New Digs

So the girls have a new room, well it's the same room but it looks a lot different so Rowan calls it her new room. We said goodbye to the baby furniture via Craigslist, covered the yellow walls with pink and put together some bunk beds.

I know change is inevitable but I had a tough time with this one. I cried when we took the crib down and got really nostalgic when we went to paint the room. I thought back to being about 5 months pregnant and since we decided the first time to not find out the sex of the baby, we had to do something neutral. Of course the most important things in our lives at that time were the dogs. Hence the yellow room and dog theme.

Two little girls later... Ta-da- Pink room! Gotta give props to our neighbor Jay who painted it for us. He did an awesome job, was really fast and is available. He told us that while he was painting Rowan peeked her head in and told him it was really cool that he was a painter. He said that's the first time a female has ever said that to him. Funny!

Bunk beds- before.

Bunk beds- After. They were surprisingly easy to put together.

The girls love them and mommy really hopes her favorite interior decorator will be making a Labor Day trip to Colorado so she can help with the finishing touches.

Beef and Bean Days

I don't know what the second weekend in August represents to you... but to us and our fellow Milliken-ites... It's Beef and Bean Days, Baby! To be perfectly honest, besides the first year we moved here (the second weekend of August, 2003), we haven't really participated in the festivities. We always have something going on and invariably we always have something going on the second weekend of August. Until this year...

We rode bikes downtown for the parade. I was so impressed with my little farm town! It was pretty good!

Mini-Milliken-ites

We sat by a super nice family from West Greeley who were headed up to the Park to check out all the booths and activities they had going on. Of course, we also saw some of our neighbors and have I ever mentioned that I really like my neighbors? I do, and for the most part, always have. But in the last year or so, with some additions, Settlers Drive has become really fun. Lots of kids that are all about the same age. And with kids, usually comes parents. So we hang out between all the front yards; staring down speeders, breaking up fights (between the kids that is) and chit chatting. Out of the chit-chat came the idea for a little Block Party. And the First Annual Settlers Drive Beef and Bean Day BBQ was born! Everyone brought food and friends and we watched the fireworks, not to mention the crazy lightning show that accompanied the fireworks. Needless to say lightning that crazy is usually followed by torrential rain, at least this year in Weld County! So the party ended except for a few stragglers and the fire pit. It was exactly six years TO THE DAY that we moved here and I remembered again how lucky we are.

Here's some of the crew getting ready for fireworks.

Settlers Spawn

Now we are gearing up for Rowan to start "Pre-K" a week from Monday. I am changing up my work schedule so that I can pick her up everyday. But no more Monday's off... It's been four years, that I have had Monday's off. I'm gonna miss it but am excited to be done earlier everyday, pick Rowy up and maybe have some time to work-out. Enough about me, she's super pumped up for school!

We are taking one last little trip and going to Alamosa this weekend. Scott hasn't been able to go the last couple times and my brother Mark will have his kids so the girls can hang with their "cussins".

We might as well enjoy a little fun time because next weekend we will be putting a new room together for the girls, pink paint and all.

Now entering the "bunk bed years... look out!

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My Promise

While I may not be the best blogger, I am a pretty good blog stalker. The Zeman 4 is a good example. Remember, the woman I don't even know? (look down and to the right)

Then there is her sister, Bree. I have been stalking her blog for just about as long. I started right after she got married (about a year ago). Again, I don't know her, per se, but as I have read her adventures, including her and her husband's ordeals with infertility and in-vitro, I feel like I do.

She is really good at updating her blog so after four and a half weeks of nothing, I knew something was up... and believe me I checked every day hoping for the good news...

"I'm pregnant!", "It's twins!".

Then last night the news came... I was pregnant, it was twins, no heartbeats, d&c Friday.

I cried. And cried. And even prayed a little. Now I am not really the praying type, but for some reason it was the only way I felt I could send this broken-hearted woman and her loving husband some message of peace and hope and faith... I hope God listened.

In her blog she asked that those of us that have children not take for granted the gift we have been given. I won't, Bree. I promise.

I will give my girls an extra kiss tomorrow, in honor of Bree and Brian and their peace and hope and faith... and future family.

I'm Baaaaack!

In high school it was bad... in college it got even worse. I'm talking about procrastination and I am real good at it. And the thing about procrastination is that it builds up and builds up until its like this mountain that you can't climb. Just thinking about it makes you break out in a cold sweat. And so much cool, fun shit has happened to us (some pretty sad stuff too). The blog had become that mountain. It's not that I haven't wanted to. I totally have, but the cold sweats kept coming. Feeling like I couldn't write, be creative, do this family blog the justice it deserved. But just like starting that 15 page paper about feudalism the night before its due, you just have to bite the bullet and do it.



So here is the Reader's Digest version of the past two months. I can't even begin to upload pics to go with it all so if you want to keep up visually... get on facebook.



We went to Fort Robinson with my mom and the Bobcat to celebrate my mom's 60th. What a neat place and a good time! We will definitely be back. We went camping at Jack's Gulch over Memorial Day weekend. A little rain and lots of fun. I turned 36. Thanks to my two little girls, I feel 26. Our Tressy Lulu Bean turned 2. Having a two year old makes me feel like 46. We had to say a very sad goodbye to our 4 year old Dobie, Marley, after he lost the ability to live the life he deserved. RIP buddy, you are missed. Scott and I golfed in a tourney in FC with the Peddicord's. As far as I can remember, I carried them. But that was just practice for Scott since he got to go to Omaha for the Farkle Fund tourney at the end of June. The girls and I went down to the 'mosa to see Nana and Papa and Mark and Marcus. Jake even showed up after getting back from Iraq and we went to Weekends... twice. The 3rd of July and Renner Sports Surfaces treated us to a Rockies game (they won) and some awesome fireworks! Then it was my turn to go to NE. A little BFF time, golf with Ermin and John C Fremont Days... the flight home was rough. And finally, a weekend trip to Glenwood Hot Springs with Grandma and Grandpa Starman. Beautiful weather and, man, that water feels good.



Wow, I can exhale. I did it.



And I will keep doing it. How could you look at this and not?




And it's way better than a paper on feudalism.

Sugar Bugs

We have these friends that were able to get theirs boys into religiously brushing their teeth by telling them that if they didn't>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

SUGAR BUGS!!!!

They get in there and the EAT your teeth and they are

BAD!

We copied. Good oral hygiene is important.

The Dad got a winsdom tooth pulled. It was so gross yet fascinating at the same time. I should have been a dentist.

I will spare you the other side... yuck!

But as Starman showed it to Rowan, he looked at her and said "This is...

SUGAR BUGS!"

Her eyes got as big as saucers and we were both surprised she didn't run in and start brushing right then!

We are big believers in the "whatever works" theory on parenting.

A Deed of the Heart

As I am sure you have figured out by now, Scott is from Nebraska. And so are his parents. And so are their parents. And probably so are thiers. I don't know. SO I will start out right now with a big fat disclaimer... I do not profess to be an "expert". They know who they are...:) It's really for those people and our girls, who will never see it, that I write this. All I know is what I know.



When Scott took me to Nebraska for the first time, we drove by the farm. Slowly. And I looked at that place and really was listening with great intent about all the games of hide and seek that Starman had played, but what I was really thinking about... was life on the farm.




Back in the day, outside Petersburg, Nebraska. FOURTEEN crazy kids running all over place... and noise, lots of noise, I'm sure. Thanking God for health, a good garden crop and the windbreak. I can only speculate but I am sure the food was good, the fights were many and the work was hard. I know for a fact the love was strong.






Grandma and Grandpa moved to town years ago and I believe renters came and went until it just sat empty, except for the friendly ghosts of memories past. Grandpa passed and Grandma moved to Omaha to be closer to the family. A couple months ago I got a mass email to the fam (you can imagine the size of that list!) Scott's cousin, Gloria, had an update on the farm. It was coming down. The time had come. Everyone was invited to come celebrate life on the farm.








It must have been heartwrenching... my mother-in-law was there with as many of the siblings that could make it, and grandkids and great-grandkids. No doubt Farkle was there too, blue yummy in hand. And down it came. A big bonfire followed and this is what was left.





It all caused me to take pause and reflect on the value we put on physical places. Take this little cracker box on Settlers Drive, that is hardly worth what we owe thanks to the mortgage crises and foreclosure mess. But that's just on paper. What it means to us, and will long after we have said good-bye to it, is immeasurable and we will always have that. Just as the Lordemann's will always have "the farm". A deed of the heart.









And as a footnote and testament to the resiliency and innovation of this great country... guess what they might use the land for?









A wind farm. Our new energy economy will be fueled by the laughter of children, the toil of hard-working hands and thoughts of choke cherry jelly...floating on the breeeze.

Awwwwww...kinda.

So Rowan made me a Mother's Day gift at school. Now these are the things that really warm your heart. A cute hand painted terra cotta pot with a little mum in it. Get it? Mum?

But the best part was the little bag it came in... Specially decorated by the little hands of my first born child. She was so proud to show it to me and tell me in great detail all about what was on it.

"See these are balloons. And this is a house I drew (the two yellow circles with the green rectangles beneath). And these are stickers of stars, because we are Starman's.

And then we turn to the other side...awwww, I'm thinking the same thing you are as she begins her narrative.

"These are more balloons I drew and a heart and stickers of flowers because you like flowers."

"And me and Mrs. Hess."

I should have known...My hair isn't that big.