We've had a busy summer! We took the boys to the Omaha Zoo. Carter loved it! In his pic with the bear, it could be a Minute Maid Ad. After running like crazy, Brandon fell asleep which was actually kind of nice! For the 4th we hung with Mom and Dad and Dad lit off his illegal fireworks stash that they bought in Missouri. You can see the big grin on his face! We set such a good example, I know! (Don't worry, Carter is just getting snaps, no fire or explosion involved there!) We also went to Ankeny's Summerfest and Carter loved the rides. Brandon keeps us busy chasing after him and he's really into hats right now. He's so cute! In less than a month I go back to school. Some days I'm soooo ready and other days I wish I had more time. You can't beat a job that gives you 3 months off in the summer.

JUNE 2009

Yee Haw! Good times at the cabin with friends. Both for us and the dogs!

I swore I would never own a 4 wheeler, let alone two! But they are soooo much fun. We went trail riding in Northern MN last weekend, and we got so muddy. It had rained a lot lately, so the dust was much better than other times.

Our friends talked us into bringing the dogs up too, and we are so glad we did. They had sooo much fun too. By the end of the weekend, Brutus was starting to jump off the dock, as long as one of us was close by. He's in training for goose/duck season. Brian has a guys weekend planned in October.

We didn't get a chance to swim, but the boys sure had fun with the raft we put out a couple weeks ago. Our friends have two boys, and every other weekend they bring another kid along. His dad was killed about a month and a half ago, so his mom lets him come to the cabin on the weekends that he would normally have spent with his dad. Our friend, Pat, and his dad were close friends so he's almost a part of the family already. They are all good kids, and we enjoy having them around.

Spring Festival

Have you ever had one of those weekends that you felt like all you did was run..think hamster on his wheel...that was this past weekend for me. We had our New Sharon Spring Festival and I volunteered to be on the committee. I thought that would a good way to meet more people in the community. Well it worked a little too well. I am no longer incognito in New Sharon!

I was on the Queen committee and in charge of Future Royalty. We started planning in January and I really enjoyed it..most of the time. There were a few drama moments but those passed quickly. Friday night it rained and rained and rained. I am pretty sure that I saw a dog floating down the street at one point! That didn't stop us from having the show go on. We had a supper in our City Park Bldg and then because of the monsoon we also had a dance team perform, my future royalty contest, a Christian band (Piercing the Darkness....very good!), and teen dance in the same bldg. There was a lot of people shoved in one small area. I actually got up and talked in front of all of those people (and didn't pee my pants or pass out). Thank you Speech class!

Braden and Emma hung out in the rain and attempted to ride some of the rides. They popped in every now and then looking like drowned rats and then away they went again. Oh to be a kid and enjoy playing in the rain! Also thank goodness for living in a small town and being able to let the kids run and for good friends that live close to the square!

Saturday our family participated in the first annual Jace Race. Jace Carrico was a little boy in Braden's class that passed away last year from a brain tumor he was diagnosed with 4 years ago. His family wanted to give back to the community so they established the Jace Foundation which will give money back to the schools, community, and offer scholarships. They were hoping for 75 walker/runners and we had 450!! It was awesome to see and I was so happy they had such a great turnout. My friend Sandy and her boys and Emma and I walked the mile, but Jamie decided to run the 5k. Jamie ran it in 24 minutes which was great since he didn't train and hasn't ran since high school!

At 1 was the parade. Emma was a Queen's attendant along with her best friend Lyddia (helps when mom is on the Queen's committee!). She rode the float with the candidates and the Future Royalty winners from friday night. Braden made a float for the parade. Ok..Jamie made the float and Braden and Levi (his best bud) helped decorate it. Braden then pulled it with his 4 wheeler. He was a little nervous and Jamie and I were also when we saw him in the parade almost rear end a tractor! We yelled and he stopped..it was all good =)

2:30 finds Emma and me at the program in the park (luckily the weather turned out nice). Emma and Lyddia had to hold the robe for the Queen of 2008 and then sit in the gazebo with the Queen candidates for 1 1/2 hours. Yes, my daughter actually sat like a princess the whole time! It was announced at the program that Braden's float won the Most Humourous Ribbon!!

After the program and clean up I brought Emma around to ride a few rides and then we headed to Chris and Sandy's house for supper with the family and to just veg out until the fireworks.

I am pretty sure I walked a marathon on Friday and Sat. combined and was pretty sure my feet were going to fall off. But I survived, the kids survived and another year has come to a close.

BORED AT WORK :) TIME TO BLOG!!!

Hello all! It's a rainy Saturday morning, and I'm at work:( Doesn't look like anything will be happening for an hour(ish), so I thought I would say a few words...

Well, since my last post a lot has happened. Easter weekend was spent with Brian's family. Amy and Jason flew in from Seattle, Donna and Grandma Katie drove up from Pella, and Aunt Vivian from S. Minneapolis joined the fun too. Friday night we had all the family and several of Amy's friends from Minneapois join us for dinner. I cooked most of the day, and have to admit it was a great meal. I had never done brisket before, so I had Brian grill some brats, just in case, but the brisket was so good we had lots of brats leftover:) Saturday morning was pretty relaxing. Brian and I headed off for a walk while Jason and Amy slept in. Then they headed down to Minneapolis to see some friends and shop for one of the bridemaid's dresses. Donna went down with them to look for a dress for the wedding too. We met up with them for drinks downtown, and had a great time. Since everything is smoke free, several of the couples that joined us brought their kids along. There two, two year olds were sooooo cute. I think the little girl had a small crush on the little boy. And the two babies slept through all the noise! After that it was dinner at Amy's former roommates house. More fun! Then Sunday was Easter. We did the traditional Easter ham, etc. with Brian's family and then everyone headed home! Ahhh...peace and quiet again.

A few weekends later, and it was Tulip Time!!! Wow. That snuck up on me. I had been trying to train for the Klompen Classic 5K, but not doing as well as I had hoped. In all honesty I was praying for rain that whole day. But I did it!!! I had a great cheering section too. Thanks Sandy!!! If anyone is interested in doing it next year, I will come down and join them:) When I decided to do the race my goal was to do it in 30 minutes. I didn't quite make that goal, but I don't think 32:04 was too bad for my first race. I even beat a few of our classmates. Once I caught up with my mom after she was done walking, Brian, Sandy, Donna and I headed to good ol' Georges for dinner. Mmmm...I love thier grilled chicken sandwiches.

Thursday morning Brian and I worked on Donna's garage attic for a while. I can't believe how much stuff Stan had up there. We hauled a lot of scrap wood to my dad's, dumped a large dumpster full, had a large stack of stuff for Goodwill, and there was a lot that went back in the attic. We worked on it off and on all weekend, but I stayed away when it was time for Donna to decide what she was keeping and what she could throw away. I didn't want to be in the middle of that. Thankfully I had friends to meet, and parades to attend. Thursday afternoon I hung out with Sandy and her family. I luckily missed the whole STD thing (read Sandy's earlier posting to understand). Sandy and I had a chace to catch up with Megan Crawford Armstrong too. I had seen her about 10 years ago. Her boys are growning up fast, and her new baby was tiny! Then Brian and I headed to the Checkerboard for dinner that night. I LOVE thier onion rings. Donna was busy and my parents didn't seem to want to go, so we actually had dinner by ourselves. Then we headed to my parents house to catch up with them and Elliott and Chas who had arrived in town from KY.

Friday was another nice day in Pella. I had a chance to meet up with the Beyer clan before the parade, and tried to follow them through. I had them in my sights at the end of the parade, but then got hung up with someone else's stoller, and POOF, they were gone. Oh well. I ran into several other people and catch up with them. I knew Kerry and Adam had to get going anyway, because we were all going to invade their house in a few hours. We had such a good time getting together with everyone! The kids are so sweet and fun. Watching Braden and Emma play the Wii was too funny. On the drive back to Pella that night I realized how much I miss all of you guys!!!

Saturday was chilly! Wow. I thought I was back in MN. I didn't pack for that kind of chill. Oh well. We headed over to my mom's house around noon to meet up with a family from DSM and some cousins from Omaha. Both parties we running very late, so Mom and I caught up a little while Brian helped my dad a little. The family from DSM finally arrived shortly before Mom had to head to town to be in the parade. I never did see my cousins from Omaha. They arrived in town just before the parade, and left shortly after. That night we had steak dinner with my parents, Elliott and Chas. After that we headed up to visit with Brian's grandma and aunt.

Sunday was Mother's Day, and we went to the country club for lunch before heading out of town. We packed a lot into 5 days, and were pretty tired when we got back. The dogs were happy to be home too.

Well, eveyone, I think I'll stop for now. Good to see all of you again!!!

Emma Beth

Happy 7th Birthday Emma Beth!!!!

On May 15, 2002 Jamie and I were blessed with a little girl. I remember the Dr holding her up and saying "It's a girl" I got tears and couldn't believe that I had a little girl. It was a little hard to see her right away since my arms were strapped to a table, but Jamie brought her over and showed me a beautiful little baby with a head full of dark hair.

Everyday with Emma has been an adventure. She is such a joy to have around and the things that come out of her mouth amaze me..sometimes amaze me in a horrified way, but amaze me none the less!

Emma is such a girly girl/tomboy. She loves to dress up and play barbie but then 5 minutes later she will be outside climbing a tree or chasing the chickens!!

I am looking forward to the next year with my little mini-me. I pray every night for Emma's health, for her to be a good friend, to have a good day at school, and for my sanity. Donna, keep that padded room available just in case....

Happy Birthday to my beautiful, silly, fun, loving, daughter!

What a weekend with an actual blog this time....

Ok...I hit enter a little too fast the first time so let's try this again.....

I had a great weekend!! It started Wednesday night when I had the honor of cheering Donna on in her first ever 5k run. YEAH Donna!!!! I am so proud of you for running it and finishing it in a little over 32 minutes. That is awesome! I am starting to train so that next year we run it together...better put that in your calendar...I should be able to accomplish that if I start now..I hope =)

Thursday I took off at noon and Tulip Timed with Chris and Becky. We ate and had a great discussion on STD's while waiting for the rain to stop. Ok maybe great isn't the correct term..it was very educational and entertaining...only my family could turn STD pictures into entertainment! Donna came up after the pictures (so sorry you missed them) and after walking around West Market we headed off to find Megan (Crawford) Armstrong whom I have not seen for over 15 years! It was great to see her and meet her family. I do enjoy Facebook and finding all of those that you don't see for a long time.

Friday -Jamie, me, the kids, Brian and Donna headed up to Kerry and Adam's house for a get together with them and Brad and Megan and all of the kids. What a blast! A little different from when we used to get together..LOL! It was a lot of fun and we will definitely need to do that more often.

Saturday I slept in a little and then headed up to Tulip Time to help out at the ORC stand. CRAZY! I don't know if Kerry saw the panic in my eyes when she saw me but I was ready to escape after 3 hours. My hat is off to Chris for working that craziness for 15 hours. Yowser! Jamie and I went to supper with 2 other couples for my birthday and one of the guys birthday which is on Tuesday. We then hit Scooters in New Sharon...I had my first shot (I know 32 years old and I am finally taking my first shot??) It was actually quite yummy..but 1 was enough for me.

Sunday- Slept in again (Aww sleep...) Had lunch at Lynn's house which was nice and relaxing and then headed home for a nap (aww sleep sweet sleep...). I got the cutest letter from Emma for Mother's day and it made me weepy. I love Mother's Day especially when it is the day before my birhday. 2 days in a row where my kids have to behave and be nice to me. What a sweet reward =)

What a weekend!