First Day

Every year we take the front step photo. Jacob is starting junior high today. The gang from Lucas and a couple from Hoover stopped by on the way to walk together. I hope they do this a lot. Jacob looks older to me, not sure I'm ready, but I know he is. It's all he's talked about for days. Well, that and football.

Cousin Visit

Our niece Elise came to Iowa from Montana along with their four kids. Addy was sick and sleeping but Camron and Payne were in full war mode along with Jacob. Sheldon of course hung out with Mom. Ben flew in later to help drive back. He had to stay and help with the cattle I think. We saw them at Grandma and Grandpa Struve's along with some of the rest of the family. And what else do you do when you are at the grandparents and have to use your imagination? Play lift chair races and make guns out of the sock grabbers. Hey, you gotta use what you got....

The Next Generation

Jacob spent the last week and a half at football camp for Southeast Junior High. He's trying to play quarterback and said tonight at dinner it would help to be slightly taller. Blake corrected him and told him Stanzi passes over guys that are 6'7" to get to the shorter guys so there's no excuses or crying in football. It will be different with him gone to Wheaton in Illinois for school. Jacob will have to Skype him to get all the football advice he can from him. Maybe you too Smith boys...

We also went to Kids' day at Iowa for their football practice last weekend. Hot , hot! I haven't been sunburned like that for a long time. In the second picture, Riley Reiff and Clayborn are butting heads, the top guys in the country. It was lots of fun to watch...we probably won't sit on the 50 yard line again for a while. We stayed afterwards to get autographs, Jacob was a pro in working the crowd.

Robot Camp

Jacob went to a 4H camp where he got to play with robots. They programmed them to follow a maze, follow lines, find its way out of a box, and to "dance" to music using computer programs. They got to use GPS too to hide and find things at the fairgrounds outside. It was lots of fun. Glad he understood it, I never would have.

4th of July

This makes 20-21 years that we've celebrated the 4th in Morrison Park in Coralville. We've begun to streamline a bit, egg casseroles, sausage, fruit, coffee. This year the 4th was on a Sunday so Tim Burden brought his guitar and we had a little worship service, nice! We lucked out on no rain during the parade until we went back for fireworks. We ended up at Smiths to eat and the Cupps came and brought Jenna, their new baby from China! We also got Blake back. he's been overseas for 6 weeks and we are glad he's back! We did get to go back and see the fireworks and play a little soccer, just no wiffleball this year cause it was dark already, bummer. We missed you if you weren't there, we were thinking of you!

A Lifelong Hobby

I like art, all kinds. This a picture by Degas that I've always liked. I like lots of artists, they may not make much sense because of the variety and I'm sure they didn't all appreciate each other either. Art goes in and out of my life. I used to draw but have gotten away from it in the last years. I like photography too and in another life may have been a fashion photographer. Crafts are okay, but I like the great freedom drawing and photography allow the creator. I used to belong to a drawing club but it doesn't exist anymore. If you hear of one, let me know. It's a nice hobby though because you can always pick it up again.It might just be time to get out the portfolio and add to it...

Father's Day

It was a good Father's Day. Jacob had a double header in Mt. Vernon Sunday. Jay was asked to be the outfield umpire and I think he had fun doing it. Surely it's hard not to cheer for your team or to call your own kid out at first base but we won the second game and Jacob was the winning run so it was great! All the kids called and even Blake emailed. We talked to Austin on Skype. Paul and Penny grilled out with us too. All in all it was a real 'NAS' day (thanks Alex ) :)

Planet X

We went to CR to go to Planet X with the youth group. Jacob took his friends Ben and Nile. It's a fun place. There was a huge storm we drove in on the way home but that just made it more exciting (I can say that now cause I'm home safe and dry). They played lazer tag and Jay and Jacob went on space bicycles where you ride upside down in a loop and hope you don't lose your supper when you get off!

Good Memories

Our good friends Lisa and Chip Martinson moved this week to Miami! We will surely miss them, seems like they just weren't here very long. Jay and Chip and Bart were good for each other; learning, laughing, holding each other accountable and learning how Jesus can help them be great men. Jay will miss that time together. Lisa and I hung out too: shopping, hanging together at the park, Paneras, a house, eating sushi...We learned together more about how to walk with Jesus every day and how much he loves us and I wished we had had lots more time together. (How come I never get in any pictures?)We also enjoyed hanging as families, lots of laughs and encouraging. I can think of lots of stuff we still could have done together if only they didn't want to serve or need an income. They took their two daughters Lizzy and Emma and will be working with Campus Crusade. We will have to go visit. Also, check out the new smores with huge marshmallows and reeces peanut butter cups, you only eat one!

It's Finally Here

The day is finally here when Jacob gets to help mow the yard. He was excited to help and Jay was really patient with him showing him how. I'm glad cause I don't like our mower, it's heavy but does have a bagger! Not sure how the mouth guard helps him, but hey, can't be too careful. Now maybe I can teach him how to do his own laundry next...which way is the beach?

Last Day of School

Today was the last day of school, 20 years running.....
It started off with graduation and a game of kickball against the teachers.
Then when they got home of course wiffleball and in the rain which only made it better. These are the guys Jacob has been friends with since kindergarten. It ended with night games at another house later. It was a fun day.

Spring Videos

It's fun to watch good soccer after many years of the beehive swarm, it gives you hope that things do get better! This is pretty short, just a kick.



Of course with wiffleball, age doesn't seem to matter...and Kate was upstairs doing homework. I'm not sure who Alex was pretending to be while we were listening to the Cubs while we played, but I think he should've slid into home!



And finally, the last orchestra concert. We're moving onto chorus next year, but keeping the piano going...

Watch Out World!

Jacob was one of 36 sixth graders from the Iowa City Schools and Regina to win the John Hughes Community Leadership Award. It's presented annually to those who display exceptional leadership and make a difference in their schools and community. They are nominated by their principal and win a savings bond from Hills Bank.

Reminiscing

Ok so the duplex we lived in when we first moved to Iowa City was having an open house because it's for sale. So of course we had to go look. What a fun time we had remembering. Home Alone came out when we lived at that house so of course the kids wanted to slide down the stairs on a sled. Only problem was there was a wall at the bottom, not an open door. So they had to settle for rolling down it in sleeping bags. The rest of the house has been updated and is beautiful now, I don't think our furniture all matched when we lived there. The living room is pretty small, but the kitchen is huge and we remember lots of fun times in that kitchen having people over (I miss all those cupboards), watching the kids play out in the back with all the other neighbor kids (we moved when Blake was 2). We could see the neon sign from the Moose Lodge across the street that is now Willowwind School. It was a great place to grow our family for a few years.

Easter

We color eggs every year for Easter. This year Jacob missed the major coloring and did his the next day, but that was fine. We had lots of help and learned some new tricks with rubber bands! We have our standard eggs, the open tomb, He Is Risen, Walker Evans egg (long story), used to be a blood shot eye one, Cubs, we added an american flag that was cool and flowers etc. Jacob and I made this fun rabbit thingie out of frozen bread dough. Think we'll try other animals or maybe even something for the 4th of July!

NIce While It Lasted

We knew it was coming and now we have it - more snow! So we took advantage yesterday and played a little ball out on the drive way and rode our bike to Petland (just looking).

Jacob and I played Around the World (took me 5 tries to get out of the first spot!). Then a little tennis. Hopefully the snow won't last long and we'll be out here again soon!

Spring Break

Well it was Laura's spring break, but we took off school anyway! Here's some pictures of all the fun stuff we did:

 

We had a great week with the kids. Thanks for coming home Laura! We packed a lot in one week. We saw everybody and did just about everything you can in March inside and out! Laura flew into Minneapolis to spend a couple of days with her friend Lindsey who drove her to our house and stayed a few days with us. We cooked a little and ate a lot while they were here...we were always running out of cookies-Blake's favorite. The kids went shopping, we went to the bakery too. We spent time with the Smiths/Plocks and Cupps. We had a friendly competition of biking, running, basketball and swimming, Blake won. Laura got to see G'ma Nemec and G'pa and G'ma Struve and her cousins. The little girls were all taking their blood sugar with G'ma's equipment. They were all normal-even after pie. They said it didn't even hurt to prick their fingers! They all had to wrestle on the living room floor, a fun way to spend G&G's 60th anniversary. Blake left for Florida toward the end of the week, but we had him most of the time. We even found time to put the bottom set of braces on Jacob, with green bands for St. Patty's day. We all slept good at night! It was a fun week, hopefully we'll feel normal soon!