Quail's Clutch

Maybe They All Use the Same Lotion...

2009-05-11T19:18:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was Mother's Day, and as the mother of an 8 year old, the last thing I expected was to have to take her out of the service to use the restroom... but we did.

Unfortunately, we weren't on the end of the row and had to tap the shoulder of the woman next to us to get by she and her husband.

We managed to squeeze out during a song while everyone was standing. And in the privacy of the women's restroom, Olivia began to chatter. She always has interesting observations, and after pointing out several things including how she felt like EVERYONE was staring at her when we walked out, she mentioned the lady sitting next to her.

"She smelled like Grandma or like Grandma's house." She said.

"Really?" I replied, wondering which Grandma she was referring to. Thinking it was most likely Grandma Wachtel who is older than Grandma Warden (I still forget my mom is getting old), but not wanting to interrupt the flow of her thoughts to ask, I simply listened.

She quickly continued "Yeah, I like that smell. It feels nice." Then she added thoughtfully, I don't know what it is, maybe they all use the same kind of lotion or something." Her thoughts rambled on in an 8 year old way, wondering why all old women would think they need to wear lotion....

:)

And then I found myself thinking about Triple Lanolin that has a distinct smell. My mom probably started using it when I was 8 or 9. She was a beautician with eczema and it was the only thing to soothe her chapped hands after all those shampoos. She still carries a tube in her purse that she finds at Dollar General, and occasionally shares a half used tube with Olivia or me. Whenever I open the tube, I think of her instantly. Glad they don't all use the same lotion, or I'd hardly distinguish it as a unique smell even now.

I wonder thirty years from now what smell Olivia's daughter will say reminds her of her Grandma...

The roots of a gardener

2009-03-11T17:37:00.003-04:00

Spring is peaking it's head in Ohio. It's about time!

Sunday in church we viewed beautiful asters and dahlia's behind our music. I thought about how I hope to be able to garden and perhaps conquer growing dahlia's when my kids are adults. Sounds lame, but I have the roots of a gardener in me.

Eric has been talking alot about the new earth regenerated. Gardening for us is one way of making our immediate world better. Each home we've lived in we've gardened and landscaped as if we'd live there forever. As we sang, I thanked God that in the beginning he made us all gardeners, and that even our gardening can be a thing to bring him glory.

Then I thought of my mom. She is a quiet gardening force to be reckoned with. She grows dahlias and astors like the picture! Post college, While I was off living in the Bahamas and then California, she transformed the hill behind our house into beds that would rival any you've seen in a magazine. I never really noticed it much, until I tried my hand at a few things and then realized what time (aka years) and effort (aka sweat, sweat and more sweat) and care it all took. She just quietly did it. She did it for the pure pleasure of transforming something whether or not anyone ever noticed. I think it was therapy for her, as her life, once built around ours, was changing.

Today she's transformed a rocky hillside in the ozarks into another lush garden. She begins at 5 or 6 am to beat the sun, wearing heavy coveralls to beat the poison oak and chiggars. She's relentless about moving the BIG stones/boulders and hauling in loads and loads a sheep manure to get the soil perfect. Her hollyhocks are beautiful, and her climbing rose bush oozes with blooms, and she cultivates awesome iris and there is no gift I love better from her than some treasure from her garden!

And I had to say thank you to God for giving me that heritage. Asking him for the grace and years to grow into the gardener she is. And asking him for time to sit in her gardens with her and drink coffee in the early morning sun a few more times.

And then the tears began to flow.

My mom lives where she and my dad retired, 16 hours away from me. It's even longer if you miss the exit and end up in Oklahoma. I've chosen much of my adult life to live away from my family, and now I find I long for more time with my mom. Time to say thank you for all the gifts she gave me in her quiet ways. She worked my rocky soil, and she added things to the soft soil of my heart preparing me for the seeds that God would one day sew in my life. And years later I am beginning to realize how much work it was, and how much time (years) and effort (sweat and tears) and care it took.

She's not quite 70 and even before my eyes during our all too short visits, I see her changing. Her short term memory is weakening, and the once undaunted farm girl from Siren, Wisconsin, now has to monitor her stress level or the memory difficulties get worse. I find myself lost to know how to help from far away, at a loss to know how this will progress and how urgent time should be. Longing for time with her, yet accepting that life right now makes that difficult, and trusting that God in his soveriegnty knew of even this time in my life and this has too passed through his loving hands. And even today I know there will be gardening this spring and summer for my own therapy. And I thank God for that.

Winston is 12!

2009-01-02T10:06:00.001-05:00

Hard to believe that 9 years ago we went to Golden Retrievers in Need to view Chumbly (thank God they allowed us to change his name) and fell in love with this teddy bear faced golden and had to bring him home with us! We feel so blessed to have had another Christmas with him and reach this anniversary with him. We all feel certain this is an answer to much prayer and yet another indication of God's kindness.

(p.s. that's Buster in the photo with Wiston. We are fostering him to see how it works for all... so far all can't imagine living without him!)

2008-12-11T15:21:00.001-05:00

Just an update.

Winston continues to eat ( this is a good thing) and mostly sleep. He still appears to be in no pain, with only a slight discomfort in the afternoon when he seems to have a fever. We continue to ask God to heal or make it clear when it is time to give him relief. Ben's birthday is next week, followed by Christmas. I know God is sovereign in all his ways, so were trusting Him to work even in the details of how all this impacts celebrations. Everyone, for now, seems to be getting used to Winston's diagnosis, while he is enjoying our concoctions to keep him nourished (steak, hamburgers, PBJ sandwiches, etc).

We did not get to meet Lou Lou the golden mix puppy last evening. There was a last minute emergency at the rescue agency that delayed that. We will meet him on Friday.

This afternoon we met Buster and shy adorable Cocker Spaniel who is 9 months old. In our visit he seemed very similar to Winston in temperament, A few of us fell in love with Buster.

We must make a decision on the spot when we meet Lou Lou because there are others interested in him.

We continue to pray for God's wisdom and clarity in this. A unanimous decision as too which one we choose would be wonderful.

Thank you for all the kind words and emails from each of you. We are so grateful for such great friends, and while our family feels the immediacy of this personal time of sorrow, we are reminded of how small this is compared to some of the huge things others are facing and we feel challenged to not forget the larger needs of so many around us so we continue to lift those up in our prayers daily, knowing that the effectual feverent prayers of righteous people avail much.

The Wachtels

The Kindness of God

2008-12-09T15:54:00.003-05:00

"There is no end to grace because there is no bottom to the well from which it comes." John Piper

We shed a bath tub full of tears last night and hugged a lot. And Winston true to form had lots of kisses and licks for each of us as he sensed our sadness.

Throughout the day, I was reminded that God knew we would face this on this day, and that He also would supply us with all we needed to make it through. I was so grateful to hear both Ben and Olivia quietly sleeping shortly after they went to bed.

Thank you God for that gift.

Thank you for caring for me in such numerous ways. I know Winston was a gift that you sent to us. You created dogs (and yes cats). you didn't have to, it's a small blip in the radar of creation. Not only did you create them, you made all kinds of different breads with different temperaments and personalities, all to bring us joy and delight and companionship and comfort. SELAH.

God your kindness and extravegant love is beyond my comprehension.

I was reminded again this morning of God's kindness as I read John Piper's Future Grace.

God made us alive and secured us in Christ so that he could make us the beneficiaries of everlasting kindness from infinite riches of grace. This is not because we are worthy. Quite the contrary, it is to show the infinite measure of HIS worth.

Tonight

2008-12-08T18:20:00.005-05:00

Winston has been loosing weight. Something we've been working on for sometime. The problem is he is loosing too fast. Last August Dr. Wendy was concerned. (Wendy walked through cancer with us when our sweet Eliot had lymphoma at 2.) Last week Winston went 4 days without touching his food, and so today we went to see Dr. Wendy again.

And again we heard the C word. Winston, at 10 has cancer in his stomach/splene (?) area. It's a blur right now. Wendy said the longest she's seen any dog live with this is three weeks.

So tonight we will begin to tell the kids.

I know God is extravagant in his love, because he made dogs for us to love and share companionship with, and because he brought us Winston at a time when we thought we could never love another dog. And we have for 8 glorious years!

a

On the night before Thanksgiving...

2008-11-26T22:40:00.004-05:00

I'm thankful that it's 10:40 p.m. and the table is set (thanks to my dear little helpers!), the wildrice ready to plug in, the stuffing parts ready to mix together, and the turkey THAWED! I guess I might not have to get up until 7 tomorrow! I love this holiday. It's about food and family and a day of being together.Who could ask for anything more? I challenged myself to list 45 things I was thankful for on my 45th bday this year. I made it to about 38 and then found the list getting so obscure that I needed to explain things. For example, I'm thankful for my older sister who put up with my fits of crying and clinging to her at school every time I discovered a substitute teacher at the start of a day. After all this time, I finally realize it was perhaps as tramatic for her as for me!But seriously, like David, I find myself realizing that the lines for me and my life have fallen in good places.As I stumble into bed, here's some of my favorite photos from this year...

2008-11-26T22:15:00.001-05:00

Random things we're thankful for...

2008-11-12T17:34:00.000-05:00

The liberty of homeschooling!
There are so many more opportunities to train our children according to their bent as we live out a life of learning! This summer we got to spend a day in living history just down the road at Hale Farm. Our family loves history, and we all looked forward to attending the annual Civil War Reinactment for the first time. Ben's interest in the uniforms of the re-enactor's touched one brigade's heart and they quickly let him dress up in their gear right down to the boots! (Thankfully, he discovered how uncomfortable a soldier's life could be)

A Father's Love

2008-08-05T19:39:00.000-04:00

It's that time of year... "back to school" shopping.

Even for a homeschool family, there's "back to school" shopping to do. Shopping for school supplies, textbooks, and this year uniforms for both Ben & Olivia for the days they go to the study center for classes. Like everyone else, we've felt the pinch of increased prices and apparently have spoken of this enough that our children watch our budget closely.

I ordered Ben his penny loafer's like Dad's for school and decided to look on line for a pair of shoes for Eric as well (his loafers with holes in the soles didn't survive the last rainstorm!). Eric has an odd shoe size, making it hard to find shoes for him and when we do, they are expensive. I was thrilled to find him a pair in his size on Ebay. I mentioned this while we were all together, and Olivia asked why we were spending so much on clothes these days. We talked about how uniforms and shoes were something everyone needs including Dad.

Eric could see Olivia was not totally convinced, so he slipped off his shoe and showed Olivia the holes in them. They were worse than I thought! You could see the liner through the bottom, and three nails were clearly visible in the heel.

As we were looking at them, Eric told how he slipped in his meeting at corporate last week and the president asked him if there was water on the floor. "I told him no. I knew what it was, but I didn't want to tell him," Eric explained. Then Eric pointed to the nails on his heels and said, my heels slid on the smooth floor and I lost my balance.

Eric left the room, and I started to cry. Olivia looked up and asked why I was crying. I explained that Daddy loved them and often sacrifices his needs so we can first meet their needs, including putting off buying new shoes.

The next morning as I headed out to the Thrift store, it was the day before Eric's next weekly meeting at HH's corporate head quarters. As I backed out of the drive, I prayed and asked God to help me find a pair of size 9 shoes for Eric, so he can at least wear something decent for the meeting until his new shoes arrived.

Sure enough, I found a pair of 9's in nearly new condition and slipped them into my shopping cart, and continued to search for the other things on my list. As I was leaving I noticed a rack of shoes and spotted a pair of new black tassle loafer shoes shoes. I pulled back the tongue to see the size... 8 1/2 EEE. They were the perfect size, in Eric's prefered style, the right color,new, and the tag color of the day, making them $2.20.

I've never seen a pair of EEE shoes at the thrift store -- in any size, let alone Eric's.

This time it was God, giving Eric a picture of our heavenly Father's love!

And the Winner Is...

2008-07-22T11:00:00.003-04:00

The Megilligans came to town! What a great surprise. Since they moved to North Carolina, we don't get to see them much, but when we do ... we love to catch up with them and have fun together.

We introduced them to fire pit dinners and our gigantic swing! Everyone took a try. Ben demonstrated how to pick leaves as you fly above the fence. Olivia demonstrated the side swing -- which requires no assistance. Eric was the official pusher.

Reece took tiny pushes.

Lindsey chose to spin and do the hair fling.

Austin braved a little height and then proclaimed "that's enough" when asked if he wanted to go higher.

And Janet, always willing to try new things that we throw her way, dared to get on. She did so with great bravery ... I believe she's the first adult to swing above the fence.

After the judges confirred...

A winner was selected!

MISS JANET THE QUEEN OF THE SWING FOR 2008!

Turning 8 With A Trip To The 1880's

2008-07-20T07:27:00.013-04:00

Olivia turned 8 this month, and for her party she wanted to play "back then" -- which in our house is code word for playing as if it were in the days of Laura & Mary Ingalls. True to form, she was certain about many of the details of her party...
A Sleep over (so we have longer to play!)
Turn off the lights and use CANDLES
Drink from jars
A fire pit cookout
Dress up
Prairie Bonnets for everyone -- and straw hats for the boys
Water in a bowl with soap in a dish on the side for handwashing
Mrs. Fraley's pancakes in the shape of letters for breakfast
Old fashion toys to play with

She invited 6 friends (ages 4 to 11) each chosen because she has at some point played "old fashion" with them and wrote out her invitations and delivered them by Camry express. And on the morning of the party she and Ben were dressed and ready!At 6 pm our home became the Wachtel homestead, as friends began to arrive.

Olivia beamed.

We played games -- tag and capture the flag were the favorites, ate scrumptous fire pit dinners uniquely made by each child, made ice cream in a bag and ate it, giggled, screamed, layed on the grass and talked under the stars, and finally ate cake and opened presents at 10:00 pm by candle light. At 11:30pm the last word of Elsie Piddock Skips In Her Sleep was read and the last

candle blown out. The night was short, the first to fall asleep, Allisa & Olivia, were awake by 6:00 am ...much to the dismay of the last to fall asleep, Mikayla & Megan! There was plenty of time to play the back then game, eat a breakfast with letter pancakes (thanks to Eric's creative skills) to mark their place setting, and more capture the flag. By 11 a.m. when it was time for everyone to go home, some new friendships had been made and lots of great memories made.

... A tired and happy Olivia spent the rest of the afternoon sleeping on the hammock!

Celebrating the 4th of July in Michigan

2008-07-10T15:18:00.009-04:00

It was the perfect place to celebrate The 4th of July... old buildings decked out in red, white and blue bunting, carousal music playing favorite americana songs, model T's driving quietly on the streets with a few horse drawn wagons, and old fashion bicycles that you always see in pictures but wonder if anyone could really ride, and a village green with families playing old fashion games.

Not bad for a last minute plan! We like to be in Arkansas on the lake with my parents for the 4th, enjoying family, a swim in the lake and a lazy evening of watching fireworks across the lake from the comfort of Grandma's porch. But somehow the price of gas and an 18 hour d rive each way seemed more than handle this year. We thought about lots of options, Williamsburg, family camp, Lake Erie, and Greenfield Village, but nothing solid.

We decided on June 30th to go on vacation over the 4th. I used to resent this last minute decision making, but I've come to see it as a romantic way to live. Decide you're going, book the hotel, load up the car, find a dog sitter and away we go! Baseball was finished on the 2nd, Eric's schedule was open, we had one week before we would start teaching Sunday School for a month and we could still find a decent hotel close to where we wanted to be. And we realized that with all our schedules it was NOW or NEVER for a summer get away!

We went to Dearborn Michigan. A quick 3 hour drive away and spent 4 days visiting The Henry Ford (museum) and Greenfield Village. Olivia rated it a 9 next to last year's Williamsburg (a 10 ... "the pool was cleaner" but we won't go into that).

Everyone had a blast. Olivia loved playing with the old fashion games and puzzles and teaching others to use them. Ben got to have his picture taken with members of the La De Da's and the Nationals (he of course favors the La De Da's because of their red and white uniforms). Everyone took a try walking on stilts. Ben played 1800's baseball and watched 1800's baseball. Olivia went to a one room school house for a 15 minute class as often as she could and could "make something" each day. Eric tried his hand at making a glass creation with molten glass at 1200 degrees. And I realized with great excitement that we covered some American and Ohio history. (Being unplugged from the tv has great advantages. After a swim in the pool, we spent our evenings in the hotel reading about incredible folks from history like Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, The Wright Brothers, George Washington Carver, Robert Frost...

Another fine example of how fun last minute leaps can be!

Someday

2008-06-24T08:29:00.004-04:00

It's already the end of June!!!! I had great hopes of getting organized so I could blog more. There's the garage and laundry room to organize (part of which means finally doing something with all the stuff I've saved all winter for a garage sale), the kitched table and floor to sand, refinish and seal, three poorly used rooms to rethink and move around, math and grammar lessons to complete...

Someday I'd like to blog about the death of Eric's brother David at the age of 54. What a wonderful story of God's redemption there. So many things to be learned from his life and now from his death. For now I'll add his picture that shows his spirit in the last few years. With promises to share more soon.

Someday I'd like to blog about how we turned off the tv and in the first two days Eric, Ben & Olivia read a book, Ben built a castle and Olivia had time to listen to Odyssey, draw and dance to music and we played Uno attack long enough for someone other than Ben to win!

Someday I'd like to blog about the books we're reading...

For me it would be The Shaping of A Christian Family: How my parents nurtured my faith by Elisabeth Eliot; So Much More by Anna Sophia Botkin and Elizabeth Botkin; Passionate Housewives Desperate for God by Jennie Chancey and Stacy McDonald; How Starbucks Saved My Life by Michael Gates Gil, Faith Driven Families by Voddie Baucham.

For Eric it would be Valley of Vision by Aurther Bennet; Me Myself and Bob: A True Story about God, Dreams, & Talking Veggies by Phil Vischer; Battling Unbelief by John Piper; Waking the Dead by John Eldridge

For Ben it would be Beowulf the Warrior by Ian Serraillier, God King, A story in the Days of Hezekiah by Williamson Sockey, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

For Olivia it would be anything Dr. Suess that ryhmes, In Aunt Lucy's Kitchen by Cynthia Rylant, Happy Little Family by Rebecca Caudill, Freddie Goes to the North Pole read by James McDonough

Someday...

Enjoying Long Lost Friends

2007-12-01T18:28:00.000-05:00

After 9 months of hearing Olivia cry at night "I miss Lindsey," We finally were able to visit the Megilligans in Raliegh North Carolina. We LOVE the Megilligans.

Eric first met Brian when he was singing with Refresh at the Chapel. I met Janet just after their first, Austin, was born a few short months before Benjamin was expected to arrive. The friendship began to really take shape when Brian, Janet and baby Austin came to Children's Hospital to visit us when Ben was admitted with RSV. They came to pray for Ben & us taking turns since Austin wasn't allowed to visit.

That was 9 years ago. Olivia came and we moved to PA, then Lindsey was born and we moved back to Ohio. Janet and I both began our homeschooling journey together. Eric and Brian shared lunches at the Trough (wouldn't the Golden Coral love that name!). Brian and Janet bought their first house in Hartville and we moved out of our condo to our current home in Akron (only after searching long in the Hartville area).

And then one winter day, they insisted on meeting us for breakfast at McDonalds... only to announce that they were moving to NORTH CAROLINA.

"How Lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard." Carol Sobieski

So you can understand how incredibly excited we all were to be taking a 4 day trip to North Carolina this fall.

The kids got to camp out together... 2 hours after lights went out we could still hear them all chatting. Austin built a zoo for Ben and got him hooked on Zoo Tycoon. Ben had lion cubs in just a few minutes! Lindsey, the Donkey Cong QUEEN, taught Olivia how to do Donkey Cong on the Wii, thanks to Reece's sacrifice of his own Wii time! And we all fell more in love with Reecey... though I think Eric and Reece bonded the most during their private breakfast... there was a lot of communication going on and very few words spoken. :)

After a day at the park, and a visit to Marbles Museum, Eric and Brian went out on a date and I got to ask Janet about all my health and homeschool questions and learn about the latest things she's doing.

We had moments of refreshing that was much needed.

The Megilligans are great parents, we got to experience morning circle time with them. And we were deeply touched when Austin and Reece prayed for us the night before we left. We were again reminded of how blessed we are to have them as friends.

(Our camera only blinks out about 3 photos before the batteries give out. So if you want to see more pictures of our visit, you'll want to jump to http://megilliganfamily.blogspot.com/2007/11/wactels-visit-to-north-carolina.html)

Winter Bliss

2007-02-15T18:51:00.000-05:00

There are some blessings to driving a car with 200,000 miles ...

Just before this blast of snow, my car started leaking more gas than Mr. King's welding could restrain and we were home bound for a whole week, while my Camry recieved a brank new gas tank and lead (at least something looks brand new!). We rediscovered a lot of things we like to do but haven't had the time and some new, like digging snow tunnels.

So Who Won?

2007-02-07T18:00:00.000-05:00

We rediscovered Uno the other day on one of those few Saturdays when we were home for the day. We were being creamed by first Olivia and then Dad and that's when Eric and Olivia got a little bored... Eric stuck a card to his forehead waiting for someone to notice.

When the phone rang, or should we say, when Eric's phone rang and he "had" to take the call... Olivia decided to give it a try. Taking her que from Eric (she may not look like him, but when it comes to humor...she's his double!) Then Ben, who hates to be outdone by anyone, got silly.

Of course everyone knows that Mom just doesn't get playing cards...

Alas, there is always an instigator!!!

Old Men, racquetball, stretchers and such

2007-01-04T17:33:00.000-05:00

Eric now has another story to add to his "unbelievably funny" tales.

Sorry, we won't attempt to tell it. Suffice it to say it all began as he was playing racquetball at 7 a.m. and left the gym in an ambulance. We understand he kept asking everyone as they approached him if they understood he was... naked.

As Pat Corrigan put it best, "is Eric trying to be the poster child for new year's resolutions gone bad?"

He's home, quite relaxed from morphine and muscle relaxants and hopefully soon will be ready to tell his tale to anyone needing a good laugh.

"But Mommy, It's not Christmas without cousins"

2006-12-29T19:28:00.000-05:00

It was a different Christmas.

Olivia was sick with the flu the week before Christmas and we think the fever on Friday launched her into an outbreak of hives the next morning. So instead of heading out early Saturday to Pittsburgh for a weekend of family fun with the Wachtel clan, we stayed home carefully watching Olivia's rash come and go.

She was sorely disappointed, and even more so after waking up on December 24th with more of the same. (It was her year to put baby Jesus in the manger at Grammy's)

"We can't go, can we" she said deep in thought.

"No, honey we can't"

to which Olivia quickly replied, "But Mommy, it's not Christmas without cousins!"

We were all a bit dissappointed. A week of being at home made us all look forward to going for a fun weekend away.

We regrouped (okay, after a day of vegging in front of movies) and discovered new and old ways of doing Christmas.

I often remember my Christmas in Japan -- a totally different holiday without family and familar traditions, but wonderfully special because in Japan Christmas is a non-national holiday Christians celebrate and they do so with JOY.

So this year, instead of Grammy's meatballs, we fixed steaks. (Steak and Lamb all in one weekend! yipee!) Olivia put our tiny baby Jesus in the manger at home (along with a few plastic figures of her own). In place of watching the Steeler game with family we played Solitaire and did some puzzles and watched the Walton's Thanksgiving (we probably had more fun on this count ). And in early January Ben & Olivia will create their knockout gingerbread houses that they'll brag about next year.

In the end we missed being with Erica, Jarod, Josh, Michael, Joslyn and Annalise (and also AJ, Anna, Sammy, Josh & Abby in Ark), but we decided that having 4 days to be home together was almost like going on vacation (well, all but the rashes, worrying and calls to the doctor). And Eric and Amy got to bed before midnight with 99% of the presents wrapped (A ... FIRST... perhaps progress comes with slowing a bit? )

We had a different Christmas ... without cousins, and we discovered that it could still be Christmas.

New Things

2006-12-22T23:40:00.000-05:00

In January, Eric took on the position of Office Manager for Howard Hanna Smythe Cramer's Green Office.

In September Ben began the second grade and Olivia the first grade.

October brought a new addition to our household when our niece Erica, was hired at Berkey Brendel Sheline. Erica moved from Pittsburg and is living with us while she gets "acclimated" to life in Akron. Ben and Olivia couldn't be more thrilled.

What we're reading...

2006-12-22T23:22:00.000-05:00

Eric -- The Complete Novels and Short Stories of Sherlock Holmes; The Letters and Lessons of Theodore Roosevelt for His Sons

Amy --The Glorious Cause; Reading Lolita in Tehran;

Ben -- Tales from the Odyssey book 2; Star Wars Complete Locations; Jigsaw Jones and the Santa Mystery;

Olivia -- The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew; Jigsaw Jones and the Santa Mystery; And Now We Are Six

Accomplishments...

2006-12-22T23:01:00.000-05:00

This was Ben's year to lose teeth... and Olivia's year to question if the tooth fairy is real. (We're sure she wouldn't question it if her teeth were loose!)

Princess Olivia had her first Piano Recital and her first on stage Ballet Performance.

Ben became a Cub Scout and the bubblegum queen mastered her skill.

Travels and such

2006-12-22T22:38:00.000-05:00

Eric's new job meant a new vacation schedule, and a little less traveling. In July we were able to travel to Arkansas to visit Amy's family and meet Ben & Olivia's newest Cousin Abigail.

In September we made a return trip to Williamsburg, VA. It's a family favorite. Olivia got to play a harpsichord this trip and Ben earned some colonial marbles tossing bricks at the brickyard.