I need your advice/suggestions….

I need your advice/suggestions, I’m trying to get some idea’s for Christmas (I know dirty word, sorry!) gifts for my family members and I thought that you my fellow bloggers could help me out. Basically, I’m doing this now so that I can budget accordingly, cause pretty much everything has gone up in price with the economy the way it is right now. So here is what I is what I’ve been thinking about for each person so far.

My Mom: My mom is a crafty person. She does alot of sewing, scrapbooking, digital photography and baking (I shouldn’t forget that one she does that one a lot.) So my idea for her was possibly a gift card for an undetermined amount of $ to and undetermined craft store, a memory stick for her camera, and either some CD’s or jump drive to put all of her pictures on. Am I headed in the right direction? Is there anything that I’m missing? Is there anything that I can add?

My Dad: My dad is always hard to shop for because he just flat out won’t tell you what he wants most of the time (he wants one thing this year and my brother’s fiancee drew his name this year so I’m going to let her get him that.) He wants a ratchet socket set with the little itty bitty sockets in it. So this year I was thinking of getting him the “Deadliest Catch” series because everytime there’s a marathon on or he’s home during the week to actually watch it, he’s glued to the tv and if we want anything done around the house we have to actually do it cause he’s somewhere on the Bering Sea crab fishing.

My Brother: My brother is generally easy to shop for, especially this year. He likes to game and play WOW and read, that’s about it he’s pretty much a 15 or 16 year old stuck in a 22 year olds body. So far since last christmas I’ve had to listen to him bitch about how they don’t have any food in the house. I’ve also had to listen to others bitch about his wardrobe….He’s extremely lazy sometimes and when he outgrows a pair of pants or something he won’t replace them (example: he has a pair of pants ripped clean up to the hip and instead of throwing them away and getting a new pair he continues to wear them). So for him I was thinking of getting him a gift card of an undermined amount to an undetermined store for essentials like food, toothpaste, etc. and maybe a gift card to some store like Old Navy or somewhere like that (might actually buy him some shirts and pants to get the point across too) so he can spruce up his wardrobe. Maybe even a Barnes and Noble gift card.

My Brother’s Fiancee: She still lets her mom buy all of her clothes. She likes to knit and do cross stitch. Because she lives with two guys she likes to add girly smells to the apartment so it doesn’t smell like guys all the time and likes to take long leisurely bubble baths too. So my thoughts for her are a gift card to some clothes store so she can get some clothes on her own….I’m sorry but it’s a little bit weird to me to be 22 years old and still have your mom buying your clothes. Possibly some yarn, knitting needles, cross stitch kits for the crafty side of her and maybe a gift card to Bath and Body works, cause she has some pretty weird favorite scents from there so I’ll just let her pick out her own thing there.

My Uncle: I drew my uncle this year and I’m drawing a complete blank on what to get him. He’s a big history buff, anything history he LOVES. He’s a farmer, raises a bunch of beef cattle. His job is he’s a trucker (hauls liquid feed AKA Molassas). I’m trying to go with the whole history thing but I’ve got nothing, so if anybody out there has any suggestions fire away.

No Wedding for me!

I decided to stick to my guns and not go to the wedding yesterday. Apparently, I didn’t miss much anyway. My mom said the highlight of the whole thing was when the person performing the ceremony called my cousin by the wrong name (Brian instead of Ryan). So I stayed home and watched season 4 of Grey’s Anatomy all day. It rained here pretty much all day so there was no walk for Ms. Laci and I yesterday.

But this morning we went a little further on our walk than we usually do…We live in an extra hilly part of our town so we added an extra block, complete with extra hills that we had to go both up and down to get to and from home. I’m thinking about doing another mile or so on the bike again today too.

Yippe Skippy….Not Really

So tomorrow is my cousins wedding….The one that my brother and I weren’t invited too…..The one that my mother wants me to go to to make my cheapskate uncle sweat a little bit. SOOOOO NOT looking forward to it at all. He’s always been into “Barbies” and this one is most definately a “Barbie.” Plus the weddings on this particular side of the family are notoriously boring….My brother fell asleep during the last one it was that boring. So I’ll “see” you all later tomorrow afternoon after the torture is over. Have a great day for me please peeps!

Jamie

Our Photography Entries

This is another one of my mom’s too.

Another one of my mom’s.

My mom got second with this one.

This is another one of my mom’s photo’s.

This is my mom’s “Animals” entry. She won the overall Photography award with this photo.

These are my “Seasonal” entries. I could only win with one so the other didn’t place.

This is my “Flowers” entry. A second isn’t bad.

This is my “Anything Else” entry. Another third place.

This is my Architecture entry. It placed third.

Some of my Mom’s Entry’s

Yeast Bread’s entry.

Plate of six different cookies…Missing is the mollassas cookie.

My Mom’s Norwegian Doll Dress

An Elvis Sighting!

Elvis was seen at the Iowa County Fair!
Elvis on an ass
Elvis on an ass part 2
Post Race Elvis

“Elvis” came in third in her race so she did not get to compete in the championship race but she still had fun. The “Elvis” costume won second in the costume contest.

A Day of Rest….

So today is going to be a day of rest for both Laci and I. Don’t want to burn ourselves out right away. As I’m writting this she’s passed out cold on my bed. Yesterday I was down a pound to 161 so I’m headed in the right direction. Got a great work out at work last night….Up and down ladders for 2 hours is a pretty decent leg work out, right?

My cousins did really well with there turkey’s yesterday. My oldest cousin got Grand Champion and his little brother got first place with his bird (but according to him his bird was bigger overall than the Grand Champion bird AKA his brothers bird.) The turkey’s were sold at the meat animal sale and they both did VERY well there too. My mom won the overall photography award with her picture of my grandpa’s former St. Bernard Howard (he passed away this past winter). She’s really happy about that and we’re really happy overall with the results that we’ve gotten being this is our first year. The results post will probably be posted early Wednesday morning (while my mom is sleeping so I can off load the pictures on to her computer.)

The donkey race is today! My aunt is riding in it as Elvis! If she comes in 1st or 2nd place she wins $100 for her 4-h group and best costume wins $50 for the 4-h group. I’ll take pictures of the costume too.

Have a great Labor Day!

Jamie

Weird dog and more fair stuff

Does anyone else out there have a dog that sleeps on there back with their legs straight up in the air? Laci does that and if she gets to snoring your nap is caput….She snores extra super loud.

In other news…. Our exhibits are at the fair and we can find out how well we did this evening. Judging starts at 10 this morning and it’s usually done by the time that the fair opens at 5. My cousins showed ag-diorama’s this year and the judge was extremely mean to them. She had not a nice thing to say about either of their displays. One comment that she made to pretty much everybody was “you must have the only flat farm in Iowa County.” She was trying to make a point but she did it VERY rudely. They are also showing in woodworking, firearms sports, latchhook, and poultry….They even have two Turkeys that are going into the meat sale on Saturday night. My aunt is in riding in the donkey race on Sunday. If she wins 1st or 2nd she gets $100 for her 4-H group. They also have stuff entered in the open show so that they could get the pass for the whole fair, but I can’t remember what everybody has entered right now. If she has the most interesting costume she gets another $50 for her 4-H group. So in addition to photo’s of how my mom and I did there will be photo’s of how the boys, my aunt, uncle, and my mom and I did.

P.S. My calendar came yesterday! 2009 is going to be a great year!

The hits keep coming…

One of my uncles is a “real piece of work” and all three of his children got that gene from him as well. That being said, my cousin…said uncle’s oldest son is getting married on the second Saturday in September. My brother and I were NOT invited to the wedding or the reception. We’re not the only ones to be shafted by this deal either. Another family member sent back a card saying that there would be 5 at from their family (they have three children) at the reception and my uncle had the balls (I apologize for the bluntness) to call them and tell them that they were under no circumstances allowed to bring their children to the reception. Doesn’t he sound like a great guy?

93 and still going strong

As I posted earlier yesterday was the party for my great grandma’s 93rd birthday. Also posted about was the cemetery walk where we learned a little bit more about our ancestors who are buried in the Linn-Hebron Cemetery. So now I’ll post a little bit about what I learned about my ancestors yesterday.

1. My Schulz ancestors are from the island of Rugen in Germany and worked in the agricultural “sector” of the country.

2. My great great grandfather Fred Schulz was in World War 1 and served on all three fronts. There was a story told about when he was on the western front and he looked out of his foxhole and saw enemy soldiers and thought “if I can see them, they can see me” and bugged out and left. Not long after he left his foxhole the whole hole was blown up by a morter.

3. My great grandfather Schulz is the one responsible for the Schulz’s coming to America. He wanted his own land, his own things, his own life but my great great grandparents weren’t ready to not be a family anymore. The war had just ended and they hadn’t been a “family” during the duration of the war, so now that the war was over my great father’s parents were determined to be a family again.

4. After the war was over my great great grandfather and family purchased a house that is no longer standing but that the Schulz family does now own again. My great great grandparents never sold the property when they came to America. They kept it “just in case.” In 1995 my great uncle Russ went over to Germany and actually laid claim to the property so now it is once again back in the family.

5. The Schulz’s left for America in 1923 and landed at Ellis Island when they got to America.

Those are just a few of the things that I learned about my ancestors and quite frankly that isn’t even the tip of the iceberg! I can hardly wait for next year!