Random things about me

25 Random Things about Leah

1. If I didn't watch sports on TV, I wouldn't need one. If I'm at home alone, the TV is usually off. The quietness sounds nice at this stage of the game. Of course Hawkeye sports are my favorite.

2. I married my highschool sweetheart and am still in love. : ) I wish he was home more though... he works 60-70 hours a week. I appreciate that he is a hard-worker and a non-complainer.

3. I hated living in Goshen, IN for about the first 10 years or so of our marriage. I finally started praying to be content in all circumstances, and asked my family to stop asking us to move home, and it's better. I would still rather live in Iowa near my family, any day of the week. (My brother-in-law, Jeff, still regulary asks me when we are moving back!!). Did you know that it's still possible to feel homesick at age 40???

4. I have 5 nieces and 1 nephew but none live near us. I have 2 nieces waiting on me in heaven. I can't wait to hold them.

5. I hate making supper.

6. I don't mind doing laundry and I love my washing machine...a Whirlpool Carbrio. : )

7. I have the spiritual gifts of Mercy and Leadership. I use Mercy while working at the hospital as a nurse practitioner with chronic and cancer pain patients.

8. I'm the VP of Major Softball at Concord Little League.

9. I'm the chairperson of our congregation, Silverwood Mennonite Church.

10. I'm not at home very much, but our neighbors would tell you we drive in the driveway often, and usually leave right away again. It's the season of life... their day is coming. : ) (BTW, I have really nice neighbors).

11. Attending Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) was one of the BEST things that I ever did for myself years ago. Someday I want to join again.

12. My kids, Madison and Quinn, bring me the most joy in life. Watching them do things they love makes me happy. Hearing them laugh warms my heart. I try to soak them in and burn all of the moments into my memory. They are growing too fast.

13. I grew up in the country, on a sheep farm in Iowa.

14. I wish I could play the piano well enough to play at church.

15. I used to play volleyball in highschool and was ranked in the state for ace serves. Wow... that was forever ago. My kids don't even believe me...LOL

16. I like almost all foods, except fish, green peppers and Dr. Pepper.

17. My colleagues tell me I'm the calmest person in any crisis and they want me around when they are crashing. : )

18. I pray often and a lot, off and on all day long, and love the constant companion of Jesus in my life. I pray about everything... the present, the future, spouses for my kids, jobs, the stranger in line at the grocery store in front of me... people who would never suspect that I pray for them probably. I thank God every single day for the health and safety of our family. Who knows I may have prayed for you today! Do you need me to pray for you? I would count it a privilege to talk to the God of the universe for you and with you.

19. I'm not good at landscaping, flower gardening and basically have no clue what to do outside in the yard. I wish someone would come and save me and my flower beds.

20. I've decided I dislike tent camping very, very much but go for my kids and pretend to like it. I'm at the RV stage of life. Wonder where I could find one of those... cheap?! LOL

21. I'm afraid of snakes. My colleagues would see me NOT remain calm in a snake-circumstance.

22. I worked super hard for my master's degree in nursing when my kids were little. They were in 1st grade and 3rd grade when I graduated from Ball State. They both can remember going to my graduation. It was one of the happiest days of my life. Seriously. Much better than the undergrad.

23. You can tell me your deepest secret and I won't even be tempted to repeat it. I'm a very good confidant!

24. I used to play the flute in elementary and jr high. I can read music very well and carry a tune too! : )

25. I wish I had a bigger house so that we could entertain more. Some day I would love to host a ladies Bible study in my home.

OK... there are 25 totally random things, really you probably don't want to know all these things about me! Now it's your turn!

Bald is Beautiful!

Quinn has a new "do" in support of Lauren. She is a sweet little first grader and the younger sister of Quinn's friend, Trevor. Lauren is a survivor of kidney cancer and is currently going through chemo and recently completed radiation. Quinn and Trevor are in the same class and have played on many, many sports teams together. Trevor shaved his head this last weekend in support of Lauren because the chemo is causing the natural side effects of hair loss. Quinn and Nate shaved their heads to support Lauren, and Trevor too. He found that even his short hair was a good head-warmer... and it's a little chilly now without his hair!

Snow Camp Review

Quinn said that Snow Camp was "OK"... which after clarification means

• the food was good
• it was fun staying in the dorm-like room with Nate
• the sledding was fun
• yes, his snow clothes were hung up and dried out OK
• the top bunk was a "little too bouncy"

I really think he had a good time, it's just a little hard for him to be gone from home like that (2 nights in a row). He got a really neat t-shirt and I know he brought home some good memories too.

Snow Camp

This picture was taken earlier this week but tells the story of what I hope Quinn will be doing a lot over the next two days. Tonight Shari and I took Nate and Quinn to Snow Camp in Shipshewana. It's for 3rd-6th graders and with Nate's church, The Church of the Brethren. It is so COLD outside! School was cancelled today because of the -20 degree weather, even colder with the wind chill. Tomorrow it should be in the 20's so I'm glad it's going to be "warm enough" to go sledding. He was somewhat nervous about going, not much to be gone overnight for two nights in a row. I hope he does OK... and that I do OK too! : ) I tend not to sleep very well when my birds aren't all in the nest. They are staying in a "dorm" like building and he and Nate were quite happy to have their room for two, complete with their names on their door. I will be praying for them all weekend... and am already looking forward to Sunday afternoon. : )

Never to cold to play outside...

...for Madison and Cocoa that is.

Sledding at Ox Bow Park

Quinn and Nate convinced me to take them to Ox Bow Park today after school. It was SO ca-ca-ca-cold! I don't even know what the wind chill was this afternoon but it felt like it was in the negatives. They were out for 45 minutes. Quinn thought his chin had frozen solid when he was done. They had a great time but each had their share of spills and Quinn certainly had at least two face-plants (see center and top right). Where was Madison you ask? She went to the store with Heather and missed it!

Christmas Fondue

We celebrated Christmas with Beppe & Pakka on Saturday night. We always enjoy our yearly fondue... so good! We talked to Michelle, Archie and Jade on the web cam and the kids opened their gifts from them while they watched. We have about 10 inches of snow so the kids went sledding in their backyard first. It was a little difficult because the snow is so deep and it needs to be packed down more. They had fun though. It was a nice evening on a cold snowy night.

Room Makeover

Madison and I started the process of her room make-over back in the summer. It was quite the lengthy process but mostly because we didn't have large chunks of day time hours to work on it. The first step was to take off all of the wallpaper. Madison did most of this herself, however she recruited Abby to help her during the summer days when I was working. (Thank you Abby!) After the paper came off, the walls needed to be prepared; patched, sanded smooth, washed down... This project was pretty quiet through the first semester of school, although we found the bedding and picked out and bought the paint. She also started going through her things and boxing up the little girls things, and gave things away. We moved out a big bookshelf and Quinn added that to his room.

This past week we spent several more days back in her room. We taped all the walls one day, primed the walls the next and painted the final coat the following. We discovered that purple was a hard color to paint over. Thank goodness for the priming coat! After the painting was done, the fun part of decorating started. We bought new curtains, 2 lamps and set her room up. Altogether we think we put in about 25 hours of work into her new room. She loves it. No longer little girl looking... out with the bunnies and bows.

What do you think?

Happy New Year 2009!

Happy New Year! Today we went to John & Colleen's house to watch the Iowa Hawkeyes play S. Carolina in the Outback Bowl with them and also Tim, Tonya, Preston and Peyton. It was a fun game, lots of things to cheer about and I thanked our sweet hostess when we left for arranging for the hawks to win today as well. 31-10! The kids downloaded Mario Karts on their DS's and played each other between some of the football action. Peyton came home with us to hang out with Madison for the rest of the evening. We meant to get back to her room project tonight but it didn't happen. We watched lots of football today, a great way to start off 2009 (right Cheryl?)!