School Starts!

Well, we got the kids off to school today. Everything went pretty smoothly. Up at 6:45, showers, breakfast, no TV (without too much complaining), teeth brushed, lunches made, and out the door. Timmy was pretty hesitant last night, but a little less so this morning. We got there early (7:45, school starts at 8:30) to help with a coffee time for parents, and a couple of his friends were there already, so when he saw them, he was fine. Emma was more excited. She had a little time of nervousness when she got to her room and there wasn't a good place to sit near some of her friends, but she sat next to a new girl (who was sitting alone) and I think that made her feel good. She likes to be the leader/introducer, so being able to do so with the new girl was good. I saw her a couple of times (previous to the sitting incident) leading new kids around and helping them find their classes ... right down her "mommy complex" alley!

Cyndie and I enjoyed the coffee time in the gym with lots of friends (who are parents). Good times. We were all ready to be back in the regularity of school. It was just another great example of why we love the small school. We were just all hanging out there, drinking coffee and having a good time. Not that that doesn't happen in bigger schools, but it's just a great community at Woods.

Now, back to work. Soccer starts tonight at 4:30!

Almost School ...

School is almost here ... we start a week from today. It can't come soon enough. We had a back to school hot dog bash last night up at the school. The kids had a great time seeing friends and running around and playing. Now this morning I've been listening to them fight all morning about stupid things. I think they need some space from each other and routine that school brings!

We have a few fun things this week ... we're going to the fair tomorrow for most of the day, and then we're going to a Brewers game on Thursday. Then my cousin, Dawn, and her family will be in town over the weekend, so that will be nice ... and then school!

Busyness

Yes, we've been busy. I remember a conversation between Cyndie and I where we discussed that every organization we, or the kids, belonged to was having an event within the last two to three weeks of the school year. Well, we weathered that and have made it into summer (which is perhaps summer in name only at this point ... I swear, it's either in the mid to upper 90s, or in the low 70s/high 60s. I don't think we've had any days with highs in the 80s).

So now we're transitioned to summer living. Which really means the normal for me, but is far different for Cyndie and the kids. They've been staying up a bit later, largely because of activities that they've had (more on that in a minute). But they've also been sleeping later, which is good for all of us. They've had some play dates, and are enjoying being outside.

Of course the biggest thing happening for them is that they have baseball/softball three days a week. Games are on Monday and Wednesday nights, and practices on Saturday mornings. They've both been doing very well, and are getting quite a bit better, especially compared to 2 months ago when neither had really played any ball at all. Timmy is one of the youngest kids on his team. But he's doing very well. He's a bit of a hitting savant. He connects with a lot, but doesn't hit it very hard yet. Emma is doing very well fielding, and understanding what to do with the ball when she fields it. She's improving on her hitting too, and hits it pretty hard.

Next week is overnight camp for Emma. She's already started packing. She'll be at Covenant Harbor from Sunday afternoon until Saturday morning. Cousin Sarah and a girl from Sarah's church will be in her cabin. As we speak, she's making them matching bracelets ... since I'm writing this, hopefully she'll actually finish them! Emma is very excited!

Timmy has been reading a TON! It's almost every morning that he stumbles down the stairs with a book in his hand, reading as he goes. For some reason (maybe it's because it's long and he doesn't run out of stuff to read, or maybe he likes the stories) he's been reading the Bible (a kids version) a lot, which is very cool. Spurred on by his cousins learning to ride their bikes, Timmy finally decided that he was going to learn, and did so with not too much difficulty yesterday. We took our first family bike ride (just around the neighborhood) yesterday which was very fun!

Lets see, Cyndie and I have been busy running around with the kids. I'm helping to coach both baseball/softball teams, and Cyndie is (of course) there too for those things. Cyndie's had work, keeping the kids busy during the day, sailing, church leadership team, and multiple activities with her lady friends. I'm doing my own softball team, church worship team, school board (I was on all day panels to interview perspective teachers three days in the last month), etc. We're trying to put in some time on the many unfinished projects that we have around the house too, but that's a bit slow in coming. On top of that, we're trying to get out on the boat too. We had some slight problems with that, but it turned out it was just a clogged fuel filter ... $65 instead of potentially much more.

So there you have it. We'll have a busy summer until the end of July, then August should slow down quite a bit!

Snow

Yes, it snowed last night, and was still snowing when we got up. It looks beautiful! There was probably about an inch or two. The trees are all covered, the grass is covered. The driveway and roads were clear. That black box above (if it doesn't show up for you) is a youtube link to Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera Ellen singing "Snow" (four part harmony ... snow, snow, snow, snow). I always think about that song when it snows. I have a feeling it will melt rather quickly, but it was a bit of a surprise! Cyndie had to dig out snowpants (needed to go "off the blacktop" at school during recess if snow is on the ground), boots, etc. It looks like the rest of the week won't be horribly pleasant weather wise, but the nice weather WILL come.

The weekend went quickly. Friday night we went down to Casparis for a cousin's weekend. We did some birthday celebrations and hit Costco for some essentials. We also picked up a new tow-behind for the boat at a great price, as well as new life jackets for the kids. Thanks to Grandma Cathy and Grandpa Fred, and Grandma Weaver for that money/gift. It'll be well used this summer.

So there you have it from a White Winter Wonderland in Wisconsin.

I see no snow!

Well, that title is not 100% true. There is actually a little snow. You know, where the big piles were. But it's not real snow since it's typically covered in sand and other ick. So, this is a celebratory day. The snow is gone and spring is here! Now if the yard can just dry up a bit so that we can actually go out there without getting totally muddy, we'll be in business.

Tonight is the Woods School Silent Auction. It should be a lot of fun. Emma told us at breakfast that her teacher had told the class that 500 tickets had been sold. Wow. If that's the case, we're going to be packed in there! But it's great that families are so involved with the school.

That's about it around there these days. I guess the next countdown/watch will be for ice on the lake. When it's gone, that means were closer to boating weather! The boat is still in storage at a friend's barn, but I imagine we'll bring it back over here before too long to outfit it and clean it. I think the docks/lifts will go in at Covenant Harbor in about a month.

Making it there

Well, I'd say we're surviving through the week of busyness. It's Thursday, a good day to get to. I think Cyndie is keeping her head above water with work and extra-curricular activities. She's tired, and has a sore neck (from sleeping with Emma one night when Emma had some difficulties sleeping), but at least there is an end in sight. Unfortunately, that end is Sunday night, and not Friday. Cyndie's having a booth for her photography business at a women's trade show kind of thing at the high school over the weekend. She'll have to be on there from 10 - 4 both Saturday and Sunday. Pray for her energy level!

At least tonight is family night. We'll have dinner together, then we're going to watch the Empire Strikes back ... you know, to feed the flame of Timmy's Star Wars obsession. Yesterday, he and I took a walk with the dog, and he brought along his newest light saber (a 1" PVC pipe wrapped in blue painters tape for the blade part, and black electrical tape for the handle ... it actually looks really cool for as simple as it was to make). I swear I had to stop every minute to encourage him to catch up ... I guess talking non-stop about Star Wars and swinging the light saber around makes it difficult to walk!

Emma is really enjoying working on the play at school. She has a small role (it's a 3 - 5 grade play, so the kids in her class are more helping out with stuff and doing really small supporting things), but is enjoying being a part of the production and working on sets, etc.

It's cold

Yes, very cold. Zero when we went downstairs at 6:15 this morning. After the foot and a half of snow and blizzard conditions canceled school yesterday, the cold temps and wind chills in the -15 to -25 degree range canceled school today. Last night Timmy prayed that he could have school today, but he doesn't appear to be suffering much!

The big thrust this week is trying to finish off (or at least get it to a usable state) Timmy's room before the big Super Bowl party. I think it'll be really close. It'll probably mean some crazy nights, but we'll make it. The remaining tasks are painting the climbing wall, attaching all the holds, filling the fish tank, and (the big one), cleaning everything up.

I'm guessing we'll have around 30 - 40 people for the Super Bowl, so that should be fun. I'm going to rig up some lights for the sledding hill and ice skating rink so that (assuming it's not too cold), the kids can go out there some. We're having a Chili Cookoff too. Oh, and there's a football game.

On the kid front, both kids are really into playing Lego (Batman, Star Wars) on the play station. We're trying to limit that, but with snow days and bad weather it becomes difficult at times. They are also really reading a lot. It's helped by the Six Flags promotion at school. Timmy is really getting better very quickly and totally thinks it's a kick to read books all by himself.

So, there you have it ... lots going on!

The start ... officially

The kids finished off their 2010 school year yesterday with some Christmas parties. That means today is officially their first day of vacation. I'm working, but with all the people gone already from work, it's pretty lonely! So I'm trying to help out a bit with the packing that's going on. Since tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and the day after Christmas (duh), we're trying to get much of our packing for the Iowa trip (for which we'll leave late morning on Sunday) done today.

Last night Laura and Gow (and the girls) and our friends Nils and Erica (and their two boys Timmy's age) were over for dinner. Nils and Erica are missionaries in Mexico, so we don't get to see them too often. Anyway, that was a lot of fun. We spent a decent amount of time outside sledding and ice skating. Big thanks to Papa Lee for clearing out so much brush on our new sledding hill. It makes for some awesome sledding. Timmy is fearless ... he's the only kid that's into going down the big chute (12 extra linear feet of hill, and 6 extra feet in height). I went down the chute a couple of times and I could easily have gone another 200 - 300 feet on level ground if there weren't bushes and a road in the way ... oh well! It's fun!! We ended up putting some "reverse" ramps up against some of the bushes at the end of the run to keep Timmy from crashing into the bushes to hard.

So that's about it. It's almost Christmas. Merry Christmas all!

Today's a strange one!

Yes, today is strange, and for a number of reasons. First, the more mundane. It's December 20th, a Monday. It really feels like Christmas break already. Almost all the normal people I deal with at work are already on vacation for the rest of the year. So it's kind of like a pretend work day. I actually am being productive though!

The real reason that today is feeling most strange is that Timmy has a full day of kindergarten today. It's a one-off thing ... the kindergartners are staying all day so that they can practice the Christmas program in the afternoon. However, this is the first time ever that we will have sent the kids off to school at 8 in the morning and won't see either of them until 3:20! Cyndie and I are going to go get a light lunch or some coffee or something to both celebrate and mourn the passing of an era. I guess this is a little preview of next fall!

I don't think there's really anything else to report today. The kids Sunday school class sang yesterday in church, so that was fun. I'm busy this week with several music practices for the Christmas Eve service. Tomorrow night is the Christmas concert at Woods School.

So there you have it!

The season is ramping up!

Wow, apparently I'm getting really bad about posting on the blog! I guess I better remedy that.

Things seem to be flying along around here. Days are going quickly, and soon it will be Christmas! We've been doing a lot of sledding around here lately. The brush that Papa Lee cleared when he was here last summer was hiding a really nice sledding hill! So now, we have a very good place to sled. The kids are both enjoying school and enjoying their Spanish classes (that meet before school). Timmy is excited because next Monday he gets to go to school all day (they will practice their Christmas program in the afternoon). Cyndie and I looked at each other when we heard that news and wondered what having an empty house for 7 or 8 hours would be like. It's crazy that that is what next year will be like all the time! Those darn kids are growing up!

So, that's about it around here. There's not a whole lot to report, other than days flying by.

Here we go again!

I guess the title of the blog could really apply to a lot of things ... the Vikings sucking this year (0 - 2), Liverpool going down the drain (4 points from 5 games in the EPL), fall really getting started. But really, all I meant when I wrote it was that it's Monday, and we're starting a new week.

Today marks the "real" start of the school schedule in that it is the first day that Emma has before school Spanish class. She'll do that on Mondays and Wednesdays at 7:50 (until 8:20 or so). Timmy will do before school Spanish on Fridays. So, for now, we're locked in with Spanish MWF, school, then soccer after school on T/TH. That seems like a lot, especially when you factor in the various evening things that Cyndie and I have.

We had a nice weekend. It was fairly kick back. Saturday morning we spent some time (in the intermittent rain) cleaning up the garage. We did a fairly good job of it, but there's still some stuff to be done before winter in order to put the car in there. In the early afternoon, we headed down to Amy and Dave's for some cousin time. It was a nice visit. We hung out, grilled burgers, the kids played some outside and in, and we watched a movie. Good times. We left by about 9:30 the next morning when the cousins went to church. The rest of the weekend was pretty standard Sunday (complete with losses by both the Vikings and Liverpool), with a church meeting (regarding kids programs) at our place after church in the evening.

So there you have it. We're back and raring to go!

Weekend in Bullets

Yes, I missed yesterday ... my apologies. I was not feeling at all well. In fact, I only worked a couple of hours. Strange times. Anyway, I'm feeling much better now, so the blog is back and active! So bullet points for the weekend:

• My cousins Christa and Kyle were here for the weekend from Minnesota. It was totally fun to reconnect with them and lament over the 15 years that we didn't see each other as "lost" time.
• Jane was out too. That's twice in three weeks ... keep it up Auntie Jane!
• We spent much of the weekend together as a large, extended family group. Meals, hanging out, etc.
• We managed to get everyone out on the boat on Sunday morning in some surprisingly nice, temperate weather. Good times.
• We mixed in some church meetings that various people had to be at on Saturday.
• Timmy turned 6 on Saturday*.
• We helped break in the "Big House"** a bit. Some of the first extended hang out at Laura and Gow's new house!
• We did a bit of an "Alpine Reunion" at our pastor's house. Alpine is the camp my folks worked at (and I lived at) during junior high/high school. It's funny that there are now, 1500 or so miles away from there, a group of staff/staff families living within 10 miles of each other ... Dale and Jeannine Holte, me, my folks, Ray and Janette Warren, Alissa (Rounke) Bruns and her family, and Tim Rounke was out visiting. Good times.
  

*I think Timmy's birthday is worth a full paragraph rather than limiting it to a bullet point. He really enjoyed himself. All of my direct family was here. We played some games (the bounce house was definitely the biggest hit), ate burgers, opened presents, ate cake. Good times. Timmy got a lot of legos. He's been building all the stuff a set at a time. He's really good at reading the directions and putting the rather complex (age 7 - 12 for most of the stuff) together without much, if any, help. Thanks to those of you who were here for making it a fun party for Tim!

**The "Big House" is the name that 2 year old Sally gave the new house since it is so much bigger than the duplex that they lived in before. Every time I hear that, I think about prisons and Johnny Cash for some reason!

So now we're into the week. The kids had a fun run through school yesterday and enjoyed that. Then we had a quick dinner and went to back to school night. I was very impressed with Mrs. Crowell, Emma's 3rd grade teacher. Looks like it will be a good year ahead for both kids!

Soccer stars

So, the big excitement yesterday was that the kids both had their first "game" action for their soccer teams. I only call it "game", because they're really more just scrimmaging. What they do is practice together with their teammates for the first 30 minutes, then play another team for the second thirty minutes. They don't keep score (wink, wink), and there is no clock, there are no referees, the coaches are on the field, etc. But it's still fun for the kids to play against someone else and have a real "game".

I was helping out with Timmy's team (go Blue)!, so I have the most to report there. Timmy definitely likes the games better than practicing! He had a big smile on his face running around with the other kids and kicking the ball. He also scored the first goal for his team! Yeah Tim! His team "won" 4 - 1. Go Blue!

Cyndie said that Emma had a really fun time too. I have no details to relate, but there you go!

I had some friends over last night to watch the Vikings game. That was fun, though the loss was disappointing.

Big news on the vacation front ... we booked our flights down to Florida to visit Cyndie's mom and Fred over Halloween. The kids have two days off of school then (for various conferences), so, since it's so much cheaper to fly then than Thanksgiving, we decided to go for it.

This will be a fun weekend. My cousins* Christa and Kyle are coming over to visit from Minnesota, and Jane will be coming too, so there will be lots of hanging out and relaxing together. Which means that we need to clean up the projects around the house and get the house a bit straightened out.

* I always have called them my cousins. They are actually my dad's cousin's kids. So what is that? Is that a second cousin? A first cousin once removed? Anyway, we saw quite a bit of Christa and Kyle as kids (and they're very close in age to Laura and I). We re-connected at the family reunion in July, so it will be fun to have more time with them this weekend.

On top of that, Timmy is turning 6! Tomorrow is his birthday! This year is a family party, and I think we'll have more family than we've ever had for a family party what with the cousins being here, plus all my sibs and their families and Auntie Karen and Grandpa and Grandma D!

A wednesday in review

So, after that flurry of pictures yesterday, I'm pretty much sure I can't top that with today's activities. Dare I say that we are settling into a "normal" routine?

Cyndie's had a busy week of meetings (CE board at church, Leadership Team at church, a photography meeting ... she took family photos for some friends, sailing last night ... okay, that's not really a "meeting"). Whew, she must be tired. Tonight she's headed out for her "2nd Thursday Ladies Night Out" group while I have some friends over to watch the Vikings open up the NFL season.

Yesterday Timmy and Grandpa D hiked from our house, along the Lake Como trail, over to Grandma and Grandpa's house. It's about a three mile hike I think, but Timmy's got really good endurance. Here's the exchange between Tim and I when he got home from school and we were talking about the hike:

Tim: I'm tired.
Me: Maybe we should sit down and relax and eat a little mac and cheese to get some energy.
Tim: Sitting makes me tired.
Me: Okay.
Tim: I need to run around to get energy.
Me. Okay.
Tim: Let's go play soccer.

So we went out and played soccer for 15 minutes or so to "get some energy". Strange boy! He did the walk like a champ!

Today the kids have school pictures, then soccer in the evening. I hope it's not as windy as last time!

Picture day at the Life and Times of the Wildwood DeVries

Okay, for today's viewing pleasure (if I can get blogger.com to handle the pix correctly ... having some problems), I present for you, pictures! I went to grab a few pictures from the last week or so off the cameras, and found some other stuff too. So I'll try to get to those all today. Starting off ... the first day of school.

Here's Emma's teacher, Mrs. Crowell.

Emma's desk is next to her best friend Amya's.

Timmy and Mrs. Mueller.

Did you think I'd slack off?

Yes, it's been a few days since my last post, but I am still on the wagon. I don't usually post on the weekends as I'm not sitting in front of the computer near as much. So, what have the Wildwood DeVries done over the long Labor Day weekend? Lets, see ...

Saturday we worked a lot on the house. Cyndie painted some in the entryway/hall to the laundry room. It's a light gray, which we never thought we'd put into our house, but it's actually rather cheery and light ... with a little bit of a blue tint to it. She's eventually going to take that up the stairs and all along the hall upstairs as well. I worked in the kitchen. I took out the old lights (the big flourescent "shop light" that was the main kitchen light, as well as the "spaceship" light over the table in the kitchen). Then I put in some recessed lighting. It looks pretty darn good if I do say so myself.

Sunday we went out on the boat with our friends the Holtes. That was fun ... fairly warm, though not so much as several weeks ago. The boating season may be screeching to a halt quickly! In the afternoon we had a wedding ... some friends from church. I was doing the sound setup for them, so that took quite a bit of my time before and after the wedding. My folks watched the kids, so Cyndie and I went and got a light bite of dinner after the ceremony and clean up (the kids were still at church with my folks!).

Monday we went to the Walworth County Fair. The highlights were (Tim) the demolition derby and (Emma) the superman ride. We ended up getting wristbands for the kids so that they could ride as many rides as they wanted to. We got there around 11am, and at that point, the kids were walking on the rides ... no wait. After the demo derby*, there were a LOT more people. So the kids just did 4 or 5 rides and we left. A good time was had by all!

*Demolition Derby ... man, that was a redneck-a-polooza! It was fun though. A bunch of old cars just banging the crud out of eachother. There were a few minor fires, one car almost flipped over, and just generally a lot of noise and wreckage!

Now, we're almost back into the swing of things. It's a "not quite" full week of school (4 days), and soccer starts for the kids tonight (twice a week from 4:30 - 5:30). The school year is ramping up, and the weather is cooling off!

The Return

Yes, the blog is back in action. School started for the kids today, so I figured now is as good a time as any to get back on the wagon. I won't attempt to recap the summer ... too much fun has been had boating, at family camp, at Auntie Jane's, and a reunion, more boating, Lee visiting, enjoying the deck, etc., etc.

So, yes, school started today. The kids have two days this week, then a 4 day weekend for Labor Day, then to the full time thing after that. Cyndie took the kids this morning and took pictures for their first day so I'll try to get some of that in the next post.

When Tim came home from school at around 12:45 he was all excited because he got to be the line leader for the first day of school. He's also really excited about his fancy new shoes (black with neon green Adidas stripes). He learned to tie his shoe laces in one evening so that he could get them.

Emma's not home yet, but I do know that she got to pick where she wanted to sit in her classroom this morning, and she got to sit at the desk that is right next to her best friend Amya. Emma and Amya will both likely be in the same girl scout troop this year (assuming all the sign up stuff goes according to plan). Cyndie's excited about that because she's not one of the troop leaders this year, which will give her a little more time. Tim and Emma both start YMCA soccer here in a couple of weeks too, so that will be fun for them.

So, there you have it, back in the swing of things, hopefully regularly!

Yes ...

it has been forever since I've posted. I don't know that I have a great excuse other than a busy life. However, I'm hopeful that will slow down soon. Four things that have taken up quite a bit of my time lately are either ended, or ending:

• Search Team - the team at church that I've been leading in the task of finding our next pastor has nominated a pastor for our church. He'll come to speak at the church on the 16th of May, after which I'll know if we're done or not! Since this has been a 5 - 6 hours a week gig, I'll be glad if we're done!
  
• Bowling - Finished at the end of April. Fun, but time consuming.
  
• Duplex - We closed on the duplex last Friday, and collected the May rent on Saturday! So far so good (three days in)! Right now we're working on getting a new roof put on.
  
• Dining Room - We worked hard and redid the dining room, including new built in cabinets to take the place of the china cabinet. It's not quite finished, but we've made very good progress!

So, I'll try to get back into the nearly-everyday posting cycle.

Over the weekend, Cyndie had a scrapbooking retreat. She was proud to say that she is now "caught up" through the end of 2007 including our move. The kids and I did a trip down to Dave and Amy's (overnight on Friday) and then I hit Costco in the morning. Friday evening we had an impromptu potluck BBQ with our small group from church. Sunday morning we headed over to the hotel where the scrapbooking retreat was and swam for a while in the pool. All in all, a nice weekend for all of the Wildwood DeVries.

This week will be busy for Emma. She has her K - 2 grade play, at which the 2nd graders are all the leads. She's very excited, but a little nervous too. Today after school she has a hike with her Brownie troop. Then Friday to Saturday she has an overnight with her troop.

News on the Timmy front is that he has his first loose tooth. It's been loose for a bit, but I'm finally thinking of these things, so you get the news now!

The weather is getting nicer and nicer. It looks really good for tomorrow, so maybe we'll try to get out on the boat during the late afternoon.

A Packed Weekend

We had a very full weekend. In short, Woods School Silent Auction Friday night, clean the house/finish the craft room on Friday/Saturday during the day. Coffee Shop small group Saturday night. Finished of Season 7 of 24 with Laura and Gow Saturday after small group. Sunday morning/day the Maple Fest at Covenant Harbor, Sunday afternoon/evening church/potluck/Silent Auction for Camp scholarships. Whew. Oh, and over the night and into the morning on Saturday, we got a couple of inches of snow (which stuck in the grass and on the deck, but never accumulated on the driveway or roads).

So it was a fun, full weekend. Mixed in there, Tim and I felt a little under the weather on Friday, and Cyndie on Sunday. Hopefully we're all moving toward health this week. I think the week ahead is pretty "normal". I guess we'll see!

The weekend is nigh!

Hello from Wisconsin on a cold, sunny winter day! It's about 5 degrees out today, and Cyndie and the kids (and Grandpa D) are out skiing! They didn't exactly have a choice, since they'd signed up for the regular Woods School ski day earlier in the week. I'd say that we were all a little surprised that the school didn't postpone given the cold day. Oh well. The day is cold, but it isn't windy, so that should make it better. It's 3 pm as I write this and they haven't come home yet, so things must not be too bad!

This morning I accompanied my sister and Gow as they went to visit 5 or 6 houses. They're hoping to be able to invest in a house in the near term, and so are starting to do some research. It was interesting to see what's out there on the market. Cyndie and Timmy went to Emma's class to watch "Stone Fox". It's a movie based upon a book that Emma just finished reading.

So, there's your rambling for the day. The weekend is starting soon, and I'm looking forward to some relaxing!