The Lord Has Risen, He has Risen Indeed!

We got up at around 5:00 am and went to Easter sunrise service at 6:30 am.  Our church held the service at Swan Lake.  It was conducted outside by the lake.  It was very cold this morning, probably around 38 degrees.  It was pretty chilly.  However, it was a beautiful ceremony.  There was scripture, singing, prayer and communion.  There were geese honking on the lake during all of this.  I love non-traditional ceremonies.  it was awesome!

Our extended family couldn't get together today because my niece had a baby in Minnesota, so our immediate family decided to go out for brunch instead of cooking.  We went at 10:00 am.  It was already quite busy.  There was ham, sausage, bacon, chicken, eggs, mash potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, salad bar and deserts.  It was very filling.




Last night my husband and I went to the movie "Water for Elephants".  My husband is a fireman and got a fire call after 20 minutes.  So, I sat through the movie alone.  I didn't mind.  I've done it before.  The movie was excellent.  I was glad I stayed!  The fire call was a little 3-year-old girl who was missing.  After firemen, police and EMTs went all over looking for her, she was found safely hiding in the back of her parent's van.  Her family was at the park and when they left to go home she went to the back of the van and hid from her mom.  Why?  I have no idea.

Well, it was a good Easter.  Praise God! Alleluia!

Back on Track

My 14 year-old son Dalton has started playing traveling basketball for a new team called the Iowa Corn Sharks.  Previously he has been on about 3 traveling teams.  He started out playing for the All Iowa Attack, then my husband started his own team, the Iowa Elite, and then finally he played for The Kingdom of Hoops.  The first team, All Iowa Attack, was a very expensive team to play for.  The monthly fees were about $100.  In addition to this we had to pay for uniform and all traveling expenses including gas, hotels and food.  This team traveled extensively outside of the state.

My husband's team, Iowa Elite, was a good strong team.  At the last tournament they played at there was an argument between one of the dads and my husband, the coach.  After that the team split up and there wasn't enough players left to keep the team going.  With the Kingdom of Hoops Dalton played about 3 tournaments.  We pulled him out after that due to the family being separated a lot for tournaments. It was creating some tension.  The new team, the Iowa Corn Sharks, play all of their tournaments within the state so there isn't a lot of time apart.

Over the course of all this Dalton somehow lost his confidence in playing the game of basketball.  On his 8th grade school team there are a lot of very talented boys who are very competitive.  He feels inferior to two of the boys.  He has always gone toe to toe with them over the years.

Anyway, today was his first tournament with the Corn Sharks in Fort Dodge.  Honestly, without bragging too much, Dalton is the best player on his new team.  I believe this is a very big boost to his confidence.  Hopefully this new found confidence will carry over to his freshman team next year, as well as upcoming baseball, and currently track season.

During Dalton's last game today he score half of the teams points, a total of around 24. :)

Where Has Time Gone?

Today I took the day off to take my daughter Elle to visit a college.  When I really thought about it, I was like, "Damn I'm old!"  It was 20 years ago this May that I graduated from college.  Where did the last 20 years go?  How am I old enough to have a daughter going to college in a year?  Wow!  It was a hard rock to swallow for sure!

The college we visited was Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa.  We thought it would take about 2 hours to get there.  In reality, it ended up being 2 1/2 hours.  Getting lost and turning around twice didn't help the timing!  I was driving and Elle is no help at navigating.  We have a GPS on our new Blackberry's, however, we had no signal.  Nice!  Thank God I emailed myself the directions from Mapquest.  We also stopped to get an Iowa map after driving an hour and not being sure where we went from there.  Oh, well!  We ended up being about 15 minutes late.  No big deal.

MapQuest directions

From: Carroll, IA US
To: Orange City, IA US

DRIVING DIRECTIONS

1. Start out going NORTHWEST on US-30/E 6TH ST toward N MAIN ST. Continue to follow US-30 W. (go 0.79 miles)

2. Turn SLIGHT RIGHT onto US-71 N/LINCOLN ST. Continue to follow US-71 N.

- US-71 N is just past W 10TH ST

(go 12.5 miles)

3. Turn LEFT onto US-71/IA-175. (go 17.67 miles)

4. Turn RIGHT onto US-71.

- If you are on IA-175 and reach JACKSON AVE you've gone about 0.9 miles too far

(go 22.12 miles)

5. Turn LEFT onto US-71-BR/IA-7.

- US-71-BR is 0.3 miles past 615TH ST

(go 1.82 miles)

6. Turn SLIGHT RIGHT onto FLINDT DR/US-71-BR/IA-7. Continue to follow IA-7.

- IA-7 is 0.2 miles past MEMORIAL RD

(go 17.2 miles)

7. Turn LEFT onto 530TH ST/IA-3 W.

- 530TH ST is 0.4 miles past 535TH ST

(go 3.32 miles)

8. Turn SLIGHT RIGHT onto IA-3 W.

- IA-3 W is 0.3 miles past S AVE

(go 29.15 miles)

9. Turn RIGHT onto CR-K64.

- CR-K64 is 0.9 miles past PIONEER AVE

(go 13.83 miles)

10. Turn LEFT onto 2ND ST NE.

- 2ND ST NE is just past E 1ST S

(go 0.07 miles)

11. Welcome to ORANGE CITY, IA.

TOTAL ESTIMATED TIME: 2 hours 37 minutes

DISTANCE: 118.46 miles

The college reminded me a lot like the college I went to, Buena Vista University in  Storm Lake, Iowa.  It was located in a small community and was a fairly small campus.Both are also Christ centered schools. Elle really liked it.  This trip reminded me of when I was getting ready to go to college and my method of choosing.  I really wanted to go to hair school, but my mother would not hear of it.  She kept saying, "Go get a college education.  You can always go to hair school."  Boy do I really regret having listened to her.  I wish I would have had some balls and put my foot down and insisted I go to hair school.  Anyway, when I figured I had to go to a college, it was a choice, according to my mom, between Iowa State and Buena Vista.  I knew I would get totally lost at Iowa State, so I opted for BV.  Again, I really wanted to go to a college in Nebraska called Midland Lutheran College.  My mom thought this was too far to drive.  It was really only like 2 hours, if that.  My mom was a single parent and I think she was pretty paranoid that something was going to happen to me.  This is the same woman who had me paged at the mall if she couldn't find me! omg!  Anyway, it's all said and done.  Now I have two BA's and no real job.  Nice!  Had I gone to hair school, I could be running my own salon by now.  I could go back, but I'm almost 43!  We will see.

Back to Elle.  She is taking her ACT tests tomorrow morning.  God help her!  She is not the best test taker at all.  She needs extra time and usually takes her tests outside of the classroom.  She is one of those nervous test takers.  Her doctor tried to put her on a pill that would slow down her heart rate when she got nervous.  It didn't work at all.  What can I say, my nervous kids take after me.  Poor things!  I wish they would have gotten my husband's confidence instead!  I don't know how I even made it into college!  lol!