Target Center

On Tuesday evening, The Varsity Girls, Varsity Boys and the 7-8th grade boys and girls basketball team had an opportunity to play basketball at the Target Center. It was a fun time with 4 of our girls playing! We played Christian Life, they are from Farmington. It was a great time for our teams to play each other and feel like you were playing the "real deal" surrounded by an announcer, loud music and getting announced as you go on the court, we aren't use to the fancy stuff at our small school! The teams played o.k., but lost.....however, it was a fun time!!

So, I had an awesome surprise on Wednesday…..

Over a year ago, my friend Jenn and I flew to Chicago! I have only known Jenn about 2 years and I am really thankful for her friendship! Jenn has listened to me for hours on end…(hard to believe I can talk that much, but she is a talker too!) one of the major things she did for me was put up with my, “fear of flying!” When I say fear, it is EXTREME FEAR! When we got to the airport, she asked me if I was o.k.?! I would have bolted if I could of, but I couldn’t do that to her, although it would have saved her some embarrassment, I am sure. I actually put my head on her shoulder and said, “are you sure I am o.k.?” “Yes!” she said as she tried to get me to chat and look at the magazines we brought! I took another pill and it was all fine….sort of! Jenn is extremely patient, we also went up to the 95th floor of the beautiful John Hancock building that overlooked lake Michigan and the city of Chicago. I also don’t like heights! Jenn was great, I am sure she felt like she was taking care of a kid!
We did a lot of fun things while in Chicago, Cheesecake Factory (yum), Oprah Show (overrated), Garrets Popcorn (to die for!), Hersheys Chocolate Factory (what can you say about chocolate), Ghirardelli (more chocolate!), American Girl Doll (fun), Gino’s East (we left our signatures on the wall, awesome pizza), Giordano’s (more awesome pizza), Fannie May (more chocolate!), walked a lot, which we needed to due to the fact that we ate very well. We also met some very interesting taxi drivers! I was sure we would hit someone/something or they would hit us! The drivers don’t seem to care a bit!
Jenn and I have been reminiscing about our trip, I was very surprised yesterday when Fed Ex delivered a box…..from Chicago…….with a “Garrets Popcorn Tin,” with a picture of the Chicago skyline and loaded with the best caramel popcorn and cheese popcorn ever! What a wonderful surprise! I opened it up and shared it with my family (reluctantly thoughJ)!
It’s a blessing to have friends that you can be yourself with, the good the bad and the ugly with!
p.s. Jenn, I wanted to send you a pizza from Chicago, but, it wouldn’t be the same!

dinner by candlelight...

Today was actually one of those rare days when everyone was able to come home after school, no basketball games, no practices after school. Morgan, Shelby and Seble have their practices in the morning before school. Troy even called me at work today and said, "do we not have anything after school today?" (he helps out with the 7-8th grade girls team). I had put a roast in the crock pot this morning, made mashed potatoes, green beans, salad, fruit punch..a.k.a....Kool aid (after they had their first glass of milk that is.)

Well, I lit the candles and woo hoo, it was fun times! My pictures do not do it justice, it was dark! I could have fed the kids liver and they might not have known, but I would of, YUCK! It was fun to eat and laugh and have a good time talking about the day. I have to confess though, we still ate on paper plates, had I been thinking I would of broke out the China that I have used about 4x.....oh well, next time.

A date with my boy!

Araya and I had "date day" today. I had on my calendar that he had a dr. appointment at the U of M at 10:45, I found out on Friday that it was 1:45, Oh well, too late I had already gotten his homework for Tuesday and taken the day off! I debated for about 1 second about going in for 1/2 a day...nah! Anyways, Araya's dr. days have turned into "date days." He wants to do something special those days...lunch, a treat, just something we do together. Last night he said, "mom, what we going to do tomorrow." I said well, should we go to Caribou?, "yep," he said. Well, today we went to Costco, then it was lunch time...."Chipotle" here we come. It was good! Then we were on our way to the U. Guess what, I got lost, I tried a new route, via map quest...I am not sure what happened but I was on the other side of the river (wrong side). I called Troy in a panic...we made our appointment, checked in at 1:40 for a 1:45 appointment.
Araya is doing awesome, the dr. still likes to have an interpreter that speaks Amharic present for his appointments, we have had the same young guy several times and he is great. Araya was able to chat with him today and that was good. Dr. Hoyt is super pleased with how well he doing! He is up to 80 pounds! He has gained more than 15 pounds and he has also grown 2 inches. We had to go down to the lab for the blood draws and he actually held a conversation with me while he was getting his blood drawn....5 vials!!!! For those of you that remember my early posts on dr. visits that involved needles, they were not good times.
Guess what? On the way home we stopped at Caribou for hot chocolate. Then he said, "mom, should we stop and get some ice cream!" I looked at him, he was serious! I said, "how about next time?" "o.k.," then he looked at me and said, " mom, thanks for the day, did you have a fun day with me?" I said, "I sure did." It truly was a good day!

ROAD TRIP....DESTINATION UNKNOWN!

o.k., we had a family meeting today, which we do on occasion (1-2 times a month maybe more, based on necessity!), to discuss different things that are happening in the family, the good the bad and the ugly. So today as we were winding down, we talked about our plans for summer! We decided that we will do something different besides renting the cabins up north that we have done now since the girls were little. Time for a change and as Troy and I were talking about vacations (see previous blog:) we were discussing the fact that we really do not have many years where we can all do something together, before they get jobs, boyfriends/girlfriends, while they sort of still think that their parents are still fun to be around! We were thinking about a Black Hills road trip...then we realized that 2 of our girls will be traveling their this summer for a missions trip, and 3 of the kids have gone with my parents, so we will do that with the little kids at another time. This is where I would like some help. Do you have any places that you have traveled in the U.S. that you can recommend? I am serious, I want to get organized and start planning (plus it will give me something to research) I just have no real great ideas! With that being said, we are looking at a 7 day road trip option or a destination where we would stay for the week. We can be flexible...I would love to hear where you have been and what you think is a must see! p.s. we will not be camping:)

a vacation....

Is everyone feeling like they need a vacation or what? Hot sand sounds wonderful!! Today I was looking a little bit on the web, Mark (Administrator at CCS) was telling me about some great deals! I had a peek, even though I am not a traveler and if you remember previous posts about me, I need drugs to fly! Today though, I am tempted to go for it! I even went so far as to call my dear husband at work and run my impulsive decision by him....he laughed and said, "can we talk about this later?" "oh sure," I said. As I sat at work and thought about it throughout the day, "ridiculous" is the word that came to my mind. You see the best deals are sort of "get on the plane and go in a hurry!" I am not sure anyone would be up for the challenge of getting all 6 kids to and from the places they need to go. Then I thought, "I could bring them all with...good ole family time." Well let's just say travel for 8 is NOT an option! So anyways, for now I will vow to keep my impulsive ideas....just that "ideas"! For now I will enjoy a vacation on my living room floor with my sleeping bag trying to stay warm in freezing Minnesota! I am open to suggestions for a cheap get-a-way!!

What a weekend!

Our weekend started out early, actually we (many people from CCS) have been working on hosting a basketball tournament for a while now, the actual event started on Friday. We hosted 6 teams on Friday/Saturday from as far away as Rochester and Mountain Lake, Minnesota. A part of the tournament that was a fun little "bonus" for the kids was after the games on Friday night, we went to Stanchfield Baptist, they were willing to let 130+ kids in for pizza and worship, and stay over night! It was great to see so many people involved in this event, the generosity of others (even those that did not have kids or anyone they knew on the teams!) was just wonderful to see and experience. The kids had a great time! The tournament ended on Saturday evening, then came the clean-up! Let's just say the Doble house and many other familys/people that helped out are a little tired today! It was worth it!!

The Coach, Mrs. Aleckson...encouraged (some would say made them!) drink a "replenishing the body fluids" drink..it was bad tasting...Morgan's "accidently got stolen"....hmmmmmm....shame on them!

Another thing we are doing....as a family is "small group"! Our church started a "40 days of community!" It is a Rick Warren study. For 6 weeks our church is focusing on..."What on earth are we here for?" A churchwide spiritual growth campaign. Anyways, I have to be honest and say that we had not been real excited about this. We did not sign up for a small group....we are too busy...both work full time, coach basketball, teach on Wednesday night, have girls on 2 different teams, ortho., dr. appointments, dentist's appt., homework with the kids, laundry (minimum 3 loads a day), sort socks....you know...................great excuses huh! Excuses is what they are!!!!!!!!!!!! Well, I (we) received a wake-up call and decided we needed to get involved. So we are having our own small group at home with all 8 of us! We have started it and I think it is making for some great family time and some great ideas of things we can do as family! We started a list today of ways we can help others, or encourage others and each other. Today, we put all our names in a pile and each chose a name, we are to pray for that person anytime, anyplace for this week. It's a bit of a challenge for the kids, we are trying to make it anonymous so no one knows who has who. Syfah came up to me after we drew names and said, " I will tell you, If you tell me?" He didn't have any luck....but I always try to figure out things like that too....so hopefully I will not do too much detective work this week! We have also been asked to teach a few adult Sunday school classes for this study....we reluctantly said, "yes!" It will keep us accountable! I am looking forward to family time and I think that this will be a great thing for our family to do together!