Boy and his dog

Sam and my sisters black lab, Zeus. He is like a human when it comes to going to bed. He loves to lay in bed with you. Sam and Atticus both love this big ol' teddy bear dog!

Hungry Hippo

Hungry Hippo

Do you remember Hungry Hungry Hippo? Hungry Hungry Hippo is from when Jeremy and I were little. Atticus loves this game, he laughs so hard. His laugh makes me laugh. So this becomes a big laugh attack!

Do you have any vintage games that you play with your family?

 

Think about this...

The things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart. Matthew 15:18

On the Road Friday

Wyoming

Entering Wyoming! When ever we leave a state and enter a new state we say Good bye and Hi! Flags are half staff here today. We asked why? A rescue attempt for a little girl from an ice cold mountain stream did not go 100%. The rescue worker was able to rescue the little girl, but not himself. It was interesting as we toured the visitors center how many people asked why the flags were half staff. Also a warning was given that the streams and rivers may look inviting, but they are fast and cold! Beware...do not let children get too close!

Having a old fashioned shake at Seney's Drug and Ice Cream in Buffalo, WY.

Petrified wood! The boys loved feeling and studying every piece of petrified wood we came across.

Buffalo, WY is located in the foothills of the Big Horn Mountains. It has kept its historic downtown. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid along with the rest of the "Wild Bunch" hung out (caused trouble) in Buffalo.

Sidewalk Art

More Sidewalk Art

Mountain Stream...crystal clear, cold and fast!

Buffalo, WY

Snow? Nope, cottonwood pollen.

We were fascinated with cottonwood pollen. We all picked it up and played with it. (Silly)

Wyoming was just a drive thru for us during this trip. Some day we will go back and explore the great state of Wyoming.

Have you visited Wyoming? Do you have any suggestions on must do and see?

Have a great weekend! 

The things I hear

I was in charge of dessert at our school on Tuesday. As the kids came through the line, they all had big smiles on their faces as I dished up dessert, strawberry shortcake! The best part was when this 4th grade boy yelled out "Yes, my day is just getting better and better!" 

Lesson learned...enjoy the simple things!

Having some fun!

12-12-12

If you are from Wisconsin, you may have heard on the news that December 12, 2012 will be Aaron Rodgers day in Wisconsin. For non football fans...Aaron Rodgers is the Green Bay Packers quarterback and he is number 12.

Well, 12-12 happens to be my birthday! I decided to have some fun with this. The boys were slowly waking up this morning and I told them "I got a call from the Green Bay Packers this morning. They needed to know if I was okay with Aaron Rodgers sharing my birthday. They wanted to have it be Aaron Rodgers Day in Wisconsin. I explained it really is Carla TePaske day, but I guess for this special year  I would let it slide." 

Now remember my boys just woke up...they do not drink coffee, so we have to wait for a little bit. My little guy said to me " Mom did they call the other people with 12-12 birthdays" 

I had to keep a straight face! This was not easy...nor was coming up with an answer. (I could have said " Well, I am the only 12-12 birthday in Wisconsin")  I said " Yes, I think they did, I did not ask"

 Now my older son is starting to wake up and  said " Mom, the Packers did not call you, how would they know to call you?"

 I can no longer hold a straight face. They got me.

Tax dollars at work?

Have a great day!

Looking at Grandma's Treasures

After my Grandpa Sam passed away, my Grandma decided to move to an assisted living apartment complex. We helped her pack and also had a chance to look at some of her treasures. Old letters, photo books, year books and love letters. I found this one...I read it aloud...my Grandma blushed and laughed so hard. I could see her going back to the day she received this note. It was a fun day, even though we missed Grandpa.

Girls like tulips in the park - But boys like two lips in the dark

Do you have a treasure box filled with fun letters, photos and other goodies?

We made it!

We did it! We skied our third Book Across the Bay. It was a great weekend, filled with family memories.

Jeremy and the boys took the truck over to Washburn, then they got a ride on the bus back to Ashland. (no snow! thankfully we had some snow on Chequamegon Bay)

We are ready to go. We decorated with glow sticks. I have glow stick sun glasses on top of my hat. We all are wearing our 2012 Book Across the Bay t-shirts.

Announcements - the crowed goes silent as the announcer stress that we all stay on the trail, because of the poor ice conditions. Also to inform us we all will be going over a bridge, that is protecting us from a pressure crack in the ice that is 16 inches.

Our skis waiting for the fun.

Ashland oredock...the announcer also told us, this will be coming down this year. 2013 Book Across the Bay will look a bit different.

Special treat....we got to meet a blog friend and her family. We attended the church they pastor, Grace Bible Fellowship, in Washburn, Wisconsin. We had a wonderful time.

Blog friends meet! 

 

 

 

Check out  Messy Cars and Muddy Shoes

God has given you to me as a friend. I thank him every day.

On the Road Friday

Book Across The Bay

Ashland, Wisconsin to Washburn, Wisconsin

This will be our third year participating in BATB! It is amazing. You can walk or snowshoe too. We will be cross country skiing. (we will try to ski, do to lack of snow, it will be a challenge)

Have a great weekend, get out and enjoy!

Sharing the quotes I hear

I am going to start a new feature...sharing the quotes I hear. This will feature things kids share with me. I am a 5th - 6th grade Sunday School teacher and a part time teachers aid. I also have two boys, so you hear a lot of fun stuff along the way.

Our school has Phy Ed at our local Community Center. I help transport the kids over to the BACC. On our way, a dear little second grader shared with me, "Carla, this is a perfect truck for you. It is small, like you. It  is cozy, which is just right for your family, you can be cozy. It is the perfect truck for you" "Yes, it is. I like our truck." I answered.
Just the other day, we purchased our 2012 Wisconsin State Park sticker. The DNR fella was shocked as he looked at all the stickers on our window. "This truck can not be that old!" We laughed. "It is! In fact we missed a couple years of purchasing a sticker." "Wow, it looks good. Have fun!"

We will have fun. Traveling in our small, cozy, can not believe your truck is that old for another year.
Do you have a story about your car? Does your vehicle have a name? Our truck does not have a name.  We did race it against a mini van one time. This was a good five years ago...one of our friends raced us from church to our house. There are two ways to get to our house from our church...so it was  a battle of which way was faster!

Have fun today!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day

Our Valentine treat tonight, is simple, but good. Rice Crispy Bars with heart sprinkles mixed in. We love Rice Crispy Bars. You can do so much with them...add peanut butter! Yummy! Or use flavored crispy cereal - Cocoa Puffs, Fruity Pebbles or Cheerios.

XX OO

Valentine Man

Are you in need of a fun Valentine Craft? We made Valentine Men this weekend. Easy, Fun and full of Valentine Love!

My Valentine lady. All that you need is some fun paper, markers, scissors, googly eyes and glue.

I cut my paper strips for the arms and legs with my paper cutter. I traced hearts out on paper to help the boys make hearts.

I love glue dots for some projects. With making our Valentine Men we used glue dots to attach the arms, legs and hearts. We used regular glue for the eyes.

Sam's Valentine man...George! I like the glasses.

Atticus made Bob. I like the nose on Bob.

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

On the Road Friday

South Dakota

Missouri River...after the flood of 2011

Capitol Journal - the newspaper of Pierre, South Dakota. Using round bales for help during the flood of 2011. We visited in August, the folks were still cleaning up from the flood.

We met so many wonderful people during our visit to South Dakota. The boys felt South Dakotans were the nicest people in the world. We were busy taking our family photo in front of the Capitol building and a lady came up to help us out. We visited for a view minutes. After we left, I had this feeling she was the Governor's wife. When we got to our next city, we checked on line and sure enough we had been visiting with South Dakota's First Lady! 

Have you visited South Dakota? Do you have any stories to share?

Have a great weekend! 

Living With and Without

Studies show that the average person today has something like 485 wants compared to 75 a century ago. Desire has escalated, but has discipline?
Albert Schweitzer once said, " If you have something you can't live without, you do not own it, it owns you."
The good news is grace sets us free. When we come into a relationship with Jesus, there is so much to enjoy without fear! The bad news is that while we are free to enjoy and even possess much of what there is in life, we are responsible to protect ourselves against being "owned" by these things.
Perhaps a rule of thumb is this: We can live with much of what there is  in our world, and enjoy it freely. But when we come to the point where we can't live without it, it's time to reexamine our wants and desires. Our desires need to be aligned with God's, not the world's.

1 Corinthians 6:12-13
"Everything is permissible for me"---but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"---but I will not be mastered by anything.

Mystery

There is a mystery, an aura, about the living God that is designed to force us to trust Him, even when we can not figure him out (which is most of the time). Why? Because, He is inexplicable, He is unfathomable, He is infinite. The mystery is purposeful, because His overall plan is profound. And let's not forget that His plan is not designed to make us comfortable; it is designed to make us more like Christ.                                  Charles R. Swindoll

 

Who Moved My Cheese?

Who Moved My Cheese - a fun book. Jeremy had our family listen on audio recently. I am so glad he did. Because shortly after we listened to it,  we found out about a major change coming up in our lives! Our Pastor has decided to retire. We will be getting a new Pastor in April. My son Sam told me, I will never stop calling Pastor, Pastor. That is who he is. :-) Anxiety has hit me a few times this week. Prayer is required daily. Sometimes you need to reach out and ask for prayer too. This is one of those times.

LOL

We spent last night watching the Super Bowl with our Pastor and some friends. We did a lot of visiting, eating and not a lot of watching the Super Bowl. :-) We did see a few fun commercials. Mr. Quiggly was our favorite! We all LOL!

Our Pastor's wife had the great intuition for us to skip the half time show. Heard all about it today on the news. Wonder who comes up with these shows? They always have the same lame excuse "We did not know they were going to do that!" Mmmm, I wonder!

Helping with school work!

Sam is catching up on some school work. He receives help from a know it all!!

Excuse me Sam, you are writing the wrong word here. Let me help!

Let me see...no, no, you need to look here for the correct answer!

Let me take a bite of that pencil.

Am I a great teacher, or what? Let me know if you need anymore help Sam!

Happy February

Happy February!

Decorating for Valentine's Day! We made some old fashioned hearts, with construction paper and ribbon and  glitter.

Love!

Atticus made a snowflake heart and glued into another heart to create this pretty decoration.Then we got out the glitter!

Do you have any fun Valentine decorations that you like to make?