schmidle

Sunday is the official ice cream day at our house and the kids particularly enjoyed the ice cream pancakes this week.







Oliver graduated to a big-boy bed and I am pretty proud of us (well, OK Dave) for making it from reclaimed oak that the rail yard gives away

Well, on the bright side, the house that we are paying 4x as much for is brand new and on over 2 acres. We want to start a little garden and we got some chickens. As is typical for D there is no such thing as trying something out, its all or nothing. So, we now have thirty chickens and ducks! The good news is with 30 R and O haven't noticed that now there are actually only 29... Here's a picture of the cute little ducks in the tub:



Here's O and R on the easter egg hunt a couple weeks ago, When O had collected all the easter eggs he decided to collect dog poop in his easter basket...

Wow, I can't believe it's been that long! The move is treating us well so far. Well actually that’s a total lie. We like living here much better but the jobs have been more than slightly challenging. Mostly because D doesn't exactly have one yet and mine is a bigger change than I anticipated. Our actual physical moving of stuff, handled by a professional moving company, couldn't have been more screwed up. To quote the person who handled my move "In my 17 years of helping people move, I've never seen one go this badly". Financially living here is a bit of a stretch, we quadrupled our mortgage payment when we moved here (that's right 4X higher)! The kids are doing good though, and were glad to be out of a town were the schools are so horrible the state is threatening to take them over.

Well, Once again it has been a while since I've posted anything. Life is crazy busy an work is the same. I am running a field crew for the first time, it's weird because I don't feel much older than them and it doesn't seem like all that long ago that I was them, and yet they are all about 10 years younger than me... except for one guy who is in his mid 50's, he's my inspiration. I hope I have the gumption to jump ship and do whatever I want at that age... oh wait, isn't that called a mid-life crisis. Anyhow D and I now own 3 properties in town plus the 20 acres outside of town. We have our 20 acres up for sale, which makes me sad because it was supposed to be where we would build our off-grid home. The reality is it would be a major pain in the ass to live out there while the kids are young. I am none the less secretly hoping it doesn't sell. The in-town properties are keeping us really busy because two of them are major fixer-uppers. We are hoping to have one ready to sell again by the end of summer. R had another dance recital, she ended it by picking her nose and eating it, at least she doesn't have stage fright!

D's parents showed up on Friday, so we had a chance to get away for a night. I'm not sure going to a NASCAR race is my idea of a romantic getaway... but It was fun to do, once. Actually I think I would like the shorter races. 500k on a mile and a half track, thats 312 circles per car. I have new appreciation for how fast those cars really go, you can hardly move your head fast enough to see them pass! The last 70 laps were pretty interesting (in case your wondering it was about 18 seconds per lap when they were up to full speed), but if I went again I would probably spend the first 100-200 laps wandering around the stadium people watching and I would rent those headsets that let you hear what the announcers are saying.

Well, I’m finally putting in an entry. Life with two kids and two dogs is crazy busy. If we didn’t live in such a dump I’d feel like a stereotypical suburban couple. Luckily we have the meth dealer across the street to help us feel less average. Oh how I look forward to his nightly fights with his girlfriend. Why is it that some people feel a fight is only a fight if the whole neighborhood can hear it. R started preschool this year, O is now old enough to torment her (and the dogs). His favorite torture lately is sneaking up behind R, grabbing her hair and pulling as hard as he can, then he laughs while she cries.

R on Halloween, she was a lion of course


O a few months ago