Okay, time for an update. Sorry it's been a bit since I wrote. Things are going great. The weather has finally started warming up and the snow is pretty much gone. Just the really big drifts are left. Our pond is full of fresh snow melt and looks very big right now. I can't wait to see that all done with trees and grass and a sandy beach and a dock, it will make a nice addition to our place here. But lots of other things are to come first.

Last weekend, we had John and Marilyn come for an over night visit on Friday. Jennie and Kevin also came. We had a great time visiting and watching the boys and Jennie play Mario cart. The competition was fierce, and very exciting. Amber was gone all day for a school music and band activity. She was in Atlantic for Solo ensamble, and small group band competition. She did very well, and is glad that is over. It was causing her some stress. Saturday afternoon Sheri and Derek came over so we had a house full for dinner. It was really great to see all the cousins playing together and getting along. Sheri's new baby is the cutest little thing, and I love to hold him. Jennie will be having her baby in June so I'll have lots of babies to hold this summer! Yay!

Sunday was interesting, as Fast Sunday's usually are. The same few people got up and talked about the same things they always talk about, stuff that should NOT be in a testimony. It's very annoying. But I guess I've been dealing with that my whole life. Every ward has them. It's just in a branch it's more pronounced! The highlight was Amber who got up and bore her testimony about prayer and faith and how it helped her do her best on Saturday for her competition. I guess what I've been teaching the kids has sunk in with her. She's a wonderful daughter and I'm very pleased with her and how she's living her life. Young Women's was great. I love it when we can all just talk about the experiences the girls have been having during the week. I'd rather do that than give a lesson, but we have to follow church itinerary, and that's fine, but it seems like they open up more when we're just talking, then when we're having a formal lesson. Hmmm maybe I should work on making my lessons more of a discussion and less formal. I'll have to work on that.
That afternoon, we had the Missionaries over for dinner. So after two days in the kitchen cooking for the family crowd I got to go back and fix a big Lasagna dinner, which they requested, for those wonderful young men. It was great to sit and eat with them and then have a little lesson. They asked each of us to share something we learned in Church that day. I was the last one to go, and Bret took what I was going to say about Amber, so I had to think of something else. I was kinda tuning everyone out during testimony meeting ( except for Amber) and I skipped Sunday School because I was asked to go to the Clerks office and order some things for Young Women, which we have asked for since January, plus I don't really care for the teacher, and all I could think of saying was that I learned that I needed to have a better attitude during Fast and Testimony meeting. So when I see certain people get up I shouldn't role my eyes and tune them out but to listen and try to apply what they say to my life. Because they MIGHT say something I could use. Well that got a laugh out of everyone, and then I felt bad because I kinda ruined a spiritual moment. Because the missionaries gave thoughts on the atonement and Amber shared her experience with her testimony and how that can touch someone elses life, and Bret talked about a great experience he had with Amber's testimony and that he was touched with her faith in prayer. So I guess every Sunday now I'm going to try to learn something and have a better attitude. All the speakers and teachers can't be as good as John Bytheway, so I need to get over it!

After the missionaries left Bret had to leave to go work the Denison ER for a 12 hour shift, so I cleaned up a bit from dinner and went to my room to just relax. I was bummed that Amber and I missed the General YW Broadcast on Saturday night, and I was looking on the BYU channel and it was on!! I was excited! So Amber and I watched it and they had some wonderful things to say to the girls and I just loved every minute of it. I wish we had more LDS girls in Harlan for Amber. She feels so alone in her values at school.

April is almost here that usually means winter is over and the planting season can begin. I have my little plants ready to be transplanted and I'm eager to get out and dig around in the dirt! I have a lot of winter mess to clean up first! It's never ending isn't it.

Last week

Okay, this has been a busy week. As you can see we are having the spring melt. It has been really rainy this last week and that has helped with the melting it hasn't helped things dry up very well, so it's really mud city around here. We are actually seeing more grass than snow so this is a great sign. Now if the sun would just come out for about a month and everything will be dry and the flowers might finally decide to risk it and come up from their long winters nap.

Bret took the boys to a Pheasant fest and I wasn't sure if I posted this picture yet. All dressed up ready for the hunt! They had a great time. On Friday I did my long run for my marathon training. I ended up running a little farther than I thought but I got to break in the new shoes! And it wasn't very cold. I actually had to take off my wind breaker. That evening, the High school put on their spring play, so we all went to that. The Middle school put on their performance first, and although it was great of them to get up on stage and perform in front of so many people, it was agony to sit through. It lasted an hour. I was hoping the High school's would be better. It was. It was called The Old Folks Home. I got to see what Amber would look like in 70 years. She was all gray haired and wrinkled and hunched over and talking in an old lady voice. She was really good, and the performance was very well done. There was a lot of laughing. Ben and Sam were rolling in the isle. Amber is a natural on the stage, I hope she has an opportunity to further her talent in that area. She really enjoys it. Sorry I didn't get any pictures my battery was dead.

Monday, yuck

And it is another Monday morning. I woke up at 4:45 and headed to the fitness center to do my 3 miles of intervals. I like doing those, it mixes things up a bit. I'd prefer to do them on a track outside, but ours is still covered in snow. So the treadmill it is. Allyson was there, and we had a good time, it's always nice to have someone to talk to at the gym. The kids were a little sluggish this morning. To much fun this weekend I guess. Friday we were bowling till late, on Saturday, Amber had to leave in the morning to go to Des Moines for a Jazz band competition, and wouldn't be back until 8pm. By the way they got first place!!! Bret had to leave at 8am to go to Omaha for a certification class for teaching the hunter safety courses. He would be done at 4. So Allyson, bless her, offered to take my boys so I could meet Bret and have dinner with him and then go to the adult session of Stake conference. She also offered to pick up Amber when she got back to the school. So nice of her, I do owe her for that. But Bret and I had a great time. Our second date in one week! That so never happens. The meeting was good. Nothing earth shattering, but I'm glad I went and was able to get some great parenting advice. You can always use that. When we picked up the kids at the Bendorfs, they looked like they had a great time, and they didn't want to leave. Sunday we kind of did a bad thing and stayed home from church. Stake conf. is hard, I hope we can do better on getting to that in the future, but it's hard when only one parent feels the need to go. I won't name names here.......
The kids had a piano recital at 3 and it was at the First Baptist church here in Harlan. It was Sam's first one, and he did great. Amber and Ben did very good too. Keaton fell asleep in my lap for about 20 minutes. I think the weekend had caught up with him. We ended our Sunday with a great Family Home Evening, and all went to bed a little early. All except Amber who for some reason feels she can't go to bed before 10:00! Just like her father!

Yay it's Friday! The end of a great week! I've got my training schedule down now and into a routine. Always nice. Also the weather has decided to warm up a bit, upper 30's lower 40's, so the melting has begun. Which means I was able to do my long run, which I do on Fridays, outside on the roads. It felt so good. Really need a new pair of shoes though. I've worn mine out.

Bret called me in the afternoon and asked if we had anything going on and asked me if we all wanted to go bowling. He wanted to invite the new doctor that has joined the medical staff, and his family, to get to know them a bit better. I thought it was a wonderful idea, and so we invited the Bendorfs and the Monsons, some really good friends of ours, and had a great time at Cyclone Lanes! Named after our High school. It was a great night of bowling, pizza, pop and candy. Alyson kind of started a running tab and let my kids get whatever they wanted. It was a good time. Keaton bowled a 125! He's 4! I couldn't believe it. He beat me. He did have the bumpers to keep him out of the gutter, but there were times that he didn't touch those and got quite a few pins down. he even got a strike and a lot of spares. Unbelievable. Bret got the high score of the adults, no surprise there, and Ben was the winner of the kids. He got a 127. Amber didn't do her best as she was feeling really self conscious, a few lanes down there was a lot of the "popular" kids from her class celebrating a boys 16th birthday party and they were laughing and having a great time and Amber was feeling a bit left out. Plus she was feeling like they were watching her every move. Makes me a bit sad, a lot of those girls that were there, we have invited to our house when Amber was smaller for birthdays and Halloween party's and were friends. Now that they've grown up a bit, they've kind of separated into the "clicks" associated with high school. Now Amber feels like she can't talk to them because she's not a part of that crowd. Just wish everyone would be friends with everyone and not have to separate like that. Makes High school even more difficult. But after they all left she started to have more fun and play around more. The Bendorf girls, Morgan, and Jordan, are 9 and 11, and they worship the ground she walks on. She started having a lot of fun with them. I was glad.

Bret has stared another taxidermy project. He's is now skinning a coyote, and getting it ready for tanning. Which means a lot of smell and flesh hanging around. Yuck! So that's what I did after we got back and I put the little boys in bed, watched him scrape flesh off of the hide. Lovely sight.

Bret turns 42!

Happy birthday to my Bret! He's 42 years young and still loving life!!! We celebrated by going to Bass Pro Shop and eating at their restaurant. It was very nice and the food was great. We had the Alligator appetizer! It was a little chewy but good. It was deep fried and usually anything deep fried is good. The kids went to the Bendorfs house, some friends of ours, she said she would watch the kids for us so we could go by ourselves. So sweet! They had a great time. Pizza and games and movies. What more could a kid want. When we got back home Bret opened his presents, and after that it was past bed time! After I said "time for bed!" They were all like, "Time for cake!!!!" I told them Bret didn't want a cake, and they couldn't believe that someone wouldn't want a cake for their birthday. Things change as you get older.

We're still locked in the grip of winter. It is trying to warm up, it got up to 33 yesterday. The first time we've been above freezing since I don't know when. It's supposed to warm up little by little each day this week. Let the melting begin! It's going to be very sloppy outside but I don't care. I think it will take weeks for all this snow to melt.

Everyone has been doing very good. All the kids are doing good in school, we've started a new school schedule so we can make up for lost school days. They are extending the school day 15 minutes in the morning and the afternoon. So we have to get up a bit earlier in the morning and go a bit later but it will keep us from going into June! Which no one wanted to do. I think everyone will be very happy when this school year is over.

I'm still trying to get myself ready for this marathon that I'm doing with Sandi at the end of June. I've started going into the Hospital Fitness center at 5 am. It's helping me a lot! I meet Allyson there so that helps me get out of bed. She's just had a baby and is trying to get that baby weight off, so we're helping each other. But it is so nice to have my workout done and shower taken care of before I even get the kids up. I don't know how long I can keep it up though.