Lisa and Eli on the roller coaster, JR & Lisa, Eli stuck in the gate, Family at Valley Fair (Lydia is off at college), Gabi & Sophia.
News From the North
It’s officially football season – my favorite time of year! Jake is playing for the Zimmerman High School Thunder. They had a couple scrimmages the past two weeks, and their first game was last Thursday, which they won 12-7. Luke is also playing 3rd grade football, and his first game will be on September 12th. In his grade they have a rule that anyone over 80 pounds cannot carry the ball. Luke weighs 90lbs. That disappoints him because he wanted to play quarterback this year. And … of course Saturday was the opening game for The Ohio State University! Although the team continues to struggle with those pesky NCAA violations, and the season may not be a typical TOSU year – I’m still excited to see the Scarlet and Gray take the field each Saturday.
I arrived at an event called “Meet the Thunder”, which is a kick-off for the high school football season. As I arrived, I walked up to Bill Korlath, another player’s father. He handed me a mysterious item. I took it, turned it over … to find his gift was a bumper sticker specially designed and made for me. It contained the OSU logo on each side, and in the middle it read, “Cheating Our Way to the Top Since 1870.” If you could remove friends in real life like you do on Facebook, I might have considered it. ;)
I think Eli is the most popular football fan in Zimmerman. When you arrive at the football game, you first walk in front of the student section to get to the parents’ section. As we did, the chant of “Hey Eli!” could be heard through-out the student section. Eli just gave his fans an indifferent wave.
Luke is at that age where he tries to act cool like a big kid, but he stills likes to cuddle his mom and dad. Right after football practice last week I had him sit on my lap and was cuddling him. I asked him about practice and he started to tell me a few things. Then he said “There was goose poop all over the field.” I think I said something about that being gross. Then he asked, “Do I smell like diarrhea?” I quickly pushed Luke off of me and sent him to the showers!!
When you enter the local car wash, the first thing they do is spray something on the front of your car and use a mop-looking tool to clean off the bugs. Lisa and some of the kids went to donate/get-rid-of some items at Goodwill. Goodwill has a drive-in drop off station. Lisa drove in, and the employees came out to help unload. Eli then asked, “What about the bugs?”
Lydia has been off to college for 3 weeks. She is doing well, and really liking it. She has met many new friends. She came home over Labor Day, but worked two babysitting jobs, and at Becker Furniture World both Saturday and Sunday - so we didn't see a lot of her. All the other children, except Eli, began school on Tuesday. That was a big change for Lisa to be home with only one!
Gabriella had her annual cardiologist visit last week. Everything “remains stable” are the words the doctor used. There are several things that they continue to watch (the slight leaking of the valve, the tissue growth under her valve, the flow of blood in the aorta where it was surgically widened, and the thickness of her heart). The cardiologist that has seen Gabi since they first discovered her heart defect just retired and we saw a new doctor this time. Her name is Dr. Dummer. Seriously! If she and her husband went into practice together, they could call it Dum and Dummer. Actually it is pronounced Dūmmer. And she is very nice, but seems to speak more carefully when she describes Gabi’s condition. Her previous doctor would have been very positive, because “everything is stable”, means that her heart remains in the condition it was post-surgery (which was good), and pleased the surgeon and doctors at the time. We are thankful to God that he continues to watch over Gabi!
Eli was trying to explain to me what happened to him the other night. “I wide her dooter.” “What?” “I wide her dooter!” I later find out that our friend LeAnne gave Eli a ride on her scooter.
I received some good advice from a 10 year old friend of Gabi. She told me that I should make sure to wear my shoes when I went to the bathroom on an airplane … because that isn’t water on the floor!
You might have seen the photo on Facebook, but it is worth repeating. We heard Eli crying and whining. We ignored it for little while, but the whining became more urgent and started to include a cry for help. Bella went to investigate. There was Eli, who had somehow closed the child safety gate (which is in place to keep the dog out) with his head and neck in between the bars. You might think we would run to Eli’s rescue. We probably should have run to his rescue. We did run, but for the cameras. We had three different photographers taking pictures of Eli’s predicament. He just stayed there (although he didn’t have much choice) and looked at us like – would someone please save me!
I had gone to bed. I was on my iPad and had texted Jake earlier. He texted me back and told me that we were being invaded by salamanders. He said he killed about 15 of them and saw 30 more in and around the garage. I was curious, but not enough to get out of bed. Then we heard blood curdling screams. “There’s a salamander in the basement!” I then got up and went downstairs. There sat a big fat, slimy-looking salamander on the hearth of the fireplace. As I was catching that salamander, Bella screamed the loudest scream I’ve ever heard. "There’s another one!" Then another scream, "Another one!" Earlier in the evening Jake had a bunch of friends over. It must have gotten warm, because someone opened the sliding glass door of the basement. The salamanders took the opportunity and came inside. I looked outside, and there were several salamanders outside the basement door. I then looked in the garage and they were walking around everywhere. These are big, fat salamanders about 6 to 9 inches long. We had never seen salamanders around our house before. After some research I learned that these salamanders live underground and rarely come out in numbers; only on a rainy night in the spring or fall. The next night – no salamanders. It was pretty wild!
We were in the car and I said something to Lisa.
- Eli asked, “Daddy, what did you say?”
- I replied, “I wasn’t talking to you.”
- Eli then asked again, “Daddy, what did you say?”
- I again replied, “I wasn’t talking to you.”
- Eli says, “I was saying, ‘what did you say?’ ”
- I then told Eli, “When I say ‘I’m not talking to you’, that
means I’m not going to tell you what I said.”
- Eli waits a second, then asks, “Daddy, what did you
say?”
A few Eli quotes:
Lisa was giving Eli a bath. She was using Burt’s Bees soap. He protested. He did not want to wash with that "bug soap". Maybe they could have used that at Goodwill!
As Lisa was driving to pick-up Luke she drove past the road we typically would turn on to go home. Eli says, “We missed our level!” Funny thing, I’m not sure Isabella would even know that was the way home.
Eli was looking in the mirror and asked Lisa if his ears were getting bigger. Lisa thought he was thinking that bigger ears meant he was growing bigger, so she said his ears were getting bigger. Eli exclaimed, “Nooo! I don’t want my ears to get bigger!”
Love,
JR
It’s officially football season – my favorite time of year! Jake is playing for the Zimmerman High School Thunder. They had a couple scrimmages the past two weeks, and their first game was last Thursday, which they won 12-7. Luke is also playing 3rd grade football, and his first game will be on September 12th. In his grade they have a rule that anyone over 80 pounds cannot carry the ball. Luke weighs 90lbs. That disappoints him because he wanted to play quarterback this year. And … of course Saturday was the opening game for The Ohio State University! Although the team continues to struggle with those pesky NCAA violations, and the season may not be a typical TOSU year – I’m still excited to see the Scarlet and Gray take the field each Saturday.
I arrived at an event called “Meet the Thunder”, which is a kick-off for the high school football season. As I arrived, I walked up to Bill Korlath, another player’s father. He handed me a mysterious item. I took it, turned it over … to find his gift was a bumper sticker specially designed and made for me. It contained the OSU logo on each side, and in the middle it read, “Cheating Our Way to the Top Since 1870.” If you could remove friends in real life like you do on Facebook, I might have considered it. ;)
I think Eli is the most popular football fan in Zimmerman. When you arrive at the football game, you first walk in front of the student section to get to the parents’ section. As we did, the chant of “Hey Eli!” could be heard through-out the student section. Eli just gave his fans an indifferent wave.
Luke is at that age where he tries to act cool like a big kid, but he stills likes to cuddle his mom and dad. Right after football practice last week I had him sit on my lap and was cuddling him. I asked him about practice and he started to tell me a few things. Then he said “There was goose poop all over the field.” I think I said something about that being gross. Then he asked, “Do I smell like diarrhea?” I quickly pushed Luke off of me and sent him to the showers!!
When you enter the local car wash, the first thing they do is spray something on the front of your car and use a mop-looking tool to clean off the bugs. Lisa and some of the kids went to donate/get-rid-of some items at Goodwill. Goodwill has a drive-in drop off station. Lisa drove in, and the employees came out to help unload. Eli then asked, “What about the bugs?”
Lydia has been off to college for 3 weeks. She is doing well, and really liking it. She has met many new friends. She came home over Labor Day, but worked two babysitting jobs, and at Becker Furniture World both Saturday and Sunday - so we didn't see a lot of her. All the other children, except Eli, began school on Tuesday. That was a big change for Lisa to be home with only one!
Gabriella had her annual cardiologist visit last week. Everything “remains stable” are the words the doctor used. There are several things that they continue to watch (the slight leaking of the valve, the tissue growth under her valve, the flow of blood in the aorta where it was surgically widened, and the thickness of her heart). The cardiologist that has seen Gabi since they first discovered her heart defect just retired and we saw a new doctor this time. Her name is Dr. Dummer. Seriously! If she and her husband went into practice together, they could call it Dum and Dummer. Actually it is pronounced Dūmmer. And she is very nice, but seems to speak more carefully when she describes Gabi’s condition. Her previous doctor would have been very positive, because “everything is stable”, means that her heart remains in the condition it was post-surgery (which was good), and pleased the surgeon and doctors at the time. We are thankful to God that he continues to watch over Gabi!
Eli was trying to explain to me what happened to him the other night. “I wide her dooter.” “What?” “I wide her dooter!” I later find out that our friend LeAnne gave Eli a ride on her scooter.
I received some good advice from a 10 year old friend of Gabi. She told me that I should make sure to wear my shoes when I went to the bathroom on an airplane … because that isn’t water on the floor!
You might have seen the photo on Facebook, but it is worth repeating. We heard Eli crying and whining. We ignored it for little while, but the whining became more urgent and started to include a cry for help. Bella went to investigate. There was Eli, who had somehow closed the child safety gate (which is in place to keep the dog out) with his head and neck in between the bars. You might think we would run to Eli’s rescue. We probably should have run to his rescue. We did run, but for the cameras. We had three different photographers taking pictures of Eli’s predicament. He just stayed there (although he didn’t have much choice) and looked at us like – would someone please save me!
I had gone to bed. I was on my iPad and had texted Jake earlier. He texted me back and told me that we were being invaded by salamanders. He said he killed about 15 of them and saw 30 more in and around the garage. I was curious, but not enough to get out of bed. Then we heard blood curdling screams. “There’s a salamander in the basement!” I then got up and went downstairs. There sat a big fat, slimy-looking salamander on the hearth of the fireplace. As I was catching that salamander, Bella screamed the loudest scream I’ve ever heard. "There’s another one!" Then another scream, "Another one!" Earlier in the evening Jake had a bunch of friends over. It must have gotten warm, because someone opened the sliding glass door of the basement. The salamanders took the opportunity and came inside. I looked outside, and there were several salamanders outside the basement door. I then looked in the garage and they were walking around everywhere. These are big, fat salamanders about 6 to 9 inches long. We had never seen salamanders around our house before. After some research I learned that these salamanders live underground and rarely come out in numbers; only on a rainy night in the spring or fall. The next night – no salamanders. It was pretty wild!
We were in the car and I said something to Lisa.
- Eli asked, “Daddy, what did you say?”
- I replied, “I wasn’t talking to you.”
- Eli then asked again, “Daddy, what did you say?”
- I again replied, “I wasn’t talking to you.”
- Eli says, “I was saying, ‘what did you say?’ ”
- I then told Eli, “When I say ‘I’m not talking to you’, that
means I’m not going to tell you what I said.”
- Eli waits a second, then asks, “Daddy, what did you
say?”
A few Eli quotes:
Lisa was giving Eli a bath. She was using Burt’s Bees soap. He protested. He did not want to wash with that "bug soap". Maybe they could have used that at Goodwill!
As Lisa was driving to pick-up Luke she drove past the road we typically would turn on to go home. Eli says, “We missed our level!” Funny thing, I’m not sure Isabella would even know that was the way home.
Eli was looking in the mirror and asked Lisa if his ears were getting bigger. Lisa thought he was thinking that bigger ears meant he was growing bigger, so she said his ears were getting bigger. Eli exclaimed, “Nooo! I don’t want my ears to get bigger!”
Love,
JR
Bad Bumper Sticker!
Top to Bottom: Friends over for Jake's 17th Birthday, Sophia, Friend Dani, Gabi & Bella on a ride at Valley Fair, Cowboy Eli, & Cool Jake!
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