Caleb a Cook??

I’ve been trying to teach Caleb to cook and bake for years, but without much success. He doesn’t seem very interested in the process; he’s much more focused on eating the food! However, after being in Jane Hansmeyer’s class for less than a month, she has managed to teach him more than I have in 17 years. The other day, Caleb came home and made chocolate chip cookies all on his own. He didn’t ask for help—he just did it! And they turned out delicious.

I did have to negotiate with him about the fact that just because he made them doesn’t mean he gets to eat them all. If everyone followed that logic, he’d never get to eat anything in his life!

 

Guys Trip to Table Rock

It’s no secret to anyone who knows Robb that his true love is boating. He loves it more than anyone I know and can’t wait to take the boat out in the spring. He gets depressed when it’s time to winterize it at the end of the season. Since Yankton is really the only place he gets to boat as much as he wants, I thought he deserved one more trip this year—a boating birthday celebration. Most years, he spends his birthday at a dance recital, so this was a special treat.

To make this trip even better, I planned it about six months in advance and kept it a secret for a long time. I spoke with John, Andy, and Mark to ensure they could join us, too. Robb loves Table Rock Lake; it’s a place we vacationed at when we were first married, so that’s where I wanted to send him. Finding an Airbnb with four real beds was a bit challenging—Andy and Robb weren’t going to fit into bunk beds for the extended weekend. After a lot of searching, Mark and I finally settled on a place that had the beds we needed, was in a great location, and even had a boat slip for rent. The house was a little outdated, but we figured they would spend most of their time on the boat anyway.

Robb thought he was going on a golf trip with John, which is how I got him to clear his schedule for that weekend. About a week before the trip, the kids and I revealed the surprise. He was really excited, and I was thrilled that I had pulled off a surprise gift. The girls and I prepared food for the trip and packed the coolers while Robb got everything ready for the boat.

I think they all had a great time and they got a lot of wakeboarding and wake surfing in. 

Horse Chores

When it gets too hot the horses get too miserable and they don't want anyone to ride them. Molly had called to cancel lessons because it has been so miserably hot out. She had said that they were cooling the horses down with the hoses daily and they were just trying to keep them from over heating. I asked if we could still come out and help with the horses even if she couldn't ride. I think it was important for Emmy to see the not fun side of owning horses too. She always just gets to go and do the fun part so tonight we put on our tank tops, shorts and boots and helped with chores. I think Emmy thought it was more fun than work but it was nice for her to see the hard work side of things too.

 

Steve Mattern Memorial Golf Tournament

Every year Husker Ag invites us to join them for the Steve Mattern golf tournament. This is something really nice that Husker Ag does to honor dad. Robb, Bryce, Caleb, Lester, Mitch and Chris all golfed in the tournament. We also get to join them for supper. This is the bench that was purchased in honor of dad. 

Since Steph, Abby and I don't golf we hung out in Norfolk for the day and then met the guys there when the tournament was wrapping up. Weston came with Mitch so he joined us for the day. Emmy and Weston always have a good time together!

They swam in Steph's pool. She probably had to refill it after they used it since most of the water made it out of the pool.

We also stopped to see Cindy for a while. It is always nice to see her. 

 

Getting Your Colors Done

Susie and Bob had given me a gift card for Tasha and I to get our colors done last year. I have loved it so much that I made Steph and appt to do hers. It was suppose to be a birthday gift but we were a little late. This time we went to a girl in Hickman. She did a really good job. Steph had guess that she would be a Winter and I had thought she would be and Autumn. She was correct. She gets to keep wearing her favorite color: BLACK. It is always a fun day when we get to hang out together. 

 

Happy First Day of School

This year school started really early. They started on August 10. The boys are Juniors this year, which is crazy, Abby is a freshman, so we have 3 kids in the High School. Emmy is in the 4 th grade and in the intermediate building. None of the kids were ready to go back yet. We were enjoying the laid-back days of summer!

Do you see Robb in the window being a weirdo?

Bryce (17 and a Junior), Caleb (17 and a Junior)

Abby (14 and a Freshman) Emmy (9 and a 4th grader)

The boys drove themselves but the girls rode with Dan the bus driver again this year. I told him he can't retire until he gets Emmy to High School age.

 

Scout and Lucy looked sad that the kids left!

 

Open House night

Emmy is the last one that wants us to go to open house with her. She was excited to have some of her friends in her class and she was really excited to have Miss Kernes for a teacher. Miss Kernes is new this year but she is the daughter of the assistant principal so Emmy has seen her at the school before. She is young and seems really excited about everything. I think this will be a fun year for her!

4th grade with Miss Kernes.

 

Fouled by Your Girlfriend

This is what happens when you play basketball with your girlfriend. You get fouled and cut your knee open on a metal sign in your room. Bryce came upstairs yelling, "Mom, Mom"! It was not the usual mom yell and I knew something was wrong. Bree followed closely behind him and they were both trying to keep the dripping blood from getting everywhere. They explained what happened and the entire time Bree was apologizing profusely. I cleaned it up and I saw how deep it was and I knew that it needed stitches. Bryce was less then thrilled about having to get stitches for a couple reasons. 1) He hates shots and stitches. 2) It was one of the last free days before school started and they had plans to hang out with friends that night. 

Bryce learned about triage and the fact that he was about the lowest priority there was to be seen. He was not in extreme pain, the site had stopped bleeding not to mention he is young and healthy. He was slightly grumpy about waiting in the waiting room so long until he saw some of the people that came in and got taken directly back. He decided that he was glad to be low priority. When we did get taken back they didn't have a room for him and he sat on a bed in the hallway. Bryce kept asking if that person was dead as they rolled people by to got get testing done. Bree and I had to keep telling him that they weren't just rolling dead people around the hallways. 

When they went to do the stitches they took him into the huge trauma room and had him lay down. The trauma room was the only one open and they figured that these would be quick stitches. The PA told Bryce that she was going to numb it with a shot and things got real. I think having Bree there helped  because he felt like he couldn't be as much of a baby about the shot as he usually would be. She numbed the site as Bryce laughed so that he wouldn't cry. She finished the stitches and cleaned it up just as they called an incoming trauma over the intercom speaker. She quickly had him get up, striped the bed he had been on and told us to get the stiches out in 10 days. We were out of there. She had to get ready for something much more pressing. Bryce's friends had been waiting in the parking lot, security wouldn't let them in. Turns out having visitors while you are in the ER is frowned upon. HaHa. They picked him and Bree up and they were off to get McDonalds nugs and try to salvage the night. The group of friends that the boys have it pretty special!

 

Caleb's Job

I got this photo from Jane Hansmeyer. Caleb was working the Wine and Nine night at the golf course. He was helping serve food and pick up plates after he did carts for the evening. He has done a great job working at Hidden Valley and we are really proud of how many hours he has put in and all the extras that he has learned to do such as the event set up and tear down. When I asked him how Wine and Nine went, "He said it was a lot of cougars flirting with the boys". I about died of laughter.

 

Grammy Comes for the Day

Bob, Susie and Grammy came to watch Emmy's horse lesson and then came to the house to see our garden and landscaping. It has been a while since we had Grammy to our house, so it was fun to show her all of our new flowers. At one point she was looking at the lily pad flowers that Robb had in the pond, and she was laying on the dock. I can only hope to be half as energetic as she is at that age! 

 

My Old Person Craft

I started to learn how to do hand embroidery. I did some starter ones, and this is my second design one that I have done. I have trouble sitting still during family movie night so this is my way of keeping my hands busy and still being able to sit there. I jokingly tell the kids that I am perfecting my nursing home craft so I will know how to do it when I have a lot of time on my hands someday.