DMACC started today. My first day teaching after taking most of the summer off. It was a bit rough to get going this morning. I am teaching a total of 3 classes; 2 sections of Introduction to Athletic Training and Personal Training 1. I have average of 15 students in my classes. I think we should have a great semester. I need to spend some time getting organized, always a challenge for me.

I have been taking an online class about digital scrapping. It is creating your scrapbooks using mostly the computer. I just finished the first 2 assignments and thought I would share them with you. It you are interest in digital scrapping check out this website: jessica sprague
It has been fun so far, but I don't know it I could ever give up the paper. Although, it is much easier to fix your mistakes! Enjoy.

...only 179 to go. June 2 is scheduled to be the first day of Summer 2009, unless we have snow days to make up. That seems so far away, but it will come faster than we expect.

Both boys had a good day. Ethan is even more excited than he was yesterday! He had a fantastic day! He is in awe about how many things are in his classroom. He is excited about having his own desk, the tubs of books, and his friends. His was a little disappointed that Roxy the bunny had an eye infection and would not be joining the class until next week. Did you know that Roxy will eat your crayons and pencils if you leave them on the floor? ... Neither did I!

Ben did not have much say.... getting older really sucks!
He did say that his locker is between 2 girls that he barely knows.

Nadia and I spent most of the day running errands that I had put off.
Good day for all.

Tomorrow concludes are free and easy summer break. It really is amazing how fast the summer has gone. We have not done a very good job transiting back to an early bed time, so tomorrow might be a little rough.

Ethan is excited that school is starting; Ben is not. I am pretty sure that difference in attitude is just age. School is no longer cool for Ben. Today, We dropped off our school supplies and meet our teachers. Ethan's teacher is Mrs. Helgeson. I have heard only positive comments from other parents. Ethan is just excited about having his friend Max in his class. They also have several class pets, including a bunny. Ben's teacher is Mrs. Vogeler, she has moved down from 5th grade. I don't really know much about her. The 4th grade teachers share teaching responsibilities, so I am really not concerned.

I took my camera today and snapped a few photos. I wanted to make sure that we were not to rushed tomorrow. Here are a few of the best ones. Nadia felt a little left out, so I included her in a few.

By the way, Ethan has had a rough week, well actually a rough Monday. He hit is nose on the side of the pool and scraped his nose. Then Monday evening, he and Ben crashed into each other on their scooters and knocked his remaining front tooth almost out. He looks pretty beat up!

We spent Friday afternoon and evening at the Iowa State Fair. We walked all day and nobody really complained. We explored all the animal barns. We went back to see the Boy's art projects and my scrapbook pages. I won 2 white ribbons (3rd places) and 1 Honorable mention (4th place). No blue or red ribbons, but I was pretty happy with those results. The fair had built a brand new building called "The Animal Learning System". This building housed all the new babies. We saw chicks, kids, calves, piglet and ostrich. So cute!

We had to make a stop at the IPTV booth and Clifford was available for a great big hug! Nadia was really excited about that.

It was perfect weather, for a perfect day.

We are home from our whirlwind trip to Winnipeg. We are glad to be home, everyone is a little tired from the trip.

We arrived on Friday afternoon. Our first stop was our old apartment building. Ben was very excited to see "Mr. Golden Sun" ( a wire sculpture) was still there. Nothing else looked familiar to him. We also made a stop at the Sports Traders for some Hockey equipment.

Manitoba has gorgeous provincial parks, and Bird's Hill Park is one of our favorites. The temperature was perfect for sleeping and the Mosquitos ... well, let's just say, they have been worse. We ran into my boss from the Wellness Institute at the beach. It was really nice to catch up with him and life at WI.

I woke up Saturday AM feeling really sick. I was convinced that I had Strep. We found a walk in clinic, I paid Cash because I did not have my MB health card. I had an adenoid virus, but the MD felt sorry for me and gave me a RX for a cold medicine with Codeine. It was fantastic, it really helped me feel better. While I has seeing the MD my family bought more Hockey equipment. How much hockey equipment can 1 family buy? Alot!

We stopped by the forks and then headed back to the beach.

Sunday am we attended Covenant and truly enjoyed seeing old friends. We had lunch with Liz, George and their 2 girls. Then back to the beach!

Are you wondering why I titled this entry about frogs?
The photo is of a tree frog that I caught hopping through our campsite. The kids had a great time holding it and chasing it when it jumped away. But that was not the only frog we played with this weekend. The far side of the Birds hill lake has a series of wetlands and full of frogs. We caught 4 toads and 4 frogs. I had so much fun watching Ben catching them. Ethan was not quite quick enough, but still enjoyed the chase. We played with them for about an hour and then returned them to the other side of the lake.

Monday morning we headed back to Iowa and arrived home about 10 that evening.

In case you are wondering..... Andrew visa was renewed and he has been allowed to return to the USA for another year.

I forgot to mention that we are heading to Winnipeg for the Weekend. Andrew needs to renew his visa, and we would like see what Ben remembers. Any Winnipeggers available this weekend, I would love to see you.

A little update on our garden.Our green beans were a complete loss. When we returned home from Ontario,they were looking fantastic. The plants were loaded with little beans about 1 inch long. I checked them several days later and they had been completely eaten off. We assume the thieves are the bunny family that lives under our shed! We had purchased new fence this year to keep the little critters out, unfortunately, they can chew through the plastic fencing. I found small holes in the fence in several places. DARN BUNNIES!

Our tomatoes are looking good. One is starting to ripen. I love fresh tomatoes, I can hardly wait.

We have been harvesting a steady supply of cucumbers. for about 2 weeks. We pick several everyday. They have been great for lunch. We found this one yesterday, way in the back. OOPS, it's a little big. I don't think it will taste every good. The kids can't wait to eat it.

The state fair hosted an artist reception for anyone who had art accepted into the art show.

Ben's age group was 9-13 year olds. He had some pretty stiff competition. Only 64% of the art works were accepted. Both the pieces that Ben entered were accepted! Yeah Ben! He entered his birthday at the rink drawing and his Grandpa wire sculpture. He was disappointed that he did not win a blue, red or white ribbon. I tried to explain that only 3 ribbons were given for the 95 entries. How do you explain probability to a 9 year old?


The competition was not so stiff in Ethan's age group. All works were accepted and they did not give out any ribbons.

The boys enjoyed seeing their art hanging in the gallery. I hope to get them more involved in the art classes at the Octagon art center. I see lots of talent that needs to be refined. That could just be a mother's opinion!

I entered several pages into the Iowa State Fair Scrapbook contest. The entries were due on Saturday Morning. I finished this page on Friday, JUST IN TIME! Last year I won a blue and a red ribbon, it might be difficult to top that. I will let you know next week how I did.

On the weekend, we went to Omaha, NE to a Camp Kataki staff reunion. I worked the summer of 1993 at camp. It was nice to see a few people that I worked with that summer. The boys got a chance to try archery and we hiked the trails. The heat was almost unbearable, our van thermometer read about 100 degrees. It was hot! Today, I am sitting in the home with the Air Conditioner on!

The timer is quickly running out on the summer. The boys start school in 18 days. Then the craziness starts.