Weekly Check In {Jan. 25, 2014}

Well it's been a crazy week, but crazy in a much different way than usual. On Sunday, I was sitting planning out my menu for the week and thinking about what we needed for groceries. I remember thinking 'oh boy, here we go with another busy week being out of the house every evening for the girls sports and activities!' ... Little did I know all that would change!

Here is my weekly catch up!

Sunday Bob headed out of town with a couple friends to ski for a few days. I know it's so good for him to do these things but I really miss him when he's gone! 

The girls and I spent Sunday afternoon cheering for our Patriot's {who sadly lost!} and watching movies and relaxing. Thankfully we had NO SCHOOL on Monday for MLK day so we took advantage by staying up late and having fun together. 

On Monday we drove about an hour from here to a HOBBY LOBBY! I had only been in one once many years ago and let me just say ... my hubby should be VERY happy it's not closer to my house! That store was AMAZING and we spent so much time {and money!} in there! I could have taken pictures for hours of all the cool stuff they had but I was so busy looking around I wasn't focused on taking pictures. I came home with a few cool things for my house, some scrapbook supplies and NEW fabric for my kitchen! {When my husband came home on Wednesday his first comment was 'wow, it looks very ... retro!'} =) 

After Hobby Lobby we went to The Olive Garden for lunch, then Savers for a little while. It was a fun girls day out! Monday night we THOUGHT Haley had bball practice, come to find out it was cancelled because of the holiday - so we enjoyed a quiet evening at home. 

{Haley is very into decorating her room lately, she picked these fabrics to make throw pillows for her bed.} 

The other thing I bought at Hobby Lobby was some denim duct tape. I have this hardcover Bible that I have had for MANY years and it's filled with notes I've written, verses I've underlined and all sorts of stuff. Well, it was falling apart and I just didn't want to get a new Bible because this one means a lot to me. So I bought the duct tape and got it all fixed up - might be a little redneck, but it's as good as new now!

Tuesday we went to school/work - but there was snow arriving mid-day so they called it a half day and everyone was sent home early. With that happening it also meant all our evening activities and sports were cancelled. 

I'm including this picture from our school, I just LOVE these pictures that have been hanging in the hall lately! I love walking down the halls and seeing all the neat artwork, it might be one of my favorite things about our school! I wanted to be sure I snapped a pic of these ones before they were taken down and sent home. 

And this is a project Haley had to do for Social Studies, I think her lady is drawn pretty well! 

It snowed most of Tuesday and Tuesday night into Wednesday morning ... so with that, school was cancelled for Wednesday - woohooo! We woke up to a winter wonderland!

Unfortunately the temps have been FREEZING this week, so other than shoveling the driveway, we really haven't been out to play in the snow. Wednesday was a pretty lazy day - did the shoveling, then worked on some of my sewing and we also just laid around being kinda lazy. And again, the evening activities got cancelled. 

Thursday morning was the most bitter cold day I've seen/felt so far this season. The moment I stepped outside to go warm up my car, my nose hairs froze! It was also the first time I'd seen the negative temps in my car this season. It was definitely a BITTER COLD day. We did have school and work that day, but we had indoor recess because it's too cold for the kids to be out. And because there was a band concert at the middle school that night the basketball game for the evening got cancelled. {How funny that I went from being busy every single night to have things cancelled every single night!!} 

Friday was another bitter cold day, we did have work and school again. AND the kids were indoors again! These poor kids really need to get outside and RUN around a little! This is probably the one thing I like least about winter, being cooped up for so many weeks on end. 

Friday night we went to the LUKE BRYAN concert with some friends. We went out to dinner at Sol Toro before the show {one of my fave Mexican restaurants!}. Our seats were great, the opening acts {Cole Swindell & Lee Brice} were great, the show was AMAZING and we had a great time ... unfortunately my hubby wasn't feeling great though {I'm certain he has what I had last week} but he toughed it out the best he could because he really wanted to see the show. 

And that's our week! Last Friday we had a half day, Monday no school, Tuesday half day, Wednesday no school, then Thursday/Friday were regular days  -this sure has been a strange week but hopefully next week will be much more back to normal! Enjoy the weekend friends! 

Basketball and Band Concerts

In the fall we were so busy with soccer that I was excited for winter to come along to give us a little 'break'. Well we did have about 3 weeks in November where things slowed down but since then it's been crazy again. Right now Haley is playing on a rec basketball team and an indoor soccer team and Jillian is playing on a school basketball team and a rec basketball team. Add school, homework, church and youth group stuff to that and we're pretty busy. Also they both had winter band/chorus concerts in the past week so we've been out of the house every weekday evening for the past two weeks. And some nights we go from one basketball game to a band concert to another game - crazyness I tell ya! But I LOVE being able to go watch my girls do things they enjoy and love seeing them make progress in music and sports. 

I am SO proud of both of them!

First, this was Jillian's band and chorus concert. This is her second year playing the Flute. 

Not too many 5th graders stuck with their instruments from last year so the Intermediate 

Band was quite small. She is in the peachy colored dress.

She is also a part of the 4th and 5th grade Chorus - they sang 3 songs and did such a beautiful job! I wish I could figure out how to add a video on here because they sang Philip Phillips 'Home' and it was AWESOME! She is so tall, here she is standing the back row. She wasn't really miserable like she looks, she just didn't know I was taking pictures from way back in the crowd. 

Here they are singing and doing some hand motions for a really cute song. I absolutely LOVE the music teacher at our school and LOVE the songs she chooses for the kids to sing. 

Now on to some basketball action! Here are some pictures of Haley in action last weekend. She is #6 on the pink team - #6 has been her number for almost every team she's ever been on, it's become her favorite! 

The coaches for her team are all young Navy soldiers {is that the right word to use?}.

 Anyway, they are great, they have a huge passion for working with these girls and many 

times for practices they do crazy-hard military style drills. 

OK, so I'm totally taking this verse out of context, but I was looking at this photo and the verse came to mind, so just having a little fun with it ... 

Then we had some basketball games for Jillian's school team. I think many of these girls have never played before but they are doing a good job and trying really hard to learn the skills. This is our AWESOME principal giving some announcements before the game. 

Our team doesn't have numbers on our shirts - Jilly is the one in red on the right side. 

Sorry some of these are blurry - I was using my 'sports' mode on the camera but sometimes it still doesn't capture a clean shot. She is hustling hard in this pic! 

And again using the verse ... so funny how they get surrounded by the other team. 

And lastly, another band concert. Haley is in her second year with the Clarinet and doing great. 

It's cool to see how much they have improved since last year. The song actually sounded like a cohesive song, not just a mash up of sounds. =) 

She is on the far left - I was sitting way near the back of the auditorium so she and her friends didn't know I was taking their pics. I love seeing the funny moments when they're laughing at something together. 

And at the end they had a little dessert reception, I took a couple cute pics of her and some of her closest school friends. Such a GREAT group of girls! 

And that's what we've been up to lately!

 I have to say, it sure is making January FLY by being so busy like this!