14 Tickets

Well today I gave all of my employees the chance to put $2 in the lottery pot and 14 of them decided to do it. One dollar is for the ticket and the other is to powerplay the ticket (better chance of winning). All together we got 14 tickets and a chance to win $153 million!!!! Whaaooo....cross your fingers that we will win something. The funny part is if we win no one will show up to work on Monday!!!

PS....happy leap year day only happens every 4 years!

JELLO Cake

Today has been a very informative day at work. Not only have I been getting all my work done but I learned how to make Jello cake and let me tell you it is an experience. I wanted to share how we make it because there are so many ways.

First thing we did was make a sheet cake in the oven and let it cool.
Next we mixed up some cherry Jello and we let it disolve for 3 minutes so in the mean time we poked tons of holes in the cake with a fork.
Then we poured the Jello on top of the cake and it soaked in the fork holes, and we put it in the cooler so it sits over night.
Tomorrow we will frost the cake and serve it by the piece.

It is not a very fancy recipe but when you are cooking for 1000 kids a day you have to keep it simple. AND I learned something today.

This is one of the perks at my job and that is when I need a break from paper work or the computer I just head to the kitchen to cook something new!

Buddy

I would like everyone to meet Buddy, Trevor's new best friend. The weekend before last my grandma and grandpa Pearson stopped by to see the house and to bring Trevor a gift and that gift was a huge dog almost the size of Trevor. He loves it!! The minute that he saw this bear he decided his name would be buddy. The funny thing is that every night Trevor sleeps with buddy so half of his bed is taken up by this bear and most of the time Trevor ends up sleeping on top of him. How cute!! Thanks for the bear grandma and grandpa!

In these particular pictures Trevor and buddy are playing trucks, I love how Trevor talks to him as if he is a real person.

New Scanner

Well last night as we were digging through some boxes Jon found a copy, scanner, printer and fax machine that we bought and never hooked up. So yesterday he hooked it up and got everything to work so I thought I would test it out and scan some pictures for my blog. While doing so I came across these pictures that we had professional taken of Trevor when he was 1 month old. He was such a cutie and it is funny how much he has changed since then!!


Overall the scanner did a great job, the pictures are really clear and look like they came right from the camera.

It's A Boy!

I first of all want to say Congratulations to Chad and Kristina Healy (Jon's cousin) they had a baby boy on Friday morning!! They named him Brennan Robert Healy and his sister Sophia is a very happy little girl. Congratulations!!
He has red hair like my little T-Man.

Otherwise nothing real exciting to report our weekend was pretty uneventful. I worked the whole weekend except for Sunday and Jon helped my brother put in a new kitchen for my aunt who lives in Chester. Trevor had fun playing with their 4 kids all day Saturday. One thing that did happen was Sat night I worked at the NDSU VS SDSU women's basketball game and YES they did win!! So at this rate they will be in the WNIT again this year and it is still unknown if SDSU will host the event and if we do it will be March 19, 20 & 21. GO JACKS!

Speed

This morning I walked into work and my employees came up to me and said "did you hear what happened last night"?? I responded with "no". Well appartently around 2am a student who lives in Hanson Hall which is right next door to where I work got caught driving down Medary Ave going 85 mph (in town this is) he then turned into the Hanson Hall parking lot where he hit a car at the speed of about 65 mph. The inpack was so huge to the car it ran into that it also ruined the 8 other cars sitting next to it, kind of like a domino effect. The student got charged with a DWI, reckless driving and I am sure a whole huge list of other things. What is wrong with some people?? Can you imagine if someone was crossing the cross walk or on the side walk or the parking lot?

My Little Model

My little model did a great job last night!! It took about an hour which I did not think was bad. The first 20 minutes was basic shots of him playing, posing and just whatever and then we were standing in the lobby while he was taking a couple of shots of Trevor in the window and Rod (the photographer) just stopped and said I will be right back. About 5 minutes later he came back out and said he has always wanted to do this one shot but has never done it before and he thought Trevor was the right kid for the job. So he had Trevor take his shirt off and sat him on the stool and he said it had to do with how the lighting would hit Trevor's face and reflect off his red hair. Once he got the one he wanted he was spazing saying how great it was and once he tweeked it for a while it would be an awesome pose. Overall he did a great job with Trevor and was very comfortable to be around. He told me to watch his website because Trevor's picture would be one there and once that happens I will let everyone know. The bad news is that I do not get proofs to look at so I can not show you all of the photos. And in order for me to order them I have to go to his studio next Tuesday and pick out what I want to get the 50% off. So Jen I am not sure how you will be able to buy one unless you want me to pick one out for you. It was a great experience and we will do it again in a heartbeat.

Influenza A and B

Let me tell you this is some nasty stuff! Since I am on the SDSU faculty staff I get important mass e-mails and last week we got one from the clinic here in town regarding Influenza A and B. The e-mail read "We are seeing many cases of Influenza A and a few B. The Center of Disease Control has sent us an alert that the flu shot did NOT cover one of the strains of influenza. Pay close attention to your employees for high fevers, sorethroats, bodyaches, and cough." So no more then one day later I had one employee come down with it and was sent home for 5 days. The next day I had another one get it and she was also gone for 5 days. Then last Friday one of the girls in the main office got it and Sunday my dad got it. YUCK!! So just to be safe I called our doctor last night and she gave Jon, Trevor and I a perscription for some medication to protect us from not getting it. The prescription is for 10 days so hopefully then we will be safe.

PS....today is the big day for Trevor's pictures. The whole deal is over so he is the last one the photographer is going to see, cross your fingers they turn out good or Trevor is good for that matter.

ALL DONE

I am so proud to say that our laundry room make over is 100% COMPLETE!!!! It is such a relief to say that and now that it is done I go back and look at what it was before and what we have turned it into and it just amazes me. We had the closet doors stained and we got those back this week so Jon hung those up along with finishing the trim yesterday. It sure does help having a 3 day weekend to get everything done. Take a look at the before and after transformation.

Yes this laundry room was a scary one before we did anything to it.

BEFORE

AFTER

Here is a list of the things we did:

1. Replaced all the old water pipes with new plastic ones

2. Formed walls and made 2 closets

3. Sheetrocked, taped and textured the walls

4. Painted

5. Leveled out the floor and installed tile

6. Put in a whole new ceiling

Tonight I am going to put up a wall paper border, Jon does not know yet but he is helping.

The Simple Things

Isn't if funny how we worry for months what to get kids for Christmas or their birthday and somehow we end of finding them something they like but after spending how much. Well last night we got our doors for the laundry room stained and Jon took them out of the boxes and was hauling them to the laundry room. Meanwhile I am in the kitchen and all of a sudden I hear Trevor just laughing his little heart out so I peeked my head down the steps to see what the turkey was up to and this is what I saw:

He had taken the box from the doors and put it on the steps so he could slide down and let me tell you he really would go. He had the best time and to think at no cost at all this kid is entertained for hours. Isn't it funny how the simple things in life really make their day.

PS...this is what my sweetheart gave me for Valentine's Day!

AND he made us heart shaped French Toast, what a guy!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone, I hope you are all having a good day. I have finally decided what to have for my annual Valentine's Dinner this evening for the students, here is what I have come up with:I sure hope that we have a good turnout but I know last year we did so I am sure we will be busy. This year I decided to add a Valentine Cup Cake instead of a Cookie, so the past 2 days we have made over 12 dozen cup cakes including decorating them.

I sure know that Trevor was excited today since Greg and Kelsi came over last night and gave Trevor his Valentine's present that is all he has talked about. He got a balloon and some new trucks which he went to bed with last night. So for daycare today he was excited to hand out Valentine's to all the kids and to eat all the candy. For something a little more fun I made cut out heart cookies at work and decorated them with frosting, sprinkles and put each of their names on their cookies. I will drop them off this afternoon for a snack.

I hope everyone has a good rest of the day!!

Louisville Kentucky

Since my dad and grandpa sold their business my dad has went to work for a tractor parts store in Hendricks and has moved up really fast and is now the manager. Well a couple of weeks ago they sent him to Kansas City for a farm show and he had to great time being in a new city and experiencing something new. Then they told him they wanted him to head to Louisville Kentucky for the biggest farm show around and he was super excited about this. To check out more just click on this link http://www.farmmachineryshow.org/ (Grandpa Kenny I thought you might like this) to see what this show is all about. I guess it takes days to get through so knowing my dad he just loves all this.

So yeserday he left for Sioux Falls to get on a plane for Kentucky, you would think they would have a direct flight from Minneapolis to Kentucky but nope he had to go through Chicago. So once he got into Minneapolis he was going to head to Chicago and then to Louisville. Well I got a call from him last night around 5:30pm and he was still in Minneapolis sitting on the airplane on the runway. Come to find out that the Chicago airport was snowed in so he had been sitting in Minneapolis for over 4 hours. Then he called me around 9pm and said he made it to Chicago and they were racing to get to the right gate to make their flight to Louisville, I am not sure if they made it or not?!?! The show was suspost to start at 9am this morning so I am excited to hear what happened. He will be in Kentucky until Sunday so he has a lot of exploring to do.

Little Models

Sunday afternoon we went to Sioux Falls to pick up a few things and so Jon and Trevor dropped me off at the mall while they ran Scheels and Sportsmans Warehouse. I was on my way to return something when a very cute photograph caught my eye, I stopped to go over and take a look and there was a bunch of pictures and painting by Evans Portraits. Then on the corner of a painting there was a little flyer that said little models. This is what it said:

As one of only 75 photographers in the world to be a Canon Explorer of Light, it is time for Rod to update his portfolio. He needs models for new backgrounds and new ideas! As a thank you for helping out, there is:

NO SESSION FEE

50% OFF PORTRAITS

Then at the bottom it said:

We are open to anything, but we are in need of kids ages 2-4.

At this point I was super excited because I know Trevor would be perfect for this!!!! When I got his pictures taken at Melby's this past summer they were really impressed and said he was a natural. So I called today and explained what Trevor looked like and different things about him (bright red hair, outgoing personality) and the lady said that is exactly what they are looking for!! She said they would love to have us come down and do a session and it is going to be next Wednesday Feb 20th. She gave me a list of different things they would like him to wear and some other things to try. (Watch out babyGap here we come)

This is so exciting, I am so happy I found this!!! I went to their website and looked around and it looks like this guy is awesome, I am all about finding something new and exciting! Just to let you know the deal we are getting, for just a session fee to have him take your pictures it is $158 and he is also hard to get into. I just know these pictures are going to be awesome!

Happy Birthday

Well this past weekend we celebrated Diane and Jack's birthday!! Yesterday was Diane's birthday and Tuesday is Jack's so Jennifer and Chris came home this past weekend to help us celebrate. I unfortunatly had to work for a bit on Saturday evening so everyone went out to eat without me but then came back to our house afterwards. It was nice to see Jennifer and Chris again!!

Getting Closer

Well my wonderful husband has done it again, he just amazes me!! Last night he started on tiling the floor and it looks great. He came up with the design asked me what I thought and I loved it so I told him to go for it. So last night he got all the big pieces glued down and tonight he will get the saw and make all the cuts for the other pieces and get those glued down and then tomorrow night we will grout everything and we will be done!!!!! This is going to be such a great feeling, once the doors are stained those can go up but the hard labor will be over......YEAH!! Here is the design for the floor, let me know what you think.

Trip to Lowe's

Last night we made our final trip to Lowe's to finish our laundry room. We went to pick up some light bulbs and the tile for the drop down ceiling. When Jon and I were lookings at light bulbs and deciding what to go with Trevor asked to get out of the cart, I said he could but he had to stay close and not run off. He looked at me and said "okay mom, I won't" so I handed him his trucks and he started to play with them on the floor. 2 seconds later I looked down and he was gone.......I turned around and there he was sitting on the lawn mowers playing with a huge smile on his face and yelling "hey mom look at me"!! Little boys are all about driving lawn mowers, touching everything in their sight and riding in all kinds of cool carts you can not take your eye off them for even a second!!!

More Accomplished

Well this weekend was another good one for the books!! I am proud to say that we are 85% done with the laundry room. This weekend we sanded down the rest of the walls, then applied texture (this turned out really well since we had never done this before) and then it was time for me to paint. The color I chose was called "applesauce cake" somewhat of a tan/gold color, I like to stay somewhat neutral because then it is easier to decorate with lots of other colors. Once I had 2 coats of paint on Jon had to bust out the drain in the middle of the floor to raise up the concreate since we are going to tile it all has to be even. So since we made that mess we decided to replace the pipes and drain just to be safe. Then we refilled it with concrete and waited for that to dry. In the meantime Jon tiled the base for the washer and dryer and once that sat over night we were able to grout that in the morning. Then you have to wash the tile 3 times and then we hooked up the washer and dryer....YEAH we had tons of laundry to do!! THEN once all of that was done Jon started the project for the ceiling and got half done with that. SOOOO lots done this weekend and tonight we will finish the ceiling and lights and get the floor ready for tile so we can install that hopefully Tuesday or Wednesday night. After that we just have to install the doors and the door jams. I can not wait for this project to be done!!

So Saturday my dad asked to take Trevor ice fishing to the tournament in Hendricks and he had a great time. Trevor informed me he saw Cindy and Danny and they were lots of fun but the funniest story according to Trevor was his new teddy bear that he got from his Margie!! That just cracked me up he did not refer to her as great grandma but as his Margie. Thanks to everyone who intertained him at the fishing tournament I am sure he was a hand full. Thanks Kelsi for taking some pictures!!

Trevor liked to play with the bait the most but you could never tell that by looking at this picture.

Embarassing Moments

Well I am sure my boys are not going to be happy with me if they ever read this post but what the heck you have to have fun sometimes, right??

So last night our home was filled with embarassing moments first of all Trevor took a bath and refused to put his PJ's on after so he ran around the house playing trucks and then cleaning NAKED.

Then I went downstairs to see how Jon was coming on sanding down the sheetrock this is what I walked in on: