This, that, and the other thing....

It seems like we are having little trouble keeping busy these days! Rob is diligently trying to reach his goals for his dissertation in his remaining two weeks in SC:(((( Jacob and Ben are attending practices for the Hand Middle School Festival Band (Ben is the equipment manager for this event!!). Eli is busy practicing and playing soccer games (as well as Jacob, Ben and Grace. Rob is coaching two teams!). Grace is trying to get rid of as many baby teeth as possible, and I am working hard to make cookie bouquets for a Rwanda fundraiser, enter Rob's references for his paper onto the computer, and figure out something for dinner tonight! It seems like if each of the six of us does only one thing, it still creates a busy household! Speaking of which....I better get to the grocery store!

Girls Weekend!

While Rob and the boys went to the mountains in North Carolina for a father/son retreat with Church of the Apostles, Grace and I set out to have a weekend of girl time!

We started with shopping at Old Navy,dinner at Chili's followed by going to the $2 theater to see "The Princess and the Frog". We snuggled in bed that night reading "The Pink Princess". On Sat. we went to the St. Patricks Day parade in 5 points and later met friends for the kiddie carnival in the park. In the afternoon we went to see the Columbia Ballet perform "The Little Mermaid". It was awesome! We bought $12 tickets in the balcony, but were able to sit on a lower level after intermission. On saturday evening we picked up a pizza and a movie, some new nail polish and nail "bling", and a peel off face mask! As you can see above we had quite the funky toenails, and a lot of laughs as we peeled each others faces:)

It is an awesome privilege to spend an entire weekend alone with your daughter. I hope we will have many more opportunities in the future!

Jackie & Eli's Big Race!

This past Saturday morning, Eli and I ran in a 5K to help support home delivered meals for the elderly! It was my first organized run since high school track, and Eli's second. The run went through the Columbia Zoo and Botanical gardens which was beautiful but also had a few steep inclines! Eli pulled out in front of me right from the start and I didn't see him again until I crossed the finish line and he was standing there cheering for me! Congratulations to Eli who placed second in his age bracket and took home a trophy! Congrats to me for running the whole thing:)

There's No Place Like Home!

I was able to spend five days in Three Lakes this past week and it was wonderful! After a long and mechanically (airplane) challenged day, I arrived in Wausau where the Pulver family (who hosted me for the week) picked me up! Cheryl and I went directly to Kari Vandervelde's home where several of our friends were waiting to enjoy an evening of hanging out together. It was a great time!

On Sunday I was able to go to church at TLEVF and see all the wonderful people there. It just so happened that the afternoon was a scheduled "Fun Day" for the church at HoneyRock. It was a picture perfect northwoods winter day! I had fun tubing down the big hill and eating dinner in the dining hall.

On Monday I had my hair cut by my stylist of 15 years!!! She can work magic! I spent some time in the afternoon visiting with a dear friend Carol Siemiakowski followed by picking Braden Pulver up from school. I enjoyed having him give me a tour of his kindergarten classroom and also running into several teacher friends. We swung by my house to see Shadow on the way home, only to be slightly disappointed that the cat could have cared less!

Cheryl Pulver and I stayed up way too late talking both Sunday and Monday nights, but how can you possibly go to bed when there is a good friend to visit with?

On Tuesday I had the privilege of going to the hospital to wait for the c-section birth of Pulver baby number 4, which turned out to be a BIG 10 lb 5 oz boy! He was later named Blake Gabriel Pulver. In the evening Laurie Kirby and I went to a Zumba exercise class and a movie in Rhinelander. Spontaneous fun is the best!

Then on Wednesday I headed back to the airport, but was able to hang with Becki & Liz Henderson who were on my flight from Rhinelander to Minneapolis. We all had three hour layovers (they were headed to Orlando for the Disney Princess 1/2 marathon) so enjoyed a nice lunch together. I finally hit my head on my pillow at 11:00PM! Thanks to Rob for holding down the fort while I was gone.