Christmas In September

Some of you may remember Christmas Dani's graduating year, I told of the deal we made with our children when they were little. We told them that if they graduated with a 4.0 (or close to it) and stayed out of trouble then we would make sure they had a car when they went to college. We made this deal hoping it would give them something to use to prevent peer pressure when it came to certain activities high schoolers may get into. We also were hoping it would mean scholarships and therefore could afford a car payment since we wouldn't have to be paying full tuition for college.

Well, Alex has done great and does have that GPA, as well has stayed out of trouble. We knew we couldn't surprise her at Christmas as she has kind of been expecting it. So, we went out this weekend and found a car she really wanted, with all the things she was hoping for and a deal we couldn't pass on and voila, Christmas in September. She knows her Christmas will be small and I imagine we will be wrapping that car brochure in a box, just to remind her at Christmas about her early present.

Here it is...... it is a Mitsubishi Lancer. It is rated one of the safest cars in its class. Happily, it has front, side, and knee air bags. She is more excited about the sun roof and spoiler. ha

Congratulations Alex, on your GPA, scholarship that is coming, and of course on earning your car. You have made us proud!!

My "Little" Boy and My Um, Um...... Whatever!

Soccer, Soccer, Soccer.......





































And, um, um, whatever THIS is ........

Andy, "The Bachelor" comes to Louisville

Okay, so Friday Alex's cross country team was given the "opportunity" to volunteer to help at the Ironman Triathlon on Sunday morning.

We got there bright and early and learned that indeed Andy Baldwin, the "Bachelor" from this season's show was competing. Alex made a nice little sign in the road and hoped she would be able to pick him out. After a while of watching the first few bikers go by, we decided there was no way we would be able to pick him out. They all look alike with helmets on. My eagle eyes were drawn to a NAVY shirt. I guess after all this time with John, I always spot a familiar NAVY logo. I started snapping pictures and yelled, "Alex, was that Andy?" She started screaming at him after he went past, "I love you Andy!" Our friends were right after her and said he started smiling and tried to turn a little, and then he threw his arm in the air for her.

Well, the bikes came by our station twice on their 120 mile bike ride. the second time, Alex was ready and hooray for Andy, he was ready for her too. He pointed to her and gave her a big smile. He was great. It made her day.

Also, during this race, one guy took a bottle of gatorade from her as he biked by and then said to our friends as he passed them, "That girl is a 10!" Then a little later someone went by, looked right at her and gave her a huge wolf whistle. Another man who was working was in shock. He said the whistle was very loud. I can't believe they had energy to even pay attention to the girls.

We are exhausted, but can only dream how tired the athletes are!!!

A Little Humor!

I received an email that had this picture of a mural that is painted in a men's bathroom in New York. I LOVED it. Just had to share.

Click on picture to enlarge it. I love the girl with the tape measure!!

Dani and Her Girls!!

Dani babysat for Ashley the day before she moved. She just sent me these pics and I wanted to post them before I showed Ashley or she would beat me to them.. ha ha

These girls are so darn cute!!

Dani is all moved in!! Edited with pictures

John, Dani and I left the house at 7:30 yesterday morning to get Dani all moved in.

We unloaded in record time, but then the fun really began. She is in an apartment on campus that has 2 bedrooms, a bath and a combined living room/kitchen/dining room.

Of course, John happened to be the only Dad that was able to come, so he did all the big grunt work of moving beds and furniture around for the best fit for each girl. I wish I could have helped design these rooms, actually I think a 3 year old could have done a better job in some cases. It is very hard making it a good arrangement unless the girls want to bunk, which they do not.

After the furniture had been arranged, John put together the futon we had gotten for Dani at Walmart. While he was doing this, Dani, the girls and I were trying to unpack and arrange all their things. We then made a trip to lunch and Walmart for cable and internet supplies. John was able to spit the cable so all rooms have cable. Originally, it was only set up for the living room. He did an awesome job of making the cable go under the wall sideboard and above doors. We had peeked into a boys room and the cable was pulled down the hall, across doorways and held to the carpet with duct tape. I think the girls like John's way better. I was able to get Dani's printer and internet set up.

We also went to the bookstore and got Dani her books we had ordered. I must say, I am glad Dani has a scholarship, because even with me having to just pay the meal plan, books, and the extra for the apartment as opposed to a dorm, it is not cheap. Thank you Dani. Keep up the good work!!

Their little apartment looks so cute. I will post pictures once Dani sends me some. I was originally going to take pictures of all the roomies, but because of all the staggering arrivals and all the stuff that needed to be done, I didn't even whip my camera out once.

Hope the shower in Indiana went well. I am so sorry we missed it. We actually mentioned it during our busy day. You were thought of!! We love you!!

Oh, Alex stayed home because she had her first cross country meet of the year and CJ just stayed home because he didn't think it sounded like we would be doing anything fun. Today is a soccer game. And so the craziness continues......

God Help Me!

My Beautiful Kids!!

A Man in Demand

Last week it was such slow torture adding the pic from the competition that I had to pick and choose carefully. Here is one I wanted to add, but didn't. As we were all leaving the Opening Ceremonies, some Latvian girls ran up to John and asked if they could get a picture with him. I thought it was pretty funny as there were hundreds of other men there in uniform. Few were in the gorgeous white uniform he was in and though most were younger than him, few were as handsome!!













On another note, I want to say this is Dani's last week home. We have to take all her things and get her moved into her school apartment on Saturday. We were all disappointed that this meant we could not make Sara L.'s wedding shower. Dani is the one who opened the invitation and I do believe I heard a 4 letter word come out of her mouth. We would postpone it to the next day, but Dani has to help the Freshmen class move in. She had agreed to do this earlier in the year and that is why she has to move in the day before. So, I am sure all will have a grand time, but not nearly as grand if the Weires girls could make it. ha

The new school year has begun. My other two start school on Wed. Alex will be a senior and CJ an 8th grader. Jessica Young left for school on Friday evening. Sara said the phone call about Kendall took her mind off her "baby" leaving for school. She is actually going a few days early to Rush and Sara and Jeff have to go take most of her big things to her later this week. Mitch and I believe Morgan will be in 10th grade. I am trying to remember everybody's kids ages, let us see how many mistakes I make. Nash will also be a senior. Kenzie and Tara will be in 9th grade. Will Allie be in 7th grade. No, that can't be right? Larken is either going to start kindergarten or is going to first grade, which is it? Patrick IS starting kindergarten. And Kelly gets to stay at home and help Kristy, I believe for two more years. Kristy says she gets lots of parenting advise from her 3 year old.

We Are All Home... Safe and Sound

John made it home yesterday at noon and I made it home at midnight. I knew I had to stay in Amsterdam 24 hours, but John was not happy to have his plane in Chicago break and return to the gate. He had to wait 12 additional hours.

He is doing much better. He is eating and drinking, but just very tired. I was worried, but should have known he bounces back fast. He went to work today and did fine, I just won't expect much at home for a few days.

Thanks for everyones thoughts and prayers..... I was worried.

And The Adventure REALLY begins!!

Well, last night and today has been an adventure.

We said goodbye to everyone and John came to my hotel room to spend the last night in a little nicer place. My roomie and her husband (John's teammate) left in the afternoon. We gave our government international phone back and went on our way.

Well, at 11 PM, John started throwing up and hadn't stopped at 2 AM. He had lost everything he had in him and he was dehydrated to begin with. It always takes him about 2-3 days to completely rehydrate after these events. I was afraid we couldn't make our flights in 12 hours and had no way of contacting the US people still here.

Well, I emailed several of them just in case and Trey's wife saw the email (she is in Texas) and called her husband as he and three of the teammates were heading out the door to go to the airport for their flight. They came to the hotel to leave a phone with me and see what they could do. They couldn't do anything as the crazy military flights could only be changed if he took the same route home. That meant he couldn't leave until Thursday the 9th.

Well, he finally stopped throwing up, but had to totally stop taking sips of anything. We decided our best bet was to get him on the flight if at all possible. He was walking so slow and very glazed looking. I had to leave an hour before him, but I left him sitting at his gate with a bunch of German competitors. I knew they would take care of him, if he couldn't make it.

I am in a hotel in Amsterdam overnight and won't be home until tomorrow night. Dani has talked to him when he made it to Germany and was getting ready to board the plane to Chicago. He said it was a miserable flight and he is barely able to walk. I talked to him through Dani and told him to go to a clinic in Frankfort and forget the flight, but he would not do that. We had talked about that would be a better place for medical treatment than Latvia.

He has not been able to hold anything down. I will be happy when he is in the states and am glad that if he gets sick on this plane, at least they will let him off on American soil. ha

I originally thought it was food poisoning, but found out that several of the other competitors were also sick. They did not eat the same food on Saturday, as the US team ate off base. So, I do not know what bug he has, but it was awful!!!!

Well, our journey is ending. Until the next one.......

Orienteer

Wow, It was a LOOOOOOONG day yesterday.

The Orienteer Run is supposed to be mapped to be run start to finish with no mistakes, by a very experienced Orienteer Runner in 100 min. Usually there are not very many teams that come close. Well, this years fastest time was about 2 hours 52 minutes. There were several teams that didn't finish it and some teams that were out there for 10 hours. It was unbelievable!!! They all said it was the longest and most technical course they have ever run. John's team finished in 3 hours 16 minutes. We were very very pleased with them. They ran through a lot of marshy swamp land for the first part of the run, so their feet would get sucked into it and trying to run was crazy. Mike, the General on their team lost the soles to his boots during the run, but didn't tell the guys until the finish. There was one part that they had to send one guy to climb into different trees and other places to retrieve things. Some teams lost a lot of time, taking 10-25 min. on it. John took off and did it in 4 minutes. They said he was made to wear a little helmet that looked like a little dixie cup atop his head. It was the one time they laughed during the run. Grant, the Navy Seal on the team, was the orienteer and he did a great job. They were very excited when they finished. They did not take us out on the course anwhere this year to observe, but we were able to climb over a hill and see their grenade throws. They all thought they were finished them and then had to run around the hill to the finish. Apparently, it was very hard to get back into running again. I took pictures at the top of the hill when they came out of the woods and for a couple grenade throws, then ran to the finish to get them coming in at the end. I always love it when I see them coming to finish. We had been waiting at the finish, hours before they even started. Our other team did great also, they did not do as well as they had hoped, but we were glad to see them finish. I do not know what the final tally was for teams that did not complete it, but I know one female team made it to a road, got a ride to a house and someone had to come pick them up.