Crazy Weather

It's hard to believe it's only been a week since the tornadoes in Joplin (3 hours south of us). We've had the craziest week of weather...tornado sirens one day, spectacularly gorgeous the next, cold and rainy the next, and today: wind. But tonight, things settled down, and this is what we saw out the front window.

T-Ball

Noodle is playing t-ball! She had her first game this weekend and it was great, muddy fields and all. The team has 16 4-5 year-olds on it. In each inning, every single kid hits, and every single kid runs to first (well, if they can remember. A couple kids ran to third, and one ran to the pitcher's mound!). This takes a looooong time. Luckily, I believe we only played 3 innings in the first game. Also, all 16 kids are in the field at the same time. And since no one appears to be able to hit it out of the infield, this means it should (should!) not be that hard to get the ball fielded and thrown to first each time. Oh, but it is! Gotta love t-ball!

My Morning

This was my Monday morning:

6:10 AM - Wake up + shower, get dressed.
6:45 AM - Wake up and get dressed three kiddos (with help from Dad!).
7:10 AM - Sit down to eat breakfast with Dad + three kiddos.
7:35 AM - Depart to drop three kiddos off at school.
7:40 AM - Drop Squash at elementary school. Realize that I have forgotten 2 items he needed. Plan to drop off the other two, then make a loop back around to get those 2 items.
7:45 AM - Pull into Noodle/Truck's school. Realize that I have forgotten Truck's blanket. U-Turn.
7:50 AM - Back at home. Pick up two items for Squash and blanket for Truck. By this point, Truck is yelling. WHY HAVE I BEEN IN THE CAR THIS LONG?!?
8:05 AM - Drop Noodle/Truck at school. Via fish tank stop in lobby, of course. Kids in both class are already on playground (we are later than usual). Truck cries about this change in routine.
8:15 AM - On my own. Get gas.
8:20 AM - Drop letters in mail at post office.
8:30 AM - Back to Squash's school. Drop item #1 in office, item #2 at before-school program with Squash, who is animatedly talking with friends. He waves me off.

Then, and only then, did I embark on my 30-minute commute to work! Sometimes I am amazed that I get up at 6:10, and then arrive at work at 9...as in, where did all that time go? But there you go, now I have documented where exactly...it all went!

Mother/Son Road Trip

On Monday, the Squash and I took our 1st ever Mother/Son road trip. We headed east for St. Louis after dropping the little ones off at school. We stopped at gas stations and I let him get Skittles at 10 AM. We stopped in Columbia (where I lived from ages 3-7) and I showed him my old house, my old elementary school, the former pond across the street from my house (which is now a big pile of dirt), and the University of Missouri (he was mostly interested in the fraternity houses!). We ate lunch at Cracker Barrel.

Finally, we got to St. Louis, about 7 hours after we started. After checking into our hotel, we walked around the Arch and scoped out the (near-flood-stage) Mississippi River. Then we walked over to Busch Stadium for the main event: Phillies/Cardinals.

We were there 2 hours early so that we could catch batting practice. We watched the pitchers (his favorite players) warm up. They played catch with each other. We watched their every move. I took a lot of pictures. And then, the greatest moment in seven-year-old history EVER...one of the Phillies pitchers tossed a ball to my little guy AND HE CAUGHT IT (in his glove). He could have left right then.

But we didn't. We stayed for all 9 innings. We ate hot dogs, popcorn, peanuts AND Dippin Dots (Ice cream of the future...since 1988!). Even though the Phils lost, it was still The Greatest Night Ever. We were back at the hotel around 10 PM.

The next morning, we woke up and drove home. The little guy has not set his precious baseball down since. He loves the fact that it was ACTUALLY USED for warmups and it even has some dirt on it to prove that fact.

Here's my big boy watching his team in action:

Where's That Sun?

Where are our sunny days? It is 55 and cloudy today!

But earlier this week, it was 92, and Mr. Sunshine himself was sporting a new hat.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day! It's a beautiful spring day here in Kansas. My family brought me breakfast (and COFFEE) in bed this morning, followed by roses, cards and a new vacuum! Yahoo!! If 2/3 of them weren't napping right now, I would so be trying it out!

Hope this Mother's Day is a great one for all my mom friends out there.

And here's to my three that make the whole Mother's Day possible:


(age 13 months)



(age 4)


(age 7 1/2)