Days with the Dorans

  Well, Sunday was my mom's "day" and everyone went out to celebrate her at a fun dinner! You may notice reading this that I am not in any pictures... That's because I am still miserably sick. I started feeling sick on Friday (during field day and when we were setting up my mock camp at school) and I didn't get out of bed all weekend (except to use the bathroom) until Monday morning when I HAD to go to work (can you imagine leaving that for a sub?!- ugh). But Steph and my mom sent pictures and videos (on her fb) and I was so happy that they had fun together! It looked like a blast so I'll just have to find another random day to go and check it out. I'll bring Joey with me too since he was working in Kalamazoo and couldn't make it either. Glad everyone else was able to be there with her!

  Not the best picture but it will do... My brother hasn't been the best about telling me about things, but we did manage to go to see both TZ and Maddy play ball this season. Timmy had a great season and even got pulled up to Varsity a few times! I remember when I found out about that game and I texted with him and although he wasn't sure if he would play (he did) he was so excited for the opportunity. It was big potatoes for sure and I was so proud of him! The kids' school doesn't know how to use a comma... We also got to see Maddy play! It's always fun to come back to "my" sport! It's changed a lot since I played but it still brings back so many memories! Maddy played great at short and had some nice hits too! Nana & her girls! Papa was there too but didn't get the photo op, I guess...

  It is always nice to be able to turn off your alarms on Memorial Day. It's also nice when your band kid has his license so you don't have to drive him to the parade. Sean's call time was 10:00 which was about the time we left to go to the parade. We hit the Tim Horton's by us for some tea and then were on our way. People were already lining the streets when we were finding a spot to park so I was worried our usual place would be taken but it wasn't! I was so happy. Jeff brought our soccer bench and Nana and Papa came too so we all had a place to sit. I felt like the parade felt a bit longer this year. Lots of kids throwing candy and one older lady was handing out pokemon cards and made a point to give me a handful which I thought was very strange. I found a kid to give them to before we left. HERE is a video of 23 seconds where we spotted Sean. I heard some people got pictures with him so hopefully I will get those later. After the parade, Jeff has to get his dis...

Ali started running again and I suggested she do Bayshore and she was all in! She's been running pretty much daily and I knew a 10K would be easy for her. To be honest, I think she could have done the half but she hasn't raced since high school and since she hasn't been running again all that long, she felt most comfortable doing 6.2 miles. The weather was overcast but PERFECT for running- except then it started to rain. It was a spitty rain but steady. Jeff, Sean and I were able to go near a hill and were able to spy her. It was clear some people didn't know how this works because there were people walking near the front which is a no-no. When we spied Ali (and other runners) they were trying to get around them. Because of this Ali's first mile was WAY slower than her 7:45 min/mile goal. It was like over 10 minutes. She had this app though that I was able to get so I could track her and send her encouraging words. Here second mile was 7:42 so I knew she had gotten ...

I was glad that we had two college kids home to support Sean in his spring concert! This is the last concert of the year and it is such a busy time of year but Nana and Papa were able to make it too. So nice having them close. The concert was great! I took a video of it HERE . The first song his band played was about a foundry so some used "non-instruments" I guess I would call them that you can see at the beginning of the video. The second piece was my favorite. It was like Looney Tunes medley! I really appreciated all the musical selections and am always so impressed with how the bands sound. My mom was able to take some pictures of Sean. Her phone is better than mine. We sit in the back row up top and then always sneak out the top for pictures at our meeting place. It took Sean a minute to get to us. I'm guessing he was turning in his uniform or socializing... When he came up he had his (too-small) tux shirt in a crumpled ball and his tie. We put his tie back on for th...

  On Mother's Day, we headed north to Saginaw. I feel like the last few years I have been legitly sick. I had a bit of a tickle in my throat and I was worried but thankfully it stayed just that. I feel like this has been my healthiest year in a while- but for the AWFUL case of strep I had earlier in the year.  Knock on wood. I probably jinxed myself. It was great going to Saginaw and I wish we could go more but it seems life is busy with work and stuff so I'm glad that we make holidays a priority. We had some flowers for Grandma and brought some pasta too! We didn't have Joe with us since he needed to work but the five of us made the ride in Franny. None of us ate before we left and so we were hungry! Grandma always has a TON of food and this was no different except we had to wait for the Dorans. I was cracking up because they were starving and even set a timer to begin eating promptly at 3 which was when they were told to come. I am pretty sure that they arrived at 3:01 be...

I'm not sure that anything can beat the wonderful surprise/scavenger hunt gift I got last year from my babes and to be honest, nothing needs to be done. The best gift is really just being together. With Joey working in Kalamazoo, that can be hard but we got him home! I was talking with Jeff on my way home from work and when I pulled up to the house, I screamed, "OH MY GOSH! JOEY IS HOME?!" I was so excited! Although I had to work Thursday and Friday it was so wonderful to have him home and we even played my new obsession card game (5 crowns) and no one really complained. Zach got me flowers (a hanging plant that attracts hummingbirds and butterflies), some seeds and watering can) and he and Seany also wrote me really nice letters. I really appreciated them cleaning up and getting our deck summer ready! It was so nice to all sit out on the deck and just catch up! Ali came home around noon so we got to have ALL the babies together for a couple hours. We reenacted an old Mot...

A turkey came and visited my mom and she got these great pictures and THIS cool video! They really are cool birds!