Monday, May 31, 2010

Pool Party

Sunday Sarah spent the day over at a friend’s house. She was invited to come over and go swimming and stay for a cookout with her family and friends. Kris and I didn’t know who this girl is and I am starting to get confused with all the friends that Sarah is making.

We are so proud of how well Sarah has adjusted to middle school. We were worried it was going to be like kindergarten where she was so shy and didn’t want to be away from us. Now it seems like we’ll be struggling to have her want to spend time with her family. But that is understandable, especially at the age she is right now. Check back in 4 or 5 years and we’ll see if this prediction comes true.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Driveway


Over the Memorial day weekend, I decided to seal the driveway again. This has to be the one duty that gets done every year that I just absolutely hate! However, I also realize that this is necessary to prolong the life of the pavement. The driveway has actually probably need to be replaced for the last few years, and I just keep trying to patch and seal ti in order to get a little extra life out of it. A couple of years ago before the garage was replaced I had a blacktop guy come and quote it out for me and the cost then was in the neighborhood of $4500. I have to believe that concrete is going to be more expensive.


But you can see the cracks are getting pretty bad.



And this is what it looked like right afterward. Over the next couple of days, I am sure the cracks will come back, especially with the heat from the sun. But it has to be better than not doing it right?

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Kids Choice Day

Today was kid's choice day at Riverside, Ali's last one. She got all of her choices, which were:

Cheerleading
Center Stage Dance
Clay Pens

And luckily the cheerleader that they had was Leah, who happened to be the girls' babysitter last summer. I think that was her favorite thing of the day. She said that there were a lot of girls who picked cheerleading, but I think that Ali got some special attention because she knew Leah (which makes me happy).

I didn't get a summary of the Center Stage workshop, though I am pretty sure that she enoyed it. Ali has a couple of friends who participate in Center Stage, and she loves to dance, so what could go wrong right?

The clay pens was also fun for her. She'll be getting her pen back tomorrow once the clay is hard and dry. Maybe I can post a photo of her pen when she gets it home.

Maple Seeds

I remember one of the things I hate about spring in Wisconsin, the helicopters, aka maple seeds. They get everywhere! I sucked up a ton when cutting the grass this past weekend, then vacuumed up more off of the patio, and blew them out of the gutters and off the roof of the garage and house.

A day and a half later you couldn't tell. Kris has been vacuuming them up on almost a daily basis, and today I spent almost another hour doing it again. Not to mention the fact that they have coated the cocoa mulch and I can't get them out without removing all the mulch as well.

I will be glad when these things are done dropping.

Hornets

Last weekend while getting the lawn mower out of the shed behind the garage, I was welcomed by being buzzed by a wasp, or was it a hornet? or yellow jacket? I can't tell them apart. There was a nest being made in the ceiling just inside the door. I sneaked in, got the hornet and wasp spray and shot it down. This was the second time in two weeks I have had to get rid of a wasp's nest.

So tonight after getting back from our walk, Kris was tending to her flower pot on the front porch. As she was, I noticed a wasp land on the porch railing and proceed to walk into the opening in the siding where it is mounted to the house. I walked a little closer to take a look, and yep... There was a nest being made just inside, under the siding.

Another shot with the wasp and hornet spray took care of it, but now I think I really need to give the exterior of the house a good once over. I have a feeling this is going to be like summer three years ago. We had wasps, hornets, yellow jackets, bees... everything. I think I knocked down five separate nests that year as well as cleaning out traps very two days. I'm not going to be looking forward to this summer if this is going to be the case.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Toy Story

Sunday Night, we decided to, as a family, watch the greatest PIXAR movie ever, Toy Story. I have been trying to get the girls pumped up for the release of Toy Story 3 for the past couple of weeks. However, Alison knows nothing about Toy Story. We had it on an old VHS tape which I bought when it was first released about 10 years ago. However, since the demise of the video cassette, we haven't had a VHS player so all the Disney videos have been sitting in a cabinet collecting dust.

So first, I have to say that I am VERY partial to Toy Story. I absolutely love the concept. Who else but Disney would have thought of this idea? It is more than just "what if children's toys had their own lives when the kids aren't around". It emcompasses the relationship between the toys. How the child's favorite toy is essentially "President" and what would happen to that hierarchy should it ever change. AWESOME IDEA!

So I promised Alison that we would watch Toy Story and Toy Story 2 before The third installment came out June 18th. She totally loved it. In the final sequence when Woody and Buzz are trying to catch up to the moving van as Andy's family is moving, she was actually "rooting" for Buzz and Woody to catch up to the van, out loud! I think that is the mark of a really great movie. To get the viewer so involved in the story that they feel like an extended character.

Sarah, while I am sure we watched it with her when she was a baby, said she had never seen it either. And while not as excited as Alison, she enjoyed it as well. So the original Toy Story gets two thumbs up from the Hahns. Next up, Toy Story 2. I thought I had a copy of it on DVD, but I can't find it. So I need to track down a copy within the next week so we are prepared for the big screen release of Toy Story 3 in a few weeks.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Cleaning the Gutters

I decided to clean out the gutters yesterday after cutting the grass. There were lots of maple seeds stuck in the covers I had on them that I couldn't get out, so I ended up taking the covers off. I haven't had them off in two years so I decided to go all out and completely clean them out.

There was a nice layer of dirt and dust on the bottom of the gutters as well as a few leaves and seeds around the wire traps I have in the downspounts. The worst was doing the one up on the second floor dormer in the back. It took forever to get the covers off and Sarah was freaking out that I was going to slip and fall. I told her not to worry because the life insurance was paid up. She didn't find that amusing.

After about three hours, I had all the sludge out, so we should be good now for another two years.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Spiders

In the past three days I have had to kill 6 spiders in the house. One of the pitfalls of living in a house with all girls is that as soon as someone sees one (or any bug for that matter) I hear "DAD! SPIDER!" So 90% of the time I'm the one killing them. I thought that they'd all be outside now that it is getting nice out again rather than all coming into the house from outside.

I should have snapped a picture of the one I killed Thursday night. It was one of those big, black, fast ones and it was as big as my thumb. Very creepy!

Poor Squirrel

As I am sitting here on Saturday morning trying to update my blog, I am looking out the back windows of the family room. The squirrels are running around doing what they do when what do you think happens? A big hawk swoops down and snatches a squirrel right out of the middle of the lawn. It mush have been sitting up in the next door neighbor's tree scoping out the critters for breakfast.

It was a pretty cool sight, but not a very good day for the squirrel now was it?

Friday, May 21, 2010

Sarah's Sleepover

Sarah is sleeping over at a friend's house tonight. She was gone before I even got home from work. They apparently were going to go up to Hartford to the Mineshaft for dinner first.

This is going to sound bad, but it was so peaceful here tonight without here. No arguing, no droning on and on about completely meaningless things that happened at school. No obsessing about homework.

She'll be back at 10:30 in the morning, so I am going to enjoy the peace and quiet while I can.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Flowers Finally

It seems like we got a late start this year, but Kris finally went and bought flowers for all of her pots. I had to go and get her more potting soil on my way home from work Wednesday because she ran out. Now we get to move them in and out until the temperature stays pretty steady at night. Last night I had to move them all into the garage for the night because the temp was supposed to get down to 45, and I didn't want to take a chance on them being damaged by the cold.

The next thing to do now is to fill in the low and dead spots in the grass, and re-level the patio blocks, but that'll be a weekend job that is going to take an entire day at least.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Donating Blood

Tuesday I cut out of work a little early to go donated blood. Ever since I donated blood at the blood drive that Sarah's troop set up in Dec. of 2008, I have been periodically getting phone calls from the American Red Cross to donate blood. I wouldn't have a problem doing it, but it's a little more than a half an hour drive to the blood center and then the time it takes to donate... so by the time everything is dine with, I've lost an hour and a half. I wish they would do more blood drives locally. That would be much more convenient.

Then again, when I set up this appointment, I thought to myself it isn't very convenient for someone to get into a car accident, or for someone who needs an organ transplant. That's really pretty inconvenient. So an hour and a half out my day really doesn't seem like much does it?

The process itself was pretty quick once I got there. I was in and out in half an hour. My next opportunity to donate will be mid July. I've already penciled it in.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Washing the Cat

We had finally had enough... Sunday was Cat Wash day. Gizmo is getting really scraggly looking, shedding all over, his fur is starting to get clumpy, he’s covered with dander... So we cornered him and took him up to the tub. Funny. He seemed to know as soon as I picked him up what was coming. He started trying to climb p over my shoulder and howling like a banshee.

It only took a little more than 5 minutes to get him washed and dried, and then he spent the rest of the day skulking around. But his fur is much softer and he smells so much better. I think this is something that I will need to try to do every couple of weeks.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Exercise

With the spring coming to an end, Kris and I have decided to start getting some regular exercise. Starting today we are going to try walking at least 3 miles per day. W ehave ourselves a nice littel route that is actually about 3.5 miles and getting up and going at 6:00 AM is very peaceful. The birds are chirping, it's quiet. hopefully we can keep it up.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Good News

Ali found out that two of her friends from Riverside are going to be attending Shady Lane in the fall. She is instantly excited about going now. That is going to make the fall much easier next year.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Insomnia

I am fighting a bout of insomnia. I haven't been able to fall asleep until about 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning and then have to get up for work at 4:00. With having to make up for Monday when I stayed home with Ali, this is going to be a long week.

On the plus side, the antibiotics are working and Ali is ready to go back to school.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Home Sick

Yesterday I stayed home with Ali. She was running a fever again, so first thing this morning,I called the doctor. When we got there her fever was 103.7. The doctor thought is was just a viral thing but wanted to take a set of chest x-rays just to be sure because I had mentioned that Alison had developed a slight cough.

When we got back from x-ray he called us back in and asked Ali to sit back down on the exam table. He said the films showed a slight pneumonia and he wanted to listen again. He listened and said that yes, there was definitely diminished breathing here. He said he must have had the bulb of his stethoscope on the bone and as soon as he moved it slightly he could hear it clearly.

So now we get to do antibiotics for the next ten days. Hopefully she'll clear up quickly.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Family Baptism

Sunday Sarah and I drove up to Appleton for my niece's baptism. She was being baptized at my old church, and I haven't been there since, probably about 1988, maybe 1989. It brought back some nice memories that I was able to share with Sarah, although she probably didn't really care. Every other time we drive back to my hometown, both Sarah and Alison couldn't be less interested when I show them places from my childhood.

When we met the Priest, I was told that he was at St. Johns in 1982 and 1983. I was an altar boy during that time, so I am sure that I served mass for him, but I couldn't for the life of me remember him. I wish I had some old pictures from '82 or '83 so I could see what he looked like 30 years ago. Then maybe I would remember him. There have been lots of other changes there apparently over the years, which is too bad, but that is what happens I guess when the congregations keep decreasing along with the number of men entering the priesthood.

Marissa was pretty well behaved for having water poured on her head. I was actually surprised that for a child being almost two that she would have stood for it. I actually felt very old since the girl (or should that be woman) that I sponsored Marissa with is the daughter of my old baseball and basketball coach. And she wasn't even born when I went to school at St. Johns.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to stay long at David's afterward. Sarah still had homework she needed to finish for Monday and Alison had been running a high fever and we thought that we would need to take her in to the emergency room to get looked at. So we needed to get home. Hopefully we will make it back up again soon to visit. I don't get back home nearly enough.

Pictures will have to wait until I have time to take them off the camera, or until I am able to get some emailed from my parents or brother and sister-in-law.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Busy Day Tomorrow

Tomorrow, Sarah and I will be heading up to Menasha for my niece's baptism. All of us were planning on going as a family, however Alison is sick and has been running a fever all day. At 6:30 her temperature was 102.8. This prompted an immediate cool down with a couple of ice packs, stripping down, and an adult tylenol. As of 9:00 she is down to 100 and going to bed, so hopefully she won't spike up again. Kris has been fighting a cold all week as well and today is the first day since Tuesday that she hasn't had a fever. I told her to stay home and rest and take care of Ali and I would just go with Sarah. Not a very nice Mother's Day present is it?

Friday, May 7, 2010

New Project

I have decided to pick up my old project of updating and working on my family tree. After watching NBC’s Who Do You Think You Are, I thought it would be good to see if I could go any farther back than where I am currently. Right now, I am in the mid 1700's on Kris’s side, and on my side, I am stuck at my great great grandfather. I’m sort of stuck in the late 1800s there. So I went and got a few books from the Public Library on how to proceed when you have reached a dead end.

I did however last week, find out that one of my dad’s aunts (my great aunt) just died in January. She lived in Canada with the rest of my grandmother’s family. That might be a branch that would be interesting in learning more about. I’ll post more information as I come across it.

Car Email

I got a very strange email last week. It was from a car dealership congratulating me on my purchase. Apparently I am now the owner of a new 2010 Dodge Grand Caravan from Feeny Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge. I of course don’t have a new minivan, so I thought I’d look up this Feeny place. It is apparently a dealership in the northern IL suburbs. I am wondering what I should do. Did someone use my identity to buy a new car? Did they just mess up the email address? Did the person who bought the car just give out any old email address they could think of so they didn’t get spammed by the dealership? I’m just not sure how I should proceed. I don’t want to overthink this, but I also don’t want to end up getting a notice in a couple of months saying I defaulted on a car loan for a car I don’t own.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

First Communion

Ali’s first communion went off pretty smoothly. I don’t recall any glitches, other than when the kids were doing their baptismal vows. This was something that wasn’t covered in dress rehearsal, I think because the priest wasn’t there for the rehearsal. He had another commitment, so he wasn’t able to attend. So when it came time to have the kids stand and affirm their baptismal vows, the priest had to explain what they needed to do after he asked the first question. Then, after he got thru all the questions and was finishing up, instead of saying “Amen”, the kids all shouted “I do”, which got some good laughs from the congregation. The pries then explained that they were supposed to respond with Amen, and repeated the final part. Again, instead of Amen, several kids said “I do”, including Alison. She turned bright red and shrunk down in the pew.

When it came time to actually receive, Alison did a great job, especially handing a full chalice of wine.


Afterward, we took a few photos in the church, but then headed back for some lunch. We made sure the get a picture with Ali and everyone that came to celebrate with her. At least we thought we did until I downloaded the pictures from my camera. I was missing a couple of pictures and I realized that I was watching my aunt take them at the time before I had my camera out. So now I have to make sure I get in touch with her and have the ones I am missing emailed to me.

Ali had a great time. The only thing that was driving me nuts was that the girls were running around outside and it had rained the night before. While it wasn’t real muddy, the dirt was wet, so that when they were running in and out of the house, they were getting little bits of mud all over the floors. This is one of my pet peeves and it took all my restraint to not get out the floor cleaner and start scrubbing. I figured there would be plenty more and I just needed to wait until everyone had left to clean.

Bit of Trouble

I mistakenly erased all my formatting two days ago while trying to update my layout. I have been trying for the last two days to get things back to normal, and I think I finally have it. Hopefully it all looks right (spacing, font, etc.). More to come shortly.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Almost Time

It's about an hour before we leave and Kris is helping Ali get dressed. It's getting pretty hectic trying to get everything ready before we leave.

I picked up the ham this morning, which was supposed to be hot, but of course It was cold. So now it's sitting in the slow cooker warming up. I am hoping that 4 hours in the slow cooker will be be enough to heat it up.

Now we just have to hope that Alison's hair cooperates, and then she sits perfectly still until it is time to leave. I can't imagine what it will be like on the girls' wedding days.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Lock In

No, not lock down, lock in. Though it is pretty much the same thing. Sarah had a lock in at school Friday night. All the kids get there at 7:00 and then the doors are "locked" and they do stuff like dance, play Wii games and PS2, dodge ball, swim, bouncy boxing, and lots of other fun stuff.

Unfortunately, we were under a tornado watch Friday night and had some severe thunderstorms roll thru, which meant the pool was closed. Sarah and her friends were bummed out. So she and her friends spent the night doing other things. Sarah ends up with rope burns on her hands from climbing. When I picked them up at 10:00 I had to hear all about it... over and over and over.

At least she still had a good time and hopefully next time it won't be raining.

Final Preparation

Staurday was spent cleaning up the yard, getting ready for Ali's first communion. I finished laying down mulch around the house and cleaning off the patio blocks. I should have done it a couple of weeks ago.

After that was done we got back into the house and finished cleaning inside. So now all we need to do is pick up the cake, get the ham and rolls, set up everything, clean off the patio table... I am sure there are other things that I need to do, but just can't think of yet. I think the forecast for tomorrow is scatted showers early, and then partly cloudy, so hopefully the rain will come early and we can spend the day outside. Keep your fingers crossed.