Dancing Moves!

Zachy has mastered his dancing moves and his sister isn't too bad herself. The music comes on and these two instantly start grooving. They are quite the entertainment... you can hear Grandma Betty in the background laughing.

Swing Set Fun!

This spring we bought a Rainbow Swing Set and put it up. We have very much enjoyed playing on it all summer long... kids and adults!. Gracie loves to swing. I think she could do it all day long. Zach also likes to swing, but his sister often thinks she needs the baby bucket instead of the regular swing. Some how we work out a compromise.

1st Haircuts

Today was haircut day for the two little Malecek's. This is both Gracie and Zach's first haircut ever... therefore it is a big event in both of there lives! I took pictures and saved a locket of hair for both of them. It again made me think "They grow up so fast!".

Gracie was first. She sat in the beauty chair like a little princess. She did not fuss at all. She just got an all over trim and the beautician layered it a little so the curls would fall nicer on her. She looks so cute.

Zachy was second for the beauty chair. He did pretty good at first and then got a little squirmy. He has some curls on the side of his head. I think if we were to let it keep growing it may be as curly as his sisters. For today it was just a trim to even it all out and get the bangs out of his eyes. What a handsome little fella.

The reason Zachy needed a haircut... look what his Auntie Christy did to him when we were on our summer vacation! (He does make a cute a little girl... shh don't tell him I said that!)

Walker and Bubbles

This post covers two events.

First: Zach and his walker.

Second: Having fun with bubbles.

Be sure to hit click the PLAY button on the videos to watch them.

Zach learning to walk using the walker. He sure can cruise. When he hits a wall he looks back at me and gives me that look "Mom come turn me around so I can keep going."

The kids and I had some fun blowing bubbles and playing with sidewalk chalk. Gracie catches on pretty well. You can hear her say "I did it!" It was fun to watch her try to catch the bubbles. Zach enjoyed watching and trying to touch the bubbles too.

Such a simple little toy, but it can bring so much enjoyment and laughter.

Sohre Trip - Lake Vermillan 2009

The last week in July we went on our summer vacation to Lake Vermillan, MN with the Sohre clan. This year my entire family was able to come for the entire week, even Darrin from Washington DC. This is a huge deal for everyone to be together at once, because it has been many years since everyone has been able to join in the fun for the entire week. We had 3 cabins, 3 boats, 13 adults, and 11 kids! No pets allowed! The thought of everyone together for a whole week, kids and all, at first seemed like it could be a little overwhelming, but it really wasn't at all. We absolutely had the best time. All the kids played non-stop and I think the adults were following suit as well. Fishing was not great, actually it was terrible, but it didn't stop us from having fun. It rained on and off the entire week also, but we were still able to enjoy the beach most afternoons. Zach and Gracie both did fairly well. Gracie loved the Papa's boat. She kept calling it "My boat." One evening Papa took Daddy out fishing and boy did she not agree with that situation. I was on the dock with her and as they are pulling away from the dock with the boat and she is crying out "My boat, my boat!" then "My daddy, My daddy." She was not happy that her Daddy and her boat were leaving her.

The men (Marty and Jason) frying fish for supper...

we found a good Sunny hole that gave us at least one meal of fish!

Zachy and his Cousin Kate.

Gracie and her Best Friend/Cousin Paige.

They played non-stop the entire week.

Gracie loved her life-jacket and often refused to take it off.

Such a change from last year where she screamed bloody-murder when we put it on her.

Sister-Brother love! I wish Gracie was always this nice to her brother.

Mommy and Zach.

Fun in the sun and sand.

Zach's first time in lake water. He enjoyed it.

Gracie and Cousin Jesse throwing rocks in the water.On the way home. It is about a 6 hr drive. Gracie did pretty good. If she has her blankie... she usually is a pretty content kid.
Zachy on the other hand needs to hold his Mommy's hand in order to be content. I spent half the trip with my hand curved behind my seat so I could reach his hand. If I let go for a second he would cry.


The wonderful Sohre Clan - all 24 of us!!!
I think on Sunday when we were all back at our respective homes we were all missing each other. It is hard to spend an entire week together and then go our separate ways again. I hope next year we are all able to spend the week together again.

Thanks Mom for making this possible!

Thanks family for being so GREAT!

Zachariah Crawling

This is old news, but Zach is crawling and climbing around all the furniture. He has been doing this for about 3 weeks now. So he started around 8 1/2 month old. He is growing up soo fast! (This blog also acts as my calendar of events for the kids... so when I go to write it in the baby book... I have some better idea of dates/ages).

On the 1st of July he turned 9 months old. He is in supreme separation anxiety from his Mommy. If I am in the room he needs me to be next to him. Every time I drop him off at daycare he starts to cry, but Sue our daycare lprovider assures me he stops shortly after I am gone. I remember Gracie being the same way.

Yesterday Zachy woke up with a fever at 4 am of 104.3 degrees. He was sooo warm and lethargic. After I picked him up then he vomited all over me. So at 4 am Marty and I are giving Zachy a bath to clean him up and cool him down, then I take a shower because he got my hair all full (all at 4 am mind you!). After dosing Zach with some ibuprofen I sat on the couch and cuddled him for the next several hours. We kept the ibuprofen and tylenol in him all day and he still ran a low grade temp. I am not sure what the deal is. He has a bad cough too, which I think is getting worse. I thought it was just teeth moving, but maybe it is more. Last night didn't go to bad and now he is still sleeping at 8:45 am so we will see what the day brings. It is so hard to know... do you take him in to see a provider or wait it out? Poor little guy, if only he could tell me what hurts or aches... is it an ear little guy? or your teeth? or just this misserable cough? Hopefully today goes better.

Sad, Sad, Sad...

Today I am Sad, Sad, Sad. It has been a real rough month for our hog business which we call, Mor-Pork. Due to extreme financial difficulties a couple of days before I left for my Annual Training for guards Marty and his Dad made the decision to liquidate the hogs. This means we are selling all our hogs and we are no longer going to be owning our hogs. During the two weeks I was gone 1700 sows were halled to market in semi-trucks. These are our Momma pigs that are not suppose to go to the meat market until they have given us several good pregnancies and litters of baby piggies.

This means Mor-Pork as it has been for the last 20 years will no longer be.

This makes me SAD, SAD, SAD.

A little over 2 weeks after this decision was made the farrowing barn is completely empty. Before the pigs started to move out I had Marty take the kids and I over to the farrowing unit for one last look. This is the first time Zach has seen piggies. When I looked to the future I always pictured the kids someday going with Daddy on maybe a Saturday and helping with chores and feeding the pigs, just as I had done when I was a kid with my Dad. Now we don't know what the future will hold. Circumstances over the last year have what lead us to this decision. First is was high grain prices - corn which is the primary ingredient in pig feed. Then it was the falling hog market. Then we get a disease TGE that effects our newborn piggies. Then the Swine Flu hit which again made hog prices drop even farther. Then we get another disease. We kept hoping that if we just hang in there for a couple more months, or till spring, or till the end of summer... things would turn around and we would be just fine. But it is like a bleeding wound that just doesn't seem to stop. We keep bleeding and Marty and his Dad decided to make it stop so we could start to recover.

Right now we still have nursery pigs and finisher pigs. The finisher hogs will grow out and be sent to market and the nursery pigs will be sold in a month or so as roaster or feeder pigs. Marty says by the beginning of September the barns will be completely empty. At the beginning of May we owned around 20,000 hogs. This liquidation will also contribute to the unemployment world as we had 11 employees who are gradually being layed-off as our hog population decreases.

For the future we hope that some investor such as a larger hog business or a feed company will want to put hogs in our barns and then Marty can take care of them. Maybe a few years down the road we will own hogs again... but it is hard to say.

As for all of us we are doing OK. Somedays the reality of what is happening hits us hard and brings out the SAD's but then we have to just remember that we put forth our best effort to make this work - especially Marty and his Dad and hopefully something better is waiting for us. I keep praying and telling myself and Marty that hopefully this is the terrible end leading to the beginning of a much better situation. God must have something waiting for us which hopefully a year from now we will understand. Please keep the Malecek's in your prayers.

Annual Training 2009

For the last two weeks I had my two weeks of Annual Training (AT) for Guards which was at Camp Ripley. My battalion spent almost the entire time out in the field (the woods... for those not accustomed to military lingo). I captured a few pictures with my cell phone camera. Amazingly I was able to keep the charge on my cell phone and get reception so I could call home in the evening and talk to the family. We have generators that run occasionally giving us power in our tents. I haven't been out to the field for an annual training for about 5 years or so. It never fails that when we are at Camp Ripley sleeping in tents and not getting showers it rains... and rains... and then rains some more. Then of course it is hot and humid... and there is an abundance of ticks. We came in to contonment (the base) about every 3 days for a shower. We did lots of good training. My role is of a nurse in the military... so mostly I help with the training of the medics. In the real scenario I would be in charge of Patient Holding. This is an area that I could keep soldiers for a max of 72 hours who are in need of medical attention. The platoon I am part of if Treatment Platoon. My platoon is made up of about 20 medics, 2 doctors, 1 physician assistant, 1 nurse (me), 1 dentist, 1 dental assistant, x-ray techs, pharmacy tech, a platoon leader, and a paperwork person. Our responsibilities are to treat the injured soldiers, trauma and non-trauma. We get soldiers from the Ambulance Platoon - who go out and get the injured soldiers. So during AT it is all about running scenarios to better prepare us for the real thing on a deployment. We do simulations of Mass Cals (mass casualties) and different possible injuries such as sucking chest wound, amputations, gunshot to the abdomen, head wound, etc. I am fortunate to be with a great group of soldiers and even though the living conditions are not quite like they are at home it I am always able to reflect back and say I had a good experience and was able to learn.

Our company TOCC

Our Treatment Tent - this is where my platoon works out of.

My living quarters for 2 weeks. The picture above is our tents and the picture below is my sleeping bag and cot. I also should add that the first night it rained I did get wet due to a poorly put together tent!

Our means of transportation while in the field.

We did some helicopter training on a Black Hawk. We put our litters (patient stretchers) on and off the rig and then we got the pleasure of having a ride!

This is me all buckled in the Black Hawk.


This is one of the training exercises we did... low crawling with a litter (stretcher).
I sure missed the kids while I was gone, but luckily I have a wonderful husband who took on the job of Single Dad. Thanks Sweetie! He did get a little help from my Mom and his Mom. Thanks Grandmas!