devastating

That part of the grain elevator blew up last night at like 3am sending one man to Kearney with serious burns. Apparently corn dust is very combustible and it exploded. It's just terrible b/c harvest has been so late this fall and now what do they do? The highway is shut down and the trains must be way backed up b/c they're going by so slowly and I've seen constant trucks driving by...

youth group II

Terry wanted a group picture of the youth group for the 2008-09 year book. There's something like 30 kids here but some didn't get in and there's usually about 40. I took this from up on a stool.

Terry explaining the game - lay down tag.

hair cutting time...

Noah before the cut.
Ever since Noah's very first hair cut, he has HATED the whole process. And I am not exaggerating when I say HATE. I used to do all his haircuts myself, despite my lack of training and giftedness. So I would operate the clippers and Terry would hold Noah still while he cried hysterically. If anyone would have somehow heard him screaming, they would have thought we were seriously hurting our son and called the cops. Not kidding. Scream fest 101.

Once he started being able to talk he would yell, "Help you, help you!" before he knew the proper noun "me." We tried suckers and candy and rewards to no avail. If anything, they just made the whole process messier b/c he was unable to swallow the resulting, uh...yeah.



So after a couple years of this, we decided that perhaps if we took him to someone else somewhere else, he might do better. The first time was back in July before we went to camp. Mary cuts my hair and most of the church's as well since she and her family attend. She assured me that even if he freaked out it would be okay b/c she'd dealt w/it before. He DID freak out. It was pretty much the same scene as home but in full view of customers.

He's not had a hair cut since July. I know, right?! I thought that since we're going home for Thanksgiving next week that it would be nice if he looked nice. So I made an appointment for this afternoon and we all went, the whole fam. I even brought the camera to share the insanity. He did even worse, if that's possible b/c she started out w/the scissors. What freaks him out most is when the scissors or clippers touch his skin. Otherwise, he does better. So after a bit Mary had us leave since in her experience, sometimes that helps. We came back in 10 minutes and he was almost done and semi-calm. To do some of the finer work she had him sit in my lap. What helped was to sing him Thomas songs and tell him Thomas stories. That is, they helped until the clippers touched him.

When it was finally over we went and got a chocolate shake. It hadn't helped during the experience for him to remember that he would get ice cream when it was over but he liked it nonetheless.

So yeah, it was an experience. I figure he can't be like this forever. Perhaps I should just try harder to do it myself...

Before: the back.

Crying as we first put him in the chair. He didn't like that cape either, even if we told him it was like what Larryboy wore.

Home afterwards. He's crying b/c we wouldn't rent a movie for him. He wanted "Monkey George" but we were out of cash.
More crying.

Crying and hiding.

impervious

These photos were taken about a week ago on a 45-50 degree day...

Someone thought it was too cold to let Noah play in the water but another someone thought it was okay. I seem to remember someone saying, "He lives in town, what else is he supposed to do?" Yeah. =) Noah was fine and had a lot of fun throwing bucketfuls of water first at Snap, secondly at Daddy and thirdly at Mommy and Evie, who all tried to hide. Notice how soaked he is?

We noticed that he is apparently impervious to cold water - he's kneeling in it and everything!

I think he looks like he's in a water balloon firing line up.

a day goes from bad to worse...

So. Today has been a bad day for me. I won't go into personal details about how I messed other things up this morning and yesterday and the day before, but it seems to be one thing after another lately. And the day's not done yet.

Terry has to preach and lead music tomorrow and therefore has a lot to do. To help him out, the kids and I walked to the church to bring him a late lunch so he could get more done. When he went to pull up all his recent work on his computer, he found that somehow it didn't save. Not everything was gone, just what he'd done recently.

Then I went to the store. My plan was to get in and out quickly b/c Evie was cran-ky and needed a nap. I grabbed my keys out of my pocket and threw them up front like I often do and then buckled Evie in and shut the door. Then I went around to the other side of the van to buckle Noah in and found that the door was locked. Yeah, my baby was locked in the car. Somehow I had hit the lock button accidentally.

So I called Terry who had to run home, literally, to find the spare key - I took the van he had driven to church since we had walked there. One problem, there was no spare key. So he drove down to the store and went across the street to the police station. The police man was there quickly and so was a guy with a slim jim and they got it open right away. In all it was only like 10-15 minutes and she was happy playing with her feet for the most part. But the police man just happened to be the same one that wrote me up for that accident with our silver van in May. Yeah. He even said he remembered... How humiliating.

I tell you, I really can't do anything right today.

the phone

The other day Noah was pretending to talk on this mini toy phone he found in our used couch. He was so cute, imitating how I talk on the phone, "Hello? Okay, okay. Bye." Then when the real phone rang, he brought it to me like a good boy. When I went to hang it up, he had put
his phone in place of the real one. =) I tried to move it and put the real one away but he wouldn't allow it. He took it back off the hook and placed his toy phone in its place.

the 2 in 1 bath

Bet you were expecting Noah and EVIE, right? Right? Fooled ya!

I had taken a bath that morning to loosen up my back and I thought that I'd throw Snap in there since he was quite doggy smelling. Noah couldn't pass up this opportunity to get wet AND play with Snap. So, Noah and Snap came out smelling like a better smelling dog. Don't be mad, but I'm afraid I didn't give Noah a cleaner bath afterwards. =)

2 pics

So I don't really have a cute little story to include with these photos, just an explanation. The first being that it was cold on Saturday so I dug out Noah's old 6-9mos baby suit for Evie that he only wore once. I distinctly remember this occasion b/c of how much it made him cry, hysterically. My mom had bought it for him and since it was freezing outside I thought I'd put him in it for the drive into town. However, it wasn't cold in the car at all for that half hour trip that we used to have to make every single day (barf). I remember white knuckling the steering wheel b/c he was screaming so much. But I digress. I wasn't supposed to have a cute story (HEY. I thought it was cute).

Here's Evie swinging in Noah's snowsuit. We ran some errands and the poor thing was probably assumed to be a boy. Why not? You're right. She's much too cute to be a boy. Sorry Noah. You're cute too, but in a different way. Evie's, well, pretty.

My baby three-and-a-half year old (see those legs put all the way through the leg holes?). He cries when Evie's in "his swing" too...

Oh, and see that red "N" in the background? I made that at MOPS last week. It's supposed to be for the Cornhuskers but I made it N-for-Noah and wrote his name on it. He thought it was great and carried it around like he carried about Baby Snap...which we can't find.

noah's car seat upgrade

FINALLY! Noah got a new car seat FINALLY. Yes, he'd been in the same one since he was old enough to be turned around and look forwards which was like 2.5 yrs ago... He's a bigger boy now and it's time he used a seat belt instead of a 5-point harness. Well, it was way past "time."

Terry put it together on his lunch break on election day. He went ahead and put it in the car afterwards which of course led to Noah wanting to try it out. So we all went out. Once we were all out there, we might as well go for a quick drive. Once we were on the road, Terry might as well watch the kids for 10 minutes so I could vote.

Buckle up! You too Evie.

As a side, I voted for McCain and Palin b/c I thought SNL's imitation of the two of them was hilarious. Okay, that might not be the case.

While it really is all neat and historic to have the first African American in office, I'm afraid of what he will do for abortion. He said the first thing he'd do if elected was to pass the Freedom of Choice Act. This legislation supercedes any and all pro-choice laws that are out there - waiting periods, parental notification, trained doctors performing abortions, anything that creates limits on abortions. That's scary. It would even supercede the federal partial birth abortion ban!

Check out this page if you want to read more.

garage sale finds amoungst other things

A couple weekends ago we went to a garage sale. Sigh. I love garage sales and am sad the season is ending. However, this was a nice weekend and we knew the people who were selling. We picked up some black 8x10 black frames, a couple books, some glass hurricanes and this dollhouse. I loved dollhouses as a little girl and I'm pretty sure Evie will too when she's old enough. But right now, Noah thinks they're pretty great for running his cars up and down the stairs, and falling up and down the stairs.

It just struck me again, as it does daily, how different boys and girls are. I always sort of expected Evie to be a lot like Noah. This isn't the case...at all. Already at 7 months we can tell how different they are. She is sooo much more interactive and relational than he was or is. A good word to describe Noah is FOCUS. Whatever he's doing, he's super-tunnel-vision-can't-hear-anything-else FOCUSED. Evie's all about looking at you and talking and laughing and imitating sounds. She catches on quick. They're so different. When someone new (or even an established relationship) tries to talk to Noah, he either looks at them like they're weird or he screams and runs away. Evie puts on the charm. Gotta watch out for that one. So anyway.

Noah running his orange car up the stairs.

Noah throwing his orange car back down the stairs.

Evie watching longingly. Poor thing. She can't wait to move.

Oh. Now that I've mentioned Evie moving, I might as well tell you that she is making progress. She can sit unassisted quite well and only occasionally falls. We laid her on her belly the other night and were shocked to see her lifting her bottom up and sort of kicking and pushing with her feet. She was moving backwards! Since that night she's been kind of rotating in a circle when we put her down. She won't roll over from her stomach to her back but will from her back to her stomach. Noah was like that too though.

I would put up a video of her scooting, but it's too long or something and won't work. Sorry!

Halloween

For Halloween Gothenburg does a "Munchin Masquerade." It's a safe, family friendly way to take your kids trick or treating. All the little kids and their parents line up outside the Chamber of Commerce downtown and are given a bag, a list of participating businesses and some starter candy. We didn't go last year b/c he didn't know about it until too late.

We knew about it this year but I'm really terrible about planning ahead for these kinds of things. It's like I wait for some cheap, easy, cute costume idea to pop into my head. This rarely happens. So Noah was "Rock Star Noah" and Evie was a frog thanks to that cute hat my mom made and a green outfit I just happened to have. I explained to Noah that he was going to be a rock star just like Sheep on Word World, who especially likes to dress up. She comes on with her hair all spiked and a guitar and says, "I'm Rock Star Sheep. Lets rock!" Noah has no idea what this means, but I thought it would help him understand why we were doing it. He said, "No rock star Noah, I'm Noah!" and went on to tell me how he wanted a video. That is his normal routine - nap and then video of his choice. But this was so much more fun that a video, if only he would get that. He seemed more hopeful when he told him it was like a parade...

He was sullen for the longest time, through me spiking his hair, giving him his guitar and microphone, getting Evie ready and getting in the car. Daddy hopped in when were ready and we headed downtown. Noah stayed grumpy until he got we went around to a few businesses and started filling his bag. Then he was all about saying "trick out treat" and "thank you!" It was quite cute after that.

The poor guy got scared quite a bit though. I'm sure you an imagine. There were the scary costumes of course - skeletons and the like. But the ones that frightened him the most were the ones we seemed to follow the whole time - Spiderman and The Incredible Hulk. Whenever he saw one he would yell, "Scared!" and try to climb my leg. Poor kid. It's so nice to see his innocence but also sad.

We forgot to take any pictures while on the trail, but here's us afterwards. Noah's hair is deflated.

Is she singing or tasting?

Santa's new ride

Would you believe this guy...

...bought this thing?

Well, you should. He did. His alias is Santa Claus. Seriously, he gave us that photo of himself.

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Terry was introduced to him a couple weeks ago through the man that helped him fix up the van. Santa looked at the van and was interested but then we never heard from him. When Terry went to the lumber store yesterday he "randomly" ran into Santa who said he wanted to buy it. He test drove it, paid us and then gave us a picture of himself. I guess Santa wanted to upgrade his sleigh.

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Woo hoo! We sold the van! Thank you Lord!

Eva is injured now

I missed church on Sunday b/c I totally sprained or strained my back. I worked out on Saturday and felt fine, just a little tired. The only "back" exercise I did was the stomach cruncher machine where you select the weight you want, sit and push the thing down by flexing at your middle.

Anyway, just as we were about to walk out the door for church (early, I might add), I went to put Snap in his kennel. I lifted him with my back, not legs, and carried him half bent over for like 8 steps. By the time I got to the kennel, my back felt like it had a little pinch in it. Ever get that? And then it goes away? I thought it would go away when I stood up but it got worse! I couldn't stand up and it hurt so bad I couldn't hardly sit either. I like collapsed onto the fouton and inched myself back in it. It was burning like I've never felt before, took my breath away. My mom helped me onto the floor and my dad gave me instructions b/c his back hurts him all the time (my parents were here Tuesday through Sunday).

So I'm on the floor doing all these weird stretches and I'm obviously not going to make it to church. That was a bummer b/c it was Terry's first day with the high schoolers again for Sunday School (or D40 as he likes to call it - Discovery 40...it's supposed to be "Discovery Hour" but we never have that much time, more like 40 minutes) and I wanted to be able to help him. I texted him, "I really hurt my back. Can't come." He didn't get it until he'd been home for a couple hours. I read the text over his shoulder and we had a good laugh.

So I had like the laziest Sunday ever of resting on the couch and gingerly walking around.

Yesterday, Monday, was a little better but still a lot of pain. Today is ever better - just a little pain.

I'm already in better shape than Terry's foot. =)

our little turtle

We were just hanging out in the back yard when Noah took the lid off his turtle sandbox and started playing underneath it. It was quite funny b/c when he was completely under it, you seriously could not tell he was there. So what fun are any shots of a seemingly innocent turtle lid? I only took ones of him looking out from under it...

Terry said perhaps we should just tape the lid onto his back for a costume since the next day was Halloween.

Terry is injured

In Terry's senior year of high school he chipped his foot in a motorcycle accident on the ranch - something about jumping a big hill. Consequently he was on crutches for 6 weeks and couldn't finish out his football season.

He came home 2 Saturday's ago limping. He had been playing basketball with a high school student, his dad and a teacher/coach. He went to do a layup and planted his left foot on the dad's foot and rolled it. When he told me he rolled it, I assumed it was his ankle. No, it was his foot...somehow. He wasn't sure if this was the same foot injured in high school, but we kinda bet it was. I suggested, with all of my nurse schooling to back me up, that he go to the doctor. =). Terry thought it would be fine and limped around for over a week. These shots are from a week later.

Currently, he's no longer limping, but the bone is still big and it still hurts. Perhaps we'll make a visit to the foot clinic that's in town once a month...

It's the outside of his foot and it's way swollen...and below his toes are bruised.

Had to wash my counter after these shots. =)

my excuse

So, there haven't been any blogs for a week. That's kind of long, especially since I enjoy it so much. My excuse is totally legit: My dog ate our camera cord.

Actually, he just chewed through it. And it's not even our's, it's Shari's. Nonetheless, it's Snap's fault.

Thankfully Terry found a new one right away on Ebay. He ordered from Hong Kong since that was the cheapest...but it was also the slowest. It had to travel all the way around the world! We just got it today and that's what Snap's modeling.

Rest assured. I took that cord away from him ASAP and will not leave it out again. I guess that makes it my fault. I still blame the dog.

Also, I got a hair cut yesterday (but I did nothing to it here)... Can you tell it's different? Depends if you're male or female I suppose. She layered it up around my face like I asked her, but not quite as much as I wanted b/c she said it was starting to look like a mullet. Yeah, what do you think? Mullet material? I think not. Actually, she said if she took any more off it would start to look "mullety." I disagree. Huff.

home grown pumpkins...just not at this home

This last summer Terry's parents had quite the garden going on. We've received tomatoes and cucumbers and sweet pickles from them. But they were especially excited to grow Noah some pumpkins. When they told me this I was expecting, I dunno, smallish pumpkins. But that's not what we received when Terry's aunt and uncle, JoAnn and Herb brought these back home:

I thought they turned out pretty big since they came from a tiny seed!

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So here is the one that Terry carved out with Noah.

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We were going to take a family shot of the finished product but Noah was too slow to jump up with Daddy before the timer went off. See him gesturing there? Funny.
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This is better. It totally wouldn't have looked nice in the kitchen anyway. A sink for a backdrop? I don't think you'll see that in any studio...

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Noah said, "It's glowing!" .
Random: the kids playing later that night.

we've voted and...

...agreed unanimously that Evie has the BEST nap hair.

For Nathan and Ana

As of Thursday, October 30, 2008, at just about 8pm CST, my little brother Nathan Robert Kveene is ENGAGED!!!
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The funny thing is, I've never even met the girl. Nonetheless, I like her. Her name is Ana Johnson. My dad, mom and sister have all met her and use the word "sweet" consistently to describe her.
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Nathan met her at the Moody Bible Institute, where he graduated in May. Ana graduates this Spring. I think the first time he saw Ana he held the door open for her and liked her immediately. My mom said the thing that struck him about her was her smile - I can see why from the pictures =). So, he bid his time for a while and finally told her floormates that he liked her. They then set her up for a blind date with him. Nathan felt bad that he knew who she was and she didn't know who she was going on this date with so the introduced himself to her - the first time he met her. He went to her table at dinner and said, "Ana? I'm the GYFAD [Give Your Friend a Date]." She said, "Oh, I've never seen you before!" Stab through the heart. Yeah, Nathan had liked her for so long and she didn't even know he was alive. =) So, they got to know eachother after that...then they got together 9 months ago and it's been going very well, obviously. Thursday was exactly 2 years ago that he introduced himself to her. =)

Nathan and Ana were originally "planning" on getting engaged at Thanksgiving when he would be visiting her for Thanksgiving in the UP of Michigan where she's from. But Terry and I convinced him it would be much more exciting for him to do it as a real surprise. So he flew out Thursday and included her friends in the planning. He never even lied to her when she called him and asked him what he was up to that day. He had told her that he got Thursday and Friday off from work and that he was going to use the time to work on the youth group dinner he was planning for Sunday (that he wouldn't be attending, but he didn't mention that to her =)). He went to internet cafes at airports and updated his facebook to say true things, even if they were a little misleading... She asked what he was up to and he told the truth; drinking coffee and reading at a coffee shop, eating lunch at McDonald's b/c it was the closest thing. He turned off his phone when he got to Chicago and told my parents not to answer their phone just in case she called so no one had to lie. And she did. He hung out in his old roomie's room at Moody until it was time to go. What a sneaky boy! Have to give him credit.

So, the engagement plan. It was one of Ana's friends birthday this week and so they planned to all go out for hot chocolate and then to a nearby park that they like (would this be the infamous "make-out park" Nathan?). Upon learning of their birthday plans, Ana told Nathan that she had more memories w/him at this park... He he he. Exactly. This is where Nathan came in. He got there early and ran around for a half hour lighting candles over and over. Then he got a quick phone call (w/no exchange of words) from her friend which was the signal that they were like 5 minutes away. Nathan said his heart rate increased significantly - like 180 beats per minute. That's FAST.

So Ana and her friends got to the park and saw that there were lit candles set up. Ana said, "I don't think we're supposed to be here - it looks like someone is going to gonna get engaged tonight." Yeah, can you believe that? HA!!! Of course, they snickered a bit under their breath and walked further in. Nathan stepped out. When Ana spotted him, she just stopped and stared for a while before going over to him. After a hug, he told her that that day (October 30th) was exactly 2 years since they met. He then got down on one knee and asked, "Will you marry me?" This part is great. She said, "And..." Nathan: "And, I LOVE YOU!" Ana: "YES!"

This is significant b/c Nathan had never told Ana that he loved her before. Can I hear a collective AWWWWWW! How sweet is that?!

Her friends were behind them taking a few pictures so I'll soon have access to them (very soon I hope).

Nathan even said he was glad that he got to talk to me so much through this whole process. I thought that was sweet b/c I sooooo wanted to be involved, especially since I'm so far away and have never met Ana! Thanks Nathan. I had a great time helping, and brainstorming and supporting. I'm so freaking excited. And I'm sorry that I gave a little bit away to Ana with all my facebook status updates saying how excited I was. "Eva is excited for Friday...but I can't say why! Moo ha ha ha!" (b/c I thought it was going to happen on Friday), "Eva can hardly contain her excitement...just ask Terry," "Eva can't wait can't wait can't wait." Man, I just could hardly contain myself. Terry even made me erase another status update Thursday night where I said that "THE event should be happening right now...did you figure it out yet Ana?" b/c he said there was a possibility something would go wrong and she would see it. Gulp. I'm guilty. I erased it.

Anyway, I can't wait to meet her! Here are some photos of the two of them.

Here's the ring! He found it in Rapid City and thought of Ana right away. I really like it. Can't wait to see it on her hand for I real.

Here is the front of the card Noah and I made and sent for Ana (and Nathan - he asked me what the card said and I told him he would find out when he reads it over her shoulder...he liked that idea a lot). It's meant to go with Noah's daily "lessons." I heard she likes kids so I hope she likes it!

Inside

Behind.

Here is our letter-of-the-day coloring sheet from Wednesday. Noah said the letter "R" was the letter on Sesame Street (I had just missed it). After I drew my Ring, I thought I would attempt to convey the idea of marriage to Noah and drew a picture of the engagement b/w Nathan and Ana. I got really excited when I told him Ana would be his new auntie. I don't know if he understood the marriage thing, but perhaps a new auntie made more sense. And now he can say that Nathan is gonna give Ana a RING.

Here's the back.

Here's baby Nathan at me (4) and Stephanie's (2) birthday party. He would have been like 3 and 1/2 months old. Looks a lot like mini-me. =)

Here's toddler Nathan playing in Gramma Ardis' turning cupboard.

Here is Nathan before me and Terry's wedding, June 19, 2004.

Nathan at college with worms coming out of his face...um, they're really pretzels.

Ana posing at their date night.

Eeeee. How cute are they?!

Home sweet home in the Black Hills.

Nathan pretending to be a human...or is it pretending to be a monkey, I'm confused? These last few are from Stephanie and Nathan's trip to Chicago to visit Ana at the end of September.

Weak water fight.

A park near Lincoln Park Zoo.

Playing in the fountain at Daily Plaza.