Winter Ball

Saturday was an insanely busy day that started after a late night of hemming a dress. We started with Emily's 9:00 AM soccer game followed by shopping for a birthday gift for Olivia to take to a sleepover party. Next up was Lucas' soccer game at 1:00. Back at home I did an amateur photo shoot of Emily in her gown for the Senior Ball. (Her ex-boyfriend is a Senior and since they already had tickets they went together). At one point Emily and I were racing in the truck chasing the setting sun. We went a few miles out of town up over the hills to get to a look out over the Tanana Flats and the beautiful mountains. 

The first shots were in our yard. It was -20* and she was freezing. 

The next group is at the pull out.

 (It almost looks like a fake background).

And these are on the way home.

This is the lovely young man, Ryan, who took Emily to the Ball. What an exceptionally kind and gifted kid who will definitely do well in life. I'm really going to miss him. I imagine the next boy will have saggy pants, a crooked hat and I won't let him in the door. The night finally ended at 3:00 AM after post-dance breakfast at Denny's with a busy Super Bowl Sunday the next  morning. 

Running.....

I stay up late. Too late. I am a night owl like my mother. My father was early to bed, early to rise like my husband is. Emily had an 11 o'clock soccer game that we almost slept through. Crazy! I don't have  photos. You know teenage girls... "don't photograph me" "you're so embarrassing" "why don't you have photos" "you love Lucas more than me". Teenagers are exhausting and my mouthy daughter is double!! 

But she had a game and they won. Or tied. There were a lot of goals. 

We grabbed something to eat and then went to Lucas' 1:00 game. At 12:50 it was discovered that his shoes were at home and he was wearing boots. Our house was 25 minutes from the gym. Impossible. Quick thinking I ran a few blocks away to Walmart to the clearance rack for a pair of tennis shoes. SO happens the price was mismarked. The clearance price was supposed to be $5. The original price was $11.57. They were ringing up $12.87. I tried so hard to just pay the highest price and leave, but noooooo.... we had to go find the rack and see what they were listed as. (Listed for the $11... still should have been $5.....). Wasting 8 precious minutes she saved me $1.30 walking down the aisles. Have you ever seen a really fat woman running from Walmart to her truck? It's not pretty. And if you see me circling the Internet, please, let me  know.

We made it back and Lucas played in bright new non-soccer cheap-ass tennis shoes. 

The second half he played goalie which is his true love. I think that this summer I will try to put him in some goalie clinics and see if this is a position he wants to pursue.

After soccer it was a mad rush home to drop off Olivia (Lucas went with Dad after the game to check the heaters at work) so that Emily and I could make it to a Cheer Meeting. We got to see video of the competition and the trophies they won. It's really amazing when you consider this gym is in it's 3rd year with a limited base of kids to chose from competing against well-established gyms with so many more athletes who get on stages like this almost weekly. To think our little gym brought back two 2nd place trophies and one 1st out of the seven teams that traveled.

Emily's Senior II team was invited to an end-of-the-year competition based on their excellent performance. Only the best are asked to compete. It's only a $100 per athlete fee. The catch? It's a $1000 plane ticket to Rhode Island from Alaska. What the hell?? I live in undoubtedly one of the most beautiful states in the country, but we are so isolated that it is ultra expensive to leave. How will I raise that kind of money between now and May 2?? (And YES I have to go. I have dreamed of the East Coast forever!!). Anyone out there want to sponsor some travel, airfare mileage (maybe it could be a several flight sponsorship hopping us from here to there), a meal... feel free to contact me. This is going to be tough.

Anyhow... after the meeting I ran Em home to grab Olivia to go to the fabric store. When we got here I found my husband sick. He had a slight fever, chills, pounding head, congestion. There have been some nasty flu's, etc.going on around here (in your part of the world, too? I don't watch the news... sorry). He's safely tucked into bed, but I worry when he gets sick with his other health issues (I'm not allowed to talk about).

 Pray that he doesn't get worse. Thank you.

A Full Day

Today was a full day. Once I got going. I got Elijah up at 6:20am and then Nick up at 7:20. By 7:30am I went back to bed and didn't get up until 10:45am. Ug! The dark in the mornings has me in hibernation mode.

Lucas is "reading" his "map" for the cookie cutter ABC's.

Remember the drawers I cleaned out? Well, here's the hats and gloves left over. Sorted and took care of that mess. The blue one? It was Nick's when he was five. That makes it a 12-year old hat. (I don't get rid of anything, do I?).

Got the air hockey table cleaned off and then moved behind it. Tents, summer stuff, totes of toys... things deposited and not taken care of.
The only thing I left was a tote full of games. (Until we are done building and there are shelves I'm going to store stuff in totes where it can stay clean). Hope to get the boys to move the freezer outside this weekend. It is blocking a door we could be using.


Olivia stayed home today. She cried all night and pretty much all day today, too. The tooth on our right is being pushed out by the adult tooth. Apparently, she either has a low tolerance for pain or it is really painful. She hasn't eaten for two days now. I feel so bad for her. (Her top teeth really aren't black. The only thing she has had has been a little grape kool-aid so that is what you see.) She won't even close her mouth and sucks up her saliva noisily rather than swallow. I sure hope that thing comes out this weekend. If not Monday it is off to the dentist so she doesn't starve herself. She did about 12 pages out of her homework book today. I think it was the only way she could keep her mind off her tooth. And on top of that.... growing pains in her legs. She's just a mess.

Look at all that stuff. Can't wait until my husband has his shop and the shelves are moved to it and not in my to-be living room.
I have totes of rain gear and rubber boats. You know, just in case.

Oh, here's where the gloves and hats ended up. In baskets on top of the drawers. And that is a pile of stuff to go upstairs or outside. About half of it got taken care of. The totes of toys have to wait until I go make room for them.

Took some time to make homemade potato and ham soup. It was my first time and it was so good. I think I could get into making soup!

I put the green on to finish up this Irish flag hat for Nick. Then I quickly made the black and white hat for Ladarius (he's on the boys' basketball team and asked if I'd make him a hat, too).


Then I was off to a 9:00pm game. Lucas went with me and cheered for his brothers. It was so cute. Look at the sweat on Elijah. Those boys were working hard. The kid Nick is defending was a huge ball hog. His team had more talented players than we did, but this kid would not pass the ball. He took the shot at least 12 times in a row when I quit counting. If he would have been a team player they would have beat us, but he wasn't and we won by 15.


No exciting photos tonight, but I like this one because it has both of my boys in it. Their one time to be on a team together. They have no idea how much it means to me!

Well, we're sneaking up on 1:00am pretty quickly. I have lots of stuff I'd like to do tomorrow plus the boys have two games! My days are full. I'll be glad when it's full of fun and not work! :)

Happy 11th Birthday Emily!!

Happy Golden Birthday to my sweet dear Emily!! She's now 11 on the 11th. Here's a few more follow-up photos to the previous post from the birthday party Saturday and Sunday at Chena Hot Springs Resort.

The first group of girls headed for a short ride. They were all so excited about the horses. Emily has been on a horse once and none of the other girls ever had.

After the ride we went back to our rooms...we had two huge rooms with 4 doubles and 4 twin beds!! We ate pizza and then headed to the pool. They also sat in the outside hot tub in the 30* windy weather.

After a couple of hours they were hungry again so we went back to the rooms for more pizza and cake.

Nick picked out trick candles and we were all laughing so hard at her.

After cake she opened her presents and then we went back to the pool. I finally drug them out at 11:00pm when they went back to the room and giggled until 1:00am.

It was a slow morning so we began the day with lunch down at the restaurant. (Lucas is under the table hiding from the camera).

You can see the snow creeping down the hills behind the resort.

After eating we walked down to the dog yard to see the puppies. There weren't giving rides since there isn't snow for the sleds and it was too icy on the trail for the carts.

After petting the puppies we took the kids into the Ice Hotel. All the bright photos are taken with a flash and the dark photos are what it really looks like when you are standing in there. It's definitely crisp and cold!

Emily said it was the best birthday she's ever had. I'm so glad!!

Tonight we are having another small gathering at the house for her birthday with family. I threw up all morning (something upset my stomach?) so I'm way behind. The boys will be home in a couple of hours and I'll get their help. After getting Olivia to school we ran to buy cupcakes and dropped them to Emily's class. Then Lucas and I went shopping at two stores and now we are back home. It's time for me to get moving making snacks for tonight's gathering at 5:30 before we run off to a basketball game at 8:00. Busy days!

Oh, and is snowed a couple inches last night, the roads are horrible and winter is officially here to stay!