Some Snippets of Stewart Life
We've been busy little beavers around the Stewart household for the past several weeks. Football season is always crazy and I've already talked a bit about the craziness that having all three kids in school is! We've done some low-key, fun, family things too. This is going to be a bit of a random (and now that I've completed it....very long...) post but there are a few things I just want to get down so I don't forget them completely.
First of all, we had yet another hilarious car conversation today while running errands. Adam asked Ryann when he would finally grow up to be like her. She responded, in all seriousness, "Oh Adam, you'll never grow up to be like me because I'm a girl. You won't be a girl. You'll grow up and be a boy." Adam was sad and said, "But I want to grow up to be a gi-irl! I want to be like you, Mom!" I said, "Oooh, that's sweet Adam. You don't want to grow up to be like Daddy?" "No", Adam responded. Ryann asked (again in all seriousness), "Do you really want to have to push babies out your little hole?" Then, Max, never one to be left out of a good conversation added, "It's really hard to be a boy." And Ryann, never to be "wrong" in front of Max, said, "It's only hard to be a boy when you're in activities." The kids have definitely noticed this year how rough and tumble football-playing is. Ryann used to say she wanted to play football but after watching a couple pretty tough hits during Panther games this season, she's changed her mind.
I forgot to ever note Ryann's reaction when she learned I'd brought a new dog home. I'd installed Zoe in a kennel in Ryann's room and then drove to Deanna's to pick the kids up. I told them we needed to hurry home because I needed to talk to them about something. The kids were all excited, assuming a good surprise. We walked in the front door and I realized I'd kind of wrecked the surprise when I forgot to put the big 'ol bag of dog food away. Ryann picked up on it immediately and asked why we had dog food. I answered that if we had a dog, we'd need food for it to eat. She began shrieking, "Where is it?! Where it is?!" I told the kids to go look in Ryann's room. Ryann careened into the room and dropped to her knees to peer in the kennel. I was standing in the doorway when she looked up at me with tears glistening in her eyes and cried, "Thank you, Mommy! Thank you!" The look on her face was so precious and the fact that she was actually crying with joy tugged my heartstrings right out and I started to weep, too.
We took the kids to the apple orchard last weekend and, unfortunately, it was so boring, I didn't even bother to take any photos. We went to the orchard that is very nostalgic for me since my sister and I went with my dad and grandparents many times as young children, but we've since learned about a different orchard that we plan to take the kids to next year. It's much more family friendly and has lots of activities for the kids to participate in.
During the middle of this past week, I had the van serviced at the dealership. That same day, we had a team-building, community service event for work. I made the mistake of riding with a coworker to the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis and was miserably motion-sick for the first 30 minutes of our time there. It was a really cool experience though. We were taught to "throw clay pots" on electric spinning wheels (I think that's what they are called) and we each got to make as many bowls as we liked. Several "Ghost" jokes were cracked. We painted the bowls and will get to keep one. The rest will be donated to charity. I was dreading the ride back to work, hoping against hope that I wouldn't get sick again...but I did. And then I had to consider that I'd set up a shuttle ride from the car dealership. I was green to the gills and was now going to have to ride with some potentially greasy-smelling dude I didn't know, from my office to the dealership. I decided I just couldn't do it. I have someone special in my daycare provider and friend. I called Deanna, in misery, from the bathroom at work and asked if she and the kids would come pick me up from work and drive me to pick up the van. She did and she gets motion sickness too, so totally gets how to drive to ease the discomfort. Upon arriving at the dealership, I wasn't sick at all! The story continues....some nice woman at the dealership gave each of the kids a huge helium balloon. I strongly advised the kids to let me tie the balloons to their wrists so they wouldn't accidentally float away. Ryann declined. We arrived home and not three seconds after leaping from the van, she tripped in the front yard, nose-diving and inadvertantly releasing her purple balloon into the air. She bawled as we watched it get stuck in the braches of the tree in our front yard. My heart ached for her and I made a split second decision - I would shimmy up that tree and rescue her balloon for her. Yes, I Sheri, the faint of heart and car sick wimp was going to scale an enormous tree so my little girl wouldn't have to be sad. I got as far as the first main crook of the tree and realized my mistake. I was totally stuck. I couldn't really get any higher and I was afraid to get back down. Just then, I heard the phone ringing and based on what time it was, I knew it was Stu calling to let us know he was on his way home from football practice. "MAX!" I bellowed. "Get the phone! Bring me the phone!!" Max was inside and emerged out the front door with the cordless in hand. He didn't even bat an eye at the fact that I was standing up in the tree. I begged him to hand the phone up to me. I wasn't sure if I was going to laugh or cry but when I heard Stu's voice, I began to laugh, "Um, honey? I need your help. I'm stuck in the tree in the front yard." Stu laughed and asked what I thought he could do about it since he was about 20 minutes from home. We discussed my options of jumping the approximate 5 and a half feet to the cement-hard front yard (it hasn't rained here in weeks) or waiting for Stu to get home to help me down. We ended the call and I handed the phone down to Ryann. She was hanging out with me. Max had lost interest and he and Adam were in the house, watching TV, figuring good 'ol Mom could fend for herself. I managed to turn around to face Ryann and admitted, "Honey, I'm stuck. I'm afraid to jump." And then I decided it was a teaching moment. Since Ryann has started Kindergarten, she's been telling Stu and I that she gets tummy aches sometimes at school when she has to try something new. She says her tummy hurts because she is afraid that she won't be able to do whatever the new thing is, or that she won't be able to do it well. I took a deep breath and told Ryann that I was afraid to jump, that I was worried I would hurt myself. She looked me in the eyes and said, "You can do it Mom. Just jump." I said, "Ok, will you help me? Will you count to three and then I'll jump?" Ryann counted, "1...2....3" and I leapt. The impact jarred me from my feet all the way to my neck and I smashed my elbow into my knee. I was worried I'd hurt my back because I had a pretty bad twinge for a couple seconds but it turns out I was just fine. Ryann was proud of me and I was proud of Max for offering his yellow balloon to Ryann since her purple one remained caught in the tree branches.
We have been having wonderful, fabulous, beautiful weather in central Minnesota the past few weeks and we took the opportunity to do minimal chores around the house this past weekend, attend a Saturday afternoon Panther game in shorts and t-shirts and play outside at home.
It was fun to get some shots of Stu coaching. He is very serious about this roll. He considers it a privilege to have an impact on so many young men's lives.
There were clouds blowing past during the game on Saturday and at one point, Ryann pointed at the sky and yelled, "Mom! Look how pretty that looks!!" Boy, was she right. The clouds just covering the sun were making a beautiful spectacle above the spectacle on the field below.
I was proud of the kids for being so creative this weekend and coming up with their own entertainment. Max spent a lot of time throwing a Nerf-like football onto the roof of the house and then watching it roll back down and bounce on the driveway. Ryann rode her scooter in the driveway and then suddenly decided to begin to rake leaves. She didn't even take the time to removed her helmet. She raked up a small pile of leaves she plans to jump in once she gets the pile large enough. Adam played with the hose and dirt and made mud creations. Then Max decided he wanted to try to play tennis so he and I jumped in the van and cruised down the street to the park at the end of our block to play for a while. When we returned, Max threw a tennis ball for Zoe and Ryann and Adam decided to "paint" with mud.
I'll leave you with one final Sheri deep thought...."Sometimes when you play/work hard enough at life, you end up with some leaves stuck to your butt. Be proud of those leaves; they're a testament to just how hard you've played/worked."
First of all, we had yet another hilarious car conversation today while running errands. Adam asked Ryann when he would finally grow up to be like her. She responded, in all seriousness, "Oh Adam, you'll never grow up to be like me because I'm a girl. You won't be a girl. You'll grow up and be a boy." Adam was sad and said, "But I want to grow up to be a gi-irl! I want to be like you, Mom!" I said, "Oooh, that's sweet Adam. You don't want to grow up to be like Daddy?" "No", Adam responded. Ryann asked (again in all seriousness), "Do you really want to have to push babies out your little hole?" Then, Max, never one to be left out of a good conversation added, "It's really hard to be a boy." And Ryann, never to be "wrong" in front of Max, said, "It's only hard to be a boy when you're in activities." The kids have definitely noticed this year how rough and tumble football-playing is. Ryann used to say she wanted to play football but after watching a couple pretty tough hits during Panther games this season, she's changed her mind.
I forgot to ever note Ryann's reaction when she learned I'd brought a new dog home. I'd installed Zoe in a kennel in Ryann's room and then drove to Deanna's to pick the kids up. I told them we needed to hurry home because I needed to talk to them about something. The kids were all excited, assuming a good surprise. We walked in the front door and I realized I'd kind of wrecked the surprise when I forgot to put the big 'ol bag of dog food away. Ryann picked up on it immediately and asked why we had dog food. I answered that if we had a dog, we'd need food for it to eat. She began shrieking, "Where is it?! Where it is?!" I told the kids to go look in Ryann's room. Ryann careened into the room and dropped to her knees to peer in the kennel. I was standing in the doorway when she looked up at me with tears glistening in her eyes and cried, "Thank you, Mommy! Thank you!" The look on her face was so precious and the fact that she was actually crying with joy tugged my heartstrings right out and I started to weep, too.
We took the kids to the apple orchard last weekend and, unfortunately, it was so boring, I didn't even bother to take any photos. We went to the orchard that is very nostalgic for me since my sister and I went with my dad and grandparents many times as young children, but we've since learned about a different orchard that we plan to take the kids to next year. It's much more family friendly and has lots of activities for the kids to participate in.
During the middle of this past week, I had the van serviced at the dealership. That same day, we had a team-building, community service event for work. I made the mistake of riding with a coworker to the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis and was miserably motion-sick for the first 30 minutes of our time there. It was a really cool experience though. We were taught to "throw clay pots" on electric spinning wheels (I think that's what they are called) and we each got to make as many bowls as we liked. Several "Ghost" jokes were cracked. We painted the bowls and will get to keep one. The rest will be donated to charity. I was dreading the ride back to work, hoping against hope that I wouldn't get sick again...but I did. And then I had to consider that I'd set up a shuttle ride from the car dealership. I was green to the gills and was now going to have to ride with some potentially greasy-smelling dude I didn't know, from my office to the dealership. I decided I just couldn't do it. I have someone special in my daycare provider and friend. I called Deanna, in misery, from the bathroom at work and asked if she and the kids would come pick me up from work and drive me to pick up the van. She did and she gets motion sickness too, so totally gets how to drive to ease the discomfort. Upon arriving at the dealership, I wasn't sick at all! The story continues....some nice woman at the dealership gave each of the kids a huge helium balloon. I strongly advised the kids to let me tie the balloons to their wrists so they wouldn't accidentally float away. Ryann declined. We arrived home and not three seconds after leaping from the van, she tripped in the front yard, nose-diving and inadvertantly releasing her purple balloon into the air. She bawled as we watched it get stuck in the braches of the tree in our front yard. My heart ached for her and I made a split second decision - I would shimmy up that tree and rescue her balloon for her. Yes, I Sheri, the faint of heart and car sick wimp was going to scale an enormous tree so my little girl wouldn't have to be sad. I got as far as the first main crook of the tree and realized my mistake. I was totally stuck. I couldn't really get any higher and I was afraid to get back down. Just then, I heard the phone ringing and based on what time it was, I knew it was Stu calling to let us know he was on his way home from football practice. "MAX!" I bellowed. "Get the phone! Bring me the phone!!" Max was inside and emerged out the front door with the cordless in hand. He didn't even bat an eye at the fact that I was standing up in the tree. I begged him to hand the phone up to me. I wasn't sure if I was going to laugh or cry but when I heard Stu's voice, I began to laugh, "Um, honey? I need your help. I'm stuck in the tree in the front yard." Stu laughed and asked what I thought he could do about it since he was about 20 minutes from home. We discussed my options of jumping the approximate 5 and a half feet to the cement-hard front yard (it hasn't rained here in weeks) or waiting for Stu to get home to help me down. We ended the call and I handed the phone down to Ryann. She was hanging out with me. Max had lost interest and he and Adam were in the house, watching TV, figuring good 'ol Mom could fend for herself. I managed to turn around to face Ryann and admitted, "Honey, I'm stuck. I'm afraid to jump." And then I decided it was a teaching moment. Since Ryann has started Kindergarten, she's been telling Stu and I that she gets tummy aches sometimes at school when she has to try something new. She says her tummy hurts because she is afraid that she won't be able to do whatever the new thing is, or that she won't be able to do it well. I took a deep breath and told Ryann that I was afraid to jump, that I was worried I would hurt myself. She looked me in the eyes and said, "You can do it Mom. Just jump." I said, "Ok, will you help me? Will you count to three and then I'll jump?" Ryann counted, "1...2....3" and I leapt. The impact jarred me from my feet all the way to my neck and I smashed my elbow into my knee. I was worried I'd hurt my back because I had a pretty bad twinge for a couple seconds but it turns out I was just fine. Ryann was proud of me and I was proud of Max for offering his yellow balloon to Ryann since her purple one remained caught in the tree branches.
We have been having wonderful, fabulous, beautiful weather in central Minnesota the past few weeks and we took the opportunity to do minimal chores around the house this past weekend, attend a Saturday afternoon Panther game in shorts and t-shirts and play outside at home.
It was fun to get some shots of Stu coaching. He is very serious about this roll. He considers it a privilege to have an impact on so many young men's lives.
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| Head Coach Jeff Schlieff and Stu walking across the field after halftime |
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Calling an offensive play
I love this photo I captured during the game. Can you see the dude (#5) watching the ball he just threw? And can you see the ball way up there at the top, left of the photo?
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| This was a funny moment - Stu was loping up the stairs back to the pressbox and we were as far away from him as this picture makes it seem. The kids were ecstatic to see him and were SCREAMING, "Hi Dad! Dad! Dad! Daddy! Hi Daddy!!" Stu was so focused he swears he didn't even hear them! |
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