Long weekend

I had the privilege of having a 5 day weekend. This is a rarity for me. I never have that much time off at once except Thanksgiving weekend. My mom needed to spent they day with my Grandma Thursday so I took the day off to spend time with my kiddos. They are so fun to watch. Jax is walking along everything. He stands on his owns and takes about 2-3 steps when he pushes off of something. That kid never stops. I found on Thursday that he is also cutting more teeth. In about two weeks this kid will have 6 teeth. He is starting to make sense in his talking. You says "Mom" and "Dada" really well. You can understand when he says "dog" and "kitty" and the new on is "brother". If you say Jake's name or if he walks in the room, the first thing out of Jax mouth is "brother". It's very sweet to hear. After a full day with the boys, I was not feeling well and Michael had his apt. She we packed everyone up, dropped the kids off, went to the apt where I infamously passed out, then felt horrible the rest of the night. Michael did well and is healing nicely!

We all took Friday off! We ran errands, cleaned, played, and just spent the day together.We let Jake pick out a movie at Red Box and while Jax napped, I cleaned beyond clean. I went through a ton of clothes to donate and even some toys. I then made an amazing dinner (not toot my own horn but it was) and we hung out with friends and just relaxed. Some of us took a long walk and we basically spent the rest of the night on the deck. It was heavenly. I love hoodie weather! Saturday I had to drop off some dessert at my parents house for SC and then we went grocery shopping and ran errands just in time to get home for the game. The game! I was so stoked for college football! Especially Hawkeye football. Yet, the rain caused major delays and the game technically didn't get over till about 4ish. In that time, we got a new couch, made a ton of cookies, helped new neighbors move in, and wrestled with the boys. That night we went to church, a friends house for dinner and then talked the night away.

Sunday, we got up early, met some other friends at Scooters and headed to the triathlon. It was amazing. People of all shapes and sizes, all different levels. It was very inspirational. I did have a sob moment. We were sitting on the uphill climb to the finish line on the capital lawn. We were watching everyone suffer through the last leg until the straight shot to the finish line and then we saw him. A man, probably in his 30's, that had lost one leg and was in a wheelchair bike, working so hard to get up this giant hill. All anyone wanted to do was to go and push him up, but I knew he would take offense to that. People just started cheering and yelling for him. It was painful to watch him, with every stroke of his arms, the front end wheel would raise above the ground. I thought it was going to flip but he persevered and made it. It was amazing. I couldn't help but shed tears. I'm a sap. After watching a lot of people finish, we all headed out to lunch! On our way home we stopped at the park, let the kids run off some steam and then headed home. Michael crashed and I spent the afternoon doing laundry and going through random things. I can't seem to remember what we did that night. Oh well.

Monday was our day off! Woohoo. We decided that we weren't going to do much because we had worked so much last week. I cleaned all the windows upstairs and then took a walk with Jax. We took a family nap and spent the remainder of the day and evening at Big Creek. This has been a habit this summer. I wish we could do it more. It just so relaxing. The boys love it and I love to watch the sun set on the horizon. Then it hit me....work tomorrow. Here's to another week!

Today was one of those days. A day I wish I was home! I love when it rains in the Fall. I really do. To be able to open the windows slightly, so the smell of rain fills the house. To be able to feel that cool breeze, whisk through and give you slight chill. To be able to reach over and grab your Hawkeye sweatshirt and sink into the couch, with a batch of cookies in the oven, curl up under a blanket and watch a good flick or read a good book. I can only hope this happens again, and soon. I am so excited for Fall to make it's appearance. I am so excited for Hawkeye season, football in general, long walks, being able to play outside with out sweating, jumping in leaves, fire nights, trips to Ledges, there is just so much to look forward to! A full season of family and friends! I also hope this season brings us strength, encouragement, love, prayer, and the understanding we need to get through it all. I have said it before and I will say it again, I could not be more thankful, blessed, just plain lucky with the people we have been given. I tend to find humor and sarcasm in everything and recently, that has had a blockage. Luckily I have a few besties to help me through. I am glad that I can rely on all these folks for strength, guidance, and just for lending an ear. Fall, according to M.Ferry, is the season of death because everything dies. Well, yes, we may lose someone this Fall and it will be extremely hard and life changing, but in death there is life. Just because a flower dies, doesn't mean it won't return come Spring. Even though the Summer was a rough one, I am optimistic for the upcoming season. Good or bad, we are fighters. We will come through no matter what is thrown our way. I know that no matter what the outcome of the next week, we have great supporters, a lot of love, and never ending faith. I am super stoked for the upcoming 5 day weekend and first Hawkeye game of the season! (Sorry Jana!)

Factory shutting down

2....that is all you will get out of me. Now, I would like to adopt when the boys are in school but no babies. I am done. I am almost 30 and the late nights, well, they start to wear on you the first few weeks with a newborn. We are ready to move on from this chapter and embrace the next. This weekend we went through everything. We decided to get rid of it all. We are taking a load of things to Kidding Around and giving some items away. No more bassinet, floor mats, bumbo's, boppy's, bathtubs...it's all going. What started this you ask? 2 steps. Jax took 2 steps on his own, out of no where. I am still in shock but since then he has started doing it more often and is up to 4 if he really wants to. Since this 8 month old is going to take the fast track to 15 months, we are just going to accept it and move on to the next stage. He is not really into baby toys at all and would rather play with trucks and trains that belong to his older brother. Jake does not like this but is willing to let him play with 1 of the 100+ trains and trucks he has in his possession. Currently they are sharing the same cold. Jake is furious (those were the exact words he used) at his little brother. He said it will take some time for him to forgive him because this impacts him too much and really hurt his feelings. Really? Dramatic much? Jax is pretty much back to normal and it did not have the impact on Jax that it did Jake. Jake looks like a strawberry. It looks like someone punched him in eye. Poor kid. He is still as hyper as ever though. These two are going to wear me out! They never stop moving and are always pushing everything to the limits. None the less, I love them more then words can say.

We are all so ready for Fall.......I cannot wait!

So ready!

I saw this today online and cheerleader jumped for joy! I am so ready and cannot wait!

I see "Warnings" in my future

This week I have a new enemy. The 56th and Polk Blvd traffic camera. Not cool. Most people are cruising around 75 mph in that section in the morning and I'm not looking forward to the stop and go that will for sure happen once this goes into effect. I live off 152nd and Meredith and if you go the right way home, you will pass at least 3 traffic camera enforced lights. There have been a couple of "close calls" where the camera has flashed and you check the mail for the next few weeks hoping to not see a letter from the Dept of Transportation. I know this new enemy of mine will probably be giving me a warning in the first 30 days. I can already see it.

Also, met another enemy today. Cops on motorcycles! This is also not good. They just sit on the sidewalk and radar. Not fair. I am going to have to be hyper aware of everything around me now. I watched 2 people get pulled over already by motorcycle cop. Ugh! Stupid lead foot!

Home Depot

I have a love relationship with Home Depot. I really do. I get so giddy when I get to go there. I can spend hours walking up and down isles. I love building new things, painting, updating things around the house, and finding things to change. I could go on but I won't. This week on my way home, I decided I need a positive in the midst of all this negative, so I decided to paint my room a new color. I wanted something more light. The color I selected was, Rain. It's a light gray. I'm super excited about it and started priming the moment I got home. Have I mentioned that I love to paint? I am super excited to get it all done this weekend! =)

Casa de Josh Groban

Being the concert connoisseurs we are, we purchased tickets to Josh Groban back in May. I had seen him in his first tour back in 2002 up in Ames and it was a completely different experience then most. I have been to my fair share of concerts, but they are usually more up beat where you can dance around like a fool and sing the songs at the top of your lungs. Josh, well, he is more of a sit down and enjoy type of guy.

After a very emotional and mentally exhausted day, okay, past few weeks, we headed out to dinner. We decided to go to the Drake Diner because a good ole burger just sounded amazing. We still had about an hour before concert time so we found a spot on the street (for free!) right near Wells and went for a walk. It was so beautiful outside and it was nice to just have some quiet. We were heading back up to the venue when we noticed our surroundings a little more. One, we were passing everyone on the side walk and we were walking at a slow pace for us. Two, there were a lot of older people around. We got to the stop light and that is when I took my first glance. I felt like we were smack in the middle of a retirement community. I would say 75% of the concert attendees were over 55+ and ordering off the Senior Citizen menu, 23% were woman 19-30 with their moms or grandmas, and the rest of the 2% were, well people 30 and under. We just took it in stride. The venue may have been full of depends and smelled like Ben Gay but none the less it was a good concert.

The opening act was ELEW. He as phenomenal. I can't express into words how talented this man is. I'm a sucker for piano music. It's so soothing and comforting. ELEW, well it was more, knock your socks off then soothing. He gives a new vibe and feel to rock music on the piano. He did covers of 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', 'Teenage Dream', a medley that including The Young and The Restless theme, Charlie Brown theme, The Nutcracker, and a few other TV shows. He then did a rendition of "Clocks" by Coldplay. Now, Chris Martin is amazing. So much in fact that I would never try to re-create his work. He started playing and I think he surpassed Coldplay. It took my breath away. His talent is beyond words. A few times we could play with his right hand and then strum the inside strings of the piano with his left hand. It created a guitar/piano vibe. I will definitely need to look him up on iTunes when I get the chance. Here is ELEW in action:

Now onto Josh. He was amazing. It was a concert that I sort of needed. A sit down, non-sing-along, that you can just close your eyes and join. His voice is so on point, there is no difference between CD and live. I was sort of sketchy about it because, well, his music isn't the get up and dance, and you can't really sing along to it (unless you were the girl right behind us...ugh) but it was a completely different then I thought it would be. He is quite hilarious. He made so many jokes and was really into talking with the crowd. He interviewed random concert goers, and of course out of the thousands there, he asks one girl what she does and she responded "we breed rabbits", he didn't let that go throughout the whole concert. There was a proposal on stage, which she probably felt liable to say yes, but she did. At once point he built a Casa De Groban with inflatable couches and pulled a long time married couple and two single girls to sit on state for a few songs. He gave them wine, and then realized the girls were not 21, so he gave them milk. The provocative dancers were replaced an amazing orchestra and Josh showed his talents on the piano and drums. I did get emotional when he sang "War at Home" but who wouldn't, and he did close the concert with "You Raise Me Up" which holds dear to my heart. All around it was a great evening, with great company, and a fantastic show. Here are some photos, they are taken with Michael's phone...lol. We didn't bring a camera in.

ELEW

Josh Groban