The Trip

Not what we expected but turned out OK. OK in the sense that we made it home alive and no one is hurt. Drove to Bremen and friends misunderstood date and were not home, disappointing, but understandable. They live on a farm, so we played with their animals and got to see their 4H pigs. They look like yummy bacon to me! I then showed the kids around Bremen. Not much changes there, very comforting. I will post more about this later. We then met Joe and Aaron at Janes Park and I took a bunch of pictures. If this park were in Carmel it would be packed, but there was 1 other family there(see above). The park really needs some TLC, hard to see. I really don't understand why either. Anyway, the kids had fun playing and I got my pictures taken. We then swapped kids. The boys and I left for home. I did stop at one more friends house, but she wasn't home either. Shucks.
The fun begins.
The boys are very tired.
They really don't like seat belts.
"Whoever invented seat belts is mean" states Aaron. Hmmm
They both fall asleep by the time we hit Talma, and sleep until almost to Galvaston.(two really small towns)
They wake up to a torrential downpour and 60mph winds. I am in Joe's Civic and can hardly stay on the road. I pull off for a bit and find a radio station(I was listening to XM32) to make sure I am not in a tornado. Nope, just a bad storm. I start to drive again and realize I have no gas, but can make it to Kokomo. By this time it is lightening and thundering pretty good. I stop for gas and were on our way again.
I look over at Aaron and he is pale "I'm gonna be sick" I grab a grocery sack, while driving in a storm and tell him to use it. Luckily he makes it in the bag. We then stop at DQ to clean up, walk around and get some ice cream. The last 20 minutes was uneventful.

Kid Switch

We are driving up north to the big city of Bremen today to switch kiddos and visit a couple of friends. Aaron is finished with camp this morning and the girls are going camping with the Mason girl as Annie told you earlier. I am hoping to get some pictures of the kids playing at Janes Park in Bremen while there. I have pictures of most years. The park was built in honor of my sister in law who lost her battle with breast cancer in 1999. She found out she had cancer while pregnant and refused to abort. Amazing story, amazing woman. I digress, the park was built when Ann was 6 weeks old. We have a lot of pics of Aaron as a 2 year old and Amy as a 4 year old running around. I like to see pics of them as they age there. Any way a lot of driving today. I better finish packing, we need to stop at the library first, and then to Starbucks:)

Congratulations

Baby Porter Kayden Fowler was born this morning at 830 to Stacey(Edwards) and Marion Fowler and Big sister Marleigh. Everyone is healthy and doing well. Please pray for these next 48 hours for they tend to be stressful in an adoption. We are so glad you are here Porter and can't wait to meet you! Love you already!

camping

In a couple of days Joe, Amy,and I(Ann) are going to go on a camping trip with our friends, the Masons,Kolbie who I play with, and Kylie and Kaelyn A.K.A the twins, in which Amy plays with. Also both familys dads. We go to a campsite called PLAMOR (pronounced play-more.) The kids call it our tradition, but the dads say its not. Its kind of not camping because there are electrical outlets and a play ground.
Ann

camping

In a couple of days Joe, Amy, and I(ann)Are going to go on a camping trip with our friends Kolbie who I play with and kylie and kaelyn aka the twins, who Amy plays with. Also with both familys dads. We do this every year. (the kids call it our tradition, but the dads say its not.) We go to a campsite called PLAMOR (pronounced Play more.) Its not really camping because there is eletrical outlets and a playground.GTG
Ann

Costa Rica update

We have reached our monetary goal, thanks to many very generous friends and relatives! How humbling it has been to be on the recieving end of such giving. Thank you, may it be used in a mighty way. Any more money we recieve will go toward any needs other team members have and then to Project Abraham itself. As I eluded to before, with fuel prices increasing all of our expenses went up. We have been meeting every few weeks with our team that will be traveling and working together. There are 12 of us, ranging in age from 12 to 55. Our group seems fun, and like they will work well together. We are really looking forward to this.
We are taking some toys and books for the kids at the orphanage and clothes too. We actually leave all of our clothes there for the woman to have when we leave. (I hope they have short, chubby girls there!)I am trying to take some medical supplies, but have not gotten that ok'd yet. Pray this would be approved if it is a need that needs met. Praising God for His provision once again. He is so Faithful, and we are so blessed in so many ways.

Missing Daddy

Joe and Aaron are at Notre Dame basketball camp this week. They left this morning at 9am. The kids and I went to the new Monon center water park along with a couple friends for the day. We weren't there too long when they spotted lightening. Long story short, we got free passes for another day, and went home and played. We got our free mini pizzas from papa murphys thanks to the library's summer reading program for dinner and watched "I love lucy" dvd's. When it was time for bed though Annie lost it. She missed her Daddy. Every time I would get her quieted down, here she would come. "I can't sleep without a kiss from Daddy". How precious. Joe had games tonight, but I got a hold of him and he talked to her. She finally fell asleep on our bed with the dog in the room. Andrew was out cold before I left the room the first time. Amy didn't cry, but said more than once that she missed Dad and Aaron. Joe said Aaron was doing fine, wanted to stay in his room(Joe's) tonight. Lights out is at 10:45, Aaron was asking to go to bed at 10:00. He was up this morning before 7 making sure he had everything packed, so I am sure he is exhausted. It is long week of basketball for him. He is the smallest kid there, she he gets eaten alive. Pray for them, and for us this week.

PMS at the Zoo

I thought today would be a great day to go to the zoo. The weather is beautiful, we had time this afternoon and I wanted to see the Koala bears. I forgot to attribute the fact that I was PMSing. Now I usually don't have to schedule things around this, but I may want to rethink this in the future. Aaron and Andrew were whining and crying they wanted to go home half way there. That is never a good sign. I had packed a lunch in the cooler, so everyone was "starved" by the time we got there. Traffic wasn't too bad. I only answered "how much longer?" a dozen times or so.
The parking lot was packed. I decided to drop the kids off in the shade with the cooler to set up the picnic with Amy and her friend Kayla, while I hunted for a parking place. I don't really like SUV's anymore. And I really don't like the small daycare busses. I had to ask for forgiveness a few times when I wanted to hurt a vehicle because it took up 2, 3, 4 spaces. Why do they not have bus parking that includes those small buses? Maybe a shady area. I also think they should have a"members only" area. I drove back by to check on the kids, who were now finished eating and decided to tattle on each other. I packed up the cooler and Andrew the instigater, and found a parking place a mile away. I had yet to eat, and was getting a headache. I called my husband for support, who I asked to pray for me because I was going to lose it. He proceeded to laugh. Ha ha.
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. Oh yeah, Annie decided to announce that you could see my underwear through my shorts quite loudly at one point, that was pleasant.
The zoo has made some nice improvements over the winter, and we did have fun. I am sure none of you will ever want to go with me to the zoo though.

Holland

Just because a town is named after a foriegn country/town, whatever it is, doesn't mean it is one. I really think they think they are(sorry Linda!) What is with the traffic laws there?- weird. We had a really good time, reminded us of Goshen Indiana a lot, size etc, without the amish obviously. Lake Michigan was really pretty, the kids had fun playing in the sand. Joe wasn't even too neurotic about the sand. We reminiced about all of our trips to the "dunes" in high school. We had fun with new friends from baseball too, getting to know them. Aaron's team went 1-1-1. A little frustrating at times, but hey they are 9-10 years old. I love watching them.
Annie, and Andrew had fun at Grandma and Grandpa's with cousin Caleb. Fun memories for them too. They caught and ate fish. Played in the water and played inside. They were exhausted, they fell asleep on the ride home at 730pm.
We stopped on our way home in Kokomo to eat at Hacienda, Joe's choice for dinner. Yummy! A real treat for us since we moved down to Indy. Nothing quite like it down here. Joe got fun presents for fathers day: flip flops, a desk chair, outback gift card, Hoosier's dvd, reese cups, ND slippers, and peanut m&m's. An odd collection of gifts, but lots of thought behind each one. Really, he just kept coming up with new ideas as the week went on, and the chair broke. The baseball players gave their Dads t-shirts that said "My Dad Rocks"with the boys numbers on them. (Our logo is the Rocks) Very cute shirt.

Michigan

Today we are leaving to Michigan! We are dropping the youngest two off at grandma and grandpa's house with our cousin that we are picking up. Also we are dropping Kelsey off at grandma and granpas house. We are going because of Aarons baseball tournament. We are staying at a hotel by the name of DoubleTree. It has a spa, an indoor pool, a vedio arcade, and a pool table. It's gonna be great!

monday dinner

On Monday nights Amy is going to be cooking dinner from now on. Last Monday she made spaggetti and meatballs. (It was really good!) When were done with dinner I, Ann, get to make brownies for dessert.

Birthday Boy

Today is Aaron's 10th birthday. How can he be 10 years old? He is my little boy. As always, he was up at dawn. He can't get out of bed until 7am though. We did gifts and cake last night due to the hectic pace of today. He had no problem with that. His gifts from us were a new basketball, baseball cards and fact book, andy griffith dvd's, and a signed Joseph Addai Superbowl Football. He liked them. He also got to eat Oreo cookie dessert for breakfast, a big treat at the Bennett house.
He loves all things sports, yesterday he played basketball at open gym for 2 hours, camp for 2 hours and then baseball practice for 1.5 hours. He loved it, and luckily, God graced him with his Daddy's athletic ability, and he is pretty good. Aaron is a smart young man with a bright future. He is very compassionate and a good big brother. He is reading trying to read through the bible right now. He has his moments though, as we all do. I pray he will grow to be a man of integrity, who loves the truth and will fight for what is right. That he will love God with His whole heart and learn to compete and play with the right motives.
The verse I gave Aaron when he was born was:
Jeremiah29:11
"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Plans

Have you ever had one of those days where you have everything plannned out and it all kind of falls apart?
We are leaving for Holland Michigan today for a baseball tournement. Since we will be gone for 3 days we thought, great, we will seal the driveway. Joe gets up early and gets at it. It looks great, it had really faded and cracked. Needless to say it had taken 2 days of prep work to get to this point. He is about a third of the way done and we hear thunder and then feel, you guessed it, rain. All of his hard work is now down the street. A practice run, you might say. Very frustrating. He had checked the weather for Holland and not Indy! Its beautiful now, just a 30 minute shower, but all for nothing.
Amy is going through this right now too. She got her schedule for 7th grade. Most of her friends are in a different "group"(for those in different schools, we have 3 groups- navigators, explorers, and voyagers). This means she is also in different hallways and mostly different classes than most of them. She is very sad. Our plans are not Gods plans. Its hard to see beyond that now, especially at 12 when this is the most important thing. Life seems hard, but God is always good. In the grand scheme of things, we have it so good.
Plans for Costa Rica are going well. We still need about $400., but are still hopeful God will provide. We made $300. from the garage sale/ bake sale. (Thank goodness that is over) Our group seems fun and we are excited about the trip. A few things are still being hashed out. Things are bit more expensive this year due to fuel costs, and we are in Costa Rica during some celebration, so it will be busy. Gotta go pack.

Summer

My summer looks a little different than everyone elses in the house.
This week Dr. Crabb is on vacation, so I get the week off. Luckily the kids have basketball camp at the high school so I won't be bored. Running them all to different camps at different times. I t has been nice seeing some of the high school staff from when Joe was there. Mostly good memories. In betweeen camps we signed up for the summer reading program, got some groceries, and picked up pictures.
Some goals I have for the summer:
1.Teach the kids the 10 commandments. Last summer we did the fruit of the spirit and learned the Lords prayer. These things just don't seem to get taught anymore. I wish Awana was more accessible for us. Amy did it when she was younger and we loved it, but a drive for us during the week.
2. Landscape the front of the house. We got the plants planted last weekend, but now need to get stones in, up our steep driveway. I don't think they will be as much fun to play in as the dirt was.
3. Fix the back porch. Definitely the priciest and most time consuming. It will have to wait until after baseball I think.
4. Swim and have fun. Hike and go to local parks . I am not an amusement park person, but I know the kids want to go.
5. Survive Costa Rica. Can't wait to go.

As you may have, my love language is very much acts of service. Poor Joe, it is not his. His is words of affirmation. What I am worst at, I need to do better.
For the record, I am married to an incredible provider who happens to be quite handsome. Have I mentioned lately how good of a three point shot he has? And he has really become quite the baseball coach.
Gotta go get dinner going!

floods

south of us... on the southside of Indianapolis and toward bloomington there has been amazing amounts of rainfall. As we read the paper and watch the news I find myself wondering why I dont feel compelled to go down and help move sandbags?

http://www.indystar.com has all kinds of pictures of the devastation.

If it were my house and my land would I want people to help?

Yes I would....this has troubled me...

So I wonder if it were closer to home, maybe on the northside of Indy would I then feel compelled to help? Or maybe in the next neighborhood.....

Sorry but these are certainly not attractive thoughts... but honest thoughts nonetheless.

joe

rain

arrgh..... I like the rain... but it just prevents me from utilizing my time outside. We have landscaping to finish... a garden still needs tilling... a back porch that needs a lot of everything....

Not to mention a baseball game at 6pm.....

oh well, such is life.

maybe we all will get to go to church at the same time as a family this weekend? A little bit of silver lining in these rain clouds.

joe

summer school

if any of you need homework assignments to keep your math and reading skills sharp this summer just come on over to our house. I have officially begun creating our summer school curriculum individually designed for each of our children.

Math will be at most 1 hour per week.
Reading will be more like 30 minutes per day on average.

If they accomplish their goals then as a family we are going to go to Holiday World in Santa Claus Indiana.

I can remember my biggest decision when I was a kid in the summer was either go swimming and play home run derby with Darren Mullins in our swimsuits... or...... play home run derby first then jump into the pool with grass on us... That was pretty much the daily challenging decision. Which to do first...???? hmmmmm it is not an easy decision if you think about it.!!!

alas, summer is here and life is different.

Joe

SUMMER IS HERE!!!!!

WOO HOO!!! Summer is finally here! School got out yesterday, which I am a bit frustrated about because some of my other friends got out in May. Anyways, to greet summer, we are having a garage sale. I know my mom hates garage sales but, all the money goes toward our Costa Rica fund. So tomorrow and Friday from 7am to about 5pm, we are going to be working our garage sale. Please stop by. Soooo.... Yesterday [In my opinion and my friends] did not seem like a Tuesday in June. It felt like a Tuesday in April. Very wet with not much sunshine. Perfect. But, I intend to make this summer the best. Because I am very worried about Middle School. Its is my first year with; Periods, about 7 different teachers, not being with my friends, etc. Very nerve wrecking. On the bright side of things, because I got all A's the entire 6Th grade school year on my report cards, I get a cell phone. AHHH!!! I am so excited. Anyways, just wanted to let you know what was happening.

(PS- don't you just wish suns could actually smile like that!!! :D)

Amy

books

while we are on the subject of books..... one of my all times favorites is "how to interview your daughters dates." All fathers, here is a heads up...... they want our involvement even if they might act differently. Author is Dennis Rainey.... very small and easy to read.... look it up and I hope you enjoy.
joe

Twilight.

OK, has anyone heard of this amazing book by Stephanie Meyer? Its obviously called Twilight. There are 3 sequels. Soon to be 4. I'm not going to say anything about it. Except for the fact it is definitely my new #1 book. I recommend it to everyone!

~Amy~