The Puppet Master (originally posted on 9/8/07)

Nora's got me on puppet strings this week. Starting first thing in the morning she demands, "make waffles, Mommy" and then as the waffles are toasting (yes, I admit it, the waffles are from a freezer box), she changes her mind, "don't want waffles, Mom!" So, as I am buttering the waffles, cutting them and adding the syrup with the intent on pawning them off on one of the other kids, she again plays with my strings and says, "where's my waffles?" So, I set her up at the table with her plate and her waffles. She proceeds to take one bite, then pushes the plate away, saying, "I'm all done now." Now, I'm back to my previous solution - give waffles to another child, so I don't have to throw them down the disposal. Within minutes of seeing her brother starting to eat her waffles, Nora yells, "those are MY waffles!" When I attempt to reason with her that she said she was all done, she yells again, "NO, MY WAFFLES!" So, first she goes in time-out on the stairs for yelling at me, then after declaring that she is "ready to be a good girl", we give her back her plate to 'test' the situation one more time (why I do this I have no idea). Just as I suspected, "I don't want waffles, Mom." Now Brady is definitely not interested in the cold soggy waffles and has moved on to another breakfast choice, so I wash them down the disposal. Nora leaves to jump all over Avery's head while she is laying in her bean bag trying to watch T.V. She then returns and spots her plate in the sink. "Where did Noni's waffles go?" I say, "They're all gone now." Much wailing and stomping from Nora occurs now.

This will be me next time you see me.

Virtual Reality (originally posted on 8/25/07)

Here's the older, virtual version of Brady on the Tiger Woods PlayStation game. See any resemblance?

Now I lay me down to sleep... (originally posted on 8/27/07)

Mommy: "Now I lay me, down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. May angels watch me through the night and wake me with the morning light. God bless..."{pause}

Nora: "Who?"

Mommy: "Who..."

Nora: "Mama"

Mommy: "Okay, Mama. Who else?"

Nora: "Who else? Ummm...Daddy?"

Mommy: "Yes, Daddy."

Nora: "I want to go swimming."

Mommy: "We're still praying, who else?"

Nora: "Avery and Brady aaaaaaand...Noni's crib?"

Mommy: "Anyone else?"Nora: "Noni's tape, Noni's blankie. Where's other blankie?"

Mommy: "Daddy went downstairs to get other blankie (a.k.a., Yellow Blankie). Is that all?"

Nora: "Who else? Mommy, Daddy, Mommy, Daddy, Bailey and Noni. AMEN!"

The New Beauty Queens? (originally posted on 8/24/07)

Isn't makeup fun?

Maybe it's time for me to have the 'less is more' conversation with my girls.

Heading Back to School (originally posted on 8/22/07)

Ready for 2nd and 4th grade

Avery might not be as ready as Brady; she's looking a little nervous.

Avery and her friend Carrie from our neighborhood. They will be walking together this year to/from school, but are not in the same class.

We get a smile of relief from Avery when she realizes that her good friend Rebecca has the same teacher as she does!

Brady's got no worries on his first day (he's saving all his worries for later when the hour or more of daily homework starts heading home with him!).

His teacher told him she loves homework - oh, great...

Cedar Point (originally posted on 8/13/07)

-insert photos here-

Weekend at the Lake (originally posted on 8/9/07)

A few weekends ago we spent some time with the Dougherty family at their cottage on Big Fish lake near Paw Paw, MI. Everyone had a great time fishing on the pontoon boat, swimming in the lake, playing corn hole, lounging in the sun shade raft, playing Golden Tee in the boat house, shooting off fireworks and roasting marshmallows on the fire at night. The kids also found a dead snake when we got there and Avery couldn't stop carrying it on a stick and terrorizing Mommy and Aunt Jen with it. At one point it was hanging from the deck railing on the cottage - yuck! Mommy and Aunt Jen decided to re-live their pre-kids' days and do some slalom skiing. It took a few more times to get up than it used to and the soreness afterward was depressing, but still worth it. Here are some of the other highlights:

Brady, Avery, Nora, Abby and Evan swimming in the lake.

Brady and Evan go tubing.

Even Nora tried tubing with Mommy and Abby.

Avery waits patiently for her turn on the tube.

Abby is Nora's buddy.

Avery catches a fish.

Nora was fascinated with the worms and the dirt they were living in.

Here's one of Evan's fish. (What's so funny back there, Aunt Jen?)

By the end of the weekend, everyone had caught multiple fish, watched Uncle Mitch clean them on his special table and then cook them up with some batter for a fish sandwich lunch on Sunday.

Brady baits his hook to catch the big one.

"Where Brady/Avery?" (originally posted on 8/7/07)

The littlest musketeer is missing her big brother and sister this week. In fact, I think she handled the anxiety over the hospital and her CT Scan back in February better than a few of the episodes I witnessed this morning. Brady & Avery - We hope you are having fun with Mama, Papa, Abby and Anna, but don't be gone too long! We miss you.

Pepsi Mondays (originally posted on 7/30/07)

One of the best 'perks' that I get working at the corporate office for PepsiAmericas is the wide selection of beverage choices. Of course, this has been a major change for me - a "Diet Coke girl", but not much of one for Scott who still refuses to drink any Pepsi products unless it's his only choice at a restaurant. Most of the beverage choices in the vending machines at the office are a quarter and many are new products that haven't necessarily hit our local stores yet. Once Brady and Avery got over their initial disappointment that I was not actually bottling the soda drinks, they decided that it would be fun to place a drink order with Mom every Monday to bring home a Pepsi drink from the office. So far we have a thumbs-up for Wild Cherry Pepsi, Pepsi Summer Mix and Lipton Brisk Iced Tea. I think we'll try to avoid any of the Mountain Dew products and the Pepsi Max line, which is half energy drink/half caffeined sugar, for reasons that are fairly obvious. I'm sure our dentist will appreciate this informal taste testing at our next scheduled cleanings. Happy Pepsi Monday!

Jumpers and a Country Drive Part II (originally posted on 7/29/07)

You may not recall that we started our illustrious blogging days over one year ago in July with a silly story about our ride out to the country to see jumpers, eat at the Dairy Joy and look for deer. We again took a trek out to Hinckley this evening to watch the jumper plane, sky divers and gliders, eat at Dairy Joy, and do a little driving around the countryside. I guess this little outing has become an annual tradition for us. If you have a minute, go back to the blog archive and compare the pictures from this event in July 2006.

The Sun Hat (originally posted on 7/26/07)

Yep, it's official. Nora never takes off her favorite sun hat.

Noni's Photo Shoot (originally posted on 7/24/07)

Scott pursued Nora around the yard for an entire hour a few weeks ago and was able to capture a few good pictures of her. She did actually stop ordering everyone around and getting into trouble for a few minutes in order to contemplate the world. We have yet to get to the portrait studio for an 'official' 2-year old picture of her. Maybe these will be it - what do you think?

The Baby 'Cool' (originally posted on 7/20/07)

We've done a lot of swimming so far this summer, and even though we have said the word 'pool' numerous times, Noni keeps calling it the 'cool'. She can say 'PaPa', 'puppy', and 'poopy', but when we try the 'p' for pool, it just comes out cool! Here's some pictures of Avery and Noni in the 'the baby cool', just coolin' off.

Happy 4th! (originally posted on 7/5/07)

We celebrated the 4th of July this year with one quarantined child and a very small cookout with just us. Brady has the chicken pox and is mostly confined to his room. He was very pleased that his PS3/video game priveleges were restored and that the PS3 is in his room (for now) so that he can play and watch movies. He's been reading, watching movies (Harry Potter - the 1st one and Night at the Museum, so far), doing Webkinz stuff and getting all his meals on a t.v. tray in his room. Avery and Nora played outside yesterday in the little pool and on the trampoline with the sprinkler underneath it while Scott beat me 2 games in a row at Baggo. All in all it was a nice, quiet day and Brady is being a trooper about all the fun things he is missing right now. We are trying to keep Avery and Nora from getting chicken pox and so they are not allowed in Brady's room or to use the same bathroom, but we may not know until this weekend if we are successful at that. We loaded everyone up in the car last night and found a spot to watch fireworks without getting out with the general crowd. Once all the bumps (and he has a bunch) are completely gone, Brady will be allowed to go back to his regular summer activities. If you have a minute, give Brady a call. I'm sure he'd enjoy some conversation with family and friends!

World Series of Poker

Have you seen this guy on ESPN lately?

School's Out, Summer's Here (originally posted on 6/20/07)

Due to a week later start last fall and a few extra snow days, Brady and Avery did not get out of school for the summer until Friday, June 8th. Since then, it's taken us the last 2 weeks to get adjusted to the new summer schedule. Brady jumped immediately into a 2-week basketball camp at Geneva High School. Unfortunately, his age group has the first slot of the morning - 7:30am - 9:00am. Even though all his buddies are there with him and he won a Gatorade for placing 1st in the individual "choke out" competition, he's really looking forward to sleeping in this Friday when camp is over. Brady is also involved in a 3-hole golf league every Tuesday from 10:30-12:30. Wednesdays and Fridays have become our pool days since both Brady and Avery have lessons in the morning. Noni also gets to go swimming in the baby pool while the big kids have their lessons. Last week we went back to the pool after lessons when it opened at 11am and stayed for a few hours until nap time. I LOVE having Wednesday and Friday off and my new shorter work week (only 3 days), but I still feel guilty like I'm playing hooky or something! Here are a few pictures of the start of our summer break.

Brady and Avery on the last day of school.

Wow, look who is in 4th grade now!

Avery with her 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Skok.

Nora discovers corn on the cob.

Visits from Grandparents are great! (originally posted on 6/19/07)

We enjoyed two recent visits from Grandparents in the last few weeks. Grandpa Brazik and Suzanne visited for a day on their way to a meeting in Lake Geneva, WI. Noni and Mommy took them to the Gazebo at Mill Race Inn to eat lunch and feed LOTS of bread to the ducks and geese. We took a long walk from the restaurant down to the Island park to do a little swinging. After a good nap (Grandpa volunteered to nap during Nora's nap, big surprise), we met up with the other kids and Daddy and had a nice dinner together. Here's a couple of pics from our day.

Our next grandparent visit happened just this last weekend with Mama and Papa Smith. We sat through possibly the hottest little league game of the century to cheer Brady and Daddy on to a close victory. We tried to protect Nora and Avery under the golf umbrellas, but they were mostly interested in squirting us and each other with the spray bottles. Papa managed to escape a sunburn after giving in to some nagging women who insisted he use a little sunscreen on those white legs. Daddy convinced Papa to hit the links with him later that evening while Mommy, Mama and the kids went to the Eagle Brook pool for some cooling off and dinner. Of course, Nora prefers Mama to Mommy in the big pool (just like the rest of the kids before her), especially after Mommy tried to show her how she could float in her Speedo swim vest and Nora swallowed a bunch of water. Mommy is so mean sometimes. Everyone seemed to forget their cameras at all the right moments, so here are a few lame pictures we managed to capture with a camera phone.

We celebrated Father's Day at every cool dad's favorite restaurant, Buffalo Wild Wings.

Lastly, we have a new addition to the Smith Kids Pasta Fan Club - "Noni Macaroni".

40th Anniversary Celebration (originally posted on 6/18/07)

-insert photos here-

A Metamorphosis (originally posted on 5/22/07)

Avery brought home a small fuzzy caterpillar about 2 weeks ago and today we have a butterfly! Avery named him Pegasus. We'll watch him for a few days and then release Pegasus in our garden and hope to see him flying around enjoying our flowers. The butterfly project has been good timing with our book reading as Noni has discovered "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle and we have read it OFTEN these past few weeks.

Brady participated in his third grade musical called "On the Radio". Here he is posing like a rock star after the show at school.

Noni loves to be outside right now. We have nicknamed her 'Houdini' because she seems to be able to escape quietly out of almost every door in our house (even when they are locked). She's into her sun hats, her baby and the slide and trampoline outside. We occasionally catch her doing dog training with Bailey in the garage where she likes to feed him his food one nugget at a time and shout at him to get in his KENNEL! She also likes to try out the dog kennel, but we're not sure about how often she may have sampled the dog food.

Just as I suspected, it has gotten more difficult to post to the blog regularly now that we are into baseball, soccer, tending the landscaping and flowers and, of course, golf season. We'll do our best to keep updating pictures and news when we can!

Happy Easter (originally posted on 4/9/07)

-insert photos of Easter here-

Back in the Windy City (originally posted on 4/3/07)

There is nothing crueler than arriving back home from sunny, hot Florida and seeing this forecast:...

WINDY AND MUCH COLDER TEMPERATURES ON THE WAY...A COLD FRONT WILL MOVE ACROSS NORTHERN ILLINOIS AND NORTHWEST INDIANA THIS EVENING BRINGING WINDY CONDITIONS TONIGHT AND WEDNESDAY. THIS FRONT WILL BRING MUCH COLDER TEMPERATURES TO AREA FROM TONIGHT THROUGH AT LEAST THE FIRST PART OF THE WEEKEND. AFTERNOON HIGHS FROM WEDNESDAY THROUGH SATURDAY WILL GENERALLY RANGE FROM THE MID 30S TO LOWER 40S WITH OVERNIGHT LOWS IN THE 20S. TEMPERATURES WILL BEGIN TO MODERATE TOWARD THE BEGINNING OF NEXT WEEK.

I might not get out of bed tomorrow morning.

Oh...and about all those pictures and video I promised to upload when we returned from our trip? Nora decided it would be fun to toss our camera in the pool at the beginning of the week, so there may not be as many things to post as I thought. Aren't 2-year-olds cute?!

Spring Break! (originally posted on 3/25/07)

We are headed to sunny Naples, Florida this afternoon and will be taking a much needed break from work and school to enjoy some family time. We'll post pictures and video of our trip on the blog when we return after April 3rd. See you then!!

Tickle Me....again, again! (originally posted on 3/23/07)

Is Tickle Me Elmo really funny or somewhat scary - you be the judge...

David and Emily - live it up now because this is what you will be doing for fun in a couple of years. :)P.S. Our house was just cleaned on the day we took this video, otherwise we would NEVER let our kids set cheese on the floor and then eat it again. What kind of parents do you think we are?!

Once you learn, you'll never forget... (originally posted on 3/22/07)

Avery's been very committed to learning how to ride her bike WITHOUT training wheels this week. She's very proud of her progress (so are we!). Here's her first trip down the sidewalk riding her bike.

Everyone has really enjoyed coming out of hibernation and playing in the great outdoors again. Nora has repeatedly showed us her "two-year old skills" at screaming objections to coming inside when play time is over. It's always an adventure for her on the sidewalk - avoiding large charging dogs (that would be our dog), kids on bikes, holding on while riding in the Gator with Avery and Brady and just trying to stay upright running over the sidewalk cracks! Happy Spring from the Geneva Smiths.

Happy Birthday Nora! (originally posted on 3/11/07)

- insert video of Nora singing with M&M cake-

The YouTube Phenomenon (originally posted on 3/7/07)

I am flabbergasted right now. And to say that the hair is standing up on the back of my neck would not be exaggerating. I have 3 subscribers to my 'channel' on YouTube. I even have comments from 2 of them and now received an email message from one commenting on my cute videos. Who are these people?? And why do they want to watch my family being funny? I don't want to watch other people I don't know doing stupid things. It's only funny to watch people I DO know being stupid. That's why I hate to watch "America's Funniest Home Movies".Clearly, I have graduated out of the youth culture and am now one of those "older generation" parents. I don't understand the whole YouTube phenomenon. And I hate this part of it. Perfect strangers watching me and my family? One of these people that subscribed to my channel has viewed over 21,000 other videos. Who has that kind of time? Does this person sleep with his modem hooked up I/V-style so as not to miss the latest video uploads? At the same time, I love YouTube. I can take a short movie on my digital camera, upload it to YouTube and link it into my blog in a matter of 15 minutes. How's that for technology and staying in touch with family and friends! However, if I don't make my YouTube channel public, then my family and friends can't view my linked video on my blog. This is a complicated problem.If I wasn't so guarded about my privacy (Internet and otherwise), I'd be half tempted to reply to Wariogolf (that's his user name) and his email on my cute family. I'm sure Scott and Eric would enjoy 'messing' with him for a while. In the meantime, all I've done is block the ability for subscribers to my channel to send me email messages. Ha! That should fix him, huh?!

Sisters make the best dance partners (originally posted on 3/5/07)

- insert video-

Brady & Avery's Guide to Fun in the Basement (originally posted on 3/5/07)

It's March now and we can almost taste spring coming. But, since we live in the Midwest, we're still stuck inside most of this month. Brady and Avery are here to share their ideas on how they have fun down in the basement...
Tip #1 - Dress up your little sister (sunglasses are always cute) and then take pictures of her.T
ip #2 - Try to beat your best record on BopIt.
Tip #3 - Play 'house' with your animals.
Tip #4 - Play a game of darts (but not against Brady - he's the Smith family champ).
Tip #5 - Organize a closet and then open it often and admire it (this one is Mommy's - can you tell??)
Tip #6 - Hook up the iPod and have a dance party!
Tip #7 - Play a video game for as long as Mom/Dad will let you or until it starts getting difficult to see.
Tip #8 - Take a break and enjoy your favorite cold drink.
Tip #9 - Set up your army guys on the air hockey table (or the floor) and shoot them down with your rubber band gun.
Tip #10 - Invent your own game of pool using the other end of the cue stick.

Do you have any other creative ideas? Leave us a comment with what you do for fun when you're stuck inside.

Pouch Envy (originally posted on 2/25/07)

What I woudn't do for a kangaroo's pouch this weekend! Scott and Brady traveled to Iron Mountain, MI for their annual "Boys Only" weekend on Friday. Since saying good-bye to Daddy after her follow-up visit with the ear/nose/throat specialist, Nora has been clinging to me like a joey to her mama's pouch. Along with accompanying me to the bathroom, she has observed mommy making toast and buttering it with one hand, changing Veggie Tales movies from the DVD player in one fell swoop and multiple one-handed juice cup refills. Although she prefers the right hip, I have attempted to shift her to the left so I don't get abnormally 'bulked up' on the right side. :) I'm sure there is a medical reason (i.e., back strain) that the Baby Bjorn carrier and other such devices are not made large enough to hold a 26 lb. two-year old, which brings me back to the pouch - a brilliant design for these such occasions when our sick children require 24/7 contact with us. I have plenty of extra skin from 3 pregnancies, but I don't know any good plastic surgeons. (Sorry, I think that might have been a little too gross for some of you!).Along with the mental advice I have been giving myself over the last few days, things like, "she'll be in kindergarten before you know it"; "cherish this time as it goes so fast"; "you'll wish she wanted to spend this much time with you when she gets older"; I think a quote from the Smith Matriarch would also be appropriate for my post on this toddler stage: "This too shall pass."That's it for typing today. I need to go rest my right arm.

Baby's Got Blue Eyes (originally posted on 2/21/07)

It's so good to see Nora's baby blues again! The first picture was taken Sunday night in the emergency room and the next was taken earlier today at the hospital. Doesn't Nora look 100% better than our previous post? We are grateful to be home and about to sleep in our own beds. (Although, Scott got quite attached to the recliner that Noni is pictured in here and was hoping to take it home along with all of our free supplies). Thanks again for praying and supporting us during our time at the hospital! We hope to see Nora looking better each day and know that God's healing hand continues to be on her. Blessings to all of you from the Smith's.

Pray for Noni (originally posted on 2/17/07)

As some of you know, Noni has had quite a rough winter with picking up sickness easily and often. She has already had 3 episodes of pink eye, so when she awoke this morning looking like a bee had stung her, we thought it must be another more aggravated case of pink eye and called for a doctor's appointment right away. Unfortunately, the situation is much worse and required her getting a shot of antibiotics immediately in the doctor's office along with the potential that she may need to be in the hospital to treat this serious eye infection that is not related to conjunctivitis at all. Apparently if not treated quickly and aggressively, the infection under her eye lid will spread in her body and cause many more problems. As of this evening, she looks worse, but is in much better spirits so we are hopeful that she will not have to be hospitalized. She has a follow-up appointment with the same doctor first thing tomorrow morning. Would you please keep her in your prayers this weekend? We'll try to post an update on her progress when we have some news.

You should have another baby...(originally posted 2/15/07)

If you have children you may have heard this familiar question: "When are you going to have another?" It really doesn't matter if you have only one child or a whole mini-van full of them. You will get this question. For those of you who are 'finished' with your families, we have the perfect solution. I give you "Butler" - playmate, snack server and educational toy all wrapped into one.

Happy Valentine's Day (originally posted 2/14/07)

Today is the day we celebrate LOVE, right? I know romantic love is more in line with today's holiday, but I couldn't help but think about some of Louie Giglio's words from last weekend. We had the privilige of seeing Chris Tomlin in concert on Saturday night and Louie speaks during Chris' intermission time. While I would not say that science is my strongest subject, I was fascinated with some of the images from space that Louie shared. One of those is the picture I posted of the Whirlpool Galaxy, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and located a mere 31 million light years away. Louie gave all of us non-scientists some analogies to help us understand the size of our planet in relationship to the sun and the distance of this galaxy from our own. While I cannot remember the billions and trillions of numbers he was throwing out, I was struck by the fact that our God is BIG.
That may sound simple, but Louie referred us to a verse in Psalm 33 (v.6):
"By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth."
So God just breathes and he creates this amazing universe that is located so far away from us that we need a super-powerful telescope to be orbiting in space in order to get pictures of it. And if you might doubt that God is a part of this scientific discovery, take a look at the picture of the black hole that sits inside the whirlpool galaxy - does the image remind you of anything?
At this point during Louie's talk, I began to feel like I was a tiny dot living in a bunch of wooden toothpicks on a golf ball-sized planet - pretty insignificant. But just as if God knew that I was feeling that way, Louie shifted gears and gave us another beginner science lesson on cell creation in the womb. And after explaining the miracle of how we develop from a 4-celled organism to an amazing functioning human being in just 9 months, I remembered that Psalm also tells us of how God saw my substance before it was formed and all my days were written in His book before one of them even existed. My God is big, but He's into the details of me too. That makes me feel loved on Valentine's Day.

If You're Bored During a Snow Day (originally posted 2/13/07)

Brady takes a cue from Uncle Rico (that's Napoleon Dynamite - flippin' sweet) and keeps himself occupied during our snow day today.

Nora Cuts the Rug (originally posted 2/13/07)

The video is a little bit dark, but hopefully you can see our little "Shakira" shaking her hips in Brady's room before bedtime last night.

Visit from the Tooth Fairy (originally posted 7/11/06)

No more Mr. Snaggletooth for Brady! He successfully plucked his front tooth out on Sunday. Brady said, "I dug my finger under the root of the tooth really deep and just pulled." After we cleaned up the blood, Brady practiced sticking his tongue through the new hole and smiling a big toothless grin. He was excited to collect his $2 from under his pillow the next morning.Nora is practicing her walking when we are not looking at her. If we ask her to walk, she says "No!" She likes to walk along the walls and between the furniture. It's been about a week since we said good-bye to her bottle and we may be saying good-bye to the crawling soon too.Avery and Brady are enjoying sleeping in and watching some cartoons this week. They've also spent the last 2 evenings chasing each other around the front yard with super soakers. Avery keeps asking how many more days until they get to go back to Bluffton ALONE (I'm not taking that personally...just crying occasionally now). Just 4 more days...Bailey is enjoying his new digs OUTSIDE. We were interruped during our "camping" weekend in Bluffton to hear that our dog was very sick and creating lots of gross messes for our sweet little pet sitter to clean up. Because Scott and I are so creative, we came up with a super solution. Let's just open the side garage door and leave Bailey free to get in and out of the yard whenever the urge may strike. Clean kennel = happy petsitter. So much for those super plans. We found a calling card from the local law enforcement in our front door after we arrived back home. Apparently, one of our more friendly neighbors called and complained to the police that our dog was barking all night. Fortunately, there is no need to get written up in the police blotter section of the local paper just because your animal is an idiot. Well, Bailey seemed fine when we got home, so we put him right back on regular dog food. Then, because God believes in justice, Heather got to clean out the kennel later that day, give the dog a bath and steam clean 2 messes made overnight in the dining room and family room. A visit to our vet, Dr. Withers, was in order. Now we have preventative medicine and special food for Bailey anytime we go away on vacation and he feels the need to have a nervous intestinal breakdown.Needless to say, we are now saying 'good-bye' to our family room carpet and 'hello' to new wood floors. The scented candle companies will no longer be profiting from our need to burn a pleasing aroma at least 12 hours a day in order to mask the zoo-like odor that wafts through the house from the family room. I'm pretty sure that 3 coats of oil-based polyeurathane (spelling??) will pretty much rid us of any smell issues. If we are unusually happy next week, you'll know why.Have a great Tuesday!

Jumpers in Hinckley (originally posted 7/7/06)

Only 10 days, and counting, to the launch of everyone's favorite new sports site - JCF. What's JCF, you ask? Just California Firefighters? Juicy Chicken Fingers? Joe's Crab Federation? Those are good guesses, but you are wrong! JustCollegeFootball.com, of course! To ease the pre-launch tension, the Geneva Smiths took a nice drive into the country tonight for some down-home fried cookin' at the local Dairy Joy. Brady says, "We saw Jumpers!". Not jumping earwigs, just jumpers. (That will be our next web site - justjumpers.com. Get working on it, Uncle E). After elevating our saturated fat and cholesterol levels to an unhealthy range, we hopped in the Vandango and headed out past the booming metropolis of Hinckley to introduce Nora to the exciting spectator sport of jumper watching. Because we are experts at this type of thing, we arrived precisely as the plane was loading and taking off. We amused ourselves by taking pictures by the split rail fence and answering Nora's repeating question of, "what's zat?". Then the moment arrived...tiny little jumpers soaring through the sky like black ants. The ants even made a circle while they were dropping like rocks - pretty cool. We think Nora saw them coming down, but she kept asking "what's zat?" and we told her, "jumpers". Avery and Brady enjoyed the show from the roof of the Vandango. Since it was such a nice night, we decided to let them ride on the top of the van for a while. It might take a few more vigorous teeth brushing sessions to get all the bugs off their teeth, but it sure was a pretty sunset through the sunroof. We capped off our country excursion with a little deer watching. You have to go down unmarked gravel roads to find the really good deer. Score for deer spotting: Brady, Avery, Dad and Mom - 1 each. Brady spotted a deer with a hurt leg. Avery wanted us to load him up in the Vandango to take him to our vet, but Daddy said, "do you take dead animals to the vet?" Oh wait. That's from a movie we saw once. Anyway, we layered some good soft serve ice cream on top of our greasy dinners and headed back to Geneva while singing Jack Johnson's "Bubble Toes" as our family sing-a-long (la, da, da-da, da, da - if you don't know it, we can sing it for you sometime). After our trip down memory lane to Hinckley, Dad said, "I've seen a lot of things in my life, but that was AWESOME!"