Garage Cleaning

Having 3 boys has taught me to be much more tolerant and patient in many ways. I can remember in our newly-married days spending 1 hour every weekend cleaning our 700 square-foot aprartment. I'm lucky now if I get an hour of cleaning done every 700 days! I can let things go for a while, but as soon as it hits a certain point, I almost physically start to panic. I feel overwhlelmed and out of control, and I really don't like that feeling.

Our garage finally got to that point, so last Saturday was garage cleaning day! We completely emptied everything out, tossed a bunch of junk, found a few missing items, and reorganized the junk that we wanted to keep.

Ahhh, much better!




The chaos

I'm sure the neighbors appreciated looking at this while we cleaned.

Organized junk


What the boys did while we cleaned...and now on to our next project.

Lock Up Your Girls...

...'cuz here come the boys!

Some New Favorite Pictures

Don't they look big?
I love this face!

Sweet, sweet pictures with Grandma!

For whatever reason, we didn't get a picture with Grandma and Matt. : (

My Mother and I

Have you ever read the book

"We're Very Good Friends, My Mother and I"?

We have!

I Wasn't Sure We'd See the Day...

when Matt would enjoy being in the water. As a 6 month-old baby, he LITERALLY insisted on sitting with his back to the lake while we were at a cabin. His first couple of summers of swimming lessons were torture on all of us. He screamed, his teachers would squirm, and I wanted to slip away unnoticed. We wanted to push him out of his comfort zone, but he certainly didn't make it easy on anyone.

Times have finally changed! Matt is loving swimming lessons this summer and doing so well. His form is improving, we haven't had one day with any tears, he gladly jumps in the water (as opposed to crying on the edge and eventually belly-flopping in), he voluntarily swims around underwater...an altogether different kid!

And the Winner is...

MATT!

We went swimming at Lifetime today, and they had a special promotion for a Toyota Venza.

No, Matt didn't win the car, but he came in a close second by being the first winner of a Wii Bowling contest that was going on. In the back of a brand-new Venza, a Wii was set up. Anyone could choose to play, but the catch was you had to have 3 strikes in a row in order to win a $5 gift card to Lifetime. Ben tried, came close, but wasn't able to put together three consecutive strikes. I really didn't think Matt would go for it, but he wanted to try. After a couple of warm-up throws, he nailed his first strike, then his second, and finally his third! He was the first gift card winner of the day!

Maybe his luck will rub off on me. The club is also holding a drawing to give away a $1500 triathlon bike. I put my name in, and now I'll cross my fingers!

Matt's road to winning!


The brand-new car that we'll never have.

I can just picture myself on this bike during the upcoming triathlon!

The Sun'll Come Out, Tomorrow!

One of my good friends from college was in her community's production of "Annie". My sister and I thought it would be so much fun to take our 5-6 year olds, head a couple of hours west, watch the production of Annie, and overnight with friends. We had a great time! We rented the movie of Annie so that Matt and Anna had a general idea of the storyline and would be able to recognize some of the music. It's been almost a week and I still hear Matt (and myself) humming Annie tunes throughout the day.

Great job, Traci, and thanks for everything!



Ready for the roadtrip.

Traci and Nate's beautiful new home!

You can't beat this view!

Matt thought it was super cool to walk through the line and shake hands with the cast members!

Tournament Weekends

Matt and Ben each had baseball tournaments the last 2 weekends. The kindergarten tournament was no different than a regular season game with the exception of getting a trophy at the end. Matt had some good hits and was a happy player when he got his hardware!

The 2nd grade tournament on the other-hand, was a double elimination tournament and had the potential for being an all-weekend event! Unfortunately (or fortunately), Ben's team lost the first two games, so by Saturday at 1:00, baseball was officially over for us. Ben wasn't too disappointed. He knew his team wasn't very strong. He, however, had a couple of great games with some nice hits, including his first Grand Slam!

The teams that advanced to the finals each played a couple of games on Saturday and about 3 more games on Sunday. That is a lot of baseball for a 2nd grader! That is a lot of baseball for a parent! I'm sure our hours of baseball watching have only just begun.


Matt is the 3rd boy from the right, in front of Brian.


His 1st trophy!

On deck...

Just before his grand slam!

My Baseball Boys!

CO Visitors

Luke, his wife Katy, and their 15-month old Charlie came for a visit! It was so fun to have them stay at our house for a few days and we stayed busy, busy, busy!

We did lots of playing on the trampoline, in the driveway with push toys, went to the pool, spent the 4th at a beautiful home on a lake of some family friends, and some of the crew hit the Twins game. Although CO is a great place to have relatives and to visit, we all wish that we lived closer to each other.


Happy boy!

Brian's brother, Robert, has season tickets which allows him to put a message up on the jumbo-tron. What fun, and how nice of him to do this for us.

We made what we thought was a pretty good "Circle Me Bert" sign, but unfortunately, it didn't get on TV.

A Lost Tooth

Matt has been so excited to lose a tooth. It finally happened the other night during dinner at my sister's house. Matt asked for a piece of french bread, and after taking a bite, came up to me and said, "Mom, do you see my tooth anywhere in my mouth?" I thought he knew he had lost it and asked him where it was. He said he didn't know where it was and wasn't sure what had happened. After looking through the food on his plate and around on the floor, we determined that he probably swallowed his tooth!

Matt's a sensitive kid in many ways, including his pain tolerance, so secretly, I'm glad this is how he lost his first tooth. He was worried about it being in his stomach, "and then what will happen", but I assured him he won't notice a thing and that he'll be okay.

He was concerend about the tooth fairy not having a tooth to pick up, but we convinced him that if we wrote a note, she would be okay with that. Matt dictated the note.



Because he's a sensitive kid, he's very picky about how he sleeps. When I tried to put the little tooth pouch under his pillow, he told me he wouldn't be able to sleep with it there. He asked if he could just leave the pouch on the floor next to his bed.

The tooth fairy had no complaints about that!



**Embarrassing Admission**

Matt and I just got home from the dentist. He had no cavities. I on the other hand...had SIX! Yes, S--I--X cavities. Is that a good example for my kids or what? They are small and have been on watches for a while, but still! As the dentist and I talked, we figured out the culprits.

1. My negligent flossing

2. Coffee creamer....this one never even crossed my mind!

Now what??!!

Class of '92

Do I really have to admit that I've been out of high school for 17 years??!! That sounds just about impossible to me. Some of my closest girlfriends and their families were in town and we were able to coordinate schedules and 10+ kids and get together for some pizza and playtime.


What a cute bunch!


I guess I was the only mom who got the message to make a silly face.

July 11th

July 11th will be a busy day around here:


Papa's Birthday

Matt's first-ever baseball tournament


Our 11th Wedding Anniversary

The bouquet Brian gave me this evening!





**11 years ago I don't think I would have believed you if you told me that in the year 2009 I'd be sitting at my middle son's baseball tournament on my anniversary. I certainly don't mind going to the tournament, but hopefully we'll have a dinner out sometime soon.

(Did you hear the one about the guy who took off on his wife's bday to go golfing? At least it wasn't their anniversary, right?)

Miller Park

If you know Brian, you know he loves baseball! While his passion for it can get a bit overwhelming for me at times, I'm finding I'm much more tolerant now that Ben is starting to understand the game and enjoy watching and playing it.

Ben and Brian recently drove to Milwaukee for a Brewers vs. Twins game at Miller Park. They met a co-worker of Brian's for some tailgating, and also Brian's brother and son from Indianapolis. They enjoyed their boys' trip and already have plans in the works for the next one!