Visiting the Farm

On Wednesday Makenna and I took a trip up to Aplington to visit Jared's parents. While we were there we got to help freeze some sweet corn. We both had a great time and we are looking forward to our next visit on Saturday.

Makenna helping us with the corn.

Makennna in her sun bonnet that Grandma Janelle got her.

Watermelon

Here is a picture of Makenna and a watermelon from our garden. Jared and I got a little to anxious to pick it and it turned out to not be ripe yet. Needless to say we were both pretty disappointed. We did get a cute picture of Makenna with the watermelon though.

Not all hope is lost. We still have a bunch of softball sized ones that will hopefully turn out better.

Sour Face

Makenna's first taste of a lemon.

The onion

Sometime in the middle of the night last night, Makenna started crying. I started to get out of bed to give her a pacifier when suddenly Allison grabbed my arm. "Put it in the refrigerator!" she said. Bewildered, I asked, "Put what in the fridge?" "The onion," she replied.

Quickly understanding she was asleep and had no idea what she was saying, I simply replied, "Oh, ok" and went to attend to Makenna.

Daddy's Girl

Sweet Corn

Tissue Paper

Socialism

Allison's mom sent me this...I thought it was a great way of putting it......

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before but had once failed an entire class.

That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan". All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B.

The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.

As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

Could not be any simpler than that.

Reading List

The past few years I have developed an appreciation for reading. It has become something that I look forward to sending time doing. To be honest I am typically not a big novel fan, especially new novels. But in late spring I decided that it would be fun to read a few classic novels. So I made a list (which is rather long) and started reading.

Here is a list and my opinion of the novels I have finished:

1. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens = It was had at first for me to get used to the "Old English" writing style. I thoroughly enjoyed the storyline and the complexity of the characters.
2. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens = I didn't like this one as well as The Tale of Two Cities. I thought the story was lacking a bit of something (I don't know what though). Although, I am glad that I read it and I don't think it was a waste of me time.
   
3. Holes by Louis Sachar = Not a classic. But I read it while in Texas so I added it to the list. And no I have not seen the movie so I do not know how they compare. It was a very easy read and I thought that the moral lessons learned by the characters were great for the age group it was written for to learn.
   
4. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen = I am about half-way through this book. I have seen the movie (long movie) but I wish that I hadn't. It is spoiling the book for me. I am very imaginative when I read a novel and having seen the movie prior to reading the book is not letting me have that imagination take place. Plus it has ruined the climax and end of the storyline. But I really like the book and I am very glad that I am reading it. Even though the movie has taken some of the run out of reading the novel, it definitely is not taking away from the great story.

Here are the others on my list:
- Great Expectations
- Charlotte's Web
- Gone With the Wind
- Les Miserables
- The Count of Monte Cristo
- The Hobbit
- The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
- Catch-22
- A Mid-Summer Night's Dream
- The Taming of the Shrew
- The Hunt for Red October
- The Scarlet Letter
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
I have already read these but it was a long time ago and I would like to read them again:
- To Kill A Mockingbird
- 1985
- Of Mice and Men
- Hamlet
- Romeo and Juliet
- Animal Farm

I am also up for any suggestions. So if you have a good novel that you think I might like to read leave me a comment please.

Makenna and Nana

9 Months

Makenna had her 9 month doctor's appointment last Friday. Here are her current stats:

• Height: 27 inches
  
• Weight: 16 pounds 12 ounces
  

- She is currently working on her third tooth....it is about to poke through.
- She is continuing to work on her walking skills.
- She can wave "bye bye".
- When asked,"How big is Makenna?" she will raise her hands over her head in response.

She is at such a fun stage and it seems like she is learning something new everyday.

Great-Grammy Pauline

My sister and Jacob are back in Iowa for a week! Yesterday Makenna and I took a trip to Indianola where my Grandma lives. We met my mom, my sister, and Jacob there. Makenna kept us on our toes and provided us with some entertainment. Jacob ate, slept, and was awake and playful for about an hour total.

We had fun spending time with my grandma. I think she enjoyed the company and getting to meet Jacob.

Cousins

This past Saturday we enjoyed a visit from Jared's brother and his family. It was fun to see them all. Ally and Drew are always full of energy, which is refreshing. And Tana is growing so fast. She is about to catch her cousin.

Makenna 9 months Tana 3.5 months

Look who's walking!!

She's been creeping along for awhile.  Now she's taking steps on her own.  She's growing up!

At the Farm

Whatchu talkin bout Willis Wednesday

It seems like I start all my posts with, "It's been awhile since I've posted..."  This week is no different.  At any rate:

-Allison and Makenna spent a little over a week in Texas visiting Allison’s sister’s family.  While I was proud of how much work I got done in their absence, I missed them being here even more.

-Makenna stands on her own for quite awhile now.  She also will sometimes “kiss” on command.  It’s so much fun to watch her learn so much.  

-I’m quite tired of hearing about Michael Jackson.  I’m equally as tired of hearing how people are tired of hearing about Michael Jackson.

-On a positive MJ subject, he used to be quite normal.  Allison and I enjoyed watching a couple Jackson 5 videos on Youtube.  One video got even better once I noticed some increasingly super sweet dancing by a guy in the audience beginning around 2 minutes and really going to town around 2:30.

-I guess the U.S.Soccer team won a big match the other day.  In a related story, people everywhere were shocked to learn the U.S. has a soccer team.

-With the swearing in of MN senator Al Franken and past governership of Jesse Ventura, I wonder if any of Iowa’s two or three minor celebrities are considering a run.  Tom Arnold for house speaker maybe?

-I saw Transformers 2 last week.  While being pleasantly surprised by the first one last year, I was expecting too much I guess.  It could have been so much better.  Really, do robots need to swear?

-Yesterday a big storm developed mid afternoon.  It was fun seeing all the workers on my jobsite scramble to get their work done.  I think I even saw one guy running.  

With all the changes this country sees, it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking maybe our founding fathers ideals aren't necessarily relevant as much anymore.  Then I read a quote like the following and again realize they are smarter than way more of the general public.  From Thomas Jefferson, to his daughter Martha:

"But I know nothing more important to inculcate into the minds of young people than the wisdom, the honor, and the blessed comfort of living within their income, to calculate in good time how much less pain will cost them the plainest stile of living which keeps them out of debt, than after a few years of splendor above their income, to have their property taken away for debt when they have a family growing up to maintain and provide for."

If only the colleges taught like this in the freshman orientation classes.

From the Garden

Raspberries

Peas

Bell Pepper and Garden Pepper

Playing With Atticus

Makenna and I enjoyed a visit from Atticus and Paige today. It is fun to chat with another new mom and watch our kiddos play with each other.

Visit From Grandpa

Since my mom is still in Texas my dad decided to come up to Ames to visit us. He got to eat a home cooked meal, play with Makenna, pick peas, and use a chainsaw to cut out the stumps that were left in the front of our house.

An action shot of the chainsaw hard at work.

Home Sweet Home

We got back home yesterday. The flight home went well. Makenna was a champ once again and slept for most of the flight back. The best part about being home is seeing Jared. We sure missed him a lot!

Oh and he has been VERY busy around the house while we where gone. I will let him fill you faithful blog readers in on all that he got accomplished.

Texas - Day 9 "4th of July"

Texas - Day 8

It has been really hot here the past few days. Today we woke up and found out that the high for the day was supposed to be 102. That is pretty toasty! Needless to say it limits what we can do during the day. Pretty much all activities have to be done indoors. That said I thought that it would be a great day for my sister and I to go get pedicures. Because what else do you do when it is 102 outside. We had a great time. It was very relaxing and I think the kiddos were pretty good for Jason and my mom while we were gone.

Tonight we went out for supper with Jason's best friend's parents. They are very close to Jason and Erin and are pretty much like another set of parents to them. The food was great and it was good to spend some time with people who are so important to my sister and Jason. Of course Makenna put on the charm and had quite a few people ooh and awe over her.

Texas - Day 7

How do you fill your time while staying with your sister in Texas? You catch up on some much needed relaxation time.

And you watch 6 movies, play Wii with your brother-in-law so many times you loose track, finish at least 1 novel, and watch countless episodes of home improvement shows on Direct TV because back in Iowa you only get 5 channels.

Yep, I sure am enjoying my time here in Texas!

Talking to Daddy

Texas - Day 6

Today my sister had to go back to work. It was the first time she would be away from Jacob for a whole day. I'm not quite sure how she felt about leaving him, but if I would have had to leave Makenna when she was only 8 weeks old to go back to work I think I would have been a little sad. Although she had to leave him at least she knew he would be in good hands.....Makenna's!

Jacob did really well. He did miss his mommy a lot though.

I caught him staring at her picture.

And trying to call her because he just wanted to here her voice and say he missed her.