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Then I went bowling!

6/25/2011

Gabi, Eli and Jake ... I told Jake to pose like a model. I suggest he stick with sports!

News From the North
I guess it’s been a mellow week in the Wilson household. Blog topics are somewhat lean. Today has been probably the most perfect weather day possible. Awesome!! Luke had a baseball game at 8:00am this morning. Other than that, we spent the day at home.

My mother (Margit) is in the hospital with an infection just below her neck. The doctor has determined that they need to remove the infection. Because the infection is near her heart, they want a heart surgeon to do the surgery. Please pray for my mother. It has been one thing after another for her. She is supposed to have surgery on her neck, but this infection is delaying that surgery. Her neck is causing her great pain right now. I wish I lived closer to her. Brad takes great care of Mom, and I am thankful for that!

Jake’s AAU coach received a call from Bucknell University (D-1 in Pennsylvania) asking about Jake and another player on the team. The coach has no idea how the Bucknell coach heard about them – but somehow the word is getting out.

Eli had pizza all over his face. Lisa was wiping his face off and teasingly said, “How are you going to get a girlfriend with pizza all over face.” Eli replied, “I need a new girlfriend.” Sorry Dani!

I played Wii bowling with the kids. Sophia beat me! That’s just not right! When we first got the Wii we played all the time. I got pretty good at bowling. I actually began to believe that I was a good bowler.  Then I went bowling.

Have you ever played Mario Cart? On the way
to basketball games Bella usually eats a banana and when she is finished she throws the peal out the window. I always yell, “Oh no! A car is going to come along and slide out of control!” I have a good laugh and everyone else in the car rolls their eyes.

Eli is sitting on my lap and says, “I wuv Mommy and Daddy.”  I ask him, “Do you love anybody else?” Eli answers,“I wuv my fwiends.” I then say, “I hope you love your brothers and sisters.” Eli replies, “I will wuv them morrow when I get up.”

We were playing “Charades for Children”. Lisa whispered the answer into Eli's ear so he could act it out. The answer was “blowing up a balloon”. Eli thought about it, put his hands to his mouth, hesitated, then turned to Lisa and said, “I need a balloon.” The kids guessed it right away.

In a large family (or at least our big family) it can be frustrating that nothing is your own. Someone is always taking your stuff and using it … and not returning it. Lisa has that issue with her make-up. She even has it now with her clothes. I got tired of never having a pen, or highlighter, or post-it note, etc.  Every time I opened my desk drawer … they were gone.  I was going to solve that problem. I bought a small locking box and placed it in the drawer of my desk. Everything worked well for a while. Then one day the key went missing. I couldn’t find it anywhere. I had to break open the box. So I bought a new box. Before I could even begin using it, someone (I suspect Eli) locked the box and took the key. Nothing was in the box yet, but the key has never been found.  OK – so I bought a third box.  I placed my supplies in the box.  Everything was organized and I felt good. I paid some bills and did some other work. But, I forgot to lock the box and left the keys on my desk. Guess what!  The box is mysteriously locked ….. and the keys are nowhere to be found. This is the third box! As Eli would say, “Take a deep breath and calm down.” Very deep!

Love,
JR

Eli and Luke

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I'm Tired of Having to Complain

6/19/2011

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News From the North

I had a nice Father’s Day. The only negative –
Lydia was gone most of the day working, and Jake is attending a football camp with his team. I had a nice relaxing day – even got in a nap! I wish I lived close to Dad.  I would have really liked to have been at his house with my brother and sisters. I miss those family get-togethers! Happy Father’s Day to Dad! I miss you and love you!

You know those family figures that people put on the back windows of their vans and SUV’s to show you how many kids they have (and pets). Well I found some dressed in Ohio State gear and purchased nine figures to represent our family.  I put them on our Suburban Saturday night.  The family stretches halfway across the back window!  As we drove in Minneapolis today we got the strangest looks from people as they passed us. They just had to look to see what kind of people would have seven kids. It was pretty funny.

The basketball camp the kids went to last weekend was attended by about 98% African American. Luke was the only white boy in his group. I was talking to him about the camp and he innocently tells me that there were so many black boys in his group that he had to “talk black”. I would've liked to have heard that!

The kids enjoyed the basketball camp. In their respective age groups, Jake won MVP, Isabella Best Attitude, Gabi Best Defensive Player and Luke the Hustle Award.

Isabella has a tendency to complain about her aches and pains after a game or practice. She was whining and complaining after the recent basketball camp. I jokingly said, “I’m tired of hearing you complain?”  Bella, without missing a beat says, “I’m tired of having to complain.”

Isabella and two friends decided to go for a walk. Guess what supplies they took?  A baseball bat and two pair of scissors for protection … and of course the Garmin in case they got lost.

I hesitate to include this story in the BLOG. Some of our family members find it funny. I, on the other hand think it is abnormal behavior – not funny! Here goes anyway … Eli is doing pretty well with his potty training.  He gets a little busy and has accidents now and then.  This past weekend we had an issue, but it wasn’t an accident.  Lisa had left with four of the kids. I was home with Lydia and Eli. Eli stood on a barstool in the kitchen, pulled his pants down, and pee’d on a paper plate.  Lydia heard the noise, thinking the faucet was on, turned and saw Eli in action. Lydia, who thought it was hilarious, came and got me. As I said, I did not find it funny.  What in the world would make him pee on a paper plate in the kitchen? I asked him that very question. He said, “Because I was mad that Mommy left me here.” Now I think he made up the reason after the act, but who knows.  I went to clean up the mess. That kid had a perfect aim.  There wasn’t a drop of pee anywhere but on the paper plate – which was full.

Luke – “We can’t have cake. Mom said we can’t brag for food.”

I got to go to a Twins game last week. I went with a couple of the owners of the company I work for and our Ad Agency. We attended courtesy of WCCO, the local CBS affiliate. They have 6 tickets in a section called the Champions' Club. This section is right behind home plate. First you pull up under the awnings right at the stadium for valet parking. You walk into a restaurant with endless food and drinks all included with these tickets. Yes they have the typical food you’d expect at the ball park: salads, fresh fruit and cheese, smoked salmon, filet oscar, carved prime rib, pad Thai, Asian dumplings, pasta and mutton, fried pork, broiled fish, veal parmesan and several other choices. Then there was ice cream, candy, desserts, nachos and cheese, popcorn, hotdogs and other treats.  This is all served an hour and a half before the game, through-out the game, and one hour after the game.  If it happens to be cold, warm blankets are provided.  If it is raining, complimentary ponchos are included. Get there early enough and you can watch through a window and see players warming up in the batting cages.  It was quite a night. The only thing that was missing –well – baseball. The game was rained out. We had our nice meal, sat around until we received the official announcement that the game was canceled, then left.  The good news – WCCO is going to provide us tickets to another game in the future. Hopefully this time I’ll get to actually watch baseball … and sit in the 7th row seat … right behind the plate. This is the third time I’ve had the privilege of using these tickets. Talk about being spoiled!

Lydia says our house is like an orphanage. She complains that there are all kinds of different kids walking in and out of the house. Kids are coming in and out without knocking.  Someone new is staying all night almost every night.  She never knows when someone is at our house.  With seven kids, that usually means someone has friends visiting. Jake’s friends are now comfortable enough they just walk in – sometimes when Jake isn’t even here. It nice that our kids’friends enjoy coming to our house. I’d much rather have them here, than somewhere else!

Tomorrow is Isabella’s 15th birthday. Happy Birthday Isabella (even though my children rarely read my Blog). She’ll be a freshman this school year! That just doesn’t seem right. I’ll have a freshman in college, junior and freshman in high school. Wow!

Love,
JR

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I Had No Choice

6/11/2011

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Luke ..... Sophia

News From the North

Jake, Bella, Gabi and Luke are all attending the Kammron Taylor basketball camp today and tomorrow. Kammron played his high school basketball in Minnesota and is one of the top players to come out of the state. He went on to play for Wisconsin and was a three-year starter for the Badgers. He is now playing in Europe for a team in Cyprus. Each year he returns to his home town of Minneapolis and conducts a free basketball camp as a way to give back to the community. Kammron’s sister, Krystal, played D-1 basketball for Valparaiso, and is an assistant coach for Isabella’s AAU team. Through her we learned about the camp and the kids have attended the last two years. It’s a good camp with good instructors. They provide lunch both days through local sponsors, Gatorade provides drinks and each camper gets a couple t-shirts. All free.

This summer Lydia is working at Becker Furniture World part-time and doing some baby-sitting. After seeing her sleep in until 2:00pm a few days I took action and got her a job.

Last weekend Sophia participated in a 4H horse show. This year she moves up a class and competes against older kids. She finished with 3 third place ribbons and one 2nd. Sophia loves working with horses and she does such a nice job. But, she is slightly allergic to them. Therefore her nose runs the entire time she is riding. Working with horses is a dirty job, and when she wipes her runny nose she gets dirt all over her face. After a day of working with horses you should see her. Her face is covered with dirt. She’s a real horse girl!

In the last week of school Luke was packing his lunch. He came up with a great idea. He filled a water bottle full of ice cream. Gabi, our official tattle-tale, informed me and he was stopped. I told him the ice cream would melt before he even got to school. He said he knew and that is what he wanted.

Our dog Leo is such a chicken! We put him outside attached to a rope. Our deck sits up high in our backyard, and a full flight of stairs go to the yard. The rope reaches up the stairs, and we connect him at the top of the stairs. He is then supposed to walk down to the yard. Well - a small bunny rabbit is living in the tree line not far from where Leo comes down the stairs. Leo is scared to death of this bunny. He will no longer go down the stairs unless he is forced.

After dinner one evening we were discussing what clean-up jobs each child would be responsible to complete. Someone says, “I don’t want washing. I want put-away.” Someone else jumps in and says, “I get counters.” Eli joins in and says, “I get toys!”

In Minnesota it can be minus 20 degrees, or it can snow 12 inches and they won’t cancel anything. Last week it reached 102 and they canceled baseball! If they did that in the south, they’d never play baseball in the summer.

Luke’s baseball team met at the varsity field for their team photo, and then were to immediately go across the street to play a game at the elementary school. Lisa took Luke to the photo session, then drove him to the elementary school and dropped him off. She then went to pick up Gabi and bring her to the game. She went into the house and got a little side-tracked (she left her phone in the truck). When she got back in the Suburban to go to Luke’s game, she had several messages letting her know that the game had been canceled. Lisa hurried to pick Luke up and when she got about a quarter of a mile from the school … there is Luke on the street corner. Luke was proceeding to walk the 4-1/2 miles home. “Luke what are you doing?” Luke’s response? “Walking home. I had no choice. I waited 10 minutes.” “Do you even know your way home?” “Yes, I know what I’m doing.” Pray for us!

The kids are all done with school now. They finished on Wednesday. Now we have to get settled in for the summer. It takes some getting used-to.

We have two graduation parties to attend this weekend. Also, Jake is having 6 (plus him) of the players from his AAU team staying over tonight. Lisa always feels she needs to have the house perfect for such events. Even though the boys could care less, it is important to Lisa!

I started using Facebook because I felt it was important for me to keep up on the latest trends in technology. I didn’t want to be left behind as technology moved on. When my kids told me that no one uses e-mail anymore, I knew I better get moving. I quickly discovered what Facebook was all about, and really enjoyed being a part of it. Now I keep hearing that Twitter is getting more popular than Facebook so I set up a Twitter account. So I ask you, is a tweet really a tweet if you have no followers? I’ll let you know how it goes. My Twitter account is: jrwilsonjr.

Lisa and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary this week. The romantic that I am … we went to DQ! I am married to the most wonderful woman in the universe. I am blessed to be married to the woman I love, and like. She is my best friend. She is beautiful inside and out. Lisa is a wonderful mother, a wonderful person, and I get to call her my wife. Thank you Lisa for all you do.

Love,
JR

Isabella and Gabi ..... Jake

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I Never Laid a Hand on Her!!

6/3/2011

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In Fort Wayne, IN at Jake's Tournament. My sister Britt with my neice Bella and my Eli. The whole gang (except John Cox who left B4 this photo, and me - the photographer).

News From the North

Last weekend we had a nice time in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Jake had a basketball tournament, and we took advantage of the close proximity to our family in Ohio. It was so nice seeing everyone. I wish we could do it more often!

Eli was very excited about the trip, and was especially excited about staying in a hotel. As we were riding in the 9-seater Suburban, getting close to our destination, Eli asked if we were going to “hell.” “What did he say?” After some investigation we discovered that Eli’s word for hotel is “hell.” We had quite a laugh. Later that night we ate dinner in a restaurant. The waiter was boxing up the left-overs. Eli got up from the table and took his macaroni and cheese to the waiter. The waiter was enjoying Eli and talking to him as he boxed up his mac ‘n cheese. He handed it to Eli and said something about being able to take it home. Eli proclaims, “We’re going to hell!” The reaction of the waiter was priceless. All weekend Eli was asking, “Are we going to hell?” When he got tired of watching basketball games he would say, “I want to go to hell.” What a perfect age!

This weekend is busy. Jake and Isabella have basketball tournaments in the Twin Cities (same time – different locations). Sophia has a practice 4-H horse show. Luke has baseball practice. Lydia has a baby-sitting job. Gabi and Eli are free!

Yahooo! Lydia successfully graduated from high school! I’ve seen the diploma! It has been a tumultuous and bumpy journey. High school has not been an enjoyable time for Lydia, and she is very glad to have it completed. She did not want a grad party, she isn’t in the yearbook, and she didn’t even participate in the graduation ceremony. Lydia is ready to move on with that next stage of her life. Congratulations Lydia!

(Warning: Editorial regarding Ohio State Football – Skip this paragraph if not interested in football, The Ohio State University, or my opinion!) Anyone read that SI article on Jim Tressel? Now I admit that I am biased. I love Jim Tressel and I still believe he is a man of integrity and high moral standards. He is a good man and a good coach. Is he flawless? – No! Did he make a mistake? - Yes! Does that discredit all the good he has done for years? NO! That article presents accusations as facts. The author lays out rumors as though they are now truth. The author uses Coach Tressel’s outward faith, his offers to pray for his player’s, and his participation in a Bible study as a way to try to discredit him. Already one parent of a player that the author accused of trading memorabilia for tattoos has gone public and stated that his boy does not have one tattoo, and has never traded his memorabilia for anything. He is going to sue Sports Illustrated. Coach Tressel made a big mistake, and more might surface, but OSU is not going to find a better coach, or a better man for the job. I am sad to see Coach Tressel leave.

After all these years of going without a pet, we now have a dog. It is a small cross between a dachshund and a poodle (doxiepoo) … but this one looks like neither. His name is Leo and he has been a great dog. I actually really like him! He still has one problem that is really getting on my nerves. I’m sitting in my office trying to get our internet to work and I smell this awful stench. I turn-around to discover what it might be. Right behind me in the doorway, Leo left me a nice little present. Aaaaaaaaaaarg!

Our internet connection and our home Wi-Fi have been down for several days. I thought I had it fixed, but after a very short time I lost the internet connection and can’t get it back. You don’t realize how dependent you become on the internet.

Well, I got another call from the school regarding an incident with Luke. This time my dear sweet boy had another boy lock the stall in the restroom. The boy crawled out. Luke then kicked open the door. When I asked Luke about it, he said that he’d seen other boys do it. Of course I gave him my version of the “if other boys jumped off a bridge would you?” speech. It’s a timeless speech! I also pointed out that it was bad of him to get the other boy in trouble by having him lock the door. Luke’s reply? … “I didn’t tell him to climb under the door after he locked it.” I’m not sure how that vindicates Luke, but he thought it did.

Lisa has the stomach flu today, and has it bad! I was shaving and Lisa was standing in the bathroom. All of a sudden her legs crumbled, and she fell flat on her face with a thud. It was scary! Fortunately we have a rug in the middle of the bathroom, and her face hit that. So no floor tiles were damaged!

But seriously … she was out for a few seconds and then came to. Now she has a rug burn the size of a 50 cent piece next to her eye and another smaller one right above her eye. Her nose and cheek hurt and her nose has been bleeding. I stayed home today and have been taking care of her. You’d think she would be appreciative, but noooooooooo. You know what she said to me? She said that I better be good the next few days or she will tell people that I beat her.

Love,
JR

More photos from Indiana. John Cox with Eli. Lisa with her sister and mother.

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Then I went bowling!

I'm Tired of Having to Complain

I Had No Choice

I Never Laid a Hand on Her!!

News from the North

Author: JR Wilson

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