The Perfect Day at Sugar Grove Nature Center.....Warning long post with lots of Pics!

I've been so busy with my part-time job at Strata and my full-time job as a single mother...........wait I've still got a wedding ring around here somewhere, I've just misplaced my husband! Anyway, I haven't taken the time to write in a while and I didn't want to miss the chance to write about this wonderful day. On October 18th, we went to the Fall Festival at the Sugar Grove Nature Center. (title has a link) It was the perfect weather, the perfect amount of people, the perfect amount of those nasty, no see-um (minute pirate) bugs, and one of my favorite places in the world. I feel so at home there. We did miss you Joe.

The day started well, I got the kids in the van and off we went. There were no major melt-downs on the ride there, which meant I could enjoy the beautiful fields that were being harvested. I think most of you have been to or live in Central Illinois. Some people can't see the beauty here, but it is so amazing to see the black fields in the spring and watch as the corn and beans seem to shoot up over night. The fields go on and on with farm houses and silos dotting the landscape. The potential in those fields to feed a nation is remarkable. (Or if you are a realist, to feed several hundred thousand beef cattle, but who doesn't like a good burger now and then) My point being, I find the whole growing season awe inspiring and the culmination in the fall with the combines in the fields and the crisp autumn air is comforting and exciting all at the same time.

We took the tractor pulled tram through the tall prairie grass to the Nature Center. The kids loved it. When we got there Grandma Sybil and Grandpa Dick were waiting, listening to Celtic music. It was a great band that created a wonderful backdrop to the day.




Catherine and Jacob enjoyed the bubble table while Aaron exchanged verbal jabs with his Grandpa. Jacob went from blowing bubbles to popping them. He found the bubble wands useful weapons. With the help of the two extra adults, I was able to check out the Observatory. They even had cool binoculars that let you look at the Sun.

There were vendors, woodcarvers, blacksmiths, reenactment tents, and not a single bug. I have to wonder if the Nature Center didn't get a little chemical on us and spray the whole place the day before.

The weather was great. One of the best experiences was sitting on a rocking chair with Cora and watching people go by. There were a lot of dads and my favorite was a cool 25 year oldish guy with the buff body and nice sunglasses. On his shoulders, a little girl dressed in a black shirt and black and orange striped leggings. Hanging out of the back pocket of his jeans, a pink bunny.

After listening to music an eating our picnic lunches, we went to the imagination grove. Jacob crossed the creek on his own.


He was very proud.

Cora was an angel the whole day! Here she is with Grandpa.


















The tree was a favorite with all the kids.
















Aaron was a little more confident than Catherine. This is his favorite place to be when we are at the nature center.


After some pumpkin bowling and crazy carnival food, we each got a beautiful top that a man was making on a lathe in one of the demonstration areas. We have had lots of fun playing with them and they remind us of the day.

It was then time to say good bye to Funks Grove.............

On the way home we saw 8 hot air balloons! One landed about 100 yards from the highway. These pictures were taken on the fly, but they helped us remember our day! It was such a fun day.

Hey Family...It's Dad!

Well, it's been pretty brutal at work. I've been working somewhere between 90-100 hours the last few weeks installing a pretty big system for a bank. It needs to be online soon and with construction delays and waiting on other sub contractors to finish work, it's crunch time. So in my efforts to remain a part of my family, I'll let them know what I'm doing here, since they see this more than they see me.

Hi Elizabeth, Aaron, Catherine, Jacob, and Cora!!

This week (among many other things) I got the new satellite system installed. Even though it is a larger system (3 dishes instead of one--if you really want to know why 3, let me know the next time you're having trouble falling asleep and I'll explain it) it was easier than most because it's on a flat roof. Here's a picture at dusk from the roof overlooking Champaign.

Here is one of the touchpanels in the 3rd Floor conference room tables. There are four rooms, with similar systems in each. Two rooms have 90" projection screens, the other two have 52" LCD flat panels. You can't see them, but there are cables to connect your laptop inside the enclosure. The lid closes flush to the table when not in use. "Cool" you say? Thank you.

This is the equipment closet. We call the equipment rack on the wall "mini me". The other rack (not installed yet) is 7 feet tall. Some things are just funny after 2am.

This is most of the wiring for "me" (that's the 7' rack). We still have 2 or 3 days of wire pulling to add to this, including the 2nd Floor Boardroom (or Boredroom if you prefer). That has a pretty cool projector installation, I'll post pictures when I get them.

Anyway, thanks Aaron, Catherine, and Jacob for pretending you remember who I am. Thanks Elizabeth for doing a great job as a single mom. Oh yeah, and for not calling the police when I show up in the middle of the night. Thanks Cora for scooting over and not making me sleep on the couch!

As things progress I'll write more!

Love you,

Dad

Letter Boxing II

In response to Monica's very funny comment............

"I read a little on the link but, who hides this stuff? and why do you want to find it?"

Anyone can create a letter box. And you find it because it is fun. You start by getting a stamp. It is good if it represents you. Some people even make their own stamp. Then you get a little book, just for letter boxing. It is good to have a stamp pad too, because not all boxes have them included. Then you look up the clues on line. Then you go on a little treasure hunt. You find the box, take the stamp out of the box and stamp your book. In turn you leave a stamp mark in the book that is also in the box that you have found. You put the box back for someone else to find it. You collect different stamp marks in your book because we are Americans and it is that or watch TV all day I guess. It is fun to go on treasure hunts, kids love it!

You can decide if you want to make your own box, hide it, and post the clues on line. Again just cause it is fun to see how many people will come looking for your box and what stamps marks they will leave.

Good Sport

Aaron is such a good sport. He came home from school so excited he had broken the school record for the pacer test. I'm not really sure what that is, but it is some kind of running test in P.E. He broke it by two. Then he started laughing and said, "Evan (who is one of his good friends) went right after me and beat me by 18!" He thought it was so funny. Yesterday they ran the mile. He ran it in 7:33. Again he laughed and said, "Guess what Evan got?" Evan ran it in 6:33. He was pleased for both himself, because he got second and Evan who finished a distant first. I don't know where he gets that, but it is one of my favorite qualities about him!

Letter Boxing

I told Andrea I would wait until I had some time to look back at this experience and decide that it was fun before I wrote. A couple of weeks ago we went letter boxing for the first time. We went with Andrea and her 5 kids. Yes 9 kids and two parents. 9 kids, 9 years old and younger. Well that's a recipe for disaster isn't it. But I was excited to go. We had pick out our stamps and made little books and headed out on our adventure. We only lost one toy and no kids in the creek, that was good. The toy was retrieved and we continued, for two hours, to look for this box. Finally, we found the right bridge in the park (after the older four kids were lost for 20 minutes) and NO box! Jacob came out of the woods covered in burrs and had to take of his shorts so I could pick them all off. As we were walking, me pushing a stroller through a bunch of walnuts and picking burrs off my half naked three year old, some high school kids looked our way and chuckled. Had they not been minors I would have taken them out! I did, however, silently curse their futures with very active children. Cora then needed to eat, so we sat down and rested while the remainder of the crew took off to find the second box. Which they did! It only took ten minutes. Then there were stamps flying and the OCD part of me had to take a deep breath because my kids not only stamped with the found stamps they were stamping with all the other kids stamps too. Looking back it was fun and I'm so glad we did it. I think we will go again. Here are the kids on top of a giant bunny. Why is there a giant bunny there? I don't know. It is a sculpture garden, most of the other stuff is very artsy and then this huge bunny.

For those of you interested, click the title and it will take you to the site to find clues though out North America.

What we've been up to......Family

Joe is feeling much better after his fall from the roof. He a Jacob had fun on the trampoline. After getting bounced around pretty well, Jacob had Joe be the egg and when his bouncing didn't even move Joe he attacked him full force.

We went up north to see our friends the Beerli's. After the kids played all day, we went to a pumpkin patch called Vana's. It was fun. There were pumpkins, a little candy store, a kids haunted house, a petting zoo and lots to look at. The kids each got a 2 foot gummy worm and we had some wonderful turtles. The chocolate just melted in your mouth and the carmel was really soft.

What we've been up to..........Cora

I love the profile. The sheer size of the cheek and the perfect baby nose.

What we've been up to.........Jacob

Jacob is very proud of his art work. This is dad. Notice the long legs. The one of Cora, which was too light to photograph, had a huge head, huge eyes and arms and legs sticking out of the head structure. The hands and feet were the circles that kids draw and the best part was when I was in the bathroom change Cora, Jacob burst in and said, "I need to count Cora's toes." He wanted to get the right number of toes on his drawing!

I love this picture. Jacob made this hat at school. He loves his school and in this picture I am reminded that he is three and a hat with a leaf is the coolest thing in the world. When Jacob is happy he can light up a room like no one I know.

Jacob is afraid of very little. Here he is defending his sandbox from a swarm of ants. Yes ants kind of swarm. Maybe a biology friend can post and tell me if this is right, but I think that all the ants start with wings and then the fly away in this massive exodus and then loose the wings. Anyway, if you have never seen it, it is a little weird. Hundreds of flying ants. I got a picture after most had gone (Or been taken care of by the enforcer, who saw them and ran out the door flyswatter in hand with no shoes on. YEWW)

What we've been up to.......Catherine and Aaron

Catherine has taken up a new love, painting. She had Joe move the easel to her room and will spend hours painting. She asked me if she could get some tempra paint and take off her shoes and socks and paint outside using her hands and feet. A hippy mom would have jumped at this chance to let her daughter explore art in such a hands on primitive way............I said, "No not today sweetheart." Instead she created this beautiful flower. It is kind of impressionistic and since she didn't know what impressionism is I think that is pretty good. We looked at some Monet online, he is my favorite. She really thought that was neat.

Here is the one she is working on now. I think the splatter marks look like sea weed. She has made up different techniques and loves to blend the colors.

Aaron has decided to wrestle again this year. I'm really glad. It is a great program and the coaches work the kids very hard, but they are fair and really care about the kids, not just about winning. Aaron is starting to work out again to prepare for practice. On his first try he ran the 800 in 31/2 minutes. It takes me that long to get out of bed in the morning!

This is Aaron on the Homecoming float. I love our little town parades. They consist of tractors, politicians, a few horses, the fire truck and the high school band. The funniest was the Labor day parade, people were invited to walk in the parade with their dogs. They were followed by the fire truck, which was honking and blaring its sirens. I thought those dogs were going to have heart attacks!

What we've been up to.....Home

I've gotten so far behind! So I'm breaking this down. This is what our house has been up to.

For those of you who haven't heard the story, guess what this lovely mess is.

Have you guessed? You can comment and let me know you guess.

Here is the SPOILER................milk. Not just any milk, but part of the 1/2 gallon that Catherine spilled on the kitchen floor one morning. We got the mess cleaned up, we thought. Then after dropping off the kids at school, Joe can home to see it dripping out the side of the house over the garage door. That is a pretty big puddle of milk. So before 9:00am that day Joe had taken off the base board, cut a hole in the drywall and poured bleach down the hole. He found that the board behind was a little bad from something else so we will need to fix that. I would have freaked out if I didn't know Joe well enough to know it will all be ok. He is really handy. His dad taught him a lot and he also has learned so much from being around construction sites and asking questions.

This is the most recent picture I have of the park. It was taken 2 weeks ago. They now have most of the fencing up around both baseball fields. The red building is about in the middle of the length of the park. It extends beyond the tree line in the background. The walking path is about .6 miles around the park.

This one is for you Pat. For those who don't know my mother-in-law, she is an immaculate house keeper. Me, not so much so. She has taken special interest in my microwave. She cleans it every time she is in my home. (This doesn't offend me in the least. In fact, if any of my friends or family members would like to pick a chore and come do it I will welcome you with open arms!) Anyway, I think my microwave grosses her out. I don't think it is so bad. Now when we lived with Janet and Joe would put chicken patties in the microwave with no covering and Janet finally said her tea always tasted like chicken broth from little bits falling in it, ok that was gross, but now it is just a few explosions here and there. Well, I cleaned the microwave and I want Pat and all the world to know!

Things I'm Grateful For

I was changing Cora into one of the many outfits that good friends gave me, even though she is our fourth. I thought how grateful I am for such great friends and how cute she is in all her little outfits, it is fun to have them be so bright and clean and new. This being the only journal I keep at the moment, you get a rare look at the more serious side in my list of things I'm grateful for.

Gummy smiles
Eyes that twinkle with excitement and love of life
The chance I had to grow up in Funks Grove surrounded by the beauty of nature
Waking up in the morning to see the leaves in the tops of trees blowing in the wind outside my window
A husband to laugh with, no matter what comes our way
The warmth of the sunshine through a window in the winter
Having friends at the right times in my life that were soul mates and laughing so hard together
A/C
Food in all its wonderful varieties, textures, scents and colors
Peaches fresh from the tree.................I could just keep going on the food theme
My hound dog George, may he rest in peace; and my sister for caring for him when I couldn't be there
Music, all kinds, to worship, to celebrate, to comfort, to inspire, to rock out to
Forgiveness
Reading
Grandma applesauce, not only is it good, making it is an act of love
Catherine's hair in the sunlight and the memory of it bobbing back and forth in a ponytail as she ran down the street.
The sounds, sights and smells of Hawaii, wind in the palm trees sounds like gentle rain, waves crashing are humbling, plumeria trees are indescribable - the smell and texture of the flower and how they are made to fit perfectly tucked in by your ear.
Aaron's strong desire to snuggle at the end of a day, no matter how the day went
People that love my kids
Sharing my beliefs with those I love and having them understand
Celebrating the successes and good fortune of friends and family members
Honesty
Memories of my mom

That is enough for now.

Funny Things

Funny things that have been said in our house as of late.

Jacob in the tub holding his smallest stacking cup. "Okay, Dad you can either rinse my hair with this or I'm getting out of here immediately. You choose."

Catherine very concerned after Joe fell off the roof. "Dad, I can get you a hoveround" For those of you who don't know this is a mobility chair that, according to the commercial, can be obtained at little or no cost by those on Medicare.

Jacob out of blue one day at lunch, "Mom, I want you to have customized car insurance." (no my kids don't watch too much tv!)

And my favorite of the week..........

Aaron, sincerely, but without much emotion. "Catherine, no offense, but you smell like goat."

That makes me laugh just writing. They had just come from the petting zoo and were sitting together in the back of the van.

The Park

I took some pictures of the new park, but they just don't do it justice (and well it is two weeks before the conference for work so I'm not really dealing with pictures this week) But I do want to tell everyone that the park is really coming along. The walking path is completely finished. The baseball fields have all the metal poles up and the fencing is being put in. I think they will finish the fencing this week. The parking lot is finished and there are several nice retaining walls. It looks like the grading has been done, so I hope they will get grass seed in this fall. Today Aaron and his friend had a blast throwing dirt clods at each other. I think his arm will be sore tomorrow. I can wait for playground equipment. It is so fun to have such a great place within walking distance. I grew up with the whole woods around my house as a playground. We would come home drop off our books and not be back until we heard the dinner bell ring. That bell was so cool. It was a large bell on a pole like a telephone poll with a long rope coming down. We could hear it for over 1/2 a mile around. I think in a few years it will be that way with my kids and the park. Though they listen for Joe's whistle. It is deafening if you are too close and they can hear it three blocks away. The kids hear that whistle and come running home at top speed. Unfortunately, he is more mobile than the dinner bell and not always here.................he does dishes though.