It's A Small World After All

A quote I've been saying lately is "It all come back to The Park, we just can't escape it!" I've been shown recently (to quote Uncle Al) that "it's a small world after all". I'll explain in just a moment.

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First, I'll share what has been happening in the Hartman family since our last post. On Sunday February 8th we attended our church's annual Spaghetti Dinner. This is a fundraiser for the youth to start raising funds for their summer missions trips. Both my sisters, their families, and my parents were in attendance. Emily was there as a waitress and we also took advantage of this time to celebrate my mom's birthday. It wasn't the ideal place to celebrate but it was the only time we could all get together.

The next event on our list was Emily's Valentine dance. This exciting event took place on Friday Febuary 13th. Emily had a great time but thinks that her junior high dances should be called "Stand and Talks" because that's all that anyone really does.

Early on Saturday the 14th we headed up to New York state to see my best friend Jennie and her family and spend the long weekend with them. We had an absolutely great time and the kids played nonstop! We visited lake Erie, ice fished, sledded and got to see a house (inside and out) that Jennie and her family are hoping to purchase sometime soon. While at their house the kids were playing dress up, making crafts, playing on the computer. Jennie, Emily and I were busy chatting and making buckeyes to snack on, it doesn't get better than that!

Provided just below is a video of Jennie and Clint's youngest child, Caroline. She got in the spirit of dress up and put together two very unlikely costumes. P.S. Pay no attention to the boy in the pink princess dress in the background.

Last night Emily performed with most of the other people in the Junior Hight Praise Band from church. They were asked to lead the Boys Brigade in some praise songs at the beginning part of their overnight at church. The kids did a great job and were hopefully encouraged by their performance.

Tonight we're headed to the Cakewalk, an annual event in Deer Park. It's a fundraiser for the band sponsors and is a really good time. It's kind of like musical chairs but on a much larger scale. In each circle (there can be up to 10-12 of them) there are 30 chairs and each person gets a chair and walks around in the circle while the band plays. Each of the school bands play one at a time through the evening and during each one of the "walks" the band is stopped suddenly and everyone in the circles finds a chair to sit on. At this point the MC picks a number (from 1 to 30) randomly out of a bowl/hat/whatever and calls out the number. The person sitting in that particular number chair in each circle wins a cake!!! The cakes are provided by each of the school band members, in our day each member brought two cakes to the walk earlier in the day. It's been a long time since I've been to the Cakewalk and even longer since I've won a cake. We've got a strategy worked out for this evening though so hopefully we'll be eating cake tonight!

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The first event that caused me to see how small and connected our world is, is when I went to go pick Emily up at a friends house up north of where we live now. They have a beautiful horse farm and as I was getting to know Emily's friends' parents I found out that her father was also from Deer Park. He graduated some years before Jason and I but was good friends with some of our neighbors just down the street from where I grew up and would frequently go past my childhood house. Weird!

The second event that was even weirder was when we got to Presque Isle (at Lake Erie) we were talking with one of the park rangers and found out that his wife was from Cincinnati. We then found out that she was from Deer Park!!!!! Although we didn't recognize her name it was still surreal to find a close connection to home five hours away!!

It may seem a little silly but these events have caused me to pause and reflect. I've been on Facebook for a better part of a year now and this has brought me together with a lot of people I haven't seen or heard from in many years. I enjoy seeing what they've done with their lives, who they've become and see also how they're still the same as I remember them. I try not to dwell too much on the past afraid that I'll miss what's going on today but it does help to remind me from where I've come and how God has blessed me and my family with His grace and mercy time and time again.

I'll leave you with another quote, one from Ravi Zacharias that I heard
this week and that has me thinking.

"The shortest route is not always the best route because it can bypass some of the most precious lessons in life."

Think about it....

Three in a week!

Wow, three blog posts in a week! It must be your lucky week!

We've had quite a lot going on around here and this blog post is dedicated to our latest adventure this past Friday to Saturday. We spent an overnight at The Great Wolf Lodge! I had been planning this for awhile and only last weekend told Jason what "Plans" on the calendar meant. The kids though had no idea that we were going until I got home from work on Friday and announced where we were headed. I had packed their bags the night before and so it was into the car and we were off!

Once we checked in and got settled in our room, which by the way took awhile because the room was so cool, we got changed into bathing suits and headed to the indoor waterpark! The kids had an awesome time looking around and trying to decide what to try out first. David stunned us all by going across the water holding onto a rope ladder and balancing on floats on the water. Jason and I were both sure that he would freak out just after starting but David proved us wrong and went across the entire course without a peep! We were so proud of our guy!

After spending a couple of hours at the waterpark our trip ended abruptly when Ella fell and skinned both knees and feet. We then went back to our room and had the kids change into pj's and went to one of the several food places there and got some ice cream! You may be asking, "Why did you let your kids run around the hotel in their pj's?" Well, having people running around in their bathing suits seemed a lot less formal and so I figured pj's were safe! We retired to our room and watched "The Dog Whisperer", a show I enjoy but don't end up watching because we have no cable.

The next day was spent at the waterpark (surprise) and we had a great time riding the tubes and even got to ride one together as a family! Ella and David spent a lot of time in the wave pool but Emily's favorite entertainment was by far a tube ride we nicknamed "The Toilet bowl". This particular ride shot you down a tube and then into a big round area that had you go around and around in the water (as if you were being flushed in the toilet) and then down another tube to the pool below! It sounds weird but was quite fun, I must admit.

What excellent family time we had together! I'd also like to thank Maureen for helping to get us a discount!!!!

Pictures of our room

Pictures of the waterpark

Snow Days

Because we've had 3 (going on 4 now) snow days, we've had a lot of time to spend together here in the Hartman household. I'm going to post a link below to Kodak Gallery where you can view them at your leisure.

We spent Tuesday playing in the snow, playing games inside (Qwirkle and Wii Mariokart), reading Little House in the Big Woods and staying up till 10pm watching Star Trek: The Next Generation. Emily had already been exposed to this awesome TV series but I think it was David and Ella's first time watching it (being able to realize what was going on). They all three sat in front of the TV mesmerized by the show, aren't you proud Boppy?! I had to take a photo so that one is included too.

Wednesday I got called off work (a first for me) and Jason did some work from home but mostly used the day to catch up on some needed sleep (slept in till 10am, two and half hour nap in the afternoon) what a life! Jason did get out and ride around on his quad some and took me out for a little ride to get some nature photos. We saw two people out on snowmobiles and Jason got jealous ("Why can't I have one?" My reply - "Um because you would use it MAYBE once a year!"). Emily, Ella, David and I did crafts too! We made two crafts out of the recent Family Fun magazine. We made quadropuses (octopus with 4 legs) and made candy iPods for Emily to give out as Valentines to her friends.

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Hope you're staying safe and warm and enjoying the beauty of this occasion. Until next time!

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Here's the link to the photos. You'll have to either click on the next photo in the slide show or press the play button above the photos. Email me if you have trouble viewing them!

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=16kir12b.3ea46lnf&x=0&y=-g1q1kl&localeid=en_US

Good News And Bad News

We have a new tradition at our house. During dinnertime each night we share our good new and bad news from the day. There are only a few rules for this (these are still evolving) which include....

1) You can only use the bad news of "you had to get up too early/you're tired or sick" once per week (Emily loves to use this one),

2) The menu choices at dinner are not your bad news,

3) Yes, you do have something positive to report, God has blessed us tremendously, pick something!

Some of my favorites to report from the dinner table have come from David. In December, my brother and his girlfriend (Katherine) were in town for a few days and on the second day of their visit David reported that his good news was that he liked Katherine. On the other hand his bad news was that she was not spending the night at our house. My other favorite was (and this is before Rule #2) David reporting that his good news was that we had cooked carrots with dinner but his bad news was that the chicken looked weird!

The whole point of me sharing these stories is so that you can understand a little about our past week.

Good News:

1. Jason and Emily had an excellent time skiing with the youth group last weekend in PA.

2. Alison, Ella, and David spent a lot of time together the same weekend watching movies and playing "I Spy" on Wii.

3. Jason got his official stamp in hand on Friday for being NEBB certified (see previous blogs for explanation).

4. Alison may possibly be on Channel 12 news for their medical minute (the doc I work with a lot had a procedure taped but the most you'll see of me is my finger pushing buttons on a machine, if that much).

5. Emily continues to improve in her trombone playing abilities and passing tests each week in band (she's not sure she wants to continue next year though).

6. Ella and Jason made their quickest Pinewood Derby car (took less than 2 hours total to make).

7. Ella won 3rd place for workmanship at the Pinewood Derby for her "Lightning Log".

Bad News:

1. The transportation time and sleeping accommodations at the ski trip left a lot to be desired (40 degrees in the cabin in the morning when they woke up).

2. It was discovered on this past Saturday that Ella, David and Alison have lice! (EEEEWWWW!!!!) - We're as disgusted as you are!

3. Ella had it the worse and we don't know where she got it from!

4. I (Alison) have spent the past 36 hours cleaning the house and doing laundry (including 2+ hours at the local laundromat so I could do 10 loads at the same time!).

5. We're a social pariah at the moment.

I know that through all trials we learn something we didn't know before and that we grow in ways we never thought possible but learning to identify and remove lice was not at the top of my "Top 100 things to do before I die list"! Hopefully this will be an isolated round and we won't have to deal with it again! Right now I'm sure you're "itching" for me to move onto another subject so I won't continue to gross you out with lice details.

Might I also suggest that you watch the Lifehouse video at the following link...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyheJ480LYA

I was really touched by this video. The lyrics for the song sung can be found at.....

http://www.lyrics007.com/Lifehouse%20Lyrics/Everything%20Lyrics.html

Here are some photos from the past two weeks for all to enjoy!

These are Emily's past Pinewood Derby cars

(the turtle was never entered, it was not within the width

and height restrictions; also the bone had a dog on it at one point.)

Here are the parts for Ella's "Lightning Log" car before being put together.

And then, Ella's car all put together!

Here are some shots from Jason and Emily's ski trip, including the cold cabins!

Until next time!!!!!

Christmas 2008

Happy New Year!

Go ahead and take a deep breath, sit back off the edge of your seats

because the first Hartland post of 2009 is here! YEAH!

These past couple of weeks have been busy for all of us around here, as I'm sure it was for all of you. We had many family gatherings to attend and relationships to catch up on. Christmas was almost like Hanukkah for us (no disrespect intended). We had some type of celebration everyday from Dec. 23rd till Dec. 27th!

I think the highlight of the season was having Thom home for a few days! He and his girlfriend, Katherine, were only here for 4 days and 3 nights. The first night they joined our immediate family in going to the Festival of Lights at the Cincinnati Zoo. It was very misty but not too cold, thank goodness! After enjoying the animals and the lights we went out to dinner. While waiting for our food we played some serious Uno!

Thom, Katherine and their penguin friend!

My side of the family was able to get together and get a family portrait done at Portrait Innovations, the last time that happened was probably the better part of 20 years ago! The family sure has changed since then!

The rest of our break we played a lot together as a family. We got a Wii and had a good time making our individual players (Mii), Jason had me practically rolling on the floor with laughter as he was making his Mii. The kids have really enjoyed an I Spy game that I got for the Wii and Jason has been busy trying to rack up as many metals as possible. We also played a couple of new games, Qwirkle and Escalation! I especially like Qwirkle!

Here's a video of Thom playing Wii with the kids!

Jason with Ella and David playing Qwirkle

We, minus Emily (again), spend New Year's Eve at some friends house and the kids were up till 1 AM going strong playing Rock Band and whatever else they could find! Emily had joined one of her friends at their party and was reportedly up till 1:30 AM. It was an enjoyable evening and I got to hear Jason sing!

This may come as a surprise but we went down to "The Land" (our camping land in Kentucky) this past weekend. Jason's parents, Mamaw and Papaw, went for the weekend but we just went down on Saturday for the day. Mamaw and Papaw bought a new (to them) trailer and we were down there trying to figure out the logistics of moving their old one (which will become our new one). In general playing Ring around the Rosies with all the trailers to get them to their new spots is what it is going to come down to, wheeeeeee! I'll definitely have to post that when it happens!

That's the long and short of it. Enjoy the slide show at top, the pictures and the video I've posted!

December doings

We're halfway through December and in some ways I'm thankful. I always dread the business of this time of year but am thankful that we don't have a lot of the extras that eat up time like so many other people. I finally got around to decorating the house last week and we put up the Christmas tree this past Saturday. It actually took us three attempts to get the star on top!

David with the first attempt

Ella with the second attempt



Jason with the third, final and successful attempt!



David and Ella playing under the Christmas tree

Jason and I also celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary this past week and enjoyed an evening alone together!

My one gripe is that we haven't had much snow yet. We got a small snow of about 2 inches on the 6th and a piddly one inch today. Ella and David were so excited about the two inches on the sixth that they suited up and played outside for about a half hour (then it got too dark). I'd like to see at least 4-5 inches, at least enough that you don't see the grass and have a nice blanket of snow to enjoy looking at.

David and Ella suited up for fun in the snow

There is not much else to report around here, life is routine, but don't get me wrong I'm not complaining! I probably won't write until after Christmas, I'm sure you understand. Jason and I both wish that you find the true peace, joy and hope that Jesus' birth brought. May you slow down and reflect honestly upon who He is, what He said, and what He asks of you. Until later, much love from us to you!

My kind of weekend!

This past weekend was filled with family and friends. This is my favorite kind because I love being surrounded by those that I love the most in this world.

Thanksgiving was quite an event at our house. It was a "family blowout", as my father put it. We had 24 people for dinner!! We had to use three tables and found out that when it gets this big there is not an easy way to sit and eat. Next year it'll be buffet style people! I loved the craziness but didn't realize what a toll it took on me until everyone left and I was exhausted! Jason stayed up and did ALL the dishes and cleaned up the house (without me asking), do I have the best husband or what?! Unfortunately for me I had to get up and go to work the next day (rrrrrrrrrr).

Dad Kelly (Boppy) and David had a great time chasing and squirting

each other with mini squirt guns

Jess and Thanapat fought over a very slippery wishbone.

Connie (Jason's mom) was helping to "clean up" the mashed potatoes!

Me on the phone with Thom (in Texas) right after dinner.

Jennifer and Finn

Friday evening we had my best friend, Jennie Apthorpe, and family come to stay with us for the weekend! The kids took FOREVER to calm down and go to sleep, that only happened after we seperated them! The next morning we headed to my parent's house to make some Christmas cookies and a craft! Matthew was the hardest working kid there, and did an awesome job making the Empire biscuits.

Making reindeer ornaments with Jennifer

Saturday evening was a time that I had been looking forward to for awhile now. We (Jason, Jennie Apthorpe, and I) had a "mini reunion" of sorts for our high school class. It's been 13 years since we graduated and we never did have a 10 year reunion. But, some of us got reconnected on Facebook and decided to get together in person! My parents were generous enought to watch our children while we were out for the evening (THANK YOU!!!) What a fun time to reconnect and find out what a bunch of our old friends were up to. After saying hey to everyone, it was funny to see how people got right back together with those they were friends with in highschool (the cliques, if you will). I was with my "clique" of the "band nerds". We weren't really that nerdy but that was what you'd call us for lack of a better term. A number of people looked different and an equal number looked like they hadn't aged a day (how does that happen?).

Jennie and I right before heading out the door for the reunion

Jason tried on his letter jacket from highschool before leaving for the reunion (he didn't actually wear it to the reunion). David came around the corner and looked at his father and said "Wow Daddy, you look facinating!"

On Sunday, Jen and family had to leave :( The kids had such a good time playing over the weekend and so did Jennie and I! The rest of the day was spent lounging around the house and getting Ella and David to take a nap from staying up so late on Friday and Saturday nights. We did get to celebrate Dad's birthday that evening with pizza, cake and icecream (another night with family)!!


We hope your Thanksgiving weekend was just as enjoyable, whether you were shopping, working or spending time with loved ones! Until next time!!!