Random Crowell Happenings

There are so many random things that have happened in the last few days and so I am just going to list them out. Here goes:

1. Olivia started soccer last week and had her first practice. She spent more time worrying about her outfit and if everything matched than really getting her head ready for soccer. She had a blast and has her first game this weekend. Should be interesting since Olivia struggles with coordination. She might surprise us... who knows. We are just hoping that this year she puts the ball in the right goal!

2. On Sunday I had a bridal shower for my cousin Jessica. We had about 40 people at our house for brunch and everything turned out beautiful. Jessie is such a sweet, sweet girl so it was a pleasure to host her shower for her. Jessie and her fiance Justin are college sweethearts and Mizzou grads so they remind me a lot of Aaron and I. The shower was of course eventful since during the shower Olivia fell and knocked out one of her teeth (a baby tooth thank God!) and then Sonny's paw got stuck in Olivia's hem of her dress. He let out some pretty loud cries so we knew he was in pain. It took us a while to untangle him. You could tell the animal lovers in the crowd since they panicked and flew upstairs. He actually split one of his nails...poor buddy! Always something interesting going on at our house!

3. Thursday night after the girls went to bed I went upstairs to check on everyone and noticed that Jordan's hamster didn't have much food so I filled up his bowl. This is the first time I have looked at that hamster in months! Jordan pleaded with us to get this little rodent and I was not a supporter but lucky for her she convinced her dad to take her to the store to just "look" and low and behold came home from the pet store with a new friend. I have vowed that I will not take care of another breathing thing in this house! Well anyway, I must not have closed his cage all the way and the next morning Jordan came downstairs in tears saying that "Squirt" was gone! We looked EVERYWHERE but since he is a dwarf hamster and extremely little we were unable to fine his whereabouts. I envisioned "Squirt" jumping on my Aunt Barb's head during the shower and pure pandemonium breaking out. And so after more than 24 hours of the missing rodent...Aaron decided to put his cage on the ground in her room and open the door. I knew Squirt's chances were dwindling and that he couldn't survive much longer without water. We knew for sure that he was not in Jordan's room since we completely took everything apart. We went to dinner with some friends on Friday night and when we got home Aaron went upstairs to check and shockingly Squirt had found his way home and was back in the cage! Unbelievable to say the least! Jordan was spending the night with a friend so we called her with the good news the next morning. The funniest part was when Olivia saw him in the cage she said "He looks different!" I thought for sure we had caught a mouse but Jordan confirmed that it was her beloved "Squirt".

4. Rachel and Madison are officially taller than me! We did a back to back test and sure enough they are at least an inch taller! This is a very weird feeling to look up at my 12 year olds but I knew it wouldn't be long. The twins started track yesterday and ran over 3 miles at practice. Physical exertion is not one of their strong points and when they got into the car after practice you would have thought they had been working the fields in sweltering Africa from the looks of them. They all but crawled to the car! They have practice again tonight and I could have sworn I saw them doing a rain dance outside this morning. :)

5. We are quickly making summer plans and have decided to embark on a new territory. Our family is going on a family mission trip in July to South Dakota. We will be working in a youth center on a Sioux Indian Reservation for a week. We are all so excited about this since this is a mission trip that our whole family can participate in. We have talked to the girls about the conditions at the reservation as well as safety issues. We have explained that these are very poor children with very little supervision and that their lives are very different than our girls' lives. I am praying for an eye opening, life changing experience. Keep you posted!

Little Lumberjacks

This weekend we decided to clear out some of the woods that are behind our house. There were several dead trees and just a lot of brush so we rented a huge dumpster and went at it with a vengeance. Our sweet friend Mike decided to come over and help out and so with axes in hand they went a choppin'. We also had a dead tree in the front yard that needed to come out so Papa K. brought over the trusty chainsaw and down it went. Olivia, Jack, Maddie and two of our neighbors Brody and Sydney helped as well. They thought they were really something carrying those big limbs. The day turned out to be pretty fun and ended with us laying in the front yard enjoying the sunshine and beautiful weather! Thank you Lawtons and Papa!

Muddy Memphis!

Jordan had a soccer tournament this weekend in Memphis and so we headed south to colder temps, rain and MUD! We arrived Friday night with the hopes of chillin' in the hotel lobby and watching the Mizzou game. The game was not being televised so we all huddled around Aaron's laptop and listened to the broadcast while the kids ran around like crazy people. Mizzou was victorious which meant we were playing for the Big 12 Tournament Championship on Saturday...yippee!

Our first game was Saturday morning and we won 5-2. Later that afternoon we played and won 5-0. And so one more game and we were on to the finals. This is a huge tournament with 195 teams participating and so the fields get quite a workout. The rain did not help the field conditions which meant we were playing in some serious mud. Luckily we saved the all white uniforms for Sunday. Sunday morning we played and unfortunately lost 2-1 after hitting the post twice. The team we lost to won the whole tournament so I guess that makes us feel a little better. The hard part is that after beating up on the Tennessee teams we lost to a St. Louis team. Ugh! Third isn't as fun as first place but the girls had a GREAT tounament and had a blast.

The one consolation was that Mizzou won the Big 12 Tournament Saturday night...go TIGERS!

MY FIRST FRIEND!

Today was a truly amazing day and I am still on cloud 9. I reconnected with my childhood best friend from many,many years ago. We found each other on Facebook a few weeks ago and decided to meet for lunch today. From the second I walked through the door of Farotto's my heart almost burst! We had almost 30 years to catch up on.

Julie was my other half growing up. Where she was...I was. We met when we were 4 years old and lived directly across the street from each other Every picture of me when I was little consisted of a tall blond with straight hair and a shorter brunette with curly hair. We were inseparable. We vacationed together, we walked to school together, we played sports together, we got in trouble together (one time we ate an entire pound of bacon that her mom had made for potato salad...while she was taking a shower getting ready for a party...oops!) we lived life together. Neither one of us had siblings but we were as close as any sisters could be.

I have so many funny memories of Julie I couldn't even begin to list them but here are a few that were discussed today. Julie and I would walk to school together every single morning from a VERY early age. And since our parents worked (this was before the "latchkey" days) we left for school after our parents. (Can you imagine this happening now?) and got home before them. The rule was Julie couldn't come in the house before school. I think my Dad thought that we would never make it to school which is probably pretty accurate. Well, little did they know that Julie came over every single morning before school. Well, this particular day my Dad happened to come home while Julie was there so I shoved her in the coat closet until my Dad was out of sight and then literally threw her out the front door. I remember my Dad asking who was at the door and I said " I didn't hear the door." I am sure he knew but for some reason he gave me some grace!

I remember playing in my backyard for hours on my aluminum swing set. We would swing so hard the poles would jump out of the ground. I don't know how we didn't tip that thing over...maybe we did! I remember Julie loved butter and jelly sandwiches and I loved ketchup sandwiches...disgusting! I remember countless weekends at the river when we would camp and hang out all day on the mighty Mississippi (yuck!). Julie was much more fair complected than I was and so she would burn and blister while I was golden brown :) Our parents would tie our life jackets to a rope attached to the boat so we wouldn't float down the river. Insane! We would sit in our exact same spots in the boat every time...me on the red side, Julie on the green (the color of the light at the front of the boat) and we would listen to music and ride all day long until the sun went down. We loved CCR and Donna Summers. (The first five songs on the blog are dedicated to you Julie...what memories!)

I realized today that she is the only person on this Earth that shares these memories with me. We were able to piece our childhood back together today with each of us remembering different pieces of the puzzle. It is funny when someone remembers something that you had completely forgotten! There is no one else that could do this for me because all we had growing up, was each other.

It was fun realizing after all of these years how parallel our lives have been...we are both nurses (that don't work..ha!), both of our moms suffered from breast cancer and we live about 15 minutes from each other. Not to mention that when we met for lunch we were wearing almost the exact same outfit! We always did like to dress the same. Amazing.

And so after almost 5 hours, a bottle of wine (plus some more!) and NO lunch... a friendship was renewed. I felt like we were those 4 year olds again learning how to do cart wheels and chasing the ice cream man. I am so thrilled to have her back in my life. What a gift I was given today!!

Grandparents Day

This past week was Grandparent's Day at the girls' school. With four children in one school you would think that the grandparents would have to split between the kids but not the Crowell Girls...they had 6 grandparents between them (with some even missing!). I decided to walk the girls into school just to make sure everyone had their special person and that all of the grandparents knew where to go. I happened to have my camera and took a few pics before I was set to leave. Then the chapel service was about to begin so I wanted to make sure everyone found a seat...I ended up sitting down and watching the whole service. Me and all of the grandparents! Oh well, if my girls are singing I want to watch too. :)

My girls are so incredibly blessed to have so many wonderful grandparents in their lives. I knew that they wouldn't miss this day for the world which made the girls feel so special. The best part of the day was during the chapel service when one of the girls would happen to look over and the entire row of grandparents would simultaneously wave. I could almost read their mids when they saw the waving. Livi was thinking "Wow, look at all of them. I am sooooo lucky. " Jordan thought "Well, that is a little embarrassing but how cool is it that I have 6 of them here!" Rachel and Madison thought "Oh, my...if I could only crawl under a rock right now because I am so humiliated by my dorky grandparents!" No matter what their response was...on the inside they know they are deeply loved!

Aaron and I just want to say "thank you" to our wonderful parents who have given us so much love and support these last 12 years as we began this crazy journey of parenthood. If we could only repay you for all of the diapers changed, the Halloween costumes sewed, the many weekends away that we were so lucky to have and the life lessons taught. For baiting hooks and kissing boo boos... for all of the games you cheer at, for all the kisses and quality time, for knowing their friends and their teachers and for being so engaged in their life....we thank you! God has truly blessed them!