Old or Young?

I spent the day beginning my preparations for our big dinner party tomorrow. The weather is supposed to be perfect so I am aiming at feeding everyone outside on the deck! Hope that all works out!
We had a rousing treasure hunt during French club today. I made plenty of clues so the kids had to work and work off some energy to get their end prize. We then played a rocking game of Bingo (Loto) so everyone was tired and my ears were worn out by the end of the 90 minutes.

Max talked his guitar teacher into giving him his lessons outside today because the weather was just to beautiful to be indoors. She didn't mind a bit and since most of her lessons require a piano, she was happy to take advantage of Max's guitar time.


Josh was told that there was a "Meet and Greet" with the new CEO of the company tonight at the country club for "young business people". He wasn't sure if he still fit in this category but decided to go ahead and give it a try. He's not home yet so apparently they didn't kick him out for sporting a few grey hairs!

Running and Jumping

Calvin took another great photo this morning. This time of the frosty ground and cold lake!! It was only 34 degrees this morning! Yuck! It turned out to be a beautiful day in the 60's however.
Time for another track meet tonight. This time, I remembered to bring my camera. I am learning this whole track and field process as I have been helping the coach in the infield. Especially today as she had no voice to call out the line up to the runners.

Calvin continues to improve a little bit each time in discus and shotput.

He is also learning to pace himself a bit on the long relay. He does pretty well in the shorter distances although he is almost the smallest one out there.

Tabitha makes it over the hurdles every time and is gaining in her technique. They are all learning and improving and we all have a good time at the meets.

Max loves the meets as he just runs around with his friends for two hours and gets to drink a Gatorade.

Excellent Photo

I was so proud of Calvin this morning! When I woke up and saw the gorgeous sunrise over the lake, just out of our bedroom window, my first thought was to grab my camera and take a picture. I came downstairs to do just that and found that Calvin had already beat me to it!! That's my boy!
A new family with three boys (the same ages as our boys) has moved to town. I met the woman the other night and immediately felt the need to welcome this new family and to get them involved in the community. So, today, I found myself inviting this family of 5 and about 40 other people over for dinner at our house on Friday! I better get busy planning and cooking!
This evening, we went to our French friends' house for dinner. Their English tutor is the woman who tutored Josh in French before we moved. We all wanted to get together and share our ex-pat experiences. So, over an excellent French dinner, we spoke both French and English and enjoyed the international companionship. Very fun.

Drivers Ed????

We got a notice that it is time for Quincy to sign up for Drivers Ed! What???! How can that be possible?? Whose car is he going to drive?? We both have new ones that we REALLY like! Ughhhh! I am so not ready for this!
Today was cold and rainy all day long. A good day for grocery shopping and cleaning the house but not for the track meeting that we had this evening. Our poor little team looks so pathetic next to those big public schools but the kids certainly try their hardest.
I turned in a timecard today! I worked 8 hours in these past two weeks and put in another two today. Whew! I might actually be able to tell people that I have a job, the next time that I am asked.

Finished with the Room!

Wow!! Please remind me of this experience if I EVER agree to paint Tabitha's room again. Getting the wallpaper off was bad enough but then the actual painting also took forever. Because of built in shelves, multiple windows, two closets, a nook, and a chair rail, her room is 99% trimming and very little time when you can just slap paint on with a roller.

Even with her help and with recruiting Calvin for the touch ups on the trim, Tabitha's room took forever to finally finished.

I have a sore back, a stiff neck and a blister on my hand BUT the room is complete and really looks great. Tabitha is thrilled! I just hope she remains thrilled because this is the color that she will have until she is old and grey.
Our weekend was off and on rainy, but we did manage to sneak in a few outdoor activities. Besides mowing the grass, Josh, Tabitha and Maxwell were able to go for a brief sail on his boat this morning before the rain came and we headed to church. The boat appears to be in great condition despite three years in storage and with a nice wind this morning, they were cruising pretty quickly. Max said it was the best sailing ever!
Quincy tried out for a community theater musical this weekend. He does not feel confident that his singing audition was up to snuff but felt pretty good about the acting part. We will find out this week whether he gets the part or not. Keep your fingers crossed!
Josh and I went out to dinner last night at a really cute little local restaurant. We hadn't been there in years but really enjoyed ourselves. It was prom night for the public high school so it was great fun to watch the kids come in wearing their very best.

Max had a gymnastics recital this afternoon. He has been taking gymnastics for a couple of months now as an outlet for his climbing energy. He absolutely loves every minute of it and was really looking forward to his recital today. However, when he walked in and saw the big crowd of parents and grandparents who would be watching, he burst into tears and refused to perform! We didn't know what to do! We have never had a kid that didn't want to show off before!! After talking with him for several minutes and allowing him to sit by his teacher's side while the other kids did most of their routines, he finally agreed to do the uneven bars which are always his favorite. Poor guy!

Patches on the Knees

You have all seen plenty of pictures of Maxwell climbing. It's what he does.... However, all of that climbing and rough playing comes at a price. To the knees of his pants!! He no longer has any pants that do not have holes in the knees. At home, this doesn't matter too much because he has just switched to wearing shorts. However, at school, he has to wear uniform pants. They wear long pants until May 1 when they are allowed to switch to navy blue shorts. May 1 is so close, and yet so far away! He can't go to school with holes in his knees so tonight, I got busy with my iron and my iron-on patches. We just need to make these last for six more school days..
I signed up all four kids for the summer swim team tonight. They are not excited about the 6 weeks of 7:30 a.m. practices but they always have a good time, with plenty of time to socialize and plenty of exercise.
Josh made it home from New Orleans today and we are thrilled to have him here! I am now officially "off-duty" for the evening. All requests now have to go through Daddy!

Calvin always likes to cook and lately has become very anxious to learn to grill. Tonight, he started simply by grilling some ham steaks for us for dinner. He loved it and they turned out great.

Running Track

Calvin and Tabitha ran in their second track meet today. I was one of the many parent drivers for the event so I watched from start to finish this time. Much easier to follow when you are there for the whole thing! Calvin threw discus and shot put as well as running a 1600 meter relay and a 400 meter relay. He does not have the hang of all of this yet but is certainly getting there. Tabitha ran hurdles today. She didn't trip or knock any over but she was not the fastest. We are all learning. There are far more girls than boys on the team so the boys have to all do multiple events. Gets pretty tiring!
Other than all of that, I just enjoyed a gorgeous day at home. Went to the driving range to hit a bucket of balls and went to work again for a couple of hours. This is becoming a habit!

John Deere

Today, while picking up Quincy from school, we saw a man pull up his John Deere lawn tractor to the pump at the gas station in Oldenburg and fill it up with gas. We all burst out laughing... Only in Indiana...
More painting in Tabitha's room today but still a long way from being finished. I walked 4 miles with different friends two different times today. I'm not sure if the beautiful weather and good company was my motivation or whether it was just an excuse to get out of more painting!

Our First Meet

After Josh left on a business trip to New Orleans this morning, I got busy with my paint brush and tackled Tabitha's room. It's going to take a little while but we both love the color!

Calvin and Tabitha had their very first track meet today. Tabitha ran the 100 meter dash while Calvin did long jump, high jump and discus. Unfortunately, I missed all of their events when I had to take Max to gymnastics class!

I am hoping that I do a better job of being a spectator at their meet on Wednesday!


You can see how Tabitha filled her time when she was not competing.

Stripped, Spackled, and Sanded

Right after church this morning, Josh and I got back to work on the wallpaper stripping. We completed that horrendous task by 11 and our steamer wasn't even due back to the rental place until 12:30! I then got busy fixing up the walls to prepare for painting. While the spackling was drying, Josh and I worked in the yard and got some other projects done around the house. Tabitha was gone all afternoon. She had a group project to work on for school and fortunately, one of the boys in her group just so happened to have an old horse drawn wagon and some other 1800's accoutrements that they needed to make their video truly look like a western wagon train. Certainly one of the benefits of a rural community with classmates that live on farms! Calvin started playing with his new tennis group this afternoon. His coach had asked him and just three other kids to play in a spring league. These are the kids that the coach thinks have real potential to excel in the summer league. After tennis, Max and Calvin headed to a birthday party. Unfortunately, Josh had to spend the afternoon at the funeral home for a memorial service for a co-worker. This father of three died suddenly on Wednesday at the age of 46 from a massive heart attack in the parking lot at work. Unbelievable.
After trimming all of the hedges and doing all the edging in the yard, I got busy sanding Tabitha's walls. They look pretty good and should be ready for their first coat of paint as soon as I can dig up a little bit of energy. Right now, I have none to spare!

What was I thinking????!

This morning, while I ran Quincy into Cincinnati for his acting class, Josh took off for the 2 hour trip to Lafayette. He has been chomping at the bit to finally get his sailboat out of storage and into our lake so today was the day. He also took the time to go through some of his dad's things that were in storage and brought home a few things that we have been wanting to have. When Quincy and I got home from Cincy, I got this ridiculous idea in my head! I decided that I would begin to work on decorating Tabitha's room. The kids have been so patient as we haven't done a single thing to their rooms since we moved in. Tabitha has been putting up with psychedelic wallpaper while Max and Calvin have pretty purple hearts all over their room. So, today was the day that I rented a steamer and decided to strip their walls. What was I thinking????!!! This project is huge and after working diligently for at least 5 hours, I think that I have gotten nowhere!

Tabitha did start to paint the one wall that does not have wallpaper so that looks nice.... the rest is just a mess!

I turned the steamer over to Josh when he got home so we will see if he can make more progress than I have!



While all of this was going on, Calvin was working hard on turning some pieces on his lathe. He loves his very real power tool and is very particular in his craftsmanship.

Country Club Wife

When Josh asked me this morning what I had on my agenda for the day, I was actually embarrassed to give him an honest answer. After running around all week long, I actually had no set plans for today so.... I walked my usual four miles with a friend, then joined two friends for 9 holes of golf at the country club, followed by lunch...

I did then come home and clean the house before picking up the kids from school. I also worked 3 whole hours this week at the local wellness clinic so I brought home a little bit of bacon! I certainly had a very enjoyable day despite my very poor golf skills. After school, I took Max to see his very best friend. Matthew just had surgery to remove three very large tumors from his neck. The pathology results are still not in to say what these tumors are exactly but, unfortunately, the doctor is very concerned.

Max and I hung out all evening with Matthew and his family in an attempt to distract them from their pain and worries and to show Max that Matthew was still in one piece. Please keep Matthew in your prayers in the hope that these tumors turn out to be nothing.

Scholarship Winners

Max finished up his week long basketball camp after school today. He had a great time working with the seniors from the high school basketball team and proudly wore home his newly autographed t-shirt. As soon as he got home, he and Quincy set out to shoot some hoops in the driveway.

After play and track practices, and Max's guitar lesson, we headed out as a family once again for another Tabitha event.

Tonight's event was the reception at Oldenburg Academy where the winners of next year's freshman scholarship awards were announced.

With Tabitha receiving the biggest award, her introduction took quite some time and while all of her accomplishments and teacher comments were read aloud, we felt unbelievably proud and found ourselves grinning from ear to ear! That girl is definitely something special!

She received a very nice plaque in addition to an Oldenburg Academy Class of 2014 sweatshirt to wear with pride!

Native Americans and Really Big Stadiums

Yesterday morning, after an impromptu golf lesson with a friend, I headed over to the elementary school to help out the junior high teachers. They had been coaching the 8th grade class in how to write up a proper resume and cover letter, so the next step was to have them do mock interviews. I got to be one of the interviewers and really enjoyed getting to see these kids in a "professional" setting, describing their strengths and weaknesses and telling me a bit about themselves. An impressive group of kids! After play practice and track practice for Tabitha and Calvin, and Max's basketball camp at the high school, we all ran over to the school cafeteria where they were holding a banquet for the girls basketball team.

Tabitha got a nice certificate and trophy for being a member of this undefeated team. Very exciting!

In the middle of all of this, I received the new hardware for our kitchen cabinets and Josh very generously put it all up. I love the new look! You can see the old (white) pulls in this picture as well as the new (black). Josh also put up a new light fixture in our half bath. I'll get a picture of that soon!
Today, I spent the day with Calvin's sixth grade class. We all drove to Indianapolis where we were given a private tour of Lucas Oil Stadium. Wow! A pretty huge and high tech place - it can hold 73,000 people.

We got to see the visitor's locker room, the press box, some of the private suites, and the viewing balcony. Very fun. We then headed over to the Eiteljorg Museum.

This wonderful museum is full of information and exhibits about Native Americans. It is incredibly well done and we were given an excellent tour. After arriving back in Batesville, it was immediately time for French club followed by more play practice and track practice.

Josh has stepped up to be a part-time assistant coach with the track team. He is helping out by teaching the kids to run hurdles. He is really having a great time and both Tabitha and Calvin got over their initial embarrassment and are happy to have him there. Tabitha is running hurdles and relays while Calvin does the long jump, high jump and discus.

Exploring Different Cultures

Max and Calvin have a new favorite book to read a bedtime each night.

It's a book that Josh got long ago when he was traveling to Japan for work. Somehow, Max and Calvin have found it and absolutely love it. They read about a particular situation each night where the culture significantly differs between the U.S. and Japan and then read about why that culture is different.
While my kids are exploring Japanese cultural differences, I explored the huge difference between a day in Batesville versus a day in Carmel, Indiana. I met my friend, Teresa, in Carmel today for some shopping and an early lunch. Carmel is a wealthy and big suburb of Indianapolis, full of expensive shops and good restaurants. A far cry from Batesville but we appreciate both.
When I came home this afternoon, I actually went into work for an hour and a half and did my first new patient evaluation in almost three years! It was quite fun and the kids didn't even know that I was gone.

After school and practices today, the canoe came out yet again. This time, Max and Quincy took our little French girl along with them.

The three had a great time and certainly came home with big appetites for dinner!

Loving Life on the Lake

Saturday was crammed full of activities but most were fun, so we certainly cannot complain! We started out bright and early with a 5K for all of us. This was to raise money for the athletic program at school so I felt like everyone should join in. We each kept our own pace and hung out with friends so we all had a good time and finished in a decent time.

I then left immediately for my second golf lesson. Two hours later, my forearms were burning but I had gained a little bit of knowledge and maybe improved my swing just a bit. While I was golfing, Josh took Quincy and then Calvin shopping for some much needed new summer clothes. As soon as I got home, it was my turn to take Tabitha shopping. These kids have outgrown absolutely everything and were in dire need of something that fit! After shopping, I took off yet again for a Pampered Chef party to raise money for the high school cafeteria. Two and a half hours later, I was finally able to make my break from this group of chatty women and head back home. Josh and I then agreed to take Tabitha and four of her friends to the movies in Greensburg, 20 minutes away. Tabitha and company wanted to see "Dear John" while Josh and I enjoyed "Date Night". It was definitely an interesting experience to hang out in the car with this group of teenage girls! The things they talk about.... the number of times that they can use "like" in a single sentence... and the giggling that goes on.... unbelievable! Josh was worn out by the time we got home!
Today, we made the most of living on the lake! We absolutely love it!

When the kids aren't trying their hand at fishing, they are driving Josh's remote control boat around our little part of the lake, taking the canoe out on the lake, or just sitting on the edge and enjoying the calm.

Josh and I spent the entire day working in the yard, doing little projects on and in the house and watching the kids out of the corner of our eye.


Quincy and Max went out in the canoe at least five times, sometimes for an hour at a time, while Calvin and Tabitha took various turns as well. Keep in mind, all of you, that Quincy is a certified life guard, we have an absolutely mandatory life jacket rule, and all of our kids are excellent swimmers. In the short moments when the kids weren't using the lake, they were using our hot tub like a swimming pool.

Splashing around and having fun.

Tabitha did begin some painting on her room today, finally tackling those horrible yellow window frames that she so hates.

I also painted, adding a faux finish to our half bath.
Excellent weekend!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Sorry that I haven't been blogging this week... with the sudden emergence of nice weather, I have been obsessed with spring cleaning! On the nice days, I have been working like crazy in our yard and when it was cool and cloudy yesterday, I did some closet cleaning in the house and put three new coats of poly-urethane on our kitchen table. In the evenings, I then have to sit in the hot tub to nurse my sore muscles and tired body. The kids have all been busy with track practices (Calvin is loving this much more than Taba!), play practices, and school projects. Max has been the only one home in the evenings until after 5 so he and I have been playing outside and going to the park. I love these kind of days!

Today, I went to lunch with a couple of friends and then hit the local furniture factory sale and the adjoining upscale flea market. I was able to purchase a wonderful and oh so comfortable new reading chair for my bedroom and am now anxiously awaiting one of my big kids to get home from school and help me carry it upstairs. You may never hear from me again.... I might just be up in my room, enjoying the lake views and reading a book, comfortably ensconced in my new chair!

Spring Flowers

After Coco and I each got our spring time haircuts this morning... I got busy on some serious yard work.

There were many, many, many weeds to pull but I took a short break from all of that to fill my window boxes with fresh potting soil and some pansies. Our entire neighborhood is filled with flowering trees and bushes and looks and smells beautiful!


The kids can't get enough of this warm weather and play outside from the minute they get home from school until it's time for bed. Quincy walked over to the city ball diamond tonight with a friend to watch his school baseball team. Tabitha and Calvin are both on the track team so they are getting some fresh air and exercise three evenings a week.