Pictures with the Patches'

I had blogged about the Mel and Darla Patch visiting but never posted pictures with them. We had a great time going to the Creation Museum together. It was neat to see Isabel get to know people I have known for so long. She was quite sad when Darla had to leave. I was too. I was nice to catch up again. Until we meet again in NY....

2009 Piano Recital

Last night Kristianna and Wesley took part in a piano recital. They did very well and I was so proud of them. Here are a few shots of them afterwards. Isabel didn't play but couldn't miss out on the photo opp! She did play the piano for half an hour when we got home. I think she was inspired.

Tomorrow friends of ours from Vermont are coming for a visit. They have known me since the 5th grade! It will be our first visitors from the upstate NY area to see our new home. It's always nice to go to bed looking forward to something, don't you think?

Middle east meets Midwest

I don't even know what more to post...other then to point out to David that my girls are smiling! :) Thanks, Susan, for reminding me of these pictures also from last week.

Shukran

Class of 1990

My Mom mentioned a name of someone who went to school with me that remembers me but I cannot place her. Since Kris has recently built some bookshelves and our books are now unpacked I decided to look up the name in my HS yearbook. I am sure you all have moments like these but the search has really made me think. The comments written all over pictures seemed to echo a strange bit of advise I received from my driving test official after successfully passing the road test. "You are a good driver but you need to get out of Whitehall and get a little bit more experience." Hmm...perhaps that was because I was voted "shyest"? :) I think that 15 years of being a nurse working with cancer patients and now moms in labor have changed me. I suppose changing my name (marrying Kris) and becoming a mom myself also helped to shape me into who I am today. I have not been able to make it to any reunions and my parents only live in the area a few months out of the year so for the most part I have not been in touch with anyone until this year when facebook became a bigger part of our lives. On that note of introspection I am off to dream of years gone by and and of years to come! God, help me to continue to grow into the person You want me to be.

$3.47 well spent

I found this small water toy on clearance last October. When I opened the box today I thought this would be too small for even Isabel. This little frog had them all jumping today! :) I had to put some cool tea on Wesley's sunburn before bed but they had a great time being out in the 85 degree weather.

A walk in the park

Today Isabel and I went looking for wildflower at John Bryan while Kris and Susan ran 20 miles and Wesley and Kristianna biked next to them as water support. I think ours was the more enjoyable outing! I only had my camera phone to get these pictures but it was such a lovely day that I have to share them and hope that you are enjoying your weekend as much as we have today.

Week in pictures

It is hard to put into words all of this week so I will post a few pictures to help me out. They are of our first fire (cookout), our growing "forest", spectacular rainbows, another track meet, and some feathered friends. Enjoy!

At home on Spring Break

Today we changed plans and decided to stick closer to home. We went to the Wright Brothers Museum in Dayton. While there the kids researched (ok...Kris and I helped, too) and became Junior Rangers! It was quite an accomplishment. Kris said he thinks he read everything there at least twice. :)

Kristianna had another track meet. She ran the 800m and the 4 x 400R. She has never been in a relay before and was a bit anxious. She dropped the baton at the hand off but recovered!

Today was the last day of us all being home together and every day feeling like Saturday. I think we enjoyed all of it!

A Day Away

We just returned from visiting Amish Country here in Ohio. We had a fun and full day. The kids seemed to enjoy seeing Lehmans', a woodcraft store, a chocolate shop, and a bakery. On the way home we saw an exit that had the name of the Ohio Kinseys' town so we decided to make an impromptu stop! It was neat to be able to catch up with them again and see the house that they are building themselves. Vonn has been to our place to help Kris a few times and our kids are getting to know each other after hearing about them from the Florida Kinseys'. My Dad used to always have a saying growing up that if a fence could hold water it could hold a goat. I cannot tell you how many times we had to attempt to contain our herd growing up. It was an ongoing battle. Vonn K. had a very innovative way of keeping his dark-haired goat inside it's fence and I had to take a picture as we were leaving tonight. He said that it now has a prosthetic device. Do I need to mention that he is an engineer? This solution cracked me up! Notice the horns...now the goat cannot get it's head stuck in the fence again! Good old duct tape and ingenuity.

Notice the snow in some of the pictures! We also drove past the Longaberger basket place. It was quite impressive from the road.

Make-up snow day

I am writing tonight from Bolivar, Ohio. The kids had to make-up a snow day at the beginning of their Spring Break. Shockingly it actually snowed today! :) We left after school to go near Amish Country where we will be touring tomorrow. We got to spend dinner with friends from Indiana that we haven't seen for almost 10 years. Kristianna loved being able to say that they got to swim on a snowy day.

I hope you had a great day.

On my day off...

It was odd to see Miami Valley's Care Flight flying over my house today! Most of the time when I leave work I don't think about it until it is time to go back in again.
We had a fun day touring Yellow Springs with Susan in the morning and having dinner with friends at night. I hope you are enjoying your weekend.

Kristianna's First Track Meet

Since Kris had been coaching in FL for 13 years the kids have been brought to many a meet. When Wesley was a baby he saw Susan run through her high school career. Now Susan, Kris, and I drove an hour away to watch Kristianna run her first meet! How we have come full circle. We also were sitting in the stands with one of our former college teammates who is one Kristianna's teammates (and good friend)! Kristianna did the long jump and ran the 400m and 800m. Also notable was the tractor in the background! Never saw that in a meet in FL! :)