Day 16 - Best Night Ever

I gave Ted a high five as he hopped into the car.  We sat for a moment admiring our handiwork and then proclaimed in unison, "best night ever!"

Rewind 4 hours...Anna Richie stopped by to drop off a few items for Amber's 4th Grade Spooky Soirée Halloween Party and to check out the decorations.  I gave her the rundown on how her Zombie Family was going to be responsible for this year's murder mystery.  When the truck and hayrack drove up behind the shed, they were to act out a scene pulling Amber off of the rack and drag her away as their next victim.  I'm a horrible liar, so when Anna bought into my story and headed home to get into costume, I was giddy with retaliation adrenaline.  The guests began to arrive, key parents were given privileged information, and the party began.  Everyone embraced our "mystery game" and enjoyed the party festivities.  It was somewhat of a duplicate of Samantha's party with a few fun additions.  

And then it was time to load the kids onto the hayrack to "hunt down our murderer."  My older zombie niece Calyssa Richie was determined to ride in the back of the truck to scare the party guests along the way, so I had to take some extra time explaining the importance of her role behind the shed.  We got out of the driveway leaving the zombies behind and headed down the road to the farm.  On our first stop at the old town hall, several parents were parked and waiting for us.  I revealed to the kids that the murder mystery was a cover up story and the night was about to get really good.  We were taking them all to seek revenge against the evil Zombie family by teepeeing their yard.  30 fourth graders and some parents enthusiastically piled into cars and drove 2 miles down the road to the Zombie/Richie yard to even up the scorecard.  We sent the hayrack driver on with an empty rack.

Once we pulled into the Richie's 10 acre yard, we parked our cars with headlights facing the entire yard, gathered the kids in for quick instructions, and passed out 60 rolls of Cottonelle toilet paper (always get the good stuff, it flies better).  As I myself ran thru the yard throwing toilet paper high into the sky, I heard several young voices yelling things like, "I've never done this before", "this is the BEST PARTY EVER", "is this legal?", and "Mrs. _______ is really good at this". 

5 minutes was all it took to decorate the Richies yard, thanks to the highly energized 4th grade class. We rounded everyone back into cars and gave them instructions not to talk to the zombies, if they were questioned, just answer that they fell off of the hayrack and the parents had to drive them home.  Excellent actors and actresses we have in the Waverly 4th Grade!  They played their parts with perfection.

As Ted and I were getting back into the car, we found a few untouched rolls of toilet paper on the ground and Ted couldn't resist letting them serve their intended purpose.  Later I learned that one of the kids was observing him and commented to her mother, "Ted sure looks happy."

Back at our house, the Zombies were playing up their part with true Richie acting skills.  They crept up in the cornfield as the hayrack came closer, and closer, and closer...to realize there were no kids!  They demanded answers from the driver, who gave them nothing.  By the time our carloads arrived back at the house, they were confused, upset, and in frustration had even stolen the 2 roles of toilet paper from  our house and attempted to teepee our front yard again (the rest of our stock was well hidden, we learned our lesson).  We gave them our "story" about falling off the hayrack and they left disappointed and still confused. 

Wait for it...ding, there's the text.  The Richies are home:).  The score is tied, for now.

Day 14 - Oh My Dog!

These were my exact words this morning when daylight revealed what my dog had been up to while we were gone this weekend.  I found it odd that there was no mail in my mailbox last night.  Somehow my dog, who's shock collar does not reach the mailbox, was able to spread at least 10 pieces of mail across our yard over the weekend.  I'm sorry if you've mailed us something and we never respond.  The dog ate it.  

More disheartening than the mail was the Christmas package that I've been waiting for over the past 2 weeks that was not tracked to arrive until Monday.  Thanks Fed Ex for delivering on Saturday....  Luckily the box was much more entertaining than the present, which is still salvageable.

I couldn't write this blog without dedicating one day to my dog.  She has so much fun I think she was the inspiration for the word.  And now for our top 10 Bella stories....

Bella's Top 10 - All in the Name of Good Fun

#10 - She learned how to jump on top of her dog house like snoopy.  Now every time there is a chance that someone might walk by it, she jumps on top in case that person might like to pet her at eye level as they pass.

#9 - She is highly competitive and will win every tug of war contest.  Usually she drags us across the yard before we give in to her.

#8 - Bella loves to fetch, especially in water.  We took her to Scheels during the weekend of the Dog Jumping contest to test out the waters during free time.  She started a show of her own and enticed a small crowd just to watch her jump.  She was pretty sure she established celebrity status by the end of the day. 

#7 - Bella found Ted's iPhone on the floor of the shop.  Her first and only kind gesture with regards to objects that don't belong to her, she delivered the iPhone to our back doorstep without a scratch.

#6 - She loves the Fed Ex drivers. They give her a bone AND leave her a present.  It's always a race to beat Bella to the box.  She seems to be dominating the playing field these days.  

#5 - Bella's hind legs are solid muscle.  She runs with such enthusiasm she has a hard time stopping herself.  We had several stalks of corn missing this summer from our end rows by the house.  Bella would mow them over chasing cats into the corn.

#4 - Bella's favorite spot in the whole wide world is the backseat of our jeep.  She knows that the jeep will take her fun places and it's very difficult to get her out once she's there.  I've driven into the garage to find her sitting in the backseat by herself, just hanging out.  She sat there for the entire afternoon of the water party not wanting to miss out on a ride back to the pasture.

#3- She stole a farm employee's gloves when he wasn't looking and had him chasing her around the yard for a good 5 minutes before he coaxed them out of her mouth.

#2 - She found a pink highlighter and managed to color her own toenails.

#1 - Bella goes to great lengths to avoid being contained.  As a pup she dug under the sheep pen to escape.  She also dug thru the rock in the machine shed to get out.  We went through 2 insufficient wireless shock collars that didn't slow her down on the highest level.  After Ted called the manufacturer for the third time, they sent the highest powered underground containment system they offered.  Conveniently, Bella was waiting by the door when the Fed Ex man showed up to deliver it.  She managed to chew thru the box and 1/2 of the wire before we got home to find it.  Unfortunately for her, it ultimately made her containment area smaller and did finally do it's job.

They say dogs resemble their owners.  So which one of us does she resemble most?  I know my vote.

Day 15 - The Prequel to our Best Night Ever

There may be some controversy out there, or even unnecessary sympathy for the Richies.  I just wanted to clear that all up by shedding some light on events leading up to our best night ever.

You see, a few years back we decided to host Samantha's entire grade for a Halloween Party at our house.  After hours of planning and help from friends and family, we were ready to host a memorable night for the 4th graders.  We had Fiona the Fortune Teller, a haunted zombie cemetery, Dr. Guts and the gross body parts, the mystery of the missing combine, apple bobbing and other games, and Ted even built a pumpkin catapult.  During the pumpkin launching, my lovely little niece Eva came up and asked me for some toilet paper.  I thought she might be referring to the toilet paper for the mummy wrap game and didn't think any further about it.  I did have 30 fourth graders in my backyard and was somewhat pre-occupied at that moment.  Little did I know what that five-year-old and her zombie family members were up to.

On went the party.  We had a mystery to solve, so we loaded all of the kids onto a hayrack and headed to the farm to find our combine thief.  As we pulled back into our front yard, I realized we'd been teepeed by the Zombie/Richie Family!...while we were in our backyard!...with our own toilet paper!  Clever.  A job well done, and I commended them for their efforts.

We took our time working out our retaliation strategy.

Day 13 - Black Friday Bergner's Challenge

For anyone who has ever scoped out the ads after Thanksgiving Dinner and mapped out the Black Friday plan, you will appreciate this story.  Every year, Bergner's/ Carson Pirie Scott, includes a $10 coupon to spend in the store on Black Friday before 1pm.  The gimmick is to get you into the store and hope you spend a lot more than $10 by the time you reach the check-out counter.  With the opportunity for free stuff, we always added this store to our Black Friday map.  Over the years, Bergner's has changed the small print on the coupon to eventually only include non-sales items (which are nearly impossible to find on Black Friday when everything in the store is "on sale").

Last year we were feeling lazy and decided to spend our Black Friday sleeping in, laying around, and eventually wandering out to see what kind of fun we could find at the mall.  We had our Bergner's coupons in hand from 3 different newspapers and I had a last minute idea to make a game of it. Everyone in the car picked a teammate and had approximately ten minutes (it was 12:50pm when we reached the mall and the coupon expired at 1pm) to use their Bergners coupon to make a purchase.  They had to spend at least $10 to use the coupon and we declared that the winner would be the team that could spend the least amount of money out of their own pockets.  I was fortunate enough to be the driver so I got to sit in the car and hold our spot by the door while everyone else piled out like raging lunatics frantic to spend their Bergner's coupon.  We made quite a scene as Ted held the door closed so niece Kaitlyn couldn't get inside, and everyone else scattered thru the store.  My sister Sue and niece Kaitlyn were first to arrive back to the car with their jewelry purchase and only $2.47 spent out of their own pocket.  Next came Samantha and Ted.  After 2 rejections at the cash register, Ted explained the scenario and the clerk took pity on him, offering up the option of an electric toothbrush that was set up in a display in front of her.  They made it to the car before the buzzer, spending slightly less than the first contestants.  Text warnings started going out...2 minutes, 1 minute and we are departing for lunch...response, wait don't leave us!!!  Nephew Darin and Amber showed up seconds after the buzzer empty handed and very upset with Bergners for their trickery in advertising.  Amber was absolutely crushed that she wasn't able to purchase any of the cool $10 items she'd found, because of the fine print on her coupon.  Ted and Samantha took home the bragging rights and we left the mall to seek out lunch.

Lesson of the day for our carload of students...be sure you understand the terms of the "sale" or you'll come out empty-handed.  Good luck to you this Friday as you venture out into the chaos.  May you not be limited by the fine print.

Day 12 - Thanksgiving Brady Bunch Style

Ok, without using Google, who can sing this song by heart...GO!

Here's the story of a lovely lady
who was bring up three very lovely girls,
All of them had hair of gold like their mother,
The youngest one in curls.....

How do the Brady's have anything to do with Thanksgiving, you might be asking yourselves?  Quite honestly, I have no idea.  But that has been declared the theme of this year's Thanksgiving at the Richie home.  And so, if we want to eat turkey, I guess we need to find some 70's attire to wear to dinner.  Anyone have some totally rad 70's clothes you'd loan to me so I can try for that best dressed award?

The last Thanksgiving at the Richie House called for Pilgrims and Indians.  All of us being Illini fans, we thought the Indians would dominate Thanksgiving dinner.  But as it turns out our closets lent themselves to a wider selection of black and white than Native American attire, so the split was down the middle.  There's certainly something to be said for spicing up a family gathering by requiring random costume attire.  I guess that's why we sort of agreed to do it again.

By far the "Best Thanksgiving Ever" was awarded to the tailgate of 2001, the year I was 9 months pregnant with Samantha and the Illini went to the Sugar Bowl.  You see, that has been the only year in our lifetimes that Illinois has played football on Thanksgiving Day.  We took advantage of the opportunity and headed to Champaign for some sweet tailgating memories.  Deep fried turkey, college friends who show up bearing wild turkey (thanks Matt Hennenfent!) and Illini victory to secure a presence in a BCS Bowl.  Yep, best Thanksgiving ever.

What's your Best Thanksgiving Ever?  We always need a good idea for next year.

Day 11 - Watch out for the Girl in the Tractor

I'm not sure why I first agreed to learn how to drive a tractor.  I don't even recall when or where it was. I do remember Ted's forethought on this subject came years before it actually happened though.

We were engaged and I was living near O'Hare airport working in my first hotel job out of college.  My car was just about shot and it was time for a replacement.  Ted and I went car shopping and I fell in love with a cute little black Saturn, mainly for its power sunroof and 6-CD changer.  Ted thought it was a great car because it was a stick shift and was sure he could teach me how to drive it.  The wheels were turning in his head at this early date, he later fessed up.  If I can teach her how to drive a stick shift car, she will surely drive a tractor someday.  He helped me buy that cute little manual transmission Saturn, and drive it I did.  It wasn't pretty.  A word to the wise, don't attempt to learn how to drive a manual transmission in Chicago traffic.  Also toll booths really stink when your power window is broken (before the days of the IPASS).  I don't know how many times I killed the thing coming out of a toll booth.  After I tore up the first clutch in 6 months, I think Ted was reconsidering his brainy idea.

That car lasted about another year before it was time to trade it off.  His mission was accomplished though.  We had moved back to the farm by this point and I did finally have a decent understanding of how to not burn out a clutch, therefore becoming a viable candidate for the tractor seat.  

I do not claim this position full-time, but I don't mind helping out when needed.  Over the years, I've done my share of time as the auger cart driver.  Thank goodness we don't use the little wagons anymore, I need a BIG target like a semi-truck if you don't want a big pile of corn on the ground at every single field.  I've also been a part in the post harvest fieldwork from time to time.  The year I stayed at home with Amber, we spent many hours ripping fields together.  She was a good tractor buddy, and so was her Dora the Explorer movie.  I must have taken a break for a year or two because the next time I did field work, there was a handy dandy gadget on the steering wheel to help me steer straight.  What a concept for a girl who's fieldwork resembled more arcs and s's than straight lines!  Ted was giving me a refresher course with the girls in the cab.  I had to kick them all out when Samantha started telling me how I was doing it all wrong.  Age 7 and she knew how to run the auto-steer better than I did.

I found myself back in the cab of the tractor multiple times this year.  I'm happy to say I left behind no dents and only a few small piles of corn.  Today when Ted asked for help, Amber brought along her little white cat and we headed to the field together.  Now that I've learned how to run the auto-steer and move the seat forward so that I can reach the pedals, I can relax and enjoy my little farming partner.  I even let her drive every once in awhile.  The rain is coming, get 'r done.

Day 10 - Game On

We were sitting around enjoying the Summer Olympics on a quiet peaceful Saturday afternoon when Ted decided we needed to stop being lazy and get off the couch.  He was inspired by the heptathalon event we were watching and we decided to create our own.  Call the Richies, game on.

There are two things you should know about our family, if you don't already.

1. We function best in spontaneous mode.  

2. Everything is a competition.

So we give the Richie Family approximately 20 minutes forewarning, and this is what they show up in.  Geesh!  We will never win the best dressed competition with them around, that's for sure.

     

The first annual Mies Farms Heptathalon consisted of 7 events.  There would be an adult and a kids division, and the winner gets bragging rights until the next year.

The first event was the 50ish yard dash.  I'm not much of a runner, and the other adults are, so I didn't have high hopes to rake in the points here.  Ted, had a very strong desire to win the 50ish yard dash and came out of the blocks strong, 10 steps into the race, he let out a loud yelp as he pulled his hamstring.  We all hesitated to see if he was ok.  Luckily my remaining competition consisted of 2 doctors who were sworn by oath to help those in need.  I saw that Ted wasn't laying on the ground in pain, but still limping along, so I took advantage of the diversion and dashed on to take second place in the race!  Woo hoo!!!  Julie Mies! slowest runner on the track team is on the board!  Ted still really hasn't let me live down my lack of sympathy for his pain.  

Other events included cycling, discus, javelin throw, swimming, and sack races.  Kayaking was cancelled after the injury, we were down on manpower for hauling equipment.

My all-time favorite little competitor has to be Dain Richie.  Outside of my husband, my most favorite person in the world to compete against is my 10-year-old nephew Dain.  From the first day he could toss a ball, it was evident that he had natural talents.  But his feisty competitiveness makes it so fun to taunt him with a game.  He will compete for anything and everything, all I have to say is "I bet I can beat you at...."  He and I are not blood related, but I'm sure we have the same blood type.  So, when I jumbled up the point value for each place in the heptathalon events, it made him crazy trying to figure out how his little sister had the most points when he won the first event and she came in last.  Random nonsense points were assigned to each place.  So even if you were the winner, it didn't necessarily mean you would receive the most points in that event.  You had to check out the point value before the event to figure out which place would be most advantageous to your overall total.  Surely I could somehow rig this thing to have a fighting chance at victory.

I didn't win the 1st ever Mies Farms Heptathalon, that darn Bill Richie did.  Oh well, there's always the next competition we can dream up.