A Day to Remember

Days like today make me know that I made the right choice to move back to my hometown. Stewartville knows how to remember those who gave their all to this country.

There is a small parade every year down 2nd street. My entire family gathers at Grandpa's house and watches the parade. I used to march with the Auxiliary and then the band, but now I am just a spectator. Then the whole town walks down to Woodlawn Cemetary as the American Legion puts on a nice ceremony. The band plays, the color guard does a 21 gun salute and buglers play taps. It is reflective and emotional for many. Myself included.

It makes me remember my Grandpa Clarence's funeral where he was honored with the 21 gun salute and taps as well. He was quite the proud veteran, and I'm quite the proud granddaughter.

Thank you to all who have served especially in my family: Grandpa Clarence, Aunt Amy, Uncle Rob, Uncle John and Matthew.

Connor marching with the boy scouts. My cousin Kerri's son is holding the American flag.

 My grandpa used to stand with the men as well. Now he just looks on from up above...

 A flag for Grandpa and a poppy for Grandma.

 The boys on the porch enjoying some food prepared by the Smidt girls!

 Cousin Shot!

 Funny faces (minus Laura)

Trip to St. Ansgar!

Tony and I made the trip down to St. Ansgar, IA to watch my cousin Michelle's first softball game of the season. It didn't end well, but it was still fun to watch. Hopefully we can make it down there for more games this year. Michelle is one of the captains, and she sure is quite the captain on and off the field! I'm very proud of that girl!

Here she is going in for a sweet catch!

Traditional cousin shot. Hannah left a few minutes earlier, so she missed this shot. 

 Game face.

The bunting queen!

Here she is running towards home base. She scored the 2nd and last run for the night.

My loves.

I hadn't seen Sol and Luna for a while, so I went upstairs to investigate.

This is what I found:

Luna is cleaning Sol!

ZED Activity Day

Friday was possibly my best day at ZED all year! I was so proud of my students. They did an excellent job representing our school, and they showed those other schools that they did deserve to be there!

We attended ZED Activity Day. This year it was held at Triton Public School District. Activity Day is like track and field day for children with special needs. Typically, students who are labeled as EBD (emotional behavioral disabilities) are not invited to attend this function; however, the students from ZED South Campus are invited since they do not get this experience in their home schools.

Our students behaved wonderfully and had a great day filled with fun! After we ate lunch on the football field, we went over to the "castle park" in Dodge Center. The kids played their little hearts out! When we got back to school around 2pm, they were exhausted, and so was I...

I have a billion pictures of my little kiddos running and playing, but I can't share them due to privacy. I will share a photo that just touched my heart. Triton Elementary School brought out all of the classes to support the Triton students participating. Every time a Triton student's name was called, they would stomp, clap, cheer and chant for them. It brought tears to my eyes on several occasions.

Friends Forever

Luna and Sol have become quite the best of friends lately. I have found them curled up sleeping together on several occasions.

However, they still enjoy a good wrestling match.

Family Photo Time

This past weekend, my friend Becky came for a visit. We went to Tony's show, "South Pacific", hung out around our house, and spent all of Sunday morning at church. Becky was nice enough to take a family photo of us while the kitties were cooperating. Not even 4 seconds after the shot, Luna was leaping towards the window to check things out. But it turned out nicely I think.

Happily Ever After

Tuesday was the day that Luna and Sol became friends. They can now be trusted to be alone with each other. I have not captured very many shots of them together because they run around so fast chasing each other. Luna is still a little on edge, but it's been getting better every day!

Wrestling is the favorite past time.

Sol was so tired from being chased around by Luna. 

Luna was equally as tired as Sol....

Miller Time

Since Tony and I had not seen the Miller family since their new little man arrived, we drove out to Pine Island and brought the Miller's some dinner. It was a wonderful night!

Tony and I took turns holding and snuggling the adorable Samuel. I was led around (quite literally using a leash even) by Josie. We played and played and read and read. She even got her Uncle Tony to be a beautiful bride and dance around on the deck with her. Priceless memories were captured. It was a later evening than we're used do, so I was sluggish at work on Wednesday. It was worth every second however!

Here's one proud papa with his two little darlings.

Josie loves to ham it up for the camera. We took LOTS of pictures so she could see them right afterwards. 

I'll admit it. I'm a baby hog. But how can you not be when the baby is this precious?

Josie took every toy out of her toy box to show me.

Aren't they just adorable?

The Godfather. Adam and Emily asked Tony to be Sam's Godfather. He's been practicing his best Godfather accent....

Hey Sista, Sol Sista!

Luna and Sol had their first real interactions with each other today. We put 2 baby gates up, one on top of the other. This was so Luna didn't jump over and do something she'd later regret.

I'm very proud of Luna. There was minimal hissing, and she initiated a lot of the play. Sol doesn't quite understand why Luna does not want to be her friend, but we're well on our way to having 2 very happy sisters.

Here's how silly the doorway looked. Luna could still crawl over it, so we are sure we're there when the door is open.

Crouching kitty, hidden ...

and the play begins!

They touched and did not exchange hisses! 

We're starting to really get them together more so we can soon move to letting Sol run free in our house. The vet wants us to contain her for a while longer yet because of "potty" issues. She's so little, so she could get stranded on one end of the house and forget how to get to her litter box.

Simon says, "Hi Sol!"

We took a trip to Willow Hill to wish Cher a happy mother's day. We brought along Sol to play with her brother Simon. There was some hissing and some growling, but they played hard the entire time we were there! We stopped to say happy mother's day to Grandma Jayne, and Sol fell fast asleep on Grandpa Bob's lap. She slept the whole way home!

Thanks Simon for the fun play date!

The initial smelling. "I think I remember that scent..." Sol is the one in the green collar.

Beanbag play time!

A shot with Cher.

Some more Sol!

Our little Sol has become quite the fun kitty since she came home with us last Tuesday. She purrs the second you start petting her and she can snuggle for days! I took her to the vet yesterday morning, and they said she looks perfect! Luna is still a little unsure. We've never let them be together because Luna will still hiss at her smell from time to time. We're slowly introducing the new sisters....

I captured some more pictures/video this morning:

Sol loves to come in our bedroom and play on our big bed. The beautiful quilt that Cher made us is so warm and snuggly. She curls right up in it!

Tony made Luna a new bigger scratch pole, so Sol inherited the older smaller one. She loves to climb around on it!

I brought up some toys that Luna doesn't play with anymore. Sol had a BLAST with them!

Whenever I come out of the room that Sol is confined to, Luna is sitting like this somewhere in the house with both eyes on the room. She'll sometimes be right outside the door too listening and watching. We're seeing a lot of progress with her though! We give her more loving then we did before so she knows we're not replacing her. 

Here's our little girl in action!

Sol's big arrival!

Over a week ago, I traveled to Luna's mom's house to look at kitties with Cher. She had decided that it was time for a new kitty around Willow Hill. I decided that it was time for a sister for Luna.

So, last night Cher and I went and picked up our new kitties! Cher has Simon, and we have Sol. We have been reading and reading on how to positively bring another kitty into Luna's life. It might be a long process, but it will be worth it. We fell in love with Sol at first sight! (although she is making this blog post rather difficult by attacking my fingers as I type!)

Luna has been unhappy with us, but she will still snuggle after she calms down. I think we're on the right track. Sol has a very different temperament than Luna at that age. Sol likes to snuggle on our laps. She did not seem scared at all when we brought her into our house. She immediately began to play and eat like it was nothing new. It took Luna almost a week to get used to us.

Now, what you've all been waiting for....pictures!

Sing it out!

Tonight Natalie's preschool, Creation Kids, put on quite a show, and Natalie had quite the cheering section in attendance: Grandpa Bob, Grandma Jayne, Grandpa Alan, Grandma Cher, Laur, Jill, Tony, Jon, Mindy, Harvey and me! She did a great job singing out and doing the actions.

Here's our girl in action!

They're being pigs in this shot. 

Natalie took us to her classroom and showed us a book of her artwork. She's explaining it to Grandma Jayne and Grandpa Bob. 

After we looked around Natalie's classroom, we went to the fellowship hall and had some delicious snacks. Harvey chose Oreos. 

Natalie chose a brownie and this cupcake.

 Then we each took a turn having a picture with the star of the show!