Christmas Vacation

This Christmas vacation has been so great! We've had lots of days to sleep in and lots of days with nothing on the calendar! I've had a few days where I haven't had to make supper-that's always welcome. Chad has come home early from work a couple of times. I always love that! It has been fun being with the kids and it has been fun that they have had sleepovers with family. Last week Macy had all 3 kiddos for a sleepover, so Chad and I went to a movie. We never do that! We don't usually want to pay for a babysitter, dinner and a movie. It gets expensive. I've had lots of time to organize the house and get rid of things we don't use. With all the new stuff we got for Christmas, I've been in a purging mood. Goodwill will be getting quite a load from the Warner's. We've had some kids to our house too. It's just been very relaxing to not have to be out and about. Whitley gets here today and I'm excited to hang out with her! Yesterday, we finally got all cleaned up from the Christmas chaos. Today I've been taking down the Christmas decorations-which makes me sad. It does feel good to get the house back to normal, though. Noah turned 6 yesterday and had Tyler over for a sleepover. Tomorrow will be his birthday celebration with the extended family-chocolate cake and chocolate ice cream! I'm looking forward to Christmas at my mom and dad's house on Friday and the New Year's Eve party at McNair's. I'll miss Knecht's, though! Saturday is the Gradeless Christmas and that will be the last of the holiday festivities. Let me send out an early Happy New Year to everyone!

Karate Kid

We just watched the new Karate Kid. It was pretty good. I do have one beef with the film-there was no karate! You shouldn't call it Karate Kid and then have Kung Fu as the sport he learns. Also, that kid's hair was really bad. Owen thought he was a girl and refused to refer to him as a him. Every time he asked a question (Which was about every 30 seconds) he would say why did SHE do that or why is HER shirt like that? All in all it was an enjoyable film, with a bad title.

Political Campaign Ads

I don't care if you are still married to your high school sweetheart. That hardly warrants a reason for me to vote for you! I'm sick of these campaign ads where voters are given dumb reasons as to why they should vote for a particular candidate or where they totally bash the opponent. I recently saw one that rails on a candidate for changing his mind about his career two times-(3 times if you count the choice to become a politician, but don't most politicians start out in somewhat reputable careers before they become crooked?) This same ad continually called the candidate liberal, but within this ad, said that they didn't know where he stood on the political issues. How can you call him liberal if you don't know his point of view?! Start giving me some good reasons why I should vote for you. That's great that you a nice person who is patriotic and cares about farmers, oh and small business owners, but what are you going to do in office?

I'm R2D2's Sidekick

Noah watched Star Wars once at a friends house, and is now obsessed! He imagines everything being Star Wars or Star Wars related. Today he was talking about how it would be cool if you had a Jack in the box and if Luke Skywalker popped out holding a light saber. He also now has Owen obsessed. Owen was even humming the theme song before he even saw a Star Wars movie.

Going ons of the Warner's

So, here is some of the stuff going on with us. We are working on redoing some of the things in our downstairs bathroom. We have painted and are ready to put in new baseboards. We ordered a sink/vanity top and are not sure when that might arrive. It is taking a long time to get done, but I hope we like the end result! Chad and I went canoeing on the Eel River a couple of weekends ago and I just want to say that it was wonderful! We had a great time together-and I didn't see any snakes, thank goodness! Heidi is working on writing song lyrics. The title is Is it really Him or am I Thinkin' Crazy. She sang it to me a couple of times and the lyrics are different each time, but it's basically the Taylor Swift song-You belong with me, in Heidi's unique wording. I bought some Puma shoes and Heidi said, "Those are cool. It looks like there is a squirrel jumping on them." I don't think Puma's would be quite so cool if it were a flying squirrel instead of a pouncing puma. My shoes are pretty sweet! http://www.shop.puma.com/Repli-Cat-III-Leather-Women%27s-Shoes/pna885445461438,en_US,pd.html#search

Little Owie is pretty much potty trained! I know, he is three and a half and it should have happened a LONG time ago. If you've met Owen, you know how ornery and stubborn that little guy is. He has mostly been going around with a bare bottom under his clothes. Lately, he even puts underwear on, as long as it's his idea and not mine.

Noah is really enjoying Kindergarten and he is doing well. He really likes his teacher and has made some good friends. He is doing well with learning how to read and surprising me with how much he knows!

I bought a book, Outcasts United. It's about a town with a lot of refugees from Congo, Burundi, Sudan, Liberia, and other places and a refugee soccer team was started. I've been wanting to read it for a while because one of the boys on the soccer team is a kid that my friend tutored. She told me about the book and the author of the book and it sparked my interest. I don't take time to read books, so we'll see how long it takes me to get through it. http://www.outcastsunited.com/home

Noah is making me Laugh

So, Noah has said some funny stuff today that I thought I would share. I was showing the kids pictures of Machu Picchu and Noah said, Is it like R2D2 because it sounds the same. Also, Heidi was telling me about her teacher and said she is married. I asked if she had kids and Heidi said no. Noah goes,"Bummer." I kind of laughed and he shrugged and then in his high pitched voice he said, "What, kids are great!"

When are we Going to be Out of the Middle of Nowhere?!

We drove to Utah at the end of July. Our trip was quite long. We stayed in a disgusting hotel in St. Louis and then a really nice one in Denver and finally arrived in Utah on the third day of driving. The mountains past Denver were scary to me and it didn't help that Chad kept pointing out things along the road, instead of paying attention to driving. Then, the drive through Western Colorado and Eastern Utah was treacherous. Heidi was asking when we would be out of the middle of nowhere and said she just wanted to see a house! There is nothing, not even billboards- because there is nothing to advertise. There was seriously one stretch of road where there were no services for 130 miles! Every once in a while there were some cool mountain views, but those lasted for about 3 minutes and then back to desolation and ugliness. We drove through Zion National Park. That was unlike anything I've ever seen. It was cool and scary. They were doing construction so a good portion of the drive was on gravel and it was raining, so parts of the road were washed out. Even the kids screamed once because they were scared. Again, Chad was pointing out formations and waterfalls while driving. That did NOT help my nerves! We arrived in St. George at 9 PM and it was still 98 degrees! While we were there it was about 107 each day. We took the kids to see the temple there, went to a fun splash pad and an animal museum. We got to see some Chad's cousins and the kids all had fun playing together. St. George is such a nice city. It's definitely my favorite place in Utah.
After St. George we headed up to Pleasant Grove and got to meet cutie Grant and spend some time with Whitley and Brent. We went to the Dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point and had delicious Pizza Factory pizza! The evening was finished with yummy ice cream cones! Then, we headed to Sandy to stay with Chad's parents. Chad's brother and his family came up from Phoenix too. We went to Temple Square and the Conference Center in Salt Lake City and ate at The Pie. It was fun to go to good restaurants out there that we don't have here. Antelope Island was our next destination. It was SUPER windy and a little chilly. The kids thought it was pretty cool to swim in the Great Salt Lake. The next day we went to an aquarium and hiked to a waterfall.
Friday we headed to Bear Lake to meet up with Chad's other siblings for the weekend. It was great to see everyone. We did 4 wheeling, swimming, a rodeo and went to a play- Bandito Rides Again. It was super cheesy, but had some pretty funny parts. We left Sunday and drove about 6 hours to Cheyenne and stayed with Chad's sister, Kristi. We went to a fun park and the boys lit fireworks for us to watch. It was really nice. The boys have guns and Owen said to his cousin, Cole, If you get a bb gun for Christmas, you'll shoot yours eye out. Noah and Owen were sad that Uncle Christian had already left for work by the time they woke up.
The drive back home wasn't too bad. We stopped in Omaha at the Winter Quarters museum and we saw the temple there. The kids got to dress up as pioneers and wear the clothes the whole time we were at the museum. The humidity about killed us when we got out of the van in Omaha. It's crazy how much hotter it makes you feel. Driving was boring at times, but we got to see some cool stuff too. We saw a ton of antelope in Wyoming. The kids fought just as much as they do at home. We don't have a DVD player in the van, but we did hook up the lap top and they watched a movie once on the way out and once on the way back. We had lots of treats and I had bought a bunch of stuff at the dollar store for them to play with. Heidi and Noah were both glad to be home, but Owen wanted to turn around and go back to Grandpa and Grandma's!

Who is Tito?

So, here are two funny things that Noah said today- Heidi was singing do re mi fa so la ti do and Noah asks, "Who's Tito?" Also, he is under the impression that attention is a form of currency because he told Heidi that she needed to pay him 1,000 attentions. Crackin' me up!

New York City

New York was such a blast! I met Bud's roommate and her boyfriend when I first got there and they were cool. Bud and I went shopping in Soho and found some good deals. We checked out Chinatown and found some cookie things for Chad. I like to buy him different kinds of food bec. he enjoys trying new things. I got chopsticks for the kids at Pearl River. That was a fun store. We hit Hale and Hearty Soups at Chelsea Market. It was quite hearty! It was fun being with Bud and not having to worry about which train to get on and try to figure out where things are. She knew right where to go.
Sunday was pretty laid back. I called the kids and told me all about what the Easter Bunny brought them. We went to church and in the afternoon/evening we hung out on the roof. It was a lot quieter up there and there are great views of the city. We walked the Brooklyn Bridge and checked out the sea port.
Monday was our most eventful day. We got up early to go to a couple of sight seeing places before going to the Statue of Liberty. We wanted to try to get standby by tickets for David Letterman, and we were the 1st callers, so we got standby numbers 1 and 2!! We had to answer a trivia question about the show-What type of store is Rupert's? We were glad it was an easy one for us! Time was tight between the Statue of Liberty and The taping for David Letterman. We had to run a couple of times. We ran 3 blocks down Broadway. I had to stop for a short break. I don't exercise at all, so this was pushing it for me. I coughed for fifteen minutes after we stopped running. Bud thought it was hilarious. David Letterman was fun. They had a lot of rules about when to yell and what you could yell. The theater and stage are a lot smaller than they look on TV. We were in the second to last row, and that was only 12 rows back. It was really fun!! We then went out to eat at PJ Clarke's with Bud's friend. He was fun and the food was really good. We finished the evening with manicures. That was the first time I've gotten one and it was interesting. I couldn't understand the lady and wasn't sure what I supposed to do with my hands sometimes, so I was asking Bud lots of questions.
Tuesday we went to Regis and Kelly. I tried out to be a go-go dancer, but wasn't picked. They do pick an audience member to win a $500 gift card to different places every day. AND I WON!!! Kelly drew my number out of a bowl and I got a gift card to Omaha Steaks. Bud had to nudge me to tell me it was my number. It was funny. We saw Carol Burnett, Michael Kors and Kim Kardashian.
I love visiting the city!! And always have a great time hanging out with Bud!!!!! That picture is from the roof of Bud's building. Pretty sweet, huh?

Shipshewana

Today was one wild day! I had a flight scheduled to leave South Bend at 6:30PM. So, we planned a day of fun in South Bend with the kids before I had to leave. Heidi was sick to her stomach this morning, so it looked like we wouldn't be doing any of our fun stuff that we had planned. Then, I remembered that we had some anti-nausea medication and then she was good to go in about 20 min. That stuff works great! In South Bend we went out to eat and got some good pizza, went to a park, walked along the river, got some delicious treats at an Italian bakery, and then back to the park for some more play time. Then, we headed to the airport where I found out that my flight was canceled. So, I to head out tomorrow morning at 7 from Fort Wayne. On the way home the boys decided to start clubs and wanted to have club meetings when we got home. Well, it took about an hour for our meetings to begin. We kept getting phone calls and I was trying to figure out my new plans since my flight was canceled. Just as we thought all the chaos was over, the doorbell rang. CRAZINESS!!
So, Noah's club is Farmer Tarmer and we had a secret handshake followed by a discussion led by Noah concerning craters and gratefulness. Owen's club is the Strawberry Club and he asked everyone what their favorite part is in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. These kids are too funny. And now to why this is titled Shipshewana. On the way home Girls Just Want to Have Fun was on the radio and Owen started to sing along-only he sang Shipshewana, Shipshewana. What a day!

Cat or Dog?

I had a friend offer us a cat over the weekend, and I reluctantly agreed. We have not had much luck with cats in the past. I told the kids that we will be getting a cat and Noah said that he hopes it's a big cat and not a kitten because the kittens aren't big enough to take care of themselves. Owen then chimes in with, "I hope it's a dog." Oh, is he going to be disappointed!

Most Beautiful Girl in the World

A while ago Noah told me that Taylor Swift was the most beautiful girl in the World. Today a Taylor Swift song came on (He recognizes her voice) and I asked if he still thought she was the most beautiful girl in the World. I think I embarrassed him. He said no and then I asked him who is. He answered with "Heidi." What a nice brother!!

Great news and funny stories

We are adopting a newborn who is due to make his/her arrival on July 9th!!!! We just met the birth mother a week ago. It has been one crazy week! She just found out that she has to be on bed rest for the rest of the pregnancy. She has an incompetent cervix and is having a procedure done today to help with that. We are excited to be parents again and are praying for her as the pregnancy continues.
Here are a couple of funny stories about the kids. Heidi got a baby doll for Christmas and named it Always Wanted because she has always wanted a sister. Our birth mother told Heidi that she would try her hardest to give her a sister! Another Heidi one: She was telling me about the movie she was watching while we were at Knecht's and she couldn't remember the title. She finally told me it was called The Heroes from the Underneath. They watched Rescuers Down Under. Owen's nursery teacher said that on Sunday he kept carrying around a baby and giving it a bottle and looking for a blanket. Then, he kept saying "My baby is in Indianapolis." Our birth mother was visiting Indy, but doesn't live there. Yesterday we did a video chat with our birth mother. She is in the Army, which totally surprised Noah. He didn't know that girls could be in the Army. He was showing off his muscles to her and said that he was stronger than her. Not yet, Noah. The kids are pretty excited to have a new brother or sister. We find out if it's a boy or girl in the next couple of weeks!