what have i gotten myself into????

that's what i thought after the past two weeks. i've been insanely busy getting ready for the volleyball party and nathan's family coming to visit. i've been making lists, cleaning every crevice of my home, shopping for enough food to feed a small army, planning where to sleep 11 in my teeny tiny super comfy cozy house, you know.... the usual. oh, yeah, and i had to plan my first vball practice b/c i'm coaching jv this year. oh, dear..... what have i gotten myself into?

sometimes i just have to learn the hard way that i can't do it on my own. i tend to forget that the Lord is my strength and i begin to think that i am my own strength. makes sense, right? i'm just that pefect "got-it-all-together-never-a-hair-out-of--place-house-is-always-clean" kind of gal...... ummm.... nope. not quite. ok, not even close. but in my own little dreamed up reality i'm superwoman, and i can do it all. DUH!!! what an idiot!

i was quite impressed with myself last week. i had made enough lists to fill a short novel, i was ahead of the game as far as the vball party went, i had planned everything perfectly. i should have known. :)

nathan was starting to feel the pressure b/c he had started the first week of practice and there wasn't yet a jv coach. i was slowly but surely falling behind on my lists. things got pushed back b/c of ..... life.... and i was hating the fact that i felt the paper trail closing in on me. i was dreaming that i was being attacked by a stack of yellow pads of paper with pink and black ink on them. the lists were following me EVERYWHERE!! i was sure that i would have all day friday to clean the house b/c that night and saturday we'd be at my parents for the vb campout. well, nathan got home earlier than i expected and said he was wanting to go meet a buddy to golf out by my parents' so would i mind going out early. sure. not a problem. i'll just clean saturday. we ended up being so tired from the campout that we stayed over there all saturday cleaning up and then taking naps. we were wasted. i couldn't believe how late the girls stayed up just chatting away, and i was ready to pass out by 10pm. at least i didn't sleep in the tent with the mosquitos though. those poor girls and their little legs. hopefully, they still had fun.... i know connor did! he was the star of the show with all those girls and he had a blast. jumping in the pile of their stuff.... it took up the entire sun porch at my parents house. they had so much stuff! by that night i knew that i'd be the jv coach so it was nice to get to know the girls and see them interact with each other on a fun level.

i don't clean on sundays, so monday was going to be nutty. i knew i had to go to meijers, plan practice, clean the house up again, and help nathan work in the basement (we're slowly but surely finishing that beast). aunt tina said she could watch connor while i went to meijers b/c the kids only had a half day and she'd be around. nic watched him during practice--she's got monday duty, and somewhere in between all that i even had time to plan dinner. i was going to do an easy venison roast. it's an easy stove top recipe so i knew i could leave it during practice and when we got home, wa lah! dinner is served. well, i'm stupid, so i accidentally left the burner on one number too high so by the time we got home all the liquid was gone and the carrots, potatoes, celery and venison were CHARRED to the bottom of the pot. i opened it up hoping to smell the delights of a super good roast, but instead it smelled like a rotting carcass and freshly burned veggies. so i went into nathan and said, "wendy's or mc donalds?" we decided on chinese. on his way to get it, his friend trevor called with an extra tigers/yankees ticket. can my life be any more unfair? he had fun and i really am glad he got to go.... the game was amazing and he was in the fourth row behind the yankees dugout. he said he could have spit and hit derek jeter. unreal. and bonus: my papa and gramma were at the same game and nathan saw papa on the big screen!!! after nathan saw him he called his cell phone and papa said, "i thought there would be more ice." he's not a huge baseball fan, but he's a major fan of my gramma so he went to humor her.

today was the moment it all hit me and i did a total girl meltdown. sort of out of character for me. i'm not one to melt like i did today. i've been staying up way too late and running myself ragged all day. i hit sams to get my fabulous family pictures developed, and nathan had also asked me to get some pictures for his office. that should be easy. yeah, right! i had to sort through 181 pictures and pick the best ones, and no one from the office was really sure what the boss wanted as far as sizes, quantity and whatnot. after an HOUR of sorting through those, i was excited to get my pictures ready. when i tried to crop the pictures there was an alert over the pic and it looked really fuzzy. i figured that they weren't formatted right, b/c i KNEW aunt tina has a stellar camera and she knows how to use it! i didn't know what to do. i was frustrated, overtired, stretched beyond my wildest limits. i just left and went home crying. i got a call from my sister b/c connor was with my mom at her house and we were planning to grab lunch. i was obviously upset and she just said not to worry about lunch and just come home and relax. she was so nice about it, and didn't even tell me to get tough. i knew it was SO STUPID for me to be upset, but i just couldn't stop. i had gone over the edge and there was no stopping me.

nathan came home for lunch and only told me it wasn't a big deal once.... i'm pretty sure he feared for his life after the death glare that shot his way. i knew it wasn't a big deal. i just didn't want to hear it. he kind of knew that i just needed to chill so he told his boss he was having a major melt down here at home and needed to hang out with me for the afternoon. he cut the grass (taking that task off my to do list! yahoo!) before i knew it, it was time to go to practice and that really took my mind off everything. i really enjoy my team. they are a good group of girls and they're willing to learn and work hard.

so here we are. tuesday night. nathan's mom is flying in right now. the bed is ready. there's food in the fridge. the house is sort of clean, and i've got to get ready for practice tomorrow. i'm okay with it all.

the 07 jv/var volleyball teams with their biggest fan.... well, he's not that big, but like his shirt says, he does heart chicks!

connor's favorite activity of the night was being tossed into the piles of stuff!

when it was a blazing storm (why not? we were planning a campout. :) we played catch phrase inside for a while.
deanna, christine, charity, jenny, and nicole waiting for nathan to fix the game.

whitney, casey, lauren, and haley on the couch

michelle and leanne.... i love the cool rain on the window behind them.

amanda and hannah

holly and bethany