Missing Out on the Land of Lakes

Kyle and Kayla flew to Minnesota today to visit with family and enjoy a 25 th wedding anniversary of his sister Kelly.  This will be the first time in 12 years that all eight of the Crawford kids will be all together at the same time.

I'm sad to not go, but there is no vacation time in October for me.  Besides I'm off to outdoor school in a few days.

Don't know if you can make out kyle and Kayla in there, but they are there waiting to check in.  In the mean time Kota and I enjoyed some 5 Guys burgers and fries and we did a little boy clothes shopping.  The kid needed a pair of jeans without dirt stains.  He found a new flannel shirt too, so I wasn't going to deny him that.

Life is changing for us, we seem to be all functioning in different realms.  Often I find myself missing the little kids I once had.  Problems are simpler then, usually a kiss could take away the troubles and the worry.  Now it is a lot of patience and prayer that seem to get us through.  It seems we find our knees a lot more in this stage of life.  Where we are once again at the brink of lots of decisions about the future.  Ours as a couple and the life of our children.  Our prayer is that Heavenly Father will help them make their decisions and help them find the path that is right for them...oh to watch them grow is awesome!

Hayride and Bonfire

Saturday night we hosted a YSA event at my dad's farm.  We set up a bonfire and hayride and they came and played.

Can you believe some of these kids never had a hotdog roasted on a stick before?  is that even possible?  I guess they can add a new line item fulfilled on their bucket list.

Dad stacked a huge brush pile for us, and boy was it nice.

You can't have a bonfire with out s'mores and donuts, don't forget the cider.

 Thanks Kota and Kayla for helping grandpa set up the hayride.  Dumby me left the camera back at the bonfire during the ride.

I think they all had fun.  I look forward to planning more.

I've Been a Bit SLO

SLO is a new term in the realm of teaching. It feels a bit like writing something for a team of lawyers.    I have to create a test for my 6 th graders with my team members to address the learning needs of my class so the State of Ohio can track the progress of students in subjects that are not tested by the state.  We have to create our own test, decide how we are going to score our test, then administer and grade the test, and compare how much the students learn by April this year.  Sounds okay, but it is a tremendous amount of work on top starting a school year.  All the paperwork needs to be done among, grading papers for normal work, initial assessments for readability, interim reports and parent teacher conferences.

No fun, that is for sure.

This little niece turned 5 in September.  I have to say I wish we had these contraptions when I learned how to roller skate.

I got to go with my Mother-in-law, Kayla and her friend to see Gladys Knight and the Saints United voices.  It was an amazing spirit-filled night.  Five Guys burgers on the way home were awesome too.

Kayla is working at Target now, it is fun to see her growing up.  She makes some fun choices and is turning out ok.  Kota works hard everyday physically and comes home filthy, the dirtier he is the more proud he is of himself.  He is progressing well.

Kyle just passed a kidney stone this week, he kept it, and named it Harold...he's weird.  But, I love him!

So much has happened in the last 6 weeks but, that is it in a nutshell.