Vent

I haven't posted on here in quite awhile. I'm wanting to use this posting as a venting session, but it probably isn't appropriate. Instead, maybe I'll just type and see where it leads.

There has been alot of worry going on in my life these days. Scott has asked me not to post it on facebook, so I haven't. I haven't decided if I should post it on here or not. We'll see where it leads.

Scott and Gage are camping this weekend at Eagles Park, north of Bismarck. It is called Webelos Woods and it is basically a fun thing to get the Cub Scouts at the Webelos level to start thinking about wanting to join Boy Scouts. Of course, I don't know if Gage will be able to continue on into Boy Scouts or not. Hmmm.........it seems that just about every topic I have come up with so far is leading me to where it probably shouldn't! It will be a chilly night in the tent, so I hope Gage will stay warm in Scott's super warm sleeping bag!

This is Emma's and my 2nd Girl's Weekend in a row. We attended a Girl Scout event last Saturday called "Girls Rock the Park". This was our third year of attending. It is the same every year and I would say it's a bit boring after 3 years. They need to change it up a bit and get new girls interested in joining Girl Scouts.

We have been working on our basement, trying to get it finished up. We started finishing it off in August. We are getting close to the end. We ordered carpet to be installed this next week. I've been staining woodwork getting ready for the finishing details. This morning I discovered a bit of a problem in one of the new doors we bought. The cat door was cut into the wrong end. I don't think Grus can jump high enough to use it? Frustrating stuff! I should probably get back to some of that work!

Rained out

The kids' baseball games were rained out yesterday, so that made a much easier and less hectic evening for Scott.

I attended the Camp Ocankusa Leader Training Meeting last night. What a great camp that is! They are very organized and have a bunch of fun things planned for the girls. I'm praying for nice weather. Last year, the day I volunteered to help, was the hottest day of the entire summer. It made for a very tiring day! I could handle 70-80 degree weather next Tuesday, just fine!

I didn't realize, until last night, that the high winds the previous night knocked a fairly decent sized branch out of our tree! Thank goodness it didn't land on the neighbors' roof.......or ours for that matter. It might not have been big enough to do any damage, but I'm sure it would have been big enough to scare the heck out of them since the tree is right over their bedroom window! I also noticed that there was another branch hanging in the tree, and I don't know if we can get it out, or if we'll need to find another person to do it?

Last weekend I had the urge to tear off more wallpaper in the house. I'm glad the mood struck, because I was able to get all of the wallpaper from the upstairs and downstairs hallways and stairways. I've been looking at paint colors and I am thinking about going with a burnt orange color. I may head to Lowe's today to pick up the paint and attempt to put some on the wall this weekend. I may test the color out in the lower bathroom to make sure I like it first? We'll see. Scott has to work again this Saturday, so I need to find something to keep myself occupied.....not that Gage and Emma won't do that for me!!

Fireproof

It was a rainy/dreary morning this morning. My favorite kind. I don't know why I like those kind of days, but I do. After the kids headed off for Camp Ed, I decided to watch one of the Netflix movies I have (not that I don't have anything productive to do)! Fireproof is the name of the movie. It was a very good show. I made a trip to Barnes & Noble to get The Love Dare book that is highlighted in the movie. I'm excited about it.

Tonight is a busy night for the Stephens' family. Emma has baseball at 5:45, Gage has Taekwondo at 7 and baseball at 7:30. The unfortunate thing, for Scott, that is, is that I have to attend a Girl Scout Camp Leader Training Meeting in Mandan tonight at 7, so he will be pretty much on his own in getting the kids to and from their activities. Both of the kids have Scout Day Camps next week, so it will be a busy week as well.

We're having a quiet afternoon. Yesterday the kids had a couple of friends over to play and I'm thankful for the quiet time today. Gage is reading (surprise, surprise) and Emma is glued to the television (surprise, surprise!). I am going to finish this post up and go read myself. I have been reading alot, when I get the chance, and have had some really good books. "At First Sight" by Nicholas Sparks is calling my name right now!

Have a good day!

My little singer

I just do not know how Emma has the courage to stand up in front of the congregation at church and sing!! This is her third time, but her first time to do it alone. She did such a great job and I couldn't be more proud.

I like that our good friend, Juanita Hocking, is also in the video accompanying Emma on the piano. That just makes it all that more special to me.

Activities

Our summer is well underway!! We have many activities in the planner to keep us busy. This summer Gage is involved in Camp Edventure, Taekwondo and baseball, as well as several Cub Scout Day Camp and camp-outs. Emma is involved in Camp Edventure, T-ball and many Girl Scout Day Camps.

Camp Edventure started this week and the kids sure are enjoying it. In fact, Emma was upset to miss the 2nd day because of a Girl Scout Day Camp. I had to take her out for about an hour this morning for an appointment at the orthodontist. When I got to the school to pick her up when camp was over she started chewing me out because in the hour she was gone "they got to use shaving cream in their art project MOM!" SORRY EMMA! I also get to be the Camp Edventure Librarian, so that is exciting for me. I will get to work 11 hours in June and 9 hours in July, so it only amounts to about 1 day a week. That's enough though, with all of the other things we have going on.

Emma's first trip to the orthodontist was today. They took pictures and x-rays and the plan is to hold off another 6 months. He said she is in the "moderate to severe" category. She has very little room with alot of crowding going on and several of her teeth will be coming in crooked, according to the x-ray. He said early detection and treatment is the key and this will be a several step process, going on into her teen years. They should give a discount for the 3rd family member, I think!

Emma will also be singing her first "real solo" at church on Sunday. Her name is listed in the bulletin now, so there's no backing out for her! She's been wanting to sing by herself since her first couple of times singing with 2 other older girls at church. She will get her chance this Sunday and I'm anxious to see how it goes. She will be singing "All Night, All Day" or a.k.a. "Angels Watching Over Me".

It's looking like we could get some rain today. Both Gage and Emma have baseball games tonight along with Taekwondo practice for Gage. I'm never upset about rainouts. ;-)

This is hopefully the first of many "regular" postings for me. I'm trying my hardest to get back into the swing of blogging.

Until next time...............

Last Week of School

I cannot believe how FAST this school year has flown by! This last week is bittersweet. The kids are very excited for all of the activities going on at school, but we sure are going to miss our favorite teacher, Mrs. Fleming. Emma has had a wonderful school year, and I owe it to her teacher, Mrs. Fleming. This is going to be her last year too, as she is retiring. I have never had a teacher quite like her. She really is unbelievable. She has called our home at least a dozen times just wanting to "check in" and see how things are going. She will be dearly missed!

Last week I subbed in the library all week as 2 of the library staff were gone.........one to Hawaii and one to Ireland! Maybe if I keep helping out like this, I will get to go on an amazing vacation like that! It certainly helps add to the stash we have been saving to go to Disneyworld! We've almost saved up half of our total goal!

Our summer days are looking busy already. The kids (and maybe even me) will be attending Camp Edventure from 8a-12n. I will possibly be working in the library for Camp Ed. Not sure of all the details on that yet. Gage has baseball and taekwondo and Emma will be busy with t-ball. They both are signed up for Girl Scout and Cub Scout camps as well. We will be traveling to Iowa over the 4th and then my sister, Kim, and her husband, J.L., will be coming to visit us here in North Dakota the week of July 12! I am very excited about that! This will be their first trip to North Dakota. We plan to take them to Medora where they will golf Bully Pulpit and then we will attend the Pitchfork Fondue and Medora Musical. We are VERY excited!

My goal is to get better at blogging. I want to set aside time each day to get back in the habit.

Hi Dave!! :-)

SPRING IS HERE!! Or at least for the past couple of days anyway. There's a possibility of snow tomorrow. Maybe Too Tall Tom is blowing cold air? There's always hope!

I have been VERY NEGLIGENT in the blogging department and I'm going to do better, I promise........starting tomorrow! :-)

Bad

I am just getting REALLY BAD in the blogging department. I wish I could get myself back into posting routinely, but it just isn't working for some reason?

We've been pretty busy lately, which is no big surprise. We have activities every night of the school week, except for Fridays. That wasn't really planned. Gage's Taekwondo class added a 3rd night and after he becomes a Camo Belt (tonight) we have the option of going 4 nights a week! Mon, Tues, Thurs and Sat. I hate to commit to that, since it isn't required, but I would like to make sure we are getting our money's worth ($89/month, + testing fees every 8 weeks, + equipment fees)!!! Gage is enjoying it and until he starts complaining, we'll continue with the schedule.

Girl Scout Cookie sales start on Friday! Emma has set big goals this year. She wants to sell 500 boxes! YIKES! I told her she is going to have to work extra hard to meet that goal. We sold 221 last year, and didn't work too terribly hard at it, so I suppose it is possible to reach that goal. If only I liked selling things. If you want any cookies, be sure to let us know! :-)

Emma will be singing at church again this Sunday. I'm pretty darned nervous about it since she hasn't practiced yet. She did go through the song once a week ago with our babysitter, Erin, who plays the piano, but that is it. I haven't even heard how it goes yet, so I can't even really help her. She will practice on Wednesday evening with the other 2 girls. Thank goodness I have friends who can plan the piano and get her a couple of extra practice sessions in before the weekend! I'll be sure to get it on video and post it on YouTube for those of you who won't be able to see it.

I'm hoping you all have a great week!

Out with the old and in with the new!

I just can't believe how quickly the year 2009 flew by! I'm hoping to slow the progression of 2010, the best that I can!

We had a great Christmas in Iowa with family. The kids just LOVE being there and playing non-stop with their cousins. It's unfortunate for Emma that she doesn't have any female cousins her age, but she makes do.

It wasn't until just yesterday, that I noticed how "calm" I was feeling. I was thinking about why I had that feeling, and decided that I must have had quite a bit of anxiety leading up to the holidays. I'm not quite sure why I get myself so anxious, but I'm going to try and put an end to most of that craziness, if I can. I cause alot of the stress myself, by taking on too many things. I think I would be less busy if I had a full-time job, if that makes any sense.

The kids' activities are picking back up now that the holidays are over. I don't think that all of those things going on are what cause alot of my anxiety though. However, we have, or are in the process of, having a few more things added to our list. Gage will have an extra night of Taekwondo starting next week for 3 evenings/week. The kids decided they really enjoyed going to LOGOS, the church's youth group, which is on Wednesday evenings, and Emma is going to play basketball with a team of girls from her class at the YMCA starting next week.

I think most of my anxiety is brought on by the need that I feel to do things for others. I enjoy doing those things, but when you are a person that can't say "no", it gets a little overwhelming at times. I'm not sure how I can stop doing all of those things, because I haven't suddenly gotten good at saying "no" overnight. It's going to take some time, I'm sure. I just want to be able to stop and recognize when the anxiety level starts to rise and then figure out how to slow things down a little so I'm not stressing out. (Good luck with that Stacy!)

I'm not one that is big into making New Year's Resolutions. I figured out several years ago that I typically fail at carrying out the resolution for more than a couple of weeks, to a month. Last year I decided to make the resolution to be more organized. I worked hard at it initially, but then slacked off and got overwhelmed. I wanted to make the same resolution this year, to get organized. I think I am just going to try and get organized without making it a resolution. I think if I can log onto A&E.com to watch past episodes of Hoarders on a regular basis, that will be enough to keep me going right there. I love that show! Instead, my resolution for 2010 is to take more time for myself to do one of the things I enjoy most........................scrapbook. I have been getting together with a friend, on the Fridays that I don't work in the lunchroom, and scrapbooked a few hours in the morning. Although I don't always get as much done as I would like, I am making some progress. Every page counts.