Teagan Loves Frogs

This story is so good - it warrants it's own post. Ryan was mowing the lawn tonight when he called out to Teagan - Teagan headed for home and suddenly she was squealing and jumping up and down - something exciting was going on. But what?!??!

Next thing I know Teagan is running back across the street, where her friends were still playing and she was carrying her Frog habitat (thank you Uncle Jon and Auntie Heather for that wonderful habitat - insert only a little bit of sarcasm here). All the way she was yelling "I have a frog and it's bigger than Chub Chub!!" Keep in mind Chub Chub once held the record for the biggest frog she ever found. That record only lasted two days - sorry Chub Chub!

We could not believe the size of this frog - and I was in shock that it was living in my flower bed!! Teagan took the frog out of the habitat so we could all see how big it was (ok, it was Kari who prompted her to take it out) and when she set it on the ground it took ONE big leap - all the kids ran after it but it quickly took another GIANT leap so they kept running. On the third giant leap the frog landed right on the sewer grate and fell down into the sewer. There was a collective gasp from all the aduts and a scream of sadness from most of the kids. It's gone - forever. Or so we thought.



Next thing you know Chris and Ryan are removing the cover to the sewer and Ryan tried to use a net to 'rescue' the elusive creature. No luck; Michigan J. Frog took refuge under the street. But wait - there's more!!! Before we know it the cover is off the sewer directly across the street - if he keeps going he'll head right into our trap!!! Didn't work that way either - he decided to sit right in the middle - under the street. With Chris on one side and Ryan on the other we tried to scare it - but our bangs and screams didn't phase him; then out came the garden hose. Yup, let's push him out with water.

Trust me when I tell you this is Ryan.

And on this side of the street is Chris.

After 15 minutes, and many visions of Stephen King's clowns in the sewer, Michigan J. Frog was in captivity once again.

The laughter was unbelievable - Chris on one side of the street and Ryan's feet sticking out of the other (yes, he was head first in the sewer hole) many a car slowed to see - but none were brave enough to stop and ask.


It was a successful night - lots of laughter and happy kids to end the evening. Where is the frog right now you ask - it's in my garage plotting to find a way out of Teagan's habitat.

Teagan's First Day of Kindergarten

What a big girl we have now! She woke up very excited and did a great job getting ready for her first day! As we dropped her off in her classroom we could tell she was trying to hold back her tears - thankfully there were a lot of new toys to keep her attention off the fact we were leaving.





At the end of the day we arrived to pick her up and all she could say was "Ahhhhh - I wanted to play longer!" I think we could call it a very successful first day of Kindergarten!!

Mackinac Island - Tour of Michigan 2009

The conversation always goes a little like this:

Mack-a-who? Mackinac Island silly! Never heard of it? There's horses - no cars, and fudge - the fudge is to die for, and the ferry with the rooster tail...  this is about where the blank stare turns to a slight chuckle.  But I'm not laughing. Mackinac Island is a great family vacation spot or a wonderful couples retreat - just check it out in the movie 'Somewhere in Time' with Christopher Reeves and Jane Seymour!

We've been wanting to bring Teagan there for quite some time but it's just never worked out since it's another 3-4 hours beyond Marquette which makes it a 9 - 10 hour trip from Minnesota. This year we had a good excuse to visit the island, however, since Jon and Heather's wedding festivities were taking place on Drummond Island on the far eastern point of Michigan. We took the week off prior to the wedding and made way toward Mackinac Island with a stop over in Marquette for a quick visit with family. It was also our last hurrah of the summer as Teagan starts Kindergarten next week!!

Teagan loved the island and all the fun things we got to do. She was not, however, pleased with the island aroma of fresh horse droppings. It was a bit difficult for me too, being pregnant made those smells seem so much stronger than I remember as a child.

It was still a great time! We ate fudge, rode bikes around the island, ate fudge, relaxed on a horse-drawn carriage, ate fudge, visited the Grand Hotel, ate fudge, and stayed at the Mission Point Resort. It was a great first visit for Teagan!!

The view from 'beneath the bridge' in the Lower Peninsula - where the trolls live! We could have gotten to the island from the Upper Peninsula but Teagan really wanted us to drive across the bridge.

The view of the bridge from the upper deck of the ferry.

There's the Grand Hotel!!

Teagan's legs were not long enough for the tandem bike so we got the tag along for the day! She LOVED it!!

Hanging out in front of the Grand Hotel!

In front of the marina

Next Stop Drummond Island, MI for Jon and Heather's wedding and then a 12 hour drive back to Minnesota to get our little girl ready for school!!

Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

March?!?! Seriously - was that the last post I made here! It's certainly not becuase of a lack of fun things happening in our lives - quite the opposite! We've had a lot of fun since March. Please allow me to recap:

April - We spend almost every week in April preparing for Teagan's first ice show. It's a lot of work to be at the rink two to three nights per week for practice but it all paid off the last weekend in April. Teagan skated in three ice shows over two days and loved every minute of it. Being only 4 years old she was with the youngest group - you know, the ones that make the crowds laugh and say Ahhhhhhh! They were cute and ALL OVER THE ICE!! Teagan is a lucky girl - over the weekend many of her friends and family came to the ice show! Thank you to her friends Katie, Lindsey, Sydney, Summer and their parents for bringing them to the show! It made Teagan feel very special! Thank you also to her grandparents who traveled from Michigan and Uncle Jon and Auntie Heather for coming for the big weekend!









May - The biggest event in May was Teagan's 5th birthday! She had three birthday parties! By far her favorite was the afternoon spent with her friends at Twin City Twisters! All the kids loved running through the gym and jumping on the trampoline, in the bounce house, swinging on the Tarzan swing and of course hanging on the parallel bars! By the time her party was over they were all red faced and ready for naps!












June - FINALLY it was time to go to Disney!!! All that planning and all that waiting but the trip finally arrived. We spent May 30 - June 6 at Disney's Beach Club Villas and spent the week at the parks and swimming at Stormalong Bay! There was no shortage of excitement, but a few of our most favoriate moments were:

- Teagan at the Bibiddy Bobiddy Boutique: Her fairy Godmothers turned her into Cinderella - glass slippers and all!
- Lunch in the Castle with the Princesses
- Secret mission with Kim Possible's Kimmunicator (a must do scavenger hunt at Epcot)
- When Nanny was scared by Captain Hook! She let out a pretty big scream!
- The new ride at Hollywood Studios - Toy Story Mania
- Breakfast at Chef Mickey's with Mickey and the gang
- Spending quality time with Nanny, Poppy, Auntie Odie and Uncle Rob!

We're all anxious for our next trip! Perhaps Christmas 2010!





















The end of June was also an exciting time for us in the Stupsky household! It was on June 26 that we learned Teagan was going to be a big sister! She has been waiting for this day for quite some time and is really anxious for the baby to be born. She'll have to be patient - baby's not due until February 14! In the meantime, she's running around the house diapering all her babies in preparation for her new role as big sister! She'll be a great big sister!!

July - Michigan! Fireworks! Camp! Cousins! Family! Need I say more?!?! Here are some snapshots from our long weekend in Marquette! What a great time!!


It's a beautiful day on Sporley Lake!

Time to play on the beach and in the water - It's hard to get Teagan out of the water!! She loves to collect snail shells!














Cousins!! Connor (5), Madison (8) & Teagan (5)


No surprise here, but Teagan caught a frog!


Posing with Madison!




Gangs all here!! Time for S'mores!

Missy Pissy Pond

For the past 11 years Ryan and I have lived within miles of the Mississippi River. First, near St. Louis, MO on the Illinois side of the river and then now in Minnesota - just a mere mile from our home. We usually pay no attention to it but today as we drove across the bridge on our way home we pointed out the Mighty Mississippi to Teagan. What a great learning experience for a child - living near the banks of a very historic river.

We pointed out that the River is now flowing again - no ice; winter is O-V-E-R!! Teagan gasped and said "Mommy, what was that?! I just saw something in the Missy Pissy Pond!"

I'm not sure what she saw - it took all my might not to break into hysterical laughter! Maybe tomorrow, if we head that way, I'll take a closer look to see what she saw in the Missy Pissy Pond!!

K is for Kindergarten

Well, the big day has arrived. We received Teagan's letter from the school district and I read it in black and white - Teagan is enrolled in all day, every day Kindergarten beginning in the Fall. I'm excited. She's excited. We all celebrate! During the celebration random thoughts start entering my head:

Will she want to pack a lunch or will she want school lunch?
How will I know if she eats at all!?
Will she like school?
Will she like her teacher?
Will she make friends easy?
Will she miss me?
Will school be easy for her? Hard?
She's growing up too soon...
In a matter of time she'll be driving
College? Yikes!

Once I'm done stressing I look down at my smiley little girl and she can barely contain her excitement and she says:

"Can I have some ice cream?"

You can learn a lot from a five year old! They can teach you things like how not to sweat the small stuff, but I think the lesson Teagan taught me today was ice cream solves all! That's my Kindergartner!!!

I Heart Facebook

Do you Facebook?! It started so innocently in October 2007. Angela, my dear little sister was visiting and the conversation was very similar to this:

Angela: You need join Facebook
Me: No, that's for college students - I'm too old
Angela: It is not - you can join
Me: Still, I'm too old and I doubt any of my friends would be on there anyway
Anglea: Ok - but you can chat with me on there since I'll be in Arizona
Me: Hmmm - I'll think about it

Well that opened the door and she pounced to the computer like a cat hocked up on catnip. In minutes she had created my facebook page and added me as a friend. My first friend - lucky me!

That's pretty much how it stayed for several weeks and then some of her friends added me as a friend. I'm convinced Angela told them to add me - out of sympathy of course. Please add my old sister - she has no Facebook friends.

At best I logged on weekly, really just to check out what Angela was up to. Was she enjoying Arizona? Is the weather nice? All very innocent. Then I added my maiden name to my profile and suddenly it was a MSHS Class of '93 Reunion. I've also been fortunate enough to find friends from our three years in St. Louis - people I was sure I'd probably never see again since we'd lost touch after all these years. Voila - they are back in my life just like that and I love it!!

I don't think my story is much different from many who have joined the Facebook ranks. Take my BFF Molly for example - while in Marquette over the 4th of July she flat out said "NO, you will never see me on Facebook - never!!" And I believed her - I really did...until she left a message on my wall a few weeks ago. Welcome to the darkside Molly - we've been waiting for you!

So, almost 200 friends later and I come across an article titled '10 Warning Signs That You May be Addicted to Facebook'.

Ok, I'm game - here's my self-assessment!

10 warning signs that you may be addicted to Facebook

1. Facebook is your home page. No, it's not - but that's a really good idea!

2. You update your status more than twice a day. Gosh, depends on my day and if I have a lot to share that day. This one is a sometimes.

3. You have over 500 "friends" half of whom you've never actually met. Nope, just under 200 friends and I truly do know them all.

4. As soon as you step away from your computer you're on FB on your phone. Ok, guilty but only because Facebook is always open on my phone. Did I mention I heart my iPhone too?

5. You are a FB stalker. You qualify as a FB stalker if you

a) click on someone's profile more than once a day even if they haven't messaged or tagged you in a photo. No...okay, maybe! I may have stalked someone but I was really waiting for answer to my question!

b) have dragged and dropped more than 3 FB photos (not from your own profile) Nope! I can
confidently say I don't steal photos from other FB pages.

c) actually go to a place mentioned on someone's page in hopes of seeing them in real life...creepy! Not guilty of this one - creepy is right!

6. You change your profile picture more than a 12-year-old girl. Wrong again! I JUST changed my FB profile picture only because I was getting grief that it was so old. My current picture is only the 2nd picture I've had on FB since I joined in 2007.

7. You have checked your FB page while reading this article. No, I waited until I was done
reading the article and then felt compelled to check.

8. You clean up your "wall" so it looks like you spend less time on FB. No, although I do think my wall could use a good cleansing.

9. You are a member of more than 10 groups and respond to every event invitation "attending" even if you have no intention of going. No way - that's rude! You should never RSVP if you don't plan on attending. Haven't you people heard of Dear Abby?! That's a big no-no!

10. You change your relationship status just to mess with people. Never thought of this - that would be funny! But I also heart Ryan and wouldn't want to confuse him too!!

Based on my responses - I don't think I'm addicted...but I do keep doing things very Molly-like! For example, there are FB notes going around and I never thought I would actually spend the time doing them but here's my track record with those:

25 Random things - did it and then I swore I would not do another Facebook note.

My first born - did that one too. I guess I was wrong.

iPod Shuffle - didn't do it, but want to. However, I think some of my friends would suddenly disappear - my music choices can be so random.

So, that's it - verdict is not addicted! And you act so surprised!!!

PS - I'm so glad they didn't do 11 questions. I'm sure the 11th would be "You blog about your Facebook fetish" - whew, escaped that one!!

Happiness is in the skip

Last Sunday we spent a family fun afternoon at the Elm Creek Park Reserve tubing hill. It was the first tubing adventure for each of us and while we planned to have a good time we didn't realize how much fun we were really going to have.




We arrived to a jam-packed parking lot - I guess a lot of other families had the same idea since the thermometer was above 30! We forged ahead and within minutes we found ourselves standing at the top of 10 perfectly manicured snow lanes. We took a cue from the family in the lane next to us and we tied our tubes together - with Teagan in the middle, of course. Once the lane was clear of human targets we pushed off...down we went!!

About halfway down the hill I thought "Oh no, she's going to be so scared"! I did not think that we would achieve the speed that we did in such a short period of time. Before we knew it we were at the bottom. I looked over at Teagan and she was laughing hysterically. She pounded her fist on her tube and said "Stop it! That was so much fun! Let's go again."




We all agreed - again was a must! We pulled our tubes over to the magic carpet ride and it carried us and our tubes back to the top. I could get used to this - when I was a child we had to haul the sleds and ourselves back up the hill! Not here - I guess this is part of what you pay for. On our journey back to the top Teagan was still chattering about how much fun it was and said "next time I'll keep my eyes open!"

We repeated the process many times over for the next two hours. I know that it was a successful family outing because between each slide down the hill Teagan skipped everywhere. I've learned in her 4 short years that when she skips, she's happy! It made us both giddy to watch her enjoy our afternoon.




We're already anxiously awaiting our next trip to Elm Creek!

'Ears' to Ownership

"Blow Tinker Bell a kiss goodnight from your fully furnished vacation villa at Disney Vacation Club’s newest resort, Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort, scheduled to open fall 2009."

When we read the caption and saw the pictures we just couldn't resist and we are now proud owners at the newest Disney Vacation Club Resort - Bay Lake Tower! We're very excited about this and can't wait to see the construction progress on our Disney visit in May. Imagine being able to sleep in your bed with Cinderella's Castle lit up in the background.

I know many people enjoy places like Mexico or sandy beaches - we feel this gives us the best of both worlds - we can visit Mexico at Epcot and enjoy Bay Lake Beach right outside our hotel.

Ears to Ownership!!!