The Edwards Family

What Would Jesus Do?

Fri, 6 Mar 2009 16:05:03 -0500

Yesterday I took my 4th trip to a doctor’s office in 2 weeks. I have enjoyed taking my children to the doctor and paying a copay to be told they have a cold. I was pretty apprehensive about going this time because many of the symptoms Ella and Mikey were having were the same as the cold symptoms. They were running fevers though and Ella was not eating, not sleeping, and in a generally rotten mood.

My kids always act like they have not been sick at all when we go to the doctor. Making me feel like I must be stalking the doctor or the nurse or that I have Munchausen’s by proxy. Mikey loves the doctor’s chair and rolls all over in on it and bangs into everything. He also talks so dang loudly. So I told him that he had to go to a lot of school before he could sit in that chair and asked him to sit in one of the stationery chairs. He asked if he had to go to real school before he could sit in the chair. So we went down the list real school, college, medical school, a residency and then he could sit in that chair. “I’ve already done a residency.” Michael tells me. “No, Mikey. Daddy has done the residency we have just had to live through it.” “Oh. “

Mikey had a really hard time staying in that boring chair. But I had a really hard time with his loud pretend noises and finally told him if he got out of the one more time he was not going to be able to watch a movie, or play on the computer the next day. Of course, he jumped out of the chair within 2 seconds. “That’s it, no movie or computer tomorrow!” Mikey with a sad face and tears in his eyes “Jesus would let me watch a movie.”

Well, I am not going to pretend I know what Jesus would do. Okay, I did pretend and told Mikey he would not because when we make bad choices there are bad consequences and when we make a good choice there are good consequences. The problem with the whole scenario is I was just out of patience or if Mikey really deserved it. Well, we have made it through the entire day with no screen time and he is still not listening to me. What would Jesus do now?

Oh, and Ella had RSV and an ear infection. So glad that I went. Mikey had a cold!

Our Family’s Year in Review

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:27:31 -0500

2008 has treated us well. A year full of work, play, and fun family memories.

This spring we were able to take a family trip down south. We enjoyed the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee with Grandpa Paul and Grandma Helen. On the way home we stopped and met Grandma Carole at one of her new found favorite places the Kentucky Horse Park. You can read all about it in our previously posted blog entry.

We took our annual summer trip to Utah. The kids, the dog and Keri drove from Indiana to Utah with Grandma Carole and Grandpa Chuck followed pulling a U-haul. They had finished their medical mission which allowed us to visit with them often for a year. We have missed them a lot since they have returned home. We spent a over a month in Utah swimming, going on adventures with Grandma and Grandpa, and enjoying time with our family. We love our trips to Utah the trouble is they eventually end.

School starts early here. The kids were back in school on August 13th. Madi started 5th grade and Emily started 2nd. They no longer go to the same school as 5th grade is in the intermediate school here. Madi moved on to multiple teachers and a locker com and Emily had to ride the bus without her big sister to hang out with on the way. Mikey started preschool and has loved every minute of it. He has only gotten in trouble once for wrestling. They have all adjusted very well. Keri is, once again, coming to terms with the fact that the kids grow up far to fast and they do it without permission from their mother. What is up with that?

Madison is still the sweet person that she has always been. She works hard in school. She loved that she was able to swim for P.E. this year. She is still taking piano lessons. Her great love for animals continues. She is taking horseback riding lessons twice a month. She has a beautiful voice and sang “If the Saviour Stood Beside Me” as a solo in the Primary Program this year. She did a wonderful job. This year she has decided that she no longer wants to be a veterinarian. She really loved the political discussions she heard on the radio, at school, and home that revolved around the election. She has decided that it is important to know the Constitution and she thinks that by becoming an attorney she can do that. I will keep you posted on any other major career changes our 10 year-old makes in the coming months. We really hope she will stop vacillating, make a decision, and start supporting us financially!

Emily is a sweet and petite 2nd grader. She is a spunky little girl that loves life and wants to be doing anything that Madi is doing. She is taking piano too and she actually enjoys it. She sits down and plays just for fun sometimes. She is full of imagination and loves to make up games to play with her sisters and brother. She is a great artist and is constantly leaving notes and pictures around the house telling us that she loves her family.

Michael keeps us all moving. He still loves to wrestle, play superheros, and dinosaurs. He often refers to us as Superhero Mommy and Superhero Daddy and we are supposed to call him Batman. Recently he told Scott he wanted him to call him Slobber Man. It does fit Mikey since he does drool occasionally and it can be intimidating to the bad guys. He has made a lot of friends at preschool. There is a little girl in his class that calls him Michael Jordan. It must be the long legs and Slam Dunk that confuse her.

Ella is, unbelievably, a 1 year-old now! She is learning new things every day. She is starting to say thank you, yes, no. She dances and plays with her sisters and brother. She has no interest in walking. She is a stealth crawler and if we do not have the gate up can make it to the top of the stairs before we realize she has left the room.

Scott and Keri are trying hard to make the decision of where we should move this beautiful family in the next six months. It has proven to be the hardest decision that we have ever had to make. We have been very blessed to live in Maryland and Indiana. We have made life long friendships and so many great memories. We know that where ever we go the Lord will continue to bless us.

We love and miss you all! We hope that this Holiday Season finds you all happy and healthy. And that the year ahead holds And we hope that we will see or hear from you soon!

Merry Christmas!

Kentucky

Sun, 9 Nov 2008 17:46:08 -0500

I thought I would keep any of you who read this waiting a long time to really build up the anticipation. After our Tennessee adventures this spring we headed to Lexington, Kentucky and met Grandpa Chuck and Grandma Carole there. We went to one of Grandma Carole’s favorite places The Kentucky Horse Park. We went to the Parade of Breeds at the Park and saw various types of Arabian Horses and a Fresian Horse. The Fresian horse was one of our favorites because it dances. Literally, it does the grapevine and the hustle okay not the hustle but it does dance and we loved it. We also attended the Circle of Champions which is a small arena with T.V.s mounted above. They show footage of a horse in it’s prime some of them raced some of them were trotters, etc. then the horse comes out. For the most part you could tell all of these horses were proud but the horse pictured above still takes my breath away. He was the all time leading money winner at his racing retirement making $9,999,815. That is a lot of oats people! This Stallion came into that arena and held his head high. As you can see he looked around at everyone as if to say “Yes, I am better than all of you measly humans.” He pawed at the ground and tried to take the lead rope out of the woman’s hands with his mouth. He was gorgeous. Unfortunately, Cigar is not as “stallionesque” as he believes. He is at the Kentucky Horse Park because he is unable to produce baby Cigars. Nevertheless, he is a site to behold running in the field behind the arena.

Another highlight of the trip was a pony ride for Emily and Mikey and a trail ride for Scott, Madi, and I. I have to say everyone did really well. I have ridden horses many times in my life but I come from short people and therefore a pony for short people was always available for me to ride. So that I could stay with Madi I lined up with the people that stated they had 10 hours or less of horse riding experience. Therefore, I thought I had nothing to worry about. They look at all of the people in line and call you down after they stare you down and give you a specific horse. They called me down and told me I would be riding Art. Short name, huge horse. I walked up to Art and just about fell over looking up at him. I looked at the lady and said Art’s a big boy. She said yes I will have to push you up there. I put my leg above my head and into the stirrup and a perfect stranger placed her hands on my bottom and up I went. Art is a retired trotter, he raced pulling someone on a cart. Apparently he was a real champion. He was really nice to me but hated the trail guide horses so the first time one came by I thought I was a goner. His ears went back and I could see some teeth the trail guide yelled at him and he straightened up. I asked if I had done something wrong and she explained Art’s dislike of dominate horses. I just patted Art and let him know I thought he was great and he was. Madi rode Rain. Rain was good to Madi but decided he did not like the trail and also did not like the horses around him. He got hungry and stopped to eat and the trail guides could not get him to move. The horse behind him got to close so Rain turned around and tried to nip him. Scott’s horse, Boomerang, just didn’t like Scott. Scott got nipped at a few times. I know it doesn’t sound like it but really we had fun. These horses are so trained that we really didn’t do anything. Once they get back to the corral they ALL take a bathroom break. If you look at the pictures in the album you will see that I had a hard time trying to decide which way to go in order to keep my feet dry. I guess it’s the horses way of saying see ya!

After, the horse park we sped over to Keeneland to see the last race of the day. It is a beautiful race track. We were extremely under dressed. It was opening weekend and people looked like they were at the prom. Scott tried his luck at betting and did horribly. He lost our retirement that we have not started yet. I did not realize seeing the last race at Keeneland would change our lives forever. We have really missed that $3.

It was a great Spring Break full of fun memories with both Grandmas and both Grandpas. How lucky we were!!

The Great Smokey Mountains

Sat, 17 May 2008 23:50:45 -0400

For pictures of our trip check out our Spring Break Album.

This year we traveled south once again for Spring Break. However, we decided to stop short of last years travels to Disney World and instead opted for Dollywood. I know you are all ever so jealous. We did not actually partake of the Dollywood attraction and past it by as we drove into the beautiful Smokey Mountains.

As with all of our traveling adventures, we had no problems getting to our general location. It was once we got near our final destination that it took us about 1 hour to track down our cabin. Given that we were in two different cars, because we were lucky enough to have Grandpa Paul and Grandma Helen with us, this caused much stress for Keri and brought out the best in her. I think that anyone who has ever tried to follow Scott’s lead in unknown territory would sympathize. This adventure took us on steep, gravel roads that were washed out in places. As my off roading in a minivan filled with all my beloved children experiences are limited, thoughts of plummeting to our deaths filled my mind. So at about 7:30pm we finally arrived at our cabin. It really is a nice little cabin and somehow they hung it from the side of the mountain and now visions of Mikey running off the side of the mountain filled my head. Sidenote: since becoming a mother I have become extremely nervous about anything happening to my kids. I tried to repress it by telling myself if they fall off the side of the mountain it is for their own good and that will teach them to listen to me but then there are also a lot of bears in the Smokey Mountains. Black Bears in the Springtime, coming out of hibernation....whose idea was this? Oh, yes, MINE!

After we unloaded, we went into Pigeon Forge, which is a tourist trap much like the boardwalk in Ocean City, MD for those of you that have been there. However, they do have local food. We ate at Huck Finn’s Catfish, Chicken, and Steak. We tried fried green tomatoes---not bad. My favorite fried food of the night were the hush puppies, they were like fried stuffing. I could get large and in charge with those babies. What is it about fried food--- walking out of the restaurant I felt 10 pounds heavier without a care in the world.

We went back to the cabin. I ran for my life from the van to the front door and yelled to the rest of the people to do the same. As you can see there is quit some distance from the vehicles to the front door. A bear at full speed could definitely catch me after a meal of fried food! We all made it luckily! Then we settled into bed. I was tuckered after my fried food high took a nose dive. The cabin was cozy. Our family slept in a loft area and Grandpa and Grandma slept in a room downstairs. Mikey kept yelling at everyone to be quiet so he could sleep. It was pretty funny. There is no insulation and so when Grandpa Paul started snoring I had to tell myself that bears cannot open doors and it was just my dad.

Scott and the kids got up and hopped in the hot tub. I felt I was obligated as their mother to let them know that bears love nothing more than boiled kids and they could probably smell them really well. As my kids are used to me they did not care what I said and continued to bait the bears.

We ate lunch at a BBQ place in Gatlinburg. It had the best smoked turkey sandwich in the world! It is also located next to the one and only salt and pepper shaker museum. The museum charged quit a bit for entrance so we skipped it. How could we pass up such an opportunity?

We went on a driving tour of the Smokey’s that afternoon. I made Grandpa Paul drive this time so I could stay happy. It was fun to spend time with my dad. We reminisced about the road trips our family used to take and laughed about the funny things that would entertain us on our Yellowstone adventures. Then my dad and I started a tradition of our own. He had purchased some “Hillbilly” music I will call it. (Think “Oh, Brother Where Art Thou” soundtrack and you’ve got it) We started making up our own lyrics and unfortunately I cannot remember any of them but trust me they were funny! The real lyrics made Madi sad and I think and ours did not seem to cheer her up. I tell you mountain life was tough and a lot of people died and were cold a lot.

The little valley that we toured was beautiful and we had fun walking around the old settlements. We were able to see an old flour mill, which was fun because my dad worked in the Pillsbury Flour mill for years. It was interesting to see how it was done at that time. Mikey found every puddle he could possibly jump in and was a soaked little hillbilly by the end of the day. The drive was beautiful and highly recommended.

The next day we packed up the cars and headed north for more fun in Kentucky where we met up with Scott’s parents also. Spring Break 2008 Part II coming soon.

I Have Been Without Access

Wed, 14 May 2008 15:07:16 -0400

Okay, our computer died and I can only access this webpage from Scott’s login to make any changes. We got a new computer and it had to go in for repairs. Between that and the fact that I am not a consistent blogger I am way behind so I am going to do a mass update. Not that I expect a lot of people to read this but as I am using it as a journal here goes......