trip to St. Louis

All 4 of us in the Cardinal dugout

Emily and Michael with the World Series Trophy

Michael eating Ted Drews - YUM, YUM!

Emily eating Ted Drews - Good to the last drop!

The kids at the Magic House playing Ring Around the Rosey

Well, for this past weekend we were off to St. Louis. We camped at our favorite KOA just on the Illinois side of St. Louis. We have been there 3 times now. After getting in late Friday night we set up and ended up with two tent sites as our reservation was lost in computer land (was on one screen, but not the other) and we really did not have a camper/RV spot assigned to us. Oh well, it was nice as we were right next to the covered patio so we used that as our private patio. We were also the first site next to the horseshoe pits, basetball court, pool, and bathrooms. :)

Saturday morning we went to wait in line for the Cardinal's Kids Crew party at the stadium. Michael played ball with some kids while we waited for a few hours and then we went to wait in more lines. Lines for autographs, lines for dugout tours, lines for games, lines for bathrooms, and even lines to leave. Then it was back to the van to wait for a while before we could go back into the stadium for the game. We ate in the stadium and found our seats - section 265 - not too bad. The cardinals won 11 to 3. The kids got to see 2 of the 3 players they got autographs for play.

Sunday we took it easy, ate breakfast and then headed to the Magic House for an afternoon of hands-on fun. After the kids had their full of fun (and going down the slide about a dozen times) we headed to Ted Drews & then back to the campground for swimming & dinner.

This morning we packed up, let the kids swim for a while & then took off. On our way out we ate lunch at Chevy's as the kids had cupons for free lunches from the Kids Crew Party. We arrived home about 5:30, got unpacked, did laundry, set out stuff for our "dump week" (as this is our free week to have bulk stuff hauled away), got he kids to bed, made lunches and now am sitting down.

Day # 4

Today was the 4th day of school. Wow! Today a miracle happened. All the kids were more settled, less talkative, and really were productive. Wow! I plan on praying for more days like today. Please do the same ... of course I know they are just 6 & 7 year olds so the likelyhood of a repeat this early in the school year is very slim.

michael's birthday party

Since Michael's birthday fell both over vacation & summer vacation, we finally made it around to having a birthday party with his friends. He wanted to go to Putt-Putt for his party - which we were first apprehensive about due to all the heat we have been having. But, after checking prices around town, decided to go for it. Putt-Putt was only $8 per child, where other places were $15 - $20 per child. Parties are getting so expensive. Anyway - we had 8 first grade boys and 3 4th grade girls (two boys have sisters in Emily's class so we invited them along so she would have someone to hang out with). It was great! They played 1 round of putt-putt and it was actually comfortable outside - it was only about 90 :) instead of the 100 which it has been lately. Then we went inside for cake, ice cream, & drinks. After ooling off and eating up Michael opened his presents. They we let them loose in the arcade they had connected to the putt-putt place. They had a blast - and 120 tokens actually lasted quite a while.

A new boy walked into the party and took one look at me and said, "Mrs. N_ what are you doing here?" I then said, "You did not know I was Michael's mom did you." He just looked at me and said, "Wow".


Michael got 3 new webkinz which made him very happy as well as some legos, a t.v. plug-in video game, $15, a remote control car, and a gift card to blockbuster. He enjoyed all the stuff and has played with everything this evening.

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school. What a great day! It was only a 1/2 day so I finished up quite a few odds and ends this afternoon. I feel good about what I accomplished today - especially since my aide was not here today. She started back to college and will be there 3 mornings per week instead of 5. Emily is in 4th grade and Michael is in 1st grade. Wow! They sure are growing up!

first day of school

Anticipation,
Fear,
Excitement,
Tired,
Oh - No!
Yeah!
Jittery,
Groggy,
Joyful,
How do (did) you feel on the first day of school?

Tomorrow is the first day of school for us. Pray that we have a great day! Although, if it is a terrible day, at least it is only a 1/2 day. :) And, after that, only 174 more days to go :)Praise the Lord for the gift of learning.

sick or not to be sick - that is the question

Well, it is time for back to school, so it is also time for little bugs to be going around. Emily complained of a headache on Saturday & Sunday off and on. She also looked tired. Sunday evening she started running a low grade feaver. She had one also this morning and off and on today. Of course, no other realy symptoms. She said her throat hurt some (possible strep?) but not too bad. Her nose is a little stuffy -so that could also be the source of the sore throat. Will see what the morning brings. With school starting on WEdnesday, I need to go to school tomorrow. I plan on taking her no matter what and just lysoling my room when I go to leave. Hopefully it is just a 48 hour mystery thing.

school around the corner

Yesterday we had a work day at school. Flower beds were weeded and remulched, the playground got a load of woodchips, the whole grounds were spruced up. What a big day. There were about 35 people there to help. Since we were in the mood, we had a work day at home after dinner - trimmed hedges, pulled weeds, weed eated, and mowed the lawn.

School will start on Wednesday. I am ready for it according to my plans, but not really ready to go back mentally. I have gotten used to sleeping in and taking it easy in the morning. Getting up by 6:30 each day and leaving by 7:30 is not going to be fun after not getting up until 9:00 or so each day. Oh well. I guess I should be thankful for the break.

Emily and Michael are both ready to go back to school and see their friends. Emily got together with all the girls in her class on Friday for a High School Musical 2 party. It was a fun time for her. Michael and myself watched it at home and enjoyed the time together (Doug watched a baseball game in the other room). Tonight while Doug and I are at our Christ Care meeting, the kids plan on watching High School Musical 2 with the babysitter.

Tomorrow we plan on going to the state fair and then to the Mercy Me concert. Doug has a soft ball game, so it will just be the kids and myself. Should be a good time.

uniforms & school prep

Today I got into the atic and went through school uniforms. Getting Emily out new pants and skorts in size 10 really made her feel grown up. Michael stayed with his same ones for now (of course he will probably have a growth spurt right after I put all the hand-me-downs in the attic). While I don't really like uniforms and would rather allow some freedom of expression in clothing, I do like the fact that Emily can pass her clothes down to Michael. There is little difference in girl and boy uniform pants & shorts. In fact, I can't tell which kind are which. It does cut down on the cost of clothes for school.

It also helped that today I found $10 shoes for both kids - Michael got some nice basketball type tennis shoes and Emily found Sketchers with charms on them that she really liked at this shoe store that was going out of business.

With finishing up school supply shopping last week, I feel I have all the stuff the kids need for school.

orthodontist update

Well, Monday I took both Emily and Michael to the orthodontist. Both will need mouth expanders - Michael on the top and Emily on top and bottom. Right now they have spacers in to spread their teeth apart. Monday they go back to get bands fitted for their appliances, and then the mouth expanders are put in place the following week. I feel like we signed our life away, but yet this is minor compared to what braces will cost (Emily will likely have them, but the verdict is out for Michael). Oh well, they will have a great smile right? Right now we are buying stock in orajel, as Emily is pretty uncomfortable with just the spacers in. I told her she will get used to them - but they will likely be the most comfortable thing the orthodontist puts in her mouth.

High School Musical

On Sunday evening I took the kids to see High School Musical at the outdoor ampitheatre here in town. It was incredible. Every summer the theatre does a local talent nigh school production, and this year it was High School Musical. We were there on a sold out night, the last night of the production, and it was exciting. Afterwards all the teenagers stood around and signed autographs for the young kids who were there. Of course Emily and Michael had to get as many as they could. Wow! What an evening. We did not get home until 11:30, but it was worth it.

That leads up to this Friday night when High School Musical 2 is on Disney Channel. Both Emily and Michael are really junkies for this - Emily got backpack for back to school with a picture of Troy on it (Troy is the main male character). A girl in her class is having a High School Musical 2 Viewing party on Friday evening so it will be a great time for her. Michael and I will view it together and have a good time - of course Doug is not into this and thinks it is all crazy. I just tell him the kids are growing up and will be into many more things after this :)

Boo Slide Show

orthodontists

Well - today I took the kids to the dentist. A second year in a row the kids were told that they needed a visit to the orthodontist. I went on-line and found orthodontists who were in-network for our insurance. Then, I scheduled appointments with one who had two offices - one near home and one near school. Wow! Works out well - now we will see what the verdict is - how much it will put us in the hole. Pray that it will not be too bad.

is it hot enough for you?

Well, here it is 102 today. It was 102 yesterday also. YUCK! Makes it difficult to even go outside. Driving from home visit to home visit has been misreable at times as the car is heats up pretty good while I am in one visit. Oh well. I guess I can thank the Lord for air conditioning, for ceiling fans, and for refrigerators & freezers. Praise the Lord for modern conveniences. :)

How hot has it been where you are?

BOO

You will now hear the word BOO in our house more than just at halloween. We have a new dog - a 2 year old begle. We had been thinking about getting another dog for a while, but knew our summer schedule would not make one possible. This past week the humane society had waved adoption fees and we found a clearance sale on dog houses ($10 instead of $50) so we decided to go for it. Boo is a sweet dog and is well trained. He is not too overpowering for Michael - and has enjoyed playing fetch. The only issue is he loves running out the front door. Twice today he got out the front door and took a run for it. For those of you who have been to our house - the street out front is really busy - so this is an issue we will have to remedy, especially since STanley (our previous dog) died when he got out and was hit by a car.

Summer has gone by quickly!!!!

Wow! It is hard to believe that it is already the beginning of August and I am in the midst of home visits. We have been all over the country - from North to South over the summer and now it is almost over. We have been as far North as Wisconsin for Greg's ordination and as far South as Galveston Island, Texas. In between we visited ST. Louis, Frohna MO, Joplin Mo, Fort Smith AR, Monine IL, and Indianapolis IN. Wow! We were home only one weekend during the months of June and July - July 15th. It was great to see friends and family and see parts of the country we had not seen in a while. Now it is back to work!

I will have 18 first graders this coming year - one of which is Michael. Emily will be in 4th grade. We had her home visit today. My little girl is growing up - wow! She will be in for a lot of hard work, but I am sure she is up to it. She is a little nervous, despite knowing her teacher very well. We have been over to their house and they over to ours much over the past year.

Hopefully now that all our summer traveling is over I will be able to spend more time on my BLOG.

Vacation

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Here is a photo montage of our july trip. Doug put this together at work and figured out how to put it on utube. I will have him show me how to do this in the future so I can post more video on my BLOG. Until then, pictures alone will have to do. It is a little long, but worth it as there is a video clip of Michael on the beach which is just priceless. He loved feeding the seagulls and the video shows his joy.

St. Louis and the farm

Emily, Michael, Grandma & Grandpa
Leyna reading to Naomi
Leyna & Michael
Michael, Naomi, & Mom playing patty cake

swimming at Dawn & Craig's house
Emily in the cellar - mid process
Emily & Michael in the creek
Emily, Michael & Lynn on the John Deere

Yesterday afternoon the kids and I arrived home from a trip to St. Louis and grandma and grandpa's farm. It was a great time!


We left last Sunday afternoon after Michael arrived home from camp. He was exhausted, but has lots of stories to tell about his 24 hours at camp. We arrived in St. Louis around dinner time. After dinner with Aunt Dawn, Uncle Craig, Justin & Leyna the kids went downstairs to play with Justin's new Wii. How great that he was so willing to share it and show it off. The adults sat around and visited and just took it easy. It rained, so the kids were unable to go swimming like they would have wanted.


On Monday morning we went to pick up Naomi as Greg and Jamie were loading up their moving van and preparing for their treck to Texas. Naomi was such a sweetie. She was very happy to be with her Aunt, Grandma, cousins, & Great Aunt that she only took a 30 minute nap. Wow! Greg & Jamie came over after loading everything up and the kids went swimming with Greg. What a great way to relax.


On Tuesday morning we said our good byes - that was hard as other than the short visit at John & Jamie's wedding in July, we are not sure of when we will see Greg, Jamie & Naomi next. After that we went to the farm. Bonnie had fixed lunch - so we enjoyed lunch over at Lynn & Bonnie's. The burgers were gigantic - I couldn't believe that Emily and Michael ate a whole one. It rained so the kids were not able to play outside much - but they needed rain so it was great for the crops. While it rained we defrosted Grandma and Grandpa's freezer and cleaned out their cellar. The cellar contained jars, and jars of canned goods done over who knows how many years. We threw out about 20 jars of stuff - and some were really smelly!!! Both Emily and Michael were a big help with wiping off the jars and moving the jars around. We could not believe that we got it all done in a matter of a few hours. The hardest part was dumping out the rotten jars of stuff. Michael actually helped me with that. I took the kids into Dip & Deli for ice cream as a reward for being such good sports.


Wednesday was more of a fun day. The kids and I went down to the creek & went walking in the creek. That is always a fun thing to do. Michael found an old fishing pole - thought it was a golf club at first. After heading back and cleaning up we went over the Grandma & Grandpa's to visit for a while and then went to Dip & Deli for lunch. Grandma had invited Great Aunt Ruby along also, so their were 9 of us to go into lunch. It was a good lunch - the girls in that cafe sure work hard. There are only two girls to cook, serve, take orders, and bus the tables. Wow! They sure earned a gold medal from me. We then went swimming in Lynn & Bonnie's pool & then ate dinner at Grandma & Grandpa's house. After dinner the kids played outside for a while and I visited. Then we played one round of Aggrivation and headed to bed.


Thursday morning Michael & Emily went on a tractor ride, we loaded up some beef which we will enjoy - nothing tastes as good as farm meat - and we got ready to go. We arrived home Thursday afternoon which gave me enough time to clean out the freezer so I could fit the hamburger into it, got laundry going, and defrosted some soup for dinner. Mom stayed the night so after dinner we played 4 or 5 games of Mexican Train.


While we were doing that Doug had to go to work and get the computers going as they had lost power, and was working some on the camper. While we were out of town Doug put an airconditioner into our camper, reinforced the roof, oiled the bearings & got 2 new tires. Wow! We have it ready to go for next weekend and for later in July.

Noah's Baptism

Noah, Andrew, Gene & Holly
The Godparents & Parents - Gene, Andrew, his sister Jamie, Jamie, Noah, Greg & Holly
Jamie, Naomi, Emily, Mom, Dad, Andrew, Gene, HOlly, Noah, Doug, Dana, & Michael
The 5 kids - Andrew, Michael, Naomi, Emily, & Noah

Noah was baptized on Sunday. We went up late Saturday evening due to Michael's last baseball event - and Doug having all his Flicko's franchisees in for the weekend. Sunday morning Noah was baptized at the 8:30 service. Greg did the Baptism - his first official act as a Rev. Andrew spent time going back and forth between all the various family members - I think he enjoyed playing musical people. He calls Noah "daby" - but he is starting to use more words. :) Praise the Lord.

After Church we ate lunch at Gene & Holly's. We also relaxed and enjoyed one another's company. Having both Gene and Holly's family together made for a fun day.

Greg's Ordination

Emily and Naomi having fun in the grass
Emily, Michael & Naomi playing int he grass
Greg, Jamie, Naomi & both sets of parents
Naomi in the pool
Two weekends ago we traveled to Wisconsin for Greg's ordination. What a special service. It is difficult to believe that my little brother is done with school - it seemed like he would never grow up. :) It just means that I am getting old. I am sure Greg will do a great job in the Lord's name. He has a true heart for service and for the Love of the Lord. I can't wait to hear about all of the great things that God will do through both he and Jamie.



We had a great time and enjoyed seeing Naomi crawl around. We stayed in a suite at the Holiday Inn with mom and dad. While there we went swimming with Naomi. This was the first time she had gone swimming.



On that Monday we helped load up a moving van with all the stuff that had been at Jamie's parents for the last 4 years. Then we caravaned to Indy. We visited with Gene, HOlly, Andrew & Noah for a short bit and then headed home. We got home about 10:30 so it was time for bed.

It was a great weekend! Praise the Lord for safe travel and for positive bonding experiences.

Today I took Michael to the zoo and he got to go in the new splash park. It is open to members only on Wednesday mornings, so it was not crowded. Then he enjoyed picking where we went at the zoo. Of course I wanted to go to the Lorikeets - which he does not like. He said, "The Lorikeets and I are not friends, so I do not want to go there." How funny! He is a funny kid.

He then came home and watched The Incredibles. After that we went to Cici's for dinner and then went mini golfing. It was a good time.

Of course Michael was settling today. We had planned on going to Six Flags, but when I checked the tickets, I realized that the free tickets we had were not good until after June 14th. Oops... we had already told him we would go today. The zoo and mini golf were fun, but did not compare with 6 flags. Oh well, we will go there later in the summer and he will have a blast.

We have not heard from Emily, so I assume she is doing well at camp. I am sure we will get a whole ear full when we pick her up on Friday.

off to camp

Emily in front of her caibin for the week.
Emily & her 3 friends from school.
Emily having a horseback ride - she will get to do 4 more rides through the week. The rest will be more involved than this "sampler" at the open house.
Michael riding a horse. We had to bribe him to do it - said no swimming in the lake if he did not ride the horse. He was almost smiling - but he would not admit that he enjoyed it.

Well, today we took Emily to summer camp. She is planning on being there for a week. This is the first time we have taken her anywhere like that and left her. It was harder for me than it was for her. She went with 3 friends from school and had two bunk beds next to one another for the four of them. I am sure she will have a blast.

There was an opening service and open house at the camp today, so we all went for Church and then ate lunch. After lunch we got her registered and settled into her cabin, send both kids on a short pony ride, and then let Michael swim in the lake. Michael was just fascinated by tether ball. He wants to get some for school. I told him to mention it to our principal.

We will go pick her up on Friday and then head to Indy, and then on to Wisconsin for Greg's installation. I am sure we will hear all about camp the whole way there. I am sure Emily will talk, and talk, and talk.

pictures from our st. louis trip

autograph seeing Michael & Emily - they did get an autograph of a pictcher. Michael & Fred Bird - what a dream!!!!
Rain, rain go away - come again another day.
After the rainy game we all went ot Pujols 5 for dinner.

The sea lion show at the St. Louis Zoo
The peacock shows off for its mate. Wow! what a beautiful sight.
Emily and Michael bowling at the bowling hall of fame.
Emily & Michael on the Mark McGuire bench at the St. Louis Cardinal Hall of Fame

new nephew

Gene, HOlly, Andrew & Noah - a happy family:)
Andres, Noah, Michael & Emily - all tackling grandpa! Isn't he a big jungle gym?
Noah smiling and showing off his bright eyes.
The oldest and the youngest cousin.

Holly and Gene were blessed with a new baby boy on Thursday, May 31. Noah Abram was born at 5:15 weighing 7 lbs. 14 oz. He was 21 inches long. We went to Indy last night and were able to see him today. He is a cutie. We took some pictures and here they are. Holly, Gene, and Noah will go home tomorrow. I am sure Andrew will be glad to be back home (although he enjoyed his time with grandma and grandpa).

Andrew really missed his mommy and daddy. At lunch today he called me mommy a few times - I look enough like Holly that I reminded him of mommy.

We will see him again in two weeks when we got up for Baptism.