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...