Tennis Ace

Millie participated in what I thought was going to be a tennis tournament on Sunday. Turns out they did play matches but there was not a "winner" at the end. Well, all Millie is concerned about is that she won every match she played so she has proclaimed herself the unofficial winner. Works for me.

Serve

It was for ages 10 and younger and since some of the pros running the matches knew Millie, they paired her with the oldest and best players. I even heard one of her previous coaches she had while we were trying out IRC say to another coach "Amelia? Oh, she's young but she's really good, put her with the older kids." I may have been a proud mom then, just a little.

Her wicked backhand

They are forming teams in about a month to do more matches and tournament play. I would like to sign her up but it's during her regular clinic time so we will have to reevaluate our schedule and see if we can make it work.

Reed

Reed, my cute little boy and super snuggler. He is the sweetest little thing these days. He can, of course, be very stubborn but for the most part, if you know how to talk to him and know when not to force him to do something, you can manage just fine.

He really misses Millie when she is at school so our days at home can get kind of long. He is very excited when she gets off the bus and is always at the door to greet her (if he's not still taking his nap).

He is still our solution man. If he wants to do something or has an idea and you tell him no, he will always come up with a pretty logical solution to the problem so it will work out. I will not be surprised if he ends up being some sort of attorney.

If you notice the big red mark on Reed's forehead, that would be what we refer to as ketchup head. I thought he had ketchup smeared on his head when I first saw him. When I picked him up from my dad after my trip to Cancun, he had a new big scratch on his forehead. He said Jacob hit him, on accident, with his elbow. Well the scab has finally fallen off but from the looks of it, it will leave a scar.

He is still enjoying school. His teacher informed me that he has been holding hands with Brooke quite a bit. I asked him about it and he said she was his best friend. He also talks a lot about Luke. Apparently Luke gets in a lot of trouble so Reed fills me in on his behavior everyday. Reed said he is trying to teach Luke how to be good but that it's going to be a lot of hard work.

Millie

Millie, Amelia, my first born. She is turning in to quite the little lady these days. And with that comes attitude, stubbornness, and a clashing of wills between her and I but we are surviving. She excels at nearly everything she attempts whether it be sports or academics. She has finally found her grove at her new school and is thriving. School work is still not really a challenge for her but she still enjoys going and has fun. She is happiest when given a task. If she does not have anything to do, she tends to butt heads with Reed and they fight. But given a task, it's like she becomes a different person. She loves to have something to do even if it is as simple as emptying the dishwasher. It's like her eyes light up and she snaps to attention. She loves to be helpful. She loves to have a craft, a project or an assignment to work on. I have discovered that idleness is her worst enemy. If I can keep her busy, she's a saint! She also loves to read, play board games, card games, write books or songs and color.

We were discussing Lent on Ash Wednesday and we decided that we should give up TV as a family. She was a 'no' on giving up macaroni but she thought giving up TV would be good. Her comment was "If Jesus can go 40 days without food and water, we can go 40 days without TV." She is such a sweetie...most of the time.

Her list of chores is getting a bit large these days as she gets older but mostly taller. So many things she was able to do before she simply couldn't because she wasn't tall enough. Well, she towers over most 6 year olds and a lot of 7 year olds now for that matter so she is able to do more around the house.

She is really enjoying Karate right now and is taking it very seriously. The discipline that is required in Karate suites her personalty perfectly and she loves it. She loves the structure, the rules and the routine of it. I am sure this is something she will stick with until she has that black belt.

She is also in the process of writing her second book. Stay tuned for more information on that.

Cancun 2012

Nothing beats a last minute trip to Cancun. My mom called me on a Monday morning and asked if I wanted to go to Cancun on Friday morning. Well sure I wanted to but I had this little problem of my little critters. You know, they kind of needed someone to tend to them for the week I would be gone. My dad volunteered to watch Reed and I was able to sign Millie up for before and after school care at her school. Along with child care and a few uncles and neighbors pitching in to help with Millie, I was good to go.

My mom and I landed in Cancun Friday afternoon with no major issues other than mom had no luggage when we got there. I just did a carry on so I had mine. We went on to the hotel and the airport finally delivered mom's bag at 2:30 in the morning.

The next day we were refreshed, had all of our things and were ready to hit the beach. It was Saturday that we discovered the most delicious poolside grill I could ask for. I am glad we found it early on because we ate there everyday for lunch. It was a grill and sushi bar and it was the best cheeseburgers and sushi I could ask for. It was fabulous.

We didn't do a lot of outings while we were there. Mom and I had both been there 2 other times and didn't have a huge desire to spend much time sightseeing. That and everyday we had a few thunderstorms pop up. We didn't really want to be out and about and then be caught in a storm. So we were pretty happy just relaxing, reading, watching the ocean, counting tattoos on people, drinking our yummy drinks (usually a Mudslide or something fruity for mom and I stuck with Bloody Mary's all week) and giving other people at our hotel nick names, such as Apple Girl, Steroid Boy, The Smokers, Little Chubby Girl, Curly Head Boy... It was great.

A few things we did notice a lot were the tattoos. I have no desire to have a tattoo but they don't bother me either. The interesting thing we did notice were that tattoos travel in herds and they seem to grow. What I mean is if a group of traveling companions came to the bar or walked along the beach, they were either all tattooed or they weren't tattooed at all. So I decided that tattoos must travel in herds, your group was either tattooed or they weren't. I found this interesting. Also they seem to grow. I didn't see anyone with just 1 tattoo but I saw tons of people with many tattoos. So apparently you can't have just 1, if you get one, you must have to get more.

The other things I discovered is it must take longer than 6 straight days of laying on the beach, reading a book and listening to the ocean while drinking Bloody Mary's before I get sick of it because if it were not for missing my family back home, I could have stayed much longer with no change to the laying/drinking/reading agenda I had been enjoying. And the Kindle Rick got me for Christmas was very handy on this trip. I think I read 3 or 4 books while I was there and I only had to carry my Kindle with me instead of 20 pounds of books.

We did enjoy watching the Superbowl at the resort and enjoyed the free huge buffet and free drinks they had set up for it. I think this could become a Superbowl tradition. It was very nice.

Mom and I really enjoyed this vacation. Thanks to everyone who pitched in and helped with my kiddos so I could go. And a big thanks to my dad who really made it all happen.

Little Dragon

Reed tested today for his Gold Belt. He is in a little different program than Millie. He is in the Little Dragon program for preschoolers. Basically what it is is a continuous white belt class, don't tell him that though. He still gets to test every 8 weeks for a new belt but his belt will be a white belt with a color stripe down the middle. I know it looks like he has a Gold belt in these photos but that is only because his new belt did not come in yet so Sensei awarded him a Gold belt but they will trade it out when his real one comes in next week. He was the only one testing and he did great. The spot light was on him but he answered all the questions correctly and did all the correct stances and kicks. He will stay in the same class as he has always been in and when they feel he is ready to join the older kids, they will move him to a white belt class and basically he starts all over again. They did say that the Little Dragons can move through the first belts a little faster usually since they have learned a lot of the basic skills already.


His Splits - he has a little work to do on these.

Side Kick

Front Kick

Getting his (temporary) new belt

It was about 3 feet too long for him

Karate Master

I am pretty sure everyone that knows Millie knew she was testing for her Gold belt tonight. She told everyone at school multiple times, all the neighbors and anyone who briefly looked at her for more than a nano second.

Giving the thumbs up and letting us know she's ready.

There are all the belts in all their glory just waiting to be awarded.

Front Kick

Front Punch

Roundhouse

Side Kick

Shihan awarding Millie her new Gold Belt

Inspecting it...

Proud!

Millie and Shihan

Looking good in her new belt

Now the real work begins. This next belt is going to be much more difficult because they have to learn a Kata. She will do great though, I have no doubt.

Not So Stupid

Now that we have lived in our house for about 5 months, I am learning it’s not quite as stupid as I first thought. Oh, there are some oddities but now we have either fixed them or gotten use to them. Having the light switch on the OUTSIDE of the master bathroom is still really stupid but I have gotten use to it. Rick fixed the wiring in the basement bathroom so now the light switches are not wired backward. Hot is cold and cold is still hot down there but that will take a little more work to fix. We installed ceiling lights in the bedrooms so that’s not a problem any longer. We still don’t have a ceiling light in the living room but again, we have gotten use to it and now we try to enjoy our cozy and dark living room, it saves our electric bill so I need to look at it from that stand point. The dead body smell in the basement is now a thing of the past. Either that or I have gotten use to that as well, either way; it’s not a problem for me anymore. That allowed us to move all my craft tables into the basement and convert the 4th bedroom into a guest room which was the intended purpose when we bought the house. The crown molding that Rick and I put up really added a nice detail to the house that was extremely lacking when we moved in. Wainscoting is on the next “to do” list.

So overall, I am kind of actually liking the house now. It is super quiet, no trains or other random noisy things like our house in Knoxville. I really like the layout and it’s nice to be able to send the kids to the basement to play when they start getting on my nerves noisy. I LOVE our neighbors so that alone is enough to make me stop looking for new houses. I love that we can ride our bikes to Millie and Reed’s schools as well as to the grocery and the bank. Location, location and location are the main points of this house but now the inside is coming along pretty nicely as well. So basically the point of this post was to say, my house isn’t that stupid after all. The End.

Christmas

We had a fantastic and relaxed Christmas this year. Since we are living in Indy now, it really cut down on all our traveling. We were able to spend time with extended family AND be at our house on Christmas morning. It also helped that some of the gatherings were spread out over about a week's time and not all piled up over 2 days. I am really hoping this schedule will catch on and continue in the following years, hint hint!

So to start, Millie's last day of school was on Wednesday the 21st so after Rick got home from work that evening, we headed south to Floyd Knobs for a few days. Thursday was exciting for all the kids. Reed was on the tractor by 9am helping my dad (GG) and Rick split wood. Reed was operating the wood splitter and it was taking everything he had to pull the lever but he stuck with it. Millie and Jacob joined in a few hours later and then I think Reed abandoned the work and ran around the field playing with them. The dog was enjoying it too so everyone had fun. Until, it seems, my dad and Rick were not really paying much attention to them and they ended up playing in the creek. It was about 40 degrees and they were soaked. By the time the adults in charge realized the kids were playing in the creek, they were almost done with the tree and they just left them play. When they came up to the house I was a little less than thrilled but we dried them all out and all was well.

Later that day Millie and my sister had BIG plans. Laura has been scheming to take Millie to get her ear's pierced since the day she was born. I held out and kept refusing but then they teamed up on me and so I said they could do it for Christmas. I'm not sure who was more excited, Millie or Laura. Millie did great by picking the most expensive pair of earrings and being super brave and not even crying when they did it. I was very proud of her! Afterward we went out to eat and that's when I started getting a scratchy throat and began to lose my voice. I knew this was not going to end well. We stopped at Kroger on the way home to stock up on Emergen-C, vitamins and anything else we could think of to help protect us all.

The next day my mom had us all to her house to celebrate Christmas. We had a nice meal and then the kids enjoyed letting T-Rex attack the Calico Critter settlement and reek havoc on their poor little furry selves.

On the 24th, we packed up and headed westward to Dale to spend the day with Rick's family. We all went to church that afternoon in Ferdinand then headed to Rick's grandma's house in Santa Claus for a yummy Christmas gathering. We had to skip out a little early in order for us to make it back to Indy in time to pick up Vince and Holly from the airport. We were all excited that they were flying in from Colorado to spend Christmas with us. By this time I had no voice and felt pretty crappy but I refused to let it stop me!

Christmas morning was extra fun because Vince and Holly were with us and the kids when we were opening gifts. I had a big breakfast planned but we kicked it to the curb because I didn't feel good and so we just had cinnamon rolls. It was nice having a few extra family members in the house Christmas morning!

Vince and Holly had to head south to see Rick's family but my mom and dad drove up that afternoon to spend a few days with us. By this time I was just a non breathing lump on the couch. Rick was great and did all the cooking that I had planned for the day. Mom and dad left the next day and I think dad was glad to go because I wasn't fun company, that's for sure! And we don't have cable so it was pretty boring unless you wanted to cook or play with the kids. So like I said, I think he was glad to go.

The next few days the kids played in the snow and enjoyed no school while I continued to be a lump on the couch. Rick worked but was in town so he was home every night which was a nice change for all of us. He has mostly been working out of town which is really annoying. That was not the plan when we moved up here this summer but you do what you have to do I guess.

Millie seems to really be enjoying the Kindle that Rick got me for Christmas. She has now finished 3 chapter books on it but I have yet to read anything on it. I had a stock pile of books from the library that I need to finish before I make the digital switch.

Fortunately I started feeling a little better to start cooking for the 30th when Rick's family was all coming to our house for our Christmas celebration. It was the first time I have ever hosted a holiday at my house and I think it went well. The appetizers we had may have been too big a hit because I don't think anyone was hungry for the main course but we managed anyway. Hannah made a delicious cheesecake, it was super yummy!

So that sums up our nice and non-hectic Christmas break. Rick is now officially stir crazy though and is getting ready to head to Lowes so we can start our wainscoting project. I guess my bumming lazy days on the couch are over.

Christmas Program

Millie had her Christmas Program this week at Westfield High School. First I want to say a big THANKS to my mom who drove up just to see it. Rick was out of town and Millie was pretty upset that he was not going to see it. So thanks Mom, you rock!

This program was so funny I was laughing out loud. These kids practiced so hard everyday for about 2 months and it showed. I was very impressed and entertained.

Here are some photos of mine and a few a friend sent me because she was much closer to the action than I was.