Now A Family of *gulp* Six.

"I need something to feel me better." (Make me feel better). This is my current favorite. "It's a waterfell!" (waterfall) "Them got..." (they have) "I play five minutes. Okay? Okay." (self-explanatory) "Play ____(fill in the blank)____ first. Then, we go. Okay? Okay."

As a bonus with our membership to The Henry Ford , we got "Day out with Thomas" tickets pretty cheap. Today was the big day! Roman did not show outward excitement at first, rather he processes things in his brain for quite awhile. By the end of the afternoon, though, he wanted to see Thomas' face over and over! The train ride was about 20 minutes. Afterward we got our picture taken with Thomas while he was in the station. We aren't the type to buy those pictures, but I wanted to see what they looked like anyway. I handed the slip over with our photo number on it and the woman said, "Congratulations! You've got a sticker on your sheet - you have won a free 8x10!" So the photo below is of our free 8x10 picture. It turned out cute, for sure. We spent most our time at Greenfield Village in the train area. Roman wanted to see the roundhouse and we had lunch. It rained all afternoon, so we were rather bedraggled by the time we hoofed it back to the car. We ...

The following pictures are not in order, but it's a taste of the wonderful time we had in Cleveland. Partly, of course, just being together with no timetable was the best. But Roman was just a joy to spend time with and he loved everything we did. His favorite was the "dinosaur museum," the Natural History museum which had taxidermied animals of all kinds, as well as dinosaur bones. We also visited the zoo, the science museum, and the hotel pool multiple times. For dinners, we hit two pretty cool spots - Hornblower's Barge & Grill, a restaurant on a boat; and the 100th Bomb Group, which was situated alongside the runways of the airport. So we spent that dinner watching planes take off and land, which was neat too! So here are highlights of our trip: Roman on the "Outback Railroad" at the zoo, with wallabies just over the fence. Jumping into Daddy's arms! I also have a shot of him actually underwater, which only happened a couple times in moments of e...

We're not going anywhere exotic, or even warm for that matter. We're just getting out of town for a few days. Off to Cleveland! Yes, Cleveland, the "mistake by the lake." There's actually more to do than we have time for - all three days of it. We're staying at a Holidome in a suite, so Roman can go to bed and we can still stay up and read or watch tv. Indoor pool obviously (that's what a Holidome is) so we expect to swim a couple times a day, as its Roman's favorite thing to do. Otherwise, on our list of possibilities is the Children's Museum, Museum of Natural History, zoo which has a special Rainforest exhibit - and train through the Australian Outback. Also a "farmpark" and/or Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, of course. Got a lead on a couple restaurants too, one on a ship in Lake Erie, another with a World War Two aviation theme. Cheesecake Factory is always a hit, too. We're looking forward to just being away from home, away ...

After much back and forth, we decided to move ahead with the purchase of a new-to-us car. We will be selling the Jeep Cherokee, Doug will drive my Focus, and I will drive this! It's a Pontiac Aztek. I love it already. It is taking some getting used to. I have had small cars my whole life; from the Escort, to the Cavalier, to the Focus. The Aztek doesn't feel large inside, but the length is something to get used to. I'm used to whipping in and out in traffic and parking lots - It's going to take some adjusting. So for now, parallel parking is out! Swim season is over and our team was undefeated. I got thrown in the pool after our win Wednesday night, very refreshing. I am officially on Spring Break now. We're heading to my parents' for Easter - high hopes that Jeff and his family will join us Sunday - and then a relaxing two days before we head off to Cleveland. More exciting details about that later. Roman is getting to be such a big boy. He talks nonstop, just ...

Ah, to clarify - my problem with the aforementioned "American Dream" is that it's an assembly line worker wanting the second home and boat. Education should equal perks. Like in the paper today, a man stated he wasn't going to take the $35,000 buyout that Delphi (GM) is offering because, "I could make that in 3 months." Well, hard to make it when your job is being liquidated, I fear. I was asked about teacher's unions, which, unfortunately, I am a member of. The reason I remain a member and do not, because of personal beliefs, pay dues is because of the line of work I am in. I am a dues-paying member of the PCEA for one reason only - because the clientele I work with could damage my entire professional career with one complaint. I greatly fear one wayward comment by an angry or revenge-seeking 12-year-old and I would have no defense but my good word. And we all know that historically, accusatory children are given more preference than a teacher. So if i...

Friday a not so good day. After the initial thrill and excitement (and email to everyone I know) that we are getting an Aztek for me, we've begun to second-think the finances, and perhaps put the car purchase off to the summer. So the deposit is good until Tuesday night, which gives us more time to talk and think. So we'll see. But worse--prepare yourself. Doug's former employer closed its doors with a BANG at 11:45am with an all-hands meeting announcement. The owner, Bob, had been trying to buy back the manufacturing plant for some time from his partners (Meridian) and it just wasn't happening. He decided to close up, move some of the current projects to the new company (where Doug works now) and say "sayonara" to the mess in Detroit. How absolutely horrible. Every single person there, from CAD designers, program managers, to sales and accounting, are out of work. Well, sales and accounting are employed for 2 more weeks to do all the closeups and transfers, T...

Life is chugging along quickly in this part of the world. We had back to back swim meets last night and tonight, I did the lineup for tonight's meet. So that took me a good part of the weekend, along with regular school stuff. We won both, so we're undefeated - but there's one League Meet to go. If we win that (which we have for the past 2 years) I get thrown in the pool. That's always fun. So that meet is next Wednesday. Roman has a new passion - Winnie the Pooh. Not to the level of his trains yet, but he sings the Tigger song constantly and we are different characters - most the time I am Kanga and he is Roo, although tonight I was Pooh and Daddy was Eeyore. We alternate "The Many Adventures of" and "Tigger Movie" every day. Roman's phrases are all grown up now, too. We here "That's alright, Mama" and "Of course!" Another favorite is "oh, all right." He insists on doing things himself. He closes his door to t...