More pics from Oshkosh

Reeve got to make a plane too, but wouldn't you know it BOTH planes are now broken...that didn't last long.




We saw a LOT of really neato looking planes, but they were really out of our price league. For example a couple of the ones we liked were around 500k!!!!! YIKES :-)

We briefly went to the actual air show, but it was EXTREMEMLY noisy. Reeve DID NOT like it at all.

We left after about an hour. As we were leaving it looked like bombs of billowing black smoke were added as special effects. It was nasty...we felt like we were leaving a war zone.

Experimental Aircraft Show in Oshkosh

Last weekend we went the the Experimental Aircraft Show in Oshkosh, WI (about 2hrs west of us). It was VERY hot, but the kids had a great time!
So did Tommy,

They had motorized mini planes on wires that you can fly around in a circle. The kids went first...here's Reeve

Then it was Kyle's turn

They get pretty dizzy spinning around in a circle

After that we went to the Kid Venture tent where the kids got to make their own wind up planes.

We learned about a pretty cool free website that is a flight simulator game. I can barely get Kyle away from the computer to eat. When he start he doesn't want to get off. I've limited his time to Friday afternoon and Saturday morning ONLY. Here is the link... if that doesn't work just google fms.

Visit with Friends

We had a very nice visit with our friends Mike and Elena and their children, Quinn, Riley, Sophie & Eli.




They live about an hour and a half south of us, but own property about 13 miles away. It's always a treat when they come to visit. Reeve and Kyle absoultely LOVE their kids. They all get along so well and have so much fun together. We went berry picking and took a walk through the woods.

PLEASE HELP!

I need to print out flyers with my black & white pic on them...which one do I choose??? Please help me out and vote in the poll. I need to know ASAP. Think who would you trust to get you the best rate for your mortgage, refinance, home equity line of credit, construction loan, etc...

A few pics from Mom's camera

Today Tommy gets to stay home with the kids while I go off to work. He starts his new 4 day work week this week. Yay!
I worked my last weekend at the gas station. It was tough to say goodbye to all the nice people I work with, but I am SO relieved I stopped working there.
My Mom sent me the pics that she took while she was here.
Here I am in my office at Affordable Mortgage:

and here I am on my way to work one day:

This is a really cool pic of Reeve caught "walking on water" as he was jumping off the diving board into the deep end...he's favorite part of swimming class.

Here's a pic of all of us at the Elroy pool:

and a pic of Kyle practicing his back float

Reeve walking Brenda's goat Dolly

and Reeve lost his 4th tooth...it was acciedently knocked out of his mouth while he and Kyle were playing. Kyle was the one to find it on the floor.

Myrick Park Zoo in LaCrosse, WI

Last Wednesday Reeve and Kyle had a dentist appointment in LaCrosse, so we made a day of it. Reeve and Kyle LOVE going to the dentist. I love this dentist! He's also trained in Orthodontics and has started to correct the crowding in Reeve's teeth. Kyle's teeth are totally different and are very nicely spaced. They love this dentist because his office is loaded with video games and a free gift when they're done. They were cavity free this visit...Yay!
After the dentist we decided to surprise them and took them to a free zoo in LaCrosse.

There is a free zoo like this in Madison (Henry Vilas Zoo), but I've heard from several people that they like this zoo better. The spider monkey island was pretty neat to see. It is tough to see the animals behind bars and in cages, but overall I'd say they do a good job with their living spaces.

They had "Bucky" Badger there. He was a real badger, but he was eating with his back toward us, so no pic of him.

There were lots of Peacocks, a couple of Bobcats, some grey foxes, goats, donkeys, ducks, and deer.

The kids went on two kiddie rides. Reeve was way too big for the motor cars. We're thinking we definitely need to make a visit to DisneyWorld in November. Reeve is 7 and has never been to the Magic Kingdom...I think they're at the perfect age for a first visit.

Swimming Graduation was on Friday. My Mom was there to watch Reeve and Kyle Graduate to Level 2. That'll start in a couple of weeks (Jul 30th - Aug 10th). The teacher said Kyle was a little fish, and Reeve was the only kid in the class to start practicing his Freestyle stroke. We're so thrilled that they both love to swim now. I remember a time when Reeve was around 2 yrs old and he hated to even see me in the pool. He would cry and yell at me..."Mama feet out! Mama feet out!"
After swimming Graduation we had to say goodbye to my Mom. She really helped us out! During the 2 wks she was here she read the Nurse Matilda stories to Reeve and Kyle...part of their book club reading for the library. Friday after Nana left we went to the library to watch "Nanny McPhee"...the movie based on the Nurse Matilda stories. In the movie and book Nanny McPhee (aka Nurse Matilda) says that she will be there for the children when they don't want her but need her, and she must leave when they want her but no longer need her. Reeve couldn't help but notice the similarity with his Nana. Nana came when we needed her, but then left at a time when he really wanted her to stay.
Nana will be back in October to help when Billi Jo will go on vacation and has asked me to help with her loan applicants while she's gone.

Swim Lessons at the Elroy Pool

For the past two weeks my Mom has taken Reeve and Kyle to their swimming lessons everyday. It's been a great diversion while I've been at work all day. I labeled these pics with their names by them...just click on the pic and it will appear bigger then when you want to come back to this page hit the back button on your browser.

They start out the lesson by jumping in. Kyle can barely touch the bottom...Reeve can easily touch the bottom.

Then they warm up by bobbing up and down. They're supposed to count how many times they can bob up. Reeve's record in a minute is 24..he's very proud of that since he started out at 7 or 6. Kyle diligently did his bobs while hanging on to the edge.

Wheels on the bus is another favorite part of the lesson...


Next is the kickboards...Reeve zooms around the pool on the kickboard. Very easy for him. Kyle is getting the hang of it. He has a very nice helper named Katie that doesn't leave his side. They all love Kyle's humor...for example they asked Kyle to do a front float one day and Kyle thought he was doing a great job, but his head was out of the water. Katie (the teacher...white hat...there are 2 Katies...blond Katie and teacher Katie) asked him to put his head in the water. Kyle looked at her very confused and said "Why?" They think he's a little "hottie" and he's doing a great job for being the youngest in this Level 1 class.

One of their "tests" is to see if they can float on their backs un-aided. They can both do this no problem now. Today they'll find out if they can move on to Level 2 that starts in about a week. I know Reeve will, but I'm curious to see if they'll let Kyle pass on to the next level.

They end the class by jumping off the diving board. Reeve absolutely loves this part and races off the board with a life jacket on.

I'm wanting him to try to jump off without the life jacket. The life guards will catch him and assist him to the edge. Kyle actually jumped off the board twice yesterday without a jacket because they ran out. This was a major step for him.

Last Friday I resigned from my gas station job only to be guilted into working only on Sundays the very next day. There's a limited amount of people that can do the opening bookwork and there's only 1 other person besides the boss that can do the bookwork on Sunday. Well today I'm so worn out from my mortgage job that I can't imagine working the weekend Sunday shift on a regular basis. I'm going to resign again and this time it will be final. Here's a pic my Mom took yesterday as I was rushing out the door to get to work on time.

Feeding Goats

We've had a busy two weeks since I last posted, but there's nothing new about that! My friend Brenda went on a little 3 day vacation, so we volunteered to feed her goats in the evening. Her Mother-in-Law lives close by and volunteered for the morning duties.

Brenda has one goat that she bought at auction that she bottle feeds, and her name is Dolly. Reeve and Kyle LOVE to give Dolly her bottle.


Brenda gets the milk for Dolly from the other mamas she has (Ginger & Jane). Dolly is so much more friendly and personable than Hazel, Tank, and Coco who are Ginger & Jane's kids. They're all very friendly, but Dolly WANTS to be petted and follow you everywhere you go.

Here I am with the kids feeding Dolly. She's like a little puppy dog.


This is a pic of Jane and her kid Hazel. Jane is really warming up to us now that we've been feeding her and playing with her kids.

After taking care of the goats our next duty was to gather the eggs out of the hen house. We collected 6 eggs in three days...Brenda's Mother-in-Law was also collecting eggs, but we were very happy with what we got.

More to come...well I downloaded the pics now I just have to organize them and write about them. My goal is to try to do that at least every other day. My Mom came up July 1st to watch the kids while I started my 2 weeks of daytime training at Affordable Mortgage. She's been an awesome help...my house actually looks clean, the dishes are always done, Tom's been making tasty dinners, and I've been learning a ton about mortgages.

Forgot to mention...

I forgot to mention that both Reeve and I are recovering from a Lyme's infection! I guess it was about a month ago when Reeve woke up one morning and was very dizzy. He couldn't walk straight and was falling down. It was pretty freaky and so I initially thought maybe he had low blood sugar. I gave him some juice and made him some breakfast. He couldn't hold down the breakfast and was still very dizzy. I made an appointment with a doctor. He continued to be sick all the way to the clinic. When we got there he started to feel a bit better. The docotor thought maybe it was some kind of virus and she sent us over to the lab to draw Reeve's blood for testing. Reeve was fine when we got home. Then about a week and a half later the nurse called to inform us that Reeve tested positive for "recent" Lyme's. Since he had Lyme's last year he will always test positive for Lyme's but then there's a second test that they can run to determine if the infection is recent.

Since Reeve had a Lyme's infection last year his body is slightly more adept at handling the bacteria. He has some antibodies in his system to better fight the infection. That's probably why his symptoms weren't as severe as they were last year. I was a work when Tommy got the call from the nurse. He went to the Pharmacy to pick up the 3 week supply of amoxicillin for Reeve. He had 3 choices: #1 chewable tablets (this would have been my pick...Kyle had this when he had Lyme's in January), #2 flavored liquid (I don't like this as much because it only lasts for 2 weeks and it separates too easily), #3 capsules that you have to swallow. He of course chose the very non-kid friendly option #3. Reeve has never swallowed a pill before and he was looking forward to getting the chewable kind like Kyle had. It was a tad stressful, but the upside is that now Reeve is a champ at swallowing pills! He has 7 more left out of 84...he had to take this 4 times a day for 3 weeks!

When I came home from work later that day I noticed I had a bullseye rash on my back! UGH! I went to the doctor on Monday and he sent me to the Pharmacy for a 2 week supply of amoxicillin. I've had it before as well, so that's probably why my symptoms weren't as severe. Next year we are SERIOUSLY considering building a coop and buying some Guinea hens. They love to eat ticks and snakes. They're very easy to take care of, but they are noisy. I'd rather have noise than Lyme's.

On a lighter note... the monarchs came out of their chrysallis and the kids got to have fun with them crawling around on their faces.


Reeve loved this:


Tommy took this pic of Kyle. It's a really good shot of the butterfly, and we identified it as a female. The male would have thicker lines on the lower wings with two "eye" dots


Now this second generation of Monarchs will live their entire lives in Wisconsin...They don't migrate to Mexico. They'll lay larvae that will turn into the third generation in mid-late August...that's the generation that will migrate to Mexico. Finally the 4th generation will live only in Mexico.

Wolf Spiders, Muddy Reeve & Monarch Update

Well I have received a fair number of reminders recently to update the blog. Thanks for keeping me on track :-). We've had a lot going on lately, so it's a good time for an update.

I attended my first level (out of 6) training to become a yoga teacher through the Feel Your Best Yoga Program. It was a weekend in Madison, and I went with a friend, so we were able to share expenses. I really enjoyed it, but I decided not to continue with the other levels at this time. It's expensive, and I have no time to teach classes on a regular basis. I figure maybe this will be a really good thing for me to do when Reeve and Kyle go to school. We're thinking Reeve will definitely be in public school by 7th Grade. We'd like to be in a state where they offer merit based scholarships for good grades...we know Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee offer that. So that means we have about 5 more years to finish this house. That may sound like a lot of time, but keep in mind we've been at it for 8 years now and we're about half-way done.

I decided my job as a Loan Originator with One Stop Mortgage was going nowhere. I knew that the last L.O. that was working for them left to work at Affordable Mortgage in Tomah. Out of frustration I decided to give Affordable Mortgage a call and see if they were hiring any L.O.s. I made the call, had an interview, and was hired all in the same day. The company is owned and operated by a very motivated and smart woman. She has two offices, one in Sparta and one in Tomah. Brian (the guy who left One Stop) is the L.O. in Sparta and Billi Jo (the owner) is the L.O. in Tomah. I'll be working in the Tomah office Billi Jo. It's a very nice office in a brand new mall area. I get to wear nice clothes and high heels :-). The attire at One Stop was way too casual. Kari, the main L.O. at One Stop, would wear some pretty trashy looking outfits. One day I went in to train she had on low rider shorts with a high riding bright yellow thong! TACKY! When I came home Tom was kinda bummed he wasn't there that day...VERY TACKY :-(.

Tom has decided to not pursue his Realtor career, and he's given his resignation to One Stop. Having a Realtor for a husband was not a good thing for me as a Loan Originator. I need to gain the trust and respect of other Realtors, so that they'll refer their buyers to me. Once they find out my husband is a Realtor they won't refer business my way...they'll be too concerned that he'll try to sway their buyers to buy through him. He decided to let it go...now that was a sweet thing to do :-). He also was discovering it was very time consuming if he wanted to be successful, and he's got too much going on right now.

Tom's very excited because it's looking like he'll get a lateral transfer and work on the Army side of the base...vs. the Air National Guard side. On the Army side he wouldn't have to kowtow to a brat of a boss like he does now...his boss will be in Madison. Also he'll be able to work 4 10hr days, which is what he's wanted to work forever now! It will be great for both of us because he'll be able to have Mondays to work on the house and I'll be able to put in a good 10+hr day at Affordable Mortgage.

My job at Kwik Trip (the gas station) is going well. I put in 20hrs on the weekends working 4am-2pm. I'm a bit groggy tired my Sunday night, but I'm really thankful for the hours there. I stopped working the evening shift (5pm-11pm) unless they really desparately need me to do it. However I need to put my foot down on that one because I plan to work evenings at Affordable Mortgage. About all I can get done during the day is home school the kids. Our house is a disaster, we ALWAYS have a sink FULL of dishes, the laundry is never put away and the dirty clothes hamper is constantly over flowing. Tom has been terrific about coming home and making dinner lately, just so I can keep up with everything.

My Mom is coming for two weeks to save us...I don't think she knows what she's getting into :-). Billi Jo wanted me to have at least 2 full weeks in the office during the day for training, so Mom's coming up July 1st-14th. She'll be taking the boys to swimming lessons in Elroy, and to the Library. Reeve and Kyle have had a lot going on at the Library lately. They're in a book club where they read a book and then they get to watch the movie of that book. The Library also has their summer reading program where the kids go in on a regular basis to log their reading hours and to solve mysteries. The theme of the Reading Program is "Get a Clue," so every week Ms. Mary the Librarian puts together a treasure hunt together. The first one took us a couple of days of walking around Elroy gathering clues and then piecing them together. A lot of fun, but a lot of work. The kids absoultely LOVE it. Tommy helped out with the second week of clues because they were all at the Elroy Fair. I couldn't take them to the Fair because I was working at Kwik Trip all three days.

Well I'm really running out of time here...I woke up early just to post and then I end up going on and on and on...every knows I have a big mouth! I apologize if I was too wordy. I'll say a little bit about the pics and then I promise to post more within a week...we've got some great picture opportunities coming up.



These first pics were taken at a friends house. She lives down the road from us and she found a wolf spider on her driveway. The funky thing about this wolf spider was that it was a mama with hundreds of babies crawling all over her! I had nightmares about this spider after watching all those babies just crawling around all over her body. It was wicked! These pics really don't relay the gross-out factor that was there.

We had a turtle sand box in this lovely little mud hole. The kids were playing on the slide and were spraying each other with the hose. In the process the spot where the turtle had been turned into a muddy pond. Reeve just thought this was the coolest thing ever and decided to get all muddy! YUCK! I always considered Reeve my "neat" kid, but I guess he had to let it out fly out the window. Kyle wouldn't have anything to do with it.

It's that time of year again. This is the second generation of Monarchs. The first arrived from Mexico and laid their larvae which we found on Milkweed. I have more to say on this subject and of course more pics.

This one tried to escape.