Smith Kids MSU Tailgate

Smith Kids MSU Tailgate
Dominica, Veronica, Rebel and Miranda

Thursday, June 30, 2011

The vanKotens

Well they too were warned that this day would come and now here it is.  The vanKoten family update is about to begin!  First a little background information.  When NOTV2011 was just a seed of an idea I called my older sister certain that she would be at least as excited about it as I was.  Boy was I wrong. Dominica vanKoten's initial response was, "what???No TV???, but that is all we do???" 

Well I am not one to take "no" for an answer. Not only am I stubborn, but I am persistant as well. So for the next few weeks, Miranda, Rebel and I did what all good siblings must do. We ganged up on her, we teased her and tortured her (as much as you can torture someone from 800 miles away) and we bullied her into submission which in this particular instance was signing up to participate in NOTV2011.  A small victory for us, "the little kids"!

Anyhow, that said, she is one of the members and as such she should be adding to the blog more regularly than she has been.  However, she has been too wrapped up in the Miss America Pageant and other beauty pagents to log on and write anything.  Plus she has been tuning into that show about 16 and pregnant because secretly she loves babies and wishes she had a whole litter of them!  Ivar has been captivated by Nancy Pelosi so much that he tunes into CSPAN in his waking hours. And while he sleeps, Ivar dreams of Pelosi feeding him smoked gouda cheese while brushing his beard.

Alright I think enough creative juices have been spilled on this one, but Rebel and Leslie you are next in the realm of creative writing so add a post or pay the price.  You get one week to update us on your television use (or hopefully lack thereof) or I will be adding a post about you.

Vern Out

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Halfway there!

            We are nearly half way through 2011 so I felt it appropriate, fitting even, to provide an update on all of my ambitious, albeit slightly crazy, ideas that have been inspired by my NOTV2011 experience. NOTV2011 has served as a spring board for so many great ideas already and I am sure it will lead to many more before year’s end.  It will be interesting to see what else stems from this social experiment during the upcoming six months and beyond.  It has already been a life-altering endeavor.  The greatest change in our lives is that we all read about five to ten times more than we did with the television on!  Librarians and teachers across this great nation can rejoice!  We are putting wrinkles in our brains.
            If you have been following my NOTV2011 adventures, then you know that it has been a bumpy and challenging adventure.  The statement “the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat” comes to mind.  I have been quite successful with the goal of leaving the television off, but I have had a few ugly failures as well.  I can’t say I have been perfect, but close.  I can count the number of times we have watched TV this year on one hand and that is pretty darn good all things considered.             
            For the second half of the year, I am going to attempt to get a perfect score.  I am going for the perfect ten, Nadia Comaneci style. As long as I can avoid watching Criminal Minds and Wheel of Fortune I should be okay.  Oh and I have to stick the dismount.  I figure November and December will be easy because the holidays will keep us so busy that we won’t miss television.  September and October should also be busy with Kara starting kindergarten and me completing my marathon training and running my first marathon so that should be fairly easy as well.  Really it all comes down to July and August and honestly if I can’t be perfect during the nicest weather of the year, then there is something wrong with me other than the flaws I have pointed out in previous posts.
           As I mentioned, there have been great successes and horrible failures along this NOTV2011 journey.  Some of my greatest successes have been:  My creation of Wacky Wild Wednesday Workout and Fantastic Friday Fart (and burp) Festival.  My running and marathon training are right on course for finishing a marathon this fall.  And my 5K time is faster than ever!  My water consumption has increased exponentially; I could easily down a couple of quarts right now.  Watch out everyone, the Camel is back!  And my ability to create new and exciting entertainment for three gregarious kids pretty much on the fly is nearly perfected.  I am like a traveling, one-woman variety show.  I must admit it is pretty impressive even to adult company most days.  Not to brag, but right now my main character is like a cross between Mrs Doubtfire and Julia Child.  I have excelled at all of these.   Possibly best of all, our sheets are changed much more regularly still to this day which never would have happened if we hadn’t turned off the TV. This fact alone is a small miracle.
     Now with this amount of success of course comes some amount of failure.  Nobody is perfect, right?  Some of my worst failures have been:  The use of 52 Weeks of Better Sex.  Enough said on that one. I also failed miserably at my lent inspired attempt to getting better organized.  The house is still as disorganized as it was a year ago and I am pretty sure that a year from now it won’t be much better. The bathroom ceiling is clean again after a heroic and death defying cleaning experience last night involving barstools, bathtubs, bleach and flexibility.  I am pretty sure the act of scrubbing it wasn't pretty, but the bathroom sure is!  Other than that though the house is a disorganized mess.  My driving skills are still not as stellar as they ought to be either especially since I chauffeur three kids around so often.  I got pulled over for speeding about a month ago, but thankfully I didn’t get a ticket.  Possibly my worst, most unforgivable failure is that I can’t seem to get totally into this new house stuff and it really makes Jeff mad.  I am trying really hard, but there are just a lot of things about the house that I don’t care much about.  The jetted bath tub is a must have.  After my long runs it will feel so good to soak in that.  However, I care much less about the color of walls in the new house than I do about the long run I hope to fit in this Saturday morning and that drives my husband absolutely mad.  But I can’t help who I am and I am a marathoner!
            So anyhow, half way through the year I feel wonderful about all of the incredible memories I am creating with my kids.  Memories that don't involve television or movies.   These memories will last a lifetime (or more) while any cartoons or sitcoms would only last thirty minutes.  I feel optimistic that I will finish strong in the NOTV challenge just like I will at the marathon later this fall.  I am confident that both experiences will impact my lifestyle for decades to come.  I feel blessed.
Vern Out

The visitors

Yesterday ended up being a day when we never left our property.  At least we did play outside quite a bit despite the somewhat nasty weather that blew in and out of Nunica all day long.  We stayed home the entire day and just kept getting new visitors every few hours!  What a great surprise!  It was, as most things in my life, not a planned thing, but once again it ended up being a great day.  Yesterday just adds more support to my theory that the best things in life can't be planned!  Best of all, our van got an unexpected vacation day.  Of course, my cheap husband loved this added bonus since it saves gas money! 

It all started Saturday night when were all hanging out at our friend's boat; some of our friends asked to come and run the Brainy Day Loop Monday morning.  Of course I love to share our masterpeice with as many people as possible so we planned a 10AM meeting of the legs so to speak!  At that time, I thought I had a nine oclock chiropractor appointment so I planned to quick head there to get my back cracking out of the way and then be home in time to meet our friends.  Well the ginkgo must be kind of working because I was right that I had an appointment, but wrong with the time. I arrived home to discover that the appointment was actually at ten.

First thing Monday (which was yesterday) I called to try to move the appointment to nine oclock, but it wasn't possible so I moved it to Tuesday instead. And with this one fairly minor change to our schedule, the day of visitors was inadvertantly born!

The only thing that went as planned so to speak was that our friends did come to run the loop at ten.  As an added bonus, they let me run it by myself when they got done and they watched my little ones!  I think I got the better end of that deal!  Then other friends stopped by to visit a couple hours later, the neighbor stopped by to chat and one of my running buddies stopped by to visit as well.  We had a different visitor about every two hours which really worked to break up the gloomy, overcast, rainy day.  So to all you "visitors" out there (you know who you are) thanks for stopping by on a gloomy Monday.  Without you, there is every possibility that I may have caved in to the many requests that were made to "just watch movies" yesterday.

Vern Out

Monday, June 27, 2011

Completely TV free for the weekend!

What a beautiful, wonderful, perfect weekend we enjoyed!  As the title suggests there was no television at our place other than a couple minutes of the news to catch the weather each night to confirm that the glorious weather was predicted to stick around. 

Our house started out clean and ended up not much worse for the wear.  We had our first house guest in a very long time which helped motivate a major overhaul of the house Friday afternoon.  The house guest was like a celebrity of sorts at our place.  That is to say the kids LOVED her possibly more than Taylor Swift and would not give her a break from smothering her with affection.  I bet she was glad to return home where she is just "mommy" not a local celebrity.

I also managed to fit in a long run with said house guest, spent quality time with the family (including a voyage north to visit our posse of Grandmas and Grandpas up there) and worked on one of my new projects-cleaning and decorating the refrigerator.  I cleared the outside off completely, wiped it down with clorox spray, removed any out dated pictures and put back only photos that I find motivating for running.  I then began sifting through some hand-me-down Runner's World magazines for motivational sayings and began taping them to the fridge.  Soon our refrigerator will be a major motivating force behind my marathon endeavor!  Right now I have a dozen or so sayings plastered to it and already every time I look for a snack or start cooking a meal I find myself face to face with MOTIVATION!  It is pretty awesome.

Today there are no plans for television.  We will be working on the Brainy Day Trail to prepare it for the fast approaching race.  I also will be tackling the inside of the fridge since Jeff had a little battle with some leftover gravy this morning.  It attacked him as he tried to get lunch meat out of the fridge and spilled all over the floor.  He may have dropped the F bomb a couple of times over that incident and he had to change his clothes because they became gravy laden.  Given this recent turn of events, I suppose the inside of the fridge should be cleaned as well!

Oh Aven just woke up and informed me that "we need to read books" so I will likely be reading quite a bit today as well.

Vern Out

Friday, June 24, 2011

Life at Home!

Life at the Daniels is going smoothly lately.  The greenhouse season is winding down and giving me more time at home, but this does not mean more tv time!  With the beautiful weather outside it has not been hard to keep the TV off.  The kids and I spend most of our days outside swinging, watering plants and chasing the dogs.  Kenny has been running around with a T-shirt and underwear on, in an attempt to get him out of diapers.  Success has been slow, he seems to not mind having pee run down his leg, he usually giggles and says "look mama I'm peeing!"  Today we had a break through, we were stuck inside all day because of the rain and I managed to bribe him with candy to use the potty twice!  Amazing!  He only went pee on the carpet once today, also amazing :)  Cody is starting to walk!  He has been taking a few steps here and there and I know it won't be long until he's running around with Kenny!  Being outside has helped get him walking.  Our lawn (mainly weeds) is very pokey on his legs, so he does this goofy bear crawl around the yard, so his knees don't touch the ground.  I think of Ivar every day when I watch him! 
Oh I almost forgot!  We have pond in our front, back and side yard right now from all the rain.  The boys had a blast playing in it yesterday.  Then, last night I looked out and saw a giant snapping turtle floating through our back yard pond!!  Mark actually went out and picked it up, crazy big turtle.  Leslie let your step dad know we may need his help getting rid of it!! 
Well thats all the excitement in the GC,
peace out girl scout
mird    

Atari anyone?

         I’ve come to the conclusion that AJ must have inherited his video game playing gene (or lack thereof) from his mother.  There is no other logical explanation to his video gaming skills; he stinks at playing video games, just like me.  He is only three so I guess he could still develop his skills and end up okay in the realm of video game domination later on in life. There is no hope for me. I am thirty four years old and I have never been any good at playing video games unless Where in the World Is Carmen San Diego counts.  Then I ruled the world!  I conquered that game.  Thankfully, as long as you once again discount Carmen San Diego, I have also never really liked video games either.  It is a mutual hate kind of relationship and it works for us. No one is complaining so all is well.
         Anyhow, when I say I never really liked video games that was before I experienced watching AJ play video games.  I absolutely love to do that!  AJ is so entertaining to watch play the games that you don’t really need to watch the actual game. Instead you can just focus on his comical facial expressions, his vocal outbursts and his seizure-like hand movements and voila us grown-ups enjoy some really cheap entertainment.  It is so hysterical.  Jeff and I did just that last Wednesday night; we sat and watched our son play video games for about an hour.  We don’t have a WII or an X-box 280 or whatever it is called. Instead we have one of those cheap, yet still quite cool, boxes (complete with old school joystick) that plugs into your television and supplies several video game options. Ours brings life back to the eighties version of video gaming for a short time by providing classics like Pac-man and Dig Dug!  AJ played all of the Atari legends right in the comfort of our own home and it was so much fun even though he never scored more than a couple hundred points.
       I won the in-law lottery!  It’s true.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, “I have the absolute best in-laws in the world”.  The whole Atari playing night would not have been possible if not for my in-laws.  On Wednesdays we started a new tradition for the summer.  We rotate our kids.  They take two of our kids so that we can keep one at home and have special time with that kid.  I wish I could say our kids look forward to their night home with mom and dad, but that would be a lie.  They look forward to their time at Grandma and Grandpa’s house.  However, Jeff and I are working to make the night with mom and dad special so that this might change by summer’s end, but for now it is what it is and that is to say that whoever gets stuck at home with us is not happy at least not initially.  AJ was absolutely tickled pink by night’s end as he played video games.  So we have not been watching television at our house in the traditional sense, but we have been looking at the TV to keep tabs on our "TV game" playing boy.  This only lasted one magical evening and then we returned to business as usual no television even for video games.

Vern Out

                       

                        

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Ginkgo Biloba

I bought some Ginkgo Biloba today. These days I feel like I have lost my edge, or my mind, take your pick. Actually they are probably both true to some extent.  Over the past few months I seem to be more forgetful than usual so I figured I would give it a try.  A friend of mine swears by it and said she would never be without it again.  I can't hardly be worse off in the memory department so I will give it a shot.

I have done all of the following things over the course of the past two to three months.  Gone to the store to buy Cool Whip and returned home without it (dont worry I got other stuff I just forgot about the Cool Whip).  I lost a borrowed book. No worries Brian, I found it at my doctor's office a few days later, but I totally lost it for a short time.  I have lost various peices of clothing. Both my own personal clothes and my children's clothes have fallen victim to my poor memory.  I swear no one's clothes are safe in our house these days.  My best friend and I were supposed to get together yesterday and I totally forgot about it.  In my defense, she never called me either, but I just totally forgot it which usually is unlike me.  I also didn't realize that there were two great big windows in the master bathroom in our new house.  I just never noticed it. This oversight on my part became the source of a heated argument between Jeff and I the other night.  He still thinks I don't care enough about the new house and I just don't think I store the amount of data currently in my mind that effectively so why would I want to add a bunch of other information about the house to my mixed up mind?  I don't.  That seems a bit suicidal to me and I am not that.  And most recently I lost my infamous notebook-you know the one with all of my brilliant ideas in it. It contains all of my best thoughts.  It is like the Greatest Hits volume for Vern and for three days I couldn't find it.  Losing that really was like losing my mind. There are probably other things I have forgotten as well, but I can't remember.

Anyhow given my recent track record, I thought it time to try something new.  Notes to myself can only work if I can keep track of my notebook and we all know how that is going. So I bought a bottle with enough Ginkgo Biloba to last me three months. I figure I will reaccess the situation at that time.  As a back up plan I bought enough icecream, coffee, bubble bath and wine to get me through at least three months so if it isn't effective at least I will be happy.  If I have seen no improvement during the trial period then I can talk to my neurosurgeon about a catscan to make sure everything is okay inside my brain!  Maybe I just have mommy brain.  I don't know, but I seem to be more forgetful than usual.

Of course the television is not being used at our place. Now that the NHL and the NBA are both done and champions have been crowned there is not much in the way of sports for Jeff to watch. Instead we have just been leaving the television off, enjoying the nice weather (not today of course, but in general) and listening to the Tigers on WLAV.  Go Tigers!

Vern Out

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Let's make it 171

Tonight I was reading the Grand Haven Tribune and the "Today in History" section informed me that it is the 172nd day of 2011.  It is also this day in history that the United States Constitution went into effect as New Hampshire became the nineth state to ratify it.  So here I am 172 days into this NOTV2011 deal tonight and I couldn't be happier about life!  The fact that life no longer includes the TV (short of a handful of exceptions) is so cool!  Once I learned that today is the 172nd day of the year, I realized we are dangerously close to averaging a post a day which was one of our goals for the year.   So I just had to get on here and write something.  Anything. Here goes.

Now I am not generally one to complain, I usually suck it up.  When the #!*% hits the fan I usually just shut up and deal with it, but in this case I will make an exception.  I am going to complain. I am going to complain about the lack of sibling involvement with this blog.  Of the 172 posts I bet 125 are mine.  Given the level of enthusiasm that Rebel and Miranda had in the beginning of this deal (they had at least as much enthusiasm as I), it is disheartening that they rarely write on here.  We miss you. I miss you. Even if you are failing miserably at the NOTV deal guys, you need to write about it and try to make it a little bit entertaining if possible although it is certainly not a requirement.  I write about stuff that is not entertaining all the time!  We need to document the social, physical and emotional impacts that no television has had on you.  Has it changed your habits and outlook on life?  I believe I speak for all of our readers when I say "We do not care if you are failing.  We just want to know how it is going". 

Dominica I realize we strongly persuaded, okay bullied may be a more accurate word, you to join our NOTV2011 experience so I give you a little break.  And I do realize you attended the Bossi Family Reunion last weekend on our all of our behalves (is that even a word?) so I will give you a week. We need to hear from in one week or Jeff and I are going to make something really crazy up. 

Oh and I started my marathon training yesterday in splendid fashion by skipping the first 3 mile run that I should have done according to this training book I have been reading. I think that it was the perfect start to my marathon mission because I tend to do things my own way.  I am not really very good at following directions, but I generally get the desired results.  Tonight I ran four miles which should have been a night off. Oh well, I still have every intention of documenting my marathon experience and making my own training guide for first timers to read because I know this is going to be an incredible, awesome, life altering experience once I survive 26.2!

Vern Out

Monday, June 20, 2011

170th Post

I was looking at the statistics for NOTV2011 blog and this is our 170th post for the year! Can you believe it?  I can't.  Anyhow, I am gonna try to make it an entertaining one, but I can not make any promises since the internet connection at the Loutit Library is, at best, very precarious and unpredictable this morning. It has already kicked me off the internet three times and I have only been here for about ten minutes. It makes me thankful for the Spring Lake Library where I have never encountered as many problems.  And keep in mind, I visit Spring Lake's library at least four times a week with unruly children.  We are yet to be kicked out of anything.  It is an inexplicable miracle!

Our visit here to Loutit Library in Grand Haven marks the second library visited this summer.  We are actually signed up for the summer reading program in Spring Lake so all of our additional reading time can finally pay off. Unfortunately it will pay in small trinkets that I will undoubtedly step on a few times until I get too irritated by them to handle it anymore, or until they are broken. They will inevitably be thrown away before summer's end, but the kids will like it.  And I suppose that is what's important. Since we don't watch TV, we read a lot more and we might as well get something for it even if it is just cheap trinkets! 

Moving on, our passports are already getting pretty full so we may have to appy for new ones before the summer is over!  Hopefully the kids won't be rejected for poor behavior.

In NOTV Land we have been quite steadfast in our mission to eliminate television from our lives with just one exception.  We watched Secretariat on Saturday night. For the first half, we tried to make it a family affair; then once our kids had driven both Jeff and I to the brink of insanity by being so loud and out of control, we decided to stop the movie and put the kids to bed.We saved the dramatic conclusion (yeah right) . It was like watching Titanic- everyone knows the ending; watching the movie just serves to educate the viewer about the details of the journey to get there.  So we saved all the drama for later with just the two of us--it was our romantic date for the month.  Honestly, at this point in our lives there is little romance unless changing diapers, mowing the lawn and washing laundry count, but someday the romance will return-- at least I hope so!

On the marathon training front, today marks the official start of my marathon training.  I finally paid and registered.  I had to refinance our house to do so!  Just kidding, but I never thougth I would pay someone $100 for the right to run 26.2 miles. I realize it is in some strange way ridiculous, but this marathon is also so important to me. Only those who run can appreciate my decision to do this.  My husband certainly does not.

 I announced the official marathon details to friends and family this weekend with a proper invitation.  You can look for me October 16th at the Grand Rapids Marathon.  I will be one of the slow ones toward the back of the pack, but I will finish.  I am too stubborn not to finish.  I ran the last of my 5k's for the summer Saturday at the Spring Lake Heritage Festival where I ran my fastest time so far at 25:02.  It was a great run, but it was too hot.  Other than this there is no news. But in this instance, no news really is good news.  Life is good without any television. I honestly wouldn't have time for TV these days.

Vern Out

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Untitled

I'm taking suggestions for title for this one.  I am just writing on the fly again at the library with not three, but four, children to watch this time.  I know I am always looking to improve my parenting skills so adding another kid (when I was already struggling with three) seemed like a terrible and great idea all at once so I went ahead and ran with it!  My neice, Haleigh, is joining us a couple days a week this summer so occassionally this will be my reality watching four kids on a rainy day and trying to avoid watching television while I am at it.  So far so good. 

I created passports for the kids to use this summer to document all of our travels.  They are pretty sweet.  Complete with photo ID.  I am pretty sure they won't get you through airport security, but the kids love them and I think considering my lack of artistic flair they are pretty cool.  So far this week we have visited Travel Leaders in Spring Lake (I thought it fitting that Grandma who owns the travel agency be the first to stamp my delicate passport creations), the library, Ferrysburg Park and in a few minutes we plan to add a Front Porch (icecream shop) stamp to our passports.  I am happy to report that the television has not been on at all at our place.

Vern Out

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Damn NBA

I am stuck here again listening to the NBA playoffs as I write; Sadly, I feel like a hostage in my own home, but I made a deal and I am a woman of my word so Jeff will continue to enjoy the sporting events of his choice.  Anyhow, other than suffering through this NBA Championship stuff, I have been enjoying television-free living immensely! 

Last night Kara and I painted the manure spreader while AJ and Hazel spent the night with Grandma and Grandpa.  It looks like a whole new machine now!  It is colored purple, blue, green and white and there is absolutely no pattern to the colors nor any rhyme or reason to its decorations.  The old rotten boards are all replaced with new ply wood so I do believe it is now functional for its purpose--hauling wood.  The painting process was quite enjoyable and Kara absolutely loved it.  She actually asked to paint more this morning! However, we had errands to do so we didn't paint more today. This afternoon Grandma took all the grand kids to get pictures done.  If the NBA could just crown a champion already, then my life would be completely wonderful because the television would not be talking in the background!

Vern out 

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Yippee

First of all, nice job, Mird, with two posts in one week I think you win the blogger of the week award or something!  Anyhow, I thought I would just quickly let everyone know that I am still alive and not at a psychiatrist's office either!  The tacos were even a success so all is well here.  Ironically, or maybe not, we are back at Grandma's again and the kids are watching just one episode of Handy Manny while I finish polishing up my resume and responding to emails.  The other added bonus to Grandma's place is that there is air conditioning and it just feel great hanging out here.  We are heading home soon to get ready for Aven's birthday celebration tonight!  I think it is hotdogs and Mac n Cheese.  We went all out I know, but for a three year old there is not a better meal in the world!
Vern Out

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Well, i thought I'd surprise ya and write on here twice in one week! and partially because we've been doing so well at our house.  Because of the recent change in weather we have been pretty much living outside at our house...of course not when it hits 96 degrees like it did today then we hang out in our basement :)  Kenny also entertained himself with a cold bath for about an hour today.  I don't know if you're supposed to let your kids do that, but lets be honest when your almost three year old is happy for an hour straight you just go with it! so by time we played outside and then cleaned up from playing outside we didn't really have time for tv!  People have been buying plants the last week like its going out of style too so Mark and I are keeping ourselves totally exhausted mentally and physically, I actually find myself falling asleep by about nine at night.  Either way no tv, and that's good because in the summer there's no good tv anyway.  I hope all the other smith kids are doing well! peace out - mird 

A shameful day

I am ashamed to admit that my children have been watching television for well over an hour today so that I can get stuff done for the awesome upcoming Brainy Day 5K and MOPS.  They have watched two episodes of Bubble Guppies and one episode of Backyardiggans. 

It is not a good excuse, I realize that, but I just have stuff I need to finish and this seemed like the best means to accomplish my goals.  I feel lame just stating this stuff.  While I may get this work done I may also have to seek preofessional therapy for the amount of guilt I am feeling as a result right now.  Icecream, coffee and a hot bath may not cut it this time.  Anyhow, we are at grandma's so I can use the computer to accomplish my work since my laptop is still out of commission and Granma has cable so the kids can not only get a fix, but they can get a Nickelodeon fix; the very best kind. 

We are heading home soon to prepare tacos for Taco Tuesday.  That is assuming that I can keep it together long enough to get home and cook something as simple as tacos.  The guilt may just eat me alive before that.

Vern Shamefully Out

Monday, June 6, 2011

Double trouble

So not only was the game on last night at our place, but the series is all messed up.  It won't be done in four games.  They are off to a 2-1 start so the soonest I will be free from the NBA is not for two more games. Ugh.  Anyhow on the up side Funniest Videos was not on since the game was on so the kids didn't watch any television this past week!

I am totally bummed about the NBA gig, but managing my sorrow with some home-made Moon Pie Cookies!  Not to toot my own horn or anything, but they are pretty fantastic this time!  These cookies are Jeff's favorites and I also shared some with one of my running buddies who will be running (actually driving) all over the country this week so I figured it would provide him with some good road trip snacks!  Anyhow, the television is off and we are too! Off at Grandma's House so I can access the internet.

I named this post before I wrote it and now the name doesn't really make sense?  I forgot the second part of the trouble that I was thinking of when I started...How sad is that?  Oh well, at least I almost have the shirt design for Brainy Day complete!  Having that project completed will free up some RAM for me and then maybe I won't do things like start a story and not remember my point at the end.

Vern Out

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Still off the TV

It almost seems silly to write on here today since there isn't much recent change in our NOTV deal.  However, since my laptop is still out of commission and I don't know the next time I will be on-line, I figured I should write since I actually have access to the internet. 

Anyhow, we are still going strong at our place and I have not had to endure anymore NBA games.  Hopefully Miami just makes a sweep so it will be over the soonest amount of time possible.  Anyhow, I am certain if there is basketball on today it will be aired in our house and other than that Funniest Videos tonight for everyone else while I soak in a hot tub will likely be happening (unless the kids or daddy are really naughty today). 
Vern Out

Saturday, June 4, 2011

vern has quite the imagination!!

well it took a while but I am ready to rebuttle verns great imagination on what the daniels are up to :)  no I have not started to watch any adult programming lately!  vern did have part of it right though, we have been working crazy hours lately and I will say as for the last week the TV has not been watched by me very much!  I didnt even watch wheel of fortune all week!  we have slipped back into some of our normal tv cycles here at the daniels and we did start watching some of our favorite shows again, but hurrah its summer so all the shows are on break and lets face it all the summer shows suck!!  so we dont really watch much right now,

 anyhow its been so nice out we spend our evenings in the back yard sitting in our lawn chairs, drinking beer and admiring the two foot tall weeds (not grass mind you) that fills our yard while the kids run around in just diapers and eat sand out of the sand box...life doesnt get better than this :)  and hey maybe next week we'll get the lawn mower fixed so that cody can crawl in the actual yard again without getting hit in the eyes with weeds.  life is good here one more week of full time work and then I will be home a lot more with the kids!  they will still be going to daycare on thursdays tho, so vern if you want to meet up and do something fun on a thursday let me know! 

ok peace out from the daniels - oh yeah mark is not watching u of m on tv either - thats not even funny

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Random stuff

Since my lap top died and I recently lost my library card, I am very challenged to get on-line, at least temporarily, so therefore this post will include many of my recent thoughts on NOTV and anything else that pops into my head.  It will be even more random than usual all you type A personalities out there will probably get stressed out just reading this.  Just imagine if you had to be me for a day.   But everyone like me will appreciate it.  You are very welcome Miranda! 

First of all, to put all of your minds at ease, I have been very good without television and have not missed it much since my last post.  There are a few exceptions and I will get to those later.  But first and foremost, I must curse the NBA and its playoffs as I was doing a few nights ago while I tried to relax after the kids were tucked in.  If I never see (or hear) another NBA game it will be too soon.  And to think I used to be a die hard Pistons fan.  If not for the NBA, I would be living my NOTV dream in complete, silent, bliss. Enough about basketball on to the good stuff!

So not that I think any of you are keeping track of my womanly cycles, but it has been a month since I cheated and you know what that means--This week I am struggling again because PMS has set in big time.  And it makes me dream of nothing more than television and sinfully delicious snacks.  At least I don't have poison ivy or sick kids to add to my suffering this month.  And at least we are not reading 1984 for book club!  I am thankful for all that!  Anyhow, I am sure that was more personal information than most of you wanted to know, but it was crucial to understanding my state of mind last night.  Because last night I totally would have cheated again. I would have vegged on the couch with icecream and Agent Morgan (Criminal Minds for those who don't watch it), but instead I was saved by my very own super hero, my husband, Jeff.  He dragged me along on a wild adventure.  I never thought I would say I was saved by a manure spreader, but in this instance it is completely true!  I was saved by a rusty, old, dirty manure spreader.

The ancient, beat-up manure spreader has been Jeff's most recent object of affection.  He has been drooling over it for the past week or so.  He wanted to get it to haul wood for our fireplace (in our new house that is yet to be built mind you). Anyhow, the manure spreader happened to be for sale in Fremont of all places (remember that is where the Smith kids grew up) so we set off on a dual purpose mission:  To visit (and possibly purchase the manure spreader) and to visit Grandma and Grandpa and release our Easter geese on the creek that runs through their farm.  I had been begging to release the geese for a couple weeks now since they are now adults and are producing more manure than a full grown holstein cow.  I guess the new manure spreader could be useful afterall!

Well we were successful on all accounts and are now proud owners of said manure spreader.  I may never see Jeff again at least not until the snow flies and the two-track becomes impassable.  I can see it now: He will just haul wood all day long. 

Anyhow, my final random thought is that I feel as though my right arm has been cut off, or maybe just my left one. I don't know. But I do know that since I have very limited access to the internet, I feel like there is a part of me missing-maybe its part of my brain.  Actually what is missing is my ability to effectively capture my random, but brilliant, thoughts.  I have resorted to using my little green notebook (read the post entitled The Notebook for the rest of that story) for all writing which is a little annoying and gives me hand cramps.   

Vern Out