Well, we've initiated the soccer and dance season and successfully weathered a torn ligament along the way. No, not from the dancers or soccer players, but from the middle-aged mom. There I was comfortably living through my pain until my husband threw me to the wolves one night. Or, wolf, in this instance. You got it - said wolf would be my mother who happened to join our family for dinner one night and had about all she could take of her daughter wincing from pain when breathing. I was promptly whisked away for a medical opinion. As my smiling husband waved and smiled and cheerily said "Have fun!!" Traitor. Turns out a rib had popped out of socket and managed to tear a ligament on its way. Needless to say, I've been sidelined and haven't been much in the mood to blog. But I'm on the repair and getting back to normal. It still hurts to sneeze or laugh very hard. Fortunately, I only have to do one or the other, oh, every hour or so. :) But on the upside, maybe this will fix my golf swing. But then again, I've always thought my golf game was just fine. It's my coach who constantly wants to fix it.

As I said, JB is in full swing of his soccer season and he's loving his new league and team. He's playing lots of positions and learning a lot from his new coach. He suffered his first loss in about three years this last weekend, but seems to have shouldered it well. There were photos taken of his game for the slide show, but they were inadvertently erased. So look for those next time.

As for dance . . . the girls had their first competition of the season on Saturday. First one ever for Shannon. I was alone at this one since Joel was managing the soccer constituency so I had some difficulty trying to manage both the camera and the camcorder at the same time. (I forgot the tripod.) Ultimately I abandoned the still camera for video. So there are essentially no stills of dancing for the slide show either. However as soon as I have an extra six hours or so I'll get right on reading the user manual for that thing and figure out how to extract single frames from the video. Or better yet, maybe I'll find a third grader to figure it out for me.

Oh, I should mention results: Shannon did well - finishing fifth in one of her two dances. Emma did great - finishing 3rd and 5th in two of her four dances. It was a fun weekend - lots of swimming at the hotel pool. (The competition was held at a hotel which makes for a lot of fun for the kids.) And the kids all collapsed on Sunday. But not before . . .

Their final choir concert of the year. Another beautiful festival held at the Kirk on Sunday evening with all choirs of the church (6) represented. It was a truly wonderful way to wind down a very hectic weekend and even though the kids were completely spent by the time the ice cream social came around, it really rounded out the weekend very nicely. Put us all in the right frame of mind.

Alas, there's no rest for the weary as we're already looking ahead to a school musical for Emma on Thursday night of the "Princess and the Pea" in which Emma is a villager and understudy of the princess role. Then another dance event on Saturday and a soccer game (deep breath) at the exact same time as dance again. This should be the last conflict though and things will begin to settle down.

Okay, you can stop laughing now. A girl can dream, can't she?

It’s been one birthday celebration after another here at the Fickel’s. JB celebrated his 8th birthday last Friday and Shannon turned five today. We had an “all boy” day on Saturday for Joel and five of his classmates. The boys started bright and early by going with dad to a local gym to play basketball and football. Then came the pit stop at home to eat pizza and cake, play outside some more, open some presents, play a little Wii of course, and then we all went to a local arcade. (Think ESPN Zone here – not the Galaga and Centipede of yesteryear.) I have to admit, the games were pretty cool – and as my kids will tell you I am not a gamer.

Today was the flipside of that boy day with Shannon celebrating this afternoon with two buddies from her preschool class. We did a low-key afternoon with lunch and then making cup cakes together. Of course, when two or more girls gather . . . there will be dress-up also. Each girl also got to create their own color of frosting and then top the cup cakes with sprinkles. Or pixie dust – whatever you prefer. It was a mess! But an absolute blast. Shannon’s birthday seem to have a “wheel” theme this year with getting a scooter from mom and dad and a bike “tag-along” from Nana and Grandpa. We’ve already initiated the bike with a trip downtown while everyone else is at choir practice. It’s a little chilly outside, but there’s something about a new birthday gift that makes it bearable. (Oh, and don’t worry and don’t call Child Services or anything. Shannon always wears a helmet – we were just posing for a photo op.)

What I lack in cake, cookies, and brownies in my diet because of the gluten, I have made up for ten-fold in frosting just today! The funny thing is – I never used to like frosting. But somehow I couldn’t resist a “green light” sweet especially when the cake batter bowl was staring me down and taunting me. Besides, how else was I supposed to get the frosting off my fingers? You don’t just wash that stuff down the drain!! I’m telling ya – if I ever fall off this Celiac wagon, it won’t be for a beer – it’ll be for cake or cookie batter. Count on it.


One final thing to offer as closure on last week’s post . . . Emma received a 95% on her Spain report! Way to go Emma!!

Other than that, we’re starting to get back into dance and soccer season, rounding out the school year, and kicking up the fertilizer! 42 days left of school for the kids – 50 days left for me! (Yes, you bet I’m counting!)

Now, I better go take some ibuprofen for this massive sugar headache I have. Boy was it worth it though!!