CFL Kicks Off

Concord Football League (CFL) kicked off on Saturday morning. This is a developmental league, teaching skills and the game of football. It's for 4-6th graders. Quinn got to play the QB this game and loved it. He likes to throw the ball a lot but it rained the entire morning so it was mostly a rushing game.

Tony is one of the 4 coaches. It takes a lot of coaches for football, each focusing on different things. They practice 2 evenings a week and play every Saturday morning from 9-11am. There are 6 different teams this season. Quinn plays for the Colts. : ) Go COLTS! (in real life too!)

First day of school for the big kids

First day of school for the big kids in Indiana. Madison (and Heather) are going into 8th grade. They have a brand new $32million building to go to this year. It's an awesome new Junior High.



Madison thinks I should be done taking pictures now. What?! Already?! I didn't even gotten one with her cute new book bag. It's on the other shoulder. This bag is just her soccer junk for after school. SIGH. She has a cute Aeropostle green bag on the other shoulder that the world will now not get to see since I only got to take about 3 pictures of her.



Quinn (and Nate) now go to the 5th/6th grade building which is the old junior high building. It's had lots of spiffy make-overs too and is pretty sweet looking itself. It's called "Concord Intermediate School" Like Quinn's shirt?... first day ever for the CIS school. They are in 6th grade.



Quinn had a few extra good-byes for Cooca this morning. They are used to hanging out together all day. Poor Cocoa will be without her buddies. She can hear the school bus rounding the corner in the afternoon and gets quite excited when her BFFs come home again!

Off to Kindergarten!

It was an exciting day in Kansas as Jade went off to kindergarten on Monday morning!
Archie did a great job by getting several pictures of the big morning (with some strict intructions by me. LOL). She's got a new backpack filled with all the needed school supplies. It's a little bittersweet. Michelle would have loved to celebrate this very important milestone with them. It makes us miss her even more on days like this.

Does she look a little excited or what? She's more than a little excited to get to ride the big school bus like Pakka drives.

M.O.M. to Moms logo and more exciting news...

We've got an official M.O.M. to Moms logo! How do you like it? I love it! Our family got to have a "say" in what we were hoping for in a logo but Senad really was the clever graphic designer that made it all come together. Senad is Archie's sister-in-law's brother. I know you might have to read that again. We met through facebook. He is a graphic designer in Des Moines and made this logo as a gift to us. Awesome! The feet are designed to also look like 2 mothers facing each other. The big toes are their heads. The little toes can be their braids or even babies in a papoose. I just received cloth labels in the mail this week and already have sewn a few onto the blankets that I'm making... so we now have our own "clothing label." hahaha. Aren't you so impressed? I've learned a lot about clothing labels in the last few weeks. That's felt like a weird thing to learn about. : ) I'm actually amazed at how expensive they can be.

In other exciting news, we've taken another big step today with M.O.M. to Moms and we committed to hosting a baked potato bar at the MCC sale (http://www.mennonitesale.org/) on September 24-25. This means that we are going to need to be prepared to sell about 500 plates of loaded baked potatoes. That's our current estimate. The MCC committee is going to talk about it and try to come up with a firm prediction for numbers of people our booth would actually serve and then we can start planning. They also agreed that 100% of the donations/profit that come through our booth can be designated for MCC Newborn Kits in honor of Michelle's memory. How great is that? So, anyone want to help work some shifts at the sale and sell baked potatoes? We would love to have your help! Some of the ladies from work have already "signed up" on our sign-up sheet (that only exists in our minds right now). We've got all kinds of ideas about wearing matching t-shirts or hoodies with our logo, having a display of Newborn Kits present and may be decorating the tables with Mr. Potato Heads. Do you have any clever ideas for us? Our family would love to have your help, in whatever way you want to give it.

Thanks everyone!

Hoping I can return your love and support some day, some how.

Leah

Staycation Over

We had lunch with Don and Isy today. We ate out at Buffalo Wild Wings after church. Isy continues to improve each day. She was walking with a cane today but doesn't use it inside her home. Still whispering and looked tired. I think our lunch did her in for a few hours. We showed her the pictures we took of her in the hospital. I was right, she laughed at them. : )

It's hard to believe my week off this summer has gone by so quickly. I'm sad to see it end. I had such a great week. We got to do so many fun things as a family. Madison and I had an especially fun week. I'm so glad she still likes to spend time with her mom. : ) Several times I offered for her to invite a friend over but she was just happy and content to do things with me (us). I'll take this time with her while I can get it because it may not always be this way. I've been thinking of the "life skills" that I want her to know before she grows up and leaves our home and this week we got to work on a few, such as our kitchen fun and some sewing on our baby blankets. I really, really, really wish I could spend more time at home like this. May be I (we) appreciate our time together even more because it doesn't happen as often. ??? I don't know. I just know that I certainly don't take a week like this for granted when others might not blink an eye because it's actually their "normal." It makes me wonder what my "normal" things are, what do I take for granted, that others wouldn't. Something for me to ponder as I go back to work. This week was a gift to myself. A gift earned by hard work during the day away from home, taking care of what can be a very challenging patient population (chronic pain). I love my colleagues at work. It will be fun to see them again. I'll do some praying about my excitement to see my patients again. : )

Have a good week everyone! I'm going to do my best to make sure mine is a good week too!
Love you all,
Leah