Letting Go . . . .

Today was Jack and Noah's first day of kindergarten! A terribly exciting, momentous day in their lives, and a horrendously bittersweet one in mine. Talk about mixed emotions - today will go down as one of my hardest days, I believe. Who knew that sending your kids to kindergarten could be so utterly gut-wrenching?!? I knew it would be somewhat difficult but I was NOT prepared for the emotional battle I went through over the past couple of days. I was at my worst last night, and today I am thanking God I have such a patient rock for a husband, who really helped me through it. At one point I had decided that I should homeschool the kids, and he gently talked me out of that. :)

Now after coming through all the tears and heartache, I can see the blessings in it all - I was SO blessed in being able to stay at home with my precious babies for the past 6 years; I am blessed that I have such a marvelous, understanding husband who allowed me to do just that; we are all blessed that the boys are in such an amazing school; and finally I was blessed by my loving Father in Heaven who completely erased my misery by this morning and kept those feelings aside so I could enjoy this morning with my family. What could have been a miserable experience for me, in an answer to prayer turned out to be a memorable morning for the four of us. Mark took part of the morning off and after breakfast and pictures, we headed off to the school where we got the kids settled in, and then attended Chapel together as a family. As we sat and sang together and prayed together, it just became more clear that Jack and Noah are right where God wants them to be, and that's the best we can ask for. As for me, I'll have an adjustment period, but I'll get used to it. I'm already thinking of various projects I can finish and even start . . .

Jack and Noah had a good day - lunch was their main concern, and from their reports, it went well! Parents are encouraged to come have lunch with them, so we're going to join them tomorrow, and I'm sure I'll be there more often than not! Noah came home saying that Mrs. Casey (his teacher) was "kinda magic." When I asked how, he said "She called a potty break every time I had to go potty!!" :) Another interesting thing - Jack has a little girl in his class who has leukemia, so we had talked to Jack about what a special little girl she is, had pointed her out during Chapel and suggested he introduce himself to her as she was clearly having a rough time this morning (her name is Rhiannon). After school, as we were pulling into the ice cream place (1st day of school treat!) I asked Jack if he had talked to Rhiannon, and he was upset about the fact he wanted to, but hadn't because he couldn't remember which one she was. So we go into the ice cream place and wouldn't you know, there she was! It was great.

Okay, enough for my thesis on the first day of kindergarten!!!

Back in the Swing of Things!

(Here's the kids on our rally renter's Harley)

We have been trying to get back to normal around here this week - we all had the post-vacation blues on Monday, but made ourselves busy right away so that helps! Monday we had kindergarten check-ups, which was a barrel of laughs (NOT). TWO shots were required (I had only prepared the boys for one!). Noah did pretty good, but Jack raised the roof - screamed so loud he had to have scared every child in the clinic. On the more positive side, Jack was 49 pounds (75th percentile) and Noah was 54 pounds (95th percentile). Both were 46.5 inches (70th percentile) - exactly the same height. Kinda funny.

Tuesday we had the final gymnastics lesson until fall session starts, then had haircuts in preparation for school, and then hit the fair in the afternoon/evening. We were knocked off our socks this year - historically, Jack has been the daredevil and Noah the play-it-safe kinda guy. This time, Noah was hitting all the rides with no fear, and Jack didn't want to do anything but the big slide. What happened? We were shocked. Interesting how personalities can change!

Yesterday we had our in-home visit with the boys' teachers (separate classes this year!), and that went AWESOME. Some of my anxieties about this year have been put to rest after spending time with them - we feel so blessed that the kids are in such a good school with such fantastic teachers. Mrs. Withee and Mrs. Casey spent over an hour here, explaining lots of things, and letting the kids drag them around to their bedrooms and playroom, showing them all sorts of things. I've realized what bothers me the most is not that the kids will be gone all day, but the fact that this significant era of our lives has come to an end - they are taking their first big step out into the world and the baby/toddler/preschool years are done - days that we'll never get back. Uggh, I can't stand it.

Anyway, today we got started on our MOPS year with a pre-registration event - not a great turn-out but it was good to get the steering team together again anyway. Now we have an upcoming weekend of lots of NOTHING! Yeahhhhhh! This will be the first weekend in 11 weeks that we don't have ANYTHING on the calendar. It's such a great feeling!!

I'm closing with some pictures from our vacation . . . .

On the pontoon . . .

Noah (then Jack) getting thrown off the pontoon . . .

Mark and Noah on the jet ski . . . .

Jack's fish!! Proud moment!

At the waterpark . . .

Both got one!

I caught THREE of these bass!

Getting ready for our trail ride . . .

On Our Way Home

We are all a little glum today because our vacation is over - we left Alexandria this morning, and are making a quick pit stop at Mark's parents' in Willmar, MN for the night, then heading home tomorrow. We had absolutely the BEST time this past week, it was just an awesome vacation. We rented a pontoon on Wednesday, and all 12 of us spent 1/2 the day out on the lake, just crusing around, swimming, floating, relaxing - it was WONDERFUL! The kids made a lot of progress in their fishing skills - by the end of the week, they'd learned how to cast (really well, too!) and had caught several nice fish. I even went out with the adults on Thursday night and caught 4 large-mouth bass myself - it was so FUN!! Who knew? It's been many, many years since I fished (when I was a little girl!) but I realized I could do that every night, it was so peaceful, sitting out on the lake in the boat as the sun set. We finished out the week with a little shopping, more water park adventures, and on Friday ended our trip with a horseback ride (maybe the best part of the week?).

Today it's rainy and 58 degrees, quite a change, but a welcome one! Tomorrow evening right when we get back to Rapid City we jump right back into things with a fall soccer kickoff/get-together (practice, picnic, decorating shirts) - yes, on Sunday night! And then our last week of summer begins . . . . is it possible?

Greetings from Alexandria, MN

We are currently enjoying our vacation at Arrowwood Resort in Alexandria, MN - got here last Saturday, and have been enjoying ourselves immensely. We have a 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom townhome that we are sharing with the Horak side of the family, and it is GORGEOUS - much nicer than I anticipated! The weather has been cool here, but actually it's been a welcome change from the 100+ temps we've been suffering in Rapid City for the past several weeks - - AND the resort has a big indoor waterpark so we've all been taking advantage of that every day.

We've been having leisurely mornings - the kids are even sleeping in for us - then they hit the lake with Grandpa and Uncle Josh and fish for quite a while (catching large-mouth bass and rock bass, I'm told). Meanwhile, Mark and I sit around and read the paper, go for a walk and I've been practicing my knitting. Then we hit the waterpark in the afternoon, have supper, and play games until bedtime. Now THIS is a schedule I could live with for quite a while!! :) This is how life should be lived!! It's definitely a nice way to "come down" after the insanity of the past several weeks. I feel like I'm getting my head all back together and my thoughts collected and organized before school starts (and all our other activities!).

From here, we head to Willmar on Saturday for a short visit with Mark's family before heading home on Sunday. And on Monday, the kindergarten check-ups, complete with yet another vaccination - which I have not told the kids about yet. I decided I'd let them enjoy their vacation without worrying about it!

More news next week . . . . .

Now THIS is Summer!

Renting our house out for the Sturgis rally turned out to be one of the BEST things to happen to us this summer! It forced us to SLOW down - stop everything, in fact - and just finally RELAX, like people are supposed to do in the summer! My mom and dad have been kind enough to share their "refuge" with us here in the hills in Spearfish. They have a wonderful house in the forest, and it is so calming and peaceful being here! We even cancelled (regrettably) our camping trip last weekend - mainly because Jack came down with a nasty cold, but also because we felt the overwhelming need to rest. The kids have spent every day doing fun things with who I call "their other brother" - Grandpa - he has just as much energy as they do, and the three of them have had a blast fishing, riding the 4-wheeler, and shooting BB guns. As for me, I've read a book - front to back - for the first time in months(!); spent lots of fun time with the kids going to the farmer's market, hanging out at our favorite coffee shops here, school shopping, playing games, looking at old photo albums, and going to the pool. Yesterday my mom and I went and had a pedicure together (my first one!), which was AWESOME and could become a habit (expensive one, though!) and she taught me how to knit, which I already love - it's so relaxing! We've also been eating the best food from the farmer's market, which I will really miss once we head back to Rapid.

We are also very lucky to have the bikers we have at our house - they are great people (there's only 3 of them!) and are VERY neat - one of the guys said he likes renting from us (this is their 2nd year with us) because I am obsessive-compulsive just like him. :) Too funny.

We have two more nights here in Spearfish, and then we get our house back on Thursday morning. I will spend Thurs. and part of Fri. frantically unpacking and re-packing before we head to MN on Friday afternoon for a 9-day vacation. The Horak family is gathering at the Arrowwood Resort in Alexandria, MN for a week, and then we'll hit the Roisums in Willmar on the way back home. We are very much looking forward to continuing this relaxation streak we've been having - it will be so fun to spend a week on a Minnesota lake - something we haven't done in many years.

So, we are really savoring these last few weeks of summer and we hope you are too!!