Weekend (finally)

Colin ran in his first track meet on Friday. It was a really nice evening to be outside! He did not place in his first two events, but his 4 X 400 relay team did come in 3rd. Once when I looked at him running by he was jogging, chewing gum and smiling at everyone....not sure what the heck he was thinking, but it was definitely not about winning at that moment! He had a good time, but said that he didn't realize that it would take so long! Since he went to several of the girl's track meets last year, I guess he forgot how long they last!

We went to Topeka today and explored a lot of modular homes. I did not like a lot of them, but when we found one that I did like, I totally fell in love with it! We are seriously considering this as an option for a new home in the country! Of course, we have to sell our house in town first! That might be a major issue! I am not really sure how the housing market is here as I have not been following it!

We followed up the house looking with Colin's baseball practice. He is having a good time on his new team, and they really look good. I think that it will be a challenging team to be on.

While we were waiting on Colin to get done with practice, we got a phone call that our land was on fire and that the fire department was out there. So we ran to the country. Apparently, our neighbor decided to burn off his land and it got a bit out of hand! Considering that we were planning to burn today and thought it was too windy, we were not upset that he got most of the job done for us! We still want to burn a little of the front, but ALL of the back and the pond dam are done! The fire trucks were still there when we showed up, so that was a nice treat for the kids! Of course, they pointed out that we have now had an ambulance AND firetrucks involved in the past week!!

What I never learned....

My parents were sure to teach me a lot of important stuff growing up. I learned how to change a tire, I learned how to check my own oil. My mom made sure I knew how to cook a lot of different meals out of a very few ingredients. One thing they failed to teach me is what the heck kind of a twisted screw is on the back of my dryer. I know about Phillips heads, flat heads - star shaped? I don't know where one finds the star shaped screwdriver. Did the dryer company put weird star shaped screws on there to keep inept people like myself from working on the dryer? Or is it a conspiracy to drive me bonkers? Really? Star shaped? Dad did not provide me with this information, and my little sad tool drawer does not contain a star shaped screwdriver. When I was fond of watching Uncle John take apart and rebuild antique tractors, I do NOT recall him ever asking me to hand him the star shaped screwdriver! So I guess I will have to wait for tomorrow when I can get Jim to tell me that we have had a star shaped screwdriver all along, to take the dryer apart so I can push the little button to restart the heater so I can have a towel to dry off on! I guess I better hope that the towels Quincy and Harper used tonight are dry by morning - and yes, Grace, I know that you can technically re-use a towel, but I don't want to!

Almost new news...

Harper has been showing some signs of having lazy eyes. We have an appointment coming up with a pediatric eye doctor. I was thrilled to get this photo since it clearly shows what I have been seeing for a few weeks now. I hope that they can help her painlessly!

We have all been enjoying the warm weather! This is "Tom" - Quincy's new pet garter snake - who lives in the rocks around the flower bed in the back yard. She had to go show him to our neighbor Randy, and she has to look to make sure he is still hanging out back there every day! If he was a smart snake, he would move someplace else! She would like to keep Tom on her dresser in her room, but I worry he would escape!

Yesterday was the school board election. Unfortunately, Jim was not victorious. I think Jay is the reason - he was in charge of dirty tricks and we just didn't have any! (Just Kidding!). We are disappointed because Jim had some great ideas, and would have been a great asset to the board, but on the other hand, we really do have enough to do - especially on Wednesday nights - so we are not extremely upset!

We also are happy to announce that there will be an 8th baby in our family! Sometime around Jim's birthday in November! Jim wants to name the baby "Henry the 8th" but I vetoed this! We told the kids this morning - Jim said - "we have some news" then he told the kids. The teenagers said "geez this is your 8th child, this is HARDLY news!" :) Gotta love them! We are very excited, happy and feel very blessed.

Wright Flight

At school, Colin participated in the Wright Flight program. The kids set an academic goal, and then if they reach their goal, they get to fly with a pilot and get to assume control of the plane for a little while. Colin made his academic goal, and this morning was his flight time! He had so much fun flying! They got to fly to Lawrence from Topeka, and then they landed in Lawrence, traded spots and he got to fly in the front seat of the plane. He got to control the plane! His pilot did the "roller coaster" where he took them straight down and Colin said it looked like they were going to crash into Clinton Lake, and then he brought them straight back up again! Colin got to fly with his friend Caleb, and they had a great time! Colin said that they quizzed their pilot "Larry" about all the tricks that he could do in his plane. Luckily, the only trick Larry was willing to do was the roller coaster, and Colin said that was probably good! He said that he definitely wants to fly again! Pretty awesome program!

First softball game

Mallory and Madison played in their first high school softball game tonight. Their team won both games of a double header against Eudora. The girls played really well! The whole team played really well, but I happened to notice that our girls did a great job! :) I forgot the camera due to trying to pack enough other stuff to keep the little ones entertained and warm for the evening. Next week I will try to get photos! It was much nicer tonight than it has been any other day this week so I was thankful for a nice evening to sit out and watch! I am sure it won't be long before we are sweating at games instead of reaching for jackets!

We are having a pretty relaxed weekend around here. Cam has a friend over and the boys are having a scary movie marathon. Since Preston had bad dreams from watching "Tangled" this week, I am not sure how I feel about this! Hopefully it isn't a giant mistake! I hope to finally catch up the laundry which I have been battling since we got home!

A whole lotta weird

This week has been one to try to forget! We were home for exactly one day, and then Jim left for Wichita for training. Jim was gone for one day when Harper had a febrile seizure and even though I knew what was going on, and even what was causing it, we could not get it under control and I had to call 9-1-1. Now, for anyone living in a small town, you know that calling 9-1-1 is truly a last resort. Not to say that you don't get some of the greatest, fastest care in the world because you do, but it opens a whole other ball of worms. For example precisely 8 seconds after dialing the phone, you are on every prayer chain for all the churches in town. Prayer chains are awesome - except that my ability to go out in public quickly has now been compromised as everyone in town knows that Harper is sick, and even people I don't know stop me to ask how she is doing. Small town life! Harper has an ear infection. The infection caused the fever, the fever caused the seizure. The ambulance ride was nauseating, but I am thankful that our little pumpkin is going to be fine! She is on more antibiotics and is almost back to her sassy old self. I am also thankful that grandma was willing to drive to Topeka in the middle of the night to pick us up and take us to Walgreens for an amazing freak show while we waited on her antibiotics!

The girls were supposed to play their first softball game this evening, but it got cancelled due to cold/rain. They now have to play tomorrow evening instead. Colin's track practice got cancelled as well. That worked out ok though, as Jim came home today and we had all missed him, so it gave us a chance to catch up! I also made an important discovery today - Velveeta's new Queso Blanco. Truly a life changing invention!

I enjoyed our vacation last week, but I think it truly is exhausting to come home - as we have been swamped with trying to catch up. It has been a very long week and I am more than a little happy to see the weekend on the horizon!

Vacation Highlights

After an 8hourdrivethattookus10hours, we arrived at our destination - Louisville, KY.

The kids were so excited to get out of the car and into the pool that they did not even care that we hadn't eaten dinner! They swam and swam and it was just so nice to be out of the car!

The highlight of the trip to Louisville was the Louisville Slugger Bat Factory and Museum. The kids had a blast learning all about which famous players get their bats specially designed, and getting to feel the different types of bats. I really enjoyed watching the machinery in the factory...it is fascinating to me that they can carve a bat in about 8 seconds! Very cool tour! And at the end, every person -including 15 month olds get a souvenir bat!

Louisville definitely has a lot of traffic, and the kids were both intrigued and freaked out by the downtown area! Madison thought they should do a little more cleaning up of some of the properties! I spent the entire time thanking the good Lord that I live in a small town!

As for me, I loved seeing Churchill Downs. I have seen so many Kentucky Derby's and I remember being fascinated by this as a kid. I still really like horse racing, and I was thrilled to get to see the most famous track of them all! The kids were not as impressed with the place....except for the virtual jockey video game! One thing that I stupidly didn't realize is that this track is smack in the middle of the city! I always see them showing the Quarter Horses in the pastures running in green grass and thought it would be in the country. Apparently the horses are brought in from other places! Learned something new!

On Friday, we left Louisville to head to Evansville, IN for Jay's wedding. On the way we made a pit stop at Marengo Cave. It was a bit pricey to get in, but after Preston was majorly impressed and begged to go again, and talked about it and really picked up a lot of cave information, I was very glad that we stopped there!

Once we got to Evansville, we made a mandatory stop at the Willard Library to look for their ghost. We did not see the Gray Lady, and when we left Quincy proclaimed "that was stupid - I really wanted to see her....why did she not come out?" I am not sure that Jim was unhappy about us not finding her!

And then we arrived at the main, most important part of our trip...the wedding of Uncle Jay and Angela! It was a very beautiful wedding. Uncle Jay and Aunt Angela are either the craziest, or the bravest people I know, as they had six of our kids in the wedding! Plus Jim! I was very worried, but it was a great wedding and nobody misbehaved (at least not noticeably).

Quincy was even the flower girl - brave, brave Uncle Jay!

We are very excited for them - it was awesome to see Jay so happy!

While in Evansville, we stayed at a Motel 6 and the kids got some lessons about life in a big city. We were a little concerned about the noise level, fire alarms, disgusting rooms, and police coming in the night. If ever visiting Evansville, Do NOT stay at the Motel 6 on Highway41! It was very scary! We survived the night, and moved to the much nicer Clarion - I would recommend this highly!

On the way home today, I had promised Preston that we would stop at the St. Louis Arch. He had seen it on TV and even though he has been up in it before, he was about 3 and doesn't remember. He was devastated to find out that they had sold out of tickets to the top for the day, and he could not go to the top! I wanted to cry - his little face was so sad! We do get to St. Louis pretty often, so I am sure he will get another chance! He did get to walk around it and touch it, but it wasn't quite the same!

Since we couldn't ride the on the Arch, daddy made a pit stop at the Columbia Mall to ride the carousel instead! It wasn't quite the same thing, but Preston was happy about it!

Harper, however was not amused! She screamed at the top of her lungs the whole time!

I am sure I will add more photos in the coming days, it was a good trip! I am happy to be home again though - there really is no place like home!