around the world

this is cute

love this idea for wall clock and below for book case.

sometimes overseas you can find the neatest things. here is were i found these.

i liked purple...she likes purple

funny how when i was a kid and people would ask what my favorite color was.... i'd say purple and now when my daughter buys things (or i buy for my daughter) she usually goes with the color purple

i'm getting anxious

chuck & i get to go to keystone, colorado in a couple of weeks with a bunch of couples, kid free...(not sure i should be so happy about the kid free part, but hey there is so much adult time to be had without them, no offense kids if u see this. it's just, they never like the adult restaurants we like, or the adult site seeing we like so we tend to do what they want to may them happy, and this time we get to do what the adults want to make us happy )i've been looking forward to the break and the time away as it has been awhile since we've left this small town we live in, to go on an adventure.

the hotel resort we are staying at is pictured above and of course i will have tons more pictures when we return to post.

good times.

weekend plans...

we will be moving this weekend..wish us luck

my little track star...

i pick brooke up from track practice the other day and our conversation starts off like this...

brooke: "mom today in track i beat 2 of the best runners"

me: "you did, wow"

brooke: "yeah, they tripped"

she CRACKS me up...

that's how i usually win most my races too, when everyone else falls down.

then i have a chance.

dear God, thank u for my kids and the funny things they say.

i often have more time on weekend mornings to cook something hot for our breakfast...

we had french toast with blackberries with little powder sugar on top(for energy) this Saturday am.

having to be at work by 7am monday -friday the kids are neglected with a warm breakfast far to often...usually they grab anything in sight as they head out the door to school, like pop tarts, cereal bars, bagels whatever we might have hanging around. that is why on Saturdays i try and get my butt out of bed and make them something fresh and warm for breakfast. and they know this now, so when my feet hit the floor and they hear this they immediately say "mom, i'm hungry......kids these day are so demanding....

have you tried orange sweet rolls by pillsbury in the tube

they are delicious!

some weekdays if they are lucky i get up early to make these

before running out the door to work...

it makes them happy and me almost late.

here is orange sweet rolls made fresh out of the oven

kids have good sniffers too. so if you have one(a kid) that has trouble getting out of

bed for school,

when these come out it's like they smell their way up fast.

Happy Weekend

i'm going to spend mine packing some more:(

Cool Cakes....

this has to be the coolest cake ever.....ever!!! if you had a wedding in autumn...so perfect!

{almost worth getting married all over again just for the cake...ok and maybe the guy too}

Life changes...

So we found out last week we sold our home and although we are really excited we are a little scared as we have to be out in couple of weeks. Did I mention Chuck is gone for those two week with the guards...Kids have been GREAT help so far. i'm just thrilled our house has sold, but scared about next couple of weeks.

Also last week, our town received bad news when a star high school football player died in a car crash in his first year attending college. Your can read about it here
School has been cancelled tomorrow so everyone can attend the funeral. His father is Brooke's science teacher. So please be thinking and praying for this family tomorrow. Life is precious.

My boss informed me that her son's ex girlfriend is missing since last Tuesday as well. They have found her vehicle in parking lot but no sign of her yet. She is beautiful and you can read more here

Lots going on last week....hoping this week brings better news....

Boys & Bruises

i don't think this boy is ever without a bruise. i think it comes with being a boy....a busy boy. i noticed this big one on this arm and asked "Brady what happened" he said "when i fell in basketball this kid stepped on my arm" which to him it was nothing. i guess this is one of the differences between raising boys to girls.....they have more battle wounds.

5:00 am start...

today we were up at 5:00 and on the road by 6:30 for our final boys basketball tournament in north platte. we started by having the boys meet at our local watering hole to take a head count so we left no player behind.....Here is few photos of them showing up and waiting for the rest of the team before we take off.....

local watering hole

Brady looking up as he is being dripped on by the left over snow melting off the roof

arrived at north platte just in time for our game @ 8:00 boys were ready and excited to get this game underway. It turns out we lost the first game by 7 points and boys were pretty down. after a two hour wait to play our next game they were getting fired up again and ended up winning that game, and the game after that! finally we were final two teams and the boys ended up playing the first team they had lost too and won it by two points.....just love those nail biting close games were i'm about to jump off the bench screaming at times....

brady getting ready to guard his man

what a good day it was and a good way to end the basketball year. our little boys take first and made us all proud.....

congratulations 5th grade ogallala boys! u done good.....




brady exhausted by the events of the day

the moments we capture...

every time i see this photo it makes me smile...i mean why wouldn't it??? it has three of the most important people to me. it also tells a story of a time in our life. a time that was happy and hard all at the same time. a time when we all had to pull together to help each other out day to day because life as we knew it was changed. he had been called to Iraq for 15 months and this was the day 7 months after he had left he came back to visit. boy were the kids excited. we picked him up at the airport after not seeing him for 7 months. and all of us could not stop hanging on him. this was at a Mexican restaurant in Denver after we reunited. and the kids could not sit close enough to him throughout the whole meal. i was on the other side across the table completely being ignored by the kids and it felt good........ the hard part is we only had two weeks before we had to send him again to the call of duty for another 7 to 8 months and it sucked. (no other way to put it) i thought several times about kidnapping him or accidentally braking his leg or some part of this body so he wouldn't have to return but as the finally days neared to his leave ending i realized this is what it is and how it has to be so again we said our goodbyes and prayed that the next months would fly by. and looking back they did, but at the time not so much. so looking back at this picture it makes me happy and reminds me how hard it is for me and so many others who are still there or coming and going. it affects us all.

kids in front of dad's flight that just pulled in....

and when we sent him back all that was left to do is move on with him thousands of miles away, so we did....we worked, went to school, clean, slept, ate, cried, joked, laughed, cried some more and we definitely supported.

kids at parade to support their father while overseas......

wow! see what you can get out of a photo....lots of love, emotions, memories, joy, hardship, lost time that you can't get back.......

i'm going to take more pictures!!!