Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to the very special fathers in our lives... Tony, Grandpa and Pakka! This picture was taken after the kids gave Tony his gifts that they personally picked out. Quinn picked out a neck pillow because he often "feels" Tony's neck pain... literally. Quinn "catches" whatever ales other people. Madison picked a t-shirt for him that says, "I failed driver's ed"... which she thought was just hilarious. They also made him handmade cards and Madison gave him handmade coupons for things like... a free drink... free paper shredding service... and $5 off cleaning out his truck. She knew better than to do that one for free! Ha!

After church we spent the day at Beppe & Pakka's house and then went boating in the late afternoon. It was still around 90 degrees. Jenna is here with us for the weekend... going to camp tomorrow. The kids went tubing for the first time. They all loved it and begged for more. They also begged to go swimming so we shut the boat off and let them swim off the side of the boat. Guess what...? The boat wouldn't start again. Yep, happened on Mother's Day and now Father's Day too. We tried off and on for about 45min before I asked Tony if he thought this was God's way of telling us that we really aren't (and shouldn't be) boat people? So yes, it was humiliating again to be towed by a pontoon boat. After a short tow the boat did start again... who knows what was wrong. This was our fist voyage after getting the boat out of the marina shop... who put the boat through all the tests and $225 later told us nothing really was wrong and the mechanic even offered to buy the boat from us!

Hmmmm.... SO, we made another boat memory... getting to be too many if you ask me!!

Once again... being towed to shore!

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.

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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

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