friesenfam.net | Friesen family blog

June 3, 2008
by janette
2 Comments

and you thought your day was bad

This morning…I got an email from my sister, Laura.

The email explained to everyone on the list how her palm pilot had crashed and she’d lost all of her contact information for all of us, and asked us to send addresses and phone numbers so she could re-connect herself to the outside world…

I replied to her message…and added this note…”Oh, I’d be so pissed”

Her response…from this afternoon (I asked her permission to blog it because to me it was so absolutely hysterical it warranted blogging!)

“Yeah, pissed.
Here are the other things that are going on in the last 24 hours…
Ryan’s palm also cleared itself…completely independent of mine….wierd.
The DVD player froze up, wouldn’t turn on or off.
Main dish kitchen is closing for good end of June. (what will we do for food?=))
Kieran and Ryan are sick/lost their voices.
Our laptop is crashing…had to turn it on/try to start it 3x this am just to be able to email everyone, then when I tried to send the message, it told me I had too many recipients, then when I deleted a few, it basically told me all of the addresses were corrupt…not true, as I got them out of my “contacts” list.
When I got the computer going, I can’t sync my Palm to it. (it can’t find the g&*@mmed “connection”, which is an f$%@$$%ing cord that is plugged into the f&*^^^&ing computer!!!) I’m basically going to either a.) throw my palm in the river b.) set it on fire in the fireplace c.) crush it with a hammer d.) either a, b, and/or c and also cry
And finally, announced this am that GM in Janesville (which is over 1/2 of the economy in this town) is closing for good. This will most probably affect our business, as well as the entire town.
So, wanna come over and drink with me? Oh yea, you’re pregnant, and I’m nursing. Maybe it would induce your labor (don’t ask Rodger), and Kieran would take a really long nap, being drunk and all.
I’m moving back to IA. This just isn’t funny anymore. I can live in my new van….but by the end of summer won’t be able to drive it anywhere cuz I won’t have a job, and gas will be $8 a gallon.”

So, in case you thought your day wasn’t going so well…I hope i just made it look a little better! : ) I hope you also had a good laugh at her plight. I know I did.

Hoping for a happier wednesday for all involved!

May 29, 2008
by janette
2 Comments

the fun wasn’t over yet

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!

May 28, 2008
by janette
1 Comment

elephants at the zoo

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.

May 23, 2008
by Nathan
3 Comments

Spam

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.

May 22, 2008
by janette
2 Comments

they remind me of grandma

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.