Fall specials!

I am posting this less than flatter photo of myself because it makes me happy to see Matthew and I together in Iowa City with "the Best Herkey statue" (the marching band one!)  I stopped to see Matthew after visiting my folks.

Carolyn celebrated her 17th birthday.  Unfortunately the camera settings were messed up that week!!!  She was in show choir camp and celebrated with her friends over lunch during camp.

Joel is participating in High school cross country.  They race a 5K instead of the 2 miles that 8th graders do.

Anna and I went camping without a boy scout in site!  (meaning we usually rely on their expertise!!)  The boys were in Iowa City watching football and Carolyn was at a Youth Ministry retreat.  We stayed in Panora (where Catholic Youth Camp and the retreat are located).

Here is Matthew in his room.  He is in a double this year, but unfortunately his friend since 6th grade needed to take the year off to bring up his GPA (and somehow housing didn't get a replacement roommate in place)!  His buddy hopes to be back next year and they plan to get an apartment with a 3rd friend.

Anna's fall sport of choice is volleyball!

Homecoming was last night.  Carolyn went with a bunch of friends.

Joel also is playing soccer this year....which may have been a bit crazy given how much more intense cross country is this year.  Going forward he will only play soccer in the spring.

vacation time....favorites

We recently returned from Colorado.....here are some favorite things

rock-climbing

 zip-lining

Hiking to cub lake (we had a guide and we hiked WAY into the mountains.....I would have done this every day)

 White water rafting (Anna and I skipped although she wants to go next time.....not me)

 Garden of the gods (didn't spend enough time here due to the lightening and the fact that we just finished a car ride from Estes Park....but mostly the lightening.)

Our view from the fishing hole!

Matthew said getting a hole in one on the putt-putt course at the YMCA of the Rockies (which I find hard to believe), but I am having trouble getting the picture off my old Ipod.

I printed all my pictures the day we returned and have started prepping for scrapping!!!  Can't wait.

Goodbye Sweet Jemma

We had our latest foster dog for 5 weeks this summer.  I remember the first week I thought, "what have we done".  Don't get me wrong, she was a great puppy, but she liked to get up early (before 6 am most days) and needed to be watched pretty closely!  She was fine if you were busy, she would just go to the room in which you were working and watch you!  However, if you sat down, she figured "it's Jemma time".  She wasn't a lap-dog, in that she didn't want to just sit on your lap and allow you to rest.  She would sit nearby and let you pet her forever.  She also loved chasing a toy or ball that was thrown.  She had a skin condition, so she was always scratching herself, which was probably the most annoying thing.  She was fine if you wanted to rest near her, but you had to be able to ignore her scratching unless she found an interesting toy to chew or was asleep.  It was hard to ignore the itching, because we knew she was hurting herself by scratching/biting, so we would distract her by petting and playing.  Jemma left us last Wednesday and as I look at these pictures I really miss her.  That said, it is nice to be able to sit down without her 100% attention.  Also it has been nice to sleep past 6!

1st Jemma before:  (I didn't get a very good "before picture")  The pictures I have don't show how terrible her fur looked.  When Animal Rescue League worker brought her to me I could hardly believe that they were bringing me a dog with such terrible skin!  (I was not prepared by their picture of her....but now that I re-look at it, I see the issue.  (This is from Carolyn's Instagram or some other media.)

BEFORE

AFTER (the effect of love, special baths, medicine....but I think the frequent petting really helped stimulate the recovery :0)

I could hardly believe how much better she looked.  Like I said though, she still had very itchy skin and was not completely healed.  The Animal Rescue League Vet however said she was ready for adoption and I am guessing she was gone the first day after she was spayed.  She was a very friendly dog.  She was all about people for sure!  She loves attention.  I do worry if she lives with someone who leaves her for long periods of time.  We foster in the summer so that at least one kiddo is around most of the time.

Now Jemma's fan club:

(no Matthew - he helped with her when needed, but is not the fan of dogs the other kiddos seem to be)

We were sad to see her go, but everyone recognized that she needed a lot of attention that we could not provide during the school year.  (Plus we leave for vacation on Saturday!)

scrapbook challenge

July 5th was my Independence Day

I finished my last scrapbook page for the family album!  (see below .... 3 of my final pages....much nicer than usual since I knew I was almost caught-up and was celebrating with extra beauty)

Joel's last year in Little League.  His eleventh year!  Next year he will continue to be involved in baseball via umping.....but I won't watch that because I hate the way coaches and parents treat the umps.  Luckily Joel has a much thicker skin than I do!  Next spring he has chosen to play high school soccer (normally his fall sport) instead of baseball.  Much more likely to get playing time and better cross training for country country.  

2017-18 Show choir a family favorite activity (ok - not for Matthew who would have died before dancing on stage....nice voice though)

 Anna's birthday.  I wanted this to be especially nice given that she isn't quite as busy as the 2 other "at home" kids and therefore doesn't have as many pictures this year!  (Matthew has too few to count, since he lives in Iowa City much of the year.)

Before you think - wow Betsy doesn't have anything to scrapbook......remember that I made a fateful decision almost 20 years ago that I would do separate kid and family scrapbooks.  Matthew, Carolyn, Joel and Anna's books are not up to date.  Anna's is the closest in some ways because a few years ago I felt bad that I only had her infancy scrapbooked and I did many pages for her.  Plus she hasn't lived as long as the others!  Additionally she is home more often and she and I enjoy working on her pages/looking at the albums.

My challenge relates to the fact that Carolyn graduates high school in 2 years and I want her albums caught up at that point.  In the process I don't want to get further behind on everyone else.  (Matthew's albums were not done for his graduation....I put out the family album for the more recent years...which still wasn't up to date!)

I have broken each year into typical pages:  school year, Christmas, Easter, summer and vacation.  (5)

Each kid and I have 5 categories per year of life.  Me=19+ (done), Matthew=19+, Carolyn=16+, Joel = 14+, Anna=11 (exactly :0)   Although this doesn't work out cleanly.....I figure I have 26 more years to scrapbook!  (this is the number of years that I haven't finished working on.....an average of more than 6 years per child!!!!)  Instead of being overwhelmed by this number and regretting my choice to make such nice albums for the kids......I have taken up the challenge.  I want to be done by August of 2019.  (Senior year will be busy enough without trying to scrapbook a ton.)  14 months.....that is less than 2 years of scrapbooking each month.  (that is not 2 years for 4 kids....that would = 8 years via my crazy counting)  So really I can do two categories from any given year for each child and mostly complete the goal.  This is my plan.  For example I am trying to get the summer of 2008 done for each child.  (before you do the math and think I have WAY more to do than I have confessed, know that there are many more pages done in later years that I did when the urge struck me.  (Many vacation and Christmas pages linger in the kid's boxes)  Anna is mostly complete through fall 2013 for example.

I am posting this here so that everyone (by that I mean the 3 people who read this) can ask....."how are those albums coming?"  to urge me on! 

Last bit of good news - all the pictures are printed (except less than 10 (example below - Joel just got home from scout camp!))   I figure I am 3/4 the way organized by year....but perhaps I am being optimistic.

Peace!!

Happy Birthday Anna

Anna is now eleven!

On her real birthday we celebrated with a shopping extravaganza (so she could pick out her gifts - see below) and cupcakes.   (Matthew was at work.)   One of her buddies was out of town, so we had to postpone her "friend" party.

Finally last week we were able to celebrate with her 2 best buddies.  We went to Sky-Zone trampoline park.

There was much jewelry making

Then we had a bonfire and slumber party!

Joel joined up at the trampoline park, which was only fair as Anna went with him when he had friend's join him at Sky Zone a few years ago.

A fun time was had by all!  (even Matthew and Carolyn, who had friends over for the bonfire too!)

Carolyn's Confirmation and Musical

 My sister Mary was Carolyn's Confirmation sponsor

 Aunt Mary even transported my folks from Burlington.  (She was going to grab Matthew too, but he had a commitment and couldn't come in the end.)

 Anna was an Altar Server for the big event.

 During Confirmation Carolyn missed one night of her Spring Musical:  The Brain from Planet X.  (2 other kids were in the same boat.)  Nonetheless it was a great show.  We got to see the dress rehearsal (where pictures were allowed!!) as well as the other 2 performances.  Carolyn in yellow above and red below! 

Ok- I know you were dying to see the Brain:

photo shoot

There is no place in town now that has a portrait studio.  I could  have driven  to Des Moines but I just didn't want to!

  I took these photos and am pretty pleased.  (little bit of a shadow in the Joel/Anna photo, but I will work that out next time.)  I have been scrapbooking lately!!!! and boy do I have a ton of portraits!  I was a little photo happy back in the day....ok still am.

No Matthew - he was at college and missed the photo session.  I am going to do the whole crew this summer - outside!!!

Happy Birthday Joel

Joel had his 14th birthday on February 5th

He chose to celebrate his big day with a ski trip with his scout troop.

Joel recently finished playing 8th grade basketball (him far right in black).  (Photo made super big since it was taken far away)  Photos were taken in the Ankeny (south) vs. Ankeny (north) game, which is especially fun because we know kids from both teams.  (from church and other sports Joel has played)

Basketball being over a couple of weeks ago, track started on Monday!

Also believe it or not, Joel now has a driving permit!  (He hasn't driven yet though.)