Sunday, May 29, 2016

The rest of the story

I don't think I mentioned it, but my Mother brought their two dogs with them when the came. 
I was a little worried how Dodger would react to them, but after the first five minutes of smelling them he was just fine. 


I almost always have some type of camera at hand, but somehow the day of the graduation party I only managed to take this ONE picture.
How tacky is that? No one else thought to get any pictures either so that sucks.
I think the party was a success. 
We had beautiful weather, good food, plentiful beverages and a lot of folks in and out.


Day after the party only Mom and Gerry were left so us gals got down to the serious business of finding out who the new Scrabble Queen would be.
If you guessed it is now Chyann, you have guessed correctly.
She totally whipped our butts!
Mom and I did managed to eek out a win or two here and there though.


Mom and Gerry were able to stay and see Caden play in the first Colfax ball game.
They have so many players 7/8 grade that they have an A and B team. Caden wasn't scheduled to play in this game, but since the Grandparents were here they let him.


And look who was on the opposing team? 
His best buddy that no longer goes to school in Colfax, but he plays with him on the Wheeler team. 


Unfortunately the Colfax team had no chance against the team they played. Too many new to baseball kids and no coaching direction. 

My Mother and Gerry are now back in OK.
Caden is now out of school; going to be an 8th grader next year.
Chyann is packing. She leaves tomorrow for St. Cloud where she has an apartment with three other kids.
Sure is going to be weird around here without her. 

later



Saturday, May 28, 2016

The GRADUATION

Can't believe it's over with already. All that time spent worrying and preparing for it and poof it is all done and over.

A few of my favorite pictures from the day:

The kids before we left for the school. 


Favorite picture of my Mom and Gerry.


Colton and his girlfriend.


Chyann getting ready to go get dressed.


The family. Yes we got there way early.
 When Colton graduated he says he almost missed it because we were late, but I swear he never told us we needed to be there at 6p. All I remember was that we needed to be there at 645p, which apparently was outrageously late. 

We got front row seats just like we did for Colton's graduation so we must not have been too late for his, right?

Funny side story for you. Some friends of ours were up in the balcony during the graduation and saw me, but didn't recognize the man I was with. They realized later it was the Hubby lol
Apparently he is unrecognizable when he wears jeans and has a hair cut. 


After all the Seniors arrived we went into another gym and took pictures.


Picture of Chyann's two friends and us moms.


Chyann and her boyfriend.


And look who I found when I went back to sit down!
The Hubby's sister and her family drove from ND to join us!
How wonderful was that?!? 
I couldn't believe that our grown nephews and niece even took time off from their jobs and busy lives to celebrate this momentous event with us.  
I can't tell you how much we enjoyed this family while they were here. We had so much fun!


Chyann and her BFF walking up to the stage.


The girls all giddy with excitement as the rest of the students were seated. 


The school does a slide show of the kids and it's always a tear jerker. 
Chyann chose the picture of her and Colton's dog Lucky and everyone at the school loved it. 


Getting ready to get her diploma.


Actually getting her diploma.


 Graduated and walking out!
Love that smile!


Picture of the kids afterwards.


And that was it.
Sigh.


More to come later :)



Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Making progress on my list

Yesterday was a jam packed busy day. My fitbit says I got in 26,480 steps.Which apparently is the equivalent of 11.4 miles.

My bathroom ceiling project was aborted in the final phase due to the can of paint being rusty on the inside. What is up with that? Name brand paint that I bought about two months ago and never opened prior to yesterday. Everything was prepped and ready to go so I shook the crap out of that can, popped the lid to find rusty flakes throughout. Yes I will return that can and get another can of paint, but my window to get that project done before the graduation is gone.

Moving on down my list:
Mowing. Rode the rider until I had a flat tire. Then broke out the push mower until the Hubby came home and he got my new weed wacker out of the box and gassed up. Wielded that amazingly heavy piece of hardware until the sun went down and I ran out of string.

Glad I'm out of string, otherwise my already aching and screaming arms/shoulders would be in for more torture today. As it is I'll be cleaning the fridge and pulling weeds which I'm sure is going to hurt like hell too, but probably a little less than they would running the weed wacker.

Unfortunately or fortunately, I can't decide which we've got a Wheeler baseball game this evening that will put a halt to my mowing/weed wacking fun. Will be nice to see the boys play, but I feel I'm running out of time.

My Mother and Gerry haven't left OK yet, but will within the next hour. If all goes well they'll be here late tonight or early tomorrow am. Gerry about gave me a heart attack yesterday afternoon. He calls and says do you want to hear my tale of woe? All I could think was something happened and they weren't coming and how was I going to tell that to Chyann. UGH. Thankfully though the tale of woe had nothing to do with them not coming but rather one of his cows giving birth and he had to call the vet out and have the calf pulled as he was unable to do it himself. The calf survived, but had a badly swollen head and something odd with it's feet so it couldn't stand. He ended up taking the cow and calf down to the vets place for her to take care of while they are here. As of this morning both are doing well.

Remember I said we had a good freeze Saturday night? One of the trees along the driveway, I'm not sure what kind it is, got hit hard. About the lower third of the leaves are black and shriveled up. I'll have to get a picture of that so you can see what I mean. Poor tree, it looks awful.

Alright I've probably procrastinated enough. Time to get on with it.

Have a good one :)

Sunday, May 15, 2016

Sunday AM coffee and an epiphany

You would think after being up till midnight last night I'd have slept a little past 6am today, but nope. My eyes popped open at 550a and much to my surprise saw frost on the ground outside. Not a good thing for all the blooming trees. 

Yesterday was cold. High temperature of a freezing 48*, mostly cloudy and windy.
We spent much of the day outside for baseball.
The first game was scheduled to start at 830a, but due to the cold overnight temps in the mid 30's they move the time back to 930a. 
Our boys moved like they were frozen and got behind early. Had a good rally in the last inning, but it wasn't enough to pull off the win. They lost 10 to 6, to a team they have beat seven times previously. 



The boys had an almost four hour gap until the next game so we piled in the van and went to a few early graduation parties. A mom of one of the seniors is going to loan us some fun props since their party is done. How nice is that?

Back to the field we went. 
The boys were fired up after their early morning loss and played to win their second game.
Unfortunately they couldn't maintain that momentum into their third game and lost big. 
Their first losses this season, which will motivate them for future games I'm sure. 

I am on vacation for the next ten days. Lots to do this week. 
From mowing, planting flowers, washing down walls - who keeps touching them?!?!, some baking, last minute shopping, picking up chairs/tables, and probably a million other things that I'm forgetting right at this moment. 

My Mother and Gerry will be arriving on Tuesday night. We are really looking forward to seeing them. I haven't seen them since I went to AK in Dec 2013 and for the rest of the family it's been about four years.  
Hard to believe we somehow let so much time pass between visits. Same thing with my Dad and Jeanne and even my brother and his family.

Everyone gets busy living their lives I suppose and while thinking about how none of us are getting any younger and how much I'd love to see all of them I had an epiphany.

The Hubby and I have been talking about how when Caden graduates we were going to sell the house and move further South. Get away from cold winters and snow.
This is when I realized I would be repeating the same cycle I have with my own family.
Never seeing them. 
Not participating in their life events because it's too expensive to travel. 
Never having Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles or cousins to grow up around or learn from.
 When my kids get married and start their own families they wouldn't have a support system they could count on either. 
I don't want that for them.
I want to be involved in their lives - be able to enjoy these adult people we created on a regular basis not just for a few days every few years. 

So likely they'll be burying my ass right here in WI or wherever my kids are. 
(maybe they'll all want to move south tho)

That is all I've got for this day.

Epiphany = a sudden realization


   

Friday, May 13, 2016

TGIF!!

Another week down my friends.
Exactly one week from today Chyann will graduate!

This last week was a lot of fun.

I spent Derby day with my friends. We went to a local winery and a local brewery that makes stone fired pizzas. I had a great time, plus it was nice just to get out of the house for a change. 


It was a beautiful day to have sat out on their veranda enjoying the view. 


We attended the last track meet of the short middle school season. 
Our boy fairly fly's over that bar. 


The apple trees did not wait for graduation to bloom this year - When Colton graduated they bloomed the day of his party. The trees are snow white and so fragrant!


The crab apples bloomed on Wednesday. 


Unfortunately it appears that my sour cherry tree has died.
No idea what happened, but it is definitely dead. 
The hubby will be cutting it down within this next week.


Shopping for flowers to fill our flower boxes for the graduation with Chyann. 
Of course the weather has turned cold as shit so no flowers have been planted, they are currently on my dining room table providing a new play place for the rotten cats to terrorize. I likely wont get them outside until Sunday as we are supposed to get below freezing tonight and Saturday night. 


Dinner with my old friend Krissy. 
I so enjoyed seeing her and hearing about her newest adventure of becoming an over the road truck driver. 


We have baseball in the cold all day tomorrow. 
I don't think the high temps will even break 50* and we'll have a brisk North wind to go with those cold temps. BRRRRRR

Stay warm :)



Saturday, May 7, 2016

Saturday AM coffee


It was 91* here yesterday and we went to bed with the windows open. I awoke way too early this morning to the stench of smoke that was so strong I thought something nearby had to be burning, but no we are getting smoke/haze from the Canadian fires that are burning approximately 1400 miles from here - WOW right?!?

It's been an insanely busy week here. 
A few of the highlights are as follows:

A beautiful evening for baseball Monday night.
The boys played against a big town tournament team that has the reputation of being unbeatable.
Well folks I tell you what, our boys won! Final score was 5 to 1. Hell of a good game!


Beautiful sunset as we pulled into the driveway.


Jennifer appears to be watching the sunset too.


Tuesday was a home track meet.


Watching the storm clouds roll in.


The 4 x 2 relay seems to be the last race run at all the track meets we've been to and just as Caden crossed the finish line the sky's opened up.


Right after the track meet it was time for the Spring choir and band concert.



Wednesday night was the night we've been waiting for.
Senior Awards banquet.
The top 10 students in our 2016 graduating class.


The scholarships were individually announced by the people or organizations who provided them. Most of the people spoke of their reasons for providing the scholarships. All of their stories were very moving. From the man who lost his wife to breast cancer two years ago, to the mom and dad who lost their son overseas five years ago. A reoccurring theme in their testimonials was that they all wanted their loved ones memory to carry forward  and in that, to help enrich other peoples lives who also had a passion for learning. 

Our daughter was very fortunate to have received one of the top scholarships from a local family. I can't tell you how proud we are of Chyann. She is one determined young lady and will make all her dreams a reality.


Missed having Colton home for this event.
However it sounds like he will be taking a few days off work around the graduation.
His finals are next week so the year is about done for him. 


Last night we had another track meet in a nearby town. Damn it was hot, like I said 91* was the high temp and the winds were freaking howling. Good thing I brought sunblock and kept myself lubed up otherwise I'd be one miserable gal today.

Caden getting ready for the pole vault. 


Afterwards we ate out at Arby's.
 Caden had heard about a mythical sandwich that is not listed on their menu, but if you order it you can have it. 
It is called the MEAT MOUNTAIN!
Loaded with 1.5 pounds of meat - ham, turkey, roast beef and 2 chicken tenders and for a mere 10 bucks it can be yours. 
The counter folks were sure Caden couldn't eat it, but you know what? He did! Every last bite. 


Less than two weeks away from the graduation. I have finally secured chairs - YAY!! The first mowing of the season will commence this weekend.  

That's all for now. 
Have a good day :)

Sunday, May 1, 2016

Week in review

We attended our first track meet earlier this week. 
The school team did fantastic!
Caden was in four running relay events with other boys in his grade. 
He even did hurdles, which was awesome to watch.
An all important hand off of the baton.


Racing home!


The weather was freaking cold. I don't think I've been so frozen in a long time. 
It was only about 45* and the wind was howling. I swear it took me days to warm up. 

Then yesterday the Wheeler team played a double header, which they completely dominated. 
Winning the first game 8 to zero and the second game 25 to 1.
Zipping across home plate. 
Two boys on his team actually hit home runs over the fence!
Course now all the boys are jonesing to do that too. 


Waiting his turn, fiddling with his mouth guard.
 My boy faithfully wears his mouth guard when batting and in the field to protect his braces. A couple kids on the team have braces too, but don't wear a mouth guard, which is pretty dumb in my opinion. Gotta protect those teeth!



Little video of him hitting a double. 
Excuse the pole that got in my way. I was leaning back in my chair to get around that pole and right after I hit the stop recording button I flipped over backwards. It was a sight to see lol Good thing no one was behind me or I'd have clobbered them. 
I'm definitely getting to the game a little earlier on Monday so I can get a better spot.




Did you know this is the first year I have forgotten, yes forgotten and totally did not celebrate/remind everyone in the family of the fact that we moved from AK on the 21st?
I remembered yesterday and am floored I forgot that date. 
14 years we've been in the land of milk and honey now.

More track, baseball and awards banquets are on the books for this week. 
We are almost done with what we are going to do in the house before the graduation. Which is only 18 days from now. Then we'll be turning our attention to outside projects - mowing, flowers and all that. 
I am still attempting to secure chairs. Might end up having to rent some I suppose.

Anywho, happy Sunday to ya :)