Another New Family Member!!!

Okay, this is the last announcement like this for a while -- at least as far as I am aware!!! I don't think there are any more babies due in the next 9 months or so!!!

Our niece, Shunda, gave birth on Tuesday, September 16, 2008 to a healthy baby boy! He weighed 6 lbs. 12 0z. and was named Kendrick Jr. Shunda and family live in Little Rock, AR and Shunda is the daughter of CJ's sister, Helen. Hopefully we will get to see the little guy next summer when we go to visit!!! Congratulations, Shunda!!! (P.S. Send some pics!!)

Happy Birthday to Me!!! (and Marla!!!)

My birthday was actually on September 15th, but I haven't had time to get on the blog until now to post it!!! I actually got to celebrate my birthday over a span of a couple weekends!!! First, Brianna and I went home to Laurens the weekend of September 6th to see my mom and take some clothes to my Uncle Bill's daughters!!! CJ had to work and Zach had football, so it turned into a "Girls Weekend"! Mom took me out to eat for my birthday - we went to Spencer and ate at The Sports Page, which is a lot like an AppleBee's. The food and drinks were great!!! Thanks, Mom!!!

When the actual day of my birthday came, CJ and the kids and I went out to eat at Chili's -- the food was good, but none of us were able to finish our meals! We ended up bringing home leftovers!

Lastly, I got to go out with my friend, Marla, and celebrate!! Marla is one of my best friends from high school! We reconnected again a couple years ago, when we found out that we only live about 40-45 minutes away from each other!! Marla's birthday is September 17th, so we try to get together and celebrate. This year we met for drinks at Beano & Sherry's Casino in North Sioux City! It is always great to get together and get caught up with each other' lives, but the times together always seem too short! Hopefully we will be able to continue this "tradition" for many years to come!!! Happy Belated Birthday, Marla!!!

Clean-Up Day(s)!

With the kids back in school, I have been tackling projects around the house that have been put off for way too long!! On the last day of summer vacation, I had the kids clean out their dresser drawers and closets... any clothes they didn't want or didn't fit, we took to Goodwill or gave away. Now they have room to put their clothes away when the laundry is done, instead of letting the clean clothes pile up in the laundry room!

With fall just around the corner, CJ and I also cleaned out the shed in the backyard. Since we have patio furniture now for our new deck, we need somewhere to store it for the winter! CJ and Zach took a whole truckload of "junk" out to the dump - pieces of the old deck, small pieces of leftover wood from the new deck, etc. We also got rid of a console TV that didn't work anymore and was just taking up space, lots of empty boxes, two bikes... the list goes on and on! I bought some heavy duty plastic shelves and we put them together and put all of CJ's tools, such as the miter saw, chain saw, leaf blower, hedge trimmer, etc. on that. Then we hung hooks from the ceiling rafters for the remaining bikes and hooks on the wall for the shovels, rakes, hoes, etc. Now there is lots of extra space for the patio furniture and whatever else we want to put in there!

I also decided to clean the hall closet on one of my days off last week! What I thought would be a two hour job turned into an all day job! Well, about 5 hours anyway!!! I threw out two garbage bags of old shampoo, soap, hair products, candles that didn't smell anymore, rumpled up gift wrap and gift bags... I also found all kinds of lightbulbs that we could never seem to find in there when we needed them! Though this project took me all day, I was quite proud of the outcome! Hopefully this closet will stay this way for a long time! (Yeah right... who am I kidding??!)

Our last "project" was last Sunday... cleaning out the basement storage area. Again, lots of garbage and a whole truckload went to Goodwill! It feels so good to gets these spaces cleaned up! Of course, it is just going to be room for more junk to be stored and then we will have to clean all over again eventually...

Zach's Football Update

Zach has been having an AMAZING season with football this year!! Even though his "official" position is Offensive Lineman, Zach also plays Defense and Special Teams! Right now, the East High Freshman football team is undefeated! (5-0) The score recap is as follows:

East vs. West 39-0
East vs. Yankton, SD 30-10
East vs. North 30-13
East vs. Sgt. Bluff-Luton 48-14
East vs. Heelan 14-0

Of the five games played, Zach has been named "Defensive Player of the Game" three times!!! He is averaging at least two quarterback sacks per game and no less than 5 tackles!!! We are quite proud of him! There are six games left of this season -- let's hope the wins keep on coming!! (Yes, I know I still need to post a picture!!)

Brianna and Her Soccer Woes

Brianna actually had her first soccer game back in August, the weekend before school started! She had an awesome game, scoring two goals and her team won 4-0! However, since then it has been all downhill. Her team has played four more games since and haven't won any. They haven't even been able to score a goal! Needless to say, their "morale" is a little down and now all they look forward to is the end of the season. There are two games left... hopefully we can score at least one goal and boost their spirits!!

Football Days (Nights, actually!) Are Here Again!!

Zach is playing football once again! He is on the Freshman Football team for East High, playing as an offensive lineman. He also plays defense quite a bit, so he doesn't spend much time on the sidelines! Their first game was Thursday, Sept. 4th against West High, a local high school rival team. Zach's game are in the afternoon right after school, so it is hard for CJ and I to get to see the whole game, however Zach's team did win, 39-0! Zach took quite a few hits from the looks of the bruises on his body!!

First Day of School

Thursday, August 21st was the first day of school here in Sioux City. Brianna started 3rd grade and Zach is a freshman (9th grade) in high school! I think both of them were pretty excited to be going back... mostly to see all their friends again! Brianna kept waking me up throughout the night -- three times to be exact! First time, she wanted to let me know that she was just going to the bathroom... second time she needed a drink because she was hot, and the third time she woke me up at 4:15AM wanting to know if I should have been up getting ready for work yet!! She said she couldn't sleep because she was excited about starting school that day!! Her first day of school went well -- she really likes her teacher, Mrs. Bliven, and almost all of her friends are in her class, so she is happy. Zach's first day went well, also. Freshman only went for a 1/2 day in the morning so they could have the whole high school to themselves and get used to their surroundings and find their classes, etc. The only complaint Zach had was that he wished all his classes were on the same floor!! I have posted a picture of Brianna on the first day of school, but I didn't get a picture of Zach... I had to leave for work before he was ready for school and then he had football practice after school and didn't get back home until after 6PM -- all sweaty and "stinky" too, so we didn't get a picture then either! (I will post a picture of him in his football uniform at a later date!)