The Wheeler Family

Conversation with Drew…

Kate — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 03:21:20 +0000

Drew calls my phone, here’s basically how the call went….

Drew: HEY! I was wondering if you were going to take the kids to the carnival?

Me: Uhhhh, it hadn’t even occurred to me so not likely…

Drew: Really? There are some really fun rides here, and if you want, I will go on the rides with them so you don’t have to!

Me: Drew? Are you just looking for a reason to ride the rides and trying to use my children as bait?

Drew: {long pause} Basically…

Me: Yeah, I think we’ll pass this time.

Drew: Allll right, but be forewarned, I may try to go behind your back and convince Chris to bring them!

Sooo, I put up a fight for awhile, but after Drew *did* go behind my back and convinced Chris who finally convinced me that we need to give the kids MEMORIES… so we met Uncle Drew at the carnival where he bought a fistful of tickets. We walked around and discussed which rides they wanted to use the tickets for. In the end they decided on the flying swings called “Swingers” (this concerned me lol), The Dino Slide, and The Scrambler. Drew graciously let the kids ride on the Swingers and the Dino Slide and then he tagged along for the Scrambler in case Audrey freaked out. And… since I am me… of course, I had my camera, so enjoy some of the shots…

Audrey and Michael on the Swinger….

Michael and Audrey preparing for the Dino Slide…

On the DINO SLIDE…

Drew and the kids waiting for the Scrambler to become available…

Michael and his friend Connor on the Scrambler…

Drew and Audrey on the Scrambler…

Quarter Games at the Carnival (i.e. hey… give us your money!)

All and all, my feet hurt and I have a little less money but the kids have a wonderful memory and they are already bugging Uncle Drew to take them again next year!

Birthday Party FUN!!!

Kate — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 01:50:46 +0000

Today we made a trip to Muscatine for Lydia and Evan’s birthday party at the Muscatine Aquatic Center! I had never been there before so I was interested to see how similar it was to Coralville’s aquatic center. I was surprised by how much cooler the water slides were… they were not necessarily taller or bigger, but they were more fun I think. Anyway, Michael and Audrey had a wonderful time running up the stairs and careening down the water slides! Chris had to leave a little early because he was in charge of getting the grill started for the food part of the party, but of course, I brought the camera along to try and capture some of the fun…

Michael heading down the HUGE red slide…

and then CRASHING into the water…

Audrey enjoying the fun and sun…

Michael on the BIG blue slide… if you look really close IN the slide you will see his reflection sort of like he is luging…

Michael on the BIG blue slide… a better shot…

The kids waiting for the blue bucket to drench them…

Michael and Audrey going down the big red slide together…

And the most cutest, sweetest shot of the day… Audrey had asked Michael to go down the slide with her, he said sure, and they took off together…

It was really fun, and the kids have both asked if they can have their birthdays at the Muscatine Aquatic Center next year (and I am seriously considering it). I still think that the Coralville Aquatic Center is cool, but Muscatine idn’t too shabby

SURPRISE…. Thrap visit!!!

Kate — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 18:29:57 +0000

Yesterday afternoon I got a wonderful call from miss Becca Tap who said that her husband was going on a fishing trip with most of her children and she didn’t want to sit home alone, so she decided to pack up Elena and head to Coralville to hang out with US! YAY!!! After they got here we sent Michael, Audrey, and Elena off to play some Pokemon. Chris still had a test to study for so Drew and Erin came over and played some cards with me and Becca. We taught Erin the Russian card game, Durock (still spelling that wrong I’m sure) and she picked it up probably a hundred times faster than our funny friend, Drew. Lucky for ME, I got to be Erin’s partner so we did fairly well together!

Then TODAY, Becca and I woke up early to get to the Salvation Army for QUARTER DAY!!! We both had fairly good success finding some good clothes for our kids and Michael and Audrey found some books in the quarter bin that they wanted, so everyone left happy. When we got home I suggested that we jet outside with the kids to play and of course, I took pictures…

Becca, Audrey, and Elena on the Pink Team against Michael in Badminton…

Michael defending himself against Badminton ATTACK…

Becca and Elena celebrating their successful volley…

Elena making funny faces for me…

Elena had a runny nose later, and Becca told her to get a kleenex and this is what Elena came back with…

Sadly, Becca and Elena have other weekend plans so they will be leaving us this afternoon, but we had a GREAT time while they were here!!!

Summer funning… happens so fast…

Kate — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 21:10:33 +0000

Today the kids and I had to make a emergency run to Muscatine to drop some things off to Lori. In high hopes of getting the kids to look forward to this mini-trip, I told them that if they behaved and were patient we would have lunch at McDonald’s so that they could PLAY! They were thrilled at that idea and behaved very well. We ran our errand and then made our way to the Playplace After inhaling their lunches they set off for FUN in the playplace They got to play for almost an hour until I could not take all of the screaming children (but not before we ran into Julie and Bella Brown… I’m sure Will and the twins were running around too but I didn’t catch them).

Once we arrived home, Audrey needed a breather in the cool house to recuperate from her car sickness. In an effort to improve gas mileage I drove 60 on the interstate without air conditioning on, and the heat and long drive just churned her poor tummy! After a shower and a quick change of clothes the kids and I got out our yard games and headed outside for….. BADMINTON (that may not be how you spell it lol)! We had great fun trying to get a good volley going and I think we managed between the three of us to hit the shuttlecock three or four times! We still had GREAT fun…

Audrey preparing to receive the serve…

Michael setting up the serve…

We played for a good hour and a half and decided we were really HOT, so we came inside and the kids set out to do their chores! Last night we had a long talk about everyone taking responsibility for things in the house that need to be taken care of. To help us all remember the rules and the chores we made our annual Wheeler House Rules and Chore Chart We decided on chores that could be Michael and Audrey’s responsibilities and then chores that they COULD do if they wanted to make some money. So, we came inside and Michael cleaned the living room and made the shoe pile look nice, while Audrey washed the dishes (well, DISH) and fed the fishies.

Once the chores were done the kids asked for a treat… luckily for us Grandpa Wheeler just came back from his trip to the Pacific Northwest and had brought the kids specialty sodas! Michael got root beer, his FAVORITE and Audrey got Black Cherry! After a quick “Cheers” (where do they LEARN these things???) they drank the sodas right down. Michael thought his root beer was like HEAVEN and Audrey really enjoyed the CHERRY flavor of her soda!

Sad, but true…

Kate — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:35:37 +0000

As a 1930s wife, I am
Poor

Take the test!

Summer Fun…

Kate — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 02:41:16 +0000

Having spent far too long lazying away the summer, I have decided that since it was essentially my last real summer with the kids before I would have to be working full time, that I really needed to make it worthwhile! So today, I got up early and got the kids rounded up into the car. First we headed to the library where we all got new library cards. The kids each found four books and we decided that this is something that we could do each week! Next we stopped at Hobby Lobby where we picked up watercolors, brushes, and watercolor paper so that we could try our hands at PAINTING! Then we headed to wal-mart for some groceries! We came home, made some lunch, cleaned up (and let the kids put away the dishes and headed outside to enjoy nature and PAINT! Michael was inspired to paint some of his new Pokemons while Audrey was inspired by the nature around her

Here is some of Michael’s work…

Audrey’s work…

and my first shot at painting…

After we were done painting, we pulled out our yard games and decided to play some Horseshoes…

After dinner at Drew and Erin’s, both kids settled into bed to read their library books…

Michael reading his Snoopy book…

Audrey reading one of her Arthur books…

Another FUN and BUSY weekend!

Kate — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 02:25:26 +0000

This weekend started off with a bang with Becca’s Thursday night arrival! She was able to get away early (Thank you Aunt Elise!!!) and get here Thursday so we would have some extra time together! That night we played cards with Drew and Erin and watched 27 Dresses into the weeeeee hours of the night. Friday, we dragged our bootays out of bed around 11:30AM and then headed out to the Salvation Army to discover that $0.25 FRIDAYS ARE BACK!!!! We were thrilled and my kids enjoyed looking through ALL of the clothes for anything that had a yellow tag (rendering it a QUARTER).

Friday night Drew came over and we played some more Euchre and Durock (that is sooo not the way to spell it, but it’s Russian so I have NO clue). It was great fun! After Drew pooped out and Chris headed to bed, Becca and I watched The Perfect Man. It was mindless and fun, but we were up late AGAIN!!

Saturday brought even more fun as Becca, Chris and I prettied ourselves up (and the kids got to spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa Staley…THANKS Mom and Dad!!!) to attend the wedding of Sarah Benson, one of my friends from school It was a beautiful wedding and a fun reception! When we got home from the reception Drew came over yet again to get some more card playing in! We had to kick him out by midnight however, because we all had to be up early to head to Muscatine. Chris was meeting his friend Lori for lunch at his favorite restaurant Peking while Becca and I were heading to our friend Jeanna’s Garden BABY SHOWER

We arrived early and took in the beautiful decor and the yummy food

Soon our other friend Danaka arrived and we sat together to gab a bit waiting for the festivities to start

There were several fun games, one being Baby Jeopardy which our table totally RULED on! We all got fun prizes! Then it was time for opening the gifts and cake Then it was time to head out so that we could pick up the kids from my Mom and Dad, but not before saying goodbye and talking about when we would all get together to play SingStar again !!!!

As we picked up the kids from my Mom and Dad we were lucky enough to get to spend some time with Uncle Ben and Dom, Nova, and Lola! We always love to get to see THEM!!! Sadly, soon after Becca had to head home and even sadder, I couldn’t go with her… It was still a GREAT weekend!!!

Something you don’t see everyday in Iowa

Christopher — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 22:38:40 +0000

So the news has been reporting for a few days that President Bush was going to visit Iowa and tour some of the flooded areas to see what was going on…

Anyways, this morning my carpool buddies picked me up at 0900 and we start heading up I-380 towards Cedar Rapids. At around 0915 we get passed by a state trooper. Big deal, you might say. Well, right after the state trooper is a black SUV, then another, then another. Holy crap, we realize it is the Presidential Motorcade. So the motorcade consists of the first state trooper, followed by about probably 8 of the black Chevrolet Suburbans, followed by probably 8 white vans marked “Media” or “Support” or something similar. Then a few other cars behind that. So they passed us and KC (our driver) pulled into the left lane, only for us to realize, we just broke into the presidential motorcade!!! OOPS! So he pulled back in to the right lane and let everyone pass, then at the tail of the motorcade was another state trooper, who promptly moved over to the center lane of the interstate, so both lanes were blocked.

Well, my carmates had to go to the uniform shop to pick up their scrubs that had come in, and when they were done we drove to campus. We pulled in and saw the main parking lot where we normally park was blocked off with huge military trucks and cop cars and such. The entire big parking lot. So we drove around to the other side and parked and started walking up to Linn Hall.

We went inside and picked up our Metrology take-home quizzes and went down to the tables where we congregate and started working. I was done in about 10 minutes but the rest of my friends weren’t, and since we still had more than an hour until class started, decided to go out and get some fresh air and see what the heck was going on.

I walked out the front door and talked to a few of my classmates who were outside talking and said I was going to walk down to the parking lot and see what was up. Not 10 seconds later I hear a helicopter so I walked out a little further and looked up and there is Marine One (technically, it wasn’t Marine One yet because the president wasn’t onboard, but really…). I quick whipped out my cell phone and took a picture while running towards the parking lot.

Well, I quickly figured out that the parking lot was a landing area for helicopters. Now, I’ve seen The Sentinel starring Jack Bauer, er, Kiefer Sutherland, and since I believe everything I see in TV or movies, I knew there had to be a second Marine One. And of course, about 2 minutes behind, was the second Marine One.

So we waited and waited and crowd started to gather. A few minutes later, a regular looking car with Iowa plates pulled in to the blocked off parking lot, and I was like, what the heck… until I saw two guys get out, each with a serious-looking sniper rifle. I figured that meant they were supposed to be there.

So we waited there for what seemed like FOREVER and a guy announced that we would have to move soon because there were going to be three more helicopters coming soon and each one of them blew way more wind than Marine One. He said each helicopter weighed 35,000 lbs and could carry an additional 40,000 lbs above what it weighed. Talk about some serious lift. Anyways, he said that there would be about 2 minutes between when Marine One took off and the other three helicopters would land.

Hmm… sometime in there the big presidential motorcade showed up at Kirkwood. Big deal, I saw that nearly three hours earlier, but for most people that was their first time, so…

Anyways… I fully expected President Bush to get back into one of the vehicles and be driven into the parking lot right near the helicopter, but as it turns out, he and Governor Chet Culver ended up walking across the street from where their meeting was. I didn’t expect that, because here we are all standing next to a big parking lot, none of us had been checked by security for anything, and there was plenty of room for something bad to happen, if you know what I mean.

Anyways, the “real” Marine One took off, then the “fake” one took off. According to the Wikipedia article previously linked, there can be up to 5 Marine(s) One(s), and during flight they frequently change position so you don’t know which one is the real one.

Here is the first cargo helicopter. Basically it landed, the big door came down, and about 20 people all climbed aboard, and the thing was back in the air in less than a minute.

And here are the other two giant helicopters.

So I know that not everyone is a huge fan of President Bush, I’m a semi-fan, sometimes, sort of, but regardless of what you think about him as a president, or a person, it really was pretty neat to see all of this in action. In fact, I overheard some teachers talk about how much they hated him, but still were amazed by everything.

By the way, in case anyone has ever wondered why there are so many vehicles in the presidential motorcade, especially the black SUVs, check out this YouTube video!

Anyways, my friend AW and I ended up walking in to class about 50 minutes late. I guess we lost track of the time. Worth it.

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Wow, AMAZING!!!

Christopher — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 18:18:08 +0000

I just saw one of the most amazing things I have ever seen in my life! More to come in a few hours…

Twenty-four 30 gallon trash bags later… I’m DONE…

Kate — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 05:36:02 +0000

So now I will entertain you with “before” filthy pictures and the “after” clean pictures. It is really ridiculous!

My bedroom before:

My bedroom AFTER:

My living room BEFORE:

My living room AFTER:

My hallway BEFORE:

My hallway AFTER:

Michael’s room BEFORE:

Michael’s room AFTER:

and finally my kitchen/dining room BEFORE:

And my kitchen/dining room AFTER:

Yay it is DONE!!!!