Thanks Abound November 23, 2008

November 20: chocolate donuts, Darin got to come to school, Zane celebrated his writing, girls book club, great book discussion in second grade, yummy leftovers for lunch, a friend returns to work, normal blood pressure, cleared my in box at work, found what I was looking for, early for a meeting, Jace posing for a picture at pre-school, a little down time, meeting a deadline, Jays victory, and taking a great picture.

November 21: not scrapping my windshield, Jace riding with me to work, Zane reading us a book, sticky buns, having a little fun at work, seeing a good friend you haven’t seen in awhile, lunch out, hot cocoa, warm bath, a nap, dinner with a friend, completing a project, chatting, pina colladas, boys falling asleep in the car, jamming to a new c.d., and driving around with my husband.

November 22: snuggling with the boys in bed, sleeping in a little, jamming to my tunes, driving through the country, meeting new people, making a powerful connection in your learning, Jace sat on the potty, surrounded by beautiful architecture and nature, comfort food, Jays won, free pizza for lunch, being missed by the boys, taking a great picture of me, taking a nap with Jace on the couch, and hanging out at home.

November 23: sleeping in a little longer, chocolate chip pancakes made by hubby, watching the boys play together, seeing Twilight with Emily and talking about it afterwards, agreeing that the book is always better, Ben’s birthday party, playing in the balls like you are a little kid again, birthday cake, helping a friend throw a great party, running into a friend at the grocery store, seeing 2 deer run across the road, and watching American Music Awards.

The Joys Continue November 19, 2008

November 15:  waking up early, warm coffee cake for breakfast hanging out with the boys, reading Turkey books, naked boys wrestling in the living room, date night, Zane invited to two birthday parties, Jace spending time with Emily, and falling asleep on the couch watching t.v.

November 16:  slept in, breakfast together, played doctor and kitchen with Jace, he woke up in a great mood, bathe the doggie, picking up a tired Zane from a sleepover, reorganized closet, boys each getting a t-shirt for the game, riding the escalator with the kids, first Creighton game of the season, Creighton victory, babysitting for a friend, doing a craft with Ben and Jace, an empty laundry basket, heartfelt discussion with Darin, and the boys finally in bed.

November 17:  not having to rush in the morning, a beautiful sunrise, great conversation with Jace, wore make-up to work, snacks in the lounge, an apology, Boy Scout meeting, and finding the right book.

November 18:  sharing a book with a friend, Zane reading a book to Jace, another beautiful sunrise, not rushing two mornings in a row, visiting with Zane over breakfast, good ideas to share with teachers, quiet lunch by myself, texting my hubbie, Darin had lunch with Zane and helped in his classroom, affection from a dog, a nap, Diet Coke, Tyenol, new Nickelback c.d., dinner made when I came home from class, great new technology ideas at class, piano sing along, a little scrapbooking tonight, and the boys staying in their bed all night.

November 19:  someone missing you when you are not at work, a large fountain pop, a good discussion, sitting with friends in a meeting, lunch out, helping a child do his best, a good phone call with a friend, dinner made when you get home, a little scrapping, sharing a book with the boys, America’s Funniest Videos, and catching up on our blog.

Another Week of Blessings November 14, 2008

November 12: fundraiser night at MOE’s, watching the Country Music Awards with the boys, long phone call from my sister, ordering Christmas presents on-line and on sale, teaching my second graders how to take pictures, watching mystery suspense shows on t.v., DVR, a back rub from hubby.

November 13: good music on the way to work, seeing 3 garbage trucks on the way to pre-school, helped several teachers problem solve for their students, a great meeting for Boys Book Club, Darin installing new program at work to fax from your work station, sharing dinner as a family, warm gooey cheese pizza and a large fountain pop, visiting with colleagues about new teaching ideas during class, taking the Jessica Sprague story idea class, buying birthday presents, walking through the toy section at Target.

November 14: pay day, Darin’s car got fixed, excited pre-service teachers visit our building, present for a great teacher, gave out new books, found great websites for teachers, watching the boys play together, good news from the doctors about Darin’s mom, family, college basketball, Zane earning $33 at school to watch movies and have snacks.

30 Days of Gratitude November 11, 2008

We are putting a new spin on our blog for the next month as we are focusing on the simple things in our lives that make us smile. Trying to slow down and remember the little joys. The holidays are a stressful time as we balance family with work along with trying to please everyone all the time. So here’s to not getting caught up in the rush, rush, rush, and living each day to its fullest. We will be adding to the list for the next 30 days.

November 6: getting up early and not rushing, my adventures scooping duckweed, the boys at school excited about reading

November 7: good friends to share dinner with, a phone call from Ronda, hanging out with Zane as he makes his every growing Christmas list

November 8: cuddling with our goddaughters, helping a little boy have a puppy (at least for a few days), scrapbooking with a friend, making it through another work week, Nebraska Huskers winning

November 9: seeing our niece for the first time, playing in the first snow, picking out the perfect gift, flannel sheets, a warm chocolate chip cookie and a tall glass of milk, reading a good book, getting your sports blog published

November 10: playing a game with the kindergarteners, cheesecake for a surprise dessert, making a Christmas gift with a friend, finishing a project, sharing Taco Bell with your honey late at night

November 11: riding with Jace to school talking about skateboards and McDonald fries, watching the first graders grow as writers, getting a chance to sit back and reflect

Halloween Ghosts and Ghouls November 3, 2008

Gee, where did October go?  It seems like we were just getting back into the swing of things with school starting and the next thing you know it is November.  It has been a busy month with Jace’s birthday, Boy Scout Popcorn sales, a trip to Vala’s pumpkin patch, trips to the farm, Fontenelle Forrest and so many other things.  Where to start….

Well first of all, thank you again for all of you who helped Zane with his popcorn sales.  He was able to sell around $800 worth of popcorn this year.  What a feat for a little guy, but at the same time, lofty numbers to reach next year.  A week or two ago, the scouts had a campfire and hay rack ride where Zane got his Bobcat award.  What fun that was.

BTW, we’re selling cookie dough for Zane’s school now for playground equipment and other school tings.  Give us a jingle if you want any

Then we made a trip out to Grandpa’s farm to see him pick the crops and ride in the combine.  The boys were so excited to ride along with Grandpa in the combine and see how it ate up the crops.

The boys had a great time and had some great stories to tell the city kids when they went back to school the next week.

Then the following weekend we took a trip out to Fontenelle Forrest.  We have lived in this area for years and had not been out there yet to see this.  They have a great outdoor education area where the kids can dig, build things, play music and climb.  The boys had a good time running around and enjoying nature.  We also took the trail that let us see some great scenery and the wooded areas along the Missouri.

What Halloween season would not be complete without a trip out to Vala’s.  This has become a yearly tradition of ours.   This is a working farm 11 months out of the year, but then they get everything all dolled up for visitors and groups to come out during the whole month of October to enjoy their own type of fall festival and enjoy things like Pig Races, pedal bikes, jumping into hay bales, sitting on tractors, corn mazes, feeding the goats and everyones favorite–take a hay rack ride out to the field and pick out your own pumpkins.  This was enjoyed by all of us and of course it led up to the annual “popcorn ball” that we get for the car ride home.

And then to finish our October Odyssey, we had Halloween just a few short days ago.  We went across town to our friends neighborhood that has most of the boys Zane played baseball with this summer.  It was a fun group and neighborhood to go trick-or-treating in.  But I’m sure the residents were a little surprised when a group of about 15 kids came to their door at once.  But our Superman and our Scooby had a fun and beautiful night to trick-or-treat.

Wow the adventures of October.  I’m sure November will bring a lot more.  See you soon.

Help Zane and the Boy Scouts October 4, 2008

Today kicks off popcorn sales for the Boy Scouts.   Zane has a special message for everyone:

This is Zane’s first year as a scout and is a Tiger Scout this year.  He is so excited to be part of the Scouts.  Look at what he has been doing so far with scouts.  If you would like to buy popcorn from Zane to help the scouts go to:

OrderPopcorn.com

Then when you enter your order, be sure to use the order key

TEYVYBQ

So Zane gets credit for the popcorn sale.

You can order popcorn through Zane through October 27th.  Or if you live in the area, give us a call and we have stuff on hand and can deliver it to you.   Thank you all for your support.  It is greatly appreciated.  Have a great day.

The Boy Scout September 30, 2008

Zane joined the Cub Scouts this year as a Tiger Cub.  He is really enjoying it.  Anyway, cousin Jason invited us to a scout welcoming event.  Zane was a little nervous at first, but he was all excited.  So we made the trek down to Lincoln.  We got there and they had all kinds of events going on. 

The first thing he wanted to do was shoot the BB gun.  Now, as a child, I got to shoot a BB gun, but only out at Grandma’s farm.  Zane actually got instructions he had to follow to safely operate the gun.  Oh yeah and the use of the safety glasses.   Of course I got to help, but we didn’t do so great.  I’m telling you, the gun wasn’t pumping right.  But anyway, he had fun.

Next it was over to the Archery area.  With Zane being left handed, I thought it would be a little difficult, but he actually did better doing it right handed, so that is what we went with.  Luckily, I got to help again.  He slowly drew back the bow with the arrow and let go.  He just missed the bullseye.  Pretty exciting.  But our last two arrows didn’t go as great.  But again more fun.

Then it was off to Frisbee golf.  The wind was blowing quite a bit that day so it was quite the challenge to get the frisbee over to the marked holes.  However by the end he was doing great throwing and it was quite the excitement.

We checked out a few more things and received a lot of great information.  Out at this site, the scouts have this great building with a huge climbing wall.  Jason said we could bring Zane’s den out there sometime and climb the wall.  Now that should be quite the fun an challenge.

Zane’s den has been busy as well.  Last week he had his Scout Olympics where he had to do Long Jump, Situps, Vertical Jump, and throwing the softball.  As he did his situps, I was surprised how many he could do.  He was just amazing.

He is really enjoying scouting.  Although I don’t have the great outdoor experiences that go along with it, it should be fun helping him throughout the year and the different challenges that go along with it   Go Zane. Do your best!

The Music Man September 30, 2008

Jace is our Music Man.  He just loves singing in his microphone, wearing his headphones, playing his guitar and playing the keyboard—-All at the same time.  The other night he was just playing and singing around and just had some of the cutest looks.

He will walk around the room and just sing at the top of his voice.  Would you believe some of the tunes he sings and hums is the Star Spangled Banner.  Sometimes he will raise his guitar like a flag and sing or he will have mommy or daddy sing as well.  Itsy Bitsy Spider and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star are on the playlist as well.

Then when he needs a break, he will put on his kids MP3 player and listen to some jammin’ tunes like The Bear Went Over the Mountain and Skip to My Lou.

Anyway, things got even more exciting as he celebrated his birthday this weekend.  He got a brand new fancy guitar and a great new microphone that you can hear him loud and clear.

Make sure you stop by for one of his concerts sometime.  You won’t be disappointed.

Back at the Homestead September 15, 2008

This past weekend, we had a family wedding back in the area where grandma grew up.  So we were able to go out to the farm and show the boys what I enjoyed when visiting my grandma when I was young. 

The best part was the first thing the boys saw—the Merry-Go-Round.  The cousins and I played on this all the time.  A lot of us took turns pushing and always wanted the older cousins to push because they could push it faster.  Though time has taken it’s toll on the merry-go-round, the boys still wanted a ride on it.  Boy did they have fun.

 

We  took a tour down memory lane in the farm house that is still standing.  Would you believe, everything is still in it’s place as I remember so many years ago.  The same furniture is still there.  The same wall hangings and the same clock are still there.  Even the old piano that was old when I was little was still there and sounded the same.  Everything seemed like it never changed.  It was great because we were able to show the boys everything how it was and they were just amazed at the stories we had to tell. 

We  then walked around the farm to explore and they still have chickens out in the chicken coop.  Jace was so excited about the chickens.  He probably could have watched those all day.  Tessie was intrigued too as she wanted to check to see if they were laying eggs

We took a trip over to the shed where the tractors were stored.  That was familiar territory for the boys since they get to see the tractors when they go to Grandpa and Nana’s farm.  They both took their turns on that.  Uncle Mike must really trust the boys to not take off with the tractors since he left the keys in them.  Good thing Zane and Jace don’t have long enough arms yet.  Phew!

I told Zane about a couple sheds that the cousins and I played on top of because we could hop on the roof if we went around to the back side.  Zane just had to see that.  So we went around and he climbed up on the roof of the shed and enjoyed that.  For some reason it seemed so much larger when I was little, but still fun and exciting. 

We decided to take the trail to the old pond we used to sometimes shoot the rifle or BB gun that the other cousins would bring to the farm.  We always aimed for the old car on the other side of the pond.  It is still there as well.

Our final stop was the hay bales.  We all took the time to hop around on the bales.  Grandma never really liked us doing that when we were little, but who were we to deprive the boys the entertainment they desired.  They had a ball hopping from bale to bale.  The next thing we knew we had spent almost 2 hours out there just looking at everything and giving Zane and Jace a great history lesson that will never be forgotten.  On our way out we waved goodbye to the farm hoping to come back and visit again one day.

Dance Party September 4, 2008

Our old baby-sitter, Karen’s, daughter got married this last weekend.  It is fun to see how much their kids have grown-up in the six years we have known them.  We also got to see a lot of our friends from the daycare.  Zane was excited to see Gabe and Jace recognized Keenan right away.  They enjoyed seeing everybody all dressed up and walk down the aisle.  They had big hugs for everybody!

Jace was anticipating the dance all week.  He told me he likes the music loud and that he wanted to shake his bootie.  He wanted to Chicken Dance (we did), the Hokey Pokey (we left too soon), and Itsy Bitsy Spider.  Sarah tried to talk to the D. J. but he didn’t bring it.  Too funny.  But that didn’t get Jace down; he was a dancing machine, not stopping the whole night. 

He jumped, he twisted, and he tried to spin around on the floor like the big kids.  I am not sure where he has seen break dancing but he was sure trying some new moves!

Zane was the ladies man.  He was going to bring his $5 to dance with Sarah, but he wanted to know if he could have change, so we gave him a dollar to dance.  He got a free dance from Miss Becky and got to dance with the bride.  Trey held him up Rugby style to catch the garter, but missed.  He had fun dancing the conga with Gabe and Joe.  He loved all the oldies that we grew up on like “Ice, Ice Baby” and “The Right Stuff.”  At the end of the night, we took two very tired boys home.  Congratulations Sarah and Adam!