Busy Week!

Well, it's been a very busy week for the Von Wald's!

*On Wednesday I got to chaperone a field trip to to Brunswick Zone for Sara's class. It is a really cool place and I'm thinking I may have Sara's birthday party there in November. Check it out for yourself; http://www.bowlbrunswick.com/ What's sad though, is I only bowled a 68, Sara even beat me (although she had bumpers and I didn't).

*On Friday, Hailey took her drivers' test. I have to admit, we did NOT think she would pass. She really didn't have that many hours of driving in with us and seemed a little unsure of her own driving skills. Not to mention that she was going to use my car, the one that was hit in the accident, because it was smaller and she felt better in it. She instead took her test in the Ford Freestyle, which is quite big in comparison to the Civic. Duke texted me at about 9:54am letting me know of the start of her test and that he was "freaking out". Well....

*On Saturday, Jesse had his senior pictures taken by Tina Vega, who is just an awesome photographer to work with, she made Jesse feel so comfortable and Hailey has already proclaimed that "Tina will be doing my pictures next year." Check her out here www.tinavegaphotography.com or here http://tinavega.blogspot.com We have already seen some of her shots of Jesse on her blog and they are just incredible!

I look forward to what this week has to offer but I think it will be hard to top the week we just had.

This is great!

I happened to be up late one night (10:15pm to be exact and for those that know me, that is really late) and I caught a Kare 11 news Extra on grocery shopping (again, for those that really know me, I love food). So, this story caught my attention and I stayed up to watch it. It was a story about this website that would help you save money on your groceries. I have seen other sites before but they have always cost money so I was interested in what this one would have to offer. The lady was talking about how she maintains this website and then comes out with weekly blogs about all of the different grocery stores in our area and what deal they have that week. She then takes it a step further and tells you what coupons you could use to reduce the cost even more. In addition to the weekly shopping lists she also has odds and ends freebies that you can register for. I have been on the site for about 3 weeks or so and have gotten free candy bars, free cereal, free household products, free DQ Blizzards and most recently an entire new book that is yet to hit the shelves (she had a link to preview the book for free and then you could print it out, the book was 156 pages, for FREE!
I decided that I can no longer keep this gem to myself, I have to share it so others can take advantage of the same things that I am.
The website is: http://www.pocketyourdollars.com/ and you cannot wait another moment to go and register on her site, her welcome page will walk you through it and you won't be disappointed, it really doesn't get any easier than this!

Have fun!

Not ME! Monday

I certainly didn't fib to my daughter last week that we couldn't go to the "Cool" McDonald's because it was under repair, simply so I didn't have to sit on a hamburger chair!
I also would have never given my daughter 3 quarters to put in a candy machine over the weekend and then called it lunch.
Nope, I wouldn't do that!

Split Second

Thursday August 6th began like a normal morning for me, except that I had to be to work early for a 7am meeting. I got up that morning, felt great and was actually running ahead of schedule. I grabbed some breakfast to bring with me in the car and then headed on to work, thinking that if I gave myself enough time I would stop and pick up a Caribou prior to my meeting. There was really no traffic at that time of the morning so I was sailing along pretty good. I take the same route to work every day, those of us that live south and drive to the University call it our "super secret way", as if to imply that nobody else knows about it. =)

I headed north on Snelling to take the ramp to head west on 94, like every other day. Because of how early it was, about 6:20am, there weren't a lot of cars backed up on the ramp and cars seemed to be ignoring the metered lights, even though they were running, and they just proceeded onto the highway. Now usually, if there aren't a lot of cars around, I will slow down slightly anticipating my light turning green so I can just continue on. On this day, there was a car in front of me that at the last minute changed it's lane so it would get the green light, I stayed in my lane and the light was red so I stopped..... then, just like that, something told me to look up in my rear view mirror and what I saw was a blue car heading straight for me and they seemed to be coming fast and then just like that I heard them connect with my car. I can't really describe what it sounded like except to say it sounded like a loud balloon popping; I remember lurching forward, I remember saying "holy f#*!&" and then just like nothing, I pulled to the side of the road off of the ramp and got out of my car. It was almost surreal really, I didn't check to see if I was hurt, I recall my neck burning and feeling much hotter than usual, I wasn't overly anxious or anything, I looked at my car and at the gentleman's car that hit me and all he had to say was "well, it looks like my car got the worst of it." A split second is all it took for that to happen, how crazy that I just happened to be at that point at that time on that particular day.

What is somewhat ironic about this is just a couple weeks back, I was talking to my mom after reading this blog http://jodyferlaak.blogspot.com/2009/07/mother-remembers-long-detailed-post.html and we were talking about how there are times when you are in the right place at the wrong time or maybe even in the wrong place at the right time?!?. I questioned how many times in all of our lives have we cheated death or injury because we stopped for an unscheduled cup of coffee, or realized we forgot something at home or stopped for a pedestrian that wanted to cross the street? I guess on this particular day, I was meant to be at that spot. I will always question "why me" and "what if". In the meantime, I just feel fortunate that the only thing needing major repairs is my car and that I still have my life (even though as I sit here typing this my head pounds and I feel achy all over).

I thank God that I was able to walk away from that accident. Will I drive differently or be apprehensive about cars coming up behind me in busy traffic or on ramps, I suppose maybe for a while but then I will go back to my normal ways and hope that I don't have another split second situation in a long long time.

The Power of 3

So, our next week's theme for the 365 Project is entitled, "Power of 3". When I started to think about what that might mean to me I kept looking for things all around me that came in three's and then realized I had one right in front of me; so here is my list of Sara'isms.

• When visiting MOA over the weekend she was enthralled with the flume and the water splashing. We joked with her about going on it and she didn't want to (not that we would have taken her on it). Upon returning home, she informed me that she didn't want to go on that ride and get wet because she "loves her clothes so much and didn't want them to get wet."
• When driving past a vehicle recently, she noticed that the man driving was smoking (She is quick to point out that we must drive with two hands so we don't crash the car) and she told me "Mom, that guy might crash because he has his hand on a white stick in his mouth, that's not good!"
• When trying to convince me at a recent Target trip to buy her a two pack of Softlips chapstick (she wanted it because one of them was pink, have I mentioned that one of her favorite colors is PINK and the other is PURPLE) and I told her that she didn't need chapstick and she had already picked something out of the dollar section, she proclaimed to me, "But mom, if you buy this chapstick for me, I will give you one of them so then it's really for you, not for me."
• Upon returning home from a trip to the mall with Hailey, I presented Sara with a new dress, I should say a new "green" dress; she looked at me and stated "but mom, it's not beautiful because it's not pink."
• During our conversation on the way home today, she was asking when fall comes and I told her that it will be here soon and that when fall comes so does Halloween. I then asked her who she was going to go trick or treating with and she told me, "I want to go with a mommy because when daddy's take you out, they eat your candy out of your bag and they don't wait until they get home."

Yes, that is my Sara, and for three more months I am going to enjoy her "Power of 3" until she then moves into her next stage as a 4 year old; I can only imagine what that will bring to our household and I can't wait!

She loves doing silly faces(outfit chosen by her this morning)!

And she loves "rockin' out" with her fake guitar!

Puzzles

Our new thing, or I should say Sara's new thing right now is puzzles. She cannot get enough of puzzles and she does them really well! I found a great deal on a puzzle at Barnes and Noble a couple weeks back and ever since, that's all she wants to do. I have to say that there is something almost peaceful about doing puzzles, even if there is only 15 or so pieces in it, maybe I should invest in some big kid puzzles for me? We'll see, in the meantime I will just enjoy the time with Sara doing her puzzles.

What ever happend to...

Do you ever wonder how some things all seem to come up at the same time and they all seem to be related? In the last couple of weeks I have tried to better understand my Facebook account that I created on a whim. My stepkids have Facebook accounts and people on the radio really started to talk about having a Facebook account so I thought I would give it a try. When you start your account it asks you questions like "Where did you graduate from and what year?" so I put in my high school, which was Park Sr High in Cottage Grove and 1990 for the year I graduated. This would allow all of those people I went to high school with to find me on Facebook. It's interesting who you hear from on Facebook, I have a whopping 8 friends currently so it's been slow going, but that is ok! I have had three people seek me out that I graduated with, none of whom I hung out with in high school, all to say "It's nice to see you on here", or "We're planning out 20 year reunion, hope to see you there." So I started to think, WOW 20 year reunion, I remember when my 5 year came up and I thought "Nope, high school is still too fresh in my mind, not ready to go back there yet." Then my 10 year came up, again, it seemed too fresh in my mind. The 15 year came and went with no invitation, probably because they couldn't find me due to my multiple addresses during the previous years! Well, now they have found me and 20 years will happen next summer. Not sure I am ready yet? It gets you thinking though...I wonder whatever happened to...(fill in the blank). 20 years is a long time passed and you wonder what paths everyone else took. I have done my share of searching on Facebook to try to find "friends" from the past, haven't had much luck.
Well today, we went to church (I hate to admit we haven't been there in a while). Our regular Pastor was on vacation so we had a sub and his sermon title was..."What ever happened to..." His lead in story was about all of the graduations and reunions that seem to be popping up and he even mentioned something about 20 year reunions! So I think to myself, "Is this a sign that I am supposed to attend my 20 year?" I didn't have the best years in high school, I didn't really fit in with one particular group but I tried to be nice to everyone. I remember the years of trying to figure out where I would hide during lunch because I didn't have anyone to eat with or dreading the pep rallies in the gym for the same reason, I didn't have anyone that would befriend me during that time. So, am I really ready to face all of the people of whom I didn't share much in common with? Luckily I have a year to think about it and try to decide if I really want to go there or not? I started to think also about how long ago 20 years was and what was cool back then. I loved and still love music so I searched some sites on the internet and found this cool link... you can fill in what year you want to see and it will show you the top tunes of that time, the link is http://www.myflashfetish.com/mp3-search.php?top=2008 (it automatically comes up with 2008 but all you have to do is change the year).
Have fun reminiscing and do your own "What ever happened to..."