God's Kitchen Momento

When we helped serve at God's Kitchen last week there was a mentally ill and disabled gentleman there who was a fantastic artist. He quickly sketched this picture of Jesus with just a pencil while waiting for supper to be served. Quinn got to keep it. Beppe framed it for him. Isn't it beautiful? We all have gifts, passions and a purpose in life. Sometimes it's figuring out how to use them all together that is hard. Quinn certainly was blessed to have this as a gift at the end of his evening.

My Staycation

I have LOVED my staycation this week! Yesterday I was thinking about the fact that I have never stayed home on a vacation before... unless you count my maternity leave with Quinn as the last time....9 years ago. It's been over 9 years since I've had 5 consecutive days off of work and didn't leave town. I have absolutely loved my week! I've tried to imagine what it would feel like if I stayed home all the time... surely the newness would wear off right? Is it possible to be bored at home at this stage with my kids so busy? I really doubt it. The low stress of not balancing work with life was an absolute incredible and freeing feeling though! Now the week wasn't just all butterflies and rainbows... keep reading to the end. : )

Top 5 great things from my staycation:

1. Spending more time with Madison and Quinn. Especially Quinn since Madison left for Iowa on Wednesday. He loved the "Mom and Son time" as he called it, working on this crazy airplane model that is probably more challenging to me, than to him!
(Sorry I have very few pictures with me in it!)

2. Driving Quinn and Nate to football every single day of camp... instead of having to arrange for a car pool ride! Yippee! (It's the little things). ...And getting to watch his scrimmage on Wed & Thurs too.
3. Hosting Amy, Jeff, Jenna, Mikayla, Haley as well as Scooby and Daisy (their 2 dogs) for 4 days. We always have a great time!
4. Going to the fair as much as we wanted. Six out of nine days is a record for sure!
5. Staying up late and sleeping in a few days too.

Bottom 5...
1. Tony had to work all week and really didn't get to spend much time with us at all on our staycation. He is a hard working guy and I prayed for him a lot this week, relief just has to come soon don't you think?
2. At first Cocoa loved Scooby and Daisy but by the end of their stay, she had become rather homicidal and even had a few attempted murder attempts on those poor little dog's lives! I think she saw them as rabbits or squirrels and that meant chasing and shaking. Yikes! We had to coordinate their "free time" so they could avoid each other.
3. I had some trouble with my back and leg! Occasionally I get the low back pain and leg pain and it's been acting up the last few weeks. I REFUSE to become one of my own patients (since this is the number 1 diagnosis I treat) but it was pretty miserable for a few days. Walking Cocoa (and walking at the fair) brings on numbness and burning in my legs and toes!
4. I've really missed Madison these past 4 days. I know she is having a wonderful time in Iowa but never the less, this made my bottom 5 list.
5. OK, I could only think of 4... and I'm not going to try and stretch to find something else wrong because the good by far outweighs the bad!

Now, I'm going to have to take a dose of my own medicine tomorrow morning when the alarm clock goes off... and "Be happy that I had a vacation, not feel sad that its over!" That was one of the many wise things I've learned from my mom. (Sometimes I do have to repeat that to myself over and over until I finally FEEL what I'm saying though! Ha!) Back to the real world tomorrow.

Thanks for reading. Love to all! Leah

4H Fair ~ Day 6

Are you tired of hearing about the fair? Today was the last day of the 9 day event! Berry Plastics had their summer corporate picnic at the fair. They also provided wrist bands for unlimited rides from 12-6pm. Tony and I aren't much for rides any more. We can do rollercoasters but not the spinning kinds found at fairs! We managed to ride the ferris wheel and the Crazy Mouse which is like a mini-rollercoaster but the cars end up spinning too. I heard myself scream a few times... I think more because of thinking this can not possibly safe if this is a portable ride and not permamently secured to the ground!!! Tony ran through some fun house but I was "rejected" because I had on flip-flops and I wasn't about to take off my shoes and run through where 100,000 other sweaty kids have been. My Microbiology class in college ruined me forever! Ha! Good-bye 4H Fair. See you next year!

4H Fair ~ Day 5

Today Quinn and I worked on his airplane model for several more hours...

and then we went to the fair for the 5pm Horse Pull. He had never seen this event before. We met Tony and B&P at 6pm. At that time the horse teams were pulling 10,000 pounds and 1 team had dropped out, leaving 9 left. I wonder how it turned out?

We ate supper and Quinn climbed on the tractors and showed Tony the projects that Madison and he had entered.

We went to the rodeo at 8pm. In the previous years we went to the 2pm rodeo. It was MUCH more crowded for the evening show. I think we'll stick to the 2pm show from now on. The rodeo was neat though. They always save the bull-riding for last. We didn't leave until 10:30.

Look at this poor cowboy who obviously lost the battle with a bucking broncho or bull! I made

Quinn promise me not to grow up to be a bull rider!

It was another fun evening at the fair. We miss Madison like crazy! You can get a glimpse of what she has been doing if you click HERE.

Airplane Model

As you know Quinn is infatuated with airplanes and he has always enjoyed models. He has only had the snap-together kind. Today we decided to get a step #2 model which is supposed to have a little bit of gluing and painting involved. Well, let me just say that he is "all over this model" and that's how we spent basically our entire afternoon today. He didn't want to quit. I told him I needed a break and had to make supper. He put 1 hour on the microwave timer and said that our break would be over at that time! Man... is he a slave driver or what?! However, there are over 200 pieces and it is all gluing! We are picking and chosing which things to paint. I've never put together a model, nor have I ever desired to put together a model, but we are using some team work to get this done. Tony enjoyed models when he was a kid. I know he would enjoy helping him but the poor guy just works too much right now. I'm learning too. Tony asked me tonight why we got such a big plane (the wing span is about 16 inches). I told him I thought if we got a bigger plane, that the pieces would be bigger and easier to handle than a little model with itty-bitty pieces. He had to smile and said that the bigger models just have MORE pieces, not less!! I guess that proves my lack of model building. Live and learn! We will get this done though and will show you the end result... it may be awhile though!

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The bottom picture is him showing what we accomplished after about 3 hours of work!

Concord Football Camp

Today was the last day of football camp. It was only 4 days long. The weather cooperated beautifully though and was so nice and pleasant the last 2 days. They had a little scrimmage tournament today and Quinn's team won the super bowl. Ha! After their skills testing earlier this week, he got second place in Punting (out of the 4th graders). This camp was for 4th, 5th and 6th grades. He definitely was one of the smaller kids out there and didn't get to be as active during their plays as he wanted to be (he never touched the ball during real play) and thought it got a little boring because of that but I think overall he enjoyed it. He isn't playing in the CFL league this year... we'll wait until he is older and bigger for that, much to Quinn's earlier dismay. This week confirmed that we made the right decision about that.

Applesauce

The Iowans left this morning at about 10:30 and took Madison with them. The one thing she wanted to do the very most this summer was go to Iowa so we made sure it happened. She'll be gone for 10 days. I can hardly stand it. She gave me a nice warm hug and even had a few tears. I thought that was sweet...until the truth came out... "I'm going to miss Cokey so much! Take good care of her!" Yah. The dog has moved in front of Mom (sniff-sniff).

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Quinn and I spent the afternoon at B&P's putting away 2 bushels of apples. We got 113 pints. I was down to the final 4 pints in my freezer so the timing was perfect. This applesauce recipe is simply the BEST applesauce ever. Quinn enjoyed grinding the cooked apples and even tried cutting apples this year. He made me so nervous and I think he grew tired of my eagle eyes on him. I guess I do want him to be cutting his own foods with a sharp knife by the time he leaves home. I suppose he has to start practicing now.

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B&P go to God's Kitchen in Elkhart twice a month to serve a meal to the indigent people that live in that area. They've invited our kids to come with them several times but it has never worked out. Quinn and I both went tonight, leaving about 15 minutes after putting the last pint of applesauce away. I served up generous portions of apple pie to help fill the plates and Quinn was one that served full plates of food to about 90 people by carrying them out to the eating area and serving them. He enjoyed it. It certainly is a different perspective for him and he handled himself well. We talked later about how "helpless" and "hopeless" some of the people seemed. We decided that God could be their reason for hope in their lives, and the hope we have in Jesus. We hope that the free meal provided them a little hope in their lives for this moment any way. We went out for supper with B&P and some of their church small group friends afterwards. It was a nice evening and good ending for a full day.

4H Fair ~ Day 4

We met Amy & Jeff at the fair around 4pm. We walked around, went to the Dog Club show for awhile and picked up some more FREE "samples" of 17 pound bags of Science Diet dog food. This dog food brought much conversations between Jeff and I. Amy just rolled her eyes. Sure hope our dogs like this. I think I ended up with 6 bags over our 4 trips to the fair. Poor Haley fell asleep during the quiet dog show. She was NOT happy to wake up. She was sleeping so hard that she was drooling. We went out for pizza on our way home from the fair.

A swimming break!

This has been a fun start to the week. Our mornings are pretty busy. Madison has to be at teh CJHS for band at 8am and we pick Alexa up by 7:45. She gets home around 9am. Quinn has Concord Football League (CFL) Camp from 10-12 at CHS. The mornings this week involve some running around. Amy & Jeff went to Shipshewana to the Flea Market this afternoon and I took the kids swimming at the neighbors for a few hours. It was a beautiful day... not too hot, just right, in the 80's. They managed a squirt gun battle, cookies and popsicles during that time.

4H Fair ~ Monday, Day 3

Today was wristband day at the Fair...the kids rode for hours and hours. Quinn ran around with Tyler from about 2pm and he didn't get home until mid-night! They stayed until the rides closed at 11pm. He thinks he rode 50 rides today. We had a great time walking around, looking at the 5000 non-animal exhibits, eating and laughing. This picture of Jeff was taken after he got off of the "Ring of Fire" ride. He had had "one too many" (rides that is). In the pastor's words, "That's the closest to hell that I ever want to come!" HA!! He was sweaty and pale by then. Poor guy. I have to laugh when I remember the top middle picture. I had just told Amy that I remember cramming into the Dragon Wagon when my kids were little so they would go on it... it's for a preschool sized child. She remembered that she rode the Dragon Wagon as a child and hated rollercoasters ever since. I then ran into Karla and stood talking to her for a bit. I heard this familiar scream/laugh and looked over to see Amy & Jeff crammed into the cars, racing around the track. They had a neat tiger show at the fair this year. They usually have some exotic type of animal show... to off-set the 1000's of farm animals I guess. ; )

4H Fair ~ Sunday, Day 2

Amy, Jeff, Jenna, Mikayla and Haley arrived around noon today. We went to the Backyard BBQ for lunch and then walked outside for the 4H parade. The kids got enough candy to make them smile. We enjoyed the club floats but got a little tired of the "plain 'ol advertising" ones. In the evening we went to the fair for the Nicole C. Mullins concert. It was AWESOME! Quinn ran into Tyler right away and he went to the concert with us too. Of course there were some traditional fair snacks afterwards. It was a great day!

4H Fair ~ #1

Friday the 4H Fair opened. It is the 2nd largest county fair in the country and bigger than most of the State Fairs too. We thought we would just run by for a little bit because the kids wanted to see how they did on their projects. We also knew that Amy, Jeff and the girls are coming out on Sunday and will spend a few days here so there will be lots more trips to the fair. Well, the "little bit" turned into almost 4 hours! They just "had to" do this real quick...or "have to" do that and "we don't care if we see this again next week!" We got back around 4pm and then Tony and I went back at 6pm for the Credit Union's summer picnic. The kids were each invited to River Oaks Church's "Kids Blitz" evening so they went to that.

So how did they do on their projects? Madison got a blue ribbon on her blanket, blue and "special recognition" on her poster and a blue and an honor ribbon on her cake. An honor ribbon means that her cake was in the group that they considered for the grand champion. She was happy with that. The "special recognition" yellow ribbon means that it was included in the exhibit as part of the general health focus for the fair. Quinn got a blue on his model and a "special recognition" and red on his First Aid Kit. I was trying to figure the red ribbon out (2nd place). They made the kits at their 4H club meeting, together as a club. I never even read the requirements. I guess I should have read them at home too! He didn't care though. He said
"this is the best fair ever!" because of all of the airplane models that were submitted. He was in airplane heaven looking at all of them.

The pictures above are of visiting the obvious animals and then they were looking at some stuffed animals (there must be a formal name for them) that are native to Indiana.

Well, that was the first trip to the fair. I assure you there will be more!

Future Football Players

Quinn and Nate picked up their football gear tonight in preparation for camp next week. Of course they had to put on their equipment and play ball right away. They were letting me take their pictures but were refusing to smile... "Football players don't smile!" I finally got them to crack up a bit though, those are my favorites. Double click for a larger view.

4H Fair Projects

The 4H fair starts on Friday. It didn't work out for her to be in the Dairy Club this year and have a calf but Madison, Quinn and Nate joined the 4H Minutemen and entered 3 projects. This year the 4H focus is on health. She made a poster on Broken Bones. She also made a fleece blanket with knotted edges and last night she spent 3 hours decorating her cake. We went to 3 different stores over the last 1 week, looking for their strict size requirements for the styrofoam "cake" part of it and finally found them last night at JoAnn Fabrics!! Tracy took Madison and Alexa in today for the cake judging and they both brought home blue ribbons so they were delighted. The other 2 items won't be judged until closer to the end of the week. Quinn is entering a First Aid Kit (along with the health theme) and a model airplane. He hardly stands still enough for me to get a picture so I need to take those yet. Jeff, Amy and the girls are coming out for a few days next week and will go to the fair with us. Sunday is the parade (which lasted 4 hours last year) and then the Nicole C. Mullin concert is free at the fair on Sunday night. I'm praying for cooler weather! It's been blazing HOT this week.

Tonight Quinn goes to get fitted for his football equipment prior to football camp next week (2 hours each day). This Monday Madison started daily beginning band from 8-8:45am, M-F... until school starts. Are they serious about their band out here or what?! Tracy and I are car pooling Madison and Alexa to/from band so that works out well. They both are playing percussion instruments. I take them on my way to work and she picks the girls up and brings Madison home.

Other than that, Tony and I can be found at work. That's what's going on in our lives this week. What's going on in yours?

All-Star Softball Week

Hi Everyone,
Wow, it was a busy week. Sorry for not posting. Most of the week my wireless was down at home. Boy, is that ever unhandy! It's amazing how much I use the Internet for this and that. Everything from recipes to the weather forecasts. Madison played with the Concord Major Softball team in the all-star tournament this week. She had games Monday through Thursday. They were only 1-3 at the end of the week but they were a very competitive team and I think learned through the process. We came really close not even having an all-star team so I'm really glad it all worked out to play. I have a special "in" with a big guy and all of our games were at Concord! I didn't even know that was possible (it's not supposed to be possible). That made it easier for sure. I picked out and ordered the uniforms. They have their last names on the back. Their socks are white with the black outline of softballs all over them. Don't they look sharp?



Other events of the week...
I had 2 flat tires on Monday. I was coming back from picking up a player's jersey from the screen printing shop (long story in itself) and my cell phone rang. I answered it and at the same time ran over something in the road. A few miles down the road, both my right front and right rear tires were flat. I was talking to Tonya on the phone. Within 15 minutes she and Tim brought me their second vehicle to take and use for the rest of the evening. We borrowed Gordon and Cynthia's spare tire (they also have a Honda Odyssey) and Tony was changing tires at 9:30 at night and it was after 10:30pm when we ate supper at home. I felt really blessed to have a vehicle to drive so quickly though. I was on a tight schedule to get to the all-star game and didn't have time for a flat tire... let alone two!!

Here's a picture of Quinn as we get around in the 'hood with our van on donut tires. I felt lopsided for 2 days! ha! The kids were embarrassed to ride with me!



Other than that, the kids have been finishing up their 4H projects, they are due this week. It's a beautiful day today and we are looking forward to a much quieter week.

Freedom Fest 2008

week in review

This last week was certainly a strange one without Madison here. She went to camp on Monday afternoon and by Thursday afternoon I had decided that I had had enough of camp for her and was ready for her to come home!! I really miss her! I wonder if she was counting down the days until she came home. I honestly hope not... and I doubt she was. Even Quinn said, "It's really just not the same around here without Madison here." We pick her up at 2pm today. Can't wait!

Quinn got sick on Wednesday afternoon/evening and had flu-like symptoms for about 12 hours. The strangest thing...! Who gets sick with the flu in July?? I missed a half day of work on Thursday. By Thursday morning he was feeling fine again. Boy was he sick though! I'm really wondering if it was somthing he ate...

This was the first week of the month and that means it was month-end for Tony. This week just about kills him. Last weekend they chose to convert to the new Berry Plastics computer system and then directly went into month-end. Of course they had computer bugs to be worked out which slowed the month-end process down. One night he didn't get home until 2am! He worked all day 4th of July as well. I am helpless to help. I'll be honest here and say sometimes I don't think my prayers help too much either. I think I need the prayers too... to help my attitude!

There were no baseball/softball games this week and no practices (Madison missed her practices). I had intended to get a lot of cleaning done but only managed the basics. Oh well. I did spend lots of time ordering the Little League All-Star uniforms. That's a whole 'nother story which I won't bore you to go into.

Anyway, that was our strange summer week.

4th of July

This evening we went to Terry & Karla's for a BBQ, swimming, and Tony's fireworks. I love getting some action shots of kids while they swim. They are all so cute I think! We enjoyed watching an airplane sky-writing the words "AIR SHOW" as an advertisment for the Goshen Air Show tomorrow.


Hamburgers, hot dogs, baked beans, water melon, apple pie... these are some of the "regulars" on the 4th of July menu. It has "accidently" become a tradition for Tony to set off some of his own fire works. Even Nate's family called tonight to see what time he was going to shoot them off. We invited them to come on out but they decided not to. We really, really missed Madison this year. Just isn't the same without her!

Happy 4th of July everyone!

America's Past Time

Tonight we went to the South Bend Silver Hawks vs the Lansing Lugnuts baseball game.
The Silver Hawks won 4-0. We sat directly behind the Silver Hawks' dug-out. It was a beautiful but cool evening. The kids all enjoyed the different food treats. The fireworks afterward were good. They always are though. Quinn's opinion was "they were actually kind of boring.... I think Dad's fireworks are a lot better."