BEDTIME STORIES

So... I wasn't thrilled with the selection of movies at the Red Box this last time, but it was spring break and we weren't going anywhere until the end of the week, there were reruns on TV and the kids wanted to rent a movie. This was actually the only movie available that all 3 kids could watch and MIGHT actually be interested in so I got it. I was pretty sure it would be dumb. I like Adam Sandler for the most part, but he definitely has starred in a couple of movies that I just didn't like at all. In fact, I either hate his movies or love them. There has never been an in-between for me as far as his movies go.

Bedtime Stories pleasantly surprised me though. Not that it was a really good movie in any way, but it was cute. The story line was pretty lame, but Sandler played a lovable character that you find yourself rooting for. The kids in the movie were kinda cute too and actually had some more thoughtful insight into a few things than the adult main character did, reminding him what "true heroism" should be. There was no cussing (although I wish they hadn't thrown God's name around), no terrible name-calling (except for "Sir Butt-Kiss" which I have to admit, made me laugh) and no sex scenes. While this movie does have it's faults (lying & greed happen to be 2 of the biggees here), it wasn't horrible to sit through and I didn't fall asleep like I did when we saw Over the Hedge. In all, I can say I might even watch this one again some time. In a few months... or next year. And we might even add it to our DVD collection. :P

TIME TO PLAY "CATCH-UP"

So... I know it's been way too long since I've blogged. It's been way too long since I've done a lot of things actually, but what can I say? Life just goes by so much faster than I ever wish for it to. I'm thinking I may just post a few pictures to catch you up. I know. That's taking the lazy way out, but sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do. KWIM? :)

So that photo up there ^ is the first family picture we've had taken since Garrett was born (it was taken in December of last year). Yikes! How terrible is that? I had to beg Keith to get that one taken and I even resorted to using the "it's the only thing your mom has been asking for for Christmas" line. But it was true and it worked, so whatever it takes.

Also in December, Caitlyn & Aaron went to Northwestern's Christmas Dance - Caitlyn's first high school formal. They were very cute-looking and had a great time. Too bad we had to take out a loan to pay for Caitlyn's hair, nails, shoes and accessories - haha!


They also went to Western's Winter Formal in February. We were smart enough to borrow a dress this time and she did her own hair. :) I decided she will have to do her own hair from now on unless it's for Prom. Luckily, she's okay with that.

I can't even post any pics from Christmas because guess what? I haven't even loaded them onto the computer yet. I need to get that done sometime soon or at least put them on a CD.

Garrett went on his first deer hunt this past winter. Keith had been out several times and hadn't shot anything. He had resigned himself to the fact that he wasn't going to get a deer this year so he finally told Garrett he'd take him along since he'd been pestering him about it all season. When he told me he was going to take Garrett I laughed and said, "This will probably be the day you shoot one then." Garrett can't sit quietly for very long so Keith was pretty sure that wasn't going to happen. Well, that little trip just goes to prove that God really IS in control of ALL things because Keith did shoot a deer even with Garrett standing on top of him jumping up and down with his fingers in his ears yelling, "Shoot Daddy! Shoot!" Haha! Good times for them. Garrett was SO EXCITED!

So that's it for now. I'll be back later to update some more. But as I'm sitting here typing, I'm thinking the practical thing to do will be to just pick up right where we are! :)

FEAST DAY AT LITTLE SCHOOL!

Yesterday was the day of our annual Feast at Little School. It is such a fun day for the children. They get to dress up as Native Americans and all of us teachers dress like Pilgrims. Well, not really. We wear black pants and white blouses so we really resemble your basic restaurant server-type, but we tell the children we are the Pilgrims and since they're 4- and 5-year-olds they pretty much don't know the difference. It works for us so why change?


But anyway, we move all of our little tables and chairs into fellowship hall and set them up with colorful placemats, tiny plates, spoons and tiny plastic cups. It's so cute.

We are all in our classrooms for the first hour of school. During that time we do our usual opening circle times and then each class gets to whip up a culinary delight to be served at the Feast. The 5-year-old class makes mashed potatoes (instant of course, but you have to start somewhere), and the 4-year-old classes prepare the batter for Mrs. Dikeman to make the corn cakes (Jiffy corn muffin mix but again, you have to start small) and all the classes make their own butter to use on the corn cakes. It's amazing what a clean plastic peanut butter jar, some heavy whipping cream and a marble can do! You should try it sometime, it's delicious and fun. They also get some time to play with some special Native American themed items which is a lot of fun for them.




Once it is time for the Feast, all the children put on the necklaces and headbands they made then they head out on a little "hunt." They aren't really hunting anything but they"re very quiet in the hallway as they are looking for deer. All the classes gather together in fellowship hall and Mrs. Dikeman tells them a little about our history and how we celebrate Thanksgiving to honor God and to thank him for all the blessings we receive from him. She also teaches them a little bit about Squanto and how he and his people helped the Pilgrims learn to farm and hunt and fish, as well as a little about the homes the Pilgrims built and the longhouses that the Indians in our area lived in. They also get a mini nutrition lesson when Mrs. Dikeman holds up various fall vegetables and asks them to help her identify them. This year we also taught them a little song about an Indian who is hunting for deer.

On the menu this year: roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, raw carrots, dressing, and corn cakes & butter. We've tried serving pumpkin fluff and applesauce in the past but found that the children just really didn't eat it. One thing that is certain though is that every year the unanimous favorite Feast food is CORN CAKES. The children can't ever get enough of them!

Oh yeah, we had special visitors this year too. One of the little girls in our morning session has am uncle who trains bird dogs so she and her dad brought in a couple of live pheasants and a couple of live quail for the children to see and learn a little bit about. That was pretty cool although I had forgotten my camera so I didn't get a picture. Pheasants make a pretty strange sound. It actually sounds like someone with a dry cough. I thought it was kinda weird but I learned something new which was kinda cool.

A bit of a sad note, this will be my last time to have a child of my own at Little School on Feast Day. I will always enjoy the Feast, but it will never be as special as it has been for the past 8 years. I have gotten great joy out of watching all my children have fun at their Feasts and I will miss that.

HALLOWEEN 2008

Really quick - just a few photos I took of the kiddos this Halloween:

Caitlyn - Pirate Princess

Claire - Bumblebee

Garrett - Knight in Shining Armor

Aaron & Caitlyn - Pirates

What a bunch of Q-tees

We met our posse at the Longshores again this year and trick-or-treated in beautiful downtown Green Acres ;) Mike hooked the hay wagon up to the 4-wheeler and loaded it up with all the little cuties. Then our very own Sarah Palin drove them around so they could trick-or-treat without getting sore feet and tired legs. It was rough, let me tell ya - lol! The older girls, Caitlyn and Sam and Claire and Abby kind of went out on their own this year so in reality, we have absolutely no idea what they did but, oh well. They didn't disappear or eat any poisoned candy so it all worked out fine. After trick-or-treating we all met back at Mike and Connie's for some delicious chili and all sorts of other yummy foods. Loved that Halloween was on Friday this year so no one had to hurry home. We ate, we sat around and talked and we laughed A LOT. It was a super fun time with our friends. How many kids were there you ask? I don't actually know... I lost count somewhere around 25 or so. ;)

FALL SPORTS

Well the freshman volleyball season is finally over. Unfortunately, it wasn't a very impressive season for a bunch of girls who have been playing together for 4 years and were the County Champions the past 2 years and the City-County Champions last year. Not too sure what happened to them this year but they kind of fell apart. Don't get me wrong, when they were having a good night, they were fabulous. But when they were having a bad night, they were completely terrible. It was sad to see them playing so inconsistently this year.

We can't really complain about Caitlyn's individual season. She really only played one bad game. I don't have her stats yet, but I am hoping to get them from the coach soon. She really did have a very good individual season overall. Caitlyn has decided she wants to play volleyball for Butler University. In order for that to happen she is going to have to get a volleyball scholarship which also means that, although she is a good player, she is really going to have to step up her game. She is not amazing and in order to get a scholarship to play volleyball at Butler she is going to have to be amazing. That means volleyball camp at Butler or Purdue FOR SURE every summer until she graduates. And even if she doesn't get a scholarship from Butler, maybe she'll get one somewhere else. There are a lot of good schools in Indiana. We'll just have to wait and see.

So most of our time for the past 3 months has been taken up with volleyball practices, games and tourneys. The rest of our time for the past 3 months has been taken up with high school football: Northwestern and Western football. We attended all of Northwestern's home games except two which happened to be on the same nights that Western had home football games. We have always attended some Western football games since Keith has been working there for the past 15 years, but this year we have attended all of their home games and some of their away games. Yes, this year Caitlyn has a boyfriend that plays football for Western and she would rather go to his games than the Northwestern games. SO glad we bought all-sports passes for all of us for Northwestern. I'm thinking we should have bought them for Western instead. :/ Fortunately, Aaron doesn't play basketball so we can at least make all the Northwestern basketball games. And football is almost over. Sectionals start this week. Hopefully, Western will advance past Friday. They have a very good team this year so it's possible. For the record, Northwestern's football team sucked so we didn't really miss anything. :(

GOODBYE, GRANNY

My Granny passed away Tuesday morning. It has hit me harder than I thought it would. I mean, I knew it would affect me like Papaw's passing did, but I didn't think it would be this much. I lived next door to them practically my whole childhood. I can remember sitting in the rocking chair in their living room some days and not really having conversations, but just BEING with them. Sometimes we would all three just read. It sounds kind of weird I suppose, but for me it was comforting just to be there with them.

So anyway, I have been pretty emotional the past three days. The girls and I went to see her Monday evening and we knew then that she wasn't going to be with us much longer. I regret that I didn't go see her a couple of days earlier when she was still somewhat responsive. I told her I loved her and I hope that on some level of consciousness she heard me. Who knows though? She had a fever of 105 degrees and had been given morphine so it's probably unlikely that she even knew we were there.

I don't know. What I do know is that she took care of me when I was little and throughout my high school and college years and I will miss her.

WASHINGTON, DC

I know this post is long overdue since it's been a few weeks now that we returned from our trip to DC. I can honestly say it was an amazing trip and everyone should visit our Nation's capital sometime during their lifetime. We spent 3 whole days in DC and every single one of them was jam-packed with activity. We started our days at 6 a.m. and typically didn't end up back at the 4-H Conference Center until 9:30 p.m. It was hot and humid and it felt like we walked a hundred miles (we didn't always look or smell real great either), but it was worth it. The city is amazing in so many ways. So let's see if I can just give you a few highlights:

• We saw every monument/memorial in the city I'm pretty sure - even some we didn't know existed prior to going (the new Air Force Memorial for instance, which was really cool)
• Food courts seem to be very popular
• The Smithsonians are amazing - and FREE!
• Arlington National Cemetery is WAY bigger than I ever imagined (and I'm certain it's all UPHILL - if you go there, pay the $15 and take the shuttle)
• The changing of the guard at Arlington is a must-see
• Schedule a tour of the National Cathedral. I've never seen anything like it - incredible!
• We were nearly run over by the Secret Service speeding out of the drive of the Capital Building. We never did find out what was going on but there were fire trucks, ambulances and several huge black suburbans involved.
• Favorite memorials: Korean War Memorial and Iwo Jima (be sure to count how many HANDS are in that memorial)
• Mount Vernon was interesting, but I was a little disappointed in it.
• There are tons of homeless people, but you don't notice them too much unless you are out very early and they are still "camping out" in the parks, or until early evening when they start to stake their claims on park benches (or you see them literally eating from the garbage cans in the parks - very disturbing)
• Everything about the Capital Building is awesome - the magnitude of the building itself, the architecture, the ornateness of the ceilings, the inner-workings, the underground tunnel and train... it was my favorite building of all and I would love to be able to explore it more fully and without all those dang tourists.
• Saw the original Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights
• Saw the Hope diamond which was pretty impressive
  

There is so much I could say about this trip, but it would take too much space. I took about 300 photos. I'm not sure how many Caitlyn took. This is an experience I am glad I had and glad my daughter had. I don't think the kids will really fully appreciate the trip though until they are much older. I think maturity and life experience are the keys to really "getting" a trip to DC.

This is one of my favorite photos from our trip. The whole city is very massive - lots of limestone and marble so most of the buildings are grayish/brownish/white. But this was one area (a relatively small area) where the landscape was very different. This was on our walk to the Smithsonian Castle. This is such a stark contrast to the rest of the surroundings. It's very serene and beautiful. And notice there is no congestion. That struck me as odd since it was the prettiest spot in the whole city.