Quick updae on the Seanster

Adding one more thing to deal with........Seany was jumping on a hippity-hop ball and landed on his foot wrong somehow. We let it sit overnight and he was even running around on it ths morning in an attempt to avoid 'The Doctor!!" So we went looking at a few houses today and decided to bring him into the ER just to make sure he didn't ull a BJ and break something. Turns out he did something that made his X-rays not look quite right so the ER guy ut a formed splint on it and Sean and I will be headed into the orthopedic guy tomorrow morning. So we don't kow for sure if it's broken but we will find out tomorrow. As Grandma Dorothy pointed out, ifit is broken we'll be jumping to the front of all the lines at Disney next week with gimpy.

Check out the quick video below, I posted it of Seany skiing but didn't send out a notification. I'm trying to post another one of him skiing but this websight and our dial-up are not liking it.

Seany Skiing

Engineer in training.....

These are creations by BJ. They are just a few examples of what he does everyday. It is truly amazing to see what he comes up with and also how proud he is of each thing regardless of how big or small, simple or complex.

Things, they are a happenin'

Several updates.....Our house in Michigan is under deosit and closing is around the 15th. Lets hope it goes thru. We'll need to put in an offer on something around the same time here. because our rental is up at the end of May.

Next update....BJ lost his first tooth finally. The other one had almost totally grown in behind it before the old one came out. He was so geeked about the tooth ferry leaving him a couple bucks he worked on his next tooth and it came out two days later. So both his bottom two center teeth have come out.

Next....Still winter here. We have some lawn showing but the lake is still frozen and we flew kites out there yesterday. I'll try and add some picks of that.

Next.....A bit of an odd easter as it was just us with no other family. For Jo it was harder than that without her parents.

Next....Here is my funny story....Two weeks ago Jo's school made a ski trip to Titus Mtn. and it was my off Friday so I went with. We took Zack and BJ even though it wasn't their grade levels going on the trip. Well we were going down this part of the hill that is a terrain park. That means theres rails and pipes and jumps and other things people can do all sorts of tricks on. we were just going down to go over some small jumps. Well BJ wasn't looking beyond the jumps and was going down toward one and I was a bit nervous cause i saw what was on the other side which was a rail. I figured he would turn and go off the side, but I was wrong. He went right off the end and landed square on the rail right between his legs. He found out he was a boy real quick. He actually thought he was bleeding. We went inside and checked everything out and he was OK. He had been acting a bit off that day anyway and he never really got back on his skis. Turns out he had strep throat and now he had a sore spot between his legs too.

I'll attach some pics and I'll keep you informed obout our house.

Best skiing day yet

Today was probably the best day yet that we've had for skiing. We got there at about 10:30 or so and were there until 4:00. It was about 22 degrees but sunshine and no wind so it felt quite a bit warmer. We exploered several new areas including a terrain park with jumps and rails and other things that we adults can kill ourselves on but the kids fly over with no fear. Sean started out a little rusty but we forced him off the lash quite a bit today and before you know it he was doing great. He made huge strides today as did everyone. It was an amazing day and I took some pictures. The first is the view from the backside of Madonna looking toward New Hampshire.

The second is a picture of Seany riding the chairlift.

The next one is Jo and Seany. Seany has the tether on and Jo is guiding him down. That's usually my job but Jo got to do it just this once.

The next one is all of them on Morse Mtn.

The last one is the result of a full day skiing!!!! It was a nice ride home!!!

I don't think we have very many weekends like this left this year, so if you are thinking of coming to visit, plan it quickly. This was a great weekend and it's a bummer to go back to work tomorrow, but there is always next weekend. Hopefully it will be as nice. Have a good week everyone.

Where has your 'Blue Highway Games' coffee mug been?

This picture was taken Friday when just Zack and I went skiing. We went to the top of Madonna Mountain at Smugglers Notch. It's at 3640 feet. So the point of this picture is i wanted my brother Brian to start a display board at his store in Seattle. The store is Blue Highway Games and I thought it would be fun to have people take their mugs from that store to places all over the world. You can purchase your mug by contacting Brian at Brian@bluehighwaygames.com (Brian if I got that wrong let me know). It was a beautiful day on the mountain and I also need to credit my boy Zack for taking the picture. Below is a picture of Zack, also holding the mug on top of Madonna Mountain.

A little update on things

It’s been too long since my last update and I will try not to let it happen again. So, the last I left you with I think was Joey’s mom passed on. As you can imagine 2007 has been a very tough year for Jo and we sent it out with a funeral pyre of sorts. We burned a calendar on New Years Eve. It seems though that 2007 was to have one last laugh. The calendar was coated in a film of some sort that made it smell pretty acrid when we burned it. We are sure that it was toxic and expect to all grow third arms in the next year because of it. Maybe that will help my golf game……
I’m traveling on one of my favorite modes of transportation right now which is Amtrak. I picked up the train in Holland MI and am heading to Chicago to get a flight to Burlington VT. We were home for the weekend so that Jo could go thru her parent’s house with her brother and sister. There is a mountain of stuff to go thru as any of you who have had to do this already know. Things are going well though probably not as fast as they would like. Jo is staying at least thru Wednesday and depending on how much is left may stay longer. Which means I might be doing this trip in reverse next weekend to help her drive back to VT. She and the boys are off this whole week for mid-winter break which for some reason is a whole week. Very odd!
I’ll try and catch you up with our life which as with many people kind of stagnates a little bit in January and February. It is because of this that we looked at moving to Vermont. It has definitely worked! We have done something every weekend since we’ve been home. First and foremost we’ve skied a lot! It’s been very fun and I am truly amazed at the progress the boys and Jo have made. I’m getting close to my peak abilities that I once had when in high school but I tell you what, I’ve had to re-learn a bunch because I am essentially 50 lbs heavier now than in high school and it’s just not as easy for me to throw my weight around like I used to. I mean I can throw my weight one way for turning but when it’s time to throw it the other to turn again it just wants to keep going straight! So I’ve definitely had to re-learn some things. I also (We interrupt this blog to say we just stopped in Bangor MI. BANGOR! Who ever came up with the plan to stop in Bangor! Why not stop in South Haven, a city people have at least heard of before. The conductor actually referred to it as beautiful downtown Bangor. For those of you who have been there you know what I’m saying, for those of you who haven’t, don’t bother, it’s a crossroads, nothing more, I think the houses there just got electricity! Back to the blog, I was talking about skiing.) have come to the realization that the boots I have are pretty bad because when I turn my feet my skis go straight because I have so much slop in my boots for my feet to move. I know, I know, just tighten the buckles. No can do, if I do that it causes my arches to cramp. Major ouchage! Time for new boots I think. We should be hitting end of year sales soon so I’ll try and snag some. Skiing is awesome in Vermont and we love the family atmosphere at Smuggs. Having every other Friday off helps me get to the slopes a lot too. Beyond skiing we have also been active in the area. We have some good friends out there that we do stuff with pretty regularly on the weekends and it’s been great. It has reminded me of how our parents and their friends have always done things on the weekends and it’s been great to get into that mode. Our town of North Hero has also started a winter festival this year that has spanned three weekends. The first weekend was a youth fishing derby among other events. All three boys caught perch and Zack got a 10.5 incher. Sean caught 5, BJ I think got 2 and Zack got 3. (Just stopped in St. Joseph and are running along the Lake Michigan shore. Quite pretty.) So the fishing derby was great and we may go get some fishing gear and do it out the front door on our bay. The ice is so thick (because it’s frickin’ freezing there Mr. Bigglesworth) that not only do people drive there cars and trucks out there but they bring there campers out there too. Ice fishing is big on the islands and north part of the lake. It’s very cool. Two weeks after the fishing derby they had a golf tournament on the ice. Oh yes, I played. It was tough because there was a foot of snow on the ice but they plowed a 10 ft wide ‘fairway’ for each hole and you could move your ball to that path if you found it in the snow. It was about 21 degrees with high winds putting the wind chill well below zero but Zack caddied for me(He really just played in the snow and snow banks most of the time and had a blast) and we were well covered up. I’ll include a link to the news stories here so you can watch the video from the fishing derby and the golf tournament. They both made the Burlington news. So we really have been busy and are having fun.
We have some decisions to make coming up about where we are going to live and much of that depends on the house selling in Michigan. We have continually dropped the price and are getting some activity again with an offer/counteroffer that may be accepted. We see about a 30% chance we may be back in Michigan but don’t know for sure. Our financial position is changing with all that’s happened this past year and we should be able to make the GH house sell now and that will free up our decisions a bit. My job is going well and I really enjoy it. Jo is getting more comfortable in hers as well. We’ll see what life brings us this next year but we’ve proven to ourselves that we can survive away from our comfort zone of Grand Haven. I’m not sure if that’s all that was behind this crazy idea of moving to Vermont but I have no doubt it was part of it. Regardless I am encouraging jo to realize that we can live anywhere in the world and if opportunities should arise we should grab them, even if it’s in Switzerland……especially if it’s in Switzerland!!! J. I am continually amazed at the ability of children to adapt to whatever their circumstance is and ours continue to do so. None of this really phases them and they make due with whatever we throw at them. They have pat answers for nearly every question and unfortunately the answer is usually ‘it’s in storage’. It’s actually quite funny. With everything in storage we have also proven we can make do with far less than we have. In some ways it forces us out more often which is great. Jo and the boys have started ice skating too. Ice rinks are far more prevalent in our area than in Michigan and it’s great to see them get out there. As is usual BJ does it spastically but because of that he learns quickly. Zack is more methodical like skiing and works over and over at something. Sean gets on the ice for 5 minutes then has had enough. I don’t have skates yet but am looking to get some so I can join them and they also have beginner hockey leagues which I would like to join. We actually do our skating in Rouses Point NY because it’s closest. I’m going to wrap this up now (Just arrived in New Buffalo) as I gotta pee so I’ll try and do better with the frequency of updates. Hope all is well with everyone and we’ll chat soon.
Further update…..We actually arrived in Chicago ahead of schedule and I hopped the blue line out to O’Hare and am chilling out watching planes take off. A few 747’s have gone off and it made me think of what we’ll fly to China when we eventually go. The wait is still unsure and I’m guessing still a few years out. Hopefully we’ll get an idea if things are speeding up with the March referrals. One good side effect of the wait is that many some families are opening themselves up to Children of Promise adoptions witch is children with special needs. So selfishly it helps us shorten our wait when someone does this but it also is helping more of the special needs kids get adopted. It’s not something I believe I could do but I applaud those that can. I just glanced out the window which I have been doing every 3 or 4 minutes as I write this but this time it was snowing. Just let me get out of here tonight. It’s 1:15 Central and my flight is out at 4:27 so I can’t imagine the snow will be a problem.

Link to ice golf news clip:
Once at the page click on the video feed shown right below the article title. I am the one in a yellow and grey jacket with a plaid traditional golfer’s hat. The little guy with me is Zack.

http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=7886714&nav=4QcS

Link to Fishing Derby clip:
Once at the page click on the video feed shown right below the article title. Jo is in the light blue jacket and BJ is in the orange and grey jacket with matching hat. They are also in the background skating when the guy is talking about the miniature zambonie.

http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?s=7813357