$600

Have you ever given a prayer of thanks for a bill for $600? Well, we sure are!! Ken was driving our Toyota Camry around a corner when it stalled. We towed it to a repair shop. The news was not good. The mechanic said it was the timing belt, which should not be going out yet. The mechanic said that when timing belts break, they often damage the valves which could mean the engine would need to be replaced (and when you're dealing with a 16 year old vehicle, replacing the car might be cheaper than replacing the engine). Unfortunately, we would have to fix the timing belt, for $450, before we could even know if the engine was any good. Long story short, turns out there was an oil leak that caused the belt to break, but the engine was fine. The mechanic seemed surprised. He said that in his experience the engine almost always gets damaged. We are so thankful (if this had to happen) that it happened now instead of during our move and that it was only $600 vs having to replace the car.

What a mess!

We only have a little over a week left in Toledo! I can't believe it. We decided to make our lives even crazier by removing the stumps in our back yard. There are 12 stumps we had ground out. It left a small mess....

What are we going to do with all of these wood chips and the huge holes they left?

Anybody want some mulch?

Strawberry Picking

We went to a U-pick strawberry farm as a family. Picking was a lot of fun, unfortunately, the strawberries were not so great. It is too bad cause I LOVE strawberries.

It's Good To Slow Down

Things were SOOOO crazy at the beginning of this year...and then June came. No more church calling, no more visiting teaching, no more teaching Preschool for Jordan, no more teaching Preschool for Caden, no more school projects/activities for Kailyn, no more feeling like a single mom, and no more trying to get the house ready to sell. The only thing on the schedule for the day...being with my kids...and I have LOVED it. Here they are helping me make Pizza Stuffed Rolls.

They helped roll out the pizza dough and then cut it into squares.

Then we filled it with chicken, pineapple, and cheese.

Caden trying to fold it up (I think he forgot to put in the filling).

Kailyn's upper tooth fell out right after this picture, thus the crazy tooth you see (gross, I know).

All of the kids loved helping, even Chase who played in the flour and ate the raw dough.

The finished product (uncooked).

Then we popped them in the oven at 400 for about 15-20. We enjoyed eating them dipped in pizza sauce.

Maumee Bay

We have lived here for 3 years and Ken has never been to Maumee Bay! Friday we decided to remedy this situation.

The Good: The kids played for hours and hours. They were so happy and never once complained, it was hard to pull them away when it was time to go. Even better was we practically had the whole beach to ourselves.

The Bad: All morning it had been raining. We ate our lunch and it was still raining on and off. Luckily no lightning. The kids didn't care and headed straight to the beach in the rain. It didn't rain too long and than the weather was perfect.

The Ugly: The sunburn Ken got. It is really bad. His whole front and back. Ouch! He has been so miserable the last few days. Then four days after our day at the beach he blistered and now is peeling. Luckily, I covered the kids pretty good (and reapplied) and they only came away with minor burns.

Kailyn

Jordan

Taevin, Caden, Jordan

Chase

Taevin and Caden

All of the kids had so much fun in the sand.

Dad helping Chase

Jordan

Taevin, Kailyn, Jenessa, Jordan, Taiya

Gymnastics

This was the last week of gymnastics for the girls. Without knowing, we signed up for the same time as 2 of their friends. I loved having two other moms to sit and chat with while we waited. We have absolutely loved the YMCA for all of its programs.

KAILYN

JORDAN

I had a hard time getting a good picture of Jordan in action.

Thrill rides, roller coasters, and fainting . . . almost.

So, we swapped kid-watch duties with our good friends and arranged for a day at Cedar Point, an amusement park near Cleveland, OH. Here are a few facts about Cedar Point (admittedly from wikipedia):

1. Has the world record for the most roller coasters of any amusement park.
2. The only amusement park with 4 roller coasters over 200 feet high.
3. Has more rides than any other amusement park.
4. "The roller coaster capital of the world."
5. Voted the "Best Amusement Park in the World" 12 years in a row by Amusement Today.

So, for the morning, we did a quick (but thorough) clean of our home as we found out just before bed the previous night that a potential buyer would be stopping by our home that day. We dropped the kids off at our friend's home and got to the park at about 11:30. The weather was perfect, meaning, the park was PACKED.

We went on the Raptor first (after waiting in line for > 1 hour). The theme was that your legs hang free and the roller coaster attaches on the top (see picture below, from the web). Lots of twists and turns and no idea what's coming next (the only thing you see is the seat in front of you). But, definitely a fun ride, and a 5/5 "thrill rating" (all of the roller coaster rides we went on were 5/5 on the "thrill rating").

Shelly, after riding the Raptor (Raptor in the background)

Our next stop was the Mantis. The Mantis is a stand-up roller coaster. On this one, you have the floor of the coaster car beneath you but you are standing up. When built in 1996, this was the tallest and fastest stand-up roller coaster in the world. This one seemed to have even more twists and turns than Raptor, as evidenced by the young rider who puked 5 or 6 rides before ours. STINKY!! Here is a picture of some of the loops/twists.



After this ride, Shelly and I both felt a little queezy in the stomach (yes, I had a scopolamine patch on but still had a little motion sickness). We decided we would do at least one more thrill ride and take a break. We knew we had at least an hour of recovery, thanks to the long lines. In looking around the park, there was one more ride that scared me TO DEATH. Therefore, we decided that would be the next stop. The ride? Top Thrill Dragster. Here's what we know:

0-120 mph in 3.8 seconds, shooting up a vertical track (90 degrees) 420 feet high, only to peak and then freefall drop the 400 feet on another vertical track (90 degrees) with a 270 degree twist and reaching 120 mph a second time. This is the first roller coaster in the world to top 400 feet. This was our favorite ride. It sounds really scary, but really it wasn't too bad. Everything happened so fast that we didn't have time to think or worry about what was happening and what would be next. We DID get a little nervous when we saw a sign that said that occasionally the car does not clear the top and is slowly lowered back to starting position. Glad that didn't happen to us (but my uncle reports that it happened to him a couple years ago!). Attached is a video of one of the cars (obviously not our car) that successfully made the loop.

Next, a lazy river water ride that ended up passing under a water fall and drenching Shelly and me.

Then we went on the Millenium Force, one of the longer rides. This one taxied us up to over 300 feet high (another world record--the first roller coaster to reach over 300 feet. When built in 2000, this roller coaster beat 10 world records.), then dropped us at 80 degrees for 300 feet. This is where the blackout almost occurred. After the ride, Shelly confessed that she could never be a fighter pilot, as she felt her vision going and almost blacked out in the initial 300-foot drop. We had 2 more peaks (both over 150 feet), a few tunnels, and a few loops on this trip as well. (pictures from the internet, though I had similar views once on a helicopter flight)





Next was Maverick. This one had a few surprises for us and quickly became one of our very favorite rides. Again, we had an hour-long wait. We dropped 100 feet at a 95 degree drop (5 degrees past vertical). We had a few other twists and turns and then ended up at a screeching halt in a dark tunnel. I sat there for a second and thought, "this is a weird spot to end a ride" when suddenly we shot off from 0-70 mph in just 2 seconds and finished with a couple inversions and twists. Somebody's cell phone flew out at the beginning of the ride, and towards the end, someone's sunglasses zoomed past my head.

The 95 degree drop

A couple twists and turns

Our last ride was the XL-200. This was our least favorite ride and kinda finished us off. As we walked right up to the roller coaster and realized we didn't have to wait 1 hour to get on, we asked each other if it was a bad sign? It was. This one was built in 1989. It was the first complete circuit roller coaster to break the 200-foot mark and was the start of the roller coaster wars (trying to get the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world). However, this ride was very jerky and rattly. We had headaches after the ride. It also caught air going over a couple hills--enough to make me unsure if it was going to land on the tracks again (it did). My shoulders were tense afterwards. Shelly and I looked at each other and said in unison, "that was awful. I'm done now." We couldn't do any more roller coasters after that ride.

So, after riding all the roller coasters, we rode the sky ride (basically a ski lift that takes you to the other side of the park), the bumper cars, and a horse-racing carousel. By then, it was 7:30 pm. We were hungry. We left the park and found a TGIF for dinner. We got home a little after 10 pm, went to bed, and then got up around 9 am to go get the kids. Then we went to a state park and beach for a little swimming, but that's for another post.

Tornadoes Twisting by . . .

. . . but narrowly miss us and our home. We considered taking the kids to "the cave" (the storage area under the stairs) and praying that the high winds would cause heavy damage to the upper level of the home (but of course not causing damage to any of us), but we thought that might not be appropriate. So, we decided to be defiant and just sleep in our regular beds by the windows on the upper level of the home. When they told us (just before midnight) that the storm was really close and traveling at 55 mph, I went out onto the porch to see if I could see it, with the intention of running up and waking up the kids if I saw it coming. I didn't see any sign of the tornado (no really strong winds in our neighborhood), so I walked back into the home only to hear the next words out of the weatherman's mouth saying, "This is the real thing. Do NOT go outside and try to watch for the tornado. Get to the basement or the lowest level of your home away from all windows." (oops, oops, and oops). At least we weren't camping this time. What can I say? I didn't want to wake the kids!

Meanwhile, at least 6 tornadoes touched down in the immediate area causing at least 3 deaths, heavy damage to a local high school, kicking a couple cars around, and knocking over several homes.

3-Year Collages

I made some collages for our graduation slideshow. These are some of the things we've done over the past 3 years. A lot of these pictures will look familiar, but they're fun to see again (I think, anyway).