More Random Updates // Into June

 Now that the track season is over and another year is in the books, the boys team had their awards.  Some of the parents went together and bought gifts for the coaches so Noel brought his gift home and opened it when he got here.  He received a gift card to a local restaurant and this personalized Stanley.  It's definitely not "his thing" and you will probably never catch him drinking out of it, but it was a nice idea and very thoughtful of those parents.

The girls gave him some pointers on how he was suppose to hold it.  LOL

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Melayna took two weeks off from running at the end of her track season and she certainly has been filling those extra hours getting together with friends and going to many social events.  After four solid weekends of open house, I think those are finally slowing down and then one day last week she met a friend at the Pottery Bayou and made a plate.

And another day she met with friends and made a Tassel Bookmark for her Bible.

Melayna also went in to MedStat last week so that she could get her athletic physical for college and she began her college summer track work-outs this week.  

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With a lot more free time this summer, Nolan has been working on a lot of projects of his own.  He made a 3D printable box for his uno cards...

... a multi colored unicorn.  (Just as a gift for Morgan's return)...

... and he also made me this tape dispenser.  It's a snail and it's the cutest thing ever!!

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With Noel's help, the flower beds are finally all weeded and cleaned up.   The Hydrangea bushes that I planted last year are finally starting to grow stronger and are getting flowers on them.  

And this flower just randomly popped up this year.  I have several of these planted in the back beds but haven't had any in the front beds.  I'm not quite sure how this one ended up here, but it looks really pretty in this deep red color.

And all of my day lilies are definitely in full bloom.  I may have to thin some of these down at the end of the season because they are getting so big and starting to overtake the area.

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We hear from Morgan almost every day and she is staying busy at her internship.  She's not allowed to share any pictures of the kids that are there at the school, so I don't really have any pictures to post here, but she is doing well and getting a lot of cleaning and repair completed along with hanging out with a few of her favorites.  She is more than half-way finished and we are definitely looking forward to her coming back home for a bit in July.

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Marissa is staying busy teaching swimming lessons in the morning and then working at her internship in the afternoons.  This past week she took time away from the ladies shelter where she in interning and spent her afternoons working as a lifeguard at a summer church camp.  They lost their other lifeguard at the last minute and it paid really well, so we are thankful that it worked out for her.

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She did enjoy going to the graduation open house of one of her friends from church...

... and she had fun last weekend with Chloe as they met for dinner and did some thrift shopping together.

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My nephew played in the Semi-State game last Saturday down at Oak Hill high school, so we drove down and watched his team compete.  Unfortunately, despite playing another great game, they came up a few runs short and their season came to a disappointing end.  

Austin was the starting pitcher for Eastbrook.  He would pitch four innings.  Three scoreless innings and then he gave up two runs in the fourth so the game was tied 2-2 when he switched to play first base.

At first base, he made a couple of great plays and he also had two hits in the game.  

Despite the ending, I am glad that we could be there to cheer him on.

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After the game, we met my parents for dinner at Culvers and then we also met them a few miles later for ice cream at our favorite ice cream shop.  

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There's always time in our summer to play with Grammie C's cats...

... or to take a few more runs on the Go-Kart.

Nolan even managed to get me on there for a few minutes, while he drove me around.  

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Last Sunday we were finally able to meet up with our friends for dinner at St Elmos in Indy.  We had planned to meet them for dinner several months ago but then they got hit with several inches of snow on the day we had planned for so we had to postpone.  Due to two very busy family schedules, it only took a couple more months to find a time that worked for both of our families, but it was well worth the wait.  We had such a nice dinner and time of talking and catching up.

And Nolan definitely enjoyed playing with their sons.

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We have had several days where we have been under extreme weather warnings.  The other day a bad line of storms came through and then Marissa caught this double rainbow on her way home.

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The annual Blackburn 5K was held on Saturday, June 20th.  Our family has participated in this event in some capacity or another ever since Nolan was a baby.  Once again this year, we went over to Doug's house on Friday night and helped him put together the race packets and then we went down to the Village of Winona on Saturday morning and everyone (except for Morgan who is still gone) participated in the actual race.  

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I'll post more pictures later as they are published online, but here is one picture that was taken of our church participants.  Everyone picgtured here either walked / ran or helped in some way.

Other Random Updates // Summer Edition

The boys hosted their regional meet on Thursday, May 28th.  One of Noel's hurdlers finished fourth in his race so I thought that he had missed his chance at advancing to state but then we found out that not only did he hit the state standard and will advance, but he also broke the school record!!

Great job Xander!!

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We have attended many many open houses for the class of 2026, with many many more to go.  Noel was happy to attend Sam's open house this past Saturday and to celebrate his accomplishments with him.    Sam has been one of Noel's hurdlers these past four years and we are excited that he will be running at Grace College with Melayna for the next four years, Lord willing.

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We also attended the open house of Melayna's best friend Victoria.  They have been good friends since the 1st grade and last year, Victoria went on spring break with our family.  We definitely wanted to wish her well as she heads off to Las Vegas to attend a dance academy this fall.  (And someday when this very talented young woman is a Rockette in New York, we will be cheering loudly for her)

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Since Noel and I were at a lot of open houses over the weekend, Nolan thought that it should be his responsibility to take care of Morgan while we were gone.  (It doesn't really matter that she has cared for herself for the past three years at college).  As she was trying to do her classwork online on Saturday, he brought up every. single. stuffed animal that he owns so that they could "look out for her" while he did a couple of things outside.  I have no idea how she got anything done... LOL

And then he also made them both grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch.  

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I started weeding my flower beds again.  I still have a lot of work to do in the current beds and I also need to buy some potted plants for the front porch.  Unfortunately, between the cold rainy weather that stuck around this spring and our busy end of the year schedule, I'm a little behind.

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On Sunday morning, Noel went across the state lines into Michigan with one of his buddies and they spent the day riding over 100 miles on the dirt track trails.  Noel is planning to ride across the state of Michigan at the end of June with this same guy, so they were trying to get some miles logged in preparation for that race.

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Morgan left on Monday morning for Grundy, VA where she will spend the next six or seven weeks interning at the Mountain Mission School.  We spent much of Sunday helping her pack and then we went out to dinner with her before walking the trail one last time.  I know it's only going to be six weeks, but we have enjoyed having her home this past month so we're all going to miss her while she's gone.

Nolan acts like he's annoyed by his older sisters, but he is really going to miss Morgan.  He has spent a lot of time with her these past four weeks and I think he's more sad about her leaving than he really wants to let on.  He made sure to walk right beside her and to talk to her on our entire walk.  LOL

She packed...

... and Marissa serenaded.  LOL

On a side note, Marissa bought her own guitar this past year while she was at school and she said that she spent many Sunday afternoons practicing and learning new songs.  She has really gotten so much better this past year and I enjoyed getting to listen to her play and sing.

We may have even paused Morgan's packing session for a mini praise service.

A sad sight to wake up to on Monday morning as her bags are packed and ready to go.

Nolan wanted to make her something to take with her, so he made this 3d printed heart that is also a fidget toy.

And there she goes.  Off to her next adventure...

Morgan would drive just under eight hours all by herself, arriving to her new place around 4:45 or so that aftenoon.  It was definitely a long trip for her to make by herself but the Lord provided for her and took great care of her.  I know that it doesn't seem like a big deal for those of us who have been driving distances like this for years, but she was nervous about driving that far by herself and she did it!  I told her that she can be proud of herself as this is a big achievement for her. (I am definitely proud of her)

And although I didn't track her progress the entire day, (because seriously, who has time for that?) I am thankful for apps on my phone that do allow me to see where she is on occasion and also when she arrived.

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Here are a couple of pictures of Mountain Mission School from their website.  

Morgan's apartment didn't get painted in time for her arrival, so she stayed in one of the extra dorm rooms for the first two or three nights.   

Then when she face timed with us on Thursday night, she said that a church group had come down to work on some projects and they had painted an apartment and they were ready to move her into it if she was ready.  She moved her few items over on Thursday and slept there Thursday night.  It's the first time in her life that she has had her very own bedroom or bathroom ...let alone an entire apartment, so she may get very spoiled this summer.  She walked around and gave us a tour and it looks like a really cute place.

She has been able to face time us in the evenings and it sounds like with many of the students gone for the summer, the staff is using the time to deep clean all of the dorm rooms and bathrooms and to organize many of the spaces that are busy during the school year.  They also have a gym that staff and residents can use to walk and to work out and the staff also spend their evenings eating together outside, which Morgan has really enjoyed so far.  There is another intern staying there this summer as well, so the two girls have driven into the 'exciting' town of Grundy a couple of nights to explore but it appears that the only hot spots are the McDonalds and Walmart.  

In the middle of the week, two brothers arrived on campus.  They are actually from central Indiana so we aren't sure what has brought them all the way to the school, but they have decided that Morgan is their "friend" and they have taken up most of her hours since they have arrived.  She said that it's a good thing that they are so cute because they are pretty rambunctious and they certainly wear her out!!

Despite the fact that there aren't many children there, Morgan had to take her turn at playground duty on Saturday so that made for a pretty lonely day, but she said that Sunday night was better as the two families on staff invited her and the boys to a festival / celebration downtown at the fairgrounds and they had a drone and firework show and plenty of snacks and treats to enjoy.

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Marissa went back for her post-op appointment on Monday and thankfully she has healed enough that the doctor released her back to all of her regular activities so she she immediately started teaching swimming lessons on Monday and she also got back to the pool for her own swimming work-outs, even if they are pretty low yardage for now.  She said that it was nice to get back in the water after some time off.

A friend sent me this picture last Friday.  She had come across the post on her facebook feed and she immediately recognized Marissa as the teacher.  Since the parent was saying such nice things about the teachers, she wanted to make sure that we saw the post.  I actually had a text that same day from another parent who wanted me to know what a great job Marissa does with her students.  Anyone out there need private swimming lessons?  

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Speaking of swimming, these pictures popped up on my memories over the weekend.  I took these pictures of Marissa when she was almost ten years old and was in her second summer of club swimming.  She's come a long way in the last ten summers.

Marissa is also almost half way done with her summer internship at the facility for battered and abused women.  (And men).   She seems to be learning quite a lot during her time there and she has even been able to use some of her Spanish skills to translate for the rest of the staff.  It has taken up a lot of her time, but I know that it's been very beneficial for her.

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After dinner the other evening, the temperature was cooling off so I asked the two younger kids if they wanted to go for a walk with me.  We headed over to the greenway and at the trailhead, there is a church and a playground.  We spent a minute or two there while the kids "played" and then we walked a couple of miles together.

Since Nolan was reliving his toddler days on the playground, he decided that we should play a game or two of "hide and seek".  Remember when kids are young and as long as they can't see you, they think you cannot see them?!

These two.... can I even take them anywhere together?!  LOL

When the "teacher voice" came out, Nolan straightened right up!!

We found this "little" guy while we were walking.

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We've had some really beautiful evenings this past week.  

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We have always tried to keep the kids' passports current and up to date so that we could travel out of the country if we wanted to or had the opportunity.  The older two girls both renewed their passports last year and then with Melayna turning 18 this year, it was time to get hers renewed as an adult for the next 10 years.  Nolan's passport is only good for five years at a time since he is still a minor so we renewed his passport for one more time this week.  (It's hard to believe that the next time we renew his passport, he will also be 18 and can do it himself).  I pulled out these gems and the girls and I got a good laugh out of them.  Even though we were laughing, Nolan wasn't really amused.  (He obviously wasn't amused when he got his pictures taken and he's still not amused when he sees them.)

Nolan is three years old in the top square and then the bottom square is the newest one that will go in his updated passport.  Age 13.

He is 8 years old in this photo.  'Not sure why he smiled like that, but it certainly makes us laugh every time we see the picture.

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In other news, the summer reading program started on Monday.  Nolan signed up as soon as the library opened the doors on Monday and now he's been spending quite a bit of time reading books and working on the worksheets.  

This memory popped up on my photo feed the other day.  The date said that Melayna was five years old.  Apparently, Laynie also had a lot of reading to do.  LOL

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Melayna worked as a volunteer this past week at the Cross Country Camp for Agaitas Ministries.  She came home the first day and was quite surprised at how much she had to run.  We all laughed and teased her quite a bit because isn't that the point of cross country camp?  LOL

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Of course there is always plenty of time to ride on the go-kart.

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On Friday morning, we went over to the "state send-off" as the girls track team was escorted out of town on their way to the state meet that would take place later that afternoon. Although Melayna won't be running, she was allowed to go as an extra for the team.  

And then on Saturday morning, the boys team (and Coach Howett) were also escorted out of town as the boys headed down for their meet which would start at 3:00 p.m.  Xander ran in the 100 high hurdles.

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While Noel was down at state with his runners, Marissa, Nolan, and I decided to head down to Kokomo to the college field where my nephew was playing in the regional championship game with his baseball team.  We had trouble finding a parking spot so we came in right as they were announcing the starting line-up.  

My nephew's team was the guest team so they would come to the plate first.  Thankfully they had a great inning and came out hitting right from the start.  The other team would change their pitcher twice in just the first two innings and the Eastbrook team would go up early.  Austin scored two runs and was walked two times in the game to help his team offensively...

...and then in the sixth inning, he was called from center field to the pitching mound where he closed out the game and Eastbrook won the regional championship with a score of 8-1.

He's buried somewhere in that pile after his team came in to celebrate with him.  LOL

Congratulations to the Eastbrook Panthers and good luck at semi-state next week.