STINKY FEET

Yep, you read that right. Jacob will probably kill me for writing this entry, but oh well!! So, I took Jake to the doc today for several planter's warts that needed to be treated. The doc had advised me to attempt to take care of them between baseball and football/soccer seasons & this is our one month window. We went for the initial treatment today and as I apologized for Jake's awful and persistent case of athlete's foot, the doc mentioned that we might not be dealing with athlete's foot after all. Come to find out Jake's has a condition that is causing his feet to sweat abnormally more than the normal person. This sweating is causing his feet to become red, cracked, itching and worst of all STINKY! The treatment? He now has prescription antiperspirant for his feet. Yep, you read that right, antiperspirant for his feet. Hmmm...maybe now we can stop putting Irish Spring bars in his shoes when he's not wearing them....

WELCOME HOME

Yesterday was a busy day. We started off the morning running several errands and taking Jake to the ortho. His ortho appointment went well & nothing needs to be done yet. We'll have a follow up appointment next summer. Whew!

After errands, we went to lunch and mini golfing with friends. The kids really enjoyed mini-golf until we came upon a nest of bees. No one got stung, but we were certainly freaked out. Allie had a HUGE bumblebee land right on her chest. She was in tears, but did a great job not losing it until we got the bee off of her.

Later in the day, we went to the National Guard hanger to welcome home some local soldiers. This group was the platoon that Hansen sponsored all year and sent care packages overseas to them. A teacher at the school had her son in law return home. He landed a Black Hawk helicopter on Hansen's lawn a year ago for the whole student body to see. Several co-workers were there to support Mrs. White & her family during this joyous time! It was a really neat ceremony & a good thing for the kiddos to experience. Welcome Home Patrick & others!!


This is Patrick & his wife Allison (Mrs. White is in the red taking pics)
The whole group

Allie with a sign

Allie mini golfing

Jake mini golfing

BACK TO WORK

A few weeks ago, I was offered a job at the kid's school. I accepted. I will work one on one with a 3rd grader. I worked with him 2 years ago when I was at the school and subbed with him last year. He is a neat kid & I'm sure I'll enjoy my job. The job is considered full time, which means I'll work 6.5 hours a day...the same hours the kids are in school. I am eligible for insurance, sick days, paid holidays, IPERS, personal days & other perks. It will be a good fit.


The kids are pretty excited to have me back at their school again. The only drawback to this job is that I won't be able to attend every party & field trip. I'll be able to pop in to see them during their parties and if I take a personal day, I can go on a field trip. The plus side is that I have the same schedule as the kids and I can see them throughout the day in the halls, lunch room, recess or assemblies.

So, bring on August 26th & take me back to work!!

SHOPPING, COOK OUT, POOL, BABYSIT, ZOO, GAME & KID'S DAY!!

Last week was spent with my family. On Tuesday, Kim & Drew came to my house to see Allie play her last softball game. She also came to buy herself a new car from Scott.

On Wednesday, we left to head to Kim & Michael's house for a few days. We stopped by the outlet mall on the way home & I found tons of good back to school stuff. That evening, we had a cookout with my whole family. What a great time!

We spent Thursday afternoon at Michael's co-worker's pool. The kiddos had a good time! We also got to babysit Drew that same morning & again that evening. He was perfect and we had a ball with him.

On Friday, we went to the zoo with the kids. After the zoo, we hung out at Michael & Kim's house. Allie went to spend the evening with my mom. Drew, Kim & I went to dinner & shopping. Jake, Michael & my dad went to a River Bandits game where Jake got a foul ball!! They had to leave the game early due to approaching storms. We lost power for about 3 hours at Michael & Kim's house & spent much of that time bailing water out of their sump pump that appeared to be about ready to overflow. Everything ended up fine.

Saturday brought the annual Kid's Day celebration complete with bowling, food, games & fun. After Kid's Day, we went to visit my Grandma in the nursing home and headed back home.

We had an awesome time.
Allie making a splash.





The kids in the pool
The 5 kids at the zoo


Jake jumping into the pool



Train ride.

Jake comparing his arm span to an eagle's span.

Allie's wing span

The 5 kids by the giraffes
Allie at Kid's Day
Jake playing Plinko

Allie with balloon art!

Jake bowling

Allie bowling.

JAKE'S ROOM

Scott painted Jake's room last weekend. Jake chose "sporty blue" and he loves it.

COLLEGE HILL ART FESTIVAL

Every year the kids & I meet friends for lunch and then spend a few hours at the College Hill Art Festival. The kids enjoy the tent that only children are allowed to go in & pick out their own art for about $5. They also like the craft area and the food. They often bump into friends that they don't see throughout the summer, so it is a great time. Typically, it is HOT at the festival. This year was MUCH different. It was COLD! Seriously, it was about 60 degrees vs. the typical 90 degrees. Other than that, it was a great time!

Group shot from my cell.
Boys being goofy

Again, being goofy.

Jordyn & Allie with their crafts.

Allie & Jordyn

YELLOW JACKETS VS. QUEEN BEES

Baseball season is over. It was a blast. Yes, we had a TON of games (like 30). Yes, we had TONS of practices (2 per week since mid-March). Yes, our team lost most of their games (like 80%). Yes, we lost all 3 games of our tournament. But, it was still a BLAST!

Why was it a blast? We have great kids on our team & better yet, great parents & siblings. We all get along really well & enjoy each other's company. We would often all go out for pizza or dinner after a lot of the games. Sometimes we would go to someone's house for a get together & social time. It was fun!!

To end the season, the mom's decided we'd play the boys in a game of baseball. As we got talking about it, we decided to have shirts made & come up with a team name. The logical choice was the QUEEN BEES since our boys are the Yellow Jackets. So, we had shirts made & had our boys numbers put on the back. We told the kiddos that they had a scrimmage last night & didn't tell them it was against the moms. Once everyone arrived, we took off our jackets & started to warm up. The boys freaked. They were really excited. So, we played about 6 innings against the boys. We had lots of trash talking going on, the moms had cheers and of course we had lots of laughs. In the end, we "let" the boys win 7-5 & they were thrilled. Then it was off to Pepper's for dinner and drinks.

Both teams

The Queen Bees.

The moms waiting by the fence.

Connie on 1st & Jake playing 1st base.

FLYING TRIP

The kids and I made a flying trip to visit my family last week. We were there less than 24 hours and managed to bake cakes in coffee mugs, Allie learned to sew, we saw Ben play t-ball and ate dinner at Buzzy's. As always, it was fun to hang with my fam!

Allie with the mini quilt that she made with Nana's help.

The kids making microwave cakes in coffee mugs. They were pretty good too!

Allie & Nana using the sewing machine.

The grandkids with sunglasses???

Jake & Drew playing Nana's piano.

Allie, Maddie & Drew watch Ben's game.

STORM!

We had a big storm blow through Cedar Falls overnight. I got a Code Red call at about 3:30 a.m. alerting us to a severe thunderstorm in the area. I laid in bed as the storm blew in & heard what sounded like a train coming. I got up & looked out the window to see huge gusts of wind blowing the trees and then the hail started. I herded the kiddos to the basement to sleep during the storm. Our power blinked off & on several times, but stayed on overnight. We lost cable from 4-9:30 so our weather updates came from my phone. It rained like crazy & later we found out we got 2.5 inches of rain in about 2 hours. Our yard was a soggy mess!

We got up and assessed the damage once the sun rose. We just had one screen in our house that was completely destroyed. Most of our neighborhood looks like a war-zone. Downed trees, downed fences, lots of debris everywhere, power lost by a lot of the city, downed power lines and so on...we were lucky! We heard that there were 60-100 mph straight line winds that went through Cedar Falls.

For those that are familiar with the city, the "miracle tree" on 18th Street is gone. It is sad to see a landmark destroyed by the winds. Many big, old trees are gone in the UNI area as well.


A tree downed near our house.
A fence downed a block from us

Jake's friend's trampoline on their fence.

Allie's friend's trees, less than a block away

More of Allie's friend's trees

Jake's friend's bball hoop

Allie's screen...tons of holes from either hail or flying debris

Our neighbor's flag pole

The tree that is downed usually covers the whole sky on the right of the photo.

A LITTLE BRAGGIN'

Stop reading this if you don't want to listen to a mother brag about her child. This is your only warning!

Jake has been struggling with his hitting this season. He started out in practice killing the ball & was one of the best power hitters on the team. Then his head started messing with him & he suddenly stopped hitting. We have spent countless hours at the batting cages, soft tossing the ball to him, having him practice on a tee, me pitching to him & we even brought in my brother (who Jake idolizes) to work with him. He has had 1 hit & several foul balls this season, but mostly walks, strike out & a few times he was hit by the ball & got on base.

That all changed last night. Jake struck out his first time at bat. His 2nd time he hit a double & drove in 2 runs. His 3rd time at bat he got a single & advanced a runner. His last time he struck out. All in all pretty good since we've had a rough season! His confidence shot through the roof!! YAY!!

He also caught a pop fly on his knees in right center & didn't drop it. Again, a proud moment since I didn't think he'd get there because he had to run up pretty far on it. He made NO errors in the outfield (not that he usually does, but just wanted to brag about that too).

His team played really well last night. They won both games by 1 run & were thrilled. Their record is now 6-19 & their last 3 wins came in their last 3 games! Hopefully next year when we are the oldest in our league, we will have a better record. The teams we are beating are also young teams who will be in the league next year.

Onto the tournament this weekend....hopefully Mr. Jake will be a hitter again so his mama can brag again!! Won't that be fun??

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!

We had another awesome 4th of July spent with my family. It rained off & on most of the day, but fun was had by all. We had the annual waterfight with about 1500 water balloons thrown from our "team". We also had a mean boys against girl whiffle ball game (boys won). The fireworks were the best as always. The foods, drinks, laughter & company was great too!


Scott & Allie at fireworks

Maddie & Jake at fireworks

Waterfight

More of the waterfight

And more

Our team!

Scott, me & the kiddos

Uncle Michael took the kiddos for rides around town on the thing behind him

Some of our waterballoons

The Fischer grandkids