Snow

We have a couple of inches of snow on the ground but nothing like some of the surrounding communities which have gotten a lot. It is really, really cold though and the kids haven't even been allowed to go out at recess. It doesn't stop Madison after school though. She was right out there for over an hour... I would have been frozen solid but she and Heather shovelled off the driveway and played in the fluffy snow. We had a quiet evening at home tonight... Tony got home around 7:30, that's better. I'm still working at the laundry and of course supper and dishes. I'm tired... not back on schedule yet.

Short and sweet tonight.
Love to all, Leah

PS... Mom and Dad, using the GPS in AZ was great! We highly recommend it for everyone. We didn't pull out a map once and now we think we need our own (great).

Arizona travel details

We had a great time in Phoenix and Tucson last week! I’ll try and give you the highlights. The purpose of our trip was for Tony to attend some meetings with the Farm Bureau Credit Union board members and some of their executive management. He is a volunteer on their supervisory committee… that’s really my full extent of knowing what that all means!

We flew out on Tuesday night and got to Phoenix around 1:30am (our time). On Wednesday we went out for brunch to the Cracker Barrel and then Doug and Tony went golfing and Jen and I went shopping. It was a beautiful sunny day in the low 70’s… perfect! It was so good to see Amanda (12) and Jay (8), although for a very short time. Jay just couldn’t understand why Tony couldn’t just leave me in Tempe with them and he could go to the Tucson meeting himself! Amanda has grown so much since the last time we’ve seen her. She’s only about ½ inch shorter than I am! The next time I see her I’ll be looking up at her. We had a delicious grilled steak supper with their family and before you knew it our evening was over.

Tony and I left on Thursday morning to head for Tucson. We picked up Sanford and Mary Lou at the airport. We were soooo hoping we could get to the Karchner Caverns that Jen and Amanda told us about but we ended up just not having enough time. The guys’ meeting time ended up earlier than we expected… they needed to “report in” by 4:30. After their meeting the whole group (about 30 or so with spouses) went to a steak house for supper. They had everything very well organized and coordinated.

Friday Angie (yes Angie and Mary Lou were both ther!… how awesome!) and I went shopping at the mall. Friday night we went to this awesome Mexican restaurant. They had mariachi singers walking around and a huge menu selection.

On Saturday afternoon we went to Old Tucson Studios....it was an old western town with a “gun fight” show and all. We didn’t have much time there but we sure drove through some beautiful scenery on the way home through the mountains. We have come to appreciate the variety of colors we have in the Midwest though. Being in the desert reminded us just how many shades of TAN and BROWN there are! Saturday night we went to another steak house and then to see the broadway style production of “Two Amigos” at the Gaslight Theatre. It was a late night… getting back to our room around mid-night or may be a little later. We packed up our room for an earlier departure in the morning. It's been such a great trip though!

We left on Sunday morning at 7am for our long trip home. We flew from Tucsan to Denver to Chicago to South Bend. I had just thought to myself about how smooth the day was going, the flights were on time, thanked God for such a good day… when the day took a bit of a small twist. We sat on board a plane that must have been 85-90 degrees inside for 1 hour before they made us de-plane and get on a different plane. That all set us behind by about 2 hours but I appreciate their detail to safety! : ) …something about a piece of metal that wasn’t secure enough and was near a tire and could possibly rub against it… tires are good things when you have several 100 tons trying to land on them! We arrived back to South Bend to weather that was 50-60 degrees cooler and with snow.

We really had a great time though. The hotel (which I decided really was more like an “inn”) was beautiful and really pretty small... only about 30 or so rooms. I would definitely go back and do recommend it. If you haven’t glanced at it you can find it at http://www.hacinendadelsol.com/ Tony enjoyed learning more about the credit union and I enjoyed the rest, relaxation and shopping! The kids did great with Beppe and Pakka and they said the time went fast. The first full day we were gone Quinn instantly had a stomach ache when I talked to him on the phone which I think instantly improved when we hung up. Tony asked, “Did you get a stomach ache because you were talking to Mom?” and Quinn had to admit with a little homesick sounding “yes”… like I said, I’m positive he forgot all about our separation when he hung up the phone!

So today it was back to the real world. Too bad we can’t go on vacation about once a month to recharge the batteries. It was a busy day at work but not crazy so that’s good. I still have about ½ hour of dictations to do but I’m hoping I can find the time tomorrow.

Well, I need to finish up some laundry. I have a small mountain of it now.

Love to all, Leah

Home safe and sound

Just reporting in that we arrived home around 8:30pm yesterday...about 2 hours later than planned. We had a great time but 6am this morning sure felt like 4am... Tuscan time. Ha! I'm heading out the door for work and will write tonight about our adventures.

Love to all, Leah

Arizona bound

Well, we all made it for full days at work and school today so that was good! Everyone seems to be feeling much better.

Tony and I are leaving tomorrow evening for Arizona. He is a volunteer member of the advisory board where we do our banking... Farm Bureau Credit Union. They are having a planning meeting over the weekend in sunny Tucsan so I'm going along for the ride. We are going to spend a day with Doug & Jen in Tempe (late Tuesday night to Thursday sometime) and then on to Tucsan for his meeting which starts Thursday evening and then we return on Sunday. We are staying at www.haciendadelsol.com which looks pretty spiffy. We are both looking foward to the break. The kids are staying with Beppe and Pakka for the next 5 days. It was a big packing job tonight!

That's all I have time for tonight. I really need to finish packing a few things and get myself to bed. I must remember the last minute things in the morning... one of them being Madison's basketball T-shirt. They have their first games on Saturday. After she went to bed I looked high and low for that thing...needing to pack it. I finally glanced at her as I'm combing through her room and realized that she wore it to bed!! Well, at least I found it!

I'll try to report in from Arizona. I'm not sure how the Internet access will be once we get to Tucsan.

Mom, the GPS came today. Thanks for letting us borrow your Christmas present. We'll let you know how it works!

Love to all, Leah

Homebound

Quinn and I were homebound today. He never got out of his PJ's and went through the variety of fever and sore throat and then feeling good while the meds were working. We played another game of Horseopoly... I was waving the white flag after 2 hours of playing on the floor. He beat me again and so he enjoyed that. I got all of the week's laundry done and put away as well as spent time "puttering" around. Quinn fell asleep in my bed tonight around 8:30 while watching TV. I was really hoping we could all go to church tomorrow... our SS class is really good but I don't think that will happen. Tony is running the sound booth so it looks like tomorrow will be a lot like today for the Q'ster and I. He started Amoxil today so hopefully in another 24 hours he'll be much better.

Tony had a basketball game at 10am today and Madison went along. She spent most of the afternoon with Karla and Katie in Mishawaka... shopping and playing some games at the putt-putt place. I'm glad she had a good day at least! : ) Quinn and I had a long day and he also added "and hard" to that comment earlier. Tony went to work around 2pm or so and is actually still there. Oh.... these new hours don't work very well for our family. : (

Well, that's it. Nothing really even worth mentioning today.

Love to all, Leah

Quinn's turn...

Today is usually my day off but since I missed Monday and Tuesday of this week and I also had a meeting at work from 7-8:30am I decided I should work at least until noon and plow through the stacks on my desk. Those were good intentions anyway. At 10am the school nurse called and said Quinn had a fever of 103.7 so I left to go rescue him from school. What a week we've had indeed! We got the ibuprofen started right away and while that was working he actually acted pretty normal. He went through his baseball cards and we played a FOREVER long game of Horseopoly (just like Monopoly only with the horse theme). When the medicine wore off he had a bad headache and fever right away which knocked him down to the couch. Poor guy. He was awfully delighted to hear the doorbell ring and for me to discover that it was his buddy Nathan delievering a fresh box of popsicles to cheer him up! Are they fast or what??!! He was sooo happy because we were clean out of popsicles and of course "I was just getting ready to ask you for a popsicle Mom". : ) Soooo, I don't know exactly what his troubles are. We'll see how the day goes tomorrow.

Madison had a better day today, her cough was better. She was a huge grump after school though because she had a lot of homework and "homework is always miserable" according to her. Oh, when does the true love of learning finally occur? After you are done with the intense learning years I guess. Her music class is now learning to play the recorders.... oh, my. All I can say is THANKS to my mom and dad for putting up with the practicing and many mini-recitals I must have also given!!!! Well, she has now accomplished the first few bars of 3 Blind Mice and I'm ready for a different song!

So tonight I went grocery shopping around 7:45 or so.... I didn't get that chore done today and I hate to go on Saturdays, it's SO BUSY! So, after Tony got home I went to Meijer and it wasn't busy at all so that was really, really nice. I guess Friday nights are the nights to go! Check that off the list.

So, this weekend looks like it will be a fairly quiet one afterall. Quinn won't be able to go anywhere tomorrow... no friends over to play... what is he going to do all day??? I see lots of Yahtzee and more Horseopoly in my future! We've played so many games of Yahtzee I think I could play that game in my sleep.

Tony is working again tomorrow. : ( Boy has he ever worked a lot this week. I bet he worked at least 60-70 hours this week. He said he didn't bother to keep track of the hours. I think he really can't count that high. Ha! I hope that slows down.

That's all from our home front. Let me know what's going on at yours...

Love to all, Leah

Madison is back in the game of life!

Madison woke up without a fever on Wednesday morning so I guess the antibiotic finally kicked in. She went to school and said she had a pretty good day. She had an allergic reaction to the Puffs-Plus kleenex(es) that she used for 2 days straight and she broke out with a fine rash all along the sides of her nose. She said a couple of girls made fun of her but she turned around a walked away. Girls can be so mean to each other. I just don't get it. Anyway, after some hydrocortisone cream her nose looks much better today. She wasn't as self-conscious about it I don't think.

Anyway, I'm trying to get myself out the door for work. I can use every single minute I'm there. I had to leave about 20 charts on my desk yesterday so I have my job security waiting for me. Ha!

More later!
Love to all, Leah

How it all turned out...

Madison went to Rollpak with Tony today, after they dropped me off at the dentist. Don picked Madison up after his morning bus route and brought her back to our house. I guess he got initiated to the Playstation. Isy came over after her school bus aide duties were done and she was initiated to the car racing game as well. Tony picked me up at the dentist around noon and took me home (I couldn't drive because they gave me some sedating meds). I slept the whole afternoon away while Madison "watched herself" and made sure to welcome Quinn home from school. It was a weird mixed up day that took some ochestrating. Quinn said he didn't have a good day at school because he missed Madison and on the bus he just imagined that she was there in her seat and it made him sad that she wasn't. Of course I thought that this is all sweet and good but when Quinn wasn't looking Madison made the cuckoo sign to me! Ha!

Madison continued her fever and facial/eye pain today (symptoms of the sinus infection) but overall I thought she was a little better today. Like, I really didn't even see her much though. Her fever did get up to 103 though. Isy is on stand-by for tomorrow morning. If she wakes up with a fever she can't go to school. She's been on the antibiotic for 24 hours now. I guess if this is viral, the antibiotic won't matter and it will just have to run it's course. That would stink! I would hate to have her miss another day. We'll just see how it works out. She is hoping to go to school because she's tired of being sick. Can't blame her!

Tony got home around 8:30pm or so, just in time to finish up watching Iowa lose to IU in BB. Nathan S. called Quinn just to tell him that he was watching the Iowa game too. I thought that was so cute. He's one of Quinn's brainwashed Iowa fans. : )

Remember those 4-10inches of snow promised last night? None, nada, zero, zilch!

Here's to hoping we all have good days tomorrow...!
Love to all, Leah

Change in plans

Well, this Monday sure didn't go as planned. Madison woke up with a 102.5 temp this morning so I stayed home with her and she proceeded to feel rotten pretty much most of the day. (Remember yesterday's fore-shadowing?). When the Motrin is at it's peak she felt much better... temporarily. She pretty much warmed the couch all day (literally and figuratively). I'm certain she has a sinus infection so I started her on antibiotics late this afternoon. Quinn played at Nate's for most of the day which was great and allowed Madison to rest more without his busy commotion going on. ...Actually, her ears are plugged and so I was repeatedly asking her to turn the TV down! She said, "but I can hardly hear it!" She took a 2 hour nap which I was so hoping would help but it didn't much. We read some books together and other than that she didn't want to do a thing. She still had a temp at bedtime so we have to figure out how to connect all the dots tomorrow. I have a dental appointment for some work to be done and if I miss it, they will charge me $200 per HOUR! Boy am I ever in the wrong business!! She may end of going to work with Tony until I'm done at the dentist's office. We are promised to get 4-10 inches of lake effect snow tonight. That would throw some more issues into the morning I'm sure. We've been promised snow many other times though and haven't gotten it so I'll believe it when I see it!

Tony and Quinn had Upward BB practice tonight. Madison wasn't very happy to have to miss her's. That's about all the news for today. I hope to report on a happier note tomorrow. In the mean time, say a prayer that she'll get over this soon. It's hard to see them feeling so bad. : (

Love to all, Leah

Science Experiment

In my last post I mentioned that Quinn started his science experiment (read yesterday's post). Well.... Quinn's mother ended up monitoring the thermometer until 12:30am! It took that one can of pop exactly 4 hours and 4 minutes to get to a cold 37 degrees! Obviously we started it too late. I thought is would be only a couple of hours at the worst... boy was I wrong! Quinn wasn't too happy to go to bed and leave the timing to me but there's no way he could stay up that late! We have a couple of more methods to try yet so I've learned a lesson... start early in the day! Ha!

Today was church in the morning and then the youth had a Haystack Dinner for a fund raiser followed by the annual congregational meeting. After that we were home for the rest of the day. It's rainy and cold outside. It didn't stop Quinn and Nate from playing football outside... Quinn in his Vikings jersey and Nate in his Colt's jersey. Madison is getting the cold that the other 3 of us have had already so she laid pretty low today and said she didn't "have the energy" to even go up and down the steps. : ) You know she isn't feeling great when she sits down and watches football with us!!! The colds were relatively mild... although annoying for a few days.

Tia!!... so good to hear from you and great to know you are reading along! For those of you that don't know Tia... we went to college together at Olivet although we didn't know each other, except for may be being acquaintances, until we found ourselves working at Elkhart General together. She quickly became a great friend. We ended up working in pain management together and shared our lives inside and outside of work too. She moved to Indy but we've still kept in touch. So far those years of my nursing career have been my favorite. We were easy to remember in the hospital because we were the only nurses in our dept. and our names rhymed! : ) Her first of 3 little boys used to be a toddler and now he is a freshman in HS. How did that happen??

We are supposed to get an ice storm tonight. The kids are off of school for Martin Luther King day so that's probably a good thing. They are already going to Katie and Nathan's for the day. I'll slide my way in to work and if the roads truely are bad, some of the morning patients will reschedule... that would be an OK way to start out a Monday. : )

Have a good week! Love to all of you, Leah

Happy Saturday

I hope you all had a good ending to your week. Today was a rare day when the kids and I actually had nothing planned! It almost felt "weird". I did "umpteen" loads of laundry today and got that all caught up. Nate was over for most of the afternoon to play with Quinn. Tony worked this afternoon but he's not working tomorrow so that will be a good thing too.

Quinn and I started his science experiment tonight. He is trying to find the fastest way to cool down a can of pop from room temperature, to a chilly 37 degrees. So, right now we have a can of pop in the refrig with a thermometer in it. The digital read-out is outside the refrig and we are timing the process. He is also going to check how long it takes by putting it in the freezer, and sitting it in a cooler of ice, ice and water or ice,water and salt. He thinks it will the ice and water that will cool it down the fastest. Both of the kids love the science fair. It's a pretty big thing out here and they love the experiments.

I really don't have much more to report.... for now all is quiet. We are supposed to get rain, sleet and some snow tonight and tomorrow. We are ready for the snow... the other stuff can hold off.

Love to all, Leah

doctor's appointment and random question

Today started out with a doctor's appointment for Madison at 8am. She sprained her left wrist over a year ago and occasionally she says that it still hurts her. She seems to be mentioning it more lately so I took her to see the new ortho doc in Goshen. He is going to get another x-ray (the first one after the injury was normal) to check for a hairline fracture. He said it could be a tendonitits or a type of arthritis (I'm not really worried about that). Her left wrist is weaker than the right so she has some PT to do with it. We'll see what happens. The kids were very disappointed that I was able to get them to school just in the nick of time not to be late. : )

It was another busy day today at work. It sure makes the day fly by. The kids and I went for coffee at Don & Isy's house. John and Evelyn were there too. We stayed for about an hour and a half then were home after that. Tony didn't get home until 9:45 tonight so he was out of the picture. : (

Here's a strange random question for you... Quinn was real sleepy and almost asleep and he said (out of the blue, without any known conversation to plant these ideas), "what happens if you don't pass your first year of college, how many more years do you get to pass that year?" ...like, why would he be worried about that now? : ) Anyway, made me laugh.

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

Basketball Begins

Happy Monday to ya (ha-ha right?).

Just to update those of you that are interested... Saturday night Madison played at the half-time of the Concord girl's varsity game. We went out for supper first with Don & Isy to Chili's to use a gift card that I had (and forgot at home). Then we headed to the game to watch the varsity girls lose by 30 points, their record is 0-13. : ( I would love to post a picture of Madison at half-time but I forgot my camera at home (0 for 2).

Sunday brought church in the morning and then Tony went to work in the afternoon until about 6:30. We watched the movie "Invinsible" for our family movie night. It was good but a little slow moving.

Today was Monday and the first day for the kids to go back to school after their Christmas break. Neither one of them wanted to go... Quinn had his stomach ache and all. They ended up having fine days and I think it's good to have them back to a routine. Going to bed earlier is a harder transition though. Madison is much more of a night person than a morning person (like her dad) so it's especially hard for her to get to sleep at a decent time and then it's painful to get her up.

Tonight they had their first Upward basketball practices. Tony is coaching Quinn's team. It is such a great program! If you haven't heard of it before, it's worth checking out at www.upward.com to see if there is a program in your area. We highly recommend it! So, the kids were excited to see who is on their teams. Madison is on the same team with Peyton, Raeann and Erin (Gordan and Cynthia's daughter). So, she was happy to know half of the team very well. Quinn and Nate are together which isn't a surprise since we requested each other with their "car pool link" request. He didn't know anyone else. They were happy to get their uniforms, CD's and magnets for the van.

Well, the Ohio State vs FL half-time is over with... better get back to the tube. : )
I threatened Ohio State that if they don't play better, I'm going to have to go to bed on them. Why can't the Big Ten play better in bowl games? Anyway...

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

Night at the Museum

Good Morning!

Yesterday afternoon we went to see the movie, Night at the Museum. It was a great movie! It's family friendly (although not perfect) and entertaining for kids and adults too. So, I highly recommend it! We also went to the grand opening of our new Cold Stone Creamery. It was quite expensive... $10.50 for nothing fancy for the kids and I. We decided that Ritter's or Culver's is better. It was a fun way to spend an afternoon though. We went with Karla, Katie and Nathan which of course made it even better. : )

Last night we just relaxed at home. Tony's good friend and co-worker, Dave, is leaving Rollpak. His "last day" was yesterday. That's in quotes because both Dave and Tony are working this afternoon and I'm sure they'll be talking lots over the phone during their work days. Dave is hoping for more time with his family and took a job with a plastics company in Elkhart. We wish him only the best. Tony has been feeling some of the stress of needing to pick up some of Dave's job and figure out how to do his own as well. God is in control and it will all work out!

Today Quinn has Nathan's birthday party to go to. He got him an Iowa t-shirt so I hope he doesn't get kicked out of the party! : ) It's a lego theme and Karla has fun games planned for them so I'm sure he'll have to be dragged home. Madison and I need to do some running around during that time. There's always errands to do!

Tonight Madison is going to demonstrate her basketball skills at the half-time of the Concord girls varsity game. I'm sure she will have fun with that. It will be interesting to watch the girls play too.

Well, that's all for today. Enjoy your weekend! I'm sure going to!

Love to all, Leah

Happy New Year!

Well, by now you've all gotten off to a start on the new year of 2007. I hope this year is a great one for all of you. We spent our new year's eve at home with a little party which included family... AJ & Bonnie, John & Evelyn, and Don & Isy. We played lots of card games and some played Horseopoly which is basically the horse version of monopoly. We were in a tough game of Shanghi Rook which took us until almost 2am. I can't remember the last time I stayed up that late! Of course when I went to bed I couldn't immediately fall asleep. The kids stayed up until 2 as well. They thought that was pretty cool. We got up around 8:30 to go out for breakfast and sent Bonnie & AJ off for their 10 hour trip back to MN. The rest of the day we spent "recuperating" from our late night. Nate came over and played with Quinn for a while.

The kids were at 3 different homes this week because they are still out on break (thanks Karla, Lisa and B & P!). They were happy to play with their friends. Katie and Madison made pots on her new Christmas pottery wheel, Beppe gave the kids their first art lesson, painting an apple scene (I'm so impressed!) and Quinn went to a basketball camp with Brock this afternoon. They definitely haven't been bored. I'm so thankful that I had their first week of their break off to share in the fun too.

It was a rough jump back into work this week. I was served a subpeona on Tuesday at 4pm to appear in court to testify on behalf of a patient going through a divorce... this Friday!... the kid's last day off! Boy was I ever mad! To make a long story short, I had a meeting with the hospital's lawyer in the afternoon today and she got me out of it... because they didn't give me 30 days of a notice! I was so thankful!!!

Well, Madison had Flames practice tonight. She hasn't ran like that for 2 weeks now so she is already saying that her body is aching! It's amazing how fast you loose what you work so hard to gain.

I hope things are going well for you. We've enjoyed reading many of your Christmas cards and letters this year.

Love to all, Leah

Merry Christmas!

A belated Merry Christmas to everyone! We hope your celebration was a good one. Well our famiy has joined the ranks of "gamers" I guess with our first game system... a Playstation 3. Tony & I were quite thrilled to be one of the few families to find one at Target about a week before Christmas. This is a picture of the kids while opening it. They look like they've won the lottery don't they? Anticipating their excitment was just as much fun as giving it to them. Quinn said, "I knew one of these Christmases we would FINALLY get a Playstation!" They each got jerseys as well... Quinn a Vikings jersey and Madison a pink/white Iowa jersey. They've deemed this "the best Christmas EVER" and according to Madison she "wondered why we didn't have very many presents under the tree... now I understand!" : )

We enjoyed our trip to Iowa over Christmas although it was much to short and basically just 3 1/2 days. We didn't get to see as many people as we would have liked but enjoyed spending time with my family and Grandma on Christmas day. We got back Tuesday night and celebrated our family Christmas on Wednesday morning and then with Tony's family on Wednesday night. That was the first that their family has all been together since AJ and Bonnie's wedding a year and a half ago. Michelle, Archie and Jade leave tomorrow for a weekend in Iowa but we get to enjoy AJ and Bonnie until New Year's Day. This week is really going by way to fast!!

That's all for now... just wanted to check in and tell you I haven't forgot you all. I have this whole week off and Tony has most of it. He just ran into work now for a little while to get the paychecks out and then he is working tomorrow and Saturday, doing inventory. We might go bowling this afternoon. We'll see! More Christmas stories later.

Love to all, Leah

Jade Isabella

Here is an updated picture of our neice Jade, isn't she soooo cute??!! Tony gave her apple juice with a straw tonight and she was quite delighted with the whole straw thing. Tonight Michelle, Archie and Quinn took Madison to her indoor soccer practice. They picked up Jade and then came to our house for homemade chocolate chip cookies and spent the rest of the evening with us. We've enjoyed spending time with them each evening this week. I spent a little of that free time this evening racing into Wal-mart (which has consistently disappointed me lately) and then to Meijer. I keep thinking of these "last minute gifts" ... I thought I was done but keep thinking of more. Now guess what, I have to run out tomorrow again too!!! Does anyone need anything while I'm out there with the pack? I'm really not a last minute shopper... it's just these last minute straggler gifts (like a grab bag gift for Christmas day).

I finally made it to my vacation time.... ahhhh. It feels good! Tomorrow will be spent packing and doing laundry (you know it's bad when Quinn tells me it's time...). It's amazing how much time the process of leaving takes. We are leaving for Iowa tomorrow around 5 or 6pm and returning on Tuesday. It looks like there will be rain but thankfully no snow. We are all looking forward to our trip and Christmas in Iowa. We are planning on going to the Iowa basketball game on Saturday so that will be a treat. Hopefully we won't get beat too badly.

Well, I really need to get to bed. The alarm will go off too early in the morning!

Love to all, Leah

coffee and koeke

Tonight the kids and I had coffee and koeke (pronounced ku'-ka) at Beppe & Pakka's house along with Michelle, Archie, Jade, Cindy and Johnnie, John and Evelyn and Jim and Sandy. For those of you that don't already know, koeke is a quick bread that Isy's dad made up and the Vander Werf's serve it at all their little get togethers. The recipe is in the newly released Silverwood cookbook. We all enjoyed listening to Archie's Iraq stories. I can't even imagine 157degrees plus a heavy uniform! He could talk for hours and the stories are so fascinating that I could listen for hours! : ) "Coffee" on Wednesday nights starts around 5 or 5:30... whenever you can get there. Tonight it broke up around 7:30 or so and then Bep, Pak, Mich, Arch & Jade and the 3 of us went to Buffalo Wild Wings and Tony was able to join us for supper. The evenings sure have been fun but I sure haven't gotten much accomplished at home!!! Tony's been working a lot of hours so he has had to miss out on some of the fun. : (

Work was busy as usual however I had Randa, our "casual" RN there today to help me! Boy does she ever improve my quality of life! I even had a lunch break today for a full half hour! WOW! Let's see.... the last time that happened was... hmmm, I would guess sometime in November. Tomorrow is my last day before a full week off! I'm so excited!!! We've all been exposed to sick people lately so I'm praying that none of us gets sick for our vacation time!

That's all for tonight... I need to head to bed. Gu-night.

Love to all, Leah

Michelle, Archie and Jade are here!

Hello Everyone, Hope your week is going well.

Michelle, Archie and Jade got to Goshen at about 4am on Monday morning. We've gotten to see them last night and tonight so that's been fun. It makes the week go fast to be gone in the evenings. Jade's hair has lightened up and gotten long. She can wear is all pulled back in a ponytail now and looks so cute! She's 18 months now. Madison and Quinn are just dripping over Uncle Archie. The poor guy has one of them hanging on him at all times! They've played tether ball for hours in the driveway at Beppe & Pakka's house.

Yesterday afternoon the kids and I went Christmas caroling with Karla, her kids, and some others from Silverwood. We met at 4:30 and it took us about 2 hours to get to 3 people, one in Goshen and two in Elkhart. It was a good experience. The kids enjoyed it and the "shut-in's" seemed to enjoy it too. Another group was going tonight. They have a colder evening than we did. We sang to Jonell and she mouthed the words along with us.... There are questions that will probably never be answered for me on this side of heaven.

That's really all the "news" for now. I'll see if I can snap some pictures of Jade and post them so you can see how much that little pumpkin has changed.

Love to all, Leah

Weekend highlights

Hope you all had a good weekend. Ours was a good one. Friday night we went to the Concord basketball game where Quinn demonstrated his skills at half-time of the JV game... skills he has been learning at the BB clinic on Saturday mornings. The picture is of him giving us the peace sign, up in the stands. : ) He's pretty excited to have met Darice Gary who is a senior and has already signed to play at Iowa next year. He even had his picture taken with him. Madison loved "the game" which meant she ran around with a pack of friends the whole night.

Saturday night was the Rollpak Christmas party. I told Tony "that was fun... as fun as a party gets when you aren't the employee and hardly know any one." It was very nice and over the years I've gotten to know some of the other wives, so it really was kind of fun. It was a Jimmy Buffett ~ Cheeseburger in Paradise theme.

Today after church the kids each had a friend come over... Peyton and Tyler, so the day was filled with laughing, chasing, hiding, sneaking, coloring, scootering, footballs and computer games. Tonight is our "movie night" so we are watching "Fly away Home".

Michelle and Archie left around 7pm tonight for Indiana so we'll get to see them tomorrow, after we go Christmas caroling. Well, those were the highlights of the weekend. Have a good week everyone!

Love to all, Leah