Our Trip

This week is spring break and we decided to spend part of it in IN. We hadn't been back since Christmas, so it was fun getting back there to see everyone.


First thing the kids did was tape up poor Uncle Jeff. Probably not good to tape both his nose AND mouth shut! Why dad had ready access to painters tape, when he knew my crazy crew was coming, I'll never know. I swear by the time we left, I was pulling tape up from every corner of that house!

Dad and mom both are in love with the newest addition to our family. They are so excited to get to see one of their grandkids on a weekly basis, considering they only get to see us and Micah's family a few times (or less) a year. And, you can tell Kendalyn already loves her grandparents too. She loves to sleep in Grandpa's arms.

On Sunday, my dad had a really amazing sermon. If I could figure out a way to post it here, I would. I talked to the asst/youth pastor about it and he said it was one of dad's best. He was really lead by the Holy Spirit that day and really touched a lot of people. If I find out how to post the vocal, I will. Afterwards though we headed to Em's. It ended up being a rainy, awful, cold, yucky day. The kids were bouncing off the walls, because they couldn't go outside. So, they opted to wrestle on the couch. Oh my. That was a LONG day...

Here is Em and her girls. She had to work that night, so while the girls slept, she did too. Didn't get a picture of the three of them sleeping together, but it was cute. :-)

On Monday, I had a meeting in the morning with their Youth Pastor, John, to discuss youth programs, since our church is in a flux right now with ours. We ate at a local little place down the block from my parents called "Olympia Candy". It's a candy store/diner. In all my years in Goshen, I had never gone there. Well, dad heard me talking about it and decided to take us all out to there for lunch. So, after 16 yrs in that town, I got to go there twice in 3 hours! The kids loved it! They loved seeing all the candy and sit on the bar stools. Because there was so many of us, we couldn't sit there to eat and sat in the back booths instead.

Here we are. Sweet Kendalyn got fussy, so she needed some Auntie lovin' to make her feel better.

My ornery family enjoying their food. I just love little diners. There's something about the atmosphere in them. So relaxed and enjoyable. Doesn't hurt that the front part of this store is stuffed with chocolates!!

Before we left and headed down to the Trolingers, I had to take a picture Livie and dad. Her shirt says it all.

Once we got down to the Trolingers, I had to take one of her with Grandpa T too. Couldn't get her to look at the camera to save my life, but still was cute.

One of the things we wanted to do when we were at the Trolingers was to change out their outside lights. Pete's sister Jill got them wall-mounted lights and we got her a new lantern. Pete got right to work on Tuesday installing them. I love to help him work. Don't know if I'm a help or a hindrance sometimes, but it's still fun to do. Here's the "Before" after he had already taken out the wall-mounts. I will say this, Pete was in the zone to do lighting this weekend, because he installed 4 lights at his parents and a new dining room light at my parents. He was quite the electrician this weekend! I wish I had taken a picture of my parents' new light, but didn't think of it. The original one was a hideous mix of '70s basket, hinged ball lights. It was frightening!! Dad is convinced somehow that he can sell it in a garage sale for $5. I told him if he can do that, I'm going to sell a half-drunk bottle of pop for $10, because if someone is willing to pay for a piece of crap like that lamp, then they would be willing to pay twice that for half a pop!!
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The lantern was a hard one to replace. Once they got the top off, Sue spray-painted the post and they worked to get the new one on. The pole was hard to drill through, so it gave Pete some trouble, but he got it to work.

Here's the "After". Doesn't it look great?! I love the black. Looks really sharp and won't corrode like the brass ones did. Every time we are in IN, we try and do some home improvement projects for our parents. We love to do it and it's so fun to help them. Even if it's just organizing a room for my parents or changing out a faucet for his mom. Makes us feel good to help. Glad I have such a handy husband!!

Of course, had to get some pictures of the kids together. Why they always feel the need to hold something up, I'll never know, but they always do. Whether it's a rock, a leaf, a sock monkey, or just a sock. So silly!! The header pic was taken at the same time. :-)

That night I went to Teresa's house (she's one of my two besties) to go out for dinner and watch a rousing episode of LOST! I made us matching t-shirts that say "You're not Dharma Material". Yeah. We're cool. Of course, before dinner and LOST, I got to play a nail-biting game of Candyland with her kiddos. I lost miserably as usual, but I believe there might have been some card-swapping going on. Princess Frostine made an appearance very early in the game. I'm just sayin'....

The weather today was FANTASTIC!! So, we (all of us and Nana and later Papa) decided to take a walk on the Greenway. The "Greenway" is a series of paths that go through some beautiful, wooded places in Warsaw. The kids have been on this part of the Greenway many times. It was my first time going though and I loved it! Especially on such a beautiful day. We were on this platform half way into our walk when I saw this bird. I was so excited, because I thought I had spotted a heron! I yelled for the kids "HEY, I saw a heron, come here!", thinking I was awesome because I had found it. Pete gets up on the platform, looks at the bird and says "That's a goose.". Doh! Apparently, I'm an idiot and don't know what a goose looks like. I have a feeling the kids won't be nearly as excited next time I claim to see something awesome.

Sue's friend Marti joined us for our walk today and took pictures of all of us. :-) How fun!! We had a great time on our walk with her.

We didn't actually make it to the end of this path, because the kids got distracted by throwing rocks in the lake, but they had a great time doing that. Madie took Nana's binoculars and looked for birds. Sue is an avid bird watcher and could tell her what the different birds were. Madie loved that! The kids found lots of great treasures and really enjoyed their nature walk. They are definitely outdoor kids.

Papa joined us towards the end when he came to meet us with his car. He had parked nearby to see if anyone wanted a ride home. Sometimes one or two of them will get tired of all the walking, so Sue decided to drive Noah and Madie home. Marc, Pete, Livie, and I walked that last bit home. On the way, we saw a doe. :-) We had been hoping to see one and at the very end we did! Sadly only Livie saw it, but I'm sure we'll ALL see one next time. We had a wonderful weekend and loved seeing everyone. If we didn't have so much to do here at home over the next couple of days, we would've stayed longer, because the time always goes by so quickly.

More Gramps

As I posted earlier, we found a tape that had lots of short clips of my extended family on it. Namely my grandpa, who passed away 10 yrs ago. I brought the tape home today from my parents' house in hopes that I can find someone to convert it to a DVD. I thought I would upload more short pieces though, since everyone seems to love them as much as we have. It's hard to know what to pick or if I should just record them all, because sometimes it's just everyone hanging around, not saying much of anything. If anyone is interested in me posting all that we have on Gramps, let me know and I will. If not, that's fine too. I have some of him, some of my Aunt Annie, some of my aunts, uncles, etc.. There one of dad, Gramps, and Tony Ross just hanging out and talking. Again, don't know what to pick and choose or if I should just periodically post all of it. Right now, I'm just trying to post a few that I thought were really fun ones of him. This one is of my mom and dad and Gramps sitting around and talking. Dad shows him something funny and they start laughing. Thought it was cute. My dad and Grandpa always liked to laugh and joke together. If they weren't talking about God and the Bible, they were laughing about something silly. He was a really special man. Love that I'm able to see him again through these videos. Been a lot of fun for me, though it definitely makes me miss him a lot.

Gramps

We're in Indiana for the next few days and I had been told about a home video that dad found of Hobbies when he was only about a year old. I couldn't wait to pop it in and watch. Boy, was he cute!! The kids loved seeing a more spry Hobbes. :-) This got us in the mood to see more home movies and we found a wonderful tape full of family and friends from 1989. A bit in particular of my Grandpa Drexler, only a year after Grandma had passed away. He was his sweet, silly self. We just had to record them on our cameras and post. Em's camera worked better than mine, so this is what she shot. There's more of Aunt Annie and more of our family that I'd love to post sometime, so maybe if I get a chance to, I will. Heck, to show you some of the lovely videos of me when I was 14, 15, 16 - when my hair pushed me over the 5' mark - would be a fabulous thing to post about too. If, for no other reason, than to send all my viewers into hysterics!! ;-) Anyway, enjoy these videos of my wonderful Grandpa Drexler. I love you and miss you, Gramps!!

How Did I Miss This?!

I was going through some pictures last night and found this....

How could I have missed this?! This was taken on Livie's first day of school back in Sept. She's clearly trying to eat a piece of plastic broccoli with her father looking on with glee!! WITH. GLEE! It's been a while since I posted about broccoli. Hoping that by keeping it off my page, they wouldn't be as inclined to retaliate, but this is making a mockery of me and our movement. Like it's been lurking on my computer, waiting to pop up and destroy all I hold dear. Well, I won't take this lying down! It's bad enough that it's found a way to infiltrate a preschool to corrupt our children. Another thing entirely to lay in wait to find my children at home and entice them to do something that goes against all that we stand for! Once you bring it into my house, I cannot keep quiet or let it continue at will to destroy our innocent. The weed has been quiet for months and I had a feeling something sinister was in the works, but I didn't expect a home attack. Maybe this is why Livie has been increasingly anxious about getting her hands on broccoli. Somehow this picture was sending her visions and vibes through our computer, pushing her to do the unthinkable - ingesting an actual piece of this heinous thistle. She's come close a time or two at the grocery store. Trying to lean in by the produce section and grab a bite. Thankfully my keen senses were at work and I was able to thwart any of these attempts. I'm glad we're going to IN over the next few days. We need to have our BMBD systems manager come and do a sweep of the house. If they have left this kind of propaganda encoded on our computer, there's no telling where else they could have left their mark. I'm sure there are bugs and possibly even video surveillance hidden in our home. It's a scary time, but we will not be bullied or frightened away from our task. Headway has been made and there's no time for backtracking. The fight rages on and I for one will not allow my 4 yr old to succumb to the munitions of this disgusting vegetable. It's spring time and that means people are going to begin to plant more of the weed we are now fighting, which will add to their ever increasing numbers. Making our battle an even harder one. But, our numbers too have been growing and we will win. Oh. Have no doubt. We. Will. Win!

BOOM!

Last night, around 9pm we heard this HUGE BOOM! Scared us to death! I was watching tv and Pete was in the bedroom on the computer and he can running out and was like "What was that?!" We both went around the house looking to see what it could've been. It sounded a lot like when trucks dump off a big dumpster. That loud metal-y sound. We couldn't find anything in the house or basement, so Pete went outside. He said it was quiet as could be out there. Finally he decided to check the garage and that's when he found what happened.



You'll notice attached to the garage door railing is a large spring.

You'll notice on this side that the spring is now gone. It shot off and hit the metal railing and rolled under the car. Like my Aunt said, we should be thankful that didn't happen when we were in the garage! We could've been seriously hurt! Plus, very thankful it didn't hit the cars.

You can see how it bent the railing though. Pete said the builders did an awful job of installing the garage door. When we moved in, it didn't have an automatic garage door opener, so Pete installed that, but the construction of the railing and stuff is bad, so maybe it's a good thing it has to be replaced.

You can also see how the cable broke. So, that whole side is a mess. We're going to be parking outside now until we can get it fixed. Pete worked for a long time to get the cars moved out, because the door would NOT go up. He was pushing with all his might and it would only go up a couple feet. Really not sure how he actually even got it up. But, he did. Got the cars out and told me not to use the garage door anymore until we get someone in to repair it. At least the weather is nicer now and we don't have to park outside with snow. Yes. I'm spoiled. After spending nearly 10 yrs in Goshen without a garage and having to dig myself out on a number of occasions each winter, I quite like not having that problem any more. :-)

Madie's Birthday

What a fun day we've had! So hard to believe that my little girl is a lively, energetic, dramatic, and silly 9 yr old. Maybe it's because she's still short enough to look like a 6 yr old that makes it hard to fathom. ;-) But, she indeed was born almost a decade ago. And, when she entered our lives, she changed us forever. It's been a wonderful journey since then and we're just so thankful that God blessed us with this beautiful daughter of ours.



As is our tradition, we decorated the kitchen last night for her. This year she chose Kung Fu Panda, which has become a favorite in this house. Last time we were at Jill and Adam's, she was teaching Ty the correct way to bow to one another before fighting. It's serious stuff!



Typically we let the kids pick a restaurant to eat out at. But, we actually went out to eat on Sat, because we were already in town, we were hungry, and Madie was game about eating out then. She picked Jardines which is a delicious mexican restaurant right in the downtown area. We love to sit by the windows and watch the people and cars go by. On Saturday the weather was awful, so there weren't a lot of people, but we got to watch the cars. :-)




One of their favorites there is the strawberry daiquiri. Virgin, of course. They were very excited to get one of those! Livie drank half of it herself. We had a great meal!

This is Madie this morning after she saw all the decorations. She loved the big poster hanging behind her. The headband she's wearing, she got from my best friends Michelle and Teresa and their families for her birthday. You'll see what else she got from them in a minute, but Michelle and Ricardo got that headband for her when they were in Venezuela and Madie thought that was the coolest thing ever!

Part of the agreement on going to Jardines on Sat was that we would take her out for ice cream at the newly reopened Triple Js. They've got great ice cream there! We let them pick anything they wanted. Madie got a waffle cone that was dipped in chocolate and m&ms. YUM!! Noah and Livie got cones with sprinkles.

Livie also got a blue slushie. She split them both with Pete. Blue slushies are the best!

Here we are! Madie with her ice cream face and me with my hot fudge sundae smile. :-) Really can't go wrong with ice cream on our birthdays, can we?

This is the other thing that Michelle and Teresa got her. This super-cute Dankin outfit. It was a little big, so we took it back and got a smaller size and it fits her perfectly. It's so comfy she wanted to wear it the rest of the day. Have a feeling it's going to become a favorite. Madie likes to dress up from time to time, but she's all about comfort. She's like me that way. So this was perfect!

After we got home from our trip to the ice cream store, it was time for presents. Got a shot of the kids together. Why Noah and Livie act like weirdos the minute I snap the picture, I just don't know. Certainly that's not a Drexler trait. ;-)

We didn't get Madie anything major, because her present was going to see Hairspray a couple weeks ago, but we did get her a few small things. She got an Obi-Wan and Count Dooku figurine - that's what she's opening above.

And, we got her an outfit. Complete with this awesome hat! How cute is that?!! Noah was especially excited, because it has a mod monkey (aka modern version of the sock monkey) tag on the side of it.

Here she is sporting the outfit we got her. She's so cute!

While Madie was busy changing her outfits, Noah decided to show his sock monkey the hat. He REALLY likes it! Noah that is. Not the sock monkey. I didn't ask the sock monkey for his opinion.

The present from Nana and Papa T came today and she got this adorable outfit and some shoes for her dolls and some geniune FL sea glass. Her grandma collects sea glass and all the kids love looking at her collection. Now Madie has some pieces of her very own! :-)

Because we opted to have ice cream instead of a cake, I decided we should just stick her candles in her sandwich! She wanted "Make-your-own-sandwiches" as her bday dinner, so a bday sandwich it is!! We got a little nervous, because candles do not stick up very well in bread, but we quickly sang her bday song and had her blow them out before anything caught on fire. That would be our luck, ya know. It's been a fun day for her and we loved celebrating with our beautiful little 9 yr old girl!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADIE!

I Have a 9 Year Old!

This blog is dedicated today to my beautiful Madeleine Sue who was born at 1:11am 9 yrs ago today. When she was born, my life changed forever. I love her dearly and see what a wonderful, vibrant, dramatic young lady she's turning into. Happy Birthday, Madie!! Pictures of her day will be posted tonight. The picture above is of her on her very 1st birthday back in 2002.

Gardening - The Beginning

*Warning - if you are a gardener, you may want to stop reading this entry immediately. The following is what happens when a garden is left to fester on its own for multiple summers. Please proceed at your own risk (not responsible for seizures or vomiting caused by viewing....).



Yes. This is our flower garden. And, yes, it's a craphole. Let me preface this by saying I'm not a gardener. I enjoy flowers and enjoy flower gardens, however I have never claimed to be good at dealing with either. Plus, gardening requires weeding and because of my acute fear of bugs, there is no gardening done between June and Sept. Last year, we didn't even cover the months before and after those dates, so this (insert arrow up) is what happens when you slack off for a couple years. And, before you ask, that IS grass growing in our garden. Our lawn is overtaking our bed. Now, we are faced with rectifying the disaster and, let me just say, it's not pretty. Sue, I apologize for the utter destruction of the beautiful starts you gave me all those years ago. I'm salvaging as many as I can, though some will be casualties of my blantent disregard of their care all these months...... Ok, ok. Fine. Years! Yes, years! Guess it's time for brutal honesty. I was trying to seem like I wasn't a total loser, but I think it's pretty obvious this didn't happen after a couple months of forgetting to weed. Since we've had some beautiful weather, Pete and I decided to finally get our butts in gear and clean up this mess. Because he works all day and I'm usually busy with things myself, we've been working a couple hours each night for the past week, trying to clean up the southside of our house - which was the better (and easier) of the 2 sides.

Here we are on the southside. As you can see, after several days of work, we've got it in top shape and ready for planting. Madie and I dug up one section of irises and tulips and are ready to replant them as soon as this cold spell passes. We bought weed barrier, hoping that will keep some of the weeds at bay, but not remaining too hopeful that it will. But, we'll at least try and do a better job of staying on top of it than we have been. In the past, we haven't planted flowers here, opting instead to do a veggie garden. I remember fondly the time we grew broccoli, only to watch it grow and grow until it withered and died - much to my extreme satisfaction. I would mock it as I walked by. Taunting it as it begged to be cut and eaten. Good times. Good times. But, we haven't grown anything in this area (other than weeds and a mutant corn stalk) for about 4 yrs, so we're going to rearrange our flowers and make this area a flower bed too.

This is the part we haven't done. Yes. It's an embarrassment. And, to say it's an embarrassment in a town where they have pink Obama cows and buckets holding up their mailboxes, that's saying something. We're going to dig up all the rest of our flowers, take out the weeds and replant everything. We didn't space well last time and need to give a lot more room to everything, because it all kind of grew together and it ran out of room. Plus, now I know what blooms when, so we can space it all out a bit more too according to seasons too. I'm learning, and all this work has taught me that a) gardening sucks 2) I suck AT it and d) going with the "natural" look only makes it look like the Klopeks moved in. So, we're trying to do our best and make it clean and pretty again, like it was when we first planted. Hopefully we'll have time over spring break to get the south side completely done and mulched, then get a least half, if not all of the west side done as well. Stay tuned for updates our outdoor project.

Nature Walk

Boy, was today a beautiful day or what?! We usually have playdates with our friends the Mullinixes on Wednesdays and we decided yesterday to spend that playdate at the local state park.



For some reason the parking lot was closed, so we had to park a ways away and walk to it.

But, on the way, we found lots of treasures - pine cones, sticks, leaves, and rocks.

We found this really awesome tree and had to go check it out!

The boys hopped right up and walked all along it.

Got a picture of all the kids sitting on it. It was higher off the ground than I am tall, so it took a little maneuvering to get my girls up there. See how everyone has carved their name in the side? Pretty neat!

We spotted another cool tree. This one had no branches, but big holes in the top. They all had to check it out.

Livie got tired several times and bummed a ride on Patty's back or shoulders. ;-) She knows how to sweet talk her way into a free ride!

Keeping the kids out of the water was quite a chore. At least the Mullinix boys had rainboots on. It was like Noah literally could not control his urge to get in the water. Something in boys' genes make them gravitate to mud, water, or anything of that variety, I've found.

We headed down this little path. In the summer, the leaves cover the trees and make a little tree tunnel that birds like to fly around in. Didn't have any birds this time, but it was still a fun little place to explore.

We finished off by playing on the playground for a few minutes. Not nearly long enough for the kids though, because they were NOT happy when we left. When I threatened to leave Livie to let her become a wood-dwelling child, she actually thought about it for a minute, before finally deciding to join us on our walk home. But, we had a great adventure and a fun time, though it went by quickly for the kids. I reminded them that spring is just starting and we'll have time to explore some more another time soon. :-)