#45's Last Football Game. . . Basketball Ahead

Well, Alex just had his last tackle football game of the season. They pulled out a great win over a team from Decorah winning 14 to 8. It was an exciting game that went down to the last minute with our defense having to hold the Decorah offense near the endzone. Stressful but a great way to end the season. Alex played great even with a pulled thigh muscle that was killing him. He had 1 HUGE quarterback sack and assisted on another one the last minute of the game!!!! Everyone played strong and gave it their all! His team ended the season with a record of 4 and 2! We won't know what to do now with our Sundays free for a little while. . . I say that but I know something will come up. :)

Elyse had a full week of basketball practice. She appears to be really enjoying it and working hard. Hard to believe they have a game in 2 weeks. She, and Alex, practice weekly with Kyle McCarville, a local popular athlete, and he works them really hard but does a super job with them! (As a matter of fact, I think they have practice tonight...just when I thought I was going to sit and relax tonight). She had a jr high dance Friday night and had a few girls overnight afterwards. From the sounds of it throughout the night, they had a great time! Some never went to sleep so is that good or bad? :) It's fun to watch them grow up right in front of your eyes; yet, it was sad watching them do their hair and makeup getting ready to go realizing she will soon be doing this a lot more and then off on her own. (tear, tear.) Time goes by too fast. . . she's a busy girl!

We are starting the process of redoing our kitchen. Isn't it funny how one thing leads to another? We started with just planning on getting new countertops and applicances. which led to rebuliding the island, which lead to needing tile for backsplash etc, and now we are questioning if we should redo the floor. I spent Saturday afternoon looking at sinks and tile in Rochester. We have the countertop narrowed down to two colors of stone, the sink was decided yesterday, and tile backsplash narrowed down to a few choices. The "builders" promised it would be done by Christmas, but we have some decisions to make quickly! I'm very excited about the end look. . . when will we get there is a good question. Wayne still has "golf fever" so that may make a difference on how soon we get stuff done. . . .

Enjoy the rest of the gorgeous day!

New York State of Mind

I returned today from a fabulous birthday trip to NYC! (Thanks Wayne - love you!) My sister, Sara, and I flew out Wednesday and I returned home today after a great time spent in the city! We stayed at my uncle and aunts', Dennis and Connies', house outside the city. The weather could not have been better the whole time we were there so we figure we were meant to be in NYC that week.

The first day Connie, Sara and I went out for lunch at this quaint, cool, little place in Rye- suburb - and met one of Connie's friends who also had her niece with her. It was super fun. It was even better because Connie's friend thought I was much younger than I am so that just made my day. She couldn't believe I had children as old as mine were so I thought she was the most wonderful person! :)Connie's friend is very "in" on what is "in" and what is "out" so she filled us in (in case you are wondering, the hot color this fall is purple/eggplant and then gray). Connie then dropped Sara and I off at the train station and we went into the city. We eat some munchies at Grand Central Station before walking to Bryant Park - Project Runway Fashion Week- checking out New York City Public Library, walking around Central Park, munching again at Tavern on the Green in Central Park before heading to concert. I do have to say that the inside of Tavern on the Green was not what we expected - very foofoo with flowers everywhere and too much velvet!

We taxied to Madison Square Gardens and were pumped for the concert! Dennis and Connie had seats in the front row in front of the VIP section right to the side of the stage so they gave us their tickets and they took ours (the tickets we had weren't bad either, close, but up higher, so they switched with us). They met us at the Gardens. No one was in front of Sara and I at the concert and it was sweet! Sugarland was great and Keith Urban was awesome!!!!! We were hoping that Nicole Kidman, his wife, would be there and she was!!!! But the greatest part of the night was when Keith Urban walked in front of Sara and my section (he walks to the back of the arena and plays too) and he slapped our hands!!!! We thought we were going to pass out - yes, it was a teenage moment we know but we couldn't control ourselves! Our night was complete!!!!!

We slept in the next day as it was a late night in the city. Sara and I had a nice lunch with Dennis and Connie and then headed back to the city. We went to Dylan's Candy Bar - which is like candy heaven!!!! We spent a lot of time there and Sara enjoyed some chocolate covered strawberries while Connie and I shopped. Then we taxied to NYU to take in the sites and atmosphere of the "liberal" college. Very relaxing although Sara couldn't handle all the people feeding the pigeons. :) We met a family friend of Dennis and Connies' who ended up having dinner and going to the show with us.

We met Dennis and the boys for a great dinner down by Times Square before heading to the show. It was an exciting night for all of us and Will, and all of us, were meeting his biological mother. While I think everyone was nervous, it all went fine. Someday, Dennis, Connie, Sara and I will look back and laugh about a few moments- they know what I am talking about - but Will's biological mother and grandmother were very nice, classy, and sweet! Sara and I really had some great conversations with James during dinner so that was nice as we hadn't seen him yet (he was always at school already when we woke up and in bed when we returned each evening).

The show - "Rock of Ages" - was awesome!!!!Dennis got us tickets in the 5th row, center stage - you are the best, Dennis! It was set to 80s music and the scary part was that Sara and I knew all the songs! Yes, we did! (should we be proud of that or not?) It was definitely not for kids, but we thought it was super! As we were walking to talk to Connie at intermission and use the restroom, Connie pointed out that Vince Vaughn, movie star, was walking right in front of Sara!!! She could have put her arms around him. We all agreed he was much cuter in person than in the movies! Wow! Needless to say, he was sitting 2 rows behind us at the show!!!! The crowd loved the show - really got into the music - and the actors/actresses were fabulous! Would recommend the show to people who were in high school or college in the 80s!

Saturday was a relaxing day to end the trip before flying out later in the afternoon. I played a little basketball against James (I won and then he won) and then we helped Connie get the house ready for Will's biological mom and grandma who were coming to stay that evening. Ran into Rye and grabbed some awesome pizza and headed to the airport to catch our plane.

We can't thank Dennis and Connie enough for letting us stay there and sharing some special memories with us!!!! It was just what Sara and I needed - not so many tourist things as we have done all that many times - but New York fun! You guys are the best!! Thanks, James, for letting me have your bedroom for a few days and playing basketball with me! Oh yeah, and thanks for carrying my bag in the city! Thanks Deutmeyers for another great trip of memories!

Walk for ALS - Because We Can

Another great week and weekend has gone by. We were on the road a lot this past weekend, but it was all well worth it! Before I chat about the weekend, I realized I haven't updated about Elyse and Alexs' sports so here it is. Alex's football team lost last weekend in the second half. His team kind of gave up and didn't put it all forward so the opposing team came back from behind and won. Alex played very well though and had three great receptions with many tackles. Thanks to Sara and Derek for coming down from Minneapolis to cheer for Alex and take lots of pictures! There was also a cheering squad of Kerians - Randy, Lori, kids, and Grandma Judy - so he had his own cheering section. Yesterday, Alex's team pulled a big win with a score of 26 to 14! Alex had a great reception and almost ran for a touchdown but got tackled 15 yards from the endzone! He also was moved to inside the line on defense once and a while to stop the inside drive of the opponents and did very well, according to his father! Great job Alex!

Elyse's volleyball tame won one match and lost one match last week. They played a very good team from Osage last Thursday and were as nervous as could be. Some of the girls on her team appeared like they were frozen stiff, and they ended up with a loss. Elyse had some great hits and at least four blocks so she was bummed when they lost. Oh well..we'll get them back in basketball! Thanks to both Grandma and Papa for coming to watch! Elyse was very excited to see them cheering for her. I'm not sure Grandma will handle high school volleyball very well. . . she tends to get a little excited. :) Just joking. It's great! Elyse has her last volleyball game tomorrow, Tuesday, and then gets ready for basketball!

We spent Saturday in Cedar Falls enjoying my old college stomping ground. Wayne, Alex, Spencer, and myself enjoyed a little shopping before hitting a sports bar on the hill for some munchies and big screen football. It was packed as it was Family Weekend at UNI. We updated our UNI apparel at the University Book Store before heading over to the football game. UNI crushed some team from Indiana. We left at half time as UNI was up 42 to 0! Fun to be back at UNI and enjoy some family time at a football game! Go Panthers!

Yesterday was a wonderful day for Elyse, Kirstin, and myself. We joined a team of over 20 to create team Nadermann to walk in the Walk for ALS in Cedar Rapids. It was a great experience, although a little emotional. Ken joined us tailgating a little before hand and coaxing us on from above as we walked around the Cedar Rapids Kernals baseball field. Great music was played as we walked the trail around the baseball field. It was a total of 3 miles, not bad at all, and the sun came out just as we were starting. This was the first time Cedar Rapids hosted a walk for ALS, hoping to raise $15,000.00 and they did it!!! Ken designed some really cool tshirts that we all wore, as you will see in the pictures below. We had many compliments on them and thought they were the best team tshirts there. Yes, we were bias!!!! Thanks to Clare for organizing our team and everyone who participated! As the music says "Don't stop believing!" Enjoy the pics!