Soccer season is upon us

Ains and Owen both had their first soccer games yesterday. Ains is on her 3rd season. And not that she wasn't good before, but yesterday she was seriously awesome! Our kids have never shown much athletic ability and so we were a little surprised as Ains rushed out and scored the first goal. And then proceeded to be awesome on the field. She had strategy and was handling the ball well. She almost had about 4-5 other goals but the ball just barely missed the goal. She was left in most of the game and was exhausted. I think she got left in a little too long (she was really hot and struggling) and had to be taken out for the last quarter. Granted we we're her parents, but she did awesome. We were so proud!

Owen provided us with much entertainment during his game. He pranced all around the ball in a goofy ape like sort of way (for lack of a better description). He was "blocking" ? Still not sure about that. But he still somehow managed to score a goal. It surprised us all.We determined that Owen deserved the "most improved from first quarter to last" award. Because there was much less ape like "blocking" during the 4th quarter than the 1st. He also got in trouble for trash talking the other team. Okay, actually he was taunting the other team a bit saying that his team had 15 points (which they didn't) and that they only had 2 points (which they didn't). We had to then have a brief conversation about sportsmanship on the way home. He's hilarious. And apparently a bit competitive.

Oops

I accidentally grabbed the wrong clipper size when I was cutting Owen's hair. He now has a buzz. And pictures are in 2 days. Way to go me!

Something I re-learned today

Preparedness pays off!

And not just in a food storage sort of way. But more of a, " your day will be much better if you put the effort in to be prepared."

Case in point....

The worst part of my day seems to be between 4:00-8:00. This is for many reasons. Emmie wakes up from her nap around 3:30. This in and of itself is not bad, but this also is typically Emmie's grumpy time of day. Ainsley gets home from school. Homework must be done. Someone usually needs to be getting ready to go somewhere. Dinner is in need of preparation. And clean up. Someone always needs a bath. Etc. It's just a chaotic time of day. And it's kind of new territory for me. I feel like we're just starting the "busy because we're running years", as opposed to the "busy because we have baby years".

Yesterday was no different. Emmie woke up unhappy and cried at my ankles for hours. Ains came home with more homework than usual. Including finding a river rock the size of her fist to paint. The next day. seriously? I don't keep large rocks on hand. Owen had soccer. And I had a baby shower to get to. John and I were both running. And there was lots of crying and yelling. Most of the crying was done by Emmie. They yelling was done by all of us trying to be heard over Emmie.

I'm proud to say that I learned my lesson and was a little more prepared today. Normally I wouldn't have been, but I found myself with a little extra time on my hands because I wasn't able to work during the afternoon because the website was down. So instead I did all of the dinner prepwork. Made afterschool snacks. Laid out soccer clothes for this evening. And now, because I was prepared, I sit here updating my blog.

Ahhhh. Today life is good. Tomorrow maybe not so much. Unless I can remember how nice this moment is. But let's face it, sometimes there's just too much to do during the day to "stage" the perfect night.

Our not so boring weekend...

So our weekend held some unexpected surprises for us. Heaven forbid we have a dull moment around here! The fence was stained and done by noon on Saturday. And we only had to go back to Lowe's once for an additional 2 gallons of stain. We actually bought 2 gallons less than they said we might need, just to stay positive, but alas, they were right. And now, although our fence is still in horrible shape, it's all the same color and looks a bit better.
Since we were so productive in the morning we went ahead and invited friends over to watch the BSU game that night. And then, less than an hour before friends were to arrive, and just after John had run to the store to get a few items of food for the evening, Owen ran into the house screaming. With blood gushing down his leg. Literally gushing. Notice his little blood foot prints that went through the garage and into the house.

He stood there on the carpet with blood pouring out of his knee. I grabbed him and put him into the sink to try to figure out where all the blood was coming from. I soon found a teeny tiny little cut in his knee. It was incredibly deep though. Once he had calmed down and the bleeding had slowed down he was able to tell us (I can say us because while I was stopping bleeding I called John and told him to get home immediately because there was blood everywhere. He came home a little freaked out.) that he had fallen while riding on his scooter and a little rock got stuck in his knee and he pulled it out and then ran inside. He also got his scooter in the garage amid the chaos. I informed him that if he was ever that hurt again to just leave his bike or scooter etc. in the road if he had to and just get inside.

His wound healed up nicely, and we were actually able to have a fun night with friends.

And then Sunday morning brought more unexpected adventures. I woke up with a nasty stomach flu that has been making the rounds here. I was miserable and literally spent the entire day in bed. John even locked me in an attempt to keep the germs from spreading and to give me a break from the kids. John was a trooper and did church by himself and then entertained, fed, and took care of the kids and me all day. On Monday I was still really weak and he took the kids to a bounce house place for a couple hours so I could nap and then we took the kids swimming at my parents so the kids wouldn't drive us crazy.

It was an incredible weekend. And like I always say (or like I'm going to start always saying) if you're going to get sick, do it on a weekend when you have some help. I don't think I could have survived this one while taking care of the kids. John was a life saver.

And that concludes our not so boring weekend....

What are your Labor Day plans?

Ours are very exciting. They involve making our fence look like someone actually lives in the house it surrounds. Hopefully it will go quickly. But there's a good chance that since we haven't stained the fence since we moved in 5 years ago there might be some surprises along the way. It took me 2 hours just to pick out a stain that matched. I never knew there were so many staining options available, or that it was so stinking expensive! Yeah for home ownership...It always seems to make you bleed money.

What's better than a king size bed?

Possibly nothing. After seeing a king size bed on sale for an amazing price at Costco my dream of owning a king size bed came true! It's been a long 10 years of sleeping on a terrible mattress, jamming knees and elbows into John every night, and waking up every morning with a sore back. Those days are long gone. I have slept amazingly since having it. I love it!

(I'm excited to get all of the bedding finished. I lucked out and found sheets, mattress pad, and a "alternative down" comforter at Ross. And then I found the cute quilt on clearance at Target. And soon it will have a cute bed skirt and pillows. If I was cool like my mother and sisters in law I would have made an awesome quilt, but alas, I'm not that cool. So Target and Ross it is :)

First day of school....again!

School is underway and I now have a second grader and a kindergartner. It seems kind of weird. Mostly because they seem so big to me!

And poor little Emmie is now stuck at home alone with me. Poor girl, I see much errand running in her future.

The first days of school have gone pretty well. Owen seems to be having fun in kindergarten. His class is full of several friends and so I think school has been a big party for him thus far. Ainsley is in a 2-3 class this year (thanks to budget cuts). I think she'll do well but it might take some getting used to for her. She struggled a bit with finding friends during recesses, and then I explained that the second graders go to lunch a little while after she does. So she's going to have to be brave and try hard to make friends with the few other second grade girls in her class. She had a bummer second day of school, but I'm hoping she's worked out the problems and that she'll have a good year and make new friends too.

.....................Update............
I worry that I make Ainsley seem like she has a hard time with friends at school. I think it's more accurate that I stress out when she has a rough time (which is to be expected with all kids) and I dwell on it and fret about it. I am most likely the one that has a harder time watching Ainsley face any opposition that she has dealing with it.

After talking to her about the schedule at school and breaking the news to her that her best friend won't be able to play with her all the time, we made a plan for her to get to know the girls in her class better. And in only one day it worked. She has very sweet girls in her class. I guess that's the silver lining of being put in a combo class, they don't take the trouble makers. She came home yesterday all smiles. She had been able to play with girls in her class and still got some time to play with her best friends too. We set up a play date for her and I'm just hoping this transition goes smoothly. It must be intimidating to be in a class with the majority of the kids being a year older than you.

Ainsley is such a leader and has such a spunk about her. She is resilient and kind and others are just drawn to her. I found it interesting that the girl in her class that was new to the school sought Ainsley out and asked her to play. Ains really is an amazing little girl!