Circle R Ranch

The two weeks Jasmine free is finally over and once she got home I still don't get to see her. She is already at a friend's house. Circle R Ranch is totally for the horse lovers and more. The end of the week ceramony was to show off the skills the kids have learned/developed and give the parents a chance to look around. The farmers aka Jerry and Pat drove over from Osakis and Jasmine was excited to see extra people watching her.

The final day show started off with announcements and introductions of the staff and then we got a show from the drill team. Jasmine's good friend Sami was on the drill team and they did formations and led us through the National Anthem. The girls were good and Sami was the youngest by a few years at least. Once the drill team was over, the rest of the camp broke down into their groups and their shows started.

Counselor Sasha started off Jasmine's group by handing out the horsemanship award which recognizes good horse care with their tacks, saddles, and mounting. Jasmine won a blue ribbon for that task (1). The first "game" was Egg and Spoon. Now walking and holding a egg on a spoon is hard enough, but try riding a horse carrying the egg and spoon. First they had to walk and then trot. One by one the eggs dropped until there was one...Jasmine got another blue ribbon (2). The second "game" was H2O. I think you are getting the idea how these games go, but this time there was a measuring cup with water. They started with 8oz of water and who had the most at the end got the blue ribbon. There were a few girls with no water left and a lap full of water. Once again, they had to walk and then trot until there was one person with 6.5 oz of water left...Jasmine got another blue ribbon (3). Are you seeing a pattern? The final game was musical tires. It was fun to see the girls try and control their horses and get themselves in to the tire, horse next to them with reins in hand. After all the girls were eliminated another blue ribbon was handed out...Jasmine got her fourth for the day.

It was a successful day for Jasmine and when she asked if she was going back next year she said yeah but maybe for only one week. I think she missed home just a little, but she got to take care of her horse 24/7 all by herself.

Not Going To Do It

I guess you could say I am too fired up to go to sleep tonight. If you want the better version, you will have to talk to Chris, but once again we had a run in with the wonderful Ron next door. Except this time I was able to get into the action right along with Chris. Ron of course had to poke his nose around looking at our property and Chris went down the driveway asking him what he was looking for/at and one thing lead to another.

I was only going to watch from a distance to make sure nothing got out of hand or in case I needed to be a witness, but Chris seemed to be handling it okay "talking" things out about our driveway again and how we weren't going to be moving it anytime soon. The big discussion had to be about the property line and how our driveway was too close to the line but for some reason he wasn't able to or want to show us where the stakes were that they survey. They claim that a stake in the middle of the road is the property one, but Chris had the stakes found when we built his garage so we know where they are.

Anyway on to the exciting part, Chris followed Ron to his house and words were exchanged. The topic of court came up and Chris was telling Ron that the city had already told us that it was a civil matter and they would have to take us to court. Well, Ron disappeared into this garage and came out with a golf club telling Chris that he had to get of his property. Nice right? Ron forgot all the times he has been on our lot yelling at Chris. With the golf club out, Ron's wife had to get her two sense in boy can she get CRABBY.

This is when things got really good. Ron's wife got into the action and she is bigger than Ron and Chris. She is pushy too. She was yelling at Chris and I was watching with Emma at our mail box, which so happens to be 10 feet away. I am yelling to Chris that we need to leave it up to the courts and he needs to get out of there. Ron's wife turns and yells at me that if I want to be a part of this to get over to their little huddle. I felt like it was a middle school fight and people were ganging up of someone. It was totally bully mentality and Chris wasn't backing down.

Everyone disperses to their corners and Chris, fuming, decided to "move" the property line and drilled a new stake in the middle of the road in front of Ron's development property's driveway. Classic I liked that, but Ron AND his wife came back out. This time Ron was going to "show" us the line by measuring out the lot with his tape measure. Chris said he was off by at least a two feet and his wife had brought the survey out to "show" us.

Remember this is taking place outside in the road with not so nice words and no regards to who could hear us. A few cars had to slow down and stare too. Chris is "talking" to Ron about the measurement and why won't he just show us where the stake is he had the shovel in his had, and I am "talking" to Ron's wife about the survey which I watched them do, in the rain, so I know exactly where the East corner stake is and it wasn't where they were claiming it was. She kind of acts like an overgrown teenager with her hands and head bobs.

Finally, THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE, Ron lets it slip that if our driveway doesn't move, he can't build his second house on the lot. He would have to cut down his row of pine trees and it would cost him thousands of dollars to do that. He is screw, because he is up to his eyes in debt and the only way he has a chance of getting out of it is if he can get that second house on that lot and SELL.

Hollie cow, Chris is mad at me because I smoothed things over with Ron for now. He thinks we are agreeing to his terms. Oh and he has offered to help with the costs to move the driveway. He even said that we would have to get the city involved to re cut the curb...Duh...the city is the one who determines where the curb for your DRIVEWAY goes anyway. I just told Ron that we are abiding with the city in order to get out construction finished and when it comes time to the final and our grading we will do what the city tells us is appropriate. Ron doesn't understand that the city has already told us that we don't have to move the driveway. He thinks that when that time comes we are going to have to move the driveway, WRONG.

Ron doesn't understand that we have time, he doesn't. We won't be finalizing this project for at least two more years and I don't think he has the time to wait that long. He is going to get to the point that he either has to take us to court or settle with the one house. So Chris is mad that I "talked" things over with Ron, but I told Chris that we should just let him burying himself. We already have the city sick of him and now that cops are too because of his false representation of situations down here. Just another day living with the Carvellis.

Nickelodeon Universe

Just thought you might get a kick out of Jayna's idea of fun rides. She is still too much of a peanut to go on the actual rides so we had to improvise. She didn't mind it and got her picture taken with Dora the Explorer too. She is excited to show off her tattoo of Dora.

Tony's 1

At 2:46, Anthony Vincent Carvelli entered this world. There was an informal celebration at his cousins' house, thank you Timi for hosting. It was fun to see all the little ones again and Tony had fun eating his birthday cupcake. He got some great birthday books and we already love reading them at home.

What a difference a year makes and it is amazing how kids are attracted to stairs. Even without stairs at our house, Tony still got the hang of climbing them and nothing could keep him away. What makes kids think that going up is just as much fun as coming down and that is just what Tony thought was the appropriate way back down. Of course I was there to catch him before he fell.

If turning one wasn't enough for Tony, we decided it was time for him to get his hair cut again. With the temperatures getting hotter, a cooler hair cut was needed and boy was Tony a trooper. He didn't even whimper when Chris got started and now we get to see his cute face. I call him my Buddha boy. Now he truly looks Asian.

So now my guys are clean shavin' and ready to celebrate the fourth coming up without having to worry about a bad hair day. I have to admit their melons are pretty cute.

Jasmine the pack rat

There is nothing better to do on a hot day is to clean. I took advantage of the cool inside today to tackle Jasmine's room. Bonus was that Jasmine wasn't here to argue every little thing. I figure if I tackled a room a week I should be set for the big move whenever that might be. Plus I had arranged for Lupus to do a donation pick up another motivation to get some of the junk out of here. I was really on a rampage this cleaning and I think it showed with seven bags of trash, four donation bags and another five bags of clothes to bring over to my mom's. Plus loose toys to put out for Lupus too. It took me about six hours to clean and I lucked out that Tony slept through most of it and the dog was tuckered out too. It was unimaginable what Jasmine has collected over the last six years here. That girl would put anyone to shame...she now has enough scratch paper to sink a battle ship and markers/crayons that she won't have to buy anymore for school. I even found a gift card in an old birthday card.

I bought the hefty flex large black bags for this project and shoved as much as I could in each bag. These bags were so full even Chris was straining under the weight of them. I wish I would have gotten a picture of it but I was a one woman wrecking crew today. Tomorrows task is to tackle the basement. I am going to have the trash full for the rest of the summer. I am totally in the get rid of as much stuff as possible so if anyone has a request of what they need or want I will take inventory of what we got as I clean.

Oh yeah, I even pulled out the bunk beds and cleaned behind them and under them. Now that is impressive if I don't say so myself. I think my plan is to take the kids to the beach tomorrow and tucker them out good and then tackle the basement. I will let you know how that goes.

Boys Will Be Boys????

Hi everyone,

It's 2:22 am and I thought this would be the perfect time to post. Well actually I was woken up by one of the few thousand things that wake me up through out the night, and this one is kind of bizarre. Besides the usual Tony squawking, I got the wonderful surprise of Nick peeing on my living room carpet. I thought it was a dream and then I thought it was the dog, but nope Emma was in the kennel for the night and my eyes were wide open. There was Nick peeing on the floor. Sleep peeing...I remember vaguely someone telling me that Chris use to sleep walk, but sleep pee? Well that has to be new or just darn crazy. Just another crazy day or night at the Carvellis. Sleep well everyone.

Forgot

Oh I forgot... Jasmine is now at Circle R Ranch for her two week Horse Camp and I haven't heard from her. I don't know if that is good or bad but I think she is having a blast riding horses every day for two weeks straight. It is weird to have only three kids and I miss having my helper but without one kid the arguing is less. So I hope she is having a good time.

Aaaarrrrrrrr!!!!

Has anyone ever went insane from construction? I am seriously thinking this addition will never get finished. Now Chris has informed me that move in date probable won't happen until late fall. What???? I already got my first gray hair and finding more as the days go by. It is really frustrating to be waiting on other people especially when they don't seem to care about our urgency.

On a brighter note...Emma went in for her vet appt. today and she has doubled her weight and now weighs in at 16 lbs. I feel bad for Emma because she sees a lot on her pen when she is in the house because the house is so small and she just can't go anywhere without getting in trouble, and for some reason she thinks going over to Ron's place is fun. Now I have made it a point of bring her over to my parents' house to run her in the fenced in back yard; along with bring eight loads of laundry and the kids. CRAZY...I think my parents will be just as happy when this addition gets done too.

Thanks for letting me Vent everyone.

Everything in a nice little package

Before much is said...congratulations Julie and Matt. Jayna was upset that we didn't get to see Baby Tessa longer at the hospital, but I told her we would see her soon at the house. So on that note, the past few days have been busy. Jasmine finished school and now is a big 5th grader and Nick is finally starting kindergarten. It seems like a very long 6 years to wait for Nick but he is finally there and hard to believe that Jayna will be starting preschool too. But before we jump through the whole summer, we have to enjoy it first. Along with Jasmine finishing school, she also finished up another session of horse lessons and said good bye to her horse, Indee Anna, but is looking forward to her two weeks at horse camp.

While Jasmine is at horse camp she will be missing out on a few of her softball games but if it is a repeat of her last tournament, rainy and cold, I don't think I'll miss it even if they did end up 5th out of 8 teams. Her team is getting better and can actually make a few plays. Last night they played a team from Baldwin, WI and won the two games with some excellent pitching and field work. Jasmine is working on swinging the bat but is content with taking the walks.

Even if softball is taking up alot of our time the kids have found a few friends to play with at the fields. Tony is pictured with Owen, which is a story in itself and if you have time ask me about it, and then there is Marco. Both Jayna and Nick love playing with Marco at the games and he is a fun kid with lots of energy...yeah look at the stick and you can see Jayna and him have the love of collecting sticks. By the way, we still have the stick Jayna picked up.

With her softball playing twice a week and additional practices, spring has flow right by and now it is hard to believe summer is here and Tony is going to be one. With Tony's birthday coming soon, it is exciting to see that he is eager to walk. The picture below shows him standing for the first time on his temporary bed. He is very mobile now and tries very hard to pull himself up but doesn't have it down just yet. Soon he will be a moving machine and then we will all be in trouble.

I guess that just leaves Emma. What to say about Emma except that she is getting bigger by the day, but she as well as us are learning to live together in perfect harmony:) Tony loves to see her.

Emma Girl

Day by day Emma is getting bigger. Even if she was the runt, you can look at her and see that she is getting bigger. This past weekend Emma got the chance to see her mommy and bro again for a few hours when Julie and Matt made it down with Maisie and Ripley. They were really cute together, but boy can you tell the difference in size when Ripley and Emma are together. I think Ripley was twice the size. He is going to be one solid boy. Emma held her own and wasn't going to let her size hold her back. All I have to say is Emma really needed a bath after that reunion.

Just like any kid, Emma has her good days and bad days but so far her good days are out weighing her bad days. She is in the house now over night and is getting the idea of whining to go potty and she sleeps soundly at night. She is quite quiet and it is usually Tony that is waking her up. Between the two of them, I am up every two hours again (Just like a new baby). I think the kids and Emma are going to be great pals. Even now Emma is sharing her play pen with Tony. Doesn't he look content in there?

It does service the purpose of keeping my two noisiest buggers in one spot when I have to get things done around the house.

Cement, Cement, and More Cement

Been without the Internet for a few days and it feels like so much has gone on here. The addition keeps moving forward and last Saturday morning Chris got the second floor poured and it looks fabulous. Having the floor poured is another major hurdle in this project and it was exciting to see them complete this task. It was an early morning when the pumper truck rolled in at 6 am and Cemstone came around 6:30, the big question was how they were going to get the cement up to the second floor but there was enough hose to reach...it was slick to watch.

Our unexpected concrete crew that helped us out on our back slab (color guys) helped us out again, and this time instead of color for the concrete we got a Turtle. Yes a turtle made out of cement now lays in the middle of our driveway and will stay there until we get the bobcat back to move it. The guy in the picture is Ben Brown and he does a great job finishing. He is starting up his own business so I guess Chris is helping him out by throwing him this concrete work.

The wonderful morning wouldn't have been complete without a visit from the men in blue...that's right our fabulous neighbor Ron called the Maplewood PD to have Rich (Chris's co-worker) remove his car from his property (actually it was the boulevard). We will just say that the officer wasn't happy about being deceived on the phone about the situation and then come to realize the truth once he showed up.

Stress is high here at the Carvelli house and the race is on to the finish line. Chris finished setting the upstairs tub/showers and is moving onto the vanities and then onto the kitchen. Joel is making progress on the electrical and once that is done we can go ahead and get the framing inspection done and onto insulation. The move in day is getting closer...hopefully we can make it there in one piece or at least still talking.