2 months later

Wow, can't believe it has been two months since the last post. I feel like every week I intend to post something, but something comes up. The last couple months of school were pretty busy, but everybody finished the semester well. So I have 3 classes and some internship work left (I should finish the classes in May and then we'll see about the internship). Allison also has three classes, but she is dropping down to one for the spring semester so she can spend some more time with the kids (she felt a little overwhelmed with too many classes this last semester). Brian is halfway through fourth grade and enjoying it (except for homework...which he believes just gets in the way of play time). He is creative in trying to get out of it, but so far has not succeeded. Pretty sure that if he put half as much effort into getting it done as figuring out ways around it he would not only have mastered fractions, but probably moved onto calculus by now. I have to give him credit for the creative ideas he comes up with though :) And Kelly, she still loves school and is heartbroken any day she doesn't get to go. She finished up with some cute musical presentations (I think some pics and maybe a video are on Allison's facebook) and we are now never without some musical entertainment from her as we drive around, play...or whatever. The good news...I taught her the MSU fight song...and she sings better than me.

So, as many of you know, we are in Michigan now. Had a great time at a wedding yesterday, some friends from school (who are also from Michigan) had the foresight to know that I would be much happier at their wedding than watching MSU and UofM bowl games yesterday (thanks Justin). Other than that, we have had a great time seeing family and friends and getting reacquainted with snow (at least while it was here). We managed to have a great time tubing and skiing up in TC before heading down state to green southern Michigan for the last few days. We even got in a painful hour of Brian, Allison, and I attempting to snowboard. My hour was really spent walking Bri down the hill, but he did a great job of keeping trying and made some great progress. Allison was quite proud that she made it down the hill once without a crash.

No skiing for Kelly, it also seemed that she did not remember snow. When we arrived in Michigan she saw it and excitedly proclaimed, "It's snowing!" (really it was just on the ground). Upon touching it she proclaimed, "Woo, it's cold." Coming back out (from McDonald's) she again proclaimed, "It's snowing!" It was this time, but then the wind blew hard and she again said, "Woo, it's cold". Finally upon arriving at Mike's she excitedly ran down their drive-way, back-up, back-down, then tried to turn onto the sidewalk and absolutely wiped-out. She just lay there for a few moments in snow trying to figure out why things were so slippery...no harm and much of the rest of her time has been spent bossing around various cats and dogs.

Well, that's probably enough for now. Hope everybody had a great Christmas and New Years and it was great seeing many of you...wish we could have seen more and spent more time with everybody, but it always seems to be that way.

Allison camping...in October

Now, how many of you thought that you would ever see Allison out camping, let alone with November almost here? How about if I told you that it was her idea for us to go and she said she wanted to go along (not just send the rest of us)?

So, this weekend was the Cub Scout Halloween camp out. Last year I guess there were over 800 scouts on the camp out. This year they thankfully broke it up into two weekends, and last weekend was the crowded one :) The kids had a blast. Brian's favorite was the climbing wall and "rifle" (known to the rest of the world as BB gun) shooting. He did amazing on the climbing wall. It was one of the horizontal walls that you can climb all the way around (at least theoretically). So picture scouts hanging on this wall everywhere all trying to climb around. Amazingly they all went the same direction, but at quite different speeds. So traffic jams abound, in which the kids are all trying to hang on and (unsuccessfully sometimes) not step on each others feet (or hands). Yet, Bri made it all the way around w/o falling. Kel wasn't as successful, not from lack of trying. But she was quite happy with her balloon painting and cat tattoo...although she did not enjoy when the scouts scared each other in the maze. Result: one crying Kelly and one Scout apologizing to her the rest of the weekend. Of course, the trick or treating was a good time for all.

So, how did Allison do? Well, aside from freezing last night (it does get cold down here at night even though it is still decently warm during the day). As camping goes, it was pretty nice. They had a gator to haul our gear to the campsite. Pretty nice bathrooms (adult only ones as well) and even the camp food at the dining hall wasn't too bad (I've had much worse in Brody). So all around it was a good time. They even had a nice service this morning, since we missed church, one of the camp leaders gave a great message to the kids about overcoming fear and trusting God.

In other parent bragging news. Bri had just got his report card Friday and was very proud to show us that he received all A's :)

Quick Update

So good news. Allison is feeling much better today, her poison ivy is fading, as is the soreness from her injection. She has concluded that the pills might have been a better (although slower) idea than the painful injection.
As for me, I had a trip to the doctor today to check out my finger. There is some bone and ligament damage, but each was just under being severe enough that it would need surgery. It will take awhile to fully heal, but I'll take that any day over surgery.

Some interesting ups and downs

Well, we've had some pretty good tings in these past weeks. In answer to Allie's prayer, we have some other packs helping us out with our excess popcorn. A little has left our house, so we now have a little more room to walk around :) Alright, it wasn't that bad, but there were a ton of boxes. In other scouting news we have a number of new recruits into our pack and, praise God, some other adults helping out a little bit. Now, if we can just encourage a little more from them without scaring them away. A big highlight to check off our list was the annual Cuboree this weekend. Six scouts and their parents (up from 2 last year and no parents) came this year from our pack. The kids have a blast. There were about 100 scouts there total, running around to stations teaching orienteering and astronomy to archery and bb-guns (any guesses on what was the big hit?) But, it was quite well run and not nearly as chaotic as it might sound. The kids had a blast, including Kelly who got about 5 hours of playing on the playground.

Brian has also started up soccer. At nine years old it is getting a little more organized, but still quite hilarious to watch the mash of kids chasing the ball around the field. Yet, they have managed to win one and tie one so far, so the kids are quite excited to be "undefeated".

On the flip side, I think Allison and I are both trying to kill ourselves. She somehow managed to get poison ivy yet again, although we have no idea where she managed to touch it as she has worked hard to avoid it. I have never seen someone who gets it so easy or on who it spreads so much. It came up Friday and she tried to make it through the weekend, but took a trip to urgent care tonight. One shot later and she should be feeling much better tomorrow, as long as she's not limping too much from being sore from the shot.

As for me, somehow I manage to hurt my finger in...of all things...flag football. Got it caught on someone's loose shirt when I was trying to grab their flag. Let it go for a little more than a week, but I still couldn't straighten it, so went in to get it checked. Sure enough it is broke, but they think the reason I couldn't straighten it is because something might be torn (appointment tomorrow to find out more)...come on, how does that happen in flag football. The good news is that I finished the game (threw for a touchdown and caught one other) and I am getting pretty good at typing with a splint on.

Alright, that's it for now I guess.

Being overwhelmed... by popcorn

(John's wife, Allison, is writing this post.)

Anyone else feeling overwhelmed out there?

I (Allison) feel like I am in a constant state of being overwhelmed. I wish I could say that every time things get frustrating or stressful or busy, I just sit back and ask God for help, but I don't. I'm a worrier by nature. If I don't have something to be stressed about, I take insignificant things in my life & worry about them.

For instance, our house is currently overwhelmed with popcorn. Yes, popcorn. We have caramel corn, microwave popcorn, caramel corn with nuts, butter toffee, chocolate covered popcorn, the list goes on & on. As a leader for our son's Cub Scout pack, I was in charge of ordering popcorn & instead of requesting individual boxes, I ordered cases. The realization of my error first sank in when I called the Scout office to find out when to pick up our orders & the lady said, "You have a truck or a van to pick up your order, right?" To which I of course replied, "No, I just have my car, it should all fit in there, we didn't order that much." But as I said that I thought to myself, did I order what I thought I ordered or did I get more? Sure enough, we got the more.

Now, I think God has a sense of humor because to be stressed out about having too much popcorn has to be one of the most ridiculous things you could come up with. Every time I tell my story, people just crack up laughing & I can't help laughing too.

Am I worried about getting my reading done for my classes, no, popcorn. Am I worried about finding time to clean my house, no, Popcorn. Am I worried about how my kids are doing in school, no, POPCORN. I feel overwhelmed just not being able to get it out of my head. I've even had several dreams (nightmares, really) about trying to get rid of it all.

So whether I have something to worry about or not, I'll find something. The tricky part is letting God use this in my life for his purpose. In the mean time, if anyone is craving some snacking sustenance, give me a call. I'll hook you up with some popcorn.

A special man

So the travels for the summer, and hopefully for awhile, are done. We're tired, but they have been great, and last weekend was no exception. Since we had only recently returned from Michigan and the kids had started school it was difficult to make it. In the end only I could go, but I didn't want to miss out.

As many of you know my grandfather passed away last Christmas. I've been meaning to write about him since then, but it seems hard to know how to capture such a special man in words, I wish I was a better writer for times like these. However, now seems a good time. For a couple years now my grandma and he had planned a big party for their 25th anniversary, which was to be last Sunday. Fittingly, for a man who loved people, life, tennis, and chocolate (ok, maybe chocolate came first) she wanted to have the party still as a celebration of his life. It was a wonderful time and, as he would have wanted, everyone had a great time.

So where can I start in describing this man? I'm sure I have to start with his sense of humor. If you ever met the man you would shortly be caught in a fit of laughter as it would not take him long to tell you his repertoire of jokes. Some might be classified as a bit crude, but there was something about this man that he could pretty much tell you anything, even if he just met you, and not offend anyone. He was even great with kids; I will fondly remember my daughter squealing with joy as she sneakily tried to steal M&Ms from the jar by his chair without him noticing. He would always wait until the last moment and then yell a loud, "Hey" as she darted away laughing with her hands full of the goodies that he loved to share with kids...well as long as it wasn't the last M&Ms, but I don't think he ever ran out that I know of.

I could go on about many other things that he loved, but most of all he loved people and, as was shown this last weekend, was loved by so many. He touched people from Traverse City; to Mesa, AZ; to Texas; to The Villages, FL; and many more places. But I think one of the most amazing things was his role as Father to so many as my Aunt Cathy shared so beautifully. If our fathers are supposed to show us an image of our heavenly father, then my grandpa succeeded. God adopts us into his family, and my grandfather has brought so many into his. When he married my mom's mother he took on an enormous task, bringing three young girls, my mom and her two sisters (one soon to enter and one already in her teens), into his house. Yet, with love he merged them together with the son he already had. After his wife passed, he married again, and once again had children to bring into his family, this time a teenage son and two who were grown. Yet, as before, he lovingly opened his heart to more and more. It takes a special man to be a great father to his own children, yet this man has managed to do it with not just one family, but three, and to bring them all together in love.

If we can even partially live up to his great example of love, I think we will more than succeed in life and in doing so make him proud. As with my grandma, I like to think of him looking upon us, seeing us following his example, and smiling.

I, as so many others, will always remember him fondly.

Travels almost over and 10 years coming up

So our summer travels are nearing the end. I have one last trip to Michigan coming up this weekend, but last week, since Brian had a few days off from school, saw us visiting some family who has recently moved to SC. Laura came down from DC and met us in Sharon, SC; where my Uncle Jack and Aunt Janet have moved. It was a great time out of getting away from the city and seeing family. It was a bit warm (same as everywhere), but we were able to go swimming for a bit, which was quite refreshing. Kelly enjoyed seeing Zuke again (who she still likes to feed and boss around), as well as my uncles two dogs. Sadly, due to the forecast of a thunderstorm, we could not convince Allie to camp outside...all we ended up with were a few sprinkles in the late afternoon...oh well. Friday, my other uncle, Jason, and his family showed up as they are also moving to the area. Brian and Kelly enjoyed seeing their cousins Lexi and Zack. A great trip, due in most part to my Uncle Jack and Aunt Janet being wonderful hosts. Looking forward to having them, Jason, and his family a little closer by for this next year.

We made it back to Columbia just in time to take off with our church for a youth overnight up to the Great Wolf Lodge. Kelly was just to short (a shade under 42") to go on the big water slides, but that was probably a good thing as they even scared some of the adults because you got thrown around quite a bit. Everybody had a blast though and after a day soaking in the wave pool and water slides we all crashed that evening.

Back in Columbia for a few days before heading up North one last time, despite all the travels, it seems the hardest thing to believe is that our 10 year anniversary is coming up in just a few days. Definitely doesn't feel like I've been married for 10 years, but that is probably because (as Neil and Dr. Jones often remind me) I married way up :)