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

Sun, rain and hail

Today I went on a field trip with Quinn to the Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center. The day started out a little rocky to begin with. When we went to get in the van to drive to school, it was completely dead. Madison had been in it the night before to retrieve something and left the dome light on!!! (How many times do I have to repeat myself about stuff like that?!). Soooo Karla was "our saviour" as Quinn put it and rushed over to rush us to school so we wouldn't miss the field trip bus. Part of the day it was absolutely beautiful with sunshine ... and then the rain fell... and then the hail pounded... well, we got to observe nature in a variety of different "climates" today. It is a pretty neat center. Quinn and I both really like nature so it was fun to look at stuff together. Here are some of the things I/we learned.

1. Moss on trees is one of the stages of decomposing.

2. It takes 50-100 years for a tin (steel) can to decompose enough to blend in with the dirt.

3. As far as scientists know, plastic does not ever decompose on it's own...so stop filling up the land fill with your plastic bottles and recycle them!!!

4. The Baltimore Orioles are just now arriving back into Northern Indiana and our guide spotted the first one at Merry Lea and thus put her in the lead in their staff contest of bird-watching (she was quite excited).

5. If you turn a log/branch over to look for cool critters under it, you should always turn it back down so that their habitat doesn't have to start all over, looking for new homes.

6. Hot dogs can still be roasted over an open fire in the middle of a rain shower.

7. Adults don't have to have umbrellas, we will survive if we get wet...although it is now confirmed that the hair style does NOT survive.

8. Hail melts quite quickly when the sun comes out and thus our group got to go on the hay ride after all.

9. TV weather people have absolutely no idea what they are talking about. Surely they must roll a dice to get their forecast each day.

10. Quinn doesn't mind (yet) holding his mama's hand, strolling through the forest, and giving warm hugs to me in front of his friends. He easily turned down his friend's invitation to sit with them on the bus. He chose me because, "I can sit with them anytime, but it's not very often I get to sit with you on the bus."

11. It really was a good day...except for the rain... and the hail....The best part of the day?... tonight Quinn said, "Thanks so much Mom for taking the day off of work and spending it with me." It made this vacation day so worth it.

Cloves!

Michelle shared this web site with me... over 5000 recipes that use cloves!! Since you only use 1 tsp at a time, this ought to just be enough to use up my supply! : ) Thanks Michelle!

http://www.recipezaar.com/recipes.php?foodido=1031,2431,6576,7898&title=clove

Quinn's Quips

Quinn's prayer last night went like this...

"Dear Jesus, Thank you for this day. Thank you for my friends and family. Thank you for protecting me today. Please help the saber-tooth tigers to mate. In Jesus' name, Amen."

And me... "What was that all about...saber-tooth tigers mating?" (!!!!)

Quinn said, "Oh, it's on Prehistoric Park on Animal Planet and it's this show about prehistoric animals and they really need these saber-tooth tigers to mate so they won't become extinct."

So I said, "Well, what exactly does mating mean anyway?"....

He replied, "Oh, it just means that they'll get married and have cubs."

Whew.....

Spice it up

Catchy title huh? I recently went through my spices because I can never find the one I’m looking for, some of them are ancient and really could probably be a hazard to our health! I have a question for you… what does one household need with 3 bottles of ground or whole cloves??? Yes, I have three!! That is an example of not being organized to know what I have and what I don’t have. SO, I pulled them all out and alphabetized them all when I put them back in and then typed up a list with the alphabetical order and posted it in my spice cupboard. Now, guess how many spices and extracts I have…37 different kinds!! That’s after throwing a few out and not counting some of my doubles (or triples). Is that ridiculous or what? You would think I am a gourmet cook or something. I don’t even know what alum is! I think it’s for gingerbread but I’m really not too sure. Scary. I always wished that I would have gotten one of those spice rack thingy-things … I wouldn’t be having this conversation with you now would I? So humor me, go count your spices and then make me feel better or even more ridiculous. And in the mean time… does anyone have a good recipe that uses A LOT of ground cloves??

Sun-filled, Fun-filled Saturday

The Flames tied their game today against Northwest Indiana, 2-2. They didn't play very well in the first half and went to half-time with a 0-2 score. They played much better the second half and were able to tie. Madison played fairly well for as bad of a week as she had. I wasn't sure she would play at all today. She told me that after the game she told Marcus that she was "sorry I didn't play my best today but I'm dehydrated!" : ) She wasn't as fast as she usually is. She told me she was just "SO TIRED!" ...I wonder why? She is feeling so much better otherwise and her appetite is finally back.

Nathan joined us for the day and is spending the night. His family is going to a wedding in Chicago and they thought he would enjoy playing outside the entire day instead of being cooped up inside in wedding attire. I think they probably made a wise choice. It was so cute, Tony was teasing him at supper tonight and told him, "listen Buddy, I know your tricks!"... and with a sly smile Nathan said, "nuh-uh, you don't know ALL of them!" That's Nathan for ya, and his way of saying that he has more antics up his sleeve. Which he did.

We are dog-sitting for Duchess this weekend too. Beppe & Pakka went to Iowa for a wedding as well. I guess this is getting to be the season for weddings. She is always so well-behaved for us. We like to have her here.

Madison and Quinn had ball practice today and Madison went to Alexa's tonight for a birthday party and slumber party. I sure hope we didn't make a mistake by letting her go... probably won't help the fatigue factor any. But according to Madison, "Tracy throws the BEST birthday parties!" We went to Buffalo Wild Wings tonight. The boys brought money to play their 2 video games. Nathan earned "a buck-fifty" from Tony for picking up sticks today and Quinn brought money from his piggy-bank and it was all burning a hole in their pockets. They were disappointed that the games were out of order. Without our suggestion, our gentlemanly son decided to leave his "buck-fifty" on the table for a tip for the waitress. We talked about how hard waitresses have to work for their money and that she probably had a family at home that she didn't get to spend the evening with. I was proud of him.

Well, that's all for tonight. Hope you are having a good weekend.

Love to all, Leah

Is it Tuesday?

It felt like a Tuesday today because it was only my 2nd day at work this week. Weird! It was actually good that I was there because I was quite busy the whole day... it does make the day go super fast. I had my evaluation today and I was told that as soon as I say the words "full-time" ... their answer would be yes, right away. They've asked me too many times for me to remember, to go full-time. They used to just hint around at it, then they kind of "dream of what we could do if only...." and now they just flat out ask me about it. My answer has always been the same. The #1 reason I went back to school was so that I could be home in the morning and afternoon for the kids. I didn't get to do that much the first 5-8 years of their short lives. SOoooo, today, he (Vladimir) is now back to the "hinting around" about going full-time but he also told me that he was so happy that I have made my values and priorities very clear the last couple of years and that he respected me for taking a stand on them when it isn't easy to do in today's working world. YES! ... I've always been plagued by guilt, pretty much no matter what it seems. Guilty that I'm not at home more, guilty that I'm not at work more, guilty that I say no, guilty that I say yes, guilty that I have to be gone for an evening for an educational event, guilty that I'm NOT gone for an evening for education. I just can't win with myself! I have to give myself pep talks every now and then. When I'm resting in Christ, I have no reason to be guilty! If I've "covered" it all with Him and am acting according to what His will is for me now, why do I feel this way? I think some of it is natural for a mother... but some of it is the enemy, happy to leave me discontented. My prayer has many times been to arrive at the same feeling as Paul, in Philippians 4:11-13 which says this...

"I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through Him who gives me strength."

I was totally not planning on a sermonette tonight... I really didn't even know what I was going to say tonight when I sat down at the computer but these words just flowed out. Perhaps this will be an encouragement for some one who needs this scripture tonight as often as I do.

Love to all, Leah

Finally!

Madison went to school today and I went to work. Life looks like it will FINALLY get back to normal! She still hasn't gotten her appetite back yet. Yesterday she had 1 cracker. She really tried to drink for me though. Once I looked at her and she said, "Don't tell me to drink right now because I just set my cup down and I'm tired of you telling me to drink!" WELL! ...I accepted the sassiness as a sign that she might be "recovering". Ha! I was a little nervous to send her off to school. She was nervous about it too but she did fine, just a little tired, weak and her leg muscles are quite sore (dehydration). I did give her some Phenergan though before she left. She wasn't able to eat breakfast because of an upset stomach. She missed all of soccer and softball this week. We'll see how she does over the next day or two and ease back into activities slowly. Amanda, she has watched 4 Little House on the Prairie CDs... or 16 shows this week from Season 1! We wished you lived closer so we could borrow Season 2. I should check with the library...

Tonight I went to the team leader meeting for Madison's softball team. This year their fund raiser is cookie dough and coffee. I bet those things will go well. I get so tired of fund raisers but that's how these volunteer organizations survive and with 700 kids in this Little League... I guess it's necessary.

That's all for tonight. Hope you all are well!

Love to all, Leah

Hold on to that thought!

Well, I thought Madison was over this... this morning she was ready to go to school, I was completely ready for work but unfortunately when the bus was rounding the corner, she was in the bathroom throwing up again! Quinn was so confused... first I'm yelling at him on the curb to HOLD THE BUS because she is on the way and then I'm yelling at him to SEND THE BUS ON ... what a mess! So, Beppe & Pakka came over for a little while this morning so I could go to work and see the first couple of patients... who were on their way I'm sure. Poor work... they were a MESS!! I felt SO BAD to leave them that way! What a week... (Sigh!).

SO, Madison and I are home again... we just finished American Idol from last night. We have officially chosen Melinda as our favorite but I still think Jordan will probably win.

Love from sick-central, Leah

Turning the corner

Madison turned the corner around lunch time today. I was getting quite concerned about dehydration this morning... wow, does that ever give you the acetone smelling breath! I finally got her to light up a little when I suggested a Slurpee from 7-11. It was worth the trip... the calories were very helpful and she finally started to turn the corner. She kept it down along with one cracker for breakfast, 1 piece of toast for lunch and 1/2 cup of rice tonight. She acts so much better, even laughed! She lost 5 pounds over the last few days. She wants to go to school tomorrow so I hope she'll make it for the day. That breath though... whew, that needs to improve A LOT! She's sick of me telling her to drink! She plowed through 2 days worth of homework tonight and feels ready to go so that's great news!

Today was an absolutely beautiful day at 70 degrees! We sat out on the deck for a while and Madison laid on the deck under a blanket for at least 2 hours watching me do some clean up in the garage, deck and storage shed. She felt up to playing some Yahtzee today so that helped make the day go faster too. We even treated ourselves to manicures tonight while Quinn entertained the neighborhood kids again outside. He was so upset that Madison "got to" stay home today and he had to go to school. He seriously told me that he wished he would be sick so he could stay home too. I think his sick days have been entirely too much fun. I need to make them miserable in the future I guess. I made him some chocolate chip cookies today and had them piping hot out of the oven when he got home from school to ease his "wounds" of missing our day. "You made these just for me?... you really did?...awesome!"

Well, that was our day... Tony just got home so I'll go and visit with him.

Love to all, Leah

Quinn's quips

While reading a recipe Quinn noticed that it called for smoked provolone cheese.

"Why in the world would anyone want to add smoke to their cheese? That is so disgusting!"

"What?... What are you talking about?"

"Well, it says right here, smoked provolone (which he couldn't pronounce) cheese... why would someone want to add smoke?"

"No Buddy, not cigarette smoke... it's like a charcoal grill smokey flavor that is added to the cheese."

"Oh"

Quinn Quips

While helping him dry off from the shower, carefully treading around his "bad knee" (that is skinned up)...

Quinn said, "I just have no idea what I would do without a mom in this world... I mean, it just wouldn't work without a mom."

I said, "Oh you would do just fine with Your dad... he's such a good daddy that you would do great."

"No I don't think so... I mean, what if I had to go to the hospital or something, Dad wouldn't know what to do..."

(My number one fan is SO CUTE!).

A whole lot of nothing...

Today Madison and I were home because she was sick. While I love being at home I certainly don't like it because of having a sick child. The poor girl laid on the couch the whole day... when she wasn't in the bathroom. She has kept down 2 crackers today...that's about it. I had to play the "if-you-don't-drink-then- you'll-have-to-have-an-IV-started-and-give-you-fluids-that-way" card because she was pretty adamant that she wasn't drinking either because her stomach hurt too much. That made her pick up her glass pretty quick. Thank goodness she doesn't have a fever to worsen dehydration. Beppe found out that Madison was sick and was over within the hour with some of Madison's special peach tea... to woo her into drinking something. She drank it but unfortunately it didn't stick, if you know what I mean. Still quite sick at 8:30 tonight and was more than ready to go to bed and get this day checked off the calendar. Done. Made it. Barely. We did catch up on our American Idol episodes this afternoon that we were so far behind on. We decided that we don't have one favorite this year. Mark this down, I think Jordan will win it all.

Tony went to Madison's softball practice tonight to coach and Quinn went to his baseball practice. Quinn was so excited when he got home because apparently he made a triple play in his baseball practice. He was playing shortstop and caught a fly ball, tagged the runner out and then ran and stepped on a base. One of the coaches was so excited that he ran out on the field to give him a high five! He also said that he "fight-ed through the pain" and slid into a base tonight (on his "bad knee").... and apparently survived it.

That's all for tonight. Hopefully our day tomorrow will go better but it's looking very doubtful for school tomorrow. We were trying to remember when she last ate a real meal... I think it was on Friday night. She at least needs to eat and drink before going back to school.... ya think?!

Love to all, Leah

Sunny Sunday

Today was a beautiful day in the low 80's. Quinn got his second skinned up knee today, both bike wrecks... the first one was yesterday and was actually pretty bad. Taking off the dressing today was ...well, according to Tony..."what were you doing to him? It sounded like you must have been stabbing him or something!" Yaw, he had a "few" tears. Poor guy. Skinned knees do hurt don't they?

Also "poor Madison" today. Her stomach started hurting this morning and I'll spare you all the throwing up gory details but she ended up getting worse instead of better and can't go to school tomorrow. She said she had a terrible day. Quinn and half the neighborhood had a water gun fight, rode bikes and played baseball in our yard, while Madison laid on the couch under 4 blankets. Poor girl.

I practiced my cake decorating today. Dr. Poovendran is quitting his anesthesia part of his practice and will be in the pain clinic full time now. M-F. Yes, it will definitely be different but he will still take his 1 week of vacation a month so that won't change. We decided to have a "coming out" party for him tomorrow so I made the cake and the others decorated his office. Here is a picture of the cake... it is certainly not worth writing home about. Get this ... it took 2 HOURS to decorate it!! I even baked it yesterday!! Today it was making the frosting (twice) and actually getting it on the cake. Boy, hope that gets faster.

I hope you all have a good week. My stomach is now kind of queasy... Tony reassures me that it's all in my head so I'm going to try and buy into that thinking for now!

Love to all, Leah

Quinn's Quips

The setting: Laying in Quinn's bed, with him just ready to drift off to sleep, he suddenly has this urgent question...

"Mom, can you live without your eyes?"

"Yes, you can... there are a lot of blind people who do just fine."

"No, I mean, can you actually LIVE without your eyes at all?"

"Yes, as long as you don't get an infection... someone might have to wear dark glasses or may be a glass eyeball to make the eyes look normal."

"Yah, you sure wouldn't want your identity known... I mean, it would just be so embarrassing to walk around without ANY eyes... OK, goodnight."

Flames WIN!

You read the title right... the Flames soccer team won this morning! They played the Junior Irish in South Bend and beat them 6-2. It was so much more fun to be on the scoring side of things. Their drought has finally ended! The girls were actually their size... makes sense since they are close to the same age. Madison did a wonderful job on defense and Peyton did great on offense, scoring 3 of the goals! More than anything else we noticed how ALL of the girls have improved since the last season. It was amazing! Their foot work was so much better and you could tell they actually had some "plans" out there of what they were going to do with the ball. Seeing that improvement was the best part. I guess all those winter practices were worth it!

It was a bit "painful" to get Madison up at 7am on a Saturday and she told me she felt tired during the game; hopefully they won't play that early away from our home field again. Of course Quinn was up and dressed already.

That's all... just wanted to share their news!
Leah

Busy Friday

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day... 70 degrees and guess what? I was off today! Yippee-yahoo! It doesn't usually work out like that for me. I actually spent most of the day indoors but so enjoyed the weather during my dashes in/out of places.

This morning Karla, Lisa, Eliza, Angie and I had coffee at The Refinery. I have to say that I thought that coffee was MUCH better than Panera!! What did you guys think? The atmosphere is better, coffee is better... it's just all around better!

I chatted for about an hour and then it was off to school to help in Madison's class. I do so enjoy going...however it does take off a pretty good chunk of my day. I'm usually there 2-3 hours. I'm just so happy to be able to actually get to volunteer at my kid's school. Me... a working mom, gets to do this!... I do feel blessed for what may seem like a trivial thing to you! I work with MANY working mothers (surprised?) that don't get this opportunity. I graded some papers and did some photocopying. I also had lunch with Quinn today so that was a special treat. I got to meet a classmate of his, Nathan C. (we have so many Nathans in our life!), and Quinn told me that he especially likes Nathan because his dad repairs airplanes for his job. He wanted Nathan to tell me all about it! Wow... what excitement (for Quinn).

I then had to head to the grocery store, one of my least favorite chores, and then to Target real fast and then home. It was now close to 2:30 so I unloaded and put the groceries away (handling each item 5 times... count how many times you actually handle your groceries) did some laundry, checked my email and before I knew it the bus was dropping off the kids. What a fast day!

The kids grabbed a fast snack and then we went to pick up Karla, Katie and Nathan and we went to the farm to see the calves. Madison and Katie's "job" right now is just to pet them and talk to them and build some trust so that they'll get to know each other. They don't even put a harness on for another month or so. This was Quinn's first trip and boy was he complaining because we had to leave "so soon"... like an hour later. Madison has decided that she would like to live on this farm and get up and do the milking in the morning. I wonder how long that would last.

After we got home from the farm, I had about 30minutes to make and feed the kids supper and get the kids ready because tonight M & Q went with B & P to see Charlotte's Web at their church. I was hoping to go out for supper or may be even to a movie with my dear husband but my dear husband is still at work as I write this!! I told him he owes me.

Tomorrow we have to leave by 7:45am for Madison's first Flames game for this season. I can't wait to see how her team fares against other girls the same age. Last season we didn't score any goals AT ALL... against 12 year old girls.

Love to all, Leah

Thursday

Today was just a pretty normal day... actually we were on the slower side at work, so that wasn't normal, but I'm not complaining!! Tonight was soccer practice for Madison and baseball practice for Quinn. After both of those we met Tony in a parking lot and handed Quinn over to him so Madison and I could go on to the 4H Dairy Club. We got there late, around 7:45 but that's the best we could do. We filled out forms to register the calf for the fair. There's more to "it" now that I'm the mom doing all of this. Surely my mom and dad had to fill out all of these forms when we showed our sheep at the fair. I certainly don't remember any of that!

That's all for tonight folks. Pretty boring huh?
Love to all, Leah

Cake decorating class

Madison and I went to our cake decorating class and these are the cupcakes we made tonight! Aren't they awesome?... Don't you think they are a little "too awesome" for us??? OK, Ok, OK... they aren't ones we made, but some day we hope to make. Here is a picture of the cake that Madison made tonight

... she practiced some of the various "techniques" that we learned. She was quite happy with it, so I am too!

We were the only ones in the class! The other 6 students couldn't come for one reason or another and class was cancelled last week so the instructor insisted that we come anyway. So, we had the instructor to ourselves... and according to her, it's "just like 3 friends getting together". She's real sweet. We had a good time and it was fun to do something with my girl.

Tony was working so Quinn hung out with Nate. Grandma Jo, they have now started using Nate's "Chat Now" phones... basically a walkie-talkie and it works from his house to ours so they aren't tying up the phone line now. They had to "chat" while Quinn was brushing his teeth, getting his PJ's on... they might as well live together. We are thrilled because they (Quinn & Nate) have decided that they will go to Camp Friedenswald this summer for 2 nights! Quite a big step for both of them I think but there is strength in numbers and as long as they keep their shoulders velcroed together, they're confident they will do great. Madison was talking camp up to Quinn and was listing off all of the fun things you can do... "you can throw note balls to each other during rest time..." and Quinn was buying all of the fun until he heard that, "That is the problem! I don't know how to throw a note ball!"...and from Madison, "You write a note, wad it up and throw it at the person!"... and from Quinn, "Ohhhh" with relief in his voice. Whew... let's get all the particulars down. Madison informed me tonight that she is going to camp every single year, even when she has gray hair... I guess by that time she'll either be working at the camp or running it! Ha!

Well, that's all for tonight folks.

Love to all, Leah

What to do with these Easter eggs??

Does anyone else have hard-boiled colored Easter eggs staring at them every single time you open the refrigerator? Madison and I love deviled eggs. I haven't gotten around to making them yet and really, how many eggs can you really eat? ...Not that many if you appreciate your current cholesterol level. I thought I would look for a different recipe though... to shake things up a bit. I went to www.tasteofhome.com and "only" found 80 different recipes! Who would have guessed you can do that much with an egg yolk! Anyway, here is a recipe I thought I would try. Anyone want to beat me to it... and tell me if it's worth "risking" my colored Easter eggs on?

Garlic Deviled Eggs

6 hard-cooked eggs
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/2 to 1 teaspoon prepared mustard
2 green onions with tops, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1/8 teaspoon salt
Paprika

Slice eggs in half lengthwise; remove yolks and set whites aside. In a small bowl, mash yolks. Add mayonnaise, mustard, onions, garlic and salt. Fill egg whites; sprinkle with paprika. Refrigerate until serving. Yield: 1 dozen

Stress Relievers

Hello, We had a good weekend... COLD but good. We tried to practice some stress-relieving activities. Some of "us girls" decided to go shopping and out for supper. What better way to relieve stress huh? So, Friday night was a shopping night and out to Don Pablos with Karla, Lisa and Angie. It was great. Tony took the kids to see the movie "Meet the Robinsons" and out for supper. They had a nice evening with just Dad, which was really good for them too.

Yesterday Madison and Tony had softball practice from 10-12 and then they ran a few errands. She was supposed to have soccer in the afternoon but somehow came up with a sore ankle after her Thursday night practice so she didn't go. She must have gotten kicked off the side of her shin guard or something because her shin is swollen and it's swollen down into her ankle. This is her second injury this season already (remember the back?...and before that it was the wrist?). I think I need to start praying about that...injury prevention. Quinn had baseball practice at 4pm but after 1 hour and snow flakes blowing around, they quit early (thank goodness).

So anyway, Madison and I went with Terry, Karla, Katie and Nathan to the farm that has the calves that Katie and Madison are going to show at the 4H fair this summer. This was their first meeting. The calves are about 6 weeks old. The farmers have a "system" to their naming of the cows because they are all registered. It just so happens that Katie's calf is named "Honey" and Madison's is named "Crisp"... pretty cute huh? We were there about 2 1/2 hours, touring their dairy farm. Twice a day they milk around 210 cows. Wow! It was a very cold but interesting afternoon. Each cow gives around 100-120 pounds of milk each day, this is approximately 15 gallons of milk per day!

Madison meets Crisp for the first time.

Crisp

Honey thinks Katie's fingers taste pretty good.


Today was church and then to Hacienda afterwards for lunch. This afternoon at 4:30 is Small Group at Rex & Angie's house and that pretty much wraps up our weekend. It sure went fast! I hope you all have a good week.


Love to all, Leah

Rollpak has been sold

Well folks, we are finally allowed to share what all of the heart of Tony's busyness has been about. Rollpak has been sold to Berry Plastics. I know... quite a shock for you all I'm sure. It's been knowledge that has really been a burden to bear without being able to share with our closest family and friends due to the strict confidentiality requirements. This process originally started last Fall. We learned of it at the beginning of December. A short time later Dave left and Tony has been incredibly busy ever since; trying to do all of the "normal" work stuff and trying to work with preparing the numerous financial information that prospective buyers have requested over the last few months. Wednesday of this week was the actual closing of the sale of Rollpak. It is with very mixed emotions that those employees say good-bye to the founders of Rollpak and welcome a new, much larger company to steer their ship. The majority of the employees found out about the sale this past Monday. ...Really, it would have been a blessing NOT to know about all of this until most of the questions one would have, would actually have an answer. Of course the biggest fear was that it would be sold to another company that makes can liners, a pretty normal assumption really. If that was the case most likely all of the administrative staff would have most likely been let go and the factory would have been run by the parent administration. A lot of prayers went up for Rollpak the last 5-6 months. Berry Plastics makes a very LARGE amount of plastic bottles etc, etc, etc. They are a 3.1 billion dollar company and employ around 14,000 around the USA. They have chosen to leave Rollpak as it is ... just changing the name to Berry Plastics and leaving Rollpak as the "brand name"... just like "Ziplock" would be a brand name of their manufacturer. For more information on Berry, you can go to http://www.berryplastics.com/ . There is a press-release about their purchase of Rollpak on the right hand side of their home page that was posted yesterday.

Tony met the new owners this week and last night there was a dinner at the Blue Gill for the management team and their spouses to meet the new owners. I have to say that they are extremely nice, warm and likable people. Two of the wives were there and they certainly seemed like normal, down to earth people who were easy to talk to. The chairman and CEO was there. It will be so different now with a HUGE company. I'll probably never lay eyes on him again. Their home base is in Evansville, IN. They had several "toasts" throughout the evening. More than once people thanked Tony for all of the many hours he has put in and for what a great job he has done. I thought that was very nice and made him feel appreciated. Between Monday and Tuesday of this week, he had already worked 37 hours, re-taking their inventory and preparing up to date financial information for the closing on Wednesday. I don't even work that much in 1 week!! He's too old to be pulling all-nighters and he is definitely feeling it. He didn't look so good when he headed out this morning. I think our vacation should have been for this next week instead of last week.

So, my worry is that this "secret" will offend people because they didn't know about it. Please, please, please don't feel this way. It truly was something that we wish we wouldn't have had to know about. It was very difficult at the Christmas party this year for Tony, to look around at these friends and colleagues and wonder if any of them would have a job in a few months. We wanted so terribly to share with you; for me it was actually painful not to be able to share... us women gain strength from talking things out with others! In a way it made us rely on God all the more... for controlling the anxiety and giving us reassurances that everything would be OK, no matter the outcome. I guess all things are opportunities to grow closer to Christ.

Well, I know this has been very long. I would have loved to call each of you up and told you in person one by one but that's probably not practical and certainly this is one way that I get to tell each of you the facts myself instead of hearing it through the grapevine. So, for those of you that have prayed for Tony and his job without knowing any of the specifics, I truly thank you and please know that your prayers were and are coveted. We still have many unknowns about what his job will be like from now on but we feel secure that he still will have a job and that reassurance has been a blessing.

My love to each of you, Leah

Touching base on Tuesday

Tonight was soccer practice for Madison and Quinn's first baseball practice. He was worried that he wouldn't know any one on his team but it turns out that he is aquainted with a couple of the boys. It was pretty cold... in the 40's. Of course our hot-blooded Madison was peeling off layers of clothing that I made her wear... the first to go was her sweatpants. I didn't even set the shorts out, thinking there would be no way she would even consider the need to take them off. I was wrong. She planned ahead and wore them under her sweats. She's a little like you Amanda... always on the HOT side!...but in 45 degree weather??? Her first soccer game is this coming Saturday and it is supposed to be in the 40's and also rain too. Anyone want to come sit out there with us?

This is an extremmely busy week for us. Tony is out of the picture with work. He worked 18 hours yesterday and haven't seen him yet today. I think I need to get Beppe and Pakka a PDA just to keep up with our family! They have been quite helpful!!! I told someone today that my job sure gets in the way of the things I need to be doing in life! Ha! (And I don't even work a full 8 1/2 hour day!... pathetic!).

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

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! The Lord is risen! The Lord is risen indeed!

We had a strange start to our Easter morning. Our electricity went out around 3am today and was off for 6 hours. We don't know why... ?? So, because we sleep with a fan, we woke up frequently after that, not used to the silence. We went to church and then to Beppe and Pakka's for lunch. She can be gone for a whole week too (to Kansas) and get back at 10pm last night and still throw together a big Easter meal. It's a gift... and we're so happy we benefit from it! We came home this afternoon and just tried to relax and recuperate from last week. Nate's family got home from Florida this evening around 6 and I think he arrived here around 6:15. He and Quinn were so glad to see each other!

There have been 3 special birthdays within the last week or so. Today is Karla's birthday... a big Happy Birthday to you Karla!! My mom and dad both had birthdays too; Mom's was March 29 and Dad's was April 6. Mom had a "milestone" birthday but if you want to know exactly which one, you'll have to ask her (or me in person!). Happy birthday to both of you too!

Tony has a very BIG week this week at work. I'll post more details tomorrow night. If you can just remember him in prayer that would be great. All of the past 4 month's of extreme busyness should get some better after this week. He's already said not to expect to see much of him this week. He's not even going to the practices that he coaches (softball)! So, more details coming but if you could pray for endurance and relief of headaches/neck pain we would appreciate the prayer coverage.

I uploaded some vacation pictures from Smoky Mountains, Day 1 through Day 5. My dear sister-in-law, Michelle, accidentally "stole" some of my pictures from my camera's SD card when she was attempting to copy/paste and instead "moved" them to her laptop. I'll have to get those back from her and then update the rest with pictures.

That's all tonight. I hope you each have a good week. I'm going to be quoting over and over... "just be glad you had a vacation, not sad that it's over"...all day long tomorrow I think. Usually there is a price to be paid at work when you return. Romans 8:31 says that God is on my side though... so who in the world can be against me?

Love to all, Leah

What I learned on vacation...

Things I learned about our family while on vacation to the Smoky Mountains...

1. After several weeks/months of talking about where we were going on spring break we found out that we were mispronoucing the city! Sevierville is pronounced "Severe-ville" ... like severe pain or something... not see-ver-ville. Ha!

2. Quinn has some "take charge" and leadership qualities showing up. He repeatedly was "gathering" everyone to make up their minds and order our food ... talking to the wait staff like a little grown up... just a few examples. Tony and I were amazed... it happened time and time again.

3. Madison had courage to face some of her fears... of heights for one. She was able to confidently ride the sky lift up to the alpine sledding hill after quite a few practices at it. She tried a rock climbing wall but shocked us when she quit when 3/4 of the way up. "I made one mistake" she said, "I looked down."

4. If I have to I can go for 36 hours on clear liquids and absolutely nothing else! Pain is a strange motivating factor. It worked and I'm so thankful. I continued to have a toothache every single day but was able to get through it with Advil every 4 hours (literally). (The dentist needs to adjust the height of a crown I think).

5. Tony loves his kids enough to get up at 8am on vacation just to take them swimming for 2 hours before our day of sight-seeing begins... to make sure that they got this request in. (This gave him some time to work on his laptop for Rollpak too).

6. Jade doesn't stop growing when we don't get to see her for several months. She is taller and talking more... we all loved to hear her say "Got it!" when finding her Easter eggs for the first time.

Smoky Mountains, Day 8

Hello everyone,

We are back home safe and sound. It took us about 8 hours from Archie & Michelle's house and we got home at 8:30 tonight. We've already got the 2nd load of clothes in the washer, all of the suitcases are unpacked and I've made my vegetable dish for Easter dinner tomorrow at Beppe & Pakka's. We had a great time on our trip... but it sure is ca-ca-ca-cold up here!!!... low 30's. Thank you Karla for turning our heat on for us... the house was nice and warm.

Here's a "Quinn's Quip" for you. Tonight, about 7 1/2 hours into the trip, the kids were just bickering back and forth about dumb stuff... "his leg is on my side... she keeps touching my pillow..."...yada-yada-yada. So, I told Quinn that he should imagine that there is an invisible wall right down the middle of the van, blocking the view of Madison from him. He says,
"But Mom... if it's invisible, I can still see right through it!"
Ahhhhhh!!... "OK, so think of it as a huge curtain down the middle of the van, that you can't see through!" Tony didn't help the situation either, "well Mama, you know he's really right..." Another Ahhhhhh!!...we've been in the van for tooooo long today!!

OK, I must put my weary body to bed!

Love to all, Leah

Smoky Mountains, Day 7

Today we took a tour of Fort Campbell... the 101st Airborne army base where Archie is stationed at. It's pretty amazing that after you go through the guarded entrance that you are basically entering a different sub-culture... certainly one that is different from one that we live in. The base is huge and is basically it's own contained city. Just think of the city of Goshen (with a whole bunch of open fields included) all within a gated fence... that's the best way to say it and compare it's size. Of course most of their industry is army related but they have everything you need... 5 elementary schools, 2 jr. highs and sr. high, a hospital, dental, groceries, gas stations, stores, gyms, churches (like 5 or so that I saw). It is 164 square miles!! It was pretty amazing. Michelle and I could basically think of no reason as to why you would have to leave the army base... except the dental clinics only care for soldiers, not the families (just to manage their patient loads).

We also toured their base's museum. This base's specialty is helicopters... the black hawks that you see on the news etc... most of them are based here. I have now gone through quite a few airplane type of museums with Quinn's infatuation over the years. Much of the "air history" is attached to the military in some way... how instrumental they have been in our country's history. No matter what my feelings are about wars and fighting, I'm always humbled and nearly ashamed of my basic ignorance as to the sacrifice in the name of freedom that these men and women and their families have made across the decades. It's so amazing to read about "real" people that were instrumental in WW II, Vietnam, Dessert Storm and now Iraqi Freedom. It just makes you look at things differently... I know most of you aren't as interested in aviation as my family is (or part of us is) but I encourage you that if you get a chance to walk through such a museum, just for the educational value, to do so. And give Quinn a call, I'm sure he'll be happy to be your personal tour guide.

This afternoon we dyed Easter eggs with Jade and hid Easter eggs for her in the house. It's freezing cold today... even saw some snow flakes, so that kept us inside for part of the time. It was extra fun and special because this was Jade's first time for those activities. She really enjoyed all of it... she was the record holder for the fastest Easter egg dyer... she had her eggs dipped in dye and done in no time.

Tomorrow we head for the North. I'm ready for my own bed but not ready to get back to the busyness of life I guess. We've enjoyed our time away so much and feel so blessed to have the opportunity to take vacations. So many kids never experience other communities. That in itself amazes me. It's about an 8 hour drive home tomorrow. I probably won't post tomorrow night unless it's to say we made it home safely. The unpacking is not nearly as fun as the packing in anticipation to go somewhere. As my mom has advised me before, I'll try to "focus on being glad that this vacation happened... and not be sad that it's over."

Love to all of you, Leah

Smoky Mountains, Day 6

Today we left Sevierville around 10am and travelled to Clarksville, TN... 4 hours straight West and just outside of Nashville. Tony's sister Michelle and her family, Archie & Jade, live here near Fort Campbell, KY where Archie works in the Army. It was a beautiful drive, it went quickly. We gained an hour by entering central time so we got to their house around 1pm their time. We spent the afternoon and evening with them in their home, just enjoying each other's company. It's fun to see how much Jade has changed. She's gotten taller and she is saying more words now. Our kids don't give Uncle Archie much time to rest... they are constantly tickling or wrestling or teasing or something. Of course we always like to listen to his stories from one of his two deployments to Iraq. He is a great story teller!

That's all for today. Love to all, Leah

Smoky Mountains, Day 5

This morning started out with swimming in the indoor pool for Tony and the kids from 8-10am. They did not get to go swimming yesterday so thought they needed to find a way to get that in for sure today. Afterwards we headed off to the Tennessee Museum of Aviation. Quinn couldn't figure out why I didn't think it would be busy with tourists. Of course he loved it and with him mostly at the camera controls, we came out with 98 pictures of this site. Wow... would anyone like to sit through all of these for him? He was able to "talk shop" with the volunteer on the hanger floor, discussing airplanes, and which airplane performed better in WW II etc... Quite interesting to watch. He was quite conversational with the gift shop lady... even told her that "When I grow up, I'm thinking about moving here, so I can come here every single day." Needless to say he LOVED IT! Madison, on the other hand, barred it as well as a big sister could. : ) (See photo)

We went to the Forbidden Caverns in Sevierville in the early afternoon. This is a large cave that goes as deep as 650 feet. We took a walking tour for about 1 hour through the cave and saw stalagmites, stalagtites, the largest area of onyx in the US, a small river flows through it... it was very cool and educational for all of us. Some of the stalagtites are pencil thin and hang down really low. We were instructed not to touch the walls of the cave and I told Tony is was all I could do not to reach out and snap one of those things off!! It was a complusion I wanted to act on so badly!!! :) Quinn gathered a bunch of dandelions outside and presented me with the bouquet right before we walked in. He was so proud of himself and so sweet... I carried those crazy things for the next 1 1/2 hours!!!

We had made 5pm supper reservations for the Hoot 'n Holler dinner show at Wonder Works. It was an Italian meal with entertainment while we ate in the form of singing, some special "tricks" with audience participation and during the dessert they started the highlight of the night which was a mini-play about Paul Bunyan. They needed audience participation for some of the parts and wouldn't you know that out of the 4 parts, Tony was one selected! To make a long story short he came out at the end dressed as a baby... complete with a tablecloth diaper, bonnet, bottle, rattle and "cried" into the microphone. It was just hilarious. Quinn was nearly beside himself with laughter. I video taped the whole mini-play (against the rules). Quinn has teased Tony A LOT now about him being a baby and needing his diaper changed etc... HA!!

We stopped at the Super Walmart on our way home from the show because they had a kiosk that I noticed earlier in the week. You could pick out a design and an artist would spray-brush your design on t-shirts with your name on it. Since we've never ever found anything with Quinn's name on it I thought that would be perfect for him. They loved picking out their designs and Madison and I watched him work on the shirts. Of course there is a story behind this too with the shape of the "Q"... the artist painted the slash coming straight out of the 7 o'clock position instead of at 5 o'clock and it took some talking to the lady at the desk to even get her to talk to the artist about it ("that's just how he makes his Q's"... and from me "well my son can't find anything with his name on it and this Q is wrong and I want it to be right!"....insert a SIGH!!!) soooo, the artist didn't find it to be a big deal and fixed it perfectly by making all of the letters more bold in style. Easy fix... hassle to get it done though!!

By now it was 8:30-9 and so we went back to the condo and played some cards on our last night in the smokies. The kids went to bed and Tony and I watched our Redbox Rental of "Pursuit of Happyness" (mispelled word intended) with Will Smith... it was very good. So, it was a late night but such a fun day. I asked everyone how they would grade their day. Tony's neck/headaches weren't bothersome at all, the t-shirt turned out OK and so we all gave it an A+ of a day. Quinn gave it an A+ with about 50 +'s behind it... so much I had to tell him to cool it down a bit.

Well, I know this was a long post tonight. It was an adventuresome day. We all agree that we have loved the Smokies and hope to come back. We only touched on a small percentage of things that you could possibly do here. Wish you all were here with us!

Love to all, Leah

Smoky Mountains, Day 4

Today we all slept in... actually Tony found Quinn playing his Game Boy at 6:30 and made him go back to sleep (that morning boy!)... Madison didn't get up until some time after 9. The kids wanted to drive some go-carts... not just be the riders in ones that were too big for them. So, we went to Nascar Speedpark that is less than a mile away from us. The weather was perfect-o, however, the lines were quite long... I finally convinced Tony to let me go stand in another line while they stood in one line and then they could come over and get in line with me. He felt bad about doing that... hey, I'm all about productivity. I stood in line for 1 hour for a race that lasted only 5 minutes. So after about 3 hours and 4 rides, we decided to throw in our towels for awhile. The one good thing was that if you had a child that was too short to drive but tall enough to ride, the parent could drive for free.... bonus for Tony & I. We debated and debated about whether to buy these $30 wrist bands because we knew that Madison could be the driver on quite a few more rides than Quinn. When we finally got up to the cash register to pay the lady kindly told us that tip... so obviously we didn't buy our own bands. From talking to another mom that day... she wasn't given the same tip. She bought a wrist band for $30 and completed her day after driving only 4 races. Pretty expensive races huh? Actually, if you bought just tickets, instead of a wrist band, the number of tickets required per race varied a bit but the ones we were on would have cost $9 per race... ridiculous at close to $3 per ticket.

We came back to the condo and made lunch and relaxed. Tony had to do some computer work for Rollpak (never too far away for work!) so Madison and I taught Quinn how to play Skip-Bo. We had a good time at it... although Madison takes games faaaar to seriously. She's out to win!!... she made the "decree" that no one could help each other starting in the 2nd game etc... poor Quinn, just learning this new game. I privately tried to give him a "handicap" and dealt him only 25 cards instead of 30 but to no avail... I still won! : )

It was such a gorgeous day, in the low 80's, so we decided to drive through some scenic parts of the mountains (I think they all would be considered "scenic"). Madison really wasn't into all of the driving around just to look at stuff (I so remember being like that) but we found this place called Cades Cove which is an 11 mile one-way road that loops into the mountains and back out. When we started into it the cars in front of us were driving really, really slow so we knew this might take awhile. We had the kids pile into the front seats with us so they could see better and Quinn steered us through the Cove... stopping to look at all the nature. It was soooo beautiful!!! We must have seen 100 or so deer, we saw a coyote, old buildings that they had preserved... old churches, one from the early 1800's. Very cool. We got out and hiked a little bit but wanted to see the whole Cove before dark so couldn't go too far. Quinn took video of nearly all 100 of those deer so if anyone wants to watch it, I'm sure he will be happy to point stuff out. He was all over it. We decided that it would be highly possible to spend a whole week just in the mountains themselves. We were right next to North Carolina while driving through that area. On the way back on the twisty, hairpin turns, we had to laugh because we brought about 40 or so filled Easter eggs to hide with Jade this coming weekend and the basket spilled so we had to listen to those eggs rattle all over the place with all of those turns. Ha!

We drove back into town around 9pm and saw that the Nascar place was still open. We really felt like we hadn't gotten our money's worth yet so it was back to the go-carts! The evening weather was beautiful... not even a sweatshirt needed and the place had really, really cleared out. They rode soooo many more rides... basically got off of one race and could get right back on. It closed at 10:30 and they were disappointed to have to leave "so early". We definitely felt like their $30 wrist bands were paid for by then. So, we came back to the condo and ate my crock pot lasagna for supper around 11pm! Thankfully I had stuck it in the refrig prior to our 4pm departure for the mountains. It was a tiring but fun day.

I can't wait to post some pictures with my stories when I get home again.

Hope all is well with "ya all".... love, Leah

Smoky Mountains, Day 3

Today we went to Ober Gatlinburg for the day. We really weren't planning on spending the whole day there but I guess 8 hours is considered a whole day. We took the sky tram which took us from downtown Gatlinburg up the mountain to the "park" of Ober Gatlinburg. Madsion is quite afraid of heights so she faced her fears many times over today. It was a beautiful, amazing view. The day was spent on the go-carts, many trips down part of the mountain on alpine sleds, down water slides in rafts and walking. The alpine sleds were probably the highlight of the park. You ride the sled down in the cement track and then take the ski lift back to the top (thus the reason for Madison facing her fear of heights). By the dozen or so mark she was an old pro at the ski lift. We rode it completely to the top and took the sites and also the peace and quiet. That was really cool. At the end we took the sky tram back down to Gatlinburg with a pretty view of Gatlinburg at night and drove back to Sevierville (about 15 minutes). The drive is quite twisty and I have to say that Gatlinburg has been absolutely packed the last 2 days we've been there... the town that is, the park wasn't bad at all. It was bumper to bumper traffic. Sevierville seems much less congested. A bonus for us I guess.

Double click on this picture... it's hilarious!

For our late supper (9pm) we stopped at the A & W drive-in. They were so excited and curious about what a drive-in restaurant was all about. They were thrilled with the whole concept. Quinn told us he thought we would "drive-in" to the parking lot and then walk inside. They charmed the waiter inside so much that he promised them free icecream cones if we go back tomorrow night. They are begging to go. We'll have to see.

My side did absolutely fine today so I think the clear liquids yesterday worked. With all of the walking and yesterday's diet, this will probably be the first ever vacation to loose weight. Ha!

Well, this pup is tired so I will close for now. Of course we'll finish the 2nd half of the Ohio State game and cross our fingers that they'll pull through.

Love to all, Leah

Smoky Mountains, Day 2

Today we drove to Gatlinburg and went to Ripley's Aquarium. It was really pretty neat. I love seeing all of the variety of fish and am always surprised at God's imagination. Wow! We saw 4-eyed fish, flashlight fish, pot-bellied sea horses, all kinds of tropical fish, sharks and we got to touch sting rays (yuck). We took our lunch and 3 out of the 4 of us ate lunch in the van before we went in. It took about 3 1/2 hours to get through the whole thing. It rained this morning so this was a good indoor activity.

This afternoon we went putt-putt golfing at Hillbilly Putt-Putt. Madison wanted to know if we had to golf like Hillbillies (sp?) in order to play. We rode a tram 300 feet up the side of a mountain and then while playing 18 holes of golf we walked about 1/2 of the way down and took the tram the rest of the way. That was really pretty cool and the rain had stopped, the weather was perfect.

We drove around for awhile, planning our strategies for the next few days. Tony is a true tourist at heart. He wants to cram in as much as physically possible in a day's time while on vacation. The kids and I prefer it to be a little more laid back than that. He was good sport today and didn't drag us around too much. : ) (I can tell he wanted to though!).

We made supper in the condo tonight and now the kids are swimming. Tony and I are their life guards I guess... on dry land. May be swimming will tire these energizer bunnies out.

I made it though the day on coffee (for breakfast), white grape juice, water and diet pepsi. Real nutritious huh? I'm a little light headed tonight but my side feels much better! I can only feel it ache when I bend over (like 18 times at the mini-golf place). It was kind of hard to make a supper meal and not eat 1 speck of it. May be I'll ease back into it tomorrow. On that note, I need to stop thinking about food. I'll let you all go.

Love to all, Leah

Greetings from the Smoky Mountains

Hello from Sevierville, TN!

We arrived in the Smokies yesterday around 12:30pm. It was a beautiful day in the upper 70's. We checked into our condo which is absolutely beautiful. It is 1500 square feet and Madison thinks she would like to just move in here. The resort itself is much bigger than the WI Dells which is what we previously compared this area to in our minds. We went to Tony's favorite fast food restaurant... Chick Fillet, for lunch which is less than a mile away. Tony took the kids swimming and I went to Super Walmart with our grocery list in hand. Afterwards I met up with them at the pool. They swam for 3 hours and then went rollerblading, scootering and made a trip to the resort's park. Never out of energy of course! We stayed in last night and had pizza and fruit for supper. We watched Ohio State's game... how ironic that OH and FL played each other in football and now in BB too for the championship! We hope they win this time! I rented Eragon at the $1 Red Box at Walmart which is PG but it was so scary for the kids that we had to turn it off. It was pretty scary.... great, just what they needed before bedtime. They did fine though at bedtime.

We've (I've) had a small snag in the midst of our 2 days so far... I'm having some right upper quad pain which I presume to be my gallbladder which is aching!! Can you believe it? I've decided to do what I would recommend to someone else and go on a clear liquid diet. Bummer huh? I have a lot of good meals planned for breakfasts and suppers so I hope this clears up fast!! It's just enough to be annoying. So, if you can say a prayer about this I would appreciate it. I sure don't want to be in a TN ER!!

Today it is raining and supposed to rain most of the day. We sat out on our deck this morning and listened to the peaceful rain hitting the mountain behind us. So relaxing. Strange that there are actually cows in a field behind us. The kids have walked out to a fence in the backyard to visit with them. It makes for a serene picture... especially with the view of the Tanger Outlet in the distance. HA! We are going to go to Ripley's Aquarium today in Gaitlenburg... about 10 miles away. We've packed our lunch (for 3 of us any way) and will soon take off. Quinn has been drooling over a brochure for the TN Airport's Aviation Museum so we might hit that as well. He's pointed at every picture and told me what plane it is and how we just have to go there and see them.

It seems weird that today is Palm Sunday and we aren't in church. We'll have a little lesson on our way in the van for the day. I hope you all are going to have a nice day. My dear husband installed something on his work lap top so I have dial up in our condo now... otherwise they have high speed in the activity center. I'll try and post tonight about the events of the day.

Love to all, Leah