July
19th, 2007
My heart is just so full this week.
On Saturday my Mom and sister Karyn (and her children) came to visit me
and bring me a delicious birthday cake. (Dylan now likes to take the
candles and sing "Happy Birthday to you, cha-cha-cha!" (Not sure where
the last part came from) and then blow on the unlit candles. My
Mom had sent me a lovely card, with words that just really touched
me. Karyn has moved back to MN. On Friday I got an email
from my other sister saying that her husband had landed on US soil
after serving in Iraq and I couldn't but help cry and send up a prayer
of thanks right on the spot. I'm sure my kids thought I had lost
my marbles! His and Karyn's return *almost* make up for the 2 siblings
that won't be here due to the war and college. And today the
Glencoe soldiers returned home. I drove to the store, and on the
way there a house had a sign that said "Welcome home, -----, our family
is whole again" with little stick figure drawings representing the
members of the family. Hopefully nobody at the store noticed my
red eyes.
Also last Saturday we had a showing, and the realtor called and said
they 'Really, really, loved, loved, loved it, especially the
landscaping." We didn't hear anything until today, when they made
an offer! We counter-offered with a firm offer, and they asked if
we could meet them half-way, to which we will agree, once we let the
realtor know. This is all contingent on a home inspection, and
the loan approval process (and thank goodness NOT a home selling on
their part.) So cross your fingers and say your prayers on that,
please! They also want a closing by the end of August of else she'll
have to extend her lease on wherever she is living right now.
HOLY COW! We haven't even started looking seriously because
people aren't accepting offers unless you've sold your home. We
are pre-qualified, but how many houses have quick closing dates. (OK,
I'll admit my DREAM house does, but it's about $50,000 over what we can
afford, so I'll continue to dream and keep looking! Well, okay my
dream house is probably millions over what I can afford, so this would
be my almost dream house!) :-) And then what do you do with your
furniture from the time you close on one house to the other? And
where do you live? If you had extra money, I suppose you could
close on the house you are buying first, but we need the equity from
this house to get the new house in the first place. So here's a
warning! Watch out for Foede's begging to have a 'room at the
inn' for a short period of time. I'm sure my Mom would love to
have me and Reese, right Mom?
Anyway, the hungry kids are calling (OK, it's actually Reese hollering)
so I will end it here. I'll update with any more news as soon as
I can! (Top)
July
13th, 2007
Oooooh, Friday the 13th! Of course
we aren't superstitious, so who cares, right? I'm sure it has
nothing to do with the fact that Mark took the day off to have 1 thing
fixed on his car (the light switch that controls the blinkers, etc.)
and instead found out they need to grind the brake disks (or something)
new shocks and struts (or something) flush the coolant, new headlight,
and probably something I am forgetting, to the tune of $3500! The
car isn't worth that much, for goodness sakes. We decided to do
what was absolutely necessary, and then just drive it to the ground and
get him a newer car (this one is approaching 200K miles anyway) that is
smaller and more fuel efficient. So that cut the bill in
half. It just isn't fun to have that kind of bill after paying
the hospital co-pay (it could be worse, if we were uninsured, the total
bill was around $14,000!) but 2 car payments will affect how much we
qualify for on a house loan (if the house ever sells. We have
another open house tomorrow, and a showing tomorrow night.) So I
hope the car hangs in there for many, many more miles. Or I win
the lottery. Oh shoot, I don't play
the lottery. Faith, faith, faith! Grrr! I just wish
they'd invent indestructable, fast cars (like the ones that George
Jetson had on the old cartoon show!)
An update on church, I had the faith to go, and was blessed with a very
good baby, and a good Dylan too. So we survived all 3 hours, and
I came home feeling good. Yay!
Mark is taking the Zach and Gabby to see Harry Potter tonight. I
was hoping to be able to go myself, but Reese isn't taking to a bottle
like we'd hoped, so I'll just insist on being the one to read the 7th
book first!
Anyway, I think that's about it!
July
4th, 2007
Hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th of
July! We had a wonderful time at Bonnie and Gary's house, eating
like pigs (including some of the best pineapple I've tasted and Gary's
blueberry dessert that we all LOVE) and setting off fireworks. We
were happy to have Mark home for the day, and just be able to relax and
have fun. Now we are dealing with the hot weather, like most of
you are too, I am sure. We are grateful to have central air,
though we are cheap enough that we only use when it gets hot in the
afternoon.
I did a trial run of going to church on Sunday, and it went
'okay'. Mark has to sit up front due to his calling, and it's
really hard to try and control Dylan and take care of the baby. I
honestly wonder if I wouldn't feel more peace and feel God's spirit and
love easier at home until the baby is older. I don't think asking
Mark to sit with us or help with Dylan is an option. I just don't
think that Mark's calling is good for families that are still having
children. It's frustrating to come home from church exhausted and
in tears, rather than feeling like it is truly a Holy Day of Rest. I'm
going to give it another shot on Sunday, and ask that a rocking chair
get put into the nursing mother's room. If they say no to that, I
really might have to reconcider my options, and what's best for me and
the baby right now. Me staying home isn't best for the other kids, and
them going to church 2.5 hours early when Mark leaves for his meetings
isn't ideal either. I guess I need more faith that it will all
work out in the end. (End of vent!)
So anyway, we took some family pictures, whose link can be found on the
home page or above. We have SO MANY pictures, but I got Adobe
Photoshop for my birthday, so I am waiting for that to arrive to edit
the pictures. The ones that are posted are also from our digital
camera, as opposed to Mark's SLR camera, which are the prints I really
want to work with. These aren't edited perfectly, but I like them
anyway! (Top)
June
27th, 2007
Not Well, it's been 2 weeks since the
last update, and a lot HAS happened. Check out Reese's webpage for
information on her birth!
We bought a new van today, a 2004 white 8 passenger Toyota
Sienna. Alisa is very excited and asked if we get to keep it
forever. I told her "Yep, we sold our purple van" and her eyes got wide
and she said "Someone is going to drive our van now?" She is so
cute! The other day she came up to me and asked when we will see
God and I said 'I don't know Alisa" and she said "When we die" and I
said "Yes, but that doesn't happen until you get really, really old!"
and she said 'I don't want to get old" and I said 'I don't want to get
old either" and she said "Because it's creepy being old!"
We've been getting Dylan to bed by reading him a book, and then telling
him that we have to take a shower. So lately after we read the
book he says "Shower? Stinky?" But with Reese home he has
added "Shower? Stinky? Baby? Poop? Water?
Bath? Lotion?" and on and on. He asks to hold the baby a
lot.
Zach has finished his swimming lessons, and is on to level 5. He
finally got the hang of diving, and is better at the front crawl
too. Gabby's play was excellent. She should be starting
band in the fall, but hasn't decided on an instrument yet.
Saturday we have an open house. We haven't had any showings for a
couple of weeks. We'll just have faith that God has a plan for
everything right now, and enjoy the baby stress-free. Bonnie came and
painted all the trim upstairs, and Mark is just about finished with the
basement (and what a difference it makes down there.) Ethan is
still decided on a baptism date Mark ended up taking
Wednesday-Tuesday off, worked Wednesday and Thursday, and then took
Friday off. It was nice having him home. I'd love to be
rich and have him be home all the time (though how long would that last
I wonder!)
(Top)
June
13th, 2007
Not much to update this week.
Glencoe days was held last weekend. Mark took all the kids to the
annual corn feed, where you stand in line and get as much buttery sweet
corn as you can eat. I was told that everyone ate 4 pieces!
Mark came home with a turkey drumstick and Hawaiian shaved ice for
me. YUM! The next day Zach and Gabby went on their first
plane ride, a free ride sponsored by the 'Young Eagles' club, which
tried to get youth interested in aviation. Ethan could have gone
too, but he chose to stay home with me. They had a lot of fun,
and said they could see our land, but the house couldn't be seen
through the trees. I was glad to not be there or I would have
freaked out! Mark said he wasn't nervous at all, and the kids
said the same. I guess they went 1000 ft up, which isn't that
high compared to commercial flights, but still it was my BABIES up
there!
On Sunday we went and saw the fireworks at dusk, though there were some
storms headed are way and it was lightly raining when they
started. Dylan really enjoyed them, so much that every morning
now he asks to 'see big booms?' which throws me for a loop at first! :-)
Gabby is having fun with her play practice, and Zach is doing well with
swimming. Ethan's scout cookout was fun, and the weather was
perfect for it. Mark survived his audit at work, and things have
settled down to 'more normal'. (Whatever that may be!)
June
6th, 2007
I think that Gabby broke her pinkie toe.
She's always had weird toes that turn a redish-purplish (is that a
color, and if so, is it spelled correctly?) color and swell up when
they get cold. So I was looking at it one morning, and noticed
the color seemed to extend all the way down the top of her foot.
I said "Gabby, I think you have a bruise!" And she said "Yeah, my
toe hurts!" I asked her what happened and she told me that she
was upstairs jumping when her foot accidentally pointed the wrong way
so that she landed on her toes and the top of her foot. She said
her foot didn't hurt where the bruising was, but just her pinkie
toe. So we looked more closely and saw that the worst part of the
bruising was on both sides of the toe, and that it was swollen, and she
wouldn't let anyone touch it. The bruising on the foot must have just
been some leaking out. Poor little thing. Today she received her
Girl Scout awards. This summer she will be spending the night at
Underwater World with her troop, and going to Valley Fair.
Zach's swimming lessons are going pretty well. He definitely
isn't a 'natural' in the water. He really doesn't have great
examples of that though. I learned to swim when I was 10, and
Mark when he was (I think) starting high school. But once I
learned, I loved to dive, get things off the bottom of the pool in the
deep end, do flips, etc. Zach does not 'get' diving. He
falls stomach first every time. He also forgets to breath out
during his front crawl, so he come gasping for air and stops the
fluidity of the stroke. He has 2 sessions in a row, so I am
confident that by the time his lessons are done, he'll at least get the
front crawl mastered. If I were certain that the house didn't
sell over the summer, I'd spend the $100 on a family pass to the
Glencoe pool so that every one could go have fun and practice and learn
to not be afraid of the water. (Alisa, of course...Dylan isn't afraid
of anything!) Zach is busy with scouts; he is working on his
photography merit badge, and preparing to do his Wilderness Survival,
Emergency Preparation, and Environmental Sciences merit badges.
He is serving as the Assistant Patrol Leader, and as the 2nd counselor
in his church group presidency.
Mark has been busy at work, because of an audit being done. Last
night he worked at home for about 5 hours, and that was after he came
home 75 minutes late. He ran into the really bad accident on
Highway 12 in Montrose too. I feel his frustration as he thinks
of all the things he supposed to be doing, and I feel bad for all the
things I can't help with. But next week will be back to
normal. He and Zach had fun at the scouting overnight. Just
as they were about to leave that had to take shelter from a storm, but
otherwise they had fun time. (Top)
June
1st, 2007
We had a breakthrough! Alisabeth, who is
afraid of everything,
including bugs, the dark, bugs, the vacuum, going to the bathroom
(because of potential bugs) and playground equipment, actually went
down the slide at our house! She could be heard singing "Uh huh,
oh yeah, I'm not afraid of the slide! Uh huh, oh yeah, I'm not afraid
of the slide" over and over. I missed the actual event, but Gabby
said that she climbed up the slide (she's afraid of the ladder) turned
around, and v-e-r-y slowly crept back down the slide again. Today
at the park she refused the slide again, so it was a small breakthrough.
Mark and Zach are on their way up to the Ripley Rendezvous, a Scouting
get together that is going to be huge. 10,000 scouts were
registered for the event, which is being held at Fort Ripley.
Apparently the National Guard are training this weekend as well, so
it's going to be a very busy, full place. I am so glad that I am
not going there. Not to mention the rain. Oh, and the whole
sleeping on the ground thing.
The house is averaging about 3 showings per week. Our realtors
have said that that it always shows really well (and again mentioned
how clean it is (which still baffles me!) One lady allegedly
really liked the house, but she was single and going to college and
felt it was too big for her (funny what 6 extra family members will do
to that perception!) We're confident that at some point, the
right person will come along.
Zach had his final band concert of the year, and was chosen to
represent the 7th grade for the Star Spangled Banner. He did a
duet with an 8th grade saxophone player, and did an excellent
job. My belly casting kit showed up, so soon I will be smothered
in goo and plaster. Sounds fun, right? I imagine it will be! Zach
starts swimming lessons next week, which will cause him to miss all of
his Wednesday night activities for the month of June (and if his
scoutmaster gets upset, he can just remember the reason he needs
swimming lessons in the first place is so that he can get his swimming
merit badge and pass the swimming test for scout camp!) Gabby
will begin her play practice on June 11th. Her show times are
Friday the 15th at 7:00 and Saturday the 16th at 2:00. Ethan is
down to once a month meetings for Cub Scouts, Alisabeth is soaring in
her reading. She is transitioning from the Distar Alphabet (where
symbols are used to indicate long vowels and other sounds) to the
regular alphabet (which she thinks looks 'funky'). It's a hard
transition for a child, but once they do it, they can read just about
any book. Dylan is, well...Dylan. Driving us all crazy with his
antics. The other day at the park he got into a shouting match
with a couple of 4 year old twins who had their own language, and
apparently understood what they were saying. That would make one of us!
Mark has gotten the garden tilled and planted, and the flower gardens
all look gorgeous right now. The iris' are all blooming, as well
as many other flowers. He does such a good job out there, and I
am sure he wishes he didn't have so much inside to do too, so he could
be outdoors more! (Top)
6:00 PM
May
16st, 2007
Well, the House is on the market, and we had our first 2 showings last
night. Mark said he is trying not to get his hopes up about a
sell coming from one of them, and I just chuckle. Whether that
means I am a pessimist or a realist remains to be seen, but a friend of
ours was told by a realtor that the average time to sell a house right
now is 8 months in our area. I was more than surprised when the
realtor came over to look at the house and called it
'immaculate'. I'm not sure who else is listing their house and
what condition it is in, but immaculate is not how I'd personally
describe mine, so the comparison must be scary! She gave us a
range to list the house at, and we chose the lower end of the scale,
hoping for a fast sale. It's about 10K cheaper than what a realtor
suggested last year, but we notice his houses don't move fast.
We took the kids to the park to play while the house was being showed
and Dylan had a non-stop blast running and swinging and going down the
slide (though he had to say "Catch you?" to Mark before he launched
himself. Mark was probably tired of him talking because he spent about
30 minutes in the basement 'helping' him clean and talking non-stop the
entire time (most of it repeatedly "Hi Daddy!" The last thing that the
kids did was play on the tire swing. Unfortunately, Ethan spun a little
too much and threw up in the middle of Colborns grocery store, where we
were shopping for some hydrogen peroxide for Mark's clogged ear (he
went to see the ENT to see why it's bothering him again. There seems to
be blood behind the ear drum, and so the peroxide is to try and clear
it, and then he has a prescription if that doesn't work, and then
another possible CT scan and surgery.)
Mother's Day was lovely for me. The kids woke me up with
breakfast in bed. Zach planned everything out, and Mark helped
them make a huge omelet, cinnamon rolls, a parfait cup of blueberries
and strawberries (Alisa kept calling it a 'buffet') Canadian bacon,
toast, OJ and milk. Dylan came running up the stairs yelling
"I'll do it!" (which he does every morning to wake me up) and then
yelling 'toast? Cinnamon? Bite?" The kids also had
cards for me and a vase of tulips. They also made some gifts at
church. From Mark I got no early morning meetings at church (YAY!
My favorite gift!) and a yet-to-be-seen belly casting kit. I thought
about asking for tickets to see Les Miserables at the Chanhassen Dinner
Theatre, but it doesn't open until June 15th, and I won't be able sit
that long or eat that much that close to my due date. Perhaps it will
be around for a while?
Everything else is same-o, same-o. In a couple of weeks swimming
lessons start. The kids are excited about Pirates of the Caribbean and
Harry Potter coming to theaters, and of course the birth of the baby.
They are growing so (read:too!) fast. Alisa prays for another
cruise every day. Serious "Dear Heavenly Father, please let us go
on another cruise. Amen". Apparently she liked it! (Top)
4:00 PM
May
1st, 2007
Happy May Day. We woke up to a
pleasant spring morning, after a lot of rain yesterday. Our trees
blossomed overnight, which surprised all the kids. It seems to
surprise me every year, that one day they are bare, and the next there
they are! No complaints from us, I think we're even looking
forward to mowing the lawn!
Dylan has had a busy week. Yesterday was his 2nd birthday.
We had a small party for him with the Disney Cars theme. He loves
to blow out candles that we let him do it 2 times on one cake, and then
3 times on another cake that his great-grandma Eleanor brought.
Last week he woke up in the middle of the night and cried for about 30
minutes, which isn't entirely unusual for him on days that he misses a
nap. The next day he was a little warm to the touch, and when he
woke up he had blood in his ear! We gave him medicine all night,
and then in the morning brought him to the doctors to find out sure
enough he had a severe ear infection and perforated ear drum.
Poor baby...I never saw it coming. My other kids always had a cold
first, always tugged at their ears, something! He is doing much better
now though!
Zach's band concert went very well. The saxophones were the
featured section on one of the songs. He told me that his teacher
would like to have him switch to baritone sax for next year. I'd rather
wait to see how the house goes before making that decision, as you rent
the instrument through the school district. Zach turned 12, and
graduated from the Primary program at church, and started the Young Men
program. 2 weeks ago he was ordained to the Aaronic priesthood,
and last week he passed the sacrament for the first time (and did a
great job!) He'll have his first temple trip next Friday with the
other youth.
We've been working hard at getting the house on the market, and will be
contacting a realtor today to start the process. I am sure there are
several things she'll suggest we do, and most of them are on our
list. Slowly but surely. But at least the yard looks really cute
for pictures! The kids are excited to move, especially the two
oldest who will get their own rooms. Our usual website, Edina Realty,
has been down lately, so we've had a hard time looking at houses. I
like it's format the best and am finding getting used to anything else
difficult.
Gabby celebrated a birthday too, though hers was low-key. No big
party with friends this time...I am just not feeling up to it. She is
proud to be in the 'double-digits' though, and her bedtime was extended
half an hour. Alisa doesn't like that though...she hates to go to
bed alone.
The Hutch city-wide gargage sales are this weekend, and we are going to
go try to find a toddler bed for Dylan and things we need for the baby.
Mark had a bad cold for several days, and his ear became plugged, but
we are hoping the two events are linked and he will heal completely.
School is going well. We have finished history, are very close to being
done with math, science is finished. They will continue with
grammar and copywork all summer, as well with journaling, and French.
And reading...especially with the new Harry Potter movie coming
out. Oh, and sex ed and reproduction, ha ha! (Top)
3:00 PM
Wednesday,
March 28th 2007
Happy
Spring! I hope this finds everyone well. It's been about
month since I lasted updated the website. Selfishly, I wanted to wait
until I had all my glucose test results before taking the time!
All updates can be found on the baby's page (Here)
We are so happy to have the snow melted
and be surrounded by warm days (The kids definition of warm being
80º and mine being the 50º days.) Dylan is obsessed
with being outside, and one of the first things he says every morning
and one of the last things he says every night is "Stroller walk?" He
loves to be out with the kids or Mark playing, and we love that it
wears him out enough to have him sleeping really good at night AND not
resisting nap time. This is a miracle to us, as the first Foede
child to actually take naps past the age of 12 months. And here
he is, almost 2 years old. No word on whether there will be a
birthday party for him or not yet.
Ethan had his birthday and his first pack
meeting, where he got his Bobcat award. He looked so cute in his
uniform! Zach also received his rank advancements and 3 more
merit badges. He is well on his way to being a star scout, though
he needs some service hours. We told him he has to earn 1/2 of
the scout camp fee of $200. He can do some of that with fundraisers,
some through baby-sitting, and likely will be begging for opportunities
to earn more. He has a band concert on April 15th, and then another in
May. His braces are going well, and he doesn't experience the pain like
I did when getting them tightened.
Alisa is growing by leaps and bounds with
her reading skills this month. She is getting quite good at
sounding out most words, and catching on to sounding them out in her
head and them reading them 'the fast way' out loud. She is VERY scared
of lady bugs, and is proud of herself whenever she can calmly come tell
us to get rid of one as opposed to screaming her head off. Gabby
was going to have to go to the dentist to get her tooth pulled, but
when she heard that news she had it out about 2 hours later on her
own. She did some service with the nursing home for Girl Scouts,
and is going to be in a play at church soon as well.
Mark and I are doing well. We are
slowly getting things ready for putting the house on the market. He is
WAY more optimistic than I am that it will sell quickly. We've pre
qualified and now just need to determine where we want to be...in a
house with a couple of acres north of the cities, or in Cokato closer
to Grandma and Grandpa Foede. I'd love to combine the 2 options, but
there isn't anything that would suit us available right now. Maybe
something will open up when the house actually sells?
I've been looking at camera's, as ours
(digital) is getting old. The shutter lag is awful! By the time
the camera focuses, the kid's have finished their pose (skill,
whatever) and are on to something else. BUT, I'd also like a
digital camera that takes great pictures like Mark's Nikon for
portraits. I'd LOVE to get into maternity, labor, and newborn
photography as a hobby. His Nikon will work fine, a person just wishes
they could see the picture right away like with digital. I've been
viewing websites and photography magazines to see what they recommend.
Right now it's a pipe dream, saving for a down payment comes
first!
Thankfully we don't need much for the baby. Well, we'd like a
Pack-N-Play and maybe a new baby monitor and the little chica will be
born in a different season then the
other kids so the clothes will need to be a bit different come fall,
but thankfully those items can easily be found in garage sales
cheaply! Glencoe's city-wide garage sale is May 19th, and I'll be
ready! (Top)
5:00 PM
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