Another crazy night in Wisconsin. I was at work for most of it. It was chaotic. Our weather alert radio kept going off with tornado, flash flood, and thunderstorm alarms. I'd tried to listen to where exactly the tornadoes were, but Tanner the owner's dog was barking like crazy, the phone was ringing off the hook, "are you still having lessons," and guests were trying to register for Summer semester. It was the last night of Spring semester as well so everyone had report card questions. I was too busy to be scared I'd blow away.
Thankfully I made it home. The road I travel was under water. I was one of the last vehicles to make it across before they closed the road. Unfortunately, my co-worker couldn't make it home and was planning to stay with relatives. Many roads are closed and flooded over. This morning they are advising people not to travel and our major interstates 94 & 90 are closed down.
Our Mallard's baseball game was rained out. Instead the boys were home alone during the tornado warnings. I debated whether they should ride in to work with me and have DH pick them up there, but the pool I work at has no basement. Traveling in a car isn't the safest option either. I figured the safest place is our home. It has basement area without windows.
When they heard the sirens, they acted exactly as we had practiced. They went into the basement and followed our tornado action plan. (We discovered we need a telephone list in our emergency kit.) The tornado actually was in the next town over. Thankfully we have no damage.
Today if we can get a break in the rain, we are going to get our green thumbs dirty. Our neighbor started her plants indoors, but now her health is prohibiting her from working in her garden. We have to weed the beds and then transplant her veggie plants. I'm sure the ground is moist enough this will be easy work.
I'll probably bake a few pans of brownies for Dad's day weekend. They are always better after having aged a day. We like a fudgie brownie with chocolate frosting, and they're better if the frosting can dry out a bit. I'll bake up our regular recipe, but I also want to try a new fat free version which uses prune butter. Sounds bad, but I'm not going to knock it until I try it.
Well, I better go and burn off some pre-brownie calories on my Wii Fit. There has got to be subliminal messages in that game! It always makes me feel fantastic, and I can't go a day without it!
to go with my whine!
I have a feeling this blog post is going to be me just whining. Feel free to stop here but I have to get it off my chest.
I'm sleep deprived. This is why I'm probably feeling this way. Plus, its the first week of June and the trees are releasing little cottony wisps into the air. My head's achy, eyes itchy, throat getting sore. Its allergy time.
We had big time thunder boomers and look what it did to my new impatiens! Wahhh!!! My pretty pink petals are gone!!!!!
My sister, (don't worry she doesn't read my blog), wants to throw an end of the year hotdog party at my house tomorrow. She wants me to invite the Posse Rats just when I successful chased them away. Why my house?!!! I know the answer to this. We have a boycave, and I'm home during the day to clean it. I'd look forward to this party if I knew my boys were excited about it, but they aren't. Lately the P. Rats are turning into middle school freakazoids.
I'll stop whining now. It gets old real fast doesn't it.
My Wii Fit glory is being trampled. I had been triumphing over my family members, but now they are catching up and breaking my top scores. Yesterday I had worked up to completing the 30 minute free run. Today DS9 decided he wanted to try it. His pace is of course, much faster than mine. He ended up with the "calorie scorcher" rating and over 7000 points! I'll never catch him. My top score on the 30 minute free run had been around 3500. In all seriousness, Wii Fit has been wonderful for our family. We are all moving more and having a great time.
I'm on the hunt for an affordable piano. DS12 has suddenly decided he wants to learn to play. Personally, after listening to Mr. Joe Jackson, my own interest in re-learning piano was awakened. Now that I'll have a family member to share this with, I really want to find a piano. I tried to talk my mom into selling us hers, but that was a no go. She's not ready to let go of it even though I doubt she plays it very often.
I also have to find a native Japanese speaker. I've given up trying to encourage my children to learn Spanish. I thought Spanish would be a better second language to learn, since we'd have more opportunities to use it. DS12 has his heart set on Japanese though. We have a Muzzy Japanese program but regardless of what the commercials tell you, its useless. My son may be able to recognize certain Japanese words when he hears them, but it hasn't helped him learn to read it or speak it. Thankfully I only paid $10 bucks for it used.
We have a tent worm invasion in our yard. I'm not sure that's the correct name for them. (We're looking into that.) They look like caterpillars. Yesterday I was amazed to find one that I thought had drowned in the rain water collector. I watered the plants and then placed the soggy wet critter in the sun. He dried off and then started to move! Amazing! It made me reflect on the many of God's miracles. To think just months ago we were buried in several feet of snow. Its so amazing to me that under that frozen blanket insects lay dormant, waiting to reawaken. I do get geeked up about stuff like that!
I have a great idea on how to celebrate my 40th- 10 weeks away! I'm changing my name! I'm going to start using "Dawning" instead of just Dawn. I was named after my maternal grandmother, Daga, Swedish for Dawn and my mother, Inger. I've always felt jipped that my name only had one syllable. I like "Dawning" because its a blend of both my grandmother and my mother's names. Its also an action word! I like to think I'm "dawning" into the woman God wants me to be.
I'm also thinking of renting a giant inflatable bouncy house for my front yard. I'll spend the day acting like I'm 4 not 40! LOL!
ARGGHHH!!!
I'm out of my regular blogging routine and don't know where to begin. Lots has happened, but I don't have the writing talent to bring it all together cohesively in a nice little blog entry. So here's my ramble. Take it or leave it.
We're all sore. Thank you Wii Fit. I'm also addicted. Dare I say its more fun than blogging? BLASPHEMY! Don't worry. I'll grow weary and be back blogging soon.
The boss asked me last night if I'd give her a head's up if I choose to leave work due to gas prices. I assured her I would. She mentioned she may give me new responsiblities which I could perhaps work on from home, and she said she'd compensate me. I hope this is true and it works out. Its getting very close to not paying for me to drive to work.
We finally got our sunflower seeds for the great sunflower project. We have them planted in a sunny spot and we're watering daily. So far, no sign of sprouting plants. 
Did you know Niagara Falls is moving upstream? I hadn't realized water falls do this. We came across a great show yesterday on the science channel about it. The water is of course washing away the rock and moving the falls back. I've always wanted to visit Niagara Falls and now I'm really itching to go. I want to explore downstream the valleys where the falls used to be thousands of years ago. You can discover huge chunks of rock that broke off and find evidence of aquatic life on the forest floor.
DS9 has been busy with Ape Escape once again. He's now designing his own game manual, mapping out levels. He's been using my camera to take screen shots. He wants me to help him print them out for his game guide book. I wish I knew how to hook up the computer to the game. The screen shots would look much better. You see there is no cheat guide for the version he's playing so he's decided to write his own. He wants Nintendo to buy it. Now I know this won't happen, but he's learning through this process. Its not about making it to the end goal. I'm sure at one point, he'll realize Nintendo won't buy his book, but that itself is a life lesson. What can I do differently next time? I'm not about to squash his drive by telling him, "No one will buy your book."
DS12 is excited he's been invited to a laser tag birthday party. I'm excited he's mixing it up with new friends.
The Posse Rats are now an endangered species. I had banned them from the basement boycave after the eldest rat turned on our cable and had everyone watching an inappropriate horror movie. They played outside for awhile but now its dropping off. DS12 told me they are acting obnoxious.
"How so?"
"They are always talking about sex."
"Um.... What do you mean?" -trying to maintain a calm voice.
"They say stupid stuff like, 'Look at so and so, he's got a boner!' and they just try to act cool. They aren't being themselves anymore."
I'm a proud mom! I hope DS12 can continue to recognize the peer garbage that is starting to happen as we enter the middle school years.
As the calendar turns over to June, I'm more aware my big day is coming. I still don't know what I'll do to celebrate. I was going to dye my hair, but to be honest, these past few weeks I'm starting to like the gray. Now that there is more of it, it looks like highlights. The tattoo idea is out. The smoking my first joint idea is out. Skinny Dipping is probably out. No to sky diving, bungee jumping- anything having to do with heights. A day at the spa? Too typical. Break a law? I'm not that old yet. What does a nerd like me do to celebrate her 40th? I need suggestions people!
I have to get up now. I think Wii Fit is looking for me.
"Coming my darling!"
Have a great weekend!
