Saturday vs Sunday

So this is my daughter on Saturday.... and this is my daughter on Sunday.

This is my son on Saturday...

and this is my son on Sunday.
I think that makes us bitter clingers!!!

Don't you feel bad for the first guy that breaks her heart?

She must get that awesome form from her mother's side of the family. OK, ok, she must then get her marksmanship from her Dad!

One of my favorites, my Dad's 30-30.

Adult Channels?

Since we live almost in the middle of nowhere (town seems to be getting closer these days), and we are serious TV junkies, we have Dish Network. One of the features that we really like about Dish is that you can create favorites lists, so you don't have to scroll through a gazillion channels to find what you want. Because Scott was a former member of the AV club in high school (he denies this) anyway, we have several favorites lists, kids, pay per view movies, music, etc. I love having my own lists that has channels the kids aren't interested in, like Fox News, the Food Network, or the History Channel. I hadn't thought anything about this until I overheard my son the other morning as he was turning on the TV say:

"Ughh, every time I turn on the TV, it is on the Adult channels."

Scott has now renamed that list "Parents".

Cubmobile Race

Erik is on the left, in his car, which of course was green!

After months of planning, stressing, sawing, painting, and advertising the day of our Cubmobile Race finally arrived. Six a.m. found Scott and I moving the porta-potty (that of course had been placed in the wrong spot), and then hauling about 150 bales of hay to line the track. By 8:30 people were showing up and we started at 10:00. I had no idea how many people we would end up having, but we had 28 boys enter, and about 100 spectators. I think all the boys had a great time, and we didn't even have any serious accidents. At the end of the race three of the Dad's decided even they needed a try down the hill.

I treated Scott to a steak last night, he definitely deserved that!! Today we have both realized, we are getting old!!! We have muscles hurting we forgot we had, but our goal with scouts isn't because we love doing all this work, our goal is that someday, when these little boys grow up and become Dads they will remember doing something like this instead of sitting home playing Xbox. Then maybe they will want thier kids to do something like this to.

Challenges

Well, things around here have been pretty crazy. It has made me think (I know, that doesn't happen all that often) about the things that are really important in this life. You just never know when that curve ball is going to come, how fast, or how hard. But the one thing that has happened this week, is that I am extremely grateful for my family. My husband, sisters, and Mom all have very busy lives. Even though my sisters and mom live next door we can go several days without seeing or talking to each other, but when a call comes I know they all will drop everything and come.

The challenges this week are not mine to share, but many of you know what they have been. My heart aches and I want to do anything I can to help. I often fall far short of what I feel I should do, but I try. My inadequacy to fix any situation often makes me very frustrated (I'm the fixer girl, and if I can't Scott is supposed to). But some things just take time, and through them I suppose we are learning to be patient. That is one thing I am a slow learner on. My family has had it's fair share of challenges in the last 17 years, I could list them, but I think there is a limit on the size of a blog post! They say "what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger". I think who ever made that up, didn't know what the heck they were talking about.

I Have Been Exposed!!

Well, my work is now on "Alert Level C" (whatever that means). Apparently because we provide an essential service we are on hyper-planning for the swine flu. We went through this last spring, and now we get to "activate" our plan this fall. Every meeting we have they go over THE PLAN. The plan is 1) Don't get sick 2)If you get sick, don't come to work 3) When you are better you will be sequestered at work, and not allowed to associate with sick people. They have even posted signs all over the gate and doors listing symptoms that if you have, you should turn around and go home (yeah, like I would make it all the way into work, see the sign and then realize I was sick).

They have stock piled supplies at our plant that include soup, ramen noodles and yes...bottled water. HUH? Isn't that what we do?? I may not be the brightest star in the sky, but I do work at a water plant, and I'm pretty sure we make water you are supposed to be able to drink...anyway....

Sooooo, on Friday I was happily doing my Friday stuff (washing dishes, dumping the weeks samples, running the autoclave, listening to my favorite radio) when the phone rings. It was the assistant manager of the district, and we had the following conversation:

Dave: Hello Allison, how are you feeling?
Me: I'm fine Dave, how are you?
Dave: Oh, I'm fine. Are you feeling healthy?
Me: Umm, yeah...do you?
Dave: Well, the reason I'm calling is that Jenny called in this morning saying she was deathly ill with the flu.
Me: Jenny...crap I was sitting right next to her in the Safety meeting when she was bragging to everyone how she already got her flu shot.
Dave: Yes, I know. That is why I called you, to let you know you have been exposed.

So, now I have "been exposed". It is like we are all sitting around knowing it is only a matter of time before we each get hit. I figured after spending over 9 hours with my Mom in the ER last weekend and not coming out sick I was in the clear. Then I find out I was exposed while in a meeting about the prevention of the swine flu. Grand.