Ol' Bessie

Yesterday the cows were in the back pasture, right along our fence line, enjoying the new grass coming up. The prince went out on the back porch and, in his deepest voice, hollered, "MOOOOOOOOOOO." One cow looked at him, but the rest just continued chewing. Not to be deterred, the prince tried it again, a little lower, and little louder. This time four cows stopped what they were doing to check him out. Maybe you had to be there, but it was hilarious!

They Went That Way

Love this picture! ;)

"Far Away Dance"

The princess dances at two studios. One for ballet and one for other styles. Ballet is several miles away from our house, but the princess and I simply refer to it as "Ballet". As in, "Let's go to ballet." When she's dancing at the other studio (a quick 5 minutes away), we refer to that as "Dance". As in, "Let's go to dance."

The prince is not so quick on the uptake. Or maybe he just doesn't care. For him it's, "Are you going to 'close dance' or 'far away dance'?"

He prefers it when we are going to "Far Away Dance" because then, if his father isn't home, he can crank his amp up to 10 and really let the neighbors enjoy his musical talents. If we are going to "Close Dance" then it's not worth the trouble, I guess, of plugging in for only a few minutes before I get home and tell him to, "TURN THAT DOWN!!!"

Tonight's "Far Away Dance"...just in case you were wondering.

Need I say more?

About Hokus Pokus

Don't read Hokus Pokus by Fern Michaels. At 76 pages in I was still unsure what it was about or who the main 12 characters were. Turns out this is about the 10th in a series, and I'm pretty sure that even if I had started at #1 it wouldn't be any better. Don't waste your time! I am not finishing this one.

Happy Easter

He is risen.

Maple Bacon Sundae

This month is Bacon Appreciation Month at Denny's. Who doesn't like bacon? The prince is fond of bacon (he's even wearing his "Bacon is meat candy" t-shirt today). He heard that Denny's was putting a new spin on bacon for this month and off he went to try the Maple Bacon Sundae. His review follows:

"It's nasty."

Enough said!

Workin' The Streets

It was windy. You can kind of see the princess through all that hair.

Their signs say:

Make Tacos Not War

Honk If Your Awesome

Spelling errors are all theirs!

Silly girls.

Happy Birthday Matt

Have a great day.

Sorry this picture is a little wierd.

I "tried" to crop Liz out.

Guess you guys were just meant to be together. :)

Happy Birthday Jared

Have a great birthday!

Good luck at Battle of the Bands tonight!

What a great way to spend your bday!!!

The Band Is In Da House!

I wish these were bigger...stupid phone camera. Today the prince and young Daniel were at school to practice with the choir. They are jammin' with them at the spring concert to Journey's "Don't Stop Believing". It is sure to be a great show, and the choir director told me they did a great job! Rock on!

Gotta clown with my sister when I get the chance!

Happy Birthday Becky!

Have a wonderful day.

We love you!

True Love

You might have to double click on the photo to make it large enough to read the print, but trust me, it's worth it! ;)

Spring Zephyr

As our friend Rabbit (from Winnie the Pooh) would say, "It's just a little spring zephyr." Several inches of wet, sloppy snow, and it was still snowing when I left for work this morning. I think I see some sun peeking out now though. Just a little spring zephyr...

The Decline Of Education

Just saw this on Facebook and decided it was too good not to post:

We have a lot of crud going around our school. Flu, mono, colds, allergies, spring fever, senioritis...they are all equally fatal to learning!

Love it!

Me + Monday = COFFEE

This guy even looks like me! But a little sugar-free caramel syrup, a little half and half, a mug of good ol' coffee mixed together, and I am ready to face the week. Good morning coffee, and hello world!

Happy Birthday Liz

Happy birthday...and only about a month until you are married into our family FOREVER!! Enjoy the lack of crazy while you can!

Poet Laureate

Yesterday the princess was honored at the state capitol for a poem she wrote in a Stop Youth Violence campaign. Ten student essays were chosen, and these kids were invited to the capitol to be honored and to read their essays.

She did a great job of reading. She did not apprear nervous, and was loud, clear, and slow enough for us to all understand. We are soooooo proud of her!

Grandma made the trip with us. It was a great day!

As a side note: The top essays (in points by the judges) of one boy and one girl were chosen to represent our state in Washington D.C. this summer. The princess' classmate's essay was chosen! We are all so excited for her! Congratulations Kaitlyn!

One more note: I have not yet decided if I will post the princess' poem on the blog. If you would like to read it email me, and I'll send it to you.

Good Day!

The prince can rest easy this weekend. He learned today that he made varsity cheer again for next year. I don't think he was really sweating it, but now he can design his way-too-expensive cheer shoes. He's excited--for the shoes and for the season to start in August.

37'

The prince had a high throw in shot put last year of 35 feet. He's hit it a couple of times this year already. But two days ago, at practice, he hit 37'! He was pretty excited. And he hit it more than once so he thinks he'll be able to do that at a meet. His coach said that if he can hit 37' in a meet, he'll move the prince from JV to Varsity. The prince though would like to stay on JV this year. He says he'd rather be the JV guy throwing far at 37' than the Varsity guy only throwing 37'! We'll have to wait until his next meet on Tuesday to find out how he does!

Pretty Girls

Broski

My brother is a great guy, but I have to ask: doesn't this photo sort of make him look like a Mexican drug lord?

Final Dance Competition

The princess wrapped up her competition dance season yesterday. It was a great day for the studio!

Her solo won a 1st place in it's category and a 2nd place overall for her age group. Her group dance won 1st place in it's category and, I think, 1st place overall for their age group! Woot, woot!

That's a lot of bling, ladies!!

Oh goodness. Here, let me help you!

Dance Mom

Check out the pin! I've been a soccer mom, basketball mom, gymnastics mom, choir mom, baseball mom, (did I miss any?)--I'm currently a track mom, cheer mom, choir mom, and dance mom. I like being a dance mom because this sport is almost always inside (except in the blistering heat of the summer sometimes). Today will be the last dance competition of the year--thank goodness. It conflicts with a track meet, so the king will be the track dad today. Mom guilt is heavy though!

And here is the reason I get to be a dance mom!

Have fun today little sistah!

Life-long Reader

My sister sent me this with the caption, "Just Like A Man". But I say, as long as she's reading... I'm pretty sure she's not going to be happy with me if she finds this on the web someday when she's older, but it's so cute!!!

Mennonite In A Little Black Dress

Not to jinx it or anything, but I hope you have noticed that I've now read several 3-star books in a row!! The one I just finished, by Rhoda Janzen, is great! It's a memoir about the author who grew up in the Mennonite faith but later left it. I had to share my favorite lines from the book, where she's reminiscing about her youth: "My mother braided my hair so tightly that my eyebrows buckled. This conferred on me a look of wholesome mental illness, like Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearest." Eyebrows buckling and wholesome mental illness--it doesn't get any better than that, folks! GREAT book!!!

The Letter

Last night the prince had his cheer awards banquet. He lettered! I see a letterman's jacket in his future. He's pretty excited, and we're pretty proud of all his hard work this year. Cheer--for not being an official high school sport--is very demanding of one's time.

This photo captures the essence of the prince!!! This is his coach, Tracy, and she had just read some very nice things she'd written about him. The she said, "Hey Prince, Knock, Knock!" He cracked up!!! Later we got the "Knock, Knock" story.

They were at a tournament and as is her habit, it was getting late, and the boys knew she would soon be knocking on their door to take their phones for the night. The boys were already in their beds, not in pjs but in their underwear (cuz that's how they sleep), and the prince says, "Lakota, you'd better put your pants on before Tracy gets here to take our phones." Lakota assures him that there's still time. The prince decides to check, so gets up, cracks the door (in his underwear) where Tracy is about to knock! KNOCK, KNOCK!!! Good thing she's the mom of a 14-year-old boy! She totally gets these two!

Mutch

Last night I was proof reading a paragraph the prince had to write as part of his try-outs for next year's cheer team. He wrote a sentence in which he used the work "much", but he spelled it "mutch". When I mentioned it to him he said, "You mean I've been spelling it wrong all these years???" Just because you put a "t" before the "ch" in your name does not mean every word that ends in a "ch" needs a "t" to make it perfect! Good golly, did we laugh!!

Naughty

When a teacher writes a student up for a minor infraction (tardy, hands-on...) I enter it into a computer data base where we track such things. I often can go several weeks only entering one or two items (usually tardies) over that time period. Clearly it is springtime in the Rockies! Since Monday I have entered 13 write ups!!! Thirteen! Most are hands-on types of things. My favorite was two students who were written up for throwing paper mache "goop" at each other. It's going to get crazy! Watch out!

The Dentist

A couple of weeks ago my sister took her 5 kids to the dentist. For the three older ones this is no big deal. But the 2 younger kids are amusing. Here's Isaiah. He's tough. In fact, he's so tough that, "I don't need no numbin' stuff." It was a cleaning so that wasn't going to happen anyway, but it's good to know.

And then there's the princess, Ariana. She's like a lot of people with a HUGE fear of the dentist. Major dental work when she was younger made her that way. In fact, for anything more than a cleaning she has to be put to sleep! This was a cleaning, but still the anxiety was there. Her hygienist was GREAT. She told Little Miss Thing that the reason she gets so stressed out is because the lights are so bright in the dentist's office. Then she gave her these cool sunglasses to help with the glare. It worked too!!! That's one smart lady!

One More!

I almost forgot this one! No trip is complete without your beer goggles!

Spring Training Final Shots

In the hub-bub of the last couple of weeks, these photos didn't make it onto the blog in a timely manner. Still, here are the three amigos in all their baseball-watching/beer-drinking glory. And don't worry: if you are going to Phoenix in the near future, they have restocked their beer supply. There will be plenty of beer for you!

So Jealous!

The young adults headed to Grandpa and Grandma's for some R&R in the 85* AZ sun. They were quickly followed by their parents and siblings who wanted a little warmth too. We are soooooo jealous!

Matt and Liz

Becky

Track Meet

The prince participated in his first track meet of the season yesterday. They were supposed to travel about 200 miles, but that area was expecting lots of snow and canceled their meet. That left his school to tag onto a meet that was taking place here in town. There was plenty of wind, but otherwise, the weather was decent. He threw in discus and shot put and came close to last year's best throw in shot. This was his first attempt at discus since 8th grade, but he had a nice release so now he's going to work on his spin. Afterward he headed out to the Chinese buffet with some of his friends from track. I can't imagine there was much food left at the buffet when those kids were done!

Green Eyes

Ever wonder what the princess would look like with green eyes? One of her friends did some fancy photo editing, and now we know!

Go Falcons!

First track meet of the season...in the rain.

Go Falcons!! Stay warm.

Happy Birthday Shelley!

I have 2 wonderful sisties, and one of them is a birthday girl today! Happy Birthday, Shelley! Have a wonderful year. Wish I was with you to celebrate this today!

Happy Belated Birthday!

Happy Birthday Jajuan. In the crazy that was last weekend, I didn't get this posted, and I'm terribly sorry. Worse yet, you had to have your tonsils out a day or two before your birthday. Bad timing!! Here's hoping next year's birthday is a little more fun-filled. Have a great year. We love you!