Quinn's Quips

Quinn: UGH... I just got a mosquito bite!

Mom: You did?

Quinn: Yes, my central nervous system told me so... I could feel it.

2 hours later and 3 innings completed...

Madison had a softball game tonight and we lost, 15-20. It was a very slow moving game. At the 2 hour time limit they had only played 3 full innings. The coaches don't come in now to pitch in a "walk" situation so the runner does walk... it's just a bunch of walking and stealing. Painful. Madison said she was "so bored" during the game. I have to agree. Softball is definitely a sport that takes practice and then can still be painfully slow.....

Quinn's Birthday Party

Happy 8th Birthday Quinn!

The football team!

(Double click for a close up shot!)

All week we've been careful watching the weather for today... we've had a sunny outlook most of the week... until today, when the weatherman got the weather wrong again. Quinn's outside football party was at Ox Bow Park from 3-5pm. It poured for the first 10 minutes and then cleared off to just sprinkle a few times. Thank the Lord! All of the shelters were reserved but we set our party up at the concession stand area which has one covered picnic table. It worked perfectly because we could get out of the rain.

Madison & Jenna held up at sign at the entrance to direct people how to get to the party... they walked the bike path to get to the shelter area.

Quinn had a great time with 10 boys, 3 girl cousins, Aunt Amy, Grandma, Grandpa, Eileen, Jeremiah and Jacob. The time went so fast! Jeremiah and Jacob wore Concord jerseys and signed some autographs for them. That was so nice! We actually were expecting 2 high school players to come sign autographs while on their break at Lowe's but I guess Lowe's was swamped and they couldn't get away. That's OK. They are going to sign some trading cards (that Tony made) at school for Jeremiah and then we'll hand those out to the kids. They felt honored to even be asked! Probably a first! : )


Jacob, Quinn and Jeremiah

Tony planned all the games and had a field goal set up for them to kick through,and a tarp that had openings cut into it for them to throw through. He had them punt the ball and then measured their distances for them. They ran from one side of the field in races. We painted the black sun stripes under their eyes and they decided it was OK if they got wet because football players play in any and all types of weather.


Madison and Jenna did the face painting.




Action packed games coordinated by Dad.

I made the cake last night... took forever but Quinn's reaction was worth it. He closed his eyes and then shouted about how awesome and great it was when he opened them. He was delighted with the cupcakes too. We gave out goody bags with Gatorade, football candy, notepad, pencil, and football trading cards....and a "CRUNCH" bar... get it?


He got lots of nice gifts... mostly outdoor stuff which is so nice. He got a batting helmet from G & G and the DVD "Night at the Museum" from the Iowa cousins. There were balls, rockets, water guns, trading cards, a helicopter, a remote controlled car ETC.... Earlier in the week he got 2 Target gifts cards from our AZ and TN families which he was elated with. Way too many presents!! I was so surprised by how many boys were actually able to come. I thought many wouldn't because of the holiday weekend but everyone but 3 came. I was thinking more like having 6. I'm glad it was at the park and not inside at my house!

Quinn, Nate and too many gifts!

Mikayla, Quinn, Jenna & Hailey...all the way from Iowa.

The day was perfect for Quinn so that makes this tired mom smile.

#4 Ball Game

Tonight completed our 4th ball game of the week. Whew!... I've basically gotten nothing done at home this week. Tonight Madison had a game. If you double click on the picture above you can get a better look at my bubble-blowing girl. Their team won, 15-8, and she had 2 singles. Girls games move so much slower than boy's do... I don't know why... It lasted over 2 hours. Softball isn't her favorite sport... too much standing around, but she does a good job at it and enjoys the fact that her dad is the coach.

Tomorrow is my wild day of helping for 2-3 hours at school and then frantically trying to run all the errands before the weekend. I need to bake and decorate Quinn's birthay cake, plan his party, go grocery shopping, do laundry, buy/plant my spring (summer?) flowers and clean before our Iowa family gets here. Anyone want to come and help?

Well, I best be getting to bed so that I can do all of those things mentioned above before I run out of steam!

Love, Leah

Bickering

Here is an example of how our evening went tonight! The kids were driving me crazy with their bickering... about everything and all so piddly. Their consequence was to come home directly after Quinn's game, no playing outside, no computer or TV and they had to write out 10 sentences from the LV Bible (Leah's Version). We'll see if it makes any difference tomorrow!

Baseball

On a happier note than the last one...

Quinn had a baseball game last night and tonight. According to the paper tonight, his team lost last night 16-23. He got his name in the paper though... for having some hits. I thought that was pretty cool. His team is...well...let's see... let's just say they probably won't make it to the championship game this year!

Tonight was a rain make-up game. He played catcher some both nights and really likes it. He made a great play at home tonight. A kid hit the ball straight down the left field line and it rolled almost to the fence. He was 3 steps away from a homerun but the left fielder had run in the ball and threw a rocket to Quinn who jumped to catch it and then he tagged the runner out! It was so exciting! The crowd went wild. : ) Quinn has played on the same soccer team with the runner and after he got out he turned around and told Quinn, "I hate you!" Can you believe that? That prompted a scolding by the umpire. I'm positive this boy is a special needs kid (or should be) and anger is obviously a problem. That made Quinn feel bad but he was able to shake it off. I'm sure his team actually won tonight. They slowed the machine-pitch down a notch and they hit much better!

Well, that's all for tonight. I just watched the last 5 minutes of American Idol and my predictions were all correct! Jordin won as suspected...

Love to all, Leah

Birthday Boys

Happy Birthday Tony & Quinn!

Today was Tony and Quinn's birthdays. It was a really busy day. I surprised Tony by running some chocolate donuts over to him at work this morning. I had a patient cancel so that made it easy.

Quinn requested Dirt and Worms for his school party today (chocolate pudding, cookie crumbs and gummy worms) so yesterday I made 24 of these cups and then got off work a little early today so I could have them there by 3pm for his party. He was happy with them.

After school Madison, Quinn, Katie and I headed out to the farm so they could love on their calves... and water them and give them hay and feed. Katie left a message on our answering machine last Friday (when Madison was in Indy) that she had good news to share... "Crisp has taken one step towards becoming an adult... she has just started chewing her cud!"... I laughed so hard and we had to keep her sweet little message on our machine for a few days. We could only stay 45 minutes which was way to short for the kids but we are on a schedule here... Madison had to get ready for her game.

This evening Madison had a softball game (Tony is coaching). Her team won but it was a slow moving game and lasted about 2 1/2 hours! We had planned to go to the Olive Garden for supper for their birthdays so we decided to go anyway. Beppe, Pakka and Nate went with us. Of course, wouldn't you know it, the meal preparation was sloooow and so it was 11pm before we got home... on a Monday!! I felt so bad about keeping Nate out that late! Do you think I tried to fit too many things into one day?

Quinn is 8 today and that's quite monumental for the fact that he no longer has to use a booster seat! He was happy to unload that in the garage. I have a feeling he'll miss it on long trips though. It is nice to help him see outside. We are having a birthday party for him this weekend. He was thrilled to get a new pair of crocks since he is finally able to consistently tie his shoes!!... he can do amazing other things but tying his shoes consistently has stumped him for a few years! He also got some Playstation games which we got at the used game store in Indy. Thankfully he doesn't care if they are new or used... and it drops the price from about $50 per game to $5-10 per game. Beppe made him an Iowa Hawkeye quilt and Pakka gave him Wings of Texaco #9 of his collectible Texaco airplane banks.

Tony is 39 and as he said this morning, he's "one step closer to death"... can you believe that?! He never wants anything... he is the #1 hard person to buy for! We ended up getting him a pair of crocks, which I'm sure he wasn't thrilled with because he generally doesn't like getting clothing as a gift. Madison picked out a remote controlled boat for Quinn and Tony to share so he got that. Quinn gave him a Toby Mac CD... I told him it was the Toby Mac that sings on WFRN and I was sure Dad would like it. He said, "But Mom, he listens to Pulse FM"... he was relieved to know that Toby Mac also sings on Pulse.

I'll post a few pictures for you..

8 years old... eating his favorite breakfast of cheesy scrambled eggs on our Celebration plate.

Quinn likes his new quilt!

Indy Field Trip Highlights

4th Grade Field Trip to Indianapolis

I'm not so sure how to sum up two completely fun packed days into a few readable paragraphs but I promised you I would try. I wrote this lame poem to try and keep it short(er).

Racing thru Indianapolis
Off to Indy, one hundred 4th graders did go, with fifty parents along in the tow.
The school buses zig-zagged around the city until 4 hours later we finally did go...to the Indiana State Capital building to talk to our Governor Mitch about his crazy selling ideas... like of our tollways and roads and whatever the latest thing is he wants to pitch.

OK, so Our Man Mitch wasn't there, but through his office we went, wildly taking pictures of his collections, carpet, fireplace, lights and the rest, but avoiding the "top-secret" documents that must have sat on his desk. Should we take a picture of this the aides would get terribly upset.

We learned about history, government, fossils in marble floors, 24K carat gold paint, and that of course in 1816 was the year when Indiana became a state.

We sat in the actual chairs of the House of Representatives, the Senate Chambers and the Supreme Court, hoping that here we would never have to bring a tort.

Then it was on to Conner's Prairie, to visit the early 1800's, getting the actors out of their character was a certainly a rarity.

We saw wigwams, farm houses, and trading posts. A host of places so great that our minds swam. A horse, of course, drew Madison's eye, only to be bitten on the hand by that large sly. We walked through a covered bridge, by a bounteous garden, and felt raccoon pelts while Tony impressed the wood-cutter by walking on stilts.

Embassy Suites was quite the place, the glass elevators were fun to race. The hotel was filled to the brim... mostly with excited children! Then off to the mall we did go, Madison took all of her loot in tow. There was nothing to buy, to spend her gold on, after all she saved for so long she thought she'd die. So what is a child to do? $10 in the arcade was quite a splurge, one that she certainly has never heard. With smiles all around, she and her Daddy did play, game after game, get out of their way! Back to the hotel, but out of pillows they ran and also because we had no fan, it wasn't the best night's sleep for this getting-old mam.

To Monument Circle on Friday we went, walking around this place we were next sent. Madison enjoyed watching her teacher, Mrs Hartsough, reach deep into the fountain to save some sunglasses, hopefully not breaking the law. We admired the sculptures, so vast, so many. In 1889 this surely cost quite a penny.

The Indiana State Museum was next. Unique Indiana things we certainly did see; bones, artifacts and a painting that covered their Social Studies text. A unique sculpture for each county, Elkhart's sculpture was designed to show their musical instrument bounty.

The Indy 500...the best for last? It really was quite a blast! The practicing race cars zoomed by so fast you could hardly see, but very loud and vibrating they sure would be. We saw Dannika Patrick, our racing lass, her little black and blue car looked like a flash. The kids got autographs along pit row watching the drivers going to and fro. The Indy 500 museum was certainly neat but by now Madison was getting really sore feet. We learned about their tradition of drinking milk after a win, our minds swelling with so much information, they would have popped with a pin.

The long bus ride back to the school we would have to endure, having been warned by the teachers that this leg would not be the cure... for our tired bodies and minds. All the parents wanted to do was to just unwind. Fourth graders have so much energy, from hence does it come? All Madison wanted to do when she got home was to run, run, run!

Into our own beds, our bodies did melt, with memories of the capitol, prairies, monuments, artifacts and the race cars we felt. We zoomed into sleep, the 4th grade field trip was now complete.


Inside the capitol building

Tony has even more talents!

Conner Prairie

Mrs. Hartsough dives for sunglasses... a student's...

...and comes up laughing!

Off to the races!

"Vacation" Day tomorrow

Tony and I are going to Indianapolis with Madison and the other 99 fourth graders tomorrow for their biggest field trip of their elementary experience. We are staying over night and coming back on Friday night. It is supposed to rain and be in the low 60's tomorrow. I hope God will make some changes after hearing all of our prayers! We meet at the school at 6:15 in the morning. Tomorrow we go to the Monument Circle, the State Capitol Building, and Connor Prairie. Friday we are going to the Indy Motor Speedway and the Indiana State Museum. The 4th graders have studied Indiana history this whole school year. I'm looking forward to seeing all of the Indiana history sites as well... since we had Iowa history instead. Madison thought I had absolutely lost it a few times this year when I asked her to bring her Indiana History book home from school so I could read it.

Quinn is staying at Beppe & Pakka's house. It was a little hard to send him off tonight. He feels a little left out... like we're going on vacation without him. I told him not to come back too spoiled. He laughed, even though I could hear the change in his voice caused by the lump in his throat. They've already made plans to take him and Nate to the circus on Friday night. He'll probably wonder why we came back so soon.

Well, I better be getting myself to bed. I'm not used to getting up so early any more. I had a few years when 4:30am was the norm. I'm spoiled now... 5:15-5:30 will seem too early tomorrow.

I'll write when I can... probably Friday night... unless the hotel has some Internet access for us.

Love to all, Leah

Quinn's Quips

Yesterday, a Monday, Quinn gave me the perfect pep talk before I went to work. Most of you know that I don't "do" Mondays...

"Mom, I want you to have a really, really good day today...because you know, when we are in heaven there isn't going to be any sickness so there won't be anyone for you to take care of there."

I said, "That's right! (what a great reminder)....There won't be any pain, so there really won't be anyone for me to take care of...."

How I can't wait for heaven. Really.

Three Cups of Tea

I just finished reading Three Cups of Tea which is a story about Greg Mortenson and his passion of building schools for kids, especially girls, in Pakistan. It is a great book and I highly recommend it if you enjoy non-fiction reading which is a lot of what I read. It is a New York Times best seller as well.

Mortenson's passion started back in 1993 after making numerous trips to Pakistan as a mountain climber. Apparently they have some of the most challenging cold-weather mountain climbing. (Learned something new.) He saw a great need for education of the people that lived in the rural areas...just basic education through a 5th grade level. Through a very long process he started building schools in remote villages in Pakistan and supplying teachers for their schools, educating them that America was their friend and improving the health of their communities by teaching simple hygiene and overall improving their very existance on many different levels. He saw the dramatic surge of Taliban run schools who started schools to educate mostly boys in their extremist beliefs of Americans being bad etc... Two models of education with very different outcomes. He is a firm believer that the war on terror should be fought by educating people in the truth, and teaching them how the world can live in harmony with each other, not in extremist ways and views, and not by war.

One section of this book hit me like a brick to the head, I had to read it a couple of times. I'll share just a portion of it with you...

Bashir (a general in the Pakistan military) paused to watch a live CNN feed from Baghdad.... He was struck silent by the imges of wailing Iraqi women carrying children's bodies out of the rubble of a bombed building. As he watched the screen, his shoulders slumped. "I'm a moderate Muslim, an educated man. But watching this, even I could become a jihadi. How can Americans say they are making themselves safer? Your President Bush has done a wonderful job of uniting one billion Muslims against America for the next 200 years.

You have to attack the source of your enemy's strength. In America's
case, that's not Osama or Saddam or anyone else. The enemy is
ignorance. The only way to defeat it is to build relationships with these people, to draw them into the modern world with education and business. Otherwise the fight will go on forever."

Anyway, just something for you to think about and consider because it made me do a double take. What if we spent just as much time, energy and money on education as we put into ammunition?

PS... I have no idea how these goofy lines got here!!!

Weekend Highlights

I'm so blessed to be a mother to these two kids!

I should have posted each weekend night... too much goes on each day. Here are the weekend highlights for you... I'll spare you all of the details!

Friday night... we had 21 people here for the first grilling of the season. It was our small group from church. Everyone brought food which was good, but the visiting was even better.

Saturday... 3 games all at the same time! Madison's Flames team won 5-1, Quinn's baseball team lost (without keeping score of course) and Madison's softball team lost in extra innings. Bummer. Quinn had a pirate's birthday party for Grant H. who turned 7. He had a very good time and came away with a pirate's hat and eye patch which delighted him.

Saturday night we went to the Concord Pops program. It was an all musical program of their different choirs and groups... lots of solos. Jeremiah was in a lot of it and even sang a duet with a young lady. It was all very good. It didn't start until 8pm though and got over at 10:15... kind of late for our family but well worth it.

Sunday... Happy Mother's Day to all of you mothers and especially to mine! The only thing that would have made this day better was that I would have gotten to spend it with you! I SO WISH we lived closer!!!! Today started out with a surprise. I opened my bedroom door and there laid Madison on the floor with a TV tray, a piece of jelly toast and cup of milk. It was so sweet... and the toast was so cold... but we (I) had a great breakfast in the hallway, on the floor. She even had cleaned up the kitchen... I couldn't tell there was even toast made! They gave me a few gifts but the best were their homemade cards. So precious!

After church we met B & P at the Matterhorn restaurant where Tony had made reservations for lunch. We took the boat out for this season's maiden voyage. Of course you know, we really aren't "boat people" but are trying to be. And of course, there is always an adventure around every corner. Today's most adventurous part was the boat completely conking out in the middle of the lake! Yep, dead! Quinn flagged down another boat with a "Help! Help! Please come help us!!" and to our horror when the saving pontoon boat pulled up he yelled out, "It's only a $500 boat and it quit working!" I laughed so hard!!!! ...Too much information!

Towed into the sunset by our heros.

...................................................................

Sooo, I'll just make a long story short to say that these nice people towed us to shore and 1 hour and 15 minutes later we were on the way home with a boat that needs to go into the shop! We got home at 8:15pm and made some supper, showers etc.... whew.

It was a fun but busy weekend. I hope you had a good weekend too!

Love to all, Leah

Glove Update

Read the blog entry just below if you haven't yet and then read this post!

Wonderful news! Gordan just sent us an email... Erin and Madison have exactly the same glove and for some reason they have TWO at their house! I'm SO happy! Madison probably won't be completely be off the hook because she still should have had her glove "under control" but at least she won't have to use her Indy money to buy a new one!

Tough week

This was a tough week in several ways... I've debated and debated about how much to share about work this week. Those of us in jobs that require confidentiality are sometimes burdened with "too much information" but we do take this quite seriously! Because this patient lived well outside our community, I feel confident that her confidentiality is maintained... all of that to say that one of our patients committed suicide within this last week. It was quite a shock to get this call from her husband (actually a forever "significant other"). She was in her 60's. She suffered with multiple medical problems including chronic pain. She had been my patient for 6 years now. Monday was such a tough day... I basically cried my way through work. This brings up many, many more questions than it does answers. There is little comfort in a death like this. Tragic is the best word to describe it I guess. It is still unbelievable and very, very difficult not to feel like we've failed in our care in this situation. It was so difficult to talk to her husband on the phone. What do you say??? I mostly listened. He was so reassuring to me though, so complimentary about our care; how they both were touched by the love and compassion felt in our office... How can someone going through so much pain actually find within themself the ability to comfort another?

On other happy notes, Madison and I finished our cake decorating class last night. She made a wonderful "Wilton rose"... much better than mine! We had a lot of fun taking this class together.

She also had a softball game tonight and her team won 14-1. She had 2 singles and a double. The bad part... it was past time to leave for the game and she was still searching for her glove!! Very frustrating! We've told her TOO many times to put things away in the same place (like her bat bag) so she knows where things are. We've pretty much searched everywhere we could, including the ball park. She used my glove tonight, which is too big. The consequence is yet to come but she will have to buy her own new glove now... and with what money I ask???... she only has her Indy spending money now. Ouch! Sometimes parenting down right HURTS! How else will kids learn lessons? She certainly won't learn one if we whip out our check book and pay for it ourselves. She knows this money source is a possibility but we are all hoping the glove is found before her next game. The Indy trip is next week... I wonder what will happen first?

Not too much energy left for this week. Treading water. Love, Leah

Clove Recipe

You didn't believe me when I said I was serious about finding clove recipes did you? I have now accidentally noticed that I also have 3 bottles of GINGER too!! I searched through Michelle's 5000 clove recipes that she so kindly sent me and found this recipe for Delicious Ginger Molasses Cookies... so you see, I got to use 1 whole teaspoon of cloves and 1 whole teaspoon of ginger. If the recipes contained anything less (lots of 1/2 tsp ones), they were automatically excluded! I made these cookies and actually they are pretty darn good! Even my kids (who don't like molasses cookies) said they were "OK"... now Tony, he didn't even bother. Karla assures me that her family liked them. Here is the recipe in case anyone needs to use up some ginger and cloves like I do!

Delicious Ginger Molasses Cookies
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup oil
2 eggs
1/4 cup molasses
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp ginger
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups flour

Cream sugar, oil, eggs and molasses together. Add in all dry ingredients a little at a time until well mixed. Roll into balls about the size of a large quarter. Roll into some more sugar. Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Do not over bake. Makes about 2 dozen cookies, depending on the size.

Artist

Quinn's art work was chosen to be on display at the Concord Art Show this year. It is quite an honor. The kids both had games tonight but we were able to get to the art show about 1/2 hour before it closed. There was some awesome artwork there from 1st grade through seniors.

Madison's team won tonight. Quinn's league doesn't officially keep score but they most definitely got creamed. They've got quite a few players that must be new to the game. I'm sure we'll see a lot of improvement by the end of the season.

Love to all, Leah

Saturday's craziness

Our calendar was so full today, I actually had to write the schedule out on a clean sheet of paper to figure out the flow of the day and how we were going to accomplish all of this running around. Here's the schedule of the day...

7am Quinn's baseball pictures
7:30 breakfast at Beppe & Pakka's
8:30 Quinn's baseball game
10-12:30 I work in concession stand
1200 Madison's softball pictures
1:30-3:00 Madison's softball game
4-6 Tony to work
4:00-5:30 Madison to soccer practice
4:30-6:30 Quinn to rollerskating birthday party
6-7 Tony picks up Quinn and Nate
6:15 Madison to movies
7-midnight?? Tony back to work
8:00 Pick up Madison from movies

Needless to say it is only shortly after 10pm and it feels more like mid-night! Whew! I'm thankful most Saturdays aren't like this!

Madison did end of going to the movie with Jazmin tonight. Her mom called this afternoon and invited her to the specific movie at such and such place, time, etc...
When I got there, her mom looked at Madison and I and asked, "What movie are you two going to?" .......

I smiled sweetly and said, "oh, well would you mind if she stayed and went with you?"

And she said, "Oh, well, I'm not going to the movie that the girls are going to, I'm going to a different movie (Wild Hogs) with my sons."

Let me just make the story shortened to say that Madison went to her movie with Jazmin and another friend, Paige (who waited at home for 2 hours last night for them to pick her up...see last night's post). They went to their movie alone with the mom next door at a different show. Well, THAT was a first! One I didn't necessarily feel the most comfortable with but decided it would be OK as long as I was there to pick her up before she was out of her movie. I went home and promptly called my mom for the "Grandmother Seal of Approval" stamp for making the best of this situation. Madison said she had a great time... yah, I'm sure she did after I heard her talk about changing seats because the person behind them was coughing, trips to the bathroom, trips for popcorn refills, pop refills, laughing loudly... oh well. Other patrons were probably wondering who in the world would ever let their 10 year old kids go to a movie by themselves?! (sigh)

Quinn had a great time with Nate at the rollerskating party and "only fell down 10 times". He has some new bruises to prove it to. Looks like the poor kid has been beat!

Stood up

Tears would eventually fill Madison's eyes until they had no choice but to run over, as she buried her head in my shirt. Deep disappointment is what she was feeling after we waited for 1/2 hour at the movie theatre for her friends to arrive, only to watch stranger after stranger arrive and no friends. It's hard to see a child that disappointed. I sat there waiting too and of course it's only 10 minutes before the movie started and I'm already fuming inside for them to be so late! ... Not too much longer and the movie had definitely gotten off to a good start. ...Madison searched earnestly out the window for them. I didn't have a ticket so she entered the theatre on her own and went and looked for them, hoping that for some bizarre reason they didn't wait for her. Nope, not there. We called Jazmin's dad's house, where all of the phone calls came from the night before only to find no one home. "May be their car wouldn't start." ... "May be the location got mixed up." Graciously, the ticket lady granted her money back and away she went, away from the theatre, with her head hung low. We went home and Madison found Jazmin's mom's phone number in her planner. The story gradually unfolded. Unfortunately Jazmin's mom told her earlier in the week about the plans to go to the movie etc... and then Jazmin left for her dad's house for several days. Sometime during the week Mom changed her mind and decided to have a BBQ at her house instead. So when Jazmin went to Mom's house today after school she found that the plans were off. ...It would have been nice to get a phone call. You all would have been so proud of me as I practiced RESTRAINT while talking to her mother on the phone and how I practiced my Christian attitude that I unfortunately DID NOT FEEL inside but hopefully showed on the outside. "We're not even divorced yet and everything is so fresh, it's so hard..." and basically the lines of communication got mixed up. Very mixed up. And I was left standing with a terribly disappointed girl. "Possibly tomorrow night" said her mom. I'm thinking "how about never" but heard myself saying, "yeah, let's trade cell numbers and may be it will work".

You know, this is why I like to stay within my nice group of RESPONSIBLE Christian friends who would never in a million years stand you up at a movie! Is that a Christ-like attitude? Probably not.

Quinn and I were just talking last night about the type of people that Jesus chose to spend his time with on earth... cheating tax collectors, those who were down and out, the needy, the unlovely... certainly not those who had it "all together". Little did I know that I would be reminded of this tonight. This has been a lesson in several ways for me. First of all, I assumed Mom or Dad was standing to the side of the 4 phone call conversations; agreeing, planning and coordinating what was going on. Obviously that didn't happen (or possibly the dad was clueless about the new plans too?). Next time, I will have to talk to the parent. Even Quinn and Nate can make reliable plans over the phone without a huge mix up. (sigh). I also have had to search inside of myself to "allow" a friendship to grow with someone who isn't like us. We've been learning in church for a year now about accepting people who aren't like us and that it is desirable to attract people to us, so others can see our Christ led lives, but we have to let them get close enough to us to really see this. So, I guess after all of this, Madison was able to cheer up, she realizes that it wasn't intentional. "May be Jazmin was afraid to call me, thinking I would be mad at her." She was the first to point out that a phone call would have worked... but we will try to model our response through the eyes of Jesus and make plans for another day.

Strike 2!

I had one of those "bad mom" type of evenings... you mothers know the kind. I'm not used to it!... it's usually a "bad dad" if anything! : ) (Sorry Tone).

Tonight Madison semi-politely confided in me that, "It's sort of embarrassing when you sing along to the radio when I have a friend in the van." Ouch...strike one! I know this is normal "embarrassment" type of feelings for girls but I wonder if she's embarrassed about that...what else is she embarrassed about?! I mean, I can at least carry a tune and am not at all "pitchy"... (Idol fans, that was for you). She's only 10... the pre-teen is already starting. : * (
So, I said I would try not to sing in front of her friends. (sniff-sniff).

The second strike came tonight when she was called and invited to a movie tomorrow night with a girl from her class. She has been telling me all week that she thinks she is going to be invited and that she told Jazmin that she couldn't go to PG-13 movies. I was proud of her for that! Well, guess what? Jazmin finally calls tonight and invites her to see Blades of Glory. Now if you will click on that title and read the review, I'm sure you will agree with me that 10 year old girls have no business seeing a movie like this... yes, the main idea of the story does sound interesting but come on! But it was embarrassing for Madison to have to tell her again no, because "my mom" doesn't let me go to PG-13 movies when "all of the 4th grade has already seen it." Did you know that?... pretty remarkable that all ninety 4th graders have already seen this movie... hmmm, I so remember exaggerating like this and to my mom and dad, I'm sorry!!! They ended up having a "well what movie can you see?" conversation and the compromise is seeing Are We Done Yet? This isn't my first choice but there are only 2 PG movies at Linway right now and she was too embarrassed to suggest Firehouse Dog which I think looked the most appropriate!!! I know this is just the top of the iceberg with the mother-daughter conflicts. I don't know Jazmin's family but apparently she is getting a group of 3 other girls together to go to the movies because her mom and dad just got divorced last week and her dad is getting re-married... and Jazmin had lice this week at school and her soon-to-be step mom made her get her cut really short, and, and, and.....! Anyone else feeling my pain? I know all girls need good influences in their life and I do believe that Madison does the right thing and is a good influence. I'm embarrassed to say that then I was thinking, oh great, she's going to want her to come home from school with her and spend the whole evening with her, and this lice thing is freaking me out... but actually Jazmin asked if I could drop her off at the movies and so I said, "Sure! and I'll pick you up too!" I've already warned my newly embarrassed prone daughter that I will walk her in and meet her mom etc... She sounded OK with that (inside she'll probably be dying).

I don't know about your children, but mine did not come with instruction manuals. But if they did, I would be flipping to the "How to guarantee your children will turn out OK" chapter and then I would look up "What to do in this situation..." chapter. HEY, may be if I survive the adolescent years, I'll write a book like this.

Anyway, I'm going to seriously pray about this attitude (her's and mine). I know I've made good choices but it sure wasn't fun tonight.

Love to all, Leah

He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Philippians 1 : 6

Be careful what you joke about...

Today Amy (my sister) asked me what 2 things I wanted to happen today. This was in an email form and I got it at work. I quickly tried to answer and so I jokingly said, 1. I want to go home from work and 2. I want Madison to score a goal tonight in her soccer game, which is pretty tough considering she plays defense, not offense. I said it as a total joke. Well, guess what? Madison did score a goal tonight... from about the half line. She booted it and it sailed through the air and past the goalie. I couldn't believe it... because I had just joked about it several hours earlier. The Flames won tonight 9-0. I felt bad for the other team because that was us last year... but boy it felt good to be on this side of the fence. My competitive daughter thought it was a bit boring because the competition wasn't hard enough.... never happy! They are a team that recently started playing together and surely some of them have never played much soccer before. In a few years, we'll probably wish we had a game like this against them. It was fun to recognize Tessa Z. from their team. I haven't seen her in a few years. Madison didn't recognize or remember her at all... she was about 6 when they left Silverwood for a church closer to their home in Shipshewana.

Short and sweet tonight...

Love to all, Leah