A Family United or A Girl Divided?

Watching football is a given in our home.  Once the hint of autumn is in the air, the pigskin epidemic sweeps our house with a force like no other.  Yesterday was the annual interstate rivalry between our two largest state universities.  Now, I've never been to the big game in person, but we always faithfully follow along on the tube.  Just because we're at home doesn't mean we can't get into the game.  I've been known ride the surf of a Lazy Boy recliner while screaming "Go!  Go!  Go!" as the ball neared our team's end zone.  And yes, that does mean I was standing on the furniture - don't judge me.  Anyway, for those who don't know, we are BIG Iowa Hawkeye fans at the Jones house.  The hubby and I have both been long-time fans and have raised the kiddos in the way of the "Black and Gold." 

Now, I have a confession to make.  I really, really like Iowa State's head football coach, Paul Rhoads.  In fact, I like him so much that I feel myself wanting to cheer for the Cyclones.  Is there a vaccine for this thing I have??  My poor dad is probably rolling over in his grave as I'm typing this very post.  But, let me defend my position.  Do you know Paul Rhoads?  Yeah, I don't either (not personally, anyway).  However, I see enough about him on the news, in the papers, and on web to know he's one quality coach (and human being).  In fact, whenever I think or talk about Mr. Rhoads, the song, "You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want To Do It)" comes racing into my head. 

I will say, this illness (or whatever it is) was bothersome during this year's Cy/Hawk showdown.  I couldn't find my usual fighting fervor.  Instead, I sat calmly watching (from the kitchen) a game that had a few great plays and a lot of errors.  In the end, the Clones emerged as the better team, and all I could think was "Of course they're the better team; look at their coach!!" and "Good for you, Paul Rhoads and awesome job, Cyclones!"  (I may have just thrown up in my mouth a little.)  So, in my after game reflection and frustration of this conflicting corruption conundrum, I decided to lay out all my cards in an open letter to Mr. Paul Rhoads - Coach Paul Rhoads.  I must admit, I do feel a little better. 



Blessings,
Stephanie

Thankful Thursday

 

 

 

What more can you ask for...."I drawled this pitchure becuase I love my sister Shalen!"  "To:  Shaylen,  Love:  Cavan"

 

I sure do love my kiddos... and oh, how I love they way they love each other!

 

Blessings,

Stephanie :)

The Summer Bucket List - Part 1

Now that the kiddos are back in school and with my return to classes arriving next Monday, I thought if I'd better try to get some blogging done now.  The summer flew by in a hurry, as I knew it would.  With the hubby working and myself taking 3 classes it gets busy enough, but adding swimming, sports, and church activities, etc., makes things extremely hectic.  So, with a stipulation on time and with trying to be mindful of our spending we crossed off a good amount of things off of our summer to-do list.  Thanks to my good friend, Pinterest, I was able to keep all of our ideas on one nice and tidy board.  The following is a pictorial of our summer bucket list.  :)

Over Memorial Day weekend we visited six cemeteries to pay our respects to family members and so I could get some information for my ongoing genealogy research.  The kids were troopers.

The kiddos and the hubby with his grandparents' headstone in Cambridge.

We drove by the farm where my grandma grew up.   The farmhouse has been gone for many years, but there was always a small pump house that stood were the farmstead once thrived.  We were saddened to see that the pump house has either been torn down or simply fell down. 

The pump still stands, but I don't know for how long.

We went and put flowers on Grandpa and Grandma Apple's graves in Story City.

Grandma was gone 2 years this past April, but it's still difficult. Especially for the kiddos.  They loved their Grandma Apple so very much!

Cavan still breaks down and cries, even when we just talk about Grandma.  :(

While we were in Story, we put flowers on Tami's grave.  Oh, how I miss her!!

 We headed to Randall and put flowers on my Daddy's grave.  This summer marked 7 years since his passing, which leaves me speechless.  Time marches on...

 After all the hum drum and tears, we went to the carousel in Story before coming home.

My little Norskies.  Ha!

I honestly have no idea what the hubby is doing here, but it made me laugh.  :)

 When I was a little girl, the carousel looked like this:

Also, on Memorial Day weekend we went and visited the museums in Maxwell.  Now, I never would've even guessed that Maxwell had a museum, let alone 2 HUGE museums that are stuffed full of historical treasures!!  It was amazing and FREE!!  The uniform below was worn by one of my mother's ancestors during WWI - very cool!



Another check-off on our bucket list was going to Ledges State Park by Boone.  I love this park in the fall, but we wanted to show the kiddos the upside-down bridges in the summertime.  But, as you can see, we only could talk one of them into wearing flip-flops.  We still enjoyed a bite to eat and some football, as well as some exploring.  :)



The pool was a hot item this summer, as was swimming lessons!  This is one of my favorite pictures of Cavy from Summer!  As you can see, he is missing plenty of teeth.  :)



 Hooray! We passed!

 June brought Shay's 10th birthday, but no party (BAD MOMMY!).  I LOVE throwing Shay's birthday parties, but with classes this summer, I didn't have the time or the energy.  :(  So, we're planning on doing something fun this fall with some of her friends.

 We celebrated Father's Day, as well as our Father's Day baby.

 Yep, they're all mine!!  Jealous?  Ha!!

 The kiddos went to Vacation Bible School.  I didn't get to help out this year, but I was able to pop in a take some photos. 

 Look who helped out with storytelling this year!  It's Mr. B!  :)

 Although, not technically on our bucket list, when we heard the Weenie-Mobile was in town, we had to go see it!

At the end of June, we went to Ottumwa to Brett's family reunion.  The picture below is Brett with his dear Great-Aunt Valena, who just passed away on August 19th.  She would've been 103 this September.  She was beautiful, soulful woman, whom we all loved dearly.  We were so blessed to have her on this Earth as long as we did.

 Family pictures at the reunion.  Do you see us on the left?  Do you see how tall my kids are getting and how short I am??  Ha!

We've always wanted to stop in Pella on our way home from the yearly family reunions.  This year, we did!  We've never really "toured" Pella - and oh my!!!  What a gorgeous Dutch town!! 

 We toured the Vermeer Mill.  I even went out onto the mill, which was a bit too high for me.  ;)

This little village was part of the mill museum.

 Bear found the "bakery."

 Cavy loved this miniature town that was part of the mill museum.

 My Brave Bear - there wasn't a chance in whoville that I was getting that close to the edge!

I can't remember what this was called, but when the clock struck 5PM, windows opened up and little figurines danced and moved around.  It was pretty cool!

We decided to hit the real bakery before we headed for home! 

Yum!!

Before June ended, we also celebrated Bear's birthday (again, no party - yes, I know - boo). 

He had to arrange his own candles and light them as well.  :)

12 Years!

We tried out some glow-in-the-dark bowling that I saw on Pinterest.  Sadly, it didn't work very well, but we still had fun!

For Independence Day, we went to Yankee Doodle Pops with some friends.  We stopped for some pizza beforehand - I think Miss Ashlynn (our friends' daughter) has a little crush on Mr. B.  ;)

He was amazingly tolerable.  :)

They some cool stuff to check out at the Capitol!

A brother burrito?

Ash & Shay in 2006 (I think).  :)

Well, that is all for now.  I have a ton to do on my bucket list this week that includes all the fun stuff work, like scrubbing toilets and going through small mountains of paper that have been patiently waiting.  I hope you are doing something fun today!!  Summer's not quite over yet.  Maybe there will be more we can squeeze in before Autumn arrives.  :)

Blessings,
Stephanie :)