Indiana Warner's

My Political Rant

2011-10-11T06:57:00.000-07:00

Politics have my blood boiling once again. I'm not a political person, so I'm not going to rant about any one person or party. It is totally annoying that we have a 2 party system. Really? There are only two views that can solve the problems of our country?! I don't feel like I can totally commit to all that the Republicans stand for or all that the Democrats stand for. Also, I feel like all politicians are either liars or naive. They don't ever seem to do what they said they would during their campaigning.

I'm sick of the mayoral campaign ads that I've been seeing. Why don't candidates campaign with their goals, views and plans instead of just saying-My opponent stinks, don't vote for him/her. Another thing that bothers me is what the voters will base their decision on. People will vote for a candidate because of name recognition. They may know nothing about the person's political plans, but they've heard the name on the news, so they vote for them. People will vote or NOT vote for someone because of their religion or race. How does religion affect your ability to be a good government leader? And race?-Don't even get me started. I don't know the religion of Congress members. I don't know what religion Barack Obama is part of. There are mostly Christians in our nation. I am one of them. I believe a person of the Islamic faith or Jewish faith could be just as good of a government leader as a Christian. I've heard other Christians say they would ONLY vote for a Christian. I just can't identify with that. Why don't we start voting based on political plans and views instead of our personal judgements?!

The Kiddos

2011-09-14T17:20:00.000-07:00

So, Owen has been saying "sayings" that he obviously does not get the meaning of. I heard him yell at Noah, " I don't like you! If it's the last thing I do!" He understands that people say that when mad, but not quite getting the full meaning. Also, the other day he left some stuff in the van and then only brought in part of it. I asked why he didn't bring in all of it and he shrugged his shoulders and sighed, then told me it was a long story. Goofy kid!

Noah lost his FIRST tooth tonight. It has been hanging in there forever. He has been super afraid to pull it. I'm glad it's finally out. Noah really doesn't enjoy learning or studying. He almost always cries when it's time for homework. Tonight he spelled a word without crying and excitedly said, "I didn't even have to cry to spell that one right!"-Because crying always enhances the learning experience!

Heidi won a lip-sync contest last week at our local festival. She did Taylor Swift's You Belong with Me. There were only two acts that showed up. I don't know if more signed up and just didn't show up or what. The elementary school division prize was an iPod shuffle and the middle/high school prize was a step up from the that, the Nano. Well, the other entry was a couple of elementary aged girls too. So, Heidi ended up winning the Nano and they got the Shuffle. Not bad. So far she has Taylor Swift and Justin Beiber and one Beach Boys song. She has been listening to it tons. Noah thinks he should enter next year to try to win one. Heck, I might enter. The adult division prize was an iPod Touch!

Staller Family Lake Vacation

2011-08-07T18:03:00.001-07:00

All of the Staller's spent a week together at a Lake house on Stone Lake in Cassopolis MI. We had lots of laughs,fun and good food. It was a little crazy at first. The kids were all so excited and wanted to check out everything. The guys went fishing at 6 every morning. Some even went at 4:30 one morning. They then fished more throughout the day and evening. We had some yummy fish to fry come Friday night. Heidi is a good little fisherman. She caught 4 one time and one or two the other times she went fishing. She said that catching fish by herself was her favorite part of the vacation.

We went swimming off of the pontoon most days. It took a while to find a good spot with no seaweed. Owen was pretty scared about going in the water, but by the end of the week, he was a bit more comfortable. We went to Silver Beach on Lake Michigan one day. There were some decent sized waves and we all enjoyed that.

Dad seemed to disappear a lot and the most asked question during the week was, "Has anyone seen Dad?" We had a trick played on us by Ryan and Brent. Brent typed up a fake news article about the house being haunted. We spent much time Googling it, but soon discovered it must be a farce. It was not until the end of the week that we found out that it was the work of Brent, and Ryan was in on it too.

We played Beyond Balderdash one night. If you have never played, you are missing out. It is hilarious. There was one where you had to tell why this guy with the last name of Leotard was famous. Dad's answer was: A burlesque comedian billed as Leotard the Reotard." We were all laughing so hard! I liked my movie synopsis of "The story of two rival gangs in Miami. Will Eduardo make it out alive?" I only got one vote for it, though. I also enjoyed Chad's movie synopsis of the Woopie Boys: "3 Half brothers steal a card and sail it down the Mississippi on a homemade raft." There were tons of funny ones and it was hard to read through the answers without busting up. It was great that all of us kids got to be there.

Oh no, All the girls will Like me!

2011-03-14T17:32:00.000-07:00

After graduating from high school, Chad worked at Target for the summer. I was informed by my sister in law, who worked with him, that all of the girls at Target liked him. It's fun to tease him about it. He was quite the stud. Tonight Chad was showing the kids his old pictures and there was one with his Target name tag, so I shared with them that the girls he worked with liked him. Owen hung his head and said, "I don't want to work at Target. All the girls will like me!" It was pretty funny!

King George

2011-02-10T06:25:00.000-08:00

I won!!! I have been listening to US 93.3 for a couple of weeks straight, trying to win George Strait and Reba McEntire tickets. The concert is in Indianapolis next week. If the radio station plays a George Strait song, followed by a Reba song and you're the 93rd caller, you win. Usually I just get a busy signal. Yesterday when I called, they actually answered, but said to call back. So, this morning when they answered I was expecting the same thing. I was so happy when they asked if I wanted to go see George and Reba!! Finally, I can listen to something other than country music. I like country, but two weeks of nothing but country is tooooo much for me. I don't want to hear about anyone being stuck like glue or about your hillbilly bone, and definitely don't want to hear the term trailerhood. Chad and I went to a George Strait concert 4 years ago and it was soooo much fun. We are pretty excited to see King George!

Absolute Kindness

2011-01-27T10:45:00.000-08:00

On a day when I was feeling especially crappy about my mothering skills, I received a little assurance that I'm not completely failing with my children. While at the grocery store, the woman in front of us left money with the cashier to pay for my groceries because she said that I seemed like a good mother. How nice?! I couldn't believe it! I was able to catch up to her in the parking lot and thank her. She said that my boys were just so cute and she has 5 grown boys. So, maybe it wasn't so much my mothering skills as it was the cuteness of my little stinkers. They are pretty darn adorable!

Christmas Vacation

2010-12-28T11:07:00.001-08:00

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

2010-12-23T18:04:00.001-08:00

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

2010-10-08T05:42:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-06T16:07:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-09T05:38:00.001-07:00

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

2010-08-18T16:26:00.001-07:00

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?!

2010-08-12T08:06:00.001-07:00

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?

2010-05-05T12:44:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-10T16:29:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-02T17:31:00.001-07:00

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?

2010-03-07T16:24:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-04T12:01:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-06T05:48:00.000-08:00

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!

All I want for Christmas

2009-12-07T05:50:00.000-08:00

That song, All I want for Christmas is you, was on and Noah exclaims, "What?! She's crazy! She doesn't want anything else for Christmas?!!!" He's such a funny kid!

Hypno Dentistry

2009-11-26T22:07:00.000-08:00

Okay, this story is a pretty good one. I just heard this for the first time from my mom and it's something about me from my childhood. First, some background on me: I sucked my thumb until I was 10. My parents tried all sorts of things to get to me to stop. I just loved to suck that thumb raw. I remember that they put Anbesol on it and then blocked the bathroom so that I couldn't wash it off. I went into our living room and slowly licked it off and cringed with every lick because that stuff tastes NASTY! Once I had it all licked off, I sucked away!! Anyhow, this thumb sucking thing came up at Thanksgiving dinner and my mom told us that my dad is convinced that our dentist hypnotized me because I had a dental appointment and after that I stopped sucking my thumb. I don't recall this dental visit and I don't have a distinct memory of quitting my thumb sucking. The dentist must have said something to scare me into stopping. I just hope that there isn't some special word that will take me out of hypnosis and cause me to start sucking my thumb at age 27! Ha ha!!

Compliment?

2009-10-26T08:52:00.000-07:00

This morning I gave Noah a hug and he looked at and smiled. He then said, "I like the way your face looks." I guess I'll take that as a compliment. He's a funny kid.

Here, Kitty Kitty

2009-10-23T09:14:00.000-07:00

Our friends gave us a little kitten on Wed. morning. Noah was a little scared of it. He's afraid of a lot of things. Heidi fell in love with it. I'm not an animal person, but it was pretty cute. Chad made a cat house for our cats that we had last year that ran away. So, we tried prepping this kitten for it. We laid down a blanket, put milk and food in there for him. He stayed in it for a good while. Well, Thursday morning as Heidi waited for the bus, she held Precious and played with him. I was doing other stuff, but then noticed the bus going very slowly after Heidi had gotten on. I then spotted Precious on the road, not moving. The bus then drove away. I was watching to see if the kitten would move and then a van ran over it. I did not want to see that! Well, all day I was worried and wondering how Heidi reacted and wondered how much she saw. After school I asked if she saw what had happened and explained that he died. She said that she cried on the bus. I felt so bad for her. She said, "Yeah, and then another car ran over him really fast." I was hoping she hadn't seen that. She said that a lot of kids on the bus said that they have had their cats and dogs run over by cars. Two of her friends walked with her to her class to help comfort her. What nice girls! The bus driver called to apologize. He said he almost had a heart attack. Noah was not that concerned that we lost the kitten. He just kept saying," It looks really gross up close." I think we are done with cats.

Funny Girl

2009-08-31T05:41:00.000-07:00

So, these are a couple of funny things that Heidi did this past weekend. It was about 4 in the afternoon and Heidi had her finger in her mouth, feeling her teeth. She took her finger out, shrugged her shoulders and said, "Hmm. Must've been a dream." I chuckled and asked what she was talking about. She said that she thought she lost a tooth, but she didn't feel any gone, so it must have been a dream. I like how she didn't think to feel her teeth until 4 in the afternoon, instead of after waking up from the dream. Now this one is really good. All of the kids fell asleep in the van on the way home from Indiana Beach on Saturday. When we got home, there was a letter in the mail for Heidi that had a return address on it. I woke her up, but she was still pretty out of it. I pointed to the return address and asked who it was from. With eyes lit up with surprise, she said, "The president!!" I laughed and said, "Whose name is on there?" Still really excited, she said, "Barack Obama!" It was from her cousin, Grace. I don't know why she thought it was from the President, but it was pretty funny.

On beautiful Lake Shafer

2009-08-31T05:29:00.000-07:00

We took the kids to Indiana Beach on Saturday. It was so much fun! We had planned to go to the water park too, but it ended up being too cold. It was really windy and only about 67 degrees. This was Owen's first time there and Heidi and Noah were super excited for him to get to go on all of the cool rides that they love. Well, the Frog Hopper is their favorite-Owen, not so much. He wasn't really all that excited on any of them, but he did ask to go again on a couple of rides. I took Heidi and Noah on the Scrambler and Noah was almost crying and asking, "Mommy, when is this ride over?" Heidi wasn't afraid of anything and she even went by herself on some rides. Oh, little Owen tried to be a boat captain. We took a ride around the lake on this big paddle wheel boat. Owen ran up and grabbed the wheel, "I want to drive the boat." Then he kept saying, "Me captain." They are so funny. I'm glad we got to take them!

Race

2009-06-09T08:50:00.001-07:00

So, I don't know why race is such an issue. It really shouldn't be. This is something that has bothered me for most of my life. I've been thinking about it more recently as I hear of interracial adoptions. Some parents have experienced criticism for adopting a child of another race. This is crazy to me. Tom Cruise has adopted children of a different race and he made a statement saying that we are all part of the HUMAN race. Okay, I know he is a little crazy now, but I wish more people would look at it that way. People often take issue with interracial couples too. They give you some bull about how it's because there are often cultural differences. There may be a small amount of truth to that, but if you are in a relationship and you discover that the cultural differences are too much for you, you won't date that person anymore. People work out all sorts of issues when dating. Society doesn't seem to think anything of a white American marrying a white Swede or a black American marrying a black Kenyan. I guess people just like to see what they are used to seeing, which usually is people of the same color together. I married someone from a different social class and culture. Nobody was protesting our marriage. We are both white with German and English ancestry, so we must be a good match. Trust me, the culture of Sandy Utah is quite different from my South Whitley Indiana upbringing. I grew up driving down dirt roads and Chad couldn't believe that people had unpaved driveways. He has since become accustomed to our strange Indiana ways-especially since we now live on a gravel road.
People try to make things about race when they aren't. I was watching Oprah once, which I rarely do because I usually end up angry with her comments, and they had interracial couples talking about the differences in their family backgrounds. Most of the things they said weren't race related, they were just differences in personalities. One couple was a black man and white woman. He was talking about how when they get together with her family it's laid back and quiet and when they are with his family everybody is loud and laughing. That's not a black or white thing. I have two white parents and he just described my family- The Staller's are pretty laid back and the Gradeless's, well, we get kind of loud when we are all together. I wish things would stop being about race and start being about people.

Have I seriously not blogged since February?!!

2009-05-21T19:52:00.001-07:00

Well, I guess I haven't blogged because we were busy getting things planned for our trip to Italy. It was so much fun. I didn't miss the kids as much as I thought I would. We were pretty busy, so I didn't have a lot of time to dwell on missing them. We did get to email them some, and they sent us emails via Mom, who was kind of enough and brave enough to watch them for 10 days. We've been home for a week and we've just been catching up on everything. It was so good to see the kids when we got home. They were so excited and so cute. I could probably write 10 pages worth of stuff about Italy, but I won't. We had a heck of a time reaching Rome. We had a 7 hour lay over in Chicago, which ended up being 8 and then landed at JFK on time, but taxied forever-seriously, we taxied so long that I thought I would pee my pants and I had to get up and use the lavatory while taxiing,even though they say to stay in your seat. We missed our flight to Rome. The American Airlines workers were less than helpful. We ended up taking a flight with a lay over in London. That flight left late also. We were 60th in line for take off, yep, 60th! So, we get to Rome, and we are all excited that we finally made it, find an ATM to get the cash we need to pay for our Bed and Breakfast. Nothing. We tried 3 ATM's and none of them worked. We needed to get on a train to meet the owner of the B&B because she doesn't live at the B&B. To say the least, I was stressed. Then, we walked around Rome for an hour and a half looking for the B&B. My arm was ready to fall off!! Things went better after that, but we were not without incident. We had ATM issues almost every day. It was really cool to see all of the famous sites in their surroundings that you don't ever see in the photos. All of the stuff in Rome is right in the city. I thought it would be more preserved or set back from streets and traffic. The weather was great every single day. It was around 73 degrees and sunny every day. Rome and Florence were crazy busy. If we hadn't had the ATM issues, which stressed me, I probably would have enjoyed those cities more. The leaning tower of Pisa totally leans more than we thought it would. I heard others around us say that same thing. Stephanie was a such a huge help. She told us what sights to see and gave us really good tips and she even called the B&B in Rome to let them know we would be 9 hours late because of our flight junk. There were some beautiful places everywhere we stayed. We got lots of great pictures. We didn't get pick pocketed, which I was sure we would. We were in Rome, Venice, Florence, Sorrento and Rome again. We took a gondola ride in Venice. That was fun. A lot of the places we saw I recognized from movies. I didn't know what Piazzale Michealangelo was, but Steph said we should go. We went, and it's totally in movies. It's the highest point above Florence and it was gorgeous. I'm glad we walked up the huge hill and then the million steps-it totally was worth it. Sorrento was a smaller coast town and it was so relaxing. Italy was great! I was sad when we came home and Chad and I didn't get to spend every minute together like we had for the past 10 days. We had a such a great time!!!!! I wasn't too sure about traveling to a foreign country, but it was really cool and not as difficult as I thought it would be. Even though there were times when I was cursing the scooters and alleys that they call streets, I'm glad we went and feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to take such an incredible vacation. Thank you, Mom, Stephanie, Chad and Rick Steves.

Pictures will be on Facebook, hopefully, soon.

What would you say if you were about to die?

2009-02-24T07:01:00.000-08:00

We were reading scriptures and talking about Moses before he died. I asked the kids, "What would you say if you were about to die?" Heidi said, "Oh, no I'm gonna die." Noah thought for a while for his answer. He finally said, " A prayer." It was pretty funny.

Heidi is a sweetie

2009-02-05T08:30:00.000-08:00

Heidi picked out Valentine's for her classmates. She asked if it was for the boys too. When I said yes, she stopped looking at the Hannah Montana and Barbie Valentines. She didn't think the boys would like those. She picked cats and dogs. Then, she said she was going to ask each kid in her class if they have a cat or a dog, so that she could give them the right Valentine. She is a very thoughtful little girl.

Clogged Toilet

2008-12-08T08:26:00.000-08:00

So, about two weeks after we moved into our new house, the downstairs toilet was getting clogged, like, all of the time. It was really annoying. We thought we were going to need to get a new toilet. Well, the other day Chad put the little snake thing down the toilet and pulled out one of our cookie cutters!!! Oh, the joys of having kids! The toilet is perfect working order now. Thanks, Chad!

NKOTB

2008-11-03T06:13:00.001-08:00

Last weekend Macy and I drove up to Chicago for the New Kids on the Block concert. We had a blast!! It was so much fun singing all of the old songs. Everyone in the arena knew all of the words. They sounded good, and it was a really entertaining concert. Our seats were better than expected, so we got some really good pictures. Donnie was as nasty as ever. The girls behind us were Donnie fans. Macy and I kept laughing every time people screamed for him. We did a lot of screaming and singing along. We had so much FUN!!!!! Most of the songs from their new album are pretty good. Natasha Bedingfield opened for them and she was really good too. So, about half way through the concert this girl sitting next to me is not feeling well. She has her head down, covering her ears. I'm pretty sure she was drunk. I just kept thinking, Why don't you go out in the hall or the bathroom. Well, she started to look like she might get sick, so I move my purse and stuff and start moving away from her. At the end of the concert she puked. Nasty! It got on my shoe, purse and jeans. It wasn't a ton, but still.

How did she Know?

2008-10-08T15:41:00.000-07:00

So, Chad was totally joking around with Heidi and asked if she did anything bad at school. She said no. He then told her that she better fess up because her teacher called and told him what she had done, which was a total lie. Heidi responded with a question, "How did she know?" At this point, Chad and I laughing so hard and wondering what she is going to fess up to. It ended up that she accidentally pulled some kids hair while she was trying to grab her chair. What a naguhty girl, huh? Chad told he was kidding, but thanked her for telling the truth. Funny kids!

I'm a new aunt

2008-09-29T11:39:00.001-07:00

Ben's wife, Jocelyn, just had twins on Friday! They are so cute and they don't look alike, so it will be easy to tell them apart. I'm just so excited for them and wish I could see and hold the boys. I don't know when I will get the chance to see them.

I wanted to see the mailman

2008-08-23T15:19:00.000-07:00

Macy was babysitting my kids today while we moved. I was informed that Noah walked in the street to follow the mail man. Macy said he was ready to climb into the mail truck when she saw him. He is obsessed with the mail man. He often gets upset if the mail LADY delivers our mail. I was explaining to him that you can't get into other people's cars. Macy told him that maybe the mail man would take him and he would never see his family again. His response was, "Maybe he would mail me to my mommy." He's a clever one.

Must Love Cats

2008-07-16T06:16:00.001-07:00

I just won concert tickets to Dave Matthews Band bec. I knew that "Must love cats" is something that men don't want to read in a personal ad. I never win things! I'm super excited! I was washing dishes and heard the trivia question "What is the phrase women should not use in a personal ad", and at first thought the answer was "great personality", but as people were calling in their answers, the dj's said that it was not something that describes them, and I knew it had to be "must love cats". I didn't even know what the prize was-if I had known it was Dave Matthews tickets, I probably wouldn't have called. I don't really care for people who dump feces on people. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3597180.stm

Chad really likes them, so that's good. Thanks to good ol' Magic 95.1 !!

We went swimming last night

2008-07-08T05:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning Noah came running out of his room, all excited, and told me, with a big smile on his face, "My shorts are wet because we went swimming last night." He came closer, and his shorts were indeed soaked, and reeked of urine. I explained that he must have had a dream about swimming, but he was positive that he went swimming and that I was wrong. I asked where he went swimming. In a "duh, mom" voice he answered, "Indiana Beach." I told him we didn't go there yesterday and he looked very confused when he realized that I was right because he was just sure he had been swimming and that's why his shorts were wet. He's so cute.

Rain or Bugs?

2008-07-02T06:09:00.000-07:00

You're driving down the road on a warm summer evening, you watch the lightning bugs light up over the fields and you hear what seems like the beginning of a rain shower. It sounds as if it is starting to sprinkle, yet there is not a cloud in the sky. What could it be? -- Bugs hitting your windshield-NASTY! There are so many bugs here! The mosquitoes have been so thick this summer. We are being eaten alive!

There's more than corn in Indiana...

2008-06-23T07:00:00.000-07:00

At Indiana Beach. We had a blast at Indiana Beach last Friday. I love that place! I always feel a little nostalgic when there. Some great memories have been created for me at Indiana Beach.-- Being smashed by Ben on the Scrambler and Music Express bec. he lied to me about which side to sit on, Riding the orange Octopus, holding on so tight on the Tig'rr that marks were left on my arms every time, listening to Dad laugh his head off on the Double Shot because he was so scared, getting kicked off of the Antique Cars with Stephanie, and so many more. We went as a family when I was a kid, and it was always great. Just seeing the Tilt-A-Whirl makes me crack up and think of Stephanie yelling, "Do you have my glasses? and "I've gotta try." Unfortunately, two of my favorite rides were not there. Well, Chaos is no longer there and The Falling Star was out of service all day. The kids had a great time, and they went on some of the big rides, and neither one was scared. Brave little boogers. It was just a great day!

Ramack Obacka

2008-06-18T18:10:00.000-07:00

Well, the media must be doing a good job... Heidi heard Barack Obama's name on the radio and recognized his name and knew that she had seen him on TV. She knew that he had something to do with being president. She couldn't quite say his name, though. It came out at Ramack Obacka. Crazy! I've got a couple of stories about the boys too. Owen has obviously seen his brother and sister spend a lot of time in the corner. My mom was joking around and told him to go to the corner, and he did it. It's pretty cute to see.
The other night I said something about how I received the Holy Ghost after baptism and Noah said he did too. I explained that he hadn't yet, bec. he hasn't been baptized. He got a little upset with me and said, "I can feel him in my heart!" They are great kids!

Christian Radio

2008-06-09T05:25:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we went to Lafayette (about a two hour drive) for my great aunt and uncle's anniversary party. Mom and Dad went too. On the way the home, Dad rode with us. He told Chad and I that on the drive there he had the radio on a Christian station because they had hymns playing, and he said, "And I thought Car wouldn't yell at me if we were listening to hymns. It worked for a while." Dad always makes us laugh.

The Cubbies at Wrigley Field

2008-05-10T17:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Chad and I had an awesome day in Chicago. We drove up and parked on the north side of town and got on the L and headed toward Wrigley Field. We had a great walk to the staduim. We ate at a pizza place before the Cubs game started. It was my first Cubs game. Chad went to a couple of games as a kid, when they were on vacation, visiting his grandparents in Chicago. We bought Cubs shirts for each other, so we were all set. It was just tons of fun! It was a nice relaxing day, just enjoying each other's company. The Cubs even won! I didn't know they ever did that. I'll get some pictures posted later-we had really good seats. Go Cubbies!!

Bellagio Bread

2008-04-04T05:05:00.000-07:00

Last month I took a trip to Las Vegas/Salt Lake with all of my sisters to go wedding dress shopping with Whitley. We ate at the Bellagio buffet one night and it was super good. I ate more than I've ever eaten in my life. Macy was kind of enough to pay for me, and it was expensive, so I wanted her to get her moneys worth. I got this bread every time I got a new plate. They all made fun of me, but it was delicious! I love bread!!!!!

Warm weather and Sanity

2008-03-14T12:36:00.000-07:00

I'm so happy that it is nice enough for the kids to play outside. It keeps me sane. Today, while they played outside, I was able to make a batch of cookies without any interruptions. It was great!

My baby sister is Engaged!

2008-03-01T09:26:00.000-08:00

Whitley got engaged over the weekend! His name is Brent and he's from Grand Rapids. They are getting married in Chicago in August. Crazy, stuff. When she moved in August, she said that she didn't want to get married for a long time, and that she wanted to date a bunch. So, I didn't figure she would be making wedding plans so soon. All of us girls are going out to Utah to go wedding dress shopping with her. It should be fun. We leave early Wednesday morning. Heidi is going too and she is going to stay with Chad's parents in Sandy. She is really excited!

What can I say? I'm a slut

2008-02-25T16:50:00.000-08:00

Yep, that's what Heidi said during Family Home Evening tonight. Chad asked where she heard it and she said on Arthur. I told her that I didn't think they said that on there and she said it was a commercial that was on before Arthur. What she meant to say was, SLOTH. It was an ad for a show with a sloth on it-Big Tree or Big World, something like that.

First Crush

2008-02-24T16:58:00.001-08:00

My little Heidi girl is getting too big!! She has a crush on my cousin's fiance. She has this little planner that she uses as a "journal" and she tells me what she writes about. The other day she told me that she wrote "Eric is so cute" in her journal. Too funny. Then, she said, "Next time we go to Great Grandma's house, if Eric is there, I'm going to dress really pretty." My first crush was either Don Johnson or Bo Duke. I still love Dukes of Hazzard. That is some great television programming!

Silverware Engineer

2008-02-23T05:56:00.000-08:00

The other day the kids were getting anxious for Chad to get home from work. Heidi said," Sometimes he has to make a lot of silverware and he has to work late." I said," WHAT?" Then, she goes," Dad told me that's what his job is. He makes silverware." It was pretty funny. Chad is a software engineer, not a silverware engineer.

End of the Parade

2008-02-18T12:45:00.000-08:00

Today has been stressful. Owen kept getting into things, Heidi and Noah have been fighting, I dumped pumpkin pie on the floor, and then there is all the "poopiness" that seems to happen when you have three small children. Without going into details, today I felt like the pooper scoopers at the end of a parade.
Valentine's day was fun. We spent the evening prepping the kitchen for painting. Chad got me little pizza pans, but we used them to make cookie monsters-like what you get at Cheddar's. It was fabulous!

Bedroom or Bathroom?

2008-01-24T19:44:00.000-08:00

I wish I had a picture to show all of you. Mom and I went and looked at a house in Zanesville, which turned out to be a more decent town than expected. Anyhow, this house we looked at had a shower in the bedroom-yes just a freestanding bathtub/shower in the corner. It was so bizarre!!

I just burpied

2008-01-22T17:19:00.000-08:00

Okay, so this is kind of gross, but pretty funny. That's how I preface a lot of stories that I tell about my kids. Noah brought his diaper to me. It had "skidmarks" in it. I asked if he pooped in his diaper and his reply was, "No, I just burpied." YUCK! He's a little confused about his bodily functions.

Adoption

2008-01-18T06:04:00.000-08:00

So, some of you know that we are going to adopt our next child. We did all of the paper work and had our profile available to birth mothers for about a month, and then we found out that I was pregnant with Owen. So, we had to put everything on hold. When Owen turns 1 ( in March) we can resume with the process. I just thought I would try to explain our desire for adopting. It's hard to put into words why, exactly, we want to do this.
The more I read and understand adoption, the reason I want to adopt is becoming as much for the birth mother as it is for the child. We want to adopt a child that is not as likely to be adopted by someone else. Most people adopting want a white infant. We are open to a child of any race and one that might be a little bit older. The older a child gets, the less likely they are to be adopted. I think foster care is one of the saddest things. Children want a permanent home. I would love to adopt a teenager or sibling group (because those are the least likely to be adopted), but we were counseled that if you have children already, it doesn't create a good situation to adopt children older than the children you have. Also, we don't have the finances to adopt more than one child right now. As I hear birth mother stories I realize how tough and truly gut wrenching it must be to decide to allow someone else to raise the child that you carry for nine months and give birth to. I've heard them say that of course they wanted to keep their babies, but they also realized that they didn't have the resources to raise the child-whether that means money, maturity, a stable home... Most of the birth mothers that I've heard speak, say, in the end, they didn't feel like it was their child.
And on the other end-adoptive fathers. Most are hesitant. They don't think they could love a child that isn't biologically created by them. That's pretty understandable. BUT I've heard them say, as soon as they held the baby, they knew that was THEIR child. Adoption is so amazing. I know there will be challenges, but I'm excited. I truly believe that adoption is brought to us from God. I believe that some children are born into their families and others are adopted into their families. People think that being blood related is so important, but I'll tell you what -there are plenty of people who are blood related who just plain don't like each other.

Computer Literacy

2007-12-12T18:11:00.000-08:00

I suppose I am computer literate, and that's about where it ends. I can type an email and usually even send an attachment. Chad is a computer nerd, so until he dies I feel no need to learn. I know that's really lame, but true. It's hard for me to learn how to do things, because he shows me a different way every time. He's always putting new stuff on the computer and moving things and it just gets too confusing for me. I seriously have trouble putting pictures on the computer. Every once in a while I figure stuff out and feel pretty proud of myself. Sometimes I scream because I hate computers. I rely on them so much, and then when they are not available, I feel helpless. So, now that you know how unskilled I am with computers-this should be funny. I worked at a dentist office for about 2 1/2 years here in South Whitley. These people were completely computer illiterate. They seriously called me a computer genius!!!!!!-and that was because I knew how to type in a web address. One time my boss was trying to give an email address to somebody, and it went a little something like this: warner@nataliecom@.net. I think I laughed out loud. Oh, computers.

Charity

2007-12-12T09:58:00.000-08:00

I was reading the visiting teaching message in the Ensign this month. It was about charity. I started thinking about all that I read, and a lot of thoughts went through my head. I don't think it is charitable to unjustly judge others. We don't like to give money to people on the street because we think they will use it in a manner contrary to how we think they should use it. We complain about serving the person in the ward who seems to always need service because we think they are taking advantage of people or of the church. There is more to these peoples' lives than what we know or see. We know one fact about them, and judge. It is a commandment to love all people and to serve all people. For me, I feel it is my responsibility to help take care of others. If they choose to do ill, they'll have to answer for their actions.
Something else that I've thought about is how I initially react to a news story about some horrific crime. I think Who would do such a thing?! Recently I've found myself feeling compassion for these people who are generally considered scumbags. More than that, I feel for their families. Think about it. When you think of criminals in prison, that's what you think-criminal. They are people. That is someone's brother, someone's husband, someone's daugther... They can't be summed up in one word like criminal. Think of your loved ones. What nice things could you say about them? I bet the criminals' loved ones would have some of the same things to say about them. You wonder what drives people to so such awful things and often times, they do them repeatedly. I was thinking about some of the recent mass shootings. How awful must a parent feel. I'm sure they feel some level of responsibility for what their child did to these undeserving people and they are mourning the loss of a child also. It's all very confusing.

Small town living

2007-11-19T17:08:00.000-08:00

Okay, so some people think that I'm stuck in South Whitley, or that I've not done anything with my life because I live in the same town that I grew up in. I LOVE SOUTH WHITLEY! I have a lot of pride for my town. I left and lived in Utah for four years. I didn't like it. Partially because it was Utah ( and I got made fun of for saying sweeper and pop), and partially because it wasn't South Whitley. I missed my corn fields, the green, green wheat fields in early June, old men in their overalls drinking their coffee down at the Corner Cafe, the Corner Cafe french toast, all of my family and a million other things. Small towns aren't for everyone. Some people would go nuts living here! I wouldn't care for living in the city or in the suburbs. It doesn't fit me. I'm not comfortable with it. I'm sure if I did end up there, things would be fine, but I'm just really happy with living in a small town.

Getting good deals

2007-11-02T14:03:00.001-07:00

Okay, so I went to the mall for the first time in, like, 8 months-except for when we were in Texas-but that was to take the kids to the play area, not for shopping-it doesn't count. Anyhow, I was looking for shoes. I need some black flats. I want kind of a mary jane style. I can find what I like, but not for a price I'm willing to spend. I didn't find anything today, either. However, I did find a way cute shirt at Charlotte Russe for $2.50. That's cheaper than Goodwill! Now I think I need to go back and get some more-they had a ton. I didn't try it on at the store-I had all of the kids with me. Taking three kids and a double stroller into a dressing room-I don't think so. Well, I love finding cheap stuff and you can't beat $2.50 for a cute shirt. I also got a good deal on fall decorations at Joann's. They had stuff 70% off. To me, it's not a sale unless it's at least 50% off, so I made out pretty good today.

2007-11-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

Okay, I figured I needed to get in on the blogging action-everyone's doing it. I don't know that anybody cares about what I have to say, but I guess I'll type away anyhow. Um, the big thing going on at our house is our bathroom remodeling. Exciting, I know. We are planning to move a larger house in the Spring, and need to make some improvements to our home before putting it on the market. I guess that's all for now.