Let's break out of this shell

Now here is a revelation to have: I didn't even realize I liked turtles. Hello.

First off just to get this horribleness out of the way. Turtles no matter the kind are living breathing creatures. For a person to intentionally hurt a defenseless animal for whatever reason is sickening. A person decided to beat a mother snapping turtle with a golf club at a golf course to inches of its death. The turtle was taken to a place for help, but sadly did not make it. To whoever nay have done this, hope your guilty conscience eats away at you. I cannot even describe how much this makes my heartache. Please be advised this may not be for the faint of heart.  Here is the link for more information:  http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/wardenwire/wardenwire_lookup.asp?id=304
Only hope before the last moments your eggs were placed in a safe place.  Rest in Peace, Ms. Turtle.



Ok let's inject some rainbows, fairy dust, and glitter  back into this little blog of mine.  The revelation of my love of turtles. The clouds parted, the sunshine came thru, and boom, out of my mouth "I didn't even realize I liked turtles".  This occured as the hubbie and I were driving to the grocery store for our weekly grocery run.  Pretty much at the point that I informed the hubbie that we needed to pull over and get the turtle out of the road. Yep, turtle crossing the road.  It was a painter.  No messing with snappers. Being the great hubbie he is and avoiding the risk of listening to me worry about the turtle the entire grocery trip etc., he pulled over. Now he was also the person who grabbed the turtle and put him in the ditch. Mr. or Mrs. Turtle was not very happy at that point. I am sure later though the turtle reflected and was happy for the assistance.  Turtle Saved.

And here is yet another story of a good soul taking the time to save a turtle:
http://www.jsonline.com/news/waukesha/school-bus-strikes-pedestrian-in-eagle-b9930473z1-210848241.html
Very thankful the gentleman and turtle both survived.

Now let's get to the how the heck you did not know you liked turtles portion.  Clearly it should have been obvious to my little brain.  Just check out all the terrific turtle times/things that surround me.

 They are like everywhere around my house

 

This is the work turtle.   He gets a little out of hand sometimes.   Even catch him dancing under the disco ball sometimes, hanging from the plant.  Crazy turtle.

This guy was just out wandering around at a pet store we stopped at.  Craziness.



 And these little gems are baby snapping turtles that the little brother hatched by his house. Not a single turtle was lost.  All the eggs hatched and they were released back to the marsh.

 

 

And of course my favorite turtle love, World Turtle Day

Of course then you have the moment when there was the lack of filter between the mouth and brain. Driving home from the grocery store looking at the log in the pond for the turtles as I always do and this wonderfulness comes out "there is not even a place to put a turtle". Seriously people, someone goes out there and puts those adorable little turtles on the log to bring the brightness and smiles to everyone's day. 

And in breaking news...found this out just prior to posting.  We may have more baby snapping turtles this year.  The little bro found this lady cruising in his yard.   Moredetails coming soon...

Hi Ho Hi Ho Back to the shell we go, where it is warm cozy, and all my own.

Hometown Lovin'

 

Love where you live link up.  

 

Horicon, WI

 

 

A small town at its best. Approximately 3,655 fine people there. That is where this girl was born and raised. Yeppers, I fit the small town girl mold to a "T". From being in the little parades, to cheerleading, working at the local restaurant, and the yearning to get the heck out of that little town too. Here are some snippets from life back in the day: 

Realizing I was born in wintry Wisconsin

Why yes that is an amazing Strawberry Shortcake Bike

 Rocking the big hair...GO HORICON

The really mom you have to take a picture now in my work outfit look.

Hartford, WI

Once out of school for a brief period I lived in Hartford, WI. Now this city was huge compared to the small town living I was used.  The bigger city had 14,400 people approximately. They had taxi service and ice cream trucks.  The little town I lived in didn't have an ice cream truck.  The first time I heard the ice cream truck I freaked out. Like what was that.  I was amazed at age 21.  Did I have some wonderful memories with my son here.

 

If you ever happen that way stop at Mineshaft

 

 

and Mickey's Frozen Custard

Waukesha, WI

 

Next stop on our adventure was Waukesha, WI.  Population 70,718 approximately. Wow the cities just kept getting bigger. We spent about 10 years in this wonderful city. Oh there was so many things I loved about it. Beautiful park system, gelato shop, Mama Mia's (garlic bread, best on the planet), Jimmy's Grotto, Casa Del Rio (sadly this placed closed), the pottery studio, and a great downtown that made you feel like you were in a small town.

Pictures from the parks

Gelato

A few of my pottery pieces

 On the bridge going to downtown.  Beautiful River walk.

 

 

Horicon, WI

 

 

After awhile though it was time to return to my roots and settle back in the small town of Horicon.  This is now once again where I lay my head. My son attends the same high school I did. The community is amazing and we are close to our family. As much as I miss the big city life sometimes, the small town charm makes it all worth it.
 

Now some social studies type facts about the glorious town we call home.

The city of Horicon is located at the southernmost tip of the Horicon Marsh. The marsh is 32,000 acres  most of it open water and cattail marsh. Tourist flock every year to see the migration of the Canadian Geese.  Now these geese in my opinion are one of the meanest birds ever. I watched them jump into a person's car after that person ran out of bread. Of course, feeding them probably wasn't a great idea. Back on track.  See the wonderment for yourself below...

 Yeah, we had a happy liver that day.

 

Horicon is also home to John Deere Horicon Works.  Click away, youtube video, and it shows more of the city we call home. And one cannot forget The Ice Cream Station, our local ice cream shop.

 

We are very fortunate in our community to have this wonderful group called Horicon Phoenix Group. I cannot say enough good things about what they are trying to do for and bring to our community. From the Wednesday farmers market complete with bands, Jersey Street Music Fest (new this year), Labor Day celebration, and raising money to pay for items to enhance our little slice of the world. Check out their awesomeness here:  http://www.horiconphoenix.com/index.html

 

 

And that concludes the journey thru the amazing places of my life. This small town girl is heading to the hammock.  Thanks for stopping

 

 

Red Alert, Crisis at Hand

While sitting in my little section of the cubicle world speaking to a supplier on the desk phone, the cell phone begins to ring.  Look down.  It's my mom.  Now normally my mom would just call the good ole' desk phone. The fact she called the cell phone.  Better get the call wrapped up. It has to be an emergency.   An emergency it was.  Here is how it went down:

Mom:   Do you know what Cooper ate last night?

My reply: Yes.  Why is he ok?

Answer/Solution:

Adorable Cooper

 

PLUS

 



Superman Ice Cream

 

PLUS

 

Green Jello

 

EQUALS

the answer/crisis

 

 

GREEN POOP

 

Now be thankful I didn't put a picture of that on here.  Your Welcome.  Peace Out People.

 

 

 

Wow, what a show

Now that weekend was a serious shit show.  Why? Why not.  Guess for us calling it a shit show, it could have been much worse.  Everyone is still alive, no injuries to report, nor any prayers to the porcelain god.  End of the day we had our very own little shit show. So let's here it for the synopsis.

New Tent - This year we bought a new tent.  I was so adamant about  this.   Tired of hearing about all the stories related to the ex and that flippin' tent.  Aside from the fact it was also falling apart.  Tainted, that is what the old tent was.  Hello , back on track. Now the other weekend we are at Fleet n Farm, decided that it is happening and we are buying a new tent. This one has a cool screen porch on it and everything.  Looks the same size,  bring home, check the sizes, and boom, same size.  Not sure what kind of tape measure they used...but seriously don't think they were correct after putting it up. Shit show. The teenagers really don't have much of their own areas now.  Pretty sad since now the risk of us smelling them has increased.  Oh well pretty soon they won't want to come along anyways.   Now aside from trying to determine what the front of the rain cover was.  To my parents, brothers dismay no additional shit show watching us put this thing up for the first time. Yeah, we are awesome.  Our conclusion on the tent. We are going to make it work.  Turns out we love the little screen area for coraling things, etc.  Guess we will just need to get a little closer and snuggle. Pray that our teenagers wash themselves before bed.

Pets - We have two, not including our teenagers of course, dogs.  Who love to camp.  Now this also means night one prior to us having the ability to wear them out, the pups are on edge.  So when your pet decides it needs to make some random noise in the night...it disrupts my pet who in turn disrupts me. Of course it doesn't help much that the one pet, the little chiweenine, has to sleep in the sleeping bag with you even though there is a perfectly good comforter laying over both sleeping bags on the air mattress for him to go under.  Pampered little prince. 

Now lets just say the other pet down the road is a donkey.  Yepper. Night one at least three times we were being woken up to a donkey.  Who has a donkey as a pet, what do you do with a donkey? They don't play catch (I think), can't imagine snuggling with one, and I swear at 11pm, 12am, & 2am are the loudest creatures on the planet. 

That portion of the shit show was only to be witnessed by the hubbie and myself.  Steppie slept right thru that entertainment. She is the princess of sleep.  Now come night two the boys were contemplating sneaking over and having a drinking party with said donkey.  I informed them a) that's cruel and b) with our luck he would be a talkative drunk and wouldn't get any sleep.

Then we come to the point when my husband got up to let the dogs and thought it was later.  Started a fire. I attempt to fall back asleep to only realize I also really, really need to pee. On the walk to the trailer, I ask him why the hell is he starting a fire at 2am in the bloody morning.  Didn't realize it was that early he says and comes back to sleep. And that concludes act 3 in the shit show.

My Mom - Now after a night of little to no sleep. The unaware early rising mother thinks it is a good idea to shovel out the fire pit.  Yeah, that is by no means quiet...hello 5 am.  Of course at this point it is like screw it and out of bed.  Need coffee.  At this point I am cursing myself  for forgetting the filters for the coffee pot.  Because the number one gas station in the area does not open until 6am.  It is like 5am still.  So we (yes, the hubbie too) drive on to get coffee and filters.  Thank goodness we found an open gas station 15 miles later.  Boom Act 4 of the shit show.
 
Yeah that was pretty lengthy about just night one.  More then likely going to make the rest of the trip sound fairly uneventful.  Honestly though after the opening acts in the shit show glad it subsided a bit.  Now after finally getting my goodness of some coffee flowing thru my veins and some breakfast in the tummie on with our day.

For the last few years after visiting my parents land on a regular basis one of the items on my list was to visit Roche A Cri State Park.  Now the only reason why we did not go there sooner was due to the stair renovations to the top of the rock. The state park was developed in 1948 to protect the 300 foot rock out cropping. Finally the time arrived to schedule the visit.

Wiht a 300 foot rock out cropping comes a lot of stairs 303 to be exact and gorgeous views.   That made it all better.

While in the park, we also did some of our fave past time of geocaching.  We had four geocaches on the list and managed to find two. At least we walked away finding some and didn't get completely carried away by the mosquitos.  This was my little brother's first geocaching adventure.  He even found his first one. 

 

On the quest for one of these geocaches learned what a cheshire cat was...sadly though we did not find this one.

 

 

 

After all the excitement of the afternoon, we needed a quick stop at Pritzls to get some things we needed. You know the necessities: alcohol, meat sticks, cheese curds before we headed back to camp. Pritzls gas station by the way is a glory in itself.  It has everything...everything. Like a mini grocery store or even a baby wanna be walmart.  Glorious.

Back at the land Jamie got to take his first ride/drive on a four wheeler. 

 

 

The steppie even managed to squeeze in some metal detecting on this trip.  The finds were not as awesome as the last trip though.



After a glorious dinner nothing better then smores.  We  are camping after all.  Now one of my favorite things
 to do find some new creative smore combinations. This weekend brought us: Peanut Butter Oreo Cookie Smore's and Smores with Nutella and Dark Chocolate...delicious.

Now night 2....the dogs were finally exhausted.  They slept. Thank goodness. Now this night I by no means was sharing my sleeping bag with the chiweenie.  Eviction notice served.  And off he went to sleep in the steppies bag. The donkey was quiet or maybe I was just extremely exhausted.  My mother after being put in check by her ever so cheerful daughter did not clean out the fire pit at 5 flippin o'clock in the morning.  Overall...not a bad night for some zzzz's finally.

Time to pack it up and head home.  Taco Johns - This was one of my fave fast food mexican restaurants when I lived in the city.  Now the sticks doesn't have one of these.  One day somehow we got on this topic of the glory of Taco Johns.  Then came to the conclusion that we needed to find one for the hubbie, steppie, and little bro to try.   And low and behold...we did.  This place happened to  be right on our way home from up North.  So the last little adventure for the weekend.  Taco Johns.  Oh pototato chicken burritos how I love thee.

And that concludes are little weekend show...What a great time with the family