SWEET!

Although I should be older and way more mature than this, I'm not. Each time I walk by a fire alarm, I want to pull it. Yep - that's right - I have to fight the temptation to pull the alarm and make a bunch of noise almost daily. I don’t want to see people panic, but it’s the forbidden apple * lights + noise + mischief = Amanda giggling. The "good Amanda" angel sitting on my right shoulder wins out daily by convincing me that it couldn't be very conducive to Alex’s upbringing if he has to pack "bailing his mom out of jail for pulling a fire alarm" into his memory bank.

However - we're having the alarms checked at work today and I talked the maintenance workers into letting ME be the one to pull the alarms!! Wahoo! We'll see if this gets it out of my system and I can go on living a crime-free productive life

City Boy

Just for you frazzled farm wife

As we were walking out to the car the other day...

Alex - Mom, do you know that some kids who live on the farm actually have to step in poop?

What can I say...we're city people

Song & Dance

Alex's school was dismissed early on Monday because of the weather conditions. Thinking back to my school days, I asked him if everyone cheered when his teacher announced the early release.

He raised his one eyebrow and said "mom, this isn't high school musical"

Well....it could happen

Thanks Dad

I've been jinxed when it comes to appliances in the past few months. My stove went out, my washing machine quit, and my vacuum broke...luckily, I hardly use the vacuum and the stove (kidding) but I need clean cloths. I didn't want to buy a new washing machine because who knows where I'll be in two years and since I'm just renting the home I currently live in, I figured that I would just buy a used machine and when I move out of the house, if I feel like donating it to the next renter, I'm not out a lot of money.

So I found a used washing machine for $70.00 and called my dad to ask if I could use his pick-up to hall the washing machine. He immediately started asking millions of questions and insisted that I let him look around for a better deal. Better deal than $70? Whatever I thought...I'll humor him.

He calls yesterday and says "I found a washing machine for you". "Great, How much" I asked. "It has all of the settings and can hold really large loads" "Great, How much" I asked. "The guy dropped the price and was really willing to negotiate"

Okay,,,he's obviously avoiding the price question and says that he is going to hall it to my house and hook it up for me.

I ended up spending an extra $200 which was sort of frustrating at the time, but when I was laying in my bed last night, I thought about how lucky I was to have a father who is so concerned about me that he would go out of his way like that to make sure that I have a reliable washing machine. He could have simply handed over the keys to the pick-up and not have given it a second thought, but he didn't. It took me a lot of years to understand that is how my father says I love you. He's not a sentimental man, not a man who is going to hand out hugs or verbalize how much he loves his children. He is strong, reliable, steady, and serene about most things in life. I've seen the man cry once in my entire life and that was when we were burying my mother. He cried for a while and then life a strong brazen wind, forged on.

So, dad, I know that you read my blog, and I wanted to say thank you. Thank you for always looking out for me, even when I think that I have things covered. Thank you for always loving me and always wanting to still take care of me. I love you

I'm Back!

Whew - it has been awhile!!! Christmas was nice at the Lindner household. We were suppose to go back to Minnesota, but because of some nasty weather, Alex and I stayed home and celebrated in madtown. That was a bit of a let down, but we made the best of it. On Christmas Eve, Alex and I baked our Jesus birthday cake which is something we have done since Alex was a year old. On Christmas, we light the candles, sing Happy Birthday and eat birthday cake for breakfast. I think out of every tradition in our family, this is my favorite.

Alex got a Wii for Christmas so we played with that a lot over the break. We had a blast with the Wii sports - bowling, tennis, baseball - kept us pretty occupied.



Grandpa did make it to our house for some Christmas cheer which was awesome. He gave Alex a keyboard for Christmas and was showing him some made keyboard skill.



I did make it up to a University of Minnesota vs Ohio State game in January which was a blast. Minnesota won (now 15-1) Go Gophers!!!



Goldy



Coach Tubby Smith



So that was our Christmas break - now back to normality. I start classes in a few weeks but they are all classes I've already taken but the University of South Dakota doesn't feel like giving me a degree until I have x-number of credits from their institution. I transferred from Minnesota with quite a few credits so I am trying to meet the university's requirements to graduate. Really burns me actually but I really have no option other than play along if I want to graduate. It's not retaking courses that burns me....I love going to class and learning and if I could find a way to make money off of it, I would quite my jobs and go to school full time. What burns me is spending the additional $1,000/class to retake and relearn something that I've already been through just because the university wants me to have half of my earned credits from their institution. Okay...I'll stop before I just on a soapbox

Oh What A Night

Alex had a big night on Friday. We went to the USHL Stampede Hockey game in Sioux Falls and not only did we have front row center ice seats, but Coach Kevin Hartzell also let Alex help him deliver the victory speech to the team in the locker room following the game!


Alex cheering the team on and throwing out some advice for the players



Alex - let's take a picture together!!!


Thanks hon


After helping deliver the victory speech with Kevin Hartzell



Hanging with the players enjoying some PB&J sandwiches



If you haven't been to a game, let me throw in a plug for this team and encourage you to see them in action. Not only are these guys talented hockey players, they are also one group of classy men. Coach Harzell emphasizes the importance of their impact on a community and they take that to heart. The team encouraged Alex and made him feel like "one of the guys" in the locker room. They didn't brush him off or ignore him - they took Alex right in and showed him a great time. #19 Robbie Vrolyk even graduated with a 4.0 and will be attending Stanford in the fall!! So even if your not the biggest hockey fan, go out and see this team because not only are they one stand up group of boys...but I know we'll be seeing some of these kids in the NHL someday

AND - as if center ice tickets and hanging in the locker room with the Stampede Hockey team wasn't enough fun for one night, we also picked up this little guy - Chewy



Look at Alex's face!! He loves that little dog and seeing that pure joy on his face was totally worth it! I was hesitant when a friend of my sister's approached me about this shih tuz. His girlfriend bought him for her aunt, however, she had to go back to NY and couldn't take the dog. He's 21 weeks old and has all of his shots and papers and she didn't want anything for the dog (unlike the $350-$400 fees some ask for their shih tuz), other than to know he would be in a good home so it worked out perfectly for everyone!

Seriously - it was like 1:00am before Alex finally settled down and fell asleep after this eventful evening

Chewy Monster

Perhaps it's the holidays

Perhaps it's me having baby fever

Perhaps it the constant request from my son "please mom, can I get a dog"

Whatever the reason - meet our new dog Chewy