The Fast Track To Current...

Okay, so I know I am a bit behind here, but, really?? How can I have basically missed most of the month of May??

In my defense, a lot of my pics were taken with my little camera. The one with the broken USB cable. The cable that I have been looking to replace. The cable I ordered from Hong Kong on ebay. I tried to remedy the situation this morning by using my card in my home computer. The pics loaded but I had a problem sending them to my email here and I don't have a card reader on my office computer. Darn.

Okay, let's see...what has happened this month? Or should I say last month now that today is June 1. The first weekend in May has now been covered. We all missed Walk for FUNds. The boys were bummed. Andrew, quite frankly, missed the free tee. Caleb missed the camaraderie. I missed the concessions. I really enjoy working on projects for the school. I worked on concessions again this year, but wasn't around for the finale. Next year, I promise. We planned our trip around Keith's weekend off, but now he has them all off.

Next up was staff appreciation week. Once again, I wasn't really any part of it this year. I didn't even know when the meeting were and when they started. I was able to donate a dessert for the luncheon, but I felt a little lost not being a bigger part. Next year I am set to make the middle school's appreciation week a bigger deal. Hellooo...did you catch that? It is one thing to have a sixth grader, but a junior high student??? Oh my.

My daycare was closed for a few days so we used an alternate friend. At first, Kyle screamed. For days prior. he wanted nothing to do with Kim. He has been there before and there were no problems. By the end of the first day, he was sold. Ready to come back. Again and again. He made a new friend. A friend we camped with last weekend. Fun times.

Andrew is still playing soccer. His last game is Saturday. He had an awesome game last weekend...very aggressive. Skipping ahead, I'm happy to say I will NOT be missing his last game. Caleb has been practicing for his summer basketball tournaments. The first one is this weekend in GR. Two will follow, with one in Muskegon and one in Ludington.

Did I post Mother's Day pics? Ah, yes I did. I shared my fabulous gifts. I recall one missing, but cannot remember which one currently. I am still missing my new bike. I planned to pick it out last Saturday evening, but plans changed. I hope this week brings me a little free time for shopping. I ran last night and it was a joke. Someone should hang out in my woods and make a video. Maybe I shouldn't say that...a little creepy. It was horrible. Corinna is trying to talk me into the whole thing. Buchberger, too. Today is # 2...not sore like I thought I would be. The bike would be a good second option.

Oh, back to Mother's Day. This may be a reiteration of a previous post, but WOW! What a great day with family. It was the usual TenBrinkmans, The TenBrink parents, my parents, the Strattons, and the Bergemans. {uncle Matt fits in there, too} The Bergemans were late and I was so worried because K and I had a talk before anyone arrived. He is not allowed to grill for family or friends. ♥ I love you, Keith, but to be fair, you are not a consistently even cook. ♥ We needed to start grilling so I told Jimmy he had to help out. He agreed, but the dork took on the grill with the hot dogs instead of the chicken. Five minutes into grilling...look who swoops in to save the day...

'Had a girl's night at the Loft here in town. Ammy's parents built a new home and Ammy wanted to host a party after they moved out. I remember that being the Colby Place back when the Gelvins owned it. I got to reminisce a bit and share stories with the girls about the boy/girl party Laurel had there and how her parent's closet was the "make out" room. For the record, I never made it up there. For those of you who've ever been up there, {for any purpose at all} how lucky to have that whole space as a walk-in closet!?!

We camped at our favorite vacay spot over the holiday weekend. Silver Creek rocks!! We had awesome weather, sat by the pool for many hours, and had the dads run the show. {or so they'll say} Thanks, friends, for yet another wonderful camping adventure. I posted pics from camping on Facebook.

The entire fourth grade put on the annual Michigan, My Michigan play last Wednesday evening. It was shorter this year, according to Andrew, because there is one less teacher in fourth grade. Does that really matter? I don't think so. Whatever. It was cuter than I remember it being last year when Caleb was in the play. The pics I took are pretty funny, at least to me. I thought Andrew looked sooo cute with his oversized newsie...

Oh, and bless the hearts of the two tall girls on either side of him. How on earth did he manage to get that spot? The poor girl on Andrew's left had to do the check mark with her arms as they took a bow.

I don't know why or how, but I actually enjoyed the program much more this year. Maybe it was because Mr. Hill is retiring this year. He's been at Whitehall forever. I've worked with him as a student, an actor, on a personal level {friend of Mary Sue's} and as a parent. It was a little bittersweet to have him announced the other night, followed by, "This will be his last performance." Shine on, Mr. Hill, and congrats.

Last, but certainly not least, are a couple of photos of some lovely artwork made for me by my lovelies...don't be jealous!

More tidbits to come...