I made the mistake of telling my brother-in-law that there was a library book stuck underneath our stove. It's been there for about 2 years. Little did I know that all you have to do is take the drawer that is below the stove out, and lo and behold, you can actually retrieve things that have gone under the stove. So here's what we found:



3 books: Peter Rabbit (the long lost library book); 123's and a little book about clothes.
1 matchbox car
1 plastic container lid
1 plastic letter "I"
1 top of a helicopter
Not pictured is a dirty spoon and mounds of dust. Yeah, it was pretty gross.
Now if we could just the golf ball out from in-between the counters, and the golf ball that somehow got thrown down the vent.

Thanksgiving 2008

What we are thankful for:

• My family
• Wood-smoked memories and family (this refers to Thanksgiving Day in years past at Uncle David's farmhouse, which was heated by a wood stove)
• Family
• Flies, Cockroaches, and Worms
• Quacky ducks that kiss me
• Trees
• Legos
• Minivans with automatic doors, brothers who play so well together, 3 boys who make me laugh
• Snarf and glarf
• The internet, coffee, and my family
• Mario Kart (a game played on the Wii)
• Having the privilege of loving my spouse!
• Music
• Family, food, housing, friends, a job, and love to all
• Dazzling sunshine
• Family being together and indoor plumbing (again referring to Uncle David's farm with the "two-holer" privy)
• Family and V-8 (engines, not juice!)
• *Family getting together and staying in touch

After our guessing game, Zach announced, "I should have said I was thankful for underwear!" Everyone agreed that we ALL were thankful for underwear!!

Each year our family writes down what they are thankful for. The notes are read aloud and we try and guess who wrote them.

A few funny sayings at our house:

After calling the boys to dinner, Zach pipes up from his room: “Mom, I just can’t come right now. I’m in the middle of something very important. When I’m done, I’ll come eat.” He was building something with Legos.

Adam on the way to school:
“Why is my school so far away?
Me: “Well, I guess that’s just where they built it.”
Adam: “Did you live far away from your school?”Me: “No. In fact, I walked to school.”
Adam: “Because they didn’t have cars back then, right?”

We had to run errands to Target, and Adam and Zach asked if they could take their wallets and buy something. I agreed, giving them a $10 limit. No surprise, they headed straight for the Lego aisle. Adam showed Zach where to find the price and how to read it. Adam quickly discovered that $10 would not buy much. Zach picked out his box, which was $4.79. I told Zach he could pick another box the same size and still be within the $10 limit. So he picked his two little boxes and was happy with his selection.

Adam spent about 20 minutes looking at all the Legos. Adam figured out that if he could talk Zach into getting certain boxes of Legos, he might be able to get two boxes that he liked. He started negotiating with Zach, “Zach, look, if you buy this box and I buy this box we can have TWO ships (or a good guy and a bad guy).” Zach stuck his ground and didn’t give in to any of Adam’s suggestions. I finally suggested to Adam that Zach was not going to change his mind, so we should go on with our shopping.