Archie comes home from Iraq tonight!!!

Hello to All,

The most exciting news from today is that Archie (Tony's brother-in-law) is arriving home tonight from Iraq!!! YEAH!!! I'm sure he can't wait to see his little girl, Jade (14 mo.) and Michelle is probably on that priority list somewhere.

May be a couple of you are wondering how Silverwood ended up in the tournament. They played 2 games on Monday (yesterday) and were home by 1:30. There were 38 teams involved so they don't actually know their "place" yet. They played a total of 6 games. Tony described himself as "old and decrepit" when he got home. : ) Madison had such a good time on her scooter at park and I heard her ask "will you still be playing softball when I can drive?" That made us think that that is only about 6 years away. SCARY! (Tony didn't give her a good answer about the "still playing" bit). I told her she better start saving for a car. She tells us she has her sights set on a hummer or a corvette convertible so she better get real creative at making money in the next few years!!!!

Labor Day was another beautiful day. Mom reports rain in Iowa so we knew that was on the way (foreshadowing for the next paragraph). Madison and I went the park with Lisa, Karla, Angie and Eliza along with their kids for a picnic lunch. That was nice. Quinn decided to stay and play at Nate's house. He described himself as a "home-boy" this weekend... he just likes to stay home. Hmmmm, wonder who he takes after?

Quinn had a soccer game tonight and Madison had practice. We only got a few minutes into the 2nd quarter and someone spotted a glint of lightning off in the distance so the game was called. We waited for 30 minutes but there must have been a few more sparkles (I never did see any) and so the whole evening was called. Quinn was playing his best friend Nate's team. He gets so nervous to play him. I don't know why. They are both good players and play against each other very well. Anyway... our team (Rollpak; which Tony coaches) was ahead 1-0 and they don't make up "rain-outs" so I guess we won. It is finally raining now, after we got home, so Mom's weather forecast for what's coming up 24 hours later stands to be pretty accurate.

Work today was the typical day after a 3-day weekend. Unfortunately there is a price to pay for time off. The phone rang off the hook and of course I've already gotten the weekly call for "missing" medicine... "someone stole my methadone right out of my medicine cabinet so I need a refill". Boy, I've heard much better reasons than that. Sometimes I think patients think we run a Pez dispenser for pain meds. Anyway, in case you are wondering, no, he doesn't get a refill until he is "due" at the end of the month but he does get a surprise urine test the next time he comes in to see if he is taking meds or selling them. (He should test negative if he truely isn't taking them).

Well, Angie requested me to post a picture of our boat, which we named "The Hawkeye"... so, Ang, we think we are going to try and take "her" out this weekend so I'll try and get a picture in action. I guess Tony and his dad discovered that one of the spark plugs wasn't working so we're hoping to get over 11mph this time. Don put the new propeller on too. Luckily we found a spare in the boat. (Do boats usually carry spare propellers like cars carry spare tires????).
We need to look for a flag that we can sail off the back. Mom and Amy, keep your eyes open. It needs to have 2 metal "holes" (what are those called?!) on the 2 corners so we can clip it on... about an 11x14 sized flag.

I guess that's all for now. The kids are supposed to be getting ready for bed but I've heard an awful lot of laughing and loud music so I better go check it out.

Love to all, Leah

A picture from the first day of school

I thought you might enjoy a picture from this year's first day of school. The mornings are now a little chilly but dressing in layers proves to be the only way to go as the top layers come off pretty soon. Hard to believe that we have a 2nd and 4th grader!

Well, the Silverwood guys won their tournament game tonight, 32-3 or something ridiculous like that. Tony assures me that they weren't trying to run up the score and even tried non-agressive playing towards the end. They play tomorrow morning at 8am and again at 10 or 11. He stayed overnight in Fort Wayne tonight with the guys.

Tomorrow is Labor Day which means we all have Monday off! Yahoo! Boy, does Sunday night ever feel different knowing that I don't have to get up and go to work in the morning! LOVE IT!! I have some errands to run tomorrow but otherwise plan on puttering around at home.

That's all for today. If you are reading this, let me know by leaving a "comment"... it will probably be the easiest thing you do all day!

Love to all, Leah

Opening day for college football!

Hello All,
Wasn't today just an absolutely perfect day... at least in the midwest? The weather could not have been better! We enjoyed watching the Iowa vs Montana VICTORY today! 41-7. We just love college football so today in itself was a great day the moment we woke up!

For those of you that don't know... we are now "boat people"... or trying to be. That's right, we bought a 1974 Sea Ray with Don & Isy for a grand total of $500. Yep, it even floats! OK, so today was our maiden voyage as owners... let's just sum it all by saying that NOW WE NEED A NEW PROPELLER! Long story short... we attempted the Saint Joe River and after we finally got the ancient fish-finder working we had additonal confirmation that there are some actually very shallow areas in that river. We dug up a little bit of mud, rocks and seaweed at times. We got up to the grand speed of 11 mph with the throttle wide open! Let's just say we won't be breaking any speed records. However, Quinn practiced his "lifeskill of courage" (a school term) and was our lone one to brave the "tube". He looked quite little out there on that tube... 50 feet away from the boat. So... after we accelerated to about 2 miles an hour, he was DONE! I'm surprised the ear piercing screaming didn't bring out the home owners from their GORGEOUS homes! So, after 20 seconds at the most... we hauled him back in sobbing. But he got my praise anyway because he actually tried it! Way to go Buddy! Madison, on the other hand says, "We are NOT boat people!!!". It's taking her a little while to warm up to the idea. It totally goes against her personality but she was rather scared to death out there. She said it all goes back to a Simonton Lake excursion with Aunt Michelle's boat 2 weeks ago (a different story for a different time...).

Tony played in the Fort Wayne Mennonite softball tourney today. They came out 1-2 but had a good time enjoying the great weather. Sometimes this weekend down there can just be beastly hot! Anyway, he plays again tomorrow night. We'll see how that goes. Madison left the house with him at 5:30am to go along while Quinn and I thought we should stay home to watch the Iowa game "live"... not taped and watch it later. : )

Well, that was our day in a nutshell. We rarely have any dull moments around here. I hope you enjoyed hearing about just a few of them from today!

Love to all, Leah

New to blogging / Leave us your comments!

Hello All!
We are new to blogging! Trying to figure it out at close to mid-night isn't probably the best thing to be doing but so far so good!
Trying to keep up with technology....
OK, the time posted here must be Pacific time. Thanks to our governor, we are on Eastern time year round now. Thanks! (Not!)