Always something going on....

With our busy life, there is always something going on. Just yesterday was the first day of swim team. It was raining, but the girls went to meet their coaches and get a feel of it. Today, it was too cold, and boy was Josie upset. She was crying cause she was so disappointed and wanted to swim, even if it would of been freezing.

Rachel also had her first ever volleyball game yesterday. We weren't really sure what to expect. They had their first practice on Monday, I took Rachel and stayed to watch, let's just say, there was room for improvement. Rachel is a bit "different" when it comes to handling a ball. Rachel is right handed, but she can only throw a ball with her left and serve a volleyball with her left. It's odd. Tim and I worked and worked with her trying to get her to use her right hand, but she was still better when she used her left. We weren't real sure what to expect at her first game. She couldn't even get it over the net (a lot of the girls can't), but we knew Rachel had the ability to do it.

Rachel is playing in Fairfax at Summer Spike. Rachel did Awesome last night. We couldn't believe how different she looked last night actually playing a game. The first time she served, the ball went right over the net, it was great! She did really well for never playing the game before (except in PE). I learned a lot about volleyball last night. Tim and I both really enjoyed watching her play. We have a feeling she might be just as good at volleyball as she is at basketball. Rachel is planning on playing when school starts back up again. She'll have daily practices and it will be interesting to see how much she improves.

Tim, Jenni and I also surprised Rachel with a cell phone last night. Rachel has been begging for one, but we really didn't think it was time yet. But her activities have been picking up and plus with her going back and forth between her mom's and here, it was going to be nice to have a way to get in touch with her when we needed. Not that we couldn't before, but all of us agreed that Rachel was getting older and we didn't always have to go thru the other parent to talk with her. I think it will be very helpful for all of us.

Back to the phone. Rachel "thought" I was getting a new phone. She was being nosey the other day and saw me trying to figure out how to order it online. So, I lied to her and told her I was getting a new phone. Rachel asked very politely if there was any way possible we'd consider letting her have my "old" phone. Of course, all of us blew her off and had her convinced there was no way she was getting a cell phone yet. So the phone came on Tuesday. Tim and I activated it for her and took it with us to the VB games. We had a good couple hours to kill between games so pretty much the entire St. Greg's VB team/families were in the only dinner in Fairfax. While we were in there waiting and crowded, I asked Rachel if she wanted to see "my new phone". Of course, she jumped at the chance to play with it, and then Tim sent her a text while she was looking at it. It said "guess what Rachel...?" followed by a second one " this is actually your new phone! Hope you like it, love dad, mom and abby". It took her a minute to catch on, but once she did, she was squealing and jumping up to hug us all. Her face was so red. I wish I would of been able to take a picture, but that would of gave it away.

Since she has had the phone, it's pretty much been glued to her side. She is still in the new phase and trying to figure everything out with it. She got over 100 texts the first day she had it. I'm praying the New wears off soon, I'm already tired of hearing it go off..... ha. Oh well, that's part of it I guess.

I'm trying to get my house ready and things packed up to head to Branson with my parents for a long weekend. I'm hoping for a few warm days in the sun. We are just taking Josie and Cailyn because the older girls already had weekend plans with their mom. It will be nice to get away for a couple days.

I'll leave you with a couple pictures of our future Volleyball star.

My BIGGEST Kid of All.......

Tim..... really what can you say...?? Part of the reason I fell in love with him was cause he was just like a big kid always joking, playing around, and having fun. That has since come back to bite me in the butt BIG TIME!!

This weekend was really great with all the kids. Saturday we picked up Rachel and Amberlea and headed to St. Joe for a relaxing day of getting out of town together, some light shopping, and a surprise mini-golf game.

Sunday we slept in, I cooked french toast for breakfast, it was really good. We took our time that afternoon getting ready and headed over to Tim's Dad and Penny's house to see family we haven't seen for a while. After catching up for a bit and the kids playing we headed to a bbq at some friends house. We surprised the girls and didn't tell them there were going to be some inflatables at the bbq. They were very excited about this. Our friends also had a very nice pond that we enjoyed catching some fish in.

There were just 3 other kids plus our 4, so they were having a blast going down the inflatable slide. It was a nonstop rotation of kids from the top to the bottom. Tim included.

It was all great fun, Tim always enjoys any activity that he can join in with his kids. They were flying down the slide, frontwards, backwards, all sorts of ways, even some flips that ended up getting us into some trouble. Here's a few pictures of the fun.

It was all fun until around 10:00 when Tim thought he could do a flip down the slide like the girls were. Nope, not so much...... he said he flipped, but landed on his arm/wrist. He said it popped bad and then went numb. But I'm thinking by the words coming from him, it couldn't of been that numb. Tim was positive he broke it. ER......here we come.

It was a very busy night in the ER. One guy broke his leg from jumping off a roof, to an older man "surfing" behind a 4 wheeler breaking his wrist, to Tim breaking his wrist from flipping on an inflatable slide. *notice it was all MEN in the ER last night doing really stupid things, hmmm....???

The doctor said it was a fracture, same wrist he broke about 4 years back, same hand that has his broken pinky now. It was just a little up from where his last break was. They put a temporary cast on and sent us home, 2 1/2 hrs later. He will go back tomorrow and have a permanent cast put on.

Here's a picture of Tim in his cast this afternoon. (You might notice that his finger still works, ha) I'm not going to hold my breathe that Tim has finally learned his lesson. I seem to think this every time after one of his many injuries, and yet again, he seems to find another way to hurt himself. Kids, I swear.
I am getting some more pictures of our weekend from Gina and hope to post some more soon. Thanks for checking in on us.

Officially Summer......

I think that tomorrow will be the Auffert Official 1st Day of Summer!!!

Tim is now on shutdown for the next couple weeks. That's always a fun time for us. The girls should be out of school in a matter of minutes from now, I'm sure they are about to BuSt!! And me, well I don't get a break, but I'm happy I have a long weekend and am looking forward to leaving for a vacation a week from today. That's exciting!! I'll take what I can get.

I have told you that the girls' do swim team. That will be starting on Tuesday along with Rachel's 1st summer volleyball game. That will be an exciting day!! I'm looking forward to that. Tim and I always love to see our kids participate in different sports, and Rachel's VB will be a first for our family so far. Rachel is really looking forward to this and I hope she enjoys the game.

We are headed to Branson once again this year. This is a nice easy trip the kids enjoy so much. It is a lot of fun. Mom and Dad's time share resort is a nice place to relax and enjoy a few days away from home. The kids swim, and can miniature golf, play tennis, lots of activities for us to do. I'm just ready to go and relax.

We have plans to squeeze in a trip to the zoo, a couple float trips, one with the girls, maybe a Royals game, some fishing, and some time with friends and maybe a couple other surprises. Who knows?

This is every ones favorite time of year. My house is suffering because me spending a majority of my time outside these days. Hopefully our plans for the summer will work out and it will be a great time for everyone. I hope all of you have a GREAT summer too!!! I'm sure you'll be seeing some pics of our summer real soon.

A good start to the summer....

With just a week left before school is out, we are wrapping up the end of several of the girls' activities, looking forward to some new ones, and just getting excited to have a few months off for some fun times.

Rachel asked if she could have a friend over this weekend, alright, this lead to Amberlea also wanting one, and Josie, but she's a little too young for sleepovers. She settled for just playing with Amberlea and Rachel's friends and waiting, and waiting, for what seems like FOREVER to get to have a friend over. ha

I told the girls this was fine as long as I got some things done I had planned on for this weekend. Which left me multi-tasking like crazy, but I always seem to pull it all off. I wanted to finally get the girls' volleyball net up and in place this weekend they got from Easter. They have been asking, the weather didn't really cooperate cause of the wind and it was kind of chilly, but we got it up. I'm sure it will get a lot more use in the weeks to come.

I also wanted to work on my hill, THE hill. It has been a royal pain in my butt since we moved in here. Couldn't really decide what I wanted to do with it. I had many ideas, but 2 of the summers I have lived here, I've been way to pregnant to even thing about doing anything. So slowly, I've worked on it the last couple years. It is Definitely a work in progress. But, I am very happy with what we accomplished today.

We added some gravel to my small mud hole that was there all the time. This wasn't very good, cause it never failed that some kid I watched seemed to think they always needs to go walking into it when we played outside. I am glad I have a nice area to have my firepit, that I love to sit next too on those chilly summer evenings. The girls thought it was all Very Cool.

Here's a few pics of the girls last soccer game of the season, and my new fire pit area.


Tim, Josie's coach giving her a medal after the game. She scored her 1st goal this weekend...... GO JOSIE!!

With the help of my wonderful parents, I now have an area I can enjoy all summer. It still needs some work, but it's good progress.

Here's the girls and Tim trying it out and cooking some smores.... it was good.

Me and my girls......

I'm so lucky.......

A newer Me......

I have been debating on if I should post this or not. I just couldn't decide. I was partly embarrassed about it, and I am still trying to work on building my self-esteem. I've always been the type of person for the most part that loves my body.... is there things I would change? yes, I think everyone feels that way. I'm not one to put myself down in front of others. That's not who I am. I don't see the need to say negative things about myself. I just kind of "hide" I guess you would say. I'm sure people talk, I talk when I see changes in people. It's hard not to.



So here it is..... a little background. I came across this picture on Facebook the other day and thought, holy crap, look at me. This was at a Royals game late last summer. I'm not the type to see the changes in myself without proof. Like a smaller size of jeans or a picture of myself. So that's what I did. I decided to put back on the same outfit and see if I could tell a difference. For some reason this is the only way I can see it, mirrors do nothing for me. ha

Now, don't mind the hair, it was a spur of the moment idea I had. I was just around the house, a "wash and go" do. The shorts aren't the same, these were I'm guessing a couple sizes smaller. For the good, I can see a huge difference in my legs and arms, and belly (and another area that I could stand not to loose in:). But, the negative, I also see I have a long ways to go. But in my defense, it's not like this outfit was very flattering anyway......ha.

It's beginning to get difficult getting to the community center these days too. I think I went only 2 times last week. I feel so busy right now. I need to make it a priority again. Yesterday the girls did not want to go, and I don't blame them. I hate when I have to drag them there. They'd rather be outside playing. I enjoy doing this with them and getting some exercise, but it's not the same as burning the calories at the gym. I bargained with them and told them if they gave me a half an hour for the weights, I'd walk while they biked around the college. This was great! They had a blast. But me walking at Cailyn's tricycle and Josie's training wheel bike pace, just didn't really cut it. But, at the same time, I was happy the girls were having so much fun and getting some good exercise. (My little ones don't get to ride on paved roads often living in the country.) This is always a great time for them! Rachel and Amberlea were there too, they had a lot of fun. I was very pleased with Amberlea..... I pretty much told her she was riding her bike, she has been scared to death since last summer when she had a big fall on her bike and really got banged up. She did great yesterday!

I'm afraid the warm summer days are going to have a huge effect on me. You'd think it would help, but it seems like this is always when I fall off the wagon (again). Cause truthfully, I don't want to be in a gym either when it's nice out, but the past has proven that's what works best for me to be at a healthier weight. Ugh......

I'm done for now. Thanks for listening. I hope I don't bore the crap out of some of you. I always figure I'm not alone and everyone has felt the same way from time to time. Until another day. Tonight is Rachel and Amberlea's spring concert, maybe I'll get some good photos to post.

Dance Star

We are finally finished with dance for the summer, I am very thankful. Towards the end, it just gets to be too much. Josie was happy when I told her it was over, but now she is sad and says she is going to miss it. She really likes the girls she dances with and she is starting some wonderful friendships.

Saturday was the Bearcat Boogie recital. Josie danced in both the 1:00 and 7:00 recital. That made for a long day, but we managed. Josie did AWESOME, I know, I'm sure you all think it's cause I'm her mom and I think she is just the best. I'm not one of those moms that never see their kids do anything wrong, I'm a realist. I call it as I see it. And she was GREAT!! She got lots of compliments from other parents.

It was pretty obvious Josie stood out in her first group. All the girls were the same age, but she had that dance down pat. She shook her hips and had her arms stretched out, she was a tapping fool. It was so darn cute. She really did shine out there.

The second dance was her competition dance. This looked so much better last night than it did at competition. I know, but I think the girls just needed those couple extra weeks to really get it down. It is a large Hip Hop group, so it's not easy to get a bunch of little kids on time. I thought they did a really good job. Josie did really well for being one of the youngest in the class. Some of the girls are 2-3 yrs older than Josie. She was just as good as the older ones. I was really proud of her.

These are a few pictures of my little Dance Star.......

Josie is on the end. The song was Jump and Jive, it was a tap number.

This is her Hip Hop group to "Gotta Be Startin' Something". It was a Micheal Jackson song, that explains their hats and white gloves :)




Amberlea and Cailyn wanted to go to the dressing rooms with us, they were very proud of Josie, especially Amberlea, you could tell she thought that it was all pretty cool. Rachel and Amberlea surprised Josie with flowers, it was so sweet. Aren't they so cute........

Sheek.....Stylin'..... Wow......Beautiful......

These are just a few of the words I've already heard from people describing Rachel's new do. I got her permission to share it with the world. It wasn't hard, the only thing was I couldn't post until after she surprised everyone at school today.

A couple weeks back Rachel asked her dad and I for a favor. A couple months ago we set up some personal and family goals for ourselves. Just a little something to motivate the girls and us. I told the girls that I always think it's nice to have something to work towards. Whether it be good grades, a lifestyle change, whatever. I told them that it feels good to accomplish something.

Saying this, my goals were to read more and lose another 10lbs. Both that I have met. Rachel set up a goal for the mileage club, but didn't quite reach it. She also set up a goal to get the presidential time at school running the mile. This she did. She improved her time by almost 3 minutes!!!! Wow, way to go Rachel! So for reaching her goal, also came a reward. The fun part of this whole project. Originally she was wanting more clothes, a new shirt, crazy. But then she had the idea of a new hairstyle and asked for a haircut. So, that's what we did. She was so excited! She hasn't had a new do, well, pretty much she has had long hair for the last several years. It would vary in length, bangs, perm, but nothing drastic. That's what she wanted this time. I was shocked. I always liked her hair, but I could tell she was ready for a change. She wanted to chop it off....... it's just hair, and she has really nice healthy hair, it will grow back, right?

So here's a before picture at the salon. Notice how long her hair was.

This is a couple cuts into it, there was no going back now.

Here's a few more photos. Notice all the smiles.

Isn't she just so cute, I mean pretty! We should of took a picture of the back. I'll get a better picture of her takin' over the weekend. She is going for a full makeover these days. She found out this week that if she continues to do good with her braces, she gets them off in 4 weeks!! She's counting down. I've been waiting too, I told her I'd like a new family picture this summer, but I'd wait until the braces came off. Yeah! Her Dad wasn't as thrilled about the cut, he said it made her look much older, Rachel just SMILED! Oh how she loves to tease her Dad this way.

Country Beauty

This is why I love living where I do. Our family gets to enjoy God's beauty is so many different ways. This was after the downpour we had Wed. night.





The pictures speak for themselves. Rachel was the photographer of these. I wished I would of had my camera too. This last one, there is just a little bit of the rainbow peaking out from the clouds. If she could of zoomed in better, you would see all the windmills on the horizon. It was beautiful!

What am I going to do with you???

I'm talking about Tanner. He is up to trouble again. There is nothing this little boy won't try to get into. I am just so THANKFUL at the end of the day, I get to send him home. Just talking with Gina last night on the phone, she told me about some of Tanner's newest adventures!! Maybe she'll post some of them soon. I told her I know the feeling all too well. And what I find even funnier, Gina was a pretty well behaved child, I think this is all coming from Micheal. LOL. He was in a lot of "accidents" growing up, so I really feel for Gina, it is just going to get a lot more interesting!

So, to today's adventure. This is how it happened. I was checking me email this morning. No biggy, the kids are all right here with me. Cailyn yells to me, just across the living room, "Mom, Tanner is hiding!!" ok I thought, where could he possibly be hiding in my living room? I look across the room to see two little feet sticking out from under the edge of the chalkboard side of the easel. I knew Cailyn was over there drawing at it. It was so funny!! I always have my camera handy for just such occasions. He was so darn cute and so proud of himself. This is what I found..........

And this is how he did it...... notice how nice his pants look from all the chalk dust on it.

And then this is just some more of the Fun!




But, really I can't complain at all. I miss him when he's not around. He brings so many smiles to my face everyday. He is the BEST baby ever. No fit throwing, no screaming and crying unless you just really break his heart, and he is just so smart. I get probably 20 hugs a day from him, and it's just so sweet. Josie, Cailyn and Tatum all think of him as their little brother and LOVE him so much. It is really wonderful that all of them have got to spend this time together getting to know their cousins and having this great relationship. I am grateful that I too have got to help in the taking care of and raising of my niece and nephew. It is very special to me and I am very thankful.

So that is it for today, until another adventure....... I hope all of you have a GREAT special Mother's Day weekend! *And to my own mom, thank you for raising me to be the mom that I am today. I appreciate you so much for everything you have ever done for me and your continued support of me now. Love you Mom!

Flashback

Over the weekend when I was searching for garage sale items I came across my tub of "important" things I have kept from my teen years. It was a flood of memories going back thru some of the items I had. Things I haven't thought about for YEARS.

One item I found was the book I wrote in 8th grade, some of my high school year books, even a grade school one. And a few other things that impacted my teenage years.

The most interesting item I found was an old photo album that I had made for my high school sweetheart for his 16th birthday. I knew I had this, but it was some time since I had looked at it. (i had this because he returned it to me the last and final time we broke up:)

A recap, I dated this guy from late jr high until off and on through my high school years. We were together quite some time, even when we weren't "together" we were always still apart of each others lives. I'm sure you all remember the drama of the high school life. I called things off with him to see other people.

So, after taking a look at this, I decided to show it to Rachel. I had told Rachel a while back when discussing boyfriends and all that, that some day I'd show it to her. Rachel has had several questions for me, and I have always been honest with her about my experiences. I feel like it has helped, and she feels comfortable asking me questions.

Later that night Rachel came here, and I told her about finding this book again. She was more than interested to see it. Mostly cause I was SO embarrassed to show it to her. I kept telling her she could not make fun of me TOO bad.

I decided to take this opportunity as a learning experience. I showed her all the awful pictures of dances I attended, and things that we did together. In the book it had, ticket stubs, photos, cards, pictures and letters. We talked about how boys change so much as they mature. She was surprised how this "dorky" guy I first went out with looked some much different in our Prom picture together. She was also very surprised how skinny I was. As was I. I couldn't believe it!! I guess I have never thought of myself as EVER being skinny, but looking back at those pictures, I really was and did not know it. We talked about the feeling girls have about their bodies isn't really what was always true. I would of sworn that I wasn't as small as some of those other girls in my class, but I really was. I was a classic example of how people see them selves so much different than what they really are.

And then came the numerous letters I had written that I allowed her to read. I read every letter before hand to make sure it was appropriate for her to read. And most of them were nothing, just how much I was "in love" with him, and what I did during the day, very immature things. But then there were a couple of us fighting, one of us getting back together (again) The few letters that I (he) had saved covered about every topic. Rachel and I talked about just how much I swore I would marry this guy, how very much I thought I loved him, yet, that's not the way things turned out. And the choices I made. I hope it was a learning experience for her. (and I'm sure this is making you all think inappropriate things, but I was a good girl thank you very much).

Overall, I think it was an eyeopening experience for her. It was a good conversation for both of us. I'm glad I got to share that with her. Amberlea too was interested in it, but I told her in a few more years, I'll show them to her too.

So, I put it all back, for another day I will go back down memory lane. It seems like a whole lifetime ago, it was hard to believe that was just 15 yrs ago. Where has the time gone? You might be thinking what Tim thought about all this. Oh, he was right there to hear it all, nothing he hasn't ever heard before. Didn't bother him one bit. Neither Tim or I are the jealous type, it helps our marriage considerably.

What a weekend!?

Sometimes I really feel I need a third day to the weekend just to recover from our activities. It seems like my weekends aren't really a time to relax, they are just as busy as the work weeks. BUT, a lot more fun!!

Friday started out as a busy day getting ready for our garage sale we were having with Penny. Thankfully, Penny has a great location for a garage sale and I didn't need to worry about getting my house ready. I just destroyed my house in the process of digging out things I could find to sell. Not the highlight of my weekend.

The weather was beautiful on Saturday, that was very helpful. I got up early in the morning (with Rachel) to go to Penny's to start the sale. It was a long day, but I was pleased with the amount of items I sold. I asked Rachel to help me out (with a bribery of a capichino, she is so easy to talk into things) because I also had to be out at Donaldson Park for AYSO soccer that morning to hand out medals to the coaches and take some team photos. It's a good thing Penny lives so close to the park, I think I went back and forth 5 different times trying to get all my stuff done. Thank you to Rachel for helping me out and covering while I multi-tasked my Saturday morning away. * Amberlea won her soccer game and so did Josie (this was their 1st win). Josie was pretty excited about finally winning!!

A long morning led to a longer afternoon of getting groceries, and coming home to unpack the car again. With several of our big items we had been storing for the last couple years now gone, I was able to clean out and rearrange the storage room and storage under our steps. This made me SO happy. I have so much more room for the few things that I do need to store and the kids have more room for their bikes and toys in the storage room. It was wonderful, but exhausting and dirty!!!

The girls came up with the idea on Saturday that they wanted their dad to take them fishing. We went a couple times last summer and really enjoyed ourselves. I would of loved to drop everything on Saturday and go, but I was in a cleaning groove and when I get there, I don't stop. I didn't sit down at all Saturday until Rachel and I went to a late movie. We went to see Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. It was pretty good. It had some funny parts, but my real reason for seeing it was Mathew Mchaunhey...... wow. He is my fave!! I'll go see any movie with him in, no matter how stupid it might be. It will always be worth the money to me!

Sunday morning I got up early and started cooking cakes for my mom's birthday celebration/Mother's Day get together with the family later that afternoon. I baked 3 different cakes for all of us. I also decided to skip out on church and take the girls fishing....... I know, I know..... that doesn't sound very good, but it was a beautiful day and the girls were so good on Saturday and I felt bad about not taking them then, I thought it would be alright. I told the girls we need to stop and pray since we missed out on church that morning when we were fishing....... we all prayed we'd catch some fish!!!....... LOL (at least it was something, right??)

I packed a quick lunch to take with us, we had a picnic and headed down to the handicap dock to fish off it for a couple hours before heading to mom's for cake and ice cream. None of us caught anything, I don't understand why not..?? The girls were running up and down the dock, laughing and yelling, Tim thought there wasn't a fish in 3 mile radius from us, they probably scared all of them off with the noise. Oh well, it was still a lot of fun!!

At Mom and Dad's we had a nice gathering and played some games and all sat around and chatted outside. Tim and I had to leave early because we already had plans with friends to see Larry the Cable Guy in St. Joe last night. We had dinner together and had a lot of laughs!!! It was a really good show!! I enjoy anything that I can sit and laugh at, it makes you feel so much better! It wasn't a real late evening, but I was pretty tired after our long day. It was pretty hard dragging myself out of the bed this morning.

Next weekend isn't going to be much better either. Josie has her dance recital on Saturday. This means that I will be at rehearsal with her all Friday evening. Her recital is at 1:00 and we have a noon soccer game. Not sure how I am going to work that out. Actually Josie has one dance in the 1:00 recital and 1 dance in the 7:00 recital. Nice, I know. That's pretty much what my whole Saturday will be. We are going to try to squeeze in there some Mother's Day time with Rachel and Amberlea that day too. And then Sunday is Mother's Day. I don't know what's planned for that day yet..... hmm...??

Here's a couple photos of the weekend.....hope you enjoy!