Sleepy

The other day the girls I went to Claires. I posted it about it below and one of the things Madie got was a mask thing that she now religiously wears to bed every night. Livie tried it out today.

Isn't that the funniest thing?!! Too cute!

Today = Suck

Today pretty much sucked. I'm sure you're wondering what in the heck that has to do with the picture above and I can tell you, it pretty much has NOTHING to do with the picture above, but it does fit into the story, so bear with me here. There were good moments and not so good moments, but we decided to make sure the end of our day wasn't quite as sucky as the beginning of our day - which DEFINITELY sucked! The morning did NOT get off to a good start. I won't get into it, because the sucky part will take quite a while to explain. Let's just say I made a big mistake in one of my committees at church and now.... well, don't really know what's going to happen yet. But, it's a mess and I have to figure out a way to clean it all up without making anyone mad. Oh the joy. After that mess, we had a birthday party with some friends. It was fun and didn't suck and took my mind off the mess and suckiness for a short while. Then we headed off to the Peru Mall, so Madie could spend her tooth fairy money and some of her saved money at Claires (our new favorite store!). I took the girls with me and Pete took Noah with him to MC Sports. As you can see in the picture above, Pete found himself quite a bargain and bought himself a new set of golf clubs with his bonus check that he received a couple weeks ago. The evening was looking up!! While they shopped, the girls and I shopped and boy did we have fun! My girls are definitely turning into great shoppers and they LOVE jewelry! So, we spent quite a while in there. So long in fact, Pete found the clubs, bought them, drove back to the mall, walked through the mall and we still weren't quite finished with our shopping in that store. Decisions, decisions - ya know? ;-) Madie bought a cute set of earrings, a watch ring, a blindfold thingy you wear to bed, and a hair extension clip. All super cute stuff! I bought her a set of candy corn earrings and Livie a set of spider hair clips and kitty costume. Halloween's coming, so I had to be prepared. :-) The evening continued to look up and definitely wasn't sucking. Thank goodness. Then we went on a hunt for a fall jacket and/or winter coat for Noah. Completely unsuccessful, but it still didn't suck. We'll save that for another day. We were able to do a bit more shopping, find a few more things, before heading over to Applebees for supper. All in all, we ended on a pretty good note. Granted, I will probably not fall asleep tonight until 3 am because I'll be so worried about this mess I've created, but those things happen from time to time. Hopefully I have something good saved on the DVR that I can watch. ;-) Anyway, that was our day in a nutshell and thought I'd share the pic of Pete with his lovely new golf set. He was pretty excited about it, let me tell ya! Noah was too. I think golfing will probably be in his future as well. :-)

Flashback Friday

For FF I thought I would share a very old picture of me when I was a kid. This picture was taken in probably 1977. I think I was about 3 yrs old. Maybe 4, so it could've been '78. But, it must have been shortly after we moved to Royal Center. These were all kids that I grew up with. They all went to our church and to the only school in town, Pioneer. I was friends with pretty much all of them up through high school. Many of which I reconnected with on Facebook since then. Not sure what the person was thinking when they took this picture. They cut off half the people, opting instead to make sure the lovely lamp made it in. But, starting in the back on the left was a girl named KiKi, then Ann Barker, Pam Calloway, and Jill Funk on the top row. Next row was Jeff Funk (not related to Jill), Amy Martin, and ME. :-) Bottom row was Obie Martin (Amy's bro), Tom Adams, and my brother Micah. Kiki didn't live in RC long. They moved a couple years later, but I remember hearing about her in high school. She was killed when the car she was in was hit by a train. I believe it was on prom night and everything. Very sad. Ann ended up being a very popular cheerleader and dad married her several years ago. She still sends them a Christmas letter every year. Pam was a good friend of mine until we lost touch a few years ago. After having Madie and Noah, my phone calling became less frequent and next thing I knew years had gone by. So is the story for many of my friends sadly. Jill and I reconnected on FB. She was in a lot of sports in high school of which I was the manager, but she was 4 yrs ahead of me, so we weren't great friends, but we enjoyed each other. But, every time I'm in RC, I see her parents and they are still as sweet as ever. Jeff married one of my very best friends growing up. Again, another friend lost to the lack of phone calling. If my friends are emailers, we don't keep in touch. :-( Amy Martin was my best friend from this picture until probably 5th grade. We did everything together. All of my fondest childhood memories are with her and her family. Our families were very close. Obie, her brother, was my brother's best friend for years and years too and we talk on FB a lot. He's expecting his 3rd child early next year. Tom, what can I say about Tom? He was such a character! He made me laugh then and makes me laugh now. We talk on FB a lot and he really hasn't changed much in all these years!

I was blessed to grow up in a small little town where my friends were my friends, for not just a couple years, but for a decade and beyond. It's been 30 yrs (can't believe that! good grief!) since that picture was taken and I still keep in contact with them - thank goodness for FB! The internet has opened up a whole new way for us to stay in touch. I wonder if our parents, when they sat us all down on that fantastic brown plaid sofa thought that 30 yrs later we'd still be in contact with each other, still care about how each other is doing, and continuing to live our lives as they taught us as very young christians - to love the Lord and do our best to serve him. What a tremendous testament to what they did for us and what God then grew in us during all this time.

Hilarious Website

http://emailsfromcrazypeople.com/2009/08/22/a-present-for-you/

I haven't had a whole lot to blog about lately. Just staying busy with school this week, that's about all. But I did come across this HILARIOUS new website and thought I'd share it with you all. It's called "Emails from Crazy People". Now, having worked in customer service for many years before I became a mom, I have seen many letters from angry people. Some, fairly crazy in fact. One in particular when I worked at Dutchmen from a guy who called us (and I quote) "worthless pieces of pig fat that I will throw in a frying pan and turn the heat up on high". Not sure to this day what exactly that meant. But, he's also the guy that refused to take his trailer to a local dealer for repairs because they apparently raped his cats. Sufficed to say, he wasn't all with it. This website is dedicated to people like that as well as to people that are fed up with things and have a unique way of explaining their frustrations. So, they aren't all crazy. But, definitely ALL funny!! Now, keep in mind, if you read this, they don't edit, so there are curse words used and other things that aren't very christianly, but boy are they funny! The link above takes you to my favorite one. It's a letter to a cable company in Great Britian. The british are so eloquent even when they're mad. LOVED it! Anyway, since I didn't really have anything to share about what we've been up to around here, thought I'd share something funny that I found. It's good stuff!

My Brave Girl!

I have one brave girl!!!! Madie had to have 2 teeth taken out today and she did such a great job! She has a small mouth, like her mommy, and the two teeth she lost already had no place to come in, so they came in the back of her mouth. So, to make way for those 2 permanent teeth, the dentist had to pull the teeth on either side of them. Having been through this many times as a kid myself, I was nervous for her. No one wants to see their child go through something like that, so to say I was a nervous wreck for her, is an understatement!

I stayed in the waiting room while she went back, but about 3-5 min later they came and got me. Madie was crying and scared. So, we calmed her down (the dentist, the nurse, and I) and the dentist put the gas mask on her. You could see it start to work at calming her down. Her eyes got this distant look in them and her mouth started to slowly turn into a smirk. Then she let out a little laugh. :-) We knew it had done its job then! It's quite a sight to watch your child get "high". She was hilarious! She was talking all about Anakin and how she felt just like him when he almost died and had to wear a mask like that. Then she started talking about how she felt like she was in a spaceship, floating up into the sky. Too funny. Just chattered away as the dentist put numbing gel on her gums, then gently took the shots and quietly gave them to her. She said "ouch" a couple times, but didn't really care too much about the pinch that she felt. Long story short, I stood with her the whole time while she had this done and those teeth were out in like 3 sec. She didn't even blink an eye. I must say, all my experiences with Dr. Chechowiz and his team have been nothing less than awesome. The girls there are so good with my kids. He's so good with my kids. He made it painless and smooth - for both her and ME! I was so happy. And, the best part is when we were leaving she said, "Boy, that was fun!". Who knew pulling teeth out would be such an adventure?! ;-)



So, here are her baby teeth. Look like they were going to be there for a while. Still have the roots on them!

Here's her mouth, minus 2 new teeth now. Her mouth is so numb, she can barely move it, so I pulled her lip down so you could see it better. You can see in the middle is her permanent tooth and another growing beside it, with two small empty spaces where those teeth were just an hour ago. Now, she's excited because she thinks the tooth fairy is going to be VERY generous tonight. And, I have a feeling - she will be. ;-)

The Fashion Show

Last night the girls were part of a fashion show put on by Bergners Dept Store in the mall. Our friends the Mullinixes told us about and we signed up to do it with them. Their son is Michael - Madie's best friend. I've talked about them a lot. We went out to dinner together beforehand, then headed to the mall to get the girls dressed. Last weekend we went there and picked out the outfits they were going to wear. I wanted Noah to be a part of it, but he said he didn't want to do it. He thought he would be too shy to stand on stage in front of all those people. So, while I was getting the girls ready, Pete took Noah to the Golf Pro Shop and did a little looking around. Noah liked that a whole lot better. :-)



Here are Madie and Michael in their outfits. I told Patty, his mom, that they looked like they were getting ready for prom or something. Too cute!

This is Livie and Michael's brother Andrew in their outfits. Livie just loves those boys to pieces!!

Here they are standing around before they had to line up in their age groups. Livie was in the first group and was actually the very first person in the show! She started the whole thing, so that was really awesome. :-) That's Patty doing Michael's hair. I was a little afraid that Livie wasn't going to do very well up there, because she was tired and getting cranky, but it all worked out.

I wish I had videotaped the girls, because they did SUCH a good job! Livie was adorable up there! She was waving at everyone and smiling and the audience (there was quite an audience!) was ooh-ing and aah-ing at her. She was such a cutie. :-) She wore a pair of dark glittery jeans with a plain long-sleeved white shirt and light blue short-sleeved sweater.

Andrew did a really good job too. Loved his vest and thought he looked so cute! He kept telling Livie she looked "sharp". ;-) How sweet is that?!

Madie was a pro. She's gotten quite comfortable on stage, now that she's done so many dance performances. She stood there and smiled and did a little spin for everyone. Really cute! Madie wore a Hello Kitty grey tulle skirt with a nice button-down white shirt with a black ribbon around the waist.

Michael stole the show. He was hilarious! He got up there and was making all these faces and poses. Cracked us up! I told his dad that he was the epitomy of a "pastor's son". ;-)

After the show was over, we had the option to buy the outfits they were wearing at 30% off. I loved the girls' outfits to pieces, so I bought them. They fit the girls perfectly and, even though I wasn't planning on buying Livie entire outfit, I decided that you can never have enough jeans, so I got the whole thing for her. Plus, they were only $12, so I thought that was a pretty good deal.

It was a really fun night with some great friends. :-)

A War, Huh?

It's not surprising when you stand up for a cause that you find people that try and silence you or challenge your belief system. It can be said for many people over the centuries that when a cause was just, they felt the most opposition before change ultimately came. I see that daily in our fight against broccoli and sadly, I face a lot of that opposition in my own family. Now, I don't weep for myself and the struggles I face. I only weep for those still in the throws of their broccoli addictions - many still in complete denial that they even have a problem. Believing the false claims that broccoli is "good for you" and all that nonsense. Not even noticing the horrific taste anymore, because after so many years of consuming it, their taste buds have shriveled up and died. A war has been declared by my aunt on her blog http://thefatladysingeth.blogspot.com/ . I love her, but cannot sit idly by as she tries to drum up support for the treacherous stem. Yes, I say treacherous because it pretends to be this perfect vegetable. Seemingly innocent as it grows in our gardens. It's not until it gets you in its grip that you realize how truly terrifying and evil it is! May I remind you of what it did to my sweet, innocent little girl?

Before broccoli:



After broccoli:

I'm sorry to have to stun you with such graphic images of what this addiction can bring. This happened after just one taste. Frightening, isn't it? Thankfully we were able to bring her back, but she continues to want more of it. One taste and already she's hopelessly lost. Seeking it out in stores, trying to shoplift it because I won't buy it. I'm afraid of what's next. Armed robbery?! I saw her trying to bring a water gun into Walmart before. What her plans with it were, I'll never know. But, this is what this horrible thing will do to a person. This is the type of thing we face in our very own family. So, this subject hits close to home for us as we fight, not only the outside influences, but also the internal influences as well. I share this sad story only to reinforce our beliefs. To let you know of the horrors of broccoli growth and consumption in this country. So, to you out there, trying to silence us or create new "soldiers" for your axis of evil, I say "Take your best shot!". I'm ready and we will prevail!

Girl Fun!

Since Madie and Noah are in school, it's just Livie and I. We decided to have a little girl fun today and straighten her hair. Now, you all know her hair is super-curly! So, we've never had any idea of what it would look like straight or how long it would be. Well, now we know! Here are a couple more shots...

It's about down to her waist when it's straight. She looks so different, but so cute! Seeing her walk around with her long, straight hair hanging down her back makes me look twice. Soooo not used to that! She looks so grown-up! Just in the past week I'm been opening my eyes to the fact that my kids aren't little anymore. They're growin up so fast! No babies or toddlers around here. Just sweet, wonderful kids that continue to impress me every day in all that they do. :-)

And, They're Off!

The first day of school has arrived and we were up bright and early so we could get showers, get dressed, and GET PICTURES! The first day of school has always been a special one. Even when I was a kid, we would get our pictures taken in our new outfits on our front porch. I've tried to carry on that tradition with my own kids. Though, this year, they didn't get new outfits. They have so many clothes, I couldn't justify getting them another new outfit, so we just opted to get new shoes instead.



Here's Noah ready to start 1st grade. He was pretty excited!

Here's my fashionista ready to start 3rd grade. She's growing up so fast!

Here are all the kids, ready to head out the door to the school.

The first day of school is always crazy, because lots and lots of parents bring their kids to school that first day. Take pictures, walk them in - just like we always do! So, the parking and craziness is pretty overwhelming. Thankfully we're old hats at this, so we knew to expect it. Pete came with us, as always, and that's always a special treat to have daddy come too.

Once we got inside, my flash stopped working (have I mentioned how much I hate my camera lately?!), so all the pictures are blurry. Sorry. This is them walking down to the gym. All the grades meet in the gym every morning for announcements, then are dismissed to their classrooms.

This is where it got hairy! The doors to the gym were jam-packed with kids, teachers, parents - all trying to get in and find their classes. I ended up walking them to the door and seeing them in, only to have them come back out to tell me they didn't know where to go. Madie's grade were now on the bleachers instead of the floor, so thankfully her best girlfriend Katie was happening to walk by at that very moment and she told Madie she's show her where to go. Then, I walked Noah in to find his class. He got to see his best friend Keeden in another line and waved to him and to another friend Zoe, then took his place in line with his class by his friend Madison. So, they were all safely in place and ready to start the day. Just hope it's a good one for them!

Here are Pete and Livie looking in the gym doors at all the kids. Why Livie looks the other way when I want to take a picture, I'll never know. All my kids have "wandering eyes" when it's picture time. But, there you have it! First Day of School Drop-off was a success. Now, let's hope the day goes as smoothly. :-)

Before and After

Madie hates having long hair. At every available opportunity, she pulls it back into a ponytail. Hmm.. sounds a little like me! Anyway, she was telling me she wanted to get her hair cut and I thought that would be a good idea. Something short enough for her not to get so annoying with it, yet still long enough for a pony or two.



Here's the before - I took this yesterday.

And, here's the after! :-) I think she looks adorable and so grown up! Definitely 3rd grade material now!

Meet the Teacher

Today was "Meet the Teacher" Day at the school. School starts Wed, so they opened it up so we could all go in and drop off their school supplies, see their classrooms, and meet the teachers. Thank goodness it was raining out. It really cooled things down, so for the first time since we started going to this school 4 yrs ago, I didn't sweat like a disgusting pig the entire time we were there. Yeah, that's right, no a/c. Blah! Just hoping that the weather cooperates and they don't end up with crazy hot days like they have all the previous years. They always come home drenched!



This is Madie's last year on the first floor. She's at the very end of the hallway by the Panther Door where I pick them up. You can see it there in the background. We found her locker and put her things inside of it and went into her classroom to meet her teacher Mrs. McGraw. I had never met her before, but what a wonderfully nice lady! I talked with her for several minutes, told her I'd like to volunteer in there and she was excited about that. Plus, we got to see all the names of the kids in Madie's class. She has several of her closest friends in there this year. So happy for her!!

Next we went down to Noah's room and met his teacher Mrs. Smith. Again, I had never met her, but she seems very nice and I'm really hoping Noah enjoys his class this year. His best friend Keeden isn't in his class and he's a little sad about that, but knows they'll get to play during recess and movie days and we'll continue to have playdates together, so that will be fun! His closest friends from last year aren't in his class this year, but he did have a few that he remembered. All the K and 1st grade classrooms got new carpet and tiles and it looks so nice in there now! I didn't volunteer for his classroom, since I did his classroom last year, and really was hoping to have one of my two days off (while Livie's in school) to myself, but I'm feeling guilty about leaving him off, so I may end up trying to squeeze him in too. I signed up for all the parties though, so he won't be totally on his own. Just love getting the chance to work in my kids' rooms, because then I get to know the other students in their class and stuff. It's really nice.

After we met the teachers and saw their classrooms and got their stuff dropped off (which is so nice to do beforehand, because they are LOADED down and it's a lot for them to carry on their own that first day), we headed down to the cafeteria and got to eat some ice cream. We ran into a friend of Madie's and they were all looking out the window at the rain that was coming down. It was really pouring there for a while!

Here are Pete and Livie enjoying their ice cream. Livie seems to want to make this face everytime she gets her picture taken lately. Ornery!! You can kinda see the fifths disease that is all over her. She looks like she has leprosy or something. Poor kid.

And, here are Madie and Noah with me and our ice creams. Yum!! They are finally getting really excited about school. They weren't too happy about it earlier, because they don't want to do homework again, but once they got in there and saw the classrooms and some of their friends, they were bouncing off the walls - quite literally! - with excitement. I'm hoping and praying that 09-10 school year will be a fantastic one for them both!

The Madie Diaries

Madie has started her own blog. She has been talking about wanting to blog for a while. I told her it might be hard, but she really wanted to do it. I figured it might be a fun way for her to work on how to make sentences into a paragraph,on her typing, and on her writing skills in general. And, of course, be a fun way for us to look back at what she was thinking when she was 8 yrs old. :-) Now, because she IS only 8, I'm keeping it a private blog, so you can only log onto it if you're invited by me. I don't know how many, if any of you, would be interested in reading what she puts. It's a lot of work for her to type, so she might not do it very often. Today's short entry took her quite a while, but she was really proud of what she did, so hopefully she'll stay excited about it. She and I worked on getting a picture on there and picking the background she wanted and everything. I've put it under my name, so that she has to do everything WITH me and not on her own, so you'll see that it has my name as the writer, but trust me - she's the one writing. I told her I'd even let her use the camera from time to time if she wants to take a picture of something that she wants to tell people about - whether it's something at dance class or school maybe. We'll see. Anyway, thought I'd let you know of Madie's new venture. She's so excited that she gets to do this after bugging me about it for so long. :-) I wish I could've recorded her as she worked on today's entry. She kept kicking me out while she typed, so she could "concentrate" and only asked for my help a few times. She was serious about it, let me tell you! Anyway, if you're interested in reading her blog, email me and let me know, so I can send you an invite.

Flashback Friday

Haven't done a Flashback Friday in a while, so here's a new edition of that. This picture was taken back in the spring of '95. We had been dating a little over a year and were very much in love. He was going to Purdue at the time, so he came up that weekend for this special event at Stonehenge Golf Course in Warsaw. It was something for Grace College, but I don't remember what. I DO remember thinking I looked fat in that dress. How crazy was I?!! Good grief. We're never happy with our weight, are we? Anyway, this is one of my favorite pictures. The snow had finally melted, though it was still chilly out, and it was so wonderful having him there for that event. We were so young there too. Pete was probably not quite yet 19 and I was 20. Always loved when we got to dress up and enjoy an evening out together. Heck, still do, though those occasions don't happen as much anymore. Having three kids will do that. ;-) Anyway, here's a quick little flashback of Pete and I when we were just a year into this 16 yr relationship of ours. Can you believe we've been together almost half our lives now? Wow.

The Basement is Finished!

I haven't posted for a few days, because we've been super-busy getting ready for school next week and Sunday School in about a month. We've got all our school supplies sitting on my dresser, waiting to be labeled, and bits of SS material all over the place! Just getting to be that time of year again. So, sorry I haven't posted much to tell you about our daily happenings. It's just that our daily happenings have been church or school-related and, quite frankly, not interesting enough to post about. Unless you enjoy hearing about how I contact papered a bunch of stuff. Oh, and I COULD tell you that Livie finally got the fifths too, so it has now officially spread to all our kids. Fun! Anyway, thought I'd let you know about our basement!! Got it finished over the weekend and am just now getting to post about it. Now, granted, by most people's standards, it's NOT finished, in that it doesn't have drywall or a ceiling, but to me, it's finished. It's organized, carpeted, and 2 new living spaces were created. :-) Yay!



This is our original playroom (sorry all the pictures are fuzzy - batteries were running low and our camera sucks). We made this space for the kids a couple years ago. Please excuse the mess. The kids were having a lot of fun and, let's face it, playrooms are meant to be a disaster, right? ;-) This space hasn't changed much.

This is the "After" shot. Tried to upload it to be below the "Before" shot, but I've given up, so here it is. We carpeted the area from the steps all the way down to the end of the room almost. Adding a recliner and making that area a family room section.

This was the "Before" shot. We had the couches down there, the tv/ent center, but there was no carpet and tons of toys that had no place to go! Not to mention the dress-up clothes rack on the right side there, blocking most of the walkway into that space. This picture was taken half-way through the clean-up. It was twice as bad as this, if you can imagine!

This is the living area now. Carpeted, free of toys and now we can watch tv or play games while we're downstairs and the kids don't have to sit on concrete. :-) It's great!

This is the "Before" shot of the area behind the couch area. There's a space back in the back there that has our ping-pong table, but it was basically just concrete and the kids would ride their bikes on it. And, no, it's not Christmas. Just our tree with no place to go.

Now, looking from the ping-pong table to the opposite wall, we've created a whole other play area - mostly for the girls. They have all their Am. Girl things there, dress-up clothes rack, barbies, Groovy Girls, etc... And, we left just enough room around this play area for them to still ride their bikes around. It's like a little road going from the ping-pong table, around that, to the opposite side by the bins. And, yes, this was taken at about 1pm and they are still in their pjs. I've been busy getting church stuff done all morning and they were content to stay in their pjs, so that's what we're doing. ;-)

This is the wall of bins of stuff we sorted and collected and put away. I believe there are over 40 bins of stuff. I got rid of probably 20 bins. So, this is our "finished" basement. The kids love it! We love it! And, after Em and Jeff come and take the rest of our baby stuff, we will be completely clutter free! Hooray!!! :-)

Wishing and Hoping

I went into Madie's room and discovered that she had taped a tv and a remote that she had drawn to her bedroom wall. It made me laugh so hard! She said she was just going to use the pretend one to watch. I have a rule that my kids will not have tvs in their bedroom. I could go on and on about why I think children shouldn't be allowed to have them in their rooms, but I won't. Let's just say I'm pretty strict about that. So when I saw Madie had a pretend one that she made up on her wall, it just made me laugh. Guess she figured if she can't ever have a real one, she might as well make one. :-) She's so cute and inventive. Who knew that pretend tvs needed remotes?

The Pool

Since our summer has been a busy one AND because it's been the perfect summer ever! (aka in the 70s the whole time), we've not made it to the Marseilles pool yet. Well, we decided to go yesterday and join some friends - the Mullinixes. You know them from my previous entries on Madie's best friend Michael. That's his family. We took a picnic lunch and ate at the picnic tables there, but the kids were just a tad bit excited, so they didn't eat a whole lot.


Here are the kids anxiously awaiting entry into the pool.

Here are kids, along with Michael and Andrew, as they get ready to jump in the pool. They all grunted and groaned when I made them stop and take a picture, but they at least did it for me. :-)

Well, because it's been such a beautiful, wonderful summer, the pool hasn't gotten warm yet. Only after we find we've had a good couple weeks in the 90s is the pool nice and warm. So, since that hasn't happened, the water was F-R-E-E-Z-I-N-G!!!! Even Noah and Livie didn't want to swim! You know it has to be cold when they'd rather sit on the edge, wrapped in a towel! So, we ended up spending about 2 1/2 hrs in the kiddie pool. It was slightly warmer. I sat on the edge most of the time, talking with Patty (their mom) and getting a lovely tan. Yes folks, I am tan. I never thought it would ever happen again, but I've amazingly gotten a tan. It's quite exciting! The kids got a bit burnt, but nothing too bad. Most of all, they had fun and they can finally say they got to go to the pool this year!

Visit

Well, mom and dad came to visit this past weekend and just left today. They came to see Madie's Riverfest performance and had planned to leave Mon, but when Pete suggested they stay so dad could go play golf on Tues during Pete's golf league, they decided to stay a couple extra days, so dad could do that. :-) Dad was having issues with his siatic nerve in his hip, but he just took lots of ibuprofin to keep the pain at bay, so he and Pete could visit that golf course 3 times during their stay.


Of course, he also got the kids into baseball cards while he was here. Last visit he bought them a box of Star Wars cards, but this time he bought a couple boxes of baseball cards, since that's truly more where his heart lies and the kids just had a ball. Madie would help him look up how much money the cards were that they got and all that. Reminded me so much of what I did with him as a kid.

Here's a picture I took of Livie after she had climbed up on Papa's back while playing Legos. I didn't get to take many pictures, because I had taken a couple long talky blogs with dad and that used up all my camera memory. And, sadly, I've been unable to upload those blogs yet. But, that's why I didn't take more pictures of their visit. We all went to Hank's on Monday night and mom and dad came with us after dinner as we went to look at the animals they have there. The kids saw peacocks and a VERY pregnant goat, chickens, and a few other animals. That was really fun and the rest of the time, we just enjoyed each other and relaxed. Dad helped mom to the basement, so she could see what we had done to it, but she was so allergic to Olive, our cat, that she didn't stay down there long, because she was having trouble breathing. Olive actually didn't come upstairs much at all during their 5 day stay and Dad figured it was God's way of keeping mom from having such a bad reaction. She hasn't had that kind of reaction for a long time when it comes to cats, but that's Olive's lair down there and since we don't vaccuum or dust much down there, I'm sure the cat dander was plentiful and that's what caused her reaction. But, other than that, it was a fun time and the kids absolutely LOVED having their grandparents here for so many days. We had a great time!

Riverfest

Mom and Dad came out to see Madie's performance at Riverfest last night. Riverfest is Ottawa's fair. She did this two years ago and loved it! Patti (her dance instructor/owner of the school) only picked 14 performances to perform that night and Madie's group was one of them. So we gathered at the Lincoln-Douglas park and got ready to watch her.


Here's dad and mom with Livie, getting ready to watch the show.

They perform on a flatbed trailer on a side street in downtown Ottawa. Here's Madie's group lined up, ready to go "on stage". :-) Noah took this picture!

Madie's there on the far left with the dark hair. She forgot a couple moves (it has been a couple months since she did the routine), but she had a ball and we were very proud of her! We celebrated a successful end to her 4th yr of dance by going, where else?, Cracker Barrell. Since that's basically the only restaurant in town, we seem to go there a lot. But, it was a great time and we had beautiful weather, so it was a fun night!