SHOPPING IN SHIPSHEWANA

While on Spring Break, we took a day to go shopping in Shipshewana.  The trip from Knox is about two hours driving.  There is so much to do and see that we decided to reserve a hotel room and stay the night.

Shipshewana is in the heart of Indiana Amish country.  Along the road one sees horse-drawn carriages aplenty!  It's amazing that a people exist in our country that have virtually sworn to live the simple life. Now, we have seen Amish use power tools and farm implements to help around their farms, but for the most part, this is how they live.

In this picture you see Charles and Becca on the steps of the Guggisberg Cheese Factory, on the outskirts of Shipshewana.  This is where we buy our cheese blocks to last us through the year. Becca's - and Grandma's - favorite is the Garlic Cheese, which is great on crackers or wheat thins.  Charles' favorite is the Pepper Jack, or Pepper Colby Jack, or the Salsa Cheese.  He uses it with his Mexican food.  Bizzy and Grandpa likes all of them.  We also pick up fresh blocks of Mozzarella for our Italian food, and butter cheese by the bucket.

When we first started buying our cheese here, this was just a local operation, but was bought out a couple of years ago by an Ohio company. Now, the cheese is shipped all over the midwest.

THE WRITING TEACHER BLOG


I've begun a new blog. Yes, I know. "What!? A new blog?" Finding the time to write on the blogs I do have, QUE PASA and BASS LAKE BUNCH is hard, but something came up the other day that I just couldn't resist and am feeling the urge to begin yet another new project.

Rebecca turned 7 last month.  A milestone in and of itself, Becca is also expressing the desire to write. As we near the end of her first grade year, we are seeing her grow, becoming a high leveled reader (she's reading Junie B. Jones and Cam Jansen, both third grade leveled chapter books).  Now, she wants to write.

For the past several years, Becca has written (I should say scribbled) in notebooks and we've encouraged her to express herself positively, so naturally, keeping a journal would come next in her writing development.  What caught me by surprise is that she asked me to teach her how to keep a journal and the idea about me keeping a journal right along with her came to me like an epiphany.

So, go check out my newest blog.  It will contain mostly journal entries, right along with my daughter, but I will also use her writing, with her permission, of course, displayed in the blog. You can find it by going to the Links area to the right of this post, and click on "THE WRITING TEACHER", or just click on this link writingteacher2006.blogspot.com and enjoy.

The final goal of the blog is to explore how to teach primary students writing in order to bring about a change in their skills, to help them be better writers.  As I explore teaching primary writers, I want to record my thoughts and revelations, and hopefully become a better primary writing teacher.

Thanks for following!

Biz went to Chicago last week for a conference and got to stay in a beautiful hotel. This is a shot with her camera looking outside her window down on the Chicago River.

We don't get to Chicago very much, but when we do, it can be an amazing city to visit.

The recent cold snap gave rise (or is that fall) to massive icicles off the roof of our house. As you can see here, Becca peeks from behind this massive behemoth just before mommy knocked it off the eave of the house.

We have about another week of this bitter cold and we should start to warm up next week.

FIRST GRADE CELEBRATES 100th DAY OF SCHOOL!


Becca and her classmates celebrate the 100th Day of school.  Many teachers incorporate lots of "100" Day lessons to help primary students learn.  There are lots of things, such as counting up to 100, 100 items, and so on.

Here, Becca is shown with her friends displaying their "100" Day glasses. Becca has really come to love going to school.

WHY WON'T ANYONE LISTEN TO ME?

Every Thursday afternoon, Mr. Ratliff hosts the Newspaper students in his classroom.  Everyone shows up and begins working. One of the photographers thought she was funny and caught Mr. Ratliff imparting instructions.

Wait! is that little Rebecca in the picture, just to the right? That is! That is her! Well, Rebecca served as a First Grade Correspondent on an assignment last Fall and ever since has determined that she is part of the newspaper staff, no questions asked.

I keep telling her that she should go to Youth Club. Her reply?

"Oh, Daddy! You know I have to come to Newspaper because I'm on the staff just like the big kids!"

I will say this: She takes a killer photograph!

It was 80's Day at Knox High School. During Winter Homecoming Week, each day is assigned a special event. As you can see, Biz has her hair done up in style!

Even the Elementary School gets in the swing. Their day was "Blast to the Past!" Becca decided to go as someone who blasted back to the 2000s.

Even as we continue to get slammed with system and lake effect snow (more than 8 inches on the ground right now) we continue to enjoy life in Knox.

Well, we finally decided to give up our wonderful Honda Civic Hybrid with its great gas mileage and purchased a 4WD. I guess it was the massive snow storm just before Christmas that did the trick.

We had been researching, waiting, and saving for more than a year. We were so ready for the release of the 2011 Explorer. This is the first model with the body style similar to the Ford Edge. This was the first one to arrive at our local dealership and had everything Biz and I wanted, so we went ahead and made them an offer.

The Explorer gives us everything we need to get through the winter, including snow clearance when pulling into Charles' unplowed driveway! It also has 4-Wheel-All Wheel-All Terrain drive for driving on those rough, slushy, slippery roads. Don't worry! Bizzy doesn't let Charles drive in those types of conditions anyways! As for gas mileage, the Explorer does give us 18-23, and last May Charles traded in his 8-year-old Jeep Liberty for a 2010 Ford Fusion, which gives us 26-30 MPG, so that will become our long distance car when driving to away games.

We're having fun getting to know our Ford Explorer and it's certainly an SUV one should consider buying, if you are in the market for one.

Just a Little Love Uncle Claude.....

Just when he thought he was going to get Becca to leave, she turned the tables on him and gave her Uncle Claude a big smoocherini right after lunch at the Hooters in Las Vegas' Sunset Station Casino. It was our last lunch on the last day in Vegas prior to heading back to the snowy mid-West. We enjoyed our trip to Bullhead City and Vegas and hope to get back out west in the near future.

SANTA FILLED MY STOCKING!

Becca shows off some of the things that she got in her stocking Christmas morning. She had to make sure Santa understood that she was staying with her grandparents during Christmas week and that he knew how to find her, which he did.

 VISITING HISTORIC OATMAN

Here, Becca poses with a couple of the Oatman gunfighters following their daily show in Oatman, Ariz. Becca so enjoys visiting the mountainside town halfway between Bullhead City and Needles. Becca also gets a kick out of feeding the burros! This can be a slight problem, however, as the burros FOLLOW you everywhere you go once you feed them!

WITH MOM AT CHRISTMAS!

Here, Biz and Mom take a moment to pose for the camera.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE!

In the top picture, Becca shows off her brand new silver sparkly dress (pardon Dad, he doesn't quite know the correct fashion terms. In the middle picture, Mom, Leslie, Biz and Becca all pose for a picture prior to Becca heading off to bed. Bottom, Leslie, Claude and Mom pose for a picture while visiting one of Claude's favorite restaraunts in Las Vegas - The Haufbrau Haus!

VISITING HISTORIC OATMAN

Dad and Becca pose in front of an antique John Deere tractor (yeah, like they really used tractors in the desert!) at one end of Historic Oatman.  Whenever we get back to the Bullhead City area, we like to pay a visit to one of the few remaining old west theme towns left in Arizona (the other one is Tombstone!).

Becca Poses in front of Christmas Tree

Trying on new dresses around our house can be a joy and always must be recorded for posterity's sake. Here, Becca is trying on one of her dresses, trying to decide which one - the green or the red - to wear for her program. The green one won out. The red one, on the other hand, she decided to wear to Bizzy's Christmas Cantata.

We want to wish all of our family and friends the best of the season. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Becca and classmates get ready to sing!

Following two days and 17 inches of snow, we returned to school and Becca's First Grade Christmas Program was rescheduled for that night. So, more than 150 first graders arrived at school in single digit temps and sang their hearts out.

Becca is seen here in the back row, second student in (standing tallest to shortest, Becca is the second tallest in her class!). The program was wonderful and the kids all did great.

Merry Christmas!

Becca poses in front of the school Christmas Tree following her first grade program.

Wishing all a wonderful, Merry Christmas!

 Biz getting briefed


Prior to suiting up, Driver Dan Wheldon, of the National Guard Formula One Race Car, visited with Biz in pit row at the Chicago Raceway.

Biz spent the day in the car, in the pit, in the owner's box.

Now, Biz says she wants her own Formula One car.

 Biz, the Race Car Driver


After school was underway, Biz got the opportunity to take a ride in a Formula One race car at Chicago Raceway.

Here, Biz takes a photo with driver Helio Castroneves. Then, Biz climbed into the car and took a few spins around the track. When she asked if she could drive, Helio politely refused: "No way!"

She had fun. 'Nuff said.

School Underway

It has been a pretty busy summer. After spending June fixing up some minor things around the house, I taught summer school to middle school students during July. Right after that let out, I headed to Arizona for a brief vacation to see the boys. I stayed at Russ' house, went to Tucson for a couple of days, then back to Phoenix. I got to see a lot of people, and missed others (sorry:( and then headed back to Indiana. The day after I got back, I was back to work again.

No rest for the weary! Just know that we are thinking of you all and love and miss you!

P.S. I'll post some videos from Tombstone later this week. Keep an eye out!

Looking into a big hole!

On our way out of Bisbee, we took the kids to see the open pit mine (now closed). The kids had never seen such a big hole in the ground (the Grand Canyon excluded) and you'd uh thunk they were never going to see another like it.

I loved Ailey's remark: "That's an awful lot of blood down there!" in reference, of course, to the rust colored water collecting in the bottom of the pit.

From Bisbee, we took the kids to Tombstone and spent an hour walking the streets. Even on a Sunday afternoon, things were in full swing, as Vigilante Days was in the process of wrapping up.

After Bisbee, I returned to Phoenix with Evan and spent a couple more days with Russ and Kira; then headed back to Indiana.

Visiting Uncle Ed in Bisbee

While on vacation in Arizona, spent a couple of days with Larry and Kristy and the kids in Tucson. As you can see by the picture, I managed to kidnap Evan and take him along. Actually, Russ and Kira had to do a job in Happy Jack and I offered to watch the kid. He got to see his Tucson cousins, which doesn't happen very often.

We went to Sunday Service and got to hear Uncle Ed preach. I really enjoyed the sermon. Later, we went to lunch.

Absolutely loved the visit. Next time I hope to catch the whole Hicks crew should they be around. Sorry I missed you all.

I WISH YOU WERE HERE FISHING WITH ME!

The other thing Becca likes to go to at the Starke County Fair besides the pony (see post below) and carnival rides, is the Conservation Club's Fishing hole. Here, children can try to snag a goldfish to take home.

Unfortunately, Becca hasn't quite learned the trick to nabbing a fish with her tiny hook.

I LOVE PONY RIDES!

As you can tell, Becca really likes to ride the ponies. Here, she's riding the same ponies (same vendor) as the one from the North Judson Mint Festival. Here, she rides the ponies at the Starke County Fair in Hamlet.

As soon as we saw them she exclaimed, "The ponies! Can I ride the ponies?" And off she runs, not waiting for a yes or no. And, because the ponies are there, we ride them the moment we get to the fair, and right before we leave.

MINT FESTIVAL 2010

Summer in Starke County is not all about the lake. No, in one part of Starke County - over in North Judson - the Mint Festival gives everyone a chance to celebrate the county's other harvest - the mint.

The carnival is one way to help celebrate, and Becca enjoys the rocket ride, as shown in this photo. She also enjoyed the pony rides - which she rode twice - but her father didn't get the right shot.

Can I? Huh? Can I?

Maybe if Dad is not looking, I can write my name in the fresh concrete. Wait, it's not all poured yet. Dad has to pour some more along the side. Then, when he's done, I'll write my name . . . er, initials, in the concrete.

Actually, when all was said and done, we wrote all of our initials in the wet crete. Becca was a big help.

WHY WOULD I GO TO THE LAKE AND MISS ALL THIS FUN?

Becca came out to see what her Dad was up to and discovered that he was pouring a concrete apron around the older edges of the house. At much insistence (Becca can be very insistent!) Becca helped her father stir the sack-crete so that her father could then pour it into the forms.

Overheard while pouring concrete:

"Becca, why don't you go inside and see what your mother is doing?"

"I'd rather help you, Daddy," she replied.

"Why don't you ask your mother to run you up to the lake?"

"Why do I want to go to the lake and miss all this fun? No way!"

Becca's idea of fun: Dressing up in a nice play dress and then proceeding outside to help dad with messy construction job whereby the kid gets concrete stains all over her outfit, hands, legs and smudges on her cheecks.

She's a Ratliff!

I DON'T WANT TO COME OUT OF THE WATER!

After swimming at the high school pool, the shallow waters of Bass Lake are even more fun now that Becca has swimming strokes to practice. She can't wait for her cousin Colton to finally show up and swim with her.

SHOW ME THE WATER!

Rebecca enjoys a night of open swim at the High School. She
loves to leap from the diving board into the deep end (over 12 feet deep!). She can now can jump off and swim to the side by herself.

During April and May, Becca spent a week during each month attending swimming lessons. Every day after school for a week she and other K-2 graders were taught swimming strokes and floating techniques without the benefit of floating devices.

Now, her mother and father can't seem to get her out of the deep end.

School fun night at KESC. May 14, 2010
Becca shows off one of the many prizes that she won at her school's Carnival Night, sponsored by the student council. Her Dad tried to get her to help with his event, but she said, "No way! Dad!" and ran off to have fun.

Oh, well!

It's getting warmer!

I spent the afternoon with my Dad and his newspaper kids. While outside the school waiting for students to get picked up, I found this rock to pose upon. Dad thought it was so cool that he started taking pictures. You can find the other pictures on my Dad's facebook album.

But, for now, this one's for you, our blog readers!

Love,

Becca

Time to get some exercise!

We've had an unusually warm spring, so we figured it was time to invest in some exercise equipment.

So, off we drove to Merrillville, IN and the closest Sam's Club and we found this little darling, a 15-foot trampoline. We also erected the safety netting with strapped down zipper door to keep curious little jumpers out.

As you can see, the trees are still bare, but branches are beginning to bud. It won't be long and the trees will be in full leaf and gardens will be growing.

I made this myself!

Much to the chagrin of Bizzy, Becca took one of our favorite fuzzy blankets and, with scissors, carved out the holes for her neck and arms. Our first indication that something was up when . . .

"Mommy! Can you help me!" Becca called from the back porch.

"What do you need?" Bizzy asked. Around the corner waltzed this little darling.

"I need you to help pin this up," she said, motioning to the long blanket trailing behind her. She was already wrapped up, giving no indication other than she dressed herself. That is, until we undraped her after shooting several cutsie pictures, that Becca was stark raving naked underneath!

At least the fuzzy blanket kept her warm!

Spring Break Vegas Style

While on Spring Break, we had the opportunity to see a real live Vegas Magic Show, starring Rick Thomas and his disappearing tigers. Grandma and Grandpa had more fun at the show as Rick picked them to help perform one of the show's premier tricks. Grandpa was sure Grandma broke his watch until it surfaced in a box no one touched during the show complete and back together.

Afterwards, we were able to take a picture with Rick Thomas.

LOSING THE TEETH! Becca's front teeth are gone. She lost her first one Feb. 16 and then the second deserted her on March 9, 2010. The front (buck) teeth are finally starting to come in, and will hopefully be sufficient to tackle corn on the cob this summer.

Then, the smaller teeth on either side began loosening as the big teeth started coming in, with one being lost June 8.

"The Best Little Patient in the World"

The time came for Becca to have her tonsils taken out. Since last October, Becca's tonsils were becoming inflammed almost bi-monthly, like clockwork. Three times we took her to our doctor for these nasty throat infections.

We were referred to an ENT specialist who then decided it was time for the tonsils to come out. We arrived the morning of Wednesday, Feb. 24, four days after Becca's sixth birthday, to complete the procedure. The doctor noticed at this point, her tonsils were becoming infected yet again. As you can see in this picture, Becca was ready for it to be over and done with. The previous couple of nights, however, were a different story. As smart as she is, she KNEW exactly what was expected and going to happen in the operating room.

Overheard the night before as Daddy rocked Becca to sleep: (sniffling) "I don't want to have surgery, Daddy."

"They have to come out, Becca. They keep making you sick."

"I think Mommy should go first."

"Mommy already had hers taken out, when she was sixteen."

"Then you go first, and I'll go after you."

"They won't be able to take mine, they're all shriveled up."

We took Becca to a "surgical center" - not a hospital - an outpatient surgery center owned by a group of physicians who operate on their patients in one central location. Talk about a slick operation; we arrived at 6:15 a.m. Becca was admited by 6:40 a.m. (after completing admitting paperwork), taken into pre-op by 7:15, into the operating room for anesthesia by 7:30 a.m. with surgery completed by 8:15. Into post-op where Mommy and Daddy greeted her when she awoke, sobbing, but trying so hard to put on a brave face. We left by 10:00 a.m. and home by 11:15 a.m. Yes, we were up super early, but the medical team that took care of Becca were highly quick and efficient. We couldn't have asked for a better situation.

Father God was surely smiling on our little one today. The nurses fawned over Becca as though she were the only one there and commented that she was certainly "the best little patient in the world."

The Snow Princess poses . . .

Becca poses for a picture prior to pitching an icy snowball at Uncle Chris. Becca took advantage of the near melting temperatures that made for great snowball making to have a snowball fight.

We take this moment to wish everyone a Happy New Year! Have a great start to your 2010!

Love to all . . .

The Boys at the Game . . .

Charles, Chris, Colton and Dad went to the Indianapolis Colts and NY Jets football game in Indy last Sunday. We received tickets as a Christmas present. We were in the southeast corner, sixth row off the goal line. What great seats!

Then, we learned at the beginning of the game that the starters, Peyton Manning included, were going to sit out the second half! The Colts lost their first game of the season and we were bummed!

All in all, however, it was fun and we had a great time. While we were in the game, though, Indianapolis came under a winter storm watch, and we were almost stormed in. The snow was already coming down on the walk in. See for yourself. Good thing we parked close!

We're still pulling for the Colts in the Super Bowl, even though they may lose the last game of the season . . . hehe!

Christmas Dinner at the Lake!

We had Christmas dinner at the lake cottage. Mom fixed a turkey and we ate in the front room looking out at the melting snow and ice. It warmed up, melted off and snowed again that night when the temps dropped.

Grandma and Grandpa pine consistently for the warm temps of Arizona!

Christmas Eve . . .

We have had an extremely busy fall, hence the lack of postings. We apologize for that.

Everyone arrived for Christmas week and we held Christmas Eve at Yellow House. In this photo (from left) Leslie, Biz and Mom, with Becca standing in front, have their picture taken in the new Addition with the Pastor Peyton light in the background. Bizzy has had the light for years and has not had a chance to hang in nine years, sitting instead on top of her piano, both in Bullhead City and in Plymouth, IN. Now, we have managed to hang it.

Rebecca Ratliff, Kindergartner

We now have our Kindergarten pictures. Here's Rebecca - doesn't she take a great picture? Becca has been having a wonderful year, and, recently, begun to sprout again. She has slimmed down (due to loss of appetite prior to a spurt) and now seems to be - in our eyes - an inch taller. Her hair has gotten slightly longer in the back (this picture was taken in late September) and her face has lost some of its puffiness.

We can hardly wait for Christmas pics!

Enjoy!