They Shoot, They Score!

Busy, busy day of preparing to leave tomorrow for our trip to New Orleans! I am trying to make sure that everything is ready and as easy as can be for Grandma to watch the kids while Josh and I fly off for our long weekend in the Big Easy to celebrate my birthday. I also worked a couple of hours this afternoon...
Tabitha was a starter in tonight's basketball game! Hurray! They were playing their least competitive opponent so her coaches really mixed things up and gave the girls the chance to try all sorts of new things. Tabitha played for three quarters, got a few rebounds and even scored a couple of points. Hurray! Their team won 49-6.

Max then took his turn during half time by paying a dollar for a chance to shoot a free throw. He shot and made a free throw so he won a free bottle of pop! He was absolutely thrilled!

We had off and on snow all day today. Sometimes actually accumulating a bit and sometimes just melting away. It is snowing hard again right now and truly sticking to the roads now since the temperatures are dropping. Sure hope it's all gone by morning!
Tabitha and Calvin tried out for the junior high musical yesterday. They found out today that they each got decent sized speaking parts. Tabitha even has a solo singing part! She is a bit nervous about that but will manage to do just fine, I'm sure. So, now while Quincy is practicing his Hamlet lines, Calvin and Tabitha will be practicing for Godspell! Gonna be theatrical around here!

What Is Happening??

This picture was sent to me by a friend in Austin, TX. This was the scene from her front yard this morning! Wow, the whole city had to shut down but everyone certainly had fun! Her kids built snowmen and made snow angels for the first time in their lives.
We had some snow flurries all day today but fortunately, nothing that accumulated into anything.
Josh had to leave town at about 4:15 a.m. this morning for a couple of days in Charleston, SC. When he got up, he reset the alarm for me so that I could get the kids up and to school on time. Unfortunately, he reset the TIME instead of the ALARM so about 20 minutes after we all normally get up, Max came in to my room and asked me if we were cancelled or something.... Not a good way to start the day. The rest of it was uphill, however. I drove into Indianapolis where I met my very good friend, Teresa for lunch. Teresa and her two youngest girls treated me to a lunch at the Cheesecake Factory in honor of my upcoming birthday. They also presented me with lots of wonderful gifts. Even though the chocolates have a big "4-0" on them, they still taste awfully good...
I came home to dentist appointments, play practices and try-outs and another basketball game. Busy evening but no cavities and Tabitha's team won big tonight.

Close Game

Just got home from yet another basketball game for Tabitha's team. This was a tough one. It was close the whole game and really close at the end. The Cardinals finally won 29-25 so Taba was happy. However, she sat the bench for the entire game, didn't even break a sweat so she was a bit disappointed. Oh well, she'll get another chance tomorrow night. They have a game each night this week.
Quincy brought home the paperwork to order his class ring tonight!! Class ring???!!! Surely he can't be old enough for that! Apparently, they get them as freshman around here!

Another Great Day

Tabitha had yet another day this weekend to be proud of! Yesterday, her 8th grade basketball team participated in an all day tournament at the Catholic high school. They competed against all of the other Catholic schools in the area and came out on top. They played 3 games with only the 2nd one being a nail-biter.

Tabitha was proud to bring home her first basketball trophy. Grandma and Grandpa came down to watch so the whole family had fun.

When we came home from the games, Josh and I spent some time trying out our new trailer hitch "trailer" for my car. We are preparing for our driving trip out to the Grand Canyon. This little trailer will manage our luggage so we can all spread out and be comfortable in the car.

The temperature reached 48 degrees here yesterday afternoon. What a welcome break from our last few cold and snowy Sundays! It is now Monday morning, the kids left for school and are having a Monday in school for the first time in weeks!
Addendum:
In answer to a few questions that I received about our little "trailer". It will hold 500 pounds. It folds up and out of the way when the luggage has been removed for maneuvering through parking lots, etc.

The vinyl cover that you see is actually a waterproof bag that will hold 11.5 cubic feet of luggage. And, yes, we will move our license plate to a spot on the trailer that is made just for that, so that it can be seen when the trailer is full.

A Very Proud Day

This morning, I took Tabitha over to Quincy's school to register her for high school in the fall. When we walked in to the room to pay her registration fees and to set up the payments for tuition, we were told that we didn't have to worry about any of that for her! Tabitha had received the highest score on the Entrance Exam and was therefore given a full tuition scholarship for her freshman year! Wow!!! What a huge accomplishment! She beat out a lot of very, very smart kids and we are just thrilled! Tabitha and I both had tears in our eyes and didn't know quite what to do with ourselves short of jumping up and down and dancing!

So, to celebrate, after completing her registration, I took her straight over to Verizon and bought her that long awaited cell phone that she has been dying to have! She can finally be "in touch" with all of her friends and text like everyone else. She spent the remainder of the day texting and calling everyone she could think of. The message that she sent to Josh after I told her that I would get her the cell phone as a reward for her amazing educational accomplishment, was this...
"Guess what!!!!!! Mom says I don't have to have to wait to get a cell phone, because I got the highest score on the entrance exam, so I get a full tuition scholarship!!!!! I get a cell phone!!!!!!!!" Obviously, you can tell which was the higher priority for her....

Piles of Snow clothes

The kids did have a normal routine all day on Friday so they attended all classes and all activities. The sun has also been making an appearance each day for us so some of our piles of snow are melting but they still have a long way to go. The snow now has a hard crust of ice on top so it's not something that you want to accidentally bump into with your car but Coco is able to venture out a bit further from the house as she can mostly walk on top of the snow. Max and Calvin are continuing to have fun sledding on our little hill and this pile of drying snow clothes has become a permanent fixture in our butler's pantry.

I made a decision yesterday. My boss from the rehab clinic/hospital has been asking me repeatedly if I would agree to pick up some regular hours for them. I finally agreed yesterday that I would begin to work six hours a week, as long as this could still be flexible to meet my volunteering and kid needs. I will organize and run a women's health program for the hospital as I have done in the past. I will also help with other marketing and organizational needs of the clinic as this is what I love to do. So, I worked for 3 hours yesterday, saw a couple of patients and was immediately reminded of how much I do enjoy my chosen profession. Wish me luck!
I helped to coach the "Brain Team" after school yesterday. Calvin is on this team and it was great fun to work with these smart and motivated 5th and 6th graders!
Max had a sleepover at a friend's house, Calvin has a friend having a sleepover here, Quincy and Tabitha both went to movies (separately) with friends last night and came home late. It is a never a dull moment on weekend evenings any more. Today, Quincy will swim in the relay finals at sectionals but first, I will take Tabitha to register at the high school. Gosh, these kids are growing up fast!

Back to Routine

The kids are finally on a normal schedule today - no delays and no cancellations. The storm that they have been predicting for this weekend now looks like it might be more rain than snow so maybe, just maybe, we will go a full week of school next week! The only hazards on the road now are the 4, 5, and 6 foot piles of snow that are at each intersection where the plows pushed them into place.

This makes it difficult to see when you are trying to pull out but nothing is slippery any longer.
We had a busy sports night last night. Quincy had his sectional swim meet qualifications. He got a first place in his heat in the breast stroke and his relay team qualified in both the 200 meter and 400 meter events. So, he will now swim in the finals on Saturday afternoon. While I was at the swim meet, Josh took the boys to watch Tabitha's basketball game. Taba played the entire second quarter and actually scored 4 points! Very exciting as she has been notoriously afraid to shoot in a game. Her team won 47-7 so it was not a nail-biter but certainly fun for her.
Only in America... I took Quincy and a buddy to McDonald's after the swim meet. When I ordered a medium drink, the woman asked me if I would prefer a large since it was cheaper???!!!

The Hills of Brookville?

I love to spy on the kids when they are playing together. Gives me a little insight into them without the influence of my presence. So, here is a little snippet of Max and Calvin playing in the snow together late yesterday afternoon. Having all of this snow during the Winter Olympics sure makes their play time more fun. They played on our little hill for hours yesterday, pretending to win gold medals and turning their sleds into snowboards.
The kids are finally going to school today. They have a 90 minute delay this morning but then everything should proceed as usual.

Yesterday afternoon, we just had to get out of the house. The roads were perfectly dry and clear so I loaded up the kids and went out to run some errands.

I had to drive into Brookville, IN which is about 20-25 minutes north and east of here to pick up a few donated items for Quincy's school's fundraiser auction. So, I took the kids with me.

We were pleasantly entertained by the beautiful winter scenery that we saw and amazed at the hill landscape that exists so close to our flat little town. Gorgeous!

As the temperature got slightly above freezing yesterday afternoon and the sun came out, our house began to sprout icicles like crazy.

If you look in the center background of this picture, you can see one icicle goes from the roof of the second floor, almost to the center of the 1st floor!

Another group of icicles were completely blocking one of our patio doors creating an icicle "jail" for us.

Relaxing at Home

Nothing to do but relax (oh, and do the usual mountains of laundry) so I might as well go with it. Yes, the kids' schools are cancelled again today. It seems unbelievable as we went the whole day yesterday without any real new snow. However, I ventured out yesterday afternoon to run Quincy and Tabitha to some friends' houses and the roads were quite bad.

The main roads are okay but all of the side roads are snow covered and slick. I can only imagine what all of our many, many winding rural roads are like. In the late evening last night, it started to rain lightly despite the fact that the temperatures are below freezing so I'm quite certain that that did not help matters either. So, we will spend the day once again playing some games, playing in the snow, doing some baking, watching the Olympics, and reading some books. Max now wears his pajamas 24 hours per day. If he goes outside, he just puts his snow clothes on top of his p.j.'s What a life these kids are leading! All activities have been cancelled in the whole town EXCEPT tonight's fish fry at church. It is Ash Wednesday, you know!

Creating Fun

The snow continues to fall.... That's about all I can say these days. It just doesn't stop! I saw on the news last night that we are already 20 inches above the normal snow fall for February and it's only February 16! I have lost track of how many snow days the kids have had off from school and I have no idea how much they will now have to go into the summer to make up these days. Tabitha has had almost more basketball games cancelled than she has played and Quincy hasn't had swim team practice in weeks! Unfortunately, he is supposed to swim in sectionals on Thursday but with no practices beforehand, I'm afraid that it is going to be ugly for their whole team! Calvin is participating in a Brain Team competition on Feb 27 but they have had so few practices that they just don't know what to expect and Quincy is in the school play in early March for which they have only practiced a handful of times. Today, we are under a Level 3 snow emergency so no one except Emergency vehicles are supposed to be on the roads. Josh is working from home with a small desk set up in our bedroom and the doors closed. Quincy and Tabitha got the word early enough last evening that they were not having school today that they were able to put on their snow gear and walk over to friends' houses for sleepovers. Whereas, the little boys got to stay up late with Josh and I and watch the Olympics. Our French friends slipped and slid their way home from the Indianapolis Airport yesterday evening after flying in from Las Vegas. They were able to pick up Theo and Esteban from our house and make it home safely. They were very frazzled and questioning the wisdom of their move from coastal France to snowy Indiana.

But, all in all, we are lucky and it's beautiful! We have food, we have warm shelter, everyone is safe and the kids are having a ball enjoying a true winter after years of no winter at all. Yesterday, all six kids had so much fun, all day long.


They went sledding for hours (heavily influenced by watching the Olympic snowboarders as you can see), built a snow fort, played games in the house and enjoyed the warmth of the hot tub (after they dug it out of the snow).


We ate pancakes, hot chocolate, warm chocolate chip cookies, and lasagna. Max and Esteban even commandeered my camera for awhile and had great fun making "movies" in Max's bedroom. I'm including one for your enjoyment.

It's all in French but you can get the idea. We loved having a whole French-speaking weekend. Those words that were a bit rusty on Friday were flowing out of the kids' mouths by Sunday and Monday.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had a wonderfully relaxing Valentine's Day at home. Fantastic! Quincy spent most of the day babysitting Theo and Esteban at their house while the rest of us did some reading and relaxing at home. We also began our planning for our trip to France this summer. We will spend 2 weeks in Vannes, visiting our friends and brushing up on our French culture. Can't wait. We spent a couple of hours at the Y in the afternoon, playing some basketball and doing some walking.

In the evening, we fed the kids all some raclette. Now that we have our raclette maker and know where to buy the stinky cheese, we are truly enjoying this favorite meal. We then all buckled down to watch some of the Olympics.

Max was thrilled to see the French win the Nordic cross-country and we all love the speed skating. After putting the kids to bed, Josh and I whipped up a heavenly meal of surf and turf.

I put Josh to work on the broiled lobster tails and he did a fantastic job. It was all delicious and the perfect way to share Valentine's day with the love of my life.

Today.... well, today is another snow day! The snow is coming down hard, we have a couple of inches on the ground and they are predicting a total of 9 inches. School has been cancelled, so I have six kids at home instead of just my four. Hopefully Theo and Esteban's parents can make it home from Las Vegas tonight as planned. If not, it's okay. Sometimes more kids are easier than less. They entertain each other and I love to hear the house full of spoken French! A rockin' "Sardines" game is already going on. Wish me luck!

Sevruga???

Today was a busy one! Quincy had to take off bright and early this morning for a 9 to 5 lifeguard certification class at a pool an hour away. He is taking this 30 hour class with two buddies from his swim team so they had a good time and are envisioning some good summer jobs at the end. While he was going in one direction, the rest of us were heading to Cincinnati for Tabitha's regional spelling bee.

She participated with the 69 other finalists from the district bees for this regional bee. The winner of today's competition will go on an all expenses paid trip to Washington D.C. for the National bee. Tabitha did a great job and made us very proud but got out in the second round. She was given some very difficult words which the moderator seemed to have difficulty pronouncing, so she did not have an easy go of it. She enjoyed herself though and was not too upset with the end result. Here are her two rounds.... Her first word was babushka...

Her second word was sevruga...

After the two and a half hour competition, we headed across the river to Johnny Rockets for a fun lunch. All weekend, we have two extra kids in tow. We are watching the sons of our French friends while they discover a long weekend in Las Vegas for Valentine's Day. Quincy is doing the bulk of the babysitting but when he is not available, Theo and Esteban just hang out with us. They are great kids and great friends of Max and Calvin so it couldn't be easier. We introduced them to the giant hamburgers at Johnny Rockets today and they had a ball.

We then all went to Jungle Jim's, the incredible and huge grocery store in Cincinnati that sells all sorts of ethnic foods. There, we were able to get the very special cheese for our new raclette maker.
After picking up Quincy from his class and urging the kids to get some play in the snow time in, we invited some other good friends over. It was time to introduce Jane and Greg to the pungent smell but delicious taste of raclettes. They loved them and we got in some good visiting at the same time.
Now, it's time for bed!

The 80's are Back!

We had so much fun tonight! We just got back from a big 80's party! Lots of big hair, great music and bad dancing. At least 100 people were at the party, living it up and reliving our youth. Were we all celebrating our youth or just celebrating the fact that our kids finally went back to school today? Either way, we had a great time.

All of the kids had a 90 minute delay this morning but then went back to school as usual for the first time all week. I went walking with my friends and then ran a million errands before needing to be at school at 1 to work the Valentine party for the K-4th graders. This party was nuts! After 4 snow days in a row, the kids were high on life and unbelievably noisy! I have never seen such a loud and enthusiastic Bingo game in my life. Everyone had fun though and were thrilled to receive their free RIF program book at the end.

A Blender Disaster

The kids were home yet again today and I will have to admit that when I ventured out on the roads after 10 a.m. this morning, they were still far from clear and not great for driving. It was the first time that I had really been out in days though and we were in desperate need of some groceries and I was in desperate need of some time ALONE! So, I hit Krogers hard and came home with lots of good supplies.

While out, I was reminded that all of this beautiful is not always so beautiful. The big, ugly piles of dirty snow along the roads and in the parking lots made me happy to return home and admire the view of our house in the sunshine.


We finally had a day of sunshine and no new snow so the kids all got together with various friends and had a good time playing and sledding.


This afternoon, Tabitha had a couple of friends over and they decided to make chocolate shakes. Unfortunately, they removed the blender jar improperly while it was still spinning and we had chocolate shake all over the kitchen! The floor, the walls, the baseboards, even inside the cupboards! What a mess. They were great about buckling right down to clean it up however so I couldn't be too mad. They were also extremely apologetic. I'm sure that we will continue to find chocolate splashes for years to come but for now, it looks pretty good (if you don't look too closely).
Surely they will go back to school tomorrow, right????

Is Dad Home?

Josh made it home safely from Mexico late, late last night. Because he got home so late, we let him sleep in a bit this morning. None of the kids had school because of the continued snow so, of course, they were all up early and watching television when Josh got up. I encouraged him to go right into the family room and say "hello" to all of the kids because they had all missed him terribly and were worried about him getting home last night. So, he did. He walked into the television room, said "hello", talked to them about the snow, about not having school, and about the show they were watching. He then showered, had a cup of coffee, decided to work from home and went upstairs to work and get in on a conference call. About an hour and a half later, both Max and Calvin, on separate occasions, came into the kitchen to ask me if dad had made it home last night! I guess he had made quite an impression!

Here is a little clip of the continued falling and blowing snow that we had until about 1 o'clock this afternoon. The snow then finally stopped except for some occasional flurries. Quincy and Tabitha took off with some friends while Max and Calvin spent some time playing in the yard.

The snow is not even easy to play in though because it is so deep. Makes walking difficult.

Coco can't venture out away from the house at all. The snow is taller than she is!


When some young men with a massive snowblower stopped by to ask if we wanted our driveway cleared for $25, I said "no" because Josh is cheap and he was home! I had decided that I would venture out soon and get started shoveling. However, Josh heard me tell the guys no and immediately called down the stairs that "yes, of course, we wanted it cleared". He was tired and wanted no part of struggling to get his car out. So, we finally have our driveway and walks more clear than they've been in a week. Josh managed to go in to work for the afternoon.

About mid-afternoon, we got the call telling us that the kids' schools will be closed yet again tomorrow because of the blowing snow paired with the country roads and the very cold temperatures. Sigh.... I'm sure that some day they will all go back to school, right?

And the snow keeps coming...

We got several inches of snow during the night last night so the kids' schools were cancelled yet again. The snow tapered off for a couple of hours this afternoon but it has picked right back up and has now added wind to the mix.

We have at least 14 or 15 inches on the ground and it is now coming down really hard yet again. Those big, fluffy flakes that make everything so pretty but that are certainly weighing down the trees.

The kids all spent a good amount of time out in the snow today. It's not good packing snow however so they just played around with friends and worked on some existing forts.


When they came inside, we made some homemade pretzels and some hot cider. I went out to shovel a couple of times, trying to keep the driveway moderately clear. Fortunately, on my first trip out, when I had barely started to shovel the latest 5 inches off the ground, a neighbor quickly came over with his snowblower and took over for me. Finishing the job in 15 minutes (we are going to HAVE to get one of those!) We are under a Level 3 snow emergency which means that emergency vehicles only are supposed to be on the roads. The kids are convinced that they won't have school again tomorrow and are just impatiently awaiting the official announcement. Josh is on his way home from Mexico but we don't know how far he will make it. I spoke to him just a few minutes ago and he was in Houston. He might be able to make it to Indy but not be able to make the last hour home. We'll see....