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!

All Home Safe & Sound

Tommy, Reeve and Kyle made it back yesterday evening and they had a great time snowboarding, riding the chair lift, and cross-country skiing with a Great Dane puppy.

This first picture was taken in Mt. Bohemia when Tommy went a couple of weeks ago. It's a run that he snowboarded on called the "TommyKnockers."


This is a picture of Reeve tuning his snowboard before they left.


Tommy could not take a picture while they were all three snowboarding :-(. It was good that they went during the week because it wasn't crowded and the chair lift operator was able to slow the chair lift down for them to get off and on. Tommy said the boys did great and they rode the chair lift at least 8 times. He also said Reeve and Kyle were "naturals" on their snowboards and did a great job navigating and boarding down the hills. They went on one black diamond run!

This is a pic of the little mobile home/cabin they stayed in for the night.

Two more get added to the SkiBum list

Tommy made it home from his trip late Friday night, and Saturday he started planning for his next trip. It's getting hot here (40'sF feels quite tropical!) and the snow around us is all melting. It won't be long before it all turns to mush up on Lake Superior.
I started my new job yesterday. I have 3 days of daytime training, and I wasn't able to secure daycare for Reeve and Kyle. Realizing that he had to take 3 days off Tommy decided to go on another ski trip and take Reeve and Kyle :-).

They left this morning at 4am! They're going to a family ski place in the Porcupine Mountains complete with bunny hills and chair lifts (vs. t-bars). This is the first time I've been separated from the kids for more than 12 hours! I'll miss them... I already do! I'm so glad they're going. It will be a great adventure for them. They plan on skiing today when they get up there. It's about a 5 and half hour drive. Then if all goes well they are going to stay the night, ski tomorrow (Thurs) and return sometime late Thursday night.

We were wondering how Kyle was going to handle this. When we asked him what he thought he asked, "Are we going to sleep in a house?" Our response: "Well sort of like a house." Kyle: "Will it have a bed?" We laugh a little and say yes, then Kyle said, "Oh no problem I'll be just fine." Reeve told me not to worry about him getting cold (in 30F weather he'd rather wear a t-shirt than a coat) because I'm always telling him to bundle up, and he's always telling me that he has "boiling blood" running through his veins and he never gets cold. Tommy told me he was going to take it slow and just have fun with the kids. I sent along the camera, but I'm sure it will be difficult to take pics.

I leave for work in about a half an hour. My first day went very smoothly. I know I'm going to enjoy working there. So I bet you're wondering what I'm going to do when I return to an empty house tonight...

I'm going to work on my window quilt (and do a deep cleaning on the house while I have the uninteruppted chance!).

This is the first "fence rail" block that I did for the quilt. It was the first lesson in my beginning quilting book, so that's what I went with. I'm using all scrap material (a shirt that was my Mom's, then mine, another old shirt, some old boxers, etc... the ultimate in recycling). The material is different and the stretchy stuff is really hard to sew! I'm satisfied with the way it turned out, it's not perfect, but I'm using scraps and it's for a window :-).

Ski Bum goes on ANOTHER trip :-)

Well a lot has happened since I posted last. I wanted to leave the kids stories up for a couple of days... and then I got side-tracked.

I think I'll go in reverse order. YES it's true! Tommy went on yet another snowboarding trip. This trip will be shorter than the last 2 week solo vacation he had. He went up to Mt. Bohemia in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I took the below pic as he was leaving yesterday morning at 4am.

Doesn't he look happy? I told him to enjoy his trip, because it might be his last for awhile.
Why you ask?
I got a job and I start Monday morning at 8am for three days of training, and then I'll work weekday evenings 5pm-11pm and any shift on weekends. It's not a glorious job, but it's decent and safe. I'll be working as "retail co-worker" at the Kwik Trip gas station/convience store in Elroy (Major THANKS to my dear friend Lisa who is always looking out for me!). Don't worry about me working in a gas station at night. This one is safe, I'll be working with someone else at all times, it's in Elroy (small rural quaint town... not on the Interstate or any other major highway), the company was ranked as the best company in it's class to work for in 2006, out of the 350 some odd stores it has in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota exactly 3 stores have been robbed in 3 years, there are 10 security cameras, etc...
Why am I going back to work you ask?
Someone has to pay for all those extravagant ski trips :-)

For those of you saying, poor Laura... don't :-). I'm very happy, I chose to stay home, and I was only teasing about needing a job to pay for Tommy's vacation. I'll be taking my own getaway in May. I'll be going to Lake Geneva, WI for a 3 day Yoga Retreat with my friend and yoga teacher Annie. Annie also just recently approached me about helping her teach some yoga classes. She wants to open her own studio (current classes are held in the basement of a church and at a dance studio) and she won't be able to teach all the classes she wants to offer. I'm looking at taking teacher certification classes in either Mequon, WI or Appleton, WI.
Below is a pic of the bag I made for my yoga mat, straps, water, and blocks. Thanks Barbara for the sewing machine! It was a dream to use, and I'm glad I finally got a chance to use it. Next use will be for the window quilts I've been wanting to make. I'm in the slow (for me) process of cutting the squares.


Finally we did have some family fun together this past weekend. We went cross-country skiing and sledding at a friends place. In the pic below Tommy is in front, Reeve is in the middle, and Tom's friend Wiley is in the back.

Cool article on ACV

As many of you know we drink raw apple cider vinegar like water around here. Reeve and Kyle love it, and I attribute their good health to it. I usually mix about 2 tablespoons of raw honey with 3 tablespoons raw apple cider vinegar, with about a quart of water. Shake it up, and you have what Tommy calls "honey dew" (a healthy alternative to Mountain Dew).
I just found this article on it, and it is also beneficial for lowering blood pressure, and relieving arthritis.
Enjoy Fresh Produce and a Healthy Glow with Apple Cider Vinegar

Reeve's story.... Part 2

Please read the post below for Part 1 of this story.

We loaded up the car and left.


We found the perfect camp spot. Kyle staked down the tent. Papa put some oil in the cook stove, while Mama hid with the mac-and-cheese. She didn't want to get us too excited while we were setting up the camp.


We went canoeing and we were happy that we had decided to go camping.


The End

Reeve's Story... The Best Vacation... Part 1

Here is Reeve's final entry for the contest. Poor Reeve, this is his 4th attempt for this contest. His previous attempts were either a rushed coloring job or way too many words. I think his first story had over 500 words and the maximum word count for 1st Grade is 200 words. He was shocked when Kyle completed his story the first time out with one page removed and he ended up with 200 words. He couldn't let Kyle enter and not him, so he gave it one more try. The irony is that Reeve is constantly writing stories, but we couldn't submit any of his other stories to date because the rules say they can only be on one side of the paper. I had to convince him not to write one of his creative adventure stories, but maybe a story from his real life, and this is what he came up with.

The Best Vacation, by Reeve Raye
One day we decided to go on a vacation. Mama cooked up some pizza, made some sandwiches, and I got out the cooler.


Papa got out lots of camping gear: tarp, hammer, tent stakes, lantern, tent, sleeping bags, and the life jackets.


Mama and Papa had already packed their bags, so Kyle and I started to pack ours.


to be continued....

Kyle's story continued

Please read the post below this one first :-)

This is the continuation of Kyle's story:

We went down the hill and we bumped and bumped down the road. Reeve said "WEEEEE," adn I said "Stop the ride," and Papa said "We're almost down the hill guys."
When we got down the hill we crashed our car and went up in the air. When Reeve heard the crash he said "WEEEEE," and Papa said "I wonder what's happening," and I said "We're up in the air...Stop the ride."


When we got to the place that we were goin, Mama was so behind that I had to walk the stairs myself and I was thinking so much about the love that the love helped me up the stairs.


The End

I'll post Reeve's story tomorrow. I should also mention some of the rules. They had to have at least 5 illustrations and for their age group they had to have between 50 and 200 words (no more, no less). The 200 words or less was a real challenge for Reeve at first. We had to edit Kyle's story and I think it ended up being 201 words! Reeve's story finished out at 121 words.

Reading Rainbow Contest... Kyle's story part1

My kids LOVE the PBS kids show READING RAINBOW, so they were very excited to enter this year's Young Writers and Illustrators Contest.

I can only up load 4 pictures without problems, so here is the first half of Kyle's story.
He illustrated the pictures first, then dictated the story to me.

WAKE UP FIrST, BY KYLE RAYE
One day Papa woke first before Mama. Usually Papa sleeps in, but this time Mama didn't even know it was daytime.


Then I woke up. When Reeve woke up it was school time. Reeve woke up before Mama, so I had to be his Math teacher and give him his math tests.


Mama woke up, and Papa was under the car. Mama had to tell him to put the oil in the car because he forgot to put that in.
Papa put his hat on and we set off.


...to be continued

BRRRR!

Okay folks, it's BITTER COLD here today! I guess we have no choice but to watch that football game :-) GO COLTS!

It's -13F (-25C) as I type this morning and the windchill is

-27F (-36C)

Now that's COLD! I added a weather link that you can click on to see our current conditions.