Thanksgiving Day Sickness

This year we stayed in the area and went to my grandparents home on Thanksgiving Day. Little did we know that this would be the beginning of a very sick weekend. My sister's 1 year old threw up on the table as we were all eating. Yuck! Anyway from that episode 17 of the 22 of us got the flu by Saturday.

It hit our family with a vengeance in the early morning hours of Saturday with Alex, Collin and Will all taking turns. Josh's parents were staying here and they, along with Glenn and Elizabeth, hit the road Saturday morning for DC in hopes of making it home before they got it. They made it home without trouble and I think they are still healthy.

Matt got it sometime Saturday night because when he came in to our bedroom Sunday morning he was caked with it. Disgusting!!!! Some of you know how well I deal with throw up:) To top this all off Josh had to preach at Westview on Sunday morning and was worried he would get it just in time for this. Thankfully he did not and was able to do the whole service.

Josh and I have not gotten it yet and by now I would say were are not going to get it. Thank goodness! We should not be contagious anymore and the only thing left to do is sanitize our house from this awful bug!

FIRST Lego League

Collin and Alex have been participating in a Lego Class this year where they have to build a lego robot, program it to do certain missions and give a presentation. This is their presentation and trial run from last week.

The theme this year was Climate Connections so the robot had to do a bunch of missions related to climate and the research project had to do with this theme. Their team's project had to do with potholes.

My Personality Test Results

What do you think? Does it fit me?

ESFJ - "Seller". Most sociable of all types. Nurturer of harmony. Outstanding host or hostesses. 12.3% of total population.

Take Free Myers-Briggs Personality Test

Josh took the test too and was a INTJ. I guess opposites do attract.

30th Birthday Party

Yesterday was my sister's 30th birthday. I joined a group of friends at the bar around 9pm. It was amusing that we were the only ones there at that point. We joked about how old we all were. I told Rachel that it was wierd to think that 3 of the 4 of us siblings were in our 30's now and that it would be really weird when we all were...because then I would be almost 40. Yikes!!!!

As we sat at the bar and watched the younger people flock in, the servers kept coming back asking if we wanted another drink. Cherith asked if they had root beer and the server looked a little surprised at the request...I can only imagine what was going through her head as she processed the request. She told Cherith that they did not have root beer (I can't think of anything that root beer would mix well with, can you?). I'm not sure I've ever been to a bar where someone has asked for root beer. We all laughed at how ridiculous the whole conversation went.

The longer I sat and watched the people around me, the more thankful I was that I am not a part of the bar scene. I am so glad that I am married to my best friend and don't have to worry about impressing any guys.

As Josh would say...You are so Old!

and I would say...Old is Good:)

Math or Boys?

I had the privilege to hang out with a sixth grade girl tonight. We went across the street to the coffee shop where we had tea and hot chocolate. She' s always been really quiet when I've talked with her in the past but tonight with just the two of us, she talked and talked...about high heel shoes, flowers, marshmallows, Halloween costumes, pacifiers, gym class, brothers, math and of course, boys. All the great kinds of things that I never get to talk about with my own boys.

As we got on the topic of boys, I asked her if she liked math or boys better. With no hesitation, she said math because boys stink, throw their clothes all over the floor and leave the toilet seat up.

Spoken like a true woman.

A Sunny November Day

We have been enjoying the warm, sunny weather this week.

Hunters

At our family day, Collin and Alex went with the big guys out in the woods. Of course, they never saw any deer but as Alex says "I saw lot's of things, but Grandpa was sleeping." Oh Deer!!

A good roll in the leaves helps with not stinking. Imagine that...I don't know if Collin smelled better or worse with the no scent and deer pee spray.

Deer Hunter or Taliban?

The Coolman Band

The Coolman Band performs live for a very large

crowd at the Pavilion's Fall Festival.

After the mic readjustment and a little more confidence

It's been awhile:(

So it's been a little over a month since my last post, sorry about that...October was a very busy month. With 8 soccer/football games (not to mention all the practices), both the oldest and youngest boys' birthdays, and various other commitments, it's been crazy busy.

Anyway, I'll try to post more regularly now. Enjoy the pictures!

Matthew's first haircut. We made it until he turned 2!


Alex started the night out as a mummy, then became a zombie, and finally was nothing at all.

Our group of all boys on Halloween night.

Busy Saturday Games

Alex's first soccer game was Saturday and he scored the first goal!

I had a bit of a dilemma this week at Collin's football game because it was the Eagles vs. the Rams. I wasn't sure where my loyalty should be...but of course I had to side for Collin's team "GO Eagles!"


Collin played center a lot during this game.

A Heavy Heart

I have a heavy heart right now and I know a lot of you do too. There is so much suffering in the world right now.... even in our own backyards and I suppose this is nothing new. We are a broken people. This morning at coffee break many stories of pain and suffering were shared among our group. Sometimes it's really hard to see God's goodness and love amidst all our sadness but I know it is there.

On Sunday we went to a church where they are doing a sermon series on the Shack. This week's topic was "the Great Sadness" (which if you've read the book is what the main character struggles with in his life situation) and the text was from John 11 about Lazarus death and resurrection. Anyway the pastor did a great job showing the painful emotions that Martha and Mary were experiencing with the death of their brother and how Jesus also experienced great sorrow over the loss of his friend. Jesus invites us to give him our sorrows which will free us so that we can experience God's perfect love toward us.

In choir we are learning a song that we will be singing in a few weeks and I can't get it out of my head. It goes something like this:

We worship You, Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
We worship You for who You are and You are good,
So good, so good,
You are good all the time,
All the time You are good.
Lord, You are good and Your mercy endureth forever
We worship You, Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
We worship You for who You are.

This has been my theme song lately because I know He is Good all the time.

The Lively Center of Attention

So this was a personality test that Dr. Phil gave on Oprah and my result. So what do you think?

Your Result: The Lively Center of Attention -

Others see you as fresh, lively, charming, amusing, practical, and always interesting; someone who's constantly in the center of attention, but sufficiently well-balanced not one to let it go to their head. They also see you as kind, considerate, and understanding; someone who'll always cheer them up and help them out.

Big and Fat

A conversation I had with Will yesterday as we were shopping at Meijer:

"Mommy can we buy fruit snacks?"

"Sure Willy"

" When I eat fruit snacks and get big and fat, I will be like you, Mommy."

"That's great Willy"

Now I know what he really thinks of me.

I'm home safe

In case you received my dire email that I was stranded in Nigeria, please be assured that I have made it home safely. In fact, I never left in the first place. Sorry about the email...someone hijacked my email and got all my contacts.

The Collin and Alex Coolman Band

In case you missed Saturday afternoon's concert. Enjoy!

If you'd like information about the next concert please contact the booking agent Will.

A messy flood

Well the potty training has kind of gone to the wayside, eventhough I know he is really close. This morning I got Matt out of bed and went to change his diaper and it was dry, so I asked him if he would like to go potty on the toliet. He of course said no. So I (not really thinking) decided not to put his diaper back on as I was sure he would tell me that he wanted to go to the toliet in a few minutes. I left him on the changing table and went to my bedroom for just a minute. That was a mistake...as I came back into the room Matt was saying "Oh no"... my thoughts exactly. I took in the scene of a yellow lake surrounding him and flowing down the dresser to make a puddle on the floor (it also leaked into all the drawers to give me extra laundry for the day). I hope I learned the lesson that to leave the baby without a diaper and a full bladder is a recipe for a flood.

A Funny Thing

A funny thing happened the other day. Matthew took off his diaper, sat on the toilet and went #2. It was very exciting for me because it will be so nice to be out of diaper mode. He seems to be experimenting with all kinds of things. The other night when I went to check on the little boys before I went to bed, Matt was sound a sleep and naked from the waist down. It was a bit of a surprise for me as he's never done that before...but it was a funny sight.

The Rat Race

Have you ever seen a bunch of rats running around outside a building in the dark? I saw this awhile back in Washington DC and it was really disturbing to see. As I think more about it, I wonder how much we might be like these rats.

I've been thinking a lot about busyness lately. I have been trying to eliminate things from my calendar, but every time I think I have eliminated something...it seems that something else takes it's place. I'm sure most of you know what I mean. I ask myself "Why am I doing this?" and the things I come up with are: "I'm doing it for my kids, I need some personal time, I feel obligated to do this, I don't want to miss this great opportunity"... and on and on and on the list goes. I scamper here and there...and the image of a crazy bunch of rats pops into my mind. Yuck!

But do any of these tasks/activities really amount to much? Sure most of them are good things and are learning experiences, but I wonder if they are really that important. I am beginning to think not. The more I dwell on my own choices of busyness, the more I am seeing other things as being more important.

Over the summer part of a sermon I heard has stuck with me. The pastor talked about how God created us not as humans doing, but as humans being. I have found this to be a huge challenge for me. I want to do but am working more on just being...being with God, my family, my friends and neighbors. The point is that by being, we develop deeper relationships. The practice of presence is hard to do (especially with a full task list), but I've found that the more I do of this, the more I have come to appreciate the reward found in just being ( and I don't think rats just sit around). So even with the busy fall season just around the corner, if you see me sitting on my front porch, be assured that it might not look like I am doing much...but I will be being much.

I love where I live!

We've been home now for two weeks. It's been a busy two weeks with all the normal stuff to do after being gone all summer and re-adjusting to the hood.

Re-adjusting to the hood took a few days. All the noise, lights, people, dogs (mean looking ones-whether they are or not) is very different than where we were staying in CA. It's good though. I don't think it's good to get too comfortable in a certain setting.

Our neighborhood has changed some. I don't know if it's all happened while we were gone or if it happened more slowly over the winter/spring and we just didn't notice because we're in the house more. Anyway, it's changed (new people, more mean-looking dogs). It's exciting to see what's happening and to meet the new people in the neighborhood. There is a very young couple who moved into the once boarded up house next door. I've prayed a long time for whoever was going to buy this house. We are going to get along great! Jen is a runner (Yippee!!) and they have a 2 1/2 year old who likes Pooh and Dora- Willy's going to love her!

While I was walking the other day, I saw:

- a diverse group of young kids playing soccer in the street
- the beautiful stain glass windows of a nearby Catholic church
- a young couple near the river watching the sun set
- a family fishing together
- a huge, fat city squirrel in a large tree (they didn't have large trees where we stayed)
- flowers in bloom everywhere (I missed flowers out west)
- people everywhere

I missed being in my neighborhood. I love here!

Home Sweet Home

We arrived home last night. This ends our nomadic ways. Sophie was very excited to see us. The girls, however, were not quite ready for us. They were still packing and cleaning. I think we will be shifting stuff for a couple more days. Everything looks good though, even my gardens.

Collin and Alex went immediately to their bedroom to build legos. Will was excited about his Bob the Builder blankets. Matt didn't really care as long as he had his Nuk. Josh and I were just glad to be in our own home.

Mall of America and Church

The mall was big. They were selling lots of stuff there. There were lots of people there, spending money. But not us. Kind of like Vegas, we just came to look not spend. The coolest thing was the Lego store which had in stock all of the Star Wars Legos that the boys dream about and a bunch they never new existed.

We went to a church called Solomon's Porch (some of you might have read Doug Pagitt who is the pastor of the church). The building looked like First CRC...of name your town. But once you stepped inside the sanctuary, it was like nothing you have ever seen before. I likened it to a Goodwill furniture store. It was perfect.

There was artwork covering all the walls as well as what looked like a goose sculpture flying from the balcony. The music was very artistic and great to listen too, but hard to sing to as someone new to the church. The sermon was done in a discussion format which didn't work really well. It might have been because the guy who was leading didn't direct it very well, or it might have been just to many people there (maybe 125).

We are attracted to some of the things we see them doing but aren't sure they have it all figured out. It was overall a good learning experience for us as we continue to figure out what church looks like to us.

The Corn Palace (by Josh)

For as long as I have known Amy, whenever anyone mentions Iowa, Nebraska, or anything “out West”, she talks about the trip her family took out West when she was in high school that began with a stop at the Corn Palace. She talks about how they drove hours out of their way to go see something that was, to put it mildly, not that exciting (but free). The outside of the building is decorated in corn, with a different theme each year. The inside is filled with pictures of how the Corn Palace was decorated previous years.

Traveling east on I-90 through South Dakota yesterday, I began to see signs for the Corn Palace. Turns out it was right off the highway you would take to get to the Badlands. Since Amy remembers visiting the Badlands on her previous trip, it might not have been so far out of the way.

Collin and Alex had heard so much about the Corn Palace that they insisted we stop. We did. It was really good. I was impressed with the creativity and ingenuity of the whole thing. It made me proud to be a corn-eater. Amy and her sisters should be ashamed of themselves for the contempt they show for the Corn Palace. Everyone should visit it.

We even got a picture of Amy next to the picture of the Corn Palace the way it was decorated the year she was there when she was in high school. It only seemed right.

Four Heads

After our not so quick trip around Devils Tower, we ate a quick lunch and headed for the four heads. Alex's joke with Josh was "where are the four heads?" To which Josh would respond "right here (pointing to his forehead)." Josh laughed even more when he realized he was saying exactly what his dad would say. The fun never ends:) The walk around Mt. Rushmore was a little faster with much less whining.

We then traveled to the Flintstones Campground with all the amenities: a too-too train for Matthew, a life size Barney for Will, an Arcade for Alex, a pool for Collin, a bathroom in the shape of Bronto-Burger restaurant for Josh and an unlimited free hot shower for me. Ah...Life is good.

Devils Tower National Monument

We camped one night at Devils Tower. The campground was great; there was finally grass and we had a great view.

One of the Indian legends about how the butte came to be goes like this:

There were 8 children playing, 7 sisters and 1 brother. Suddenly the boy became dumb; he trembled and began to run on his hands and feet. He became covered in fur and his fingers were sharp claws. Where their brother once stood, now there was a bear and it began chasing the sisters. They came to the stump of a great tree and the tree spoke to them, telling them to climb up. As they climbed, the stump rose out of the ground just beyond reach of the bear that was trying to kill them. The bear reared against the tree and scored the bark all around with its claws. The 7 sisters were born into the sky and became the stars of the Big Dipper.

I thought that this was great because when you look at the tower, it does look like it was clawed. The whole site is considered sacred to many Indian tribes and we were able to see some of the prayer scarves that they hung on the trees at the base.

What should have been a short 1 mile hike around the base took forever because of stubborn little boys. When one wasn’t whining, the other was screaming and neither wanted to walk. I was really wishing that some stump would take me up and away from them for a while.

Are Those Mountains Really Real??

As we left Yellowstone and entered Grand Teton National Park, the mountains seemed to jump out at us just on the other side of Jackson Lake. They seemed closer to us than any that we had seen so far, maybe because we were such a high elevation. The campground we stayed at had some amazing views of the lake and mountains (of course our site did not) but we were lucky to get a spot there.



Look closely for the herd of elk.

We visited Jackson and had a real meal (not the same old hotdogs or chicken strips cold and a bit dusty). Collin ate his first buffalo/elk/wild boar meatball (a disgusting combo if you ask me) which he liked. Josh tried a piece and said it tasted like chicken. Jackson is a cute western town and we watched a shootout in the middle of the street. The boys didn’t know what a shootout was but they loved it.

Alex asked all through Yellowstone when we would see a herd of buffalo. We never did see a herd there but on the way back from Jackson we saw a large herd up on a ridge. Now he asks when we’ll see a herd cross the street-highly unlikely.

We decided to take a long hike around part of Jenny Lake and up into Cascade Canyon. We did not know that this was one of the highlighted areas to hike. We just picked it as a cool looking canyon as we drove by on the highway. There is a ferry shuttle that goes from the south end of the lake to the beginning of the trailhead where there is a waterfall. We did not take the ferry and instead started close to 2 miles away at the north parking area.

We followed the trail along a river until in emptied into the lake and then around the lake until we came to what we thought was our junction. The first junction we came to was the canyon horse trail. I wondered if this was correct but Josh said of course it was. So up the horse trail we went. It was quite a climb to get up away from the lake but really nice because we were shaded and by ourselves most of the time.

We then came to a junction where we met a lot of people. At this point we realized we weren’t on the trail we thought we were. We continued into the canyon until the valley opened up and gave us a great view of the mountains and creek. We had a snack and then headed down the actual canyon trail. The trail gave us some great views of the lake and then the waterfall. It was really rocky and lots of people. Will cried most of the way down because Josh made him walk.


While we were resting in the valley of Cascade Canyon and Will and Matthew were playing on rocks, a guy walking by said “You’ve got a couple of young mountain men there don’t you”. I wanted to ask him, “You mean the one that cries when you take the Nuk out of his mouth and the one that cries when you make him walk more than 20 feet?” Mountain men… maybe someday but not yet.

By the time we got back, Josh and I were really tired from hiking the elevation with a little boy on each of our backs but we had promised the boys swimming. So we went to a different campground area where Josh took the boys swimming (their only bath in 4 days). I went to do laundry and some woman commented on the amount of laundry I was folding. I told her I had 4 boys and hadn’t done laundry in over a week (we were also out of clothes). I paid $3.50 for an unlimited shower but they didn’t advertise the fact that it wasn’t hot. That didn’t matter to me; it was wonderful to feel clean even for just a few hours.

Hey Boo-Boo

Yellowstone was a bit of a disappointment (for the adults, not the kids). Maybe it was because of all the hype, maybe because it was so crowded, or maybe it was because so much of what we had seen, we had seen at other places on a grander scale.

But the geysers and boiling mud pots were unlike anything we had seen or smelled (lots of sulfur). Collin and Alex really liked the Dragon Mouth Spring which was a cave that made a lot of noise (from the gases-stinky) as it spit hot water out of it. We saw some wildlife (river otter, buffalo, elk, coyote, bald eagle) and there are some views in Yellowstone that were unlike anything we had seen anywhere else.

And Yogi did not steal our pik-a-nik basket.

Spectacular

Glacier was amazing. This was the view of lake McDonald which was very close to our campsite. We were enjoying this sunset the first night when thunder started behind us. We hurried back to our campsite and thankfully didn't get much rain.

Josh was very concerned about the bears so our campsite was in a middle loop at one of the larger campgrounds. Willy made great friends with the boy next door. We never did see a bear but lots of deer and mountain goats.

Jackson Glacier is one of the larger glaciers in the park.

At St. Mary's Lake we took a short hike along a ridge that viewed the lake. We then continued on to see a waterfall.
We traveled by shuttle throughout the park and iked some. At Logans Pass, the highest peak on Road to the Sun, we walked up a trail where parts were covered in snow and yellow glacier lily's were blooming. Josh, Collin and Matt continued on to an overlook of Hidden Lake.

We left the park and travel a small road out to the highway, Cows were in the road which was very exciting to the boys. Now off to Yellowstone!

Craters and Slides! Oh My!

On our way to Glacier National Park, we stopped at Craters of the Moon National Monument. It didn’t so much resemble anything that would make us think of the moon. It was a volcanic lava field. We climbed what would have been the peak of the volcano which gave us a really neat view of the surrounding mountains and countryside.

We also walked through a cave created by underground lava flows. We had lunch here and then continued north on a scenic highway towards Glacier.

The boys had fun in the caves.

After driving through farm land that looked like northern Michigan, we drove through a narrow hundred mile river valley surrounded by mountains. It rained hard ahead of us but only sprinkled on us. We had to keep our eyes on the road because of all the possible hazards such as free range cows, game crossings and rock slides. Shortly after we passed a sign warning us of possible rock slides, we went around a bend and were surprised to see our whole lane blocked by big rocks. We went around it and after another mile we came to where there was a back up of about 30 cars. It was another slide of mostly rocks and hard mud which we were able to get over in our 4-wheel drive Durango. After crossing a couple more mud slides like this, we came to one that was a little bigger. We watched another 4-wheel vehicle almost get stuck in the soft mud, big rock soup. People were guessing the soup was at least four feet deep.

After a couple of hours, a bulldozer came and dumped it all in the river while a hundred people watched. We then continued on our way.

Rain in the Desert

Today we spent the day traveling through Nevada. It was desert. We saw lots of salt flats with some yucky looking water. We thought we smelled humidity which seemed strange because we were in the desert in the summer. Then it looked like rain ahead and it turned out that it was not a mirage. We got rained on in the desert. We even saw some lightening.

After the rain, things looked a little greener than you would expect, but what was most noticeable was the smell. It smelled like a mix between Pine Sol (something we need to pick up for our bear repellant) and B.O. We couldn’t decide if we liked the smell or not. At first we thought it was some factory in the town where we stopped to eat, but when we smelled it way outside of town, we decided it must be some smell that the desert bushes let off after rain.

As we headed north to go from Nevada to Idaho, we drove past the northern part of the Ruby Mountains. They were really pretty. See pictures below.