The Pattons

Thanks to our good friends, the Patton's, for welcoming us--once again--into their DC home for the weekend! Mark & Lee were at Harvard Law together and Amy was the only "conservative/Catholic" friend I had while in Cambridge! They have five boys--all the same age as our kids--and Amy is expecting Baby #6, yeah!!! They've asked us to be godparents for this new baby--THANKS!!

Thanks also to Mark for the wonderful dinner! Lee admitted to being overwhelmed while grocery shopping with you at the Asian market, though! So many people & so much food! He is used to shopping at bargain Kroger & he comes from a small town in Iowa that doesn't even have a grocery store anymore..so it was like a strange, foreign land to him!

We always joke that..so far..we can provide 3 great wives for their boys! Amy & I have them matched up, of course, they may decide to become priests but if not....

Dumped by my Dentist

We really enjoyed having the Strang family visit us last week. We did a lot of driving and sightseeing around Virginia. The kids had a lot of fun together-even though Justin couldn't believe how small my house is! After that comment I made Justin sleep in the closet, but he had to clear out all the toys first. But it was a great week together and we are getting excited to fly to Michigan soon and head out to the farm with the Strangs in a few weeks.

While the Strangs were here last week I was supposed to have a regular dentist appointment on Tuesday. Well I tried canceling my appt the prior Friday but the office was closed. So forgot to call on Monday, so I called first thing Tuesday morning to cancel. Apparently the receptionist was not pleased and said "canceling appointments past 24 hours requires you to pay us $50". Are you kidding me $50, I've never heard of such a thing. Good thing Elizabeth was in the van at the time telling me to tell the receptionist that I was going to turn them in to the Better Business Bureau and call my lawyer. The receptionist said "good I hope you do because I can provide forms you signed verifying you understand our rule". Well she failed to mention I had also signed 10 other forms the day I became a new patient and I am not one to read everything I sign-who does anyways? So a little more bickering between us pursues and she tells me her office manager will be calling me. Great, but I will not be paying you $50 I said as I hung up. Well apparently Lee had this same thing happen to him and Lee also refused to pay the dentist. Well that dentist must have been bored drilling teeth or wanted to show Lee you don't disrespect dentists b/c he went after Lee. Got the collection agency after him and upped the amount to $100. Lee gave in and paid-wimp. Scared of a little bad credit or something. Well I was not going to pay this tooth driller $50 for nothing. So I spoke with the manager and was sweet as can be to her and explained the situation. She said Dr. Martin was not going to charge me $50 but I could still expect in the mail my signature on a form that states their 24 hour policy. Fine send it my way. Well today I get a letter from the doc stating he was not going to charge my account $50, but I need to find a new dentist who has more flexible hours than he does. He actually photocopied the dentist yellow pages and sent them to me! Talk about service!

Many of you may remember I am married to a dentist and wonder what his opinion was of this situation. Or you may have already guessed what his opinion was. His exact words "Well Michaela you were in the wrong. I wouldn't want you as one of my patients." Great maybe this means I don't have to go to anymore dentist appointments. Never did like going to the dentist anyways.

Trip to the Dietrich House!

We took a family trip out to Virginia last week and visited our friends, The Pattons in DC for the weekend and on to Michaela & Matt's house near VA Beach for the rest of the week. We had fun at museums, Williamsburg, a day on the beach in North Carolina's Outer Banks and a day at old battlefields and drove down a beautiful road called, "Plantations on the James". Here, gorgeous old planations are lined up & down the James River and you can take tours of them all. We picked the "Shirley Plantation" to explore which was the oldest farm in America. Started in the 1600's..the same family has always lived on the property and even today a family member lives in the upper levels.

Lots of history to enjoy in Virginia, but I think the kids loved our day at the beach in NC the best!

Baseball

OK so everyone knows that Lee & I are not sports fan, but we agreed to let the kids be in sports if they have an interest. Justin loves baseball and even though his friends decided they wanted to be on a swim team, he said right away.."I do not want to do swimming...I want to play baseball." So, he's on the Team! He really loves it and is very serious on the field.

So, this past Saturday was opening day in Milan and was team picture day. (fyi--Lee had been the one to take Justin to all his practices this month and get all the relevant info about the team.) We show up at the field for the photo and the coach says to Lee.."Why is Justin wearing 'black' baseball pants and not white? Our team is suppose to be wearing white!" Lee says, "Oh, sorry....I didn't get that memo!" So, you'll see from the photo that Justin stands out (front-right) because Lee didn't get the memo! Justin could care less, he just wants to play ball. I'm annoyed and want to say..who cares? They are SEVEN years old! So, another mom says she can bring us an extra pair of white pants before the afternoon game. Fine.

So, later in the afternoon, we get to the game and go sit on some bleachers. A dad walks by and says to Lee..."Oh, our team is suppose to sit at those bleacher over there. Just in case you didn't get that memo!" The dad chuckled and Lee said, "Great, thanks..we didn't know there was a certain place we were suppose to sit!"

The game was suppose to start at 3:30pm. But, we get there and the other team was just finishing up......so......30 minutes later our game finally starts. So, of course, I'm complaining about the other team running so long over and Lee tells me if I'm going to keep complaining I can go to the van! Fine. So, the game finally gets going and Justin is having fun..but it just kept going and going...... Finally around 5:30pm I asked a bit loudly.."Does anyone know how long these games are suppose to last?" A dad looks at me and says, "They play 6 innings." I say, "Oh, what are we on?" He says, "Top of the 4th" I say, "Oh, geez!" Lee gives me a rude look! So, long story short...it ended at 6:30 PM!!! That seems a bit long to me for 7-year old boys, or is it just me?

Anyway, Justin gets done and says how much fun it was and if we saw him hit the ball and run home? So, I'm slowly beginning to get the hang of watching sports and seeing how much Justin enjoys it will make me appreciate it more!!

Piano Recital

Justin & Felicity had their piano recital on Tuesday evening and they both did very well. Sister Pat loves the kids and has asked us to please stay with her as their teacher even after we move! So, it's a 30min. drive, but Sister is cheap and the kids love her so we'll stick with her as long as we can!

Felicity and Ghosts

Angela, Felicity & Olivia

Felicity spent the night at her friend --our neighbor's-- house last month. Her friend's name is Angela and she has been asking if she can now come to a slept-over at Felicity's house. We set it up for this weekend and Felicity has been saying that she wants to sleep at Angela's house instead. I explained to her that it's our turn to host and next time will be her turn to stay over there again. Well, yesterday DeGie--Angela's mom--calls me and says that she was telling Felicity how excited Angela was about the sleep-over and Felicity said, "Well, I'd rather come to your house but if you're Ok with the sheets on my bed moving by themselves, that's fine you can come over." !!! DeGie asked Felicity what she was talking about?? She said Felicity told her that it's scary in her room at night because the fan is on and the covers move on her bed. DeGie told her that was wind from the fan. But said Felicity insisted that the covers move on their own and that it's scary! So, Angela said Oh, well you can sleep here then!

So, I ask Felicity if she said that and she said "Yeah." Why would you say that, Felicity? "Because I really want to have the sleep-over at Angela's house." Felicity, it's wrong to lie and scare your friends. Now, Angela is scared and thinks there are ghosts in your room. "Fine. Sorry." Now, you get to walk over to Angela's house and apologize to her and tell her the truth!!

No more Monster's Inc. or Scooby Doo in our house for awhile now!!

Love,

Elizabeth

Justin & the Cops!!!

OK---so every Wenesday I host a mom's rosary group at our house and the kids play while we mom's pray a rosary for world peace! Well, our intentions are more like.....end to abortion, more patience, good health, that Stephanie and Ben would find good Catholic spouses and more patience! ha-ha.


Anyway, since global warming has finally hit us here in Michigan we have Justin and his friends play outside during our prayer time. (There is big open field behind our house and the kids love to go 'hunting' for treasures. There is a paved road because there was suppose to be a huge surge in home buying, but that didn't happen--it's all vacant.) So, Justin and two other 7-year old boys put on their backpacks and headed out back to the field area this past Wenesday. About 10 minutes later us mom's were chatting and I look out the back window and see this police car going down that road in the grass area towards the boys. My friend, Jane, immediately goes out the deck door and heads over to where the boys are.

It takes awhile to walk to the boys and the rest of us--in the house--can see the policeman get out of his car and start talking to the boys. We, of course, think we might be getting in trouble for letting the kids run around back there; or maybe he's wondering why they are not in school! Finally, after about 10 more minutes the cop leaves. When Jane gets back in the house she said that the police showed up because they received a phone call from one of my neighbors saying.."There are 3 little boys with back-packs wandering around in this big open field area and I'm not sure if they are trying to run away or what is going on." !!!!!

Now, let's all remember that it really does take a village to raise a child! So, the boys come back and I asked Justin what the policeman was asking them...He says, "He asked us what we were doing." Well, what did you say? "We told him we were looking for crystals & fossils." Uh, the joy of homeschooling....going on a treasure hunt on Wenesday morning at 10am to look for crystals and fossils!! "Then he asked us where we go to school and Dominic told him that we are homeschooled." What did the policeman say about that? "Nothing. He just said OK." So, Justin had his first, and hopefully last, encounter with the police at age seven!