says. "This kid will be trained by age three. The other two were and this kid can too." This has become a rather sore subject at the Broeker household. I say he's not ready, Andy says otherwise.
Saturday, August 22nd - Madison and I attended a baby shower for baby Luci given by the gals in Missy's neighborhood. If you haven't already, you really need to read Missy's blog. It's such an amazing and beautiful journey about their adoption process of little Luci.
Sunday, August 23rd - This is the last home game this season for the Saltdogs. Homer happened to stop by and say "hi" for a photo. Aren't they cute together?
Monday, August 24th - We "think" that Grant is well on his way with his crash course of Potty Training 101 to take his pull-ups to Christi's daycare. Now I am not a fan of pull-ups, but I figured it would be easier on Christi. Well, it wasn't and as of now he's back to diapers at daycare and will on occasion go to the bathroom for Andy and Tyler...just the boys. Not mom or Christi!
Tuesday, August 25th - I think it is so darn cute seeing Grant wear Tyler's football gear since it's so big on him. In a couple years we probably will be going to Grant's football games and Tyler will be in college. Ugh! I can't think about that right now.

One of those kinds of days

UGH! I just want to scream, kick or maybe pitch a little fit. Yup! I am feeling that way right now. I've seen it modeled to me before by many children in that four or five year old range and I feel like joining in.

Here's how it all began....

Madison tells me that her soccer coach recommended her team to see the UNL soccer players in action tonight. Oh, yes, that's right. I forgot to mark that on my to-do list. So, off I go with my allergies in full swing. I think I could scratch my nose right off of my face. I am itchy everywhere! Scratch, itch, rub, sneeze.....

Now, I am on my way to UNL and I remember there's laundry in the wash that I just washed for the second time. I forgot it yesterday and it didn't smell good today. Don't you hate that when that happens? I attempt to call Andy to find my cell phone is dead. Darn battery! I guess I'll remember when I get home. Promise!

While in traffic around by the stadium, I come to find that parking is $5. Of course, I don't know exactly that amount until I pull up in a long line to read the sign in small print. I have $3 on me and they don't take plastic. So, I need to find a metered lot. I locate one that's only blocks away but, there are a dozen other cars looking for the same cheap parking too. This leaves me frazzled and am now driving home with Madison crying in the back seat of the van. Her crying, which I did not have the patience to hear, made me say this was a lost cause and we are skipping the event all together. In my silly mind, I might have scrounged up another $2 at home to go back and be that "perfect mom" until I was provoked by sobs of an 8 year old.

We get home and I am past crabby to see that my laundry is currently on another wash cycle. Andy noticed the laundry (that is unbelievable in itself) thinking that it was probably left from the night before, so he washed again. This makes it a third time. It better smell great!

You'd like to think that this would be the last of my crazy, bad luck endeavors until you hear this last event.

We were out of bread, milk and lunch meat. I decided I would quickly run and get that at Hy-Vee all by myself. I could use some peace and quiet. Andy asks me to drive the truck this time since it's currently out in the drive way. I grab my purse out of the van and off I go. I find several good buys along with my stable items that I needed. In fact, I think my luck is improving....Ben & Jerry's ice cream is on sale too. Woo-hoo! Yay!

Then I go to the register and I know the sales clerk, Stacy. I am talking more than I am looking in my purse only to find after she's rung it all up that I don't have my wallet or checkbook. I am defeated, furious and annoyed. The wallet and checkbook are in the minivan. I took them out when I was scouring the purse for another $2 for parking. So needles to say, I drive home wrecklessly and retrieved my money to go back to the store to get my goods. Ahhh!

Okay, I'm fine now that I've blogged this story, all calm and collected, so I am going to enjoy this...

(one is for Andy, can you guess which one?) and then I'm going to bed before anything else happens!

Rocket Fizz

My friend Amy told me about this cool candy store that just opened last week called Rocket Fizz at 14th and Pine Lake Road. It did not take me more than a day to run to the southside of Lincoln to check out this nostalgic candy and soda shop. There's nothing I like more than bottled pop and candy in general, so I almost sprinted in that direction.

And wow.....

They had hundreds of flavors of saltwater taffy. I didn't know how many kinds there were out there....chocolate chip cookie, pear, buttered popcorn?! The flavors were endless! Who knew?
The owner's daughter, Alexis, was extremely helpful. She told me she was 3 yrs. old and she kindly helped Grant fill his bag up with one of each flavor. Stinkin' cute!
Madison got her own bag where she preferred the fruit and mint flavors.
Tyler finally decided he needed his own bag too after checking out all the candy they had. This includes many kinds of candies that I remembered as a child like candy cigarettes, bottle caps and those chocolate ice cubes that melt in your mouth. The memories!
This place also carries over 500 different kinds of soda pop. My favorite is root beer and I am just guessing they carried about 75 varieties of just that kind alone. Of course, we each had to pick out a soda for the road. Mine was a root beer that was made from cane sugar. Very good! Andy's root beer tasted like iced tea and root beer mixed together. That was a weird combination and not one that I preferred. Madison had a super sweet blue soda and Tyler picked a Jolt cola that he could leave him buzzing for weeks. Grant was satisfied with saltwater taffy, so we all got our share of sugar for the weekend. A neat and nostalgic place to visit! I'll definitely be back for more!

Potluck Salad

Tonight we went to church to watch the video of St. Mark's Work Camp to Denver. This took place at the end of July and it was Tyler's first mission trip that he participated in. They also had a potluck dinner prior to watching the video since that's what Methodists like to do (me, not so much). I decided to try out this great sounding salad from Becky's blog for tonight's dinner. Luckily, I sampled the salad prior to going or I'd have no idea how it tasted. It was heavenly! We were one of the last people in line and, of course, it was gone by the time we got there. I even strategically placed the salad at the end of the table hoping to have a chance to get some. No such luck. It was a huge hit or at least it looked appetizing enough to take some. Here's the recipe, if you want to give it a try. It reminds me of a summer salad that they serve at Panera Bread, but it's modified slightly and is still simply delicious!

Fruit & Poppy Seed Salad

1 pkg. baby spinach or mixed greens (about 8 oz.)

1 pkg. strawberries, hulled and quartered

2 apples, diced

1 medium cucumber, cut in half and sliced (we skinned ours too)

craisins (we used white raisins instead and it worked)

sliced toasted almonds

bottle of poppy seed dressing (Brianna's brand is best)

**I could of used Kraft's kind, but I think a cheap dressing makes or breaks a salad and the dollar saved wasn't worth it.

Put the greens in a large bowl. Add all of the sliced and diced fruit. Add a little dressing at a time, so it's not too much and then top with the sliced almonds just before serving to keep them crunchy. Enjoy!

Days 231-235

Sunday, August 16th - This day marks my parent's 40th wedding anniversary, so I'll probably use a picture of them that they took for the POTD. I don't have the picture online, so I'll use one of Madison at soccer practice.
Monday, August 17th - It's Open House night at both Campbell and Schoo. I was too busy at my Open House that I didn't get to go down the hall for Madison's. Here she is with her teacher Mrs. Weatherholt. Andy said Mrs. Weatherhold was incredibly busy with all the visitors, so he only got one quick picture.
Tuesday, August 18th - This was our last work day and we decided as a team to visit our former co-worker at her new school. Krista is the new Kindergarten Team Leader at Kooser Elementary which is "up the road" from us. I will miss working with Krista!
Wednesday, August 19th - The first day of school picture of my three kids. It was a rainy morning, but we were all ready to go bright and early.
Thursday, August 20th - Madison and teammate Cassie were a terrific duo tonight. They had a great assist and goal. This was Madison's best game that I've ever seen her play. She scored and had two more shots on goal. Better yet...they won 3 to 2 against a team that was a year older than themselves! Way to go, Wildcats!

Days 226-230

The end of summer...

Tuesday, August 11th - This was officially my last day of summer, so I brought Valentino's pizza over to the neighbor's house (Tracey, Joey, Hannah & Jessi's) for a pizza party.
Wednesday, August 12th - Tyler had Midget football practice tonight. He is playing for the Police and is on the "C" team. They had weigh in's and photos recently and Tyler is the lightest weight player on the team out of about thirty boys. This does not make him happy, but it would make me extremely delighted if it was me!
Thursday, August 13th - It's another day of staff development and here we are talking about policies and procedures.
Friday, August 14th - Our neighbor, Kate, just got back from a six week vacation in Ethiopia to visit family. She was so kind to remember Madison with a matching necklace. Two cute girls!
Saturday, August 15th - We thought this would be the kids' last hurrah of summer fun... a trip to the Omaha Zoo. We tried out the new Skyfari and the sights were incredible!

Fabulous Firsts

First of all, I must admit I am extremely tired and should not be blogging for fear of not making any sense. But I must keep up with my blogging friends Mindee and Tracy who also blogged about the first day of school, so here it goes...

Today was a day of some fabulous and fantastic firsts. Tyler entered 7th grade at a brand new middle school called Schoo School. For those of you who don't live here, it rhymes with "toe" and is named after a former superintendent of our school district. I think it's a rather clever name, but others might think it's a typo, so yes, it's called Schoo School.

This above picture was taken at Open House on Monday and was told...."Take it quick, if you want a picture". It's not cool to take pictures of middle schoolers! Notice the building isn't quite finished yet. You can still see the insulation on the bottom side of the overhang. At least the rest of building appears to be mostly done and what is done looks fabulous (note: blog title).

Tyler got his first locker (another fabulous thing). He did not have a locker last year at Goodrich and someone stole his report card. I did believe that was a legitimate claim since he had good grades and I got a duplicate, which proved to be what he said it was. Hmmm...why would someone take a report card? I wouldn't think you could fake that, but then again I've seen what can be done with a plagiarized driver's license.

This morning I was very concerned about Tyler remembering his locker combination for his first day and Tyler rest assured me by saying..."Mom, it's Peyton Manning, Joe Ganz and Herbie Husker." I didn't understand his reasoning at first, but he was meaning he memorized his locker combination by football players' jersey numbers. Clever thinking, Tyler!

The biggest fabulous firsts were of course, seeing my eighteen fantastic kindergarteners!

I witnessed a.....first cry, a first teary eyed mom, a first raised hand, a first smile, a first line (that was indeed fabulous looking) and a first dismissal. Oh, what a wonderful, fabulous start to the school year. I'll blog more later, but it's time for bed and another fabulous school day tomorrow!

Forty years ago

What does my parents anniversary and Woodstock have in common? Not a whole lot except both happened forty years ago this weekend. Happy Anniversary to two special people!