A Day at the Beach!!

On Sunday we went to Clear Lake (about 12 minutes from Garner) to go to the beach and have a picnic and go swimming!! It was SUCH a perfect day out too! I thought it would be a little cool since it was pretty windy out but the wind turned warm and the sun was shinning most of the day! It was so much fun to go as a family and just hang out, the kids had a blast!! We had our picnic and then walked around the beach for a little while looking at the neat houses along the water and looking at the ducks, etc and then we came back to the beach and went swimming and then walked around the cute town of Clear Lake. It was a perfect day!!

We started off the day with a picnic!! It was the perfect picnic meal with pb&j sandwiches, grapes, bananas, potato salad, & chips! The weather was perfect (a little windy but it felt good when the sun was out!!)

Caedmon eating his sandwich. Brayan had fallen asleep in the car so we just moved his car seat to the stroller and he slept for quite a while!

The cruise boat they take out every few hours for paying riders. It was actually closed for this day because of the wind out on the lake.

I think he's a little too short yet....

Tiernan getting ready to go swimming!

Yes, that is Caedmon in the water!!! This is funny....as we pulled up into our parking space right when we got to the beach, Caedmon started bawling b/c he saw the water! We were like 'ok Caedmon...you've been in the bathtub, you can be in here!...plus, you're obsessed with playing in the toilet whenever we aren't looking, so just pretend it's a big toilet!" He still didn't like it until I got him down by the water and asked him 'do you want to get down?' and to my surprise, he nodded his head yes!!! So I set him down and he started throwing sand right away...yay!!

Here he is getting a bit more brave....

Beach Bums :)

Where's Bray Bray??

Smiley

Mmmm...that ice cream was good!!

There was this fountain thing that randomly sprayed water really high up so some kids had a good time doing that. It was fun to watch.

The picture below is of a ampi-theater thing that they have in the park where a band was performing. There were tons of people sitting in lawn chairs, etc watching their performance.

Norman and Gill

Sorry it's been a while since I've posted on here!! Not too much exciting has been happening. We got a couple goldfish from Walmart when we were there. We figured at 28 cents a piece, if they just last a couple days, it was still worth it!! The kids have been enjoying them and Tiernan would feed them all day long if I'd let him! I did have to put them on top of the frig for a while, out of Caedmon's reach because a couple days ago, he was sitting up on the table watching them and then when I looked again, he was playing with one....in his hand!! Then I looked at the bowl and it had a bobby pin laying on the bottom, a kleenex floating around, and 2 toothpicks and a starburst wrapper floating on the top :) Needless to say, I had to clean their bowl....

Tiernan looking very closely at the fish. We named them Norman and Gill :)

Nathan has been working alot, 12-14 hour days. He got home at 7:30 a couple nights ago and after he showered, he sat down to eat and says "Man, this is nice! I'm home and it's only 8:00pm!!" I said 'anyone else would think that's nuts but you think it's early still!' That just gives you an idea of how much and how late he can be working sometimes!! Although he did get off an hour early the night before last because it was absolutely pouring here. It started to rain and thunder and lighting so the kids and I were standing by the door watching it. Then it started to get REALLY windy and the rain was blowing right into my house so we quickly shut the windows and then next thing I know, it's hailing! When I looked out our door (we just had the storm door closed) I could BARELY see the house that is like a few feet away from our front deck because it was rain and hailing and BLOWING that hard! It was actually quite scary and I was contimplating going downstairs, but then I thought let's just shut the door and get away from the window for now!! Plus, there'd be no way I could have gotten the kids outside and down 2 flights of stairs in that weather. I called our landlord to see what radio station to listen to to hear the weather, but that hailing and blowing only lasted a few minutes. Then it just rained and rained for awhile. Nathan got home about an hour than usual and he stood outside in the rain for awhile soaking it up, washing himself off and LOVING the coolness of it for a change! Then he got home yesterday at about 11am because it was raining in the morning again. It's rained most of the night last night and was thundering and lightning this morning but there's no sign of him yet!

The road right outside, it was flooded again and only that tiny line down the middle was the road peeking through.

Nathan washing himself off in the pouring rain!

Nathan says "It's so nice out here!!"

Nothing too new with the kids....Tiernan loves his train set and that keeps him busy for quite some time. Oh, there is one kinda new thing with Caedmon, he sat in the tub WITHOUT screaming for ONCE!! YAY!! He still bawled as we put him in there, but then once we let him throw a few toys in and make some splashes, he decided it wasn't SO bad in there. That is the first time EVER that he hasn't been absolutely screaming when being by water. If you remember from previous posts, Caedmon usually cries just when he SEES water, so this was quite a milestone! and Brayan is standing more and more on his own (he thinks he's pretty cool) and is now walking behind his push toy.

Caedmon's enjoying the water!!!

When we say "Praise the Lord!", Brayan does this.... :)

The dreaded laundry room....This is what you see right when you open the door to the laundry area...

...and when you turn to your right, there you see the washer and dryer...

I have actually had time during naps a couple days this week to do some scrapbooking!! I'm trying to get caught up on Brayan's so any time that I can squeeze it a page or two is so nice!!

Oh, by the way, I clocked the drive from here to 'downtown' Garner and it's 1.1 miles one way. So I figure we probably walk about 2.5-3 miles each time we go out since we most of the time don't take the shortest distance there, etc. So that's why it took so long last week to walk to the dollar store, cuz it's 1.5 miles away!


Well, that should be all for now. Things might get a little more interesting here in the next couple-few weeks, but you'll just have to stay posted!!! :)

Happy Summer!!

What a beautiful summer day in Garner IA! It's sunny and 80 degrees as I write this at 6:40pm. The kids and I have been trying to get into a routine this week since it seems like it's been an eternity since we've had 'a normal day'. It's actually been going very well. I thought the days would just drag on forever with Nathan working so many hours, but to my surprise, they've been going by fairly quickly.

We've been getting out in the afternoon for a couple hours to walk around the town, so that breaks up the day nice. We usually do this in the afternoon so we can come home and start making supper right away, but today we did our walk in the morning because I had to hit a garage sale :) I actually went to two of them and the second one wasn't even planned! I found an awesome book (5o cents!) there that I know Nathan will really like so I'm pumped about that find! But then by the time we got home, it was time to make lunch, so it worked out nice!

Yesterday we started our walk at 3:45 to go to the dollar store, it took 40 minutes to walk there! You'd think in a little town like this, everything would be very close by, but since we live on the very south-western part of Garner and all the stores are on the north-eastern side, it takes a while!! So by the time we went to that store and then walked across the lawn to the other store (ALCO...reminds me of Warroad, since that's the only other ALCO store I've ever seen... :) and walked home, it was 2 hours later!! And since I'm by myself I don't have the luxury of Nathan pushing the stroller when I'm tired....so needless to say, I'm really hot and sweaty and exhausted from pushing the stroller with usually 3 kids in it!!...but at least I get in a good work out with each walk!! I'll be shedding the last of my baby pounds in no time!!...yippee!!

(Just a quick note...I was just interuppted by Tiernan who came to me and said "Caedmon splashed me!" so I look over and Tiernan is soaked, head to toe. It looked like he just got out of the bath tub with his clothes on. I said "He splashed you with what??" and he said "the toilet!" HE WHAT?!? Ugh....So when I made it to the bathroom I found Caedmon just as wet as Tiernan standing in front of the toilet in a lake on the floor giggling. I tell ya..... )

THANK YOU to those of you who have signed my guest book! There must be only 5 of you that check my blog ;) Ok, so I know there's more than that, so SIGN IT if you haven't, PLEASE?? So thanks again Mom (the kids hug you back), Carol (we look forward to seeing you and your family soon!), Diane (no I haven't found a source for eggs), Jen (we miss you too!) and Amy (yes we remember you and great to hear from you! just curious as to how you heard about our blog??) Anyone is free to email me at anytime as well! dawnlegatt@msn.com

Here are some pics of Brayan standing by himself...He will be taking his first steps soon I'm sure. And to think he's only 9 months old....although I guess in a couple days he'll be 10 months, but still, he's my baby.. :( Maybe it should be time for another?? :)

A little blurry, sorry....

Not sure if he was trying to do the splits or what??

The "are they twins?!?" duo :)

GUEST BOOK....PLEASE SIGN!!!

Ok, I know I already did a post this morning, but I had to let you all know that I just added a guest book to my blog and I would like EVERYONE to SIGN IT!! It is located on the top right of the blog site. All you need to do is click on it and it will let you send a message, etc. I have been finding out about more and more people that check our blog that I had no idea that they did!! I think it would be VERY neat if everyone could at least put their name in the guest book (you don't even have to write a message if you don't want to...although that'd be fine if you did :) ...but just a name would be fine with me so I can get an idea of everyone that reads this!! It just tickles me to hear that people really actually read my blog...so I guess it would be cool to find out who you all are! Thanks and I look forward to seeing A LOT of names in the guest book very shortly!! hehe :)

Let the Summer begin!!

Nathan had his first full day of 'regular' work yesterday! He worked 13 hours, from 7am to 8pm, so he left around 6:30am and got home at about 8:30pm. He said that once the project gets underway that they will be working from sun-up to sun-down. That makes a long day, for him and I! But we knew that going into this and that is the reason why we are here...get us that much closer to building our house! Speaking of that, we are getting bids from sub-contractors to get an idea of the cost of building, so if you know of anyone who is skilled in a certain area and wants a chance at a bid, let me know and I will email them our blue prints! Here are a few pictures taken this week.....

This is where Biggie rides when he gets tired of walking (he REALLY likes it under there!) and this time, he fell asleep....

The playground that is a block away...there's more to it but I couldn't get it all in one picture :)

This is by where Nathan is working, just to give you an idea of how wet it still is. When everything is so saturated...there's no where for the water to receed to! They are just doing stuff that they can do without going into the ditches (hauling poles, etc)

The new waterpark in town that is 1 block from our place. They are open every day of the week and have music blaring, so we can hear it from where we are at. There's kids ALL the time riding bike around here in their swimsuits and we know exactly where they are headed :)

This thing is cool....its this bucket that fills with water and then tips over and obviously splashes alot. The little cones things behind it whip around with water in there to, getting whoever wet that is nearby.

We don't see too many kids on this slide, actually I've only seen one girl go down it for all the times that we've walked passed it already. The water coming out of it is super fast and it's almost straight down, so I think it's too much for the younger kids and pushes them too far underwater when they go down it....but it sure looks like fun to me!

This pic was taken the first couple days we were here, that is why it is so wet...but here is an overall pic of the park, although it looks much more impressive in person...you'll just have to come and visit!!!

Lots of people in there...it was 82 degrees and sunny!

Happy Father's Day!

Well, here they are....my 4 favorite guys on this planet!! They all matched with their white shirts and army green shorts, it was SO cute! And to my surprise, I was able to snap a wonderful picture of all of them!! Aren't they HANDSOME?!?! :)

We spent Father's Day in the following way:

In the morning we made a trip out to the farm to get milk! This is the closest we have been to a farm to get milk so far! It is about 10 miles away. They have a great set-up, milking about 150 cows. They have mostly holsteins and jersey with some other breads that I can't remember :) One thing interesting that I learned was that since they have been certified organic (since 2005) they haven't had to have the vet out at all!! Their cows stay really healthy and if one happens to get sick, they give it garlic and other natural stuff!! Maybe more people should learn something from the cows...think about it....they EAT ORGANIC hay and food (not sprayed with pesticides and junk) and they DON'T take any antibotics, and THEY ARE NOT SICK!!! Hmmm...go figure! Only if HUMANS could learn more from the cows...!

After the farm, we got a surprise visit from Nathan's parents! (They called before they came but it was when they were already on their way!) They got to our house around 2 and left about 7:30. It was a nice afternoon, we played cards and had supper and then went for a walk and made a quick stop at the park before coming home.

Hope all you father's out there had a great, relaxing day!

Anyone have a solution??

Okay, I seem to have a little bit of a problem.....We made a clothes line from our deck and the first time I hung clothes out there, it was so windy and the clothespins were so cheap that the weight of the clothes pulled the pins apart and they broke or fell off, leaving my clothes either just hanging on by one pin or they fell down. So we came to the conclusion that we needed to get those 'old fashion' clothespins that just have the slit down the center so the wind couldn't twist them apart. Well....I was at a garage sale a couple days ago that had a whole basket of these 'old fashioned clothespins for sale!! So I scooped them up and proudly brought them home showing Nathan my sweet buy! Since today was an extremely nice, hot and sunny day, I thought it would be a great time to do a load of laundry and hang them out to dry. Well, the good news is the pins worked great for keeping the clothes on the line and we had no problem with them breaking!! The bad news is that the pins left big brown spots on our clothes!! So I'm asking if anyone knows why they would be doing that?? Is it because they are too old and the wood is starting to wear off of them, or is it because maybe they haven't been used in a while so they are dusty and need to be run through some water before I use them again, or what?!?! Thankfully it was a dark load but there were a few lighter-blue stuff that have some nasty marks on them. I would appreciate ANY ADVICE anyone would have on this matter....thanks!!

Can we be normal, please??

We are enjoying being back at our own place and getting a little bit of 'normalcy' (if there is such a thing with us!!) Nathan called his supervisor today to see where he is supposed to show up for work on Monday and the supervisor said that they aren't working until at least Wednesday!! That's 2 more days that we can enjoy having Daddy home!! It is just still so wet around here that their work can't be started yet. We heard tonight that Mason City might have to shut their water off again too! It's crazy.... This job was supposed to start on June 2nd and now it is maybe going to be starting on the 18th, so they will have to work lots right away to get caught up.

We rented a movie last night and I just have to say that I miss Luverne's movie prices... :( It was a whoppin' $3.50 to rent a movie!! We are not used to that. Luverne was the good 'ol $.50, but what do ya do I guess??

I am starting to like Garner more than I did a couple weeks ago. It is starting to feel more like "home" (although it won't come close to Luverne!!) and our apt is suiting us just fine! We just giggle a little when we have to kick the fridge shut to close it and when our oven door falls off, but we know that we are making these sacrifices now so we can have a better future!! (and stay as a family in the process) Those things do really make us laugh though....oh, and 2 of our burners don't work (AND they are the front two!!) so that's not too fun....And I'm sure that it would be a sight to see when we are trying to walk/jump/skip over to the places in the floor that don't creek (super loudly!) when our kids are sleeping so we don't wake them up...but all in all this place is just peachy :)

For those of you who like to camp and maybe would like to visit us as well....we hear there is a great campground in Clear Lake (next town over) and it's right on the water so that would be something worth checking out!! Also, Clear Lake is a very touristy town in the summer with tons of cute shops and a nice big central park and stuff like that.

OH, and one more thing....WE'VE GOT MILK!!! :) We were able to get a hold of an ORGANIC dairy farmer in Garner (praise the Lord!!...and thank you Google) who has agreed to let us get milk from them!! We haven't been out there yet but plan to go tomorrow. I will make sure to let you know how it goes. We feel very blessed that there is a source for us to get milk and that it is close by! We need to find eggs yet, but I hope the farmer's wife would have an idea for that since the farmer had no clue. Also, there aren't any organic products of anything at our local grocery store so we have to get all that from Mason City when we go there.

Grab your hammer, I think we need to build an ark!!

We went for a walk around the town the day after all the flooding and every driveway pretty much had the same thing at the end of it....LOTS of soaked carpet, padding, rugs, furniture, etc. It was amazing at just how many houses basements were flooded!! House after house after house had piles of garbage sitting out! There were LOTS of sump pump hoses draining down driveways and onto the street, most with water gushing out of them! We couldn't do anything buy feel bad for the people.....(Oh yeah, and we saw dead CARP in the parking lot of the grocery store! They were huge!...like mini whales! It was from the river over-flowing and them swimming around the flooded area and then getting stuck when the water started to receed...interesting..)

We heard that Mason City (about 15 miles East of us) got about 10 inches of rain from that last big rain fall to give a total of 20 inches in the past couple weeks! Mason city's water was shut off due to flooding, which meant all the restaurants and stores were closed b/c of the unsanitary conditions without being able to wash your hands, etc...so no toilets could flush, no showers, no water was running..period. It was pretty bad! Plus to top it all off...we got ANOTHER 3 inches of rain last night!!

One kinda good thing that came from all this water was that when Nathan went to work on Monday, they told the crew that the whole operation is going to be shut down for the week b/c everything is flooded and there'd be NO way of getting into the fields (which are pretty much lakes as of now!) So Nathan has the whole week off!!! And to make things even better, he got PAID for the whole week too!! He has NEVER received paid time off, so it's been a treat to have him home and still be getting paid!!

Since we have this whole week with not too much to do, we decided to make a quick trip to St. Cloud on Tuesday, and we were at my parents house by 3pm. We wanted to get in a quick pontoon ride before the rain came! (My dad just bought a pontoon a couple weeks ago so we needed to test it out!) The boys LOVED it!!....even "I'm scared of the water" Caedmon was walking all over the place and throwing leaves into the water! We were very impressed! My mom's cousin Sylvia from Washington state came to visit so she was at my parents house too. It was fun to see her since it's been a good 8 years since we've seen her!

We didn't do too much else in St. Cloud (besides looking at the finished road out on the development and visiting the chiropractor) and we left by the morning on Wednesday. On our way home, we thought it would be fun to stop by our good friends house, Wade and Michelle, who live in Hanover (by St. Michael/Albertville) for a couple hours since it has been a YEAR since we've seen Michelle and the kids! Wade has stayed with us in Luverne while working in Sioux Falls, but it was nice to see him again too! Once we started gabbing and enjoying each other's company, we were convinced by Wade to stay the night! We had a wonderful waffle breakfast this morning and we left shortly after that! It was a great time!

Sylvia and Brayan (doesn't she look like my mom?!?)

Giddy up cowboy!

Lovin' the pontoon....except it was COLD!!

One of the endless piles of carpet.....

People's stuff being aired out

More 'reckage'

The loading dock at the grovery store!!!

More...


and more....

When it rains, it pours!!

Well, we just got back from driving around town and taking some pictures of the crazy amount of rain we got! Garner got about 10 inches of rain last week and right when it started to dry up, it rained and rained yesterday, last night and today. It's actually still raining out now but not as hard as before. It poured, and I mean down-poured all afternoon....straight down, no wind...just a heavy heavy rain for hours! The pictures pretty much speak for themselves.....(reminder: where ever you see water, it is NOT supposed to be there!)...no these are not picture of lakes that are normally there :)

This is our welcome sign in front of the golf course....(notice the light is underwater)

Someone's backyard....

Water gushing from someone's yard OVER the curb and into the road

Feed mill place.....

Used to be a planted field.....

Used to be grass.....

Parking lot of Alco's

This is why our grocery store is closed today....and probably will be for a while....

Some other business.....

Wanna buy that truck?

From our deck looking into our neighbors yard....

The road going to the grocery store....

The golf course...what a mess!!!

More golf course.....

One more golf course picture....