JSB 2015

So thankful for a beautiful night for this year's Junior/Senior Banquet.  It made a bunch of mom and dad's picture-taking craziness a lot more enjoyable!  If you don't want to see lots of pictures of a handsome guy and a beautiful girl, just skip this post. 
The dreaded I-have-to-pin-this-flower-on-you-and-I-have-no-idea-what-I-am-doing picture.

Yep.  I'll just let his Dad do it.

Holly, Jenah and Lauren have been good friends since they were little girls.  All three are headed off to different states next year and none of those states are anywhere near their moms.  At least I have some other ladies to cry with.  Holly's really going to miss these two!  I am too.

 

The whole gang.

Just the girls.

The mandatory jumping picture. 

Holly and her guy.

It is very easy to get drama kids to pose.

After taking pictures at a friend's house, we went to school to take more pictures.
Look who was there!  Her favorite guy!

I think these are my favorite.

 

Sam is on the track team.  Holly doesn't run unless she's escaping from a fire.  I'm pretty sure he let her catch him.  He's a smart boy.

Pops Concert

Holly's last Pops Concert.  Sigh. It was a good one. She (and the other concert choir sopranos) were determined to win this year's costume contest.  This was their last chance and they went all out.  They were Disney villains and Holly was assigned the Evil Witch from "Snow White".  She thought up her costume all by her little self.  When she told me she was going to stick her head through the sleeve of a black shirt, I told her that would never work.  I was wrong.  She used one of my pillow cases stuffed with bubble wrap for her collar and she made her crown from one she got at Burger King.  I was very impressed.
Her Dad helped her a little.

Her costume was good but she's still just too sweet to be evil.  

 John managed to get two deserts!  Yes, he ate them both.

All the choirs. I loved the songs they chose this year. 

 Doyle and Susie made it for the last ten minutes!

The concert choir sopranos.  Guess what?  They won!  Actually they won the second night, the concert choir basses won the first night.  They dressed as Winnie the Pooh characters.  They actually deserved to win.  Boys with deep voices that dress as Winnie the Pooh characters definitely deserve to win.

 Holly and Auntie Denise, one of her biggest fans.

Holly with one of her other biggest fans.  Her friend that is a boy was one of those scary guys from "Lord of the Rings"....can't remember their names.  He's way too sweet to be scary too.

Just in case you're wondering.  Even though it was her last Pop's concert, I didn't cry.



Until I got home.

Doyle and Susie

Doyle and Susie came to see us!  Unfortunately the reason for their visit was a sad one.  Doyle's brother (who lived here in Lynden) died very suddenly.  I knew that we were still good friends, despite living across the country from each other, but the week they were here just confirmed that.  We could be sad together and laugh together and we didn't do anything special at all.   It didn't feel like we were entertaining guests, it just felt normal.  It felt like they were living just a mile away and stopped over for supper and a couple of beers afterward. They knew this was a crazy time for us so they even pitched in and helped out at the Hide-a-way.
Susie helped me paint.

Doyle pulled up LOTS of staples in our floors and cleaned up some of John's crap treasures in the garage.

This picture proves how much we didn't entertain them.  Edaleen was the most touristy thing we did so it is the only picture I got of the two of them!

Thanks guys.  Thank you for still being our friends even though we moved away from you.  Thank you for all your help at our new house.  Thank you for being perfectly okay with doing nothing special while you were here.  Thank you for the ice cream cone. Thank you for playing Chutes and Ladders with Katie just so you could "get to know her" since we never bring her on vacations.  Thank you for wanting to stay with us and not in the cottage.  Thank you for more good memories made.  We miss you.

Crazy

My dear sister-in-law sent me a text the other day indicating she missed my blog.  I miss my blog too.  You know what else I miss?  My sanity.  It's crazy town around the Hiemstra House right now.  I have so much going on right now that some days I feel like I am going to lose it and I may never get it back.  I don't know who I feel more sorry for...my hubby who has to take the brunt of my craziness or my kids who I just yell at all the time because I am stressed out.  Just keeping it real folks.
So instead of working on one of the like 1,000,0000,000 things I need to do tonight, I am going to write a blog.  Cause I'm crazy.
I took the kids to the trampoline place in Bellingham over midwinter break.  Talk about crazy.  That place is insane.  When I was filling out the paperwork to get them in, I wondered if I was actually buying the place.  Lots of paperwork to say I wouldn't sue them when my child lost a limb or an eyeball or whatever. 

 

They loved it.

Holly officially chose Dordt!  Yahoo!  Crazy that I have a daughter old enough to go to college!

Kerri helped me paint Sam's room.

Sam's mom came over to see Holly's JSB dress.  She brought about 2,000 paint samples so she could match Sam's tie.  She hung around for a while for some girl talk.   We had lots of fun!

John got the dormer all painted.  It just needs shingles now.



Which I had to stain.  I got about 1/2 of them done.

I am trying to pick out a countertop right now.  These are a couple of doors from my cabinets (white) and my island (stained).   I have lots of decisions that need to be made this week.  I am not good at making decorating decisions.  I second guess everything I pick out. 

Holly went on a camping trip on the Olympic peninsula with her biology class last week.  She had a great time!  Only a month left of school left.  Crazy.