Excited for the Summer

I have posted a couple of times over the last few weeks about the little community pool that I am on the board for.  The first post was of mt fears and concerns, and wondering if it was really worth it.  The second post was more up beat and saying that it might not be as bad as I thought it would be...  After two full board meetings, Many calls/emails, and working for three hours at the pool today, I have to say that I am SO EXCITED for this summer.  We have a great pool board going this year.  Everyone is excited to work and get things done.  It is going to be great!!!

Catalina's Art

My bedroom door

Catalina LOVES to draw.  Unfortunately it's not always on paper :(  But a few weeks a go she took up "hanging" the pictures she drew on to the was in different spot.  She can even explain why she hung each picture were she did.  So cute!

This one is for me,
so it is above "my" chair



This one is for Josh,
so it is by his tie rack



By the door into my bathroom

A new shoe

My friend recently posted on facebook that she had gotten a new pair of shoes...  And they have "fingers" in them.  They have a spot for each one of your toes (assuming you have 5 toes)...  I was intrigued, so I had to google them to learn more (they are called Five Finger shoes in case you wanted to know)...  I learned that they are suppose to feel like you are barefoot...  Which I love to be.  In fact I HATE wearing shoes and socks...  I also learned that they cost more than I would normally spend on... 5 pairs of shoes.  But I was still intrigued.  I found from the website a couple local stores that carry them, and I planned yesterday to take Josh to one of the stores so I could try on a pair (see yesterday's blog for why we didn't go)...  But this afternoon we did make it to REI so I could try on a pair...  I was hoping that I wouldn't like them (because I really don't like to pay THAT much for shoes... remember I HATE shoes)...  The sales lady was also trying to persuade me to NOT by them...  Telling me that they take a LONG time to get use to them and that they really work different muscles and make things hurt for a while...  But I have to say after trying on a pair that I really LIKED the way they felt...  And after talking to Josh I think that since I am use to NOT wearing shoes anyways, then it might not be as big a difference for me than if I wore GOOD shoes...  But still they cost A LOT...  We'll have to think some more on it...

What a day...

I started today running...  I had slept through the alarm and it was ten minutes before I needed to walk out the door to take Brooklyn to the dentist... It was four and a half hour later when I was running out the door again to get the three girls to school...  I thought I had forgotten my phone, and ran back in to grab it...  Instead of finding it I rolled my ankle...  Hearing several popping type noises...  And feeling some horrible pain...  Ten hours later there is still a lot of pain...  But not a lot of running :)

What do you get when three little girls are playing???

The other night we were able to get together with our good friend's the Browns.  We love to get together with them and play games, and our kids all have a good time too.  But sometimes those little girls can be sneaky...  This last time they decided to sneak nail polish...  Here is what you get when a 3 year old, 4 year old and 5 year old paint their own nails :)

Catalina's hand...



Catalina's feet!  Love the purple :)




Savannah's fingers





Savannah's toes... 

 she did a little bit better



Maybe I have been reading too much...

I started reading a series of books a few weeks back.  I am now on the forth book of eight or nine.  And were as these book are fictitious, they are based on real historic events.  And some of these real historic event are very sad and scary.  In reading these books over the last few weeks I have noticed something...  I, along with my VERY over active imagination, am, for lack of a better word, a worry wart.  In reading about all these bad things happening, I start to worry about bad things happening now a days...

You'd think I wouldn't read these books.  I already know what happens, it is history.  And I have actually read these books before... twice!   But I love to read...  And I love these books.

Easter!

A wonderful day with the family.  Josh sang twice in church today.  Both som=ngs were so beautiful.  It is hard to pick my favorite one.  After church we headed over to the Lockard's for a great dinner and an Easter Egg hunt...  Great day :)

Brooklyn's Cleaning Style???



She only looks
 sweet and innocent :)



Brooklyn wanted to go with her dad yesterday.  Josh was going to our friend's house to help Tony with some yard work.  This was after Tony had spent some time helping Josh to get Jazzmine running again (THANKS TONY)!  Josh told Brooklyn to finish her chores and clean her room if she wanted to go with him.  He then made a quick run to his parent's house to pick up a tool....  He got back and went to check on Brooklyn only to find that she hadn't really done anything with her room yet, and that it was still VERY messy, one of the messiest it has every been (which is saying a lot).  So Josh decided to go a head and go and not wait for her to finish...

Brooklyn came up stairs maybe 10 minutes later looking for Josh.  She was very upset when she learned that he had left and was not coming back for her.  She had finished cleaning her room and was ready to go...  I was a little shocked!  She has NEVER cleaned her room that fast before.  So I quizzed her a little on it.  I soon learned that she had not vacuumed it yet, and she was really surprised that I would ask that of her (She had dried GRASS all over the floor in her room).  I then asked a few more questions on what she had done and she quickly answered that she had done all the required things (except the vacuuming of course).  I was still sceptical...  So I went down to check... 

And I have to say that I felt truly repentant...  Except for needing to be vacuumed and a couple little things her room was very clean!!!  Her bed was even made!  I quickly told Brooklyn that I was sorry that I had doubted her.  I pointed out the couple of things that needed to be fixed and then reminded her to vacuum...  I was ever thinking that maybe I should run her over to her friends house because she had done such a good job, so fast...  But as I was getting ready to leave I thought to ask if she had made sure to get every thing out from under the bed...  I could see on her face that she had not...  And I thought that maybe I should take a look under bed...  And there I found the MESS!!!

She's actually a tricky fish :)

Apparently Brooklyn thought that I would forget to look under her bed (I almost did)...  Because there was everything she could fit under it.  Shoes, trash, toys, blankets, more shoes, roller skates!!!  It was quite evident that she had not cleaned her room, but had simply pushed everything under her bed!!!

Needless to say she did not get taken to her friends house to play, and she had a big mess left to clean when I finished pulling everything I could reach out form under the bed!  Oh and she still had to vacuum :)

What is this???

What is this???

This is the results of carring a sleeping three year old from the car to her bed...

Battle Of The Books!

Today was the final "battle" in the Battle of the Books season.  It was the regional match up.  And there were A LOT of kids there!  I think they said something like 663 kids were there today.  Crazy!  They had three rounds with ten questions each.  Josh Jr.'s team did well.  They barely missed coming in first in both the first rounds (darn those Westing Games questions...).  But they were rewarded for all their hard work with a first place metal in the third round!  They did FANTASTIC!  I am so proud of Josh Jr.!  He did so good for his team.  It was a great time and it was good to see the good attitudes on the kids even when they didn't win.

Why did we move again???

Josh would answer that by saying I made us move...  Which is mostly true.  But I had good reasons for it.  I was pregnant with our 6th kid.  The house we were living in had 3 finished bedrooms.  We talked about just finishing the basement, but we were planning on just one bed room in the basement, and we were concerned that it would be to small for two teenage boys (you know down the road).  We also looked in to expanding the house upwards...  Getting rid of the vaulted ceilings in the great room and putting in a couple of bedrooms there...  We even had to contractors come out to give us a bid...  But I guess they didn't think we were serous, because they never came back with a bid...

So now it is early January 2010 and our 6th kid is on the way and I began to think that we might need more room...  And after much convincing of Josh we headed out to look for a bigger home...  We found MANY!!!  We liked lots, and even started to love a few.  Each home we looked at had to have 4 bedrooms minimum, with room to finish more.  But for one reason or another they all fell apart.  We put an offer down on one home, and never heard back from them...  Really!  In this market!  So we set out again and found another home we liked a lot...  They got back to us and said they wanted more money!!!   So we looked again...  And we stumbled on a FANTASTIC steal!!!  Really!!!  I know that we were suppose to move to this house (even though we had some hesitations).  Every thing worked out just perfect for us to buy this beautiful home.  And we have been living here happily now for 13 1/2 months...

This great home came with a finished basement!  And 6! Yes 6 bedrooms!!!  With 6 bedrooms only 2 kids had to share one room.  We put the little girls (Savannah and Catalina) together, because we thought they wouldn't really like their own room anyways...  But here it is 13 1/2 months later and Ben still sleeps in Josh Jr.'s room with him, and now Brooklyn has taken up the chant that she too is scared and can't sleep in her room!  She slept a few nights on Josh Jr.'s floor, until he decided that one roommate was enough and kicked her out.  So tonight she is sleeping on the floor in the little girls room...  So I ask again...  Why did we move???  We have TWO spare rooms right now!!!  TWO!  Maybe we should move Brooklyn and Ben into one room to share since they are the two that are afraid to sleep alone...

Was that the end???

I have mentioned in previous posts that Josh and I are watching Scrubs on Netflix...  Well we watched the last episode Sunday night.  It was a tear jerking, sad, last episode in a series finally...  Except that there is a WHOLE other season!!!  That's right another season!  Now it is only like 12 episodes, but it's still another season!  So what happened?  Did they think they were ending so they ended the show???  Did they get moved to another network???  Is there going to be another sad ending episode???  Josh and I are not to sure we want to watch the next season.  We saw the good by show...  I guess we'll see...

Myra is 10 months old!

This year is going way too fast!  I would love to slow it down...  I am enjoying Myra everyday, and all her fun new things she does...  Here are a couple of pictures of her from today!  She smiles for the camera now...  But she also tries to get the camera too :)

A Family walk

It was beautiful day today!  I was surprised, I thought it would be colder today...  Glad I was wrong :)  Since it was such a wonderful day we went on a walk as a family tonight.  When I suggested the walk I was thinking maybe around the neighborhood...  But my kids (with the help of their daddy) thought it might be fun to walk to their grandmas house...  And so we did!  Josh figures it is around 1.7 miles to get there...  But we walked, so there was the round trip to take into consideration.  It wasn't to bad of a walk surprisingly.  It only took us about 35 minutes to walk there, not too bad considering we had a 3 year old and 5 year old WALKING the whole way...  And the girls were very thankful that Grandma Julie gave them a ride home :)

What would you pick???

You know the question...  If you could pick any super power, what would it be???  Josh and I have had this discussion many times before.  And Josh has questioned my pick...  I would pick stretchiness...  Like Mrs. Incredible...  Josh feels this a waste of super powers, but really I think it would be the greatest...  Fussy baby in the middle of the night - you wouldn't even have to get out of bed.  Riding in the car and the baby loses her pacifier...  So many great things could come from this super power...  Like right now as I write this on the lap top...  I really need a tissue, but I would have to put every thing down to get up to get one, but if I had stretchiness I could grab the tissue, give Myra her pacifier, and still be working on my blog...

Crazy Baby!

Could really use some help here!!!

Myra is quite the crawler.  And she continues to try to reach new and exciting places...  But sometimes she just can't quite reach her destination...

Fine!  I will do it on my own!!!



Not sure...  Is that a smile???



Something I have never done before...

Yesterday and today I had the opportunity to do something I have never done before.  I had to call and offer the manager position for the swimming pool to someone... And I also had to call two people to tell them they did not get the job...  I should have done this a couple days  ago, but I procrastinate when I am doing things outside my comfort zone...

Growing Pains???

My 5 year old is waking frequently at night with pain in her legs and feet.  And it seems to help them feel better if we rub them...  But what is the cause odd these pains???  Is it muscle cramps or growing pains???  I don't remember the boys having this kind of pain, and I know they grow.  In fact in just the last month Josh Jr. legs have grow enough to make them longer than mine... He's 11!  I still have a couple of inches on him, but when his upper body catches up with his legs, I won't be.

But Savannah is suffering with pains at night...  And then I "suffer" with a tired cranky little girl who wants her feet rubbed :(  YUCK!  I HATE touching feet (maybe some day I will do a post on a week in the summer of 97' when I had to touch WAY more feet than I ever would want too).  But I love my sweet little girl, and so I rub her feet until I can convince her to call out for Josh :)

The Monster in the Closet

This evening Catalina said she would stay in the room while Brooklyn showered (Brooklyn is afraid to shower alone), however she soon came into to the office where Josh and I were talking.  She proceeded to tell me that she had snuck away on Brooklyn...  She brought with her two dolls, and asked me to play.  I played briefly, and then we sent her back to check on Brooklyn...  She left the dolls.  Josh called after her to come back and grab them, and she either chose not to, or didn't hear him (hard to tell with Catalina...  some days we wonder if her hearing really does work).  Regardless, Catalina did not come back...  So Josh "hid" the dolls. 

When Catalina got back and noticed the missing dolls she questioned what happened to them.  Josh told her that a monster had come and taken them away because she had left them out.  She was very sad, and turned to me and asked if I had seen the monster take away her dolls...I told that I had seen the monster take the dolls, and maybe if she cleaned up the rest of her toys the monster would bring the dolls back.  It took a little convincing and coaching, but finally Catalina cleaned up the office and said she had cleaned up the other rooms (all though on inspection she had not really cleaned up the other rooms).  And the "monster" returned her dolls to where she had left them while she was out of the office...

But when we questioned Catalina about her "cleaning" we learned that when she took some papers to her room she quickly tossed them in the door, because she was afraid the "monster" would be in her closet and get her!  And there the papers stayed until I moved them some time later.  Lying in the door way, an offering to the "monster".

Maybe it's not as bad as I thought it would be...

Tonight was my first "real" board meeting with the new board...  It came after a long day with many meetings...  And I have to say I wasn't really looking forward to it...   But I have to say that tonight's meeting was great!  It really went well, and I have high hopes for this pool season!

Some thing to think about...

I love Christmas!  Really it's true!  But I never realized how much until tonight...  I was lying on our bed watching Josh hang up the laundry, he has been doing all the laundry now for about 6 years.  And I noticed something a little disturbing...  All of the shirts/blouses he hung for me for the last week were either red or green with the exception of one.  Red or green!  Even as I sit here typing this now in my pj's, I am wearing a green top...

So Sweet

It was one of those days.  One, that at times, didn't seem like it was going to end. My kids would go from playing (loudly) with each other, to picking on someone until they screamed!  Fun for mom!  But the day ended on a great note...

Josh came home early from work (yay) with flowers for me (double yay)!  Then I got to leave him home with ALL the kids (OK Brooklyn was not there, but you get the point), to go out to a fun party swap.  I got home just in time for bed time prayers.  It is always hard to pick someone for prayers, because I know that there will always be someone that has to go last...  Tonight it looked like that would be Savannah...  She always has THE saddest eyes when she is last.  Josh Jr. had just finished his prayers and he had two choices...  His dad, or Savannah.  And sweet Josh Jr. picked Savannah...  He made her night!

Daddy Time!

Josh helping Brooklyn
 "climb" at the zoo

I have been blessed with 6 fantastic children and on wonderful, sweet, kind, caring, loving, giving (I could go on all day) husband.  When I set of to start this blog it was going to just be about Josh and Myra, but as I was downloading my pictures I saw some others I just had to share as well.  I think I have a few daddy's girls on my hands :)  They sure love their dad (what's not to love???)!  I am so grateful for such a wonderful husband!



Hugs for Savannah



Catalina "helping" daddy sweep



Daddy - 1
Myra - 0



A Sixth Sense

I am beginning to think my baby might have a sixth sense...  Many times today as I was getting ready to lay her down (because she was a sleep)...   Her eyes would POP open and she would quickly start to wiggle and turn over and cry...  Many times!!!  It took me three or four time to actually get her down in bed tonight.  Now I don't mind cuddling with my baby, I love to cuddle with her!  But the eyes popping open needs to stop :)

What's your guess???

Here is my agenda for the meeting I was in charge of this evening...


1. Welcome
     a. see written page
     b. Be sure to enter the drawing for one of five $10 gift cards
2. Membership Updates
     a. Plans to increase memberships
          i. We will have a flyer going home with all students in d11 this spring advertising our pool
         ii. Doing some “give away” on the Internet to get the word out on the pool
     b. Change in “Adult Couples” to include “2-person”
     c. Reminder of “family” rates being $325
3. Manager Updates
     a. See written page
4. Budget Review
     a. New pump for main pool was voted on by board in May 2010
          i. Pump was replaced for $3600
     b. NO discussion! Bylaw #11, Section 2 gives authority to BoD to approve
5. Work Days
     a. ALL Saturdays in May
     b. Benefit to general members who volunteer to help “open” pool
6. Board Member Responsibilities – General Info.
     a. Reminder, from bylaws, of responsibilities
     b. Clarify that Manager will be one of the “active” 9 board members
     c. If you want your voice to truly be heard and acted upon, join the board!
7. Board Member Elections
     a. Follow normal process for volunteers, voting, and selection of:
           i. Up to 8 “active” members
          ii. Up to 3 “alternates”


These are my notes (OK not notes, more my speech since I have to write every thing out)

• WELCOME

Thank you for being here to support the pool. We are looking forward to a great season this year. As you might have noticed there are only four Board members here this evening. Without going into any details, you do need to know that last summer and early fall of 2010 there was a big shake-up with your board; thus, the reason we are down to four members and no current manager. However, we ARE moving forward and are excited about VGRA’s future!

As a board we feel good about what has been accomplished to bring us back into an accurate financial and legal standpoint. We all want you to know that we are committed to YOU, the members, in making VGRA the best family pool in northeast Colorado Springs.

We desire to increase our membership, improve the communication, continue to have fun events, and get back into good standing with the neighborhood. We want there to once again be a long waiting list and people lined up to join! We are excited to reveal a new website and Face Book group, and have an email system set up so that board members can be reached with your comments or concerns.

You can be confident that we are on YOUR side, and we hope that you will choose to support the decisions that we’ve already made as well as ones we anticipate making in the future.

WE have a very full agenda this evening. The first five items on the agenda should go rather quickly as they are simply a review of information we the board felt the general membership deserved updates on.

Item number six on the agenda will take a little longer, but the bulk of this meeting will be spent on item number 7, which is the nomination and selection of our new board of directors.

We are grateful for the people that came early to share their comments. In order to insure that we have sufficient time to elect new board members, and allow them time to meet this evening, we appreciate in advance your willingness to hold your comments until after the meeting, or submit them on the comment cards provided. We can not promise to answer all questions this evening, but we will commit to sending a response out to the general membership by the end of April.

• Manager

As I mentioned before, VGRA is currently with out a manager. We as a board made the decision at the end of last summer to not renew Geoff as our Manager. The board has sat down and gone over what the manager has done in the past, and what we would like to see out of the manager in the future. We posted on several different Internet sites for a new manger. We had hoped to have a new manager in place by this evening; however we still have a couple more interviews to do. We will let the membership know as soon as a manager is hired

• Finances

Our treasury has provided a P & L and a budget for you to review. According to the bylaws in Article 11 Section 2, we do not need to have a vote on the bylaws unless it exceeds the previous years operating budget by more than 3%. We are happy to say that our budget for this year is actually under last year’s budget.

• Board Member Responsibilities

Read from Bylaws Article 6


So here is my question for you... How long do you think it took me to get through the first 5 agenda items??? And the pool's arch enemy was there trying to raise H-E-double hockey sticks!!! (Not trying to be mean, I kept it in the whole meeting and only said nice things to the person)











STRESS!!!!!

I mentioned in my blog here http://jandkcase.blogspot.com/2011/02/is-it-worth-it.html about being on a board for a little local swimming pool.  Tomorrow is the General Meeting for the "whole" pool!  And I (who was made president of the Board back in September) get to run the WHOLE meeting!!!  I am soooo excited!!!  I just love to stand up in front of hundreds of people (some of whom might be confrontational) and have to TALK and RUN the show!  I am sooooo excited!!!!

In case you missed the sarcasm...  I am STRESSED out and can't wait for tomorrow to be over!  I am not a public speaker by choice.  I was happy in my role as Secretary where I didn't have time to worry about speaking, because I was taking too many notes!  Let's hope for my sweet family that tomorrow goes well, so that stressed out mommy can go away :)

The Finals!

Tonight for FHE (family home evening) we had our finals for the first annual Case family WII tournament...

The four finalist each picked one "game" too play in the finals.  Brooklyn picked bowling, and it was a great start for her and me.  Brooklyn came in second with I thin a new high for her of 168, she also had 6 or 7 strikes!  I came in first that round with a 231 and 9 strikes.  Josh and Josh Jr. were a little concerned about the rest of the tournament, but came back with a great second round (Mario Cart) for them, with Brooklyn and myself coming in in the last two spots...  But going into the third round I was still in the lead...  Until I froze up on Skiing (my game pick) and totally blew it.  There was no coming back for me even though I was only one point behind Josh...  The last game was his pick.  And even though I threw up a good 242 on Hula Hoop, it was no where close to Josh's 314 (new high record for him)...

So the finals were...

Josh Sr. - First place
Karen - Second place
Josh Jr. - Third place
Brooklyn - Fourth place

And on a side note Ben beat Josh Sr. in the consolation round :)

General Conference

It is that time of year where My church holds a General Conference for the whole church world wide.  I was able to watch it with my family today (and yesterday).  General Conference is held twice a year.  The first weekend of April and October.  They have five sessions to watch/listen to.  I am happy to say that I was able to listen too four of them, and the fifth session is for Men only, so I really listened to all that I could!  There were so many great talks given over the two days.  I really felt the spirit (even with noisy kids in the room), and I am so grateful for the opportunity to watch them.  One of the talks today talked about sharing the gospel with those around us, and this is something that I don't do so good.  I love the church and I have a strong testimony, I have just always been afraid to share it with nonmember friends.  So tonight I thought I would post about General Conference and share my testimony that I know the church is true.  I know that there is a plan for us, and if we follow Heavenly Father's teachings we can live with Him again one day.  I am so grateful for my family and the fact that we can be together for all eternity. 

Today was a great Sabbath day!

Myra's Blanket

I was tempted to blog Catalina's conversation she had with her 8 month old cousin about pulling hair, and how it's "not nice or funny", but I have blogged about Catalina three times this week, so I thought it should be someone else's turn.  You might have noticed that I haven't done a blog about my hats in a while...  It's not that I have stopped knitting them (I finished one this week), I just haven't taken the time to take pictures of them.  In fact I have LOTS of new hats (guess I had better take some pictures soon).  But I did take a small break from hats to finish Myra's blanket.  I have knitted a blanket for each of my babies...  I usually have it done before the baby is born (or really soon after), but I took up knitting hats, and pushed off Myra's blanket.  But I can say now that it is finished.  I actually finished it last week!  YAY!

Funny Kids!

Josh Jr. has taught Catalina a new thing.  It is so cute.  The pictures don't really do it justis, so if you you want to see the video you will have to go to my facebook page.  Still trying to figure out how to post a video on my blog.  Yay!  Josh gpt the video to post on You tube...  Here is a link!

Catalina fun!