Guess Who Stopped By Our House Last Night?

Thanks to St Nicholas and his little elf!

NCYC 2011

Claire, Tasha, Jen, Cole, John and Dana return home after 4 days spent in Indianapolis with 23,000 other Catholic teens at National Youth Catholic Conference. It was great to hear the stories and witness their excitement as I drove them home from Galion.

The Get-A-Way

I finally thought to get a picture of the three of us on the annual overnighter Mom, Maureen, and I do each fall. Usually we have dinner on Friday night and then start shopping but this year after dinner we went to see Elle at Krogers and then after she got off work she rode her bike home and we met her at her apartment (she actually beat us). After mom and Maureen saw her place she rode along with us to see Ben's apartment. It worked out great. We got back to the hotel around 11:30 and crashed. After sleeping in we had breakfast at the hotel and then shopped till we dropped. I am so grateful for the wonderful relationship I have with my mom and sister and the chance to take some time for the three of us to make some special memories.

Nameless

As of Friday Nov 18 Elle has a new pet mini lop. Colleen and I picked up this still nameless little guy and brought him home to bunny-sit until Elle comes home next week-end for Thanksgiving. He is very cute and seems friendly. We found out that Elle saved this little guy's life as his family needed to find him a home and his days were running out. Now that he has a home the only thing he needs now is a a name.

Flying By

I took this picture sitting on the front porch one afternoon at the end of summer. I remember thinking I had a million things to do but I was mesmerized by the plane making loops across the amazingly beautiful sky...so I sat and listened and watched. I remember forcing myself to take that time to enjoy the moment. I want to live in the moment and be happy with where God has placed me...right here...right now...even when I feel like time is flying by!

Last Minute Pumpkin Carving

Time got away from us (surprise, surprise) and so the night before Halloween I got down to the business of carving of pumpkins and roasting of seeds. The boys provided moral support...yea they look great mom! I keep looking out the window and checking to see if they are still glowing,,,so far so good!

Trick or Treat

Katie
Alec
John
Tony
Thomas
Alex

Football and Picnics and Car Shows...oh my!

September 17, 2011! We started the day by attending Michael Starrs football game to help celebrate his 16th birthday. From there we went to the General Mills family picnic with a bouncy house, bingo, volleyball and lots of yummy food. We finished off the day going to the Upper Sandusky car show where we enjoyed lots of cars and candy from the local candy store we discovered last year at the show. Sweet day!

Nurse in Training

Here is Michelle right before she moved down to Columbus to start nursing school at OSU...she has now been at it for over a month and as suspected it is difficult...add to that she is working at Krogers 28 hours a week! Lots of praying going on here for this amazing young lady! You can do it Michelle!

ooops...forgot 12!

15

Same old blog!

When I logged into my blog today a little box popped up that said "create a fresh new look for your blog". I am sure it would be wonderful to take a whole afternoon and revamp my blog but I already have a list of things I long to do and aproximately 1 hour of free time and I cannot decide what I should do:
*read
*journal
*blog
*take a walk
*cross stitch
*start crocheting
*work on my binder/scrapbook
*photo albums
*write letters
So what do/did I decide to do... first I wrote in my journal about my dilemma over what to do and now I am blogging about it. I am down to about 45 minutes and my body is in stress mode just trying to decide what to do. This is ridiculous. It just occured to me to write each item down on a small piece of paper and pick one...well here goes.....the winner is....photo albums!

Oh What A Beautiful....Summer

Is every summer this wonderful?

This summer has been so full of wonderful memories made and so much of God's beautiful creation enjoyed that it must be like no other summer. And the most wonderful thing is we still have 28 days of summer left!!! I have kept a notebook of what we have done on a daily basis and I hope at the end of this month to post a listing of summer 2011 memories.

Until then back to the business of summer :)

Liesel

This summer the boys and I have spent our Friday mornings exploring area garage sales. We have had a blast and found some great bargains. I was so excited to find this little statue. I have seen it in this family's yard and admired it. Who would have ever imagined that one day they would be selling it at their garage sale? Colleen decided it needed a name and it didn't take long for me to come up with the name Liesel which came from the book entitled The Book Thief. John had to read this for his summer read and I really liked the book and the character. This also happens to be the name of one of the characters in the Sound of Music. Perfect!

goodguys

Gary and John went to the Goodguys car show at the State Fairgrounds in Columbus. They took the Escort but had trouble in Mt. Gilead and I had to go rescue them with a replacement battery. We traded cars and they had fun but very hot day sharing their enjoyment of classic cars.

Y.E.S.

John, Clare, and Stasia were just 3 of the teens that helped out with the YES week-end designed to help those in need of some basic household maintainence and repair. John became an expert at trimming bushes!

summer hail...o

After The Rain

We have had the rainest spring and early summer I can ever remember. I haven't really minded as it has given me time to read and organize and it has also taken care of watering my flowers on a regular basis. Then there are the rainbows....God's beautiful sign of hope in the sky!

COLOR!

Colleen and I decided it was time to give the downstairs bath a facelift. So while Gary was in Michigan with his dad we went to work. It was so fun to have a partner to work with. I must say we are quite proud of how it turned out.

Youth Rocks

The Youth Group put on the play "Christ on Trial" as a fundraiser for their NCYC trip. They did a great job especially considering they were only able to practice once the day before. John seemed quite comfortable in his acting roles as various witnesses. He must take after his big sis!

Duet

The boys played in the Sturts Studio Piano Recital. John played "Medieval Pageant" and Thomas played "Raven's Call" and together they played a piece called "Song". They did a marvelous job. Both boys have had a great year in piano!

good bye grade school... hello high school

John attended the 8th Grade recognition ceremony for OHVA at Capital University on June 4, 2011. He was also inducted into their chapter of the National Junior Honor Society. What a great accomplishment and a special day! We are so proud of John and excited for the next chapter in his life!

Done!

Thomas is officially done with 5th grade! Wooo hooo! What a great year it has been. I think this has been our best year yet. I feel like I found my groove this year... OHVA with some tweaking! How I can tell that it has been such a great year is here we are at the end of the year and while I am ready to be done and enjoy summer vacation I am not feeling burn-out! I am treasuring the homeschool experience and thanking God for these precious days with my sons!

Happy Birthday to me!

What a special birthday my 51st was! My husband and sons made me a card and decorated the eating room, the girls brought me starbucks, a yogurt parfait, flowers, a card that was so them and an amazon gift card, I spent some time shopping, bought a purse and spring coat and ended the day with a dinner at Roadhouse with my family and Zach.

Thank you God for all I am blessed with!

My Easter Bunnies

My wonderful husband remembered to take a picture of my little bunnies on Easter Sunday as I was feeling under the weather. As it turned out I spent Easter Sunday in the emergency room with what looks like gall bladder issues. I have been watching what I eat and so far so good.

14 Candles

What I pictured was 14 candles with pictures of each station on the mantle and my family prayerfully saying the stations of the cross blowing out one candles after each station. Reality was 14 mismatched candles, trying to get them all lit without burning my fingers (Colleen saved the day), arguing over who was going to blow out which candles, John proving he could lay on the couch and still kneel at the apporopriate time and some giggling as we tried to figure it out. I am learning it is not picture perfect that God wants but our effort because when it was alll said and done it felt right.

Exploring the Pond at Gorman Nature Center

So this was probably my favorite field trip of the year. The sun was shining, the naturalist was intersting and funny, and the boys had a great time seeing the critters up close and personal in the nature center and then found all kinds of cool water creatures using nets to dig in the pond. Usually when we go to a nature center or park the boys are ready to go after a short time but this day they were aborbed and I just got to soak it all in! Ahhhhhhhh!

A Day in Western Ohio

Here is the crew at the Neil Armstrong Space Museum. We spent a couple hours here and had a chance to meet John's teacher Mrs Houser. What a sweetie she is. We attempted to have lunch here on the picnic tables but the wind made it hard to keep lunch from "flying" away and it was a bit chilly. We left here and went to Maria Stein to visit the Shrine of the Holy Relics and see there little museum. Fun day with good friends!

Come Holy Spirit

We were able to share Timmy's confirmation day with him at St Michael's. Aunt Maureen was his sponsor and their Bishop Murry was the celebrant. Afterward we all went to Wendy's for a sandwhich and had a great time. A lady stopped at our table on her way out and told us she thought it was great we had prayed together and how blessed we were to have our family. Yes we are!

Golden Memories

We spent a day at Ohio Caverns this past month. The caves were super cool and probably the boys favorite field trip this year. Maybe it was constantly dodging the flying bats. I have been there before but had forgotten how impressive it is to see all the stalagtites and stalagmites. The day ended with a stop at the gift shop and John decided to spend some of his money and try panning for gold. All three boys enjoyed it and found some interesting looking rocks but no gold. My memories of a day with the boys however are golden.