Employed in the Nick of Time

We had given Bryce a deadline of May 31 to find a job. We had been nagging him to put in applications and look at jobs that were available. We really hadn't seen much forward movement on the job front so instead of endless nagging we gave him a deadline to have a job by or we weren't going to pay for gas etc. He came in right under the wire. He got hired at Firethorn Golf Course as a dishwasher. It maybe wasn't his first choice of jobs but he was out of time so he took it. He looks cute in the uniform and I am excited that we are going  to have a professional dishwasher in the house. 

 

Digging Yourself a Hole

Bryce has been having water leak into the corner of his room when we get a really hard rain. After a couple times of dealing with this, I have no idea how you would clean up after a real flood. It is such a pain to use 5-10 beach towels to mop up water and then have all of those to wash. Not to mention Bryce always has lots of random stuff under his bed that gets wet too. To solve this problem, Robb has decided to put a hole in with a pump. I'm obviously not sure on the specifics of how this will work but I am hoping that solves the problem. Bryce is good at digging holes so he was hired for this job. 

 

Natural Consequences

At this age I no longer feel responsible for making sure that they wear sunscreen. I guess Bryce learned this the hard way. He went to play football with friends while wearing a tank top and now he will look like he is wearing a tanktop for the next week. Ouch!

 

Recital Time

Attending this dance recital was bittersweet for me. Abby has decided not to do dance next year and while she is content with this decision and ready to move on it makes me a little sad. She performed beautifully. She has really became a graceful dancer. I understand and respect her decision but I really love watching her and her friends on stage. This was her 5th year dancing with Aimee's in Hickman and she got a medal on stage so it was a neat way to end this chapter.

Emmy is always my recital buddy. She is willing to go to multiple shows. 

Proud parents

Grandma Jody always enjoys coming to the show.

Steph has always been supportive of the girls being in dance. Steph danced all through high school and even went on to teach classes. 

 

Golf Team Banquet

Caleb had fun hanging out with this group of guys during the golf season. They golfed almost everyday after school through nice weather and really terrible weather. Caleb showed a lot of dedication, he not only golfed daily but he also attended tournaments that he didn't get to play in just to support his team. Caleb would even go caddy for Thomas during practice rounds just because he enjoyed it and is a good friend. 

 

Spring Time is my favorite

Springtime means everything is green and growing! We get to buy and plant new trees and all my flowers are starting to bloom. 

 

Dress Rehersal

After having her scope done that morning, Abby came home and took it easy so that she could be ready for her long night at dress rehearsal. They always have the youngest kids go first so that they aren't keeping little kids up past their bedtime but it gets to be a late night for these girls too. 

Kaylee, Abby and Ada

This was the costume for lyrical. This wasn't the girls favorite but it looked pretty on stage. 

It is funny to be at the stage where they don't need you to do their hair, makeup and get them in their costume. Abby did her own hair and makeup and then she helped Kaylee with hers. 

This was the ballet costume, it was beautiful.

Maybe not the attitude you would expect from a ballerina. But we love ya Abby!

 

Abby's Endoscopy

Abby was diagnosed with Celiac Disease when she was 10. The plan was to do a repeat endoscopy in one year, but at that year mark her lab work looked so much better so they decided to wait one more year. Then Covid hit and they weren't doing any non essential procedures so we were through another year. She hasn't been having problems and overall is really healthy but her GI doctor didn't want to delay the inevitable any longer, they needed to do a repeat scope on her. She had an Esophagogastroduodenoscopy and a Flexible Sigmoidoscopy. We opted to go have it done at Boys Town Hospital in Omaha. Abby wasn't thrilled about doing this but she knew that it was a necessary evil and something that she would need to repeat throughout her life. Last time the IV was a little traumatic because it took them multiple tries to get it, that was the part she was most worried about. 

At Boys Town they typically give all their teen patients a little Valium before they start the IV. She was all loopy and slurring her words as she was telling me that this medicine wasn't working at all. It was pretty entertaining.

I think they got the IV before she even realized what was going on. All of the staff was great and really sweet to her. She was only in the procedure for about 30 min and then Rose the Nurse Practitioner came to talk to us. They said everything looked really healthy and the small intestine had repaired itself and they didn't find any concerns during the flex sig. They were really proud of how well she has done with her gluten free diet and she now only has to go back on a yearly basis to check in with them. Abby was excited because they had fun gluten free snack bars that she could have afterwards. She now has the afternoon to sleep it off because she has dress rehearsal for dance tonight.

 

Bulking Up

Bryce has been trying to bulk up for basketball. He is tracking his food in an app trying to meet a calorie and protein goal each day. The typical calories that a person would get in a day would be 2000. Lately, it will be after supper when Bryce announces that he needs to eat an additional 2000 calories to make his goal. This kid eats a crazy amount of food! He has been trying to meet a target of 4000 calories. He typically eats a huge breakfast, huge lunch, large snack, 1st supper, 2nd supper and then a protein smoothie at some point. Here he is drinking his smoothie right out of the blender. I am just jealous that I don't have a cushion of 2000 calories to work with at the end of the night. 

 

Sioux Falls Tournament

Bryce's summer Supreme team had a tournament in Sioux Falls South Dakota. It was decided that just Bryce and I would and Robb would be home with the rest of the kids. The weekend proved to we challenging for us. Our team was clearly outmatched, and the games were rough. During the last game about 2 minutes in Bryce got fouled and hit his head on the floor. The tournament venue had actually medical professionals there to check kids out that were injured. Bryce went out for a few minutes to get his bearings but the medical person went through the concussion protocol with him and decided that he couldn't play the rest of the game. Talk about a ticked off kid! 

The redeeming part of this trip is when had a good time just the 2 of us. We ate out, hung out in the hotel room, walked around town and even stopped at the falls. The Falls in Sioux Falls are pretty neat. Bryce likes to climb and explore so he had fun climbing down the rocks and making his way across to different areas. Being a child in a family of 4 kids makes it so you don't get a lot of one on one time. I have always told myself that the lessons you learn from having to take other people into consideration and have siblings out weighs the negatives of having to sharing attention and I do think that is true. But it is really nice to hang out with the kids on a one to one basis and really have time to talk and just have time to focus on them. It was a good trip maybe not a good tournament though.

 

Looking good for 41

Happy 41st Birthday Robb. Robb's birthday request is always to take the boat out on the water. It is usually a little too cold to want to get in the lake this time of year yet but he puts on a wet suit and he is ready, freezing water or not. Caleb has been learning how to drive the boat which gets me out of this job, thankfully. I will admit I am still pretty nervous about trusting Caleb behind the wheel of the boat. Robb did a little wakeboarding for the night and we enjoyed a peaceful evening on the lake.

 

Last Day of School

Bryce's last day of Sophomore year.

Caleb's last day of Sophomore year.

Abby's last day of 8th grade

Emmy's last day of 3rd grade

Bryce has been talking to us about changing to Freeman Public School. We have asked him to take a couple months to really think about it. He wants to move to Freeman because they had multiple starters on the basketball team graduate and he would be able to get some playing time on Varsity there. I was sad to have him leave Norris. Mainly because I like having all of my kids at the same school and I like having him and Caleb together. Robb and Bob were excited for the opportunity for him to play varsity sports. Bree, was a little sad also but she was putting on a brave face and gave him a basket that said welcome to being a Freeman Falcon.

 

Titan Award

On the second to last day of school I got a call from the Norrist Intermediate office. My first thought was that Emmy was hurt or sick. Thankfully, it was neither of those. Emmy had been nominated by her teachers and other teachers and staff to get the Titan Award. She was a roll model for her class, she followed rules and was safe, she was a good friend and she always tried her best. We are proud of you Emmy!

 

Visiting Grandma and Grandpa

 Steph and I made our annual trip to Dads grave site. Orchard has had some crazy weather lately and there were multiple downed trees and large branches. We put out the new Cubs flag, brought grass seed to seed the site and just over all cleaned the area up. On our way home we stopped to see Grandma and Grandpa. Due to their age and Grandmas health they aren't able to come to many family things anymore so about the only time we get to see them is if we go there. We have to be a little strategic about it because if we call the week before Grandma gets all nervous about the house and gets worked up enough that she calls to cancel. So instead we have started looking for Grandpa at the Lunchbox having coffee in the morning and stopping to ask him if it would be alright if we stopped by. This way Grandma doesn't have to stress about the house and we still get to see them. Lets be honest we don't care about the house a bit we just want to see them. Bear is always up for visitors too. I have never seen a dog that was so loyal and protective of his people as Bear is with Grandpa! Grandpa has to be touching him the entire time he lays by the couch or Bear is nudging him to pet him again. 

Mother's Day

Mother's Day this year fell on one of the hardest days for  me to get through which is the anniversary of Dads death. I told the kids that I wanted to celebrate on a different day and planned to not really acknowledge it at all and just focus on having all the feels that day. However, that didn't seem fair to my mom and I was in town so we had a brunch for her with all of us. Steph made breakfast and we ate it out on her patio. It was a nice morning and a fun way to honor the woman that put up with us and made us the people we are today. Happy Mother's Day Mom!

Emmy made me a really cute little note and planted a flower for me. She knows that I love plants so I was excited to have a flower for my window sill.

 

Fishing

Although the love for fishing has died down a little bit around our house, the kids will still randomly grab poles and fish in the pond. Bryce helped Emmy catch a fish and then he had to help her take it off the hook and throw it back. The catching part was fun but reeling it in was about the only part she wanted to participate in. There aren't a lot of nice moments between Emmy and her brothers so it is nice to see them doing things together.

 

Fieldtrip Day to the 7 Mile Prairie

I got to join Emmy on her fieldtrip to the Seven Mile Prairie and it was a great day. The weather was perfect with clear skies and a breeze. It was fun watching her interact with her friends and they had lots of fun activities for them to do. They used nets to catch bugs from the prairie grass. They also had nets that they got to dip into the pond and then look at what was in the water through the microscope. I was glad that I was supervising a girl group for that part because it looked like the mom with the boy group was really struggling to keep all the boys from getting wet in the pond. I am thankful that I have a couple days off during the week and can usually make it work to go on these trips with the kids.