Had a Great Time in Florida

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! Paul and I really enjoyed seeing Emily Ann, Peter, and Alaina. Emily Ann's parents joined us this year and what great people they are. I saw my sister Yvonne and Dick and they are doing fine. Thought you would enjoy seeing some pictures.

Tim's new house

I bought a new house!

Tim's new "blue" is:
3450 Ellenboro
Troy, MI 48083

It is only 10 minutes away from Tracy, and less than 15 minutes from school.
I cannot wait to have you all over to swim in the...wait for it... pool!

The specs: 1971, 3 bedroom, 1600sq ft, original owner, ranch, full basement, above ground pool, .25 acres, and blue!

I used the time during my spring break to move in. Luckily I don't have much "big stuff", therefore I've taken my time to bring things over and unpack bit by bit.

Lindsey the teacher!

Here is Faith coloring eggs for Easter. Wishing all of you a very Happy Easter!

Hi All,

Here are some pictures of Lindsey's class which we visited when we were in Phoenix. The kids just love Lindsey and were excited to meet her parents. We had a great time on our trip. Pete and I both liked flying. We had smooth flights and loved coming into Phoenix at night with all the lights.

Love, Debbie

In one minute it will be tomorrow . . .

and tomorrow is the day I leave for South Africa!

I can't wait to tell you all about my adventures - I am sure I'll have a few blog worth stories and adventures. Flat Adam arrived today just in time to make the trip (I am so relieved!)

I'll also fill you in on all the adventures leading up to the trip including my guinea pigs gigantor bladder stone removal!!

I will miss you all while I am gone - keep on postin' and keep on prayin' - can't wait to see you soon.

Love, Tracy

Adam

Adam was so excited when he got home from school and found out his glasses were ready!!! As soon as Ryan got home a few minutes later we all jumped in the car to hurry of to get them. Here's the handsome little guy...

Can you tell he likes them?

He lost a tooth at dinner tonight too! Glasses and a lost tooth all in one day! That's BIG for an eight year old! He said he'd always remember today ... and I think he will! I sure love him!

Glasses for Adam

Tonight Adam had an appointment with the eye doctor and our little guy is getting glasses. We had no idea he was having any issues with his sight until last Thursday. Adam was reading all about the adventures of Flat Adam that Tracy wrote for his class. He kept holding the papers in front of his face and his teacher would say, "Adam, we want to see your face! Lower the paper!" And he would...for a little while and slowly it would creep back up. She called me that afternoon, I made an appointment for him and sure enough, he's far-sighted.

His doctor said his teacher is astute, and I agree. Adam does a vocabulary assignment each week in which he finds a word in the book he's reading that he doesn't know, uses context clues to guess the meaning, and then looks it up in the dictionary. I don't think Mrs. B will mind if he looks up a word from his eye doctor, especially if it describes her!

Thank you Tracy for the wonderful report! The class loved it and ... it helped us realize that Adam needs glasses! Little did you know how important Flat Adam would be!

I'll follow up later this week with a picture of Adam in his new glasses! He looks handsome!!!

Hi All, Here are the cousins on a recent visit. They sure enjoy being with each other. Here is pictures from Faith's first mitting {knitting} lesson.

Grandma helping Faith! Faith thinks it's kind of tricky!

Here is Faith in her spring outfit looking very cute!!!

We are all waiting for spring here. We still have dirty snow on the ground but a lot of it has melted.

Happy Birthday to Emily Ann!!!!!!! Hope you enjoy your day!

Pete and I are looking forward to out trip to Arizona to see Lindsey in a couple of weeks. Neither of us have flown before so it should be quite an adventure. I hope we have smooth flights. Lindsey said its been in the low 90's in Tempe so we will get a good dose of heat.

Love to all, Debbie

Destination Imagination

The kids and I have been busy since October with Destination Imagination. I co-coach a team of seven kids including Isaac and Adam. DI is all about kids of all ages working together to problem solve, use their creativity and imaginations to come up with a solution to a challenge. This year, the challenge they chose is called "ViDIo Lit Hits." Their challenge was to take a piece of literature and make it into a music video to dramatically retell the story. The kids do ALL the work themselves without any adult help!
Our team chose Hansel & Gretel. They made scenery, a gingerbread house, had a teammate play all the music on a keyboard, rewrote lyrics to four songs to tell the story and had an oven bubble over when the witch (Isaac) was pushed in. They had to incorporate a "technical method" into their skit which was the bubbling -- baking soda and vinegar. The audience oooohed and ahhhhed!

My favorite song is the Imperial March from Star Wars. This is the song Isaac sings when he (the witch) sees Hansel and Gretel. The team worked soooo hard and recently at the regional competition they got 1st place out of 12 teams in their division!!! They will compete at the state competition on April 18th. If they receive 1st or 2nd there, they will qualify for globals which is in Nashville!!! Here are some pictures of the team...

Here is Adam as one of the trees in the forest and a background singer. Notice the great forest the kids painted! They built two structures out of PVC pipe to hold the background.

Here are Hansel and Gretel in front of the gingerbread house. The kids have been collecting more food to add to it. So far they're going to add Peeps and McDonalds french fries. Yum!

There's Isaac singing the Imperial March ... "I am the witch I will eat you all! Dinner, dessert; I will fatten you up! I am the boss you're the cocktail sauce!" This is inside the gingerbread house. They've decided to decorate it for the state competition using healthy foods -- that's what they think the evil witch would use to decorate his house... You know those evil foods like raisins, peanuts, brocolli. Like I said earlier, the kids make all the decisions!!!


Here the kids are singing and dancing the final song: Celebration. They're singing: "Celebrate the witch is dead!" They did their own choreography! It was so cute!

"We're going to State!!! We all get to stay in a hotel together! We even get to eat at Wendy's AND order pizza. Our coaches said they'd take us swimming! We get to miss a 1/2 day of school?! Yahoo! Can we stay up all night?"

I love my team!

Flat Adam Returns to Wisconsin

It was a sad day to see Flat Adam return to Wisconsin. I sure have enjoyed having him here in Detroit. Follow this link to read a little bit about what Flat Adam did while he was in Detroit. You can see the pictures of Flat Adam here.

Isaac's Winning Billboard

We had a wonderfully warm (relatively speaking -- it was 44 degrees) and sunny day today...a perfect day to go take Isaac's picture with his billboard. There was an awards ceremony on March 1st in which Isaac and the other two winners were honored for their winning entries. The theme of the contest for Youth Art Month was "Art: A New Way of Seeing." All of the Manitowoc 5th graders drew a design and the art teachers and someone from the billboard company served as the judges.

Here's the artist with his artwork -- wow! We've been told that when the billboard comes down at the end of the month, Isaac will get to take home the material it's printed on -- it's like a thin, sturdy plastic. I'll take any and all ideas about what we should do with it!!! Isaac said today, "I don't care what anyone says -- I'm saving this for my grandchildren!" Someone had the suggestion to wallpaper his ceiling with it -- a good idea, but his room isn't big enough. Isaac's teacher has decided we just need to build an addition to our home for it!

Here's a close up of it. It's amazing to be driving down the road and see this! Congrats Isaac!!!

Update on Chuck Apap

Hi Everyone - This is just a quick update - I thought you might be interested in the article about my Godfather - Chuck Apap - who you prayed for earlier this year. It is a nice article about his recovery from a heart attack, heart surgery, and a mini-stroke.


TN

Happy Birthday Carol!

Happy Birthday Carol may you have a wonderful day full of love and may the rest of the year be full of blessings and hope.

Love you
Emily and Paul

March 1st Snow in Atlanta!

It’s snowing it’s snowing the old man is snoring!!!!!
It is March 1st and it is snowing in Peachtree City. Yesterday was 68* and now it’s 34* and snowing. Paul’s flight has been canceled to Michigan and we are having fun in the snow! It is really wet and heavy. It is not really staying on the roads but it is on the grass and things. Paul decided to make a snow man! The poor daffodils are all sad and snow covered. I hope they make it!

News!

Isaac made the news!
Here's a link to an article from our local paper that Isaac was interviewed for regarding his billboard. I saw the billboard on Thursday and I'm going to take Isaac's picture by it to post. Sunday is the awards ceremony for the art students. Isaac is excited because he heard he'll get to shake the mayor's hand!http://www.htrnews.com/article/20090228/MAN0101/902280401&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSELDebbie, Addy and Faith are here visiting us and we're having a wonderful time.Isaac is looking forward to posting a video from his band concert last Monday night.
Love to everyone!!!Joy

Sweet Pea

Berkley High School Educator of the Year

We are so proud of Tracy today! She was honored at a Banquet for the Educator of the Year. She was also entered by her Principal Dennis McDavid for the Educator of the Year for Oakland County. She had several of her friends from her church come and many people from her school. We were very proud of what a great teacher she is.

MidWinter Break

It's Sunday Evening which marks the end of an overall wonderful midwinter break. I am fortunate and still have an entire week's time off in February. Tim had Wed-Fri off and Carrie had Mon-Tuesday. But I had the entire glorious week. Thank you Lord.

I rested the first weekend and had fun with friends at a pizza party on Saturday evening and a Chili party for Sunday Night Dinners (a once a month event my friends and I partake in). I lead our church in musical worship on Sunday morning in which the message concentrated on God's Knowledge. He knows EVERYTHING - even the things we wish He didn't know - He knows. He still covers us in His grace. I am so thankful. This is one of the messages in our latest series called Your God Is Too Small. After church and before chili dinner, Flat Adam and I had a great time with my friend Alli exploring some of Detroit. We even took a ride through the tunnel to Canada. It was a lot of fun.

Monday through Wednesday I spent most of my time working on my taxes (still not done yet), preparing for my trip to Africa, and getting things in order at the house. Housework never seems to stay put. I also had the opportunity to see Tim's new house in Troy - he placed a bid on the house and it was accepted. Hopefully he will soon tell us all about it here at the blog!

On Thursday, Flat Adam and I took the train from Detroit to Chicago to visit Pete, Emily, and Alaina. It was so much fun. We relaxed and enjoyed each other's company the entire time. Alaina is growing so fast!! She is really starting to get all over the place. You should see that way that Alaina looks at Emily - it's precious - she knows that she loved - what a secure little girl. Pete made homemade baby food: carrots and apples. Pete told us how Alaina started crawling into their room to find him and that it just made his day! I had such a wonderful time and I can't wait to get back again.

I hope you are all well - Miss you lots - Tracy

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope you have a great day! We love and miss you all. Adam and I made a Valentine's Day Video for everyone!

Love, Isaac (and my whole family too!)

I just have to brag!

I'm a proud mom tonight and here's why...
March is Youth Art Month in Manitowoc. The local art museum features wonderful art from K-12 grades chosen by their art teachers. Both of our boys have had their artwork on display in past years. Well, to advertise Youth Art Month a local billboard company donates 3 billboards in town for a month and a contest is held...all 5th graders and Jr & Sr High art students draw a billboard design. The results are in! Isaac won! His billboard design was chosen out of all the 5th graders in the city!!! He's soooo excited! As soon as the billboard is up I'll take a picture of our artist by it and post it for everyone to see!
Congrats Isaac!

Happy Birthday Ken!!!

We had a birthday party for Ken on Saturday and Mom, Bob and Linda came from Ishpeming and Ryan, Joy, Isaac and Adam rolled in from Manitowoc.  It was such a pleasant day.  We had roast beef in gravy on rolls, caramel apple salad (delicious Joy) and teryiaki vegetables for our meal topped by Ken's favorite chocolate cake with thick chocolate frosting. YUM.  We had a nice visit highlighted by two vigorous rounds of clothespin in the bottle including prizes. It was such a fun day. I am thankful to have my wonderful hubby, Ken!