fun fall day!

trying something new!

Can you hear him screaming... did we all do that?  oh well...we'll keep practicing... hoping to get it down by his 6th birthday!

tulips - 2011

busy, busy, busy

We had a crazy weekend! All started Saturday morning at 6am...everyone got up to get around and go watch me run in the Rock the Parkway Race (i did the 5k)...it started at 8am... I love my cheering section - I have THE BEST cheering section!

waiting for me to get done...such patience!

Finally got done...I did fine...I never race for time...and I didn't run the whole thing...but I did do it and I felt pretty good afterward...

I mean really!? Who wouldn't love having these two cuties cheering you on? High five from Mark!

Right after the race, literally walked off the finish line and off to the car because we had an even more important event to get to... Noah's 1st soccer game! Oh man I am so crazy excited about the start of sports for my boys...I can't wait til we have both of them going and we have to split up and figure out how to make both games, etc....I LOVE IT! I seriously started to get teary when I washed his soccer socks the other day and put them in his drawer...I mean this is it...it's the beginning... will he love soccer for the rest of his days and go as far as he can...will he hate it and try something else? (football, baseball, golf, track & field, swimming?!) The possibilities are endless...if it's one thing I want for my boys is to be well rounded, polite, and a TEAM player...they must MUST know what being part of a team means...it is so important for everything later in life...ahhhh...it all starts with micro soccer and shin guards and soccer socks....:) here's a video of our first game...i will be better next game - it was my first one and I was trying to watch the game, focus on him and also keep an eye on Mark...perhaps we DO need that fancier video camera... Curt? did you see that? I typed it out...:)

I am a sucky parent...didn't even THINK to bring the kid water to drink...first game and the coach after about 10min says to go get a drink...I had nothing...good thing Grandpa did (wasn't his first soccer game!)

Finished up the day with all the grandparents going to Pizza Hut to celebrate the first game...I think everyone was starving, even though Noah is the one that was running around...we gobbled up pizza, salad and sandwiches...then we ALL went home to take a nap...and we all slept...6am was early that morning...

I can't wait til next week -->; two games! Saturday at 10am then Sunday at 2pm as a make up game from March 26...make up games! LOVE IT!

white stuff

so we've had some snow here in good ol' state of Kansas...some areas (ours got about 12inches), others like mid-Missouri areas were in the 20's or 30... really it's been no big deal to me... it's Kansas afterall, wait three days and the weather will change right? yep! Monday (1/31) as if the snow gods were teasing us...it began to drizzle..freeze...drizzle some more... it's that nasty stuff that NO ONE likes driving in... where idiots become lunatics and smart drivers become white knuckled basket cases... not me...i've driven through some doozie storms before in my day...'driving to the high school, UP 67th street's terrible hill between Midland and Pflumm! only to arrive at school and the poor custodian is yelling/waving to everyone - SCHOOL's CLOSED'...yeah drove home pretty mad after that!...'ahh remember that freshman year of college, driving back to Hutch for school on Monday...a normal trip of 3hr that ended up taking me over 6hrs only to find out the next Monday that school was closed!?!'..... yep i've seen it...driven in it...survived! haha!

I leave work early on Monday...get home with no trouble... My boss went around that afternoon and basically told everyone to not bother coming in on Tuesday...'work from home' he said... well you don't have to tell me twice :) So I get up Tuesday... get the kids to daycare...roads aren't bad at all... then, then, by about 8:30...all hell breaks loose... it starts snowing...huge flakes...millions of 'em...trillions of 'em.... it was in fact a blizzard...well to me it was... just for fyi... a blizzard is described as: a storm with dry, driving snow, strong winds, and intense cold... strong winds that last more than 3hrs... that part is important apparently? Curt drives home in his car (good ol' Saturn) and was so frazzled and upset that he had to just be by himself for a few minutes so he could calm down... i don't get it... snow = go slow... if you get stuck we have cell phones now you know?

when i did the path to hutch that year i didn't have any cell phone? GOOD LORD what would I have done had i got stuck in Galva? in the middle of freakin' nowhere...in the dark? i had a guardian angel that night...and i think Curt had one on Tuesday on his way home... :) perhaps the same one? So it snowed ALL DAY LONG on Tuesday... we finally picked up the boys...roads were getting out of hand... crews hadn't been by and really what was the point until it stopped snowing? Curt went and tried to snow blow the driveway...the little machine o' terror did just fine... got a good bunch of it off and made for an easy getaway the next morning when Curt tried again - this time in a awd mountaineer...the name of the car just oozes triumph doesn't it? Well she's a good girl and got him safe to work... But you know what! They didn't even need him...most of his group called in because none of their neighborhood streets had been plowed... only 3 of them made it in and one of them was downtown... "OVERACHIEVERS"... oh well... Curt got to come home early that day and help wrangle the kids so I could work... they didn't even do a day-sort on Wednesday... and again what was the point? KCI-airport was shut down... so there would be no 'air' deliveries... I'm sure tons of packages came back with the drivers from Tuesday because it was either too hard to deliver or no one was there to receive... little known fact: UPS can use "extreme weather conditions" to not deliver your package...so if you're expecting something important and it's bad weather - you better be watching for that super nice man in brown and be prepared to meet him half way! OK off my soap box:) Wednesday the snow had stopped by that morning... Curt again went out with the ol' terror (i.e. snow blower) and did a little more clean up... the drifts were taller than Noah... who i about 3ft tall :) but I saw even taller ones that creeped up to approx 4ft (over our trash container). It really is a pretty site - all the white, clean snow! I do enjoy the winter... maybe because I was born in it? it's part of me? who knows:) Jeez this is a long post... the words just kept coming just like the snow flakes kept falling... hehe...stay warm friends! Only 7 more weeks to April!

Sadly there weren't any pics of Mark in this white stuff - too darn cold... he did like looking out the window though and part of me thinks he could see his daddy and big brother enjoying in it... frankly I think he liked staying inside with me all to himself!