Pictures of the Weekend

Today was just the day to get back into the swing of our normal routines. Always a little difficult for everyone but we always feel better afterwards!
Taba's team won their basketball game tonight. By only 2 points! Pretty exciting!
Here are some more pictures from our Holiday weekend.

A Wonderful Thanksgiving!

We had a fantastic weekend with time spent with family and friends! We spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the beautiful state park of Hueston Woods in southern Ohio and just enjoyed ourselves all weekend long. Leo just read us a very, very nice essay that he wrote about why he is thankful for our family and what he likes about each person in the family. Very moving. After driving to Indy to pick up Coco from Josh's mom, putting up some of our Christmas decorations, unpacking our bags, doing 42 loads of laundry and getting everyone prepared for school tomorrow, I am most thankful for sleeping in my own bed tonight!! I'll post more pictures soon!

He Shoots and Scores!

Leo played in his first ever basketball game last night. The JV team lost but Leo did get in for 4 minutes of play time and even scored two points by sinking a basket! He was very excited and realized a lifelong dream.
We woke up to a beautiful but cold morning today. Lots of rain is in the forecast but the sunrise could not have been more beautiful.

Time to get busy baking and cooking for our Thanksgiving celebrating this weekend!

A Victory in the Water!

The high school swim team swam tonight in their first meet of the season. I have been enjoying getting to know the kids while I coach them in their strength and conditioning training. Knowing them all well made watching the meet so much more fun! They did a great job and tied for first despite their small size and the fact that they don't have any divers so they start out each meet behind the other teams. Quincy did an exceptionally good job and was certainly one of the top two boys on his team. He got a first in the 100 meter butterfly, a first in the 200 medley relay (where he swam butterfly), a second in the 200 freestyle relay and a fourth in the 200 freestyle event.
Tabitha's basketball team lost by huge numbers tonight but Josh and the little boys had a good time working in the concession stand for the game.
Tomorrow night will be the first boys basketball game of the season. We'll see how Leo does!

Warm Weather and Harry Potter

What more could you ask for?? Yesterday, it was almost 70 degrees so the boys played outside all afternoon in short sleeves. Calvin had his winter tennis lessons at the outdoor courts at the country club instead of inside at the Y. Much more enjoyable! Max dug out some Christmas decorations and set them up while wearing shorts and t-shirt.

We took Calvin over to the kids' high school for their open house. They like to try to recruit early so he got a great tour and lots of yummy snacks despite the fact that he is only in the 7th grade. He loved it and is now more excited than ever to go to OA, he is especially excited about the pre-engineering classes that they offer. Leo had to also attend the Open House as the orchestra played for the visiting families.

After all of our activities yesterday, Josh took the four big kids and several friends to see the latest Harry Potter movie. They all loved it but we thought Max was too young to see the scariness of it all. He was not happy to be left home with mom so we had to watch a couple of episodes of MythBusters to keep him happy.

Apparently it wasn't warm everywhere yesterday.... This is the snow sculpture that my cousin created out in Utah after they got 9 inches of snow!

The Holiday Parade

A big day in Batesville! After swim team practice, basketball practices and Max's basketball game (they lost terribly, just like Taba's team last night), it was time for the annual Batesville Holiday Parade.

Max had the opportunity to ride on a float that his guitar teacher sponsored. He had a great time, throwing candy to the crowds and singing Christmas carols.

Just before the parade started, Calvin and Leo were also asked to join the parade, to help carry the sign for the local arts alliance.

They also had a good time although Leo thought it was way too cold to be out and about (it was in the 40's - he is going to have a very rude awakening when REAL winter hits!). Tabitha was at the library helping kids make Christmas ornaments while Quincy was at work, selling Christmas decorations (and enjoying the neighboring vendor's Amish fried pies).

A very Christmasy day for the Shenks!
Now, as soon as we drop Leo and Quincy off at a birthday party, Josh and I are heading into Cincy to do some Christmas shopping and to enjoy a night "on the town".

Her Little Life

Coco's little life just flashed before my eyes! After our walk this morning, I had several friends over for coffee to celebrate Gaëlle's birthday.

While we were chatting and munching on snacks, Coco became agitated and acted as if she wanted to be let outside. So, I let her out. Next thing we know, she is barking and running around the deck like a crazy dog! This is unusual for her as she rarely barks, so we all got up to look out the window. We saw a huge German shepherd chasing Coco and baring his teeth! He chased her around and around the yard and deck. I didn't know what to do so I called her, opened the door a crack and thankfully, she was faster than the big dog and I could get her inside and slam the door on his face! Wow! My poor puppy was shaking like a leaf and scared to death. We waited another 30 minutes before the women were ready to leave. We looked outside carefully to see if the big dog was gone. He appeared to be, so two of the women walked to their cars. Next thing you know, the dog was chasing them as they ran to dive into their cars! I promptly called animal control and they came out and caught the dog. Poor Coco is now not so eager to go outside. Good thing that she can run fast!
Josh comes home tonight!!! We are all just counting down the minutes!

All About Legos

Our kids have been playing with Legos for days! It's all they want to do and they all do it together. Very fun to watch and see. Leo doesn't get quite as into it as the others but he does try to join in. Somehow, we were all home by 5:30 this evening (we must have forgotten to do something!) so, the kids talked me into eating early (6:15 instead of 7) so that they could have an unbroken amount of time to play.
With the cooler weather settling in, I have been resuming my desire to bake! Yesterday, I made some banana chocolate chip bread that the kids devoured right out of the oven! Today, I made meringues for my French club kids and then a wonderful cranberry kuchen with warm butter sauce for my kids for dessert tonight. Wow! That was delicious!
Leo received his basketball uniform today. He was quite excited to get it and to feel a part of the team (even though he has been asked NOT to play more often then he is asked TO play) but he is disappointed in his number. He is #5 and really wanted a number that "means" something. He doesn't realize that his number does mean something, it means that he is one of the smallest guys on the team! The sizes go up with the numbers....
Leo and Quincy are reading "The Good Earth" for English class. Apparently all of the kids in the class expected Leo to know this book since the setting is China - Leo never heard of it. Unfortunately for Leo, I don't think that Pearl S. Buck is actually Chinese.

Cold and Rainy

I think our days of Indian Summer are officially over. The past couple of mornings, my 4 mile walks have required hats, gloves and multiple layers. We will keep walking outside as long as we can until the weather finally forces us into the YMCA.

Today, it started raining before lunch and is still at it. We haven't had this kind of long, hard rain since June. Our basement is staying dry and the lake level is finally rising a bit... can't complain! Swim team, guitar, and basketball practices all went without a hitch yesterday and today. We are slowly but surely making it through this last week without Josh.

Très sportif!

Whew! This one woman show has about run it's course. I am worn out and more than ready for Josh to come home! Just five more days... He flew from Amsterdam to Dusseldorf today.

Here is a picture of the hotel where he will stay for the rest of the week. He said Amsterdam was just wild and made the French Quarter in New Orleans look quite tame by comparison. Very interesting...
This weekend was mostly about sports... Max had his first basketball game on Saturday morning. He played well although lacks some coordination in those long limbs. Rebounding appears to be his forte though so he helped out his team quite a bit although they still lost terribly.


After Max's game, it was time for basketball practice and working a junior high tourney for Leo. Quincy had swim team practice while Tabitha's varsity team played in a tournament out of town. I then ran Quincy to Cincinnati for another film acting class, this one was held at Xavier University so while Quincy learned how to be the next George Clooney, Calvin, Max and I explored XU a little bit. We then met my brother and his girlfriend for dinner at a local pub. Very fun!
Today, we had to be at Max and Calvin's swim meet in Aurora by 6:45 so it was early to bed and early to rise for us. Both boys swam well and seemed to enjoy themselves. Josh's mom came down for the meet and helped to cheer them on.

We finally made it back home by about 2, just in time for Quincy's end of the year soccer banquet. Whew.... I am about "sported" out!

Old Friends and Neighbors

Last night, Tabitha played in her first high school basketball game. She really played well, with more confidence and aggressiveness then I ever saw last year. She even score 4 points. Her team won easily and it was a great evening for both the JV and the Varsity.

Today was a big day! We had two sets of friends come back to Batesville for a visit. When our kids were little and we lived here before, we had such a great group of neighbors. The kids and the adults all played well together and we all looked out for each other. Well, around 2005, the group started to disband as people were transferred and changed jobs. Tonight, most of us got to see each other again and be together for the first time in 5 years. It was fantastic!

Our kids had a ball and the parents all loved catching up again. Coming from Utah and Chicago was no easy task on a Friday afternoon but it sure was fun! The kids are all big now with the youngest being 7 and the oldest now in college.

17 kids in all for the five moms. Sure was more relaxing to spend time together now than it was when they were all in diapers!!

Only Three

There was a time when I would have thought that three afterschool activities was a lot. Tonight, I felt like we had nothing going on because we only had three activities to attend! It's great, finally relaxing and I won't have to pick up anyone after 7:30! Tabitha's girls basketball team had her first game last night. It was only a varsity game because the other school is actually smaller than ours (impossible!) so they don't have a JV. Therefore, Taba didn't play but she did enjoy cheering the team on! Her team is more than 50% freshman due to graduating seniors and several injuries so they will have their work cut out for them this year but they won last night and are feeling good.
I played the role of the Batesville Ambassador again today by organizing a lunch at a local restaurant with several friends. I invited a new woman that just moved in to town so that she could get to know some people. We all had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The weather was so gorgeous once again that we were even able to eat out on the terrace!

Josh flew from London to Amsterdam today. Working hard but certainly not seeing any pretty weather.

Unbelievable Day!

Today, we woke up a perfectly beautiful day! The temperature reached the low 70's and the sun was shining all day. Perfect! My good friend, Jane and I decided to skip our usual morning walk and take our bikes out for a ride instead. We rode a very hilly 17.5 miles and felt great! Super fun!
Leo and I had a long heart to heart last night. We talked a lot about attitude and trying to become more involved, both with the kids at school and with our family. He made a huge effort along these lines when he came home from school tonight and we all had a great evening. Sure hope that he can keep this up!

The Next Houdini

We had a mostly quiet day at home today... I walked into the family room earlier today to have this scene greet me....

Both boys claim that this is what Max wanted to do. He spent the afternoon getting himself untied from whatever Calvin tied him to. Interesting...
Josh left for Europe today. Unfortunately, he will be gone for the next two weeks. Working in London, Amsterdam and Germany. We will miss him very much and already do!
Tabitha and I drove to a little town nearby that was having a Holiday open house at all of their local shops. We had a good time browsing but didn't buy anything except a new guitar for Max. His old guitar was Quincy's and is much too large for him. His teacher has been telling me for months that he could progress more quickly in his lessons if his guitar was appropriately sized so... he got a new guitar today. He is very excited and worked very hard at getting it into tune right away.

Quincy worked another 6 hours today but with a very, very quiet Sunday at "the shop", he only sold two ornaments all day! He did get all the shelves organized though and many boxes unpacked for later sales.

First Formal Dance

We had a very fun and successful dinner with all of the local exchange students and their host families last night. We also invited the school principal, director and guidance counselor so we had a group of more than 25. All of the foreign kids brought a dish from their homeland so we had Mexican, Chinese and Japanese.

It was really very fun and the big group of kids hung out for hours! After eating, the women left the kids with the men and headed "uptown" for a Ladies Night Out. This was put on by the town with specials at each restaurant and bar and all shops staying open until 10. We even had carriage rides through town. Very fun!
Quincy worked all day today. Our friends own a local Marketplace with vendors from all over. They had the addition of a new vendor just recently who sells Christmas decorations. They needed help with sales and set up so they hired Quincy. Quincy enjoyed it very much and did a pretty good job in sales all day. He will work again tomorrow and then weekends as needed until Christmas. Should be making some good money!

Tonight was the big semi-formal dance for the kids' high school. It is only open to upper classmen so Tabitha couldn't go. Leo and Quincy both had dates however so they got all gussied up and headed out.

They each took their dates to dinner at separate restaurants and then walked to the dance. We will pick them up after and see how it all went. Very exciting!! So grown up!

Adding on...

I've been watching the construction going on next door. For some reason, our neighbors feel the need to add on to their already more than 5000 sq ft house even though their kids are all grown and only 2 people live there! Just amazing to me. It is interesting for us to watch however, especially for Calvin who still claims that he would like to an architect when he gets older.

On Wednesday evening, Josh and I were invited to represent our Catholic high school at the archdiocesan dinner in Indianapolis. The food was good and the bar was open but it was a long, long awards dinner for a few people that we did not know and weren't that interested in. Oh well, at least we did our part of our little part of the archdiocese.
Last night, my parents drove down for the evening and night. They are chaperoning Quincy's music and art appreciation class field trip to the Cincinnati art museum. We were very happy to hang out all evening with them yesterday and hope they are enjoying their day with high school students today!

Good-Bye Wushuang!

This morning, I got together with my friend, Jane to make our invitation list for a Christmas party that we will host. Some of you might remember that we bought this party at one of our fundraiser auctions. The party is to be for 60 guests at a local reception hall, one drink for each guest plus all food is provided. Jane and I had the hardest time making a list of just 60 people! It is so hard in a small town to invite some but not all of your circle of friends. We erred on the side of a certain amount of no-show/cancellations and invited 74 people... Sure hope that we don't end up offending anyone...
This afternoon was a sad time for me but a very exciting one for my little Chinese burned girl. Wushuang left Batesville today to head back to China to be reunited with her family.

Her last surgery went very well and the skin grafts on her face are healing great so after more than a year away, she can finally go home again. We will miss her dearly! She certainly changed a lot of lives in our little community.
After swim practice for Max and Calvin, and basketball practice for Taba,

Tabitha and I headed out to her end of the season soccer banquet. It was a great Mexican buffet with lots of praise and awards given for their undefeated season. Very fun!