Monday brought some unseasonably warm temperatures in the
mid-80s, but it was also super windy. The soccer club that Ellie and Lincoln
play with decided that Mondays would be Uniform Monday and the kids are
supposed to wear their uniforms to school to promote the club.
That morning, I did my first time of helping out in
Lincoln’s classroom. I’m going to help out for around an hour or so on Monday
mornings. But this one, I only get to do around ½ hour before I had to leave
for the twins’ field trip to the fire station. Lincoln was so excited for me to
come though, so I went ahead and just did it for the half hour. I helped a
couple kids with sight words out in the hall while the rest of the class worked
on other stuff. Then I met up with the twins’ class at the fire station. They
had two pre-K classes and the kindergarten class there. The twins were very
excited to see me and stuck with me most of the time. After some talk on fire
safety, we moved out to look at the trucks and then they got a call. So the pushed
everyone up against the wall, got all ready to go and pulled two of the trucks
out. Some kids were excited, some were nervous and some were scared. But they
were back in about 5 minutes, so it wasn’t a big deal. They got to see one of
the guys all geared up so that they wouldn’t be scared if they saw them in a
fire. Then we went through their living quarters and back out to the trucks.
The twins kept wondering where their dog was-that was their main concern J.
Andrew decided to attempt a ride in the afternoon. He
thought if he could just make it through the wind on the way out, he could get
going pretty fast with the wind at his back. But he gave up after several miles
as the wind was blowing him around everywhere and he was afraid of being blown
off the road or into traffic. I opted to run on the treadmill inside while
watching Project Runway. I made an early dinner that night and then Andrew and
Jackson were off to football and I later took Ellie and Lincoln to soccer
practice. Lincoln did manage to pull another tooth out before we went.
The wind had died down a little by then. The twins played
outside while I picked up stuff that had been blown around and took down our
outdoor curtains. Then when Jackson got back, I took him to the YMCA to meet
his basketball coach for the upcoming Y ball season and then we went to pick up
Lincoln and Ellie. We had to wait around a while, but at least it was warm
outside. I just visited with Leah and Amanda.
The winds had calmed down by Tuesday so I went out to the
lake for a bike ride. There was a wind out of the north though, which slowed me
down a bit. Andrew went out for a similar ride a little after I did. It was a
beautiful day, so the kids were anxious to get outside when they got home. But
first we made a stop by Dollar General to pick up some stuff for s’mores that
night. Lissy decided to get Mexican and we thought we would just eat it at our
house and then do s’mores. She had a photo shoot until later, so I went ahead
and dropped Jackson off at his first basketball practice and then Lissy got
there a little later with the food. Andrew got the fire going and we eventually
made our way out to make s’mores. Alex saw the fire going earlier in the
evening, so he joined us too. And my parents came over also.
Wednesday morning was much cooler and cloudy. It definitely
felt more like a fall day. I cleaned bathrooms before dropping the kids off at
school and then went for a run. I decided to go for five miles and it went
pretty well. My pace still isn’t too outstanding but it will do. And I still
get odd aches and pains for the next couple of days. I got home and rushed to
take a shower and get ready. I’ve gotten pretty good at doing all of that in
about 25 minutes. Then I was off to the store. I got Aldi done quickly but Wal-Mart
took me a little longer since I had some random things on the list. And soon I
realized I wouldn’t make it to pick up the twins in time. Thankfully, Andrew
was able to pick them up for me and I was able to finish my shopping. When I
got home, Andrew told me that the Lifeflight helicopter was coming to Faith
Lutheran at noon if I wanted to take the twins back. I decided to go ahead and
go for it. We got there and had a few minutes before we started hearing the
helicopter. I think all but the oldest classes came out to check it out. The helicopter flew overhead and circled
around a couple times which the kids loved. Then as it was landing, it was
blowing leaves everywhere and the kids were all laughing. Then it was time to
wait in line to go through the helicopter. By the time we got through, the
twins were ready to go as we still hadn’t had lunch yet. That evening, Ellie
and Lincoln had soccer practice but that was it, which was nice.
The next morning, I had my bible study at the house. It was
our first actual discussion over the study we were doing and it went pretty
well. I do hope we can get more people contributing to the discussion and I’m
excited to see everyone grow. That afternoon, Ellie and Lincoln had K-Life so
Andrew picked up Jackson after school and then he went for a bike ride. Then
they went to basketball practice while I picked up the kids from K-Life and
dropped Ellie off at dance. Thankfully, the twins were done with soccer so we had one less practice to go to. We were going to my parents for soup, so we didn’t
have pizza as usual and Ellie was missing eating her quick dinner in the car in
between activities. So we decided to have her come to my parents in between
classes to get something to eat instead of staying. Andrew dropped off Jackson
at K-Life after his practice and then came over to my parents to eat. He enjoyed
the warm chili after a cold practice. It was kind of sad to think it was he and
Jackson’s last football practice together though. Next year Jackson will move
on to school-coached football. Andrew took Ellie back to her last dance class
and took the other kids home for baths then I picked up Ellie at 8 and Jackson
at K-Life after that.
Friday was catch up day. We kind of got off to a rough start
though, so I made the kids some cookies to surprise them. I also worked on some
packing for Disney. The twins admittedly watched too much Paw Patrol. They had
just discovered it since getting cable TV back. So they watch TV for a bit,
then run cars and trains all over the house, tackle each other and wrestle
around, get in a fight, I break it up and then we start all over…with some
snacks intermixed. We didn’t have plans Friday night, which was nice. I got busy packing for Disney. I knew the next
several days would be pretty busy, so I wanted to get a jump start on it and I
got our main bags mostly packed. I think I will be able to pack us all in two
checked bags along with a couple backpacks to carry on.
Andrew went out to the ranch to check his cows Saturday
morning. I made a couple desserts for the K-Life dinner, got ready and then
took all the kids but Jackson over to my parents’ house. They went with them up
to Pella for Lola’s birthday party. Jackson had a basketball game and two
football games, so the rest of us stayed home. I did my grocery shopping and
met Andrew and Jackson at the Y for his basketball game. It is a small 5th-8th
grade coed league. The teams are pretty small and they play 4-on-4. It isn’t
too intense, which is actually kind of nice and a good way for Jackson to get
some practice in before the actual season starts after Christmas.
After the game, Andrew and I went for a bike ride while
Jackson thoroughly enjoyed having the house to himself. We went on what was a
new route for me and did right at 25 miles. But we had to get back quickly
because Andrew and Jackson had to be at the first football game at 2:30. I didn’t
have to get there until the game started at 3:30, so I got ready and made the
icing for one of my desserts. Then I went to the game…all by myself. It was so
odd to not have any kids running around, hanging on me and asking me questions.
I did sit by Andrea and we got to chat most of the game. Then after the game, we
went home to let Buddy out and then we picked up some food from the DuKum and
ate it in the parking lot at the field. Their next game was at 6:30 and it was
getting a little chilly by then. They ended up winning both games and while
Jackson didn’t have any outstanding plays, he did what he needed to do, played
smart and hustled. It was a bittersweet night as I was happy to get a break in
our schedule but it was also the end of Andrew coaching Jackson in football. He
really enjoyed doing it and definitely had a lot to offer. And Jackson appreciated
having his dad as a coach-if he was on the sidelines, he was usually standing
by his dad.
The rest of the kids got home around 9:30 and the twins were
a mess. They were both crying and had a cough, so I put them both in the
shower. The crying settled down a bit, but got better when I said they could
sleep in my room on the floor. I wasn’t sure if they really weren’t feeling
good, so I thought it would be better to have them with me rather than crying
in the middle of the night upstairs.
Sunday morning, Andrew and Jackson had to return the
football equipment. Later that morning, they all went out to the ranch. They
explored an old school house which they decided was haunted.
While they were gone,I got busy working on stuff for the
K-Life dinner. We had thought about having it at our house since the numbers
weren’t going to be quite as large. But Laura and I were a little slow in our
emails and I didn’t find out until about 3:30 that we would be having it at our
house. I did do some cleaning earlier in the day, so that helped. Heidi called
just right after I found out that we were having it at our house. Her birthday
was on Friday and we had been playing phone tag ever since, so I felt like I
needed to take the time to talk to her. I worked on ironing a table cloth and
pulling out the table while we talked. Then I had to let Andrew know we were having
it at the house. He was out on the mower, so I had to wait until he was done.
He decided it would be a good time to clean his bike though…actually he had
already started it and just wanted to finish. After he was done, he went and
picked up some benches at my parents and some soda and ice. I had Jackson and
Ellie help around the house. Some of the windows were looking pretty grimy and
the grass needed to be cleaned off outside. I put both leaves in our dining
table and then brought up another table so we were able to seat 20 in the
dining room with another 8 at the island. And since it was nice, we made sure
that patio was clean so they could eat out there too. I put out runners of
brown kraft paper and used some of the centerpieces I have used at the Fall
Festival. Even though it was hectic at the end, it came together pretty well.
The food was all ready and still warm. It was nice to not have to load it all
up and it was also a good trial run to see how the new layout fit a larger
group of people. They all showed up a little after six and everything went
pretty smoothly from there. The kids were free to play, which was nice, and the
volunteers all enjoyed eating a home-cooked meal and visiting. Andrew and I got
talk with some of them and they really are a great group. It was all finished
by 7:30 and the clean up was too bad, I guess because it wasn’t a bunch of
little kids. Andrew and Jackson helped get all the chairs and the table leaves
downstairs while I cleaned up dishes. Most of the food was in the big aluminum
steamer pans which made clean-up so easy. I’m glad it turned out well and we
were able to serve them for all they do for our kids.
No comments:
Post a Comment