A Lot of This and That!

I Love and MISS this man! Nick is currently working 12 hr shifts, on 3rd shift, 6-7 days a week on salary pay with no comp time. The company he was hired by in August went through a takeover, and let's say it has not gone as planned. Since Christmas, he has had maybe 6 days off. This picture was taken during one of those days, he hates pictures, but I was so excited to have a night out I forced him to take one!

As much as I hate it, I try very hard not to complain, because I know that as bad as it is for me to be home alone basically a single mother these past 3 months, it is twice as bad for him. He is the one who has to switch his sleeping schedule, work ridiculous hours, go to a job which is more than stressful due to all the technical problems, but most importantly never see his kids or his wife. So over these past three months, I have learned a new reason to love him. What he has put up with for these past three months has shown me how strong he can be for his family. But enough is enough!

Much needed Family Time

Unfortunately, Nick has had to miss a few important weekends these past few months. But I tried to not think about it and go have some much needed family time with Matt and Sarah! In case you don't know, Matt and Sarah are beginning a new chapter to their every crazy life and are moving to Cartegena, Colombia! Matt's company, CBI out of Chicago, first sent him to Texas for a few years, and now (by choice) is sending him to a job in Colombia. It is funny to talk with Matt and Sarah about this new adventure, all the questions that you are currently wondering they are wondering too! Their answer to your question is typically "we don't know, better add that question to the list." They don't know much about this adventure, and probably won't until they have been there for a few months.

We had a great weekend, full of pictures, baby holding, games, and a few drinks!

There were some very intense games of ping pong and Jenga going on!

And A LOT of baby holding. Claire just can't get enough of Graham! And he LOVES kids, he can't keep his hands to himself, he is always grabbing at the kids hair or faces. However, it was a safe bet that if Graham was awake, Claire was either holding him, waiting to hold him, or just had held him!


Cane fell in love with Graham's giraffe which sang the ABC's! I might have to find one of those in a few weeks for his birthday!

Claire's Dance

Claire LOVES dance. While she did play T-ball last summer, she refused to play basketball because "girls don't play that." I am not sure whose child she is? She does get very excited to go to dance. I did not sign her up for the recital this year, she was very clear about not wanting to be on a stage in front of tons of people to put on a show. She is VERY shy. However, she also tends to get over her anxiety of new situations fairly quickly, so hopefully next year! I just couldn't spend $200 on costumes and tickets to force a tearful girl onto the stage.




Dance will be over in the spring, but we are already signed up for soccer (completely her choice) and t-ball (mainly my choice)!

Spring Break!!!!!!!!!

The kids Love to Skate! I have already posted videos of them skating in our basement. I have promised them a trip to the Roller Skating Rink in Des Moines, and we were close to going a few weeks ago, but Claire got sick. It was devastating to both of them, but I made up for it by taking them to my school the over spring break. I teach a roller skating unit at my school. We bring in skates for all of our K-8th grade students for two weeks. They have their own skates they could have brought to my gym, but they wanted to use the ones I had. They LOVED having all that room to skate around! They were also much safer in the gym with all their pads on!









During the week I went home to see some of my good friends from high school and college who I don't get to see nearly enough! It is so great to catch up with old friends and get our kids together for playdates!

Ebert/McCumber Girls Weekend

I went with Nick's mom, her sisters, and another daughter-in-law to Bettendorf for a girls weekend at the end of my spring break. We started off the weekend at a Texas Tenor's concert. We then slept in, talked all morning, ate lunch at Machine Shed, gambled our life away at a Casino (or only $20, but that seems like a lot when you lose!), went back to Judy's (who lives in Bettendorf) for Happy Hour drinks, then had a late dinner at Biaggies Italian Restaurant. Sunday morning I came back to the reality of life when I picked up my kids from my parents, drove home, and had 150 grade reports due when I went back to school Monday! But it was a great spring break!

This is Andrea, she is Nick's cousin Jake's wife, and I love her. We haven't spent much time together before this weekend, but I would guess we will be spending more time together in the future!

These are the Texas Tenors! If you watched "America's Got Talent" last summer, you saw them make it all the way to the finals. The man in the middle is from Waverly, which is where all Nick's family is from, so they had much to talk about when Nick's aunts met them during their autograph signing after the concert. They all did have AMAZING voices!