Corning Museum of Glass

November 4, 2014 | Stacy

Almost a two hour drive, including a LooooooG stop for a four-year-old tummy.
Ten people, as Nan and Nene came, too.
A good deal of fun.

Adults were $16, and kids 19 and under are free.
Making glass projects were not free.
Really. Not. Free.
But how could we not?

We learned a lot today. Glass has been around since Nineveh times! Amazing stuff.
And we did a scavenger hunt in the glass history section. It was pretty beautiful, really.
But the demos were our favorite parts.

Nigel was selected from the audience to participate in glass breaking. He said it was fun.
He was given a beautiful glass swan for his participation.

We watched a glass flameworking demo. She made a beautiful fish.

We also watched a fiber optic demo. and a glass blowing demo. I don’t know how I failed to take pictures of that last one. It was fascinating. The artist blew a gorgeous bowl in about 15 minutes.
I was that lady with a 20-month old in a glass museum. When Stewart was a baby I would have been horrified my child was so “busy”. At this stage of the game I was like, “Deal with it people.” 😉

After we ate our packed lunch we headed to the I Make Glass building.

Stewart and Tabitha each made an ornament. ($29 each, plus a total cost of shipping of $18.)

I can’t wait to see them when they arrive later this week. I did not get a good look at either of them.

Marie and Nigel did flamework. Nigel made a bead. Marie made a pendant. I think they both just wanted to work with the flame. I don’t blame them.

Johanna applied stickers all over the outside of a small glass. Then a nice lady sandblasted it.

She was a little perplexed that the stickers were removed.

We left around 3:30 P.M. Johanna wanted to be like the big kids…

And we wanted Katriel to use some big muscles before the long car ride home.

We called in a pizza about half-an-hour out from home.
I remember when a sheet pizza used to last two meals!
They are growing so fast.

Flu shot field trip…

October 20, 2014 | Stacy

Some of my bloggy friends might remember when we had H1N1 in 2009. It was horrible.
H.O.R.R.I.B.L.E.
That was the year that H1N1 strain was a separate immunization

I also had influenza A in 2008.
Just. So. Sick.
Praise God the kids did not have that bout. They had had their shots that year. I, somehow, kept missing the clinics at work and didn’t make it a priority.

Now… I walk over glass to get mine.

I hate all the lies that fly around about the “flu shot”.
I want to shake people who just think it is a stomach bug.
Or people who angrily contend they got the flu from the shot. (Not. Even. Possible.)

If you don’t want it, that’s fine. But don’t demonize those of us who know what it is like to hurry your asthmatic son to Urgent Care as his routine meds make no differences. Or how we remember shaking in bed with rigors and a temperature of 103.6 at 10 weeks pregnant and worry about what that fever is doing to your baby. (She’s fine, by God’s great mercy.) Or what it is like to see your 3-year-old soar past 104 and every medication in your arsenal can’t bring it down. Or watching your limp 7 year old fall languish on the sofa and have repeat visits to the pediatrician until she swabs him and confirms we are part of a pandemic.

Immunizations are not the enemy. The Enemy is the enemy. And he loves to see people bicker and argue. And for sure he likes to see them sick.

These disciples will do what they can to avoid the flu.

Even princesses endorse. 😉

Stewart is 14

August 19, 2014 | Stacy

“Mom, when you blog about my birthday, use the picture with the lightning that Nan took.”

He rocks. He just does. He’s not perfect. He complains about vacuuming, and teases his sisters. But he is a very great guy.

He asked if we could go to RMSC for his birthday and since we hadn’t been there in years I said we could. It would have been $68 for the day, or $83 for a membership, so I went for the membership. But I am sorry I did. It used to be that movies at the Planetarium were included and that would have given us a great pay-off for the huge admission fee/membership. Turns out they are now $6/pp. Seriously? We will never go. And as the museum is plastered with evolution-based lies I feel like I have to constantly play defense. So I do not love it there. Oh – and now you pay extra for this and extra for that, and…

I’ll get back to the birthday at hand. ♥

Johanna saw the sand and asked, “I get my hands dirty?” in her permission-seeking voice. She didn’t quite buy it.

She also could NOT get herself up and around in this climby thing. Maybe next year.

We really enjoyed these building block things.

Stewart was very excited about the sour cream we gave him. Sadly, we had forgotten to refrigerate it and it wasn’t edible. But it was the thought that counted.

No. No. No. It was just a CONTAINER. It had something Much Classier in it. An I.O.U. Yes. It was a paper that said, “I. O. U. A. I. O.”

Which stands for “I owe you Adventures in Odyssey.” It had a shipping delay. We also gave him an Orange Crush t-shirt and a pair of headphones. And a yummy homemade (as in every iota from scratch) lemon cake with lemony filling and lemony frosting. It was superb.

He’s a great guy and I’m so glad we get along as well as we do. I sincerely pray it never changes. He’s a light.

Caught up !!

August 13, 2014 | Stacy

Okay – this blog has languished this summer. I’ve had all kinds of computer/photo and phone-talking-to-computer issues. Plus – I hate sitting around the computer when I could be doing something else. But I finally got the photos straightened out. And Apple gave me my third iPhone since February. (They seem to give them away like candy. But I don’t care to rehash all of THAT insanity.) So – hopefully – I will not fall behind again. Although school starts soon (8/25) so the barrel-of-laughs is bound to stop rolling. 😉

Some fun flashback pictures from April 2007.

Tabitha’s first birthday.

First party at the “new” house.

Boys for T-Ball.

Pretending to be mad.

Park Rats…

August 6, 2014 | Stacy

We’ve taken up the habit of visiting parks as much as we can. And we are trying to visit a variety of them. I don’t take pictures each time. And I’ve lost count how many we have been to these last two weeks. But we are having fun and getting outside. Combating loneliness…

Sometimes we pack a picnic. Sometimes not.

It’s been fun.

Wanna join us?

Seabreeze day…

July 22, 2014 | Stacy

Tabitha won two free tickets to Seabreeze. Which is great. But that still leaves a lot of tickets to purchase, know what I mean? But, with the rest of us sort of moping around without Marie, it seemed like as good a time as any to use those tickets.

I had planned on taking all the kids, and we all hoped Nan could come. She had some repair person scheduled to come by her house, however, so she passed on the invite and instead offered to have Katriel hang out with her. She told us to bring some milk for the baby. Katriel took care of that. (Oh! She’s so cute!!)

Seabreeze is one of my most favorite places ever. We had a great time. The weather was incredible and the crowds were very modest. They’ve updated the Kiddie area and Johanna had a grand time there. We spent a long time on the water activities and even did water attractions two separate times of the day. Johanna was too small for any water slides (first time in a long time I’ve had a 4-year-old too small for water slides!) but she loved the lazy river. I think we did that 5 times over all. Maybe more?

We stayed until after 9 PM. Something we wouldn’t have done with Katriel with us. So THANKS NAN!
We had some treats…

And enjoyed ourselves as best we could without Marie.

I did something totally crazy, too… see my stroller in the back of that picture? I took the stroller even without a kid to push in it!! YES! I did!!! How else would I cart around all the food? We like to eat on the go. I. LOVE. STROLLERS!

VBS at Pittsford CC

July 17, 2014 | Stacy

This year I had three beautiful girls attend VBS at Pittsford CC, and I had two young men help out with the ministry.

Firstly – both boys helped in the two Bible classrooms. This was Stewart’s third year serving this way and Nigel’s first. Nigel also helped out performing in the VBS drama. He had FORTY-SIX hours of rehearsal!!! (This was more than we met for the Passion Play at church a few years ago!!) He played Max Devlin, Chancellor of International City and all around bad guy.

This was Johanna’s first year to attend. She had a blast. AND she didn’t realize she was going to go more than one day! 🙂 After the first day, when we were tucking her into bed that night, I mentioned returning the following day. She was SO excited.

This is me and my “Chancellor” on Thursday night during the parents’ assembly.

Nigel with the other bad guy…

See Tab peeking out in the row? This was just before Nigel ran to get away. He went tearing down the aisle with a member of the Truth force right behind him.

It was a great week. All the kids had so much fun. I was exhausted driving them all back and forth. Baby and I ran some errands and met some friends one day at Panera. In a few years it will be her turn to go. Maybe I will volunteer then!

The Father’s Heart ministry at Pines of Per.

July 12, 2014 | Stacy

We’ve had the chance once or twice to help out in a small way with an AMAZING ministry here in town. Once a year they host a picnic for a community within our community and this year John, Stewart, Marie, Tabitha and I were able to lend some hands.

This ministry is a mobile soup kitchen which also hands out food and clothing. Our part was just to paint some faces, man an info. table and lead a kids’ game for a few hours. It was a gorgeous day and we met lots of beautiful people who came out to partake of the donations and hear the Truth as it was preached by a local pastor.

I’m so glad we could do something small with this awesome ministry. I hope we can do more with the mobile kitchen as the kids get older.

SURPRIS*E

June 23, 2014 | Stacy

Because their good friend was coming to town (they did not know, of course) I suggested to John that we throw the boys a surprise birthday party before either of their birthdays was even on their mind. This was a crazy idea… so we went for it.

Nan assisted by taking Stewart, Nigel, and Andrew to her house to power wash her deck. When she brought them back at 5:15 P.M. our family room was filled with quite a few of their favorite people.