Happy Easter a week late!!!

Emily took this photo of me and Al. She did pretty darn good!! We even color coordinate!! ha ha! That was totally unplanned and there was no time to change!! Al's just not into matching!! Ha!! I think we look good!!


Casey in our Church garden next to the statue of St. Francis. He started out with a vest and tie, so handsome, but soon went for this more relaxed look!! Still adorable!!! Carter posing in his cool duds!! Love my good looking boys and their fun poses!! Life wouldn't be complete without all of the craziness!!
Side note: Emily made this dress mostly all by herself with a little help from Grandma Lucille!! She wanted to make her Easter dress so there you go. And she is planning on taking it to Fair this summer for 4-H!! Go Emily!! It was beautiful and perfect just like you!
The Iowa City Cousins were home for Easter and went to church with us!! Actually, we were late, go figure, and the kids sat with them and Al and I sat alone!! That was different!! And then this morning we heard a funny story...When Father Brunkan was dispersing Holy Water on the congregation he saw Carter was not with us, but on an end, and he walk up and thumped him on the forehead!!! So funny!! We just love him!! I wonder if Carter didn't catch the joke at first, because he never mentioned it!! Maybe he thought he was in trouble for something???!! Too Funny!!

We had some 4-wheelin fun on Easter and I'll put some pics of that up eventually!! What an awesome day!!

70 Degrees

So a friend of mine told me that when she was growing up they had an indoor/outdoor thermometer in their house and they were taught how to read it at a young age. The rule was that if it was below 70 a jacket was required, but 70 or above you could take said jacket off...You were in big trouble if you were caught without a jacket below 70 degrees.


In my current house, I guess 70 degrees means swimming suits!!!!!!!!!!!!


This is what they were supposed to be doing...

This is what they did...


Happy Spring!! Thank goodness for 70 degrees!!!

Me and Al

15 years ago on the Saturday before Easter, Al and I went on our first date. I paid because I wanted to feel in control. At the end, I walked him to his truck to borrow his Tim McGraw CD; I was nervous he was going to kiss me and I was playing with his windows and door locks. He did kiss me and then the door to the truck shut and his keys were locked inside with the truck running at 1 a.m.!! We had to find a hanger to get him in his truck, thankfully it worked as I lived 30 minutes from his home and spare keys. I never did give the cd back.

These pictures are so totally me and Al - circa 1995...

5th & 6th Drill Team

Emily was in the second row 1st on the left. A performance for spirit night for our school. She loved it and wants to be on drill team when she gets older!! Such a little dancer!

I am trying to run

What?? You say...running??? You??? Are you crazy???!!! Yes!! I am! But you already knew that.

A friend of mine was talking about doing this couch to 5k program she found online, and I thought I should do something like that. You must know that the thought only crossed my mind because I do feel like I need to be more heart healthy not because I wanted to actually run. Everyone always says, oh you don't need to exercise, you have 3 kids. Well, 3 kids don't really ever get my heart rate up. I couldn't race from a building to our parking spot, that's how out of shape I am/was. So I thought, Hey, wait a minute. If I do it with her, then I have a buddy to help keep me going! So I said let's do it ! And here we are at the end of week 5 of 9 weeks!


I want to call what we are doing running, but I feel so funny using those big words: you know, run and training. I don't feel like some athlete now or anything. We meet and "run" together 1/2 hour 3 times a week. We listen to a podcast that tells us when to walk and when to run. The real test will be if I can continue after we actually try a 5k and the program is over. I am trying.

I did talk to an actual runner last night; she runs 2-3 miles 3-4 times a week and mentioned what I was doing and she said, "Good for you! It's hard!" Wow, what a nice thing to hear. Even a runner thinks its hard. I don't feel so bad, now.
We're on our "weekend two day break" right now. We'll be back to running 10 minutes at a time on Friday!! Oh boy!! Wish us luck!

Another Birthday!

I can't imagine, but my big boy is 8 years old!! Wow!
As soon as we all woke up in the morning Carter wanted to open presents. I even let him open one the night before. No patience! *smile* He was good about letting Casey be there and helping...
Then Carter had 3 friends come over to play wii and eat supper and cake and then we headed to a Waterloo BlackHawks hockey game.
Everybody gathered around the Yoshi cake! Thank goodness my mother in law is so artistic and good with cakes!! Yoshi was awesome! Thanks Lucille.
The best part of the the whole party was when Carter realized that the candles were still lit even though he'd blown them out at least twice!! Hilarious! Belly laughing the whole time!! I'm lovin it!! Everyone pitched in to help Carter blow out his candles, but we eventually had to wet them to get them to go out.

Al's parents came to the hockey game with us along with Carter's friends. The BlackHawks didn't play very well, losing 3 to 1, but a fun time was had by all!!

Happy birthday big buddy! I love ya to pieces!

A Getaway

This winter has been long!!! I do believe just about everybody is tired of snow.

Anyway, Al and the kids and I decided we needed a break. A couple of weekends ago, on a whim, we got out of town. A little Getaway so to speak.

We didn't really go anywhere warmer, in fact we went north! Go figure! But it was different scenery and a hotel room with a pool!! So we pretended it was warm. Sunday a.m. we were waiting for a shoe store to open so I could get the right size of running shoes, I tried them on with the wrong socks....don't ask....

There was a park in town and some open water. I was amazed at all of the ducks!! Al and the kids stayed in the van while I snapped some shots.
We went to Cabellas and the kids thought this ice sculpture was cool.
And we got these huge beef sticks...


I didn't take any pics in the pool cuz I was swimming too!! I can't wait to play in an outdoor pool!!!

By now the snow is starting to melt!! Yea! Come on Spring! Mud and all!!!