So we just got back from a great trip up to Michigan. It was great seeing friends and family for a couple quick weeks. The kids actually got an additional two weeks as my parents had taken them up early... which also means we got two weeks off with no kids. (Allie wants to add during those 2 weeks she got ahead in her homework & has since fallen behind again.) Although we would always love to have seen more people and spend more time with the few who we did see, it was a great trip overall and a lot of fun was had.
Traverse City was especially nice because Allie's parents were able to come up there as well... so most of the families were together. Bri had a great time playing with... his cousin from South Carolina who was also up visiting. A little funny that we drove 15 hours for him to play with a friend who lives just an hour away. The two didn't leave the lake for the entire week, spending their time fishing or swimming... or swimming trying to find the fishing pole they dropped off the raft...I don't think that was ever successful. Bri's highlight was camping out in a tent (in my parents' yard) with Zach and another friend. They loaded up the tent with toys and snacks and I'm pretty sure I heard them still talking around 4 AM. Not much sleep that night, but they were all up for the Cherry Festival Parade the next day.
Bri had a blast at the parade. Kel would have loved it, but she left the day before with Allie's parents for some extra grandparent time in Livonia. Although Allie and I were certain that we saw her twin (in behavior at least) on one of the floats. We were toward the end of the parade, so the kids on the floats were pretty tired, but this one cute little girl was dancing away to the songs and doing all the hand motions... definitely a girl after Kel's heart. Bri's favorite part was getting all the things people were handing out as they went by in the parade (candy, coupons, magazines, toys... you name it). He collected two full bags, one for himself and one for his sister, complete with green stuff (her favorite color... for Michigan State, sorry HK). These handouts became Allie's and my least favorite part when Party Giant came by. Most groups handed out stuff sporadically, but this group had a handout for each and every kid... noise makers. You could hear a wave of sound following this float as hundreds of kids gleefully put these handouts to immediate use... 10 minutes later... still going on... Party Giant, worst float ever. Allie had a good moment at the parade when Pool World came by with giant sized (like 5 ft) beach balls. As one came toward her she tried to knock it back in the street, but instead it knocked her out of her chair... oops.
I'd say the highlight of the trip came on our last Sunday when Laura convinced Will, Mike, and I to join her in a Triathlon (sprint distance: 500m swim, 20k bike, 5k run). This was my first triathlon and I had a blast, I think I did the best on the biking, despite being on a mountain bike. But I now know why Laura wanted us to do it... because she kicked all three of our butts and placed second in her age group. Will sadly had bike trouble for the third (out of three) triathlons in a row. Mike was a great sport in joining our insanity and was pleased to finish. I was pretty happy with my performance overall, especially coming off a broken/sprained ankle which is still bothering me. Although I was not too happy the next day (quite sore) or today (first day I tried to exercise again... I'm hurting a lot right now). Bri followed up our performance with a triathlon of his own that evening: swam to the raft and back, biked around the driveway, then ran around the driveway (my parents driveway is pretty long by the way) and now he wants to get a road bike. He did quite well on our ride today, making it about 13 miles before Allie picked him up on our way to the lake, leaving me to finish the ride. Kel also got some good exercise in today... at least according to her. I'm pretty sure she just sat in the backpack and I did all the work... but what do I know.
That's about it for now. We are just down here trying to figure out our plans for the next year. As some of you know we are looking at staying in Columbia for another year or doing some work around Detroit. Much of it depends on what happens with our house, so we appreciate your thoughts & prayers in this. :)
Friday, July 15, 2011
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Kelly Update
So Kelly had a busy last week. Last Friday she had her 5 year old birthday party. Her venue of choice... Chuck E. Cheese of course. As crazy as things were with the normal crowd plus two other birthday parties and the slightly disturbing animated Chuck E Cheese band, it was a great time. They really do a good job there. The kids of course liked the game tokens, but Kelly also got a crown, a special show from Chuck E. and a trip into the Ticket Blaster to grab for tickets. She really just spent all of her time in there laughing rather than grabbing tickets, but no problem. The girl who was helping gave her a handful of tickets and everybody was happy. As a bonus for us, we even had the girl helping us serve all the pizza and cake... and the pizza has much improved in quality since our last visit.
Thursday Kelly had her "graduation" from pre-school. Lots of dancing, singing, and much fun for the kids. She is funny because she will do all the dances and songs for us at home, but she is too shy to do them in front of the other parents at school. Her teacher gave each of the kids an award and Kelly received a prize for being full of peace and not having a mean bone in her body. Very nice, but not quite sure her brother would agree as one of her favorite past times is finding new and unique ways of torturing him :) Sadly for her, she has now lost one of her most useful excuses for getting things she wanted of "My teacher told me I had to do ____ for homework..."
We've also been working on Russian. She has been doing great at understanding it, but hasn't wanted to speak it very much, but I think I have found the key. I told her that she could understand it better than me, but if she didn't practice I was going to be able to speak it better. This seemed to convince her at the time and she worked on a few phrases. The next morning she had been eating breakfast with her mom and came running into the bedroom to wake me up saying, "Maslo". Confused from waking up I asked what she was saying and she responds, "Maslo...that means butter...I'm better than you dad!" and runs away laughing.
Today was still quite busy for her. She went to the 93rd birthday party for one of the ladies at our church at which she had, "Cake for lunch and macaroni 'n cheese for dessert!" Then it was off for another attempt at riding a two wheeler. Today was much better (i.e. much less back ache for me holding on to the handle bars) and after a few short attempts on the baseball field (thanks for the tip Chris) she was riding fine and we rode around the asphalt track for awhile. Our little girl did about 5 laps (over a mile) and is proudly showing off to anyone who is willing to watch (hopefully Allison will soon upload some videos/pictures to Facebook).
Thursday Kelly had her "graduation" from pre-school. Lots of dancing, singing, and much fun for the kids. She is funny because she will do all the dances and songs for us at home, but she is too shy to do them in front of the other parents at school. Her teacher gave each of the kids an award and Kelly received a prize for being full of peace and not having a mean bone in her body. Very nice, but not quite sure her brother would agree as one of her favorite past times is finding new and unique ways of torturing him :) Sadly for her, she has now lost one of her most useful excuses for getting things she wanted of "My teacher told me I had to do ____ for homework..."
We've also been working on Russian. She has been doing great at understanding it, but hasn't wanted to speak it very much, but I think I have found the key. I told her that she could understand it better than me, but if she didn't practice I was going to be able to speak it better. This seemed to convince her at the time and she worked on a few phrases. The next morning she had been eating breakfast with her mom and came running into the bedroom to wake me up saying, "Maslo". Confused from waking up I asked what she was saying and she responds, "Maslo...that means butter...I'm better than you dad!" and runs away laughing.
Today was still quite busy for her. She went to the 93rd birthday party for one of the ladies at our church at which she had, "Cake for lunch and macaroni 'n cheese for dessert!" Then it was off for another attempt at riding a two wheeler. Today was much better (i.e. much less back ache for me holding on to the handle bars) and after a few short attempts on the baseball field (thanks for the tip Chris) she was riding fine and we rode around the asphalt track for awhile. Our little girl did about 5 laps (over a mile) and is proudly showing off to anyone who is willing to watch (hopefully Allison will soon upload some videos/pictures to Facebook).
Thursday, May 19, 2011
If only...
If only it was the thought that counted then I would have posted on this at least every couple weeks, if not every week. Instead we're looking at five plus months of no posts. Oh well, I will try to be better. Also, at some point I think we may be switching to doing some more updates by email, so if you are interested in getting those my wife (the more reliable one) will be putting together a list, so let her know.
Alright, so what has gone on this semester. Wow, so much (sorry if this is long). In terms of the fam, everyone is doing real well. Kel still loves school and is eagerly looking forward to her birthday party tomorrow, girls (princesses) only, but Bri and I are allowed in on the fun as well. It is a bit late as we wanted to wait until things freed up after the kids ended soccer. Her team of 4/5 year olds is, of course, hilarious to watch as the mass moves around the field. She is really funny as she will run all the way to whoever has the ball, but is not aggressive enough to take it from them. My sister tried to give her the advice to imagine the person was her brother (whom she has no trouble tormenting), but the advice did not seem to work. She had a blast though, which is great. She is already becoming quite the girly girl as she loves clothes, dolls, anything pink (which according to her, Uncle Will, is a color boys should not wear), shoes, and talking on the phone. Most of her phone time is still limited to her play phone though, on which she is constantly calling her friend Edessa, whom she is sure is in every white mini-van which we see on the road.
Bri played soccer and from watching some pros play he figured out the cool move of slide tackling... had to have a talk and let him know that might be a bit too much for his age group. But he had a blast and we just finished our second trip to Cici's Pizza in as many weeks for end-of-the-year parties. He's doing well in school, but is looking forward to the summer when he has more free time for his three favorite past times: video games, Legos, and watch TV... little does he know that we get to be the evil parents and just make him go outside and play more :)
Allie is steadily plugging away at her schooling, just two classes left! She will likely finish up this fall or next winter depending on how our plans work out. Schooling for me is winding down. I have an internship left this summer, but I walked this past weekend. A lot of my family made it down so it was great to see everyone... and we had some great food as well, at my graduation party... but especially in some trips to Waffle House and Inakaya for sushi. We miss them all a lot (Kel especially misses having my sister's dog to boss around... although he never listens to her), but we will see them again soon as they will be back down soon for some stuff at our church.
Many ask what our plans are now. We are not really sure. We still are looking to go overseas and are all working on our Russian, but past that we need to get a lot of plans in order. That is the main goal for the summer. But things are winding down here. We finished Bible Clubs with the kids from the church and neighborhood. It was difficult at times, but we have had some very encouraging talks with parents and kids lately. One in particular was great. It was with one of the kids who has caused us the most problems and we felt his grandparents were always frustrated that we kept bringing him home. However, they let us know how much they and he appreciated what we have done. Also, we talked awhile and it was great to look back and see that although he has caused some problems, he has been getting a lot better over these years. This was especially encouraging as we have seen some other kids starting to get caught up in other issues; this kid has been improving and it was a real encouragement to see God working in his life, and some others whom we have talked with recently.
Alright, that's about it for now... a little long, but wanted to catch people up. I'll try to be more diligent, but I'll leave you with a funny quote from Bri. He was telling us about something from school and Kel wanted to add her thoughts. He looked at her and said very seriously (stressing the last word), "Kel, you won't understand, this is SCIENCE." Speaking of Kel, she just came wandering out of bedroom... her excuse this time is she's looking for her stuffed animal, Hippo. Time to be off to solve the world problems... of a 5 year old.
Alright, so what has gone on this semester. Wow, so much (sorry if this is long). In terms of the fam, everyone is doing real well. Kel still loves school and is eagerly looking forward to her birthday party tomorrow, girls (princesses) only, but Bri and I are allowed in on the fun as well. It is a bit late as we wanted to wait until things freed up after the kids ended soccer. Her team of 4/5 year olds is, of course, hilarious to watch as the mass moves around the field. She is really funny as she will run all the way to whoever has the ball, but is not aggressive enough to take it from them. My sister tried to give her the advice to imagine the person was her brother (whom she has no trouble tormenting), but the advice did not seem to work. She had a blast though, which is great. She is already becoming quite the girly girl as she loves clothes, dolls, anything pink (which according to her, Uncle Will, is a color boys should not wear), shoes, and talking on the phone. Most of her phone time is still limited to her play phone though, on which she is constantly calling her friend Edessa, whom she is sure is in every white mini-van which we see on the road.
Bri played soccer and from watching some pros play he figured out the cool move of slide tackling... had to have a talk and let him know that might be a bit too much for his age group. But he had a blast and we just finished our second trip to Cici's Pizza in as many weeks for end-of-the-year parties. He's doing well in school, but is looking forward to the summer when he has more free time for his three favorite past times: video games, Legos, and watch TV... little does he know that we get to be the evil parents and just make him go outside and play more :)
Allie is steadily plugging away at her schooling, just two classes left! She will likely finish up this fall or next winter depending on how our plans work out. Schooling for me is winding down. I have an internship left this summer, but I walked this past weekend. A lot of my family made it down so it was great to see everyone... and we had some great food as well, at my graduation party... but especially in some trips to Waffle House and Inakaya for sushi. We miss them all a lot (Kel especially misses having my sister's dog to boss around... although he never listens to her), but we will see them again soon as they will be back down soon for some stuff at our church.
Many ask what our plans are now. We are not really sure. We still are looking to go overseas and are all working on our Russian, but past that we need to get a lot of plans in order. That is the main goal for the summer. But things are winding down here. We finished Bible Clubs with the kids from the church and neighborhood. It was difficult at times, but we have had some very encouraging talks with parents and kids lately. One in particular was great. It was with one of the kids who has caused us the most problems and we felt his grandparents were always frustrated that we kept bringing him home. However, they let us know how much they and he appreciated what we have done. Also, we talked awhile and it was great to look back and see that although he has caused some problems, he has been getting a lot better over these years. This was especially encouraging as we have seen some other kids starting to get caught up in other issues; this kid has been improving and it was a real encouragement to see God working in his life, and some others whom we have talked with recently.
Alright, that's about it for now... a little long, but wanted to catch people up. I'll try to be more diligent, but I'll leave you with a funny quote from Bri. He was telling us about something from school and Kel wanted to add her thoughts. He looked at her and said very seriously (stressing the last word), "Kel, you won't understand, this is SCIENCE." Speaking of Kel, she just came wandering out of bedroom... her excuse this time is she's looking for her stuffed animal, Hippo. Time to be off to solve the world problems... of a 5 year old.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
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.
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.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
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 :)
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 :)
Monday, October 4, 2010
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.
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.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
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.
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.
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