All in a days work

This is what we did at work yesterday. Quite the productive day if you ask me. Sara'is te cool fae on the left and mine was the spider web on the right.

Trash Day Results

Sorry for the delay in posting the results from last weeks glorious day. This year Bryan and I did not do a contest because honestly we did not have too much to put out there. I think we have gone overboard the last few years.

Now believe it or not there is trash etiquette if you can call it that (especially in Tracy) The picture below is what you do not do. We drive by this house on the way to school and everyday the pile grew. It seriously looked like someone sat in the front door and chucked things to the curb. By the day of pick up there were actually 2 mannequins in the pile.

I was shocked that the trash guys actually picked this up.....technically everything has to be bagged.

Now who said you can't find some good stuff on these days. I drove by and took the picture and 30 minutes later when I drove by again they were gone, hey these are hard times.

This was a pretty classic scene for trash piles. I think the number one item that you usually seen are broken book helves and old TV stands. The funny thing is that half way through the night a piece of this bed was in our pile. Classic "trashers remorse" syndrome.

I think we need to start our cleaning a little earlier for the spring pick up. I was not impressed with our 4 garbage bags of items. Until March '09

It is one of the best weeks of the YEAR!

I will give you a few hints as to why this is one of the greatest weeks of the year.

1. clean houses
2. large piles
3. creeping trucks
4. many good laughs

That's right folds it is TRACY TRASH WEEK! Our bi-annual event here in T-town, they should just make this a holiday. If you have been reading this blog for a while you know about our love for this week from previous posts. The next few days we are cleaning the house to create our pile for Thursday night. Meanwhile the piles in the neighborhood are starting to grow.

We love our little ghetto life!......oh did I mention we hung a fly swab in our kitchen yesterday. Laugh if you will but we got 22 flies on that thing.

Fun at the Bass Pro Shop

Well we have hit the big time....Manteca (the town right next to Tracy) is big time now. Just this week the opened the area's first and only Bass Pro Shop. We had some free time this morning so we packed up the family and headed down the road to the "BPS" as we refer to it.

I have never seen so many people in one place in the Central Valley before, the place was a zoo. Now before you all think that the Francis family has sold out and we have been turned into a fishing hick fam, just wait. This place is actually really cool. They have so many different things in this store it is overwhelming. From boats to guns, to clothes and bikes, they have everything that involves any outdoor sport you can think of. Including probably every piece of fishing equipment. Here are a few fun pics from our time there. I think this will be a place we will frequent, especially after the aquarium gets filled with the fish.

This is looking back at the crazy entrance to the store. You actually walk thru a redwood when you enter the store.

There is a waterfall that goes over the staircase as you walk upstairs. The aquarium at the bottom will eventually be filled with fish....they and not arrived yet.

Just a glimpse at the CRAZY amount of people here.

Dani had fun looking at all the animals. She loved this bear.

Chris and Bryan loved the shooting gallery they had in the back of the store. Although I think Bryan spent more quarters then Bryan.

Quick Trip to Chicago

I have been a travelin' fool for work lately. I spent a few days in the Carolina's two weeks ago and earlier in the week I headed to Chicago for a few days. This trip was a fun one since I got to go there with Sara and another great women from our church Caren.

If anyone has ever spent any time around Sara and I they would know that we have a tendency to wear the same thing every now and then. And when I say the same thing I me exactly, it is a gift. This can be kind of funny at times especially since we work together. So it really came to no surprise that on the first day of our trip we were sportin' the NF fleece and jeans (outfit of choice).

The conference we were at was for women in church leadership, "Gifted to Lead". Two of the most dynamic women I have heard speak on women's leadership, Nancy Beach and Nancy Ortberg gave the one day interactive conference for about 500 women from all over the states. In the first session we were talking about key points in our lives that we felt we were called to be leaders. My thoughts went directly to high school and the youth group at MVPC. I thought of all the great student leaders that I worked with. The totally WEIRD part of this was at the break I walk out in the courtyard and there I see my friend Jane Filkin that I went to high school with and was one of those student leaders with me. So crazy, especially since she and her family are in Colorado now working at a church in Boulder. It was such a fun time to reconnect with her. It was a great conference and I took away a ton from it.

That night Sara and I headed to downtown Chicago to get some food and take in the sights. It was a beautiful night and the weather was amazing.

Where we got our grub on

Gotta love the Sears Tower

Walking along the river and enjoying the view!

Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Bryan and I took the kids over to Del Oso Family Farms for a quick trip to get some pumpkins before school started again. Chris tracked back on this Tuesday so we wanted to have a little fun. Note to self if you go on a Monday during the day.....no one is there. It was great the kids were able to run free and get dirty.

This was the best I could get of the two of them.....notice the bandaged forehead on Chris and the ragamuffin look on Dani. I think I may need to cut some bangs on that girl.

Chris and Bryan getting ready for pumpkin blaster

I think Chris would have stayed here all day if we let him. (Bryan too!!!)

Nothing like putting my 5 year old in jail.

Dani loved feeding all the animals once she realized they were not going to get her.

Chris had a fascination with the little chicks

Dani and the little piggy!

Cowboy Chris!

Seriously mom, cut me some bangs.....I can not see a thing!

Welcome home mom

Nothing like coming home to a great welcome......

That would have been nice, but no. Now granted my great hubby picked me up at the airport but was a little late. This was because he got a flat pulling out of the driveway. He quickly got in the other car and came to get me. Since he needed to work that night I let him go to bed and said I would deal with the car. Fun for me.

I head down to the tire store to have them replace the tire that had completely blown out. They looked a the other front one and it was worn pretty bad so it needed replacing as well. Fine! Then he got to the back tires, 1 was good and 1 had a giant nail in it in the area that is not fixable. Seriously!!! So $400 later I was waiting to get 3 new tires. Did I mention that the day before Bryan had to replace the car battery for another $100. Wonderful!

So as I waited for my car I figured I would walk to the bank and then get a coffee. After all I think I at least deserved that. Bank was uneventful and I was on my way to get coffee only when I go to pay I realize I did not have my ATM card. Yikes I left it in the ATM. So I ran back over to the bank and thankfully someone had turned it in. But at this point I was bitter and did not want to walk back to get coffee.

Nice day huh....well it continued Friday. After getting home from the gym and having lunch the kids were paying in Chris's room. All of a sudden I hear that cry that you know is not just a whine or "she took my toy" cry. I ran up there to see Chris holding his head bleeding. He had jumped over a chair in his room and hit his head on the window ledge. After going back and forth about what to do with him I called the doctor about an hour later. They had me come in to take a look at it. Mean while he let me put a band aid on it and ice for a little. When we got to the doctor about 2 hours later he said I had two choices as to how I could treat it. Option 1 was to take him to the ER and get stitched up, Option 2 was to clean it really good there and put a bunch of Steri Strips on. I figured for once we would stay out of the ER and go with Steri Strips.

So that was my nice welcome home after a few days in the Carolinas for a conference and visiting a friend. I guess that is why I love my family so much....we always seem to keep each other on our toes.