end of summer

The summer is starting to wrap up. Today was our last visit to the pool for the year. We went for almost two hours this afternoon. This was Mikes first and last visit of the summer. I had a pretzel which made my summer complete, the only thing that would have been better is if Jess would have been there with us! Jess and I love a good soft pretzel and diet coke from the Gator's Den! I love those small things in life that make us so happy.

After we got cleaned up we went to the store. We had planned on grilling out until Cort and I saw the fried chicken. We had fresh fruit, cucumbers and potatoes wedges with our chicken legs. Yummy! Cort said that he felt like a king enjoying his feast.

Iron-Quest Steve

Our Investment Representative at our Bethel Branch, Steve Kinch is participating in the IRONMAN this weekend. Check out his Blog, he rocks! http://iron-quest.blogspot.com/
http://ironmanlive.com/events/ironman/louisville

The Results for STEVEN KINCH - Bib 2027

SWIM - 1:19:49

BIKE - 7:06:35

RUN - 6:29:44

OVERALL - 15:16:54

U ROCK Steve!!

Good Morning!

Day three of school is here. I am awake, but not ready to get up. I am watching Jon and Kate Plus 8. For some strange reason I LOVE this show. Kate gets crazy! http://www.sixgosselins.com/

My alarm just went off again, snooooooze…

Yesterday was Monday; I went to work to find out that I was scheduled to be off. Oops. I decided to stay and take Wednesday off instead. I already had my makeup on, hair done, clothes ironed. I am glad that I stayed; I was busy for most of the day. Mom picked the kids up at extended care and then picked me up. We went to Panera Bread for dinner, it was YUMMY! Mike has class Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this semester.

I asked Cort the normal "how was your day at school, what special did you have, who did you set by"? He loved his lunch, chicken and corn. No specials and he sat by the new girl. He can't remember the new girls’ name, but she did try looking at his math paper. He wasn't having that; he covered his answers with his blue folder. He is funny.

I think that I am going to take a power sleep for next 11 minutes.

2nd Day of 4th Grade!

My Cutie Patootie on her second day of the fourth grade!

Gracie

Gracie drove her first BMW!

New Duds!

School went very well today. No homework!

Tonight Claudia and I went to the mall with mom to help her pick out new curtains. We found the curtains and Claudia also found these... A pair Chuck Taylors with bright pink hearts! Too CUTE! She can hardly wait to go somewhere to wear them. Yes, those are two different socks! Kind of reminds me of my childhood favorite, Punky Brewster!

She loves, loves, loves the show ICarly, on Nick. Sam from ICarly wears Chucks, crazy socks and layered shirts. http://icarly.com/

Back to School!

Today was the day, the first day of school! I don't know why I just can't believe that Claudia is in fourth grade. It feels so weird... She was a little nervous, she was cute. Today was pizza day, if only it was no-cheese pizza day.

Hmmm....

I am thinking that it's time to change the background of my Blog... Too bad I have to be at work in 1 hour and 28 minutes. In the morning I take the dog out, get a bowl of CEREAL and jump on the computer for a few minutes. My norm is check my email, the weather, newspaper, and some how I ended up here this morning. I guess that I should start thinking about getting ready. I'll be back. :)

Happy Birthday Bub!

Up close with a sweet cow in Germany!

Happy Birthday to my little brother! This is a picture that Daniel took last weekend while they were at a marriage retreat... Cort wants to use this picture as the screen saver. Daniel was so sweet to turn over the rights to him. Heehee.

Daniel, Christy and Gracie could hear the bells from the cows from where they were but could not see them. Daniel told Christy that he would be right back... Well he found them! He said that they were so friendly, they walked right up to him or maybe he walked to them... Sometimes he really makes me laugh!

One other reason that I really like this picture is... When the kids and I are driving and I see pigs, horses, cows, etc. at 7 and 9 years old I still say to them "look kids, there are cows!". For some reason they never seem as excited about it as I do!?!

The past two weeks have gone so fast! The kids and I picked Mike up at the airport last Thursday evening at 6:00. That first hug and kiss after time away are so great! Claudia was so excited that she giggled and giggled for a long time, it was sweet. We had dinner at the Spaghetti Factory, our table was in the train, which is always fun. Mike had to leave last Friday evening for his drill weekend in Southern Indiana. Cort went to Logan's birthday party on Saturday afternoon, he slept over and came home Sunday afternoon. Claudia was stuck with me for the weekend. I felt crummy so we rented a movie and hung out in the family room. We didn’t even make it to church, which was stinky!

Monday night Mike made burgers on the grill! Back into the swing of things! I work until noon on Saturday so I got off of work at 12:30 Monday afternoon. The kids and I made a trip to Target and then to the pool for about an hour and a half. For the most part all of the schools around here have already gone back. So there were not many people at the pool, nice if you ask me!

Monday evening after dinner, I spent two hours in Claudia’s room getting my nails painted, a massage, foot rub and of course she had to do my hair... Straightened with the straight iron, stood straight up! It was fun being at the "Fabulous Salon" with the greatest stylist I know "Cammie Jonas", aka Claudia.

On Friday, August 8, Kim told me that I was being transferred to the Bethel Branch effective Monday, August 18. The branches are now going to be structured more like the new branches up north, for the most part, two supervisors rather than three. I was so sad; I have worked with the same ladies for the last several years. We know each other so well, it didn’t seem right leaving. I prayed about my attitude, my outlook and I am thankful that I have a job to go to everyday! I have been at my new branch for a day and a half now and I am sure that everything will be great. Debra (my new boss) brought a “Welcome to Bethel” cake to work Monday morning for me and the new teller. It was chocolate, my favorite! The girls at the South Branch helped me celebrate my farewell with a YUMMY carry in! Monkey bread, carrot cake, meatballs, breakfast bake, cheese and crackers, not necessarily in that order… We ate all day long, I was sure that I was going to explode!

Claudia and Cort will be starting school on Friday. Fourth and second grade, I say it every year but, “I can’t believe it”! Thursday night we go to Open House to take their school supplies, find their desks and meet their teachers. (Which I am so happy that we already know them!) Now we just need to finish getting their school supplies... We still have two days, right!

Last week the kids and I had been gone all day so Sammi was in her kennel for most of the day. We decided to take her out for a walk since it was so nice outside. Claudia put her skate shoes on, put Sammi on her leash and headed out. Cort and I were about 15 feet or so behind her and there she went, face first in her cute little mini skirt on the cement. WOW, it was scary! She scraped up her knee, hand and face. She was convinced that she was going to be the "creep show" at school (since she is not allowed to say the work "freak"). One more reason we have to be thankful that we have a late school start! It was bad then but we can laugh about it now that the scabs have fallen off. ICK! The lady at the shoe store asked her if she would like a sticker. Her reply was, "no thanks, I am more into band-aids this summer"!

6 Days to go!

We are all counting down the days! 6 to go.

Catching Up

Daniel and Gracie on his new bike. Schweinfurt Germany

I have had so many things to be thankful for in the past week and have not shared them.

My sister in law Christy called from Germany yesterday on my way to work. It was nice hearing her voice for the first time in a month. They are adjusting and doing very well. I hope that we will be able to visit some time in the next three years. Daniel bought Harley; what a stud. :)

Wednesday the kids and I started reading the book of Matthew together. I really enjoy reading the Bible to them; we stop after every few versus and discuss what we just read about. I love it when they have already heard a story and they can tell it to me. Cort gets so excited and starts talking with his hands. I also love it when they didn't know something and they want to talk about it more! Tonight we read in my bed, we prayed and they went to bed. I love em'!

Last night Beth cut my hair, and trimmed Claudia’s. Thank you, thank you, thank you Beth! Did I say thank you!

Today I was off of work! I napped, mowed the yard and folded laundry. The kids came over this afternoon while Beth went to a leadership conference in Indy with people from church. The big girls played hotel, daycare, straightened their hair, put on make-up, had a fashion show, played on the Rubyz website and rocked out to loud music. It was a fun day!

Mike will be home in one week from today! I am so excited; I can't wait to kiss his face!

Tuesday mom watched the kids during the day. She met me at the hospital after work to get Claudia’s staples out. Claudia was nervous, she giggled as the nurse took them out. She said that the second one that he took out hurt, but the rest were okay. WOW, she is so brave! I wish that I had the courage that she does. After we left the hospital, we stopped by Wendy's and went to Prayer Night. Chloe came home with us and spent the night. I still remember spending the night with my friends, we could stay up for hours to talk and laugh. It really is hard to believe that they are going to be in the fourth grade.

The Women of Faith Conference last Saturday was AWESOME! The women that spoke had such amazing stories to share, so inspiring. Nicole C. Mullen ROCKED! I would love to see her do a whole concert. As soon as I got home Saturday evening mom and the kids picked me up to go play putt putt. Mom beat me by 2 points, boo. After putt putt we went to Baskin Robbins. We then closed down Target, came home and went to bed. I was pooped!

Rib Fest

Sunday after church the "Jarheads" played at Ribfest. They did an AWESOME job! Mom had a (very) small order of ribs, you can't go to Ribfest and not have ribs. The kids and I had a lemonade shake-up and shared a funnel cake with cherry's on top! YUMMY! Stephanie took home a BIG order of ribs, they looked so yummy. Mom took a pic of Steph and I... too bad I ruined it! It was a lot of fun, there were several people from church that came.

It was so hot outside we were forced to take a nice long nap when we got home. What a great day!