Movie Mania-Sickness Update

On Friday nights in a neighboring town, there is a barn and a hill, and grass, and they play kids' movies on the side of the barn, as an amphitheatre! It is so great, because it is FREE!! Yes, thanks to Suzanne for finding all the freebies for us to do here! So, a couple Fridays ago, we went to the first show, and it was "Surf's Up". We hadn't seen it, and so we thought we would go and celebrate the last day of school! The kids thought it was fantastic. We learned a few things, though:
1- It begins at 9:30pm, so it is not that fun for Celeste!
2- Take more food than you think- we took 2 bags of popcorn, 5 snack bags of cookies, and 3 waters, and the kids ate it all in the first half hour!
3- Don't sit too close to the front, or your neck will hurt the next day! We didn't think we were that close!
4- Pee before going!

Overall, we had a lot of fun, and will go a couple more times throughout the summer, but here are some pics from our first show!

There is a pond there, too, and ducks, so next time we will bring extra food to feed them!

Leah relaxes on the blanket.

Alex loved this movie!

Celeste downed nearly that entire bag of popcorn!

This lasted for about 5 minutes! Then Celeste was everywhere!

This is her whining near the end of the movie- it was after 11 when it was over!

Me and my boy!

Leah and mommy cheese it up!

The boys chillin for the flick!

Fun, fun!!

Okay, so to update you on our sick family:

Dana- last night was the first night in 8 that he wasn't feverish the entire night! For the last 7, he would hit 102 and then break and cycle over and over for about 4 times! It was miserable, for him, I know, and for me who was desperately trying to sleep, too!!

Celeste- last Friday, I took her to the pediatrician, and he said she has a touch of pneumonia! Yep, not good. 3 prescriptions, and 3 breathing treatments a day- fun, fun! Today she had to go back, and he said she was a tad better, but no worse- that was good news. She is now on a new prescription at night, and down to 2 treatments a day. She can go outside now, whereas for the past 4 days she was not allowed to be in the heat and humidity. Finally she gets to be outside with her siblings and will soon get fully better. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers- they are working!

This one is for Daddy!

Happy Father's Day, Dana!! Today was unlike any other Father's Day we have had since Alex was born!! We didn't even go to church today!! (I did, but only for RS, since I had to teach!) That is because we have some sickies in our house, and the first one is Daddy! Yes, Dana has been sick with the flu (that is our diagnosis) for a week now! He has not felt well, and couldn't even go to Leah's recital last night! He has been in bed trying to rest and trying to recover as best as he can. But, we still celebrated Father's Day with him this morning and went to dinner with my parents anyway! He feels good in spurts, so we took advantage of that, and now he is crashed on the couch!

I wanted to post some of my favorite pictures of him with our kids- he is, after all, the most terrific father I could've ever asked for my children. I love him more now than before we had our children and I see the deeper he loves me too. I love that he adores them, and cherishes the time he has with them. He takes time to do things with them that I don't and I love that they have things between them that I don't have with them- that is their own. He loves them individually and treats them as such. He is just the best dad!

This is moments after Leah was born.

He loves to play with them!

His first Daddy/Daughter Dance with Leah!

Leah loves her daddy!

Daddy's Girls- they just adore him!
Alex and Daddy bond over football and Ohio State!
More dancing with Daddy!
Another photo op with Daddy!
Daddy loves the Braves, and so does Alex!
Daddy loves the pool with his kids!
Even the baby pool!
Rootbeer floats and out to dinner with Daddy- life is good!
Daddy even does Dinosaurs with them!
One last walk on the beach on vacation last year- just with Daddy!

Alex, Leah and Celeste are so happy to have such a great daddy, and I am blessed that he is such a great husband to me! I couldn't even name all the reasons why, but he is just the greatest and we love him!!
Happy Father's Day, Daddy, We love you- and so do I!!

Happy Father's Day, Dad (Grandpa)!

I have posted about my Dad before, on his birthday, but today, I thought I would show a few different sides of him- more of him as a Grandpa!
When Alex was born, he was the first grandchild, and thus became the "favorite"- at least that's what I think! He was the only one for over two years until my neice was born and then Leah a few months after that, so he got alone time with Grandpa and got to learn all kinds of "boy" things from him. My dad and Alex are buds and Alex relishes time with him as much as he can.

When I was growing up, my dad spent countless hours with me and my brother, and was always at every event in our lives. He strives to be that for my kids, and that means more than I can say. He drives out for Leah's dance class, he comes to watch Alex play baseball, and just to see Celeste. When we lived only a mile or two away from him, he would just stop over to spend ten minutes of his day with us, just to see the kids, and I loved it as much as they did.

He has always been an involved dad and looked for ways to be around us. He even became part of the "boosters" in High School so that he could be at all of our events and probably to drive us crazy!! He was good at that!

I called him "photo dad" because he was never without his camera. He was taking pictures at all of our events, and we have boxes upon boxes of photos from our childhood. I love that. Even now he takes pics when we are together, and refuses to switch to digital, so the photo lab still loves him! When I was over at my parents' house tonight for dinner, I snagged some old pictures of my dad and me!! These are from the many park outings we had and the many times we spent in the Great Outdoors! These made me smile!

(This is a scan of a scan, so it isn't that great of quality, but it is still a great pic!)

I am not in this one, but that is Sean in the middle swing, and my dad squeezing into the other! I remember this park, and I remember that swing being uncomfortable for a child, let alone an adult!

This must have been the same day...check out those sweet shorts on my dad- and tank! He was cool! Do you love the sideburns?! I was cute, too, huh?!

Now onto the great outdoors with Alex...

Alex loves sleepovers at Grandpa's house- ever since he was little- they have fun watching movies and hanging out!

Alex so loves fishing with Grandpa, and even though he may look squeamish in this pic, Alex loves to catch them now, though he still won't bait his own hook!

The girls love Grandpa too, and he gives great horsey rides! This is Leah in 2003.

Celeste loves swimming in the pool with Grandpa! This was last summer at the boat.

My children are so blessed to have such a great Grandpa! He loves them very much, and they can't imagine life without him! I love my dad and am forever grateful for the many years of memories and fun times he gave me- life was much more fun with him around, and I look forward to many more years with him as my Dad, and with him as Grandpa for my kids!
Happy Father's Day, Dad- I love you!!

Dancers Delight

Here are the pink ladies at Leah's recital!!

This is so worth 2 minutes of your time to see her and her class dance- they are just so cute! Sorry about the lighting, but Leah is obviously the short one on the end, oh, and the cutest one, too!! Hope you enjoy!

Celeste has been wearing a leotard and begging to dance with Leah's class these last few weeks, so I snapped a few photos of her- and the last week of class, Leah's teacher let her dance with the big girls and so I took a few there, too!




Here she is in class....

And the best part of all is the stamps they get on their hands after a class...see the happiness...simple joys...I love it!! No, she is not going to be in dance next year, but for sure the year after that when she is nearly 4! She is a natural! And it will be a long year!

Throwback Thursday 4

As promised, I am here to deliver pictures of my college graduation which was on Friday the 13th of June 1997! Tomorrow will be 11 years to the day- it was Friday the 13th...that should be a clue as to how the day began....

It is hard to read, but the article says that 1.32 inches of rain fell in less than 3 hours! It was a total downpour, wipe out, whatever you want to call it- it was crazy!! I had longed to processional into the Horseshoe since the day I began OSU, well, actually even earlier when my cousin, Kelly graduated a few years before me. I love Pomp and Circumstance and I could hardly wait for everyone there to watch over 6000 of us proceed into the stadium together! It was something I craved...well, I did proceed in, despite the rain, though the music was a bit muffled - later the speakers failed, and graduation was CANCELLED!!
Are you kidding me?! Yes, it was cancelled, and I had to go back later in the day, which turned out to be a beautiful day to pick up my degree! SO crazy of a day! Still, despite this mess, I am a part of the one of two graduations to ever be cancelled due to weather at the stadium! Our President, Gordon Gee, who now is President again, sent all of the graduates a lapel pin with an umbrella over the OSU logo as a gift! Very nice.
Here I am before we left our house, before the rain really began to come down. Yes, my hair was blonde then, and not a very good blonde, either- I should never go that light! I never will now, and someone even asked me the other day if I darken my hair! I said, "nope- just the older I get, the darker it gets!" This was when I was younger and more ambitious! My parents took these - you can sort of get an idea of the rain and the amount of people!
The rain just kept coming, and some graduates were even late- check out them running to get in line!
This is after they cancelled, and where we would've received our degrees, but people just rushed the field, almost as if we had just beat Michigan!
As I said, the rain stopped about an hour later, and the sun came out! It turned out really hot and really sunny for the remainder of the day. So when I dried off, we took these...

In October of 96, I got into an accident and my car was totaled, so my parents gave me money to put down on this brand new 1997 Cavalier! I was thrilled, and thought I was the luckiest girl out there! Sadly, this car haunted me for nearly 10 years after that- since I leased it and then refinanced it 2 years into it (dumb mistake), and then carried the negative equity onto the next car we purchased in 2001 and paid on until 2005 when we paid it off to buy the van! If I had known all that beforehand, I wouldn't be nearly as happy on this day with this very expensive car! *side note* The original price was around $12 grand, and when we were done paying on it, we paid close to $20 grand! Sickening!

My proud parents, who were very happy to be done paying for my college!
My brother, Sean, who is a die hard Buckeye fan!
Jen, Keith and Gwen, who was 3 months old!! Do the math, she is 11 now!! WOW!!
The next day, we had a huge graduation party at my parents house! Over 100 people came, and it was so fun! Here is a page of my scrapbook- don't laugh, I didn't know any better then!

Renee and Gert are there, and remember my Elaina from my post a few weeks ago, my great family, and friends, it was perfect!

Seriously, the blonde is awful! But I loved that dress! That is even funnier, because it was very floral, and long! I sadly, still own this dress, because it is a reminder of this day, and I don't want to throw it away- not even the goodwill would take it! (well, maybe they would, but I am not ready to part with it!)
This is one of the last pictures I have of my Grandparents together- I love this.
My degree is a Bachelor of Science in Human Ecology- College of Family Relations and Human Development. It basically taught me how to be a mom and how to teach and understand the dynamics of people! I loved all my major classes and someday hope to expound on this degree and get my M.E. so I can teach again in an Elementary School. I would love to work again, someday, but for now, I am grateful my children have great teachers that sacrifice to be there. I know that my contributions will come later, and I will sacrifice so other moms can stay home with their children. I believe that the most important place I can be right now is home with my kids and I know that someday I will work again (part-time, I hope) and then contribute in a different way. I want to teach my children at home to be responsible, law-abiding, caring, understanding, so that when they enter the world as adults, I will feel like I have been productive in their lives in that way. Parents, after all, are the world's best teachers!

I learned a lot in those 4 years at Ohio State- I learned that I could not sustain a party lifestyle and still do well in my classes! Thankfully I learned that my first quarter- sadly, my GPA had a hard time recovering from that first set of grades- I ended up graduating with a 2.89 overall, despite getting 4.0's in all my major department classes for nearly 3 years! It was a sad hit to my ego, since I graduated 3rd in my High School graduating class. Nonetheless, I learned to just do my best, and whatever comes, comes...I worked really hard for those A's and not so much for the others!

I learned that some friends come and go in your life, and others are a permanent fixture. I met Jen at Freshmen Orientation, and we were inseparable for much of our college years. I am forever grateful that her roommate and mine at orientation didn't show up, because that is why we started talking in the first place! She is an eternal friend. We experienced so much together, and I learned that she is brilliant, and can sleep through Chemistry class and still pass with an A, whereas I can go to every lecture, recitation and tutor, and still fail chemistry! She is amazing, and a very important part of those 4 years.

I learned that I cannot overeat and not exercise!! I quickly put on 15 pounds that first year! When I say quickly, that is an understatement! We ate dorm food, as much as we wanted, 3 meals a day, and I was not disciplined! Not to mention the plethora of pizza places that we frequented and the late night eating of it!! My Sophomore year, Jen and I moved "off campus" to an apartment where we were responsible for our own preparation of food- I found skim milk, and ramen noodles, and we took step aerobics at the field house! Finally those 15 found their way off- but it was a learning lesson I have never forgot!

I learned to appreciate diversity in people and families, and to give others the benefit of the doubt. I learned to forgive and love others despite our differences. I learned that I am a child of God, and am loved no matter what poor choices I have made in the past. I learned more about myself in those 4 short years than I had in the 17 before them! How much I treasure of that time, and how grateful I am that my parents sacrificed so that I could finish college without any student loans or debt. They have always been supportive of me in all I have chosen to do, and have loved me no matter what choices I have made. They helped me get through the 104 weeks of Dana's mission, and prepare for my future after college. I love them.

Overall, college was a huge learning experience for me, and if I had to do it all again, I would change a few things, but I would still have gone to OSU, maybe not live in a co-ed dorm, but still have gone! I still smile when I think of the fun I had, and remember the good times, and not the bad! I could not go to school right now in my life, so I am thankful I made the choice to go prior to marriage and children! I urge our YW to go to school likewise so they have an education first and then a family. Education is very important in our house, and our children know that not going to college isn't even an option! They will go!!

Dana started college after we were married, and finished his undergrad in 4 years, just before we had Leah, and then finished his Masters while teaching full-time. Might I mention that while he was going to school full-time, he was working full-time, teaching early morning seminary, and was 1st counselor in the Elder's Quorum! That was an insane time for us, but one I am thankful is over! By far, Dana is the smart one of us, and finished college with honors. He didn't love it nearly as much as I did, but perhaps that is because he was a husband and a father, and provider. I am grateful for him and all his hard work so that we have a stable career and future.

So there you have another Throwback Thursday, hope it was fun...4 years for me, 4 minutes for you- equally entertaining!