Pioneer Days

I forgot to blog about Brianna's pioneer adventure at the end of the school year. Her class went to the Adams Nature Preserve and spent the day attending the one-room school on the grounds out there! They had a blast! They got to dress like children dressed back in those days, and learned the games they played in the past! They even had to pack a lunch and it could only be foods that were around back then -- no Capri Suns or fruit snacks, etc.! -- and not even sandwich baggies or brown paper sacks! Only baskets or pails!! And a tin can to use as a cup!! I did get a picture of Brianna before she left for school that day:

All-Stars 2009... Softball

Brianna was elected to the All-Stars team again this year! They played on a cold and drizzly Thursday evening... but they won!!! Here is a photo of her team when they received their gold medals!!!

Fourth of July 2009

Hope all our friends and family had a wonderful Fourth of July holiday!! Ours was nice and quiet... until dark, anyway!! We were supposed to visit friends in Omaha for the weekend, but with all the "running" we did every weekend during the month of June, we just decided to stop and breathe! We stayed home and did a little bit of stuff around the house, but mostly just acted like couch potatoes!! It was GREAT!!! We did catch the fireworks show after the baseball game that night, and the ones throughout the neighborhood!! There were so many fireworks going off that the streets outside seemed really foggy from all the smoke!! Thinking about all the money being spent on those fireworks has me realizing that I'm in the wrong business!!! HAHA!!

Here Comes the Bride...

As most of you know, on Saturday, June 27th, my sister, Jenny got married!!! I now have a wonderful brother-in-law named Matt added to the family! He is much closer than that, though... more like a real brother!! He also brought three children into the mix, so I also have two new nephews and a niece! The wedding took place down at the Anderson Dance Pavillion along the riverfront. The wedding party consisted of me as the maid of honor, Jenny's daughter, Sydney, and Matt's daughter, Alyssa, as bridesmaids. On the groom's side was my brother, Derek, as the best man, and Matt's two sons, Lucas and Noah, as groomsmen. It was a nice small ceremony with the reception and dance held immediately after. Thanks to all the family and friends that travelled and attended -- it was great to see everyone and share in that special day! And a special thank you to Robin Goree for all the wonderful pics from that day!

20 Year Class Reunion!! Woo-Hoo!!!

Who can believe it has been twenty years??! It sure didn't seem like it when we all gathered that weekend!! We all just picked up where we left off like we had never been apart! Nobody had even really changed that much, (especially Bailey!) and it was great to reconnect with everyone! Out of the 38 in our graduating class, 21 of us attending throughout the weekend -- not a bad turnout! Hope we can stay in touch and don't have to wait another twenty years to get together!

The reunion weekend took part over two days. Friday night consisted of people arriving into Laurens and getting together over drinks at Rumors Pub downtown. Even some upper and underclassmen joined us to kick off our weekend! Saturday morning consisted of a "Fun Run" around the town, but the name was changed to "None Run" since no one showed up! Only Greg, our class president in charge of the reunion, and his wife did the run! It wouldn't have anything to do with anyone "overindulging" the night before, would it??! A tour of the school was scheduled for later that morning... by then, some of us were up and about and able to make it to this! It was fun to see all the changes and remember all the fond memories when walking through those halls! It was really nice that our tour guide was one of our former teachers, also!

Golfing took place in the afternoon, and then our social hour/dinner was that evening at the country club. The weekend flew by way too fast! I am posting a picture here, but if any of you are on FaceBook, you have seen plenty of them and the good times that were had that evening!!

Couples Party!!

CJ and I threw a "couples party" for my sister and future brother-in-law on Saturday, June 13th. Since both of them have been married before, they didn't really want to have a wedding shower or the bachelor/bachelorette parties, so we opted to do this. We invited just a few friends to join us at the Castle Pub for food and drinks with the soon to be married couple! Here is a picture of those who attended:

RIP Lucas Krieg 1986-2009

The poem on the back of the obituary says it best...

May I Go?

May I go now?

Do you think the time is right?

May I say good-bye to pain filled days

and endless lonely nights?

I've lived my life and done my best,

an example tried to be.

So can I take that step beyond

and set my spirit free?

I didn't want to go at first,

I fought with all my might.

But something seems to draw me now

to a warm and loving light.

I want to go. I really do.

It's difficult to stay,

but I will try as best I can

to live just one more day.

To give you time to care for me

and share your love and fears.

I know you're sad and afraid,

because I see your tears.

I'll not be far, I promise that,

and hope you'll always know

that my spirit will be close to you,

wherever you may go.

Thank you so for loving me.

You know I love you, too,

that's why it's hard to say good-bye

and end this life with you.

So hold me now just one more time

and let me hear you say

because you care so much for me,

you'll let me go today.

Okoboji Vacation 2009

It's that time of year again! We always enjoy going up to the Lakes and relaxing and visiting with friends and family that come to visit! CJ and I celebrated our wedding anniversary while we were there, and we also managed to make it to Arnolds Park before heading back home! Here are some pictures!:


Brianna fishing with dad:


CJ and I on our 13th anniversary:

Zach (in front!) racing CJ in the go-cart races:

Brianna and her cousins on the log ride:

Brianna and I taking a self-portrait:

Brianna swimming in the lake:

Ponca State Park Overnight Trip

This is our final camping event as Brownies! And what a blast we had!!! (Minus the two thunderstorms, of course!!) We took our Brownies girls to Ponca State Park in Ponca, Nebraska to do some overnight camping... in tents! Five adults and fifteen girls... equals one big party!!

Upon arriving to the State Park, we stopped at the Visitor Center to check in and get directions to our campsite. The girls had fun checking out all the cool history of the river and the area around the park. We even went down to a look-out spot and viewed the river and surrounding hills through the telescope! Pretty cool stuff! Rounded everyone back up into our cars and headed to the campsite next to set up. It was way down in the "boonies"... no cell phone reception unless you went to the top of the hill where the bathroom were located! Even then, it was somewhat spotty!!! The girls played in the playground next to our campsite while we set up the tents and got the fire going to cook our supper. Each girl got to cut her own potatoes and make a potato pouch to put in the fire, along with hot dogs on skewers. We also had watermelon and were looking forward to smores later around the campfire! After supper, we sat around the fire and sang songs, told stories, and listened to thunder rolling in! We decided to hurry up and do the smores before it started to rain... once we got everything out, the rain burst out from nowhere... an immediate downpour!!! All the girls went running for the tents and the adults tried to salvage what we could from the campsite! Needless to say, the smores were ruined from the rain! Luckily, we also had a huge bag of popcorn that we passed from tent to tent to share! Once this storm quickly passed, we decided to just stay in the tents and visit until "lights out" at midnight. We were woken up again about 1:30am with another thunderstorm, this one being louder and longer lasting than the first. Took about a half hour before it passed over and moved on...

Woke up early to start cleaning up the campsite from the storms the night before... everyone took shifts going up to the bathrooms getting dressed, etc. then we all gathered together for a breakfast of bagels, bananas, and granola bars. After breakfast, we took our tents down and packed them up. We then split the girls into two groups... one group went horse-back riding, while the other group painted birdhouses and did a nature scavenger hunt. After about an hour, the two groups traded so the second group of girls could go horseback riding and the first group got to do the crafts and the scavenger hunt. I think I speak for everyone in saying that the horseback riding was the highlight of their whole trip!!! We had some girls that were scared to get on the horses because they have never been on them before, but with a little coaxing, an excellent park/stable staff, and some VERY patient horses, everyone was begging to ride more!!

After all these activities, everyone had worked up an appetite, so we had a picnic lunch of cold meat sandwiches and chips. Next thing we knew, it was time to pack up and head back home! My how the time flew! We had so much fun! We definitely have to do it again sometime!!! Here are some pics of Brianna from the trip:

Broken Oven...

At work, we have what's called "PTO Time", which is personal time off that you use for vacations, holidays, sick days, etc. We earn so many hours per pay period, but once you reach a certain "cap" (in my case, 240 hours) then you need to start using more of it or else you lose some. You can earn any more hours until you have used some up!!! Since I was getting close to this "cap", my boss suggested I take a few days off... just to get me by until I took my vacation time in June!!! Do you think he heard me complaining???? Nope, just the sound of the door slamming as I ran out of the place before he could change his mind!!! HAHAHA!!!

Since I had three days off and the kids were still in school, I decided I would make a list and get all of these "spring cleaning" tasks out of the way. First thing on the list was to spray sealer on the deck, since I have been anxious to get our patio furniture out and use it! Then I wanted to paint the porch area -- the paint has been coming up over the years from scraping it with the shovel in the winter. The list also included such tasks as: plant flowers around the deck steps; patch holes in bathroom wall; clean out Brianna's room and make room for her summer clothes in her dresser; clean out the kitchen; clean the oven... the list was actually quite long!

I got up early the first morning of my three day "hiatus" from work! I wanted to get the deck done before the sun got too far up in the sky and it was too hot! I took the broom out to sweep these seed/pod thingies off the deck -- I also had to use a screwdriver to get them out from the cracks of the floor boards. It took me about 30 minutes to work my way from one end of the deck to the other... and when I turned to look back at my work, what do you think I saw??? More of these seed/pod thingies!!! AAGH!!!! I then realized that the wind was blowing these things out of the neighbor's tree faster than I could keep them off the deck... which meant I wasn't gonna get to seal the deck until these things were done falling from the tree... ( and I was mad, because I had just got done waiting for the other neighbor's "cotton" from his cottonwood to quit snowing all over our yard!!) About this same time, I am realizing that I can't paint the porch either for the same reason, and I can't plant the flowers until the deck has been sealed... seems my list is growing shorter right before my eyes!! Since I couldn't do any outdoor stuff, I went and started on the indoor things. I patched the holes in the bathroom walls -- only took about three layers of spackle!! I also decided to start cleaning the oven to get that out of the way so I could enjoy my other days off!

While I am wiping the oven cleaner from the top and sides of the oven, my rag somehow gets stuck on the top heating element. I am trying to get it off and end up giving it a good yank -- the rag comes off, but I also hear a popping sound and when I look up at the digital display on my oven, it is blank -- not a good thing. Not sure what to do next, I went ahead and unplugged the oven from the wall and finished cleaning it out. Once I was done, I plugged it back in to see if it would start working... nothing... dang it!!! By this time, CJ has come home from work and I have told him about it. We check the breaker box in the basement and see that one of them is off - when we turn it back on, the digital display on the oven starts working!! My stove top also starts working, but the oven still won't work. CJ calls several appliance repair places and they all said that we would probably need to replace some electronic control board located in the back of the oven. They also told us that some boards can cost more than what the oven did when it was purchased 4 years ago... YIKES!! Since we were planning on going on vacation in less than a week, we decided to wait until we got back to deal with the problem. We still had the stove top, a microwave, and a toaster oven to use so we could manage.

About two days later, I went to use the timer on the oven and accidentally hit the BAKE button... and the oven came on!! So I put a roast in and watched it cook the whole two hours it was in the oven -- no problems!! And no problems ever since! Not sure what the problem was or why it started working again on its own, but glad it did before we shelled out the money for something we obviously didn't really need!!!

As for the rest of the things on the list, they didn't get done!! That first day was such a bad one when nothing went right, that I just decided to spend the next two days getting therapy... retail therapy!!! Shopping is way better than cleaning any day!!!

Court of Awards Ceremony

The Court of Awards Ceremony was held on Friday, May 15th. This was Brianna's final ceremony as a Brownie Girl Scout!! On this night, she "bridged over" to Junior Girl Scouts, along with the rest of the girls in her troop!! YEA!!!

Here is a picture of Brianna "bridging over":