Congratulations...to us

Ten years. Today we've been married ten years! It's crazy. Seems like a milestone to me. Like it should really stand for something. Feels like I should have gotten a cruise?? or a trip to Europe?? or something after all these years? Oh well. Anthony spent the day at work, starting his summer menu, and I spent the day at church, at home with 4 boys and at a swimming pool birthday party. Great fun had by all.
Anyway, it feels like we couldn't possibly have been married so many years, but when I think back over all the things we done, I guess you really couldn't pack it in to much less. A summary:
Married June 12, 1999 in Mankato, MN. Lived there for a couple of years, in a little downstairs apartment, both working for McDonald's. Becky gets a job with Northwest Airlines in January 2001 and we make the move to Minneapolis - Burnsville to be specific. To a smallish 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment with an underground garage. The best part! Have Wyatt in 2002 and Anthony decides to go to culinary school in 2003. So Becky and Wyatt move to Indiana to live with Minka and Grandpa and Anthony takes off for New York City and the French Culinary Institute. Have Emmanuel in November 2003 and Anthony returns, an FCI graduate, in December. Hang around in Indiana and have Christian in 2005. Move to Long Island the summer of 2006 and return to Indiana in December. And finally to Ohio in 2007, where Jens was born in 2008.
Wow, so that's 7 big moves, and 4 boys in ten years. And every year of it has been wonderful!! Honestly! I wouldn't trade a single day together for anything. I recommend marriage to anyone. It's the best!

WOW

That's all I can say. It was the last day of school today. I feel like we slid in, holding our breath, and somehow made it to the end. And this is only year 1!!! of like many, many, many!!! I panic at the thought of real homework and 2 in full day school next year. But we have the summer to chill before we have to worry about that... rriiiggghhhttt. I feel like our summer is totally filling up already. Garage sale, VBS all next week, festivals at church, trip to Minnesota, 4th of July parades, Anthony and Jens' birthdays, PTO meetings, sister's moving and a wedding. The time is going to FLY by. I know it.
So they had field day during the morning at Wyatt's school. Jens and I went to help out and it was so much fun! I was the only parent that showed up to help his teacher so I got to be in charge of leading 20 1st graders through super crowded hallways from one activity to another. I found that I could do it! And first graders are kind of fun!! And they are up for doing almost anything you ask of them. They jumped as far as they could from a line of tape on the floor. They cheered each other on in the sack races. They threw rings at a post that was WAY too far away. And then they turned around a drew beautiful pictures of things they did throughout the year on a big piece of poster paper. It was awesome. It's great how they can just redirect from one thing to another and then throw themselves completely into it. I had to leave after the freeze pop station - which was everyone's favorite. :) Except one little boy - he turned on the projector in one of the rooms so he didn't get a freeze pop. I felt bad. You could tell he felt bad too. That's why I'm not sure I could be a teacher. It would break my heart to tell a kid they had to sit out of Field Day because they stuck their little finger out and popped that switch on the projector... He looked so scared right after he did it. Wyatt's teacher is great though and she did the right thing. Wyatt said she was crying at the end of the day. :( But he gave her a hug.
I am going to miss seeing Christian's teacher every day too - shout out to you!! :) She did such a fabulous job this year and forgave me EVERY time I forgot something. We won' t see her again next year :( but hopefully we'll see Emmanuel's teacher. We were so blessed with teachers this year!
Sigh. So now I'm sitting in total darkness, except for the tv and computer, trying to get the boys to finally go to sleep (Wyatt's first comment when he got in the car was 'now I get to stay up all night') and keep the baby sleeping. And there are how many more days left of summer??

Soccer is over

Well spring soccer ended last week. It was great fun. We took Emmanuel's team out for ice cream at DQ after his last game. Wyatt's team had a party on Friday. They both got trophies. Very exciting stuff! :)

Here are some pictures of Emmanuel playing soccer.

Chillin' in between quarters.

Get that BALL!!

Leading the pack! GO EMMANUEL GO!!

More Soccer!!

Here are some picture's from soccer - as promised. We had games Monday through Thursday last week and then Monday and Tuesday this week. Sigh. I'm so happy for an evening at home. Now if only the boys would go to sleep...

Anyway, here are pictures of Wyatt. He and Emmanuel have been playing at the same time lately and as Anthony is coaching Emmanuel's team, I've been watching Wyatt. But Emmanuel has a game on Saturday morning so I'll take some pictures of him then. I guess he's getting quite good.

Diving for the ball!
Super stellar kick! As Emmanuel would say 'very impressive.'
This is absolutely the cutest thing ever. They have to 'take a knee' if someone gets hurt. There are other times when they are scattered around the field down on one knee. I'll try to get a picture of that. It's just so cute. And I'm glad they're being taught to be considerate.

I have a picture exactly like this from when he played his first season. It's amazing how fast they're growing! You should come down and watch them play! They are getting good! :)

Another one bites the dust

A friend of mine (you know who you are) recently said she 'laughs in the face of disaster.' Well this is me laughing hahahahahahaha. Our vacuum has bit the dust. I'm pretty sure for the final time. Now I'm sure you are saying to yourself "THIS is a disaster??""Isn't she being a bit dramatic??". Well, anyone who lives with any children, let alone 4 boys!! knows that the lack of a vacuum borders on disaster. Add to that an old but small apartment that is fully carpeted and I'd say that tips the scales into the disaster field.

Do we have a funeral? That is the question. This vacuum that we've been using has been in my family far longer than I. It has made the family rounds and was given to me finally by my father. Very generously. I'm serious - it was nice of him. It was a great vacuum too. It could probably suck up a small child, it could blow up air mattresses and the cord could get sucked back into the machine for storage - like it was made that way. Way cool. It did weigh about 25 lbs but I still made the boys haul it around when they made messes on the floor. Sigh. Here's a picture.

May it rest in peace. The vacuum end came off and won't reconnect to the hose. I'm going to have to confess to my father...
SO, then Anthony brought home this vacuum -
Certainly doesn't look any younger does it? It does have a stand up attachment that weighs about 10lbs and won't push forward, forcing you to vacuum backwards. No folks, I can not make this stuff up. So out of total desperation, I was forced to vacuum the ENTIRE apartment with the hose function. Ahhhh. I don't know when we'll be able to buy a new one - so I guess I'm stuck vacuuming this way, or backwards.
A sad funeral is definitely in order.

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Does anyone know how to find Mr. Roger's episodes online? I've looked and looked, but admittedly I am NOT the best Internet searcher. I think Big C Man (his new self-title) would really enjoy it.
So my house smells like smoke. And my garage. And my car. And my clothes. And my sons. No this is not a flashback to last summer. Last night I became one of 'those people'. You know the type. They put a fire pit on their driveway and they sit out around it all night, drinking beer and smoking cigarettes, etc. Those people that I snicker at and think 'well at least I have more class than that. I mean, I would at least put it in the backyard...'. Now the fire pit was not MINE, but my neighbors, but they invited us over to cook hot dogs and marshmallows. So the fire pit was set up on our joint driveway and we sat around on chairs while the boys waved flaming marshmallows and burnt hot dogs around on long pointed sticks that are red hot... it's a miracle that no eyes were poked out or hair set on fire! But I have to admit that I had a good time. It's another learning experience for me. God has certainly been teaching me not to be so judgemental. On the down side, I didn't realize that when you set a fire pit outside of your house like that, everything fills up with smoke. I took a shower before bed last night and another this morning and I could STILL smell the smoke when I was drying my hair. Yuck! After last summer's drama, you can imagine how sensitive I am to that. Will I join them again...hmm, probably. But not for a while...anyone else wanna try it? :)

The End of the Adventure

Friday was the last day of our Great Beach Adventure. We drove down to Tampa to visit my sister and her husband and had a super AWESOME time! They took us to a tapas restaurant in St. Petersburg called Ceviche. We sat outside and ordered a bunch of different tapas dishes and shared them. Emmanuel loved the squid and I even tried some salmon ceviche my sister ordered - I was always a bit speculative about ceviche. We had a big pitcher of sangria and it was sooo yummy. Then we walked down the pier to the aquarium. This is what we found when we got down there.

The awesome Uncle Robby even paid big bucks so they could feed fish to the pelicans. That was the greatest!

The aquarium was pretty little but the boys enjoyed it and even got to hold some starfish! Exciting! This is us chillin at Auntie Wedgo and Uncle Robby's house.

And Emmanuel asking Uncle Robby question number 502 out of at least 1000. For supper we went to another really good restaurant in Ybor City. It was so fun and Mical and I had another pitcher of Sangria :) and shared Ropa Vieja, which is apparently the same as Hilachas which was my favorite Guatemalan dish when I was little. YUMMY!! We even picked up some handmade cigars - regular for the boys (big boys - not little boys ;) ) and chocolate for Mical and I. Unfortuntely, Becky's a ditz and hadn't planned ahead to close up the condo and stay with M and R so we had to drive back that night. I think, if the boys had their way, Mical and Robby would have at least 2 new roomates! They say when they grow up they're going to live in Florida. :)

Saturday morning we started the LONG trip home. It took FOREVER. The traffic was horrendous. This is us sitting, stopped, in the middle of Georgia. I should point out that there was no construction, no accident, no apparent reason whatsoever for the traffic jam.

Can you feel the pain, people? 4 little boys, stopped traffic, middle of nowhere...

The upside of it though was that we got to stop at my aunt and uncles house in Charlotte and the boys got to get out and run around. I wish we had taken picture there. I really like being at their house and we all had a much needed rest. This did mean that we didn't get home until 4am on Sunday morning, but was definitely worth it.

The boys still talk about the beach daily. We had such a wonderful trip. Thanks Terry and Ellen!!!