Mini Trip!

our family went on a 24 hour road trip to western Iowa to go to a funeral. Though you would think, that must have been very depressing, i will have you know that the person whose funeral we went to (my dads aunt) was 94!

So, we left home around 3:30 on Thursday afternoon to pick up my dad from him work. After we picked him up, we went straight to McDonald's. Wanting something substantial, it ordered a quarter pounder with cheese.

It was pretty good, though the meat was a little over cooked, but hey what can i say, its McDonald's for heavens sake!

When i was finishing it up, i looked at the back of the box where all the nutrition info is located. This is what i saw

I about died! Kara laughed at me.

For the rest of the trip, i slept.

When we got about 10 miles out form our destination, Harlan, we stopped at this huge truck stop. There my dad, Kara and i, and Evan got gum.
My dads was five gum, Evan's was actually breath mints, but he considered it to be gum, and Kara and i's was Extra dessert delights mint chocolate chip gum. I <3 that stuff!!!


You would think that because it says chocolate chip, it would have a nasty taste of chocolate. Not true. It really truly tastes like honest to goodness mint chocolate chip ice cream!

Later that night, we went to the visitation, where i met lots of people who were like, " I have a picture of you when you were this tall!" and stuff like that.

After the visitation, we checked into the hotel. When we walked into the room, we realized that there was two double sized beds.
Now normally, when our family goes to hotels/motels, there are 2 queen sized beds. Evan and my dad sleep in one and Kara, me, and my mom sleep in the other one. Now we have beds half the size.
It wasn't that bad, but you had to sleep on your side for everyone to fit. That wasn't so bad for me because that's how i normally sleep.
The next day, we went to the funeral, the burial, and the lunch. I love going to big family get together on my dads side because everyone is Danish. So when we get together, everything we eat is danish. I <3 danish food!!! My favorite things are rolposts and open-faced egg salad sandwiches. Those are the bomb!!!
After we took 1 1/2 hours to say good-bye to everyone and a couple embarrassing storys about my dad, we were on our way home; but not before we went around the country side flying down the huge hills.
I just so happened to get a bunch of pictures of the hills.

 Before we started to head home, we went to where my dads aunt used to live.


this is one of the old buildings



this is the house

another old building

One the way home, i smashed a bug on the window and it didn't fall off. so i had a smashed bug on my window.


pleasant



I am now satisfied

So this afternoon, i called CamelBak to talk with someone about my problemo. I had to hold for about 5 min.  but the lady who picked up to help me was very nice, gentle, and not in a rush to get to the next person.
I explained the problem to her, and answered a couple questions about the plug. Then she explained to me that sometimes grime forms a layer of film under the rubber plug allowing air to come in and water to get out.
She then explained to me that to fix the problem, to wash it with hot soapy water and run my nail under the plug. Then to shake it hard to get the excess water out.  After that, she then told me that if that didnt help, to call her back and that she would be happy to send me a new cap.

I am very pleased with their customer service and now will be reccomending CamelBak agian.

Peeved

So all of you know that i got a CamelBak a couple of weeks ago. I love it........... Except one thing- it has a leak.
So the CamelBak is known for not leaking
"........ I enjoy this water bottle because i can toss this into the back of my car and i know it wont leak."

- Comment off of Amazon

Well lets just say if i toss my CamelBak into the back seat of a car, that owner will not be very happy when i pick it up.

So i figured out that it leaks from the little rubber plug underneath the bite-valve.

The odd shaped thing right under the mouth piece is the rubber plug

I used Pomegranate Crystal Lite to show how bad it leaked. Take note- the bite-valve doesn't leak at all.

Then just tonight i realized that it now makes a sucking noise when i drink out of it.

So yes its a very crappy vid, but the sound is what i wanted.

As you can hear, that's the sound that is coming out of my CamelBak constantly. What i am thinking is that the rubber plug is becoming looser and looser by the ____ (I'm not sure if i should say minute, hour, day.....).

I wrote a complaint to CamelBak telling them about the problem, but the warranty is that it has to be a manufacturers mistake for them to replace it, even if they do, you have to pay for shipping, insuring the package, and it has to be thoroughly cleaned (that one's not a big deal).

So i might as well buy a new CamelBak and then wait 10 days, or send my existing one back, pay for insuring it (for those who don't know what that means- you pay the USPS (grrrrrrrrrrr) the value of the package, then, if the package gets hurt, damaged, or broken, they will buy you a new one with the money you paid them. If your package gets to its destination safely and you paid the insurance, well i guess you are out of luck. I absolutely hate that.)

So now i am not be happy at all with CamelBak at all because no matter what, i have to buy a new one, and last time i checked, they aren't very cheap.

Lets just say, CamelBak sent a broken bottle to the wrong costumer. Now no matter what happens, i will not recommend CamelBak to anyone.

Now the only way they will get my recommendation again, is if they replace this FOR FREE.

I'm (very) Confused

So today, i worked on a farm all day!!! (i loved every minute of it!) But of course, my body hates the country (example-strawberry pickin, that was on a farm).
So, today, i was pickin weeds in a corn field (it was 4 rows wide, but still it was a field..). When i look up, my hands and arms look a combination of this

moronacity.com

	and this				simblaa.com
					So you will probably think, ok, so you had two different kinds of rashes, so....... Well, i did my research on both of these and the top one is a sign of a blocked artery and the bottom one is a sign of scarlet fever. Now i am pretty darn sure that i do not have any of those problems, so i am very very confused what is wrong with me. If you have had this problem before with rashes, and figured out what they mean, do i have a blocked artery or scarlet fever? So for the rest of the day, i took benadryl, which isn't that bad.

oh how i wish i had some benadryl

So, i thought that i was lucky and that i had gotten rid of my hives when the benadryl was working. Nope.
Around 10:45, my one arm started itching, then my lower back, and then my upper back.Luckily both my arms aren't itching because then i would be crazy.
When i want and asked my mom for benadryl, her face dropped and she said,"oops i gave the last one to Kara." (Kara needs it the same as i do, but not for allergies)
Great!
So we go to the medicine cabinet and look for something similar to benadryl (to me, nothing replaces benadryl) and all we found was caritin. :( caritin doesn't knock you out, it takes a while to work, and its not very powerful stuff.
So now i am still itchy, not as much though, and i do not appreciate it at all.

I feel like a walking zombie

So today, my mom and i (and also evan, but he has nothing to do with this.) went strawberry picking at friends farm. While i was picking, i felt like i had bus crawling all over me, but my mom said she felt fine. Hmmmmm........
Once and a while, we found big ones (not like the store big ones. Like as big as a small store one) and so i ate some cause you cant pick strawberries without eating at least one! ( but since im not normal, i ate five right out of the garden they were heaven!)
When we had gotten about 3 pounds worth of strawberries, we decided to go home.
When we got into the car, it still felt like bugs were crawling all over me, and my arms and legs started to itch like i had walked straight into a swarm of mosquitos. and then i looked at my arms and showed my mom. they were covered in little red dots!
When we got home, my back was covered in them to, and my legs were red. My mom  shoved a benadryl, but then made me take another one when she saw my back.
I took a shower, (which felt good) and got my PJ's on and went to sleep.
When i woke up, i didnt itch, nor was i covered in little red dots, but i felt like a walking zombie. (thats the only way i can discribe it)
A little later i found out that those little red dots are called hives and that i am very allergic to whatever i am allergic to. hmmmmmm.
My mom thinks that i am now allergic to strawberries ( please no!) but i think i have to agree with her.

So tomorrow i am going to eat some strawberries (yummy) and see if i react.
I'll tell the results later.

mom's bowl of strawberries...

My bowl of strawberries (notice how i have more than her)

Kara gets the job of cutting off the tops, and cutting them in half. She wont let me help her though.

Im bad

so Casey's has this awesome deal that you can get a bowl  of ice cream for $1.79. A normal person would get a normal, suggested serving size and then pay the $1.79 thinking it was a little pricy.
Or someone named Kelli would go to the machine and get a huge pile of ice cream and pay the $1.79 thinking it was cheap!
Yep, thats what i did!
When i waled out of the Casey's, i was smiling from ear to ear and i had only paid a total of $1.92 for about 4 cups of ice cream!!!

Yes i know im bad, but its what they get for
1. putting the self-serve ice cream machine in a corner where no one can see it.
2. not having someone watching the machine
3. not having a limit of ice cream.

When i went to pay for it, the lady giggled.
i wonder why........

Im good

So this morning i went with Sarah Konen to the Slater city wide garage sale.
i was planning on spending about $5-$8 in stuff but i ended up only spending $3! im good!

 one of my favorite things that i got are these wedges. they feel like a tennis shoe, but they really are a wedge.

There so pretty!

i did a little researching on them and found out that they are $23 in the store and i got them for $1!

Another thing i got is a brand new bottle of bath and bodyworks vanilla conditioner for 50 cents!

If you buy it new from the store, its $7.50!

I also got this skirt for a buck

I looked and looked for this online and couldn't find any store that sold it. On Ebay someone is selling it for $15. So i feel good about it.

Another thing i am most proud about because i got it for free, (well it was 10 cents and when i was digging out my wallet, the guy said," Heck its only a dime. the  wife's gone, so just take it!")

If you can't see it, it's SHIMMER DUST! its to add shimmer to your cakes and cookies.

The price ranges from $3-$15 for something just like mine.

I also got a pair of normal old flip flops, but they are prpobally worth like $4 at the most, but again, i only paid 50 cents.

Sorry i couldnt find a pic of them.

So i calculated the ammount i saved and the total is......
drumroll please
.
.
.
.
.
$51.50!!!!!!!

am i good or what?

IT CAME!!!!

MY CAMELBAK FINALLY CAME WEDNESDAY!!! SO FAR I HAVE DRUNKEN ABOUT 6 BOTTLEFULLS SO FAR SINCE IT CAME AND I AM SO HAPPY!

More Choices

This will be a collage

So this is the same as the last post. Leave a comment on what ones you like and what ones i should enter in the fair this year.

( I CAN NOT READ MINDS!)

Thanks!

4-H photo time!

So it is 4-H photo season and i am a part of it. So i am gathering up all my pics to choose what ones i want to enter. So what i want you to do is to say which one(s) you think are good. Please dont lie! Noone can be as mean as the judge so dont think you will hurt my feelings if you choose one but not the other.

I need you to leave a comment down below telling me what ones you think i should enter into the county fair.
Please do it ASAP because i need to print and mat the pics ASAP.

if you dont like any of these, i will have a couple more later.


Please leave a comment!

Not Smiling

So all of you know that i got a camelBak (if you didn't, read about 2 posts down). Well I ordered it Monday night and had it come on five to eight day shipping from USPS (that united states postal service).
Well yesterday the little "track you package" dealie said that at 10:41:44 my package checked in at the USPS place in Hebron, KY.
For all of you who do not know where that is, it is about 9 hours and 15 min. from Des Moines.
So when i saw that, i did the math and concluded that it should come today, if not yesterday.
IT DID NOT COME!!!
So i went on the "track your package" dealie and so far it has not left Hebron Or it is taking its own sweet time getting to the next checkpoint!!!
I am not happy with this USPS junk. you would think that it would take less than a week to get a box from Florida to Iowa, but i guess these postal people think otherwise.
So now instead of waiting for it to come tomorrow, i have to wait until Monday!

Just to let y'all know, from now on, i am going with UPS, or FedEx long before USPS.

Also, so you are supposed to be able to track your package on the USPS website, but when i try to do that,it says that package does NOT EXIST?!?!?!
They also gave you reasons why you might have gotten that message
- they package was just reacently shiped
OR
-the code was entered wrong and i know i entered the code in right because i copied and pasted it dierectly from the website!

Also, what would have happened if i lived in Washingtom State? the package would totally break the five to eight day shipping standard. (Just be glad i dont live there)

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Memorial Day

So today was Memorial Day.

This morning, Evan really wanted to go to the Gold Star Museum on Camp Dodge in Des Moines. I had to get up six hours ahead of schedule so we could get there in time.

They provided a "healthy breakfast" but i guess if you are a type two diabetic, that "healthy" part does not apply. (for those who don't know, my dad is a type 2 diabetic, and all he had out of that breakfast, he had  granola bar. Not cool!)

After we ate breakfast, we went to the museum part of it. 

This is what Evan was looking forward to. He was so excited that he wore my Grandpa's uniform, and was actually called what his coat said.

This is Evan standing with some re-enactors from the same war.

Hey look a floating helicopter!!

This is Evan looking through the telescope

If you have never been to the Gold Star Museum, it is a museum about all the wars starting with the Civil War and ending with the current war. It was pretty interesting to see all the different props and vehicles.   Also one of the main attractions, is a telescope, like the one on a submarine. ( Just to let you know, my eyes and telescopes/ binoculars do not agree at all. Like i can't see through them them. Does anyone else have this problem?) So, i kind of stood in line for about 5 min. for about nothing. :( But at least Evan enjoyed it.

This is me pretending to look through the telescope

This is a civil war re-enactor explaining to Kara and I about her layers of dress

After we got done touring the museum we went home and i went back to bed, and slept for a couple hours more.

Around 12:00, we got ready for our picnic with my cousins. After i woke up, for the second time, i saw how hard the wind was blowing, and thought about how much harder the wind was going to be at Big Creek; the place where our picnic was going to be at.

When i went out to the kitchen, where everyone was getting ready, no one seemed to care about the wind.

When we left and got to the beach, we were lucky enough to get a actual picnic table because some people were just camping out on the grass.( not like that would be a bad thing.)
It was so windy, that everyone (including my cousins) ditched the paper plates and ate in rounds. First- our sandwiches, second-watermelon in a cup, third- baked beans in a cup.
After we ate, all the kids made a bee-line towards the beach.
In our minds we had decided that we were going to make more than a normal old sandcastle and that we were going to make a string of islands with moats, lakes, streams, and dams in between. And it worked!
Here are some pics of our creation

This is Kristen (my cousin) Kara and i starting out.

We were about 2/3 of the way through with the whole process when this was taken

This is us drawing out what we were going to do (yes, these pics are out of order)

This shows how windy it was, i think you call them white caps

This was all of us who contributed to the making (some more than others)

(left to right- me, Kara, Kristen, Ryan (my other cousin, and Evan)