Herd Your Horses, Shadow

Well, last night Emma saw a package for her and couldn't barely contain herself. I finally gave in to her begging and allowed her to open her birthday present from Grammy and Pop Pop. Here's the game they sent that was at the cabin this past summer. Talk about crazy. Whoever made this game up was a mustang fanatic. Just by skimming over the directions I know every body part of a mustang, how to be a rancher and what exactly wild mustangs are thinking. Pretty impressive! The other gifts were all horse related too: Horse backpack - her favorite gift that I had to pry off her to go to bed last night, a horse t-shirt (my favorite), a horse book and a horse birthday card. How fun!

Here's Hobbes waiting patiently on Emma's birthday gift. Yes, we have a cat. That's for another story. Mrs. Pussums was her real name but Aaron refused to adopt that name after we adopted her from his friend. He decided on Hobbes like my favorite comic "Calvin & Hobbes".

And then on to Laish, ahem, I mean "Shadow". I had to listen to him whine all last night after coming home from Ms. Sandra's house (his friend Andrew's house he goes to on Thursday's) that he really, really wants his name to be Shadow. I still have no idea what brought this on but I got this picture from my Mom this afternoon. Grandma and Aunt Shelly are babysitting him today while I'm at work and took him downtown Main Street where the businesses hand out candy to kids trick-or-treating. The text/pix said "Batman aka Shadow". Sigh. I hope this is a short episode. And no, we don't normally celebrate Halloween - it's usually Autumn we celebrate. But I don't feel like getting into the whole debate over is this Satan's holiday or not. That again, will be for another time. On a side note, I tried to tell Laish a story last night about Daddy having a friend named Shadow because he used to follow Daddy around everywhere he went. I don't think he got it or cared. Just mad that we hadn't named him Shadow. Duh. I told him to go for it - tell everybody his name was Shadow, but I was also ready to get a restraining order on me to stay away from my kids bc they (mostly Shadow) was so so bad last night, so I would've said anything to make him go to bed. Who cares though, right? So my kid wants to be called a dog's name. So what. There are worse things, right? He said Laish was too girly sounding and I'm sure this is just the beginning of "I don't want to be called Laish" episodes. Hence the already given nickname "Bodie". (second sigh). What were we thinking, Aaron? By the way, Laish is Hebrew for lion and I fell in love with the name. But lesson learned.....don't name your kid weird Hebrew names. Unless it's cool.

Good Times

Any guesses on when and where this was. (Picture above). For those of you in the picture anyway. Except for Bruce Willis. You can shout down your answer from heaven, Bruce. Because we all know dogs go to heaven. At least all the good ones.............

IT'S A BOY!!

Justus Judah Herbert has arrived. My sister is doing well and everyone is happy!

Summer... Buh-Bye

Well, I thought summer was supposed to refresh you. I find that the refreshing part for me & the kids is when school comes and we are all forced to have somewhat of a routine. I hate routine. It's boring. Why would you get up and eat the same thing, walk the same route, do your hair the same way and drive the same way to work. And every day? My husband would, that's who. And probably Laish will too.

Last week we had church at my mom and dad's house. Emma is pictured here enjoying the pond. So innocent looking and full of life. (Nice picture, Aaron!) It was fun. Alot of work for some people but I think it blessed my Dad's pants off to be preaching from his porch, looking out on the crowd of lawn chairs filled with people praising God.

Emma started 1st grade. She missed her first day bc we were on vacation in VA. But Monday she fell into routine with her new teacher Mrs. Reiff (pronounced like "life"). She seems to be a little less bored with 1st grade. It's not just coloring and whatnot. She asked me not to kiss her and hug her at the bus stop. Well actually, she didn't care if her neighbor kids saw me do that to her, just not the kids on the bus bc she didn't know them very well. Also, if I could not wear my pj's too? I don't really have real "pj's". Tank tops, shorts, etc. But this particular day I WAS wearing very old & thin pj pants that have been stretched so that the pant legs drag along as I walk. Ok, it wasn't my best day but it wasn't Ugly Wife Day by no means. I took it like a trooper and said ok. So as we walk to the bus stop each morning, I hold her hand and say a prayer for her day - that she would be a shining star to those she meets. She swings my hand and pretends she doesn't hear me pray and sometimes mutters things bc she does that when she's nervous - just like her ma. But I know she's listening. And of course, I hug & kiss her - before the bus comes!


Laish worked hard to receive his BB gun this week. His dad said if he slept in his bed for 5 nights, he'd get it. After vacation, he did it. He has managed already to get a BB shot in his neck. Yes, we were supervising him. The BB just bounced off the cement and got him good. He screamed and then it was done. He turns 5 in one month and thinks he's getting a rifle for his birthday. I have no idea where he got that from. We are not gun people and quite frankly I'm not sure how I feel about the BB gun. But I know there is a boy, adventure, capture stuff, fighting-kind of thing that I don't get. So I learn to just trust Aaron in that area. Aaron grew up with hunting. He's familiar with guns enough to be safe. The rifle thing? Probably will just blame his cousin Liam and Uncle Sean on that one.
Lots of people have suggested pre-school for Laish. Just to get him used to going to "school" and being with other kids and away from his home & mommy. It sounds like work to me and I usually try to avoid that if possible. Yesterday I sent out an APB to my friends via text to see who could watch him on Thursdays. I realized how blessed we are to have good caretakers so near us and willing to care for my children as their own.
I will post about vacation as soon as my camera is returned. I stupidly left it at the cabin in VA, outside, on the picnic table and it rained. I'm told it's okay. We had a blast with the Detwiler Family! Miss you all!

Triathalon 2010

Yes, I know, she takes after me. NOT! I hate running or anything remotely close to that. But this young lady was totally thrilled when I suggested she do her first Triathalon. The Goshen Parks Dept. puts this on each year for kids and teens. It was a great turn out. This year her cousin Kara & Liam participated, her other friend Liam, and a handful of my friends' kids. Unfortunately you have to be 5 to participate so Laish will have to wait. He cried the entire event bc he wanted to.

So Aaron and I were a bit stressed with all the heat and crying and trying to transition Emma. We tried to stay calm though for how competitive we both are. There were some Dads that were pretty intense and it was kind of frustrating to watch. Oh well. Here is Liam (friend), Kara and Emma ready for the swim which they did first. One length of the pool. Aaron said she did awesome!

Then they biked. Emma thought this was the easiest part. Her and Kara are here in this picture just getting on bikes and going. They had to bike a little over 1 mile.

And last but not least, the running. They ran a 1/2 mile. Parents could run with them for the first part. I was kind enough to let Aaron do that so I could tend to Laish (harhar). At the end of the run, parents had to veer off and let their kids finish alone. Emma decided to sprint and beat the girl in front of her. Ah, so nice to see the Shetler/Detwiler spirit in her. Of course, I didn't see any of that bc Laish was screaming about his feet getting in the mud and I was sweating bullets trying to carry him in the Indiana heat across some crappy mud at the time. This is Kara finishing out her time.

And each of them got a medal for finishing. At the end of the race they had trophies for the top 3 in each age and category. My nephew Liam got a trophy for being 2nd! I think Emma's time got her 5th place but as always, we are so proud of her! Here's Emma with her friend Liam showing off their medals!

The Perfect Storm

So incase you haven't been keeping up with the weather in the Midwest, we have been getting storms and tornadoes and more storms and tornadoes. Last Friday was the first of them. Aaron was still gone with his buddies on vacation. I was determined to have a fun last night with the kids. This, of course, entailed ice cream at the Chief. I didn't KNOW it was supposed to storm like crazy with 80 mph winds. So we took off in our Swagger Wagon just as it began to rain. I had my white load out on the line but I thought it would be ok. Nothing a little rain would hurt. So, we get to The Chief just as all hell breaks loose. There's like 3 people there and we are all wondering what we are doing out in this. It was raining and blowing so bad. Did I mention the scary lightning? We ran to the van drenched with rain with sloppy cones. The kids were fussing and sticky. I decided against sitting there and waiting out the storm. I can do this.

As we began to drive, I realized I couldn't see. At all. The rain was coming down so hard. One guy I barely saw drive by with a tree under his vehicle. Just driving around like he had nothing hanging on him. Then things started falling on our van. Not sure what they were but could just hear and feel them. Stop lights were out. Trees were on the roads and people were stopped and driving around them. Emma could sense my spirit at this point and started to cry, "We're not going to make it." Laish is behind me saying, "Just take 2 deep breaths." He's just as calm as his Daddy would be. Thanks, Laish.

Well, we made it into our garage. One of our columns that holds our porch up had completely fallen down. Plants from the porch were strewn all over. And yes, my laundry, practically ripped to shreds. All over my neighbors yards. I never did find my little bucket I keep the clothespins in. Even though most my family lost power, we actually didn't.

Now, fast forward to Wednesday night. My sister had just gotten her power back on and WHAM, in comes another storm. Laish and Emma were gone to their PA grandparents so we didn't have to deal with them being scared. Aaron and I sat outside for awhile just watching the storm come closer and closer. Until all of a sudden it grew very dark and windy and rainy. They claim there 5 tornadoes in all - one was just 1-2 miles down the road from us but we only lost power for a day and that was it. I'm posting some pictures of the destruction that happened downtown on 8th street bc we know people there. But if you get a chance to look at other pictures. It's amazing the power of a storm!

Who's Your Daddy?

Aaron is getting ready to go on a trip. It's been a long time since I can remember him escaping life and heading to the mountains. He leaves with his buddies on Saturday to venture out into this world, to Ohio, to Hershey, PA and to his beloved mountains in Virginia. The week ahead looks wild. Work, babysit, Bible study, babysit, be with my kids, work and work & play. He's checked his list which included asking people to mow so I wouldn't have to and probably asking other things that I unaware of. He made sure to fix the van's a/c before he left with the BMW so me and the kids were taken care of. Who's the man?

It's close to Father's Day and my heart is so in love with this man. He works. Hard. He loves his children. A lot. He's not your typical guy - he does the laundry and the dishes. He mows our lawn because I hate our mower. I love that he doesn't get a new mower just because it's not self-propelled. He's simple. It's fine. He unloads the dishwasher because I don't like to. (You might be wondering what the heck I do all day????) I know that I have more free time as a Mother to spend with my children and that is such a precious gift. Thank you, babe! Thanks for making sure you kiss me at the beginning and end of each day. I love your tattoo. Well, both of them but I love the bird floating on your back. Your back full of muscles. I trace it when he sleeps, unware of my touch!

Enjoy your trip, babe, your Phish shows and your buds. Me and the kids will miss you....