Kids minds...

I have been absolutely in love with a new little artist in my corner of the world here.

Lately, Izeah has been staying up at nap time at his preschool and has been coloring papers for me.

The first time he ever brought one home.... I was amazed!

Some people may think it's just "scribbles" but I love the way he colors his blank pages. I have even had others comment on his art work. I mean look!?!?.....








He colors ALL of the paper... right to the edges.... And the variety of colors he uses is very eye catching. My favorite is the one with the black in it. Such contrasting colors! I had another one (which I can't find) that he actually mixed red and blue to make purple and did a perfect job....

I just wonder sometimes what he thinks about? If he can color pictures like this, how does he think? He must have a vibrant imagination and think so loudly in his little head... would you believe that my kid OBSESSED with guns is capable of these? Hmmm.... maybe someday he'll be the misunderstood artist who brings a gun to school.... (I'm just kidding and GOD I hope not!)

K, I just had to share these. I was thinking of framing a couple for his room so he could be proud of his work :-)

New Blog...

Hey hey everyone :-)

Just a quick note and a small shove in the direction of our new blog!

If anyone gives a rat's ass about how we plan on throwing together our untraditional wedding then head on over to here....

http://johnanddanaswedding.blogspot.com/

Yeah, the name is simple and plain but hopefully you'll remember it for further posts. (There's also a link on my blogroll for it as well)

I would LOVE everyone's input and comments please!

The page is also still under construction. I've already gotten all pissed off at the blogskins, blogger templates, not uploading pictures, etc. etc. etc.
LiLu: if your frind that's getting married wants to share ideas, I'll b posting regularly.

Nina and Sarah: When we drink together we have some awesome ideas (and really dumb one's too but we won't mention any of those!)

John: Love you babe... I'm sure you'll be posting there too!

Everyone: COME VISIT!!!!

Hugs,
Dana

My house and Bad Vibes...

I'm sure I've told some of you this but I honestly do believe the area outside of my house has bad vibes... bad karma... bad something!!! Over the years, there have been so many just random, and some of them horrible, things or events that have happened outside of my house! I'll just start listing some of these things off and I'll let you be the judges.... I'll start with the most horrible and work my way down to the most random thing which happened last night....

1. Of course, number one, is that fact that Ryan fell in the front yard.... most of you know the freaky details of his accident but it was total chance, and in my very own front yard.

2. When I was on vacation in Florida, my mom called to inform me that someone died in front of my house. At first I thought she meant it was a car accident, which happens all the time considering it is one of the main streets through the city. Well when I got home, I was informed, it wasn't a car accident. Apparently some middle aged lady was walking down the sidewalk and right in front of my house she just stepped out into traffic! The worst part is my future sister-in-law Emma saw the whole thing happen!

3. A couple months after being back from Florida, I looked outside and saw what looked like a dead dog laying in my front yard! On closer inspection, me and a neighbor came to realize, it wasn't a dog but a fox, or an animal along those lines... it must have been hit on the road and then some one decided to heave the dead animal into the front of my house! Called animal control and they came out to remove the animal, and while we were waiting, the kids and me had a long talk about dying....

4. One time the city was doing construction in front of my house and had one of those gas run big 'ole arrow signs sittin' on the middle of the street to guide traffic. Well one late night I was out on the porch, just in time to see some car come flying down the street, ram into it and flip it upside down into on coming traffic! I figured the guy's car was all screwed up, or he was, but NOPE... he just backed up and drove off as if nothing happened! SO again.... I had to call the police and at 2:30 in the morning here comes this big crane truck to lift the arrow back into place and wake up the neighborhood!

5. One summer day, I heard a car accident... I was napping and it woke me up from dead sleep... After I gathered my wits and woke up a bit more... I peered outside... Apparently the car was hit with so much force that it flipped completely upside down and landed in the neighbor's front yard! Imagine looking outside and less the 25 feet from your house, you see a car completely upside down! The boys however loved watching the tow truck guy flip the car right side up and watching all the police officers that showed up to investigate.

6. LAST NIGHT: I went to bed early and was sleeping so peacefully when about 2 AM I heard this horrible noise! Again, it woke me up from dead sleep.... it sounded like a car was being drug down the street with no tires! So I went downstairs and looked all around the house (yeah, me, since I seem to chose life partners that can sleep through anything) and I didn't see anything. I was just about ready to go back to bed when I looked out in the street.... There, in the middle of the street was this HUGE ASS LOG!!! Like a telephone pole, or utility pole just laying across the road... So as I'm walking away to call the police, I see this jeep come flying down the road... he hit that thing full on, almost lost control and actually went on two tires before regaining control of his jeep... CRAP! Now I better hustle cause the next car just might come crashing into my front yard/house! So I called the cops (again). 4 cops, 2 firemen, and a flat bed truck later, I called out to see what it was... all of them were just as confused as I was! How did this huge as log get into the middle of the road? Then... they all left except one cop car! Bout 20 minutes later, MidAmerican Energy crew shows up and starts to chainsaw the damn thing, in front of my house, at 3 AM!! Doesn't make for the most peaceful sleep ever....

So... how random is all of this????? This isn't even the inside of my house, which i do believe is haunted being as everyone who has lived here has heard or seen something, and when we bought the house, there were crosses painted on every door! This is just the outside area! I may be off the deep end here but it's just really weird! maybe my house is haunted on the outside??? Does it give off bad karma??? Nina.... how the heck do you smudge your whole property!?! ;-)

I have fallen in love....

As you all are aware I'm sure... the last couple of days have been REALLY REALLY REALLY cold! I don't think in all my life living here I can remember a time it has gotten so low... -50 with the wind chill???? I mean COME ON?!?! Did I move to Alaska and forget that I did????

2 things though...

ONE. My thermostat never went abouve 64! Yay for us!!!! We kept the fireplace running and wore layers of clothing! (Kinda patting my own back here!)

TWO. I AM IN LOVE WITH LONG UNDERWEAR!

Not like the "oh, they're nice, and they keep me kinda warm" love. I mean the I didn't take them things off for TWO DAYS! (sounds gross but yes, I showered :-) I couldn't believe how comfy they were! And the fact that I was able to go outside in that weather and still maintain warmth??? PRICELESS.... I don't even own a pair though! I had to borrow John's! He has now lost another article of clothing! And whats even more fun about long underwear???? When you wear them, them being the male type of long underwear complete with the pee hole, around the house with your socks pulled up over them to your knees, with a skin-tight-muffin-top-showing pink shirt on and you DON'T CARE HOW YOU LOOK CAUSE YOU'RE SO WARM AND FUZZY!!!!

Really.... I'm a huge dork. ;-)

Today I feel mad... like the rest of the world...

Ok, Ok, not like the last post where I was just being good old pissy pants me... but I'm mad today. Angry actually.....

I know this sounds silly to some of you but John and I have been dreaming of buying some land, living off the land, and reducing our impact on society as much as possible.... and at the same time cutting our bills in half, learning how to support ourselves WITHOUT the local Wal-Mart, giving our kids a little piece of land to run free and learn from, grow a flower/veggie farm, spend quality time with our kids instead of slaving away 9-5, even raising our own chickens!

We want this. We REALLY, REALLY, REALLY want this. We don't necessarily want to "live of the grid" or totally seperate ourselves from big cities, society, or our families. We just want to live how we want to live.

So we kinda developed a "4 year plan". In four years we want to be able to buy this piece of land and build a house ourselves. We want to not work in offices or restaurants. We want to not yell at the kids for getting too close to the street in front of our house. We want to not have to "hunt" for wood for our fire place but have it be available in our own back yard.

So today, in my infinate searching of knowledge on the internet.... I was looking around. At first I was researching concrete dome houses (I have posted a few pics before of one we have seen and I'm in love with it since then!). Then i started searching for earthen homes, cause I love those equally as much. And I stumbled across this.... it is truly our dream!

"For Sale in Western Illinois
$168,000

The Land: This parcel is 9.8 acres, the land is gently rolling and there is a combination of natural hardwood timber, pasture and evergreen trees that we have planted. The natural timber includes oak, hickory, walnut, ash, elm, hackle berry and choke cherry. We have also planted hundreds of trees; mostly white oak, white pine and various species of spruce. There are fruit trees, strawberries, red and black raspberries, grapes and blueberries planted on the property as well as a large garden with some raised beds.

We have made walking trails through the wooded areas and there is an area that would be very suited for a pond. There is a gentle south-facing slope that would be perfect to build an earth sheltered or underground home on. There are no trees to clear on this slope.

The Buildings: There are two buildings on the property. There is a 24 x 36 barn that is newly constructed in 2006. It has a loft area for extra storage and south facing low e-glass windows for natural lighting. There is an overhang on the south side where we currently have firewood stored and there is a water hydrant there as well.

The second building on the property is a very well insulated 36 x 45 Morton building that is seven years old. We have divided the interior of this building in half. One half of it serves as a large workshop/garage with lots of storage space, workbenches and a laundry/utility room. The other half of the building is modern living quarters. It has one bathroom, two bedrooms and an open great room with the kitchen, dining and living areas together as one. The kitchen has oak cabinets, a stainless steel sink with Delta faucet, gas stove and Kenmore dishwasher. There is a Vermont Castings Defiant catalytic wood stove in the great room that will heat the entire building. There is also an LP gas wall unit that we installed as a back up heat source when we are out of town and not here to stoke the wood stove.

The options for the finished living area are many. Anyone just starting out or ready to downsize could be comfortable living in it, as we have done. Or you could live here and store your extra belongings in the shop area while building your dream earth home. This would allow you to move here right away and live comfortably on-site during the construction process. After completing your home, this living area could be used for a home business, hobby area, guest quarters or a place for adult children or elderly parents to live (there are no steps or stairs).

The Surrounding Area: This property is located in rural western Illinois in the fertile heartland of the Midwest. The nearest town is Matherville. This is corn and soybean country and is a well-suited climate for the self-sufficiency minded who want to grow their own food.

From this property it is 20 miles to the Quad City International Airport. It is quite possible to commute to the Quad Cities from this property (this includes Moline, East Moline, and Rock Island in Illinois; Bettendorf and Davenport in Iowa) and there are many building supply stores and contractors there. For smaller town shopping there is a Wal-Mart and grocery store in Aledo, just 8 miles away. The local school system is Aledo Community District 201 and Illinois has very favorable home schooling laws.

Utilities and Other Information: This property is on a gravel road that is maintained by Preemption Township. It is 2-3 miles to the paved road. There is no homeowner's association and no restrictive covenants. MidAmerican Energy is our power company and Frontier is our telephone and Internet provider; we have reliable DSL service through them. The well is 420' deep and there is a septic system. The water heater is LP. We are including the stove, refrigerator, dishwasher, washing machine, LP clothes drier, high quality water softener (new in 2005), and reverse osmosis system (new in 2005) with the sale.
Included on the property are a small chicken coop and a child's play fort with a doublewide slide, colored solar lights and two swings. Included with a full offer is a 1,000-gallon LP tank with existing LP fuel and two gravity fed fuel storage tanks that each holds 300 gallons. "

So, there you go. And right now I'm angry. This is the first time I'm truly angry at myself for some of the decisions I've made and at the economy. Granted none of them were horrible decisions but hind sight is always 20/20. I'm mad that I chose to invest my money in the stock market. I'm mad that I didn't know what to do with it when Ryan died. I'm mad that the economy took such a raging SHIT that I have lost the TOTAL COST for this little piece of heaven in the F'ING stock market! So far, I have tried this whole "up beat" attitude thing. You know, the one that you tell yourself it will get better, everyone is suffereing, we should feel lucky we have 2 cars, a house, jobs, blah blah blah. Well today I'm not saying any of this. I know I can't change it but for once I just feel like joining the rest of the world at being pissed off at the governement, the money sucking big lending greedy ass banks and mortgage companies, the credit bureaus, even the president himself. I want to walk up to Wellsfargo, my Credit Union, even the fucking White House and give them the BIG 'OLE MIDDLE FINGER. I want to tell them that I, the average fucking american, who pays my bills and taxes, works for a living, is struggling to raise my family is PISSED OFF that I can't provide for them what I feel would give them so much in their lives because I CAN'T EVEN GET A FUCKING LOAN! I probably couldn't even sell my own damn house right now.

Well.... I don't feel much better but at least I got that off my chest.

I'll tell you "Why?"!

*Picture if you will.....*

Zak and I are finishing up our grocery shopping at the local Wal-Mart....

We see a check out with no one in line.... JACKPOT!

We stroll up all proud not having to wait in a long ass line (mind you, they don't really follow the policy of: "if there are 3 people in a checkout line we will open another one for you!").

The checkout lady looks about 40, has those amazingly long, bright red nails, with big white snowflakes painted on them, and is standing there just fidgeting with her name badge. (Trying to give you the real picture here!)

Me: "Would you mind not ringing me up until I put everything in my cart on the conveyor?" (Thinking to myself that most of them don't mind when I ask them because they get to just hang out for a second....)

Lady: "Huh? WHY?!?"

WHAT!?! WHY???

I'll tell you why....

1) Yes, I'm one of those crazy hippie people that buy and actually use the reusable bags all the time!

2) Cause your crappy Wal Mart bags SUCK!

3) Because I'm really just trying to ruin your day....

4) Because I LOVE feeling like I'm racing you when I'm bagging my own stuff and your ringing it in as fast as I'm putting it on the frickin' conveyor belt!

5) Because I saw a woman that looked like she needed to be fucked with, so I took this golden opportunity!

6) Because it's important that my son knows how to categorize his fruits/frozens/veggies/boxed goods/glass goods/meat.

7) Because I watch everything you ring in to make sure I get it for the right price! (I can't count on my fingers and toes all the times that it's been rung in wrong!)

And finally....

*This is the actual answer I gave her, truly showing my OCD self*

Me:"Because I like to stuff my own bags, cause the way you bag stuff sucks. And before I bag it, I like to put it in order (see above) so that when I get home with my 3 screaming kids and my niece in the car I don't have to think about it while I'm unloading all the damn groceries!"

Have a nice day!

I'm a horrible person.

Ok... I have officially come to this conclusion in my life.

I am a horrible person.

I can sit through comedic stand ups, my kids, my daily job, and still only chuckle...

HOWEVER... anyone who knows me well knows there is one thing in this world that will leave me rolling for days... and I'm not kidding, I mean days upon end...

It's when someone falls down.

Yep.

I laugh like a hyena whenever someone falls down in front of me...

Just ask John, or Casey, or any one of my kids. Hell, even ask what I do when I fall down :-)

My dear friend Casey has been intoxicated with me on numerous occasions, and when she tripped over her high heels... I almost peed my pants.

Last year when John wanted to go out back and check how icy it was out in winter... he fell... not ONCE but TWICE!!!! It was freakin' hilarious each time!

I fell YESTERDAY with the kids at Crow Creek Park! Zak had just fallen down in a snow fight with John.... I was rushing to his rescue with Zane in my arms... I slipped on ice, fell on my ass, tossed Zane. I was laughing so hard that I literally peed my pants! (*please, no one hold this against me! having 3 kids does a number on a person's bladder!*)

So there... I admit it. I AM a horrible person. However, as long as a person isn't seriously hurt, I still and always will think it's hilarious when a person, arms flailing in the air, is on their way down to the ground! ;-)

The planning has begun...

Well... I guess we may be talking "wedding" over here at this blog a wee bit off and on...

I have one thing to say about planning this kickin' shin dig...

This shit is HARD! (And mind you , I'm not an amatuer! I've done this once before!)

We love the idea of a non-traditional, relaxed, fun, natural wedding. However John and I both are AMAZED at the lack of "natural" there is when you use the word "wedding"!

Sure.... if you want a very normal ceremony and reception, there are plenty of drab halls, expensive caterers, out landish bar's with their out landish tabs, and white linens galore! *Excuse me, I think I threw up a little bit in my mouth*

All right, all right... I'm being an ass....

Those weddings are very pretty. They are very traditional (anyone know which tradition they are referencing here???). They are very expensive.

I had one before too.... I wore ivory, Ryan and I spent a fortune (well a fortune to us but not much to others when I looked at the national average), we were extremely stressed.... but yes, it was pretty....

But times... they are a changin'!

Our first mission was to find a natural setting to be married in, with a natural place for our reception....

And I'm pleased to say after MUCH deliberation, banging our heads against the walls, fighting (yes, we fought once all ready!), we have found the spots!!! YIPEE!!!!

Wedding location: Crow Creek Park Trails

*It is city maintained but beautiful!! We actually just took the kids for an hour walk on the trails today in the snow... it's slowly becoming one of our favorite spots!*

Our only dilemma is where at in the park? We like the Gazebo (no pic, sorry), the trails, and a look out point over the quarry....

Reception location: The Renwick Mansion

*Sarah, thank you SOOOO much for this idea!! Nina, here are the pics you were waiting for!!*

The owners are totally cool too... The only rules they have are that "we have a great party and respect the property" :-) We can have whoever we want cater, we can provide all the alcohol, and we can decorate in whatever way we want!! I'm super excited!!! AND... there are 8 bedrooms that rent for only 60 bucks a night so if our friends happen to drink too much, they have a place to stay!!! How cool is that?

A Greek New Years....

Well, last year on New Years we did the whole going out and getting all stupified thing.... it was fun, and costly. We cabbed it to the bar and back in a snow storm and spent WAAAYYYY too much money! But it was a great time...

SOOOO.... this year we changed it up a bit! There were just four of us!!!

Sarah and Michael....

And John and Me!!!

Sarah had a great idea to do an ethnic meal for dinner.... so we decided on Greek Cuisine...

I was on the grocery shopping, along with Sarah, and John being the one of Greek descent in the group, I let him do all the fantastic cooking on our end :-) Sarah made these really yummy lamb/vegetable packs cooked in parchment paper in the oven....

John made fresh Tzatziki and yummy Spanakopita!!!! Fresh spinach and dill and feta cheese and fillo dough....

We even made appetizers of hummus and basil/oil sauce for dipping our pita bread in!!

And here is the fantastic finished product!!!

Then OF COURSE...

The night progressed on! Shots, beers, and loud music and dancing ensued...

I will only mention a few highlights:

*Four, yes FOUR, glasses got broken! I don't know how but I counted, and picked up the glass!

*We managed to break a metal broom... This one escapes me. John says he was trying to trip me and I honestly don't remember this part of the night...

*Thank you Grandma Donna for picking up Sarah and Michael! And I must apologize for the scene when you picked them up (imagine four people dancing in our bedroom to loud Michael Jackson....) At least everyone was safe! :-)

*Ummm.... anyone who i talk to about the rest of the night, well.... maybe I should make a resolution to not drink that much on New Years Eve EVER again! :-)

*Our dog got drunk. A glass of champagne was set on the floor, and as we were all kissin and lovin, Trout helped himself to the WHOLE glass! Lets see, 11% alchohol by volume... 11 pound dog... Here ya go, this is what he looked like all night, and he slept the ENTIRE next day!!!

And there also lots of kisses!!! Happy New Years EVERYONE!!! Hope you had as pleasant of a time as us!!!