Abby cracks me up

This happened while we were camping at Lincoln State Park on June 9th, but again, I suck and am just now posting this.  There was this huge section of Amish people camping and they were taking up 3-4 sites.  I don't think I've ever seen Amish people camping so it was very strange to see the women with their hats and dresses and all the men with their hats and beards.  I took the kids on a walk to the lake and we walked right in front of their campgrounds.  There were about 30-40 of them sitting in a big circle with one guy in the middle reading from a book.  We couldn't hear what he was saying but they were all very quiet and he was the only one talking so I figured they were doing some kind of church service.  The kids asked what they were doing and I whispered, "I'm not sure, but I think they are in church."  Well, Abby speaks up in her loud little voice and says, "I know what they're doing Daddy.  They're eating turkey!!!"  Of course they all heard her and looked over at us and it took me a minute to figure out what she meant, but then it dawned on me...  She thought they were Pilgrims! 

That girl cracks me up!

Jack probably had the best game of his life on Sat!

This happened on Sat. June 9th and I'm just now getting to post it.  I know, I suck.  Better late than never I guess:

Jack probably had the best game of his life on Sat!

Unfortunately, it happened when NO ONE was there!  :)  We were camping so it was too complicated to pick up Mom and Gary and Marlena stayed at the campground with the girls, so the only witnesses were Missy and I.  It was the first game of the tournament and I think the score ended up being 14-8 (we won).  I won't bore you all with the details, but here are the highlights.

- Starting pitcher for 2 innings.  They got plenty of hits, but he struck out several batters and no runs scored.
- Second inning, he struck out the first 2 batters and then the third batter hit a grounder and he scooped it up and threw it to 1st and got him out!  3 up - 3 down!!
- Got up 3 times: 2 doubles and a triple!
- Had his best game ever at SS.  He tagged a runner trying to steal 2nd.  They hit a very hard ball right up the middle and he ran over and scooped it up then threw the runner out at 1st (running the whole time!)  They had a runner on 2nd that was getting way off the base after every pitch so the pitcher threw the ball to Jack at 2nd and they had him in a pickle.  Our 3rd baseman isn't very good so Jack decided to chase the kid down.  I've never seen that boy run so fast!  He kicked it into high gear and tagged the boy out about 3 feet from 3rd base!  Poor guy needed oxygen after that, but it was very exciting.

He usually has small moments of greatness at every game (especially to his Dad), but almost always makes a couple of silly mistakes, and can't get everything working at the same time.  He made absolutely no mistakes at all on Sat.  I even had 2 or 3 parents tell me how well Jack played and that hardly ever happens.  I usually wonder if he deserves to be on the 9U "A" all-star team, but Sat. was one of those games where I felt like he DEFINITELY deserves it.

After having strep throat 7 times in 6 months, Dr. Cochran said Ally needed to see an ENT.  He referred us to Dr. Detweiler.  Dr. Detweiler was great.  He said when they look at tonsils, they can by in different stages between 0 and 5 (5 being the worst).  Well, Ally’s never goes down.  They stay around 2 or worse.  They usually take out tonsils if the child has strep more than 6 times in a year.  Ally was on your way to double that!  So, we set up an appointment to get her tonsils and adenoids out on June 1^st after school was out.  Ally was actually excited since everyone kept telling her she’d get lots of ice cream.  I was worried.  She doesn’t eat as it is so I didn’t know what to expect.  Dr. D said he wanted her to eat everything she could after the surgery to help keep the scabs from forming.  He also said days 5-9 would probably be the worst because that’s when the anesthesia starts to wear off completely and the scabs start.  Jeff and I took her that morning to the Surgery Center.  I think she was a little nervous but was good.  When they called her back, we went to a little triage type room with a recliner.  She changed into a gown and socks.  The anesthesiologist came to talk to us.  She was super nice and tried to ease all of Ally’s worries.  Dr. D came in and talked to us too.  They finally came to get her and we went to the waiting room.  I swear there were 10 other kids there getting their tonsils out at the same time!!  We were only in the waiting room 15 minutes when Dr. D came out and said she did great and also handed me a cup with her top front tooth inside!  It was loose so they pulled it to avoid knocking it out and her swallowing it.  After anyone 15 minutes or so, they said we could go back and see her.  As we walked through the door, she was waking up in the bed they wheeled her in on.  She saw us and began to sob.  It was so sad.  They put us in a little room with a TV and a recliner.  I sat in the recliner and she sat on the my lap.  She just cried and cried.  She wouldn’t swallow or talk for a while…it was heartbreaking.  Jeff left to go back to work and that upset her so I called Lori and she came to visit with gifts (a pink headband and pink bracelets).  That helped a bit! J  They kept encouraging her to drink and eat.  At first she wouldn’t.  She had an IV so they gave her some more meds.  After those kicked in a bit, they gave her some Ibuprofen.  They told her she couldn’t leave until she ate something.  She finally perked up a little and ate a cup of chocolate pudding and drank some Sprite.  She was even smiling and laughing at herself in the mirror with her front tooth missing!  Right around noon, we got to leave.  We headed to CVS to get her pain meds and then headed to pick up Jack and Abby.  By 12:30, we were home.  Just 3.5 hours from surgery to home!!  At home, she took Ibuprofen or Lortab every 2 hours and did really well.  She watched a movie when she got home but ate lunch and then even at one point went outside!  I was shocked.  Jack had a game Saturday and she went to that.  She seemed to be doing great.  They had told us that days 5-9 would be the worst.  Around day 5, she started throwing up.  She was miserable.  I called and they said they didn’t want that pressure on her throat so we had to give her an enema…that didn’t go well.  She went through some ear pain and sore throat during those day…missing a couple days of VBS.  But, on day 9, she didn’t get any medicine all day and she was done.  All-in-all, she did great…a lot better than I thought she’d do.  She was a trooper!!

I met the girls for lunch for the first time today!

I took an early lunch today and picked up some food and took it to the girls for lunch today and it was really amazing. They were so happy and excited to see me and they were really proud to have me there. I don't think I've ever seen Abby smile and talk so much. Ally just kept hugging me and holding my hand and telling me she loved me. I wish they were always so happy and nice to me! I brought them some breadsticks and cheese from Subway/Noble Romans with a juice box for each one. They were really hungry because they did not eat breakfast this morning because they knew I was meeting them for lunch and they wanted to be hungry. After lunch we went out to the playground and it was really neat to see how they played and acted around their friends. Girls are much different than boys. Jack was the "ring leader" when he was that age and everyone kind'of following him around and tried to get him to do stuff with them. He had to keep telling them "no thanks" so he could stay by my side and be with me. The girls were totally different. All of their friends flocked around me and wanted me to play with them. But Ally and Abby wouldn't let go of my hands, so I really couldn't do much. We did try to play a game of "hot potato", but that didn't work out very well, because some little girl named "Mira" (I think) kept taking the ball and trying to boss everyone around and tell them where to stand and what to do. She was really annoying! Finally I took the girls aside and told them to not do what Mira wanted to do and to do whatever THEY wanted to do. Then Mira comes up and tries to listen in on our conversation and I finally had to tell her that I was trying to have a private conversation with my daughters and to go somewhere else! That girl will probably be President some day, but I'd kill her if she was my kid! After we finally got away from Mira, we had a really good time. They kept asking me to watch them do things. I watched Abby do the monkey bars, helped Ally do them, watched them both climb the rock wall, climbed some dome thing with them, and took turns pushing each of them (and a couple of their friends) on a swing.  They took me to their room and showed me where each one sits.  They each gave me a huge hug and kiss and Abby did not let go.  I had to pull her away from me!

It was one of the best lunches I've ever had and I can't wait to do it again soon.  I love those girls so much.

The Brokenness of VXX

This is in response to Jared Woodard's post "The Unbrokenness of VXX":

http://condoroptions.com/2012/03/22/the-unbrokenness-of-vxx

I don't know enough about VXX to claim it is broken, but I would love to know why sometimes it doesn't follow the VIX very closely at all. 3/19/2012 and 3/20/2012 are prefect examples IMO.


Here is the 5 min. chart of the VIX on 3/19 and 3/20:



And here is the 5 min. chart of the VXX on 3/19 and 3/20:




Those charts don't look very similar at all to me. The VIX clearly closed higher on 3/20 than it did on 3/19, but the VXX clearly closed LOWER on 3/20 than it did on 3/19.

I would love to understand why this happened so I could trade accordingly.

Thanks Jared!
Jeff

Abby lost her first tooth yesterday

We took my Mom out to Cheeseburger in Paradise for her birthday last night and Abby was showing her loose tooth to everyone because she was so excited to finally be losing her first tooth and it was hanging by a thread. She has been trying to pull it out for the past week or so, but quit trying when it got really close to coming out (probably b/c it hurt a bit). It was so close to coming out at dinner, but she wouldn't let anyone touch it. Then at the end of the meal, she asked Grant if she could have one of his gummy bears. She started eating it but after a few seconds, said she wanted to spit it out (which was very unusual for her). So I let her spit it out into my hand then I threw it on one of the dirty dishes. A few min. later, she noticed that her tooth was gone! Everyone started freaking out b/c we thought she swallowed it or dropped it on the floor. Finally I thought to look in the gummy bear, and sure enough, there it was! We asked her later why she wanted to spit out the gummy bear and she said, "because it was crunchy"!

That night, before bed, she made a little note for the Tooth Fairy and told him she liked him. I laid with her and she said, "Daddy, I really want to see the Tooth Fairy". I told her just to stay awake as long as she can and maybe she will. 5 min. later, she was sound asleep.

The Tooth Fairy brought her a $5 bill and she came running into out room at 5am to show Mommy.

Since December 31st (New Year's Eve) 2011, we started going to church on Saturday nights at Crossroads. After having problems time and again, Mom said this was our solution! She was right!!! It's been 6 weeks and we haven't missed a service. The kids are now involved in Choir and Jack is starting at The Light Company on Wednesday after school next week. It's been overwhelming how much of a difference it's made in our lives. Having someone to turn to and REALLY pray to is such a blessing. Yesterday, after Choir, I received the email below from the girls' (and Dylen's) teacher. So sweet!

*******

-PRAISE moment = During rehearsal this evening, I was in awe of the beauty of worship with these young ones. It was one of those times when you wish there was a hidden camera to capture it! Even though the upbeat songs are what make us want to dance, the slow songs can sometimes speak volumes for what these kids really understand. While singing the song, "Jesus with you," I asked the kids to sing the song with their eyes closed and in a worship pose. We talked about
worshiping with hands raised or hands on heart or hands folded in lap. In that beautiful moment of singing, these kids were in their choice worship pose worshiping God with eyes closed and hearts raised to the Lord. May this thought rest in your soul as you remember what great job you are doing by encouraging your kids to take part in these great worship activities.