And....Franken wins the race!

How long has it been since the national election.... let's see... 8 MONTHS!! It has been tedious, frustrating (on a political level anyway), and downright rick-diculous (SNL reference) to watch two people fight for the Minnesota Senate spot. We have Norm Coleman, the incumbent and lifelong politician, in this corner and Al Franken, the crude comedian, in that corner. And man, what a race! The initial count on Nov 5th had Coleman ahead by 477 votes out of over 2 Million votes. Since then, there have been 5 recounts with less than 300 votes separating them each time and it finally went to the Minnesota high court. Finally, we have a Senator that can go to Washington to represent us! What makes me frustrated is if the potential senators thought it is so important for us Minnesotans to be represented, why didn't one of them concede a long time ago?

House Guest

This week we had a house guest. As planned, the toad only stayed for a couple days (because I am NOT cleaning after a pet too!). But we had fun with him while he was here. Watching him eat the ants we caught was the best part. I got it on video so I can go back and watch it in slow-mo at some point. Very cool!

Book Club Review

We've had a new member join our group - Jill. She is a married mom of two and also lives in my neighborhood. Welcome Jill!

April Book/Melissa's Pick:
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
I really liked this book! I don't know how factual it is, but it seemed to be a great insight into the history of Chinese women. It walked through the differences between socioeconomic classes and what were expected from women - for example, how they broke and shrunk their feet starting at the age of 6 so they would be admired enough to be married properly and if done well enough, married up in class! But also, it was just a well written book with beautiful prose and characters.

May Book/Beth P's Pick:
The Florist's Daughter by Patricia Hampl
This seemed an interesting storyline but I just couldn't get past the heavy writing. There were too many descriptive words on each page and I didn't have the stamina to wade through them all!

At this point the book club decided that if the book was over about 300 pages that we would need to spread the book over two months. Some of us, me included, need more time....

June-July Book/Group Pick:
The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
This was a very thought provoking book. It is about a man who, in a snap decision, sends away his newborn down-syndrome daughter and the impact that decision has on everyone surrounding him. Very well written!

The order of the next picks is Beth M., Candy, Korrie, and then Jill.

Rock Cave, Bear Cave, and Bat Cave

This year Ben and I decided that we were going to introduce Madelyn and Greyson to the some of the simpler hikes around Petit Jean. So, before we even left MN we started talking about the the caves that we could hike to - Rock Cave, Bear Cave, and Bat Cave. Before too long, Greyson was saying, "Rock Cabe, Bear Cabe, Bat Cabe??" He was ready! So was Madelyn. They were SO excited!

Climbing the Turtle Rock by our duplex

Hiking to the Rock Cave

Grandmomma with the kids in the Rock Cave

Family Pic in Rock Cave

Hiking to Bear Cave

Looking for bears in Bear Cave

You may notice that we didn't go to the Bat Cave.... well, Ben told us after Greyson started yelling, "Bat Cabe!!", that he had always called the Rock Cave "Bat Cave" when he was growing up and that it wasn't a separate cave. It took awhile to convince Greyson that we weren't missing a cave hike and he sure wasn't happy about it...

All in all, we were so impressed with their stamina and excitement with the hiking! We had a blast! We will definitely be doing more family hiking in years to come!

Hike to the Falls

Every year at Petit Jean, a big group goes to Cedar Falls. It is a pretty steep hike down and back up and very much a workout. We usually start at 9am, hike down and hang out at the falls for a while and then get back to the cabin to take showers and eat lunch. I love hiking down and seeing what the falls look like because some years it's great! and other years it's just not. Well, wouldn't you know it, this year it was super-great and I couldn't hike down to see it.... a broke my foot/toe two days before!! Oh well... Ben took great pictures for me so I could see it too. :)

Extended Family Time

Petit Jean 2009 Family Picture

My family and I returned home yesterday evening from a 12 day roadtrip between our home in Minnesota, Ben's parents' home in Oklahoma, and a rustic resort in Petit Jean, Arkansas. It was a VERY good trip and I'm SOOOOO glad that we decided to go for that long. It really made the trip worth it. The Petit Jean portion is a 3-day family reunion started by Ben's grandparents 26 years ago. It is amazing! Everyone has a great time and it has really been a blessing to us because there is NO WAY that Ben, myself, and our kids would stay in touch with the 70+ people in Ben's extended family if we didn't have this extended time together. Here are some pics showing us (mostly Madelyn) hanging out with the extended family. She really loved it this year and really started to understand the family dynamics going on. It was fun to watch!

Grandmother and Grandaddy Rhodes with Madelyn -

they started the Petit Jean reunion 26 years ago

The 1st cousins - one more is on the way!

The Rhodes Jr. Clan stay in a duplex together so we get a lot of time to catch up.

Madelyn likes to hold her cousin Sam.

Madelyn also bonded with Elizabeth (who would teach her spanish!).

Madelyn and her 2nd cousins, David and Anna.

For more posts and pics about this year's Petit Jean, go to Stephanie's blog and Christina's blog.

Fell flat

I knew I would... I can't keep up with anything on a routine schedule.  The daily blogger in me surfaced for about a week and a half and then, as you can see, I disappeared for a month!  Well, hopefully I'll make up for some this lost time soon.  I have plenty to say and even a list of posts to catch up on.  But for now, I am packing.  Every year Ben's extended family meets on a mountain in Arkansas for quality time.  All 70 or so of us rent out the cabins a rustic resort and spend 2-3 days together.  It is fabulous!  I know that there are many of you that wouldn't look forward to such a thing, but I am not one of them!!  I love my in-laws and the extended family!!  Anyway, we leave tomorrow and I don't know how much online time I'll have. However, I will have about 36 hours of car time in the next 2 weeks.  Maybe I can use some of it to draft some of those waiting posts.  :)