It's Camp Tecumseh Week!

Second Post of the Day

Our second round of summer family visiting began this past week. 

Cole arrived on Thursday to pick up his dad and take him on a trip to Maine!

They're having a lot of fun together

and I hear that the lobster rolls in Maine are the best!

The pups are great company for me here at home

although Tammo has been laughing at my noodle-armed frisbee throws.

Cole brought Henry and left him with Lisa. (She has a doggy door and a fenced in yard; I don't.)

A very proud and happy Henry after he won a three way tussle with Nash and Rosie for Squeaky Dragon.

Emily and the girls were in Michigan last week visiting her sister's family and they are coming here today to spend the week with us.

I did a Walmart delivery yesterday afternoon in preparation for their visit.

This is an annual tradition - Julie, Kate, and Susie come up from Tennessee to attend Camp Tecumseh with Ian, Mila, and Lukie.

Camp T is a world-class facility on the Tippecanoe River just north of us.

Kids from all over the world come, some even spending the summer there.

Flags of the kids' home countries are hung in the indoor arena.

We are fortunate to live so close and to be able to host the cousins during their camp week.

Emily and the girls roll in around noon and then Ian and Julie (who are doing the overnight camp) will be driven up to camp and dropped off today around 2:30. 

The other four kids (who are day campers and will start tomorrow) will hang out here and play games or head over to the park. Pepper, Tammo, Nash, Rosie, Henry, and Gus will get some walks and then charge around the living room until they all are exhausted and collapse onto the random dog beds that are placed around the house for them.

Lisa is making us all chicken teriyaki for dinner, and we'll all pitch in with sides and a dessert or two. I can hardly wait - I love Camp Tecumseh week!

BreyerFest-wise today, I won't be online today at all. There just won't be time. I do hope to hear what the theme is for next year as I'd like to begin thinking about possibilities for a seminar for next year. (If Breyer invites me back. I hope so but it isn't a sure thing.)

Camp T week can be a little crazy so if I miss a blog post, you'll know why. But I'm hoping to keep up with that.

Enjoy the last day of BreyerFest, and safe travels to those of you who will be heading home!

Tornado!

First Post of the Day

Nothing like a text around midnight from your son asking for prayers because a tornado is bearing down on his home and family.

Nighttime tornados are extremely dangerous - they happen when people are asleep and may not know that a tornado is approaching. More injuries and fatalities can happen as a result.

This storm was moving at 50 mph and Cole and Emily only had 3 - 5 minutes' warning to get to safety.

Fortunately, Cole had been monitoring the weather and was able to get his kids out of bed and into their shelter. That circle of arrows is the tornado's rotation approaching Spring Hill.

"I think we're clear," Cole soon texted. "It went right over us." (Gives me chills.)

It's very early morning and still dark in Tennessee as I write, so I don't think he has gone out to check for any damage yet. I do know he had some trees weakened by an ice storm earlier this winter and was worried that any strong winds would bring them down.

Last April a tornado hit Spring Hill, but luckily it had not yet touched down when it passed over Cole and Emily's home.

Spring Hill seems to have a target on its back. Keep your eyes open and on the weather reports, Cole!

Yuletide Challenge: Wildlife!

 Second Post of the Day

Today's Yuletide Cheer prompt is, "Merry Christmas, ya filthy animal! Wildlife."

Aside from a few Breyer elephants, the wildlife portion of my collection is mostly found among the clinkies.

First up is my Lomonosov porcelain cheetah. I always give a second look to animal figurines when I am out thrifting, but I usually don't buy them. This one was different - it was heavy and felt like good quality.

I flipped it over and saw a USSR stamp - it was a Lomonosov piece from Russia when Russia was still a communist country. 

Cole had lived in Yekaterinburg and Siberia for two years while serving as a missionary. (Note 1 - yes, that is a spot of frostbite on his cheek; Note 2 - why do guys always get the long eyelashes!!)

Home with me that cheetah came as a reminder of his time there.

While A Christmas Carol is my favorite teaching unit of all that I wrote, another favorite was Oceans. During that unit we would study octopuses culminating with a Gyotaku project.

Of course, I had to add a Hagen Renaker octopus to my collection, one that was orange - my favorite color.

This last unusual piece is by Kristina Lucas Francis. She was at one of Nancy Falzone's gatherings in 2017 and had brought some to sell.

Kristina called it an "okaptopus" and the color is purple orchid.

A fantasy cross between an okapi and an octopus, it is signed and numbered by Kristina and is #5 of only 6 made.

I think it is beautiful!

I skipped yesterday's prompt about the Grinch because I do not have any models I didn't like when I bought them. For tomorrow, the prompt is stocking stuffers/little treats. 

Stay 'tooned!

More on Curt's Birthday

I was clearing out my cache of photos on my phone and realized that, while I had shared about Curt's surprise birthday party with his friends, I hadn't yet written about our family celebration.

Cole came up from Nashville to surprise Curt. We were so happy to have him here for the weekend and held a family gathering Sunday evening.

My nephew, Eric, lives in Lafayette and he and Curt get together a lot, so he dropped in for a BBQ and cake.

Lisa made the birthday boy a Skor cake liberally topped with carmel sauce and Skor chips.

Er, I didn't have any candles (oops!) so Curt had to pretend to blow them out when we finished singing.

Afterwards we gathered around the dining room table and played games.

I don't shuffle cards well, but I have a mechanical shuffler which is always fun to use. Except that it was on the fritz and throwing cards, flipping them, and leaving some unshuffled. Everyone else shuffles well, so when it was my turn to be the dealer, someone else shuffled for me. Hah!

Some of us also watched the Packers game. I tried but 1) someone was in my seat, and 2) that someone was also blocking the view!

At the end of the evening, Curt thanked me and then sent me a meme that he keeps handy. "This always makes me think of you, Mom," he said, "so I have kept it."

Thanks, Curt. I'm glad you shared it and I love it, too. And Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Craig, Cole, & Kyle!

First Post of the Day

Last November I started a series of birthday posts for all the adults in our family - and then let 4th of July activities keep me from acknowledging three of them. So, here they are - the July birthday boys!

Kyle, Craig, and Cole (with Kate; her birthday is at the end of July so we included her in the family celebration, too.)

Craig - July 13

Affectionately called "Boompa" (or just "Boomps") by the family, he is a man with a big heart and generous nature.

Playing a game with a quarter with Lukie.

A West Lafayette High School alum, he captained the football team and was named an All State player for Indiana his senior year. We do Friday Night Lights every August through November, following his team all over Indiana. Lisa and Craig are there for the games; I just enjoy being outside and with them. (Oh, and going out for dinner beforehand. LOL)

When the school celebrated its 100th year of football, Craig was named to the 100 Year Team as one of the best players of the century.

He was rather sheepish when asked to march in the celebratory parade, but he did tip his hat at me when he passed by!

Happy Birthday, Boomps!

Cole - July 13

The youngest in the family, Cole shares similar traits with his dad and brothers of generosity, helpfulness, kindness and more. He shines at planning ahead and being prepared financially. 

As a child, he used to attend live shows with me - cherished memories!

Dancing with him at his wedding reception.

Cole also gave me some of the most stressful moments in my life. He served a two year mission in Russia and lived in Siberia. This photo shows a bright white spot of frostbite on his cheek and the rhime of frost on his eyelashes and eyebrows.

He was often in dangerous situations, but he came home safely despite the extreme cold and the antagonism toward Americans. (He speaks very well of the Russians that he spent time with and knew.) 

An animal lover, Cole and our Springer Spaniel, Duffy, were especially close, and it is no surprise that Henry looks remarkably similar to Duffy.

BreyerFest 2019 - I went to Friday's activities and then slipped out Saturday morning and drove down to Nashville to celebrate his birthday with him.

Happy Birthday, Cole!

Kyle - July 16

Kyle is our oldest son and is very like his dad when it comes to kindness, generosity, and having a full and tender heart. There is no one who is more forgiving and loving than Kyle, and he is a wonderful human being, be it as a son, a brother, a father, and more. 

He has his fun and goofy side. As do his brothers. (Really, boys? When I am setting out Thanksgiving dinner you do this?? LOL) 

At eight or nine, Kyle was nearly blinded in his left eye when he got a stick poked into it.

Seeing that very visible slash across his eyeball was probably THE scariest moment of my life. Luckily, his eye healed and he is fine now.

There may have been alligators in those waters, but if there is an emergency, Kyle steps up and helps. Here he is working on disaster relief after Hurricane Irma in Florida.

He's beloved by all the kids in the family, and with good reason.

Happy Birthday, Kyle!

Stay 'tooned! 

Another Family Tournament

Second Post of the Day

If you are a Baby Boomer like me, you remember candy cigarettes. Shocking to think about now, right? But when I was a child, the dangers of smoking were not very well known and it was common for adults to smoke. Kids even played a form of freeze tag called "Cigarette Tag" where you called out a brand of cigarettes to protect yourself from being frozen by the tagger. Really.

Anyway, things have changed big time and I haven't seen candy cigarettes in years and years. Basically they were a stick of sugar with an orange colored tip to simulate the flame. 

And yes, we did imitate grown ups with them. The photo in this meme is accurate. I've done it. (Although I've never smoked.)

Anyway, I share that so you understand the opening comment in Music City Son Cole's text below in which he makes a tongue in cheek reference to candy cigarettes and sets up our family NCAA basketball brackets. 

Also, the name of our league, the Bitter Bocce Losers, is named after our 4th of July family tournament. Don't miss the video in that blog post. We may be competitive, but we have fun, too!

Nineteen of us are playing - grandparents, parents, and kiddos, and the first two rounds were this past weekend. 

And he's right, the grands who know nothing about basketball and made their choices based on team mascots last year beat us all!

This year, the grands have again made some interesting choices, and several of them are climbing the leaderboard.

Cowpoke Ian is tied for second!

Surprisingly Mountain Mama Jessica and Hawkeye Todd are at the bottom. As for me, I'm tied with "This is Good" Susie at 15th. (Susie did indeed go for Grand Canyon University who went out in the first round of 64 teams.)

I still have a chance - Purdue has made it to the Sweet Sixteen and I have them tapped as the tournament champion. (Last year they came in second in the tournament. Fingers crossed.) Cambria, too, may make a sweeping comeback as she has Purdue taking it all, too.

I love our family tournaments, whether it's Fantasy Football, the Super Bowl, Bocce, or the NCAA Basketball tournament. While the games are being played, the family text chain is dinging fast and furiously as my family comments and throws zingers at each other. It's a lot of fun.

I may not know a lot about sports, but I love how sporting events bring my family together.

Boiler Up!   

One of Those Mish Mosh Posts

Brrr! It's a hot chocolate morning here in Indiana - the first of the season. When I took Pepper and Tammo out before their breakfast, it was only 49 degrees. And, the sun is rising later and later in the morning. I took the dogs out at 5:30 and just a month ago, the sun was up at that time. Now, it is pitch black. Fall is here and winter is coming.

I'm feeling more than a little embarrassed about that last post. I rarely share things that are that personal, especially about the brain tumors. Thank you for the responses that were sent. Like I said, I appreciate the prayers, good thoughts, karma, cyber hugs, and more.

Moving back to more normal topics, today I am merging several smaller things into one post. First, here are a few last photos from our trip to Tennessee.

Kate in her back yard. (When did she become so grown up??)

Emily made 150 mini cupcakes to share after Kate's baptism. To help out, Lisa and I piped the frosting and sprinkled the sprinkles on them all. Well, I'm a smear-it-on-with-knife baker, not a piper, and neither Lisa nor I use piping bags. So...

... in trying to fill her bag, Lisa twisted the end to close it, lifting it as she twisted, and inadvertently piped frosting onto my face and arms as she did! (We were standing several feet apart - that frosting flew!) No harm done, we laughed, and boy howdy did we learn a lesson about closing piping bags.

Father and daughter. (When did he become so grown up??)

Aunt and nieces! Lisa giving a trio squeeze to Susie, Kate, and Julie.

Emily put some mementos out that were important to Kate. This was the blessing dress I'd made her when she was a baby. The knitted flower headband was made by Emily's sister, Kathy.

My favorite photo from the day - Cole and Kate walking down the hallway at church and high fiving each other. 

Dani Boiko and a friend are holding Hard Knox Live in Elizabethtown, Kentucky later this month. (Just drove through there twice!) She asked if I might send a donation and so I sent these pouches.

Isn't this skeleton horse fabric cool?

It's already all gone so I am ordering some more and plan to get some haversacks made for the October Great Lakes Congress show.

I'm receiving a surprise sort of model today - Beowulf. The semi-rearing Mustang is my favorite mold, so I'd planned to order one as soon as Breyer opened their Halloween store. 

Photo of Beowulf from Breyer.

But the morning the Halloween store was slated to open, I received an email from a dealer with tracking in it and a note saying it was Beowulf. What? I had no memory of ever ordering one, not from anyone.  

Puzzled, I began to look through my bank and PayPal accounts for the charge for him. Nada. Nope. Nothing. (I even searched back to January, trying to find payment for this piece!) Nowhere did I find a record of having pre-ordered Beowulf, let alone paid for him.

When he arrives today, I will check the packing slip for more clues and then see again if I can either find when I paid for this piece or contact the dealer and see what she can tell me about the order. (And pay her if need be.)

Regardless, I am excited to have him!

Stay 'tooned!