Friendly Neighbor

Our neighbor to the east is looking out for us.  He is the sweetest old man in the world!  Yes, it's okay to call him old, he's 90-something.  For real!  Bob came over the day after we moved in to welcome us to the neighborhood.  Regarding our house, he didn't think we'd "have any trouble heating it":)  Today, he stopped over again to lend me some clothes pins.  Remember my laundry drama?  He noticed that one of my towels had fallen to the ground so I must need some clothes pins.  I didn't have the heart to tell him I have a whole stash of them in the basement, I was just too lazy to go back after them once I had gotten the towels on the line.  I politely took a handful with a shameful smile plastered across my face.  During his latest visit, he wore his ISU ball-cap and even pointed it out.  He had noticed that we were State fans-wink wink.  I sure hope the hospitality continues.  

Tale of a wet bed

This is a tale of a wet bed and the shenanigans surrounding the clean up. The details are not meant to embarrass anyone, only add to the depth of the story.

Sylvia is still not fully potty-trained during sleep times, namely nap and bedtime. As all parents dare to do, I've been letting her take her naps sans pull-up. I usually protect the bedding-my bedding due to the fact that we're living in a two bedroom house right now and children must be separated during naps, with an absorbent pad (certainly not one stamped with the MGMC logo...ahem) in case of accidents. On this particular occasion, preventative measures were NOT taken. There is a laundry list, no pun intended, of reasons why such measures were overridden, a few being that Sylvia hasn't had a nap-time accident in ages, Sylvia rarely actually sleeps during nap anymore(which explains the long dry spell I guess), and the fact that I'm losing my mind! Since I'm on someone's list I was blessed to have a child sleep for nearly three hours yesterday afternoon, a wet bed resulted. Laundry to be washed included one set of sheets, down comforter, and duvet. Ugh.. Such a list would be a breeze with the previous laundering capabilities of my HE Maytags. I don't have such luxuries any longer (temporarily anyways, as my HE Maytag babies are in storage). Off brand, rented, standards in a dirty, musty basement is what I had to work with. So, I started with the sheets. They were in and out without any problem. The comforter was another story...which lead to the following rant. It barely fit in the washer to begin with and after I ran it through a wash cycle, it came out looking dirtier than it had to begin with. I thought, "Whatever, I'll be covering it with the duvet anyway...just wanted to pee out of it". Now to get it dry...not even going to try to put it in the dryer(which can't even get 6 towels dry). I took it outside to put on the clothes-line. The single line, which at one point was a four-line pull-across-your-yard-and-attach-to-the-house type, was untangled from the knot and pulled across the yard and attached to the house. I hung the wet comforter out and felt I had accomplished something. Come to find out, hanging laundry is a great target for bird poo. Now my comforter had been peed and pooped on, washed once, and looked filthier than ever. When I found the bird dung, I also discovered that the clothes line was also grungy, and now there was dirt from that in a perfect line down the center of the comforter...and it started to rain. So now my peed upon, washed and dirtied, wet, pooped upon comforter hangs in our dirty, musty basement on an indoor clothes-line with fans blowing on it. The fans, coincidentally, are connected by power strips and extension cords to the one outlet in the entire basement. QUITE A SIGHT! I only hope the stupid thing gets dry...and who the heck even cares how clean it is?

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Everly DGC

I played another new disc golf course today in Everly, IA which is about 15 miles from Spencer.  This course was fun to play.  It seems to be a fairly new course and very well maintained.  Some small saplings offered a few obstacles but other than that it was pretty wide open.  It's a family friendly course that just about anyone could play and have fun with.


View Matt Ruden's Disc golf courses in a larger map

Here's something new. I thought this was a cool addition.  A mailbox for scorecards.  It was empty though.

Here's the basket to the first hole.  I thought the metal numbers atop the baskets was a cool touch.  The chains were a little unforgiving however.

The hole markers were very nice.  There were no concrete tee pads though, my only complaint.

Here's the longest hole, a monster 420 ft straightaway.  Let it rip and don't hook it into someone's backyard.

Here's a typical view of one of the holes.

A shot of most of the course.  Wind would be your only enemy.

In addition to a fun and well maintained DGC, there's also a great park for the kids.  We'll have to take the whole family next time!

Trip to the Lake and Fireworks

The kids and I made a trip to the lake this weekend. Making the trip from Spencer is a much different experience. It only takes us an hour and forty minutes compared to the four and a half hours it used to take us from Ames.

Joe sure enjoyed being outdoors and playing with the gardening toys.  Here he's taking some time to swing with me.

Sylvia didn't leave the beach all day.  She liked burying her feet and scooping sand with a shovel.

Gma was showing Joe and Sylvia how to do some fishing.

The kids grabbed their buckets and rushed up and down the beach to make a waterfall.

All the girls. Olivia, Sylvia, Ashley and Grace

The girls got away to hang out on the dock and watch the sunset.

A beachload of explosives.

The kids had a great time with lots of things and kids to play with.  Saturday night we were treated to an impressive fireworks display provided by dad and Nick.  I have it on video, but I can't get it to my computer...bummer.

Plum Creek DGC

This weekend during our trip to the lake I was able to get away for a while and check out the disc golf course located about 17 miles from mom and dad's place.  It's located just southwest of Walnut Creek, MN (think Little House on the Prairie) in Plum Creek Park.

I really enjoy playing new disc golf courses to see what they have to offer.  I thought I would start to log the places I've played and write a little bit about them.  I'm using Google Maps to do this.  It's a pretty cool way to do things.  I've embedded a map of the course I played along with a description of each highlighted hole.  You can zoom around and click each hole to read the descriptions.


View Matt Ruden's Disc golf courses in a larger map

Changing Addresses

Since we have changed our mailing address it's time to change our virtual address too! (amesrudens doesn't make much sense now)

In case you didn't receive an email updating our mailing address, this is where we are:

602 E 4th St
Spencer, IA 51301

Also...our new blog address will be: www.rudenfam.blogspot.com
It is not active now, but it will be soon so add it to your bookmarks/favorites or jot it down so when our current address no longer works you'll know where to find us!!  I'll send out an email with the new address once I make the move also.  The link will be available from our facebook pages too! Hopefully you can still find us.

Going Out with a Bang (and a splash)

I awoke last night to the sound of our wind chime followed by some light rain. I saw light peaking through the shades so I thought it was morning. I figured I would hear Joey chattering in his crib since he is the first one up but it was very quiet. The gentle chiming outside started to turn more into a clanging and I could hear sheets of rain hitting the windows. I decided to get up and take a look. Since most of our things are packed up I do not have a clock in the bedroom. So it was quite a surprise to me that it was only 2:20am.

I peaked out the kitchen window to see that the light coming into the bedroom was our motion light which was turned on by the rain and wind. I watched as the rain and wind picked up very rapidly. Suddenly the kids' little bench swing went airborne and turned over. Since the wind was out of the north I was worried that water would seep into the basement like it usually does. It was dry the first time I checked but that didn't last long. The winds pushed water under our backdoor and their was a pool in the kitchen in no time. I ran around trying to find something to stop the water. Thankfully we had a tub of towels in the basement that I raided. Shortly after containing the kitchen mess I checked the basement again to find water running down the walls and dripping from the ceiling onto our furniture. As I started moving furniture out from under the water the power goes out. I managed to find our flashlight and continue the water containment project. Finally the storm passes, the water is contained, and the power is restored.

This morning I ventured out to clean up the debris. Our trash was strewn down our driveway and down the street. According to the news we had 75 mph wind.

Here's a shot of the wind tunnel.

Messed up swing set

The wind snapped the stakes that held the swingset in the ground.

I'm glad we still have a house to sell!

Last days in Ames

Moving day is approaching and we've been packing, packing, sweating, and packing some more. Now the kids and I are hanging out, living off of plasticware and paper plates. It's tough to keep kids occupied when most of their stuff is packed away so we are doing our best.

As we were finishing up the busiest packing day at dusk we spotted this owl perching atop a tree in our back yard.

One of the few play items the kids have is their little bench swing. We snapped this cute picture just before mommy had to leave.

SOLD!

Well...just when we were starting to sweat it out we received an offer on our house after having two showings in one day. We received the offer on our 10th anniversary so that was a nice gift.

Catching up with July...

While Ab was in Spencer working four 12s over the 4th of July the kids and I stayed in LeMars. We were able to spend a couple days with Gma & Papa and a couple days with Gramma Lola. While at Gma and Papa's the kids got to play and play with their cousins; one of their favorite activities. I didn't get any pictures because the kids were out of sight playing most of the time. I also got to get away briefly and check out the disc golf course in LeMars and managed to lose one of my discs in the creek.

While at Lola's the kids enjoyed sprinklers and bubbles...

...and popsicles...

...and ice cream...

...and chocolate...

...and sparklers...

Can we take the Mustang for a spin Gramma??

Waiting for the fireworks

Sylvia and Gramma Lola

Joey and Momma