Update

Having fun on our vacation, although it has been extremely busy.

Jeremy's team placed 3rd in slow fire and 5th in rapid fire so far this week... silhouettes tomorrow.

Final awards TBA tomorrow night!!

Sure am missing all of you! I can't wait to catch up next week!

Nationals

NATIONALS HERE WE COME!

GO SOUTH DAKOTA! GO JEREMY!

I will post pictures when we return home.

Nieces

We have 3 of the greatest nieces and I just wanted to share 2 of them with you. I will share the other one when I get a picture of her.

Kennedy....she is such a spunky, fun, tell-it-like-it-is girl.
Kassidy....she is a quiet, giggly, kind-hearted sweetheart.

Here they are posing with Courtney at one of the latest family gatherings.

We are so lucky to have them in our lives....they are a joy to be around.

Vacation

Nothing interesting going on around here. We are busy trying to get odds and ends caught up so we can head out on VACATION! We don't get away very often so I am really excited.

Jeremy qualified for the National 4-H Shooting Sports Match (in .22 pistol) in the Black Hills, which just happens to be where my mom lives. We are going out to watch Jeremy, see my mom and make a VACATION out of it.

The 4-H shoot is really interesting, they have kids from all over the US come and shoot archery (compound and recurve), pistol (air and .22), shotgun, rifle (.22 and air), muzzleloader and hunting (consist of several different disciplines). Texas, Missouri and Colorado are usually some of the best teams. Jeremy went last year and shot recurve archery and his team did very well.

Softball

Courtney had another softball game last night and I remembered to bring the camera...the new one! Don't you just love the uniforms!! Jeremy chose not to play baseball this year so I only have one team to follow this summer.

Courtney and one of her best friends...Tasha. This pose is one of those goofy things they do.
Courtney pitches and Tasha plays short stop....Tasha is an excellent player.
Courtney batting.
Pitching.
She's getting better....has had her struggles this year with pitching.
They WON!
Team meeting afterwards....notice Amy from Life in the Country to the left in the orange shirt....she is one of the coaches.

Amy and her niece...Lexy. Tasha (from the goofy picture) is also her niece.
Summers and softball/baseball....it doesn't get any better than that!

GO ZIMMERS!

Spandex

Courtney has been at a volleyball camp for the last few days and has been wearing her Spandex volleyball shorts. She looks great in them but I still think they are dumb (maybe part of that is the thought of what I a might look like in them). Why do volleyball players wear Spandex? How do you feel about Spandex?

Blessings!

I had such a good weekend and am so blessed to have such wonderful people in my life.

I went to Mass and then spent all day yesterday with my wonderful hubby Chad and my kids, working on our new deck. I will post pictures of the deck when we get it finished. (It may be awhile, we have been slowly working on it since last July)

I hosted a Father's Day supper for Chad's family. We were lucky to have his Dad and Mom, his brother Bryon and his family and brother Brad and his family come. What a wonderful way to celebrate 4 dads!

Another blessing was that even though my dad died almost 22 years ago, I still felt his presence with me yesterday on Father's day (as I do many other days too). It was a good chance for me to reflect on the wonderful memories I have of him and what a great influence he was in my life, even for the short amount of time he was here on this earth.

I am so blessed!

New Camera

Ok, I did hold off a few days but had to have a digital camera. I do have a really nice 35mm camera but have really gotten hooked on my digital camera. So....while I was in town yesterday I had to get one! For all of you wondering if it will be Chad's Father's Day gift, the answer is.............NO! I was going to but was really feeling guilty about it and I had already bought him something last week while I was in town, so I am going with my HEART!

Anxiety!

Ok, I am going through a bit of anxiety today....my daughter drown my camera last night. It was in her bag at camp and she also had a water bottle in the same bag and the water bottle leaked.....my camera drown! I just happen to be at camp last night to watch her too (4 of us moms went together to watch the scrimmage games). I told hubby I had to run to town to buy a new camera today and he just shook his head at me, that's when I realized I was being a little over-the-top on this. So I will wait a few days....maybe hubby will get a camera for Father's Day--haha.

Quiet...Part 2

Ok, now Courtney is gone this whole week...to the Hansen-Anderson basketball Camp of Stars. I thought it was quiet the week Jeremy was gone but it's even MORE QUIET this week. Jeremy is my calm, easy-going child who only talks when he has something important to say, so it has been REALLY QUIET around here. It does give me one on one time with the kids when the other one is gone for that length of time and I have really enjoyed that! I guess that is something I should make an effort to do more often...spend individual time with them.

Play Ball!

The hay is cut and the spraying is caught up for now so we got a chance to sneak in to watch our nephew Booker play his first baseball game.

Booker running to 1st base.

Playing left field.

All smiles after the game.

His team has a lot of little ones so it was so much fun to watch. I don't think he ever made it home, just to 3rd base a few times but he could have cared less because he was having so much fun! He did have to leave the outfield once to run to the bathroom (which was totally hilarious) otherwise he did very good!

GO BOOKER!

Bonfire

Finally...we got to have a bonfire! Saturday night we got together with some friends (thanks Laurie for inviting us) and sat around the fire. We had a great time making S'mores and enjoying each others company . Ahhh, the joys of summer! (Thanks for the motivation Amy)

Volleyball

I spent Thursday and Friday watching Courtney play volleyball with her team.

Warming Up

At the Net

Getting Ready to Set

Lunch Break

Coach Paulson talking to the girls after the games are done.

I had a great time, I love watching volleyball!

Addictions...continued

Another food addiction I have is pizza....from any place, any toppings. It is a comfort food from my childhood. Some of the fondest memories of my family are eating Whiz's pizza (those of you from NE SD might now the place I am talking about). We used to stop there after our usual Sunday visit to my Grandma and Grandpa's and have long family talks while eating our square pieces of pizza in the vehicle on the way home.

I never used to crave food until I quit smoking 5 years ago. Now I crave food all them time. One of these days I am going to get motivated like Amber at Confessions of Mine and actually do something about the extra pounds(Congrats again Amber).

Until then I might see you at DQ or Godfathers.......

Stop the Vehicle!

Those are the words that are heard every time we drive by a Dairy Queen by none other than....ME! See that smile on my face! This is after driving to get some chemicals for hubby. The darn town that we go to for chemicals has a DQ.
MMMMM! I seriously think I have an addiction to DQ chocolate chip cookie dough Blizzards! The 40+ pounds that I need to lose absolutely shows it too.

Anybody else have a food addiction?

My "Not-So-Girly" Girl

Growing up, Courtney was always a tomboy. A few years ago, she started to like wearing dresses and skirts and doing her hair and make-up (and taking forever doing it too). But, I caught her doing this the other day, so I guess.....once a tomboy....always a tomboy. Do any of you have tomboys?Showing off her muddy hands (doesn't she look proud)!
Playing with the worms in the mud puddle.






Courtney....my tomboy!











Playing in the mud puddle (the worms are in the puddle).

At least she looks a little graceful playing in the mud.

I am a tomboy at heart too and am not afraid to get dirty so she must get it from me. I also like worms, she must also get that from me.

Rib Fest

Chad, Jeremy, Courtney and I went to Rib Fest in Sioux Falls last night with our good friends...Wayne and Laurie and their kids, Kasey and Jarrett and Kasey's boyfriend Zach.

We sampled ribs from each of the vendors....here is a picture of some.

Here is me, smooching on Kasey's boyfriend Zach, while Kasey and Courtney pose for the picture and Laurie looks on. Honestly, I didn't even have any alcohol. (Look out Kasey, he looks interested-haha)


We all had a great time!

It's Here!

My new hot tub has arrived. It came yesterday and was heated up and ready to use just before bed last night. We traded our old one in and have been using a loner so it was good to get the new one here.

Courtney and I enjoying a relaxing time in the hot tub before bed!