Indians Game

We couldn't take the time off ...or spend the money...for a real vacation this year. We decided to go to an Indians game, spend the night in a fancy hotel and then go to the Rock and Roll Hall of fame. Caleb didn't want to miss work, but Alex was able to come. Here is our day at the Indians game. I'll write more about all the other fun stuff later. :)



It was kind of sad to see this new sign across the scoreboard. That's always been "Jake's field" to us and I have lots of old pictures of him standing next to the "Jacob's field" sign. It just seemed wrong to see that huge PROGRESSIVE sign. Oh well...It's all about money in the end. I think it's kind of funny that I took this picture when Casey Blake was up to bat and his picture is there....because he was traded to the Dodgers this week. LOL


It was a very sunny day, but as luck would have it our seats were in the shade! We were cool and comfy throughout the entire game. Jacob is just like his 2 big brothers and he loves to watch baseball. His favorite player is Grady Seizmore, but he calls him "Grainy Seizmone". Wouldn't you know that good ole Grainy hit a home run that day?! Jake was thrilled!


We ate all the "usual" baseball foods like hot dogs, nachos , peanuts and cotton candy. I think that we paid as much for food as we did for our tickets! LOL

As much as Jacob loves baseball....there is one thing that simply TERRIFIES him about the game. It's so silly too. He is deathly afraid of the "hot dog racers". They are people dressed up in hot dog costumes and they race during the 7th inning stretch. Here is a picture of "Ketchup" after he won the race and then a picture of Jake watching Ketchup walk through the stands behind us. He talked about it the entire game, "are the hot dog people coming? Where are they now?". It was a relief to finally get that stupid race over with!

It was a pretty fun day. The Indians swept the Rays that day in the 4 game series and the boys got a free baseball mitt. They even had a left handed glove for Jake. It's always a good day when your team wins. GOOOO TRIBE!

Kinsman Redeemer

I was listening to a CD study on the book of Ruth today and I just had to share this part with you...basically paraphrased in my own words.

We've heard that Jesus is our Kinsman redeemer, but do you know what the role of a Kinsman redeemer was in the Old Testament? Read carefully these 3 specific jobs of a Kinsman redeemer and praise Him for the role He takes in our own life as He does these things. Not only can He redeem your life, but He can redeem anything and everything about your life.

- Insured hereditary property stays in the family.

So....any "ground" that you've surrendered to the enemy is still "in the family". Anything you've forfeited to sin or the inability to withstand a storm, you've never lost that ground. Our Kinsman redeemer has it and we merely need to ask for Him to restore it to us. It's not lost forever and it never was.

- Bought back family members who have sold themselves into slavery.

Duh! Do we even need to explain that one? LOL If you've sold yourself into "slavery" over some sin ....you don't have to be there. A redeemer could set someone free from slavery, but they could never make them leave. They had to WANT to leave. He will set us free, but it's up to us to leave.

- The avenger of crimes against any near relatives.

He WILL handle it. Nobody gets away with anything. He will avenge the wrongs done to you because He is our Kinsman Redeemer. I love that He will avenge the crimes done to us. He won't forget...that's part of the "redeemers" job. It's not OUR job, so just walk away and be free of that burden.

I thought that was all pretty "neat" and I felt like sharing it today.

A day in vzone

I thought it might be fun to talk about my "virtual" life and share some pictures. LOL Here is their website ..if you are feeling adventurous. They have a 2 week trial membership. Make sure you join "NewHorizones" if you decide to try it with me. There are 2 other virtual worlds in the same company, but that is the only one that I am in.

http://www.vzones.com/

I built this "beach" all by myself...using creative paint codes and gluing down various object to give me a theme. This room was just 3 walls and a floor when I got a hold of it. I've made a lot of fun locals , I get to vent my creative artistic side in vzone. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!

I joined Vzones back in 1998...it used to be called WorldsAway. I don't always have time to pop in there and play, but there are plenty of days that I find it pretty fun. Especially in the winter when we are trapped in the house and the kids are back in school. LOL

I became staff 3 years ago ...I'm a "guide". Here I am hanging out in the Avatar Wares delivery area. People order special items and part of my job is to deliver those items. Aren't I cute?

I have some pretty cool turfs...that's what we call our "homes". My favorite is my snow turf. I am wearing a little person body and a ladybug costume in this picture. The possibilities are endless, LOL! Notice there is an abominable snowman in the background. I think he's gonna eat me up! He was a prize last year in a game I played.

Ohhhh speaking of games! Mostly, that's what I do in vzones. I'm either playing a game or hosting a game...unless I am decorating one of my "turfs". Here I am hosting bingo. You can get a good look at the variety of styles from this group. There are even people who spend their days as mice or cats...there is a little mouse on the log in the front. heehee

If you are adventurous enough...come on into Vzone and I'll show you around. You can name yourself anything you want...be incognito or creative, but if you want to get a hold of me...I'm just plain "Michele" in there. LOL

Summer day

Pam and I met at Grandpa's today with the kids. It was a hot day, but all the shade on the deck made it pretty pleasant.

Haliegh and Jake wore their bathing suits and tromped around in the creek for awhile, but quickly grew bored and wandered off to the swing set. Micah and Eric took off for at least an hour on their own "adventure". They saw some fish in the deeper end of the creek and tried to catch those and tadpoles with only a Styrofoam cup and a stick. They didn't catch anything. LOL When they came back to Grandpa's yard Jake and Haliegh ran back down to the creek and helped their brothers catch some crayfish. It was nice to sit there and watch them all be "kids". Exploring and imagining that they were some kind of big game hunters. They captured 4 crayfish in all , but one of them crawled back out of the cup and scuttled it's way to freedom.

After all that "fun" the kids decided to cool off in the front yard with the new sprinkler. I bought if for 10.00 at Wal-Mart and it's AWESOME!! It shoots out balls from the top and has 4 different sprays along the sides. The big boys and the little kids all loved it and did a pretty fair job of flooding grandpa's front yard. In fact, at one point a mole popped right up out of it's hole and scurried past Micah, sending all the kids in different directions screaming their heads off. I bet that mole didn't know how frightening it was! LOL I guess they flooded his home and he needed to move.

There are tons of pictures from this day on myphoto album website. Go have a look!

Camera lust

Micah was in a very big soccer tournament this past weekend in Cleveland. There were a zillion tents and vendors set up all over the place. His team didn't do very well because they had 2 or 3 kids not show up for various reasons, plus...they were younger than most of the teams in their division. They weren't exactly slaughtered, but they didn't win anything.

I wandered over to this big Sony tent to see what was going on and a very chipper lady greeted me with, "would you like to know what we are doing today?". Apparently , they were lending their cameras for the soccer games. You had to give them your drivers license and in return you were given this Sony Alpha DSLR camera with a big zoom lens attached to use for an hour and a half. When you returned it they put all the pictures that you took onto a CD for you and gave you a coupon for 100.00 off that camera. (They weren't selling cameras there though).

Yeah, so I am in lust with that camera. Man, what a difference!! It was sooooo nice and pretty easy to figure out. I took 104 pictures and only 5 or 6 were blurry. At least 3 of those were my own fault because I kept my finger on the button and took extra shots when I was pulling away from a shot. The camera did get heavy with that big zoom on it, but it took lovely pictures. Here are a few of my shots....

I know , I know...my camera takes nice shots too, but this one was so much fun to use! Hey, with the zoom lens it's only about 900.00, KACHING! When someone wins the lottery they can buy that for me, okay? hahaha

Happy 4th of July!!

We had a nice slow...relaxing 4th of July. I am a wee bit sad that I am not down in Florida with all my sisters, but life goes on! LOL

I invited dad over for lunch since mom is down in Florida and Glenn and Pam are in D.C. I'm sure that you all want to hear about my lovely lunch, don't you? I swear that I stood in that kitchen and "prepared" food just as long as I do for Thanksgiving.

Here was our menu:

cupcakes...ala Jake (he did the frosting and sprinkles)

macaroni salad (home made)

baked beans

hamburgers/ hot dogs

corn on the cob

grilled pork cubes with veggies (zucchini, squash, onion, mushrooms, and red peppers)

It was all very yummy and I made sure that dad took some home for his dinner later. Caleb left for work immediately after we ate lunch and Alex left about an hour after that. She just got home from Florida around noon today and had to leave for work at 3:15...poor thing was exhausted. She crashed on the couch as soon as she got home and we had to wake her up for lunch. It was like trying to wake Rip Van Winkle. MAN, that girl can SLEEP!! Here she is, crashed on the couch...heehee

I put Caleb and Micah in charge of the grill today. They are true men and have a passion for grilling. What can I say? They do a good job, so why fight it?

After the "big" kids left, Jacob drug Grandpa upstairs and forced him to watch Sponge Bob on a 13 inch tv. Grandpa was very nice and accepted Jake's invitation to sit on his bed and watch his tv. Grandpa came back downstairs and said, "hey, SpongeBob is actually pretty funny". We do love SpongeBob! LOL

Finally, we settled in on the couches and watched Tomb Raider on our brand new 47" LCD flat screen tv. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh finally!! During the movie Jake brought us each a cupcake. He was so proud of those strawberry sprinkle masterpieces and he had a huge smile on his face as he handed them out. A little while later we delved into some chocolate turtle pie. yummmy!!

Dad went home around 6pm and we just sat around and played the Wii. No, seriously...we did! We probably won't be venturing out to see fireworks tonight because we have to leave the house at 6am for Micah's final soccer tournament. We promised Jake that we would take him to see fireworks at the Scrapper field in a few weeks instead. We will try to catch a glimpse of the Packard Park fireworks out the back window before we go to bed.

It was a nice quiet day...like I said! HUGS!