2020 Blue Jeans Week 8

Still lots of basketball going on here.  We have 2 weeks left.  It is a bittersweet thing as it is my last basketball player and her senior year, so we are trying to enjoy it.  Lots of good stuff this week.  Take a look at our week...

Sunday evening reading--Ben reading a new book out loud to us all.  One of my favorite things!

Mr J rocked it again at his Forensics meet this week!  First place!  Woohoo!

This girl doesn't always get to play, but she sure loves the game!  Love her coach and the other girls on the team too!

Sure proud of this basketball player!

#2 basketball game for the week.  Miss E sinking her free throws!  

And Friday night Ben read to us again.  Perfect evening curled up with a good book!

Miss E and Mr J working on a school project together which is fun to see.  

Hope you have a great week!

2020 Blue Jeans Week 7

Busy, busy week.  Two basketball games with one being the last home game and to honor the seniors.  Senior moments galore this week and exciting college news.  Take a look at our week....

Ben reaches over Miss E to taste the cookie dough as she rolls out Valentine's sugar cookies Sunday afternoon.  Sugar cookies are our tradition on Halloween and Valentine's day.

Basketball game #1 for the week.  Mr J rockin' with the pep band at the game. 

Decorating and eating the Valentine's sugar cookies is always a favorite activity!

Miss E helping me make cookies for a library fundraiser.  These Andes mint cookies are a favorite!

Super cold day, so we built a fire tonight and enjoyed playing a new board game together.   

Last home game and senior night.  The 5 seniors getting ready to be announced as the starters for tonight's game.  These girls have played together since middle school.  Lots of good memories! 

And Miss E got super exciting news on Saturday as she received her acceptance letter to BYU!  #byubound

Our traditional Valentine's dinner this year.  My dad was out of town, so we enjoyed having my mom join us.

My new recipe to try for the month of February was creme brulee.  We had it for our Valentine's dessert.  Yummy!  Using the kitchen torch was extra fun!

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you had a good week!

2020 Blue Jeans Week 6

Better late than never.....running a little behind this week getting pictures posted from last week.  It was a good week.  Lots of basketball and other fun things.  Take a look....

Some dear friends invited us over for a Candlemas dinner which was really fun.  We have never celebrated that before. 

And my favorite photo from the Superbowl win with Coach Andy Reid fist bumping Steve Young and saying "How about those Cougs?"  Oh yeah!  Go Cougs!  Love it!

Basketball means pep band for Mr J.  He and the other saxophones rockin' it at one of the two games last week.

Miss E and these other amazing young ladies presented at a state wide career tech ed conference this past week on their internships.  It was pretty awesome.  They did a great job!

Ben and one of his employees celebrating Red day at work!

And this young man rocked his forensics meet by getting first again in the poetry division!  Go Mr J!

Homecoming and the girls varsity team with their amazing coach.  Miss E's last homecoming.  More senior lasts.....so proud of her!

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you have a great week!

2020 Blue Jeans Week 5

Lots of basketball this week, but not exactly the kind you might think, we had donkey basketball that Ben participated in as a fundraiser for the schools.  So much fun!  Lots of normal basketball too.  Take a look at our week...

My date one night this week to Miss E's basketball game

Happy Kansas Day!  We celebrated with our traditional sunflower cake.  Yummy!

Ben's donkey basketball team!  They got #1!  Woohoo!  If you ever have a chance to go to a donkey basketball game, don't miss it!

Ben on his donkey.  The ball they used was much smaller than a normal basketball.  You could only pass the ball or shoot the ball if you were on your donkey.  You could get off your donkey to pick up a dropped ball or whatever, but you had to keep a hold of the reins.  Pretty fun!

Ben in the middle of one of the donkey basketball games.  Too much fun! 

And my date for another basketball game this week. Sure love this guy.  He was happy to be watching instead of playing this time :) 

Hope you had a great week!  Thanks for visiting!

2020 Blue Jeans Week 4

We had a great week.  Lots of basketball with a tournament this week, then I headed to St. Louis to meet up with Miss A for a few days as she looked at a grad school there.  I have been seeing a few American Bald Eagles, and finally was able to get a picture of one.  Pretty awesome to see them in the wild.  It has been a good week, take a look...

With an extra day off school, Mr J got out his train stuff and make a cool train track around the house.  Brought back lots of memories when he did that every day as a little kid!

An American Bald Eagle that we saw while out walking.  I have seen several lately out walking on the trails and in the back yard and while driving, This one I was able to get a picture of. So awesome!

Basketball tournament week--Miss E made the front page of the sports section one day this week as they covered their game.  They played awesome!

Girls ended up getting 3rd place in their tournament which was great!  An awesome group of girls!

And Mr J had his first forensics tournament this week.  He did a poetry piece and got 1st place and qualified for state!  Their team as a whole got 1st place too which was awesome!!!

Miss A flew to St. Louis, MO and I drove to join her as she explored Washington University in St. Louis as an option for grad school.  They have a beautiful campus, and she was very impressed with their program!  She is exploring a few more schools over the next few weeks, so we will be excited to see where she lands in the fall!

Visited the Arch in St. Louis.  No, I did not go up it.  Heights are not my thing, and Miss A had been up it before when we had been to St. Louis for a summer vacation a few years ago, so we just walked around and admired it from the ground level.  St. Louis is a fun city with lots of stuff to do!

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you have a great week!

2020 Blue Jeans Week 3

Hello!  Hope you all had a good week!  We are enjoying being back into basketball--lots and lots of basketball.  Mr J is in the pep band that plays at the basketball games which is fun.  Staying connected with our college girls and enjoying life.  Take a look at our week...

Miss O is taking an ASL class and has to teach someone 15 minutes each week, so when she video calls on Sundays she teaches Miss E and Mr J.  It has been fun for them.  They can pray in ASL now which is cool!

I walk in the mornings with a friend at an indoor gym.  This was the scene one morning this week.  So pretty with the frosted branches and the sunshine!  It was cold, so I was happy to walk indoors!

Our school board.  We had elections and had one change, so they got a picture of the new board.  I was reelected for 4 more years.  It doesn't seem like I have already been serving for over 4 years.  Time flies!  Great people I am privileged to serve with!

Basketball game and Mr J playing in the pep band.  Fun to see him play.  His older sisters also played, so it was fun to send them this picture of their brother following in their footsteps!

One of my goals for this year is to try a unique and different recipe each month.  For January I made Challah bread--a Jewish bread served during celebrations.  It is soft and slightly sweet, and we all liked it.  I have never made a braided bread before.  Trying to decide what to make next month.....I think I might attempt creme brulee??

We were going through some of the storage rooms in the basement and found this old accordion.  Ben used to play when he was in elementary/high school.  This one isn't totally in working condition, but it was fun to get it out and hear it.  

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you have a great week!  Come back soon!

2020 Blue Jeans Week 2

Back to school and early morning schedules this week.  Ugh.  Welcome 2020 and back to "normal" after the holidays, if normal really exits, and I don't know that it truly does.  Anyway, it was a good week.  Take a look....

For years we have had the tradition that the first Monday of each new year we write down our goals for the year. We focus on 4 different areas--physical, temporal, spiritual and intellectual.  We make posters of them and then put them up in our rooms where we can see them daily to remind us of our goals.  

I was re-elected to the school board for another 4 year term and went in to do my swearing in for the office this last week.  

We had breakfast for dinner this last week and had cinnamon rolls for dessert.  I love cinnamon rolls, and this recipe is so quick!  It is a flaky buttermilk biscuit type cinnamon roll versus a yeast bread one, and my family loves them so much!   They prefer these over the traditional yeast ones, and I don't mind because these are so quick and so yummy!  We had friends over for dinner tonight, and they said they were the best cinnamon rolls they had ever eaten.  Good stuff!

I do a lot of baking, and I personally feel like using real vanilla makes a difference in baking, but real vanilla is so dang expensive!  So last year I looked into how to make my own vanilla, and I did it!  It was so good!  I have about used up all I made, so Miss E was helping me make another batch for this year.  

More games.  We are loving different board games and playing new ones when we have time in the evenings and especially on weekends!

My mom is out of town, so we enjoyed having my Dad join us for dinner.  We all love hearing his stories!  Grandpas are the best!

Got a winter storm this weekend.  This was Ben shoveling Saturday.  It was pretty, and we didn't need to go anywhere, so we could just enjoy it from inside!  I like it when that happens!

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you had a great week!  Come back soon!