Merry Christmas!

A belated Merry Christmas to everyone! We hope your celebration was a good one. Well our famiy has joined the ranks of "gamers" I guess with our first game system... a Playstation 3. Tony & I were quite thrilled to be one of the few families to find one at Target about a week before Christmas. This is a picture of the kids while opening it. They look like they've won the lottery don't they? Anticipating their excitment was just as much fun as giving it to them. Quinn said, "I knew one of these Christmases we would FINALLY get a Playstation!" They each got jerseys as well... Quinn a Vikings jersey and Madison a pink/white Iowa jersey. They've deemed this "the best Christmas EVER" and according to Madison she "wondered why we didn't have very many presents under the tree... now I understand!" : )

We enjoyed our trip to Iowa over Christmas although it was much to short and basically just 3 1/2 days. We didn't get to see as many people as we would have liked but enjoyed spending time with my family and Grandma on Christmas day. We got back Tuesday night and celebrated our family Christmas on Wednesday morning and then with Tony's family on Wednesday night. That was the first that their family has all been together since AJ and Bonnie's wedding a year and a half ago. Michelle, Archie and Jade leave tomorrow for a weekend in Iowa but we get to enjoy AJ and Bonnie until New Year's Day. This week is really going by way to fast!!

That's all for now... just wanted to check in and tell you I haven't forgot you all. I have this whole week off and Tony has most of it. He just ran into work now for a little while to get the paychecks out and then he is working tomorrow and Saturday, doing inventory. We might go bowling this afternoon. We'll see! More Christmas stories later.

Love to all, Leah

Jade Isabella

Here is an updated picture of our neice Jade, isn't she soooo cute??!! Tony gave her apple juice with a straw tonight and she was quite delighted with the whole straw thing. Tonight Michelle, Archie and Quinn took Madison to her indoor soccer practice. They picked up Jade and then came to our house for homemade chocolate chip cookies and spent the rest of the evening with us. We've enjoyed spending time with them each evening this week. I spent a little of that free time this evening racing into Wal-mart (which has consistently disappointed me lately) and then to Meijer. I keep thinking of these "last minute gifts" ... I thought I was done but keep thinking of more. Now guess what, I have to run out tomorrow again too!!! Does anyone need anything while I'm out there with the pack? I'm really not a last minute shopper... it's just these last minute straggler gifts (like a grab bag gift for Christmas day).

I finally made it to my vacation time.... ahhhh. It feels good! Tomorrow will be spent packing and doing laundry (you know it's bad when Quinn tells me it's time...). It's amazing how much time the process of leaving takes. We are leaving for Iowa tomorrow around 5 or 6pm and returning on Tuesday. It looks like there will be rain but thankfully no snow. We are all looking forward to our trip and Christmas in Iowa. We are planning on going to the Iowa basketball game on Saturday so that will be a treat. Hopefully we won't get beat too badly.

Well, I really need to get to bed. The alarm will go off too early in the morning!

Love to all, Leah

coffee and koeke

Tonight the kids and I had coffee and koeke (pronounced ku'-ka) at Beppe & Pakka's house along with Michelle, Archie, Jade, Cindy and Johnnie, John and Evelyn and Jim and Sandy. For those of you that don't already know, koeke is a quick bread that Isy's dad made up and the Vander Werf's serve it at all their little get togethers. The recipe is in the newly released Silverwood cookbook. We all enjoyed listening to Archie's Iraq stories. I can't even imagine 157degrees plus a heavy uniform! He could talk for hours and the stories are so fascinating that I could listen for hours! : ) "Coffee" on Wednesday nights starts around 5 or 5:30... whenever you can get there. Tonight it broke up around 7:30 or so and then Bep, Pak, Mich, Arch & Jade and the 3 of us went to Buffalo Wild Wings and Tony was able to join us for supper. The evenings sure have been fun but I sure haven't gotten much accomplished at home!!! Tony's been working a lot of hours so he has had to miss out on some of the fun. : (

Work was busy as usual however I had Randa, our "casual" RN there today to help me! Boy does she ever improve my quality of life! I even had a lunch break today for a full half hour! WOW! Let's see.... the last time that happened was... hmmm, I would guess sometime in November. Tomorrow is my last day before a full week off! I'm so excited!!! We've all been exposed to sick people lately so I'm praying that none of us gets sick for our vacation time!

That's all for tonight... I need to head to bed. Gu-night.

Love to all, Leah

Michelle, Archie and Jade are here!

Hello Everyone, Hope your week is going well.

Michelle, Archie and Jade got to Goshen at about 4am on Monday morning. We've gotten to see them last night and tonight so that's been fun. It makes the week go fast to be gone in the evenings. Jade's hair has lightened up and gotten long. She can wear is all pulled back in a ponytail now and looks so cute! She's 18 months now. Madison and Quinn are just dripping over Uncle Archie. The poor guy has one of them hanging on him at all times! They've played tether ball for hours in the driveway at Beppe & Pakka's house.

Yesterday afternoon the kids and I went Christmas caroling with Karla, her kids, and some others from Silverwood. We met at 4:30 and it took us about 2 hours to get to 3 people, one in Goshen and two in Elkhart. It was a good experience. The kids enjoyed it and the "shut-in's" seemed to enjoy it too. Another group was going tonight. They have a colder evening than we did. We sang to Jonell and she mouthed the words along with us.... There are questions that will probably never be answered for me on this side of heaven.

That's really all the "news" for now. I'll see if I can snap some pictures of Jade and post them so you can see how much that little pumpkin has changed.

Love to all, Leah

Weekend highlights

Hope you all had a good weekend. Ours was a good one. Friday night we went to the Concord basketball game where Quinn demonstrated his skills at half-time of the JV game... skills he has been learning at the BB clinic on Saturday mornings. The picture is of him giving us the peace sign, up in the stands. : ) He's pretty excited to have met Darice Gary who is a senior and has already signed to play at Iowa next year. He even had his picture taken with him. Madison loved "the game" which meant she ran around with a pack of friends the whole night.

Saturday night was the Rollpak Christmas party. I told Tony "that was fun... as fun as a party gets when you aren't the employee and hardly know any one." It was very nice and over the years I've gotten to know some of the other wives, so it really was kind of fun. It was a Jimmy Buffett ~ Cheeseburger in Paradise theme.

Today after church the kids each had a friend come over... Peyton and Tyler, so the day was filled with laughing, chasing, hiding, sneaking, coloring, scootering, footballs and computer games. Tonight is our "movie night" so we are watching "Fly away Home".

Michelle and Archie left around 7pm tonight for Indiana so we'll get to see them tomorrow, after we go Christmas caroling. Well, those were the highlights of the weekend. Have a good week everyone!

Love to all, Leah

"your school nurse is on the phone"

I got the dreaded call at work today... "your school nurse is on the phone." Ahhhh, that was me screaming as I see 100 obstacles pop into my mind. Madison wasn't feeling good with an upset stomach and feeling dizzy. Guess what? ... It was Beppe to the rescue!!! I'm so excited because it is soooo wonderful to have someone to call in the middle of the day!!! Thank you Beppe!!! However, Madison was assuming that she could still make her soccer practice tonight but we had to put the ca-bosh on that. I think it was just a temporary thing so that's good.

Tonight after work the 5 ladies from work went out to Hacienda for a little Christmas celebration. We decided it was a girls-night-only. It was a lot of fun! I'm thankful to work with such nice, Christian women!

Tony went over to Don & Isy's and retrieved the kids after he got off of work. That was pretty much our day.

For some reason the picture from yesterday looks dark on line. If you double click on it, it enlarges. Does anyone else think Quinn looks like a mini Jim Tressle? I guess you need to see him in this outfit in person. : )

Love to all, Leah

"I just can't resist Him!"

Hello Everyone,

Here is a picture of the kids before their program tonight.

So far this week has just flown past me! Sunday night's Christmas program went very well. The kids did such a good job! Tonight was the school Christmas program and it was also excellent! Quinn found out yesterday that he had a few sentences to say tonight by memory and boy was he ever nervous. His stomach was upset... he wasn't hungry for breakfast this morning, the whole thing. He said he did fine at school today but for some reason he was "doubled over" with stomach pain at the dress rehearsal. Oh brother!! He did just fine. He had to get a "cue" twice from the director but with less than 24 hours to memorize and with his nerves, I thought he did great. How many video copies do I need to make for all of you? : ) Madison's evening started out "exciting" after she sprayed herself directly in the eyes with her new can of "body spray" (AKA deo). So, Quinn's waiting in the van and I'm doing an eye lavage at the kitchen sink, trying not to get her hair or outfit wet. Whew! She can still see so I guess it turned out OK. : ) She did a very nice job tonight too. She played the xylophone on one of the songs and did great, all memorized as well. The performances are so much more "professional" than when I was a kid! Another neat thing is that the kids all color the programs to be handed out and they sign the back. Out of at least 500 programs, we were handed Quinn's! How cool is that?

Let's see... what else?.... 3 out of our 4 fish died this week. The 4th one is on the way out and the kids refuse to just let me flush him. They really have taken this quite well. I know it's hard to be too attached to fish but leave it to Madison to be attached to a pet like this...! She's thankfully been fine. Quinn decided it was for the best anyway... since they are going to a better place... a place where they will have eternal life and live forever. "OK, riiiight...now time to get out the door for the bus!" He's talking about replacing the fish with a "bull frog" instead. I don't think so.

Are you tired of hearing about cute things that the kids say and do?... just stop reading then. After reading one of Quinn's favorite Bible stories tonight (Jericho's walls falling down) he told me that his truely favorite story was the one about how Jesus died to save us from our sins, so we can go to heaven. I said, "you love Jesus don't ya?" and he said, "Yep! I just can't resist Him!" I thought that was precious.

Amy, yes I read the comments. If you leave them here Blogger automatically emails them directly to our juno address. Most of my readers prove to be shy because they just click on the "email us" link and send us an email directly.

Check out my new link... it's a great site that reviews movies from a Christian perspective. The link is located in the right hand column of this web page. Tony and I have used it for a couple of years now and find that it's very reliable for the content info.

Love to all, Leah

Christmas celebrations

I hope you've had a good weekend. We've sure had a fun one. It started out Friday afternoon... as soon as the kids got off the bus I took them sledding at Don & Isy's house. They have a great hill in the backyard. The kids sure messed up their beautiful white field of snow! Madison is ready to practice some more on her snowboard which she got for Christmas last year and only used once (if that) because we hardly had any snow last winter! We stayed for supper and made Christmas cookies and the guys watched the Iowa basketball game.

Saturday morning the kids had their program practice, Quinn had basketball and then Madison had a birthday rollerskating party to go to.
Saturday night was our small group's Christmas party at Chad & Eliza's house this year. That was a lot of fun. It's good to see everyone at the same time and watch the kids as they open a gift that they exchanged. The "highlight" of the evening came when poor Brock's forehead somehow collided with the edge of the couch which resulted in about a 1 inch long gash in his eyebrow. It needed stitches but luckily a family practice doc lives right next door so he came over with his medical "glue" and patched him up. That put a different spin on the evening! The foyer was turned in to an Urgent Care Clinic. : )

Tonight is the kid's Christmas program that they have worked so hard on and spent so many hours on. They practiced during Sunday School today too. I don't see how it's possible that they not be ready! They have to be there over 1 hour early tonight to go through it again. They are really quite ready for it to be overwith! Afterwards is a cookie fellowship so yet another opportunity for sweet treats!

Well, it's a sunny afternoon and I think Madison and I are going to go on a walk. I've had my 30minute nap and so am ready to go for another few hours! : )

Love to all, Leah

Truent officer...

Hi,

Tonight the kids and I went to the Dollar Store so Quinn could purchase his gifts for the Greencroft residents. He's been working quite hard for extra money the last month or so. Yesterday he told me that he completely picked up Nater's basement while Nater played and watched him and that his mom wanted to pay him $5 because it was such a big job but he didn't want to take her money so he wondered if I would pay him instead! I of course I paid him the $5 and told him it would be OK to take her money if he explained what he was saving it for! I'm sure she would have been delighted to help out! I wouldn't want him to take it for his own piggy bank. In hindsight... I think I got the raw end of the deal! : ) Anyway, he was quite happy with his savings and he felt good about picking out double the requested amount of supplies for the residents (we had a list to go from). He enjoyed paying too.

After the store, I took them to church for the Christmas program practice and when we walked in I thought it was a little strange that I didn't see any kids around. Come to find out, they practiced this past Monday instead of tonight. Why? I don't know, but I completely missed that one. The kids said, "oh yah, they did tell us that at the beginning of practice last week." Guess the message didn't get passed on! That's the second practice they've missed and I even got an email today asking if they were really going to sing in the program this Sunday night?!!! I didn't think we were that bad! I'm waiting for the program truent officer to knock on the door! Wow, they run a tight ship I guess. They've been practicing since November 1st!

Tony got home from Indy around 8pm tonight. I always worry about him traveling with his truck. It's definitely a "beater" of a vehicle. It's a '95 and sounds terrible. I asked him one time why he doesn't get the muffler fixed... he told me it was the closest he would ever get to driving a Harley and so he was keeping his sound! Ha!

That's all for tonight folks. Tomorrow is Thursday! Yipee!
Love to all, Leah

What's for supper at your house?

Hello Everyone,

Hope you are all well. Tony went to Indy tonight for a meeting all day tomorrow so the kids and I just "hung out". : ) It gets dark so early... by 5:30! The cabin fever months are here! The darkness makes such a huge difference. When it's 7pm it feels like it should be at least 10pm. Oh well... I'm never happy am I?

I've got most of my Christmas cards done and mailed them today. I'm just ahead of schedule this year so that feels good! The kids have their little trees in their rooms. My secret... just kept them decorated from last year and pulled them off the shelf! Actually, Madison re-did her's and Quinn is planning on redecorating his on Saturday (?)... we'll see if that ever happens.

That's all for tonight. Sorry, nothing exciting the last few days but Mom "yelled" at me through email for not posting something! Mom, FYI we had tator-tot casserole tonight-with FF instead of tator-tots! (I told her I had nothing to write... unless she wanted me just to report what we had for supper!).

Love to all, Leah

1st Sunday of Advent....

Today was the first Sunday of Advent. I hope it was a meaningful day today for you. We have 3 advent calendars to keep up with. We have a wall hanging and then Aunt Michelle sent each of the kids their own calendar with chocolate surprises. After church we went to Don & Isy's for lunch and then spent most of the afternoon there. The guys watched football and the girls did some crafting (Quinn was in both activities every other 15 minutes).

Yesterday Madison rang bells for the Salvation Army at JC Penney's. Other than being cold, it went fine and she's so hot blooded she wasn't even cold! Anyway, the people walking in/out were very polite and lots of people dropped something in the pot. This was a 4th grade project from school. They donated their gift of "time" to our community. Quinn's 2nd grade class is donating "goods" in the form of toiletries and then they are going to distribute them to the Greencroft Senior Center. His class does a basic economics portion and they talk about goods and services a lot. One night he even prayed and thanked God "for all of the goods and services that we have."

Friday night we went to Goshen College's Christmas concert. It was excellent! I would highly recommend it for next year. I guess it is going to be on our local network, WNIT, on Christmas eve. Both Tony and I really enjoyed it. The GC president's son, Quinn, who must be around 9 or so, sang a soprano solo. He did such a good job. We've never met another Quinn before so we'll have to catch up to him one of these days.

Well, tomorrow is Monday. You probably know how excited I am about it. I'll think optimistically... last Monday wasn't bad at all so may be I'll get 2 in a row like that. Hope you all have a good week.

Love to all, Leah

"the usual..."

Hello Everyone,
I hope you had a good week. Our week was filled of "the usual"... the kids had their Christmas program practice on Wednesday evening and Madison had Flames indoor soccer practice last night. Today (Friday) has been a rainy, dreary, cold day. Our Indian summer is over! Tonight Tony and I are going to Goshen College's Christmas program and the kids are going to spend the evening with Don & Isy. Madison and I are ringing bells for Salvation Army tomorrow at 11am at JC Penney's. I need to remember my ear plugs! I hope it stops raining!!
Well, it's short and sweet for tonight.
Love to all, Leah

A new type of reindeer....

Hello Everyone,

I thought I would include this silly picture of Quinn pretending he has antlers with pine branches. This was taken on Saturday after we got our tree. I don't know where he got the idea. He always makes me laugh. Tonight I was folding clothes upstairs and he saw Illinois playing basketball on TV and he noticed that they were playing "MD" (the little score box) but he didn't know who that was... "Who is Illinois playing Mom?... Middlebury?" Don't worry, I didn't laugh at him, I just gave him the correct answer... Maryland... and then laughed inside!

Tony put the blue and white icicle lights up on the house last night and they look really nice. The blue Christmas lights are a "family thing" I guess... Don & Isy have always decorated an outside tree with blue lights at Christmas time in honor of Don Jr. We are supposed to get really cold weather by the end of the week so it is good to get this done. We decorated our Christmas cookies last evening. I think I'll freeze some of them for Christmas get togethers... boy are they ever good though! Yum!

That's all for now. Not much goin' on and that's fine with me! : )

Love to all, Leah

Annual Christmas tree hunt

Hello Everyone,

I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving weekend. We had an AWESOME weekend! It was so much fun. We crammed as much as we could into 4 days. Mom and I went shopping on Friday, on Saturday we went on our annual Christmas tree hunt and cut down our tree and then made Christmas cookies. Today we got the tree decorated. It was such a beautiful weather weekend... near 60 or so. We went on walks, I took a nap, the kids played outside and just had a great weekend. Dad fixed some of the kitchen chairs that had spindles loose so that feels good too. Tony worked outside and got caught up with the yard work.

Tonight we are enjoying the Christmas tree and the kids are enjoying their weekly movie night with Star Trek VI by the light of the tree. (They don't exactly go together do they?).

Only one month until Christmas! Can you believe it? I'm looking forward to more vacation time. I hope you all have a good week.

Love to all, Leah

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

What a great day to celebrate the many blessings God has given us in life! We've enjoyed having my mom and dad here today. We enjoyed a feast and have enough food left over for several more meals! The turkey breast turned out really well although Madison sat for quite a while before finally giving in to eat her one bite of turkey! "How come whenever there is a food that is good for me... you MAKE ME try it???" hmmmmmm.... She finally gave in when we announced we were going on a walk right after lunch, before we cleaned up. She'll do anything to get outside! Usually she is not a picky eater, at all... but for whatever reason today she had her mind made up that she didn't care for turkey and didn't want even a bite. Enough of that...

Tomorrow is "black Friday" ... Mom and I have taken a look at the ads and will probably be out there with the rest of the masses but we decided there wasn't anything that needed to get us out of bed before sunrise. We'll get there when we get there!

We enjoyed playing a game today, Tony played football outside with M, Q and Nate (do any of you think that we secretly have another son?), watched football, went on a walk, ate and just enjoyed being home together. Grandpa even worked on some of our rickety kitchen chairs... putting his carpentry skills to work. I hope you had as nice of a day as we had. We couldn't beat the 55 degree weather. It was perfect... that only thing that would have made it better is if YOU would have been here too!

Love to all, Leah

Turkey plans...

Hi to my family and friends,

Is your turkey thawing? My mom and dad are coming to our house for Thanksgiving this year so I actually have a turkey to thaw out. I'm excited to do the hosting. I've got quite the menu planned. I remember growing up with Thanksgiving dinners at my Grandma and Grandpa Johnson's house, eating off of her fancy red dishes. I'm privileged to have those red dishes now. May be I'll pull those out for this special occasion. Madison made placecards for each of us... all 6 of us. : ) We are a small but mighty group. : )

The kids had their Christmas program practice tonight which they tell me was "so boring!"... Kids think they have to be "entertained" all the time I guess. That drives me crazy.

I "survived" the dentist today. That's it though.

During the kid's rehearsal I ran around trying to get digital prints printed out. After going to Wal-mart and Meijer I gave up. There is no such thing as a "simple thing" any more. Everything has to be a big production. I've decided to forget the Goshen "resources" and send them to Winkflash. The Internet is too handy and driving from store to store is a waste of my time.

Here's a joke from Quinn tonight... "Where does Batman take a bath?"... In the bat-room!
Well... until next time... Love to all, Leah

A thanksgiving joke for you...

Hello Everyone,
Hope your week has started off well. I had a really fun weekend. Isy and I went to her church and scrapbooked on Friday evening and then I went shopping all day on Saturday with my small group ladies from church. What a fun time! I'm nearly done with my shopping... pretty much just need to buy gifts for my immediate family. Tonight Madison and I even did some wrapping! I think that's got to be a record. Yesterday was the all-church Thanksgiving meal. It was awesome! So you can see that I was out galavanting around and not at home to update my blog. I'm sure you can understand my "situation". : )

Tonight Katie, Nathan and Nate were over for awhile. The kids had fun playing hide and seek and drinking hot cocoa. Tony left for Indy. He has a meeting tomorrow but will come back tomorrow night. Don & Isy dropped in for 10 minutes. It was a busy but fun evening.

Tomorrow morning I have a dentist appointment (you should hear Darth Vader music right now). It is something I DREAD but has to be done!! I'll just get it over with. I can think of a whole lot of other places I'd rather be at 8am tomorrow! ... like WORK for one (yes, I'm serious).

Well, that's all for tonight. Here's a Thanksgiving joke for ya... "If April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring?" .... Answer... pilgrims!

Love to all, Leah

White-fish cake

Hello Family and Friends,

We enjoyed supper last night at Don & Isy's house. John & Evelyn and Johnny & Cindy were also there. We especially enjoyed a new cake brought by Evelyn. We called it the white-fish cake because that is what we thought it was... a white fish... and she even threw in a secret ingredient. Family, it will be worth your phone call to her to hear this story in person! I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Friends, I'll tell you about it when I see you next! We didn't get to stay as long as we would have liked, the kids had their Christmas program practice to get to.

Tonight Madison had indoor soccer practice. When I went back to pick her up she was the last one there and asking what took me so long! Apparently her practice ended early when her coach (possibly) blew his knee out. It's not often that Madison has seen a grown man cry so it sounds like it must be pretty serious. That's really too bad. She said the whole practice field got totally silent. I hope it's not as bad as it sounds.

Nate was over for about 1 1/2 hours to play. They enjoyed hot cocoawith marshmellows on a rainy cold day and played indoor baseball around our "circle".

Tony is still at work, it's currently 8:45pm. He has a bunch of things to get done and tomorrow morning I have to leave for work (a meeting) by 6:30am so he can't really go into work early. He is more of a night owl anyway but it's no fun to be at work for 14 hours out of your day.

Well, that's all for tonight. I need to go tuck the kids into bed. Take care!
Love to all, Leah

"Chores"

Hi!

Tonight Madison trimmed 4 bushes outside, washed the base boards of the upstairs and main level and also swept the kitchen floor. Quinn performed the 2nd-grader version of washing the kitchen cupboard doors and he picked up the trash. They are still asking for "chores". It's great! Of course I'm going to be broke by the end of the week but it's worth it! : ) Quinn agreed to 50 cents for picking up the trash but when he realized that meant cleaning out the litter box, he raised his price to $1. : ) The kids also had homework to do and so after the chores, homework and some play time, the evening was pretty much over. Tony is putting Quinn to bed and Madison is working at her 20minutes of independent reading. I really miss reading out loud to her this year. That's a bummer I guess. She has to do the reading herself... she can read out loud to me but she is much slower this way so it works better for her to just read to herself. Yes, I know I could still read outloud for awhile myself but we don't have much time for 40-45 minutes of reading at each bedtime. We are reading "A League of Their Own" together when we have the extra minutes.

Aren't you glad to be reading about something else other than soccer games??? However, Madison did have soccer in her top three things on her Thankful list this past Sunday during Aunt Amy's children's church time. #1 God, #2 parents, #3 soccer.

Tomorrow night we are going to Beppe and Pakka's for coffee and then supper at 5pm and then on to church for the Christmas program practice. So far the week has gone pretty fast. Hope it's going well for each of you!

Love to all, Leah

Kids for hire...

Hello Everyone!

The kids are both really into earning extra money for their "projects" at school. They are now happily asking to do chores around the house and want even MORE chores!! : )Quinn's project is to raise money for toiletry type items for Greencroft residents for Christmas. Madison has started saving for a big overnight field trip that the whole 4th grade takes to Indy in May. Social Studies for this whole 4th grade year is focused on Indiana history. Something I should be learning about too I guess! She is hoping that Tony and I will both get to go with her because "this could be my once in a lifetime chance to go on a trip with just you and Dad." We'll see. Tonight she vacuumed the basement and the steps, folded laundry and vacuumed out the van. She was delighted to find a $10 bill on the van floor. We don't know who it belonged to but it's in the Indy bank now!

Hope you all had a good Monday today. We decided at work today that while it was a busy Monday it was not nearly as WILD as the last several Mondays so that is good news! I only wrote 2 discharge-from-our-practice letters today. : )

Well, I'll let you all go. Thanks for reading.

Love to all, Leah

"Thank you God for a really, really nice mom who gave me her Iowa ticket"

The title is from Quinn's prayer tonight (so sweet). So yep, he got my ticket and even though Iowa lost (again) he had a great time. Grandma gave him $5 to spend at the game (on food) and he came home with an Iowa jersey... after Dad threw in some (a lot of) money too! See what happened with $5 burning a hole in his pocket? I had a great day shopping at Iowa's 2nd largest mall with Mom and Amy and 4 young girls! I'm amazed at how well Mikayla is getting around with her broken leg and cast. She just zips around with that walker like it's nothing. What a trooper! (OK, Amy is probably even more of a trooper to keep her sanity with that whole story... did I write about that in my blog? 5yr old Mikayla broke her tibia after falling off the monkey bars at school.) I found a few deals and am prepped for Christmas shopping with my friends next weekend. So, it was a really fun weekend although very short. We got to Iowa at mid-night on Friday and got home tonight at 8pm. Quinn is trying to earn some extra money to purchase supplies for nursing home residents (a school project) so he already has my first load of laundry in the dryer for me. He said that all of his work tonight was probably worth at least $2 but he would let me off for just $1. What a bargain! : )

OK, need to go. Hope you all have a good week!

Love to all, Leah

Heading to Iowa...

Hi Everyone,
We are headed to Iowa tonight for a short weekend. We're going to the Iowa vs WI football game. Because we will drive all the way there, we will probably lose. Quinn is trying to talk me out of my ticket and I think I just might give in this time. Shopping with my mom and sister just might persuade me. : )

We've had beautiful weather this week but that looks like it's going to change. Cold and wet is on the way. Nothing else new to report.

Have a good weekend!
Love to all, Leah

Lia Sophia

Did that title interest anyone? That is the name of the jewelry party that Madison and I went to tonight. I haven't been to a home party in YEARS and Eliza hosted this party tonight so I thought I would go. Lia Sophia is the name of the company and they have very nice jewelry... a little pricey but nice stuff! Anyway, it was nice to do something just "for girls" tonight. : )
www.liasophia.com

Work and the party pretty much took the whole day today. Really nothing else too exciting.

Love to all, Leah

A better day...

Happy Tuesday!

Hope you all had a good day today. Mine was much better than yesterday so that was good! Never a dull moment though. This morning I read this Bible verse, which I wished I would have read yesterday... Romans 15:1, "We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak" .. God knows that not all people are easy to deal with but asks us to "bear with" them! Anyway, I don't have much to share tonight so I thought I'd share that verse that made my day better today. It just seemed so appropriate for working with some of the patients that I work with each day. I also had a patient bring in a big beautiful plant with a nice card about what an asset our office is to our community etc... See how much better of a day I had?

Tonight we enjoyed a relaxing evening at home. It was great. Nothing fancy. I really don't have anything exciting to say today.... send me an email to say hi. I always love to hear from you.

Love to all, Leah

Scrapbook heaven...

Hello,
The scrapbooking weekend was a lot of fun and I got 41 pages done! WOW! I think I need a weekend like this a couple of times this year. It makes me want to work on my albums at home more but that probably won't happen... at least on a regular basis anyway.

Tony, Madison and Quinn had a good time in Iowa even though our pathetic Hawkeyes let us down yet again. Tony and Quinn went to the game and had a good time in spite of the game. However, Quinn told me on the phone, "We drove all this way for nothing!" Madison and her cousins went to a movie instead... t'was a good choice for them.

Today was a typical Monday at work. I tell ya, what happens over the weekends that make some people totally act like fools on Mondays? I'm convinced there must a full moon every single Monday. I think I better start taking vacation days each Monday. It's pathetic. There are too many stories to even tell you about here. Surely in heaven there won't be any Mondays! ...One more thing to look forward too... the hope of no more Mondays!

Tonight Corinne took Madison out for her birthday. She got to chose from all the restaurants in existence and she chose.... Taco Bell!... and even took her free-tacos-for-good-grades coupon with her. I told Corinne that she got off pretty easy tonight. : ) They had a good time together.

Quinn and I stayed home and played Yahtzee, Guess Who?, and Scrabble Junior. I love the cooler weather... we get to play more games. Tony did some yard work and then left to work on a home-improvement-but-not-our-home project tonight.

Well, I hear Quinn's foot pounding on the tub's floor upstairs... that must be the hoof sign for "I need a towel"... Have a good week everyone.

Love to all, Leah

Weekend plans...

Hello!

We had snow today... it accumulated just enough for Madison to build a "small snowball" and bean Nater in the forehead. I had to MAKE Madison take a jacket to school today. She just thinks she can run around without one... even at 29 degrees while waiting for the bus!

Last night the kids started practicing for the Christmas program at church. It's hard to believe that Christmas is around the corner... hearing Away in a Manager brings the realization that Christmas is only 7 weeks away!

Tonight after work I spoke to the cancer support group about pain (what else?). I didn't get home until after 6:30. Madison had indoor soccer practice for 1 hour at 6pm and Tony and Quinn went out for supper during her practice.

This weekend I'm going to a scrapbook retreat... a bunch of Silverwood ladies are going to Camp Amigo in MI. I had a dream last night that I didn't even get one page done all weekend!!... distractions kept getting in the way! Tony and the kids are going to Iowa. Tony and Quinn are going to the Iowa football game. It's going to be chillllly. I'm sure they'll have fun. I've had a sore throat and earache the last few days so I'm hoping I didn't catch Quinn's presumed strep throat. The antibiotics whipped him right into shape so I suppose I should just give in and get started on some too.

Well, we will all be gone over the weekend so I probably won't write again until Sunday night some time. I hope you have a good weekend! Stay safe!

Love to all, Leah

Happy Halloween!

Hello Family and Friends,

Here is a picture from trick-or-treating tonight. Friends Katie (the gypsy) and Nathan (Yoda) joined our nurse/surgeon and Storm Trooper along with Nate (Darth Vader, not pictured) for the 1 1/2 hour trek around the subdivision. Boy we sure had a lot of fun but it sure got cold! The kids would run between houses so they stayed pretty warm but Tony and I felt cold and I had numb fingers by the time we were done. It was nice to come home to a crock pot of hot chili that had been simmering all day. Beppe & Pakka (Don & Isy) stayed at our house and handed out our candy for us and then we celebrated his birthday in between the doorbell ringing and phone calls. It was another busy night! The kids sure had fun and Quinn tried his best to trade everyone for Reeces Peanut Butter Cups. I think he ended up with 11 or something ridiculous like that. Quinn says this was "the best trick-or-treating EVER!" WOW! That was pretty much it for this evening. It was fun and they have enough candy to hold them easily until next Halloween!

Love to all, Leah

A "lively" day

Hello Everyone,
Here is a picture of the pumpkins that we carved tonight. Madison's is the cat and Quinn's is the smiley face. We had fun. Madison likes to dig in with her hands and get messy. Quinn used a spoon and gingerly picked out about 4 seeds at a time. We have a surgeon (Madison) and a Star Wars Storm Trooper (Quinn) ready for trick-or-treating tomorrow night. I'll try to upload a picture for you tomorrow night. Katie and Nathan are coming with us. Terry & Karla are on a cruise... "for work"... riiiiight. : ) Don & Isy are coming for supper some where in the midst of all of this evening to celebrate his birthday.

Today work was a challenging Monday... let's see, somone spilled all of their Oxycontin down their garbage disposal... another patient just CAN'T come in to be seen because she moved to Detroit but called 4 times today to find out if we would refill her meds (haven't seen her since April) and now is suddenly making a trip tomorrow from "Detroit" to Goshen after realizing we wouldn't refill her meds until she was seen again. Oh... and let me not forget about the lady who completely passed out in the exam room... totally unresponsive... thankfully I got her laid down first. Remember my rampage for urine drug screens... well, I discharged a patient today because he was positive for marajuana. Anyway, it all made for a "lively" day in many ways. Remind me why I stay at this job again....???

Well, it's another big day tomorrow and since we changed our clocks on Saturday night, it still feels 1 hour ahead for me. It feels like 11:30, instead of 10:30... I'm sure it will get better over the next week or so. Good-night!

Love to all, Leah

Pumpkin Time

Hello Everyone,
Today (Sunday) was a beautiful day! It's about time. It was chilly and brisk but DRY for once! We went and got our pumpkins after church today... cuttin' it a little close huh? Now, tomorrow night we need to get them carved!

Last night was supposed to be the bonfire at Don & Isy's but it was soooo windy we were afraid we'd start a forest fire so we settled for the grill. The food still tasted good and it was a fun evening. It was good to visit with Ed, Eileen, Jeremiah and Jacob (Joshua was working)... we haven't seen them all together for a little while.

We have another busy week coming up. It makes the weeks go fast... and the weekends just fly by of course.

Well, that's all for tonight.
Love to all, Leah

Rain, rain, go away...

Hello Everyone,

Rain, rain, go away, come again another day! I only recall seeing the sun one time this week. I love Fall but this day after day of doom and gloom is another thing. This picture obviously was taken about 2 weeks ago. It reminds me of what Fall is supposed to look like so I thought I'd include it for you.

Quinn was pretty much back to his normal self today. Amazing what antibiotics can quickly do. He asked for Motrin twice and that was it. No fever. Peyton and Heather spent the day with us today as there was no school. It was kind of a bummer because it was too cold and wet to be outside so all 4 kids were cooped up all day and by the end of the day I think they were starting to feel it. It was a good day though. I just love being at home with them. Quinn beat Madison and me in Yatzhee... thank goodness it wasn't more Junior Monopoly today... it takes a long time just like the adult version! We made a trip to Deals today (dollar store) and all 4 kids picked something out. They feel like they are getting something big and it only costs a buck. I gave them each $1.10 and set them free. Of course the girls all bought matching stuffed animals. Quinn on the other hand got a rockin' bow and arrow set which he played with for hours. He was constantly sneaking up on me, shooting down a pyramid of cups, getting the suction cups to stick onto the windows... he loved it. I'm pretty sure he's never had a bow and arrow set before.

Well, that's all for tonight. Tomorrow is basketball in the morning and then in the evening we are supposed to have Madison's bonfire hotdog roast at Don & Isy's... which was already postponed once... last weekend was nasty too. I doubt that wood soaked in rain for 10 days or so will burn. Oh well, I guess we'll have to settle for microwaved 'dogs. Instead of gifts, Isy's family was asked to consider bringing a material donation for the Elkhart Humane Society. I guess only Ed & Eileen's family can come now... last weekend would have worked well except for the weather.

Well, that's all for tonight. Stay warm and dry.

Love to all, Leah

Strep Throat

Hello Everyone,

Quinn woke up with a fever, sore throat and saying "my brain hurts". His tonsils are so big that his voice is different now. Poor guy. We stayed home together and while the Motrin was working... had a good day together. We played games, read books, puzzles, ate popsicles (3)... it was kind of fun to have the one on one time. However, I knew he didn't feel well when he put himself down for a nap... without my suggestion! He slept for 1 1/2 hours and woke up feeling like a hot potato. Everything points to strep so he started an antibiotic today at noon. I guess things didn't go very well at my work... I feel bad about that but what can I do? A sick boy needs his mom.

Madison was one of five students in her class (not her grade... there were others in other classes) rewarded for not having any late homework this quarter (can you believe that low number?). Anyway, she got to take a snack, pillow and watch a movie today instead of sitting in silent reading time. I guess the other students read for the whole 2 hours or whatever. Ouch.
Tonight she is at Flames practice... indoor soccer at the Sports Center. No games... just practicing. There is no school tomorrow so Peyton is spending the night and staying all day tomorrow (she had strep this week too so don't worry). Heather will be coming in the morning for the day and according to Quinn, "Great, now I have to be surrounded by girls again!". Oh, the problems he has... so big.

Well, I hope you all had a good day today. We've had clouds, rain, fog and cold... yuck! Hmmmm this would be a good time to take a cruise or something to the sunny Caribbean...hmmmm, Karla can I sneak in your suitcase???

Love to all, Leah

Parent/Teacher Conferences

Hello Everyone,
I hope you are having a good week. Ours has gone fast so far. Last night Madison had a Flames pizza party... really!... not a practice! Of course she had a great time hangin' out with her soccer buddies. I had a Care Commission meeting at church, Tony went to Victory Construction for a few hours and Quinn hung out at Nate's house. So, we were all separate places last night. Weird.

Tonight Tony and I went to the parent/teacher conferences. The teachers only had good news to report. They are both doing very well. They brought home A's. That's what we thought but it's always good to have verbal affirmation of that from the ladies that they spend most of their days with. M & Q have 3 half days of school this week and then they are out of school on Friday. I'm off on Friday so we are looking forward to that day although we don't have any plans (awesome).

Well, that's all for tonight... nothing too "newsy" I guess.

Love to all, Leah

Enjoy your Fall day

Hello All,

Blogger was down yesterday so it wouldn't let me post. Boy have we had Internet troubles lately.

Madison's birthday party on Friday was great. She had 7 girls over and had a lot of fun with the American Idol theme. We borrowed a kareoke machine and they played and sang with that for at least an hour. Oh, you are wondering about the cake?.... well, I guess it was "acceptable" but for some reason the bakery decorated it vertically... instead of horizontally. I'm doomed. It was quite strange to have a vertical cake... didn't know I needed to specify. I hate learning the hard way.

This weekend has actually been a fairly quiet weekend... the definition is relative to each family... but by our terms it was quiet. Madison's Flames team lost 0-7 in the tournament against the #1 team. Could have been worse. Iowa lost... that was a bummer. I spent several hours scraping 15 year old wallpaper off a wall. That wasn't much fun at all... it came off pretty much measured in inches. Oh... I'm so done with wallpaper. Paint is the only way to go. Anyway, I have probably another 10 hours or so to go on that project. Finding those hours is the question.

Well, I guess that's all for now. Enjoy your Fall day!
Love to all, Leah

Happy Birthday Madison!

Our daughter is now offically in the double digits after her birthday yesterday. We can hardly believe it. She was delighted with a pair of Heelys shoes... they have a wheel in the heel so it's kind of like a rollerskate with only one back wheel built into the heel. She has to practice a bit more until she can wear them out and about. Apparently they are the latest craze with kids. Yesterday I took cookies into school in the afternoon for her little celebration. If you recall from the last post, I ordered "Big Ten" cookies... well, when I picked them up they said "TEN" in BIG letters!!!! I'm so sick and tired of being disappointed in the bakery department of life! At least they said just Ten and not just Big! I'm holding my breath for her birthday cake tomorrow (her American Idol party is tomorrow night). Anyway, it wasn't what we planned but we didn't tell anyone differently and so it was fine. Everyone sang happy birthday to Madison last night at church, after the meal, she was quite embarrassed by the whole thing.

Tonight is soccer for Madison... yes the Flames are still practicing. They have a tournament game now on Saturday morning at 10:15. They play the #1 ranked team. It's going to be a thrashing.

Love to all,
Leah

Back in gear!

Hello Everyone!
Well, after about 10 days without the Internet, I can honestly say I don't know how people live without Internet access. To make a very long and unpleasant phone story short... we are back in service!

A lots has happened. A brief summary... Madison's CYS team won the championship in soccer and she happily walked away with a trophy. Tony and I went to Bloomington to watch the Hawks' upset from Indiana. What a bummer. We're pretty sure that we've cursed the Hawks on the road. Nearly every game we go to away from home, they lose. We've been busy with homework, finishing soccer seasons and basically keeping everyone and everything running smoothly. Tomorrow is Madison's birthday. 10 years old! She is taking cookies to school tomorrow... that says "Big Ten" on them. ....get it? The colors are gold and pink.

OK, more tomorrow. I'll get back in the groove of writing each night.

Love to all! Leah

Internet / Phone problems!

Hi, Just a short note from work. Our home phone/internet service has been out of order since last Thursday... thus no post. If you've tried calling your call may very well have been forwarded to another family. It's a big mess. Hopefully it will be fixed soon. I'll write from home as usual when we are back in service!
Leah

Short and Sweet

Hello Everyone,

We've almost made it through another week! Everyone hang in there... the weekend is around the corner. Not much to report tonight. Work was better today. The day went by in a blink of the eye but not as crazy busy. I yawned through the day today... must be the weather... rainy and chilly. Tonight was CFN and that was pretty much our day today.

Short and sweet tonight,
Love to all, Leah

Madison scored the winning goal!

Madison scored the winning goal tonight in overtime! Yeah for her! We played Peyton and Alexa's team (for the 4th time) and of course ended the game in a tie, 1-1 (what's new?). They played 2 five minute overtime quarters and Madision used her body to deflect a corner kick into the goal. One thing she said on the way home stuck with me, ... she said, "I hated it when I looked at Peyton; the whole game she was smiling, but after we scored her smile turned to a frown." She hated that that meant her team would lose and hated making her feel bad. That lead us to a conversation about the importance of good sportsmanship etc... I was proud of her for putting herself in someone else's shoes. Quinn was so delighted in his sister's win that he went and bought her a popsicle at the concession stand. That's our Quinner.

Well, the bicyclist's insurance company called me today and tape recorded a statement from me of what I saw that day. She wanted every little detail. That wasn't too fun to relive. It's gotten a lot better but I've still thought of it every single day. After the recording part ended she told me that the other witnesses were experiencing pretty much the same thing. She said that every one has said that it was the bicyclist's fault, not the driver. She said that "Elaine" was recently discharged from the hospital and sent to a nursing home. Wow! Hopefully she will have a good quality of life after all of her injuries.

We were sooo busy at work today! I think I finally opened up my computer, email and voice mail around 1:30 or so. I like to be busy but not to the crazy level... that's what today was. ...Hospitalized-patient add-on's... doctors who wanted their patients seen right away (as in yesterday)... waiting on insurance companies... orders to be written, pharmacies to be called... an equipment rep luncheon that wasn't written on my schedule (I don't have time for this!), behind on my dictations (hiccups don't help)... a new patient 25 mintues late and demanding to be seen and then crying and storming out the door. CALGON... TAKE ME AWAY!!! That's a fairly normal day except that it doesn't usually happen all AT THE SAME TIME!!!

Well, I think I'm going to take just a 1/2 hour or so before my 11pm bedtime and RELAX! I've had to practice this.... but it is needed and does help.

Love to all,
Leah

Long time, no blog

Hello Everyone,

I hope you all had a good weekend. We loved our weekend in Iowa. The Iowa game was A LOT of fun... at least the 1st half anyway. There was so much energy and excitement in that all-gold stadium, if you would have lit a match, it probably would have exploded! : ) It was so LOUD that I had to plug my ears at times! The outcome was plain and simple, Ohio State played better than we did. It was a night game and it was a LONG day of waiting. I guess I would prefer a late morning or early afternoon game. On the way to Iowa the traffic was HORRIBLE... the whole way! You would have thought it was Thanksgiving weekend or something. We saw quite a few Ohio cars and buses and lots of cars from out of state with their Hawkeye loyalty showing. We forgot our Hawkeye flag so we had to make an emergency stop at Game Day Iowa to get one for our window. Isy about had a fit that we looked too "Indiana-ian" I guess! : )

During the day on Saturday our family enjoyed going to the Kalona Fall Festival with my mom and 3 of my nieces (Amy's girls). They enjoyed the pony ride and we all enjoyed the good food. It was fun to run into people we haven't seen for awhile... like my childhood friend, Lauri E.! Wow... it's been almost 20 years since we've seen each other! We also talked with Jeff S.for awhile. He was at one of the entrances, collecting money. It was strange to see him in a Kalona Rotary Club polo... and he wasn't afraid to show us his Notre Dame t-shirt underneath it!!! Somehow he hasn't converted to an Iowa fan yet. Give it a little more time Jeff.

We went to Mom and Dad's house for a few hours in the afternoon (we stayed overnight at Jeff & Amy's house, they were gone to Myrtle Beach so Mom stayed there with the 3 girls). My poor dad.... ever since he's retired it's been one thing after another! His fractured ribs are finally on the mend and now he has a torn meniscus in this right knee!!! Unfortunately surgery is in the future. He was worried about the last hay cutting that lay in the field but some experienced neighbors came to the rescue.

We traveled back to Indiana on Sunday. The trip home wasn't as anticipation-filled as the trip out. The kids traveled great though.... and Don & Isy traveled well too. : ) We got home at 7:30 or so and made good time. Today it was back to work and school.

For those of you that are following the soccer games. Madison's Flames team lost 0-7 on Saturday morning. Her new basketball team lost 2-14 and Quinn's team tied 1-1 (surprise-surprise!). We are learning lessons in humility this season! Tomorrow is Madison's tournament game and she plays Peyton and Alexa's team... for the 4th time this year!! (1-0-2). Her CYS team ended up in 4th place out of 6. Quinn's tournament game is Saturday am. His team ended up 5th out of 11. One thing is for sure... no more ties!!! YEAH! They will have over-time and also a shoot-out if need be. Quinn and I practiced in the front yard last night for such a situation (he's ready). : )

OK, that's all for now. Thanks to those who have commented to the blog. A lot of you have told me in person that you are reading. Thanks for the interest!

Love to all, Leah

I can hear the Iowa fight song! Sing with me.....

Hello Everyone,

We are getting ready to head to Iowa tomorrow after school for the big game on Saturday. As my sister says, "you'd think the president were coming to town, there's so much hype!" Hee-hee! Quinn is becoming resigned to the fact that he will have to watch the game on Uncle Jeff's big screen TV. Just in case though, Amy has some scouts out, looking for a reasonably priced ticket. Mom says that tickets are going for $1000!! I told Tony I'd sell mine for that much!!

Tonight Tony had a meeting at church, Madison had Flames practice and Quinn and I went to Katie's CYS soccer game. Quinn and Nathan played soccer and football on the field behind us and I doubt ever saw any action on Katie's field. Her team lost 0-2 and the best part of the whole evening was her excitement afterwards, telling us that they played against the best team in the whole league... and finally coming around to tell us that her team "barely beat them .......1-0". She was so thrilled, I didn't have the heart to tell her that must have been a different game! It was sooooo cute and she is sooooo sweet. Those little sentences made my whole day! I just love listening to kids talk!

I probably won't report in over the weekend.... unless there is something really "newsworthy". Everyone send your best wishes to the Hawkeyes as we play #1 Ohio State and watch for us on ESPN's Game Day or sitting in the NE corner of the end zone (the big press box will be on our right). Don & Isy will sit beside us... hmmm... what could we do to get on TV? Let's see... the 4 of us could spell out I-O-W-A on our bare chests.... oops, guess not!

Love to all, Leah

Tears over the Iowa game!

Greetings to Everyone,

Quinn was in tears tonight when he was going to bed because he is so upset that he can't go to the Iowa vs Ohio State football game with us this weekend. He just can't understand why we can't just buy him a ticket. There are no tickets to buy (at an even somewhat reasonable price)! Oh... it's so pathetic. He doesn't want to watch it on TV. I'll probably end of giving him my ticket. I can't stand to see him that way. I can't stand to think that I'll be in Iowa but not at the game but even worse... can't stand to see him so disappointed. Madison on the other hand... is thankful she doesn't have to go to the game. A few glances at the score on TV will be juuuust fine with her! She would much rather play with her 3 girl Iowa cousins!

How was your day today? My chart review went OK... it can be difficult and controversial to compare documentation to policy and whether or not we can "accept" some of the entries as meeting our policy. Have nurses and a doctor try to see things eye to eye about other people's documentation and you are asking for controversy! Anyway, that part is over and now I'll move on to the hospital inpatient review. I really don't have time to be doing all of this at work!!! I do have a "real" job too!!!

Tonight was CFN (church family night). We had a delicious lasagna meal and stayed for the group session. It was good.

Have a good night/day (depending on when you are reading)!

Love to all, Leah

A perfect Fall day

Hello Everyone,
Today was a gorgeous Fall day... about 70 degrees. It doesn't get any better than this.
The kids did fine this morning (after getting to bed late) and of course Quinn was the first one up in our family as usual. Madison admitted she was tired today though.

Tonight Madison went out with Terry, Karla, Katie and Nathan for Katie's 9th birthday. Happy Birthday Katie! They went to Hacienda. Katie is having a birthday party with a couple of friends this weekend but we will be gone to Iowa so she got to go to their family party tonight, on her birthday. Somehow Tony, Quinn and I got some tasty homemade cupcakes out of the deal too!

Tomorrow I have to lead a chart review for the Center for Cancer Care at the hospital. Basically this isn't a fun thing to do and I bribed people with promises of food if they would come and participate! We are looking for pain assessment, reassessment, appropriateness of pain meds ordered, whether or not they've followed policies etc... Any volunteers??? Anyway, I would really just like to get it over with. Then, I can focus on the chart review for the whole hospital (yuck). I'm a bit more proactive this year. Last year I think I waited until Nov. or Dec. and then it really was CRUNCH time!

Well, that's all folks... have a great Wednesday!

Love to all, Leah

Happy Monday!

Happy Monday! (is that an oxy-moron?)

Hope you all had a nice Monday. Mine involved a bit of a frustrating day at work but that's life in chronic pain. I need to invent some kind of an easy office based test for detecting lies... I'm getting pretty good at it I think but am learning the hard way. Karla and I are always dreaming about a latest invention so that we don't have to start playing the lottery. (Just kidding!!!!). May be it would help if I posted the 10 commandments in each exam room and highlight the shortest one... do not lie. hmmmm, now there's a thought. Probably still wouldn't help.

Tony & I both spent the majority of the evening at church. I had a Care Commission meeting and Tony worked on the sound booth conversion. We have a new sound system and it needed installing (for lack of a better word). Quinn spent his early evening on his scooter and then even took his scooter to church to scoot around during my meeting. He had a lot of fun. Madison had Flames practice tonight and then went to Peyton's house until we picked her up. She had quite a bit of homework tonight so she got to bed late. Can you tell Quinn is my child?... "we are just totally off of our schedule tonight". They both had good attitudes but I hope the morning goes OK with getting to bed late tonight.

Well, that's all for tonight. Has anyone been inspired to start your own blog? If I can do it... you can do it. More later...

Love to all, Leah
P.S. I just figured out that if you dbl click the picture, you'll get an even bigger picture. Cool!

Happy Birthday Amy!

Hello to All,

A very special Happy Birthday wish for my sister, Amy!! I'm sure your family did something special for you today. Hopefully you got my message this evening.

Here is a report from Sunday... after church Katie and Nathan came over for lunch and to play for a little while. Madison's Flames game was at 3:30 at the our CYS fields (thankfully because...) when we got there Madison was wearing the wrong color of shirt! They have a white t-shirt that I thought was just for practice... somehow we missed the memo of having the girls wear (or even bring) the white shirt.. the Fort Wayne team also had our blue shirt color. It was a fast call to Terry with directions to the shirt in our house and he somehow managed to find it and run it out to us! Thank you Terry! What would we do without you guys??!! One of the other girls gave Madison her long-sleeved turtleneck shirt that she intended on wearing underneath her t-shirt so at least Madison could play and then she changed at half time. We lost 0-4. That was the least amount of goals we've given up. The other team wasn't quite as tall and must have had more 10 & 11 year olds because this team was actually fairly close to our skill level. Although the Flames' record is 0-4 and Madison hates losing, she still runs around out there like she's having fun and smiles and acts like she's having a good time. More power to her! They just have 2 more games and we'll miss next weekend's because we'll be in Iowa. Mom and Dad, when you are here over the October weekend, you'll get to see her last game, on the Sunday the 15th at 2pm.

Sunday night is our family night. The kids are just finishing up a movie and then it's off to bed for them. Tomorrow is a new week with new adventures to behold. I hope each of you have a very good week!

Love to all, Leah

Baseball, Basketball and Soccer

Hello to All,
I'll try to catch you on the last 2 days events and give you the condensed version. Friday night Tony and I went to the Chicago White Sox game with Rollpak. It was a little unsettling to get off the chartered bus only to hear the tornado WARNING siren blowing in Chicago!!!! The rain soon followed but within an hour it managed to blow over and the evening turned out to be beautiful! Of course it helped that we were treated to a Diamond Suite just behind homeplate & a little towards 1st base. We had a delicious supper and got to enjoy the game from a totally different view. We didn't get home until 3am (our time) so this morning came awfully early. Terry and Karla took the kids to the MCC sale and then Karla brought our kids back home so they could sleep in their own beds and then she napped on the couch until we got in. Thank you Karla!!!!

This morning Madison had a basketball evaluation at Concord...for girls that will be playing BB on Saturday mornings this Fall. That was at 9am. Afterwards she told me that her free throw needed some work! HA! (I'm sure there's much more than that that needs working on!). We really need to get a hoop in our driveway!

The rest of the day brought 3 soccer games. Madison's first game was at 11am and ended up with their 5th (yes!) tie!!!!.... 1-1. I'm so sick of ties! Quinn's game was at 12:30 and guess what... also a tie!!! ...0-0 (that was really unusual for them not to score). I guess we cannot complain that the teams aren't evenly matched this year. We went home and watched most of the 2nd half of the Iowa game (yeah Hawks) and then took off for Madison's Flames game in Chesterton, IN. It took us 1 hour to get there. We lost 0-6. I've changed my personal goals for our team... that we will get at least 1 shot towards the goal during the game. We actually had 3! Let me remind you that our team is mostly 9-10 year olds and we are playing 12 and under teams. Wow, what a difference a few years make! Madison played hard all day today. She didn't sit out at all in the morning and she was out for about 60 seconds in the Flames game. It had rained earlier and was pretty muddy. Let's just say I'll get to see if Tide really does work to get out mud stains out of WHITE soccer shorts! (Who was the wiseman to choose white??!!). Madison's best "moment" came towards the end of the game when she booted the ball while on defense and squarely planted her punt on the hind end of the referee! She couldn't help but smile and we all got a good laugh out of it. She also raised some crowd reaction when slippping in some mud and landing on her rear, leaving a muddy souvenir on her hind end! Thankfully it didn't rain on us today. We went out for pizza with Tonya & Petyon and Sara & Maddie J. and got home about 9:45 tonight. Whew... a fun but long day! Just for your interest (or not), Madison's flames team is comprised of 11 girls and here is a sample of their names... there's our Madison M., Madison P., Madeline, Maddie, Moriah, and Mackinzie. If someone yells out a generic "Maddy"... 4 girls kind of wonder if they are the ones being hollared at!

Well, it's late, I better get a good night's sleep tonight. Often it's the 2nd day after a short night that I feel most of the fatigue. M, Q and I did get a cat nap on the way to Chesterton so that was good.

Love to All,
Leah

Thursday's report...

Hello All,

Madison's CYS team played the #1 team tonight and ..... TIED! (Ughhhh). Even worse it was 0-0. Let's just say it was a bit stressful. Oh well, it's better than losing I guess. That's our 4th tie this year.

Not much new to report today. Tony is mowing the lawn now and the kids are outside on their scooters. Tomorrow is the last day for ISTEP testing and Madison will be most glad... she's says school is SO boring this week. Quinn didn't have to take them this year... last year of "freedom".

My presentation this morning went well. The RN's said they learned new information so that was good. I had too much planned and had to skip some info (better than not enough).

Tomorrow night Tony and I will be at the White Sox baseball game in Chicago with Rollpak. The kids will be with Terry & Karla at the MCC Sale and then staying overnight. I won't post until after Saturday's wild day of 3 soccer games. Hope the Hawks win!

Until then...

Love to all, Leah

Hump Day

Hello Everyone!

Well, we're over half of the way done with the week... on the downhill stretch to the weekend. Isn't that terrible to feel that way? I like my job but I LOVE being at home more!!!

Tonight was our first CFN night and we had a declicious taco supper that I didn't have to make! Tony accidently scheduled a soccer practice for Quinn so they only got to stay for supper. Madison stayed for the Bible memory time and I stayed for the adult lesson.

Tomorrow morning at 8am I'm presenting on pain management to the Care at Home nurses in the hospital. It's been a while since I've done public speaking so now I'm wondering why I agreed to do this! It will be OK and actually to maintain my NP license I have to participate in x number of public speaking events. This will count as one of them. Madison suggested I just stand up there and say "Pain is when it hurts really, really bad!" When I told her I had to talk for 1 hour just about pain, she couldn't fathom what in the world I would say about it. I could talk for 8 hours about it so it's actually kind of hard to pick and choose the sub-topics.

Anyway, that was our day... really not too exciting. Madison has 4 soccer games from Thursday through Sunday so my posts may bore some of you with soccer info. The season is almost at the end for CYS. She has a game tomorrow night against the #1 team. I'll try and report in tomorrow night about it.

Love to all, Leah

Just a tidbit about today...

Hello to All,

Really not much new today. Madison's CYS Rollpak team won tonight 4-1. That brings their record to 3 wins, 2 losses, 3 ties. It was cool and crisp tonight. After the game we went to Ci-Ci's Pizza. It was an Oxbow night. The school gets 10% of their sales for tonight. We weren't going to go because of the game and also because Madison is taking ISTEP tests this week but since I didn't have a clue as to what was for supper, we went. It was good and the kids enjoyed seeing a lot of friends there.

Tomorrow night CFN (church family night) starts. That means we get a wonderful meal and then following are activities for the adults and the children too. It only runs for 6 weeks on Wednesday nights. I love knowing that I don't have to cook on Wednesdays!

Well, that's all for today I guess. Sometimes it's good not to have something too exciting to report. PS... I learned today that the biker continues in ICU in Fort Wayne.

Love to all, Leah

"I'm so glad we live by the sunset".... Quinn

Hello to All,

The title is another quote from Quinn tonight after admiring a beautiful sunset. He comes up with the best stuff! (Too bad you guys don't live by the sunset).

Well, here's an update about the 70 yr old woman hit by the bike. She survived and was flown to Fort Wayne, to a trauma center. She had bleeding in her brain, multiple facial fractures, bilateral punctured lungs, multiple rib fractures, fractured femur, fibula, clavicle and scapula and of course multiple cuts and bruises. I told you it was BAD!!! I've been praying for her and her family and also the lady that hit her (who wasn't at fault but nonetheless was hysterical and I'm sure is hurting emotionally). I don't know if I'll be able to keep up with her from here on out or not... to know what will eventually happen to her. My "obsessive" thoughts over the accident are starting to get better. I've prayed to be able to forget the details.

Today was Monday... we had such a busy weekend that I felt like I needed to go back to work just to rest! Whew! I yawned my way through the day. I probably made the transcriptionist yawn a few times while dictating! : )

Madison had Flames practice tonight. If I were her I think I would be complaining about going by now... but nope, not a word... ready to get out the door and when she got home she said that it was fun. We traded "services" tonight. Don picked Madison up after he drove his bus route and took her to practice and left his truck here (he took our van). Tony worked on changing something-to-do-with-the-brakes on the truck. Don brought Madison home and he and Tony are still out there working.

Quinn was actually grounded tonight... the 2nd time in his little life. It's kind of a long story but basically he broke a rule of coming inside when he was called... after he had just been warned... and we had to go looking for him twice yesterday afternoon. So, after he got over the "devastation" yesterday from anticipating his consequence to occur after school today, he made the best of it. He couldn't play with any friends (and the garage door stayed up) and no TV or computer. He decided to clean out the toy boxes... which are 99% his stuff. He got a huge bag ready to take to The Depot and even brought down the scale to weigh it... 17# of little toys!!!! He felt very proud of himself to get himself organized and felt very good about giving them away to other kids who "for sure don't have as many toys as I have."

I guess that's all for tonight. Madison has a CYS game tomorrow night. It's supposed to get cold so Fall soccer, by definition, has finally begun!

Love to All,
Leah

Quote by Quinn... close the garage door "so I don't attract so many friends!"

Hello All,

Tonight Madison's soccer game against Middlebury Magic ended up to be 0-6. So, it was better than last week, which was 0-8. Of course the girls were tall with long fast legs and could out sprint us just because of their strides. We felt Madison played very well and played for all but 5 minutes. By the end she was dragging! Her coach sent in a bunch of subs and we could tell Madison was looking a little "longingly" at the girls running in but alas there was no relief in site for her! We got a good laugh out of it from the side lines ... guess ya had to be there! She played defense in the 2nd half tonight and that is really where she excels. They only scored 2 goals that half.

After church today we had lunch at the Backyard BBQ with Matt and Lisa. Brock came over for a little while in the afternoon. It was so cute. Quinn just wanted to play with Brock by himself... and so he said, "when we get home can you shut the garage door right away?"... I asked him why and he said "so I don't attract so many friends"... HA! If the garage door is up, that's the sign for the company to begin!

Well, that's all for tonight. I'm anxious to find out some more about the lady hit on her bike tomorrow at work. The newspaper said she was 70 so I guessed that right. Last night I slept awful!... it seemed every time I closed my eyes I saw that accident happening over and over. I hope to never witness something like that again! I'm soooo glad the kids weren't with me.

Love to all, Leah

soccer, funeral, soccer, wedding

That was the order of our day yesterday (Saturday). Sorry for not posting last night. We didn't get home for the final time until 11pm. It was a crazy day as was expected. It involved 5 quick outfit changes too!

Madison was scheduled for an 8am soccer game. She is not a morning person, especially to run a soccer field, so I got her up around 6:45 or so, to give her a chance to wake-up. She even walked on the treadmill, took some ibuprofen for a sore muscle but... When we got to the field, there was a very bad sign... she was the only green shirt there! The other team was nearly completely there. So, we found out that we were the only family that actually got the time of the game right on our team. I went by the schedule posted at the CYS web site and come to find out, it was different from the schedule that the coach passed out. The rest of our team thought it was at 9:30. It really was at 8am! So, that was an early morning for nothing! We either have to forfeit or hopefully they will be willing to reschedule.

Then, we went to a funeral at 10am. Dave & Karen Kieper go to our church and Dave and Tony are colleagues at work. Karen's dad passed away. It was a beautiful service and although we had met Karen's dad at church before, we felt like we missed out on really knowing a wonderful person. They had a beautiful photo tribute to his life. Our hearts go out to them.

Then, it was back to the soccer fields by 12:30 for Quinn's soccer game. They played very well and won 4-0. It was fun and the weather was beautiful. It got over at 1:20 and the wedding started at 2pm.

It was a speedy trip home and a record turn around time for a family of 4 to get to the wedding by 1:58! Even early!! You should have seen the clothes flying at our house!! : ) Tony's first cousin, John Vanderwerf, Jr married Cindy Zook. It was a beautiful wedding... the emotions on the opposite spectrum from the morning. We heard I Corinthians 13 read twice today. That was really neat I thought, in such different settings. The reception was so nice and it was great to catch up from family near and far. Jeremiah was so proficient at his punch serving. We had to tease him because everyone had been through his line and he was prepared with an extra 20 or so cups filled with punch, waiting for extra customers. Actually, they all eventually got taken so Jeremiah, you really need to advertise your punch serving skills for hire. Jeremiah and Jacob both helped out in the wedding and looked so nice all dressed up. (You guys clean up well!).

We joined some of the out of town guests at Don & Isy's for the evening which involved eating the 4th meal of the day (of course) and watching the taped Iowa vs Iowa State football game (which we won). The kids had such fun wading in the river and 2nd cousin Abbie stayed over night with Madison last night. It was 11pm before we got home. All 3 kids fell asleep on the 10 minute drive home.

Well, that's all for now. I'll try and write more tonight after Madison's Flames game. It's probably going to be a thrashing against more big girls. More later...

Love to all, Leah

Boat Picture!, Anniversary and Horrible Accident

Hello All,

Here's the moment you've been waiting for... finally a picture of our $500 boat! We took the boat to Lake Syracuse and used the channels to get to Lake Wawasee tonight. We ate at The Frog. It's a restaurant that you boat up to, tie up at their dock and get out and eat. The weather was perfect! Madison was still scared but made improvements in the fear factor over the last time. Don, Isy and Dutchess went along too. Overall is was the best boating yet. The new spark plug was very helpful and we were able to go faster... however, now the speedometer doesn't work!

Today is our 16th wedding anniversary. We can hardly believe that number. It just doesn't seem possible. He sent me a beautiful bouquet of flowers this afternoon. That's always a special treat. He's very good about remembering special dates like this.

Today was my day off from work. It started out great... I met Lisa, Karla and Eliza at Panera's for coffee. After that I went to Wal-mart for a few things. This is pretty much where the morning fun ended. I drove over to the Bag Factory area because I thought I remembered that there was going to be a garage sale and whatever the ad said, peaked my interest. I didn't find the sale and started to head for home. Unfortunately I was the witness to a horrible accident near the corner of Indiana and Chicago Ave. An older lady rode her bike into the path of a car and was hit. I've replayed those few seconds over and over in my mind today at least 100 times. I'll spare you all the details...too many to write here. She was unconscious and bleeding but breathing when they took her to the hospital. I'm sure she is in very critical condition if she survived. I had to give a statement to the police... the whole thing. It was a nightmare and I can hardly think of anything else. No, she wasn't wearing a helmet so let's take that away as a lesson to learn. I'm pretty strict in the safety dept. and now I'll be even worse!!! I really don't know if a helmet would have helped but who knows... it may have. I'll be able to find out more about her when I go to work on Monday so stand-by for Monday night's blog.

Well, tomorrow morning brings an 8am soccer game for Madison. She is sooooo NOT a morning person so I'm wondering how she will do. Tune in tomorrow night for the details! : )

Love to All,
Leah

Soccer Mom

Hello All,
Hope you all have had a good week. Everyone is scared to post to the blog... what's the deal? I know you are reading... I can see the counter and I'm getting your verbal and email feedback! More than one of us can have a conversation here! (By the way, I have to have that link to Western Kentucky in order to get the free counter!).

Tonight was the definition of a soccer mom I guess. Madison had Flames practice which involved driving to Elkhart, sitting through the 2 hour practice and I very happily delivered 3 extra kids home... Dylan, Mattie J. and Peyton hitched rides home. I like to have a full mini-van so it works out great. (Really I like to eavesdrop on their conversation and listen to the girls tell Dylan that he smells like a boy who just ran for 2 hours!). Quinn played with Nate pretty much all evening. What's new? He was thrilled he didn't have to go to Madison's practice. Tony was at work when we needed to leave.

Dutchess went home tonight. Madison and I both could hear the little jingling of her collar tags even though she wasn't here. We are ready for her to come back. She was so well behaved for us! Don & Isy are getting ready for a bunch of company, coming tomorrow night (some of you readers) for John Jr. and Cindy's wedding and so I think we'll volunteer to dog sit again! : )

Well, I better sign off... This is going to be a really busy weekend but I'll try and report in to the blog if I can.

Love to All,
Leah

Quinn has a job!

Hello to All!

Quinn is now "officially" employed... as a Bill Collector in his class for their mini-economy portion of learning. His teacher, Mrs. Heyse, sets up a whole economic setting for the class. Quinn had to fill out a job application, fill out paperwork to open a savings acnt and I even had to write a formal letter of recommendation! He gets paid in "mini-economy dollars" each day and can earn extra money in a variety of ways. His salary is $3/day but it's pretty tough because he has to pay rent and utilities each day which pretty much eats up his paycheck. He isn't sure what a bill collector does yet... I would imagine he will have to collect the rent. He assures me he will let me know when he figures it out! ..... He got an A on his money/time test today... only missing 1/2 a point. Did you know that there are 365 1/4 days in a year? We thought that was a bit odd so didn't bother to reinforce that learning... and he just put the "old fashioned" answer down of 365.

Madison enjoyed playing outside in the rain today after school... just walking in the rain and splashing in the puddles. That turned into rollerblading ... anything to be outside, in any weather! She is our outdoor girl for sure!!! Madison and I took Dutchess shopping to Pet Supplies Plus tonight. We giggled while Dutchess picked out her own treat... they have open bins of dog treats at nose level... she sniffed them all and finally kept coming back to the same one. She had such good manners though. She could have acted like a pig with all those snacks ... we did finally see her pick just one little treat from her bin of choice and gobbled it up! We bought her a little bag full. We bought her a harness too. She isn't used to being walked on a leash and she pulls so hard that she gags herself. We're going to miss her when she goes home this weekend.

Tony is busy doing a tax return (YES!) tonight and I got my haircut at 8:15 tonight.

Those are the highlights of our day!
Love to all, Leah

Trivia from Indiana history

Hello to All,
Hope this finds you all well. We are doing fine without much to report.

Tony's Silverwood team ended up winning the Goshen Softball League championship, Goshen District League Championship and the Goshen tournament Championship so each player got 3 different T-shirts and the team got a huge trophy. Anyway, that was a few weeks ago but he was going through and dividing up all of the t-shirts tonight. Just what he (doesn't) needs is more t-shirts!!! He's pretty happy though!

So far work has gone well for me this week. I've gotten through 2 consecutive days without any lame lost medication excuse. We'll see if I can go for a record. My evening was filled with helping the kids with their homework, making supper and playing indoor baseball with Quinn. Quinn had math, spelling, reading and studying for his money/time test tomorrow. Madison had math, Indiana history and reading. She has spelling too but we didn't get that far. The Indiana history is really quite interesting for me since I've never had that myself!

Madison was supposed to have soccer practice tonight and we were very surprised when her CYS (Concord Youth Soccer) coach called it off because of rain. That doesn't usually stop them... and of course by practice time it stop raining! Anyway, it was a nice night off!! I actually made a nice supper and we all sat at the table at the same time to eat!!!! Unfortunately that doesn't happen much if it's M-Th! Madison ran a mile on the treadmill tonight since she didn't do any running today for soccer. It doesn't take too long to figure out that you really need to be a long-distance runner and sprinter to keep going in soccer games!

Speaking of Indiana history... here is some trivia for you...

Did you know that South Bend had one of the first 4 teams involved in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League? The teams were the South Bend Blue Sox, Racine (WI) Belles, Kenosha (WI) Comets, and Rockford (IL) Peaches. You probably recognize the Rockford Peaches team from Tom Hank's movie, A League of Their Own. Madison and I are reading this book right now. I didn't know that Mr. Wrigley (as in Wrigley Field) started the league either!
Monty, (our history buff) I'm sure that's "old" news for you! : )
http://www.aagpbl.org/index.cfm

Jeremiah, tell Jacob that Madison has his Indiana History book that he used when he was in 4th grade. She thought that was pretty neat! Are you a lurker to this blog Jacob?

Thanks for reading!
Love to All, Leah

Hello All,
Today really felt like a Fall day in Indiana. It was only in the 60's. I love it! It looked like rain though so we didn't get to take the boat out afterall. We had a window of about 2 hours that were available to "quick" go boating but we called it off. Tony was the most disappointed.

This was a busy Sunday for us. After church we came home and had a gourmet meal of homemade tacos. At 3:00 Tony and I went to a birthday party for our friend Chad Klopfenstein who is turning 40, so Happy Birthday Chad! We had to leave the party early because....

Madison had a Flames soccer game at 5pm. Now remember, this is the club league soccer. Her team is comprised of mostly area 9-10 year olds (U-10 league... 10 or under in age). It's a long story, but they are playing in the U12 league, so they are playing against girls that are 2-3 years older than them. Let's just say that our girls looked PRETTY LITTLE out there next to those pre-adolescent girls!!! We had warned them ahead of time that they probably won't be winning games but to concentrate on improving their personal skills etc... (blah, blah, blah). The score ended up 0-8. Not pretty, but expected. Madison was quite upset because goal number 3 actually ricocheted off of her leg and into our goal so she felt like she scored for them. Like it really mattered any way!!!!! She smiled about it while out there on the field but on the way home it came out that she was actually quite horrified by the whole play even though it was obvious she could do nothing about it. Anyway, I think she played very good considering the competition. She was about the only one who even had a shot on their goal... let's just say, their goal keeper could have sat down for most of the game. OK, enough of that.

Dutchess is being a very good house guest. She is quite well-behaved and acts like she's lived here forever. She's really quite good company however Tigger (our cat) spends most of her time in the basement or dashing from room to room to avoid her.

That's really about it for today. Quinn and Tony are fine and nothing new to report today.

Love to all,
Leah

Ugliest Iowa Game Ever!!!!

Does anyone else agree with this title? Iowa's win over Syracuse after 2 overtime periods was the most miserable game I've ever sat through I believe... it was down right ugly! The only thing that would have been worse than 4 interceptions, multiple interference calls and a missed field goal would have been if we would have lost after all of that misery!!!

Here are some highlights from the day...

• Madison's CYS soccer team tied 1-1 today (the other team scored their goal with
  less than 1 minute to go in the game).
• Quinn flew his airplanes all over our house with multiple smooth landings on his aircraft carrier.
• Tony is changing our faucets/handles in our bathroom. Does anyone know how expensive
  Price-Pfister products are???!!! VERY!!! They badly needed replacing though.
  Thank goodness for ebay which saved us about $70!
• I went to Goodwill and found 10 shirts, 5 pairs of pants and 1 sweatshirt for $35... most of it was all name brand stuff too! WOW!

I guess that's all for tonight. We are cheering Ohio State on now... they have to be enjoying their game day much more than we did!

Love to all,
Leah

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Special happy anniversary wishes to my mom and dad, Dale & Joanne. If I've calculated right, this is your 44th right? Wow! Are you really old enough to be married that long? Thanks for being a good example to us younger married "kids".

God blessed us with another beautiful day. It doesn't get much better than this! Sunny, 80 degrees with a breeze. Perfect! Today was my day off so it was even more perfect! I ran some errands, did all the laundry, picked up the house, cleaned out part of the refrigerator... can you say "mystery supper?" Hummmm, I guess we haven't been too good at eating left-overs lately.

Quinn tells me he got an A on his spelling test. That's good news. He was also VERY EXCITED about their "bartering day". They are starting to learn basics in economics... the history of money exchange etc... so today they each took something from home with the intention of bartering for something else. He took an F-16 airplane (I was very shocked~since his airplanes are his pride and joy) but he was THRILLED when he walked in the door and showed me a big Blackbird Jet that he bartered for... so one airplane for another but boy was he ever happy about it! He was talking a mile a minute!

Madison had a good day too but wasn't nearly as exuberant about it as Quinn was. She told me the highlight of her day was PE... they played softball I guess. She loves to tease her PE teacher who is a big Michigan fan. She wears an Iowa shirt on PE days and even brought in the Iowa fight song on a CD and somehow got him to play it this last week!

We are dog sitting for the weekend for Dutchess, Don & Isy's dog. They went to Mackinaw Island with Isy's brother and some of their friends. I guess they have free lodging, a free ride and couldn't pass it up. I've never even been there.

Well, hope you all have a wonderful weekend. We want to take the boat out this weekend but between soccer games, football games, church and a birthday party, it's looking doubtful. We got some letters to put "The Hawkeye" name on the side of the boat. I wonder how to get them on straight.....?

Love to all,
Leah

Soccer / Math

Hello All,
Hope you all had a good day today. Our day was pretty much like yesterday. Madison had a Flames scrimmage tonight against Dylan's team. It was boys against girls. Let's just say that I stopped counting goals... it must have been 0-10 or something. They tied 1-1 the last time we scrimmaged them. They all practiced for a shoot-out at the end and Madison was one of only 3 girls that scored so that was good. She tells me her knee feels better but I caught her slightly limping a few times during the evening. The swelling is quite a bit better though. It was a beautiful-- perfect weather night.

Madison and Quinn got to talk to Uncle Archie tonight and they were delighted by that.

Quinn did well on his test. When it came home, it came home titled as a"pre-test" and he only missed 3 out of 25... so, after his class studies the material this week and has the post-test next week, he should be in good shape. They are learning about money and how many dimes are in a dollar etc... that's what we studied last night. I guess they will study more details about the calendar now. He has a spelling test tomorrow. Thanks for your encouragement Jeremiah... I'll pass it along to your little buddy. Anne, it is nice to know that others have weeks just like ours. I can hardly remember when I made a nice sit-down supper meal on a M-Th. It's always hurry, hurry, hurry!!

That's all the "excitement" for tonight. Thanks for reading!
Love to all, Leah

"Soccer is my life"... a direct quote by Madison

Hello All!

Sorry last night's posting was soooo long. I didn't realize I was rambling on and on and on...

Not much to report from today. Madison had Flames practice tonight. This is a local traveling soccer league and her team is all girls (a first). She rode her scooter soooo much over last weekend in Fort Wayne that she has a swollen knee out of it. I can't think of anything else that would have injured it, neither can she. So, we had to wrap it tonight and I made her ice it after practice. She has a game on Saturday and Sunday afternoon this weekend so I hope it dramatically improves by then. She described it as "like a needle being jabbed in it" when she fell on it tonight. She played hesitantly... like it was bothering her.

Quinn played the evening away with Nate. What's new? Tonight Quinn was at his house during soccer practice and was treated to a McDonald's happy meal. Those boys are pretty much inseparable. He has a test in math tomorrow... all about money so he studied for that. He also is gearing up for his spelling test on Friday.

Well, that's all of the items worth mentioning tonight. You probably have to be a grandparent or aunt/uncle to find any of that interesting. Anway, thanks for reading.

Love to all, Leah