Fall Volleyball

This fall Cara chose to play YMCA volleyball again. She didn't participate in the volleyball clinic for a month, but she did join a team and play games for 4 weeks. She was on the yellow team this year made up of 3rd and 4th graders. This year she was even on a team with a few other girls from her school. Cara's skills have improved quite a bit since last year. She just has to stick with it and keep trying.

Cara and McKinzie waiting for their chance to play in the rotation.

Waiting for the ball to be served.

Take care,

Michelle

Thanksgiving/Black Friday

Thursday morning we packed up and headed to Lincoln for Thanksgiving dinner at Cory & Jodee's house. They were kind enough to cook the turkey and let us spend the night so that Jodee and I could spend Black Friday shopping. This was our third annual Black Friday shop-a-thon. Cory made a delicious ham and turkey with all of the sides. I contributed a jello-poke cake for the dinner. After eating way too much, Jodee and I settled down with two newspapers and all of the ads. After browsing numerous times through the ads, we made our list of items that we wanted, what time each store opened and had the early deals, and then planned in what order to hit the stores running. We decided that our first stop would be Kohl's. The alarm clocks were set for 2:45 a.m. and we left the house at 3:00 a.m.

Jodee and I do not care how bad or good we look on Black Friday. The whole purpose is to score the deal. I get up when the alarm goes off, quickly put on my sweatpants and Nebraska sweatshirt, comb my hair and brush my teeth. That is it!!! Onward to the first store we go with our master shopping list and our charge cards. Oh, I almost forgot that we are both also loaded with extra coupons for the adventure. This year we had so many coupons between the two of us, that we passed them out to other people in line by us waiting to check out. Talk about being giving in the Christmas season.

Jodee scored huge deals at Kohl's (complete with doorbuster prices plus rebates plus extra coupon savings). Simply put, Jodee was making money while she was shopping at Kohl's. Then we proceeded onward to Target, Walmart, The Children's Place, Gymboree, Bath & Body Works, Younkers, Scheels, Hallmark and Old Navy. Finally at noon, we both needed a break and needed to catch our third or fourth winds. I was exhausted at this point. I couldn't even think straight plus I was developing a headache from lack of sleep and food.

In previous years, we have taken Jodee's mini-van out for our shopping adventure, but this year we took Jodee's car. She definitely picked the wrong time of the year to trade off the van and get a car. As you can see our purchases were falling out of the car.

I will classify it as another successful Black Friday shopping experience. We both have tons of patience while waiting in the long lines, plus we laugh at others around us. Now I just have to figure out how to get it all wrapped and also sort through it all and decide what is left on our list. I must accomplish this soon because this weekend is round 2 of the Christmas shopping at the Mall of America.

Take care,
Michelle

YMCA Fitness for the Cure!

A few Saturdays ago, I participated in the YMCA Fitness For the Cure! This event was put on by the YMCA and organized by the Zumba instructors. Fitness For The Cure was fitness for the fight against breast cancer. Cali, one of the Zumba instructors, lost her mother last spring to breast cancer so she was really instrumental in getting this off the ground here. Breast cancer is also near and dear to our family because Keith's sister, Lorrie, lost her fight with breast cancer five years ago last July. When I heard about this event at the YMCA I was totally on board for it. For a $10 donation to the Susan G. Komen Foundation, you could participate in the event and also get a t-shirt. The event last for 1 1/2 hours on a Saturday morning and you could win numerous prizes while exercising.

The lady with the pink pants on is Kristi. She is one of the instructors that keeps me motivated every Tuesday and Thursday during class. Somehow she knows when I start to sluff off in class and makes just the right comment to get me going again. Did I mention that she also has 9 children and is that thin?

Participants signing in for the event. There was all kinds of information about breast cancer and also about Zumba.

I loved this pink tree of hope for the cause.

Kristi leading another song/dance. There were about 100 participants in the event and next year they hope to make it even larger. Keith even thought about participating because of the cause, but he had to run kids instead. Maybe next year he will be able to join the event with me.

Take care,

Michelle

1st Anniversary - Late

Last Tuesday, November 2nd, was my one-year anniversary of blogging. I want to thank everyone that welcomed me to blogland and has followed the activities of our family. When I started blogging it was supposed to be a journal of our every day lives and what happens in this household of six. I am not good at keeping a journal. I have tried to journal more than once and every time I fail. I have told myself that I will not fail at blogging. This blog has inspired me to write about the daily activities of our family and has also inspired me to take more photos of all of us. When I started this adventure, I wondered what I would blog about every day and somehow I have come up with ideas and activities.

Lately I have been lacking on posts and have not been the best follower of anyone's blogs. I am sorry for falling behind, but last week was really hectic here. Keith stayed out of town on Monday and Tuesday night. Wednesday night everything was going good until about 9:00 when the phone rang. Keith got called back to work and ended up working all night and not getting home until Thursday afternoon at about 1:00. On Thursday and Friday, I had to work all day at school. The week just flew by and I failed to have time to post or even read other blogs. I barely found time to check my school e-mail.

Thanks again for everyone following this blog for the last year and here's to many more posts!!!

Take care,
Michelle

Happy Halloween

What a great Halloween yesterday turned out to be! The temperature was not too cold (mid 50's) and the small rain shower happened before it was time to go trick-or-treating. The kids couldn't wait to put on their costumes and go get candy. We never put out our pumpkins until the day of Halloween because usually they get stolen or smashed. Therefore, yesterday afternoon I put them all on the front steps.

Justin did not want his picture taken and Cara couldn't decide if she was going to go trick-or-treating or not. But in the end she ended up going. So before they left the house we snapped a photo of the angel, lion, flower child and princess.

This photo is over at one of the neighbor's homes. Cara and Erica walked around getting candy with these boys. The two boys on both sides of Cara are in her class and the Iowa Hawkeye football player is in Erica's class. Ashlin refused to be in the photo and Justin didn't want to look at the camera.

I walked Ashlin and Justin around the neighborhood and they brought home a haul of candy. Justin's bucket was almost full. He was really getting into trick-or-treating this year. Justin had a few classic comments to some of the neighbors though such as "I don't want that piece of candy because I already have one of those". He made that comment to a neighbor down the street when she tried to put some M&M's in his bucket. He had received M&M's at the previous house and he thought he couldn't get any more of that kind of candy. Then he told the neighbors across the street, " I don't like that kind of candy!" and wouldn't let them put a certain piece in his bucket. Life is never dull with a 3 year old around. He says what is on his mind.

Take care,

Michelle