FULL MOON-STAY HOME!

I really think when there is a full moon we should all stay home.  People are crazy!  Whenever it seems everyone is being unreasonable, grouch or just strange you can count on the fact it is a full moon outside!  Anyway, the moon has been super cool the past few nights but man, I am ready for it to be over!

This week life has been soon easy!  Finally all of my BIG obligations are over.  It seems like since August 1st I have been running a hundred different directions but it has all finally ended.  We had our CCF 5K this past Saturday and it was another successful year.  Every year I am so amazed at the support from family, friends and the community.  I am also amazed at our committee.  I mean, I know why Terry and I spend hours working on things for the foundation, because we want to give back to the community what they gave to us.  But what drives our board members and committee members is beyond me.  They are work so hard to make everything happen and we are so grateful for them.

One week ago tonight Raelynn experienced her first concert at Taylor Swift.  We went with Andrea and Jackie and had a great time!  Raelynn loved it and said it was even better than she expected which made me super happy.   We didn't get home to the early morning hours of Wednesday though so we all struggled at work and school.  Bedtime Wednesday night could not have come fast enough!

The rest of the week was packed with 5K stuff.  In addition to work.  We hired a new employee which has been great but always makes my work load a little heavier.  I don't mind at all because I actually love to train people but then that leaves my regular work to do around training.  Anyway, I love my job so again I don't mind but the week was already insane so having work a little crazy too was challenging. However I must say it has made this week even that much sweeter now that most of my chaos is over.

My family was up for the 5K so it is always fun to have a house full.  I love that they come up to support Cooper's Cause Foundation as well.  I must say I have an extremely supportive family.  It's also just that much sweeter now that my nephew Hunter is getting old enough to play with Coop and Hadley is up and running around with them all as well.  I love family time and watching the kids with their cousins.  

 After a slow week ahead this weekend will be filled again with horse shows and soccer.  This is the last horse show of the season and Raelynn finally has her brace off and her wrist is healed.  We hope to get a final release from the doctor in 2 weeks but he gave her permission to ride with the brace on (not that we haven't been riding with the brace on for the past month but shhhhh).  Anyway, fun weekend ahead!

STATE FAIR 2015.......

This weekend was all about the Kansas State Fair!  Raelynn has been going to the Kansas State Fair for the past 4 years or so but Terry, Cooper and I have never been.  This is the first year that Raelynn was old enough to qualify to compete and qualify she did!  Raelynn headed out Thursday at 5:30am with a caravan of campers and horse trailers and Terry, Coop and I left Thursday night.  Raelynn showed early Friday morning and she did fantastic.  I was so proud of her.  The competition was hard as her age group is 9-13 so she was competing again 13 year olds.  In addition this is the first year her horse had done horsemanship so he is still learning as well.  Anyway, Raelynn didn't let that bother her.  She came out of the arena all smiles which is exactly what I wanted to see.  We were so excited and we exited the arena with her.  We were taking pictures and congratulating her when I felt Coop hug my legs.  I looked down and there were tears running down his cheeks.  I instantly squatted down and hugged him and asked what was wrong.  Well come to find out, in our excitement we had all left the area but Coop did not follow.  He was watching the other competitors and when he turned around we were no where in site.  Not one of my best parenting moments.  I couldn't help but laugh a little because even when he was hugging my legs I hadn't realized he wasn't there in the group of people with us.  Poor little guy.  I will say as we laughed about it later, he too joined in the humor of it.  The rest of the day we spent checking out the fair and there is so much to see and do.  One of Raelynn's bunnies received a Blue Ribbon as well!  We didn't get back to our hotel until 11:30 that night.  I completely understand now why Raelynn loves it so much!  I can't thank Bonnie, Wendi, Mike and all the others that make the experience so fun for her.  They take good care of her and I am so thankful she is given this opportunity!

Raelynn and Calvin

Raelynn and Baby Blu

Butter Sculpture

Saturday we got up early and headed back to Lawrence to be ready for Coop's soccer game that afternoon.  Coop's team played the only other undefeated team in the league.  The game went scoreless until the end and each team scored one goal.  Therefore, they are both still undefeated.  Coop loves soccer.  It is so cute to watch him play with so much energy and excitement.  I could watch it all day!  Steph and Cody had come over for Coop's game and they spent the rest of the afternoon with us.  It was great to just hang out with them with nothing in particular to do.  It made for an awesome Saturday.  I also had so much time with Hadley since Raelynn was gone.  She usually demands most of her attention, but on Saturday it was Aunt Kristi Time!  Coop also had one of his buddies spend the night, so it couldn't have been better!

Today we cleaned and put out the fall decorations after church.  I managed to get some paperwork done as well and the usual weekly menu and workouts are planned.  This week is jammed packed with things to do with the CCF 5K on Saturday.  I am crossing my fingers for a great turnout!!!!

I BEG FOR 3 DAY WEEKENDS......EVERY WEEKEND!

Another fantastic weekend, but aren't all weekends!  Friday night I had a meeting and came home to a few extra kiddos.  I love that the kids have friends that like to be at our house.  I hope that continues forever!  Saturday started bright and early with a handful of things that had to get done.  Raelynn was suppose to have a horse show but was rained out due to a couple nights of rain leaving the arena too muddy.  So we filled the day by running over to R Bar B looking for magical burgundy boots!  You see, Raelynn's outfit for her state competition which is this Friday requires her to have burgundy boots.  Did anyone know they only make burgundy boots priced at $400!  So the poor people by cheaper boots (By the way, are there such things as cheap boots?) and dye them burgundy.  However, of course, no burgundy dye was in stock so what does any desperate, overwhelmed Mom do?  She grabs her phone and visits Amazon who will ship the burgundy dye to R Bar B by Wednesday and they agreed to dye the boots and have them ready for Thursday evening for Terry and I to pick up on our way down to State Fair so they are ready to go for "The Show Outfit" Friday morning!  Thank goodness for Amazon Prime and super nice and helpful people at R Bar B!  So we left there to stop by Steph's for lunch and then back to Lawrence for Coop's haircut that had to be rescheduled from Wednesday since he had to be at soccer practice when the rest of us had haircuts.  From haircuts we flew home for Coop to change for his soccer game and Raelynn to get ready for her friends' birthday party.  This is when the day fell apart a little.  Coop was all good, but Raelynn could not find anything to wear.  It turned into an ugly yelling match and a horrible parenting moment for me.  I rarely loose my patience, I rarely yell and I rarely regret an entire conversation but this was once of those times I lost my patience, yelled and regretted the entire thing.  I would like to think that will be the last time but I doubt it.  Thankfully Terry showed up and agreed to take her to her party so Coop and I could head back to Topeka for his soccer game which Terry would join us at later.  The good news is that by the time I picked Raelynn up from her party we had both calmed down and as we talked about our earlier argument we both apologized and agreed it was not the best moment for either of us.  Anyway, the soccer game was fun as usual.  I LOVE watching Coop play.  He is so aggressive and works so hard.  I think I love it most because he loves it and you can see it as he plays.  Steph, Cody and Hadley came to the game as well and we ended at their house where they fed us for the second time that day. 

 Coop got to help Uncle Cody change the oil on their care and he thought that was the best.  He adores his Uncle Cody and Cody never fails to include him in his boy stuff!

So after a Saturday of getting nothing done that I needed to get done I had high expectations for today.  It is now 11:30pm and I am where I wanted to be at about 8am this morning.  Needless to say I still have so much to do.  I sometimes wonder if I wasn't so insanely organized, if I would actually get more done.  I did manage to get the weeks menu done, workouts scheduled, attended church, grocery shopped, completely gut and clean Raelynn's room, clean all bathrooms, our room and Coop's room, clear through some paperwork, laundry, make lunch and dinner and take a walk to the park with the kids, Steph and Hadley.  Oh yes, after me being over at Steph's twice yesterday, she had to come and visit me because we left Hadley's car seat in my car!  It was not intentional but was sure nice to get out of the house for a little walk and park play.  So the day was great just not long enough.  I still am swamped with stuff for the 5K on the 26th, PTO stuff, continuing ed for work, work in general,  4H projects that need completed, getting Raelynn ready to leave on Thursday morning and the rest of us Thursday Night and I am sure I am forgetting something but that is all my brain can think of.  I headed to bed at 11pm tonight because I was exhausted but my head was spinning with to do's so I figured I might as well update the blog so as long as I am awake I am documenting why, Lol!  Anyway, so in summary, the world really should adapt to a 4 day work week and a 3 day weekend.  I feel like I have mentioned this before!

This morning in church the sermon was regarding the 10th commandment, Thou shall not covet thy neighbor.  Boy is this a hard one.  I don't know that I ever really thought about it because quite frankly I wasn't clear on what covet meant.  So as I realized it is saying I should not want what everyone else has and I should not be envious or jealous of others I realized this is one commandment I break all too often.  I had to ask myself why because although I am often envious of what others have I am also super thankful and happy with what I have.  As I listened this morning and really thought about it I realized I am envious of material things but when it comes to the things that matter, I have it all.  I have a wonderful family that I love more than I can explain, I have everything that I actually need, and I am in general super happy with my life.  It was like a slap in the face.  How dare I every be envious or want what someone else has when I already have so much.  I think I really needed to hear today's sermon because I walked out of there feeling satisfied with where I am and who I am.  I am so fortunate and sometimes I just need a little reminder of how special it really is.

HAPPY LABOR DAY....

Would it be asking too much to have another long weekend like this?  I am a firm believer that with a 3 day weekend every week I could actually feel like time with the family wasn't conflicting with the other 20 things that needed done.  

We started our Saturday off bright and early at Coop's soccer game.  I love watching him play soccer because he loves playing it. He was selected to play on the tournament team again this year so he is very excited for that.  

I have several plans for Saturday following the soccer game but well, none of them really happened.  I had originally thought we would go to the North Topeka Aquatic Center because we hadn't made it there yet this summer and this was our last chance.  The kids decided they didn't really want to go though so then we considered going to the KU Football Game.  That was a go until after the soccer game and Coop was tired and didn't want to go.  Then we thought we would go home and rest a bit and then go for a bike ride.  Well that led to Coop letting me know once again that his bike was way too small.  He was right, it is and Terry and I had said we would get him a new one for his birthday but November is a long ways away.  Not to mention, how likely is it that he can ride his new bike in November.  So it was decided Coop would get an early birthday present and boy did we have an excited boy.  Finally we ended up on our bike ride and had a great day!

We ended our Saturday night with this cutie!  Hadley had her first sleep over with us and she was crazy good.  I could not believe how easy she was.  Cozadd's came over for dinner as well and it took Hadley a little bit to warm up to Andrea.  It was a fun night with family and friends.  However, the evening didn't end there.  Terry had disappeared before our friends left and although I thought it was strange I didn't think too much about it.  I got the kids to bed and then walked into our bedroom.  Terry was drenched in sweat and super dizzy.  It was a little scary.  He couldn't lie down at all without getting very nauseous and his head was spinning.  It went on all night.  I set my alarm for every 30 minutes and went to check on him.  I think we were both a little scared and I was just happy all the kids were sound asleep.  

By Sunday morning he was feeling better and we decided we think he got dehydrated.  Needless to say I think he will be drinking more water from here on out.  We were suppose to join Steph and Cody and their family for some fun at the lake and I was a little hesitant to go but did.  As they day went on Terry felt better and better and by the time we got home he looked and felt MUCH better.  The kids and I had a great time at the lake.   It was so nice for them to include us and it was another fun day with the kids.  Coop saw this little turtle in their garage as we were leaving and of course Uncle Cody made sure they both got to hold the little guy!  What would we do without that Uncle Cody!  :)

Today ended our long weekend perfectly.  I got caught up on emails and paperwork and lunches for the week and menu done and workouts planned and laundry done and projects started and on and on.  The best part of it all is that I did it all without ever getting out of my PJs! So now with a few things still on the MUST GET DONE list I am ready to get back to the chaos of the work week!