65 Years

Jeff & I figured out that he would be 100 if we made it to 65 years of marriage.  Oh, the woes of getting married later in life.  We grandparents (my dad's parents) just celebrated their 65th anniversary and anyone who knows my Aunt Jan knows she will do it up big.  I'm pretty sure the entire town of Cozad, NE was at their house at some point in the weekend.  There was not a lack of food or activity.  She knows how to throw a party!

Cousins - I had to bribe the boys with candy to get them all smiling.

Aunt Jan rented a mobile gaming bus.  The kids, and some adults, loved this.

Cousin Brandee gettin her groove on.

This entertained the kids for hours.

Aunt Jan also bought 65 mini hot air balloons and planned on lighting and releasing them all to celebrate 65 years of marriage.  However, they were hard to light and it was windy so it was hard to tell where they'd go and no one wanted to be responsible for a house fire or field fire.

It would have been pretty cool to release all 65 if it would have worked.

First Day of School

 

Siahna and Case started school on the same day last week.  Jeff took the day off and we dropped both kids off, shed a few tears, said a few prayers and went out for breakfast.

Case is one of three white kids in his class and made friends right away although he can only tell you one of their names.  Siahna walks right into her classroom, waves at us and couldn't care less that we are leaving her.  I guess that's a good thing.

I will be volunteering once a week in Case's class and am excited to get to know how KG works.

It's going to be a good year.

All Growed Up

A couple weeks ago, I took Siahna shopping for a couple new outfits.  We got home and I threw the bag of clothes and my purse on the floor.  I was in the kitchen doing something when Siahna walked by me, holding my purse and her bag of clothes.  She stopped, looked at me, said "Bye, bye" and walked out the back door.

Birthday Card

My sister recently wrote a funny blog about the cute letter she received in the mail from our Grandma Van.  Grandma is probably the wittiest person I know and makes us laugh all the time.  When I turned 21 (and yes, we all still remember this) I had a few friends over to my parents house for a party.  Jeff was there because even back then I was in love.  Anyway, hamburgers were on the menu and Grandma went through the line right behind Jeff and informed him that she needed to watch her weight and would therefore only eat half a hamburger - which actually meant the bottom half of the bun and the whole hamburger.  We still laugh about her half hamburger philosophy to this day.

I just had a 30 something birthday last week and got a card in the mail from Grandma.  This is how it started:

"Happy Birthday Sweet Shannon,
Ifen I'd knowd it was youren birthday Ida baked you a cake!  I guess ifen Ida done that Ida had to et it meself!

Enough of that!  How are you? & your family?....."

Truly, she's the funniest person in person and in her letters that I know.  Love her soooooooo much!

End of Summer

Obviously, our summer has been very busy hence the lack of blogs. Maybe, now, I'll get back into the swing of it and get you updated on all that's been going on.

Both kids start school next week and although I'm looking forward to some alone time, I'm also scared to send them out into the world of the unknown. We took the kids to their schools the other night and prayed for their safety, their teachers, their learning and the new friends they'll be making. Case will do great. He makes friends easily. He's super smart. He's well behaved. He's helpful. He's a good listener. He's excited to start school so he can learn how to read.

But, I'm nervous to send my little girl who doesn't understand what's happening, who will be surrounded by strangers, and who can't communicate. I know preschool will be good for her and that this school is designed for her, but it's scary to send my child out and entrust her care to someone I  don't know and who doesn't know her.

Next week may be a rough week!

Josh Groban

Jeff and I went to a Josh Groban concert a few weeks ago at Red Rocks.  Not only is that an amazing place to hear someone sing, it was Josh Groban.  He has an amazing voice plus he's super funny.  We splurged a little and got tickets in row 28 which was nice after climbing all those steps just to get into Red Rocks.  You know when they have paramedics standing along your path, that it's a workout just to get there!