The Madison Adventure

This is the view from where we were sitting. We could see nearly the entire orchestra! And the music was fantastic! They had a wide variety of pieces to please almost everyone in the audience! I estimate that where we sat, if we were to sit in the same position in the orchestra hall, would cost about $70-$80 per person to attend! If they ever come to the area again we would most definitely drive all the way back to catch it!

I almost forgot! I got to see Kathy Dunsmoor!! I worked with her for 2 years at Madison Elementary, and when we got the town on Friday night I had realized on the drive that I forgot to pack my phone charger, toothbrush and pj's... (I was just excited to come back to visit... so I forgot some things) So, we went to Target to find the things I needed, well who was working? KATHY! We stood and talked for abit! She admitted she reads my blog! (blushes) I'm so happy people take the time! But it was great to see her! I will definitely have to make sure when I come back to town I take the time to make a short stop to see her!!

Sunday I got to go home (Stewartville) to spend some time with family! I made Spicy Spaghetti! It's super simple!
1lb. Spicy Pork Sausage
1pkg. Pepperoni
29oz. Tomato Sauce
1 can Cheddar Soup
Oregano
Spaghetti Noodles
Cook and crumble pork sausage. Drain, and put back in pan. Add tomato sauce, cheddar soup, and pepperoni. Heat through and then add oregano. Simmer for about 5 min. and serve! At this point it also helps to have cooked the spaghetti noodles, but if you want to eat them raw that's cool....

So, I spent time with my family (Mom, Da, Tami and Gram) and then we had to take off mid-afternoon to make it back before too late. I ended up starting our drive back, my Da even called Otto to say I did a pretty good job taking off! (remember his car is a manual... and I've driven it less than a handful of times... and I still can't start from a dead stop going up hill...) I felt extremely proud! I'm getting better!!!

As for work today (9 July)... Bubbles and I have decided to start putting ASL into our lesson plans and create sheets to send home with the kids so the parents know what they're trying to say. So... this means I will be spending a good amount of time using our new printer that my AWESOME GRANDMA bought us since it has a scanner! I'll scan and cut and paste things to create the sheets! Much easier than trying to draw everything out... being that I'm a perfectionist-artist... I would take weeks for any page I could scan in under a minute!

These are my two best friends! Jeb (who I have already posted a pic of) and Jo (who lives and works up in the Cities)! Jo found out I was coming into town for the weekend concert and drove all the way down to spend the weekend with us! This is one point in which she stole the camera from me and was taking random pics of people and what not! They are the greatest!! Jed ended up taking almost all of her work hours over the weekend off! It was positively wonderful to get a chance to spend a ton of time with them!!!!
This is my other really, really, really good friend Ribbit (She's basically family... my mom even treats her like a daughter!) She came to join us for dinner at Perkins and decided to tag along to catch the concert! As you can tell there are tons of people at this thing. We were sitting in the middle of the crowd... Otto and I went to the spot earlier in the day to stake a spot with a blanket and some folded chairs! We had amazing seats!
This is Otto's little brother Alex. I had to post this pic because it ended up looking so natural. Well, I did just snap the pic without telling him... He came to hang out with us, but ended up leaving before the concert started because he had band practice. He plays in a rap band... which I wish was more of an alternative type band. I've seen him in concert a couple of times and we love the bass (which he plays), the guitar, and the drums... but we're not so fond of the vocals. It's just that the only thing you can understand is (grumble, grumble, grumble-GODZILLA-grumble, grumble-F.BOMB-grumble, grumble)! And I'm not kidding when I say this... We think all they need is some understandable lyrics!

Extra

I made some onesies for Teddy! I just bought plain ones and then used some permanent markers on them. I only wanted to do a couple, but you can only buy them in packs of five. So I had to try and find things to put on them... I think they are great! In case you can't read them they read: (from right to left) Busy Bee, Peanut, "Noob", iPoo, and Sweet Pea! As far as I could tell both Ed and Rachel thought they were cute... at least it's something for Teddy to wear!
I held the baby for the majority of the time, but decided I should probably share him, so I handed him off to Otto. As you can tell Mommy is supervising the feeding. Otto felt alittle awkward... he doesn't hold babies on a regular basis, but he did a great job! Although, funny story... Teddy ended up puking up the whole bottle one he finished it! Luckily no one ended up wearing any of that except Teddy himself!
On Saturday we ended up spending most of our day in Winona at the Blue Heron. It was way too hot to be outside for any amount of time. So we hunkered down in a coffee house playing cards and talking. But Becky showed up and bought a piece of cheesecake. She offered a bite to everyone, and Joanna and I thought it was amazing! So we went to go and buy our own piece! It was so good I had to take a picture and blog about it, but as you can tell we couldn't wait and took a bite out of it right away! If you ever get a chance go there and buy a piece! You won't be disappointed!!!

Tuesday: The day just flew by! And we all had a blast keeping the kids talking about fireworks. Sometimes they say the funniest things when they try to explain things!!

Wednesday: NO WORK!

Thursday: During snack time I was enjoying some of my iced coffee. One child, who we'll refer to as Soybean, asked me what I was drinking, then proceeded to tell me their Dad drank coffee every morning with breakfast. The child sitting next to Soybean looked really confused, and then blurted out, "Girls don't drink coffee. Are you a boy?" I was so stunned I chuckled and responded, "What?" I will admit that I've been mistaken for a boy before, but never because I drink coffee! That is definitely a new one for me!

On the 4th we went to Concert on the Square... and I ran into this:Of course I made Otto walk over with me so I could get a picture of it! On the walk over I asked him if he thought they were doing their little contest where you have to sing the jingle... and then I contemplated singing if they that's what they were doing. Unfortunately they weren't, they just brought the vehicle to show it off because they were sponsoring the concert!

On Tuesday night I convinced Otto to go to Tranformers with me! I really liked it! As in, when it comes out I will most likely go out and purchase it immediately so I can watch it again!!!

When we got out of the movie Otto found a message from our friends in the next building, we'll refer to them at Ryan and Anne! They, some how, ended up with 2 Wii's... and they wanted to know if we wanted to buy the other one from them. We had a discussion about it, and decided we did! Come Monday we'll own a Wii!!! I extremely excited because it's not only a video game console, but you actually have to be up and moving to play the games!! Sort of a step above DDR!!!

Anyone who is interested in joining us we will be in Winona this weekend. The MN Symphony is playing a free concert at the Band shell at 7:30pm on Saturday, July 7th! We will be at the concert, and you should come too!! If you're there stop by and see me, if you can find me!

We hardly have any kids this week... It's sort of interesting. The chemistry in the room has definitely changed!

Tonight some friends of ours from the building next to us called up and asked if we wanted to go bowling... uh, duh! I feel like such a slacker for not bowling more the way it is. So we went to this place called Badger Bowl. Not a bad place, and they sort of had a fun event. It's called Red Pin bowling. When the red pin comes up as the head pin, if you get a strike you get a free game. Each game you have two chances to win a free game. Out of two games (four chances) I won three games!!! I was alittle excited! But other than winning free games we had a blast! We're thinking of joining a league all together come this fall!

So I tried a new recipe tonight for dinner. Salmon in a cream sauce! We both really liked it! The salmon turned out fantastic, the sauce was very interesting (yet strangely yummy), but the rice was sort of watery. The thing with the sauce is this... it's a tangy sauce... and it didn't really thicken... But we both agreed that it was tasty! It definitely made up for the watery rice. It's going into the pile of recipes we have to make again!

I was going to make banana bread tonight, but then I realized we ran out of eggs. :( I think I may have to stop by the store on my way home tomorrow night. I plan on making two loaves. One regular loaf, and one chocolate chip banana bread loaf! I'll tell you which one is better, and probably post the recipe as well!

I am looking forward to having Wednesday off!! I will sleep in! Enjoy some time with Otto, and possibly catch another Concert on the Square!!

Wednesday: We had a blast playing "Over or Under" with the kids. Literally the game was having the kids decide if they needed to walk over or crawl under our staff. Simple game, and yet extremely entertaining!

Thursday: Our first field trip of the summer. We went to a place called KEVA! It was fun and all, but no exactly age appropriate for 3 year olds. Luckily I was taught never to just sit around when on a field trip, I stepped up and helped out their staff to make some of the games more capable for my kids to play. All-in-all... The kids had a blast!!!

Friday: I received a review from my boss of my lesson plan. I guess I must've done a very decent job, because my review was raving! At least I have something to model the rest of mine after in the future!

Wednesday night Otto and I went with some new friends of ours (well, new to me) down to the Capitol to listen to the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra! They set up around the Capitol, and then there are food vendors from local places and tons of people (as you can tell from the picture)! We sat on a curb, watched and listened to them for awhile and then walked down State Street to eat dinner at Chipotle!! It was a wonderful evening, and we definitely are planning on attending more, since they play for free all summer!!!Rhythm and Booms!!! Our friends Heather and Newman came to hang out with us on Saturday. We hung out around the apartment until about 4pm, then we started making Fajitas... we packed them up picnic style! We parked about a 30 min. walk from the park (that was as close to the park as we could get at the time). After finally getting there we parked it at one of the stages to watch a local band named Bascom Hill. We ate our food and listened to some good music. Eventually we found a place to put our blanket until the fireworks started. They were amazing!!!
On Sunday Otto's Grandpa and Dorthy came to visit. We took them to the Capitol to see the rotunda. They loved it!
Here they are at the rotunda! I think they'll definitely come back from another visit!!!

I'm sorry I didn't write much this week. It's been extremely busy week of running around in a million different directions. This week should be a bit better, but one can never tell. Either way, I hope everyone else had a wonderful weekend!!!