Moving South!

We are putting our house up for sale and moving south! Ok, so not really but damn....I hate cold weather! The lovely winter weather we have been having has been messing with our basketball schedule, our school schedule, our winter programs, our last minute Christmas shopping, and our mood in general! We have had 1 early out, 2 snow days, and 3 basketball games postponed. We have really been hunkered down here.

I was lazy in getting a post done last week so I will do my best to catch you up. We are still enjoying our "quality time" together. Dana has been doing all the school and preschool drop offs and pick ups. He has also been doing all the grocery shopping. We tackled the painting of our entry, front room and office area this last week. Hope to tackle a bathroom or two, the stairwell and the toy room in the next month. Have a few last minute Christmas things to do but am feeling really good about that too.

The kids are in major countdown mode to the holiday break (the older two) and Christmas Day (the little two). Jordan has been busy with basketball, semester test prep, work, and Kelli. Abbey has occupied her time with show choir, home work, movies, reading, and babysitting. Carson and Emma are busy keeping up. Sure have been glad that a few events have been postponed. Don't like having them out when it is so cold! They are both looking forward to this week. Emma has pajama day at preschool tomorrow for their holiday party. Carson gets to celebrate his birthday tomorrow with his classmates and then on Tuesday Dad gets to join him for lunch and his holiday party.

Dana and I have been rearranging schedules, painting, bowling, celebrating, and shopping. Cut out the cold and life is darn good!

We hope that everyone has a great Christmas and a Happy New Year. I will do my best at posting over the next two weeks. Lots of family time planned! Wishing you all the best!


Dana and I celebrating a friend's 30th birthday!


Jordan before a home JV game.


Abbey reading on a wintery day.


Carson and Emma watching a movie together.

Santa visits

Wednesday evening The Sump Family was going about their normal business....when from their front door there arose such a clatter, we sprang from our positions to see what was the matter. : ) A visitor on a weeknight just never happens at our home so the little two are always intrigued by who might be at our door. The sounds of delight that erupted when Dana opened the door told me that the only person it could be was Santa Claus. Carson and Emma were so excited that they forgot to tell him what they were hoping for this Christmas. Santa asked them if they were being good and told them there was still lots of time left for them to be on their best behavior. Each got a Christmas ornament with their name on it and a candy cane. Santa was kind enough to let us snap one picture.



As I told you in the last post, Jordan was injured in the first game of the season last week. He did not suit for the JV game on Thursday which allowed him time to rest. He is feeling much better and back at 100%. We are thankful that he recovered quickly and can get back in it. Today the weather has halted the JV/V boys games. School was canceled due to icy conditions so all events are subsequently canceled. Another quiet night in our house. Abbey has been busy with the show choir preparing for the winter concert next week.

Dana is really enjoying his time off!

No...this isn't what he has been doing the whole time! He has really been working on getting some things organized. Hoping to start a painting project next week. He is smiling so much more and joking all the time. I have been wondering where this guy went. Kum & Go was sucking the life from him! : )

I am just enjoying everything! With Dana home I have been able to focus on a few small projects that are in need of some attention. One being my office area. Those of you that are here frequently know that my desk is a pig sty! I have actually been able to do some organizing in that area. I just feel that we are making great strides towards starting the New Year off in a very good place! So.....yes, it's all still good!

Thanksgiving and It's All Good!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We here in the Sump house enjoyed a quiet day together. Dana grilled a yummy turkey on the weber and I handled the rest. Your usual Thanksgiving turkey accompaniments. We all went around the table and said what we were thankful for.
Carson and Emma: "my family"
Abbey: "Thanksgiving break"
Jordan: "Singulair and my inhaler"
Dana: "a happy and healthy family"
Jamie: "that nobody said yuck when they sat down at the table"
We spent the afternoon putting up the Christmas tree and the kids played outside for a little bit. The wind was a little brisk so we lured them back in the house with decorating the tree.

Dana and I joined many others on a very early Friday morning for a little economic stimulus. I spend more time watching the other crazy people than I do getting what I need. It really is a spectacle. Dana and I usually go without the cart and carry our stuff. So much easier to maneuver around. I do feel we have a good handle on the shopping though.

Saturday was spent just doing stuff around the house. That is a never ending job. And then on Sunday we went over to Panora for a Thanksgiving celebration with Uncle Bill and Aunt Karen. The food was fabulous, as always! We spent the afternoon visiting and playing Uno Spin. My sister and her family were able to join us so the kids got to play together which doesn't happen often enough.

Several blogs back I eluded to a very exciting meeting that Dana was attending. Well, I can finally divulge that it involved a second interview and subsequent job offer with Casey's General Stores. (yes....the competition) Dana has accepted the offer of employment with their company and is scheduled to start on January 5th. He gave Kum & Go his 2 week notice last Wednesday and in a matter of 1 hour the email went out company wide that he was no longer with the company, his pass key had been taken away, and an exit interview completed. So....Dana is now enjoying some time off. 39 days to be exact. When he called and told me they were letting him go right away I immediately had to add things to my Honey Do list! Oh the things I am going to get done around here! : ) Many people have said this could be lead to the demise of our marriage. He has been a business traveler since the day we got married. Now we have lots of together time. I just tell people, if we could build this house together without it ending I think that 39 days will be a breeze.

All kidding aside, this is a great opportunity for him! Way more room for professional and personal growth with Casey's, 8:00 - 4:30 business hours, and very little, if any, travel. He will be working in their marketing department and will oversee everything in the cooler. Dana did a lot of different things for Kum & Go and now he just has the cooler to worry about. No equipment, no openings, no acquisitions or divestitures.

So right now he is enjoying taking the kids to school and catching up on some reading and things that need to be done here. Today he had the snowblower out and took care of a few driveways. I say, Great!! I was tired of "going all out". Now I say...."it's all good!"

Jordan started basketball this week. During his first game he was going for a loose ball and ended up having someone land on top of him. Right in his right clavicle area. He really looked like he was in pain. Said he heard a pop but everything looked ok and he had pretty good range of motion. He thought he would be ok and went ahead and suited last night for the varsity game. He only played a few minutes and looked like he was in quite a bit a pain. When he came home he thought maybe he should take a few days off. Not what you normally hear coming from his mouth. Dana took him in this morning for an x-ray and it was read as negative. Great news. Badly bruised and he is clear to play as he is comfortable. So, I think he is going to rest a few days and then try to get back into it. Doesn't like being on the bench needs to be in on the action.

I started a new little one this week. A 3 month old little guy from our neighborhood. Really fun having a little one in the house again. Kinda glad Dana is around to help out. Also enjoy the adult conversation!

So for right now....."it's all good!" Ask me again in a few more days! : )

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Kingpin!

Dana became the leader of the pack last Wednesday night during bowling. I have no idea what came over him, but he bowled a 434 series. He bowled a 230 in the first game and a 204 in the second. It was amazing to watch. He had been struggling right along with the rest of us but Wednesday night he had it figured out. We are off this week so hope he can carry it over! I on the other hand bowled 2 games in the low 100's. I am still striving to "keep it real"!


Dana after his amazing series!

Another quiet week for the rest of us. Jordan received JV and Varsity basketball uniforms this week. He was very excited and knows he is going to be a busy man. The games start next week and there will be 3 for him. He will probably start JV and be in the sub rotation for Varsity. At any rate....lots of bleacher butt for the parents and we are just fine with that. He also received the official diagnosis for his exercise induced asthma. They are going to put him on different medication to help control that better. He and Kelli ran the Living History Farms Cross Country Race together on Saturday with over 7500 other crazy people. The rest of us are enjoying the calm before the storm. Early to bed, meals that don't come from a concession stand and a home with some organization to it.

We will be spending Thanksgiving right here in Grimes with just the 6 of us. We haven't done that for 4 years and are looking forward to some quiet family time. We wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving! We are so thankful for each one of our friends and family!

Adult time!

So...not a lot to share this week. Dana was gone the beginning of the week and things were very quiet. House got cleaned, laundry got done....you know, the usual stuff.

I did get out on Wednesday night with the neighborhood girls for Mexican and conversation. It is such a nice way to break up the week and always fun to spend time with them. Even if the service sucked, the company did not. I then went directly to the bowling alley and bowled a 165. Not my highest ever but the highest so far this season. We actually won all three games and that hasn't happened in a few weeks.

Saturday we went out with 3 other couples from the neighborhood to celebrate Mark's birthday. We had great food at the Bonefish Grill and then headed over to The Blue Moon piano bar for drinks and entertainment. We are so lucky to have such great friends. It was also so nice to get away before we all get really busy with winter sports and the holidays. Thanks guys you are the best!

Cold weather birthday

I hate cold weather!! Even more...I hate precipitation and cold weather. They put brine down on the roads yesterday in anticipation of icy weather and I darn near cried. We scrambled the end of last week to get snowpants and other cold weather gear for Carson. They go outside for recess as much as they can and I wasn't ready for the weather to take this wintery turn.

We are between sports still so are enjoying the calm that comes with it. Basketball starts for Jordan next week and Abbey has decided to focus on Show Choir and school work. It will be different having only 1 in an activity at a time.

The XC team had their awards banquet last week. Jordan received the Sportsmanship patch this year. It is the last award given out and each year Coach Gilroy says that it is a special award. We were so proud of him. He had such a different year this year and hope it continues for him. He also put in a bunch of hours at work last week and is scheduled for 20 this week. He is happy to do it. Loves that paycheck. Spends a lot of his free time with Kelli.


Jordan getting The Sportsmanship award!


Abbey, Carson, and Emma are enjoying the lack of excitement. It is really nice to eat as a family and not have to rush out the door. Abbey comes home does her homework, reads and is catching up on some of her favorite TV shows. Carson is polishing up his Wii skills and Emma is perfecting the art of "dress up". She hasn't, however, correlated being cold all the time to the fact that she wears thin, short sleeved princess dressed all day.

Dana and I did our bowling thing on Wednesday. We haven't been doing so great. A few of us seem to be in a slump! Mostly the ones that live here. I think Krista and Stacey may be contemplating new partners. Saturday night we helped surprise a friend for his 40th birthday at our local sports bar. He really didn't know about it and we all enjoyed visiting with friends.

Sunday we loaded up to go to Cherokee to surprise my dad for his 60th birthday. We had to leave Jordan behind as he had to work. Neither Dad or Mom had any idea that we were coming. We had a nice time. I hadn't been home since last Christmas and we hadn't seen Mom and Dad since the beginning of May. It was a really nice day. We had a yummy breakfast and bloody mary's made by my dad's best friend out at his cabin. Thanks Dale! It was great. Then we went to Mom and Dad's to watch football and enjoy time together.


Grandpa and the grandkids.


Mom and Dad with the kids.


Camille and Emma

Dana left for Colorado yesterday and will return tomorrow. Really glad that it is a short trip. Has an exciting meeting on Thursday that I hope to be able to tell you about soon. (A little teaser for ya.) I am looking forward to girls night out tomorrow evening with the neighborhood girls. Not much planned for the upcoming weekend. Sounds like the next post will be short. Stay warm!

Halloween!

Ok, so apologies to those of you who religiously come to the blog Sunday or Monday looking for a new update. Last week kept me busy and the weekend kept me busier. Haven't sat at the computer much so....I'll do better.

Last week revolved around the Halloween holiday. The anticipation was almost too much for Carson and Emma. Each day was counted down as if Santa was arriving. For the rest of us it was business as usual. Bowling and a Fall Concert by the Middle School students was all we had.

Dana took off for Texas on Friday morning with a friend for Race Weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. He met his brother there and from the sounds of it had a great time. Dana has had a passion for Nascar since I met him. He came home Monday afternoon tired, relaxed, and maybe a bit in need of detox. : )

That left me here to do the Halloween thing. We did get pumpkins carved before he left. We had to make it a 2 day process. One to open and scrape them out. The second to actually carve them. Jordan and Dana decided to use a jigsaw to cut them open this year. Saw it on tv during the World Series I guess. I don't question them anymore. Jordan carved 3 of the pumpkins and Abbey did her own. Nothing fancy this year...just your basic pumpkin faces.

Friday was Beggars Night. The weather was perfect to be out in the neighborhood with everyone else. It was really like a scene out of a movie. Kids running everywhere laughing and families sitting out on their porches or driveways to greet the kids. Carson went as Indiana Jones and Emma went as her favorite storybook character Fancy Nancy complete with a Posh Puppy, which I ended up carrying most of the evening. We were a group of 7 kids and 5 adults and we needed every one of those adults to keep track of the kids. The boys were 3 houses ahead of us and the little ones brought up the rear. Jordan was with Kelli and friends to watch movies and Abbey stayed behind to hand out the candy to between 150-200 kids. We lost count.

Saturday night was my turn to celebrate Halloween. Our friends had their 3rd annual Halloween Costume Party that is eagerly looked forward to by all. I had to go stag this year. My neighbors Tyler and Julie (I watch their daughter, Landry) graciously allowed me to tag along with them. Julie and I teamed up and went as Saloon Girls and Tyler went as Michael Jackson. It was a blast. The band was great....the cops only showed up once.....and I still like being behind a microphone! I somehow tried to sing "867-5309" along with another party goer but we couldn't remember all the words to the verses. After the band was done we rocked the karaoke! We have some talent in the neighborhood!

We ended the week with the kids bellies full of candy and parents who each enjoyed a few moments of adult time! Livin' the life!!

2 montages this week. One of the pumpkin carving and trick or treating. The other of the party. Thanks Julie for taking all the pictures putting it together and then just letting me copy it!! : )

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com