Sparkle’s Family Blog

Things on Tuesday

nobody@vox.com(jacolily) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 18:29:44 -0500

Things I Dislike:

I miss Blu. How can I not when looking at that picture of him sleeping so peacefully under Lily's blanket? I also miss his soft fur. Rascal's is curly and kind of wiry.
This cold, blustery, autumn-feeling weather! We haven't hit 60 today!
My shoulders are starting to give me grief again. I went to the chiropractor last week and am getting a massage on Fri.
Lake season ending.

Things I Like:

My schedule getting much (maybe too much) busier this week.
Football season. NFL gets going with regular games this weekend (Go Steelers) and Cody is at his 1st practice tonight (Go Black)!
Lunch with Deb
I'm on the advisory committee for a new program at our church. It has to be self-sustaining and we just got a 5-digit donation today!! That more than doubled our whole budget! PTL
My new $20 jeans.
Lily's new outfit that she looks so adorable in.

DSCN5746
Listening to Lily sing "Dinah won't ya blow? Dinah won't ya blow? Dinah won't ya blow your hooooorn"? around the house after learning it in school. The girl has great pitch!

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Get Out Your Coats

nobody@vox.com(jacolily) — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 23:38:23 -0500

Yousa! It was 89 degrees this afternoon and it is now 59 degrees and not expected to get over 60 tomorrow. At least we got through the majority of the weekend before the weather turned. The fishermen had no luck at all today and my dad's under the weather. Ray's also having major allergy issues. He couldn't suddently be allergic to dogs, could he? He usually has big allergy attacks in the spring and during harvest so I'm hoping that's it.

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Things on Tuesday

nobody@vox.com(jacolily) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:35:10 -0500

Things I Dislike:

Grocery shopping
The wind......enough already!
Boredom
Projects that need done around the house that I don't have the desire to do.

Things I Like:

Being able to go out for lunch with friends whenever I want
Getting some new jeans and a hoodie. I've been looking for a hoodie for quite sometime because I'm cold a lot. I finally found a plain black one instead of one that would make me look like a teenager.
3 days until a long weekend and seeing Blu again!
My new purse

Things I'm Unsure of:

Having 3 kids in school full time. It's not going quite as great as I'd imagined. I was bored and lonely yesterday and today. I'm hopeful that things will improve when all the other school / church activities get going in September.

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Just because school has started............

nobody@vox.com(jacolily) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 10:35:12 -0500

...............doesn't mean it needs to feel like autumn! It got into the 40's last night and I turned the heater on in the car on the way to church! This morning was equally cold and I even turned on my seat heater! I hope this is just temporary.

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Annual Party-Q

nobody@vox.com(jacolily) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 11:50:49 -0500

Every summer, we have a BBQ on a Sunday evening at our house. Lily thought it was called a Party-Q and since it's a BBQ and a party, I thought that was a great name for it! We had a perfect evening with temps around 80 and a slight breeze. Our trees are finally big enough to offer some shade so that's fun. Not counting us, there were 7 families composed of 14 adults and 17 children.

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QotD: Mother Nature

nobody@vox.com(jacolily) — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 10:55:43 -0500

What is the scariest experience you've had with Mother Nature?
Submitted by jacolily.

Who posts these thought provoking questions? ;)

Our first year in North Dakota was definitely memorable. We moved here right after college graduation in May. The fun started in mid-December with weekly blizzards closing down everything. The trend continued for 6 straight weeks. Personally, I thought it was great fun getting a paid day off of work every week and a good blizzard keeps life interesting (as long as you don't need to travel). By the end of winter, it was a record year of snowfall here with a total of around 100 inches.

As you can imagine, all that snow leads to a lot of water when it melts and that led to huge floods. The Red River at Grand Forks in the NE corner of the state got hit the worst. It was all over the national news.

Gf bridge flood

Gf flood

In the middle of all the flooding, a fire started downtown burning several businesses including the local newspaper.

Gf fire

The fun didn't end there. On Labor Day weekend of September 1997, nasty thunderstorms moved through our area. It started with hail that ranged from marble to softball size and it was continuous for 70 minutes! It was so loud and scary. Cody was 2 months old and I was so worried about how to protect this tiny, little baby. We were hanging out in our downstairs bathroom because tornado warnings were issued and the hail was breaking windows. I was thankful to be nursing so I didn't have to worry about running upstairs to get formula to feed him. Of course, Ray had to keep going upstairs to check on things. I was pretty much freaking out, especially when the radio announced that a tornado had touched down in the mall parking lot. That's on the other end of town but then a funnel cloud was spotted near the gas station about 4 blocks from our house! The storms just wouldn't end. It was the first time I'd heard about the 'train effect' where storms just keep going over and over the same area. We finally got so tired that we put a mattress on the floor of the basement family room so we could still listen to warnings on the TV.

The next day, we surveyed the damage. Our dining room (then living room) bay window was broken along with a small one downstairs and we had a lot of damage to the roof. Thankfully, it was a holiday weekend because the cars that were left in the college parking lot suffered severe damage with most of the windshields being broken. There were several houses with big holes in the siding. I wish I had pictures! I definitely hope I don't have to experience anything like that again.

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What You Don't Want When at the Lake

nobody@vox.com(jacolily) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 17:47:51 -0500

The fishing has slowed down considerably but there was still enough fish for supper yesterday. Today, only the guys went out in the morning and then they picked up Lily and I. The weather was gorgeous and I caught a few fish. I was watching a storm move in and the men were not being cooperative about getting off the water. I was starting to get pretty worried. I finally demanded it and everyone else had the same idea as there was a line of about 15 boats waiting to get out of the water at the ramp. Since we hadn't gone at the same time as the guys, I had my car so I headed up to the cabin. Lily insisted on staying in grandpa's truck. Shortly after I got to the cabin, the rain started. A severe thunderstorm warning was in effect and then came the tornado warning. I called the guys on the radio to see if they were out of the water and let them know not to mess around!! They got here shortly afterwards.

A trailer is not the place to be during a tornado. The only interior closet is in the kids' room so I quickly cleaned it out and put the kids in there with pillows and blankets. I was impressed with how well they were managing even though they were very scared. Ray said if a tornado arrived, we needed to head down the coulee by the cabin.

View of coulee

The radio was recommending a ditch over a trailer but it sure would be hard to convince yourself to go outside in a tornado. Thankfully, we didn't have to worry about it and the storm has passed.

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Photo of the Day

nobody@vox.com(jacolily) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:56:38 -0500

DSCN5273

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R.I.P.

nobody@vox.com(jacolily) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:23:44 -0500

Since this was to be the last day of decent weather before a heat wave moves in, Lily & I decided we better go out fishing again. Cody started off catching some good ones and then I caught a couple. Next, Lily & her Barbie pole kicked into gear and she caught the biggest so far of the week at 24 inches! Jace and Grandpa caught a few and then tragedy struck. Nobody was watching Lily's pole when it got snagged. Ray got to it just as it snapped in half. We had to take a few moments of silence in remembrance of our best fishing pole. You'd think we would've learned yesterday but we ran out of bait again. Once the worms were gone, things really slowed down but we did catch a few on leeches. In the end, we came in with 16 walleye but much bigger than the ones from yesterday. I think it was a record fishing day for us.

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You Know It Was a Good Day Fishing When............

nobody@vox.com(jacolily) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:33:51 -0500

you have to quit because you've run out of bait! My mom had to run back home today and do a little work so Lily & I went fishing with the guys. You couldn't ask for a more beautiful day with temps in the mid 70's and a light breeze. Lily started us off catching some walleye with her Barbie pole. Then, Jace & I caught a few. It developed into a competition between the boys & girls. We were ahead until late in the day when the guys made a comeback to end in a 9-9 tie. We brought in 18 fish and threw back several small ones and 2 white bass.

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