thursday

todays theme: glitter!

todays project: making posters at dance class!

bedtime activity: frantic packing!

new episode: Deadly Women!

tonite's bedtime: waaaaaay laaaaaate!

wednesday

teamwork: kevin took katie to dance, we returned movies, gassed up truck, & picked her up. todays startling discovery: TOP competition is FOUR days this year. katie will miss TWO days of school. she is ok with that.

being on top of the situation: bought chocolate milk, bread, pizza mixes, pizza sauce, mozzerella cheese, & dog food for bubba the pet sitters impending servitude.

there are worse things than oil on the beach...

tonite's pics: got these in an email from my friend Martha....classy women soaking up some sun.

tonite's movies: Burlesque for mom & katie, The Next Three Days for kevin.

tonite's supper: mashed potatoes and chicken & noodles.

tonite's extra chore: stripping beds & washing sheets.

tonite's nap taker: katie. she is zonked. will wake her up when supper is ready!

back to the real world

after sleeping in AND celebrating the cancellation of the GS Leaders Meeting with a nap....back to the real world today....work and school. yesterday we rented Easy A and Grownups. tonite we rented Yogi Bear and The Last Song. discovered yesterday that after I was pep talking myself that it was ok for Katie to miss school for competition on Friday...Mercer had teacher in-service on Friday, so she had the day off anyway. good grief. I should worry more constructively. the dogs got their walk at the park. life is good. made the design for the paper vests I'm going to glue badges to for awards ceremony....need blue, khaki, and green paper, but got the 3 brown brownie vests done! and found sock monkeys we can paint in OTC catalog for a future craft!

a day in the city...

Koren had Panera pastries waiting at her house when we arrived....we hung out for awhile, had a quick Lia Sophia jewelry party, then to Overland Park for Old Chicago Pizza & did some massive shopping at Oak Park mall, where Katie found a new hoodie, new socks, a 6th grade graduation dress & shoes, some cool guy from Israel at a kiosk sold deb some amazing nail stuff....Koren has it, said she never has time to use it. Katie was upset that I took time out of her shopping day to let some kiosk guy lure me in. got home about midnight. a long long long fun day with my kids!

life....

took Friday off, took katie to school, blogged about all day, picked katie up, then josh came over. Saturday morning kept changing my alarm later, then finally got up & got the kids up to go see koren, kevin told us to take our winter coats, chance of freezing rain. the 4" of snow his dad told us was coming last nite didn't materialize, but we'll take the coats.

dancing at Hal England Center....

The Dance Studio was invited to a soup supper at Hal England Center....they got to eat, then they got to dance for a very appreciative audience! then the tap & clog girls had to go have real practice....rented a hotel room at the venue, Shambree & Mackenzie are staying with us Friday night, their moms will be there for competition on Saturday. Kevin was going to try to get the weekend off to go with us....because I would stress mightily having 3 girls in a hotel without another adult! and I have been stressing mightly all week anyway. in case Kevin goes, KJ will come home from college to dog sit.

stuff I forgot to blog about....

Kevin replaced all the pipes under bathroom sink today when they got home from Des Moines. Koren is getting 3 teeth pulled to get ceramic braces. she will have them the same time as her little sister.

Wednesday

Kevin & Kj went to Des Moines for KJ's dermatologist appt. all is well. it's not a cancerous mole...just scar tissue. no big. Kj bought new shoes, pre-ordered a new game, bought cds, and filled out an application at Hy-Vee Warehouse. His first job application. sigh. the boys had lunch at Chili's.
I left work early & took Katie to dance. Mackenzie needs a ride Friday, so changed my plan of staying with Koren & stressed out mightily trying to get a hotel room at the venue. the website wouldn't work, so had to call an actual person who I had great trouble understanding. I think we have a room there, anyway....Kevin might go. which means we'll need a dog watcher. I thought Kj's Goo Goo Dolls concert was the same weekend, but it's not. so KJ will come home and watch the dogs. what a good boy!

monday

overslept again today...and forgot to set Katie's alarm...so she overslept & then stayed home with a bad headache & played Sims3 all day. the kids were giving me shit about creating imaginary friends when I had a real husband who didn't have a facebook....so now he has one, too! and I have another friend to send me the million things I need for my frontierville challanges.
I walked the dogs at park, they had to stop & be petted & admired by the playground gang. did some shopping at Grammy's Grocery, then basically just sat around the house. Josh is over to watch wrestling.

the weekend

Saturday...worked all day, argued with Katie, went to Band Carnival early. KJ brought her. She didn't participate in the Best Dressed Cow Poke Contest....we had 9 brave band kids that dressed up, plus a non-band kid who wanted to be in the contest....and tons of adults & kids dressed for the Wild Wild West. The evening seemed to go over well....had some new games....Rattlesnake, Sidewinder, There's A Snake In My Boot, Roping, Lasso The Cactus. the new version of ToyWalk was the BIGGEST hit! and the BBQ meal deal went well, too. I know that I had a whole passel of fun, pahdner! and even Miss Katie seemed to have fun with her friend Emily mixing up horrible concoctions for people to sample at the Wheel Of Fear!

next year will be a Mexican theme....Fiesta! or South of the Border or something. Will have to have something to do with maracacas for the Band Champ contest....and some kind of game with Mexican Jumping Beans...and tacos or nachos for the meal deal...

and got all but 2 of the girl scout magazine packets passed out while I was running the prize table!

Sunday....overslept...worked all day, delivered the last 2 magazine packets, walked dogs at park with KJ, picked up Mercer Pizza Plus for supper. swept LR floor. KJ's college laundry is all done....Kevin worked on it today evidently. it seems like I have barely been home!

getting ready 4 band carnival..

got a call when I pulled in the driveway from taking katie to school....our fearless band director was too sick to go to school! we rallied around & did set up without her. lugged all the band carnival stuff from our house to school....it is gone, gone, gone. and now I have 2 laundry baskets & a rubbermaid tote back! looks to be a fantabulous carnival! and Mr Bubba is home on spring break, he walked the dogs at the park with me. and he will take Katie to dance tomorrow in Bethany while I'm at work. need to bake cookies for bake walk. then will just chill. Katie is so bored & would like to go somewhere....but her mother is exhausted.

thursday

work...picked up the raffle prize from M&M Apparel...and our sweet new dance hoodies! Kevin called me at work to see if he should force Katie to go to ballet. she went. I took her a snack & a drink. it is quickly approaching burn out time. one competition down, 3 to go. and practice, practice, practice.

walked the dogs at the park, did some blogging, did 'the bills' and 'some laundry'. time to go pick up Miss Boo at dance. KJ will be home on spring break tomorrow...and I will be at school getting ready for band carnival! all the boxes of stuff I keep stubbing my toes on will be out of here! so I'll have to start stubbing my toes on other stuff...

it is spring! the air is fresh! the birds are chirping! the windows are open! the grass is greening!

I wonder if Katie wore green to school today....when I was a kid, St Patricks Day was brutal. if you had hidden green & someone pinched you, you could pinch them back. but I was never a fan of pinching. and I've never had green beer. I need to get out in the world more, I guess....

just another wednesday...

kevin's last extra day at work that he signed up for. he took katie to dance, I picked her up. bought some groceries on the way home, then walked the dogs while she played bb at park with morgan. watched the new America's Next Top Model. changed sheets, put together GS magazine sales packets, filled out all katie's stuff.
just when I think I'll quit Frontierville....I get roped back in. seriously have to spend some time blogging, looking for the shafer book grandma pauline wrote for an email about shafer info....and found some more stuff I never put on the family history blog. and I need to schedule a few minutes for some serious floor sweeping.
will I end up working tomorrow morning before band carnival set up? gary's mom is losing her battle with cancer. he was gone tuesday, left early yesterday.
a truly beautiful springlike day.

Monday Monday

daylight savings time is once again kicking my butt. Katie is one of 3 girls in her class not on the elementary basketball team & it is elementary tournament time. we walked the dogs at the park. I took a nap in my chair. just a nice quiet much-needed evening at home.

Girl Scout Sunday

daylight savings. whoo hoo. did church, Mercer Pizza Plus, skating at Bethany PLUS a couple of photo shoots. what a day!

sat.

slept in & took a nap. I am a deal. Katie had fun at the dance swimming party. I love the idea of them hanging out together outside of class. Josh was here when we got home.

tgif?

picked up katie at danielle's about 9:15, took the dogs with me. when I got out to get katie, sasha locked me out of the truck. had to call kj & josh to come save us. so when we get home, I opened a mike's hard lemonade. AND found that miss cuddles had urped all over one of katie's jazz shoes. wonderful.

TGIF

katie was gone to danielle's when I got home from work. started in on the college man's laundry, he got birthday$ from gma marie, so ordered pizza & breadsticks for him & josh. I found 5 pizza bucks in the truck, + this weeks special was a free 2L...not a bad deal for $15.98!

I have some more new imaginary friends on facebook to play frontierville with me....lysanderlymanlemonballs & sasquatchsalthatsmygal. I don't think I am totally addicted yet....have gotten all challanges done but building stuff in the new blacksmith & expanding my chicken coop again.

kj & I walked the dogs at the park. it was beautiful...mid 60s.

the last day of this weeks vacation....

took Katie to school, made a snake for carnival, found the cowboyboot and the cowboy hat...figured out the calf brand, made signs & printed out rules...washed the last of the Martha stuff...picked Katie up for early out, then we walked the dogs at the park, started putting the Jennie Neill pictures on facebook...will blog them, too, eventually....took her to dance, the girls got to read AND hear the judges comments on their performances...I went to P-T conference where once again I found out how awesome & smart Katie is...hung out at dance for awhile, then home again, home again, jiggity jog! got a lot done on my mini vacation....wish I was on permanent vacation!

crossin' shit off the list....

kevin found the tv info I needed: registration is ready to mail.
ditto on the fridge filters: he ordered them online.
AND he found the taxes I thought I'd lost that were in plain sight, so I go the insurance verification ready to mail.
whew!

now to shower, make supper, and see if there is a new The Middle. 'cause we are staying in tonite, baby!

in the afternoon....

picked katie up from school, took her to dance, picked up merchant raffle donations at Grand River Mutual & Treadwell Chiropractic, ordered dance mom & dance sister hoodies from M&M Apparel and asked Melanie for a donation for carnival. bought some necessary items at DG, then got to dance in time to see kate's judge comments from Showstopper. Stephanie gave her a new leg stretch to do. and they changed part of her solo.
it's raining. it's snowing. it's raining & snowing.
on the way to work, kevin discovered he'd left 3 migrane pills in his coat when he washed (& dried!) it.

day 2 of "vacation"

accomplished today....sleeping in till 7! took katie to school, picniked pictures, hauled in Martha stuff from truck, went thru all 5-6 boxes, handwashed stuff, sorted, stacked neatly in hallway for band carnival. did some more putting away. did outside chores. kitchen table cleaned off enough to get out sewing maching & put new showstopper patch on dance jacket, new GS patches on katie's quilt, & fix the pocket of kevin's coat. (man has a brand new flatscreen & blueray & is requesting patches on his coat!)

resting for a few, then picking katie up at school & taking her to dance, where I plan on picking up GRM donation, hitting up the few others I have left, picking up something necessary at DG, picking katie up at dance, then coming home.

kevin gave me a crash course on how to run blueray & tv remotes. will I remember? doubtful.

on tomorrow's list?

sort thru garage donations...pick up any prizes I didn't get today....work more on putting house back together...find this years tax return so I can pay state taxes & copy for the insurance thing...get website from kevin to order filters for fridge online...and the model &serial #s on tv for registration. AND deliver the last 2 boxes of GS cookies. katie gets out at 12:20 tomorrow, I have PT conference at 6. she also has dance. hope to deliver the cookies tomorrow afternoon. God knows I have put it off just about as long as humanly possible!

bubba

went to maryville after school....rain turned into snow....saw a car that slid off the road....Kj met us in the parking lot behind his dorm, we went to pizza hut & did buffett for his pre-birthday supper, then parked at his dorm & walked in the snow to the game. the girls lost by 1 point. then kj treated us to ice cream with his bearcat card, & rescued lost katie who we left looking out a window, thinking she'd went ahead to the car. I thought I heard her voice outside, & turned to look. I saw a couple walking, I seriously didn't recognize my own kids! so I called Katie, she said "I am walking towards you!" how embarrassing. another of my spectacular mom moments. stopped at walmart for a few necessities on the way home, got home about 12:20a.m. more spectacular parenting. we are on a roll!

whew!

the musical theater girls won a gold trophy & FIRST IN THEIR GROUP! they were amazing. Tomi bought flash drives of her girls dances (which my girl was in 3 of them....win win!) & I bought the dvd of Katie's solo. she found THE swimsuit at Kohl's.....it was on sale, then applied for a credit card & saved more $...
while in the city we ate at Sonic, Chik-fil-A, Minksy's, KCI Expo Cafe, & Jason's Deli. We learned that the convenience stores have the plastic protective shields in place at the register after late nite dance competition awards...that the mall closes at 6 on Sunday...and that the more friends you have at competition, the more fun it is! and that $200 can make it thru 2 days of dance competiton if you're careful (& put the tank of gas to come home on on the credit card!)
Katie got a Showstoppers tshirt, bought her a Showstoppers patch & a gold pin since she won a gold medal.
Monday we drug ass, but Katie made it to school & I made it to work. now it's Tuesday, & I'm on vacation. got the new piece put on the truck. we rearranged furniture. Kevin had the idea...instead of trying to shove entertainment center into our room....leave it in LR. drug the big dresser from our room into LR for the new 47" tv....and the dresser from hallway into our room to put the old picture-tube-is-dying-a-slow-painful-death tv into our room. and it all worked! still have some stuff to put away....have thrown away 3 trashbags of stuff so far. found all kinds of 'lost' items. and some world record dust bunnies. the dogs got a walk before the all day rain started...when Katie gets home, we'll head to Maryville to watch the Lady Cardinals (they won districts....is it regionals now?) play & hang out with Mr Bubba, who will be 19 tomorrow. his first birthday away from home.
it is 3:10 & Katie's phone is buzzing merrily.

so proud......

the girls had an amazing day yesterday at Showstoppers! the clog group received a silver trophy & 5th overall, the tap group a gold trophy & 4th overall, and Katie's solo gold {I think first?} & 7th overall. she leaped and extended and covered the stage and was awesome! she especially had fun hanging out with Carli & Skyler. I came back to Koren's & went straight to bed. I am old! not enough pepsi, too much eating out, & the comfy chairs at competition....
need to get Kate up & around to get ready for musical theater, then swimsuit shopping. Stephanie promised them they'd swim instead of have lessons if there were no judge comments telling them to smle more. {comments were about their timing being off....but you couldn't have asked for a happier looking bunch of dancers!}
will post pictures when I get home.

here we are in the big city...

we hit rush hour coming in on 291...something we're not used to. tractors & amish buggies....sure. bumper to bumper 4 lane traffic with entering & exiting....no. with all the eating choices in KC, Miss Katie had her heart set on Sonic. of course there is one here in Grain Valley, Koren took us on a driving tour of her new town. we hung out & watched tv till late, then retired to our tastefully decorated guest room at Koren & Cody's Bed & Breakfast.
after a long dream about a flood, waking up coughing & realizing I left my coughdrops at home, and scaring Katie while I was prowling about, she had a text from Vivian that woke us up. I was going to read my latest Lincoln book...my reading glasses are home, right next to the coughdrops. had a double chocolately brownie for breakfast, we showered & Katie did my makeup, th.en Koren started on Katie's hair.
Katie has decided she likes Suburbia.
wearing my new dance shirt that Marcey made me last year.
figuring out how to type on a laptop....Katie forbid me to get on Frontierville. her & Kevin are convinced that Frontierville is virus-riden. which reminds me.....you have be from Mercer Co. to understand, but we had just left Mercer when Kate had to go to the bathroom. I was going to stop at Snappy's to top off the tank & get our traditional cartrip FunYuns. she said she guessed she could risk the herpes infested bathroom there in the interest of saving time. we instead went to Caseys, where she had time to run into the bathroom while I was waiting for a pump, then had to do some creative backing up to let out the person who had not moved her car before she went into pay & gotten trapped at the pumps, blocking the pump I was trying to access. will they ever build a bigger Casey's so you don't have to plan an hour to get gas? The world may never know.
going to check on the getting ready process. I am so lucky to have a wonderful daughter who is a hotel, chaueffer, & hair & makeup artist!

ready for Showstoppers!

all packed up & ready to leave when Katie gets home from school! I spent the morning at school working on band carnival, ran to bank & DG, fed dogs, ran Kevin out to pick up the car, and doublechecked the dance bag. and joy of joys, it is raining....that will make our long drive so much more pleasant! but my man put new wiper blades on, so all will be well. (even though I was playing Frontierville instead of cooking for him before I left....)

thursday morning....

slept in till 7, got katie up & took her to school, picked kevin up at willis from dropping off car, did a little roadtrippin' taking pictures of cool shit, then collected prizes for the band carnival from Breadeaux, State Farm, American Family, Country Wood Hearts & Lace, Fabulous Finds, Great Western Bank, Farm Bureau, the Famous & Shelter Ins. have a few more to catch tomorrow. came home & woke kevin up to shower, have to pick katie up from school in a bit for a dentist appt, probably get back just in time for her to go to dance & kevin to go to work.

mailed Kj's birthday present to college.

Weds.

my last day of work for this week....kevin took katie to dance, I picked her up. we are tired from last nights excursion. about bedtime! I walked the dogs at park, swept floors, put away laundry, ran dishwasher.

happy birthday

left work early for BandBooster meeting....then Kevin, Katie, & I headed to West DesMoines to take Kevin out to supper, buy Katie a new pair of shoes, & Kevin bought his tv and dvd player. will have to do some major furniture rearranging, then will move the old satellite into our room and buy a new satellite with HD....and will have a to kill a lot of dust bunnies. RIP. took 2 days off this week....plan on picking up Band Booster Carnival Raffle Prizes Thursday a.m., then have a family dentist appt. afternoon where Katie is supposed to get pictures taken for braces prep.

Friday a.m. meeting Cathy at school to go thru Carnival Prizes. then home to get ready for a weekend at Showstoppers. have 3 days off next week to finish picking up Band Booster Carnival Raffle Prizes. (and do all the furniture rearranging.) whew!

Katie called KJ from Walmart to see if he wanted anything for his birthday, she got him 3 cds.