MN State Fair

Today we are taking the girls to the State Fair.

Grandma, Grandpa and the Schreibers will be out there too.  A fun filled family day :-)

A ton of neighbors are also going to be there at various times.  Andy Grammer is playing a FREE concert at the Leine Lodge and I was NOT going to miss it.  Not a chance.

 

Could these two be any cuter!

Chase and Hailey at the Kemps Farm

UGH, it's the worst.

I'd be lying if I said this never gets easier.  Because it actually does.  Especially when you know that they will be home in just a few months for the wedding and Christmas.  BUT that doesn't mean I like it any better.  It doesn't mean that I don't get sad when they leave and wish they didn't have to go.  It doesn't mean that I won't sulk around for the next few days or randomly cry when I think about it.

It just means that right now as they leave, as they pull away from my house, I will wave and smile.  I'll make the most of it and start to get excited for their return in December!

Won't you be my neighbor?

I think I am going to like having the neighborhood completed.  At first I pretty much hated it.  I loved being able to see Joe and Mary's backyard and soon my whole view to their house will be obstructed, but, I think it will be nice to get rid of silt fences and look outside to yards and homes 

instead of dirt and weeds.  Neighbors on both sides are nice which makes this all a little easier!

Melting Beads

Our newest obsession around here is melting beads.  Little beads that you put onto a tray and then iron to fuse them together.  Hannah made this huge H.E.P. and as you can see loved it so much that I found her sleeping with it :-)

Her next project was a sign for her daddy.  Not sure if I should laugh or cry...

Impressive though, she did a great job.

I want to SQUEEZE her!

This little one.  She is so cute I just want to squeeze her!  She brought a lunch today to Bound using her new lunch box that we got her for school (starting in a few weeks- YIKES!).

She was so excited!

It reminded me of when we were little and we would get new lunchboxes.  Back then many of them were metal and the design on them was raised up.  They ALWAYS had a matching thermos (which was pretty much the best part).  The Annie, ET and Cabbage Patch kid ones were my absolute favs.  

Sunday Funday

Today we hung out with Kari and family and ended our night at Perkins for dinner.

These kids... growing up so fast.

I wonder if they even realize that the boys are going home later this week :-(

Still Broken

Went in today for a 2 week follow up to check on my broken leg.

Looks like I have not been a very good patient.  The bone is still together but it not looking much different from the first views.  Will schedule another follow up and return again in a few weeks.

Change of Scenery

The house next door is starting to come along!

There's been some action on the other side!  Our island is closing in.  We have met the neighbors that are moving into the house that was just dug (second in from the corner).  There names are Steve and Katie.  No kids.  Young.  Really, really nice.  *sigh of relief*

She's Got Legs

I usually sit in the bathroom with the girls as the shower or take a bath.  Lately I have been trying to do other things while they are washing up.  They are getting older.  They can obviously wash themselves and are getting much better at washing their own hair, etc.  Today I was doing laundry and cleaning the house and almost had a heart attack when I looked down the hall to see this.

I walked very fast down the hall to get closer and those legs started doing dance moves across the wall.  Whew!  I had every horrible scenario run through my head and for a minute started beating myself up that I let my daughter drown!   What a relief to see those dancing legs!

Holla!

Hailey saw the Ecolab soap dispenser at the restaurant tonight and HAD to show it off to Jennie.

I love that she knew right away that this is where Jennie works and could put it together.

'Bedtime'

Hailey requires less sleep than the rest of us.  I put her to bed the same time as Hannah and within 4 minutes Hannah is snoring.  Hailey on the other hand will be up for a while, sometimes over an hour past the time I sent her to bed.  Eventually she decides it's no fun playing in the dark or she gets tired, admits defeat and falls asleep.  Those days, it's always entertaining to wake her up in the am.  This particular day I came in to see Justin and his girlfriend hanging out on Hailey's bed. 

Our OCW family keeps growing

I love this scene.  A mixture of kids from different homes on our block.  Playing together, hovered around Hannah's phone while they all watch their music video that they just created.

Loriann Returns

Loriann is BACK!

Looks like I wasn't the only one who was excited to see her.

Alador spent over 8 hours in the office yesterday blowing up balloons to assure that she had the BEST welcome back ever.  Over 800 balloons. 

They would randomly pop throughout the day.  A few times Ann would be on a call, a balloon would pop and she would let out a scream, either startled from the pop or thinking someone was shooting at her- lol.  By the end of the day we had to pop a good amount of the balloons so that we could move in the walkways.

Debs and Loriann took the deflated balloons and filled the cup holders, glove box and visors of Al's car with them (that's what you get for leaving your keys out on your desk).  They then filled a rolling recycling bin with full balloons and filled his car and trunk.  He looked crazy at the end of the day sitting in his car stabbing at the air until he could get enough of them popped to drive away.

Glad to have my bestie back!  (I just hugged her instead)

Wheelin'

Tons of kids on wheels on our street today.

Four wheeler, electronic cars, and Ethan in his go cart.

At one point one of the vehicles lost power so Noah got a rope and towed it home. 

 Good thinking Noah!  It was pretty impressive watching him handle the situation.

And the hits just keep on coming......

My leg still hurts.  It's not getting any better yet so it was time to schedule an appointment with Ortho.  Summit has an Ortho-quick clinic so I called, made a same day appointment and within an hour got the news that my leg is broken.

Yeah.  Broken.

(remember how I was just in Las Vegas, walking A LOT, yup- that probably didn't help)

It's not the main bone.  It's the fibula, which is the smaller non-weight bearing bone of the leg however, my tibia (the bigger bone) is constantly knocking into it which is causing the pain.

You can see it on the Xray (left bone, the darker white part).  It was broken and is now starting to heal but you can clearly see that there's still a ways to go.

Plan:  continue to wear (or actually wear consistently) the boot

Stay off it as much as possible

Check back in 4-6 weeks to check on the healing progress

When things get tough, be thankful that you get to try again tomorrow

When things get tough, be thankful that you get to try again tomorrow.

-Eric Gilseth

This statement could not be anymore true.

Tonight while at the Bleachers concert with Beth, Nikki and Kay. our friend, Leah, was at the hospital saying goodbye to her older brother, Eric.

Eric has been battling cancer for the past few years and this weekend, while away with the family on a vacation at their favorite cabin resort, his body had endured too much.

He needed to be flown to the U and within a few days, his fight was over.

I could never say enough about the type of guy that Eric was. 

 I was so inspired by him and his story and yet I had only met him once.  

No doubt this has been a hard year so far.  A few weeks ago I lost a coworker of mine, Sara Totino, to a horrible accident (that she suffered while at her daughter's wedding reception).  

It's been a constant flow of bad news and bummer situations and although there are a million things to be thankful for, it's hard to feel 'happy' about anything right now.  Of course I feel thankful, but it's just hard to feel happy.  It's just been too much too fast.

Grey Matters

Mary coordinated the whole thing.  She knew the guy.  She informed the neighbors, collected money and delivered more than 20 grey ribbons to honor Amy and to show our support for what she is going through.  Grey is the color for brain cancer awareness.  The ribbons are grey and the lights are white.

As soon as the sun starts to set they all light up.  It'll give you goosebumps.

Happy Accidents

Chase just turned 3 and Kay and Mike asked if I would take a few pictures for them.  They wanted to take some posed pictures and didn't really want to go to a studio.  We decided to try the bridge and walking path area very close to our old house.  

It was the perfect setting and the pictures turned out great!

At one point I told Mike and Kay to go stand by him and hold his hands so I could get a picture of just their hands with him but then I zoomed out and this happened.  Kay had made it clear a few times that we were not doing family pictures.  This was just for Chase, her and Mike were not dressed or prepared for family pictures, we would do those another day, etc.

This was an accident but it worked in our favor.  I love this picture of their family :-)

Instead......

Usually we are in Pine City for the Pine County parade and fair this week.

Instead we are at the end of season Soccer Jamboree.

This was the first year the girls played soccer and it didn't feel right skipping the tournament for a parade.  The teams each played two games and then the kids got ice cream and trophies.

I didn't get a picture of Hannah's team but we were sure to get a picture with Sammy.  It was so fun playing on her team and being able to see her a few nights each week.  Such a nice family and such a great friend of Hannah's.  I can tell these girls will be friends for a long time.

We could have driven up to the cabin after soccer, we would have missed the parade but could have made it to the fair.

Instead we stayed home and I was able to take some family pictures for the Wolverts.

They haven't had family pictures taken in a long time (ever according to Amy).

I wanted to be sure they had these.  Before her hair is gone because of the chemo,  before the fight for her life begins.  She's got this.  She's going to kick cancer's ass.

But I wanted her to have something to hang on her wall to remind her how beautiful this life is.