Soccer Surprise....

Saturday officially began the girls soccer season, and Josh's school season has been going for about a month now. The girls are purple again, but this time they are the Purple Panthers! Actually it is more like they are purple and brown, because with all of the rain we've had, they come home awfully muddy! The team actually looked great on Saturday, as they were passing well and spreading out the goals scored amongst team mates. Kaia scored the first of the season, and ended up with two (I think), and Jaelyn scored one too.  The only problem I had was with the official, as I think he may have been a little biased....

Three of my kiddos in the same shot!

Yep, that's Josh refereeing the girls game. Looks great in yellow, huh? It is funny that his first ever game officiating, and he is assigned his sisters' game! He did a great job though, and went on to ref two more games that day. I think it will be a great way for him to earn some of his camp money for this very busy upcoming summer (football, wrestling, and church camp), and I think he will enjoy it more than his previous raspberry picking job!

Spring Break Shuffle...

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Kellen moved out, which started the spring break shuffle. For some unknown reason Josh decided he wanted to move into Kellen's old room (which is really an office with no closet).  Once Mike finally harassed convinced Kellen to pack everything up, Josh took over the room. Good thing it was his spring break, because he spent a lot of time reminiscing as he went through items that haven't been touched since second grade! The girls also completed a spring cleaning, and Mike put together the much needed dresser I purchased at Ikea (if you've ever purchased anything there, you know what an endeavor that is). Since they have three closet doors he decided to remove one and place the dresser in there, allowing more space in their room.

As Mike and the kids' spring break wound down, mine was just getting started. I painted walls in the girls' room, hallway, and tackled Josh's old room. Finally, I'm going to have a guest room again! Haven't had one of those for probably 16 years. We bought a new mattress and bed spring, and new bedding has been ordered. Reservations for this summer are now being accepted:)

Here are a couple much anticipated photos from Kellen's new place.  Notice I didn't dare shoot any of his bedroom! Some things never change...

Kellen's new place. Notice my card table being used for their kitchen table:)

Kitchen view....apples in bowl and plant starter are a nice touch, but definitely not Kellen's doing.

Always the competitor

The following video is of Mike and a fellow coach. They previously coached wrestling together, and currently are both track coaches. They were challenged as to who was quicker, so of course, they had to compete to find the answer. The winner would get a mocha, and their pride intact. Mike spotted his friend Brian 10 meters, one for every year he was older. The entire track practice was stopped to watch the "Old Man Slam," and you can see for yourself how it went (check out Mike's speedsuit....).

I came, I saw, I conquered....

Recognize this quote? It was attributed to Julius Caesar, but this week it is an ode to our sweet dog Caesar, who suddenly passed away last Friday.

He was born in May of 1999 and came into our lives shortly afterward. I still remember a trembling puppy hiding underneath our deck. We had to send a five year old Joshua in to retrieve him! The two of them soon became inseparable!

Aren't they both so cute?!

In early 2004 he was joined by Romeo, who became his younger, more annoying brother, whom Caesar was forever tolerant of. Together they saw many sites camping and hiking, including the hike at Ft. Ebey, pictured below with Josh.

There were so cute together!

Speaking of tolerant, Caesar was soooo tolerant of the kids. Here are a couple of things they put him through over the years....

When Jaelyn joined our family in 2006, she was deathly frightened of the dogs, and would scream and cry anytime they got near. It was Caesar whom she first learned to feed, and he patiently allowed her to crawl over him and pull his fur without ever so much of a growl.  And Kaia, well she just adored him from the beginning, as you can tell by the photo below. Just as long as he was getting attention, he was a happy camper!

He conquered our hearts, and there were many tears with his passing. We will miss you Caesar*; thanks for bringing us nearly 12 years of smiles!


*footnote: although we will all miss him, the girls were paging through their "Dog bible" the following day, picking out the next breed of dog they will be getting. Border Collie,  really? I think not!

Princess Pirate....

This week was Kaia's post-glasses checkup, to measure how much her right eyesight has improved since wearing glasses. Unfortunately with the glasses she is only seeing 20/70, not the 20/40 we were aiming for. That means eye patch therapy began this week....

Like the glasses, Kaia was excited when she picked out the purple unicorn and the white kitty eye patches she is to wear. However, this excitement quickly dissipated as she realized exactly what this meant, being only able to use her poor eye to see. We had to pick up Jaelyn from a friend's house on the way home from the vision clinic, and at first she refused to even come out of the van due to embarrassment. I left the van sliding door open, and after about five minutes of me chatting at the house door, she slowly slithered out of the car to play with Jaelyn and her friend. This early experience had me worried, but I must say that Kaia has been much more positive about wearing them since then, more than I ever anticipated.

She has to wear one 4-5 hours a day, so on the drive home from school, she selects which one she wants to wear for the afternoon/evening. On Saturday and Sundays we can work around our schedule so that she can wear them while we're at home.  I think the biggest challenge ahead will be when soccer season begins next month. Saturday games shouldn't be an issue because we can work around the games, but evening practices may be. We will tackle that hurdle when it gets here. For now I am thankful she is keeping so positive, and I think she is the cutest Princess Pirate around!

Moving on up.....

Yep, our firstborn is "Moving on up....," to a top floor apartment that is, one that he can call his own! Well actually it's not his own, as he has a room mate, but you know what I mean....

I must admit I have mixed emotions. I know he has wanted to do this for some time, and we are ready for him to "spread his wings," but as a mom, I can only wonder if I have prepared him enough for this. I realize we all have to start somewhere and learn from the bumps along the way. Just hoping that the bumps aren't too rough, and that the road ahead leads somewhere. A positive is that it will probably improve my prayer life!

My first reaction to his apartment is that it is better than my first place, but it is quite sparse. If anyone needs birthday ideas, he needs lots (I realize his bday is not until August)! I will try and get pictures posted sometime.

And yeah, he's had dinner here twice since he officially moved out on Friday;-)

I'm Melting, I'm Melting....

Do you recognize this now???