Our Big Hoorah to Summer!

Good bye summer, we'll miss you!
See ya next year.

We treated ourselves to Jester Park today to end the summer.  It was a beautiful day for a picnic and an adventure at the playscape.  We were blessed with some great treasures!  We got to see the Elk taking a bath, pretty prairie flowers, and Bison grazing.  Enjoy our pictures . . .

Yield: School Season Begins!

A New School Year Begins . . . .

and our summer routine ends. . .

 

 

Gone are the days of staying up late at night and sleeping in and waking up by our internal alarm clocks.  Here are the days of cool mornings and sultry afternoons, buzzing cicadas. and that thing called school.  We come to the end of summer and we need to give a big salute to Grandma's swimming pool, picnics, park adventures, cave adventures, Okiboji vacation, fishing, violin lessons, guitar lessons, bike rides, and baseball season.  We've kept busy and made many memories.

 

Olivia's favorite memory:  Tubing with cousin Jackie in Okiboji

Connor's favorite memory:  His birthday sleepover with friends



 

 

 

This past week, we had open house at school.  A time for the kids to see their friends again, meet their teachers, see who is in their class for the year, and get acquainted with their new classrooms.  It's also nice to chat it up with other parents.

 

Olivia is going to be a first grader this year.  She has Mrs. Alexander just like Connor did and we absolutely LOVE her!  She is so passionate about learning AND the kids!  Olivia was excited to meet the classroom pets: Carmel the Guinea Pig and Burp & Chirp the two new red-bellied frogs.  Mrs. Alexander also has fish and other fantastic nature items to discover.

 Looking like such a big girl at her very own desk.

  (If her desk looks like her room we are in t-r-o-u-b-l-e!)

I'll give her the benefit of the doubt and trust that she'll keep it tidy!  Olivia has homework for her first day of school, but it's a fun activity and she's already completed it:  draw a picture of your favorite summer memory and cut out 10-12 words that you know from a magazine.

 Here's Mrs. Alexander with Olivia. 

 

Connor gave Mrs. Alexander a hug and if she didn't have her heels on, he would see her eye to eye!  I told Mrs. Alexander that Olivia is quieter than Connor and this brought up memories of when Connor would come to school singing Bon Jovi songs!

Olivia has already eyed some new potential friends in her classroom, she's always thinking about her social life!


Connor will be in Fifth Grade this year and has Mrs. Enderton.  He got to choose who he was going to sit with, we'll see how long that will last without him getting told to be quiet and listen!  I suppose he gets that freedom, now that he's a big-wig of the elementary school.

Connor with Mrs. Enderton

We'll have to see how much he grows this year and if he'll surpass her by the end of the year!  He's been filling out and I'm anticipating him to shoot up a few inches!

 

Connor has been busy with football practice (4x a week) and will be playing full-on tackle.  (God willing he won't get hurt, he's already had one concussion in his childhood).

 

Here are the days of a more rigid schedule, homework, social activities, and taxiing around the kids from here to there and everywhere!  We say hello to that autumn season that is just around the corner.  Cooler weather, sweatshirts, jeans, and crunchy fall leaves underfoot.

 

 

 

 



Vacation Bliss

 I'll give you one clue:  this picture above and you should know where we spent our vacation.  Okoboji!  Where the infamous nutty bars and banana bars are located.

 

 

 We had a Mehmen Reunion and everyone was able to make it: goofballs and all!

 

 

 A main attraction at Boji.

 

 

 Beach babes busy making sand castles.

 

 

 Tootsies!

 

 

 More Tootsies!

 

 

 Gwen was all hops and skips on her Birthday!

 

 

 Tubing was number one on both of the kids' favorite things to do.

 Someone is tired and sitting on Aunt Paula's lap.

 

 

 Arrgh Maties!

 

 

 Mom and Dad soaking all the bliss in.

 

 

 Goofy Golfing crew!

 

 

 Look Mom, I'm a puppy pirate!

 

 

 Two red heads need to stick together!

 

 

 Grandkids with the Grandparents.

 

 

 From Oldest to youngest. . .

 

 

 Only if I were a fly on the dock and listen to these girls' conversation.  Oh dear, just think in 10 more years???!!?

 

 

 Jacob chillaxin' on the boat.

 

 

 Uncle Bryan giving us the stink eye!

 

 

 Some glow stick wonder around the campfire.

 

 

 The Hole in One club.....

 

 

 Jackie and John enjoying some cuddle time.

 

 

 The late night crew, staying up until 1:00 in am every night!

 

 

 

There's more pictures to view but these were some of my favorites . . .

Keep Assessing . . .

“When You Feel Yourself Judging, Keep Assessing”

            The above is my favorite quote from a former colleague.  At the time, it was imperative to use during my period as a nursing instructor.  I used it frequently, to stir the minds of the students.  I also accepted this challenge personally and attempted to live it at work and at life.

            The concept of this quote was just reiterated in a nursing journal I read not too long ago.  So, I have been cognizant of this idea.  Recently, I was able to apply it into practice:  picture if you can a young-aged man with a history of a life-style of drinking and drugging, bearing a plethora of tattoos over his body, throwing F-bombs at his girlfriend at the top of his lungs.  At the time, I thought he was yelling at one of our staff and when the door slammed, I hastily walked down the hall with a new form of bravery—also knowing the resident was right behind me helped with this unexplained courage.  I swung the door open in hopes to save my co-worker and instead saving the girlfriend from being a target of this guy’s anger.

            The doctor coaxed and educated, I stood at the doorway to be a witness.  I received a stat order of Morphine for his pain and asked a male nurse on the floor to come with me—thinking that his presence would buffer the man’s anger, when really the morphine was the real buffer at that moment in time.  Girlfriend asks me about something to drink and this was my time to invite her to come with me, so I could see how she was doing and to make sure she was feeling “safe.”

            A break to the galley was when the “keep assessing” came to action.  Girlfriend states that he’s never hit her, but he’s yelled at her a lot especially in times of stress.  She talked about how there was so much more underneath the surface of this guy’s life: losing multiple people in his life to the consequences of IV drugging, discovering that his mother and son are dealing with a similar acute on chronic illness, being freshly told that he has a condition that may be due to his history of IV drugging or that he may be joining his son and mother in the same acute on chronic illness.  That’s huge!  “He is scared as Hell.”  I stated matter-of-factly to Girlfriend.  (Sometimes a nurse has to be real.)

            Girlfriend and I also discussed how in addition to being scared and stressed that he is trying to find some control of a situation that he doesn’t have any control over.  Insert: yelling tattooed guy—really tattoos don’t bother me or make me think any less of a person, it was more a picture I wanted to paint—targeting his anger toward his girlfriend, threatening that if he doesn’t get anything to eat soon, he’s going to rip out the IV and walk the “hell right out of here.”

            My first thought of the guy, “Crap, he sounds really dangerous.”  My concerns for this gentleman quickly transformed from the judging to wondering to questioning and assessing.  Everyone cries for help in a different manner, his at the time was in the manner of a persistent four letter word at the level of 100 decibels!  This cry for help welcomed me into the scene to better understand the situation.  Not only did I personally learn something, but I was able to validate the patient and his girlfriend. 

In the end, we all need some validation.

A Morning Surprise. . .

The weather report said there will be a dusting of snow today.  A dusting of snow has ended up as three inches of snow and more to come this evening.  The kids and I enjoyed how the snow tickled our faces as it came down this morning.

 

 Miss O is feeling the snow tickle her face.

 

 

After Connor and I scraped the snow off the car, we ventured our way to the school, slipping and sliding in the slick white stuff. . .

 Morning drop-off at school, the visibility was a bit challenging.

 

School is closing early and hopefully, Connor had enough time to give his presentation on his book-report-in-a-bag today.  He prepared and practiced this weekend (even though he procrastinated on the activity!) 

 

Lenten Promises

Last night, my third grade R. E. class and I discussed Lent and our Lenten Promises. 

The kids really got into this class session, which pleases me to see their faces light up.

We first discussed how Jesus went to the desert for 40 days and fasted and prayed before he started his journey of preaching.  We talked about how he was tempted by satan and how the Holy Spirit helped him get through the temptations during a time of weakness and hunger.

We related this story to Lent and how it is also 40 days and how we should fast, pray, or share during this period.  We talked about how it is not easy to keep promises and that we will be tempted during this period, but if we refer to the Holy Spirit to guide us, we can make it through.

I gave the kids a sheet of paper divided into six weeks and the kids had to come up with six different things they were going to do (or not do) during Lent, here are some examples:

• Keep my room clean
• No t.v.
• No I-pod
• No Minecraft (a computer game that kids this age are really into)
• No Broccoli (nice try . . . hehe)
• No Grapes (again, from same kid)
• Stop being Hyper (this, coming from my hyper one, bless his heart)
• No Orange Leaf (several kids wrote this one!)
• No sweets
• Stop lying
• Be nice to my brother
• Go to church
• Do my chores right away when my parents tell me to
• Pray more

I was quite impressed with their ideas and of course, expected some age-appropriate, silly ones too!

So what is the Roberts family doing this Lenten season??

We, as a family, will be doing E-free Fridays (Electronic-free Fridays) meaning no t.v., i-phones, computers, ds, etc.  When I told the students about this, they were all astonished and asked, "What is there to do?"  I replied that we have lots of games, puzzles, and books to keep us busy. 

I feel that it is important to take that electronic barrier down and have human contact with one another.  This is something that gets over-looked in our day of technology.

Connor says he is giving up X-box. 

Olivia is undecided, as well as her father (like father, like daughter). 

I have divided my Lenten promises into the categories of fasting, sharing, and praying.

Fasting:  I had a jump start in abstaining from Pepsi over the weekend and plan to continue this until I'm not drinking it ever, forever, never, ever, ever.

Sharing:  In addition, I would like to do 40 bags in 40 days again.  I had a jump start to this over the weekend too:  we went through Olivia's clothes and sacked the ones she outgrew (three grocery bags).  Two weeks ago, I purged our office and organized it (three garbage bags, one box of books, four large boxes to recycle, and one box full of magazines to recycle).  So, that means I'm already eight days into it, right?  Maybe by then my back will be better to get into it fully.

Praying:   I just read the book, "The Power of a Praying Wife" by Stormie Omartian and decided that I will be praying more for the ones I love.  To keep me in praying mode, I've decided to read books that will connect me to God.  So, Max Lucado, Stormie Omartian, and Beth Moore will be prominent in my reading life.

Are you making any Lenten Promises this season?  Maybe, renew your New Year's Resolution for 2013?  I'll be praying for you while I purge my house and NOT crave Pepsi.