Up to our knees in trees!

Planting trees has been on our to-do list for a while now, and this weekend, we finally got around to really doing it. After a couple trips to the nursery last week to scope out the selection, and lots of Ben and I standing in different locations in the yard pretending to be trees, we came up with a plan. We selected 1 Ginko, 2 Willows, 2 Apple, 1 Pin Oak, and 1 Autumn Blaze Maple. We planted all but the Ginko and Maple ourselves, which was a lot LOT of work, but it was actually a lot of fun too. We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the tree spade with our two bigger trees!

Success!

So much happiness for only a buck.

Ever since we went to our neighborhood party a week ago, Jacob has been talking about S'mores non-stop. He enjoyed a few s'mores by the fire that night and it left a lasting impression on him - so much so, that it's been the first thing out of his mouth in the morning on many occasions, "Momma, can we make s'mores?" (ummm sorry, not at 6:10 in the morning!).

Yesterday, our town hosted their annual town-wide garage sales, and I promised the folks running our library bake sale that I'd stop by and purchase a few treats. The older boys, of course, wanted to tag along, and being a pair who can't resist a good bargain, they headed out with their piggy banks in tow... literally. After snagging a package of cinnamon rolls (hoping they might serve as a stand-in for S'mores), we started making the rounds around town. At my first stop, I found a case of really neat pilsner glasses FOR TWO BUCKS. Score! The boys were pretty tight with their money for the first few stops, but at about the 4th house, they both hit the jackpot. We found video game books, board games, trading cards, legos, bionicles, a like-new big barrel youth baseball bat (for FIVE BUCKS!!!!) ((seriously, that was the best find ever)), batting gloves, and more.

Our most unique (and hilarious) find was this set of classic FM wireless intercoms.

The box alone makes me laugh! Our original idea was to put one out in the shed so we could talk to dad from the house... but we tried that - and the distance was a little too far. Instead, the boys each plugged one in near their nightstand so they can have pleasant conversations before bed... (WILL!!!! ANSWER ME!!!!)

My last stop on the way home was the icing on the cake. The kids didn't even get out of the car, because they were to engrossed in the backseat with all their new items. As soon as I approached the perimeter of the displayed items, I spied an item we could not live without.... An indoor/outdoor S'mores maker!!! For $1.00!!!

Look at the proof below - happiness for a buck!

From good to Mud

When my friend called me over a month ago to ask if our kids wanted to participate in the annual 'Mud Run' in Des Moines, I immediately answered "OH I'M SURE THEY WOULD!" I let the kids watch the commercial which featured folks splashing and running in mud and puddles - and that was it. We were going.

Since Jacob was too young to participate, Ben reluctantly (yeah right) volunteered to sit out with our little guy while the rest of us ran the race. I actually thought it might be kind of fun - definitely out of the box for me - and the kids were over the moon about it. What's a little mud?

The rules were as follows:

Wear your grungy clothes and old running shoes.

Make sure your shoes are double or triple tied.

Avoid clothes with pockets, pockets carry extra mud.

Bring a trash bag, dry clothes and towel.

Make-shift shower stations available.

(and here comes the best one:)

Do not dive head first into the mud pit.

This is a FUN RUN so help your neighbor if they get stuck!

HA!

A little mud on a nice sunny day would be one thing. But a LOT of mud on a FREEZING morning (40 degrees) is another! The unseasonably cold temps on Saturday morning had us watching puffs of our own breath float around in the air. My 2 layers of running pants and three shirts were not keeping me warm while we waited for the race to begin. What did I get myself in to?!?!!?

Well, THIS:

note the difference in facial expressions between myself and the chap in red

And believe it or not, we didn't get near as muddy as some of the folks who ran this baby. They may not have dove head first into the pit, but there was definitely evidence of many a belly flops, that's for sure. And we didn't freeze. Once we got going, it was better - and pretty funny... and fun. Getting out of our wet muddy garb in the parking lot was a bit of a challenge, but we managed. I can only imagine what was going through the attendant's head when we walked into our hotel to check in!

Baseball Fever

This weekend I got my first taste of intense, crazy baseball parents and coaches. While I have to say the experience was far superior to the many wrestling meets we've been a part of, I was still a bit shocked after our first day of playing. Will is part of a local 9-year old baseball team in which he had to try out for to be a member. I knew it would be a competitive league, and I knew it would be a big commitment, but since he absolutely LOVES baseball, we went for it. Between Will and Charlie, the practices have pretty much taken over our lives and the supplies have put a dent in our checkbook - BUT they are having a blast and learning a lot - so all is good.

This weekend was Will's first game (which also happened to be an all weekend tournament). We started off Saturday morning by finding out one of our best pitchers broke his arm that morning while riding his bike. Not Good. (At this age, pitchers are hard to develop - so this was a major blow). Luckily, we had several others who had been practicing, so our coach still seemed optimistic.

The first game, the kids played great against an experienced team, and when the ref called the game, we had won 7-5. Our parents and kids were celebrating as the players lined up to shake hands when all of a sudden, a parent from the other team started shouting that we still had five minutes left to play. Huh? We started the game at 2:15pm, it was currently 3:50 pm, games are 1.5 hours long - so it was OVER. Over! Our ump, who was clueless, started to doubt himself on what time he started the game... was it 2:15pm or 2:25pm?? We had the time documented as 2:15pm, but the other coach's chest started to get all puffy, his face began to resemble the color of his shirt (bright orange), and he started in on the arguing. The ump bowed out to let the coaches figure it out - what?! As more orange shirts joined the fight, it was clear that the other team was *insane*, wasn't going to back down, and planned on bullying us until they got their way.

The next thing we knew, the game had started AGAIN, and we were playing another inning. The kids were confused, the other team was revved up and enraged, and in the end, they beat us by one. It was totally disgusting. By the time it was done, our kids had played for over two hours, they were tired and upset... and were late for their next game. You can imagine how that one went.

To make matters worse, the ump approached our coach afterwards to APOLOGIZE and admit that he was in the wrong... and that it never should have happened that way. OH GOLLY THANKS. Try explaining that one to your nine year old. "Yes honey, you did win, but then you didn't"...

With two losses from the first day, we were kicked into the 'Silver' bracket for the following day - but we were okay with that. The kids played their hearts out despite missing players (another pitcher got the stomach flu Sunday morning), and the day went much better. The kids played great, we had a lot of fun and guess what - WE WON first place! :-) Great job 9U Vikings!

Imma Be

HEALTHIER. FITTER. SLIMMER.

There! I committed to it IN WRITING for all the world to see. I told Ben yesterday that today I was going on a 'diet', and I've been mentally gearing up for it for a couple of weeks. (Maybe that's why I couldn't get enough crappy food crammed in my mouth yesterday??)

I wouldn't say I'm terribly unhealthy, but I could definitely be making better choices for myself and my family. I used to be *great* about it. Several years ago, after reading a few books by health experts, and this crazy book below, I went through my pantry and pretty much threw out all of our food. I started really reading labels, shopping in the health food section, ordering hard-to-find products on-line... the whole deal. Our friends thought we were nuts, but we kept it up for a good couple of years, and we felt great about it.

Then, we started our business, life got crazy, and suddenly, eating healthy was too hard and too time consuming. Pretty soon, oreos and chips and other processed food found its way back into our house. I've been feeling bad about it for some time, but I finally hit my breaking point last night as I found myself opening a CAN OF CHEESE SAUCE that Ben had requested last week at a football game, "How come we can't buy this for home?" It's no wonder that Jacob goes around singing "McDonald's Had a Farm"!

E-I-E-I GROSS!

Seriously. What happened here?!

So, today is IT. I'm making my grocery list and heading back to the health food section. It's not going to be easy. My kids are going to complain. A lot. But, I have to do it. I'm also going to start tracking my daily caloric intake, paying special attention to SUGAR! After attending a Family Fitness Fair at school (which I organized), *pats on back* :) last weekend, and finding myself sickened at the nutritionist's table, I realized it's critical to reduce the amount of sugar my kids consume. You'd be absolutely shocked to see the actual amount of sugar measured out in front of you that your kids consume!

And before anybody freaks out and replies that I don't need to lose weight and all that - hold your typers. I don't plan on turning into some scary waif. I would simply like my jeans to fit me properly and to lose the relatively small amounts of lingering blubber on certain areas of my body! If only I could transfer the excess from my thighs to my chest!

Wish me luck :-)

Idon'tbelieveyou.

As most of you know, Will loves, loves, LOVES his dirt bike. He got his first shiny new dirt bike on his 7th birthday. I remember being a little nervous with the whole thing, especially when he hopped on it and literally took off 10 seconds after receiving it... but over time, as he gained more experience, I became more relaxed with the idea of him riding. He actually is a good, responsible little rider. or was. little that is.

First Day with the new dirt bike 2007

Since then, Will has continued to grow, while his dirt bike has not. Our first thought was to have Will start saving for a new one. He liked the idea, and began by putting all the money he had (which wasn't much) in a huge glass jar, and eagerly started jumping at the chance to do extra chores to make money. The money didn't pile up as quickly as Will had hoped, and as we got busier with school and sports, opportunities for money-making became less frequent. He got discouraged and started to think he was never going to earn enough for a bigger bike.

Will's been saving for almost a year now, and while he doesn't have near enough to pay for a bigger bike, we decided to 'help' him out with the rest after finding a nice used dirt bike for sale. I found the bike on-line, had my brother in WI pick it up, and my dad brought it back to his cabin about 2 hours from our house. What a great find! Since the kids didn't have school yesterday, we told them we were taking a last-minute trip to Grandma and Grandpa's, and oh-by-the-way we're stopping at Grandpa Larry's cabin too. Sounded good.

After visiting with my Dad for about a half hour, he asked the kids if they wanted to see his *new boat* in the shed. Of course they did! My Dad put on a good show talking about the features of his (NOT NEW) boat - and since Will was only half listening, he didn't catch on. He was too busy admiring the yellow dirtbike parked to the side of the NOT NEW boat. The conversation went something like this:

Will: "Wow, Grandpa Larry, you have a dirtbike? I didn't know you liked dirtbikes."
GL: "Oh sure, I ride it around here every once in a while - it's fun."
Will: " WOW. This bike is AWESOME. I wish I had one like this."
Ben: "Oh yeah? You like this one?"
Will: "Yes, this bike is so cool. I wish it was mine."
Ben: "Well guess what... That bike IS yours."
Will: *huge smile* "WHAT??? *serious face* Idon'tbelieveyou."
Ben: "Yup! Happy Birthday early. It's yours!"
Will: *huge smile* "WHOA. This bike is AWESOME!!! *serious face* Idon'tbelieveyou."
Ben: "For real! It really is!"
Will: *huge smile* "Cool. *unsure smile* Idon'tbelieveyou."

It went on like this for a bit. Elation, a big smile and then reality check where he can't believe it's really true. It was SO CUTE.

HAPPY EARLY 10TH BIRTHDAY WILL!

A fresh bunch of nothing

As I sit here this morning, kicking myself for letting my blog go outdated... I can't think of what to write! Even after a glance through my latest pictures... still nothing.

Looking around the room - I get Mr. Noodle (nah), Ben on the computer (nope), a tipped over deck chair (nice), rain outside (blech), half eaten cheerios (abandoned on the table - who left them there?), coffee that's getting cold... I'll be right back - gotta get a new cup.

Is this what they call writers block?

I'll be back later.

chew on this:

Happy Birthday to Jake!

While we usually tend to go a bit overboard for birthday parties in the Dudley household, we reigned it in this year. With three kids' birthdays to celebrate each year amongst constant kid activities, throwing parties has become a little more difficult! I didn't want his 3rd birthday to go unrecognized, but our schedule simply wouldn't allow for a blow-out - HOWEVER, we did manage to squeeze in a little party Monday night in between all the chaos. He had a great time!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACOB!

The Cake:

Happy Boy!

The big breath before the blow:

Chaos! :-)

Watching the 'hampster' cruise around:

THANK YOU ALL!!

A friend of mine, on several occasions, has commented on how we always have something going on here at the Dudley household. And she's not talking about events to attend or places to be - she is talking about the other weird random 'stuff' we always have going on in our lives. And you know what? She's RIGHT!

Aside from the many odd happenings that are out of our control - like the beaver dam mess, our misadventures in grass planting, our slumber party blunders, our 2 year old tyrant (well, he's sort of in my control - but whatever)... you get the idea - I do have to admit that we bring SOME of the mayhem upon ourselves. Yeah there, I said it.

Yet another example:





YUP. That's right. We have chicks. And we're not talking 1 or 2... we're talking TWENTY FIVE! A. I thought some would die (nope) and B. I thought it would take a while for them to get big (nope). Our original goal was to get a group of hens established for eggs, I'm thinking 6-8 would be perfect. However, when you buy chicks at the local farm store - guess what? - they're not sexed! So you just get a random bunch of who knows what. (We probably got 25 dudes with my luck). So anyway, with the salesman telling us to get 50 (right), 25 seemed pretty manageable.

And while 25 teeny tiny twerps in a tub was A-OK last week - believe it or not - they're already starting to get crowded. They're growing like weeds!

Tune in next week for another episode of craziness when we attempt to build our own CHICKEN COOP.

Till then...

Luck. What is it?

Luck.

I was thinking about it this morning. With it being March and all, and with me needing a little LUCK today, it's on my mind.

I wish I was Irish.

Other than randomly finding 20 bucks on the street, winning the lottery or not getting pulled over for speeding, I think luck is often overrated. That's right I said it. I know plenty of people who think of others as lucky of unlucky, attributing life's successes and failures to luck - but what is that really saying? People don't get jobs, catch fly balls, receive promotions, school acceptances, roles in plays, good grades, and opportunities in general because they're lucky.

And outside of the random favorable (or not) occurrence, luck boils down to this:

Choices.

When I think about most of my good or bad fortune , I can trace it back to a series of choices I had to make to get the end result. Working hard vs. wasting time. Taking chances vs. playing it safe. Going above and beyond vs. doing only what's required. Being responsible vs. being spontaneous. Doing what's right vs. doing what's easy.

And while I firmly believe a person mostly controls their own destiny , there's still the small percentage of times when the unexpected THING happens - good or bad. And because of that small percentage, I find myself sitting here, crossing my fingers, wishing on stars and eating Lucky Charms.

I'm hoping for a semi-random positive occurrence today.

Chi-ca-go... Chi-ca-go

Yesterday marked the last day of our Spring Break. We didn't really have anything planned, but we all had the itch to do something, so we made a spur-of-the-moment trip to Chicago for a few days. While the drive is just about at the maximum length I can tolerate with kids (about 5 hours), it wasn't too bad - and the whole trip turned out to be a lot of fun.

First, we hit a waterpark hotel for our first day & night. Since our break was so early, the waterpark was basically deserted, so we had no lines and all the space we wanted - super!


On Day 2, we stopped at the Fire Zone where the boys explored a real fire truck, ambulance, hydrants, hoses, etc. They loved it!

Next stop: LEGOLAND! The kids had a blast constructing and reconstructing lego vehicles, and racing them on the lego track.

Can you tell which vehicle I built?

We caught a 4-D movie


We hailed a cab
(and the entire time Jacob kept shouting, "WHO IS DRIVING THIS?!?!")


Next Stop: Sears Tower!


We finished the 2nd day with an authentic Chicago-Style Pizza down the street from our hotel. The kids thought it was really fun to walk in the city. The only down side was the pizza took about 45 minutes to bake. Ugh. The kids were a little wild while waiting!

After a little more walking around in the city the next morning, we wrapped up our stay with a visit to the Shedd Aquarium. Unfortunately I forgot my camera in the car, so I have no pictures of it! The kids really liked watching the sharks and searching for all the little creatures in each tank. We even saw a scuba diver in one of the tanks for feeding time - that was pretty cool. There were SO many exhibits to see, Will claimed he felt sea sick by the end - I kind of did too!

The boys are excited to head back for another trip to see and do more of what Chi-town has to offer. First on their list: PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION!!! Yup - they were BEGGING to ride on a bus or train. Oh Joy! Till then...

And now.... the REST of the story

Well, I'm sure as you probably guessed..... everything turned out just fine. Will may have been escorting a few foreign dog hairs on his trip home, but other than that he was unscathed - and happy! I have to admit, I was incredibly anxious on my way there to pick him up - I just wanted him back already! And this time, before approaching the property, I took a minute to put on my rose colored glasses.

While I still saw this on the outside,

I tried really hard to see something different on the inside. I kept my head down as I burrowed through the porch to the door, making an effort not to notice anything more than I already had. Inside, I tried to focus on the people living there, NOT the conditions of which they were living. Birthday Boy's mother happily greeted me and answered all of my questions about bedtime, etc with a smile. Two sisters were busy in the kitchen trying to make a 'special surprise' birthday cake for their brother while mom stood guard to block his view - that was pretty sweet. And as I peered in the other room looking for Will, (really trying to ignore the wire pen surrounding the wood stove which was heaped to the top with junk) I was happy to see the Birthday Boy enthusiastically playing with the present we'd brought for him. Will was grinning ear to ear as he repacked his bag to go home. We all exchanged our thank-you's, bid each other good day, and out the door we went. I quizzed Will a bit more after he got in the car, and other than the part where he told me they dined on bacon from a pig that Birthday Boy's dad had shot, it all sounded like a typical slumber party. I slowly backed out of the driveway with my kid and a heavy conscience in tow.

*ugh*

Is it 11:00 am yet?

I've been asking myself that question every ten minutes since 4:00 pm yesterday afternoon when I dropped Will off for a birthday-slumber party. (ugh. it's only 8:20 am)

When Will came home with the invitation last week, he was happy as a clam. He couldn't WAIT to attend his classmate's bowling and birthday party. Since I don't know a lot of families yet outside of sports, I started quizzing Will about the birthday boy. Both Will and Charlie attested that he was a nice boy. *good* After examining the class picture, I verified he appeared clean with combed hair. *good* I called and spoke to his mother on the phone - it went well. *good*, and after I agreed he could go, I also found out his mom volunteers in Will's classroom. *good*. So, I wasn't thinking too much about it until yesterday when I was following my GPS trying to find their house. We headed a few miles out of town where the houses started getting farther and farther apart - mainly a farming area. No biggie. Of course, none of the homesteads had house numbers on them, so as my GPS target came and went with no house in sight, I started to get a little worried. I kept creeping along, and as the nearest house started to come into view, DREAD filled my whole body. At first glance, I saw something like this:


Now, I'm exaggerating a little bit here, but the house to my left - the only house around my 'target' was clearly in disrepair. The siding was falling off, it desperately needed painting, Storm windows were missing, it had rusty chain link fences all over... it was bad. BAD. I kept driving... "That cannot be the house, that cannot be the house", I chanted to myself as I turned around to go by again.

On my second pass... I saw this:

Wonderful. There were like 20 cats perched all over the front of this place. Don't get me wrong, I like cats, but this was ridiculous. They were EVERYWHERE! omg omg omg omg. I pulled into the next driveway (a different house) and sat trying to collect my thoughts. I double checked my GPS, the party invitation, and surrounding area. It had to be it. Since I wasn't pulling into that place if I didn't have to, the only thing left to do was to call the mom - and hopefully she'd laugh at my bad direction following, and reroute me to a cute little house with a picket fence.

Nope.

The conversation went something like this:

ME: "Hi there, I think I'm lost..."
HER: "Are you driving a black van?"
ME: (omg omg omg omg) "Do you have a lot of cats outside?"
HER: "What?"
ME: "Do you have lots of cats outside?"
HER: (laughing) "Ohh hahaha I don't know - probably. It's the white house to your left, blue roof, red truck outside"

OMG.

I turned the van around and started heading towards catland. As I crept closer, I got the full view of the property, and this time... I saw THIS:


OMG! Seriously, what was I going to do???

I couldn't just keep driving - I was just talking to her on the phone! Aggggghhhh!

I pulled in the curvy driveway, wondering how the heck I was going to get back out of the driveway since both sides were barricaded with JUNK. I put the van in park and just sat there. Where's that magic wand when you need it? Think think think! As I started to re-quiz Will in the van (and continued to just sit there), two kids ran out of the house making a beeline for us. Think think think! And before I had time to say Jack Robinson, they'd opened our van doors from the outside (drat!), and started harping for Will to get out.

Will got out, and I trudged behind him carting the present. We approached the side door and walked through a porch area which was heaped top to bottom with junk on both sides. omg. And as we stepped into the kitchen, my heart sank as I saw the inside was no better than the out. Clutter EVERYWHERE. Heaps of clutter. I did a quick scan of my surroundings as I continued to think think think! I could see the sub-floor in parts of the kitchen where the old linoleum was coming off. There were two giant slobbering dogs running around, and one licked me. Blech! I communicated my dislike of licking dogs to the mom and tried to keep a pleasant smile plastered on my face. It was tough. I stalled. I nervously chatted about their bowling plans and reiterated that my cell phone number was in his bag if he needed me (PLEASE NEED ME WILL). She nodded and chatted and happily shoo'd me out the door.

AAAGGGGHHHHHH!

I got back in the van with a pounding heart. Questions flooded my head. Why didn't I do more research before agreeing he could go? They can still be a nice family, right? He'll be okay, right? Do I make up some weird excuse and go back and get him? Will he have fleas when he comes home?

Even though I called and spoke with Will last night while he was bowling, (and he sounded like he was having a great time) I didn't get the greatest sleep last night.

Is it 11:00 am yet?

Nothing but Net! (well...actually rim, but who's counting!)

Yesterday marked the close of Will's basketball season. As you know, I've been doing my fair share of complaining about running kids here and there for practices, so I can't say I was too devastated to wave my final goodbyes to the YMCA gym. (Hasta la vista, baby!)

However, as I sit here and review the past few months in my head, I can't help but be pretty proud of Will and his team. They went from a group of mostly unsure kids to a team of passers, dribblers, shooters, screeners and hustlers! Woot! Even Will got the ball a few times yesterday, and he actually took a shot! (he almost made it too!) And while we still have a lot to learn, hats off to the BIG improvements our team made!

Cereal Knock Out!

In researching DIY games to play for an upcoming PTO event, I put the kids to 'work' trying a few of them out. This game was a BIG hit with all three kids!

Charlie and Will really liked trying to stack all the weird shaped boxes

Adding the face into the mix was an added bonus!

All of them loved knocking them down!

Even Jake put his 'game face' on!!!