A Time To Remember

I always say, "I remember my life in pictures." I keep my camera charged and ready near by at all times. Here is a time I want to remember....The Bubble Wrap Run! Daddy is full of great ideas!

Whats Red and Tan and Itchy all over?

That's right! It's me. I decided to go tanning for our big trip! (Virgin Islands Baby!) It's not really my thing, but a friend gave me her tanning package for free, so what the heck right! I knew from the past that you start with a little time and add on. I thought I had started with 8 minutes in the past, so that sounded good. The tan package came complete with one month of unlimited tanning, tanning goggles, moisturizing lotion and a tan enhancer which smelled really nice so I had to try it. Mistake! I got out, took a look in the mirror and about died! I was in a rush so I didn't put the lotion on very well, most of my body was a bright glowing red, but some parts were just normal and some were splotchy! Boy were the red spots itchy! I should have known better! Luckily everything has evened out into a nice tan, but that was a bit too scary! I think I will pass on the lotion next time!

More Press

I guess we're even more famous than I thought. Here is another article that mentions Trent's campaign. Their facts aren't exactly accurate since he wasn't old enough to vote, but who cares! Its still funny! Thanks for the link Amy! Trent thinks he actually won, and is president and gets to make all the rules now.

• Students at Nature's Classroom Montessori School in Mukwonago studied up on politics in recent weeks and held their own election Tuesday.
Barack Obama grabbed the Democratic nod; John McCain the Republican one.
Drawing one vote apiece were Dennis Kucinich, Ron Paul and Trenton Smith. Who's Trenton Smith? A 5-year-old who apparently wrote in his own name.
Ellen Gabler, Erin Richards, Bill Glauber and Stacy Forster, all of the Journal Sentinel staff, contributed to this report.

Trenton for President

The elementry kids at Trent's school decided to have a mock Primary Election. We had to register to vote on one day, and then vote on Tuesday the 19th. I don't follow politics, but I knew I wanted to vote on the conservative side since the school is very liberal. I got my ballot and looked at it. McCain, Guiliani - oh, I don't know?.... How about a write in?? Mr. Rogers? Barney? No, not good, I should just play by the rules. Wait! How about Trent! With a slightly shakey hand I wrote down his name. How would he feel about this? Would he want to be president? Would this embarass him? Just to be sure I asked the teacher if she would mind me doing this. She was hoping for a write it for the lesson of it. I felt pretty good about it. To my surprise, Trent is now semi-famous! Here is what is posted on the Milwaukee Journal web-site.

Kids vote for Obama, McCain and...Trenton
By Journal Sentinel staff
Tuesday, Feb 19 2008, 05:51 PM
Presidential primary results are in at Nature’s Classroom Montessori school in Mukwonago, where Barack Obama forged ahead as the clear Democratic favorite, with McCain winning the Republican primary.
Elementary school children between the ages of 6 and 12 conducted their own election at the school today, but it’s the culmination of a process that began at the beginning of the semester. The students’ research included trips to both Republican and Democratic headquarters in Waukesha County, discussion in class about the issues and letters home to parents to stimulate discussion with their children about the election, said teacher Shella Schneider.
The minimum voting age was dropped from 18 to 6, and students signed up their classmates, teachers and parents.
Voter turnout was not perfect: 74 people cast ballots out of 82 who were registered.
One voter also tried to vote twice, but luckily, the fraud was caught by the clerks.
The results:
John McCain - 18
Mike Huckabee - 5
Barack Obama - 35
Hillary Clinton - 12
Dennis Kucinich - 1
Ron Paul - 1
Trenton Smith (5-years-old; a write-in) -1
- By Erin Richards

Playing Hooky

Marshall had meetings in Chicago and invited me to go along last minute. Playing hooky for two nights was great! Gave a call to the grandma's to coordinate for the kids and off we went. Totally unplanned! We stayed with some friends, so it was nice to be somewhere comfortable. I had the best meal out in a really long time. Did the Fix Pri thing, three courses for one price. It's a week day thing I guess. The next day everyone had to work, so I spent the day domesticating. Somehow I can never get too far from that part of me! Took Marshall to his meeting, went to get groceries for my fabulous Valentine's Day feast, got a little lost on the way home (Typical me. I love the unexpected exploring! - (Circling and searching)). I watched CMT all afternoon, while cooking and reorganizing my friends condo. KD took off work early and we went together to pick up our Valentine's from work. Happy hour at KD's then dinner complete with Chocolate Fondue at the condo. I realized I actually like to cook and clean, just not my own house! Anyone looking to do a house cleaning swap, I'm game!

2008 So far....

I've started 2008 with a real bang! Actually it was more like a CRUNCH! I slid into a car at school yesterday. Their car's fine, mine, or should I say, Marshall's, which I have only driven 3 times is a little cracked on the bumper. I swear it was cracked before this, but I really sealed the deal! We don't like to discuss it! It never fails. We've had the car for a year and a half. Figures I would scratch it, same as I did the Blazer and the Mazda. I'm not a bad driver either! It just happens to me!
I spent the rest of the day in bed with a migraine. Not fun! First one in a really long time, and hopefully the last in a really long time!
Last weeks story had to do with a little car trouble leaving Callie and I stranded at the library and Trent stranded at school; a daring deer, which fortunatly I did not hit, but almost; and a little visit with the ditch. All relatively harmless, but none the less annoying, time consuming and emotionally draining. As you can tell, not too much gets me down, but thats been my year so far! I hope everyone else's year is a little quieter!

Working Late?

I didn't think I had anything to write about yesterday. It was an uneventful day until 4:30pm when my phone rang and the voice I heard said, "Hi, this is Mrs. Dana from Natures Classroom." Uhh oh, panic! What's wrong?!? "I just wanted to take a moment to talk with you to see how things are going with Trent and to discuss what happened at our Chinese New Year Celebration." O.k, which do I want to talk about first, good or bad? Or are they both bad? Trent usually tells me when something bad happens, but only PART of the whole story, so I knew he was upset about getting a broken chinese fan. Well it turns out everything is fine, she reiterated the fan story and felt she doesn't always get a chance to talk with me at drop off or pick up and wanted to check in. (I can't imagine why she doesn't catch me at school? It couldn't be because I never get there at the same time, could it?) Nice that a teacher would take the time on a Friday night to check in. I don't know what I was worried about.... How many 5 year olds can read?

Late Fees

Today was a big chasing day. Got to school 20 minutes late because I had to turn around after 10 minutes of driving to go back home and get the credit card to pay for Marshall's Car Repair. (Story for another time!) Then off to my Mom's for more snow blowing. Fancier model, same hard work!
Off to the airport to circle the terminal 10 times. Before we left my Mom's I told Callie, she needed to go to the bathroom, because we had to fly out of the airport and we weren't stopping. She of course thought we were going on an airplane!
Got Marshall, dropped him off to p/u his car, headed for a visit with Great Grandma, then back to school 15 minutes late to p/u Trent. I figured since he was late in the morning, I'd let him make up the time in the afternoon! I'll see how school feels about that when I get my late fee. Urgh! Even Blockbuster got rid of late fees!

Enough Snow Already!

Well, scratch that, the flight was cancelled! Poor guy sits in the airport all day to find out its cancelled anyway.
I'm out to work on the driveway again. Did I say before that I finished the job???? Still snowing! And snowing, and snowing and snowing and snowing and snowing.....

Snow Day

As expected, we had a snow day today. I've been out to clear the driveway once already. It will no doubt need it again tonight! I wanted to publicly thank the person who sold us our $13 rummage sale mini snow thrower. That thing is a champ! We've had it for 5 years now and it sure does the trick. One pull and we're up and running. I've used it 3 times in the last week! My arms are so exhausted from pushing all that heavy stuff around, it hurts my forearms to type! It feels good though. Knowing I accomplished the job. Can't remember when we've had more snow. Picked a great year to start Trent skiing!

Spent the rest of the day hanging out with the kids. We made indoor snowballs (rice krispy treats).

Marshall comes home tonight yeah! Delayed 5 hours of course! It will be nice to have him back again. He had a great experience at a conference in Las Vegas. Got to meet Lou Ferrigno aka: The Incredible Hulk.

Trenton Skywalker

Trent is a big Starwars fan. As you can see from the pictures, he takes it very seriously. He loves the theatrics!

Keeping in touch

I've been thinking about doing a website for a while now. It always seemed a bit too time consuming. A friend set up a blog and I think its pretty cool. I'm going to give it a try! You know me and pictures, so expect those! It will be fun sharing with you.