Try-athlon for Kids

Can you even see this? This is Emma doing the Try-athlon 2012 for kids. She placed 3rd in her category. These are the pics that the Michiana Timing company took of every single person at the finish line. They each got a medal and then the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners got trophies.

Here's Bodie. He placed 3rd also. What a blast. Their cousin Liam did it too and Emma's best friend Kylee. It was a hot day but the kids didn't care a bit. I stayed home Friday & woke up Saturday with a migraine but the Lord healed me enough to go along and help Aaron. Thankfully Aunt Shelly & Uncle Sean were there too to assist in the transition area from swimming to bike. And of course Aunt Shelly ran with Emma and Aaron ran with Bodie. I was barely functioning but did a dang good job holding the backpack and towels and encouraging everybody. Sigh. Despite what Karla says, I once was a great athlete.

Tasha's Wedding

Friday night was my niece Tasha's wedding. She married Luke Jones. It was a gorgeous wedding. Emma and Laish were both in the wedding as a Jr Bridesmaid and Jr Groomsman
along with all of their cousins.
What a blast they had.

1st day of School

Ahh the 1st day of school. Let me give you a brief overview: my alarm goes off at 5:30am instead of 6:30am like it should have. So at 5:30am I hit the alarm off and apparently Aaron's wasn't set right soooooooooooo at 6:50am we shot out of bed yelling at each other about who's fault this was. Emma popped up right away. Ate her breakfast in speedo time, brushed her teeth, got Laish's toothbrush ready, combed her hair, got dressed, grabbed her backpack and was ready to go out the door. In the meantime, Aaron and I are doting over our son, who's 1st day of kindergarten isn't going as well. He cried the moment he woke up until the moment he got on the bus. He was too tired, the light was too bright, he's too cold, the light is still too bright, doesn't want to get dressed, just so tired. Then just as we are all getting ready to go out the door, Aaron says "Did you guys want your lunches packed?" I could've punched him. Of course, they were like "yes, yes." So I scrounged together some applesauce, granola bars, juices and well, that's about it. We have switched to eating raw food mostly and I wasn't prepared to pack their lunches- only mine.

Well, we got it done with teamwork and actually had plenty of time to say a pray and wait in line for bus #1. Praise the Lord up above. There are 4 kids (including our's) at our bus stop (Emma, Laish, Cheyenne & Damon), and they helped Laish to get out of his funk and stop crying. He got on the bus and sat at seat 4 and off they went.

We held hands on the 3 second walk back to our house, immediately sat down on the couch and prayed. Well, Aaron seemed fine but I was still shaking from the morning fiasco. I didn't cry like I did when Emma got on the bus her 1st day of Kindergarten. Laish had his big sister to show him to his class, to sit on the bus with him, and to help him come home. Emma had to do it all on her own. Laish would be fine (I hope).

Well, the kids got off the bus then at 3pm. Laish just kind of plopped down on the porch and sighed. Emma was pretty chatty. They both had good days, thanks to their teachers Mrs. King (Laish) and Mrs. Thompson (Emma). Emma went into the bathroom after school and noticed Laish's toothbrush still setting there with toothpaste on it. She said, "Laish, did you have bad breath today or what?" Sweet Emma.

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.............