Free At Last

The girls had their last day of school on Friday. But it paled in comparison to the week of festivities that led up to it. To me it was a blow-off week. I wish they would have planned these field trips for the last weeks of school rather than the last week of school. It was a lot for these kids to handle, and although they had fun, they were exhausted by the weekend. Monday was off because of Memorial Day, Tuesday Maryn and I went on a 2nd grade class field trip to Matthieson State Park. Luckily we had decent weather and it was a fun day. You would never know that this beautiful canyon full of funky rock formations and waterfalls existed in what is otherwise just Illinois farm country. There were hiking trails, places to climb, and stone bridges crossing waterfalls below. Breathtaking.

(Maryn is in the center, surrounded by classmates.)


(Maryn and some of her buddies on the stone bridge.)

Wednesday was a 1st and 2nd grade class field trip to Jellystone/Yogi Bear Park. Mark chaperoned this one and I think all of them had a good time. I was too worn out from the field trip the day before to go on this one, but it sounded like fun. They got to putt-putt golf, go on a nature hike, tie-dye t-shirts, and have a picnic lunch.

(Maryn and 2 of her friends on the bus...the girl behind her making the face is her BFF, Janel.)

(Avery and her BFF, Camille.)


(Maryn's 2nd grade class--she is second from the top left.)

(Avery's 1st grade class--Avery is 5th from the left on the top row.)

Thursday was field day and an all-school picnic (fun for kids, not so much for parents...it's a long story, and I don't have the time to elaborate.)

Friday was cleaning day...cleaning out desks, lockers, etc. They came home with bags and bags of stuff. Why don't they do periodic clutter control throughout the year? And why do they send it home rather than throw it away? Whatever.

Today, they actually had to show up for 20 minutes in the morning to get their report cards. I think they needed another day technically to make the state of Illinois happy. It was kind of lame and pointless in my opinion.

So as of 8:20 this morning, they are free women.

Aye, yay, yay...I am in for a loooooong summer.

Avery Learns to Ride a Bike

"She's just learning to ride a bike now?" you might be asking yourselves. We have to all keep reminding ourselves that she's only 6. Training wheels up until now have been perfectly respectable right? Well, sort of. Anyway, she had long outgrown her training wheels and her bike. She actually learned to ride on Maryn's bike from Christmas. Now we just need to get her her own set of wheels.

But she did it! And she did well. She was pretty emotional about the whole thing...gotta love that girl. If Mark tried to help too much, she got mad. If we didn't help enough, she got mad. Eventually she figured it out and did it and we all went home breathing a little sigh of relief. (Mostly that the crying was over actually.)

Hooray for Avery!! Another milestone down.

Sorry it's sideways, folks. I'm still figuring this whole video thing out. And yes, I know she should have been wearing a helmet and not flip-flops. At least I remembered the elbow and knee pads though!

Modesty and Fashion Collide

Well, at least I tried to make them collide. As some of you know, I am the Activity Day/Acheivment Day/Faith in God for the 8-12 year old girls Group Leader. The girls and I planned our activities a year in advance and one of the girls (Ashley) really, really wanted to have some kind of a make-over/fashion show/night of beauty/and all things sparkly night (that's the kind of gal she is) and May was her birthday month. I agreed, but kind of twisted things around so that we'd still be passing off a goal at the same time.

Thus was born the Modesty Fashion Show.

(Maryn modeling her baptism dress, and that's Ashley in the collared dress and Sydney watching her.)

I know this has been done a lot now in other Wards and what not, but for our little group of little girls, we had a blast.

(From left: Ashley, Amber, Sydney, Maryn, and Sara)

The girls modeled a casual outfit and a Sunday outfit. They all had a really good time, but I could tell the older girls were a little self-consciuos while the younger girls just really hammed it up. Personality differences also played a big part as well, and it was fun to see which ones really ate it up.

(This one is my case in point...Sara, is she in for a modeling career in her future or what?)

After the Sunday outfits, we had a little lesson on Modesty and closed things with a prayer and cupcakes.

It was a fun night on the runway!!

Who Knew?!?

That Avery was a pretty darn good t-ball player?

We certainly didn't, but have been really tickled to watch her shine on the field over the past several weeks.

I must admit I had my reservations. We've been down this road before. First it was kinder-music in preschool...didn't go so well. Last year it was karate, which was okay but her teacher was really bad. Most recently it's been ballet which has been a catastrophe of gigantic proportions. It wasn't the dancing necessarily, because they both love to dance. They are always busting a move when Dancing With the Stars comes on, or even in the car when they hear their favorite songs. I think it was kinda boring just standing at the bar having to do the ballet poses and stretching. I think they thought they'd be learning the Tango or the Waltz and wearing costumes like Julianne and Cheryl (well probably not, but...whatever...I digress).

(you gotta enlarge this one to see the look on her face after she cracked the ball...hilarious!)

So Tonica apparently is big into their baseball. There are 3 diamonds just in our tiny town. And it seems like everyone signs their kids up and everyone shows up to practices and games. So we figured we'd be getting to know new people at the same time...kill two birds with one stone, right?

(you gotta enlarge this one too...can you see her grinning from ear to ear? She's running like Forrest Gump!)

It's turned out great so far. She loves her practices and has already been praised by her coaches. She had her first game on Monday night and did great! She was the best catcher by far, and hit 3 solid balls.

Our sparkly, moody, girly-girl Avery...you'll notice she didn't slide into home base here, but at least she's coming home with a smile on her face...who woulda known?!?

My Breaking Point

Last week I hit my breaking point. I think it was the rain that put things over the top. I am usually okay to just live life week after week with little variation to what we do. Mark goes to work, the girls go to school, they have their after-school activites, sometimes play-dates. I really don't get "out" much though. (Besides the grocery store of course.)

Occassionally we'll go out to eat, but the choices are so limited around here that even that isn't as fun and adventurous as it used to be for me.

But last week I needed to get O-U-T!!

I was kinda getting a little down and discouraged. Once again, I think it was the rain, but who knows when you're dealing with pregnancy hormones. I could very well just be going crazy. (Just ask Mark on one of my "bad" days.) Anyway, I told Mark on Thursday night that I needed to get out of town. I think he was a little scared. He asked what I had in mind and I told him either we were going to the movies on Friday night or that we were driving down to Bloomington for the day on Saturday. I figured those two options were perfectly reasonable.

He suggested we do both. I happily agreed.

So Friday night, we took the girls to the Peru Mall and saw Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D! I think Mark and I enjoyed ourselves more than the girls. It was really entertaining. (Maybe I'm more sheltered than I thought.)

Saturday after a birthday party that Avery went to, we loaded up and drove down to Bloomington. The sun was shining (finally!) and it was so nice to get out of town. We went to the Mall there and did some shopping (they have a Motherhood store, yippee!), and the girls rode on their indoor carousel. Sadly, we both realized that they are both much too big for this now though. Ave's feet didn't move off of the floor of the carousel the whole time...she looked like a giant among all of the excited toddlers...oh well. After the Mall, we stopped at Barnes & Noble (Mark was a happy man), and some other stores. We capped off our night with dinner at QDoba, and Krispy Kreme's that were hot off the press...couldn't have been more perfect!!

When we pulled back into Tonica Saturday night, I was kinda surprised at how rejuvenated I felt. It was just nice to get away for a few hours and feel a part of civilization again. Is that so wrong? Well I guess if it is, I don't want to be right. (What song is that from? hee hee.)

Lots going on this week, I'll try to blog more. Maybe you'll get lucky and I'll even post some pics.

Rain, Rain, Rain

*I added this picture on Friday to show you that I'm not kidding about the rain. If you click on the picture and make it larger, notice our flooding sidewalk and the lake forming in the Farmer's field to the northwest of our backyard.

Who knew that we'd moved to the rainiest place in the country?!? Why didn't somebody warn me? I thought that was what the Pacific Northwest was known for? Well, did you know that north-central Illinois is running a close second? Well, it is.

We've had rain pretty consistently since the weather broke and winter finally decided to stop being winter. But instead of snowing now, it rains...like all the time. We've had several flood watches, thunderstorm warnings (which have followed through...big-time...whoa!!), and now as of last night our first tornado watch.

I know that our family and friends out west are probably rolling their eyes right about now. I remember what it was like to live there. The constant drought conditions, the prayers at the pulpit on Sundays for "more moisture", and all of that. But seriously, this is going above and beyond.

Yesterday it rained all day long. And last night was our first tornado watch. I've heard that it's getting serious. Farmers haven't been able to plant their crops because of too much rain this Spring. They are almost a month behind where they should be, and those who would have planted corn this year are having to reconsider soy-beans because they take less time or whatever.

Anyway, it's not just me. We don't have rain today, but the forecast changes on a dime. The weather is definitely different here than Michigan. Who woulda known?

In other news, things here are fine. I am fine. I did have some testing done recently for my heart. I had a fainting episode that apparently set this all off. I had my echo-cardiogram on Monday and things look fine. All of my symptoms are pregnancy related, and I am just pumping more blood than what I am used to and have been dizzy as a result. It's good that my doctors are all being thorough, but I am already beginning to feel like a bit of a lab rat. I have another appointment in Peoria (the specialists) next week. They will be doing ultrasounds every 4 weeks until my due date to measure things (my cervix) and predict whether I could have another premature birth. They want to avoid that, thus the regular ultrasounds. I'm just glad we know so much more this time going into things than we did with either of the girls. I am hopeful things will be different than they were when Avery was born.

Baby girl is doing great. When I had my echo, the ultrasound tech asked if I wanted a peak at her. We did, and confirmed that she is a she. She is mighty busy now. I can feel lots of movement and am getting rounder every day. (Not so sure I like that part so much.)

The girls are doing great. They are counting down the days until school is out. They are out the last Friday of May, but their last week is a blow-off. They will have Memorial Day off, and then two days of field trips and the last day being an all day Field Day and picnic. My question is why even have "school" at that point?

Mark is winding down things with this semester. He has been a grading mad-man, and tomorrow will be the last day of Finals and I think he'll be able to turn in his grades and be a free man. This break will be his longest until Summer Term starts (2nd week of June). I know he is looking forward to the break, but I am putting him to work around the house. We have lots of projects to get done. Could I be nesting already?

We are also hoping to squeeze in a little vacation too. Possibly a few days in Chicago seeing the sights, or we had thought about Nauvoo as well. We'll see what happens.

TGS Spring Show

Well, I was going to post videos of the girls performing in their school's "Spring Show". However, they have literally taken all day to load and I'm tired of trying. You'll just have to trust me when I say they did great and looked cute. (Sorry, any advice for compressing video file sizes to post would be appreciated.)

Each class performed a song in honor of the school principal/superintendent who is retiring this year. His name is Mr. Bequieth (sp?). He is a big fan of Elvis, which means that every class sang some kind of interpretation of an Elvis song. I think Ave's class sang, "Teddy Bear", and Maryn's class sang "All Shook Up". At the very end, the entire student body sang "My Way", accompanied by a tearful slide show presentation of Mr. B and his students over the years. I guess this guy has been around a loooong time, and he will be sorely missed. (Me and Mark are thinking it's just what this little school needs however...)

Anyway, the girls did a great job, and we enjoyed feeling more like a part of the community.

It's been a busy week. Sorry for my lack of posting. On Monday I had two doctor appointments and another important appt. with the grocery store. Tuesday and Wednesday were spent prepping for my Activity Day girls Mother/Daughter Tea Party on Wed. night. After that I was just too pooped for blogging. I need to go catch up on reading all of yours.

More later...