Birthday celebration

We had a small birthday celebration for Nicklas yesterday. I woke up late so I didn't make him breakfast BUT I give him a donut so he was happy. He took some treats to school to share with his class and his tae kwon do class sang to him. Here's a short video of that. (I have a new iPhone so I can actually take video now!)

(Ignore yellow purse lady who walked right in front of me while I was taking the video.)


After TKD, Nicklas chose dinner at Casa Brava. Mimi and Papa joined us. Then we went home to have cake. Actually we had brownies per Nick's request.

(Excuse the photos of Nicklas without a shirt on. He was ready for bed and his pajamas consist of athletic shorts and that's about it.)





Because Nicklas received my old iPhone to use as his own, he didn't get a lot of big presents this year. He got some books, some decor for his room, hockey cards, a hat, and tickets to see Straight No Chaser.



Nicklas said he had a great birthday and he's pretty sure he'll get some presents from other family members. My 11-year-old!

As my mom pointed out, he's getting so big, soon he'll be taller than her!

Top 10 Things I Love About Today (And It's Only 1pm)

1. I got to sleep in until 7:15.

2. I watched Little House on the Prairie with Seeger.

3. I saw Nick's excitement in opening the hockey cards he received for his birthday.

4. My house is clean, clean, clean. I don't have to worry about housework for a few days.

5. We now have automatic garage door openers, just in time for the cold weather.

6. Seeger is spending the afternoon at a friend's house. He's so excited.

7. Even though I'm at work, no one else is so it's very quiet and I'm making good progress on a project.

8. I have four day weekend.

9. I don't have to cook dinner tonight.

10. I'm looking forward to spending the holiday's with my family.

Happy Birthday, Nicklas!

Nicklas turned 11 today. I can't believe I have an 11-year-old! He was so excited when he came home from the IU basketball game last night and saw his presents sitting on the counter. He also asked if I would set his alarm for 5:36am so he could wake up the moment he turned 11.

(Click here to read his birth story.)

It is such a joy to be a mom to Nicklas. I'm so proud of him and all he accomplishes. He used to be more tentitive to try new things and hesitant to get involved but I see that less and less from him. His general nervousness is being overcome by confidence which makes me happy. Confidence in adolescence is so important! As Nicklas grows and matures, he is more excited to try new things, new experiences, and sometimes, even new foods. He actually tried pad thai a few weeks ago - and he liked it! He also likes chili, meat pizza, tacos, and brownies. For his birthday dinner, he picked Casa Brava so we will be eating there this evening.

Nicklas continues to love sports. He watches ESPN SportsCenter every morning and the Polack always has to search the house for the sports section of the newspaper. He looks forward to college football on Saturday's and NFL on Sunday. He keeps his sports jersey's in a special section of his closet because they mean so much to him. He's doing well in tae kwon do and wants to continue with basketball and baseball. I'm encouraging him to also look at other activities and he recently started playing cello. I would also like to sign him up for theater/drama classes. I've been wanting to do that for some time - he loves acting and he has such an expressive face - and his music teacher recently reinforced this by also suggesting we look into signing him for Stages Bloomington. It would be a great experience for him.

In continuing with our tradition of having birthday parties every other year, this was a non party year for Nicklas. Instead he invited two friends to spend the night last Friday. I picked them up from school and we went to the store so they could pick out some snacks to eat for the evening. They spent most of the time playing Wii but also talking sports and wrestling. They were so loud and I LOVED every minute of hearing the boys talk and laugh and celebrate Wii game victories. Seeger and the Polack were gone most of the evening for Seeger's orange belt testing but when they got home, the boys were so good to Seeger. Before bed, they all watched Mystery Men together and in the morning, I made them chocolate chip pancakes. The entire time, I think I had a smile on my face because I really enjoyed seeing and hearing the boys play together and taking care of them while staying out of their way. I was able to play my favorite role - mom to Nicklas and Seeger. I'm so blessed to have so great kids. Even when they drive me crazy, I would never want to change our relationship.

I know that things will get tough as Nicklas (and Seeger) go through their teenage years. It's never easy for any kid or their parents. I hope I'll remember the be sensitive to his needs and respectful of his emotions. Regardless, I will remind myself that I've done the best I could with providing Nicklas all the tools needed to survive in this world we live. I always enjoy going back and reading previous birthday blog posts I've written about Nicklas. Hopefully, I'll continue to practice in years to come to remind myself how lucky I am.

Happy birthday, Nicklas. Thank you for always making me smile.

Random Thought Thursday

1. Lately Seeger has been telling us that he wants to go to Hawaii. We always agree with him on that. Last night he said he wanted to go to Hawaii. Or Illinois. He said that both are good places to go hiking.

2. The quilting weekend with the group went well. I didn't get a lot sewn but I had fun catching up with folks. I especially enjoyed playing Right, Left, Center with fabric. Best idea ever.

3. I've cleared the house of all the desserts that were left over from the weekend. I don't know if my co-workers were happy or sad when I brought a plate of treats in each day.

4. My mom went back to work on Tuesday after being off several weeks for her knee cap surgery. I haven't called her yet to see how she's doing so I feel really guilty. I know she'll read this so I want her to know that I've been thinking about her EVEN though I haven't called.

5. I'm ready to get my Christmas decorations out -- I'm really looking forward to the holiday season this year. The Polack has a strict no-decorations-or-music-until-after-Thanksgiving policy and I've always agreed with it. But for some reason, this year I want to break the rule.

6. I finished a meeting early yesterday and had some time before my class started so I went shopping for Nicklas (he's outgrown all his pants and I'm tired of the ankle waders) and ended up buying garage door openers. I was really worried about the Polack being upset about not including him in the garage door opener decision but he was cool with it. Now we just need to clean out our garage.

7. It really sucks not having curbside recycling. We try to be a good recycling family and we do pretty good but it's such an annoyance find the time to take our recycling to the disposal center. They make you separate EVERYTHING. I shouldn't complain because I've never actually had to go - the Polack always does it - but we both deal with the overflow of recycling that takes over our garage.

8. This morning when I let Freddie out to do his business, there was a strong smell of skunk at the front porch. I was afraid the culprit would come charging at me but luckily he didn't. I am definitely more fearful of critters now that I live out in the country.

9. I get to see the Nutcracker two times this year. Yay! This makes up for not seeing at all last year. One performance is in Indianapolis and the other is in Fort Wayne - back to back weekends. I also want to take the family to see the local production of Annie. One of Nick's classmates has the lead and I think it would be fun to support her.

10. I've offered to throw a double couple's bridal shower for my brother and cousin who are getting married within a month of each other. I'm excited but nervous about the situation. I'm worried that it will be hard to please everyone. At least I have several months to plan and I'm hoping my cousins will get involved with planning.

Top 10 International Places I'd Like To Visit

This list includes places I've never been to before. They are in no particular order because it would be too difficult for me to prioritize them. (Heck, it's going to be hard enough to list only 10.)

1. Bali
2. Scandinavia (Including a stop at Kristiansand, Mia's home town and Malmo)
3. United Kingdom (London and Cardiff, Wales, where my cousin Molly lives)
4. Rome (And southern Italy, including Sicily)
5. New Zealand/Australia (Especially Perth)
6. Vancouver
7. Ireland
8. Brazil
9. Hong Kong
10. Bora Bora or Tahiti or Somoa or Fiji

Top 10 list

I've been thinking about a new meme for my blog, especially because I seem to be a bit burnt out on Random Thought Thursday. (No worries, I still do RTT but maybe not every Thursday. What, you say? I already don't do every Thursday?) I'm calling this one my top 10 list and it's inspired by Sarah at Overlap. Sarah makes a lot of top 10 lists. A LOT. And she spends a lot of time with her friends making top 10 lists. She's inspired me to make my own lists and I thought I'd share with all of you.


Top 10 Things I Loved About Yesterday

1. Hearing Nicklas talk about his progress in school during our parent/teacher/student conference.
2. Hearing Nicklas' teacher praise him and then empower him to continue to strive to improve and work hard.
3. One-on-one time with Nicklas and the Polack at Jiffy Treet to celebrate an awesome conference.
4. Having my students incorporate an in-class exercise during their group presentation.
5. Looking - and admiring - the quilt blocks I put together over the weekend.
6. Staying awake longer than the Polack. (I'm ALWAYS the one who falls asleep first.)
7. Sharing yummy desserts with my co-workers that were left over from the weekend.
8. Thanking my co-worker for the IU basketball tickets she gave me on Sunday. I was so appreciative and she was so happy they were used.
9. Eating a chicken salad sandwich (or two) for lunch while watching America's Next Top Model.
10. Visiting with a former student who stopped by while she was visiting Btown. She spent the last four months in Sitka, Alaska and told me all about her great (and not so great) experiences.

Hoosier Basketball

Even though the team is young and the Big 10 season will be tough for them, I'm still excited about the IU Basketball this season. A co-worker gave me two tickets to the game last night so I took Nicklas and we had a great time. I was excited to see Cody Zeller play and the game was especially fun because my man, Victor Oladipo, had career high scoring and a few of his awesome slam dunks.

When we got there, we realized that Nick's friend, Nik was sitting a few seats away with his mom who I've gotten to know this year. What a pleasant surprise!

Random Thoughts Thursday

1. I only have about 10 minutes before I need to leave to pick up Nicklas and Seeger from tae kwon do so we'll see how many thoughts I can write down in my limited time.

2. Seeger finally lost his tooth!!!! He's one happy boy. I know tooth sharing photos are gross but I wanted everyone to see how much his adult tooth has grown in before his baby tooth came out. Unbelievable.


3. This weekend I'm hosting a group of quilting friends for a Bloomington quilt camp. I'll have a full house and I haven't done anything to prepare for it so I decided to take the day off tomorrow so I can change sheets, make beds, and grocery shop. We'll see if I can fit in actual house cleaning. (Well, I definitely do the toilets but other than that, I'm not so sure.) It will be fun to see everyone.

4. I'm enjoying my teaching experience this semester but the late nights two times per week are getting to me. I'm so thankful this is an eight week course. I didn't get home until 10pm last night. Freddy was the only one who greeted me at the door because all the boys were asleep.

5. So apparently now when you're a student and you want to add a class, you just fill out an e-doc and the request goes to the course instructor. Every other day it seems like I have students adding my class. After we started the third week of the eight week class, I finally stopped approving the requests.

6. I ordered a new iPhone. I'm looking forward to a phone with more memory since I have to continuously delete pictures because my phone is full. That's pretty annoying.

7. Since I'm getting a new phone, Nicklas gets my old one. He's super excited to have an actual iPhone and I'm sure he'll feel like the cool kid for a while.

8. Just two more minutes and I need to come up with three more random thoughts. Yikes, some over perfumed person just walked in my office and now I'm trying not to gag. Blech, I taste perfume in my mouth.

9. The Polack and I are going to see my new favorite band, Fitz and the Tantrums, who are playing at the Bluebird in a few weeks. I can't wait!

10. Speaking of, I might as well direct you a link of them playing. Here's a clip of their recent performance of Don't Gotta Work It Out on Jay Leno. Enjoy!

The 9/11 Memorial

I was in NYC last week for week and I decided to check out the 9/11 Memorial. Reservations were required but entry was free. Two square pool/fountains sit atop the location of the former two towers. The fountains were much bigger than I expected.



They are lined with the names of those that lost their lives during the 9/11 attacks.


The Memorial is surrounded by construction as new buildings are erected in the area.





This was in the visitor center. My brother-in-law is a firefighter so it really touched me.


A visit to the Memorial is a must-see for anyone visiting NYC.

Seeger's Tooth

Seeger is the only one in his class that hasn't lost a tooth yet. We
were excited when he realized one was loose - until we saw what's
behind it. I'm hoping it comes out soon so that we don't have to get
it pulled.

It's Homecoming...

And all I got is this keychain....

It's Sink the Biz time...

Random Thoughts

Hmmmm... I'm not really sure what to write about today. I don't have many random thoughts swirling in my head but it's Thursday and I've missed several RTT's in a row so I feel like I should probably write something. Let's see....

1. *chirping crickets* Oh wait, I forgot to mention that we're now proud owners of a cello. Nicklas joined the Strings program at his school and he picked the cello to play. I called around about rentals and everyplace was out of 3/4 size except one place but it was really expensive. Like $150 for three months. That seems like a lot, no? So I decided to buy one on eBay since it was only $175. I figured it wouldn't matter as much if it got beat up. Except that when the cello actually arrived, it wasn't completely put together. The bridge had to be added and the strings needed spaced. (I didn't even know what a bridge was until this damn thing arrived in the mail.) So I had to take it to get serviced and I ended up at the expensive rental place where the owner looked down his nose at the cheap eBay cello and rolled his eyes. I think he was scared to touch it for fear that it would fall apart in his hands. He let me know that we needed new rosin and new strings. I told him we had extra strings and showed them to him - See lookie here, Mister String Snob. He rolled his eyes again and said "what are those?" I guess the eBay strings are just as bad as the eBay cello. He knew I wasn't going to fall for spending $150 on new strings so he decided that the current strings might be okay.

In all, I spent $39 to have him move the bridge, space the strings, and sell me new rosin. I really hope Nicklas enjoys playing the cello.

2. The Polack and I went to a Halloween party last weekend. I took some pictures with his phone so I need to transfer them to mine so I can do a post about all the cool costumes. We went as characters from Dexter. He was Dexter and I was wrapped in saran wrap. It was fun and I really enjoyed seeing so many of our Lafayette friends. The boys (as in the boys at the party, not my children) won the game of Flippy Cup but I don't think the girls feel like they can claim victory because two of our better players abstained due to pregnancy. And I stopped playing after the smoke break. (And I do want to point out that when I was playing, we were WINNING.) So some newbies played this year and they just didn't make the cut.

3. We took the kids to buy pumpkins on Tuesday. All the pumpkin farms in this area are closed during the week (what's up with that?) so we took them to the co-op grocery. (The Polack has a thing about buying Halloween pumpkins locally.) Nicklas picked a tall skinny pumpkin and Seeger picked the biggest pumpkin he could find. He is so excited about this pumpkin. He went on and on to the checkout lady about how that pumpkin is his and he picked it out and he's going to make a cool face to carve on it.

4. The deal between the Polack and I is that I clean out the guts of the pumpkin and he'll carve them. It works for both of us and is another example of our compatibility. (He likes chicken wings, I like chicken drums. He likes pepper, I like salt. He prefers folding the laundry, I prefer putting it away. It's a match made in heaven, I tell ya.) Seeger had the Polack put eyebrows on his pumpkin. He's very excited about the eyebrows and keeps asking me if I've ever seen eyebrows on a pumpkin before.

5. I just went back to reread some previous posts and I came across Lucy the Dog from May 5, 2009. I rarely go back and read old posts but it was very entertaining so I think I might feature one every so often from now on. It's just a small glimpse of the past.

6. Seeger apparently hasn't changed much from that post because yesterday he told me that he's going to draw a bunch of pictures of an ankylosaurus and then walk around Mimi's neighborhood and sell them for $10 each so he can make some money.

7. I can't remember if I mentioned this on my blog or not but a few weeks ago, Nicklas and the rest of the fifth graders went to Bradford Woods for three days of outdoor education. He was so looking forward to the trip - he's a camp kid after all - and I think he really enjoyed the experience (even though it rained for most of the time) but one thing he didn't like were the crazy boys in his cabin. There were 18 fifth graders and 2 high school senior boys to supervise. Apparently there wasn't much supervision because they didn't get to sleep until 2:30am both nights. And Nicklas heard from his friends that another cabin of boys never slept at all the first night. He said the boys were crazy and would do things like turn off the lights, strip naked and turn on the lights to reak the others out. Or they'd open shower curtains when other boys were trying to shower. Poor Nicklas didn't shower the entire time he was there. Overall though, he did enjoy the experience. He can't wait to sign up for Camp Tecumseh for summer 2012.

8. We have several visitor's coming to spend the weekend with us for the IU football game on Saturday and my house is definitely not company ready. It's not really dirty but it definitely needs picked up. I've been gone every night for the last several days and we weren't home last weekend so we haven't kept up things. It's probably the messiest it's been since we moved in. Hopefully I can get a bit of pick up time in tonight.

9. I didn't even make the bed this morning. I just threw the covers over the bed which is unusual because I almost always make the bed. But the late nights with teaching the class and the early mornings this week are taking their toll. I got up extra early yesterday, today, and I'm going to have to get up early tomorrow. Blech.

10. I just made a Domino's date that I'm very excited for. The Polack and I will go to a friends house for an evening of game playing. Yay!

11. I get to see the Nutcracker once, maybe two times this year. Double Yay!

Toodle-loo.

Back Blogged

A few weeks ago, the Polack's brother et familia came to visit us. We decided to check out the rock outcropping located in the woods behind our house.





It's really tough to get a good shot of the rock outcropping, especially one that shows the enormity of it. (We guestimate that it's at least 40 feet wide and deep. Here's a photo of Matt and Seeger looking out over it and down the ravine.


We've been wondering if there's cave underneath so we decided to investigate. The outcropping is too steep so we walked beyond it, looking for a way to head down in to the ravine. Here are the kids, just as we find a spot and begin our backtrack to the bottom of the outcropping.


It was a very narrow path!


We made it. It was spectacular to see from below.


There's no cave but we still had fun exploring.




After the hike, we headed downtown to eat some lunch at Dagwood's. Anna and Melissa had to stop for the obligatory shot in front of Sample Gates.


Here's one last picture from the weekend. My dad and his wife came to see our house and watch a football game. Of course, the Hoosiers didn't win but at least they gave Penn State a good run.


We were lucky to have such a beautiful weekend for outdoor activities!

Best & Worst

Seeger's worst - didn't get to do training because of the rain
Mike's worst - homework time at Barnes and Noble
Nick's worst - raining all day and went to Barnes and Noble but didn't
get to read any books
Natalie's worst - forgot to take lunch to work so had to order delivery
Seeger's best - it's probably going to be playing UNO
Mike's best - today was half hump day/half Friday in his world
Nick's best - that it's a short week
Natalie's best - family dinner

Life updates

I've missed the last few Thursday's so my apologies for the lack of random thoughts. It's been a busy few weeks. Actually, it's been a busy fall. We've had several football games and the football free weekends have consisted of other planned activities. We're currently booked through December. Tonight, I'm going on the Turner girls not-so-annual trek to Kentucky for Glendale Crossing Days. I won't go in to the specifics of what this means because it's been 9 years since our last trip and I'm not sure how much the event has changed or stayed the same. That's for another blog post. Anyway, while I'm gone, the Polack will have the boys and nephew Ben for a weekend which will likely consist of fart talk and burping and possibly poop on a stick. (These aren't common activities in the Kubatski household - until Ben comes to visit.)

(Although Seeger misspelled farther on his spelling test and wrote farter instead and he and I got a good laugh from that.)

In a few hours, I'm going to pick up Nicklas who has been gone since Wednesday. His class had a group trip to Bradford Woods where he learned all sorts of outdoor educational, uh things, (I'm guessing). Bradford Woods is similar to Camp Tecumseh and though it's actually run out of the school/department I work for, I still have my heart at Camp Tecumseh. Anyway, Nicklas was so excited about the trip and he heard that food was really good and that he should bring lots of socks. I did end up packing 7 pairs for three days and I'm glad because it rained at least half of the time they were there. I commented to Seeger that I felt bad for Nicklas being out in the rain so much and Seeger let me know that Nicklas likes getting rained, a fact I'll have to verify when I pick up Nicklas.

I've gotten to do a lot of quilting lately (the Polack is all baseball all the time lately) which is good because we're going to a baby shower next weekend and I had a project to finish up. I also finished another baby quilt that is ready to go in the mail, as soon as I take photos of it. It's gorgeous and everyone in the office loved it and one colleague even said she was going to steal it. (It's nice to good comments about that quilt because I spent forever on it.) My third project has been a Christmas stocking to match one that I made for a friends first born. Now that she had two kiddo's she requested another one and of course, I had to oblige. (Though it's really hard for me to think Christmas when Halloween hasn't happened yet.)

While Nicklas was at Bradford Woods, the Polack when to see game 4 of Tigers playoffs. I'm glad he got to go and he was there with a college buddy; it's just too bad the game was a bust. The Tigers are 2-3 in the series so hopefully they'll pull it all out.

Here's Seeger saying, Go Tigers: (And look, we actually have GRASS!)


So while Nicklas and the Polack were gone, Seeger and I had a nice evening alone. I picked him up from school and we went home where he made me do part 2 of my ninja training. I'm now a master at nun chucks and sais but I still have to train for the sword and staff. Luckily, I passed the sais so now I'm a master over Nicklas who has only completed his nun chuck training. (Nicklas doesn't know this makes me a master over him and I'm keeping it on the down-low so he doesn't give up on his training. Master Seeger wouldn't like that.) After our training and dinner, I took Seeger to pick out his Halloween costume. I tried to talk him into letting me make him something (Halloween costumes are expensive but fall apart easily so it's super annoying) but then I decided I didn't really want to make anything and we found a pretty good costume that didn't seem like it was going to fall apart and it was only $13. So we bought it and Seeger is really happy about it. It was a nice evening with just me and Seeger. I always enjoy that one-on-one time with my kids - they don't happen often.

Here's my happy Seeger:


Last weekend was our fourth tailgate of the year. The Hoosiers have been terrible this year. People were hopeful because of our new coach but I guess when you're so used to being bad, it doesn't hurt as much. You grow a bit more numb each game. I think we'll be lucky if we finish 2-10. Any that's why tailgates are so important. They give us Hoosier fans something to look forward to. I've had a lot of fun tailgating this year and I've enjoyed all the people who've come to hang out with us. I keep meaning to take photos but I always forget. I did get one photo from last week but it doesn't have everyone in it. So here's the semi group shot:



During the tailgate, we stopped at Assembly Hall to use the facilities (it's so nice being close to Assembly Hall so that we don't have to use the port-o-pots in the grass lots) and to shop for our friend, one-armed-Ben. The boys had fun checking out all the IU stuff:




Also last week, I got to go back to Leonard Springs Nature Park. It was as beautiful as my first visit, maybe even more so since the sky was so blue. I took some better pictures to share with you:





The boys school had their Open House. I volunteered to sell apparel/directories while the family ate. Then we checked out their classrooms. I love how excited both were to show us everything they do at school. It's great to have kids who love to learn. This was posted outside Seeger's room:



It says, "Lern about me! My hair is blond. I like apples. My I can do a summersalt. My muscles are huge! These are the anamils I like: snake, frogs, and cows. These are the toys and games I like: Legos, Ninga, Uno and Rich." How cute is that??

Here is a photo of Nicklas after the event. He's growing so much - he's up to my nose. Yikes.


Okay, that's enough of an update for now, right? We're going to be super busy the next several weeks but luckily work has slowed down a bit for me. Although I keep forgetting that I'm actually teaching a class this semester. It's a 2 credit, 8 week fundraising course and it starts in 10 days. The syllabus is finished and I'm trying to line up a few guest speakers. I'm a little nervous and I hope it won't be a disaster.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

I'm trying to figure out

How did I get on the My Twinn, The Just-Like-Me Doll mailing list?

Random Thoughts

1. I am obsessed with Pinterest. OBSESSED. I've been wanting to join for awhile and finally bit the bullet. Now I can't stop thinking about things I want to pin. I definitely feel the creative juices flowing. I should send a quick thank you to Emily-my-cousin-who-is-getting-married for introducing me to this fabulous site.

2. My other obsession lately centers around the Fortress. It's a book written by Gabrielle Lord that features a teacher and her students of a one room school house who are kidnapped and taken to the Australian Outback. I read the book when I was in elementary school and loved it. Then I happened to come across VHS (my granddad used to tape HBO movies and give us copies) and I remember seeing the title and wondering if it based on the movie. So I popped it in and it sure was!It was a low budget HBO movie and is scared the bejeezus out of me. But I was very excited the I was watching a movie made from a book. (I was 8 so it was probably the first time that happened.) ANYWAY, since then, I've asked people throughout my life if they've seen or read the Fortress and NO ONE ever says yes. (Even my friend Amy who gave me the book doesn't remember reading it.) Then, a few weeks ago when the Polack and I were in Louisville, I was reading the Courier-Journal and someone wrote in to a tv/movie column and asked about a movie he saw growing up where Father Christmas kidnaps a school teacher. And I was like, I totally know they're talking about the Fortress. And luckily the columnist knew that too. So then it brought up all these memories and I spent the rest of the weekend go on and on about the Fortress to the Polack so much that I'm sure he'll be fine if he never hears that word again. And I've been on the hunt for the book AND the movie. I bought both and read the book in a few hours. Over the weekend, I finally got to watch the movie and it was just like what I remembered, especially the scene where the class has to swim under a rock to get to the other side of the cave. I think I have a fear of drowning because of that movie.

3. I feel like I've already written about my Fortress obsession but I don't see any record of it on my blog. So if you have already heard the story than I'm sorry for repeating myself. And if you haven't heard the story, then YOU'RE WELCOME. (Because it's nice memory of my childhood!) And I'm offering my copies up if anyone wants to borrow them. Just keep in mind that the dubbing of the movie is really bad and I've written to the Amazon seller who will hopefully replace it. I only paid $4 for the movie so I'm not that invested in getting it fixed.

4. And now I totally want Nicklas to read the book. He just finished The Hobbit which he was reluctant to read but we made him because he paid a whopping $7 for the book and I'm NOT GOING TO WASTE MONEY LIKE THAT. He ended up loving it so much that he's moving on to Lord of the Rings. Sometimes you have to push your kids, yo, especially when one forgets to bring his homework folder home all the time and you make him write a letter to his teacher explaining all the ways he can help himself remember. And he gets upset because he's embarassed and he he doesn't want to draw attention about the situation to his teacher. But too bad dude, I don't care that you think second graders shouldn't have to write reports. And then you take away his DS for a week. I'm talking about Seeger now, not Nicklas, though Nicklas just lost his jump drive at school and hasn't found it.

So both my boys are working on being more responsible.

5. I'm going to see Jon Stewart this week and the Polack is hopefully going to see a Tigers playoff game so that has led us both in to conversations about cutting back in other ways so that we can do the fun stuff that keeps us happy. For kicks and grins, we've vowed to not eat out for the whole month of October and to also try to keep our grocery bill down to $100/week. That will be the tough one which is really sad that our grocery bill for a family of 4 hovers around $700/month.

6. I read an article in the local paper about a guy that is vegetarian and grows half of the food he consumes and I definitely wish I was that green thumby although I don't eat nearly enough vegetables, nor do my kids,nor do we want to. But if we had fresh grown veggies, I'm guessing we'd eat more of them so I really, really want to start a garden next year. Except the deer are pretty plentiful around the homestead so now I have to figure out a way to protect the garden from the deer. No one seems to have some tried and true method. Also, I almost hit a turkey crossing the road the other morning when I was taking Seeger to school. I realize that has nothing to do with vegetables but it does have something to do with all the nature I'm experiencing now that I live out in the county.

7. At my age, when many of my friends are going on or have surpassed the ten year marriage mark, it means that friends are also going through divorces. I just learned of two in the last month and I tell you, it doesn't get easier to hear. Every time I find out someone is getting a divorce, I'm always shocked and I always want to know WHY and it's so unimaginable to me. Which is good - being unimaginable - but it always causes me to go through a grieving period because gosh, it must be so hard , especially for the kids. I'm not against divorce, I'm just so surprised by it and it makes me realize you really don't know people like you thought.

8. My parents divorce was THE BEST THING that happened to my family. My parents were miserable and that filtered down to me and my siblings so I'm glad it happened and now that my own friends are shocking me with their divorces, I wonder if my parents' friends and family members were shocked by their divorce. I can't imagine they were but then again, I was in the thick of things. It's been 20 years and I'm sure mom and dad look back amazed at how long they lasted together.

9. Wow, this post really has been pretty random. And long-winded. Hopefully you didn't have too much difficulty in understanding my train of though. To keep things even more random, I'm ending on thought 9, NOT though 10. I'm crazy like that.

Best and Worst

Seeger's worst - when playing Road Blocks, he couldn't build anything
and he doesn't know why
Nicklas' worst - Monday
Mike's work - 11 steps to building a grill
Natalie's worst - so much to do at work
Seeger's best - being hone with everybody and family dinner
Nicklas' best - got a lot of homework done
Mike's best - watching how far Nicklas got on his homework
Natalie's best - finished some big projects which created some relief

Leonard Springs Nature Park

No Random Thought Thursday today because I have an even better post for you. Over the weekend, I saw a blurb in the Bloomington Herald-Times about an upcoming environmental education class called Caves Among Us at Leonard Springs Nature Park. It was listed as a free event for families, sponsored by Bloomington Parks and Recreation.

What? A free class? A family event? One that involves caves? Hells yeah, sign us up!

The Polack and I haven't done a lot of exploring of Bloomington parks. I keep saying we need to make the rounds of each one to see what it has to offer and then we can rate it for my fellow blog readers. (The two of you who live in Bloomington would appreciate it, right?) We've lived here a year and have only been to Bryan Park, Griffy Lake, and Cascades. How very bad of us. (Hanging head in shame.) So this opportunity was the perfect event for us. I knew there was a park off Leonard Springs road but I had NO IDEA HOW COOL IT IS. Let me just tell you IT. IS. AWESOME.

So last night, the educational specialist and group of about 10 of us started a one mile trek around the park. Here's a before shot.

This is the first of two caves at the park. Unfortuantely, due to White Nose Syndrome, we weren't able to go in to the cave.



We were shown a topography map of it though. I was really surprised at how big it is, compared to the small entrance.


After the first cave, we made our way down a very steep set of stairs to the second cave.

This is Shelter Cave. Nicklas doesn't look nearly as excited as he was because we actually got to go in this cave. Normally, people aren't supposed to go in but because we were with a parks and rec employee, we were granted access.

Seeger's not sure about going in!

He was quick to grab the Polack's hand and he wouldn't go to far in. It was too dark for him. Nicklas on the other hand, well he went as far as he could.
Here's a picture looking out from inside the cave.


After we left the cave, we went down a lot more steps. We could hear running water and as we rounded a corner, we saw a cool waterfall. Here is a photo of the boys at the bottom of it. It's much bigger than this and it was very beautiful. I will get an awesome photo of it the next time I'm at the park.

About a quarter of a mile into the hike, we come upon the wetland area. In the early 1900's, this used to be a reservoir for Bloomington. Unfortunately, it was built on top of a heavy limestone area. Limestone is soft and it causes water to leak through (which is how caves are formed) so the City couldn't keep up with demand. IU was not happy about the lack of water and threatened to move the University to Indianapolis. Of course Bloomington didn't want this to happen so they created another reservoir, north of town, and this one became abandoned.
Bloomington City Utilities owned the property until is was turned over to Parks and Recreation in 1998. Here's a view from the top; we're standing on top of the dam.



After another half mile (and a stop at the toilet pit for Seeger), we made it back to the park entrance. It was an awesome evening and the four of us had so much fun. We will definitely be bringing family and friends to Leonard Springs Nature Park so that we can share the beauty of southern Indiana with everyone who will let us.