Christmas at Our House.

Christmas at our house- We all got lots of good stuff, I got a Garmin GPS for the car, Charlie got a new staple gun, We went shopping together, and got them at the same time, We were looking for something for Ben, and Charlie said - Oh I need one of these.

I said do you need it before Christmas, if not put it in the cart I will wrap it and put it under the tree.
He already knew he wanted to get me the GPS, so picked it out and we paid for it.

Christmas Day, as I was about to open my gift I said "Gee I wonder what this is" and he looked at me funny, I said it is from you, still no glue, I opened it and he said oooh.

He opened his and I something like Gee, I hope that is what you wanted, since you picked it out, He said, I did? I guess he's right he needs to remember to take his ginkgo biloba pills or something :-) He also got a professional picture of Shonda (and Anna)

I also got a magic bullet blender and some new mixing bowls from Shonda,

Shonda got a new coat and tickets to the Taylor Swift Concert at the Wharton Center in January.

Shonda went to Kentucky on Christmas Day evening, with Brian's family to spend time with Brian's mom's side of the family. I think they are planning on coming back today.

You may remember I told you a couple of posts ago that I was scheduled to go to the sleep clinic.
I was not scheduled to spend the night at the sleep disorder clinic until January 28th, but they had a cancellation and asked me if I could come in called me on Wednesday December 26th.

The Dr. had told me they would do it in two nights: the first night they would watch me sleep with out the apparatus, the second night, which was already scheduled for February , they would put me in the apparatus and compare sleep patterns etc.

They wired me up and I went to bed about 10:30. They came in at one point, I'm guessing about midnight, and put an oxygen tube in my nose, and asked me to sleep on my back, I always sleep on my side. At the initial consultation they asked all kinds of questions, one was, have you ever woke up thinking you were suffocating, at the time I said no. Now I can see why they asked that question, there were about three times, I could not get a breath. They finally told me I could get in a comfortable position.

At about 3:00 AM they came in and put me on the CPAP (Continuous Positive Air Pressure) machine. I slept until about 7, and woke up by myself. So I had about 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep and felt better than the previous day when I got 8 hours. I felt more rested and nothing hurt.

So somebody is supposed to call me to set me up with a CPAP machine so I can use it for a few weeks before I see the Dr. again on February 11th.

Lynn told me that there is some indication that the sleep apnea can contribute to being overweight instead of the reverse like they have thought for many years. He had a patient that weighed over 300 pounds, and year after being treated for Sleep Apnea had lost 100 pounds, without going on a diet. He just didn't feel like eating, and had more energy.

I hope it makes me feel better, I am tired of being tired all the time.

Exchange Student Update

Charlie talked to our Area Rep from YFU today to find out how to get Anna-Lena's Christmas Gifts to her.
Yesterday afternoon, when Anna was taken to a temporary home, she of course pouted all the way there. When they got there they placed a call to the D.R. who spent 20 minutes on the phone telling her how things were going to happen-in know uncertain terms, including that she is to have no contact with PWSRN. Anna indicated that she understood. They hung up the phone and Anna asked if she would be able to spend Christmas with PWSRN. She is determined to have things her own way.

Family Christmas

We had the Choate family Christmas at the Potawatomi Inn, in Pokgaon State Park, near Fremont, Indiana, on Saturday evening.

We had a good time, got lots of nice things the “guys” and Jennifer and Shonda went on the toboggan run I don’t have any pictures though will someone send me some? Here are some of the pictures I do have. These are the ones, I used to finish up the scrapbook Kathy started for me.

A Very Rough Week

It has been a rough week. As you know if you have been reading this blog, Anna-Lena has not been happy. She has confided that to other people who, instead of telling a teenager

• that she needs to listen to her parents,
• that parents know what is best for their child,
• or yes every child gets angry at their parent and they will work things out if they talk about it.
• Or come and talk to us about their concerns,

At least two people people called the YFU office and told them Anna was unhappy and who knows what else, one Person, Who Shall Remain Nameless, filled out an application to have Anna live with them. Anna wanted to go stay with PWSRN, and was told, by YFU that would not be possible.

Anna doesn’t see that PWSRN has done anything wrong, even though we tried to tell her it is like calling the government and asking them to take a child away from their parents.

It was beginning to effect her health. she was having stomach pains, and one afternoon the school called, Charlie took her to the emergency room because they were so bad.

Anna met some kids from Holt and asked if she could transfer to Holt. Charlie told her it probably was not possible, for several reasons, not the least of which was that there is not bus that runs from here to Holt, a 30 mile trip one way, She really really wanted to find out so he told her he would check with the school and YFU (both said no by the way). She even had some check to see what busses ran from here to Holt.

We were asked to take her to a counselor last Sunday- the only one available was in Fenton, we drove there and back in the middle of the blizzard and saw several cars and a Semi truck in the ditch. It should have been a trip of a little over an hour and it took 3 hours

The counselor asked what we would all like from this “experience: What Anna said what she wanted was for me to spend more time with her, do more things with her, and that Charlie not be so strict, let her go to see who ever she wanted when ever she wanted. She thought it was too controlling to want to know where she was who she was with, how she was getting there and back and what time she would be home.

The counselor recommended that we all compromise, now that things were out in the open, what Anna expected what we expected. etc. That we try it for another 3-4 weeks and see what happens.

So for two days things seemed to be a little better. Then on Tuesday evening we got a phone call from one individual who told Charlie he was acting like he did not trust their family and that the way he treated Anna was disturbing and inappropriate

Before anyone else went to YFU with these accusations, Charlie called the District Rep and them and told them about it.
The D.R. Call Anna and talked to her, talked to Charlie and me.

Any way after several phone calls, and Anna telling us that the D.R told her something different that what was being told to us, We were told she would be moved, she could stay through Christmas until they found another family.
So she went to school yesterday, told them she was going to have to move, at least one teacher called YFU. Said she couldn’t take her but recommended someone else, All without talking to us again.
We had a huge emotional mess in the evening, talking to the D.R. Anna sobbing.
The D.R. Finally told us that every time she talked to Anna, PWSRN came up and Anna asked why she could stay with her again

She was sick, Friday evening, I heard her vomiting, she said she had an upset stomach.

She was telling us she didn’t want to leave she would miss her friends (the ones that she was so unhappy with last week) When I asked her if she wanted to stay in our home she refused to even answer.
She stayed at a friends home last night, the mother, another host mother, called the D.R, 3 times, again without talking to us.

In the end, Anna was moved Saturday afternoon, we are not sure what will happen, if she will be moved and stay on program, or go home to Germany. but she will not be coming back to Peters Road or to Springport. This has been very rough on us, especially for Charlie.

In the middle of all of this, I had a Doctor’s appointment, just a semi-annual Blood Pressure check, , He told me I looked awful. I told him I was really tired, and Charlie couldn’t sleep because I snore so loudly. He sent me to the sleep clinic for a consultation. They think I may have sleep apnea, and I have to go in the end of January so they can watch me sleep. Apparently, this is fairly easy to correct and can really make a difference in the way someone feels, when they get a good nights sleep.

Year in Review.

I have been negligent, and not written anything for 2 weeks. Not a whole lot to write about.

I guess I could do a year in review:

Our exchange student, Chris Hofer, participated in FFA leadership contests as a member of one of the Demonstration teams. He was able to go to the state convention in March. He went on the YFU trip to Florida in February then went to Florida again with some of his Friends for Spring Break in April. He participated on the Track Team, although he didn’t go to State the School did have some representatives did go.

Shonda continued to take classes at Jackson Community College and even managed to get a 4.0 in her math class.

In March, Joyce supervised a very successful Regional Celebration of Creativity Tournament.

Charlie’s horse herd was expanded by one- Storm was born on April 30, in the middle of a storm, just before midnight.

Niece, Michelle wedded Ben Murphy April 21.

Joyce was able to go to Knoxville, TN for the Destination ImagiNation Global Finals Tournament in May.

Chris “graduated” from Springport in June. Charlie and Joyce took him up North to see some of Michigan. At Sleeping Bear Dunes, Charlie amazed a bus full of tourists by going down the dune “cliff” to the lake and climbing back up in about 45 minutes. Joyce managed to break her ankle by stepping on the only twig in a well maintained path through the woods. Which some people found just hilarious, see the comments at

Chris returned to Switzerland in June.

We attended, cousin, Jordan Keeley’s wedding in July. A beautiful ceremony at the lake, even though the weather was HOT

Charlie created a “water feature” in the front yard, that attracted a couple of frogs. Then he went white water rafting in Virginia with the Springport FFA.

Shonda had her birthday on August 15^{th and} boyfriend, Brian turned 25 on the 16^th. It really doesn’t seem possible that she is 20 years old, or that we, Charlie and Joyce have been married 21 years.

A big disappointment this year was the defeat of the library expansion millage in August. That means a really tight budget next year, and no new buildings like we had all hoped.

Anna-Lena Werner, our exchange student from Germany arrived on August 17; we took a side trip to Cabela’s on the way home.

Charlie managed to get her involved with the Springport Equestrian team and she ran on the cross country team, the senior class built their float at our house and the girls practiced for powder puff football.

Shonda just finished another semester with a 4.00

The whole Choate clan welcomed Michelle and Ben's, Benjamin Robert Murphy into our family in October.

That’s our year in about 60 seconds. I guess you could call it the Betz’ minute review of 2007.

Check back, I’ll try to do better with the updates this year. I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas with friends and family.

Marjorie Virginia (Gilbert) Choate 1928-1999

Since Arthur put a tribute to Robert Choate (Grandpa) on his blog, and he never got a chance to meet Marjorie (Grandma.) I thought I would share this paper that Shonda wrote for her college English class.

Bob and Marjorie made a great pair- they complemented each other, and although there were times, they spit and sputtered at each other they were a little like the old couple in On Golden Pond. They were married for 52 great years. We all miss them.

The Dancing Gorilla
by Shonda Betz
October 2006

It’s sad to think that I don’t remember much about my grandmother. Even though she died when I was old enough to comprehend, it was during the time that she was alive that I took for granted. As a matter of fact, the only thing I completely remember is her laughter.

My grandmother’s laugh was magical. It could light up the whole room and make everyone in it want to laugh with her. Even after she had gotten sick with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, she kept laughing until the day she passed. It amazes me to look back and realize that with all the pain she encountered she still had enough spirit left to laugh. I know that is the type of person I would like to be.

I was first observant of my grandmother’s strength and spirit when I was about four years old. She taught defense to young children at a local school where she lived in Ohio. Being her youngest granddaughter, I was a very special exception when I went down to visit.

“No!” she would shout, crossing her arms, imitating a young child in danger of being abducted. “Now you try it” Being four and stubborn, I was no stranger to yelling “no”

"NOOO!” I screamed my forehead scrunched up in anger, nearly growling out of my curled lips. She looked at me a while before she started laughing.

"Very good” she complimented, still chuckling at the attitude and spirit of her grandchild.

It was a few years later when I had gone down to visit my grandparents after Thanksgiving to help my grandpa make his yearly batch of peanut brittle. My job was always the same: grease the pans. It was boring, dull and most of the time I left clumps of butter stuck to the metal side. This particular season, I decided that I was going to do the job perfectly. Grabbing my napkin, I scrubbed my heart and soul into that pan. I was determined there were going to be no butter clumps this year.

Showing off the three pans to my grandmother proudly, I sat back and waited for her reaction. Surprisingly, after looking curiously at the small tubs on her table she began to chuckle.

"Bob," she giggled loudly into my grandfather’s ear. “Look what she did to the pan!” I was shocked. I thought I had done excellent work.

"What did I do?” I demanded to know. My grandmother grabbed the pans off the table and held them down for me to see.

“You scrubbed all the butter off” she burst out laughing at my much too eager attempts. At first disappointed, I began pouting solemnly in the kitchen chair, my knees pressed up against my chest and my arms wrapped around my legs. But my grandma kept laughing and I eventually gave in, laughing at myself.

It was about this time when my grandmother found out she was sick. Nothing changed about her mood. When the hallucinations started occurring she could still laugh about it. It was because of her happy disposition that I never realized how sick she really was. The last day I saw her was the day she passed away.

When my mother and I walked into her house everything was the same. My grandma was setting peacefully on the couch working whole heartedly on one of her crossword puzzles. My grandfather was watching one of his baseball games on the television, the volume blaring just so he could hear. We sat for four hours laughing, talking and catching my grandparents up on what was going on in my life. We left and ten hours later we got a phone call that she had passed away.

At her funeral, her sense of humor shined through. Flowers, plants, and other gifts that our family received were piled around the front of the funeral home. Sitting almost unnoticed, with the exception of a few people, was a small stuffed gorilla clinging to the trunk of a small tree that my grandmother’s sister had sent. Occasionally it would start singing the Macarena.

"What is this?” my great aunt fumed, disgusted by the fact that the florist would put a singing and dancing gorilla on her plant without her permission. “I’m going to call them RIGHT now!” My cousin quickly stopped her, before she stormed off.

"Aunt Lois!” my cousin laughed, “we put it on there! It was one of Grandma’s favorites!”

Aunt Lois turning her head curiously to the side looked one more time at the gorilla as it suddenly started to sing one more time.

We all began to laugh uncontrollably. How could we not? We continued to laugh for the rest of the night. I am sad to have lost that wonderful woman from my life but, in my heart I knew that we could celebrate her life.

My grandma taught me about the kind of person that I want to be. I want to be able to laugh at all my flaws and through all my pain. I want to have people at my funeral talking about what a giver and how I was kind and wonderful person I believe that that is the most important lesson that I have learned so far in my life. It’s because of her life lesson that I now feel that I am ready to take on anything that life throws my way and in a few years start a family of my own.

Another Exciting Week Some good books

Not much happening - AGAIN
Anna went to a couple of Basketball practices and did not like it at all, she didn't like the coach yelling, hurry up, you have to be faster. At the urging of a couple of other girls she went out for cheerleading, and everyone makes the team. Because she is so small she was selected to be one of the "fliers" but 3 of the four girls who are her lifters have never done that before so there are some challenges in working that out- you can't fly if your lifters cannot lift and hold evenly. She seems to be having fun and says the girls are much friendlier than some of the girls she has had in her classes.

She as had some of the girls come up to her and tell her not to talk to some boy because that is so and so's boyfriend. In an effort to meet new people and make new friends, she asked one of the girls on the equestrian team if she could be her physics lab partner. The girl shrugged gave her " a look" and said , I guess, when another girl came up she said "is SHE working with us? Girl 1 said again with a shrug and a look, "I guess."

One of the girls whom she is working with in Spanish knew me from DI, and is a real sweetie, they seem to get along better.

Anna is frustrated because so many of the kids do not do their work and the teachers let them get away with it and don't feel like they can move on if 95% of the kids don't "get it."

For example: In English the kids were supposed to read the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and have a quiz on it this week and because most of the kids have not read it, because it is "too hard" Anna-Lena has to read, it Charlie reads it then they discuss it because she is trying to understand the old southern dialect and she got it done. The teacher has given them another two weeks.

In Spanish they have taken the same "map quiz" three or 4 times. When one of the girls said something the teacher said, something about her being smart and couldn't she the teacher couldn't move ahead until the class gets it.

It seems to me that if the teachers would not coddle them quite so much and really expect them to do their work they would get farther,

On to more "cheerful" subjects. Brian, Shonda's boyfriend, got a nice 8 point buck this week, and his dad got a really nice one too. I don't have any pictures, maybe Shonda took some I can share later.

Only three days of work this week- I am taking Friday after Thanksgiving off, I don't usually do that. I don't plan on doing any heavy shopping either- I hate those crowds.

Oh, a hint for those of you who might be checking several blogs, if you subscribe to a feed, you only have to check one spot to see which ones have been updated. Go to Common Craft- Social Design for the Web for a better explanation.

I sent an e-mail to those I thought might be interested but in case I missed you- I added some family history pictures to my flickr account, last week. go to flickr.com and search for betzspt- it will pull up all of my pictures.
Anna also has an account- if you are interested search for annaleanwerner. You can also do an RSS feed on flickr accounts.

I just finished reading Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen- It was a pretty good book. I'd be interested in what some of the rest of you thing.

I also read Bless Me Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, the book chosen for the Libraries "Big Read" this year. I did not care for this one, but would be interested in what the rest of you thing about this one too.

For more light reading- A Bear in the Attic by Patrick F. McManus, I try to take some of these with us when we travel, It is something all three of us can listen to and enjoy together.

If any of you have read The Mitford Years series of books by Jan Karon, She is starting a new series, the first one Home to Holly Springs, and takes Father Tim back to his boyhood home.

Later - JB

Que' Pasa?

As George Carlin used to say "Que' Pasa?"
My answer, not much this week, pretty quiet here, At work I had orientation for two new library employees, I think they will work out well, they both seem to be a lot of fun and have a lot of enthusiasm.
At home, Winter sports awards- Anna received an all conference academic athlete award for having a grade point of 3.2. She also received an MVP in Cross country, I think all three of the Seniors did for being good role models for the younger team members.

Anna went bowling with the Cross country team on Friday and shopping in Lansing with one of the girls on Saturday. She and Shonda are Christmas shopping again today.

Charlie got a couple more pictures of deer on his trail camera- I think they are of the same deer he got pictures of last week.

Noting else- pasaing here.

Quiet Week

A quiet week. Anna had a cross country meet on Monday the Jenson meet at Sharp Park
Anna came in about 30th , with a time of 22:20, her personal best.
She is trying out for basketball. Practice starts tomorrow, she has never played American Basketball, but has played German Handball, which I guess is played as a team sport, We’ll have to see how it goes.

Shonda and Anna went Christmas Shopping yesterday- Shonda says she didn’t want to wait until the last minute.

Charlie moved his trail camera and got a couple of pictures. He moved it to a new spot the other day and when he checked it today there was a big scrape and rub across the “trail“ from the camera.

Anna asked me if other people could go out hunting, with hunters, I told her sure, although Charlie hasn't hunted yeat this year he would probably take her out and let her see what it is like. I told her they really don't do much except sit and wait for something to walk by.

Talk to you all later. J.

Movie

Shonda, Anna and I just got back from a movie, Dan, in Real Life. I usual don't say this but I think this one was worth the $5.75 we each paid for it. It was not as funny as Shonda thought it would be, It had its laugh out loud funny, and it had it's teary eyed touching, moments.

I forgot to mention in the last post that Charlie put his trail camera out, we checked it ou for pictures today and he got 39 pictures of weeds blowing in the breeze.

More later j

Technology Woes, Football woes. Movies and books

Not much happened this week. I spent most of the week trying to figure out what was wrong with my computer. I think it got some kind of virus, or spyware (I have McAfee anti- virus program and update it at least every week) but it was really really really slow. It took days to make sure I had everything backed up. then I had to run the recovery disk. It is finally working but It takes a while to get everything re-installed etc.

Friday night football, The Springport Spartans, played at Sand Creek in the first round (pre-districts) of the MHSAA Football playoffs.
The weather was pretty nice for Football, but the game was not so good. Final score Sand Creek 35-Springport 14. Sand Creek has some tall kids on that team, one of them was listed as 6' 10". Spirngport needs to learn how to tackle, not around the waist and shoulders - around the knees and feet guys. On one play a Sand Creek player made 5 yards with 3 Springport players hanging on him. If Springport wants to use a running game they better have some blockers clear some room for their runners.

Cross Country Regionals was Saturday- at Ann Arbor Huron. Anna came in 21st in a field of 85, not bad, but only the top 20 go on to State. Her time was not great 23 minutes or something, It was raining and cold and they had a huge sledding hill.

The Jensen Run is Monday afternoon, with a banquet for that on November 5th. The school fall sports awards is November 8th.

A couple of weeks ago we watched the DVD Wild Hogs, with Tim Allen, John Travolta, William H. Macy and I can't remember the other guy. Oh yeah, Martin Lawrence. Not bad, Charlie, Anna, and I watched the whole thing. It was one of those, where I said, OK, I'm glad I didn't pay $10 to see, (but it would take a lot for me to say it was worth $10 ) but it wasn't bad for $1.00 I paid at the library.

Charlie and Anna wanted to watch a video last night, and Charlie thought Anna would like to see The Gods must be Crazy. About an African Bushman, trying to return a soda bottle to the God's and all of the things going on around him that he doesn't understand. Charlie and Shonda thought that was the funniest movie when they first watched. it about 10 years ago. I watched it with them once, it was OK. I watched about 20 minutes last night and went back to working on the computer. Anna watched about half and decided to go to bed. We have a VHS Copy of that one and The Gods must be Crazy II if anybody wants to borrow them. I don't think you can rent them anymore.

I just finished reading (listening) to a book that Jackson has chosen for the "Big Read" Project in the Spring. Bless Me Ultiama- about a young Catholic, Hispanic boy in New Mexico right after World War II. I really didn't like it. It was about the clashing of cultures- speaking only Spanish at home- English at school, his catholic faith (his mother hoping he would be a priest) vs witch-craft, and paganism, changing cultures. For one thing I couldn't identify with any of it. It was dark, and I did not find it at all enjoyable or uplifting. Ed do you know anything about the story? If you want to try reading maybe you can get something out of it I didn't.

I didn't get any good pictures of fall color but there was an awesome sunset on Tuesday. Got some nice pictures, The sky was purple ( it didn't come out well in the photos) before it turned orange. A beautiful full moon this week too.
Keep on keeping on- JB

Week-end happenings.

I was a real slacker last week, and didn't write anything. and worse yet, I have no excuses, except that not much happened.

I can't even remember what we did last week-end. We did not go to the Springport Union City football game. They lost but only by one touch down. - Oh now I remember, we did one of my favorite things- we went shopping !!! Anna needed a new winter coat.

On Saturday Anna had a cross country meet in Constantine. Then she went to Grand Rapids and spent the night with a friend from Germany. I did laundry and grocery shopping- two of my other favorite things. On Sunday we drove half way to pick her up.

Monday Shonda, Anna and I went to meet baby Benjamin Murphy. What a cutie, even if he did sleep most of the time, except for the few minutes that Shonda feed him.

Tuesday, the 16th, Anna had a Cross Country meet at Homere, she has her best time at 22:40. but finished, I think 11th.

Sometime in there the computer started acting up, it is being really slow and takes for ever to get anything done.

Thursday, I took Anna-Lena and Christina to Charlotte, to shop (yeah) for Charlie's Birthday gifts, one of the first things they stopped to look at was make-up, I had to remind them that we were there looking for something for Charlie. The weather was terrible on the way home. I apparently missed the worst of the storm, the tornado siren went off in Springport about midnight (Friday somebody said it is the first time they remember it going off in 40 years.) I never heard a thing.

Friday, the 19th we went to Bellvue, actually Olivet for the Bellvue-Springport football game. I was afraid we were going to get really wet, but it wasn't too bad. Springport won 31 -10. They played much better than they have the last several weeks and got, what seemed to me, like many fewer fouls. Which means they made it to the play-offs for the second year in a row.

If anybody from Gobles in reading this, Do we have any "Gilberts" on the football team this year? Cecilia says Hi to your exchange student.

Saturday-another Cross Country meet, at Whitmore Lake, Anna- didn't do as well, time wise, but she did finish in the top third and got a medal. Charlie went to a horse clinic up the road, learned a little about who to "de-sensitize" horses, in other words get them to be less afraid of new things and distractions.
We went up to MSU to the Draft horse show on Saturday evening, Saw some awesome looking teams of 6 and 8 huge horses pulling their wagons. How cool. I told Charlie I'd ride in the wagon with him if he ever wanted to compete in that kind of show. (I will try to post some pictures later)

Shonda and Brian came over on Sunday and we had Charlie's Birthday dinner. They bought him a trail cam for his birthday so maybe I will have some deer pictures to post if I ever get the computer to work properly. (I am posting this from work, by the way-shhh!!)

Next week is regionals, I think ours is at Ann-Arbor Huron, not sure if it is Friday or Saturday. Football at Sand Creek Friday at 7:00. I know we used to have some relatives that went to school there, but I don't know if we still do or not.

Leaves are finally getting some nice color, maybe I can get out and get some pictures of those too.

That's all for now -

Ciao, J.

Catching up- Odds and Ends

Photos
I took this first picture- on the left, on the way to Jonesville one evening, couple of weeks ago, The one on the left, I took on the way to work, while waiting at a stop light on airport road.

Football
Springport lost their football game last night, really lost- 44-0.
There was a nice article about the freshman quarter back in the Jackson Paper on Thursday, I was going to put the link in but I can’t find it at Mlive.com, The regular QB got a concussion, his second, and hurt his shoulder in the second game of the season, they brought up a freshman, to replace him instead of taking a couple of the other kids who were doing well in their current positions and leaving holes where they would have been. Nic was doing well.

This was a big game– a chance for the league championship, the first time since 1973- Springport’s record 5-1 overall, 5-0 in the conference. Reading 4-1 in the conference, and Union City 5-0 in the conference. We knew it was going to be a tough came, but this was really really ugly, after Reading’s second touchdown, it was like they just gave up.
The poor quarter back, the whole team was having a terrible night.
Anna-Lena said that one of the kids was so mad about it he pounded something and went home, instead of hitting somebody, but the rest of the team had an Oh, well attitude.
There was a big article in the Citizen Patriot Yesterday (Saturday) too.

They have win at least one of their next games (Union City and Bellevue to make it to the playoffs.)

Cross Country
Anna had a meet on Tuesday at Jonesville and finished well, with a time of 23:15 At the meet this morning in Bellevue, she finished 8th in 23:30 her goal is to finish in under 21. They have I think 6 more meets, and it should be a little cooler so she still has a chance to make it.

She is at a horse show in Delton, this afternoon and tomorrow I’ll let you know how that goes.

Tom, Kathy and Michelle, came to the meet to watch cheer Anna-Lena, Michelle is still very pregnant, but it could be anytime. I was rooting for yesterday, (October 6, Mom's birthday,) but I guess not.

Christoph
We got an e-mail from Christoph, he says he has been busy with school, but now as a break or a vacation for 3 weeks. He also says he is trying out for a football team in November, American Football.

Shonda
Still attending JCC, working 3 days a week for Spartan Motors in Charlotte. Between that and her boyfriend, we don't see much of her, but that's what happens at 20 years old.

Don't we lead an exciting life?

Oh I have written a couple of book reviews for the Jackson District Library Webpage Blog, not because the books were so great or because I am an expert, but because we needed to put some new stuff on our webpage. So far, I have reviewd The Nanny Diaries, The Earth, My Butt and Ohter Big Round Things, and Playing for Pizza.
If you would like to read them, the reviews, not the books, look on the left hand side of the page, click on the ones, with book review in the title.

Football, Floats and Birthdays

Another busy week: Powder Puff football, on Wednesday. The seniors won, and the girls complained about how sore they were for three days. Springport’s homecoming, the senior float placed second, but they took the little brown jug for spirit week. The theme for the floats this year was rooms in the house, the Seniors got the bathroom and did Crush ‘em and Flush ‘em. They had a Quincy player spinning in the toilet. The judges apparently didn’t like that as well as the Juniors, whose room was the kitchen, “Toast the Orioles”

The football team won the homecoming game 14-6, nobody scored until the end of the third quarter. This makes them, 5-0 in the conference and 5 -1 overall. They play Reading next week, (4-1 in the conference) and Union city 5-0. This means they have a chance at the conference title; their last Big Eight title was 1973. They also need one more came for the play-offs. GO BLUE- GO WHITE!!!
We drove to Centreville, to see a horse clinic on Saturday. Dennis Reis, who is on RFD-TV. They called Charlie a few weeks ago and asked him if he was interested in free tickets. He asked for enough for the parents of the questrian team because they all said they would like to go, but it ended up just one other family. Oh, well, that's what happens-everyone is just so busy.

Then the Senior class came here for their float burning bonfire.
Today Anna-Lena went to the Detroit Lions game, with a friend whose boss, has season tickets. If you’re watching on TV look for her ;-)
Anna made a comment a couple of days ago that she has not had a weekend- to sleep in since she has been here. It certainly isn’t my schedule that’s keeping her from sleeping late. She still has a few more weeks, before she will have the opportunity to sleep in, there is a cross country meet and horse show next weekend- and Cross Country the next week.

Today is my brother, Ed's birthday. Barry didn't like the picture I put in when it was his birthday and reminded me that Ed's was coming up so here is a picture Happy Birthday Ed, I

Charlie is leaving this afternoon for Houghton Lake fishing with his brother tomorrow, so check back to see what he catches, and maybe some good fish stories.

Did you know that this week is the 20th anniversary of the smiley face emoticon :-)
Keep smiling. J

Cross Country

Cross country meet at Concord, Anna cut another 15 seconds off her time. She was not thrilled but the coach pointed out that this was the first time she had run this course and she cannot expect to take a full minute off her time at each race.

Springport Homecoming-

As part of Springport's Homecoming festivities they are having a powderpuff football game tomorrow (Wednesday evening.) Each class has a team and they will play the other classes. That means the Senior class has 3 foreign exchange students who had never heard of football, until 3 weeks ago on the team. The rest of the girls aren't real sure what is going on either. They were practicing at the house last night this game should be hilarious. I have to work, until 8:00 but I will find somebody to take pictures and enter them later. The games start at 6:00 PM at the High School if anybody wants to watch.

Cross Country, Baby Showers, and Homecoming Floats

Well, another busy weekend
Friday Night Football, Springport beat Jonesville, after a scary first half, going into half time behind 7-14, they came out pumped, and beat them 35-14.
Yesterday Anna, had a cross country meet in Pittsford, she came in 5th of 50 and cut another minute off her time – three miles in 23.2 minutes. Her goal is to get under 21. There are 5 more weeks in the Cross Country season, so she has a good shot, if she keeps up that pace.

Shonda and I went to a baby shower for Michelle, my niece. Her due date is October 10 but there are lots of family members with birthdays in September and October. An uncle today, and apparently he, the baby has missed that one. My brother has a birthday next week, Arthur, the baby’s uncle on October first, one of my aunts on the second, my mothers on the 6th, and two of my uncles on the 9th. I guess we have a no money, pool going. Here is a picture of “the girls” Anna went to a battle of the bands last night in Jackson. She says it is not her favorite kind of music, (the head banging screaming kind) but it was fun.
Anna had a YFU meeting today
And it is homecoming week, the seniors are building their float at our house. That is always fun, one of the kids, Justin, is what Charlie calls a back yard engineer, give him a few supplies and he can figure out how to make almost anything. I think Justin was amazed that Charlie had so much stuff, he would say do you have…?, by the end of the day, he finished with “of course you do.”
Sometimes, it seems like a lot of work, but it is fun, and I think it helps to keep us active and involved. Here are couple of pictures, I can't show you too much. We don't want the competition to know what we are doing, too soon. :-)
Later, J

Horses shows and what are they talking about.?

Wow, a busy week-end. A two day horse show, trying to do laundry, and grocery shop.
I just finished the laundry(9:00PM on Tuesday,) and have not done the weekly grocery shopping.
The Springport Football team, beat Concord 40-0 on Friday. Even some of the team members said the third quarter was boring. Springport played the second string and Concord still couldn’t score.
This weekend was the district horse show, the first place team advance to regionals. I think Springport was only 4 points short.
I have to say, after watching horses for out of 8 days, I don’t get it at least not the finer points. One of the girls competed in a “trail pattern,” she had to make the horse side step a pole, open a gate, step over some poles, check a mail box and back up between two poles. I didn’t see any mistakes, she came in third.
I sat in the bleachers with people talking about the horses changing leads, (which foot they lead with) I never did see it, Charlie says when they lead with one side, it reaches a little farther than the other side, I can’t see it.don't all lead with their front feet? It’s like watching skating on TV and me being able to see the difference between a sachow and a lutz or whatever they call it.
The speed events were fun to watch, even the coaches said the fitting and showing (the picture on the left) and the equitation (the picture on the right) are kind of boring.
Oh, well, the idea was for Anna, to participate and have some new experiences, and get to know some new people. We accomplished that. Here is a neat picture of one of the Springport girls jumping.

Upcoming events:
This week-end a baby Shower and YFU meeting. Next week all week. The Senior class is building the homecoming float at our house, homecoming parade and football.

Cross Country and Horse shows.

Friday September 7, 2007.

It has been a busy week. School starting, getting into a routine, cross country practice, equestrian practice, cross country meets, equestrian meets, we have had something going on every night this week. Tonight a football game. Tomorrow the first equestrian meet. Wow, and I thought I was through with all this running around.

Anna had her second Cross Country meet on Wednesday, the Springport invitational, I would guess there were about 350 kids competing. She finished in the top half of the pack and cut about 2 (TWO) MINUTES off her time from last week, but now her knee is bothering her (an old injury that she has had surgery on.)

Saturday September 8, 2007

Our first equestrian meet today- WOW. We got there about 8:00 AM and didn’t get home until after 6:00. Anna was supposed to compete in 6 different classes, or events but the horse she has borrowed, was not cooperating today. He was good in the first event, showmanship. In the first riding event, he was “being very uncooperative, he was bucking and jumping around, they had to take him out of the ring so he would not endanger other horses and riders. They managed to get him calmed down and a little more cooperative, in time for her to ride in one of her scheduled events. She placed third in showmanship. The event she competed in they had to split, (two heats) then called back the top 12. She was called back for the final group but did not place. At least now, she knows what to work on and we know what to expect at our next horse show Satruday and Sunday next week.

That's why I don't ride horses- arguing with a 2,000 pound animal does not sound like fun to me.

Friday Night Football

11:45 PM.
GO BLUE-
I just got home from what has to be one of the longest High School Football games on record. 4 hours and 10 minutes.
First, with 2:34 left in the first half they called a lightening delay- not rain just lightening, that took and an hour and twenty minutes. Then Homer had 2, 3, 4 injured players that took several minutes to get up and walk off the field. I think at least one of them was just tired and wanted to rest.


Half time was during the weather delay, so they had to come out and finish the second quarter. Springport's Tyler Tarpley made a 93 yard run for a touch down. Springport got another touch down at the begining of the third quarter, then it got really boring for most of the rest of the game. Fianlly Springport over Homer 39-28.

Horses

Anna-Lena had her first Cross Country meet on Wednesday, she finished 19, out of about 50. She ran 3 miles in less than 30 minutes. I don't think I can walk 3 miles without resting.

We decided not to go Up North this weekend; Anna-Lena had a cross-country practice and some horse stuff to do. She will be riding with the Springport Equestrian team, riding the horse of a friend, who teaches riding. We spent most of yesterday doing horse stuff, took her to see a horse show in Mason, she is a little confused by some of the terms and how they do things differently here than in Germany.

The picture on the left is Anna-Lena practicing in Finney. The horse she will be riding next week-end. The picture on the left is her riding in Germany.

Anna-Lena will be riding in the Hunt seat, Saddle Seat and Bareback class. I have no idea what that means except that bareback is without a saddle, the riders yesterday were wearing, derby hats and what looked almost like tuxedos. Most of the other Springport team members ride western, I believe this is the first time Springport has had anyone ride in these classes.

Then we picked up the horse, took her to another friends house who helped Anna with the showmanship part, leading the horse around the arena. That is a little different in Germany too.

The team’s first competition of the year is next Saturday, at the Ingham county fair grounds in Mason. I think they will be taking the horses over on Friday night, and the show is on Saturday. She is excited about being able to at the fair grounds with the coaches and other girls. More later. JB

Week-end Wanderings

It has been a pretty busy week-end. It started on Friday evening when Shonda called, on her way home, from her new job, said she had had a scare when she was the only person in the office, and someone came in told them there was a tornado warning and neither of them new where to go, they finally found the rest of the staff.

Brian, Shonda’s boy friend, called in from his way home from Muskegon said there were houses with the roofs torn of in Charlotte. I called Jenn, to find out they were OK but Arthur’s cousins were not as lucky. Check out his blog at http://www.arthurandjenn.com/?page=1, As he says thank God no one was hurt.

The storm and rain stopped in time for the Football, game. We took Anna-Lena and a neighbor girl. Neither one of them were familiar with the game. It was not very exciting. The first have wasn’t too bad, 14-14., In the third quarter it was like Springport couldn’t figure out what was happening. Vandercook made a touch down in the third but after that there wasn’t much happening until late in the fourth quarter when Srpingport got the ball back and Shane Trudell made a couple of good runs. Oh for those of you who might recognize them. There is a Negus on the Vandercook football team. There were Neguses on the team when I was going to school, must be grand kids huh?

I did find out that there are probably 3 guys who have "eyes" for Anna already and school hasn't even started.

Saturday we did boring house stuff. Laundry, groceries, etc. Anna needed some things for cross country and we bought a replacement mini blind to replace a broken one, and a pay as you go cell phone so Anna has it for emergencies.

Buying that phone was annoying, I knew what I wanted, but had to have a clerk unlock the phone, Anna and Charlie were with me, someone asked a question and the clerk who had not much of an idea what he was talking about tried to sell me smoothing I didn’t want, and created a whole lot of unnecessary confusion with 4 us trying to decide. Geeze I hate that.

Got home the shade was not wide enough, and we couldn’t activate the phone (they are only open during regular Monday-Friday business hours. I have to take the blinds back today and activate the phone today too. Not a big deal, just seems like everything goes haywire at once.

Anna went to watch a member of the equestrian team take her horse to jumping lessons, the coach from the Eaton Rapids team said she really should be on the Springport team, but we don’t have horse that is trained for shows and competition. When Charlie talked to the Springport Coach last spring, she indicated that they don’t want “kids or horses that aren’t trained.” A neighbor offered one of his horses. Anna rode it but it isn’t trained for that kind of riding. We finally made a contact with someone who knew someone else that might be willing to help. Charlie and Anna talked to her last night, she has a couple of horses that may work. Now they have to see if they have “room” on the Springport team.

We attended a Lansing Lugnuts game on Sunday, a beautiful day. This was supposed to be a library employee/family outing, but there were only 6 of us total, (2 employees) Anna and her friend had never seen a baseball game, so the first few innings were spent explaining the game to them. The game was a little slow during innings 4-8 when with a seven run lead, the lugnuts almost lost the game to the loons but managed to pull of a win by 1 run. http://www.lansinglugnuts.com/press_box/press_release_archive/8_26_07.html )

One young man (no more than 6 years old) who was standing in the front row almost caught a foul ball, but missed, because it hit him in the head and bounced off to a the kids in the next seat. He went to dad, crying with a big head ache. The head ache seemed to stop when his friend gave him the ball, later he really made out when one of the players walked out and gave him a bat apparently to help him recover from the pain.

We all had an opportunity to do the chicken dance and the hokey pokey. Yeah ;-)

The weather was beautiful and we had great seats, row 11, and right at first base. a good time was had by all (see the pictures)

Like I said a busy week-end- I’ll keep you posted.

Welcome to Michigan USA

Well, we picked up our new foreign exchange student from the Airport in Detroit, on Friday morning. The plane was right on time. Anna-Lena is the one on the right, Charlie is in the middle, and Lesley is a girl from the high school we took along so Anna-Lena would be able to make a friend early.

We took her to Cabala’s to show her around, it has been several years since I had been there and it was the original one in Nebraska., I had forgotten how really big it is.

She and Charlie started out riding on Saturday afternoon, but weren’t gone very long before they ran into an hornets nest, the ones who build nests in the ground. The horses went crazy, Anna-Lena jumped off her horse, tore off her sweatshirt, and headed for the house. She was stung about a dozen times. Luckily no major adverse reactions. Charlie went back to get his horse and said her shirt was covered with the bees. When he looked later, he surmised that the horses has stepped right on the nest and pretty much tore it up.

We had invited a few kids over to meet her on Saturday night. We were going to have a bonfire but couldn’t because of the burning ban.

Ok Plan B do hotdogs on the grill, while the kids hung out in the yard.

It poured rain.

Ok Plan C – move the grill to the carport, - and we made roasted marshmallows, for s’mores over the propane flame.

On Saturday Charlie took her to Katie’s house, another horse person, she came home all excited about watching the equestrian competition today.

Shonda Starts a new semester at JCC today. She will be working regular hours and not weekends, and makes more money. Yeah!

Cucumber Canoes

Something came up last week at a meeting, that nobody else had heard of, I (we) must have had a strange childhood.

A friend said that she must have missed a cucumber when she was picking them from her garden the other day because she found a really really big, one when she was picking them.

I said when I was a kid; we used to take those, cut them in half lengthwise, and hollow them out and float them in the tub, as canoes, for toys.

Nobody else had heard of that, they thought it was one of the funniest things they had ever heard.

Ok, so does anybody else remember any of that?

That makes me think of:

-playing in the yard and making houses in the corn crib, or under the picnic table.

-homemade pies, sprinkling sugar on the dough trimmings and baking it. Yum.

-It also makes me think of picking and cleaning peas, green beans, strawberries pitting cherries, and cutting corn of the cob -Yuck.

But- Eating fresh jam and jelly Yum.

-going barefoot all summer and being able to walk in the gravel without it hurting by July.

OK, your turn what does that make you remember? Make a comment.

Family History and other stuff

Ok, I told myself when I started this that I WOULD write something at least once a week; I have found that sometimes that is not easy to do. Who wants to read about me doing the laundry and going to the grocery store?

I was away from work for 2 weeks, I had to take some vacation or loose it. We didn’t do anything in particular just hung around home and took it easy. I did work on some genealogy and found some extensions of existing branches and some new branches.

I put some family history pictures on flickr a couple of weeks ago. Last week I got a call from someone up by Clare who has been working on the Crosthwaite branch for several years. Her great grandfather was my great grandmother’s brother, so we are third cousins.

There is a feature on Ancestry.com that will show you famous people to whom you may be related. So I found out that my mother was probably not related to anyone famous, but my dad was related to five of the original Mayflower passengers, President, Chester Arthur, Rutherford B. Hayes’s wife, several authors including Laura Ingalls Wilder, Robert Louis Stevenson, a couple of Canadian prime ministers among others. I am not sure this link will work but you can try it.

http://trees.ancestry.com/RelationFinder/relate.aspx?pid=-1754542736&tid=3270021&pt=1

I went back to work this week and had a few things to catch up on, and the millage vote for the library expansion was on Tuesday. We are all disappointed that it did not pass. It has been rather subdued at the library this week. We need to look at the reasons and decide where to go from here.

As training coordinator I am always looking for ways to keep the library staff informed and up to date on new technology and library trends. I found this a couple of weeks ago and thought that some of you might find it useful too, especially if you have some websites that are frequently updated. And in case you do not know what an RSS feed is. This explains it very well, in a very few minutes and it’s easy to understand. http://www.commoncraft.com/rss_plain_english

Happy Trails

Frogs and Toad

I have to share this. Charlie came in this morning asking where the camera was. I walked out and saw what looked like a clod of mud or a wasp's nest on the end of a can. As I got closer I saw that It was neither- it's a gray toad.

Then This afternoon he found these: Real frogs in our artificial pond.










I also got an e-mail today from a woman who found some of my family history pictures on filcker. Crossthwaite family pictures. She says she has some of the same pictures. Her great grandfather was our great grandmother's brother. I am in the process of sending her information and trying to add to hers on Ancestry.com.

July 27, 2007

Not a whole lot happening this week. I am on vacation, which means I am taking time off work but we are not going anywhere. Monday, I attended the "Open House" at the Springport Branch Library, not many people there for the open house but the library was fairly busy. I have made a few calls about the library expansion project, reminding people to vote, asking if we can use there names in an endorsement ad. In case you live in the area, and are not familiar with the Library expansion issue. Please check out the library web page. and please support us on Tuesday August 7th.
I went to Lake Michigan with some friends, on Wednesday, not a great day weather wise it was only 68 degrees, according to the bank thermometer, in South Haven. It started raining at about Kalamazoo, and rained on and off the rest of the way there. It was cloudy but the rain held off for a couple of hours, so the kids had fun and we got away and had a nice lunch. The pictures of the lighthouse aren't great but here it is anyway.

Arthur, my nephew has been bitten by the family history bug. His grandfather flew in WWII and his cousin has tracked down a man who was a member of his grandfathers crew so I have been doing some digging for him. I am a little amazed at how much information I came up with from my home computer in just a few hours.

We got a copy of the DVD from Charlie's Whitewater rafting trip, but since I haven't figured out how to post it to the blog yet, I am going to refer you to Youtube for a sample of what it was like. http://youtube.com/watch?v=r_ZAGbWqfqY&mode=related&search=
This is not Charlie's group but it will give you an idea of what it was like.

Oh and one more thing, Charlie has decided to join the 21st century he finally got decided to get a --drum roll please---- TA DA...A CELL PHONE. ;-)