Arizona Memorial and the USS Missouri

The WWII Memorial for the Arizona is a really humble place to visit. I have felt really emotional about Pearl Harbor and all things military related for a while now and so to visit the Arizona was truly a blessing. The men/boys who dies that day were just there getting ready for a normal Sunday morning and wham things went bad. Have you watched the movie with Ben Afflack in it? The morning that the Japanese attack when the planes fly in over the boy playing with the ball and the mother hanging laundry its real. That's the hardest part for me. Its real it happened and it caused a lot of things in this nation to change. So we visited the Arizona and I was a bit on the cold side. Dressed for the tropical weather not remembering to factor in the wind so I really was a bit cold but still very emotional. If you ever have the chance to visit you really should. While we were there we bought a commemorative Pearl harbor book which had some stories in the back about men who survived the attack and we met two of the men who were featured int eh book. I shook a hand of a man who survived Pearl harbor lived to tell his story and will be honored for his heroism for the rest of his existence and hereafter. After the Arizona we went and explored the USS Missouri- the battleship that in WWII the Japanese boarded and surrendered on. We took a guided tour and for those of you who have ever toured a battleship before those things are monstrous. They are their own floating city. It was really cool to see the guns and the ammo and be in the command room and see how it all goes down during war. Also we heard the story of when the Japanese surrendered to General MacArthur and I just have to say I have a new found respect for General MacArthur he was a no holds barred kind of guy. We don't wait for the Japanese they wait for us. We will not wear our dress clothes to this thing we will wear our work clothes we are at war. It was pretty cool to see the documentation that was signed. To hear the story you don't hear in high school history class and so enjoy history. So thank you to the men and women who serve in our Armed Forces today I appreciate you in so many ways!

First Comments on Hawaii

So now that I have been home for a week and have my feet some what back under me I will try to account a little bit about my vacation. I need to do a some what decent job so in a few months from now when I really can't remember anything at all I am able to refer back here and remember!

To start I am not a huge fan of flying, it doesn't scare me per say its just not fun for me either. Here we are ready to leave for vacation from the Cleveland airport. We had to get up by 4 a.m. to be to the airport on time to get through security and such. So our flying day started at 4 a.m. eastern standard time and ended in Hawaii at 9:00 p.m. Hawaiian time which is six hours different than eastern standard time. We were tired and ready for some dinner and then bed. You don't get food served on the plane any more you have pay $10 for the sandwich they were serving, at least drinks were free though and we had brought some snacks for the plane ride. SO we land in Hawaii in the dark and the rain and are ready for our ride to the Hotel. We flew in Honolulu on the Island of Oahu and spend three days on this Island. While we were there we saw Waikiki Beach, and let me tell you the different kinds of people who are there are just crazy. A group of 6-8 girls who were as white as I am with coconut bras on and grass skirts. Dark Hawaii natives carrying their surf boards in their bikinis. And a bunch of tourists, me one of them, who are buying flip flops and other trinkets just for the heck of it.

We also went to Diamond Head, the volcano crater that blew its top a long time ago, and hike the one mile up and saw amazing sights and really felt the awesomeness of God's creation! The American Army also had some bunkers from way back that they had set up in the mountain to look out of enemy ships so we were able to go into one of them and look out at the ocean. There is a beautiful lighthouse that we saw down below and so we just had to take a picture of that. I think that Tim ended up with 1300 or more pictures from the trip so we have a lit of little random things that Tim thought we should get pictures of! I got my first sun burn hiking diamond head. A small spot on my neck, because although I was trying for a tan I did not it to come on all at once and be a burn. So only a small portion of my neck got burnt, not to bad for being out in the sun of Hawaii. A little side note here that although Hawaii has sun, it also has clouds and lots of them. Because of the mountain systems on the Islands they each have their own climate and so on and even their own climates around the islands. Its was very different from what I had imagines in my head. Well I think I will end this update here and tell you about the Arizona WWII Memorial another day and include with that the USS Missouri.

I'll be back!

I am not gone I was away on vacation for a bit and have some fun pictures to share and stories to tell but am getting the family back together the kids missed mom and dad a lot so I am doing family things for a bit. Will blog soon I promise.

What a ride!

Well we were gone for the weekend up in Albany, NY for the NYSPHSAA (New York State Public High School Athletic Association) Final Four in Girls Basketball. The Sherman Wildcat girls have five senior starters and six seniors total on the team. They have been starting varsity for the last four years. Over the years because of being the youth leaders at the church, friends with the girls, and in general basketball fans we have developed real relationships with the girls. So this year when they made it to the state final four we just had to be there. Friday we left Sherman and headed the six hours to Albany. The first game was Saturday morning at 9 am. You would have thought it was a home game for Sherman. The crowd was incredible. The girls handily won the game with a 20 point cushion. The finals then were Sunday at noon. The coach Mr. Swanson has been coaching for years way back when my sister-in-laws played and this is the first time he had ever made it to the championship game. The girls lost a heart breaker in an incredible game by three points. The announcer at the college said he had been doing this for years and there were no losers in this game. It was one of the best games he has ever had the privilege of watching and announcing for. I tip my hat and am extremely proud of the Lady Sherman Wildcats. Here's to you Michelle, Rachel, Beth, Lindsay, Julie, and Jessica. I have no doubt that your future will hold amazing things. Thank you for the good times in watching you the last four years. And here is a quote from Michelle, "Even if we don't win tomorrow, we still made it to the finals and being second in the State isn't a bad place!" Love to you all!

Explanation

Fish net did have a meaning. Fish Net is the game they were playing in the gym at the time Derek fell. He was a net off trying to catch the fish. Because he is willing to push himself he was going after the fastest boy in the class and whamo fell on his chin. See the below blog "Fish Net" for the rest of the story.

Fish Net

Its never a good thing when you receive a call from the school nurse. This morning after getting out of the shower I received the call most dreaded. "Hi, is this Cindy? Derek fell in gym class and cut his chin I am thinking he's going to need stitches." Wow a million things go through you head at once. Where are Sarah and Nathan going to go. I am taking him to the ER this time, I didn't take Sarah there for her lip and I should have. (See earlier posts about a "week in stitches" ) Call to Tim can you meet me at the Hospital our son is going to need stitches. Derek is in the school nurses station and I have no idea where that is. I have a Dr.'s appointment at 3:15 I need to be there for it and who knows how long this is going to take. So this is the random train of thoughts that run a much in my head 5 seconds after hearing the nurse say that to me. Derek is not one for pain, he really hates it. I am thinking about that too. The anticipation part for me is terrible, I can handle holding his hand when he is strapped to the papoose board but thinking about how he is going to react, absolutely flip out, is what gets me anxious. I get to the school and talk to the secretary and she directs me to the right hall way. When I get up there I hear a really raucous classroom and it just so happens Michelle is in there and she takes me to the nurses station. I am sure God put here there at that time because I had no idea how to get to my son and he needed me. Well I take a look at the underside of his chin and yep he's gonna need stitches. So off to the hospital we go and sit in the waiting room for a while and the anxiety is building up in me I know how much he hates pain and pain is coming his way. He is talking and laughing and crashing crayons off of each other in a war kind of way, only boys can make wars out of crayons! I love that about them. Then we finally go back to the room they confirm that he is going to get stitches and then the freak out that I have been building up for erupts. My poor son can not handle pain really. Heidi would identify! So here is what happens I am holding his legs and Tim is talking to Derek and then Tim almost passes out. Like I said I get sick and anxious anticipating, Tim is the opposite we are a good team. He has to go sit down another nurse brings him smelling salts and I am wrestling with Derek trying to keep my hysterical son on the table so that he can get his stitches. They finally get the papoose board and I am like whew! He gets his three stitches, the Novocaine shot is the worst part of all you know. Then its off to McDonalds to get him a milkshake, he also bit the inside of his cheek when he fell. So needless to say the poor tyke is tuckered. The sad part of the story is not over though. This weekend we are going away to a hotel for the championship girls basketball tournament and there is a swimming pool at our hotel and Derek has been talking about swimming for days. Now he can't he can't get it wet. Tim was like he can go up to his chest right, I am like oh no we are not going swimming. I don't need his chin to get infected. Anyway that is what I did today how about you? Did you have a good day?!

He's getting so big

Oh my look how old my son looks with his hair cut. I can hardly stand it. My baby is 18 months old and what a difference a hair cut made. Nathan is a true joy to have around and I am so blessed to have him in my life. He has decided lately that climbing is going to be his new thing. So he climbed up on the top of the toy kitchen and got stuck so mommy had to come rescue him. He has to climb up on top of the card table if he wants to put Derek's Star Wars toys in his mouth! Oh yeah and one of the most fun places to crawl is the computer table there are a lot of buttons to push up there and if you get the right ones things beep and flash and stuff! So needless to say we are getting busy. Today my couch coushions were thrown on the floor so we could get easier access to the couch and then we played gymnastics on teh coushions too! Is there ever a dull moment when your a parent? I don't think so! I mean you can be a parent of one or a parent of three and stuff still goes on that you never even knew could happen. You never knew that one child would move the exercise ball out of the way while the other child was mid air going to jump on it and instead they smash their face off the couch and need two stitches and have a permanent scar. You never knew that standing on top of the riding circus engine would be more fun than sitting on it well maybe you knew that one but you didn't know how it would make you feel to look over and see your 6 year old pushing your 18 month old around on it while they were standing up. Ahhh, wait!! Oh the joys of parenting! In truth though you only imagined what it would feel like to hold you baby. But in reality it is so much better. You didn't know you would get misty eyes when you six year old lost his first tooth and then his second a few weeks later. Where does the time go!

What a weekend!

The above picture is actually the finale to a really great weekend. But shall I start at the beginning?

Friday started off with a bang- by 8:30 a.m. I had to be at a Dr.s appointment to give blood and have other tests done. So that means a 6:00 a.m. wake up to get a shower and get ready in time to have Derek up and ready for Michelle to pick him up for school by 7:40 and get Sarah and Nathan up and fed and ready for school, well only Sarah ready for school really. Then its off to Grandma's for Nathan and Sarah and I am off to start my day.

The Dr.'s appointments all go really well but I am running a half hour late, do you know where I need to be? One of the best places on earth with my GCC, Grove City College for those of you who don't know, girlfriends. There are nine of us who have been trying for the last 10 years since we have graduated to get together every year and spend a weekend seeing each other. We catch up on talking and listening and sometimes just sitting together in the same room. Its another year and we are mostly all here, except for Emily who loves in California and really can't make it for a weekend, we understand and love and miss you Em! We basically come from the East coast, teh farthest away being Pittsburgh, PA (Yeah Steelers!) or Akron, Ohio (I guess as far as geography goes I forget which is more west!). That was until Karen got moved to El Paso, Texas. She made it though for our little weekend get away and we were able to surprise her with a little "Sweet Dreams" baby shower. (Congrats to Jim and Karen for baby Grubelet is on the way!) What a fantastic weekend, really it was I wish I had a picture to post so you could see my beatiful friends and sisters in christ. But alas I forgot my campera. They I am sure will post pictures soon! What a blessed time to spend talking and catching up on lives to learn about how they have all changed after marriage and children and moves across the United States. Thanks ladies for a wonderful time of bonding and sharing. Lets keep standing strong and making this a once a year deal!

Then I had to take off for my 2 1/2 hour trip home to the Section 6 Conference Championship Girls High School Basketball game. Let me tell you about a friend I made on that trip his name is Garmin. Garmin and I got really close on the way to Jamestown. I decided that whatever way Garmin told me to go I would go. Wow it worked! Garmin took me through the Allegany National Forest and because it was so warm over the weekend the snow down in teh woods was steaming and there were patches of road where the fog was so thick I had to slow down to a crawl. After over an hour of driving up and down valleys and hills with no other car in sight I told Garmin 1 of 4 things is going to happen here. 1- I will hit a deer, 2- I will hit a bear 3- I will make it through this 4- I will fall off into a ravine and no one will find me because no one knows I am here! But good old trusty Garmin keep me going on and I made it to the game.

The game was absolutely awesome! The girls came out all on fire and they stayed that way through the entire game. Needless to say they won 57-38 and I could not be more proud of them! We are off to the game this weekend, one step closer to States. I have armed myself with face paint for Derek and Sarah and Abby Cole, new shirts to cover with Sherman graffiti for Derek, Sarah, and Nathan, and glass paint for my vehicle, "HONK if you love the Sherman Lady Wildcats!" I know I know a bit over the top but hey why not.

SO thus concludes my weekend, a bit of this and that and a positive outlook for the future! Stay tuned more to come I promise!

Apology

I know I know there are so may reasons that I haven't been typing on the blog world lately and none of them are good enough, just excuses really. SO... the first new blog of 2009 will be an apology! I am sorry that you have kept checking this page and it has been the same community garage sale post. It will be changing from now on I promise. I find that yes it is homework but hey I need something to keep my mind stimulated right. I am always saying that I need more adult conversation. (Conversing with a 6, 4, and an 18 month old although eye opening at time is not really mind stimulating!) So here it goes and opening for adult conversation and hopefully an outlet for your feed back!

Community Garage Sale

Whew! Have you ever tried to put on a garage sale? It is hard work. First you need to clean your garage, which in it self is quite a task. Then its the accumulating of the goods. Not to hard sometimes, not to easy others. It all depends if you are trying to sell things that you don't want any more or if you are just trying to get rid of your junk. Then comes the gathering of the tables. Then the hard part and you wouldn't think its the hard part but it is. The placing of the goods. How do you make "junk" look like someone else really needs it! Three of us are trying to sell our "junk" tomorrow at the Sherman Community garage sale. Its gonna be fun we are praying for no rain, but it doesn't look so good. I have been working hard to get the garage in shape and hopefully tomorrow things will sell, sell, sell! I am going to hold to the old saying, "one mans junk is another mans treasure."

A Day at Midway Park

Derek and I went on May 29th to Midway Park with his Pre-K Class. It was such a fun trip! Midway is an amusement park for elementary kids. They had a bunch of fun little rides and bumper cars and a tilt-a-whirl, which I have not been on for years. The highlight for Derek though was the roller coasters, two little kids coasters and one little boys who just wanted to keep riding them again and again. The first time he went I rode with him but he is no mama's boy he just want to ride. Thanks mom for taking me now let me go have fun! I did let him steer the bumper cars and he had such a blast on the other rides I can hardly tell you all the excitement and fun he had. Here are a few pictures for you to enjoy.

Here are Derek and I on the tilt-a-whirl.

Derek driving his own car.

The only place to ride a roller coaster is in the front car! We have no idea who that little girl is that jumped in the front car with Derek and his friend Henry, but the boys didn't care!

Leaving us in stitches

Well we had quite a week last week. Sarah especially had quite a week. On Monday Sarah and Derek were playing around with my exercise ball in the living room. Sarah came running in the room from the playroom and hit the exercise ball it sent her flying, she is only 32 pounds, right into the couch. We have a couch bed and instead of hitting the soft cushions she hit her mouth off the couch and blood began flowing. This happened at 11:45 a.m. I called my father in law who in the past has been an EMT but he was in Jamestown half an hour away. He said he would be there in 45 minutes. So I held a washcloth and ice to Sarah's lip, as long as she would let me, not very long and we waited for Grandpa to come. When he finally got her 45 minutes later he decided that we should go to see if we could find other EMT friends of his and see what they thought. I do love living in a small town because we were able to walk into the school find an EMT buddy who told us go for stitches. We went down to the local Dr.'s office and stitches she got. So on Monday my princess had two stitches in her mouth by 2:00 p.m.

Just when you think its bad enough and the story stops here let me take you to Thursday and tell you about Sarah's experience at Aunt Lori's. We went to Illinois on Thursday morning at 4:00 a.m. which got us to our destination around noon and had lunch all went well with the kids and their cousins. With my 3 and Lori's 4 you can only imagine the kind of chaos that was ensuing. The adults finally sat down and had dinner after the kids were done and right as dinner was over Derek came running into the house with bone chilling cries for his Daddy. (Tim says he hopes never to hear that kind of call for him again.) Sarah had fallen on a brick patio and scraped her face and then smashed her head of the unfinished front of a cement step and put a huge gash in her forehead. There was lots of blood and we knew a trip to the hospital was in order. I scooped up Nathan my brother in law keep Derek and his four and Lori drove us to the hospital a blood soaked Tim hold a bleeding Sarah. The emergency room was wonderful they took us right in and took great care of Sarah. She ended up with four stitched in her head and was told to keep her out of the sun and watch and take great pains so that she doesn't scar.

What I haven't told you up to this point is the trooper that my girl is. She is so strong she hardly cried at all when they put the stitches in her lip and they gave her local anesthetic shot so it had to be a bit painful. Only silent tears rolled down her cheeks and she never complained it hurt at all. Thursday's head injury hurt more she there was more crying but after about 30 minutes she had stopped and then even while putting the stitches in we talked about her upcoming fourth birthday. She was a wonderful little thing and I am so proud of my little peanut. She is shy about her head and doesn't want to talk about it, not even with mom and Dad. The only people she will tell is Grandma and Grandpa. So she is getting better and had her stitches out today and made no noise. My little Sarah is a beautiful girl with a wonderful personality who had a week that left us in stitches, literally!

Camp

This weekend on Saturday we went to the camp that I used to work at for Saturday. Seneca Hills Bible Camp in Franklin, PA is my holy ground. You remember when Moses was in front of the burning bush and the Lord told him to remove his shoes because he was standing on holy ground. That is Seneca to me. I meet God there in so many real ways. I started camping at Seneca when I was 6, then at the age of 13 I started working there and worked for 10 years. Every summer I would drive the hour away from my parents house and end up at Seneca which was my haven. Others stayed at home and got well paying summer jobs or just hung out with friends for the summer. I went off to cam p and wouldn't change that for the world. I have parents who blessed me by saying it was good for me to go to camp and to not worry about monetary jobs but go to camp which is missionary work and God's work. I do look back at certain things and say why didn't I do a better job here or there, but you could look at all of like and say that. I loved camp and Saturday taking my family back to camp, even if only for a day was a real blessing.

We love Pre-K

Derek is in Pre-K this year. NY state kindly offers Pre-K in the public school to those who will turn 4 before the 1st of December. He has been going to school everyday for half a day. He attends from 12:30-3:00 and gets off the bus at 3:15. I want to tell you about some of the fun things that have come out of Pre-K this year. The bus has changed Derek's life. He now wants to be a bus driver when he grows up. He loves to ride the bus and loves that he gets to ride the bus, the only problem is that we live within walking distance from school and this is the only year he will get to ride the bus. I think he knows that and that he will only get to ride the bus for a few more weeks but what a life change this has been for him. Something else he can read and write and spell. Now does he do these things perfectly, no of course not, but he is much more interested in them than ever. I am not sure if its an age or if its my son but he sure does love to spell. For instance right now he is talking about making a cat for his Dad, who he says will hate it because he knows Dad doesn't like cats. But instead of just saying Dad, he spells out d-a-d. More often than not he will go through the house yelling M-O-M, M-O-M instead of just calling Mom to get my attention. His numbers and math have really improved too. I have loved Pre-K for Derek. My son is a very social person, we have raised him to be this way with so much activities at the church and so on, so he loves to go every day and have lunch with his friends, sin songs and learn new things. Derek will be in Pre-K until June 20th, NY State goes very late into the summer months, the Senior class will not be graduating until the 27th of June. We had our trip to the farm, and the trip to the candle shop for Christmas. Still to come we have a Zoo trip and a trip to Midway Park, a mini-amusement park, and an all class sing before the end of our year. Stay tuned for updates which will be coming shortly!

Owning a home

For those of you who don't know Tim and I have now owned our a little over a year. We purchased our home on April 26, 2007. Previously we were living in a single wide trailer out in the country. My neighbors were horses and Amish and bears and deer. Really! If you want to hear the bear story or a deer leg one let me know their pretty awesome!! But now we live in town with neighbors who are people! That creates its own set of unexpected outcomes but so far living in our home and having people for neighbors has been awesome. We did a lot of work on our house in the last year and I am really proud to call this house my home. My heart and soul are in this place and we have put our stamp on it making it ours. Do you feel like that, for those of you who have homes? I love my house. Are there things I would change, of course, does anyone have a big enough kitchen I always feel the kitchen could be bigger. In reality though I am blessed. I have a wonderful husband who bought a bigger place for his wife and family. One because we were growing out of it, with three kids it would have become really crowded in the trailer. Two so that his wife wouldn't get cabin fever and feel she needed to leave the house with three kids in a blizzard with 3' feet of snow on the ground. I did it with two but think maybe it would have been a lot harder with three. I love my home did I say that yet! Now that the cosmetic work is done its down to the foundation fixing and the electrical and the insulation. All the unglamorous jobs that are required and no one knows is there but you. But even those for me are a blessing. That I have a husband who worked in the electrical field long enough to know how to rewire our house from the old knob and tube to who code requires now, think of the money he is saving us! Also I live in a community where I will be able to walk up to a man at church and tell his my foundation troubles and he will come with his backhoe in a few days and fix it for me. That is cool, no contractors just personal friends coming over to get things done. When we run into plumbing troubles I call my father in law to come and fix it, which he can! Its the little things right. The chipped paint in the living room where when I tried to hang a picture I took a piece of the wall down, gotta love plaster and lath. The bathroom and living room yellow just what I have always wanted! My bedroom with its chocolate walls, and brick red bed spread and curtains, I have real curtains! Sarah's pink room that my friends helped me rag and it just looks exquisite. Derek's dinosaur room. The laundry room upstairs instead of in the kitchen. The fact that I have the hand me down furniture that I grew up with. I love it all! Thank you Lord for the blessing of having a house and a home. You know the difference right, the house is the four walls I live in, the home is the people I live inside the house with who make my life the blessing it is.

Falling Down the Stairs

I know that some of you will read the title and think, "Oh no which one of Cindy's kids fell down the stairs?" Well as awful as that would have been it wasn't my kids it was me. How long has it been since you have fallen down the stairs? Try to avoid it at all costs. It hurts. Yesterday morning I was holding Nathan (my 7 month old son, who weights 20 pounds, lovingly refer ed to as my medicine ball by his Uncle Jon) who was a bit squirmy. Because of his squirmyness I luckily didn't carry down the glass cup and plastic bowl I was debating taking to the kitchen. When whoosh my feet came right out from under me and down I went. I live in an older house and the stairs are very steep I was about 6 from the bottom, out of 18, and landed right on my back. I believe I was very blessed to land where I did, up on my shoulder blades, so I didn't break anything. If I had landed lower on my ribs I would have cracked a rib or two I really believe. It knocked the wind right out of me and I was in a lot of pain. I slid down the rest of the stairs and checked to make sure that I hadn't hurt my baby. My daughter Sarah was awake with me at the time, by the way this all happened before 8:30 a.m. and I had to mouth to her to get me the phone. I couldn't breathe yet so it wasn't easy trying to ask her for the phone. She looked all over me for it not realizing I didn't mean a cell phone and that I just needed a phone to call someone. Sarah did bring me the phone and I called my husband Tim. He works in Jamestown and that is 30 miles away. I knew though that I couldn't pick up Nathan and I would really need some help through out the day. My in-laws who live in Sherman with me are on vacation in Michigan and Wisconsin this week, of all the weeks to fall, because she could have easily come over and helped me for the day but my loving husband got right in the car and was home before 9. I am not sure how fast he went I just know that he was really concerned for us. So Tim stayed home the rest of the day with me and took care of things. I am so thankful to the Lord for not having me land where I was seriously injured, although it hurts today still. And also I thank God for a loving husband who would drop everything and come home and rescue me. So take my advice and don't fall down the stairs it hurts!

It's A Beautiful Day

Well much has happened since my last blog and I suppose I should sum up a bit.

First there was Easter! What a blessed and glorious day. The day that celebrates what my God and his son did for the salvation of the world. For those sinners who accept the free gift offered to them by God. What a humble servant I am to bow before my Lord and thank him for the great thing that he has done and given.

And on the earthly side of Easter we all had new outfits. Don't we look cute!

A few weeks after Easter I had my 31 birthday. I was asked if I felt older this year and in truth I do but not because its my birthday. I now have three children, three precious children who are helping me to lose my mind! I have birthdays but not much goes into the age thing 30= a milestone year, 31-39 not to many milestones 40= over the hill. So do I feel older yes but because I am trying to keep up with the Sears Family not because I am now 31. My family really did a bang up job for my day we spent most of it with the kids and that is a good time, with a little reprieve in the evening for a dinner as just husband and wife which was incredible. The birthday presents even stretched until tonight I am off for my Aromatherapy treatment this evening. My husband is wonderful.

The next two weeks Sherman Central School is on Spring Break. Yes they get two full weeks of in April for spring break. It does mean that we do not graduate from High School until the 26 of June. Crazy huh! So I am hoping and praying that for the next two weeks the weather stays gorgeous and my children can go outside and play. We have a few things scheduled to do in the next two weeks, cousins coming and Tim's birthday is coming up so we have a few things to look forward too.

The day is gorgeous and my children are either inside sleeping, Nathan or outside playing, Derek and Sarah. So I have a free moment to share some thoughts mostly with myself but I have a few friends who know I occasionally blog. The weekend was so gorgeous also. We got all the raking around our house finished and it looks so much better. The Sunday school teacher at church yesterday about forgetting what was under the layer of snow and how nasty that can sometimes look and wishing for another layer of snow. No thanks I say snow stay away. We can clean up what appears after the fall and winter I would much rather have the snow be done for the year. Tim doesn't think the snow is done for the year. I really hope he is wrong.

No matter what happens though life in the Sears household is good. We are healthy and strong and blessed by the creator God.

It's always winter...

I live in the snow belt so I know I should not complain but I really don't think spring or summer will come to my neck of the woods this year. In truth we only get three months of nice weather anyway. It begins snowing in October and doesn't stop until April so there you have it folks love snow move to Sherman, NY! I am not a huge fan of snow in fact I don't really enjoy any outside snow activities isn't that pathetic. I mean I can sled and build a snowman but no skiing and no snowmobiling and so on. Although I could get into snowmobiling but hello expensive! So its snowing again and here I sit watching it come down hard wondering if it will ever stop. Guaranteed we will have a foot or more of snow for Easter. I understand that Easter is in March and not even that late in March but still it will snow. No bright happy Easter Sunday morn, but my soul will sing for the greatness that my Savior has given me. Here is where the Lord grips my heart and my complaining and tells me, "Oh Cindy, I made the snow too!" Thank you Lord for the many blessings in life you give, including the snow.

Heartbreak

I need to update on my Sherman Lady Wildcats. I am sorry to say they lost the Section 6 Class D finals. They played a hard fought game and only lost by 4. They were down the entire game and came back and tied it up and then in the end just couldn't get it done. Have you been there have you felt that kind of heartbreak? Did you play sports competitively or at least cheer for a team enough to feel that kind of pain in loss? My heart breaks for the girls. You can tell them to keep their heads up and there is always next year but it sounds like hollow words. I just tell them I love them and that will never change. Next year girls, good luck!

Congratulations!

On Wednesday night the Sherman Lady Wildcats beat the Clymer Lady Pirates. I am excited to say they played really well and it felt good to watch them win. They play again on Saturday afternoon against another rival team the Ripley Lady Eagles. They beat them twice this season already and so this time will be harder. Didn't you find that when you played a team for the third time in the season that it was the hardest game ever. Also being a part of playoffs with a single elimination its important for both the teams. I think I kind of live vicariously through these girls because I miss competitive sports. I am not sure how many people out there played sports in High School or college but I did in both and I miss it. So its fun to go to these games and root for the girls and boys I know and hope they do well and wish I was out there playing with them. Besides I wish I had my high school body back instead of a body after three kids, you girls out there know what I mean! Anyway I am going to the game this weekend with my Sherman gear on and my kids dressed in the sweatshirts with the basketball teams picture on it. Sherman's got game so...let's go wilscats!