June, so far...

Highlights of last week:

Jared and his friend rescued at nearly starved cat they found near Hy-Vee. They went in to the store and bought him two cans of food which he gobbled down. He then called me for Aunt Tammy's phone number, and sure enough, she couldn't say no to her great-nephew and came to pick up the cat to take home. I think Jared was pretty happy to have found him a home.

Jenna had a free sports physical at the Middle School, since she'll be playing basketball next year. They were very thorough; I was rather impressed. She even had an echocardiogram and an EKG. I was told everything looked great! She's also been in basketball camp all week, and between dad, Grandma Bea, and myself, we got her back and forth every day.

Getting an echocardiogram - it was pretty neat to watch her heart beat on the screen!

Having an EKG done - she's a healthy girl :)

 Friday, Jenna's team had a make-up game, which they won - they're first win of the season and I think they all felt validated after a rough start of adjusting to the new format. Aunt Jane and Uncle Kent were watching another game and Jane came by to watch Jenna for awhile. Before the game I got to take some pictures of Jenna in her uniform and I'm looking forward to seeing how they turned out when I get a chance. Jared and Julia were spending the night with Grandpa; at least that was the plan. After taking them to dinner at KFC in Macon, Julia decided she missed me so dad brought her home. Jared stayed though and got to shoot some, which he really enjoys. Jenna had been looking forward to a night of being the only child, so she was a little less than thrilled when Julia came home. She does help A LOT with Julia and Julia is very comforted and cared for by Jenna, so I understand she needs a break sometimes.

Saturday was Jared's first guitar lesson at Circle M. He'll be going every Saturday this month and next, and then we'll see how it goes after that. He looked so grown up in the studio.

Jared with his guitar instructor, Jerry. 1st lesson!

Jenna helped me clean house all day. She scrubbed bathrooms, took everything off the kitchen counter tops to clean those, mopped, and more. She really helped me out (honestly, I don't know what I would do without her) to the extent I paid her a bonus. Jared helped Jeremy a lot with his truck also, earning him some extra money too.

Sunday, dad went to KC to pick up mom from the airport after her FL vacation. They stayed in KC the night and she got to recuperate a little from her trip. The kids are glad to have her home!

This week Jeremy had to work out of town (in Paris) I think he'll be working there at least a couple more weeks. He sent me this picture today he took at the quarry there:

 The week went pretty well but we had way too many late nights, at least for me as I am not on summer vacation like the rest! We had games three nights, and last night I had Jenna going to Novinger and Julia going to La Plata, so dad helped me out by taking Jenna. Jenna hit a triple - I wish I could have been there for her game too; they won again! I helped out at 3rd base with the little kids, and Gene and Kelley even came for an inning and surprised Julia (it was Gene's 62nd birthday, she had called him on the way down to wish him happy birthday and told him about her game); then Julia and I met Grandpa and Jenna for dinner. Jared and Grandma had gone to see Man of Steel at the theater, which they both liked, and Jared got to spend the night with her after. Jenna and Julia got to go with Grandpa to garden one night this week. Mom and I met up with them at Dairy Queen for a late (9:00) dinner afterwards (after telling me about her trip for an hour, she got around to the fact that she still wasn't feeling very well, so at 7 pm I took her down to urgent care. She got a much-needed antibiotic and is hopefully on the mend now). So after all the games, late dinners, late baths, it was a bit of a crazy week. Sam probably doesn't know what to think when she arrives at 9:00 and the kids are still sacked out. Oh one more thing, Sam has been taking the girls to the Aquatic Center quite a bit (Jared goes often with his friends), and Julia told me yesterday that she went down the water slide! This was her first time; I'd been wondering if she was big enough, or if she would think it went too fast, but she must have loved it because once she told me she went "5 times" and later she told me it was "7 times." It reminded me of the first time Jared went down one; we were at mom's condo in Daytona and he was about 5 years old - he went up that ladder and down that slide over and over and over.

The snack afterwards is quite possibly Julia's favorite part of games.

Grandma Bea, Lucky, and Pat got to see Julia play this week,
and saw Jenna play in Novinger last night.

Julia on the La Plata field last night.
Jeremy asked me to send him a pic so I snapped this real quick.

So now it's Friday afternoon and Jeremy is on his way home. I'm looking forward to a night of relaxation tonight. Tomorrow will be guitar lessons again, and a haircut for Jared, which he hates, but desperately needs. I'll be doing paperwork of course but then hope to work on the pictures I've been taking at the games. Sunday is Father's Day and I have a new grill in a box in the garage for Jeremy. I don't know if he'll notice it or not if he goes out there, we have a blanket over it so it's a bit inconspicuous, but maybe we'll be able to keep it a secret until Sunday. We'll also be making cookies for Dad and Gene, and I have gifts that Melissa and Tiffany sent for Dad. I'm off Monday to take mom to a new doctor in Columbia for second opinions regarding her surgery, and to take the kids to the orthodontist. We might get to meet up with Julie some too. We only have two games next week, unless we get to make up some rained out ones.

A few other tidbits:
Julia is a Snuggler Supreme. She loves to sit with me in the chair to snuggle and pretty much has to sleep with me or Jenna. Several nights over the last couple of weeks she has been coming to our room in the middle of the night. She climbs into bed and wraps her arms around me, or I wrap mine around her. She also loves to hug. We saw Uncle Andy, Aunt Tammy, Uncle Eddie, and Aunt Melanie at Ruby Tuesday's a couple weeks ago and she must have gone to hug Andy at least 9 times. She's not shy at all. We saw Uncle Kent and Aunt Jane, Michael, Serenity, John and Jake at one of Drew's games when we were heading to our car after one of Jenna's, and she ran right up to give Jane and Kent hugs. She always hugs Grandma and Grandpa bye, too.
Jenna is becoming very interested in gymnastics; she even bought a mat with her own money this week. She's been doing back bends on her bed, and set up Julia's foam floor playmat to use until her mat comes in (which Jared found handy when making himself a pallet to watch TV one night). I will probably try to look into gymnastics classes for her.

Somewhere under there is a princess playmat. And why does this kid never wear a shirt??

Sam continues to work with the girls every day on their math and writing, and reading for Julia, which I very much appreciate. I think they will be in a good place when it's time to return to school in August. They've also been baking, visiting the library, and swimming quite a bit.
Just a couple more weeks until Aunt Tiffy comes for the 4th of July! Now that DD has a job, he isn't going to be able to come, which the kids just can't stand. I wish we could go to him this year, and he even offered to pay gas money, bless his heart, but with Nashville and the State Fair on the horizon, plus childcare and matriculation fees coming due in August, I didn't see how we could. We are really, really hoping he gets to come to Nashville in December!