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