The Schmidt House

AE has been playing basketball for three years. She began with the local basketball association in first grade, which seems like a lifetime ago. Let me just tell you, first grade girls basketball is painful. There isn't any other way to describe it. We were lucky to score three baskets between both teams in entire game. They also don't call any fouls or other infractions unless completely blatant, e.g. small child runs the entire length of the court with the ball without dribbling once. Second grade was a little better. Things really start to come together by the end of the season and more importantly the girls begin to have fun. Which is the reason we are all there, right? So now that we are in third grade, AE and her friends are really starting to "get it". She's had a good year so far. It does not hurt that AE is a good six inches taller than the other girls. Her team the Pink Panthers (much better name than last year's moniker thePurple Dolphins) have even

As many of you know, I have become obsessed with tennis this past year after a sixteen year hiatus. Playing a minimum of four times a week may indicate obsession. I'm not the most consistent player, but am getting there. My goal is to be 4.0+ by the time I hit the big 4-0. I honestly believe that I didn't really know how to play tennis before. I mean I played in high school, but how much can you really learn from the Industrial Arts teacher with a bad comb over who picked up a book at the library a week before the season started? My dad and I were talking the other day and he said, "Kiddo, did you ever think that you are getting too old to play? You are 36 now." I was shocked. I'm not old. There are mornings I do feel older when I get out of bed and creak after playing singles for two hours the day before, but that's about it. I went on to tell him that we had a party for a woman who plays in our Wednesday mixer a few weeks ago. Doris turned 80 and is going

JG has been attending Joyful Noise Christian Preschool for the past two years. It is a great school and we love it. Each day I ask little man what he learned, usually he talks about his friends and what they had for snack. Sometimes we talk about letters, very rarely do we get to the religious learning of the day. The other day was no different, I picked him up and asked him what he learned, he said, "Nothing, but we had milk and Goldfish." So, we went to Target to pick up a few things. While standing in line at the pharmacy JG turned to me and said, "I a good shopper, mom. I know my sheep." I turned and asked him to clarify what he said. He said, "That is what I learned today. I a good shopper, I know my sheep." Trying not to laugh I asked, "Isn't it, I am a good shepherd, I know my sheep?" He looked at me and said, "Oh yeah, that right, shepherd." The woman next to us had to turn around and laugh, not to offend, my son, the good s

This morning I woke up ready for a beautiful, fall day in Minnesota. I was also ready to take a trip with JG's pre-school class to the apple orchard. I had been looking forward to this because I had big plans for making apple crisp tonight from the apples that I picked up on our visit. I could already taste and smell the finished product. We all loaded onto the bus at 9:00 a.m., there were 47 4 and 5 year olds all packed in and ready to roll. The bus left the school parking lot and took a left rather than the expected right. I turned to the mother seated by me and asked, "What apple orchard are we going to in this direction?" She looked at me puzzled and said, "We're not going to an apple orchard." "Where are we going then?" I asked. "The farm." she replied to which JG yelled, "But, mom you said we were going to the apple orchard, I don't want to go to the farm." Guess I need to pay more attention to the little flyers that

Well here it goes. I have wanted to do this blogging thing for quite some time now. Some of my good friends started blogs recently and it looks like big fun. Plus it is a great way to document the day to day goings on at the Schmidt's house, because I really cannot remember what happened the day before. This way I can prove that my kids were young once and yes, the home office did seriously do that. I went out to dinner with my friends tonight and had a great time. I was late (as usual), due to the last minute changes with the home office...this one tops them all. I thought that I was fairly organized, however was proven wrong. I planned on having my beloved (DLS) and the kids (AE & JG) fix dinner together. They were going to make pigs-in-the-blankets (JG's choice), however as I was walking out the door I was informed that my husband would not be able to make dinner because he "could not stand that long" to make pigs-in-the-blanket, due to a weekend softball inj