Photo Shoot

Last night Jenna, my little photographer, asked me if we could have a "photo shoot." I agreed and so Jenna, Brody and even me (which you will not see photos of because Jenna wanted me to be a tiger! :)), posed for some cute photos.

Jenna with her bright white smile she made at preschool.

My favorite!

My Little John Deere girl

Little Cowboy...with Jenna's boots on.

Radio Guy

Greg (the guy who takes pics for the paper) shot this at the last basketball game.

Aaron was asked by KFJB, a Marshalltown radio station, to be the "color guy" for our boys basketball team as they travel down the tournament trail. He immediately said yes! This is so his thing and he really enjoys it. He admitted to the fact that he is indeed a "stat nerd" and loves to get prepared by analyzing stats and making notes of what he considers key stats. Our boys play in the substate game Saturday against the #1 team in Class 2A (we are #9), so it should be fun!

The way I see it...

Winter Olympics

Have you all been watching the Olympics? We are pretty regulars around my house. It doesn’t really matter if it’s the Summer Olympics or the Winter Olympics, we love to tune in.

I will say that the Winter Olympics, compared to the summer, have way more events that I just don’t understand. And by that I mean, I don’t get the rules. I watch curling and watch curling and I still don’t get really get it. My husband, usually very knowledgeable in random sports stuff, is absolutely no help at all. As I watch what is basically to me shuffleboard on ice, it’s not that exciting and given the fact that I don’t understand it, I’m still glued to the t.v. I can’t explain it.

I have also come to the conclusion that Winter Olympians are adrenaline junkies! Between the ski jumping, ski aerials, snowboarding half-pipe, the luge, downhill skiing and pairs skating, my heart can’t handle it. I’m on the edge of my seat hoping that they stick the landing or don’t lose control and wipeout. The ski aerials that were on last night, the announcers were saying they get about 60 feet up into the air. 60 feet! How do they do that? Even the pairs skating freaks me out. Who wants to get thrown around above a sheet of ice? Crazy!

I guess I’m in awe of Winter Olympians. Even though I consider myself a semi-athletic person, I’m terrible at things dealing with my legs and feet. I cannot snow ski. I tried one time in 7th grade at a super-duper tiny hill in Estherville for a school outing. Once I sort of got the hang of staying upright, I was so scared because I felt like I was going to fast (it was the bunny hill, trust me I wasn’t) and I hated that out-of-control feeling. That was my one and only snow skiing experience.

Another thing I love about the Olympics is that there always seems to be a time when someone or some team achieves what looks like the impossible. They had a special on about the 1980 hockey team and their miracle win over the Soviet Union. I had chills listening to their stories and watching the highlights. I know this isn’t a fair comparison, but that same night (Sunday) they had the USA/Canada hockey game on. Canada was supposed to be the favorite at the start of the games, but USA won, in exciting fashion. If you saw the last goal of that game, you know what I’m talking about. It was all my husband and I could do not to scream out loud and wake up the kids.

So, I guess we will enjoy it while it lasts. The adrenaline-filled, doing the impossible sort of feats that you will remember for years to come. Grab some popcorn, a comfy chair and tune in and see what kind of success the USA has, but that’s just the way I see it.

Wrestling!

We are currently obsessed with wrestling in our house right now. The kids and I went to almost all of the West Marshall home wrestling meets and Aaron always watches Hawkeye wrestling if it's on.

I'm a late-bloomer to wrestling, but now that I actually understand it, I really enjoy it. Well, the kids have been paying attention and like to "wrestle" with each other. Last weekend, the Hawks were wrestling the Gophers and the photos below happened during that dual.

I keep telling Aaron if he isn't careful, Brody is going to want to wrestle instead of play basketball. Aaron says if he's 6'6" and has no touch around the basket he might end up a wrestler. :) We'll just wait and see what he wants to do.

Look at the grip Brody has! Pretty impressive.

The way I see it...

Fear of Failure

Is the ‘thought of the week’ (“Anything I’ve ever done that ultimately was worthwhile...initially scared me to death.”) true for you personally? It is for me. I don’t know why, but I always have this fear of failure. Maybe I’m defective in some way or maybe it’s just the way we humans are built.

I think it’s easy to do something that you know you’re going to do well and succeed at. Something that you might not be good at? Not so easy. My 30th birthday will be knocking at my door come this summer and by this time in my life, I know what my strengths and weaknesses are.

Things I’m terrible at: math, sewing, drawing, reading directions and assembling anything and the list goes on (and on). Although I am a competitive person and I do like a challenge, I always get that uneasy feeling in my stomach and that awful thought creeps into my head: “What if I’m not good enough?”

I’ve had this happen a million times to me in my life. Then, I just decide to do it and the thing I usually end up worrying about isn’t near as bad as I made it out to be in my mind. I’m a head case! I think I always have been and I probably always will be.

I have a challenge, that will, for the time being, remain nameless. I’m scared to death that I’m going to fail. I know with hard work I can achieve this goal, but what if I don’t...? I keep going over this again and again in my mind.

If I decide to face my fear of failure head on and do it, I will be sure to let you all know. After all, what’s the worst that could happen? I succeed or I fail and learn something about myself? Looks like this column will have to be continued, but that’s just the way I see it.

WOOO-HOOOO!

I hope you can tell by the title that West Marshall lost their basketball game on Saturday! :) Ok, I know that sounds bad, but it's been a really long winter with Aaron gone so much. And, because we love him lots we all missed him.

Jenna was explaining to Brody this morning on the way out to the baby-sitter's that, "Daddy had his final season! No more basketball!" It was so cute! Little does she know that he will be wearing the stripes next year and he'll still have some basketball (but definitely not as bad).

So, one more time.... WOOOO-HOOOOO!!!!!

Computer Difficulties

Just wanted to let you all know that I'm not ignoring our blog! Our computer is, well, a freaking mess right now! It works perfect except for the fact that we can't type on it. Yep...annoying.

Aaron, my tech-savvy husband, got out the owners manual and performed some tests and it looks like we have a stuck key. Not good. I don't know what we're going to do, but hopefully we get back up and running again.

I have pics to post from some outdoor fun we've been having. Hopefully I can get those up soon. Hopefully...

The way I see it...

Having Kids...

I have concluded that the best part of having kids is that they make you feel like a kid! My little ones, who will turn four and two in March, are like little bundles of energy and fun and curiosity. No matter how stressful of a day I have at the office, when they run towards me with their arms out and give me a big hug, it melts away all the crappy stuff that might have happened that day.

Don’t you think their fun-loving attitudes are contagious? We were playing out in the snow over the weekend, and although I liked snow pre-children, I had a blast with them outside. Jenna, my oldest, wanted to make snow angels, so I helped her. Then, she said, “your turn mom!” When’s the last time you laid down in the snow and made a snow angel? I couldn’t personally remember the last time I did, but it was great and kind of a freeing experience.

After the angels, I was showing Brody, my youngest, how to make snowballs and he loved that. He kept trying to throw them at me, but with his big gloves he just couldn’t get a grip. Nevertheless, the smile never left his face.

Remember the days when we couldn’t wait to grow up? I can’t wait until I’m done with high school. I can’t wait to be done with college and can get a job so I don’t have to study anymore. My dad always used to say that he would give anything to be back in school and I thought he was crazy. Turns out, he was pretty darn smart. The days of not having to worry about going to a job or paying bills or having real grown-up responsibilities, those were the days...

I think that’s why kids are such a blessing. They make you forget, if even for a minute here or an hour there, about all the serious stuff you’re faced with as an adult. They take you back to when life was simple, where the smiles and laughter flowed easily. And, even though you may be getting older, they definitely always make you feel young at heart, but that’s just the way I see it.

Coach Burdorf- All-Star Coach

Over the weekend, Aaron attended the Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association clinic in Cedar Rapids. While he was there it was announced that he was selected (1 of 12 coaches for 4 teams) to be on the coaching staff for the All-Star Series coaching the Small Schools-East team. The series is held each year to honor some of the best seniors in Iowa Baseball. This year's series will be held Aug. 5-8 in Cedar Rapids. The first day they will play at the Kernel's stadium, day two at the University of Iowa, and day three and four at Kirkwood. Congrats Coach B!

The way I see it...

A handwritten thank you

Guess what I received in the mail the other day? A thank you. That was handwritten. Isn’t that so, I don’t know, old-fashioned? And, guess what? I loved it!

I have to admit that I’m not very good when it comes to writing thank yous. I always have this idea in my mind that after Christmas or the kids’ birthdays I will do something and send them out to family. Even better! I will have the kids color them or something creative like that. Well...it doesn’t happen. If it was the thought that counted when it comes to thank yous, I would be good to go. But, we all know that it doesn’t.

I think I went through a phase after high school graduation, then wedding showers, the wedding and baby showers where I just wanted to pull my hair out because of all the thank yous I had to write. I know that’s really, really bad to say, but when you’re faced with a huge number of them, it’s hard (at least for me) to stay upbeat about having to sit down a handwrite that many thank yous.

Well, that was over two years ago, so I feel like I have no excuses anymore. It’s February 2nd and I am announcing that I have added a New Year’s resolution to my list. Take the time to handwrite a thank you to let someone know that what I received, what they did, etc. was special and meant something to me and I am very grateful.

I’m thinking that it will not only make me feel good to show my appreciation, but the person that receives it will feel equally good, but that’s just the way I see it.

Parent-Teacher Conferences

We had parent-teacher conferences last week for Jenna. Unfortunately, because of the darn weather, we had to reschedule so Aaron wasn't able to go with me.

So, I had a nice chat with Jenna's teacher, Mrs. Randall. She went through Jenna's progress report and she was "good" in everything except using scissors and waiting her turn to be called on. Mrs. Randall was quick to point out that she marks all of the three year olds the same way on those two things - needs work. That made me feel better!

Next year there is four-year old preschool and you can either choose to send your child three mornings a week or four afternoons a week. Who would have thought it would be such a tough decision? Different times, different schedules, different costs, different classmates...UGH!

After talking to Jenna's teacher, she was very confident because Jenna loves school and is where she needs to be or above, that she would do great in the afternoons in the four day a week program. So, it looks like that's where she'll be next year. I can hardly believe she is over halfway done with her first year of school!