random Fone Fun

some moments that could only be captured with my phone.

since the my cameras were no where to be found.

but how convenient to have a camera on the phone...to pull out at an instant and "click."

it's fun to pull it out at an instant and have fun recorded:)

let's see...

random memories.

1. our first walk together in storm lake, last fall.

we had just moved here.

i was amazed with the crops and the rainbow.

2. first grocery shopping trip in Storm Lake...i believe it was our first grocery trip EVER in our married life;)
3. one of the first subbing jobs i had at the school.

i was hired to go on a nature walk with the kids.

they ended up having me play dodgeball most of the time,

and then being the caboose of the hiking group.
4. awww, i remember this one. this was during winter,

and it was my first auction i'd ever been to.

i stayed for hours to get a bid on this lap and we got it!

(and the chair. ryan loves his chair.)

i think these both made the flood? i'm not sure...

5. our home during the winter.

i do NOT look forward to these months.

first time in my life to ever dread Christmas;).

i hate the cold.

i miss the south.

6. si si and baby during one of my paperwork trips with the Teh family.

7.luis caught a bunny and all the kids passed it around.

my first instinct was, "AUGH! where's the hand sanitizer?!?!"

and then i was more like, "fine, i'll take pics, but don't give me the bunny...:)"
8. oh, haha, this is me pre haircut. i had a mullet/japanese ninja haircut.

9. right before we left for Kansas...this storm was brewing over Storm Lake.

10. at the insurance office after flooding. luis came with us and found all the thomas trains.

he had a blast.

oh and the googly eyes.:)

11. coffee/slushee date with these two:) special special young ladies.

it was a beautiful day.

12. me and Baby, isn't she darling??

13. my stud of a husband;).

14. i had to beg for this hair band back. :)

well, that's all for now. i just wanted to post these lil pics before i wiped clean my memory card in my phone.

what random phone pics do you have?

once upon a time birthday party story.

once upon a time,

I went to a far far away land.

in that land,

I met some wonderful people.

it was a family.

a family made up of a million bazillion kids.

they told me,

"you're the mom! we have a surprise!"

and then stuck me in the dungeon.

they "glued" me to a board,

and said,

"wait here and do NOT look!"

so they had a guard watch me.

this fierce man.

he was so big and scary and told me he would glue more glue on the board if I ran away from the place.

i tried.

he glued more glue.

but then i met a princess.

and her prince brother.

and they stayed in the dungeon with me and kept me company.

i peeked through one of the windows in the dungeon.

and i saw the million bazillion kids in a castle.

bustling around, fixing...something i could not see.

and then in the dark, some hands reached out and covered my eyes!

i recieved many instructions.

"do not look until i say."

"act surprised. you're the mom."

so i didn't look.

and then my eyes were uncovered!

and there was a feast prepared for me!

it was for my "birthday!"

the million bazillion kids had worked hard to prepare a birthday surprise and had invited all the other kings and queens in the land.

there were beautiful arrangement of flowers,

made specially by the hands of the million bazillion kids!

i was amazed and so excited to see all my million bazillion kids.

they even sang a beautiful song called "happy birthday!"

i was so happy with the beautiful music and dancing.

I couldn't ask for a better surprise unexpected birthday from the million bazillion kids!

but then, all in all, i had to leave this far away land.

and the million bazillion kids.

and as sad as i was,

i was still oh so happy.

because the million bazillion kids

were so special to me.

and had made special birthday memories.

that i will never forget.

the end.

[this story included the million bazillion boys as well...but they were busy running back and forth from the playground on their "dirtbikes and motorcyles" with bottles of pebbles that made up the girls artistic rock and flower arrangements.]

candyland

having a rough day?

i've got the solution.

follow me to a fun lil place that's guaranteed to make you smile at least once.

the kids and i have named it (in all our pretending and imagining)

Candyland!

where everthing is made of candy!

sugar, and spice, and everything nice!

it has:

dancing, smiling, happy babies.

ice drawing on hot days.

sweet big sisters and drooly little ones that'll make you wanna pinch her cheeks!

where kids get so silly, they might grow antlers.

and then laugh happily at themselves.

and attempts to make a pyramid is very popular.

and some big grins comes with lots of big hugs.

and little boys play big boy basketball.

and six year olds can reach the rims.

and then at the end of the day, we all return to our normal selves.

back in Storm Lake.

and saying goodbye to Candyland until the next time we get together.

you really can't leave this place without at least one smile breaking through.

Isn't Candyland oh so sweet?

letting go

it was a hot day and seemed like the perfect kind of day to teach this lil man how to swim.

turns out the kid is better at swimming than he thought.

he kept saying,

"don't let me go, don't let me go, it's too deep!"

but we let him go.

and he swam short distances from me, to ryan, to me, to ryan.

and before we knew it,

the kiddo was diving from the diving board.

diving.

like really pretty dives.

we were impressed.

he was impressed.

and then he did all sorts of flips off of it.

seriously, this kid has absolutely no fears.

it's kinda scary.

but we're proud of him!

for swimming and diving and all that good stuff.

and he was proud of himself.

i think he actually had an idea of what to do to be able to swim.

he just needed the confidence to do it.

and encouragement.

way to go, Luis!

powerade, juice, water!

Monday morning, we had a 3:30 am wakeup call.

We went out to a little town called Verina, to sell drinks to a traveling group of bikers called Ragbrai to raise money for the Storm lake Public School's Mentoring Connections program.

Every year people from all over the world come into Iowa, and bike throughout the state.

It's really pretty cool.

I think there were about 20,000 bikers.

that's almost double the size of our little town.

They stayed in Storm lake overnight and camped everywhere!

parking lots, church lawns, peoples lawns...everywhere.

It was really fun to see, and actually kinda inspiring.

Ryan and I want to do it one year.

Bike throughout the state in a week.

We're wanna do some major upgrading of our bikes, and then get physically fit for it.

hmm...in that case, it might be a few years before we're ready.

anyways, here are some pics from that early morning. it was alot of fun, and there's something about working along side with other people that is always such a joy.

5 a.m.

5:30ish.

6ish.

and then they started coming in and I have no idea what time it was from here on out.

this guy said he hadn't bathed in awhile, so the flowers had to cover his b.o.

ew...i think he might have been kidding?

and then it got crazy busy and oh so fun.

the bikers were in good spirits too. we met so many interesting people from all over the world.

what a fun time! we got done around 12:30ish, and probably all got home and passed out.

hopefully we raised enough to keep the program going for the rest of the year!:)