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! : )

Trick or Treat!

We were happy to have Jade trick or treat with us again this year. She loved it this year and got this "wild eye" look while saying, "I want some more candy!!" I can't remember such a beautiful halloween night. So many years it's cold, wet and rainy. It was in the high 60's this night. We walked around for 2 hours... anyone want any candy?!

PS... Happy Birthday Pakka!

Stars

Tonight during our devotions Quinn and I read the creation story. I asked him, "Do you think God hung the stars like Christmas ornaments are hung on a tree?" He replied, "This is what I think... I think that space is God's room. The stars are like stickers that he scattered around on His ceiling . When we see falling stars... that's just God moving a star from one place to the next."

Fall Band Concert

PS...

Madison's U12 team lost in overtime yesterday to Chesterton... they went on to win the championship game today. ...I feel just a little bit better...

Pumpkin Carvings

Tonight Madison, Quinn and Jade carved their pumpkins together (with quite a bit of help from the parents). Quinn HATES the smell and so has to wear a clothes pin on his nose to get through the initial part. Jade was so cute... she didn't quite know what to expect when she pulled off the top... she said, "Look, there are beans in there!" Quinn's pumpkin is an alien and Madison's is the bat and house. She is taking her pumpkin to band tomorrow morning. They are having a contest. She has a band concert tomorrow night. I'm excited to see their improvement from their first concert which was just before school started.

Red Ribbon Week

The weeks are busy around here! This past week was Red Ribbon Week. The schools focus on "saying no to drugs" and the students recognize the week by having a theme for each day. Crazy hat day, wear red day, this was crazy dress day. Quinn wore one of Madison's skirts. Madison wore tall rain boots, her sweatshirt backwards and crazy hair. Each evening they looked forward to planning for the next day.

Pictures from the NISL tournament

The End... of the NISL soccer season

After spending 5 hours out in this cold, windy, rainy, blustery day (low 40's), the formal Fall soccer season is now officially over.

Quinn's 1st division team lost 4-3 this morning at 9.
His premeire team won at 10am, 2-1, but they lost at 3pm, 4-0.

Madison's game at 4:30 went into overtime (of course!). We have something about tournament games and overtime...and losing. 1-0. What a heart breaking loss for them! Madison's heel did pretty well until someone stepped on it in the second half... then it hurt worse. By the end of the game she was limping a little. May be it wouldn't have been good for her to play tomorrow. They played Chesterton and beat them in the regular season and now have lost to them 3 times in the end of season tournaments...all in overtime!! Ugh! So frustrating!

I'll post a few pictures of Quinn's game tomorrow. I was too nervous to even take any during Madison's game!

NISL Tournament

Tomorrow is the NISL Soccer Tournament. Madison went to practice on Thursday night to do some "parallel practicing." Basically she tried out her heel again... after no activity for 2 weeks. She just did some easy jogging and juggling the ball, while her team practiced. She said her heel was sore, but better than it was before. Hopefully she can make it through the weekend. The U12 girls finished 2nd out of 9 and have a good chance of being in the championship game. They were in it the last 2 seasons and lost in overtime both times. The girls don't play until 4:30 tomorrow afternoon. If they win, they play at 9am on Sunday (yes, I know... don't even tell me about it) and the championship game is at 1:30.

Quinn's team fininshed 8th out of 9. They play at 9am tomorrow. It rained the entire day today and it's supposed to rain in the morning. If they win, they play the #1 team at noon. He also is going to play for the other U11 team at 10:30.

It's going to be a full day of soccer tomorrow. This is the final weekend for the season. I have mixed feelings about it. Overall I'll be glad for the break from all of the driving to practice. I just hope Madison can make it through with her heel. Updates tomorrow...

Love, Leah