Superchick

We just wanted to share some photos from our latest adventure... a FREE concert! Superchick

Springfield, Ohio has a FREE summer concert series and we told several friends about it. We all went together and took about 20 people. We all had a great time!

http://springfieldartscouncil.org

Washington DC 2007

Mount Vernon...

Seeing the sights...

The Capitol Tour...

We just got back from a trip to Washington DC. We had a great time being tourists. Molly and Caroline Holden met us in DC and joined us for a vacation also. They are in a few of the photos with us along with my sister and her family. Molly's husband Mark had to work and couldn't join us- We missed you Mark. My sister and her family live in Woodbridge, Virginia. She lives just down the street from IKEA! No, I did not take my camera to IKEA, but I did take it everywhere else.


We visited Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington. Seeing his home and walking through the estate really makes history come alive. I hope that my kids remember this and can share what they saw and learned with their classmates in school. We saw the mansion, gardens, his 16 sided barn, the slave quarters, the original tomb and the new tomb and we drove down the road to see the Gristmill and the Distillery.

We went into DC to the Mall and visited the National Museum of Natural History, the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument and even got to tour the Capitol. The Museum of Natural History was our kids favorite place to go. We went three times this trip. Walking through the dinosaur exhibit and seeing the 'evolution theory' shown as "fact" was a great teaching tool for us. We could take our kids back to Genesis 1 and ask them who created the trees? Did they really ooze out of a pool of sludge and make their way across the entire earth like the pictures show? No, God created them. Did man 'evolve' from another creature? No, God created Adam and breathed into him the breath of life. Sorry for the detour in thought... it was a great time to teach our kids first hand that just because it says something in a textbook, doesn't mean it is fact.

We also got a private tour of the Capitol. When I was in High School, I babysat for a family that later was elected to office. Texas Congressman Mac Thornberry from Clarendon, TX. I found his website and emailed him to see if he would be able to have someone give us a tour. Surprisingly, I recieved a call the next day. We were able to set up a time to tour the Capitol during our visit. While we were there, Congress was in session, so after our tour, we went back to Mac's office and everyone got to meet him. Just to let you know, it does take 30 minutes for 12 people to walk from the Museum of Natural History to the Capitol and get through security. We were a little late for our tour, but they were nice enough to accomodate us anyway.

In our four days of sightseeing alone, we walked about 22 miles. We bought pedometers for the kids. They had a lot of fun keeping track of their steps on our trip. We did calculate the mileage. Rachel walked twice the number of steps John walked each day. Hayden, well, he had the best seat of all. By the end of each day, we were all wishing we had someone to stroll us around.

Sarah turns TEN!

Wow, hard to believe that she is ten years old. We had a little Luau for Sarah this weekend and she had five girls stay the night. They made their own pizzas, made ribbon flip flops and played the Wii all before midnight. Finally at 12:30, we had eight girls lined up like sardines in our living room floor to watch a movie. They all had a great time. It was so funny to watch them play the Wii. Marissa was the best bowler. She bowled five strikes each game and was the one to beat. Sarah got some fun gifts and had a very good time. Poor Hayden, he really wanted to sleep downstairs with all the girls, but he had to go up to his bed. I think it will take us a few days to catch up on our sleep. But that is what sleepovers are for: staying up late, good friends, playing games and yummy snacks!

Face Painting

This weekend, we went to the Greene. (an outdoor shopping mall) There was a huge puppet show going on and lots of FREE stuff for kids to do. We stood in line for the face painting and here are the results. Rachel acted like a puppy for the rest of the day! We also made a stop at Cold Stone Creamery. If you have not tried the Cocoa Banana Cabana, beware! It is delicious. I can't imagine working there; too much temptation.

Kate went to a Club Live event this weekend. Her youth group is Club 180* and the youth pastor here helped organize a huge outreach to the local youth. They had a live band called eleventyseven, skits and comedy... She had a great time. She came home so excited. She got to go on stage and she thought that was the greatest thing, ever! She has a choir performance tonight and a school wide talent show on Thursday. She and a friend are singing "Jesus take the wheel".

Hayden learns to RIDE...

Wow, having a boy is different! I remember teaching the girls to ride their bikes without training wheels, it was hard work. They were not really sure they wanted to do it, they tried to give us instructions like-don't let go and they whined until they actually got it. Well, at least that's how it was with Kate and Sarah. Rachel, on the other hand, had the same little short bike for a long time, so she could at least catch herself if she started to fall, but she was still scared.

Well, today, Hayden learned to ride. He has been begging me for weeks to take his training wheels off of his bike. Finally, I was able to do it. John and I took him up to the basketball court to use a flat surface to teach him on. We live on a hill and have the steepest drive way in the neighborhood. Come to think of it, we did in Albuquerque too. But here, we don't live in a cul-de-sac. Hayden was ready to go, he didn't whine, he didn't complain, he started trying to get it going all by himself without instruction. He didn't even seem too concerned about the possibility of falling and scraping his knees. We never knew having a boy could be so different. He can teach himself to ride a bike and he doesn't use much toilet paper! What more lies in store for us? Don't tell us, it will ruin the surprise.

Time for Tea

Rachel tasting her tea.
Hallie tasting her marshmallow.

Jesica just having fun!

My neighbor Dawn and I took our daughters to a Mother Daughter tea recently. Dawn won a miniature tea set and ever since then, Rachel and Hallie have been bugging her to have a tea party. They have even saved cookies to share at the tea party. Finally, we did it. We did make real tea and invited the webkins to come for a miniature version of their own tea party. They thought it was great fun!

Prince Charming?

Sarah's friend Marissa came over today and brought her pet toad. Marissa had cleverly put her toad in a backpack and was found out just before she entered our home. Her mom said, "stop right there and show me what is in your backpack." To my surprise, but not hers, it was a toad! "In the back yard only", said Marissa's mom. Okay, I thought... I have never let my kids play with toads before...can't they get warts? They were not worried. They had so much fun! They played ring around the toad as they sang Jesus love the little children. They pretended to kiss the toad, wear the toad on their heads, and dance around the yard with the toad. It was 'toad'ally cool!

Rachel has decided that she wants to save her money to buy a toad. I'm not so sure that is going to happen.

By the way, Sarah did not really 'kiss' the frog, she just held him up real close and pretended. You can bet that she will have a scrapbook page with these pictures on it.

A Beautiful story of Motherhood...

Happy Mother's Day to you.

Jack was a great cat and the kids would carry him around and sit on him and nothing ever bothered him. He used to hang out and nap all day long on this mat in our bathroom.

Well we have 3 kids and at the time of this story they were 4 years old, 3 years old and 1 year old. The middle one is Eli. Eli really loves chapstick. LOVES it! He kept asking to use my chapstick and then losing it. So finally one day I showed him where in the bathroom I keep my chapstick and how he could use it whenever he wanted to but he needed to put it right back in the drawer when he was done.

Last year on Mother's Day, we were having the typical rush around and try to get ready for Church with everyone crying and carrying on. My two boys are fighting over the toy in the cereal box. I am trying to nurse my little one at the same time I am putting on my make-up. Everything is a mess and everyone has long forgotten that this is a wonderful day to honor me and the amazing job that is motherhood. We finally have the older one and the baby loaded in the car and I am looking for Eli. I have searched everywhere and I finally round the corner to go into the bathroom. And there was Eli. He was applying my chapstick very carefully to Jack's . . . rear end. Eli looked right into my eyes and said "chapped." Now if you have a cat, you know that he is right -- their little bottoms do look pretty chapped. And, frankly, Jack didn't seem to mind. And the only question to really ask at that point was whether it was the FIRST time Eli had done that to the cat's behind or the hundredth.

And THAT is my favorite Mother's Day moment ever because it reminds us that no matter how hard we try to civilize these glorious little creatures, there will always be that day when you realize they've been using your chapstick on the cat's butt.

AWANA

I realized on our way home that this was the first and last year that I was a leader and each of our children were in AWANA. It was definitely picture worthy. For those of you that don't know, AWANA is Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed. It is a bible based program that teaches children to memorize bible verses. These are not little slimmed down versions of the actual verse. They have learned passages in some sections of their books. This was Kate's last year of being in club. She could be a leader next year, but they are starting a new Jr. High mid-week meeting called BOOST. I think she will probably go to that. Kate is wearing a ribbon for her book award. Sarah was also in T&T this year and will have one more year of club. Rachel is in Sparks and Hayden had his first year of Cubbies. Every Wednesday, we would go to the church for a simple supper at 5:30 and then stay for AWANA until 8:30. The kids have had a great year and are ready to take a break for the summer.

I worked with the 3rd and 4th grade T&T group this year. I do have the retro AWANA uniform. I have been doing it for 6 years, so they have changed the books and the uniforms since I started. All the other leaders at our church wear the polo shirts in the color of the group they work with. One little girl asked me one week if I was a doctor. No, but funny that she thought that. I have volunteered in every group and I really love working with them all. I do have to say that the T&T group is probably my favorite. Next year, they are splitting the T&T group into boys and girls. They have asked me to be the T&T girls director. Sarah will be in my group. I'm sure she won't mind.

Whose Child is this?

You're not going to believe this...Rachel had another performance this week. Tuesday night, Rachel had a performance at the school. Her class was selected to participate in a "Muse Machine" presentation. (a local children's theater company) John had something that evening, so it would be just me to take all the kids and tackle trying to get Rachel through the sea of people in the auditorium to the gym, while Kate, Sarah and Hayden tagged along... I asked Rachel if she really wanted to go and if she thought she might actually do the motions and sing. She assured me that she would. I told her that if she threw a fit, we would have to come home and she would be in trouble. She told me that she would really do it this time. I asked why she didn't sing last time and she said it was because she didn't want to sing those songs. Okay, we'll see, I thought. Off we went to the school. I didn't have time to write a note this time. I was flying solo. I reminded Rachel on the way that she needed to not cry and try to smile this time. We got to the school and Rachel skipped into the auditorium, made her way through the sea of people and hopped all the way into the gym. When her teacher saw her, she was puzzled. Yes, she had been there for the previous performance and did not expect to see Rachel hopping. We left Rachel backstage and went to join the audience and find a seat. We waited and even talked about whether or not Rachel would sing a word. Hayden was sure she would. Kate and Sarah weren't so sure. Honestly, me neither. I thought for sure we'd see a repeat of the 1st grade musical performance. Just then, this short little mostly bald, grandpa aged man walked out onto the stage. He had a group of about 15-20 preschoolers following him. They were first to perform and did a funny little song they had made up about a flag. Then, it was time for the first graders. Here we go... Whose child is this? The one with the smile on her face, standing on the front row(far left)? That could not be my daughter. She sang, she did motions, she performed and did her very best and even took a bow at the end! We waved, we cheered, we were so excited. Hayden said, "momma, Rachel is doing all the stuff". Kate and Sarah couldn't believe it either. That was it. One song and they were done. Ironically, we did not go to Wendy's this time. But we all told Rachel how proud of her we were and how fun it was to watch her. Just before bed, Hayden asked her why she didn't wave at him. She said, "I was in neutral". "What, I asked from the kitchen?" This was her answer..."you know, when an actor is not acting, but waiting their turn." Neutral, who knew?

Spicy Beef and Broccoli Stir-Fry

Weight Watchers New Complete cookbook

2T dry sherry
2T dark soy sauce
1 T grated peeled fresh ginger
5-6 garlic cloves, minced
1 t Asian dark sesame oil
¼ t crushed red pepper
½ lb. beef tenderloin, trimmed of all fat and cut into thin strips
1 t cornstarch
1 T veg. oil
4 cups broccoli florets- cut into bite size pieces
3 scallions thinly sliced.

To prepare the marinade, in a gallon size zip lock bag, combine sherry, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, sesame oil, and red pepper, add the beef. Seal the bag, squeezing out the air, turn to coat the beef. Refrigerate, turning the bag to coat the beef. Refrigerate, turning the bag occasionally, about 1 hour.
Drain the marinade into a measuring cup; add enough water to make 1/3 cup liquid. Add the cornstarch until it dissolves.
Heat a large nonstick skillet or wok with a lid over a high heat. Add the vegetable oil and beef; stir-fry until the beef loses its red color, about 1 minute. With a slotted spoon, transfer to a plate. Reduce the heat slightly and add the broccoli; stir-fry 3 minutes, then cover and steam 1 minute. Return the beef to the skillet and add the marinade; increase the heat to high and stir-fry until the sauce thickens, 2-3 minutes. Serve, sprinkled with scallions.

Serve over rice

Per serving: (¼ of stir-fry only) 207 cal., 11g fat, 3 g fiber,573mg sodium, 8g Carb., 18g protein. Point value:4

Just another day...

Sometimes, I am amazed at how much you can fit into a day. A friend's blog just inspired me to share the events of my 'normal' day.

6:45, my alarm goes off- I hit the snooze; 6:50, alarm again- One more snooze; 6:55- okay last one for real this time; 7:00- I'm up, I'm up already! Run downstairs to make sure that Kate has got her things ready for school and had a real breakfast; see her off to school at 7:10; Sarah is on her way downstairs; breakfast for Sarah is usually a tortilla wrap of some kind. I grab a bite to eat and my morning cup of coffee, with cream and splenda... while she finishes, I run upstairs to get dressed for the gym. Back downstairs to see her off; here comes John, ready for school as well. 7:45, on the nose, Sarah is out the door with her little run a bit, walk a bit to the bus stop. Back inside to wake the others. Rachel is up and on her way to getting ready. Hayden, well, Hayden can sometimes be found in our bed because he came in at 5am and crawled into the middle without a peep. Most of the time, he stays in his bed. 8:30, "Rachel, hurry, here comes the bus; it's at the top of the hill." (The bus comes around the street. We can see it at the top of the hill and know that it makes 2 more stops before ours.) 8:45, back home just in time to leave for the gym. 9-10am stability ball and weights class. We run home and grab a quick bite to eat and then it's off to errands! We run over to the base today for a Chapel funds request that is due today, then a quick trip to the post office to mail 5 packages for Mother's day. A quick stop at the BX for poster board (Kate has a project due tomorrow), don't forget another stop at the garden center for weed killer and finally it is back home again. Of course it is supposed to rain sometime this week, so maybe I should mow the lawn. That does mean I have to scoop the poop first, ugh! Oh well, just an hour to get it done. I sit down to shuck a few ears of corn just as Kate and Sarah are getting home from school. I really need a shower...just as Rachel gets off the bus I jump in the shower. Ahhh, much better, a quick blow dry and we can go outside to play. After about an hour of play time, we all go in at 5:30 so I can get dinner ready. Spicy Broccoli Beef stir fry (a Weight Watchers recipe-I'll post later) If I can get my kids to eat broccoli tonight, it will be a miracle. 6:30, dinner is served...Sarah had a friend over and every single kid at the table (that's 5 total) ate the BROCCOLI! They even asked for more; good thing I doubled the recipe. Oh yeah, tomorrow is National Teacher's Day; I meant to have teacher's gifts ready and in bags so all the girls had to do was write a note. Have you ever let three girls choose the gift, bag, tissue paper and note card? Don't, it takes entirely too long. Just kidding, they had a lot of fun making sure everything was special for their teachers. We are running a little late tonight. 8:45- It's off to bed for Rachel and Hayden and Sarah...Kate has a project to complete. She has to make a wanted poster for a famous scientist. She has everything ready, and just needs some scrap booking tools to complete the poster. I never noticed her eye for getting things straight. She is a budding Martha Stewart. Finally at 9:50, Kate is off to bed. Now, I can finally sit down. What may you ask is my sweet husband doing? He has had his own eventful day and is now playing with his new toy. He just bought a Wii. Wii are having too much fun. He is playing tennis right now. During my cooking time, the kids all took their turn playing. Just think, if they made a step class for the Wii with a little instructor girl making you move faster and work harder, I could skip the gym.

Please know that I love being a wife, mother, sister, friend... I am just sometimes amazed at what can actually be done in a day. Tomorrow will be much less eventful I'm sure.

Rachel's 1st grade Musical

Rachel always keeps us on our toes. If she does not want to do something, it is almost impossible to convince her to do it anyway. Once she makes up her mind, she does not budge easily. At least we know this...

Rachel had her First grade musical on Thursday evening. She got ready and seemed fine. Just before time to go, she started saying her tummy hurt and she didn't want to go. I told her she would be fine and we should put on some special pink lip gloss for her special day. She was very excited! On the way to the school, I grabbed a note pad from my purse and quickly jotted a note for our not so eager to perform daughter. I folded it in half and drew a horse on the front. As we got to the school, Rachel said she wasn't going. Finally, I convinced her to walk inside the auditorium and make our way to the gym to line up with her friends and her teacher. She had the best little friends. As we walked into the gym, they saw her crying and ran over to her and started stroking her arm and telling her that they were nervous sometimes too, but she would do fine. I thought this was so funny. God has definitely given these girls the gift of mercy. I told Rachel that if she went on stage with her friends that maybe she could have a special treat after the show. I handed her the special note I had written on the way to the school and told her to hold it in her hand and that when she felt really sad to look at it and read it. She smiled and clutched it in her hand. I showed her the horse and read her the note. She gave me about 50 kisses and finally walked away from me with her friends to line up. And so...

She got through the entire performance without a single tear, single smile, single word, single hand motion. Every once in a while, you'd see her look down and open her special note and then she would look up again. We said that if she made it through without throwing up on the boy in front of her, it was a success! (In the group shot, she is on the right side, second row down and the only one with her hands not up.)

When the performance was over, she smiled and was so excited. We took her to Wendy's and she enjoyed a chocolate frosty.

Got Vera?

Vera Bradley has an annual outlet sale in Fort Wayne, Indiana and the first day of shopping is by ticket only. Well, after hearing about this event, I logged onto the website and found that the only way to find out about it would be to sign up for their email newsletter. I signed up and a week later, got an email that tickets would be on sale February 15. I bought tickets to the 1-5pm sale. (There were 3 different times) I later found out that the morning session sold out and tickets were selling on e-bay for $200 and up. Needless to say, this made me very excited to attend this sale!

My neighbor Dawn and I drove up to Fort Wayne on Wednesday and went to this sale. I have never seen so many purses in my life, EVER! It was so much fun. I had a list, checked it twice and now to see whose naughty or nice... Just kidding, I got about 1/2 of my Christmas shopping done in 4 hours; I think that is a record. Don't look too closely, you may see your Christmas gift.

Sarah's new room!

Sarah wanted her own room and used her negotiating skills to convince us that this was her last chance. (She is right) Military housing just isn't known for 5 bedrooms. If we continue to live in military housing, we will have 4 bedrooms. That means someone has to share. When we got here, Rachel and Hayden were sharing a room and Kate and Sarah were sharing a room. When we leave here, Hayden will have to have his own room, so Sarah asked if she could move into the playroom. Success! She got her own room and she now has the cleanest room in the house. We found some really cute monkey stuff at Target. The monkey faces on the wall are place mats we found for $2.50 each.

Easter in Ohio

It snowed on Easter here as it did in much of the US. I had bought new dresses for the girls and it was not the weather for a cute little spring dress on Easter Sunday. Kate decided to brave the cold in her dress anyway. She is growing so fast! She is almost done with 6th grade already, I can't believe it.

PWOC retreat

What a weekend! I just spent the weekend at Deer Creek State Park here in Ohio and had an incredible time. Our PWOC group just had their Spring Retreat. A few months ago, there were three of us planning the entire weekend. We started with prayer: that God would appoint the ladies He wanted to be there, that we would have volunteers help with the planning, that the details would be worked out and that the time would be used for God's glory. Honestly, we thought there might be 25 women if we were lucky. I even volunteered to make tote bags with my new sewing machine; I embroidered our retreat theme on the front of each bag. There were not 25 women at the retreat, there were 41. Let's just say, I know my machine like the back of my hand. It took about an hour and a half to finish each bag! But, the results were amazing. Each woman was able to carry around all her things and since we were in a larger facility, we needed a bag to carry.

Our speaker, Victoria Robinson, is the wife of an Air Force Chaplain and speaks to women all over the world. She left our retreat headed for Germany to do 4 events and then back home for a week and then she will be at Kirtland for some training for some of my PWOC friends there. Victoria has a powerful testimony and was really able to meet some of our ladies right where they were and help give them some powerful tools to handle the challenges they face on a daily basis. When you are a military spouse, you face challenges that the average wife never has to worry about. I can say one thing for sure, when I get to heaven, it is going to be a beautiful reunion with the many friends that God has brought into our lives. Our Christmas list keeps growing and growing. I don't know what God has in store for me, but I do know that He goes before me and prepares the way.

Rachel turns 7

We just celebrated Rachel's 7th birthday! She still loves horses so she wanted a horse birthday party. Some of the kids came dressed in their cowgirl boots (I have been told they are cowgirl boots when girls wear them an not cowboy boots) and western attire. We still keep it small, not inviting the entire class to a hugely over-rated kid's pizza place where it is too loud, you spend too much money and there are too many kids to allow any normal parent to think clearly.

Here We Are!

I have decided to try something a little different. I have always sent pictures and emails on a regular basis to keep people updated. Now I'd like to try having a blog that you can come to periodically and check to see what is going on in the Fruge' family. I plan to post pictures and do the little stories that I usually do with email...