HAP Journey #6

This journey started when we were chatting with an office worker.  She got excited about our adventure and told us she knew where a buffalo was, but didn't want to ruin our adventure.  I assured her that we were open to ALL leads on these guys!  So the first buffalo here is a "bonus" buffalo, not 

from our original list!  He was kind of stuck back in a corner, but was a great find nonetheless!

 

The kids have started to wane a little in their enthusiasm for taking pics WITH the buffalo.  :)

Next up was a buffalo I was excited to find.  It's name, Gogh-Bison-Go! was intriguing, especially since it is located outside of an art museum.  This guy was very interesting.  All sides had a different look - and the head of the buffalo was made to look JUST like Van Gogh --- complete with a bandaged bloody ear and everything... which made for quite the conversation with my kiddos...

Just down the street we found this buffalo in another mall.  A mall I don't particularly prefer to visit again.  This poor guy was looking quite worse for the wear.  I bet he was beautiful with all his tiling, but now several of the tiles were off.  M made sure to check his ears.  :)  C is interested in checking the buffaloes' stamps on their left hind legs.  All (but one that we've seen) have a raised buffalo head on their rumps.

 

Preggo Dreams

I've been known to have some crazy dreams while not pregnant, but they get a little weirder when I am.  Here are a few from the past few months:

*I dreamed that I had a baby girl and was absolutely utterly shocked - I am so convinced this little bean is a boy!

*Then a few nights later, I dreamed we had a redheaded boy!  This was interesting because we have NO redheads anywhere that I am aware of on our family tree.  It was also kinda funny because JJ felt we had to throw out all of our boy names and go for a Celtic one.

*I had a nightmare that an eccentric billionaire kidnapped my children.  JJ and I were besides ourselves and he called a contact he had in the news (? not sure exactly why we didn't go to the police first...!).  The billionaire had sent the news team a list of demands before our babies would be released.  We had recently purchased a house, and the billionaire felt that our house was not "green" enough and the demands were all about things like fuel efficiency (yeah... in our house...).  Once we got the demands and started working on the list, the billionaire texted me pictures of the kids.  They were riding on the carnival rides he had at his estate.  He noted that they were well cared for, but they missed their Mommy.  Gut wrenching.  :(  We were able to get them back, but I can tell you that I didn't sleep the rest of the night when I woke up from this one!

*Last night I had another scary one when C-man took off in front of me when we were at the dentist.  In New York City, where we lived.  The dentist was in a highrise tower, and C jumped on the elevator.  I frantically pushed the button to return the elevator to our floor and yelled for him to STAY on the elevator!!  It was so hard because I had no control.  I have always taught my kids to STAY on the elevator and Mommy would come to them, but could I trust him to stay on?  Could I trust others to keep him on there??!  This was one of those dreams where I get to a situation and then my dreams become sort of a "choose your own adventure" where I have a series of changing the ending of the dream.  Does this ever happen to you?  Often I am starting to wake up by the end and force myself to make it have a happy ending so I can wake up peaceful, because yikes, my mind likes to think of the scariest outcome possible.  :(  No me likey.    

HAP Journey #5

Glowing from our "win" the previous day, we set off on another buffalo hunt.  We went to another familiar buffalo - one we have already seen, just not taken a picture with.  This one was tough to get the kids on board with because they really, really, really just wanted to visit the home of this buffalo.  That's right.  This buffalo is at our local zoo!  :)  Do you see why it's a favorite of the kids'?  His name is even Tigalo. 

Next I realized that another buffalo was on our way to the errand we needed to run for the day.  Yay!  This fellow was located in the Blue Cross Blue Shield building.  We walked in and an irate older gentleman was all out arguing with the receptionist.  It was quite a scene and really I felt bad for both parties because clearly the old guy was feeling frustrated and the receptionist was clearly the messenger.  We sort of walked around the scene whistling as we skeedadled over to"Home on the Range."  Never a dull moment with our buffalo searches! 

 

HAP Journey #4

After an especially fun park play we decided to do a mini "buffalo hunt."  We stopped at Pracs where I thought there might be two buffalo.  We kept our eyes out for an outside display, but seeing none, we parked and headed into the building.  When we got to the door, we realized we had hit the mother lode.  Not one, not two, but FOUR buffalo were in the lobby.  There was only one small problem.  All the doors were locked.  :(  A guy coming in from a break let us in after we told him our reason for being there.  He seemed to get excited right along with us - and shared that he knew a guy who had one in his backyard! Well, it seems like we probably won't be finding every last buffalo if people have them in their yards and pastures, but we will certainly do our best!  Here are the four beauties along with their name plaques: 

The lobby!

I texted JJ saying we had a successful hunt.  The kids have gotten so into this project; it is fun get caught their enthusiasm with it.  Since we had such success with our Pracs stop, we decided to check out the buffalo at Microsoft.  We actually tried to find this bugger one other time with cousin A.  On the list I was given, this guy was listed with a wrong address - it said it was at Microsoft, but the address given was to a person's house.  Now that we knew we just had to search for Microsoft, we drove right up to "Mashkode-Pijiki."  He is interesting because he has no paint on him, just a bunch of holes.  Plus wiring... and he's attached to a solar panel.  Does he light up?  Does he power something?  We don't know, but he's an interesting addition to the buffalo collection!
 

HAP Journey #3

 We drive by this little lady often.  In fact, she was the inspiration for getting this whole adventure started because M got all excited about the "Angel" buffalo she saw on our drives here and there.  Upon closer inspection, M is even MORE excited about her because she has jewels all over her - it looks like she has lost several, but she still has several around her face and hooves.  Her name?  Ms. B... Flying Diva (of course!).  We were able to stop and see her as a family on our way home from Church last Sunday.

On an errand outing later that day, we stopped by the Convention & Visitors Bureau - a place we have already been so that we could get a picture with THE woodchipper - to get a picture with Aunie.  M & C loved this colorful buffie and it was neat to check out the Celebrity Walk of Fame - apparently real actual famous people have visited our humble state.  (and just a side note: check out that belly!  TWO more months people.  two more months...)

HAP Journey #2

Buffalo Path- the Gathering can be found right in the mall!  Also of interest with this particular guy is a picture of 40 of the buffalo together in one display.  40!  16 is apparently just the tip of the iceberg!  We were excited to have Daddy join us on this particular journey.  Yay for days off!  :)

I don't want to spoil it by posting a picture of all of them together... maybe that will be one of our last pics.  I did decide the culmination of this big project for our family will be a visit to the LARGEST buffalo in Jamestown and possibly a glimpse of White Cloud.   

New Month... New Rotation

Every odd numbered month, JJ is at the hospital for rotations and it is the most intense- most intense schedule anyways.  He is thinking inpatient (hospital) is where he is leaning at this point, but it's interesting to get diverse experiences and this month he is outpatient at the VA.  This month (YAY for even numbered August!), we are breathing a sigh of relief as JJ has every single weekend off.  AND I saw a random stat (on facebook no less, so take it for what it is worth) that only every 832 (or some such random number) years August has 5 full weekends.  And THIS August is one of those.  WHAT?!  Holla God!  JJ not only has every weekend off, but he has the maximum number of days off possible.  :)  Not that we're counting or anything... :)  Not only does he have every weekend off, but he has also been home at a decent time.  Translation: supper TOGETHER and help with bedtime. 

HAP Journey #1

 

On Friday, August 1st, we set out on our journey.  We loaded up the van with two of our cousins, L & A and hit the dusty trail in search of our first bison.  Hmmm... Don's Carwash... We drove up to it, expecting to see the bison right away.  No bison in sight.  I got in a car line and a worker approached me wondering which type of carwash I wanted.  I explained our adventure and he said the buffalo was INSIDE the carwash!  But, we could view it at the end of the line.  We parked and headed inside.  Sure enough, there was our first find!  This poor guy was not really kept up - there was trash by his hooves and, as you can maybe tell by the picture, the place was L-O-U-D.  But, nevertheless, we spotted "A Path Through the Prairie".

 Next up, was a fellow named "Kaleidoscope" not too far from Don's Carwash at Cable One.  There were two Cable One offices across the street from each other, so we picked one and hopped out.  There was a line of people, but no buffalo to be seen.  I figured we had chosen the wrong office building, so we jumped back in the van and drove around the building, also hoping to see if it was an outside display.  Nope.  I checked our official guide with the address, and we were in the right place.  Hmmm.  We went back in the building and made our way to the front of the line.  The gal said they no longer had the buffalo.  Bummer.  What does a company do with a large buffalo they no longer want to display?  Too bad, too, because Kaleidoscope looked like a beauty.

#3 (or 2) was in a University of Mary building and as we pulled up L exclaimed that there dentist is in the same building and she HAD in fact SEEN the buffalo in question.  We knew we were on the right track!  We unbuckled and jumped out to find Mr. Dakota Dream, right as we walked in the building.  M declared it was her favorite because of his golden head.  C was just glad it was in a much quieter location! 

Herd About the Prairie

As the kids and I have been exploring our new city, we have been noticing some rather large and interesting canvases.  There are painted bison scattered throughout the city.  As my kids got more and more excited about them, I decided we had to do it.  We had to find them all.  And catalog our journey along the way.  First of all I had to do a little research.  What were the bison all about?  What's the background story and how can we find them all?  I thought for sure there would be a cataloging of all of them.  My SIL advised me to start at the Visitor's Bureau.  I gave them a call and they said that unfortunately they had an incomplete list, but the gal could email me what they had.  It was our start.  Another friend clued me in on a pinterest page dedicated to the herd.  I cross referenced both lists and found that there weren't any new on the pinterest page than what I had from the Visitor's Bureau.  Bummer.  But I jumped into mapquesting the sweet 16 I did have available.  I thought it'd be really fun to do a wham bam big adventure and find them all in one day.  However, just the drive time alone (not including buckling and unbuckling from carseats!) was over 1 1/2 hours.  Not gunna happen.  It was thus concluded that we'd find a few here and there whenever we had time, and whenever we were in a certain area.  That also made it more fun because different friends and family members could join us on our journey. 

A google search gave me a little bit of background information.
*Prairie Public Broadcasting made a documentary on the creation of these guys, called "Herd About the Prairie, A Virtual Art Stampede"
*Area Voices also posted a story from a local blogger about the bison and gave me a good bit of history, like:
     *The Arts Partnership commissioned 75 artists to participate in this (giving them a little money and 90 days to complete the project)
     *The bison debuted in 2006, at the Marathon - they were features along the route.  Then in the fall, they were moved to the Dome, where peopled lined up to see them all together.
     *The bison were then auctioned off and scattered about the prairie - from inside malls to someone's pasture, they are literally everywhere! 

The fun begins!

Tangy Sloppy Joes

Sloppy Joes are a total standard on my meal plan.  I am not a huge meat fan (as evidenced by my doc putting me on iron supplements!), but I love me some sloppy joes.  Alongside potato chips dipped in ketchup and pickles, and I'm good to go.  Yum.  In the past I've used a spice packet, but I had several recipes saved so I decided to try one the other day.  Oh my goodness.  Yum.  Yum.  A thousand times yum.  And easy.  So try this Tangy Sloppy Joe recipe from some old recipe magazine.  :)

Tangy Sloppy  Joes
Prep/Total Time: 30 mins.

1 pound ground beef
1/2 c chopped celery
1/3 c chopped onion
2 T chopped green pepper
1 c ketchup
1/2 c chili sauce
1 T sugar
1 T brown sugar
1 T cider vinegar
2 tsp ground mustard
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
buns
(and pickles and potato chips with ketchup.  obviously.)

In a large skillet, cook the beef, celery, onion and green pepper over medium heat until meat is no longer pink and vegetables are tender; drain.

Stir in the ketchup, chili sauce, sugars, vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper.  bring to a boil.  Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 15 mins.  Serve on buns.  6 servings.

(Can be frozen.)

Feeling Lucky

It seems like I am on a lucky winning streak lately.  But, on the other hand, I guess you could say I pad my odds by entering just about every contest in the hopes of saving some money.  I am thrifty, what can I say?  Here are a few examples of "winning" lately:

1. I already posted about Jamberry, but that was such a sweet surprise it just totally made my day/week/month/year.  It has been fun to gift friends and family since I have an abundance of wraps.  Since then several friends have become consultants as well.

2. I joined another "Facebook party" for Thirty-One, and my name was drawn there too!  This time I wasn't the surprise hostess or anything, but I did win free personalization.  Now, to be honest, that isn't a huge deal to me (and I haven't personalized everything I've gotten), but it was fun to be picked again.  I ended up getting a bag I've had my eye on for some time after borrowing my Mom's when JJ & I took a quick trip to Philadelphia in December.

3. On MyPanera card, I got a special deal added for August: free coffee (black or iced) for the whole month of August!   I don't personally drink coffee, but JJ is thrilled.  :)

4. We bought a new van last week, which is a big deal for us.  I was a little overwhelmed because JJ was completely unavailable and had to do all the looking/negotiating by myself.  Oh wait, not by myself, with 2 1/2 kids.  He was pretty proud of the work I did and that made me feel great!  BUT, then I backed into a jeep in the Target parking lot.  BOO.  Why is this in a post about feeling lucky??  My talented hubby, along with his brother, a bat,  and a mallet, bumped the bump out in about 15 minutes.  YESSSSS!  Lucky me!
  
5.  I can't forget about a huge deal I got at Target.  So, last week Target had a deal on diapers where if you bought two boxes, you got a Target giftcard ($10 for Up & Up and $20 for Huggies & Pampers).  I combined that with the offer of order online, but pick up in the store and get $10 off a $40 order.  That could be done four different times.  So, I bought EIGHT boxes of diapers and saved over $100!

I couldn't help but enter a few contests on a favorite "give away" site... I am feeling lucky!  :)
 

Hey I do know some things!

A friend recently asked for some advice about how to find things to do around our town, which led to questions regarding such things as gymnastics, swimming lessons, and even deals.  And you know what?  I had some answers!  Isn't that exciting?!  It was for me!  I realized that I HAD learned some things in the two months we've been here.  I am getting to know my new city and also, I had picked up some tips and tricks along the way. 

I knew about "On the Minds of Moms" and "Area Women" for some pretty decent calendars of events.  I could tell her about our fantastic experience with swimming lessons at MSUM.  Then there were the awesome programs at the Library and Barnes & Noble.  We've signed up for dance and gymnastics.  We visited some really fun splash parks, wading pools, and regular parks.  Of course in conversations such as these, I ALWAYS have to include one of my all time favorite places to go in our town.  Teaberry has the best drinks I have ever had.  Anywhere.  Ever.      

Confessions of a One-Upper

Ugh.  I was that guy.  I was the one upper the other night.  We had some sweet friends over and I found myself topping their stories.  I caught myself a few times and tried to remedy the situation, but it kept happening.  JJ even noticed and we chatted about it later that evening.  I mean, I can be totally honest and say that I am a competitive person.  I think a little competition is healthy, but I know I was on the side of rude.  It was like, Oh honey, you have THE WORST travel story?  Your kid threw up AFTER he was out of his carseat and you were BOTH there to clean up the mess??!  Let me tell YOU a few travel stories...!  I even dragged poor JJ down with me when the gal thought she won with longest shift the next day, but really, who would want to go up against someone in residency?   She kind of had that one coming, right?  :)   I think we did have a pleasant evening, especially when the conversation steered away from me trying to outdo everyone else!  Yikes.   

FRIENDS!!!!!!!

So the kids and I have been getting to know our new city and staying busy, but the one thing I kept coming back to was friends.  Our families have been wonderful and we've gotten to spend a ton of time together, but there's something about friends.  Although, as cousin A told C today in the car, "You're more than my cousin.  You're my friend."  Heart.  Melted. 

I have been introduced to lots of people lately and I started to come to the realization that I was being a little too hard on these "newbies".  Of course they're not going to be just like the relationship I had with my bestie in college (even our relationship has changed over the years - it should've!  We've changed, our families have changed, our locations have changed, our priorities have changed.).  Or the relationships I had with great friends in KS, because it took some time and TLC to cultivate those relationships.  In fairness, I needed to give these newbies a chance and had to actually put some effort into the relationship.  I had to set up some play dates.  Ask some questions.  Answer theirs.  Get to know them. 

So, I am happy to report that in putting myself out there, I have gotten to know some really great people!  And the kids are happy to have some new playmates too!  We all miss our buddies in KS, but it is good to continue the"settling in" process, socially/emotionally as well.

Month one. Check.

JJ just finished up his first month of Residency.  P.T.L.  We knew the first week would be the worst.  The first month would be the hardest.  The first year is the toughest.  We knew that.  But it didn't make getting through them super easy.  JJ worked long, long hours and long, long weeks with little time  off while dealing with some difficult cases.  But he survived.  And we survived.  Actually, I spent a lot of time feeling guilty for all the fun we were having.  We carried on and were busy while he worked and worked away.  He even missed a big wedding and spending time with most of his family.  But, really, he enjoyed his month too.  He got more familiar with the processes (and paperwork) of the hospital.  He wouldn't tell anyone this, but he got a lot of positive feedback from patients, attendings, and colleagues.  I am so proud of my husband! 

Baby #3

This baby seems to be a bit on the crazy side.  I can't decide if he/she is wearing him/herself out now and will just sleep when he/she makes his/her appearance or if this will be his/her temperament... the latter scares me a little bit!  :)  I also feel like my body is gearing up for labor earlier than with the other two.  I am more achy.  More tired.  More moody.  I have had some Braxton-Hicks.  At my 28 week appointment, my doctor checked me and there is no progression, thank goodness!  I also had the pleasure of doing the glucose test - no gestational diabetes.  Phew.  Then I got a shot in my behind since I have a negative blood type.  So, all in all, it was quite a wonderful appointment. 

In talking with my doc, I made some realizations about why this 3rd pregnancy feels different.  First of all is the obvious - my body knows what's going on and has started adjusting earlier each time.  Then there is another obvious - I am chasing after two children.  I kind of forgot about this third reason - I've never been more than a few weeks pregnant in the summer.  7+ months preggers while doing our busy summer things has quite frankly started wearing me out!  I have started noticing and taking more breaks.  My kids don't seem too affected by me sitting more and running after them less.  C is not happy that I won't carry him around anymore, but c'mon dude.  You're three.  It was bound to happen sooner or later! 

I am getting really excited to meet this new little one.  I thought it would KILL me not to know the gender, but it doesn't really seem to have changed much for me... besides maybe curbed some of my spending!  hehee  I *think* we have a boy and girl name picked out and have just finalized plans to get a hand-me-down crib.  Things are falling into place!  Now we wait and grow and get kicked and punched!  :)