:LIFE: 4th of July

I hope you all had a great 4th of July!

We certainly had a good one. I started the day with some scrapbooking and laundry and later in the day we headed to Justin's parents house for the annual supper get-together and fireworks over the Springfield Marina.

Before is was time to head down to claim our spot, we were able to get in a few fireworks at the house and Kaitlin certainly got more into shooting off a few herself this year.

Justin was careful to show her how it was done.

She lit them very carefully...

and once that sucker was lit, she was outta there!! She has a healthy respect for fireworks.


The 4th just isn't the 4th without a few sparklers, is it??

I did get a few keepers of the big fireworks show as well...will share those soon.

:LIFE: What's wrong with this picture??

Do you see it?

This is the cake that my husband brought out to me after dinner last night.

How sweet, huh?

Unfortunately, there's something not quite right about this picture. (If you need a hint, visit yesterday's post. Between the post title and the second sentence, you should be able to see the problem.)

I'm pretty sure that I have always been (and always will be) four months younger than my husband, but it seems that somehow I managed to become four months older than him since my last birthday - therefore aging TWO years since my last birthday!

It's true that time does seem to go faster as one gets older, but let's not get carried away now. This is not a 2-for-1 deal that I'm interested in!

This has me wondering just exactly what he's trying to say to me.

He assured me that it was an honest mistake because he was in a hurry.

Kaitlin said, "Mom, I TOLD him you were only 32!"

It's the thought that counts, right?

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Conversation with Kaitlin on the morning of my 32nd birthday:

Me: Do you know what today is?

Kaitlin: Nope.

Me: Are you sure?

Kaitlin: Yup.

Me: (feigned sniffles)

Kaitlin: Is it a stay at home day? (Kaitlin REALLY likes weekends!)

Me: No...(feigned sniffles)

Kaitlin: Is...it...your birthday?

Me: YUP!

Kaitlin: Happy birthday, Mommy!

Me: Do you know how old I am?

Kaitlin: 32. (without hesitation)

(This leads me to believe that she knew all along what the signifigance of the day was. She's a sneaky one!)

Kaitlin: You're getting old, Mom.

Me: Hmph! Older than you, you mean?

Kaitlin: Yeah, that's what I meant. Just older than me.

:-)

:LIFE: 32 Random Facts About Me on My 32nd Birthday

It's my birthday today.

32 years old.

So, here are 32 random facts about me.

1) I have had 8 jobs since I started working at the age of 16. The shortest amount of time I've been on a job is 3 months (one college summer job) and the longest is 8 years (current job).

2) I've always wanted to learn how to play the piano.

3) I have been to less than 10 states in my entire life and they are all connected. Sad, I know.

4) I dream of traveling. My top destination of choice would be England, but there are many places I would like to visit. I would also like to visit the country of my ancestors - the Czech Republic.

5) I am by nature an introvert, but must be an extrovert for my job.

6) I don't like beer...unless it's in a red beer. Heavy on the tomato juice and with green olives.

7) I have never had a broken bone. I'll be knocking on some wood now.

8) I do not enjoy shopping for clothes for myself, but I love shopping for clothes for my daughter.

9) When I was little, I used to sneak into my brother's room, play his 45 of Living on a Prayer on his record player and make up dance routines.

10) I love cheesecake.

11) I love to read, but I am a very slow reader.

12) I hate it when people don't use their blinker.

13) My first car was a powder blue Plymouth Horizon. My second car was a white Ford Escort. My current car is a dark green Dodge Stratus. I bought it new (will probably never do this again) and have been driving it for almost 10 years. It just passed the 100,000 a couple months ago.

14) I went to high school prom three times. Each time was with the same person (my husband).

15) I collect postcards. People bring me postcards when they travel because they know I have to live vicariously through others (see #3).

16) My sense of humor tends to be sarcastic in nature.

17) Christmas is my favorite holiday. I love the decorations, the music, the get-togethers.

18) I don't like to wear a lot of jewelry. I wear two rings (wedding ring and a birthstone ring that my dad brought for each of the girls in our family), a watch, and diamond studs on a daily basis. I may were a necklace for a special occasion.

19) My favorite subject has always been English. History interests me (I read a lot of historical fiction), but I'm not good at remembering names and dates. I've never enjoyed math or science, but could do it...sort of...if you force me.

20) I have kept over 1,000 photos this year. I've probably deleted twice as many - I'm getting more selective on what I consider a keeper. Ahhh, the wonders of digital.

21) I addicted to the internet. It is fairly difficult for me to go a day without going online.

22) I am not a fan of re-watching movie I have already seen, but have watched Dirty Dancing and Top Gun AT LEAST 15 times each.

23) I was nearly late to my own college graduation becaue both of the cuff buttons fell off my shirt.

24) I got a degree in Secondary English Education and ended up only teaching for one year. I now work for a college as the Assistant Director of Admissions.

25) I am a published scrapbooker - 5 layouts already published and 5 layouts yet to be published. Hopefully many more to come.

26) I love the smell of alfalfa, vanilla, and rain.

27) I read the entire Anne of Green Gables series (8 books) when I was in grade school. I also used to read my mom's V.C. Andrews books without her knowing (I think? But not anymore!) and hide them under my mattress. I got tired of them though...they all have the same plot line. I think the author was obsessed with insestuous relationships - ick!

28) My daughter and my younger brother make me laugh the most.

29) When I hear a song I like, I can listen to it over and over without tiring of it. I will usually sing along if no one else is around. Favorites right now are Apologize by One Republic and Bleeding Love by Leona Lewis.

30) I have a fake tooth. It does not glow under a black light.

31) I don't like fishing. I take something something to read when my husband makes me go along with Kaitlin and him.

32) I like pickles with cottage cheese.

Youth Business Adventure 2008

I just spent the past week at DSU in Madison, SD as a Company Advisor for Youth Business Adventure (YBA). This is my third year as an advisor and it was a great time, as usual.

The program is basically a way to open up the world of business to high school students going into their Senior year. The whole week is set up as a competition between companies. This year I was assigned to Company G and twelve students - 8 girls and 4 boys. The YBA staff groups these students VERY carefully and is always sure not to have students from the same school in any one group, so they are often all strangers at the beginning of the week. It is great to watch them connect and develop lasting friendships as the week progresses.

Each company comes up with a company name and develops an idea for a product. Company G ended up being "Global Golf" and the product they came up with was the 'Galileo', a golf ball that you never loose because it has a built in GPS locator and is also bouyant. Neat idea, huh?

There are 10 major competitions throughout the week:

1) Junk Production - They have to create a product out of, you guessed it, junk and present it infomercial style.

2) Bowling Competition - It's a team thing. Each person in the team bowls a frame and the game just keeps going for over an hour. The team with the most points wins.

3) Business Bowl - A quiz bowl using business terms.

4) Company Cheer - This is when you hope you have an experienced cheerleader on your team! :-)

5) TV Comercial - The team creates and films a commercial advertising their product.

6) Company Logo - The team designs a logo for their company.

7) Emerging Entrepreneur Project - The team prepares a formal 15-minute presentation to give to a group of 'investors' (judges).

8) Management Simulation Game - This is a computerized money game where each company makes financial decisions for their company (price, production levels, marketing expenditures and much more) over 8 quarters (two years) to see how their company will fair in the industry of the 8 other companies.

9) Community Service - Throughout the week, the companies complete various service responsibilities to earn points.

10) Public Relations/Networking - Team members can earn points by interviewing company advisors, teacher assistants, speakers and other staff associated with YBA over the course of the week.

If you think that sounds like an insane amount of stuff to complete with a group of kids in 5 1/2 days, you're absolutely right. The time just flies by because it is such a super busy week.

Even though their is a lot of 'work' built into this week, there is certainly time for some fun as well with pizza parties, movies and a dance. The kids generally have no problem letting out their goofy sides either!

Although it is a ton of fun, it was a long time away from my little girl and I have to admit I'm happy to be home again. Today I've been doing a whole lot of nothing...need some time to just regroup after such a week.

:LIFE: Kaitlin's 6th Birthday Party

Finally some pictures from Kaitlin's birthday party last weekend. We couldn't have asked for nicer weather...it was about 85 and sunny. Of course, Kaitlin couldn't wait to get the sprinklers going.

Kaitlin got this scrapbooking kit from her Aunt Lynnie and Chris. Hmmm...maybe now she won't be 'borrowing so much of my stuff! :-)

Games have been huge at our house lately...so it was time to add a few new ones to the mix - Connect 4 and Mancala.

Kaitlin's cousins Emily and Rachel gave her a teddy bear with some 'bling' attached - a necklace and butterfly pin.

Grandma & Grandpa Pechous satisfied Kaitlin's Hannah Montana fetish.

No surprises on the theme for the cake this year! :-)

It was a great evening and thanks to all the friends and family that shared it with us.

:LIFE: Tabor Czech Days

Tabor Czech Days kicks off tomorrow night with the Bluebirds game, fireworks and carnival. We've been looking forward to it for quite a few weeks and it will be over too quickly, I'm sure.

You can read a little on our experiences at the past couple of Czech Days celebrations as well as see a few layouts I've created to commemorate the event here , here (2006), here, and here (2007).

I also wrote about the California camera crew that filmed in Tabor for a week surrounding the event thanks to Tabor native Aesli Grandi last year. Well, those hours of film turned into an hour long documentary called "Tabor: A Little Czech Town on the American Prairie" which was written and directed by Aesli. It is set to premiere at this year's celebration - running Thursday through Saturday at 6:00 p.m. and Sunday at 12:30 p.m. at Opsahl-Kostel Funeral Home.

Aesli was younger than me, but I know her and her family well. It was actually her mother that lent me the Czech Days outfit that Kaitlin wore to Czech Days when she was only 5 days old! If you clicked on the link above, you saw the pictures! It is so exciting to see someone from our tiny little town achieve so much at such a young age.

Kaitlin wants to be in the Kiddie Parade on Saturday again this year, but I've yet to come up with some catchy little idea, so we'll see. (If you have any ideas...simple ideas since I'm short on time...please let me know.) If she does go through, I'm sure there will be picture to share! :-)

:LIFE: Fishing on Father's Day

I had hoped to share some pictures from Kaitlin's Safety Town Graduation on Friday and her birthday party of Saturday, but Blogger's photo upload is being quite temperamental this evening, so we'll just have to settle for some fishing photos from yesterday...

We headed down to Cottonwood Corral and Kaitlin had good luck...as always. :-)

She had the first catch of the day...

and several more...

Justin did catch a few...although is wasn't a fish every time.

Justin and Kaitlin decided they would have a tournament. Whoever reached 10 fish first would be the winner.

Final tally:

Kaitlin - 10

Justin - 5

:LIFE: Tell me a story...

Kaitlin has always really enjoyed a good story. She's got a couple shelves worth of hard cover books in her room plus a few baskets full of softcover books.

Even though it doesn't happen every night, I've been reading to her since she was probably about 6 months old and am always on the lookout for unique books.

This book is called Do Princesses Wear Hiking Boots? and it is the cutest story. Every little girl should have a copy.

It's one that I picked up for her while on a business trip a couple of years ago. I was in some middle-of-nowhere town in Nebraska (I think it was Broken Bow) and found this cute little shop with great children's toys and books. Good find...

Lately, she loves to have me read the story and then she'll 'read' the story to me. Sometimes, she gets it pretty darn close to the actual story and sometimes she takes the story along an entirely different path...on purpose...and it is so fun to see where her imagination takes her.

My baby turned SIX yesterday...

Yesterday was Kaitlin's birthday! I can't believe how quickly she is growing up. We're having the annual family BBQ to celebrate her birthday on Saturday, but still wanted to make the actual day a special one.

She tells everyone "We changed my birthday to another day [Saturday] cause only Mommy and Daddy could come on my real birthday." ONLY? I guess we're not enough for her birthday! :-)

So, we sent her balloons at daycare and she was pretty tickled about that. She got some from Grandma and Grandpa Paulson, too.

After work, we took her mini-golfing for the first time - she scored a 77...okay, she cheated a little, but not much. She got it within 4 feet of the hole on her first shot on just about all of the 18 holes. I think she only knocked it out once. I think we might have a golfer on our hands!

Then, she got to choose the place for supper...so, of course, we went to McDonald's. Where else would a six-year-old want to go?

And we were off to Dairy Queen for ice cream after.

Once we got home we snuggled on the couch and watched "Animal Cops" - her choice also. She has this strange fascination with animal and cooking shows. She says, with much authority, that she doesn't want to be a chef. She just likes watching people cook.

However, she has OFTEN mentioned being an animal doctor, rescuer, or pet shop owner. She sure has a soft spot for animals...she is often on the verge of tears when she watches the shows that show animals being mistreated. It makes her sad. It is the sweetest.

Who knows what my little girl will be when she grows up, but I do know she's getting there way too fast.

At about 2 a.m., I heard Kaitlin get up and go to the bathroom. Afterwards, she came in our bedroom and climbed in and snuggled with me. She said, "Thanks for doing all those fun things with me today, Mom. It was a great day." Then she went back to sleep.

Justin heard and said, "That makes it all worthwhile, doesn't it?"

It sure does.

Hillary and Chelsea come to Yankton

It's not much of a secret that I've never really been that interested in politics...I outwardly relieved when I didn't get chosen to attend Girls State in high school and wasn't even registered to vote in my current county of residence until just recently. I think I registered Independent when I was in college (ya know, that whole 'independence' thing you experience when first going off to college), but pretty sure I never actually voted.

Maybe it's just part of getting older that I'm getting a little more interested (a.k.a. concerned) with who will be elected our next president. Maybe it's just part of seeing how much damage a president can do in 8 short years. Maybe it's just part of now being a mother and having my daughter's future to be concerned with as well as my own. Whatever it is, I am certainly getting more 'interested' these days.

Yesterday, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton came to Yankton and when my boss asked if anyone was interested in going to see her (she was scheduled to speak during working hours), I was actually excited by the prospect of seeing them IRL.

I'm not saying that I'm voting for her (we'll see...:-)), but I do have to say it was different to see them speak in person and adds another element to the equation.

I guess I'm just kind of small town, but being around that many men in black suits with guns (which of course were loaded and ready to fire), security guards and metal detectors was a little unnerving for me.

We got there a little late and almost didn't even get into the room where they were going to speak. The main area was packed, but they finally decided to let more attendees into a balcony area. It was only a good view if you were in the front, but I managed to sneak my way in there a few times.

It's funny, but they both seemed 'smaller' than I expected...maybe it's just because people you see on TV all the time seem to be 'larger than life' in a way. Then, when you see the in person, you realize they really are just people after all.

It was an interesting event. Clinton voice went out on her twice during the speech and she had to call on Chelsea to continue speaking...it was obvious that Chelsea is also well-versed in the principles of her mother's campaign. While she didn't quite get the crowd as 'riled-up' as Hillary, she certainly is a good speaker. I would imagine she has a bright and exciting future ahead regardless of whether or not her mother makes it to the white house.

On top of that, Hillary did have a bit of a faux pas when she introduced the wrong man as the Mayor of Yankton...a man that had been recalled by Yankton voters last December. It drew a very audible groan from the crowd, but she recovered quickly with the help of a nearby attendee that corrected her. The paper said that Hillary was given incorrect information by a staffer. Do you think that staffer still has a job today?? :-)

Despite these setbacks to the speech, she really does have some good things to say - supporting renewable energy, cutting tax breaks for big business, ending the war in Iraq and restoring alliances around the world...stuff that I can't deny that I agree with.

It will be interesting to see what happens after today's SD primary.

(Photos courtesy of the Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan.)

Photo Shoot: Grey Wall

A few more from our dowtown photo shoot a few weeks back.

We found this white brick in an alley a couple blocks down the street from the red brick. Gives a much 'cooler' feel to the photo, but just love her sweet little smile in these two.


Here's some grey tile we found at a downtown storefront...a little sweet...

A little mischevious...

A little toothy...

All adorable. But, wait...I might be a little biased!

Happy Memorial Day!

As planned, Justin, Kaitlin & I went on a day trip with my parents and sister Lynn. We headed towards Ashfall Fossil Beds in Nebraska and before going in to check out the displays, we had a picnic lunch.

The weather was less than idea - quite chilly and very windy. It was a 'hold on to your plates' type lunch.

The fossil beds were quite interesting. I didn't even know that this park was there, but there are fossils millions of years old. This picture was taken inside the Rhino Barn.

On the way back home, we went for a drive through Ni0brara State Park and for a bit of a nature walk down to a railroad bridge.



Once we got back to my parent's house, we took a couple shots in front of their lilac bushes.

It was a fun day and a great drive in the country...hope you had a great Memorial Day!

A little comedy...

Kaitlin was at Grandma & Grandpa Paulson's for a couple days, so Justin and I actually got to go out yesterday. This is a rare invent for sure...like Haley's Comet! :-)

Sioux Falls was our destination for the day. We made it up there around lunchtime and Justin humored me while I did some scrapbook shopping at Hobby Lobby and Michael's. I then humored him during his pawn shop visits...he's always on the look out for some 'treasure'.

Not too long ago, I got an email stating that I had won four tickets to Nitwits, a comedy club in Sioux Falls. Initially, I didn't think that we were going to be able to take advantage of them, but when the grandparents offered to keep Kaitlin longer, I thought we'd better take advantage of the opportunity to get out and actually do something together. We invited our friends Bill & Susan out to the show as well to fill the other two seats and it was great to see them...it's been too long.

The main two comedians were Joe Tyler and Jimmie Roulette. Both guys were great...I haven't laughed that hard for that long in quite a while. They also have some darn good Bloody Mary's there, so I'm sure that helped, too! :-)

Afterwards we walked over to a nearby Applebee's for dessert and a little visiting. It was good to catch up a little.

Before we headed home we stopped over at Bill's cousins house who was babysitting and we got to see Bill & Susan's 3-week old boy for the first time who is just adorable and their little girl who just turned three and is growing up so fast.

Today we slept in a bit and Rahn & Ruth brought Kaitlin home mid-morning. She had a ton of fun, but I think she had missed us a little too and was ready to be home.

We weren't too ambitious today...just some picking up, minor cleaning and grocery shopping, but it's stuff that needed to be done.

Tomorrow it looks like we will be heading out for a Memorial Day picnic with my family...looking forward to it. I just hope the weather cooperates.

Photo Shoot: Red Wall

I realized the other day that it's been a VERY LONG TIME since I've shared some 'photo shoot' type photos of Kaitlin...probably because the weather has just been so crappy for so long that it was keeping us inside and I just don't like indoor photos as much.

However, a few weeks ago we braved a windy, chilly day and went out for a shoot. We went downtown and scoped out a few locations.

This was my favorite...love the deep red brick.


This was actually the very first shot of the shoot...guess she had to get her goofiness out of the way right off the back, so she could give me a few good smiles. Love it!

Have a few more favorites from the outing I'll be sharing in separate posts. Stay tuned.

Another busy weekend...

• soccer game
• transporting grass clippings to the dump
• sweeping
• mopping
• kitchen cleaning
• car cleaning
• fighting with Kaitlin to get her to pick up her toys
• scrapbooking - completed 3 pages
• photo editing & uploading to Shutterfly
• 4 loads of laundry
• walk (me)/bike ride (Kaitlin)
• 2 fend-for-yourself lunches
• 2 dinners
• pot washing
• run & empty the dishwasher
• 3 games of Wahoo
• 1 game of Uno
• 1 movie (Bee Movie)

And on with another busy week...

Who's amazing? Me, I guess...

This has been one busy week!

Soccer game Tuesday, soccer picnic Wednesday, and school carnival last night. I took Kaitlin and she game home with way to many little goodies - including this cute little flower painted around her eye.

She also won a recorder at one of the games and when we got home I was trying to show her how to play it covering and uncovering the holes. I played a scale and her jaw just dropped.

"Mom, that was AMAZING!"

Didn't know playing a scale of the recorder would get me so much admiration.

Even this morning she remembered it and said, "Mom...if we're all good today and we get to have sharing time, I'm going to get up there and tell everyone that my mom is AMAZING because she can play the flute."

Wow, it's not everyday that a kid says their mom is amazing...even if it is just for playing a recorder.

Then she said, "Mom, you knew that you had music in you," like she was just SO proud of me...not sure where that all came from, but it sure was funny! :-)

Today I am just wiped!

We decided as an office that we were up for some color, so we spent the whole day painting our offices. We got three of the four rooms done, which was quite an achievement with all the taping we had to do and that we had to do a second coat everywhere.

Our offices are full of tall ceilings so it was lots of up and down on ladders. I'm betting I'll be feeling it tomorrow.

I came home and mowed the lawn...and ordered pizza for supper. No cooking for me today and I don't plan on moving too much for the rest of the evening. Up for maybe a good movie and bed!