Another Gymnastics Trip

We're in Rapid City for gymnastics.  Even though it's only 9:20pm here, it's 10:30pm at home so I'm tired.  I apologize to all my Rapid friends and family for not checking in but it's too late here now and Brit has to be at the gym by 8am tomorrow.  Again, I feel like I have a few things to blog but my brain is slowly turning to mush.  By the way, do you know how to catch an elephant?  First you dig a really big hole. Then you pile logs into the hole.  When it's full of logs, you light them on fire and wait until they are completely burned to ash.  Then when an elephant walks by, you kick him in the ash hole.
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Told you I'm tired!  Good night!

Riley Says

Riley:  I decided I'm never getting married or having a girlfriend.
Me:  Why not?
Riley:  They're too bossy.  That's why Amy and I broke up.
Me: Oh.
Riley: And you can never ask a girl how much she weighs or she'll slap you.  I know 'cause I asked Amy.

Haircuts

Taylor and I went for a haircut today.  I guess it's been over a year since I've had one.  I drove into the parking lot today and thought it was strange that there were so few cars there.  I was busy messing with my checkbook as we were walking up to the door so I didn't notice until we were standing right in front of the place that there was a sign saying that they had moved.  I quickly callled my sister to figure out where the new place was and we ended up being only ten minutes late. When I asked Diane how long they had been in the new building, she informed me that they have been there for over a year now.  A guess a haircut for me was really low on my budget and priority list.  So after a year, my hair is now short again!
I reallly only got my hair cut because I had scheduled Taylor and Brittney, but Brit ended up at the high school doing gymnastics with the coach and high school team until 5pm.  So I took her spot and donated my hair to Locks Of Love.

Reminder

Just a random picture from the family reunion.  My cousin spotted this dumpster by the church we attended.
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I was on the computer yesterday but I guess I forgot to blog.  I dropped off the kids at school, then took Brit's forgotten flute to the middle school, got Anthony to preschool, went to Taylor's class to help out, came home and chatted with my mom on the phone for a while, picked Anthony up, dropped the van off to get the door locks fixed, watched David a & Kassy, made manicotti and left with Steve for Sioux Falls by 5pm.  We kind of consider it almost a date since we have an hour together in the car each way every Wednesday night!
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Today was fun friend chat day at our house.  People had varied schedules today so it was really come and go but definitely interesting.  I always learn so much.  I also invited a couple of Anthony's friends over to play this morning and to have lunch with us.   The kids were having so much fun that I called their mom and asked if I could just bring them home after school.  So we did!
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I was very much reminded this week that no one can live life without help and sometimes we need help more than other times.  There was a point in my life after the boys moved in that I was completely overwhelmed.  I had some very good friends that stepped up and helped me even when I was too proud to ask for help.  Laundry, meals and and verbal support, just to name a few.  But I felt like I was failing because I couldn't do it all myself.  I eventually realized that God puts people in our lives to be His hands on Earth.  At the time, I was just relieved to have help, but looking back, I'm so glad that those people responded to God's prompting to help our family.  Now that I'm in a much more stable time in life, I ask God daily to open my eyes to others who I can help survive through tough times.  Sometimes it's not even about the ones we are helping. It's about responding to what God urges and enables us to do for others.  He's developing our character to become more like him.  We're called to take care of each other!

VBS Planning and a Sick Kid

I'm super excited about our church's VBS this summer! I just got done looking through our top two choices and can't wait to finalize our decision and jump into the planning process. We have a great team!
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Taylor was sick this morning. She threw up but has been fine ever since. I'm trying to decide whether or not to send her back to school after lunch. She's only in 1st grade, so it's not like her life's direction will be changed by missing another 1/2 of a day of school. At least, I don't think it will.
When a kid stays home sick at our house, they aren't allowed to do anything but lay down and watch TV. She was sick of being sick by 9am. And I was sick of her being sick by 8:30am :)

Parenting Saga Continues

My parenting saga continues. On Sunday morning, Taylor wanted to wear her cheerleading clinic T-shirt that she got on Saturday. By the time I saw her, she had on the shirt, black tights and her black dress shoes. She actually looked pretty cute. So I let her wear it but I told her she needed to put on shorts even though the shirt was fairly long. She did and we were on our way to church. . So as I was standing in church and singing, feeling the amazing power of worship, I look down and see Taylor sitting on the floor. She already had her tights off one leg and was starting to pull them off her other leg Nothing like a child undressing in the middle of a church service to bring you down a notch or two!

Rily & Zeke's New Shelves

Taylor

Taylor decided to go through the Prayer Adventure too while she was waiting for me to finish. This is her stop at table #6. . Taylor had a blast at the cheerleading clinic. They got to perform at halftime of the highschool basketball game.

Prayer Adventure

Today: Cheerleading clinic for Taylor, Spa Birthday party for a friend of Brittney's, new shelves build and put up in Riley and Zeke's room, and lots of Wii playing. And one of my favorites, the Women's Prayer Adventure at our church. If you've never participated, it's a great experience! . For anyone not familiar, A Prayer Adventure "is designed to take you from station to station and it directs your prayer time with kinesthetic activities where you’ll interact by writing, reading, taking communion, etc. There is even a Lego activity that will surprise you!". The station that impacted me the most this time was #5, which was based on Heb 10:22 "Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water." . That station helped me to comtemplate and pray about not being satisfied that I have moved from a place of discontentment to contentment, but to continue to progress to a place of pure joy in Christ. . In addition to the verse, the instructions on table 5 were as follows: God offers peace and joy. Pick up a pebble and hold it in your hand. Consider your life. How is it lacking in peace and joy. Ask God to give you peace and joy. Wash off your pebble in the water. Feel God's peace wash over you. Take the pebble with you as a reminder of what God has done. Praise God for his peace and respond to him in joy.. . I placed the mud covered pebble into the water to wash it and I thought about how it looked just like any other pebble. As the water rinsed over it and my fingers gently scrubbed over it, the mud began peeling away. The muddier the water became, the cleaner my pebble became. Some of the mud was so caked on in clumps that I had to physically scrape it away with my fingernail. Probably not the most comfortable for me or the pebble. But as the mud washed away, the beautiful emerald green of the pebble began to show through. And as I held the freshly washed pebble up to the light and watched the spectacular glow of color, I realized that God sent his only son to be the "water that can remove our mud". Whatever mud I have accumulated in my life has been washed away by his blood. And when I let him wash me, his love and light can shine through me and show others my true self with Him.

Van Update

$2500 later I have my van back with a new water pump and a rebuilt transmission. Thanks Mom and Dad for the use of your car :)

Riley Says

Riley: "Mom, is there really turkey in beef turkey?" Me: "Beef turkey?" Riley: "You know. The sticks we eat of beef turkey." Me: "No. There's no turkey in beef JERKEY."

Anthony Says

Anthony's response when I prompted him to tell Zeke he was sorry. "Actually ZEKE'S the one who's sorry cause I hit him on the head."

Riley Says

Riley: "Mom, did you pay already?" Me: "Pay what?" Riley: "The three million dollars to fix the van?" Me: "Nope. Not yet."

Tay's Half Birthday

It was Taylor's half birthday at school yesterday. Since her real birthday occurs during the summer, at school they celebrated her half birthday. We made a RiceKrispy Treat Catepillar. .

Happy Birthday!

Congratulations to Tom and Grace on the birth of Joel Thomas Neary! There's not much that's more fun to watch than an excited first time dad!

Baby, Taxes and Applebees

After the sad post yesterday, I'm excited to post that our friends Tom and Grace are at the hospital having their baby. It'll be their first and everyone is very excited! :) . Also, I checked today and was pleasantly suprised to find that our tax return was credited to our bank account last week. Just in time to pay the $2300 bill to fix the transmission on our van :) . Steve and I went out for supper tonight to celebrate that fact that we had money to fix the broken vehicle :) You can get two entres and an appetizer for $20 at Applebees!

Bringing Supper

I'm interupting the barrage of reunion pictures for a not-fun but necessary errand today. My friend Holly and I took our daughters this evening to show them how love reacts. Their 1st grade classmate, Avery, and her family had a very unexpected loss this past week. On Thursday, Avery's mom went into the hospital to have their new baby. She was induced but the baby got stuck in the birth canal. They eventually did an emergency C-Section, but by the time they were able to get the baby out, he had already died. . Can you even imagine coming home from the hospital to your house with a crib and all the new baby things set up and instead have to explain to your two young children that the baby won't be coming home? . Even though we don't completely understand the loss they're feeling, we still wanted them to know we're thinking of them and praying for them. We brought over supper tonight and also included a couple gifts for Avery. One was a children's book called Tear Soup, which dealt specifically with loss. The other gift was a Valentine WebKinz stuffed animal. Kylie and Taylor each got to hand Avery a gift. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Please remember the Ashe family and keep them in your prayers in the difficult days ahead. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

On Saturday night, a bunch of us were up late playing cards. One by one, everyone else drifted off to bed. Since we had quite a few hotel rooms and lots of kids, some of the kids were sleeping in different rooms than their parents. As the last of us were straggling up to bed we noticed little Natalie peacefully sleeping in the chair in the lobby. Apparently she hadn't made it to a room and everyone thought she was staying with someone else. Her uncle Austin carried her up to bed and tucked her in. Brittney slept in the window seat. Anthony, Zeke and Taylor snuggled in together in a queen sized bed one night. My cousin Cory spotted this dumpster across from the Church we attended. We ate at a really unique place called the Quaker Steak & Lube.

My cousin's wife Tabatha and her son Samuel. Zeke sporting his new sunglasses. He picked them out himself. Brittney and Haley wearing the crowns they chose from the prize table. Braylon's favorite reunion activity was pushing the stroller around. Coby loved it! The cousins teaching Tabatha how to play Pit. We couldn't believe she's been in the family for 13 years and no one had made her play before. Amber was really excited about it.

Some of the great food we had that weekend. This is my Dad and his brother Gary and his sister Sharon with all their grandkids. My aunt Judy, Uncle Gary and their grandson Braylon. (And my aunt Sharon and her newest grandchild trying to duck out of the picture)

Sorry If You're Tired of Pictures But I'm Not

Reunion Pictures Again

I survived the day. A few kids went home, a few more kids came over and I somehow developed a terrible head cold. Here are a few more reunion pictures to keep you interested until I can write again. ********************************************************************************* My nephew Coby and his daddy. My cousin Austin and his niece Haley. Doen't my cousin Megan and her husband Bill look like they should be the parents of all these kids? Papa Larry and Grandma walking with Zeke. This is the TreeTop restaurant at the zoo. We could look over into the Jungle as we ate lunch. I hope Anthony really enjoyed his $8.00 hot dog!

It Was an Honor Just Being Nominated

I have so much to blog about but I'm too tired to blog! I still have lots of great reunion pictures but for now I'll just let you in on a bit of my week. The short version is that I won't be up for any Mom Of the Year awards this year. Bummer. But it was an honor just being nominated! (Just kidding) . Just this week alone: *Zeke and Riley had a combined total of 12 or so checks for negative behavior in school (neither had had any for quite a while) *The preschool director had me talk to Anthony about his behavior/listening to his teachers in class on Wednesday *Riley tried to "blow his head up like in the AirHead Candy comercial" in the lunch room at school yesterday. He held his breathe so long he passed out and hit his head on a table. He seems to be fine except for the giant goose egg on his head. *And just today, Zeke pulled his pants down at school in the cafeteria. . On a good note, some good friends stopped over with pizzas for lunch tomorrow and we convinced them to stay and play a card game with us. The kids all played and adults had a little fun and conversation. The adults were really outnumbered. We already had 8 kids here and Pickards brought 2. 10-4. The odds weren't in our favor but everyone played really well together! Including the parents :)

Blogging Delay

Sorry for the blogging delay. I had serious internet/phone issues this week that ended up being resolved yesterday afternoon with the flip of a switch. I put off dealing with it because I was so busy but then there was an incident yesterday at school and I couldn't be reached. So after that was taken care of, I dropped everything and figured out how to get the phone working correctly again.

Hobbie Reunion - Tabatha

This is my aunt Sharon and her daughter-in-law Tabatha having breakfast. ************************************************************************* Tabatha before coffee.................. Tabatha after coffee. LOVE YA TAB! .

Hobbie Reunion - Pictures Again

Hobbie Reunion - More Pictures

Hobbie Reunion - More Pictures

Hobbie Reunion - Random Pictures