State of the Family #42

 Things have finally seemed to calm down a little bit around here!

We are getting into a groove and I am finally not forgetting everything because I am so out of whack.  Kind of sad that it took me a month to get to that point though.

Noisy Man and Miss Firecracker got to start AWANA a couple of weeks ago.  It is a program at our church for leading kids to know, love and serve Christ.  So, every Sunday night they get to hang out at church, play games and memorize Bible verses.  It is such a great program. 

Mommy has play practice just before AWANA starts so I drop them at their classrooms and I have been using that time to go run!  I am absolutely loving this weather.  Miss Thumb Sucker and Daddy get to just hang out during that hour and a half, I think they have fun too.

We also went to Grandpa's house for the weekend and headed up to Nebraska City to pick apples!  We are so very bummed that our local place we usually pick tons of apples from had a bad year and doesn't have any apples to pick.  So, we opted for a smaller version of our annual apple picking fun.  The kids still loved it and we got to meet up with Grandma Susan and Cousin D to pick and ride the hay rack as well. We picked a peck of apples (10 lbs) which is probably just a 10th of what we picked last year.

That night mommy and daddy got to go to the Nebraska football game.  It was the first time we have been to a game since college.  We had a great time with our fabulous friends who invited us to come.  And best of all the Huskers (barely) pulled out a W.  It was a bit hairy at first.  :)  It was also very awesome to go to the game that commemorated the 10th anniversary of September 11th since daddy and I were at the game the Thursday following the attacks in 2001.  Very emotional.  The alumni band even played some of the same songs it played that very night.  I remember being in tears back then, and it, again, brought tears to my eyes this time. 

Noisy Man and Miss Firecracker's school had homecoming last weekend, on what seemed to be the coldest day of the season so far.  We went to the festivities, games and supper that the school holds before the game.  Mommy had to help out with the PTO booths.  The kids had fun playing games and winning silly prizes and best of all getting all sticky with the gourmet lollipops.  We opted to skip the actual football game and just went over to our friend's place to roast some smores and let the kids play.

This past week has been pretty uneventful, other than an awesome turnout at our first MOPS meeting and some potty training for Miss Thumb Sucker.  She did great the first week other than a few accidents, had a couple of rough days in the middle and is doing great again today. 

One rough moment that is quite memorable happened when I was expecting some MOPS moms over for some help assembling name tags and centerpieces.  Miss TS and I were in the basement to get some things out of the printer when I to run back upstairs to send another project to the printer via the laptop which had a dead battery (thus was plugged in upstairs).  Of course, it took me a bit longer than I planned and in the process of sending it one of the moms and her daughter came to the door.  Upon hearing people at the door Miss TS came to the bottom of the stairs which can be viewed from the entryway of our house.  Well, we see Miss TS at the bottom of the stairs, covered in poo.  Oh dear!  It was quite the ordeal.  There was no just cleaning this one up.  It was a throw the clothes in the wash, throw the toddler in the bath type of mess.  I am so thankful that the mom who came is also in the throws of potty training and flowed with the punches!  Oh the fun!

And I will end there.....

Corrupted

Time for another book blog.

My most recent read was "The Corruptible" by Mark Mynheir.  I am struggling with where to place my review on this one. 

I really liked the plot.  A cop, Ray Quinn, is forced to retire due to an on-the-job injury that ends his career.  He then starts up his own private investigation business.  He receives a case with a paycheck his new business desperately needs, but seems to be quite shady.  A high level investment company has lost some valuable information, expected to have left their building via a dirty ex-cop hired to work security.  Ray is hired to find the other ex-cop, one he had worked with when they were both on the force. 

Before Ray can really begin his investigation, the dirty ex-cop, Logan, ends up dead and the information completely vanished.  Thankfully, Ray still has great ties with old police force and works alongside them to solve Logan's murder and try to find the satchel which carries the drive containing the valuable information. 

In the midst of his digging, Ray discovers the company he is working for, isn't exactly straightforward with their dealings and the information that is missing is more valuable than just confidential client information. 

The thing that really bugged me about this book was the fact that the author had Ray chasing Logan's dirty past more than what was really going on with the company.  To me, it was quite obvious that the missing satchel wasn't taken by someone tied to Logan's history, but to the current company from which it was taken.  So, much of the run around in the middle of the book annoyed me.  However, I never saw the ending turning out the way that it did, so I give the author kudos for that creative twist.

Overall, I'd give the book about an 8 out of 10.  It kept me reading and wanting to find out the ending.  Plus, it had a great message through another character involved with Ray and his firm. 

I received this book for free from Waterbrook/Multnomah publishers for my review.

State of the Family #41

So much going on.  So little time.  Here is where I get myself into trouble.  I go too long in between my posts and then I totally forget about everything we did in that time span.

There was school starting, of course, and Noisy Man got his own special post on how mommy had such a hard time letting him go.  He is still loving it, thankfully.  And mommy is adjusting to having him gone everyday.  I said "adjusting" not "liking it".  He loves getting to take his own lunch every now and then, running on the track, and reading.  It drives mommy nuts that he never remembers the names of the kids he plays with during the day, so I am clueless as to who is getting to play with my boy while I can't.

Poor Miss Firecracker didn't get her own post for her first day of preschool... sorry about that.  Mommy, again, cried, but at least made it out of the building before starting the waterworks.  Well, I can't really say that.  I first shed the tears on the way to the school, but collected myself and then kept them in until I walked away.  She was so ready to go, when I picked her up to give her one last hug goodbye she yelled at me to put her down.  I also cried when I went to pick her up.  I dropped her off my baby girl and when she came running out of her classroom after a morning of preschool, she looked so big.  I shed a few quiet tears as she ran towards me and gave me a big hug.

I thought Miss Thumb Sucker would be lost without her two older siblings around for 4 mornings per week, but she has barely missed them.  I think she is loving having reign of the house and not having someone bossing her around all the time.  I was a little worried that she wouldn't play by herself very well if there were times I needed to be getting things done, but I was wrong once again.  She is probably the best of the 3 of them at playing by herself.  Probably because she never really gets to and loves not having someone take her toys!

Other than school busyness and adjusting to those schedules we really haven't been up to too much.  Daddy tried to go on another fishing trip, but the trouble maker he is, got kicked off the lake after 2 days.  Seriously.  This poor guy rarely ever takes time to himself and when he finally does and plans a nice 4 day fishing trip, he gets sent home.  OK, so it was really due to toxic blue green algae levels being so high that they closed the lake to all activities, something rarely ever done, but it sounds better if I say he got kicked out.  They were actually having good luck too. 

Mommy and Daddy have been having some great times without the kids lately, which is rare.  We got to go to the Casting Crowns concert in Lincoln with some good friends, and for a fun weekend away with some other good friends.  Both were a lot of fun. 

Our weekend away was to Kansas City where we 'scoped' out the new Schlitterbahn's water park with Daddy's childhood best friend and his wife.  We told the kiddos we were checking to see if it was a good place for them to go or not (thankfully, they bought it).  We had a blast even though it was a chilly 78 degrees with a cool north breeze.  And who knew you could burn to a crisp while you were freezing.  Most of us came home with pretty good sunburns. 

Daddy and I are convinced we are jinxed when it comes to hotels though.  After our catastrophes on our last hotel stays, we had another couple set backs this time too.  The hot tub was only lukewarm which was majorly disappointing after you'd been freezing cold all day and we didn't have any hot water in our shower in our room.  We had to go to another room to shower.  Seriously, if you ever go anywhere with us, don't let us book the hotel room.  Something is bound to go wrong. :)




We are looking forward to a fun weekend full of apple picking and Husker football!!