What is Up??

4th grade is off with a very loud bang! I think Jori is getting the hang of it now. At first, she was very overwhelmed (and so was I)!!

This is Jori's first day of school, and of course she is perturbed I am in the classroom with a camera. Or just plain embarrassed!



Last weekend was Friday night game time. Jori and I love to play Jenga, but Chris has never played with us before. It really mixed things up.

Here I am taking out one of the 3 ONLY moves left in the game. I will honestly say Jori and I have had some pretty big towers, but this takes the cake.


Other than that, things are going well. Jori and I are leaving for Arizona in ONE WEEK!!!! AARRGGGHHHH! I am so excited. I cannot wait to hang out with my parents, chat with my sister, and chill. The weather is 92' right now... just one more week and the sun is all mine.

Hope my friends and family are well. Love ya!

Lunchtime

Went home over lunch today (to do dishes *sigh*) and look at what I saw?!? Unbelievable, naughty kitty! Elliott.

Locks for Love

Jori has been growing her hair since kindergarten. That's 4 years!! On Tuesday, Jori decided it was time to donate her hair to Locks for Love. I am very proud of Jori for deciding to help a child who suffers from cancer or any other disease resulting in hair loss. This has always been Jori's goal. She is one giving girl, and I love her so much for who she is.

olli

listen carefully to jori talking to oliver. what a riot!!

Cabin Fever!

Last weekend Jori, Chris and I got the opportunity to visit the family cabin. Due to other commitments, we didn't arrive till almost 10pm. That didn't stop us from enjoying smores and chatting with Mike and Courtney. (Chris's cousin and her husband)

Sunday was absolutely gorgeous. If I haven't told you, this year is one of the finest summers in Minnesota I can remember. Sadly, we desperately need rain, but I cannot complain about the blue skies, warm air and sunshine on my face. I think this summer is going to carry me far into our winter!

Here you go! Pictures from the weekend:

Courtney and Jori on the tube. Chris is trying like mad to dump them both! Which of course he was successful at!



Oh, isn't he cute?? He's ready -- Courtney did a great job trying to toss him off.



Here she is! My tubing girl. She really, really liked being at the cabin.





Jori was hiding from me when we were getting ready to leave Saturday.



Here's a brief glimpse into our world. We love all of you and hope you are enjoying your summer as much as we are!! Love, Jori and Jeannie

Olli fall down!

Okay, I guess I can finally admit it. My kitty is getting chunky. He's just hungry and whenever anyone is in the kitchen, he thinks it's time to eat. Poor Olli.

summertime dirt

I took this picture of Jori sometime over the past few weeks. She is about to get into the shower, and when she lifted her arm, I caught the deep, dark dirt lines! Oh, how I wish I could get this dirty playing at camp all day. I'm happy to see Jori is enjoying her summer to its fullest!

She is so tired by the end of the day, this is how I catch her sleeping.

Valleyfair

Jori and I had our annual Valleyfair event on Friday. We couldn't of asked for a better day! The weather was 90' but we didn't notice. There weren't many people there, and the rides took no more than 3-5 minutes to get on??!!

As usual, we brought a cooler of food and tried to keep down the cost. This year Jori brought her own money to play the games: ring toss, dart throw, break a plate,etc. Jori and I together won this gorilla. We've always seen people with the gigantic stuff animals and wondered how they did it. Jori was super lucky and won almost every game she played. This gorilla only costs $4 (not bad, huh?!) As you can tell in the picture, he has made himself part of the family.

here i am

"Here I am, the one that you love, asking for another day" Oh I know that's cheesy!! Well, what a fool I am for taking an online course over one of the most gorgeous summers I can remember. I'm not sure if it's so gorgeous because I'm studying and would rather be playing!

Jori has been in camp this week at the YMCA. It's a day camp where she gets on a bus at 8:25am and off at 4:15pm. I'm not sure what they do all day, but she definitely learns songs, does archery, went canoeing with a 3 mile hike. Oh how I wish I was 9 again!! She sleeps like a ROCK. I wish I could put sound on this blog so you could hear how loud Jori snores.

I was a very bad mommy last Thursday. It was our first official day of summer break. I took the day off from work and took Jori to the beach. It’s been a week and we are both peeling. I didn’t get the sunblock all over and some places on our skin were burned quite bad.

Here are some pics from our day at Square Lake. There was a light breeze and check out the blue sky:





This is the first year Jori caught minnows at this lake




Hope everyone is well. Love you all!!

catch up!!

I have to apologize I haven't been too faithful with my blogs! YIKES. I started a summer class at Metro U that's online and frankly, quite demanding! I'm so excited about tonight. Jori might actually pitch an inning this game. She went to a pitching clinic on Tuesday and is ready to start tonight! After watching last week's game, I know she'll do great! It doesn't matter if the ball hits the ground or the batter in the helmet! Just keep

This is a picture of Jori as we're getting ready to go to the Children's Museum for 3rd Grade Invention Fair!


Jori's invention was the Hopper Popper. For those people who do not want to leave the movie theatre to get more butter on their bucket of popcorn -- could use her invention. Her design consisted of a salad spinner with a tube connecting to the spray bottle. You pump the salad spinner and spray the butter. Genius!

Sorry so short! Hopefully tomorrow I can get to the past 2 weekends!!
GO (South St. Paul) Packers!!!

gimme gimme

sorry you haven't seen a post in over a week - i'm awfully far behind. i pulled a muscle in my neck a week ago, started an on-line college course and continue to occupy my evenings with 9 year-old softball.

be patient and i promise the pics/words will make up for the delay.

lots-O-love,
jeanniegirl

Early Growth

Tonight, Jori was finally able to get a practice in. Jeff took her to practice and I got some yard work done:
Grabbed the gloves and my handy, dandy tool. Look at the weeds I got out of my small, front yard!!!


It was well worth it; coming around the corner I caught site of these (hopefully) beauties:



The bush in the middle is my new Burning bush. See, I told you he was perfect.

Hopefully that'll give you a glimpse into my and Jori's Tuesday. Tomorrow is our first softball game. GO PACKERS!

Easter Celebration

I got this photo today from Tina, Chris's mom. It was taken a week ago while at her farm celebrating Easter. Oma is Chris's grandma and was getting ready to go on the utility vehicle tour around the farm. The seating arrangements changed, and Courtney, Oma and I were along the back and Jori sat facing us. Good thing, too! She told us when to duck and cover. The men rode up front. (chickens!!) I wish we would have taken an after picture. Shawn drove us around and we got into quite the trouble with some pine trees and bushes. Each of us was covered in pine needles and other mysterious tree things. It was a wonderful, sun-filled day.



This is Darby! He lives on the farm, too. He looks like he's in heaven.

With love, Jeannie

The Weekend

Jori was at Jeff's this weekend. Unfortunately, they didn't get to practice softball since the Twin Citites has been gray and rainy for 4 days now. It is welcoming because the trees are getting so lush and green. Tomorrow it's supposed to be in the seventies and that'll burst all the flowers into bloom! I love Spring.

Here is a snap shot of my weekend! It was fun, relaxing, and spent with people I love:




















The man who makes the best dinner!!
Salmon, red pots, and asparagus...yummy!

















Crimes!! Gunner and Zelda solving crimes!!
















Megan helping me get the Garanimal question settled!!
**IF you know what Garanimals are, please say YES or NO - I know what they are, but Chris had never heard of them??

















Text messaging is the hottest thing! Isn't Mego cute!!

















Sunday, Chris and I went to his dad's house in WI.
I forgot my camera, but had my cell phone.
I'm struggling with getting the photo so that'll have to wait.
And finally, this is my first mac and cheese from scratch!!



Hope everyone is doing well!

TGIF

Here's the scoop on Jori's softball: The machine doesn't really pitch too fast, 30mph sounds super fast, but I heard a house cat can run up to 30mph, too! (Just a little Jeannie tid-bit.) Most of the girls were comfortable with the machine, too. We had our first injury, though. One of the girls was warming up her swing, and well, hit a boy in the head. Poor kids. The girl was doing exactly what she was supposed to be doing, in the the location where she was supposed to, but the boy was playing in the grass and well, got too close. He'll be okay - needed 4 or 5 stitches.

That was Wednesday's ball practice, now onto Thursday. Jori was nervous and got a little frustrated when they were warming up b/c she missed every single ball thrown to her. It was a combination of both girls' throwing - but there were tears. She didn't make eye contact with me, so she must have got rid of them quickly. The coach worked with Jori and helped her feel better, and he worked with the other girl, too. I am not sure who is new on this team, but I think it's Jori and another girl. The rest of the parents and children all knew each other. Hopefully, someday it'll be like that for Jori and I. Some of the girls are almost 11, but their birthday falls at age 10 on January 1st - I got the feeling the parents wanted their girls in 12U. Oh well. Our first game is Thursday!!

Enough about softball. GEEZ. You'd think I was a proud parent or something. Things are good for me. As you can tell, I'm busy driving around JoJo, and I decided yesterday that I'll start running when Jori does fast-pitch practices. I don't need to be there... I'll still help on Jeff's team practices. Running would be good for me and I really have been missing it. I'm getting very excited about summer and riding our bikes, camping, swimming and gardening. Speaking of gardening, I got a new bush this week. Chris is so cute, and I love him so much. I found him Wednesday after work sleeping on my couch; he'd just planted a Burning Bush in my front yard. It's so cute and it looks very good where it is. This fall I'll have to get pictures as it turns red.

Now, this is the best part of this blog. I actually had to call Jori back to the car this morning after dropping her off. She was walking to the door and I happened to take inventory of what she was wearing: Red capri sweats, long sleeve red shirt, aqua-ish tee, yellow softball hat, and her socks pulled up to her knees. WOW. It was so cute and all I could think about was capturing the moment to share and where are Geranimals now??

Softball Season

Softball season has officially started! Jori is playing on Monday and Wednesday for the South St. Paul (SSP) Parks and Rec. Jeff is the coach again this year, and boy does he have his hands full. Only two girls have played before; Jori and Andrea. The other 7 I met last night had not been on a field before. Now, this truly isn't an issue since all kids need to start somewhere, and I'm a full supporter of "let's have fun out there", but (and I mean a big but) the machine is pitching at 30 mph. We didn't get the machine out last night, so I'll need to update you Wednesday. I've attached this picture of Jori wearing her new t-shirt for the team. The shirt situation is pretty funny. It's been great to see many girls in SSP who are athletic and built as such, but our 3rd/4th grade team got YL as the biggest shirt. Let's just say I saw lots of tight shirts last night. This picture doesn't do justice; Jori really looked like a scarecrow! Just to help keep things straight, this league only runs now till the end of May.

Tuesday/Thursday is our new adventure! Jori is on a traveling fast-pitch softball team. We have our first practice on Thursday. I'm a little nervous. Jori is on a 10U (under) team where we travel to other cities and play. WE PLAY DOUBLE HEADERS??!! This kid is going to be tired at night this summer. In this league, the girls actually begin pitching to the other team. Who knows, this might be the start of something new. Jori might find this is what she likes and takes it from here. I wonder if she'll pitch? I wish I could upload video to this blog. I guess I'll need to make some DVD's off the video camera and mail them out to you all. That's right after I get the copies of the cruise photos :)

As for me, I'm doing great! Since I haven't been in my house during Spring it's been exciting to see what lays underneath the leaves. Actually, I'm pretty proud of myself because I have already combed through all of my rocks, bushes, and possible plants and cleaned out the past few years of guck. I have 4 hostas coming in the front and several really nice looking plants in the back. What a feeling when I was done and able to look around and see some gorgeous new growth. No tulips, so I'll need to get some bulbs planted this fall.


For those of you who haven't seen Oli in awhile, here he is!! My cuddle-cup.

Love you ALL!!

PAINT

This is what m$crosoft is good for. Jori made this original black and white, but has added different colors, too.

Today was a good day. Jori is currently testing for MCA's this week and next so she is conscienous of her rest. She has cancelled two offers for Thursday night just to make sure she gets to bed early. Speaking of which, I gotta run and read another chapter of Harry Potter (first book) to Jori.

More later... or tomorrow.

Introducing Jori and Jeannie

I do not know why I didn't do this earlier. Jori and I laugh everyday, we enjoy each waking hour together and now we have a place to share it with our family and friends. If I do this the way I have in mind, you'll see lots of daily pics, hear about our week and up coming events. Come back often because we hope to both publish to this site. This is our first blog together, so have patience as I teach Jori how to post (and soon she'll pass me up on my skills!)

With love and excitement! Jeannie