Keith's Surprise

Keith tried out for chorale this week. I think there are only 20 kids, juniors and seniors, ten girls and ten boys, that can be chosen. Some seniors were automatically in since they made it last year so there were not many spots available. One of the kids called me at work on Friday to let me know Keith was chosen and that Keith didn't know yet. Tradition has it that the group congratulates the new members by waking them up in the middle of the night and taking them to the school for breakfast. I set my alarm so I could play along. The boys came in to wake him up while the girls did this to his car.

In the following two videos, you can't really hear what they are saying and it's too dark to see much. The boys said they didn't want to wake him up too suddenly because they didn't want him to do any karate moves on him. If you hear them calling him Ninja, that's what Jacqui started.

The other video is of the cars pulling away from the house, so you can really only see head lights. It was a fun time and I am so excited he made it. Rehearsals are just one more thing he'll have to schedule in, but he'll do fine. I'm definitely not pushing him to get a job right now. There's time for that later, but if a few hours a week of some work landed in his lap I wouldn't discourage it.

Molly's First Volleyball Game

Kid Pics

Just a little change here. I took down most of my old posts and am putting in more pics and videos. I really can't keep up with writing and don't even enjoy it that much so I'm just putting up some pics of the kids for friends and family. I still have the old posts so if there is a recipe or picture you want, I can add it back. And if something really cool happens I'll write a little, but for now here is what's been happening around the Wesskids house.

First day of school. Keith and Lindsey are in sleep clothes because they had a late start on the first day.

Not sure the story behind this one, but I think it's good of Keith and Elle.

New Favorite Cake Site

OK, I already don't like that other post I just put up, so click here

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

and spend some time looking at decorated cakes.

I was afraid I'd see one of mine here, but fortunately none of you have turned me in yet.

Road Trips

This is why I don't like to drive Hwy 30 between Grand Island and Fremont. Besides the dirty windshield can you see the problem with this route? Speed limit 60 and no passing. It was no real trick to get the speedometer and tractor in the same picture. Not like I was racing along. I'll never learn.

The real road trip was this weekend. 1000 miles in two days.

My nephew is going to school in NW Arkansas. Molly wanted to go to stay with my family for a while this summer so we met my sister in Fayetteville while they were moving Kody into his apartment. My sister was sad. I remembered back to the tears when I went to college that first year. Exciting for me...not so much for my sister and parents.

More pics...this place and the area in general, is so pretty. Hills, trees and natural lakes. It's a much better meeting spot for kid transfer than our usual Columbia.

This picture looks a little weird to me. Like Moo doesn't have a body. Molly was a little apprehensive when I left this morning, but I know she'll be fine.That purse on Molly's back? It has a razorback on it. She's planning for the future.

Weekend in May

I need to backtrack a couple of months.

So I've alluded to the horrible year I'm having and May was pretty much the breaking point. I had plans to pack up the kids and drive to Arkansas the day school was out and regroup and refresh with my family. My nephew was graduating and I was taking my baking gear to decorate his graduation cake. We were all excited to go.

Mother's Day rolled around and the van broke. My supervisor in Grand Island quit and I had to handle that plant in more detail. BIG problems arose in the local plant (production wise and a big injury) and I took on the KC yard. These were just some things I was dealing with (don't forget the knee and physical therapy 3 days a week). Finances were tighter than usual. I even kicked my boss out of my office one day so he wouldn't see me cry and he said, "I've never seen you tear up before. You're not usually the crying type." Little does he know, that's all I had been doing for a month.

I thought about renting a van for the trip, but it was just so expensive, and the other things were a problem so the decision to go or not to go was weighing heavily. My sister said she understood if I couldn't make it, but she really needed me, with her oldest graduating high school. Some of you may understand the sister bond in times like these.

So, I impulse-bought a plane ticket - one single plane ticket - and took only the Friday off work and just left. Alone. I packed up my pans and tips and hopped on a plane early Friday and flew home. Kind of surprised myself and everyone around me. I never thought I'd leave the kids like that.

I went straight to the farm and spent the day with my grandma (my dad's mom) and my aunt Vickie. I really wish I had pictures from that day. I baked the cakes at Grandma's house. We went to the cemetary and decorated for a lot of family members for Memorial Day. It was the first time I'd been there to see the headstone for Grandpa. We walked and cleaned and talked about who was who (so many I knew of, but didn't know). Then we went to eat catfish and back to Grandma's to play cards. Very good day spent together. I used to spend so much time with Grandma and Grandpa in the summers, even when I was home from college my days off work were spent there. When he died last summer, I couldn't believe that so many years had gone by since those special times. I got married right out of college and had kids right away and stayed with my parents on visits back home. I could make a whole post about having family close by and the importance of family ties now that I have kids. But I'm crying again so I'll save that for another day.

Back to the weekend in May. Saturday morning I went to my sister's house to start decorating the cake. My sister is an organized person and seems to have it all together so making frosting and decorating that cake was a breeze. Plus, I had no kids to interrupt, looking for lunch or lost shoes. There was plenty of time and we were able to visit while I was working and there was no drama. Just before I finished, my mom brought her mom over - the grandma who taught me decorate, whether I wanted to learn or not! She's always in my thoughts when I decorate cakes and I've heard that I'm like her in not turning anything down. Anyway, she said she'd help but since I was just about done with the hat she thought the pattern might be different if she finished it, so I finished that up. Then when I started on the border she asked if I wanted her to do that for me and I could tell she was itching to decorate that cake. And this is what we did:
one on each color going around the cake. Another special moment.

I was so glad to have made the trip and have that weekend with my grandmas and with my sister and to be there for my nephew.








Here is Kody with my brother's little girl Zoe.



Unfortunately drama did find us right before the graduation, but I won't spell all that out here. Vickie was flown to a hospital in St. Louis in very serious condition, but is home and doing better now. She had taken such good care of my grandparents and especially Grandma since last fall, and now the tables turned and Grandma was able to take care of her for a while. Family ties.

Is That Christo?

In a baseball shirt?




Number 10 on the bench with his team?


Looks like someone who knows how to put a cast on did it this time.

At least it matches the lettering on his shirt.

I Have a Doorknob

I haven't had a doorknob on my bathroom door for well over a year, maybe two. It fell off one day and I tried replacing it several times but could never make it work. Old house, odd sizes, etc. We got used to it and never really thought about it until we had company. There is a lock at the top of the door to hold it closed and two holes where the doorknob should have been that we promised not to look through when our guests were using the facilities.

After a late lunch yesterday Rog wanted to go to a park or explore something outside in the area, but we couldn't think of anything close by and Christo had to be at a game at 5, so we had a little lull and Rog said, "you know, I think I can fix your doorknob". And he did it in no time.

By then he was on a roll.

"you know, it wouldn't take too much to put a sink and vanity in your bathroom upstairs". Another thing we had been living without since late August last year". Don't ask. I didn't know how to do it and we got busy and got used to it. That's kind of my mantra around here on repairs.

You know, I'm trying really hard to think of a better day this year. Things have been so rough, for MONTHS, and just these two things made for the nicest day. Maybe because he didn't have to, he just wanted to help.