Today I am a political activist

Tuesday I had the opportunity to attend a Democrat policial rally on campus. The governor, U.S. senator, congressman, and several others were there. There was music, accusations, belittling of undecided voters, belittling of conservative people, and some more music.

Wednesday I got to attend the Republican rally complete with Sarah Palin, and country music star--Aaron Tippen! It was very exciting--better music, more detailed accusations, support of undecided voters, and liberal people. There were campaign promises that made sense and--to my pleasant surprise--a realy positive atmosphere. Not at all what the media in this "swing" state would have the general public believe.

I thought you might like to see some pictures I took at the Republican rally. There were about 6000 people there. The Democratic rally had about 50 people in attendance and would not allow cameras except from the media.

My pictures aren't that great--I really have to get a tri-pod! But "Joe the Plummer" was there. People are starting a grass roots idea and wear these t-shirts to the event--"Steve the Farmer", "Dave the Excavator"

Gary recently pranked a neighbor by -placing some hi-jacked Obama signs on their yard (They

are pro-Republican). We subsequently found out that Obama signs require a $10.00 campaign contribution. I decided to go get Gary a McCain sign--I figured $10.00 wouldn't kill me and he would think it was cool.

------McCain signs are free---as are all other Republican yard signs.

Marching Band--Freezing Mom!

Tonight I finally got to see Brandon march and play in the football game. It was a hoot! He is soooo handsome in his uniform and they all play so well. I love marching band music anyway but hearing my son play it was AWESOME!

It rained here all day long and stopped from about 5 to 7:30 pm. It started raining at kick off and rained hard all through the first half of the game. The kids got soaked! It is warm when it is raining but when it stopped, it got so so so cold. Luckily I had dressed in lots of layers so I was ok. Unfortunately I haven't unpacked my snow boots or coat yet so I was pretty miserable towards the end. The game didn't get over until 10:45 pm because we injured two of their players bad enough to send both to the hospital--one in the ambulance and one by private vehicle. We aren't a dirty team, just really hard hitting! Even the opposing team said that we were about the cleanest team in the region.
We won 37 to 20 and it was one of the best high school games that I have seen in years--I do have to admit seeing my son march was probably why I liked it so much! :-)

This is one really great looking trumpet player!

FINALLY--The Chocolate Factory!

Today Brady finally got his GOLDEN TICKET.


After 2 and 1/2 months of patiently waiting, Brady finally got his trip to the Southbend Chocolate Factory! We took the back roads to get there and had a ball seeing all the Amish (actually, I am pretty sure they were Menonite) people with their buggies.

This was at an eye doctor clinic.

This was at an intersection we were stopped for the red lights.

This was behind a convenience store!

We took pictures of the buggies but weren't sure about pictures of the people. To avoid embarrassing ourselves we stuck to the cool buggies and pretty horses. It was soo00 fun to see them and be with them on the roads!

After almost three hours of driving, we finally arrived at the corner of Sweet St. and Sample St. The tour did not disappoint the little people in the group. We were all really interested in the cocoa bean husk flower bed mulch.

When it rains, or gets wet from sprinklers, it smells like chocolate! You can buy big bags of the stuff from the factory to put in your own flower beds at home. The tour guide bothered to mention that dogs LOVE to eat it! So did the squirrels.

There are a lot of squirrels here; black, brown, and gray--there were probably 20 working over the cocoa flower mulch pretty hard. Too bad I didn't manage to get a pic. of any of them.

Lexie's new friend MJ came with us today and she is the sweetest little girl. She and Lexie kept each other company on the long drive both ways.

MJ is concentrating on not dropping her spoon into the chocolate. I think (judging by her tongue sticking out) that she was really eager to eat the treat. They had to wait until it cooled!

They had a great time at the chocolate factory and afterward when we went to downtown Southbend and ate at the "Chocolate Cafe". It was across the street from the college football hall of fame. I still have to pinch myself sometimes to be sure I am really here. I am living in my vacation. :-)

They loved the hair covers and wore them most of the day, they even wore them in the car on the way home while they played "chocolate factory".

I tried out Gary's little point and click HP photosmart camera today. It takes video clips and I am so excited to be able to add that to the blog!

How do you get a 100 pound box of chocolate off of the wall and out of the store before anyone notices?

Lexie's first bus ride!

Ever since school started Lexie has been asking when she could ride the bus. I finally got ahold of the bus garage and filled out the proper paperwork (everything here requires the proper paperwork!) and they were off--or on!

Brady is not nearly as enthusiastic as Lexie is but they only ride to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He rides home every afternoon.
The first day, at the bus stop, Lexie put her hand on her hips and said, "Raise your hand if you are in Kindergarten". Two little girls shyly raised their hands. She said that when they got to school in the coat room she asked one "So, do you want to be friends"? The girl said yes. The other little girl got "all huffy" and asked Lexie why she wasn't invited to be her friend. Lexie said "Mom, I just told her "look, I am getting to you but if you are going to be all drama, then never mind"! " I asked Lexie what happened next and she reported that the huffy little one "got her attitude under control" and now all three are buddies!

Way to go Lexie! Too bad we all can't have that kind of confidence!

Alyssa had a soccer game on Sat. I missed the shot of her awesome steal (of course) and of her taking down the bully from the other team (yes, she got called for it). She didn't get a yellow card, but they did get a penalty kick. Her extremely type B coach is reported to have said "Great job Alyssa--it was a great play, don't worry about the call".

The house is coming along nicely. Gary is painting every day like a mad man and even consent

ed to let me have green in the front room. Hooray! The kids and I have moved about 1/2 of the little stuff and the basement is being organized as we go. I am so happy to finally have all my food storage up on shelves again. We hope to finish up this Sat.

From being homeless to having 2 homes!

1514 Cardinal; Bowling Green, OH 43402

Now we have a rental and a mortgage. We are such over achievers! We plan to be out of our rental and completely done with our protracted moving experience by October 8th. Wish us luck.


The house sits on a nice size lot. We are very happy about the size and shape of the back yard and plan to install a fence soon for Ginger. She met the lab next door last night. She and Cooper are about the same age and were instantly great friends.
Standing in the front doorway looking in the house.

Front room, just inside front door.
The main floor has a mud room (with enough room for the washer, dryer, freezer, and hooks for coats), a 1/2 bath, front room, kitchen, and rec. room. Can you see the two tile squares in the kitchen picture? I would really love to know which one you guys think I should choose. My new dishwasher and stove are stainless steel. Our family is pretty much divided about which would be best. Any thoughts?


Double click on this pic for a better look at the tile. You can also see into the front room in this pic. I am standing in the rec. room.

Rec room from the kitchen.

Well mom, as you can see I lied. There are actually 4 windows in the family room. I am hoping I can talk you into making two more sets of Americana Curtains. I will start looking for the fabric ASAP. What do you think? Gary and I are debating over which walls to paint red and which to do with CandleWax.

I want to do one wall 1/2 and 1/2 but I can't find good dividing/stopping points. Any help, please?

The girls room with Alyssa's new dresser.

Guess we need to do some serious wall washing!
Upstairs are the four bedrooms, a small linen closet, and the two full bathrooms. Here is Alyssa and Lexie's room. Yesterday we went to Furniture Row and bought Alyssa this dresser. I will post another shot of it when her room is done and the mirror is attached to it. It is stunning to see and we were very excited about the deal we got on it! I about crashed the other day when I saw the "Denver Mattress Company" truck drive through my neighborhood! I love their mattresses and furniture. It is in Toledo, easy to find (right by Sam's and Walmart--who would have ever guessed? :-)

Here is Brady and Brandon's rooms with views of the back yard from each of their windows.

Brady's room and view

Brady has the squares in his window too, I just managed to open his before I took the picture!

Brandon picked his room because it has a bigger closet and because of the mirror that says "Adio".

I forgot to get pictures of the unfinished basement but it has been recently painted white and has a few shelves and some pegboard. I will post those next week. I did get shots of the garage. I am going to copy my friend Michele's garage wall storage system for the bikes etc. She has a cool system and I found all the parts at my Home Depot here in town. Thanks Michele, now I don't have to try to figure that out on my own!

Front doorway looking into the mud room, and garage entrance.

I know this is a rather long post with lots of pictures, I hope you don't mind. I thought you might like to see as much of the house as I could show. It doesn't really do it justice but I will keep sending pics as we paint and etc.

Marblehead Lighthouse

I never though I would post twice in the same week, let alone twice in one day! After I did a little homework this a.m., we decided to go on an adventure to check out Lake Erie. What follows is a lot of amazing pictures from a really fun day! I hope you enjoy them.

We found the Marblehead Lighthouse, isn't it beautiful. The kids had a ball checking things out with the binoculars and climbing on the rocks.

Ginger went in Alyssa's place (Alyssa is still sick and had a ton too much homework). We missed Alyssa and had to rush home to show off all of our pictures.

He isn't really hanging off of a cliff, it just looks like it! :-)

This is a barge full of limestone being pushed by a tug boat. We watched it head all the way to the horizon!

About 2 miles from where we were is Cedar Point. The kids (Gary included) are chomping to go there very soon. My friend, Faith, from Roosevelt had mentioned it to me before we left. Cedar Point, come to find out, is the largest roller coaster amusement park in the WORLD! You read that correct and I am not exaggerating. These are the shots I got of it with my long zoom lens on my camera. Brady spent most of his time studying it, across the little inlet, with the binoculars.

We think these are some kind of fossils but we don't know what; there were no signs or restricted access of any kind. They were cool though!

As we were leaving Brandon saw this snake slither between two rocks. It is a terrible picture but I was a little unsure of species and temperment so I decided to take what I could get (which ended up with about the last 12" of his tail!

Any and all of these photos are worth double clicking on to enlarge. I hope you enjoy seeing them as much as I enjoyed taking them! Have a great week.