An oldie but a goodie

I was reading Darcy's blog and had to giggle at the pictures of the Attack Cat. Our cat Elway is usually very good with kids, although he may swipe at you if he feels like it. Even though he has his claws, he's never taken them out around the kids. I caught this picture when Emma was about a year old and showing Elway some love

As you can see in the picture immediately following that, no children or cats were harmed during the making of that picture

I don't even think tears were shed.

Bunnies, baskets and . . .

(Photo of Bakerella's absolutely adorable cake pops all done up for Easter)

So when you think of Easter you think of cute little bunnies, baskets full of goodies and . . . barf, right? Because that is what I'm thinking of today. I thought we had dodged the bullet when Emma was sick last weekend, but there are a few things going around school right now. She was up at 4am and her tummy hasn't settled since.

We didn't really have big plans for Easter. Emma didn't have any time off from school, so traveling to South Dakota was out of the question. We told the grandparents they were welcome to come visit, but they had made a commitment to sing at the Easter services at church. My mom went to visit my grandparents, who are celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary. We were just going to celebrate at home, so if we can't do too much its okay.

There is a neighborhood egg hunt later this morning, so I may still take Leah out. I'm sure it will be one of those 2 minute scatter drills where all the kids run around like crazy and grab everything in sight. We are to bring 12 filled eggs for each kid, so in theory you would go home with 12 different eggs. We'll see how that works.

Happy Easter to everyone!

My vision came true

Remember this post? Well the spring issue of VISIONS came out yesterday and we were one of four couples featured in the lovebirds story. Our story is just a slightly shortened version of what I sent in, and here is the picture from the photo shoot.


"It was a beautiful summer night as we walked through central campus, past the library, and around Lake LaVerne. We ended up under the Campanile, and as the bells rang out at midnight, he proposed. A year later we were taking our wedding photos under the Campanile."

Hopefully we only slightly look like dorks. ;) All the featured couples had "kitchsy" pictures like this, so overall we are happy with how it turned out.

I know a lot of people don't ever look through or even read their alumni publications--I hope people actually look at this one! :P A few people have already seen it and commented about it. It will probably be my only 15 minutes of so-called fame I will get.

Remind me again

Remind me again why we live here? Because I'm not feeling the 6" of snow that came yesterday and the accompanying windchills in the 20's today. Have you seen the calendar? It's April. It's even officially spring now. The girls have closets full of capri pants and short-sleeved shirts and dresses with leggings. What are we wearing now? Fleece, and lots of it.

I know this isn't anything too far from the norm. Last year on this weekend it snowed as well. We thought it was a fluke. Ha. Last year at Easter Emma was doing an egg hunt with Grandpa M where you had to dig the eggs out of the snow.

We chose to live here. We could've flown the coop and been in sunny Colorado right now. Where they also had a blizzard last week. We just can't win.

To add insult to injury, Emma is sick. Playing soccer in the cold with a sore throat may not have been the best idea and she's been laid up with a fever ever since. Maybe by June we'll all be healthy and the sun will be out. Once can only hope.

And so it begins . . .

Tonight is the first night of soccer practice for Emma. This is her first experience in any sort of "organized" sport (we'll see how organized it is after the first practice--ha!) and I'm excited. She has always shown more athletic ability at age 5 than I think I ever had.

I can't say that I didn't try. I did softball from about 1st grade through junior year of high school--except I never really got over my fear of the ball. I loved playing first base but I lost that position to left-handed girls, so then I got to play outfield. Fun. I played basketball in junior high and high school. I wasn't too bad, but back then it was still 6-on-6. That means I could play defense and never have to shoot the ball. I played volleyball and liked that a lot as well, although I wasn't ever really good at serving. Or setting. Or blocking (height challenged). But I liked it and hubby and I even took a volleyball class in college and played co-rec. Heck, I even ran track a few years. I just wasn't ever great at any of them and didn't get past the junior varsity teams. My senior year I stopped all sports and became a cheerleader instead.

Hubby's family has some athletic ability--more than mine, I dare to say. He played baseball when he was younger and still likes to play in men's softball leagues. Of course hubby golfs, which is athletic, but a Dr. he once saw said it doesn't count as physical activity. Ha! His sister was the jock of the family, playing softball, basketball and volleyball competitively through her first year of college.

So now it begins. Tonight there will be six 5 and 6-year olds running around a soccer field trying (not) to kick each other while going after one ball. In May, softball starts. I have a feeling it is just the beginning of many years to come. Let's play ball!

Now the joke's on me

This is one of my notifications on Facebook today:

Kristyn, Barack Obama confirmed you as a cousin on We're Related see how you are related:

Isn't that about the funniest thing you've ever seen?

Oldest trick in the book

Me: (after getting off the computer looking for the school lunch menu since I apparently threw the April newsletter away) Hey Emma, I guess you can go back to bed this morning after breakfast. I was just online and I see that school is cancelled today. They couldn't get the buses started.
Emma: Really? That means we get two days off this week! Friday and today! (Friday is one of those famous "teacher in-service" days)
Dad: (comes out to leave for work) Good morning, Emma!
Emma: Dad, guess what? We don't have school today! They couldn't get the buses started!
Dad: No school, huh? Maybe you can come to work with me.
Emma: Only if they have a play area there.

We had her going; five year olds can be so gullible. ;) We kept alluding to the fact that it was April Fool's Day but she still didn't get that it was a joke. I even told her "April Fool's Day!" and she did her little nervous laugh. When the bus was coming in 5 minutes and she was in her room playing, she still didn't believe that she really did indeed have school today.

Since we got her, she was trying to plot revenge. Except she isn't so stealthy. "Dad, what kind of cereal are you going to eat tomorrow?" Hmm, maybe dad should skip the cereal and have a muffin instead.