Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Sorry--no cute titles here


Since Megan didn't take a nap and cried for much of the evening, I am wiped out and pretty much brain dead. Thus, no cute title. Alas, since it has been so long, and I have some fun photos, I'm writing a blog post anyway.

Annika is enjoying her school here in town and has just a couple more weeks before she graduates to second grade. Lauren will join her at the same building in the fall for kindergarten. In one year, that school building will no longer be used. The district is probably going to add an addition to the 3-6th grade building--this will then house Annika, Lauren and Emily for preschool. This empty house thing is coming up quickly!



March was crazy busy for us as I worked day and night to finish editing my sister's second book. If you do webinars for work, I highly recommend it (Webinars with WoW Factor by Becky Pluth). I also did some more work for USA Today and a sales training company. I really get a lot of variety in my job! So fun.



We're settling down well here in Fairmont. Dan's really enjoying his work and we both enjoy the people here. We have a few new younger families with kids in our neighborhood which Annika, Lauren and Emily are adoring! I also get to do lunch with "The Ladies of Redwood" once a month--for many years, the women on our street do lunch. One of the ladies from our church was thoughtful enough to invite me a couple months ago so I've had a chance to get to know my neighbors despite the very cold winter. Really nice women! A lot of them are significantly older than I am, but I still enjoy the time with them. I love their stories!

And I attended my first mother/daughter banquet with Annika and Lauren a few weeks ago. The girls were in one of the songs and skits. Very fun! I enjoyed it which is good since I'll have many more to attend! Dan is wondering how he can get into the Father/Son event...



The two older girls and I also had a chance to hear the U.S. Army band for free recently. Very good evening of great music. The theme song from The Incredibles was the girls favorite part! The younger girls were in the Twin Cities with Dan and my mom for a few days while Dan was at a Covenant annual meeting.




Megan has the fiercest temper yet of our kids. I don't suggest getting into a catfight with her. She might win. It's gotten somewhat better, but it's still an exhausting process.

I have kind of been using my facebook status update as a mini-journal for cute (well, I think they're cute) things my kids say. So I'll post a few here. I'm hoping to catch some video of Emily singing a few of her songs soon--need to charge the battery in the video camera.

If you're on facebook and haven't found me and Dan yet, you can go to
http://www.facebook.com/LizPikeWheeler and there I'll be!

from facebook:




May 4: Swiper is alive and well in our house; Lauren and Emily are scurrying madly around telling Swiper to stop swiping our windows, phones and Bibles. Wow! can little kids entertain themselves for hours!

April 22: My former governor, Rod Blagojevich (from Illinois), who has been indicted for being naughty, wants to subpoena former Illinois senator Barack Obama...let me know how that goes for you, Rod...

April 10: While I was napping, the pastor's kids were out on the sidewalk hawking lemonade for $1 per bathroom dixie cup. Is that even legal?

April 4: Dan and I gave up something for Lent this year. Lauren plans to give up something until next Easter: showers. She also has been talking to her plant friend, Lily. She told Lily about what she got in her plastic eggs--Lemonheads. "Lily laughed. She thought that was funny. She'd never heard of Lemonheads before."



March 19: 2-year-old Megan woke up at 4am vomiting. I think she got it from my Facebook friend Angel. I haven't seen Angel since Christmas--I just figure Megan's illness is one of them computer viruses...

March 14: Snapping your fingers doesn't really help clean the house--not even if you're snapping at your kids.

March 9: Three-year-old Emily says, after going to the bathroom, "I don't need to wash my hands. I washed them in the toilet."



March 6: I've discovered a new way to have my house look clean: candlelight.

February 23: My 5-year-old just handed me 89 cents and said, "I have enough money to live with Heather (McMillan at North Park)." How sad for me! And it hasn't been a bad day either...

February 11: Emily's bum hurt and she wanted medicine. I told her to give me a minute. She couldn't wait that long and put some on herself--apparently her self-medication was a poor choice. Sensodyne burns.

January 9: Tomorrow's my birthday. I'll be 37. Because of the crazy week we've had, my husband and daughters (ages 6,5,2,1) decided to get a pre-made cake instead of making one. They thought hard to discern my wishes. They got a Barbie Fairytopia cake...how did they know?

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Come visit!

As we're getting settled in our new permanent home (whoo hoo!), we would love to invite you all to come visit for the day, the weekend, the week...you get the idea!

And in case, Dan, Liz and four children living in a whirlwind of chaos wasn't enough for you to "do" while you're in Fairmont, I wanted to help you know when best to plan your trip to see us.

Fairmont and the surrounding communities have a lot planned this summer--July is especially busy--so choose an event that sounds good to you and call us so we can "schedule you in."

April 2--begins racing at our local 1/2 mile dirt track. Every Friday night until September 3.



April 17--Community Day in Ceylon--the town hosts an annual auction and sale of almost everything.

June 7--our local waterpark opens with slide, toddler pool, splash area, sandbox. If you stay for the week, your kids can take swim lessons with mine! More info and a great pic of the Aquatic Park at http://www.fairmont.org/aquaticpark



June 11-13--Interlaken Heritage Days--Fairmont's local summer celebration with a lot of games for kids and adults including the tractor pedal pull, boat rides and bingo. There's "one of Minnesota's finest parades" on Saturday night and an outdoor church service Sunday morning.

June 18-20--Sherburn Festival includes a firemen's dance and sweet corn feed on Friday and a parade on Sunday with "quality entrants."

July 10--Trimont Chocolate Festival--need I say more?
July 16-18--Welcome Summer Festival: Chicken feed and street dance on Friday, city-wide garage sales on Saturday (and I'm told there are some good ones here!) as well as flea market and parade. Saturday night there's a pork chop feed and street dance, too.
July 23-25--Truman Days. If you would like to stay somewhere besides our basement, Truman also has The Whittler's Lady Bed and Breakfast which I am told is nice.

August 16-22--Martin County Fair. I think the sign outside the fairgrounds calls it "Minnesota's Other State Fair." Now that we know some honest-to-goodness farmers, I think this year will be a lot more exciting to go to a fair!

November 19--Santa flies into town this night at our local airport and he kicks off our Glows Parade, similar to Minneapolis' Holidazzle. I'm actually looking forward to this, although I can wait for the snows that November may bring.

This area also has a ton of camping opportunities (which we may try this year, despite having one in diapers-but only one!), two "challenging" golf courses, an official "flying disc" (frisbee) golf course, classic car shows, live music in the parks, a lot of lakes (and fish!)--it's just beautiful country!

If you want more info on these, you can navigate around here: http://www.fairmont.org/chamber/mcarea.htm

Just make sure you come and visit, ya hear? If you don't have our contact info, email me at LizPikeWheeler at gmail dot com, and I'll send it to you!