I HATE SNAKES!

I absolutely hate snakes of any kind. I know it's from growing up in Wyoming. We spent hours and hours in the countryside as kids growing up and you just knew that there were rattlesnakes under rocks, around bushes or whatever. And that they would (could) bite you if you messed with them or got too close.

Since we have lived in Iowa we have usually lived in the country as well, so obviously you will probably run into snakes. The good thing here is that there are no rattlesnakes (at least in our part of Iowa). You see an occasional bull snake, but not at our house. We have either brown snakes or garter snakes.

I DON'T CARE! I HATE THEM! (do you understand that I really really really hate them?)

This summer for whatever reason we have many more around than normal, at least at the house. Usually if I see one, Al or one of the boys (or Sarah even when she was younger) would come get it out of my flowers and take it to the weeds to "run free" and eat mice and chipmunks and whatever else they eat. Not that I really mind getting rid of the chipmunks because they burrow under my plants, but still. This year though, even Al has been killing them with the pellet gun or shovel or whatever. The day of Sarah's shower (with 18 women coming over) we found 3 big ones right next to the door. And the day of Lauren's birthday a couple weeks ago the kids found a bunch under a tarp and had to mess with them. (I didn't even go with them, it gives me the creeps to even think about)

 

This morning I was working at home and I went to let the dogs out. They were messing in the flowers where they never do, so I went over to look.....at a 3 to 4 foot huge snake! I tried to call Al, but he didn't answer his phone. I got the dogs in, and kept watching out the window to see where he was going.

When Al finally came home for lunch he was still in the garden, all coiled up probably waiting for a cute little chipmunk to munch on. One less snake in my yard!

Thankfully I have a big telephoto lens on my camera. I WAS NOT that close! And yes, that is a pooper scooper.

Bix7 2009

Davenport has an annual festival on the last full weekend in July. It is the Bix Jazz Festival. There are bands all over on every street corner, concerts, food, booths etc. The reason that we have gone down almost every year for the last 9 years or so is the Bix7, a seven mile run through the city. Around 18,000 people run this race annually. Sarah has run it since she was in high school (of course she couldn't do it this year, she didn't even go down)

If you aren't familiar with Davenport, it is a river city along the Mississippi. The start of the race is about 2 blocks from the river. It runs up a steep steep hill for the first mile. It winds around for 6 miles then for the 7th mile comes back down a hill just like this one. I have never been much of a runner, but I can't imagine my knees would do this hill running at all, much less after 6 other miles!

As far as you can see there are people running. Some of the ones that start in the back take 5 minutes or so to just get to the starting line! It really is neat to just watch the people go by.

And go by. And go by. Here's Matt at the start. I always try to get them to have something on that's bright because it is very hard to see them in the crowd.

After the start we get in the car and go to about half way through to see if we can see them again. Otherwise you are just standing around for an hour or so. It passes the time.  I think Matt is somewhere in the back of this one, but I couldn't find him again after I took the picture.

He wouldn't let me post the one from the end of the race. After 7 miles, he was a bit sweaty and tired, but I got one later anyway.

After the race all the runners go through a fenced area with snacks and energy drinks, etc. to get them hydrated again. But I think this one had one of the longest lines.  And remember, the race starts at 8:00 AM, so this was around 9:30 or so.

And I don't really know what about this one. I don't really associate Oscar Meyer with a 7-mile run?

They have a company that runs around and takes as many pictures of the runners as possible along the route, especially at the finish line, then they post these online according to bib number and sell them back to you. They have a great vantage point, but can you imagine trying to take pictures of 18,000 people all running under you?

I looked at Matt's pictures online this morning and they are much better than anything I could take, just from the great angle that they are at. And they have others at the actual finish line that are pretty good.

Matt shaved a few minutes off last year's time, so I think he was happy about that. It was a cool morning and a great day to watch a race.

We are uncles!

Joe and Matt have been so waiting for the new baby and to officially be uncles. They have made promises of babysitting whenever they need to (ok, to be fair Matt said maybe after she's out of diapers, but I think now after seeing her he will re-think that request). They were both super excited to see her.

(for those of you on facebook, in order to see the pictures you have to actually go to here: http://alandfaith.blogspot.com for some reason the pictures haven't been transferring)

Joe and Lauren came to the hospital the day after she was born. Joe was just beaming. You would have thought he was the new father he was so happy!   He really wanted to hold her, but it's been a very long time since he's held a baby, and I'm sure he has never held one this new!

But he got the hang of it pretty quickly...

 

Since Matt moved to DSM, he couldn't be there right away, he came down last night to see her. So you still think you are going to wait until she's out of diapers to babysit Matt?

  

Look at those nice "new uncle" smiles!

The new Uncles and Grandpa checking her out.....

 

And here are some pics for the Great Grandmas and Great Grandpas and great aunts & uncles and all the cousins that can't be here right now to see her as a brand new baby: (click on a picture and it should make it bigger)

Enjoy!

The nursery

It's just waiting for the new addition!

Always the bargain shopper, she found the crib for only $65 at a garage sale, but it looks like it has never been used. It's in great shape.

It even has the wise old owl to watch over....

Baby Shower and The Storm

Lauren wanted to do a baby shower for Sarah at her house last week and has been planning it for weeks. Joe & Lauren have been slowly updating everything in their house, and just had concrete countertops installed and she wanted to show it off and have it at her house in CF. Everything was going along just as planned, so they went to Chicago for a few days.

Around 4 am Friday morning their next door neighbor called to make sure they were all ok. They, of course, were confused because they were in a hotel in Chicago! We had a big thunderstorm come through that had a "microburst" with it with winds they estimated well over 100 mph. It took down trees everywhere in Cedar Falls. It was (and still is a week later) a mess for several blocks around their house. They headed home  to survey the damage. I went by Friday morning and was amazed at the damage everywhere.

This is their front yard. A tree took down the power lines for the whole area. One of the branches just missed Joe's car that was in the driveway.

This is behind their house. Another tree went down just behind it. Didn't even hit the house. They were very lucky.

 

Although with all the power lines down, Lauren couldn't have the shower at their house, so we moved it to ours.

It did turn out very nice, though.  Sarah has lots of new things for the baby. And the food was great. I have never had chicken salad, and it was excellent, Lauren, along with everything else.

     

This is Craig's mother, Rusty and his grandmother. Rusty gave Sarah one of Craig's baby blankets from when he was little. I thought that was neat. Something to be passed on to the next generation.

 

She only has 3 weeks or so until the little one is here. Of course, she's ready any day! I went over last week to help with some things in the nursery. I will have pictures of that tomorrow.

Grilling

We had all the kids over last night to grill. It was beautiful weather and we hadn't done it for a while and it was Lauren's birthday on Friday. We had shrimp that we brought back from Texas that we needed to use, so we made shrimp and fish tacos with all the cool toppings. They were actually very very good. Will have to do it again sometime soon. Craig said it was the best meal he had ever eaten at our house! I guess that's not bad, seeing he has only been eating at our house for 3 years! It was very good, though.

Happy Birthday Lauren!

Matt brought a present from Des Moines......two foam dart guns and a kid's bow & arrow. Goofy kids! (although I did get a shot or two in myself!)

It was a beautiful night to just sit out by the fire.

and Roxie REALLY liked the fire.

Tai just liked his new chair!

It's that time of the year....

There are many many things I miss from Wyoming.....I miss the mountains, I miss the quiet, and I miss family there.

And there are things that I like about Iowa that Wyoming doesn't have.....like green all summer long, and not much wind!

But one of the best things in Iowa that we really don't have in Wyoming (although I do remember stopping at Alcova when I was little at a stand there) is this:

Sweet corn! On every street corner they are starting to pop up. Stop and get them....$4.00 for a dozen. Then squeeze lime juice and chili powder on....YUM!
And on another note.....Al went to the Dr. yesterday and is back to work today. He's on a 20lb weight limit, and had to go buy some new clothes, but other than that he's good to go. He has another appt. in 4 weeks to see if the nerve is coming back in his leg.