Now, do I want everyone to know where I walk and when, probably not, but restricting to friends via social tools such as facebook, and even potentially having contests, I can see some benefit. Either way I think it’s quite fun.

Great site to track Santa. There are even photos and videos of his stops:

Enjoy and Happy Holidays!

The U will be closing down tomorrow, I’m quite excited for some down time. I’ve been thinking of how much stuff happened this year. As the saying goes time flies, but in my case it seems like this has been a very long year. Not good or bad, just long. I’m inspired by thebroekerbunch, great posts and I loved their Christmas card that goes quite well with the theme of their blog!

We celebrated Trevor’s 11th birthday this week, and well, we’re already to Christmas. We had our annual Jensen Boelus Christmas yesterday as well.We had a lot of fun, Russ always puts on a great party. We missed all the loved ones that were not with us, though in spirit they were alive and well. We won’t forget the enjoyable memories we’ve had with everyone through the years. Russ was playing an old video that someone had taken of one of the Christmas’ past.

How could I forget the anxious window peers. Ryan and Marcus, my nephew are discussing whether or not Santa was going to arrive soon.

I’ve also begun conversation on our campus to understand better the various needs of the colleges, schools, and programs that will be potential users of the the system. At this time the representation is small, though I feel through a series of meetings we can garner needs.

She’s caught the Olympic bug!  After watching Shawn Johnson and Nastia Lukin, she’s ramped up her training time to 9 hours IN the gym and @12 hours OUT of gym practicing and working on core body strength.  No matter where she’s at, she’s doing gymnastics…. a Husker tailgate party, our front yard, neighborhood gatherings, school, Sam’s Club….. you name it and she’s attracting people’s attention with her moves. The latest feat, a back walkover on the high beam, which mind you is a mere 4″ wide.   It’s breathtaking!  After taking gold this summer at the Cornhusker State Games for All-Around & Bars, her next step is the normal season, think she’ll rock the State this fall.

Ryan has provided us with an eventful summer.  One which includes spray paint…. lots of RED spray paint.  On two separate occasions, hes displayed his “artistic” ability.  First on the van, and then onto larger canvases like….. the house and neighbor’s hose reel.  Luckily, we got most of it off.   The amazing part is that he hasn’t gotten a drop on himself AND has been smart enough to put it back when he’s done.  Oh,    he’s also provided us with a field trip to the E.R.  His first batch of stitches-no, nothing to do with the paint episodes, just a fall at daycare.  The bottom line you ask?  He’s constantly into things and places he shouldn’t be.  I predict an interesting kindergarten year ….. and yes, his teacher’s been warned!

With a title like that you are probably asking yourself what the heck I’m talking about, but in the course of one day we did lose a ton of hair off our dog (like 8 inches) and hopefully will lose a ton of water from our backyard. By this, I mean that Todd has taken the week off to work on our bog situation.  Last Sunday when the kids were finding tadpoles and mosquito larvae swimming in the standing water, he decided it was time to action.  He rented a sod cutter, but opted against the trencher and instead dug it all by hand-what a man! I considered helping, but instead opted to head to the mall for a little birthday R & R.  Now the weeks we spent waiting for it to be dry enough to dig have been replaced by wishes for a good dumping to see if this tile system can handle and remedy our swamp.  So, essentially my title could have been Basic Clean Up, but it wouldn’t have been nearly as interesting.  Oh, and the cricket farm update…….. our first “litter” of crickets are successfully hatching!  Microscopic, but definitely thousands of them….wish us luck.

Oh the joys of being a “repti-mom” are endless.  I must say that when we signed up for a reptile, I went in rather blindly, who knew how expensive one little critter could get?  He’s grown so much that last week I had to upgrade his aquarium, restock it with calcium sand ($$$) and rearrange Trevor’s room to accomodate more furniture to house the thing on.  The cause of his rapid growth?  His appetite.  Since he’s eating about $2.25 worth of crickets and meal worms A DAY and he’s still a baby I figured there must be a better way.  So…… I order 500 (bulk) crickets on line, eliminate countless trips to Petsmart and save myself over $35.00-you know the saying “if it sounds too good to be true”?  Well, I unknowingly signed up to be a cricket farmer. Further research shows that you only need @30 crickets to start a colony, and since they lay 50-100 eggs per female/per day, we’ll be totally infested in about 2 weeks.   Oh yes, I’m becoming an expert on crickets-who could ever have guessed?  I’ve even learned a life lesson along the way…when you order 500 crickets, open the box VERY carefully!  But THAT’S another story!

I’ve been preparing for a presentation for the Lower Platte South Natural Resources District. They’ve asked me to teach them the reigns of podcasting and how it might be another way to increase their reach to their stakeholders, customers, and constituents.

Let me know what you think of the look, post a comment for once if you are reading. Always nice to know if someone is out there…ttl.