Trunk or Treat 2007

A Day in the Life...

Today was one of those days that I wonder where the justice in life is. I have a small boy in my class that brought a knife to school today. It was found by mistake. It was just a small (less than 3 inches thank goodness) pocket knife. He came to me to tell me that it was his. He began to cry and said that his mom and dad did not know that he had it and that he did not mean to bring it to school. It fell out of his pocket on accident. I wish that was the end of the story. He then went on to tell me that this tiny little knife was in his possession because when he comes up to the playground after school there are big kids there that jump him and hurt him. One of his friends gave him the knife for protection. I told him not to come up to the playground alone. I told him to not come up to the playground at all. I asked him what did he think was going to happen when he "little kid" pulled a knife on them "big mean kids". After I turned the knife into the office, I went and told him that I appreciated his honesty and that he needed to go home and tell his parents because they were going to be getting a phone call from the office. He broke down and was crying with heart wrenching sobs. As he slid down the wall sobbing, I began to cry.

What has happened to this world. I have this little boy in my class, not an angel but not a problem. He is one of my kindergarten safeties and does a fabulous job with the children. He takes his job seriously and I really like him. This nice boy is now facing at least five days of suspension pending a hearing that could determine that he might be expelled. All because he felt powerless. As always nothing will probably happen to the bullies, even if they are found. Bullies rarely get caught. Bullies rarely get punished. My poor child will now have this incident on his permanent record. Yes, it does exist and it is computerized now.

I was crying because I felt bad for him.

I was crying because I felt powerless to help him.

I was crying because no child should feel like they need a knife for protection.

I was crying because I had to be the one to turn him in.

Skipping on the Playground

At what age do we lose our childish exuberance?

I was in the drive through lane at the Taco Bell the other night, (Which by the way needs to be another topic for another time. The evils of driving thru late at night.) when I saw youthful exuberance. One little high school girl was working behind the counter when her other little high school friends came in after practice. You would have thought that they were reunited after years of seeing each other. The hugging, the giggling, and the jumping up and down seemed quite over the top. Then I began to wonder. When was the last time that I became that enthusiastic about anything, especially the meeting of friends after my day was nearly complete?

There was something a bit sad as I sat there late at night feeding my face with way too much fast food, sugary Mt. Dew pop, and my Carmel Apple Empanada. When did commercial fast food become the substitute for the bigger joys in life. The small pleasure now go unnoticed and have been replace with things that leave you feeling sick, bloated, and all to often dissatisfied?

A few days have past and the gnawing feeling of somehow I am completely missing the mark in my life get pushed to the back burner. Its not gone but I begin tending to the urgent in my life. Then it happens again. I am out on the playground watching the kids playing at school. We as adults call this recess "duty". We have reduced this childhood pleasure to adult "duty". All of the teachers are sitting on the bench hoping that the time will speed up and we can just get back to business. That when it hit. There was a group of three girls from the 1st or 2nd grade. They were holding hands and skipping in a line, and singing "Loo! Loo! Skip to my Loo." They were covering a lot of playground territory. The first grade teacher grabbed my hand and the other first grade teacher's hand and we began to skip around the playground as well. (Side note-I teach 5th grade.) Yes my feet hurt and I was winded, but it felt good.

Mark 10:15
I tell you the truth, you must accept the kingdom of God as if you were a little child, or you will never enter it."

Heartbreak in the Kuhn Household

Well it has begun. . .football season. Joshua and Eric had their first game on Saturday. They lost 32-0. Everybody came to see and suport Joshua. Auntie, Uncle Chris, Grace, Zachary, Uncle Troy, Abbie, Aiden, Uncel Chad, Aunt Shawn, Brian and Savannah. All of the kids had fun running around and dodging the bees. Joshua got named as one of the captians. He was really excited. He was on the field almost the whole game, so apparently he is a stud.

Later that day Elizabeth went shopping with Tracie and Maddie. Poor Elizabeth was with me in a clothing store and she walked by a clothing display rack and it fell on her. I heard the blood curdling scream, looked at her and it looked like she had blood pouring out of her eye. The employees rushed us into a back room at the store. They gave us a gauze and ice. We drove off to the emergency room. There they treated her for her injury. She got to have x-rays of her head to make sure that no bones were broken. She got to see the x-ray of her head. She thought it was cool.

All turned out ok. It was quite the eventful day.

Near History Review

Joshua gets his football equipment.

Next week he starts conditioning. He goes 5:30-8:00 M-F.

Gracie spends the night and the girls went to the movies, made crafts, and played dress-up.

Elizabeth meets Zackary at lunch last week.

Joshua holds Zackary for the first time.

The kids had a great time at VBS

Joshua loved the singing and dancing.

Elizabeth liked the singing and the picnic.

Her favorite part was putting the cows up for doing the daily challenges.

The kids and I went to a family fun fair.

They loved going down the inflatable Titanic

Lizzie Won the Hula Hoop challenge for her age group, $25.00 to Target.

Vacation Bible School

It is that time of year again. Vacation Bible School. This year's theme is Avalance Ranch. The Dearborn churchputs on the best VBS program. The kids have a lot of fun. This year each of the children have received a cool t-shirt and a colored bandana. The decorations are great and everything runs smoothly. Best of all, the kids are excited about learning about Jesus. I know that this may be controversial to some, but when the packaging is exciting the kids become excited. Yesterday's verse was: The Lord is the only true God, Jeremiah 10:10.

Summer Bowling Fun!

The kids get a color sheet each week. At the bowling banquet they will each receive a book full of all of the color sheets that they completed while they bowled. They also get pins for strikes, spares, 30 point games, 40 point games, and a patch for 50 point games. Elizabeth has earned each of these.

Maddie plays the crane game. she is obsessed with it. Unfrtuanately this is not one of the games that is easy to win so each week she goes away upset.

The most important part for Elizabeth is looking good!

The Toledo Zoo

The butterfly exhibit at the zoo was wonderful. We got to see all kinds of butterflies as the flew all around us. One of the butterflies actually landed on Joshua's shoes.



It was a really hot day. I rented a wagon so the children could rest occasionally. Oh my! Thrying to pull both of the children in the wagon was a trip. I really got my exercise.

Gilead has their cool T-shirts! Here is grandpa's car.

Cruisin' Telegraph

This is the third annual Telegraph Cruise. My dad has his hot rod and a passion for cruisin'. Gilead Baptist Church had thier cars show contest and my dad was one of the judges. It is really great to see so many people coming out and ejoying the cruise. Joshua, Elezabeth and I got up early to go and see the parade of old cars. There were a ton of Edsels. I saw my dream car. It was a purple car of some old make and model. That part is not so important to me. I just love that it was so purpley.

Geauga Lake Vacation Fun!!!

Penny and Lizzie meet Snoopy at the gate.

Lizzie strikes a pose. Joshua and Elizabeth try to shoot someone with the foam balls. Uncle Troy has his own ideas about combat.

Can you find Aiden?
Lizzie becomes fearless and rides all kinds of rides. Daddy joins in the fun.

There were 22 of us that went to Geauga Lake for the weekend. It couldn't have been more fun. Out of the 22 only 8 of us were adults. We had 4 teenagers and the rest were kids. Talk about a mob of children. We never had a lost child scare. Joshua was a roller coster monster. I got to go on roller costers. This is something I probably haven't done in seven years. The weather was beautiful for both the amusement park and the waterpark.

This Is The Headspin.

One of Joshua's new favorite rides.

I like it when they love each other :)

Happy Birthday Michelle!

On Saturday Eric and I had to go to 3 different engagements. The first one was the party that I threw for my 5 year old, Elizabeth. The second was a surprise party for my sister-in-law Michelle. And the last was a wedding reception for my husband's boss's son.

I have appointed myself as the official photographer for any occasion. If you are taking the pictures you usually do not end up in one. I took this picture of Michelle. Isn't she beautiful!

Lizzie has a beach themed birthday party

Each child got their own fishy cupcake.

Auntie made a mermaid cake.

Thank you Aunite!

Lizzie had her party from 12:00-2:00. We had hamburgers, hot dogs, and octopi on a bed of mac-and-cheese "seaweed". Everyone thought that the mac-and-cheese was green beans. The kids made crafts, played games, and swam.

Happy Birthday to You!

Lizzie gets a new bike!

Grandpa runs the grill.

The Budget

Step One on the road to financial freedom

You want a fun and relaxing evening. Just sit on the couch across from your spouse and try to work out a realistic and workable budget. Bare your soul as to where all of your money goes. Let out all of the dirty little secrets about your trip for ice cream and the dollar store. What an oxymoron; the dollar store. Why is it that everytime I go to the "dollar" store I spend at least $10.00? Men and women do really spend differently. My husband enjoys golf. It is quite the expensive hobby. It would be very easy for me to point to that expense, and in the past I have, and say it has to go. But, the reality is I spend just as much money as him on stuff. Mine just happens a little at a time. It goes seemingly unnoticed, that is until we start to bounce checks and have no money left for food and gas. Talk about a humiliating and humbling experience. There were many a times that Eric wanted to stop, but we forged on through the tangle of our financial jungle. We have a ways to go and we will need to tweek and rearrange, but we have made two firm committments: PUT GOD FIRST!, and save our receipts and track our actual spending. TTFN

A Break in the Sports Action

Do I love sports? Not a chance!

Do I love my husband and son?

You betchya!

Eric's softball came to an abrupt end with a double elimination play-off tournament this past Sunday. Joshua's baseball season ended on Monday night with the second loss in a double elimination play-off. Both of these play-off games were brutal and ugly.

Great season for Joshua and his team. They came in 1st place for the regualr season. Nice change after playing on the last place and losing teams for the last 5 seasons. (Stealing the intent of a famous line, "I've been in first and I've been in last---First is better!)

My husband's team started out rocky, but finished up strong. He played with a lot of great guys. He hasn't played ball for at least seven years. The old man still has skills. Right now he is lying upstairs on the couch drugged up on motrin. You don't heal as quickly when you're an old man. He was just glad to get back out there, the fact that he was still good was icing on the cake.

Now a brief reprieve until football starts. Husband coaches and son plays. Beginning August 14th they will be gone five days a week conditioning and practicing. Then the games will begin and once again I will be the ever faithful cheerleader.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

LIZZIE!

It is hard to believe that my little Elizabeth is now 5 years old. It seems like just yesterday that I was bringing her home from the hospital in her pretty pink outfit. Both of her grandma's have called her to wish her happy birthday. Elizabeth, Joshua and I rode our bikes to McDonald's for lunch. Lizzie has just learned how to ride a 2 wheeler. What better way than to celebrate than using her new talent to ride to Mickey D's! She did great. We will celebrate her birthday on Saturday at the ShiRobb's house. (My sister's family the Shimaneks live with my mom and dad, the Robb's, hence the name the ShiRobb's house) We are having a beach party theme.

What kind of life are you leading?

One of blessing or one of curse?

How do you use the money the Lord has given you?

8 "Should a person rob God? But you are robbing me. "You ask, 'How have we robbed you?' "You have robbed me in your offerings and the tenth of your crops. 9 So a curse is on you, because the whole nation has robbed me. 10 Bring to the storehouse a full tenth of what you earn so there will be food in my house. Test me in this," says the Lord All-Powerful. "I will open the windows of heaven for you and pour out all the blessings you need.

Malachi 3:8-10

Using an idea from a sermon, "I would rather live on 90% with God's blessing, than on 100% without God's blessing." I have the desire, now I need to implement the drive.

Fun at Gilead

What a blessing to have such a great family and friends. Last night my family and I attended the fireworks display at the Gilead church. My dad bought us dinner, which started at 5:30. Stephanie and Chris and the kids attended as well. The kids had a great time playing on the water slides. Joshua and Zachary played ball. The music was great. About 8:00 some of Stephanie and Chris' life group came as was as my friend Tracie and her husband John along with daughter Maddie. The fireworks were great, but the company was better. My only regret was that my mom was not able to join us this year. Next year hopefully will be a different story.