Jesus and Bengal Spice Tea

Chocolate milk toast!

* Family Dinner *  Axis deer steak fajitas, pasta salad, Spring mix lettuce salad, grapefruit, and milk!

Safe Arrival!

Excitedly waiting for flight our guests to arrive.
Looking into God's beautiful creation!

Heath and I prayed all day and have been praying since we booked the flights for the kids' safe arrival.  God provided them with a safe and quick flight from Omaha to Dallas!  We are grateful and will continue to pray for an awesome time together as a family!

*Heath, Justin, Jaime, and Andrew*

Nothing like a little *Whataburger* for our Nebraska family!  Justin was texting all of his friend's, letting them know what he was having for supper!  ;)

Happy Birthday Andrew!

After work, Heath picked me up with both dogs and the cat and we all headed over to  the Mitchell house to meet Barb and Garry to celebrate Andrew’s 15th birthday.  She made an amazing supper and even better red velvet cake!  The boys had pep band, so we hung out with Barb and Garry until they returned.

Happy Birthday Andrew!

Football Weekend!!

After work, Heath loaded up and headed into town to meet with Andrew to head up north to Gordon/Rushville to watch Justin play football.  I stayed behind to take care of our little kitty who just got out of the hospital yesterday.  It was perfect timing that my boss told me to go home just a few minutes early.  I called Heath to see if they had left yet and he said they were at Maverick getting gas.  He asked if I would mind stopping to grab them something quick from McDonalds.  No problem, I would stop and grab some food from the drive-thru  I was so happy that I would get to see them again before they left for the Illini—Nebraska game in Lincoln!  So, through the drive-thru I went.  5 McDoubles was my order.  It felt like it took forever, just because I knew they were waiting for me.

When I arrived at the gas station, there they were, waiting for me.  I happily went to give Heath and Andrew some “dinner.”  (I don’t do fast food, but I knew that they would enjoy it on this special occasion.)  Hugs and kisses and we parted ways!

A few minutes later my phone rang.  Heath called and asked me if I had him on a diet.  WHAT?!  I was very confused until he told me they only got two small sandwiches and some fries.  Now, they have a long 2+ hour drive to Gordon/Rushville without anything between here and there.  I felt sooo bad because it hadn’t even occurred to me to double-check the order once I received it.  (Again, not a connoisseur of fast food, it wasn’t even a thought through my head!)  So, we laughed about it and he said that they would survive. 

Pretty upset about losing my money and not properly taking care of my family, I went back to McDonalds and asked for my money back.  They tried giving me sandwiches too, but I kept telling her that the boys would have liked to have the sandwiches and now they are gone.  Regardless, she insisted on giving me sandwiches I knew I would not eat.  Not wanting to waist food, I turned around and gave them to a guy in line behind me for which he was grateful.

Country Club Cross Country Meet

Another beautiful night to run!  Andrew's meet was at the Scottsbluff Country Club golf course this evening.  After work, I grabbed Heath a crunch cone from Dairy King, for a snack, and met him on the course.  He was visiting with his mom when I got there.  Barb and Garry came out to support Andrew's running too, so he had quite a crew to spread out throughout the course and yell for him!  So exciting to see him excelling with his running this year.

After the meet was over, Heath got Andrew some food and they headed home.  I headed over to the church for Tuesday Prayer Night.  It was slightly different tonight since there was also a women's group meeting to see how they could serve.  Not in a super great interactive mood, I decided to go to the prayer night as I had originally planned.  It was a small but mighty group tonight.  Pastor Wayne spoke up there and got other people to pray out loud as well.

Cross Country Meet

Garry stopped by this morning and picked up up Heath and I to head to Alliance to watch Andrew run in his cross country meet.  He has been doing so well.  I feel like he has picked up a 'new gear' this year.

It was at the golf course, so it was beautiful.  It was a really nice day too!  While we were waiting for him to run, I took a little walk to the car to get something and just continued on a little walk of my own.

On our way home, Heath showed us the Pepsi warehouse there in Alliance so now we know where he goes each day when he fills up his truck.  Then, we went to Sam and Louie's for lunch.  It was really good and gluten-free!

Lingle-Fort Laramie

Heath came and picked me up from work today.  He was a little distressed as he spent a little more time working than he expected, just to help his customers.  #1 in my heart.  I hope they know what a great hire they have!

We headed over to Lingle-Fort Laramie for the Friday night Football Game.  Heath and I stopped at Burger King in Torrington for some supper.  Heath loves Burger King, so that is usually the default when we are in the area.  Barb and Garry met us there and we all sat in the bleachers right behind our team's bench.  It was a very different experience, up close and personal.  You could just hear all the banging of helmets and the words of the players calling the plays out loud.  You could see the mosquitoes swarming the lights and feel the intensity of the game.

Once we were seated, a really fun lady came and sat by us, entertaining us the whole time!  It was fun!  By the way, she lives in an underground house, how fascinating!  She invited us to come see someday!

Andrew stayed back as he had his first team dinner for his cross country meet in Alliance tomorrow morning.

Mitchell Day

Source:
www,geringcitizen.com

This was definitely a Mitchell day!  After work, I headed over to the Mitchell golf course.  This was my first time there.  It is absolutely a hidden treasure up there on the hill!  This was the first After Prom meeting with other parent's of junior students.  Heath ran into the coordinator as he was delivering Pepsi one day and he signed us up.  The way it works is that the junior class kids put on the prom dance and the parents take care of the prom after party.  As a group we decided to create and sell a t-shirt including all the Mitchell High School activities and start gathering donations from local businesses for the raffle.  During basketball season, we are going to hold a shooting contest where hopefully we can get a donation from Pepsi!

Surprisingly, I knew quite a few of the parents that were at this meeting.  I had to duck out of there a few minutes early as my next meeting was for the football boys.  On my way out, I got to see the sunset from up there on the hill.  I stopped by the high school on my way over to the cafeteria because I had to go to the bathroom super bad.  Luckily, I made it!  The boys were still at the school to watch their cousin play in JV football.  When I got there I got to see Justin and Andrew, both surprised to see me there.

Then, I headed over to the cafeteria to meet with my Football Moms (and Dads).  Only a few minutes past 7 pm and those girls/guys already had the snack bags assembled and everything done except for my little messages to attach to each of the bags.  AMAZING!  What a great group of parents who care, honor, and support their children in their endeavors!  Such TEAMWORK!  I am glad to be a part of this group!

Mitchell Tiger Football

Tonight, I got to be a Football Mom.  So exciting!  It was definitely a humbling experience.  My boss let me off a bit early when I got a late text saying that the football dinner had been moved up.  That was the first awesome thing, then when I arrived at the park in Mitchell, the shelter was absolutely beautiful.  They had put down black and orange table clothes and had two grills going under a tent.  It smelled and felt like fall tonight.  There were two kinds of drinks and beautiful hand decorated Mitchell Tiger paw print black and orange chocolate and vanilla cupcakes on the tables.

Source:
www,geringcitizen.com

The other moms there were so nice and accepting of me.  It was awesome!  Then, before supper we were all gathered together to pray and one of the student-athelete's stood up and asked to take the prayer.  Justin stood by me and held my hand, in front of everyone, as we prayed.  I was so humbled that he wanted to hang out with me as he was telling me story after story.

What a great evening for this wonderful meal.  I hope that I can help out more not only to get involved and meet people, but to be there for Justin to show him how much I love him.

GO TIGERS!

Day 1 of Local Route

When I got home from TLC tonight, none of my boys were home yet.  Luckily, I had done a crockpot meal so it could be ready whenever.  As soon as Justin and Andrew rolled in, they asked me if one friend could come over to eat.  The story behind this invite was that this boy's girlfriend had dump him and he  was so upset that he hadn't eaten in days.  Reluctantly, I said yes.  I was so happy we had just finished a conversation about once school starts, friends would not be coming over during the week nights.  This summer was awful for that.  There was somehow always an emergency situation where the boys couldn't call to let us know a mob of kids were coming over...do not get me wrong, I like having kids over because we can provide them with something they do not have at home.  We like to use it as a ministry, listening to the kids and trying to be the positive in their lives.  However, the problem with this summer was that there was not any respect for our family nor theirs.  Honesty, I do not think that the kids' parents had a clue where they were, which is really sad.  There was even one night Heath did not get to eat supper with the rest of us because of our unexpected guest and I had not prepared enough food.  As newly weds, this is extremely hard to swallow.  I thought I was doing well to prepare the crockpot and set the table before heading off to work.  What do you do?  We just moved on with our family prayer and ate what was on the table without a making it into a scene.  I was very hurt for not providing properly, but Heath always humbles me.  He is such a good man!

Long story short, tonight, I gave permission for one friend to come over so we could help him out.  Before too long, I had six teenagers sitting in our living room.  What happened to the one friend?  Well, he was there, so was his ex-girlfriend and then one other boy and girl.  So random?!!!!!  Are you kidding me?  How did this happen?  Justin said that the one boy could come over and then he showed up with all those people AND his ex?!  The boy didn't even want to eat.  Heath was not home yet from his route yet and I was getting worried about him and stressed about all these kids that were in my house.  When he called again, he was ready for me to pick him up in Gering.  He had a flat tire on his semi and needed a ride home.

I left to pick Heath up with all these kids in the living room.  It was a horrible feeling knowing that my husband was coming home from a long day at work and he wasn't even going to be able to relax because I had (somehow) managed to have all these people over.  AHH!!!!

When we got home, I was warming Heath's supper up and one of the girls hollers from the other room, "Kinsey, are you cooking?!"  Really?!  I had already offered the boy with the broken heart food which he politely declined and now his ex-girlfriend had the audacity to ask?  I replied, "Yes, I am making food for my husband.  Do you need something?"  I was hoping that she would get the hint as she was sitting on the couch.  I think she did.

After Heath finished his supper up, way after 9 pm at this point, he was able to politely ask for Justin to ask his friends to leave, it was a school night.  Again, a very nice man.

*Our High Schoolers*

The boys made me so happy when they let me take this picture this morning!  I know that it is not cool to have your mom take a 'first day of school' picture when you are a teenager, but they agreed!  Thank you boys!  Now, I get to show you off!

Daddy and I got to spend the day together getting tons of stuff done around the house and he took me to pick up my Honda in Mitchell.  A great day all around!

Freshman Orientation

Today, we dropped off my car in Mitchell to get the timing belt changed and a new water pump put in.  Randy, from Randy's Autobody, is a pretty serious biker and so is his wife.  It was awesome when we walked into his store, he had a small section of his front room full of biking gear and ready-to-eat meals for camping.  I could see his passion for the sport.  It was super fun talking with him about this as biking is now one of my recovery exercises.  It is good for building my leg muscles while staying easy on the hip.  I now have a great resource for information.  I would like for him to show me how to fill my skinny tires with air and help me see if my bikes fit me.

Tonight, we had Andrew's freshman orientation.  It was for both parents and students to introduce them to the expectations of the high school.  His last two years, both his 7th and 8th grade years, were in the high school building, but they were still part of the junior high for sports and activities.  This was an informational meeting and Andrew seems excited to be in high school now.

Big step for mama here, two boys in high school already.  Man, how time flies...LOL!~  :)

And so it begins....

2013 Football Season after a Home Game

The anxiety has been building as we approach the new school year.  We are both praying for an improvement over last year.  We are excited about the sports as tonight we attended an all fall sport meeting at Mitchell High School where they introduced the coaches and told us how to be good fans.  It was an interesting meeting, they talked alot about concussions and sportsmanship.  We have one son in football and one in cross country.  The head injury is more likely in football, but nonetheless, all the kids got the lecture.

2013 Cross Country Meet Father and Son

After Heath and I went to the meeting, I headed for groceries at Walmart and Heath took the boys home and got dinner going.  What a great team we have.  I am a lucky woman!