problems

I thought this was going to be an easy project. But like most sites we are experincing problems. When I get them worked out the blogging will resume.

8th grade Promotion

Well last night marks the end of Middle School for Jacob. He got dressed up, spent the evening with friends reminiscing about the past 3 yrs. It was a great evening. Then it was time for the kids to receive their certificates, and the one thing the Mother's have nightmares about happened. THE BATTERIES IN THE CAMERA DIED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I couldn't believe it and of course I didn't have any spares. So here I am looking around and waiting for some parent to make eye contact with me so I could charade my problem to them. Well, thank heavens Nancy was looking around at the crowd and not the kids. And she is quick to realize my problem and took pictures of Jacob. Thanks to Nancy!!! So when I get the pics I will publish them.

All in all, it was a great evening. 123 8th graders stepped across the stage, ending one chapter in their lives and starting a new one. Congrats to all and Good Luck in High School!!

Hey Heather!!

Just to let you know that I have updated the blog. :)

May

Well May has come in and I feel like it is almost over. Things are starting to move very fast. We only have 10 days of school left.
Track is almost over for the girls and they are moving on to Softball. They are playing on a travel team and this weekend will kick off our season. They play on the 12 and under team. So between school, Track prac til 5 M-W, track meets on Thursday. Softball Prac. 6-9 two nights a week, 4-H activities, and now games on weekends our summer is going to be over before we know it. They girls will also play league softball 2 nights a week. Hannah will start swim team the monday after school gets out and swim 7 days a week. 6 Practicing - 1 day competition. Oh, and lets not forget summer camps to.

Jacob, is trying to get a job to fill his days. We will see how that works. He starts drivers ed the week after school gets out and goes for about 3 weeks. He has baseball practices every sunday for 3 hrs. and he will play ball 2 nights a week. He is now done with wrestling for the yr. he finished with freestyle last week. Jacob loves wrestling and can not wait to go to a High school wrestling camp this summer in Colorado.

Mark, we don't get to see much. My wonderful husband is so busy this time of yr. I am sure that he doesn't hear enough how much we really appreciate him and all the hard work he does for us. He goes to work early and comes home late. I would love to win the lottery and tell him that he never has to go back to work. What a dream, huh.

Well the evening is winding down and I need to get kids to bed and the car packed for the weekend. Did I mention we will be at the ball field All Weekend?? Better this then wondering where my kids are.

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful Mothers.

Made Quilts for the girls.

Last weekend we cleaned out the girls clothes. And do you ever have those favorite clothes you just can't part with. Well, the girls had some and even though they couldn't wear them, they couldn't seem to part with them either. So I told the girls to collect all their favorites. We also had softball shirts that had names on them that nobody else would want. I cut all of them up and made the scraps into a quilt. And then I ran out of time so my mother sewed on the backing.
It was a hit with the girls. They talk about all the pieces and what they remember out that moment.

I had a blast making this for them.

Jacob's Turkey

Jacob is really into hunting. This time a year it is Spring Turkey Hunting. Well Jacob went out last weekend and didn't get anything. Tonight he got lucky and brought home a tom. So this weekend we will be eating turkey.

Got to check it out.

Nice Turkey. Jacobs 2nd one.

Weeding out old clothes.

We spent the whole afternoon going through all the clothes the girls had. They had to get down to 2 dressers. What a chore, if the whining and the who is doing more arguments would have stopped, we would have been done in about 2 hrs. Instead of that it took almost 4. Atleast we are done and the girls got rid of 4 bags of clothes.

After the weekend of cleaning and going through clothes I will be happy when Monday rolls around and I can go back to work.

Girls First Track Meet

Hannah and Jessica had their first Middle School Track Meet last night. The meet started at 3:30 and ended 9:45. By the time it was over the kids were tired, hungry, and cold. I am very proud of the way the girls competed and the way they cheered on other competitors from their own team and from other schools. Great Sportsmanship.


Malorie and Hannah





Jessica and Macy


Hannah

Hannah was in the high Jump. Almost got over the bar. Hard to get over a bar that is higher then you. She ran hurdles and did very well for only 3 days of practicing. Then finished her night with the 400m. (1 lap around the track) and she did it in a 1:12:00.






High Jump





Hannah Hurdles


Jessica


Jessica had to wait to start her events until 5pm. That is more torture then starting right away. Just joking. It is amazing how much horsing around you can get down in an hr. I am glad she and her friends had fun. Her events were the 100 hurdles, She also did really well for only 3 days of practice. She did the 100 m. and would have done better in this event, but got the giggles in the middle of the race. Jessica then had to wait for 3 hrs to do the 200 which was her last event.


Jessica Hurdles




100m run --- Jessicas in the Middle



Jessica 200M

Jacob isn't doing track so he has to sit and watch his sisters run. I had to listen to him complain about how hungry his is and how he is dying of thirst.

Of Course this is Jacob (Grey Sweatshirt) totally being bored hanging out with friends.

It was a great evening watching the girls compete and have a fun time.

Yucky weather!

I can't believe that yesterday was 84 degrees and everyone was in shorts. Today it is barely 46 degrees and the kids were digging out the winter coats. Out in Western Kansas it is supposed to snow today. Tomorrow back up to spring temps. I wish it would just make up its mind and pick a temperature and stick with it.

Have a great day.

Moving on to summer sports

Well, regular wrestling is over and Jacob has moved on to Freestyle and Greco style wrestling. Only for 5 weeks with only 1 tournament.

The girls have also started Track at school and Softball started last night with their first tournament mothers day weekend.

Hannah practicing her pitching.

Jessica practing her catching skills.

What are we going to do when the kids are gone?? I am not going to know what to do with all the free time we will have. I don't have to worry about the for 5 yrs.

Other weekend photos

Mark and Jacob showing off their new Iowa shirts.

Mark and his dad Ron working on Breakfast.

Ron and Mark just hanging.






Mark proving he is still taller, not by much. Mark 6'1" Jacob 5'10" Jacobs got about another 3 inches to go.



I don't have any pics of the girls this weekend. They spent it with their grandmother, they spent night with some friends, they went shopping and did some cooking. I missed them a bunch and am glad we are home all together as a family.

Brute - Adidas National Wrestling Tournament.

Well we are back home from a 4 day weekend. What an exhusting weekend.

Jacob ended up getting 5th place, of course as always we are very proud of him. This weekends tournamnent had 1500 kids from 32 different states. Very cool.

Here are some pics of the weekend.

Jacob preparing for the day.

One of his Matches he was 2-2 for the weekend.

Sign is kind of blurry but this is the parade of champions. 8th Grade All-Americans. Today they had a parade for all the kids that were wrestling for medals.

Jacob parade of All-Americans.



Last match 5th place.


8th Grade 148lbs. - All- Americans. Great Job!!!

Brute Nationals Wrestling

Wow , What a day!! We have spent the day watching kids from all over the United States wrestle. Jacob is going for 5th or 6th on Sunday in his bracket. If you have been following Jacobs season most of you know that he normally wrestles 150 weight bracket. This weekend he is wrestling 148. Now normally he has to watch his weight and lose a couple of pounds to maintain the 150 weight. You know growing boys and their food. Well this week he not only had to drop 2 pounds to make 150 but he had to drop an additional 2 pounds to make 148 so 4 pounds total to make weigh in on Thursday night at 8 pm.

Ok, Here is the week. Last Saturday and Sunday He was at state Weighing 150.
Monday came along and the kids wrestling season is over, No more practices to work off weight. So Jacob started running 2 miles a day, in 80 degree weather in full 2 pair of sweats, and sweatshirts, long johns. ect.

Tuesday our scale said that he weighed 152. You know the food thing.

Rest of week was little food and running. supper was oh a lunchable or a turkey sandwich.

Ok Thurs rolls around. He has to weigh in that night at 8 pm. Only has one hour for weigh in, not much time to work off extra weight. So he needs to be right on.
We went to a Coaches house Thursday morning before school to check weight. Jacob wants to know if he can eat or if he has to starve all day. Hoping for the eating of course. Gets on the scale 148.8 almost a pound over. Guess no eating today. Ok he has a little for lunch.
Goes home after school and runs 3 miles hoping to work off that pound.

We get to the Weigh in Thursday night. Jacob is hoping for the best, we are keeping our fingers crossed. He gets on the scale and weighs....... 145 pounds. He has sucessfully lost 3 POUNDS. are you kidding me. I go for walks and work out in the mornings. can I lose 3 pounds a day &$*#&%$##$ NO.. Well enough complainging. I am proud of him for making weight. Oh and I can tell you by the time he stopped eating Thurs night he gained the 3 pounds back. Good thing he doesn't have to weigh in again on Sunday.

Friday wreslting. he won 1 lost 2 Goes back Sunday for the medal rounds. He is going for 5th or 6th. He will medal and he will be considered an All- American Wrestler for placing in the top 6. So another great tournament.

I will post pics and update on Sunday results.

Hair cuts

Hair Cuts and Stylings by Tanya

Spent last evening cutting everyones hair. Not to many changes,

took 4 inches off Jessicas hair,

Hannah wanted bangs,

I buzzed Jacob's hair, probably took off a pound of hair.

Mark was the biggest change.

before

After

Wow, what a difference. I haven't seen that much of his face for the past 18 yrs. Still looking good!!!

State Wrestling

Spent the weekend in Topeka for State Wrestling. Jacob didn't place, but wrestled very well. Proud of his attitude win or lose. All the kids in the club did very well.

Getting encouragement from his coaches.

Mark and Jacob taking a break.

Walk

The girls and I went for a 2 mile walk tonight. What a beautiful evening it was. It is nice to get a little of time to spend with the girls only and talk. They also took this time to work with their show dogs. One way or another I am going to loose this weight. So tonight is the start of loosing it.

Jessica and Colby

Hannah and Bandit

Spring Break is Over.

Well, It's official spring break is over and we back to the same old thing. You know going to work, trying to keep up with the kids schedule, running them around to their events, and not seeing much of my wonderful husband. Good thing is that tomorrow is Wednesday and the down hill slide of the week. 3 more days and the busy weekend will be here.

Saturday- District Wrestling

We spent the day at McPherson on saturday. It was district wrestling. What a great day for most of the Kids Wrestling Club. I think that out of the 43 our club had going to district a majority of the them made it to the next step, which is state. Jacob was one of them, he place 2nd in his weight divison and goes onto State next weekend. We are very proud of him. So GOOD LUCK to him and the entire team.

Jacob in control of his first match. He won.

Jacob won his second match.

Mark and Jacob sharing a father-son moment talking about the day, while waiting for the next match which is the Championship round. Jacob has to wrestle a freshman in HS.

Third and final Match, Jacob is trying to pin the freshman. Didn't happen, Nick won the match- Jacob got second at district. Not bad, moving on to State.

Kids really like to fish.

The Kids really like to fish. I just wish one day they would actually catch something. Over spring break the first time we were at a river. The kids decided that the lake would be a better spot to catch something. Well of course it is already friday, Spring Break almost over, so we went. Got there and it started snowing. Oh, what fun, fishing in a snow storm.

Jacob

Hannah

Jessica

I hope the kids will remember back someday. And think " Wow, we had alot of fun that day."

Trying Their Luck at Fishing.

Jacob being a good brother and making sure the girls were all set up.

Jacob

Hannah

Jessica

Ok we spent almost 3 hrs "Fishing" and didn't get a thing. But it is nice to know that the kids can spend an afternoon together and not fight.

After the fishing we stopped at McDonalds for some refreshing ice cream.

I love afternoons like this.