Mother's Day & Turkeys

As usual I'm a bit behind on posting :-(. We've had a lot going on here! Since I last posted I've studied for and passed my Loan Originator exam through the Wisconsin Dept. of Financial Insitutions. I'm now a licensed Loan Originator and working for the same small company that has hired Tommy to sell Real Estate...One Stop Realty & Mortgage...www.1stopwi.com. It's part-time for now, so I'm still working at Kwik Trip, but I've reduced my hours at the gas station significantly. The biggest change we've noticed so far is that we both have cell phones now! What a convenience.

This is a pic of the flowers I received from Tommy and the kids for Mother's Day.

The kids wanted to plant a flower garden for me. They did all the work themselves. They removed the weeds, loosened the soil, found some flower seeds, spread them out, covered them with potting soil, and watered them. I was very touched.

Tommy took this pic of the kids making grapefruit/orange juice. Kyle needed to wear glasses so he didn't get squirted in the eyes. Tommy rides by a lot of beautiful wild flowers on his way to and from work. He picked the beautiful purple flowers recently.

We always hear a lot of turkeys around our house, but I'd never seen one in the garden before. They're such an odd looking bird. They really look prehistoric. This pic is blurred because I took it through a window.

Hope you all are having a safe and memorable Memorial Day weekend! We took the day off yesterday to go to a neighbor kid's graduation party. It was fun and good to get in touch with the neighbors. Reeve and Kyle had a blast playing with the other kids there. Today should be warmer than yesterday, so I plan to get a lot done in the garden and yard.

Washer Woes & Dandelions Everywhere

Our little Whirlpool washer has been through a lot... Practically 5 solid years (between Reeve and Kyle) of washing cloth diapers and seven years total of use. It's on the "cold" side of the house and this winter it had some fairly icy water running through it's veins, but it's managed to survive it all quite nicely... In fact I remember many moons ago when it doubled as a kitchen counter!

Tommy took this pic of it taken apart. This week it's been acting up, and flooded the laundry room. Tom got some tips from his appliance repair guru Jim and was able to fix it. He did a good job because I can definitely tell a difference. The clothes are coming out MUCH cleaner...all this time I thought it was the home-made laundry detergent that I was using. I thought it just wasn't working, but actually it was the washer! I'm glad it's fixed, but I was kinda hoping for a new stainless-steel front loading washer...darn!

Slowly but surely I've been working on the garden. So much to plant...so little time... Here's a pic of the remaining transplants yet to go in the garden. Like a fool I thought for sure I'd remember what they were without writing them down, but now I can't recognize some of them???? I know there's tomatoes, basil, marigolds, cabbage, broccolli, and something else that I can't identify at the moment. If any garden gurus can identify the little tiny clusters of plants next to the basil I'd sure appreciate it. Also I'm not sure what's in the top container on the right??? If you click on the picture it will appear larger and will be easier to see what I'm talking about.

The above pic is of the little flower patch we planted in September when my folks came to visit... as well as a visit from Ed :). I'm really looking forward to when those Irises bloom! We also have daylillies and black-eyed susans...THANKS MOM AND DAD :).


I'd like to say we could mow our entire lawn with the human powered mower, but alas it doesn't do thick weeds and other problem areas in the lawn very well. The other day I was using the gas push mower and Reeve was using the human powered mower. He loves it, and it sure is nice to have some help! Now that Tommy's repaired the washer he NEEDS to repair the riding lawn mower!!! Yes I admit it I've been spoiled and I can't bear to think of mowing the mound system and front yard without sitting on my arse ;). It just goes soooo much faster on the riding lawn mower and I don't get blisters on my hands!


HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY A FEW DAYS EARLY! WE LOVE YOU ARDI AND BARBARA!!!! THE BEST MOMS IN THE WHOLE WORLD!!!!

Pool Time and the Long Lost Wedding Ring

We had a really warm (70'sF) weekend! Yay! While I was at work on Saturday the guys decided to set up our beloved Country Jacuzzi (a livestock watering tank). Tom decided we didn't need to heat the house anymore with the solar energy we were producing from our solar panels so he directed it into the Country Jacuzzi. Reeve and Kyle were thrilled and couldn't wait to get in the tub.

Reeve has told me many times that he has boiling blood running through his veins, so the luke warm (at this point in the pic) water temp didn't bother him a bit. Kyle on the other hand was a bit surprised by the temperature. It didn't take too long for the pool to fill up and warm up to a comfortable 90F.

They were lovin' it by the time I came home, and were completely water logged when they got out. I've been wanting to start my garden transplants since Reeve's birthday, but I never set aside the time. Well Saturday I decided to get going on that project. Tom helped me mix the soil block mixture in a wheel barrow and the boys and I set to work getting dirty and making our soil blocks.

We were working by our sliding glass door and I looked down in the weeds and saw something shiny.





I could not believe my eyes! It was TOM'S WEDDING RING!!!! It had a big weed growing right up through the center of it... the above picture is exactly how I found it! This wedding has been M.I.A. for the past SIX YEARS! Yes folks, it's another amazing Tom story :-).

He was working on the house when he lost it, and we hadn't been able to find it. He was completely floored when we showed him where it was growing. He remembered that he had taken it off to wash some grease off his hands. WOW! Then he told me that he was really wanting it back lately and had been thinking about wanting to wear it again.

Anybody lost anything? Just tell Tom to think about it... apparently that works right now... Hurry though this special power might not last for long!

How many countless times have we walked by and through that slider? I've weeded that area many times... I know I have. This is completely inexplicable! Tom and my Dad even did some digging there to put in the concrete pads for in front of the slider. It's crazy. It reminds of me of something my brother said when we were talking about Tom's airport story... He said, "How does that happen? How does that happen?" (It was really funny the way he said it, and it doesn't look as funny when I read it now, but it was truly classic Ken. When I was younger I was convinced my little brother would grow up to be a comedian.)

Well maybe it's a good time to go back to Costa Rica to find his first wedding ring. That was lost thanks to me. Tom wanted to take it off before he went surfing, but I insisted that that would be "bad luck." Sure enough it came off while he was surfing. Immediately I got over that silly little "bad luck" superstition.

This isn't the first time Tom's lost something only to be found years later. I remember once we were going on a trip and he wanted to hide his wallet in the house before we left. When we got back we couldn't find it! We searched high and low and then two years later we found it in a drawer... How does that happen?

Four years ago we were camping in British Columbia. Tom didn't want to lose his wallet, and he thought he had put it in our car. When we were getting ready to cross the border into the United States he discovered that he couldn't find his wallet. We had to go to the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police...for all you Yanks) and explain to them that we thought someone had stolen it, and it took some time to get across the border. One year later the kids wanted to sit in their dual camping chairs. In the center there is a pocket... Kyle looked in the pocket and found Tom's wallet!...How does that happen?

Reeve's 7th Bday & Tom's Airport Antics

The kids and I had a peaceful Easter at home with my Mom. She arrived Saturday and we had Reeve's 7th Birthday celebration Saturday evening because Tom was flying to New York on Easter Sunday.

Reeve was thrilled with everything he received, but most of all he was thrilled just to be 7 years old. He was proud to tell Kyle that he will be able to drive a car in just 9 years, and that he was 3 years closer to being 10, which will be really something in Reeve's mind. He's so mature already. We've been wanting a Foosball table for some time now, so what better way to get what you want than to give it as a gift to someone in your household :-). It was Reeve's lucky day. We got a combo table, and Reeve's favorite was the pool table. He took it quite seriously!

It's a good height for Reeve and Kyle to play, and it's provided endless fun already.


Sunday morning Tommy made us all breakfast and then he left for the airport. We colored Easter Eggs with the kids

and I hid them around the inside of the house (too cold to go outside!). They liked the indoor hunt because they said it was more challenging.
Then I made "cookie cake"... it's this lazy Mom's version of cookies and Birthday cake. We don't eat sweets much and I think I put candles on a pizza last year for Reeve's birthday. This year I decided to give him a surprise. I just took a cookie recipe and spread it out on a jelly roll sheet to bake. They loved it, and it was terribly easy. It tasted great even though I cut out half the sugar and used honey.


Now it's time for Tom's Airport Antics:
When Tommy told me his airport woes I was wishing I had gone to the bathroom first. I was okay, but it was a close call. You might want to pause at this point and go to the bathroom... it's pretty funny what happened. Don't worry I'll wait...

Maybe I'm twisted, but this cracked me up. Are you ready?

I have to rewind and tell you what happened Saturday evening. Reeve had opened his presents and Tommy decided to empty the ash in the wood boiler. Normally, in the winter, there is snow on the ground and he can go spread the ash outside as he pleases. You might recall last Fall I started a small fire in the compost pile after I had put some straw in there for aeration and then some hot wood ash. I wasn't thinking. Well Tommy wasn't thinking Saturday evening and he spread the ash around an apple tree that had straw mulch around it. Yes the ash was hot, and yes he started a fire. He was playing pool with Reeve when he looked out the window and saw flames blazing around the apple tree. My first instinct was to get some water. Tom's first instinct was to run out there and stomp on the fire. Between the two of us the fire was successfully squashed. I didn't think any more of it, and neither did Tom.

Now just file that little bit of info for now.

It's been over 10 years since Tommy's flown on a plane, and so my Mom was trying to prepare him for what to expect. She suggested that he get there at least 30-45 minutes early for his domestic flight out of La Crosse, WI. She also warned him that he would need to take of his shoes, and we talked extensively about the shoe bomber, etc... I suggested that he wear sandals, but he didn't want to look funny wearing sandals with socks. Whatever... I wear socks with sandals all the time... I think it's comfy.

Well Tom was given bad directions to the airport and arrived about 30 minutes early. When he got there there was no one at the check-in desk and he began to ring the help bell at the desk... maybe just a tad impatiently.

Someone came and they proceeded to check him in and sent him along for the security check. The alarm rang when his bag went through the metal detector. The pushed it through a second time, and it went off again. They then proceeded to remove all contents from his bag to find out what was tripping the alarm. Meanwhile Tommy is taking of his shoes.

HE WORE THE SAME SHOES HE USED TO SQUASH THE APPLE TREE FIRE! Now all eight security guards were curious. His shoes smelt like smoke, but that's not all. These must be his favorite pair of shoes, because no sane person would have picked these shoes to wear to the airport. He loves these shoes so much that he's repaired them with... are you ready for this... DUCT TAPE! Yes folks, he wore smoky-smelling-duct-taped shoes to the AIRPORT! I think sandals with socks would have been a better decision, but that's just me.

I can't imagine what's going through the guard's heads as he's explaining the apple tree fire and duct tape. Then they find what was setting off the alarm. He used a bag that we often take camping, and he didn't give it a good look over before he packed his clothes in it. Hidden in a small zipper pocket was a BOX CUTTER! Can you believe it? This could only happen to Tom! Luckily he was able to convince the guards that he was not a danger to society and he just barely made his flight.

He told me this after he made it to his hotel room in Pulaski, New York. He was laughing, and after I regained my composure I asked him if I could take notes. So he knew this was going on the blog.

Well that's it... I thought it was hilarious, and I'm glad I wasn't there! :-) Now I need to suggest that he buy a new pair of shoes before he leaves via a New York airport! I don't think in New York that they'll be so easy on a guy with smoky smelly duct taped shoes.

Kids and kids

Meet Billy and Hazel

My friend Brenda has new baby goats. We went to visit with them and let me tell ya my kids loved these kids! They were so soft and sweet and full of boundless energy... just like my kids.

They let Reeve and Kyle pick them up and carry them around. I wish the weather would warm up so we could go back there again soon.

Goats are one of my favorite farm animals. If we ever get another animal I think it will be a goat... It's not in our near future because we like to travel too much. We're lucky that we can go down the road and hang out with Brenda and her goats, and chickens, and her dogs: a very sweet Doberman named Angel and her German Sheppard Zeus.

Brenda showed the kids how to milk Mama Jane. Jane was very nervous, but she was a trooper and even let both Reeve and Kyle milk her! What an experience these guys had :-)


Raye Updates: All has been well here. We were teased with beautiful 70F weather a couple of weeks ago and now we'll be lucky to make it to the 40sF all through next week. Ugh!

My Mom is coming for a week long visit tomorrow. Reeve is thrilled to have Nana come up for his birthday (Easter Sunday this year) and he's even made a list (in 15 minute increments) of all the things he wants to do with her when she arrives. The funny thing is I used to make these same type of 15min increment lists when I was a kid... a much older kid (like Jr. High). It's kind of weird to see Reeve do it, because he's never seen me make one of these lists. I was pretty obsessive about it as a kid. I still make extensive lists, but I got over the whole "done to the minute" thing... do you think something like that is really in someones genetic make-up?

My Dad couldn't come up this time for several reasons: 1)He's just now getting back to work after taking 6 weeks off for foot surgery 2)His foot is healing from surgery 3)We needed someone here for a week, and not a weekend... I'll explain :-)

Tommy is flying to New York for computer HVAC training for his job. He leaves Sunday morning and returns late Tuesday night. I have a 3day training course in La Crosse for my new job. I get to learn how to do the opening bookwork so that my boss can schedule me on the weekend 4am-2pm shift. I really prefer this shift as I can knock out 20hrs of work in just 2 days and still like I have somewhat of a weekend. I don't like working the 8am-6pm shift on the weekends. It ruins the whole day for me. I feel pretty lucky because Peter (my boss) had to get special permission to get me into this training course. It's not something they usually let you into when you've only worked there a month, but Peter knows I'm over-qualified for what I'm doing right now.

So THANK YOU Mom for coming to our rescue :-) I certainly wouldn't have been able to go to La Crosse for this training session because Tom will be in New York for the first day.

We've decided to step into the 21st Century and we now are the proud owners of a cute little Motorolla cell phone. Tommy needed to get his real estate business cards printed and so we HAD to get a cell phone. I'm stoked! I know this will be his business phone, but I'm having fun with it in the interim. The reception is not the greatest in the house, but we can get three bars if we go up to the driveway. Pretty cool, eh?

Speaking of eh.... we've just reserved our campspot in Banff, Alberta Canada for our summer camping trip with our Canadian rels. We'll be driving over 4000 miles round-trip in August. Our first stop will be in Winnipeg, Manitoba, then we'll head west to Banff. From there we go up to Prince George, British Columbia, then down to Vancouver area for the "Little Family Reunion" in Berthusen Park, Lynden, Washington.

New Hat for Tom!

Since about January (in between his many snowboarding trips) Tommy has been studying to take his Real Estate Sales Person Exam for the State of Wisconsin. Yesterday he drove down to Madison to take his exam, and he passed!!! Tommy is now a licensed Realtor for the State of Wisconsin. There is a local Broker in Elroy that said he could use Tom's help if he got his license. This would just be on a part-time basis as Tommy has no plans to quit his day job. He's thrilled, and we're very proud of him.

Well I did manage to get a couple of pics of Reeve snowboarding this year.

It was an easy ride for him. He's got the stance down, doesn't he? After watching him I told him he did a good job and his response was, "Yeah, I know. I'm really good." Reeve does not lack confidence that's for sure! Kyle loved cheering him on from the sidelines. These pics were taken on the 18th of March. We get a lot of Green Bay Packer's hand-me-downs... they really look like Wisconsinites, don't they?


These bike pics are more recent... Tommy took these on Saturday (24th) while I was at work.


Kyle's been practicing his turns:


The Happy Raye Brothers:

Goodbye Snow Angels!

The last of those darn snow pics, next set is melting snow pics, and then I think I'll be nearer to being caught up with this blog.

It's going to be near record highs here today...75F...WOOHOO!

Not burried in the Snow

Well it certainly has been a very long time since I've posted to our blog! I just wanted to let you that we didn't get burried in snow... we are alive and well :-).

It's been very hectic for me starting back to work. I can't believe it's been over one month now! The job is going great, but I'm a pretty tired girl. I figure in a couple of more months I'll be more adjusted to it. Reeve, Kyle and Tom have all adjusted to my schedule, so that's a good thing. I like all the people I work with. On my weekly evening shift 5pm-11pm I usually work with one other person. We get a lot of interesting regulars at this gas station. Folks that come in every night, and sometimes more than once a night. I'm getting to know them and some of them really get a kick out of teasing the new girl. Lots of small town humor. One girl that I work with is amazing... a regular customer will walk in and she knows what type of cigarrettes they buy, so she'll get them ready. I can do that with a couple of them now, but she knows them all! The local cops like to come in and eat. I feel pretty safe there, but I especially like it when the cops hang around inside. At night when we're closing up they'll even do a slow drive through our parking lot. We stay pretty busy right up until closing... there's a lot for two people to do.

I did take some pics in my recent blog dormancy. I'll work on posting them! Here's the first batch:

For those of you wondering if Tommy was able to keep up his bike commute through the ice and snow... the answer is YES :-)


He really enjoyed it. These were taken March 2nd, 2007 and the snow is almost all melted.

More snowy scenes

The nice thing about all this snow is that the temps are pretty mild, so at least we can get outside and enjoy it. Sooo many times we get snow and then it's like 10below with a 40below windchill. Who wants to go out in that? It's always around the end of February when the temps are steady above freezing that we see the end in sight. I'm always amazed at how on a sunny day 35F can feel downright tropical.
The other nice thing is that this snow is providing a lot of insulation. Since our house is built into the slope of a south facing hillside we are very insulated. I've noticed a huge difference in the amount of wood I'm putting into the woodstove. It's a lot less now that we've had a few of the white stuff and the indoor temps are steady around 70F.

This is a picture of my spinach row cover... remember the wire fence that I cut, bended, and covered with plastic. Well now it is completely covered with snow. I noticed the bunnies were hanging out in there before the blizzard came! Ugh! They better watch out for Tom. He's rumored to go "nuts" when he sees animals eating our spinach. Luckily bunnies are not on the endangered species list.


Here is one poor little bunny chewing on a root by the old house that we've yet to remove :-).


The snow pushed over our fence that was partially created for bunny and deer control. Thank goodness I haven't seen any deer tracks in the backyard. I'd go "nuts" if I catch them eating my apple trees. That's fur sure! Yah!


The kids won't be swinging for awhile:


We have our snowshoes ready :-)

From the land of Ice & Snow

What can I say? We got lots of snow, and now we're in the middle of an ice storm.


The kids are having a blast! I caught them just non-challantly walking on the roof! Whoa! Get down from there I said. What are you doing? They discovered that the snow was high enough that they could just climb up and walk on the roof.


When they got off the roof they decided to go under the over-hang in a "cave" that they found.


After hanging out in their snowden they decided to go rolling in the snow for awhile.


While I was shoveling the driveway out Reeve said he was going to make a snowman. About 5 minutes later (short attention span) he said he was done. The snow was a little wet and I guess hard to work. I should have helped him, but I didn't. I told him he made a perfect snow baby. The picture is really hard to see, but if you click on it it will get bigger and you can see the snowbaby a little better.

Blizzard at Our House

Well we got about a foot of snow yesterday and then about another foot last night in the BLIZZARD. We actually had a BLIZZARD here! I drove to work yesterday and took the county roads there. They were clear and it only took me 30min vs. 15min. Well after work I decided that the roads might be clear enough to go the shorter route. Why did I do that? The wind was blowing so much that it blew about 3 feet (NO KIDDING) of snow into one ridge portion of Lee Road. I got stuck! I had to get out and kick the snow out from in front of all my tires. It felt like an eternity, but it was really probably only 5-10 minutes. I finally made it out.

Our neighbor usually plows out our driveway, but there was so much snow that his little plow got stuck and he didn't get very far! Thank goodness I didn't have to drive to work this morning!


Before Reeve and Kyle even had breakfast this morning they were suited up and ready to go outside in the BLIZZARD.


Just look at the front of our house! It's burried!


And this is what happened when I opened the front garage door:


Tommy decided it was finally time to put the knobby tires on his bike. He actually plans on riding his bike to work tomorrow! You know it IS probably safer than riding his little Ford Festiva in to work!

Good luck honey!

Cross_Country Skiing in the Porkies

On their adventure to the Porcupine Mtn's in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan they went snowboarding the first day and cross-country skiing the second day.


During their cross-country ski trip they met up with a friendly Great Dane puppy named Caesar.


Caesar followed them everywhere. Reeve was in the lead and Caesar would run up to Reeve and then back to Kyle and Tommy. They said he really wanted to make sure they got out of the woods safely.


Caesar's owner came looking for him on a snowmobile, but it was useless. Caesar would not leave Reeve's side. The owner finally gave up and asked Tommy and the boys to ski Caesar back to the Lodge.

Aren't Great Dane's just the greatest!