Liddick reunion

My family is so spread out. My parents live in New York, my older brother lives in Arizona, we live in Minnesota, and my younger brother lives in Kentucky. To top it off, we've all been working in or pursuing ministry, which makes it difficult to get together on weekends and holidays. Needless to say, getting all of us together at the same time doesn't happen very often. In fact, the last time was exactly 2 years ago when we all gathered in Ohio for Matt and Brianne's wedding. However, we finally did it. It didn't last long; even shorter than planned due to David's and my flight getting canceled and us leaving a day later than we were supposed to. But there were about 24 hours when we were all together. Mom, Dad, Mike, Jen, Marlena, Jacob, David, Melissa, Brianne, and Matt.

Doesn't it always figure that there's always going to be one person making a funny face?
Sweet little Marlena had had enough of the pictures and was starting to get silly.

Here's hoping it won't be two more years until we can do this again.
I mean look at those two. How can anyone go two years without seeing those cuties!

Househunting

We've had the pleasure (and stress) of hunting for a house over the past few weeks. The family we've been caretaking for will be returning from Poland at the end of the summer, so it's time to vacate and find a home of our own. House hunting has been quite an experience. I never dreamed it would be so difficult for two people to find one house that they liked equally. In addition to the whole compromise aspect, we've witnessed some interesting houses over the course of our search. Most of the real "gems" have been the foreclosures that we've been through. Typically in those situations, the home owners will take with them all of the appliances, but in one house they also found it necessary to remove all of the toilets and several doorknobs. Most of the time the listing Realtor will hire a cleaning crew to remove any remaining personal property and vacuum the carpets. One house we looked at last week had not experienced that luxury yet, however. I have never seen a house so filthy. It appeared as though the home owners never even owned a vacuum cleaner. There was garbage and personal property left all over the floor throughout the house.

Apparently they owned a dog.
I was able to deduce that from the 3 inches of dog hair on the carpet.

So where do we currently stand in our hunt? Time will tell... We've put an offer in on a short sale listing (which often means the opposite of a short sale), so now we wait to see if the lenders will accept our offer. Pray with us that this truly can be a SHORT sale and not drag out. I'd rather not have to store all of our things and live in temporary housing while we wait to close. It's all in God's hands. We will trust and wait on Him.

A day and a half left...

Well, summer is so close I can almost taste it.

My students have been turning the stories that they just finished writing into books this week. There were a few that finished early, so I encouraged them to write a little biographical information inside the back cover. There was one in particular that made me laugh out loud.

"(Student's name) is the author of this incredible book: A Bully in the Neighborhood. This story will enchant your minds. Don't miss this spectacular book. (Student's name) was born on July 24, 1999. She has a family of 5. (name) started a picture of a flower vase. It took her about a month to finish it. (name) got the idea of this book from a movie she saw. She hopes everyone who reads her book will like it!"

This struck me so funny because everyone else wrote the standard "I am in third grade. Gym and recess are my favorite classes. I have a brother and a sister. etc." But, this girl is really trying to sell her book!

Oh, the Places You'll Go!

We've got 8 1/2 days of school remaining. To be honest, I think I'm more eager than my students for the end of the year!

This morning one of my parents handed me a package with a note that asked me to sign what was inside and return it to her later. School's over for the day, so I'm just now getting to the package. I just opened it up to find a hard-bound copy of Dr. Seuss' "Oh, the Places You'll Go!", which they purchased for their unsuspecting daughter several years ago. Each year they ask her teacher to write a message and sign the book for her. I'm suspecting that they'll give it to her for a graduation present several years down the road. What an amazing gift they're giving her! Once I realized what I held in my hands, I got choked up to think about what a special gift I was holding. And now I'm faced with the wonderful pressure of writing the perfect words, which she won't read for 9 more years. This is something I know she will cherish for years and years and probably even read to her own children some day.

I thought this was such a fantastic idea, I wanted to blog about it as a mental note for myself to do this someday, but also to share the idea with all of you who have little ones starting school in the next few years.

The big 3-0

I had another birthday this week. Like last year, I was blessed by students and parents showing their appreciation and making the day special. I received these flowers from two different students, lots of tea (my favorite beverage), chocolate, and even a special delivery of Coldstone ice cream with Reece's cups in it at the end of the day. Not too shabby:-)

My birthday was actually on Thursday, but since teachers don't like being out late on a school night and David had band practice all evening anyway, we decided to post-pone our festivities until Friday night. We were on a mission to explore something new for a change. You know how you get stuck in a rut, going to the same restaurants all the time... Pastor Henry recommended a couple of places in Minneapolis and St. Paul, so we ventured out last night accompanied by our good friends Bryan and Emily.

Our reservations weren't until 7:30, so we started the evening breaking in Mario Kart on the Wii (one of my birthday gifts from David). Then we drove through a terrential downpour to "Dinkytown" around the U of M campus where we found our first stop, The Loring Pasta Bar. What a fun place! There was so much atmosphere; these pictures simply won't do it justice.

Here, you can kind of see the stage in the middle of the room with a live jazz band playing. The decore was really eclectic.

Melissa's Chicken Marsala with orzo pasta and green beans.

David's Seafood spaghetti

After dinner, we made our way to Grand Avenue in St. Paul where we found Cafe' Latte for dessert. I had a slice of their famous Turtle cake. Delicious! It was a very fun birthday night out!

Grade hopping again...

I just found out (officially) that I will be back in fourth grade next year. While, grade hopping is certainly not ideal, there are a couple of pros to this one. First, this year's third grade class is a wonderful class to move with (my kids especially- but I'm partial). Second, I taught 4th grade last year, so I at least know what to expect and a lot of prep work is already done (not quite as much as for third, but that will give me something to do over the summer). Really, I've foreseen that this was a strong possibility since the beginning of the year, so I've felt an even stronger sense of responsibility (than normal) to prepare my students for fourth grade, knowing that I might be their teacher. I think it will work out well.

Best pet product ever!

Now that spring has sprung, we've been trying to get Allie out for walks as much as possible. It's been frustrating though, because it's like we have to re-train her on how to walk nicely on a leash (a skill she's never fully mastered). The beagle in her has her following whatever scent comes her way, and she spends the entire walk weaving back and forth, tripping up anyone who is accompanying her. Passing other pedestrians and especially other dogs has always been a challenge. Fortunately she's never been a barker, but she's so social that she always pulls like crazy, making it nearly impossible to control her. We've watched "The Dog Whisperer" and have tried several of Ceasar's techniques, but have found it difficult to cure her of this behavior. Until today. Earlier this week I took a trip to Petco to purchase a "Gentle Leader."


We have never taken an easier walk with Allie until today. Right from the moment we walked out the front door there was a marked difference. After only about a minute, she had adjusted to the fact that she could no longer pull and control us. Because of the position of the leash on the collar, she was forced to walk in the direction we chose, so she gave up trying. She calmly walked right beside us and there was slack in the leash the entire walk. We knew the true test would be walking by other dogs and people. That has never been easier. She clearly was more alert and interested in them, but did not fight to get closer. I was utterly amazed.

So for all you dog owners out there, if walking your dog stresses you out like it did us, I HIGHLY recommend this product! (End of commercial :-) )

A new addition to the pond

My bird-geek is showing again. Last year I reported my excitement when the great blue heron showed up in our back pond. Tonight David discovered a new duck out back. (It gets a little old seeing the same old Canadian geese and mallards, so it's always exciting to see something new. ) I quickly whipped out my binoculars and bird book to identify our new friends as Bufflehead ducks. We have a male and female. They're fun to watch because they dive under water in search of food. I hope they stick around through the summer.

The male Bufflehead


The female Bufflehead

(How come in wildlife, the males are usually the more attractive?
That doesn't seem quite fair, does it?)

A little excitement coming home

Last weekend we went up to Andover to attend an Avalon concert at our friends Dan and Angie's church. Afterward, it was about 10:30 when we were passing through the town of Blaine, heading down the highway and we heard some sirens. So we looked all around us and noticed 2 police cars racing down the oncoming lanes. I remember saying out loud, "Oh, I wonder where they're headed." Coincidently, they took the turn around about 20 yards ahead of us to join our lane and then we couldn't see where they went from there. Seconds later, from out of nowhere about 8 more police cars appeared, completely blocking off our two lanes, beginning with the car in front of us. A couple of seconds later there were probably 15 cops out of their cars with guns drawn. At that time we could see that they had pulled over two cars on the side street, each carrying 2 people (I think). At first we were like, "Wow, we get front row seats to see what goes down!" But then we were like, "There are a lot of guns out right now; our position could be a little dangerous." We kind of ducked down in our seats a little (our lanes were completely blocked by police cars; there was no escaping...), but once we realized that the people in the cars were surrendering without a fight I got a little brave and pulled my camera out. You can't see a whole lot, but if you look carefully you can see a couple different officers with their guns drawn. I waited a week to post this, hoping I could find out what that was all about, but no luck. Incidently, when we finally were able to move on, we could see that those first two police cars had pulled two additional cars over that were just out of our sight. In all, they pulled over 4 cars and arrested at least 6 people, I think. I'll always wonder what happened there, but at least I know why I was stuck in traffic for 1/2 hour at 10:30 on a Friday night. There were other people in that traffic jam that probably have no clue.

Spring Break in Denver

We just got back from a spring break trip to see David's sister Julie and her family in Denver, Colorado. Our first day there was beautiful and sunny so we drove to Colorado Springs to visit Balanced Rock at the Garden of the Gods. It was a gorgeous day and such a blessing to be able to spend some time outside after being trapped inside all winter.


David's mom and Dad were able to join us for this trip, so the family was all together for the first time since Thanksgiving '06! We had a great time together and it was lots of fun spending some time with our nieces!

Emily's first time bowling

Here's a cute clip of our niece, Emily's first time bowling. Little ones have it made bowling these days! I'd never seen the bowling ball launcher before; it helped so much that we had to really work to keep up with her score!

Old friends...

I was thrilled to be able to meet up with Kayla, my el. ed. buddy from IWU while we were in Colorado. We haven't seen each other in about 4 years (when oldest Lamb niece, Emily was born). Thanks f0r driving to see us, Kayla! It was great catching up with you!

Blasts from the past

Happy new year to you all! I hope your holidays all went well. I, for one enjoyed a very relaxing Christmas break.

My parents just sent a CD of family slides they'd just converted to digital. I just browsed through them and got a real kick out of them. I thought I'd post a few for your enjoyment. Some of you may recognize some other faces in these pictures...

Little Me on a beach somewhere... Great tans came so easily back then...

My very first trip to Disney World. Winnie the Pooh made me a little nervous.
Older bro, Mike doesn't seem too shy, though!

I just thought this picture was hilarious. I'd like to know what was going on that put those expressions on our faces! My first guess was Christmas morning, but those are no warm footie pajamas we're wearing... It's got to be spring or summer.

Little me with my favorite cousin, Kristen (VanHarken-Hofer).
We were two peas in a pod back then.

I'm sure all you ladies remember the pink foam rollers.
It makes my head hurt just looking at this picture.
This was a Saturday night ritual for us.

Allie's Winter Workout

Minnesota winters can be pretty harsh. Long periods of time pass without being able to get the dog out for a little exercise. When we took Allie in for her spring check-up this year we discovered that she'd gained a whopping 5 pounds in only one year. So, we've been more intentional at trying to get Allie walked regularly and have switched to feeding her bites of apple instead of the normal dog treat.

A few days ago we tried something new. We'd seen Ceasar Millan do this on "The Dog Whisperer", so we thought we'd give it a shot. We had Allie walk on the treadmill. It took some bribery. She needed some motivation to walk towards. But she's been putting in about 1/2 mile each time she does it. Not quite as much as our normal outdoor walk, but better than nothing!

Enjoy the video!

Family Photo Shoot

It was VERY cold, but we managed to get some pretty great family pictures taken. Wish we had Mike, Jen, and the kids there so the family could have been complete!

Liddick Thankmas 2007

We had the privilege of hosting the Liddick family Thanksgiving/Christmas celebration this year. Unfortunately due to the massive number of miles between Minnesota and Arizona we were short one branch of the family tree (missing older brother, Mike and family), but the six remaining members of the family had a great time together. Mom and Dad and Matt and Brianne all arrived (separately) on Wednesday just moments (literally) after David delivered and set up a king sized bed that had been given to us. (Mom and Dad were grateful because it meant no sofa-bed). Dad instantly took to the Nintendo Wii and was a bowling/golfing fool all weekend. Thursday morning Matt, Brianne, and David went to play in our church's anual "Turkey Bowl" while mom and I started cooking the feast. We had a slight problem with the digital timer telling us the turkey was done an hour early, but we just tied it back up, threw it back in the oven for a while, and it turned out absolutely delicious.

Hours of fun with the Wii was had by all.

Allie was pretty worn out from all the excitement. She sat still for an amazing amount of time while "Aunt Brianne" played with her new camera.

We did a little bit of shopping on Friday (no door busters) and went to see "August Rush" in the afternoon. It was a great movie, but definitely a tear-jerker. Saturday was spent packing, playing Wii, a tour of my school, and the Saturday service at church and then the family hit the road for their very long drives back to New York and Kentucky.

It was a great weekend together. Thanks Mom, Dad, Matt, and Brianne for making the trip!

Elementary graffiti

I found this written on one of my classroom walls when I was cleaning up the other day. I don't know whether to be flattered or offended that I then had to clean it up. David said I should be flatterfended. I'm just glad it was written in pencil and not something more permanent. I can think of a lot worse things to find written on my wall. I know this kind of behavior is nothing to encourage, but it did make me smile a little.

Happy Birthday, David!

Today is David's birthday! He was fortunate enough to be able to schedule himself off this weekend at church, which freed us up to be able to spend more time together than usual and do some things that we've never done before and others that we always enjoy. It's been a 2-day celebration. Saturday morning we took Allie for a walk to enjoy a beautiful fall morning.


After that we went out for lunch. Since we've been eating healthy lately, trying to avoid all the fattening things we enjoy so much, we decided to do a "taste of" kind of lunch. We made a stop at Pei Wei to split the lettuce wraps appetizer...


And then we continued on to Zantigo's to enjoy the hot chillitos. Yum!

After that, we drove to Minneapolis where we found the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. We'd never been before, but have heard that it's a great place to take pictures. So, we actually planned ahead and brought the tripod. Did I mention how beautiful of a day it was?

Birthday continued...

Following our photo shoot, we headed down to the Mall of America for a little shopping (that turned into more than a little shopping). We enjoyed composing Christmas lists as we meandered the mall. We finished up with dinner at David's favorite (fast food) Mexican restaurant, Q'doba. We used to have one just down the road from us when we lived in Michigan, but now that we live in Minnesota we've had to drive to the west side of the cities to get to one. David was thrilled when the Mall of America gave him a Q'doba for his birthday present!

Later on when we got home, we cooked up some s'mores on the grill (since we never got down to the campfire Friday night). We discovered that if you put the chocolate on the graham cracker on the grill while you toast the marshmallows, the chocolate gets all melty by the time the marshmallows are ready. It's really messy that way, but delicious!

Today has just been a relaxing day. It's kind of rainy and overcast, so just a good day to stay in and curl up in fleece pants and a blankie and watch football. We went to Famous Dave's for lunch to redeem David's birthday certificate for a free desert. FYI the Khalua Brownie Sundae was much more than we could handle.

Back to Weight Watchers tomorrow, but it's been a fun and yummy birthday weekend!

Worship Arts Fall Party

We had a Fall party for the Worship Arts department on Friday night. We did grilled pizzas for everyone. Here's a math problem for you: David made 8 batches of dough. We made 5 pizzas per batch. Melissa made two more batches of dough at the last minute, giving us 5 more pizzas each. How many people were at our party? A LOT! Our grill got quite the workout and was chugging out pizzas 9 at a time until after 8:00. But we had so much fun. We had a fire in the back yard to make s'mores, there was a crockpot of caramel to dip apples, several people got together to play games, and others enjoyed a few rounds of bowling on the Nintendo Wii. It was a great night together and a good opportunity to get to know some of our new volunteers and their families.