All-School Band Festival

The elementary, junior high and high school bands presented
a very good program tonight. Their progress has been amazing!

Sunday's Games

After Sunday School and church this morning we had to split up again for soccer games in different cities. Tony and Madison went to our home field for a 4-0 win against Warsaw. Quinn, Pakka and I drove to Fort Wayne (1-1/2 hours) for a 4-2 win against Fort Wayne Blau Weiss. Today's weather was in direct contrast to yesterday with it being very windy, overcast and cold. Thank goodness our nice weather was yesterday!

7 games: 2 wins, 3 losses, 2 ties in a matter of about 18 hours.

I'm going back to work tomorrow to rest up for the next weekend!

Cocord FUTURE Baseball Debut

Quinn played in a U10 baseball tournament on Saturday in Warsaw. It's a 45 minute drive and he had to be there by 7am. Quite the early start on a Saturday! They played 3 games, completely spread out over the day, with the last game starting at 6pm. They lost all 3 games but gained a whole lot of experience. He had fun playing with his friends and it was a beautiful day in the 70's so if you have to spend 13 hours outside... it was great that it was so nice! I was able to be at the 8am and 6pm games. Tony spent the day there with Quinn. I went to Madison's 2 soccer games with her. They play the boys in different positions and he played short-stop and 2nd base in the games I saw. In the second game he pitched and played 1st base.

Thanks for reading!

Flames Soccer Season Opener

Madison's Flames soccer season also started on Saturday afternoon in South Bend at the Invaders. We tied 2-2. The girls played really well and dominated the whole game. I love to watch Madiso play! After this U12 game, we headed right to Elkhart (30 minutes away) for the U13 game, she doesn't practice with them but they need a few extra legs so she fills in as needed. This team also played well and tied 1-1. Madison and I are realizing that in this crazy weekend of sports openers, we don't even know who they played... ha! Some red team, without their names on their shirts! After this game, it was back to Warsaw to catch Quinn's last baseball game.

The day started at home in Goshen and we went to-Warsaw-Elkhart-South Bend-Elkhart-and Warsaw. What a day! When we finally got home at 10:30, we showered and melted into bed!

Spring Break: Air Force Museum

It's Spring Break here in Northern Indiana. We took our big family vacation to Florida over Christmas so we didn't have any big plans for this week. Madison went with Peyton and her family to Gulf Shores, AL. This is the farthest and longest time away for us... 10 days! I'm not worried about her, but I sure miss her! We all do! Tony and I took Quinn and Nate to Dayton, OH to the Air Force Museum and then on to Cincinnati for a 3 day weekend. We tried to do something that we knew Madison wouldn't mind missing... like spending 7 hours at an Air Museum!! We left on Friday night and spent the entire day at the Air Force Museum on Saturday. It's free to get in! You can't say that about many things any more! They LOVED IT! Quinn was in his 7th heaven of course. It was a HUGE, really really nice museum with 1000's of airplanes! AMAZING! They even got to sit in the cock-pits of 2 jets. Too bad we didn't live closer! Quinn could probably live there surrounded by all those planes. I'm absolutely amazed about how much he knows about those planes. We would round a corner and he would get so excited because he found a .......(and then name the plane)!! And this went on and on and on! You would think that I would be catching on to this by now but I know about 10 different ones and am calling that good. He could walk up to a plane and tell me details about it, why it was flown and something unique about it. That's truly a love for airplanes!

Presidential Airplanes

Definitely the highlight for me was the Presidential Airplanes...all Air Force One(s). These planes are kept in a separate hanger and they only take 4 bus loads over to that hanger each day. We signed up shortly after arriving and after we finished, there was only 1 seat left for the whole day! It was awesome to actually walk in the planes where Roosevelt took his only flight, and to look at the special elevator they installed so that he could use his wheelchair and not be carried on/off the plane. We walked on President Kennedy's plane and saw where they cut part of the bulk head away and then fixed it, so that his casket could rest in the passenger section of the plane, and not be transported with the baggage in the rear. We saw the seats where Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn into the presidency, while Jackie Kennedy stood by, flying the body of her husband home. We walked through 5 presidental airplanes including the airplanes for Presidents Bush, Clinton and Bush. Nate even said, "I can't believe that I'm walking in the same steps where presidents also walked". It truly was an awesome experience! Nate's aerospace 4H poster project is on Air Force One so this was perfect for him! Quinn loved it as well. This museum was completely free... an added bonus!

Games at Dave & Buster's

On Saturday night we went to Dave & Buster's for supper and then all 3 of the boys got their fill with video games. Nate played the claw game until he won this watch. Boy was he excited! Quinn saved enough tickets to buy some Pokemon' cards at the end of the evening. It was a very full but very fun day!

Coco Keys Water Park

On Sunday Tony took the boys to a water park. This is the only picture that I have even remotely close to the water park. I went shopping instead and I'm the family photographer and thus, no pictures! : ) Quinn was really ready to go... wearing his goggles on the way there! They were there from about 11-5pm, and came out starving! On to Montgomery Inn!

Montgomery Inn

It wouldn't be a trip to Cincinnati without a trip to Montgomery Inn for ribs so we went on Sunday evening. Terry & Karla introduced us to this restaurant when we went to visit them when they lived in Cinci. Nate especially loved it. He enjoyed having the bib tied around his neck and loved his pork chop. Quinn, on the other hand, ordered a grilled cheese sandwich! Quite a few years ago (10?) the city had pigs all around town that were painted and decorated so cute. The boys are standing in front of a pig with BBQ all over it's mouth... perfect for a rib place! We enjoyed driving around downtown afterwards. Cincinnati really is a pretty city, at night too!

Creation Museum

On Monday we went to the Creation Museum which is just over the OH - KY border. It is a really unique museum, all focused on creationism, instead of evolution. Ken Hamm is one of the researchers/scientists. I've heard Doug & Jen talk about him before. I don't even know how to sum it all up in a matter of a few sentences. Here are some of the highlights for me.

• Basically was a 3 hour walk through Genesis with life-like people to portray scenes, with lots of scientific research to support creationism.
• The center bottom picture is of one of the few Torah scrolls that was not destroyed even though Saddam Huessein ordered all artifacts such as this to be destroyed when he was losing his power. It is written in Hebrew on sheep skin and several hundred years old.
• There are layers of rock/sand/dirt in the Grand Canyon that are ONLY found in other parts of the country. For example, there is a layer of rocks/dirt that is only found in the SE part of the US. It got there during the great flood and layers of rocks/dirt shifted around.
• There are many reasons to believe that there were up to 50 different kinds of dinosaurs on Noah's ark. I love the picture that Quinn took with the dinosaurs walking up into the ark. (Below the snake, top left). Most likely the dinosaurs were very young, to conserve space. There was a lot of info about Noah's ark. Very interesting!
• The earth is probably around 6000 years old instead of millions, like evolution teaches.
• The Creation Museum has beautiful grounds (think Garden of Eden) and a nice little petting zoo with zorses and zonkeys to pet. (Don't you love those combined names?). Of course you have to have cooing doves too.
• Perhaps one of the most unique things... we ran into 2 families from our area... 5 hours away at a museum! One was a nurse from the hospital. The other was the family who sent their son with Preston to Gulf Shores!

Anyway, those are the highlights. It is a great museum....lots of reading and very educational. We got home about 8:30 Monday night. It was a fun weekend. We declared out loud that you don't have to go South for warmer weather in order to have a lot of fun over Spring Break...even if it was only a 3 day weekend for our trip!

Happy Birthday Today Mom!

Happy Birthday! We love you!

March Band Concert

The Beginning Band (mostly 6th graders) held another concert last week. I was amazed at how much the band has improved this year! At their first concert they could play 5 notes. At this last concert, they had students playing solos during some of the pieces. Madison's percussion ensemble played their contest piece for everyone and did a very good job. The kids were supposed to wear their medals if they went to the contest. You can see Madison's blue ribbon/medal on her shirt. Do you like their green St. Patrick's Day theme?

Just saying hello...

Hi Everyone,

Just stopping to say hello to everyone. I've not been very faithful to blog lately. I will try and do better. It's been a beautiful sunny weekend here with temps in the 50's. I know that doesn't sound warm to some of you but it feels so warm compared to the snow and ice we've just gone through. My family has all enjoyed getting out and walking/biking in much more pleasant weather.

This weekend has flown past. Friday night we went to the OxBowzaar. It's the annual PTO fund raiser at school, with carnival type activities. This year Madison was old enough to help run one of the games. She was looking forward to it. Quinn still enjoys playing all the games and winning all of the trinkets that I hate to see come home to our house! I sold game tickets for an hour and baked a cake for the cake walk. Oh, I've got to tell you the story about my cake. I told Quinn the night before that I didn't have time to make a fun or fancy cake, it would just be a plain old cake with frosting and sprinkles. I told him I was sorry that I just couldn't make it more special this year. His response just floored me. This is a summary of what he said. He said, if you had a $1 bill that was crisp and new and were giving it away, everyone would want it, because it's free and you know it's worth something. If you took the $1 bill and crumpled it up and asked who wants it, people would still want it, because they would know that it is worth something and it doesn't matter how it looks. And, if the $1 crumpled up bill was thrown on the floor and stomped on, people would still want it because it still has the same exact value. He went on to say, "It doesn't matter what your cake looks like. It is still valuable and worth something and tastes good. Just because one cake might be more decorated than yours, it doesn't mean it tastes better. So it's OK Mom that you don't have time to decorate the cake more. People will still want it. One cake is not more valuable than another." .............I was just blown away. Our son is so sensitive and insightful. Apparently the guidance counsellor at school had told his class the story about the $1 bill and he was already finding ways to apply it to life. His reassurances put tears in my eyes as I get excited to see what great and awesome things God has planned for this boy in his bright future! He amazes me!

Yesterday was spent tying up the last softball try-outs for the Major Softball team. I'm coordinating the teams again this year and it looks like we will have 3 teams again. This means we will play games with other teams outside our league. Madison and Quinn both had soccer practice, Quinn at 8am and Madison at 1pm. I also got in on the very end of Field Day to prepare the outdoor fields for use. Outdoor practices start next week.

That's pretty much the highlights from our weekend. I hope you had a good weekend too!

Lent

As I'm sure you know we are in the Lenten season right now... or the season of Lent. Do you know that we are closing out exactly the 7th day of Lent? I know this because it seems much longer since I've had any sweets! : ) I was thinking about my Lenten commitment this morning and wondered if the word Lent was even in the Bible. It's not. Hmmmmm. So why do we give something up for Lent? It's not even Biblical (or is it?). When I was a kid the only way I knew about Lent was because my Catholic Jr High friends were giving up gum during this time. Lent is not a big tradition in Mennonite churches today. This is probably the 4th or 5th year I've "observed" Lent on my own and I have to say that something very "little" like giving up something you love/enjoy has become a very spiritually growing experience, enough so that I don't mind repeating the process each year. It's certainly not something I have to do, or even feel half-way obliged to do. Every time I see or desire a sweet, I remember the sweet thing that Jesus did for me, dying on the cross, just for me. During these 40 days of Lent (really there are 46 if you count the Sundays, but they always just say 40...anyway), it is a reminder that Jesus was in the desert for 40 days, being tempted by Satan, and before He started His public ministry. I'm curious, have any of my blogging friends given up anything for Lent, and if so, why do you observe Lent?

2nd Place, U12 Indoor Soccer League

The Flames girls team came in 2nd tonight out of 11 teams in their division. Madison's team won the semi-final game 5-0 tonight but lost against Middlebury in the championship with a score of 1-0. We dominated the whole game, one mistake cost us a goal though. Shucks! Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. : ) Her team has lost too many championship games over their years of soccer. They did get a huge team trophy though... the girls quickly decided the Lucchese family should try and display it at their restaurant and Gabby's parents graciously said they would find a place for it. Lucky them. The girls got silver medals. They played really well and have nothing to hang their heads about. (How do you like this intense parent picture? haha) Another Indoor season comes to a close....

Basketball Games

This afternoon Quinn played 2 games at the Sports Center. We won 1 and lost 1. We were happy with that because they tend to lose more games than win. He is number 5 in these pictures. He hustled a lot and I even managed to catch a really nice shot of his on video. I need someone to show me how to post a video on Blogger. : )

Sorry to be on a blogging drought lately. There hasn't been much going on other than Sports Center basketball and soccer for both of the kids. I know that is 4 teams going right now but it just hasn't seemed as busy. They each practice only one night a week. Indoor soccer is over for Quinn now. They have played at 7am or 8am each Saturday morning. His team lost in overtime in the tournament yesterday. Madison's soccer tournament is coming up next weekend. Her team has won all except 1 loss and 1 tie. Hopefully they will do well in their tournament. We've enjoyed a much more relaxing pace in January and February. I really enjoy winter. I know I'm in the minority but I enjoy the beautiful snow and am thankful for a cozy home in the evenings.

Have a good week everyone!

6th Grade Girls Basketball

Madison has been playinging on a 6th grade basketball team at the Sports Center this winter. They usually play 2 games on a Saturday and the season lasts just 4 Saturdays I think. The girls are from both Elkhart and Concord schools and are made up basically of her friends, or friends of friends who are now her friends too! (Was that enough of the word "friends" in one sentence?). In the bottom right picture, she is guarding Taylor. Madison and Peyton have grown up with Taylor at church. She is a very good basektball player. We lost this game by 1 point, when Taylor made a free throw with 6 seconds left. Madison is a very good "scrappy" player. I bet she had 15 steals or tip aways during these 2 games. She is fun to watch! Even though we don't win a lot of games, it's fun to watch the girls improve each week.

ISSMA Band Contest

Last Saturday Madison and her good friend Alexa (and the rest of the Beginnning Band) took their "March Time" song to the ISSMA (Indiana State School Music Association) contest which was hosted at Elkhart Memorial High School. It was a several hour long process for a 3 minute long song. They were happy to get gold medals. In the process, we heard some pretty amazing muscians! It was for all school age kids. The highschool students are amazing!

Random things about me

25 Random Things about Leah

1. If I didn't watch sports on TV, I wouldn't need one. If I'm at home alone, the TV is usually off. The quietness sounds nice at this stage of the game. Of course Hawkeye sports are my favorite.

2. I married my highschool sweetheart and am still in love. : ) I wish he was home more though... he works 60-70 hours a week. I appreciate that he is a hard-worker and a non-complainer.

3. I hated living in Goshen, IN for about the first 10 years or so of our marriage. I finally started praying to be content in all circumstances, and asked my family to stop asking us to move home, and it's better. I would still rather live in Iowa near my family, any day of the week. (My brother-in-law, Jeff, still regulary asks me when we are moving back!!). Did you know that it's still possible to feel homesick at age 40???

4. I have 5 nieces and 1 nephew but none live near us. I have 2 nieces waiting on me in heaven. I can't wait to hold them.

5. I hate making supper.

6. I don't mind doing laundry and I love my washing machine...a Whirlpool Carbrio. : )

7. I have the spiritual gifts of Mercy and Leadership. I use Mercy while working at the hospital as a nurse practitioner with chronic and cancer pain patients.

8. I'm the VP of Major Softball at Concord Little League.

9. I'm the chairperson of our congregation, Silverwood Mennonite Church.

10. I'm not at home very much, but our neighbors would tell you we drive in the driveway often, and usually leave right away again. It's the season of life... their day is coming. : ) (BTW, I have really nice neighbors).

11. Attending Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) was one of the BEST things that I ever did for myself years ago. Someday I want to join again.

12. My kids, Madison and Quinn, bring me the most joy in life. Watching them do things they love makes me happy. Hearing them laugh warms my heart. I try to soak them in and burn all of the moments into my memory. They are growing too fast.

13. I grew up in the country, on a sheep farm in Iowa.

14. I wish I could play the piano well enough to play at church.

15. I used to play volleyball in highschool and was ranked in the state for ace serves. Wow... that was forever ago. My kids don't even believe me...LOL

16. I like almost all foods, except fish, green peppers and Dr. Pepper.

17. My colleagues tell me I'm the calmest person in any crisis and they want me around when they are crashing. : )

18. I pray often and a lot, off and on all day long, and love the constant companion of Jesus in my life. I pray about everything... the present, the future, spouses for my kids, jobs, the stranger in line at the grocery store in front of me... people who would never suspect that I pray for them probably. I thank God every single day for the health and safety of our family. Who knows I may have prayed for you today! Do you need me to pray for you? I would count it a privilege to talk to the God of the universe for you and with you.

19. I'm not good at landscaping, flower gardening and basically have no clue what to do outside in the yard. I wish someone would come and save me and my flower beds.

20. I've decided I dislike tent camping very, very much but go for my kids and pretend to like it. I'm at the RV stage of life. Wonder where I could find one of those... cheap?! LOL

21. I'm afraid of snakes. My colleagues would see me NOT remain calm in a snake-circumstance.

22. I worked super hard for my master's degree in nursing when my kids were little. They were in 1st grade and 3rd grade when I graduated from Ball State. They both can remember going to my graduation. It was one of the happiest days of my life. Seriously. Much better than the undergrad.

23. You can tell me your deepest secret and I won't even be tempted to repeat it. I'm a very good confidant!

24. I used to play the flute in elementary and jr high. I can read music very well and carry a tune too! : )

25. I wish I had a bigger house so that we could entertain more. Some day I would love to host a ladies Bible study in my home.

OK... there are 25 totally random things, really you probably don't want to know all these things about me! Now it's your turn!

Bald is Beautiful!

Quinn has a new "do" in support of Lauren. She is a sweet little first grader and the younger sister of Quinn's friend, Trevor. Lauren is a survivor of kidney cancer and is currently going through chemo and recently completed radiation. Quinn and Trevor are in the same class and have played on many, many sports teams together. Trevor shaved his head this last weekend in support of Lauren because the chemo is causing the natural side effects of hair loss. Quinn and Nate shaved their heads to support Lauren, and Trevor too. He found that even his short hair was a good head-warmer... and it's a little chilly now without his hair!