I need a weekend from my weekend!

Well now, that was a busy weekend! Friday night my sister Amy and her two kids (non-attending camp division) came up for the night. My folks and Laura and Gow and the kids and Jane came over for dinner and a rousing family baseball game. Then Timmy and his cousin (same age) Ben went over to Auntie Jane's and got to spend the night there. The next morning Tim and I headed to baseball practice, while Cyndie and Amy went to pick up the oldest cousins, Emma and Sarah at camp. Emma (and Sarah too I think) had a great week. The weather was cool, but that didn't seem to bother them too much. I think they were ready to go back again this week, but were pretty darn pooped on Saturday! Emma said her favorite things were the zipline, the climbing wall, and banana boating.

After a couple of hours of down time, we headed to the Freedom Fest, a free concert/festival in Janesville, joining our friends the Goreckis there. That was fun. The rides/carnival stuff was all free. They had stuff for the kids. The concert, Matthew West, was good, and there was a phenomenal fireworks show at the end. Fun times, but late. We didn't get home until around 11:30. Needless to say, everyone slept in in the morning! Then we had church at Covenant Harbor (our pastor was speaking and we had three people from church get baptized in the lake after the service). There was a picnic, then we spent the rest of the afternoon out on the boat with various friends from church (sandwiched around a trip to Wal-Mart to get a new battery for the boat!). And then we had church (a very short prayer/singing service). And then we went to Culvers for a heavy snack with a bunch of folks from church. Fortunately, the kids got to bed at a decent time.

Whew, typing that makes me tired all over again. Today Tim is off to Day Camp at Covenant Harbor (his first camp experience by himself). He was a bit apprehensive when I dropped him off, but his buddy Owen was dropped off moments later, and I'm assuming that things were peachy from there. Emma had a PetVet class this morning (she said there were five dogs and a cat there today). Tonight we pick Timmy up at camp, then go straight to his 5p baseball game (and Emma's softball game after that).

I need a nap!

Busy Pix

Tim reading his Bible first thing in the morning ...

The Covs first baseman ...
(bragging time ... I hit a grandslam on Tuesday night)

Tim on his first bike ride ...

The fam after our first "4 bike" bike ride ...

Emma and Tim at Emma's class fishing trip ...

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!

Yes, I think so, it's finally Spring!

I think I can now officially report that spring time has come to Lake Geneva. We've had some good weather, both warmer and sunnier. Mother's Day we had brunch out on the deck. That was our first real meal there since the crazy 80 degree day that happened about a month ago. The piers and lifts are in at Covenant Harbor, so that means the boat (which we've cleaned out and re-packed since getting out of winter storage) is basically ready to go in. The kids have both had their first ball practice (softball for Emma and baseball for Tim ... both "coach pitch" which is the step up from teeball). I had my first softball game (with a bunch of friends from church, bowling, the neighborhood, camp) which we won in dramatic fashion (we were down 9-0 after the first inning and something like 14 - 3 after two innings ... we came back and won 19-18!). Weather.com says that it is a high of 78 and sunny in LG today! Unfortunately, I'm sitting in a meeting in Baltimore for work on a last minute trip. Boooo!

On the kid front, Emma has been really interested in Cyndie's new cell phone (Mother's Day present) ... so if you get a strange text or phone call from Cyndie, beware, it could have come from Emma. Timmy is VERY into sports right now. He loves to watch baseball games and play sports in the yard ... basketball, soccer, and especially baseball. He's very into hitting, and is getting really pretty good. At his first baseball practice, he hit every single of the 15 - 20 pitches that the coach sent his way. It's fun for me that he's turning into a sports maniac like I am. To close this out, I'll relate a quote from Tim the other day. This from when the Royals and Twins were playing (this for you Jane and Dad) ...

"The Twins should start playing soccer because they are so bad at baseball"

Ha, a man after my own heart.

Ahhh ....

I'm sitting on the deck watching a baseball game and listening to the rain with a stomach full of awesome Indian food, hanging with Cyndie. Can't beat that for the end of a fun late-birthday day.

That is all!

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.

Music

So, I've been working on a little pet project lately to find some decent music for Emma to listen to. We're starting to realize the inevitable ... she's moving slowly into tween-hood. She'll be 9 next month! So, we'd like to kind of steer her toward some things (music in this case) that are positive, rather than more passively allowing her to float where ever her peers are going. She seems to be into that teeny-bopper kind of stuff ... Miranda Cosgrove (Carly of iCarly fame who has an album out), Miley Cyrus, etc. Since that path only seems to lead to Katy Perry and Lady Gaga, I'd rather be a little pro-active. So that lead me to search a bit on the web for some good tween-ish music. I found the iShine website which looks pretty interesting. I'll embed some you-tube videos of a couple of the bands there for your perusal ...

The Rubyz ...

Mission Six ...

So, we'll see where this leads. She has a CD player in her room, so we'll probably buy her a couple of CDs and see if she likes them.

So all this music thinking made me think about what I like to listen to. Here's my top 5 albums (not bands) of all time, just because ...

Back in Black - AC/DC - The best rock album ever. Even if you're not into them, I bet if you listen to music at all, you'd probably recognize almost every song on the album.
Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd - Just good and interesting music here. Nice guitar riffs.
Slippery When Wet - Bon Jovi - I'm guessing lot's of people make fun of me on this one, but it's packed full of fun, good rock. This one was the album of my childhood. I remember hanging out (or, I guess, it was "playing" back then) with Laura in the basement of our house in Iowa listening to Casey Kasem's top 40 countdown. I think Livin' on a Prayer was on that thing for at least a year!
Silence is Madness - Bride - Maybe the album of my high school experience. I had a tape of this and I remember listening to it over and over. I also distinctly having a conversation with my Mom regarding whether it was music or not. She just thought it was loud noise. I remember singing (or humming) a few melodies of songs to her as proof that yes, it was music.

I'm having a hard time identifying another album. Some candidates ... Red Light, Blue Light by Harry Connick, Jr., Amy Grant's Christmas Album, Beat the System by Petra, To Hell With the Devil by Stryper, Fallen by Evanescence, A Person and a Heart by Jon Troast. There are many candidates. Now that I'm not buying whole albums much at all, there are fewer candidates to consider. I think in the end, I have to go with Stryper ... I spent a lot of time listening to them.

To Hell With the Devil - Stryper - These rockers are a blast in concert (I've seen them more than anyone else). It's a tough pick, actually, in selecting this album over their "new" album, Reborn. It's pretty darn good too, but I have to pick the classic.

So there you have it, my unsolicited top 5 albums of all time (for me), and some notes on where we're heading with Emma.