The days just fly by!

Has it really been 5 days since I wrote anything in the journal? I cannot believe how quickly the days fly by sometimes. The weather has been beautiful here all week, and we've been spending most of our time outdoors. It's been nice, except that I've already had 3 ticks on me this week. Yuk! They must really like me, because I've been checking the children thoroughly every evening, and haven't found any on them. We've learned our lesson, though, and are doing tick checks religiously. The strange thing is that I spend most of my time just sitting on the front porch reading a book while the children are playing, so I'm not sure how I'm the one with all the ticks, unless the animals are bringing them to me!

Our week was fairly uneventful and normal, which was nice. Kindra had a basketball game on Thursday, and did a really good job. Scored the first two points for her team, and was really on top of things the whole game. It's funny how they can play a sport for years, and then all of a sudden you recognize that all those practices have actually paid off! After the game we had to rush home to change clothes and then head to dance class. Pavan had a meeting so he had to stay in Rhinelander, and we actually beat him home. The meeting went until 9PM, so we were home, bathed, and in bed by the time he got here. Not asleep, mind you, but in bed watching TV.

Friday night Kindra had her end of the year AWANA sleepover at church. She had a great time, and it sounds like the girls did typical girl stuff.....like TP the boy's bathroom and entryway while everyone else was asleep! I was horrified when I first heard that....she TPd the church???? But then I found out that the high school "mentor" helped them, and they had permission from the youth pastor. It sounds like they played tons of fun games, and had lots of snacks too. I'm so happy to have the girls involved in a strong youth group.

Saturday I spent most of the day shopping, first I took the children to WalMart with me to do our grocery shopping. It was one of those trips when it seemed like we were out of everything, so that took awhile. Then later in the day, I managed to sneak out of the house alone and go to JC Penny and Shop Ko to look for new clothes....for all 4 children! How do they all manage to outgrow their clothes at the same time? They could at least space it out to give me a break! So now Anna is in 8 slim, Noah is in 4 slim, and Amaya is in 24 month clothes. Kindra is wearing juniors or women's clothing, so she really has to try things on before I can buy her anything. The good news was that Penney's was having their buy one get one for $1 sale....which I love. So I was able to get Anna some capris, shorts, jeans and shirts...buy one get one for $1. That's cheaper than shopping the clearance racks! Oh, and I was able to get Kindra some shirts too. All in all, I came home with 5 bags of clothes and spend much much less than I'd anticipated. Even had time to get myself a few new things, which was quite a treat.

Pavan has been on call all weekend, and has been pretty busy. He got called into the hospital at 230 this morning, and hasn't made it home since. He did call this morning and met us for breakfast at the Friendship House. He had to go back to work after that though to go 2 more cases. He leaves town on Thursday for his oral boards, and that's really been weighing on his mind.

I'd better be going. I've been online trying to find a jacket for Noah, his is much too small. Unfortunately, I've not been able to find one, everyone has their summer stuff out and all the jackets in his size are sold out. I might just have to find him a hooded sweatshirt to use until I can find one. You'd think the stores around here would realize that we need jackets year round!

My digital camera is in the mail, should arrive at Canon tomorrow to be repaired. Hope to have it back soon so I can start including pictures again.

Rebecca

Gymnastics star!

Ok, so maybe she's not a "star" yet....but Anna's doing an excellent job at gymnastics. This week they brought out some of the equipment that we all think about when we hear the word gymnastics, and it was fun to see what a good job Anna did her first time on the equipment. I hate to sound too proud, or obnoxious, but Anna is just a born athelete, and gymnastics is no exception. Basketball is the exception...haha. It never ceases to amaze me that she came from me....I am about the least atheletic person you could ever meet.

Pavan stayed home with the little ones so I could take the girls to AWANA and gymnastics, and run by WalMart to pick up a few things. He's leaving town soon for a week, so I think he's trying to soak up time with the little ones before he leaves. He always thinks they will forget him, even if he's gone for a few days. It will be nice for him to be done with the oral boards though, he's been pretty stressed out about the whole thing. He reads until he falls asleep at night, then wakes up in the middle of the night and reads, stays late at work to read. Poor guy, it's hard to find time to study around here!

It was a little bit chilly today, but once the sun came out this afternoon it warmed up to around 55. We spent most of the day outside, and Amaya got a little bitty 4 wheeler at WalMart. She was more fascinated with the Dora stickers that decorate the thing than with driving it, but Noah was more than happy to drive it around. Of course he kept driving it up little hills, and kept flipping it over backward. I think little boys can find a way to get hurt no matter what they're doing!

Once Pavan got home this afternoon, we spent some time hanging up brackets in between the garage doors so we could put up some hanging plant baskets. It looks great! DJ surprised us by stopping over to visit about our plans for the house, and it was nice to see him. I never knew it, but apparently DJ used to work for the man who've chosen to do the work on our house. He has nothing but good things to say about the guy, so that was great to hear. We really trust DJs advice, and appreciate his friendship. He thinks we can get really good money for the land we are going to sell, and is going to help us divide it into lots to sell. His aunt is our realtor, Kathy Dolch. What an exceptional family they are! They have both helped us out immensely, and we feel so blessed to have met such great people. And to think, we were referred to Kathy by our financial advisors....you see what a small world we live in??

Not much else going on around here. Kindra has been moving her things to the downstairs bedroom, and I think she might sleep in the bed down there for the first time tonight. She's been sleeping on the couch....Anna and I picked out new bedding for Kindra and she was so excited. A couple of fuzzy pillows too...very girly. I think that will get her off the couch and into the bedroom...good thing she picked now to move downstairs, hopefully we'll get construction going on the loft within the next couple of weeks.

One more tidbit for those of you keeping up with our house troubles....Bob Almekinder finally called Pavan today. He's the one who build this house, and we were hoping he could give us information about who put on the metal roof. Well, he gave Pavan some info about why the Bruds put the metal roof on, and he's going to call back with the name of the guy who put on the roof. That's our golden ticket right there! I hope he really does call back, but I feel like we're finally onto something. Maybe our luck is changing....

One more thing, I fixed the links on our homepage, so hopefully you can access this page by clicking the "journal" link. If it stops working again, just email me so I can reset the link. I'm not sure why it keeps malfunctioning.

Rebecca

Busy weekend

Sorry I haven't written in a few days, we've just been so busy. Kindra's basketball game went really well, and she even scored a couple of points. Now that they have all the 4th and 5th grade students in one school, the sports are a little strange. They have a lot of girls playing 5th grade basketball, and only 3 coaches, so each team is pretty big. Three days of the week are taken up with after school practices (one day for each team) and then they have to play 3 games on Thursday afternoons. Because they have to fit in 3 games, each game is only 30 minutes long. And because they have so many girls on each team, none of them get to play for very long. Oh well, I can't really complain. I was doing good to keep Noah and Amaya behaving for 30 minutes, I can't imagine how they'd ever sit through a longer game!!

We spent all weekend working outside. Now that all the snow is gone, there is a lot of work to be done around the house. That first snow we had was a very heavy snow, and snapped some of the smaller pine trees about a foot from the ground. A lot of the other trees lost branches, and all the landscaping around the house is just a mess. We also cleaned up the picnic area down by the lake, and had our first bonfire of the year. That was our reward for 2 full days of hard work. Right now we are sitting in bed and moaning and groaning, Pavan is rubbing on some muscle cream and we are both taking some ibuprofen before we go to bed. It felt so nice to be outside, but boy are we out of shape!!

I think the worst job of all was done by Pavan....raking up all the dead fish out of the water, in hopes that they will dry out in the sun and stop smelling so awful! This morning we went to Home Depot to get some new rakes, and ended up buying four planters for the front and back porch, a huge bag of potting soil, and a whole cart full of flowers. Pavan cut down that evergreen tree that was right beside the front porch and we put a big planter there. We had a lot of extra flowers so we ended up planting some in the ground there, and some out by that old farm equipment in front of the house. It looks really nice.

I have to let you all know that we won't be able to put any pictures in the journal for awhile, as our digital camera is broken. I will be sending it off to Canon this week to be repaired, but I'm not sure how long before we'll get it back. Well, at least that has forced me to finish the roll of film that's been in my 35mm camera since Becky's wedding! Margaret, I will finally get the roll developed this week, and we'll finally get the pictures of you and Dad together!

I want to let everyone know that Allen is back home, as of Friday afternoon. He is feeling great, and they never did find anything wrong with any of the tests they ran. So that is all wonderful news.

I will write more later in the week. I have Bible study Monday nights, and Tuesday is the last AWANA meeting for the year. It's an awards ceremony, so Anna has decided to go to AWANA this week instead of gymnastics.

Have a great week,

Rebecca

Loons are back

The loons are back on our lake, as well as a pair of ducks. This was the first time I was able to get close enough to get a good picture of the loons, so I was excited about that. They are beautiful birds, but when they see you coming they usually disappear into the water and pop up halfway across the lake. Kindra was down by the lake playing with a ball, and the loons were just watching her, so I decided to sneak down there and try to get a picture, they must be getting brave!

We are supposed to get rain today, but I was surprised to see the sun shining when we woke up this morning. It's cloudy now, but still warm enough to have some windows open. The cats are enjoying the freedom to come and go onto the back porch. It's still early enough in the season that we don't have any bugs to worry about, so I can leave the back door open. Another month and the bugs will keep us from opening the screens.

Pavan and I have been making some really difficult decisions the past few days. You all know the problems we've been having with our house, and the overwhelming amount of work that is going to be required to take care of those problems. We have started to wonder if it's a good idea to put that kind of money into fixing this house, because at that point we will never be able to free up more money to add on the bedrooms we need. We are considering selling the house and the land (maybe keep 20 acres for ourselves) to pay off the 2 mortgages, and look into buying a house in town to live in for a few years. That way we could save up some money, get our retirement and college funds where we want them to be, and look into buying or building another house that will fit our family better. It's been hard to look at doing this, because this house and land mean so much to us. But we don't want to be slaves to a house, and don't want to put every last dime into fixing this house....and then never be able to sell it later if we needed to.

Our financial advisors came for a visit yesterday, from Minneapolis. We hadn't seen them in several months, so it was nice to visit with them. Their names are Ben and Andy, and they are about our age. They take good care of us, and are good friends too. We met them in KC when Pavan was still in residency, and they really helped us transition from residency to "real life". They don't think we're crazy for what we're considering with the house and land, and help remind us of our goals.....education for the kids, early retirement for us.....so it really helped meeting with them.

Kindra has her first basketball game today at 330. We have to head right to dance class from there, so she'll be exhausted tonight! Only a few more dance lessons until recital, whew! I won't miss our weekly trips to Merrill once this is over!

I want to remind everyone to be thinking and praying for my sister Becky and brother in law Donald. Donald's mother died Tuesday night. Also prayers for Allen. He's in North Kansas City Hospital for some tests to determine why his oxygen levels are lower than normal. Pavan has been keeping in touch with Allen's doctors, which makes us all feel better. I hate to say it, but having a family member who's a doctor....or even a nurse....makes everyone think twice about taking the best possible care of you!

Have a great day. I'll write more later.

Rebecca

Beautiful day

It was such a pretty day today, in the 60s and sunny. We had all the windows open, and the two back porch doors open so Amaya and Noah could come and go on their bikes. That's the great thing about having the big back porch, I can sit on a chair in the sun and read a book while they play outside....and they can't go anywhere because we have a gate at the top of the stairs and it locks!

Well we think our lake froze all the way through this past winter, because now that the ice is melted, there are a lot of dead fish coming to the surface. It's a shame that our agitator broke at the beginning of winter, because it really kept a large area of water open last winter. Our lake was so shallow going into winter, that I really think it froze all the way through. Very sad. AND very stinky with all those dead fish. The dogs have been out swimming in the water, and they smell horrible now. And when the wind picks up, ugh!

Anna had her first gymnastics class tonight. We didn't get to stay and watch, but she said she had a great time. A girl from Anna's class, Alex, is in gymnastics too. Alex was also on Anna's flag football team, they were the only two girls and were really good at football. I know Anna was happy to have Alex in gymnastics with her!

Kindra went to AWANA tonight. Next week is the last week of AWANA until the fall, and it's an award banquet. There is also an overnight at the church on the 28th, Kindra has been looking forward to it for months! Pine Grove has such great children's programs, with AWANA and their Sunday school programs. Next year Noah will be able to start in AWANA too, and Kindra will move from AWANA into the youth group. They grow up so quickly!

I'm off to bed. Amaya and Noah were up at 7 this morning. At the time I wasn't too happy to be up so early, but then Amaya took a nap at 11, and they both went to bed by 915. So, it turned out to be a good thing. I'm tired now though!

Oh, one more thing. The hospital gift shop is going to carry my Disciple's Cross necklaces. They have bought 10 ofthem from me, and will see how they sell and might buy more! It's very exciting!

Rebecca

Home

I just wanted to let everyone know that we made it home safely around 230 yesterday afternoon. It was raining when we left La Crosse, but stopped raining by the time we got on the highway, and was actually sunny once we got within a couple of hours of Rhinelander.

The big surprise is that all the snow is gone, and the lakes no longer have any ice on them. The trees are just starting to bud out, so it's not very pretty here for now. Another couple of weeks and I'm sure Spring will finally arrive in the Northwoods. It's a long time coming, but I think that makes us enjoy it even more.

I will try to write more later today, but it might have to wait until tomorrow since I have Bible study tonight. Kindra has her first basketball practice with her team today, and then her first game on Thursday. Anna starts gymnastics tomorrow evening.....and of course we have dance class Thursday night. Back to our busy schedule!

We are headed to WalMart in about an hour. The bad think about vacations is the lack of food when you get home! We found some frozen pizza for dinner last night but with no milk or bread we're pretty limited until we get to the store!

Rebecca

On our way home...

We left Liberty around 1230 today, and made it to La Crosse, WI by 730 this evening. It should only take another 4 hours to get home tomorrow, which will be really nice. We actually found a hotel room that will sleep all 6 of us, so we are happy about that. We're at the Holiday Inn Express, and our room has 2 queen beds and a couch that pulls out into a full size bed. Very nice. We'll have to keep this in mind for next time.

We don't have any plans for tomorrow once we get home. We will read the story of Easter in the Bible, but don't have any special plans for dinner since we had Easter dinner at Mom's house last Sunday. It will be really nice to get home in time to rest up before everyone heads back to school and work on Monday.

Yesterday we took the children to Penguin Park, which is near the house we had in Kansas City (for those of you from out of town). I have been going to Penguin Park since I was a child, although they did a lot of work on the park several years ago. You can see from the picture why it's called Penguin Park....we had a lot of fun, but it was terribly hot.....around 90 degrees. We stayed for over an hour, but had to leave when I felt my head starting to burn.

Other than that, we just ran a few errands in Liberty, picked up a few items we can't find in Rhinelander. Visited with Chris and Kierra last night for awhile, it was nice to see Kierra before we left town. They will be up for a week the end of May, which will be a lot of fun. Anna and Kierra are good buddies, they had a lot of fun playing together last night.

Well I am so tired that I can't hardly think straight.....so I'm going to head to bed. There is a great coffee house in La Crosse called Caribou Coffee that we can't wait to visit in the morning! Hope they are open even though it's Easter, Pavan and I have been looking forward to their coffee since November when we came through La Crosse!

More later in the week!

Rebecca

One more day...

Well we've decided to stay one more day in Liberty, and leave here Saturday morning. We've had such a great time, and the weather has been so amazing, that we'd like one more day before we head home. Also, my brother picks up his daughter Kierra tomorrow evening and we'd like to see her before we leave.

We've kept very busy while we've been here, with the weather in the 90s the past two days, we've just been drawn to outdoor activities. Yesterday we spent a few hours at the Kansas City Zoo. We had a great time, and my sister Becky went with us. Afterward we came back to Liberty and had frozen custard at Sheridan's. Yesterday evening, Becky took the Kindra and Anna to the mall, Kindra got her ears pierced again....something she's been wanting to do for awhile now. Mom and Allen watched Noah and Amaya while Pavan, me and my brother went out to dinner. We went to a barbecue place in Kearney called the Outlaw. We had a great time, it was nice to sit and talk without the kids for a change.

Today Pavan, Allen, Anna and Noah headed up to Galatin, MO to Vince's farm. Vince is a friend of Allen's, and Allen helps Vince farm up there by driving the big tractors. (As you can tell, I know nothing about farming!). Anyway, they spent the day up there at the farm, and judging from the pictures they took, they had a great time! Noah and Anna got to drive the tractor with Allen, and Noah has been talking about the trip ever since they got back.

I had Amaya and Kindra with me. Mom took the day off work, and Becky was off too, so we all ran around together. We picked up my friend, Tricia, at noon and all went to lunch together. I haven't seen Tricia in a long time so we had a great time catching up. We went to McDonalds so the kids could play while we visited.

This afternoon Aunt Freda came over and we went to the cemetary in Rayville, MO....which is where my great grandmother (Granny Wood) and great grandfather (Papa Wood), as well as several other family members are buried. I won't be here for Memorial Day, so I really wanted to get out there while I was in town. It's quite a drive, and is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, but I've always loved it there. Aunt Freda stayed at Mom's for dinner, and we walked over to the church with Kindra and Anna this evening for Maundy Thursday service. It's my favorite service of the entire year, so meaningful. Anna did the Lord's Supper for the first time this evening, which was special too.

I'm headed to bed. We will leave Liberty Saturday afternoon and be back to Rhinelander on Sunday.

Rebecca

 

Busy Days

I apologize for not writing anything yesterday, but by the time I got Amaya to sleep, I was just too tired to get online. We've been so busy playing the role of tourists and visiting with our family, and enjoying the beautiful weather. It's been around 80 every day, and sunny. Perfect weather to spend the days outside at the park, or looking around various historical sites in the area.

Yesterday we drove to Kearney, MO (about 5 miles north of Mom's house in Liberty) and visited the Jesse James Farm Museum. My brother met us there, and we had a great time. It's a good place to take children, since a good deal of the time is spent outdoors looking at the farm house, slave house, and smoke house. They show a quick movie that talks about the James brothers and the James gang, and then you look through a lot of items in the indoor portion of the museum. It was all very interesting, and the children really loved looking at the old house. They actually let you go inside and walk around the rooms, which is neat.

When we got done at the museum, we went to a park in Kearney and played for over an hour. It was just too nice outside to go home! Last night I went to quilting class with Mom, while Pavan stayed home with the children (very nice of him!), and then he left to pick up Allen at the airport while I stayed home with the children. Allen had been in Florida for his granddaughter's wedding, so it was nice for him to get home! The kids were all wondering where Papa went!

Today we were super busy. First I dropped Pavan off at my dad's house, because he was to have a lesson in smoking meat. My dad is certainly the expert when it comes to that! Then the children and I went to Target to do some summer clothes shopping. That was crazy!! I don't recommend clothes shopping alone with 4 children unless it's absolutely necessary! Then we picked up lunch and headed to the park in Liberty for about an hour. There were about 5 other little boys there, so Noah made some new friends and had a great time.

We picked Pavan up at 2 and went to the Clay County Historical Museum on the Liberty square, withmy brother again. It's a really neat place, and only cost $1 for adults, 50 cents for children. The building it occupies was an old pharmacy, with an old doctor's office upstairs. And when I say old, I mean late 1800s. So a lot of the items in there were from the pharmacy and doctor's office, fascinating!!! Then in the basement they had old items used for farming, some old baby clothes, old tools, and a replica of an old kitchen. It was all so interesting. Oh, and lots of old pictures taken in Liberty. You should all go there, especially if you are from the Liberty area. The square is such a neat area anyway, we went into a great little chocolate shop after the museum and tried out their chocolate covered Twizlers. My niece, Kierra, gets one every Friday that her daddy picks her up, so we had to give them a try!

After the museum, we drove around town until Amaya fell asleep and then went to a place that sells RVs. The kids watched a movie in the car while Pavan and I walked around and looked at some trailers and 5th wheels. About 530 we headed back to Dad's house for supper. You want some classic Kansas City barbecue? This was the real deal, so delicious! We had ribs, pork loin, roast, chicken, and Italian sausage. And of course baked beans, salad, potato salad.....Chris was there, and Becky stopped by for a few minutes when she got off work. The children played outside the entire time.

Everyone is in bed now, and I am headed there soon too. Noah fell asleep in my bed, and Amaya fell asleep in Pavan's bed....so looks like we've traded kids for tonight. Until Amaya wakes up...I'm sure Pavan will switch them back at that point! I definitely got the best end of this deal with Noah in my bed!

More later in the week. Not sure what tomorrow will bring, we don't have any plans yet. Maybe the zoo....

Rebecca

Easter egg hunt

We had a very busy day today, as I mentioned yesterday. We went to church at 1045 this morning. Mom stayed home with Amaya and Noah so Pavan could go with the girls and me. Aunt Sharon was there too with Cyla. The girls love going to Sunday school at Pleasant Valley, and I love going to service there. It's a huge church, and almost like going to a concert! Good music, and good sermons too.

Around 230 we had the Easter egg hunt, and it was a beautiful day to be outside! Cindy and Jeff came with Calin, Cyla, Aiden and Andrew. Aunt Sharon was here, Margaret, Becky, and then obviously Mom, me, Pavan and our four. First we had the Easter egg hunt for the three little ones, Amaya Noah and Aiden. When they were finished we let the older kids do theirs, Kindra Anna Cyla and Calin. Mom has such a huge yard that it took them forever to find all the eggs. I'm still convinced Allen will end up finding more when he's out mowing the yard! The grass is pretty tall and thick, so they were hard to find!

When the children were done hunting eggs, and looking through all their goodies, they all ended up down by the pond catching tadpoles and frogs. We bought some nets last night so they were able to catch a lot of them this time. It was so nice, all of us adults just sat on the grass and enjoyed the warm sunshine while the kids played nicely together. Rare moment of peace in a busy life! Gotta enjoy those!

This evening we had Easter dinner (a week early). Margaret and Becky were still here. Dad and Chris came, as well as Grandma and Grandpa Kenney. We had a nice time, it's so great to spend time with everyone when we are in town. The food was great, and we had so many desserts to choose from!! Nobody went away hungry, that's for sure!!

After everyone left from dinner, it was still so beautiful outside that we once again took the children outside to play. Noah was riding his bike up and down Mom's driveway, making us all nervous by coming down the driveway very fast and then slamming on his brakes at the last second. We stayed outside until the sun set, and then came inside to take bathes and get the little ones ready for bed. And now here we are, Mom is reading a book, Pavan is doing some studying for his oral board exam (first week of May), Noah is watching Zathura back in the bedroom with Kindra and Anna, Amaya is watching Spongebob here in the living room.

We had a great day. Not sure what we are going to do tomorrow, but Chris is supposed to be off work, so we are thinking of going to some tourist spots around town, like the Liberty Memorial. Funny how you can live in a town all your life and never see the sights until you move 700 miles away!

By the way, we love having the digital camera! We're officially in the 21st century now!

More tomorrow - Rebecca 

Back in Liberty

This entry should be short and sweet, seeing how it's midnight and I can barely keep my eyes open! I felt like I needed to let everyone know that we made it to KC around 330 this afternoon, with no problems at all.

My brother came by to visit shortly after we got here, and before long we were all outside enjoying the sunshine and the beautiful green grass! We spent most of our time down by the pond, looking at tadpoles, catching baby frogs, and throwing dandelions into the water (well,Amaya was...). We also spent some time just rolling around in the grass. When we first got here, Amaya got out of the car and immediately pointed to the grass, like she was asking....what is this stuff??

This evening we had a girls night out. Me, Kindra, Anna, Mom, Margaret and Becky went to see a movie here in Liberty. Becky's husband, Donald came too.  We had a really nice time. For the record....I am aware that Donald is not a girl. But it was still a girls night out....haha.  

Tomorrow we are going to church at 1045, having an Easter egg hunt here at 230, then having some family over for supper around 530. Busy day!

Ok, about the pictures. The first one is Kindra after she climbed a tree at the hotel. Second one is Chris and Noah walking along the pond looking for tadpoles. Then Noah holding a little frog....you can't see the frog but I promise it's in his hand. It was so little, maybe the size of a nickel. I was surprised he was willing to carry it around, but he was so excited to show it to everyone, and then he threw it back in the pond. Then the last picture is one of Amaya enjoying the sunny day. Pavan was holding her and had put a flower (ok so it's a dandelion, but it's still a flower!) behind her ear. She's so cute!

I'm off to bed. More tomorrow after the Easter egg hunt!

Rebecca

Another late night

We are spending tonight at the Holiday Inn in Austin, MN. This was the third hotel we stopped at, attempting to find a place that would let all 6 of us stay in one room. We are in a 2 room suite, which cost more than we were hoping to spend, but otherwise we would have had to stay in 2 separate rooms. This was a lesson we learned during our 3 week vacation last summer....nobody lets a family of 6 stay in one room. It's a frustrating feeling, spending your "family" vacation in 2 hotel rooms!! We are really thinking about getting an RV, nothing fancy, just something that will allow us to spend our vacations together.

Anyway, we left Rhinelander a little after 4 this afternoon. We drove for 5 1/2 hours, only stopping one time to use the bathroom and grab some food to eat. The kids traveled really well, except for Amaya. She's becoming quite difficult to deal with sometimes!! She cried for the last 2 hours we were driving, but was perfectly happy once we stopped and she could get out and walk around. We are about halfway to KC, so we shouldn't have too bad of a day traveling tomorrow.

As you can see from my title, the children are having a hard time settling down and getting to sleep. Amaya just now fell asleep, but Noah is still going strong. They are such creatures of habit, it's hard for them to function when their routines get messed up. Kindra and Anna are on a fold out couch in the living room, shown on the picture above. Our room has a balcony that overlooks an indoor area with a pool, hot tub, mini golf, ping pong. Of course Noah was upset that we couldn't go swimming, so he had to settle for a hot bath. Thank goodness the pool closed at 11, or I don't think we'd have gotten any sleep. There were about 15 teenage boys out there, and they were anything but quiet!!

Not much else to say, except that I am exhausted and ready for some sleep. Noah is sitting here looking so darn cute, I think I'll take his picture real quick and add it to this entry.

Oh, the second picture is of Kindra with one of her strange little eggs. They were given them to take care of over spring break. They areempty, with dirt inside and grass growing out of their "heads". Very strange indeed, but Kindra is babying them and even packed a tiny Barbie suitcase with stuff for them. Silly girl! We are taking plenty of pictures of them for her teacher, and are trying to come up with some funny places to take their pictures in KC. This could be fun!

See all of you in KC tomorrow! For the rest of you, I will update you again tomorrow night. We are having an Easter egg hunt on Sunday at my mom's house, so look for some cute pictures then!

Rebecca

Leaving town tomorrow!

Sorry for the lack of pictures today, we were just busy getting things together for our trip. We are going to leave when the girls get home tomorrow, they've already put their bags in the living room so I can load up the Suburban while they are gone to school.

Kindra and Anna had dance tonight, it was observer week so Pavan stayed home with Noah and Amaya so I could observe. They are both doing great in dance, which is good since there are only 4 more lessons before recital. We found out that both of Kindra's dances are in all 5 shows, 3 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. Anna's tap and ballet dances are both in show four, and her tap dance is also in show 5. We were planning to get a hotel room and just stay the weekend in Merrill, because we had a feeling Kindra would be in all 5 shows. Her dance from Annie (It's a hard knock life) has them as orphans, with the mop and bucket and all. They are going to come on stage several times throughout the recital, between other dances, scrubbing the floor and stuff.

I will buy tickets for the 4th show, which has all the girls dances. Ticket sales are on April 22nd, but you can only buy tickets to one show per family on that date. Starting the 29th they will release all the other tickets, so I will probably buy a ticket to show 5 too so I can be there with Anna.

Looks like we'll have to go shopping for some summer clothes for the kids while we are in KC, it's going to be 80 there next Monday! And to think we still have snow on the ground there....what a difference 650 miles can make!

I will try to update the journal every day while are on vacation, with pictures of our trip. Hopefully we can get to the zoo with the kids since the weather will be nice.

I'm off to bed. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day.

Rebecca

Wednesday

Today was a great day to live in the Northwoods. It was sunny, and in the upper 50s, absolutely beautiful. We spent a lot of time outside playing,as you can see from the pictures I included. The first one is of Noah riding his bike through a puddle of water in front of the house. Well Amaya saw us cheering for Noah as he splashed through the water, so she ran over and started splashing through the water too. The third picture is just to show you how beautiful it was today with the sunshine through the trees. Then a couple of Noah pulling Amaya in the wagon.

This morning I just did some work around the house, mostly trying to get some laundry done. I did manage to make two necklaces today, they are red white and blue. They turned out really nice! I had received my materials in the mail on Monday, but hadn't had a chance to sit down with them until today. I hope to get a few more made tonight if I can get the little ones to bed at a decent hour. Last night they were up very late, Noah didn't fall asleep until 11 and Amaya didn't until 1135. They slept until nearly 9 this morning. This time change is taking longer to get used to than I had hoped!

Pavan got home around noon today. I guess he'd tried to call and see if we wanted to go out for lunch, but Amaya had taken the phone off the hook at some point this morning. Oops. He showed up at home, and caught me still in my pajamas! Time seems to get away from me when I'm busy around the house! I have to admit, it was nice getting to take a shower all by myself though. I usually end up with Amaya in the shower with me unless I wait for her to take a nap in the afternoon.

This afternoon Pavan and I met with an attorney in town about all the problems with our house. The meeting went really well. He gave us a list of things he'd like us to gather before we meet with him again, but all in all we feel really good about the possibilities.

Kindra isn't feeling well tonight. She's had a horrible headache and "just feels bad all over." Apparently 5 kids were absent from school today in her class, sick with something. If she's still not feeling ok inthe morning I'll just keep her home from school. A day of rest seems to be just what they need at that point. I certainly want her well before we leave town!

I'd better get going. Time to read Amaya some books and try to get her settled into bed. Wish me luck!

Rebecca

Tuesday

Since Noah is currently screaming, I thought I'd use red for the color tonight. He's so tired, but he just won't give in and go to sleep. For some reason, this time change is taking awhile to get used to. To make matters worse, he fell asleep in the car when we went to pick the girls up from AWANA, and that little nap is making it even harder for him to get to sleep now.

Anyway....the pictures above really made me laugh. First of all, I was making the bed and then Amaya crawled onto the bed and tucked her legs under the top of the blankets. I thought it was cute so I thought I'd take a picture. Well Noah saw me taking pictures so he crawled up into bed with Amaya, and then they were playing peek a boo with me. It was then that I realized what a terrible case of bed head Amaya had going!! And then the one with her mouth open and her hair flying everywhere is so funny....she was yawning but it looks like she's gone mad! Truly though, her hair is out of control. I have to spray it down and brush it out several times each day, although now it's getting long enough that I can put the back part up in a pony tail or a clip to contain the frizz. 

The last picture took place when I was in the bathroom washing my hands. Amaya is notorious for trying to drink my coffee, which is a bad idea for obvious reasons.....Well when I left the room she made a bee line for my coffee, which was on the table beside my bed. As I was drying my hands she started to cry, so I came out and found her lodged between the bed and the table. Now, let me explain that this happens several times each day, and always because she's trying to get to something on the table that she shouldn't have! So I snapped a picture real quick before I dislodged her.

Today was a pretty good day, and it looked so beautiful outside with the sun shining. And then I walked out....and it was freezing!!! The wind was blowing so hard that I nearly fell over!

Kindra had basketball practice again today, they will find out what team they are on later this week. They won't know what day they have practice until they find out what team they are on, but they don't have any more practice this week. After basketball Kindra's friend Taylor came over so she could go to AWANA with us tonight.

We met Pavan at Culvers at 515 to have dinner before AWANA, then dropped the kids (except for Amaya and Noah) off at church. Then we headed to WalMart for some groceries and to stock up on dog and cat food before we leave town. We got done at WalMart at 715 so we drove around some neighborhoods we'd never driven through before, and drove through downtown to check out a new store that opened. It carries some cooking equipment so we might have to check it out sometime. Then we went to pick up the girls and headed home. The last two hours have been a frenzy putting away groceries, getting everyone into a bath, and trying to get them to bed. Noah is just now laying down with Pavan, but Amaya is still going strong. I guess I'll have to start waking her up early to get her to bed early.....but it's so hard to wake a sleeping baby!!

Tomorrow I am going to get all the laundry done so we can pack out suitcases tomorrow night. We will be too busy to pack Thursday night, because we have dance class in Merrill, and I want to load the car Friday during the day so we can leave as soon as the girls get home from school.

I hope you all had a great day, and that you enjoy the pictures. Be sure to click on them to view them larger.....you'll get a much better idea of Amaya's crazy hair!

Rebecca

Monday

Today was one of those days when I felt like Amaya and Noah had ganged up on me to keep me busy! Mondays are always busy because I spend a lot of time cleaning up from the weekend, and catching up on all the laundry I had vowed to do over the weekend but never managed to finish. It seemed like each time I tackled one task, Noah and Amaya were hard at work making another mess for me to clean up! I had just finished vacuuming our bedroom floor, and moved onto Anna's bedroom. By the time I put the vacuum away and walked back into my bedroom, Noah had spilled half a box of Fruity Pebbles on the bedroom floor. My advice to you...be sure you turn the rotating vacuum brushes OFF before trying to vacuum Fruity Pebbles.....they were flying everywhere!!! When I went to put away the vacuum I decided to call Kindra's school to find out how long basketball practice was going to last, and when I got back into the bedroom two pieces of our vertical blinds were missing. So I looked in the bedroom, bathroom, Anna's room, kitchen, living room....I was so confused!!!! Amaya and Noah were playing with trains in the living room at this point! So I asked Noah what happened to them and he told me he'd taken them up to Kindra's room, in the loft! I can't imagine how he took two of them down and dragged them up to the loft in the two minutes it took me to make that phone call! Busy day, and a little crazy too because of the time change. Amaya and Noah slept until 945, which meant Amaya didn't take a nap until 3. That would have been fine except that we had to leave at 345 to pick up Kindra from basketball practice at 4, so Amaya was a little cranky from such a short nap.

Kindra started basketball today. This week they have practice on Monday and Tuesday from 245-400, and after that the coaches will break them up into teams. It sounds like they will have practice once a week and play games on Thursdays. It's a lot different this year because of all the 4th and 5th graders being in the same school. Last year each elementary had their own team, and then traveled between schools to play games. At least it will be enough to keep their skills going for middle school next year.

Every Monday I have a women's Bible study from 630 until 830PM. Right now we are doing a Beth Moore study called "Making Liberty in Christ a Reality in Life." The title is a mouthful and doesn't sound all that interesting, but it has truly been a life changing study. I recommend it for everyone! I really enjoy my time at Bible study every week. It's a nice break from the children, and it's so refreshing to have time of fellowship with other women. Women from all different denominations attend the study, and it's great to see people reaching across denominational lines to grow in Christ. I hope to set up another page online where I can share verses that mean a lot to me, and also share great things I learn in these studies.

While I was gone to Bible study, Pavan had to take the children to the high school to sign Anna up for the summer soccer league through the Rhinelander Soccer Club. It's held from mid May to mid July. They also went to McDonald's for dinner, to Pioneer Park (where the farmer's market is held in the summer, near the logging museum....for those of you who've been up here), and then to Culver's for frozen custard. Man, and all I got for dinner was a Lean Pocket!! All I can say is that the kids are lucky they got a night out with Dad....it was cold and windy today, I sure wouldn't have gone to the park!! I guess Pavan's a lot like the kids in that he doesn't notice the cold and wind...he goes outside with them a lot, which they especially love now that the snow is melted off the driveway so they can ride bikes, or pull Amaya around in the wagon, or ride the famous "Grave Digger" - shown in this picture taken last October when Noah first got it as an early birthday present from Pavan.

Pavan also talked with someone at the hospital gift shop today about the Disciple's Cross necklaces I've been making. Sounds like they are interested in carrying them, which has us both really excited. Someone from the gift shop is going to talk with him again tomorrow, so I'll keep you all posted.

I can't think of much else to say, other than I hope you are all safe...I saw on the news that some nasty storms tore through the midwest and south. We are supposed to get some rain here on Thursday and Friday, but the temps will be in the mid to upper 40s so the roads should be fine for us to head to KC when the kids get home from school on Friday.

Tomorrow Kindra is going bowling in the morning (yearly gym trip), then back to school for lunch, then all 5th graders walk to the high school for their DARE graduation, then back to the school just in time for basketball practice, then AWANA from 6-8 tomorrow night! Whew, and she's just excited because that means they don't have to learn anything tomorrow!

I'd better try to get some sleep. This time change is taking us all awhile to get used to, although I love it when the little ones sleep late....because you know I'm right here in bed with them!!!

More later in the week,

Rebecca

 

 

Sunday

Today we tried out our new digital camera, I took this picture out our front door to give you an idea of how much snow we still have on the ground. Compared to what we had about a month ago, this is nothing! It's amazing how much snow we get up here and how long it takes for it all to melt. It will be at least another month before the snow is all gone from the shady places in the forest.

This morning I went to church with Kindra and Anna. Pavan had been in the ER late, and with the time change he was having an especially hard time getting up for early service, so he stayed home with the little ones. We had a guest preacher today, and his sermon was great. The service lasted an hour and a half, but it was so good I didn't even notice. It's nice to be able to sit still for that long and not have any children pulling on me! Kindra and Anna attend Sunday school while we go to the early service, so it works out nicely.

When we got home from church, Pavan was outside shooting his bow and arrow while Noah rode his monster truck around and Amaya played in the snow and puddles. They love to be outside, but it was only 35 so they were pretty cold. They were ready to come in and warm up. We've just played around the house the rest of they day. Pavan left to go round on his patients around 1130 and was gone until around 330. I made a pork roast for dinner and we ate when he got home. We are going to go to Culvers for some frozen custard in a few minutes, yummy!!

There's not much else going on around here today. We have decided to try and keep our Sundays as a day of rest, as they were meant to be. It's been very nice to just hang around the house and get ready, mentally and physically and spiritually, for the next week. It seemed like God was trying to tell us that we needed to slow down for a day, spend time as a family and just RELAX because in the past few weeks I've come across three different articles....all in different magazines/Bible studies that have addressed the need for people to observe a day of rest in our fast paced society.

I'd better get going. It takes 15 minutes just to get everyone's shoes and coats on,and get in the car!

Oh, the other picture was taken out the back of the house toward the lake, to show you all how the lake is still frozen....but you can see that some of the snow is gone, like around the play set. Also a picture of Noah in his underwear, I was just playing around with the camera...and he happened to be sitting there. The lesson here.....don't sit around in your underwear when I'm nearby with a camera!

More later!

Rebecca

Weekend

The weekends just fly by, seems like one minute it's Friday and the next minute we're getting ready to head back to school/work. Pavan's on call this weekend, so that always makes things hectic too.

Last night there was a family game night at Kindra's school. Pavan got a last minute call to the ER, so I loaded up the kids and headed to Kindra's school alone....very brave indeed! The concept behind game night was pretty cool. They had tables set up with games of all sorts, and mats set up with Twister. They also had limbo going, free popcorn and drinks, a raffle, and a fundraiser for a 4th grade boy who's house burned down. There were a lot of people there, and most of the kids were just socializing instead of playing games. Noah latched onto an older boy and spent a great deal of time chasing the poor guy around the gym and down the hall, and once he even chased him into the bathroom!! The kid said he wanted to see how long Noah would chase him....which was a bad idea, he had no idea how much energy a 3 year old boy has I guess!! Amaya spent most of the time pushing the stroller around the gym (with me helping steer it of course!), around and around and around and around. She had a bag of popcorn in the basket of the stroller, so occasionally she'd stop and stuff some in her mouth....then start pushing it again. Hey, it kept her quiet and happy....and wore her out for bed, so I wasn't complaining! We stayed until it was over, which was at 8. Pavan showed up right as we were leaving the school, he'd had a really long day. We ended up bringing home an extra kid, Kindra's friend Ali. She stayed the night and left around 2:30 today.

This morning Anna had soccer from 9 until 10. Pavan took her to soccer and worked out while she had practice. Afterward, they headed to DeByles to buy Pavan a couple of suits for his board exams in May. Then we all went to lunch at a new restaurant in town called Friendship House. Kind of a dumb name but they have really good food. It's owned by a Greek family, but they have all sorts of food. Their soup is especially good (in case you're ever in the area, haha). As we were leaving the restaurant Pavan got a call from the hospital saying they needed him right away to place a central IV line. So we headed to the hospital, he said it would only take half an hour so we drove around town for awhile. Turns out it actually took closer to an hour and a half....thank the Lord for our DVD player in the Suburban! We did get to see a helicopter land and take off at the hospital, which Noah loved. He's been playing with a toy helicopter all afternoon.

While Amaya was napping, Kindra babysat so Pavan and I could go look at digital camera's at Office Max. We bought our first digital camera today, and a printer that will print pictures up to 8x10. We are hoping to try it out tomorrow, and maybe show you all how it looks up here with ice still on all the lakes. I'm sure you are all well into spring by now!

I'd better get going. Kindra is chasing Noah with the vacuum hose....never a dull moment!

Rebecca