Tales of a Shoebox Princess

Jim and I were awoken early this morning to violent thunderstorms. It rained several inches. I wasn't worried about the rain interfering with Paul's farewell open house because thunderstorms usually don't last that long. They did last several hours in the wee hours, but that much energy wouldn't sustain itself into the afternoon. And I didn't mind the bog in the backyard either. At least the yard got watered. Oh yeah, yesterday? Matt was mowing the lawn and one of the back wheels broke. Like it broke OFF the lawn mower. But he persevered with the three-wheeled mower until the handle broke off. Really, mower? We were getting ready for a party! AND we're sending out a missionary! Hello, blessings? How is a broken mower a blessing? (I'm being overdramatic). After watching Matt struggle with trying to put the handle back on the mower for a minute, I turned to Jim and said, "Just go buy a new mower." So he did. Anyway, we worked hard getting ready f...

After the convention mixer on Friday night, Jim and I stayed overnight in Sioux Falls. Our kids are growing up and Paul was more than capable of being the man of the house for one night while we were away.  We didn't have to hurry home anymore than we had to hurry there. We met Jen and Mike for breakfast at the hotel in the morning. They were able to stay overnight because they have a compound apprentice (niece Morgan) on site for a bit and were able to utilize her as a babysitter. We drove up to see the Compound and have lunch with the Hawleys and Ms Smith. Since I was there last, Mike has added a calf, two pigs, several dozen pheasants, some guinea hens and a couple of barn cats. I had to see the new additions. I can't get enough of Mike's birds, and these pheasant babies are no exception. I had to dip my hand in the vat of peeping chicks and grab a couple. They are so cute. This is a post Morgan helped install. She dug the hole and helped insert the pole i...

I'll post something non-EJ or church related. How about crafts? Or food? Or both? Yesterday was a refreshing day of few commitments. I made dinner but few people were at home to eat it. Dave (not that you read this), I used some of the IQF* beef you are "storing" in my freezer for my chili last night. I learned that 20 lbs of IQF ground beef in a box does not come in smaller quantities when you open the box. Nope, I had to scoop out what I estimated I needed (2 lbs) out of this: Yes, it looks like worms. It weirds me out every time I look at it. But we ate the chili anyway, those of us who were at home. And now for my craft. I haven't crafted in ages. I have been meaning to do a craft for ages because I'm so often at home these days and I have lots of craft supplies. For the craft that I wanted to do, however, I needed vinyl letters and wooden blocks, neither of which I had. But I do have acquaintances who do. So I turned to them in my time of need a...

We made a run for the MN/SD border this weekend. My office had their annual Christmas party this Friday and I wanted to be there. We brought Hayley and Matt along and they babysat the boss's kids while we went off and partied at Lunker's in Watertown. Bernice, Martha, Mavis, Gladys, Hazel, and Concepcion roosting on a wagon in the barn We decided to make a weekend of the trip and are staying with Mike and Jen at their chicken hotel. I love their chickens! Hayley and Matt liked them too. I don't have a picture of Hayley holding a chicken (well, I do on my phone, but Matt is using my phone to play Fruit Ninja so I can't access the picture at the moment), but I have one of Matt. Hayley took to chicken holding quite easily, but Matt needs a little practice. He's not afraid of the chickens, but he is a little flustered when the birds get to squawking. Matt and Bernice get to know each other. I like hanging out with the chickens and much as I hate to brag, ...

I'm up again at an unholy hour of the morning, although sleeping until 5:19 was technically sleeping in. Thank you, seminary, for skewing my perception of time.  If I had told my college age self there would come a time in my life when sleeping until 6 a.m. would be enjoyed and even considered heavenly, I probably would have shot myself for thinking future me was an alien in disguise. As a teen, I never could understand how in the world my mother could get up at these weird morning hours (when technically it wasn't even MORNING yet because, hello, there was no SUN peeping over the horizon) and do housework (and really all I can see now is getting up early isn't so bad; the actual doing of housework I still don't understand. How can I do housework when I have to catch up on emails, cute kittens, and people of walmart? I'd be willing to bet if facebook existed when my mother was in her 40s, she'd have been parked in front of her Apple 2e instead of downstairs grin...

I don't know how much of this blog post is going to make sense (Heck, I don't even know what I'm going to write yet!) so if you like well-thought-out discussions of issues that plague/terrify/enlighten/amuse, you have come to the wrong place. I have been a working woman in a dental office for a nearly two weeks now. I have subsisted on food-in-a-box (frozen dinners), cereal, bagged cut veggies, and pretzels. And chocolate. I just finished off the pretzels and all the rest of my food (including the chocolate) is at the office. Hopefully I'll survive until tomorrow morning. Although really, I could, if I were less tired, run over to Hy-vee, Target, or Walmart to get something (chocolate) to eat. But I'm too tired. Dr. Hawley (employer and chivalrous carrier of my heavy suitcase) has asked me a couple of times while I was sitting at the front desk after business hours, typing away at some forms, if I was enjoying it ("it" meaning "working in this new s...

I have a new boss. He's a pretty cool guy. He has a dog that he brings to work. He eats my cereal that I brought in to the office. To make up for eating it, he took me out to dinner at Goss's and showed me the stuffed elephant head and a panoramic picture of some bison. He's an endodontist, which means he treats the roots of teeth. He's also my brother. ... I am now back from 5 days in South Dakota. I have 5 more to go next week, which will be focused mainly on learning new computer software for Mike's endo practice. I am pretty excited. I do have pictures, but I am too tired to post them right now. And I have scrub pants to hem up. I will tell a little bit about today. I got x-rayed a couple of times with the new x-ray gun. Mike doesn't have a fixed x-ray on a movable arm like I've seen at every other dental office; he has a hand-held gun. The dental assistants had to practice with it and used each other, the trainer, and me as guinea pigs. I specifically...

Jim and I met Mike and Jen at my mom's house for our trip to Mike's new office in Watertown, South Dakota. Mike invited me along so I could offer any opinions regarding the decor of my future place of employment. (Yes, I am planning to accept Mike's offer to work for him. A while ago, Jen asked me if when I was young would I have ever considered working for Mike. I would have said, "HECK NO." But Mike has mellowed a bit and I won't actually have to work under his nose most of the time anyway. He's letting me work from my own house. We'll see how it works out!) The following photos constitute a pictorial essay from the trip. Jen and Vi, two of our traveling group. This is the view point from behind the front desk in the new offices of Prairie Ridge Endodontics. Mike is talking to the building owner. This is what the front desk area looks like from the waiting room area. And this should be the new Prairie Ridge Endodontics mascot. What does the PRE mas...

Last letter, dear readers. I picked this one because Dave taunts Jim in it. I left home when Dave was 11 and so I didn't see him develop into the smart aleck he is today, but this letter proves that he was winding up to it. And it showcases one of Dave's favorite pastimes, baseball. At the top of the page, he starts with this: A simple math equation for Sara, 11(2)=x, answer on back. [He sent this around my 22nd birthday so this letter would have been from early Dec 1989 when Dave was a freshman in high school] Dear Sara and Jim (and the little one) [I was pregnant with Kate], Very very cold here. No snow. That's very, very bad for me and the ski team. I got new skis and poles, and boots and the whole bit. Now all I need to learn is how to ski. I got on the B honor roll for the 1st quarter! That's quite an accomplishment for me at least. I don't know if I told you this already, but I got a student recognition award for history. Jim, here's the new Oakland ...

For Mike's letter feature, I'm going to post excerpts of a few letters. Jen, enjoy the insights into a younger Mike (late 80s, early 90s). Sara--Hi How's collage [sic], sounds big, fun and easy to get lost in. Jr. High is so fun. I know so many new people. I'm on the wrestleing [sic] team and we even have cheerleaders...School's kind [of] tough though like pts and stuff assignment cards. It's all very proper. Sara, Hola, que tal? Tell me some college things. I can't stand this paper. It's very lame [he wrote a letter on stationary with Garfield jumping into a pile of flowers on it]. Mom bought Twinkies for us kids lunches. Weird. Deer Sarah [Mike went through a phase of purposeful alternate spellings] I got a cd player (don't tell mom). It's real cool and I got my thumbnail pierced. I showed it to J_____ V_____ A________ (flaming art teacher) [Mike's words, not mine. And he also wrote the teacher's full name which I am blotting out in ...

I cleaned in my room just a little today, if you can call putting really old letters into a binder "cleaning." And because I have nothing to post about today, I am going to post the contents of one of the letters, written 25 September 1986 by my brother Jake, who was a freshman in high school at the time, and I was a freshman in college. I'm gonna type it as he wrote it, even though it pains me not to change his non-standard usages to standard ones. He writes: Dear Sara, I am writing this letter on a computer in the southern wing of the building. This computer center has one Apple IIe and aaaah, well I guess it's the only one [I'm butting in here. The building Jake is referring to is my mother's house. Yes, she had an Apple IIe! She was ahead of the times back then, courtesy of her husband, my stepdad Gary.] It is so much easier to write letters with this Applewriter disk Gary let me use [floppy disks!]. Ha Ha Ha I thought that was funny so should you. In o...

Seeing family was the main reason for our trip to California. Since I'm so rarely on the West Coast, I had to stop by Yuba City to see my grandparents and my aunt and uncle. We had lunch with them and my cousin Emily's family. Do I look like my Aunt Laurie? I think so. I hope I have some of the same personality too because she is a wonderful person. Grandma and Grandpa were lively conversationalists. We spent a lot of time with Jim's family, but I didn't take many pictures. These next two pictures are from the last night we were there and I finally had to insist on at least a couple of pictures. Jim and his sisters: Jim and a few more members of the extended family. Jim's dad is in there and three of Tammy's children and a daughter-in-law. And now some pictures from yesterday, Turkey day. OK, this first one. I thought I would take a picture of all five of my children together. Katie's home for the week and I need to get at least one pic. Can you guess ...