Lovingshimer Family

Time

2010-05-10T05:37:00.000-07:00

Here we are a week of May already gone. There are so many things happening so fast that sometimes it is hard to keep up. I'm not complaining though, not at all because it is all worthwhile and, in reality, there is minimal drama or conflict. I am just trying to stay a step ahead in the game.

So what's been happening you may ask. Oh, where to begin. As you may or may not know, I am a co-director for Girl Scout day camp at Howdy this year. That is almost a frightening proposition as I can barely plan my way out of a paper bag. However, those that put me in charge are confident in my ability to pull this off so who am I to argue? I am not alone in this by any means. The committee of people involved in Howdy Day Camp is extensive. We are all volunteers after the same goal: providing a safe, fun-filled week of camp to some 250 girls. Our theme this year is Camp Howdy All-Stars. We are focusing on lifelong fitness and nutrition which is so important to young girls these days. Planning is going well and things are falling into place nicely. Our first leader training is this Saturday. After that, I am sure time will fly by even faster than it already is.

Spring softball and soccer have come to an end. Nothing exceptionally noteworthy to report. I played on two soccer teams, the Macropods and SMC United (Soccer Moms). We really didn't win a lot on either team, but when you play D5 your there for the fun of the sport not a trophy at the end. Softball was about the same. Nothing really remarkable, just having fun with the sport.

Ryan's soccer team, however, had a great spring season. They were champions of the regular season and won the final tournament. They are a great group of boys. Ryan plays goalie and mid fielder. They allowed only 1 goal the whole season. His team will move up to U12 in the fall. That will bring on some new challenges for them. It will be an exciting time.

I am still a regular bootcamper and runner. Although, running has taken a bit of a backseat to everything else the past couple of weeks. My fitness routines have landed me a new "job" so to speak. I am now a certified personal trainer. What does that mean? Well, I sometimes fill in as the lead instructor for bootcamp sessions and I have two "clients" that I train in small group. That's pretty fun because I get to make up the workouts for my clients. No, I am not going to quit my day job. This is just something I can do on the side, earn a little extra cash and help people meet their own fitness/weight loss goals.

Okay, so I am going to sign off for now. I'll try to come back more often.

Where does the time go?

2010-03-01T05:46:00.001-08:00

Wow! I can't believe how long it has been since I posted anything here. So much has changed, yet so much is the same. There is no excuse really, just plain busy. Well, I guess Facebook has also detracted a bit from keeping this up. So let's pretend that it hasn't been a year and a half and see what happens.

We have just finished up another cookie season in Girl Scouts. I am very proud of Nicole. She made her goal to sell 1200 boxes of cookies. She actually ended up selling 1224. That's up a bit from her total of 1121 last year. She was also a Cookie Captain this year. In this program, she spent an additional 25 hours promoting and mentoring younger troops during the cookie sale. So what does all this effort get her? Well, to start with, she has earned over $300 in cookie dough which she will be using to pay for her week of summer resident camp. She enjoyed Camp Texlake so much last year, she begged to go back again this year. Registration is already in and we just received her confirmation packet. She will be attending Glamazons June 14-18. This is the week right after our local day camp.

Speaking of day camp, I have taken on the role of co-director for Camp Howdy day camp this year. Last year, I was an assistant co-director or DIT (director in training) as we liked to call ourselves. So far, we have picked the theme, fitness and nutrition, and the name ~ Camp Howdy All-Stars. It's a great opportunity to teach the girls about life-long health and wellness.

We two weeks into Ryan's soccer season. He is playing for the same coach as last year. They are called the Strikers this year. What a great group of boys! They have come a long way since they started playing together and it shows in their game. They are passing well and their defense is incredible. They are 2-0 so far and have not given up a single goal.

With spring upon us, our adult sports have also started. I am playing softball for a couple of teams and acting as a sub whenever time allows. The past couple of weeks have been almost too cold for softball, but it will warm up soon enough. We also have two weeks of soccer under our belts. Both Terry and I play for Macropods. We are 1-1. I am also playing goalie for the soccer moms. We don't win very often, but we never give up either.

I guess one of the biggest changes since the last time I posted is my physical condition. I have been going to boot camp with Innovative Fitness for almost a year now. It's been great. All together I have lost 35-40 pounds (depends on the day) and am in the best shape of my life. I have taken up running for fun and semi-competitively. On the competitive side, I mostly run local 5Ks for charities. However, on Valentine's day I ran my first 1/2 marathon in Austin. It was the biggest run that I have ever participated in. There were over 8,000 runners in the 1/2 and over 12,000 combined running in the 1/2 and full marathon. It was incredible to say the least. I finished the 13.1 miles in 1 hour and 47 minutes which placed me 32 out of 739 in my division (Female; 35-39). Not bad for my first time around. I don't know if I am really interested in improving that time or not. The next big adventure will be to run a full marathon, but that is going to take a bit more training. Maybe next year.

I think for now, I will stick with the fun stuff and leave things like work updates for another time and maybe another place. I really am going to try to do better at this. If nothing else, it will help me remember all the fun stuff we do.

Vacation 2008 - Part V - Cumberland Falls, KY

2008-07-09T12:46:00.000-07:00

After the short visit with Terry's uncle, we headed to Cumberland Falls to meet back up with Chelle. Cumberland Falls is a beautiful place. We all walked around the tame, tourist side of the river to see the falls. One of the coolest features of this particular waterfall is that on nights of a full moon a "moonbow" can be seen in the mist of the waterfall. Unfortunately, we missed the full moon by a couple of days. It would not have matter though, because we were not going to be there at night anyway. One of the interesting observations that I made was that some people completely ignore posted warnings. Just up steam from the falls, there were signs all over the place warning that there should be no wading or swimming in the water. Makes sense to me considering an accident could lead to someone taking an unpleasant trip over the falls. I can't tell you how many people we saw wading in the area despite the threat of fines and jail time for doing so. I mean, it's one thing to endanger your own life, but do you really need to take the kids out there too? Just a point to ponder. . .

Before leaving the park, we drove to the other side of the river so that we could hike the 1-1/2 mile Eagle Falls Trail. There were lots of cool rock formations and gorgeous views of the falls. The trail ended at Eagle Falls. A secluded area with a nice little water fall and rocks to climb on. We passed a few hikers on the trail, but we had the whole Eagle Falls area to ourselves. Ryan really enjoyed the hiking, while I don't think Tela liked it so much. Nicole and Kailey enjoyed it. Ayden did wonderfully on the way to Eagle Falls. He needed some help coming back, but a 1-1/2 mile hike for a four-year-old is asking a lot. I had a wonderful time and would enjoy going back there some day.

Vacation 2008 - Part IV - Uncle Juniors

2008-07-09T12:39:00.000-07:00

After the thrills of Kings Island, we parted ways with my sister's family as they headed to a family reunion in Kentucky and we headed to Springfield, OH to visit Terry's Uncle Junior and Aunt Marylin. We had a relaxing couple of days to visit and catch up on the family. Junior and Marylin love telling stories of when the kids were young. They just celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary on July 5 and have lived in the same house for 46 years!

Vacation 2008 - Part III - Cincinnati

2008-07-09T10:19:00.001-07:00

You may ask, "Why in the world would you want to Cinciannti?" Well, I have 14 reasons and they all go vacation inreally fast. Cincinnati is the home of Kings Island amusement park which has 14 roller coasters on site. My sister and I both love roller coasters and Ryan is becoming a roller coaster freak so this was a great place for us to visit. That's not to say that there was not plenty of fun things for the rest of the family to do. They have a whole section of the park called Nickelodeon Universe where you can see characters from Rugrats, SpongeBob, and many other Nick shows. We saw a show featuring Dora the Explorer and Boots.

The biggest roller coaster that Kings Island is known for is The Beast. Built in 1979, The Beast is the longest wooden roller coaster in the world at 7,400 feet. It nearly reaches speeds of 70 mph and has two big drops, one 135' and one 141'. The ride lasts for nearly 4 minutes. As you expect from wooden roller coasters, The Beast is one rough ride. One of the other big attractions is the Son of Beast, which is also a wooden roller coaster. The Son of Beast is the tallest wooden roller coaster, holds the top two positions for the tallest wooden coaster drops, and reaches a top speed of 78mph. Now I am not a big fan of wooden coasters because of the roughness of the ride, but Ryan really enjoyed the Son of Beast and wanted me to ride it with him a second time. Now if you want to talk about an ultra-cool, adrenaline rushing coaster, you have to ride the Firehawk. You ride this coaster in a laying down position and you actually get the feel of flying while soaring through the 1/2 mile track with 5 inversions and a top speed of 51 mph. If the line had not been so long for this one, we would have ridden it several times. I also enjoyed Vertigo where you go through the track forward then take a return trip backward. Then, there was Vortex which has 6 inversions and reaches speeds up to 55 mph.

On the lighter side, Ayden rode his first "big boy" rides. Some by himself and some with Ryan. There were even a few rides that Camden could enjoy. He really like the Nick-o-Round, the carousel in Nick Universe. He rode that so many times and cried when it was time to get off. Nicole really liked the Rugrats Runaway Reptar roller coaster, where the track was on top and your feet dangled. She doesn't mind going fast, but doesn't care at all for loops or going too high.

There was so much to do that two days was just not enough. We didn't even make it to the water park!

Vacation 2008 - Part II - St. Louis

2008-07-08T14:38:00.000-07:00

Things you should know about our trip: a) there were 10 of us traveling together in two cars and b) half of those travelers were 14 or under. We drove Terry's truck, which was a good thing considering all the things we thought we needed for the two week adventure, and my sister's family drove their minivan. Okay, so we left OKC on Monday and headed northeast toward St. Louis. Would you believe the 10 of us were ready, completely packed, and on the road by 8:30 am? You already know my family (Terry, Tela, Nicole, Ryan and Me). My sister's family includes Donnie, Chelle, Kaily, Ayden and Camden. I'm sure that I have talked about them before, but I don't think I have formally introduced them to you yet.

Our first stop was a restroom break at McDonald's in Vinta, OK. The only reason it is worth mentioning is that this particular McDonald's used to be the largest one in the world and is actually built over the interstate. Since we were stopped anyway, we raided the snack basket to tide us over until lunch.

By the time we hit Springfield, MO, we were getting hungry so we decided to stop at the nearest Steak N Shake. I really wish we had these in Texas. I learned an important lesson with this first stop. When asking Mio (my friendly little GPS) for the nearest location (especially if you are looking for a particular restaurant, store, gas station, etc), be sure the location actually falls on the route. I just picked the closest Steak N Shake. By closest, Mio means closest "as the crow flys", as my sister would say. So we ended up way farther off the interstate in Springfield than we really needed to be. Sadly, enough we passed two other Steak N Shakes on the way back to the interstate with one being right off the interstate. Fortunately, everyone was in good spirits and didn't mind the scenic tour of Springfield all that much.

We didn't have to stop again until we reached our hotel in St. Louis. We stayed in a very nice Town Place Suites. All 10 of us stayed in a two bedroom suite with one bathroom. It wasn't bad at all. Chelle and Donnie got the bigger room because they had to set up the bed for the baby, but Terry and I got the room with the TV. Not that we even had time to turn it on, but it was there if we wanted to watch it.

No time to rest though, once we were settled in we headed for the Gateway to the West, the St. Louis Arch. Terry, Tela and I had been there before, but Nicole and Ryan had not. Terry and Tela had absolutely no desire to go to the top of the arch so I went up with the kids. They were not at all scared and rather enjoyed looking out over the city.

It was time for dinner and we had spotted a White Castle just down from our hotel so that is where we headed next. Terry's Mom was once managed a White Castle so going there brings back some fond memories of her. As you can see, he also likes the little White Castle burgers. It was tough getting that Crave Case away from him. After dinner, Donnie took the kids to the pool and I went to do laundry. The plan was to wash our dirty clothes at Chelle's house before we left, but her brand new washer quit working so we were out of luck. By the time that was finished, we were all pretty much wiped out and headed to bed.

Before leaving St. Louis on Tuesday, we visited the St. Louis Science Center. Admission was free and they had all kinds of hands-on science exhibits. I was disappointed that the DNA section was being remodeled, but there were lots of other cool things to do. They had an actual child mummy on display. That was pretty creepy.

Once we left the science museum, we wanted to have some lunch before heading to Cincinatti. I learned another valuable lesson concerning Mio. Mio cannot distinguish between an actual restaurant and business office. Mio showed a Pasta House just down the street from the museum. It ended up being a corporate office for Pasta House. Tried the next one on the list and it ended up being a catering facility. So we ended up eating at Denny's.

With full belly's and empty bladders, we were ready to press on to Cincinnati.

Vacation 2008 - Part I - Family Time

2008-07-08T12:27:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a while and it has been so busy, I haven't had time to sit down to write. Maybe if I get this started, I can get a complete post done soon. The most notable adventure since the last post was our vacation. Two weeks off, roaming around the country side.

We started with a simple trip to Oklahoma for a bit of family time. We left on Friday, 6/15, and completely surprised Mom and Dad since we weren't suppose to leave until Saturday. You should have seen the looks on their faces when Nicole and Ryan started pounding on the door wanting in. Since they didn't know we were coming, they had already had dinner so Terry and I went to Taco Mayo, my favorite visit place to eat when we visit OK. It's not that it's fancy or all that great, it's just that we don't have one in College Station. Anyway, after dinner, we dropped by to see Nanny and Granddad. They were surprised to see us, too. It was a nice little visit, Terry hadn't seen Nanny and Granddad's new apartment. My aunt and cousin was there visiting when we arrived. We don't get to see the extended family much since we live in Texas and there is always a family feud happening so it was nice to see them. Sometimes, my aunt says some strange things. She found out that I was playing softball and soccer, she said that I should act my age. Not sure what that was suppose to mean, but I enjoy being active and don't plan on stopping any time soon.

We spent the night at Mom and Dad's house and enjoyed a down-home fish fry on Saturday. Dad had caught a mess of fish a few weekends back. He had also taken Tela and Kailey fishing and they caught more fish. Let me tell you, there was a lot of fish. But if you ask me, I think Camden liked the pudding the best!

Saturday night we went to Chelle and Donnie's since we were going to church with them on Sunday morning. Camden was dedicated to the Lord at the Sunday morning service. What a special time!

Sunday night, Chelle and Donnie had asked me to play on their softball team. They had a double header. I should mention they play on a Little League field in Piedmont, OK. Yes, there is such a place. They even have a Sonic and Dollar General there. Anyway, playing on a Little League field was interesting. They had a bunch of different rules to keep the score from being run up to badly. I hit two balls over the fence, one was foul, but the other was a home run. . . very exciting.

Science Matters at Camp Howdy 2008

2008-06-07T09:56:00.001-07:00

This past week was day camp at Camp Howdy and, boy, did we have a great week! It was hot and the programs were great. Each day we started with a flag ceremony and announcements, had
a program and craft activity, and did a lot of hiking. On Monday, the Chemistry Road Show came and Dr. Pennington showed us all sorts of neat chemistry experiments. Tuesday brought Dr. Yasskin from the Math Department at Texas A&M and his group engaging in some interesting hands on math activities. The Brazos Valley Natural History Museum came to visit on Wednesday. They brought some little critters like a hedgehog, a king snake, and some turtles to visit. Friday brought the A&M Consolidated High School robotics club. They talked about the engineering process and we made paper air planes. Let's not forget, Friday was water day! The girls had a blast getting wet playing water games.

I had a great assistant leader, Sissy, again this year. We had a great group of girls. We tried something different for the 5th grade units this year. Each day we did some extra outdoor cooking. Monday, we made s'mores in a solar oven made from a pizza box. Tuesday, we made ice cream in a bag. Wednesday, we talked about how to pack dry foods to take on a backpacking trip. We mixed instant potatoes with some seasoning, then added water to see how it tasted. We also used made scrambled eggs in a bag. Thursday was our big cook day. We made tacos/burritos with all the fixings, dirt bottom pie, and cheesy biscuits. We used a cardboard box oven to make the biscuits. Everything tastes better out at camp so needless to say we were all stuffed and there were hardly any leftovers.

5/30/2008

2008-06-07T07:25:00.000-07:00

Nicole graduated 4th grade today. What an exciting day for her! She will be going to a new school next year and is looking forward to it in great anticipation. I was somewhat disappointed in the "graduation ceremony". I realize it is just the 4th grade, but if you are going to go through the trouble to celebrate the occasion, you should do it well. They did not even give them a certificate or anything as they called their names. The kids just walked out and shook hands with the principal and assistant principal. The 4th graders finished the day by doing the "Panther Walk", where they walked up and down the halls of the whole school one last time. It was neat. The younger kids were all lining the halls wishing them well as they moved on.

End of School Frenzy

2008-05-29T20:30:00.000-07:00

Between Girl Scout meetings, Day Camp training, school activities, and softball we have hardly had time to breath. Last Wednesday, we had a round robin pre-summer season softball tournament. This was my first outing as "the manager". [Yes, I volunteered for yet another lead position. Hopefully, it will just be for the summer.] I slid into third during the 3rd game and got a nasty abrasion on my leg. It's still a little oozy, but it's getting better every day. One of these days I will figure out that I am too old to be doing that. On the bright side, I was safe and scored later. Unfortunately, we lost the game. In the end, we won 3 out of 4. It was good enough for 2nd place, but not enough to win the $50 prize.

One of the highlights had to be taking the troop to see High School Musical on Ice. We went opening night so it wasn't too packed. We had good seats and I think everyone enjoyed the show. It's interesting how they condensed the story from both High School Musical and High School Musical 2 into an hour and a half show. The movement of the props and the skating were great.

The last session of day camp training was Saturday. I took the opportunity to try my hand at making a pizza box solar oven and used it to make s'mores. It worked okay, but would have been better if the sun had been fully shining while cooking. It was plenty hot, just partly cloudy. We are going to give it a try during to day camp and see how it goes. So far, it looks like we will have plenty of sun. The theme this year is "Science Matters at Camp Howdy" so you might imagine that I am very excited about the programs and activities.

The summer softball season started last night with a double header. We won both 13-7 and 30-2. We hit the ball very well all night. I hope that keeps up all season! Did I mention that our soccer season will start on Sunday? We have some new players on the team so it should be interesting.

Tomorrow is the last day of school and Nicole's 4th grade graduation. It's hard to believe that she is leaving elementary school. Sounds so cliché, but it seems like just yesterday she was starting kindergarten. Next year, she will go to Oakwood and she is so excited. Apparently, there are a number of extracurricular activities that she is interested in trying. She is already talking about the chess club, the Scrabble club and the choir. I'm glad I have the summer to get ready for all that! Ryan's class is having a picnic and games for the last day of school. I think he is ready for the break. Did I tell you he lost another tooth? He is now missing all four top front teeth. He is having a heck of time eating apples and corn!

Tela's Graduation!

2008-05-18T20:52:00.001-07:00

We made a whirlwind trip to Oklahoma this weekend to see Tela graduate from high school. We didn't leave town until Friday after the kids got out of school so you can imagine it was a long 6 hour drive, which included 4 trips to Wal-Marts. You may ask, "Why 4?" Well, let me tell you. . . first, we stopped at the Bryan Supercenter Wal-Mart with the objective of buying a gift card to pay for gas (don't we all need that extra 3¢ off at the pump) and filling up the tank. Getting the gift card was no problem, but when we approached the gas pumps, it was packed AND there was a gas truck delivering gas. I had heard that it is not a good idea to put gas in your car while the truck is there filling the underground tanks so we passed on the fill up. No problem, we had enough gas to make it to Waco. The kids fell asleep so it was smooth sailing to Waco. That brings us to stop #2 - food, fuel and anti-itch medicine. We stopped at Wendy's to eat because the kids were "starving", then hopped across the street to the Supercenter Wal-Mart. I ran in to get some itch medicines for Terry and me as we were still battling poison ivy rashes while Terry filled our gas tank. All-in-all it was a smooth stop, just a little long, but on the bright side our bellies were full, our tank was full and we had stopped itching for the time being. A movie later, Nicole starts complaining about her tooth hurting. This was a loose tooth that the dentist said not to pull it yet (although that was a couple of months ago). Anyway, that leads to stops #3 and #4. We found yet another Wal-Mart where we picked up some toothache medicine and some junior strength Tylenol. We also found a few snacks which we didn't buy enough of the first time in the store so we had to go back into the same Wal-Mart a second time. Who knew that Slim Jims were so popular? We finally made it to my sister's house around midnight.

Tela's graduation was at 10 am on Saturday morning. Who has a graduation at 10 am anyway? Not to mention that she still has a week of school left to attend. Since I don't make the rules for Edmond schools, we just had to roll with it. Fortunately, Tela advised us to arrive at the Cox Center (in downtown OKC) by 9 am in order to get decent seats. Boy, traffic horrid around the convention center. She has over 400 kids in her class so you can imagine the number of cars trying to park in the parking garage. There were people completely ignoring the stop lights, while others would just cut in front of you because they were obviously in a bigger hurry than you were in. After fighting the traffic and making our way into the Cox Center, we found some decent seats. Knowing that we had to entertain 4 kids age ranged from 10-years down to 14-months for an hour before the graduation would start, we had a plan. We grabbed breakfast on the way and ate it while we waited. Worked out pretty well; and I must say, the kids were fabulous throughout the entire ceremony. The ceremony was nice. Not too much fluff and took right at two hours. Our second good plan of the day was to send Donnie and Papa home with all the kids right after Tela crossed the stage. They had zero trouble with crowds or traffic. And afterwards, when it was time for the rest of us to navigate through the crowd of people to find Tela, we did not have any rugrats slowing us down. . . I mean. . . darling angels to protect from the masses. It took wading through the entire pool of people before we finally found her. I really hope it didn't embarrass her too much that we yelled her name (there was only one Tela) and asked random new graduates if they had seen her. Of course, I would expect her to personally know all 400+ of her classmates, wouldn't you?

Tela hadn't taken her senior pictures yet, so we went out and took some nice ones with my camera. Can I just say, I love my Kodak? We took lots of shots. When it's digital there is really no limit (except the memory on your SD card). We had some of the pictures printed at Walgreen's and they turned out great. Walgreen's actually has picture packages that you can buy that are really affordable. Here are a few of my faves from this weekend.

The rest of the weekend flew by with fixing meals and playing with kids. Tela opened her graduation gifts. She seemed to like all she received. We ended up heading home a bit early on Sunday. We needed to get home before urgent care closed so Terry could see a doctor for the poison ivy which is now covering about 50% of his body. Hopefully, with the meds he is taking, he can finally shake the rash and stop itching.

May 12, 2008

2008-05-12T08:04:00.000-07:00

Where does the time go?? I haven't posted for two weeks! So you may ask, what has been going on? Let's see if I can summarize.

Our end of season softball tournament was on April 30th. Short Bus had a good showing. We had a bye in the 1st round, then, beat Those Guys in the 2nd round. We won our 3rd round game and went to the finals. We played The Other Team, a team we play twice in the regular season. Sadly, we lost 4-3 in a hard fought game. Playing 3 games in one night was tiring, but boy, was it fun. We are going to play a round robin warm up tournament next week and the summer season will start the next week. Stephanie and I are managing the team this time so that should prove to be an interesting experience.

We also finished up the spring soccer season last weekend. The last game was sweet as we played K2 United. Just a little background, this team sent some distasteful emails regarding our team (Hit and Miss) a week or so before the game. I mean come on, we are playing Division V soccer. . . no contact. . . out there to have fun. If you want to be that competitive move up to Division IV. Anyway, it was too bad for them, as the emails reached the president of the league (his wife plays on our team). Let's just say there was some highly apologetic words flowing from them soon after that. So we didn't really know what to expect when it came to game time. All in all, it was a clean game and the beauty of it was we won 4-3. . . sweet justice reigned.

Ryan's soccer team is doing really well. We have had some issues with the referees and the league, but the boys are doing great. They are undefeated for the spring and have one game left. They are starting to pass to each other and really picking up on their footwork. Go Green Dragons!

Nicole and Girl Scouts have kept me busy. We have had so many events going on, it's hard to keep up. We had our service unit leader banquet. That was nice. I received a "Key Person" award. I also had the opportunity to announce the "Thank you! Thank You!" awards. That was an unexpected surprise that I enjoyed. We had a troop campout last weekend. We had 5 girls and 2 adults sleeping in tents out at Camp Howdy. Overall, I thought it was a good time, but apparently there were some issues that I was just oblivious to. The girls are 10- and 11-years-old and in the 4th grade. Probably not much more needs to be said, except they were definitely acting there age. A few of the girls in our troop went to an awards ceremony for another troop. The other troop was bridging from Brownies to Juniors and asked if our troop could come and do a flag ceremony. Then, this Saturday brought the first of two day camp training sessions. Day camp is coming June 2 through June 5 and I will be a unit leader again this year. Looking forward to it as it will be my last year to lead Nicole's unit. Next year, she will be in the camp craft unit and the next year she will be an Aide in Training (AIT). They are all growing up so fast. Kathy and I are toying with the idea of being Assistant Day Camp Directors next year. I'll keep you posted on that if it comes to fruition.

Oh, there is one more thing that was interesting. Nicole had to do her first science project complete with a poster for the science fair. Her project was based on something we learned at day camp last year. Termites secrete trail pheromones and it turns out that there is a chemical in ink pens that is similar to these trail pheromones. So if you draw a circle on a piece of paper with an ink pen, the termite will follow the line. She set out to see if the brand or color of ink pens made a difference to the termites. We found the termites out at Camp Howdy and she tried several different pens. We finished collecting the data for the experiment on Saturday and finished putting the poster together last night. It was a neat experience and I was proud of how much work she put into it. YES. . . it was due today and YES. . . we have known about it for several weeks and YES. . . we waited until the last minute, but what more would you expect from me. Hopefully, she won't pick up all my bad habits!

Well, that catches you up what we have been up to lately. I'll keep posting so come back soon!

The Wedding Day

2008-04-27T20:01:00.000-07:00

4/26/2008 - No, no one in our family was getting married, but today was the wedding day of Andrew and Elizabeth. Why is this at all noteworthy? Well, first, they asked Nicole to be a bridesmaid. While Nicole has been in a wedding before (she was the flower girl in my sister's wedding), this was her first appearance as a bridesmaid. Second, I consider Andrew and Elizabeth very good friends. Andrew and I have worked together for about 5 years now. His son, Tristen, and Nicole are exactly the same age (both born on Jan. 6, 1998) and friends. Ryan and Tristen also have a lot in common (a love for video games and Pokemon cards). In addition, our dogs, Lizzy and Blaze, love to play together and actually get to visit each other frequently.

I had no idea just being a bridesmaid in a wedding could be so involved. There was the dress, which we ordered back in January and finally received April 8. We even had the order rushed! Plus, there was slight alterations needed. Then, there were the shoes. Luckily, Payless had a good selection of gold tone shoes. Did I mention that Nicole (age 10) is now wearing women's size 6 1/2 shoes? The rehearsal and rehearsal dinner were the night before. That went pretty smoothly, but was long. Dinner was good. It was catered by Johnny Carino's. Then the day of the wedding, there was still some shopping to do. Just miscellaneous items needed to be picked up and Nicole needed make-up! We were suppose to be at the church at 1pm ready for pictures (the wedding was at 3pm). The ceremony was gorgeous and seemed to go exactly as scripted. Then, more pictures followed by the reception catered by J. Cody's (best barbecue in town, I must say) at the Veranda. I think we finally got home around 10pm. A very long day, but well worth it.

Girl Scout Monday

2008-04-17T13:43:00.000-07:00

What a great day it was! We (Mrs. Kathy and I) set out to have a full day of Girl Scout activities for the troop. We wanted to help them earn at least two badges while having fun. As I mentioned in the last post, we decided on the "Let's Get Cooking" and "Finding Your Way" badges.

For "Let's Get Cooking" badge, we started the day by making eggs. Most liked them scrambled so each girl got to make her own eggs. We also boiled some eggs so we could dye them and then have them with lunch. We learned about and experienced cooking in a rotisserie by making hot dogs. We used the microwave to cook macaroni and cheese. The best part was that we made individual dirt bottom pies for dessert. Later, for snack we made shakes using the Magic Bullet.

For the "Finding Your Way" badge, we talked a lot about different types of maps and how to use them. We learned how to use a compass and then made one using a needle, a piece of cork and a magnet. We estimated how long it would take to walk a mile, and then checked our estimation by actually walking a mile. Fortunately, it was not too hot outside. In the park near our house, Amanda and Kambrie laid trail markings to guide us through the nature trail.

Besides doing the badge work, we played some games. The girls really like doing the human knot. It's funny with this group, because several of them like being the "leader" and everyone wants to be the one to "solve" the puzzle. We also played some limbo and some tag. How low can you go? One of their favorite games to play was the telephone game. You remember this one; one person starts with a "secret" and whispers it to the person next to her. The secret is passed around the group (without repeating to anyone, you just pass on what you hear). In the end, the secret is usually way different that how it started. Of course, the moral, if you will, of the game is that rumors work the same way and by passing a rumor you may not get the "true" story, but instead some distorted version that really ends up hurting someone else.

Later that day, we had a regular troop meeting for the two girls in our troop that were not out of school because they are in a different school district. It was a small group though because not everyone came to the evening part. We had a good time in that meeting as well. We completed the "Finding Your Way" badge by doing all the same activities as the big group.

By the end of the day, Mrs. Kathy and I were pretty wiped out, but took pride in the fact that we had a great day. We finished everything to earn the badges and had lots of fun doing it.

Another Funfilled Weekend - 4/13/8008

2008-04-13T18:03:00.000-07:00

Well, it’s been another weekend on the run. Saturday, we started bright and early with an 8:30 soccer game. Ryan's Green Dragons were playing "the maroon team". The newest thing for the boys in U8 division has been the addition of the goalie. They started having a goalie for the first time back in the fall and are really getting the hang of it. Bryan is such a good coach; he gives all the boys a chance to be goalie unless they really don't want to be. Anyway, the team has 10 players so they are able to rotate in a fresh 5 each quarter. As it works, Ryan plays in the 1st and 3rd quarters. Ryan played goalie in the 3rd quarter and did a great job. Not one goal was scored on him. Maybe it helped that we had gone out the night before and practiced a bit. We got him some real goalie gloves and he wanted to try them out. They ended the game in a 2-2 tie.

Then, Nicole and I were off to a Girl Scout program put on by the Society of Women Engineers. Despite the wind, it was a gorgeous day, which was nice since the whole program was outside at Astin Park. You know that little park by Bryan Municipal Golf Course and "arsenic lake"? We had 6 girls from Troop 9080 attend and only one other troop with 6 girls was there. Very sad considering that it was such a nice program and the engineers put so much effort in planning. Since attendance was low, there was a lot of individual attention for girls, which is unusual for such events. The girls made gak and built towers out of newspaper (quite challenging with all the wind). They also tried their hands at the human knot. If you have never done this before, you should give it a try. You need at least 5 people. Your group stands in a circle and each person puts their left hand into the middle of the circle. Then, everyone grabs someone else's left hand with their right hand making sure that the same two are not holding both of each other's hands. At this point, you are left with one big human knot. The object is to untangle the knot without anyone letting go. It takes some teamwork and cooperation, but you should end up in a big circle when all goes well. The lady engineers provided Potbelly Sandwiches for lunch. An interesting choice I must say for this age girls (I was expecting pizza). I thought they were quite tasty, but Nicole did not like them at all. They had lettuce and tomatoes on them (oo-yuck!). She suffered through it though. Oh, the trials and tribulations of the picky eater. The girls ended up earning the "Making It Matter" badge and received a participation patch.

After the program, Nicole and I, accompanied by Mrs. Kathy and Rachel, made a run for the grocery store. College Station is out of school for a student holiday on Monday so we are going to put on an all day badge workshop at our house for the troop. It should be lots of fun. We are going to work on activities for two badges: "Let's Get Cooking" and "Finding Your Way". So the trip to the grocery store was to buy food for lunch and snacks. I am looking forward to the event and hope all goes well.

We started out slow on Sunday and slept in until 9am! Well, I did anyway. Found out later that Terry had gone to work during the night to work. I think he tells me when he leaves, but I never remember it. I'm a really good sleeper ("good" sounds so much better that "hard", don't you think?). Anyway, he still had the energy to make a wonderful breakfast of pancakes, waffles, biscuits and gravy, and bacon. Yes, we must have pancakes and waffles (curse of the picky eater, again). Nicole will only eat waffles and Terry and Ryan prefer pancakes. Needless to say, everyone left the table with full bellies.

Later in the day, Nicole and I drove to Brenham for a "Cookie Celebration". It was a council event to honor those girls that sold over 1000 boxes or who were the top seller in their service unit. Nicole sold 1121 boxes of cookies this year! ***Thanks to all of those that supported her and our troop by buying cookies.*** There were several girls from College Station that sold over 1000. The top seller in our service unit sold just over 1600 boxes! The highlight if the trip, however, came at the end when they were drawing for door prizes. Each girl was given one orange and one blue ticket when they arrived. There were 5 gift bags up for grabs with the orange ticket drawing and one gigantic Dash puppy drawn for from the blue tickets. My darling daughter just knew she was going to win the Dash puppy. It was time to call the numbers for the orange tickets. 8-1-1-3. . . miss . . . 8-1-0-7 . . . miss . . . 8-1-1-4 . . . miss again. Her number was 8-1-1-0 and several numbers right in that area were called, but she didn't care. She was waiting for the blue ticket drawing. 8-1-4-2 . . . “It's me!” she called. She was just beaming with joy. She had won the big Dash puppy. She didn't stop smiling all the way home.

While we were celebrating cookies sales, Terry and Ryan were off to a Hit and Miss soccer game. Did I mention that was the name of the soccer team that Terry and I play on? Anyway, I was bummed about missing the game, but enjoyed spending the time with Nicole just the same. When I returned home, I had hopes of joining the soccer moms’ team play their evening soccer game since I missed ours. I played with them last spring and occasionally try to make it out to play with them even though I’m really not suppose to since I am not on their roster. But often times they are short players and they really don't mind letting me play. However, the other team, Purple Haze (grrrr), did mind and would not let me play. It’s against their “policy”, whatever that means. They have this girl on their team that is really good, but doesn't understand that division 5 is about having fun and getting some exercise, not running the score up on a bunch of soccer moms most of which have never even played before. All that means is that there was no soccer for me today :-( . There’s always next week.

4/9/2008

2008-04-10T21:27:00.000-07:00

I had a softball game today and it turned out to be quite exciting. First, I should tell you that I play for a team that is comprised mostly of biochemistry grad students. That's right geeks playing ball. Our current team name is Short Bus. Not a big fan of the name, but what can you do? Anyway, about the game, we came out hitting like crazy and were ahead 6-3 at the end of the first inning. My first at bat resulted in an in the park on errors home run! So going into the bottom of the last inning before time expired, we were ahead 14-11. They scored 3 runs, so it was tied. We only had one out and there was a runner on third and a girl was up to bat. She hit a short one to the pitcher, he checked the runner and threw to me at first for an out. The runner on third took off so I threw it to Rockann at home in plenty of time for her to tag him for the out. Double play! Going into an extra inning. We scored 4 in the last inning and held them to only 2 more runs so we won 18-16! Very exciting! Nicole came to the game with me even though it ended a little past her bedtime. She was so cute and really cheered us on.

First Post

2008-04-10T08:26:00.001-07:00

Well, I have heard about blogs for a while now and at the recommendation of a friend, am ready to give it a try. So where do you begin. Let's start by introducing the stars of this blog. There are the wee "little" stars, Nicole (age 10) and Ryan (age 7). I say "little" because they have grown so quickly it is hard to say they are little anymore. Then, there is our distant star, Tela (age 18). Distant because she lives in Oklahoma and will soon be moving off to college in far west Texas. Then, there is my loving star, Terry. Finally, there is me, Michelle, the mom star that holds us all together (or at least tries to).

We are in the midst of a busy month of activities ranging from various sporting events to Girl Scout activities and, of course, some good ol' family time. Let's start with Sunday's activities. After doing some research on the subject, we tried our hand at letterboxing for the first time. We drove to Washington on the Brazos in hopes of finding our first "treasure". During the 30-minute drive we picked our letterboxing name, Treasure Hawks, and our individual letterboxing "handles". We have Hawk Daddy, (Mad) Hawk Boy, (Princess) Hawk Girl, and Hawk Momma. The name comes from our families infatuation with finding coins everywhere we go combined with the feeling of treasure hunting inspired by letterboxing itself.

For those that may not know, letterboxing is very much like a treasure hunt. Various people have put effort into placing boxes discreetly hidden in public locations such as parks. They give the box (or boxes) a name. They then post clues to find the letterbox. Sometime you need a compass to find the box, sometime just good eyes are all that are needed. Inside the box, you find a notebook of some sort and a stamp. You use your stamp to stamp the box's notebook and then you stamp your journal with the stamp from the box. In my readings, I have learned that many people hand carve their stamps. We are not to that point yet so we us a store bought stamp.

Our first letterboxing try sent us out to find a set of four letterboxes called the "The Legend of the Bluebonnet" in Washington on the Brazos State Park. We started in the visitor center and made our way to the nature trail. This particular trip was to serve two purposes: 1) to find the letterboxes and 2) to take some bluebonnet pictures of the kids. All four boxes were located on the nature trail and we successfully found all four. I was very pleased with the enthusiasm the family showed by the new adventure. Of course, both kids wanted to find the box or open the box or stamp the journals. Terry even seemed to enjoy the new adventure. After our long hike and successful hunt, we returned to the car just in time to head home for the next activities for the day.

Nicole was scheduled to be at Mrs. Kathy's at 1:30 so she could go to a badge workshop at the Kappa Delta House. Mrs. Kathy is my wonderful assistant leader for our Girl Scout Troop (9080). Her daughter, Rachel, and Nicole are very good friends and enjoy spending time together. We made it to Mrs. Kathy's by 1:40, which gave us just enough time to get to the soccer field where Terry and I would be playing a game at 2:00.

We were playing the soccer moms, which is always a fun game. They are what division 5 soccer is all about: having fun, learning the game and having fun. The guys on our team took very few shots at the goal and mostly tried to set up Lena and me for shots. We each scored 2 in the game and we ended up winning 4-1. It was an enjoyable game. Did I mention that we did not have any subs? So while it was enjoyable, we were quite tired by the end.

We returned home to clean up and wait for Nicole to return. She had a wonderful time at the program and earned the Kappa Delta badge. It sounded like they worked a little on manners as she informed me of the proper way to set a table last night. We then set out for dinner. Our plan was to have pizza and snow cones at Shivers, but we were derailed when we found out that Shivers no longer serves pizza (bummer). We went ahead and got snow cones then trotted down the strip mall to Subway for some sandwiches. The only reason to go on with this is to say that we set out to find another letterbox after dinner. This one was in Veteran's Park (where we play soccer and softball). While we have been there many times, we have never really looked at the statues and monuments that are indeed dedicated to veterans. They are really nice pieces of work and serve well as memorials to those fallen in battle. We found the letterbox with no problem. As we set out to find a second, box in the park, we found an 11-man soccer game in progress. The letterboxer requested that this box be left alone if there were games being played because it is so close to the soccer field. So we will save it for another day.

Iceland 2005

2005-07-18T19:15:00.000-07:00

We were fortunate enough to take a trip to Iceland during the summer of 2005. My sister's husband, Donnie, is in the Air Force and was stationed there for two years. My Mom, Nicole, Ryan and I made the trip.

The following is from an email written in 2005 to a friend that was interested in our trip (I did have to add a few things that I left out back then). . .

We have made it back from our trip to Iceland! Iceland is a wonderful place to visit. There are some of the most awesome displays of nature. I was particularly surprised by the diverse landscapes we saw while touring the island. This first picture is a structure at the airport and is said to represent Iceland as the end of the rainbow.

Let me start from the beginning of our visit. We started out by going on a do-it-yourself Golden Circle Tour. This is a tour that my sister had gone on before, but we found a few more sites to visit this time. Our first stop was (Th)ingvellir. This is one of the most sacred sites in Iceland as it was the nation's meeting place beginning in 930 AD. An old parliamentary building still stands on the site. The area has been protected since 1928, has the largest lake in Iceland, and is the oldest national park. After a long walk in the park admiring the steep sides of the ravine and the small waterfall rushing into the lake, we proceeded to Gullfoss. Gullfoss (The Golden Waterfall) is Iceland's most famous waterfall. It was truly a fantastic site. One thing my sister told me about Iceland is that they generally do not put safety barriers at these potentially dangerous places. From the governments point of view, if you are silly enough to get yourself hurt, then it is your problem. There is no way to sue the government. Needless to say, we did not let the kids stray too far from our grasp as we were just a few feet from the rushing water. Our next stop was the Great Geysir, an active geyser. There we saw boiling water rising up from underground. We also got to see the geyser erupt 3 times while we were there. There was a roped area around the Great Geysir, but you could certainly get close enough to get wet when the geyser erupted. As you looked out over the area you could see stream coming out of the ground in many places. The water ran along the path and even though it was fairly cold outside the running water was warm. These were the big three sites that were planned for our tour. We were surprised to also find a smaller waterfall called Faxi Waterfall in the middle of a grassy field and Kerith (Crater Lake) which is a lake at the bottom of an eruptive crater. We ended the day at a gift shop/restaurant called Eden in Hveragerdi. We had regular American food (hamburgers). According to my sister the real Icelandic thing to eat is sheep and I mean every part of the sheep. Needless to say, we didn't seek out the opportunity for true Icelandic cuisine.

The other big adventure for us was traveling along the southern coast from Keflivik to Jokulsarlon (Glacier Bay) with lots of stops along the way. First, we stopped at Seljalandsfoss. It is a beautiful waterfall that you can walk behind. Then, it was on to Skogarfoss (Woods Falls). Legend has it that a chest of gold is hidden behind the waterfall. We didn't get close enough to check that out, but we did go up the steep steps next to the falls to get a view from the top. It was quite beautiful to look out over the valley from the top. Along the way we also saw huge fields of flowers that looked like our very own Texas Bluebonnets. We were spending the night at a farmhouse cabin so we made it there to check in before going on to Glacier Bay. The cabin was a quaint three bedroom structure. There were no other cabins around and we were surrounded by rolling hills. Even though the drive was long, you didn't really notice because the scenery was so entertaining. Mountains on one side, ocean on the other, then moss covered rocks that made you feel like you were on the moon., then waterfalls, then glaciers and snow capped mountains. It was amazing. The view was even more incredible once we finally made it to Glacier Bay. It was sunny and already closed so there were very few people around. One of the best things about our whole visit is that we could go until we got tired because it never really got dark. On the other side of the road from Glacier Bay was the ocean. The shoreline was a black beach complete with huge icebergs. Some of the chunks of ice were melting and you could see the perfectly smooth rocks embedded in the ice. Very cool. From where we were on the beach, you could see the water and ice rushing out of the bay and at the same time the tide brining the ice onto the coast. I just remember thinking that the ocean looked so very angry.

After spending the night in the cabin, we headed back to Keflivik. Our only planned stop was Dyrholaey to see the puffins. Puffin season just began near the end of June and the roads to Dyrholaey were open for visitors. The view was specatcular. We were right at the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean. There was a lighthouse and again no barriers between you and falling from the cliff. At first, we thought we were just out of luck regarding the puffins as there were none to be seen. Then as we were walking back to the car, two puffins appeared out of nowhere near the edge of the cliff. We stopped to take some pictures. Then, wondering what else might be near the cliff, we peaked over the edge and found hundreds of puffins and other birds nesting along the cliff. Completely, hidden if you didn't get close enough to the edge. The are really cute. Becoming curious about puffins, we found out the they made for life, lay a single egg per year, and come back to the same nesting place every year. There is an island just off the coast of Iceland called Vestmannaeyjar (Westmann Islands) where, in August, they have something called "the nights of the puffins". The parent birds have stopped feeding the babies and they are forced out of their nest in search of food. They are attracted by the lights of the city. Fortunately, the local children and tourists aid the young puffins by collecting them in boxes. The next morning the babies are taken to a cliff and thrown out to sea. The birds are able to glide down into the water where they are able to swim and fend for themselves until they are strong enough to fly.

We visited a couple of places in Reykjavik. On our first trip to the capital, we found the Icelandic Girls and Boys Scout Headquarters (Skatamidstrodin) and visited their Scout Shop. We found out that almost all Icelan boys and girls are scouts and they don't get to do much until they are around 11-years-old. They were in the midst of preparing for the National Jamboree. We also found the mall. On our second trip to Reykjavik, we visited The Pearl which is 5 huge water storage tanks. There were two man-made geysers, one inside and one outside. They also had a museum and a restaurant inside. We looked out over the city from the observation deck. We then proceeded to Hallgrimskirja church, which is the biggest church in Iceland. The architecture was incredible. There was a statue of Leif Erikson in front of the church. Walking from the parking lot to the church, we saw evidence of some Texas Aggies. Who knew that Ol' Sarge would make his way to Iceland? We also stopped briefly at a famous house with Swiss architecture. Two major events happened in this house. In 1972, Bobby Fischer defeated Boris Spassky to win the World Chess Championship. Then in 1986, President Ronald Reagan had an important meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that was said the be "the beginning of the end of the Cold War."

Our last touristy adventure was to visit the Blue Lagoon. It was an interesting place to visit. The water was very warm overlooking the ocean the air outside didn't feelnear Grindavik and saw another cliffand salty. They had silica mud pots around the lagoon so you could mud yourself down. It was supposed to be very good for your skin. After spending a half hour in the lagoon, as cold. It was quite refreshing. We also drove to and a lighthouse. Then, we went to this geothermally hot area where you could see mud boiling out of the ground. This grand adventure was capped by visiting Reykjanes. This is the site of a bridge that spans two continental plates, the European and American. The divide between the continents is said to expand by 6 inches every year. All along the roads you would see these piles of rocks. Apparently, tourist build mini-monuments to mark their time in Iceland. We built our Icelandic monument while visiting Reykjanes.

The rest of our time was spent visiting my sister and her family. Ayden turned one and Ryan turned 4 during our visit so we had a big birthday party. We also visited a few places on base and I got to play in a softball game or two. Playing softball in Iceland is definitely a whole different experience. Chelle and Donnie taught us how to play Bunco and we went to a spa party. I still probably left out some of the fun places we went or things we saw and did. Let's just say it was a great adventure!

I probably never really told my Mom how much we enjoyed the trip and how thankful we are that she helped pay our way. I also doubt that I told Chelle and Donnie how much we appreciated all they did for us while we were there. The trips we took were fantastic and they were excellent tour guides.