A sad day around here

Jim's high school football coach was shot and killed this morning while supervising students in the high school weightroom. Coach Thomas was a very respected member of the Parkersburg community, coming to the aid of many shortly after the tornado, the same one in which he also lost his own home. From what Jim has said, he was a humble man, strong faith in God, strong desire to help young people become strong, upstanding individuals. It's a shock to everyone in this area, including me, and I've never even met the man! Hard to understand what drove the suspect to do such an act, and perhaps we'll never really know. I guess the one silver lining in this whole thing is that we'll get to see the strength and resolve of Parkersburg once again....although I joke about how I could never live in such a small town, it's a small town that I admire greatly.

He gets it

Owen can, at times, be a strong-willed little guy. At times, I can feel my hair becoming more and more gray! But, there are also those times when he just makes me smile and proud to be his mom.

Today, we were driving down Hudson Road here in town. On the outskirts of town, there is a large open area with a pond in the middle. Owen says something like "Mom, there's a big area over there with the grass cut short and nice calm water in the middle. It's really peaceful water. I think that one guy who died would have really liked it." I asked him who he was talking about, having absolutely no clue what was going on in his head. He replied, "That King Jr. guy, you know, the one who got shot because he wanted peace." Light bulb moment....I said, "Do you mean Martin Luther King, Jr.?" He said "Yeah, that's him. He would have liked the calm, peaceful waters....", then he added, "...if he was still alive now or maybe he'd just be really old by now."

So, even in those times when he is having a not-so-fine moment, I've got this to hold on to....:)

The PBS Kids sale

Wow....due to the generosity of our neighborhood, the boys' sale to benefit PBS Kids programming netted just shy of $30! They were SO excited when the first customer came....wow. They did a good job for about the first 2 hours, waving and saying thank you, etc. Then, lunch hit and I lost them to dad taking them to the car wash. Oh well, they still had a bunch of fun!

Owen's endeavor

Ok, everyone who knows Owen knows that the kid has his quirks....but he has an awesome, giving side as well!

This morning, Owen announced that he wanted to have a sale and give the money to PBS Kids so that they could keep the kid shows on. All his idea. So, he's spent the morning looking through his books to see which ones he could part with. He also tossed in a few toys. Not alot, but it's a start. We're also going to have a little lemonade stand too. Hopefully the weather holds out!

So, tune in again to see if the sale really happened.....

Mother's Day 2009 edition

What a great Mother's Day this year!
The boys were wonderful, Jim was wonderful, and the weather was wonderful!
I got to "sleep in" a bit, but all I did was listen to the boys run around the house getting things ready for me. I heard Owen once say to Gavin "don't go into Mom and Dad's room; Mom's sleeping!" Owen made me a nice little card that he wrote (with a little spelling help from Dad). The boys each got me a little houseplant....one is some sort of cactus and the other is...well, I have no idea what it is. It looks like a plant with little grapes all over it. Jim got me a little radio that I can take on walks and bikerides, as well as one of those digital photoframes (now that they have come down in price!). We did a little window shopping for a screen door and ate at Fazoli's. Best part of the day? The boys did great at the restaurant! In fact, they were really good all day long, which is quite the accomplishment:)
All in all, it was, as Tony the Tiger says, a grrrrrrrreat day!

The beauty of our yard

We're fortunate to have some very beautiful trees and plants in our yard. Of course, we cannot take any credit for them as they are from the previous owner. However, if we don't kill them over the course of the summer, I think we can officially call them "ours."

To the left: the nice smelling white tree.

To the right: the boys' garden.

The plant below is Owen's favorite. I think it's a bleeding heart, but Owen thinks that's a weird name. So, he calls it a "Peeling Heart".

What's been going on.....

Like I said in an earlier post, we finally made the move back to Iowa. The house sale process was stressful and one I would rather forget. But, we sold in a tough market, so that's the silver lining.

We are now all settled (well as settled as we'll probably be for a while) in our new home in CF. We are close to a shopping area, something that some people may view as an "ick". We love it! Forget something while grocery shopping? Walk across the street to Fareway! We back up to the bikepath, which is also very handy with the boys. Our neighbors have been wonderful as well, so we can't ask for anything more.

The boys have handled the move better than I thought. If you would have asked me back in WI how it was all going to go down, I would have told you that I was very nervous about how they were going to take leaving their friends. Was it easy for them? Heck no, and they talk about Matt, Ian, Miles, Jack, Dane, and the rest of the crew quite a bit. They also miss the neighbor girls Hailey and Jenna bunches! What fun it was for them (and us parents) to be able to let the kids out and play, knowing that they were going to be in either yard and totally fine. But, they'll make additional friends here too.

Owen had soccer for three weeks and although he started off quite nervous, he ended up a superstar! He ran so hard during those little soccer games and was very proud when they won one. (They didn't win many unfortunately) He was the youngest on the team and I think that it freaked him out a bit, but once he got over the initial fear, he looked forward to it each time.

Gavin turned 4 a few weeks back. I cannot believe he is already that old. At his birthday party, we took the training wheels off his bike and away he went! He is so excited to be able to ride a two wheeler like his big brother. He also got a scooter (thanks grandma and grandpa) so he and Owen tool around the "loop" quite often. It's been fun to see them play so well, although believe me, they still have their moments!

Right now we are enjoying some beautiful days, after what seemed like rainy day after rainy day. Lots of bike riding, scooter scooting, and trips to the park. Today we went to a few parks down by the Cedar River and the boys had quite a bit of fun just throwing rocks in. What kid doesn't love to do that? Owen even got one to skip, which I'm sure he'll tell dad about tomorrow.

Jim and I have adjusted to life back in the Hawkeye state (is it really an adjustment anyhow?). We miss the amenities that Madison has to offer, though! We also miss the friends that we made in Mt. Horeb. A big shout out goes to Gayle, the bestest pal I had up in the land of the Trolls. I hope that she knows how much her friendship meant (and still means) to me. Jim and I are excited for the different summertime things that go on here, whether it be Sturgis Falls in June or Waterloo Bucks baseball throughout the summer. It's nice to be in the IA, but we miss it in WI too!

Hope things are going well for everyone and write if you get the chance!