Goonies Reunite

We reunited in Portland, OR this time.

More to come!

Go Colts!

It's starting to look a lot like Christmas....ok, Christmas is over but not the snow. We are getting some major lake effect snow right now. I say 2 feet. Aaron says we have more like 6 inches. Whatever. It looks like 3 feet and South Bend had that much today. We are currently on our date night at Mom & Dad's, sitting by the fire while watching the football playoffs. Colts play at 8pm and I'm super pumped about it. I think we will spend the night here. Kattor is asleep by the fire. Aaron went to get beer. I'm reading blogs. Life is good.
So update on the last 3 months.....we didn't travel this year to PA or VA. Aaron just laid down the law and said he's not driving in snow this year. Blaine & Connie will be coming in a few weeks and we will eventually go to VA to meet our new niece Eliza Kate Long. We had our Christmas at mom & dad's on the 18th of December. We did some singing, listened to Shelly's Liam recite the entire Christmas passage in Luke, watched the kids open their presents and played games/poker (guys). How did I forget eat? My favorite. The kids got some money for Christmas (and their birthday's) from their PA great aunt & uncles and we decided to allow them to spend it this time instead of putting it directly into their bank accounts. I'm sorry, I meant, we allowed them to blow their money. Thank you Aunt Lindy & Uncle Lynn and Aunt Audrey & Uncle Arnie but let me just tell you what they bought. Laish bought guns - marshmallow shooting guns, dart guns, all of them. Emma bought a $40 dog that eats a dog treat and then shits it out and barks. Now Laish is saving his money for a gun like his big cousin Liam has. No No No No. Emma's been good about informing him that Santa and reindeers do not exist and after the blow of $, I have also explained that Christmas will not likely come again. =)
Speaking of guns, here's my latest Laish story: Our church makes cookies for Gospel Echoes each Christmas which is partly an organization that will deliver homemade cookes during Christmas to people in jail. Laish was disappointed that we didn't deliver them ourselves. Then began the gun fettish. Fast forward 2 months. So one night before bed, I am trying to scare the piss out of him. Telling him that people with guns that shoot people go to jail and people in jail stay in there for their entire life. He didn't blink an eye and said "At least they get cookies."
On Christmas Eve we told the kids they weren't allowed to wake mommy and daddy up before 6am. After that, no problem. Keep in mind, our kids have traveled their whole lives, so we have never had a typical "Christmas morning" where they open gifts etc. My family never did that but Aaron's family always did. Aaron's dad used to have a dairy farm so he would torture the kids by taking his time with his bfast after chores. Aaron was already getting excited about how he might torture them. Poor kids. Well, Emma woke up first and said, "Mommy, it's 7:22!" I have never seen either kid get up so fast. Emma hollered for Laish to come and he came running out. He stopped for a second and said, "If your eyes get a little fuzzy when you first get up, just shake your head a little." We totally surprised them and bought their Uncle Reggie's old Wii. What did we do before the wii? Geez.
Emma started back to school this past Wednesday. Wed's is Aaron's turn to get her up bc it's my one day off. Apparently he set his alarm for pm vs am so she missed the bus that day. She is a child of routine so it wasn't the best start for her. Friday the bus never showed up so Aaron piled as many neighborhood kids in his truck that he could and took off. Then the bus came. Half hour late. Never figured out what happened. She continues color, read and write as her hobbies. She's trying to convince us to let her join Art Club. She's a prankster and a jokester. Shy and not very chatty, especially to strangers. She has an infectious smile and loves her cousins.
Laish/Bodie has moved on from being "shadow". He was sonic for a while and now he's Bodie again. He's really into his big cousing Liam right now. He's very emotional - giggles a lot, can turn his crying on and off in a heartbeat, asks lots of questions, very huggy and snuggly and eats a lot of food. Aunt Renee said she thought he grew an inch or so since she had seen him last. He loves Legos and creating his own airplanes...that have guns on them. He is Mr. Chatty Chat. He will talk your head off if you let him. Aaron said to me the other day that he doesn't really listen to him anymore. I came into his babysitter/my friends house the other night and they had company and Laish was over talking to some random guy there. I went to rescue the random guy. He just said, "yep, he's a talker."
The latest news is that my brother Reggie and Arica had their first baby - little Audree Sue Shetler. Yes, her initials will spell ASS. She was born little and cute. I haven't seen her in a week and having withdrawal. I adore my new nieces and nephew. Berta's Justus is so huge. I love love holding him. Then their's Aaron's sister's new baby. I wish I could post her picture. She looks just like her mommy Beck. She is so cute with her hair spiked so high. I cannot wait to see her. 3 new babies in the last few months. I love it.
Aaron's been diagnosed with hyperthyroid recently, like his sister Beck. We don't know much yet but that his blood tests came back showing thyroid issues. He goes back again for more tests this next week. He's been very cold, not sleeping, irritable (nothing new there), anxious, lack of concentration. I'm working more at my brother's office bc one of the gals quit to be at home with her kids. It's kicking my butt. 4 days a week and I can barely take it. Hard to imagine I used to work 5 12 hour days when at Roadway. Aaron's job as Director at Bashor has expanded yet again. Bodie asks to stay at home more - he gets dished around to babysitters each day and ends up being the one that suffers I think. My sister Berta introduced me to a new author "Francine Rivers". It takes me about 2 days to finish a 2inch thick book. I love her. The kids will yell at me for their food and how hungry they are, but I just can't put it down. Check it out. I cried through one night of book reading and Aaron told me I looked like I had been beat up the next day - swollen eyes from crying and little sleep. They are Christian novels. Not love stories. Just good stories that are half true. Somewhat historical. Good. If you are reading this, buy me more. And for all of you who send out pictures for Christmas, I love it. Especially all my buds from hs and college & who live elsewhere who I don't see anymore - Candi, Laura, Karla, Sharon, Kelly Jo, Kratzer's in MN, Angie. Even the local folks. I don't know why we don't do it. I guess bc we still don't have computer/internet at our home so no time to just sit and fiddle. Ok, it's 8:10 and I have to go watch Peyton Manning and the Colts beat the Jets.

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!