Soccer again!

It's that time of year again! For $7 a session (or $1 per Saturday), the community recreation department's soccer league is pretty much the best buy in town. Last year, Gabe was in the beginners group with girls and boys. The teams are coached by volunteers from the school system, as well as high school players from town. This year, he's with all boys. He was pretty excited to A.) have his coach point out his Totti (Italian soccer) jersey to the rest of the team and B.) Find out his team name was the "orange Tigers" ... "Just like Mizzou!!"

The kids line up wih their soccer balls.


Gabe kicks his way down the field.


Gabe gets ready to give a mighty kick!!


Daddy helps Asher kick a soccer ball as they play around.


Asher and a HUUUUUGE momma!! I'm the size of a houseboat, really!!!


Asher and daddy clowning around.

Big Boy Bed

Here is Asher in one of his last "crib sleeps" on Tuesday afternoon. Look how big he's getting!

Here is Asher in his big boy bed, with the cowboy sheets, later that night. He looks suddenly very small!

In preparation for baby girl, Asher has made the transition to a "big boy bed." In the first photo, you can see him in his "third-to-last" sleep in the crib. The first night in the bed (Tuesday night) didn't work, because Gabriel was so excited to have a "roomie" that he woke him up when he went to bed in the upper bunk. But last night, it worked beautifully! And both boys came to wake us up in our room at 7:30 a.m. How much better can it get? I suppose there might be days where Ash is up at 5 a.m. and won't go back to bed, but I'll worry about that when it happens. Way to go Asher! We're so proud of our big boy! And Gabriel, we're proud of you too -- for sharing your space like such a gentleman!

The photos...as promised!

Here are the photos from Gabe's first day of school yesterday. Enjoy!

Too Weird

Okay.
My big "little" man went back to school today. Full-time, all-day, REAL school. And after crying on my way out of his classroom, (making sure Gabe didn't see me in tears, of course....) Nathan comforted me all the way out of the school building... while Asher looked at me curiously and tried kissing me repeatedly from his perch on my side/belly bump.

And, my life has just suddenly gotten very strange and different.

Don't get me wrong, I had a nice day! Asher and I spent all morning running about, getting errands done. Oh, the ease of only having to wrangle ONE child through various shops and grocery stores! It was so easy!! Then we were home by about 10 a.m. to put away groceries and such. I bought fabric at Hobby Lobby and spent the better part of an hour reupholstering the rocking chair in the nursery...ripping off the old blue, checked fabric and replacing it with a white print, with spaced out stripes of pink and green...very pretty! (I hope baby girl likes it!)

I soon realized however, how strange it was to not have someone to talk to. Don't get me wrong, I talk with Asher all the time. But I don't have CONVERSATIONS with him like I used to with Gabriel. A "conversation" with Ash (or "Ashers" as he calls himself) usually runs like this.

"Asher are you hungry?
"Hungies!" (rhymes with Huggies")
"What would you like for lunch?"
Inarticulate sound...as mommy stands there trying to figure out what the sound means...chicken nuggets? Noodles? Sandwich? All this as Asher spoons peach yogurt into his lap and shouts out happily....
"MESS!!"

With Gabriel at lunch -- while I might not be discussing the meaning of life or anything deep -- we would at least have been into a deep discussion of the merits of various fighting implements of the Ninja Turtles or something along those lines. Something that made me THINK.

After lunch, it was time for Asher's nap and I was faced with something I haven't had for a long while. TIME. FOR MYSELF. I'm so pathetic, that after watching a Netflix movie ("Original Sin" with Antonio Banderas (yummy!) and Angelina Jolie) I got so bored that I actually went upstairs and watched Asher sleep for awhile. WOW. I'm living the high life now! :) Now most of you are probably wondering why I didn't choose to take a nap myself. Well, that's because sleep is impossible for me right now, and if I nap, it becomes even more of a nightmare, trying to sleep later that night. I get up about 8-10 times a night and am starting to look forward to the baby's arrival because it WILL actually mean better sleep for me. Truly. And that is strange indeed!

In other news, Asher is getting a "Big boy" bed today and will be moving in with Gabe. (I took video footage of the little guy sleeping in his crib for what MAY be the last time this afternoon) So it's a big day of changes. SNIFFLE! Gabe is off to school and part of a world where I only see him for an hour a day. And Asher is growing up before my eyes. How will I ever make it through the day with all this emotion!!!

PS: I'll have photos up of Gabe's first morning at school as soon as possible. My camera battery died this morning, so I have to wait for my hubby to graciously email me some photos! But I think he got some good ones, so it should be worth the wait!!! :)

Last day of summer

We celebrated "the day before school starts" by going to the Sheboygan County Fair. What a blast! We bought a new stroller for baby girl Harrmann and let Asher try it out at the fair. It worked beautifully and we had such a fun time. We ate corn dogs, corn on the cob (drenched in butter) cotton candy, funnel cakes and lemonade. Then we bought a bunch of tickets and let Gabriel ride on rides till he was about ready to drop. His favorites were the mini dragon roller coaster and the motorcycle ride. He and Nathan also went on the big Ferris Wheel. (see them in the photo) Then we saw cows, sheep, pigs and tractors. It was a scorcher of a day, so when we finally got home, drenched, we all piled out into the backyard into the kid's pirate pool to cool off and have a big water fight. Now THAT'S a perfect end to a great summer!

My loves

Just a groovy photo of Gabriel and Nathan that I found on my computer. I love this shot!

Everything's Peachy

As you can tell from the photos on this post, Asher has had his first experience with farm fresh peaches. We were walking through the fields when we handed him one and he stopped dead in his tracks, with the peach locked to his face. He WOULD NOT move. He just stood there, sucking the peach like a little fruit bat. His eyes were huge and he was mesmerized. We literally had to carry him back to the house, because he couldn't seem to become unfocused from the fruit. After that, he wanted nothing but peaches. Personally, I loved how he would carry it around in his mouth without using his hands (as seen in the photo.) Too fun!

Hopping across the pond

Asher and I pick some raspberries on the farm.


Me and Ash grin at daddy.


Asher tries to pick berries on his own, with a little help from mom.


Asher sits on a stack of cannonballs near the lakefront.


Asher and momma in the blueberry patch.


Asher collects blueberries in his hat, so he can save some for later.

First, let me explain why these are all Asher shots. We took them all in the same one-hour period, and Gabriel was off galavanting about with Aunt Kathy and Uncle Jon. He will be featured in a future post, I promise!

Anyway, we spent a wonderful weekend in St. Joe, Michigan for the past few days. It's almost directly across the lake from us, and usually only takes about 3.5 hours to get to. We decided not to leave Friday night because Nate got done with work pretty late, even though I had off work. So we got up at 5 a.m. on Saturday and were out the door by 6 a.m. Oh what a trip! Chicago was a mess, and once we hit 80/94, traffic was stopped dead, due to the fact that there was standing water further along the highway and they had decided to empty the ENTIRE five lanes of traffic off onto the nearest exit. So we sat. And we sat. And we sat. The trip took over 6 hours when all was said and done. And if you've ever been trapped in a car with 2 small children for that long, you know that it takes an amazing effort to keep your sanity!
But the trip itself was a blast! We spent the days roaming around my Uncle's farm and eating anything and everything that was in season. We also went to the beach twice with the boys, which they LOVED.
And there are a few simple things in life that I learned to enjoy all over again:
1. The sight of my smallest son chasing butterflies. He did so on the farm at every chance he got.
2. The taste of fresh blueberrires picked right off the bushes in the morning, still covered with dew.
3. The taste of a fresh peach off the tree -- and how the juice dribbles down your arm when you eat it!
4. Being far enough out in the country that there is no highway noise and looking up to see two hawks circling, and then giving that screeching cry they do only on TV or in the movies. Asher LOVED it.
5. Seeing my oldest son, Gabriel, riding his bike through the orchard, and simply enjoying a place that holds so many fun childhood memories for me!

Gripe Session

I feel the need to vent.
I'm sick of rain. Sick sick sick of rain. Sick of the way my boys have been bouncing off the walls for the past week as the rain falls -- bored, with nothing to do and no way to work off their nervous energy. I'm sick of our long grass which needs mowing BADLY, but is out of luck as the rain keeps on falling. When I get up, it's raining. When I go to work, it's raining. When I go to bed ... you guessed it. Okay, well, if it's not constant, there's at least ugly clouds or a fine mist/fog hanging about everywhere, making everything damp and icky. Yes, that's right. ICKY. We had a high of 64 degrees the other day. (Yes, St. Louis relatives, I'm sure you're gasping, as you've had 110 recently...) But could I go outside and enjoy it! NO! Because it was raining!! Arrrggg!! It doesn't help that I'm already a super-cranky 34-weeks-pregant woman who's never comfortable. Ah, the world will be a better place when the sun FINALLY shines again!!

Thankful for friends

I've never been the type of person who makes friends super-easily. (although I always wished that I was) It's a combination, probably, of me being somewhat shy, and something of a homebody. But this week, I realized just how blessed I am to have a super group of gal pals here at my work. In my office, there are about six or seven of us who are in about the same age bracket. Most of us have kids and spend time commiserating about the joys and trials of being a wife and mother.
This week, my friends threw me a surprise baby shower party at Margaux, an upscale restaurant in town that I absolutely LOOOVE! They spoiled me rotten, with lots of gifts (baby girl Harrmann now has tons of cute new frilly, fussy clothes!!) balloons and lunch.
And it made me realize how very special this group of gals is to me -- and how important friendship is! So to Nhia, Jen, Jamie, Janet and Belia ... thanks for the party! You're all a bunch of sweethearts! And it really meant a lot to me!

Salsa fun

I've discovered the cure-all for a stuffed up nose.
Spend an hour dicing green peppers, jalepeno peppers and onions -- oh, and pressing garlic. If you do this ... poof! (as Gabe would say) your nose is perfectly clear. We've finally begun getting a bunch of tomatoes from our garden -- mostly Romas, but also a few Early Girl's and Cherry tomatoes too. This week, it started to get away from us -- more tomatoes than we could slice, salt and eat in a day, so to speak. So I decided to get imaginative and spent yesterday canning a few jars of homemade salsa. It was pretty easy, but I guess I have no idea how it will taste yet. I'll have to report back later with the results.

A weekend of water

We spent the weekend in the water with the boys. On Saturday, Gabe, Ash and I met Jen and her son Isaac at Deland Beach, where the boys had a blast running around in the small waves. On Sunday, we went to early church and immediately headed over to the beach by Blue Harbor. We had the entire thing to ourselves and the day was gorgeous! Later in the day, the boys had fun running through the sprinkler in the front yard.


Nathan and Asher wander out into the lake on Sunday morning.

Asher enjoys the crisp, cool water!

Gabe and Asher work on a sandcastle with a moat.

Asher has fun playing in the sprinkler. When it comes to water, this little guy is fearless!

After some fun in the sprinkler, both boys settle down for a lunch of chicken nuggets and smiley fries al fresco!

Elves In my garden

These two little cuties were hanging out in my garden today. The boys just LOVE the garden, especially now that they can pick cherry tomatoes, which is what they're doing here. My tomato plants are taller than me! And you can see from the photo how big our sunflowers are getting! At least 8 feet tall! Our garden is full of various wildlife this year. There' s a bird (that me and the boys have named "Flutter") living in the birdhouse hanging from the arbor. He flies out of the house as soon as we enter the garden and scolds us from a nearby fence until we leave. There's also a baby bunny we've named Shiloh. He's been living in our cabbage for quite some time and is now getting quite big. The boys love spotting these various critters when we're in the garden. Mommy enjoys it too, except for the time when I was out looking for zuchhini and Shiloh decided to get extra friendly and sit on my bare foot. YIPES!! Even Roxy likes to get in on the garden fun. Here's the fun part ... can you spot her in the second photo??

The last full day

Well, it's the last full day of the Gathering. I can hardly believe it! We've been working so hard for so long -- three years of planning and two years of meetings ... four and a half days of intense coverage -- our team works from about 7:30 a.m. till about 2 a.m. So really, there's only about five hours where our cozy little media office of 25 iMacs is deserted. It's been quite an event! The first photo shows the Mass Event stage during a light/sound check. The theme of the Gathering this year, is CHOSEN. The photo of us is for Gabriel and Asher, who have "requested" it. This is mommy and daddy in the office where we've been working/living the past few days! We love you guys!! The photo of the crowds shows just one of the many entrances where the youth wait to get into the nightly Mass Event space. The other photos are of the "Jesus Painter," an amazing guy who performed at the Mass Event last night. While the music is playing, he takes about 5-10 minutes and completely creates an AMAZING work of art on canvas -- last night he started with a crucifixion scene, which, within moments, was transformed into a picture of Christ's face. The crowd went CRAZY for him. He's had about 2,000 people showing up for his sectional, which is held twice every day here in the convention center. Tomorrow morning is the last Mass Event and then we're done!

The Gathering is Here!

Yesterday was the first day of the Gathering. I wish I could put into words how thrilling it is to see 30,000 teens flood into the mass event space. The picture of the crowd here, is one that you have to multiply by about 30, to get an idea of the sheer size of the audience. Let's just put it this way .... the mass event floor is half-a-million square feet large, and it's filled with screaming, yelling, energized teenagers. In other words ... it's OVERWHELMING. My brother-in-law, Leon, is one of the three emcee's for the event. Here are some shots of him on stage at the first Mass Event last night. He ROCKED! He did such a great job! We're all really proud of him! Check out the live Gathering website. My team of four writers are reponsible for putting copy on the web all day, as well as meeting a daily publication deadline for "The Peel" which is a Gathering newsletter that goes out to a couple thousand adult leaders. My personal favorite story online right now, is the one on the flying, screaming monkeys, a great item they're selling here at the gift stores. If you look at the story, our photography/visuals team put togther a fun little stop-motion video that shows the monkey flying. And yes, that's Nate in the "video." Check it out here.

In Orlando

Well, I'm here! We've arrived in Orlando Florida for the 2007 National Youth Gathering -- all day today and tomorrow, 35,000 excited, energized, hormonal teenagers will descend upon the city ready to have fun and celebrate their Christianity. It's gonna be an amazing time!
Our trip was okay -- although I cried like crazy saying goodbye to my boys! It was REALLY hard! I'm not sure why it was so rough on me! Asher didn't really understand. He kept lookng at my tear-streaked face and saying "Cry??" over and over. Other than that, the trip was mostly uneventful. My lovely pinched nerve made a terrific appearance for most of the day, so sitting on an airplane was pure torture. By the time we touched down in Atlanta for a layover, I was in tears. Pretty rough.
But today I'm feeling much better! We're all set up in our fancy MAC computer lab here in the convention center, ready to create newsletters, videos, photographs, DVD's, booklets and everything else that all these amazing volunteer professionals are capable of doing. It should be incredible!

Asher & the yellow "bang-kek"

In the last week or so, Asher has developed an attachment to his "bang-kek!" (Blanket) Every morning when he wakes up, he does not allow me to get him out of the crib without it. He will put up quite a fit if he is without it. Then, as I'm changing his diaper, he lays on his changing table, sucking his thumb and clutching his "bang-kek" and tells me, quite happily, "Nonny!" (which is his way of saying night-night or good-night...we shout "Nonny!" back and forth to each other as I walk downstairs every night at bed time, whenever I'm home, it's too cute!) So we have something of a Linus on our hands now, and I'm not sure where or how it started. He even tries to take it with us whenever we leave the house to get in the car ... which I don't allow, since I don't want this to become an unstoppable obsession... but whenever we're indoors, Asher and bang-kek are firmly connected at the chest!

Swimming lessons

Gabe just finished his first session of swimming lessons! He had SUCH a great time! We went to the Plymouth Aquatic Center, which was a lot of fun! We probably should have started Gabe off in Group 1, but we started him in Group 2 instead. He did great, expect for back floating/back stroking, which he needs to work on. So we're hoping Grandma and Grandpa Staude can help him out with that in their pool next week!!?? But he had a marvelous time, which is what really matters. His teacher, Dana, taught the kids how to bob up and down underwater, fetch rings, float on their bellies and backs and jump off the diving board. Gabe even got a cool new set of Ninja Turtle goggles (courtesy of mom) that he LOVES! Now he's like a little fish underwater!! It won't be long before we can't keep up with him, I'm sure!

The world's most perfect sandwich

Okay. I don't know if it's because I'm pregnant and always hungry -- or else I'm just lucky -- because today, at lunch, I created the world's most perfect sandwich. It was so good, I told my husband, that I would BLOG about it later. And here I am, blogging about my masterpiece. Ohhhhhh it was good -- the kind of sandwich you dream about!
I'll tell ya how I did it... I toasted some corned beef and pastrami on rye with some swiss cheese on the stovetop ... then completed my creation by adding warm, Bavarian (sweet) sauerkraut, spicy brown mustard, red onions and pickles. YUMMMM!
I ate it so fast, there wasn't time to take a picture to post along with this odd BLOG entry!
Anyway, it appears that my taste buds are in high gear in my third trimester! Yowza!! :)