Tales of the Ordinary Days

Stuff. Tonight was date night. A very nice reprieve. And as always, there's a lot of stuff going on. Dogs to walk. Kids to raise. Employees to lead. Buildings to build. Flowers to water. Stuff. Lots of stuff. There are trainers by day and long-time friends by morning. New friends sprinkled throughout. Runs in the morning. Gym dates when we can work them in. And work to get done. All the time. Kids with stuff. Kids getting older. Parents getting older. Places to see. Pictures not yet taken. Full calendars, but yards and animals that still need tending. With many invitations for stuff full of other things and other people, tonight stayed true to us with Thursday night date night. Margaritas. Chips. Smiles. Sneezes. World problem solving and just plain trying to figure out our collective seven kids. Texts from the road and the football field. School updates and planned events for the weekend. Time never stands still. Constant movement. Work together. Every Wednesd...

Larry's in town. And we're having a good time. He started with a flight into Denver last Friday and has been tagging along our busy schedules ever since. Last night was a fundraiser in Omaha and then late-night sushi. Today is Husker football and Cabela's. Tomorrow is our last day of the Larry tour, so I believe a grill out is in order. For those who haven't met Larry, he's Garrett's dad. He and I have had a special bond from day one. We first met five years ago in Garrett's Denver kitchen. I had flown in to visit while Larry was doing the same. Garrett chose to surprise his dad with my later entry. At that point in Garrett and my early relationship, Larry knew of me, but knew little about me. He later said what he knew was "my son had stars in his eyes when he met you". In Garrett's defense, my mom later independently countered with "she fell fast. I never saw her fall for someone like that". So as Garrett and I were falling...

Some B-day flowers and balloons for good measure :) "You say it's your birthday. It's my birthday too, yeah...." My birthday is was technically yesterday. Birthday Weekend. And I love having my birthday. I love everything about. I'm grateful for my parents birthing me mid-September. A glorious time to celebrate being born. My memories are filled with sunny, but cooling, transitional days from summer into fall. As an adult, this annual celebration has most times been in the enjoyment of the outdoors with much anticipated first-of-fall weather. Last year's milestone was exceptional as I watched my son collect a football win under an orange moon sky. Friends gathered before and after this high school event as I donned my gift of a pink tiara. Birthdays of days past have included Husker football tailgates and wine with friends on the restaurant patios. A 40th b-day golf celebration was filled with a dozen friends on an otherwise tranquil Thursday nig...

Summer of 2008 ~ before the pool was drained Today as we drove home from the kids' various sporting events, Jake noticed that the neighborhood pool had a vacant parking lot. He asked if it was closed or opened, as he noticed there was water still in the pool. "They probably haven't drained the pool yet" was Garrett's answer. Although this answer was full of father logic and small talk; unknowing to the others in the car, it struck a nerve with me. A similar comment was made to me six years ago at the close of summer that year. The timing was sometime around Labor Day as this typically corresponds with annual pool draining. "They've got to have that damn pool drained by now" was the comment. And I'll never forget it. My kind counselor had tried using typical professional jargon in attempts to convince me to move on during that fateful summer. I wasn't following his good advice. In exasperation, he made this side comment. His ...

Me and my brothers (and yes, two of us were later recipients of braces) I think I have mentioned this before in my blogs. I grew up with brothers. Painful at times, but fun most times. I do know that I have thicker skin because of it. At a young age I was taught the art of fighting back physically, and mouthing back when Mom wasn't listening. I could scrap and hold my own with the best of them. I climbed trees and skinned my knees while battling to keep up with my older brothers and their friends. The forever little sister. I am now going to confess things my mother didn't know. Mom's typical response to our fighting and verbal sparring was very standard. "You three need to work out your problems on your own." A true travesty in today's culture of the forever helicopter mom. But she kept her word. We really did have to work it out on our own. There were great life lessons learned and I had bruises to prove it. Now confession time. Sorry in advanc...

Garrett, Ben and I assembling the dorm room Yesterday was moving day to UNL for Big Bad Ben. It was a good day. No tears. No angst. Just time for change and a rite of passage. Good for Ben and good for Mom. Earlier in the week, I worried of the pending fire drill that seemed imminent. As is typical for my middle child, little planning or packing had occurred in advance. Although Ben assured me he had it handled, I projected chaos on our scheduled 4:00 p.m. Friday move into Harper Hall. My organized self decided to follow Ben's blind lead and kick in Plan B, if necessary; make sure he took clean underwear and his backpack and then make a second trip to Lincoln later with all the things he forgot. I'm officially thankful for the short 40 mile commute. But Ben surprised me. With his dad's lead on Thursday night, he cleaned out his room and packed Home #1 for school. Based on Ben's hoarding ways, this was an unbelievable achievement to complete in just a night. Pick...

Skutt Football 2014 This morning began like any typical morning. At least what a "normal" Monday morning feels like to me. The alarm went off at 4:45 as a stark reminder of Garrett's 6:45 flight back to Denver. After a quiet and dark drive to the airport, I dropped Garrett off and headed home. Grant was the next who needed to get out the door. Today was the first day of official football practice for Skutt Catholic. Two-a-days with the first practice at 6:30 a.m. For the last 8 years, the start of high school football has been our official sign that summer is over. Somehow this pivotal date always sneaks up on me like a pouncing cat on an unsuspecting mouse. Boom. Today I acknowledged in disbelief that it really was August 11th. Planning for our busy May, full of graduation milestones, seems like yesterday. I am still cleaning up from the party. But such is life. This creep that starts slowly, but ends quickly, happens to us every year. This morning I was startl...