Annoyed....

Tomorrow is our anniversary. It's been 11 years! To celebrate we're going out to dinner with the Hodapp's who are also celebrating tomorrow. We've been looking forward to it all week!

I decided that I needed something new to wear, so Matt met me at the mall after work, we had dinner and then he took the kids home so I could shop in peace. Guess how much I bought??? NOT ONE SINGLE THING. ZERO. ZIP. NADA. UUUUUUGH! I couldn't find one thing I liked, so I came home empty handed. I won't even give you the list of stores I went into! So frustrating!

Anyway, about 45 minutes ago Andrea called. She was on her way to Dahl's and wondered if I needed anything. She then goes on to tell me that Colin had been running a fever (102 to be exact) since yesterday and she needed to pick him some more Tylenol. Then she happens to mention, as an afterthought, that my kids were outside playing with them all night while I was shopping. WHAT??? I love her to death, but come on... We're going out to dinner with THEM, and if my kiddos turn up sick and we can't go, I'll be *slightly* annoyed!

Lil' swimmer

Today the kids and I went to Ashby Park with a bunch of friends and had a wonderful time! We packed a picnic lunch and the kids splashed around with their friends for several hours. It was so much fun, and such a beautiful day!!

It was also Andrew's first trip to a pool, and wow.... he had a blast! He was in awe of all the water, and squealed non-stop for the first hour! Much like Katherine, little Andrew has no fear. He was crawling all over the place, racing for toys and splashing like a crazy man. He was all smiles!

Since keeping up with Andrew occupied 100% of my time, I didn't get any good pictures of Katherine, Caleb or Morgan (my niece who was also with us). However, I was able to get some of Andrew. So -- on to the good stuff -- PICTURES!!

Here's my little man getting his first peek at the water!

Starting off slow --

All smiles and loving it!

At this point, the camera had to be put away. He was splashing so much and crawling all over the place, that there was NO WAY I could take care of him and not get the camera wet!

After a fun filled morning of swimming, we pulled out our picnic and ate lunch. After Andrew was finished eating, he started playing with the cooler.... pulling things out, trying to eat the ice packs and standing up beside it. All of a sudden, he falls -- FACE FIRST over the top and lands with his face on the cement. I was right there. However, in that split second, I couldn't grab him. Oh man did he have a good cry. He could hardly catch his breath at times. The poor little guy was left with a horrible rash all over the side of his face from the cement. UUUUUGH! I feel so badly for him!

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Today it dawned on me -- Katherine starts school in three weeks. THREE WEEKS. Where did the summer go? UUUUUGH. It seems like school just go out, and now the kids are almost ready to go back. I hate it! So, we are making the most of every day, and trying to fit in everything we want to do before Aug. 24th....

Tomorrow -- Adventureland here we come!!

favorite

I took a couple hundred photos at Matt's mom's family reunion over the weekend, and just finished uploading them.

Here's one I *love* of Matt's dad and Andrew. Definitely a keeper! More to come....

A little teaser...

This Saturday we went to Mapleton for Matt's mom's family reunion. I took a million pictures and will post them soon. I still haven't downloaded them to the computer but hope to find time tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Sunday dinner

Dinner tonight was .... aaahhhh, should we say eventful???

We decided to take the kids to our favorite Mexican restaurant for some of the yummiest chips and salsa on the planet -- literally, it just doesn't get any better than this place! It's the perfect place for kids -- immediate chips and salsa, not overly quiet, great service, and really quick. Oh yea... the food is incredible too!

What should have been a nice family dinner left one child (Caleb) almost removed from the dinner table, another one (Katherine) in tears, and the last one (Andrew) screaming in a high pitched squeal that I was certain would crack the glasses on the table. Matt and I could do nothing but laugh at each other!

So.... here's how it went down.....

Caleb was pill for some reason. That's right. TOTAL. PILL. First he broke his straw trying to shove the entire thing into the styrofoam cup. We asked for new straw and thought we had the situation resolved. Then he decides that the table would be a perfect drum and starts banging his silverware as loudly as possible. UUUUGH. At this point, Andrew starts squealing as loudly as possible. He opens his little mouth and starts yelling. Not crying. Not fussing. Not wanting to be held. Just screaming. His face was red. He had drool flying all over the table. He was quite the sight. I dropped his plug on the table and for some reason (we all know he couldn't have been thinking clearly) Matt dips this pacifier into his glass of orange soda and shoves it into Andrew's mouth. Evidently he was trying to clean it off... Oh man... did it work. Andrew sucked on that thing like it was pure heaven! A few minutes later, Caleb got bored again, and starts drawing on his styrofoam cup with the fork. UUUUUUUMMMM... hello.... he's about to poke a hole in the cup and spill soda all over the table. Great... Oh, and yea.... our food hasn't even arrived at this point.

All of a sudden, I look at Katherine and say to her, "I know exactly what you're thinking and totally agree, but leave it alone. We can't discuss it here". Matt's at loss, and asks for explanation. I tell her not to say anything and we'd tell dad when we got to the car. But, oh no.... Katherine can't let anything just be... Nope. Not my little princess. She has to point across the restaurant and say in a rather LOUD voice, "Look at that lady over there -- the one with fuzzy springing headband. SHE LOOKS RIDICULOUS". I just wanted to crawl under the table. Thankfully she didn't hear Katherine's comment, but man... she did look absolutely insane. Remember those headbands from back in the 80's that had glittery balls attached to springs that would bounce all over the place when you moved your head?? Well she had on one of those numbers along with a sun visor. Oh, and she was older than I was. I had to bite my tongue to stop laughing!

So, dinner comes and Caleb refuses to eat. Evidently his beans are too hot and he has to wait for them to cool down. Whatever. At this point, whether or not he eats his beans is of supreme indifference to me. I really don't care.....

Katherine downs her food and while she's waiting for us to finish, she grabs onto the the back of the booth and starts using it as a piece of gymnastics equipment. She is sitting normally, and reaches her hands up as high as she can and sits in a pike position with her butt off the seat. Don't ask. There are very few moments in life that aren't consumed with gymnastics in one way or another. In any event, the decorative wooden spindles attached to the top of the booth can't hold her weight *GASP* and break apart. That's right, she totally broke the top part of the booth. She's horrified, in tears, and holding two small wooden bars.

Oh, I'm ready to get home. Talk about a disaster. I could have just died.

So home we went -- to the comfort of our home, turned the sprinklers on, and invited two of our 'hood friends over to hang by the fire pit. So ... 8 kids, 6 parents, and a water fight later, we're all happy again and everything is right with the world! LOL.

Cops...

UUUUUGH. I hate 'em. I really do. I won't bore you with my million reasons why right now, but I have smoke coming out of my ears. I am soooo ticked.

So -- guess what happened....

I got pulled over ON THE INTERSTATE, for not having a front license plate. That's right, on the interstate with three kids in the car. $74 dollars later, and I'm on my way. Bastards. Really.

Big news -- she's TOPS!!

For those that don't know what TOPS stands for -- join the club, neither do I! However, this I DO know....

One year ago, Katherine was taking gymnastics at Urbandale Dance and Gymnastics, and had a coach she loved, but unfortunately the club wasn't able to give her all she wanted. She needed a program that could fully support her dream, would push her to her limits, and was really focused on competitive gymnastics. Her coaches at Urbandale told me to take her to Chow's, and between August and November, Katherine was in gymnastics classes three nights a week (two nights at Urbandale and one night at Chow's in their kindergarten class because they make you start on the recreational side). Remember this post where Li took Katherine into the gym and "tried her out" for TAG (Talented and Gifted)???

Since that night, we've pulled Katherine out of Urbandale, and she has continually gotten stronger and more confident and is finally at the point again where she's begging for more... By "more" I mean ... learning more skills and getting more gym time. She wants to move up. Her TAG class is nothing more than a stepping stone in her mind. She's not satisfied just making TAG; she'd be in that gym every night if it was possible.

So with that being said, I've been trying to get her into private lessons for the past 6 weeks. Unfortunately, it's not as easy as it was at Urbandale. At Chow's, only certain coaches are allowed to give private lessons to girls on TAG and higher, and most of them are either full, running the gymnastics camps, or simply not doing them this summer. Talk about FRUSTRATING!!

Well -- the waiting game is over! Late this afternoon I got a call from Chow's. Coach Nicole (who was her coach this fall) is going to take her Saturday at 2:00. WONDERFUL! Talk about music to my ears!! Katherine can't wait, and is soooo looking forward to getting some extra time in the gym working on new skills. After we got done talking about the private lessons, she went on to tell me that Li would like to invite Katherine to join TOPS! OMG! Talk about making a little girl's week!! She is elated!! This is a BIG DEAL and a tremendous honor!! At Chow's, before you make Level 5 and officially start competing against other clubs, you have to make it through TAG, TOPS and then finally pre-team. It's all pretty hush-hush. No one knows exactly what you have to do to be asked to move up or how long you "should" be at each level, it's more just Li's gut feeling. She decides when you're ready, and ultimately IF you're ever ready. From what I know, most kids are in TAG some where between 12 and 18 months. Katherine joined TAG in November. She starts TOPS on Monday night, and her new class is 1.5 hours twice a week. She's loving the fact that she'll be able to spend more time on each event.

When I got off the phone and went to tell Katherine, she broke into tears. She was so happy, so relieved to be moving up, so absolutely overwhelmed and giddy... She was on cloud 9 and didn't stop doing handstands for at least an hour.... literally. One full hour of handstands. Oh, and I got the honor of timing her -- 13 seconds was the longest of the night! LOL.

Matt showed up a few hours later from work with a little celebration of his own -- steaks which are her fave food and flowers. Oh man - if there's one thing this little girl loves it's flowers!! We're going to get her a new leotard as well, but will wait until the new Chow's ones are ordered. After all -- why get just a plain leotard when you can wear the Chow's one "loud and proud"?? LOL!!

AAAAHHHHH, I'm so proud of her..... so happy to watch her live her dream, so thrilled that her hard work is paying off, and so in awe of her relentless determination. She doesn't quit. She refuses to give up. She pursues her dreams with a single mindedness that most 6 year olds don't possess. I know I've said it before, but as a mom there is nothing better than watching your child live their dream. It gives me great satisfaction that she has found something she loves and is finding success along the way. Today -- she is absolutely glowing. She is radiant. She has a smile on her face that nothing can erase. AAAHHH....