Thursday, September 27, 2007

Hilarious/Disturbing

In the spirit of Halloween (heh...heh! geddit? "Spirit!" I crack me up.) that is coming up in a month, I have a picture for everyone. This may possibly be the creepiest yet most hilarious photo I have ever seen. I didn't find this one myself, so I really can't take all the credit for it, but I just had to share. I suggested that Sarah should put it up but I think she was a little too...er...weirded out by it. Anyway, here it is. Some of you may have seen this already.

Disclaimer: I do not condone dressing up pets in Halloween costumes. Now there's a multimillion dollar industry that should never have been created.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

More cleaning

Have you ever had one of those days where you come home from work and just want to pinch yourself because what you are seeing in your dining room is hard to believe? I had one of those days yesterday. Check this out:

Gooseberry Falls

On Saturday, Mike, Julia, grandma Ruth, and I drove up to Gooseberry Falls to meet up with some camp friends. Ben and Cassie drove up from Chicago for the week and met up with us, and Dave, Miriam, and Josiah Mueller came up from Isle. When we finally found each other (it was tricky with no cell phone service), there was the usual camp hugs, a quick update and a few old jokes. Then, as quick as we found Ben and Cassie, they had to go...but not too quickly to pose for a picture.

Julia had a great time at gooseberry. She LOVED the waterfall. The first word out of her mouth when she saw it: "Swimming!" Ha ha ha. She couldn't figure out why we refused to grant her request. :)Julia and grandma Ruth

A mini reunion! From the left: Mike, Julia, Me, Dave, Miriam, Josiah, Cassie, Amy, Ben

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Cooking

Today, Julia helped me make supper. She has learned how to "stir it." She LOVES to stir stuff...I am a bit nervous as today she was standing up in her high chair bent over a crock pot. (Nobody call social services on me, please...)

She has to learn to sample the food a little bit more subtly though....she tasted it about a hundred times and kept yelling "MMMMMMMMMMMM" at the top of her lungs!!!!! What's really funny is that she was tasting seasoned canned tomatoes with some frozen veggies and uncooked rice. She didn't care...she just wanted to be like mommy and make a dinner.

I have good help.

Much to daddy's dismay, I figured out that she should be wearing an apron AFTER there was tomato sludge all over her shirt. Oh boy! Now we have TWO things to throw in the wash.....


Sunday, September 16, 2007

Vacuuming!

Today I decided that I must have done something right as a parent. I was vacuuming the living room, and Julia, who was watching intently, began to cry. I tried to console her, but she didn't want to be loved....she wanted the vacuum hose! I gave it to her and watched for a minute. She wasn't strong enough to push the whole vacuum, but she did a great job on the stairs with the hose attachment! Halleluiah! It must be my day today...my toddler is demanding that I let her vacuum. What's next? Julia will cry until we let her take the garbage out......

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

The Great Lakes Aquarium

The pharmacy school celebrated the opening of their new facility with a trip for everyone to the Great Lakes Aquarium in Duluth. We tried some fancy hors d' orderves (I KNOW I spelled that wrong...) and some tiramisu...and then played the rest of the evening away.

The aquarium had a slide that Julia went down about two hundred times. Beside the slide was a live bald eagle on display...every time she got up to the top of the slide, it was "eagle! eagle! eagle!" Accompanied by shrieks.....She was in Julia-heaven. Hot! Hot! Hot!
Julia had no fears about petting the freshwater stingrays.
Fish! Julia threw a piece of her chocolate chip cookie into the tank (oopie) and the very sedentary animals inside suddenly sprang to life! Even the ducks dove underwater to achieve the chocolatey goodness....

Julia's favorite part of the aquarium was the kid's model of the great lakes system. There were locks that you could open up and lots of plastic boats. Julia took the liberty of swimming in the "Atlantic Ocean" at the end of the display (it was at ground level because all the water was flowing into it.) You'll notice that she soaked her jumper and was down to just the essentials.....



Thursday, September 6, 2007

Indestructible.....

So, if you've been reading our posts as of late, you would notice that our cell phone experienced a bit of a boo-boo. I couldn't resist taking a picture of it for fun.

Before....


....after!Our new cell phone is amazing. When I went in to talk with the Sprint guy, he laughed at me and started to ring me up for the free phone I had selected. I mentioned to him that we have a toddler...and our last two cell phones have drown and been a victim of a hit-and-run.....he had a suggestion for me. They make a cell phone that is almost indestructible. He introduced me to the little homely black flip phone, and I was instantly in love. The sales guy said that you could probably drive over it and it would be OK. It was developed by military personnel to be used in combat. Ha! Let's see how long this one lasts.....

Please send me your phone numbers!!! Email to Rumpyroast@hotmail.com or Ries0110@umn.edu.

She Pooped!!!!!

Hooray for Peas!!!
Today, Julia enjoyed a delicious lunch of peas and chicken nuggets. As soon as we were done, I took her upstairs and put her on the potty. She squeezed her face up and grunted a bit. I laughed at her as she usually does this when we put her on the potty....but we've never seen anything come of our attempts at potty training. Until today! When she proclaimed, "all done," I took her off the potty and low and behold, a poopie!!!!!!!

For those of you out there with kids, you can understand my excitement....my sixteen month-old is pooping! What a great day. The only problem is that I"m a bit apprehensive about teaching her how to flush..........

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

APB!!!

Hi Friends,
I had Julia on my shoulders today and was crossing a road near our house...and our beloved cell phone fell out of my pocket. Before I could even contemplate running back to get it, a college student in a red convertible sped down the road and I heard a rather soft but sickening...."crunch."

So, we are down another cell phone....and the guys at the sprint store said there was no way for us to retrieve the phone numbers we have stored up in it! We are down a least a hundred numbers and I have no record of them. Please email me with your phone number or post a message to our blog. We'll have a phone as soon as possible. But we won't get your phone number unless you give it back to us!

Sarah

PS: I think I really believe that bad things come in threes: today, after the cell phone was run over, our kitchen faucet started dripping at such an alarming rate that I had to turn the water off....$300 to fix that.....and THEN, the washing machine went ka-thump ka-thump ka-thump....and I have this sinking feeling inside that we might be making another expensive shopping trip tomorrow evening.

I hope that's our repairs for the year. We can't afford any more! I double-checked to make sure I left our car in "park." That's all we need...a runaway Honda.

Weekend at the Lake

Over Labor Day weekend, we went up north to Grandma's cabin in Grand Rapids. What a fun time! Dan and Jessi came, and most of the Riesgraf side of the family was there, too!


Ma, Pa, and Baby J hangin out on the couch...
An ecological investigation....
Hanging out with grandma Beth at the beach


Getting excited about something.....Chatting with great grandma Mitzi

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

A confession

Hi friends,
So, I was going to upload the pictures from our latest weekend at the lake for you all to see, but....I guess I'll procrastinate until tomorrow. The latest news:
1. I think I have mono and bed sounds FANTASTIC
2. I have three chapters left in Harry Potter VI and I can't put it down.

See you tomorrow!
Sarah