Four Day Weekend

The kids are enjoying the last day of their four day weekend and I am going to try to get this done quickly in the midst of the chaos that surrounds me.   I hope that people read through all of my last post and it made people think.  Because that is why I put it out there-to get people to think about where they are with their relationship with God.  I saw a church sign on our way to Quincy the other day that said, "Friends don't let friends die without Jesus."  So true!

Last Tuesday was Tom's birthday, so we went out to eat at Coltons with Tom and Mary and Matthew and Kristin and their kids.  We had small group again on Wednesday and we are currently in a series about financial responsibility and it really makes us think about what we spend our money on.  Thursday was a full day.  I ran a few errands in the morning with the twins.  Then we went by my parents house to help my mom take a picture of  my Uncle Bob. He is being inducted into the Lineman's Hall of Fame and they needed a head shot of him.  He doesn't like to smile for pictures so they thought maybe we had the best chance of getting him to smile and I think we accomplished that.  Then it was home for lunch and nap times.  Jackson and Ellie had Little K after school and then Jackson had basketball practice later that evening.  We had new internet installed Thursday too and of course it was activated right while I was trying to cook dinner so I kept running down to the basement to work on registering our account and getting the wireless set up and going back up to the kitchen to work on dinner.  But I was able to get it all done, we ate a quick dinner, and Andrew started baths while I cleaned up in just enough time to run Jackson to practice.  On the way home from practice, Jackson and I were talking about sports and I asked him if he had a good practice.  He said it was good and then said, "My arm pits are sweaty.  They smell like olive oil." Then I asked him what his favorite sport was and he said I should know that answer-swimming.  So I asked him what his second favorite sport was.  I mentioned that it would break his dad's heart if it wasn't football, to which he said, "I'm not my dad."  He decided basketball was his second favorite so I told him he was like me-liking swimming and basketball.  But I said I also like cheerleading but it probably wasn't his thing even though there are guys who do cheerleading.  He said, "I'm not that type of guy." 

The kids didn't have school on Friday, so I surprised them on Thursday and told them we were going to Bonkers in Quincy.  My mom went with us and we got there just a little after they opened.  There were only a few other people there which was so nice.  The older three had fun playing all around the play area.  Miles and Bennett also enjoyed their little spot.  The both tried to climb up the slide for a while until we showed them the other areas they could explore.  We were only there for about an hour, but I wanted to get to lunch early to beat the lunch crowd.  We decided to go to Steak and Shake but think we would have been better off going to Kelly's.  It was busy and our waitress was pretty slow.  She was very nice and thought all of the kids were cute, couldn't believe they were all mine, but she talked a lot.  Therefore it took a while to get our order placed and to get our bill.  But I think overall the kids had a good time and it was a fun, quick getaway for us.

Andrew had a busy week as he has been prepping for a trial he has tomorrow and he would get up even earlier to go out to the ranch and cut ice for his cows before he headed to the office. He took the older three out to the ranch for a quick trip Saturday morning and got them back in time for Jackson's first basketball game. Andrew took him a little early since they had team pictures and then I brought the other ones for the game. Jackson has definitely improved over the years and he was even trying to break out some spin moves as he was going up for some shots :-). He made several baskets and is getting better about remembering to stay on his guy for defense.

Going for the fast break

I woke up Saturday not feeling very well. But it was so much better than what a lot of people are getting sick with these days. I was just very tired, dizzy, short of breath and a little achey. Andrew offered to stay home during the afternoon so I could rest but I told him to go ahead to the office since the twins and Lincoln were both down for a nap. I planned on resting but kept finding things to do-clean the windows since it wasn't too cold outside, clean the floors (kind of useless since the twins are constantly getting them dirty), sweep out the garage, and finish all of the laundry. So needless to say, I didn't rest but it felt good to get some stuff done. That evening we headed to my parents because Kaitlin and Zane were in town. We enjoyed some soup for dinner while Kaitlin and Zane got to go to dinner and a movie. I started feeling worse as the evening wore on so I went straight to bed when we got home and Andrew got the kids bathed and to bed. But I was feeling better the next morning so we went to early church and then I went grocery shopping. I told Andrew that we could just eat some soup at my parents for lunch when I got home. I guess there was some miscommunication because I was planning on him feeding the kids at home and when I got home it looked like he did because the house was a disaster. He was in the middle of cleaning something off the couch and he gave me a little smile and said something about things quickly going down hill. I think he was on the computer and the babies had free reign of the kitchen and emptied stuff in the pantry and cabinets making quite a mess for him and he didn't notice it was going on for a while. But the got it cleaned up while I put away all the groceries and then we went to eat. That afternoon he brought the twins home to nap while I stayed at my parents and worked on stuff with Kaitlin for Owen's upcoming birthday. We had dinner at my parents again that night and then Ellie and Lincoln had a sleep over with them. I guess while he was there, Lincoln decided he wanted to be president. Actually, he confuses himself with President Lincoln. In Quincy, my mom was pointing out the hotel that President Lincoln stayed at during a debate he did in Quincy and Lincoln said, "Is that where you saw me?" He thinks that when Andrew and I went to see the movie, Lincoln, that it was about him :-) Well Molly sent me a couple of his "campaign" pictures they took last night.

So today has just been trying to catch up on some stuff around the house and doing some stuff on the Silhouette for Owen's birthday. I switched out the high chairs for the twins. We got them some simple, smaller high chairs from Ikea for them to use. They are only taking one bottle now before bedtime, so we don't need the reclining high chairs for bottles anymore. Just this weekend I switched them to a regular breakfast instead of a bottle and it has gone well. I learned how to quickly make scrambled eggs in the microwave using Egg Beaters and they like them along with some pancakes or waffles. It always takes a while to get all of their mess cleaned up though. They are fun to watch though. Miles is walking more all of the time and they both like to ride on their little John Deeres.

And one last picture of Lincoln all decked out and ready to skate.