Regular Stuff & Life

We realized that we haven't blogged since Halloween, how did that happen? Regular life got in the way I guess. What does regular life look like and what have we been up to? We'll start at the top...

Tom has been super busy with his United Way special project (figuring out how to market to for profit companies that have a community based focus - for example; Tom's shoes is a for profit company that donates 50% of their profits to the community) as well as getting more involved with his board work with Gift of Adoption. He is also tutoring 1st grade math on Wednesdays (counting backward and skip counting is harder than you'd think) and has been fighting off the leaves in our yard and all the fall house work that seems never ending. He also made a huge batch of wine that should be ready just in time for New Years:) Finally, he spent the day taking our good friends Radha and Krishna around the twin cities. They are moving here in February on a 2 year work assignment and he made daycare, school, townhouse, etc appointments for them so that they can get a lay of the land. Little do they know that we are angling for them to life swap with us when we move to Canada, so he was laying the ground work:)

Tracy is crazy busy at work and is SUPER thankful that Tom does the needful at home. We are on a full on sprint to opening our 1st stores in Canada and there will be no rest for the weary until 2013. She is also trying to do her share of cooking, homework with the kids while keeping up with the 3 mile daily walks that Nikki needs. She's asleep 30 seconds after her head hits the pillow every night. We did get a good 11/11/11 fix in last week. We watched Oceans 11 and toasted each other at 11:11:11pm. (11 is Angela's favorite/superstitious #, she only sets her alarm clock in numbers divisible by 11, so needless to say, it was a big night).

Jimmy has started basketball warm ups (drills, skills, etc) and is now playing in a band. They are playing lots of Bruno Mars and Foster the People. He seems to be having fun and the other kids don't seem to notice that he's 3-4 years younger than the other kids. He's still in piano and drum lessons and is obsessing about Christian Ponder. He's in a fantasy football league and has been picking the football picks in Tracy's weekly football pool at work. He may just win this week. I think he's grown again, he's skinny at 105 lbs, size 8 men's shoe and 5' 2". its crazy! He's also needs to read and write a book report on 20 books this year in order to 'win' a trip to Mall of America in May. He just finished his 10th book. Never say the kid cant be motivated by bribery.

Kay is in gymnastics, piano and girl scouts. The latest addition to her activities is cheer leading (god help us) and is selling candy bars to raise money for the group. Her goal is to sell enough to get a free set of pom poms. She can now do a front handspring and can play Ode to Joy on the piano. We are on night 7 of her sleeping the WHOLE night in her own room. I think this is the 1st time this has happened in 8 years. She came up with a motivation chart for herself and she's following it. If she does it 14 nights in a row, she earns a trip to the beauty salon. As she said yesterday "this systems working pretty well, don't you think?" We agree! Its amazing how much nicer we are when we've all had a good night sleep. She's pretty amazing.

Billy is in gymnastics and just finished a 3 week basketball warm up himself. Imagine 15 6 year old boys learning basketball basics. (think squirrels chasing a ball) He's also in a 4 week Lego class at school and declared "I'm never going win a prize". Thinking he was just being negative, we tried to talk to him about it. Then, we realized, he really is never going to win a prize since, to win a prize, you have to be the 1st one to listen and pick up. Not Billy's strong suit as he doesn't want the Lego fun to end. He's reading and is a math whiz. He cant wait to turn 7 (12/11) and we've been busy planning and re planning his birthday party (who to invite, where to go, what toys he wants) its pretty fun.

Nikki and Timmy are fine, lots of walks, treats and mauling by the kids.

Overall, regular life. Fun, hectic, crazy and full of everyday funny little adventures.

Here's a good example of a "normal" Friday night http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-glEitjSxE

"till our next big adventure...

Peace!