Happy Summer!

Ah............summer is here!! No school-yeah! We're all enjoying being off and being home. Brent & Maddy had VBS last week. Hayley is too old for VBS but she helped me serve snack. It was a fun week. The kids had a blast!

Ball is over for the kids. A few rain outs that aren't going to be made up. Maddy has her last game tomorrow night. The pic's are Brent pitching in one of the last games. Closer pic's of Hayley catching. I'll put more pic's on. The older boys are required to wear helmets now when pitching. Our girls teams our getting face masks also. A 15 yr old Loveland boy was hit last year-he was pitching and a line drive hit him in the head. He was in bad shape and has to relearn all the basics over.

Happy Birthday Madison!!

Happy Birthday Madison! I can't believe my baby girl is 7! I made her favorite spaghetti for dinner and had cake and ice cream. Gma/gpa have been here for 2 wks now so they were here to celebrate too. Maddy loves Barbie's so she got a new boy to add to her collection and some other cool stuff. Clothes from Justice her fav store. We've been busy w/ball. Hayley's the catcher in the pic. She really likes to catch. Brent has started to pitch this year. It's been fun for gma/gpa to see the kids' games, celebrate bday, mother's day, school stuff while they're here. The kids are done w/ school this Friday. They've had parties, field days in the last week. Hayley went to Camp Kern w/ school overnite last week. She really had fun. They went canoeing, hiking and lots of other fun stuff. Another school year over. Where does time go? We're all excited to be off for the summer and hang out at the pool. I can't wait to go to Outer Banks! We went to Wright Patterson Air Force Base today. Huge museum of history of planes, war, etc. Well, I'm off to relax.

it's been a while.......

At first when I tried to log in from our new lap top, I couldn't access my blog. I tried again now and I'm in!!

We've been busy w/ ball. Lots of games getting rained out. The girls started games this weekend but they got rained out. Practice and some of Brent's games have been rained. Brent's team is doing good. They're young! Brent and a few other boys pitch. Brent does pretty good. It's cute to see his wind up!

Hayley gets her braces off tomorrow. Brent also goes to have an xray to see what he needs in terms of braces. The ortho thought just the 4-5 teeth on top.

I ran the 1st leg of the Flying Pig today. I woke up at 3 am to a storm. It was still lightening at the start line. And it stopped but continued to pour. Which was actually nice-cool and refreshing. Our team w/ church ran for the Ferrell family whose son has cancer again. In total, the team raised $18k for the family! It was a fun, interesting experience. At the end, there's free food everywhere! Donuts, chips, fruit, water, gogurt.......yummy after running! My leg was 6.8 miles. I walked but ran most. Lots of people running. Some walked the 1/2 marathon. I'm a bit sore now but it was worth it. I may even do it again next year. We'll see. We started by Paul Brown stadium, into Ky for a few miles and back into downtown Cincy. The race started at 6:30 am, I was up at 4. My neighbor picked me up at 5.

I can't believe there's 1 mo left of school. Where does time go? Hayley made the A/B honor roll again.

So, I'm off to relax, read and go to bed.

Spring Break, Happy Easter!

Happy Spring!! It's been wonderful, warm and sunny here. We are at the end of spring break. The kids and I hung out M&T and Scott was off W-F. It was nice to be off, stay up late and sleep in. We went to Mammoth Cave in Ky on Wednesday. It's the biggest cave in the US. Not the longest. It was pretty cool. We all really enjoyed it. They have different tours of the caves to take. At one of the Q&A times, the ranger turned off all of the lights. WOW! Dark and little bats flying around. It was a fun day get away. We brought a picnic lunch to have there. It's a Nat'l Park so there were people there camping. Not sure as I would do that in Ky since they have poisonous snakes. We drove thru Elizabethtown Ky on the way back. Stopped in DQ=)

I picked up my new laptop-wireless on Thursday after a little jaunt with Hayley to Justice! The girls love that store. Anyway, my laptop is in the dr so I can look out the window, feel the breeze and hear the birds. I still need to sync it to our other computer downstairs. We've had fun w/ our new movie room in the basement. We bought a 58" Panasonic tv. We have our couches down there and it's full theater affect. Pretty cool.

Ball for all is under way. Busy weeks. The kids are having fun now that's it's nice out and staying lighter later. Me too.

We are in bible study until June. Our study is alot of reading but the spiritual growth I've had this last few months is huge. I talk to, pray to God and it feels great. I've kept a journal and I can say I've had prayers answered. Or issues have had light shed on them. Makes me feel content. I guess this is a perfect day for that talk. I feel Him in my life everyday and I'm thankful. I'm so thankful HE has brought us to OH and the wonderful things/people, new experiences HE has enriched our lives with.

I'm not sure I'll be able to be at the barn anymore. I was having trouble w/ my allergies. Then I started problems w/ my asthma. I was using my inhaler too much for the time I was there. Finally, after one Saturday, my attacks wouldn't stop and I went on like that for a week. I had to go to the dr for a steroid to make them stop. She told me I couldn't but I heard 'shouldn't' go there anymore. I could go back on Advair (took it when we had cats) but it's not worth it to be on meds everyday to go up there once a week. So I haven't gone. I can tell now how sick it made me going up there even before I had asthma issues. I've missed my horses. If I went, I can only stay outside which I'm not sure how much help that is. I can still go see them which is hard if they're not in the barn. I'm not walking out into a field of horses. I've seen what can happen. So, for now, see what happens and what works out.

Jenny & Chris across the street moved last week. Their son Mason was friends w/ Brent. She was my Twilight bud =) They moved to Indy so it's not too far away. We'll stay in touch and get the boys together and see Eclipse in June! The new people just drove in yesterday. I'm assuming the truck will be here tomorrow. They're from DC and looks like they have a daughter Maddy's age and a 3 yr old son. People around here come and go. Another family friend of ours from church is moving to CT. He's been tranfered to Manhatten but I think they want to live in CT. Can't say I blame them.

Well, I'm off for now.

=)

Flying Pig Marathon for Jake

A family in our church and Loveland community, their 12 yr old son Jake was diagnosed with cancer-again in December. He had cancer as a baby and had treatment and it was very rare for it to return. It has unfortunately. This family has kids our kids' age and are in the same grades except Jake is a yr older than Hayley. Their dad plays softball on the church league with Scott. Scott's Friday am coffee group and some of their wives are forming a team to run for Jake in the Flying Pig Marathon in Cincy May 2nd. I agreed to run and I'm running with a few other wives/friends. This is a fundraiser for the family. If any of you want to donate to my run, please do so. All of the money raised we are giving to the family. I am not running the whole marathon-UGH! I'm not really sure how many miles. We are doing it as a team so..........I've heard 6 miles. I will send an email with more info later regarding donations.
God Bless!

What a week!

It's been great having gma/gpa here! They arrived in time to watch the last 1/2 of the Super Bowl =) The kids had 2 snow days last week and I have a feeling they will have another tomorrow. It has been snowing all day here. We have so much snow it's not even funny. This is the most snow Cincy has had in a while. As we are not alone. The kids only have 1 more snow day then the days get added to the end of the school year. We took gpa out for his bday on Tues to his favorite place-Paxton's in downtown Loveland. His other fav place is Cheeseburger in Paradise. Madison had an ear infection last week and is feeling better.

Scott was off Friday and bought us a new dishwasher. We went this weekend and bought new furniture for the living room. A couple of couches, chair, end table, lamp and a leather ottoman that is big enough to sit on. Gpa/Scott painted Hayley's room a limey green. Looks very cute! And the painters are here today painting our entryway and hallway upstairs. Tomorrow they do 2 of our big walls in the living room. I'll have to post 'after' pic's. We have color and it's GREAT! It's going to take a little getting used to but it's wonderful.

It's official! We have made reservations for a condo in Rodanthe NC in July!!!! I can't wait! It's only 600 miles from here-shorter than Mn!

Well, that's about all for now. I need to get something warm to drink-I'm freezing!
=)

A's........summer vacation

All is well except for a few sicko's in the house! Brent & Maddy are home again today and Scott is home today too. We can't shake the crud! We need to because gma/gpa are coming on Sunday! Gpa's bday/Valentine's day and Hayley's straight A report card are to be celebrated! She's had 2 B's and all A's but this qtr she had all A's! Brent and Maddy's report cards were terrific as well.

Hayley and I went with church a few weeks ago to Kids Against Hunger to pack food. There were so many people there that she, 6 other girls and another mom I know packed the toothbrush, comb, toy bags. We got a ton done and the girls had so much fun doing it! It felt wonderful to know those bags will help someone. The toys were so cute too.........I hope the kids like them.

I'm excited.....I'm in the midst of finding our vacation rental in Outer Banks NC for this summer! YIPPPPEEEEEEEEE! There are mostly 5 bdrm + houses and we don't need that much room. I have found a condo right on the beach in Rodanthe! It's where Nights in Rodanthe was filmed. But anyway, it's beautiful and I can't wait to go! It could be a one way ticket for all I care =) No, now is not the time to think of moving again but that's my next stop somewhere on the coast. A family that is friends of ours here have a timeshare in Myrtle Beach and that's our next vacation!

The barn is great and I can't wait for warmer weather as I'm sure the horses can't either. The rescue had to put 2 down last week. One was old and failing and the other was quickly going blind due to mistreatment before she came to the rescue. The rescue however has 3 new horses. One looks like a dalmation! So many spots. He's a little antsy and one of the girls was working on his manners with the stall door open and I think he had enough and decided it was time to go. He charged his way out of the stall, knocking the volunteer down and into the concrete wall. She thinks she may have broken a rib. I keep my distance from the horses I don't know too well.

Well, I better go and get ready for work. I need to stop and get a Starbuck's for hubby and me.