Photos--Summer 2009--

Strang's

CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) Cross Country

Justin, Felicity & Alex are in Cross Country. In Ohio, each Catholic parish has a sport team and you play against other parishes in the area. So, the kids run for St. Joe's parish. It's also nice because girls all run together and then the boys run together. So, Alex's team is made up of boys ages K &1st gr.; Felicity's team is girls ages 2nd & 3rd gr.; and Justin's team is boys ages 4th, 5th, & 6th gr. About 180-200 kids run per race and thousands of people are at these meets.

So, at the first meet.....Justin finished 40th out of about 200 boys. Felicity 66th out of about 150 girls; and Alex 41st out of 180 boys.

The past weekend at meet #2: Justin did awesome! He finished 29th this time! A big improvement. Felicity also improved and came in 61st. Alex came in 55th this time...a little slower than the first meet! But, after he finished he exclaimed to me, 'Wow, Mom, I beat so many boys..how did I do?" Very cute!! Above, are photos from the meet. Each parish sets up their own tent and hang-out area. Another photo shows all the boys in Alex's race lined up at the start line!

CAT
We now have a cat. We have de-clawed the cat, and since he is no longer clawing our furniture....I like him a lot more. When we brought him home we reminded the kids they needed to pick out a name for him. "Oh yeah," said Felicity, "What should we name him?" Alex was in the back seat and offered two excellent suggestions...
"How about 'Bloody Claw'?" NO yelled everyone. "What about 'Razor Sharp Tooth'?" It was a great Alex moment, and since no one else could think of a name they went with Felicity's idea...'Duke'.

State of America

Well, Michaela and I realize we haven't posted much here lately. We decided yesterday that it is utterly gross that so many Americans are ambivalent/ignorant about current issues coming out of the Obama administration.

Therefore, we will begin posting articles, videos, etc about important issues so YOU can be informed and ready to take action. Fact is, if a person is only getting their news from mainstream/dinosaur sources......they will remain gleefully dumb! Why? Because those media sources are "in the tank" for Obama and will not tell us the truth. They will not ask hard questions, they will not object to anything Obama does, they talk about "idiotic" issues, such as how cool it is that Obama gave the Queen of England an IPOD or how super fit Michelle's upper arms are! It's disgusting and they are acting as if saying something negative about Obama, means they will be hauled away to a concentration camp!

My Home Security Service

So this afternoon I answer the phone thinking it's Michaela or Stephanie wanting to talk more politics... but it was..well....I'll just replay for you:

caller.."Hi, Mrs. Strang I'm with ADT Home Security and I have a great offer for you. It's.."

me: "Hey, sorry...I'm not interested in learning more about your products until after the election."

caller: "Excuse me?"

me: "Well, if Obama wins, I won't be able to buy anything from you because he's going to take all my money for his government programs. He's going to be taxing all of us..."

caller:.."(laughing)..oh, I understand but what I was going to tell you is that hook-up and installation are free and..."

me.. : "OK, but I'm still going to have to pay a monthly fee for your service and I just don't know if I'll have 'extra' money left over to invest in your company."

caller: (laughing again) OK but having a home protection service is very valuable..."

me.. : "Well, if Obama wins...I'll have to stick with using my husband's hunting rifle as our home protection service."

caller: (laughing) OK maam I get it. Thank you.

New Dietrich Baby

We welcomed a new addition to the family on Monday, October 20th. Lydia Lee was born weighing 7lbs 8 oz. Madeline is so excited and has been a great help being a little mommy. It has taken Toby a few days to warm up to her though. He is not really interested in her and would rather "roar" at her than hold her. Although yesterday when no one was looking I saw him try to read his Dinosaur book to her, which was very cute....

I thought this being my third baby I knew what to expect from labor. But delivering at a military hospital was a bit different than my experience at Mercy in Iowa City.When I got to the hospital I was obviously in labor so you would think I would get to see a doctor right away, right? Nope they were full - no room for me. I thought I was having a baby not trying to check into a hotel. Well they told me I could wait until they had room but not sure how long it would take. Umm o-kay. Well this waiting went on a tad longer than I thought neccessary, so I stood in front of the nurses station. I thought maybe they didn't believe that I was actually in pain or thought I could deliver this baby myself. So after standing in front of the nurses station having contractions and not getting anyone to notice, I took it upon myself to make it crystal clear to the male nurse that the big bump in front of me was really a baby and it was going to drop out soon. Well wouldn't you know it a bed was cleared. Great! I get hooked up to the monitor and everything looks good. Until Matt says, "Uh Michaela, your contractions on the screen don't look that bad, I hope you are at least dilated because I have "surgeries" tomorrow and need some sleep" Oh Matt you never cease to amaze me. I laugh at him and say "surgeries" Matt, really. What, do you have to fill a cavity or something"? Matt, "No Michaela I'm serious I have to take out wisdom teeth". Oh, Okay Matt - as I'm lying on the bed I'm thinking, too bad I can't hook Matt up to a machine.....

Well lucky for Matt they did admit me after some time and everything went fine. Although I did get kicked out of the hospital the day after I had Lydia because they were out of beds and had too many pregnant ladies needing a room........ But all is well and I was happy to get back home. Matt was great about making supper and taking care of the kids. I only had to remind him once that I had given birth the day before. It was the kids' bedtime and I asked Matt if he could put them to bed. "Can you Michaela? My foot really hurts from playing basketball on Friday"? Laughing I say "Really Matt? Are you sure you want to say that to me"?? Needless to say he put the kids to bed that night with a really "sore" ankle. I'm looking into getting that machine permanently installed in our house......

Shoot The Deer!

So, last Saturday evening...we are driving back from Cascade to the farm and Lee & I are saying to each other how great it is that our van is still running so well. Has close to 130,000 miles and yet no problems. It has been paid off for 4 years and our insurance on it was a meager $25/month. We were boastfully saying how lucky we were that we've never gotten into an accident, especially a deer since Mom had just run into a deer the day before on her way to Anamosa. But, not us.

Lee reminded me how his expert driving skills & near-perfect driving record were, for the most part, the main reasons why the van had survived this long! Plus, while I may have asked several times if we could get a new fancier model...like say the Dietrich's and their foreign luxury van. Lee always politely reminded me that none of his hard-working money would ever go to some foreign, sissy country. Plus, the van worked fine and was paid off. We would keep it until it died.

Well, on Sunday morning..Oct. 19th around 8:30am just west of Wyoming, Iowa....Lee was driving--thank goodness, or this whole mess may have been a bit blamed on my driving skills?!?!--anyway, a big Buck deer jumped out of the ditch on the left-side of the road and ran right into our van! Stupid animal! We were all fine. But the van is a mess.

After getting out and surveying the damage...Lee gets back in and says..."Darn it. We were just saying last night how great it is that our van still works!" I said, "Yeah, too bad. Can we get a Suburban?" He said Yes!!!! Soooo, the entire ride home I'm super excited about getting a big SUV and pissing some liberals off! I want to get an awesome bumper sticker like...."My SUV & I Love Warm Temps!" Do you get it? Help me here..I need something funny about global warming. This is actually just as important as finding the right SUV!?!

So, we get about 2 miles from our house and Lee says...."You know. The van is still drivable. Don't roll down the driver window, and don't drive in the rain because there are wires showing, and don't open the driver door too much. But, we could just drive it around like this until next summer and look for a SUV then." What did this remind me of??? How about every Saturday morning when Mom promised to take me shopping, but at the last minute said she had book work to do. Or we would go to CR and she'd drive to the fabric store saying she could sew me an outfit cheaper than buying one at the mall.

So, I told him I felt like trailer trash driving it around and I wanted a new SUV. He's in no hurry to go car shopping, but does agree that the end of the year is always a good time to buy a vehicle. It will be used, of course, but I'm excited to go looking!! The 2nd photo is off the deer Poop on the door! Notice how we can't wash off all the dirt from the gravel roads in Iowa! I don't even care--the dirt kind of hides the smashed in areas! God Bless & Safe Driving!!

Catholic Pumpkin Farm

A few weeks ago we went to an awesome Pumpkin Farm. It is run by a Catholic Deacon and his family. We went on a hay ride, picked pumpkins, went through a hay maze, corn maze, pumpkin train, ate pumpkin doughnuts, drank cider and went to Sunday evening mass there! At mass there were 3 priests and the deacon. There is an outdoor alter with huge statues of Jesus & Mary and a Grotto area. After mass, we had a picnic of hotdogs, chips, brownies! The farm is close by, so we plan on going again!