Morgan Run

We hiked and played at Morgan Run yesterday and I got to do two things I love. I spent some time outdoors with my favorite people enjoying God's incredible creativity, and I took some pictures.

Creative Chloe

Field Trip Fun

The countdown until the last day of school is on at my house. 24 more days, and three of those are half days. Hannah and Rachel are crossing off each day on their calendars and, as always, looking forward to summer. Chloe and I are looking forward to it too. We miss those two when they're at school, and can't wait for the break when we will be spending the summer days together.

Hannah's class visited the middle school last week. The first thing she told me about her visit there was that it had "really low ceilings." It was funny that she noticed this, because Lance said he recently read about a study that concluded that people are not as creative in buildings with low ceilings. She is one very creative kid, so maybe this won't effect her all that much! Hannah also toured Camden Yards, home of the Baltimore Orioles, and ate lunch in the Inner Harbor on a 5th grade trip this week. Rachel went with the 3rd grade to Goucher College to see a production of Ramona Quimby. Her next school trip will be to the zoo in DC.

I went hiking on the NCR Trail last Saturday morning with some friends. It was a great day to be out in a beautiful area. We hiked over 6 miles. It was so much fun to enjoy incredible scenery and weather and hang out with some great ladies. I'm looking forward to our next outing.

Those are a few recent happenings. What a busy time of year. Our calendar is full until school is out and summer begins, then we'll relax.

My Girls

They are the greatest. I love how well they play together and look out for each other. I found them hanging out on the hammock last night.

Crabs

Our girls have wanted hermit crabs for a while now. They are continually checking out the book Keeping Unusual Pets: Hermit Crabs from the library. They've read it so many times that they pretty much have it memorized. Saturday was the day. We went to PetsMart and invested in the crabitat, food, snacks, and other accessories. Then the girls picked out their crabs and named them - Shelly, Sunset, and Sasha.

We came home and got everything set up and were ready to let the crabs check out their new home. When moving them from the PetsMart container to the crabitat, Sasha (Chloe's crab) lost a leg. I don't think this is supposed to be life threatening for a crab, but Sasha didn't make it. Sunset (Rachel's) began waning today, and I think he/she (?) is gone too. Shelly (Hannah's crab) is looking good though. So, we're 1 for 3.

Party

After school yesterday, I took Hannah, Rachel and a few of Hannah's friends to The Pottery Loft. We had fun painting and decorating some pottery. Then we headed back home for pizza and cake. The girls watched High School Musical (again). And, they spent the night. Thank goodness for basements. Slumber parties are nice when the girls are in the basement and I sleep two floors above them! Really, all the girls were great, and they were asleep by about 12:45 (this time).

Middle School

Lance and I attended a parent orientation at the middle school last night. It is a big school and Hannah will soon be a little 6th grader there. This year they have 1,080 students enrolled. It was good to get a chance to hear the principal talk about how things are done there.

Hannah

Yesterday was Hannah's 11th birthday. After school, she opened her presents from family and chose to have one of her favorite meals for dinner - orange chicken with pork fried rice from Forbidden City. Her birthday party is Friday night.

In just a few short weeks Hannah will be graduating from 5th grade, and elementary school. She is such a joy. The first 11 years with her have been incredible.

Weekend 180 - Journey

130 students, 16 host homes, and 17 leaders were involved in Weekend 180 at LifePoint this year. It was a great weekend!

Saturday afternoon the girls and I hung out with everyone at Hashawa as the groups competed in a geocach hunt. Each team got a GPS and set out on the trails to find 10 way cards with info they needed to phone in to home base to decode a message. It was a beautiful day, and a lot of fun. The Saturday night and Sunday morning services were great times as well.

So now it's over, and Lance has crashed. He should be doing better by this afternoon.

13

Chloe and I dropped Lance off at the airport this morning. He'll be in Houston until Monday. He's flying down on Friday the 13th. His flight number is 113. His plan was to try to sit on row 13 (Southwest - no assigned seats). Wonder if that worked out?

We'll kick off the weekend here with pizza and movies with some friends tonight. I may spend tomorrow painting Chloe's room. I've been wanting to get that done for a while, and some friends offered to help. Now I just need to get motivated, and make a final decision on the color. Why is that always so hard?

Easter

Easter was cold here this year. We had a few snow showers and flurries Saturday and Sunday. We were busy with three Sunday morning services at 8:00, 9:30, and 11:00. The student ministry had a special Easter service at 9:30 and again at 11:00. After a great morning at church we ate lunch and spent the afternoon with friends.

Birthday

Chloe's 4th birthday was on Easter Sunday this year. It was a fun weekend.

She told me last week that she didn't like the number 4 and wanted to be 5 instead. She said was going to "skip 4." Now she has decided that wouldn't work out and she will just go ahead and be 4 for a while.

Easter Eggs

Girl Party

Lance flew to Tennessee yesterday. He'll be leading a high school group at a youth event for a friend's church in Chattanooga. He will be home Monday night, so the girls and I are on our own for a while. That means a girl party at our house. Our plans include: watching Happy Feet, lots of Cosby Show reruns, eating popcorn, dying Easter eggs, and hanging out with some friends.

Today Chloe and I went to Rachel's class to watch as they performed "Fractured Fairy Tales". Rachel played the part of the first elephant in "The Three Little Elephants." She was great. We also saw "The Cheetah and the Sloth" and "Goldilocks and the Three Bullfrogs."

Thanks, Chloe

Chloe was looking at some framed pictures in Lance's office yesterday while we were at church. She carried one over to us and asked if it was me. It was me - 1989; 17 years old; senior pictures; long, spiral permed hair. As she walked back across the office to place the photo on the shelf we heard her whisper to herself, "I never knew she was so pretty."

"Prom"

Passpost to a Fantastical Evening of Magical Moments and Sparkling Memories Under the Endlessly Deep and Dark Arabian Nights Forever

Snow

We enjoyed some more snow this week.

Art Show

Hannah had one of her school art projects chosen to be on display at the Carroll Arts Center this month. We went to a reception for the artists last week and saw her work.

Winter

This week we've seen snow, then ice, then more snow. Schools have been closed for three days now. The sledding was great yesterday and today. Here are some pics from our neighborhood.

Snow Day

Winter has been rather warm here this year until the last few weeks. This week we've seen temps in the single digits with wind chills in the negatives. And, today we finally got our first snow day. That's right, no school today due to several inches of snow that accumulated during the night and early this morning. The girls wore their pjs inside out last night, but I think this all had more to do with some artic air and moisture. There was celebration at our house this morning.

Mom, the new sleds are great. Thanks!

New Car

Here it is . . .

Grand Theft Auto: part 2

During the month that we were waiting for news on our van, Lance begin seriously looking at, researching, and test driving cars. We really liked the GMC Envoy and the Honda Pilot, so we began looking around for a nice used one. I am now driving a Pilot. Yes, it has an anti-theft system. Once the van is repaired we will take it to the Honda dealership, they gave us a good trade in on it. I love the Pilot, but I'll miss my van.

Grand Theft Auto: part 1

My van was stolen on January 6th, found on the 14th, and we were notified by certified letter on the 26th that it was at the impound lot in Baltimore. I guess with over 4,000 vehicles at the impound, the best they can do is let you know two weeks after the fact that your vehicle has been recovered.

Since you can get no information about your vehicle by phone, we drove over to look at the van on Saturday. That was an educational trip. Let's just say that it was best that the girls and I stayed in the car (with the doors locked) while Lance stood in line to show his ID and get into the lot to look at the van. He found it in pretty good shape, nothing visibly damaged except the ignition that had been hot wired, and a back window that had been pried open. Of course, everything we had left in the van was gone. The only thing they didn't steel was Chloe's car seat. It had been unbuckled from the seat and placed in the back of the van. Thanks. We had the van towed to a shop in Westminster where it sits now waiting to be repaired.

Gift

Lance surprised me with this gift at Christmas, and I love it.

Skagen