Father's Day

First of all....Jenny is giving away a Christian CD....head on over to her blog and sign up to win.

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Happy Father's Day to all you fathers out there!

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I would like to pay tribute to the father that I had. I was only 17 years old when he died but he taught me alot in those 17 years.

He was a kind, quiet, patient man of few words.

He was a hard worker but also took time to make sure my mom and us kids knew how special and important we were to him.

He taught me how to play softball and basketball and would take time out of his busy day to throw a few balls or shoot a few hoops.

He sat in the stands at all of my games and even sat in the stands to watch me cheer as a 7th grader.

He made sure we took family vacations which is something I still treasure to this day.

He taught me the importance of hard work and was very patient as he taught me how to drive tractor, run a swather or drive truck.

I don't ever remember him "yelling" at me while chasing cows which for all of you that have ever worked with livestock know what a feat that is.

He helped us "break"our 4-H calves and I remember him being drug around the barn each time he did but he did it because he knew we would love showing that calf.

I could tell you many more things but the point of my post is to remind you all to appreciate those fathers out there and tell them how much you appreciate and love them. My dad was only on this earth for 37 years but he made a huge impact on many people in those 37 years, especially on the 4 of us kids. I wish I would have told him more how much I loved him and how much I appreciated everything he did for me.

SDSU here he comes!

We spent all day yesterday at South Dakota State University attending orientation meetings. We now have Jeremy "officially" all signed up for classes and ready to head off to college. He can start moving into his dorm on August 28 and starts classes on Sept. 2.



Some parts of the orientation were very interesting and some were very B-O-R-I-N-G! For the most part, we learned alot. All I know is there are LOTS of decisions to make when attending college. Jeremy did pretty well.....he is not really a decision kind of guy!



He also had to take placement tests for Math and tested out of a few math classes and starts with Calculus 1....that saved him some time and $$$. He was pretty excited about that.



He changed his major already....he was signed up for Mechanical Engineering but isn't sure Mechanical is the type of engineering he wants so he changed it to General Engineering until he decides for sure which type of engineering he would like to pursue.



So.....in a few months, I will be sending my baby off to South Dakota State University.

SCORE

I scored some rhubarb....my sister gave me some (thank you Cheryl)! I think she may have gotten it from our other sister's mother-in-law (thank you Pauline). I have a rhubarb custard dessert in the oven as I type this....I love rhubarb and can't wait for the dessert to come out of the oven.

Summer

Ok, summer as we know it has begun around here! Courtney started her leagues and camps this week. She went to a Cheer Camp on Monday and Tuesday, she and the other cheerleaders put on a Cheer Camp for the kids here at Hamlin on Wednesday and Thursday, she plays in a volleyball league on Monday nights, Softball (got cancelled this week tho) on Tuesday nights, and basketball league on Thursday nights. She leaves on Sunday for the Hansen-Anderson Basketball Camp of Stars and will not be home until Friday (she will have to miss all the league games this coming week). The only night of the week she has free is Wednesday and I am sure she will want to hit Open Gym at the school on those nights. We did this last year x 2 but Jeremy does not have any of the leagues or camps to attend this year.....just Nationals this month for a week and next month he goes to Norway for 16 days.

The whole group of girls at Cheer Camp

Courtney with her group of girls at Cheer Camp

My niece Kennedy at Cheer Camp

Courtney "spiriting" with her group of girls

Courtney leading a cheer with her group at Cheer Camp

Poor Jeremy!

Ok, I am feeling a little guilty about my last post! I was so excited for Jeremy to start driving the semi to town.....but now I am kinda feeling bad for the poor kid (I know he's not a kid anymore, he's 18 but he will always be my kid). He took 2 loads to town yesterday and ended up waiting in line for over 2 hours both times. Then, first thing this morning he takes off with the semi and gets about 10 miles from home and a guy in a pickup starts flagging him over....
the brakes on the trailer are locked up and are on fire. The guy grabs a fire extinguisher and puts out the fire but while they are both under there putting the fire out, the tire blows.....right in Jeremy's face! Our mechanic came and looked at it and it was fit enough to drive to his shop so Jeremy drove it to the shop where it still sits right now, being worked on. In the meantime.....Jeremy's ear is really bothering him from the "explosion" so I took him to the doctor to make sure it hasn't ruptured his ear drum. The doctor couldn't see the full eardrum (he had a little wax build-up) but could see the middle which is where they usually get a hole so she is pretty sure he will be ok. His ear is still ringing and feels funny and if that continues on for the next week, he will have to see a Ear-Nose-Throat specialist to see if there was any hearing damage but we are pretty hopeful that he will be just fine.
You just never know what is going to happen around here!

Go Jeremy!

I am so excited today.....Chad is breaking Jeremy in..... hauling corn in the semi to the ethanol plant! YEAH! Jeremy drives semi alot but has never taken a load to the ethanol plant.

Several reasons for me to be excited.....

1. I drive semi but am not real comfortable driving it great distances and through lots of traffic.

2. The place they are hauling to is 35 miles away and on the edge of Watertown....4 lane traffic coming into town.

3. Jeremy will now (cross fingers) take over some of the hauling duties around here.

4. It frees me up to get some more things done here around the house (and more blogging time).

Fencing

All 4 of us have spent the last few days working on fences. We have had some arguments, some mishaps, some blonde moments (mostly Courtney and me), Courtney threw the hammer a few times (yes, she has a temper..wonder where she gets that from), a few...ahem...choice words escaped from my mouth (and Chad's too), Jeremy hit his thumb several times, everyone except me got at least one shock......but most importantly, we had many good laughs and some fun along with the work. We actually had LOTS of fun the last few days. It is so nice to be able to spend time with each other out in the fresh air without distractions (ok, the kids did do some texting so we weren't totally without distractions but they put the phones away when we asked them to). Ahhhh...spending time with my family...having some fun...while getting the work done....PRICELESS!