Still playing

We are still playing softball. 7 days a week. It started as any other season, the boys play on Mon & Wed nights and Madison on Tues & Thurs. Yes, that sounds like only 4 nights a week, but we have entered the 'tournament' era of the season. This means that on a Saturday all the teams in the division play each other. This can go on for hours and then days. We just finished Dillon's league. His team started at 8:30am then 2:30pm Saturday, then 11:00 Sunday, and finally Monday at 5:30, 8:30, and the championship at 10:00pm. The bad news is we didn't leave the diamonds until 11:30pm but the good news is WE WON THE CHAMPIONSHIP!!

This whole scenario starts over this Saturday with Madison's league. Then again the weekend after that with Jared's league. Boooooyyyyy, will I be glad when the season is over (July 11). I swear my but has taken on the permanent flat shape of the wooden bleachers.

BUY THIS HOUSE, please!

This waiting is getting frustrating!! Why won't someone buy this house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

G'ma & G'pa survived!

Scott & I just got home from a 4-day trip to Houston. My parents (a.k.a. G'ma Vicki & G'pa Larry) played housesitter, day-care provider, taxi driver, realtor, and world's biggest softball fan while we were gone. THANKS MOM & DAD!

Maybe you don't know

It occurred to me today during an email from an old friend that maybe you don't know the BIG PICTURE what is going on with the Cole Family right now. This could get rather complicated so I'll try to keep it 'reader's digest' version:

• We decided to move back to Round Rock, Texas. Scott has conducted research for the past 2-1/2 years & put together a profitable strategy to move his business (or create new) from Iowa to Texas. The market will definitely support this move. Now can we?! We'll move in August or sooner if we can get this house sold!
• Scott had majory back surgery in Dec. '06. He recovered great BUT re-injured his back in a freak accident in April. His recovery is slow & painful. We all deal with the disability everyday. Poor Scott. :(
• I sold my Real Estate Abstracting company called 'InfoQUEST' on April 1. I like to think of myself as a 'consultant' in the industry now (a.k.a. unemployed). I needed to sell the business to expedite the move to Texas.
• We took some of the proceeds from my InfoQUEST sale to finish projects on our house & make it more marketable. If any of you watch HGTV 'Designed-to-Sell' (http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/shows_hdts) you know exactly what we did: new floorcoverings, paint, light fixtures, etc. We had the basement completely finished and we moved alot of furniture into storage. The house looks AWESOME! We listed the house FOR SALE May 1.
• Scott & Jared went to Texas as a marketing trip and ended up buying a new-construction house! It will be finished in mid-September. We will live in a 2-story home in Round Rock, TX. Madison, Dillon & I made a quick road trip to pick out colors, carpet, tile, bricks... it was so exciting! ps... the big tree in our new yard was unable to be saved. It was too big, bummer.
• To maximize the market in Texas Scott & I have been looking at alternatives in the 'Trenchless Technology' -or- 'Cured-in-Place-pipe-lining' (http://www.trenchlessonline.com/) industry. We have made a trip to Chicago to inquire about franchising a 'lateral lining' business (http://www.performanceliner.com/). Next week we will go to Houston to look into buying an existing business which specializes in cleaning & televising of water/sewer lines.
• The kids: JARED just turned 16, has very serious girlfriend, works at UPS Store, plays softball on MW nights, wishy-washy about the move to TX; sorta depends on the day. DILLON is 14, has created a new hysteria-fad in our neighborhood known as HALO tournaments on the X-Box, will be in FLORIDA to a christian youth conference called BigStuf (see this video! http://plcstudents.com/mc_bigstuf_2006.asp) all next week, plays softball (pitcher) on MW nights, is anxious to get to TX where he can play football EVERYDAY! MADISON is 12, she will get her braces off next month! She spends almost everyday with her friends at the water park, we just upped her minutes for cell phone text messages so she is frequently seen 'texting', she plays softball (1st base) on TTH nights, anxiously awaiting our move to Texas so she can have a bigger bedroom. :)

Whew! That's about it... besides the daily struggles of what to have for supper and what ball diamond are we playing on tonight (we're at the diamonds 4 nights a week). Scott is back to work with his company in north-western Iowa this week (he's down an employee which forces Scott back to work - back pain or not, Ouch!)

Thanks for reading about our lives. I hope we didn't surprise you with any new facts, or at least it wasn't too much of a surprise. Basically this is a re-cap of where we are...

The Good, the Bad, and the Yummy

This morning Madison & I went to Heartland Farms (http://www.heartlandfarmswaterloo.com/) to pick our fill of wonderful, fresh strawberries! Look at what we got for $6.06!!

This is GOOD. While picking strawberries I sat down in the rows to get close to the action & I accidentally sat on a gob of strawberries.

This is BAD.
The strawberries are so good! We brought them home & washed them right away.

This is YUMMY!

What you find when you clean...

I was cleaning out a closet today when I stumbled across a package of 'POP ROCKS'. No, not some ancient disco CD, but the actual Strawberry flavored package of sugary crystals that pop in your mouth! I bought a carton of about 20 of these packages several months ago... maybe at Christmas-time? I thought Dillon ate them all, but to my delight he overlooked one precious package. I hid it in my purse until I had an opportunity to thoroughly enjoy the popping sensation... you remember when you get a honkin' huge crystal gently positioned between your teeth then you CHOMP on it to create a blowout against your cheek? Or how about when you dump a pile into the palm of your hand & then throw it into your mouth swallowing quickly so you feel the nicks & dings against the inside of your throat as they go down your esophagus? Whoo!! I couldn't wait to get these babies into my mouth so everyone could hear the popping and wonder what in the heck I was doing. Tonight was my night!

P.S. I hope my dentist doesn't read this, I had the last of my cavities filled this morning.

Jared's team wins!!

Jared had a late game tonight from 8:30-9:30. Madison tried to get a picture of Jared up to bat but this is how it turned out. I guess we should try pictures at earlier games. :) Good news! Jared's team won by 1 point in the last inning... what a nail-biter!

Madison's softball picture - 2007

These are for you, Jeannetta!

Scott & Shelly

The Cole Family

Can you say "OUCH"

Nathan (Dillon's Best Bud) and Dillon thought it would be a good idea to get really tan before they go to Florida in 2 weeks.


This is What a full day at the water park looks like without sunscreen. Jared obviously did not flip over during the day.

Jared's birthday dinner

Our family took Jared & his friends out for mexican last night to celebrate Jared's 16th birthday. (If you zoom on this pic you can see Jared's "birthday boy" ribbon he had to wear for the meal.)

Aren't they cute? Ingrid & Jared

Alex & Crystal

Josh (a.k.a. Ozzy)
The whole gang.

Busy month... already?

I started out today by going on a walk with the dogs. Because I haven't been doing this very long (4th day in a row! I'm trying to make a healthy habit!) I get bad leg cramps and Macey's incessent pulling me along on the sidewalk doesn't help matters. So I took the dogs with me for one lap around the neighborhood, then I dropped them off at home before starting out again by myself. I was really getting a good workout when *BAM I got a bad cramp on the entire other side of the neighborhood. Not fun.


Madison is going to Lost Island water park today with her class. Any 7th graders who had maintained a good behavior status (something to do with reward points) got to go today. Unfortunately it looks like rain and it's not really that warm. I hope she doesn't catch a cold.


Jared is facing finals at school today. He actually studied for his Biology final, it looks really hard. Science is not my thing... I like math. He also has to stay after school today to make up an hour of driver's ed. This last hour will satisfy his requirements for his license. YIKES! He turns 16 on Wednesday (June 6) so he is planning on getting his license that day. I am excited for him, at least today I am. I'm not so sure how I will feel when he asks me for the keys to MY car after Wednesday. Jared had pink eye yesterday. We went to Walgreens on the way to school to buy eye drops for him. It looks much better today. This is how you know your kids are growing up: when you give the kid the medicine instead of the school nurse and hope they don't overdose. I guess eye drops wouldn't hurt too bad....


Dillon has a final laguage arts paper due today. It's a descriptive paper about a time the student vomited. It can be made-up, which is what he descided to do. Nice. I hope his class is after lunch. Yuck.


Speaking of vomitting (ewww, what a transition) Scott is sick today. He started a new pain medicine yesterday & I don't think it's agreeing with him. He visited the "Pain Management" doctor yesterday who put 6 injections into his back to try to calm down his inflammation. OUCH! Scott says it will take a few days to feel the full effect. This doctor reviewed Scott's CAT scan from last week to learn that Scott has a pinched nerve in the S-1 vertebrate. This is what is causing him all the pain right now & it has nothing to do with the surgery. The doctor indicates this is a result of direct trauma - which the fall he took in April would be considered. Scott's lawyer will get this info today. I can't believe we'd ever sue anyone for anything, but the handrail issue could have been so easily avoided! :(


My neighbor gave me permission to clip some of his peony flowers whenever I wanted. So cut some of them today. I think they are so pretty and smell so good. All the flowers in his yard grow wild because he's gone all the time, so that's nice of him to let me enjoy them. However since he's gone he probably doesn't realize he has poison ivy growing amongst the peony bushes. I found out the hard way today. Benedryl is my friend. Tomorrow is the 'My Waterloo Days' parade. Madison will be marching as a color guard for the marching band. I'm so excited for her! She really enjoys color guard. Part of the 'My Waterloo Days' celebration is a concert in the park tomorrow night: Quiet Riot. Oh my goodness, talk about flash back to the 80's. I'm sure all the people in attendance will be my age. Although Jared is into classic rock and thinks this is pretty cool to see them. I have to admit, if it was 20 years ago I'd think it was pretty cool too. I'm not sure if we'll go or not. Maybe I better get out some of the old albums and check the lyrics. Did they have lyrics published back then? I'm not sure?

We have an open house here on Sunday. Our realtor has put out many signs in the neighborhood about the open house, so I'm thinking we MIGHT get a good turnout. I don't like to get too excited because I don't want to set myself up for disappointment. We lowered our price on the house because we need a buyer soon and it's been on the market a month now. We had it listed at $166,900 and we dropped to $161,900. I need to get to cleaning. We had a showing on Tuesday night with about 10 minutes notice. I am proud to say that we pulled it off (the buyer was looking for a 3-car garage, bummer). I guess making our bed each morning pays off! Now if we could turn THAT into a habit. Right.