No more cheerleader movies

Aaron and I watched Bring It On last weekend. Well he fell in love with it and thus watched it multiple times in the last 5 days. Well that came to an end yesterday. Chris called me on my way to work last night and asked where the DVD was. I had taken it away because I had heard Ryan in the kitchen singing... "I swear I'm not a whore!" A line from the movie. So guess Aaron will have to find a new movie to love!

Mischief

So the boys went downstairs to play this morning around 9...they were quiet so I let them. Around 11 Am I started to wonder what they were up too... but didn't want to disturb them because they were being quiet and nice.

So I went downstairs not to long ago to find pop cans all over the floor in the furnace room where we keep the freezer and extra fridge...Two 12 packs stacked up and a paint can. Seems then little ingenious shits decided to make a tower, climb, get the freezer key and get into the freezer. OK fine... so they stole a Freezie Pop.

Upon further investigation I found a total of 32 Freezie Pop wrappers in the garbage can. I have never laughed so hard in my life... I called Chris and asked him how many he moved the other night from the fridge freezer to the locked freezer. He said about 40. Which coincided with the 7 Freezie Pops I found left over.

Ryan says "well I left SOME!" Nice!

Bye Bye!

The girls are off to school and life is returning to normal. Structure and schedules are a beautiful thing. Getting ready to take Ryan to preschool then it is time to take down the Christmas decorations and get the week started!

To clean or not to clean

New year, means new starts? Right? So yesterday I started going through my dresser drawers. So far I have a laundry basket full of stuff to get rid of and a bag of garbage. So I will continue my task today with my bathroom cupboards. Then my closet. My goal???? get through all the drawers and closets etc before my garage sale in June. The biggest task will be the toys. They have to go, have to. The kids don't play with them, and they are cluttering my basement. But unfortunately I think that task may have to wait till Feb, or at the latest April - After DI is done.

So what is your big goal for the New Year?????

Happy New Year!!!

Yeah 2010 has finally arrived! I am sooooo glad to be done with 2009. It wasn't an entirely BAD year, but it definitely wasn't a stellar year. There were ups for every down.

Down: The Club closing for rennovation
Up: I was able to file for unemployment - a good thing since as a server this wouldn't have been the case at any other restaurant
Down: The Red River flooding - Lots of downsides to this - Cancellation of the State DI tournament, Continued unemployment, Kids missing school
Up: Girls got to travel to Global Finals in TN for DI, I got to continue filing for unemployment and the governor pardoned all school days missed due to the flood
Down: My aunts diagnosis of pancreatic cancer
Up: I finally got to meet my cousin after 34 years spending time with her and my aunt, as well as my parents and the rest of my aunts and uncles from my dad's side of the family
Down: Losing my friend Pam after a courageous 3 1/2 yr battle with Ovarian Cancer
Up: She is at peace and my memories of her, never forgotten.

But moving on to 2010! We are looking forward to a very busy year. Who know what it will bring. Already we have had an interesting start. Aaron was deemed the meanest boy in the house and then fell shortly afterward on his knee. We discovered he fell on a toothpick downstairs - leftover from a DI challenge and the tip broke off and embedded in his knee. After 15 minutes of him screaming and me holding him hostage, Chris was finally able to pull it out. It was almost a half an inch long!!! 15 minutes later he passed out from exhaustion. Happy New Year to us!~ HAHAHAHAHA!

What will tomorrow bring....

And so it begins....

And so it begins...the month from hell. OK just kidding. I love this time of year but at the same time I HATE this time of year. Hate? WHy? because starting today I will be working 20 shifts in the next 23 days, all while praying that the money I make this month will make up for the lack of money I made this year. It has been a sad year for all I know in terms of the economy, and that means the country club was hit as well. Yet surprisingly the club got new wine glasses and dishes this year, and no one got raises. Something to ponder later I guess. hahaha!

But onto why I love this season...The house looks beautiful, the kids are excited, the shopping is done and it caps off the year. I am forturnate enough this year to make Meghan's folk dance, handchimes and choir concert this year. They scheduled it on a Monday this year. The one day I don't work. hahaha! I get to go with Ryan to Santa's Village again with his preschool. FUN! Chris takes extra vacation days so we can be home together and the family is all coming at the end of the month.

I am hoping for a wonderful Holiday season this year. The year has not had many bright spots and we are definitely in need of one soon. What better than Christmas and Jesus's birth.

So Happy Holidays everyone and here's to a fabulous 2010!

And now for Halloween depression

HAHAHA! I work so hard on costumes for 3 months and then in one night it is all over. LOL Next year I think we should do a haunted house the night before Halloween. Oh what fun that will be. The costumes came out great and I am really happy with them. Aaron and Katie were especially cute! Wahoo...till next year!

Anyone dying to see Halloween costumes????? Only 3 days away! hahahahahahaha!

"and they all come tumbling down!" Boom Boom Boom!

I don't know why I picked this title. Just reminded me of an old camp song we used to sing in 4-H and the fact that everything just keeps building up, and then tumbling down in our lives lately.

Halloween is right around the corner and of course I am still scrambling to get the costumes done. Ryan had to sacrifice his cow costume and go as a chef as I really don't see myself getting to the dang cow. Maybe after Halloween. But the chef costume is pretty cute and maybe Aaron will be a cow next year.

Here's what IS done:
My skeleton costume - a different twist on the typical
Meghan's Hippie costume
Ryan's chef costume
Aaron's Elvis costume - this took forever due to all the detailing that needed to be done. But it is stinking cute!
Katie's owl body - I was working on the headpiece today but the neighbor must be cutting down bushes or something cause I can hear a weed whacker thing going and it was driving me CRAZY!!!!!!!
Chris's breast piece for his werewolf costume.

I know I am pretty close, but DI starts this week and I am not ready for that meeting, My friend Kyle is moving to the cities and his going away party is Sunday. We are a doing a yearbook scrapbook thing and the pictures I ordered are not here yet and now I have to do the whole things myself, so starting to freak out about that too.

Meghan and Ryan's birthdays are right after Halloween too and do you think their fleece blankets are made yet?????? I guess not!

But I do truly love this time of year. It has to be my favorite for sure. Anyway... time to fly!

Tidbits and more...

This last weekend was Homecoming at NDSU and the Gold Star Band Reunion. Chris and I had a total of 16 people staying at the house and it was great. Although 10 kids and 6 adults aren't great odds, we all had a blast and there was no bloodshed.

Friday night I met upn with my sorority sisters and some I met for the first time even though I have been chatting with them on Facebook for months. April and I met for the first time last month and eerily so... we are exactly alike. Watch out. Dani, whom I visited in Denver in Feb made a surprise visit as her dad has been in the ICU in Grand Forks for the last week. Although her trip to ND wasn't exactly a pleasant one we were happy she could take a break and come and see us.

Saturday was band reunion day! It has been quite a few years since there has been so many from out years in the band attending Homecoming so I was completely thrilled to see so many old friends. Our honored Band Alum was Kurt Witt who I shared piano duties with my first year in Jazz band when I came to NDSU. Our guest conductor Todd Stewart was one of our drum majors in college and he was thrilled to have such a huge band under his direction, although slightly bummed about the beer not being sold at the Dome. He swears I told him he could get beer at the Dome...only reason he took the gig. HAHAHA!

We had the Beach's stay with us as they do every year but this year we had my old percussion buddy Ryan and his wife Chureen and their 4 kids stay with us as well. The kids immediately blended together and what a blast they had.

The Bison however did not have such a great day as for a bullshit call which has now left us 1 in 4 this season. :(

The alumni assoc hosted a taco feed for the band but at $20 a head we opted out and had pizza at our house. Todd joined us as well and many stories, drinks and laughs were had. We hope he brings his kids next year. He was amazed that we just walked down to the field with the 10 kids in tow and no one questioned us. That might have part to do with the fact that I tend to ignore all authority and act as I own the place. Jane laughed when I walked right by the guy checking purses at the entrance of the dome. I figure pay no attention and they leave you alone. LOL Which means my 3 bottle of water in my purse were not confiscated!

Chris and I bought a Family pak of game tickets this year as did our friends the Rustad's. They too have 4 kids and we have been sitting next to them at the games - we have general admission tickets of course. Well for two of the games this year we have assigned seats - what are the odds that both our families have tickets right in a row???? Apparently pretty good odds as we found ourselves in section 26 row T seats 11-14, the Rustads, same section , row and seats 7-10.

I also got to see my old band director Orv this weekend and we got a great shot of the two of us together. Chris and I also took quite a lot of shots this weekend in terms of how large our family has gotten. Considering that our friends the Tibors whom were also in the band just had child number 8, I think they can cut us some slack. Although we are the ones that always show up.

The marching band is up to 186 members and we love the new director. He is just great!

So that was our weekend. Halloween is just around the corner and costumes are going well. The kids are loving school and Aaron is still an evil spawn. Today he threw a pot lid and hit Ryan in the head with it because Ryan was trying to steal his Barbie. I would let them pound each other to get it out of their systems, but I am afraid Ryan would lose. *sigh*

OK, I know....

I officially have sucked at keeping up with this blog this past summer. Seems like we are always on the go and when we're not, we don't want to do a dang thing. This month alone I/we have made 3 trips to Minneapolis and will be making two more in the next two weekend. So 5 trips in 7 weeks? Ouch!

OK, so the girls went to camp in July - Loved it and even survived being in seperate cabins. Meghan did the ropes camp this year and was able to do the climbing wall and all sorts of different activities. Katie did basic adventure camp but looks forward to doing Horsemanship camp next year. The girls barely saw each other all week - which annoyed Ryan on the trip home from picking them up. He just wanted to talk with them and they were yaking each other's ear off. They had a cold and rainy week, but it didn't seem to bother them at all.

They were home for a week and finished up going to playground center, had a sleepover with their friends and then they were off to Grandma and Grandpa Koester's for a week. They got to take a boat cruise and do many other fun things. I am still waiting on the album to see what things they got into. They boys hung at home and got to go to a Carnival as well as a bike ride to Lindenwood park and ice cream for supper.

The first weekend of August we went to pick up the girls from grandma's and the off to Litchfield to visit Katie's Godparents. Maggie and Laura showed us their projects at the Meeker County Fair where the girls got a free ride, visited a country school, won books and saw a puppet show that might inspire them in DI this year. We roasted hotdogs and smores back at their place while Aaron ran around after all the cats. Man was he tired after the day.

The next day we went down to the Science Museum of Mn where we viewed the Titanic exhibit. That was very fascinating, although no pictures were allowed. :( We also saw the Imax film Titanica and played with all sorts of different things.

Back home for a week where Ryan attended his second week of Busy Beaver Camp. He looks so forward to school this year. Being at home is just no fun anymore. At the end of the week, I took off for my friend Andrea's house to plan our 20 year class reunion and partake in some outlet mall shopping. We had dinner at Granite City and made it home just in time to dodge a tornado that night. Great fun for me and the 8 month pregnant girl. The next day was nice out and we checked out the Uptown and Loring Park Art fairs before I headed home. Chris at that time was taking the girls to Walker MN to meet up with his parents who would take the girls for their summer week.

Am I halfway through Aug yet? Close enough...Stay tuned more tomorrow!

What we've done this summer!

Since school let out on June 3rd, we have done the following:

* Ryan played three soccer games to finish up his season. He missed one game and one practice due to rain
* The girls and Ryan have been going to playground center 4 times a week. Ryan goes in the morning, the girls go in the afternoon each for 2 1/2 hours. Great sanity saver for mom as it only cost her $89 for 9 weeks for the 3 of them
* We had our final DI party of the year. The new year will begin before we know it
* Meghan enjoyed a day at the spa getting her nails and hair done at Josef's salon and being driving around town in a limo. This was one of her rewards for selling over 500 boxes of cookies this past year
* Meghan also enjoyed a pizza party with other Girl Scouts. This was the reward for selling over 350 boxes of cookies
* We had our garage sale which netted over $1300. It is a recession you know.
* The three older kids spent 4 weeks in swimming lessons. All passed their classes, Ryan passed two levels.
* Katie got her last Hep A booster shot... her pysch out was way worse than the shot
* We ended up donating over 90 boxes of garage sale items from our sale and the remanents from the DI garage sale in May. The majority being from the DI sale.
* Chris took the older three to the first movie in the park at Island Park in June. They saw Kung Fu Panda
* We have enjoyed two Sundays watching our minor league baseball team the FM Redhawks play at Newman Outdoor Field. Thank you Mike for the free tickets. We hope we get to enjoy another game before the season is through.
* We took family pictures with my parents at the Fargo Country Club. Now to decide what to order.
* The river crested at 27.5 ft in June... the very day the FCC was going to reopen the last remaining holes making us an 18 hole golf course again. We are still waiting for all 18 holes.
* I edited and put out another GSAB newsletter. I am praying to have the strength to say "no" next year.
* Katie attended JFK dance camp again this summer. She really enjoyed it and can't wait to go next year again
* We took the girls to Camp Cormorant again on July 12 for 5 days. Meghan did the ropes course this year and Katie did the adventure camp. They had a cold week and probably both froze, but neither thought to buy another sweatshirt in the camp store.
* I went to the Turf and met my friends Dani and Troy when they landed in Fargo. We used to go to the Turf all the time in college. Good times.
* I went to a gathering of my friends from work celebrating the graduation of our friend Kayleigh who is a cocktail server at the club. For the second year in a row... we got busted by the cops. Jerks. They even stopped me saying I hit the car behind me when I backed up. I never did, they were just checking to see if I was drunk. Give me a break.
* Ryan went to Busy Beaver camp the same week the girls were at camp. He went from 9-12 everyday. He had a blast. Ryan will be going again for a week in Aug.
* I got to go to the street fair on Thurs and Fri while Ryan was at camp. That was fun
* Saturday we took the girls to see Harry Potter 6 at the Ultrascreen. What a great movie. LOVED IT! and we all want to go again.

Well... that should catch you up on our summer so far. Run Run Run is all we do, but we love it that way! So what if the weeds aren't pulled, the lawn not mowed or the house clean. It's SUMMER!

A bunch of swimmers!

The kids have been taking swimming lessons for the last 4 weeks. Ryan was in Beginners for the first two and passed that level and moved on to level 1 for the last two weeks. Well today he came home and he had passed level one and can move on to level two next summer once he gets a little taller. Guess all that swimming at the Y this past school year helped him out.

Meghan was in level 5 and passed to level 6. Katie was in level 3 and passed to level 4! Wahoo! Way to go Andreachi kids! And next summer Aaron can start swimming lessons. Yeah!!!

Flood Protection!

Yesterday Fargo voted for a .5% slaes tax increase to pay for permanent flood protection. The votes came in and it was approved by 90.7% to 9.3%. WOW! Do you think Fargo wants some permanent protection??? I would say so!

HMMM....

So I find I am not blogging as much any more. It's not that things aren't going on, it's just that there are too many things going on. AH Summer!

And so on...

I just want thank the Safety Patrol in KY! What a wonderful department that was. They were there within 5-10 minutes of us stopping on Sunday and stayed till we were all safe and where we needed to be. Oh and of course the lady found us a mechanic to fix the van.

Thank you also to the Michigan DI team that stopped that Sunday to see if we needed anything.

Thank you to the semi that stopped to help in MN when my wheel came off.

Thank you to Chris for coming to rescue us. And I hope he gets better cause now he has streph throat.

Thank you to the wonderful DI kids we had this year. They were awesom and so good on this trip. They worked hard and know that they can achieve so much more. I, Chris and Kelsi are SOOOOOO Proud of them!

Busted Part Three...

OK, I might actually get this finished today. Don't hold your breath though. HAHA! Closing ceremonies were just as great as Opening ceremonies. Most of the kids were able to get their MudDI waters pin sets finished when some boys from Wisconsin showed up to trade with them. They were super nice and the girls were thrilled.

Ceremonies started out with the huge Power Cube! When opened it revealed six different puzzles that were completed by 2 elementary teams, 2 middle level teams and 2 high school teams. Each set of team competed against each other for the chance to win a $1000. It was so much fun to watch and to cheer the teams on! After that they announce the winners in each category of challenges. The girls actually sat on the edge of their seats to see if they would win. It was sweet. Kelsi and I knew better. HAHA! Private DI was last and before announcing the winners in each challenge that would show some of the challenges up on the big screen. Well Katie who hates loud noises and was pretty crabby through the whole ceremony saw her clip of her running around like a crazy flower. She was so excited and we were all screaming for her. Of course neither team won anything, but we were so proud of them. The 3rd graders took 36/43 and the 4th/5th graders took 52/54. At least neither team finished last. :)

After Closing ceremonies we went back to the dorm and dropped off our stuff and then made our way to the after party. There was pizza and drinks and tons of snacks, nachos, candy anything you could want. There was a DJ and Games to Go for the kids to play on. We danced, and ate and had a blast. Only downfall was when Katie got lost. It was scary but we found her soon enough and she learned her lesson. Party ended and midnight and that was when Meghan finally hit the wall and melted down. She didn't get to do the face painting that the other 3 girls had gotten done because the lady had to be finished. Katie cried too. They were all exhausted and they needed to go to bed.

I think I got to bed by 1 that night after packing everything up for the trip home the next morning.

Day six:
We hit the road at about 8:30, got coffee and breakfast and were ready to go home. Sheri was driving my van and we had Kaitlyn, Meghan, Lauren, and Mikayla with us. Well about 40 miles into Kentucky my cvan alarm goes off and the van is over heating. We called Bob and stopped on the side of the road. I am freaking out thinking we are never going to make it home. Tracy went walking up to find the mile marker and Bob investigated under my hood. At that time Kentucky's Safety Patrol pulled up behind Tracy and us to see what we needed. Apparently my Serpentine belt had come off, and my air conditioner pipe was cracked through. Sara the Safety Patrol called her mechanic and he agreed to stay back from his trip to Gaitlinberg to look at the van and fix it but he was in church and couldn't do it till 2 PM. It was like 10:30. So I am upset and crying because this is my van. Chris is at home freaking out cause he wasn't there etc. Finally the tow truck guy shows up with a flat bed trailer and gets my van loaded up. We had put Tennessee or BUST on the back and it was definitely BUST! The tow truck guy gets it loaded and off he goes with Tracy who said he was smoking, talking on the phone and crossing 4 lanes of traffic with my van on the back of his truck. He literally took us to some backwoods shop in KY! Bob was laughing that it was a scene out of Deliverance. We ditched the van at the shop and went off to have lunch in London, KY! After lunch we went shopping at Walmart till the guy called about the van. Good news was that we could drive it home without the a/c, but that would need to be repaired when we got home. Funny thing is it was new as of the day before we left ND.

So the mechanic put in a new waterpump because there was some play it int - that was a new pump as of Feb, and reset my serpentine belt. Taped up my A/C and we were off. We got to Seymour IN, where we had stayed the first night at 6 PM. Took us 9 hours to go 5 hours. UGH! No swimming for the kids in Madison that night and no comfy beds at the Marriot either for us adults. We pulled into Madison at 1:30 AM! UGH! Oh and in that time I thought my Ipod was stolen too. It was a stellar day.

Day Seven:
So Memorial Day was a beautiful day. I found my Ipod! Thank God. AT least it wasn't stolen. We hit the road at 8:30-8:45 and didn't stop till we hit Maple Grove, MN. We were making great time and would be home by 4:30 PM. YEah!!!!! So we took our lunch to go and hit the road. Around the St Cloud exits the van started feeling like we were driving on a really bumpy road. It was get better than worse, then better than worse. Sheri called Bob and asked if the road was bumpy. He said yes, and you're not losing your wheel. So we said OK and continued to drive. I let go of the steering wheel and the van wasn't pulling or anything. But it kept getting worse and Sheri and I decided to pull over. Sheri called Bob and told him. We were about 1 1/2 miles from Avon, MN. We looked at the wheels, they were all straight and seemingly not falling apart. I called Chris and told him and he said go to Avon and meet Bob and have him look at it. We relayed that message to Bob and started driving. We literally drove two feet and the van went Thunk and tilted off to the right front! I thought I had driven in a hole. Sheri opened the door and said the wheel fell off! OMG! Are you fricking serious!

Yep there it lay with two lug nuts on the side of the road. I flipped my hazards on. and Sheri and I just hugged each other. Katilyn was crying, Marissa was crying and I was flipping out. I called Chris and he flipped out. We called Bob, they turned around and came back. What f'ing luck! I was just floored. We were all laughing at that point cause what else could we do. State troopers showed up, got us a tow truck and we hauled half the kids up to Albany at the DQ. I know the troopers thought we were nuts. Chris gave Lhonda the boys and headed out to pick us up in Albany. I was just thanking God that we had decided to pull over when we lost the wheel. Had I been going 75 in the left lane like I was it could have been awful. We could have been hit by another vehicle etc. I am just sick thinking about what could have happened.

So the van got towed to Albany, Chris came and picked us up and the girls were all thrilled to see him. They were talking non stop to him. Bob joked that my St. Christopher medal didn't work, but then I told him that St. Christopher is the patron saint of safe travel, not the patron saint of your van won't break down. So it did work. We were all safe. We made it home at 7:30 that night. THANK GOD!!!

So the story with the van. When my a/c was replaced it needed to have three screws tightened down. One in the back and two in front. The back is supposed to be tightened first, the belt set then everything is tightened down. Apparently the mechanic never tightened down the back bolt and we lost that. The system then tilted and the belt came off flying up and taking out the a/c pipe. As for the wheel? 3/5 posts that my lugnuts screw into were rusted through and the remaining 2 snapped. Why those three were rusted we have no idea. Maybe it sat in a snowbank too long, we don't know. It should be fixed by the end of today and Chris and Bob will go pick it up on Sat. I refuse to drive it and I have a feeling it will be traded off in the next couple of months.

So overall the trip was an awesome one. At very least it was one the kids or adults will ever forget. WE all had a blast and we are all home safe. I am still very tired, but we are getting back in our routine and guess what???? We are very psyched for next year's DESTINATION IMAGINATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Busted Part Two!

So other things happened on Day Three: The girls did some pin trading in the afternoon. Kelsi and I also got to go to the Team Managers room for treats and massages. Oh and my credit card got declined. Apparently they flagged it after I charged $400 plus for Dollywood tickets. Oh well got that cleared up though. When I got back to the girls trading pins, Katie was crying because it was hard for her. She is shy and didn't like going up to the kids to ask to trade, well some guy must have seen her crying and came up to her and said "I don't like trading pins and I don't want to take these home." and he handed her a bag with 10 NH pins in it. She was just thrilled! And then that made it easier for her.



Day Four: We went to Dollywood!!!! Oh the kids were excited. We got to see the Smokey Mountains and ride all the rides. Meghan went on her first roller coaster ever and it was called the TN Tornado and it went upside down three times. She was so excited! She wanted me to go but I said no way! I don't do the upside down thing. AHHHH!

The 3rd graders went off with Tracy to ride rides that were a little less scary and the other four adults and 5 kids went to ride more thrill rides. We decided to go on Mystery Mine. Didn't look so bad from the outside and looked like a ride I had been on at Valley Fair so I talked Meghan into going. Bob, Sheri, myself took, Meghan, Mikayla, Kaitlyn, Lauren and Zoe on this ride. Apparently Kelsi was the only smart one and she stayed behind. OMG!!!!!!!!!! It was the worst ride I had ever been on. Inside the building were two spots where the ride went straight up vertically and then dropped back down past vertical at 100 degrees. I swear I opened my one eye one and promptly closed it. We got off the ride and Mikayla was crying, and Meghan looked shell shocked like a bomb went off in front of her. My hands shook for 1/2 hour. Yikes!!! SO we all agreed to come back and get Mystery Mine t-shirts and wear them when we got back to Fargo.

We then met up with the younger kids for lunch and a couple of rides then split off again. We rode the Thunderhead - Meghan went twice and that was fun too. We ended the day with the Dollywood Express which we took around the park. It was a great day! Oh but what an awful ride that was. HAHAHA!

Day Five:

This was an early day as well. The Dotties had a ton of work to do on their set and to practice and it didn't go very well. My 3rd graders had their Instant Challenge and while they didn't completely complete the challenge, they never gave up, for which I was proud. After the IC they performed their TaDa! and did an awesome job. We then went to the University Center to see another Challenge in their catergory and they were amazed. It was a middle level team, 6-8 graders, but WOW!!! I taped it to show the others later. What a great job they did. They then went out and did their Chalk art and completed their health survery to recieve another pin. We then went to the KCC to trade pins while waiting for the other team to finish working.

Lunch was in the World's Fair Park again and we had pulled pork sandwiches. Food was awesome, you never wanted for anything as there was plenty of everything. Meghan was stressing about pin trading but I told her not to worry and I would help her out that afternoon. I had my own pins to trade too but I had been helping Katie with hers as well. The hardest was finding all the states participating in the MudDI waters pins. They were a set of 9 guitars from MT, ND, SD, IA, IL, IN, NE, MO and MN. You started out with all 9 from your state and then you traded the other 8 to complete the state. MT was extremely hard to find and our AD's were able to get 9 for us. I think only a couple of kids didn't complete their sets. But the hard thing was other people not doing MudDI waters wanted the set too, so they were trying to trade you for those pins.

So the 3rd graders traded pins while the other kids got ready for their performance. We went and saw another team perform the INstinct Messaging as our kids were and man was our team in trouble. Oh well. They performed and it was great. Their set stayed up, thankfully and they got through it. The experience alone was worth the trip and they are all pumped for next year. The parents on the other hand need the summer off!

So more pin trading while we waited for scores. The hot pin this year were the set of 8 California Hard Rock Cafe guitars. Meghan got one and Katie I think got two. Pins from other country were hot items too. Katie got one from Guatamala. Meghan and I both got ones from Korea. There were people lined up trading pins every where. Just kept going on and on. So we traded pins. Katie got upset again and not even 30 seconds after she started crying again another guy came up and told her "I don't want to bring these home. I think you should." and he gave her 10 CO pins to trade. And one of those was the one I had been searching for so yeah for me!!!!! I looked at Sheri and said, maybe I should start crying and I will get pins too. hahahaha!

But pretty much all the pins got traded. We came home with a few ND ones left but over all the experience of pin trading was worthwhile. After dinner we got all ready for Closing ceremonies and off we went.

Part three later...

Tennessee or BUST!!! It was more like BUSTED!!!

OMG!!! what a week! This will be the longest post ever I swear! First and foremost we made it to TN safely and thank God we made it home safely too despite a few extra stops along the way. But we'll get to that later!

Day one: Tues the 19th. We took off at about 8 AM after getting Starbucks and stopping to plug the DVD player back in in Bob's van. Bob's van had Katie, Marissa, Brenna, Lauren and Kaitlyn. Tracy and Bob were the adults. They led the pack. My van had Mikayla, Meghan, Zoe, Kelsi, Sheri and I. We drove long and hard the first day and made it to Seymour, IN that night about 12:30. That left us about 4 hrs and 45 minutes left the next day. The girls were all awesome or assume and Chris would say and they spent their time playing their Ds's, and watching movies.

Day two: off to KNoxville at about 8 AM. We arrived at about 1 PM. Kelsi and I got the teams registered and then it was off to the dorm rooms. We came out of registration with so much stuff. Holy cow! It was all very organized though and we were lucky and got our Dollywood tickets for Friday. Got put in Hess Hall on the 4th floor. Which unfortunately for the 11 of us girls was a male bathroom floor for Globals. So the 11 of us had to go to the 3rd or 5th floor for bathrooms and showers. UGH! but we got everyone settled and Sheri, Bob and Tracy took the kids and their pins to the Global pep rally while Kelsi and I tried to find where to bring my props for our challenge the next day. That's when the trouble started. We couldn't find out where to take my props. I got yelled at for driving where I shouldn't have in front of the convention center. No one could tell us where we were supposed to go. We finally started talking to the cops instead of the UT people cause they had a better clue. So we ended up at the loading dock at the KCEC building where my kids were supposed to perform at 11 the next day. The guys at the loading dock had no clue where I should put my 2x2x2 box and when I went in there was no other 2x2x2 boxes so I knew I wasn't supposed to be there. SO that was when I first started crying and called our AD Roxanne. She came down and we figured out where I was supposed to go. Meanwhile Kelsi and I are missing our team manager meeting. Got the props stored, got hugs from Roxanne and from big barrel of a guy from NY and then Brian took Kelsi to her meeting and I got to mine.

So after our meetings we made it to supper then I went off to the dorms to get our opening ceremony tickets and met up with Brian our other AD for ND and turned Mikayla, Meghan, Lauren, Marissa, Brenna and Katie over to him so they could march in with the other ND teams for opening ceremonies. And all I can say is WOW!! All the kids and people. The Stadium was packed! It was so awesome watching our kids walk in opening ceremonies carrying our State Flag! They had a lazer show and speeches. The kids were on webcam and then they dumped confetti on them afterwards. They were so thrilled and happy and what a cool experience!

Afterwards it was back to the dorms and showers for all 8 girls. What a chore that was! But got it done and was in bed by at least 11:30 PM. Right? UGH!

Day three: The Dotties - 4th/5th graders had their instant challenge early that morning so they were off to breakfast by 7 I think. They did a good job and their ending TaDa was awesome. Mystery Inc which is the thrid graders and my team ater breakfast and then headed up to the KCEC for their main challenge. They went through their box again and then we chilled till challenge. We got checked in at 9:50 and they showed their appraisers their stuff in their box and then it was off to the Studio to prepare their challenge solution. They got 30 minutes in there and it was the longest 30 minutes of my life. Sitting there not saying anything or reminding them to check their notes again was nerve racking. But we made it through and then they got to make sculpture out of playdoh for another appraiser while they waited to go in for their challenge. They made a question mark, octopus and a few other things the appraiser hadn't seen that day so that was fun for them.

So in for the challenge they went. I was extremely nervous for them. It was a big room and there were lots of people. The Dotties all showed up to see their challenge and they thought it was great. Their detective was Nate the Great played by Marissa, Brenna was Annie and Katie played a crazy talking flower. Their superstition was flowers on a ship bring bad luck. Their surprise element was a invisible padlock. I was so scared they wouldn't know what a padlock was, but they did and figured out how to put it into the play. They didn't go over time, and they had a blast, were loud enough too. The appraisers talked to them and then we all went upstairs for team pictures.

We had lunch at the World Fair Park and it was great. Pulled beef sandwiches. The food was endless at every meal, tons to eat, tons of drinks, water everything you could want and more. And there was hardly any waiting to get your meal. Very well organized and managed. After lunch Sheri, Tracy and Bob took the girls swimming while Kelsi and I attempted to drive to the convention center to pick up my props and drop hers off. That went a little more smoothly than my props trip went. We got the scores for Mystery Inc. They almost earned half of the 300 points they could have gotten getting a score of 147.96. I was very proud of them. The appraisers loved Katie's flower character. Kelsi picked up the pictures, I got the scores and props and then we made our way over to the KCC, where I realized I had been driving with my parking break on. UGH! I swear I am so stupid sometimes. But Chris assured me I would be fine. We dropped off the props and were dumbfounded by the other props. OMG!!! They were amazing compared to ours. Our teams have a lot of work to do next year. WOW!

We had dinner next and then went back to the dorms to let the kids work on what they were going to do for their Improv skit at the Improv Fiesta that night. They fought and disagreed, cried and finally got something together. They dedicated it to Chris because he couldn't make the trip. And they were great, again another proud moment for us. They then went over to the other Improv stage where they did challenges with a college Improv team. And what a blast. They all got to go on stage and perform and recieved a pin for doing so. They also got a pin from doing their skit too. Man were they excited.

Another late night and they made it to bed by 11 PM, Kelsi and I a bit later. Sigh!

Posting part 2 of the story later. Stay tuned!!!

Two days left!

Two days left till we leave for TN!!!! We are leaving Tues morning between 7:30 and 8. I am really excited. I have the team box packed and laundry is almost done. Tonight I will pack the bags with the clothes while I watch 3 hours of Survivor. yeah~! Tomorrow will be spent running around and doing odds and ends before the trip and at 7:30 PM everyone should have their bags here and we can pack the van. Hope it all fits. We have a total of 13 people going and hopefully it will be a smooth trip. Only bump being that tomorrow my van needs to go in to get a leak fixed in the air conditioner compressor or something like that. Chris assures me the mechanic, KNOWS it has to leave for TN on Tues. ASSURES ME IT WILL BE DONE! UGH! We shall see.

The garage sale was yesterday and with the silent auction we raised about $1700. Overall fundraising efforts have earned us $8400. Our goal was $10,000, but I am pretty happy with what we raised. I think everyone is.

Opening and Closing ceremonies will be webcast live. They will start at 6:30 PM CST on Wednesday and Saturday nights. Click here to get to the link. Maybe you will see us. Both Katie and Meghan will be walking in opening ceremonies. And both teams including Kelsi and I should be walking in closing ceremonies! We'll try to wave!

Anyway wish us luck. Wahoo!