No, not the aliens...the 80's! Well, the 80's fashions anyway...as I sit here typing wearing my jeans tucked into my knee high boots and ruffles down the front of my shirt :p


I clearly remember my early high school days of wearing straight leg jeans tucked tightly into my knee high boots...back then though the boots were brown leather and had a zipper up the inside leg so they could be put on and taken off...also made for easier jean tucking. The jeans were also just your basic straight leg style. Now the boots are almost always pull on "scrunch" boots and many of them are only slightly above the ankle...but you still tuck your jeans into them! The jeans now are called "skinnies" and are much more form fitting on the leg than just straight leg style. Back in the day you could buy little "stirrups" to fasten on one side of the hem of your jeans, go under your foot and fasten on the other side of your hem...helped keep your pants in the boots. Then, horrors, the stirrup pants faze began. I really hope that is not a fashion look that returns! I personally just tuck my jeans into my knee high socks and that works just fine :)

I had several "ruffle shirts" when I was in high school too. Shirts that had big, borderline huge, ruffles down the front, sometimes several layers of them. Nowadays the ruffles are still in several layers, but much smaller...more of a tuxedo shirt style. The cool thing is to wear the ruffle shirts with a vest or open front sweater, I love both of those looks.
Other trends of the 80's are also making an appearance in the stores. Prairie skirts are back...remember the cotton, flowered pattern multi-tiered skirts? I haven't bought one of them yet, but pair one with a ruffle shirt and you couldn't scream 80's any louder! Scarves are another good example, although they were more late 80's and were a slightly different style back then.

I can't say I completely object to the 80's fashions...just keep leather pants and parachute pants away from me and I will be fine. A few years ago the 70's were all the rage so when will we revisit the 90's? Some basic things never go out of style...women were wearing pencil skirts and basic black since the dawn of time (ok, maybe not that long ago, but you get the idea) and they still wear them today. Same with men and a basic dress shirt and tie. Staples you can always turn to and be in style. I personally wear whatever I like...be it from this year's style or something I have owned forever and still love. Vests are huge this year which I adore but skinny jeans are also huge which is a little more difficult for a "big girl" to pull off. Oh well, I wear what I want when I want and if someone is offended by my lack of style then they can just look the other way :)

date October 28, 2010

Just a little bling, but not too much. Comfy and go with lots and lots of colors...not really silver so not too flashy. Love, love, love these shoes!

date October 26, 2010

Everything AND the kitchen sink. Dan got my new sink installed yesterday...after a trip to Menards to buy the sink and the necessary plumbing...then a trip to Ace Hardware to get the necessary plumbing to replace what broke when he started taking the plumbing apart...then another trip to Ace Hardware to replace the necessary plumbing that he bought wrong on the previous trip! I love my new sink! :)

date October 24, 2010

A small heart on my wrist...been wanting this one for a long time.

date October 21, 2010

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays...although I hate being scared. I have many memories of Halloween so I figured this would be a good time to share them :)

When I was little we used to go trick or treating in the country. Mom would drive us around to all the neighbor's house and they gave us candy. Nowdays no one does that, only people who live in town have little ghosts and goblins knocking on their doors.

I remember the vinyl costumes we wore and the plastic masks. The costumes were always worn over our heavy winter coats so we looked two sizes bigger than we were. The masks had eye holes and a small hole for the mouth...so you could breathe and just big enough to stick the tip of your tongue through.

There were two houses in town that I always was slightly apprehensive to go to. One was the Dukes house...Mama D would dress up as a witch and scare the daylights out of me! She did the same thing to my kids years later. The other house was the home of my first grade teacher, Mrs. Lehman. She would always demand we do a trick before we could get a treat...I had no tricks!

In junior high I went with a bunch of my friends to a haunted house. Just so happens this particular haunted house was in the barn of the house at Marathon were Dan and I moved after we got married. The barn was gone by the time we moved there, but I still remember how scared I was to go through it. Lucky for me I had friends who were just as scared so we basically ran through!

Back in the day we would also go trick or treating for Unicef. Basically we went door to door begging for money...but it was for a good cause...or at least that is what we were told!

One year, I think Brian was probably almost 3, we couldn't take him out because we had a huge ice storm. I think I was more disappointed than Brian was.

All three of my kids wore a pumpkin costume that I made for their first Halloween. I made it for Brian when he was almost a year old. Becky wore it when she was 6 months old and poor Kayla was only 2 months old when she wore it...so with each kid the costume swallowed them up more and more :)

I remember walking down the main street of Marathon one year with some friends. We weren't doing anything or causing any trouble, but we happened to be in front of the bank. The banker's daughter lived across the street above the post office and she sat at her window all night watching for people who might do something to the bank. Apparently we looked guilty because she yelled at us to stay away from there.

I must say, my favorite Halloween memory doesn't even involve me. One year Brian and Becky and some friends went to the haunted house in Schaller. Brian was trying to impress a girl so he wasn't afraid at all...or so he thought. They came to a room and a man dressed in a gorilla suit jumped out with a running chain saw (with no chain on it of course) and Brian screamed like a girl and yelled "ahhhh...girl pants!" Girl pants was the word of choice when you are scared and can't get the word gorilla out :)

Halloween may be the devil's holiday, but I don't think anyone really thinks of it like that anymore. It is just a day of fun and black cats and ghosts and goblins. Kids are too lazy these days to cause any trouble and little ones in costumes begging for candy are adorable. BOO!

date October 20, 2010

The perfect "school marm" shoe...but now adorable and perfect for dresses or pants :)


date October 19, 2010

My children continue to amaze me. If this is too much bragging for you then feel free to stop reading here, because it is going to get crazy.


Brian could be a mechanic. Last night Dan needed help with replacing a tire on his pickup so Brian and I went out to the shop to help (he said he needed three people, he really didn't). Brian just jumped right in and did what needed to be done to get the new tire on the rim and replace the valve stem...no questions on how, just knew. The other day he was working on his car...fixing the headlights that wouldn't go on dim, replacing the motor on the back door window that wouldn't go up and something else with the engine that was above what I understood. He knows how to do all these things because he has helped Dan so much through the years. It amazes me how much he knows about fixing cars and trucks and tractors and combines.

Becky should be a fashion designer. She can look at her clothes and see outfits that most people would never dream of and they look fantastic and cute! Sometimes she would get ready for school in the morning and come downstairs and I would just think wow, I would never have thought of that! Just simple things like jeans and a t-shirt she can dress up with a scarf or a vest and make it dressy. Becky knows how to tie scarves in every way imaginable or to drape them so they look just right...I know how to tie a knot and call it good. She can go to the store and pick out cute dresses and then make them look even better with accessories...usually things I would not have thought to put with that particular dress, or any other outfit she wears, but as usual, Becky pulls it off and it looks great. Her fashion sense amazes me.

Last night Kayla told me she had a song she wanted me to listen to. She started it playing on her computer and I was stunned at how great it sounded. The tones of a clarinet filled the room and I was wondering to myself which professor she had gotten this CD from (the professors at the colleges she visited each gave a CD of their professional recordings to Kayla). Then she tells me that she had recorded herself playing her All-State audition solo...I was stunned! The music was beautiful and the sound was too. Kayla is going into music performance and music education in college and I say those are the perfect majors for her. Her musical talent is amazing.

So there you have it, my children amaze me...usually on a daily basis! :) Of course they all have many other talents that also amaze me...Brian's ability to so easily make friends, Becky's ability to handle whatever comes her way in life, Kayla's ability to do so many things at once....the list goes on and on.

date October 13, 2010

Ever had gum stuck to your shoe? Now you can buy shoes with gum already on them! Although how you would walk in them, or even why you would want to is beyond me.


date October 12, 2010

Some things to think about...

Why is a semi called an 18 wheeler? Cars aren't called 4 wheelers.

Why do we say someone is out for a Sunday drive if they are driving slowly?

Why do people who farm half the country say they are blessed? Why not just admit they are greedy?

Why is what people do in the bedroom, and who they do it with, anyone's business but theirs?

Why is everyone so intolerant of other country's religions?

Why do people who live in areas that get a lot of snow in the winter complain about it? If you don't like it move somewhere else.

Why are there two names for fall/autumn? None of the other seasons have two names.

Why does bacon taste so good?

Who ever came up with the idea of hotels?

Who first looked at a cow udder and wondered what would happen if you pulled on it?

Why are dogs and cats the only 4 legged animals that are domesticated?

Why do bad things happen to good people?

Why can girls have long hair but it is considered "hippie" for boys to do it?

Why do girls wear make-up and high heels and dresses and men can get by with sweats?

Why is it if a woman has many partners she is a bad person but if a man does it he is a stud?

Why do people give their children hard to pronounce and hard to spell names?

Why does the woman take the man's name when they get married?

Why does a picture of a heart look nothing like a real heart?

Why is the heart the only body part that means something else? You don't give someone a picture of an ear for Valentine's Day.

Why do people go on TV on those stupid court shows?

Why doesn't purple match red?

Why did someone decide to put 24 hours in a day?

Why were credit cards invented?

Why do some areas of the country have breakfast, lunch and dinner and others have breakfast, dinner and supper?

Why do kids at school have lunch but at home they have dinner?

Why is pink a girl color and blue a boy color?

Why do people have cell phones with them 24/7? Twenty years ago no one had one and we all got along fine.

Why isn't white gold called silver?

Why do some girls think they can run around half naked and then get mad when people notice?

Why is steak more expensive than hamburger? It all comes from the same cow.

Why does pop taste different in a can compared to a bottle?

Why do some people call it pop and some call it soda?

Why is it called soccer here but football in Britain?

Why do women have to shave their legs and armpits but men don't?

Why do people think the government shouldn't control health care but they should control whether or not a woman can terminate her pregnancy?

Why are the rich people Republican and the poor people Democratic?

Why do women think they have to have big boobs, blonde hair and no excess weight to be attractive?

Why are there so many reality shows about losing weight? What is wrong with being overweight?

Why do people abuse their children?

Why are they called lady bugs instead of man bugs?

Why are you still reading this?




date October 8, 2010

Our internet is ridiculous! In order to get high speed we have to have a satellite dish, because apparently we live in the middle of nowhere. But the satellite limits everyone who uses it to a "Fair Usage Policy" which means that you can only use up to 80% of your plan before they basically shut you off. So with Brian home and using Youtube a lot our usage goes up and then we have no internet at all in the evening. It is on a 30 day rolling basis, so we pretty much have to not use it at all for 15 days or more so we can get it back to normal. It really, really is a pain in the butt!


I have been investigating alternative providers (at work of course, where the internet actually works) and was excited that Iowa Telecom, where we get our phone service, offered HughesNet satellite. I called them yesterday and was told they no longer offer it. HughesNet and WildBlue are the only providers in Iowa for satellite and we are already with WildBlue so then I thought maybe I would just go to HughesNet directly. Checked them out and find their usage policy is even tighter than what we have!

So now I am going to call Iowa Telecom back and sign up for dial-up internet. It will be slow, but at least I will have a backup when WildBlue goes anal on us. If only I didn't live millions of miles away from civilization.

date October 7, 2010

Today I wore my favorite black skirt to work. I went to the bathroom, did my business and zipped up my skirt...or should I say tried to zip my skirt. The zipper broke! Here I am, in the bathroom with a skirt that won't zip...what to do? Well, since I work with mostly men and the women were all gone for the day I knew no one would have a safety pin or a needle and thread. So I zipped it as far as it would go and held the rest of it together under my sweater. Made it to my desk, grabbed the stapler and headed back to the bathroom for some temporary repair :) Lucky for me I only had an hour of work left so it held for that long...and now I have an excuse to go shopping :)

date October 4, 2010

Not a lot has been happening lately, but here is what has been.


Kayla and I spent Friday and Saturday in Vermillion at USD. We went so she could have a lesson with the clarinet professor on Friday and sit and watch the marching band that evening, we then planned to watch the football game on Saturday. But it turned into much more for her. The band professor invited Kayla to march in the parade with the band (it was USD Homecoming) and then play with them in the stands during the game! To say she was excited is an understatement...she still hasn't come down from that excitement. :) They even gave her an "official" band t-shirt. She is hoping (planning) to go back and play with the pep band during a basketball game. Good experience for next year when she goes to USD.

Brian is still enjoying working at Arby's, still keeps saying he will be moving to Kansas but has yet to do anything to further that. He doesn't want to live at home but doesn't do anything about moving either...makes me laugh. Home means cooked meals, a clean house and his clothes get washed. If he lived in Kansas he would have to do all those things for himself. I think Dan is really enjoying having him live at home though...Brian has been a huge help with the pigs and harvesting.

Becky tells me she is getting all As in her classes...and still has time to play Family Feud on facebook! She is enjoying working at Arby's in Spearfish as well, likes the managers a lot. She also gets a laugh out of her roommate and the roommate's friends. Becky has learned some new things from them and their Asian culture and I am sure she has taught them a few American things too. :) Of course, I only know these things because I read her blog...she never calls me :p (hi Becky!)

Dan has finished harvesting the beans but hasn't had time to switch out the heads on the combine yet to start the corn. Yields were pretty good he tells me, except for where the river ran through the field for most of the summer.

So that is the update for this week...who knows what may happen before the next one!

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