What a Week!!

Wow, we feel like we were just sucked up by a hurricane and spit out! The last 7 days have just been off the wall! After finishing a few more activities on Wed. and Thurs. last week, we enjoyed the boys' Kindergarten graduation on Friday morning - SO cute. I didn't fall apart like I was afraid I would, and had a very nice time. :) Yeahh! My little graduates:

We then spent the rest of Friday preparing for our FIRST CAMPING TRIP OF THE SEASON!! We're back in action and are so happy it's camping season again! Getting our camper back after 8 months of not using it is like seeing an old friend again. When we picked it up last week, Jack and Noah wanted to just go sit in it in the driveway, they were so happy. Saturday morning we headed out to the Badlands with 3 other families and my mom and dad, and had absolutely the best weekend. Great friends, spectacular scenery, beautiful weather, nice campground, it was just awesome. Check out this view - you can't grasp the depth here, though, with a picture . . .

There's Jack, if you can see him . . . .

There's my mom, taking in the view . . .

The Four Happy Campers, back in business!!

Another great view -

My two little monkeys . . .

What an unbelievable place to visit. Lots of people look at us funny when we tell them we're going to the Badlands, but they have no idea what they're missing - we just can't get enough of the place. The kids have the time of their lives there, and are already asking when we can go back! :)

Now we're home for a couple days, and then on Thursday we're headed to a resort in Okoboji, IA for a long weekend with my whole family, as well as Mark's parents, to celebrate my mom and dad's 40th wedding anniversary. Can't wait, it should be a lot of fun - it always is when we get the whole gang together.

On a closing note, here's what Noah did most of the afternoon on Friday while I was packing and cleaning the camper:

I was amazed - he got into this Star Wars book and couldn't put it down. He read the whole thing, and I know he understood what he was reading because he was reciting Star Wars facts to Jack. I LOVE it - he's developing a love for reading, just like his mommy!

Closing a Chapter . . . .

Well, today marked a major milestone in my life - I attended my very last MOPS meeting. When I walked out of the church today and the doors closed behind me, so did a huge chapter in my life. I'm sitting here sort of in shock that it's all over - I've been dreading this day for the past week, so all at once I'm glad I finally got it over with and can move on, but yet it's so hard to let go. To say that MOPS has had a profound effect on my life is an understatement. When I walked into that church 5 years ago, I didn't know a soul there - or anyone in Rapid City for that matter - and if you would have told me on that day that I would be leaving MOPS 5 years later as the Coordinator, I would have told you that you were completely insane. Through MOPS these past years, I grew as a Christian, as a woman, as a mother, as a wife, and grew some wonderful friendships with some really amazing women. I am so incredibly thankful for this experience. Now, I can't imagine my life without it, although I know God has something else in store for me next - I just have to trust that it will be as wonderful as this has been.

I'm learning I hate milestones. I'm a sentimental fool, and these things just get the best of me. I struggled through today, and now next on my list is Kindergarten graduation on Friday morning. I don't know how I'll get through that! To think that my babies will be in 1st grade next year is really more than I can get my head around right now, so somehow I'm going to have to withdraw and shut down the ol' emotions on Friday. Uggh. And THEN, the boys turn 7 in two weeks - instead of being able to happily celebrate their birthdays, I seem to mourn the fact that yet another year is gone - why is that?!? I think something's wrong with me . . . This area of my personality clearly needs some work. Wish me luck.

Backing up a bit, last Friday the boys had their track meet (against all the other Christian schools in Rapid - over 500 kids participated), which really ended up to be a lot of fun and Jack discovered he LOVES track (which really was no surprise to Mark and I - this kid has loved running since he was two). Anyway, first up was the softball throw, in which Noah took 2nd and Jack took 3rd - unfortunately they competed in the same flight - not good for the sibling rivalry issue we have! Anyway, here they are in the throw (Jack first, then Noah):

Then they competed in the 100 meter dash - again both in the same heat - here were the results: (Noah 2nd, Jack 1st)

Next up was the 200 meter dash, and this time they got to compete in different heats (yeah!):

(Jack doesn't look to happy or anything, does he?)
There's Noah, headed for the finish line:
Last of the day was the 400 relay - here's their relay team, with their results: Jack was the anchor (the last one on the team to run), and as you can see, he's determined to finish first:
And here they are with their teachers, who were just awesome - they would literally run the last 10 meters or so, with the kids, along the sidelines, over the finish line. They were just the best!
Immediately after the track meet, we left town for MN, arriving at Mark's parents house around midnight - ugghhh!! Had a great time during our short trip, though! Got to spend some time with Mark's brother and his family, and attended Mark's cousin's wedding. It was a great evening. Noah and Jack LOVED the dance, which we figured they would, and they were happy to see firsthand exactly what they would be doing in Uncle Josh's wedding in September (ushering). Noah got really excited about the "costumes" they'll be wearing :). He especially liked the really shiny black shoes - too funny. Jack developed his first "crush" during the evening - Mark's cousin's girlfriend (Abbey) - she's fantastic with kids and Jack attached himself to her for the whole evening. She was so kind and so patient with him, it was so sweet. At one point, they were sitting together having the most serious conversation and I asked Mark what he thought they were talking about - he said "probably Webkinz." :) Afterwards, we asked Jack what he was talking to Abbey about and he said "Webkinz and claw machines!" Ahhh, a "date" with a 6 year old!! Anyway, here's some photos of the evening:
Here they are, all handsome and ready to go:

Here's the infamous Abbey - the object of Jack's affection for the night:

Having the in-depth conversation:

And dancing with her (like I said, she was very patient):

Here's Mark and his gorgeous cousin, the bride:

And here's Noah dancing with the bride:

As you can see, he enjoyed himself:

And here's Jack with Mark's Aunt Darcy - mother of the bride. Darcy - you looked absolutely spectacular!!!

Sheer Insanity . . .

. . . is what would most accurately describe the status of our lives right now! Here's my day today:

• got up WAY too early - Jack and Noah have decided that 6:15 a.m. is a good time to get the day started (that's going to change as soon as school is over!)
• Anyway, got them ready and delivered them and their hamster to school (the hamster was show-and-tell today);
• Left the school, headed to the car wash to wash the truck;
• Went to Eileen's Cookies to pick up treats for the boys' birthday celebrations at school today (they celebrate the summer birthdays the last two weeks of school);
• Stopped at an undisclosed location to order end-of-the-year gifts for my MOPS steering team members (they read this blog, so I can't tell you where that was!!);
• Delivered previously mentioned treats to the school;
• Stopped at a second undisclosed location to get additional MOPS thank-yous;
• Went home, got ready (yep, I was running around town without having readied myself for the day!);
• Started packing for our trip tomorrow;
• Left home again, stopped back at first undisclosed location to pick up previously ordered MOPS gifts;
• Went to Piece of Cake to pick up cake for luncheon baby shower;
• Attended aforementioned baby shower;
• Ran to the mall to get birthday gift for niece who we will see on Saturday;
• Picked up boys and hamster from school - mauled on the way out of the building by all the kids wanting to see the caged rodent;
• Immediately took the protesting kids to Cost Cutters to get boys haircuts;
• Got kids home, fed them a snack and sat down for 30 minutes of snuggle time with them to watch the end of last night's American Idol;
• Got the kids ready for baseball practice and shipped them off to said practice with Mark (important to note here that practice started at 5:30);
• Finished packing for trip tomorrow . . .
• Noticed it's now 7:00 p.m. and kids still aren't home! Hmmm. Blood starts boiling. Called Mark and told him to pull kids out of practice and bring them home (90+ minutes is enough for 6 year olds, no? More on that later.)
• 7:25 Mark and the kids arrive with McDonald's and a friend from school/baseball who needed to stay with us until Mom could pick him up;
• Mark literally turns around and leaves for his men's church small group which started at 7:30. I'm left to try and get 3 dirty, wound-up little boys to eat their supper - and my two are supposed to be in bed by this point!! uggh.
• 8:00 - friend leaves, I get boys in the shower. Brush teeth, do devotional, prayers and finally lights out at 8:40. WAAAAY too late - esp. for two little dudes who were up at 6:15.
• Load the truck for trip tomorrow.
• Finally I get to hit the bathtub and shave my legs - shorts weather arrives tomorrow. :)

And today is just the tip of the iceberg for the next few days! Tomorrow we have the boys' all-day track meet, and then as soon as we can get them out of there, we get to jump in the car for an 8 hour drive to MN - Mark's cousin gets married on Saturday. Sunday morning we'll jump back in the car and race home so the kids can attend the birthday party of a very dear friend at 4:00 p.m. We wouldn't make that effort for anyone other than this little girl, whom Jack and Noah just adore.

Anyway, we'll continue at this pace through next week - the last week of school (done on Friday!), the last week of MOPS (done on Tuesday!), the last week of sorority (done on Wednesday!), the last week of Mark's small group (done on Thursday!) and then, I'm hoping life will come to a screeching halt!! It's amazing how even when you make genuine efforts to keep your schedule under control, it still gets away from you. I'm actually looking forward to our car ride tomorrow, when we can all CHILL out and relax.

Now on to my latest pet peeve - although that's a mild term for how I'm really feeling, my blood pressure was through the roof tonight: Since when did kids sports get so out of control?!?!? Is it really necessary to push these little 5, 6, 7 year old little kids so hard?? With soccer, we were supposed to have 2 practices and 2 games per week - WHAT?!? Luckily I was married to the coach this season and he didn't go along with the League recommendations (thanks sweetie!). Plus, we were expected to play in rain, sleet and snow, 50 mph winds, 25 degree weather - you name it, you just don't cancel. Ever. Ridiculous. My new term for the Rapid City Youth Soccer League is the Soccer Nazis. Thankfully we're done with soccer, but are just starting our season of baseball, and it's already out of hand - as you can see from our hour-and-a-half-plus practice tonight. Mark left at 7:15 and they still weren't done. Unbelievable. And this coach has scheduled 3 practices per week for the rest of the month - HA - he's got another thing coming. He's met his match with me - no way are my kids going to spend that kind of time on baseball. Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox, but I think the people in charge of these leagues need to get some perspective (and GET A GRIP!) . . . .

Okay, now for the last item on my to-do list for today . . OFF TO BED! (My favorite part!)

Happy Mother's Day!!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mommies in my life - and I hope you all had a fantastic day with your families. I did (there's me with my mom on the left) - we had a great weekend. The main thing I wanted for Mother's Day was SEAFOOD! Sound strange? I know - but I've had a craving for seafood for a while now. So Friday night we took the kids out to Red Lobster where I enjoyed salmon and shrimp scampi and Jack and Noah chowed down on shrimp (Jack - likes the cold shrimp cocktail; Noah - likes it grilled). Forrest Gump would be proud, no? More on my seafood weekend below . . .

Saturday was a rainy, windy, frozen day - wind was blowing 50+ mph - but we needed to get out of the house so we headed to Borders and hung out there for a while - the kids LOVE it there - they dive into the kids section and are happy there for a very long time. Mark and I always get stuck in the travel section, browsing and planning our next adventure - his dream usually involves something in France, while mine are usually family-friendly and closer to home. :) This summer we're headed to the Grand Canyon, so I found a book to help us plan that. After a while we ventured home and were WAY excited to learn that our 4:00 p.m. soccer game was cancelled due to the weather. So we packed our overnight bags and headed for Spearfish.

That night we continued my quest for seafood and headed to Deadwood to the Silverado's buffet - all-you-can-eat crab legs - I was in heaven . . my absolute favorite food. Mother's Day was complete for me!! We went with my mom, dad, brother, his fiance, her son Cayel and the kids so it was a lot of fun. Jack loves crab legs as much as I do, so I was a crab-crackin' fool until my dad decided to help out and do Jack's for him. Anyway, then we headed back to my mom and dad's to play games. A great night!

This morning we all went to my mom and dad's church and then after lunch went on a long walk along Spearfish Creek. It was gorgeous out and a great way to spend the afternoon. I got some cool stuff from the kids - Mark always lets them pick out exactly what they want to get me, and it's always SO MUCH FUN to see what they come up with. Here's what they got me:

Yep, that's a Vikings jersey from Noah - an Adrian Peterson one to be exact - he wanted me to have one just like him and Jack and Mark; and you can't see it very well, but Jack got me my own Webkinz - the schnauzer. He's way cute, and Jack's so excited for me to "do Webkinz" with them. He warned me, though, saying "you can't sit on Webkinz (the website) all day while we're at school!!"

Last week was a busy week at school for the kids - on Tuesday, we had soccer, which ultimately ended up being our last game, since Saturday's was cancelled. Here's coach Mark with his team - a great group of kids, it's too bad the weather didn't cooperate much this season!

On Wednesday, the kids performed their circus musical, which was just adorable:

They also finished Awana on Wednesday night - had an awards ceremony and they each received an award for finishing their books. On Friday, my dad came and did a presentation for both their classes on seashells - he's become an expert after spending many, many weeks on the beaches of Sanibel Island, FL. He does a great presentation and gave each of the 34 kids a big bag of shells to take home. He was a huge hit, and I was so proud!! (So were Jack and Noah!)

Now we're headed into the 2nd to last week of school - amazing. I have my last MOPS Steering Team meeting on Tuesday morning - we're all going for coffee for an end of the year treat. Friday, the boys have their track meet they've been training for during gym class - it's an all day event. Friday we also leave for Willmar for Mark's cousin's wedding - this will be the kids' "first" wedding, so we're excited to see how they'll do with the dance, etc. It will all be good practice for Uncle Josh's wedding in September!
Have a great week . . . . . .

Funny Conversations With Jack . . .

Last week, watching American Idol, we asked Jack and Noah what they thought of a particular contestant, and Jack said "I don't know, he was kind of pitchy . . ."

Sunday, when discussing who he wanted to invite to his birthday party, he mentioned a girl in his class that I knew he liked, but didn't know if he really played with her much, so I said "Do you ever do anything with her at school?" And Jack said "No, but I like to look at her." Mark, of course says, "THAT'S MY BOY!!"

Today, they had full dress rehersal at school for their little circus musical they perform tomorrow - Jack and Noah are both clowns. They had full makeup on today, so when they got home I asked Jack who helped him wash his makeup off - - he says (with a disgusted look on his face):
"Mrs. Withee (his teacher) did it with a washcloth, which I DID NOT like"
I say - "Why?"
He says - "Because she used it on all of us without rinsing it out in between - yuck, I probably got a lot of germs." I, of course, said "That's my boy!!" :) ha ha. Actually I felt bad, knowing he gets that from me, and decided I'd better cool it a little on my germaphobic comments!!!

Snow Day!!

Okay, so it's MAY 2nd and here's the view we woke up to this morning:

We had a MAJOR blizzard here in the hills last night and today - the higher elevations got 3 feet of snow, and here in town it was virtually impossible to tell how much snow we got because the wind was blowing at 53 mph - and that's the SUSTAINED speed - they clocked gusts at 70 mph. Now, we are accustomed to some serious wind here, but nothing like this - it was just amazing. I heard several creaks, cracks and moans in the house that had me concerned several times throughout the day. Haven't found any damage yet, though. The wind has finally ceased and the silence here is almost deafening! School was obviously cancelled for the kids today, but Mark thought he should still head into work . . . mid-morning they decided to close the bank so he headed home shortly before noon and got stuck coming up the hill to our house - even though he had the truck with the 4WD engaged. I, of course, had to get a picture:

Two guys had to come out and help him - took them 30-45 minutes to dig him out, at which point, he had to back down the hill and leave the truck parked at the bottom of the hill until the plows came through.

And here's Jack and Noah, lounging around watching cartoons, looking really bummed about not having school today:

Here's a drift right outside our front door (hard to tell, but it was about 3 ft. deep) . . . .

Early in the evening, the plows finally came through, which we were thankful for, but they did leave a nice little mess at the end of the driveway - a 3 ft. mound of snow. Jack and Noah were all excited to finally get their snow gear on - they've waited ALL winter to do this - and carve out a path for the suburban. They obviously had some help from Dad, but they had a great time, playing outside for almost 2 hours.

Anyway, we made use of the day by relaxing, playing some games, etc. but by the end of the day we were all a little stir crazy. We'll be heading out to do SOMETHING right away in the morning! :)

Conversation between me and Jack tonight:
Jack: "How long does it take to grow up?"
Me: "Not long enough - why?"
Jack: "Because I want to be a claw-machine professional when I grow up!"

Oh great, this is why we're paying for private school! :) When he says "claw machine," he's talking about those money pits you see at the entrance to various restaurants, grocery stores, WalMart - where you maneuver the claw in an attempt to pick up a stuffed animal. Jack's become slightly obsessed with these, and has managed to collect 6 animals from them over the past several months. He even has strategies! I'm thinking I need to start worrying about this . . . .

Happy weekend!