New life

The perfect spring Saturday at the farm is full of…

Mowing lawn,

   

Color reemerging after months of white,

Golf in the grove (?)

Buds on trees and tractors planting in the fields,

Shades of greens returning to the trees,

Hugs with long lost Aunties,

  

Hanging with Dad and climbing with uncles,

JP and his beloved 8300 – this time, learning how to drive it (where does time go?)

Walking with stilts,

New life is everywhere!

Capped by a perfect bonfire – the first of the season!

The second half got a little, well, stressed–an overview

Sit down, this is really long

Day 6 – Tuesday.  A wonderful day. Papa and I watched Grumpier Old Men.  I have been using one-liners from it ever since.  It made me miss my little brother Jon because he and I had those lines memorized as kids.  Good memories.  I’ve been to Hawaii.  Oh yeah?  What island?

Wanna come over to my place?

Then I took another nap.  Yeah, it was that kind of day.  I should have cherished the naps when I could.

For the evening entertainment, Bill and I headed up to Mankato to have dinner with a bunch of his high school friends.  I was not all that excited about it because they all tried to drown me back in the summer of ‘94 at the wave pool of WI Dells.    I have hard feelings about it still.  My own hubby, who was madly in love with me at the time, so he said, left me for dead, and I am alive today because of Troy Whitney, who was the best man at our wedding.  Bill hung out with a rough crowd of Future Farmers of America.  (I think only a couple are actually farmers, but what did they know back then?)  We spent some time that evening in The Buckle finding Bill jeans.  It was like a miracle before my eyes.  Cool jeans,  on Bill.  I wish I had my camera.  Then the store clerk, obviously lying to make a sale, told me that a woman is never too old for skinny jeans, and helped me find a pair.  The best thing about them was the size (27 – and I am pretty sure that means the maximum age a girl should be to wear them) and the worst was the price.  I don’t own them.  I don’t pay $136 for one pair of jeans. It was a special moment.  Then we went out for dinner and then bowling with the whole bunch of friends and was shocked by the fact that they were all super nice people who I really enjoyed spending time with.  I even added them on Facebook – time to start hacking some of the others off.

Day 7 was Wednesday, December 29th.  That was so long ago, I am trying to remember what we did.  It is either that or I cant remember due to post traumatic stress syndrome.  Wednesday was ball hanging day.  Yep, you read me right.  We hung balls.  (For any of my Mothers Of Multiples friends, this should remind you of good times from the past – minus the OSHA people telling us that we were not allowed on the scissor lift.)  Ok, if you are not following this post so far, it is all good.  You will understand near the end when I tell you what transpired the past few days.    Back to Wednesday.  We decorated for the wedding reception.  It turned out pretty awesome, I think.  I didn’t know if everything would come together, but it did.  The beaded jars were in place.  The pink and green snowflakes, white trees with mini-balls, the ornaments;  everything Hobby Lobby and I had been working on was ready to roll. 

      

After that was done, a ton of us ladies headed out for Miss Stacy’s bachelorette party. She makes the green leisure suit look good. 

   

We bowled   

  We played laser tag

Stacy opened presents.  

It was a night enjoyed by all.  And that is all I can say.

Day 8  – Wedding rehearsal day.  This is where it gets good.

The roads were super slick from all the wonderful weather, but Bill and I decided that since some people were off getting their nails done, we would go get the work of the day done.  (Notice any spitefulness in my tone? I was starting to lose my servant’s heart, and instead was taking on the “what the crap is going on around here” attitude.)  We took off in the trusty Yukon with heated seats and delivered tooling to one town, drove to another to pick up the dresses, and then went to the church to deliver the dresses and hang tie bows on pew candles. 

    

Sounds like a quick afternoon, but with the kind of help Bill was, it wasn’t.

  (me working, and I think this is the fattest picture of me ever.)

  Bill helping – at least he is wearing his new cool jeans.  He must be thinking of the Bible verse: Come unto me all who are weary and I will give you rest.  Well, thanks be to God, I didn’t slap him.

It was at this point, that I told Phil (a very patient and kind guy sucked into this vortex of wedding craziness) that I wanted to go on the record with this comment, “Where is Stacy, I am seriously going to kick her butt.”  End of comment.

But, we drove home to get our dress clothes on for rehearsal, and arrived to find Papa standing in the door to the house with a shotgun.  Then I remembered a text from the kids telling something about a raccoon in the yard.  Seems JP had now chased it into a tree with a shovel (wish I could have seen that) and Papa has decided Bill needed to shoot it.  After all, we had a bunch of people to feed.

    The good Lord provided the reception dinner meat.

JP and Crazy Man carted the poor coon off so the dogs wouldn’t grace the yard with it’s presence.  All while wearing my boots.  (For those who wonder, a coon in the daytime is suspicious for many diseases and if you don’t believe me, go read Where the Red Fern Grows.)

 

We got onto the business of practicing our wedding stuff.

     

And then we ate cool food, all cooked by Phil’s family.  They are awesome people.  Seriously awesome.

  Who makes cookies with names? Really.

  And makes homemade ice cream every time I ask?   Yes, I love these new family members. 

Then we went back to the farm, and I locked myself in a room and checked Facebook and e-mail, because I was in a very bad mood and needed a time out.  And with bad weather looming, I really had a heavy heart because I needed to be with my people.  When everyone left except my awesome mother-in-law, I came out of my room.  It is a healing process, and I am working through it all.

DAY 9 – WEDDING DAY!!!!!

Got up early to get my hair done with mother-in-law and the little Pieper ladies.

    

Then we went back to the farm and started packing all our stuff for the long drive north.  I was hearing of horrid weather back home, and wishing I was snowed in with nothing to do but watch TV and clean. 

We got to the church and did our duties.  I helped Stacy get in her dress, and helped the wedding party with all I could help with and then took 5 minutes to get myself dressed and ready.  After all, I cant go looking like this, even if it is my comfort zone:

Do you remember all my wondering about what color nylons I should wear with my outfit?  I had decided on skin colored and bought myself some from Penny’s but then realized I had grabbed a seriously wrong color – like taupe.  Anyways, I just grabbed a pair out of my drawer and took them.  It was at this point in getting dressed for the wedding that I noticed I had grabbed footless nylons and certainly that would look ridiculous with my dress and shoes.  Never fear, Bill’s aunt is about the same size and had some – she would bring them.  All I had to do is walk around bare legged until she arrived.  About 5 minutes into the walking around, I noticed I was getting this beauty:

  Please ignore the need for a pedicure, it is on my list of things to do since I was too busy tying bows and delivering dresses to get one of my own.

I fluffed her dress, I helped with traffic control, I fetched things, I was the best personal slave attendant I could be.

  She looked awesome.  My legs were cold.

We had fun.

  

        

                                                              

     

I will blog more about the special moments of the wedding over the next couple days.  I am still recovering.

Thus ends the trip to the farm.  On the 10th day, we took off and headed north to spend a day with most of my family.  I didn’t even wash my hair, just took off, wedding crusted hair and all.  I was ready to leave crazy behind and head to serene.  Who am I kidding?  My family is just a different kind of crazy.  A crazy I love.

Family is awesome.  Weddings are stressful.  I am glad we made it through another week of bonding over fishing line and glitter and helped a very deserving couple pull off a spectacular wedding in 2 months.  They were ready to be married.  June would have been way too long of an engagement for those love birds anyway.  Holy Moly! 

One last photo for you all.  We missed the big storm at home, but this is what Lucy has to go through to go outside to potty now:

I am so happy for my own bed, bathroom, and pink blogging chair.  It is always good to be home.

What’s a girl to do?

I am spending 10 days at the farm.  Yup, 10 days.  While most of you may be thinking that 10 days with the in-laws is about 9 days and 22 hours too many, I am enjoying myself.

Day 1 – Morning – we went to  Stacy’s final dress fitting – I already know I am going to cry at her wedding because, well, that’s the kind of big sister I am, I guess.  I am a bawler.  It could get ugly.  We ate pizza at the bar while listening to old guys play golf on the simulator.  Oh, the life.  Bill and I dumped the kids off at Grandma’s babysitting services and headed to the cities for a fun hour at the Mall of America.  Really, an hour, that is barely enough time to park, walk in, use the bathroom, and then return to our vehicle.  Somehow, in the middle of that extended visit to the MOA, it dawned on me why Bill was so supportive in visiting, in his opinion,  the world’s worst use of space.  Yep, Microsoft has moved into my domain.  It may work to my advantage in the big picture, so I happily went in and looked at all the technology that just was mind-blowing.  (Note sarcasm.)  Anyways, after dinner with some unnamed family members, we picked up the groom at the airport amidst a horrendous snow outburst.  We drove back to the farm watching one car whip 2 360’s on 494 and then pass us 5 minutes later.  (Sidenote: what do you call 360’s? – cookies, donuts, poopies – trying to keep this G-rated – or what?)  We passed the time doing the only thing 4 adults can do in a vehicle, well, ok, not the only thing, but ya know, DJ Jazzy Deb played “Can you name the artist” with flashback to the 80’s and early 90’s and awarded bonus points for loudest singing.  Bill won.  All this while driving us at 40 MPH so we got back safe and sound.

Day 2 – Christmas Eve – the big Kahuna.  We almost forgot it was Christmas Eve with all the wedding fever around here and watching the two love birds – pukity puke puke – but were reminded by the awesome Christmas Eve Pageant at the local Catholic Church.  I love me some good Christmas music sung by choirs complete with dancing angels.  I was waiting for the next moves, so I could out dance them, but then I remembered we weren’t playing Kinect, we were at church, and I settled comfortably into my pew for two hours of churchin’.   After that, it was back to the farm for the traditional Christmas Eve dinner of Taco Soup.  WHAT???  Taco Soup?  Since when do we eat Taco Soup? Oh well, Felize Navidad, everyone!  Kids opened presents, we all stayed up late, Santa barely remembered her job, and so on…This is us pretending we are stuck to each other like the love birds.  It turned out kinda cute!

Day 3 – The stocking were hung by the wall tack on the panelling behind the porch door with care.  Seriously.  The kids got socks.  Everyone was happy because Crazy Man slept in until 10 AM.  And we played Kinect ALL DAY!!  And then we took 4 advil.  Merry Christmas!!!  You are OLD, Pieper, OLD!  And I am undefeated in the boxing ring!  When we could no longer throw down any moves, we broke out the cards for a Hearts tourney, which I sucked at big time.  Was the loser of 2 of the 3 rounds.  In a BIG way!  Time to lay off the Facebook for a while and brush up on my Hearts. It was also the day for love birds in throwback snowsuits one horse open sleigh rides…

Day 3 – Day after Christmas.  We did nothing.  I am not used to doing NOTHING for an entire day.  I was so bored, I took a 2 hour nap to put myself out of my misery.  And we watched Grumpy Old Men.  Good stuff.  And we didn’t watch the Vikes because the game was snowed out AGAIN.  We cant even lose as scheduled.  I went to bed after giving a directive:  Tomorrow, I am going to town shopping, so make a list of to-do’s.  And guess what?

Day 4 – I went to the mall.  Armed with the need to be busy and be amongst the people, I set out on a mission.  I have an upcoming BIG EVENT (Stacy’s wedding) and had my outfit all lined up.  Well, this week, it just didn’t feel, well, sexy enough, and I know that when you think of me, you have high expectations in that category.   I went on the hunt for a new black dress.  Yep, even though I don’t wear dresses EVER, I decided I needed a better version of the little black dress.  I found it in no time flat.  I had to do a smidge of sewing up the plunging back because I am a female over the age of  25 who has birthed 4 children and yes, people, I need to wear a bra.  I will post a pic of this slinky black dress when I am all primped and standing next to and behind my kids so they can cover up the body flaws.  That is a bonus of having a slew of kids.  And then I found 7 new shirts too.  You can take the girl out of the mall, but after 3 days of farm life, you cant force a girl to behave in a mall at all.  (HUGE clearances!! Spent a whopping $20 total on my shirts!)  And we watched Grumpier Old Men.  I’ve been to Hawaii.  Oh yeah, and we had awesome hoarfrost.

I would add more pictures for your Christmas viewing enjoyment, but just to get the hoarfrost picture uploaded took me about 5 minutes.  I am in the middle of nowhere, suffering from middle-of-nowhere-internet-speed.  Trust me, on Christmas Eve, I had an awesome hair day, so I would love to post them and pretend I always look like that.

With all the love in the air, I re-wrote my vows to Bill.  They are special, and I will let you in on them.

“Dear Bill, I dont promise you much, but it may be your best offer.  Take it or leave it.”

So far, he has chosen to take it.

So, I am doing well.  Still alive.  Thus ends the first 1/3 of Christmas Vacation 2010.

Life as I see it today

I blog today from our van, on the road home with no kids, just our dog, and she is the queen of the seats – loving every minute of it. She loves the farm but boy is she happy to go home. She is a baby – she loves her carpet, heat, and availability of a queen mattress for stretching out on. Most likely, her most exciting moment at the farm this weekend came on a walk with Bill, me, and Maggie the farm dog. She ran ahead and stopped on a dime when HARK!! A woodchuck hole!!! Oh the joy of the find. Bill is telling me all about the time he flushed a woodchuck out of a tunnel system with gallon after gallon of water and then once the mad woodchuck came out, Bill played whack-a-mole with a 2X4. That is ultimate boy fun! Thank goodness, this guy decided we weren’t worth coming out to greet.

It was a caravan weekend. Our extended family gallivanted all over together. When we all go somewhere as a crowd, we are quite a spectacle. One whole day was spent in Amish country where I got to order my very first pieces of Amish furniture. To see their beautiful craftsmanship and quality work is amazing – what skills! Hanging out with genuine caring people who keep life in perspective makes me think I could enjoy being Amish – but then I really needed to go to the bathroom and I have an aversion to those “non-electric toilets” (Curly’s term) so I guess I better stay a main-stream American, plugged into Facebook, my DVR, and my indoor plumbing. Still, I decided I could let a little of my electronic time go so I can revisit quilting. Maybe for real, but with a sewing machine, not by hand – again, amazed.

So back to the furniture – I decided we are grown up now and can have a coffee table. We used to have one but the trio was using it as a launch pad and we decided for the prevention of ER visits and permanent scaring, we needed to let it go for a while. Today, a coffee table; someday, a car.

My stomach is not handling all this good food very well. I have been forced to eat delicious foods and desserts until I was literally in my sweatpants, curled up in a ball in the rocking chair. As much as I love the tastes of these foods, I guess my days of eating everyone’s awesome baked goods and hot dishes are over. Bring on the yogurt, granola, rice, fruits, and veggies. Goodbye, Dairy Queen ice cream cake, brownies, monkey bread, cookies, cakes, and skotcheroos. It has been a fun 12 days.

Vikings – what the heck? I just don’t even know what to say about this Moss/no Moss thing. I understand we got the lazy, mouthy Moss, and he decided to not actually play, but gone so soon? Before we saw even one Favre to Moss long bomb? Some people have jerseys to sell on e-bay already.

Tonight promises to be exciting in our home – political junkies that we are. We will enjoy watching the returns and commentary. So watching the prop 19 in California – smoking weed for recreation, legal or not? Really? You can’t legislate stupid. Hope that doesn’t offend any dope smokers out there, you can have my share of the brownies.

Ok, I need to nap.  Back later.

WON WON WON WON

I declare before God and these witnesses that I will be a winner on 1-1-11.  I will make it through Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas still successful at my goals. 

1.  I will eat healthy.  I will not gorge on snack-size Kit Kats during trick-or-treat season.  I will not eat 4 slices of chocolate pie on Thanksgiving.  I will not eat all my Christmas baking requiring me to bake more to replace the first stash.  I will instead find healthy snacks I enjoy to tote around with me.    Or maybe get some major dental work done right before Christmas – did that twice and it really cuts down on the junk food enjoyment factor.  WINNER!!

2.  I will not out-spend my budget.  Part of my gift to my friends, family, and co-workers will be your knowing that I did NOT accrue debt to finance gifts I could not afford.  I will give gifts from the heart.  Gifts of time.  Thoughtful gifts.  And if you want to throw them away or re-gift them, go for it, at least they wont still be sitting on a MasterCard somewhere.  WINNER!!

3.  I will not allow myself to be so busy that I don’t enjoy the Holidays.  By Holidays, I mean Thanksgiving, when I spend a weekend with my side of our family celebrating the blessings of our lives and shop black Friday sales; Christmas when we gather at the farm to celebrate the birth of Jesus, not Santa, not stuffitis but the birth of our Savior; and New Years when we gather to celebrate with my side, and also to shop Target’s 75% off sale.  WINNER!!

4.  I will continue to move during this busy time of year.  I will not give in to the my-butt-is-melted-into-this-recliner mentality. I will pack tennis shoes and a sports bra and go at it.  If that means playing in the snow instead of washing all the china, I will do it.  If that means taking a walk after Thanksgiving dinner instead of watching the pathetic Lions play a game of who-cares-who-wins-now-that-I –don’t-have-a-ff-team football, I will.  I will get up early for my black Friday sprint to the sale rack.  I will sit in Missi’s hot tub…oh wait…that doesn’t fit in here. Maybe I will start by chasing little trick-or-treaters down the street after dark. 

Come January 1st, 2011, I will declare myself a winner – WON WON WON WON on 1-1-11.  Join the fun.