Thursday, August 28, 2008

Just sitting at my desk watching the sunset..... JUST kidding! My computer is not working, I had a cord go bad, so I'm using my work computer. I don't have any pictures saved on this computer to share with you and I just couldn't blog without visuals.... so, I "borrowed" this picture.

The week is slowly winding down. So far Katie is really enjoying her new teacher and riding the bus to school. It has gotten progressively worse trying to get her up in the a.m. but I kinda expected that. Tomorrow is a "Spirit" day, so she gets to wear a Holy Family t-shirt and jean shorts to school instead of her uniform. The kids think that this is such a treat. I was tempted to get her a Notre Dame t-shirt just to see how far this "spirit" day would go, but I decided that Uncle Matt and Uncle Kent would never forgive me.

Speaking of Uncle Kent, Katie called him tonight and left him a voice message, "Go Black jacks"!! She was supposed to say "Go Jack rabbits" because Uncle Kent is rooting for Maine on Sat. Oh well, I'm sure he understood what she was saying.

I found out today at work that we are officially moving to our new long-term temp location on Sept. 23rd. I found out from one of the probation officers who got an email from the Court administrator. We will be at this location, the Palmer building for the next year probably. At least we'll all be together, juvenile court, the juvenile clerk of court, juvenile county attorneys and juvenile probation officers. It's going to be noisy and crowded, but we'll make it work.

Time to take Katie and Hawkeye for a walk. I hope everynight that I will wear them out so that they go to sleep well for me. So far it only works on the dog!!

First Day of 1st Grade

Katie started first grade today!!! Yesterday we went and met her teacher, Miss Wienecke. Miss Wienecke is a brand new teacher from Dyersville (where Grandma Shirley is from).... She's very young and this is her first year of teaching. Could be an interesting year....

Katie got up and around very well this a.m. She was so excited to ride the bus to school for the first time. I was not as excited and I made a copy of her bus schedule and put my name and phone number on it in case she got lost. She goes with the neighborhood kids to the public school where she switches to another bus to go to her parochial school.

She had an early out today and she reported that all went well and that she had a great time today in school, although she did not win at BINGO. I guess they are starting them early aren't they???

We'll see how she gets up the rest of the week. She is not a morning person and she has to be on the bus at 7:21 a.m. It's going to be interesting.....

The Gambler

Katie is having a great time in Dubuque with Grandma Shirley and Papa Dale. I got a call from her tonight telling me that Grandma took her to the Mississippi River Museum and Casino and that she won $11 gambling! She was so excited! I asked her if she was going to take Grandma out for a pop, and she said, "No, I'm saving my money for a (Nintendo) DS". Wanna bet that she doesn't make it home with the money???

Weekend in Minnesota

We finally got to go to Minnesota to see Matt and Jen and the kids in their new home. The move north has been pretty hard on all of the kids. They don't necessarily want to see each other ALL the time, but they want to be ABLE to.... It was fun to go and see them at their new house.

Katie had spent all of last week in Cherokee with Grandma and Grandpa (and ALL her cousins) while Mommy had to work. She has reported to me that she got to see everyone in Cherokee that she is related to... So, on Friday night, Dad and Katie met me at Dudley's Corner (where Highway 3 and Interstate 35 intersect). Katie apparantly was completely worn out because Dad reported that she slept all the way. By the time I picked her up, she was ready to go. We got to Matt and Jenny's about 10 p.m. Friday night. The kids were asleep when we got there, but they didn't all stay asleep.

On Saturday, we took the kids to the Mall of America! Aunt Kel agreed to let them get their faces painted before they started riding the rides. I have forgotten how much harder it is to take five kids to the mall as opposed to just one!

On Sunday, we went to the Renaissance fair. We had lots of fun and there were lots of people to look at.... I told Matt that it was a haven for old hippies and young goth kids.... By far the best part of the day was the fencing. Katie and I had to leave about 3 p.m. I took Katie to Dubuque to continue her whirwind travels before school starts. She is going to be at Grandma and Grandpa's this week before coming home to start school next Tuesday!

Frankie is really into Star Wars right now. I got to hear about an hours worth of Star Wars trivia on Saturday morning when we were snuggling! Did you know that when you are playing with your Star Wars figures that you can NEVER have enough Storm Troopers!! Really!!

Like his big brother, Andy wanted to have Darth Vadar painted on his face. Guess who's Darth Vadar lasted the longest? Unfortunately for Frankie, the first ride he went on, his "tatoo" fell off!

My beautiful blue eyed girl of course wanted blue flowers around her face!

My girls with their faces painted. Marilyn chose pink eye "feathers". Don't they look so precious

This lucky guy didn't have to have any face paint. He's really changed the most since I last saw them. He's walking and talking more and more. He doesn't get a lot of "personal" space, but he holds his own!

Andy and Jenny riding on Blue from Blue's Clues.

Carl wanted so much to be able to ride the rides with the kids. I was watching the kids on the "Frog" ride and when I looked down at Carl this is what I saw!!

All four of the big kids on the ride.... Andy, Frankie, Katie and Marilyn

Here I go Aunt Kel, I can walk if I want to.... I'd rather just stay low and out of the way most of the time!


My boys!

What a group!!! I love this picture. They are having so much fun together!

Matt eating a big * turkey leg at the Renaissance fair.

Here are the kids watching the fencing.... They were really into this sport.

Katie, Frankie, and Marilyn all decket out to fence. The goal in this fencing was to pop your opponent's balloons. Doen't they look like Mickey Mouse???
Round one: Frankie versus Katie. These two have had "issues" for years and we thought that this would be really fun to let them work it out on the field.
Still going at it.
Round two, Marilyn versus Andy. This was the cutest match of the day. Poor Andy didn't know quite what to do. They sparred, but neither of them could pop the balloons of the others. Andy at one point started to run away, and the crowd went wild. By the time these two were finished they had gathered quite a crowd.



Round three: Marilyn versus unknown man. After sparring with Andy, Marilyn got to have some taller competition. She really went to town. She may be little, but she is fiesty. When she won, they had her pose with her foot on her opponent!! She was grinning from ear to ear!

Simonsen Golf Tournament

What can you say about this picture....???

Mom, Kent and Kerry getting ready to tee off.....

He's not only the winner, but he looks good doing it.....

The winner and not the winner!

Perhaps the reason that Mom didn't win is clear in this picture..... She should've cut back a bit!

Yesterday we had the first Simonsen Golf tournament.... We played out at Quimby golf course and we played three holes of a best shot, three holes of 2-ball, and then three holes on our own with our score being the lowest. Then we played three holes of on our own with a new partner. We switched partners again and played three holes of best ball, and finished with yet another partner and played a 2-ball. It sounds more complicated than it really was, but we had fun. Kent shot 79, narrowly defeating Glenn by a stroke. Dad won the "practice" ball coming in a stroke higher than Kerry.