Posted by stamper on Jan 8, 2008 in
house Just wondering if there is some type of prize for blogging? Seems to me that Todd challenged himself to blog everyday and fell off the Earth, so I’m just wondering. Perhaps if you see him, you could put in a good word for me?
Anyway, we must announce the arrival of our newest family member, a Bearded Dragon named Sparky! He joined us on Dec. 27 as Trevor’s Christmas present. He’s been wanting a pet of his own for years, even had an aquarium in his room with a plastic lizard inside for several months and basically we finally caved in. He’s a great little critter, pretty intelligent so far and a voracious eater.
He recognizes me as “the great cook” when in fact it’s only left over veggies from dinner, doesn’t take much to impress the little guy. Anyway, look for Trevor’s input soon, I think that this lizard thing could really cover a lot of academia -math to calculate how much of his allowance is eaten per week in crickets (did you know the going rate for mini crickets is .09?) and of course writing on the blog. By the way, he’s becoming an entrepreneur too, if you’d like a chance to hold Sparky, it’ll only cost you .05/minute and that’s quite a bargain!
Posted by stamper on Jan 4, 2008 in
house
Okay, in my last post I mentioned that a party may be coming on? Well, it actually did! I’ve decided that going public on a blog is pretty good incentive, but I won’t bore you with my New Year’s resolutions. I will say that normally the tree and decorations are down by December 26, and several years I’ve undertaken the project on Christmas Day. However, it’s January 5th and everything is still up, including our dehydrated tree. I’m finding it hard to say goodbye to the first Christmas in our new house, guess I’m being sentimental.
As for the party, we ended up with about 30 people, some of whom we hadn’t seen in quite some time. I must say judging from the few (three) pictures that were taken, it appears that some of us SEEMED to be having more fun?
Not that I’m complaining, but I do think it’s the perfect excuse to have ANOTHER party. There….it’s out, publicly on the blog…… and next time I’ll plan to take more pictures, relax and of course, it would help if the guys played along!
Posted by stamper on Dec 1, 2007 in
house 
I’m typically a Grinch this time of year, not really into the whole Christmas scene (carols, decorations, rushing around, spending money…. HOWEVER, this year, I have to admit that I’m enjoying it, well all except for the music. It must be the new house that has put a little spirit into my heart. So, of course I’ve been pouring over all of the decorating magazines (since my house now resembles those layouts) and my Pottery Barn catalog and have been replicating the looks that other designers have achieved! I’m loving it, even thinking of a holiday party perhaps…. and for a recovering “Grinch” that’s a big step! I’ll keep you all posted……………..
Posted by toddjensen on Nov 11, 2007 in
house We had a great weekend, attended Chalk it Up where Emily received first place on floor in her level 5 twelve year old division with a score of 8.9. She was quite proud.
The meet went really well. Emily struggled a bit on the other events, but she did place 6th in the all around. Gymnastics is all about consistency, lots of determination and practice for 1-2 minutes segments.
On another note, I’ve been drywalling my garage, started around October 1st, and I’m finally complete. The last thing is to hook the underground sprinkler system controller back up, which I’m finding to be more difficult then I first thought. When I removed it from the wall, I’d hoped to take a quick photo of it for future reference. I unfortuneately couldn’t find the camera at the time. Being the impatient person I am, I went ahead and wrote it down and drew my schematic, I figured I’d be putting it back up within a few days.
It turned out that my great schematic turned into some very bad directions. The time passed and it turned into weeks and now I’m in the position of calling my handy sprinkler guys to put it back together. Looks right but I don’t want to blow a circuit board in the process.
Posted by stamper on Nov 3, 2007 in
house Well, since Todd has challenged himself to “a blog a day” and being the competitive sprite that I am…… I’m once again taking over!
Our Halloween costumes this year were many years in the making. Several years ago, well, 4 to be exact when we realized that we had enough kids to play the critical parts of my favorite movie the WIZARD OF OZ…. the plan was put into place. Of course then we just had to wait until everyone was large enough to fit into the costumes and able to walk extended distances on their own and of course take a trip to Judy Garland’s childhood home/yellow brick road in Northern Minnesota!
Emily was particularly proud of her ruby slippers, which by the way, DON’T come in adult sizes and had to be hand painted and glittered. Trevor, who moans and groans a lot anyway, sounded very realistic (rusted shut) while I applied his silver face paint. Eric loved swinging his wire tail back and forth and Ryan spent most of the night galloping and jumping much like the scarecrow in the movie.
Ideally Todd would have played the part of the Wizard and I was rallying to be Glenda the Good Witch, but at the last minute decided not to don my junior prom dress. Anyway, I’m not sure if we’ll pull off another themed Halloween or not, but this year was great! More Halloween photos.
Posted by stamper on Oct 28, 2007 in
house 
Two weeks post op and things are starting to look like they are supposed to! Still have stitches, still bound 24/7 and sleeping sitting up, but I must say it’s been worth it.
Posted by stamper on Sep 9, 2007 in
house 
I must say that after this weekend, I can say that our house has officially been broken in. On Saturday, the kids (ours plus extras) were in the backyard collecting bugs and somehow or other a rock was thrown/slapped/smashed against a bug that was trapped in a net which coincidentally happened to be against the sliding door. The details are foggy as no one individual cares to be responsible…. but the ensuing popping and snapping of broken glass caused alarm and left little choice but to tell us. I never would have guessed that catching bugs could could lead to such violence, but then again, life with boys is rather enlightening!
Posted by toddjensen on Aug 19, 2007 in
house It’s a bit perplexing that the city would drain residential property the way they do. Many of the neighbors in our area have the same problem, water standing in the backyard. We’ve tried spraying a liquid soil aeration. Seemed to be a great idea, though doesn’t seem to be helping much. I’ve spoken with my 2 rear neighbors, have yet to speak to a couple of others. Not a huge deal, though I will definitely want to get rid of the standing water before next Spring. I’m thinking it’s going to take drain tile to remedy the problem. I snapped a quick photo of a potential remedy.
Also talking with the neighbor, he mentioned that his across the street neighbor did the same thing and during rain, the tile shoots water out like a spout. Have to contact the city regarding next steps, permits. blah, blah. I’m the secretary of our Owner’s Association, there is a retired city staff person on board as well, good place to start. Well off to finish getting ready for our first day of school back.
Posted by stamper on Aug 14, 2007 in
house
Well, I’m officially gearing up for another school year. Having spent an excruciatingly long year at what Lincoln Public Schools dubbed “South Site” I’m definitely pumped to be back at our newly renovated REAL building! I have a ceiling, a door, a lightswitch I can control and a …..a leaky sink, but hey, water and boxes seem to be following me since mid-March (see previous blogs). Anyway, since the occupancy permit came through last Thursday, I’ve put a ton of effort, time and love into making this classroom inviting and happy and it’s only Tuesday! Another 5 days and this room will be home to my new crew of Beattie Bobcats, 23 to be exact! Click to see the classroom transformation.
Posted by stamper on Aug 2, 2007 in
house 
Every night on my bedtime rounds and/or each morning upon awakening, I ask myself the same question…. “Did we REALLY need a bigger house? I wonder this because I find the boys (sometimes two, sometimes three) all huddled together in a heap on the floor or intermingled in one twin bed! It’s ironic that when they all shared a room, they complained and longed for their own spaces and now that they have it, can’t seem to separate from each other. It’s perplexing and simultaneously endearing. Deep down they really do love each other…..even if they won’t admit it when the sun is up!
