MIA Part II????

Ok, so it hasn't quite been FIVE months since my last post... it's only been FOUR.... Baby steps!  I'm currently avoiding writing a paper which is due tomorrow for grad school. I could also be packing for vacation...neither of those sound as much fun as writing a blog post! (ha!) No, truthfully, I've been riding the insomnia train for the past few weeks.  Hopefully that subsides sooner than later.


TIME OUT -- HAPPY DANCE -- I HEAR RAIN!!!!

        Dad and Kaiser -- Checkin' the Crops

Emma's doing a great job keeping up on her reading... but in her spare time, she's turning into an Olympic swimmer.  She is going to be a big, bad first grader... starting in just over five weeks.   Let's just delete that... that means I go back to work in four weeks (AAHHH!!) so let's just ignore that.  This summer has gone by SO quickly! I only have two more classes until I graduate from grad school!  I am really ready for graduation.  I want to be done so my sleep patterns can return to normal! I think Eric is way more excited than me for December....I have been a tad MIA in the cooking and cleaning department in order to do school work.  I'm elbow deep in grad work, helping Keri take photos for and compile our Peace Parish Directory, helping plan a benefit (see below), planning a PTO fundraiser called the BOBCAT DASH (super-duper excited!), and other classes I'm taking this summer other than my graduate courses.  My big check mark off my list today was scanning, sorting, inputting, and matching 752 books with their ISBN codes into a database for my classroom library for Daily 5 / CAFE this fall!  That may sound extremely boring to some of you, but I'm ecstatic!  

Kaiser is also growing some fins this summer.  He has a smile that can knock a grown man to his knees... seriously.  He uses it as a weapon on me multiple times a day.   He also has grown fond of calling me, "Mommy Dearest" thanks to my good friend, Vicky, and my mother.  He also now screams, "NO WIRE HANGERS"... if you have no idea what I'm talking about... just YouTube it and you'll see a clip of a disturbed movie I watched repeatedly when I was a kid.  Why my son now refers to me as the late Joan Crawford at her best? Who knows...

In a couple weeks, we'll be hosting a benefit lunch, auction, bags tournament, bake sale, candle sales, etc. for my cousin Amanda's family.  Her husband was in an ATV accident about two months ago, so we're trying to help them out with some of the medical bills resulting from the hospital bills and Bryant being off of work in addition to her already being home on maternity leave with Baby Brodie.  We've had a great turn out so far and it looks as though we'll have a great line up for auction items as well as some great food, fun, and fellowship.  If you want more information, would like to donate an item for the auction, or have some advice :) just shoot me an email or a comment!

                                               Come one -- come all!






Alright -- off to bed... trying to get back to those "normal" sleeping patterns... slowly, but surely!


Shine (RAINNNNNN) on!

M.I.A.

Ok, so the Townsleys have been MIA from the Tracking the Townsleys blog site for almost five months.  I'm embarrassed to say that.  I had been doing pretty well by posting at a minimum of once per month, but I guess I was being a slacker and just plain didn't make it a priority.  I'm sorry to my family who actually read the darn blog -- but I'm sure you haven't missed much! Now that my mom has given up Facebook for lent, she'll still be able to keep up with my photos without cheating!

Emma's busy with kindergarten and dance and getting ready for her recital.  She just had her big 6th birthday.  Aunt Valerie sent her a box of 24 nail polishes (24!) which are used for designs on the nails.  She is really in to having cute cute nail designs, so we spent the afternoon today doing her nails.  We couldn't just do one design.  We had to find TEN different designs.  To say the least, I think I'm glad she also sent an idea book for nail designs.  It'll keep us busy this spring and summer for sure!

Kaiser has developed a crazy/hilarious personality which mostly just makes me just shake my head.  My favorite recent development is when he's told no or doesn't get his way.  He'll actually go, "Uhhhhhhh!" and drop his head, drop to his knees, and put his face in his hands.  Where on Earth has he seen that actually work??  He also just got a TON of his hair cut off.  He does look pretty handsome, but I was a big fan of his curls.

Eric is still just busy with work and I'm busy with work and grad school.  I'm loving the fact that I'm over half-way finished!  I'll graduate with my master's degree in December.  What on EARTH will I do with my time when I am not spending 15-20 hours per week on grad work?  Hmmm....blog more maybe?  I've really gotten into Pinterest.  It's really just an obsession with finding cool things to use for school and cute things for the kids. I hope to actually be productive with this in the near future.

Hopefully I'll be back before another five months go by! 

Shine on!

Pumpkins, Babies, Pictures, Bobcats, and Weathermen!

We did some pumpkin carving this week at the Townsley house.  It was interesting to say the least.  I will just say, "Thank you, Mom!!!!" A few years ago she got me the kid-safe carving knives for pumpkins and cooking.  Had we not had those knives, I think Kaiser may be missing some digits or appendages.  He was so happy to just stab the pumpkin in the middle and dig out the guts with the spoon.  Boy did my kitchen look pretty after we were done!  We had pumpkin guts from wall to wall and all over the floor.  Emma had it in her hair and Kaiser had pumpkin seeds in his diaper.  Did they have fun? Sure they did.... that's all that matters, right?

Can you guess whose is whose??

We also recently had a baby shower for Baby Townsley. Emma got to hang with some cousins she hasn't seen in a great while.  I’m so excited to soon have another nephew to cuddle!  He got lots of nice things including these one of a kind onesies and diaper cake.... and Becky made some rockin’ malted milk ball cupcakes!  We can’t wait to meet you, Baby T! 

The day of the shower we also had some random family pictures taken by a farm just across from my father-in-law’s church in Walford.  Amazing background for pictures!  Thanks Becky!

Emma had Benny the Bobcat AND Joe Winters in her classroom both in one week!  She thinks she's quite the superstar!

Have a safe and happy Halloween!  Shine on!

Homecoming: Through the Years

We've been doing this since Emma was a baby, and I send a word document out to my family members each Homecoming with all of the pictures.  This is the Townsley family on Homecoming morning since Emma was 6 months old...

 2006
Emma - 6 months

 2007
Emma - 18 months

2008
Emma - 2 1/2 years

2009
Emma - 3 1/2 years

2010
Emma - 4 1/2; Kaiser 9 months
Daddy switched jobs to STC = Mommy can't be in the picture!

2011

Emma - Kindergarten & 5 1/2; Kaiser - 20 months

(Mommy even wore a different shirt!!!) 

SASS - A - FRASS!

Lots of Firsts at the Townsleys!

Kaiser watched his first tractor ride and loved it.  He watched in amazement as over 60 tractors drove by!  He even got to watch Poppy drive by in his tractor and sit in Uncle Mike's Oliver!

Emma had her first sleepover with all of Aunt Kookie's great nieces and nephews (minus the babies!).  They went to a movie and stayed up late!  She had a blast getting a make over with the girls!  Looks like quite the crew!

Emma started kindergarten.  She loves every minute of it.  She comes home every night and says, "No homework...." like she's disappointed.  Eric keeps telling her he's going to have to talk to her teacher...!  Emma confessed to me the other day that she had her first "Boy-chasing recess" where they played "My Babysitter is a Vampire."  Um.......... what is THAT???  "Mooooooooomm, it's a TV show!"  Lord help me!

We went to Adventureland with Nana, Alison, Nolan, and Mason.  Emma rode two big roller coasters. I was way too scared to even go near a roller coaster at her age, so I was very proud of her.  She didn't get sick, but she sure looked queasy when it was over!  On the way up to stand in line for The Dragon, she said, "Uh, Mom, I'm not too sure about this!"  When she saw Aunt Ali coming up, I knew I'd be able to get her in the seat.  The trip brought back tons of memories from my younger years and I actually enjoyed myself and had fun on the big-kid rides!  After she was soaked on the log ride, she screamed out, "THAT WAS N O T FAIR!" When she saw that Nana and I didn't get nearly as wet as she did!  She also went on a huge slide at the water park after a mini-melt down.  She was scared of how high it was but after her first time, she wanted to do it again and again!  The magician at the magic show gave her a balloon flower during the show and she got extremely embarrassed.  We've got some work to do with this area - she seems to do this at the oddest times!  It was a great day... as Emma screamed from the top of the Lady Luck, "Best! Day! Ever!"  I also included the picture of Emma and her cousins from the ride home.  They were pooped!

Kaiser had his first experience with surprising his mommy!  This morning when we were leaving, I walked into my bedroom and found Kaiser coloring (the underside of) my bedspread with an ink pen.  So, needless to say, he got a scolding.  When we walked out the door, he walked into the car door so he got to daycare with a huge smack on his face.  At about 10 o'clock, I get a text message from Melissa, his daycare provider, and the caption says, "Did Kaiser have a pen this morning by chance?"

This was hands down the absolute funniest text I've ever received!

Eric and I've got a future Picaso on our hands!  

Shine on, Friends!  

And DON'T leave a pen lying around with this 20 month on the loose!

It's That Time Again!

We've had an amazingly busy summer!
It's crazy to think that we go back to school tomorrow.  I've been busy getting my classroom ready and putting together a 175 page poem book of Grandma Kaiser's poems.  We've gone to the zoo and spent an amazing week in Minnesota on Gull Lake.  We were very fortunate to be able to spend time with both Old Papa Kelly and Great Gramma P.  I spent a few days at a conference in St. Louis for work, and Emma and I spent a week at Vacation Bible School in Van Horne.  We had family reunions on both the Morrow and Kaiser side and celebrated Addalynne's 1st birthday with fireworks.  Kaiser and Emma both had swimming lessons, and we spent some time at Grammy and Poppy's farm.  Kaiser has had his share of tractors and his vocabulary is developing by leaps and bounds daily.   We've spent more time outside playing on our play yard and swimming this summer than ever before, because Nana and Papa put in an amazing pool at their farm.  School starts tomorrow, and I will officially have a kindergartner. I'm sure Kaiser will miss Big Sis at Melissa's every day, but they'll make up lost time in the evenings :)

Here's to another great school year!
Shine on!  

On Poppy's tractor with Uncle Matt, Daddy, and Poppy

Oliver loving running on the farm

Loving the pigs at the Iowa County Fair

With Miss Iowa County - 2011 - Rachel Kelly!!!

Emma and Oliver 

Nana and Papa's pool - with Cousin Izzy at the Morrow Reunion

Shakin' it up at VBS

Camel rides at the Blank Park Zoo

Kaiser and the giraffes

Poppy and Papa at the Keystone Tractorcade

Riding on Uncle Mike's new Oliver

Emma and Mrs. Fisher at Open House