I'm Back.....for now!

I was looking at other peoples blogs and realized, it has been a long time since I have updated my blog! I don't even know where to begin with catching you all up but I realize that I probably won't be able to catch you all up. For some reason, Facebook took over (seems to be quicker and easier for me).

Seneca started 4th grade last week. 4th grade.....when I was starting 4th grade, our family had just moved from the little town of Eureka, South Dakota to the big city of Mesa, Arizona. I started 4th grade at Irving Elementary in Mesa, AZ! Seneca was a little reluctant to start 4th grade, afraid she wouldn't have the "same friends" in her class, etc., etc. So I told her my story of starting 4th grade at a whole new school, not knowing a single person....she changed her attitude real quick and decided things weren't going to be so bad!

The business of the school year is slowly starting. Several years ago, Seneca joined the Pierre Swim Team. We have all found that we all LOVE this sport. This is definately a sport that both Paul and I can enjoy and both understand. The swim season will start up again in about a month and we are all very excited. I always enjoy seeing how well she has improved in each race from the last time. With the summer Olympics this past year, we got our fill of swimming this summer also! Paul made a comment to Seneca when they would show Michael Phelps family yelling for him "That is what your mother looks like when you swim". That put a huge grin on her face!

Along with swimming, Seneca is starting her 3rd year of piano lessons, she started guitar this summer and she has made it clear that she wants to learn every instrument there is. I don't know if our pocket book can handle that but we'll see what we can do. She continues to enjoy art class and our AWANA program at church.

Paul and I stay busy tending to Seneca and our jobs. Paul is still at the City of Pierre and hasn't enjoyed his job much this past summer with the 100+ degree weather that we have had. No rain and VERY, VERY dry!! Luckily I work inside but the heat has even gotten to this Arizona girl!! I never thought I would say this.....but I am ready for winter. I'll probably think differently once that season actually gets here.

I'll do what I can to keep this updated. Sometimes I feel that my life is a little boring and no one wants to hear about it or that my writing is horrible but we'll see what I can do.

Yup, I've Changed My Back Ground

Never know....I might actually update this thing soon too!! Don't hold your breath though....but I have been thinking about it......

Whirl Wind Week

Wow!! It is hard to fathom that Christmas is tomorrow!! I feel like we haven't had much time to prepare for the Holidays, but Christmas WILL come whether we are ready or not.

This past week was a busy one for our house. Luckily, I finally started feeling better after being sick since Thanksgiving.

On Fridays, we try to do "Fun Family Night". It doesn't always happen, but we try our best. Seneca had been to the Capital to see the Trees twice already, but she wanted to go again and I know both Paul and I enjoy seeing the Trees every year. So we headed up to the Capitol. Seneca kept saying, "I want to show you my tree", over and over again. I couldn't figure out what she was talking about. Finally, we say her tree. It was a tree from the town of Seneca. It had her name all over it, on the tree skirt, etc. So she was pretty proud of that tree!!

Saturday we started with a Birthday Party for Seneca at the Discovery Center with 8 of her friends. They had a wonderful time and for once, it was an easy party for us. We just let them play!! What could be better. We chose not to have cake since we knew they would want to play and the party was planned right after lunch so we sent home cupcakes with each of the girls.

Sunday was Senecas Christmas Program at Church. She got the priviledge to be Mary this year. It was a "non-speaking" part so she was all over that!! I know she would do a good job speaking, but she didn't want a speaking part so she got the part of Mary. She did a great job and was nervous. Afterwords she said, "I was sweating so bad! I was nervous."

Monday Seneca had both dance practice and gymnastics practice. Normally gymnastics is on Thrusdays but with the holiday, they scheduled it for Monday to make up for gymnastics. So on top of school until 3:00, we had dance from 4:20-5:20 and then gymnastics from 5:30-6:30. Luckily, we live in a small enough town to get from one place to another in 5 minutes so we weren't late for anything!!

Tuesday, well, that was an important day. Seneca turned 7! It is so hard to believe that she is already 7! Where does the time go!! She had a very busy day on Tuesday. It was her schools Christmas Concert, class Christmas Party and of course a Birthday Party for her later at our house with special friends. She wanted to take treats for her birthday so we combined Christmas Party treats and her Birthday Treats and brought cupcakes decorated with snowflakes. Compliments of Walmart because you guys know I do not bake!!

Later that evening, the Bumanns joined us to celebrate Senecas Birthday. We had cake and icecream and of course opened presents.

As I sit here this Christmas Eve morning, I am listening to the wind howl and see the little bit of snow we got last night starting to drift our driveway shut. We are forecasted for up to 12" of snow and high winds. I imagine we will have a huge drift in front of our garage by the time it is all over with the next few days......so there may be a post of the icky white stuff later this weekend. Good thing we don't have to go anywhere until tonight......and I really hope they don't cancel Christmas Eve Candle Light Service tonight!!!

Trying to keep up!!

A good friend of mine sent me and email to tell me that "The Hertel BlogSpot needed attention". So I am acting on her email.

Since my last post, I can't even remember what we have been up to!!

In mid-October, I made a trip to Rapid City to Christmas shop with my wonderful friend Kristi!! We had a great time! It was nice to see their new house in Summerset and to actually sit down and visit for a weekend. I got the majority of my Christmas and Senecas B-day shopping done that weekend.

A few weeks after that, Paul and I were blessed to make our own trip to RC for a night. We treated our selves to hour long massages at a day spa we had been eyeing for years. This was our first trip outside of Pierre, overnight, without Seneca. Can you believe that!!??? The girl is going to be 7 in a week and we had not done that until now! Now I wish we could do it once a month. Seneca stayed with the Bumanns and she had such a wonderful time that when we came to get her, she was quite disappointed.

With the holidays fast approaching, we have so many things to do!! Senecas b-day is next week, along with b-day parties, Christmas parties, Christmas programs, etc. Our next week is full of so many activities, I hope I don't forget any of them. I WILL be posting photos after the holidays of all the happenings.

Me, well, I am slowly adjusting to my new job. I will tell you that this job is much more challenging than my last job. I always thought that the SDHSAA was by far the hardest job I ever took on....until now!! I am very blessed to have a wonderful boss and a great co-worker who are both VERY patient with me and supportive of me during this learning process. When I accomplish even the smallest task each day, I am so estatic because it just seems that lately, I create more work than getting work done!! LOL I do love my job and I LOVE being done by 3:00 everyday. I don't feel guilty leaving my job every day at 3:00 like I used to feel guilty leaving at 5:00 when my work wasn't complete. It is a totally different atmosphere and I love it!!

Paul completed this years construction season mid-November!! Yah, November.....what the heck? This was the longest construction season EVER!!! He is now home at 3:00 everyday too and it is so nice to have our whole family home early every day.

Well, here are a few photos of our past few months. Never mind, I thought I had photos but obviously, I haven't downloaded them yet....so.....I will leave you with our family photo for 2009.

Busy, Busy, Busy

The Hertel family is still here. I know my posts have been few and far between and I apologize but it just seems like there aren't enough hours in my days anymore.

September 1st, I started my new job at the SD Dental Association. I work 8-3 (no lunch) Monday thru Friday. This allows me to pick Seneca up from school and then just concentrate on being a mom. I thought this would free up some time for myself to get things done and then have time to sit down and read and book, work on my bible study, etc. BOY, have a been wrong. Still haven't found that time to do those things.....at least not in the lengths I would have liked or was thinking. I am slowly getting into a routine and hopefully will get there. I love my new job though. I love the people I work with, I love what I do. So as time goes by and I get more settled into a routine, I am sure some more time may free up for me to do a few things for myself!!

Seneca continues to love school. Had her first conferences and of course, she is doing outstanding. Testing off the charts which makes us nervous as she is so far ahead of where 1st graders are. Her teacher says she is enthusiatic about learning so I guess at this point we have nothing to worry about with boredom setting in and causing behavioral issues. We will just take one day at a time and pray that she will continue to love to learn and will learn things and not be bored since she is so advanced.

She has kept busy outside of school with dance, gymnastics, AWANA and other church activities. She has been going to friends houses to play alot and the parents always come back with wonderful reports on how well she plays with their children and they would LOVE to have Seneca over anytime. Soooo, I guess this may be my plan for more "me" time!!! LOL

Paul is still deep into construction season. This is the first year that I think my frustrations with his job has really set in. Working 12-15 hour days, 6 days a week since May has not been setting well with me. I know it is OT money, but you know, all the money in the world couldn't take the place of having him around. Thursday he had a close call at work. He got a little too close to the asphalt machine and got his toe knicked by the paddle. Fortunately, all he lost was his big toe nail. Could have been sooooo much worse. I questioned why he didn't have steel toed boots on and he replied "because then I probably wouldn't have a toe, or a foot or even much worse". So we are thankful he DIDN'T have steel toes boots on!!!!

Other than work, toting Seneca around, keeping up with things around the house, MOPS and being involved in church, not much is new with me.

The Newest Addition To Our Family

Wanted to share some photos of our latest edition.......yup, a cat!!

We added a cat to our family on Sunday. This cat was found in our friends (Thanks Kris) garage (3rd cat in a year) and we as a family discussed it and decided to add her to our family. Seneca was at a birthday party on Sunday and we brought her home while she was away. We thought we would surprise her!! As a family, we decided to name her Espyn (ESPN; guess where that came from). As of this morning, her name as been changed to Lilly. Seneca kept calling her Esteban and I kept calling her Gracie (out of habit; our last cats name) so......Seneca came up with Lilly and we decided to keep it that way!!

Lilly went to the vet on Wednesday. She is 7 lbs and about 5 months old. They let us pick a birthdate (had to pick from the month April) so we picked the 7th. The 7th is easy for me to remember since my birthday is July 7 and Pauls in March 7th. The more I got to thinking while at the vet, I thought that was Gracies birthday. So I had the vet look up Gracies records and sure enough......April 7th!! How crazy is that!!!??????

In 3 weeks, we will have her spayed and declawed. They will do both at the same time. They did clip her nails today and hopefully that will tide her over until the declaw!!

She is really a very good kitten and Seneca has been just awesome in her responsibilities to take care of Lilly!! I hope both the great kitty attitude and Senecas attitude continue!!

Senecas First Day of School

The first day of school here in Pierre was August 25th......I am not THAT far behind!!!

Summer Is Coming To An End

It is hard to believe that school starts tomorrow. This summer feels like it has just started and now.......it is over.

Besides the usual work, yard work, housework, all of the "Work", we did manage to take a short little vacation to Sioux Falls.

We met Dad and LouAnn in Sioux Falls for a weekend get away. We visited Falls Park and the Seratoma Butterfly House.

We stayed at the Clubhouse Inn and Suites (which I highly recommend) and did quite a bit of swimming (or should I say Seneca) did alot of swimming.

Friday evening we had both friends and relatives come visit us. It was nice to see Amy and Kristine (my friends from childhood), my cousin Troy, his wife Julie and their beautiful little girl Ellie and Pauls brother and sister-in-law, Lonny and Tammy!! It was a nice, relaxing weekend that ended too soon.

Seneca and I spent several days at the City Pool or the Aquatic Center and she spent time with her friends as well while I worked.

A few weeks ago, I left for a weekend with some wonderful friends and took in the Beth Moore Speaking Engagement in Fargo, ND. It was a truely wonderful weekend with great friends and of course Beth Moore!! I can't wait to start another Beth Moore Bible Study this Fall.

A few weeks ago, I got a new job offer. So I decided to take it. I will be working for the South Dakota Dental Association. I am very excited as this job will allow me to be at home when Seneca gets done with school. I will still be working 35+ hours a week and full benefits so this is a wonderful opportunity for me to have the best of both worlds with work and home. I will begin my new job Sept. 1st.