Snow Camp Review

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

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

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

Snow Camp

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

Never to cold to play outside...

...for Madison and Cocoa that is.

Sledding at Ox Bow Park

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

Christmas Fondue

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

Room Makeover

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

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

What do you think?

Happy New Year 2009!

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

New Year's Eve 2008

Tonight we went out for supper at Chili's and then went to see Bedtime Stories. This is a really cute movie! Very good! Madison brought Holyn and Quinn brought Nate. Holyn stayed overnight. We played some games and waiting for the ball to drop. The hugs in the pictures were the mid-night hugs. It was a fun but small party to welcome the new year.

In other news...It has been a very busy week so far. I took this week off from work. We are trying to accomplish some major projects. Madison and I spent over 8 hours painting in her bedroom. Out with the bunnies and bows, in with the teen look of polka dots. We still haven't gotten her room completely back together yet. I'll post some pictures when we get her moved back in. It is looking really good. I'll be glad to have her stuff out of our bedroom/hallway, and back into her's. I think I might need to go back to work so I can rest next week. Ha! ; ) No, actually I have truely enjoyed all of my time with my family and am trying to savor the last few days.

Home Again...

We got home last evening at 4:45 and were welcomed by 2 inches of ice on our driveway. Obviously they had lots of snow and ice here last week. We flew out of Orlando at 9:10am and landed in Indy at 11:30 or so. It was super foggy in Indy which made for a "creative" descent and landing. We had to make 2 attempts at the runway and it was so turbulent that one passenger lost their breakfast... too close of quarters for sure! Better than my poor mom and dad though... over 400 flights in/out of Chicago were cancelled yesterday due to an ice storm, including their connecting flight. Their journey included a bus drive to a neighboring airport (Cedar Rapids) and then finally arrived home about 16 hours after they left the condo in the morning. They had to drive to Moline, IL today to get their car and luggage. They could have nearly drove back from Florida in all that travel time. It took Amy & Jeff 20 hours on the way down.

Madison and I were in bed by 9pm last night. I slept 10 hours and she slept 13 1/2. We were obviously a little low in the sleep department. I'll have some more pictures for you but somehow my camera cord ended up in Jeff & Amy's van (after Jeff stole it from our condo) so I have to wait for them to mail it. We spent Christmas at the resort, putt-putt golfing and swimming. We grilled steak for supper. It didn't seem very Christmas-like in the 80* weather though. Amy said it didn't feel all "ooohshy-guuushy" without the cold, snow and abundant Christmas decorations. We took a big family picture by the Christmas tree in the lobby though and I'll post those pictures the future.

Hope you had a Merry Christmas!
Leah

PS... I've gradually added pictures from our trip, including the first day. Scroll all the way down if you haven't seen them yet.

Merry Christmas from Orlando, Florida!

Merry Christmas from Bonnet Creek in Orlando, Florida!


Christmas morning brought a few "stocking gifts" from Santa. Our gifts to our kids was our trip to Florida this year. It felt really weird not to have any gifts under our tree. A different Christmas for sure... but warm and FUN!


Us Midwesterners aren't used to swimming, putt-putt golfing and playing cards outside on Christmas day! We heard the overhead speakers playing Christmas music all week, but some how the snowy songs just didn't "go" this year. We didn't miss the HUGE ice storm that Indiana received this week though. We picked a good week to be gone.


We grilled steaks for our supper this evening. Plenty of food this week! Amy brought 2 huge containers of Christmas goodies that she made in Iowa. This was our last evening together. We hated to see our week's vacation end. We are taking home lots of good memories for souvenirs though!

Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure

Today we went to Universal Studios for most of the day. This is not a Disney Park but was very, very nice. We really liked it a lot. In fact, this was probably our favorite of the week. Their attractions included "shows" such as the movie, Jaws, Twister, The Mummy, Shrek, Jimmy Neutron, and the Simpsons. Although the kids hadn't seen half of the movies, they still enjoyed their rides or 4D shows. The park was really quiet in the morning, but busy by afternoon.


The highlight of the day was watching Jeff (Amy's husband) participate in Fear Factor. He got to be one of six people to compete in their 30minute show. He knows how to ham things up and did a good job making the audience laugh. He told the cameras that his reason for knowing he was going to win Fear Factor was because "I've seen the other contestants and I look better in my Spandex than all of them." Their first task was to hang from a bar, 50feet off the ground with a huge fan blowing in their face. He wasn't one of the last ones to remain so he had to take the "walk of shame" after this stunt. We enjoyed his fame while it lasted. Some of the other stunts on the rest of the show got kind of gross... the eating part was disgusting.

Around 3:30 or so we walked over to Universal Island's of Adventure which is their amusement park section. It was awesome! We were amazed at Quinn's love of the Hulk roller coaster which pretty much went in loop after loop and lots of barrel rolls. We are pretty sure this was the wildest roller coaster ride he has been on... and he loved it! At this point we had been in amusement parks for over 45 hours this week and I was done with the rides. I spent the rest of the evening with Amy, Jeff, Mikayla and Haley in Seuss Land while Tony took the older kids on the other wild rides of the park. : ) The Seuss Land was adorable! We watched a live production of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" which was so cute. I think we were in Seuss Land for 3-4 hours.

We finally found our Christmas Eve supper at the NBA restaurant around 8:30. It wasn't very "Christmas-y" but was sure good.

Downtown Disney

Happy Birthday Mikayla!

Mikayla turned 8 while in Disney World on December 22 (yesterday)! She spent the day at the Magic Kingdom. Can you imagine a better place to spend your birthday as a kid? Her birthday present was getting her ears pierced the next day. After we drove in a big loop to find "The Loop" and a Claires store, she had 11 people watch her get her ears pierced that morning. It was a lot of fun. She didn't even blink an eye during the piercing. Quinn wondered where the boys section was at Claires... not to be found. ; ) Doesn't she look cute with her new jewels?

Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom

Our family of 4 went to Animal Kingdom on Monday, the 22nd. The rest of the group went to Magic Kingdom which we decided to skip this year. We had a great day but it was a cool 60 degrees and by the time we left, 12 hours later, it was in the 40's. Brrrr! We enjoyed the Everest Expedition rollercoaster the most and rode it 4 times. We also enjoyed the safari and the Christmas parade. Their Christmas tree is decorated with animals. So cute! We missed the last bus back to the resort and it ended up taking us 2 1/2 hours to get back! A long story... but a memorable one for sure!

Epcot (stands for Every Person Comes Out Tired...?)

Highlights from the day:

"FAST passes" work to get through lines without standing in lines forever!

Tony ran into Dan from work!

I laughed so hard I cried... at my overly safety conscious husband (long story).

Epcot at night.... gorgeous!

My feet hurt SO bad after 12 hours in the park today!

Christmas lights at Hollywood Studios

You can't see this picture in the bottom right very well. Quinn walked around the corner on to this street and then turned around and gave us this open-mouth-awe-struck look on his face and just held it in disbelief. (You will need to double click the photos for sure). The pictures are pretty good but don't capture it all. The tall skinny picture in the middle is of Jenna and Quinn trying to catch the "snow" that was falling by the end of the show. Wow! Disney is incredible!

Hollywood Studios (aka MGM Studios)

We spent the whole day at Hollywood Studios (MGM) today. We just got back at 9:15 tonight. Whew! My feet ache! It was a gorgeous day with temps in the high 70's I'm guessing.

Highlights included: Tower of Terror, Rock'n Rollercoaster, Indiana Jones, the new Toy Story ride. Most of the lines weren't too bad, except for Toy Story. While waiting for the Toy Story ride Jay used his 3D glasses as the "eyes" while holding them over his belly button. We were really bored in a 90 minute long wait for the newest ride! Look closely at the bottom right picture.

Disney is decorated for Christmas. There is a huge tree with lights, poinsettias fill almost all of the flower beds and Christmas music plays in the air. It is easy to forget that it is Christmas time in this warm weather though. Strange. There is a street in MGM that is decorated top to bottom with Chrismas lights which they set with timers/music. It was beautiful at night!

Hope all is well for those of you back in my real world.
Love, Leah

Day 1 in Orlando

We flew into Tampa on Thurseday, 12-18 and then drove to Orlando. While waiting for the rest of our family to arrive on Friday, we went to the grocery store and putt-putt golfing. We are in "awe" of the beautiful warm sunshine in the high 70's today. Grandma & Grandpa's flights were re-routed out of the mid-west because of snow and ice but they arrived around 4:30pm. Amy & Jeff drove to Florida so they had been on the road for a few days. Doug & Jen arrived about 5:30 into Orlando. We all arrived safe and sound.

Orlando or bust!

Tonight marked the start of our Christmas vacation to Florida! We are meeting up with my whole family for an Orlando week. Mom, Dad, Amy and her family are coming from Iowa and Doug and his family are coming from Tempe, AZ. We've been looking forward to it for a long time now although just told the kids about their Christmas present at Thanksgiving. They've been marking off the days on the calendar! We are staying at the Bonnet Creek resort which is a Wyndam resort on Disney property.

We are looking foward to lots of family time, some theme parks and a break from the cold weather! I'll try to keep you updated on our adventures and I'm able.

Merry Christmas!

The school Christmas program was tonight. It is soooo cold! The wind chill in the negatives. The kids did such a good job with all of their music. Heart warming for sure. I know she's my daughter, but doesn't Madison look beautiful?...and Quinn a cute looking Joseph?

Sadness

Michelle (Tony's sister) and Archie's beautiful baby girl was stillborn late this morning after a c-section delivery. The cord was wrapped around her little neck, otherwise she was a perfectly formed baby with lots of hair. She was due in January but Michelle noticed the baby wasn't moving yesterday. What was gearing up to be a great time of rejoicing and family celebration in a couple of weeks has suddenly been replaced with raw grief and loss. There are really no words to describe the feelings... God can feel the pain in their hearts as well as in our hearts. We would appreciate your prayers for Michelle, Archie and Jade as well as the rest of the family during this time of loss.

Love, Leah

Still here...

Sorry I haven't posted in a long time. It feels like I haven't been home in a long time. I've got pictures for you... the small group Christmas party, the children's Christmas program, hunting for our Christmas tree (which is still naked in the corner). I just don't have the energy tonight. Hopefully soon. I will leave you with one picture that might make you smile. I've finally captured Cocoa's obsession on camera. She will spent a good hour or more working on putting 2 of anything in her mouth at the same time. Her favorite is tennis balls. Pretty talented huh?

Back to school

Quinn went to school today and did ok. He said his legs felt weak and he was a little dizzy at times but overall it went ok. He was quite upset about the amount of homework he had tonight!! I guess he didn't realize how much work they actually do during the school day. He will need a few days to bounce back and he's sick and tired of me telling him to drink! Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. It was a long 4 days for him.

Hold that thought...

Quinn had to stay home from school today. He tried to eat a cracker for breakfast but couldn't keep it down. He has lost 7 pounds over this last weekend. He is trying a popsicle now. I would appreciate your prayers for him to get over this sickness.

Much better

After 2 full days of running a temp in the 102's and even some throwing up Quinn is finally much better. I did a strep test yesterday which was positive and then started him on Amoxil right away. Amazing what anitbiotics can do! He set simple goals for himself... like making it off the couch to the computer or to the Play Station today. Ha. I set little higher goals like drinking enough water to make the dehydration-breath smell go away AND... to take a shower and get out of the clothes he has been in since Thanksgiving night! All goals were accomplished today. He even ate about 500 calories total today. He lost 4 pounds over this Thanksgiving break and I want a "do-over" but all in all... Quinn is much better and that's what matters. We didn't get our Christmas tree but hopefully we will be able to next weeekend. He was most disappointed today that he didn't get to go to SS at church. I was the substitute teacher for his class. His teacher (Darren) said he was pretty sure he could arrange for me to teach again so Quinn could be there.

Have a good week everyone!

Black Friday

Black Friday

***

Fall leaves on the ground,

must be raked and grass be found.

Doorbuster deals not for me...

Someone else got the steals.

Bikes, skirt guns, outdoor equipment to be put up.

Sleds, snow boards, shovels to put down.

Madison~Leaf raker, helper

Quinn~ Feverish and on the couch

I have not seen Quinn physcially off of this spot on the couch since he got up at 9:45 this morning (the first sign that something was wrong). He has felt miserable with a sore throat and fever all day today. Madison was mad that he "chose this day"...our yard work day, out of all the days of the year, to be sick on the couch! Thermometers don't lie. He's been close to 102 at various times today. We wanted to celebrate our yard work day by going to cut down our Christmas tree and decorate the house. Hopefully he'll feel more like that tomorrow. I don't think his soccer game will be hap'nin though.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We have so many things to be thankful for. It literally gives me a lump in my throat when I think of God's care, protection and bounty that he has blessed us with. So many times I am quick to think, "life isn't fair" when things don't go my way. I realize this year that life isn't fair again... but this time because I feel I'm more blessed than some others. I just give my overwhelmed feelings of thanks and gratitude to my Father for all of the good things in my life.

We live in the # 1 economically hardest hit county in the entire nation and I think that has made us feel all the more thankful for God's blessings at this time of year. I work with people every day who have been directly affected by the down turn of the RV industry. So many people have lost their jobs or have had their hours significantly cut at their work. Especially hard hit are the husband/wife pairs that both worked in the RV industry, both needing jobs now. I see this every day with the patients I care for. While our jobs aren't perfect, Tony and I feel especially thankful for them and for the steady income right now. I read in the newspaper today that the Salvation Army has already noticed a 20% decrease in those able to help with donations compared to last year and yet have had a 30% increase in those asking for help so far. I wonder how "desperate" a family has to be before they actually reach out and ask for help? My guess is that help is a hard thing to ask for.

We celebrated our Thanksgiving day at Beppe & Pakka's house today. We were happy that Matt & Lisa and their 3 boys joined us as well as our friend Darren from church. We were there from noon until about 8:30 last night. We ate way too much delicious food, browsed the sale ads for the next day and played games. The day went really fast. It was a beautiful sunny day in the 40's and just a good day to relax and enjoy being together.

Concord Future

A special bond...

Thanksgiving...a little early

Saturday afternoon was filled with turkey (plain or smoked), roasted pork, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, apple pie... etc..., etc..., and etc!! We got together with the V.W. family to celebrate Thanksgiving a little early. This is Tony's Uncle John's family (Isy's brother). A good time was had by all. Isy brought some slides that had pictures of this family. The bathtub picture is of Tony, James, Don Jr. and Eileen. How cute!

Weekend in Iowa

Boy, life has been so busy! It's been 10 days since I've posted. We had a great time with Bonnie & AJ here the weekend of the 7th. Quinn had basketball and soccer games so we went to those. We spent Sunday afternoon and evening playing games and Bonnie & AJ took the kids bowling. The past work week was busy. Dr. P was gone for the whole week so the office was busy with no other provider there than me. I now need a vacation... from his vacation! The kids got out of school at 1:00 on Friday so we picked them up at school and went to Iowa for the weekend.

We went to Amy & Jeff's for supper and then we headed to the first Iowa basketball game. They played Charleston-Southern University. Even though it wasn't a Big Ten game, we still enjoyed it and ran into a few people that we knew while at the arena. Madison & Jenna stayed home with Mikayla & Haley instead of going to the game. Iowa won by 20 or so.


Saturday morning was the Iowa vs Purdue football game. Tony, Quinn, Jeff and I went to it. It was ca-ca-ca-cold... especially in the 2nd half. We saw some snow flakes but thankfully they didn't last. Iowa won 22-17 in what ended up being a pretty close game. I always enjoy watching Quinn and how he reacts to the game. The "grandma" that he sat next too also enjoyed watching him. She's always nice ...whatever her name is. We rode the Hawkeye Express Train to the stadium from remote parking so that explains the picture of Quinn in front of the train. We were waiting to catch it on the way back after the game. Don't you love his hat? He always gets comments about his hat at games.



We went out to eat at La Casa in the evening. Did you know that La Casa was closing??? Next weekend is their last weekend open. I guess the owners are retiring. Boy, that's a sad ending to the chapter.

One of the most fun parts of the weekend was surprising the kids with our Christmas plans. Amy and I gave each of the 5 cousins a small "gift"... that they unwrapped all at the same time. We wrapped up one item for each of them and they were supposed to look at each others gifts and figure out the surprise. They opened up shells, an airplane, a Christmas ornament, the "College Roadtrip" DVD, and Mickey Mouse ears. They looked at each others items and figured out that we are going to Florida over Christmas! AND... Doug, Jen, Amanda and Jay will be there too! We are so excited! I can't remember the last time we were all together... several years for sure.

It was a busy but fun weekend for sure. We got home at 8:15 last night and quickly tried to organize ourselves for the work week ahead. Tony left for Evansville tonight at 5pm. He will be gone until Thursday night for some meetings for work. We've had some BUSY weekends lately. I wonder what's planned for next weekend....? I'll have to go and take a peek at the calendar.

Scrabble

We enjoyed a delicious supper tonight at B&P's house. Beppe sure is a good cook! Afterwards it was a game of Scrabble. Quinn played with Lindy (pictured)and Duchess while on Uncle AJ's team. Madison and Bonnie were "Mad-Bons" and scored huge with Madison's word "journey" which used up all of their tiles. Madison and Quinn are staying overnight tonight. Tony came for supper and promptly went back to work. : (

Have a good night everyone!

Love, Leah

Fall haiku

Fall~ crisp winds blowing,

crunchy leaves waft to the ground,

a girl and her dog.

The heel has healed!

Madison's heel is doing really well and the orthopedic doc cleared her to start being active again. She has to commit to regular Achilles tendon stretches which will probably be part of her life for a very long time. If she has pain she is supposed to rest it right away. That will be the tough part. Today she got to play in her first basketball game after school (the 3rd of the season). She played against a lot of friends from South Side. That's Alexa making a free throw in the picture. We won by 10 or so points. She played a little tentatively out there but afterwards said that her heel felt good. Yeah!! To her and Quinn's GREAT surprise, Uncle AJ & Aunt Bonnie walked into her game. Their faces showed their 100% total and complete surprise. I wish I could have got their faces on camera. It was priceless. I got some pictures of AJ & Bonnie's backs... ha! May be some day this weekend I'll get their faces! They drove 12 hours today from Minnesota for a long weekend here with us. We are going to have an exciting weekend I'm sure!

Fusion Fall Festival ~ Soccer Tournament

We left Friday night at 8pm, after trick or treating, to go to the Indianapolis area for a U11 soccer tournament with Quinn. We checked into the hotel at 11pm and Quinn was given a little goodie bag complete with a little sign to hang on the outside of our door. He was excited to be there! It was a beautiful weekend and so much fun! This wasn't Quinn's first Flames team. This was his "club pass" team... but his close buddies are on it.... Nate, Benjamin and Trevor. He played offense, defense and goalie as he was in and out of the games this weekend. On Saturday morning we beat the Plymouth, IN team 5-1.

We had several hours to kill before our next game. We drove downtown Indy and went to the IMAX showing of the Grand Canyon with 3 other Flames families. Afterwards we ran into Matt & Lisa and the boys walking down the street! We knew they were there because Josh plays in the Concord band and they were one of 10 teams in Class B that went to State this year. They played at the new Lucas Oil Stadium. We went to lunch with them at the Spaghetti Factory. That was a lot of fun... and very good food!

The boys won their 4:30pm game 7-2 against an Illinois team. The whole team and their families (52 people) went back downtown and went to Jillian's... where we ran into Matt & Lisa again. : ) The kids loved this place! It was LOUD! The first floor was the main restaurant and the second floor was filled with LOTS of video games and games that give you tickets that you can turn in for prizes. Madison and Quinn both hit "jackpots" and were able to get Colts teddy bears and several other trinkets with all of their tickets. How do you like Quinn's wild eyes in the pictures below? He was quite happy with life at that moment!



We didn't get back to the hotel until 10:30pm and then Tony took the kids swimming for a half hour. It was a nice way to wind down a bit. This morning we played a team from Carmel and beat them 7-0. Quinn scored a goal and because he played goalie most of the year, this was his first goal for the Flames... in the last few minutes of the season. He couldn't be happier! The 4th game we were supposed to play was cancelled... that team pulled out of the tournament at the last minute. No worries. Those 19 goals scored and only 3 goals allowed earned them the CHAMPION spot!! Yeah!!!


Look at the size of these Stanley Cups soccer trophies! Quinn was "living in the moment" for sure when the coach called his name to receive his trophy. Better than winning the Publisher's Clearinghouse for him. Check out the bottom right pose. The other moms were cracking up because they can barely get their son to stand still for one photo and then you have Quinn "modeling" for the next Sports Illustrated. Hilarious! It was a really fun weekend with great memories to take home ... and one very large trophy to start dusting! : )