Saturday, October 5th, 2013

Right now I'm watching Nolan while Elizabeth gets a well deserved nap, and since I managed to get our little guy to fall asleep too I thought it would be a good time to blog...

From talking to some family earlier today it sounds like some strong winds and a tornado did quite a bit of damage from back home yesterday.  It sounds like people were pretty lucky in the fact that nobody was hurt, and everyone's houses were sparred.  Still there was some property damage throughout the area.  Chris & Marcia had the roof torn off of their barn, an old windmill was destroyed, and a silo fell down.  A cattle barn of Paul Salton's about a mile and a half west from my parent's place was totaled.  It sounds like there was only minor damage done on my parent's farm... large tree branches, fencing, and a small shed in a horse lot was destroyed. 

Here you can see the roof which was torn from Chris & Marcia's barn.

The Iowa State football team "lost" a heartbreaking game to Texas this past Thursday.  I will remember the game for what should have been called a fumble at the goal line when Jeremiah George stripped the ball away from the Texas running back and took off for what would have been an ISU touchdown.  Instead the refs got it wrong, a couple plays later Texas scored, and that was the game.  So frustrating...

Today for lunch we went to a local restaurant, Wallaby's. I had actually never been there before, but it was a pretty comfortable sports bar and grill.  I enjoyed a breaded pork tenderloin while Elizabeth had a Turkey melt and sweet potato fries. 

Nolan has the strength to stand if you hold him to keep him balanced.

Tuesday, October 1st, 2013

Well Elizabeth and I have had enough stress lately with our "daycare provider".  Pay attention to the quotation marks there. 

So for some background information, we had signed up to have a lady that runs an in-home daycare which is really close by where we live (like less than 2 blocks) take care of Nolan.  We had signed up for this about 8 months ago.  I guess in retrospect we signed up for daycare at this place mostly because of its convenient location.  We should have done a little more background checking...

Fast forward to yesterday.  Elizabeth checks the mail and it turns out we got a letter form our daycare provider WHO WAS SCHEDULED TO START WITH NOLAN IN ONE WEEK.  It turns out that she is cancelling our daycare because she "had help quit and will not have as many children".  She goes on to say that she cannot pay to add another employee because it would be too much stress on her family.  This letter appeared to be a form letter, it had multiple grammatical errors, and it seemed to contradict conversations that she had with Elizabeth only last week.

Wow.  Where to start with this. I should probably note that she had contacted us before Nolan was born to try and have us sell Yankee Candles for her as a fundraiser.  We did not participate in this because 1) it's kind of weird for in-home daycare to make parents do fundraisers, and 2) we don't want to peddle candles to all of our friends and family.  According to her facebook page, she has an upcoming fundraiser of selling pasta as well. 

Elizabeth had been in contact with her throughout last week trying to iron out a few details.  I should probably mention that her name is Terri Bogenrief.  So in messaging back and forth with her she mentioned that she was recently upgraded to a QRS rating of 3 and would be charging us a little more.  Whatever.  So at that time it seemed like she was still planning on working for us, and she was even "upgrading".  Apparently she is taking less children instead.  

The worst part of it is the very small amount of time that she gives us to find a replacement.  The letter she mailed was sent last Friday, and we didn't receive it until Monday.  Those are a few extra days that would have been nice to search for a replacement!  She could have called, or texted, or emailed.  Nope.  Now before when we had lined up our service with her she made it clear to us that if we would have for some reason wanted to cancel our daycare and go with another place that we were to call her right away or contact her immediately.  Apparently she does not offer the same courtesy. 

I honestly don't even think that she had any help quit like she claims.  My theory is that for some reason she just wanted to back out of caring for Nolan (probably because we weren't exactly wanting to do her stupid fundraisers), so she sends us this form letter in the mail and says that is that.  She proceeded to un-friend us on Facebook immediately so that we could not contact her or write our story on her wall.  Elizabeth has tried to text her but has received no response.

I have a hard time getting over how unprofessional this lady has been, and how ridiculous it is to cancel a daycare service with a week to go.  Especially when doing so via letter when she could have done so quicker in so many other ways (walk over since she lives two blocks away, call, text, email, carrier pigeon).  

Overall, I do feel a little relief in knowing that she will not be taking care of Nolan.  Especially now that we have happened to look her up on Iowa Courts Online.  It's hard for me to tell what most of the filings are for, but she is involved in close to 40 cases (almost all of them as a defendant).  It seems that we've dogged a bullet in that we will not have to deal with her in the future, and that she will be nowhere near our son.

Sunday, September 15th, 2013

Well yesterday could have gone a lot better for me...

Around 11:00 in the morning yesterday I bent forward and felt a pull in my low back, so now I've been having what I call mild back spasms if I sit or bend over too much :(  I suspect that it will take a day or two to get back to normal from that...

Then it was the big ISU/Iowa football game yesterday.  I did manage to attend the game in spite on my sore back... I just tried to stay standing or walking around which actually didn't feel too bad.  The game was basically a nightmare.  Iowa State's offense could not get going until about 4 minutes left in the game, but it was too little, too late.  Quenton Bundrage was a bright spot for Iowa State, catching 7 passes for 146 yards and three touchdowns.  For the majority of the game though, Iowa State could not get an offensive rhythm, and our defense could not stop the running game for Iowa.  What really bothers me is that both of the teams Iowa State have lost to this year do not look like quality teams anyways... ISU just really looks poor. 

This video sums up Iowa State's day pretty well.  B.J. Lowery make an amazing one-handed interception as Sam Richardson tries to force a throw downfield. 

The Iowa State marching band forming the "ISU".

As of yesterday, Nolan is officially 2 months old!  Here are a few pictures of the little guy on his 2-month birthday...

Friday, September 13th, 2013

Happy FRIDAY THE 13TH....  (insert spooky ghost noises here)...

I have a little down time at work at the moment, so I thought I would make a quick prediction prior to the Iowa State-Iowa football game.  It's always difficult to pick a close score in these rivalry games, and this year it seems especially difficult.  Mainly this is because both teams look down at the moment, and it's hard to know how each will respond. 

On one hand, Iowa State's young defense did not look good at all in their first game of the year.  We could not tackle or stop the run at all.  It's embarrassing to say that they were upset by the UNI Panthers.  There are also questions on ISU's offense as their starting center Tom Farniok was injured in the game against the Panthers, and Quarterback Sam Richardson has been in a walking boot for precautionary measures this last week.  On the other hand, the Iowa Hawkeyes are only 1-1 after their opening loss to Northern Illinois, and they struggled against a very bad Missouri State team in their win last week.  What could happen tomorrow?  I really would not be surprised by anything...

As of now the Iowa Hawkeyes are a 2.5 point favorite.  Big surprise.  If there is one thing that I've learned about these games, it's that the Hawkeyes are almost always over-rated.  I pointed out last year that in the last 15 ISU-Iowa football games, Iowa State has beat the spread in 12 of the 15 meetings.  The Hawkeyes have been favored in 13 of the 15 games, yet Iowa State has still won 9 of them.  A 2.5 point line in favor of the Hawks?  That's about as useful as the points on "Whose Line is it Anyway?". 

My prediction:  Iowa State wins, 26-20.  I will say that Aaron Wimberly runs for a TD, and Sam Richardson throws at least one TD... let's say to Quenton Bundrage.  How do they score 26 exactly?  I don't know, but 6 sounds like a good winning margin for the Cyclones!  I'll also say that Mark Weisman scores two TD runs for the Hawkeyes. 

GO STATE!!

Monday, September 2nd, 2013

Happy Labor Day Everyone!

Today we took Nolan down to Des Moines to visit great aunt & uncle LaVonne and Gary.  He did really well today on his third car trip ever (first was Parkersburg, second Eben & Lynn's place).  He slept all the way down there, was a good boy for LV & Gary, he slept while Elizabeth and I grabbed lunch at A&W, and he slept during the car ride back home.  He's such a good boy!

Nolan with his Awesome like Auntie shirt :)

LaVonne holding Nolan

Then last night Elizabeth and I finally opened the last bottle of wine that we brought back from our honeymoon (I think we had brought back one bottle of white wine that we drank right away, and this bottle of red wine).  It was fun thinking back to our honeymoon :)

Our honeymoon bottle of wine

Sunday, September 1st, 2013

Today is a day of recovery after a very hot and disappointing season opening football game for Iowa State.  After being favored by 9 and 1/2 points, the Cyclones were upset by the UNI Panthers, 28-20.

Iowa State's young defense just could not stop the Panther's David Johnson.  The Junior running back ran for 199 yards and two touchdowns and also caught a pair of touchdown passes.  Plenty of poor tackling from Iowa State was seen as well :(

The day itself was incredibly hot as the fans suffered through mid-90 degree weather all day while tailgating.  We waited to arrive at the tailgate until around 3:00, but within a half hour from being outside I was already sweating quite a bit.  Usually we try and play a few games while tailgating, but yesterday we spent mostly huddled in the shade under tents. I went with Tim Nevins, his girlfriend Lydia, Dan Becker, and Jeremy Seago.  Elizabeth stayed home with Nolan.  This was definitely too hot of a day for our little guy to be outside.

Nolan all dressed up for Cyclone gameday!

This Second quarter TD pass from Sam Richardson to James White made the score 21-14 UNI.

Cole Netten's second career field goal makes the score 21-20 UNI. It was looking like Iowa State was making a good comeback until Johnson scored his 4th TD of the game in the fourth quarter on a 29-yard pass from UNI quarterback Sawyer Kollmorgen.

Monday, August 26th, 2013

This past weekend we took Nolan on his first overnight adventure.  Saturday morning we left Ames and headed up north to my parents' farm.  We arrived around 9 in the morning, and at lunch time we had quite a few family members stop by to meet him for the first time.  Great grandpa Dick, Terry, Deb, Becky, Great grandma Natalie, Susan, Chris and Marcia all got to meet him for the first time.  Amy also made the drive over from Omaha for all of the fun. 

Great grandpa Dick with Nolan :)

Eben is still getting used to being called grandpa

Great grandma Natalie and Nolan

Four generations of Saltons

Elizabeth took Nolan for a walk around the farm and let him meet the horses

Today I'm also looking forward to the start of Cyclone football season.  It's only 5 more days until Iowa State kicks off against UNI!