One-Yard Wonders projects

Showing posts with label Arganbright farm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arganbright farm. Show all posts

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Just sent Mazy to KC for a week


And I miss him already! Oh Mazy, what will I do without you for six long days?! It will be fun to have Bo as an "only child" for a week and see how he behaves differently w/o his big bro around. But I am going to miss my little chatterbox and artist.

So much has been happening lately! Nothing on the job front or the new house, but lots of fun! I had Friday off. It was Mazy's last day of preschool. The school was having lunch at 11:30 for parents and I told him I'd take him home with me afterward. That morning, I decorated the inside of the van with streamers, summertime signs and some graduation clings. He's going to miss his preschool graduation b/c he'll be in KC with Heidi and her gang, but I knew he'd love seeing the van all decorated for him. After lunch, he was walking out with a friend and wasn't paying attention when he opened the door. In fact, he wasn't even looking inside it b/c he was so busy talking. But his little friend noticed right away and said, "Is your car always like this!" She was very excited, Mazy turned around and his mouth dropped open. He was speechless, which is rare. Needless to say, he enjoyed it very much.

We had planned on picking strawberries with Bo and Shawn's parents, but the strawberry patch closed at noon. So instead I took the boys to Blank Zoo, it was Bo's first zoo trip. He was so cute and so impressed with all the animals! He was very excited by the monkeys, the giraffes and lions. We rode the train, and had a great time.

Saturday was the 2010 Cousin Camp at Grandma Katy's farm. Everybody, except my brother Bandy and his daughter Irelyn, showed up for a day of crafts, games, food, four-wheeler rides, swimming, water balloons, ice cream, etc. While Bo and my nephew Hudson were sleeping in the afternoon, my brother Troy and I took the four oldest kids into Panora to the Century Museum. It's such a neat little museum. I haven't been there since Shawn and I were married in the church back in 2000. It was a perfect afternoon -- the kids had a blast looking at all the "old-timey" stuff. We took lots of pictures and showed them all their Great-Great-Grandpa Wine's F20 Case tractor that was on display.

After supper, we took the older kids to Arganbright's farm for my great uncle Jim's 80th birthday. It was a blast -- lots and lots of relatives that I don't see often and Panora locals who I haven't seen in years. We were only going to stay for an hour, but it turned into over 2 hours. The kids had a ball playing in a hammock in the yard and checking out all the guineas, peacocks, geese, ducks, rabbits, etc. that roam the farm. It's a beautiful century farm and always so much fun to be there.

The boys and I didn't return to DSM until nearly 11 p.m.! Shawn missed all the fun. He stayed home and cleaned the house and did a bunch of laundry for me. I told him if he's not careful, I'll let him stay home every time we go to the farm!

And that brings us to today. Bo is napping and probably will sleep until 6 or later. Mazy is on his way to Overland Park, and Shawn and I are just relaxing in a clean, quiet house. Bo is going to spend next weekend on the farm, and Shawn and I are taking Friday off to go to a big flea market in Missouri on our way to pickup Mazy. I can't wait! We love outdoor flea markets and this one promises to be a good one!

That's all for now. Hope you all enjoyed your weekends. Heidi if you read this on Monday, give Mazy a kiss for me and tell him he can call me anytime! Oh, today's photo is from our Memorial Day fishing trip with Grandpa Pud. We didn't catch any fish, but I have some wonderful photos of Mazy and Grandpa. As Mazy said, "We didn't catch any fish, but we did catch a lot of seaweed!"

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Polite decline of the newspaper job interview




Well, after talking to the VP of Mid America Publishing this afternoon, I politely declined his offer of an interview later this week. The position was a part-time news reporter and part-time sports editor/photographer, and to be honest, that's just not really my thing. I've never read the sports section in my life, and I can't think I'd be very good at writing it. Plus, it would mean a lot of nights and weekends covering the games. No thanks.

But I had a nice chat with the guy. He publishes 17 community newspapers around the state, mostly on the eastern side. He says community papers are faring much better than the big dailies, which are trying to compete with online publications and news sources. I wished him well in his search and told him to give me a call if anything else opened up, or if he heard of any communications/PR jobs.

So back to the search. A lot of my friends and coworkers are switching jobs and interviewing for jobs, so i think the market is slowly started to swing back in favor of the workers. Well, that's sugarcoating it, but I try to be optimistic.

Today's photos are from the Birthday Luau at the farm on Saturday night. A good time was had by all, as I mentioned. We are heading to the farm again this weekend and will spend the night Sunday and hang out there on Memorial Day. I am planning to bake a couple pies (with Aunt Bev's pie crust of course) and take them to Aunt Bev's farm on Monday. Can't wait to see Andy and Jeff, and just hang out on the Arganbright farm. It is one of the greatest farms in Iowa. I will be sure to take pictures and report back. Jeff has promised to show me the two Easter geese I donated to his flock several years ago.... Uncle Troy thought they would be a cute Easter present for Mazy and my niece Theron. Heidi and I did not agree. But I am thrilled they are alive and thriving on the farm.