Trying something new

I found out through The McMommy Chronicles that there is this new way to blog. it’s called Windows Live Writer and she loved it so much and gushed so much about it that I decided to try it.

 

A few things I noticed right away that I liked……

• It has all the fantastic doodads that Microsoft Word has like automatically underlining when something is spelled incorrectly (right click and it gives the correct spelling). This alone might sell me on this program.
• It is super easy to insert a picture. You just copy and paste them from any of your files and in it goes! It allows you to add a few little touches like borders too which I did to the photo below.

 

I used this photo of Chicago as a celebration of a trip to this wonderful city planned TODAY with our BFF’s Tammy and Paul for June!

• Once you are ready to post, you just hit publish and it puts it into your blog. All done for you. You can even view it from the menu on the right side. Easy Peasy.
• You can add maps, tables, video….all with a click.

 

 

That’s my house. See our trampoline and garden?  It literally took two seconds for that to show up. I am kind of sitting here shocked, actually.

 

 

 

This is where my parents are this week. I miss them.

View Full Album

Fun album addition!

 

 

I am sold. I think you should check it out.  I love this. Click here to download. Let me know if you have issues when you try to publish. I did and got some help. I can walk you through it.

Our poor Vikes lost last night. HEARTBREAKER of a game. Oh well, great season. Bring on the TWINS!!

Not much

I just don't have much to say! Not much happening here and yet I feel like I am going in 20 different directions at once. Next week will be worse with conferences. I will be wishing for the boringness of this week. There was a little funny thing I wanted to remember to post about so I don't forget it....

Mike and I are trying to get rid of some excess weight. It hasn't been fun, but both of us have been on the treadmill each night, every night. It's a real great time excruciating and we are loving it (yeah, right). I made Mike drag our treadmill (which is the size of a small airplane. Seriously. Mike almost died moving it) out into our downstairs living room, in front of the big TV. I begged him to get me Tivo and now I have no more excuses about why I am not using this machine. So each day after school I spend time with The View and Regis and Kelly. We are BFFs.

Connor would ALWAYS hang out downstairs whenever one of us was on the treadmill. We never thought anything about it. Then about a week ago he started asking, "Are you going to get on the treadmill?" "When are you getting on the treadmill?" "Did you do the treadmill yet?"

Odd.

Mike RUNS on the treadmill, uphill, and over mountains. Me....well, let's just say I don't. Connor really likes to be downstairs when Mike is on the treadmill. There have been a couple of times when Connor has tried to join Mike on the treadmill. Yeah, not such a great cause-and-effect lesson for Connor.

Finally I asked Connor why he always wanted to be around when we were on the treadmill. Did he like to see the river of sweat falling off of us? Did he like to see his mother's jelly jiggle? Did he like to watch the fire come from our faces? What was it?!?!

The sound.

He likes the sound the treadmill makes.

What?!

On to topic number 2....Brett Favre.

The Vikings walked all over the Cowboys last Sunday. It was such a great game! Favre bet Percy Harvin if the Vikings won, he would sing the "pants on the ground" song.

I just love it. It's been so fun to watch this team win. Saints will meet their demise this Sunday and then it's Super Bowl!! (Did I ever tell you the story about walking into the lounge a couple of years ago at work and seeing that a co-worker had lovingly decorated the lounge to get us into the spirit of the big game with a sign that read SUPER BOWEL?)

Oh Happy day!

LB

The weekend

There has been a whole lot of this going on this weekend......

by Mike, the boys, and my dad. They are on Clear Lake in Waseca and had some luck yesterday. Dad got a TV in the fish house this year so they are pretty excited.

And some of this........

Which was very good, and I am glad I saw it on the big screen. Hoping to try and get to Leap Year today with my mom while the boys are out doing the aforementioned.

and this............

Connor started this weekend and Noah's been at it for over a month. Connor's biggest complaint is that you don't play games until 3rd grade. That is TWO years from now. No one likes to just practice. I don't blame him for being annoyed. At least his friend Sam is on his team.

We bought tickets to this.......

Seeing as Adam Young is from Owatonna and the kids love his music, we thought we needed to take advantage of this opportunity. How many more times in the kids' life will we be able to take them to a concert they will BOTH enjoy, that doesn't make their parents go insane while watching/listening to it, that costs only $18 for pretty great seats? It's not until May so that's a long time from now.

Very little of this is going on...........

Which could become disasterous. And we do not have this nice of a washing machine. I wish ours would die so we could get one this nice. I couldn't even find a picture of our washing machine because it's that old. Maybe if I had a nice machine like this I would ENJOY doing laundry.

Or maybe not.

I also had a short visit for a glass of wine from my friend Justin and (in the same night) a drop in visit from our friends Jeff and Jeri, a small shopping trip with my mom, and dinner out!

All in all a good weekend. Now, if I could just rewind to Friday....Monday is coming way too quickly.


Enjoy Vanilla Twilight from Owl City. Apparently this will be his next single that is released on radio.

The Bowling Budachs

Man, we have been enjoying our vacation from school. Why can't it last a month? I am certainly not one of those moms that needs a job to feel fulfilled...no sir. If only that money tree in the backyard would start sprouting some coinage.

On New Year's day we ventured up to Lakeville to go to Brunswick Zone. They have bowling, laser tag, arcade games, and a restaurant so we thought the boys would love it. My parents joined us for the trek north and my sister that lives in Lakeville joined us with her two boys (and one boy's girlfriend) for the fun.

The older kids started with laser tag. Connor was a little nervous about it and decided to pass. He remembered from our laser tag expeience at Grand Slam that it gets pretty dark, they pipe in smoke so it's hard to see, and they sometimes play eerie music. Noah, Mike, Mitch, and Matthew ventured in for a duel. I so wished I could have taken pictures inside there. Would have been fun.

While they were playing laser tag, Connor tried his hand at a few arcade games.

When the others finished their game, they joined us in the arcade.

Mike and Connor sat in a simulation ride that took you on a rollercoaster-like journey and the chairs shook and rocked as you went. Reminded us of Disney, on a much smaller scale of course.

Both kids tried Guitar Hero. Connor received this for the Wii from Granny and Papa this year.

Connor has a unique way of holding the guitar. He is right handed but there are a few things he does left. Kicking (soccer) is one of those things he predominantly does left-legged and apparently strumming a guitar is another.

Then it was time for bowling. About an hour prior to bowling, we had given the employee all of our names, shoe sizes, and whether anyone needed bumpers to bowl. So, when they called our name, it was all set up and ready to go. We arrived at lane 7 to find our names already entered, our shoes all waiting, and when it was Connor's turn to bowl, bumpers would magically appear and go away before it was the next person's turn. Very impressive.

Mike and Noah waiting patiently.

Dad, me, and Mom

Sarah, Matthew, Lisa, Mitchell, and Connor

Connor

Noah

After bowling, we enjoyed a yummy supper at their restaurant. They had an nice huge fireplace in there and TVs in all the booths that you could turn to any channel you wanted. It was quite impressive.

All in all a great day!

I am enjoying my last Sunday before school starts back up. I got all 120 projects graded, house is back in it's normal form, and I am ready to enjoy a nice afternoon watching the Vikings game. Maybe even read my book under my heated throw....since it's -18 degress without the wind chill today!

Still waiting patiently for Suncountry or Southwest to lower their flight prices to Ft Myers. Or how about offering more than one flight? Would that be so hard? Or how about more than one flight...how about one THAT DOESN'T have an arrival time of 1:00AM. Is that asking too much? I swear this horribly cold weather is causing my bones to ache. I need to be in Florida in March. Someone help!

Happy January to all!

LB