Taking a Deep Breath!

Okay, so the kids just left for school in the big, extended van with our neighbor Anne, and three of her six children. Wow, and I thought my life was chaotic! Sigh! I now have 4 hours of uninterrupted time for me! First on the agenda is to get this blog post cranked out.

Zach had his first Cub Scout den and pack meetings last week. He looked so handsome in his little uniform. We had quite the melt-down about the button-up shirt - lots of tears and kicking of the feet - but after he found out his best friends would be wearing the same uniform, he gave in. That is him on the right, with his good friends Aidan, Sammy, Cole (and Sammy's little sister, Maisy - she is never very far from Zachy B!). Zach is most excited that in a few years the cub scouts will learn about pocket knives. Like father, like son, I guess!

Emma's soccer team (The Banana Splits) played on Saturday morning - and shut out the other team (The Penguins) four to zero! She was a star at goalie - nothing was getting past that girl. It did help that daddy was on the sidelines near the goal making sure she stayed awake! Loved her dance moves when she thought no one was looking! Hilarious!

On Sunday night Emma had a softball game. Don't ask me what the score was - it is way to hard to keep track! It was a pretty evenly matched game. The highlight was Emma as pitcher! She did a great job - once she got over her jitters. Her pitches were controlled and straight - they just don't always make it over the plate. Now we just have to work on getting her a little more power and she will rock!

Update: Emma received a 100% on her bug project! Way to go Squirm! I will post a pic of the "bug picnic" later this week.

I am now off to clean up and start working on the many unfinished projects that litter my home! Now that I have some extra time, my goal is to complete at least one unfinished project a week. Keep your fingers crossed for me. My project this week is to complete the recipe books that I started as a gift for my sister-in-law last Christmas. (I was sidetracked when my inkjet printer decided to give out on me. I really need to replace it, but haven't taken the time to do the research.) Anyway, I will post a picture of the completed project later this week - that should keep me honest!

Have a great week!

J9

Chaos, Chaos Everywhere!

I realize I have once again not been very punctual with my blogging - and I intend to fix that. In a perfect world I would blog every day - but this is definitely not a perfect world and you all would get tired of hearing that much about all of us Billings here in Kansas. So, I'm shooting for once a week. Let's see if I can reach my goal this month!

We are well into school now, and things have been going really well. I think better than we expected, especially for Zach. He was very nervous about starting, since his two "best friends in the whole wide world" got a different teacher. But, he has risen to the occasion and is shining in his new classroom. We are lucky to have scored two of the best teachers at Walnut Grove this year! Of course, Emma always shines. She just finished her "bug project" and has to turn it in on Thursday. I will share pics later in the week. It turned out really cute - and I promise that she did most of the work herself - even though it doesn't look like she did!

We had an awesome Labor Day holiday. We traveled to Beaver Lake with our friends, the Rogers and the Crofts, and had tons of fun boating, swimming, eating, drinking and playing games. The Rogers and Crofts introduced us to a new game called "Center, Left, Right" that was a blast. Roger and Joni were the big winners. Next time you are at our house we will teach the ins and outs of the game! Thanks once again Joni, Tim, Sammy and Maisy for a great weekend!!!!!

This past weekend we were able to hook up with Roger's friend from Graceland, Todd, who was in town with his Florida Atlantic women's volleyball team. We haven't seen Todd in about 6 years - so it was great to catch up! We picked up Richard (another of Roger's friends from Graceland who we also haven't seen in a while) and headed down to UMKC to watch some volleyball and hook up with Todd. We all decided that Todd hadn't changed much at all - except for maybe a few new gray hairs that weren't there before!

Saturday night we headed out to our friends Tammy, Austin and Savannah's house for a party. Friday night was Treads and Threads - a benefit for the KU Med Cancer Center. The friends and family of Cary Martin have raised over $30,000 to support this great cause - and so Tammy had a tent at the event and was able to invite 42 guests to enjoy an evening of music, food, and drink in honor of Cary. Unfortunately, Rog was out of town until late Friday night, so we were unable to join in the festivities - but we got to hang with everyone at the Martin's on Saturday night and laugh at all of the fun stories from Friday night. There were lots of friends and family in from out of town. It is so cool to see all of the people that Cary brought together in his life. His smile and laughter are so deeply missed.

We are gearing up for a rainy weekend - hoping softball practice, soccer games and softball games are cancelled and we can hibernate for a few days! I am really just kidding - we love to watch our kids at whatever they are doing!

J9