Fun morning

Bragging for Emma today. We went out on the boat ... the four of us and Auntie Jane. We were very disappointed when we got up at 6 am ... first because it was still dark (I guess we haven't been getting up very early lately), and second because it was 15 - 20 mph winds. We decided to head over anyway, just to see what we would see. It was by no means perfect. On "our" side of the lake, the north shore, there were pretty big waves from the wind. We went across to the south shore and it was quite a bit better, though definitely not of the quality we're used to in the mornings. So we went. I wakeboarded and Cyndie skied, then Emma gave it a go. She had previously maxed out at about 20 or 30 seconds at a time. She wasn't having any problems getting up, but was, I think, getting scared when she thought she was going toward the wake, and so she'd just drop the rope. So I convinced her last night that she a) wasn't going to go out of the wake unless she tried to, and b) could turn herself just like she does when she snow skis. So, the first time, she dropped again after 20 seconds. I think she just forgot what we'd talked about. But after that, she was a champ. She stayed up for minutes, and only dropped under duress (wake from other boats knocking her down). She skied all over the lake, including making some big looping turns when we got to the end of the sheltered part of the lake and needed to go back. She even skied half the way back to the north shore where the water was starting to get really rough again! So while she was a "kind of" skier before, she is now official!!!

Summer ... the twilight

Yes, we're in our last few weeks of summer. It has just flown by. My (teacher) sister went back for an in service day on Monday and her kids start tomorrow. Frankly, I can't comprehend that! We still have lots of fun things that we're planning on doing before school starts:

• Go to a Brewer's game
• Go canoeing with some friends on the Wisconsin river
• Go to Magic Waters (Cyndie and the kids are currently there) - a water park down in Rockford
  
• Go to Six Flags (Emma went earlier in with Uncle Gow and a friend from church ... this time Tim and Cyndie are going too)

Hey, I just realized that I don't get to go to the last two events! Poor me. I guess someone has to bring home the bacon!

Last night was my last softball game of the summer. We went out in style with a come from behind victory! It was fun because it was only our second win of the year. We won the first game, lost like 10 or 12 in a row, and then won the last game! I particularly enjoyed it because I had a really good hitting night ... 2 home runs, a double and a single in 4 at bats (if you guys don't mind me tooting my own horn a bit). It was definitely the stuff to make me excited to play again next year (while being happy to have a break for a while).

Cyndie continues to be pretty busy with her photography stuff. It seems like she's had 2 or 3 shoots a week for the last several. While that is only 3 or 4 hours of actual shooting time, it also means 8 or 9 hours of managing the photos and touching them up. That's pretty exciting. Hopefully things will continue to roll along (and pick up steam) during the school year when she'll have more time during the day (with the kids off at school) to do the work!

Busy Pix

Tim reading his Bible first thing in the morning ...

The Covs first baseman ...
(bragging time ... I hit a grandslam on Tuesday night)

Tim on his first bike ride ...

The fam after our first "4 bike" bike ride ...

Emma and Tim at Emma's class fishing trip ...

The Reader

Just had to drop this out there ... this afternoon Timmy read and entire 90+ page book by himself. It was not a complicated book, but neither was it a total picture book. My mom pulled it out from our stash of books and suggested that he read her a chapter, and he proceeded to spend the rest of the afternoon reading it to Grandma while she worked on sewing a big black backdrop for Cyndie's photo shoots and Grandpa while they sat on the couch together.

Great job Timmer!

This blog is turning ...

700

No, not years old, 700 posts. Yes, this is kind of a boring celebration of the fact, but I don't really have anything horribly interesting to say or commemorate, so this is what you're stuck with. Happy 700th blogday to the Life and Times of the Wildwood DeVries.

In other news, it's Friday. Yea! It seems like this was a long week. I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe the on again, off again nature of the truck thing. On that topic, I got it registered this morning, and just sent our insurance guy an email to get started with that portion of vehicle ownership. We also figured out (via a phone call to the previous owner) how to turn off the aftermarket, really sensitive security system which went off multiple times. Hurray! Marking the unofficial start to the weekend, Cyndie just left for her scrappin' *.

*Does scrapping mean that she and Sherri are going to get in a brawl with a rival gang of scrapbooking gals? I'm thinking this could be epic on the scale of the sharks and the jets. Whoohoo, look out. Which makes me wonder, are Sherri, Cyndie and their crew the sharks or the jets?


The kids had their last soccer last night. A friend whose kids also played asked if we were going to do wrestling next. Uh, no. We're both ready for a little break in the weekly commitments. I'm guessing that the next thing will probably be swimming. For now, I want the kids to be free to enjoy the beautiful weather we've been having ... it's supposed to be in the low 80s today, tomorrow, and Sunday ... awesome. Does anyone that lives near Lake Geneva want to go water skiing over the weekend. I'm thinking one more good run would be great!

So, happy birthday blog, you don't look a post over 300.

Soccer stars

So, the big excitement yesterday was that the kids both had their first "game" action for their soccer teams. I only call it "game", because they're really more just scrimmaging. What they do is practice together with their teammates for the first 30 minutes, then play another team for the second thirty minutes. They don't keep score (wink, wink), and there is no clock, there are no referees, the coaches are on the field, etc. But it's still fun for the kids to play against someone else and have a real "game".

I was helping out with Timmy's team (go Blue)!, so I have the most to report there. Timmy definitely likes the games better than practicing! He had a big smile on his face running around with the other kids and kicking the ball. He also scored the first goal for his team! Yeah Tim! His team "won" 4 - 1. Go Blue!

Cyndie said that Emma had a really fun time too. I have no details to relate, but there you go!

I had some friends over last night to watch the Vikings game. That was fun, though the loss was disappointing.

Big news on the vacation front ... we booked our flights down to Florida to visit Cyndie's mom and Fred over Halloween. The kids have two days off of school then (for various conferences), so, since it's so much cheaper to fly then than Thanksgiving, we decided to go for it.

This will be a fun weekend. My cousins* Christa and Kyle are coming over to visit from Minnesota, and Jane will be coming too, so there will be lots of hanging out and relaxing together. Which means that we need to clean up the projects around the house and get the house a bit straightened out.

* I always have called them my cousins. They are actually my dad's cousin's kids. So what is that? Is that a second cousin? A first cousin once removed? Anyway, we saw quite a bit of Christa and Kyle as kids (and they're very close in age to Laura and I). We re-connected at the family reunion in July, so it will be fun to have more time with them this weekend.

On top of that, Timmy is turning 6! Tomorrow is his birthday! This year is a family party, and I think we'll have more family than we've ever had for a family party what with the cousins being here, plus all my sibs and their families and Auntie Karen and Grandpa and Grandma D!

Weekend Recap

I'll just drop you a vanilla weekend recap here today ... no interesting titles or anything ...

• Cyndie and Emma did the Girl Scouts camping trip on Friday night. Because of the cold and rain, the troop leaders decided not to go to the Girl Scouts camp (where they were required to sleep outside), and instead did the "camp out" in the gym at Woods School. They both had a good time, but were pretty pooped afterward (they didn't get to sleep until around midnight!).
• Tim and I had a fun night ourselves. We went bowling (at Timmy's request). I had my best ever game, bowling a 202! Thanks to Auntie Laura, we were able to bowl for free (yea MOPS coupons). We hit Culver's for dinner, and then watched a movie before bedtime.
• Saturday was fairly low key, until late afternoon. Then Laura and Gow and the girls came over. We fed the kids dinner, cooked our own dinner, and then turned on a movie so the adults could enjoy our meal of steak (with fresh guacamole), fresh rolls, mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli. After dinner, we put the kids to bed, the baby sitter came, and we headed out to see Iron Man 2. This was all part of a delayed birthday for me ... I wanted to see Iron Man 2 in the theaters.
• Sunday was, of course, Mother's day. We had a nice breakfast, then were very lazy. Cyndie took two naps, largely trying to catch up from her late night on Friday. The kids played pretty well, and we took a walk down to Lake Como to see if we could get Pepper to go in the water. He was pretty suspicious of it!
• After church, we went over to Laura and Gows for a light dinner (yummy stew), and then shipped the kids off to bed!

This week is TV turnoff week ... meaning no TV. Cyndie and I hope to get some finish up work done on the craft room and dining room. Then, starting Thursday, we'll have our pastoral candidate in town for the weekend, including speaking at the Sunday service. Since I've been the chair of the search team, I'll be amply busy.

New Feature ... Neal's Favorites!

So, I'm going to brag here for a moment. I created a yummy new recipe, so I'm going to share it with all of my faithful readers.

Apple-Turkey Bacon Cheeseburgers
Ground Turkey (we use a pound or so for our family, had 7 pounds for the 25 here for Easter Lunch)
Minced Garlic (I use pre-minced from a can, but you could easily use fresh or powdered)
Minced Skinless Apple
Cheese (I prefer cheddar)
1 Onion, peeled and sliced
Bacon (two or three half strips per burger)
BBQ sauce
Hamburger Buns

Get the bacon started cooking. Dump the turkey, garlic, and apple into a mixing bowl and kneed together. I'm guessing I use around half a tablespoon to a tablespoon of minced garlic per pound of turkey, less for fresh garlic. I'd say around a quarter cup or possibly a bit more minced apple for a pound of turkey (I really don't use recipes or measuring devices when I cook!). Form into patties. Grill to taste, melting the cheese on the burger last. Don't forget to grill the buns and onions!

Eat with BBQ sauce, a slice of grilled onion, and two or three pieces of bacon.

It's yummy!

The Weekend - In Review

More bullets to summarize the weekend that was:

• Friday was ski day for Woods School, and there were some big milestones there. Emma did great. She learned to "skate" across the flat areas so that she can more easily move between lifts on the flat parts. She also, for the first time, went off with her friends and skied "by herself". Tim did great too. He went up the lift and did the "whole" mountain. I think part of the epiphany was getting rid of the poles. He's still a bit of a wildcard on the lift (his legs are so short he barely can sit on the seat). Cyndie said she usually puts her pole across in front of him and through the armrest so that he won't fall out when he's busy looking all around. Grandpa D went with too. A good time was had by all.
• Saturday Cyndie had a women's brunch at church. The kids and I (and Grandpa D) went down to Crystal Lake for cousin Sarah's 8th birthday party. Fun all around. We got back, and headed to bed. Laura and Gow were over for a night of Jack (tv show 24).
• Unfortunately, Jack was very start/stop as Emma was up almost immediately throwing up. She proceeded to do so frequently (every 30 minutes or so) for 6 hours!! Then she fell asleep and in the morning she was fine. The only thing we can think is that she got food poisoning somehow. She didn't have a fever or anything!
• We took the morning very slow since we didn't know how Emma would be. But by afternoon she was obviously better, so Cyndie took the kids to Emma's Brownie roller skating event while I had worship practice.

Good stuff all. Now we're back in the swing of things for the week ahead. It looks like we'll have relatively warm weather (high 20's/low 30's), and maybe a sprinkling of snow.

Road Rally Results

I've had some loyal readers ask how our team did in the road rally. Well, I am happy to report that Cyndie and I, and our friends Rico and Julie, together known as the Blue Crew (a salute to the suburban), won the road rally! Now some of you (anonymous commenters perhaps) might be confused by this. The overall standings for the rally were calculated upon the time you took, with bonuses and penalties for the number of locations you found and the number of clues required to get there. When the calculations were complete, we won with a time of 78 minutes. The next closest times where two other teams with 95 minutes and 96 minutes. Now, here's the caveat. Those teams BOUGHT time off. They each paid to have 20 minutes subtracted from their times. So in the end, they passed us in the standings. Ah, but we retain the satisfaction of knowing that in terms of pure talent, mental dexterity, and driving ability, the Blue Crew was the best!

Babies, Backs ... life

A few more bullets:

• Congrats to Gow and Laura ... a new baby, Daisy Kate born yesterday, 8 pounds, 8 oz, 20 inches. Yeah!
• The back is finally feeling better today, just in time to help our friends Rico and Julie move on Saturday.
• Emma leaves for Auntie Jane's tomorrow ... she's pretty excited.
• Cyndie is going to order her new Mac and software tonight (for work) ... she's pretty excited.
• Papa Lee arrives tomorrow night ... we're all excited.

Do you sense a theme?

Emma the Movie Star

Good morning to all of you faithful Blog readers out there. Today's latest happenings in bullet form:

• Emma enjoyed her first day of Day Camp. About all we got out of her in regard to what she did yesterday was that she took the swim test and that she liked the spray candy at the canteen. Oh, also that one of her two counselors slept all afternoon. That alarmed us a bit until we heard that he was actually sick!
• Cyndie made the comment when we were talking about Emma's day that she can't wait until Timmy can go. Then we might actually learn something about what happened (Timmy has the tendency to, once he get's going, run at the mouth in a very loud and long-winded way about all the different happenings).
• Uncle Gow is doing a video documentary type of thing for Covenant Harbor. He's filming this week during Day Camp, and, as I understand it, Emma will be one of the featured campers. I'm not exactly sure what the end product is, but I'll try to at least get a link posted here when it becomes available so that you guys can see Emma in action!
  
• We're enjoying having my folks stay with us. They'll be here (I think) until Laura and Gow move into their new place next Sunday/Monday. It's nice to spend some time hanging out with them as we haven't seen a whole lot of them since last spring before they left for their trip to Oregon.
  
• Summer weather appears to finally be rearing its head. It's been much more hot and humid the last several days ... much closer to the high 80s with 75% plus humidity that we're used to for southern Wisconsin.
  
• Pray for our friends in SoCal, the Wekalls. They had the horrible tragedy of losing their son, Matt, in a motorcycle accident. Matt was a good guy who had had some troubles after high school, but was moving in the right direction and was helping with the youth group at church. It's very sad, and will be a tough thing to deal with for Steve, Ginny, and sister Shauna.

Good Stuff, Reader

Yesterday was fairly typical ... had the Caspari kids around all day as Amy and Dave where down in Chicago for some tests on his liver function (please keep them in your prayers). But the fun thing I wanted to share today was what I discovered this morning when I went into Emma's room to open her curtains and let some light in. I'm in there, like I said, opening the curtains. Emma's not there. She walks into her room with her nose in a book (Cam Jansen ... thanks for turning us onto those Amy and Sarah). She's reading as she walks, and kind of wanders over toward me. I ask her for a hug, and she complies, then kind of settles onto my knee (I'd knelt on one knee to hug her) and leans back against me to use me as a chair while she keeps reading. Good stuff. It would appear that our "summer reading program" that we've instituted to try to challenge her a bit to read longer/harder books is already paying off!

In other news, we booked our trip to Cancun in July for our 15th anniversary. Cyndie and I spent some time, just before bed, looking at the website for the resort and anticipating the trip! We're excited!

Quick Weekend Recap

• Went down to Crystal Lake for an overnight with the cousins Fri/Sat.
• Progress in the inter-cousin relationships, especially on an overnight. I think the kids are slowly understanding how to interact with eachother in tighter quarters over a bit longer period of time. Plus they're getting older, so that helps!
• Had some delicious stuffed pizza for dinner ... nice job Dave and Gow.
• Did some bike riding (all the older cousins are now on bikes of some sort) in the neighborhood. Only had one accident and one bike malfunction!
• The adults did the "traditional"* movie night ... New in Town.
• Hit the park for a big victory for the Nealster in frisbee golf on Saturday morning.
• Sunday was church, then spent much of the afternoon in the pool at my folk's condo. It was perfect weather and pool temperature. I foresee a lot more of that type of action over the summer.
• Played Settlers with the gang until way too late last night!

*Can you have a tradition if it is only the second occurrence? I hope it DOES become a tradition ... it's fun stuff!

So now we're back into the week. Emma, as she informs us at least daily, has seven days remaining of school. I think she's pretty excited to be out and "free". In other news, we're gearing up for a weekend camping trip with our friends Dale and Jeannine. It's pretty close by, so very convenient, and should be lots of fun!

What's going down

We had a busy weekend and it will only continue on today!

In and amongst all the house sale stuff (that's in the last post) ... we had a bunch of other things going on too.

Friday was another 24 marathon ... we're down to the last two episodes, and pushing to get them in before Laura and Gow leave for a week! I think that will happen tonight.

Saturday was Emma's breakfast/pajama birthday party. The cousins* were all here in their jammies for pink pancakes shaped like 7's. We played games, opened presents, and basically enjoyed the beautiful day. We gave Emma a new bike (she still had the one she got from Grandpa and Grandma D which she had learned to ride on). She did a treasure hunt to find where it was hidden.

In the evening we went for a picnic with our friends the Holtes to the state park we're going to go camping at in a few weeks. It was pretty there, and will be a good time, but MAN was it windy!!

Yesterday was church, then Emma had a swim party followed directly by a area schools art show where she won a prize (yeah Ems). Then the babysitting co-op that Cyndie belongs to had a get together at our place, so there were around 30 or 40 folks out in the yard enjoying the nice weather and the woods. Good stuff. After that the kids hit the sack, and I went and played wiffleball at the church open gym. Whew, it was a full day.

Now today is school, then Emma's last Jewels of Woods meeting, then Tim and Emma both start 4 weeks of soccer (M/W for 1.5 hours). It's a good thing we have a long weekend coming up!

Coming at you on a Wednesday

Had a minute or two, so I thought I'd drop a blog post to effectively kill the time ...

• Cyndie started sailing last night ... this was just a practice run before the season starts two weeks from tonight. The crew of the 2nd Wind was looking good sporting new "2nd Wind" caps, gifts from Cpt. Jack!
• The kids and I walked the lake trail and were going to play at the Lake Geneva city beach ... when who should we encounter, but Auntie Laura, Uncle Gow, and Cousin Sally ... it's a small town!
• Emma won some sort of award (the letter was a big vague) for some art work she did at school. We'll go to the awards show on Sunday afternoon in Elkhorn to see what's up. Yeah Emma.
• Timmy was up much of the night last night with a fever. He still has it today. Fortunately it's just that, and not a flu.
• Emma and Timmy are going to do a short season soccer thing starting Monday until the end of school. Timmy, especially, was excited by that.
  

Man, I Just Can't Get Enough of This!!

I could start my day off like this every day!

Go Royals!!

Shaping up for a busy week/weekend

I guess when you have two kids and a socially conscious, volunteering wife, things tend to be busy. Most of the action centers around Cyndie this week as she'll have her second ladies clothing exchange tomorrow night. That means getting the house cleaned up and the basement and craft room set up (with lots of tables) for all the clothes. She expects 20 or more ladies, who will bring clothes to exchange for 25 cents each (with the proceeds going to a local home for girls). Should be busy! Me, I'll be watching the Royals game on the internet ... real socially conscious, huh?

This weekend, basically all day Friday to Sunday, Cyndie will be scrapbooking. That means ... single dadhood for this dad. Which means I'll be on the lookout for some fun activities to do with the kids!

Speaking of the kids, Emma got a little trophy for her speech last weekend. She was very proud of that. I have a picture of her with it, but no promises that it will actually be published here or anywhere else!

Speaking of ...

So Emma's speech yesterday went great! I watched the video of it last night after worship team practice and she was very good. A little quiet, but very confident. I was very proud of her for getting up in front of all the K - 5 graders and doing that.

And now one more day, and Spring Break begins! Tonight my folks, and sister and her fam (Laura) will be over for dinner to help us kick of the joyous event. The first big activity will be attending the Dancing Horses show on Saturday. There's even a bird show before hand. Good stuff. I'll also be working from home next week, which will be great!

Cycles

Another weekly cycle is beginning ... Monday comes, work starts, school starts, the routine returns.

We had a good weekend. Cyndie was at a Hearts at Home conference in Bloomington, IL. She went with a friend from church. They had a really good time. There were several main sessions, and also a lot of side seminars to attend. They got back around 10p on Saturday. While mommy was gone on Friday, the kids were with Grandma and Grandpa D. They (G & G) had friends from Alaska visiting, and the kids were very good for them. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa. I went over there for dinner after work, then the kids and I went home.

Saturday, my sister Amy and the cousins came up for a late breakfast, then we got ready for my Auntie Karen's birthday. That was a fun time ... we grilled burgers and enjoyed the nice weather and they fun times that maturing cousins have together (more playing, less fighting)! We had dinner over at Grandma and Grandpa's, then hit the sack, tired!

Sunday was church, then more time outside in the nice weather. Late afternoon Cyndie went over to help set up the church Silent Auction (for scholarships to summer camp for the church kids). Then we all went over there for a potluck and to bid on the great variety of goods up for auction. In all, it was a nice weekend ... the best part of which was the great weather.

It looks like this week will be in the 50s and 60s! We're looking forward to time outside enjoying that.

Fun Timmy anecdote. We're driving in the car the other day, and I have the radio on to the Classic Rock station that I like. Timmy pipes up ... "hey, this is a Guitar Hero song" which indeed it was. I was amazed by that. Especially because 1) we haven't played guitar hero for several months and 2) when we did play, it was largely after Timmy was in bed and 3) Timmy himself never played, and rarely sat there and watched.