All Things Anne

What We Saw and What We Did

Saturday
10:30 am Off on our way! Dad said we were supposed to get up at 7 (he set his clock for 6:30…that’s cuz he hits snooze so much!), so I got up a little early to finish an email, but Mom wasn’t up yet so I had to wait a bit anyway! But I did get my email sent.
We packed our bedding and bags, and anything else we forgot, until we forgot something else! No, I mean we packed all the things we hadn’t before. Let’s hope we have enough toilet paper…
We don’t have cookies this time, either! Too bad. Let’s hope we have enough emergency rations too, eh?

You know how when an apple rots it is mulch for the ground? Well, is it cannibalism if an apple tree is mulched by its own apples?

10:45 am At the gas station. Ben’s filling his tank and Dad’s filling the gas tanks for the generator. You know this time, only the eight of us are going. (Only. ha!) Mom, Tess, Rase, Jay, Abby, and Elle Jane are at home…that means Dad, Ben, Joe, Eric, Beth, Em, Kate, and I are going. Over half the family, thanks to the twins being two instead of one!
We will definitely get to camp sooner than last time! (more…)

I Sat On Beer

You know how days like this go…you start to do one thing then remember Oh yeah, you gotta do this and that also. Well, it kind of happened that way today. Originally, Mom, Tess, Rase, and Jay were going to go to the dollar store to get Eric’s gifts and pick Joe and Eric up from work. First stop was the dollar store.

We met Kelly’s wife in there (TJ was with her) and we talked for a bit. This older man comes up and he sees us all standing in a circle, kind of, and says “Hey, you know kids, what I’d do before I leave? I’d ask for ice cream. And if I didn’t get it, I’d throw a fit and raise heck until I did! Yep, that’s what I’d do if I were you!”
We all laughed, and he laughed too. After he left, Mom said, “You know if a kid did that he’d tell the parents to make the kid behave!”
Mom bought some potato chips there and I think I ate too many, because I felt really really sick later!

On our way to pick up the boys, Mom remembered “Oh yeah…I forgot raviolis!!”
I laughed.
“I wonder what other important things I forgot!”
“Did you remember the cup o’ noodles?” I asked.
“NO! I didn’t!”
“The English muffins?”
“No! I guess we have to go to Walmart!”

Well, after we picked up the boys, we told them the situtation, and Joe wanted to go to Walmart on the West Side because that one has the wool gloves he likes. So we went across town. Mom told me a funny thing Abby said. Abby’s sock had come off one foot in her sleep, so she told Beth while wiggling her foot…”I need a sock on this end!”

We needed to buy some water jugs to fill for going hunting, so we went down there, and got four jugs and filled them from the Culligan thing. We all kind of wanted to sit, and thought they should have put a bench there, but they didn’t. Across the aisle from the water filler things though was bunch of cases of beer. Someone had arranged them so it looked like a chair! Joe saw that first so he got to sit there. Then the corner was also a good spot, so Rase sat there. When Joe got up to shut off the water and fill the other jugs, I stole his seat.

We met Ben…or rather, he met us at Walmart. His phone ran out of battery, so he used the boys’ phone to make some phone calls. Then we met him at a Holiday, and went in to get drinks. Mom and I got those cappuccinos (Ben was still in a phone call so he came in a bit after us). We tasted them, and it was like…yuck! Watery! So Mom told the clerks and the guy came over.
“What should we do with this?” Mom said, meaning the coffee we had poured.
“Just pour it down here.” He showed us where there was a drain.
Mom and I started pouring 20oz of watery cappuccino into the drain.
“I feel really guilty doing this,” Mom said.
“I know, me too!” I was giggling.
Then the guy refilled the super mocha one (it was out of powder) and pushed the powder container for the pumpkin spice one back in…and they worked. Yay! When Ben came in, he and I dawdled, trying out those fancy flavored creams. We had fun.
The big boys went to Checker then home, and the rest of us just went home.

(By the way I just have to add this…Eric’s playing this game Autofrag: Sumo which is an action game, but his computer is so slow he says it’s turned into a strategy game!)

More hunting pictures

Finally three things came together: Joe’s pictures being developed, Time (I almost wrote Tim!), and Remembering to post them. See below for my caffeine-induced crazy descriptions of what the pictures are. Watch out!

This is a random guy who was filming us. I don’t know who he is. Actually, I just told a lie. I do know. This is my dad!
(more…)

Thursdays are Busy

We left early yesterday to go to Joe’s lesson, so first we went to a resale shop. Actually, very first, we (Joe, Mom, the twins, Tess, Elle Jane, and I) went to the gas station first, and Mom got a pop and one of those pumpkin spice cappuccinos. She got me a coffee, too…I got a Mocha Cappuccino (with extra caffeine!–it was advertised like that, too!) with a little bit of dark roast coffee in and two Peppermint half ‘n’ half’s to give it a little mint. It was SOO good! I got the 12 ounce, and after tasting how good it was, I wished I’d gotten a 20 ounce!

Then we went to the MRM in town. There, I found out something: The twins have bigger feet than me! I usually wear size 6.5-7…I guess they wear size 7.5!
During Joe’s lesson Mom and I went into Hansen’s to get Rase some drumsticks; he’s going to take lessons from Ben. Can you imagine two drummers in one band?? Scary thought! We also went to Radio Shack to get some thermal grease for my hot computer. (George is a really hot guy!)

Tess’ piano lessons are just 15 minutes after Joe’s, so we go straight there.

Then we went to Costco, where Joe bought us lunch! The twins couldn’t decide what to get, so one ordered a Polish sausage and the other ordered ice cream and they split! We had lots of fun; we talked about the ways homeschool kids rebel. Silly things like, “I’m going to sleep with my head at the FOOT of the bed instead!” When we were hunting, the first night all of us girls had our heads one way except Em; I thought it would have been funny if every night Dad taped us or took a picture, the first night like that; the next night all our heads like she had hers and her head opposite. But she slept on the floor after that!
We also talked about how people would look if it was 100 years ago. The woman talking on her cell phone would be writing a letter to her friend instead. The woman with crinkly white/brown hair (obviously dyed) would have her hair up in a bun, undyed, with a big hat.

When we were coming out of Costco, there were two guys walking by and I heard one of them say, “If you do such and such [I didn't catch it] you’ll be serving satan.”
“Mom,” I said to her, “did you see those guys who were talking that we passed?”
“No, I didn’t notice.”
“Well, they aren’t satanists. I don’t know if they’re Mormon or Methodist or Mennonite…whatever, but they aren’t satanists! Well, I guess not Mennonite, they weren’t dressed like it.”
She laughed. “Not all Mennonites dress like that, some dress like you and I.”
Then we got to talking about Rod, the nickname we gave to a man who does the Rod & Staff booth at the homeschool convention, because we don’t know his real name. And the last convention in Billings, some boys I know, Joe, and I were watching a booth across from the Rod & Staff people, and the boys got in a spitwad fight with Rod! I wrote about that on my blog, at least the one I had then. (It was back when I started blogging!)

There’s a post office near Costco, so we went there and asked a few questions about international shipping, and I mailed something.

After there we went to Deaconess to weigh Elle Jane. Nobody was in the room! Mom called the person who was supposed to be in the room (the lactation specialist room) and we heard it ringing in the other room, but nobody answered! So we left, and went to St. V’s for Mom to have some records of Dad’s transferred to somewhere else. Then back to Deaconess. Still nobody was in the room, but I saw a sign that said weigh the babies yourself, so, we did! She was 9 pounds 8 ounces.

Then we came home. We were gone a long time; from 9:30 or so in the morning until 4 pm! What a busy day!