Monday, on the way home from our Des Moines adventure, we stopped in Story City to take in the outlet mall. Remembering that I had ridden the carousel when I was little, we swung by after lunch to see if it was open so Ellie and daddy could ride it. (Mommy knows better than to ride things that go around and around when she’s 8 months pregnant! As Ellie would say…mommy…smart)

It was open – and wow. She got on and after taking her time picking a horse to ride, chose this lovely steed. She wasn’t too sure when Nathan sat her on it, and she immediately wanted off. Nathan and I are both thinking this could be the longest 3-4 minutes of everyone’s lives…especially when the thing started up (and it doesn’t start up slow, either). Her eyes got as big as saucers and you could just see the panic. But instead of tears, Nathan convinced her to hang on to the pole and by the third time around, she was smiling and having the time of her life.

After she got off…and gave her horse a “thank you” pat…all she could say was “ride horse again!”

Success!

This past weekend, we took a trip to Des Moines to visit the zoo. We wanted to make sure Ellie got a small vacation before the baby came and didn’t leave much summer to take one.
She was in love the minute we walked out and saw the first animals – the “mingos”.

We fed the fishies…she loved throwing in the fish food and watching their mouths open to eat it.

And then…daddy scratched the “big thing”’s head. He asked Ellie if she wanted to scratch its head (and the big thing was actually pretty friendly), and when he got her close enough, she just started screaming and crying hysterically. Nathan and I, being the type of parents we are, thought it was hilarious and were laughing…while all the other parents around us are looking at Ellie and saying things like “oh, the poor thing…” By far, the highlight of our day so far!

Other highlights of the zoo for Ellie…the penguins

the lions

and the elephants…she keeps telling everyone now that we’re home that she saw elephants at the zoo. She was up on Nathan’s shoulders in the arena where the elephant presentation was and was wiggling all around, grabbing his eyes, hair, etc…at one point, she reached down, grabbed his ears and said “wiggle, wiggle, wiggle”. We don’t know where she gets this stuff!

After the zoo…the rest of our day was spent with Ellie’s Great Grandma Friesen…by far one of our favorite people.

In the last couple days we have been getting flooded by spam comments. Now, flooded for us is about 100 a day, which is probalby nothing for some sites. We’re doing a couple things to try to stop the spam, including requiring you to enter two of those distorted words when you enter a comment. You ask, “Why two?” We’re using reCAPTCHA which displays (A) a known word and (B) a word that a computer wasn’t able to determine when it was scanning a book. The unknown word (B) is then sent back to a server and after it’s verified a few times it’s marked as the correct word. This is used to help automate digitizing books, especiall older books, that could make them more available to more people.

Let me know how it’s working and if you run in to any problems. Of course, if you are running in to problems you probably won’t be able to leave a comment…Sorry about that.

So, I thought I better take a picture of our bleeding hearts this year…because some year, I’m pretty sure they won’t be there.

When we moved in, these bushes were huge and now are only a fraction of their original size.

I’m not sure what it is about my gardening ability, or lack there of, that makes it so hard for me to keep things alive and thriving…perhaps its my indifference to most of the plants we have in our yard. These I love having though, they remind me of grandma.

So, I have to post for the second time today…simply because I was so very wrong…and I have to correct my earlier mis-statement about Daughtry being the closest to a rocker winning American Idol that we’d ever see…

I cannot believe that the right David (in my opinion of course) won…now I’m only hoping that his first CD won’t be the standard “American Idol” pop CD that seems to be so common…and yet so absolutely boring.

I probably sat in awe and stared at my tv screen for a good 5 minutes after the announcement with a dumbfounded look on my face…a combination of shock…and awe at how America managed to not screw it up. Loved, loved, loved his performance with ZZ Top.

Here’s your chance American Idol…restore my faith in reality television…help this boy make a good CD…one that Ellie and I can rock out to in the van (something about that sentence doesn’t seem quite right…one rocking out in the VAN…what can I say? I work with what I got…)