Traveling Light

Heather stayed overnight on Friday night and will again Monday night. Her dad is working out of town right now and her mom works the night shift at the hospital. Jennifer walked her over after Heather "packed." This is what she brought! I had to laugh. Max Lucado's book, "Traveling Light" popped into my head. What a cutie. (No, Madison is not standing on her tip-toes).

Earthquake in Indiana

I'm sure most of you have heard that we had an earthquake this morning at 5:37am EST. I missed it by 8 minutes! My alarm went off at 5:45. Shucks. Madison however, felt it. She said she was up going to the bathroom at that time. I asked her what happened, she said she was sitting on the toilet and their toothbrushes started rattling in their holders and the water splashed her on the bottom. I laughed so hard! I asked her what she thought had happened... she said she was so tired, she really didn't think much about it, and went back to bed. Ha! How can you get splashed by cold water on the bottom and not wonder what happened? Anyway, her teacher was quite excited by the whole thing. She noticed it too. They went to a web site and registered what they were doing when it happened... and she made sure Madison registered her unique experience too. She'll have some interesting memories of her first (and hopefully last) earthquake! : )

Mid-week post... at the end of the week

Seriously, last night after I went to bed I thought, "Boy, I really should post a mid-week note to my blog soon"... viola' it is already Friday night. AND THEN... I got this harassing email from my Mom today at work telling me that Cheryl and Addi get all the information and BTW where have I been?!?!?!

Here are a few words to explain my week.

679 little league uniforms
8 different sports practices

6 hours of planning this Sunday's church service

3 major softball teams to organize

4 days of work for pay

*********************************************

Memories made... priceless.

(And I'm not implying that they are all good memories!)

First three soccer games of the season this weekend... watch for the ESPN Sports report.

The long road home

It took us 11 hours to get home. The kids traveled great. We got home at 10 tonight.

Interesting things we learned/saw while gone...

Matt & Lisa can drive past 41 (literally) signs for the Meramac Caverns and not notice one of them.

We saw buffalo, emu, long-horned cattle, a fox and coyote (ok, these last two were road kill) along the way...well, some of us saw them... one van did not.

Madison can some how find the accidental way to get her long hair caught in the cooler's running fan. We thought about leaving her little head plastered to the lid of the cooler for awhile... but Mom gave in and climbed into the back with her to cut her hair out.

We saw a crazy person riding their bike along the interstate (well, some of us saw it).

Madison and Dylan counted 31 Mustang cars while on the trip.

We already knew that Matt & Lisa were super great friends and so easy to get along with. We had a GREAT time traveling with you guys!

Cocoa had a successful week as well. She had her "fixed" surgery on Friday. Karla picked her up yesterday morning and had her waiting for us at home when we arrived. (Thanks Karla!). We were all happy to see her (OK, and Tigger too).

Our last day in Branson

We spent our morning playing ping-pong at the Activity Center


and pool too...

In the afternoon, the guys and kids threw in some more laser tag and went to see the movie, "Nim's Island" while Lisa and I did a little more shopping at the Tanger Outlets. We made a taco meal for supper and then it was back to the Activity Center for swimming and Euchre...



and then back to the condo for Jocker, cookies and icecream.



The week went really fast. We are getting ready to take home lots of good memories of Spring Break 2008.

Silver Dollar City

Today we went to Silver Dollar City. We've been watching the weather all week, trying to decide what day would be the best weather-day to go. It turned out to be beautiful, in the 70's and sunny so we were thankful for the right choice. We spent almost 7 hours here. The park usually has 20-30,000 per day. Today their count was 1,020. We basically had the park to ourselves. There was never a line and on most of the roller coasters, they let us stay on and keep riding and riding. At one time Tony and Brock were in the front car and Quinn and I were in the last car... with no one in between. Eventually 3 of us got tired out and Quinn was the only one on the whole ride! We definitely got our money's worth. We went to the Chinese Acrobat Show as well was the Irish Dancers. The kids weren't into the shows as much but tolerated them for the 30 minutes each. We went to Mazzio's Pizza for supper, then it was back to the condos for ice cream and warm cookies, swimming and euchre, melting into bed about 11:30. Tony hasn't worn his watch all week on purpose... not wanting to live by the time like we usually do. Hope your weeks are going well too.

Dixie Stampede

The Dixie Stampede has definitely been one of the biggest highlights of the trip. The kids loved it and is was especially fun because Matt and Lisa were chosen out of the audience to do some "barrel-racing." They told the guys to run to the horse that they wanted to ride. As soon as they got to the real horses, they had them stop and said "not those horses... THESE horses" and showed them the stick horses. They won the race! It was hilarious and fun! Brock was yelling at the top of his lungs... "That's my mom and dad and they are going to win!" It was so cute. They got medals to keep. We didn't know that we would be hanging out with such famous and talented people! : )

More of Dixie

Just a few more pictures of Dixie for you. We came back to the condos and some of the kids went swimming, some played video games and Lisa and I got smoked in Euchre by the guys. We are staying up late and sleeping in. Our sleep is going to be all off schedule but we sure are having a fun time!

Ripley's Believe it or Not

Lots of unusual things... they had hundreds and hundreds of these nail aprons with the company's name on it. We looked for Kalona Lumber but didn't find one. The kids enjoyed looking at all the unusual things. The picture in the top right hand corner is the vacuum cleaner designed for the Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang movie... a favorite in our house.

Catch Phrase

This morning Matt & Lisa went and sat through the Fairfield/Wyndam time share talk. We played Catch Phrase with the kids for an hour and then watched a movie. It's rainy and over cast today.

Highlights from Tuesday

Happy Birthday Karla! Hope you had a wonderful birthday in DC! I've never been on vacation on my birthday... I'm sure that puts a different spin on things.

Today Lisa and I went shopping to some of the outlet stores here. We found Crocs for the kids for $20 a pair. That was our biggest bargain. Guess what? I ran into Myrna who used to work at the CCC at GGH in the Croc Store. It really is a small world isn't it? It's so weird to run into people... 10 hours from home! I wonder who else is wandering around here from our area.

The guys took the kids to play laser tag while we shopped. They had fun and were all a buzz about their scores etc... That was the first time for our kids so they really enjoyed it. Lisa made us a sloppy joe dinner for supper and then we went to the Hamner-Barber magician/ventriloquist show. It was very funny. I don't know that it was the MUST SEE as was advertised to us but we all enjoyed it. Quinn was chosen out of the audience to receive one of two DVD's that they gave out. I think it was the 3rd-grade-arm-waving-with-the-correct-answer type of thing that sold him. He was quite delighted about that and stood in line after the show so that they could autograph it for him. We stopped at Sonic on the way home. It was a day with very few pictures taken. Cameras weren't allowed at the Hamner show and of course laser tag is in the dark so you'll just have to use your imagination today.

The weather was rainy and cool today...and looks like more of the same is predicted for the rest of the week. The kids have spent quite a bit of time at the activity center... swimming, playing basketball, ping-pong etc... They certainly haven't been bored.

Today (Wed) we are planning on going to Ripley's Believe it or Not and then our family of 4 is going to the Dixie Stampede tonight. Yahoo! More adventures to come...

Pirate's Cove Adventure Golf

(As usual, double click on pictures for a close-up look).

The afternoon was perfect for 18 rounds of putt-putt. This pirate's cove place was super neat. The flowers were gorgeous as were the water falls. I was laying in bed trying to go to sleep and I realized that I never even heard what my score was. Quinn was quite concerned for me... I'm sure he didn't want me to lose. Ha! There were several holes in one (not by me). You'll never believe this... we actually ran into one of the Ox Bow teachers and her family here at this Putt-Putt place. See... may be Branson really is a hot-spot for Spring Breakers. : )

We spent the rest of the evening hanging out at the condos... going on a walk, reading, watching the NCAA Championship game. We ate such a big late lunch that we really didn't need much more the rest of the whole day. The adults had dessert for supper (icecream and brownies)... hey, we can do that, we break rules for vacation! : )

Lambert's

We made it to Lambert's! We went at 2pm on a Monday and got right in! Are we clever or what? The food was delicious as advertised and the rolls melted in your mouth. The kids loved the rolls flying through the air. Most of the kids bought the big drink coolers as a souvenir. Madison chose the hat instead.

Wish you were here....

Fish Hatchery

We even managed to fit something educational into our trip. We went to the Fish Hatchery which is less than a mile from our resort. Highlights from this stop was seeing a 4 foot black snake when we went on a walk in the woods... enough to make Quinn declare that "I'm never coming to Missouri again!" (Cheryl, thought of you down here in the holler). Of course we saw lots of fish and the kids fed handful after handful of fish food. We stood and watched some fishermen fly fishing for awhile. The weather cannot be any more perfect.

Just for Addi

Take some more insulin now....

Just for Dad!

One of my Dad's favorite TV channels. : )

Snap Shots

The flowers are gorgeous! This is a picture of our condo and of the kids eating supper tonight. I made a spaghetti dinner. Check out that blue sky behind Quinn. Awesome!

Wyndam Classic

Tonight was a 2 on 2 basketball tournament at the resort. Our group had 3 teams and there was 1 other group of two guys that showed up. It was great fun to watch. Quinn took it so seriously. He ran all the way back to our condo (a jaunt for little legs) to report that Madison had dropped off of their team and that it would now just be Dad and Quinn together...no subs. Madison and Lisa formed their own team. He wanted Tony to put on his shoes and come practice with him...and "are you going to be able to keep up with me Dad, because I'm going to run back too." (We take sports very seriously, can you tell?)

This is how the tournament came out.... (thanks for reading!)

Madison/Lisa vs. Tony/Quinn

Matt/Brock vs. Josh/Dylan

Young guys vs. Tony/Quinn

Young guys vs. Matt/Brock

Young guys were the champions

The Track

Today was a beautiful day in Branson. The sky matched this pool water color...not a cloud to be seen. As you can see we went and drove some go-carts this afternoon at The Track. The kids loved it! Quinn and Brock especially loved the bumper boats and were soaked afterwards. Quinn would not back off from squirting this poor girl out there. I was yelling at him, trying to get his attention but of course he couldn't hear me. He was relentless and laughing the whole time. He made us laugh! In Madison's competitive style, she made it a point to win as many races as she could. She was quite delighted when she finally over took Dylan in one close race, shortly after the middle picture was taken.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy Birthday to my Dad!... all the way from Branson. We hope you have a great today. I would post a picture but I don't have any of you on my laptop here. Here are some interesting things about my dad.

Ever since my brother won 4 lambs at the 4H fair, my dad has been a shepherd of a flock...every single year since, what do you think... since the early 80's?

My dad is retired but only because that is part of his age description. : ) He drives a school bus, takes care of his sheep, is restoring an old wooden wagon, cuts all their wood for their wood burning stove...and much more.

He has something that Quinn covets... "Grandpa has one and it's what I've wanted most in my whole life"... the pack of gum that shocks you when attempting to take out a stick!

Loves John Deere tractors, antique tractors and cars. He even drives his antique John Deere tractor in a local parade each year... just because it's fun.

Has been an active member of the local Optimist Club F.O.R.E.V.E.R.!

Likes to tell jokes... and likes to laugh at the jokes that he tells. : )

One of favorite memories of my dad is how he tucked me in bed when I was a kid. He would always pick up my feet and tuck the covers in snug around them and say "Good-night, don't let the bed bugs bite." That was our good-night typical saying in our house forever.

I love you Dad! Happy Birthday!

Our Condo

We finally checked into our condos last night at 8:30pm. They are right next door to each other. Tony called the front desk and reported something was wrong with Matt & Lisa's door bell. When you push the door bell button it buzzes so loud it sets off a bright flashing light on the fire alarm... alas, that's what it was supposed to do! Other than Matt & Lisa's being equipped for the hearing impaired... they are great! Ha! We quickly made the ruled of NO ringing their doorbell! for the kids! The guys took the kids swimming and Lisa and I went to "Jubilee" to get groceries. It felt good to melt into bed tonight. It feels wonderful to get off of our usual spinning world into a different one for a week!

Lambert's Cafe... almost!

We attempted to go to Lambert's Cafe when we got close to Branson. SOooo many people have told me about it. The "home of the throwed roll." There was an hour and 20 min. wait and we were tired and hungry so we opted to find something else. We borrowed a GPS for the trip and she was supposed to take us to Mazzio's Pizza (we didn't know that was a chain!) but took us in circles. We never did find it. We finally chose what was sitting in front of us... a Shoney's. The food was bad, the kids were complaining... something smelled really "fishy" about the whole thing when we walked in (literally). Some how we lucked upon the all you can eat seafood. Now for those of you that know us well... Tony and I do shrimp and that's it. Long story short, this was the sign that we should have seen annoucing this buffet but it was facing the opposite direction. We all decided that this was the last bad choice we were making for the week! How we got from Lambert's to an all you can eat seafood buffet, we aren't exactly sure. Nasty.

Baseball Game

Today we went to the St. Louis Cardinals vs Washington Nationals game in St. Louis (obviously). The Cards won 5-4. It was an absolutely beautiful sunny day. It actually felt hot sitting in the sun but when we moved to the shade, it was too cool. Weird. We got to the brand new stadium (it's really nice) early. We bought tickets off the street from a guy who lied to us about every single thing he said but we ended up getting the tickets for $12 off the ticket price... Let's just say that the tickets weren't behind home plate and there were no free drinks through the first inning! Ha! I've learned at work that if people say "I'm not lying to you"... they usually are! We wanted cheap tickets and that's what they were... even if they were in the outfield, the highest level. The kids all brought their gloves to catch a foul ball. Check out Quinn's "ready position" to catch a ball up in the nose bleed section. Ha! We had a great time though. The kids got free t-shirts at the entrance. They got to do some batting in a cage and threw balls to measure their speed. The field is right downtown within walking distance of the arch. The flowers are starting to bloom here and the trees are budding already. There is Spring around the corner! (sorry about the center spacing... it has a mind of it's own today)

Spring Break 2008

I've been scurrying around this week, trying to get ready to leave for a week of vacation. We are all so ready for a break from the real world! This year we are headed to Branson, MO and are staying at the Mountain Vista Resort. Matt, Lisa, Josh, Dylan and Brock are going with us so that will help add to our fun. We've never been to Branson and have heard good things about it. It's not your usual spring break "destination hot spot" but we made our plans only a month ago so we'll take what we can get! ha! The weather is supposed to be in the 60's so that's a 20 degree improvement from Indiana. We are leaving tonight and planning on staying overnight east of St. Louis and may be going to a Cardinals game tomorrow. Cocoa is going to "doggy camp" as we've been calling it. She is going to be kenneled at our vet's office. Madison was already in tears last night at bedtime because "I miss Cokey" already...even though she was right downstairs. : ) Quinn asked me this morning if I thought they had "highly trained workers" at the vet's office, to you know, take good care of her. I told him that they don't come anymore highly trained than your own dog's doctor. He suggested that we "stop by Minnesota on our way and drop Cocoa off at Uncle AJ's and Aunt Bonnie's house" since Bonnie is a vet. A little out of the way so we'll just use our vet that's 1/2 mile away.

I'll be taking my laptop and will try to blog faithfully. Stay tuned... more adventures soon to come... and you know there certainly will be ADVENTURES!

Trip update

We left at 7:30 tonight... only about 2 hours later than planned. Tony thought he could be home by 5 but it was 7 instead. It actually worked out fine because Matt didn't get home until about that time any way. Tonya called to see how our trip was coming... we were sitting in the Wendy's drive-thru lane in front of Meijer's. Ha! All 5 minutes of the trip had gone great so far! We stayed in Highland, MO tonight. We got here at 2am and went straight to bed!

A less than perfect world

Madison asked me the other day, "Mom, why don't we live in a perfect world?"
I answered her by telling her that God gave humans the ability to choose... between right and wrong. When Adam and Eve made their first wrong choice in the garden, when they chose to disobey God, this was when sin entered the world. We live in a world with sin present and it will never be perfect on earth again.

She replied, "Well, way to go Adam and Eve!" and then... "Actually I'm kind of glad... because if they wouldn't have sinned we would all be walking around without any clothes on!"

*****************************
Last night Madison and Heather were sitting at our kitchen table working on their homework. I heard Madison say, "Did you know that if Adam and Eve wouldn't have sinned that we would be sitting here naked right now?" They had to giggle about that... and then got all grossed out.

I love to listen to their conversations. : )

That was then...

(December 29, 2007) and 3 short months later...

This is now...

5 1/2 months old

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Birthday Mom! Wish we were together today! This picture was taken at Christmas and I'm showing off the pillowcases she embroidered for me. My mom is so special to me and she goes out of her way to make me feel special to her. Every good thing I've learned about being a mother myself is from modeling after my mom. I never knew how much she loved me, until I had children of my own. You deserve the BEST day today! Hope it was happy!

xxx

ooo

and a 1/2 stick of gum,

Leah

Well Done- Hot Dawgs

Tonight ended the Hot Dawg's (ketchup to us) season. They ended up 3-8. There was great improvement from the beginning to the end. The girls had fun and so that was good. We had a pizza party at Columbo's after their last game tonight. They are going to take some time off and may be join a basketball session in the Fall. We'll see....

What we've been up to this week...

No matter what the weather is like, the calendar has deemed that it is Spring and thus Spring Soccer has started. This was Madison's 3rd practice this week. I picked her and Holyn up... they were like little popsicles. Practicing for 1 & 1/2 hours in a 25 degree wind chill with rain, sleet and snow...is hard on your hands and feet. I would say they are pretty dedicated soccer players wouldn't you? Actually, it's probably more accurate to say we have a die-hard coach.

Quinn has been busy playing hand-baseball (a wildly popular made-up indoor version for our living room & kitchen) with Nate, computer games and playing outside (except today!). He also has been busy at school while taking daily swimming lessons with his 3rd grade class at the high school. Those last for 2 weeks. He wore a crisp white shirt, tie and suit pants for his school pictures this week. The "presidential candidate" look.

I've spent my evenings busy shuttling Madison around to practices and working on Little League things. Cocoa, Quinn and I have enjoyed some long evening walks with much better weather (except today!). Tony has been busy working (of course).

What have you been up to?

Happy Easter!

The Lord is Risen!...

This was the coldest Easter that I can remember... a high of 36 degrees today. It was sunny but with a cold wind. We still have snow on the ground!

Church was crowded today with lots of visitors. People had to get creative with the Easter dresses this year... short sleeves or sleeveless doesn't really work too well with temps in the 30's! I saw lots of cute little sweaters on the girls. Madison's colors didn't turn out too well in her pictures. He shirt under her sweater is pink. She looked really cute. We had a wonderful lunch at Beppe and Pakka's today. Ed, Eileen and the boys were there. Joshua brought a special friend, Miranda. It was a little crowded and a little loud... but what family get together isn't this way? I tried to imitate Margaret's graham cracker fluff dessert... a family staple at get-togethers in Iowa. It didn't have the same texture but it tasted OK. I need to practice that one a few more times to get it right. We decided that no one can make it the way you do Margaret! Give me about 20 years of practice to get it right! We didn't get home until 5:30 so that was basically our day.

Above all else, today was a day of celebration of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. If you haven't paused to read John 19-20, please do so on this most important day of the year!

...The Lord is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

Botched Pedicure

For some reason Cocoa HATES to have her nails trimmed... up until today I couldn't understand it. In the past there wasn't really a reason for it to bother her other than she doesn't like her paws held. The vet tried to show me a "hold" to put her in and he couldn't even get her down! "Boy, she really doesn't like that does she?" Well, today she finally had a point. Tony and I had her in a "hold" and she was still pulling and arguing with us. I was the clipper and I accidentally got her nail to short. Ouch! She yelped and it started bleeding...and it wouldn't stop! I felt so bad! I tried to hold pressure, but she couldn't quite understand the point of that. We sent her outside into the snow as a way to apply ice... and it kept on bleeding....all over... Now imagine this, I even put some ointment on a band-aid, practically crawled into her kennel with her and wrapped it around her little hairy toe and stubby nail. Nate predicted that it would stay on for 3 seconds. He was basically right... and then it pulled some hair when it came off too. Oh my. She stayed in her kennel until it finally stopped. Quinn was all upset. Tony made some crack about Cocoa getting ready to pass out from lack of blood so Quinn was working on some "orientation" questions with her... "Do you know your name? Can you tell me what it is?" And then to us, "I think she's getting light-headed."

That hidden camera that Addi wants me to have... yep, this clip would have been a good one.


PS... Madison was thankfully at soccer practice. She would have been a MESS!

Always in trouble...

Our Miss Cocoa is always finding herself in trouble. Here she has stolen some little beanie babies and is using them as chew toys. At times she acts all sorry when she is caught and you tell her NO! ...but she goes right back and repeats the crime again. Other times, she just tempts you to come get her stolen goods, only to smile and run off when you get too close. It's a game...and only one of us is playing.

Quinn's Quips

Quinn: From the first time I saw Cocoa at the Humane Society, I knew that she had talent.

Mom: Oh really, what kind of talent did you see?


Quinn: The ability to listen ....and do tricks.

Mom: Well... she's got a lot of the tricks part down but the "ability to listen part?"... still workin' on it.

Happy Birthday Haley!

Very special birthday wishes for my niece, Haley! She is a big 5 year old today! Honestly, where does the time go? I wish you weren't a couple of states away! This picture was taken at Christmas. Madison and Haley decorated crowns from an art kit that she got. They even made crowns for their puppies.

Here are some things for you to learn about Haley.
Her favorite foods are peaches and macaroni and cheese.
Her favorite activity is playing with her older sister (Mi)Kayla.
When asked what she wants to be when she grows up she thinks that "since mermaids aren't real, I'll be an angel."
Her best friends are named Naomi, Dayna, Cathy and Lilly
Something that makes her happy is when (Mi)Kayla tickles her.
Something that makes her sad is when she gets hurt or when her dog Oreo had to be put to sleep (last week).
Her favorite Bible story is about Jesus and how he died on the cross just for her.

Happy Birthday Haley! We love you!

Upward Basketball Awards Night

Tonight was the Upward awards night. It's always a fun evening of music, prizes, an Upward gift for the kids and the presentation of the story of salvation. Madison beat out a group of boys and nabbed a free t-shirt that she is modeling. The multi colored ball is used to tell the story of salvation. Tony and his assistant coach (and all of the coaches) received a gift card to the Family Bookstore. The kids all ran through the smoke filled tunnel onto the stage when their team was announced. Quinn is the one with his arms raised. : ) The award this year was a full sized basketball. He was quite delighted with it. A fun evening was had by all.

Undefeated!

Quinn and Nate had their last Upward game this morning. We won 22-20 to remain undefeated for the season (one tie). Tony told them a few weeks ago that if they remained undefeated throughout the whole season they could pour water on him outside. They held him to his promise. It was cold! He does such a good job coaching. He is fair to all the kids. They all get equal playing time (which is a rule) but more than that, he has the boys take turns bringing the ball up the court and calling the plays and carrying them out. Even the boys who have never played before this year and are sure to get the ball stolen away, they get the same opportunity to be a leader on the court. Some coaches play their best players in the same position all the time. They all have improved a lot and I'm sad to see this season end. Check out Quinn and Nate's jersey numbers. Totally by accident!

"March Madness"

Tonight Madison played 2 BB games at the Sports Center. The combined scores were 64-12. Yep, we watched the other teams score 26 more baskets! Ouch. This picture is of Madison on the floor... fighting for the ball with 4 red players. (She's the one in white in the middle). It was actually taken a couple of weeks ago but I thought you needed a picture tonight.

It was a beautiful day today! I'm ready for this BB season to get over and for Little League and spring soccer to start!

Sadness

Sure am feeling sad for my sister and her family this week. If you are an animal lover you'll see what I mean. Click on her link in my side bar...

Say a prayer for them and also for their friends who lost their 2 year old daughter.

Left Behind

Pictures are worth a 1000 words aren't they?

Crazy Busy Saturday!

We actually got to sleep in this morning! I must say 7:30 felt pretty good!

1100-1200
Quinn's Upward BB game. He shot with 2 seconds left to tie up the game! We were undefeated before and so we just have one tie. He had a great game and scored 14 of their 30 points. Some "old lady came and found me afterwards to tell me I did a good job"... and shook his hand.

12:30-1:45
Little League evals. I've got some good leads on 2 coaches now. They are really hesitant and only doing it because I'm desperate. I hope they do ok!

2:00-3:00
Quinn's eval for the Little League. He is playing in the Rookie League this year.

2:10-5:30
Madison had 2 basketball games at the sports center. Her team won both games. They have improved a ton since their first games. Amazing! They play again on Thursday night....their last games until the tournament.

6:45-9:30
A birthday get together for Rod H. and Audra M. at Rod and Beth's house. That was a lot of fun. Lisa and I were cracking up... neither one of us have EVER brought shrimp and cocktail sauce to a get together before. We've been to a gazillion get togethers with each other. Guess what we brought? Yep, we had LOTS of shrimp. Ha! Great minds think alike! (Actually I was just trying to think of something that would be the absolute easiest thing considering the busy day!).

Donkey Basketball

Tonight we went to the donkey basketball game at Bethany. Have you ever been to a donkey basketball game? The "athletes" are comprised of students, board members and local pastors. They actually have a basketball game while riding (mostly attempting to ride) donkeys. It is really funny to watch the players get bucked off or slide down their necks as the donkeys put their heads down to try and get them off their backs. They are stubborn and slow. You have to be on the donkey's back to receive a pass and to shoot. The games were low scoring... 6-2 and 4-2. They gave rides to the kids at intermission and they did just fine then. Madison even rode the most ornery one, "Buck-Master". The donkeys must understand the "heat" of the game. The think the player is on one team and their donkey is on the other. Holyn came with us tonight and is staying overnight. Quinn planned to meet Tyler there so they sat together and Quinn ended up staying overnight at his house. Tony met us there but went back to work after it was over. : (
Overall it was a fun evening. I'm sure you can see the news highlights at www.fox28.com tomorrow. They had a good segment on it tonight.

Really Bored in the Middle of the Night!!

Hello to my sleeping buddies around the country! For some reason I woke up at 3am and can't get back to sleep! Usually this is how stress shows it's ugly head for me... with insomnia. But it's an especially strange night because I don't have anything in particular to be extra stressed about. (Thank you Lord!). SOooo after my usual tricks haven't worked I gave in and came down to my computer. I can't turn the TV on or Cocoa will think she's up for the day. That's all I would need...is a puppy who wants to play. Somehow I stumbled on to this mindless map that lets you check which states that you've been to... for what reason? why? Who knows and who really cares. Mindless entertainment. Obviously I've been through some of these states just to get to another one but if I didn't have any memories that I made there I didn't include them.

Well, it's just about time to get up... may be I'll just get a jump on my day today....nah, I'll give sleep another try.

I want to know... what do you do when you can't sleep?

create your own personalized map of the USA

We've made it to the Mid-Week

Hi Everyone,

I really don't have too much to say tonight. This is Tony's month-end week so he has been working late. He thinks it will be mid-night tonight. Bummer. Madison had a school activity tonight. She stayed after school, had a pizza party, studied about the musical, "Anything Goes" and then they went to the high school and watched the dress rehearsal. She didn't get home until 8:45. She loved the musical and loved seeing Jeremiah in it and also that fact that he waived just to her at the end. Quinn and I played lots of Jocker and Yahtzee. I put the brakes on Monopoly. I've played that game too much and now I'm sick of it! Anyone want to come and play with him? It's the NFL version and if that doesn't excite you Madison has Horseopoly which is a beloved game as well. Monopoly takes too long.

Other tidbits....

Still looking for 2 softball coaches. I'm out of options although I do have someone "thinking about it" however, I was supposed to get a call back from him tonight so now that's not looking too good either. I guess everyone is scared of 11/12 year old girls! There are probably 10-12 girls who won't get to play unless we get this resolved in the next 2 weeks.

I've been to the eye doctor and ordered a new pair of glasses and also prescription sunglasses. I'm SO excited about them! I follow in my mom's footsteps with some photosensitivity in sunlight. Hey, the great big glasses are in style now! I told Madison that I ordered the biggest pair of in-style glasses I could find. She hasn't even seen them yet and she's already appalled at them. "Moms aren't supposed to wear things that are that in style!" Ha! I started Restasis eye drops for dry eye syndrome... it's supposed to take 2 full months to be able to notice any differences. The doc put this green dye in my eyes and normal tears usually wash it away in a matter of seconds. I still had bright green eyes (the whites of my eyes) a good 10-15 minutes later! I was quite science fiction looking for awhile there.

Many of you have enjoyed the picture of Quinn and Cocoa. I need to get another picture without the blurriness. Quinn responded to Aunt Amy's comment by posting his own comment... his first ever post to a blog. He also emailed off his first ever email to G'ma and G'pa this week.

Here is the copy/paste version...

Hi grandma and granpa cocoa is already to big and she is absouluotly crazy!Come vist us In indaiana!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love Quinn

Well, for not having anything to say I can sure ramble on and on about nothing.
Take care, Love you all, Leah

A boy's best friend...

Even though this is blurry I thought it was too cute not to post!

Weekend Highlights

Sorry I've been so quiet. Some computer problems have been taking my attention...(along with a bunch of other stuff).

Here are the highlights from the weekend:
*Little League player evaluations were Saturday morning. Coordinated this for the Major divisions. Also still searching for 2 more coaches.

*Quinn's Upward BB team remains undefeated. They are 6-0 and have 2 more games.

*Nate stayed overnight on Friday night. Heather stayed overnight on Saturday. Made my world-famous chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. Tyler came over after church and stayed for the afternoon. Lots of kid guests. At one time there were 5 kids here for a few hours.

*Saturday night we played Euchre at Chad & Liza's with 4 other couples. That was fun. Makes me want to play more so that I get better at that game. Playing 1-2x a year doesn't really do much.

*This afternoon/evening I've spent trying to get my SD card to work in my new laptop which has involved several hours on-line with the Dell Tech in a chat room. Four hours later, still not resolved.

That's it. How did you spend your weekend?

What I've been up to this week...

...the shortened version.

Monday:
I'm one of the VP's of the softball league. Monday night we held the new coaches/managers meeting. It was a good feeling to have my league (only 3 teams for 32 girls) in place. After the meeting 2 of the 6 coaches backed out!!! This Saturday are the player evaluations and so its really important to have the coaches in place by this weekend.

Tuesday:
I made a phone call to every single household of players registered to play in the major division (except obviously to those that are already coaching in the Major leagues). Guess how many coaches I got? ZERO. Very frustrating. I really don't want to have to make 2 huge teams of 16 each! The girls would only get to play 50% of the time! I was on the phone the whole night!

Wednesday:
Madison had her first indoor soccer tourney game tonight. We lost 0-3 so we are done. I have to remind myself that a lot of the girls we are playing are a year older. Our team is U11 and we are playing U12. (They didn't have a U11 league). One year really does make a difference. She is ready to get outside and back to "real" soccer. During indoor, there are no "off-sides" rules and that makes it harder for the defenders (Madison) to hold off scorers. Outdoor soccer is more like the official soccer rules and the offensive players can't do that. (Are you still with me?).

I have contacted the AD at Goshen College and also the Concord High School softball coach to see if they can think of any alumni that might be interested in coaching. Hopefully something will come out of that! I need to get creative in where these coaches are going to come from!

Well.. that's what I've been doing. Not very thrilling huh?

Cocoa, The Big Brown Dog

We are adding a new name for Cocoa's list of nicknames...Clifford, The Big Red Dog or Cocoa, The Big Brown Dog. You see when we got her at the Humane Society they predicted that she would be a small to medium sized dog. I know it was only a guess...goodness, it's really only a guess as to what kind of a dog she is. BUT, they have obviously gotten it wrong. She is growing like a weed! She gained 9 pounds in the last ONE month alone! She is really about at the maximum size I was hoping for right now at 23 pounds. She's only four. months. old! Just look at those kangaroo paws draped all over Madison! She looks like she's wearing a pair of thick socks. We're not done growing yet folks. So you see, she really does remind us of the Clifford, The Big Red Dog books!

Indoor Soccer Tie, 3-3

We tied a Middlebury team tonight that we previously lost to, so that was better. The frustrating part is that we were ahead at half-time, 3-0. They came out strong in the second half. They had a girl who was so rough that she got a yellow card and had to sit out of the game for 4 minutes, while their team played short. I haven't seen that at this level before. It was so close at the end... we almost scored with just a few seconds left on the clock. If only that goalie wasn't so tall....

: )

How it all came out in the wash

A lot of you have wondered about our washing machine situation. Well... we are now the owners of a Whirlpool. Thanks to Consumer Reports, the sales people and lots of feedback from you all, we had it narrowed down to 2 different ones, a Fisher-Paykel (sp?) or the Whirlpool. We went back to Lowe's to look at them again. The persuading factor was the huge size of the tub. It's the biggest you can buy (for the home). It's 4.7 cubic feet. You are supposed to be able to wash 3 standard sized loads in this one. SOLD. It was delivered on Friday and on Saturday I did 2 loads of laundry which would have normally been about 5 loads. Our Maytag was already the "super capacity" of its day.

So, that's it! If you need to know more specifics... we are totally "up" on washing machines now.

Hopefully we won't have to be "up" on them again for a couple of decades! (Although I was told the average life is only 8 years).

Basketball Blues

Madison had two Sports Center games Sunday afternoon. The first game we lost 10-34. She had 6 points. The second game was about the same. I'm trying not to remember it. We thought we would take some lumps playing at this level and that's exactly what we are doing. The girls are having fun though. It would be a different story if they weren't. Madison is a scrappy player... she is good at defense and trying to anticipate passes and ties up the ball for jump balls. I can already see improvement from their first game so that's good. That's what we need to focus on.

Upward BB 39-28

(Sorry, Blogger isn't in the mood for paragraphs tonight I guess!)
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Today was the first Saturday in months that Quinn didn't have basketball at 8am... which meant that Mom didn't need to be up early to take him either! Ahhh, finally, a day to sleep in. Nice idea huh? Didn't happen. I woke up at 5:30 and couldn't go back to sleep! Don't you just hate that??

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Quinn had his Upward BB game today at 10am. He played really well and scored 17 points! Of course I didn't video this game, but I should have!! I told him afterwards that he did such a good job today. He said, "It was all because of my bladder!"... Apparently he had to go to the bathroom so bad that it gave him some extra zip, or speed, or special powers or something. Ha! Also what was funny is that we are the "Sooners" and we played the "Hawkeyes." On the way there he said, "I'm feeling sorry for Adam Huluska today because they're going down!" (Adam was from last season but who is paying that close attention from 2 states away right?).

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Madison wrote a book for the Young Author's Conference that was held this morning. It is called "Cocoa for Christmas" but unfortunately she just hasn't been feeling well and so we didn't get to go. She had a cold, sore throat, headache, and low grade fever earlier in the week. Towards the end of this week, she was feeling much better. Last night her eyes were red and weepy and it sure looked like she was getting pink eye. They looked much better this morning but she just wasn't quite over everything so she stayed home. She was disappointed because "I worked really hard to finish my book this week." I told her we would ask a bunch of friends to read it, to help her feel better about missing out on the conference. She had been looking forward to going for some time now but that's how it goes sometimes doesn't it? Yesterday she was putting the finishing touches on her book and she said, "I really like to be busy." I said, "Well, I'm glad, because you sure are!"

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We are supposed to get rain and then ice tonight followed by 4-6 inches of snow tomorrow night. I love the winter but it is starting to get a little on the long side, even for me. Take care everyone... and stay warm.

Happy Valentine's Day

"The best ever" pancakes for breakfast.

Webkinz and chocolate.

Flowers from Tony.

Cookies from Karla.

Cocoa stealing a Valentine sucker (she actually put it in her mouth like a kid...and RAN thru the house with it...GASP!)

Phone calls to loved ones.

Valentine parties at school.

Sharing my love. Feeling loved.

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Remembering the ultimate demonstration of love... Christ preparing Himself for the cross during these 40 days before Easter...Himself wondering if He could go thru with such an agonizing act...gave His life just for me. And You. Overwelmed with His love.

Indescribable!

This is for Terry, Tine, Monty and Allison today! You are in our thought and our prayers!
We love you guys!

Caution! Not suitable for climbing!

This was a cute little calendar that Eliza gave me to use during 2007. I just noticed the all capital letters on the back... in case someone was considering using the keychain clip for rock climbing or something. Evidence of our litigenous crazy society! HA!

Drop It!

This is one of the games that Cocoa can play endlessly. She races off with a well-known object that is a "No-No" and flies around the furniture, tempting us to just try and catch her. Here she has one of my mittens in her mouth. We've gone to some pretty extreme antics to catch her. The kids laughed as I even tried diving across the floor for her... only to have her slip through my hands. Addi would like a hidden camera to see all of it. I don't think so. Honestly, we would be pretty boring except for some of Cocoa's Cookiness. (Try to say that fast 10 times!).

Mr. Hustle.....AND.....Mr. Workhorse

Wow! Quinn was quite delighted today at his CDBL Awards ceremony! His coach chose him to receive the "Mr. Hustle" award for their team. That was quite a big honor and we were so proud of him. Imagine our surprise when the announcer was ready to present the very last award of the day. He proceeded to say that this was the highest award you could possibly win today... "Mr. Workhorse" would be awarded to the player who improved the most over the season. He talked it up quite a bit, adding to the suspense of the moment. Our Quinn won! We were shocked!..and Quinn was quite delighted! He got a hand-made wooden trophy with his name engraved on it and a CDBL t-shirt that says "Workhorse" on the back. There were many awards given. Nate received a "Mr. Basketball" award and also got a wooden trophy. They took a picture for the newspaper. Practicing good Internet safety, I've whited out the last names on the awards but if you double click, you can probably get a better look at it. His team played their last game. We barely won, 32-30. What a good morning for him!

3rd grade Presidential Race, Part 2

Well, Quinn came in the door this afternoon with a BIG smile on his face. No, he didn't win today... BUT the president (Benjamin) and vice-president (Nate) have already hired him on the side to be their Body Guard and if needed, their Lawyer! He was pretty excited about that! He said that there was a 3 way tie for the Secretary position and he was one of them. The class had a re-vote and he lost. He said he got an A+ on his project, his speech went "very good" and overall he seems pretty happy with his new Body Guard role and how the day went! That's my Quinner. There aren't enough words to describe how much I love him!

3rd Grade Presidential Race, Part 1

In the spirit of our nation's important election this year, Quinn's 3rd grade class had their own presidential race. Each student ran for president. They had to write a speech and present it to their classmates. They had to include information about themselves and their campaign promises. They also made posters. Quinn says, "Vote for Quinn. We all Win!" He gave a token to help the class remember his campaign promises... Hershey candybars wrapped with his 'Vote for Quinn' and his campaign promises. He also handed out fliers. Today was his big speech. He wanted to dress up for the occasion. Doesn't he look sharp in his tie? He wasn't sure how he was going to manage his PE class (volleyball) in that outfit. I wasn't either. Hope it went well! I've been thinking about him all day today. He told me he wasn't expecting to win but his personal goal was to get a good grade on the project. I think that was realistic thinking. He's a realist... like me!

I'll let you know how it went.

Indoor Soccer Tie, 5-5

The Flames didn't loose tonight! Yes! They tied.
Madison had 1 assist and actually scored a goal on a penalty shot. There were 5 girls making a wall in front of the goal and she kicked it hard and high enough that it sailed over their heads into the net. Cool! She is so much fun to watch. A dad from the other team came up to her after the game and shook her hand and told her "Good job, to the rocket in the back(field)".

She definetly has a passion for soccer!

Names for Cocoa...

Cocoa
Cocoa-puff
Cocoa-krisp
Coconut
Coke
Cokes
Coke-y
Puppers
No-No!... No-No-No!

2W, 2L

Today Madison and Quinn both had 1 win and 1 loss in their basketball games. Yes, it was another 4 games today, starting at 8am and then home around 3pm. I don't have any snapshot from Quinn's games today... I video taped them (or DVD'd them... or Memory Carded them... what do we call that process now?). Peyton fell and hurt her arm really bad in the first girls' game. I got it on video and when I went back and looked at it, it looks like she broke her arm!!! It was bad enough that Tony only needed to see it one time... no more, no thanks, once was quite enough. She went to the ER and it sounds like the preliminary x-rays show no break. I'm sooo thankful for that for her. She's just getting to the end of her swimming season. I'm serious, if I was a betting person, this arm was broke! Madison said she had a hard time concentrating after that injury. She felt all shaky and couldn't focus on what she was supposed to do. The rest of the day was spent running some errands with Madison... to the grocery store and shopping for a birthday gift.

Madison went to a birthday party tonight... a slumber party. It was Maddi J.'s Wild-n-Crazy birthday party. Check out below to see how she looked when we left.

Well, that's how I spent my Saturday. My house is a wreck but we enjoyed the games today.

Love, Leah

Weeee!

Ox Bow Park was the place to be this afternoon. We met Karla, Katie and Nathan there. We ended up seeing lots of people we know. Madison complained that we had to leave "so soon"... after 2 hours in the snow! My toes and 25 degree weather don't get along so well for that long. We came home and warmed up with hot cocoa. Yum!




I thought these 2 pictures of Katie and Nathan were so cute! The picture in the back is of Madison with Katie on her back, sailing down the hill, while it's still snowing!

My haiku

Too much snow. No school.
Falling, blowing, beautiful.
Hot cocoa, games, rest.