Time Well Spent

Hour-glass
Originally uploaded by didixx28

A little background before I start this post. Because I am the so to speak "low man on the totem pole" in the "vacation time" requests in my office, we have had to jockey our typical summer plans this year.
The kids have been so anxious about making their annual trek to Cedar Lake for a visit with Mimi and Gampie. We headed out Friday when I got out of work. We arrived in enough time for Connor, Rick and Gampie to hit the lynx and try out their very best Tiger impressions. Meanwhile MaKenna, Mom and I took to trying our best at a "make-shift" nail salon. Mimi is quite the manicurist! I think that every shade of nail polish that Mimi owns ended up on either MaKenna's finger or toe nails.
Saturday morning and Mom and I headed out for a walk around the block, while Rick and the kids headed to the beach. It was a great day at the beach. Plenty of sun, sand creations galore - even a full sand body cast for Connor [possible pis to follow] and enough swimming to make me check and see if my children had grown gills!
Saturday evening and Gampie took the kids back out on the golf course. MaKenna's goal was to be able to be included with her brother [you never know what you may miss out on, ya know!]. Also, to get her Gampie to go "really fast" in the golf cart! Connor has been frustrated with his golf game [if he only knew, that's more than half the battle with this game]. His buddies have been shooting better rounds in their weekly Jr. golf league. Connor is convinced that is because of size and the fact that he is shorter than the rest of his buddies. We have been trying to tell him differently, but to no avail. Gampie to the rescue! I had told Connor that he should ask Gampie for some pointers as Gampie coached golf for many years. Well, it worked. When the crew returned they were smiling from ear to ear. Ready for this one....???
Connor had a birdie [one under par for those of you who are not golfers] from the jr.'s tee on hole #16. He drove it just before the green and chipped it up and in the hole> MaKenna said that Gampie yelled so loud that it blew her ear out! Connor has carried that ball around with him ever since. Wow! Lots of memories came flooding back to me. Hole #16 is where my Dad [an avid golfer and who passed away in 1992] had his only hole in one. There is a sports award plaque that used to hang in the TV room of our old house that had a picture of my Dad, Grandpa and brother that was taken on the day that he made the hole-in-one. Rick and I had some of our wedding pics taken on that green as well.
MaKenna swam and swam some more. She has decided that she will take the infamous raft swim test next summer so that she can swim out to the raft and play dibble dabble [i'll explain in a later post].
It was fun to be back to my old summer hang out! Lots of memories to share... sometime soon. For now, it was a treat to witness our children enjoying the place and some of the things that hold a very special place in my heart!

Some of this and Some of that!

It is amazing how quickly time goes by. It has been awhile since I have posted and it seems like too long. I enjoy blogging and sharing our happenings with those of you who read about them. This blog has allowed me to try and keep the family and friends who span the miles close to our hearts. So much has been going on... so I'll try to bring you up to speed!

• Rick has been as busy as ever! He is coaching Connor's lacrosse team again this spring. He really enjoys the sport and working with the kids. Connor likes having Rick as a coach and I can only hope that they both continue to enjoy this time together and the fond memories that they are creating. Work for Rick has been going well also. He is such a hard worker and he likes the insurance business! Rick has joined me in the commitment to a more fit lifestyle. He is very close to his goal and feeling great about it!
• Connor is loving the Spring weather, Lacrosse, 4th grade - the Intermediate school and all the activities that are happening there! Connor competed on the Page Tuners [reading competition] team and his team one the division and will compete in the regionals at the beginning of June. Connor also tried out for the Challenge 24 [math] team and made it. He will be competing with this team sometime in early June.Connor's teacher went out on maternity leave and welcomed a beautiful baby girl at the end of April. Connor and his classmates are adjusting to their long-term sub . We are looking forward to the 4th grade field trip to Niagara Falls. I will be chaperoning the trip. Lacrosse has taken the reigns as Connor's favorite sport[we'll see what happens when golf, football and skiing seasons roll around?]! !
• MaKenna continues to light up our world! She can hardly wait to be officially 6 years old. She is star student this week so we spent some time today gathering up some photos. MaKenna made me feel like a super star myself as she wanted to bring in every single scrapbook that I have made her. She said" I just can't choose Mom, I LOVE them all!" MaKenna decided to play lacrosse this Spring. She has been "warming" up to it. She "really doesn't care for the mouth piece... because it makes it too hard to talk!" She is "so frustrated" with the goggles! They "never stay where they're suppose to stay"! She "cannot run or hustle when the coach tells them to because I need cleats!" Sneakers are just "too slippery"! The good news is that after MaKenna had her first goal she seemed to get along just well with her equipment! Our weeknights are spent on the grounds of the school's athletic fields and Saturdays are spent traveling to games. Can't think of many other things that I would rather be doing. It is awesome to witness your kids having fun!
  

• An interesting factoid... my father emailed the following to me.

Bre has made the All Army female (6 members) triathlon team and Brooke has made the All Navy team. They will compete in California on May 27 with the top 6 of the 24 entrants qualifying for the World Championships in Europe. Both are very nervous since this is their first test in a big time competition. Neither expect to make the next stage but hope to use this race as a foundation for future races. Bre's lack of training due to injuries and other maladies will also hamper her. Husband and brother Jesse is fortunate that he will be at sea chasing the bad guys so his allegiance won't be visible !!

Bre is my youngest sister. Brooke is my sister-in-law, married to my youngest brother, Jesse. Now just imagine if my sister Sarah wasn't recovering from back surgery and had made the All Air Force triathlon team??? It never has really dawned on me, but out of my 4 siblings, 3 are active, dedicated members of our Country's armed forces in 3 different branches. I have a bil and a sil who also serve! Thank you to them all, for their service!

TGIF...We're ready for the long weekend!

"Thank Goodness it's Friday" was Connor's greeting to me this morning! His remark summarizes the family's general attitude about the upcoming long weekend! Connor's new favorite day of the week is Friday because he has his Indoor Lacrosse League games. Their team is 1-1 and they play the topped ranked team tonight. To say that Connor is pumped is beyond accurate. Rick caught him with his Lax stick in one hand and brushing his teeth with the other this morning. When Rick questioned him, Connor said "Dad, I am so psyched for tonight's game...that's all I can think about, and I'm just practicing my cradling with my weaker hand!" I reminded him, gently that he needed to "get his head in the academic game" [High School Musical relate...anyone?]first as he has a spelling test, etc. today! Moms are sooo boring!
It looks as though we will be able to get some skiing in this weekend. Rick and Connor went last night with the school and said the conditions were fair. It's been cold today so I assume their making snow too! Should be fun to see friends and spend the day outside in the fresh air. MaKenna is ready to test out the slopes and more importantly [to her anyway] is to "finally get to wear my awesome ski boots" [oh,they are white and they have flowers{pink, of course} on them].We'll have to see about Sunday as it is suppose to be frigid here. May end up being a day for baking some cookies for a certain Aunt who is deployed and a lonely Uncle as well. We may wrap up the long weekend with a Mom & Kids ski day on Monday!
It amazes me how busy our lives can be. Albeit that we tend to do this to ourselves it is nice when the schedule allows for some fun activities that we all can do together.
Hope that you all have a great weekend too!

Swooosh.....oops

Connor came home from school today and said that Ski Club was on for Tomorrow night [Thursday]. The weather here has been unseasonably warm and we weren't sure if the school would actually go down to ski at Swain or not. He seemed excited about going. We were wondering how he would feel about going this week after last weeks events.

Last Thursday Rick met Connor down at Swain for Ski Club and MaKenna and I stayed home. It was bitter cold and MaKenna had been fighting some type of bug. Towards the end of the evening while Connor and 2 of his buddies were riding up on the chair lift they had a scare. One of Connor's buddies who was sitting in the middle never quite got on the chair and did not say anything at the time so the lift continued to move up the mountain. As soon as the boys skies lifted off the ground he asked Connor and the other boy to help him get on. Connor and the other boy grabbed onto him and tried to pull him up onto the seat. Meanwhile Rick was boarding the chair lift behind them with 2 other friends of Connor's and noticed that the boys legs were hanging lower than they should. Rick yelled to Connor to hold onto him, then yelled back to the lift operator but didn't have any luck. Connor started to slip so he let go with one of his hands to grab the chair railing. The boys hands slipped and he fell over 18' to the ground. Thankfully he was okay. Rick said it was awful to see that happen and he felt very helpless. Connor told me that it was "the worst feeling to feel his buddies hand slip out of his grip and hear him scream the whole way down"! Poor kids and Rick!

I think they'll all be glad to have the opportunity to get an "uneventful" night of Ski Club behind them tomorrow night!

MaKenna and I will stay home tomorrow night too because the conditions aren't the best. We'll save our lift tickets for more ideal conditions. Hoping that we can all go skiing this Saturday for my birthday! Jess

I'm having a Flashback!

Some of you are for sure going to get a laugh or two out of this post.

You see, just a few moments ago MaKenna decided to treat Rick, Connor and myself to a "performance". We were all hanging out in the living room and in walked MaKenna and announced [not in her "indoor voice" either, I might add] that she wanted to show us something! I was told to stay seated, Rick was to pllleease stop using the computer and Connor "come on, I NEED to to pay attention to me!" On she went with her instructions and her pre-show routine. [Flashback starts... I remember something vaguely familiar from my childhood]MaKenna shared some of the songs & animated gestures that go along with the songs that she learned in music class today. There was the Spotted Penguin from Boca Raton and the Sleeping Bear song. We were told to "hold our applause until the VERY end" by MaKenna. [more flashbacks]The next part of the performance was the audience participation portion. I was hauled out of my seat and dragged over to stand in front of the couch, Connor "because he loves his Nerf b-ball hoop from Uncle Jesse and Aunt Brooke", had to stand under the hoop and Dad could just stay still and watch. I was told to sing "exactly" what MaKenna sang and when we sang about shooting one through the hoop Connor was to shoot and make a score. I was quickly lectured because I fell behind in the singing as I did not know what MaKenna was going to sing about next. [The flashbacks are getting really intense at this point] Next MaKenna launched into a full blown rendition of "You are the Music in Me" from HSM 2 [High School Musical 2].

I tried to capture MaKenna at her best but was having a hard time focusing because I was laughing so hard.

For those of you who grew up with me you are probably experiencing the Flashbacks now also.

For those of you who came into my life later down the road, I am sure you will relate as my "organizational" skills started somewhere. When I was a young gal, I too, like MaKenna liked to have performances. Oh, they ranged from gymnastics in the living room, to flying rope routines on the back yard rope swing, to belting out Andy Gibb songs and 8675...309999 at the top of my lungs. I, of course, co-hearsed my brothers and sisters, neighbor kids alike to participate. I have to say that IMO my greatest production was the Rope Circus that was held in our backyard. Sarah, Rob, the Alesia kids, Sarah's friend Tracy were the performers, I was the announcer [big surprise?]. We had music and had set up chairs for the audience. We invited our parents to watch, etc.

When MaKenna was directing us around tonight it was pay back!

Tata for now! Jess

Okay, now what...

Nice Candid of the Kids.

The excitement of creating this blog has not worn off but some frustration has set in. Just mildly annoyed at my ineptness[not even sure if this is a word] when it comes to adding links, other blogs, adding images behind my title and adjusting photo sizes. My " about me" photo is rather large IMO and I would love to down size it but have taken a temporary break from it as I can feel my blood pressure rising. So I am asking all the blog savvy people out there to help me with any suggestions.

Glad to see that my friend, Lynn has joined the blog world and as soon as I figure out how to put a link to her blog on my blog you can check it out.

I have gotten most of my pics in order and will start posting some of them soon. All for now, take care! Jess