Onward and Forward

Well, I suppose that our Christmas letter has been up long enough.  I didn't want it to get buried under other posts, so I took a break from the blog for a bit.  I'm not sure if anyone is still out there, but here goes!

Our trip to Washington DC was a great success, in spite of the Blizzard of 2009, as the media was calling it, which blew in a day after we did.  Wow!  I'm not sure what the technical definition of a blizzard is, but 24 inches of snow in 36 hours has to be pretty close.  I honestly don't think I've seen snow like that (other than in the mountains when we were skiing) since I was a kid.

In retrospect, the best things that we took with us were our snow boots and long underwear.  One notable exception to the snow boots was Elijah.  I looked in about seven different stores for boots for him before we left, to absolutely no avail.  What's up with that?!?!  How can I not find SNOW BOOTS in ILLINOIS in DECEMBER?  Elijah had a new pair of tennis shoes, which were fortunately fairly waterproof, but it wasn't great as we were wandering about the city in the aforementioned  24 inches of snow!

Here are a couple photos from Saturday, 19 December, the day that the storm blew in...

...and a couple of the aftermath.

It was really something!  I am awfully glad that we didn't have a car while there.  My brother, sister-in-law, and dad actually drove into this mess on Saturday.  They had some tales to tell when they finally arrived after 14 hours on the road, ending a drive that was supposed to take ten!  We were beyond relieved that they actually made it.

The reason we all descended on Washington DC at Christmastime is that my other brother, Thad, was graduating from basic Special Agent training for the Diplomatic Service.  He is now a part of the government agency that provides personal protection for the Secretary of State's office.  It's sort of like the Secret Service, except Hillary Clinton and diplomats here and abroad are the ones being protected, instead of the President.  The Diplomatic Service also investigates passport and visa irregularities and fraud.  He moved to New Jersey on December 23 for his first assignment in New York City, which is definitely on our future list of vacation destinations.  This job will eventually take him all over the world. 

Maybe we'll just follow him around.

As I am the only one who had ever before visited Washington DC, we decided to make a vacation of it.  Because Zech, Alyse, and my dad were coming too, we also decided just to celebrate Hoyt family Christmas at Thad's apartment while we were at it.  It ended up being a great time, in spite of the storm, and I'll tell you all about it in upcoming blogs!  (Hey, it almost feels like old blogging times...I have an interesting trip to tell you about!)

Anyway, I hope you all had a great Christmas.  It felt as if we squeezed ours in between trips this year, but it was a great family time.  That will probably be featured in an upcoming blog, as well!

Talk to you soon!

Wilkes Family 2009 Christmas Letter

I've decided to make our Christmas cards a little greener this year!  Instead of printing off multiple copies of our yearly Christmas letter, I decided to put the address of our blog on the card and let people catch up this way.  We'll see how it goes!  Leave me a comment if you stop by and read it!

***

Dear Friends and Family,

I hope that the holiday season finds you all healthy, happy, and surrounded by those you love best!

We have had an eventful year.  Two pieces of news vied for the title of "Most Exciting," but this one clearly came back the winner: we are expecting an addition to our family around 13 April 2010!  A second little boy will be joining our family!  This was rather unexpected but definitely not unwelcome, and we find ourselves frantically trying to prepare our home for a new baby.  After all, it's been seven years since our last one.  It's a good thing we have five more months!

The second piece of news is that we are, indeed, back in the United States.  We repatriated from France at the end of July and moved back into our old house in the Peoria area.  We had rented the house while overseas, and our tenants' lease was up at the end of June, so things worked out nicely.  We were sorry to leave France, but we are grateful that Jeff still has his job at Caterpillar, and it has been wonderful reconnecting with friends, old and new.

In 2009, we were able to take trips to London, Stratford-upon-Avon, Bath, and Stonehenge in February; to Northern France, Germany, Southern France, and Venice, Italy, when Jeff's parents visited us in May; to two different places in Provence in June; and to England's Lake District and Ireland in July right before we repatriated.If you are interested in our adventures abroad during the first half of the year, please hop over to the blog I kept while there: www.chezwilkes.wordpress.com .

Jeff went back to his old job at Caterpillar upon returning to the States.  When we first arrived, he was not traveling much, but that changed as the economy appeared to be slightly improving.  He spent two weeks in November back in France and then a few days in Georgia when he got back.  We imagine that his travel schedule will pick up after the first of the year, but he should be home through Christmas.  In his spare time, he bikes and reads and tries to finish up our basement renovation, which should eventually result in two new bedrooms for Charlotte and Elijah, a media room, and a new playroom.  Whew!

Heatharlyne had a pretty rough time of it during the first trimester of this pregnancy but is now doing much better!  She took advantage of the kids' being in school in France to ramp up her running, which culminated in a half marathon in Annecy, France, this past April.  She has continued to run thus far into her pregnancy but definitely not as far or as fast.  She is back to homeschooling the kids this year and enjoys reading and digital scrapbooking in her spare time.  She also is participating in the prayer ministry at Richwoods Christian Church this year.

Charlotte and Elijah have had quite a year.  Both came back from France fluent in French, which is an amazing accomplishment, as far as I am concerned.  They are both taking French lessons with two other children who also lived in France in an effort to keep up their language skills.  Charlotte participated in rock climbing, and Elijah studied fencing in France, neither of which I think they would have or could have done easily here in Central Illinois.  I think they were sadder then we were to repatriate, but both have adjusted nicely.

Charlotte continues to be our child who wants to try everything!  She is currently studying tae kwon do, taking piano lessons, and playing basketball in a local league.  She also had a leading role in the church kids' Christmas play and still reads voraciously.  I think she would be doing a bunch of other stuff too, if Mom were willing to lug her around.  She is beyond excited about her new baby brother and is sure to be a huge help when he arrives.  She made the decision to be baptized in the summer of 2008; somehow, that missed last year's Christmas letter, but we wanted to share it with you anyway!

Elijah is still our go-to kid for a good laugh.  He is also studying tae kwon do, which he finds to be plenty of sports for the time being.  He is also playing piano and making great progress.  He had a small role in the Christmas play at church and absolutely loves computer and video games.  Since he can only play them on the weekends, he spends much of his free time building Star Wars creations with his Legos and reading up on James Bond.  He is, as always, a joy to be around.

This past year has been a whirlwind, but we can definitely see God's provision in all that has happened.  Here's to looking forward to what 2010 will bring!

Merry Christmas!

Love,

Jeff, Heatharlyne, Charlotte, and Elijah

Stupid Pregnant Tricks

I'd forgotten how many brain cells that being pregnant kills.

I remember the increased clumsiness and have taken care to hold on to banisters and to watch the road carefully when I run.  But how does one guard against swinging around and knocking things over?  So far, it's just been water glasses and non-breakables, but I'm waiting for the day I get too close to the lit Advent candles...or set a water glass too close to the laptop...or elbow my kids hard in the head.

Oh, wait.  I've already done that last one.

So, the kicker (at least I hope it's the kicker) was last night.  I plugged in our deep fryer to make some french fries.  Our deep fryer has a soft plastic lid that is supposed to be removed before I plug it in.

The oil heated up, I dumped in some fries, and I waited a few minutes.  Then, I fished out the fries, along with some very disgusting-looking, black, stringy stuff.  "What's this?" I asked Jeff.

Yep.  I had forgotten to remove the soft plastic lid, and it had completely melted into the hot oil.  What makes this doubly funny (or not) is that this is the second deep fryer I've destroyed.  In France, I neglected to run our American one through a transformer and blew it up.

Jeff, to his credit, said nothing.  He didn't even roll his eyes or shake his head.

"I guess we'll have potato chips for supper,"I said.

Sigh.

Play Ball!

After our breakfast with Santa on Saturday, Charlotte had her very first basketball game.  She is playing in a small, local, in-house league that consists of four teams of third- and fourth-grade girls, two from here in Germantown Hills and two from up the road in Metamora.

I am completely new the whole basketball thing.  My brothers played in high school, I've been to a fair number of games, and I understand the basic rules.  But when it comes to strategy, techniques, or any of that mess, I'm clueless.  Jeff played junior high and intramural ball in college and is a huge help to Charlotte, but, as he's been out of town for her last several practices, she was pretty much dependent on the little bit of practice she got at practice...which isn't very  much!

I found the whole first game just short of hilarious.  I think that there are two girls on Charlotte's team who have played before; they are twins, believe it or not, and very aggressive.  One can even shoot well.  And the rest of the girls?  Well, they are beginners and pretty much don't have much of a clue!  They all seemed to have a pretty good time, but there was much aimless meandering, crazy ball throwing, and enthusiastic running up and down the court.

Charlotte exhibited nearly every nervous tic she has...she chewed her hair, and her eyes blinked fast and furiously.  I can only imagine how nerve-wracking it must be to play a game in front of a bunch of people when you don't really know what you're doing!  But she did well, especially for a first game.  By the second or third quarter (after a quick pep talk from Daddy), she was getting the hang of guarding her player and getting back down the court when the ball changed hands.  I think that a few more practices and games will do wonders for her.

After four, six-minute quarters, the final score was 12 to 10, with Charlotte's team in blue coming out on top.  She was quite pleased with her first competitive basketball experience!  And she is determined that, next time, she is going to score some points herself!  Charlotte is number 34.

Go, Team!

Breakfast with Santa

In past years, we did what a million other people do.  We picked what we hoped would be a quiet week night, headed to the mall, and let the kids visit with Santa Claus.  Jeff and I then usually ended up paying an exorbitant amount for one photo of the kids with Santa and left the mall feeling slightly grumpy.

We were able to forego this joyous event last year because we were in France until there was no quiet week night to take the kids to the mall, and Pere Noel doesn't meet with individual children there.  Although it must have been weird, we told the kids that they would just have to trust that Santa would know what they wanted and that he would know to bring it to France by December 13, our chosen date for celebrating our family Christmas!

Anyway, as we are back in the States this year, Jeff and I decided that we needed to figure out a good way to see Santa, hopefully one that would leave us less grumpy.  (How DO you get that information about when Santa will be at the local farm co-op?!)  Luckily for us, our little village has a Junior Women's Association that has hosted "Breakfast with Santa" for the past 37 years.  For a small fee, we could eat breakfast, get a photo with Santa with virtually no wait, and the kids could spend any remaining time making a variety of Christmas crafts and playing several fun Christmas-themed games.

Sold!  We were there! 

I bought an extra ticket for my dad on Friday, and, bright and early, we headed to the Germantown Hills Middle School for a date with Santa Claus.  The doors opened at 8:45, and the kids saw Santa on a first-come, first-served basis, their time denoted by stamps on our tickets.  As Charlotte had her very first basketball game at 11:00, we wanted to get there as early as possible so that we could see Santa before we had to leave.  We ended up being the third family in line, so no worries!

This event turned out to be a lot of fun and a very low-stress way to visit with the big guy.  We entered the gym, hung up our coats, and had a couple of minutes to check out the many raffle prizes (this event is a big fundraiser for this organization) before the music started, and Santa entered the building.  Our kids were standing in his path as he made his way to his chair, and both got to hug him even before they visited with him.

As Santa sat down, we hopped in line and were the third group to see him.  Here are the kids with Santa.

 

After the kids told him what they wanted, Santa apparently informed them that he NEVER promises gifts to kids.  But if they read a lot a books and were good boys and girls and helped a lot around the house, MAYBE he would bring what they wanted.

Pretty darn clever of Santa, huh?!  My type of guy.

After Santa, we got in line to get breakfast, which was a donut or bagel and a beverage. 

Then, we were off to the room where the make-and-take crafts and games were, where the kids each made a dough Christmas ornament and played until it was time to leave.

 

We left about 10:30, in just enough time to run back to the house to get some water for Charlotte's basketball game, which I will tell you about in another post.

And here's one more bittersweet end note to the whole Santa thing.  We were sitting at Sam's Club that evening, eating a rather nasty supper before shopping, and the kids proceeded to inform us that neither one really believed in Santa anymore!  Charlotte, our logical child, had a whole laundry list of reasons why Santa didn't make sense and why she thought it was a better bet to just ask us for things for Christmas.  I didn't say anything but glanced rather anxiously at Elijah to see if this was in any way traumatic for him.

No worries.  Elijah said, with a perfectly straight face, "I haven't believed in Santa since I was five."  (Seven is evidently ancient to believe such things.)  "Plus," he continued, "reindeer can't fly.  And even if they could fly, there's no way they could carry that many toys all over the world."  Later on, he told his dad by way of comfort, I suppose, "I'll probably tell my kids about Santa someday, too."

In a way, this whole conversation was hilarious.  In another way, it was kind of sad.  It just doesn't take long for kids to grow up!  I can vaguely console myself with the fact that we will have one more to tell about Santa for a few years, but I think that the days of Charlotte and Elijah believing have come to an end.

Time marches on...

Not Even a Mouse

Well, this past weekend was full and busy for the Wilkes family!  On Friday morning, my dad came over from Michigan to spend the night because Charlotte, Elijah, and I were all participating in our church's children's Christmas program.

A talented lady in our church, Melissa Anderson, wrote and directed an adorable play called "Not Even a Mouse."  It told the story of a little modern-day church mouse, fascinated with Jesus, who learned that her twin mouse relatives had  witnessed Jesus's birth because they had lived in Mary's home when the angel visited her and had stowed away in the donkey's saddlebag when Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem. These two mice meet the animals who were in the stable when Jesus was born in Bethlehem.  There were also mice who lived with the shepherds and stowed away with the wise men.  The play was complete with an angel choir who sang perennial favorites like "Joy to the World" and "Silent Night" and a preschool choir who sang "Away in the Manger."  A few girls also had solos and sang some newer Christmas songs like "What a Strange Way to Save the World" and "One Small Child."

The play was clever, funny, and about the cutest thing I've ever seen.  I accompanied the two choirs during their numbers; Elijah was one of the modern mice, brother to the little mouse who wanted to learn more about Jesus.  He got to whine and yell his two lines and then sit backstage and read a book for the duration of the play.  During the actual play, the video monitors were on backstage, so he got to watch the rest of it.  He had a ball.

  

Charlotte was Anna, one of the twin mice who lived with Mary.  She had one of the two biggest parts in the play, and wow...I know I'm a bit biased, but she did a great job!  She had some massively long chunks of dialogue to learn, and she nailed every single line.  We are awfully proud of her!  For such a reserved child, she really blossomed up on the stage.  It was a sight to behold.

 

Here are some more photos of the big night.

 

What a great night!

Another Year Better

Yep...Jeff celebrated another birthday yesterday!  He is still jet lagged pretty badly and had to leave for Georgia this morning for a couple of days, but we did manage to squeeze in a celebration.

Jeff got home from work around 4:30, and the kids were quick to haul out their specially-picked out gifts.  Of course, as we had been out of town all of the previous week, they were specially picked out on Sunday afternoon after church at Walmart!

Elijah found Daddy a cool green shirt...

...and Charlotte picked out a couple of accessories for his bike, a water bottle holder and a lock.

After gifts, we headed into Peoria to meet some friends, the Pughs, for supper at the Kobe Steakhouse of Japan.  The Pughs were in our small group before we moved to France, and Saundi shares a birthday with Jeff!  So she asked yesterday at church if we wanted to meet for supper somewhere to celebrate.  As a Japanese steakhouse is a special-occasion sort of place, we settled on there.

Eating at Kobe was a hoot.  The eight of us sat around our own personal grill while the chef whipped up our food, complete with broccoli tossed into mouths, sake squirted all around, and an egg flipped up into his tall hat.  Of course, there were the requisite flames shooting four feet into the air, which terrified Charlotte and Ryann.  Here they are crouched against the wall, as if the flames were going to shoot out and engulf them!

Elijah was completely delighted by the whole show.  "You are so cool!" he proclaimed to our chef.

After supper, we came home and had a mint cream pie that I had purchased from one of the kids' tae kwon do classmates.  His school was having a fundraiser, and, when I bought them, I still thought I would be celebrating Thanksgiving at home.  I had somehow forgotten candles in the midst of this past week's madness, but we sang "Happy Birthday" and dug in anyway!

All in all, not a bad birthday celebration!

This morning, Jeff flew to Georgia for a two-night business trip.  He snapped this photo of my tummy before he left.  I always try to include a couple of these in my kids' baby books, but this was the first one we've managed to take of this new little one!  We're halfway there!

 

Have a good one.

Thanksgiving

Well, this Thanksgiving was definitely not what I was expecting.

The Original Plan...

The kids and I were going to leave for Michigan on Tuesday after lunch to spend the next few days with relatives from my side of the family.  On Wednesday, we were going to catch up with my mom and see "A Christmas Carol," and, on Thursday, we were going to spend the day with my brother and sister-in-law at my Uncle Bill and Aunt Dorothy's home.  I grew up going to there for Thanksgiving, and it was like a scene out of Norman Rockwell.

Uncle Bill and Aunt Dorothy also have seven children, none of whom I have seen since well before we moved to France.  Several would surely have been there for the holiday.  All in all, I was very much looking forward to spending some time catching up with all of them.

On Friday, I was to drive back home, as I was registered to run a four-mile race on Saturday morning and as Jeff would be arriving after two weeks in France on Saturday evening.

The Actual Holiday...

On Tuesday morning, I received two emails that our good friend Lissy Edmondson from our former small group in Tennessee had won her victory over cancer and gone home to her Lord on Monday evening. 

Immediately, our whole next five days shifted.  While we haven't seen Joel and Lissy much in the seven years since we moved from Tennessee, they and other members of that small group were a big part of our lives when we lived there.  Joel and Lissy lived one street over from us and kept Charlotte when we went to the hospital to deliver Elijah.  If at all possible, I wanted us to be at that funeral.

After multiple phone calls, I ascertained that the visitation and funeral would be on Friday and Saturday; called my brother, mom, and dad to let them know that we would NOT be coming to Michigan; found Jeff a ride home from the airport; and called Jeff's parents to see if they were open to having three additional visitors for Thanksgiving.

After lunch on Tuesday, instead of driving four hours to Michigan, we drove seven-and-a-half hours to West Tennessee.  We ate our first Thanksgiving dinner with Jeff's parents on Wednesday and then a second one on Thursday at the home of Jeff's brother and sister-in-law.

On Friday, we left after breakfast and headed to Murfreesboro, a two-and-a-half-hour drive.  We ate lunch and spent the afternoon with one of my oldest friends in Tennessee; Gina and I taught together at Middle Tennessee Christian School back before either one of us had kids.  Gina's kids are now 12 and 9...where does the time go?!

Gina kept Charlotte and Elijah while I went to the visitation that evening.  (They were very resistant to the idea of going; I think that the earlier visitation for our friend in Peoria kind of freaked them out.)  The funeral was the next morning at 10:30 at the church we attended when we lived there; we then went to the cemetery and to the luncheon provided for family and friends afterwards.

By 1:15, we had said our final goodbyes and hit the road for Illinois.  Jeff was due in at 6:00 that evening, and we were all eager to see him.  Although the drive home was long and tedious, we arrived around 9:30, about three hours behind Jeff.

I know that this account is long on bald facts and short on details, but, honestly, I've had a difficult time processing these past few days.  While Kim's death was difficult for me, Lissy's was devastating.  Lissy was, quite simply, one of the best people I have had the privilege of knowing.  She was kind, compassionate, funny, and had a smile that lit up any room she entered.  As with Kim, I struggle to understand why this illness had to strike her, had to take her.

Her husband and boys are holding up remarkably well.  Joel will tell you that it's because he has wanted nothing, needed nothing, during this whole horrible process...Lissy's diagnosis, her grueling treatment, her decline, and eventually her death.  They were able to live every moment to the fullest before they lost her, constantly buoyed by the prayer and physical support of their small group and church family.  Lissy was surrounded by friends who were praying for her when she drew her final breath on this earth. 

Her funeral was incredibly sad, but it was also incredibly hopeful.  As Joel shared with the man who spoke at Lissy's funeral, "Cancer closed her eyes here on earth, but Jesus will open them in heaven."  Lissy believed that, and I know that we will see her again.

But it's very, very hard to say goodbye.

What else can I say?  It was wonderful to see friends that we haven't seen in several years, to reconnect with people that were a very big part of our lives at one time.  Our kids loved spending time with Gina's kids and have some wonderful memories of our different-than-expected Thanksgiving.  I'm glad that circumstances were such that we could be there.

And the biggest thing I brought away with me?  I want to live my life every day so that I could die tomorrow and not regret a thing.  Lissy managed to do this; of course, she was sad to leave her husband and boys, but I think she knew that they would be taken care of, just as she had been as she ended her life. 

I think this is a pretty good way to approach life...and death.

One Week Down

Well, we started our Advent candles tonight.  Yes, I realize it's a week too early, but our calendar for December is a little nuts.  We will be out of town for one Sunday altogether, and that will mess up our candle lighting.  Ergo, we lit our first one tonight.

I think that we do ours a bit differently than I've seen some done.  We light three purple candles, one pink candle, and one white candle in the weeks leading up to Christmas.  Tonight's candle, a purple one, represents Jesus as the Light of the World.

Aesthetically speaking, I also like the looks of the stair-stepped candles when they are lit and burned at the appropriate intervals!  We light a candle each Sunday and then burn it at supper each night that week, culminating with the white candle lit on Christmas Eve.  Our Advent candles really help me start feeling celebratory, as they are usually our first step toward Christmas.

Jeff has been in France for just over a week.  So far, he's worked a lot, eaten at most of our favorite restaurants, reconnected with our friends at St. Marc's, and gone skiing.

Those of us here at home are trying, with varying levels of success, not to be TOO jealous!

Around here, we've pretty much filled our time with make-up tae kwon do lessons, doubled-up schoolwork so we can take this week off, and other activities designed to completely wear us out.  But we also managed a play date with friends with whom we've been trying to reconnect since we moved back...fantastic!  My friend Kathy Hunt has four boys, the youngest of whom is about five months old.  I've decided that, if I can have a baby boy as calm as James Hunt, I might just survive our new little boy!  Charlotte and Elijah had a terrific time playing with her older three boys, who are Elijah's age, six, and three.  Too much fun!

I also had the opportunity to attend the National Missionary Convention on Thursday evening, held at the Peoria Civic Center.  A couple of members of our small group went to serve, as our church was one of the host churches for the convention.  We ended up helping take up the offering at the end of the worship service, but, in the meantime, we had the privilege of listening to Jitendra (Jay) Henry, who was born, raised, and has served as a missionary in India since 1969.  His story of seeing God move in a dangerous place with persecution around every corner made me think about just how easy I have it and how much I take for granted being able to freely walk into our church each Sunday.  Wow.

Well, I hope that you all are looking forward to spending time with your families this holiday week!  The kids and I will likely be heading to Michigan to spend a few days with my family before returning here to pick Jeff up on Saturday. 

If I don't blog again before we go, have a safe and blessed Thanksgiving!

Saying Goodbye

The kids' tae kwon do belt test was only the first of several activities this past Saturday.  The rest were not nearly so much fun, though!

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, an acquaintance and fellow homeschooling mom from church lost her battle with cancer a week ago today.  While she and I were not friends, we had many connections.  Her husband is our kids' pediatrician and is one of the kindest doctors I have ever met.  Kim taught Charlotte in the children's church program at Richwoods back when we lived here before and was very involved in the homeschooling community here in the Peoria area.

Her services were this past Saturday, so we stopped by for the visitation.  There were many, many people there, a great testament to her impact during her too-short 39 years on this side of heaven.  There were photo albums from her wedding and of her children, and several handwritten notes from her sons graced her coffin.

It was unbearably sad. 

I haven't been to many funerals of people my age, maybe a handful.  I don't think that anything else makes me question the fairness of life and God's sovereign plan more something like this, though.  It just seems so unfair that a woman in the prime of her life with a husband and three young sons who need her would be taken away.  Given that Kim was more of an acquaintance than a friend, I honestly don't know what I'll do when I'm facing this situation with someone to whom I am or was close.

That being said, I have to still believe that God is sovereign and that He does have a plan bigger than I am.  Kim is healed now, and she wouldn't trade where she is.  But I don't think this makes it any easier, at least in the short term.

After the visitation, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and then ran Jeff out to the Peoria airport.  He left Saturday afternoon for two weeks in Grenoble, our old French stomping grounds.  I must say that I'm a bit jealous!

I did price tickets, but with school and our other responsibilities here and how much it would have cost, going with him wasn't in the cards this time.  So he'll have to have fun for all of us.  He's got a list of places he has to eat and, of course, of things we'd like him to bring back.  (French Christmas candy, anyone?!)

But quite frankly, we've really gotten used to him being around all the time, so I'm happy for him but not so happy for me.  Sigh.

After dropping Jeff off, we had to hustle to church for Christmas play practice.  Charlotte has one of the lead parts, Elijah has a bit part, and I'm halfway in charge of the angel choir, with my friend Robin.  Since she attended Kim's funeral, I was actually all the way in charge Saturday, which was interesting!

But the "angels" have worked hard to learn the music, so it was fun.  For the actual show, I will be playing the piano while Robin directs the angels.  It's coming together nicely.

I ended up going to bed at 9:15 that night and sleeping for nine hours.  Hopefully, that will be the last day like that for awhile!

Talk to you soon!

"Martialing" the Forces

So, I signed the kids up for tae kwon do back in August.  To say I did not know what we were in for is a massive understatement.

As you may  know from reading my French blog, Elijah participated in fencing when we lived in France.  Believe it or not, Peoria has a fencing academy; furthermore, the the Peoria Park District offers summer courses in fencing.  So, I considered signing him up again here.  But the fencing academy is a good 25-minute drive from here if the traffic is good and the lights cooperate.  And the Park District classes seemed pretty rinky-dink.  I mean, how much fencing can you learn in six sessions?  Plus, we'd have to drive to Peoria for those, too.

Since we've moved back and especially since we found out about the baby, I've made a marked effort to stay closer to home.  Our dentist and hairdresser used to be 25-minute drives away in Peoria.  Now, they are both up the road in Metamora, a five-minute drive.  I've kept our pediatrician and my obstetrician because it only takes about fifteen minutes to get to them, and they already have our medical histories, but I've cut my trips to Walmart back to maybe twice a month, opting instead to buy milk, fresh vegetables, and pressing items at the local grocery, which I can almost see from our house.

With these gas-guzzling non-diesel engines, I'm trying to stay local!

So, when I was trying to figure out what activity Elijah might enjoy for the fall, I remembered that there was a tae kwon do academy right across the highway in Germantown Hills.  Furthermore, the owners are Christians and frequently offer homeschool classes earlier in the day for those who were interested.  I don't know much about martial arts, but I do know that self-discipline and hard work are two major tenets.  So asked Elijah what he thought about learning tae kwon do, and he was very enthusiastic.

Back to August...I called Rhonda Kurtz, who runs the academy with her husband Pete (aka Master Kurtz), and arranged to bring Elijah to a free try-out class.  Charlotte heard me making the arrangements and asked if she could try out tae kwon do, too.

Why not?

We went to the try-out class, and the rest is history.  Charlotte LOVED it, opting to do tae kwon do instead of soccer this fall.  Elijah was more excited about this than he was about fencing.  We left the try-out class with two uniforms, two white belts, and a schedule for coming back. 

Since then, the kids have jumped into the whole martial-arts thing with amazing aptitude and enthusiasm.  They have two classes per week and one private lesson a month.  They have moved up two belt levels, earning their yellow belts and official "martial artist" status at the end of September and their orange belts this past Saturday.  I understand that they will slow down a bit now, but man!  Between testing fees, hand gear, and the myriad other miscellaneous expenses, I'm ready for a break in buying stuff for tae kwon do! 

Although, I must say, it has definitely been worth it.  The Kurtzes also emphasize life skills and require that the kids do "extra credit" at home in order to earn certain leadership responsibilities and awards in class.  For their first extra credit sheets, Mrs. Kurtz recommended that the kids learn to answer us with a prompt and loud "Yes, Ma'am!" and "No, Sir!"  (I realize for you Southern parents, this would be a bit redundant, but not so here in the North.  It is HIGHLY unusual for children to answer adults this way; it's frequently seen as smart alecky or disrespectful.)  So now our kids answer us this way because they want to earn their class incentives.

Here are a few photos from their white belt test...

 

...and from their yellow belt test on Saturday.

 

I find this amazing, and we surely are proud of both of them!

Splash Down

Jeff and the kids absolutely loved the Wisconsin Dells.  As I am pregnant, I did a lot of reading and watching others have fun, but I did get a few rounds on the Lazy River!  And just being away from home and not cooking for a weekend more than sufficed for my enjoyment!

For those of you unfamiliar with this particular resort town, the Dells boast water parks, and lots of 'em.  They are completely self-contained, with hotels and restaurants on-site.  With covered walkways connecting all of the different hotels with all of the different water parks, you don't even have to go outside for the duration if you don't want to.

We stayed at a resort called the Wilderness.  It boasted three hotels, three indoor water parks, nine restaurants, at least two arcades, laser tag, and black-light, 3D, indoor mini golf.  I can honestly say there was more to do here that could be comfortably done in a weekend, but we gave it a good try.

My friend Robin, with whose family our family went to the Dells, made the reservation and found an AMAZING deal on eBay for a two-bedroom, two-bathroom suite with a full kitchen, dining room, living room, and terrace.  Admission to the water parks was included in the cost of the accommodations.  This ended up being an affordable, relaxing weekend away.

Robin, I, and our four kids left Friday morning and arrived mid-afternoon.  After dropping our stuff in rooms, we headed straight for the water parks, where we played until the dads arrived around 7:00.

 

 

As Mike and Jeff were both weary when they arrived (after all, they had to work all day!), and none of us really felt like going out, we ordered in Italian from a nearby restaurant called Sarento's.  We had coupons from when we checked in and ended up getting over $20 off our order!  Not too bad, and the food was delicious.  Afterwards, we played a game called Apples to Apples...pretty fun, especially with four kids who are probably too young to understand sarcasm and over-cleverness!  Charlotte, our most literal child, somehow managed to win.  Huh.

Saturday was completely devoted to the water parks.  Each one had at least one big slide; one had a wave pool; and one had a Lazy River.  I think that we visited all three before we were done that day.  We took a break midday to eat some sandwiches and leftovers in the room, and the men and kids even headed out AFTER supper to close the parks down.

We ate supper that evening at a great nearby restaurant called Monk's.  Wisconsin cheese curds, nachos, soup, sandwiches...we all ate way too much food, but you couldn't beat the atmosphere!

On Sunday, the Wilkes family had about half a day left to enjoy the resort, as Jeff and I had to be back for a church marriage mentoring training program that evening in Peoria.  So that day was dedicated to the dry parks, as the Wilderness called them.

We started our day at a fantastic breakfast buffet in one of the other on-site hotels.  For every adult buffet purchased, a child got to eat for free, so this was not a bad deal.  This buffet had everything you could possibly want for breakfast; in fact, I don't think I've ever before seen one quite this comprehensive.  Fruit, cereal, pastries, a scrambled egg bar, French toast, waffles, pancakes, bagels, oatmeal, even pancakes on a stick and sausage egg biscuits.  We all rolled out of there nearly sick, but with our mission accomplished...we wouldn't need to stop for lunch that afternoon!

The Wilderness offered a pass for $12 that included two miniature golf games, bumper boats, laser tag, $2 dollars in arcade credits, and $1 off ice cream at a Cold Stone Creamery-style place.  We spent Sunday, until nearly 1:30, getting everything checked off on our passes.  (We actually bought three; Jeff and I split the mini-golf games and the ice cream!)

 

Whew!  Lots of fun!  The drive back home was just over four hours, so we had to hustle to grab the kids supper (the ice cream ended up being lunch), drop them at the babysitter's, and then get to our 6:30 training class.  But we made it, and it was a great weekend.

As a freaky side note to this trip...I saw 12 dead deer on the trip up and back, 10 of them on the side of the interstate, obviously hit by cars.  Another had been shot and was the back of someone's trailer.  The other was one that Mike Fiedler, with whom I run most Saturdays, and I saw during an early morning jog around the resort.  She had been hit and severely injured by a car, too, and a police officer was called out to euthanize her.  So that was lovely...hurt deer on our first lap, comatose deer on our second lap, shot dead deer on our third.  Ick.

I kept waiting for one to jump out in front of us.  The problem is that bad up here.  The local paper ran a front-page article about it after a deer was hit in town!  (We have driven by the corpse on our trips in and out of town all weekend.  Road kill is not being cleaned up here because the money has run out for such things.  Where's that stimulus money when you need it?!)  According to the paper, because of all the rain, the farmers haven't gotten the crops in as early as usual, and, as there is plenty of food for the deer, the population is not decreasing.  Bow season for deer started October 1, but gun season doesn't open until November 20.  Maybe we and our cars will make through then!

Anyway...our weekend in the Dells was good.  Next time, I'll tell you about this past weekend:  a tae kwon do belt test, a very sad funeral visitation, and a departure.

Hope your weekend has been good!