Well we are officially licenced for treatment foster care. And still i am very excited but extremely nervous! For the past three years it has been my husband, i and our animals. we haven't had to work around anyone else's schedule. now we will be just thrown into a schedule that is no longer our own. no only will we have to worry about their bedtime and everything that goes with school, which we will be totally new at, but we are going to have to worry about medications, all of the different appointments they might have and not to mention the children's biological parents and their schedule. Even though I'm sure all of this will be over whelming i would have to say we are up for the challenge. I always thought i would really rather have the younger kids for foster care, which i still would but i am really getting use to having the 13 and 14 year olds. Although some of them can be lazy and disrespectful(I'm sure some of that comes with the age) we have been pretty lucky! The boys we have had in respite have been very easily motivated and seem to always be willing to help. Some of the like to help clean house, clean the yard and a few like to help cook. But the most fun i had was this past Halloween. I believe we had 3 boys maybe 4 and i decided to save pumpkin carving for that day so they could help. I thought boys and carving how could they not want to do it. I didn't care what they carved as long as it wasn't something really bad because their are little kids that come to our house. I also wasn't going to push them to help. I figure if i pushed them it would take the fun out of it and would feel like something they HAD to do. So i just said as i was walking out "I'm going to carve and paint pumpkins anyone that wants to help is more then welcome to come out." Well i thought they would all jump at the chance to cut into a pumpkin but i was very wrong! The only one that came out is the one that normally helps even when i don't ask. He stayed out with me until the last pumpkin was carved. As much as i wish the others would have gotten into the pumpkin carving it was kinda nice to have just one that i could talk to and get to know better. He is still my best helper and i hope that he keeps in contact even when he doesn't have to.

Softball has started! That means my summer is off to a start. Right now I play 3 nights a week and two of the three are co ed. Co-ed is a lot of fun especially if you play with the right people. In the one league we play with some of my husbands teammates and some of our friends. We have played with them for a few years now and its been really fun. For the most part they are pretty laid back for the most part. It might be partly because we often win but also because we just like the people we play with. We started playing with that team this past Monday and although fun it was so cold! We did get lucky though it didn't rain during our game which was large positive. I actually surprised myself, last year i didn't hit very well but that night I hit 3 for 4.

The next night I played in my women's league and my sister also plays on that team. I really enjoy a lot of the people on this team but this year i am a little annoyed. I'm hope it was just because it was the 1st game of the year but we apparently needed to add people to our team so the people that have been there for the past few years had to either rotate or sit out part of the game. I'm hoping these people are just going to be subs because I didn't really play $25 a league to not play. Granted I only sat one inning but I noticed another girl sat much more then one. It was pretty fun though because I do like some of the girls and we are a pretty good team. I didn't do quite as good hitting that night though I think i went either 2 for 4 or 3 for 5 not really sure.

We haven't started our wed. night games yet but in that league I play with my sister so that is pretty fun. I am pretty excited for that league its normally pretty laid back and we normally do pretty well.

For those of you that don't know sports have always been a big part in my life. I have for as long as i can remember played softball and basketball. In middle school I started playing volleyball too. I was pretty good in volleyball and softball but basketball was always my favorite sport even though I didn't play much in high school.
I am so glad for summer to be starting but also a little nervous. We should have a foster placement sometime this summer and also I am hopefully going to continue classes. Lumped with softball i will be a pretty busy person! But its a nice thing to be because then we aren't always sitting around. Also with summer here Brett my black lab puppy can get out and RUN which he really needs to do more of!! He does run all year long but he is kind of a baby because he doesn't like the cold much.

!!!!!!!!!!Wahooooooooooooooooo For SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.
John Lennon (1940 - 1980), "Beautiful Boy"
Well I wasn't sure what to write about this week like most other weeks so I decided to look up some quote and write something about it. As I came upon this quote it really made me think. I think this is very true because it seems like all I have been doing lately is planning for the future and not really getting to enjoy what is going on right now. It seems like I'm always say we better do this in case this happens and planning for the future is very important but so much less enjoyable if you don't just relax a little. Also I find myself planning everything around certain things in my life. One of those things would be starting a family which we have as you know had some trouble doing. But it is the one thing that no matter what i do i find myself saying is this something i really should be doing if we want to start a family. And at this point starting a family is out of our hands it seems. So i think i really need to step back and enjoy the things that ARE happening now and not really focus on the things that might happen down the road. This also leads me into starting softball this summer. I am pretty excited to play because it is the one time i can just play and not have to think about anything else that is going on. I can truly live in the moment. I don't have to worry about not being able to start a family, what bills need to be paid or any of the other grown up stuff i think about everyday. I can just be a kid again for at least an hour.
This quote its just good for myself i think everyone should step back and look at all of the good things they have and not look to the things they want to have down the road. Not that its not good to plan and hope but sometimes you just need to step back and see what you already have in your life. I think if people would start doing this they might lead much happier lives. Which might also make the people around them a little happier too.
So well that is my opinion on this quote....i may have to print it off and hang it someplace i will see it everyday so that i remember to step back and look at the good things i have in my life.

HGTV and DIY

HGTV and DIY has some of my newly favorite shows! I haven't really ever watched them before but while the kids are napping I have been watching them! Some of the shows have some pretty crazy ideas for redoing rooms in your home but some have some pretty cool ideas! I absolutely love when they redo living rooms, bedrooms and kids rooms(bed or play). They have so many fun ideas but they are so hard for reg. people to actually do themselves. I am somewhat ok with coming up with fun things to do but they never work out just the way I thought they would. Plus they are so creative and well I'm just not quite that creative. I couldn't walk into a room and say oh my it would look great like this. I'm sure there are a lot of people out their like me that wishes they could design that perfectly unique room. Or wouldn't it be awesome to have one of those shows come to your (or my) house and have them redo a room (or every room if they wanted:)) Two of my newly favorite shows are Color Splash and Deserving Design which are both on HGTV. They come up with some really cool ideas! They also make the rooms so colorful. Not to mention they know just how to place things to give you the most space and make the rooms look their biggest. On show that was really cool was when they had a young girl that loved to draw and also wanted a space to hang out with her friends. But the room they were doing was really small. So they had a desk drop down when she wanted to draw and had a couch pull out of a little closet when she wanted more seating. And the room was painted so beautifully with a sun set painting on one wall. I really like extreme make over home edition too but the shows on the other two channels have shows that even though you might not be able to do everything they do or come up with the ideas they are a little bit more practical and there are some things that you could do yourself. I also think it kind of helps me think a little more creatively when i try to think of what to do at my house. Now i just need to find a show that shows how to redo the perfect back yard and i will be set.:) So if you don't watch these shows they are definitely ones to check out......oh and by the way girls the host of color splash is known for looking good with out a shirt and it seems like he is shirtless every show! HAHAHAHA. Oh and that isn't why i watch it i like his ideas!:)

Time to Relax

Even though we just had spring break it seems like I have been going none stop for at least the past month! You would think that it would be school that is the biggest time consumer but it really hasn't been. There has been bridal showers, baby showers, upcoming weddings, softball starting again and the biggest thing is trying to get licenced for foster care. That is all on top of working at my sisters daycare, school and doing respite on weekends. Don't get me wrong I have taken this all on and I'm not complaining but I am very excited to not have to do anything Friday through Sunday!
With softball starting and playing on three different teams I have practices and have to figure out how to pay for all the different teams. I wouldn't be a big thing but my husband also plays on three teams and we have to pay for him too! The $25 isn't a big deal to play for one team but we will be paying out $150 just to play softball. How crazy is that!!! Last year if you played on more then one team it was $25 for the first team and then less for every team after that but for some reason they raised it. Oh well I guess I can't imagine not playing!!!!!!!!!
And getting licenced for foster care takes up a lot of time! Their are so many meetings you have to do and a lot of piddly paper work that has to be done. I know it all needs to be done and I really want to do it but I can't wait till we are done with it all! Although we wont ever really be done because you have to do 2 meetings a month that is nothing to 2-4 a week. A lot of the later meetings thought will be with other foster parents and I always think it is so interesting and informative to hear what they have to say and what they have been though! I am still a little nervous about having a foster child or any child for that matter in out house full time but i am also very excited too!
Back to this weekend.....my down time! To night I am going back to my parents so that i can go with my dad tomorrow to Madison for a doctor appointment which i cant wait to do because we haven't had a lot of just me and him time in a while! Not that i really want it to come from going to a doctor appointment but it will still be nice and that way he doesn't have to go alone! Then on Saturday, I am SLEEPING IN! HAHAHa! I hope i get to but who knows! Hopefully we will get to go golfing in the after noon though. I haven't golfed a whole lot and well i suck at it but it is fun! Especially when we go as a family! And maybe we will get to play games. Between that and watching movies those are things my family and I like to do! I just go a new phase ten game and everyone really likes it and then we also have Wii! Then on Sunday for Easter my aunt and her family are coming over so that means a yummy big meal! And an Easter egg hunt for the kids. My sister and I hide the eggs for the kids every year and put some different things in them each year. Not sure what we are doing this year. It will be a fun yet relaxing day before I come back to more meetings!:)

Like I said before I'm not complaining it keeps me doing something instead of just sitting at home doing nothing but I think my dog is getting the butt end of the deal because we don't get to get him to the park as much as we would like right now. But the best thing about right now is THE WEATHER IS FINALLY GETTING WARMER!!!!!!:-) (better stay too!:) HAHA

Hometown Play

Well the play was a huge success! I guess I had't really realized how big it has gotten over the years. They had a full house all 3 nights and even had some buses bring groups from other towns. One bus even come from Sun Prairie. I always help sell raffle tickets so I get to see and hear some of the people comments. And this year our play happend to be on the same night as a play in a town about 30 min. away and everyone that went to that play and then came to ours said ours was so much more funny! I didn't get to see the other play but I can say for sure that ours was funny. As I said before one of the people in the play got seriously burt and had to be in the hospital for the play but he is now doing better and improving faster then the doctors thought he would be! Anyway the guy that took his place last min. did a really great job for only looking at the script for a week. He made it even funnier. He kept a copy of the script in his back pocket and pulled it out every now and then if he would forget a line. But he played it off like it was part of the play and it helped that a lot of the people watching the play knew him. I also think that on thing that makes their play a little better is the fact that they are not afraid to add their on touches to their parts! They all add something little here and their to make it a little better and they like to involve the crowd. Even the pastor adds things that you may not think a pastor would! This year they had an outhouse on the stage as a prop and each night they had someone different come out. I'm not sure who came out the first night because I wasn't able to get back in time to go but the second night it was my dad and not only did the crowd get a suprise but so did he!:) We was supposed to come out with a newspaper and pulling up his pants but he was also supposed to have shorts on. Well when he came out his shorts went down as he was tring to pull his pants up! The next night they had a pastor from Sun Prairie come out. All in all it was a really great weekend with lots of laughs and not only laughs but we made a lot of money for the school. Which is the main point of the weekend! After saturday nights show I also got to hang out with a friend from when I was little and catch up. It was a great weekend!

Hometown Happenings

Most of my weekends have been spent lately with our respite boys but we actually have a weekend off and are going back to our hometown. I can't remember if I said it before but my husband and I are both from the same area we actually graduated high school together. We were high school sweet hearts if you want to call it that; we have been together since we were junior. I grew up in a town of about 780 people and he grew up in a town of 300-400 people so everyone knows everyone pretty much. Anyway back to what we are actually going back for this weekend. Every year their is a group called the Parish Players that do a different play every year. Sometimes its scary , sometimes its a love story but you can bank on it being extremely funny every year. Also just because they are called the Parish Players don't assume the play is only about God or really anything related to church. They are only called that because well most of the people go to church there and they have the play in the gym of the Catholic school. I think they have been doing the plays for at least 15-20 years I'm not exactly sure but it is a memory I have from every year I was in school. They do a practice play for the school kids from the public and Catholic schools on the Thursday before they actually do the play for the public; kind of like a dress rehearsal. Then they have the play on Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday morning after church. For the past 5-10 years my parents have been helping so I get a little behind the scenes look and its pretty fun! My dad was actually in the play for about 3-4 years I think it was. And if you would know my dad he love to have fun and joke around and everyone in our little town and then ones around us know my dad. So the first year he was in the play he was a mystery person and by person i mean OLD LADY! He was a verity of other characters in the plays after that. I think he was a lady a couple other years and i know he was a sheriff one year but since he started tour guiding he decided to take a more off stage job. Now he talks everyone into buying raffle tickets and man is he good at that! He talks to everyone that comes though the gym door and their isn't many that don't at least buy one ticket. Then there are those generous people that buy $10-$20 worth of tickets and that's when a couple of other ladies and I come into play. We get to fill out all of the tickets for the people that buy a large amount of tickets. And I thought taking notes in my classes are a lot of writing!:) The gym is packed every night and not many of the people only buy one ticket! It does go for a good cause though! Everything they raffle is donated so the money goes back to the school which is greatly needed! And no I didn't go to this school I went to the public school but I had a lot of friends that went to this school. We never even went to church their either my parents just like to help and have a lot of friends in the community so they get pulled into doing a little bit of everything. Now you might be wondering what my mom does with the play. Well she is a big part of the play but no one will really ever see her! She does the makeup for most of the performers. With out the makeup you wouldn't be able to see the expressions as easily and for some you wouldn't be able to tell they are old or pending on the play you may not be able to tell what their character is supposed to be. So even though no one will really see my mom she is a very vital part of the play. They have had a lot of people in and out of the play but their are a few of the original people left and most of them are the ones that really make the plays exciting! This year however one of the people that have been in the play for a few years and does a great job at making everyone laugh wont be able to be in the play. Just this past Monday he was changing a fuse and it exploded. They had to take him to Madison and he will have to stay in the burn unit while the play goes on. But as I said it is a very small community so I am sure everyone at the play will be thinking about him and hoping he gets well soon. He had burns to his hands and face. Anyway back to the play, I am very excited to be going back for it again this year not only do I just love seeing the plays but I also get to see a lot of old friends that I don't get to see a whole lot anymore. If nothing more the play for one weekend a year really brings our community together for some good somewhat clean:) fun! And also bring people back to the community if only for the weekend! I hope you liked hearing a little about our community and maybe next week in my blog I will tell you a little about the play I am going to see this weekend. Normally I know a little about it but this year it is a surprise to me where as I don't even know the name.