Family=Love

     These are pictures of the most important people in my life. Of course they are not all pictured in these two photos, because that would take a bigger miracle than the Royals winning the World Series. This is a sampling of why I love my life. These people right here. The top picture is the entire Greiner family, minus one cousin who had to work. Below is the Martens family.(not all of us, of course, just the important ones.)

Good Things

My favorite thing in my office. Good things will happen today. I am counting on it! I am on day 2 of trying to eat healthier and exercise. Have I mentioned how much I hate to exercise? But I've decided I hate feeling sluggish waaaaay more. We are running around like crazy of an evening between swim lessons and volleyball and baseball and piano lessons and gymnastics. None of which involve time with my husband. Nope. We are flying solo, each of us taking a kid, or two, or three, along for the ride. I am so thankful for the ability to do these things for my girls. They are having fun, learning new things, keeping their muscles moving. I know that it is a blessing to have the time, and a car with gas in it, not to mention the money to pay for all this stuff. So I will not crab about the stress and strain of this on my marriage. I will not crab about the stress and strain of this on my budget. I will not crab about the stress and strain of this on my own physical and mental well being. I WILL remember that good things are happening today!



Magnetic

 

If you build it they will come.........

Turns our we have the cool yard in this neighborhood too.

How much does a swimming pool weigh?

Because this pool is worth its weight in GOLD. The neighborhood pool is up on a hill next door to our house. When we first chose our lot, we worried we would regret the location. Hells No. We don't hear a bit of pool noise, BUT we can walk out the back door and be wet in less than three minutes. Which also means you can get out of the pool, dry off and be home in less than three minutes. See how that works? Super awesome greatness all the way around. We go to the pool, for some stretch of time, almost EVERY day. The girls had a sleepover the other night--we turned on the pool lights and swam until 10pm. A request to jump in the pool "just for a minute?" are almost always given the go ahead nod. My girls are loving the time to hang out with friends and be active. We are loving this free entertainment that wears them out and lets us sit and watch. My girls are going to look liked bronzed babes in their school pictures this year.

Jane Kindergarten Summer School

First day of summer school. LOVES it.

She has already been to the school nurse twice for bloody knees from falling on the playground and once for telling the lunch ladies she is allergic to cheese so she wouldn't have to eat the grilled cheese sandwich they were serving. Jane also told me that the teacher told her she is the cutest kid in the class! (duh.)
She is learning about shapes and colors, letters and numbers. Some days she comes home like they totally bored her with the drivel curriculum and other days she has to redo a paper because she "made too many mess ups". She loves to take her lunch and is really hoping for her own lunch bag some day so she doesn't have to use Kate's. Getting up and going someone where each day has been a struggle/adjustment for all three of my girls the summer before Kindergarten. For some reason they start summer school 45 minutes earlier than regular school, making for a longer day. Jane starts to wilt by 5pm, so we have to help her catch her second wind, and then hope she will go to bed by 9pm. I am so thankful we have this practice school before the real deal.

Every morning she gets out of my car, says "bye mommy" and walks in by herself. breaks. my. heart. Is it possible something can break your heart out of happiness and sadness? Here she is waving to some neighborhood friends. Love her independence and her can-do attitude. But she still says mommy. *sigh*

Her first show and tell day she took some bugs she caught while on vacation. They were two lady bugs she named Cecilia and Jessie. I say "were" because they have left this life and gone on to bug Heaven since this picture was taken. Jane took it okay, although she was pretty sure that Cecilia had laid eggs (probably poop) and that Jessie was pregnant because she "needs to rest a lot" (probably almost dead). According to Jane, everyone thought she was the coolest kid ever and they all got to hold the cage.

Harvesters

After we got home from Bennett Spring we had a family field trip to Harvesters. Such a great experience for the girls and I only cried twice! I just can't bear the thought that there are 18,000 kids getting backpack food every weekend due to hunger/need..and they project it will be 25,000 by 2015. This is EVERY WEEKEND these kids count on Harvesters to provide them with food. breaks. my. heart.

 

Sorting QT sandwiches. The bins were so deep that short people like me couldn't reach the bottom. Solution? Put the girls in the bins! The food gets put into boxes and distributed to people on the street. We had a great time making these boxes full of sandwiches, donuts, cookies, salads, etc. Proud of QT for donating the non-sellable items.

next came sorting miscellaneous beverages. Lawdy, I had no idea how complicated that could be! Again with the bin being so deep we put Kate in to hand out the products.

Somehow a ginormos can of manwich got put in a beverage bin.

Here is the family at work. Big thank you to my sister-by-another-mother Christy for scheduling the service time. Love getting my girls involved in these types of opportunities.

Bennett Spring 2013

"Mom! Take a picture of me and send it to all your friends!"
(exact quote from Jane)

Not so many pictures this year. More time just enjoying, less time trying to document it. Not one individual picture of my Tess. She was there, I swear....as evidenced by family photo at the top. My parents were there, Andy's parents were there, My SIL, BIL and niece were there, even my brother and his girlfriend came for two days. Much too busy to take pictures.

Tess 5th grade awards day

This girl (and two of her classmates) got all A's, all four quarters for 3rd, 4th and 5th grade. Evidently this is a rare thing, because they had to create an award for these kiddos to honor their academic success.....Congrats to our "Distinguished Scholar"! "Mom, the trophy even has my name engraved on it!" super crazy proud of this girl.

token goofy class picture

Tess and Ms Anders