Support so good you can taste it...

So, a month ago - a month ago today in fact...Was one of the hardest days of my life...

After a very, very, VERY short battle with cancer - which is both a blessing and a curse (the short battle, not the cancer), my mom passed away.

Friday, the 13th.

Bleck.


It was a blur of a summer - trips to NoDak to be with her, trips I would do again and again and again if it meant one more minute. Trips filled with crazy family and tears and hugging and all that other stuff...


And then we came home...

to this...


Yep. On the very day my mom passed away, I had received a text from my dear friend and neighbor telling me we had bad bad storms, with "lightning so close you could smell it"

Huh. Yep...Well, this must of been what they were smelling.

Turns out lightning struck our fence...sent some sort of wacky current to my computer...AND my cable...

Yep. No computer. No internet. No cable.

Maybe not a big deal for a lot of you -but for us...yeah...next to impossible!

And while I didn't say it out loud - I was crying in the privacy of my own home...thinking to myself...how do I keep going...

When I have no internet or cable distractions...and I'm alone with my thoughts. Alone with the haunting pictures in my head of what I saw leading up to the end...

How do I keep going when all I want to do is lie down and cry...if only for a couple of days...

when there are adorable small people who need me every second of every day...when I have a husband who has been nothing but supportive but needs to get back to the office...

(speaking of offices, mine sort of missed me too while I was gone)

(My in basket - not including the electronic in basket & email mind you!)

When there's a dog that missed us so much he let us know we shouldn't leave again by cleaning out the pantry, vomiting it all over the carpet and then proceeding to shred some of our belongings, like brand new umbrellas...

You know what picked ME up off the ground?

Seriously.

The WORLD'S. GREATEST. FRIENDS.

As if the gorgeous, delish fruit weren't enough...

Then, these started arriving...one at a time...

I cannot tell you how these have saved me...

Coming home from work and wanting to do NOTHING, but knowing that I need to do something so as to keep the family from starving to death...

This has been the greatest (SURPRISE!) gift ever.

EVER!

I know I've said it a billion times...but the friends I have made in Matt Logelin and the women who make it all happen...

You could all be so lucky...

Thank you Matt & Maddy & Brooke and Ali and Becky and Cara and Chris and Christa and Nancy and Rachel and Meggin and Kate in the Northridge and Leigh in the Sav and Lindsay and Maureen and Kris and Laurie and Gina and Danielle and Kate and Katie J and Katy E and Kelly Mc and Tricia and Jessica and Teal and Meesh.

Thank you.

Thank you. From the bottom of my heart. And my belly!

Enjoying Summer...

We were cruising right along on our Minnesota Summer Bucket List when the rug was pulled out from under me...

(more on that later)

I'm doing my best to stand up and move forward...and an invitation to hang with some friends of ours this weekend was just what we needed...a chance to do regular things and feel normal for a bit...

And while I was excited to visit with whats-his-face and his adorable little daughter - I was more excited to see the creepy bellehs that are growing right along...
and the creepy faces that go along with those bellehs as well as some of my other favorite creepy people who aren't growing other people...

And though I had lots to say to those people, things I wanted to ask them, like 'How are you spending your Fridays this summer?' and "How's the new puppy?" "Let me hold your baby! I cannot believe this is the first time I'm seeing her and she's almost 11 weeks old!"

... I mostly hung out with my feet in the water soaking in the sun, not talking to anyone, and watching my babies spend hours doing this...

She was soo proud - 'Take lots of pictures of me Mommy!" she said - and Matt overheard and laughed - that is not very like her at all - typically I'll get one pose, maybe two (though I do prefer candids) - and then she can't be bothered by me or my lens...but she was so confident in that pool, she wanted Daddy to be sure to see lots and lots of pics of her swimming all by herself in the deep end.

And because of what happened last year - I emptied my pockets and was at the ready, just in case...

but he didn't need me...he's 3 now after all -




And every once in awhile, when I could convince them to get out of the pool for a break - they enjoyed some of the delish treats the Goodmans had to share...

It was great to see old friends...

Brooke & her JosherMonster -

and while I enjoyed myself immensly, I mostly kept to myself, silently counting my many, many, MANY blessings.

It was a great place to be and know that I didn't HAVE to keep conversation. I was among friends, great friends, and for a few hours...I was able to forget about what is my reality.

And that very day - I got my first lily of the season from my own garden ~

Get your Motor Runnin'

A couple of weeks ago...the hubs and I had an opportunity for date night...as you know...something that just doesn't happen enough around here...

It was the last home game of the season for the Minnesota Wild...so we thought we'd enjoy a Saturday night out and try the date night thing again...
One of my awesome friends offered to take the kids for us so that we wouldn't have to take out a loan against our house to afford a sitter...She even offered to have them sleep over...and sometime (VERY VERY SOON!) I would love love love to take her up on that...but this first time - I didn't want to burden her with THAT...
Have I mentioned that Katie has three of her own kids? Ages 4, 2 and 6 months? I didn't?
Well, yeah, she does...
So...add that all up...and that makes 5 kids between the ages of 6 months and 4 years old...
The woman is either crazy or a saint...you decide...

When we got there - they were playing baseball out back...and we weren't even out the door yet ...and the boys were cruising around the back yard chasing around on this cool orange quad...

Talk about little boy heaven!!





They ate pizza and then got to see some popcorn popping...that DIDN'T come from a microwaveable bag! WHAT?!?


Hails is just a little over a month older than her little boyfriend...


And then settled in for a movie (but not before making funny faces for the camera!!)

When we arrived to pick them up...(early) D started to cry...he was soo upset that we were there - he wanted to stay longer...
And I think he asked me every day for the next 16 days if we could go back to Katie's...


Ah...pure awesomesauce all around.

H got to hang out with a baby...and hang out with a sitter for a bit...which we are currently trying to do a little more of to ease some of her anxieties....
Thanks again Katie...I hope I can repay the favor sometime soon!!

Except at our house...this is all we've had to cruise around on...


I mean, it's cool and all...especially seeing as how it was a great deal...
And because we've I've been looking at a power wheels for the last three years and D had soo much fun at with B&J's quad...

I hopped on craigslist to see what they had...and wouldn't you know it if someone didn't have listed, a yellow quad in the northern metro area...I showed it to D, told him someone was selling it for $60.00, and would he like to get it?

He looked at it...and said..."It's cool. But I'm saving my money for Disney World! Can we call Grandma?"

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAAAA

First of all - that means the kid really did have a GREAT time at Disney World even though some of the time we were there he would have led you to believe otherwise...and second of all...he knows that when Dad says no...ASK GRANDMA!

I love it!

Well, we didn't call Grandma...but for $60...I figured it could come out of my allowance....so we headed off to pick it up...
and am I ever glad!!

Our neighbor kid has a power wheels and while the kids have fun with it...it's not the same kind of fun as a real live quad offers....something that bums me out about living in the city - the kids don't get those sorts of opportunities...

Although we do have two neighbor dads with quads that give D an occassional ride around the cul de sac...which he LOOOOVES!!

But don't tell him that his isn't as cool..he doesn't know it's just a toy!!

And the one who refused to get on her $32 Target Clearance Find not so long ago? Now races around like a little grandma on her hover round!!

Pump Up The Jam...

I had the opportunity (finally!) to take the kids to PUMP IT UP!

We've been meaning to go there FOREVER but just haven't gotten the chance to go yet - but finally, after setting up a playdate with some of our creepiest friends...we finally went!


The big slide was a little bit more intimidating than our little guy at home!


But all the kids seemed to have fun!



I even ended up going down it once - I had planned on meeting H up at the top to go down with her but she went down herself before I had a chance - so I went with Cole instead...but - for some reason - a half a dozen slides later - H was afraid at the top...

THANK YOU NANCY for going down with her for me!

It was fun...but a little, um...scary? for me! HA!

Thankfully they have stoppers at the bottom to catch people! I should have taken some video of the kids going down...what a RIOT! (next time for sure!)



They had soo much fun stuff for the kids - I really should think about booking a birthday party there - the problem is...people ALWAYS say they are coming with their kids and then back out on us last minute - so it would be a bunch of Mommy and Daddy's friends hopping around the bounce houses and slides for two hours...

wait...that could be pretty fun....


D and J playing ball -

H and a few of her little boyfriends (8.5 kids on this playdate and H was the only mobile girl!)

The highlight of the playdate...the only other creeplet girl on the playdate! Baby Grace! (that is, unless of course, the baby taking up residence in B's belleh is a girl!) One of the other little guys - 2 year old C just got himself a brand new baby sister (born on MY birthday) but she made her debut a little early and weighed in at under 2 pounds...it's going to be a little bit before she gets to join us on these excursions - but she will...and she'll be keeping up with all these boys I just know it!

I wish we could have gotten 4 year old B in this picture with his friends - but as I've been learning myself - photographing 4 is tougher than any other age! He wanted nothing to do with us...and were it not for Grace - I bet H wouldn't of either!

H was pretty smitten with that baby - and it's hard to believe that she got a chance to hold her with all of us other baby hoggers around - (or is it the other way around?) but she did - and she was pleased as punch...
And she was kind enough to let some of the others have a turn...

But she promptly got her back!

Sadly, we didn't realize until we got home that D never got a turn to hold little Grace. He was so upset talking about how he didn't get to hold her - I chalked it up to him being tired...but when Daddy arrived home from work - and H excitedly told him about the baby and her barbie - D, on the verge of tears AGAIN, retold the story of how he didn't get to hold her.
Poor little guy...he loves babies too!
We'll just have to make sure to canoodle and snorgle her before she grows up on us!
See you soon Baby Grace!

Creepy Twins Game ~

So last Friday night I got together with a group of my best Creepy Gals for a Twins Game...Yep, 16 Hott Ladies out at the Twins game on a Friday night - These amazing women came in from all over the place - and when I say all over, I mean all over!

Canada, Arizona, Iowa, California, Mississippi, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Texas, Chicago and even Milaca!

I love this pic - except it was missing one very important guest! Did we not get one with Jackie in it?

This beautiful lady flew in all the way from the Vancouver Area! (And little does she know ~ that's on the list - you know - THE list - and I will get there sooner rather than later!)

(photo courtesy of the talented Miss Nancy at Swank Photo)

I have been following Jackie's story via her blog for almost as long as I've been following Matt's & am was thrilled to pieces to finally meet her in real life - Of course, the way this internet/blogging/creepy stalking stranger friend thing works - I felt like I have been friends with Jackie all along - via blogging, via facebook, via emails, etc... This was just icing on the cake for me!

In fact, it was the first time many of us met face to face - but as Kate in Texas stated at Saturday morning's 5k - this group knows each other's deepest darkest secrets - and yet, it was the first time in a year and a half a lot of us were meeting face to face ! And no - we don't think it's weird or creepy in any way!

Another shot thanks to Nancy! (I was spending way too much time trying to snap a pic of my weiner and my beer to send to my hubs - who was at home with our littles while I was at the game - Nancy swooped in and saved the day - like usual!


She also got this great shot of me and Kris! And I won't tell you how many she was SUPPOSED to delete before she got this one!

We had a great time gabbing at the game...

While some got more 'aquainted' than others!

And now - for your viewing pleasure - Check out the video of the gals singing along to 'Don't Stop Believin'


Yep, it was definately a great start to a wonderful weekend! Meeting 'new' friends who really aren't new at all - it doesn't get much 'creepier' better than that does it?


And I think I am told the Twins even won the game!