Surprise visit

Our weekend started out very quiet. Everyone was taking down time and gathering themselves when the doorbell rings. As I sat on the couch like a pototoe I could not for the life of me figure out who would be at my door ringing the bell like a mad man!

Then up the stairs came my life long best friend from high school Becky Jo and her family (2 handsome young boys and her husband). They drove here from Garrison, North Dakota to surprise us. Now to update you a little we have been giving Becky a hard time because I have been to see her 3 times now and she has never made her way to Casper, Wyoming in the 5 1/2 years we have lived here. So needless to say "its about time you got your butt up here!!!!!"

It was a very short visit but very nice. The boys give both mom and dad a run for their money and definitely keep them on their toes but we enjoyed the excitement and enthusiam they brought to us in our home.




No time for site seeing but we managed a couple visits to the park and I think they did a little shopping at Tauberts before leaving.

A short note to Becky Jo:
Your friendship has been a blessing to me for the past 15years and it is something that I treasure now and will treasure for the rest of my life! You always have a surprise for me under your sleeve so it keeps things alive. Your family of sisters and one brother have always treated me with kindness and supported me as if I was one of them. We have been through boyfriends, dances, graduation. marriages, children, loss of lives, and I could go on forever but to know that we have done it together makes it even better. Friendships like this dont bless everyone but it has blessed me. Thank you for always being around.

Thanks to all my friends and family around the world for being the people you are in my life!

Hope everyone else had a great weekend.

GRANDPARENTS DAY

To all the grandparents and Opas out there. The girls want to wish you a very happy grandparents day! Hopefully, you all received your E-Cards from them. You are all very important to us and especially the grandchildren!

If it weren't for you...where would we be?????


Love to all

When to cry

It was a long week for everyone. Back to school means back to a busy schedule for everyone involved. We started with all the back to school events, meeting teachers, new homework assignments and everything. This also means dance and gymnastics classes, church groups, and of course survior nights on Thurs. All went well though...the girls settled in nicely. Mikaela loves first grade but was suprised to realize she would have homework like everyone else. Then you have Liz...as a mother I ask "where is your homework?" She says we dont get it in fifth grade. So I asked when do we do book reports and reading assignments? She said we dont???? I then asked "what do we do in fifth grade?" she said "we do nothing". Good response from a pre-teen. After meeting her teacher I did find that fifth grade is a little less stressful and more relaxed then fourth grade. Reading at home is still encouraged but really there will be no homework. They encourage the children to do and finish all assignments at school. This helps with the parents that want so badly to help with homework instead of allowing the children to do it.

Now for my title "when to cry" I was always told that you cry when you drop your kids off to kindergarten and first grade. Not me...I smiled because I know that my children love the independence of school:) However, I found myself crying this weekend when Liz asked to go "hang" at the mall. This is not something we have tried yet. Some friends called and wanted to go "hang" at the mall. To me this means trouble. Ken and I trust Liz to make good choices so we let her go. When I dropped her and her friend off (all dolled up and ready to "hang" at the mall, and they looked cute) I started to cry realizing that little liz was not so little anymore! Its OK dad she had a cell phone with her for ER situations or if her friends made a bad choice and she needed an out. So when exactly is the right time to cry when you are raising children...this is not one that I expected. Then I asked were we hanging to meet boys???? I hope not we have really encouraged Liz that this is not the way she needs to be right now in her life. Then she came home with Walkie Talkies (instead of makeup or girlie things that you buy when you "hang" at the mall) and I knew she was still my little girl. For now anyway.

Thats all the events for the week....this weekend consisted of working on the closest (still) and more R and R recoup time is needed for the surgical patient. I did take the girls for a walk down by the river for and hour and realized how they hate nature.

Love to all

Canning Jam

This was something new and fun for me that I wanted to share!!!

Debby came for the weekend with the family and took the time to teach me how to make jam with plums that her dad picks and her mom juices. The girls have always loved Aunt Debby's homemade jam and for the first time this weekend they called it "mom's" homemade jam. This brough a tear to my eye.

It was a long process but seemed to go well with Mikaela mixing (Liz was at the lake) Deb boiling and mom pouring and prepping.

Thanks Debby for taking the time to teach me something new:)

Summer Ends

As the summer has come to an end for the girls we have had many eventful weekends. Last weekend cousin Rachel came to visit before heading off to another fun year at college. We went puu-putt golfing and hung out to relax. She took Lizzy to lunch for that one on one girl talk that at age 11 you dont think your mother understands you or what you are going through:) Thanks Rachel for a wonderful visit!

This weekend for the Labor Day weekend Deb, Dennis, and Neal came for a visit. The kids went shooting with Uncle Dennis and their dad, while Deb and I laid around to catch up before the Fall activities over take our lives. Thank you all for taking the time to come up it is always pleasent and relaxing when family comes to slow us down:)

The girls start school tomorrow and are very excited. We got to meet both teachers on Thurs last week and as mom I am very comfortable with both of them. I will update you on their day with pictures later this week.

Liz has many exciting things this year that she will have the opportunity to explore. Volleyball, clogging, new instrument (violen or drums????), history club, and many more that she has shown interest in. I will keep you posted on the outcome of her achievments. She went camping at the lake with some friends on Fri this week and caught a huge fish (no picture yet friends mom has it on her camera) This is always a good time for her and seems to make her feel that her friends from last year still want to be her friends.

Mikaela is going to stay with her gymnastics as for she has just passed into pre-team. Her coach feels she is ready and more than capable of doing what is asked of her at this level. she will compete three times this year (if she chooses). This comsumes two evening out of her week so as parents we gave her a choice to continue or stay where she is and explore another dance class. Well if you know Mikaela she chose gymnastics. I also will keep you posted on how she is doing in this area.

Love to all and hope everyone had a great holiday weekend! This is a time when I say goodbye to sitting around doing nothing.

Medical Update

It is officially 5 weeks from my date of surgery. I would say that week 3 was the utmost worst!!! My hip hurt and I thought I would not ever walk right again (this is where they took the bone graph from for the fusion). It finally worked its way out after many afternoons of tears. I finally started sleeping halfway decent and things were looking up. At week four I was starting to act like myself again. Week 5 I am actually leaning over now without grunting, the evenings get a little rough but after all I do throughout the day that is to be expected. Occassionally I get on the floor and get stuck and cannot get up...Ken tends to find this funny and laughs before helping. What a trooper! I went for a check up with the doctor (first time I have seen him since released from the hospital). He was amazed at how well I was doing. He says I am a week ahead of schedule for recoup time. Ken says I always have been an over achiever. I am at a 10lb weight limit, no running, or weight type excercise. I guess cross country skiing is out this winter and so is the gym. I still get tired about mid day but feel good the rest of the time. This should all to update right now.


Love to all
Theresa