i am on a roll here, people. uh, person. that's what happens when school starts. yay!

so we've been at the school thing for a week now. seems to be going well, especially for little j who already got to skip a day. he's in northern (very northern) minnesota right now playing hockey. imagine  that. it was a nine hour drive and big j and i happily agreed to stay home and watch the dogs. the husband and little j will have a blast--sounds like only dads and sons went up for this one. i imagine there will be no teeth brushing, no showers, no matching clothes, stinky hotel rooms, towels on the floor, donut crumbs in the beds.

i shudder.

anyway, it's the last really big hockey tourney of the summer and little j was psyched to be invited to play. he told me his plans for the future are to be a full-time pro hockey player and a part-time doctor. sounds busy. not sure i'd want to go to a part-time doctor but i'm sure it will work out just fine.

big j and i have a busy weekend ahead. tonite is the town carnival and we're going to go avoid the carnies and see what kind of crap we can eat. tomorrow i am doing the "tour de corn," which is a big bike ride with options for 15, 35, 65 and 100 miles. i'm doing 35 with a friend, i just can't convince anyone that 65 sounds fun and only the crazy real bikers are doing 100 (you should come, cher). big j is going to babysit and then play some tennis with his doubles partner. he is loving tennis and played it all summer long. he entered a doubles tourney in a couple of weeks so we'll see how that goes.

i guess that about sums things up except for ONE MORE THING. happy birthday tomorrow, dear bobbi, happy birthday toooo youuuuuuu.

so my boys are thrill seekers. little j a bit more so than big j, but they are both pretty manly when it comes to scary rides. take this one for instance. this is a roller coaster called "steel venom." you dangle your legs and it jets you back and forth, up this curvy spiked thing and then backwards up a pointy spiked thing  at about a billion miles an hour. 

ick.

raise your hand if you think it looks like fun. 

first day of school. everyone and their dog posted kids with backpacks on facebook yesterday, so i decided to just post mine here. for all two of you.

the j boys are getting big. they both had a good day, little j is king of fourth grade and big j is happy as clam in middle school. the biggest complaint was that the lunch ladies don't serve enough food. they begged me to make dinner around five last night. what? dinner before dark at the j boy house? summer must really be over!

oh yes. i know. i disappeared off the face of the blogosphere and i will be lucky if even one of you stop back by to see if the j boys are still alive. they are. barely. 

you see, it was summer. and summers around here are BRUTAL. disguised as fun, but in the end, BRUTAL.

we just go too hard. we do too much. we stay up too late, we sleep in too long. we have good intentions, but we eat a lot of crap and never at the appropriate times. breakfast rolls around about noon, lunch at around 4 and dinner has become ice cream at 9 pm when we decide to drag ourselves back in the house. my poor clients suffer, my business partner talks to while i am getting sprayed by the sprinkler system, my kids play video games while i frantically try to put together ad campaigns before the pool opens. 

we had a ton of fun this summer: bought a new boat, discovered the joy of TWO TUBES behind it, partied hard for the 4th of july (lost josh for 10 hours and started a grass fire), had great company, went to 7 hockey tournaments, 4 baseball tournaments and one trip to valley fair amusement park. we went to the drive-in, had campfires in the back yard, caught some fish, rode bikes, hiked trails, etc. etc. etc. 

we had some bummers this summer: one severe head concussion (me), one torn knee patella (the husband), one labrador with an unexplained back/leg injury that won't go away, two trips to the emergency room within three weeks, one broken tooth, some really expensive braces and two speeding tickets in one day. 

it's all a bit of a blur. sadly, that torn patella saved my sanity with a good solid week of DOWNTIME. 

so. in the end, i am tired. you were good while you lasted, summer. and i know when next year rolls around, i'll be really excited to see you again. 

we will send you off with a bang this weekend, but come monday, that silence is going to be a very welcome sound. 

ok, with this much time passing there is only one way to do this: random photo essay. here goes...

this is me, my mom and my bro goofing off during another airport delay. we traveled to california for my uncle's memorial service. the time there was short but sweet. on the way home, my niece thought this looked like a nice place to take a photo. 

this is part of the hockey room my husband finished off for the boys. i told him we should start finishing off the downstairs and this is what i got. that is synthetic ice on the floor...you can actually skate on it. needless to say, it's a popular spot around here. 

big j entered his first tennis tournament and got first place. he was pretty excited. 

my niece broke her arm. check out that groovy cast. 

little j is playing baseball and had to go head-to-head with his cousin. he's doing great this year playing third base and pitcher.

there. now you are all caught up. :) 

If you want to feel pure panic, let your driver's license expire and then take the test without preparing for it. after i bombed the first three questions, i was sweating bullets and wondering if i could somehow cheat on my smart phone. 

i ended up passing with the bare minimum of correct responses. thank God. next time you ride in a car with me, be aware that i don't know when a hot road is most dangerous, i have no idea how to correct myself from a skid, i am clueless about motorcycle rules, might endanger school bus drivers and would immediately jerk my car back onto the road if the tires drifted onto the soft shoulder. 

it's april and THIS is what we've been up to around here. snow blowing. in april. and no school for three days. we only got the snow and not the terrible ice that caused power outages and destroyed trees in sioux falls. bobbi was without power for FOUR days. so we got off really lucky here. 

the boys built forts in the driveway.

and ate lots of snowballs. 

and did some sledding. 

meanwhile all that cabin fever caused us to lose our minds. this was the husband getting ready for "hairball" which is a concert featuring an 80s tribute band. the bottom half was army zubas and combat boots. who knew my husband could rock the bad boy look? half the audience thought he was with the band. it was "hairlarious." 

i tried to recapture the big hair but just couldn't get this bangs to stand up. exactly how much hairspray did we used to use, anyway? this is as close as i could get to "rocker girl." note the black nails, ladies. that ought to count for something. 

happy week.