Drew's Funnies of the Day

For the computer class Drew took at Children's College this summer, he had to write 2 original jokes to try posting on a joke website. These are the two he came up with. Not to be biased or anything, but I think they are pretty darn funny and clever!!!

What do you call a long bean?
A limo bean.
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Why did the mother cheetah send her children out to play??
She wanted her house spotless.

This & That

Noah finished off his swim lessons this week. He has certainly overcome any fears of the water and has really improved his swimming abilities over the past couple of weeks. The last day of class, they turned on the water slide. Here's a picture of Noah's first time down a Big Waterslide! He had no fear. He's been to the YMCA with Todd a couple of times this week and has swam back and forth across the pool numerous times on his own as well as jumping into the deep end. Todd things Noah could give Drew a run for his money. Are you ready for the challenge Drew??

We had Todd's parents and brother, my parents and brothers and SIL and kiddos all over to eat supper for Todd's birthday. Todd's request for dessert was cupcake cones. So here he is blowing out the lone candle in his cone. They were a hit with everyone though. Sorry for the blurry pictures. Our lense was smudged and we didn't realize it until today when I uploaded all of these pictures with a big blur in the middle of them.
Today was the Running Raider Classic. Drew ran the 1 Mile Kid's Run and did awesome. Todd caught some video of him crossing the finish line.

Here he is after he received his medal. I can't believe I'm posting this but here's the best of the worst pictures of Me and Drew. I did a 5k competitive walk with my friend Johnna. I got 12th place. Not too bad I guess since I'm horribly out of shape. Todd opted not to run this one so he could be there for Drew when he crossed the finish line since his race was the same time as mine--what an awesome guy. He also had Noah and Aiden with him to cheer us on. I guess Aiden wanted to run so bad. Drew finished his race before we did ours so Todd put Drew's number on him and told him to run to the tree and back. He came running and crossed the finish line and everyone cheered. He got handed a water like the rest of the runners and had his picture taken. I wish I could have seen it. I'm sure he thought he was big stuff.

After the race, Todd jogged home and I took Johnna home and then took the 3 boys to Madison Park to play for awhile. It was a good morning.

Update on Grayson: I mentioned his bald spots in the previous post. The Vet thought he might have allergies but wasn't sure. From the chin on down his neck, he is completely bald and it's crusty and gross, poor babe. He has to go in Wednesday morning for a biopsy to see what's going on. There's a possibility he may be on prednisone the rest of his life. We'll be dropping a little over $300 bucks for all of this weds. I about crapped when I saw the estimates. If I'm going to have a chronically ill cat, maybe I need pet insurance!!

I Know How To Pick Em'

So my first cat, Holly, was a beautiful solid white cat and had the best personality. His only downfall (other than the fact that he had a feminine name and turned out to be a male) was that he had bladder issues. He would get frequent bladder infections and get sediment built up in his bladder which caused some bloody uriney accidents. (Is uriney a word??) Then, go figure, right before his 11the birthday, he dies of liver failure. Ya would have thought it would have been kidney failure, right?

So it took 2 years to mend my broken heart. 2 years to the day that Holly died, I adopted Grayson. He is a beautiful gray cat and is fun loving and sweet. He brings us a lot of laughter and cuddles. Unfortunately we find out he has an Inflammatory Bowel and will be on an special diet his whole life (read: expensive). He also contracted Giardia which was a nightmare but seems to be cleared up. They think it was stress from his de-clawing surgery. So we think life is getting back to normal. Then Grayson starts losing literally chunks of fur off of his body. First it's a chunk by his ear. Then we notice the entire underside of his neck is bald. He has a check up tomorrow to see what's going on. I've heard of this one other time and it was attributed to stress. If that's the case, he can share my Lexapro with me. I don't want a half bald, stressed out, poop shootin' cat.

Yep, I know how to pick my pets. I'm head over heels in love with him though, even though he's costing me a crapload of money. (no pun intended)

Most People...............

Most people try to keep moths OUT of their houses. Here............we raise them!

Noah has been on a major insect kick this summer. We have a big insect house, a roly poly playground, a bug catcher, just to name a few. One day he found a bunch of fuzzy caterpillars and was just sure they would turn into beautiful butterflies. I tried to tell him that they weren't the right kind of caterpillars. He got so excited when they started to form cocoons. Next thing we know, we have a bug house full of moths. We managed to get a picture of Noah holding one before we set them free in the backyard.

Happy Birthday Babe!

Hey, it's like Flashback Friday on a Tuesday. Actually, today is my hubby's 36th birthday and I thought, hey, I need to flashback on him today.

He was such a cute little guy.

Awww, mommy and baby.

This has got to be my all time favorite picture of Todd. He is so cute in this picture, I just want to squeeze him all up. Can you see where Aiden gets his beautiful brown eyes from???



Even as a grown up, he still sleeps like a baby. One of Todd's favorite things when the boys were babies was to come home from work, cuddle up with them and take a nap. This was taken when Aiden was a baby.

Todd and Drew on Father's Day 2000. Gotta love the matching shirts.

This was taken for Father's Day 2004

This has always been one of my favorite pictures of Todd and I, taken in Colorado June 2004. I have this framed of us in our bedroom.

Honey, I hope you have a wonderful 36th birthday. It's hard to believe we've known each other 15 of those years. We have many wonderful memories and I look forward to many more!

Todd's Triathlon and Birthday Weekend

This past weekend we traveled to Des Moines, IA for the HyVee Triathlon. This was to be Todd's first time competing in it. Since his birthday is tuesday, he decided for his birthday gift that he wanted us and his parents to come up with him for the competition and to spend the weekend. We arrived, ate lunch at Perkins, and checked in the hotel. Todd was going to go get registered while Aiden napped and then we would take the boys swimming. That was all Aiden talked about all day....swimming. Well, after we gave up on the nap we all excitedly changed into our swimsuits. Just as we were getting ready to go down, a nice young girl was going into her room next to ours and let us know that the pool had been closed down. Apparently someone pooped in the pool, so it was shut down to be taken care of. Amazingly the older boys took it well but I wasn't sure how to break it to Aiden. He was upset but was more enthralled with the idea of poop in the pool. We ended up hitting the mall and eating there at the food court. We got back shortly before bedtime and the pool was open. Now, I saw with my own eyes earlier some men in shirts and ties with their box of chemicals testing the pool so I know it was supposedly safe. But I just couldn't get in. And I watched the kids like a hawk, trying to make sure no water got in their mouth. And then I hung out in the hot tub! Todd was so excited that he was up at 2:30 am and ready for the race. He was meeting the rest of the Multisport club at 3:45 to head over for the race (the race that started at 6am). It cracks me up. They just wanted to be there in plenty of time.

Here's a picture down at the lake where Todd had to do his 1.5k open water swim. We were here the night before to drop off Todd's bike. No spectators were allowed during the actual race for the swim portion. Drew scoped out the cool playground.
Saturday night at the mall playground. It was the coolest playground I had seen at a mall. Noah and Aiden hopped on the lion. You know Aiden and his lion addiction.
Sunday morning on the way to the race. We had to take 2 shuttles to get there and Noah and Aiden were so excited about the bus rides. It's the little things. (notice Barney came along for the ride)
Todd after the race. He did a 1.5 k mile swim, a 40k bike ride, and a 10k run in 2hrs 50minutes. He was VERY happy with his time. We were so bummed that we missed him crossing the finish line though. I almost cried. We had no idea this thing was so huge and that we would have to take 2 shuttles and then walk 1 mile just to get there. It was insane. And we JUST missed him. Live and learn I guess. There were over 2000 people competing and then after the race they had the Olympic Qualifier Trials.
Family Pic.

All the guys from the Quincy Multisport Club that raced. Todd is one the far left.

The Multisport Club . I think a couple were missing but there were 17 total from Quincy that came up to race.

Afterwards we celebrated his awesome accomplishment AND his birthday with lunch at The Cheesecake Factory. We all sang to him when they brought him his sundae out. Aiden helped daddy by blowing out the candle for him. We then finished off the day with some shopping and then the 4 hour drive home. We were exhausted and happy.

Just had to take a picture of this. EVERYWHERE you look in Iowa are Kum & Go gas stations. I never saw any other gas stations except for an occasional HyVee gas station. Really?? REALLY!!! You couldn't have picked a better name for your chain of gas stations????

The Cat is Out of The Bag

I usually don't like surprises. I'm ever the planner, surprises stress me out.

But I had an awesome surprise planned.......and I almost pulled it off.

But my best friend is a smart girl.....she figured it out. All because someone called her to see if her husband still needed to borrow air mattresses and because all of a sudden he was doing all of these 'projects' around the house.

She called me this morning excitedly rambling about air mattresses, and visits, and it couldn't be Molly, and blah,blah,blah. Her hubby had warned me this morning that she was getting suspicious and I knew I couldn't get out of this one.

I just laughed and told her. "The Klausers are coming to Florida!"

Yep, on July 9th, the five of us are making the 14 hour trek down to Florida to visit my best friend in the whole world, her hubby, and two precious girls. I wanted so bad to just show up on her doorstep (with the help of her hubby of course) and that didn't work out. But the pure exhilirating excitement in her voice today was still worth it all. We are going to have so much fun together. The boys will also get to see the ocean for the first time. I can't wait!!!

And Dianna, please hug Preston for me and thank him for helping me set this all up. Just to prove what an awesome guy he is, check out what he did for her. What a guy.

Drew at College for Kids

Drew took some classes for kids at the Community College the past couple of weeks. He's gone in the past and has enjoyed it so much. They have such cool, fun classes to take, it took awhile for him to narrow it down. Heck, I would have loved to take some of those classes with him. This year he took Gymnastics, Surfing the Internet, and Taekwando. Today was the last day of classes and it's always an open house for the parents to come watch and see what they've learned. Todd and I were both excited to get to watch.

First was Gymnastics. Here he is starting a hand stand. (just like Grandpa John)

Next is a little video of him doing a front flip, round off and cartwheel. He was so funny because he would always look over at us after every thing he did with a big ole smile on his face. I think he liked having an audience! (you'll have to hit pause on my music player if you want to hear any of the videos)

Here's Drew doing a backflip. He did quite a few of these and I have to say, I was impressed.

Next we went to his computer class. We had a lot of fun in there learning about all the cool sites he got to visit on the internet. I think I got addicted to Google Earth as I got out my address book and had him look up addresses of friends and family. We decided not to take pictures in that class. How exciting would it be for me to say "Here's a picture of Drew clicking the mouse". "Look, Drew pressed the space bar".

The last class of the day was Taekwando. I was excited about this because he has wanted to try it for a long time and he was very secretive of what he was learning. Here he is warming up at the beginning of class. His teacher happened to be one of Todd's former Calculus students.

Ok, here's the part I dread. The kids each got to "sword fight" against their parents and teach us how to do it. I settled back all ready to take pictures and video of Todd going up against Drew. Nope, Drew wanted to fight me. Now I know the little poop picked me because he thought he could beat me and he hates to lose. I sooooo did not want to get up in front of all of these parents and do this but Drew really wanted me to and well, you know how you'll do stupid stuff just because you love your kids so much. I don't think you can hear it in the video but after I scored the first point, I said "Don't mess with mama!" I ended up BEATING Drew 3-2. I scored against him 3 times and he only scored against me once. He just happened to get a 2 pointer on that because he got me in the head and the head is worth more. Trust me, you won't be able to miss the part when he pokes the hell out of my face. It is pretty funny, even if I do look like an idiot. I was told I had to post this video, so here it is for your viewing pleasure.

Drew was presented with a white belt at the end of class. He was so proud of that.

Flood of 2008

I took some more pictures of the flooding last night. It's insane how many people are down there watching it. We went up to Riverview Park to get some shots and there were no parking spaces available. I think that's the most action that park has seen in ages. You can't help but be in awe of the river though. It's beautiful and sad at the same time. It's amazing that water can rise so quickly and cause so much loss and devastation to people and places. It's also heartwarming to see so many people working together to help fight the flood and do everything possible to keep it from causing more damage. And in spite of it all, it is exciting to turn on the Today show and see Al Roker in Quincy IL and see little ole Quincy on every major newscast. Having Barack Obama come was thrilling too. I think the last time we made national news was probably the flood of '93. Sad, huh? It takes something bad to put us on the map.

Here's a picture of The Dock, a bar that we go to every now and then, though not as much now that we're old married parents!!

A picture of the bay and marina taken from Riverview Park.
I thought the sun looked so beautiful coming through the clouds onto the water. You can see the train bridge in the background almost down on the water. I don't know if that bridge closed or not. The water looks peaceful and serene here.
This is of Clat Adams Park on the way back over the bridge (the open one that is!!). You can see the blue topped gazebo fully underwater and by the 3 white flagpoles is the fountain that is usually so pretty. The park actually comes quite a ways out into the water and we love to sit on the benches and watch the boats. This is also where they have the fireworks on the 4th of July. I haven't heard if they are cancelled or moving to another location. I doubt they will be able to have them here even if the water is down. It will be such a mess.
There's the Memorial Bridge as it comes back up out of the water. It's creepy to think of that bridge being underwater. I sure hope once the water goes down, they check it over really good for damage. I will still be a bit freaked to drive over it for awhile.

Father's Day

Father's Day was an absolutely awesome day. The 5 of us spent the morning hanging out at home together. Then on the way to Uncle Leroy's pool party, we stopped off at my Uncle Joe's house (MY godfather) so I could see him. The pool party was a lot of fun. He has a nice in ground pool with a diving board and water slide. All 3 boys had a blast swimming and playing with all of their Klauser cousins (and there are plenty!). Here are a few pictures from there.


Grandpa Ken with his 3 grandkids

Aiden with his Godfather, Uncle Scott. Is that a good juice box Scott?

Next we headed out to my Dad's Cabin for a cookout with our family, Beth's family, and Todd's family. The weather was absolutely perfect, the rain never showed! Many memories are made out at the cabin and this was a good day for them. The kids took Gator rides, swam in the lake, went bug catching, ate good food, and had a lot of fun.

Noah with his Godfather, Uncle Matt. For some reason Noah wanted the beef jerky in the photo too.

Todd with his Goddaughter, Ellie.
Me with my Dad and brothers, Nate and Matt. Yep, we're sitting in the Gator for the photo. Classy, huh?? :)

This was the best I could capture of Todd and the boys. Everyone was having too much fun to sit still too long for pictures! Grandpa John with all of his grandkids. Getting a group shot with 6 kids is never easy!!!
Todd and his boys swimming in the lake!

This is what it looks like when you throw a Grandpa, 2 Dads, and 5 boys in the lake.....fun and chaos! Noah perfectly summed up how we all felt on the way home that night. Exhausted!!! We even unloaded the van when we got home and he didn't wake up. It was a fun day!

I had really wanted a picture of just me and my dad on Father's Day and didn't get around to it. I did find this picture the other day of me and my dad on Father's Day 1977 and I made it into a Father's Day card for him! Love you , dad!!!

And Todd, I love you for the amazing father you are to our 3 amazing boys as well as the incredible husband you are to me. I'm so lucky to have you!!

The Tri-Jesus Triathlon and Barack Obama

To say today was exciting is an understatement! It started off with Noah losing tooth #2. Then we headed off to Wavering Park for the Tri-Jesus Triathlon. Todd has done this for a number of years now and last year was Drew's 1st year. This year Noah decided to give it a go also and worked really hard for it. Todd ended up beating his time from last year by about 5 1/2 minutes which is a great improvement! Drew got 3rd place in his age group and Noah got 7th place in his age group. I was so very excited and proud of them. They both had such a great sense of accomplishment from this and are so proud of their medals. Drew also received a plaque for being in the top 3. Noah was so cute when he said "This is the biggest day of my life!"

This is after they finished their races. My 3 cute tri-athletes!

This is a lot of the Quincy MultiSport Club members. Todd and the boys are in there but it's hard to see everyone in the shade.

Todd nearing the finish line!

I love this picture because it just worked out perfectly that Noah was just starting his swim and Drew was finishing up. Noah is at the top of the pic and Drew at the bottom.

Drew finishing up on his bike, getting ready for his run.

There is Noah starting his run. See those kids at the bottom of the hill?? Noah passes them up! Just call him Speedy.

This is Noah running towards the end. I think he just looks so darn cute here.

This was the fan club. Thanks Grandpa Ken, Uncle Scott, Aunt Beth, Blake,Ty and Ellie for coming to cheer them on. The boys are all busy chowing down on pretzels as we wait for the boys to come by.

Miss Ellie kept smiling at me so I had to take a picture. Don't I have the cutest niece?

Drew crossing the finish line. Go Drew!!

Noah crossing the finish line. So proud of you buddy!

Drew and Aiden holding up the signs

So I've blogged about the flood recently. Today Drew and I along with two of my friends, Johnna and Leslie, went down to the Oakley Lindsey Center to help with sandbagging. We worked for 2 1/2 hours and let me tell you...that's a workout. I'm already feeling it!! But the exciting part was getting to meet Barack Obama. We got to shake his hands and talk to him. What awe-inspiring wisdom did I pass on to him? "Thanks for coming". Sorry, that's the best I could come up with. I was so shocked that he came over to us, I didn't know what to do. I attempted to get a picture of him as he shook Drew's hand but it's still on my phone. I mostly just got his arm anyway because as I was taking it, he was reaching up to me!!

Here he is shortly after he arrived. I have to say, he is a nice looking man! (Is that politically correct??)
Here he is shaking my friend Johnna's hand. I think she was probably about wetting her pants right there. She is a HUGE Obama supporter and has a bit of a crush on him as well. Drew and I were right on the other side of her. Needless to say, it was a great day all around.