It’s that time of year when things get totally crazy as far as calendars around the Janssen household each year.  We start with Jody’s birthday on New Year’s eve, and then rush into Chris’s birthday, our Anniversary, the “big 3’s” birthday’s and then baseball/softball gears up (which starting last year meant three different teams!), not to mention trying to finish up Chris’s crazy work schedule of basketball and junior high volleyball.  Wow! I get tired just typing this.

Jody was a fabulous wife and surprised me this year for the big 4-0 with an overnight trip.  She had to keep changing plans due to the rest of the family and then my boys basketball team threw a wrench in things when they made it to the regional championship game which was that night as well.  She was flexible and changed the plans to the point that allowed us to go out for dinner, go to the game in Bushnell, and then head to Macomb for our wonderful overnight.  It was a fabulous overnight (even if it was only 30 minutes from home) the relaxation was wonderful.

Due to schedules we’ve done a little bit of early celebration with Thomas and Jaclyn.  Jaclyn even got her gift trip because it was before her birthday.  On March 4th she and Jo took off with a small group to Rolling Meadows for a Secret Keeper Girl Live conference.  They had a blast and went through some great topics the way it sounds.

Thomas also found his gift out early.  This morning he headed to baseball camp in Bushnell, and then at a later day we’ll hit the batting cages and top things off with a Peoria Chief’s game.  He is really excited about it.

Unfortunately, my lovely bride has fallen victim when it comes to my work schedule again.  We will celebrate our 15th anniversary away from each other as I head off to a conference meeting.  We were hoping for perhaps a really special trip for our 15th, but have decided that needs to wait.   We also had a bit of a surprise when Jody was featured as the “Cook of the Prairie” for the month in Prairie Farmer magazine.  See the story here.

We’ll be finishing up the winter activities and quickly headed into spring and summer activities.  It’s amazing how quickly things roll around to this time of year again.  We will again be going crazy with three different teams practice and game schedules.  To complicate things even further this year, the bridge in Ellisville will be out which is a major route to many of our game destinations, so travel will be a bit more involved.  We do however look forward to the summer months as it often means being able to see many of you that we don’t normally see too often.  Let’s start making those plans now.