I'm a Quitter

I'm giving up on the potty-training. I've been at it 4 hours. :)

Not because I'm sick of it, but I'm convinced he's not ready. Just doesn't have the bladder control yet.

We started at 7:30am. By 9am, I got him to pee into the potty, and he figured out how to release it. He was pretty proud of himself after he figured out that was the goal in this process-- and he liked the 2 choc chips he got as a reward.

By 9:30 or so I got him to figure out that he has to keep trying to make sure his bladder was empty. When he can't get any more out, then he says, "It doesn't work." :)

Then we'd get his pants back up and he'd play. I'd set the timer for 5 min. He'd still be dry in 5 min, so I'd give him 1 choc chip. I'd set the buzzer for 5 min more, and he'd be wet by the time this timer went off. This happened all the rest of the morning. He's gone thru at least 10 pairs of pants and 10 pairs of training underwear.

Every time, he'd pee his pants within 10 min of just having totally emptied his bladder. He drinks a lot, and pees a lot, and I guess it just comes right out. Thus, I'm gonna try this again in a couple months, when he's physically more ready for it.

Guess it'll probably be Jan. I potty-trained all 3 girls in January when they were 2. (2001, 2005, 2007, I believe) Maybe that's just a good month for me. :)

Rescue Mission

Sat pm we went to the Martinsburg Rescue Mission. Once a month, a different board member from our church does a service there. A while back, we had volunteered to help Lou D when it was his turn, and now I think he might be calling us every year when it's his turn. The board members always like to take someone who can play piano, and preferably other people to sing, etc also.

We met at Lou's house (Dad, he's the financial man you talked to when you were here) and left Micah there. Lou's wife and daughter watched Micah (works out well!). The girls all went with us. Chad did a great job leading in some songs and he played a sax solo. The girls joined us and, as a family, we sang "The Joy of the Lord". Then Lou gave a short message-- 4 men raised their hands for salvation!

We talked to some of the men. Fascinating! One man told us he walked across the country-- in a month. Think that's true? Jer, how possible do you think that would be? How long did it take you to walk from Delaware to Morgantown-ish, WV?

One man told me he was in the service for 4 years in Alaska. Talked about the 6 months of light, and 6 months of darkness. How people kinda flip out during the winter. I'm sure I would. Yikes.

The girls hung around us pretty closely because some of those men were kinda strange-looking. It was a fairly warm evening (70ish, still) and one man had on plastic under his several layers of clothes, and, before he left, he carefully around towels over his head and all around his face. I'm not sure how he even could SEE because I couldn't see any eyes.

Plus, it's just a little weird for us to be in a room with all men. :) Lou said it's not too strange for him because he grew up attending an all boys boarding school for orphans in inner-city Philadelphia. Interesting!

Party Girl

On Friday, we had Claire's first bday party with friends. This was kind of a last minute planning deal for me... I think it was the night before her bday (on the 11th) that she said, "Are my friends coming tomorrow?" I had totally forgotten I had promised her a friends party, since K and J had had their first friends party at this age. Thankfully, several girls were able to come, even tho most didn't even get a week's notice.

Claire had a great time! She loved having so many friends over, she loved the theme, she loved the decor and games, she loved opening presents, but mostly she just loved having friends over. As each one left at the end, she got sadder and sadder (she told me this later). After the last one left, she stood looking out the front door, getting ready to cry.

We had a fairy theme, since Claire likes fairies. It wasn't an extremely well-done theme, just mostly girlie-type stuff. What I could find at Dollar Tree on a quick visit.

Since Claire doesn't like bday cake, I didn't even bother. Made pink sugar cookies shaped like stars with sprinkles instead. Had red, star-shaped finger jello. Girls each got candy bracelets and took home a fairy wand to play with.

We played a fairy hunt game that went really well-- kids paired up and looked all over living and family rooms for pictures of fairies and flowers that Jenna had hidden. In the end, we didn't even count them up and declare a winner-- so much easier to just have fun that way.

BTW, Jenna helped a lot with this party-- I remember Katie helping me a lot with Jenna's last party, and Katie loved that, but Katie was gone to a friend's house this time. Jenna really enjoyed it-- setting things up, decorating, getting ready, helping me serve and run things.


These are the party-goers. We invited all 12 girls in Claire's first grade class at school. 7 came, so we had 8 wild first graders here for 2 hours, plus. I was pretty glad I'd only made it a 2-hour party! :)

Oh, and Micah made it into this pic. He was supposed to nap thru the whole party, but I knew that probably wouldn't happen-- he sleeps through a lot of noise, but not 8 first grade girls shrieking and yelling and blowing on party horns. :)

I sure was glad when Chad made it home early from work-- he helped me watch them outside. It was a gorgeous day, and the kids had been asking if they could go outside to play, so I dropped some games, and they went out to play. They ASKED if they could rake our leaves. Of course! Then I told Chad we really ought to get them to pick up our acorns, so he got out some buckets and made up an acorn-picking-up game! He-he! When one of the dads came to pick up his daughter, he said something about having a party at his house next weekend-- I think he wants his leaves raked, too.

Hulls

Brad and Wanda Hull came over for a few hours on Sat. You may remember they were the missionaries we visited in PNG last year. We had a great time with them again.

Funny, we really didn't get any pics of them other than these-- Brad went in our woods and cut down a branch and made a rubber band shooter for the kids. Jenna and Katie got a huge kick out of it. She even started shooting stinkbugs outside. Oh, dear. :)

Hmm, last night, I got a phone call for a political survey. One of her questions was, "Do you own a gun?" My only thought was about this rubberband shooter, and I could hardly keep from laughing at her question. {BTW, I DID laugh when she asked a very obviously biased question like, "Do you think Joe Machin is a rubber-stamp for the policies of Pres Obama?" What's the deal with wording a survey like that?}

ANYWAY, Brad and Wanda are relocating to the NTM home office in FL, so now we'll have to go down there to visit them. :)

We watched the new DVD presentation they put together since coming home for this fulough-- fun to see Lapilo and all the PNG places and people we know.

Potty

I'm trying to get my courage up to potty-train Micah tomorrow. Last week, I even put it on the calendar for Oct 27. :) We'll see how well he and I do at it... Sounds silly, but if you've ever had to potty-train a kid, you know this is a real request-- pray for us, if you think of it.

I have a book that claims you can potty-train in one day. Hah! I'm just hoping to get a good start at it.

Grandparents Day

Last Thur was Grandparents Day at Grace. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pics. Chad's mom came for it, in the middle of a busy time for her (some company over)-- for which we are thankful. Maybe some year my parents will be able to come for it, but, this time it hit right during corn harvest. It was pretty important for the girls to have someone there.

First they had classroom time, which only was a total of 50 min, so Gma hopped from Jenna's to Claire's classrooms (Katie (middle school) was not involved). Then Gma took the 2 girls out to lunch-- to Ryan's! They loved it. I would, too. :)

Then there was a program at the end-- for which I played piano and Chad was the "runner" getting the next class each time, so Gma got time with Micah, too.

We are thankful for all our kids' grandparents!

Stinkbug Update

Stinkbugs have overrun our lives! I have found them in all sorts of nooks and crannys (including our bins of clothes in the garage :( ), but this one takes the cake--

I found 2 cooked stinkbugs in the oven this weekend.

Volleyball Ends

So the 2010 middle school volleyball season has ended. I'm glad because it will free up some time :), but Katie sure enjoyed it-- she'd like it to go all year long. She made a lot of improvements in her setting, bumping, and esp serving this year. And next year, she's hoping for more playing time because one of the 2 main setters is an 8th grader and will be moving up to the varsity team.

These are pics and videos from the weekend tournament. On Friday night, at the playoffs, our team had to play the best team in the league-- one they had never beat. Our girls really gave them a run for their money, even winning one of the 3 games in the match. They were really close to winning the 3rd game as well.

Because we lost, we played in the consolation game on Sat. This match was very disappointing because we played a team that was definitely worse than us, and we made mistakes left and right-- ended up losing.

Below (very bottom) is a video of the point that Micah cost for our team. He was so proud of his sister, Katie; and so clueless. And it's a good thing that was the last game, cuz he saw us laugh and laugh at this video. If we had another game next week, he'd be sure to do it again for laughs.

Backside

Funny sleeping position. Micah doesn't usually do this-- had to grab a pic when it was happening. Usually, he turns right over onto his belly in bed and sticks his thumb in his mouth. He definitely hasn't figured out how to stay straight on a bed yet.

Claire's 6B Birthday Party

Chad's parents finally got home from tramping around the West :) and they came over for volleyball games and Claire's 2nd 6th birthday party. That's one advantage to living far away from family-- spreading out your birthday for a few weeks!

We all enjoyed a choc cake with pb and choc frosting while she had a bberry muffin. Grandma had also brought a balloon shaped like an owl. (BTW-- now Micah thinks this is HIS balloon, and it has gotten a lot of use-- prob will be a favorite toy for the next week)

She got lots of fun things-- clothes and books and a denim purse to decorate and a fun marble game that has already gotten a bunch of use.

Happy 6th Birthday, Claire Elizabeth!

October 11 is Claire's birthday! We had a great day celebrating it with her...
Because she doesn't like chocolate or frosting or ice cream, sometimes it's interesting finding treats Claire likes. We found out this year, tho, that she likes coffee cake, so that's what I made for her bday this year. (Last year, I still made her a chocolate cake, then we ate it for her while she had peanutbutter crackers. :) And it worked out well because my parents had to leave right after breakfast. So, we had a breakfast party!

Mom provided some bday decor, including sunglasses for each person.

This was hilarious! When Claire opened the card from Papa and Grammy, she loved the Tinkerbell with the number 6; then, she opened it, and it played a song-- Claire loved the surprise! And then, Micah loved the card. Carried it around and opened and shut the card so he could make the music start and stop.

Among her other presents, she got some sheep Webkinz from Papa and Grammy. Also some ponytail holders, gummy bears, tracing paper, sidewalk chalk.

From us, she got a skirt outfit for church, a new purple (pink? mauve?) sleeping bag, a DVD.

Katie gave Claire a memory box, on which she had carefully put a lot of letter stickers. I don't have picture of it, but Jenna gave her a homemade activity book and some bracelets/necklaces/rings she had in her room.

My parents left after the party, and then Claire had a great day of playing with her new things. I think having a morning party worked out nicely.

I had several piano lessons throughout the day. Just before the first one at 10am, I said to Claire, "You need to go get dressed before they get here." And she told me she didn't want to get dressed at all today because Mrs. Clark (her school teacher) had told her she ought to stay in her pajamas all day because it was her bday on a day off from school. :)

In the afternoon, she did get dressed, tho, because we went for a picnic to Poor House Farm Park (isn't that a weird name? Has 3 nouns in a row!) in Martinsburg. Perfectly lovely day for it! Our neighbor, Taylor, came along and it was such perfect fall weather. We had a picnic by the lake, kids fed/chased/were chased by the ducks/geese, Chad and kids did a little fishing with hotdogs/cheese/water chestnuts/fruit roll-ups, and I walked/ran/skipped with the kids over to a playground.

Measurement update-- Chad measured Claire on The Door. She grew 3 1/2 inches since last year, and is 3 inches taller than K and J were when they turned 6.

And, because she's the youngest in her class, she's very happy to finally be a 6 year old in first grade. :)

Papa and Grammy Visit

My parents usually come out sometime in the spring and sometime in the fall-- this fall has been so busy for them, tho, we didn't know if it would work out. A week ago or so, they were able to plan it for this past weekend-- squeezing it between soybean harvest and corn harvest.

They arrived Thur pm for Chad's bday supper. On Friday, Dad spent the day recovering-- took THREE naps. :) We didn't mind, cuz every time he slept in the recliner, more money fell out of his pockets. :)

Mom helped me plan out a small flower bed I want to put in the front lawn, and then she and Micah and I went to the produce stand near here. Mom bought some little pumpkins for the girls to draw on with markers, and we got some black cherry cider. Mmmm. Meanwhile, between naps, dad took a drive to Big Pool and took a walk. After lunch, mom went to read to 3 of the grades at school-- including Jenna and Claire's classes. The kids (and teachers) all loved it, maybe no one more than Claire... for C's bday, mom had brought Happy Birthday, Moon to read to the kids AND another book she read had CLAIRE as the main character! She loved it. It was also C's bday treat day-- she had asked me to provide cupcakes, some yellow and some chocolate, and some with frosting, and some without. That way all her friends would be happy.

After Micah's nap, Dad and I went to school, too. We all watched Katie's volleyball match-- against the school with the best team. We did lose, but it still was a very good game to watch. Katie played for part of the first game-- and did a terrific job! She served twice, bumped the ball, setted the ball twice-- no mistakes at all. I was so proud of her!

On Sat, we first went to get our church directory pics done, which went very well, BTW. Then mom and dad joined us and we headed to Berkeley Springs for the Apple Butter Festival. It was a fun experience, but definitely not something I'd want to do too often. The weather actually got quite warm-- over 80-- and there were LOTS of people. The people are part of the fun, of course, esp here in WV-- just fun to look at what kind of people live in our gorgeous part of the USA. We watched a turtle race (which Dad thought was about as exciting as watching grass grow :) but Jenna esp enjoyed it, looked at several craft booths (mom bought something-- ask her), heard some bluegrass music, ate funnel cake and chocolate covered pretzels. I realized later we never got any apple butter.
Here's Jenna helping to stir some apple butter

This is how much Micah liked the apple butter festival.

And, later, at home, Papa read to Micah. Papa read him a few different books over the weekend.

Also Sat pm, we went to the Michaels' for supper-- always fun to get together with them. And great food, of course! Danny was there, as was Ben's wife, Jessica, who is visiting for a few days while Ben's in Afghanistan. After supper, the kids were all playing in the basement when Alex Lehman came in-- Alex is Danny's friend; they both were former 4th grade students of mine; and now Alex is one of Katie's middle school teachers. Katie had a look of complete SHOCK on her face when she came out of the basement and saw her teacher there! Hah! Teachers are only supposed to live at school...

Sunday was busy with church activities, but mom and I fit in some time at church in the afternoon so we could play piano and organ together again. Fun and sentimental at the same time. :)

Mon morning they stayed for Claire's bday breakfast and party, and then headed out by 8:45am. Glad they worked out the quick visit!

Other fun adventures-- Mom and dad got introduced to our lovely stinkbugs... Mom enjoyed watching Micah stir a stew outside-- in an old bucket, he puts in mud and water, sticks/acorns/grass and this time he added wiffle balls... Dad helped Katie with her math homework (which she really does pretty well at but she does not enjoy at all)... Dad and Jenna counted the kernals on an ear of his corn that he brought and then they estimated how many kernals in a bushel/acre/all his corn fields (she totally enjoys doing math problems like this)... Dad taught Chad and me about the Coriolis Effect and how it affects long-range bombing...

The Big 3-8!

Chad's really getting old... 38th bday was Thurs. I'm so glad I'm so much younger. :)



We had a small party for him on Thur pm. My parents arrived just in time for the big meal-- I think the lasagna was calling them. Mom asked if Chad had requested lasagna and carrot cake; I said, "No, but if I HAD asked him, that's what he would have requested." Now the carrot cake may have varied to coconut cake or coconut pie, but the carrot cake is very high on his list.



After supper we had a few gifts-- some shirts, a grill brush, and some other pretty useful items.



Better than those-- the cards the girls each made for him. Fun to see their creativity.

Family Historian

For a school project a couple weeks ago, Jenna had to make a family tree-- she did a gorgeous job of it, as you can see. On the trunk of the tree are pics of her and her sibs, then it branches off to me and my family, and Chad and his family. She went up to her great-grandparents.

Techie Wiz

Micah's our upcoming Techie Wiz. When the girls started school this fall, we taught him to do Reader Rabbit Toddler by himself-- this one is very easy because all you do is move the mouse around and it does things, no clicking necessary. Pretty soon, tho, he also started clicking in appropriate places. And he LOVES to do it.

Claire-ness again

Yesterday, I was sitting on the living room floor, helping Katie with her quizzing, while Claire was "doctoring" me with a hammer (!) and a syringe. She spent a while checking my reflexes, not only on my knees but also on my arms and stomach, etc.

Then she pronounced me a "hot little mama". He-he!

Michelle

Funning

Various goofy Claire-ness lately:

Claire asked Jenna, "What country of the world speaks sign language?"

Claire makes up the verb "to consequence". As in, "Mommy, why aren't you consequencing her for what she did?"

Not sure if this one originated with Claire or Jenna... Sometimes, Claire will suddenly look all pouty, and really rather angry (she can be very expressive with her face!) because someone did/said something she didn't like. At this point, Jenna will ask Katie to help cheer Claire up-- saying something like, "Katie, can you keep Claire's madness from permanating?"

Opining on an Outlandish Ohio Operation

He-he! I had trouble getting these in the right order-- so you're seeing some of our friends first. This is Ken and Kim (Koziol) Lee-- kids Kenneth, Andrew, Micah, Carissa. And these are the Wingert kids on The Rock. Bren, remember we painted that for you once??

This past weekend we took the fam to Cedarville for Homecoming-- it was our 15 year reunion. Had a terrific weekend! This'll be a long one cuz I included lots of pics and a few videos at the end.

We left after the kids ran their Race for Ed races Fri morning-- it was about noon when we were off. Took about 7 hours from school. Kids rode very well. Even mom did. :) Arrived in time to see part of a varsity volleyball game-- this was one of our top priorities since Katie plays volleyball. We loved seeing those college girls slam the ball! Micah enjoyed cheering and climbing around on the bleachers. I don't know if he really noticed the volleyball much at all.

After that, we went to the Homecoming Concert (Prism). Chad and I would have LOVED to have stayed for the whole thing. Esp since symphonic band played at the end. Alas, our kids thought it was some kind of torture. I guess we're not doing something right. Don't they have any appreciation for good music? We made it thru about an hour of it-- because I had sneaked them each a bag of mini marshmallows, and because K took M out in the hall for a while. There was an alumni trumpet medley, a few faculty solos, men's glee club (girls couldn't figure out why this was called "glee" because it wasn't funny at all :), women's choir, etc. Later on we could have heard Clevenger on piano and DiCuirci on euphonium and Pagnard on trumpet. Oh, well!

Saturday morning we went to the homecoming parade-- here's our good-looking group--

The kids enjoyed watching and listening, but mostly getting all the stuff they hand/throw out-- candy of all sorts, donuts, cans of rootbeer, balloons, popcorn, flowers.

Above is the new Cedarville mascot. They finally wanted to be more etymologically (is that the word?) correct-- since the nickname always was the Yellow Jackets they decided to make it look like a yellow jacket instead of a bee. Of course, change is always rough-- I think it looks kinda dumb. :)

BTW, the campus sure has changed in the 15 years since we graduated! We've been there to see different changes along the way, but the latest one seems to really change the look. They put up the new Bible building right between the old chapel parking lot and the lake-- really blocks the view of the lake, til you're around all those buildings. Everything is beautifully kept up, of course. Kinda sad that the old chapel and Bethel are gone. :)

Big fun part about going to homecoming is seeing a few of our old friends. Above is Eric Johnson, one of Chad's roommates. His wife Johanna and kids Keoni and Naia (sp?).

And, we had a brush with the famous... above is Dr. Bill Brown. Hah! Funny that we got such a good pic of him, huh? :)

After the parade, they had some inflatable things and other fun stuff set up for kids. Of course, there were a LOT of kids, but Claire still got to go down the big slide a couple times.

Then was our class reunion, in a tent by the lake. Quite windy, and, as the clouds came over, it got pretty chilly.

Here is the Lee's baby, Katie Handel, Claire, Katie. Because we see the Handels once a year or so, our kids were able to have fun together without too much shy-time.

Here's Jenna with Emily Handel. Their biggest entertainment-- collecting the confetti strips off the tables and stuffing them into J's sweatshirt pocket.

Micah was off and on fairly cranky this day-- probably because he didn't get to sleep til after 10pm in the hotel and then awoke at 6:30am. And he was really ready for a nap, so after the reunion we did a quick bookstore visit and then headed out of The 'Ville.

We stayed at the hotel that used to be the Holidome in Springfield. By the time we arrived back there Sat afternoon, M was sound asleep in the car, so Chad stayed out there with him for an hour while he napped. I took the girls in to the pool. They still had a lot of fun, but it was a bit chilly and the chlorine level was esp high. Changed the color on 2 of our swimsuits. And the girls' hair still feels funny, even after washing.

Our room overlooked the pool area-- Micah had a great time looking out of our window down at people in the pool.

On Sat we went to Ed and Linda Dungan's for supper. Chad went to their church and their home many Sundays during college. Had a great meal. Fun to visit with them again. The kids loved playing with their grandkids' toys. Micah made a great big mess with candle wax, tho-- I hope they can get it out of their carpet and couch! He's not usually destructive like that, so I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention. Sorry again, Ed and Linda!

Above is a stuffed mouse and the "nest" Jenna so carefully made for it.

Below, Ed and Linda and their daughter, Megan. Their son, Patrick, lives in NC with his wife and 3 (soon 4) kids.

Below, a wonderful painted building we stopped to admire in Ohio. SO realistic!

On Sun, we stopped at Hocking Hills State Park-- very beautiful. Chilly, but we had some layers. Only Micah seemed bothered by it. He was a little cranky during the walk, too. Poor kid-- his hands were very cold. I should have had mittens and a hat for him. Although, I don't know if he would have kept them on-- he was pretty upset by the warm coat I wanted him to wear. It's a tough transition from 95 degree days.

We asked an info lady for a recommendation for a short walk with our little kids-- she sent us to Old Man's Cave. I have to tell you that our kids were NOT very happy to do this. When we started out talking about it in the car, we heard lots of negative comments-- it's not going to be fun, I'm not going to like it, etc. (Of course, then we had a discussion about your attitude and how you can MAKE something fun). And then...

We had TONS of fun on this walk! The girls loved it. They even said so spontaneously by the end of the walk! It was beautiful, the cave was neat to see, and we had some interesting discussions. More below.

This is Old Man's Cave. I and the girls are in it.

We had fun looking at tree roots.

And someone thought it looked like these trees were kissing...

Among the interesting topics we discussed-- I told the girls the little I remembered about jr. high. Mrs. Z, Mr. Bullock, the blue pants/shirt outfit I loved, playing basketball (he-he!).

Funnier, tho, was when I told Katie that she had broken her leg when she was 3-- had her leg in a cast for a year, etc. I think I almost kinda had her wondering if it could have been true. :) Then Daddy told her that soon after that she broke her ear, and then her belly button so we had blow her up like a balloon, etc. I guess they all figured out the ruse by then.

Racetime

Fri morning was Race for Education. Jenna and Claire ran and ran and ran! I think they each did around 20 laps. I enjoyed running/walking about 18 of them with Claire. By the end, she was complaining that her leg, her arm, her head, etc hurt. Funny-- when her lap counter said, "Claire, you've done 16!" Claire said, "16! When I'm 16, I'm going to drive in a car so I don't HAVE to walk!"

Middle school and high school do service projects around the community. Katie was in the group that stayed at school, so she washed windows and picked up trash all around the property, etc.

Stinky Plague

We have an Asian invader. Supposedly they came from Japan in some packing material or something. We'd like to send them back. :) They are stinkbugs-- and they really do stink if you smash them. Thankfully, they are usually slow-moving so they are easy to catch, but then we don't like to smash them. Back when we were getting a few a day, we would flush them in the toilet. But, then when we'd have a couple hundred in the house a day, and we were in the middle of a drought, we didn't think flushing the toilet that many times would be a good idea. So Chad hit on the idea of putting them in an empty milk jug.

They were esp bad the week before last. It was everyone's main topic of discussion with friends and neighbors. :) They love to crawl in crevices, so they crawl in at doors and window. Esp our deck door, and esp on sunny afternoons. We would open that door for 10 sec and 12 of them would fall onto the kitchen floor.

The disgusting noodle pic is from one supper time... the stinkbugs are attracted to light above our table. One must have fallen in the noodle pot some time during supper. I don't mind them so much as long as they aren't on me (they make me feel very creepy-crawly) or my food.

Some of our friends would talk of having them just cover the side of their house. Someone else mentioned going into a house that had been vacant for a couple weeks-- stinkbugs were everywhere-- in closets, all over clothes, etc. One friend has dogs that like to eat them (and then have very bad breath later), but I guess they have no natural predators here in the West. Look out-- you'll have them in another year or two!