Thursday, October 29, 2009

The "not so suspicious" van damage


Last night, while we were leaving our house to go out to dinner, we noticed a HUGE scratch/dent running along side the back half of our NEW van. (Quite the appetite suppressor I must say). Did I mention that our van is NEW? The only new vehicle we have ever purchased in our lifetime.


Greg walked out the door and immediately said "Oh my gosh.... what in the world?" and ran over to the van bent over so he could look at it closer. I was behind him so I didn't see it until he stepped out of the way and then my stomach dropped. I was the last person to drive the van yesterday ( I am pretty much the ONLY person who drives the van during the day). Needless to say I was sick... my mind started racing trying to think of how this horrific damage was done to the van.

I didn't hit anything, and I only drove to the end of the street where I work. How on earth could this have happened in the 2 minutes I drove the van? The only thing I could think of was maybe someone hit me in the parking lot as they were pulling in or driving out.


Greg said it was a jagged scratch and it didn't look like a bumper from a car. The entire drive down to both our grandma's houses I was reenacting my 2 minute drive to and from work. Could I have hit something and not have felt it? Where did I park? How did I enter and exit the parking lot? What did I drive past?

Greg then asked me if there was a brick wall around our building. I said "yes, there is a stone wall", but I didn't think I drove near it that day. Do you know how when you do the same thing day in and day out it kinda runs together and you forget if you did it or not?

I couldn't remember where I had parked that day in particular. Did I park in the pull through spot that day or was that the day before? Did I pull out of the lot next to the stone wall or did I exit the lot through the Las Piramides Restaurant?

I felt like the son of Bill Cosby who came home from school with a reverse Mohawk. I felt like every question Greg asked me I answered....I dunno. Son, (Rachael) was your head (van) with you all day today... uuhuh.... then what happened to your hair (van)? I dunno....... Have you seen Bill Cosby's act? If not you really need to watch it here.

The more I thought about the location of the scratch, and the height of the stone wall at work, the more I started to think I HAD to have hit the wall. Seriously? Who can scratch their van on a stone wall and not feel it?

Greg was still trying to make me feel better by saying "Honey, maybe someone side swiped you with a wheel barrel or something, or maybe a ladder." Yeah right.

We drove over to the parking lot after dinner and Greg acted a lot like Yukon Cornelius (you know, when he would lick and smell his axe..... I said AXE ).

He smelled the van, then smelled the stone wall, touched the van then touched the stone wall.... I swear he licked it but he says he didn't. The scratch was identical to the height and pattern of the stone wall. I am no detective, but I do watch CSI and I believe the crime has been solved.

I am guilty as charged. I plan to buy a really good pair of snow boots so I can walk to work this winter. If I do this kind of damage on a sunny day what on earth will happen when there is snow on the ground?

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Where the Wild Things Are


If asked a month ago where the wild things are I would have answered "my house". I had no idea a book by that name even existed. Greg on the other hand not only knew it existed, it was his favorite child hood book. Needless to say he was rather excited to see it was coming to the theaters as a movie.

I surprised him and purchased the book (I wrote a little something inside it.) and one of the monster figures from the book for him. I now know the monster's name is Carol. I placed the book and the monster in a bright pink gift bag which when opened played the song Wild Thing very loudly. I gave the bag to a friend (Mike Roop) at church who then gave it to Greg while he was in the green room awaiting to go on stage for a drama. He loved it.

I asked him to read the book to us because neither Les, Nick or I had ever read this book. I found out we were in the minority..... many people know of this book and it was their favorite book as well. Obviously it is a popular book if they made a movie off it. Not sure where I was growing up to not hear about it. My mother read to me A LOT and I as a mother read to our kids A LOT. I guess I spent too much time up in the Chicka-Chicka- Boom-Boom Tree.

Nick and I took Greg to see the movie this weekend. I have to admit it is a really cute movie.

The book is a child's picture book and it must have been difficult to create a 90 minute movie out of a 2 minute book. Greg was nervous they would mess it all up and ruin the book. He was pleasantly surprised to see as they created personalities for all the monsters in the movie they did a great job following the story line of the book. It is rated PG because Carol gets very angry in one scene and it could frighten a small child.

I liked the book AND the movie, however I think if still asked where the wild things are I would still say my house. Seriously.... have you been to my house?

Monday, October 26, 2009

Fall Smoke Out


My dad had a smoke out last week while my Uncle Ron and his family were in town. I call it a smoke out because it isn't a "cook"out.... he uses his smoker and smokes all kinds of meat. So.... its a smoke out instead.


The food again was amazing and we had a great night for sitting on the deck. He smoked ham, chicken, pork tenderloin, and ribs. He made baked beans, salad, baked potatoes and brownies. It was VERY yummy.









My dad has an old, dead tree in his back yard which needs to come down. He was hoping to have all the guys help him cut it down sometime this past week but it was
too windy. Everyone decided the night of the smoke out to grab a hold of the rope tied to the tree and start pulling to see if they could get it to fall. It was quite a sight to watch. I had the video camera ready so we could win Funniest Video.






Then they thought maybe they would go ahead and cut it down since everyone was there. Amy and I were laughing at their measuring techniques. They had my Uncle Ron stand at the base of the tree and then they measured how many "Rons" there were all the way up the tree by closing one eye and looking between their fingers. It really was fun to watch.... and they say women are funny.

Maya enjoyed making leaf piles and jumping in them....







It was a great evening spent with family. We said as we drove home that night we wished Ron and Debbie and their kids lived closer so we could spend more time with them. I think Dad's smoke outs are starting to become not an annual event, but a quarterly event. He makes a great meal and now that he has a hot tub, fire pit and new deck, he has the perfect location for family gatherings. Thanks Dad for another great meal!

Window's 7 House Party



Our Windows house party went off without a hitch. Greg pointed out to me that even though Microsoft may not have mailed us as big of a box as Ford with all the party goodies, dollar for dollar they gave us more. I forgot to consider the free Windows 7 software they gave us.

Here are a few photos of our Microsoft goodies.....

10 tote bags with coupons...

Windows 7 Jigsaw Puzzle...


A deck of Windows 7 playing cards (sorry, picture is blurry)

and a Windows 7 poster....


Greg did a great job decorating the house with the streamers and balloons Microsoft sent us....


We sat in the front room and Greg demonstrated the new Windows 7 OS. He has made our 55 inch flat screen TV the monitor for our main computer so everyone didn't have to sit around a small computer screen to watch the demonstration.





Microsoft added some new features to the new OS that even I will use. Photo and file searching is MUCH easier and a lot faster. When watching a slide show of the photos saved on your computer it will now go into all the sub folders and view those photos as well.

Either way you look at it Windows 7 is a HUGE step up from Vista because Vista was absolutely horrible. Time will tell how good Windows 7 actually is, we however got it for free so we can't complain.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

The National Honors Society




Leslie was inducted into the National Honors Society this week at Centerville High School. We are very proud of her. Only a certain number of students are chosen to be in the NHS and there is a certain criteria which need to be met. Each student must have a 3.5 GPA or better, they must demonstrate leadership qualities in their school and in the community.


Leslie filled out a huge packet and wrote an essay to be considered for acceptance into the NHS. Her teachers were asked their opinions of her as a student and as a person too.

The ceremony was beautiful. The Centerville High School Orchestra played for us before, during and after the ceremony and if you were not looking at them you would have never known they were a high school orchestra. They played beautifully.

Leslie was beautiful walking across the stage to receive her certificate. (I am a little biased)







Sitting there watching the students walk across the stage (which some we haven't seen since their dare graduation in 5th grade) gave us a little taste of what graduation will be like. They have grown up so quickly and are beautiful young adults.

Family from Minnesota came in from out of town which gave Leslie even more family support for her big night. (Greg was the one taking the picture...that is why he is not in it)

Not sure why my hair is sticking up in this one...I look like I just climbed out of bed for the ceremony.

Here is Leslie and Anthony... Anthony played the bassoon in the Orchestra during the ceremony. Beautiful music.

It was an honor for Leslie to be accepted into the National Honor Society, it was an honor to sit and watch the induction, but I believe the biggest honor for me is to have the privilege of saying I am Leslie Jergens' mother. She is beautiful inside and out and sometimes it is nice when other people besides her parents notice it too. :)

Congratulations Les, we love you and are so very proud of you!

Football House Party


Yes, we had a football house party. It all began very innocently with a simple email sent to Gregory from Microsoft asking him to host a Window 7 house party. Greg signed up to host a Windows 7 party because in doing so Microsoft sent us a free copy of Windows 7. He was confirmed as an "official" Windows 7 host (which only a certain number of people were selected) and that is when it all began. In this email was the link to the house party website.

Did you know you can sign up to have house parties and they send you boxes of free stuff? Along with the Windows 7 house party (which we have not had yet) Greg signed up to host a Ford Football Party.

They told him there was a possibility Ford would drop off a brand new 2o10 Ford Taurus for our guests to drive while they were at our party, (they didn't).

They did however mail us a HUGE box of free stuff to hand out at our party. Inside the box: 10 foam footballs, 10 cozies, 10 football key chains, 20 thunder sticks, a football helmet chip and dip bowl and a huge banner to hang outside our home.




We watched the Bengals Sunday football game; they lost of course but it was fun watching the game with our thunder sticks, chip and dip in our football helmet bowl and a pot of chili.







Doby enjoyed some chili too.....

Ford clearly has more money than Microsoft because our box of goodies for the Windows 7 house party is a joke in comparison. Gotta love Microsoft, more house party footage to come later..... Have you driven a Ford today???.............. Me neither. :)