Rock and Roll hall of fame

Okay...so I was about to go to the grocery store and a fierce August storm broke out. Remember those crazy Ohio thunderstorms? I decided to wait a few minutes and let it pass. Before I continue with my final vacation installment :) I wanted to let you know that I added new photo albums to my photo site and a new video to youtube. (it's chalk on the walk stuff) Anyhow, both are accessible on the sidebars of this blog.

First impressions of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame:

- It looks bigger than it actually is...

- NOT kid friendly

- Pretty cool if you like looking at memorabilia (which I do)

- Rock stars are very small people. I couldn't believe how utterly tiny the costumes from nearly every person in there were.

- The most interesting stuff in that museum is in the dark....so if you can't see well in the dark...you loose! Seriously, your eyes adjust :)

It was a gorgeous day and we parked next to the Browns stadium and walked over the to the Hall of Fame. I was snapping pictures of the architectually confusing building and having a lovely time, but when we got inside I was shocked to find out that you can't take pictures in there at all. In fact, they actually confiscate your camera and there are guards and staff in every single nook and cranny watching for camera smugglers!! LOL Therefor, I only have pictures that I could take in the lobby and from the outside of the building.

We were all split up through most of the museum because we all moved at our own pace and found different things interesting. Tilden was deep into the 70's bands and information while I was fascinated by the 80's and the very early stuff. I loved listening on headphones to the early era disc jockey's. I think that I was most interested to see Michael Jackson's red leather coat from his Thriller video as well as one of the Grammy's he won for that album. I thought a Grammy would be a lot more fancy and detailed. They also had his jewel studded glove in an air tight chamber..revolving slowly. I found THAT to be funny! LOL

Jake just ran from car to car. They have a purple Cadillac from Elvis, Roy Orbison's corvette, and Janis Joplin's phychodelic Porsche just to name a few. I think that Micah was most interested in the props from music video's. I was able to get this picture of a giant hot dog from a Phish video because it was visible from the lobby. I got a picture of Tilden and Jake coming up the escalator in front of it...heeheee. They have the actual wall and giant scary dude from the Pink Floyd "The Wall" video. It was HUGE and actually kind of scary!

There were 3 or 4 movies to watch, but we didn't end up seeing any of them. One was not suggested for children and the other 2 were over an hour long each. They have nice big theaters built to show those movies, but because Jake and Micah were with us we opted not to try to see them. I don't think Jake would have sat through even ONE of those movies. The only one that we watched was about the filming of the Beatles movie, "Help". You would have to be there for a minimum of 4 hours to see all the movies plus the museum stuff. Most people get their wristband and come back during show times.

The lobby is decorated with a lot of guitar statues made by local artist. They were pretty fascinating. Here are a few of them:

We enjoyed ourselves :)

super shy

I was so frustrated with Jake last night, but there isn't much I can do to change his behavior. He had his first soccer practice last night and he didn't know any of the kids or the coach. In classic Jacob style he simply "shut down". He went out on the field with the kids, but he was like a statue. He stood there and held onto his soccer ball and never flinched. His coach would ask him questions and Jake just stared at him wide eyed and lips glued shut. All the kids sat down to stretch and he stood there...they ran a lap around the field and he stood there....they kicked the ball back and forth to each other and he stood there. They took a water break and he walked back over to me. I said, "what is wrong with you?" and he simply shrugged his shoulders and fought back tears. Then I said, "get back out there and I want to see you run and show the coach how good you are". He walked back out to the field, but took extremely tiny baby steps and to0k 5 minutes to get back on the field. They did a mini scrimmage at the end and I was surprised to see that he actually ran back and forth on the field with the rest of the kids, but he never tried to kick the ball. About half way through their scrimmage he went up to his coach and BURST into tears and said, "I can't breathe". He came back to me and sat down and cried. I told him that he couldn't breathe because he never opened his mouth to get some air. He refused to go back into the game. I whispered into his ear, "if you go on the field and kick the ball just ONE time, I will take you to Wal-Mart and buy you any car you want". He baby stepped to the line , but never went on the field. When we got into the van he said, "can we go to Wal-Mart now?" and I was like "you never even went on the field!! NO we can't go to Wal-Mart." So we get home and he is all chipper and bouncy and I was NOT thrilled with him. We got out of the car and went into the back yard where I made him do all the drills that he wouldn't do at practice. I made him run back and forth in the yard and kick the ball to me. Then I asked him why he didn't do what the coach told him to do and he said, "I don't like him". HOW in the world can you not like him when you never saw him before in your life? I sent him to his room while I made dinner and told him that he could come back down when he was going to listen to his coach. He stayed up there for 20 minutes and finally wandered into the kitchen and said, "don't tell dad about my practice, okay?". LOL

I went to bed last night and I felt HORRIBLE for punishing him. He is just sooooooo shy in new situation that he can't function. I have run out of ideas on how to deal with him in those situations because he is completely unreachable when he shuts down. I don't want to play into his fears and allow him to quit or not participate. I guess that I will find out on Saturday (his next practice) if this "mean" technique worked. I've already tried bribery and super niceness - - those didn't work at all.
The sad thing is that he couldn't wait to play soccer. He was so excited about practice and being on a team. I am sure that his coach thought we were forcing him to play against his will. Poor Jake :(

More vacation stuff...

I finally have a chance to sneak back on here and write a little more about our trip to Cleveland. There is a new video on the YouTube link...it contains some still shots mixed in with some videos from that day.


Where did I leave off? Ohhhh yes, we had watched the Indians win at my last report....

After we checked into the hotel we walked about a mile into downtown Cleveland and ate dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. Jake was fascinated by the pigeons in Tower City Center and he tried to catch one. There are quite a few guitar statues inside Tower City as you are walking towards the Hard Rock. Alex and I felt this one was the most interesting and we just HAD to get a picture of it...isn't it neat and weird at the same time?


Here is a picture Micah took to PROVE we were at the Hard Rock....he basically just wanted a picture of the sign behind my head. LOL






We were in no big hurry to get back to our hotel, so we took a little self guided tour of all the monuments around downtown Cleveland. Most of the time that we are in town we are in a car. It's amazing how much you miss out on if you are just "flying" through town. There are several HUGE war memorials downtown. However; Alex and I were most fascinated by the Federal Reserve building. The architecture and statues surrounding that building are really intricate and elaborate. Plus, Alex got to share some of her "college knowledge" with me reguarding Federal Reserve's. There is also a very large statue of Abraham Lincoln next to the Freedom fountain that rivals the Lincoln Memorial. You could spend hours downtown just reading the plaques and absorbing the history. I really love history...but not reading about it...I love going to the locals and seeing it for myself. Here is a nice shot of the Freedom fountain and the "fam" chillin in the area surrounding that fountain as the sun was setting.












After all of our sight seeing we arrived back at the hotel. The boys found a way to play baseball and soccer with none of the proper equipment. They used the drum sticks Jake got at Hard rock and stuffed animals. LOL They had tons of fun -BOYS!! I will share the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame adventures next time :)

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!