Ryan and I have had our eye on some houses with a little more land around them just south of us for the last few years. It is a small neighborhood and the houses don’t go up for sale very often. We put on offer on one about a year ago but that was when bidding wars were ridiculous and houses were selling for way more then they were worth. We ended up passing on it after our bid for 20% more than asking price got out bid. This past winter they developer opened up a dozen or so more lots. After much debating and praying and thinking and more debating we decided to buy a lot and build a house.
It took several months to get the financing process, find a builder and make a plan for the house but we now have it all done. We are finally ready to move to the next step. My plan is to take a picture each month and hopefully show a significant amount of progress. If things stay on schedule (they won’t) and supply chains don’t change to drastically (they will) our builder is planning on being done in 12-14 months from July 2022.
It is exciting and stressful.
Here is the first picture. We have a three acre corner lot. If you look closely you can see the flags marking the outline of the house. Once the permits and septic system is designed they can start digging.
The Summer of 2022 is one of the hottest ones on record for Kansas. We spent most of the weekends sizzling in the heat, going through a ridiculous amount of sunscreen, ice, water, and sunflower seeds watching Matthew play baseball. Despite the heat, I enjoy a good baseball game.
Pre-Game huddlePost Game cool down-waiting for the next game.During Game Cheering
Allison’s gymnastic team qualified to participate in the AAU National competition this year! She was pretty excited! It changes locations every year, this year it was in Springfield, Illinois-home of Abraham Lincoln.
It was a quick trip but we had a fun time together. After I finished work on Thursday Allison and I drove to Springfield. It was about a 5 hour drive. We ate lots of snacks and sang songs at the top of our lungs to pass the time. The last hour of the drive we saw thousands of fire flies along the road. A lot of them hit the car window too. We new it was a fire fly because the smear they made on the window glowed just like they did for about a minute after it got squashed on the window.
We made it to our hotel and got settled in. Allison had a little excitement to burn off so we explored the hotel and then she bounced all over the bed for a bit. We had to be at the convention center by 7:45 the next morning. We woke up early and made it to breakfast. They had potato squares which are one of Allison’s favorite so she took that as a good sign for the day.
We got to the convention center and once we found her coach and team mate I went and found a good seat. She did a great job! I enjoy watching her compete.
She is the Missouri Valley group when they announce where people are from.
Her scores for her events were;
Bars:8.825
Beam:8.8
Vault:8.65
Floor 9.15.
For her division she ended up placing 10th overall and took 7th on the floor. She messed up a little bit on the last run of her floor routine so she was surprised at her score a little bit. That is why you always show confidence!
warm upsWith Coach SusieFloor MedalOverall MedalWith team mate Lilly
After her competition and awards we headed back home. Allison spotted a Pizza Ranch Buffet- one of her favorites- so we stopped there for lunch on our way home. It was good but put me in a carb coma so I had to pull over and take a 30 minute cat nap. Allison took embarrassing videos and pictures of me while I slept.
It has been to long since Sherri, DeAnna and I had one of our Sister Trips. We met in Florida a year or so ago but before that it was San Francisco. We try and pick a place that none of us have been before so we can expand our travel. We had one planned in April of 2020 to New York but COVID ruined that one. It has been tricky between one of us being pregnant or nursing but 2 of 3 of us are done with that phase of our lives for sure, so our trips should be able to get a little more regular.
We all flew to San Antonio on a Friday. My plane actually went to Tampa for a layover so Sherri and I flew the last part of my flight together. DeAnna got there first and picked us up. Sherri had found a nice hotel on the River Walk so we headed there first and checked in. We chatted for a few hours in our hotel then headed out to find dinner and explore. It was a great weekend. It always goes by to fast
We ate lots of yummy food and between relaxing at the pool, pedicures and visiting in our hotel we got a lot of fun activities in.
River Walk. As I mentioned, our hotel was right on the River Walk so we wandered around and explored that in the evenings. We did a boat tour, sampled lots of the ice cream, and ate at some great restaurants. Every trip we go on someone ends up having the same shoes or shirt or something as another person. You can see that DeAnna and I ended up bringing the same shirt this time.
We all have the pants Sherri is wearing but she is the only one that wore them on the trip.
We went to the Natural Bridge Caverns. It was probably one of the biggest caves I have ever been in. It was the hottest cave I have ever been in too. Texas is just a different level of hot. Later this same night we went to Chicken and Pickle per DeAnna’s request. Of course their indoor courts were booked so we had the privilege of playing pickle ball outside for 30 minutes. Sherri and I played on a team against DeAnna. She still beat us. We were all drenched in sweat when we were done.
Of course we went to the Alamo while we were there too.
We always finish our trip with a selfie at the airport.
This picture showed up on my camera from somewhere. It must be a memory stored somewhere on my phone. It made me smile. I love these sweet girls.
These next two pictures got me to laugh pretty good when I saw them. Sherri sent me the popcorn one while we were in San Antonio Texas. We all could relate. It was hot! The other one I saw on the wall at my kids doctor office when we were there for their annual checkups.
We started our Summer off with a Friday night Royals game. The Royals didn’t win but the night was still fun. We had cotton candy and peanuts. Allison was determined to get on the jumbotron and danced crazy enough that she caught their attention and her wish came true. When she saw herself she was a little panicked and froze but she was on it. She said she is more prepared for next time and won’t freeze up. They had a cool fireworks show after the game and the kids fell asleep on the way home in the car. A night of fun and a sugar crash made it to hard to keep their eyelids open.
On our way to the game we were jamming out to some careoke. Sweet Baby James came on and it reminded me of the time I filmed Allison and Matthew singing it in the car when they were younger (Emilee was to young to sing with them). I decided to recreate it so I had the kids sing it again, Emilee joined in this time.
Original video 2018:
2022 version:
The first weekend of Summer (Memorial Day weekend) we went to Lake of the Ozarks. A friend of dad’s from work had been inviting us to come stay at their cabin for quite awhile. We made the most of it but it was a little bit of an awkward weekend. They are really nice but what was discussed as far as activities and expectations was not what happened. They told us not to bring anything, I brought some food anyways because I felt bad for adding 5 mouths to feed for two days. It was good that I did though because they didn’t have any food. His wife disappeared most of the time and I was left to make the food. Ryan offered to rent a tube or two to pull the kids behind the boat, he said he had one he could borrow so not to worry about it. There never was a tube or anything else. We just drove around the lake for hours at a time looking at houses. We were all bored to death but the kids did a good job at staying positive. All the beds were well used and no sheets were washed between people sleeping on them. Not the greatest weekend. Matthew did do a little fishing and had some success. They swam in the lake a bit, and there was a pool they played in a bit but not to much because the water was only 60 degrees. We have a family trip to Table Rock lake planned in August, there will be lots of tubing, snacks, swimming and fun to be had.
When we got back from the lake the girls had Girl Scout camp and Matthew had Youth Conference in Nauvoo Illinois. Great experiences for them all. After that Emilee had horse camp and two volleyball camps. Allison had a kayak trip with her Girl Scout Troop and her first Young Women camp with church. Matthew had High Adventure in South Dakota with church and a Regional Flag football tournament in Wisconsin at the Green Bay Packers practice stadium. Add swimming at the pool, play dates, sleepovers, baseball games, gymnastics, riding lessons, and a fun day at Lake Olathe swim beach with the cousins and we have had some busy first weeks of Summer. July will be a little slower.
Emilee’s Girl Scout TroopAnother picture of Emilee playing herself to sleep.Mount Rushmore-High Adventure 2022 with Jake and Carter.Green Bay Packer’s Practice StadiumYouth Conference 2022, Nauvoo Illinois-Adam, Parker, Matt.Jake, Carter, Matt, youth Conference 2022Girl’s CampGirls Camp 2022Girl’s CampAllison’s Group at Girl’s Camp
Father’s Day was on Ryan’s birthday this year. We had a yummy dinner at Grandpa and Grandma’s house with Ross and Lauren’s family. Usually Lauren and I let them play a game on their own but since it was a special day we played too. Emilee and Jovee made a scavenger hunt/game/competition up for their dad’s and grandpa. They had to throw a ball as far as they could with their left hand, fold a bird with origami, draw a picture, do the most pushups (they all tied with one on that one) and race around the house. It was pretty cute.
Father’s Day 2022 (Notice the bow ties for dad’s and crown for Grandpa)Happy 43rd Birthday Dad!
A little side story. Matthew has been playing on a team with some boys for flag football. The coach for this team is Chad. He and his family are friend of ours. His son Tyson is also on the team. The event they went to in Wisconsin was a regional event, if they won they would go to the National event (last year they actually went to Nationals and won). So Matthew has been playing with them for a few months and they qualified for Regionals. Ryan said Matthew was to old for his team so he wouldn’t be able to play. A few weeks later, he tells me that Chad got it figured out and Matthew could now play. Plans were made and Ryan, Matthew, Chad, and Tyson head up to Wisconsin together. When they get there and it is time to check in, Ryan and Chad tell Matthew that he is going to go by Trey Something and his birthday is August 9, 2008. Apparently when they said they had worked it out, Chad and Ryan meant they had signed Matthew up as a kid from their team that couldn’t come and is almost two years younger.😒 Liar One and Liar Two justified this to themselves because even though Matthew is older than the cut of date, he is by far the smallest on the field. 🤦♀️ By the time they get to the front and the lady asks Matthew his name and bday. He says his name but can not remember the birthday so he says August then starts stammering trying to remember. Ryan had gone to the car to get something and was no where to be found. Chad sees Matthew struggling so he goes up to the lady and pulls Matthew aside and proceeds to whisper to her that Matthew is ‘a little slow’ and looks up his info on his list. He calls him over and tells him his bday, the lady smiles at Matthew and says, “Can you repeat that to me honey?” Matthew (who unlike Ryan and Chad is not a liar and if he tries to lie you can spot it a mile away) awkwardly repeats the date. The lady who takes his lying awkwardness as ‘slowness’ says, “Thank you sweetheart, you are all checked in.” while patting him on the shoulder. 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
Back at home while Ryan and I were on our trip, the kids were getting ready to wrap up the school year. When we got home there was a week and a half left of school.
When we travel somewhere in the car my rule is the oldest kid gets the front seat. Ryan tried to say first come first serve but they can argue over who said it first, who got there first, who wanted to get there first-ridiculous. So the rule is oldest rides in front. While we were gone Emilee decided to see what she could get away with and asked Grandpa if she could sit in the front on the way to church. He said yes and Allison was not happy about it. She was even less happy about it when grandpa risked making an enemy of Allison for life and tole her my rule wasn’t his rule so Emilee got the front because she asked. To make matters worse Allison was mortified to see that Emilee was wearing socks with her church shoes. Sounds like it was a fun Sunday morning in Kansas.
We were in Europe for Mother’s Day. Our realtor put a clever sign in our yard to tell me Happy Mother’s Day and get a little free advertising. Roger and Rhonda and the kids thought I had one an actual voting contest and were so impressed (especially the kids because they didn’t even vote). I got a good chuckle out of their misunderstanding, I didn’t correct them either.
Allison had her 6th grade field trip. Pre-Covid it was a ski trip, now it is a trip to Main Event for some bowling, zip lines, and video gaming.
Matthew had to cook a well balanced meal for his family for his FACTS class. He made everyone spaghetti, broccoli and a green salad. I heard it was delicious.
The day we got back Allison had her final orchestra concert. She went back and forth but has decided to play the cello again for 7th grade. She is pretty good at it when she applies herself on a regular basis. Imagine that.
Emilee and her friend Reese made swaps to trade with people at Girl Scout camp that was right after school got out. I also caught her sleeping next to dad when she was supposed to go to bed. Ryan loves it. Matthew was done with school when she had her award ceremony for 3rd grade so he went with Ryan to see her. She loved having them both there but specifically asked to have a picture with just Matthew. She got the ‘Zookeeper’ award because she loves animals.
Matthew also came with me to Allison’s award ceremony. She got a lot of math and honor roll awards for her grades! She finished 6th grade with high marks and flying colors! Good job Allison. I have a picture but it won’t upload. 🙁
Allison sent this picture of her tithing slip to me to make sure she filled it out correctly. It made me smile when I saw what she wrote under currency. 🙂
This last picture is a box that Allison made for the family to use. When she finished it she placed it on a counter in the kitchen. I thought it best to act like I didn’t see it. If you have known Allison for longer than two minutes you know one thing she doesn’t like is suggestions. Especially from me or her dad…or Matthew and Emilee. So I ignored it. A few days later the family was making dinner together in the kitchen. I was getting annoyed at asking one of them (not Allison) to do something for the third time. Allison said she had something just for this situation. She grabs her suggestion box and says I should put a suggestion in the box about better ways for people to listen. I said maybe later. I didn’t point out there were 10 piles and tasks within eye sight that I had asked her to do. She kept pointing it out, so I took the bait when I asked her to do something AGAIN and said, “Allison, I SUGGEST you do the job I just asked you to do.” As expected I got an evil glare. Ryan said something along the same lines a few minutes later. Then it was my turn again shortly after that. She then grabbed her suggestion box, threw it on the ground, stomped it into oblivion and stormed out of the room while angrily telling us, “You have lost the suggestion box privilege, you don’t know how to even use a suggestion box right. I can’t do anything nice for you people.” This all happened within 5 minutes of her suggesting we use the suggestion box. Which is 5 minutes less than I thought it would take to go over like a box of rocks in a swimming pool.
Ryan and I hit our 20th wedding anniversary this year. For our 10th anniversary we did a Caribbean cruise and we decided on that trip that for our 20th we wanted to do a European cruise and see Greece. About 2 years ago we booked it. We were planning to leave from Venice and see Greece, France, Rome and Barcelona. About two months before our cruise they emailed us and told us that our boat was being relocated to the Caribbean. We were welcome to stay on the cruise but it would not be in Europe obviously. We decided to cancel and Ryan did the research and planned out the trip for us instead. It was a lot more work and research for him. I didn’t do much, he did it all, and he did an amazing job. He had our flights, taxis and any other transportation we needed booked and ready to go for each place we went.
We already had a flight to Venice so we kept it and that was our first stop for a few days. Then we went to Santorini Greece, Mykonos Greece, and finished in Athens Greece. We were gone for 12 days. Ryan’s parents watched the kids for us. It was an amazing trip. It was both of our first time in Europe. We ate wonderful food, saw amazing places, met great people, stayed at beautiful hotels, and had an experience of a lifetime. It was incredible.
I decided to make a photo book on Shutterfly to show the pictures better so I wrote the details of our trip in that too. I will still include a few of my favorite pictures here in my blog though. So the short version here is we had a great time and we are excited to plan another trip to Europe sometime to see more of it!
Venice hotel room. View from patio at Venice hotel.VeniceRelaxing at outdoor cafe in Venice.Venice hotel patio view.Leaving Venice to go to SantoriniGrand Canal, VeniceSantorini sunsetShade patio in Santorini hotelHotel room in SantoriniSantorini viewDELICIOUS Greek saladSantoriniCatamaran Sunset TourCatamaran SunsetMykonos, GreeceMykonos beachExploring Mykonos beachesMykonos GreeceMykonos windmillsWalking up to the ParthenonAthens GreeceAcropolis hill-ParthenonAthen’s GreeceAcropolisGreek RuinsAcropolisEdjumacating himselfOne of lots of beautiful flowers we saw.Acropolis at nightLayover in ChicagoWe stayed in Chicago for a night on our way home.Tulip season in ChicagoWalking around VeniceItalian countryside tour.Grand Canal, VeniceRyan was one of three people that decided to swim in the warm volcano water on our boat.Catamaran Tour-SantoriniSantoriniGirls made us a welcome home sign
We switched Emilee to a new barn for her riding lessons in March. She seems to be really liking the new place. She has been progressing a lot. For the school talent show at the end of the year she asked me to take a video of her at her riding lesson to show for the talent show.
Emilee also played volleyball again this Spring. She asked to do it and was excited to go to practices and games. For all other sports besides horse riding we have had to make her ‘just try it’ and she has been very glad when it is over. She did great this season, her last game she served the maximum times (5) and scored then they have to give the ball to the other team. She was pretty excited about that.
Allison had her AAU gymnastics meet in Manhattan Kansas. She did really well. The team ended up qualifying to go to the National AAU meet in Illinois in July. She is pretty excited about it. Ryan and I are happy for her that she enjoys gymnastics and she is doing well at it and continuing to improve.
Matthew just finished up his Freshman year on the baseball team. He was a really good bat this season. He played mostly 2nd or short when he was on defense. He did a good job and his coach seemed pleased with him. There last game of the season was rained out which was a bummer. He is looking forward to his season with his club team over the Summer.
There was a YM basketball tournament for our Stake. The boys all had a great time. Matthew loved it. Our ward had two teams. The team Matthew was on ended up making it to the final game and winning the tournament. Matthew was given the MVP award for giving all out effort all the time. They even let them cut the net down which was pretty fun for them.
I have some talented children. I love watching all my kids in their activities. I am glad they are taking the opportunities to improve themselves and work hard at something they enjoy.
We had a nice Easter this year. Easter is always nice. It is a peaceful quiet weekend. The weather was pretty cold this year, even though Easter was in mid April. We had our traditional ham and cheesy potato meal. Roger and Rhonda came over and Steve and his kids to eat with us and spend the afternoon visiting.
