We Can Have Fun Here, Too!

While Liv is in Alaska, our lives continue here at home.  She can't be the only one having fun!

Tuesday afternoon, Heather, Joie, and I took in Epic at the movie theater.  It's the second time we saw it, but it is a cute movie.

On Wednesday, I went back to work.  Heather and Jo went to the Zoo with Grandma, Aunt Jessica, and cousin Gigi.

Thursday, nothing exciting happened, unless you count playing card games, playing toss outside, organizing shelves, and planning next year's school year exciting.

On Friday, Heather and Jo went to the farm where we volunteer.  After working there for a couple of hours, they headed home to pack for our campout that weekend.  Since it was with the American Heritage Girls troop, we got to learn about fire building and safety, cooking on the fire, and "leave no trace".  We also enjoyed s'mores, skits, and songs and got to participate in a flag burning ceremony.  The weather over the weekend was less than ideal, but we had a good time despite all the rain.

On Saturday, we hiked a trail and did a scavenger hunt.  We got soaked on the way back to camp in one of the deluges we experienced that day.  The girls played some games, did a craft, and cooked dessert on the fire.  We ended the night with a presentation at the Cincinnati Astronomical Society.  Unfortunately, it was still too cloudy to use the telescopes.  :-(  We definitely need to go back there when the sky is clear!  We decided to head home that night to get a good night's sleep (and we did).

We are also keeping an eye on our buckets of vegetables on the deck.  Not bad, considering these all started with organic soil and seeds.  We've got the following:

• 6 Sungold Cherry Tomato plants
• 3 Pink & Green Tie-Dyed Tomato plants
• 5 Dill Plants
• 4 Thyme plants
• 3 Basil Plants + one still left over from last year (we kept in the kitchen over the winter)
• 1 Sweet Banana Pepper Plant

More fun planned for this week, too!

Dance the Night Away

Friday night was the annual Father/Daughter dance for the west side troops of American Heritage Girls.  While I have been to at least three others with Livvi, this year Joie wanted to go as well.  I had two dates!  This year's theme was Winter Wonderland.

If you recall in a previous post, Jo now plays soccer.  When does she play soccer?  Friday evenings from 5:45 - 6:30 p.m.  When did the dance start?  6:30 p.m.  Fortunately, the dance was 5 minutes from soccer.  After a quick change, we were ready to boogie!

My girls were beautiful and we had a great time!  It was sweet and special being able to slow dance with both at the same time!

Also, I'm pretty sure I had the best looking date there that night.  Agree?

Even though she was working the event, we were glad to have Heather there, too!  So, you could say, I was there with three very lovely girls!  I'm one blessed human being!

New School Year

Livvi started 4th grade this year. Heather continues to homeschool her in the Ohio Virtual Academy with the K12 curriculum. They both really enjoy it and Livvi continues to do really well. Joie is learning quite a bit as well. While she doesn't have any formal curriculum, yet (still in pre-school), she really knows her numbers and letters and is starting to sound out words when reading. All three go to a co-op one day a week to be with other kids doing the same curriculum. Heather helps to teach and Joie really seems to enjoy her pre-school class at the co-op as well!

There are mostly Christians in the co-op, with lots of really great kids, families, and friends. A few kids in Liv's class also have siblings in Jo's class. Heather teaches 10 preschoolers and assists in Liv's science class. While every parent has an area of responsibility, everyone helps out anywhere there is need.

Our co-op is well organized with lots of hard-working people and the highlight for all the kids that go. They really hate if they have to miss or if we have a week off from co-op. The co-op covers Composition, History, Art, and Science, and takes care of most of the year's curriculum for those subjects.

Heather leads morning devotions nearly each week. Occasionally someone will volunteer to do them for her, but she does the bulk of them (and she does great).

Like last year, Joie wouldn't get her picture taken with her class. She's not a big fan of getting her picture taken.

With Sunday school every week, American Heritage Girls two times a month, tae kwon do 2-4 times a week, co-op on Thursdays, we don't really have much to worry about whether our homeschool kids are getting enough socialization, but they do get to play with the kids in the neighborhood when those kids are done with their homework.

Merry Christmas!

Can you believe it is Christmas already? The stockings are hung by the chimney with care and it appears Santa stopped by for a quick (and, thankfully, light) delivery.

This time of year was busy, just like every Christmas, with holiday activities with the homeschool co-op, American Heritage Girls, church, work, family, and, of course, Joie's birthday party.

Our church's worship band presented, for the fourth year in a row, Andrew Peterson's Behold the Lamb of God. It keeps getting better and better each year. This year, our leader asked me to audition for a very small part (30 seconds?). It was an honor and a thrill to be a part of such a great concert!

Last night, we did our annual trek over to Delhi to visit Heather's side of the family. We ate, opened presents, and enjoyed each others company. When we got home, we noticed the PJ Fairy had stopped by while we were gone to give us all new pajamas, as she does each year on Christmas Eve.

We spent the morning together, just the four of us, sharing just a few gifts with one another. Around 11:00 a.m., we left for Ammaw and Ampaw's for brunch and, yes, more gifts. We also got to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus! We came back home a few hours later so some naps could take place. We went out again later for dinner at a hibachi Japanese restaurant. Yum!

All in all, a great Christmas! Merry Christmas! Pictures will be posted soon.

Memorial Day

I'm a little late in posting this one....

On Memorial Day, we usually try to get to our town's parade in the morning. This year was no different, except one of our own was able to participate. Livvi marched in the parade this year as a part of her American Heritage Girls troop. It was great seeing her walking down the street waving to people.

Something I can't seem to overcome, though, is the emotion I feel about our vets. I feel like an idiot to some degree when I am fighting back tears during this parade. Whether it is an 80-something year old vet from Pearl Harbor riding in the parade or a 20-something year old vet at the airport leaving for duty, I have an incredible amount of pride for them (to the point of tears many times)! We have an incredible country with some pretty incredible people. Our vets are the finest.

When I started writing this, I thought we had two vets in our extended family. However, after a quick poll, it turns out there are at least eleven (within the last 2-3 generations)! I'm sure there may be others. Here are the ones we know about:

• Heather's dad (my father-in-law), Joe Ness
• Heather's uncle, Don Page
• My uncle (Dad's brother), Bill Shaut
• My dad's uncle, Les Shaut
• My dad's uncle, Eddie Shaut
• My dad's uncle, George Streeter
• My mom's cousin, Henry Maines
• My mom's aunt, Jeanne Shirey
• My mom's uncle, Clarence McNett
• Heather's dad's uncle, Herbert D. Ness
• Heather's dad's uncle, James Ness (at age 15, lied about his age to join army, and served with Teddy Roosevelt in the Rough Riders)

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE! God bless you all! We love you!
(If I missed any, please add them via a comment to this entry)

Spring Break 2009

What a week we had! We decided to do Spring Break last week and had something planned for nearly every day. Here is how the week unfolded:

Saturday: I cut down three trees and tilled a new garden for the girls. Livvi and Heather went to see the Hannah Montana movie

Sunday: After church and a Mexican Fiesta, we went to Kings Island for my company's Associate Appreciation Day. Got quite wet, but had fun!

Monday: Livvi got her "black" belt, then went to her American Heritage Girls meeting

Tuesday: We visited the Creation Museum and Livvi had swim lessons that evening

Wednesday: We went to the Cincinnati Zoo. Great weather!

Thursday: We went to Great Wolf Lodge to swim and spend the night. My lifeguard training (now expired by almost 25 years) was seemingly needed within the first hour of us being there. More on that later.

Friday: Livvi and I swam some more while Heather took Joie to an area to do crafts, etc. We then left for home shortly after lunch

Saturday: We celebrated Livvi's black belt at Panera Bread. I cut down three more trees while the girls planted flowers in their new garden.

As for the lifeguard incident, Liv and I were in the wave pool and I was wading in. I had lost sight of her for just a few seconds, when I saw the lifeguard point in the direction of the opposite corner of the pool in the deeper section by the wave machine. She then jumped in. I tried to locate Livvi and did so immediately. I couldn't see what the lifeguard saw, yet, but I started running towards that corner, then swimming when the water was too deep to run in. I stopped to take a look at what was in the corner and saw what I thought was a toddler face down in the pool. My heart was racing beyond belief, now. I kept swimming until I saw a Great Wolf Lodge associate standing on the side of the pool over where the "child" was. He was telling me to hold up. The lifeguard was about there when I stood up and noticed the "child" was a dummy, possibly used for training. I'm not sure if this was some training session or if they were just messing with the lifeguard on duty. Nevertheless, it freaked me out. For the record, though, I'd like to think I would have been able to save that kid!

We had a great time as a family! I hope we get to do a lot of stuff together for many, many years to come! I included a few photos below, but if you want to see the nearly 200 pictures from our fun month of April, click here.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

I gained a LOT of respect for Heather after childbirth (our kids, not mine). However, after Monday, I now have a whole new respect for her!

Monday morning, I'm nearly completely dressed for work, when Heather said she didn't feel well AT ALL. She could barely get out of bed. Realizing there was no way she would be able to take care of two kids in that condition, I decided to stay at home so she could rest. Little did I know what I was signing up to do.

Joie woke up entirely too early. She was cranky and not feeling well herself. She kept screaming, and it just made me madder and madder. After all, I was there to help Heather rest and Livvi was still sleeping. When Livvi awoke, we had breakfast, then got dressed. By this time, it was about 9:00 a.m. and Joie was looking pretty tired. I offered to get them a hot chocolate from Starbucks and chose one that was about 20 minutes away, to see if she would fall asleep. She finally fell asleep about 10:30 p.m. on the way home, about one minute from our house. I dropped Livvi off at home and made sure Jo was asleep before taking her up to her room.

Liv and I then started her school work. We only got through 2.5 subjects in about 3-4 hours! Between her being a little lethargic from having been sick herself, easily distracted, and me not completely knowing what to do, it made for a not-so-productive school day. All this despite the fact Jo slept between 3 and 4 hours (thank you, Lord)!

The girls and I then left for Tae Kwon Do, grabbed dinner on the way home, and wolfed it down. I then had to take Liv to American Heritage Girls. While she was there, I went grocery shopping, then back to pick Liv up to head back home.

This is a typical Monday for Heather and the girls, except that Jo usually only naps for 2 hours (if at all) and they get about twice as much school work in (or more). Not to mention there may be a load or two of laundry done as well. I don't know how she does it, but she does (and does it well)!

Hoedown

Tonight, I had the honor of escorting Olivia to her American Heritage Girl Father/Daughter Square Dance. While I absolutely hate dancing, square dancing is bearable and kinda fun. It was a blast being there with my Livvi! We had a really good time. It was a little hard hearing the caller and knowing what to do. Too many people talking when Liv and I were really trying to learn. We had fun anyway and she requested to go home after about an hour and a half as her feet were sore (I didn't mind as mine were getting a little tired as well). I love hanging out with Livvi! Yee Haw!

American Heritage Girls

Livvi officially became an American Heritage Girl last night. This was her second meeting, and she really likes being in this group. I was involved in cub scouts, webelos, and (for a very short time) a boy scout. I liked it and what it stood for, etc. Getting Livvi involved in a scouting group that has Christian values and is "building women of integrity through service to God, family, community and country" is a blessing. I think she will really love being a part of this group.