Visiting Jerusalem...in Indiana?

I pride myself in being a fairly good blogger. Try to bring you something almost every day - even if it's mundane. So, you'd think that with an exciting 5 days in IN, I'd remember to bring my camera - but you'd be wrong. So, the few pictures I have on here are taken from my cell phone. Sadly, no video. But, despite my forgetfulness, we had a great time visiting our families. :-) We hadn't been to Nana and Papa T's since spring break, so we were long overdue for a visit. We got to go on a Nature Walk and the kids took their scooters, which made it a lot more fun. A tornado had gone through there just a few days before, so we were able to see a lot of the damage in the area. There was a tree that cut a house in half just right down the road from them! Kinda crazy! We got to spend a fun night with our niece Allyssa, who came over to play. They all had a great time with her! And, we got to enjoy some fun time just hanging out with Nana and Papa. After a couple days there, we headed up to Nana and Papa D's. Kendalyn was there again and we saw Em and Jeff too. Had fun hanging out with all of them and I tried to get a few things organized while I was there. Only managed to get 2 things done, but at least it's better than nothing. Cleaned out a closet with probably 8 suits of dad's from the 80s. Thankfully he had given me full permission to dispose of anything pre-1985. I wanted to go pre-2005, but didn't want to push too hard. Bringing them into the new millinium will have to be a slow process. ;-) This week they were having VBS and they are doing the "Jerusalem Marketplace" theme. We did this at our church for a couple years and it was by far the best VBS I've ever been a part of. So, I was very excited to take the kids, even if it was only for the 2 days we were there. Livie had never been there, so she quite enjoyed it. It was all outside, at a church member's house, in tents. You couldn't have asked for better weather either. Just perfect!





Pete didn't realize he was going to be a part of VBS that night, but he showed up and went right to work. Everyone had to dress like they did in Moses' time. Pete cracked me up by wearing his baseball hat the whole time! Guess he was trying to get the Jews to give up the long head wraps they wore and go for a cooler look. Nothing says "I lived in Egyptian times" like tennis shoes and baseball hats!




Dad was the high priest. Pete referred to him as Chef Boyardee. Others leaned more towards the "Pillsbury Doughboy". ;-)

I was a Jewish slave girl. This was before I threw my hair up and made it all crazy. The craziness here is just the normal crazy I sport on a daily basis. I tried rubbing mud on my face, but apparently I didn't do a good job, because no one noticed it. Dad and I were in a skit that night with a couple other guys. It was really fun! I don't want to brag, but if Oscars were awarded for best VBS routine, we would've won Hands down.

Em and Jeff were workers in the "Stone Shop". They made stepping stones with the kids. Pete helped in their group too. They were quite a team! Kendalyn stayed with some of the teenage girls while they worked. Mom didn't go the first night, but came the second. She wanted to see Madie in action. She (Madie) was an actor that night.

Here all 3 of our kids were in the "Brick Shop". They made bricks by stomping in mud until it was ready to put in the forms. Lots of fun, messy projects at this VBS!

Here's Chef Boyardee in the tabernacle. Never seen my dad look hotter!

Here the kids listen to Papa tell them about Moses.

Here is Madie in her actorial debut (is "actorial" a word?). She played a little girl named Sarah who found out she had to give her favorite lamb to be sacrificed. She memorized all her lines and did a fantastic job!! Everyone raved about how well she did. :-) We had a fun time with all our families and are so glad we got a chance to go back. Em and I went to see Eclipse last night at midnight. Even though I'm super-tired, it was SOOO worth it! Fantastic movie! We met up with 3 gals from the church and all watched (and drooled) together. Edward and Jacob are just delicious! ;-) Anyway, had a great 5 days, but are glad to be home. Now it's time to get ready to celebrate the 4th!

She's HERE!

Little Miss Kendalyn is here for our first babysitting adventure with her - her first overnighter without mom and dad. They have a wedding in northern IL this weekend and Jeff is in it. He has to be up there tonight, but Em's working, so he dropped her off on his way up and she's coming tomorrow to pick-up. :-) The kids have been ooh-ing and ahh-ing over her the entire time she's been here. And, you can tell, she LOVES her big cousins! Only have had one mishap so far and that was a 4-alarm diaper that I didn't realize had spread up her back, until I got ready to change her and realized the disaster she had waiting for me! We ran out of wipes and I was yelling for back-up - all while the kids were totally getting grossed out. It was HILARIOUS! Keni just smiled the whole time, despite the fact that she ended up getting it all over her back, her feet, and her face by the time I was done with her! Guess I was a bit rusty in the diaper department. Anyway, we're off to a fun start and are looking forward to our night with her. :-)

The End of the Season

Tonight was (what I thought to be and possibly still COULD be) Noah's last game. We were told tonight that the game that was cancelled a few weeks back due to that big fire in town might be next week, but since we're going to be gone part of next week, this could still be Noah's last. Anywho, I picked Madie up at 5 from drawing class and headed straight to the field and they had already finished the first half of the 1st inning! The game was supposed to start at 5, but they got started a little early, because of an impending storm.




He was the last batter on his team tonight, so we made it in time to see him hit both times. :-) There were only 2 innings tonight, because we had that big thunderstorm and tornado watch heading our way. We probably could've made the last inning, but I'm glad they played it safe. It was a doozy of a storm!




Noah took to the field after that first inning and got 3 balls hit to him, right in a row! He did a great job fielding!!!!! Remember me telling you at the beginning of the season how he wasn't keeping his head in the game? Well, he's improved SO much this season! The turn-around happened when I told him he'd get a Bliss Chocolate every time he did his best. Well, he has been doing his best at each and every game and we've been so proud of him! Didn't hurt to tell him to do what Yoda says "Do or do not. There is no try.". That's been our motto this season. I mean, if Yoda says it, it's gotta be good, right?! Livie tried saying that today, but it came out a bit differently. She told me "Surrender or die. There is no not die." Close, Livie. ;-)




At the end of the game, the boys sat in the dug-out and listened to Coach Homer one more time. He was a really good coach and Noah liked him a lot.

He even got his very first trophy!!! He was pretty excited! It was a great season for the Padres!! Here's a little video below of his second at-bat. He hit it really well!

Drawing Class

There were lots of different classes offered through the Y and they were all for FREE! So, I signed the kids up for a few of them. The first one is a drawing class. It started yesterday.



It's for an hour a day, all week this week. Noah goes for one hour, then Madie follows up and goes another hour. It was fun to see him working. We popped in a little early, before class finished to take some pictures and see what he was up to. Other than having to duck some well-aimed paper airplanes from my friend James there in the back, it was a pretty nice time. ;-)




I think the first day was mostly just to get an idea of what they could do. They had to draw a few things that she talked about, like their shoe and their favorite animal. I'm hoping they'll learn more this week. I'm so sensitive about art, because they aren't offered it at our school and it breaks my heart that they don't. So, anytime a class is available, I sign them up.

Madie really enjoyed her class too. She loves art and loves to draw. Almost as much as her sister does.

She had to draw things that began with the letter "W". She was thinking of "W" words the entire rest of the day. One thing I was upset at myself about was not taking my camera to Noah's game last night! He did a great job and has improved sooo much! I'll take my camera to his last game on Wed instead. But the reason I was mad I didn't remember it, was that the girls and I did the concession stand for the first time. They LOVED it!!! Livie sat on the counter and said "May I help you?" to everyone who came up and Madie was the gopher. She got their drinks and candy and popcorn for me. Livie even helped put the money in the right slots. If they could do that every game, I'm sure they would! If there weren't any people, Livie would call out, "Come to the sesscion stand!". CONCESSION is a hard word for her, but she gave it her best shot. :-)

Celebrating Father's Day

We asked Pete what he wanted to do today during his Father's Day Celebration and he wanted to go to Illini Park and walk around, maybe play a little frisbee or something. So, we all headed down to enjoy the great outdoors.



Here's are the kids and their fabulous daddy!!!!

Pete was teaching them to skip rocks on the river.

We even found a cool bird's nest that fell out of a tree.

We were all having a great time, until about 40 min into our adventure when Livie suddenly became overcome with thirst (and extreme sleepiness, I think) and cried until we walked all the way back to the van to get her something to drink. Then the kids began arguing about whether to continue our adventure or do something else. So, Pete made the "Fatherly" executive decision to chuck it all and...

go out and get nachoes and slushies - calling it a day. :-) Nothing says "Father's Day" than relaxing with some nachoes and blue raspberry slushies!! So, Happy Father's Day to my wonderful, amazing husband who always puts our family first. Who, even when he's exhausted after a 16 hr trip home from China, is willing to play with the kids until he falls asleep on the floor. And, takes the time to teach them what's important in life and lead by his example what it means to be a great Christian husband and father. They love him to pieces and are so thankful he's their daddy.

Bell Choir

Today was the day! The big bell performance! The kids did a great job and are obviously right at home on stage. They waved and bowed and loved every minute of it. Livie decided to break free from the mold and do her note TWICE instead of just once on the first verse. She felt her talent was being underused, I guess. Had to show off her awesome bell ringing skills. I can't blame her. Such amazing abilities can't be contained. Noah and Madie are becoming quite the masters themselves. Having now performed a good 4-5 times now. They can almost do it with their eyes closed. Heck, Madie was even given TWO bells this time. Her talents exceeding just the one-bell personage. All-in-all a spectacular performance by the Trolinger kids! If we had had just 5 more kids, we could've been like the VonTrapp's and travelled the world. Those darn Nazis wouldn't have even been able to hold us back!

A Rootin' Tootin' Roundup and More!

Today was a super-fun day for us. We headed over to Ottawa around 9 am and didn't get home until almost 3! There were a lot of activities offered in Ottawa today that we took advantage of and LOVED!



First we started with bell choir practice. The kids get to perform tomorrow, so they spent a little while practicing today before they have to get up in front of the church and show off their skills. Livie has one single note to play and is beyond thrilled to play that note! I hope she's able to do it tomorrow with as much excitement as she has been doing these past couple practices!

After that was over, we headed down the block to Washington Park. This park is in the center of town and is such a beautiful park. The United Way had a "Rootin' Tootin' Roundup" for all the kids in the area. They had tables set up all around the park where the kids could do a variety of activities - all for free! We went with our friend Lee Ann and her two sweet kids. I've posted about them before, so you might recognize them. Here we started our adventure by getting what else, but TATTOOS! Gotta have tattoos before their big bell performance, right?!

Then they got to make and decorate their own bandannas. They have to be authentic cowboys and girls, so they took their time and made really cute bandannas. Ella and Bodee were already decked out in their finest cowboy/girl gear, so they just kept adding to it to make it really special.

There was lassoing of the cows. Livie LOVED this part! She really got into it and tried lassoing that wooden calf with all her might!

We had a special storytime as well, where they got a free book about horses at the end. We ran into several friends while we were there. My girlfriend Katie, her girls, and her parents were there, so we got to hang out with them for a little while. That's what I love most about small towns. You can run into friends nearly everywhere you go!

Here are Noah, Livie, Madie, Ella, and Bodee as they got ready for the storytime. :-)

And, we had to take a fountain picture! This park is the spot where Abe Lincoln and Stephen Douglas had their very first debate, so this beautiful fountain has a big statue of the two of them on it. Now, we actually have another park in town called "Lincoln-Douglas" park, but this one is called "Washington" park. Make sense of that!

They had a smoke house too, which if you've never heard of it, is a mock-up of a house where the firefighters show you how to exit safely when there's a fire. A fire alarm will go off and smoke with come out and they teach the kids about fire safety. Livie was too scared, but the other kids loved it! They even got stickers and fire helmets. :-)

And, they even got to sit in a real firetruck!!! The fireman was so nice to offer to take our picture for us. I didn't even have to ask! :-)

They had sand you could play in, playdough to mold, but nothing was quite as exciting as FLUBBER! They've made the longest Flubber Worm ever in this picture! They also had lots of crafts to do, so they took advantage of making a few of those as well. To say our arms were loaded with stuff is an understatement. Pete made 2 trips back to the van to drop stuff off. Thankfully we parked at the church and were only a block away, so it was a quick trip!

They had this sweet horse there. Why? I'm not sure, but who doesn't love petting a horse? The kids all got in on that action. We ran into our friend Jen and her two kids and that's her daughter Kate petting the horse with them. Again, so fun to run into people we know!

They did a couple other things, like a dance party with a guy performing, who sometimes performs at our church, and a snack trail, where they followed the signs and got different snacks along the way, but we wanted to head to the local bookstore, again, just a block away, and visit their Creepy Crawler event. They were just beginning to take the animals and load them up when we got there. Thankfully the first thing they packed up was all the bugs!! Did get a good look at their scorpian though. Ugh. But they had a bunny and a turtle and a lizard (just like yours, Trev!) and a few other fun animals to look at. They even had a craft they could do in there and they passed out dirt pudding with gummy worms to eat! Too bad none of my crazy kids like it. Weirdos!

Oh, here are the rat babies!! Fun, huh? ;-)

We went out to eat with Pete to one of our favorite places in the downtown area, Jardines, then headed to the Thomas Store, so they kids could play a bit longer, before heading home. We had a fabulous, fun-filled day and am so glad our great friend Lee Ann told us about it! I now have a link to the Ottawa events, so we don't miss out on something that fun again!

Fun Night

Tonight was our monthly "Committee Meeting" (aka Girls Night) and I was so excited to go! I thought I was going to miss it, because Pete was in China the day it was originally scheduled for, but it got rescheduled for today, because some of the girls couldn't go last week. Our friend Lee Ann had an event to go to and invited us all along and it was so much fun!!


There is a marina between our town and Ottawa and the event was held there. They had 8 different area restaurants represented there and you could buy tickets to get the food. The food was really cheap and so delicious! Wish I had been there with a bigger appetite, so I could enjoy more of what they had to offer. It was PACKED with people! Couldn't believe so many people were there. Ran into a few people I knew, which was fun. Even met a couple from Los Angelos of all places! The picture above was to try get a shot of the crowd, but that was just one small area, by the food. That doesn't include all the people sitting on the patio and by the pier. The building in the back is the restaurant that's part of the marina. It's a really cute place. We've been there before for another committee meeting last year.

These are some of the boats parked at the pier. I told Pete I want to take the kids down there, because I know they'd love to walk down it. It's probably 3 or 4 times as long as what's shown in the picture I took.

The couple I mentioned before, that was from Los Angelos, took this picture of us. Three of our friends weren't able to make it that night. We have a great group of 10, though one gal hasn't been able to come yet. She's either been on bed rest or a busy mom to her 3 boys since we first started getting together, but we're hoping she can get away next month and join us. Such a great group of ladies! We laugh and laugh and just enjoy each other. They all go to church with me and that's how we all met. Pretty cool!

We stayed until after the sun set and everything was winding down. The band had finished playing and the crowds were leaving, but we had a ball just chatting and eating and walking down the pier at the end of the night. I'm sooooo thankful to have such a great group of friends!!

Pete's Home!

Can you tell the kids are happy to have Daddy home?!! Pete got home last night around 7pm and headed over to our friends' house where we were having our bible study. We had already finished the "study" part and were on to the dinner part of our night, so when he came in, we were all outside enjoying the beautiful weather on their patio. Our pastor can out from inside and said, "Look who I found." and out walked Pete. The kids ran from the end of the yard (which is HUGE), yelling for him all the way. They hugged onto him with all their might. It was so cute! We stayed for a couple more hours, before heading home. He had brought gifts for all of the families at our bible study and got to chat with everyone for a while before we left. It was a fun way to welcome him home. Everyone was so glad to see him. He showed the kids and I what he got us when we got home.

He got the kids this really cool book with a real dinosaur fossil in it! They loved that! He also got them more of the jade figurines, only in different animals shapes. Noah picked out a tiger, Madie a fish, and Livie got the snake. He gave one of those jade animals to all the bible study families too. Then he got me this awesome Dolce and Gabbana purse! Woo-Hoo He picked out 3, so I can give the other two to my sister and sister-in-law, so I had to pick out which one I wanted and it was SOOO hard! He got gifts for my brother and brother-in-law as well as both our moms too, but I don't want to post those pictures here, so they'll be surprised when they see them. He's trying to make sure that everyone in the family gets one thing from there before his trips over there end. He goes again in July, so I'm already trying to figure out who is left on his list. And, of course, thinking of more purses!! Maybe next time I'll be able to keep all three. ;-) Anyway, sooooo glad he's home. He was completely exhausted this morning and still looks very tired, but hoping after another full day off, he'll be feeling much better before heading back to work on Wednesday.

Just Chillin'

I haven't posted anything since Monday, so I thought I'd just add a quick note to let everyone know we're ok and "just chillin'...". :-) Had a busy week full of playdates and ball games. Today we headed out to the annual Seneca City-Wide Garage Sales. Came home with a few fun things. Livie got a turtle backpack and a new dinosaur. She's thrilled! Got some tinkertoys and PlayMobile stuff too. So, everyone is busy playing and, thankfully, playing nicely! That's the joy of garage saling for me. Usually means I've got an afternoon to enjoy while they play with their new finds. Can't beat that! Especially when it only costs me a few bucks! Now, I'm trying to get the house in order before Pete comes home. My house was spotless for my playdates on Wed and Thurs, but yesterday everything went to heck and now I'm faced with a monumental disaster! But, working on getting it all done, so Pete comes home to a nice, clean house. :-) Pete comes home tomorrow night and we're all VERY excited! We've missed him soooo much! And, sounds like he's going to be gone both next month and maybe even Aug again, so we're going to eat up our time with him, since he'll be leaving a lot this summer. Oh, I will mention (and, sorry forgot to take pictures) that Livie joined Madie and Noah for the first time in the children's bell choir at church. She's the youngest by 3 years to anyone else there and she only has to play one note, but she is diligent about making sure she does her note perfectly. They had their first practice today and she was SO excited! She just stood there with eager anticipation to ringing her bell. It was hilariously cute! Can't wait to see them all perform on Father's Day. Anyway, there's a little update on our week together. Have had a fun time with our friends and doing lots of things to keep us busy. Just didn't take the time to get pictures taken and blogging done. Will do better next week. :-)

Hair Stylist

I think Olivia has found her calling. She is going to be QUITE the dynamic hair stylist when she grows up. Just imagine all that she could bring to the fashion world! The white hair bow on top is completely revolutionary, isn't it? I don't know if I've ever seen a middle of the head, backwards, white bow before. She's doing my hair for the game tonight. I'm sure I will be stunning!

Tornado!

Well, after blogging yesterday that not a lot had been going on, God decided to give me somethin' to talk about!! Last night, right around bedtime for the kids, we started getting some really big thunderstorms. The girls fell asleep, but Noah stayed up reading for a bit and came in around 8:30 when he started getting a little scared. It was at that time I got a phone call from the emergency people saying that a tornado had been spotted, please seek cover. Having lived in Goshen for many years, I've never taken tornado warnings all too seriously, so I headed to the computer (still with Noah) to see where this tornado was. It wasn't headed towards us, but a town about 15-20 min south of us called Streator. Once I got Noah calmed down and let him know we were safe, he and I kind of stayed up talking through the storms for a while. I kept going back to the radar to make sure it was staying south of us and kept tabs on Facebook about what was happening and it sounded pretty awful. I am so thankful that it went south of us, though I pray for those affected. Such a scary thing to go through! But, I'm so glad that the kids and I didn't have to go through that. The storms we went through were scary enough without the addition of a tornado! Anyway, here are pictures from Streator this morning...

These are a couple they took last night and posted on our newspaper's website. It seemingly hit most of them unaware. Baseball games were still going on when it happened, but at this point there have been no reports of casualties. There were several people trapped under debris but I think most, if not all, have been rescued.

So, I guess I won't complain about not having anything to report on. Don't want a repeat of last night! I texted Pete during the storm, so he knew what was going on. Wanted to make sure none of the guys he's with there were from that area. The tornado was on the ground for 50 miles and hit Dwight and Streator, so there's extensive damage.

Just an Update

Thought I'd just send a quick update on how we're doing. We're all doing well. Staying busy in Pete's absence. There hasn't been anything exciting to take pictures of or anything, though I thought about taking pictures of Noah's baseball games this week. He did a great job and it's been fun to watch him, but I've been filling in for Pete as the asst coach, so I've been on the field with the boys and not able to take pictures. The girls have been playing in the dugout and around that area and being pretty good without me there. Though, during the 3rd (last) inning at Thursday's game, I could tell Madie and Livie were fighting and there was nothing I could do about it, except let them have at it. When I got off the field, Livie came to me crying to tell me how mean Madie was, so we had to have a discussion, but other than that, they've been doing well. Totally had a pj day yesterday, where we did nothing but lay around and be slothful. Hadn't really had a slow day since we got back from vacation, so it was nice to just all relax and not feel the need to go anywhere or do anything. That's really all we've been up to. We've been talking to Pete twice a day on Skype. I love Skype! It's so fun! He's been very busy at work - even working on Sat - but today (his Sunday morning) he's headed off to visit some local markets. More shopping!! Yay! Hope he finds some good stuff! Only one more week to go and he'll be home again. Can't wait. We all miss him a lot. So, that's a quick update on what we've been up to. Nothing terribly exciting, but it's nice not having "excitement" every day. That's what summer break is all about, right? :-)

Top 10

After yet another crazy thing happened since Pete's been gone, I thought I'd make a Top-10 list of "Things that happen while Pete's away that never happen at any other time of the year", just like David Letterman does every night. Here it goes...

10. Madie comes down with a rash all over her body for some inexplicable reason

9. Big thunderstorms come through, causing the power to go out for 1.2 sec, thus causing 2 children to come screaming in terror into my room at 3 o'clock in the morning, nearly giving me a heart attack. The third child is already in my bed and is now crying in fear too.

8. Having to deal with those 3 children in a queen-sized bed, until 4am when I give up and put my oldest two on my comforter on the floor, so I can get some sleep, after the terror of the 1.2 sec power outage.

7. Having the mower refuse to start, then after 30 min of trying to start it, finally getting it to start and almost immediately running out of gas. Then trying to fill it, only to realize once I get the mower back in place to start again that there's an inner cap in the gas can that I didn't remove, causing the mower to die again, so I have to take it back to the garage and start the process all over again.

6. Cat puking all over kitchen floor that I almost step in getting breakfast ready for the kids

5. A giant 5-building fire that knocks out power to the entire town for 12+ hrs

4. Coming home to find THAT that power is out with a trunk full of over $200 worth of groceries that I just bought and realizing that there's really no good place to put them in 93 degree weather.

3. Trying to help coach Noah's bball game, while having a 4 yr old running behind me at home plate while I'm catching and yelling at me to tell Madie to be nicer. This happened more than once.

2. Trying to explain to my children why I don't have chicken eggs that grow in my belly so I'm able to have children. This became an hilarious and very long conversation.

And, the top 1 thing that never happens unless Pete is away....

1. Noah ear swells up to twice the normal size and develops hard, blistery things on it and freaks him out enough that he swears his ear is going to fall off.

Ahh.. .the adventures and fun of being a parent!! Just have to laugh at the things that happen when he's away. Can only imagine what will happen over the next 10 days before he comes home. Perhaps we'll all come down with leprosy, a surfeit (yes, I looked that up) of skunks have a garden party in our backyard, and, of course, another power outage. Yes. I'm sure that's what's coming up next.