baseball game

Michael's 2nd baseball game was a success for Michael. He had three hits, made some good outs at 1st base as well as at home plate as pitcher. It was a good game, although they lost 6 - 10. It was fun to see him make a hot play at home - YEAH!!! You don't see too many of those in pitching machine league. He almost had two plays at first base - but he dropped the ball on the first one. That is what made the second play more excting.

volleyball pictures

I need to use my other photo editor program but this one was quicker. Don't know how to really make dark pictures look good - but now you can at least see what is happening instead of it all being dark. I need to take a photo editing class from Jamie, Jamie, or Rachel. Anyone want to teach one sometime (I guess it isn't the wanting to, it is the distance that makes it difficult).

Michael's 1st fall ball game

Michael has his first fall baseball game last night. Doug ended up coaching as their coach was out of town. Michael loved that his dad was coaching :) He had a good game. They did not win - but Doug said it was a good first game. Today they have another game at 11:30. I will be able to be at this one and will get some pictures.

more serves

Emily had another positive JV game last night. She got about 8 serves over :) She is really getting the hang of her serves. It helps that her coach this year plays volleyball and he has been helping her and giving her some advice that really works. She was intimidated in the Varsity game. Pray for her as one player makes her feel very small. That player is an older girl who is very forceful with how she says things to the younger players. I just told Emily to pray about it and to talk to coach about it if she felt comfortable doing so - as talking to the girl about it would probably make things worse. She has made so much improvement this year - and I hate for her to feel bad about her playing. So - say an extra prayer for her please.

YEAH Emily!!!!

Emily had a great B team volleyball game tonight. They won the set (two games). During the game Emily had 2 serves make it over the net in a row - her first two ever in a game :)!!! Then she also had 4 or 5 bumps make it over the net. Wow! What a great game!!!!! Congratulations to my little girl!!! It sure makes a mommy proud when she is able to succeed at what she is working at. :)

scroll down - new posts

Below are 5 new news filled posts. I got behind since school has started - so here are the last 2 1/2 weeks in a nut shell.

Weekend in Indy

Doug and Dad playing corn hole
Emily picked some beans from dad's garden - yummy!

Mom and Michael playing corn hole against one another.

Here is the peanut gallery cheering on the corn hole players

Emily and myself playing cornhole

We went up to see mom and dad this weekend. Doug and Michael headed up on Saturday morning after a sleepover birthday party that Michael was invited to. Emily and I headed up after the volleyball tournament.

Michael, Dad, and Doug had a 12:00 tee time on Saturday. They played 16 holes, as it took a long time and they were headed to the Indians/Bats game. They were only able to get standing room only tickets -a nd Michael ended up getting sick to his stomach, so they headed back to mom and dad's. Emily and I made it up around 9:00 on Saturday night.

We headed to bed after talking for a while and then got up for late church. We actually played some Phase 10 before church - taking turns switching hands. It was kind of funny taking turns playing while people were getting ready for church. Then we went to church at Trinity, ate a lunch of BLT's, played some corn hole, Apples to Apples, Aggrivation, Phase 10, ate a dinner of tacos, played some more games, took a 2 hour nap (the kids did), went to Kohls (mom, Holly & I), went to build a car (Doug and Michael), played canasta (mom, dad, Doug & I after the kids were in bed) and went to bed. Boy was Sunday a fun, full day.

Today it was computer shopping time for mom and dad, as mom was unable to put microsoft word on their computer. Doug then spent time setting it up, while Doug and I showed them how to do things on it. In addition we played aggrivation and corn hole. For lunch we ate some pork steaks, potatoes, corn, cantilope, and jello. Then Dad and Michael went running, the kids ran back to the remote control car store with Doug (so he could talk with a friend who was an assistant manager there), and I showed mom and dad some more things with their computer.

It was a great time to get away. Thanks mom and dad for your hospitatlity.

Volleyball

The girls with their trophy for 1st place
Sydney, Emily and Summer

Emily with the trophy

Their team and their coach with their 1st place trophy.

Emily's volleyball season started. She has had two away games and was in a tournament on Saturday. They won the tournament on Saturday!!!! How exciting. Emily did not play very much, but it was exciting to see former students and her friends do so well. Here are some pictures from the tournament. She has two games this coming week - Tomorrow and Friday. Will let you know how they go. So far they lost two & one one (played two games on one night, and one on the other) outside of the tournament.

I took some pictures of the girls playing - but they all were blurry. I will try again tomorrow at the game.

St Louis

Last weekend we went to St. Louis for the Cardinals Kids' Crew party. The kids had the opportunity to get autographs from Cardinal players, as well as eat food, and see the stadium.

We left Friday night and arrived at a camp ground in Kahokia Illinois - just across the river from St. Louis. We got set up and went to bed for the night. The next morning we got up and ate a breakfast of pancakes and bacon. We then cleaned up and headed for the arch. At the arch there was a special display about baseball history in St. Louis. They had it put there special for the All Star Game. After spending some time at the arch - and hearing about what occupied children on the wagon train, we headed to the stadium to wait in line. We were armed with a deck of cards, chips, water, sandwiches, and a wiffle ball. A 2 1/2 hour wait is what we had upon us. Since we were prepared - it was not at all bad this year. We have learned after three years of waiting in line what to bring to make the line less miserable.

We got into the stadium around 1:00 and were able to get in line for Skip Shumacker(not sure how to spell it) autograph. After that, we split up. Michael went to get Franklin's autograph while I went with Emily to get three more players autographs. Then we ate snacks, Michael and Doug went to the Cardinal team store, and we got Cardinal Bears (for making a $5 to the Cardinals' Care charity).

We then went to the car, walked around Keiner plaza a little bit and saw the arches, and found batteries for the camera before going back to wait in another line to get back into the stadium.

It was picture day so we waited in line to get a good spot. Michael and Doug headed down to the field while Emily and I went to build a bear and got her Cardinal Kids Crew goodie bag. The boys had a good spot along the warning track. They started taking pictures of players and then Michael got called out in a group to get a picture taken with Albert Pujols :) Boy was that a memory. Some more pictures were taken and then they were back with us. We sat in section 170 - right in the outfield on ground level. They were good seats. We had a good view of Matt Holliday (Michale had bought a Matt Holliday shirt before the game from the Cardinal Team Store). The Cardinals won the game 9 - 4 :) We saw 2 home runs and lot of action.

After the game we hit Ted Drews for concretes - and waited in another line (this one only about 20 minutes long). Emily had brownie, Doug had heath bar, I had oatmeal cookie, and Michael had a cherry sundae in a Cardinal hat. Yummy!!!! Wish we had a Ted Drews in KY (or maybe not, as I would gain a lot of weight if we did)

Then it was back to the camper for bed - since it was about 11:30 or so.

We got up the next morning and ate a breakfast of golden grahams :) and packed up the camper. Then we headed to Belleville for Church. It is always nice to worship with Dawn and Craig. Michael said the nicest thing about their church - "I like going there because they are kid friendly." What a great thing to say about a Church.

We ate lunch with Dawn, Craig & Leyna at a chinese buffet. Thanks guys for inviting us to lunch. It was great to catch up and hear about Justin and college as well as Leyna and high school first hand.

It was a great weekend - but very exhausting. We had to go back to school and work on Monday being exhausted but with lots of fun news to share.

Louisville Slugger Museum

The week before school started I took the kids to the slugger museum. They have redone the museum. The factory tour is the same, but the kids were able to hold game used bats from various players as well as look up close at many baseball artifacts. Michael found it humerous that Babe Ruth predicted that the Cardinals would win the world series (not the Yankees). They had a good time - and of course Michael had to try out the batting cages and use the bat that he is coveting.

First Day of School

We started school on August 24th. The kids are now in 3rd and 6th grade. Wow! Hard to imagine that Emily started middle school. We have been in school now for 10 days. It has been good and so far not too stressful with homework, volleyball, fall baseball, handbells (starting this week for Emily), band (starting this week for both kids), scouts (at least for Michael - starting next week), and being at home.

Here are some pictures of the kids on the 1st day of school.

Canasta

Wow! My kids are really growing up. Last night I taught them how to play Canasta. They loved it - and did not want to quit. We played two hands (without keeping score, just so they would learn the concepts) and then Doug came home. We headed off to Culvers for ice cream (and Doug's dinner) and to play another hand of Canasta while we ate our treat. It was a fun evening. The kids are ready to play some more tonight. What fun! Now I have to think of another game to teach them. Not sure if I am up to teaching them spades or hearts yet (as I can't keep the rules straight in my head). If you have any suggestions please let me know. They love playing kings in the corner and now Canasta. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

School is almost here

Well - school starts on Monday so this week was the last time to finish up stuff to be ready. I had my two last "home visits" and have finished doing stuff in my classroom. I did have to fix a few things today - as I spelled a kids's name wrong :( Oh well - at least I realized it before school starts. The kids are ready to start school. They are ready to see their friends - although Emily has started seeing her friends at volleyball practice. I can't believe I have a sixth grader and a third grader. Wow! Hard to believe they are growing up so fast. I sent Emily off today with a new friend - whose parents I did not know. Seems kind of odd - but that is how I know it will be more often as she gets older.

Pray for my 16 students. I have 9 boys and 7 girls this year. Several who are from split families, whose parents do not get along very well. I also know I have some potential discipline issues/psychological issues/learning issues... so lots of needs with this class.

I praise the Lord that I had worked ahead, as I was at home sick yesterday, recooperating from a headache and the medicine that I took to get rid of it. I thank the Lord that I am not one who procrastinates. Some teachers are really working overtime this week - but I could take it easy :)

off to Lowes

This morning I am taking the kids to Lowes - in fact we should be leaving soon. They have some kids build clinics. This morning they are making a boat that is rubber band powered. Should be fun to see them race their boats when we get home. Of course, they always end up painting them with acrylic paints and designing their own decorations before using them. I will post pictures later after they get them made and painted.

Six Flags

Yesterday the kids and I went to Six Flags. We got there around 11:15 or so and we ended up leaving at 7:00. I don't know how we managed to stay longer than that when I was a kid, as I was exhausted after being there that long. Of course, they are only open from 11 - 8, so we couldn't have stayed much longer. I am also sore - and went to bed earlier with a muscle relaxer & ibuprofin. I also woke up at one point in the night and took my migraine headache medicine. I felt really old after riding on some roller coasters. My back is still sore today - got something out of allignment on the roller coasters I guess. The kids had a blast - but are also tired today. It was fun to have a fun day before school begins. Although we don't begin school until the 24th - I have lots of stuff do to before then.

Ouch update...

Well - today I was supposed to go to an Endontist to get my tooth looked at. Well - my tooth pain for 7 days ended up being a popcorn kernel that was lodged in between my tooth. I found it Thursday evening while trying to floss my teeth again. After 7 days, flossing and brushing several times per day, it is amazing that it was still inbetween my teeth. My gums were a little swollen, so I continued taking the anitbiotic, but cancelled today's appointment. No cracked tooth - :) (or at least I don't have any pain from one - so I am not investigating the crack?). So - beware of eating popcorn - especially all the popcorn fans in my family. I have not eaten popcorn since - will see how long it takes before I will want some again.

school supplies

It is crazy. We will not start school until the 24th but I have all the kids school supplies labeled and ready to go. Wow! I think it was the earliest that I have ever done so. I was able to hit sales for most of the things, but still ended up spending around $80 for school supplies. That is actually not bad for two kids. I also have two bags of extra stuff for when they run out of pencils, glue sticks, paper, notebooks, crayons ... It always happens mid year, and I sure can get things cheap now, rather than pay regular prices later in the school year.

Emily ended up with a patterned purse like lunch box while Michael has a Star Wars one. Both kids have backpacks already from last year that they will use, as I bought them good ones last year. That really helped with the school supply budget. I just need to get a few uniform tops - but will do that later in the year as they have enough to start the year.

I think all I need to get yet for back to school is shoes for Emily. Michael has two very good pairs of shoes that fit him - so I will buy them later when they run out.

I always forget how many things I need to get for back to school - until I need to go get all the things. Of course the kids are old enough now that they remind me of what they "need" to get :)

Happy August and happy back to school time!!! Good luck to all of you who need to school supply shop.



If you need a bargain - Staples has paper for 1cent until Wednesday :) I plan on going to get some tomorrow - as I just found out about it today from another teacher.

fun weekend

This weekend we were invited to go down to the lake with some friends from Church. We had a great time. They have three kids - two boys and one girl. The boys are 7 & 10 and the girl is 3. We went boating and swam in the lake. The kids also enjoyed tubing & jumping off some large rocks into the lake. It was beautiful both days - not too hot or sunny at all. We got back home around 8:00 last night - the kids were tired and sore. It was good to get away & do something out of the norm.

I will post pictures later - am having trouble sleeping & thought I would get up and be productive instead of laying in bed and tossing and turning.

home visits

I now have 7 home visits completed. I have three tomorrow, so after that I will have 10 done and only 6 to go. I still have 1 to schedule - kind of frustrating as i have called and called and left messages. Today I even talked to the dad, who said call mom. So--- I left another message with mom's cell phone and tried again two times. Oh well - I suppose I will get ahold of them sometime. They must be in denial of school starting again soon. :)

ouch!!!

Over the weekend, I started having an odd sensation in one of my teeth. It has not gone away, in fact it has gotten worse and I have started having pain when I eat or bite down on things. I went to the dentist and she thinks I may have a cracked tooth. Yuck! She had to refer me to another kind of dentist - to which I have an appointment for a consoltation on Monday. Hopefully it will not take too long, as eating soft foods only is good for so long. Will keep you posted.

thanks mom and dad

I have been busy at school this week as well as got my home visits started. The kids are enjoying their time up with mom and dad. Thank you very much mom and dad for being able to help give Emily and Michael an awesome time while I am able to get some much needed work done here in town. Thank you very much!!!!

Soul Purpose Concert

On Saturday night we had a concert on the lawn at church. It was rainy in the AM and it started raining around 9ish, but from 4 - 9 it was great weather outside for an outdoor concert. The band Soul Purpose - OSL members - played about 2 hours of music. They played contemporary Christian, rock, country, traditional... It was a great night of fun. Doug set up the sound system and ran the sound for the concert so he was a busy man. They just got everything put back inside - and then the rain hit.

pictures from Hot Springs

Here are some pictures from our trip to Hot Springs. Lots of family fun - these are just a few picts of the fun bonding time.

Emily and Naomi showing some attitude!
Michael, Andrew & Naomi playing with playdough.

Micah, Naomi, Michael & Emily playing in the sand.

Naomi, Andrew & Noah jumpin on the bed.

Mom & Micah walking in the sand.

Andrew & Michael building in the sand.

Michael, Greg, Jamie & Emily playing the wii with Andrew looking on.

Andrew, Dana, Micah, Noah, Holly & Naomi in the pool.

Emily, Dad & Jamie playing Sorry.

Emily and Greg playing the wii

Brickyard 400 Pictures

Here are some pictures from the Brickyard 400 practice session.

Brickyard 400

On Friday (July 24th) I headed up to Indy with the kids. We arrived around lunch time and ate a lunch of sandwiches, chips and potato salad. We then headed to the Brickyard 400 for a race practice session. Michael loved it and enjoyed watching the cars go around. It was noisy but a fun experience. Emily did not like it at all - she was feeling ill from the noise. I will post pictures later.

Saturday - Thursday

We were in Hot Springs, AR with Mom, Dad, Greg, Jamie, Naomi, Micah, Holly, Gene, Andrew & Noah. It was a fun time. We played in the sand with the kids at the condo, went swimming, played Wii and other games, took a family photo shoot. On Sunday night we went out to eat as a family and then the guys surprised us with a wedding reaffirmation service at the hotel. After that we had birthday cake and celebrated the July/August Birthdays (Gene, Mom, Michael) The guys went golfing on Monday and while they were on the course, Doug's kidney stone friend started bothering him. He made it until 9ish that evening before I took him to the emergency room. They admitted him and we were finally settled into the room around 2:00 AM. Needless to say, it was a night of little sleep for me. Doug had all kinds of medicine in him, so he slept fine. Tuesday the girls went downtown to see the hot springs museum and state park, eat lunch, and then did some antique shopping. I sent Emily along with Mom, Holly & Jamie, but I stayed at the hospital. They had a good time. Luckily Tuesday night Dad was willing to stay with Doug, so I could get some sleep. The kids were not dealing well with being away from us, so it took a while to get them settled on Tuesday night. On Wednesday Holly & Gene headed home. We stayed around the hotel, watched movies, played games, went swimming, and played in the sand. Packing up was also part of the day, as we had to be out at 10:00 the next morning. Mom and Dad got going around 9:00. Greg & Jamie and we got on the road around 10:00. I again drove all the way home as Doug's kidney stone was bothering him and making him sick to his stomach as well as in pain. We got home around 8:00, unloaded, headed to get Boo, and then I went to the grocery store to stock up on some things we were out of. It was after 11:00 before I went to bed - exhausted!!!

It was a good trip - shorter than we expected as we did not go to Chatanooga after Hot Springs due to Doug's kidney stone. We hope to go there again when we have a long weekend sometime.

Friday

On Friday we sent the kids off to the pool with Karen so we could pack up and get ready to head for Hot Springs. We loaded up fine and then it was nearing the time when the kids would be back - and I noticed Doug napping. Well - he was not napping, he was down with a case of the kidney stones. Karen and the kids came back and then Doug headed to the emergency room with Karen. I waited with the kids. We ate lunch and played games - and waited nervously. They gave Doug some things for pain and got ready to send him on his way. We got on the road about 3:00. I drove the whole way to Hot Springs, AR as Doug was on pain stuff. We arrived around 11ish - got settled in and went to bed. The kids did well on the drive and watched lots of movies.

Wednesday of trip & Thursday

Well...I guess I better finish our trip ...

On Wednesday, we headed to San Antonio to do some sight seeing, and see where Jamie, Greg, Naomi & Micah live. We left in the morning and arrived at Greg & Jamie's around lunch time. We ate lunch and the kids played for a while, and then we headed off to see the Alamo and do the River Walk. It was very educational - for all of us. The river walk was beautiful - lots of restraunts, but beautifully displayed. It was hot, but it was a great time to see something new.

We then headed back to Greg and Jamies for dinner. We had brought along a briscuit, potato salad & baked beans - so all Jamie had to do was heat it up. After dinner we visited, played some cards & dominos. The boys watched baseball. Emily helped put Naomi to bed & Naomi loved the idea that Emily was sleeping in her bed - and she got to sleep in her princess bed. But - Emily not going to bed when she did was a little issue for Naomi, she had a hard time settling down. Doug and Greg ran over to Mount Calvary so Greg could give him the tour. I stayed and got the kids to bed, so they would not be up too late.

On Thursday morning we got up and ate breakfast. The kids played for a while while Jamie and Greg got things packed for the trip. We then headed off for the Wildlife Ranch. It was a drive through animal park. We fed lots of things with horns (not sure what they actually were - but lots of varieties of animals that looked like mountain goats), buffalo, ostrich, zebras, and deer. We drove through the loop twice. It was a fun time -but would have been better if it would have been cooler. We then ate lunch at Wataburger (may have spelled it wrong) and headed back to Houston for the evening.