Weekend with friends....

Sunday
Sunday started with some breakfast and hanging out before Tuesday headed to work. She is working two jobs right now, so she stays at home on the weekends she works in Rogers. Utah went to the lake with friends, so Tod and I went to the gym and worked out (we are such party animals.. he is sleeping it off in front of football right now!). After we worked out, we went back to Wal*Mart for stuff we forgot for ourselves and for Tuesday and then we took Tuesday some lunch.. she told us she was withering away at work :-)

Tuesday and I are getting excited about our paranormal weekend....

Saturday

Saturday started with an awesome work out and a visit to Wal*Mart (for groceries for both Tuesday and us... we don't want her starving and know she isn't buying good food, so we pick her up some of her favorites like bagels, cream cheese, chip dip, chips, pop, etc.). The Parrs came over around 3:30 and we played with Emmet, watched football, and cooked out. Tod made a yummy dinner of pork chops and chicken and James and Elizabeth brought a Cold Stone cake - my goodness, it was delicious!

Emmet spent the day trying to get up the stairs... James caught him... Tod caught him...

"Cousin" Utah shared his psp with Emmet... it was the only time during the evening that Emmet slowed down! Utah is such an awesome friend to little Emmet... he stayed home all day Saturday, instead of going somewhere with friends, so he could hang out with us and Emmet.

Emmet found the basket for the dog toys. He took out all the toys and decided to sit in the basket... Hubb was very confused!
Emmet looked ADORABLE in his hat...

Emmet saw Hubb's football and was convinced it was the football Uncle Tod had given him... he pointed at it and kept taking us back to the crate. He finally got the courage to get in the crate and get the football himself.. and then he ran for it! Notice the unopened Dr. Pepper.. it has an "X" on the cap because Emmet carries it around the whole time he is at the house and we don't want someone to accidentally open it :-)





Emmet got his football back!

YEAH!
This is one of the toys we keep at our house for Emmet and this visit he really seemed to enjoy it...
Emmet's favorite - the REMOTE! We have one without batteries that he carries around.

He loves to mess with the tuning on the wireless speakers...
The day of fun ended with Tuesday coming home after work and getting her oil changed and eating dinner and yummy Cold Stone cake. Dad, Tuesday, and Utah watched a movie while mom went to her room and read the Maximum Ride book her co-teacher (Karen) gave her this week. It is a really good read! Unfortunately, the next thing I remember is getting up at 9am on Sunday morning craving my ice coffee!

Dad made popcorn!

The muscle...

Another game and a pep rally this time!

This was our spirit week at Kirksey and it was tons of fun! We had our first pep rally today and it ROCKED!

Kate Walker and Sandon Williams created the banner below.. I taped the paper together and found the paint and image for them to paint.. not very creative, but I am useful! They did a great job! It was the run through banner, so it is in the trash now.... and we won tonight, whoo hoo!

These are the shoes of one of my students - they have his name on the heal.. it is so cool!
Go Cougars! Can you find Utah?

Interesting stuff...

This sight has got a really funny picture and story! Check it out for a good laugh!

http://www.coasttocoastam.com/gen/page2727.html?theme=light

Go Cougars! We beat Oakdale 20 to 6 on Thursday night. It was touch and go the first half and we finished tied 6 to 6. Apparently coaches made some adjustments the second half and the final score reflects a great effort by all the Cougar players and coaches. Forrest Johnson plays for Oakdale and he is quite the player - fast and hits hard - and he was on my team at school part of last year. It was fun hearing his name over the loud speaker so frequently.

Below is a picture of Utah and Mandie Gray after the ball game - thus, Utah is pretty sweaty! Mandie is on pom at Kirksey and since it was an away game they did not perform, so she got to watch the game with the CLAWS (cougar loud and wild section).

Hannah is in town for the weekend and it has been great! She spent Thursday night in Fayetteville with Tuesday (who left for Conway Friday morning), went out with a friend in Fayetteville on Friday afternoon, and then her and I got pedicures (while Utah kept us company).. pictures of toes to come later... then the family went out to eat dinner... more to come...

This weekend

On Friday night we attempted to attend the Mountie game. We made it through the first quarter and then torrential downpour began. Utah was not happy, but we decided to go home and not sit in the rain! We are going to try to attend the Mountie home games this year, but we are not off to a very good start.

Saturday started with going to the sauna(I was under the weather most of the day due to a cold that I hope does not develop into anything else) and get haircuts. We watched Notre Dame TROUNCE Michigan (thank goodness). It was the kind of game that I actually was able to nap through and was not consumed with fear that the momentum could change at any moment. Go Irish!

Then we watch Ohio State (we are big fans, especially Utah!!) loose to USC.. very disappointing for all Ohio State fans (though us ND fans are a little more accustomed to such situations), though especially difficult for Grandpa Paul (an alumni!). Go Buckeyes!

Sunday was a day of preparing for another work week AND a couple of hours visit from Tuesday (which MAKES OUR WEEKEND!)... gym visit, laundry, ironing, cooking for lunches... here are some pictures of my wonderful husband working on all the many tasks...

Tod made crab cakes and fried green beans for dinner (extra for lunch this week!)...

It was a lazy, fun, relaxing weekend... Tuesday and I are planning a day after work this week (monday maybe?) to go to dinner and shopping... Utah has a game on Thursday... Hannah plans to visit this weekend...

Julius Jinx?

I was sharing a story with Karen (Johnson) yesterday and she was laughing and saying that we (my family) has a lot of funny/interesting life experiences (stories). She is so right! We have often refereed to these experiences as the 'julius jinx' though my family is very large and contends that our many extended family life experiences are simply due to sheer numbers!

Let me share a few of these experiences and you can decide if it is a jinx? coincidence? or just an unfortunate series of events?

Disclaimer: We have experienced some family tragedies that will be excluded from this list. Our daughter passed away, Sarah Avery, on June 18, 1994. We lost my father, my mother, Tod's father, and my grandmother in a little more than a year in 2001-2002.

In blue after each example is our example of our 'silver lining' attitude about life :-)

Evidence:

1. I went to Monticello to take my final exams for my MAT. I stayed in a hotel room the entire weekend preparing for different finals and leaving only to take final. I even brought my own food in a cooler to save $$. Well, on Sunday when I awoke, I was COVERED on my face (left side only thank goodness) and leg with poison ivy. It was in my eye, my hair.. it was everywhere. Of course, I was a little curious about the source of the poison ivy and went immediately to the hotel manager - who, yes, confessed that the records indicated the bedding had not been changed since the last guest had stayed in my room and they were a large group of hikers! I got the room free.. but the cost of treating the stubborn poison ivy was incredible. Final funny on this story is we had a family vacation the following week - lots of pictures and extended family!

The doctors could not get rid of the poison ivy. I went to Hot Springs to meet my sisters for a birthday weekend and Elizabeth paid for us to have a hot bath in the spa. Whatever was in that water got rid of the poison ivy after one bath!

I passed my final exams and earned my MAT. I had a wonderful weekend with my two sisters and due to a family squabble, we have not done it again, so it was an even bigger blessing than I realized at the time! We had a great vacation and it was nice a cool in MN and staying out of the heat helped keep the poison ivy from itching!

2. Tuesday was hit by an 18-wheeler when she was a senior in high school. The same year she was rear-ended by another student. A year ago she was hit head on by a drunk driver. In all three examples, she was sitting at stop lights or in traffic and walked away without major injuries. She did sustain a knee injury in the drunk driver accident that is still bothering her today and prevents her from participating in some intramural sports.

Tuesday being able to walk away from each accident with minimal injuries is such a blessing.. words cannot express how little everything else matter.. even two totaled cars, one repaired car.. who cares! Tuesday is still here, still driving, and we hope.. not stopped at a stop light right now :-)

3. The first time Utah rode his dirt bike was so much fun! On his last turn around to load the dirt bike, he lost control and hit a barbed wire fence (brand new, one week old) full speed. He cut his thigh open from knee to hip through to the femur. Thank goodness for the helmet, which had a big gouge (SP?) in it right where it was protecting his neck.

Utah had to miss a week of school (that is his silver lining). Our silver lining is he is fine, his leg healed, he has a great scar (and our friend James claims that 'chicks dig scars'), and he still loves to ride his dirt bike!

4. Tod has had ACL surgery and double shoulder surgery. I have had double knee surgery. In all circumstances it was due to unfortunate events in our life!

The fact that Tod and I have fantastic insurance that helped pay for these surgeries is a huge blessing. Our quality of life is so much better and we are both close to pain free!

5. We lived in the same house for almost 13 years. When we moved, we were so excited and we still love our new home, though we got a little nervous at first. In the first 48 hours the garage door spring broke, the garage door motor failed, the garbage disposal quit working, there was a recall on the dishwasher, the cable wouldn't work (cox came out about 5 times that week), and the dogs discovered how to get out of the fence (so we chased them through the woods until we figured out their escape route).

We have a beautiful new home!

There are more examples for you doubters....

Below is a picture of the naughtiest dog in the world AND the reason I am up at this hour!

Go Cougars!!!