The Schmidt House

buy a Kindle - I have been debating for awhile and after watching Oprah on the DVR this weekend think I am going to do it.  Plus you get $50 off if you put OPRAHWINFREY in the promo code when checking out at amazon.com through November 1st.  Anyone else been thinking of this or does anyone have one???

I am home from the tour of the Southland. I now know the inner workings of an export grain facility from the elevator to the barges... It was very educational from a work and food consumption perspective - ate drum, the best molasses muffins I have ever tasted, and butter beans with shrimp and rice. Also a few things that I can't remember the names for them.  I saw the good - very nice people who love their jobs the bad - rats and cockroaches (both alive and dead)  and experienced the ugly - I was shat upon by a bird, luckily I was wearing a fashionable hard hat and safety glasses.  Now that I am home I can't tell you how nice it is to sleep in your own bed with snugly little people who kick you in the night, snoring husband, and a furry child who runs after squirrels in her dreams.  I will post photos soon. 

Am leaving at 6:10 a.m. to go to Louisiana - Westwego & Reserve (have never heard of either) - to perform IP (Information Protection) audits on two locations. After telling folks at work I was headed to Westwego they would say, "Isn't that the place where there was that really bad explosion?" Sure enough, it is .  Nice.  Near as I can tell I might be spending most of my time on a large dock looking at barge equipment on the Mississippi and determining if people use their own passwords. Should be interesting - I will take photos.  Get to spend the night here tomorrow night on Bourbon Street, looks pretty nice.  Still, just want to be home with the kiddies and catch up on my blog reading - feels like it has been months since I caught up with my friends lives...

11:37 p.m. To do list: 1. Pack for trip - flight leaves at 10:00 a.m. 2. Pack kids for trip to grandparents 3. List for all kid activities 4. Finish laundry 5. Send about 18 emails of things that people need to get done at work while I am gone. 6. Write up list of kid activities for the grandparents so they know when the kids need to be where. 7. Figure out what to pack. 8. Find suitcase - did I loan it out and forgot to get it back? 9. Pack for trip I must leave for at 6 a.m. the morning after the day we get back. 10. Figure out what to pack for that trip - do I need steel toed boots to hang out at Crush plant in the middle of a swamp??? Forgot to ask. Am assuming I can wear jeans... 11. Vacuum kitchen - crushed up saltines all over the floor - what happened???? Ask in a.m. 12. Paint toenails. 13. Do I need to pack for Dan??? I forgot if he told me yes - he is still at softball. 14. Cancel flu shot appointment for kids that I scheduled at the exact same time that we have to be at the ...

Dan turns 40 today - wow. We are heading to Key West this weekend to celebrate our birthday - Happy birthday honey!

We had a crazy weekend full of activities. One of the highlights was JG's hockey game today at Mariucci Arena (home of the Golden Gophers). He was goalie and they finally won a game - 6-3. He had about 10 shots on goal and did really well, one of his bestest buddies MO helped him out with the goal as well. I was a nervous wreck the whole time and had to laugh tonight when he told me before going to sleep, "Mommy, my team gave me a rounder of claws." Translation: round of applause. AE played her last basketball for Fall, I am glad we are done and am sad that we didn't play up. I really feel like she digressed, however think I am being a bit hard on a 10 year old. Her other team tied for 1st at the top level of 6 th grade and I think that AE would have learned so much - oh well we will be playing with them again before we know it. They are all such nice girls and AE has made so many friends on both teams. Here is a little video of the after game celebration for J...

Here is a photo of AE's team the Crimson 5A. She has been playing in Gopher State Fall League and has done really, really well. She was a one-girl wrecking crew last week with 10 blocks in the 1st half in one of their games. I am really looking forward to watching her play this year. If you didn't guess baby girl is #41 in the back row.

JG went to Faith Formation (formerly CCD when we were kids). It was his first time going on the "big kid" night and he carpooled with his buddy NB. When they got there all of the kids had to go into the church and sit down. Our child, not known for his observation skills, stopped at the new fangled baptismal font (it's very modern - kind of like one of those pretty koi ponds). He said, loud enough for everyone to hear: "Hey, NB look they've got a hot tub."

I had a funny thing happen at work today - I met with this new contact in Biodiesel (yes, I am learning about Biodiesel and Containers - not Tupperware). I agreed to meet her at the coffee shop in our building so I had no idea what she looked like. I went up to grab a drink when this woman I recognized from around the way came walking up. "Are you Jen?" "Yes, I am." She had a funny look on her face. The closer I looked while I waited for her to grab her iced tea I noticed that I really liked her hair. I then realized - wait, our hair is very similar, same color, style. Funny. She sat down and said, "I can't believe it is you. This is so funny" "Me, what?" "OK," she started. "I have a confession. I have had long hair my whole life and just decided to cut it last week because I would see you around the Office Center and I really, really liked your hair. So you're the inspiration for my Extreme Makeover." I started laughi...