North Branch Girls' Weekend 2009

I just arrived home from North Branch Girls' Weekend 2009! In case you are not sure what I am talking about, North Branch is my hometown and these are my girls that I grew up with. Some of them I played in the sandbox with, others on the tennis court or in the halls of the Middle School, and a couple I have only really gotten to know after graduation. But we are all the North Branch girls (or married to a NB boy) and this weekend was so much fun.

Pictured above: myself, Emily, and Shannon

Krista, Jen J, and Julia

Keri, Rossi, and Katie
(Lisa, were you downstairs when I took these pictures? Somehow you escaped them . . .)
And of course, we missed two very important guests, Sarah and Jenn Z.

We spent from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon at the Schmelings' lake home near Hayward, WI. If only I could describe to you what it felt like to me . . . let me try. I went from home/work, where I was running around trying to pack two kids for their trip to Grandma Gloria's (where they stayed this weekend) and doing all of the usual continuous cooking, cleaning, lovin' on my kids, laundry, lesson plans, correcting, putting out of fires, dishes, etc. to this place . . . where the first thing I did was hug a few friends who have known me since I was 3, then sat down and had a nice relaxing drink to some 90's music. Ahhhhh.

My only real responsibility was to bring fruit. I slowly drank in every moment, listening to my friends tell me stories about their children doing the same types of things my kids do, which is always good for mommies to hear. I listened to tales of college roommates gone bad, close calls in high school that I had never realized had happened, and awkward first dates. Who else can you sit with and talk about EVERY period of your life, and they are interested? This is something unique that we share, because we have always known each other.

We talked about husbands and boyfriends, babies and toddlers, and even our own mothers and fathers. We noted that with one of us pregnant, three nursing (there was almost always the sound of a breast pump running somewhere in the house), and many more of us simply exhausted working moms . . . a lot less alcohol was consumed this year, and more water bottles. Having always been more of a water-bottle consumer myself, I didn't mind. But yes, we did have to shake our heads a bit and realize that "now that we are 30, we're not quite as wild as we used to be." And that's okay. However, we did surmise that at about age 40 or 45, when our kids are older, we might have our midlife crises and bring it back around.

My favorite part is that even though I see most of these people once a year or less, I feel so completely comfortable when we get together. Who could know me better than these ones? In fact, in some ways I feel like they know the "real me" better than any of the friends I have now. They knew me when I was the "me" before kids. Before the mortgage and the van and the full time job. Do you know what I am talking about? The "me" that most moms leave behind and wonder where it went. Once in a while, I see glimpses of "me" sometimes when I am alone or maybe back visiting my hometown (both of which are fairly rare occurrences) and it has even brought me to tears! Like a person I haven't seen for a while but have dearly missed . . . and I think when I get together with these girls, I get the clearest window back into "me" that I can. They know it all, the good the bad and the ugly, and I know it about them too. (Especially after we get Rossi going telling a few stories! I haven't laughed so hard in a long time - thanks Ross!)

I love my girls. Thanks for the great time!

This next picture was taken when we were in about 6th, 7th, or 8th grade.

This is Keri, myself, and Emily proudly displaying some magazines that we wrote, called "NNBNN's". This stood for Nightly North Branch News Network. We patterned it after Weekly World News (the ones at the WalMart checkouts that talk about things like Bat Boy and alien sightings). We basically used to cut out interesting looking magazine pictures and make up news stories to go with them. We would slightly change the names of classmates (people we liked . . . and people we didn't like) and write articles about them. We had recurring features such as advice columns, comics, recipes, and fiction stories about certain favorite characters.
We would literally stay up all night (who says you have to wait till college to pull all-nighters?) and divide up the articles to be written, and write them. I believe between Middle School and graduation we created 18 issues, including 3 Super Issues. In addition, we made three mini-issues and even an activity book. For some reason, we found it inspirational to watch Barney videos while doing this. Yes, we were at least 13 years old when we started. Yes, we still watched the Barney videos when we worked on them in high school (although I like to think not as much). These magazines were always created at Emily's house on a pull-out couch down in her basement.

Another thing that was kind of funny back then - we didn't have a lot of money to buy all the supplies we needed in order to make these magazines. You know, rubber cement, magazines for cutting from, construction paper . . . it was mostly just the rubber cement our parents stopped buying for us because we used so stinkin' much. So we made up a song, something about "NNBNN Funding! NNBNN Funding! Donate today, you can help in every way!" and walked around the halls of our Middle School singing this, with a cute-sy decorated coffee can in our hands. Kids gave us lots of money. And we bought our rubber cement.

Emily brought the magazines to the lake this weekend, and we agreed to have Keri scan them all this week and then split up the originals equally. I laughed so hard when I read them that I got tears in my eyes. I can't believe the things we thought of back then.

Coincidentally, I happen to teach Writing class right now to 64 3rd graders at Maple Lake Elementary. I found this kind of inspirational - I mean look how much a person can enjoy writing and the fun things you can do with it! Unfortunately, I could never show these magazines to them. Due to our content and sometimes outright meanness . . . I think I would be getting a few parents phone calls the next day if I did that. But I plan to tell them about it. Maybe we will even create a class magazine?


Well, it's time to go to bed and wake up back to the grind tomorrow.
But thanks, girls! I love you lots!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Alan made this pumpkin last week at Fran's daycare. I thought every square inch was meticulously covered, but as we were driving home from Fran's on Friday, he gasped and sighed, "Oh no . . . I forgot that stem." Luckily I was able to convince him that sometimes the stems are white, and it that it looked very realistic this way.

Contrast this with Laney's pumpkin. It may look comparatively plain, as if not nearly as much work was put into it, but what you can't really see in this picture is the thick layer of glue covering the entire pumpkin. Fran said Laney refused to put any orange squares on the project - her friend Nolan did those for her - but instead spent the whole time smearing as much glue as she could all over the paper.

These are my attempt at "Pumpkin Pancakes" this morning. The kids thought they were great - but I think I could have put the chocolate in any arrangement and they would have been sold.

Trick or Treat! Alan was Bob the Builder and Laney was a bee, in spite of Alan's complaint that "she can't be a bee, because she might sting me."

Here's Al, heading out to the van to go trick-or-treating. Notice the tool box (complete with all his tools). We went next door to the Carlsteds, up to Maple Lake to Fran's, and then down to First Baptist in Cokato for their Fall Party.

Fran giggling with Delaney. This is the only picture I got with the bee antennae on her head.

We made it for the final half of the bash at First Baptist in Cokato. This is cousin Serena when she got chosen to go up front and be a volunteer with the magician at the party. Alan and Laney took pretty much no notice of any of the magicians tricks or jokes . . . but Alan laughed his head off when the man did a simple skit where he tripped and fell over and over, and knocked chairs down. THAT is what it takes to entertain a 3-year-old boy!

A Day of Rest - at least for one of us!

This is Alan on Sunday afternoon - sleeping away in his car seat. Since I have gone back to work, I have found it challenging to get much of anything done around the house . . . any working moms out there feel the same way? (Maybe you are thinking, why is Beth blogging if she has so much stuff to get done? Good question . . .) But my wonderful husband decided to take Alan with him on an afternoon car trip to St. Cloud. Delaney naps all afternoon, and so far I actually have gotten a lot done. Thanks Dan!

So when do you moms out there find the time to keep your house clean and organized? Does anyone actually succeed at this? Right now I am just trying to maintain it enough that my mother-in-law doesn't shudder in disgust when she comes over to babysit. :) Of course, Lucy isn't one to shudder in disgust at my messy house (although sometimes I do!). Instead, she often does the dishes for me and cleans up the toys. My own mom does the same thing. Although in some ways this make me feel guilty for not finding the time to do those things BEFORE they come over . . . it also leaves a legacy as I make a mental Note to Self: Remember to do these things for my daughter/daughter-in-law someday. It's a huge blessing. I hope I will be as great of a grandma as they both are.

Blog B Grand Opening

Hey, I have a new Blog! And it's not themed around my kids, either! I can now write all the thoughts in my head and you can come read them. I am guessing my posts will be all about my kids anyway. And maybe when we find our camera I will post some pictures!