President's Festival Weekend

This last weekend was our big Presidents Festival weekend in the cities.  Volleyball teams from all across the state, Wisconsin and the Dakotas gather for a huge tournament.  It's a 2 day affair, so a lot of sitting on my butt!  A quick mom and Emma selfie, of course the bigs was too cool to be in the picture.

 

 Thursday night was crazy busy trying to get food made and packed and finish up the volleyball door decorations.  I made my granola bars, rice krispy bars and some smores popcorn that was a bust. 

We headed down Friday afternoon, ate on the way and got to our hotel around 7.  Traffic wasn't horrible, thankfully.  The girls swam and we enjoyed cocktails at the pool with the other parents.  Very relaxing!  Saturday morning we headed out at 6:45 as we had to be in Coon Rapids (45 minutes away) by 7:30.  The girls were in the morning pool which was so nice, as we were done by 1:30.  The girls played awesome and got 1st place in their pool!

After being in traffic for twice as long as it should have taken us, we were more than ready for a cocktail when we got back to the hotel!  We had a taco bar potluck which was so nice, and then after, a few of us moms took the girls to the Mall of America.  That place is CRAZY!  We didn't get there until 6:30, and it was absolutely nutso.  We shopped for a couple hours and then headed back.  The girls had to be in their rooms by 9:30, and the parents watched the Wild hockey game in the lobby.  We were all tired!

Sunday was another early day, they played right away at 8.  Lost their first match, but won the next two, which put them in first place again!  Last year they placed 1st in their bracket, but they were in the lower bracket, so they actually placed 33rd overall out of 80 teams.

This year they made it to the championship bracket and placed 3rd overall out of 80 teams.  It was incredible!  We nicknamed them the cardiac kids, because of all the stress they put on us!  That was STRESSFUL!

After their final match we took them out to Applebees for a nice supper, those poor girls (and us) ate sandwiches all weekend and it was so nice to eat real food!

Monday I took off which was wonderful!  I didn't get a whole lot accomplished, but that's ok too.

Emma was quite proud of her "snail" she made for Alayna's lunch today, ha!

Marathon Update and Other Randoms

So, I haven't updated how my training was going, only because I was hoping I would be able to tell you how awesome my training was coming along!  Unfortunately it's not...I have been dealing with leg issues since December.  First it was my heel/achilles, then my knee and now I have pain on my lower left side of my calf.  I have been seeing my chiropractor weekly and thankfully am still able to run, only 3-4 miles at a time.

I was devastated at first, but now it's ok.  It doesn't mean a marathon is completely out, but it also made me realize the stress it puts on your body..

This was Rachel and I before her orchestra concert on Thursday (not sure what shes doing with her leg, haha).

We have the mack daddy of volleyball tournaments this weekend down in the cities.  We leave Friday afternoon and they play both Saturday and Sunday.  I volunteered myself to make the door decorations and I think they turned out pretty cute!

 

It's supposed to be in the negative digits temp wise, so being cooped up in school gyms for the weekend doesn't sound too bad!

A Feature on Mel's Kitchen Cafe

Hey everyone!  I just wanted to pop on quick to tell you that I was featured on Mel's Kitchen Cafe!  As you know, she is one of my favorite foodie bloggers and have made several of her recipes.  She has decided to run a half marathon and wanted people to send in their stories of how they started running.  I LOVE reading other's stories, so inspiring!

So hop on over and check out my story and make sure to read the others!

Mel's Kitchen Cafe

The Weekend- Alayna Addition

Another weekend has come and gone, we had no formal plans (which ended up being a busy weekend!) which was nice, but I also feel like I didn't get a whole lot done, which I guess is ok too.

Thursday night we had bingo night at school, Emma got one bingo, and the nice sister that she is, let mouse pick out the prize.  It was a painful hour of play by plays from the principle commenting on what each winner is picking for a prize.  Oh the things we do for our kids...

Saturday we picked up Kyleigh for the weekend (Emma's bff) and dropped mousey off at a birthday party.  Brad and I took the older 3 shopping.  Mistake #1 right there.  Never shop on a nice Saturday afternoon, everybody and there kin were there.  The mall was hot, too many people and I seriously lost my shit on the older 2 complaining.  Tons of fun.

We picked mouse up and went to church where I confessed my lack of patience.  I had to take this pic of mouse, because she's so damn cute with her boots.

Sunday afternoon the older 2 went to Grandmas to study, as we were having our internet worked on and the girls had to study on their ipads.  I bribed Alayna to stay with me by telling her that we would make elephant ears.  Yumm.  Growing up we called them stretchers and they are pretty much heaven on earth.  Alayna doused hers with sugar (you know, because she NEEDS more energy) but I slathered strawberry jam on mine.  Divine.

We may or may not have sent this pic to Rachel teasing her...

 

After indulging in our sugary carb comas, we played about 400 hands of rummy.  So even though I may not have a super clean house or my menu drawn up the week (hello pancakes for supper!) I thoroughly enjoyed my mousie time!

Life Lately...

This week has absolutely FLOWN by.  Good gravy...Here's what we've been up to the last week...

Emma got to go skiing in school, and had a blast!  These are two of her besties, Rianna and Abby.

Rachel made a happy birthday candy bar "card" for her best friend Taylor's birthday.  Oh wait, I bought the candy and penciled out the words, so she attached the candy bars, haha!!

Oh to be a dog...

Or a cat, for that matter...This is her lovey look to me, she desperately wants the damn fish...

Rachel had volleyball tournaments Saturday and Sunday, these girls played amazing!  Saturday they took 2nd in the gold division and Sunday they played in a 15's tournament and placed 4th in gold!

They are SO fun to watch!

 

This week we have nooooooothing planned.  I am so stoked!