Polka Dots!

Abby is very visual. About every six months, she wants to rearrange the furniture in her room. About every year, she wants to repaint and redecorate.

I am not visual in the least. I put furniture down and it pretty much stays there till we move.

This can cause differing views in our household. However, for the last few months Abby has been advocating for a room makeover. The extra time at Christmas allowed us to do it as a family project. We all helped, though Steve did the bulk of the work... my hero!

Here are some before and after pictures! By the way, Abby picked out the colors and theme!
BEFORE













AFTER















We did compromise, however. I wanted one wall with polka dots; Abby wanted all four. We settled on two!

What a blessed Christmas!

We have had a blessed Christmas! We attended a wonderful Christmas eve service (and the greens and pontsettia's didn't bother my allergies too much!). We were up late Christmas eve preparing, and a certain little mouse was very excited about Christmas! Abby, this year, was the one up a couple of times through the night and then at 6:30 am waiting for Christmas morning to arrive! I had told the children on the way to church that each warning about behavior in church meant that mom got to sleep in 15 more minutes (past 7:00 am) on Christmas morning. Both children enjoyed the lessons and carols, and then took a bit of a snooze during the sermon. Alas, no warnings! Mom had to get up at 7:00 am!

We read the Scripture and talked about the meaning of Christmas. We then opened gifts. As you can tell by Andrew's reaction, there was one hoped for--but really not expected-- gift under the tree this year.

The children have enjoyed the Wii very much. In addition to Wii sports, we have Wii Play (a series of mini-games that the children enjoy), Big Brain Academy (I've have learned my brain is not so big!), High School Musical (a karaoke game for Abby), and Super Mario Galaxy. The children have had tons of fun playing with each other, playing with us, and playing with their friends. And Wii Golf even seems to be therapeutic for my sore shoulder!

Abby has also done well reading for school. She has finished one Mandie book and is about to start on the next. We're hoping to read at least three books over the holiday!

For me, one of the best gifts is that I have off the week between Christmas eve and New Year's to spend with my family. It has been restful and enjoyable and productive. I am grateful.

We got a Wii!

We've had a wonderful Christmas!! The highlight for our children is that my brother and sister- in- law sent us a Wii! Abby and Andrew have been saying all morning, "I can't believe we got a wii!"

Here are the children opening it!

Our Beginning Strings Concert--on video!

Steve got a new digital video camera for his birthday in November. It records straight to DVD, and is really cool.

Last night was Abby's first beginning strings concert, and we got to try it out. Abby's group played four songs--Ode to Joy, African Noel, Allegro, and Joy to the World. Considering that most of these children began their instrument study in September, I think it incredibly courageous of their teacher to put on a Christmas concert! I thought they did really well! We were very proud.

Christmas Pictures

I think that Christmas cards and Christmas pictures are an important part of the holiday season and tradition. I take this very seriously. Unfortunately, no one else in my family seems to. In fact, they seem to think of it as "mom's Christmas chore".

I did not have the opportunity to get studio photos done, so today we took out the camera and tried to get a photo of the children that we could use for a Christmas card. This took extreme cajolling, wheedling, threats, and the old (rather pathetic) standby... "all I want for Christmas this year is a great Christmas picture!"

Not the best, but beggar's can't be choosers. The cards have been ordered. Hopefully, they'll arrive by next weekend

Here are some pics of our fun times!

Life Got in the Way

I apologize for the long wait between posts. The last month has seen two birthdays (and a third celebration!) in our household, as well as registration, my annual physical, parent weekend guests, a Thanksgiving visit from my mom, Christmas shopping, and school demands. It's been busy!

What I've been reading and watching....

If you're a fan of Jan Karon and her Mitford series, her new book, Home to Holly Springs, is a keeper. It seemed to be slow in starting, but it all comes together if you stick with it.

When my mom was here for Thanksgiving, we watched the movie, Miss Potter. Another keeper. What a charming movie. It's PG; nothing objectionable, though there is a thematic element which may upset young children. If you haven't seen it, it is the story of the life of Beatrix Potter, author of the Peter Rabbit stories. Abby was off doing other things and didn't watch it with us, but I wouldn't hesitate allowing her to watch it.

In terms of the children watching and reading lately.... Abby has been reading the Mandie and Young Mandie books, and quite enjoying them. For films... Ratatouille and The Incredibles have been on the video lately. Believe it or not, we had not seen The Incredibles all the way through until last night!

We celebrated Andrew's birthday on Thanksgiving. Andrew's birthday is Christmas day; after Abby, Steve and I all celebrated our birthdays between October 19 and November 15, Andrew was feeling a bit left out. Andrew also noted that on each of our birthday only the celebrant receives gifts, but on Andrew's birthday everyone receives gifts. So we decided to set aside Thanksgiving day to celebrate Andrew. It worked well, as our family is small and it gave the children new things to play with and keep them entertained while the adults visited on the holiday.

We are now approaching Christmas, and I'm terribly behind. Still have to do the photo for the card. Hopefully, that will happen in the next week or so. The tree is up.... Abby and Andrew insisted upon doing it the Sunday after Thanksgiving. We have an artificial tree due to my allergies; however when we got our well-worn tree down from the attic, it seemed to be missing some branches. So we purchased a new one this year... now they even come pre-strung with lights!

May you and yours have a wonderful advent!

P * A * R * T * Y

After our trip to Utica earlier this month, Abby decided she wanted to take some friends riding for her birthday. We had such a good time at Cedar Creek Ranch, and felt so good about what we had experienced that we decided that's where we would head, despite the distance.

Abby and three friends, along with another mom and me left at about 11:00 am. We got some McD's on the way, and made it down to Cedar Point around 1:00 pm.

It was a beautiful 70+ degree October day with the trees just beginning to turn. We enjoyed it as much as we did the last time. For two of the girls it was their first time on horseback. They did great and really seemed to enjoy it!

Here are some photos of our day....



























We arrived back at about 4:45 in the afternoon. And if we hadn't enough fun... then it was time to go to the roller rink for the School Skating party. Abby has been to an ice rink on many occasions, but this was her first time at the roller rink. She skated on in-line skates, and she loved it!

By the way, after driving and riding, and running all day and falling earlier in the week... today I felt like I was hit by a truck!

Double digits!

Abby turned ten today! She's now in double digits!

It's hard to imagine that my baby is ten years old.

This photo was taken in Nanchang, China at 11 months.

So what does a 10 year old want for her birthday? Her big gift was a new bicycle, which she got back in June. The other items that have been mentioned in the last month or so include:
1. A makeover for her bedroom...
2. A new pair of black velvet pants
3. A karaoke machine
4. Items to decorate her school locker, including a dry erase white board, mirror, and locker shelf.
5. Earrings
6. Webkinz
.... and the one thing that she wanted above all else...
7. HOT ROLLERS!

We'll have to see if we can get a posted photo of the ten year old with curls!

SPLAT!

Zuzu LOVES to go for walks. It's her favorite thing on the planet. I'm supposed to exercise. So each night, after supper, Zuzu and I go for a walk. When she sees her leash, she dances.

On Wednesday night, I took her out late--about 9:15--after Abby and I had finished studying for her science test. It was dark and overcast. On the west end of our street, the sidewalks are quite uneven. We were strolling at a good clip-- when SPLAT. I didn't even know what happened, except I was flying through the air and came down HARD.

In an instant, I realized I am getting old. It took me a couple of minutes to get my bearings and to take inventory that all parts were intact. Although my arms are still sore and my knee is still skinned, I managed to walk away and get home on my own. And Zuzu? When I was face down on the pavement and dropped her leash, she stayed right with me. What a great dog!

Another Busy Weekend...

Whew... what a weekend!

Friday night I received a phone call, offering us 4 tickets to the Artist Series at the College. It was an event entitled Dance from the Caucuses. While I expected it to be almost the same as a Russian dance event Abby and I saw a few years ago, it was quite different. This troupe was from Southern Russia/Georgia, near the border of Afghanistan and Turkey, and the dance had much more of an middle-Eastern influence. There were also twice as many men in the troupe as women!

Andrew has been to two dance events prior to this one--Irish Step Dancing and Traditional Chinese dance. He managed to fall asleep after about 5 minutes of both performances. He managed to stay awake through all of this.... I think it was the Russian dances with swords and knives that kept his interest!
Saturday, Andrew had his last soccer game. His team went undefeated for the season! Steve had a Kung fu tournament at a church about 10 miles west, so he dropped off Andrew and headed to the tournament. Though he was placed in the wrong grouping--he was incorrectly put in the "under 45" grouping rather than the "45 and older" group---he did manage to earn a first in weapons and a second in hand set. Two more trophies to add to the case!

Then, in the afternoon, we all decided to head west to go apple picking. Growing up in Cornwall, we had a local farm, Jones Farm, where we could go purchase local apples. In Quincy, there was an orchard just north of town. Apples don't grow in Texas, and here in suburbia the cost of land is too dear to devote to orchards. So we headed about 40 miles west out near DeKalb and found an orchard. The children got to pick some red delicious and jonagolds, and I bought some fujis. We also stopped at the local Jewel and purchased caramel, so we'll be making caramel apples.


We arrived back at 4:30, and headed for 5:00 pm church since I was asked to teach the 2 year old Sunday school class on Sunday morning. We were then thinking of heading to the 6:00 pm college game--but enough is enough! We went home and watched it on local cable instead. It was a great game, with the victor being decided with 7 seconds remaining! And we won!

Fall Break

It's fall break at the Grammar School. Each year we try to do something special. One year we went to the Shedd Aquarium. Last year, we went down to the newly opened indoor waterpark at Starved Rock State Park. We decided to repeat that trip this year...we went down Thursday and returned on Friday. It was a short trip, but we beat the crowds and got the 'bargain' weekday rates.

So what did we do on our trip? We first went to the state park. The lodge there was built in 1933 by the CCC. We had lunch, then hiked to the top of Starved Rock.

We then checked into our digs at Grand Bear Lodge. In addition to the water park, we got a room with bunk beds--a big deal in our house!--and played miniature golf.





On Friday morning, Steve and Andrew swam while Abby and I went to Cedar Point to go horseback riding. While she was a little scared in the beginning, within a few minutes she was totally in love with riding and her horse, Buckaroo, a former barrel racer. We rode a three mile trail, some of which was along an old rail line for the D & O (Danville and Oglesby) railroad and learned alot about Cedar Point history--in the mid 1800's it was a major coal mining town, with 10,000 men and boys working in the mines. Cedar Point now has 300 residents and is mainly a corn farming town.

Abby's first words when she got off the horse...."When can we come back?"

All I Want for Christmas....

A picture is worth a thousand words!

A Missing Tooth, Two Goals, and a Movie!

What a weekend! To start it off, Andrew lost his top front tooth! While he's lost three on the bottom, this was his first upper to go! So now he has that charming, missing tooth grin. And of course, it happened on school picture day!

Saturday, Andrew had another soccer game. Another win! And Andrew scored two goals! Way to go, Andrew!

Finally, Abby had a creative project to do for her book report. Suffice to say, the words "creative project" rank with me right around "scrapbooking"--in other words, enough to send me into therapy! Abby had just finished reading Mr. Popper's Penguins, and the first suggestion on the creative project idea sheet was a collage. I thought how cute--a penguin collage, lots of black and white. By Abby ix-nayed that idea. That wouldn't do at all. She wanted to make a movie for her creative project--and she wanted Zuzu to be the star! Ca-ching. Those therapy bills are mounting!

So Abby read a different book (in record time, I may add) entitled Terrier in the Tinsel. Abby played the main character, Andrew played her trusty sidekick, and Zuzu was the terrier. I would hate to tell you how many hours were invested in the project this weekend. The last scene is poor Zuzu wearing rein-dog antlers. (Please don't call the ASPCA--we won't do this again!) While making the movie was a fun family activity, it was exhausting!!!!

Soccer Season!

Andrew is playing soccer through the Park District this fall. He's on a first grade team. He likes soccer, though not as much as baseball. (He's already anxious for baseball season to begin in the spring!) Soccer practice is Wednesday nights, and games are Saturday morning at 8:00 am. (groan). Andrew plays soccer from 8:00 - 9:00 am, then it's a quick change so that he can get to kung fu by 9:30 am for an hour of martial arts.

Andrew has played 2 games, and so far they're one win, no losses, and one tie.

What We're Reading Now...

School has begun! We've discovered the 4th grade means HOMEWORK!!! Lots and lots of homework!!!!

Abby and I probably work on her homework two hours per night. I've learned the capitals of all the New England and Mid-Atlantic states. We've drawn maps. I've learned the parts of the cell and their functions. We've reviewed math, made change, begun decimals, and tackled 60 spelling words. We know the first 14 books of the Old Testament in order and a keyword which explains the main theme of each book. We've read and Abby and I have played violin and piano duets.

So what are we reading?

Andrew and I have been reading, my favorite 1st grade book, Poppleton and Friends. I especially like the story, Friends, where Poppleton's lips turn outside in.
Abby and I have been reading Mr. Popper's Penguins. It's a wonderful, funny classic.


And as for me, I've been enjoying Lynn Austin's new book, A Proper Pursuit. Lynn Austin is one of my favorite Christian fiction authors. While not terribly erudite, it's a fun, entertaining book which my tired brain needs after remembering the function of cytoplasm!

Labor Day!

When I was a child, Labor Day was officially the end of summer. The Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy telethon was on TV. School began two days later. Every year we went to the Marsh's for our official end of summer picnic. We swam if the weather was nice, played if it wasn't, and kept the TV set on channel 5 to watch the telethon.
But something changed. Somewhere along the line someone got the bright idea that primary and secondary school should begin in August. Huh? This is the end of civilization as we know it!

We have new Labor Day traditions here in Illinois. We got to Miss Nadia's for the Labor Day picnic sometime during the weekend. If the weather is nice we go to the community pool for our last swim until May. But it's not really the end of summer because summer has already ended and school has begun.

This year, we went to Nadia's picnic on Sunday. The weather was up in the 90's on Monday, so we all met at the pool. Goodbye, Northside and Rice Lake! We'll see you next year!

Scary Thursday, a Micro burst, and no power!

School began on Wednesday with a half day. Thursday was the first full day. Both kids had ridden their bikes Thursday morning, so Steve pedaled down to pick them up after school. As he arrived the sky had a VERY threatening look--he parked his bike and DASHED into the school amidst sheets of rain and lightening. The power went out, and the school immediately went on lock-down due to a tornado warning, gathering the children in the hallways next to the lockers.

At about 4:00 pm, the weather had stabilized enough to allow for dismissal and the rain had, for a moment, stopped. Steve and the children rode their bikes home, only to discover the power here off, and a very large branch down in our front yard. At 6:00 pm the rain began in earnest... we were sure the non-stop lightening was destined hit strike our house! We wound up going down to the college for supper...we knew they were running on generators! School for the children was canceled on Friday--a snow day in August!

Oh, and did I mention that Thursday was the day new freshmen arrived at Wheaton College and we had house guests... friends from New Jersey with 2 boys, age 11 and 9? I felt so bad.. we couldn't even make coffee, our stove is electric, and all we could offer them was a bed, a shower (fortunately, our water still worked!) and a flashlight! They left Saturday night; we didn't get power back until Sunday afternoon.

What I learned through all this....

• Many things in your house are powered by electricity.
• I get very grumpy with no power
• I kept going to do things, only to realize that I somehow needed power to accomplish at least part of what I wanted to do. So I wound up just giving up.
  
• I was a bit envious of people with power.
• Three days without power requires you to do a thorough cleaning of your refrigerator and freezer.
  

The people who were most adversely impacted in neighborhood seemed to have basements. The combination of torrential downpours and no power for sump pumps caused quite a few to flood in our neighborhood.

Back to School!

We returned from vacation on Saturday night, Andrew had his first grade open house on Tuesday, and school started Wednesday! The children, especially Abby were excited about school starting. Andrew thought his first day of first grade was rather harsh--turns out the teacher expected the children to follow directions!--but both children are enjoying school.

In keeping with tradition, we all rode out bikes down to WCGS on the first day of school!

The Best Vacation Ever! Chapter 3: At the Beach

We spent the last week of our vacation at the beach at Cape May, NJ. My mom had rented a condo which she so graciously allowed us to use. It was wonderful... from our living room window we looked out onto the ocean, and could see dolphins cavorting in the waves! My brother and his family were their as well....they had a condo across the street from ours. Add in the pools, some new friends, great weather, the beach... and we had all the makings of a wonderful week!

Highlights of our week....

Going to the beach... the water was warm though the waves sometimes tossed us around!
Climbing the Cape May lighthouse--all 199 steps....

Going to Sunset Beach....

Going out on the dolphin watching boat and seeing at least 20 pods of dolphins up close and personal...
Going out for ice cream, playing miniature golf (and nintendo Wii), and walking down to the shopping area...
Being together as a family!

The Best Vacation Ever! Chapter 2: In Gettysburg

Due to our delays, we had to rearrange our plans in Gettysburg. We missed the big family dinner on Thursday evening; on Friday morning, George, a friend of Steve's mom, had offered to take the children fishing. We switched the fishing date to Friday night, and planned to stay through lunch on Saturday to have a meal with Steve's mom as well as his brother John and his family.

Friday afternoon we opted to go to the battlefield so that the children could climb on the rocks of Devil's Den. When I went to the battlefield as a child, climbing on those rocks was my most vivid memories. The children enjoyed it as well. (To see the historical importance of Devil's Den, go to http://www.nps.gov/archive/gett/getttour/tstops/tstd2-11.htm .Despite the heat and humidity of the day, the children enjoyed scampering around the rocks with Uncle Craig and Aunt Jan. For dinner, Steve's mom and her friend George cooked a wonderful fish fry. Then we went fishing. My experience with fishing always seems to be waiting two hours for one nibble. Not Friday night! Andrew had his first catch within five minutes... and he had two hooks on his pole and caught two fish! All in all, the children caught about 18 fish in a hour of fishing, and Andrew caught a big mouth bass (thrown back because it didn't quite measure up to the 12 inch legal limit!) They had a great time!

The Best Vacation Ever! Chapter 1: Will We Ever Get There?

We left for vacation on Thursday, August 8. We were scheduled to leave Chicago's Midway Airport at 10:15 am and arrive in Baltimore at about 1:15 pm. That was the plan....

We left about 15 minutes late and were slated to get in about 20 minutes early. We were making our final approach... you could see houses, trees, people. Then, suddenly, we were above the clouds again. The pilot came on, announcing that Baltimore was experiencing bad weather (turns out there were 60 miles an hour winds and a micro burst) and that we did not have enough fuel to keep on circling. So we were headed to Norfolk, Virginia.

We landed in Norfolk at about the time we should have landed at BWI. We went to the gate to await further instructions. However, Southwest only has two gates in Norfolk, so soon we were pushed back from the gate and went to sit on the tarmac. We waited for further instructions... and waited.... and waited.... After three hours, the plane had just about run out of beverages (including water), there was no food, and everyone was getting a bit claustrophobic sitting in a metal tube. We still couldn't get a gate, so they rolled up the stairs, we all disembarked, and headed for the terminal. We were told that we needed to stay inside the secure area of the airport.

Of course, at Norfolk airport the food court is located outside of the secure area. 136 passengers mobbed the 1 sandwich kiosk and one small restaurant. After an hour and a half (it was now 6:00 pm), it was announced that we had clearance from Baltimore to leave, so we re-entered the plane, got settled, and pushed away. Then the pilot came over the PA... "Don't know how to tell you this, folks, but one of our hydraulic systems is not functional. We have to have a mechanic look at it. However, Southwest doesn't have a staff mechanic working at Norfolk, so they have to call in a contract mechanic". So we sat in the metal tube for another two hours while the mechanic came and tested the aircraft. It turned out to be a circuit breaker had flipped off. So, now at 8:00 pm... we're ready to leave. Except.... not so fast! Turns out....

1. Baltimore had once again closed due to weather, and
   
2. Our crew had been in the cockpit too long and were no longer eligible to fly.

Sooooo...once again we got off the plane and they canceled our flight. Since our flight was canceled, we no longer got priority to be the first plane into BWI once the weather cleared. But Southwest did have two flights going to BWI from Norfolk that night--the first was fairly full, the second fairly empty. The decided to combine those two flights and have them be the first to leave; we would board the second flight and follow them. You guessed it... they got the first flight loaded and it left at about 10 pm; they had us line up.... and yep, BWI closed again. Our 8 minute wait to board turned into another two hour delay. Finally, we took off at about 12:30 am, and arrived in BWI at about 1:30 am. Due to all the delays at BWI it was like a beehive, and the rental car desks were still open. We got our rental car about 2:30 am, and made it up to Gettysburg at about 4:00 am. Overall, it totaled almost 12 hours of delays, with 5 + hours spent sitting on the tarmac, 5+ hours sitting in the Norfolk airport and and extra hour of flying time. The worst part was that we missed the King family reunion which had been planned for Thursday evening. We did get to connect with everyone there, but not all at once like we hoped...

Were there any bright spots of all this?

1. The kids behaved like champs. They each had a moment when they broke down in tears from frustration and hunger, but hey, most of the adults felt like doing that too!
2. When you arrive at the rental counter at 2 in the morning with children and not too many cars available (and sympathetic attendants) you can get upgraded for no additional charge. We had reserved a sub-compact; we wound up with a small SUV which suited our needs very nicely. Because we were so late getting in, Budget even adjusted our rate downwards because we had the car one less day!
   
3. The traffic at 3:00 in the morning between Baltimore and Gettysburg was very light.
4. When we arrived home, we found 4 letters from Southwest in our mail. In each letter was an apology for the delays, as well a $150 voucher for another flight on Southwest.
   

Lions and Tigers and Sting Rays, oh my!

We looked at the calendar this weekend, and realized if we wanted to attend Brookfield Zoo's special exhibit, StingRay Bay, we had better do it this weekend as it ends on Labor Day. So on a very warm, very humid day we loaded up the van, picked up Abby's friend, Alecia, and headed to the zoo.

We saw lions......


and tigers.......


but the highlight for all of us truly was petting a sting ray! What do they feel like? Abby's description.... kind of rubbery, smooth, and slimy! It was great fun, and worth the trip to the zoo!


We also saw hippo's, ostriches, and an unusual animal called an Andy-Roo.